Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Apple : Google will spend billions on data centers and offices in the US this year

Apple : Google will spend billions on data centers and offices in the US this year

Google will spend billions on data centers and offices in the US this year

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 02:51 PM PST

Google will spend more than $10bn in offices and data centers across the US this year according to a new blog post from Alphabet and Google CEO Sundar Pichai.

The search giant currently has a presence in 26 states across the country but in 2020, the company's new investments will be focused on 11 additional states including Colorado, Georgia, Massachusetts, Nebraska, New York, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and California.

In a blog post announcing this year's new investments, Pichai explained how they will help create thousands of jobs across the US, saying:

“These investments will create thousands of jobs—including roles within Google, construction jobs in data centers and renewable energy facilities, and opportunities in local businesses in surrounding towns and communities.”

US investments

While $10bn is no small investment, this figure is actually lower than the $13bn Google invested in US data centers and offices in 2019, though it is higher than the $9bn invested in 2018.

Pichai also pointed out in his blog post that according to a report from the Progressive Policy Institute, Google's parent company Alphabet was the largest investor in the US last year.

By continuing to invest heavily in the US, Alphabet will be able to expand the capability of its American data centers while also creating jobs and goodwill across the country.

Via Reuters

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More popular WordPress plugins are being attacked

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 01:56 PM PST

Cybercriminals are paying close attention to the security flaws that were recently discovered in several popular WordPress plugins and they have begun to target websites that still run vulnerable versions of them.

According to BleepingComputer, at least two threat actors are actively attacking unpatched versions of the ThemeGrill Demo Importer, Profile Builder and Duplicator plugins. What these three plugins have in common is the fact that they were all revealed to contain a critical security bug that could be exploited in recent reports.

Researchers estimate that there are hundreds of thousands of WordPress sites that are currently at risk of being exploited because their admins have not yet patched these three plugins.

One of the threat actors, who goes by the handle 'tonyredball', is exploiting two of these vulnerable plugins to obtain backdoor access. Tonyredball was observed exploiting the administrator registration vulnerability in Profile Builder by using requests that contained the username, email and other profile details of the new administrator account, according to WordPress security experts at Defiant.

However, the researchers also noted that tonyredball has launched a number of attacks which take advantage of the database deletion flaw in older versions of the ThemeGrill Demo Importer plugin.

Exploiting vulnerable WordPress plugins

Another threat actor exploiting vulnerable WordPress plugins is identified by Defiant as 'solarsalvador1234' because of an email address used in the requests leading to exploitation.

In addition to targeting ThemeGrill Demo Importer and Profile Builder, this threat actor is also exploiting unpatched flaws in Duplicator which is a plugin that allows websites to be cloned and migrated to other locations.

Duplicator versions lower than 1.3.28 have been found to contain a security bug that allows unauthenticated users to download arbitrary files from victim sites. By exploiting the bug, an attacker can retrieve a site's configuration file (wp-config.php) where the credentials for database access are stored. This allows a threat actor like solarsalvador1234 to establish long-term access to a compromised site.

According to update rates, Defiant estimates that around 800,000 sites may still run a vulnerable version of the Duplicator plugin.

If you're WordPress site is running an older version of ThemeGrill Demo Importer, Profile Builder or Duplicator, it is highly recommended that you update to the latest version as soon as possible to prevent falling victim to these kinds of attacks.

Via BleepingComputer

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Best HP laptops 2020: the top HP laptops we’ve seen and tested

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:50 PM PST

The best HP laptops deliver a great balance between price and performance. Some of the top ones that have come out of HP to date combine Dell laptops’ affordability and reliability with MacBooks’ knack for design and robustness. And, while HP laptops have gained traction in the high-end sphere, HP has hit the budget and mid-range market as well, giving plenty of options for every budget and need.

HP’s road to rebranding has resulted in some of the most stunning – not to mention, truly powerful – laptops we’ve ever seen. In fact, it has done such a good job that many of the best HP laptops right now are considered the best laptops 2020 has on offer.

That means now’s the best time to jump on the HP bandwagon, and invest in one of the best HP laptops on the market. Lucky for you, we tested and reviewed a heck of a lot of HP laptops, and we’ve just found the best of the best.

The best HP laptops at a glance

  1. HP Elite Dragonfly
  2. HP Spectre x360 (2020) 
  3. HP Spectre Folio
  4. HP Chromebook 14
  5. HP EliteBook x360 1040
  6. HP Omen 17
  7. HP Envy x360 (2019)
  8. HP Omen X
  9. HP Envy 13t 2019
  10. HP Spectre 13

HP Elite Dragonfly

HP Elite Dragonfly is among the best laptops for travelers.

If you’re a traveling professional looking for the best HP laptop that’s both portable and powerful, you might consider the HP Elite Dragonfly. Not only is it among the best laptops for travelers, it’s also the top HP laptop on the market right now. It’s not just powerful though; it’s also light, thin and stylish. And, it boasts an excellent battery life and an impressive keyboard. For all that, the price is a bit steep; but if you can afford it, it’s worth every penny.

Read the full review: HP Elite Dragonfly

HP Spectre x360 (2020)

HP's beloved and highly praised 2-in-1 is back with a vengeance.

HP’s beloved and highly praised 2-in-1 is back with a vengeance, this time with more powerful components like the 10th-generation Intel Core processors and Intel Iris Plus graphics. Of course, that impeccable 2-in-1 design and pristine gem-cut chassis are back, as are its security features and Bang & Olufsen speakers. That killer combination makes it, now more than ever, one of the best HP laptops out there. Is it a wonder that this is one of our favorite laptops of 2020? If you care about aesthetics as much as you do performance and overall quality, this is the laptop for you.

Read the full review: HP Spectre x360 (2020)

HP Spectre Folio

HP Spectre Folio is intended for the luxury buyers. (Image Credit: HP)

While it doesn’t exactly redefine the PC, the HP Spectre Folio does enough right things to merit a place among the best HP laptops you can buy in 2020. Clad front to back in leather, this 2-in-1 laptop is intended for the luxury buyers, as evidenced by its lofty price tag. Unfortunately, it’s not the fastest laptop out there. However, the fanless chip on board has enough juice to get you through your day-to-day workload, as long as you’re not expecting to get any serious video editing done. This is more for the professional taking a device between meetings.

Read the full review: HP Spectre Folio 

HP Chromebook 14

HP Chromebook 14 has a few aces up its sleeves. (Image credit: TechRadar)

The HP Chromebook 14 may not be as powerful as other Chromebooks, but this tiny laptop has a few aces up its sleeves, helping it secure a well-deserved spot among the best HP laptops. Those aces include striking a good balance between ample screen space and portability, as well as a surprisingly excellent keyboard and a decent trackpad. That’s without mentioning how vivid the display and how low its price tag is.

Read the full review: HP Chromebook 14

HP EliteBook x360 1040

EliteBook x360 1040 G5 is the "apex predator of the business world." (Image credit: TechRadar)

We dubbed the EliteBook x360 1040 G5 as the “apex predator of the business world” in our review because, well, it is. It boasts many excellent features in its handsome-looking chassis, as well as plenty of ports to go around, including a port that works wonders and impressively audio. Simply, this HP laptop is an ideal match for the professional who demands seamlessness and power at work. It’s not the perfect machine, but it’s got plenty of features that make up for its flaws, making it among the best HP laptops on the market.

Read the full review: HP EliteBook x360 1040

HP Omen 17

The HP Omen 17 is one incredible gaming machine packed with excellent features.

Don’t judge this budget gaming laptop by its cover. It’s modest design and poor quality chassis aside, the HP Omen 17 is one incredible gaming machine packed with excellent features. With its G-Sync display, solid speakers, and 4K gaming (if you’re ok with lower frame rates), this is one of the best HP laptops for gaming. Best of all, it offers great value at an affordable price. So if you don’t have the funds to splurge on a premium gaming laptop, you know you’ve got an option in this one.

Read the full review: HP Omen 17

HP Envy x360 13 (2019)

If you are interested in the latest AMD innards, HP Envy x360 13 (2019) is a great choice.

Thanks to its sleek, 13-inch design, this 2-in-1 is thinner that you would have expected, which works in your favor when using it in tablet mode. There are other compelling reasons why the HP Envy x360 (2019) is worth considering when you’re in the market for one of the best HP laptops. If you are interested in the latest AMD innards, this is a great choice. This HP beauty also offers a premium build, boasts 9 hours of video playback and delivers a performance that will get you through most of your schoolwork and project, at a very affordable price.

Read the full review: HP Envy x360 (2019)

HP Omen X

HP Omen X stays at the top of the stack longer than competitors. (Image Credit: HP)

If you’ve been watching the laptop market as long as we have, you’ll have noticed that the best gaming laptops kind of get a bad rap because of their lack of mobility. However, HP has addressed this issue by packing plenty of new features that gaming laptops tend to lack. First, you can overclock the Omen X, which just means free performance – which will keep it at the top of the stack longer than competitors. For gamers, the HP Omen X is a no-brainer.

HP Envy 13t

 HP Envy 13t boasts elegant beauty combines a premium design and premium internal components. (Image Credit: HP)

For a second-tier laptop, you might be surprised to find so very few faults in the new HP Envy 13t 2019. This elegant beauty combines a premium design and premium internal components without costing you an arm and a leg, which makes it a terrific alternative for MacBook lovers looking to save money for their next computing investment. There are other things to love as well – the ultra-thin chassis, the tactile keyboard, and a battery that will outlast yours.

Read the full review: HP Envy 13t 2019

HP Spectre 13

HP Spectre 13 packs some serious horsepower. (Image Credit: HP)

The HP Spectre 13 is arguably one of the most stunning laptops we’ve ever seen or used. The ceramic white finish is beautifully complemented by a two-prong hinge design that’s extremely appealing as well as utilitarian. The Spectre 13 goes even further by packing some serious horsepower. It leverages the power of 8th-generation Intel Kaby Lake Refresh processors to outmatch the competition. It’s been discontinued on the HP site, but the HP Spectre 13 is still one of the best HP laptops this year. Search for it, as third-party retailers still sell it.

Read the full review: HP Spectre 13 

Bill Thomas and Michelle Rae Uy has also contributed to this article

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The best 13-inch laptop 2020: the top 13-inch laptops we've reviewed

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:37 PM PST

When it comes to the best 13-inch laptops, portability is the name of the game. While 15-inch laptops offer bigger screen real estate and space for more powerful internals, their 13-inch counterparts provide that compact and lightweight design that many users appreciate.

However, don’t take that to mean that 13-inch laptops can’t also compete in terms of performance. The best 13-inch laptops combine extreme portability with great power, so they’ll see you through demanding every day tasks without being a burden on your back when you’re on the go. They even boast enough power to get some light gaming, music editing and photo editing done.

Many of the best 13-inch laptops are powerful enough to make our best laptops or best Ultrabooks lists. So, whether you’re in the market for 2-in-1 laptop, looking something specific like one of the best Acer laptops, or still deciding between best Windows tablets or the best Macs, you’ll be happy going small. Stick to our list of the best 13-inch laptops, and you won’t be disappointed.

Best 13-inch laptop at a glance:

  1. Dell XPS 13
  2. Huawei MateBook 13
  3. Google Pixelbook Go
  4. HP Spectre x360
  5. Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13.5-inch)
  6. Razer Blade Stealth 13 (2019) 
  7. HP Envy x360 13 (2019)
  8. Surface Laptop 2
  9. Lenovo Yoga C930
  10. MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019)

Huawei MateBook 13

Huawei MateBook 13 ticks all the right boxes.

It’s not often that we find a 13-inch laptop that ticks all the right boxes with very little compromise. The Huawei MateBook 13 is one of those very few devices. Rocking the latest Intel Whiskey Lake processors and Nvidia MX150 graphics in a chassis that really should be too small to fit them all in, the Huawei MateBook 13 is a powerful machine that can easily slip into most backpacks or medium-sized tote bags. Even better for users who cannot afford to splurge, it’s budget-friendly. What more could you ask for?

Read the full review: Huawei MateBook 13  

Dell XPS 13

The Dell XPS 13 is, without a doubt, one of the best 13-inch laptops right now.

