Fallout 76 will no doubt be a big change of pace for the series upon its November 14 release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Trading out the traditional single-player experience for a shared-world multiplayer survival game, the upcoming prequel sets itself apart from its predecessors in a very clear way. Despite the larger scope and other players to interact with, Bethesda's online game still focuses on offering a rich and detailed world to explore, with its fair share of strange events and oddities to uncover, but there's no doubt that world-building has taken a backseat in the process.
There was a lot to unpack after our hands-on time with the game at a recent event, so we spent some time talking with Bethesda Softworks' VP of Marketing Pete Hines about the game's ongoing development. During this chat, we learned more about Fallout 76's previous life as a potential multiplayer mode for Fallout 4, the initial worries the developers had in switching things up, and how the game will continue to evolve long after its release.
Editor's note: This interview has been edited for clarity and readability.
The original concept of Fallout 76 was based on the planned multiplayer mode for Fallout 4. Can you talk about what that original idea was, and how it evolved into what we have now?
Hines: Yeah, the original idea for 76 was born out of revisiting the concept that we get asked about often, which is multiplayer or co-op in our games. They ask every single time we release a game. Looking into that for Fallout 4, we decided that we had some ideas but it wouldn't really work for what we're doing for that game. It had to be its own separate game and its own separate thing. From a high level, it's very much what you guys got to play today [in other games], you can play with others, but you're in a shared Fallout world with quests, a character system, and a number of survival aspects.
We have done some things differently, like there's no NPCs in the game and you're not having dialogue with a lot of different characters. But instead of that, you're doing a lot more world exploration and emergent gameplay, finding notes and hollow-tapes from people who were in the world who have disappeared, and trying to figure out what was going on before and what they were like. But deep down, it's still the same basic idea of a shared Fallout experience and how that works with others thrown in the mix.
To transform an offline, single-player experience into an online game, you'd inevitably have to alter or strip down some of its more familiar aspects. Was that something the developers had some worries about in the early goings of this game?
Yeah, absolutely. We knew going in, this is not just gonna be Fallout 4 with multiplayer. It's inherently going to have to look and feel different in order to be the type of experience that works with many different players together. We're not doing an MMO, not just doing a last-man-standing game--it's still an RPG. It has elements of those kinds of things, but yeah, there's inherent things that are different--but there's also a lot of things that look and feel very familiar.
For instance, the tone, the vibe, look, and feel of the world can go a long way to give you a sense of familiarity to sort of wrap your head around things. It's still a Fallout world, even though these things are different. But yeah, this is a really scary and different thing to be a part of. We are fully aware of that. We are making changes and making a different kind of game, but it's one that we are excited to try and see what it can turn into.
There is a stronger sense of isolation when you're alone since there are no NPCs to meet. But that all changes when you meet other players. Do you feel that the Fallout experience is heightened when you're playing with others?
Absolutely. Look, the only way that anybody has previously shared their experiences with Fallout was essentially water cooler talk. Right? Coming in the next day to say, "Here's what I did and then I did this, and then I had this quest and fought these super mutants and I thought I was gonna die." You're able to enhance those experiences when you're playing with others. We're all experiencing this together, and you've never been in a Fallout game and been able to yell to a friend and actually have them help you.
Those kinds of things are what Fallout 76 brings that the other ones simply couldn't do. A shared, in the moment experience. You can't get it any other way, and it's why we wanted to try it out. Yes, it's different. Yes, it's a departure, and it's new and scary. But it's an opportunity to have people share experiences that they've always wanted but have never been able to before.
Another thing that's interesting about 76 is that it's the earliest Fallout game in the series. Despite this, we're still seeing some familiar factions and enemies, which may conflict with what people already expect. Did you feel that a more loose approach with the timeline had to be taken in order to keep those familiar aspects of the game intact?
I don't know if I would say loose, but I would say that our developers take things like lore and canon seriously, and if they're going to do something they're going to make sure that there's a real reason for it. We have proven with the Elder Scrolls games, that in places where some things happened one way, that we're willing to say, "Well lots of people will say things happened one way," and the opposite or something else could entirely be true. So there's no question that we've gone back to change things to fit what developers have wanted to do, and not be holden to something that somebody wrote 20 years ago.
But having said that, we don't take it lightly to just go change whatever we want. There has to be a thought process; what is the rationale? Why would this logically work in this time? Why would there be super mutants, or the brotherhood of steel? How does that all fit and hold together? There's absolutely reasons and explanations in Fallout 76 for how all that ties together.
You're also taking a bit of a different approach with the PC version, as it'll be exclusive to Bethesda.net. Can you elaborate on why the game won't be on Steam?
Mostly because of the kind of game it is. It's an online, always-on game, and is a service. That was also based on our experiences with other online games as well. We felt that having a direct relationship with our customers was super important to us. And so doing it through Bethesda.net exclusively allows us to have that one-to-one relationship with customers, that quite honestly you don't always have when you go through another third party where they might own the relationship with the customer in terms of being able to email them or to reach out directly and contact them.
So it simplifies things a little and we believe it's going to help us deal with some issues and challenges that we've seen in the past. And again, it's a new experience, like the game itself is and we're going to see how it goes and how it works and what benefits it allows us to have in making sure that our customers have the best experience possible.
Mods have certainly taken off on Bethesda.net as well, which was particularly successful with the Creation Club integration in Fallout 4. Can you talk about how mods will play into Fallout 76, and how exactly they'll work within the online space?
I don't foresee a universe in which we allow players to come in [to Fallout 76's public servers] with their own unique and different mods. If you want to run mods, they'll have to be done on a private server. You'll be deciding what sort of mods you're including and running, and everyone playing on that server is playing with those mods. Those are a ways off, though. I imagine it's going to be at least a year before we hit that point because it's going to be a lot of work. But mods and private servers are definitely coming.
...our developers take things like lore and canon seriously, and if they're going to do something they're going to make sure that there's a real reason for it.
Fallout 76 was revealed fairly recently, and we're now already close to its release. It does however seem like the game struggles a bit with framerate and some other issues--which was due to it being an older build according to other devs we spoke with. Can you talk about some of the challenges that come from keeping the game so secret, while still prepping for its impending release?
Yeah, I mean honestly, we just got to art lock [all assets and environmental details set] a week or two ago. And until you get to art lock, you really can't get deep into game optimization. We've done optimization paths on some parts of the world, but not all just yet. But the bigger thing for us was that we had tried to do earlier, we had different parts of the world that were in different places. And with games like ours, we tend to want to say, "Look, just go wherever you want and do whatever you want," that's what's fun about these games.
Even though we know that the whole game wasn't optimized, and we know that there's parts of the game we haven't gotten to yet, they were close enough that we were comfortable with letting people get their hands on it. And we felt that experience was really important. That folks, like yourself, not be tied to us and saying, "Well here's the handful of locations you go to." Because that's not what's fun about our games. It's about going, "I wonder what's that way? I'm gonna go that way and see what's that way and see what's over there." "Well I'm going this way. I'll see you later." That's always the experience that we wanted folks to be able to have.
As you said earlier, Fallout is really about your own personal experiences with the game. But now you can share it with others online. Do you have a favorite moment from your experiences with Fallout 76, that best sums up how you feel about it?
Yeah, I don't have one particular moment that I have that's better than all the others. A lot of it has just been finding surprises and exploring some random cabin that I found on a hill. And then for whatever reason looking inside of a dog house and noticing the side of the dog house had all of these complicated math formulas written on the side, and the back of it had a small periodic table. I'd be thinking to myself, "What was going on here? Who did this?" One of the few times I've played and grouped up with folks, we found one of the amusement parks and one of the carnival games was whack-a-mole.
And you can find those things. They're called Commie Bashers cause it was whack the commies on the head instead of the moles, and we realized they were weapons and we all equipped Commie Bashers as a melee weapon and just cleared out the mutant park. It was completely ridiculous and silly, but it was just sort of fun being able to play with others and have a shared experience like that, that was just very different. Of course, I could have seen that on my own, but it wouldn't have been as memorable as with the group. I think folks are really going to enjoy exploring and looking into all the different places where designers have put thought into who was in this world, and what they were doing and what they were leaving behind. There will be a lot of secrets and Easter eggs for people to find.
Battle royale style games took off in popularity last year thanks to PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds and reached new heights with Fortnite. Now, the Call of Duty franchise has hopped onto the fray with Black Ops 4's new Blackout mode. If you haven't experienced battle royale for yourself, but plan on hopping into Black Ops 4, this is for you. We'll run through some of the basics of the mode and cover the ways in which Call of Duty puts its own spin on it.
Battle Royale 101
First off, you can enter matches either as a lone wolf (solo), with a partner (duos), or a team of four (quads); you'll be matched with up to 100 players who choose the same group size option. Every player gets flown over the map in the same trajectory--visualized when you pull up the map--and it's up to you when and where to drop. Exiting the helicopter has you deploying your wingsuit, and you can glide horizontally to go further out or look straight down to drop faster.
The overall goal is to be the last player or team standing since everyone has one life, which makes combat encounters much more tense and risky compared to traditional Call of Duty multiplayer. Now more than ever, you should be aware of your surroundings; that or have a teammate watch your back. Also keep in mind that you can revive squadmates if they fall, but be sure to do so before they bleed out or take more damage from enemies.
Another basic ingredient of battle royale is the impending pressure of a deadly circle closing in on the battlefield. Every match has the circle contracting on a random area of the map, and it gets smaller as the match goes on to force remaining players into combat. If you get caught outside the circle, you'll take damage until you can get into the safe zone.
A Huge Map To Traverse
Blackout's map is much larger than any previous Call of Duty map since it has to accommodate 100 players. However with size of the map, it also induces a slower pace; so expect plenty of downtime between encounters. This change of pace may take a while for Call of Duty veterans to adjust to, but it also feeds into the high-stakes nature of combat in battle royale games since one small mistake can cost you an entire match.
There are 14 concentrated areas in the Blackout map, many of which pay homage to past Black Ops maps. For example, Nuketown Island, Estate, and Array will look and feel similar to the multiplayer maps they're named after. The in-between of these main locations is interspersed with smaller towns and groups of buildings that can have valuable loot. But vast forestry and open fields make up most of the terrain, so be on-guard when traversing between locations as firefights may break out at any moment.
The full map in Blackout mode.
Luckily, vehicles litter the map. An ATV doesn't provide much protection but it can get up to two players around from point A to point B fairly quickly. The cargo truck fits up to five players and doesn't leave the squad as vulnerable, but it moves pretty slow. Getting through the river that splits the middle of the map is quite easy with a zodiac boat, which holds up to four players. And unlike most battle royales, Blackout features air transportation via the helicopter that has five seats total. That's not the only means of air travel, though; you can deploy your wingsuit by sprinting and jumping off a building and holding the jump button.
