By Anonymous on Oct 21, 2017 12:30 am The new Leatherface tells the story of the horror legend's troubled childhood and teenage years but is it worth the trip back in time? Find out as Mike Rougeau shares his review of the 2017 update to the horror classic.
As he works on the movie's script, along with co-writer Chris Terrio (Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice), Abrams doesn't want the film to live in the past. Instead, he's looking to the future. Given that Disney, the studio behind Star Wars, will no doubt be continuing the franchise, that makes perfect sense.
During an interview alongside composer Michael Giacchino (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story), Abrams tells BBC Radio 4, "I feel like we need to approach this with the same excitement that we had when we were kids loving what these movies were and, at the same time, we have to take them places that they haven't gone, and that's sort of our responsibility." That's a comment that could be taken both literally and figuratively.
Surely, the film will visit new planets and bring about new species of aliens--and possibly different droids--but there's more to the idea of uncharted territory in the Star Wars universe. The current trilogy continues the saga started by Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) in 1977's A New Hope. Over 40 years later, it may be time to explore some new story ideas.
In a galaxy as large as the one Star Wars exists in, there are plenty of stories to tell and many of them are getting the chance to shine in projects like Star Wars Rebels. Perhaps the time will come after Episode IX for a new saga to be introduced on the big screen.
It certainly sounds like something on Abrams' mind as he looks forward. "It's a strange thing. Michael [Giacchino]'s worked on things like Planet of the Apes, and Star Trek, and Star Wars and these are the things of dreams," he says. "Yet we can't just revel in that, we have to go elsewhere."
While the future of Star Wars is unknown, hearing Abrams talk about it certainly does make it exciting.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi is in theaters on December 17. Star Wars: Episode IX releases on December 20, 2019. Between the two, Solo--the Han Solo standalone movie--will debut on May 25, 2018.
By Anonymous on Oct 20, 2017 11:46 pm The fun hack and slash combo filled action game Devil May Cry turned 16 recently so we dive back into an old school classic.
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is the follow-up to 2014's The New Order. It once again centers around B.J. Blazkowicz and his struggle to overthrow the Nazi regime. This time around he's trying to set up a second American Revolution with the help of a militant group of resistance fighters.
With the game's release date set for October 27 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, we've compiled our most important features and gameplay videos detailing everything you need to know about Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. Check back often as we update this article with our in-depth review, additional articles, and videos.
Features
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus maintains the same action-heavy gunplay of its predecessor. The game features a variety of weapons, most of which can be dual-wielded. New this time around is a cover system to aid your approach in a firefight. For more of our impressions about the game and its provocative depiction of a Nazi-occupied America, check out the features below:
Every Cinematic Cutscene So Far--We collected every cutscene we have seen so far for Wolfenstein 2: The New Colossus and put them all into one handy video for you. Be warned, this video is packed with spoilers.
Delivering A Nuke To Area 52 Gameplay--BJ Blazkowicz is back at it again! This time our well armed friend is fighting through a train to deliver a nuke to Area 52.
Adult Swim's latest late night animation acid trip--Tyler, The Creator-created The Jellies--stars a teenager named Cornell who finds out he was adopted by his parents, who are jellyfish. Most other characters are normal(ish) humans, except their neighbor, who's a whale.
"A jellyfish would have a whale living next door," The Jellies star Phil LaMarr, who plays the lead character Cornell Jelly, told GameSpot. "That just makes sense."
That's one way to look at it.
The Jellies has been adapted for Adult Swim from a series that was only available on rapper Tyler, the Creator's multimedia phone app, Golf Media. In the original incarnation, Cornell was white. Now, he's black, which Tyler explained thusly when challenged by an audience member at San Diego Comic-Con this year:
"How many f***ing black cartoon characters is it on TV right now? Name five. I'll give you time...It is none. They canceled Static Shock. Nobody remembers Fillmore, like, we don't got s**. The only other black character is this f***ing weird-ass--oh no, they killed Chef off f***ing South Park. So we don't have s****. So I said f*** that. We about to make this n**** black, and he ain't got no guns, he ain't shoot no f***ing basketball, and he a f***ing goober, and we gonna put him on TV. And he's the lead character. He ain't the comic relief. He ain't the sidekick. He the lead n****."
