The recently revealed Avengers: Endgamecostumes for the core team has fans clamoring--and no, it's not because of Natasha's stylishly grown out dye job or Cap's classic chain mail look making an appearance. Their concerns are fixated on the inexplicable inclusion of not Bruce Banner, but The Hulk in the lineup after he infamously refused to make an appearance throughout Avengers: Infinity War.
But it's not just the fact that Hulk is most definitely his mean, green self in the promo image--it's that he looks a little different from the last time we saw him. And that might actually be a big clue as to where both he and Banner are headed in the final chapter of this installment of the MCU.
Brace yourselves, this one is a little weird.
As fans have pointed out, the new Hulk image not only features Hulk sporting a very fashionable bodysuit, it also (apparently) features a very slightly remodeled face. This, of course, wouldn't be the first time the Hulk CGI has gone through some major upgrades--his look has changed in just about every movie he's been in--but this one seems a bit more than just technology leaping forward. This particular render seems to be trying to blend together the look of actor Mark Ruffalo's face with the Hulk we all know and love. This, coupled with the strange back-and-forth between the two halves of the character since Thor: Ragnarok has led fans to believe that we might be seeing the live-action debut of the character known as Professor Hulk.
Despite the rather ridiculous name, Professor Hulk isn't just a version of Hulk who went back to school and got a degree. He's actually a Hulk incarnation that blends both Bruce and Hulk together--sort of. Introduced back in 1991, Professor Hulk was originally a "merged Hulk" that combined the extreme-90s Grey and Savage Hulks--don't worry too much about the finer points differentiating them--with Doctor Banner himself. The Merged Hulk exhibited traits and personality features of all its combined parts and was later developed further into a personality called The Professor.
The biggest and most important takeaway when dealing with The Professor is understanding that he was an incarnation of Hulk that exhibited Bruce's intelligence and personality. Normally, as we've seen exhibited really well in the MCU, Banner and Hulk are two completely separate consciousnesses--they're even able to "argue" with one another over who gets to be dominant in their shared body at any given moment. Professor Hulk has no such issue. As a true mixture of both halves of the Hulk/Banner equation, there is no struggle for dominance or control, just a perfect balancing act between the two of them. Strangely, in the comics, this also meant that Professor Hulk was the largest of the Hulks running around for a while, but the least powerful. Do with that information what you will.
So, what does this mean for the MCU if an incarnation of the good Professor is headed our way? Well, it would certainly be a fitting conclusion to the "trilogy" teased by Mark Ruffalo spanning Thor: Ragnarok, Infinity War, and Endgame--and a fitting, if slightly tragic, finale to Bruce Banner's tenure in the shared universe. As a character driven largely by the push-pull of the duality that consumes his life, finding a balance would be a bittersweet compromise, leaving Bruce changed, but finally free of his "curse," and ideally, Hulk free of his fear.
Of course, if that does happen, there would most likely be an issue with finding out exactly where on Earth a giant green half-monster man could fit in--but maybe Earth isn't where Hulk and Banner will want to stay when the dust settles and Thanos is defeated. After all, both halves of the equation have plenty of experience out in the cosmos by now, and assuming the Thanos fight doesn't wind up fatal, it wouldn't be too far a stretch to picture him heading back to space, even if that means saying more than a few goodbyes.
The first Nintendo Direct of 2019 is only a few hours away. The presentation kicks off today, February 13, at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET / 10 PM GMT, and it'll provide new details on a number of games coming to Switch this year, including Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the first proper Switch entry in the long-running strategy RPG series.
The broadcast is estimated to run for approximately 35 minutes, suggesting there will a ton of news and announcements coming out of it. As usual, Nintendo will host streams of the broadcast on its official website and Twitch channels. You can also tune in right here on GameSpot and follow along with the Direct using the YouTube embed below.
Beyond Fire Emblem, Nintendo hasn't revealed what games will be featured during today's Direct, but we already know of a few that are lined up for this year, including the adorable platformer Yoshi's Crafted World, which launches on March 29. Luigi's Mansion 3, Daemon X Machina, and Switch installments of Animal Crossing and Pokemon have also been announced for this year, although none of those have received release dates yet.
One game we can safely assume won't be featured during today's presentation, however, is Metroid Prime 4. Last month, Nintendo announced that it was effectively restarting development on the game--this time with original developer Retro Studios at the helm--as it wasn't coming together to the company's liking.
"Although this is very regrettable we must let you know that the current development progress has not reached the standards we seek in a sequel to Metroid Prime series," senior managing executive officer Shinya Takahashi said in a video message. "Nintendo always strives for the highest quality in our games and in our development phase, we challenge ourselves and confront whether the game is living up to that quality on a daily basis.
"From this perspective, we have determined that the current development status of [Metroid Prime 4] is very challenged, and we had to make a difficult decision as a development team. We have decided to re-examine the development structure and change it."
While Metroid Prime 4 is likely a long way off, there are plenty of Switch games on the horizon this year. You can get a look at the biggest ones in our gallery of Nintendo exclusives coming in 2019.
