Spider-Man (Tom Holland) is getting a lot of upgrades for Avengers: Infinity War. Though it hasn't been revealed in trailers, the new Iron Spider suit Peter Parker wears in the movie has an interesting addition--and it was revealed thanks to a toy.
The Spider-Man collectible from Hot Toys is incredibly detailed and, in a sneak peek at it on Instagram, it looks like the new suit has something in common with Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.). Both suits have palm repulsors. There's a couple of reasons this should come as no surprise. First and foremost, the Iron Spider suit in the comics features these. Additionally, Tony Stark designed Peter's new gear. Why wouldn't he include some of his favorite weaponry?
The repulsors, in addition to the mechanical arms that are also seen in the toy images, should make for some interesting new assets for Peter in the battle against Thanos (Josh Brolin). After all, if he can fire blasts of energy at his enemies, in addition to his webbing, Spider-Man will be a pretty useful ally.
That said, he's still a fledgling superhero, so chances are it will be a bumpy road as he gets used to his new abilities. That's what makes Spider-Man such a joy to watch. He's a kid who is still getting accustomed to what it means to be a hero, learning the ropes.
It just so happens that when it comes to Infinity War, those ropes are all that's holding together a universe than Thanos is desperate to destroy. Avengers: Infinity War is in theaters on April 27.
Hearthstone game director Ben Brode has announced that he's leaving the company. Today will be his last day, and he marked the occasion with a long goodbye letter to the fans and company. The letter is vague about future plans, but he does specify that he's leaving to help start a new company, and it will probably be involved in game design.
"I am very fortunate to be able to take a crazy risk right now in my life, and I'm excited to be scrappy and a little scared," he said. "I'm going to help start a new company. We'll probably make games, but we haven't figured anything else out, yet. I'm looking forward to designing, programming, and actually creating things again. I'm going to miss the on-campus Starbucks, though. Dang."
Brode started at the company as a "Night Crew Game Tester," and in 2008 moved to Team 5 to begin work on Hearthstone. He was officially named Game Director in late 2016. His friendliness with the community made him the public face of the game, a point he acknowledges in his letter.
"I get too much credit by virtue of being a public face, but the 80+ people on the development team are still there, and they are the ones actually making the cards, brawls, events, missions, and features. I am confident the game is in the best possible hands, and I'm excited to see where a new generation of leaders takes Hearthstone from here."
The announcement comes just on the heels of release of Hearthstone's latest expansion, The Witchwood. Brode was active in the promotion of the new set, including some hammy acting in a Blair Witch parody video (above) to kick off the reveals. The game is currently offering three packs and a class Legendary for logging in during the launch event. Next week, the single-player portion of the Witchwood, Monster Hunt, will release. Check out all 135 Witchwood cards from the expansion.
It's been a busy week for deal hunters, with loads of sales and discounts on PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC games to choose from. Here's a roundup of some of the best deals from a variety of sources.
Let's start with the best kinds of deal you'll ever find: free games. Peggle is currently free for PC on Origin. Download it. Play it. Love it. PC gamers can also download a free copy of Satellite Reign from the Humble Store. It's yours to keep and play forever.
Xbox One owners will be pleased to see that PUBG is free to play all weekend long. Any progress you make carries over if you decide to buy the full version after the weekend's over. Speaking of Xbox One, horror fans will be pleased to hear Microsoft is running a big horror game sale this week. So if you've been meaning to scare the pants off yourself playing games like Outlast 2 ($10) or Layers of Fear ($6), head over to see the full list.
If you're into gaming apparel and collectibles, you have two big sales to check out this week. Both the BioWare Store and the Bethesda Store are shutting down temporarily. They'll be back up eventually, but now they're trying to liquidate tons of apparel, accessories, and collectibles by putting them on sale for cheap. So if you want major discounts on gear based on franchises like Mass Effect, Fallout, and The Elder Scrolls, visit the respective store for savings.