Loot Your Loadout
You start each match without anything in your inventory and must loot all your equipment--a stark contrast to Call of Duty's tradition of letting players customize their loadouts. You're allowed to carry two weapons and have to scavenge for the proper ammo type for each as well. The following is a list of all the weapons available to loot in Blackout:
Tactical Rifles: Auger DMR, Swordfish, ABR 223, Essex Model 07
Sniper Rifles: Koshka, Paladin HB50
LMGs: Titan
Explosives: War Machine, Hellion Salvo
Zombie Weapons: Ray Gun, Galil, MP-40, Zweihander
Attachments are crucial for getting the most out of your weapons. A reflect sight or 4x scope will come in clutch for nailing precise shots with ADS, and a grip or stock will help control your recoil, but you need to scavenge for those items and get them onto your gun. Zombie weapons add a twist to combat, which can be found in zombie supply stashes after killing AI-controlled zombie hordes at certain locations in the map, like the Asylum. Even the sillier items find their way into Blackout, like the Ray Gun, Monkey Bomb, Acid Bomb, and RC Car (though it doesn't explode). Look out for blue beacons that shine in the sky as this indicates stash locations where you may get your hands on these rare items.
Inventory management in Blackout mode.
You'll also have to loot armor in Blackout; there are three levels and each one provides better protection (level 3 armor is the only one that'll protect from headshots). Backpacks open up five additional item slots, which comes in handy later in a match as you loot more useful equipment. And it goes without saying that stocking up on health items is important, too; first aid and med kits heal 25 and 50 health, respectively. Trauma kits will fully heal you and tack on an additional 50 health temporarily.
Be on the lookout for supply crates that randomly drop onto the map throughout the match; you're likely to find high-level loot, but creates a hotspot for preying enemies.
The Perks Of Call Of Duty
In another interesting twist, Blackout's take on battle royale also brings in the familiar Perks system, which act as consumable items found across the map. Each perk has a specific effect, usage limit, and duration. While some may be more useful than others, it's important to know what your equipped perk does as it can make the difference between life and death, especially in their most effective situations. The following is a perk list and what they do:
Brawler: Increases melee damage, gain 50 health for each melee attack landed. (Usage: 1, Duration: 4 mins)
Consumer: Health and consumable items activate 50% faster. (Usage: 1, Duration: 5 mins)
Dead Silence: Silent movement and less noise when opening stashes. (Usage: 2, Duration: 4 mins)
Engineer: Reveal all nearby vehicles and enemy equipment. (Usage: 2, Duration: 4 mins)
Iron Lungs: Steady aim with scoped weapons and underwater breathing time increased. (Usage: 2, Duration: 5 mins)
Medic: Health items and team revives replenish more health and with faster activation. (Usage: 2, Duration: 4 mins)
Mobility: Movement and weapon switch is faster, fire and use items while sprinting, move fast while reloading. Fall damage negated. (Usage: 2, Duration: 5 mins)
Paranoia: Audio cues for when you're targeted by an enemy via ADS. (Usage: 2, Duration: 4 mins)
Black Ops 3 introduced Specialists, unique characters that provided a variety of ways to play the game with their own attributes and abilities--akin to a hero shooter. While you can choose to play as a certain Specialist in Blackout, the equipment that was once tied to them are now items found in the field. Those abilities--such as the razor wire, mesh mines, and grappling hook--are hard to find, but they can give you a significant advantage when used in the right situation.
Tips
Those are the basics when it comes to playing Call of Duty Black Ops 4's Blackout mode. Battle royale veterans may know how the rules work, but the equipment system and map are still things that need to be experimented with and explored on your own. The most important thing to do is to play more and more matches to get a feel for how Call of Duty's take on battle royale flows. And now that you know what you're getting into, take the next step and check out our Blackout beginner's guide.
The long legal drama between Oculus and ZeniMax appears to be continuing, but id designer John Carmack--who was a central figure in the dispute--says his personal legal battles are over. In a tweet, Carmack said that he and ZeniMax have released all claims against each other.
It's notable that Carmack draws a very careful distinction in his statement, though. He pointed out that his personal legal disputes have been satisfied, but said that an appeal for Oculus is still moving forward. That indicates that Oculus is still fighting against the award given to ZeniMax for copyright infringement--even after it had been slashed from $500 million to $250 million.
My personal legal disputes are over -- Zenimax has fully satisfied their obligations to me from the purchase of Id Software, and we have released all claims against each other. (The appeal for Oculus still goes forward)
ZeniMax alleged that Carmack had taken work developed while he was at id Software--owned by ZeniMax--and taken it to Oculus for the creation of the Oculus Rift. A $500 million settlement was awarded, which was later halved when a judge found that the infringement was too small to justify such a large reward. Oculus is now continuing its appeal, presumably to reduce the damages further or eliminate them altogether.
Meanwhile, ZeniMax also filed suit last year against Samsung VR. In that suit, the company that Carmack had worked with another former ZeniMax employee, Matt Hooper, to develop a plan for mobile VR. According to the suit, Oculus then took that pitch to Samsung, which makes that company liable too. ZeniMax argues that Samsung must have been aware of the litigation with Oculus, but continued to develop Gear VR regardless of the legal risk.
We may see some form of Diablo announcement at BlizzCon this year, but a set of merchandise with a new name isn't an accidental leak, according to the studio. A set of new items listed on the Blizzard Gear Store raised eyebrows with a conspicuous subtitle: "Diablo Reign of Terror." However, Blizzard has told GameSpot these are not related to any new content being prepared for the show.
The items include a poster and a men's and women's T-shirt, all showing the frightful visage of the series namesake himself. That raised suspicions that "Reign of Terror" could be the subtitle of a new game or expansion, especially given that Diablo hasn't had either since Reaper of Souls in 2014. But not so, says Blizzard.
"These are names and copy used for some of the new products available at BlizzCon this year, and not direct references to content at the show," a spokesperson told GameSpot.
We first began expecting to see a Diablo announcement due to Blizzard's own schedule for BlizzCon 2018. The "Diablo: What's Next" panel follows first after the main stage keynote. The existence of a "What's Next" panel itself isn't telling--just about every ongoing Blizzard game gets one--but coming just after the main stage presentation is usually reserved for the biggest announcement of the event. Diablo also has a second planned panel about the world of Diablo, scheduled for the following day.
Blizzard has previously indicated it has multiple Diablo projects in the works. We know about one of them, since Diablo 3 was announced for Nintendo Switch, but the phrasing definitely implied more than one is in development. "Some of them are going to take longer than others, but we may have some things to show you later this year," said community manager Brandy Camel.
Bungie is rolling out Update 2.0.4 for Destiny 2 soon, alongside its seasonal events and a new Iron Banner. In an update, the studio has outlined its release plans so you can schedule your playtime down to the minute. Almost. Eyes up, Guardian.
On Tuesday, October 16 the event will begin. First at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET, Destiny 2 maintenance will begin, but it won't be accompanied by downtime. Companion features might be unavailable, but at this point you should be ready to download the update. At 9:45 AM PT / 12:45 PM ET, anyone who hasn't installed 2.0.4 will be kicked out and taken back to the title screen to prompt them to install it. Then at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET, the maintenance will be over and companion features will be reenabled.
Once you've downloaded and installed version 2.0.4 you should be able to dive right into the new events. Those include a new Iron Banner event and the annual Halloween-themed Festival of the Lost. Iron Banner has been revised with easier bounty requirements for more plentiful rewards, and the whole event will overlap with Double and Triple Valor periods to get more Masterwork Cores.
Festival of the Lost will also be handing out Powerful gear like candy corns. It offers a Horde-like PvE mode, a special quest-line to solve the murder of an old cryptarch, and a new type of currency (Fragmented Souls) that can be traded in for masks and a very thematic auto rifle called Horror Story. You can also earn Ephemeral Engrams with their own new rewards.
Bungie also recently announced plans to tweak the drop rates so you get duplicate Exotics less often. For some help finding gear in the meantime, check out where to find Xur and what he has in stock.
Red Dead Redemption 2 looks to be a shockingly precise cowboy simulator, right down to some survivalist mechanics like hunting and dressing appropriately. All a real frontiersman needs is a horse and a trusty rifle, and Rockstar has taken the wraps off of your weapon selection in the upcoming game.
According to the official site, RDR2 has more than 50 weapons, each with customization options and ammo types to help determine stats like accuracy, range, and damage. Weapons will level up the more you use them, and they'll need to be kept oiled and cleaned to stave off degradation. You can customize with barrels, grips, sights, and scopes for performance, along with visual flourishes like selecting your metals, woods, varnishes, and engravings.
The visual elements like metals and engravings can be customizable per component of your gun, and you can pick a different engraving on your trigger guard, barrel, and frame for a truly unique look. Ammo types like split point, high velocity, and explosive can be used in a pinch for tougher enemies. A good holster will help prevent weapon degredation, while off-hand holsters let you dual wield your weapons. Finally, your horse's saddle will store your weapons, so you'll have to select which weapons to take on your person when you tie up your horse.
Rockstar cites a handful of examples of how various weapons can deal with different situations. The Bolt-Action Rifle is best for long-range combat against multiple targets, while the Pump-Action Shotgun is best suited for close combat against hearty wild beasts. A Double-Action Revolver works well if shooting from horseback, while a Sawed-Off Shotgun is better if you're limited to one hand while the other carries a lantern. The Varmint Rifle is best for small game since it will do the least damage to their skin and meat. And the Springfield Rifle is ideal for one-on-one confrontations at mid-range. And those are just a few of the examples.
The new Dead-Eye system helps you make the most out of every shot, and progresses to become more powerful over the course of the game. It will let you auto-select targets, manually place multiple shots on the same enemy, fire in slow motion, or pinpoint weak spots on enemies.
Red Dead Redemption 2 hits on October 26. Check out some of the most surprising details we know about so far while we wait to explore the Old West.
Destiny 2 is bringing back the Iron Banner, starting very soon. The event begins Tuesday, October 16 and lasts until the following Tuesday, October 23. It will be accompanied by the 2.0.4 update, which among other changes will update rewards and bounty objectives as a response to feedback Bungie has received from past Iron Banner events.
For starters, it will be much easier to get good rewards out of the Iron Banner. The bounty requirements have been significantly reduced, in some cases even halved, to make them easier to complete. On top of that, you'll get a piece of Powerful Gear for each bounty you complete, to boost your overall Power rating. Finally, Masterwork Cores will be made more available, with Double Valor rewards October 16-19, and Triple Valor from October 19-23. Check out the newly revised Iron Banner bounties below:
Lightbearer: Super kills has been reduced to 20 from 25
Iron in the Blood: Match completions has been reduced to 15 from 30
Shine On: Orbs generated has been reduced to 50 from 100
Iron Victory: Match wins has been reduced to 7 from 10
To Be Precise: Precision kills has been reduced to 50 from 100
All in a Week's Work: Kills has been reduced to 150 from 250
This is also all coming alongside this year's Festival of the Lost. It will add a new Haunted Forest section that offers waves of ghouls and demons with a 15-minute time limit. A quest-line will appear near the end of Festival of the Lost to take on the cryptarch Master Ives. A new Legendary auto rifle called Horror Story will be available and the Tower will be adorned with all sorts of spooky decorations. You can also earn special Ephemeral Engrams with new rewards. You'll need to own Forsaken to take part in Festival of the Lost. Check out what else is on the way in the weekly reset.
