A new Tour is underway in Mario Kart Tour, and there are plenty of new challenges to complete. One of them is to earn a score of 8000 or higher on a T course. T courses are easy to spot because the end with the letter T. These are tricker versions of courses, which is good news for this challenge.

These tricker courses contain more obstacles and ways to add to a combos in them so you can have higher scores. The following actions during a race will help you build up a combo:

• Having a higher driver, vehicle, or glider level
• Hitting other drivers with items while playing
• Collecting coins
• Hitting a drift to get a boost
• Preforming a jump boost
• Finishing at a higher placement, such as first

You can give yourself a good headstart by finding a T course you can use an already leveled driver, glider, and kart because these will award you highers points to your total. 

The real trick is to build up the largest combo that you can, by threading lots of smaller actions like jumping, drifting, and using items and picking up coins. These actions give you large multipliers, easily letting you hit that 8000 points mark. Also, it might take you just a few turns around the course to learn where everything is and how to get the best score. Keep practicing until you break the 8000 score barrier. 

If you need help with other challenges from this week, we have a guide on how to hit the Kadomatsu with items, and how to take out three Thwomps. 

The Xbox Series X is at least one of the next-generation consoles coming in 2020. While there are plenty of rumors and predictions about what games are coming, we do know quite a few slated already to come to the console. We should also note that all Xbox One games will be playable on the Xbox Series X, as well as any backward compatible Xbox and Xbox 360 games. Here are the games we know so far that are coming to Xbox Series X.

Halo Infinite

The first Halo game in five years will release alongside the Xbox Series X this holiday season. Not much is known about the game besides the 2019 E3 trailer showing Master Chief revived near a destroyed Halo. In the end, we also hear Cortana’s voice, and it appears Chief is getting her back. If that is the case, and Chief is not getting a new AI, this might be a reboot of the series after Halo 5: Guardians left fans feeling alienated. We will more than likely see more at E3 2020.

Senua's Saga: Hellblade II

Alongside the unveiling of the Xbox Series X name and design was the announcement trailer for Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II. This trailer shows the power of Series X and how gorgeous the sequel will look, so there are not many clues for the story here. Senua appears in front of people, but I wouldn’t say it is likely she found a new tribe to become a part. We also see plenty of Northmen (the people who killed her lover Dillion) traveling through an area that seems like the setting of the first game. There are more questions than answers with Hellblade II, but the in-engine footage looks beautiful.

If you haven’t played the first game yet, be sure to give it a try on Game Pass to get ready. Phil Spencer did say during the Game Awards that the game is in the early stages of development, so do not expect it in 2020.

Starfield

A very little is known about Starfield; besides that, it will be the next big release from Todd Howard and the team at Bethesda. It is also the first new project Bethesda Game Studios will release in over two decades. The teaser trailer shows a structure in orbit of a planet. Expect to see more at E3 2020.

Elder Scrolls VI

If little is known about Starfield, then the newest Elder Scrolls has a minuscule amount known about it. All the teaser trailer reveals is a mountainous area with a castle in it. The highly anticipated follow up to Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is known to be releasing after Starfield,so do not expect it to release anytime soon. Potentially we could see more at E3 2020, but I would not count on it.

Watch Dogs: Legion

Watch Dogs: Legion was initially slated to release on Mar. 20, 2020, for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. However, following a disappointing outing from Ghost Recon: Breakpoint, Ubisoft delayed it and two other titles. While we do not know when the new Watch Dogs will release now, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot has confirmed all three delayed titles will release on both current and next-generation consoles.

Watch Dogs: Legion takes place in London and will allow you to recruit and play as tons of NPCs in the world. The trailer from E3 2019 shows a near-future period with drones and just a few of the possible characters you can take control.

Rainbow Six Quarantine

Rainbow Six: Quarantine is the second Ubisoft game to be delayed in 2020. There was no release date for the game initially, but a trailer was released, hinting at the zombie-like creatures you will be fighting against in the cooperative shooter. It will release on current and next-generation consoles.

Gods and Monsters

Gods and Monsters is the third Ubisoft game delayed in 2020. It was initially supposed to release in February 2020. The game is made by the same studio that made Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey and seems to feature fights against Greek mythological creatures. The E3 2019 trailer shows off the more cartoony graphics the game seems to be going. Gods and Monsters will release for current and next-generation consoles.

