Previous Far Cry games have always sported a diverse roster of weapons, and Far Cry 5 is no different. With so many options available, you're probably asking which weapons are worth purchasing. To help you out, we've highlighted in the video above nine weapons that we believe to be some of the best in the game.
It's also worth noting that many of the weapons you see in the video above are Prestige Weapons, which are higher-priced special skinned versions of normal weapons you can purchase with in-game money or real money. If you'd prefer, you can purchase a standard non-skinned equivalent of the same weapon in the shop for cheaper and without the fancier attachments. Regardless of which version of each weapon you choose to get, we stand by their quality and functionality.
The best weapons in Far Cry 5 include the AR-CL semi-automatic rifle, the SA50 sniper rifle, and the M-79 grenade launcher. Each has their own special uses and functionality. Though, what you choose from our recommendations is also going to depend on your playstyle. After all, someone who specializes in stealth may not find it useful to use the RAT4 rocket launcher. Refer to the video above, as we also offer some tips on how to best use each weapon and which playstyle they're more suited to.
Aside from the ones we mentioned above, the other best weapons in Far Cry 5 include:
SPAS-12 "Flameout"
M60 LMG + M249 LMG
.44 Magnum "Steel and Ivory"
The Magnopulser
What are some of your favorite weapons in Far Cry 5? Let us know in the comments below. And if you're interested in our other Far Cry 5 guides, be sure to check out our feature highlighting nine tips we wish we knew before starting. In other news, Ubisoft released a Far Cry 5 update that improves co-op play and fixes bugs. However, it recently just emerged that a new bug has been discovered that plunges the game into a permanent state of nighttime.
WWE's biggest event of 2018, Wrestlemania 34, has concluded. The professional wrestling giant continues to raise the bar at its yearly event by offering more matches, more celebrities, and more memorable moments, year after year. 2018 will be no exception as former UFC Champion Ronda Rousey teamed with Kurt Angle to take on Triple H and Stephanie McMahon as just one match in an event that ran more than seven hours.
It was a stacked card, with a total of 14 matches taking place during the PPV, which was broadcast on the WWE Network live from the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans. Every single main roster title was on the line, and we saw some titles change hands. That included the vacated Cruiserweight Championship, which is from the Tuesday night show on the WWE Network, 205 Live.
If you're interested in the open-world shooter Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Wildlands but haven't picked it up yet, we have some good news: You'll get a chance to try the game for free this weekend. The free-play weekend runs April 12 through 15, on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.
It's a good weekend to hop in, too. This week sees the launch of Wildlands' first big Year 2 update. It's called Special Operation I, and as Ubisoft just announced, it features a mission with Splinter Cell's Sam Fisher. Unlike in Blacklist, the previous Splinter Cell game, Fisher is once again voiced by Michael Ironside.
Ghost Recon Wildlands takes place in Bolivia, where the drug war is in full swing. You and up to three others play as a special forces unit tasked with going in and dismantling the cartel's operations. Your job is to topple one drug lord lieutenant at a time, until you reach the kingpin El Sueno.
In GameSpot's Ghost Recon: Wildlands review, Miguel Concepcion wrote, "As only the second open world game in the Clancyverse, Ghost Recon: Wildlands is a middlingly safe tactical shooter and a slightly wasted opportunity given the ambitious scope of its seemingly boundless map. While its main strength is its mission diversity, it doesn't take long to lose the motivation after reaching El Sueno's doorstep. Even with a foursome of highly trained friends, Wildlands eventually reveals its diminishing returns. The feeling of positive immediacy and dopamine hits begin to wane sooner than you expected from a game with such a large and diverse world."
It's worth noting Ubisoft has released a number of updates and for Wildlands since the review was published, including a PvP mode called Ghost War. Ubisoft also announced last week that all Year 2 content would be free for all players. So it's probably worth trying out if you're looking for something to play this weekend.
If you were one of the two of three people championing a possible second season of Marvel's Inhumans, it might be time to give up the fight. Anson Mount, who was most recently seen as Black Bolt on Inhumans, has a new job that will take him far from the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
Variety reports that Mount will join the second season of Star Trek: Discovery in the role of Captain Christopher Pike--the predecessor of Captain James T. Kirk at the helm of the USS Enterprise. The arrival of Pike was first teased in the Season 1 finale of Discovery when the USS Discovery came face-to-face with the iconic Star Trek vessel.
Cat's out of the bag. Yep, I have officially joined STARFLEET, a dream I've had since around the age of 8 when I first discovered TOS syndicated on my local access channel in middle TN. And couldn't be more excited to be playing PIKE! @startrekcbspic.twitter.com/UWojAvI6bc
It's unknown how many episodes Mount will appear in of it he'll be considered a series regular when Discovery returns. However, the actor was quick to talk about his excitement on social media. "I have officially joined [Starfleet], a dream I've had since around the age of 8 when I first discovered [The Original Series] syndicated on my local access channel in middle [Tennessee]," he writes on Twitter. "And couldn't be more excited to be playing [Pike]!"
While there has been no official word on the status of Inhumans, which premiered in IMAX theaters before airing on ABC, the star moving onto another project certainly isn't a good sign. ABC says the status of the show will be formally announced in May. Meanwhile, Star Trek: Discovery has no set Season 2 premiere date.
Disclosure: GameSpot and CBS All Access, the home of Star Trek: Discovery, are both owned by CBS.
It's the start of a new month, which means a host of new games are on the horizon for all platforms. April's release schedule is fairly light compared to March's, but there are still some big-name sequels in store for this month, including a new chapter in the Yakuza series and the revamped God of War for PS4.
Below, you'll find a roundup of all the biggest games coming to PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC, and 3DS in April 2018. For a full look at all of the major titles coming to each platform throughout the rest of the year, check out our comprehensive 2018 game release date list.
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life (PS4) -- April 17
Yakuza 6: The Song of Life is one of April's biggest PS4 releases, launching partway through the month on April 17. The final installment in protagonist Kazuma Kiryu's saga, the game follows the former mobster as he tries to reconcile his criminal past while raising his adoptive daughter's baby. The title also tweaks the series' combat system and introduces a host of new minigames, including the RTS-like Clan Creator.
This month's other marquee PS4 exclusive is God of War, which launches on April 20. A reboot of sorts of the long-running action series, this new installment eschews Greek for Norse mythology and follows the story of Kratos and his young son, Atreus. Along with the new setting, the game also boasts a completely revamped battle system, which sees Kratos trading his iconic Blades for the new Leviathan Axe.
Nintendo's DIY experiment, Nintendo Labo launches exclusively for Switch on April 20. More of a construction set than a traditional game, Labo ships in two different packages, which come bundled with cardboard and other materials used to create cardboard peripherals called Toy-Cons. Players can then use these Toy-Cons to play minigames and interact with the Labo software in other clever ways.
Like last year's Get Out, the huge success of A Quiet Place this weekend has proved that modestly budgeted original horror movies can become box office juggernauts. The Jon Krasinski-directed film has had the second biggest opening weekend of 2018 so far, making more than Pacific Rim: Uprising or Ready Player One in its first three days (but less than Black Panther). Now the movie's writers have revealed that at one stage it was being considered to become part of the JJ Abrams-produced Cloverfield series.
