By Anonymous on Oct 10, 2018 12:15 am Find out where the Destiny 2: Forsaken Ascendant Challenge portal location is for Week 6 of the expansion and what you have to do to complete it.
With the Destiny 2weekly reset comes another Ascendant Challenge for those with the Forsaken DLC. This is another one we haven't seen before, though it might be the last original one for the time being before existing ones are added to the rotation. Whatever the case, here's where to find the Taken portal and what to do once you're inside.
As always, the first step is to pick up the Ascendant Challenge from Petra--this is what nets you a piece of Powerful gear for completing it. Once that's done, make sure you have a Tincture of Queensfoil. With that in hand, you'll enter the Lost Sector in Rheasilvia. You'll need to make your way through the entire thing, as the portal is located just behind the chest that unlocks after killing the boss. While optional, you might as well complete the Lost Sector to make things easier on yourself. With that out of the way, use the Tincture to gain the Ascendance buff, which allows you to see the Taken portal. The exact location can be seen in the video above and map below.
Jump through the portal to head to Cimmerian Garrison, located in the Ascendant Plane. Here, you'll be faced with what amounts to a gauntlet--you'll need to make your way through and kill an enemy at the end. Once you go inside, you'll be chased by three knights. As you progress, you'll have to deal with various enemies, including hobgoblins, shriekers, and thrall with yellow health bars. Take them out as you go, and you'll reach a point where you have to platform across some rocks (because it wouldn't be an Ascendant Challenge without some first-person platforming). Along the way, be mindful of the Taken corruption that will periodically explode with a blast of energy, which can send you falling you to your death if you aren't careful.
Once you're done platforming, you'll have to kill a knight to finish things out, but beware the shrieker that spawns nearby. With the knight dead, open the chest to complete the Ascendant Challenge. There may not be any special rewards inside there, but you'll get a piece of Powerful gear for turning in the associated bounty.
The new Ascendant Challenge is a welcome activity, particularly considering that Spider's big weekly bounty is a repeat of Wanted: Gravetide Summoner. That's another way to net yourself some Powerful gear ahead of Festival of the Lost, the Halloween-themed event that begins on October 16. Also launching on that day is the first of two big updates releasing this month.
Overwatch has kicked off its regular annual Halloween promotional event, Halloween Terror. The seasonal event will operate through October 31, and brings with it a bunch of new spooky and kooky skins and other cosmetic items to unlock through loot boxes.
Blizzard has been teasing the event with some unveils of the new skins, including Pharah and Moira, Doomfist, Wrecking Ball and McCree, among others. The new trailer reveals several more like Bride Sombra and Slasher 76. It's all styled after a haunted house, with the viewer's perspective trying to escape the various monsters' clutches. As advertised, the 50 loot box bundle includes a bonus 10 boxes during the promotion, for those of you hunting down skins.
The Halloween Terror event is available across PS4, Xbox One, and PC. In addition to the creepy Halloween-themed costumes, it will explore the next chapter in the story of Dr. Junkenstein--a Halloween version of Junkrat. The addition of Sombra as the Bride implies she'll be joining his ranks in whatever this next piece of the story holds.
This year, Junkenstein's Revenge includes not one but two playable modes: Junkenstein's Revenge (Classic) and Junkenstein's Revenge: Endless Night. It also adds two new heroes for the PvE mode, Tracer and Brigitte.
After debuting in November 2017, the Hulu original series Future Man is ready to return and, somehow, get even weirder the second time around. The cast and creative crew of the series came to New York Comic Con 2018 to give fans the first look at the new season, including the world premiere of the first new episode of the show.
Rather quickly, it becomes apparent that the future Josh Futterman (Josh Hutcherson) thought he saved in Season 1 is somehow even worse off. Now he's expected to once again save the world with little more skills than being good at video games. Now, though, Futterman has the experience to actually change the timeline… maybe. In the meantime, he will urinate on himself, be constantly humiliated, and simply attempt not to die in horrible ways.
After the Season 2 premiere episode was shown, the first trailer for the new episodes was revealed, giving even more of an idea of what's to come. In the new and terrible future, Wolf (Derek Wilson) is married to five people as they raise a child together--which is played as being completely normal in whatever version of reality they've ended up in--while Tiger's (Eliza Coupe) status as a biotic, which was revealed in the Season 1 finale, is going to cause quite a strain on the team. Fans will also be introduced to other Tiger biotics with a variety of personalities, which should prove very entertaining. Additionally, Coupe said in the panel that "my voice is different," when it comes to the alternate Tigers, including one that is rather high-pitched.
The main drive of the new season sees the future divided between two groups, one of which wants to relocate half of the future's population to Mars. The other group, meanwhile, simply wants to be left alone. As this is all happening, a group called the Pointed Circle is plotting some kind of attack, which uses Futterman in some kind of key way that will definitely kill him. Unsurprisingly, he's on the run because of this.
As for the weird stuff that made Future Man Season 1 so interesting, there's plenty of that to come. Futterman's gigantic penis will make another appearance, while Coupe detailed one particularly bizarre scene she shot for the new episodes. "I have sex to completion with a brain, with my hands," she said. "That was fun to do."
There are also a number of new characters coming to the show, several of which have yet to be revealed. However, the trailer shows the arrival of someone named Susan, played by Future Man executive producer Seth Rogen.