Two Other Unannounced Ubisoft Games

When announcing the delays of the three previous games and the releases on next-generation consoles, Yves Guillemot also revealed two unannounced Ubisoft games that would release on both current and future hardware. While he did not reveal what these were, a new Assassins Creed game centered on Vikings has been rumored for a long time, and fans have been clamoring for a new Splinter Cell game. There is no evidence pointing to either of these being those two games, though.

Battlefield 6

The next Battlefield game will not release until late 2021 at the earliest. During a financial call in October 2019, EA announced that DICE’s next release would not happen until the 2022 fiscal year, which runs from April 1^st, 2021, to March 31^st, 2022. Nothing else is known besides them saying live service offerings will drive the game.

Twitter user YuYuKamii has discovered a total of 12 SKU for Nintendo Switch in GameStop's internal database.

While this is not a confirmation of anything happening anytime soon, such discoveries in GameStop's database usually leads to incoming announcements from Nintendo, and this is why the news is so vital for Switch owners.

The last time we heard about SKU from GameStop was just before September 2019's Nintendo Direct, when the retailer added around 20 of them in anticipation of announcements coming from the Japanese platform owner. An SKU is a "stock keeping unit," a placeholder for an unannounced product, but has a place reserved. 

The listing is far from a confirmation, but it could be a hint of a Nintendo Direct releasing this January, a month where Nintendo has already hosted similar presentations in the past. It could provide updates on previously announced games (Tokyo Mirage Sessions FE Encore is in the list, same as Snack World: The Dungeon World Crawl - Gold), together with never heard before titles. 

We could learn more about such Nintendo Direct in the next couple of weeks or even days, as we usually have information about those live streams well in advance. 

The last Nintendo Direct was held in September 2019, when several games, likeOverwatch: Legendary Edition, Deadly Premonition 2: A Blessing In Disguise, andXenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition, were announced for Nintendo Switch. 

GameStop system doing it’s usual pre-direct new SKU listings 😏.

We starting 2020 strong 👀~ pic.twitter.com/CA2whpU0l7

— FADEL - Master Of Hype (@YuYuKamii) January 1, 2020

Warner Bros. and NetherRealm Studios have released a new teaser for Mortal Kombat 11, which reminds us of the incoming arrival of Joker in the fighting game.

The DLC character from DC Comics will be released on Jan. 28, 2020, and the developers thought it would've been nice to kick the year off with a short clip of the iconic character coming to the latest Mortal Kombat.

The teaser, which was posted on the game's social accounts, features fireworks celebrating the beginning of a new year and, simultaneously, Joker's escape from a prison - it's likely the iconic Arkham Asylum where Joker usually ends up being imprisoned.

The video doesn't feature any particular hint at in-game functionalities nor characteristics of Mortal Kombat 11's Joker. The sole clue to the character himself could be the fact that he is just being released from prison, so he could be particularly aggressive in combat, more than Injustice: Gods Among Us and Injustice 2.

Joker is described as "Batman's most formidable foe" in a press release announcing its introduction in MK11's roster. "With a unique new look that screams crazy and dangerous, the Clown Prince of Crime rounds out a stacked cast for the first Kombat Pass."

He’s escaped and what a #HappyNewYear it is! ahahahahHAAHAHAHA!! #MK11pic.twitter.com/1imfOzoZ5F

— Mortal Kombat 11 (@MortalKombat) January 1, 2020

As for the game, the event Ring in the New Year Tower ends today. It features three Towers allowing players to usher in the new decade with party-themed modifiers, including a Disco Ball, Champagne Bottles, Party Poppers, Fireworks, and a Digital Countdown Clock to ring in the new year.

Kombat League, the seasonal ranked mode in Mortal Kombat 11, is currently in its sixth season, ‘Season of Konquest,’ and now available for all players to participate in until January 7. The next season of Kombat League begins on Jan. 14.

After Joker, in March, a new DLC character - Spawn - will wrap the first Kombat Pass up. Other figures released as part of the pass include Shang Tsung, Nightwolf, Terminator, and Sindel.

A Final Fantasy VII Remake has been briefly spotted on PlayStation Network, before getting removed as it was released by mistake. It was enough for someone to download it and share videos on YouTube, covering the intro cinematic, and more.

The three videos shared by YouTube users LM V2 and Lystrasza offer around 30 minutes of gameplay grabbed from the demo, which has yet to be officially released for the general public. The videos cover the cinematic prologue and very early gameplay from the train station you reach as soon as you get into Midgar.

Reddit user asura1958 compared the original game with the videos that appeared on Youtube. In particular, the intro scene where you get to watch over the entire Midgar from above shows the advancements done since 1997.

