I once spent an entire college summer doing nothing but play Quake 3 Arena. Well, almost nothing. I was an IT help desk drone during the day, but my nights and weekends were almost entirely filled learning the intricacies of the game's rail gun, rocket jump maneuvers, and inventive mods (if I ruined your day in a Threewave match, sorry). Now that I have a child, a home to take care of, and an endless list of adult responsibilities, I thought I had put all that behind me. Then I started playing Splitgate.

At first, it seems to be a fairly standard free-to-play multiplayer shooter, like a lost Halo clone from a decade ago. But the twist is that it also brings in the core mechanic from Portal. Alongside your normal weaponry, you also have a gun that can create portals on specific areas, no matter how far apart they are. And it's not just for teleporting, either. You can also use peer through those portals to pick off far-away enemies.

That may seem like a small, even quaint, addition to the world of online shooters. But in practice it fundamentally changes how they work. Being able to strategically use portals is just as important as being a crack shot who's memorized every map. And of course, it goes the other way too. If you can sneak up on an enemy with portals, they can do the same to you. Nowhere is safe.

Splitgate's subtle complexity is what makes it addictive. All of a sudden, walls high up on the map could give you a vantage point to snipe oblivious foes. A chase through a corridor could easily get wild as you jump between multiple portals. And being able to sneak up on a camping sniper by throwing a portal behind them is always satisfying.

I've gotten into plenty of shooters over the years, but they've never quite scratched my Quake 3 itch (perhaps because I never again had vast amounts of free time to eat pizza and play all day). Battle Royale titles like PUBG and Apex Legend changed the landscape with enormous maps with 100 players, but they've always felt more like tense survival games than huge fragfests. They take longer to play, and one screw-up could take you out of a match entirely. I didn't know how much I missed the days of simple multiplayer shooters, games with quick matches that deliver a direct dose of adrenaline and dopamine all at once, until I started playing Splitgate.

Even though it's become wildly popular over the last few months, Splitgate hasn't officially launched yet. But its most recent beta release, Season 0, has added a lot on consoles and PCs. That includes new character models, more maps and an infection gameplay mode. I've been playing earlier betas for the last few months, but now it's finally starting to look like a complete product, with more UI polish and player models I don't entirely hate. It's also the perfect time to give it a shot before elite players make online matches less enjoyable to play.

Since it's a free-to-play game, Splitgate developer 1047 Games is following in the footsteps of modern shooters by making you pay for items, characters and Battle Passes to level yourself up. It's all cosmetic, but I've found myself throwing them a few bucks for holographic armor and other trinkets just because I enjoy playing the game so much. Spending $20 in add-ons doesn't seem that bad for something that’s already given me dozens of hours of joy.

1047 Games

If you’re considering jumping into Splitgate, I have one piece of advice: Learn to love the damn portals. Treating it like a normal run-and-gun FPS is a recipe for failure, no matter how great you are. It’s a game about quick movement across the map, sneaky shots through your portals, and sneaking up on your enemies. It’s not for everyone, but for players who find joy in a five-minute, fast-paced team deathmatch mode, it’s practically perfect.

The first season of Picard picked up many years after the destruction of Romulus with a much darker, more depressing Federation. But just when things were starting to look better, it's about to get a lot worse in season two thanks to the machinations of Q. A fascist regime is now in control of Earth's history and it's up to retired Admiral Picard and the crew of La Sirena to travel back in time to stop this dystopic reality from coming into fruition.

This new Picard storyline will premiere in February 2022 on Paramount+ — likely right after Star Trek: Discovery finishes up its fourth season on the service. Picard has also been greenlit for a third season, now in pre-production.

Between fighting a war with the Klingons, traveling to the Mirror Universe and jumping forward in time 900 years, the USS Discovery hasn't done a lot of actual exploring in its first three seasons. That'll hopefully change in its fourth year with Michael Burnham in the captain's chair, and the season premiere drops on Paramount+ November 18th.

No new footage was shown during tonight's Star Trek Day event, but interviews with some of the cast hinted at an increased role for Hugh Culber, as well as the return of fan-favorite Saru. You can watch the Star Trek Day event live on YouTube, while you'll need a subscription to Paramount+ to watch Discovery when it drops later this fall.