Assassin's Creed Odyssey has received an update aimed at squashing some bugs and issuing minor (but unspecified) quality-of-life features. The 1.0.3 update is now available, and the patch notes are relatively vague. Among its features are "quality-of-life and usability improvement" and "various 'game breaking' issues that could happen in specific conditions." It also says it improves performance and stability.
The patch notes end with a note promising more info. "Stay tuned for additional information concerning the changes included in 1.0.3," it says. GameSpot has contacted Ubisoft for more detail and will update if more information becomes available.
Ubisoft is likely happy with the success of Odyssey so far. Though it didn't give specific sales data, it announced it had the best launch week for any game in the franchise on the current generation of consoles. That would include Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), as well as all the follow-ups including Assassin's Creed Unity (2014), Assassin's Creed Syndicate (2015), and Assassin's Creed Origins (2017). That number does include revenue from microtransactions, which could mean other games outsold it on a per-unit basis, but Odyssey generated more money altogether.
Odyssey has gotten extra attention from an emerging market as well, as Google is using it as a test subject for its Project Stream technology. Players selected for the limited test can play it unlimited through their Chrome browser until January of next year, and are given $10 in in-game currency to purchase any microtransactions. As a trade-off, though, players lose all progress after the end-date.
The Xbox One October update is rolling out today, offering a few new bells and whistles for the Microsoft console. The features in this update allow you to use more voice interactions, more easily watch HDR movies with streaming services, and personalize your Avatar.
The Xbox Skill feature lets you interact with your Xbox using Alexa or Cortana devices, with a greater degree of precision than the previous Kinect voice commands. As an example, Microsoft says you can tell Alexa to "launch Forza Horizon 4" and in response the Xbox One will start up, sign you in, and launch the game, all without additional commands needed. Other commands include starting Mixer broadcasts, capturing screenshots, and adjusting the volume. You'll need to download the Xbox Skill in the respective stores to get started.
To promote the new functionality, Amazon will be offering a bundle that includes an Amazon Echo Dot with new Xbox One S or Xbox One X purchases. That deal is coming soon, but supplies will be limited.
The newly revised Avatars are available for all users today as well. These have a focus on inclusiveness, with a greater range of body types, more accessories, and the ability to dress in any kind of clothing you'd like. You'll see the new Avatars on your own profile, in the activity feed and Gamerscore leaderboard, and more. You can use a Photobooth to take a picture of your Avatar to use as your profile image. Plus, if you want to stick with your original Avatar, that option is available too.
The update also adds Dolby Vision HDR streaming across supported televisions. For now it supports Netflix only, but Dolby Vision will expand to more apps in the coming months. You can enable it through the Settings menu. Finally the Narrator has added Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Swedish, Dutch, and Australian English.
Scarlett Johansson appears to be making a healthy amount for her upcoming solo Black Widow film. The star is reportedly set to earn $15 million, which would be equal the payouts for Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth in both Avengers: Infinity War and their own starring roles movies, Captain America: Civil War and Thor: Ragnarok.
The Hollywood Reporter reports that most actors in the Marvel cinematic universe have made much less for their initial standalone movies. Robert Downey Jr. made just $500,000 for the first Iron Man, while Chadwick Boseman is said to have pulled down $2 million for the first Black Panther. Brie Larson is making $5 million for the upcoming Captain Marvel, with a reported seven-picture deal (which Larson disputes). Then again, this won't be Johansson's first time around as Black Widow, as the character has been a mainstay in Marvel's team-up films for years.
The news comes as Hollywood's actresses are applying more pressure on studios to pay them the same as their male counterparts. Some actors like Benedict Cumberbatch have publicly said they'll refuse roles that do not give equal pay to his female counterparts in solidarity.
A spokesperson for Marvel told THR, "Marvel Studios disputes the accuracy of these numbers, and as a matter of policy, we never publicly disclose salaries or deal terms." Black Widow will be directed by Cate Shortland (Lore). She was the ultimate pick after interviewing a list of more than 70 potential picks to direct. A release date hasn't been announced. Black Widow will next appear in 2019's Avengers 4, which will presumably resolve the plot threads left by Infinity War.
Fortnite: Battle Royale has been available on Android for some time now, but it was not freely available for download to everyone. That's now changed, as Epic has released the game on Android without the need for an invite. The beta had previously been invite-only, but as of today you can download it to any Android device for free, without waiting. Unlike most Android games, Epic isn't offering Fortnite through the Google Play store, but instead on its official site.
Epic accompanied the announcement with recommended system specs for your Android device to get the optimal experience. You can check the list of supported devices to make sure yours fits the bill. Here's how to download it.
OS: Recommended Android 8.0 or higher, 64 bit
RAM: Recommended 4GB or higher
GPU: Adreno 530 or higher, Mali-G71 MP20, Mali-G72 MP12 or higher
Plugging the official site is important, since Epic circumvented the Google Play store to release the application directly to users. That allows the studio to keep more of its profits, but has run the risk of security problems. Avoiding the safety of a known and trusted store also raises the risk of unscrupulous people confusing potential players. Most recently, dubious apps claiming to offer free V-bucks or cheats have been connected to phishing schemes. For obvious reasons, make sure to install through the official site.
Fortnite is in the middle of Season 6, dubbed Darkness Rises, with lots of spooky cosmetic items to mark the occasion. More Halloween skins appear to be on the way as well. For help unlocking all of the loot, be sure to check out our challenge guide. And if you want to make some Halloween merriment outside of Fortnite, read all about some other ongoing video game Halloween events to get into the spirit.
Following a very public falling out with Marvel Studios, James Gunn has been brought on to write and potentially direct the Suicide Squad sequel for its comic-inspired rival, Warner Bros. and the DC cinematic universe. The director of the first Suicide Squad has come forward to praise the move, calling it gutsy of the studio and complimenting Gunn in the process.
"I think it's an incredibly brave and smart move by the studio," director David Ayer said on Twitter. "James is the right man for the job!" In response to some fans suggested he was being sarcastic, he signal-boosted a comment that argued he was being sincere.
Gunn had risen to blockbuster notoriety for his work on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy films. In fact, comic fans noted the similarities to Suicide Squad as DC's answer to it--a ragtag group of neer-do-wells and crooks who reluctantly save the day. He was at work on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 when Marvel Studios abruptly fired him due to a social media campaign against his old tweets.
The Guardians cast rallied behind Gunn with a letter of support, but Marvel and parent company Disney remained unmoved. Guardians 3 has been put on indefinite hold, and Disney has not given word on a new director or if it will use Gunn's script.
Dave Bautista, who played Drax in the Guardians films, has been especially vocal about using Gunn's script, threatening that he'd like to be released from his contract if Disney chooses to use a different one. With the news that Gunn is jumping to DC, Bautista indicated he was open to following the director to the new project.
Halloween is approaching, and despite a previous leak of some themed cosmetics, it appears Fortnite has even more up its sleeve. While the big recent skin news involved the return of the Skull Trooper outfit, the latest game update, v6.02, has been datamined and revealed another round of skins, back bling, gliders, and pickaxes.
Fortnite Intel reports on the new cosmetics. The new skins include the pumpkin-spicy Jack Gourdon and Hollowhead, plague doctors Plague and Scourge, Bullseye, and Skull Ranger. New pickaxes include the Skull Sickle, Heralds Wand, and Carver. Those are joined by the Crypt Cruiser, Mouldering Cloak, Arcanum, Dismal Cape, and Lamplight. New emotes appear to include Sprinkler, Electro Swing, Look At This, and Head Bang.
Of course, the datamined leak doesn't give much indication of when we can expect to see these new cosmetics making the rounds. They're Halloween-themed, which narrows it down to this month, but other than that they could hit anytime.
The 6.02 update also added the limited-time Disco Domination mode, a Quad rocket launcher, and various bug fixes and balance tweaks. As noted above, it also brought back the Skull Trooper, but requires a challenge completion to unlock its associated back bling.
In addition to the other frightful skins previously leaked, the whole season has a dark and foreboding tone to it. "Darkness Rises" is the season's theme, as an island floats above the game map powered by our favorite mysterious cube, Kevin. Plus the new Season 6 skins include plenty of Halloween merriment like the Dire Wolf, which makes you more and more werewolf-like as you level it up.
For more on other Halloween happenings in video games, check out our round-up of the best Halloween events this year.
Ahead of the full game's release date in November, Bethesda will host a Fallout 76 beta later this month. The first leg of this will begin on October 23 for Xbox One, but some fans will have a chance to try it out even sooner than that. Bethesda has announced that before the beta launches, some Xbox Insiders will be able to take part in a limited stress test starting this weekend to help the studio prepare for the beta launch.
Participants for the stress test will be chosen from a pool of players who have both pre-ordered Fallout 76 for Xbox One, and who are also members of the Xbox Insider program. Fulfilling those two criteria doesn't guarantee you a spot, but it does put you in the running. Starting on Saturday, October 13, you can check if you've been given access to the stress test by looking at the Insider Content tab of the Xbox Insider program.
This all comes with a few caveats. This is for North American players only, and you'll need to be an Xbox Live Gold member as well since it's an online game. Participants will be under an NDA, and your progress in the stress test won't be saved. The beta version set to launch later this month is an entirely separate application. You also can't earn any Achievements.
If those sound like deal-breakers, and you've pre-ordered the game anyway, you may be better off waiting for the full beta. It will start on October 23 on Xbox One and follow on PC and PS4 a week later on October 30. Even if you've pre-ordered the game, though, you may not necessarily get into the test the moment it starts. Bethesda is planning to send invites out in waves, with a relatively small number invited to begin. You can read more details about how and when it will roll out in our beta guide.
The Xbox Insider program is a free option for Xbox One owners that gets you into some early software tests for upcoming firmware, to offer feedback. You can find more instructions through the official site.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is going to take a healthy chunk of hard drive space when it installs from the disc, but you'll need to keep some space open for the day-one patch as well. Depending on your console of choice, you should have as much as 112 GB of free space to complete the installation.
According to Activision's support page, the day-one update has a download size of 50 GB, and when it's all done the game will leave a 55 GB footprint on your PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. On PlayStation 4 you'll need to have more room set aside, though, as it states that for an "optimized download experience" you'll want 112 GB of free hard drive space. This is just the size needed to complete the installation, though, and once the process is complete it will go back down to the 55 GB requirement.
The update seems to be adding necessary components for the multiplayer modes, including Zombies, Specialist Headquarters, and the new Battle Royale mode Blackout. The notes mention that Blackout will be playable once the installation reaches around 30% on both consoles. On PlayStation 4, make sure you select "Update to Latest Version" when the prompt appears to be able to access Blackout during the installation.
