By Anonymous on Jun 07, 2019 11:44 pm Larian Studios' Swen Vincke and Dungeons & Dragons' Mike Mearls explain how Baldur's Gate III will react to all the shenanigans you get up to in the upcoming RPG.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix may be pretty far from the best mutant-centric movie the franchise has to offer--but that doesn't mean it didn't sneak a small handful of extremely worthwhile moments into the mix before fizzling out like a bird-shaped firework in the stratosphere. One of the movie's most non-sequitur scenes just so happened to feature the live-action debut of a mutant that fans have been waiting for for years. If you haven't seen Dark Phoenix yet and want to remain completely unspoiled, stop now. We're going to dig into some minor spoilers.
Shortly after the team's return from their ill-fated mission to rescue the Space Shuttle Endeavor and Jean's miraculous (but also ill-fated) recovery from the brink of death, the students and X-Men of Xavier's School For Gifted Youngsters throw a bonfire party in the woods featuring some pretty high profile entertainment. Or, well, high profile entertainment if you're up on your X-Men mythology. The live performer for the party is none other than Alison Blaire, aka Dazzler herself. She's never named in the scene, but her iconic light-and-music based powers, as well as her classic costume, are instantly recognizable. Thankfully, she is named in the credits, which reveal the character is played by The Orville's Halston Sage.
X-fans have been clamoring for a live-action Dazzler for what feels like decades for obvious reasons. Not only are her powers, the ability to transform soundwaves into light waves, just flat out charming, but her public persona also puts her in an interesting position for mutant-kind. She's a pop star, and a pretty famous one at that--though her status tends to fluctuate from incarnation to incarnation. Introduced in 1980, Dazzler got her start as a disco phenom--and not by accident. She was commissioned by an actual record company as a cross-platform promotional tool in the late 70s, meaning the intent was to actually make a comic book character that would have a real-world analog who could go on to star in movies and TV shows. Bo Derek served as the inspiration for the design and was originally the actor pegged to take on the role.
Obviously, that didn't exactly pan out as planned, but the comic book version of Dazzler was introduced nonetheless, complete with her disco-fabulous white, bell-bottomed jumpsuit and roller skates.
Despite never actually becoming the multimedia icon she had been designed to be, Dazzler went on to almost immediately become a fan favorite X-Man and cult classic Marvel character even outside of the X-umbrella. As time went on, she transformed from a disco star to a techno/trance star, to a pop star, and virtually everything in between--all while occasionally hitting pause on her musical career to help save the world and get caught up in all the soap opera flavored day-to-day of mutant life.
While "turning sound into a light show" may not sound like the coolest or more useful mutant ability, Dazzler is actually surprisingly powerful. With effort and focus, she can craft human-like holograms, focus energy into deadly lasers, even fly by refracting "light energy" in the correct way. Her eyes are also inherently polarized, meaning she never has to use sunglasses which might actually be the most utilitarian mutation ever.
Dazzler's cameo is, ultimately, a bittersweet moment for fans who have waited so long to see her in live action. While it's certainly a welcome development for her to appear in full-on Dazzler regalia, disco-inspired suit and all, given Dark Phoenix's status as the final chapter of Fox's X-franchise, it's extremely unlikely that it will have any impact on future X-films under the MCU umbrella. However, all is not lost: The Hulu animated project, Tigra and Dazzler Show, is still set for release as well as the animated team-up show, The Offenders, which includes Dazzler on its roster. Sure, these projects may not be live-action--but hey, they're a start, right?
Those of us steeped in Destiny 2 lore might wonder if Xur's location this week implies something more significant about the Nine, a group of entities whose were a major part of last season's story, and their relationship with the Cabal emperor. You'll find Xur on Nessus, hanging out on Calus's barge near quest-giver Werner 99-40. This week he's got Sweet Business, an Exotic auto rifle that sprays tons of bullets from its 99-round magazine and gives you bonus accuracy when you fire from the hip.
Hunters are the lucky ones if you're still trying to pick up newer Exotics: Xur is offering Sixth Coyote, the only Year Two Exotic in his bag this week. The chest armor gives you a second dodge charge, which can be very handy in the Crucible. For Warlocks, there's Karnstein Armlets, which give you health back when you land melee kills. Finally, Titans can snag Ashen Wake, a set of gloves that increase the throw speed of your Fusion grenades and make them detonate on impact.
Xur Exotics For June 7-11
Sweet Business (Exotic auto rifle) -- 29 Legendary Shards
Ashen Wake (Exotic Titan gauntlets) -- 23 Legendary Shards
If Xur's inventory doesn't interest, you can also buy a Fated Engram, if you can afford it. Dropping 97 Legendary Shards on the item will grant you one Year One Exotic you don't already have for that character. Xur also offers the Five of Swords challenge card for free, which allows you to add difficulty modifiers that increase your score in Nightfall runs.
