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.
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.
Buddy pass allows you to share your Stadia Pro subscription with a friend for three months. Stadia Pro is the platform's premium service. It enables 4K video streaming for the games you play. It will also include free access to a selection of games and "exclusive" discounts. Stadia Pro will cost $10 / £9 per month.
Stadia's buddy pass, meanwhile, is included in the asking price for the Stadia Founder's Edition, which launches in November for $130 / £120. It also comes with two physical devices--a limited-edition night blue Stadia controller and a Chromecast Ultra--as well as three months of Stadia Pro, the aforementioned buddy pass, and first dibs on choosing a Stadia username.
At launch, the Stadia Founder's Edition will be available in 14 countries around the world: the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland. The buddy pass is region-free between any of those, so if you live in the US, for example, and have a Norweigan friend, you can gift them three months of Stadia Pro. Google says the platform will expand to more regions after launch, although it hasn't yet specified which.
We learned a lot more about Stadia during the Connect presentation. Google also revealed some of the games that will be coming to the service, including Ghost Recon Breakpoint and the rumored Baldur's Gate 3. Borderlands 3 will also be there at launch, as will Destiny 2 with its full suite of content, including the upcoming Shadowkeep expansion.
The pass is included in the Stadia Founder's Edition, and it allows you to give three months of Stadia Pro access to a friend. Now we also know that works across territories, so long as your friend is in one of the countries where Stadia has launched. For example, a US resident could gift their buddy pass to a UK-based friend, since both of those countries will receive Stadia in its launch month of November 2019.
Stadia Pro is the platform's premium service. It enables 4K video streaming for the games you play. It will also include free access to a selection of games and "exclusive" discounts. It will cost $10 / £9 per month.
During thebig Google Stadia event today, the company announced 30 titles for the streaming service, including Borderlands 3, Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Baldur's Gate 3, Metro Exodus, and Wolfenstein: Youngblood. They announced 30 titles in all, and it announced partnerships with other studios, like Rockstar Games, that haven't revealed which of their titles will come to the platform.
It appears the next wave of Stadia game announcements will come during Gamescom in August--and possibly sooner during E3 2019. "We'll have more game-related news to share at Gamescom," reads a tweet from Stadia.
Additionally, the tweet mentioned that other publishers will announce Stadia support for their own titles "throughout E3 and beyond."
Google Stadia boss Phil Harrison said during the event that Google is working with "hundreds" of publishers and developers to bring their titles to Stadia. A graphic shown during the stream, which you can see above, shows that publishers like Electronic Arts, 2K Games, Rockstar Games, Sega, Warner Bros., Capcom, and Square Enix are some of the other partners.
Nearly every genre of video game will be available on Stadia, including RPG, sports, racing, fighting, first-person, and more.
Google Stadia launches in November in 14 countries, including the USA, UK, and Canada. It is a streaming service that allows you to play games on your computer or phone. A Stadia Pro subscription costs $10/month, and that gets you access to a library of titles with others available to buy individually. A $130 Founder's Edition comes with a Chromecast UItra, a Stadia controller, three months of Stadia Pro for you and a friend.
For more on Stadia, check out the stories linked below.
Week 5 of Fortnite Season 9 is here, and it's brought a new set of challenges to complete in Epic's hit battle royale shooter, whether you're playing on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Switch, or mobile. Each task you finish will reward you with Battle Stars, which in turn will level your Battle Pass up and unlock more of this season's new cosmetics. There's an extra bonus for those who clear all seven challenges from a given week, however: You'll also complete one of Season 9's Utopia challenges and earn a special loading screen for your troubles.
What makes these loading screens so desirable is each one features some kind of clue that leads to a free item hidden somewhere around the game's map. Clear an even-numbered Utopia challenge and you'll be able to find a Fortbyte, a new kind of collectible that Epic introduced in Season 9. However, if you complete an odd-numbered Utopia challenge, you'll have a chance to collect a free Battle Star, which will level your Battle Pass up by one full tier.
If you've managed to finish five full sets of weekly challenges, you'll unlock the loading screen pictured below, which will point you to another free Battle Star waiting somewhere around the island. This screen features a character passing through a Slipstream, new wind tunnels that can be found by Neo Titled and Mega Mall. However, the Slipstream itself isn't the clue; rather, if you look closely at its outer rim, you'll be able to spot the coordinates B2, B3, C2, C3, which converge near the castle in Haunted Hills. That's where you'll need to go.
The coordinates meet at an otherwise unassuming patch of grass. Make your way there and the Battle Star will appear when you approach. Interact with it as you would any other item in the game, then finish the match and you'll level your Battle Pass up by one tier, bringing you another step closer to unlocking all of Season 9's rewards. If you need more help finding it, we've marked the Battle Star's exact location on the map below. You can also check out our video walkthrough above.