While the Season 9 premiere of The Walking Dead might have seemed quieter and less action-packed than many of the show's recent episodes--thanks to the end of the pesky war with Negan (Jeffrey Dean Morgan)--there was still plenty to see. The new episode caught viewers up on what's been happening since the end of the show's "All Out War" story and set the stage for a major Maggie (Lauren Cohan) arc, leading up to her departure from the show.
In the final moments of the episode, Maggie lets Rick (Andrew Lincoln) know that she's ready for him to step aside and let her lead. Following that, she supervises the execution of Gregory (Xander Berkeley), who tried to have her assassinated. The moment shows the woman Maggie has grown into since being introduced in Season 2 of The Walking Dead.
And during a visit to the show's Atlanta set, new showrunner Angela Kang explained to GameSpot and a small group of other outlets that it would also inform her final story on the show--for now.
"We had always planned to have this great story with Maggie this season, and I think we promised something," she says. "You know, we wanted to pay off that promise. So we definitely have a very strong Maggie arc. Lauren, I think, has always been such a great actress for us, has done some spectacular work this season. As you've seen in the episodes but also in the episodes that are upcoming, there's some stuff that just blew me away. And I'm just a pure fan."
Still, while Maggie may be the focus of what is unfolding at Hilltop, the coming events will also be used to build up those around her to fill the void, once the episodes featuring Cohan have come to an end. "It also opens up some interesting opportunities for other characters when that character is gone for reasons that will be explained in the story," she explained. "That's part of the story going forward, what's happening at Hilltop? And how do people deal with Maggie not being there?"
Cohan has said she'd like to be able to return to the show at some point, and Kang is confident that could happen. "I'll say first of all that we still plan to tell more story with Maggie," she said. "Lauren wants to, it just it will be a little subject to her schedule. But hopefully, we have her back next season."
While there is no clear picture or when or if Cohan will be able to return to The Walking Dead, her exit date from the series has not been revealed. While she's shot her final scenes for now, AMC has not announced when she or Lincoln's final episodes will air.
Whether your GTA Online wallet is looking a little thin these days or you just want to add to your heaps of digital riches, you'll probably want to hop into Grand Theft Auto V's online mode this week. That's because GTA$ is available in abundance between now and October 15, and you don't even have to do anything special to get much of it. Here's a breakdown of what freebies to expect.
Just for logging into GTA Online between now and October 15, you'll get GTA$300,000 delivered to your Maze Bank account next week, by October 22. You can log right back out if you want, and you'll still get the bonus cash. In addition to the money, you'll also instantly unlock a Green Wireframe Body Suit for free (it looks kind of creepy, but hey, it's October).
That's not all, though--here's another big one. If you've already completed the Stone Hatchet and Double-Action Revolver challenges, you'll get an additional GTA$250,000 simply for logging in. But if you haven't completed those challenges yet and you beat them this week, you'll receive GTA$250,000 for each one. Better yet, you'll get another bonus of GTA$250,000 for each of those challenges next week, for a grand total of GTA$1 million.
Also between now and October 15, all four remixed Adversary Modes are rewarding double GTA$ and RP. That means you'll get a nice boost for playing Hunting Pack (Remix), Trading Places (Remix), Running Back (Remix), and Sumo (Remix). In addition, if you own a Nightclub, you'll get double Nightclub income all week long.
Finally, pre-ordering any digital edition of Red Dead Redemption 2 from the PlayStation Store or Microsoft Store gets you GTA$1,000,000 in GTA Online; all you have to do is log into GTA Online by October 15 to get it. And if you've already pre-ordered the game from either online store, just log in before October 15, and you'll get the same bonus. That cash will be deposited into your Maze Bank account between October 16-22.
In other GTA Online news, this week finds three new cars coming to the Southern San Andreas Super Autos catalog. They're the Karin Futo, Bollokan Prairie, and Imponte Ruiner. New liveries are also available for those cars, as well as for the Maibatsu Penumbra, Declasse Mamba, and Invetero Coquette Classic. You can find even more of this week's GTA Online news on the Rockstar blog.
Some major changes are on the way for Destiny 2 later this month, as is the Halloween-themed Festival of the Lost event. In the meantime, we have the latest weekly reset, which doesn't bring much in the way of new content. It does, however, mark a refresh for activities across the game, offering a variety of new ways to obtain Powerful gear. Here's the lowdown on what's new this week for Forsaken owners, including the Ascendant Challenge, Spider's big bounty, Eververse's store update, and more.
Ascendant Challenge
Another new Ascendant Challenge--possibly the last original one we'll see for now before they begin to be recycled--is now available. The portal is located in a Lost Sector, and inside you'll have to deal with a gauntlet of enemies and (of course) some platforming. You'll need to use a Tincture of Queensfoil in order to see the portal, and be sure to grab the bounty from Petra before starting. The chest you receive at the end is nothing special, but the bounty itself offers Powerful gear.
Spider Bounty -- Wanted: Gravetide Summoner
For the third week running, the big bounty offered by Spider--the one that offers Powerful gear--is Wanted: Gravetide Summoner. But whereas last week's repeat of this did at least take you to a different Lost Sector, this one brings us back to the same one as two weeks ago. Take five Ghost Fragments to Spider to pick up the bounty, and you'll receive an Adventure on Titan's The Rig. Kill the boss in the Lost Sector to complete the bounty and earn Powerful gear.
