Far Cry 5 is receiving some major quality-of-life improvements in its latest patch. Title Update 4 has just launched for the PC version, with the patch coming to PS4 and Xbox One versions of the game on Monday, April 9.
The biggest changes come in the form of stability improvements and changes to co-op play and Arcade Mode. Overall, Ubisoft is promising fewer crashes and better connectivity for co-op play and for PvP matchmaking in Arcade Mode. For details, check out the full patch notes further down.
Monster Hunter World's first-ever seasonal event, Spring Blossom, is officially underway on PS4 and Xbox One. It offers a few weeks of new and returning activities to take part in, but the main attraction right now is the new gear--both armor and a greatsword weapon--for you to get your hands on. Here's what's available and how to get it all.
Spring Blossom Tickets are a newly added item for the event. You'll receive one as a login bonus, and more are available by completing Limited Bounties. These are then used to craft new items, including the armor.
The new Blossom armor is available in both Low Rank and High Rank variants, and you'll be able to see it at the Smithy as soon as you log in. Each piece of the Low Rank version requires a certain number of Earth Crystals to craft, as well as one Spring Blossom Ticket. The High Rank version requires Carbalite Ore, as well as three Spring Blossom Tickets per piece. That's a total of 15 tickets if you want to craft the full set. Here are the armor skills for each piece:
Blossom Headgear -- Honey Hunter (1)
Blossom Vest -- Quick Sheath (1)
Blossom Cuffs -- Paralysis Resistance (1)
Blossom Coat -- Scoutfly Range Up (1)
Blossom Boots -- Recovery Speed (1)
As for the new greatsword, you can now forge Wyvern Ignition, the weapon designed by a fan. Unlike the new armor, this won't show up at the Smithy by default. Instead, you'll first need to complete a new event quest called Every Hunter's Dream. This is a five-star Arena quest where you'll hunt a Rathalos and Paolumu, with a limit of 50 minutes or three faints. The reward is 7200z and Master Craftsman's Blueprints.
These Blueprints are one of the materials needed to craft the weapon, along with Dragonite Ore, Paolumu Webbing, and Rathalos Marrow. Two are needed for the base weapon (Wyvern Ignition "Steel"), while three more are needed for the upgraded version (Wyvern Ignition "Impact"). The upgrade also calls for Elder Dragon Blood, Firecell Stones, and a Wyvern Gem.
You'll have the duration of the Spring Blossom event to collect the necessary materials. The event runs until April 19 at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET (1 AM BST on April 20) and also includes a special design for the Gathering Hub, the return of all Event Quests, daily Limited Bounties, and more.
Could your Xbox avatar use a little freshening up? Are you getting bored looking at your character in the same clothes every time you sign in to play? If so, you'll be pleased to hear you can now deck out your avatar with Avengers: Infinity War gear for free. Just check out this page on the Xbox Store to grab all 12 items. It's all part of a promotion for the Avengers: Infinity War movie, which opens April 27.
You can dress your avatar in suits to make them look like Captain America, Thor, Star Lord, Black Panther, Iron Man, or Black Widow. You can wrap them in Dr. Strange's cape and don Thanos's Infinity Gauntlet. And if your avatar is feeling lonely, you can give them companions like Groot, Hulk, or Rocket. Notably absent is Hawkeye, who has also been notably absent from the upcoming movie's trailers and posters.
If reports are to be believed, Xbox avatars should be getting a major shakeup sometime this month. At last year's E3, Microsoft announced it would offer avatars with more diverse and inclusive customization options. That still hasn't come to fruition, although The Verge reports the new avatar system will launch for all users in April. Microsoft hasn't announced a specific date.
In the meantime, you can pretend your avatar is a superhero by "purchasing" the Avengers items for free.
The Road to Wrestlemania is long, tough, and tiring, and not just for WWE superstars. GameSpot has been keeping you up to date with everything revolving around WWE's biggest event in 2018, Wrestlemania 34. This year's edition is coming to you from the Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday, April at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT. Believe it or not, there are still tickets available for the event, with the cheapest going for $50 and the most expensive costing $7,350.
