We don't know a ton about what the future of the Marvel Cinematic Universe will entail, but Marvel has enlisted more comedic talent to join its ranks. Comedian and Oscar nominee Kumail Nanjiani (Silicon Valley, The Lego Ninjago Movie) will star in the forthcoming The Eternals.
According to the Hollywood Reporter, Nanjiani will star alongside Angelina Jolie (Maleficent, Unbroken) in The Eternals. Jolie, as stated in the report, is said to play a character named Sersi, an outgoing Eternal who is willing to brush shoulders with humans. Nanjiani's role, however, has yet to be revealed. The project is led by director Chloe Zhao (Songs My Brothers Taught Me, The Rider), with writing by cousins Matthew K. (Zombie High School, The Agency Blues) and Ryan Firpo (Bet Raise Fold, Baalin: Control).
The first Eternals comic was published in 1976 by late writer and artist, Jack Kirby (1917-1994). The Eternals, an offshoot of life created by an alien race called the Celestials, were established to protect the Earth from the Deviants, a dastardly project by the Celestials gone awry. 30 years later, eclectic writer Neil Gaiman gave the superheroes a facelift in 2006, bringing them and their universe to the modern era with a seven-issue miniseries that concluded in 2007.
Nanjiani, who was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 90th Academy Awards for the romantic comedy The Big Sick--he co-wrote the movie with his wife, Emily V. Gordon--has a busy year ahead of him. Along with appearing in Men In Black: International (June 14) and Stuber (July 12), he's starring in two other films currently in post-production, The Voyage of Doctor Dolittle and The Lovebirds, both slated for a 2020 release. A new trailer for Stuber, in which he stars alongside Dave Bautista, was just released.
Along with Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and Black Widow's standalone movie, The Eternals is one of several movies we know are coming to the MCU. However, the only one with a specific name and date is Spider-Man: Far From Home, which releases in July. For more, check out our roundup of what we know about Marvel's Phase 4.
Blizzard has started teasing its next limited-time event for Overwatch, called Storm Rising. On April 7, a clipping from the fictional newspaper Havana Sun was posted on Overwatch's main website. Blizzard followed up the next day with a tweet detailing classified Overwatch information--both revealing the story for Storm Rising and possibly teasing a new playable hero called Sojourn. Said tweet can be seen below.
The Havana Sun newspaper clipping is written in Spanish, with an English translation provided beneath it. The article details the unknown corporate takeover of Don Rumbotico, a popular distillery with a "controversial" history. Apparently, after Don Rumbotico founder Clara and Basillo Diaz refused to sell the Havana distillery to an "anonymous financial group," they were met with repeated hardships and eventually had to sell their company regardless. The article goes on to list that Don Rumbotico isn't the only Havana icon to be bought by this mysterious group, and ends with a weather warning for an approaching storm. What this all means for Overwatch isn't completely clear until the follow-up tweet is also taken into account.
The tweet contains a decrypted audio recording for an archived mission briefing in the Overwatch team's database. The message is to Commander Morrison, putting the date of the recording prior to the fall of Overwatch and Morrison's transformation into Soldier: 76. The briefing admonishes Morrison for trying to track down Doomfist, as going after the villain's accountant Maximilien and connecting them back to Doomfist would prove a much easier task. The voice then states Tracer will lead the team tasked with tracking Maximilien down, and she'll be joined by Winston, Genji, and Mercy. The briefing ends with the voice identifying themselves as Sojourn.
The trailer then ends with the tease that Storm Rising will occur April 16 through May 6. Though Maximilien has never appeared in-game, he's been a part of Overwatch's lore for a while as a council member in Doomfist's villainous group, Talon. Most likely, he's the one behind the financial group buying up the local icons in Havana, and Tracer and her team will attempt to investigate his holdings under the cover of the fierce storm that's approaching the city. This story will presumably be told over the course of a four-person co-op PvE mission. Blizzard has not confirmed this, but this style of storytelling has been used in Overwatch's previous April limited-time events, Retribution and Uprising, before.
What's most compelling is the introduction of Sojourn, as she's never been mentioned before but she sounds like someone who possesses great authority either within or over Overwatch. Whether she's an upcoming playable hero remains to be seen, but it sounds like she'll play a substantial role in the upcoming limited-time event.
The first clip from Avengers: Endgame has been released. The much-anticipated follow-up to Avengers: Infinity War arrives later this month, and focuses on what remains of the world's mightiest heroes as they try to stop Thanos and get their friends back.