And if you haven't finished all of Xur's Invitations of the Nine from the Season of the Drifter, you can snag one of those as well. The bounty was new in Season of the Drifter, dispensing Powerful gear rewards, a bit of story about the Nine and the Drifter, and a lore drop.
Sony may be bowing out of E3 this year, but they are certainly not letting us forget them with all of the huge savings available as part of their Days of Play sale, the latest of which is a PlayStation 4 Pro console including seven free games by way of B&H Photo for $350. The PS4 Pro itself typically retails for $400 alone, so $50 off and then seven free games on top of that is an excellent deal, which B&H lists as $132.93 in total savings.
The games included are no collection of bargain bin scrapings, either, but some of the strongest titles that the platform has ever had along with remastered PS3 classics. If you're looking to play catch-up as this console generation starts to wrap up, then this is an excellent starting point. The bundle includes:
These and many other games are available on sale à la carte in Sony's Days of Play event, which runs from June 7 to 17, offering discounts across the board on PlayStation hardware, software, and services in celebration of E3 2019. Sony is bowing out of E3 this year for the first time in recent memory, instead opting to step back and quietly prepare for the hotly-anticipated PlayStation 5 announcement while Microsoft takes the spotlight in LA. PS4 fans have plenty to look forward to from next week's events--check out all of the PS4 games confirmed for E3 2019.
Ahead of E3 2019, EA has made Battlefield 5 available through its Origin Access Basic subscription. That means you can play the 2018 shooter for the $5 per month subscription fee, or just take part in the 7-day free trial to get a taste of it.
This is an unusually recent game to be added to the free library, only nearly matched by Madden NFL 19. But there's reason to think this is setting the stage for an upcoming announcement, as Battlefield has its own prominent placement just after Apex Legends on the company's EA Play schedule. Each of the scheduled games is expected to get some announcements of future updates, so making Battlefield more widely available at a low cost for PC players could make it more inviting for whatever is in store next.
EA is forgoing a traditional press conference in favor of a series of EA Play streams this year. Some of the games on the slate are unreleased, like Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order and the upcoming sports games, while others like The Sims 4 are EA mainstays. Anthem is curiously missing from the lineup, despite being the company's most recent game release.
EA Play will serve as the unofficial start of E3, replicating something similar to a press conference before the actual press conferences start in earnest on Sunday. But the event has been spreading further and further, and this week was chock full of events including Google's Stadia Connect, which unveiled lots of details about its streaming solution. EA was listed as a Stadia publisher but without any specified games, so we may see those soon.
X-Men: Dark Phoenix is the end of an era for the second X-Man film franchise. After the Disney/Fox buyout, no one can really be certain just where our favorite mutants are headed--unless of course you count the much-delayed New Mutants which may or may not ever actually see the light of day--though, with any luck, it'll be on to bigger and better things under the shared MCU umbrella for the first time ever. That said, it can't really come as a surprise that the final moments of Dark Phoenix are just that-- there's no post-credits tease or stinger to round off the story and hint at what's to come. Instead, we're left with a superhero rarity: A conclusion that actually seems, well, pretty conclusive.
So what exactly happens at the end of Dark Phoenix and what does it mean? Let's break it down. Warning: There are major spoilers ahead for the ending of X-Men: Dark Phoenix. Stop now if you haven't seen the movie and don't want to know how it plays out.
With Jean (Sophie Turner) rapidly losing control over the mysterious Phoenix Force--though the movie never calls it by name-- and her tenuous grip on her own sanity slipping, she succumbs to the (honestly, pretty half-hearted) manipulations of Vuk (Jessica Chastain), one of the D'Bari--a race of shape-shifting aliens that are definitely not Skrulls, looking to harness the power of the Phoenix Force for themselves to terraform the Earth and remake their lost homeworld.
Vuk explains that the D'Bari don't fear Jean's power like her friends did, and therefore she should trust them--but really, all Vuk wants from her is the Phoenix Force, which Jean nearly gives up. But before she has a chance to do that (and unknowingly doom the Earth) the X-Men interrupt. Half of them want to murder her, the other half want to save her, and Jean doesn't really care for either side of the equation. Also, the humans are less than thrilled with the whole situation--Jean unwittingly flipped some cop cars during her first big clash with the X-Men, so human/mutant relations are crumbling, you know, like they usually are. During the fight, the army intervenes, capturing every X-Man involved along with Jean herself with power neutralizing collars. The D'Bari escape the scene but quickly chase after Jean.
The action culminates in a massive battle on a train in which the humans must be convinced that the X-Men can protect them from the D'Bari while the D'Bari hurl themselves Terminator style into the fight, trying to get to Jean, who spends most of the final battle unconscious. That is until Xavier, with Scott's help, manages to reach her cell and wake her up. (It should be noted that the humans the X-Men convince to free them still wind up dead--so, uh, it turns out the mutants weren't all that great at protecting them after all.)