In an interview with Slashfilm, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods explained that since both A Quiet Place and the Cloverfield movies were developed at Paramount, there were discussions about rewriting A Quiet Place to form part of that loose sci-fi series. "It crossed our mind and we had spoken to our representatives about that possibility," Beck said. "It was weird timing, though, because when we were writing the script, 10 Cloverfield Lane was at Paramount. We were actually talking to an executive there about this film, and it felt from pitch form that there might be crossover. But when we finally took the final script in to Paramount, they saw it as a totally different movie."
In the Slashfilm interview, Woods went on to explain why it was important for original stories like A Quiet Place to be produced. "As filmgoers, we crave new and original ideas, and we feel like so much of what's out there is IP," he said. "It's comic books, it's remakes, it's sequels. We show up to all of them, we enjoy those movies too, but our dream was always to drop something different into the marketplace, so we feel grateful that Paramount embraced the movie as its own thing."
As well as the huge box office results, A Quiet Place has received some of the year's best reviews too. In our A Quiet Place review, Tony Wilson said the movie "does its job well. It clearly establishes ground rules, continually ups the danger, and makes dynamic use of all types of sound. While it certainly doesn't shy away from trying to make you jump, it's the sonic nature of the scares and unending threat of everyday actions that make this film stand tall."
That gluttonous cat Garfield may hate Mondays, but ask him after this episode of GameSpot Daily, and he'll surely say, "Wow, take this lasagna, I don't need it anymore. More GameSpot Daily please." We've got your weekend and morning news, coming at you in 30 minutes or less.
Fortnite and PUBG have new competition on the battle royale front, as LawBreakers developer Boss Key Productions has announced its next game Radical Heights. It's a last-man-standing shooter that features BMX bikes and ATM machines that let you bank cash for future games. And it'll be free starting very soon on Steam.
Speaking of battle royale, PUBG players on Xbox One got some good news at PAX East. During an Xbox Live Session, Playerunknown himself announced that the desert map Miramar is coming in May. And of course, he had a little help from electronic artist Deadmau5, who wore a PUBG-themed mouse helmet. Check it out in the video above.
Ubisoft confirmed last week on Twitter that battle royale would be impossible for Ghost Recon Wildlands, but all you Ghosts out there will still get a bunch of new content this year. That starts with Special Operations 1, which features a Splinter Cell mission that'll have you teaming up with Sam Fisher. It comes with a bunch of other stuff, and we've got all that and the release date in today's episode.
Ubisoft also released a new update for Far Cry 5 that makes a bunch of fixes to various bugs, crashes, and save corruption instances, in addition to co-op support and Arcade mode. Players can expect improved connectivity in both campaign co-op and Arcade versus multiplayer.
We also have some news for Resident Evil 7 fans. The series' return to grace has sold more than 5.1 million units across PS4, Xbox One, and PC. On top of that, it recently won an award for its VR audio design.
And of course, we also talk about the latest trailer for Solo: A Star Wars Story, in which that scruffy-looking nerfherder Han Solo finds himself in a mess of trouble. It still feels a bit off without Harrison Ford in the role, but we get our first lines from Donald Glover's Lando Calrissian, which is pretty dang cool. We talk story details, our impressions, and whether we think Chewbacca will make it out alive.
That's what you'll find in today's episode, but be sure to tune in every day of the week at 11 AM PST/2 PM EST/7PM BST/4 AM AEST for another episode of GameSpot Daily. We cover the most exciting gaming news in 30 minutes or less or we'll be cancelled and turned into another battle royale shooter.
The status quo of Legion's eclectic crew of mutants has shifted dramatically with the start of season two. We've learned that David's abduction during the season one finale has actually lasted an entire year and in that time the group from Summerland has actually teamed up with Division Three, the former villains of the show--or at least one of the former villains.
So now we're left to figure things out as David does, orienting ourselves for a totally new status quo. Thankfully, Ptonomy is here to fill us in--at least, sort of. He helpfully rattled off the history of Division Three for David over a pleasant pancake breakfast, but his breakdown prompted a few more questions than answers.
He mentioned something called the "Lazarus Affair," which opens the door for some pretty major potential connections to other X-Men properties. But what is the Lazarus Affair? He didn't really bother to explain, so we'll do it instead.
Here's the deal: Lazarus, in X-Men canon, is actually the brother of a more familiar mutant named Domino, who is about to get her very own live action debut care of Deadpool 2, played by Zazie Beetz. Lazarus, like his sister, was the product of some top secret government genetic testing, which gave him incredibly powerful metal manipulation and projection powers. It's dangerous, scary stuff made even more dangerous and scary by the fact that Lazarus was a child who had no idea how strong he was. Even his own mother wanted to kill him rather than unleash him on the world.
Unfortunately, that's really all there is to it for little Lazarus on the comics end of things--he only lasted about an issue back in the early 00s and since then, hasn't been featured in anything major. But in the case of a show like Legion, which prefers to be oblique with its source material references, that lack of canon development might actually be an asset.
Obviously, we can't be totally sure if the "Lazarus Affair" is actually referring to a person, and if it is we can't be sure that it's this Lazarus they're going for. But the fact that the Division numbers during Ptonomy's explanation are written out to look like domino dots (as pointed out in an article at Bustle) seems a little bit too on-the-nose to be a total coincidence. On top of that, Lazarus would certainly fit with the motif being woven throughout the show of slightly off-beat psychics having too much power. And the idea of a mutant child being put down because of his uncontrollable ability is absolutely a dramatic enough inciting incident to prompt the creation of the Divisions, as Ptonomy explained.
The fact that the strange infectious event causing people to go catatonic and chatter their teeth only affects people above a certain age puts children in a whole new context this season, especially since "no one knows why." Add to that the fact we got to see what appeared to be a Division Three kindergarten classroom in the middle of a game of duck-duck-goose with the crutches-wielding monster lurking in the background during David's trip through the psychic amplifier and, well--kids seem to be an ominous and notable element this season.
Then there's Domino herself, who seems like an even bigger possible get for the show. It's unlikely that Legion will be so bold as to directly connect itself with the big screen X-Men universe by having Zazie Beetz actually show up (the fact that David's father is Charles Xavier kind of makes dabbling in the movies a complicated thing). But it's definitely possible that we might end up seeing a remixed version of Domino somewhere in Division Three. Domino's mutation--the ability to essentially grant herself extremely good luck while making the people around her suffer extremely bad luck--is an undeniably great fit for Legion's collection of the more esoteric side of mutant powers.
Even if the Lazarus Affair name drop is nothing more than a clever Easter Egg for Domino fans, the fact that the Divisions themselves seem to be a major plot element of Season 2 is enough to make every potential avenue worth exploring. After all, we have no idea if David is being told the whole story, if Ptonomy's explanation was actually the truth, or what the newly introduced Admiral Fukuyama even is.
We're not saying you should be expecting a Deadpool crossover any time soon, but certainly try and keep an ear to the ground as this season moves forward. And pay close attention to anything and everything you hear about the Divisions and their origin stories--maybe something inexplicably lucky is on the horizon.
It's been over a year since HBO's Westworld was on our screens and, for even the most attentive viewers, it might be a struggle to remember everything that happened. That's not to say your memories aren't in tip-top shape, it's more that Westworld was an incredibly nuanced exploration of AI sentience, moral and ethical obligations, and the darker side of human nature--and those are just a few of the complicated themes it tackles.