While its changes over last year’s model are subtle, there’s no doubt that the Dell XPS 13 is still one of the best 13-inch laptops money can buy. On the high end, the 4K display delivers a sharper picture across the board. But, even if you can’t afford the highest end model, the dashing design, long battery life and SD card slot aren’t going anywhere. More importantly, you’ve got a quad-core processor regardless of configuration you end up with. The Dell XPS 13 is, without a doubt, one of the best 13-inch laptops right now.

Read the full review: Dell XPS 13

Google Pixelbook Go

Google Pixelbook Go boasts many of its high-quality features, but without that steep price tag.

If you’ve long been admiring Google’s premium Chromebook but the price is holding you back, then you might want to consider the new Google Pixelbook Go instead. Freshly-baked by Google, this alternative to the manufacturer’s pricey Pixelbook boasts many of its high-quality features, but without that steep price tag – namely, an incredible battery life and that coveted keyboard. If your computing use is limited to sending and responding to emails, creating documents and excel sheets on Google Docs and Sheets, and streaming movies and videos after work, then this one’s a winner.

Read the full review: Google Pixelbook Go

HP Spectre x360

HP Spectre x360's gem-cut build means it'll get your work done in style.

One look at the HP Spectre x360, and you’ll find it to deny that it’s one of the most beautiful laptops on the market today. That gem-cut build means it’ll get your work done in style. It’s not all skin-deep, however. This stunning 13-inch laptop is packed with the latest Intel hardware as well, so you know it can get your work done. And, if that’s not enough, it can also be flipped around into tablet mode. The HP Spectre x360 really is one of the best 13-inch laptops out there.

Read the full review: HP Spectre x360

Microsoft Surface Book 2 (13-inch)

Surface Book 2 will handle your daily workload effortlessly and in style.

While the 13-inch version isn’t the most powerful Surface Book 2, it still makes for one of the best 13-inch laptops on the market. Whether you’re a professional or a creative or even a student, the Surface Book 2 will handle your daily workload effortlessly and in style. What’s more, the dynamic fulcrum hinge is much improved this time around, complementing the robust quad-core processor. And, unlike many other 2-in-1 laptops, the keyboard is removable to make it much more manageable, as well as thinner, when in tablet mode.

Read the full review: Microsoft Surface Book 2

Razer Blade Stealth 13 (2019)

Razer has spruced up its Blade Stealth 13 Ultrabook with the latest internal components without affecting its super-quiet operation.

The “world’s first gaming ultrabook” doesn't just talk the talk; it also walks the walk. Razer has spruced up its Blade Stealth 13 Ultrabook with the latest internal components without affecting its super-quiet operation. Packed with a 10th-generation Intel Core i7 processor and better graphic options, 13-inch laptop delivers and much better than its predecessor. In fact, it might just be the best gaming experience we’ve ever had on integrated graphics with the Iris Plus configuration. Round that out with extremely quiet fans, low thermal power, extended battery life and that delightful Mercury White color, and we are sold. You will be too, if you can afford the price.

Read the full review: Razer Blade Stealth 13 (2019) 

HP Envy x360 13 (2019)

HP Envy x360 13 (2019) boasts a premium build, 9 hours of video playback and a stellar performance.

Thanks to its sleek 13-inch design, this 2-in-1 is slimmer that you would have expected, which works in your favor when using it in tablet mode. There are other excellent reasons why you must consider the HP Envy x360 (2019) when sorting through the best 13-inch laptops on the market. This one boasts a premium build, 9 hours of video playback and a performance that will get you through most of your schoolwork and project, all without burning a hole in your pocket.

Read the full review: HP Envy x360 (2019)

Microsoft Surface Laptop 2

Surface Laptop 2 is one of the best 13-inch laptops right now.

The early Surface Laptop had our vote for one of the best 13-inch laptops, due to its stunning screen, competent internals and solid build quality. We are, therefore, happy to see its sequel, the Surface Laptop 2, doing everything better and taking some features to a new level. You won’t find any major changes, but the faster 8th-generation CPUs, 8GB of RAM and, most importantly, the removal of Windows 10 S all add up to making the Surface Laptop 2 one of the best 13-inch laptops right now.

Read the full review: Surface Laptop 2

Lenovo Yoga C930

Lenovo Yoga C930 has a few aces up its sleeve.

While slightly bigger than your usual 13-inch laptop, this nearly 14-inch 2-in-1 challenger has a few aces up its sleeve – including longevity, power and durability. This means that the latest Lenovo Yoga C930 will last users long enough to get through their day-to-day workload and squeeze in some entertainment at the end of each day. To round it all out, this device also has a nice display with deep colors, a great keyboard and a decent trackpad. It may not have the best graphics performance, but it definitely more than makes up for that, making it one of the best 13-inch laptops 2020 has to offer.

Read the full review: Lenovo Yoga C930

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019)

MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019) has slightly more powerful components than last year's model.

The MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019) is a minor update to last year’s model, with slightly tweaked internals. However, seeing as the 2018 model took a spot on our best 13-inch laptops list, the 2019 refresh with its small improvements is just as deserving of that spot. The design remains the same, which is good news if you’re a fan of previous MacBook Pros, but with slightly more powerful components so if you’ve been looking to upgrade your aging MacBook Pro, this one affords you that chance.

Read the full review: MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2019)

Bill Thomas, Gabe Carey and Michelle Rae Uy have also contributed to this article

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Tech giants 'should pay' for sharing user info

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 12:02 PM PST

A new study has revealed that German Facebook users believe the social network should pay them $8 per month for sharing their contact information while US users would be content with just $3.50.

The study, titled “How Much is Privacy Worth Around the World and Across Platforms?”, was conducted by the Technology Policy Institute's (TPI) Jeffrey Prince and Scott Wallsten. It is the first study of its kind to attempt to quantify the value of online privacy and data.

TPI examined the habits of people in the US, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia and Argentina to compile its study in order to assess how much privacy is worth in each country.

The study also comes at time when consumers have become increasingly concerned over how tech giants and retailers have been collecting and monetizing their personal data.

The price of privacy

President and senior fellow at TPI, Scott Wallsten explained to Reuters how it is necessary to quantify the value of privacy before analyzing company's privacy policies, saying:

“Differences in how much people value privacy of different data types across countries suggests that people in some places may prefer weaker rules while people in other places might prefer stronger rules. Quantifying the value of privacy is necessary for conducting any analysis of proposed privacy policies.”

The study found that German users want to be paid more for letting technology companies share their personal data with third-parties than US consumers do. However, people in all the countries surveyed place the highest value on financial information, such as bank balances and biometric information, while location data is the least valuable.

According to the study, a technology platform would have to pay consumers $8.44 a month to share bank balance information, $7.56 to share fingerprint information, $6.05 to read someone's texts and $5.80 to share information on cash withdrawals. Surprisingly, survey participants want to be paid just $1.82 per month to share their location data.

  • We've also highlighted the best VPN services

Via Reuters

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Lyon vs Juventus live stream: how to watch Champions League football from anywhere

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:49 AM PST

Two off-form sides go into battle this evening in what should be a nervy encounter at the Parc Olympique Lyonnais - read on for our guide to getting a Lyon vs Juventus live stream.

It's been a difficult domestic campaign for the French side who currently sit seventh in Ligue 1, while their form in the Champions League hasn't been markedly better having scraped through what was considered a weak group in second spot with just eight points.

Juve go into this Champions League match as heavy favourites, but have been widely inconsistent lately themselves.

Maurizio Sarri's side were far from convincing at the weekend, labouring to 2-1 away win against Serie A's bottom club SPAL. Lyon, meanwhile ended a four-match winless streak on Friday with a victory over Metz in Ligue 1.

That victory saw striker Moussa Dembele reach the 20-goal mark for the season, and his threat from the front will be in big demand from the home team with fellow Lyon striker Memphis Depay out injured. Douglas Costa (knee) and Gonzalo Higuain (back) are both ruled out out for the Italians, but Leonardo Bonucci returns from suspension for tonight's game.

Read on to find out how to watch tonight's game. No matter where you are in the world, our guide to getting a reliable Lyon vs Juventus live stream for the first leg of this crunch European tie has you covered.

Use a VPN to watch Champions League football when away from home

Scroll down to find out your football viewing options for tonight's match in some of the major Champions League watching countries around the world. And if you're out of the country and are worried that you won't catch the game, don't sweat. With the option of using a VPN service, you can tune in to a Lyon vs Juventus live stream tonight no matter where you are in the world. Best of all, it's really easy to do.

How to stream Lyon vs Juventus live in the UK 

How to live stream Lyon vs Juventus in the US

How to live stream tonight's Champions League match in Canada for FREE

How to live stream Lyon vs Juventus in Australia

How to watch Lyon vs Juventus in New Zealand

How to live stream tonight's UEFA Champions League match in India

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Real Madrid vs Man City live stream: watch Champions League 2020 football tonight from anywhere

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:47 AM PST

With UEFA recently handing out a two-year Champions League ban to Manchester City, there's added intrigue in tonight's match between two of Europe's richest clubs at the Bernabéu - read on for our guide to getting a secure, reliable, and trustworthy Real Madrid vs Man City live stream.

This round of 16 clash between Los Blancos and the reigning English Premier League champions always looked like a tantalising one when the draw was made back in December. But, with this year's tournament now providing what may be City's last chance of winning European football's biggest prize for some time, one suspects Pep Guardiola's side will be going all out for glory.

While Guardiola and Zidane faced each each other on the field in La Liga in their playing days, this evening's match marks the first time the two have gone up against each other as coaches.

There's been differing build ups to this huge Champions League match for both teams. Real suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at Levante at the weekend which saw them lose top spot status to Barcelona in La Liga in the process.

Meanwhile, City reinforced their position as this years' likely Premier League runners-up with a 1-0 away win over third place Leicester on Saturday.

Raheem Sterling faces a late fitness test and may be available for a shock return to the City side. The news isn't so good for Madrid star Eden Hazard, who picked up an ankle injury in Madrid's recent La Liga loss to Levante - and is now a doubt for the remainder of the season.

Read on to find out how to watch tonight's game. No matter where you are in the world, our guide to watching  Real Madrid vs Man City live stream for the first leg of this crunch European tie has you covered.

Use a VPN to watch Champions League football when away from home

Scroll down to find out your football viewing options for tonight's match in some of the major Champions League watching countries around the world. And if you're out of the country and are worried that you won't catch the game, don't sweat. With the option of using a VPN service, you can tune in to a Real Madrid vs Manchester City live stream tonight no matter where you are in the world. Best of all, it's really easy to do.

How to stream Real Madrid vs Man City live in the UK 

How to live stream Real Madrid vs Man City in the US

How to live stream tonight's Champions League match in Canada for free

How to live stream Real Madrid vs Manchester City in Australia

How to watch Real Madrid vs Manchester City in New Zealand

How to live stream tonight's UEFA Champions League match in India

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Diablo 4 is official: everything you need to know about the next Diablo

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:33 AM PST

Looking for everything there is to know about Diablo 4? Then you've come to the right place. It’s been over seven years since the initial release of Diablo 3, so obviously we're champing at the bit to start another monstrous loot hunt in Diablo 4.

After months of rumors, Diablo 4 was officially confirmed by Blizzard at Blizzcon 2019 - and we now know that the next core Diablo game is an isometric action RPG which sees the return of Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto.

It will feature an open world map with five regions, day/night cycles and a non-linear campaign. You'll smash and loot your way through this world with one of five customizable classes, three of which are already announced.  

Finally, it's being designed in a brand-new engine for PS4, Xbox One and PC, with plans to simultaneously release it on all platforms (maybe even PS5 and Xbox Series X?). In addition, The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson has been recruited to oversee development on the whole Diablo franchise - which can only be good news.

Want to know more? Here’s everything to know so far about the long-awaited Diablo 4.

[Update: Blizzard has delivered a quarterly Diablo 4 update as promised. Read on to find out more.]

Cut to the chase

  • What is it? The next instalation in the veteran action-role playing dungeon crawling series, Diablo.
  • When can I play it? We're not entirely sure, but 'not soon' is what Blizzard says.
  • What can I play it on? Xbox One, PS4 and PC (maybe next-gen consoles).

Diablo 4 release date

Diablo 4

Bad news here: Diablo 4 probably won't be released anytime soon. At a Blizzcon 2019 deep dive on the game, the game's director said that he doesn't expect the game to be finished anytime soon, "even by Blizzard's standards of soon."