Each of those notes goes for the disc-based copies that require a separate day-one install. If you buy it digitally, that copy will be 55 GB in itself, without any additional patch required. Check out our pre-order guide for more details.
Fallout 76 is a very different kind of Fallout game, with a new focus on multiplayer across a massive open world. Bethesda is putting it through its paces with a beta test releasing later this month, and you can join in to help explore the wastes and gather technical feedback before its official launch. There's even a pre-beta stress test that a select number of fans will get access to. Here's everything to know about the beta.
When does the beta start?
The beta for Fallout 76 will begin on October 23 on Xbox One, and then expand to PC and PlayStation 4 the following week on October 30. Even if you've received a code, though, you may not necessarily be invited to the first wave. Bethesda plans to start small to stress test the game and expand slowly, so your actual start date may vary.
A separate pre-beta stress test will also run beginning on October 13. That one is exclusive to Xbox One Insiders who have pre-ordered the game, and even then fulfilling those criteria only enters you into the pool of possible participants. Players of this stress test will be under NDA and unlike the beta, game progress will not be saved.
How long will the beta last?
Bethesda has not given a specific end-date for the beta, but it has explained that the servers won't be available 24/7 during the beta period. The studio says it will be running "targeted time frames" to force interested players together at the same time, which in turn will mark a better technical test. The game may be available for 4-8 hours on any given day, with Bethesda making adjustments and fixes during the off periods. This process will repeat until a few days before launch on November 14.
How do I get in?
The beta will be available exclusively for those who pre-order the game across PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4. Digital pre-orders will be entered into the pool automatically, while physical pre-orders will receive a code to enter into the accounts page once the beta has gone live on your platform of choice.
It's important to note that this code is not the beta code you enter to access the actual game download. Instead, the pre-order code is the one you enter into Bethesda's system to be put into the pool for code distribution. A separate code, which gives you access to the install, will follow at a later time as Bethesda rolls out its invites.
In the meantime, you can be sure you're prepared by creating a free Bethesda.net login. Also, make sure you have an active Xbox Live Gold or PlayStation Plus membership if you're playing on either console, since those will be required to access the online-only game.
Is the beta the full game?
The Fallout 76 beta is the full experience, and Bethesda says it is currently planning to allow players to carry progress over into the full game. However, console players will need to redownload the launch version, whereas PC players will not need to download a new version upon launch. The beta will be 45 GB.
How do I submit feedback?
Bethesda is inviting feedback across its variety of social media channels.
What else will I get for pre-ordering?
Aside from beta access, pre-ordering will get you 500 Atoms--Fallout 76's in-game currency. Atoms allow you to purchase cosmetic items from the shop. Bethesda has indicated that Atoms will be plentiful, but as we haven't seen the shop or prices yet, it's hard to say just how far 500 Atoms will go.
It's October again, and that means time for Halloween festivities throughout a whole host of online games. Many announcements have already begun to outline the upcoming festivities, so we're keeping track of all the spooky specials. Many of these will be time-limited events with special rewards, like the OverwatchHalloween Terror event, so check out the active dates and plan your gaming accordingly.
Dauntless
The Dauntless Dark Harvest event will kick off in the middle of the month, casting a shadow on the hub city of Ramsgate. It will introduce a new cult known as the Unseen, who worship a Behemoth. Slayers can test their might against a new Behemoth in the Shattered Isles and stores will offer limited-time exclusive items.
Dates
Begins October 17
Destiny 2
Destiny is bringing back its annual Festival of the Lost, the Halloween-themed celebration that offers some special masks and exclusive loot. This year, it will include a horde-like PvE mode, a special quest-line to solve a murder, and a unique currency to purchase masks and a special auto rifle called Horror Story. You can also earn new Ephemeral Engrams for exclusive cosmetic items. This will all be accompanied by the return of the Iron Banner event, with some tweaks to make it easier to obtain Powerful gear.
Dates
Begins October 16
Fortnite
The entire season is somewhat spooky, with the Darkness Rises theme and skins like the Dire Wolf. Plus the game brought back the popular Skull Trooper skin and made it a little easier to get the Ghost Portal Back Bling. We've gotten a look at some special leaked Halloween cosmetics. Those include skins, back bling, gliders, and pickaxes. No word yet on what creepy world events might be ringing in the seasonal content.
Hearthstone's annual "Hallow's End" celebration starts on October 17 and lasts through Halloween on October 31. Logging in during the event will net you a free golden Witch's Cauldron card, and the Headless Horseman will return for a new Tavern Brawl starring the characters from the Monster Hunt mode. You'll also be able to take part in a dual class Arena mode, and characters will use Hallow's End emotes. Finally, the event will accompany the launch of a new Paladin hero for purchase with a new Witchwood bundle.
Killing Floor 2 has already introduced its Halloween Horrors: Monster Masquerade update. The sprawling update includes a new Monster Ball map, along with Halloween-themed looks and effects for all the zeds and bosses. Plus you can access new weapons and limited-time items to take them all down.
Overwatch's annual Halloween Terror event is once again here. Each year the Halloween Terror event continues the story of Junkenstein's monster, and this one serves up two separate PvE modes: Classic and Endless Night. The event is always a debuts several new Halloween-themed skins, emotes, sprays, and more. It is going on now through October 31, and Blizzard has revealed all the nifty new costumes.
Dates
October 9-31
Rocket League
Rocket League is bringing back its Haunted Hallows event on October 15. You can earn "Candy Corn" currency for playing online matches, which can then be used to cash in for limited cosmetics like decals, toppers, and wheels. You can also gain a Golden Pumpkin that will contain a customization item from the Nitro, Turbo, or Player's choice crates. The event will end on November 5, and your Candy Corn will expire on November 8, so make sure you cash it in fast.
The Splatoon 2 version of a Halloween gathering is a twist on its usual monthly Splatfests, appropriately named Splatoween. It will start October 19 and last through October 21, with players picking their sides in a Turf Wars between Team Trick and Team Treat. Inkopolis will also be updated with Halloween decorations, and the squid kids will get a chance at four special Splatoween headgear that can be kept after the event is over. You'll have to go through the Nintendo Switch News app to get them, however.
The follow-up to Rockstar Games' classic western game Red Dead Redemption is fast approaching. Set 12 years before the events of the original game, Red Dead Redemption 2 will explore an expansive region of the American wilderness, with Dutch Van der Linde's gang on the run from lawmen during the last years of the wild west. Experiencing Rockstar's take on the open-world western from a new perspective, you'll uncover the history of the Van Der Linde gang, which has a young John Marston in its thralls.
We got the opportunity to play Red Dead Redemption 2, and suffice to say, it's shaping up to be one of the most detailed open world games we've ever played. You can find out more in our preview below where you can read about our experiences completing story missions and exploring the game's world. There's also plenty of details below on the game's narrative and all of its trailers. With its release date of October 26 approaching, we've learned a lot more about the base game, as well as the first details about its Red Dead Online mode coming in November.
Set 12 years before the main events of the original game, the prequel focuses on the outlaw life of the Van der Linde gang, led by Red Dead Redemption's main antagonists. After a robbery in Blackwater (one of the original game's major towns) goes bad--the gang finds themselves on the run. Dutch, his right-hand man Arthur Morgan, and several members of the gang have to contend with a life on-the-run while confrontations with rival gangs and the law make their situation grow more desperate.
Rockstar also released a description of the plot:
America, 1899. The end of the wild west era has begun as lawmen hunt down the last remaining outlaw gangs. Those who will not surrender or succumb are killed. After a robbery goes badly wrong in the western town of Blackwater, Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang are forced to flee. With federal agents and the best bounty hunters in the nation massing on their heels, the gang must rob, steal and fight their way across the rugged heartland of America in order to survive. As deepening internal divisions threaten to tear the gang apart, Arthur must make a choice between his own ideals and loyalty to the gang who raised him.
The First Reveal
Debuting on October 20, 2016, the first trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 was a bit of a mood piece that showcased many locales in the game, while also portraying the somber tone of the main narrative. In this trailer, we saw several towns and locales, many of which are teeming with life and activity--such as ranchers rustling up some cattle, huntsmen bringing back their haul, and a group of citizens hanging out in the general store.
Who Are You Playing As?
Though the central character of Red Dead Redemption, John Marston, plays some role in the story--the main protagonist of the prequel is Arthur Morgan. As Dutch's right-hand man and enforcer for the gang, he'll handle much of the daily duties of keeping the gang in-check--which includes a young and less-experienced John Marston. When it comes to keeping the gang and its community afloat, Morgan is quite handy with picking up various jobs to ensure everyone is well fed and in good spirits. But as the story progresses, he'll begin to question his own resolve for Dutch's way of life, and whether he still has a place in the gang.
The Second Trailer
On September 28, 2017, the second trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 debuted. In the new footage, we got to see more of Arthur Morgan and how ruthless he can be while on the job. During some of the story cutscenes, Morgan will use coercion and physical threats to collect money and information, all for the "benefit" of the community. For more info on this particular trailer, check out our detailed breakdown.
Who's In Dutch's Gang?
In Red Dead Redemption 2, we'll see Dutch's gang and its key players in their prime. While the original game had John hunt down and kill the remaining members of the gang, we'll see many of the familiar faces in relatively happier times. From the most recent trailer, we see Dutch Van der Linde, Arthur Morgan, Bill Williamson, Javier Esquela, Sadie Adler, Charles Smith, Micah Bell, Hosea Matthews, and of course John Marston in the roster. We'll also interact with other characters who would have a key role in the gang and in the lives of both Arthur Morgan and John Marston.
The Third Trailer
In the new footage released on May 2, we saw a deeper look into the game's narrative and how the gang functions. Along with the familiar activities like hunting, heists, and side-quests with the region's citizens, rob trains and banks, and take in shows at theaters. For the most part, the trailer focuses on the many connections you'll have with the members of the gang, as well as how your choices will affect them. For more info on the third trailer, check out our detailed breakdown.
First Gameplay Trailer
On August 9, Rockstar unveiled Red Dead Redemption 2's first gameplay trailer. The new footage revealed that the core mechanics from the original game were still intact, but almost everything had received a facelift. Wildlife is smarter and lives within its own ecosystem. Arthur Morgan can interact with the people around him in ways John Marston never could.
Second Gameplay Trailer
On October 2, Rockstar finally showcased the second round of gameplay footage it promised. It dives more deeply into the game's side-activities, as well as the nature of the world and its varying systems. In addition, there's an in-depth look at how the sequel's dead eye system works.
What's New In Red Dead Redemption 2?
While the sequel is largely in the same vein as its predecessor, focusing on exploration, hunting, shoot-outs, heists, and other side-activities where you'll interact with a number of unique characters--Red Dead Redemption 2 features a far more expansive world to dive into. There are a ton of new mechanics in Red Dead Redemption 2. Below you can find a bulleted list of many of the new features in the game, but for all the details on everything new, check out our comprehensive list of all the new features we've discovered so far.