Nightfall
As is typical, the Nightfall has been refreshed with three new choices of Strikes. You can pick from Warden of Nothing, The Corrupted, and The Pyramidion; all three have a recommended Power level of 540. Whichever you choose, there's a piece of Powerful gear for completing it. If you manage to do so while achieving a score of 100,000 or more, you'll also receive another Powerful gear.
Eververse
A new set of bounties are available from Eververse, most of which reward you with varying amounts of Bright Dust. The cost of these bounties varies, but as always, the most expensive one gets you the most Bright Dust for your investment--provided you finish it. This week, that bounty is Herosim in Battle (complete five Strikes from the Strike playlist), which will net you 150 Bright Dust upon completion.
The Rise of the Challenge bounty is available, which offers a Prismatic Facet as a reward. If you have a Facet on hand (or are willing to spend some Silver), you can activate the Matrix, which has a new set of items. Here's what's on offer:
Guardian Angel (Exotic weapon ornament for The Chaperone)
Death to Kells (Exotic ship)
Dragonfly Regalia Vest (Legendary Hunter chest armor)
Dragonfly Regalia Helm (Legendary Titan helmet)
Dragonfly Regalia Bond (Legendary Warlock bond)
Atlantis Shell (Legendary Ghost shell)
Astera Blade (Legendary ship)
Here I Stand (Legendary vehicle)
Jade Rabbit Projection (Rare Ghost projection)
Awkward Greeting (Rare emote)
Petra
Petra's location has rotated again, and we're back to the most pleasant of the bunch. She's in Divalian Mists, right next to the Dreaming City's landing zone. You'll want to speak with her to grab the Ascendant Challenge bounty, as well as The Orange Engine, which lets you do the mission of the same name. War for the Dreaming City has you again complete eight daily bounties for Petra during the week, and Gateway Between Worlds has you take part in the Blind Well. All four of these reward you with Powerful gear.
Clan Bounties
New clan bounties are now available. The weekly ones offer the biggest clan XP rewards, with Blindsight (completing the Blind Well at Tier III or above while in a fireteam with clanmates) offering the most. You can also pick up Band of Adventurers (complete three Adventures with clanmates) and House Advantage (complete Gambit matches with clanmates). Those ready to dive into the Raid can also taken on Summoning Ritual, which asks you to complete the challenge of the same name. Complete that, and you'll net yourself some Powerful gear.
Vanguard Strikes
The Vanguard Strikes playlist again has the same weekly challenge, which asks you to complete three Strikes while using the same subclass element as one of your Fireteam members. Do that for a piece of Powerful gear. You may want to consider picking Solar, as that lines up with this week's modifiers, which are as follows:
Solar Singe -- Solar damage increases slightly from all sources
Blackout -- Enemy melee attacks are significantly more powerful, and radar is disabled
Brawler -- Melee abilities deal more damage and recharge much faster
Daily Heroic Story Missions
Completing three daily Heroic story missions during the week will net you a Powerful gear, making it worthwhile to replay some old missions. These feature the same modifiers outlined above for the Strikes playlist, and you'll have five different options with varying Power levels:
Looped -- 280 Power level
Chosen -- 280 Power level
Pilgrimage -- 360 Power level
Ice and Shadow -- 360 Power level
Nothing Left to Say -- 500 Power level
Gambit
Head over to The Drifter in the Tower for a new set of bounties. The most important of the bunch to grab is the weekly one, Might of the Traveler. This has you do certain things--cast Supers, defeat enemies with Supers, and create Orbs of Light--to earn progress. Complete the bounty for a piece of Powerful gear.
Currently, we're in the midst of the Dreaming City's three-week cycle, so the special Primeval needed to begin the Malfeasance questline is not as likely to show up in Gambit (though it can still spawn). However, Bungie recently said it will soon make it spawn more often.
Flashpoint
The current Flashpoint is on Titan, which is where you'll also find the current Heroic adventure (Siren Song). Complete the Adventure for a piece of Powerful gear, and finish the Flashpoint--by completing Heroic adventures, Public Events, and Lost Sectors--for another.
The new Venom movie broke box office records and outperformed expectations this past weekend. It made $80 million in the United States and Canada and $125 million internationally against a $100 million budget.
For many comics fans, this movie was a palette cleanser after the much-derided Venom storyline from Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3. The marketing campaign revolved around Eddie Brock's anti-hero, brutish persona, separate from the Spider-Man mythos. And the Venom Symbiote itself looked phenomenal--a twisted, writhing, bluish-black, semi-solid mass, all bulging muscles, salivating tongue, and glistening fangs.
The Symbiote is one of the most visually impressive characters in the Marvel comics canon. By day, Eddie Brock wears it as an inconspicuous black coat. But when duty calls, the Symbiote encases itself around its host and becomes living, organic armor.
In the Venom comics, the "transition" panels, where the artist shows the host half in, half out of "disguise," are some of the most creative. We're highlighting ten of the best drawn, most visually memorable Venom comics panels. Unsurprisingly, the majority of them feature the Venom Symbiote in scenarios that highlight its fluid, alien nature.