That said, the fact that the team is developing the game for PS4 and Xbox One heavily implies that the game will be released within the next two to three years - as the lifespan of those consoles will be coming to an abrupt end after the launch of new consoles in late 2020. 

Diablo 4 trailers

Post BlizzCon 2019, GameInformer brought us plenty of gameplay from Diablo 4 to pore over. Familiar in the best possible way, this footage showcases Diablo 4's return to an intensely Gothic game world and that addictive gameplay loop that's made it so famous. 

Given the game's release is some time away (maybe years) it's possible that everything in this footage could change. But it's exciting to get a glimpse of the direction in which the game's development is going. 

Below you can watch videos of the the game's three classes in action: Barbarian, Sorceress and then Druid. All in all it's about an hour of gameplay which is quite something. Given the game is still a while off yet, maybe ration it. 

Diablo 4 was officially announced at Blizzcon 2019 where we got the chance to see both the announcement story cinemati and the first gameplay trailer. 

Check both trailers out below:

Diablo 4 news, previous leaks and features

Quarterly Update - February 2019

As promised, Blizzard has posted a quarterly update for the development of Diablo 4. The lengthy update, published to the Blizzard website, has words from Angela Del Priore, Lead UI Designer, and Candace Thomas, Senior Encounter Designer.

Angela Del Priore's update delves into UI changes, couch co-op and controller support. 

UI changes

As far as UI changes are concerned, the inventory will not have different-sized items "to avoid interrupting gameplay with pockets of inventory management". Item icons are being re-approached with the aim of giving them "natural texture and realism" opposed to the "painterly style" initially pursued. In line with achieving greater realism, the brightness and saturation of icon backgrounds has been toned down and rarity indicators are visually more subtle.

Based on more non-specific feedback, the inventory has also been reorganized for a more "balanced composition". 

In addition to this, there will be more flexibility in binding options based on players asking "to rebind their primary skill to anything but the left mouse button so that they could separate moving from attacking." As well as making it possible to assign any skill to any slot from the start, all skill slots can have their keys rebound with the intention to support skill rebinding on controllers too. 

Finally, the game's action bar's location has been up for discussion and based on feedback and field-of-view it's been decided that it will take a left-corner position on consoles while PC players will be able to choose from a corner or centre position. 

Controller Support

Diablo 4 will support controllers on PC and according to Blizzard the aim is to give players "the ability to switch between the two options freely". As a result, a more unified UI is needed while "keeping established keyboard and mouse conventions" and "creating controller-friendly shortcuts or alternate flows". Efforts are apparently being made to ensure both inputs feel "native" to the game. 

Couch Co-op

For Diablo 4 the development team is looking to improve the 2-player co-op experience from Diablo 3 and set up "core progression UI screens such that they can be opened independently or at the same time."

Senior Encounter Designer Candace Thomas, on the other hand, gives fans a look at a new kind of enemy that will feature in Diablo 4: Cannibals. 

New enemy: Cannibal Tribes 

Cannibals are one of the monster families that will feature in Diablo 4 alongside other such as the Fallen and the Drowned. 

For Diablo 4, the team aims to "build Sanctuary as a living, breathing character—especially through its creatures" and so its monsters have been re-imagined in a more gritty style.

According to Thomas they have "lovingly handcrafted every creature you’ll encounter from the ground up: that includes demons, NPCs, Act Bosses, and even the skittering critters you can crush underfoot. Though we still pay tribute to some hallmark gameplay—such as Fallen Shamans resurrecting other Fallen—we have completely reimagined things in other places."

The lore around the Cannibals states that no one knows where they've come from but the rumor is that they're a former band of barbarians, exiled to the Dry Steppes where they prey on caravans and villages. 

The Cannibal family has four members, each with a unique weapon, silhouette or stance so you can tell them apart. Two of them are melee combatants, one with a two-handed greatsword cleaver; the other with a lightweight halberd. 

The bruiser member uses a spiked club in each hand to deliver heavy blows while there are also dual-axe-wielding swarmers that unleash faster, flurried frontal attacks. The members are dangerous individually but combinations of their attacks are positively deadly. 

Something the Cannibal family doesn't have is ranged units. Instead, they rely on speed which can make for a very distinctive and stressful combat experience.  

Rod Fergusson is overseeing the Diablo franchise
The Coalition studio head Rod Fergusson has announced he's leaving the Gear of War developer to oversee the Diablo franchise at Blizzard Entertainment.

Fergusson officially made the announcement on Twitter, revealing that he will be joining Blizzard in March where he will, no doubt, join the team in developing the upcoming Diablo 4 and Diablo 4 Immortal.

Check his tweet out below:

Responding to concerns
In 2019, Blizzard stated its intentions to release quarterly updates on the progress of Diablo 4 in 2020. After a post on Reddit called out a lack of updates from the developer, a community manager has responded to manage expectations. 

In a multi-pointed response, community manager Nevalistis stated that the game is in "very, very early in development" so there's not a lot to share at the moment and what is shareable has been shared already. Not only that, they pointed out that the Diablo team Blizzard is at work on more than one project and pacing is therefore necessary. 

Given the first quarter of 2020 runs up until March, we could see an update on the game any time between now and then. More likely to be closer to then than now. Part of the reason for any time taken will also be to ensure that what is shown is at the highest standard possible. According to Nevalistis "We want to put a lot of time, effort, and polish into these updates because they are so few and we care a lot about our work. However, ultimately, the content will be decided by (1) what's ready to show and (2) what conversations we're ready to have with the community."

The post finishes up by promising that while cool stuff is in the works, the team will be taking its time to create an excellent game for fans as "while we want to maintain transparency, we also don't want to risk over-promising and under delivering. This happens all too often by showing features too early."

No more Ancient Legendaries
Lead systems designer, David Kim, has written an update for fans with regards to Diablo 4's systems. The update reveals that the game won't have Ancient Legendaries and highlights there will be some new stats. 

In order to make Diablo 4's itemisation "deep and rewarding", Kim writes, Ancient Legendaries will be removed and replaced with a new consumable which will make it possible to apply a Legendary affix to a non-Legendary item. 

Affixes on items generally will increase which is expected to raise the importance of non-Legendary affixes with regards to overall power. However, three new stats—Angelic Power, Demonic Power and Ancestral Power—will also appear as new affixes.

As a result, according to Kim, "Legendary powers should no longer completely dwarf the strength of your affixes, and the affixes themselves provide more interesting choices because their strength depends on how much of the relevant Powers you’ve accumulated on the rest of your gear. You might find an amulet with the perfect stats for your build, but some of its Affixes may require Demonic Power when you’ve previously focused on Ancestral. Maybe your current amulet is the primary source of your Ancestral Power, so equipping a new amulet would mean potentially making sacrifices elsewhere.

With this system, it will be easy to identify items with good stats, but it will take some thought and planning to decide whether the item is good for your build."

The team is also streamlining Attack and Defense. Now, attack will only be found on weapons, defence will only be found on armor, and jewellery won't have an impact on either.

Big ambitions
In an interview with AusGamers Diablo 4's Game Director Luis Barriga and Art Director John Mueller have given an insight into the big ambitions the team has for Diablo 4 and its expansions. 

We already know that Lilith will be the main villain for the game, rather than Diablo, but Mueller has suggested that there will eventually more to tell than this, with more characters and stories that could be told in expansions: “Diablo IV is like the first chapter of a book. We want to tell a big story and we want to tell it, hopefully, for a very long time. Treating this like the first chapter of a book and Lilith as a key character in this story, it feels great knowing that there are still all these other characters that could come back in the future. Or, new characters that we haven’t seen before.”

The pair also touch on just how big the world of Sanctuary is going to be:

“There’s going to be five contiguous regions in the world and you can actually go from the North, the Northern most point of Scosglen, which is the area seen in the demo, all the way down through the Dry Steppes and into the deserts of Kejhistan. And you'll never see a loading screen. It's completely seamless. That's the level of detail we've added into creating the world.”

Diablo 4

Quarterly updates
In a blog post post-BlizzCon, Diablo 4's game director Luis Barriba has said that fans can expect a "cool update" on the game's progress come February 2020. This update will be the "first in a series of quarterly updates" which will come across the year. 

Baribba also addresses the discussions that have been happening around how Diablo 4 will approach items and stats in the community with a promise that it's being carefully considered and clarifications are coming. 

"We also know that one topic is burning hotter than the rest. We want you to know that we are having the same conversations about items and stats that you are having—whether on the official discussion threads or external sites, we read it all! Getting this right is at the top of our minds, and in the coming weeks our lead systems designer David Kim will provide a few clarifications, share some of his thoughts, and address some of your open questions."

Montetization
During a conversation at BlizzCon 2019, Twitch streamer Quin69 (via PCGamesN) had a conversation with Diablo 4's lead designer Joe Shely during which it was said that the game will likely have microtransactions but that they'll be cosmetic in nature (so no selling Power) and that there'll also be expansions on top of the base game:

“Diablo IV will be available as a base game, and […] we’re going to have expansions. You also will be able to acquire cosmetics in the game.”

Shely added that it's still early days for the game so naturally things could change as development progresses.

Blizzcon 2019 unveiling
Diablo 4 was officially confirmed at Blizzcon 2019 on November 1, where it was revealed the game would focus on Lilith - the daughter of Mephisto.

Like its predecessors, the game is an isometric, action RPG and will have PVP zones in the overworld - with the first three classes being barbarian, sorceress and druid. It's also being developed for PC, PS4 and Xbox One.

Diablo 4

Story and setting
For those who haven't been following along in the in-game events, Diablo 4 will be set after Diablo 3 Reaper of Souls. At this point, the gates of heaven have been closed after Malthael, the Angel of Death, destroyed much of Sanctuary.

It's through Heaven's ignorance of the events transpiring in Sanctuary that Lilith, the daughter of Mephisto and canonical mother of humanity, is set lose from her prison. 

What we know about the overworld right now is that it's all open, with five unique regions and both a day/night cycle and ever-changing weather. Missions are non-linear and according to the game's director, you're free to take them on however you'd like.

Always online
Other players will appear in your game for shared events, meaning you will have to always be online to play. This isn't an feature you can turn off but you can choose not to group up with others. We don't know the exact details about how this will work.

Skill changes and talent trees
According to Eurogamer, the rune system is gone, instead replaced by a system that sees you spending points on skills to improve them - with some gainer new effects at higher levels.

In addition, each class has a talent tree that allows players to customize their build. You can also enhance equipment and weapons through a new Rune Word socketing system.

Dungeons and loot
Like previous entries, you're going to spend a lot of time in dungeons - all of which will be randomly generated in a similar way to Diablo 3. According to the game's director, there will be 'hundreds of dungeons' in the game to explore 'in which you'll find hundreds of legendary items to equip'.

Abilities
Each class has five abilities including Evade and an Ultimate attack.

Which classes are available?
At launch, Diablo 4 will feature five classes - three of which we already know about. The Barbarian, a series staple will return in Diablo 4 and will be available to wield both double- and single-handed weapons in a single build, and will have four weapon slots. 

The Sorceress, another returning favorite, will have AOE attacks that control the battlefield and will be able to turn into a ball of energy to incinerate enemies, while the Druid has both animal companion NPCs and the ability to shapeshift.   

Diablo 4

The Art of Diablo may have revealed Diablo 4 - confirmed
German magazine Game Star found a listing for a glossy new book called The Art of Diablo. Taking a behind-the-scenes look at the art of the franchise, it's set to contain “more than 500 artworks from Diablo 1, Diablo 2, Diablo 3 and Diablo 4.” Yep, Diablo 4, being mentioned in relation to a book officially associated with the developer Blizzard. Though the book is a little way off from release yet, the mention (likely unintentional) all but confirmed that Diablo 4 was on the way.

New hires - confirmed
Tongues started wagging after nine job listings for an "unannounced project" in the Diablo franchise were spotted on the Blizzard Entertainment careers page. The company was looking for key roles, including lead character and concept artists, software engineers, a lead narrative designer and an executive producer.

While it's not certain that the listings were for Diablo 4, the game has since been announced.