This one isn't quite a deal--in fact, it's kind of the opposite--but it may be of interest to fans of the PS4 exclusive Nioh. You can now pre-order a statue of the protagonist and his spirit guardian. The only catch? It costs $1,000.
We can't spend all of our free time gaming. If you want to expand your leisure activities to movies, you're in luck: Best Buy is running special offers on Blu-ray and 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray movies. For instance, you can grab a Kubrick collection and the Lord of the Rings trilogy for $20.
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We've known for some time that Blizzard planned some kind of overhaul for Hanzo, Overwatch's bow-wielding hero. Now, we know exactly what it has in store for the character, as these changes have been implemented on the PC version's Public Test Realm, alongside the new Rialto map and other changes.
Most significantly, Hanzo's old Scatter Arrow ability--the one that shot a bunch of arrows that would ricochet off of surfaces--is gone. It's been replaced by Storm Arrows, which allows him to "rapidly fire up to six arrows that deal reduced damage but are always fired at full power." He also gains the ability to leap horizontally with Lunge (by pressing the jump key/button while in mid-air), and the projectile speed of his basic attacks has been increased from 85 to 100. Finally, Sonic Arrow--which reveals enemies near its impact--can now be used more often but is less effective: Its cooldown drops to 12 seconds from 20, but its duration is only six seconds (down from 10) and its radius is seven meters (down from 10).
"The goal of these Hanzo changes is to allow him to have new options and maintain his high damage output, while removing the frustration of fighting against the old Scatter Arrow," Blizzard explained in the full patch notes. "Hanzo is now much more mobile with his new Lunge ability, and with the combination of the bow projectile speed increase and the new Storm Arrows ability he can now deal his high damage more consistently than ever before."
While Hanzo's changes are by far the most extensive, he's not the only character with some balance tweaks in this update. Lucio's Wall Ride has been reworked; Blizzard said it's a "huge improvement," and it's now less likely to be interrupted if you're sticking to the same surface. He can also go around corners using it without leaving the wall, and it's possible to jump away from a wall and then return to it. Additionally, Soundwave no longer consumes ammo when used.
Brigitte, the game's newest hero, has had her Shield Bash's cone angle reduced from 90 to 60. Blizzard said this should prevent some frustration when using it (or being hit by it), as "the ability is more accurate to its visual representation." Junkrat sees some minor adjustments; his default attack's projectile size has been decreased (to 0.2 from 0.3), as has the movement speed of RIP-Tire (to 12 from 13).
Genji sees a bit of a nerf involving his Deflect ability; its hitbox size has been reduced. This sounds as if it's specifically meant to avoid deflecting projectiles that are further away from him than it should. Finally, Tracer's Pulse Bomb max damage has been decreased from 400 to 300, making it "less powerful as a tank-destroyer, while keeping it lethal against most other heroes."
This PTR update also makes some other bug fixes and tweaks. This is all live on the PTR right now, which you can access through Blizzard Battle.net if you own the PC version. There's no word on when these changes will make their way to the live game, although bear in mind that these specific changes could always be tweaked further.
Grand Theft Auto Online is always getting updates and additional content, and this week is no different. The biggest additions include a mode called The Vespucci Job, along with new vehicles, a new Premium Race, and a Time Trial. Those are significant additions GTA Online players will surely want to check out. But you might want to wait for all that until tomorrow, because today only--yes, 4/20--GTA Online is having a big sale on all things related to weed.
Specifically, all marijuana-based purchases are 50% off today. You can buy a Weed Business, Weed Business Upgrades, and Green Tire Smoke for half price. Also, all the product your Weed Businesses sell today gets a 50% premium. Now that's the kind of subsidy 420 aficionados can appreciate.
Once you save money and make money with those weed specials, you might want to try out the other new content this week. Rockstar describes The Vespucci Job as a "madcap, four-player adversary mode." In it, two teams go head to head in a car chase. One team is on the run in the new Issi Classic car, while the other team controls a squad car trying madly to take down their opponent. Playing The Vespucci Job between now and April 23 nets you double GTA% and RP.
