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Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and IO Interactive have released a new trailer that details numerous free updates coming to Hitman 2 this December. 
The seasonal events, Holiday Hoarders and Snow Festival, are permanently returning. Both events allow players to unlock fan-favorite items. Holiday Hoarders provides access to the Santa 47 Suit, while Snow Festival comes with the Snow Festival Suit and Ice Pick.
Listed below are the nine new free contracts that will become available this month.
The Truman Convention Escalation Contract in Santa Fortuna (Colombia) – Available Dec. 5
The Raaz Algorithm Escalation Contract in Mumbai (India) – Available Dec. 5
The Chef Legacy Elusive Target in Paris (France) – Available Dec. 6-16
12 Days of Contracts Community Curated Contracts – Available Dec. 12
The Han Encasement Escalation Contract in Mumbai (India) – Available Dec. 12
Holiday Hoarders Seasonal Event in Paris (France) – Available Dec. 17
Snow Festival Seasonal Event in Hokkaido (Japan) – Available Dec. 17
The Rafael Misadventure Escalation Contract in Isle of Sgàil (North Atlantic) – Available Dec. 17  
The Kotti Paradigm Legacy Escalation Contract in Paris (France) – Available Dec. 17
IO Interactive’s Monthly HITMAN 2 Livestream on Twitch – Dec. 17 
The Stowaway Legacy Elusive Target in Isle of Sgàil (North Atlantic) – Available Dec. 20 through Jan. 6
If you're excited about all this new content, check out our review of the base game where we called it, "A worthy investment for expert executioners."

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Holding onto power isn’t easy. As El Presidente of a remote island nation, Tropico 6 asks you to oversee your nation’s economy, military, and tourism board. While managing the needs of an ever-growing population is complicated, keeping everyone happy is even harder.
As a nearly all-powerful ruler, you determine your country’s layout, dictating the location of businesses, public transportation routes, and the kinds of crops grown at each plantation. As you build, your nation slowly marches through the decades, and each era introduces better technology. Researching blueprints for new buildings and tourist traps is a good carrot on a stick that keeps you playing. For example, I couldn’t wait to unlock bridge and tunnel technology so I could connect multiple islands together and cut down on commuter time, and I enjoyed watching my city slowly web across the island in an ever-evolving sprawl.

After Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered, Activision indicated they were hoping to follow suit with other Call of Duty remasters, but they haven't said much about that plan since then. A ratings board leak coming out of Europe, however, suggests that the follow up to that plan may be coming in the obvious form of Modern Warfare 2.
No such remaster has been officially announced by Activision yet, but a listing (and subsequent 18+ rating) for the game has appeared on the Pan European Game Information board, or PEGI. It doesn't give any details, but if PEGI is saying it, it's very likely not made up out of thin air.
Modern Warfare Remastered was included with special editions of Infinite Warfare, the last Infinity Ward game in the series. Seeing as how Infinity Ward's Call of Duty game is presumably up to bat this year, Modern Warfare 2 Remastered makes plenty of sense again. It will be interesting to see whether the game will be available separately from the start or will follow in the same footsteps as Modern Warfare Remastered and only be available on its own later.
[Source: Gematsu]

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WoW Classic Update
Originally Posted by Blizzard
(Blue Tracker / Official Forums)

Hello Classic enthusiasts! We’ve been following the discussions about Classic closely here on the forums (and elsewhere) throughout the winter, and wanted to give you an update on a few things that the Classic development team has worked through since BlizzCon and the Classic demo.

The feedback we got from the demo was fantastic. Thank you to everyone who gave us so much feedback to work with, especially the community members who compiled lists of issues that people found with the demo. We’ve looked at everything that was reported, and want to share a few anecdotes with you so you can see how we’re tackling these issues.