This year's card is extremely stacked, with 14 matches--including Cena/Undertaker--happening over the course of seven hours. One of the biggest pieces of news to come out of the lead-up to Mania is Daniel Bryan being cleared to return to wrestling, which led to him teaming with Shane McMahon to take on Sami Zayn and Kevin Owens. In addition, John Cena has been begging Undertaker for a match at Wrestlemania 34 for the past month, and no match has been confirmed yet, but it's totally still going to happen, right?
Here's a collection of our biggest stories revolving around Wrestlemania to get you pumped up for the April 8 event. Make sure to come back to GameSpot for live coverage of Wrestlemania and individual full match recaps right after they air on Sunday.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has very quietly added a new mode called War on PC. The new mode--which is essentially Team Deathmatch--adds respawns, a mechanic not seen in PUBG's standard battle royale mode.
Players are condensed into a small, static area on Erangel, meaning lives don't last long. The selection of weapons and gear depends on the settings picked by the game's host, so you could spawn with any number of items. War mode is available now but only as a custom game, meaning only PUBG Partners can start and host matches--though anyone can join an already-created session.
The mode was not announced by developer PUBG Corp. or publisher Bluehole, with no mention of it anywhere on social media or on the game's forums. It's therefore unclear how long War will be available for. It could be a timed mode, similar to the game's other new way of playing, Tequila Sunrise, which went live just recently and features close quarters, shotgun-based combat.
In other PUBG news, a new patch has just been released for the game, bringing with it bug fixes and the new Killer Spectate mode that allows you to watch the player who killed you during the rest of the match. If your killer dies too, you'll be able to continue watching the player who killed them. Meanwhile, PUBG's upcoming map, currently in the testing phase, now supports players who want to play as Squads on Codename: Savage. This is limited to PUBG's experimental test server. You still need a beta key to access the map, and you can sign up to receive one the PUBG website.
It's a big weekend for fans of fights, because UFC 223 is happening on Saturday, April 7, and Wrestlemania 34 goes down Sunday, April 8. It's a big weekend for Xbox One owners with Xbox Live Gold subscriptions, too. They can play WWE 2K18 and EA Sports UFC 3 for free all weekend long. To play the games, just find them in the Xbox Store on your Xbox One and click "Free Trial."
The free trial for WWE 2K18 ends on Sunday, April 8. If you choose to purchase the game after trying it out, you'll be pleased to learn it's currently on sale at a number of outlets. And all progress you make in the trial version will carry through to the full game.
UFC 3 players get a slightly wider window to play, as the promotion lasts until Monday, April 9. But take note that the trial only lets you play for five hours unless you have EA Access, in which case you can play for 10 hours. Both UFC 3 and WWE 2K18 are enhanced for Xbox One X.
As for the games themselves, well... in GameSpot's WWE 2K18 review, Richard Wakeling wasn't fully enamored with it, giving it a 5/10. He wrote: "WWE 2K18's in-ring combat is fundamentally flawed, and will be as divisive as it often is. Yet there's no denying the inherent joy derived from performing your favorite Superstar's signature moves."
Our UFC 3 review was more favorable, with the same reviewer scoring it 8/10. He wrote, "EA Sports UFC 3 is a tense, exciting, and dynamic recreation of the stand and bang aspect of mixed martial arts. There's a fluidity to the way it moves, and a satisfying feel and unpredictability to the way fights can unfold that demands your engagement. The grappling still needs plenty of work, and one would hope this is something EA Canada addresses in the next iteration; yet these shortcomings become easier to overlook because of the accomplishment of its redefined striking. When it comes to the art of combat, few sports titles do it better."
The acclaimed strategy game Crusader Kings II is currently free on Steam for a limited time. And to be clear, this isn't a "free play weekend" kind of thing. If you download it now, you get to keep and play it forever.
This is a good thing, because Crusader Kings II happens to be terrific. Released in 2012, this colorful game puts you in charge of a European kingdom in the Middle Ages and asks you to expand your power in any way you choose. You can advance your position using war tactics, diplomacy, scheming, or a combination of all three.