"That's actually revolutionary," LaMarr elaborated. "There are these weird little mini revolutions that happen, and having a black, male, leading character that's a 'goober' is, weirdly enough, revolutionary in America. You know? He is not cool, in any way shape or form. And to me, that's real."
"We get enough of The Rock, you know?" he continued. "That's the predominant image of the black man. And even though this is not, you know, a $600 million action movie that's going all over the world, it's still out there. And I think people are going to respond to the truth of it--black people and non-black people, just because it's speaking something that you don't get to see, and it's saying it in a way that's authentic. That's what I love about it. He is a goober, he is a hormonal teenager, and he's also the star of the show. All of those things have individually been true at different points; none of them have ever been true together."
There are a million ways to read into the character of Cornell Jelly. He's a young black man who was raised by jellyfish, struggling to define his place in the universe. But there may be no one, definitive answer as to what it all means. If there is, it's locked away tight in Tyler, the Creator's brain.
"There's no answer to 'why jellyfish?'" LaMarr explained. "And the only answer to 'Why not jellyfish?' Is because nobody's done it before."
"I wish I understood how [Tyler's] mind works," said Carl Jones, a producer on the show. Jones is known for his work on shows like The Boondocks and Black Dynamite. "He will come up with ideas that seem like it's out of the blue, then when you put it all together it works in this really weird, fantastical way."
Episodes of The Jellies see Cornell trying to find his birth parents, or dragging a washed-up singer out of retirement to woo his gelatinous adoptive parents back together. Its humor bounces all over the map, from riffs on the fact that some of the characters are marine animals, to more obscure '90s reference than you'd think it possible to fit into 15 minutes of television. LaMarr said the show doesn't exclusively live in the past, although it's not entirely topical, either.
"I think this show is more than of this time; I think it's the sort of thing that people are going to be able to watch at any point," he said. "It's not about, like, 'What happens after a black president?' It's not about right now, as much as it is, so much of this stuff is just like 'Who am I?' Identity, you know?"
Whether you're black or white, young or old, human or jellyfish, that should be something you can relate to. The Jellies premieres on Adult Swim this Sunday, Oct. 22.
Super Mario Odyssey is the latest installment of Nintendo's tenured franchise starring the lovable Italian plumber. You once again control Mario as he works to rescue Princess Peach from Bowser. But this time around, he has the help of a new hat sidekick named Cappy, who he can throw at certain objects or enemies to temporarily posses them and use their unique abilities.
With Super Mario Odyssey's release date set for October 27 on Nintendo Switch, we've compiled our most important features and gameplay videos detailing everything you need to know about the game. Check back often as we update this article with our in-depth review, guides, additional articles, and videos.
Features
As a 3D-style Mario game, the emphasis is on exploration in Super Mario Odyssey. The game sports a multitude of open sandbox environments to navigate, which are each packed with enemies and platforming challenges. For more about our impressions about the game thus far, check out the features below:
Assassin's Creed Origins is the latest entry in the long-running Assassin's Creed franchise. Unlike past games, which continually pushed the ancestor timeline forward, this entry is a prequel. Set in ancient Egypt, you play as Bayek, a warrior whose struggle against the corrupt forces of the time leads him towards becoming the first Assassin.
With the game's release date set for October 27 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, we've compiled our most important features and gameplay videos detailing everything you need to know about Assassin's Creed Origins. Check back often as we update this article with our in-depth review, guides, additional articles, and videos.
Features
Unlike its predecessors, Assassin's Creed Origins is an action-RPG; it sports a multi-faceted skill tree, damage hit points, and equipment with varying statistics. In addition, everything you do feeds into an overarching progression system that steadily improves your character's strength and abilities over time. For more about the game's mechanics and story, as well as our impressions of it thus far, check out the features below:
Splatoon 2's next free update is almost here and will roll out its latest weapon, the Range Blaster. This blaster-type weapon will give you more range, but at the cost of a lower rate of fire.
The Range Blaster is a throwback to the original Splatoon, though it won't play exactly the same. This time around, it has the Suction Bomb as its sub-weapon and Ink Storm as its special attack. You can take a quick peek at it below.