Unlike the aforementioned Fortbytes, which can be collected by any Battle Pass holder so long as you know where to look, there's an important caveat to keep in mind before setting off to find this Battle Star. The item will only appear in your game if you've completed the required number of weekly challenges; you can't simply go to the right place and find it if you haven't done the necessary work. If there are any previous tasks you need help with, however, you can find guides for the trickier ones in our full Fortnite Season 9 challenges roundup.
Alongside the Week 5 challenges, Epic rolled out Fortnite's 9.20 update. This week's patch introduced a new item called the Storm Flip, which will create a temporary safe zone when thrown into the storm--and vice versa. To make room for it, Epic vaulted all hunting rifles. The publisher also brought back the infamous Infinity Blade as part of the Sword Fight limited-time mode. You can read more in the full patch notes on Epic's website.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is rumored to, at some point in the future, release on PC. Nothing is confirmed at this stage. Developer Rockstar Games has made no announcements, and neither has parent company Take-Two. Despite that, evidence continues to mount for the acclaimed western releasing on PC.
Speaking at an investor briefing this week in New York City, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick responded to the assertion that launching Red Dead Redemption 2 on PC would be a "layup." That's a basketball metaphor for something very easy to do.
Zelnick succinctly responded, "There is no downside to releasing the game on PC."
That's all he had to say on the subject. His response is interesting and noteworthy, however. Zelnick is asked regularly about bringing Red Dead Redemption 2 to PC, and up until now, his public response had been that he would let Rockstar speak for itself. Zelnick is confirming nothing with his new statement, but it is a notable change of form for the executive.
Looking at Rockstar's history, it seems likely that Red Dead Redemption 2 may eventually release on PC. Rockstar's previous release, Grand Theft Auto V, came to PC in April 2015, which was five months after the release of GTA V on PS4 and Xbox One and 18 months after GTA V originally launched on PS3 and Xbox 360 in 2013.
For Red Dead Redemption 2, Rockstar and Sony had an exclusivity deal for some content, though whether or not this impacts the game launching on other platforms, like PC, is unknown. For what it's worth, 2010's original Red Dead Redemption never came to PC.
Red Dead Redemption 2 has shipped more than 24 million copies, which makes it one of the most commercially successful games in history. Launching on PC would only further increase the sales number, which is probably what Zelnick is referring to when he says "there is no downside" to bringing the game to PC.
Red Dead Redemption 2's online mode, Red Dead Online, recently left beta with a huge update. Rockstar continues to support the online mode, and lots more content is coming over time.
E3 2019 is just around the corner and the GameSpot team will be ready to bring you the best coverage and so much more! If you are in Los Angeles from June 11 to June 13 you should stop by our Base Station, located at Chick Hearn Court, between Staples Center and the Microsoft Theater.
The GameSpot Base Station will be open to the general public for all ages. You won't even need a badge to enjoy non-stop live gameplay on the eSports truck, hit the Galactic Gaming Station for some arcade gaming, take some memorable pictures at the Jack in the Box Fuel House Photo Opp, or get some exclusive swag from the Jack in the Box Loot Box. Be sure to stop by from 3 pm to 8 pm.
And we can't forget our celebrity guests' gameplay sessions, live podcasts and meet & greets:
Remember to follow us on Twitter to find out the latest updates on our meet & greet schedule, keep up with surprises, and for the best coverage of E3 2019.
Sony's Uncharted movie starring Spider-Man actor Tom Holland finally has a release date. The film will hit theatres on December 18, 2020, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
The movie has been in the works for more than half a decade already, but this is the first time Sony is committing to a release date. Holland joined the movie in 2017 when it was reported that the film will focus on a young Nathan Drake. Directing the film is Dan Trachtenberg, who took over for the previous director, Shawn Levy (Stranger Things, Night at the Museum).
Jonathan Rosenberg and Mark Walker wrote the latest screenplay draft for the Uncharted movie, but there are no details on what the story will be or how it may be connected to the video games. Variety reports that the film will follow a young Drake who meets Victor Sullivan, or Sully as he's known in the games, for the first time. As such, it's not a story already told by any of the games.
Releasing on December 18, 2020 puts the Uncharted movie up directly against Steven Spielberg's West Side Story remake.
Uncharted 4: A Thief's End wrapped up Nathan Drake's story and it was the final Uncharted game that Naughty Dog plans to make. However, the studio says Uncharted 5 could happen with a different studio.
Some industry-watchers and fans have worried that the rise in popularity of live service games like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and others could inspire publishers to move away from story-based, narrative games. That's not going to happen at Sony, according to Sony Interactive Entertainment president Jim Ryan.