Trying to understand all that while also keeping track of the plot was tricky at the time, so you'd be forgiven for forgetting some of the finer details. Luckily for you, we've put together a quick recap that will walk you through everything that happened, both inside Westworld's Wild West theme park and outside of it. In the video above resident Westworld superfan and ... host (geddit?) ... Lucy James will walk you through all the important moments from the first season so that, by the time you're done watching, you'll be ready to jump into Season 2.
Westworld Season 2 begins airing on April 22. A trailer for the new season has been released, and offered a glimpse at a Shogun world, where we'll likely get to see William (Jimmi Simpson) before he became the Man In Black visiting Dolores in the Delos labs. This moment could be key to further exploring his transformation from the lovesick wanderer with feelings for a robot to the heartless monster that caused so much chaos in the first season.
Wrestlemania 34 has come and--after seven-plus hours--gone. It featured the in-ring debut of former UFC star Ronda Rousey, who surprised many by putting on one of the night's best matches. Now, reflecting on her journey to this point, she seems quite content with the way her UFC career concluded.
Rousey enjoyed an incredible rise in UFC, only to lose consecutive fights to Holly Holm and Amanda Nunes. That led to her parting ways with the company and officially signing with WWE, a move which followed an appearance at Wrestlemania 31 in 2015. While those losses were initially hard on her, she now seems glad that things worked out the way they did, telling ESPN, "It was me versus the world in an individual sport. I thought I would never say this, but I'm so happy I lost those fights because it led me here. This is so worth it.
"Everything really does happen for a reason. I'm just so grateful ... time is a great teacher. I'm just really, really glad I gave it time instead of giving up and feeling it was the end of the world. There's so many people who encounter tragedies who feel like the world and time won't heal it. But all I can say to those people is: Just give it time, even if you think time can't heal it. You never know what will happen and where it will lead you. Every missed opportunity is a blessing in disguise. I really believe it now."
Rousey's WWE debut saw her team up with Kurt Angle to take on Stephanie McMahon and Triple H in a mixed tag-team match. While many had expected little from Rousey, or for her to only have a minor role in the match, she ended up having quite the impressive showing. Where her story goes from here remains to be seen, but the start to her wrestling career is certainly a positive one.
If you missed the PPV or skipped part of it (no one could blame you, given how long it was), we've got a full Wrestlemania 34 recap. You can also see every time audience member John Cena was shown on-camera.
Well, that turned out to be a surprise. Roman Reigns came out with his standard entrance, performing a Superman punch in the center of the ring to set off some pyrotechnics. Brock Lesnar followed, coming out with no shirt and a little hat, like Adebisi from Oz. The two started out exchanging German suplexes and Superman punches, much as you might expect--the beginning of this match was like when you're watching two Ryu players in the arcade, and they spend the entire round spamming hadoukens at each other.
From there, Suplex City made an appearance, as it was one German suplex after another. With rumors that Lesnar is headed back to UFC, some fans might be excited, as this match arrangement has been seen numerous times in recent years.
Reigns finally got some offense in, spearing Lesnar onto an announce table, causing Lesnar to look like he could be hurt. Reigns gets him back in the ring, delivers some more spears and a Superman punch. It's not enough to pin Lesnar, who begins to reel off F5 after F5, none of which are enough to keep Reigns down for the three-count.
A fourth F5 puts Reigns through an announce table, followed by a German suplex back in the ring, which is punctuated with another F5. Reigns kicks out yet again, prompting Lesnar to deliver blows to Reigns' face--busting him wide open. A bloody Reigns attempts another comeback, but Lesnar delivered the sixth F5 of the match, which is finally enough to finish off Reigns. Lesnar retains the Universal title in what might be one of Wrestlemania's biggest upsets, given the UFC rumors. After a Wrestlemania 34 recap montage, we see Reigns slowly make his way up the entrance ramp before looking back toward the crowd, seemingly in disbelief. The original story follows.
There are two things that seem abundantly clear about the fight for the WWE Universal Championship taking place at Wrestlemania 34 this Sunday, April 8 (broadcast on PPV and the WWE Network from 5 PM ET/2 PM PT). The first is that Roman Reigns, he who has been anointed for years now as the present and future king of all WWE, will again win the strap at wrestling's biggest event, sending The Beast Brock Lesnar packing (or at least away for a little bit to rejoin the UFC). And the other thing we know for sure? That this will be the reaction of the live crowd at the Superdome in New Orleans on Sunday night: Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
But is that what will really happen? The outcome seems the easiest to pick out of all the matches at Wrestlemania 34, given the WWE's insistent years-long push of the Reigns character combined with all the real-world noise being made about Brock Lesnar's impending return to the ultra violence of the UFC. The build-up, too, seems tailor-made for a Reigns victory. At the start of the feud, Reigns played on Brock's part-time status in the WWE and was actually receiving cheers from the crowd after several fiery promos calling out Lesnar as someone who didn't care about the belt or performing for the WWE universe. In recent weeks, the focus shifted to Brock continually kicking the living s*** out of Reigns in episode after episode of Raw. WWE's angle was clear--in this feud, Reigns is the passionate, outmatched babyface you need to root for.
What if, however, it doesn't go the way we're all assuming? The build-up to this year's Reigns-Lesnar match feels similar to the lead-in to Wrestlemania 31, and that bout ended up being one of the best, most surprising Wrestlemania main events thanks to Seth Rollins' exciting cash-in of his Money In The Bank contract. Will the WWE--knowing the seeming inevitability of a Reigns win--play on all of our expectations and have something ready to surprise?
Look, the answer is probably no, and we're calling a Reigns win (as we explain in our predictions for all of the Wrestlemania 34 matches). But we can hope and we can dream, so join us as we cover Wrestlemania this Sunday, starting at 5 PM ET/2 PM PT with the Kickoff Show. Wrestlemania itself doesn't start until 7 PM ET/4 PM PT, and where this match ends up on the broadcast remains a mystery (although it'll likely be one of the last few matches, if not the main event).
Although professional ass-kicker Ronda Rousey only officially signed to the WWE at the start of 2018, the build up to this upcoming match at Wrestlemania 34 started years ago at Wrestlemania 31. At that show, special guest The Rock (or Dwayne Johnson as he's known outside the squared circle) was interrupted mid-promo by Stephanie McMahon and Triple H, with Steph slapping The Rock right across his big dumb chiseled face. Luckily, Rousey was standing in the front row as a regular old audience member, and The Rock invited her into the ring, where she proceeded to get physical (ie placing Steph in an arm bar). And now, after years of will-she-won't-she speculation about joining the WWE, Rousey showed what she can do inside a wrestling ring in front of a packed house at Wrestlemania.
As a complete wrestling newbie (well, the sports entertainment type at any rate), Rousey was thrown into a mixed tag-team match for her first bout. This gave her and the WWE the chance to hide her rookie status by pairing her with some experienced stars (Triple H and Kurt Angle) who could handle the bulk of the actual wrestling--though she ended up doing more than expected. Rousey had been visibly uneven in her promos leading up to Wrestlemania 34, but as a legitimate badass in real life, her area of excellence should be inside the ring, where her years of UFC physical dominance have a chance to shine.