Update 01 first adds in a few Valentine's Day-themed items to the Apex Legends store: specifically, the "Shot Through The Heart" skin for the Longbow DRM, and the "Love Of The Game" Pathfinder banner frame. Both of those will only be available February 13-19, and won't be in the store until 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET / 1 AM UTC.
You can also earn the "Live Die Live" banner badge between February 13 and 19, which unlocks when you revive a squadmate sometime during the week.
Apart from that, the patch is mostly focused on fixing bugs in Apex Legends. An exploit that apparently allowed players to infinitely duplicate items in their inventory has been fixed, as has an issue that was causing some players' friends lists to show everyone as offline.
Some issues in the King's Canyon map have been fixed, which should help keep you from getting stuck in weird places or falling through invisible holes. And for PlayStation 4 players who snagged the PlayStation Plus Play Pack, Respawn has updated a couple of cosmetics with new art.
Read the full patch notes below.
Apex Legends February 13 Update Patch Notes
Valentine's Day
Added "Live Die Live" Banner Badge: Revive a member of your squad between 2/13 and 2/19 to earn this limited time badge.
Added Valentines Day cosmetic items to the store. They will be live and available in the store starting 2/13 until 2/19 and then they're gone!
"Through the Heart" Longbow Epic DMR skin
"Love of the Game" Pathfinder banner frame
Stability / Bugs / Performance / Quality of Life
Various improvements and tweaks to UI.
Extended timeout that was causing players with slower hard drives to crash.
Addressed a number of client and server stability issues.
Fixed exploit where you could keep duplicating items in your inventory.
Addressed a number of stability and performance issues.
Fixed issue where players would get a gray screen in lobby when connecting for the first time.
Fixed issue where your friends list showed all your friends as offline and unable to party.
Shortened duration of Bloodhound's Eye of the Allfather clones to remain in the world by 1 second.
Gear
Arc Star now displays a grenade warning indicator.
King's Canyon
Addressed a number bugs with map geo like holes you could fall through and areas that players could get stuck in plus a bunch of other polish issues.
PlayStation Plus Play Pack
Art updated for the Playstation Plus Play Pack to the Flatline skin and Banner Card and changed the names to Deep Blue. This will affect all players that already have been rewarded the skins as well.
We still have a lot of work to do and we hear those frustrated by disconnects and crashes and are working to improve stability and performance as well as provide more visibility for everyone.
Batman and the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles might not seem like the most obvious of comic book team-ups, but they do have their similarities. Both fight crime at night in a big city, are known to inflict considerable pain on their enemies, and have animal-based superhero names (of course, the Turtles ARE actually turtles). Fans can now enjoy their first onscreen team-up in the new animated movie Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
As reported by Syfy.com, the film is a collaboration between DC Entertainment and Nickelodeon. It's based on the 2015 Batman/Turtles crossover comic by James Tynion IV and Freddie Williams II, and will see the heroes meet up via a "transdimensional encounter," and end up fighting various villains from Batman's rogues gallery.
Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles releases on 4K, Blu-ray, and Digital in late spring. The voicecast includes Troy Baker (The Last of Us), who will play both Batman and the Joker, Darren Criss (The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story) as Raphael, Kyle Mooney (Saturday Night Live) as Michelangelo, Baron Vaughn (Grace and Frankie) as Donatello, and Eric Bauza (The Woody Woodpecker Show) as Leonardo. A first image from the movie has been released--check it out below.
The cast also includes Crazy Ex-Girlfriend star Rachel Bloom as Batgirl, DC animation veteran Tara Strong as both Harley Quinn and Poison Ivy, Tom Kenny (Spongebob Squarepants) as The Penguin, and John DiMaggio (Adventure Time) as Mr. Freeze.
The first trailer for Frozen II is here. The long-awaited sequel to Disney's 2013 blockbuster animated movie Frozen continues the icy adventures of Elsa and Anna, and hits theaters in November.
The trailer doesn't give much away, but it's certainly dramatic. Much of it shows Elsa trying again and again to cross an extremely stormy sea using her powers of ice magic. Elsewhere, we see Anna looking concerned about a hall of weird icy diamonds, Kristoff riding his horse, and the three walking through a spooky forest. Check it out above.
Frozen II releases on November 22. All of the key cast members from the first movie will be back, including Kristen Bell as Anna and Idina Menzel as Elsa, plus Jonathan Groff as Kristoff and Josh Gad as Olaf.
New cast members include Westworld star Evan Rachel Wood and Sterling K. Brown (Black Panther, American Crime Story). It's directed by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee, who helmed the first film. A new poster has also been released, which you can see at the end of this story.
While plot details are largely unknown at this stage, Buck previously hinted that Elsa might have a little more fun in this one. "[In Frozen] she had such a dramatic journey, and at the end she's just starting to feel like she can open up and have some fun again," he told Fandango. "That's what was really good about the short [2015's Frozen Fever]--we could have fun with Elsa. And that personality... you will see in the next one."
Rockstar Games is said to be working on next-generation projects, and the company will do so without veteran Jeronimo Barrera, who worked on almost every game the studio put out over the past 20 years. Barrera left Rockstar in mid-December, and he gave an exit interview of sorts to Variety. He said he left Rockstar after the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 because it felt like a "natural progression" to step away after the western came out.
