BioWare's latest Anthem stream shows off a nice chunk of gameplay, showing a sense of fast-paced shooter chaos to the new IP.

EA's big new service game Anthem has been in development at BioWare since 2013. It's an online action-based RPG shooter that blends multiple genres and ultimately aims to take on games like Destiny. The game, which is a PVE-only co-op driven shoot-and-looter, gives players Iron Man-esque mech suits called Javelins to fly in and adds freedom and verticality to each fight. A new 27 minute stream shows off what we can expect from Anthem, and I have to say it looks pretty good.

BioWare's Mike Gamble, Jon Warner, and Ben Irving take control of Anthem's three main Javelin classes--Storm, Interceptor, and Colossus--and blast through a higher-level stronghold area. The footage centers around the Interceptor's ninja-like speed and reflexes, and in many cases I was reminded of NiOh's excellent sword-slashing prowess. The combat looks fun, if not a bit arcade-y in the sense that you're essentially shooting tons of adds and enemies, but the Interceptor has nifty jumps, dashes, and a feline grace to its melee attacks that looks oh-so-satisfying.

Beyond Good and Evil 2 is an online-only game that fits perfectly into Ubisoft's digital-focused engagement strategy.

BG&E2 is Ubisoft's biggest game to date. It's a sprawling, galactic RPG with action-driven combat that brings a sense of interstellar anarchy by blending Grand Theft Auto's anti-authority vehicular chaos with No Man's Sky's massive scope. Everything we've seen about the co-op game indicates it'll be a strong pillar in Ubisoft's growing games-as-a-service business model, so it's no surprise that it'll require a persistent internet connection to play

You'll need to be online whether you play singleplayer or with a friend or friends in co-op, Ubisoft confirms. This is par for the course when it comes to live games as it gives developers real-time access to valuable metrics and arms them with the power to continually tweak, modify, and balance the game world with patches. This also of course means it'll be monetized in some way, and we're curious what the game's microtransactions will be like.

EA should start monetizing Battlefield V in January 2019, giving three months to rack up earnings before its fiscal year ends in March.

Battlefield V's premium microtransaction currency should go live on January 18, 2019, recent Amazon store listings indicate. EA and DICE wisely chose not to monetize Battlefield V at launch and instead organically drive engagement with events and content to gauge the proper way to actually drive the digital business model. Although sales are weaker than Battlefield 1, this tactic could work quite well in the long run, which is what EA's always planning for.

The currency, which is used to buy optional cosmetic items to customize characters in the Company hub, will be priced similar to Battlefront II's crystals.

Bethesda is giving the original Fallout PC games to everyone who played their online-only atomic bomb.

Fallout 76 might be a badly-optimized mess, but Bethesda wants to mop up its nuclear waste with some holiday cheer. That's why it's giving out the original Fallout cRPGs--Fallout, Fallout 2, and Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel--for free to anyone who's played Fallout 76 this year. Anyone who refunded the game will apparently get the gift too, as any players who logged into the game in 2018 will get codes (even PS4 and Xbox One players).

This isn't the first time classic Fallout games were attached to '76. Bethesda gave out these same games to anyone who pre-ordered the game before a certain period. These legacy games are only available on Steam and Gog.com and are coincidentally on sale for $2.50 a piece, so they won't be locked to the Bethesda.net framework.

Although it might be a stretch to think it, Batman's iconic Court of Owls story arc could be adapted into video game form.

Warner Bros. Montreal is currently working on two big DC games, and sources say one of them is Batman related, possibly a title centered around Damien Wayne. The team, who developed Batman: Arkham Origins, pivoted towards a Batman game after cancelling its Suicide Squad project. Not much has been confirmed about the projects, but the studio's production coordinator Valerie Vezina might've teased something interesting: a Batman Court of Owls game.

Vezina's early November Twitter post ignited speculation that the project could revolve around the Batman comics' dark and iconic storyline. The post shows Vezina wearing an owl shirt that resembles the nefarious Court of Owls' insignia in the New 52! graphic novels. It's not an exact match, however, and it may just be a coincidence.

343 Industries is making good on its promise to include split-screen with all future Halo games, and has already implemented it Halo: Infinite.