In terms of narrative, this bout is built on the age-old trope WWE has been running since the Attitude Era--tough, take-no-s*** wrestler takes on the corrupt establishment. On the establishment/management side is Steph and Trips, reprising their roles as the overbearing Authority. On the take-no-s*** side is Rousey and current Raw GM Kurt Angle. The rationale as to why someone in middle management like Angle is so willing to put the hurt on his bosses is kinda muddled, but this match is really less about the story leading up to it as it is about the story coming out of it. Rousey is being positioned as a big deal and has the potential to become a dominant WWE star in the same way Brock Lesnar dominated after his own return from the UFC. Will Sunday's match at Wrestlemania 34 be the start of a long reign, or the first signs of an implosion in the grand Rousey experiment? Here's a recap of how things played out:
Steph/Trips come out first to the sound of Motorhead, with both riding matching hogs and being led by a procession of other motorcycles. In a nice power couple touch, they do a tandem version of Triple H's water-spout-in-the-air intro to the ring. That's how relationships work, you see. By having shared interests.
Kurt Angle gets his own intro, and he's sporting his Olympic gold medal (he's accompanied by pyro, which I believe is the first time it's been used for an entrance at Wrestlemania so far). Rousey comes out, and is beaming at the crowd again. It's clear she loves this, but maybe look a little meaner, Ronda?
Steph slaps Ronda right at the start, and then pulls her hair even before the bell rings. Some great heel work from McMahon there, as Rousey is fuming. Angle and Triple H then kick the match off.
They're really playing up Rousey's inexperience with wrestling tropes, with Triple H and Steph's various mindgames (such as distractions and messing with the ref) all working rather too easily on the green Rousey.
Angle was about to make the hot tag to Rousey's outstreched arm, but Steph sneaks around and pulls Rousey down off the apron.
Finally, Rousey tagged in. She races straight over to Steph, pulls her over the top rope by her hair, and goes to town! Lots of strikes and throws in rapid succession. Rousey looks good! The crowd is chanting "Break her arm!"
Rousey almost gets McMahon in an arm bar, but she manages to counter and rake Rousey's eyes. Now McMahon is on the offensive.
Rousey Samoan drops McMahon, but before the ref could count to three, Triple H pulls him out of the ring. Triple H then pulls Rousey out from the ring, and throws Angle onto the announce table.
Rousey stirs, and decides she wants to take on Hunter in the ring. Triple H, cocky as ever, says why not?
Rousey absolutely smashes Triple H with some fast strikes, and then lifts him on her shoulders for a drop! But McMahon breaks it up just in time.
Now it's time for some Angle/Triple H action. After three German suplexes from Angle to Triple H, Angle manages to break up a Pedigree attempt and deliver an Angle Slam.
Angle gets McMahon into an ankle lock, but Trips breaks it up. He delivers the pedigree to Angle, but then it's Rousey's turn to break the count.
Hot sequence as Rousey manages to reverse a pedigree attempt from Triple H , before putting the Cerebral Assassin into an arm bar. But Steph comes in and stops it, and then it's her turn for an arm bar from Rousey. At the same time, Angle put Triple H into an ankle lock. But the heels managed to get out of both submission moves!
The heels set up for a double Pedigree, but Angle manages to flip Triple H over the top rope. Rousey gets McMahon into a final arm bar, locks it in, and forces McMahon to tap!
That was, in all honesty, a very impressive debut from Rousey. Lots of false finishes, some great spots, and Rousey showed plenty of potential.
While Wrestlemania 34 was filled with memorable moments, WWE's biggest annual show actually started with one of the best for anyone that's a Game of Thrones enthusiast. As Seth Rollins made his way to the ring for the triple threat match for the Intercontinental Championship--a bout he won--something looked different.
Rollins' eyes were a piercing and unnatural blue color that stood out and looked very familiar to fans of Game of Thrones. With blue contacts and new ring gear made for the event, Rollins was paying tribute to the Night King--the master of the White Walkers on the HBO series. Appropriately, commentator Corey Graves declared "Winter is here" upon the wrestler's arrival. Take a look at a comparison of Rollins and the Night King below.
Though Rollins ditched the contacts and vest he was wearing in time for the match, his entrance left an impact that had fans immediately talking on social media. Some even noted this is the second time in as many years that the new Intercontinental Champion has used WWE's biggest stage to cosplay as a Game of Thrones character.
Last year @WWERollins was the King Slayer, this year he comes to the ring as an apparent white walker. @GameOfThrones spoiler alert, The Night King is Seth Rollins and next Wrestle Mania it will be Jon Snow vs Seth Rollins in Winner Gets the Realm Match pic.twitter.com/yrmIv991WW
His wasn't the only intriguing entrance attire during Wrestlemania weekend, though. One night earlier, at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans, Johnny Gargano went to war with Tommaso Ciampa wearing armor that looks like it was ripped right out of Thor: Ragnarok.
Dari #NXTTakeOver tadi pagi, Johnny Gargano make armor Thor di Ragnarok untuk ngelawan archnemesisnya, Tommaso Ciampa. Johnny Ragnarok ya jadinya… pic.twitter.com/y5CoGgUgko
If only makes sense that the biggest movies and TV shows would get some of the spotlight during the biggest wrestling event of the year. After all, wrestlers are nerds too.
There has been much excitement amongst fans of HBO's acclaimed sci-fi drama Westworld about the existence of Shogun World. The samurai-themed park was first teased in the final episode of Season 1, and last week, the viral promotional site the Delos Experience dropped some major hints about its role in the upcoming Season 2. Now joint-showrunner Jonathan Nolan has spoken about Shogun World.
In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Nolan explained that there were two major reasons to introduce the park into Westworld Season 2, the first being geographical. "If you're doing a theme park, you wouldn't limit it to the Western European or North American experience," he said. "You'd try to reach a global audience. So the idea is you have a texture here that's totally different."
Nolan went on to explain that main draw was in fact his love Japanese cinema, in particular the classic samurai movies of Akira Kurosawa, and the way they were sometimes remade in the US as westerns. "It comes down to being obsessed with Japanese cinema as a kid and earnestly wanting to make an homage to Kurosawa and the other films I grew up watching," he said. "My older brothers and I watched Sergio Leone westerns and Kurosawa's classic samurai films and were fascinated to discover they had the same plot.
"You had this wonderful call and response between these two genres--with the gunslinger and the ronin. They have identical tropes but are set within different cultures. Frankly, this was just a great excuse to go and make a samurai movie with all the trimmings."
However, Nolan was also quick to temper expectations about how much of Shogun World fans will see in Westworld Season 2. "Most of our season is spent in Westworld," he confirmed. "But we do get a chance to glimpse some of the other worlds. And we have a couple of episodes that are spent in Shogun World with one of our storylines, while our other storylines continue elsewhere. So I say we're trying to temper expectations, except to say that I think the stuff we did for Shogun World is spectacular."
As well as Shogun World, the Delos Experience site also revealed that there are a further four parks which are currently "closed to the public." There has been much speculation about what these other worlds could be. The 1976 sequel to original 1973 movie Westworld was titled Futureworld, and it featured a number of different parks, including Medieval World, Roman World, and, er, Spa World.
Star Wars: The Last Jedi just came out on Blu-ray a couple weeks ago, so it didn't get a big price drop this week. Even so, you can pick it up for $2 off, at $28. Like a number of the movies below, it also includes a digital copy.
