Since Overwatch's release 11 months ago, the game has only seen the release of two new standard maps, meaning those used in Quick Play and Competitive Play modes. You can expect to see even more than that over the remainder of 2017.
In response to a forum thread discussing the frequency of new map releases, Overwatch director Jeff Kaplan revealed that three standard maps are in development and are "past the initial playtesting phase." He added, "While something could always change, all three of those are looking likely for a release this year."
Kaplan also noted that three "non-standard" maps are in development, but he didn't comment on how far along they are or whether we'll see any of them this year. These maps aren't intended for Quick Play or Competitive Play, which could mean they're intended for Arcade modes, as was the case with the Arena mode-only Ecopoint Antarctica.
Finally, in very nonspecific fashion, he teased, "We also have a few other experiments going on."
"Hopefully this will satisfy some of what you're looking for," he concluded. "We want to play on these maps as badly as you guys do. We'll work as fast as we can!"
Avengers: Infinity War is still more than a year from release, but there is already talk about the fourth Avengers movie, which is due in 2019. One thing we won't learn until after Infinity War is out is Avengers 4's title--and Marvel boss Kevin Feige has a good reason for this.
In an interview with CinemaBlend, Feige was asked if the reason that directors Joe and Anthony Russo were keeping the title a secret was because it was in fact a spoiler for the events of Infinity War. While he wasn't exactly forthcoming with extra details, Feige did confirm this was the case.
Feige also recently suggested that the Marvel Cinematic Universe might go through some big changes after Avengers 4. "As we get to Infinity War there will be a sense of a climax," he said. "By the time we're at the untitled Avengers 4, 22 movies will have encompassed the first three phases of the MCU. And what happens after that will be very different. I don't know if it's Phase 4, it might be a new thing."
Avengers: Infinity War hits theaters on May 4, 2018, while Avengers 4 is due on May 3, 2019.
New technology hasn't eradicated long load times in video games, and Sniper Ghost Warrior 3 is no exception. Quite the opposite, in fact.
Eurogamer has put together the video below illustrating just how long it takes to go from the main menu to the in-game action on PS4. It compares this particular instance--a wait that takes 4 minutes and 50 seconds--against the amount of time needed to do other things, such as speedrun Gone Home or complete a race in Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
Our reviewer has also experienced similar problems in terms of near-five-minute load times (you can look for GameSpot's full review tomorrow). These long waits are present when loading a save game from the main menu or traveling to the four different territories but are greatly reduced after a death or when fast-traveling.
The long load times can be perhaps attributed at least in part to Ghost Warrior 3 adopting an open-world style, leaving behind the more linear nature of its predecessors. Ahead of its release tomorrow, a new patch has been released that addresses a variety of technical issues, but load times don't appear to be among the problems fixed in the update.
Speaking with GameSpot, CI Games acknowledged the "long initial loading times" but said that this approach allowed it to "shorten any loading times during missions, respawns, and fast-travel to a minimum." It estimates that fast-traveling takes 4-15 seconds, loading the last checkpoint takes 15-30 seconds, and restarting a mission takes 25 seconds.
"Ultimately we feel like this inconvenience is rewarded with a comfortable experience once the game is loaded," it added.
We don't know how the game performs on PC or Xbox One. Ghost Warrior 3 launches on all three platforms on April 25, so we should know soon how the PS4 load times compare to those on other platforms.
Owners of the recently released PC version of Bayonetta received a minuscule update today, and it has fans of another Platinum Games-developed title excited.
As reported on both the Steam forums and NeoGAF, a 22 KB update released today adds a small file to Bayonetta's Extras folder. Inside is an avatar showing Sam Gideon, the protagonist of Vanquish.
There have long been calls from fans for a PC version of Vanquish, which was only ever released for Xbox 360 and PS3 when it launched back in 2010. The sudden Steam release of another older Platinum game, 2009's Bayonetta, may have opened the door for that to finally happen. It seems entirely this possible that this image is intended as a tease, given that Bayonetta's PC release was itself first teased with something hidden in a free 8-bit Bayonetta game that launched on April Fool's day.
Vanquish earned acclaim when it released back in 2010--it received a 9 in GameSpot's review--and has become something of a cult classic. It's a third-person shooter that was directed by Shinji Mikami, who's best known for his work at Platinum and Capcom, where he worked on the Devil May Cry and Resident Evil series.