He told GameSpot sister site CNET ahead of E3 2019 that Sony is enjoying huge success today with its story-based games like Spider-Man, God of War, and Days Gone. You can expect Sony to continue to make these games on an ongoing basis, Ryan said.
"We've never had greater success with our own narrative-driven, story-based games than we're having right now," he said. "We feel good about that, and it's certainly not a genre of gaming we'll ever walk away from."
Ryan said live service games are still growing in popularity, and it's contributing to the "overall gaming ecosystem" getting bigger and bigger.
"If you're going to do this you have to do it really well," he said about live service games. "It's a form of entertainment that has to be built incrementally, you can't sort of plunge in and build one of these live service games and get it right from day one. It's got to be evolved and iterated and it's not easy. It's really not easy."
While Sony won't be at E3 this week, Microsoft, Nintendo, EA, Ubisoft, and others are coming to the show with new game announcements and more on tap. For more on the big show, check out GameSpot's E3 2019 hub to follow along with all the big news.
Legends of Tomorrow and Doom Patrol are the two most imaginative superhero properties currently available, in an era where comic book adaptation are everywhere, on TV and in the theaters. Both series are spin-offs of other shows and deal with less-than-perfect people with abilities forced to come together as a group to face evil. Though the two shows deal with camp, they do so in very different ways.
Where other superhero shows like Daredevil, Arrow, and even The Flash (which started as a fun alternative to the incredibly angsty Arrow) all turned into character dramas that focused on the toll of being a superhero, Legends of Tomorrow dared have its characters be hypnotized by a possessed nipple in one episode and have a Furby-like giant fight a demon in another. When DC launched its own subscription service, its first live-action show was teased with a Robin so gritty his motto has become "F*** Batman." When Doom Patrol followed it up, it used the dark and gritty tone of Titans to provide grounded and emotional character development, while still giving us a make-out session between a giant cockroach and a giant rat.
Legends of Tomorrow lets its characters have fun
Originally thought of as a spin-off for Ray Palmer/The Atom (Brandon Routh), Legends of Tomorrow started as a sort of lifeboat, taking characters who had outlived their usefulness on Arrow and The Flash, and giving them a time machine to go off on adventures. Though the first season was noticeably still a spin-off of the Arrow-verse and it mostly adhered to the same darker tone, by the time season two began, the Legends creative team embraced the weirdness of the show's premise.
From Season 2 on, the writers started throwing every weird idea and the kitchen sink at the audience while still somehow making sense. Season 2 dealt with the Legends fighting of the Legion of Doom, who were trying to find the biblical Spear of Destiny that pierced the side of Jesus (really), while Season 4 introduced demons and an amusement park for magical creatures.
Because of the liberties that come with time travel, and a lack of a fixed cast due to it not being based off any established property, Legends of Tomorrow has been able to freely use any character from Arrow or The Flash and add them to their roster. From the original team, only Routh, Caity Lotz (as Sara Lance/White Canary) and Dominic Purcell (as Mick Rory/Heat Wave) remain on the show. Characters come and go every season, adding versatility to the show since they don't run out of stories to tell with the characters, with Kid Flash and later Constantine joining the team for a while. Even the original three have grown since their introduction-- – most notably, Mick has become a science-fiction erotic romance novelist.
Beyond an ever-rotating cast, Legends of Tomorrow is different from other superhero shows by embracing the insignificance of its leading characters. In the very first episode, Rip Hunter (Arthur Darvill) says he chose the Legends because of how inconsequential they are to history, so no matter what they did or what happened to them, no one would care--a sharp contrast to the Green Arrow working with the police department, or The Flash getting a parade in Central City.
Legends of Tomorrow uses the extraneousness of its heroes to test their heroism. Though they still triumph at the end, the Legends create more problems with their little mess ups along the way than they can fix. By Season 3, the Legends have messed up so many times that they literally broke time itself. It got so bad Rip Hunter helped create an entire government branch to deal with the Legends and their "time aberrations" (like Gorilla Grodd from killing Barack Obama when he was in college). But usually, they created more problems in the process, like dropping Helen of Troy off in Themyscira instead of Greece.
This constant breaking of eggs to make a semi-decent omelet is the show's greatest strength. Unlike Arrow or The Flash, which use the failures of their heroes for drama, Legends of Tomorrow mines those failures for comedy--as well as character growth. Even in an episode where Constantine tries to change the past to save a loved one, breaking the timeline and going through scenarios as weird as having the entire team turned into singing puppets, the show still finds the time to have Constantine learn to bond with the team and accept his failures.