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Best website builder for musicians in 2020

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:23 AM PST

A host of different services will now let you put a website online, quickly and easily, no coding skills required – but if you're looking for something to show off your talents as a musician then you need a more specific set of features.

Primarily, a way of uploading and sharing your tunes in a simple and secure way, even if it's just snippets of songs rather than whole tracks or indeed albums.

If you're a musician for hire then it can be useful to have some kind of booking system in place as well, or at least a contact form. On top of that, there are all the extras you might be interested in, like support for your own domain name or gallery pages to show just how many people came to your last gig.

Here are our picks for the best website builder for musicians to create a presence online.

Bandzoogle

You won't find too many website builder services aimed specifically at musicians, but Bandzoogle gleefully jumps in to provide a bespoke service specifically for bands and artists. While it lacks some of the polish of the big names, because it focuses on the musician niche in particular, it has everything you should need.

That includes, of course, the ability to upload your own tracks and let visitors stream them from your website. You can get tracks organized into entire albums if you really want to go to town, or just share (or even sell) single tracks. And then, as well as that, you've got simple ways to post gig dates, blog updates, and so on.

Whether you need to build a contact form or a video diary, Bandzoogle makes it easy, no coding required – you can really make a site that's as simple or as complex as you like, and the end result is something that looks like you hired a specialist.

You've got over 100 themes to choose from (there is even one for crowdfunding), they're all straightforward to edit and tweak, and connecting up social accounts (including the likes of SoundCloud and Bandcamp) only takes a few clicks as well. As an added bonus, you can sell fan subscription, merchandise and tickets right through Bandzoogle as well.

Wix

Check out any list of website builders for any purpose and Wix is likely to feature on it, but not only does this service earn that high reputation, it also has some useful tools for musicians – not least the ability to upload your own tracks so visitors to your website can listen to them without any extra software or browser extensions.

Platforms that you're probably already using, like Bandsintown and Songkick, can plug directly into your Wix site: you can set up integrations like these in just a few clicks. What's more, you can add on an e-commerce portal to your site, for the purposes of shifting albums, T-shirts, or whatever else you need to sell.

Wix has a very solid selection of templates, with more than 500 to choose from, and if you delve into the music section you'll see there are options for solo artists, bands, DJs, producers, or anyone else connected to the industry. Have a click around these templates to see the kind of sites it's possible to create.

After that you've got all the features Wix has become known for: a site editor that's a breeze to use whether or not you know what CSS stands for, custom domain name support, easy blogging and simple social media support, and a free tier that lets you work out whether Wix is for you before you part with any cash.

Music Glue

Music Glue is a little different to the other website builder services we've featured here: it focuses first and foremost on the merchandise and ticketing aspects of the music business, and indeed powers the online stores for some of the biggest names in the industry. Its pricing system is unusual too, taking a 10% cut of whatever you sell rather than a flat fee.

That does at least mean you won't be out of pocket if your online marketplace doesn't attract much attention to begin with. There are no additional fees for payment processing, and customers can rock up with debit or credit cards, or PayPal.

Music Glue is less impressive on the website building side, although you do get the basics – a choice of themes for the site attached to your online shop, the option to bring over your own custom domain name, tools for tweaking the code and layout of your site, and so on. It's possible to plug in social media accounts and even set up a mailing list.

If your priority is the mechanics of selling music and tickets to your audience, then Music Glue is a good bet, and has some very famous clients on its books, as we mentioned. If you don't really have anything to sell right now and want to spend more time fiddling with a site design and layout, then maybe look elsewhere.

Difymusic

French site builder Difymusic isn't the most well-known service out there, and doesn't have the same breadth of tools and features as some of the big names – but where it really comes into its own is in getting your music online quickly and easily.

If you'd rather just get your stuff up quickly with a few pictures and links, rather than spend ages choosing a theme and editing HTML, Difymusic could be for you. It relies on plug-ins – like Spotify or SoundCloud for getting your music up, for example – but it supports an awful lot of them, so you're bound to find something that works.

If you want to sell merch and tickets, then you can pay to add that on your main site, with a one-time €9.99 setup fee (about £9 or $12) and then 5% commission based on sales, but the basics are free. Connect up your Facebook page and your YouTube channel and you're good to go in just a few minutes.

Admittedly the choice of templates and editing options aren't very strong, but the designs you can play around with are decent enough, and certainly won't put anyone off your music. Difymusic lets you get started quickly, and scale up as required.

Tumblr

Tumblr isn't a website builder in the conventional sense – it's more of a half blogging, half social media platform – but if you take a longer look at what Tumblr has to offer, it's actual very appealing for musicians. For one thing, it's completely free to use, plus it already attracts a busy community of creatives.

You can post up to one 10MB MP3 file every day, as well as links, text posts, videos, photos and more. Those MP3s appear as streamable files for visitors to your site – they can listen to the tunes in their browser, no plug-ins or extra software required, so it's a great way of showcasing your talents without paying anything.

If Tumblr was simply a blogging platform and that was it, we probably wouldn't recommend the service, but it also supports pages alongside your blog (for a gallery or a contact form), custom domain names (so you can pay extra for whatever URL name you like), and posting from mobile apps too.

On top of all that there are a host of themes to choose from, some of which cost money, but many are free, and a lot of them would suit a musician's portfolio. If the theme isn't exactly to your liking, you can tweak it with the integrated options or your own CSS, and switching between themes whenever you like is simple, too.

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Best WordPress themes for portfolios in 2020

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 11:10 AM PST

The days of printing your business portfolio and placing it in a cardboard folder are long since past.

By placing your portfolio online you can advertise your brand by search engines, which will hugely raise your profile. It's also much easier to update your portfolio as you introduce new products or services. 

One of the easiest ways to get started with your online portfolio is to use a bespoke theme for WordPress. In this guide, you’ll explore five such themes which have been created with portfolios in mind.

Grand Portfolio

Grand Portfolio is designed to cater for those users involved in most areas of visual design. It works best for photographers, fashion designers and architects.

The theme has a variety of gallery and portfolio modules. There are also choices for those interested in blogs and creating magazines. It’s useful for musicians as it has support for biographies along with event reservation support.

Grand Portfolio themes can be viewed in split screen along with a full screen option for users who want to show off all their designs in their full glory. Users can utilize the infinite scroll option so that designs keep loading as you come to the end of each page.

Users can customize elements color, background and typography with the built-in live customizer. Revolution Slider and iLightbox are included with the theme. These two premium themes usually cost around $34 (£25.87) each.

Users gain access to the built-in ‘Content Builder’. This comes with a handy drag and drop feature. 

Grand Portfolio is fully responsive. It has also passed Google’s mobile compatibility check meaning that it is SEO optimized.

Users can purchase the regular license for $59 (£44.89) which includes future updates and 6-months support. An additional 12-months of support can be added for $17.63 (£13.41).

Some online commentators have noted there is not a huge variety in demo layouts.

Kalium

Kalium is designed specifically for portfolios.

There are multiple styles available. Each of which can be edited with the Visual Composer, Revolution Slider and LayerSlider plugins. These are all premium plugins and usually cost around $25 (£18.8). Users can customize fonts, colors, footer styles and opt to integrate with social media.

Kalium is compatible with WPML and Multilingual Plugin. It has been translated into over 16 languages. It includes support for RTL languages such as Arabic, Hebrew and Persian. 

Users can customize their portfolio on the ‘Theme Option’s area. They can also choose some of the premade layouts. Users can select from over 100 portfolio types with options to align images, spacing and text options.

Kalium is straight forward and easy to use. Newer users need not worry as no coding knowledge or experience is needed to start working on this theme.

The theme is fully responsive and retina ready. It also comes fully documented making it simple to find the information you need to build your website.

Users can purchase Kalium for $60(£49.5). This includes future updates and 6-months support. This can be extended to 12-months for an additional $18 (£14.8).

Portfolio

Portfolio is designed by ‘MyThemeShop’. It is a multipurpose portfolio theme. 

Users can use the options panel to customize their theme, make their own code edits, or design edits using the Photoshop PSD files.  These are included in the extended plan.

Users can utilize the advanced portfolio filters to organize their work the way they see fit.  Users can also show as little or as much of their work as they want by controlling how many columns of images are displayed. You can also edit image sizes.

Portfolio comes with more than 600 Google Fonts. Social media integration is also included. There are unlimited color, background and sidebars options. Users can also customize widgets for their page. 

The theme is translation ready and supports RTL. The main source of support is through the theme’s forum. If an answer can’t be found, email support is also available.

Portfolio can be purchased for $45 (£34.23) and is SEO ready, speed optimized and responsive. The company also offer a 30-day money back guarantee.

Furion

Furion is a portfolio theme which will display your work with a stylish twist.

The theme includes several different portfolio layouts. These include grid and masonry with different column choices along with six hover animation styles.

Each item on your chosen page includes 6 layouts, options to display gallery images in a slider, a media gallery and sticky information.

Furion uses over 600 icons in Font Awesome along with the latest Google Fonts. The theme is also fully compatible with plugins such as Yoast which will help boost your SEO

Support is available through a ticket system along with full documentation. Furion is also fully responsive so it will look just as good on your tablet or smartphone as it does on your desktop.

Users can build responsive pages with no need for coding with Visual Composer. Furion is fully integrated with Slider Revolution. This means users with no experience will be able to create beautiful presentations.

Users can purchase a regular license for $33 (£24.8) which includes future updates.

Online commentators have noted that support can be slow to respond to tickets.

Collective

Collective is best suited for graphic designers, architects, photographers, interior designers and web designers.

There are many homepage designs available. Most of these can be viewed in fullscreen and include descriptive overlay and vertical sliders. 

Users can customize their forms with Contact Form 7. There is a collection of four sets of icons with over 2000 available to users. 

Collective is fully responsive and translation ready. It is also fully compatible with WooCommerce. Widgets can be used on sidebars, footers and through WooCommerce.

Users can customize their page with the page builder included with the theme. There are four demos and over 12 layouts available. Users can access page templates and a huge variety of portfolio layouts. 

Users can purchase Collective for $39 (£30.2) which includes future updates and 6 months support. Support can be extended to 12-months for a further $10.13 (£8). There’s also a live demo.

Top Image Credit: Collective

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons release date, news and features

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:45 AM PST

Nintendo has finally given Animal Crossing fans what they want. During a Nintendo Direct in September 2018, the company announced (via a short teaser trailer) that Animal Crossing is coming to the Nintendo Switch sometime in 2019.

Unfortunately, however, that news was overturned when Nintendo's Yoshiaki Koizumi announced that the game would be delayed until March 20, 2020 during the company's E3 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation. 

While the Nintendo Direct and Koizumi brought us some disappointing news at the show, they also brought us our first look at actual gameplay, plus some much-needed story details of what we're doing on the island and why.

Bringing Animal Crossing to the Switch will entice fans old and new, plus we think the game is a perfect match for Nintendo’s hybrid console. Animal Crossing’s sandbox nature makes it ideally suited to long play sessions on your TV, as well as shorter on-the-go bursts on the Switch’s handheld mode. 

Here's what we know so far about Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

[Update: Tom Nook is posting Animal Crossing: New Horizons updates to Twitter so that fans will know what to expect when they first fly off to their island home. Read on to find out more.]

Cut to the chase

  • What is it? The latest addition to the Animal Crossing series
  • When can I play it? March 20, 2020
  • What can I play it on? Nintendo Switch

Animal Crossing: New Horizons release date

Both a huge disappointment for fans and a huge relief for those working on the game, Nintendo recently announced that New Horizons will be available on March 20, 2020. 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons trailers

Nintendo brought in 2020 with a brand new Animal Crossing trailer. It's a short video at only 30 seconds but naturally it's charming and fans will see some familiar excited faces in the crowd during the Nook presentation taking place. 

September 2019 brought a brand new gameplay trailer which gives us a better idea of what we can expect from life on the island between crafting, decorating and shopping. 

While it doesn't hold a lot of information, the game's first trailer was shown off back in September of 2018 – promising a late 2019 release date that we now know won't happen. Still, it serves as a nice introduction to the game and one of its most illustrious characters, Tom Nook.

The arguably much more important trailer came to us during E3 2019, when Nintendo dropped a slew of new details about the game. Based on the trailer we know that crafting will now play a major role in the game, and subtle tweaks like being able to place furniture anywhere on the island will really help make everyone's home base look different from one another – a huge step in the right direction for a franchise that can come off as a bit too vanilla. 