There's not yet any official word from Platinum or publisher Sega about a Vanquish release, but we'll report back if and when that changes.
Even though solid-state drives have come down in price over the years, they still can't match the price per gigabyte ratio that hard disk drives offer. While HDDs are capacious, they're also relatively slow. Intel is attempting to bridge that performance gap with its Optane Memory, which aims to dramatically boost the speed of your hard drives to SSD-like levels.
Intel Optane is based on a new Non-Volatile Memory Express (NVME) technology called 3D XPoint (pronounced "cross point"). The company asserts that 3D XPoint is up to 1,000 times faster than NAND flash (the memory that's used in traditional SSDs) at the architectural level. Intel's Optane Memory uses a PCIe drive based on the M.2 2280 form factor. Used in conjunction with an HDD boot drive, Intel Optane Memory acts as a super-fast caching drive that can dramatically accelerate the load times of your most-used games and applications.
While caching drives are nothing new--as we've had hard drives with small amounts of NAND flash built onto them (otherwise known as solid-state hybrid drives, or SSHDs) for years--NAND simply isn't fast enough to lift slow spinning drives out of a performance slump. Using an SSHD is like driving on a one-lane highway with the occasional passing lane. The passing lane, i.e., the NAND in this scenario, is definitely helpful, but at the end of the day, you're still driving on a one-lane highway. With 3D XPoint being so much faster, that one occasional passing lane now opens up to what amounts to Germany's crazy-fast Autobahn freeway system.
For now, Intel is releasing its Optane Memory in two sizes. The company asserts that the $44 16GB model offers enough cache for most mainstream users. Intel says that the $77 32GB stick, which I'm reviewing here, is better for power users who use a wide array of applications. If you're constantly juggling a bunch of different programs and games, you may reach a caching bottleneck (even the Autobahn can get congested every now and then). This means that traditional SATA-based SSDs aren't going away anytime soon.
What about SSDs based entirely around 3D XPoint technology? For the consumer market, Intel says they're coming. You can get your hands on a 375GB drive geared towards data centers today, but it costs a whopping $1,520.
One major roadblock to using Optane Memory is that you will need a seventh generation CPU from Intel (Kaby Lake), which can range anywhere from $117 to $339, coupled with a 200-series motherboard that has an M.2 slot.
Benchmarking Methodology
Intel sent me a pre-built rig to test the drive. The specs for the PC are outlined below:
CPU
Intel Core i5-7500 Processor
Motherboard
Asus Prime B250-Pro
BIOS
608
Chipset
B250
Graphics Card
Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 6GB Founders Edition
Memory
2 x 8 GB DDR4-2400
Hard Drive
Western Digital Black 1TB (7,200 RPM)
Optane Memory
32GB module
Operating System
Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Intel tells me that it takes approximately four runs before Optane can properly cache applications to reach optimal efficiency; as a result, I ran all Optane tests four times, and shut off the PC in between each run to mitigate any caching advantages Optane might receive as a result. I plotted these results from left to right in sequential order and compared them to my HDD runs in the charts below.
I also added an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card to the build, as I wanted to conduct a game-boot test. The mid-range GTX 1060 seems like a good pairing for a budget-conscious user who doesn't want to splurge on an SSD-based PC.
Benchmarks
My first benchmark is a simple Windows 10 boot test. Using a stopwatch, I timed how long it took the PC to load up Windows 10 and Valve's Steam client from a cold boot. As you can see from the chart above, the hard drive took a little over 35 seconds. The first run with Optane memory coupled with the hard drive wasn't that much faster at 33 seconds, but subsequent runs got much quicker, clocking in at around 27 seconds. This may not be as fast as traditional SATA-based SSDs, but when you take the average of these four Optane runs, it represents a 21 percent speed advantage over the hard drive alone.
I also tested Intel's claim that Optane can launch Google Chrome up to five times faster than a traditional hard drive. Since you can typically launch a web browser in under a second, I ran a script that provided Chrome's boot time in milliseconds. The hard drive by itself launched Google's browser in 2,385 milliseconds, whereas the HDD coupled with Optane took 409 milliseconds to launch on its first outing. In subsequent runs, it was able to open in under 300 milliseconds, with its fourth run approaching sub-200 milliseconds.