Doom Patrol isn't afraid to let you laugh and cry
Like Legends of Tomorrow, Doom Patrol started as a spin-off of the gritty, brooding, and ridiculously violent Titans. Though it did feature some moments of levity, Titans explored some dark themes and featured the goriest and most brutal fight sequences on a superhero TV show to date. It was, therefore, kind of a surprise when the first episode of Doom Patrol premiered, and it featured a skywriting-farting donkey that is actually a doorway to another dimension. Like Titans, Doom Patrol doesn't shy away from some dark themes, but it does that while also giving us such bonkers scenes as a giant eye in the sky that disintegrates people à la Thanos, or a superhero flexing the wrong muscle and accidentally giving everyone on the team and a literal sentient street an orgasm.
Doom Patrol also plays with the audience's expectations for what a superhero family is. The characters certainly look like they have abilities of some kind, but there's nothing heroic about them. The first episode goes through the origin story for the entire team, focusing on how dysfunctional and broken they all were even before getting powers.
Former ace pilot Larry Trainor/Negative Man (Matt Bomer) has an immortal negative energy spirit that burned his body in radiation now living inside him, but his closeted homosexuality broke him long before the radiation did. Rita Farr (April Bowlby) was a major film star that already struggled with her identity and the ways the studio system of the Golden Age of Hollywood turned artists into monsters way before she was forced into hiding after an accident turned her into a giant blob of flesh. Crazy Jane (Diane Guerrero) suffers from dissociative identity disorder as a result of an abusive childhood and now has 64 different personas, each with their own superpower--eat that, James McAvoy. Likewise, Cliff Steele (Brendan Fraser) may be angry and resentful for being just a brain inside a robot body, but his rage and self-hatred started long before the accident that killed his wife and destroyed his body. Before they can save anyone, the characters must learn to cope with their past trauma.
The series acknowledges that you can't fully heal from your trauma, but instead has the team aspire to heal just enough to be able to live with their own demons for another day. Larry can't fully reclaim what he lost in the accident that ruined his life, but we see him start to make peace with his past and embrace who he is through a karaoke session while at a cabaret inside a sentient genderqueer street named Danny. The scene is completely bonkers, yet it doesn't feel out of place. After all, this is a show that spends as much time inside our protagonists' psyches as it does with disembodied butts with legs that eat people or the aforementioned mass orgasm on a sentient street. By the end of the first season, the Doom Patrol isn't yet a fully-fleshed team, but they're on the way to accept what has happened to them and finally move on.
Plenty of superhero shows and movies try to cram in as many jokes as possible, even interrupting the crucial emotional scenes for the sake of a joke. Legends of Tomorrow and Doom Patrol prove that you can not only do scenes that are simply cuckoo bananas and make you cry with laughter, but you don't have to do that at the expense of character development.
When people talk about "superhero fatigue" they usually refer not to the big amount of superhero movies and TV shows that are coming out all the time, as much as to how similar they're becoming. As the Marvel Netflix shows all became very similar in story and tone, and the Arrowverse is basically just one gigantic entity, we need more TV shows and movies that show how versatile the genre at giving us emotional stories at the same time as singing superhero puppets and cockroaches making out with rats. Legends of Tomorrow and Doom Patrol are not only the two most fun superhero shows out there, but they also show us what the genre is capable of.
The year's biggest gaming show, E3, has finally (almost) arrived. While a few announcements have leaked (like Watch Dogs Legion) and a few titles are no-shows (like The Elder Scrolls 6), the news keeps trickling out. Ahead of the big conference, popular toy manufacturer Funko has revealed an announcement of its own: exclusive E3 Pops.
The news comes via a tweet from the Original Funko Twitter account. The Washington-based, pop culture collectible manufacturer lists a variety of E3-exclusive Pops, including lion-form Sora from Kingdom Hearts 3, Ciri from The Witcher 3, the Siren Maya from Borderlands 3, a Kingdom Hearts 3 Donald Duck PEZ pen, and more. You can check out the announcement tweet below.
Geralt of Rivia voice actor Doug Cockle teased on Twitter that a Nintendo Switch port of The Witcher 3 could be in the cards. When replying to a fan's wish of the critically acclaimed action-RPG appearing on the console-handheld hybrid, the man behind the White Wolf asked "Who else wants to see this" and added a suggestive smiley emoticon. Nintendo's E3 Direct takes place on Tuesday, June 11 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET / 5 PM BST (2 AM AET on June 12), so we'll see if the rumor comes to fruition.
E3 started a little early this year, with Google leading with its Stadia Connect Event. On Saturday, June 8 EA will host its annual EA Play Event. But the big E3 conference kicks off on Sunday, June 9 at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on June 10) with Xbox's press conference.
