Following the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Mirage during Ubisoft Forward, fans discovered that the game’s Xbox.com product page listed an Adults Only (AO) rating for the game.

A spokesperson for Ubisoft confirmed to SegmentNext that this was a mistake, further clarifying that the rating is actually pending and not final yet. Product pages for Mirage should be updated to reflect this soon.

“Following the announcement of Assassin’s Creed Mirage during Ubisoft Forward, some store pages mistakenly displayed the game for preorders with an Adults Only ESRB rating,” a spokesperson for Ubisoft told Eurogamer. “While Assassin’s Creed Mirage is still pending rating, Ubisoft wants to reassure players that no real gambling or lootboxes are present in the game.”

GameSpot has followed up with Ubisoft in an attempt to get more details.

The AO rating is the highest rating from North America’s ESRB, and it is very rare. The Xbox.com product page for Mirage, which remains live, says the game will have “intense violence, blood and gore, sexual themes, partial nudity, and real gambling,” along with in-game purchases.

The ESRB’s online database does not contain an entry for Mirage yet, which is no surprise given the game is still some time off from its release in 2023. No previous Assassin’s Creed game received an AO rating from the ESRB, with most entries in the mainline series picking up Mature (M) ratings.

The Ubisoft Forward video broadcast event itself began with a flash of an AO rating, but whether or not this pertained specifically to Mirage is unknown.

Mirage follows the story of Basim, a street thief in ninth-century Baghdad. The game is described as a “tightly crafted, narrative-driven action-adventure experience.”

Mirage was one of several new Assassin’s Creed games announced during Ubisoft Forward. Some of the others included a new Assassin’s Creed game set in Japan in the works under the codename Project Red, as well as a more mysterious project known only as Hexe. Ubisoft also confirmed it is “looking into” releasing a standalone multiplayer “experience” within Assassin’s Creed Infinity. Then there is a new Assassin’s Creed game coming to Netflix Games.

For more, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of the biggest games and announcements from Ubisoft Forward.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PC has become a hub for unexpected mods that transform the wallcrawler into everyone from his co-creator Stan Lee to the burial plot of Uncle Ben. A new mod changes Spider-Man once again, but this time to New York’s other iconic half-shell heroes, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.

Created by SpaceDasher, the mod allows you to play as any of the four turtle brothers–Raphael, Michelangelo, Leonardo, or Donatello–as you raise some shell in New York. For extra authenticity, play one of the missions set in the NYC sewer system or try out a stealth mission such as a Kingpin Hideout challenge and gaze at how well the Ninja Turtles fit into Spider-Man’s world. To add some turtle power to Marvel’s Spider-Man, head on over to Nexus Mods and grab SpaceDasher’s mod files.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have had a busy year so far, as Nickelodeon’s mutants returned in the well-received Shredder’s Revenge beat-’em-up in June and last month saw their retro game adventures rolled up into the Cowabunga Collection. On Netflix, Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles saw the gang arrive on the streaming platform in a slick animated film.

In the Marvel department, last week’s Disney D23 expo had plenty of announcements for upcoming games based on various comic book properties. Marvel’s Midnight Suns has a new release date of December 2, a teaser for the Captain America and Black Panther team-up game being headed up by Uncharted director Amy Hennig was shown, and Marvel Strike Force is preparing to Hulk out.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Avatar: Reckoning, the MMORPG-shooter that will be exclusive to Android and iOS mobile devices, got a new gameplay reveal at Disney’s D23 expo. During the video game showcase, developer Archosaur Games showed off the wild frontier of Pandora, character customization, and some of the weapon modifications that players will be able to try out.

As seen in the teaser above, players will be able to customize their lab-grown Na’vi with a variety of clothing, head out into the Pandora landscape to do battle against the dangerous wildlife, and team up to take down Resources Development Administration machines that are running amok. If that’s not to your liking, then you can engage in competitive PvP, which looks like a typical multiplayer mode.

Though the trailer doesn’t mention when Avatar: Reckoning will launch, it is still scheduled for release this year. Reckoning shouldn’t be confused with the other Avatar games in development, Ubisoft’s Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and Avatar: Generations.

For the other Avatar game that’s set in the James Cameron movie series, it’s still a long way off as Ubisoft announced as part of its earnings briefing that Frontiers of Pandora will only launch next year. The first sequel to the 2009 film, The Way of Water, releases in December and is the next chapter in a bigger story that Cameron wants to tell.