Halo: Infinite (aka Halo 6) is still in very early stages of development--the game's engine still hasn't been fully fleshed out--but that didn't stop 343i from already adding in split-screen multiplayer. The devs confirmed that 4-player split-screen is indeed playable right now in early internal builds of the game.

"We have [four player] split-screen working. We made a promise to the community that we'd have it in our next game that we make, and it's working. We can play on it, and it's a huge accomplishment for the team this year," 343 Industries FPS head Chris Lee said in a recent Halo social stream.

It's been years since a Halo game came to PC, but Halo 6 will make the jump and 343 Industries affirms it'll be scaled to meet the platform's demanding standards.

Halo has always been a system-selling franchise, but Microsoft's goalposts with Xbox now transcend the console realm and sees a union between PC and console gaming. This evolution means major first-party exclusives will release on PC too, and that includes 343i's next big shooter Halo: Infinite (aka Halo 6). The devs are taking PC development seriously, but it's working on both versions simultaneously and consoles will get first dibs on alpha and beta testing phases.

"We take PC as a full first-class citizen," 343 Industries technical director David Berger said in a recent social stream. "The PC audience expects more things than a curated console experience, and so it definitely goes into our philosophy of making sure we can allow scalability of things on different PC hardware. It's just something we have to think about going forward."

To celebrate the release of Blackkklansman on home video, we have ten Blu-ray copies of the film to give away thanks to our friends at Universal Sony Home Entertainment!

It's the early 1970s, a time of great social upheaval as the struggle for civil rights rages on. Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) becomes the first African-American detective on the Colorado Springs Police Department, but his arrival is greeted with skepticism and open hostility by the department's rank and file. Undaunted, Stallworth resolves to make a name for himself and a difference in his community. He bravely sets out on a dangerous mission: infiltrate and expose the Ku Klux Klan.

Posing as a racist extremist, Stallworth contacts the group and soon finds himself invited into its inner circle. He even cultivates a relationship with the Klan's Grand Wizard, David Duke (Topher Grace), who praises Ron's commitment to the advancement of White America. With the undercover investigation growing ever more complex, Stallworth's colleague, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver), poses as Ron in face-to-face meetings with members of hate group, gaining insider's knowledge of a deadly plot. Together, Stallworth and Zimmerman team up to take down the organization whose real aim is to sanitize its violent rhetoric to appeal to the mainstream.

HP is getting into the holiday spirit with some big sales on a range of their products, with notebooks, printers and full desktops all on special. It ranges between their touch-capable notebooks through to more powerful desktops, right up to the gaming-focused Omen X by HP machines, all discounted for Christmas.

First up is the HP Envy 17 which is a larger-than-life 17-inch laptop where in a world dominated by smaller 15.6-inch panels, HP includes a 4K display on the 17-inch laptop and normally ships for $1799. HP's special drops the 17-inch Envy to just $1199, a discount of a rather large $600. There aren't many 17-inch notebooks on the market so if you're in the market for one, saving $600 on HP's Envy 17 would be a good start.

If you're after a small laptop then there's the HP Spectre X360 laptop which features a smaller 13-inch panel, but hefty Core i7 processor, up to 16GB RAM, and 512GB SSD storage. This all usually costs $1429, but HP is discounting the laptop to $1179 during the holidays.

In a recent press release from Nintendo Europe, Super Smash Bros. has been deemed Nintendo's fastest-selling home console game ever.

Nintendo Europe has announced on the official Twitter page that the recently released Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has become Nintendo's fastest selling home console ever. Since its release, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate has clocked record number sales within its first three days of being live. The total sales of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate in that same frame were 30% higher than that of Mario Kart Wii, which progressed to sell more than 37 million copies.

The COO of Europes Nintendo commented on the success of the title, saying "Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is the biggest Super Smash Bros. ever, and not only is it the fastest-selling game in the series we've ever seen in Europe, it's become our fastest-selling home console game ever. Nintendo Switch owners have a lot to look forward to in 2019, including new games in the Animal Crossing and Pokémon series, Yoshi's Crafted World, Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and more." Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is currently available exclusively on the Nintendo Switch, for more information visit the official Super Smash Bros. website here.