The Maximum Carnage arc was a massive early '90s crossover event, where Spidey and Venom partnered up to take down Carnage, Shriek, and a host of supervillains. This particular panel, from when Venom first hears the news that Carnage escaped the asylum, is iconic and oft-imitated. The massive, idealized musculature, along with the lewdly snaking tongue, depict Venom as a dangerous, wild force, only temporarily under control.
9. We Are Free!
Issue: Spider-Man #37
Artist: Tom Lyle
Date: 1993
Late in the Maximum Carnage storyline, Carnage imprisoned and tortured Eddie Brock and his Symbiote in the Statue of Liberty. But Venom escaped by putting a part of his Symbiote in Reed Richards' sonic gun. He then goaded Carnage into discharging the weapon at him, reuniting the Symbiote with its host. This panel captures that moment of reunification, and it also gives us a look at the teeth and tongue inserting themselves into Brock's mouth.
8. A Repulsively Sexy Symbiote
Issue: The Bride of Venom--Sinner Takes All #3
Artist: Greg Luzniak
Date: 1995
Although the Venom Symbiote's most famous host is Eddie Brock, he's not the only one. Spider-Man was its host before Brock, and in 1995, Anne Weying, Eddie Brock's ex-wife, became a host. Under the influence of the Symbiote, this "She-Venom" was far more brutal and violent that Brock had ever been.
Like many Symbiote hosts, Weying continued coveting the Symbiote's power after it left her; she eventually killed herself when she was unable to reconcile her two sides.
7. A Father/Son Relationship
Issue: Venom--Carnage Unleashed #3
Artist: Andrew Wildman
Date: 1995
The Venom vs. Carnage storylines are fraught with Freudian allusions; Carnage hates his "family" for abandoning him, but since the Carnage Symbiote is the offspring of the Venom symbiote, Venom is the closest thing he has to family. The Carnage Symbiote's human host, Cletus Kasady, is an orphan raised in an abusive foster home, which increases Carnage's feelings of resentment and abandonment. This comic cover from 1995 captured the anger that Carnage feels towards the Venom Symbiote, separate from Eddie Brock, when he literally separates the two.
6. The Symbiote Gets Angry At The Scorpion
Issue: Thunderbolts--Volume 2: Caged Angels
Artist: Mike Deodato, Jr.
Date: 2008
Not everyone is cut out to host the Venom Symbiote. Take, for example, Mac Gargan, better known as iconic Spider-Man villain The Scorpion. He became the third, long-term Symbiote host, and mentally, he couldn't deal with the violence, the killing, and the eating of people. And the Symbiote chewed him out in one, cruel panel:
"Stop complaining. Always complaining. It's too cold. Stuff hurts. I didn't mean to eat that guy's arm. Whining little maggot. You don't deserve me. You never did. Did I actually hear you say you didn't want to be the scary guy? You used to be the Scorpion. You used to be a hard man. Why did you turn into a schoolgirl as soon as you tasted some fresh meat?"
5. Venomsaurus Rex
Issue: Wolverine--Volume 3, #71
Artist: Steve McNiven
Date: 2009
This alternate timeline gave us a Symbiote pairing that we never knew we needed. After being eaten by a Tyrannosaurus Rex in the Savage Land, the Symbiote bonded with the giant lizard and chased Hawkeye and Logan on foot. "Holy $#%@" was the right reaction.
4. The Symbiote Meets Reed Richards
Issue: Spider-Man / Fantastic Four--Volume 1, #2
Artist: Mario Alberti
Date: 2010
One of the more inspired Venom transformations, this was when the Venom Symbiote attached itself to Mr. Fantastic, also known as Reed Richards. Richards' superpower is stretchy elasticity, and so of course, the Symbiote took some time to test out its newfound powers. One can imagine how fun these sorts of crossovers must be for the artists, who get to reimagine two iconic characters in a new way.
3. The Symbiote Gets Sacked By Six Savages
Issue: Venom--Volume 2, #21
Artist: Tony Moore
Date: 2012
In the vast majority of his appearances, Venom looks frighteningly strong; the host might look shot to hell, but the Symbiote almost never does. And that's why this cover, where Venom is beaten down by the Savage Six, is so striking. Everything hangs off of Brock's body like it's dead; even the signature tongue and teeth are drooping by the wayside.
This is how comics covers sell copies. How can you look at this, and not wonder what brought Venom so low, so quickly?
2. Venom Takes The Wheel
Issue: Venom--Volume 2, #36
Artist: Pepe Larraz
Date: 2013
In this storyline from 2013, the Symbiote possesses a car. There's never been a memorable scenario, prior to this, where Venom possessed an inanimate object--complete with massive teeth and tongue--and took it on a high speed chase. But now, apparently, that's a thing.
The implications of this are incredible. If a Venon-Mobile is a possibility, what about a Venom Tank? Or a Venom Missile? Or a Venom ceiling fan? This is so absurd, so canon-breaking and weird, that it loops back around to awesome.
1. I AM VENOM!
Issue: Guardians of the Galaxy--Volume 3, #21
Artist: Valerio Schiti
Date: 2014
The most recent, memorable Symbiote pairing came in 2014, when Venom clashed with the Guardians of the Galaxy; it made a lot of sense, since the Symbiote is of alien origin. Over the course of the multi-part storyline, it bonded with Drax and Rocket Racoon. But its best pairing was with Groot. It yells out "I AM VENOM!" instead of its signature "I AM GROOT," ending Volume 3 on a cliffhanger. The punchline was simultaneously dark and funny--a perfect merging of the two comics' sensibilities.