The clip sees Captain America, Black Widow, Thor, War Machine, Bruce Banner, and Captain Marvel forming a plan to take on Thanos. When Banner suggests that the results might be the same as last time they fought the mad tyrant, Captain Marvel tells them that there's one essential difference: "Before, you didn't have me." Cap also gets to drop a mild curse word, so be warned if you only like Steve being polite and respectful! Check it out below.
This clip was part of the 10 minutes of footage that was recently screened to GameSpot. Check out our look at what else we learnt from this Endgame footage. In addition, a new trailer was released last week, and you can also read our report from the recent Endgame press conference, at which directors Joe and Anthony Russo spoke about how they approached Endgame after the shocking events of Infinity War.
Avengers: Endgame releases on April 26, 2019. It stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Mark Ruffalo, Brie Larsson, Sebastian Stan, Scarlett Johansson, Don Cheadle, Jeremy Renner, Danai Gurira, Paul Rudd, and Josh Brolin.
Endgame will be followed by Spider-Man: Far From Home in July, with Tom Holland's Spider-Man and Samuel L. Jackson's Nick Fury both returning, along with a variety of characters from Homecoming.
Bethesda has announced The Elder Scrolls: Blades is now open to all and free to download. You still need a Bethesda net account in order to play, though.
Now that Blades is available for all, Bethesda already has it's eyes set on tweaking the game. "Next up: We're looking at all your feedback and rebalancing the most difficult enemy in the game… the silver chest," the studio tweeted.
Blades is the first mobile installment in The Elder Scrolls series, although Bethesda still describes the title as a "pure Elder Scrolls game" with "console-quality graphics." Unlike The Elder Scrolls games on PC and consoles, Blades doesn't have an open world. Instead, the game is composed of a series of interconnected environments--some of which are still "very large," according to Bethesda.
"We could do it," Bethesda director and executive producer Todd Howard said, when asked about implementing an open-world in Blades. "We'll see how people interact with it. Because it's mobile, we know people may play... We need you to get something meaningful done in 10 or 15 minutes. Do you know what I mean? Even though you could sit down and play it for as many hours as you want."
Blades had been delayed from it's original launch date of Fall 2018 for Android and iOS devices. Although there are plans to port the game to both PC and consoles, Bethesda hasn't announced any planned release window for those versions.
Dave Bautista was already known as one of WWE's biggest stars when he took on the role of Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy in 2014, and since then his second career as a movie star has continued to flourish. This summer he gets one of his biggest roles so far, in the action comedy Stuber. The first trailer has now been released.
Stuber stars Bautista as a tough, grizzled cop who is forced to call an Uber in the middle of a case. Silicon Valley's Kumail Nanjiani plays the driver unlucky enough to accept the booking, and inevitably finds himself thrown into a wild, action-packed, and extremely dangerous operation as Bautista sets out to take down some bad guys. The Guardians movies have shown Bautista's comic skills, and this new movie looks like it will deliver both hilarious buddy comedy and over-the-top action scenes. Check out the very funny trailer below.
Stuber also stars Iko Uwais (Mile 22, The Raid Redemption), Natalie Morales (Battle of the Sexes), Karen Gillan (Guardians of the Galaxy), and Betty Gilpin (GLOW). It's directed by Michael Dowse, who previously helmed the ice hockey comedy Goon, as well as episode of Preacher and Future Man. It releases in July 12.
Bautista is one of the many big names set to star in the much-anticipated new adaptation of the classic sci-fi novel Dune, which releases in November 2020. In addition, he is expected to appear later this month in Avengers: Endgame and will star in the upcoming Netflix zombie movie Army of the Dead, from Batman vs Superman director Zack Snyder. Bautista also made a return to the ring this weekend, for a showdown with Triple H at Wrestlemania 35.
By Anonymous on Apr 08, 2019 09:15 pm Build up with the Nintendo Labo VR Kit and Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain or "deal" with your opponents in Hearthstone's Rise of Shadows expansion.
Ubisoft has released the patch notes for the latest update for The Division 2. The update itself is also already live, adding content and implementing balance changes and bug fixes. But most important of all is a change that causes NPCs at the White House Base of Operations to shout at you less.
Thanks to the new update, the Invasion: Battle for DC DLC is now live. The DLC is free for all The Division 2 players. Invasion: Battle for DC adds a new world tier to The Division 2, with a raised gear score cap of 500. The DLC also adds a heroic difficulty, the Tidal Basin faction stronghold, brand-new weekly invaded missions, and three more gear sets--Ongoing Directive, True Patriot, and Hard Wired. The full outline of content coming in the DLC can be found listed on The Division 2's website.