Sony has announced that the PlayStation 4, including all its slim and Pro variations, has crossed the 90 million sold threshold. The system has now sold 91.6 million PS4s worldwide, of which 5 million were sold just in the last few months of 2018. For those doing math, that means that around 18 million PS4s were sold last year.
This makes 2018 one of the strongest calendar years for the PS4 ever, second to 2017 by about two million units. Four a system's fifth full year, the platform is showing incredible health in the market, likely driven by exclusive games like God of War and Spider-Man. While not exclusive, Red Dead Redemption II and Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 also probably played a large part in PS4 fervor this year.
Speaking of the webslinger, Sony specifically calls out Spider-Man's sales as strong, stating that the game has sold 9 million units worldwide since release. For comparison, it took God of War from April to around September to hit that same number, so Spider-Man is tracking slightly ahead.
Similarly, and perhaps obviously, Sony has confirmed that PSN has 90 million monthly active users, which suggests that almost every single PS4 owner uses it fairly often.
So what does all this really mean? Well, realistically, 2019 will put the system over 100 million unless something goes catastrophically wrong. It also means Sony does not have to rush to move on from this generation. While next-gen launch speculation is gearing up, Sony is in a comfortable place with being able to roll out a successor to PlayStation 4 at their leisure. They can work on the console and any other peripherals for at least a year without feeling market pressure to move on.
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It's been a weird decade for Nintendo. After the massive success of the Wii and DS, the Japanese giant saw themselves crouched in a defensive position, admitting they overcharged for the Nintendo 3DS and having to cut the price dramatically. The Wii U shook confidence both in and within the company, becoming one of Nintendo's biggest failures in their long history. Now the Switch is on fire, but Nintendo's new president Shuntaro Furukawa isn't quick to forget how the company's fortunes were just recently tied to flagging consoles.
In an interview with Japanese newspaper Nikkei translated by NintendoEverything, Furukawa posited the idea home consoles are not the end-all, be-all for Nintendo anymore.
"We aren't really fixated on our consoles," Furukawa told Nikkei. "At the moment we're offering the uniquely developed Nintendo Switch and its software – and that's what we're basing how we deliver the 'Nintendo experience' on. That being said, technology changes. We’ll continue to think flexibly about how to deliver that experience as time goes on."
Furukawa went on to explain that Nintendo has always operated from the idea of what to do next and hasn't ever committed to just any one thing beyond making creative works. "In the long-term, perhaps our focus as a business could shift away from home consoles – flexibility is just as important as ingenuity," he says.
Unlike the late Satoru Iwata, Furukawa is more of a businessman with no real background in game development, which means that a lot of his statements come from the point of view of business and profit. That isn't really a negative, it is actually quite really why he was chosen first non-interim president since Iwata. As the company moves to diversify its portfolio with things like the Universal Studios theme park, mobile development, and upcoming animated Mario movie, Furukawa seems to be thinking about what avenues the company hasn't considered.
Does it mean Nintendo's going to stop doing hardware anytime soon? With the Switch doing as well as it is, almost certainly not. Does it mean that in an age where hardware falls out of favor with the market, Nintendo will let it go? That seems to be what he's indicating.
[Source: Nikkei via NintendoEverything]
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EA Sports is releasing a limited-time, digital version of NHL 19 (PS4/Xbox One) centering around The Great One, Wayne Gretzky called the 99 Edition.
This version lets players choose from one of five versions of Wayne Gretzky (Oilers, Kings, Blues, Rangers, or Team Canada) for use in the Hockey Ultimate Team mode as well as one of six other legends: Mark Messier, Guy Lafleur, Marcel Dionne, Mats Sundin, Peter Forsberg, or Brett Hull. The edition also comes with eight HUT gold packs.
The game's 200+ legends can be used in HUT, Play Now, Online Versus, NHL Threes, and World of Chel Pro-Am but not Franchise mode. 
EA says The 99 Edition retails is being offered at 50 percent off – making it a great deal at $39.99 (down from $79.99), but it's unknown at this time if this discount will last as long as the 99 Edition is on sale. The edition will appear in the PS4 marketplace later today and is already on the Xbox Marketplace.
This news comes at an interesting time for the fanbase, some of whom are angry that the title's gameplay has changed since its well-received beta. For more on this issue, take a look at the recent Sports Desk column featuring a NHL 19 producer Ben Ross.
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Epic Games, the studio behind titles like Fortnite and, well, Fortnite for the foreseeable future, has announced today that they have raised $1.25 billion, with a b, in investment capital. Turns out having the biggest game in the world gets a lot of people to want to give you money in the hopes that they get money back in return.
Seven investors, KKR, ICONIQ Capital, Smash Ventures, aXiomatic, Vulcan Capital, Kleiner Perkins, and Lightspeed Venture Partners, have joined Epic's current investors of Tencent, Endeavor, and Disney, as minority shareholders. Epic is still controlled from within, but the company plans to introduce "unique partnerships" with their new investors. 
The cavalcade of investors comes as Epic continues to maintain a strong grip on the game's market. Fortnite numbers have not fluctuated much, indicating that Epic's highly responsive community management and iterative seasons seem to be doing well for the battle royale game. The game is also just still making a lot of money and that will continue unabated for some time.
Fortnite's season 7 is expected to start in early December.
[Source: Variety]
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There's probably a tough side to managing some of the biggest and most well-loved IPs in gaming, something Blizzard is learning as speculation grows rampant ahead of their annual Blizzcon. There's a lot of speculation for what Blizzard might announce this year, especially rumors centering around the possibility of a Diablo IV, and Blizzard is eager to tamp down on those expectations.
In a blog post today, Blizzard danced around mentioning Diablo IV, but made certain that people expecting it to be announced at Blizzcon in early November should not be so certain of it.
"We know what many of you are hoping for and we can only say that 'good things come to those who wait,' but evil things often take longer," the studio wrote on its website. "We appreciate your patience as our teams work tirelessly to create nightmarish experiences worthy of the Lord of Terror."
Fan speculation has been swirling since Blizzard announced earlier this year that they were preparing for multiple projects in the future of the Diablo series, which at least in part seemed to be the Switch port of Diablo III also coming November 2, the first day of Blizzcon. Combined with Diablo-centered merchandise at the show and some odd scheduling of Diablo-relevant panels after the show keynote, some fans believed that Diablo IV was an inevitability at the show. Blizzard, realizing that, has come out to keep people's expectations in check.
For now, your Diablo fix will have to be satiated by the two decade's worth of games already out.
 