Yes, Baldur's Gate 3 is happening, and it's being developed not by BioWare (maker of the earlier entries in the series), but by Larian Studios, the studio behind the incredible Divinity: Original Sin 2. Coming off of such a critically acclaimed RPG, it seems like the perfect match--and the partnership between Larian and Wizards of the Coast (license holders of Dungeons & Dragons) has quite the story. Ahead of the official reveal of Baldur's Gate 3, GameSpot video producer and D&D aficionado Dave Jewitt was able to catch up with the founder and head of Larian Studios Swen Vincke. They talked about almost everything that led up to this point; from how Divinity was influenced by Baldur's Gate and the creative approach when handling a storied franchise to the office dynamics at Larian and what it's like to work on the cloud-based gaming platform Google Stadia.
While Baldur's Gate 3 was announced within the Stadia Connect stream ahead of E3 2019, Larian plans on bringing it to PCs as a standard game well. There's also no release date quite yet, so it's likely we won't see the game launched alongside Stadia later this year--as Vincke says, it'll be ready when it's ready. For now, enjoy Dave's conversation with Swen Vincke about all things Baldur's Gate below or check out the trailer breakdown they did together in the video above.
A shot from the announcement trailer; introducing mind flayers.
What was the mood in the studio after Divinity: Original Sin 2, given its reception after the definitive edition and everything else?
Swen Vincke: Ecstatic. That pretty much sums it up. Super proud. People worked very, very, very hard on it and so, it was very rewarding to see all the critical acclaim, and from then the fans, and from the sales. It was just fantastic.
Did that factor into Baldur's Gate 3 at all or have you been working on it alongside D:OS2?
SV: The team already knew that we were working on Baldur's Gate 3, so they were really excited to start, actually impatient to start working on it. One of the things that we needed to do to get this deal done was to get the script of the story to Wizards of the Coast before Original Sin 2 shipped, actually. I think it must have been July or August [2017], just before it shipped.
With the writers, we went to a hotel room and sat there the entire weekend and just churned out the entire script that we then sent through to Wizards of the Coast.
What did Wizards of the Coast say?
SV: They said, "You guys should finish Divinity: Original Sin 2!" [laughs]
It's the second version, but the core ideas were there already. It was just that we didn't have the time to work everything out, but then afterwards, once D:OS2 shipped, we had all the time in the world to focus on Baldur's Gate, so, we spent a lot of time at their offices.
What made you want to pursue the Baldur's Gate license?
SV: There's a bunch of reasons. Dungeons & Dragons is something that's super loved in the studio. Obviously, we're making RPGs, and it's been around for 40 years. The second is that, if you think about what D&D is, it's a game system in which you're given an adventure, a reason to go do things and use the gameplay systems to overcome challenges. Typically you're going to do all kinds of crazy things to overcome the game master. And if the game master's any good, they're going to make sure they can just manage to do it.
If you think about Original Sin 2, that's literally what we're trying to do also. There's a very, very close match in offering systems to players and reasons to do things, then giving them the very big question which you get in D:OS2 and in D&D: what do you do? The fit was very natural and something started talking about with Wizards of the Coast quite some time ago.
The third thing is that it's an incredible challenge. People have been waiting for it for more than 20 years now. It's something for the team to overcome, it's to make them even better than they already are, and say 'can we manage to do this?' People are super motivated to demonstrate that they can because they're all very talented. So, hopefully we will manage.
Is this something that Wizards of the Coast approached you with, or was this something that you wanted to do with your lineage and approach them with the idea?
SV: It goes in both directions. I originally approached them after Divinity: Original Sin 1, but they felt I was still too green back then. As we were making Original Sin 2 and I guess as they were seeing what we were doing, Nathan from Wizards approached me and asked, "Do you still want to do this?" I said, "F*** yeah!"
I said, "I want to do this." So, he said, "Here's what you need to do." Then we did all those things, and out of that came the deal.
What was the reaction? Did you sit everyone in the studio down and say, "We've got Baldur's Gate 3"--what was that like?
SV: There were two reactions. It was quite funny actually. So, we have four studios. And I also told Steve not to tell the other guys, because I wanted to have the joy of being the one telling them and seeing their faces.
We gathered everybody around and we had two reactions. We had the guys that were completely freaking out. But then surprisingly, or maybe not so surprisingly, the younger ones that said, "What is it? [whispering]" They actually didn't know what it was.
It shows you how long it's been since people actually played Baldur's Gate. Then when people explained it to them, the reaction became, "Oh my god, okay, that's really cool." But they didn't have the insane reaction that you see from the ones who played it when they were young.
For a lot of them, it was their first RPG that they ever played. That was actually eye opening and told us instantly of something that we would have to overcome. If we want to make this game, we have to educate people on what this actually is.
Is three a reimagining? A straight sequel? How much are you taking from the originals?
SV: The previous Baldur's Gate games were based on Dungeons & Dragons 3.5. We're now Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition. A lot of stuff has happened in Forgotten Realms. A lot of stuff has happened in Baldur's Gate, so this is going to be a new entry.