The new update adds weapon, mod, and gear overhauls as well. Damage on the MK17 rifle has decreased, while the power of both the LW M4 and LVOA-C RPM has been increased. The Model 700 marksman rifle also sees a damage nerf, while the AA12 shotgun and MG5 light machine gun both get buffed. Skills mods have been overhauled "to give more achievable requirements and more reasonable bonuses," so expect to see a change in almost every bonus and its corresponding requirement.
One of the biggest adjustments in this patch involves weapon mods. Ubisoft has reworked a large number of them, and you can check out a full table on Reddit that outlines the new bonuses and (smaller number of penalties) that they now carry.
Changes have also been implemented in several player skills too, with most of them aimed at drones. Bombardier drones will no longer get destroyed while climbing up or down a ladder or rope, nor will they crash into obstacles during their bombing phase. The firefly skill, revive hive, sniper turret, and chem launcher have all been updated as well.
Dozens of other changes come to The Division 2 in this update. The full patch notes can be found on Reddit. Below, we've outlined the major changes.
The Division 2 April 5 Update Major Changes
Weapons, Mods, and Gear
Overhauled the Weapon mod system, see the table at the end of the patch notes for detailed information.
Fixed a wrong long-range damage value for M4 (super 90) and P416. Previously, they could sometimes increase damage over longer ranges instead of the other way around.
Rifles
Damage on the MK17 rifle reduced by 14%, also corrected this weapon not having a damage falloff over distance.
LW M4 damage increased by 5%, RPM increased from 240 to 360.
LVOA-C RPM increased from 240 to 380.
Marksman Rifles
Model 700 damage reduced by 13%.
Shotguns
AA12 damage increased by 16%.
LMGs
MG5 damage increased by 12% and fixed reversed falloff, causing the weapon to do more damage over a longer range.
Updated initial accuracy on the Sig Sniper MCmillan T1. It should now be much more reliable to shoot as soon as it's shouldered and the transition to scoped view is over.
Reduced the amount of Critical Damage and Headshot Damage that can roll on Gear, including the amount on existing Gear. The actual values will differ depending on the level and quality of the gear it occurs on. This is partially in preparation for another world tier, where we felt these values were already at the limit of what was healthy in WT4.
Complete overhaul of skill mods to give more achievable requirements and more reasonable bonuses.
A closer equivalence between required skill power and the bonuses granted.
Changed the amount of skill power on gear to not increase exponentially with level, but instead more linearly. This results in most skill power values on gear being lower, but in accordance with the lowered requirements.
Tweaked the ranges of bonuses to be within acceptable bounds where they had extreme values before due to scaling errors. Most notably radius and ammo/charges values.
Players will see both the bonuses and the requirements of almost all skill mods change as a result of this overhaul.
In end game, both Superior and High-End skill mods exist to cover the different needs of different builds. They can overlap in power, but High-End mods have a higher maximum roll potential.
We are looking at ways to provide lower value/quality mods in end game world tiers in the future to provide a solution to the fact that on very low skill power builds, there would be room for those mods, and currently we are aware that means you have to save mods from your leveling experience.
Player Skills
Fixed an issue which caused the Bombardier Drone to get destroyed while climbing up/down a ladder or rope.
Improved feedback of Bombardier Drone crashing into obstacles during the bombing phase.
Fixed an issue with Firefly payload sometimes failing to activate when reaching its target.
Fixed an issue where Revive hive would not self-deploy if the agent was busy performing a different action such as using different skill when it triggered.
Revamped the Sniper Turret version of the turret skill.
It now will automatically target the hostile nearest to the players' center-of-screen (the same method it uses to pick other turret targets) and will fire at that target when the button is pressed, without a lock-on order needed.
If a player aims at a hostile, the sniper turret will attempt to match their aim, allowing precision shots using the sniper turret.
An issue where the sniper turret wasn't correctly getting bonus damage when hitting headshots has been fixed.
Revamped the Chem launcher skill platform.
Pressing the skill button will now equip the chem launcher similar to swapping to a weapon. The player can aim and shoot with normal weapon controls, as well as run with the skill and blindfire it.
Quick deploy at the agents own position is still available for the repair version of the chem launcher, using the same controls as before.
Unequipping the Chem launcher can be done using the skill button, the B (XBOX) / Circle (PS4) button or just using the weapon swap controls.
Loot & Rewards
Control Point reward containers are giving the correct number of items for the corresponding Control Point's defense level. Defense level 4 now awards 5 items instead of 3.
Reduced DZ XP gain from Landmarks in Dark Zones.
Reduced the quality and power for items dropped in Propaganda Broadcast and one drop of Settlement Blockade activities to be more in line with other open world enemies and activities.