The new weapon should be rolling out globally soon. Expect to see the update drop tomorrow afternoon in Japan and Australia, in the morning in Europe, and later tonight in North America.
I feel a little creepy. Sitting at a table across from me are actor Josh Gad and frequent South Park collaborator Bill Hader, talking with animated gusto. At the head of the long boardroom style table, Trey Parker listens carefully before also bursting into laughter.
I have no idea what they're saying. I'm just watching them for a few moments from across the room as I stand on the second floor railing of the South Park Studios. I'm looking into the writer's room, a glass-walled area filled with white boards, sketches, and chicken scratch writing.
Except for that animated discussion and a group of reporters in a room behind me, the studio is otherwise quiet. It's the week before the first episode of South Park season 21 airs, and the day before the larger crew will show up and begin the ten grueling weeks of production.
I'm here to witness, in this brief moment of respite, how the team coordinates with Ubisoft San Francisco to turn South Park into a living video game world. Trey Parker and Matt Stone are the head and face of South Park, but they rely on a surprisingly large number of people to make sure everything actually happens. And one of those people key to the video game is Jason Schroeder.
I. The Hand
Jason Schroeder doesn't look like someone who works on a game like South Park. Unassuming, with wispy brown hair, his calm humility feels almost at odds with a series that's defined by how over-the-top it goes.
But Schroeder, just like The Fractured But Whole, is more than he seems on the surface. His role as the game's creative director is itself a wide departure from his studio's previous projects, the most notable of which is probably the "rhythm game with real guitars game" Rocksmith. But with the transition to Fractured But Whole, the office has nearly tripled in size.
Schroeder joined was also in LA for the visit to South Park Studios, but the SF to LA trip, whether it's in person or via teleconference, is a normal part of his job. At the end of the trip, "I guess, in a typical day, I would either have a morning sync with the producers at South Park or Matt and Trey themselves, and then my own directors and project management group to kind of figure out, 'What are our burning fires? Is anybody waiting on decisions? What's ready for review?'" Even now, with the game released, the process isn't over; DLC is on the way, and that process takes just as much planning and coordination between the two primary creative studios.
"I was the liaison between our studios," Schroeder says. "So between South Park Studios and Ubisoft San Francisco, and the Osaka studio. Sometimes that meant that I felt like this weird prophet." Schroeder raises his hands above his head and affects a Moses-like voice. "It was like, 'No I cometh and I sayeth that Trey has speaketh.'"
Schroeder puts his hands down and leans in. "It became very important to not just become this person that is delivering messages from someone else. I had to agree with it and believe in it. If someone's going to look me in the eyes and ask, 'Is this okay? You tell me, because I'm going to work my ass off for this. Is this shitting mini-game really important to you?' I couldn't just say, 'Well, Trey said so."
But when you're helping a team decide how to portray the perfect bowel movement, what does normal even mean? "It's just your kind of average business meeting, in some ways, except that everyone's laughing--a lot." Schroeder breaks out into a grin. "I'd say the impression that you get from working with Trey is that he figures stuff out and then sees whether or not people laugh when he describes something. When the whole room starts laughing and then he can keep that laugh going, you start to feel like, 'Okay, this is going to stick.'"
"I just want the game to be sweet." -- Trey Parker
Schroeder leans back in his chair. "Working with them is just having that same sort of an observer ability; 'Okay, that little off the cuff remark just caused a whole avalanche of ideas, and we should take note.'"
But I'm getting ahead of myself. This is all at the end of my day, where I'm sitting with Schroeder back at his hotel after talking to the rest of the production team and touring the studio. The first time I met him that day was during small press conference set up to discuss the game and the people I'd be meeting that day.
II. The Gang's All Here
"At the very beginning of the project, we tried to convey to Ubisoft, 'We're gonna totally fuck up your entire workflow.'" This is Frank Agnone, the executive producer on the TV show and South Park's game products. He's sitting in on a roundtable discussion arranged for those of us visiting the studio before the tours start. Agnone is joined by Schroeder, and from the show there's also the producer and art director Adrien Beard, who's probably better known as Token. Eric Stough, another producer on the show who handles things on the animation side, is also well known as the real life inspiration for Butters. And from the Ubisoft side there's Jolie Menzel, the main narrative designer for The Fractured But Whole.