I actually really like that they got out ahead of it to say it won't be there. A lot of companies would try to ride the hype without saying or doing anything and then fans would be disappointed. It might not be their fault, but it's good of them to just say "Hey, this isn't happening now, so let's enjoy the show for what it is and we'll get there eventually."

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As is tradition, the period right before BlizzCon is rife with hopes, dreams, and speculation about what Diablo news will be revealed at this year's show. Every single bit of media from Blizzard is being heavily scrutinized in search of hints regarding what might be announced, but the truth is right now all we have to go on is chiefly rumors and speculation. That being said, I've made a list of Diablo related announcements that could pop up at BlizzCon 2018, as well as my thoughts on how likely they are to happen.

In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, showrunner of Netflix’s upcoming The Witcher revealed the casting for two of the series’ most important female leads. Joining Henry Cavill as Geralt of Rivia, Ciri will be played by Freya Allan from The War of the Worlds, and Yennefer of Vengerberg will be played by Anya Chalotra from The ABC Murders.
This announcement comes a few months after Hissrich left Twitter following an online backlash over a casting call that purportedly was looking for non-white actresses to play Ciri. Hissrich has since returned to social media. 
A princess with mystical powers, Ciri is a central character in CD Projekt Red’s critically-acclaimed The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, and a major character in the books that inspired the games, penned by Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski. Yennefer, meanwhile, is a powerful sorceress and maternal figure to Ciri, and is the primary love interest of protagonist Geralt.
Filling out the remaining cast is Jodhi May as Queen Calanthe and Björn Hlynur Haraldsson as Eist, her husband and the king of Cintra. Adam Levy will play the druid, Mousesack; MyAnna Buring will play Tissia, the head of the magical academy at Aretuza; Mimi Ndiweni and Therica Wilson-Read will both play novice sorcerers; and Millie Brady will play the role of the outcast Princess Renfri.
In her interview with the Hollywood Reporter, Hissrich discussed using the books as her main influence and trying to steer away from the video games as the “sole representation" of the Witcher universe. 
As of yet, no release date has been announced, but Hissrich in her interview with the Hollywood Reporter did confirm that production is starting soon.
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Fortnite first jumped into the mobile scene back in April, but Epic Games' crazy popular battle royale game alluded Android owners, until now. No need for an invitation, you can grab the Android beta from Fortnite.com/android. Fortnite's official twitter encourages players to "squad up" and download the beta today.
https://twitter.com/FortniteGame/status/1050403746499452928


Not sure your phone is up to the task? Here are Fortnite's recommended specs on Android:
OS: Recommended Android 8.0 or higher, 64 bit
RAM: Recommended 4GB or higher
GPU: Adreno 530 or higher, Mali-G71 MP20, Mali-G72 MP12 or higher