Emotionally moved and imbued with a new sense of purpose, Jean confronts Vuk for the final time, producing a whirlwind of neon destructive force around the two of them that threatens to disintegrate everyone and everything--including Jean's friends. With no other recourse, and no hope to be rid of the Phoenix Force all together, lest it fall entirely into Vuk's hands, Jean opts to blast the two of them into space and sacrifice herself for the safety of mankind.
In the last few moments, the X-Men watch helplessly from the ground as a supernova shaped like a phoenix (get it?) explodes in the sky, consuming both Jean and Vuk safely outside of Earth's atmosphere.
But of course, things don't actually end there. The remaining X-Men are left to pick up the pieces--sort of, at least. With Jean and the Phoenix Force gone, the government seems to be back on great terms with the mutants (never mind the shockingly high human body count), meaning everyone is apparently just fine and dandy to head back to Westchester and get their affairs in order. The Xavier Institute is renamed the Jean Grey School in honor of Jean's sacrifice, Hank takes on the role of the headmaster, and mutants like Storm begin as teachers for the next generation. Professor X himself retires to Paris, where he meets with Magneto for a game of chess, just like old times--all while a suspiciously Phoenix-shaped neon flare blasts through the sky overhead, implying that Jean may still be out there somewhere. Magneto also hints that Charles could come live with him, assumedly on his mutant refugee island.
All in all, it's a pretty tidy ending--the majority of the "First Class" has either moved on or died, tragically, but the dream of the X-Men continues in the hands of some alumni and the memory of Jean. Human and mutant relations are, we can assume, looking pretty good and Charles and Erik have found a way to start resolving their perpetual conflict peacefully. All things considered, it's not a bad way to leave things, especially considering that Dark Phoenix is very likely the swan song of the non-MCU X-Franchise as a whole. It's a safe bet that we'll be seeing some mutants again at some point in the future, but this particular era has definitely run its course.
But the exciting stuff is still to come. Even if we now know every event that's happening over the next two weeks, we won't be lacking a surplus of game news over the next week and a half. Expect plenty more rumors and leaks, too.
Below you'll find a quick look at the start times, in BST, for all of the major events and press conferences in the coming days. For more information on each, such as how to watch and where to find a livestream of the events, click on their respective links. If you're after American times, both Pacific and Eastern, check out our main look at the E3 2019 press conference schedule.
During the pre-E3 2019 Google Stadia Connect, Larian Studios officially announced Baldur's Gate III, confirming the rumors that the Divinity: Original Sin II developer is behind the long-awaited sequel to the RPG series. During the livestream, a horrifying cinematic trailer for the upcoming game was also revealed, and Larian Studios confirmed Baldur's Gate III would be coming to Google Stadia (it's also releasing on PC). Following the announcement, Larian Studios released a Community Update video to provide further insight into the process of making Baldur's Gate III.
Though the Community Update is largely just one long comedy skit as to how Larian Studios acquired the rights to make Baldur's Gate III, it does reveal several tidbits of information about the new games as well. The game is described as a "big grand adventure" that's "true to D&D lore" and has a choice-driven narrative where a player's decisions matter to the overall plot. The video also touches on the process of ceremorphosis, the terrifying process by which a humanoid creature becomes a Mindflayer, as well as how the transformation can be reversed. If you want to see that change in action, you can watch it in the trailer below.
In a press release, Larian Studios wrote, "Baldur's Gate III will push the boundaries of the RPG genre and offer a rich narrative with unparalleled player freedom, high-stakes decisions, unique companion characters, and memorable combat. It is Larian Studios' biggest production ever and will be playable together with friends or as a single-player adventure."
Baldur's Gate III is one of the first games confirmed for Google Stadia, the company's upcoming cloud-based game streaming service. In an interview with GameSpot, Larian Studios founder and head Swen Vincke said, "Stadia will also allow a whole bunch of community features that you otherwise wouldn't be able to do. I don't know if you've been paying attention to what's happening in the streaming sphere when it comes to Dungeons & Dragons, but there's a lot going on there. Things like Stadia allow you to do much more. We're implementing Stadia fairly deep into the game, actually. In due course, we will announce the features and demonstrate it. I don't think people understand, yet, exactly how transformative Stadia is going to be. Not in a corporate way, I actually mean it. Because they haven't seen it, they haven't touched it, but it is quite special."
Baldur's Gate III is releasing for Google Stadia and PC and is currently scheduled to be available as part of the Stadia Founder's Edition launch line-up (which is releasing in November 2019).