You can play the whole game in first-person
You can disable the HUD
A new cinematic camera is utilized during missions where you're traveling across the world during missions
You can inspect nearly all items in the world
Your weapons are always visible on your person
There's a killcam that changes depending on your honor
You can break enemy weapons
Dead Eye has five levels now
Your guns can degrade and jam
You need to maintain and clean Arthur or else you'll get dirty and disgust people around you
You can gain and lose weight
How It Plays: Our In-Depth Preview
We recently got a hands-on with a near final-build of Red Dead Redemption 2. It plays much like its predecessor, but with a bevy of new features and systems that enhance its storytelling, combat, and overall progression. We got to experience two story missions, as well as a chance to goof around freely in the open world. There's a lot to unpack about how the upcoming sequel looks and feels, so be sure to read our in-depth preview detailing our impressions about how it plays.
How Will Online Multiplayer Work?
Currently, Rockstar hasn't shared any info on how the online play will function. The original Red Dead Redemption featured online free-for-all and team deathmatch style gameplay in the open world, along with several co-op themed missions. While it's safe to assume that these sorts of missions will return, another long-lingering rumor is the appearance of a battle royale mode. Rockstar has recently confirmed that a public beta for the online mode is scheduled for a month after the game's launch.
How Can I Play RDR2? When Is Its Release Date?
Red Dead Redemption 2 is set for release on October 26 for PS4 and Xbox One. There are also plans for a collector's edition of the game called the Special Edition. Priced at $80, the package includes a copy of the game along with special missions, weapons and a physical map of the game world for players to own. There are also two additional packs for Red Dead Redemption 2 for premium prices, The Ultimate Edition and The Collector's Box--both priced at $100. While The Ultimate Edition has all items from the special edition--including additional DLC items to acquire--The Collector's Box does not include any digital items. Instead, it offers special playing cards, artwork, a bandit's bandana, a physical map of the game world, and a collector's coin in the set.
It's worth noting that the PS4 version will have special content that's exclusive to that version for 30 days. There is still no word as to what the PlayStation-exclusive content is, but now we know it's for Red Dead Online and that Xbox One owners will have to wait to check it out.
Though the original Red Dead Redemption never found its way to the PC, there's been some rumors that its sequel might. A mention of Red Dead Redemption 2's appearance on PC found its way online, but it has since been scrubbed.
PS4 Pro Bundle
Although the system itself doesn't sport a unique design, there will be a Red Dead Redemption 2 PS4 Pro bundle. Priced at $400 in the US, you're essentially getting a copy of the game for free. However, this doesn't include any of the aforementioned special editions; it's just a standard edition version of the game. The bundle is available for pre-order now.
You may have read a lot about Assassin's Creed Odyssey leading up to its release on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The new open-world game has finally arrived, and below, we've rounded up all of the essential information about the series' latest entry in one place. We'll run down many of Odyssey's broader features and go through the basics of what you should know before jumping in. Everything from story to combat tips are outlined below, along with links to more detailed guides if you wish to dig deeper. Note that there are no major story spoilers in this article.
You're probably aware that Assassin's Creed Odyssey takes place in Ancient Greece, but it specifically covers the Peloponnesian War fought between Athens and Sparta. The game opens with a 300-esque battle scene where you take control of King Leonidas of Sparta during the Battle of Thermopylae in 480 BCE, then transitions to the start of the main protagonist's story almost 50 years later in 431 BCE.
Greece makes for some breathtaking views.
If you've followed Odyssey since it was first revealed at E3 2018, then you'll know that you can choose between taking on the role of a female or male lead; Kassandra and Alexios are two sides of the same coin and play exactly the same--the main differences are, of course, the voice acting and character model. Your choice also affects the narrative slightly; whoever you choose to play as is made to be the older sibling of the two. You come from Spartan lineage, but the game doesn't force you into aligning with either side of the war since you're a mercenary trying uncover the truth of your family's disappearance.
Prominent Greek figures like Socrates and Hippocrates make appearances throughout Odyssey, and you can interact with them as they offer side quests of their own. While historical fiction has always been the foundation of Assassin's Creed lore, it's never been afraid to incorporate the supernatural. Odyssey takes it a step further by pitting you against mythology itself; one example is a fight against Medusa where you try to avoid getting turned into stone.
Catch Up On Assassin's Creed Lore
This is a long-running franchise, but Odyssey can be a good point to jump into the series. Knowledge of previous events isn't necessarily required to enjoy the new game. However, if you need a refresher on the everything that have taken place up to this point, be sure to read our Assassin's Creed story summary.
How Long Is Odyssey?
It shouldn't come as a surprise that Assassin's Creed Odyssey is huge--its open world is about twice as big as Origins. That may not seem as daunting when you consider the fact that the Mediterranean Sea makes up a large portion of the map and that you'll spend plenty of time sailing the high seas. Regardless, there's still a great deal of ground to cover throughout Greece's mainland and several islands.
As for game length, it's difficult to get an accurate range since every player will engage in a varying number of optional quests and activities along the way. Estimates have been around 50 hours to complete the main story and a decent chunk of side activities. GameSpot editor Alessandro Fillari spent 60 hours with the game for the purposes of his review, and there remain more optional content for him to take part in.
New to the franchise is Exploration Mode. Instead of having waypoints and objective markers littered on screen in the traditional Guided Mode, Exploration Mode puts the onus on you to figure out where to go to complete quests. This means you'll have to pay closer attention to NPC dialogue and investigate the environment more closely.
This is especially true if you take on the optional quest to hunt down a cultist organization. They're a web of mysterious figures with hidden identities scattered throughout Greece and you'll need to do investigative work to locate and assassinate them. Sometimes, you'll happen to take them down in the midst of a side mission that they're involved in, but you'll often have to dig for clues on their whereabouts whether or not you've activated Exploration mode.
Fighting With Style
Odyssey builds off of Origins' combat system, but it introduces some key changes. Shields are no longer an option, which naturally pushes fights towards a faster pace. The skill tree remains divided in three categories attributed to specific playstyles (Hunter, Warrior, and Assassin), but it features some neat new abilities. You may think the Spartan Kick is in the game just for kicks and giggles until you realize that it's super effective for booting enemies off cliffs or creating space in fights. Another setting-appropriate ability is the Rush Assassination that lets you put the Spear of Leonidas to use during long-distance stealth kills.
The skill tree includes several abilities that allow you to tinker with different character builds.
In addition to multiple types of melee weapons (like polearms, swords, and maces), you have a bow that's both useful for attacking long-range and inflicting status effects on enemies. The Arrow Master skill unlocks arrows that can poison, paralyze, or explode on impact, opening up numerous possibilities in combat; combine that with Devastating Shot and your projectiles will be even stronger. The skill tree can be overwhelming at first, but we have a few tips on some good abilities to pick up early and how to use them in clever ways.
Don't worry about min-maxing in the skill tree; you can respec at any time for small cost. This affords you the opportunity to experiment with different combat approaches and character builds.
Setting Sail In The Mediterranean
With multiple islands scattered across Greece, great emphasis is placed on sailing and ship combat in Odyssey, essentially taking a page out of Black Flag's book. Engaging with hostile ships will have you firing arrow barrages, tossing waves of javelins, or using the naval ram to inflict damage. Once an enemy ship's health is depleted, you can either sink it for a small reward or board it with your crew to get better loot. If you board the ship, you'll have to get your hands dirty and fight the opposing crew.
Enemy ships vary in size, health, and strength, so be sure to know what you're up against before engaging. Throughout Odyssey, you'll upgrade your ship and recruit shipmates from quests or smooth dialogue interactions. Different crew members offer specific bonuses and attributes for your ship.
Play Your Part
Odyssey doubles down on RPG elements. There's leveling up, skill trees, gear scores, and numerous optional quests, which was implemented in Origins, but the series dips its toes into branching story threads for the first time. Dialogue trees permeate character interactions and you'll face consequences for your actions whether they be good or bad. The way you decide to complete some quests will affect the resulting narrative and can also spill into the details of other quest-lines; don't be surprised if there are unforeseen consequences and collateral damage.
With branching dialogue comes romance options. You're free to romance as many of the available characters as you want, and the circumstances for which you can romance them may change based on other decisions. Most often, these partners will become part of your ship's crew, which may be a bit of an unceremonious conclusion for love interests. However, these scenarios can play out strangely, and you can see for yourself how romance can feel awkward or forced.
By nature of being an RPG that deals with choice and consequence, there are multiple endings in Assassin's Creed Odyssey; nine to be specific. Unfortunately, you'll be hard-pressed to see them all in one playthrough since key decisions early in the game will affect the possible endings open to you.
You now have more agency in how the story plays out thanks to branching dialogue and quest decisions.
Different Versions, Special Editions, And DLC
Assassin's Creed Odyssey is out soon, but you can still snag the pre-order bonuses offered. Pre-ordering from the Ubisoft Store grants you access to the Blind King mission, Best Buy gifts you a $10 rewards certificate, and GameStop includes the Blind King mission and a Spartan helmet keychain. Aside from the standard edition of the game, there's a Deluxe edition ($80) that includes an XP and drachmae (in-game money) boost, the Kronos and Herald of Dusk gear pack, and the Capricornus naval pack. The Gold edition ($110) packs the DLC season pass, Secrets of Greece and Blind King bonus missions, and lets you start playing now. The Ultimate edition ($120) includes all the aforementioned content from both the Deluxe and Gold editions. There are few other special editions with collector's statues that you check out in our pre-order guide.
PC Minimum And Recommended Specs
For the PC players out there, make sure your system is powerful enough to run the game properly. If you're aiming for 4K resolution with High settings, Ubisoft recommends a system with at least an AMD Ryzen 1700X or Intel Core i7-7700 CPU, AMD Vega 64 or Nvidia GTX 1080 video card, and 16GB of RAM. For those not doing 4K, be sure to read up on the minimum and recommended PC specs to run AC Odyssey smoothly.
Review
You can read or watch our review of Assassin's Creed Odyssey right now; editor Alessandro Fillari concluded: "Assassin's Creed Odyssey's ambition is admirable, which is reflected in its rich attention to detail for the era and its approach to handling the multi-faceted narrative with strong protagonists at the lead. While its large-scale campaign--clocking in at over 50 hours--can occasionally be tiresome, and some features don't quite make the impact they should, Odyssey makes great strides in its massive and dynamic world, and it's a joy to venture out and leave your mark on its ever-changing setting." For perspectives from other critics on the game, you can read through our review roundup.
Venom may be kind of a mess, but it turns out the movie's mix of action and comedy, its faithful treatment of the symbiote itself, and Tom Hardy's unique performance were enough to win many fans over. Even if Venom feels like a pre-MCU comic book movie from the early 2000s, that doesn't make it bad.
When we spoke with Fleischer, we covered more than just the lack of Spider-Man and that unfortunate plot hole. Read our full Q&A with the director below.