"I looked at what I would be doing for the next few years if I stayed on and where I was in life with my family, my kids, my desire to make cool s**t. I felt like it was hitting all of the right points," he explained.
In his role as vice president of product development at Rockstar, Barrera said he was in charge of "steering the ship in the right direction." He also contributed to the effort that saw Rockstar's studio around the world come together to work together on single games instead of their own projects.
"I thought it was the best decision ever to get everybody on board to centralize the technology and the pipelines," he explained. "It was a natural move and we were making sure that we had all of our best efforts making the best game possible. Not needing to reinvent the wheel every time."
As for what he'll do next, Barrera wouldn't say, but he spoke about how the video game industry is in the midst of a "new game" where technology is advancing at a rapid clip.
"If I had stayed at Rockstar it would have been more GTAs, more RDRs and less of this other stuff going on out there right now," he said.
Barrera leaves Rockstar on a high note. Red Dead Redemption 2, which is Rockstar's most recently release, was a critical darling and it's shipped an astonishing 23 million copies so far.
In addition to renewing The Simpsons, Fox has now renewed two of its other marquee animated shows for new seasons to air in the 2019-2020 season. Family Guy and Bob's Burgers have been renewed, sources told The Hollywood Reporter. The renewal orders actually came quietly months ago, the site reported, though Fox has yet to officially announce the news.
Family Guy and Bob's Burgers might not make a lot of money or attract the highest number of viewers, but they make lots and lots of money from streaming and merchandising deals, THR said. The same is reportedly true for The Simpsons.
Family Guy is in its 17th season, while Bob's Burgers is in its ninth. According to THR, the deal to renew both shows was made months ago ahead of the closing of Disney's deal to buy the majority of Fox's assets, including Family Guy, Bob's Burgers, and The Simpsons, for $72 billion.
In 2017, following the tepid reception to Mass Effect: Andromeda, a report said that the Mass Effect franchise was put on ice. That may be the case, but now a pair of BioWare higher-ups have spoken about their eagerness to make more Mass Effect games ... someday.
Mark Darrah, the executive producer Anthem and the Dragon Age series, told Polygon that BioWare is "definitely not done with Mass Effect."
He said the Mass Effect universe is ripe with storytelling opportunities. "We could pull on the threads we put down with Andromeda; we could pull on threads from Mass Effect 3. There's a lot of interesting space to be explored."
BioWare general manager Casey Hudson is also quoted in the piece. He said the Mass Effect franchise is "very much alive."
"I'm thinking all the time about things that I think will be great. It's just a matter of getting back to it as soon as we can," he said.
BioWare producer Michael Gamble weighed in on Twitter, saying BioWare is "of course" not finished making more Mass Effect games.
Sources told Kotaku in 2017 that BioWare is giving the Mass Effect franchise a rest instead of getting to work right away on another game to follow Andromeda. That title was the first that BioWare Montreal served as lead developer on; the developer previously acted as a support studio for other BioWare projects.
BioWare's next big game is the multiplayer shooter Anthem, which launches later this month for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The studio is also working on a new Dragon Age game, and the first teaser can be seen here.
Would you like to see more Mass Effect games? Let us know in the comments below!
On top of Ubisoft's ongoing PSN sale, a new selection of game deals are now available in the US PlayStation Store. Just as it has on Xbox this week, publisher Take-Two is offering deals on a range of games for PS4, PS3, and Vita--but they'll only be discounted for a limited time.
If sports games are more up your alley, the latest entry in Take-Two's annual wrestling series, WWE 2K19, is on sale for $19.80. Basketball fans can pick up NBA 2K19 for the same price ($19.80), while NBA 2K Playgrounds 2, a more arcadey take on the sport in the vein of NBA Jam, is down to $15.
You can see some other notable deals below; the full list can be found on the PlayStation Store. Much like the aforementioned Ubisoft sale, these deals will only be available until Friday, February 19, so you have until then to take advantage of the offers.
As part of Activision Blizzard's earnings report today, the company discussed its decision to split off from Bungie on the development of the Destiny franchise. President and Chief Operating Officer Coddy Johnson started off by saying Activision Blizzard is "confident" that it was the right decision for both Activision Blizzard and Bungie to go separate ways. Describing the breakup as a "mutual, amicable" agreement, Johnson said the deal is the "right path forward" for each entity.
"Bungie gets to focus on the [Destiny IP] that they have created and we get to focus on our biggest opportunities on our biggest franchises with our best resources," Johnson said. "Our decision was reached with mutual agreement with Bungie to sell back the commercial rights. And for us at least, it was rooted in really our strategy overall."
When Activision Blizzard and Bungie originally signed their 10-year publishing deal for Destiny back in 2010, one key component of the agreement was that Bungie would get to retain ownership of the Destiny IP. By comparison, Activision Blizzard owns the IP for its other major franchises such as Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. There are a number of benefits to owning an IP, Johnson said.