There will obviously be references to everything that happened in the first and the second, but this is very much its own story. You needn't have played the previous Baldur's Gates to understand what's going on, but if you have, you will recognize the references. For example, if you just look at the teaser trailer, you will notice the guy's from the Flaming Fist, he has a flaming fist on his chest.
So, this game is more keeping in the tabletop lore than it is directly coming from Baldur's Gate 2.
SV: Yes. It's very much set into Forgotten Realms and where the universe is at now, but it is its own story. We worked very closely with Wizards, they actually adapted certain things for us so that it would work in the video game also. They've been very, very flexible in that. There are adaptations that we had to make to turn it into a video game, but it features a lot of the iconic stuff that people love about Dungeons & Dragons.
Larian, of course, having a lot of expertise in this genre, what do you think that your studio's going to be able to add to what's already a dense franchise with a history to it?
SV: I think that our systems focus that we had in previous games we've made is going to add a lot. You're going to have a lot more agency available because of all the freedom we're going to offer you when you have overcome challenges. The effect of that is going to be a big thing.
We're also in 2019 now--so it's not going to necessarily launch this year--but in 2019, the world has moved on tremendously. With Divinity: Original Sin, we've demonstrated that we can make what people call classic RPG values, that we can make modern. You will see a modern version of Baldur's Gate, but it's going to be true to the core of Dungeons & Dragons more than anything. It's going to feature tough decisions, player agency, systems, strong narrative, companions, gather your party.
All those things will be present and you'll be able to play it in single player and in multiplayer, like the original ones, but then in our way and much more evolved than it was back then.
The evolution of games over the past 20 years since the original is obviously going to influence how Baldur's Gate 3 is.
SV: Yeah. We try to not go backwards, but going forwards. I think that we'll be bringing a bunch of new things to the genre also. There's a whole bunch of stuff, ideas that we've been sitting on that we haven't been able to put in our previous games that nobody has put in RPGs. You'll see that come through in Baldur's Gate 3.
When you worked on the original Divinity, was that at all inspired by the Baldur's Gate series?
SV: It's funny that you mention it. Just before that, we made a game called The Lady, The Mage, And The Knight (LMK) which was canceled. And we discovered that Baldur's Gate was in development as we were making LMK. Then obviously it got canceled and it just went on the backburner.
When it came to pitching the first Divinity to publishers, what we told them was that it was a cross between Diablo and Baldur's Gate just to explain to them what the concept was. Yeah, there was definitely some inspiration there. Diablo was the one that had the action RPG focus. Baldur's Gate was more about all the systems and stats that you had, and the party and them joining the exploration. There was a lot more world exploration to Baldur's Gate than you had in Diablo because you could interact with people, you could actually talk to them whereas Diablo was really about the character progression and action.
Being that this series was something that influenced your earliest games, it must feel pretty amazing now to be building the next iteration of that series.
SV: Yeah, it's a very big responsibility. I mean, this is the type of game people have been already defining for themselves what it should be. So, we're going to be fighting against those expectations but we'll make it our way, what we think is the right way of doing it. Then we'll see what the community will say. I think they'll have a lot of fun with it, but yeah. We'll see.
What are you're expecting to come out of the official announcement?
SV: We wanted to talk about it because we've been very bad at keeping it a secret, so that's been clear. We want to start talking to our community also. We've made all of our games together with the community. This will be no different. Obviously, we'll have the entire Dungeons & Dragons community also that we will start engaging with and somehow, together, we're going to evolve towards the RPG that it deserves to be.
Are you doing the same route that you did with Original Sin 2? Are you going with a Kickstarter or are you fully taking this and running with it with some community involvement?
SV: It's not going to be a Kickstarter, that I can tell you. Original Sin 2 was so insanely successful that it wouldn't make sense to take it [Baldur's Gate 3] to Kickstarter, except for the community. We're going to do other things to involve our community and we'll announce them over the coming months.
What stage of development is it in at the moment?
SV: We're in production. This is the biggest RPG we've ever made, so our team is now over 200 people internally and together with all the externals, we're heading over 300 people. It's a very big production. It's the biggest that we've ever done.
Being the biggest RPG you've ever made, do you have an overarching goal of what can you expect to see in terms of scope?
SV: Freedom of choice, agency, that's the key pillar. Whether you're playing single player or in multiplayer, having the freedom to affect the world and the world reacting to your actions as you embark on this fantastic narrative and having many, many different ways to play such that when you talk to one of your friends about how your session went, you say, "Are we playing the same game?" Mostly because of of the choices you make, that's the ideal scenario.
Production values are very high also. Back in the days, Baldur's Gate 1 and 2 were actually accomplishments when you see the size of the world. It has to be the same thing again when you look at it.
