Month: April 2018

We’re slowly learning and seeing more of the new Spider-Man game for PlayStation 4 from Ratchet & Clank developer Insomniac Games. Today, some fresh gameplay footage from superhero action game swung in, showing off a new look at Peter Parker/Spider-Man in combat, traversing the city, and the cool camera angles that Insomniac is using to give Spidey a sense of speed and momentum. The footage comes by way of a Game Informer video in which developers discuss the game briefly.

They talk about how you’ll be playing as a more experienced Spider-Man, one who swings around Manhattan “with style and confidence.” They wanted to make a Spider-Man who is capable and confident in his abilities, and is able to smoothly switch between shooting webs, swinging around, and in melee combat. The developers use the terms “speed,” “style,” “flow,” and “fluidity” to describe their goals for Spider-Man’s movements. Also in the video, the developers discuss how, although Spider-Man is older and more refined, this is still an underdog story that will see the character overcoming the odds to win the day.

Insomniac’s Spider-Man game was announced at E3 2016, and has since been confirmed to be a standalone experience not directly tied to any new Spider-Man movies.

“I think we’ve been inspired by all the different mediums that Marvel has, whether it’s film, animation, live-action, comic books, even t-shirts,” Marvel Games creative director Bill Rosemann said previously. “So we’re looking at everything and we’re blending it all together. But it’s standalone; all-new story, all new world. We’re always stretching, we’re always challenging, we’re always moving the characters forward.”

Insomniac says its open world will be much larger than that of one of its previous games, Sunset Overdrive. There’s no release date at this time, but the game is confirmed for 2018.

The Lord of the Rings is one of the biggest and best known media properties on the planet, so it’s no surprise that companies are looking to license it for their own endeavours. Amazon reportedly paid The Tolkien Estate $250 million for the rights alone to The Lord of the Rings for its upcoming TV show. And now, a report claims that theme park giant Universal is considering adding a Lord of the Rings area to its upcoming fourth park in Florida.

This information comes by way of the Disney & More blog, which itself says it received the information from a “reliable insider source.” Additionally, SlashFilm reports that the blog has accurately reported on unannounced theme park news in the past. That being said, this is far from official at this stage, though it is exciting to think about.

This is not the first time we’ve heard about a potential Lord of the Rings theme park. All the way back in 2010, a survey reportedly from Universal asked respondents if they would be interested in a theme park and attractions that let them travel to Middle-earth.

One part of the survey reportedly contained the following language:

“Imagine if you will a world unlike any you’ve ever visited before: it’s Middle Earth, the ancient and beautiful land forged by J.R.R. Tolkien as the backdrop for his two most well known creations, Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit. Walk as a human among dwarves, elves, orcs and hobbits–all faithfully recreated and portrayed in the spirit of the original characters as they appeared in both the books and the movies. In this land you’ll experience one-of-a-kind rides and attractions that bring to life some of the most memorable experiences of Tolkien’s world including Bilbo’s hobbit hole, the fortress at Isengard (before it was destroyed) and even the dark world of Mordor — including the terrifying volcanic Mount Doom.”

According to Disney & More’s source, Universal’s fourth park is codenamed Project 314. In addition to The Lord of the Rings, the fourth park could be home to the already announced Super Nintendo World area. The blog adds that Universal is trying to work with The Pokemon Company to add Pokemon to the Super Nintendo World.

The report goes on to claim that Universal is considering a new Harry Potter area called “Ministry of Magic,” themed around the Fantastic Beasts franchise. Universal already has a major Harry Potter zone in the form of the Wizarding World of Harry Potter. A new Jurassic Park/World ride is reportedly being considered for the fourth park as well.

Disney & More’s source said Universal is working “full speed ahead” on its fourth park, with the estimate currently that the park would open before 2023-2024. Another interesting element to this story is that, if the park is indeed happening, that would put some kind of pressure on Disney–which has a major park very close to Universal’s–to create new attractions and experiences.

If there’s one character who represents Mortal Kombat as an iconic video game franchise, it’s Scorpion. The yellow ninja has been around since its inception, which means he’s been dishing out fatalities for well over 25 years. We took a look at how those gory finishers have evolved, and what can we say? The man loves fire.

