Almost nothing in the Pokémon world is allowed to go down without a Pokémon Go related tie-in and Detective Pikachu is no exception. In celebration of the upcoming film, there will be a Pokémon Go Detective Pikachu event running for 10 days. Things start on May 7 and end on May 17. Throughout, you will have a higher chance to capture specific Pokémon featured in the movie, gain extra experience, and grab special cosmetic items themed around the movie.
Detective Pikachu is the first live-action Pokémon movie and it is led by Ryan Reynolds, who voices the titular character, and Justice Smith. Since it’s a live-action film, it features some interesting realistic designs for characters we’ve only seen animated for games or the animated series. While some look more terrifying than others, there is nothing so outrageous as the soon-to-be-redesigned Sonic.
The movie follows a coffee-addicted Pikachu who can be understood by Smith’s character, Tim Goodman. Tim’s father goes missing and the crime-solving Pikachu teams up with Tim to find him in an adventure that will be peppered with many favorite Pokémon. The mystery Pokémon Go players will have to unravel is a matter of which and/or how many of the movie stars they’ll be able to capture. Bulbasaur, Jigglypuff, Psyduck, Aipom, and Snubbull are all featured in the movie and you’ll earn double XP for capturing them. They will appear more often throughout the 10-day event, so you can round out your collection if you’re missing any of them. There’s also a Shiny Aipom that can be found.
Competitive Pokémon Go players aren’t being left out of the festivities either. During the Detective Pikachu event, there will be special Raid Battles that feature the Pokémon that appear in the movie. There’s Field Research themed around the movie and there’s even a hat-wearing Pikachu that will photobomb your Snapshot photos. Using the photo feature also gives you a chance to catch the special Pikachu, so be sure to take advantage. If you check out the Style Shop, you can also grab a detective hat with Pikachu ears, a movie-themed T-shirt, and other items that you can throw on your Pokémon Go avatar.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.