Check out the E3 2019 trailer below: 

Animal Crossing: New Horizons news and rumors

Tom Nook in your news feed

As if the recent dedicated Nintendo Direct wasn't enough, Tom Nook has set up a twitter account to drip feed Animal Crossing: New Horizons updates in the form of instructional videos to eager fans.

The first video takes players through the Deserted Island check in process:

The second video in the series is a very short clip showing the exciting range character customisation options that will be available when creating your avatar. Players will need to create their character before they get to their island, having a passport photo taken in the process. Fortunately, Nook also confirmed you'll be able to stop by a mirror or vanity over the course of the game to change up you look whenever you fancy it. 

More videos are expected over the course of the week. 

Island life is very chill

We got our best look yet at New Horizons' gameplay in a February 2020 Nintendo Direct, which showed off various in-game avatars enjoying fishing, bug-catching, tree-chopping and more activities exclusive to the year's four seasons.

You'll be living in a tent to start, though can upgrade to a full-blown house if you don't fancy slumming it in a campsite. You'll also be beset with the occasional castaway, beach-roaming scorpions, and (gasp!) other tourists wishing to live among your community.

There seems to be a long-term development plan for the island, including buildings like museums and craft stores (to buy objects you can't make yourself in-game).

Bend the island to your will!

The Nintendo Direct also showed off some neat landscaping features you'll unlock at some point in the game, letting you dig rivers and lakes, shape cliffs and paths, as well as place bridges in handy places. It seems like, this time, the whole island is a home able to be customized.

Microtransactions

The Nintendo eShop page for Animal Crossing is live and while it confirms that the game is rated E (as if we expected anything else) it also mentions "in-game purchases". There's no information just yet on what those actual purchases might be (we'll update here when that becomes clear) but the mobile game Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp does offer some ideas with its limited-edition items and fees to shorten construction times.

One island only

John Donne might have said "no man is an island" but he didn't say anything about the Nintendo Switch. It's been confirmed that Animal Crossing New Horizons will allow only one island per console "irrespective of the number of user accounts registered to or copies of the game used on one console".

This is no doubt disappointing to households who share a Switch using multiple accounts. There has at least been some kind of hope left that the game will allow Nintendo Switch Online users to back up their save data after it was spotted on the official website (via VGC) that Nintendo is "considering allowing this software to use the save data back-up feature for those who are Nintendo Switch Online members as a unique feature in case the software breaks, is lost, or stolen." No time frame was, however, given. 

New screenshots

Japanese outlet Famitsu has shared some new screenshots from Animal Crossing: New Horizons. The images give a glimpse of the game world as well as the day-to-day activities that can be engaged in while there. 

Check out some of the images below and find the rest on Famitsu itself. 

A look at customisation

A handful of new images from Animal Crossing have emerged online and have been shared by GameXplain. These new images don't give much away in terms of gameplay but they do give a good insight into the more extensive range of customisation options players will have available to them when creating their New Horizons character. Players will be able to change hair, eyes, mouths, noses and outfits to create a character that suits them and you can see the images in the video gallery below.

Nook Miles

In a September 2019 gameplay trailer we got a look at Nook Miles, the game's new currency which will sit alongside Bells. You can earn Nook Miles by doing tasks around the island and you can then exchange them for things like recipes and items, though what the full range of things you can get with Nook Miles isn't confirmed just yet.

Multiplayer
In an interview with IGN, the Animal Crossing development team confirmed that there will be both local and online multiplayer elements in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. In local multiplayer, up to four players will be able to play together on an island, each using a single Joy-Con. Players will all appear on one screen rather than a split-screen set up.

On online multiplayer, things get bigger as up to eight players will be able to play on the one island. As far as talking to one another goes, Animal Crossing will be compatible with the Nintendo Switch Online app.

Saves
Animal Crossing will support an autosave feature, meaning there's no longer any need to fear Mr. Resetti coming after you when you accidentally reset the game without saving.

Region Setting
A neat feature for Animal Crossing fans living in the southern hemisphere was revealed during the Nintendo E3 Treehouse livestream: region setting! Yes, in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players will be able to set the region they're living in, meaning that the seasons in-game will actually reflect those you're experiencing in real life. 

Crafting
We never thought we'd say this, but crafting will play a major role in the next Animal Crossing game. Shown off in the New Horizons trailer up above, we see the villager collecting sticks, woods and stones over to Tom Nook's crafting bench to create new items like axes and, assumedly, fishing poles. Without a shop setup on the island, we assume this is the way we'll get new furniture and tools in-game.

Farming
While it's not necessarily as in-depth as the farming system seen in Harvest Moon or the indie darling Stardew Valley, Animal Crossing does have a minor farming mechanic going on. In the trailer we can see the villager harvesting plant petals from around a tree, which we assume are either used as crafting materials or used to plant more flowers around the island. 

Expanding the home
One of the key gameplay mechanics in Animal Crossing is building up your abode – something we'll continue to see in New Horizons. First thing you'll have to do when you get to the island is setup your tent. Similar games in the franchise have started in this way, but it looks like you'll be keeping the tent for a longer period of time in New Horizons.

Officially announced
Nintendo officially announced Animal Crossing for the Switch during a Nintendo Direct in September, 2018. 

Nintendo’s trademark
In January 2018 it was revealed that Nintendo had applied for a new Animal Crossing trademark in Japan for a wide range of purposes, including software for a home video game machine, portable electronic game machine, and smartphone devices. Now, we already have the smartphone device application in the form of Animal Crossing Pocket Camp, but we’ve yet to see the portable and home game machines. A Nintendo Switch release will tick both of those boxes. 

As well as this, the trademark also covers stuffed animals, game machine controllers, board games, playing cards, protective carrying cases, and trading card games, so it’s clear that Nintendo still has big plans for the series. 

It’s been a long time since the last mainline release 
The last mainline Animal Crossing release was New Leaf all the way back in 2012. That’s now seven years ago and, given before this the usual release gap for mainline titles was around three to five years, we’re inclined to say we’re due a new game.

What’s also interesting is that the Wii U never received a mainline title (no, Amiibo Festival absolutely does not count) despite the fact that many fans expected to see one. It’s possible that Nintendo started work on an Animal Crossing Wii U or settled on waiting to launch one for the Switch.

The success of previous releases
Previous DS and 3DS Animal Crossing releases have sold extremely well for Nintendo – both Wild World and New Leaf each surpassed 11 million sales. While there is the caveat that previous home console releases for GameCube and Wii haven’t done nearly as well, we’re inclined to say that the Switch will buck the trend here thanks to its hybrid nature, and Nintendo will have a hit on its hands. 

Given one of Nintendo’s most staunchly handheld titles, Pokemon, is now confirmed to be coming to the Switch, we don’t think it’s likely the company will keep Animal Crossing languishing on the 3DS for much longer. 

What we want to see from Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Animal Crossing on Nintendo Switch

Wider, more dynamic, cast
We love our Animal Crossing neighbors, but there’s no denying that they can become somewhat samey. It's a problem that’s not helped by repetitive interactions. We’d love to see a new Animal Crossing introduce even more new faces to the neighborhood and perhaps include a few more ways to get to know them. Seeing more dialogue and more well-rounded personalities would make us very happy players.

More furniture 
Decorating in Animal Crossing is one of the biggest and best parts of the series (just look at Happy Home Designer for evidence of that). But, we’d like to see even more pieces of furniture appear in a new game. New styles and themes would be welcome, perhaps with more customization options.

Bigger spaces or more areas
With the power the Switch offers, we think we could get the biggest and most expansive Animal Crossing ever. Although we love that Animal Crossing is all about being in a small town, we also enjoyed the move towards a city vibe that came with New Leaf. In Animal Crossing on Switch we wouldn’t like to take this a lot further, but it’d be nice to see some new areas or districts in town that offered a few more amenities or places to visit.


More chances to craft your own story
Moving into the mayoral role was one of the best aspects of New Leaf, but we’d like to see something a little different in the next installment. Perhaps more choice in what role you play in the town. Pocketcamp allows players to take up the role of a holiday camp owner, so perhaps in a new mainline game we could see a few more career options. 

Of course, for those interested in continuing along the mayor route that would still be there, but it’d also be exciting to see shopkeeper or cafe owner paths open up. Creating your own designs or crafting furniture to sell to the locals, or collecting ingredients from your town and others to add some interesting flavors to your cafe menu – all of these sound like enjoyable pursuits in an Animal Crossing world. 

Mobile tie-in
Animal Crossing Pocket Camp was a welcome release after we hadn’t seen anything from the series in a while, but it doesn’t scratch the itch quite enough for us due to its shallowness. However, that doesn’t mean we’d like to see the mobile game abandoned entirely when a mainline release launches. 

It’d actually be nice if Nintendo managed to tie the mobile and console releases together in some way so that players can get more depth out of the mobile game, and give us another way to enjoy the console release. Whether that’s unlocking and transferring items, earning money or improving relationships, we’d just like a way to keep playing even on days where we can’t carry our Switch. Now that we've seen it's possible with Pokemon Let's Go, our hopes are even higher. 

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Best website builders for portfolios of 2020

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:24 AM PST

Creating a new website is a lot easier than it used to be – rather than learning HTML and CSS, you can just click and drag with your mouse and have something very professional-looking on the internet in minutes.

The wealth of website builders means you've got a great selection of tools to choose from, but it can be difficult to pick out the best from a crowd of so many. To help you narrow down your choice, we've picked five website makers that are particularly well-suited to portfolio work and offer a good balance of price points and features.

All of these site builders offer simple ways of customizing your pages once they're online, so you can regularly change the look of your work, and make sure your talents are always being well promoted on the web.

Weebly

Weebly was first set up with the intention of making it easy to set up a portfolio of work online, and those origins stand it in good stead today, even as it has broadened its horizons to become more of a general website builder. If you don't mind a Weebly subdomain, some ads on your site, and a limit of 500MB storage, you can actually use it for free.

While the choice of themes is relatively small, they're all fully customizable, and they all work on any size of screen, automatically reformatting to suit the display dimensions. Weebly has one of the most elegant and user-friendly website editor interfaces we've seen, so you can tweak your portfolio in exactly the way you want.

One of the many areas where Weebly excels is in the way it calmly handles a lot of technical stuff quietly in the background: it gives you enhanced SSL security by default, and (on the paid options) advanced analytics for your website, plus the option to transfer over a domain name.

If you want to get up and running quickly, would like to spend some – but not a lot – of time customizing your site, and need something that's going to be reliable and comprehensive, Weebly fits the bill. The fact that you can get started for free to see if you like it is an added bonus.

Cargo

There's a lot that appeals to us about the website builder Cargo: the unconventional and varied choice of templates, the intuitive page tweaking interface you can edit them with, and the way that you can build up an entire site without paying a penny (you won't be charged until the site goes live).

It's certainly got more of an edge than other comparable website builders, which might be good or bad depending on what you're looking for. The templates available are all eye-catching and bold, and will work best for people wanting to stand out from the crowd, whether that's with photography or writing.

Every template is responsive and works on a variety of screens, while Cargo also offers some cool animated image effects you can play around with too. On top of that, the site builder is to be commended for its wide choice of fonts as well, plus, even more fonts are being added from time to time.

Besides all of the features on the surface – including an online template editor that hits a nice balance between simplicity and customization – you get 6GB of image cloud storage, unlimited pages, unlimited bandwidth, the option to transfer over a domain name if you need to, and a ton of help and support (including tutorial videos).

IM Creator

Built on the latest HTML5 technology and with useful extras like e-commerce and domain name support included, IM Creator is going to be too advanced and in-depth for some, but will suit other portfolio builders perfectly. That's not to say it's difficult to use – there's just more going on.

You don't need to know a shred of code to get started, there are plenty of different themes and looks to choose from, and we like the way the themes are already pre-populated with content. That means you can just edit the sample material that's already there rather than starting from scratch, which can be more daunting.

If you want to go deeper into your website building and customizations, then IM Creator makes this possible. The site editor includes a variety of gallery and slideshow options, plus image effects to drop over your uploaded pictures, and the option to change everything from the fonts used to the page margins.