Avatar 3 was filmed back-to-back with The Way Of Water and is scheduled for release in 2024. Depending on how well Avatar 2 and 3 perform in theaters, two more sequels may follow, although Cameron might let someone else direct them.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

In a new interview, former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aime has shared his thoughts on the recent spate of acquisitions in the gaming industry. Sony and Microsoft have spent considerable sums of cash on studios and publishers, but Fils-Aime predicts that these acquisitions will see more veteran developers exit so that they can escape the corporate system.

“I do believe [that in the next few years] we’re going to see a number of senior accomplished developers leave these mega-corporations and go on their own because these are the people who want to create something new, something exciting,” Fils-Aime said to Fanbyte. “They’ve got a game idea in the back of their head that they want to bring to fruition and the fact of the matter is in the big mega studios, they’re working on the next sequel. They’re working on the next Halo, they’re working on the next fill-in-the-blank that was a part of that prior studio.

Fils-Aime added that the lack of innovation will be a key deciding factor in senior developers striking out on their own, which will in turn benefit the gaming industry as a number of developers “drive more and more innovation” back into the scene.

In recent years, a number of developers have left big-name studios and publishers to set up their companies. Former Blizzard developers announced the creation of their own company, Notorious Studios, in late 2021, Toshihiro Nagoshi left Sega to form Nagoshi Studio under Netease Games, and The Callisto Protocol’s development at Striking Distance Studios is being led by Call of Duty and Dead Space veteran Glen Schofield.

In other Fils-Aime news, the executive discussed how blockchain and NFT technology could benefit gamers if the technology is given time to mature and remove bad actors from its development. Fils-Aime also launched a new book this year, Disrupting the Game, in which he discusses his life and career which took from numerous executive jobs to Nintendo and a tour on GameStop’s board of directors until he quit due to what he said was a rudderless outlook.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Assassin’s Creed Mirage was finally revealed during Ubisoft Forward 2022, and it’s hoping to take the franchise back to its roots in 2023. You’ll get to explore the streets of Baghdad as Basim Ibn, a member of an organization that serves as the backbone for the Assassin’s Brotherhood, and unlike recent entries, there’s no branching skill tree or various dialogue options in sight. The condensed experience is bound to pique the interest of longtime fans, and you’ll be glad to know that preorders for Assassin’s Creed Mirage are now live–and there’s even a bit of bonus content for those who reserve an early copy.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be available at launch on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. There are three editions available to preorder: Standard ($50), Deluxe ($60), and Collector’s ($150). Assassin’s Creed Mirage will also be available to play for no extra charge for Ubisoft+ subscribers on launch day. You can try Ubisoft+ for free until October 10 to see if you like the subscription service.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage Preorder Bonuses

Preorder a copy of Assassin’s Creed Mirage and you’ll gain access to the Forty Thieves side mission. It’s unclear exactly how long this content will last (or what story thread it will follow), but no doubt AC fans will want to dig into every bit of lore they can. Retailer-exclusives bonuses are yet to be announced, so stay tuned in the coming weeks for more details.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is doing away with many of the staples that have been found in entries such as Odyssey and Valhalla. There are no more skill trees, no dialogue choices, and even the world will be smaller in scale than some of the latest AC titles. Instead, you’ll once again focus on social stealth and parkour.

It also sounds like cutting down hordes of enemies isn’t the best option if things go sideways. According to Assassin’s Creed Mirage art director, Jean-Luc Sala, “Basim is definitely not Eivor,” and you won’t survive direct encounters with heavily armed guards. Everything shown off during the livestream looks like a great step forward for the franchise, but we’ll have to wait until sometime in 2023 before it hits store shelves.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

After more than two years as a PC exclusive, Trackmania is coming to new platforms, Ubisoft announced as part of its Ubisoft Forward event. The latest game in the long-running series, simply called Trackmania, is headed to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Stadia, and Luna in early 2023, and with two key features in tow.

Although an exact release date was not announced, we do know that Trackmania will offer both cross-play and cross-progression. That means any progress you’ve already made will be able to come with you to new platforms (or will stick with you back and forth across platforms, should you decide to play on more than one). And you’ll also be able to play against other players regardless of what system they’re on, which should help to bolster the size of the playerbase.