Updated XP rewards for low-level player playing in World Tiers to scale with player level.
Supply Drop activity loot container items now scale with every consecutive container you open. This includes lowering the reward of the first crate, but results in similar rewards for the activity as a whole.
As a thank you for playing, all players that played before April 4 get 5 Specialized Apparel Keys, regardless of their level.
Apparel Keys will be coming for those players later next week.
Faction Key loot drops from Bounties are now guaranteed and are displayed in the loot preview.
Adjusted bounty credit rewards to use scaling values in World Tiers instead of flat values so if a lower level player is playing with a higher-level player, they will receive an amount of credits more appropriate for their level.
Changed Skill Unlock rewards to be non-invaded only so that players who co-op with a higher-level friend to play invaded before playing on story won't receive the rewards.
Added Apparel cache key fragments to the PvP reward caches.
Adjusted the rewards for the street execution activity to give slightly lower quality/source level gear so the rewards are more in line with the difficulty of the activity.
Reduced the quality and source level charts used for item drops from the living world activities settlement blockade and Propaganda broadcast to be more in line with other open world drops and the difficulty of the activities.
Updated Collectibles set XP reward to scale with player level.
Fixed an issue which caused the Drone Helicopter to not use the correct loot table.
Crafting
Increased Material cap for Standard and Specialized crafting materials to 400 (with all perks).
Increased Material cap for High-End crafting materials to 50.
Materials required for crafting weapon mods does not scale as aggressively and has much lower values in endgame.
Removed a small increase on materials required for crafting weapon mods after upgrading the crafting bench quality.
Changed the upgrade blueprints for exotic weapons Lullaby and Ruthless to not show up on the vendor until you are level 30.
Increased the power for the wandering vendor so her inventory has a narrower Gear Score range closer to the top of the World Tier Gear Score Range.
Set all exotic upgrade blueprints to award you the upgraded weapon on the max gear score of the current tier.
Removed a tiny increase on materials required for crafting weapon mods after upgrading the crafting bench quality.
Exotic weapons are now pre-equipped with lore text mods. These mods do not have stats and cannot be equipped elsewhere.
Talents
Blind Justice – Modified the Buff that increases damage to your next shot now expires at end of combat and when out of combat
First Blood - Updated Normalized MMR Talent First Blood Text to correctly explain that the first shot after reloading from empty is the enhanced bullet.
Bug Fixes
Fixed an issue that could cause undesired appearance changes to agents after login in or using the barber.
Players that have been permanently affected by an appearance change will unfortunately not be changed back with this fix. We want to apologize for any inconvenienced caused by this and we're looking into options to allow players to fully customize their agent in the future, but we do not have a timeline for this feature.
Fixed an issue where the Cluster Seeker Mine could split up more often than intended.
Fixed an issue where the Defender Drone could have unlimited uptime.
Fixed an issue which prevented players from finishing the Unite cypher riddle.
We're confident this is not bugged anymore.
Fixed an issue that would cause the Stronghold activation animation to always play when entering the Base of Operations.
Fixed several instances of Audio logs not playing automatically when picked up.
Fixed an issue that could cause players being unable to finish the Side Mission Worksite Community.
Fixed an issue where players were unable to update their crafting bench after reaching a new World Tier.
Fixed an issue with NPCs sometimes not reacting properly to cooked grenades
Fixed an issue with Hunters not always appropriately despawning if a player flees a combat space
Fixed rare issue where NPCs could get stuck when attempting to melee a player in cover
Fixed issue with the Explosive Seeker Mine occasionally failing to path to its target
Fixed bug where players could fast travel to non-friendly Control Points
Fixed bug that made encounters with friendly NPCs requesting resources too rare
Fixed bug where underground enemies would come to the surface during the day
Fixed an issue where players were able to obtain gear with a higher gear score than intended
Any owned High-End items will be lowered to Gear Score 500.
Any owned Superior items will be lowered to Gear Score 490.
Clan caches no longer award items higher than the maximum loot Gear Score.
Recalibration still allows Gear Score to increase slightly past the maximum loot Gear Score.
Apex Legends developer Respawn recently set live, then quickly disabled, a penalty on players who leave a match early. The studio says that while the feature is in the works, it accidentally went up before it was ready, prompting the temporary fix.
In an update on the Apex Legends subreddit, community manager Jay Frechette said the studio has been working on the feature, but "it wasn't our intention or plan to have it go live with the [April 4] update." He says the penalty turned on early due to a piece of missing script, and the studio has since fixed it to disable the penalty. He states he doesn't have an ETA for "if or when" it will be released.