"We did not own the underlying Destiny IP, and we do for all of our other major franchises, which we think is not just a differentiator for us in the industry," he said. "But also controlling the underlying IP gives us the chance to move in with new experiences and new engagement models which also come with new revenue streams and, structurally, higher economics when you own the IP."
Also during the call, Johnson said Activision Blizzard wanted to break up with Bungie because the Destiny franchise was failing to meet its commercial projections. "Destiny is highly critically acclaimed, high quality content, but it was not meeting our financial expectations," he said.
When Activision Blizzard management conducted a financial review for 2019, the company saw signs that indicated Destiny would not be a "material contributor" to the company's profit. Not only that, but Activision Blizzard assigned some of its own studios, including High Moon Studios and Vicarious Visions, to assist Bungie in developing Destiny content faster.
"[Bungie was] tying up one of our scarcest resources--developer talent," Johnson said.
While High Moon and Vicarious Visions will continue to work with Bungie on Destiny content for a "transition period," they will be freed up after this to work on other Activision projects. Earlier today, Activision Blizzard said it plans to increase the number of developers working on games like Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Overwatch, Warcraft, Hearthstone, and Diablo by about 20 percent in aggregate over the course of 2019. It could be that High Moon and Vicarious Visions shift some of their efforts to these projects, but that hasn't been confirmed at this stage.
Finally, Johnson offered a brief timeline of events that led up to Activision Blizzard parting ways with Bungie and the Destiny series. He said that Activision Blizzard learned in November, after its earnings report, that Bungie wanted to get out of the publishing deal. This deal was done in late-December, Johnson said, before it was ultimately announced in early January.
The bigger Activision Blizzard news today is that the company is cutting around eight percent of its workforce in a layoff round that could affect 800 people or more.
The first trailer for the J.R.R. Tolkien biopic starring Nicholas Hoult as the Lord of the Rings author has arrived. The short video gives us a first look at the film that will explore Tolkien's formative years and the journey and experiences that inspired him to write The Lord of the Rings.
Tolkien was an orphan, and a significant part of his life was finding friends at school. He fought in World War I, and many of his friends died in battle. Tolkien survived, and it is said that Tolkien's time serving in the trenches inspired some of his ideas for Middle-earth. Another significant element of Tolkien's life and the movie is his romantic relationship with Edith Bratt, who is played by Lily Collins.
The relationship between Tolkien and Bratt was supposedly the inspiration for Tolkien's Beren and Luthien story, which itself inspired the Aragorn-Arwen relationship in Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings series. Tolkien and Bratt share a gravestone, and on it they're referred to as Beren and Luthien.
Tolkien hits theatres on May 10. It's directed by Dome Karukoski (Heart of Finland), based on script from David Gleeson and Stephen Beresford.
In addition to this film, another one is in the works that focuses on the relationship between Tolkien and Narnia writer C.S. Lewis, and how Tolkien helped convert Lewis to Christianity.
Far Cry: New Dawn sees Ubisoft's open-world FPS series head into the post-apocalypse, where society has fallen after the events of Far Cry 5. One of the game's new features are Expeditions, a series of self-contained missions that take place outside of the main setting of Hope County, and around various US-based locations.
Expeditions are snatch-and-grab affairs; your goal is to sneak into an enemy-occupied region, steal a package with valuable crafting materials, and get to an extraction point as the whole base comes chasing after you. One particular mission is dubbed "Government Plane Wreck", and involves sneaking into an enemy-occupied base established in the body of an enormous military aircraft. You can see a narrated walkthrough of the mission in the video above.
Of course, it wouldn't be a perfectly shady government plane without a few secrets, and it doesn't take much for fans of stealth games to you to quickly realize that the government plane in question is the C-147B Paladin from the Splinter Cell series, which served as the mobile HQ for the special ops unit, Fourth Echelon.
But it goes further, of course. Throughout the plane, you can find conveniently-placed notes signed by "SF", presumably Splinter Cell protagonist Sam Fisher, and they describe what happened to him after the events of Far Cry 5. Turns out, he was on his way to find his daughter, Sarah, after the apocalypse, and he ruminates over the fact that the world needs survivors in this day and age. The notes also make references to Fisher's fellow Fourth Echelon agents Isaac Briggs, Anna GrÃmsdóttir, Andriy Kobin, and Charlie Cole.
The icing on the cake is that you can find and switch on a Shadownet terminal within the plane, which that opens up a secret wall compartment, letting you retrieve a full Sam Fisher getup, complete with the iconic trifocal goggles, for use with your New Dawn character. The flavor text for the outfit pokes fun at the relentless enemy barks that the Splinter Cell series was infamous for: "Fisher's on the loose! I heard something, better not be Fisher. Fisher wouldn't try his luck here, would he? That'd be f***in' crazy! Fisher, Fisher, Fisher!"
The last time we saw Sam Fisher in his own game was 2013's Splinter Cell: Blacklist, but this isn't the first time we've seen references to the series in a recent Ubisoft game. He made a cameo in Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Wildlands, which stirred up talks of a new game, which Ubisoft previously hinted at in 2017. Does this mean we should expect more from the series in the near future? Are the Splinter Cell, Ghost Recon, and Far Cry universes all connected? Should we expect more Splinter Cell references in The Division 2?