Milliseconds may not sound like much, but they can add up over time. When I take the average of my four Optane runs, Intel's caching drive ends up being over eight times faster than the HDD by its lonesome. This is even faster than Intel's 5x claim.
Intel says that Optane will allow you to search and find files up to four times faster compared to a hard drive, so I conducted a stopwatch test doing a file search for wmplayer.exe (Windows Media Player). It took over 50 seconds for the hard drive to pull up all relevant results. Optane was noticeably faster with the first run clocking in at 20 seconds. Oddly enough, however, each subsequent search took a little longer than the last. When I average the four Optane runs together, it ends up being roughly twice as fast as the HDD. While that's noticeably faster, it doesn't quite reach Intel's up-to-4x claim.
Intel asserts that games can launch up to 67 percent faster with Intel Optane Memory. I ran Fallout 4 for my game boot test. After disabling the initial loading animations by editing the .ini file, the hard drive booted up to the main menu in 7.5 seconds. Optane's first run launched the game in 4.2 seconds and got slightly faster with each iteration. The average of the four Optane runs is 88 percent faster than the HDD, surpassing Intel's own assertion.
When loading a save file in the game, the hard drive took 41 seconds before I could actually jump into Fallout 4's post-apocalyptic world. Optane's first run loaded the same save file in 35.7 seconds, which is slightly faster than the hard drive's run. Oddly enough, however, Optane's second run shot up to 39.9 seconds, which put it nearly on pace with the HDD. It sped up to 31.7 second and then 27.5 seconds on the subsequent third and fourth runs, however. When you take the average of the four Optane runs, it ends up being 22 percent faster than the HDD. While this is a noticeable improvement, it isn't as impressive as the aforementioned Fallout 4 game boot test.
My next test is a synthetic hard drive benchmark from PCMark. It generates a score; the higher the number, the better the result. The hard drive scored a 4921.5. Optane performed slightly better with each run, and when you take the average of the four runs, it performed nearly four times better than the HDD.
CrystalDiskMark is another synthetic storage benchmark. It has a sequential test, which simulates reading and writing a gigabyte-sized file. Here, the hard drive produced similar read and write speeds that averaged around 160MB/s (thus the tight overlap on the graph above). Optane's write speeds were noticeably faster than the hard drive, averaging 289.5MB/s, but it was the 1333.7MB/s average read speeds that really stole the show. That's credibly fast and more than double the performance of most traditional SATA-based SSDs, which typically top out at around 550MB/s.
CrystalDiskMark also offers a random read and write test that transfers smaller 4KB clumps of data. This is more indicative of real world-use cases where you aren't transferring one large file. Again, Optane really eclipses the standalone hard drive here. Whereas the HDD reached random read and write speeds of .5MB/s and 1.7MB/s, respectively, Optane averaged 126.3 MB/s and 196.8 MB/s. Those are orders of magnitude faster performances.
Conclusion
While Intel's Optane Memory doesn't always live up to Intel's lofty claims, it sometimes exceeds them. It's no replacement for an SSD, since you may have to deal with hitting caching bottlenecks, but it's definitely much faster than a standard hard drive. It will allow you to boot your PC faster, make your system slightly more responsive, and boot games and applications quicker.
If you're not planning to install an SSD in your system, or are deciding whether or not to add Optane Memory as an optional add-on to a pre-built system, I'd definitely recommend Intel's speedy caching drive.
In addition to the usual trailers and posters for the upcoming Alien: Covenant, Fox has released a series of promotional teasers in the form of video messages left by crew members for their families back home. The first two were revealed last week, and now three more have arrived. These feature Tennessee (Danny McBride), Lowe (Demian Bichir), and Rosenthal (Tess Haubrich)--check them out below:
Alien: Covenant also stars Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, and James Franco. It arrives in theaters on May 19 in the US and May 12 in the UK.
Planet Coaster will be available on PC from May 23, while Elite Dangerous: Legendary Edition will arrive later this year for Xbox One and PlayStation 4. A more specific release date for Elite has not been revealed.
Elite Dangerous: Legendary Edition features the Elite: Dangerous base game, its Horizons expansion, and 1000 Frontier points, which are used to purchase cosmetic items in-game.
In GameSpot's Elite Dangerous review, Nick Capozzoli said "simply existing in Elite: Dangerous is enough to drive home its incredible scale" but "most of space is populated only by stale trading systems and fetch quests."