Agnone's earlier comments about disrupting the Ubisoft workflow aren't surprising for a show that's infamous for running its production down to the absolute last second. Six Days to Air, a 2011 documentary, showed the hectic, round-the-clock schedule that goes into putting out an episode during the show's normal run. But that kind of crunch can only work on a project with a limited schedule. That kind of intense, never-leave-the-office mentality is automatically capped at a few months because of the number of episodes. But for a videogame, where development is spread over years, that same relentless pace is just unrealistic.
But that didn't stop Trey from trying when he was out for two and half weeks for surgery. Agnone relates, "He convinced his doctor to let him leave the hospital to come to the office to record some dialogue, and then he would turn around and go back to the hospital."
Beard adds, "He's deathly walking out the door, and I'm like, 'Dude, you should totally be in a hospital. Dude, what are you doing? You're gonna die.' And he's like, 'I just want the game to be sweet.'"
But that kind of pace is the exception. Schroeder explains, "We have to be balanced because you make a lot of bad decisions when you get too tired. They are talking about 10 episodes over the course of a few months and so they do it in a very burst sort of way. When we first started to analyze their process and tried to figure out, 'How do we take that magic in the bottle or whatever it is that makes Trey's idea to a screen within a week? How do we capture that and put that into the game?' It wasn't so much about the hours that they spend or anything like that, it's actually about their pipelines, their processes, their culture of letting his creativity drive things, letting their investment in tools for the show be as efficient as they can be so that the team can work fast and without a lot of errors even when they're tired."
The process here means that the game's engine was modified so that the show team could script and put together scenes that would fold directly into the game. "You could kind of tell there was a change between the look of the gameplay and the cutscenes before," Eric says.
More than just the creation pipeline, South Park's quick turnaround comes from that drive to be relevant. To reflect what's happening now, and also to be able to change things when they're just not funny anymore. "There's this contemporary part that comes with South Park. Something happens in the news and it works its way into our show. That happened in the game, because we had this constant back and forth and this constant iteration building, Beard says. "I don't think many games are gonna be able to comment on stuff that happened two, three months before the game came out. And some of that stuff's in the game."
That comes back to Matt and Trey's involvement in the entire game process. "Letting them play hands on as much as possible was really the key," Menzel says. "If you watch any GDC talk about Assassin's Creed or Far Cry, you have this very beautiful, professional game design that's crafted by these designers and they're very sacred about their process. Matt and Trey challenged us to have that agility to even look at our own methodology and change it. To ask, 'How do we serve the story and how do we serve the jokes?'"
Jokes like, in Beard's words, "making a better, interactive fart." Schroeder holds up his hands and, with a surprisingly graphic bit of thumb twiddling that's meant to evoke massaging the thumbsticks on a controller, he describes the team's journey. "What can we do with the touch pad to really prime a sphincter, and then we push in." Here Schroeder cups his hands and pushes upward with his thumbs.
In addition to enhanced anal control, Beard says that they had hoped to explore in more ridiculous ways to interact with the game. He brings up the smell-o-vision device used during preview events for the Fractured But Whole that simulated the smell of farts. That's a step in the right direction, however he wants to go even further: "I want to have somebody suck their controller."
III. The Room Where It Happens
The panel ends, and we finally head to the studio. Large game developers tend to have sprawling campuses that bustle with hundreds of employees, and you expect something a little more epic when you visit the home of a show that's been a cultural touchstone for over 20 years. Instead, the South Park's headquarters is nestled among a group of nondescript office buildings. From the outside, the only indicator that this place is special is a small plaque near the door that reads "Casa Bonita."
Frank Agnone leads my small group's tour. Tanned and relaxed in a very So Cal way, Agnone also projects a contradictory intensity when he looks at you. He's been with the show since the first episode (a common thread among many of the production's senior leads), but he still carries the energy of a new employee.