You'll be able to play through this Splinter Cell-themed Expedition when Far Cry: New Dawn launches on February 15, 2019 on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC.
As part of Activision Blizzard's earnings report, the company announced that a new Call of Duty game is coming out in 2019. It also confirmed the return of a key feature absent from last year's entry.
Activision management offered some very high-level insight on the game, saying it will appeal to veterans and newcomers alike. The company added that the game is a "great step forward" for the franchise, going on to say that it's rooted in Call of Duty's history, which suggests it will be a sequel to an existing sub-brand.
Also during the call, Activision management confirmed the new Call of Duty will feature some kind of campaign, which is notable because Black Ops 4 did away with a traditional campaign. Whether or not the new Call of Duty returns to the traditional campaign remains to be seen, however. Whatever the case, Activision also confirmed the new game will have a "huge expansive multiplayer world," as well as "fun co-op gameplay." More details are expected in the coming months.
Johnson said Activision has "high expectations" for the game, though it's predicting that sales of the mysterious game will be lower than 2018's Black Ops 4. The Black Ops franchise is historically the best-performing Call of Duty sub-brand, so a year-over-year downturn in sales is expected.
2019's Call of Duty is rumored to be Modern Warfare 4 from Infinity Ward. The series is on a three-year, three-studio development schedule, so 2019's title is expected to come from Infinity Ward, the studio that created the Modern Warfare series.
As for Activision's earnings report, the biggest news was Activision laying off around 800 employees, or about eight percent of its workforce. The job losses will affect teams at Blizzard, Activision, and King, in a number of non-game-development roles.
Activision Blizzard, the company behind Call of Duty, Overwatch, and Candy Crush, has announced significant layoffs. Employees were notified of the cuts on Tuesday to coincide with the release of the company's annual earnings report, which saw it post its best results ever. Despite this strong performance, hundreds of people across Activision, Blizzard, and mobile game company King will be impacted by the layoffs.
Activision detailed its financial performance for the fourth quarter of 2018 and the year overall. As part of this, it noted that it "will increase development investment in its biggest franchises, enabling teams to accelerate the pace and quality of content for their communities and supporting a number of new product initiatives." It also cited that the number of developers that will be working on "Call of Duty, Candy Crush, Overwatch, Warcraft, Hearthstone and Diablo in aggregate will increase approximately 20% over the course of 2019."
However, this greater investment, it says, will be funded by "de-prioritizing initiatives that are not meeting expectations and reducing certain non-development and administrative-related costs across the business"--referring to the layoffs. In its financial call, COO Coddy Johnson said there would be an eight percent reduction in headcount at Activision Blizzard. With nearly 10,000 employees by the company's last count, this amounts to nearly 800 people losing their jobs.
Company CEO Bobby Kotick, said that, while Activision Blizzard's "financial results for 2018 were the best in our history," it "didn't realize our full potential." As a result, the company has made leadership changes designed to "enable us to achieve the many opportunities our industry affords us, especially with our powerful owned franchises, our strong commercial capabilities, our direct digital connections to hundreds of millions of players, and our extraordinarily talented employees."
In a statement acquired by Kotaku, Blizzard president said "staffing levels on some teams are out of proportion with [the company's] current release slate," which has necessitated the need to scale down. Although the layoffs are currently isolated to the US business, Brack indicated that other regional offices will also be evaluated in the future and could also be impacted, "subject to local requirements."
Brack's message to Activision Blizzard's reportedly states "a comprehensive severance package," in addition to job assistance and a profit-sharing bonus will be offered to those at Blizzard that are being affected by the layoffs.
Amidst these layoffs, Activision Blizzard has increased the dividends it is paying to its shareholders by nine percent from 2018. At the same time, it has authorized a two-year stock repurchase program. These measures are intended to soften potential impact on Activision Blizzard's stock price, but paints a negative picture when placed alongside the layoffs.
Xbox One's backwards compatible library continues to expand. Microsoft's Major Nelson announced that another pair of Xbox 360 games are playable on the current-gen console beginning today, February 12: The King of Fighters XIII and Orcs Must Die.
Both of this week's BC titles originally debuted in 2011. The King of Fighters XIII is one of the latest installments in SNK's long-running fighting game series; at the time of its release, it was considered a return to form for the franchise, addressing many of the elements that made its predecessor, The King of Fighters XII, disappointing. GameSpot awarded it an 8.5/10 in our original King of Fighters XIII review.
Orcs Must Die, meanwhile, is a humorous tower defense/action game, in which players assume the role of a battle mage who must fortify their castle with spikes and all other manner of traps to defend it against an incoming army of orcs. While the game lacks any multiplayer options, we thought it was enjoyable and gave it a 7.5/10 in our original Orcs Must Die review.
If you still have a physical copy of either game laying around, you can simply insert the disc into your Xbox One to initiate a download and begin playing. If you've previously purchased either game digitally, they'll automatically appear in the Ready to Download section of the My Games and Apps menu.