The train station scene also unlocks the full potential of the place and iconic characters such as Cloud reaching the location with a complete set of moves instead of straightforward 3D models.

While we don't have a release date for the demo, we do have a release date for the full game, which is coming March 3, 2020. A second act in the Final Fantasy VII Remake project is already in the making and should be coming in a couple of years. The first is launching exclusively for PlayStation 4, at least until March 2021.

Acolytes in Warframe are followers of the Stalker. During infrequent events, they are available to fight in the game and can drop mighty mods that are much sought after by players. The Acolytes will show up in the game roughly once a year, appearing randomly on the Star Chart. They appear one at a time and must be found in the game by a player when this happens their location is then shown on the Star Chart for all other players. 

Acolytes have an overall health bar, that is slowly chipped away as different groups of Tenno fight it. When the health bar reaches a certain level, it will relocate to a new node and must be found again. When that main health bar is gone, the Acolyte is replaced by a new Acolyte. 

Once a node is known, players can then load into the mission but will need to explore the map to find the Acolyte fully. One room will be randomly chosen as the spawn point for the Acolyte, and it will only spawn when a player enters that room. 

All the Acolytes resemble a Warframe, but with the Stalker's very distinctive head. They will leave the mission if they down all the players at once, a certain amount of time passes, or they take enough damage. They will only drop a mod if they leave from taking too much damage.

There are six Acolytes, and they all drop different mods and rewards.

Angst

• Pressurized Magazine
• Repeater Clip
• Spring-Loaded Chamber
• Body Count

Malice

• Narrow Barrel
• Guided Ordnance
• Targeting Subsystem
• Focused Defense

Mania

• Nano-Applicator
• Embedded Catalyzer
• Weeping Wounds
• Catalyzer Link

Misery

• Drops all Acolyte Mods

Torment

• Argon Scope
• Blood Rush
• Laser Sight
• Hydraulic Crosshairs

Violence

• Maiming Strike
• Bladed Rounds
• Sharpened Bullets
• Sharpnel Shot

The Acolytes can use some abilities. Just like the Stalker, they can pull you off any high ground that you try to stand on to escape them, and they can also instantly teleport to your location if you get too far from them. For experience Tenno, Acolytes are not particularly difficult to kill. Weapons like the Tigris and its variants should make quick work of them, allowing you to farm the nodes that they appear in rapidly. 

Next year might be stacked with huge video game releases, new consoles, and all kinds of good stuff for gamers. Still, I might be more excited about Animal Crossing: New Horizons than any other gaming development. Sensing this, Nintendo has released a new trailer for the game, and more screenshots of the game, showing off the cute and beautiful world we will all get to enjoy on Mar. 20.

The new screenshots appeared on the game's Japanese website, and they feature villagers, some critters, bug catching, fishing, and gardening as they cycle through the four seasons. 

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, we will be moving to a deserted island. We will need to explore the island, make friends, develop a community, and craft all the items that we need to live out our idyllic lives. The game will support up to 4 players in the local coop, and up to 8 players in online play, allowing gamers to inhabit the same island and work together to build their communities. 

The game's weather cycle, shown off in the images below, will prove very interesting, as it will change based on the player's real-world location and will follow the seasonal cycle of the part of the world you live. 

Summer

Spring

Autumn

Winter

Animal Crossing: New Horizons will release for Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite on Mar. 20.

Amalgam Barrel Diffusion is a hybrid mod in Warframe that grants bonuses to Pistol Multishot, and dodge speed. When used in a build, you will not be able to use the standard Barrel Diffusion mod in conjunction with it. 

This mod can only be obtained by getting 50 points during the Thermia Fractures event on Orb Vallis. This event is not permanent, but it is pretty common at the moment. The event involves killing Coolant Raknoids and using their parts to seal Thermia Fractures on Orb Vallis. Each Fracture that you seal is worth 1 point, although filling a canister that you get from the Coolant Raknoids will get you 7 points. You will need to reach 50 points to unlock the Amalgam Barrel Diffusion mod.

The Amalgam Barrel Diffusion mod bestows the following benefits:

• Rank 0 + 18 percent Multishot, +10 percent Dodge Speed
• Rank 1 + 37 percent Multishot, +20 percent Dodge Speed
• Rank 2 + 55 percent Multishot, +30 percent Dodge Speed
• Rank 3 + 73 percent Multishot, +40 percent Dodge Speed
• Rank 4 + 91 percent Multishot, +50 percent Dodge Speed
• Rank 5 + 110 percent Multishot, +60 percent Dodge Speed

Amalgam Barrel Diffusion is not currently considered to be a powerful mod in the game. It gives less Multishot bonus that the standard Barrel Diffusion mod, while dodge speed is considered a dead stat for practically all Warframes in the game. The only Warframe that benefits from it is Limbo, as it allows him to do his dodge-shift into the Void faster. 