We'd recommend IM Creator if you're looking to stand out from the pack – it has a wide choice of templates and some detailed editing options too. On the other hand, it does need a bit more of a time and effort investment than other site builders.

Krop

Krop is a creative jobs site and a portfolio builder rolled into one, so you know that its services are trusted by people in the same industry as you (or the same industry that you're trying to break into). What's more, its template options are some of the most well-designed that we've seen.

The website builder ticks all of the boxes that you should be looking for. Setting a site up is quick and easy, you can register a custom domain if you want to, and making tweaks to the design and layout of your pages is very straightforward too. On top of that, you get neat extras like Dropbox and Instagram syncing, and Google Analytics integration.

If you do know some CSS, then you can take more control over the way your site is designed. If not, you can just use the simple site editor instead – picking colors and fonts is as easy as clicking on a side panel.

Those of you who are looking to get a gig at the same time as building your website can of course switch straight over to the job section of the Krop site to find work – there are some big-name employers on the portal. You can try out the service with a free 14-day trial.

Adobe Portfolio

Considering Adobe makes some of the best creative software in the business, you would hope it knows what it's doing in terms of displaying portfolios on the web – and we're glad to report that is indeed the case.

This is slightly different to the other services we've mentioned here, because it's a free add-on to the Creative Cloud suite developed by Adobe. If you don't already pay for the programs then Portfolio is unlikely to tempt you to part with your cash, but if you are a CC subscriber, it's worth looking at this before venturing anywhere else.

While it doesn't offer as many customization and layout options as some of the other site builders we've mentioned here (although, the popular feature request - video backgrounds, has been added), Adobe Portfolio does make the process of getting your work online simple and fun. Of course there's also the tight integration with Adobe's apps, so you can easily share your work straight from Lightroom to the web. You can also purchase and connect a domain if you wish.

Pages are optimized for any device and certain ones can be password-protected if needed, and there's also the option to bring over a domain name you already own. For a simple portfolio maker that plugs right into the apps you already use (assuming that's the case), it's ideal.

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Apple may block VPNs from Chinese app store

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:23 AM PST

Apple's shareholders are preparing to vote on a proposal critical of the company's previous decision to remove VPN apps from the App Store at the request of the Chinese government.

The proposal is just one of six that will face a vote at the company's annual shareholder meeting at its headquarters in Cupertino, California. The shareholders are also calling on Apple to report whether it has “publicly committed to respect freedom of expression as a human right”.

The proposal on freedom of expression deals with the company's decision back in 2017 to remove VPN apps from its App Store in China. VPNs allow users to bypass China's Great Firewall in order to access information and sites banned by the country's government.

Freedom of expression

Apple is against the proposal as the company says it already provides extensive information regarding when it takes down apps at the request of governments. The iPhone maker also stressed that it follows the laws in the countries where it operates.

In its opposition, Apple made the case that abandoning these markets would hurt consumers, saying:

“While we may disagree with certain decisions at times, we do not believe it would be in the best interests of our users to simply abandon markets, which would leave consumers with fewer choices and fewer privacy protections.”

By opposing its shareholders' proposal on freedom of expression, Apple is signaling that it could potentially decide to remove VPN apps from its Chinese App Store once again and this move could even come sooner rather than later, as the Chinese government continues its crackdown on VPNs.

  • Check out our complete list of the best VPN services

Via Reuters

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake release date, trailers, news and features

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:23 AM PST

First released in 1997, Final Fantasy 7 immediately cemented its place as one of the best JRPG titles around and introduced millions of gamers around the world to the genre. Now, due to the success of Final Fantasy 7 over 20 years ago (and the pleads from die hard fans), Square Enix is releasing a remake. 

Unfortunately, those high expectations have been both a blessing and a curse for the game as the path to release hasn’t been smooth. 

But now, nearly five years after it was announced at E3 2015, we finally have a Final Fantasy 7 Remake release date: April 10, 2020. Although, even that hasn't been smooth-going, with Square Enix pushing the release date back from March 3, 2020.

Despite the delay, we are firmly on the hype train for Final Fantasy 7 Remake. We've now seen the game a half-dozen times in trailers – and even got hands on time at Gamescom 2019 and E3 2019 – but it can be hard to keep track of everything that's going on with the long-awaited remake.

So, we’ve gathered up everything that's been confirmed about Final Fantasy 7, what we've learned from our hands-on time and everything fans suspect right here for your perusal.

[UPDATE: A recent investor Q&A suggests that Final Fantasy 7 is likely to be cross-gen. Read on to find out more.]

Cut to the chase

  • What is it? A re-interpretation of the popular JRPG Final Fantasy 7 
  • When can I play it? April 10, 2020
  • What can I play it on? It’s been confirmed the game will come to PS4 first but this is a timed exclusive so it could come to other platforms in 2021. 

Final Fantasy 7 Remake release date

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Image credit: Square Enix

Final Fantasy Remake is due for release on April 10, 2020 - after Square Enix announced its initial release date of March 3, 2020 had been pushed back. 

It's unclear if this release date is for all of the episodes (remember, FF7R is an episodic game with more than two Blu-rays worth of content) or if that's just the release date of episode one. The latter seems likely as development on episode 2 is still underway. 

The Final Fantasy 7 remake has had something of a troubled development, which makes it less surprising that the game's release date has been delayed.

The game has been in the works since 2014 but, for a few years, there were few significant official updates since the E3 2015 reveal. During that time, development of the game moved from external developer CyberConnect2 to Square Enix’s in-house team. 

The good news is that this new release date should be set in stone and PS4 players will get to play then. Fans using other platforms could potentially see a release in 2021, which is when the game's period of exclusivity on PS4 apparently ends.

We're also expecting Final Fantasy 7 Remake to be a cross-generation release, likely releasing on both PS5 and Xbox Series X, alongside current generation consoles.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake trailers

The first trailer for the game was released upon the remake's announcement at E3 2015. The trailer is largely cinematic and you can watch it for yourself below:

A further trailer (this time featuring gameplay) was revealed at PSX in 2015:

There's also the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trailer that was revealed during a Sony State of Play event last year. In it, we got a great look at what the action-heavy combat would look like (think Kingdom Hearts and you'll be on the right track) and one of the series most well-remembered protagonists, Aerith. 

Check it out below:

The most important trailer we have is the one that was unveiled at a Final Fantasy 7 concert held in Los Angeles, where the game's director, Tetsuya Nomura, unveiled Remake's initial March 3, 2020 release date.

It's only a minute long but it's important.

Another Final Fantasy 7 Remake trailer was released as part of Tokyo Game Show 2019 and showcased a first look at characters, summons, mini-games and more. Check it out below:

The most recent trailer for Final Fantasy 7 appeared at The Game Awards 2019. The trailer shows snippets of combat and flashes of some of the game's iconic characters. It's a minute and a half you don't want to miss. 

We know, there's lots of trailers for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, but the latest is pretty great. Not only do we get to hear the theme but we also get a much better look at the cast of characters in all their revamped glory.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake news and rumors

Cross-generation

If a recent investor Q&A is anything to go by, it looks likely that Final Fantasy 7 will be a cross-generation release. 

A recent post by Twitter account @Nibellion highlighted a section from Square Enix's latest Financial Results Briefing, in which President Yosuke Matsuda announced plans to make “new titles available for both current and next-generation consoles”, with games exclusive to the PS5 and Xbox Series X generation not expected for a while yet.

100GB install
According to a new leak, the game's install will take up over 100GB of storage. 

An art cover for the physical edition of the game was leaked on Twitter (via TweakTown), showing the game's install size as being 100GB. Square Enix has already confirmed the game will be spread over two Blu-ray discs, so that's about 50GB per disc.

Check out the art cover below:

Exclusive on PS4 until April 2021
Perhaps unsurprisingly given its release date delay, it looks like Final Fantasy 7's exclusivity period on PS4 may now end in April 2021 rather than March as it was before the delay, still giving it a full year on the console before going to any other platforms. Though this news hasn't come from any official comment, it has been spotted (via PCGamer) as a change on the box art on the official Square Enix website.

Release date delay
Final Fantasy 7 Remake was originally due to release on March 3, 2020 but this release date has been pushed back by a month to April 10, 2020.

In a statement, Final Fantasy 7 Remake producer, Yoshinori Kitase, explained that the delay was to allow the developer more time to polish the highly-anticipated remake.

“In order to ensure we deliver a game that is in-line with our vision, and the quality that our fans who have been waiting for deserve, we have decided to move the release date to April 10, 2020. 

"We are making this tough decision in order to give ourselves a few extra weeks to apply final polish to the game and to deliver you with the best possible experience. I, on behalf of the whole team, want to apologize to everyone, as I know this means waiting for the game just a little bit longer."

Demo leak
It's only a few months until the release of the first part of Final Fantasy 7 but a leak has resulted in some serious spoilers emerging online. After rumors that a demo could coming to the PlayStation Store before released surfaced in December 2019, some users have managed to find the demo, download it and then upload the footage online. 

Even more significant than this is that files relating to the wider game have been found in the demo's code and now details of the game and changes that have been made from the original are leaking out. A rip of the game's soundtrack is even floating around out there. It's something of a disastrous start to the new year for the Square Enix team which had, before now, managed to keep much of Final Fantasy 7's specifics under wraps. 

Those hoping not to be spoiled before the game's release ought to be vigilant when searching online while those who just can't resist will find the leaked demo on YouTube. 

Timed exclusivity
It seems that, as rumored, the Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be a timed exclusive for PS4. The North American box art for the game was posted to Twitter, with a banner stating that the game will be a timed exclusive until March 3 2021 - nearly a year after its first release. However, this has since changed (as you can read above).

This isn't an outright confirmation that the game will be coming to other platforms but it does suggest it's a possibility. After all, Microsoft is adding a raft of the Final Fantasy games to its Game Pass service in 2020 which could be a precursor. 

Work is underway on part 2
We already know that Final Fantasy 7 is going to be released in at least two parts but we don't know how much of a gap there's going to be between the release of part 1 in March 2020 and part 2. 

At the very least, we do now know that development on part 2 is well underway. In a recent Square Enix blog, Tetsuya Nomura said "We’ve already begun working on the next one as well, but I’m confident that playing through this title will expand your expectations just like the world that extends beyond Midgar." From what Nomura has said with regards to the "density and volume" of part 1's Midgar, we may need a little space between releases to get through it all anyway. 

Pre-orders available
The Final Fantasy 7 Remake Deluxe Edition is available to pre-order now and contains a hardback art book featuring art, a mini-soundtrack CD, Summon Materia DLC (allowing players to summon Cactuar in game), and a Sephiroth steel book case. The Digital Deluxe Edition contains a digital art book, a digital mini-soundtrack selection, and Summon Materia DLC (allowing players to summon Carbuncle and Cactuar in game). 

If you would rather pick up the 1st Class Edition, you'll get all the Deluxe Edition content, the Carbuncle Summon Materia DLC, as well as a Play Arts Kai Cloud Strife and Hardy Daytona box set.

Those who pre-order any version of the game will also receive the Chocobo Chick Summon Materia DLC at launch. Those who pre-order any digital edition from the PlayStation Store will also receive the Cloud & Sephiroth Dynamic Theme for the PS4.

Mini-games
It looks like FF7 Remake will feature mini-games that involve button bashing tasks for exercise training and darts. Those are just what we've seen so far.

Those Xbox One rumors
After the Xbox Germany Facebook account posted a video which suggested that the Final Fantasy 7 remake would be coming to Xbox One on March 3 2020, the same date it was initially due to hit PS4, fans were left with some pressing questions. 

However, Square Enix confirmed in a statement to IGN that Final Fantasy 7 will only release on PS4 on March 3, 2020 (we know know the release date is April 10) and that there are “no plans for other platforms”. Whether this means there are no plans for other platforms just on March 3 or whether there are no plans for other platforms for good is unconfirmed but so far it seems like the game will be a PS4 exclusive. Microsoft has deemed the Facebook video which was quickly removed an “internal mistake”. 

Preview
We got hands on with Final Fantasy 7 Remake at E3 2019 and were extremely impressed by what we saw. Remake brags seamless, Advent Children-tier cinematics and fluid, real-time combat. While the game is centered on the same story, characters and enemies, everything has been amped up to make for a modern gaming experience. Characters have new abilities and there's a few new cutscenes thrown in to add to the narrative, but essentially Remake is a game which is equally accessible to fans and newbies alike.