Superhero fans may want to grab Wonder Woman, Suicide Squad, or Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice for $23 each. Spider-Man: Homecoming and Deadpool are both on sale for $20. All three of Christopher Nolan's Batman movies are on sale for $25 apiece. If you're on a Nolan kick, you may also want to grab Inception for the same price. A combo pack featuring John Wick and John Wick: Chapter 2 in a steelbook case is on sale for $35. He's not a superhero exactly, but he might as well be.
Fans of classic sci-fi fare can buy The Fifth Element, Starship Troopers: 20th Anniversary, and Independence Day: 20th Anniversary for $20 each. For a gruesome yet realistic look at the drug trade, Sicario has you covered for $17. And to lighten the mood, you can pick up Groundhog Day for $20.
The sharp picture on your 4K TV is particularly suited to nature shows. Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II are both on discount for $40.
Those are our picks, but that's just scratching the surface of this 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray sale. Check out Best Buy's full list for all the deals.
And before you check out, take a look at these sales for some potential extra savings.
Ubisoft has rolled out a new update for Far Cry 5. Following its release on PC last week, update 4 is now available for PS4 and Xbox One, bringing the same assortment of fixes and quality-of-life adjusments to the console versions of the game.
The biggest changes in the new update come in the form of various performance and stability improvements, particularly to co-op play and Arcade mode. Among other things, Ubisoft has improved the efficiency of map downloads in Arcade and fixed unspecified bugs in the mode. Co-op connectivity has also been improved, as has PvP matchmaking.
The update also addresses a handful of crashes and bugs, including one that prevented players from purchasing silver bars and another that would cause map textures to be "extremely low." You can find the full patch notes for the update, as taken from Ubisoft's official forums, below.
Far Cry 5 is available for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. GameSpot's Edmond Tran awarded it a 9/10 in our Far Cry 5 review and said, "Far Cry 5 boasts a wonderfully harmonious flow to its adventure, with its smart changes to exploration, discovery, and progression distinctly bolstering the enjoyment of creatively engaging and experimenting with its spectacular open world."
As was more than subtly hinted at in a recent teaser, Splinter Cell protagonist Sam Fisher is officially set to make an appearance in Ghost Recon Wildlands. The first big update of Year 2, Special Operation I, launches soon and will include a special mission featuring Fisher.
In announcing that Wildlands will receive a second year of free updates, Ubisoft said that each of the major Special Operation updates would have a theme. Splinter Cell is the theme of this first Year 2 content drop, which is exciting on its own, but most notable is that Fisher is voiced by Michael Ironside. Ironside is the original voice actor for the character, but he wasn't featured in the most recent Splinter Cell game, 2013's Blacklist.
The special crossover mission sees Fisher come to Bolivia to hunt down someone who has stolen something from the CIA. He'll turn to the Ghosts for support, and you can play either on your own or in four-player co-op in "one of the most difficult missions the Ghosts have ever faced. The nighttime stealth mission will require players to use all the tools at their disposal to succeed."
By finishing the mission, you'll receive exclusive rewards, including Sam's goggle, a night-vision filter, and other, unspecified goodies. The mission itself will be permanently added as part of Special Operations I, but you'll have to complete it before the special challenge concludes on May 16 to get the rewards. Separately from those rewards, Ubisoft is releasing the Splinter Cell Gear Pack, which consists of new weapons and customization items.
On the Ghost War side, Wildlands' PvP add the Sabotage mode and Echelon assault class. Ubisoft describes it as "a part of Sam Fisher's Fourth Echelon team, and therefore has access to high-tech equipment as well as the Sonar Pulse ability that allows him to see enemies behind walls at short range and gain tactical advantage over the opposing team." It will be initially available to those with the Year 2 pass or by purchasing it with Prestige points.
Special Operation I releases for free on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on April 10. Those who have not yet purchased the game will be able to try it for free this weekend, as a free event will run on all platforms from April 12-15.
It's a great week for traveling between dimensions. Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality is coming to PlayStation VR, while Super Daryl Deluxe opens up portals inside a seemingly normal high school. Meanwhile, you can save the world from giant ogres in Extinction or from a diseased meteor in Dark Rose Valkyrie. If you'd rather build something new, you can do just that with Robocraft Infinity.
Rick and Morty: Virtual Rick-ality -- April 10
Available on: PS4
The Adult Swim antics of Rick and his grandson Morty seem pretty perfect for a VR game, especially one designed by the same silly team that built Job Simulator. Now making its way to PSVR, the adventure lets you jump across dimensions, push big red buttons, and solve all sorts of far-out puzzles.
Daryl is the new kid at Water Falls High School, and he has to prove his place by journeying across a bunch of crazy environments, learning new combat skills, and facing a bunch of weird monsters. What else do you expect from a Metroidvania with a sketchbook art style?
Extinction -- April 10
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
Speaking of fighting monsters, that's exactly what you'll do in Extinction. In this case, the monsters are enormous ogres threatening your city. Cue the epic battles to topple the giants. You can also design your own extra-large encounters in Skirmish Mode.
Dark Rose Valkyrie is also about saving the world, but the threat this time is a meteor spreading a disease across 1920s Japan. This RPG tasks you with more than just winning battles, as you also have to interrogate your own party and look for traitors, comparing their statements Phoenix Wright-style.
Robocraft Infinity -- April 11
Available on: Xbox One, PC
Let's finish with something more constructive--literally. Robocraft Infinity is all about building your own bot to fly, fight, drive, or whatever else you can think of, then taking it online to battle other players' creations. You can share your own designs and download others' too. It's also launching day-and-date on Xbox Game Pass, so subscribers can jump right in.
One of WWE's biggest Wrestlemania's biggest matches in 2018 is one that it didn't bother to formally announce before the event. The company has been building to a confrontation between John Cena and The Undertaker for some time, yet when Wrestlemania 34 occurred, their matchup still wasn't officially on the card.
Undertaker and Cena are both Wrestlemania mainstays, although their roles in the company--particularly Undertaker--have been reduced from years past. Undertaker shared a cryptic message on Raw back in January, during which he rambled and listed off opponents he faced. He hasn't been seen on TV since.
Cena, meanwhile, has had to take up the mantle of carrying the entire promotion of the match. With nothing else going on, he challenged Undertaker to a Wrestlemania match back in February. Since then, he's routinely come out to cut one-sided promos which have gone nowhere, due to the lack of any response from his desired opponent.
WWE is a scripted business, and Cena wasn't spending time on TV for no reason. With the company not as reliant on advanced pay-per-views buys as it once was, and Wrestlemania not needing any additional star power to attract viewers, this match was allowed to manifest as a "surprise" match during the event. It could potentially have been Undertaker's final match, so we expected him to win. Sure enough, he did just that--in truly convincing fashion. Here's a recap of what happened:
The lights go out, and Elias comes out to troll the crowd. Cena squashes him, and he starts going up the ramp. And then the lights go again. For real this time.
Beautiful setup by having Undertaker's gloves, hat, and coat spotlighted in the center of the ring. It was an obvious visual allusion, but it created a sense of continuity that was needed after last year's "retirement."
It never gets old, does it? The Undertaker has the best entrance in the history of sports entertainment. The flames, the smoke, and the music all combine to make theatrical magic.
Taker looks incredibly spry and healthy, considering where he was at a year ago. In his match at WrestleMania 33, he was bloated and limping from a bad hip. He hasn't looked this good in at least three years.