The Horizon expansion later allowed players and, according to Frontier, gives people the ability "explore planet surfaces, meet the elusive Engineers, craft new technologies, pilot a ship-launched fighter into every firefight, and unlock Multicrew co-op with players from around the world."
GameSpot's Planet Coaster review awarded the title a 9/10, with Edmond Tran praising its construction tools for being "effortlessly intuitive and encouraging."
He continued: "The minutiae of its management variables are fun to tinker with for obsessive players, though it won't punish those who don't find satisfaction there. This is a game focused on the positivity that amusement parks can bring, one that fosters even the smallest spark of imagination and creativity.
"Planet Coaster's scenario-based maps are a delightful challenge, the included assets are full of character, and its Steam Workshop community is a stupefying bounty of creative talent and inexhaustible content. It's a game that occupies your thoughts when you're not playing it, and it's thoroughly captivating when you are."
Those who are still looking for an NES Classic Edition or Nintendo Switch will want to head to their local Best Buy this week--possibly as soon as today.
Best Buy has announced it will have the NES Classic Edition in stock today, April 24, albeit in unspecified "limited quantities." According to the company's Twitter account, they will be available at "most" stores, but it offered no guarantees. You'll need to check with your local store to confirm availability, although--given past events--you can likely expect them to sell out quickly.
Meanwhile, Best Buy's weekly flyer lists the Switch as being available in stores this Friday, April 28. This coincides with the release of the biggest Switch game since the system's launch, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe.
While supply of Switch will likely catch up to the demand eventually, the same can't be said for the NES Classic Edition. Nintendo announced recently that it was discontinuing the system worldwide, which has led to a spike in demand and price on the secondhand market. It has offered no satisfying explanation as to why it was making the move.
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hits theaters on May 5 (April 28 in the UK; May 23 in Australia), a little under three years since the first movie pleased cinemagoers with its fresh sense of weirdness and irreverent humor.
But what about the sequel? Does Vol. 2 continue the original's good form or is it a difficult second album for writer/director James Gunn and co.?
In GameSpot's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 review, critic Randolph Ramsay said the film feels too familiar at first, but it soon "becomes thrilling, emotional, and funny." You can take a look at what a selection of what other reviewers thought in our review roundup below, or check out GameSpot sister site Metacritic for a wider view on critical opinion.
Beware: Minor spoilers lie below, so look away now if you want to go in totally fresh.
GameSpot -- No score
"For a brief moment, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 felt like the worst thing a movie featuring a sentient baby tree and an anthropomorphic raccoon could be: it felt familiar."
"But then, just as a certain new character's Mork & Mindy-like egg-shaped ship takes off to the sound of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain," Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 starts bringing it all together. It leaves the references to the first film behind, pushing its characters, setting, and plot to compelling places. It becomes thrilling, emotional, funny, and most of all, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 finally becomes what the first film was: fun and more than a little heartfelt. As Rocket Racoon says near the film's climax: "Welcome to the freakin' Guardians of the Galaxy." It's about time." -- Randolph Ramsay [Full review]
The Guardian -- 3/5
"There are, once again, some funny lines, very often given to Drax, who has a way of oversharing. Pom Clementieff is very entertaining in the role of Mantis, a helpmeet of Ego; she has the gift of being an empath, someone who can intuit how someone else is feeling by laying hands on them, but is in every other fantastically naive and un-insightful about the way human beings behave.