It does give the dodge speed benefit from merely being on your pistol, however. You don't need to have the pistol in your hand to get the bonus. It does have a high mod capacity draw, maxing out at 15 draw at Rank 5. 

While you may not use Amalgam Barrel Diffusion, it is still worth getting when it is available, as a future patch could turn it into something more valuable to discerning Tenno out there. 

If you have wished for more customer class slots in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, then you are not alone. A user called PavilionParty took to Reddit to highlight the need for more custom class slots in the game and was met with a lot of agreement from the rest of the community. 

Custom class slots allow you to premake a full loadout for your Operator. In a game with multiple modes, maps, weapons, perks, and kill-streaks, this can be very important for some players. Individual maps and modes might require specific builds to excel, or if someone on the enemy team is running a particular set up, then a quick way to respawn with a strong counter build is a good idea. At the moment, players are limited to just five custom class slots, which puts somewhat of a dampener on their attempts to be fully prepared.

Thankfully, a developer saw the post and responded with some useful information for anyone concerned about this issue. 

According to the developer, this is something that the team at Infinity Ward is working on, but it is a little more complicated than you might first expect. Adding more slots can introduce quite a few bugs if not handled correctly. Still, the team is hard at work on the issue, and it will hopefully be arriving in the game soon, potentially with the next update the game receives. 

So, if everything goes well you won't have to wait too much longer to get access to more custom class slots in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare. Sadly, there are no hints about how many extra slots will be coming your way, but it is nice to know that the issue is being worked on. 

While we might be approaching the end of Winterfest 2019, there are still daily challenges to be done in Fortnite. One of the locations you might need to know for today's challenge is the Ice Throne. As part of the challenge, you need to search ammo boxes at the Ice Throne, The Workshop, or the Shiver Inn. You only need to search two ammo boxes, and you can do it at any of the three locations.

You can find the Ice Throne to the north of Pleasant Park, marked on the map above. This is a massive structure made from ice, so it is tough to miss. There is a flat platform about halfway up that you can land on if you wish, and it is filled with smaller rooms and stairs that contain ammo boxes and chests for you to loot. 

It is also a pretty busy spot right now, with lots of players wanting to check it out and explore it for themselves. As such, be careful as a couple of firefights are pretty much guaranteed if you're going to check it out right now. 

If you need help with any of the other Winterfest Challenges, you can find guides for them linked below. You have until Jan. 7 to finish these up and get your free holiday loot.

• Search Holiday Stocking in the Winterfest Cabin (1), then do 200 damage to enemies using the Snowball Launcher. 
• Stoke a Campfire (1)
• Eliminations with an Unvaulted Weapon (5)
• Hide inside a Sneaky Snowman in different matches (2)
• Warm yourself by the fireplace in the Winterfest Cabin (1)
• Dance at the Holiday trees in different Named Locations (5)
• Search a chest within 60 seconds after landing from the Battle Bus (1)
• Use Presents (2)
• Open Frozen Loot (1)
• Deal damage to an opponent with a Lump of Coal (1)
• Destroy a Sneaky Snowman with a Lightsaber or Pickaxe (1)
• Destroy Snowflake Decorations (0/3)
• Search Ice Boxes (2)
• Visit The Workshop, Crackshot's Cabin, and Mr. Polar's Artisanal Ice
• Light a Frozen Firework found on beach in Sweat Sands, Craggy Cliffs, or Dirty Docks (1)
• Search Ammo Boxes at The Workshop, Shiver Inn, or Ice Throne (2)

A Spanish game retailer has listed Red Dead Redemption 2 for the Nintendo Switch. The listing appeared on Instant Gaming earlier today and is still live on the site at the moment of writing. No price or release date is given, outside of a large window of a potential 2020 release. The listing includes some box art, which falls mostly inline with the box art from other Switch titles. 

There is a trailer, and screenshots, listed for the game, but these do not appear to be Switch specific. No formal announcement about the game coming to the Nintendo Switch has been made at this time. The game has been listed for Nintendo Switch before, by an Australian retailer last year.