505 Games has announced that Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice will be getting a physical retail edition. Coming to both Xbox One and PS4, the physical edition will be available on December 4.
Originally releasing in 2017 as a PS4 console exclusive, Hellblade eventually launched on Xbox One in 2018. The game was then ported to Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, and if you already own the game on PC then you'll unlock the VR version of the game for free.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice was one of our top 10 games of 2017. The game puts you in the shoes of Senua, a Pict warrior who's traveling through a long-abandoned Nordic land. Her journey forces her to confront her guilt-ridden past that takes on the form of literal enemies, spectral remnants, and vivid hallucinations. Hellblade forces you to undergo numerous trials--ranging from harrowing fights to perspective-bending puzzles--and captures the surreal experience of someone suffering from poor mental health.
In our Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice review, GameSpot editor Alessandro Fillari gave the game an 8/10, writing, "Hellblade's most notable achievement is the handling of an incredibly sensitive subject matter within an engaging and well-crafted action/adventure game. At its heart, the story is about Senua's struggle to come to terms with her illness. In the process, she learns to find the strength within herself to endure, and to make peace with her past. And in a profound and physical way, we go through those same struggles with her, and come away with a better understanding of a piece of something that many people in the world struggle with."
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice is available for Xbox One, PS4, and PC; and can be played in VR on Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Tell me if you've heard this one before: A priest, a vacuum cleaner salesman, and a backup singer walk into a motel lobby. Drew Goddard's sophomore feature plays out like this joke, until the bloodbath begins. Goddard's follow up to his critically acclaimed Cabin in the Woods feels like a lost mid '90s film, from the time where everyone and their mother started making ensemble self-aware neo-noir crime movies with cool, period soundtracks, tons of dialogue, stylish violence, and convoluted structures in the wake of Quentin Tarantino's success.
This could be Heaven or this could be Hell, you could be thinking to yourself, as for the most part the film succeeds at standing among the crowd of Pulp Fiction wannabes. But while the entrance to Bad Times at the El Royale may entice you with cool characters and an intriguing mystery, the rooms are messy, uninvited guests come in at late hours, and the layout is confusing enough to make you want to check out early.
Welcome to the beautiful and lively motel El Royale--or at least it used to be. The massive front doors give way to a stylish '60s lobby, with a red line painted on the floor that divides the entire establishment into California and Nevada sections, each with appropriate decorations that invite guests to drink in California and then gamble in Nevada. But El Royale isn't what it used to be in its Rat Pack glory days, especially after losing its gambling license. Now the giant Vegas-style neon sign isn't glamorous, but tacky.
By the time our main guests arrive to check-in, there is plenty of room at the El Royale, and the sandwiches in the 1950s World Fair vending machines are expired. Father Daniel Flynn (Jeff Bridges), vacuum cleaner salesman Laramie Seymour Sullivan (Jon Hamm), background singer Darlene Sweet (Cynthia Erivo), and a mysterious girl (Emily) who signs the ledger as "F*** you" (Dakota Johnson) all arrive looking for a room, each with their unique reasoning. As the motel's lone clerk and only active employee, Miles (Lewis Pullman) guides them safely to their rooms, but a quiet night in the desert will soon turn violent and bloody.
Just like most Tarantino-inspired films of the '90s, Bad Times at the El Royale is divided into chapters, mostly reliving the moments following check-in from the perspective of each guest. Goddard plays with the idea that we all lie to each other and to ourselves, as no character is who they seem to be. Is he really a priest, or a salesman, or an FBI agent? Is it really a kidnapping, or a rescue? This works at first, as each chapter ends on a cliffhanger that further twists the plot and keeps you wanting to see more, especially Bridges and Erivo. The former plays a surprisingly vulnerable character suffering from the loss of memory and maybe something more, playing tough one moment, and weak the next. Eviro is the breakthrough star of the film, portraying a woman tired of dealing with bad men, and with a singing voice to destroy them all.
But as the film goes on, it starts to get repetitive, as you can only watch the same scene unfold so many times, and flashbacks start interweaving with the repeated scenes without adding much necessary information, but just an overly long runtime. Some of the most promising characters disappear or get killed rather quickly and without much explanation or reason, and the most interesting subplot--that of the El Royale's surveillance tunnels and one-way mirrors--is abandoned as soon as it gets introduced and never given any pay-off.
Drew Goddard and cinematographer Seamus McGarvey shoot the hotel rooms like living dioramas, making film look like a stage play--like we are observing lab rats. Goddard also oversaturates the film with cool blues for outdoor and present scenes, and with warm red flames indoors and in flashbacks. This results in a dazzling look that will be imprinted on your memory, together with the excellent production design that makes the El Royale feel like a real, lived in, rundown motel. There's also the film's soundtrack, composed of '60s songs that perfectly set the mood.
Note that I still haven't mentioned Chris Hemsworth, who is prominently featured on the marketing campaign for the film. The reason is that he arrives late in the film as a third act ace in the sleeve. He plays dangerous hippie Billy Lee, who likes to walk through heavy rain with his abs exposed and acts like a typical charismatic yet psychopathic cult leader. His storyline ties in with another character, Boots (Cailee Spaeny), in exactly the way you start to expect long before his introduction.