The 1.1 update included some quality-of-life changes, like allowing you to invite a member of your last squad into your party, and the addition of squad invites to the Friends menu. You can also mute from the Leegends select screen, so altogether it seemed aimed at making the game easier to connect with good teammates and ignore bad ones.
Still, the quit early penalty has been one of the most requested features among the community, since revolving around three-person squads means that a single premature exit can be a crippling blow to your team composition. The admission that the team doesn't know if the feature will be implemented at all suggests that it is still weighing the idea, possibly against other ways to deal with team composition issues.
Ratings might not be as high for The Walking Dead as they once were, but AMC clearly sees the long-running zombie show as one of its most important properties. There are several movies in the works, and last month it was reported that a new Walking Dead spin-off show was in "active development." It has now been confirmed that the spin-off has been picked up for a full season.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the new as-yet-untitled Walking Dead show will have a 10-episode first season. The new show has been created by long-time Walking Dead writer Matt Negrete and Scott Gimple, the franchise's chief content officer. Negrete will also act as showrunner.
In a statement, Negrete said: "I'm beyond excited to be a part of this new show set in The Walking Dead universe. Writing and producing for the original series has been the job of a lifetime and I'm honored to be working with Scott and all the fine Dead folks at AMC in this new capacity. I can't wait for the fans of the franchise to see what we've been cooking up!"
The new Walking Dead spin-off will join Fear the Walking Dead, which is set during the early months of the zombie apocalypse and premiered in 2015. The fifth season is due later this year.
The Walking Dead movies, meanwhile, were announced in November last year and are expected to focus on the character of Rick Grimes, played by Andrew Lincoln. Lincoln left the main show at the start of the most recent ninth season, but Gimple confirmed that he will return for the films, along with co-star Pollyanna McIntosh, who plays Jadis. It is unknown when they are likely to be released, but the first movie is expected to start filming this year.
Recent audience numbers for The Walking Dead are nowhere near the numbers it enjoyed in 2014, when the Season 5 premiere became the most watched cable show of all time. Nevertheless, it is still the most popular drama on cable, and as The Wrap notes, its audience decline is in line with a fall in cable viewers across the board.
The reveal of Borderlands 3 didn't go without its share of controversy. As part of the announcement, developer Gearbox and publisher 2K revealed that it would be exclusive to the Epic Games Store until April 2020. This led to a backlash in the form of review bombing older Borderlands games on Steam. Now Gearbox head Randy Pitchford has stepped in to let offenders know they may actually be making things worse for themselves.
"Ironically, that this misuse is possible and that Steam has no interest in correcting this misuse makes me kind of happy about 2K's decision and makes me want to reconsider Gearbox Publishing's current posture on the platform," he said on Twitter.
The threat may have gotten Steam's attention, as the platform is discounting reviews, for the first time ever, on Borderlands 2. Steam implemented a recently added tool that flags "Off-Topic Review Activity" within a certain date range. The reviews are still present in the system, but aren't included in the aggregate user score. They're also accompanied by a note warning readers that the user review section includes "an abnormal set of reviews that we believe are largely unrelated to the likelihood that you would enjoy the product."
The same policy has since gone into effect for the original Borderlands and Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. Each of them had undergone heavy review bombing--intentionally leaving low review scores to disrupt an aggregate user score--with many of the comments referencing the Epic exclusivity for the upcoming sequel. Steam's response has shown that it is able to take action in these cases, but Epic is still making inroads with its digital storefront so we likely haven't heard the last of these controversies.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night has spent quite a while in development. The Kickstarter concluded nearly four years ago, and several platform changes later it's finally slated for release this summer. So the demo at PAX East was almost certainly the game in a near-finalized state, and—for the most part—it was promising as a Castlevania homage.
Though the game has always been pitched as a modernized Symphony of the Night rendered in 3D, this session was the first time I'd grappled with the implications that such a change would have on gameplay. Bloodstained manages to render the physicality and weight of the classics it's inspired by with remarkable accuracy. For better and worse, the demo included a creature flying in a wave-like pattern through a platforming area just like the series' infamous Medusa Head enemies, and colliding with them even had the same knockback effect. It was a singularly frustrating and yet familiar moment.
The rendering manifested in the environment itself, as I climbed a large rounded tower. While it may have been technically possible to pull this off with traditional 2D art, it wouldn't have been as convincing. The 3D gave it a sense of space and depth, so that weaving in-between the inside and outside of the massive tower seemed believable.