The bell rings. Cena is a class act, and he's doing everything he can to put the Dead Man over. He looks legitimately terrified, which Taker's opponents haven't sold in years. And when Undertaker did his sit-up, Cena tripped and scrambled away like a little boy.
Undertaker got in all his signature moves. Old School off the top rope. Flying clothesline. Chokeslam. Tombstone Piledriver.
The Undertaker pinned Cena with a single Tombstone, which was smart booking. Taker is long past the point of putting on a 20-minute epic match. This short squash was everything it needed to be--all highlights, no filler, and a lot of heart.
Wrestlemania took place on April 8 at 7 PM ET / 4 PM PT on PPV and the WWE Network, live from New Orleans' Superdome. It was preceded by a Kickoff Show, making for a broadcast that eclipsed the seven-hour mark. You can see the full results here.
Avengers: Infinity War is only a couple of weeks away, and the newest trailer is an action-packed glimpse at what's in store. It also builds on the recent success of Black Panther, as protagonist T'Challa and the Wakandan nation are its clear headliners.
The trailer begins with brief shots of the other Avengers, and then it cuts to the reunion of Bucky and Captain America--something that's hinted in a Black Panther post-credit scene. But following Tony Stark's declaration, "We're going to need some help," the trailer focuses primarily on the mobilization of Wakandan military forces.
We see Black Panther taking charge of large divisions of Wakandan troops supplemented with other Avengers, and their war chant underlies the entire video. "Today we don't fight for one life," he says. "We fight for all of them."
The start of spring is a great time to be an Xbox One owner. Microsoft has kicked off its big seasonal sale, introducing some major deals on many of the system's latest and greatest games. Another great thing about this Spring sale: it's on for a while. Most deals are available for the next two weeks. [Update: Microsoft has expanded the sale by adding new Deals With Gold offers. And if you're overwhelmed by everything in the Spring sale, check out our recommendations. Also keep in mind the sale ends very soon, so pick up what you want while you still can.]
If you've been wanted to pick up Call of Duty: WWII, it's available for download for $49.79 ($45 with Gold). The Digital Deluxe version is $83 ($75), down from $100. There's also a Call of Duty: WWII and Destiny 2 bundle available for $82.49 (71.49).
One of the biggest games of last year, Assassin's Creed Origins, is also on sale. You can pick it up for $42 ($36). There are also a deal on the Deluxe Edition for $49 ($42) and the Gold Edition for $70 ($60). If you're in the mood for even more Assassin's Creed action, Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag is $15 ($12), Assassin's Creed Syndicate is $50, Assassin's Creed: The Ezio Edition is $25 ($20), and Assassin's Creed Unity is $15 ($12). The Assassin's Creed Triple Pack, which includes Black Flag, Syndicate, and Unity, is $54 right now ($45).
With the Xbox One Spring Sale in full swing this week, and a new Deals With Gold sale live, Xbox gamers can save tons of money on games. In fact, so many great games are available at discounted prices that it can be hard to find the ones you want in the vast sea of deals.
Let's fix that problem by sifting through all the games currently on sale on the Xbox Store and highlighting the best games at the best prices. Take note: both the Xbox Spring Sale and this week's Deals With Gold sale end on April 9. Click over to the Spring Sale page to make your purchases.
A lot of games came out last fall, so there's a good chance you missed some of them. The Spring Sale is a great opportunity to scoop up the ones that fell through the cracks for cheap. Assassin's Creed Origins came out after a two-year wait, rather than the usual one, and it's clear the extra time went to good use. This Ancient Egypt-set installment represents a great evolution for the franchise. Read our Assassin's Creed Origins review for details.
The shooter series that had been inching its way into the future over the past few years jets back to the past in this installment. It drops you in the European theater of WWII, where you get to kill Nazis just like your grandpa might have done. Check out our review.
A fast, frenetic gore-fest, Doom delivers exactly the kind of experience you'd expect from a game about tearing through demons while listening to heavy metal. It's pure, mindless fun. And now that it's Xbox One X enhanced, it's optimized for whatever Xbox hardware you're packing. Read our review here.
Not all games get it right from the jump. Sometimes they need to experiment and listen to the community before they hit their stride. That's what happened with this shared-world shooter. Once a few intriguing expansions came out and Ubisoft filled out the endgame, it seems to have clicked. And with a sequel in the works, now's a good time to see what all the fuss is about. Here's our recent second look at The Division.
Other great Xbox One deals
The Xbox Spring Sale has lots of other games available at huge discounts. Here are some of the other games that caught our eye.
The release of God of War on PS4 is coming up later this month, but one of April's big events--Wrestlemania 34--has now passed. WWE's PPV featured a number of notable moments, but few were as unusual as Braun Strowman picking a tag-team partner.
Strowman and a mystery partner were set to compete for the Raw Tag Team Championships. He came to the ring on his own and announced his partner was somewhere in the arena. Rather than announce a surprise name, he ventured into the crowd in search of someone to team up with--and that turned out be a young boy named Nicholas. Strowman, as you'd expect, did all the heavy lifting as Nicholas stood on the ring apron, and they actually won--meaning some (seemingly) random kid is now the owner of a WWE championship belt.
Naturally, something like this is going to become internet fodder. Father/son comparisons were drawn, and the image of the new champions walking up the ramp was used for the meme where a photo is credited as if it's from a movie or video game. In this case, there's the tweet below, treating that moment as if came from the upcoming God of War.
It seems the Square Enix Store is getting a little cluttered lately. To help move inventory, Square Enix is holding a Spring Cleaning Sale and dropping prices on many of its games. If you're a fan of the company's offerings--both recent and retro, going all the way back to PS One--that's good news for you. Let's take a look at some of the best deals going on at the Square Enix Store this week.
If you haven't picked up Final Fantasy XV yet, here's an affordable way to do it. The Square Enix Store has the core game for $18 on PS4 and Xbox One, and the Xbox One version of the Deluxe Edition for $54. The Deluxe Edition comes with a steelbook case and the Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy movie on Blu-ray, as well as some in-game items. Meanwhile, Final Fantasy XII: The Zodiac Age is on sale for $30, and Final Fantasy X / X2 HD Remaster is available for $12. You can even buy Final Fantasy IX and the compilations Final Fantasy Origins and Final Fantasy Anthology for the original PlayStation for $5 apiece.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, a game that lets you tackle challenges in any way you want, is on sale for $8, while its Collector's Edition, featuring an art book and an Adam Jensen figurine, is down to $40 (from $100).
2018 marks the 40th anniversary of retro video game company SNK, and to commemorate the milestone, the studio is compiling some of its classic titles together into one package for Nintendo Switch. During a panel at PAX East 2018, SNK announced the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection, an anthology of games from the company's "golden days" set to launch later this year.
The SNK 40th Anniversary Collection is being handled by Digital Eclipse, the studio behind the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection and the Disney Afternoon Collection. It features more than a dozen classic SNK games from the pre-Neo Geo era, many of which are represented in both console and arcade versions. The list of announced titles thus far includes:
Alpha Mission (console/arcade)
Athena (console/arcade)
Crystalis (console)
Ikari Warriors (console/arcade)
Ikari Warriors II: Victory Road (console/arcade)
Ikari Warriors III: The Rescue (console/arcade)
Guerrilla War (console/arcade)
POW (console/arcade)
Prehistoric Isle (arcade)
Psycho Soldier (arcade)
Street Smart (arcade)
TNK III (console/arcade)
Vanguard (arcade)
Like Digital Eclipse's other retro game compilations, the SNK 40th Anniversary Collection features a suite of modern conveniences, including save states, a rewind function, updated control schemes, and more. SNK says it is also planning to introduce other classic games to the collection as free post-launch updates.