I think the coolest thing about the movie is that Venom actually looks and feels like Venom, and I wanted to ask about your approach to the visuals and how you got it there.
I really appreciate you saying that, because we worked really hard to make sure that Venom felt like he just leaped off the pages of the comic books. And I think that in deciding to have a fully CG Venom, it freed us up to be able to make him accurate scale and size and mass, and also allowed those incredible transformations, where Eddie becomes Venom. But yeah, it all started with the comics. I went through some of my favorite panels and pulled a bunch of reference and worked with this company called Legendary to design a 3D model of the character. That took some time to get right.
You take a 2D image, and then to bring it to life in 3D, you have to make sure it looks right from all angles. But what was important to me were the eyes, the mouth, the tongue, the scale, the mass, the posture. And then once we had a model that we were happy with, then it was Double Negative's job to bring him to life and then to animate him and try and make him look as photo real as we could possibly make him. And I think in that first closeup when you see him, when he first appears with Treece, and he's holding him by the throat, he just looks like he's actually there, which I'm really proud of, which is so cool. But yeah, I really felt a responsibility, especially since we couldn't put the spider on his chest, that we make Venom be as true to the comics as possible despite that fact.
Yeah, a lot has been said about the lack of the white spider symbol--it's been discussed to death. But I was wondering if there were any other changes that were considered to the character besides that?
That was the only real thing that was a limitation, was the fact that we couldn't feature Spider-Man at all in the movie. So, of course, if there's no Spider-Man, then there wouldn't be any reason to have a spider on his chest. And so, it did take a lot of time to figure out what to put in its place, and we ended up with that veiny white pattern, which I think looks super cool. But yeah, we did a ton of iterations of different designs for what the chest would ultimately look like.
That was the most challenging part, because you have something that's so iconic, and anything you put in its place just doesn't look right. So it took a lot of time to find something that was distinctive and subtle, but also, you can't just have a fully black character. There was also a version where he had nothing on his chest, but part of, I think, the reason why the spider is on his chest is because when you have such a big, black character, you need that contrast graphically of the white. And so it works really well, and I think the veins are really cool and distinctive.
There's been a Venom spin-off in the works for ages. Had any of the work on this version been done before you started working on it? How much of any previous work got transferred over to this?
Yeah, if anything happened, I'm not aware of it. I know even that there were multiple drafts, but I only got involved with the Pinkner and Rosenberg draft, which never had Spider-Man in it. And so, it's not like we had to extract him from it. It was always, from its inception, built as an origin story with a new approach. And I thought of it as an Ultimate version of Venom, like an Ultimate movie version of Venom.
What do you think gives Venom staying power as a character, and as a story that has been told since the '90s?
For me, Venom represents this forbidden fruit quality, especially for younger kids. This character that can do whatever he wants without repercussions. He's like this unbridled id, that just knows no bounds, and that's the push/pull between he and Eddie, as far as Eddie having to reign him and teach him the rules of our world. But I think for kids, a lot of people would be psyched to have the ability to turn into a giant black monster who can bite people's heads off if he doesn't like them, or throw people through windows, or do whatever else he does. And the fact that he's not a good guy, I think, is exciting. He's at times a villain, he's at times an anti-hero, but he's always a badass. And I think that's really enticing.
There were some things in the movie that were surprising to me in the way that Venom talks to Eddie, in the way he's a smartass, he's a tough guy. You know what I mean? In your mind, why does Venom exhibit those personality traits as this alien creature who could really be anything?
I think Venom on this planet is very powerful, and so he doesn't like being constrained. He also doesn't have much decorum or respect for polite behavior. But one of his earliest, best lines is in that apartment fight scene, where Eddie's putting his hands up, and Venom's like, "Why are you doing that? You are making us look bad." And Eddie's like, "No, it's the sensible thing to do. If guys are pointing guns at us, of course I'm gonna put my hands up." And Venom's not having any of it. And so, instead of succumbing, he puts people into the ceiling. Yeah, I guess he's got a bit of an ego, and he's not gonna be captured by the likes of these mercs. He's driving Eddie, and Eddie's just having to react to everything that Venom's doing in real time.
I love that fight, because it's a fight, but there's also a sense of discovery in it. That's really when Eddie sees Venom for the first time, and it's when he has that thing where he sees the goo coming out of his hands, and he's like, "What is that?" And then he quickly turns and strangles a guy with it. It was an original way to approach a fight, where the main character in it is figuring out a new reality in the midst of the action.
I didn't really expect Venom to be as funny as he was. There's a lot of lines where, like, he calls Eddie a "pussy" for not jumping out a window. That was when I started to realize in the audience, "Oh, Venom's the comic relief." Was that always the plan?
Yeah, he was always funny on the page, but over the course of editing it, we definitely leaned into those lines, just because they're so fun. But in the comics, I think, Venom's really funny as well. I think that he has always got great lines, and some of them even made their way into the movie. Like that line where he grabs Treece, and he says, "Eyes, lungs, pancreas. So many snacks, so little time." That's taken directly from the comics. So he's always had great one-liners, and I think he has this sarcastic attitude that we tried to embrace for the film.
I want to ask, what does Venom see in Eddie that makes him want to betray his whole species and stick around? Is it really just them both being outcasts?
Yeah, we had to manufacture that, because obviously in the comics they bond over the fact that they both hate Spider-Man. And so, since we didn't have that as something for them to connect over, we went with the idea that they're kindred spirits, and that Venom sees in Eddie somebody like himself who--on his planet, maybe Venom's a bit of a loser too, and then on our planet he decides he can be a big fish in a small pond. In all honesty, I think we had to ground the relationship in something to justify Venom's betrayal of his own race. And we tried to make it that there was just a real connection between Eddie and Venom, because of their common worldview.
There's this element in the comics that Venom is seen as an aberration among his own kind, because he chooses to bond with hosts and not just consume them and then move on. Did you try to get any of that across in the movie?
No, but I was grateful that that exists, because it is an explanation for why Venom's different from the other Klyntar. And so we did think that we could embrace [that]. We weren't going away from the comics, and making it clear that Venom chooses humanity over his own people. Riot and the rest of his kind just want to consume our planet. Venom actually embraces us.
Was that the ability of Riot's, to be able to go between different hosts at will? Because there was so much stuff with the symbiotes that were in the lab needing to find somebody who was compatible, but then Riot was jumping from person to person.
Yeah, you can interpret it however you want, but it's an aspect of symbiotes that they can bond with different hosts, and even Venom himself, in the comics, jumps between different people. And in our movie, he goes between people. But our idea was that Riot was using up the life force of whoever he took, and then he jumped ship when he'd consumed them and then find a new host to carry him further on his journey.
I have a plot question that I was just curious about. There's a six month time jump, where Riot is in the market, and then he kills a bunch of people and takes over that woman. And then six months later, the woman is at the airport and it jumps to the little girl. So was Riot just being someone's grandma that whole time? What was Riot doing for that period?
Yeah, that's a good question. That's one of our few--hopefully--few logic bumps. But we had to have a passage of time in order to show Eddie's downfall, and that was the one thing that doesn't entirely track. But I like to think that old lady was going around murdering all throughout Malaysia, and she was just having a good old time just shooting shards through different people in Malaysia, but then finally she found her way to an airport and is gonna get to San Francisco.
My assumption was maybe Riot was dormant for a period, but I like your version better.
Yeah, I mean who's to know? But you're clever in having caught that.
I want to know if there was any version of the script, or anything where we got to see what the Venom dog looked like, when it infected the dog in the hospital?
I definitely imagined it, and I wish that--it wasn't in the script, but I always had this image when the dog was running through the halls of the hospital, that some lab sound went off, and then he blew up like a pufferfish, like a little Pomeranian/Venom pufferfish. And you just get this beat of like [poof] and then it goes back in. But it was not in our VFX budget to do that.
I would have loved to see that.
Yeah, maybe in the future, maybe, but that's the great question.
So I wanted to ask about Woody as Carnage obviously. How did that come about, and is that something you hope points toward the future?
I'll just answer this vaguely, but we tried at the end of our movie to lay the groundwork for a potential sequel, or a further story. And there's a character that's beloved by all Venom fans that does not appear in the body of our film that I think fans will be really excited to see, and especially with the casting. I found somebody who I have a relationship with and love working with. And I love all the characters that he's played. So to imagine him being an iconic adversary to Venom in the future is really exciting.
That's actually a good segue to my last question--the zombie movie landscape has evolved a lot since Zombieland came out. So was there any specific thing that you think is going to help Zombieland 2 stand out in today's landscape?
I think that the writers, Rhett [Reese] and Paul [Wernick], who wrote the original Zombieland, have always had an ability to have this meta commentary on films, and I think that's been really well exhibited in the Deadpool franchise, which they also wrote. But we are definitely hyper aware that the zombie market is somewhat saturated. But we like to think that we were one of the originators of the genre, and so, we'll be sure to offer commentary on the genre.
Leave it to the creative minds at DrinkBox Studios to not only meld the world of Luchador with Metroidvania-style gameplay, but do so in style. The result, Guacamelee, was a hit when it first released back in 2013, eventually spawning a direct sequel that launched earlier this year to similar critical acclaim. The series just made its debut on Switch, however, with the first game out now and the second on the way, and the video above gives you a taste of what you can expect when you jump into the new version of the first game.
Spoiler: It's just as good as its always been. DrinkBox's familiar visual hallmarks are as strong as ever, with expressive characters and vibrant colors bringing the unusual world to life. It's fair to say that there's a bit too much emphasis on referencing memes and other games as a source of humor, but the occasional eye roll doesn't hurt when the overall atmosphere is so infectiously jovial.
When it comes to gameplay, Guacamelee's three pillars--combat, platforming, and exploration--easily stand the test of time. Combat ramps up steadily, and before you know it your simple punch combos will blossom into strings of attacks and dodges that allow you to confidently face off against a dozen enemies at a time. It sounds potentially overwhelming, but the controls are designed in such a way to make your most important maneuvers easy to execute at a moment's notice.
Platforming skills can also play a role in combat, as you will sometimes face enemies that exist in parallel dimensions, requiring you to hop through nearby portals all the while dodging attacks and fighting back. There are no shortage of difficult platforming setups as well, but graciously, the game simply warps you right back to your jumping off point without any real penalty should you fall into a pit or onto spikes. This doesn't make the platforming any easier, as the challenges are often multi-step arrangements that require lots of forethought to overcome; the game's forgiving rules simply afford you the freedom to experiment with various approaches without being punished.
Because it's a Metroidvania at heart, exploration is part-and-parcel of the overall Guacamelee experience. In keeping with its offbeat tone, the abilities you use to unlock new paths are often the same ones you use in combat. A headbutt can demolish a progress-halting boulder, and an uppercut can help you reach platforms that, earlier, were too high to reach. There are lots of hidden items and opportunities to discover, and Guacamelee's kinetic action makes the process of uncovering everything the game has to offer a consistent joy.