At the same time, I missed the pixel-precise definition of sprites, especially in the boss fight against a dual-headed dragon. Its attacks hit fast and hard, and it was sometimes difficult to tell just how close was too close. This was less an issue with smaller enemies, so it wasn't universal, but as a longtime Castlevania fan I found the adjustment to be slightly jarring.
On the whole, though, the classic sensation of quick, piston-tight platforming and combat has made the transition. It's difficult for a retro revival, much less one rendered in an entirely new way, to capture the essence of what made the originals stand out. Miriam's variety of weapons feel alternately light and swift or heavy and thumping. The level design pitched a good balance of graceful platforming, tough combat, and occasionally a blend of both.
The Kickstarter boom of the mid-2010s led to a lot of retro revivals. By taking longer to release than many of its contemporaries, Bloodstained is launching into an environment that has had some fizzles and failures to recapture the magic with a new franchise. But perhaps because it took that extra time, this one feels a little more complete than many of the others. If it maintains the demo's level of quality throughout, it could be something special.
It's impossible to play or talk about Dangerous Driving without comparing it to Criterion's seminal Burnout 3: Takedown. This is by design, of course, as developer Three Fields Entertainment--a small indie studio comprised of former Criterion alum--set out to create a spiritual successor to the dormant racer; latching onto the groundbreaking Burnout 3 as a clear and popular focal point. Everything about Dangerous Driving's design, right down to small details like font selection and the phrasing used in its loading screens, is distinctly Burnout 3. It foregoes the advances made in its sequels--like traffic checking and the introduction of an open-world--to hone in on what made Takedown so special.
My first hour or so with Dangerous Driving was fraught with bewilderment, however. There's a single song that plays on the main menu, but other than this there's a complete absence of music throughout the entire game. Licensed tracks are a crucial component to the Burnout formula, and after playing a few events in near-complete silence, their monumental importance can't be overstated. Obviously, this is true of most games, but particularly one where high-speed exhilaration is on the menu. After initially thinking this was either a bug or that music would eventually find its way into the game via a day one patch, I hopped into the audio settings and discovered the reason for its omission: Spotify integration.
This is a smart idea for an indie studio that might not have the budget to splash out on licensed music, and after finding something suitably upbeat and aggressive myself, the experience of tearing around the track and wrecking other cars was improved tenfold. Yet asking people to own a premium service just to get music in their game is a fairly excessive compromise. It's an understandable trade-off for gaining access to popular music in a budget-priced game, but beyond the monetary requirement, it also has an effect on gameplay. Three Fields can't manipulate Spotify music in any way, so songs will just play through from start to finish without the incorporation of any interactive elements. This means that the music doesn't change its tone when you boost, or slow down and warp during takedowns, and that robs these moments of some of their potential impact.
When you're out on the road, the handling of each car will feel instantly familiar to anyone who's ever played Burnout before. While most contemporary racing games are wary of fully embracing an arcadey style without featuring some kind of simulation element, Dangerous Driving is a full-blooded, balls-to-the-wall arcade racer. You'll hold down the accelerator ad infinitum until your finger aches, careen around corners by either scraping across the steel guard rails or tapping the brake button to effortlessly drift around, and weave between oncoming traffic at over 200-miles-per-hour as the nitrous oxide flames spewing out of each exhaust pipe propel your car forward.
Unfortunately, the physics can be fairly wonky at times, often bringing your vehicle to a complete stop because you brushed against a wall; while other times it will shoot you straight up into the air, or force your car into a complete 90-degree turn. This can be incredibly frustrating during the latter stages of an event when one mishap is enough to send you tumbling to the back of the pack. Collision detection is also inconsistent; numerous times a head-on crash resulted in my car clipping through the floor and appearing unscathed on the other side. The face-distorting sense of speed, though, is genuinely electric, and the PS4 Pro version maintains a stable 60 frames-per-second with one notable exception: It has a tendency to hitch rather egregiously when you're driving through tunnels.
The crux of Dangerous Driving's racing is centered around the need to drive recklessly and constantly put yourself in harm's way. By hurtling towards incoming traffic, performing near misses, nailing drifts, tailgating, and taking down your opponents, you earn variable degrees of boost that will help fire your chosen vehicle towards the finish line. There isn't a discernible difference in how each car handles, other than the fact that some go faster than others, but their pinpoint responsiveness coupled with the high framerate ensures that you're fully capable of serpentining in and out of danger if your reactions are quick enough. Again, this is quintessential Burnout, with the destruction of your fellow drivers doubling your boost meter and incentivizing the most perilous behavior possible. These takedowns are reminiscent of those that debuted in Burnout 3, although the slow-motion crashes in Dangerous Driving are surprisingly underwhelming. They're not bad, but they're also not impactful enough--which the aforementioned issues with music contribute to--lacking in any real dynamism or metal-crunching detail.