Hemsworth's shredded, gyrating, charismatic Charles Manson type may be fun for some, but the sudden introduction of an over the top, shirtless Australian makes the film shift focus from being a thriller about people hiding secrets to an over-the-top bloodbath in a change in tone that's too big and too quick, without feeling justified.
Bad Times at the El Royale starts promising, with interesting characters, great set design, and quick, witty dialogue. But by the time the film turns bloody, you will stop caring, since you have seen this before a million times. You will want to run for the door, begging the night man to let you leave early.
Bad Times at the El Royale hits theaters Friday, October 12.
The Good
The Bad
Cinematography is mesmerizing
Hemsworth is wasted in a forgettable villain role
Set design feels lived in
Some characters disappear or die before they get to truly shine
Promising start with witty dialogue
Narrative structure hurts the initial premise by over-complicating story
You can sneak past guards and stop convoluted global conspiracies on Xbox One now, with the addition of two more Metal Gear Solid games. Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty and Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater have just been added to the platform's backwards compatibility list. They're available combined as part of the Metal Gear Solid HD Edition, originally released on Xbox 360, for $20 / £15.
Metal Gear Solid 2 was the radical follow-up to the original, but divided fans at the time. Whereas its marketing focused heavily on the return of protagonist Solid Snake, some fans were disappointed that a significant amount of the game starred a new character, Raiden. (He's gone on to more prominent parts in later games, as well as his own game, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance.) Metal Gear Solid 3 took the series back in time, starring a younger Big Boss as Naked Snake and introducing more complex camouflage and survival systems. Both are critically acclaimed classics in their genre.
As always, if you have the original Metal Gear Solid HD Edition Xbox 360 disc you can just pop it into your Xbox One system and play it right away. If you own it digitally, it will already be a part of your downloadable library, so you can grab it from your purchased games.
Microsoft has been regularly releasing new backwards compatible games since introducing the feature in November 2015. The list is now pretty sizable and getting longer all the time, so if you have some Xbox or Xbox 360 discs, don't get rid of them just yet. They might join the line-up sometime soon.
The final season of Gotham won't premiere until 2019; however, with the show's final appearance at New York Comic-Con happening over the weekend, the Batman prequel series is at the center of a lot of buzz. Whether it's the news that Shane West will play Bane in the Fox show's final episodes or that Batman will finally make an appearance in the series finale, there's plenty to talk about.
One other topic of discussion over the last week is whether the show would jump ahead in time following the events of the Season 4 finale, in which Jeremiah (Cameron Monaghan) blew up the bridges that connect Gotham City to the rest of the world, essentially setting up a story inspired by the "No Man's Land" story from the DC comic books. During a visit to the show's set in New York City, GameSpot learned from multiple cast members that there would be a three-month time jump in the new season.
Thanks to a little clarification from executive producer John Stephens, though, it's not quite that simple. "We have a time jump of 391 days at the top of the premiere opener, but then we settle in back at 87 days," he said.
That means when the series returns, fans will see Gotham City a little over a year after Jeremiah destroyed the bridges, before settling back into its three-month jump. The season will then, assumedly, tell the story of how Jim Gordon (Ben McKenzie), Bruce Wayne (David Mazouz), and whoever else is left get the city to the point it's at on the 391-day mark.
Those aren't the only two time jumps at play in the final season, though. Speaking at Gotham's NYCC panel, Stephens also dropped another bombshell. The series finale will jump forward again, this time to 10 years in the future. It's at this point that the audience will meet Bruce as Batman. That said, it remains to be seen whether it'll be Mazouz in the cape and cowl.
Of course, any longtime fan of Gotham is probably keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that the young actor who was 13 years old when the show launched would end up getting to properly become Batman. To see whether that happens or not, though, you're going to have to wait for whenever the final season of Gotham premieres. All we know at this point is that it won't be until sometime early next year.
Ever since Bethesda announced its newest game in the Fallout series, it's been difficult to get a sense of what Fallout 76--an online-only RPG--is all about. While the concept of an online Fallout experience is enticing, it also comes into conflict with the series' typical brand of role-playing. Though Fallout 76 does lessen those traditionally single-player details to a noticeable degree, it offers up an alluring opportunity to explore uncharted, irradiated territory with other players online.
With the pivot to multiplayer, Fallout 76 focuses a lot more on exploration and survival in West Virginia's Appalachia, with all its regional oddities and newfound horrors coming in large doses. Recently, we played three hours of the game ahead of the game's upcoming October beta, and spoke with developers from Bethesda Game Studios about the particular challenges of making a different kind of Fallout.
During the first hour, I got my bearings by taking a tour around the immediate area, even joining a group to take in all the sights. Fallout 76 has the familiar RPG mechanics and sense of exploration that the series is known for, but it also has more of an amusement park vibe--with several key attractions and locales clearly highlighted on the map, such as The Greenbrier Resort and the Top of the World ski-slope. While exploring Fallout's take on West Virginia, which is several times larger than the Commonwealth of Fallout 4, I got the feeling that I was sort of experiencing the greatest hits of all things Fallout. First came the familiar weapons and armor found from previous games, then came the feral ghouls, the Super Mutants, and references to the Brotherhood of Steel and Enclave.