Scorpion has evolved as a character in that time, becoming an undead ninja specter and arch-nemesis of fellow ninja Sub-Zero. It’s only fitting that his deadly moves revolve primarily around fire: setting his foes on fire, spitting fire, blowing fire, puncturing a basketball-sized hole through their chest with fire, and so on. It’s best not to think too much about the physics of how these toasty skeletons stay standing as he chars them to a crisp.

But what’s a ninja without a weapon? As the character evolved he became less reliant on his spicy breath and more on his signature sword. All this culminates in a fatality from Mortal Kombat X that is so gross we recommend not eating for two hours before watching it. Check it out, along with all the others, in the video above.

A Metal Gear Solid movie is coming. It’s being directed by Kong Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts, who is saying all the right things about making the movie the right away. It’s too early to say if it’ll break the video game movie curse, but it sounds like Vogt-Roberts gets it. And it’s encouraging to know he’s been working alongside–or at least consulting with–Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima on the film early in the production process. That can only help.

He recently held a video meeting Kojima to presumably discuss the film, and yeah, that’s all well and good. But the bigger, more important story here is the mug that Kojima brought to the meeting. Vogt-Roberts shared a screencap of his video session with Kojima, and this includes the odd-looking mug. We thought about it, and are wondering if that is some kind of crazy lid on top? To keep the drink hot? And the design itself–what’s that all about? Please help us understand.

If you have any thoughts on this Very Serious And Important Topic, please leave them in the comments below. We’ll update this post accordingly as new information becomes available.

On a more serious note, in August last year, Vogt-Roberts told GameSpot that the Metal Gear movie was undergoing a re-working of the script to make it more in line with what fans want to see. He recalled an important meeting with Sony Pictures executives where they took on board his thoughts about how the movie, at the time, might have been going down the wrong path.

“I was able to go to them and say, ‘Let’s stop where we are, because I think we’re heading down a direction that doesn’t fully capture why people love this game, what Kojima’s voice is, why people who have played this game for decades love it, why people who have never played this game will love it,'” Vogt-Roberts said. “I was able to say, ‘Let’s really think about whether we’re making the truest, most balls-to-the-wall Metal Gear version of this–the most Kojima version of this. And even if that means we make it for a little bit less money, let’s make the version of this that’s true to what it is, fully committed to what Kojima’s voice is.'”

Vogt-Roberts, who is clearly passionate and knowledgable about the Metal Gear Solid franchise, also told GameSpot about why he thinks video game movies have come up short over the years.

“I think that [filmmakers] have looked at a video game movie and said, ‘Oh, that’s flashy! That’s cool!’…and there’s very little desire to really understand the tone and the atmosphere,” he said. “A big part of it is not fully committing to the source material, being able to say ‘No, this is what makes this great, so let’s figure out how we translate it.'”

It is still early days for the Metal Gear solid movie. There is no word on a release date or cast, but of course we will be covering all the news about it, so keep checking back for more. Vogt-Roberts has some familiarity with video game productions, as he directed the Destiny 2 New Legends Will Rise live-action video.

As for the Metal Gear series, the latest installment is Metal Gear Survive, which launched in February to a tepid critical reception. It was the first new release in the long-running series following Kojima’s departure from Konami. Kojima is now working on the PS4 game Death Stranding with the new version of his studio Kojima Productions.

The last we heard, Insomniac said its new Spider-Man game will launch on PlayStation 4 at some point in 2018, but when exactly will it come out this year? We’ll know soon, apparently. According to Insomniac, the game’s release date will be announced tomorrow, April 4, as part of the magazine Game Informer‘s May issue.

The release date will apparently be announced when Game Informer‘s digital issue for May goes live at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET tomorrow.

Game Informer‘s new issue will have new details on the new Spider-Man game’s open world, its missions, side quests, and collectibles. The magazine is also promising new information on the game’s controls and combat, as well as upgrades and customization like suit crafting. The magazine will also confirm the names of the villains in the game. In all, the magazine will have 14 pages dedicated to the new Spider-Man game.

Keep checking back with GameSpot to find out the game’s release date and more details as they are announced. While we wait for the release date, you can check out some brand-new Spider-Man PS4 gameplay footage right here.