"Ego himself introduces some apparently huge Freudian issues to the film, which on paper would seem to take the film's emotional impact up a notch or two. But they are dealt with insouciantly, even flippantly--far more so than in something like Star Wars or Superman. That's in keeping of course, with the distinctive comic flavour of this franchise, but the revelations about Quill's background just zing and ping around with the same pinball-velocity as everything else in the film. It's fun, though GOTG2 doesn't have the same sense of weird urgency and point that the first film had. They're still guarding, although the galaxy never seems in much danger." -- Peter Bradshaw [Full review]
Empire -- 4/5
"Even when the pixels threaten to overwhelm, Gunn finds refuge in his main characters. There's plenty to enjoy here, whether it's the perfectly deployed Baby Groot moments, or a general strain of anarchic weirdness that runs all the way through the credits and which still feels unique to this franchise, not just within the MCU, but blockbusters in general. It's easy to overlook the odd off note when a mix is this awesome." -- Chris Hewitt [Full review]
The Hollywood Reporter -- No score
"The heavy, elaborate action is both plentiful and rote; in their geometric design and execution, the special effects feel exceedingly computer-generated. Unlike, say, the best space battles in the Star Wars series, the frantic ballistic parrying here often makes the viewer feel as if trapped inside a pinball machine. The attitude toward all the violence and mayhem is mostly good-humored, casual and tossed-off, which provokes a few good laughs and chuckles, and writer-director Gunn gets away with a lot of lame stuff simply by moving on quickly to the next gag or explosion. As before, his bluffly cynical, good-times attitude supplies a devil-may-care feel to the proceedings that's quite appealing to audiences. But Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 plays like a second ride on a roller-coaster that was a real kick the first time around but feels very been-there/done-that now." -- Todd McCarthy [Full review]
Variety -- No score
"The gods of sci-fi spectacle must, of course, be served, and the climax of Vol. 2 is exorbitant, rousing, touching, and just obligatory enough to be too much of a good thing. (That isn't even counting the half-dozen post-credit teaser scenes, which make the film feel like…TV.)"
"The difference between the first Guardians and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is that the new movie is flush with what a big deal it is. Ironically, that makes it a smaller deal." -- Owen Glieberman [Full review]
Ubisoft's open-world shooter, Ghost Recon: Wildlands, comes top of the UK physical games chart for the week ending April 22, making it two weeks in a row and four weeks in total at No.1 for the FPS.
You can read the full top 10 sales chart below, courtesy of sales monitor Chart-Track. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.
For a brief moment, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 was the worst thing a movie featuring a sentient baby tree and an anthropomorphic raccoon could be: it felt familiar. This happens somewhere within the first 30 minutes, after Drax the Destroyer's sixth or seventh quip showcasing how clueless about social norms he is and Peter Quill's constant referencing of cool things from the 1980s. It's as if the film strains too hard to remind you how much fun the first one was. Hey, remember how much you loved dancing Baby Groot? Well here he is again, but this time you get four full minutes of him grooving! Please enjoy.
This was a worry. The first Guardians of the Galaxy was a surprise, breaking the Marvel movie template and setting a tone that other comic book properties would slavishly follow (oh, hi there Suicide Squad). The Guardians hail from the weirdest, most bizarre corner of the Marvel universe. What a pity if the second film in the series ended up being just a retread of the first, more Iron Man 2 than Captain America:The Winter Soldier.
But then, just as a certain new character's egg-shaped ship straight out of Mork & Mindy takes off to the sound of Fleetwood Mac's "The Chain," Guardians of the Galaxy Vol.2 starts bringing it all together. It leaves the references to the first film behind, pushing its characters, setting, and plot to compelling places. It becomes thrilling, emotional, funny, and most of all, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 it finally becomes what the first film was: fun and more than a little heartfelt. As Rocket Racoon says: "Welcome to the freakin' Guardians of the Galaxy."
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 is at its best when it's doing something new. It's no coincidence that the film's shift from good to great happens when Vol. 2's most interesting new character appears. Kurt Russell is a standout as Peter Quill's (aka Star-Lord aka Chris Pratt) long-lost father, Ego the Living Planet (who fans of the comics will know better as an actual gigantic planet, as opposed to the guy who played Snake Plissken and Jack Burton). Russell is indeed more diminutive than a celestial body, but he brings outsized energy and charisma to the role, and his interplay with Quill is funny, touching, and heartfelt. The other new face is also a fun one: Mantis (played by Pom Klementieff) is an empath in the employ of Ego, and she provides a lot of the film's laughs. She's a sweet addition, and with her wide eyes, innocent nature, and high-pitched voice, is literally an anime character brought to life. It wouldn't have been surprising to see her to turn to camera, smile, hoist two fingers in the air and squeal "Kawaiii!!!".