Still, the new location in West Virginia feels totally different from Fallout 4's Capital Wasteland and the Mojave from New Vegas, which quickly introduces its own brand of locales and strange monsters that reside there. Along with weird monsters like enlarged ticks, three-headed possums, and even Mole Men, there are other monsters that reference West Virginian urban legends. This includes the headless, hulking Grafton Monster and the enigmatic Mothman, the latter of which is revered by the hostile cabal of Scorched, heavily irradiated humans who eventually evolve into ghouls of sound mind.
For the most part, combat and general movement handle similarly to Fallout 4. However, the new mechanics and survival systems at play felt somewhat overwhelming to get a handle during our introduction. In 76, much of the tutorial happens in a trial by fire scenario in the open world, where you'll have to follow the early moments of the quests closely in order to learn the new mechanics, all while fighting off enemies and scavenging resources. While I appreciated the quick pace at which players are whisked out of the vault, picking up some meager supplies along the way, I felt that the on-boarding process could be a bit more detailed--it made me feel mostly unprepared as I was scrambling to find any weapon I could get my hands on.
With the new online focus, some returning mechanics have seen some changes. For instance, Fallout's iconic V.A.T.S.--allowing you to target enemies and fire off precisely-aimed shots--now operates in real-time. It acts more like a real-time lock-on--with your weapon's hit-rate adjusting depending on the enemy's movement or their surroundings. This style of V.A.T.S. definitely took some getting used to. Mostly to the fact that enemies move around often, and combined with the awkward focus of the V.A.T.S. camera, it was jarring to actually use it during a fight. Because of this, I mostly stuck with standard aiming and shooting, which felt more reliable during engagements. While you can upgrade V.A.T.S. with perks to make it more effective, it feels more like an option that should be used sparingly.
Fallout 76's survival mechanics take many cues from Fallout 4's more challenging Survival mode. In addition to keeping your character well fed on a regular basis, you'll also have to avoid ailments and diseases--such as contracting the oddly named but still troubling Rad Worms. Some enemies and locations even carry specific diseases, which create added risks to watch out for when exploring. These illnesses range from diseases that sap your maximum health, action points, and the general damage resistances for your character, to even increasing your susceptibility to radiation.
With a large emphasis on survival, nearly every item and resource you can get your hands on feels much more valuable. Nothing really lasts too long in Fallout 76--even the buffs from Bobbleheads and skill magazines only last a short time--so every tool you have will inevitably be discarded for something new. As you're scavenging through the open world, you'll find junk items, scraps, and crafting plans that can be turned into new gear and building materials for your constructions. Some of these materials can create bizarre weapons like the Heated Pitchfork or Ski-Sword--a single ski sharpened to form a blade. But over time, weapons and armor will eventually need to be repaired or broken down into materials for other items. Moreover, cooking and chem stations now have a greater importance, allowing you to prepare meals and craft support items.
Character growth is still the core part of Fallout 76, and it offers an impressive amount of variety and flexibility. After leveling up, you can place points into the familiar categories of the SPECIAL system, each of which boost areas of your character's raw stats. Eventually, you'll acquire a pack of Perk Cards that can offer special buffs in their assigned categories. For example, the Gladiator perk card is a Strength card which increases damage with melee weapons, while Lead Belly can decrease the radiation from drinking contaminated water. The more points you have in a category, the more Perk Cards you can potentially slot in, giving you a whole suite of added buffs. At any time, you can swap out your set of Perk Cards to readjust your character, to better prepare for different challenges.
In keeping with the game's focus on pioneering, the building mechanics from Fallout 4 also return. Now known as the C.A.M.P. system, you have in your possession a mobile construction device that allows you create a building at any time--provided that it doesn't overlap with existing structures. You have free rein to construct whatever you like, whether that be subtle safe-houses for you to stash supplies, or even larger mega-structures that house turrets and a dedicated place to relax. If you ever want to pack up and move elsewhere, you can save your structure as a blueprint and dismantle it. This can come in handy if your chosen spot becomes too popular with other players.
The biggest point of contention with Fallout 76's online nature is its lack of NPCs and slimmed down story, now serve to highlight the focus on moment-to-moment engagements with enemies and other players. This lack of traditional interactions and storytelling felt more noticeable the deeper we dove into the world. While you're certainly free to play solo and avoid other players--and we definitely took the opportunity to strike out on our own, leading to those familiar moments of solitude and wanderlust, you'll always be a potential target within the online world.
Having said that, I couldn't help but feel intrigued by the re-focus here. Lore and smaller doses of story are still in surprisingly ample supply, but told passively through the environment and journals scattered about. While there are no active NPC characters to find--with exception to roaming robots that can offer trades and intel--you'll eventually stumble across the bodies of long-dead survivors who have had a notable presence in the world. In their possession are special holotapes known Survivor Stories, detailing the last moments of their lives in the irradiated wilderness.
These stories told some interesting tales for the characters in Appalachia, which had some poignant and heartfelt moments to them--which was reassuring given the fragmented nature of the storytelling in 76. Speaking with design director Emil Paglliarulo, he elaborated on their refocus to make Fallout more about engaging with others players.