From our Crusader Kings II review: "After you choose a starting point somewhere between 1066 and 1337, you play as any head of state from the ruler of the Holy Roman Empire to the king of a tiny territory long since absorbed by a larger nation. Each has its advantages and disadvantages: picking a powerful empire grants you more military and financial resources, but it also saddles you with a collection of barons, dukes, and counts whose ambitions aren't always aligned with your own."
You also have to pay attention to your family members, because this is a multigenerational affair. Once one leader kicks the bucket, you take control of the heir to the throne. With so many things to keep in mind, Crusader Kings II is a complicated game that can take some time to wrap your head around. "But," as our reviewer concludes, "if you allow that fact to scare you off, you'd be doing yourself a grave disservice. Crusader Kings II makes it an absolute delight to rewrite history one small step at a time."
A number of expansions have been released over the years, but they're not included with the free download. You can even find some Game of Thrones mods if you dig around. Regardless, you can't beat getting a good game for free. It's unclear when the deal will end, so grab Crusader Kings II for free on Steam now.
By Anonymous on Apr 06, 2018 10:44 pm Join Jean Luc and Ben as they head into the first week of the Spring Blossom Event to get a new fancy set of armor, a new great sword, and maybe a hunt or two against a tempered deviljo aka the golden pickle.
In Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, the struggle of coming to terms with past trauma and guilt comes out in a number of surprising ways. Developer Ninja Theory channels its talents for narrative and presentation to tell a personal story that has more to say than it initially lets on, and will likely leave you wondering what's real, and what is a part of an elaborate hallucination.
In a far-off land covered in mist and fog, a traumatized celtic warrior named Senua embarks on a spiritual vision quest to suppress her inner demons, and come to grips with the death of her family. Plagued with severe psychosis, Senua's past trauma manifests itself through duelling inner voices and visual hallucinations that compromise her emotional and mental state. On this journey, she'll face abstract and reality-defying puzzles, and battle a seemingly endless horde of adversaries that aim to put a stop to her quest.
Pulling from Nordic and Celtic lore, the fiction of Hellblade evokes a dire and somewhat bleak atmosphere, making it seem like the world had already ended, leaving Senua with only the company of her memories. Hellblade is an introspective experience, albeit with several combat and interactive story beats scattered throughout. While the story and world are presented through cutscenes and stone glyphs depicting the history of the land, Hellblade also makes clever use of live-action cutscenes. These cinematic moments are blended into in-game graphics, giving each occurrence a somewhat surreal feeling, as if you're watching a live playback of an altered memory.
On her journey through the cursed lands, Senua will come into conflict with the Northmen, an army of berserkers that appear out of thin air. These moments are when the combat comes into play, and it offers some of the most intense and thrilling moments of the game. Despite her illness weighing on her, Senua is still quite adept at fighting and is able to take on a number of foes at once. With fast, heavy sword swings, as well as up-close hand-to-hand strikes, you can use some light combos to hack away at the Northmen, while using dodges and parrying their strikes to get the upper hand.
Though combat is one of the core pillars in Hellblade, the game doesn't concern itself with offering numerous weapons or complex skill-trees to work through. Aside from some new combat abilities unlocked at key story milestones, Senua's arsenal of skills and weapons is kept light till the end. The true challenge and satisfaction comes from mastering the base combat mechanics, which is responsive, and fluid--allowing you to bounce between multiple foes easily, with her inner voices warning you of incoming strikes based on the position they're coming from.
When it comes to portraying mental illness, Hellblade takes a sympathetic approach and isn't at all interested in showing the differences between reality and imagination. It's all about Senua's perspective; with her visions and what's truly real being presented as one in the same. One of the more oppressive aspects of her psychosis are the inner-voices, who quarrel with one another while commenting on the wandering warrior's present state. Using binaural audio--which makes wearing headphones a must for the full effect--you'll get to experience a taste of what it's like to have several voices in your head.
In many ways, it feels like a subversive take on the common video game trope of the bodiless companion offering help via radio, making them a somewhat distressing presence you desperately wanted to keep at arm's length. The effectiveness of the inner voices in making you uncomfortable is a testament to the stellar presentation of the game, which uses some rather inventive tricks to play with perspective and audio-sensory manipulation. It does well to make you feel on edge and in a state of confusion, while simultaneously getting you to focus on the more tangible and true elements of her surroundings--even if they are still hallucinations.