Microsoft has been steadily rolling out new BC games on a near weekly basis since the feature was first introduced. The previous batch included Lego Batman 2 and Port Royale 3. You can see all of the backwards compatible games to date in our full list of Xbox One BC games.
For any voice actor, joining the Walt Disney Animation Studios roster of talent seems like it should be a dream come true. After all, you've become part of a fabric of movies that includes iconic titles like Cinderella, Pinocchio, and Robin Hood. For Alan Tudyk, who has now appeared in six Disney animated films--along with Rogue One: A Star Wars Story--it was another movie that drew him to the studio growing up.
Speaking to GameSpot to promote the Blu-ray and digital release of his latest Disney feature, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Tudyk spoke about his love for The Little Mermaid, where he found inspiration for his character KnowsMore in the latest Wreck-It Ralph film, and what's it's like being in the Disney pantheon of films. Additionally, Tudyk opened up about his latest project, DC Universe's Doom Patrol and creating his own take on the iconic villain The Joker in the upcoming Harley Quinn animated series.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is available on digital now, with the Blu-ray and DVD following on February 26. The released includes a range of special features that explore the Easter eggs hidden throughout the film, a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the movie, and deleted scenes.
GameSpot: What were your Disney movies when you were growing up?
Alan Tudyk: Although I was too old to love it as much as I did, I think [The] Little Mermaid, man. Little Mermaid.
GameSpot: Really?
Tudyk: I loved the French cook because through the whole movie you've got all these fish who are your friends, and then you meet this guy who's like, "Les poissons, les poissons," and he's chopping them into pieces right in front of you. It was so shocking and hysterical because he's very funny, singing about killing them. It's just, it's a great musical.
GameSpot: I have to believe for a voice actor [that] Disney is the gold standard. They are the history of animation from beginning to end. What is it like to know that you're a part of that fabric; that you exist in this world where you are multiple Disney characters?
Tudyk: Yeah. It's hard to comprehend. I have to step out of it and think of myself watching Little Mermaid. Like, had I met the guy who played Sebastian, how much that would have floored me. Although, there's also a little bit of, when you meet the people... Because I did end up seeing him in an interview. I was like, "That's Sebastian?" I wanted more from that. I wanted him to be funnier than he is.
You get that with kids. There's a certain age that they believe in the characters; they truly believe they exist. So if you do a KnowsMore character, "Oh, hello. How are you?" They look at you like... they get confused, then there's this betrayal that goes across their face, like they've been lied to, which they have been, and they don't understand what it is yet.
GameSpot: KnowsMore, it's a strange character, because, in a way, you're playing Google.
Tudyk: Yes.
GameSpot: Obviously, the design of the character, I'm assuming helps in building your vision of the character, but how do you find that character and that voice and how you're going to play it?
Tudyk: Well this one was interesting. [Co-director] Rich [Moore] asked me before I came in. He said, "Put him in the neighborhood of Truman Capote." So he put me there, and Truman Capote sounds like this. Close'ish. I don't do good [impressions]. But it's sort of him. It becomes somewhere between him and Droopy Dog, but he's very nice. "Oh, isn't that interesting." So we just played around with it from there and that's how it ended up. That's how we ended up with who KnowsMore is, but looking at his picture, he's little and he's got those glasses and "Isn't that interesting." He just became... That's how he was born. He lives in the same neighborhood as Droopy Dog and Truman Capote. He's at the house between those two.
GameSpot: When it comes to something like an animated film, obviously, KnowsMore has a lot of dialogue, because he is searching a lot of things. How closely do you have to stick to the script versus playing around with it?
Tudyk: Right. You get to play a lot. And having the relationship with Rich, having done Wreck-It Ralph the first, we got to just kick around some ideas. I think in the first recording, the "Isn't that interesting. Hm, isn't that interesting," we started playing around with that; it became a thing that he always said. I think in terms of, or the way that I improv is, I need to know where I am and what's happening. I always try to improv about the actions taking place, the world that's involved. And they [say], "Go with that, go with that, go with that." They'll let you go off on a tangent. That's part of the fun of doing animation.
GameSpot: I've also seen the first two episodes of Doom Patrol.
Tudyk: You have? You've seen more than me!
GameSpot: Mr. Nobody is not the nicest guy to be around. How do you approach being the antagonist versus the good guy or the hero of the story?
Tudyk: He's interesting. I mean, a lot of his actions are awful, so that's good because that acts for you... You read these scripts and you're like, "Really? Wow." The one that we just... I just came from there. I just got in town this morning from Atlanta where we're shooting. Playing evil, you're kind of just playing who he is, who's this fractured individual. [Grant Morrison's run is what] they based it on. He's got such a wild brain. And Mr. Nobody, one thing he told me when we talked on the phone before I started... Just the idea of Dada, which is what the character gets in. Everything means nothing. It's all perspective. Nothing is anything. Anything is nothing. If you found a dollar on the ground, what is that worth? If you found it and then you realized the dollar is signed by Andy Warhol and it's a piece of found art, now what is it worth? Then you found out that it's a forgery, what's it worth now? Then you found out the person who forged it was Picasso, now what's it worth?