Red Dead Redemption 2 would not be the first massive, open-world game to be ported to the Nintendo Switch, as we have already seen CD Projekt Red's The Witcher 3 on the platform. We can only assume it would need to make similar graphical sacrifices to run on the Switch. At the moment, it is impossible to know if this is a leak, a mistake, or perhaps a prank. Nothing came of the previous listing for the game on Switch, which happened almost a year ago. 

Red Dead Redemption 2 has recently endured back to back rocky releases on PC. The game first launched on Nov. 5 on the Epic Game Store, arriving on Steam roughly a month later. Both launches presented gamers with plenty of problems when it came to running, and sometimes launching the game. A console release would mostly bypass these problems, which seemed to stem from the Rockstar Launcher.

Red Dead Redemption 2 would certainly fit in just fine on the Nintendo Switch, and the console is becoming the place for developers and publishers to be right now. The ever-expanding fan base, helped by the recent release of the Nintendo Switch Lite, means an ever-growing population of gamers hungry for titles to play on the go. 

Last year was a huge year for the Dragon Quest franchise. Not only did the series’ original entries get a re-release on the digital front; but Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age – Definitive Edition made a huge impact on the Nintendo Switch, offering both classic and new styles of play in an exquisite package. And it doesn’t look like the team is wasting any time when it comes to continuing the story.

In a tweet posted shortly after the new year began, Dragon Quest series creator Yuji Horii shared some hopeful news about its future. He confirmed that development on Dragon Quest XII was well underway, having started sometime last year.

“Last year we started with publishing the movie Dragon Quest: Your Story, then releasing the Switch version of Dragon Quest 11, the mobile version of DQ Walk, the announcement of The Adventure of Dai anime along with its game adaptation, the production of [DQ]12 and more; even now after 33 years have passed since I made the 1st game, I feel very glad that I can do new challenges like these,” he explained in his lengthy post, originally written in Japanese.

“Thank you very much to all users who have cheered on Dragon Quest until now, and also to all of the many staff members who have supported me. I don’t know how long I can go on, but I feel like I want to do my best just a little bit more. I hope this year will be an amazing year to everyone. I’m looking forward to work together in this year.”

あけましておめでとうございます。下にあげた以外にも、まだまだ言えないものもありますが、12は、まだちょっと先になりそうです。でも、その前に発売できるものもあるかも。今年も、よろしくお願いしますね😊 pic.twitter.com/dovPbbkydl

— 堀井雄二 (@YujiHorii) January 1, 2020

He didn’t give any details beyond that, and, more than likely, it’ll be a bit before we see DQ XII in action. But it’s good to see that the team is jumping right back into the fray when it comes to continuing its story.

In the meantime, if you haven’t experienced Dragon Quest XI: Echoes of an Elusive Age yet, there’s still time to do so. Along with the Switch version, the original game is also available for PlayStation 4.

Many people showed they really, really like video games in 2019, especially the free-to-play options—out of all games on the market, free-to-play titles took $4 out of every $5 generated.

A new report by SuperData, a market intelligence firm that specializes in the video game industry, reveals that a record $120.1 billion was spent on gaming content last year. As a result, the industry as a whole has seen a growth of 4 percent compared to 2018.

Out of all platforms, mobile continues to be a champion, making $64.4 billion overall. PC was close behind with $29.6 billion, while consoles came in at $15.4 billion.

In addition, gaming video content grew substantially, making a whopping $6.5 billion across the likes of Twitch, Mixer, Facebook, and YouTube. Augmented and virtual reality did great as well, making around $6.3 billion.

While this adds up to roughly $122.2 billion, SuperData did note that some games are counted under multiple categories, like Pokemon GO being considered as both mobile and augmented reality. Hence the adjustment down to $120.1 billion.

The mobile market holds a strong 74 percent of all free-to-play revenue overall, and the above-mentioned $4 out of every $5 spent. Tencent plays a big part in that, with games like Candy Crush Saga.

Not all numbers were on the rise, however. The premium games market saw a drop-off in revenue by 5 percent, down to around $18.9 billion, compared to 2018. There were notably fewer AAA titles launched last year, per SuperData’s information.

The biggest game that stood out profit wise was Epic Games’ unstoppable Fortnite, which hauled in $1.8 billion overall. EA’s FIFA 19 earned a second place spot, earning $786 million.

As for where the market will go this year, SuperData has high hopes. It expects revenue to rise even further, ending up around $124.8 billion. This is due to the continued growth of the mobile market, as well as the debut of long-awaited games like The Last of Us Part II and Cyberpunk 2077. 

