During this morning’s Nintendo Direct, Game Freak revealed two expansions for Pokémon Sword and Shield which, in addition to introducing totally new monsters, will also add new forms for existing fan favorites. Notably, Inteleon, Rillaboom, and Cinderace are getting beefed-up Gigantamax forms. All of these Gigantamax forms will become available via The Isle of Armor expansion pass, which drops on June 2020 for $29.99. Sword and Shield critters aren’t the only ones getting more Gigantamax forms —

The newest Galarian-form Pokémon has come to Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield: Slowpoke. As part of a software update released on Thursday, developer Game Freak is teasing the dual expansions coming to Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield with a new Galar region Pokémon. Galarian Slowpoke will be available to catch outside Wedgehurst Station after speaking with either Klara (in Pokémon Sword) or Avery (in Pokémon Shield). You won’t be able to evolve that Galarian Slowpoke, however, until the Isle of

The new Pokémon Sword and Shield expansions — The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra — will bring more than 200 Pokémon into the games. Developer Game Freak announced the expansions during a Pokémon Direct this morning, showcasing a number of creatures that’ll appear in the game, including three entirely new Pokémon: Kubfu, Urshifu, and Calyrex. Here’s the full list of Pokémon confirmed in today’s Pokémon Direct for the Sword and Shield expansions:VolcaronaLycanrocRegiceRegisteelRegirockTwo new

Most of these projects were mixed bags at best, whether in terms of ambition, financial success, fan reactions, or reviews. It’s all the more striking, then, that 2019’s three best American films directly engage with nostalgia — whether it belongs to their characters, their intended audience, or both. But Once Upon a Time is too savvy and self-aware to work as a pure nostalgia trip. Sam is defined in large part by the energy he expends on code-breaking and rabbit-hole navigation, and his apparen

Rise of Skywalker makes greater demands, and if Marvel’s The Rise of Kylo Ren #2 is any indication, the future of Star Wars storytelling is an all-encompassing transmedia odyssey. The movies would align with Project Luminous, a massive storytelling campaign previously teased at the 2019 Star Wars Celebration. The run-in — for reasons we won’t spoil here — will stick with Ben, and in theory the future Kylo Ren, forever. At the top of the year, Marvel rebooted Star Wars comics in anticipation of a

After the success of The Haunting of Hill House, Netflix is diving back into horror with Locke & Key, an adaptation of Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodríguez’s comics series of the same name. The series focuses on a family who move back to their eerie ancestral home after a violent death that traumatizes them all. The three Locke children discover that the house is home to a set of secret magical keys, which all bestow different powers and abilities. Jackson Robert Scott, Connor Jessup, and Emilia Jones

First up is Microsoft’s powerful Xbox One X, which has never gotten more than a $150 discount. For the former, we like the Insignia 4K Fire TV, which is $90 off and comes with a free Amazon Echo Dot. Best console deal: Xbox One XXbox One X With the next generation of Xbox on the horizon, Microsoft’s 4K-ready Xbox One X is down to its lowest price ever, $344, at Amazon. Insignia Best Buy / $259.99 BuyBest monitor deal: Alienware AW2720HFAlienware AW2720HF monitor Alienware’s 2019 AW2720HF monitor

“Book 2,” airing this week in another five-night, 10-episode rollout keeps the concept fresh by introducing a totally new character. Paired with a seasoned veteran of the train, the central mystery of the show shifts, sprinkling in new passenger Jesse’s backstory as the train barrels forward. Two nights in, Book 2 is already a sophisticated evolution of the first season, focusing on the way different characters interact with the fixed world. By the end of the fourth episode, MT and Jesse have ma

After a full season spent studiously avoiding links to the show’s past, Doctor Who is back to proving it’s the most wild, ridiculously entertaining show out there. But the surprise also comes from what the previous season taught us to expect from this version of Doctor Who, making it all the more thrilling when Chibnall casts those assumptions aside. The show’s previous season — considered “season 11,” though that counts from the show’s 2005 revival, rather than from its 1963 launch — was an odd

Private detective Benoit Blanc seems set to join the ranks of Hercule Poirot, Sherlock Holmes, and Jessica Fletcher, as Knives Out director Rian Johnson has already begun developing a sequel to his hit whodunit. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Johnson said the sequel would feature Daniel Craig’s Southern detective taking on a new case. Nothing is set in stone just yet — Lionsgate has yet to greenlight the project, and nobody has officially signed on. A sequel also feels like a natural next m