Trackmania was released in July 2020 as a free-to-play game on PC, effectively functioning as a remake of Trackmania Nations. That free-to-play model was the source of some criticism at launch due to both its overall complexity–there were multiple paid subscription tiers–and the way in which access to user-generated content, a key element of the series, was paywalled. The franchise centers primarily around time trials, in which you compete with others to set the best time on a track, which is often filled with jumps, loops, and high-speed turns.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

As part of the Ubisoft Forward event today, the French publisher announced the latest big crossover for its free fighting game Brawlhalla: Konami’s Castlevania series is coming to Brawlhalla with a new update on October 19.

It’s just the latest massive franchise to get a crossover event in Brawlhalla. Some of the previous Brawlhalla crossovers included various WWE superstars like The Rock and John Cena, as well as Lara Croft, Po from Kung Fu Panda, and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Characters from The Walking Dead and Street Fighter also came to Brawlhalla.

Brawlhalla has reached more than 80 million players, and Ezio and Eivor are just the latest addition to the character roster that now stretches past 50 characters. The game is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, Switch, and PC, as well as iOS and Android.

Keep checking back with GameSpot for more from Ubisoft Forward today.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

NBA 2K23 is finally here, which means it’s time to discuss the league’s best power forwards. Barkley or Malone? Duncan or Webber? Dirk or Gasol? This year’s list of NBA strong forwards has a lot more talent than you think and with Paolo Banchero being the Rookie Of The Year favorite, we wanted to find out the answers for ourselves. 2K23 ratings are in the wild and if you’re curious about who’s on the rise, here’s everything you need to know about the 10 Best power forwards in NBA 2K23.

For more on NBA 2K23, check out our MyNBA Eras preview and the 2K23 ratings hub.

NBA 2K23: Top 10 Power Forwards

Below is Visual Concepts’ in-game list of the best strong fours in NBA 2K23:

Giannis Antetokounmpo – 97 OVRZion Williamson – 87 OVREvan Mobley – 84 OVRScottie Barnes – 84 OVRDraymond Green – 83 OVRJaren Jackson Jr. – 83 OVRJohn Collins – 83 OVRWendell Carter Jr. – 83 OVRAl Horford – 82 OVRJulius Randle – 82 OVR

Giannis Antetokounmpo is at the top and it’s far from a surprise–the “Greek Freak” willed Milwaukee to a 51-31 record in 2021-2022 while putting up the kind of numbers (29.9 points, 11.6 rebounds) you’d find on a teacher’s chalkboard. Zion Williamson wants to prove critics wrong and get back to the playoffs, and while Draymond Green wants a real HOF badge with the Warriors, Memphis’ Jaren Jackson and Cleveland’s Evan Mobley are set for breakout seasons for their own cities.

Boston’s Al Horford, Atlanta’s John Collins, and New York’s Julius Randle fill in the blanks left behind by new primaries, but Orlando’s Wendell Carter Jr. improved his game a season ago as he posted new career highs (15.0 points, 10.5 rebounds) at a decent clip from the floor (52.5%). And then there’s the Raptors’ Scottie Barnes. The 21-year-old earned Rookie Of The Year hardware with 15.3 points, 7.5 rebounds, and 3.5 assists in 74 games for Toronto and while he’s still cheesed about the Sixers’ Embiid, Barnes has goals to be a “consistent shooter” that can score at all three levels.

Honorable Mentions

Others include Portland’s Jerami Grant (82), San Antonio’s Keldon Johnson (82), Philadelphia’s Tobias Harris (82), Washington’s Kyle Kuzma (81), and Phoenix’s Cameron Johnson (80).

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Temtem might seem like your average monster catcher, but Crema’s RPG includes some significant changes to combat and the structure of your adventure that take a bit of getting used to. Even average battles present a steep challenge, but with the right preparation, you can rise to the occasion every time. This Temtem beginner’s guide includes battle tips, recommendations for the best starter Temtem, and some high-level tips to set you up for more advanced battles.

Best starter Temtem: Houchic

Similar to Pokemon, Temtem has you choose one of three starter monsters before you head off on your adventure. Unlike Pokemon, the three available types aren’t as easily recognizable as the usual elemental monsters. You can pick:

Houchic the Mental TemtemCrystle the Crystal TemtemSmazee the Melee Temtem

Mental is equivalent to Pokemon’s Psychic types, while Melee is essentially a Fighting type. Crystal is a bit different. An easy Pokemon equivalent is tough to find, but it’s a defensive Temtem with some similarities to a rock type.