No word if it expects the Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5 to make an impact, since neither of those systems have a release date yet.

Pokémon Masters is adding plenty of fun events to kick off the new year, along with a new Pokémon and sync pairs.

Players now have the option to pair their main character with Solgaleo, a Legendary Psychic and Steel-type Pokémon from the Alola region. The introduction of this rare Pokémon is the second instance of a Legendary joining the game's roster, after Mewtwo was added in early December.

Three events are happening right now in Pokémon Masters.

• The Beast That Devours the Sun
• Two Champions
• The New Year's Rally

The first one is all about Solgaleo, giving players access to the Legendary Pokémon, unlocking his level cap, moves, and skills.

The second one, Two Champions, surrounds the two new trainer pairings entering the game, Cynthia with Garchomp and Lance with Dragonite. You can attempt to add them to your roster by using the Sync Scout Pair system, which is Pokémon Master's gacha system.

The final event centers on rewarding Gems to players for logging into the game and completing special events. Players can potentially earn 7,000 Gems for partaking in it.

All of these events will remain available until Jan. 21 at 9:59pm PST.

Pokémon Masters initially launched in August 2019 with a reasonable degree of praise. However, shortly after that, players began to feel the gameplay's heavy grind, and its overall lack of much else to do. The producers of Pokémon Masters promised to do more in the future to address this moving forward.

You can download Pokémon Masters now from the Google Play or Apple Store.

The team at Ubisoft Reflections has been doing notable work on games through the years. Along with assisting Ubisoft on development of blockbusters like Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 and Far Cry 5, it’s also produced its own noteworthy titles. like the Driver series and the Grow Up/Grow Home games. Now, it’s apparently hard at work on a new project, this time turning its sights to VR.

VRFocus recently reported that the developer is gearing up for an unannounced virtual reality game, and is currently hiring for a number of positions. Its official website shows that it’s looking to fill four specific roles—Build Engineer, Lead Character Artist, Technical Artist, and VFX Artist.

They don’t point to a specific game franchise, though the last two indicate that they’re related to a “AAA VR Project.” This indicates that one of Ubisoft’s big franchises—or perhaps something entirely new—could be involved.

Ubisoft is no stranger to dabbling in the VR market. Over the past few years, it’s made several games that cater to these players. Star Trek Bridge Crew is one that particularly stands out; and others like Werewolves Within and Eagle Flight have also gotten some attention. 

It’s also produced VR content for arcades, such as Assassin’s Creed Origins: Escape the Lost Pyramid and Beyond Medusa’s Gate. So the sky is literally the limit when it comes to what Ubisoft Reflections could be planning.

There’s no way to tell when this project will be announced, as it still looks to be in the very early days of its development. However, there’s always E3, where Ubisoft hosts its annual showcase of what’s on the horizon.

Giovanni in Pokémon GO is the leader pulling all of the strings behind Team GO Rocket. You can only fight Giovanni once a month, so you have plenty of time to go after him when you feel you're ready to face him. Here's what you need to know about finding and beating him.

How to Find Giovanni in Pokémon GO

To work on your journey to encounter him, you'll need to progress through the Special Research event called A Troubling Situation and then Looming in the Shadows. Progressing through these two takes you against several Team GO Rocket Grunts and three different Team GO Rocket leaders. The fourth step of Looming in the Shadows asks you to defeat the three leaders once named Arlo, Cliff, and Sierra. 

After you beat them, you'll receive a Super Rocket Radar, similar to the Rocket Radar you used to locate the Team GO Rocket leaders. To use the device, you need to go into your bag to equip it. You'll need to use it to locate Giovanni. However, a handful of Rocket Grunts have disguised themselves as fake Giovannis. You need to visit PokéStops to find out which one is the real Giovanni.

Fighting Giovanni in Pokémon GO

If you were having trouble with Arlo, Cliff, or Sierra, you might find yourself in over your head with Giovanni. He's a tough individual, and you'll need to defeat his Pokémon if you want to encounter the rare Shadow Pokémon he captured.

Giovanni's first Pokémon remains the same every month. However, his second and third options consistently change with each month. If you fight him in December, he doesn't have the same rotation of Pokémon as he will in January. 

The first Pokémon you'll have to face off against is Giovanni's Persian. It's a Normal-type Pokémon, so you'll need to use a Fighting-type Pokémon to counter it during the first phase of the encounter.