Apple TV Plus dives into the world of video game development with Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet. The half-hour comedy comes from the creators of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia and focuses on a video game developer behind fictional game Mythic Quest (which is seemingly preparing for the Raven’s Banquet expansion). Always Sunny veteran Rob McElhenney stars as the narcissistic creative director, Iam Grimm. Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet premieres on Apple TV Plus on Feb. 7. Also coming soon to th

For now that he has become empowered, Shinji comes face-to-face with the ethical quandaries that plague so many adults. But the corrective truth gets written in The End of Evangelion when Shinji’s father’s selfish aims are cast aside by Lilith herself. Shinji comes to two simultaneous realizations, which are reflected by the two different endings of the show. Which brings us back to the bookend sequence of The End of Evangelion, with Shinji and Asuka at the hospital. What the original finale dep

Doom: Annihilation seems like one of those cases. The Doom series of games itself always dove headfirst into its own mythology built around Satanic imagery and relentless violence, focusing on fun and intensity over nuance or story. And Doom: Annihilation never rises above a slog. The greatest sin of Doom: Annihilation, which reboots the franchise after The Rock gave it a stab in 2005, is that it’s no fun to watch. It’s not even an underwhelming version of Doom, it’s an underwhelming version of

From Batman to Superman, from the X-Men to the Fantastic Four, here are the biggest comic book questions we look forward to getting answers to in the next year. Is the Joker really about to reveal Batman’s secret identity? The Joker knows Batman’s secret identity, and — inspired by Superman’s reveal of his secret identity — he’s finally going to do something with that knowledge. “He was incapable of even broaching the subject of Bruce Wayne,” Bruce tells Alfred at the story’s conclusion, “It wou

James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar was once the highest-grossest movie in the world. The first concept art, revealed by Cameron at CES, shows off some new views of Pandora, looking as vibrant and kooky as an early 2000s desktop background. In the #Avatar sequels, you won’t just return to Pandora — you’ll explore new parts of the world. Check out these brand new concept art pieces for a sneak peek at what’s to come. Now the first of the first of four planned Avatar sequels is set to premiere on Dec

Nintendo will broadcast a new Pokémon Direct livestream presentation on Thursday, Jan. 9, promising new details on all things Pokémon. Nintendo didn’t specify which Pokémon games, either new or old, would be up for discussion in this week’s Pokémon Direct livestream. The company brought Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield to Nintendo Switch in November, and the two games became “among the fastest-selling Nintendo Switch games of all time,” with more than 6 million copies sold. The Pokémon Company a

ESL and Dreamhack have entered into an agreement with Blizzard Entertainment to host new tournaments for StarCraft 2 and Blizzard’s upcoming game Warcraft 3: Reforged. The tournaments will be part of ESL’s Pro Tour series, which also features Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. The ESL Pro Tour for StarCraft 2 will take the place of Blizzard’s own StarCraft 2 World Championship Series. Blizzard launched StarCraft 2 in 2012, and since then the game has enjoyed a dedicated and competitive following.

The team behind hardcore survival shooter Escape From Tarkov are walking back comments one of its team members made about women in the military, but still refuse to add them to their game. Western audiences first heard about Battlestate Games’ Tarkov in 2016, when the Russian team released an annotated gameplay video on YouTube. As of last night, Battlestate Games concedes its employee’s comments from 2016 were ignorant of these facts. They went on to add that there are still no plans to add fem

Sony’s keeping its next-generation console design a secret for a bit longer, but it’s got something to show: the PlayStation 5 logo. The company revealed the PS5 logo during its CES 2020 presentation on Monday night — and, likely, it’s the exact logo you may have expected. Whatever the reason, the internet’s been flooded with jokes — not surprising, either — about the PS5 logo. When you don’t know where your cat is pic.twitter.com/kzjj474uQ9 — Tal Waterhouse (@iiTalW) January 7, 2020The PS5 Logo

Update: Following the publication of this article, an AMD representative contacted Polygon to clarify that the Xbox Series X model shown during AMD’s CES 2020 keynote didn’t come from Microsoft, and therefore, that it isn’t accurate. As such, we’re back to square one with the Xbox Series X ports. Original story: Microsoft’s next-generation Xbox is set to launch this year, and with the calendar having turned to January 2020, new details about the Xbox Series X are starting to trickle out. And the