This announcement comes right on the heels of news that Epic Games purchased Helsinki-based Kamu. This start-up is best know for its Easy Anti-Cheat software with which Epic promises to cut down on Fortnite cheaters. 
Android players joining now can also look forward to Fortnite's rumored upcoming Halloween skins. Some of the highly anticipated seasonal goodies were recently leaked and have players amped for the spookiest time of the year. If scary isn't your style, Epic also teased a limited-time Disco Domination event. Not much is known about the new mode, but who wouldn't be excited to parachute into a dance battle royale?
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Controller compatibility in PC games used to be managed only by the individual game developers, meaning a game supported a predetermined set of hardware and players selected from these prescribed input options. In 2015 we began an experiment to find out what happens when the community is less constrained. We shipped tools that allow Steam users to map controls from various devices (e.g. Steam Controller, PlayStation controllers, Xbox controllers) to any combination of inputs that the title understands (e.g. keyboard keys, mouse movement, controller presses). Additionally, we created a system to share and modify these controller configurations so the best input schemes boil up to the top, allowing the cumulative efforts of the community to benefit us all. These two features, remapping and sharing, served as the foundation of what we now call Steam Input.
Three years later, the Steam Input experiment is starting to bear interesting results. By supporting so many controller types we've learned about which controllers are being used on the platform and by accommodating customization we've learned how players prefer to interact with different genres. Today we'll share figures on which controllers have been connected to Steam, how controllers are being used, and what happens when a new controller is released on the platform. We'll also discuss the Steam Controller and how hardware choices set it apart from other controller types.

Last month, Blizzard announced that its legendary dungeon crawler Diablo III was reemerging on Switch this fall. Today, Nintendo finally gave players a release date: November 2.
The Diablo III: Eternal Collection includes the base game, the Reaper of Souls expansion, and the Rise of the Necromancer pack. The Switch version also includes exclusive Legend of Zelda content.
For more on Diablo III on Switch, check out our impressions from playing it here.
[Source: Nintendo of America on Twitter]
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DICE has released a new video for its upcoming Battlefield V, which provides an in-depth look at everything from new mobility options to a glimpse of what's ahead post-launch. The most tantalizing info is centered around Firestorm, however, the game's battle-royale mode.
In Firestorm, 16 teams of four battle to be the last ones alive on what DICE is calling its biggest Battlefield map yet. Players will have to fend off other players while also dealing with the mode's shrinking-playfield conceit, an encroaching fire. 
Battlefield V is set for a release on November 20. EA Access, Origin Access, and Origin Access Premier subscribers can check out the latest beta for the game this week, starting on September 6.
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Today's Nintendo Direct brought an avalanche of new Super Smash Bros. information. From stages to Assist Trophies and even the soundtrack, we learned a lot about what to expect in the biggest entry in the series to date. Nintendo also showed off 10 new Pokémon you can get from the Poké Ball item during battles.
You can learn all about the newest additions to one of the series' most popular items below.
Players can climb, cling to, and jump off Alolan Exeggutor's long neck

Abra can use teleport to move players around the stage

Solgaleo surrounds itself with energy then unleashes what appears to be a solar beam

Lunala blasts players from above with a focused beam of light
If you get too close to Mimikyu, it grabs you and pulls you under its costume to do God knows what
It appears Pyukumuku sits still, but if you get close to it, it smacks you away

Vulpix lights nearby characters on fire, while Alolan Vulpix freezes nearby characters

Marshadow appears to stun a character before unloading a powerful attack on it

Ditto transforms into an A.I.-controlled clone of your character and fights alongside you