The next Pokémon choice for Giovanni can be any of these three options:

• Cloyster is a Water and Ice-type
• Kangaskhan is a Normal-type
• Garchomp is a Dragon and Ground-type

All three of these choices vary in typing, making your choice of Pokémon a little more complicated. Cloyster is weak to Electric, Fighting, Grass, and Rock-types, Kangaskhan is weak to Fighting-types, and Garchomp is weak to Dragon, Fairy, and Ice-types. Garchomp is the most difficult of the three.

You might be able to get away using your Fighting-type from the first round to take down Kangaskhan and Cloyster, but it's a stretch if they can survive both bouts. Your second Pokémon might depend further on the third Pokémon Giovanni uses, which rotates every month.

The final option Giovanni throws at you is a rotating Legendary Pokémon, and for January, it's Moltres. Moltres is a Fire and Flying-type, making them weak to Electric, Rock, and Water-type Pokémon. You may want to rely on using a Rock-type for your second to Garchomp and Kangaskhan, but it does expose them to potentially being stomped by Cloyster.

The general strategy to handle Giovanni is taking your time and relying on defensive Pokémon. Yes, you want to take down his roster quickly, but relying on straight damage won't win the day. It's a battle of attrition. You need Pokémon capable of withstanding a substantial amount of damage and dealing enough back to put a dent in Giovanni's options.

We'll be updating this piece every month to learn Giovanni's new rotation of Pokémon and what you need to use to defeat them.

While Pokemon Sword and Shield provide a lot of room to explore within their Wild Area, fans are still waiting for a game in the franchise that lets them explore however they see fit, without limitations. Whether we’ll get that game officially has yet to be seen, but one fan is moving forward with their own vision.

Over on Reddit, a user by the name of ph4t_s has shared a project where he’s trying to combine Pokemon with an engine based on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Nintendo’s 2017 open-world adventure for Switch and Wii U. Thus far, it’s still very early in development, and there’s not even that much movement yet. However, the 13-second clip does show promise.

In it, an unidentified trainer stands in a gorgeously detailed field, where a Pidgeotto flies in the distance. That’s all the video has to offer, but the attention to detail is staggering, particularly on the leaves and the grass.

That’s all they had to show on the project at the moment. However, it’s got several members of the community excited, offering their assistance and know-how to add to its progress.

Unfortunately, it likely won’t go much further than being a passion project. Even if ph4t_s makes it playable at some point, Nintendo will likely step in to stop its distribution. The company has been known to shut down unofficial mods or game projects in the past, and considering this takes advantage of its best-selling Pokemon franchise, it would likely be no exception.

Still, it would be interesting to see a massive open-world adventure in the series debut at some point. A project like this confirms there’s great interest in that, and Game Freak should probably pay attention.

Escape from Tarkov is a pretty harrowing multiplayer, first-person shooter experience. Death comes quickly in this game, but that is still not as scary as occasional server issues. Nothing hits harder than trying to log on for a game and not being able to.

If you are wondering where to check to see if any connection issues you are experiencing are affecting other people, this article will run through some steps that you should check. We will also show you how to check your matching times and ping to servers quickly. 

To check the server matching time, and ping, follow the below steps:

• Open the BattleState Games Launcher
• Click on Changer Server, above where the launcher tells you your game edition
• A list will open that shows you all the available servers, their matching time, and the ping to your location.

Matching times will tell you how long the average matchmaking takes on the server, giving you an idea as to its population, while the ping denotes how fast information is sent between the PC and your server. Ideally, you want to find a good combination of low matching time and a low ping for the best experience. This will ensure you find matches quickly and have the best possible gunplay experience while you are playing. 

Unfortunately, other than simply trying to log on, or checking to see if this list is live, there is no other way to see the server status. If you want to be kept aware of server outages, or connectivity issues, it is a good idea to follow Battlestate Games' official Twitter account. You can also use a service like Down Detector to see if there have been other user-generated reports about the service being down. 

Battlestate Games has stated that they will be making the API for the game public, which will allow people to develop all kinds of ways to check on server status, and other critical server information. 

In just under three years’ time, the Switch has become one of Nintendo’s most popular platforms, selling over 41 million units. The Nintendo Switch Lite, which made its debut last year, helped contribute to this success. But many fans are wondering “what’s next,” particularly with the much-rumored Nintendo Switch Pro.

Analyst Dr. Serkan Toto from Kantan Games, a consultancy firm that tracks Japan's game industry, recently spoke with GamesIndustry International about what he expects from the gaming market in 2020. One topic that came up was the Pro, and he believes it’ll come to the market sooner rather than later—this year, in fact.