Agnone walks us through the separate departments, each kept separate to allow them to focus on their various points of production. Trey isn't part of the tour, but each group talks about how the pipeline is created to both give him and Matt oversight and freedom to create and change anything immediately. Sometimes that means whole scenes have to be reworked or pushed back to other departments, but that's part of why they're so remote. The islands of work allow them to focus on finishing as the hours to each week's deadline countdown.
With boyish delight Beard stands in the art department's room and reiterates that they're eight days away from filming the first episode of the season, but the team still haven't gotten a single page of the script. But he's unphased, both Beard and Agnone remind the group of Six Days to Air, and then clarify that they probably need to re-film the documentary. The current schedule is more like four to five days.
And then, after a day filled with anal calisthenics demonstrated with finger motions, a quick walk through the offices and cubicles of the show, and an in-depth discussion about finding the perfect fart, I'm sitting with Schroeder back at the lobby of his hotel. But even with all the scatological humor and the drive to make sure South Park is as funny as it can possibly be, Schroeder has a surprising desire for The Fractured But Whole.
"It's hard to say it in a single sentence, but I hope that people don't like feel like they wish it had just been about anal probes. We're telling a more advanced story in a lot of ways. It's more the structure of the story, I feel like it's more mature. Not in the mature content, obviously there's mature content, but it's a story about substance abuse and all this other stuff too. I hope that the only takeaway isn't, 'I really liked when I walked up Mr. Slave's ass.'" He laughs before continuing. "Yeah, that stuff is funny as well, but I hope people appreciate it for the kind of story we told."
Pokemon Go's Halloween 2017 event is starting in just a few hours, bringing with it the first batch of generation 3 Pokemon. Spooky Pokemon such as Gastly, Cubone, Misdreavus, Houndour--along with Hoenn-based Pokemon like Sableye, Banette, and Duskull--will become common as of 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET / 8 PM BST (6 AM AET on October 21 in Australia). The event lasts until 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM on November 2 (7 AM AET on November 3 in Australia).
Bonuses for the event include double Candy rewards for catching, hatching, and transferring Pokemon, and you'll be able to grab special boxes--"featuring items such as Raid Passes and Super Incubators"--from the in-game shop. Finally, special, Halloween-themed Pikachu will be out and about, and you'll be able to grab the Mimikyu Disguise Hat for your avatar to wear.
The addition of Gen 3 Pokemon was leaked earlier this week, when a datamine reportedly uncovered sounds for all species up to #386 (Deoxys, the final Pokemon found in Generation 3). Another leak, showing more Gen 3 creatures and Pikachu wearing a witch's hat, followed just days later.
Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon launch next month, just a year after their predecessors, Sun and Moon. Sequels are nothing new to the Pokemon franchise, of course: starting with 1998's Pokemon Yellow, every pair of games in the series has received a third "upper" version, each of them bringing small improvements and changes to the base games' story.
That trend continued with Pokemon Crystal, Emerald, and Platinum, before Black / White and Sun / Moon were each succeeded by two sequels--Black 2 / White 2 and Ultra Sun / Ultra Moon. Now, in an interview with GameSpot, developer Game Freak has explained why it has decided to go that route with its latest games, rather than the single enhanced version it used to opt for.
"This time around there are differences in the story between the two versions that lead us to a split," said Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon's director, Kazumasa Iwao. "But one particularly appealing aspect for us in creating two different upper versions is that we can get many more different Pokemon and characters into the story and into the game itself. If you try and force all of that into a single upper version then the relationships between characters and their interactions they have can start to get a little bit confused and a bit disjointed, whereas if we separate them into two versions we can really focus in and make sure there's a strong core to the story. Splitting into two versions allows us to draw the most from the characters in the game, and hopefully players will enjoy that."
As for which of Ultra Sun or Ultra Moon you should buy, Iwao said it depends on what you want to get out of the game. He explained: "One point users might want to consider is that the Pokedex in Pokemon Ultra Sun is based on the Pokedex in Pokemon Sun and the same for Ultra Moon and Moon. So if something the players are really looking for is Pokedex completion, they might find it better to go for the opposite version this time round in order to help complete their Pokedex."