Midgar
The only FF7 Remake setting we have seen is the dark, steampunk city of Midgar. In order to increase Midgar's gothic atmosphere, Square Enix used lighting, coloring and effects to vary the iconic location while also including "surprises around every corner".

Cast change
Technology has come on leaps and bounds since Final Fantasy 7 was released, therefore it's no surprise that Square Enix is harnessing motion capture to enhance Remake's characters - adding more expression and therefore making the title more immersive. The Remake also has a new voice actor cast,  however developer plans to keep the original cast for other Final Fantasy games that include Final Fantasy 7's characters. 

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Image credit: Square Enix

Deeper into story and characters
Square Enix has explained during a behind-closed-doors E3 2019 presentation of Remake that while the title is a "reimagining" of FF7, it aims to dig deeper into the game's story and characters - making it the equivalent of a standalone Final Fantasy game in its own right. 

Tactical Mode
Final Fantasy 7 Remake includes Tactical Mode which is essentially a Matrix-style slow motion mode that that gives you time to select your next action and aims to please those who prefer turn-based combat.

FF7 Remake is based around core values
Square Enix has assured us that Final fantasy 7 Remake is based around three core values: innovation, pushing boundaries and surprising players. In that light, the developer is approaching Remake like a new game in an effort to create new exciting experiences for a new generation. However, many of the game's original development team are continuing to oversee the title, in order to keep its heart.

E3 2019 news - two discs and new ATB system
At E3 2019 we learned that there are more than two Blu-ray discs worth of content planned for the Final Fantasy 7 Remake. We also got an in-depth look at the combat mechanics of the game – including the new ATB system. The main takeaway is that switching between characters in the real-time battle system can be done by pressing a single button, and you'll need your entire party to beat tougher bosses. 

So what's worth pointing out here is that the sedentary turn-based combat you may remember from the original has been replaced with a FF15-style approach that allows you to control the characters and move them around the battlefield. You'll still have some familiar options in combat - like Limit Breaks - but expect combat to be a bit more engaging this time around.

During E3 2019 we also learned that Final Fantasy 7 Remake is not only episodic, but actually requires two Blu-ray discs to hold all the content. The first disc, released on March 3, 2020, will actually only take place in Midgar - that futuristic city you've seen so much of in the trailers. 

Nomura admits an announcement was premature
Square Enix's Tetsuya Nomura has admitted that both Kingdom Hearts 3 and the Final Fantasy 7 remake were announced too early.

"I am well aware of the fact that we announced it too early," Nomura told Italian gaming mag Multiplayer (translated by Kingdom Hearts Insider) . "But even in the industry, word was beginning to spread that we were working on the game, so we just decided not to keep it more secret and officially reveal it."

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Image credit: Square Enix

It’s a reconstruction, not a shot-for-shot remake 
The Final Fantasy 7 remake will follow the original game’s narrative and feature the iconic characters and locations that fans love. 

Considering it’s so beloved there’s a lot of pressure on Square Enix to not stray too far from the original source material but according to director Tetsuya Nomura it won’t be a completely direct recreation. In an interview with Wired, Nomura said “We're not intending for this to become a one-to-one remake, or just the original Final Fantasy VII with better graphics.”

Nomura has said that he wants the remake to "apply to the current era" and "the current generation of players." He added the caveat that he doesn't "want to change it so much that it's unrecognizable" but it has to be offering something "fresh and new." 

To accommodate modern consoles and gamers, changes will naturally have to be made to the game both in terms of gameplay, mechanics and perhaps even to some elements of the story. For starters, early trailers show a game more akin to Final Fantasy XV mechanically, with fixed viewpoints and static backdrops swapped out for full-3D terrain, and a turn-based battle system removed in favour of a real-time action-orientated one.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Image credit: Square Enix

It’s episodic
A significant way the remake is going to differ from the original game is that its story will be told episodically. This is a detail that was confirmed back in December 2015. 

The reasoning behind the decision, according to series producer Yoshinori Kitase is that “a proper HD remake” just wouldn’t fit into one instalment and maintain the “same feeling of density of the original.”

“We've seen everyone's comments and reactions to the news that Final Fantasy 7 remake will be a multi-part series and many have speculated correctly as to the reason why we have made this decision,” he said, “If we were to try to fit everything from the original into one remake instalment, we would have to cut various parts and create a condensed version of Final Fantasy 7. We knew none of you would have wanted that.

“I hope that by explaining a little more about our design decisions that you can appreciate the size of this project and what we have planned for this remake. Going beyond the scale and depth of the world, narrative and gameplay from the original to deliver something that feels familiar yet new. As I said before, we like delivering surprises.”

Each episode will apparently be its “own unique experience” but as yet we don’t know how many episodes there will be or how they’ll be structured in relation to the original story. 

Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Image credit: Square Enix

No more turn-based battles 
As mentioned above, a major element that’s changing from the original game is a move away from turn-based battles. 

In an interview with Famitsu, Nomura said that battles in the remake will be “action-based” rather than command-based. Nomura didn’t go into much more detail with regards to the game’s combat system but it’s widely expected that we’re going to see a formula more similar to Kingdom Hearts and FFXV. 

This would mean a more active and seamless style of battling involving party members whom the player will be able to switch between. 

Though the loss of turn-based combat will be mourned, a move towards a system like Kingdom Hearts will be more accessible to new players. 

A PS5 release?
PS5 development kits are now said to be out in the wild, with Sony's first-party development teams working almost solely on titles for the as-yet-unannounced next-gen system. With the ambition on display here, could Square Enix be planning to shift Final Fantasy 7's remake to the next machine? 

For Sony, it'd be a system seller right out of the gates for the new console generation, and for the developers you'd imagine it'd offer more processing grunt and a little longer in terms of the development window. This is speculation at this point, but as the sun sets on the PS4, and titles like Final Fantasy 7's remake being no closer to even having a release date, it starts to seem like the looming next generation machines may be now what they're being aimed at.

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Diablo 4 wishlist: 7 lessons Blizzard can learn from Diablo 3

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:21 AM PST

It’s been nearly eight years since the release of hack n' slash RPG Diablo 3, and we're champing at the bit to sink our teeth into the upcoming Diablo 4 - whenever that may be.

However, as nostalgic as we are for Diablo 3, there’s no denying that the game initially launched with a number of design and technical issues that saw developer Blizzard dealing with fan backlash. 

We’re hoping history won’t repeat itself, so we’ve laid out seven of the biggest mistakes Blizzard made with Diablo 3 and how the developer can - or plans to - rectify them in Diablo 4.

Why play when you can buy?

Diablo 4

The auction house was a major problem with Diablo 3. For those unfamiliar with it, basically you could exchange items not only with in-game currency, but also with real money. This quickly became a game-breaker when players stopped playing to get better loot. Why spend your time grinding when you could just buy the parts needed to move forward? Players spent more time trading items at the auction house than actually playing the game.

Fortunately, executive producer Allen Adham has stated that an auction house won’t appear in Diablo 4, but there will be a trading system of some sort. We hope this system only improves the market between players without harming the desire to actually play the game, perhaps doing away with the pay-to-win option altogether.

Connectivity problems

Diablo 4

"The servers are busy at this time. Please try again later. (Error 37)". This frustrating message will probably be familiar to anyone who played Diablo 3 at launch. Error 37 was an extremely common issue for those trying to log into their accounts. It quickly became a nightmare for the majority of players, even creating one of the most famous gaming memes of the last decade.

The connectivity issues wouldn’t have been so much of a problem if you could play Diablo 3 offline. Alas, you couldn’t even do that.While playing on PC, you always needed to be connected to Blizzard’s Battle.net client. As incredible as it might sound, this issue still exists if you play on PC. On the other hand, console players have the option of playing offline (and it plays fantastic on Switch).

Unfortunately, we know that Diablo 4 will not feature an offline mode. So we will just have to hope we aren't plagued with connectivity issues once more.

Give players freedom

Diablo 4

Character customization changed drastically between Diablo 3 and the previous entries in the series. For example, in Diablo 3, you couldn’t assign stat points for your character as you leveled up, it was automatic. However, these points were completely free to assign in both the original Diablo and its sequel. You were no longer capable of creating hybrid characters or more unusual builds in Diablo 3.

Furthermore, something similar happened with the skill trees. Previously you got “random” skills in Diablo, because they were based on drops. In Diablo 2, you were asked to choose specific skills and reject some of them. There was a weight in deciding how to build your character and it encouraged you to try multiple characters. But, in Diablo 3, there were no choices to be made: you would unlock all of the skills just by leveling up. 

These two issues aren’t only about freedom, either. They significantly made the game easier, because you weren’t able to make “wrong” decisions while building your character. While it’s something that could ultimately end up ruining your game, and most players may be grateful that it’s no longer possible, at the same we think it’s something that changed the series’ soul.

It seems Diablo 4 will give players more control again, as each class has a talent tree that allows players to customize their build.

Nerf the items

Diablo 4

While completing dungeons in Diablo 3, you might have discarded most of the loot you found because it was simply useless. Nevertheless, this doesn’t mean that items were ineffective. In fact, quite the contrary: the damage your character inflicted was almost exclusively defined by the items we carried. This decision made the aforementioned issue with the stats and skill trees even worse. 

Diablo 3 had a strong focus on set items, and basically you only needed to find that item and the rest of your character progression didn’t matter. Once again, there was limited customization when it came to equipping your character - making for a less exciting experience.

Also, we kind of missed the runes from Diablo 2. They added more depth and finding worthy combinations was an interesting task. However we know that, in Diablo 4, the rune system is gone completely, instead replaced by a system that sees you spending points on skills to improve them - with some gainer new effects at higher levels. But, you’ll be able to enhance equipment and weapons through a new Rune Word socketing system.

Special bonus

Diablo 3

While it’s not a mistake of Diablo 3, it’s worth noting the fan backlash to Blizzard’s recent Warcraft 3: Reforged. Warcraft: Reforged has a lot of problems including automatic defeats on campaign, no clans, no ranked matches, recycled cinematics, framerate issues and no customizable keys.

But arguably one of the biggest issues with Warcraft 3: Reforged is that the content created by players is owned by Blizzard. That means the company can distribute and use the content as they please, preventing players from distributing or reusing their own content. 

We hope this isn’t the case with Diablo 4 but Blizzard hasn’t shed any light on whether this is the case so far.

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Is Oppo really making an Apple Watch-rivalling smartwatch?

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:10 AM PST

There might not be throngs of people scouring the web for news about Oppo's upcoming smartwatch, but it might be worth starting to get a little more interested.

A new leaked render of the watch has emerged, and while we don't have a firm release date, price, or anything approaching a full spec list, it seems we're not far off launch.

The leak shows a moodily-lit device, which has the same square design as teased a couple of times from Oppo employees (not least president of global marketing Brian Shen, who's leak is shown further down), but with an odd interface.

Oppo Smartwatch

Some have speculated that it shows the smartwatch running Wear OS, but if so, that would mean it's running a skin on top of the platform (not impossible - Xiaomi did the same thing) but with a font that looks curiously similar to Apple's own.

There's also a possibility that this will be Oppo's own smartwatch operating system - something possible given the odd font - but whether that would be attractive enough to the wider public remains to be seen.

It also - like the Apple Watch - is rumored to pack an ECG monitor inside - although whether it's got the necessary clearances internationally to activate this feature in places like the US and UK remains to be seen.

Who did this?

It's also unclear where this leak has originated from - some place the source as from 'Digital Chat Station' on Weibo, while others claim it's from notable leaker Ben Geskin.

Looking closer at the image, it really does seem like a live image given the hair on the carpet and reflections in the screen - but we've seen greater efforts from Photoshop users to craft a fake, so that doesn't really confirm anything.

It's not a direct copy of Apple's smartwatch interface (if this leak is true, and not just a fancy render from a fan) as that uses a more tile-based format, but it does suggest that Oppo would be looking to stand out slightly in the smartwatch world.

The header image on this story (first shared from an Oppo exec on Weibo) hints at a March 6 launch (and again, nods to the Apple Watch 5 stylings) - so we won't have long to wait to find out if this is, indeed, a leak or a faked render.