What changed? Nothing changed, physically, but it all changed several times. Like, "What is that? That's nobody. Nobody's in that." So try to drive yourself crazy in that world. That's what Mr. Nobody is.
GameSpot: The last thing I wanted to touch on is, you're about to bring voice to another super iconic character: the Joker. How do you find that? When you say, "the Joker," everyone has a voice in their head, whether it's Mark Hamill, Jack Nicholson, or Heath Ledger. How are you putting your spin on that and who are you looking to for inspiration on it?
Tudyk: I don't know. Pieces of all of them, really, I guess. This is the first time I'm talking about it. It got released by [Diedrich Bader]. I don't know. I think the main thing that's different is it's my voice; I can hear me in it.
But I grew up watching... My first exposure to the Joker was Caesar Romero, and I know there's a little Caesar Romero in it. There's a couple, "Whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo, whoo whoo's," that I've heard that it was like, "Uh, I know what that is," where he taunts the badge. I can't wait for people to hear it. I do a couple of voices in it. It's great.
GameSpot: Who else?
Tudyk: I also play Clayface, who is a former actor who, some accident and he turns into this clay guy and he can be anybody, but he's a moron, and he's not good at it. It's a very funny cartoon. There's like, "Okay, Clayface, go over there and deliver these packages and distract them." "Yes. A mailman. What's my inspiration?" "Just deliver the package." "Ah, daddy was a mailman! You didn't love me." He's coo-coo, so there's a lot of fun stuff going on.
GameSpot: That's awesome.
Tudyk: Yeah. Yeah. I can't wait to see Doom Patrol. I'm so jealous of you seeing it!
Tudyk: Timothy Dalton is so badass. It's so great to work with him. I'm working with him a lot, so when I'm working, I'm working with Tim, and I so enjoy it. I so enjoy it. He's a true Shakespearean actor and it's just like, "Wow." That's one of the things that sci-fi allows, at times when you just get to have these heady one-on-ones like, "What's the world about? What is f***ing existence about?" Actually playing with those ideas.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is available on digital now, with the Blu-ray and DVD following on February 26.
The long-awaited Metro Exodus is releasing this week for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Announced at E3 2017, it's hard to believe the game is finally coming out. After all, the last Metro game we got was 2013's Metro: Last Light. To help you prepare for Metro Exodus, we've compiled all of our essential news stories, features, and gameplay videos highlighting all the details you need to know about the game. Our review is also now online, and you can check that out to get a sense of what to expect before the game's release.
Are you excited for Metro Exodus? Let us know in the comments below. Otherwise, be on the lookout for our full review in the days ahead, as well as guides detailing how to better survive the grueling challenge of its post-apocalyptic world.
What You Need to Know
While Metro Exodus is the third installment of the Metro series, its premise makes for a solid jumping-on point for newcomers. Set two years after the events of previous game, it continues the adventures of series protagonist Artyom who flees the Metro in Moscow to embark on a continent-spanning journey with the Spartan Rangers--a battle-hardened unit of elite soldiers that roam the wasteland.
Unlike previous games in the series, Metro Exodus features a far more open design with larger maps to explore. While you'll be spending a lot of time in these sprawling sandboxes, you'lll also be thrown into the more linear yet tense, claustrophobic environments the series is known for.
Release Date
Metro Exodus releases on February 15 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. If you're looking to purchase the game, be sure to refer to our pre-order guide, which offers details on the various editions.
Review
Our Metro Exodus review is now available, and you can check it out to see what critic Michael Higham though of the new open-world elements and everything else that Exodus sets out to do. He writes, "At first glance, Metro Exodus gives you that wide-open, free, and dangerous world unbound by tunnels, though the scope of its tale focuses on what drives you personally and the lengths you're willing to go to protect what matters most. The open sandboxes may not be strongest addition, but the game still embraces the sense of vulnerability and post-apocalyptic terror alongside impactful weapons used in refined combat and stealth scenarios. You may miss the mystery and intrigue of the previous games, but Exodus puts together a charismatic crew of friends and family that you'll want to follow to the ends of the earth."
Our Pre-Release Impressions
We got the chance to play Metro Exodus several times at events since its announcement at E3 2017. Below you can find links to features detailing our thoughts and feelings about how the game plays.
Above you can find gameplay footage of Metro Exodus' biggest level, the Caspian Desert. We spend a half hour exploring this open area, taking down mutants and discovering more about what happened to the world outside the Metro. If you're curious to see footage we captured alongside a Metro Exodus developer Jon Bloch, be sure to check out the gameplay demo we recorded during E3 2018.
PC Requirements
If you're looking to play Metro Exodus on PC, you'll likely want to know how demanding it is. Lucky for you, we've gathered the full list of what you'll for each level of performance in our in-depth PC specs article.
Battlefield 5 is kicking off its new free co-op mode Combined Arms this week. Launching as part of the Lightning Strikes update, this mode lets players team up with up to three friends for eight PvE missions. The four key objectives span across four maps.