However, it's not quite that simple. Ultra Sun and Moon producer Shigeru Ohmori went on to say there is some advantage to choosing the same version you chose last time round: "Equally if you're looking for a story-based experience then those who played Pokemon Sun may want to go for Ultra Sun as there are some small details that remain consistent throughout the two that might appeal to people looking for a story-based game."
For a variety of reasons, such as the absence of daily and flash deals, Steam sales are not the major event they once were. They do, however, still present the opportunity to pick up some excellent games for relatively cheap, and now we know when the next three big sales will reportedly take place.
Dates for upcoming sales are shared ahead of time with developers, which invariably results in them leaking to the public. That appears to have happened again, with dates for the annual Halloween, Black Friday, and Winter sales being posted on Reddit. They've since been removed, but Eurogamer claims to have verified them as legitimate. Here's when each one will run:
Steam Halloween Sale: October 26 - November 1
Steam Black Friday Sale: November 22 - 28
Steam Winter Sale: December 21 - January 4
The Evil Within
October 26 is less than a week away, so you can expect to see some spooky games discounted soon. If past Halloween sales are any indication, the sale will include more than just the types of horror games you might expect.
If you watch professional wrestling long enough, you'll notice little allusions to prior events and prior wrestlers. And one of the coolest ways to call back to wrestling's illustrious history is to perform an older wrestler's signature move.
Here are 10 WWE wrestling moves with historical, familial weight. They've been passed down through families, from father to son, father to daughter, and uncle to nephew. They show love to the prior generation. They communicate the influence older wrestlers have on the young guns. And they elevate younger wrestlers, positioning them as inheritors of legacies bigger than themselves.
Which ones are your favorite? Let us know in the comments.
The Samoan Drop
When watching WWE, you'll notice a disportionate number of Samoan performers. For that, you can thank the massive Anoa'i family, who have been a key part of WWE history for close to 40 years. Among the most famous Anoa'i family members are the late Yokozuna, Rikishi, the late Umaga, and The Rock (through blood brother status). Current members of the family in WWE include Roman Reigns, Jimmy and Jey Uso, and Nia Jax, who is The Rock's cousin.
The Anoa'is' signature move is the aptly nicknamed Samoan drop. The Rock's grandfather, "High Chief" Peter Maivia, used it. Roman Reigns' father Sika (who formed the Wild Samoans with his brother Afa) used it. And everyone from the current generation uses it as a signature move. Jax even uses it as a finisher.
The best Samoan drop is Umaga's, hands down. He does more than just drop his opponent. He slams him, with ill intent, using every bit of force that he can muster.
The Iron Claw
Back in the old days, before Vince McMahon drove all the territories out of business, the Von Erichs were the golden boys of Texas, with gleaming hair, chiseled physiques, and freshly scrubbed appeal. The patriarch of the family, Fritz Von Erich, had six sons; five of them became wrestlers. And their calling card was their father's innovative Iron Claw. They reached out, grabbed their opponents' foreheads with their massive hands, and squeezed as hard as they could.
In the late 80's and early 90's, Kerry Von Erich wrestled in WWE as the Texas Tornado. And at SummerSlam 1990, he applied his father's Iron Claw to win the Intercontinental Championship from Mr. Perfect.
The years have not been kind to the Von Erichs. Five out of the six sons are dead—three from suicide, the others from illness. But surviving son Kevin Von Erich still performs the Iron Claw at special appearances. And Kerry's daughter Lacey Von Erich, who wrestled in TNA, also used the move before retiring in 2010.
The Million Dollar Dream
Before Vince McMahon became an on-screen character, he channeled his "evil billionaire" persona through Ted DiBiase, the Million Dollar Man. Ted tipped with hundred dollar bills. He challenged a young child to dribble a basketball and kicked it away before the last bounce. He tried to buy his way to the WWE Championship.
His finisher was the cobra clutch, which he called the Million Dollar Dream hold. It was lights out once he locked this on, and he would finish the humiliation by stuffing a hundred dollar bill into his unconscious opponent's mouth
When his son, Ted DiBiase Jr., made his WWE debut in 2008, he picked up his father's gimmick and also adopted his father's finishing move. But after a while, he started putting his own twist on the move. He first debuted the Dream Crusher, which incorporated a Russian leg sweep into the cobra clutch. But the best iteration of the move was Dream Street, which transitioned from the cobra clutch into a slam that resembled the Rock Bottom. Rather than copying his father directly, young Ted asserted, through his moveset, that he wanted to be his own man.