Check Rockstar's full update notes for more information. Here's a full rundown of the specials you can find in GTA Online this week.
GTA Online Discounts Through April 23:
Vehicle Discounts
Karin 190z -- 25% off
Vapid Hustler -- 25% off
Albany Hermes -- 25% off
Phantom Wedge -- 35% off (Buy It Now and Trade Prices)
A new Event Mode is now underway in PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds on PC. Developer PUBG Corp. has kicked off a new limited-time playlist dubbed Metal Rain, which will only be available in the popular battle royale game for a very limited time.
Metal Rain is an eight-player Squads mode set on PUBG's original map, Erangel. This time around, flare guns will "spawn randomly alongside normal loot locations" as opposed to in fixed spots. Firing the flare gun within the safe zone will call in special care packages; however, firing it outside of the zone will drop a special vehicle, the armored UAZ.
Metal Rain is available for up to 96 players, divided up into 12 teams of eight. You're able to invite up to seven friends to form a squad. You also have the option to disable auto-matching if you'd prefer not to play with a full team of eight. Metal Rain will only be available through the weekend, concluding at 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET on Sunday, April 22 (4 AM CEST on April 23). You can read more about the mode on Steam.
In other news, PUBG Corp. recently announced that it's working on a map selection feature for the game. The feature is slated to roll out on the test server "soon" and will give players the option to choose if they'd rather play on Erangel or the newer Miramar when starting a game. If the player selects both maps, then the game will randomly choose between them.
PUBG Corp. has also revealed some more details about the game's in-development third map, Codename: Savage, which recently entered its second round of testing earlier this week. Savage is notable for being much smaller than PUBG's other two maps-- 4x4 as opposed to 8x8--but another distinctive feature of the map is that is will have an underground cave system. Game creator Brendan Greene also teased PUBG could get more 4x4 (or possibly even larger) maps in the future.
Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon players will soon have a chance to add another free pair of Legendaries to their teams. Beginning this weekend, The Pokemon Company is giving away Entei and Raikou as part of its ongoing Year of Legendary Pokemon celebration, but they'll only be available for a very limited time.
To claim the Legendaries, fans in the US will need to travel to a specific retailer and pick up a download code for the Pokemon. This time, the free code will be available at the electronics section of participating Target stores across the country from April 22-29. Players in Europe, meanwhile, can download the Legendaries via an online Mystery Gift from the games' main menu until April 25.
The code is redeemable in any seventh generation Pokemon title, although the Legendary you receive depends on which game you're playing. Those with Sun or Ultra Sun will get the Fire-type Entei, while Moon and Ultra Moon players will receive the Electric-type Raikou.
If you redeem the code in either of the Ultra games, the Pokemon will come equipped with a rare Gold Bottle Cap, which can be exchanged to max out a Pokemon's IVs in Hyper Training. The Legendaries also know different moves depending on the version. You can see their movesets in each game below.
Pokemon Ultra Sun
Entei -- Level 100
Sacred Fire
Stone Edge
Iron Head
Flame Charge
Pokemon Sun
Entei -- Level 60
Stomp
Bite
Swagger
Lava Plume
Pokemon Ultra Moon
Raikou -- Level 100
Thunderbolt
Volt Switch
Extrasensory
Calm Mind
Pokemon Moon
Raikou -- Level 60
Reflect
Crunch
Thunder Fang
Discharge
To redeem the download code, first select Mystery Gift from the games' main menu, then choose the option to receive your gift via a code/password. Input the code you picked up and your Legendary Pokemon will be downloaded. You will then have to retrieve it from the deliveryman, who will be waiting inside any of the games' Pokemon Centers. You'll need to have an empty slot in your party to claim the Legendary.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds has been a phenomenon this past year. Not only has it seen explosive growth, but it's also helped inspire a wave of other battle royale games coming this year. If you have an Xbox One and haven't hopped on the PUBG drop plane yet, now's your chance. PUBG is currently free to play for Xbox One owners through Sunday, April 22. The only catch is that you have to be an Xbox Live Gold subscriber to take advantage of the free play weekend.