DICE says Combined Arms is meant to be a good way for players to practice together before throwing down in the much more competitive multiplayer, and it has variable difficulty settings and loadouts so you can get your time in with the gear of your choice. Plus it gives you Company Coins in any event, so you're always grinding toward unlocks.
The studio promises more Combined Arms missions will be coming in later updates. In addition, the multiplayer mode Rush is coming back for a limited time on March 7. This update also includes a host of other quality-of-life tweaks, like increasing the speed when dragging allies to safety. The full patch notes are extensive.
Publisher EA recently shared a round of financial results, calling it a "difficult quarter." One reason for that was that Battlefield 5 missed expectations. It sold 7.3 million units, but EA had projected more. CEO Andrew Wilson chalked up the disappointing sales to the marketing campaign failing to grab players, a tough competitive environment against other fall games and the free-to-play Fortnite, and the decision to focus on Battlefield 5's single-player mode instead of pushing harder to complete its Firestorm battle royale mode.
By comparison, Activision's Black Ops 4 didn't have any single-player component and had its own battle royale mode, Blackout, ready on launch day. Firestorm won't be ready until March. In the meantime, EA has just launched Apex Legends from Respawn, a free-to-play battle royale game that has quickly become a massive success.
Far Cry: New Dawn is set to launch this week for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. With so much excitement stirring around the impending launch of this latest entry in Ubisoft's long running, first-person shooter series, we've compiled a series of news stories, features, and gameplay videos highlighting all the details you need to know about the game.
What do you think about Far Cry: New Dawn? Are you going to pick it up? Let us know in the comments below. Otherwise, check back often as we update this feature with our full review, as well as guides to help you overcome its most difficult challenges.
What You Need to Know
Far Cry: New Dawn is a standalone spin-off that also serves as a narrative sequel to Far Cry 5 set 17 years after the events of the game. After a nuclear exchange has devastated the land, a colony of survivors attempts to rebuild civilization in Hope County. However, their efforts are threatened by a group of bandits known as the Highwaymen. With few options left, the survivors form an alliance with New Eden, the remnants of the antagonistic cult from Far Cry 5. Rather than assume control of the protagonist of Far Cry 5, you actually play as a completely new character.
Release Date And Price
Far Cry: New Dawn is set to launch on February 15 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. As a series spin-off, it's actually priced at the budget price tag of $40. If you're looking to purchase the game, be sure to refer to our pre-order guide, which offers details on the various editions.
Our Impressions
We've had several opportunities to play Far Cry: New Dawn since its announcement. Below you can find links to features covering the game in further detail, as well as our impressions of how it plays.
Above you can find gameplay footage of Far Cry: New Dawn's latest addition to the formula, Expedition Missions. These are special missions that let you fight the Highwaymen in entirely new areas outside of the familiar territories of Hope County.
A new game sale is now underway in the Microsoft Store. This week, publisher Take-Two is offering discounts on a variety of titles across Xbox One and Xbox 360, while Xbox Live Gold subscribers will find exclusive deals on Diablo III: Eternal Collection and other acclaimed games for both platforms.
On the Xbox One side, players can pick up BioShock: The Collection and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection for $15 apiece as part of this week's publisher sale. The critically acclaimed strategy game XCOM 2 is also on sale for $15, while the mob game Mafia III is $10. Sports fans, meanwhile, can get Take-Two's latest annual basketball and wrestling games, NBA 2K19 and WWE 2K19, for $19.80 each.
This week's sales are scheduled to end on February 18, so you have until then to take advantage of most of these discounts. You can find some other notable deals below; the full list of discounted titles is available on Major Nelson's blog.
Apex Legends has been available for just over a week, and a new update is out now. Despite having not been available for long, the community has already discovered an Easter egg that Respawn thought would take much longer. By finding all ten Nessy plushies scattered throughout the map, you can get a very special visit from the Loch Ness Monster herself.
The Apex Legends subreddit noticed that a message reading "A Nessy appears" would sometimes appear on the kill feed. That was a clue regarding the hidden Nessy dolls, and subsequently at least one Twitch streamer has captured footage of exactly what happens if you find all ten. Standing near the edge of the map you can make out the hazy shape of the legendary sea creature as she comes to say hello.
"I had a bet with our producer, Drew [McCoy], on how long it would take," said Chad Grenier, lead design scripter, in a comment on Reddit. "I thought he was crazy when he said a week, turns out he was just about spot on at 8 days! I figured a month at least. You are all unreal. I'd still like to see a good video clip of it when it's not in the circle though. Guess I need to make the next one much harder."
Apex Legends has been a massive success for Respawn, hitting 25 million players in just its first week, including more than 2 million concurrent players at its peak. With that many eyes on the new free-to-play game the community was bound to find it sooner or later. Currently Respawn and Twitch are hosting a special streamer tournament, and later this week the studio will introduce some new Valentine's cosmetic items.
"Apex Legends is a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while addressing a lot of the weaknesses," critic Phil Hornshaw said in GameSpot's review. "Respawn's intense focus on team play makes Apex more than just a worthy addition to the genre; it's an indicator of where battle royale should go in the future."
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