Fan Expo Canada is quickly approaching, and the convention has added a couple of new guests to its slate of gaming stars. This includes general manager of Diablo at Blizzard Entertainment, Rod Fergusson, as well as Victor Lucas, creator of Electric Playground.

Ferguson is attending just a couple of months before the launch of Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, the game’s biggest expansion yet. Vessel of Hatred brings a brand new story to the game, the all-new Spiritborn Class, a new jungle region of Nahantu, a PvE co-op challenge mode, and more.

Fan Expo Canada takes place on August 22-25 at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre in Toronto, ON. You can head over to the official website to purchase tickets for all four days of the show. A 4-day pass will cost $140, although you can also purchase individual days if you want as well. Fan Expo also has scaling options for Family Passes, Youth, and Child tickets.

The pair joins a sizable list of guests attending the show already, particularly for gaming. There have been a few cancellations, unfortunately, with Don Bluth, Keith David, and Roger Craig Smith no longer attending, but here’s every confirmed gaming guest at Fan Expo Canada 2024.

• Cameron Monaghan – Cal Kestis from the Star Wars Jedi Series
• Neil Newbon – Astarion in Baldur’s Gate 3
• Charles Martinet – Former voice of Mario
• Jennifer Hale – Command Shepard in Mass Effect
• Zach Aguilar – Aether in Genshin Impact
• Patricia Summersett – Zelda in Breath of the Wild
• Tara Strong – Harley Quinn from the Arkham series

Of course, there are plenty of other guests attending Fan Expo Canada as well from across comics, TV, film, cosplay, anime, and more. A few of the highlights include Alan Tudyk, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ashley Eckstein, Giancarlo Esposito, and Dee Bradley Baker.

You can head to the official site to see the full list of guests and programming.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is BioWare’s first new game in five years since the disastrous launch of Anthem. The live-service shooter was a baffling turn for the studio, which up until then had focused almost exclusively on epic single-player RPGs like Baldur’s Gate, Mass Effect, and Knights of the Old Republic.

Just two years after launch, EA and BioWare shut Anthem down, and it appears the studio learned from the whole process. In a new interview with Edge magazine (via 80lv), Dragon Age: The Veilguard creative director John Epler explained the tough lesson that Anthem taught BioWare.

“We’re a studio that has always been built around digging deep on storytelling and roleplaying,” Epler says “I’m proud of a lot of things on Anthem — I was on that project for a year and a half. But at the end of the day, we were building a game that focused on something we were not necessarily as proficient at.”

It’s clear to see the effect that Anthem has had, as BioWare has expressed multiple times that The Veilguard is getting back to what the studio is good at, focusing on storytelling, world-building, and dynamic companions.

At one point, Dragon Age 4 was supposed to feature a multiplayer component, but back in 2021, a report from Bloomberg stated the multiplayer mode had been removed entirely and the game, at that point called Dragon Age Dreadwolf, would be a single-player RPG. That change is echoed in the Edge interview.

“We tried a bunch of different ideas early on,” says Epler. “But the form The Veilguard has taken is, in a lot of ways, the form that we were always pushing toward. We were just trying different ways to get there. There was that moment where we really settled on, ‘This is a single-player, story-focused RPG — and that’s all it needs to be.”

The Veilguard is going to feature a few first for the Dragon Age series. It’s the first true action RPG of the franchise, not allowing players to control their companions. It’s also the first time we’ve travelled to the Tevinter Imperium, a highly advanced empire ruled by powerful mages. We also know all seven companions can be romanced and will apparently be able to romance each other if the player doesn’t.

Dragon Age: The Veilguard launches Fall 2024 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

The Call of Duty train shows no signs of stopping, as this year’s release returns to the beloved Black Ops franchise. After 2020’s Black Ops Cold War, Treyarch is returning with Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, a massive entry that could bring some meaningful change.

Revealed with a Call of Duty Direct, we already know quite a bit about Black Ops 6, and the months leading up to release will only see more information given out.

With that in mind, here’s everything we currently know about Black Ops 6, with details on the campaign, multiplayer, and, yes, zombies.

Black Ops 6 Release Date and Platforms

As revealed during the Xbox Summer Showcase, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be releasing on October 25, 2024 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It’s developed by longtime Black Ops studio Treyarch, with the assistance of Raven Software.

Black Ops 6 Gameplay Improvements

There’s one major thing Black Ops 6 is bringing to the Call of Duty franchise, and it could change the series forever. Omnimovement allows players to sprint, slide, and dive in any direction, Max Payne style. It’s a huge change that seems like it could integrally change the core gameplay of Call of Duty and will likely take a bit of getting used to. However, it certainly makes Black Ops 6’s shooting feel faster than ever and opens up a wealth of new strategies.