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All new iPhones might be forced to have a removable battery

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 10:01 AM PST

Are you constantly annoyed that your smartphone battery dies before the rest of the phone? Angry about the wastage that creates? Well, leaked EU proposals could force smartphone manufacturers to to make all batteries removable.

That would mean that all brands wanting to sell in the EU would have to make sure each phone has a battery that can be removed by the user - and that even would include Apple, the company most resistant to legislation around its iPhone designs, if attempts to make it change ports in the past is anything to go by.

The idea behind the change towards removable batteries is to make sure that users can more easily change one of the speediest-wearing parts of the phone without needing to take it to a specialist - thus reducing the amount of electronics wastage dead batteries can incite.

However, this proposal is a long way from being confirmed - it's currently not even out in the public, as it was leaked by Dutch publication Het Financieele Dagblad, claiming to have seen leaked documents of the impending suggested change.

The halcyon days of yore, where users could not only simply pop off the back cover and throw in another power pack but could also increase the capacity, don't seem to be coming back though.

There would be no desire from Apple or Samsung to forgo the slimmer designs or water-resistant capabilities that the current all-in-one chassis allows, so another option would have to be found.

The rumor suggests that the new proposal will be unveiled in mid-March, which makes it impossible for any phone designed this year to incorporate a removable battery. In fact, given the slow speed with which this legislation can take to come in, it's unlikely we'll even see it in the Galaxy S21 or iPhone 13 in 2021.

Can the EU force this change?

Well, no - it can only legislate over smartphones distributed within its territories - but every smartphone brand isn't going to be willing to give up the customer bases that the likes of Germany, France and Italy offer.

Like the recent change to a single charging port on all smartphones - meaning Apple is likely to adopt the USB-C standard soon - the EU does wield massive power when it comes to the way phones should be designed, especially if there are environmental concerns attached.

The leaked proposals also suggest that more should be done to recycle electronics and make sure that we're not throwing things into landfill that can be re-used and the raw materials recycled.

Even if this proposal does get unveiled, it'll be much longer before this comes through - and that's assuming that the smartphone manufacturers don't fight back for their right to design phones however they please.

Via XDA Developers

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Watch Better Call Saul season 5 online: stream every episode of Breaking Bad's prequel from anywhere

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:57 AM PST

After a hiatus of over a year, Better Call Saul is finally back. Season 5 of the hit show started on February 23 and we're here to tell you all the ways you can watch Better Call Saul season 5 online wherever you are in the world. 

By way of background, Better Call Saul is the prequel to Breaking Bad, which is widely regarded as one of best TV series of all-time. It's the origin story of that show's notoriously crooked lawyer, Saul Goodman - also known as James Morgan McGill, Slippin' Jimmy, and Gene Takavic at various points in his illustrious career.

Actor Bob Odenkirk once again takes on the titular role of Saul, while season 5 also features a host of other Breaking Bad favorites - ruthless drug dealer Gus Fring, always-quotable fixer Mike Ehrmantraut, and DEA agent Hank Schrader. 

If that's enough to pique your interest, read on to learn how to watch Better Call Saul season 5 from wherever you are - our guide is completely spoiler-free so whatever stage you're at in the show, you don't have to worry about us ruining the next big twist.

How to watch Better Call Saul season 5 online from outside your country

While many US cable subscribers will find it easy to watch Better Call Saul season 5 online thanks to AMC's website and app, it gets a bit more complicated if you find yourself abroad and want to tune in to the latest episode live on Monday nights, rather than having to wait until Tuesday - by which time, the internet is obviously a sea of spoilers.

Fortunately, there's an easy solution. Downloading a VPN will allow you to watch Better Call Saul online as it airs, no matter where you are. This simple bit of kit changes your IP address so that you can access episodes live or on demand as they become available, just as if you were lying on the sofa waiting for the pizza to be delivered.

How to watch Better Call Saul season 5 online live in the US

  • Sling TV: With packages starting from just $20, Sling TV is something of a cord-cutters dream and is an easy way to watch Better Call Saul season 5 on AMC without signing your life away to an overpriced cable provider. You can use it on nearly any major streaming device including Apple TV, Roku, Amazon Fire TV, and Chromecast - or fire it up on-the-go on Android and iOS mobiles.
  • FuboTV: Offering access to more than 100 channels including AMC, FuboTV costs just $54.99 a month but you can bag a free trial first to see if it's right for you. Based on our experience, it's a particularly good option for fans of top TV shows like Better Call Saul who also love sports, as FuboTV offers quality Premier League live streams plus NBA coverage, NFL games and much more.
  • AMC Premiere: AMC's paid-for app lets you watch episodes of shows like Better Call Saul live and ad-free on most major devices and can be had for just $4.99 a month. You'll need to confirm your TV provider to sign-up, but provided you can do that, there's usually a free trial available for eligible customers.
  • Amazon Prime Video: Buy individual episodes of Better Call Saul in HD for just $2.99 a pop - or grab yourself all of season 5 for a mere $24.99. Just remember that you won't be able to watch the new Better Call Saul episode until Tuesday, after AMC has aired it live on Monday night.
  • YouTube TV: It's a hefty $44.99 but that price gets you access to over 70 channels including AMC, so the latest episodes of Better Call Saul season 5 will be at your fingertips every Tuesday after they've aired live on Monday night.

Better Call Saul season 5: watch every episode online in the UK 

How to watch Better Call Saul season 5 in Australia

Stream Better Call Saul season 5: how to watch in Canada

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Game of Thrones prequel series: House of the Dragon's likely release date and more

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:48 AM PST

How do you follow a multi-award-winning, ratings-grabbing super-hit like Game of Thrones? Long before the epic adaptation of George RR Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire novels reached its conclusion in 2019, HBO started planning for the succession. Five new Westeros-set shows went into development, and one Game of Thrones prequel series – set 8,000 years before the events of the parent show – was even ordered to pilot.

Then came the bombshell. On October 29, 2019, Hollywood trade publications shocked fans with news that the untitled (but rumored to be called Blood Moon), Naomi Watts-starring show hadn't been picked up for a series.

Salvation followed within hours, however, when HBO announced it had instead ordered 10 episodes of an entirely different show. Set 300 years before Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon will be based on Martin's 2018 book Fire and Blood, and focus on House Targaryen. There will be dragons…

So, with the great game about to start all over again, we unleash the ravens to find out what the Game of Throne prequel series is about, who's involved, when you'll be able to see it – and what in the Seven Kingdoms happened to that other show…

House of the Dragon release date: 2022 (probably)

The first 10-episode season of House of the Dragon was announced in October 2019, and HBO isn't rushing to get it on the air. In an interview with Deadline in January 2020, HBO President of Programming Casey Bloys revealed that the House of the Dragon writing team are already hard at work, but pointed out that "it's a big, complicated show", so will take time getting to the screen. 

Regarding a release date, he said, "My guess is some time in 2022," adding the caveat that the launch is too far away to go into any more detail.

As with Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon is set to be one of the crown jewels on HBO – and its new HBO Max streaming service. 

That means it'll definitely be available on Sky Atlantic and Now TV in the UK, following a new deal Sky TV signed with HBO in October 2019 that will reportedly keep HBO shows on the platforms "for many years to come". 

Game of Thrones prequel: what's the story about?

The new Game of Thrones prequel series focuses on House Targaryen, so expect blond ambition, incest and, of course, winged, fire-breathing reptiles. George RR Martin confirmed the latter on his blog, admitting, "I can say there will be dragons. Everyone else has said that, so why not me?"

The new show is based on Martin's 2018 book Fire and Blood, which managed to annoy a section of the fanbase by not being the long-awaited sixth novel in the A Song of Ice and Fire saga. Instead the book is a history of the dragon-riding Targaryen family – the author himself has described it as the "GRRMarillion", a nod to the dense JRR Tolkien non-novel that recounts the pre-Lord of the Rings history of Middle-earth. 

In terms of chronology, House of the Dragon will be set 300 years before Game of Thrones. Expect to see how Daenerys's ancestor Aegon the Conqueror invaded the Seven Kingdoms, united Westeros and became the first king to sit on the Iron Throne – all with the help of his two sister-wives, Visenya and Rhaenys. 

There's also likely to be plenty of familial in-fighting – the Targaryens were dysfunctional long before Viserys and Dany came along – alongside origin stories of other major Westerosi houses like the Baratheons, Tyrells and Lannisters. 

In other words, House of the Dragon looks set to have the same mix of epic battles, political intrigue and betrayals as Game of Thrones, with one major difference – this being a prequel, we know exactly where it's heading.

Game of Thrones prequel: who's making House of the Dragon?

A Twitter announcement in October 2019 revealed that George RR Martin created the new Game of Thrones prequel series with Ryan Condal. Condal is best known for showrunning USA Network alien invasion drama Colony, and scripting Dwayne Johnson-starring game adaptation Rampage.

Condal will write the show and share showrunning duties with Miguel Sapochnik. Sapochnik directed some of Game of Thrones most epic episodes – including season 6's "Battle of the Bastards" and season 8's "The Long Night" – and will helm multiple episodes of House of the Dragon, including the pilot.

Is there a House of the Dragon trailer?

With the scripts still being written and the cast yet to be confirmed, don't expect any official Game of Thrones prequel series trailers to appear for a good while yet. The closest we've got so far is the poster image from the announcement tweet. 

What happened to the Game of Thrones prequel series Blood Moon?

The other prequel series looked set to be massive. One of five potential spin-off shows ordered into development by HBO, a show set 8,000 years before the events of Game of Thrones looked the most likely to get a greenlight. HBO even shot a pilot episode over the summer of 2019. 

Scripted by Jane Goldman – who boasts Kick-Ass, X-Men: First Class and Kingsman on her impressive resumé – the untitled series would reportedly have told the story of the First Men, the Children of the Forest, and the creation of the White Walkers. Naomi Watts headed up an impressive cast that also included John Simm (Life on Mars, Doctor Who), Miranda Richardson (Blackadder II, Good Omens), Jamie Campbell Bower (The Twilight Saga: New Moon, King Arthur) and Naomi Ackie (Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, The End of the F***ing World). 

All looked promising until October 2019, when it turned out HBO had decided not to pick up the show. So what gave the broadcaster the fear? 

"In development, in pilots, sometimes things come together, sometimes they don't," HBO President of Programming Casey Bloys told Deadline. "One of the things I think Jane [Goldman] took on beautifully, which was a challenge, there was a lot more world creation because she set hers 8,000 years before the [parent] show, so it required a lot more. One of the things about House of Dragons [sic], there is a text, there is a book so that made it a little bit more of a road map for a series order.

"I think Jane did a beautiful job, it was a big challenge but there was nothing that I would point to and say, 'Oh, that one element did not work.' Just overall it did not quite gel."

As for whether House of the Dragon will eventually be joined on HBO by more shows set on Westeros, Bloys simply said: "For me for right now, I think getting House of the Dragon on the air will be the number one priority. There are no other blinking green lights or anything like that. Sometime down the road who knows, but there are no immediate plans."

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Get ready for PS5 with the latest PS4 controller and game deals from Walmart

Posted: 26 Feb 2020 09:26 AM PST

The PS5 is on its way, so be sure to study up with the latest cheap PS4 games and controller deals from Walmart. We're seeing some fantastic discounts on the latest PS4 games and a wide range of DualShock 4 colors right now, making it a great time to get some cheap gaming in before the rise of next-gen. 

You'll find cheap PS4 controller deals starting at just $41.99 this week, and these savings stick across a range of color and camo editions. But now you need something to play. Walmart has you covered for that - it's latest PS4 game deals are cutting the standard prices of a range of titles down to the cheap positions we'd expect at this point in the console's life cycle. That means cheap PS4 games abound - an excellent opportunity to pick up anything you might have missed. 

If you're concerned about the rising PS5 price, you'll want to make the most of your PS4 console before the new version lands in 2020. Whether you plan on being at the front of the PS5 pre-order queue, or if you're going to stick it out until that cost comes down slightly, there's plenty to take advantage of in the latest cheap PS4 controller and games deals. 

Not in the US? You'll still find plenty of PS4 deals where you are. Scroll down to find the best PS4 game deals and cheap PS4 controllers where you are.

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