There are times where the voices become a boon to your survival--such as the rather tricky boss battles that force you change up your usual strategies--but the most useful instances come deeper in the game, when you're able to clear through more than 20 foes consecutively, a far cry from the struggles of fighting only two to three foes. Many of these battles serve as the capper for narrative arcs in the story, making it feel like a cathartic emotional purge where you vanquish a construct of Senua's past.
"It's all about Senua's perspective; with her visions and what's truly real being presented as one in the same."
While some characters from Senua's past treated her mental state as a danger, she's able to use it to her advantage to see the order in the chaos of her surroundings--finding patterns and solutions in ways that others wouldn't have the presence of mind to see. Despite how terrifying and draining her psychosis can be, Senua is able navigate the various trials thanks to her unusually heightened perception, which comes out in a number of unique puzzle solving moments.
For the most part, puzzles revolve around unlocking doors by finding glyphs hidden in plain sight or in alternate perspectives that require manipulating Senua's focus, illustrating her abstract attention to detail. While these puzzles can be clever, the same style occurs far too often, making some of the more drawn out sequences a chore. On the inverse, the moments where Senua is stripped of her senses and gear, forcing her to take a more subdued approach to avoid her enemies, felt far more engaging and interesting.
In one of the game's best moments, the shadows themselves serve to be a real danger as Senua rushes from one light source to another in a dark cavern, all the while memories of her torment and anguish come flooding in--obscuring your vision while she's making a dash to safety. These moments are a real highlight, channeling the same pulse-pounding sense of urgency found from set-piece moments in Resident Evil 4, making a seemingly simple objective into an unnerving experience--which in a way truly sums up what Hellblade is about. While these moments serve to be some of Hellblade's most profound and affecting moments, it uses them sparingly to help break-up general puzzle solving and obstacles, which feel somewhat bland by comparison.
While Senua experiences many dangers, such as the horrific hallucinations of the dead, immolation by a mad fire god, and ravenous beasts that hide in the shadows--there is one threat that constantly looms over her that can result in dire consequences. Early on, Senua is infected with a corruption known as The Dark Rot, which continues to spread after she 'dies' or fails a set-piece event. She passes failure and death off as another hallucination, but with every failure the infection spreads, and after multiple deaths it reaches her head. The result of this is Senua succumbing to her illness, forcing you to restart from the beginning of her journey.
Despite the inclusion of a permadeath mechanic, Hellblade is still a largely fair game. Taking around eight hours to clear on the hardest difficulty, and experiencing only a handful of deaths--mostly on account of some overly vague and awkward objectives coming off as obtuse, breaking the flow of traversal--the game is largely balanced with its pacing and difficulty. It even goes as far as to offer an auto-scaling difficulty system that adjusts based on how you're playing. Interestingly, there's no tutorial whatsoever in Hellblade, prompting you to learn the system by doing and listening to prompts from your inner voices.
Over the course of its journey, Hellblade keeps its gameplay lean in order to not overstay its welcome. Despite the complexity of the narrative and its presentation, combat only happens when it needs to, and puzzle solving and set-piece moments often drive the story forward to reveal more about Senua's motivations. Which in turn reveals the struggles that torment her, preventing her from moving on.
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.
Editor's note: We have updated this review to reflect our time with the Xbox One version of Hellblade. We tested the game on an Xbox One X. -- April 6, 2018
Spring is in the air and that can only mean one thing: monsters to hunt. Monster Hunter World has kicked off its Spring Blossom Fest event, which adds seasonal decorations, daily activities, and of course, some new loot to obtain with special Blossom Tickets. It runs until April 19 at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET.
During the festivities, the Gathering Hub is decorated with flowers and other springtime accoutrements. Event Quests will be running throughout the festival, starting with a quest for the community-designed Wyvern Ignition Great Sword. Starting on April 13, players can start an Event Quest to earn the Mega Man armor. It gives your Palico a boxy look and it plays classic Mega Man tunes according to your selected weapon.