Then, lots to explore, right? When you play Baldur's Gate, you were exploring a lot of things, so this has to be the same when you get that feeling of exploration, there's one more thing to discover and say, "Oh my God, that leads to this thing, I didn't expect that." Then preferably, when you get there you'll say, "Oh, because of what I did there, this happened here." Right? If we can get that feeling, then you'll feel as if the adventure is yours or your party's.
Since it's so inspired and based on tabletop Dungeons & Dragons, is that influencing the way you're approaching multiplayer? Is it going to be like you're sitting down with a dungeon master? Or is it going to be a set number of party people?
SV: It's a video game, so you want your video games to react rapidly to what you're doing and you want it to be presented to you in a visual way. A dungeon master appeals a lot to your imagination, so here we have to show things. In that sense, it will be different.
When it comes to multiplayer, you can expect us to make sure just as you have in a traditional tabletop session, each person is they're own hero. We're together as a party, but we each have our own story and we each define parts of what's going to happen in this adventure and maybe some conflicting. That should be very present.
For anyone who's not familiar with Baldur's Gate, as you said before there are people that are new to this franchise, can you kind of break down what we're seeing in the teaser that will catch us up and get us ready for Baldur's Gate 3?
SV: All right. You're seeing the city of Baldur's Gate 3 to start with, which I think is it's first 3D rendition actually, ever done. Then, you see a knight who belongs to a group of mercenaries called The Flaming Fist, who are law and order in the outer sides of the city and into parts of what's called lower city. You have also an upper city part which is where all the rich live in Baldur's Gate. They're governed by somebody else called The Watch.
Then you see that there's been conflict clearly. There's dead bodies everywhere and then something's happening to this knight and he's actually undergoing a version of what we would call accelerated ceremorphosis, which is basically a way of reproduction that these creatures called the mind flayers have.
They stick a tadpole in people's heads, that tadpole grows, and then it turns a human being or any humanoid being into a mind flayers and these are the guys you may know from Stranger Things, maybe. They're these psyonic creatures with tentacles and very intelligent but they're hive creatures. They have elder brains that command them.
They used to have an incredible empire called the Mind Flayer Empire but things went wrong, so they've been in hiding ever since in a place called The Underdark, which is like the deep underground of this world of Forgotten Realms. Somehow, they've managed to get people into Baldur's Gate that are turning into mind flayers and you see some shots where they're flying in the distance, so it's an invasion of mind flayers, too.
In the very last shot, you see that big thing with tentacles, that's called a naulitoid and that's the thing that they used to have when they had their ancient empire. Think of it as a spaceship that was capable of navigating the astral plane, which is...almost like quantum mechanics to explain how that works [laughs].
Yeah, that's what you're seeing. Time to gather the party.
What you're doing in Baldur's Gate 3, is that now influencing the tabletop version of the world of Baldur's Gate?
SV: Yeah, and we worked very closely with Wizards on this and the people that worked on what used to be called Eclipse, Baldur's Gate: Descent Into Avernus. They spent a lot of time with us and we spent a lot of time in their offices.
There's been close collaboration on planting the seeds of what we needed in Descent Into Avernus, which starts just before Baldur's Gate 3 the video game. There's a lot of stuff that you will find in there that you will see referenced back inside of the game and vice versa. There's seeds planted for stuff that will evolve into the video game.
This is one of the first games we've heard about it being on Google Stadia. Can you tell us about how it's going to work on an unknown platform like that?
SV: It's not so unknown for us [laughs]. We've been at it for some time. The thing about Stadia is that it's going to be accessible to anybody, at least if you have Stadia services within the country where you are. It's going to allow you to play the game at really high settings on a very shitty PC, which is going to solve one of the problems that we have with this game because the production values are so high. We've always tried to make the games fairly low specs, so that solves that.
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.
I suppose that's a great way of bringing something like Dungeons & Dragons that's supposed to be accessible to anyone, Stadia seems like a perfect match for that. Like you said, anyone with a shitty PC can still play and get involved.
SV: It democratizes it. I mean, you'll be able to access it anywhere and if you have an RPG which lasts over 100 hours that you play in multiplayer, one of the biggest problems that you have is when can I join my party? When will the party be online together?
If you can access it from anywhere with something like Stadia that will increase the chances that you can be able to continue your adventure together, I think that's a really good thing.
You literally just showed me the teaser but do you have any timeframe whatsoever as to when people can get their hands on Baldur's Gate 3?
SV: When it's ready, yes. You could've seen that one coming [laughs]. We're going to take all the time we need to make this one really, really good. I think people have been waiting for 20 years, so they can afford to wait a little bit longer.
There will be a lot of excitement once people discover it. We've seen some excitement already because of the leak, but I think that it deserves to be really good and I really think my team is capable of delivering.