 Super Smash Bros. Ultimate launches on Nintendo Switch on December 7.
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The C64 Mini, a miniconsole in the same vein as the NES Classic and others before it, released in Europe earlier this year. Manufacturers Retro Games Ltd. and Solutions 2 GO asked North American fans to wait patiently while they get logistics in order for distribution, which now seemingly has a date of October 9.
The C64 Mini comes with a number of notable C64 titles, like School Daze, Monty Mole, Rubicon, and more. It also has a USB port with USB keyboard support to plug in and operate it as a computer just like the Commodore 64 when it released 36 years ago. You can check out a promo video for it below.
It isn't known yet what retailers the minconsole will come to in North America, but Retro Games Ltd. says they will have a full list before its October 9 release.
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No Man's Sky's big Next update, which promises to add true multiplayer and a third-person perspective, is now live for all players on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC.
To accompany the launch, Hello Games has posted extensive patch notes outlining everything the update, which clocks in a 7.6 GB. The update includes new missions (scheduled and cycling out regularly!), major changes to bases (build those dang things anywhere! Delete them if you want!), rebalanced resources (you can now pick up deployable tech!), and lots more. Be sure to check out the full blog post detailing all the changes.
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Monster Hunter: World has been a huge hit for Capcom; the lauded entry in the long-running series has shipped over 8 million copies since its January release, making it the best-selling game in the company’s history. While much of that success has been attributed to the series finally returning to consoles, Capcom also pledged to bring Monster Hunter: World to PC – and it turns out it’s coming sooner than expected.
Today Capcom announced that Monster Hunter: World releases on PC on August 9 via Steam.  Unlike many PC ports, Monster Hunter: World will still cost a full $60; a $70 deluxe version is also available, and contains some extra armor sets, gestures, and other customization options. The PC version features 4K support along with a host of new graphics settings, as well as controller support. You can check out the full minimum and recommended specs at Capcom Unity, or check out the spiffy new trailer below.
[Source: Capcom Unity]
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Your hunt for the eight barons and Uldren in Destiny 2's Forsaken expansion will take place mostly on the Tangled Shore, a vast area made of tied-together rock formations, Fallen architecture, and of course, beautiful skyboxes.
For a sense of what to expect when you start exploring the Tangled Shore, we took a quick look at what the location has to offer. We have some flythrough footage of some of the more memorable parts of the locale, and we also tackle a public event and three of the Lost Sectors you can expect to find there. We also talk about how the location ties into Bungie's claim that the story will be taking a darker turn in Forsaken, the Western inspiration for some of the locations, and what does and does not qualify as a saloon.
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The lawsuit filed by PUBG Corp. against Epic Games has been dropped, according to Bloomberg. The financial-news organization says that the South Korean case has been closed, but was unable to confirm the reasons why or if a settlement had been reached between the two companies.
PUBG Corp. filed the lawsuit in January, citing similarities between PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite's Battle Royale that it claimed crossed the line into copyright infringement. Oddly enough, both companies are partially owned by the Chinese tech company Tencent.
[Source: Bloomberg]
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Pokémon Go captured the world when it launched in summer 2016. Beyond the excitement of traveling to new locations to catch monsters and meet like-minded trainers, one of the things that made Niantic's collaboration with The Pokémon Company so interesting was the mystery that surrounded nearly every element about the game.

We've just launched an open beta for Creator Homepages, a new part of the Steam store designed to help players discover and connect with the developers and publishers behind their favorite games. With this feature, you can explore the full catalog of games created by the developers and publishers of games you enjoy and you can choose to follow those creators to be automatically notified when they release their next title

Greatest Hits, Sony's line of games that have achieved certain sales thresholds and get relaunched at discounted prices, is being brought back for the PlayStation 4. These will release as physical copies and on the PSN Store for a new permanent price of $19.99.
The initial set of games includes Bloodborne, Driveclub, Infamous: Second Son, Killzone: Shadow Fall, Little Big Planet 3, the Ratchet and Clank remake, The Last of Us Remastered, Uncharted 4, Battlefield 4, Doom, Project Cars, Street Fighter V, Yakuza Kiwami, Yazkuza 0, and Metal Gear Solid V, with more games being added as time goes on.
PlayStation 4 Greatest Hits Lineup

The boxes will differ from original releases, traditionally with (fairly garish) banners over the box art and, for the first time, a switch in the color of the box from blue to red. Sony never makes public how many copies a game sells to qualify as a Greatest Hit, but traditionally the numbers have been around a million copies sold.
 
Our Take
I would probably get Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition on sale rather than vanilla Street Fighter V because the former includes more character DLC, but this is a good deal for a lot of those other games. As someone that likes uniformity in my physical collection, though, the different boxes would probably drive me nuts.
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Taking cues from playground battles across the world, Fortnite is adding a stink bomb to its roster of cartoon weaponry. The new weapon will cause continuous damage to anyone standing within its radius (you know, just like real life).
Additionally, patch 4.4 introduces Final Fight, a Battle Royale in which teams of 20 will fight to have the most players standing at the end of a round. The storm circle is less restrictive in this mode, necessitating teams really hunt each other.
Finally, the patch fixes a number of bugs and performance issues.  
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