There are exceptions to this rule, but vehicle collisions actually look a lot more violent when they occur near you in real time, with broken cars hurtling across the road in a furious cascade of fire and sparks. A wrecked car doesn't signal the end of its lifespan either. While Dangerous Driving unabashedly riffs on Burnout, it has its own ideas, too, like persistent wrecks. Now, if you're driving on a track with multiple laps, any takedowns that happen will leave the battered husk of that car out on the road as a smoke-billowing obstacle. This is rather ingenious, as subsequent laps gradually evolve the track until it's veritable minefields of dead vehicles.
The slow-motion crashes are not impactful enough--which the aforementioned issues with music contribute to--lacking in any real dynamism or metal-crunching detail
The problem with this--and it's not a problem with the mechanic itself, but rather one with the game's overall structure--is that these multi-lap events, and the most stimulating moments within them, are too few and far between. Dangerous Driving excels when you're in the middle of the pack, trading paint with other cars, and fighting tooth and nail to move up the field. It's here where it's at its most exciting, and really latches onto what made Burnout 3 so brilliant in the first place. But reaching first place is relatively easy--I was taken down by the AI twice in all my time playing--and once you're there the rubber banding isn't aggressive enough to ever compete with your driving unless you crash. Rivals drivers will hover just behind you, waiting to capitalize on any mistakes, but there are far too many instances where you can take a leisurely drive in first place, resulting in a feeling that you're missing out on all the action.
It doesn't help that the track design is bland. Visually there's a lot of variety with a cohesive theme of North American National Parks that encompasses sunswept canyons, beachside cliffs, snowy mountain ranges, and so on, but the tracks themselves are made up of the same kinds of long, winding corners that it almost feels like they were copied and pasted from one track and into another. They rarely deviate from this standard blueprint, and there's nothing that sets the tracks apart from one another either. This compounds the issues with difficulty and AI during race events, and also results in a dearth of engaging racing in other game modes. There are face-offs against a single opponent, the takedown-centric Road Rage, time trials, a survival event that tasks you with reaching checkpoints to stave off an ever-depleting timer, and even a nod to Criterion's work on Need for Speed in the shape of police pursuits. Again, there's a decent amount of variety here, with familiar modes returning from Burnout (including one that was previously its namesake, re-titled to Heatwave here), but the lack of interesting courses and a scarcity of racing events depletes much of the excitement.
Online multiplayer is being added in a future update, and playing against other people might allay some of these problems. But the more I played the more I began to realize Dangerous Driving lacks that magic spark the Burnout games had in abundance. That kinetic energy, palpable sense of danger, and the heart-racing thrill that something could and would go wrong at any moment. The AI was aggressive--competitive--and the satisfaction of taking them down was born of more than just getting to watch their car crumple against the nearest brick wall. The tracks were inventive, too, more interesting in their environments, and full of diverging paths and risky shortcuts.
Dangerous Driving nails the basic feeling of driving a car in Burnout, but the lack of small details quickly begin to add up and peel away at everything that doesn't feel quite right. The most damning criticism I can level at it is that it's often dull and lifeless. There are too many events that fail to capitalize on its strengths, and those that do can only reach those heights in fleeting moments. I was concerned that maybe I'd feel the same way about Burnout; that one of the greatest racing series ever made just doesn't fit in 2019. So I went back and played Burnout 3 again and it quickly alleviated all of those fears with a rapid combustion of thrilling vehicular mayhem. The potential was there for Dangerous Driving to latch onto that magic, and there are brief moments when it feels like you're playing a brand new Burnout. But the truth is, I'd rather play a 16-year-old game than pick up its spiritual successor again, and that's a disheartening outcome.
The British Academy Game Awards is one of the most prestigious awards ceremonies in the games industry, and the 2019 event brought a number of wins for Sony's PS4 exclusive God of War. The epic game was up for 10 awards and won four of them, including Best Game.
God of War also won the awards for Audio Achievement, Music, and Narrative. Other big winners at this year's event were Return of the Obra Dinn--which won the Artistic Achievement and Game Design categories--and Nintendo Labo, which swept up the Game Innovation and Family awards.
Surprisingly, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Celeste--which were each nominated for six and five awards, respectively--didn't win a single category between them. The full list of winners is filled with some outstanding games, however, and you can see that list below with the winners highlighted in bold.
The BAFTA Game awards are voted on by members of the British Academy. Only one category, Mobile Game of the Year, is decided by the public, and that went to Old School Runescape.