To download the full-game trial, simply head to the Xbox Store or click into the Gold section on the dashboard of your Xbox One. Any progress you make during the free play weekend will carry over into the full game, should you decide to buy it down the line.
Now is a good time to buy, too, because the Xbox One version of PUBG is getting the desert map Miramar next month. Seeing as Erangel is the only map available now for Xbox One players, that will effectively double the game's playable real estate. Along with the new map will come three additional vehicles: a minibus, pickup truck, and jet ski.
In addition to the free play weekend, the Xbox One version of PUBG is getting a limited-time DLC pack that contains some new outfits (see below). The pack costs $7 and will be available from April 19 to May 19.
Meanwhile, the developers are currently working on a smaller map for PUBG on PC, dubbed Codename: Savage. If history is any indication, it should arrive on Xbox One a few months after it lands on PC.
Not everyone is a PUBG fan. If you're firmly in the camp of the free-to-play competitor Fortnite, you'll be pleased to hear that game just got an update and is offering players double XP this weekend. Let the battle of the battle royale games begin.
Today is the day. After years of development, Sony's God of War reboot for PlayStation 4 is finally out. Game director Cory Barlog and his team pushed hard on the game for five years to get the action-adventure title out the door, and that day has finally arrived.
Barlog posted a video of himself checking God of War's reviews for the first time--and it's a lot. After hesitating, he goes to GameSpot sister site Metacritic to see the game's overall score--at the time he checked it was 94 (it's 95 today). Seeing his game being praised so much drove him to tears.
"[The review scores] shouldn't matter, but I'm just so f**king proud," Barlog said. "I'm just so lucky to work with the people that I work with. I'm glad I didn't f**k it up."
Barlog said he wasn't sure he wanted to even make this video. He was pushed to do so after thinking about what his son is "going through right now." Barlog said it was important for him to let his son know it is OK to be sad and to show emotion.
"It is OK to cry. There is nothing to hide. I thought I would try to set a good example and show him that papa can cry in front of the world," Barlog said.
Fortnite sure is popular. The NFL's Buffalo Bills have created a silly new video where they announced their 2018 schedule by way of Fortnite. Really.
"All aboard the Battle Bus," reads a tweet from the studio with the video. The video shows Fortnite's famous Battle Bus flying across the map, but instead of places like Tilted Towers, you see locations like Bill's Badlands. It's expected at this point for big brands and teams to try to connect with the audiences through Fortnite, which is one of the most popular games on Earth right now. But really, all of these forced Fortnite branding opportunities are getting to be a bit much, if you ask me.
Capcom has one of the biggest video game publishers since the '80s. This weekend, the Humble Store is dropping prices by up to 80% on Capcom PC games from across the decades. Here are some of the top picks in the Capcom Weekend Sale at the Humble Store.
Unsurprisingly, the Resident Evil series plays a key role in the sale, with just about every installment and spin-off available at a discount. To that effect, you can buy Resident Evil 7 Gold Edition, which comes with all the expansions, for $38. Resident Evil 6: Complete Pack is $10, and Resident Evil 5 Gold Edition is $7. The older classics and remakes are available for between $5 and $8 each.
Many more games appear in the sale, so check out the Humble Store Capcom Sale page for the full list of discounted Capcom games. And if you're interested in saving money on strategy games, check out the latest Humble Bundle.
Some links to supporting retailers are automatically made into affiliate links, and GameSpot may receive a small share of those sales.