The Spring Blossom Fest will also be running daily Limited Bounties. These should give you a reason to continue logging in, even after you've gotten your hands on the new weapon. You'll receive Blossom Tickets throughout the event--both for logging in and for completing Limited bounties--that can then be cashed in for rewards, including armor. You can also equip the Handler with a new outfit, as pictured below. We've also got a guide on how to get the new greatsword and armor.
Capcom is keeping the Monster Hunter World train rolling with pretty frequent updates. Its first big update added the fearsome Deviljho, but the game has sported plenty of smaller updates and events besides that one. We've seen fairly constant changes, tweaks, and rotating costume events, like the launch event for Horizon Zero Dawn gear. Most recently it added a very odd helmet for the discerning monster hunter who has everything.
The spring anime season has just begun, and that means lots of new shows, new seasons of your favorite series, spinoffs, and more. This weekend is especially packed; among the premieres is the anime adaptation of Persona 5, but there are a few big shows to keep an eye on as the season kicks off. Here are all the notable shows premiering this weekend.
First up is Persona 5: The Animation, which has the same premise as last year's acclaimed RPG. A-1 Pictures, which worked on Persona 4: The Golden Animation, is producing this series as well. You'll be able to watch the first episode on April 7 on Crunchyroll in the Americas, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, and Ireland. You can also watch it on Hulu in the US.
Smash-hit superhero series My Hero Academia is returning with Season 3 on April 7. It'll be available on Crunchyroll and Hulu in Japanese with English subtitles, while Funimation will be streaming the English dubbed version. Funimation recently tweeted that the first episode's dub is delayed; the site will be streaming the subbed version in the meantime and resume simuldub streaming with episode 2.
Next is a spinoff of popular series Sword Art Online. Called Sword Art Online Alternative: Gun Gale Online, the series follows a female gamer whose avatar dresses in all pink, and the in-show game features a battle royale mode. SAO Alternative: Gun Gale Online also premieres on April 7 and will be available on Crunchyroll and Hulu.
Lewd food anime Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma starts back up again this weekend as well. The first episode of the second half of season 3 (which sounds complicated but is common in anime) premieres this weekend on Crunchyroll. Be warned; it's NSFW.
Finally, the reboot of classic '70s series Cutie Honey, Cutie Honey Universe, premieres this weekend. It's being produced as part of the 50th anniversary celebration of creator Go Nagai's work in anime and manga. While no streaming service has been announced, Cutie Honey Universe has been licensed by Sentai Filmworks in a ton of regions outside Japan (via Crunchyroll), so be on the lookout for it soon.
Ubisoft recently confirmed plans for a second year of content for Ghost Recon Wildlands. Now, we have an idea of an exciting addition that may be coming in one of those future updates: some kind of appearance by Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher.
A new teaser trailer has been released that features Fisher speaking about heading to Bolivia, the setting of Wildlands. It also references his relationship with the game's Ghosts, the squad of playable characters. We don't actually hear Fisher's name used, but the silhouette--and accompanying night-vision goggles--leave little doubt about who we're looking at.
Notably, the voice seems to be that of Michael Ironside, the longtime voice actor for Fisher. Ironside was absent from the most recent game, Splinter Cell: Blacklist, with Eric Johnson taking over the role. What this means, if anything, for future Splinter Cell games is unclear.
The teaser video concludes by saying more information will be shared on Monday, April 9, so we don't have long to wait to find out exactly what Fisher's role in Wildlands will be. We know a new update is coming to the game on April 10, but only its additions to Ghost War have been detailed. Each of the four major updates for Wildlands in Year 2 will carry some kind of theme, and perhaps this one will be centered around Splinter Cell. Ubisoft previously offered a Wildlands crossover event with the limited-time Predator update.
Blacklist was released in 2013 and is the latest game in the Splinter Cell series. There's been no official word about a sequel (or a remaster), though Ubisoft's CEO did tease Splinter Cell news of some kind last year. Meanwhile, a Splinter Cell movie starring Tom Hardy is in the works.