The Gory Special
The Guerrero family, like the Anoaʻi family, is wrestling royalty. Eddie Guerrero is the most known to current fans, but his father, Gory Guerrero, was a true innovator of his craft. He's given credit for innovating two moves: the camel clutch and the self-named Gory special, which stretches and submits an opponent, back-to-back.
When Gory's grandson, Chavo Guerrero Jr., arrived in WWE, he used a modified version of the Gory special as his finisher. He incorporated a painful-looking facebuster at the very end and called it the Gory bomb. Again, it was a nod to his famous wrestling heritage and an assertion of his individual identity.
The Sharpshooter
The Calgary-based Hart family is best known for their technically proficient, snug style—a product of training in patriarch Stu Hart's basement, also known in wrestling circles as The Dungeon. Graduates of The Dungeon include Chris Jericho, Edge, Lance Storm, Chris Benoit, and Mark Henry. And of course, prodigal sons Bret Hart and the late Owen Hart were two of Stu's most famous pupils.
Stu was a big proponent of stretching—of putting his pupils in submission holds, for real, in order to teach them respect and endurance. But the one thing he did not teach his sons was their most famous move, the Sharpshooter submission hold.
It was actually taught to Bret by Cuban wrestler Konnan. But on WWE television, it was incorrectly attributed to Stu, perhaps because WWE Creative wanted to build up the family's mystique. To this day, however, the move is still synonymous with the Hart family. Bret and Owen's niece Natalya, the current SmackDown women's champion, uses it as her finisher.
The Power Slam
A member of the Hart family by marriage, the late British Bulldog Davey Boy Smith was a graduate of the Hart family's Dungeon and a powerhouse in the ring. His finisher was the power slam. He would take a running start from the turnbuckle in order to get maximum impact.
In 2007, Davey's son, DH Smith, debuted in WWE. Like his father, he was massive, and like his father, he also used a running power slam. Unfortunately, however, his mic skills didn't hold up to his ringwork. After his Hart Dynasty stable (with Tyson Kidd and Natalya) broke up, Smith left WWE. He still wrestles, most recently with New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he won the IWGP tag team championship this September.
The Perfect-Plex
Mr. Perfect was aptly named. He never got further than the mid-card, but the man was a technical wizard in the ring. And his finisher, the Perfect-plex, was a thing of beauty. It was a bridging cradle suplex, and it was a perfect heel finisher; it had the kind of showmanship that fit Perfect's cocky persona.
His son, Curtis Axel, also used the Perfect-plex for some time. But it didn't have the same impact as his father's. Back in the old days, almost no one would kick out of the move (Bret Hart at SummerSlam 1991 was a notable exception). Nowadays, the bridging cradle suplex, like the once-devastating DDT, has become a regular move in many wrestlers' arsenals.
Axel still performs for WWE, where he's currently a member of the Miztourage stable. Hopefully, he's got one more Intercontinental title run in him before he hangs up his boots.
The Three Amigos
When Eddie Guerrero died suddenly in 2005, there was an outpouring of grief and tributes. He was one of WWE's most beloved superstars, both by fans and in the locker room. And all the wrestlers had their own way of paying tribute. They wore T-shirts that said "I'm your papi!" They did his signature chest pound. They shared stories about his life.
But the best tribute was by Eddie's nephew, Chavo Guerrero, years after Eddie's death. It was during the 2011 Royal Rumble, and after entering the ring, Chavo performed Eddie's Three Amigos suplexes on everyone within reach. He finished his tribute by pointing to the sky and performing Eddie's trademark shoulder shake. The crowd gave him a standing ovation, and rightly so.
The Superfly Splash
Towards the end of his life, Jimmy Snuka was submerged in a cloud of suspicion, stemming from a murder accusation. But in his heyday—the early- to mid-80's—he was a high-flying superstar. His Superfly Splash, a caution-to-the-wind, open-armed dive off the top-rope, was iconic, particularly when he dove onto Don Muraco from the top of a steel cage in 1983.