“There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Nintendo will launch a ‘Switch Pro’ in 2020, my guess is at $399,” he said. “More specifically, I predict 4K support, bigger cartridge sizes, and of course beefed-up components.”

There had been talk about Nintendo producing a new 64GB-sized game card, which would make ports of hit games easier without secondary downloads to the system (like what Mortal Kombat 11 and NBA 2K20 experienced). Red Dead Redemption 2 was recently rumored to get a Switch port, and could help push the new format.

As to why this year would be an ideal one for the Switch Pro, Toto noted it “will launch after the summer holidays to counter the roll-out of the PS5 and next-gen Xbox later in the year—along with a first-party, system-seller game.”

This does make sense, though how this would affect the original Switch models has yet to be seen. Nintendo does like to keep the playing field pretty even when it comes to games, making them accessible to all players.

Another interesting note is that Toto sees more Microsoft games bound for the Nintendo Switch, following the success of Cuphead and Ori and the Blind Forest. “The love affair between Microsoft and Nintendo is likely to continue, with more big Xbox games landing on the Switch,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean all of Microsoft’s features will make the jump. “I am skeptical about xCloud coming to the Nintendo device in 2020, however," Toto said.

There is word that it could announce a Nintendo Direct for this month, but nothing is confirmed yet. And there’s always E3, where the company always puts on a show.

Datamining revealed weapons, a possible PC code, playable characters, abilities, and more.

A datamine of the Final Fantasy 7 Remake flooded the internet with details. Earlier this week, the opening cinematic was leaked, which hinted at a possible demo. The leak allowed dataminers to access files and details related to the full game. Datamining revealed details such as abilities, mini games, character weapons, and hinted at the possibility of a PC release.

It began with the leaked demo. According to the Dark Side of Gaming, the file appeared on the PSN. Dataminers were quick to jump on it. Digging through the files uncovered many upcoming details for the game. First, the demo will be 22.54 gb in size. That's quite a large file for a demo. According to Push Square, the full playtime will be about an hour. 

Twitter user and dataminer Roxanne or “roXyPS3” eagerly dug into the demo’s files, beginning her long, New Year’s Day descent into the Final Fantasy 7 Remake rabbit hole. 

Hello FF7 Remake, you want to hide from me? 💁‍♀️ pic.twitter.com/NAISQRdxEE

— Roxanne (@roXyPS3) January 1, 2020

Her efforts were successful. Tucked away in the demo’s files was a folder containing all of the abilities for all of the playable characters. 

Some "Abilities" in FF7R for you 😉 pic.twitter.com/ceCw5JPtEr

— Roxanne (@roXyPS3) January 1, 2020

Fans familiar with the series and the original PlayStation game will recognize many of them. Abilities shown include Aero, Blizzard, Heal, Cure, Raise, Reflect, and much more. 

Datamining also revealed the presence of minigames. roXyPS3’s screenshot of the files shows four minigames: crane, dance, darts, and hook. 

Minigames? Why not? 😅 pic.twitter.com/nxq10MnmT9

— Roxanne (@roXyPS3) January 1, 2020

Continuing her search, roXyPS3 found the folder for weapons, and in doing so, revealed playable characters. 

Choose your Weapon pic.twitter.com/5xwS8Dbx1i

— Roxanne (@roXyPS3) January 1, 2020

These characters probably aren’t a surprise since it’s a remake but the list includes: Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, and Barret. These characters were already revealed in the promo art for the game, but it's nice to see them officially listed. It's more than just the characters. It's their weapons. The folder shows six weapons for each character, except Aerith, but the image cuts off another file. There is more to the weapons list, but we may need to wait for the main game to see everything. 

Finally, in a comment to another user, roXyPS3 referenced a PC release. According to her, there are "many signs" that there will be a PC release later. We already know that the game is a PlayStation exclusive for a year, but that doesn’t eliminate the possibility of a PC release in 2021, according to Dark Side of Gaming. 

Yeah already discussed this yesterday in Discord with others that there are many "many" signs inside the Demo that we will see a future PC Port sooner or later. There is PC Code still left inside, and it mentions various higher Resolutions together with some NVIDIA and AMD stuff.

— Roxanne (@roXyPS3) January 2, 2020

The demo is still unreleased. It’s presence is unofficially confirmed by this point, so it’s only a matter of time before it releases in an official capacity. Final Fantasy 7 Remake is scheduled to release in full March 3, 2020.