The SNK 40th Anniversary Collection launches for Nintendo Switch this fall. During the same panel, SNK also announced a release date for its upcoming fighting game, SNK Heroines: Tag Team Frenzy. That title will arrive for Switch and PS4 this September.
SNK Heroines features an all-female cast drawn from past SNK titles, including Kula Diamond, Mai Shiranui, and the newly revealed Shermie. Unlike most of SNK's other fighting games, Heroines boasts a two-on-two tag system, with both of your characters sharing a single health bar.
"Even for other tag battle games, it's got a few interesting differences, such as the fact that both characters share a health gauge, so it means that you can't just throw them back in the background and let them heal or anything," game director Kaito Soranaka told GameSpot through a translator. "Also, they don't share the spirit gauge, so a lot of the strategy comes from managing your gauge and your meter consumption."
SNK Heroines launches on September 7. The game will be available at retail and on the Eshop on Switch; the standard version will only be available digitally on PS4, but fans will be able to pick up a physical limited edition copy from NIS America's online store. SNK Heroines was first unveiled during Nintendo's January 2018 Direct presentation. You can take a look at some footage from the game above.
A new week-long PlayStation sale has just kicked off, bringing with it a number of deals on PS4, PS3, and PS Vita games. While games from a few other publishers appear on the list, Telltale Games has gone all in and dropped the price on its PlayStation games across the board this week. So if you've been thinking of picking up a Telltale adventure game, now would be a great time to do it, because the discounts range between 25 and 80 percent off. [Update: It's Monday, and many of these deals are set to end soon, so take advantage while you still can if you're interested in any of them.]
The Walking Dead games also get deep price cuts during the sale. The breakdown of those prices is below. A quick warning, though: avoid The Walking Dead Collection, which includes all of the games in a single purchase. It's on sale for $30, which is actually a little pricier than buying the games individually.
If you're the type of person who likes to buy in bulk, take a look at the Telltale Mega Collection, which is on sale for $78. It includes the Walking Dead games, the Batman games, Guardians of the Galaxy, The Wolf Among Us, Game of Thrones, and Tales from the Borderlands.
Non-Telltale highlights in the sale include WWE 2K18 Digital Deluxe Edition available for 55% off at $40 and Windjammers getting its price cut in half to $7. A bunch of PS4 themes and avatars are also in the mix.
There's a lot going on in this sale, so head to the PlayStation Store to check it out. Most of these deals will be live until April 10.
Post-Wrestlemania 34 Update: Two months ago, we started following the journey of WWE star Braun Strowman, which had becoming zanier and kookier over the past year. He was flipping over everything in sight and eating random pieces of cake backstage. At Wrestlemania 34, the unthinkable happened. Braun Strowman became the Raw Tag Team Champion with the most unlikely partner: a child. No, this isn't a joke. This is wrestling.
Braun Strowman won the right to go to Wrestlemania to fight The Bar for their tag team titles, but there was a catch: Strowman needed to find a partner. In the upcoming weeks, leading into Wrestlemania, Strowman refused to let the WWE Universe know just who would be teaming with him at the company's biggest event of the year. On the April 2 episode of Raw, Strowman came out disguised as his supposed partner Brains Strowman, which was Braun in nerd glasses and a sleeveless white shirt. But still, no inclination of just who would be teaming with the Monster Among Men.
Wrestlemania 34 finally rolled around, and fans still didn't know anything. The Bar made their entrance to the ring on a Mardis Gras float, shortly followed by Strowman. Before heading to the ring, he pushed the float off the stage, which we all knew was coming. He grabbed a mic and announced his partner was someone watching the event inside the Superdome. Could it be Samoa Joe, Hulk Hogan, Neville, or someone from outside of WWE? Nope, it was a child named Nicholas who he recruited during a trip into the crowd. Even crazier, Strowman and Nicholas went on to win the Raw Tag Team Championships. That's right, Strowman is champion along with a child.
The saga of the walking Looney Tunes character named Braun Strowman continues.
Original Story 2/12/18: Over the last year, the Monster Among Men, Braun Strowman, has taken over the WWE by force. He's beaten is opponents in the ring and backstage, destroyed them with brute power, and most importantly, he's flipped things over using super-human strength. His storyline is reminiscent of the '90s, when some wrestlers had extraordinary abilities, and these stars were feared everywhere. But what sets Strowman apart from these other acts is that he's a walking cartoon character.
When watching WWE, the average fan needs a good amount of suspension of disbelief to buy that what's happening on TV is "real." However, when watching a storyline involving Braun Strowman, you have to prepare yourself for a descent into utter madness. For the past year, Strowman's stories exist in another realm where he has super-human strength, is impervious to pain or harm, and can seamlessly come back from the dead on a whim.
While Strowman spent his first year in WWE as the black sheep of The Wyatt Family, it wasn't until he went solo that things really started getting bizarre and more cartoon-like. Strowman's transition into a Daffy Duck or Wile E. Coyote-esque character can be traced back to April 10, 2017 on WWE's Monday night series Raw. Michael Cole was interviewing Roman Reigns, and Strowman broke up the segment by beating up The Big Dog. The assault was so bad that Reigns was put into an ambulance. Then, the unthinkable happened: Strowman flipped over the ambulance.
The over-the-top moment was certainly polarizing to fans, who have come to expect a certain amount of realism from their main event superstars in the past decade, especially in the Ruthless Aggression Era. WWE was delivering a product that harked back to an older era, combining it with contemporary storytelling. In the aftermath of the the ambulance flip, Strowman went on a tear on Raw. He suplexed Big Show, which caused the ring to collapse; he threw Kalisto--one of the smallest performers in the company--into a dumpster; and he generally just beat people up. This was the start of something special, whether WWE knew just how hilarious this was or not.
Braun Gets Murdered
Things truly started to feel like a live-action cartoon during the terribly named Great Balls of Fire PPV in early July. Strowman and Reigns battled each other in an Ambulance Match, and while Strowman ended up winning, he received the beating of a lifetime from Reigns after the match was said and done.
Strowman was thrown into the back of an ambulance, and Reigns decided to back it into a trailer at high speed, crushing the vehicle with Strowman inside. Surprisingly, the Monster Among Men walked out on his own, refusing help from medics. If fans were to believe what was happening on their TV was real, they all just witnessed an attempted murder.
Much like a bomb exploding in Elmer Fudd's face, Strowman brushed away the metaphorical soot of the backstage car crash in the weeks afterward and had no problem going back to destroying everything in his path. He found himself in the Championship picture for the remainder of the summer; therefore, his animated antics were toned down, and he was just another powerhouse wrestler during those months. Needless to say, he wasn't as fun.
If He Were A '90s Star, He'd Be Sanitation Man
WWE put Strowman back on the right path in October. At this point, Strowman was entertaining, but the best moments from this performer come when he's put in impossible situations where he needs to fight his way out, which always results in something silly happening. At the TLC PPV, Strowman joined The Miz, Curtis Axel, Cesaro, and Sheamus to fight Seth Rollins, Dean Ambrose, and Kane in a 5-on-3 Tables, Ladders, and Chairs match. Because Strowman is a loose canon and doesn't play well with others, his teammates turned on him and threw him in the back of a garbage truck. That's right, someone tried to kill Braun Strowman--again.