Numantian Games' They Are Billions has been out for a couple of years already, launching on Steam Early Access back in December 2017. Since then, despite receiving a "very positive" reception on Steam, the post-apocalyptic RTS has lacked a full campaign mode--until now. They Are Billions' campaign will arrive just after E3 for free to those who own the game.
The news comes via a tweet from the independent studio. The campaign for They Are Billions, titled The New Empire, launches on June 18. Check out the official two-minute trailer below.
Alongside the campaign addition, They Are Billions will receive two new scenarios for its Survival Mode: The Deep Forest and The Caustic Lands. The Deep Forest is the easier of the two, while The Caustic Lands will provide more of a challenge with players facing the Doom Colony that can take up to 30 percent of the map, according to the game's Steam store page.
In a separate tweet, Numantian announced that They Are Billions will make its way to PS4 and Xbox One on July 1. Porting studio BlitWorks--who's responsible for ports of Bastion, Fez, Spelunky, Wargroove, and many more--will handle the console port of They Are Billions.
— They Are Billions (@theyarebillions) June 6, 2019
Back in March 2018, we wrote that They Are Billions picks up where Starcraft 2 left off. We said that the game "took the PC world by surprise, providing fantastic real-time strategy elements and a nuanced take on the seemingly endless horde of zombie games," and our editor Mike Mahardy argued that They Are Billions continues the legacy of stellar RTS games like Age of Empires and Command & Conquer.
E3 is just a couple days away. Google already held its Stadia Connect Event, and EA Play starts on Saturday, June 8. The official show kicks off with Xbox's press conference on Sunday, June 9 at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST (6 AM AET on June 10).
The Epic Mega Sale kicked off a few weeks ago with some great discounts on PC games, and it's also been giving away a free game on a weekly basis. The latest freebie is available now: Kingdom: New Lands, which builds on the story and gameplay of 2015's Kingdom. Kingdom: New Lands is selling for $15 elsewhere, but you can claim it at no cost from now until June 13, which is also the last day for the Epic Mega Sale. You'll just need a free Epic account to claim the game.
Kingdom: New Lands released in 2016 as a new, updated version of Kingdom with added content and various gameplay improvements. The game is a kingdom-building simulator where you control a monarch who must build up their kingdom across six unique islands, traveling via boat or various mounts. The screen is two-dimensional, and you can only move the monarch left or right, gathering coins and resources as you go. Exploration is key, but the further you move away from your central kingdom, the more dangerous the environments become.
Starting June 13, Kingdom: New Lands will be replaced by Epic's next free game, Enter the Gungeon. At that point, Epic will resume giving away free titles every two weeks, rather than every week, as it's done during the Mega Sale. So go ahead and grab Kingdom: New Lands while it's available; once it's added to your account, it'll be yours to keep.
And if you haven't checked out the Epic Mega Sale yet, don't miss out on the great PC game deals available for just one more week. The store is offering discounts of up to 75% off some games, and all games over $15 are available for $10 off. That includes pre-orders for upcoming games, like Borderlands 3, Control, and Afterparty.
Last year's reboot of the classic horror Halloween was one of 2018's biggest horror movies, making more than $225 million at the worldwide box office. Given this was already the 11th movie in the long running franchise, it's expected that producers Blumhouse Films will want to make another one. Now, studio boss Jason Blum and star Jamie Lee Curtis have hinted that work has started on a sequel.
Blum posted an image on Twitter of him and Curtis with the caption "We're discussing stuff," as Curtis holds a doll of her character Laurie Strode. While it doesn't necessarily mean they're discussing a new Halloween movie, let's face it, it's a very high possibility. Check it out below:
This isn't the first time that a Halloween sequel has been (possibly) discussed. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly last year, co-writer Danny McBride spoke about how he and director David Gordon Green had initially considered shooting two Halloween movies simultaneously.
"We were going to shoot two of them back-to-back," he said. "Then we were like, 'Well, let's not get ahead of ourselves. This could come out, and everyone could hate us, and we'd never work again. So, let's not have to sit around for a year while we wait for another movie to come out that we know people aren't going to like.' So, we were like, 'Let's learn from this, and see what works, and what doesn't.' But we definitely have an idea of where we would go [with] this branch of the story and hopefully we get a chance to do it."
Curtis herself has spoken about returning to the role that she first played back in 1978, in John Carpenter's hugely influential first Halloween, but admitted that finding a reason for the character to appear in yet another movie might be an issue.
"I'd be happy to do it, sure," she told EW in December. "This 2018 40th anniversary [movie] was Laurie's story, and obviously there are now other people's stories that would need to get told. But Laurie's story was told beautifully this year, and I would have no way of knowing how they would incorporate her into future."
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