If the direction and timeline of the DC and X-Men superhero universes often seem contradictory and confusing, they have nothing on the big horror franchises. With the rights passed between studios and producers and the interests of horror fans constantly shifting, there is often little continuity or consistency between sequels, especially for those franchises that have been running for decades.
The Halloween series is perhaps the worst example, not least because the movie that kicked it off was so good. John Carpenter's 1978 original might not have technically been the first slasher movie--that honour arguably belongs to Bob Clark's Black Christmas (1974) or possibly Mario Bava's Bay of Blood (1971)--but it was the film that made this subgenre a serious commercial force and inspired dozens of copycat movies over the following years. Inevitably there was a 1981 sequel, which, while not a patch on that tense, stylish first movie, was at least written by Carpenter and saw Jamie Lee Curtis return as Laurie Strode (now revealed to be the sister of the franchise's masked killer, Michael Myers, aka The Shape).
Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1983) was a standalone movie that had nothing to do with the saga of The Shape. Carpenter considered that story done, so his plan was to launch an anthology movie series that would revolve around the holiday itself. But Halloween III's financial failure led to 1988's Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers; from this point on Carpenter's only involvement was an executive producer credit, cashing the checks but having no creative influence.
Halloween 5 followed in 1989 and part 6 in 1995. But by this point, even the most devoted fans were losing interested in this once great slice of iconic horror. Michael was no longer the terrifying presence of the first two movies and the films' increasingly modest box office returns showed how little fans were starting to care.
So hopes weren't high for Halloween H20, which was released 20 years ago this summer. At one stage, Carpenter was set to make a return to the series, at the request of Jamie Lee Curtis, who had herself agreed to return for a new movie. Ultimately Carpenter walked away, with producer Moustapha Akkad--whose estate owns the rights to the series--reportedly unwilling to pay Carpenter the $10 million that he asked for. So Steve Miner was hired instead; while Miner is hardly one of the great horror directors of the era, he was also far from a novice, with hits such as House and Friday the 13th parts 2 and 3 under his belt.
Against the odds, not only was H20 good, it was the best Halloween movie since the first one. So what went right? For a start, writers Robert Zappia and Matt Greenberg basically ignored every movie since Halloween II. Of course, Curtis's return made this essential since Halloween 4 establishes that Laurie Strode is dead. But more importantly, it allowed the filmmakers to wipe the slate clean and bury parts 4-6 in the video graveyard; they essentially said this is the third Michael Myers movie.
Curtis's presence is H20's other great advantage. The intervening entries did have the presence of the great Donald Pleasance as Dr. Loomis, but his role became increasingly small and more redundant as the films continued, and by 1998 the actor was sadly no longer with us. Bringing Curtis back not only gave the movie continuity with the earlier, better films, it also helped H20 stand apart from the other horror movies of the era.
This was the decade of Scream of course--Wes Craven's smart, self-aware, scary slasher was a massive hit in 1996, and like Halloween 20 years earlier, it inspired a wave of similar movies and their sequels. From I Know What you Did Last Summer to Urban Legend and Cherry Falls, these films were marked by young casts, pop-culture references, and a self-referential quality that was missing in previous decades. H20 ticks many of these boxes, which isn't surprising, given Scream creator Kevin Williamson wrote the movie's initial treatment and reportedly came back for some uncredited rewrites. The cast is packed with upcoming young stars (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Josh Hartnett, Michelle Williams), plus rapper LL Cool J, and Janet Leigh, star of Hitchcock's Psycho and Curtis's real-life mom.
Curtis brought a sense of dramatic weight to the film. Having faked her death to stop Michael tracking her down, Laurie now lives with the terrible memory of the events of the first movie when she was 17. Her own son John (Hartnett) is himself turning 17 on--you guessed it!--October 31, and inevitably Michael returns for a family reunion. But the Laurie of 1998 is very different to the teenage babysitter of two decades earlier. Taking her lead from the likes of Terminator's Sarah Connor and Alien's Ripley, Curtis delivers one of the decade's most kickass heroines. With John and his friends in danger from her crazed brother, Laurie races to save them and faces Michael down in a brutal one-on-one. And in a nod to the fact that by 1998 no one is surprised when a slasher movie villains sits up at the end after being seemingly killed, in the final sequence, Laurie steals the ambulance in which Michael's "body" lies. As she knew, Michael ain't dead; it takes being run over, thrown off a cliff, and beheaded to finally lay him to rest.