Don't worry, he rose from the dead at the end of October, after being reborn from a garbage truck. The segment, which featured an overly-terrified Miz, Bo Dallas, and Curtis Axel, was comedic gold and quickly reminded everyone how awesome wrestling can be when WWE gets purposefully silly, utlizing its genuinely talented performers.
Fan reaction to this segment was strong, and the creatives behind Raw finally figured out the formula to make Strowman work: Put him in a situation that could only exist in a cartoon, have him flip things over, and then seemingly kill him off, only to have him rise from the grave. Braun Strowman had become Solomon Grundy. It was at this point that WWE went all-in with Strowman flipping things over: first with the Raw announcer stage onto Kane after a brutal fight between the two, and then a semi-truck, after he was fired. Said firing also resulted in one of the weirdest and best moments from Raw, where a rampaging Strowman beat up everyone in his sight in catering, only to stop and eat a giant piece of chocolate cake. More recently, WWE released a video of he and his Mixed Match Challenge partner Alexa Bliss where Strowman used basic physics to try and teach Bliss how to flip over a car.
It's obvious the company knows how to market its giant monster to fans now, moving away from the typical "this guy is big and breaks things" story by adding an out-of-this-world and comedic twist to it. While Strowman's character arc and storyline has its detractors, the majority of WWE's fanbase is enthralled with his tactics, even if he is just flipping things over, week after week.
WWE needs a balance of serious and (good) comedy, and it takes a special kind of performer to pull that off, much like how The New Day does it on Smackdown. The best and most memorable moments in wrestling come from two different reactions: shock and comedy. Everyone remembers AJ Styles debuting at the Royal Rumble because it was a shock, and everyone remembers the time Kurt Angle sprayed milk with a firehose at the Corporation because it was hilarious. However, no one remembers the good promo Timmy Wrestling cut three weeks after it happened because WWE is filled with "good" moments that all get lost in the shuffle.
We're currently living in a storyline and character arc that will be talked about for years because Strowman's antics have been unforgettable. While comedy may not be everyone's cup of tea, it's undeniable that what's happening with Strowman on Raw is some of the most entertaining content to come out of the company in recent years. Even if it breaks away from the more traditional storytelling, the cartoon adventures of Braun Strowman have been a delightful experience thus far. WWE Network, you can start production on that animated Strowman show now.
The Xbox One Spring Sale may be in full swing on the Xbox Store, but that didn't stop Microsoft from putting on its regular Deals With Gold sale this week. But with so many (seriously, so many) games being on sale already, this week's additions look kind of lightweight by comparison. [Update: It's Monday, and these deals are soon set to expire. That makes this your last chance to take advantage of any discounts you're interested in.]
But don't let that stop you from taking a look, because you might want one of these games in your life. And if you can get it on sale? All the better. Before we get into it, remember you have to be an Xbox Live Gold member to get the sale prices for these Deals With Gold sales. If you're not a Gold member, you still have plenty of options over in the Spring Sale.
Xbox 360 owners don't have as many new deals to peruse this week, but Enemy Front is down 85% and only costs $6 (£5.24) and Farming Simulator 15 is 75% off, at $5 (£4). Both of those games have expansion packs that are also available for discounted rates.
If this week's Games With Gold sale makes you yawn, take a peek at the Spring Sale. It's loaded with great games at great sale prices.
Boss Key Productions, the studio founded by Gears of War creator Cliff Bleszinski and developer of LawBreakers, has revealed Radical Heights, a "free *X-TREME Early Access* battle royale shooter," which will be available on Steam Early Access on April 10.
Like most battle royale games, Radical Heights tasks contestants with surviving against other players, but adds its own twist on the formula by inviting players to use vehicles to give themselves the advantage. On top of that, you can collect cash and deposit it in the bank, to use later on regardless of whether you win or lose the match.
"Partake in high-stakes battle royale gunplay in a sunny SoCal dome as contestants drive-by on BMX bikes or stalk other contestants from the shadows in search for weapons and prizes," reads the game's Steam page. "But also cash that you can bank--win or lose! Whether you spend that cash on righteous customization in your personal prize room or pull it from an ATM to purchase weapons early in the next game--building a wealth of cash is as important as taking down the competition in this irreverent 80s-themed action game show where everyone wants to be rich and famous."
According to Boss Key, it has "some really unique twists we want to put in the Battle Royale genre," so launching in Early Access is its way to "share those high level ideas with our community quickly." The studio plans to have Radical Heights in Early Access "for about a year."
"This gives us time to solidify the foundation of the game with our community, build out additional features, and develop a solid understanding of what works, what doesn't, and flesh out a full release content plan based on what we think is right for the game," it explained.
Looking ahead, Boss Key plans to introduce "new weapons, gadgets, customization, vehicles, game show events, game modes, and eventually a Daily/Weekly Challenges system."
On April 5, Boss Key production addressed the current state of LawBreakers, admitting that it had "failed to find enough of an audience to generate the funds necessary to keep it sustaine in the manner [it] had originally planned for and anticipated." Regardless of this, the studio indicated it was committed to giving the game "the second life it deserves." Alongside evolving LawBreakers, Boss Key said it was working on something new, which evidently is Radical Heights.
LawBreakers publisher Nexon said in an earnings report that some of the game's struggles may have been at least partially due to the overwhelming success of PUBG, one of the most popular titles in the battle royale genre.
"The timing of its launch turned out to be unfortunate, specifically the blockbuster PC online game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds came out right about the same time, making the market environment very tough for first-person shooters in general and for LawBreakers," the company said.
Dragon Quest XI is coming this year to PC and PlayStation 4, but the Switch version could be next year or beyond. In an interview from PAX East, game producer Hokuto Okamoto explained just what's happened to set the Switch version so far behind. It appears to be a case of the game needing some elbow grease to work with its engine.
"It's true that the Nintendo Switch version is under development at this moment in time," Okamoto said via translator. "Specifically with regards to the development, this game was developed on the Unreal Engine, but the version for Unreal Engine needs to be updated, I suppose, in order to support Switch. In that sense, the development is still expected to take a very long time. It's still a long ways out."
The company made clear that the Switch version is definitely coming West, albeit later than the others. He went on to explain that the team did consider holding both console versions back to release simultaneously, but ultimately decided to move ahead with the PS4 version instead.
"Of course, we did consider releasing PS4 and a Switch version around the same time if that was even a possibility, but right now the outlook for the Switch version is still unclear at this moment in time. The Japan team, they wanted to release Dragon Quest a XI and bring it overseas as soon as possible for our fans overseas, which is why they proceeded with the PS4 [and] Steam version[s] this time."
The PC and PlayStation 4 versions of Dragon Quest XI have been slated for September 4. But that news was accompanied by mixed bad news for Nintendo fans. The Switch version was delayed for at-the-time unexplained technical reasons, while the 3DS version was said to be not coming to the West at all. In the case of the latter, it appears more due to market considerations, as the statement cited business strategy.
The PC and PlayStation 4 versions will include some changes from the Japanese game released last year. It will include English voiceover, an overhauled menu and UI, a dash function, a harder Draconian Quest mode, and a first-person camera mode.
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