It's also refreshing to see that while the returning cast brings the biggest emotional punches, those hits don't all come from the main Guardians crew. In fact, former villians Yondu (Michael Rooker) and Nebula (Karen Gillan) have the most dramatic arcs, with the former leaning in hard on the underlying father/son dynamic he had with Quill in the first film, and the latter finally revealing the source of all her angst and anger toward her sister Gamora (Zoe Saldana). Yondu, it could be argued, is the beating heart of Vol. 2. There's a scene near the beginning of the film, a wordless one where Yondu stands amidst a bevy of android pleasure models, his stare telling us everything about the emptiness and aching inside. It's a wonderful, quiet moment that conveys in seconds more about Yondu than we learned during the entirety of the first film.
Those moments of stillness stand out the most. From the subtle but meaningful look Drax (Dave Bautista) gives Mantis near the end of the film to the gentle dance Star-Lord and Gamora share, director James Gunn isn't afraid to dial down the explosions and noise to let his characters breathe. Each of the main Guardians crew gets their chance to evolve and grow in between fighting interdimensional beasties and escaping from hostile alien armadas, and they become fully-fleshed out, believable characters. Whatever the color of their alien skin, all of these strange creatures feel very human.
And it's why the film's many action sequences work as well as they do. The flash and bang in Vol. 2 is impressive and impactful in the way many of Marvel's best set pieces are, but everything has more weight because of the characters. Sure, seeing Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper) singlehandedly taking on an army of Reavers is cool, but you're excited not because a small mammal is doing kung fu, but because Rocket, perpetually underestimated and looked down upon, is finally getting his due. You cheer as Star-Lord finds the strength to take on the film's big bad at the end of the film not because he's Chris Pratt and he looks good shirtless, but because his anger is righteous as he seeks to avenge a wrong from long ago. You squeal in delight as Baby Groot...well, you just squeal because he's undeniably, almost unbearably, cute.
There's a scene near the end of the film, after all the action is over and the Guardians are taking stock of what happened, where Baby Groot climbs gingerly onto Star-Lord's lap. Groot looks up, and Star-Lord offers him one of his earbuds, and they sit there, quietly, listening to music. It's a wonderful moment at the end of a long journey where all of the Guardians have experienced new adventures, vanquished immense foes, and grown as a strange, unorthodox family. And we're right there with Groot and Star Lord, looking out at the stars, excited about what's coming next. Now, about those five post-credit scenes...
Yes, the rumors are true. There are indeed five post-credits scenes tacked on to the end of Guardians of Galaxy Volume Two, so you'll need to make sure to stay until the very end of the film's credits to see them all. And while some of those scenes are merely fun little vignettes, a few of them hold exciting and potentially significant repercussions for both future Guardians films and the wider Marvel Cinematic Universe in general. So what do they all mean?
Kraglin uses the Yaka Arrow
The first post-credits scene is a simple one. It shows Kraglin--Yondu's former second-in-command--playing around with Yondu's whistle controlled Yaka Arrow. He's not very good, however, and he ends up flying the arrow straight into Drax's shoulder, causing the big alien to scream in pain. It's a nice, fun scene, but ultimately, it's there just for laughs as opposed to setting up something for the MCU's future.
Stakar Ogord assembles a team
Stakar Ogord (played by Sylvester Stallone) is shown assembling a team made up of Charlie 27 (Ving Rhames), Aleta Ogord (Michelle Yeoh), Krugarr, and Mainframe (voiced by Miley Cyrus). Within the film, all of these characters were Reavers, but comic book fans also know them as the members of the very first Guardians of the Galaxy team.
In comic lore, Stakar comes from the alternate Earth-691 timeline, and he's an immensely powerful being with superhuman abilities, immortality, and the ability to manipulate light. Aleta, the adoptive sister of Stakar, is as powerful as her brother, and at one time the two were fused together by the Hawk-God into the one being known as Starhawk. Charlie-27 is from the 31st century, and he's descended from humans genetically engineered to be workers on gas platforms in Jupiter. He too has superhuman powers. Krugarr is basically a 22nd century version of Doctor Strange, while Mainframe is an alternate universe version of the android Vision.
So what exactly does the forming of this team mean for the future of the Guardians of the Galaxy franchise? And will they play a part in the upcoming Avengers Infinity War? Right now, Marvel is keeping quiet about the path of these alt-Guardians. But using such big name actors surely means there are plans for them outside of the brief cameo in Volume 2, right?