Tempting as it may be to go for Smazee, you really shouldn’t. Melee Temtem are common, and Smazee has nothing remarkable to make them easily recommendable.

Early Temtem battles present a substantial challenge, where even opponents of the same level can destroy your party with ease. Crystle is a strong choice who can hold their own in battle, but Crystal types are also comparatively common the further you progress through the islands.

Houchic has lower HP than the other two starters, but they also have a better move set, one that’s conducive to taming more Temtem and building your team. Mental-type Temtem are also quite rare, so this is a good chance to get that type advantage early on. Houchic also has a hypnosis skill, which makes taming new Temtem easier.

Houchic has a wide range of attacks at their disposal.

Learn your types

This might go without saying if you’ve played monster catchers before, but make sure to learn Temtem’s type chart. Some strengths and weaknesses are the ones you might expect, such as fire being effective against grass. Others, not so much. Digital is effective against Mental and itself, for example, while Wind beats Rock, and Electric is strong against Digital.

Moves have a type that may be separate from the Temtem using the move. Houchic starts with two Mental attacks and a Neutral one, for example. Using moves strong against a certain type means your attack does twice the damage, while a disadvantageous type matchup means halves the damage dealt. If the Temtem’s type matches the move type, you also deal a small amount of extra damage.

Stand and fight

Practicing your strategy is always important in an RPG, but even more so in Temtem’s early hours as you learn how the game works. If you run out of opposing Tamers to battle and don’t feel like fighting wild Temtem, consider challenging other players to a battle.

You can open the search menu using X on Switch, Triangle on PlayStation, or Y on Xbox to scan for nearby players, and challenge them to a casual or ranked battle. While you don’t get rewards such as money, for these battles, they’re a solid way to better your understanding of Temtem’s combat system.

Plan for two

Every battle in Temtem features two of the critters at once, so you need to plan your strategy accordingly. Several of the more advanced moves have effects that spill over either to your opponent’s second Temtem or your own, and it’s sometimes better to forego a strong single-target move in favor of weakening both foes.

In the early hours, though, it’s best to focus both of your Temtem on taking down one opponent. A full enemy team can knock your Temtem out far too easily, but you stand a better chance of victory in a two-on-one battle. As you build a bigger team, be sure to think about team compositions as well. Covering one Temtem’s weakness with your second Temtem is always a smart idea.

Every battle includes four Temtem, which makes strategizing a bit more involved.

Stop and wait

One of Temtem’s unique features is how it handles stronger moves. Each move uses stamina, and more powerful attacks naturally use more. If your Temtem runs out of stamina, their attacks start draining HP instead. Waiting a turn restores stamina, though. Plan your attacks carefully to avoid being caught short and potentially losing a battle.

Some moves can only be used after a certain number of turns passes as well, including Houchic’s two initial Mental moves. These can often turn the tide of battle, so make sure you have enough stamina to use them once they become available.

Buy Balms

Purchasing HP recovery items is a standard practice in RPGs, but the nature of Temtem battles makes it especially important in Crema’s game. Balms are comparatively inexpensive, and you get access to them early in your adventure. While you can fast travel using Smoke Bombs, these items are much more expensive, and you still have to trek back to where you left off after healing up.

Loading your bag with Balms means you can just heal up after a battle and carry on without losing any progress, and, more importantly, you can save your money for better things – like Temcards for taming more Temtem.

Be flexible

Taming multiple Temtem and rotating your team of six out is something you want to get in the habit of doing. Temtem’s islands are themed around two or three specific types of Temtem. Building your team to take advantage of those weaknesses gives you a better chance of success in battle and makes the game’s tougher challenges a bit easier.

Next in line

Speed normally determines move order in RPGs, but in Temtem, certain move types are ranked by priority as well. You can check the move priority by examining the technique on your Temtem’s overview page. Very High Priority moves, for example, nearly double your Temtem’s speed, while Ultra moves almost always go first–even before your foe can swap Temtem.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News

Just about every week brings something new to Destiny 2, whether it’s story beats, new activities, or interesting new combinations of elements that let players devastate each other in the Crucible. Iron Banter is our weekly look at what’s going on in the world of Destiny and a rundown of what’s drawing our attention across the solar system.

With a couple of weeks to spend in the King’s Fall raid, it’s fair to say that it’s an excellent addition to Destiny 2. Though a lot of players will find King’s Fall familiar from its original release back in 2015, the whole experience feels slightly tighter and cleaner. King’s Fall was always a great raid, and this feels like the best version of it.