"We started off with the premise where the only other people you see are the ones that came from the vault," he said. "We've also never had the opportunity to do a game that's set twenty-five years after the bombs fell, it's always been two-hundred something years after. Now, we have the stories of the people that survived the initial war, and we've never been able to tell those stories before. Of course without NPCs or no dialog trees--which was a huge adjustment for our quest designers, as they were used to doing it a certain way--and now the lore-heavy stuff comes from holo-tapes, which now has its own tab in the Pip-Boy. That's been really interesting for us. And what ended up happening is that we ended up having a much more lonely story than in Fallout 4. All of these people that you do [learn about] are dead already, and it's almost like a weird ghost story. We didn't expect that."
Whether you want to play solo or within a group, player interaction is a big part of the game. Encountering another person after rounding the corner or reaching the end of a dungeon creates some genuinely tense feelings--not knowing what intentions the other player in front of you has. To communicate with others, Fallout 76 features a variety of in-game emotes to use and proximity based voice-chat. During our session, however, we used Xbox Live's party chat client to stay in constant communication with our group--which won't be the case for most players online.
When playing in groups, communication is important, and the emotes and proximity chat are a great way to get your point across. This is especially vital when grouping up for some of the more active quests that task you with overcoming some bizarre obstacles, such as finding the keys to an armory in a makeshift town built out of a destroyed aircraft, or finding out a mob of "unruly golfer feral ghouls" at a ritzy resort that's still maintained by protectotrons. This can lead to some humorous and equally tense moments where players are scrambling to rely on their team's special skills to progress further.
Once you reach level 5, Fallout 76's PvP systems open up. When you encounter another player that's over level 5, you can fire your weapon at them to let them know of your intentions. If they return fire, then you'll both engage in a duel, with the loser dropping their current haul of junk items--no caps or gear is lost after a defeat. When shooting at a player that hasn't engaged in response, all damage will be cut in half, which gives them enough time to react. It's possible to kill another player who is not into the idea of fighting, and appropriately enough, this backhanded approach will mark you as a murderer, painting a massive target on your back for all players in the world to see.
Our group of level 5 explorers tried to take down a level-58 player in power armor in similar fashion, but it didn't go over well at all as he easily decimated the group with a high-powered Tesla Rifle. While damage calculations scale for enemies, allowing low-level players to potentially take out monsters several levels ahead of them, it does not for PvP engagements. However, if you wish to avoid PvP, or if a player is bugging you too much, you can block them or fast-travel to safety fairly easily. So far, the system in place is a thoughtful way to overcome the potential harassment that can often spring up with this type of game.
To cap off our hands-on time, the developers launched a nuke, which obliterates specific areas of the map. We all had front row seats to the explosion, and then proceeded to jump into the ensuing fallout--with its heavy radiation promptly killing us off one-by-one. As one of the larger end-game goals in Fallout 76, activating a nuke can lead to new events in the irradiated areas, revealing rare materials and dangerous enemies to fight. It also highlights the more dynamic nature of Fallout 76, with many of its narrative touches informed by the player's decisions in the world.
The scale of Fallout 76 seemed impressive based on the first few hours. The location of West Virginia--and all its oddities--was exciting to dive into, which felt refreshing after coming off of Fallout 4's Commonwealth. However, much like previous Fallout games, there were a number of odd bugs and large frame-rate dips that occurred throughout. This was especially noticeable during larger fire fights against large groups of enemies, which brought overall performance down to a slog. The developers we spoke to, however, assured us that the performance will be improved in time for its November 14 launch.
76 certainly isn't like other Fallout games. After our three hours, I got the impression that Bethesda is taking a risky approach with the series in regards to its lore and its core gameplay. With its heavy focus on survival gameplay and the online experience, I suspect that this largely experimental take on Fallout will become a rather polarizing entry. Though the mechanics were somewhat overwhelming to get a handle of, I can't deny that I enjoyed exploring the large map and engaging in the mysterious, post-apocalyptic take on West Virginia. Fallout 76 looks like it can flourish in the long-term, and I'm interested in what can come about after many hours in its off-kilter and ever-changing setting.
It's a convergence of sales this week on the PlayStation Store, as a number of different sales come together to drop prices on a whole heap of great games. EA is running a publisher sale, while Sony is celebrating its exclusives with the Only on PlayStation Sale. And finally, this week sees the second anniversary of the launch of PlayStation VR, so Sony is also dropping prices on well over 100 PSVR titles. There's a lot to save money on this week--and in many cases PS Plus members save even more--so let's look at some of the highlights of all the sales ending October 15.
If you're in the mood for horror during the lead-up to Halloween, you should do yourself a favor and pick up Resident Evil 7: Gold Edition for $35 (it's particularly terrifying when played in PSVR). On sale this week for $5 is Until Dawn, a game that's basically a playable horror movie where your actions determine who lives and who dies.
And if you have a PSVR headset, you'll find plenty of worthwhile games to play for cheap. The Invisible Hours is a creative murder mystery that lets you manipulate time to try to figure out who committed a murder in a remote mansion. Doom VFR lets you blast demons with satisfyingly fast-paced action, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR offers the largest, most detailed VR world you're likely to find anytime soon. Other VR standouts include the rhythm game Thumper for $7, the team-based shooter Firewall: Zero Hour for $34, and the hilarious Job Simulator for $15.
It's a fantastic week for PS4 game deals, so be sure to check out more of our suggestions below, or head over to the PlayStation Store to see the full list of discounts.
Find out where the Destiny 2: Forsaken Ascendant Challenge portal location is for Week 6 of the expansion and what you have to do to complete it.
Batwoman hits the streets.
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