Ayesha creates...Adam Warlock
In Guardians of the Galaxy 2, gold-skinned Ayesha (the leader of a race known as the Sovereign) is seen at the end of the film talking about creating a perfect being, before the camera shows what's clearly a large cocoon, one large enough to fit a person in. Ayesha's final line, "I think I will call him...Adam", is a clear indication that Adam Warlock will become part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in future films.
Who exactly is Adam Warlock? Warlock is a perfect human created by a group of scientists known as the Enclave. Originally known as Him, Warlock leaves Earth soon after his "birth," becoming one of the major players in Marvel's cosmic comics. He's been the possessor of one of the Infinity Stones (the Soul Gem, to be specific), has tangled with MCU big bad Thanos on several occasions, and has even been part of the Guardians of the Galaxy team. While it's unlikely that this film version of Warlock will be a player in the upcoming Avengers Infinity War, his appearance at the end of Volume 2 does suggest he'll be a key part of the third Guardians film.
Baby Groot becomes Teenage Groot
This fun little scene takes place in the near (?) future, with dear little Baby Groot now clearly an older, teenage version of himself. Quill stands at Groot's door, and is horrified to see it covered in leaves and bark, while Teenage Groot sits on the bed playing some kind of futuristic video game. Quill, exasperated, says "Now I know what Yondu felt like." Does this mean the third Guardians film will feature a hormonal, continually shedding, angsty Groot?
The Watchers get bored with Stan Lee
This final post-credits scene is actually a continuation of the brief scene we see during Yondu and Rocket's crazy space jumps in the middle of the film. In that scene, we see a group of three Watchers listening intently to Stan Lee as he tells them tales of his many adventures. In the post-credits continuation of this little vignette, the Watchers have clearly had enough, and despite Lee's insistence that they stay and hear more, they all walk away from him.
Who are The Watchers? In Marvel comics, The Watchers are a group of mysterious extraterrestials, whose sole mission is to observe the most significant events occurring in the universe. Basically, if a Watcher is present, then some serious s*** is about to go down. Perhaps the most well-known Watcher (to Marvel comic fans, at least) is Uatu, who has long watched the major events happening on Earth, and who was recently killed by none other than Nick Fury. It's already been confirmed by Marvel, however, that Uatu is not one of the Watchers that we see in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
Stan Lee being seen with Watchers, however, does play into a long debated fan theory about who exactly Stan Lee is within the context of the Marvel movies. Some have speculated that his appearance in cameos in most of the Marvel films actually means that Lee himself is a Watcher in disguise.
The latest numbers have come in, and the action movie The Fate of the Furious sits atop the US box office chart for a second weekend in a row, bringing in $38.7 million.
Via Entertainment Weekly, this is down substantially from last weekend's opening haul of $100.2 million. Predecessor Furious 7 made around $147 million for its domestic first weekend and a further $73 million for its second weekend, so this is just the latest downturn for the franchise stateside.
The international story looks different, however, as The Fate of the Furious brought in $163.4 million internationally this weekend, boosting its global haul to $908.4 million after just two weeks. The movie is expected to cross $1 billion during the next week. The Fate of the Furious made $532.5 million worldwide on its first weekend, toppling Star Wars: The Force Awakens to set a new record.
Rounding out the top five this weekend were The Boss Baby ($12.8 million), Beauty and the Beast ($10 million), Born in China ($5.1 million), and Going in Style ($5 million). You can see the full estimates for the April 21-23 US weekend below.
One of the modders, Mr. Leisurewear, explained in the GTA Forums that the mod team was "contacted" this week after they released a trailer for Red Dead Redemption V (which has been taken offline).
"I know this is hard pill to swallow, but as you may have noticed we did get contacted , and we sadly have to say we are stopping this project," Mr. Leisurewear said (via Kotaku). "So thanks guys, we were all so happy to see this, but it isn't going to happen, sorry."
Announced in March, Red Dead Redemption V aimed to bring Red Dead Redemption's map (based on the Xbox 360 edition) into Grand Theft Auto V. A beta was planned to launch this summer.
Red Dead Redemption V would have been a single-player game only, and the mod team was looking to the community to help with programming and scripting.
In March, the mod team said about the status of Red Dead Redemption V, "The framework is all there, we are constantly finetuning the methods we use to convert the game."
It added: "Out of all the other Rage games released before GTA5, RDR is the toughest one to crack, so please be patient."
As for official games, the Red Dead series returns this year with the much-anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2.
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