And that probably should have been that. A fun, exciting horror sequel that closed the door on a classic franchise; time to move on to great some new movies. But while Halloween H20's considerable box office success was well deserved, it also meant that there was no way that the film's producers--Miramax by this stage--were going to let it lie. So the cycle began again. A truly terrible "sequel" followed in 2002 in the, er, shape of Halloween: Resurrection, directed by Halloween II's director Rick Rosenthal. It not only brought Michael back from the dead via a twist so idiotic I can't even bring myself to type it, it also killed Laurie off in the opening scenes.
While Resurrection remains the lowest point of the franchise, the subsequent attempt to reboot the entire series wasn't much more successful. Musician-turned-director Rob Zombie was handed this task; he upped the gore quota and gave Michael an unnecessary backstory, and while both Halloween (2007) and Halloween II (2009) have their moments of brutal intensity, even at their best they are a pale imitation of everything Carpenter did so well in the first place. With mediocre box office returns and seemingly nowhere for the series to go, Halloween II was the last movie in the series to date, leaving the longest gap between movies in its history. It seemed that all the hard work that H20 did in restoring some of the original's glory was in vain.
Which brings us to Halloween, the third movie to carry this title, which is set for release this October and is directed by acclaimed indie filmmaker David Gordon Green. In what feels like an uncanny mirroring of 1998, Curtis is returning to play Laurie Strode, for a movie which, again, ignores most of the movies in between. This time Carpenter IS involved, both creatively as a hands-on story advisor and in contributing the movie's score. While little is known about the plot specifics, we know that this Halloween is a direct sequel to the first movie, so it's very possible that Michael isn't even Laurie's brother in this one.
Will it do what Halloween H20 did, 20 years ago? It certainly seems to be in good hands, from Carpenter and Curtis to producers Blumhouse, who are on a serious roll with the recent successes of Get Out, Split, and the Purge movies. And while Green and co-writer Danny McBride are known more for comedy and drama than horror, they certainly seem to understand what made the original so good. Here's hoping it's a happy, scary Halloween this year.
Syfy is continuing to beef up its comic book offerings. Currently, the network is home to DC Comics drama Krypton, along with the adaptation of Grant Morrison's graphic novel Happy. Now Syfy is turning another property into a series--and it has enlisted some big names to make it a reality.
Joe and Anthony Russo, who directed the upcoming Avengers: Infinity War, will executive produce an adaptation of Deadly Class, based on the graphic novel by Rick Remender and Wes Craig. Set in the 1980s, the series will follow a homeless teenager "recruited into a storied elite private school where the world's top crime families send their next generations," a press release reads. That teen will then have to stick to his own moral code, as he struggles to survive the school.
The cast includes some very interesting and exciting names, as well. Benedict Wong (Avengers: Infinity War), Benjamin Wadsworth (Teen Wolf), and Lana Candor (X-Men: Apocalypse) will all star. Joining the Russos as executive producers are Remender, Miles Orion Feldsott (Bionic Woman), Mike Larocca (Spy), Adam Targum (Banshee), and Lee Toland Krieger (The Age of Adaline). Krieger also directed the pilot.
There's no word on when Deadly Class will premiere just yet, though it's not the only project Syfy has in the works. The network is also adapting George RR Martin novella Nightflyers, which is in production now.
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Join Ben and Jean-Luc as they track and hunt down a new monster in Monster Hunter World the Kulve Tarroth.
Cory Barlog responds to the game's positive reception; a photo mode is also on the way in a future update.
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