Guacamelee has made it to almost every platform under the sun since its debut, but having it on Switch is a great way to enjoy it at home or on the go--kind of like it was via PlayStation 4/Vita crossplay, but on a single device. It's a good sign, because if you wind up enjoying Guacamelee as much as we do, there's only a couple of months to go before Guacamelee 2 for Switch lands on the eShop.
Blizzard has addressed the rumors that Diablo 3 is getting cross-play support. Although the developer knows of players' excitement, it confirmed Diablo 3 cross-play isn't in the works at all right now.
"While we love the idea of bringing our players together across platforms, we do not have any plans to implement cross-platform gameplay for Diablo at this time," a Blizzard rep told Comic Book. Diablo 3 exists on several different platforms, including consoles from two different generations. With Sony's decision to try console cross-platform play with Microsoft and Nintendo in Fortnite, some players have looked to other games that could benefit from cross-play. With Diablo 3 on so many platforms, it's been a popular candidate.
Prior to Comic Book's confirmation, in an interview with Business Insider, a Blizzard rep said that Diablo 3 cross-platform play was "a question of when, not if." This led to several rumors that the dungeon crawler role-playing game would be supporting cross-play soon. Some theorized the feature might be announced at this year's BlizzCon, but--much like Diablo: Reign of Terror being a new game--it doesn't look like that's the case.
Blizzard previously released a statement that there were several Diablo projects in the works. The first one, Diablo 3 coming to Nintendo Switch, has already been announced. However, Blizzard has not revealed what the other projects might be. "Some of them are going to take longer than others, but we may have some things to show you later this year," said community manager Brandy Camel.
Cody Fern's character Michael Langdon has emerged as the main driving force on American Horror Story Apocalypse, which is pretty dang impressive, considering just how many talented actors and rich characters there are on this show. But it's not surprising when you consider the character's backstory--as an unholy spawn destined to be the Antichrist, Langdon has naturally taken center stage on American Horror Story. He's even been anointed as TV's sexiest Antichrist--even if he did (maybe, possibly) bring about the end of the world. But is Michael Langdon really the Antichrist? Is he really the show's villain? Is he even evil to begin with? Fern has some surprising things to say about that.
Fern's answer was definitive when we asked whether Langdon is a villain: "No! God, no," although he understands why people see his character as villainous.
"I find that really interesting, because everybody talks about, you know, 'Michael Langdon, the son of Satan, so evil, etc.' and I would challenge people to look closer and ask themselves, 'When have you seen Michael Langdon be villainous?'" He continued. "Like what has he actually done? Because in episodes 1, 2, and 3, obviously he's done some horrible things, but by Langdon's standards, he's a catalyst. He doesn't get his hands dirty--he tempts men and women to dirty deeds, and he brings out the darkest, most frightening, hidden desires in a human being."
Unsurprisingly for a story about the Antichrist and the apocalypse, AHS Season 8 has been overtly Biblical so far. Fern sees Langdon as "the serpent in the garden," alluding to the Old Testament story traditionally interpreted as Satan posing as a snake in the Garden of Eden and tempting Adam and Eve to betray God. Fern doesn't see it that way, though.
"Before Christianity claimed the snake as this evil symbol, the snake has always been an image of regeneration and life," he said. "The snake is the snake of infinity, it sheds its skin and becomes anew. And the snake in the Garden of Eden didn't do anything wrong. It provided truth to Eve so that she could make a choice about what she wanted to do."
Now that we're talking about good and evil on a Biblical scale, we figured we might as well ask: Is Langdon evil at all?
"I don't think that Langdon is evil. I think that Langdon is righteous," Fern said. "He understands that people are lying about who they are, and that everybody is keeping up this facade of being good and wholesome, but deep down, they want to do dark things. And he just brings that out in them. So he's the light that illuminates the dark. That's how I see Langdon...He doesn't see that he's destroying the world. He sees his role as one of creation--of creating a new world."
That's all well and good, but from a practical standpoint, Michael Langdon hasn't created much yet this season. In the "present," he spent a few episodes toying with all the characters on the show before coercing Venable (Sarah Paulson) into murdering them all, and in the past couple of episodes' flashbacks, he seems well on his way to destroying both the warlocks and most of the witches. And it's unclear still whether most of what happened in the first few episodes--all the characters who are now dead, the strange little mysteries and teases and hints that now seem abandoned--will wind up important in the end, or if they were just one big misdirect to get us to Langdon's story. Will any of it matter?
"I think what's really important to note--this is a teaser, and something that I would encourage people to investigate--is, what makes a prophecy come to fruition?" Fern teased. "If the prophecy is that Michael will bring about the end times, and somebody goes about trying to stop that from happening, what they do may very well be the event that causes a chain reaction that actually leads to the thing that they were trying to stop. So is it his destiny to achieve what he's achieving, and who along the way is shaping that destiny by trying to shape it in a different direction?
"And you'll remember at the end of Episode 3, where he's cutting himself and he's asking Satan for answers, and he says, 'I've found one witch--one survives. Help me, I don't know what I've done wrong.' That's a big clue."
We had one final question for Fern: Was the Sanctuary one big lie? Was he simply messing with all the characters he "interviewed" and "tested" for salvation?
"I'll tell you that the answer is no," Fern admitted. "I think what's really important is that Langdon can be deceitful in terms of how he goes about presenting information, but he doesn't lie….When Venable comes into his room and says, you know, 'We're making the decisions now, Mr. Langdon, and you didn't make the cut,' and he says to her, 'I didn't think you had it in you, but I'm impressed, Miss Venable, you passed the test, you're perfect for the sanctuary,' he's not lying. Venable has passed 'the test.' That's a huge hint."
But Venable screws it up again when she goes too far by trying to have Ms. Meade (Kathy Bates) kill him.
"He says, 'I wouldn't do that.' You know? He's giving her the opportunity to come to the sanctuary, and she fails," Fern said. "So she's passed the test, because she comes into Langdon's room, she's willing to do whatever it takes to get there, and he's like, 'You're perfect for it. You are perfect for the Sanctuary.' And then she f***s it up."
Just how much did that mistake cost her? The only way we're going to find out is by checking out American Horror Story Apocalypse when it airs Wednesdays on FX. If you want more from Cody Fern, check out how the actor feels about being anointed as a sex symbol.
Marvel's Spider-Man: Far From Home is next summer's much-anticipated sequel to the Marvel blockbuster Spider-Man: Homecoming, and it's currently in production. Following the on-set images of Jake Gyllenhall as the villainous Mysterio earlier this month, some new behind-the-scenes material from the New York set has emerged.
The footage shows Spidey doing what he does best--swinging around the city. Of most note, however, is his new-look suit. While there have been rumors that he might wear his iconic stealth suit from the comic books, this one seems to be a variation on his classic suit, but with black sections instead of the familiar blue, plus a cool white spider on the back. Check it out below:
Spider-Man: Far From Home hits theaters on July 5, 2019. Tom Holland is back as Peter Parker, and the cast also includes Michael Keaton, Zendaya, Marisa Tomei, Cobie Smulders, and Samuel L. Jackson. Homecoming's Jon Watts is returning as director.
While specific plot details are still under-wraps, we do know that the movie will start immediately after the events of Avengers 4, which arrives in May. Last year, Marvel boss Kevin Feige spoke about how the film will kickstart the next phase of the MCU. "So much happens in [the third and fourth Avengers movies], as you can imagine, and so much is affected by it, that we felt what better person to hold your hand and lead you into the next incarnation of the MCU, in a grounded, realistic manner, than Peter Parker?" Feige said. "So, coming out two months after Avengers 4, [that's what] much of what the next Spider-Man film will be about."
In related news, production has now wrapped on Avengers 4. Last week, Captain America star Chris Evans posted an emotional tweet, which suggests that this could be the last Marvel movie we see him in.
Fans seem to agree: American Horror Story's Michael Langdon, played expertly by Cody Fern, is TV's sexiest Antichrist. That may be a relatively small category, but there's no denying Langdon's allure. When we got the chance to speak with Fern about the role, we couldn't help but ask him: How does it feel to be anointed as a sex symbol?
"Oh, I don't know what to think about that," he said, chuckling. "I don't have a Twitter, but I do find--people have read things out to me, and I do find them alarming and funny and generous. I can't think about that stuff, you know, because I'm just doing what I'm doing, and how people are receiving it is how they're receiving it."
However, Fern admitted that he "built a lot of sexuality into Langdon." He said he and Sarah Paulson, who plays three different characters and also directed an episode this season, discovered that side of his character together.
"We found Langdon's temptation in that scene when she goes to kiss Langdon," he said. That was also the first scene he shot as the character. "This woman who has clearly no intimacy in her life, whose body is broken and fractured and whose soul is wavering between the real world and the dark places, and she reaches out to kiss Langdon, and he tells her she's not getting into the Sanctuary--I mean, that was a very powerful moment for me on set, to understand that, wow, Langdon can twist anybody. I wanted to build that into every scene in the outpost."
From that point forward, he made sure that side of Langdon was evident in every scene, even the darkest points in the story. "The way that he enters a room is creating desire in people," Fern said. "When Venable is waiting for Langdon to come, everybody's sitting in a library, and Langdon enters--he enters, he doesn't look at anybody but Venable. He circles around the entire room, he takes the position, and everything is sexual. The way that he has her move out of the way. The way he begins his conversation. The way that he sees a massacre--it's a sexy thing, that you can take this pill and you'll die."
Langdon's look, with his red eyeshadow and flowing, golden hair, adds to his mystique. Fern said the hair was the first thing AHS creator Ryan Murphy told him about the character, who was first introduced as a demonic baby way back in American Horror Story Season 1.
"I didn't know that I was playing Michael Langdon until two days before we started filming, and I didn't have the first script until two days before," Fern said. "The only thing that Ryan had told me about the character was that he was going to have long, flowing, Dorian Gray hair. But as soon as I put that wig on, I knew who Langdon was."
Beyond the hair, Fern said he can take only partial credit for the rest of Langdon's distinctive look. "I worked closely with Lou Eyrich, who's just the most phenomenal costume designer, and with Eryn Mekash, the head of makeup, and Michelle [Ceglia], who's the head of hair," he said. "We all had long conversations about how Langdon should look." The red eyeshadow was Fern's insistence, and it's another aspect of the character's appearance he was excited about.
"In terms of his sexual nature, he needs to be very liquid in everything that he does," Fern described. "He needs to straddle the fence between what is considered feminine and what is considered masculine, between how he dresses and how he presents himself. I don't see the Antichrist as being--he doesn't have a sexual orientation. He is the embodiment of something sexual, so whatever that is in a person, whatever their deepest desire is, he'll draw out."
It certainly doesn't hurt his appeal that Michael Langdon is so deliciously evil--or is he? Langdon seems to be the villain of Apocalypse, maybe even the cause of the end of the world--but Fern disputes the idea that he's evil.