BAFTA Game Awards Nominations 2019
Artistic Achievement
Detroit: Become Human
Gris
God of War
Spider-Man
Red Dead Redemption 2
Return of the Obra Dinn
Audio Achievement
Battlefield V
Detroit: Become Human
God of War
Spider-Man
Red Dead Redemption 2
Tetris Effect
Best Game
Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Astro Bot: Rescue Mission
Celeste
God of War
Red Dead Redemption 2
Return of the Obra Dinn
British Game
11-11: Memories Retold
Forza Horizon 4
Red Dead Redemption 2
The Room: Old Sins
Overcooked 2
Two Point Hospital
Debut Game
Beat Saber
Cultist Simulator
Donut County
Florence
Gris
Yoku's Island Express
Evolving Game
Destiny 2
Elite Dangerous
Fortnite
Overwatch
Sea of Thieves
Rainbow Six Siege
Family
Lego The Incredibles
Nintendo Labo
Overcooked 2
Pokemon: Let's Go, Pikachu / Eevee
Super Mario Party
Yoku's Island Express
Game Beyond Entertainment
11: Memories Retold
Celeste
Florence
Life is Strange 2
My Child Lebensborn
Nintendo Labo
Game Design
Astro Bot: Rescue Mission
Celeste
God of War
Into the Breach
Minit
Return of the Obra Dinn
Game Innovation
Astro Bot: Rescue Mission
Celeste
Cultist Simulator
Moss
Nintendo Labo
Return of the Obra Dinn
Mobile Game
Alto's Odyssey
Brawl Stars
Donut County
Florence
Reigns: Game of Thrones
The Room: Old Sins
Multiplayer
A Way Out
Battlefield V
Overcooked 2
Sea of Thieves
Super Mario Party
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
Music
Celeste
Far Cry 5
Florence
God of War
Gris
Tetris Effect
Narrative
Florence
Frostpunk
God of War
Spider-Man
Red Dead Redemption 2
Return of the Obra Dinn
Original Property
Dead Cells
Florence
Into the Breach
Moss
Return of the Obra Dinn
Subnautica
Performer
Christopher Judge as Kratos in God of War
Danielle Bisutti as Freya in God of War
Jeremy Davies as The Stranger in God of War
Melissanthi Mahut as Kassandra in Assassin's Creed Odyssey
Roger Clark as Arthur Morgan in Read Dead Redemption 2
Konami has released a new Data Pack update for PES 2019. The patch, which is available on PS4, Xbox One, and PC now, makes a number of graphical changes and adds a bunch of player faces to the sports sim.
Among the new player faces are Radja Nainggolan, Kevin-Prince Boateng, and Ilkay Gundogan. Multiple other players--including Samuel Umtiti, Jack Grealish, Samir Handanovic, and Ethan Ampadu--have received "revised faces," Konami says, while more still receive "minor graphical improvements." Finally, Data Pack 5 updates "several" kits, including those of Schalke and of the Argentina and Colombia national teams.
Konami's sports game launched in August to a positive critical reception, including a 9/10 in GameSpot's PES 2019 review. "For as long as EA continues to develop FIFA and hold a monopoly over official licences, PES will be the scrappy underdog just hoping for a surprise upset, even when it's fielding the likes of London Blue and PV White Red," wrote Richard Wakeling. "The lack of licences for top-tier leagues remains a disheartening sticking point, but PES continues to make brilliant strides on the pitch, building on what was already an incredibly satisfying game of football to produce one of the greatest playing football games of all time. It might be lacking off the pitch, but put it on the field against the competition and a famous giant killing wouldn't be all that surprising."
The Division 2 is back at the top of the UK physical sales chart for the first time in three weeks. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and Yoshi's Crafted World have filled that spot for the past two weeks, respectively, but Ubisoft's PS4, Xbox One, and PC shooter returns to No.1 for the week ending April 6.
Immediately below The Division 2 this week is FIFA 19, according to sales monitor Chart-Track, while Yoshi's latest Switch adventure is down to No.3. Another Nintendo title, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, occupies the No.4 spot, while Sekiro drops two places to No.5.
The remainder of the chart paints a familiar picture, with only one new game in the top 40 this week. That game is Nintendo Switch's Super Dragon Ball Heroes: World Mission, which debuts at No.26.
You can read the full top 10 sales chart for this week below, courtesy of UKIE and GfK Chart-Track. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.
The Division 2
FIFA 19
Yoshi's Crafted World
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice
Red Dead Redemption 2
The Lego Movie 2 Video Game
Grand Theft Auto V
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate
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