With Vanguard, Activision’s Call of Duty franchise is returning to the Second World War for the first time since 2017’s WWII. We already had a chance to take in the new single-player story lead developer Sledgehammer Games plans to tell, but we’ve only seen a few glimpses of the title’s multiplayer offering outside of its Champion Hill mode. That changed on Tuesday when the studio broadcast a nearly 30-minute multiplayer deep dive and shared a new trailer.

Vanguard looks to attract new players to the series with a feature called Combat Pacing that allows you to decide how hectic you want matches to play out. Three filters — Tactical, Assualt and Blitz — determine the number of players in a match. Tactical, for instance, limits things to a 12-person match, while in Blitz there can be as many as 24 players on each team. 

Vanguard also introduces a new game mode called Patrol. It’s a fresh take on Domination that sees a capture zone slowly move across the map. It’s joined by classics like Team Deathmatch, Kill Confirmed, Domination and Search and Destroy. Returning from previous Call of Duty titles is Gunsmith. It’s a feature that allows you to customize your weapons with various accessories.

If you want to see more of Call of Duty: Vanguard’s multiplayer before the game comes out on November 5th, the game’s multiplayer beta starts later this week. Provided you pre-ordered Vanguard on PlayStation, you can see what’s new before anyone else. The beta will open up to all PlayStation users on September 16th. That same day, those who pre-ordered the game for Xbox and PC can also see what's on offer. For everyone else, the beta opens up on September 18th and runs through to the 20th.

Though the Overwatch League's post-season gets underway this weekend, league officials are already making plans for next year. OWL vice-president Jon Spector wrote on Twitter that the current plan is to kick off the 2022 season in April, but there's an interesting wrinkle, as Dot Esports first reported. As things stand, the next season will start on an early version of Overwatch 2, the long-awaited sequel to the current game.

"The plan right now is for the Overwatch League’s 2022 season to begin on an early build of Overwatch 2," an Overwatch League spokesperson told Engadget. "We’ll have more details to share about our 2022 season as we get closer to the planned start date in April of next year."

Recent reports suggested the next OWL season might not start until fall 2022, amid Overwatch 2 release date uncertainty. However, Dexerto reported this week that Blizzard is targeting a Q2 release window — in other words, around the time the next OWL season starts, or soon after. In February, Activision Blizzard said it was unlikely to releaseOverwatch 2 or Diablo 4 this year.

The arrival of Overwatch 2, which Blizzard announced at BlizzCon 2019, will spell huge changes for the esport, and the Overwatch scene as a whole. All of the player vs. player updates will be reflected in the current game (OW2 will have a big focus on co-op story missions too). 

The sequel will herald new modes and maps, a fresh game engine, more characters, an overhaul of existing heroes and, most significantly, a shift from teams of six to squads of five, with each side fielding one tank instead of the current two. That'll likely have an impact on Overwatch League rosters for next season and beyond, with fewer spots available for tank players.

Moving OWL to Overwatch 2 in this fashion has its pros and cons, especially given that it'll be an early build. If the latest release timeline reports are accurate, though, the game will be almost ready for public consumption by that point, so there hopefully won't be many bugs. What's more, OWL players will want to practice on public servers as much as possible, so there might be an Overwatch 2 beta, at the very least, by April.

Plans could change and OWL might stick with the current version of Overwatch if there are any significant development hurdles. However, if Blizzard can get the early build ready in time, the next Overwatch League season could give the publisher a great opportunity to show off Overwatch 2 to fans before the game eventually arrives.

There's another gaming-focused event to look forward to this month. A week after Sony's PlayStation showcase, THQ Nordic is running a 10th anniversary celebration with a look at what's ahead for the publisher.

THQ Nordic is promising six new game announcements for its first digital showcase. Among those are revivals of some "legendary franchises," including some that have been dormant for decades. Hmm... The publisher's also planning to show off sequels to "beloved games" — perhaps there'll be a peek at the next Darksiders title.

Two games that will definitely be part of the showcase are RPGs ELEX II and Expeditions: Rome. If you join the stream before the event officially starts, you'll catch an update from HandyGames during the pre-show.

There will be a familiar face handling hosting duties: Geoff Keighley of The Game Awards, Summer Game Fest and Gamescom's Opening Night Live. The event starts at 3PM ET on September 17th. You can watch it on YouTube, Twitch and Steam.