I also want to thank Bungie for obviously taking my previous complaints about Exotic drops to heart, since the King’s Fall Exotic, Touch of Malice, dropped for me on only my fourth run. In fact, it seems like someone at the developer might have thrown an RNG switch on my behalf on Thursday, because damn.

Running a few new people through King’s Fall, though, I can’t help but feel sad about what the raid is missing. It starts by dropping you onto the Dreadnaught–one of the coolest locations in Destiny history–with nothing approaching comment or context. You go about exploring the ship’s strange rotting interior, ripping through Oryx’s court, and finally, destroying the Taken King himself. There are some gorgeous visuals, some hard-fought victories, and some incredible moments. But there’s no context.

The Dreadnaught is one of Destiny’s coolest locations, but revisiting it feels a bit thin in King’s Fall.

When it launched in Destiny 1, King’s Fall was the culmination of events, the finale of the story campaign of The Taken King. Players had already spent hours battling Oryx’s influence around the Solar System before teaming up for the raid to take him down once and for all. They’d spent time on the Dreadnaught, uncovering its secrets and coming to understand its threats. And they’d watched the story unfold in which Oryx destroyed the fleet of the Awoken, an event that gave the expansion and its villain a huge amount of frightening gravitas.

In Destiny 2, King’s Fall is mostly just some fun gameplay, a cleaned-up look at Destiny’s past the way you might enjoy a painting or a statue in a museum without knowing anything about its origins or its creator.

That’s unfortunate because King’s Fall specifically and The Taken King in general are, even today, huge influences on the story of Destiny 2. A big part of the story campaign of The Witch Queen deals with Oryx and his place among the Hive’s pantheon of warlord gods. Knowing about the Hive’s past informs you greatly about the plans and personality of Savathun, The Witch Queen’s primary antagonist. There’s a lot of history here, and it’s still relevant to the game even today.

Before Bungie released King’s Fall, when players were still in the dark about which raid would be reprised from the original Destiny, I wrote about how I hoped we’d see Wrath of the Machine make a comeback because of the possible story considerations it would bring with it. And when Bungie announced that Vault of Glass, Destiny’s very first raid, was being revamped and re-released in Destiny 2, I also got excited largely because of what returning to that space might bring to the game’s story. In the cases of both King’s Fall and VoG, though, the raids exist almost as parallel universes, bubbles unto themselves. They’re extremely tight looks into Destiny’s past, like peering through a keyhole and seeing only what’s directly beyond the door in front of you.

Oryx’s history is extremely important to Savathun and The Witch Queen, but despite revisiting our victory of Oryx, the raid teaches us nothing about him.

It feels like a sadly missed opportunity. Bungie has been doing some killer stuff with Destiny 2’s story lately, especially in ways that it has dipped into various aspects of the game’s lore to find cool story hooks and to bring elements to the forefront that have been lingering for years. Destiny 2 is an extremely dense game, especially when it comes to its story, and King’s Fall is something that could have added massively to the experience and understanding of Destiny 2 for players who weren’t around in the first game or who have joined mid-stream over the years. It’s already difficult for new players to really know what’s going on, and King’s Fall could have been an opportunity to catch them up.

All of this comes with the caveat that it’s impossible to say from the outside what kind of effort it would take to bring King’s Fall (or Vault of Glass, or Wrath of the Machine) into the story in a way that feels good and makes sense. You can imagine how, without the Dreadnaught or the story from The Taken King, it can get messy trying to shoehorn old content into the game in a way that makes sense. So for that part of it, Bungie’s position is understandable–and I’d rather have great old raids available in Destiny 2 in this form than not at all.

But I do wish that the reprised raids could be made to feel more important to contemporary Destiny 2, not just as a fun thing to revisit, but as history or current story beats. There’s a lot to potentially be gained from playing through The Witch Queen and then popping into King’s Fall to understand the relationship between Savathun and Oryx, but it’s just not in the game. Like a lot of Destiny 2’s story, getting that context requires a whole lot of additional work by players to find and read lore, watch videos, and otherwise not play Destiny 2. As good as King’s Fall is, I wish it could also function as part of Destiny 2’s current world, rather than just as a look back at the past.

What’re your feelings on King’s Fall, its place in Destiny 2, and the way original Destiny content is folded back in the game? Feel free to sound off in the comments.

Read MoreGameSpot – Game News