Activision has also confirmed Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will have 16 brand new multiplayer maps at launch, with 12 core 6vs6 maps and four smaller Strike maps. What’s especially interesting, however, is that each map is a unique location that will apparently have its own story that’s set after the main campaign.

Beyond all that, we also know Classic Prestige and Theatre Mode are returning.

Black Ops 6 Story and Campaign

Black Ops 6 looks to continue the heavy espionage and spy thriller themes of past games, this time pushing the story into the 1990s. We already know a few details about how the story will play out, with the camping tackling the aftermath of the Cold War.

In the story, the CIA has been infiltrated by some mysterious force, causing many of the operatives to go rogue after mistakenly being branded as trailers. This includes returning characters Russell Adler and Frank Woods, who assemble a team of agents to discover the truth.

The reveal trailer featured some prominent world figures, including former president George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, and Saddam Hussein. This means the story likely involves the Gulf War but could also integrate real-life figures in some way.

Black Ops 6 Zombies

Unsurprisingly, the incredibly popular zombies mode is returning once again for Black Ops 6, with a brand new story and round-based experience. This time around it takes place on Terminus Island, and will continue the Dark Aether story introduced in Cold War.

We know a few little details about Black Ops 6 Zombies, including that it will feature two maps at launch, Terminus and Liberty Falls. Mystery Boxes will return, the currency in the mode is called Salvage, and you can even choose from a few different HUD layouts. Activision has said more info on the mode will be revealed on August 28 during Call of Duty Next.

The eerie psychiatrist Dr. Hill will return in the Until Dawn film adaption, once again played by Peter Stormare (Fargo, John Wick).

A report from The Hollywood Reporter confirmed Stormare’s return, confirming even more casting additions to the Until Dawn film. Alongside Stormare, the film is adding Maia Mitchell (The Fosters, Teen Beach) and Belmont Cameli (Saved by the Bell), although their roles aren’t being revealed yet. The trio joined the already-announced cast of Ella Rubin, Michael Cimino, Ji-young Yoo, and Odessa A’Zion.

Until Dawn, announced earlier this year, will be directed by David F. Sandberg, who last worked on Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Annabelle: Creation writer-producer Gary Dauberman is also working on it.

In the original game, Dr. Hill is a psychiatrist who appears in short scenes throughout the story, known in-game as “The Analyst.” He’s used as a sort of fourth-wall-breaking character who talks directly to the player about the story and their decisions, later being integrated more directly into the story itself. Because of his sort of “meta” role in the game, it’ll be interesting to see how he’s adapted into a film version.

Until Dawn, released in 2015, follows a group of young adults who take a vacation to a remote cabin on snowy Blackwood Mountain. There, the group is forced to face not only supernatural events but also a serial killer. The game featured an array of actors at the time, including Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere, and Noah Fleiss.

While the original developer, Supermassive Games, went on to create The Dark Pictures Anthology, a remake of Until Dawn is planned for release on PS5 and PC this Fall from Sony Interactive Entertainment and Ballistic Moon.

The Until Dawn movie doesn’t currently have a release date or window, stay tuned to CGMagazine for more details as they develop.

Samsung is working on the Galaxy S25 Ultra, which is no surprise. What might be surprising are some of its specs, namely a pretty huge RAM upgrade that should please enthusiasts.

As reported by SamMobile, reliable leaker @UniverseIce has claimed the Galaxy S25 Ultra has a variant with 16GB RAM, which would be nearly double the rumoured 8GB RAM of the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

While UniverseIce didn’t explicitly name the S25 Ultra, their recent history on X (formerly Twitter) heavily suggests that’s what they’re talking about. A recent report from Ajunews also claimed Samsung is beefing up the mass production of LPDDR6 RAM for further evidence. The higher RAM would make Samsung’s devices not only better at multitasking but also at tackling AI tasks.

This wouldn’t be the first time a Samsung Galaxy phone has featured 16GB of RAM, as both the Galaxy S20 Ultra and Galaxy S21 Ultra did. But since the S21 Ultra, every other Ultra iteration has only featured 12GB of RAM.

Apart from the RAM upgrades, during its second-quarter earnings call, again reported by SamMobile, Samsung revealed a bit more of what to expect from its S25 line, apparently bringing a variety of upgrades.

During the call, Samsung MX Vice President Daniel Araujo stated,

“We’ve consistently upgraded the hardware in our S Series to deliver industry-leading experiences to customers, and we’ll continue to enhance key experiences as well (as) upgrade hardware so that we can offer top performance. For camera and display specs in particular, where we’ve been leading, the S25 at launch will have top-of-the-line upgrades. And we’re also preparing industry-best APs and memory to boost AI performance and offer an overall premium experience.”

There’s currently no expected date for the Samsung Galaxy S25 and S25 Ultra, but the company typically does new reveals in January, meaning we’ll likely see the S25 line in January 2025.

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