EA has only just announced FIFA 20, but it has now revealed when you can get your hands on this year's football game. The series usually arrives at the end of September, and that's still the case this year: FIFA 20's release date has been set for September 27.
The publisher revealed the news in a short teaser clip, which you can watch below. The video once again features a strange "V" logo, as well as some more generic soccer footage. EA has not yet confirmed which platforms FIFA 20 will launch for, but the series typically comes to PS4, Xbox One, PC, Nintendo Switch, PS3, and Xbox 360.
Rather than revealing more information now, EA plans on talking more about this year's football game at EA Play. The publisher says a "full FIFA 20 reveal" is coming on June 8 at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET / 3 PM BST (that's 12 AM AET on June 9). Four hours later, EA will hold the FIFA section of its EA Play livestream.
Despite it having only just been confirmed, EA did share some of FIFA 20's gameplay changes just recently. Top of the list is AI defending, EA said, with a larger emphasis and incentive placed on manual defending, as opposed to letting the computer defend for you. One of the ways EA plans to do this is by increasing the likelihood a manual tackle will propel the ball to a teammate. Automatic defending will see its overall efficacy reduced and reaction times slowed.
Shooting is also being revamped, with attackers given greater accuracy during easy shooting scenarios, such as being clean through against the 'keeper. Goalkeepers' reaction times will be reduced in these situations to resolve the sometimes "superhuman" reactions players complained of. Additionally, the timing window for green timed shots is being reduced to two frames for all shots, and they'll also be "slightly less precise." EA did, however, reassure players that green timed shots will "still be more accurate than non-timed shots."
Lots of work is being done on making passing and shooting more realistic, EA says, especially when it comes to difficult strikes. Volleys will be more variable and less accurate, for example, while 180° and first-time passes will result in "slower/weaker balls." To compensate, easy situation passes will now be more accurate. Two new passing options will also be introduced: the driven pass-and-go (which will replace the current manual pass button combo) and the dinked pass, which will cease to be an automatic, contextual pass variant and instead be user-controlled only.
By Anonymous on Jun 07, 2019 09:12 pm GameSpot Universe puts Captain Marvel's Reggie The Cat aka Goose to the test with some True or False Marvel-related questions!
As another entry in Sony's US Days of Play sale in celebration of E3, retailers are offering the PlayStation Classic retro console for a record-low cost of $30, wholly half off from the current standard price of $60 (which is itself already substantially discounted from the launch price of $100). You can grab the deeply-discounted box on Amazon, Best Buy, GameStop, Target, or Walmart from now until Days of Play ends on June 17.
The PlayStation Classic is a retro plug-and-play console in the style of Nintendo's NES and SNES Classics, packing 20 beloved games into one small box. Those include genre-defining originals like Metal Gear Solid and Grand Theft Auto, and the breakout RPG Final Fantasy VII, for which Sony is currently deep in production on a high-profile, top-to-bottom remake. GameSpot's Peter Brown was disappointed by the visual fidelity and controller quality at launch in his PS Classic review, but those issues sting a lot less when you're paying $30 instead of $100, as it initially retailed.
Sony's Days of Play event runs from June 7 to 17, offering discounts across the board on PlayStation hardware, software, and services in celebration of E3 2019. Sony is bowing out of E3 this year for the first time in recent memory, instead opting to step back and quietly prepare for the hotly-anticipated PlayStation 5 announcement while Microsoft takes the spotlight in LA. PS4 fans needn't fret, however, since there will be no shortage of games for the platform at the show, even if Sony itself is not.
THQ Nordic has announced a remake of the 2005 alien action game Destroy All Humans just ahead of E3 2019. The tongue-in-cheek action game is slated for release on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in 2020.
As in the original, the game is set in the 1950s and puts you in the role of an invading conqueror named Crypto-137. You can pose as humans, use powers and weapons like psychokinesis and an anal probe gun, and explore the Lost Mission of Area 42. It's being developed by Black Forest Games, an internal THQ Nordic studio.
"The cult-classic returns! Terrorize the people of 1950s Earth in the role of the evil alien Crypto-137," the product description read. "Harvest their DNA and bring down the US government in the faithful remake of the legendary alien invasion action adventure. Annihilate puny humans using an assortment of alien weaponry and psychic abilities. Reduce their cities to rubble with your flying Saucer! One giant step on mankind!"
With E3 coming up soon, THQ Nordic said that it would have three games to reveal this week, which has been an inordinately busy one. This is the third of those three. First it announced a remake of SpongeBob: Battle for Bikini Bottom for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. Then alongside the recent Google Stadia presentation, the company announced Darksiders Genesis, an overhead Diablo-like action game featuring the horseman Strife.
By Anonymous on Jun 07, 2019 07:30 pm Massive Entertainment explain the value of transparency in The Division 2's development, how to manage player feedback, and how to maintain a constantly evolving online game.
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