It'll soon be much easier to get your Final Fantasy fix if you subscribe to an all-you-can-play service. Both PlayStation Now and Xbox Game Pass are adding several games from the RPG franchise in the months ahead, most of them for PS Now. Final Fantasy XIII is first out of the gate and now available on Xbox Game Pass for console and PC — the first time it's been available on current consoles. However, you'll also get to play the legendary Final Fantasy VII (the original, not the remake) on PS Now starting September 7th.

The rest are titles that will help PS Now catch up to Xbox Game Pass, where they've been available for a while. Final Fantasy VIII Remastered hits Sony's service on October 5th, while IX (arguably the PS1's curtain call) debuts November 2nd. The remasters of X and X-2 surface on December 7th, while Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age will have to wait until January 4th.

This expansion won't satisfy you if you're a completist (you won't see VI and earlier), and it probably won't convince you to subscribe all by itself. Still, it could be a significant factor. You can relive the Final Fantasy titles of your youth on a modern system while also receiving access to a load of considerably newer games.

Facebook wants in on the predictive games trend. The social media giant has launched a Fantasy Games feature in the US and Canada with "free, simple" sports and pop culture prediction titles. The fantasy sports offerings let you predict winners for matches, top players and other stats. MLB Home Run Picks asks you to predict the team with the most home runs in a given day, for instance, while La Liga Winning Streak challenges you to predict daily wins in the Spanish soccer league for as long as possible.

You can also guess the victors in reality TV shows like Survivor and The Bachelorette. There are promises of other pop culture games, although Facebook didn't cite examples.

Fantasy Games are currently available through Facebook's Android and iOS apps. You'll find them both through the bookmarks menu as well as through notifications in the News Feed.

Facebook clearly isn't interested in direct competition with for-money fantasy game services like DraftKings and FanDuel, at least not right now. However, there are still plenty of incentives for the social network to launch Fantasy Games. The feature could keep you coming back, boosting ad revenue as well as your overall engagement with Facebook. It also opens the door to paid fantasy games in the future. Still, this might hit the spot if you've been tempted by fantasy sports but don't want to spend real money.

Electronic Arts is dipping back into college football with a limited-time mode in Madden NFL 22. The Campus Legends mode features ten school teams, including rosters filled with college football icons, as well as current and former NFL stars who are alumni of those squads.

The event is available through the Superstar KO multiplayer mode. The college teams are Clemson University, University of Miami, Louisiana State University, University of Florida, University of Oklahoma, University of Texas, University of Southern California (USC), University of Oregon, University of Nebraska and Michigan State University.

EA notes Madden 22 is now the first game since 2013 to include a college football experience. The publisher announced earlier this year that it's bringing back the College Football series. The next game in the no-longer-dormant franchise is likely years away though, so college football modes in Madden might have to do the trick for now.

To mark the release of the mode, former college and NFL stars Vince Young and Reggie Bush will play against each other as their respective alma maters (University of Texas and USC). The pair faced off in the Rose Bowl in 2006, and they'll return to the Rose Bowl Stadium to repeat the matchup in Madden 22. You can watch the showdown tonight starting at 7PM ET on the NFL YouTube or Madden NFL Twitch channels.

You have a few weeks to check out Campus Legends. The mode will be available until September 27th.

With NBA 2K22’s September 10th release date fast approaching, 2K has shared a first look at the game’s PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S version. The publisher calls this a gameplay reveal, but it's mostly a showcase of what developer Visual Concepts managed to do with the new hardware from Sony and Microsoft. Thankfully, the studio also published a new Courtside Report that details some of the gameplay enhancements players can look forward to when they pick the game up next month.

To start, Visual Concepts says it completely rebuilt the shot contest and blocking systems, as well as made a significant update to how the game handles defensive rotations. When it comes to moving a player up the court, the studio promises tighter controls that will allow you to put together new combos in creative ways.

But some of the most significant changes look like they’re coming to how the game handles shooting. NBA 2K22 will feature a new shot meter that will dynamically change depending on the abilities of the player you’re controlling and whether their shot is contested. According to Visual Concepts, NBA 2K22 will put a greater emphasis on Shot IQ. You’ll be more successful if you take the time to find an open teammate and take a smart shot. For players who like to drive to the basket, there’s a new dunk style creator that will allow you to customize their dunk repertoire.

Outside of those improvements, fans of women's basketball can look forward to much-improved WNBA mode. All told, it looks like NBA 2K's second PS5 and Xbox Series X outing should be a good one.