Your preference of one Wrestlemania pay-per-view over another is largely a matter of how old you are. To a child's perspective, WWE wrestlers are larger-than-life superheroes who take massive beatdowns, show up the next week ready to brawl, and fight abstract battles of good vs. evil. A kid will like whatever he or she is given; all objectivity goes out the window.
It's only when we go back years later and we discover that, perhaps, the Piper vs. Goldust Hollywood Backlot Brawl hasn't aged so well. Or we realize the Jonathan Taylor Thomas celebrity cameo wasn't so great in retrospect. Or perhaps, we gain a new appreciation for a technical match like Owen Hart vs. Bret Hart, which lacked WWE's theatrical pageantry but was an absolute clinic in ring psychology and technical skill.
Here are the top five best and five worst Wrestlemanias in WWE history. Take a look at the match card and our predictions for Wrestlemania 34, which live streams on the WWE Network on April 8 at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT. And come back to GameSpot that evening for updated coverage on the Showcase of the Immortals.
Worst: Wrestlemania IX
Venue: Caesar's Palace, Las Vegas
Date: April 4, 1993
The outdoor arena at Caesar's Palace was decked with a garish, Roman emperor meets Egyptian pharaoh set, and the commentators wore togas. It was campy and a far cry from the glory days of filling the Pontiac Silverdome with 93,000 fans. It featured the worst Undertaker match ever (Giant Gonzalez tried to chloroform the Dead Man), and Hulk Hogan swooped in at the end of the broadcast to win the title from Yokozuna. Just like that, months of building the massive sumo wrestler as a monster were thrown directly into the garbage.
Best: Wrestlemania X-7
Venue: Astrodome, Houston
Date: April 1, 2001
This is the greatest of the Attitude Era PPVs. The main event pitted the two most popular guys in the company--The Rock and Steve Austin--against one another for the WWE Championship. There was an epic TLC match. Chris Benoit took on Kurt Angle. Chris Jericho took on William Regal. It was a stacked card, and it concluded with one of the biggest surprise heel turns in WWE history.
Worst: Wrestlemania I
Venue: Madison Square Garden, New York
Date: March 31, 1985
There is not much positive to report about this event other than that it was the first of its kind. It is a credit to WWE that this has aged as poorly as it has. The television production today is so slick and smooth (some might argue too smooth) that this looks downright amateurish by comparison. There was a great sense of spectacle, with Mr. T in the main event and Liberace in a kickline with the Rockettes. But WWE would go on to produce much better programs than this one.
Best: Wrestlemania XX
Venue: Madison Square Garden
Date: March 14, 2004
The only negative of this event is that many fans will have retroactively sad memories of it. Eddie Guerrero is dead, under tragic circumstances. Chris Benoit is also dead, under even worse circumstances. And the final image of them celebrating in the ring, holding the top two titles in their hands, is no longer heartwarming. But Benoit fought with Triple H and Shawn Michaels in a classic Triple Threat. This was the same night that the Undertaker returned to his Dead Man persona, and it was also the same night that both Goldberg and Lesnar were booed viciously by WWE fans, who knew the two men were leaving the company. It was one surprise and thrill after another, which is what Wrestlemania is all about.
Worst: Wrestlemania 2000
Venue: Arrowhead Pond, Anaheim
Date: April 2, 2000
With both Steve Austin and the Undertaker on the shelf with injuries, the rest of the roster had to bring in the new millennium without them. Nearly every match, including the main event, was an overbooked mess. And one of the only singles matches was a catfight between Terri Runnels and The Kat, with Val Venis as the special guest referee. There was so much squandered talent on the roster in 2000, but thankfully, in 2001, the company got its act together.
Best: Wrestlemania X8
Venue: Skydome, Toronto
Date: March 17, 2002
The Rock vs. Hulk Hogan overshadows everything else. It was so much better than anyone guessed it would be, and it showed that after all these years, people were still emotionally attached to Hogan; it didn't matter how long he had been gone. Elsewhere in the card, a heel Undertaker took on Ric Flair in a No Disqualifications match, where Big Evil showed a darker, more sadistic side of his personality.