"I don't think that Langdon is evil. I think that Langdon is righteous," Fern said. "He understands that people are lying about who they are, and that everybody is keeping up this facade of being good and wholesome, but deep down, they want to do dark things. And he just brings that out in them. So he's the light that illuminates the dark. That's how I see Langdon...He doesn't see that he's destroying the world. He sees his role as one of creation--of creating a new world."
No doubt many AHS fans would be happy to live in that world, as long as it meant being close to our favorite new demonic sex symbol.
American Horror Story Apocalypse airs Wednesdays on FX.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 launches with 14 multiplayer maps. There's already a 15th map scheduled for November as a post-launch expansion, but it will be free for all players.
Right now, players have access to Arsenal, Contraband, Firing Range, Frequency, Gridlock, Hacienda, Icebreaker, Jungle, Militia, Morocco, Payload, Seaside, Slums, and Summit. Four of the maps--Firing Range, Jungle, Slums, and Summit--are all from previous Black Ops games, but with a visual upgrade. In November, the Call of Duty classic Nuketown, also remastered with upgraded visuals, will become available. Treyarch hasn't announced how map updates after Nuketown will work, but they'll probably be a part of paid DLC expansions.
According to Forbes, the 14 original maps are described as follows:
Arsenal: Hostile covert ops on a manufacturing facility of a powerful North American military defense contractor means someone may have stolen the keys to the castle.
Contraband: Surveillance of an international arms smuggling operation has uncovered this shipping hub on a remote, uncharted island off the coast of Colombia.
Firing Range: US Forces gear up for red team/blue team combat exercises in this Guantanamo Bay military base.
Frequency: A covert listening station deep in the mountainous region of Hunan Province is being used to track strategic targets across the globe.
Gridlock: A Japanese metropolis whose city center has been jammed up by a bank heist gone wrong.
Hacienda: A lavish vineyard estate situated on a quiet lake in the Spanish countryside, home to a high-ranking crime syndicate boss.
Icebreaker: A long lost Nuclear submarine in the Arctic houses a uranium supply which a Russian unit has come to salvage.
Jungle: The heat is on as Cold War forces collide in the sweltering depths of the Vietnam jungle.
Militia: Anti-government extremists backed covertly by a Russian cell are stockpiling weaponry in a remote region of Alaskan wilderness near the Bearing Strait.
Morocco: Rebels in a small Moroccan village are using government military supply planes as target practice as they fly over the surrounding Sahara Desert.
Payload: A defensive ICBM launch facility deep in an Icelandic mountain range has been infiltrated by hostile forces attempting to steal a nuclear warhead.
Seaside: An anti-government protest in this quaint coastal Spanish town grew out of control and forced a military shutdown.
Slums: Street battles rage in head to head heat through the center of a run down Panama neighborhood.
Summit: Cold War surveillance is at its peak above the clouds in the mountaintop listening post in the Ural Mountains.
These maps do not include the ones exclusive to Black Ops 4's Zombies and Blackout mode. In Zombies, IX and Voyage of Despair are the two maps for the new Chaos storyline, while Blood of the Dead is the map for the Aether storyline--which continues the overarching narrative from the previous three Black Ops games. Blackout launches with only one map, but it's the biggest one the Call of Duty franchise has ever seen.
Everyone's favorite Archie Comics based teen crime drama, Riverdale, is back for its third season on The CW and things are not looking great for Archie and his pals. Don't worry, they're still as fashionable and as shirtless as ever before, but not only is Archie Andrews on trial for murder, and not only has Betty Cooper's mom Alice joined a cult, but the town of Riverdale is slowly being invaded by a creature called the Gargoyle King. Watch out, this post contains spoilers for Riverdale's Season 3 premiere.
This week's episode gave us our first real insight into what, exactly, the Gargoyle King is--and it's even more buckwild than you might expect. Dilton Doiley, Riverdale's erstwhile scoutmaster and occasional paranoid gun enthusiast, and his friend Ben have, apparently, started playing a Dungeons and Dragons flavored roleplaying game over the summer--a game that, somehow, has summoned the Gargoyle King into their world. Maybe.
It's unclear whether or not the Gargoyle King is actually some sort of supernatural monster that has been summoned to Riverdale by Dilton and Ben's game, or if it's just (yet another) opportunistic serial killer carving a path through the countryside. Honestly, at this point, either option seems pretty absurd--and equally likely. Either magic and monsters are both real, or Riverdale is the single most unlucky town on Earth, so does it really matter?
That question is exactly the point of this season, explained Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa at this year's New York Comic Con. "Just how supernatural is the Gargoyle King? That's the big question." Aguirre-Sacasa teased, "He's a little bit like the Slender Man--we're taking these crazy things, but we're grounding them with real-life touchstones."
The Slender Man seems to be an apt comparison after we see Dilton's panic in this episode. "Ben and I, we thought it was just a game," he frantically explained to Jughead, "The Gargoyle King." But it wasn't a game, apparently--or, at least, it wasn't the game Dilton and Ben assumed it was. Just hours after Dilton's initial breakdown, Jughead finds a mysterious map left on his kitchen table that leads him deep into the woods on the outskirts of town. There he finds what can only be described as a sacrificial altar--and the unconscious, possibly dead, bodies of both Dilton and Ben strung up below it.
Fans of the first season of HBO's anthology crime drama True Detective might see the similarities immediately. The creepy wicker-and-skulls motif, the ritualized position of the bodies, the weird runes painted (carved?) into their backs--it has all the classic Southern Gothic markings of some creepy, cult-based horror. A True Detective flavored, surreal, supernatural-but-not crime spin on this season seems slightly more likely than the honest-to-goodness supernatural being tossed into the mix--but really, it's far too early to call.
There is, after all, a cult in the mix with Alice and Polly Cooper's "The Farm," a New Age "lifestyle support group" led by the mysterious (but amazingly named) Edgar Evernever. For a brief moment, we see Betty hallucinate (?) Alice and Polly attempting to sacrifice Polly's twin babies into a giant bonfire--only to watch the babies float upwards away from the flames rather than burning to death. Moments after watching/hallucinating the event, Betty experienced a strange not-quite-black-out where she collapsed with a ringing in her ears. Was it the product of her recently revealed prescription drug problem? A side effect from the nefarious machinations of The Farm? A genuine supernatural event that Betty's mind just couldn't process? Were Alice and Polly really about to sacrifice children, or was the whole thing just in Betty's head?
The waters of what is or isn't on the table get a bit murkier when you look at the bigger Archie Comics-based picture. Though they're officially not crossing over (not yet, at least) Riverdale's neighboring town of Greendale is dealing with witches, warlocks, and demons over in Netflix's Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, so who's to say some of Greendale's magic didn't cross the city limits?
So far, we know that The Gargoyle King has something to do with Dilton and Ben's tabletop game, that it apparently either requires or encourages some sort of sacrifice, that Jughead may now be the only other person outside of Dilton and Ben who knows that something is wrong, and, while all of this is going on, Riverdale is now home to a cult. Maybe the two things are related--maybe they're not. But, either way, Riverdale's teen heroes are about to have their work cut out for them.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 is set to launch Friday, October 12 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. If you're a fan of the series, you probably already knew that, but what you might not know is that PS4 owners can pick up some nice Black Ops 4-themed freebies. In fact, you don't even need a PS4 to take advantage of some of them.
All of the free items can be collected from PlayStation's Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 Countdown to Launch page. Here you can click links to get several things. For one, between now and October 11, you can enter to win one of three PS4 Pro consoles that come with a physical copy of the game and are packaged in a massive Black Ops 4 shield tin box.
Next, you can scroll down to claim codes for Black Ops 4 PS4 avatars, as well as a dynamic Black Ops 4 PS4 theme. You can redeem these codes on the PlayStation Store, either in a browser or on your PlayStation 4 console itself.
The theme gradually cycles between images of different specialists from the game, giving each one the slow-zooming "Ken Burns effect" treatment. The theme also tints your system icons Black Ops orange. Finally, the Countdown to Launch page also offers a selection of wallpapers for desktop and mobile devices that anyone can download, even those without a PlayStation account. One set of wallpapers is based on Zombies mode, while the other features the new battle royale-like Blackout mode.
Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will ship with the two modes mentioned above, but without a standard campaign like the ones found in previous installments. Instead, you'll find a selection of single-player challenge missions that are intended to help sharpen players' skills. In addition to the content that ships with the game, developer Treyarch has a good deal of free post-launch DLC lined up to keep players coming back.
If you've beaten all the games you've been playing or are simply on the lookout for something new, you'll be pleased to hear a fresh set of digital Xbox One games is on sale on the Microsoft Store. Note that most of this week's sale items fall in the Deals with Gold category, which means you'll need an Xbox Live Gold subscription to take advantage of them. With that out of the way, here's what's on sale between now and October 15.
The list of Xbox One game deals is surprisingly short this week, but it contains a few gems. Among them is Red Dead Redemption, a backwards compatible Xbox 360 game that runs flawlessly on Xbox One. If you hurry, you might be able to play through the whole thing before Red Dead Redemption 2 launches on October 26. Though RDR2 is a prequel, you can expect plenty of tie-ins between the two games.
Also on sale is Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which is discounted to $45 / £41 this week for Gold members. It caps off Lara Croft's latest trilogy as she rushes to stop an apocalypse that her raiding of tombs set into motion. Check out our Shadow of the Tomb Raider review for details.
Other games of interest include the charming puzzle-platformer Unravel 2 for $15 / £13.50 (and if you haven't played the first installment, you can pick up both games for $20 / £16). Those looking to spend as little as possible can grab the artful puzzle game The Bridge or the surprisingly addictive word game Letter Quest: Grimm's Journey Remastered for $3 / £2.40 each, or Ubisoft's fairy tale-like RPG Child of Light for $4.50 / £3.60.
If none of those deals appeal to you, US customers can take a look at Best Buy's sale this week, where you'll find deals on some great physical Xbox One games.
Best Buy's current weekly sale kicked off on October 7 and runs through October 13. That means the window of time is open for you to hit the retailer either online or in-store to pick up this week's selection of video game deals. What kinds of deals are we talking? Let's take a look.
If you buy Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 (available October 12), you can save $10 on a 12-month subscription to PlayStation Plus. Ubisoft's toys-to-life game Starlink: Battle for Atlas comes out October 16. If you buy the starter pack, Best Buy will throw in an extra pilot figure for free (see our Starlink pre-order guide for more information). And while this one won't apply to everyone, if you purchase an Xbox One along with an eligible Samsung TV, you'll get a $100 gift card for free.
All Xbox One controller chargers are on sale this week. And if you buy an Xbox One, you can save $20 on an extra controller. Speaking of controllers, some models of PS4's DualShock 4 controllers are on sale for a few bucks off, and some of the new color designs, like Berry Blue and Sunset Orange, are in stock.
In addition to sales, a bunch of video games are getting permanent price drops at Best Buy this week. You can see the full list of video game price drops and weekly discounts here.
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