His daughter Tamina, currently on the SmackDown brand, performs a version of her father's finisher. But instead of diving with her arms up, palms out, she dives with her arms back and fingers splayed behind her to emphasize her forward movement.
The Figure-Four Leglock
What more can be said about Ric Flair? He's the Nature Boy. Space Mountain. The Dirtiest Player in the Game. A limousine riding, jet flying, wheeling and dealing, kiss stealing, son of a gun. And he's quite possibly the greatest sports entertainer to ever live.
When his daughter, Charlotte Flair, came up through NXT, she staked a claim on the women's division, both as the daughter of a Hall of Famer and as one of the most athletic women on the roster.
There's a difference between an average figure-four leglock and a Ric Flair figure-four leglock, which comes complete with theatricals, hip swivels, and "WOOO"s. Charlotte must have known that she couldn't top that show. So instead, she modified her father's finisher to suit her. Charlotte refers to her figure-four leglock as a figure-eight leglock. She performs a bridge stretch after locking in the hold—a nod to her competitive gymnastics background.
It's nothing if not effective; Charlotte is now is a six-time champion, which means she's only ten more title reigns away from her legendary dad.
A line of Super Mario Odyssey-themed Amiibo figures was revealed back at E3 that features Mario, Peach, and Bowser each wearing their own wedding outfit. Nintendo had already provided some details on what they would unlock in-game, but now we have a better idea of what to expect from one of them.
YouTube channel FamilyGamerTV got their hands on the Peach and Mario Amiibo figures early. As noticed by Nintendo Daily News, the back of the box for the Peach figure reveals that it unlocks a wedding dress outfit for Mario himself. You can see a glimpse of this in the image below.
Nintendo's official site states that scanning the Peach Amiibo provides a life-up heart and her wedding dress, but it was unclear that Mario himself would wear it. Mario's figure, meanwhile, provides his wedding outfit and grants temporary invincibility. Bowser's unlocks his wedding suit and reveals where coins are hidden in the region.
Other, existing Amiibo figures are also compatible with Super Mario Odyssey and will provide other, unspecified rewards, according to Nintendo's site. It also states that all outfits can be unlocked without the corresponding Amiibo, so you won't need to actually purchase the new figures to get the wedding attire.
Wearing different costumes is one of the charming aspects of Nintendo's new platformer. We've already rounded up all of the Super Mario Odyssey costumes we've seen so far--and there are some excellent ones. There's sure to be even more to uncover once the full game hits Nintendo Switch on October 27.
Like that rash you hate to see but love to scratch, Xur is back. This week, Destiny 2's shadiest salesman is hanging around on Titan and is very easy to find. Simply fire up your PS4 or Xbox One, fast travel to The Rig, and he's a hop, skip, and a jump away from you with new wares to peddle.
Take a look below and you'll find a list of all the Exotic gear Xur has to offer this week--with the usual array of one weapon and three pieces of armor (one per class). We also have images of them, so you can read up on the exact stats they have and see how they might fit into your gameplay style. Alternatively, watch the video above to see us hunt Xur down and show off his stock.
Click image to view in full screen
Sweet Business (Auto Rifle): 29 Legendary Shards
Raiden Flux (Hunter Class Chest Armor): 23 Legendary Shards
Doom Fang Pauldron (Titan Class Gauntlets): 23 Legendary Shards
Winter's Guile (Warlock Class Gauntlets): 23 Legendary Shards
Following Destiny 2's launch on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in September, the shooter comes to PC on October 24. Bungie has detailed a roadmap for the rollout of endgame activities in the PC version. At launch, players will be able to try the normal or Prestige Nightfall Strikes. A week later, the Raid will go live. For more on Destiny 2, take a look at the list of recent stories below.
The new Leatherface tells the story of the horror legend's troubled childhood and teenage years but is it worth the trip back in time? Find out as Mike Rougeau shares his review of the 2017 update to the horror classic.
The fun hack and slash combo filled action game Devil May Cry turned 16 recently so we dive back into an old school classic.
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