Worst: Wrestlemania II
Venue: Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum, Uniondale; Rosemont Horizon, Rosemont; Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena, Los Angeles
Date: April 7, 1986
Wrestlemania II went with the "bigger is better principle," which didn't turn out well. The company broadcasted from three different arenas, which meant that three live audiences were disappointed with the event instead of one. And the marquee matches were spread across all three locations, which meant that no one got a brilliant show (although Rosemont got the best). On the upside, Ray Charles sang the national anthem. And the Hogan vs. Bundy steel cage match, watched today, is a solid bit of nostalgia.
Best: Wrestlemania III
Venue: Pontiac Silverdome, Pontiac
Date: March 29, 1987
Wrestlemania III is where WWE finally got the formula right. This is the classic PPV that all others were modeled around, and it was the figurative peak of WWE's mainstream popularity. It's where 93,000 fans gathered in the Pontiac Silverdome to watch Hulk Hogan body slam Andre the Giant. It's where Ricky Steamboat and Randy Savage put on a physical, technically wondrous match that is still the bar, even today. Pageantry doesn't get any more extravagant than this.
Worst: Wrestlemania XI
Venue: Hartford Civic Center
Date: April 2, 1995
There wasn't a single outstanding match on this card, although the main event between New York Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor and "Beast from the East" Bam Bam Bigelow was fun and silly; Taylor looked out of breath, yet competent, thanks to Bigelow's selfless in-ring performance. But the rest of the matches were fairly boring. And at an event like Wrestlemania, "boring" is a worse sin than being gloriously bad.
Best: Wrestlemania XXX
Venue: Mercedes-Benz Superdome, New Orleans
Date: April 6, 2014
This is one of the greatest Manias thanks to the WWE fans, who pushed and pushed for Daniel Bryan to be included in the main event. And when he won, the entire Superdome chanted in unison, "Yes! Yes! Yes!" In a very real way, WWE reaped what it sowed, by engaging fans over social media and letting them see glimpses of the backstage drama. You can't tell fans that they have a say in things and then be angry when they exercise that power. Fans booked Wrestlemania XXX. In this case, they did a better job than WWE's bookers.
A Way Out is barely a week old, but game director Josef Fares has already started on his next project. The outspoken developer said in a tweet on April 5 that it was officially the first day of breaking ground on his next game. "Today is officially the start of the next game and I'm INCREDIBLY exited!!!!!! I love making videogames and can't wait to show it!" he said. That's a lot of exclamation points.
Naturally, with work just starting on the game, he didn't give much indication of what exactly it will be. So far, though, Fares's games have heavily used dual perspectives as the narrative hook. First in Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, one player controlled both boys simultaneously with each control stick. Similarly, A Way Out can only be played cooperatively. That seems to be a design curiosity for Fares, so it wouldn't be surprising if his next game follows suit.
With the cooperative play a key element of A Way Out, though, Hazelight and EA kept the barrier to entry from being too high by only requiring one copy. Fares estimated that the full experience will last 6-8 hours. In GameSpot's A Way Out review, Oscar Dayus lamented the tonal inconsistency but still found the co-op experience worthwhile. You can check out a broader range of reviews for more.
The next Avengers movie, Infinity War, opens later this month--and it's expected to have one of the best openings in the history of movies. Variety reports that Infinity War is expected to make between $175 million and $200 million during its opening weekend.
If it can top $175 million, it will become just the eighth movie in history to do that. Only five have opened to $200 million or more. You can see a rundown of the biggest opening weekends ever below.
It has already been a huge year for Disney, which owns Marvel. Black Panther made an incredible $1.3 billion at the global box office. After Infinity War, Disney has more huge releases lined up, including Mary Poppins Returns, Solo: A Star Wars Story, and The Incredibles 2.
Infinity War opens on April 27. It is directed by Joe and Anthony Russo, who recently asked fans not to spoil any of the movie's big surprises. The movie features basically all of the Marvel superheroes you can, while Josh Brolin joins the cast as the bad guy Thanos. Hawkeye hasn't been seen in the posters or trailers so far--and there is a reason for that.
Join Jean Luc and Ben as they head into the first week of the Spring Blossom Event to get a new fancy set of armor, a new great sword, and maybe a hunt or two against a tempered deviljo aka the golden pickle.
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