Month: February 2019

The Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle movie continues to add to its cast. Singer Nick Jonas has confirmed that he’s coming back to play Alex a second time in the sequel.

“Guess who’s back… Let’s go people!” Jonas wrote on Twitter, referencing his character’s signature line from the first movie. “The Jumanji sequel is on the way and I couldn’t be more excited to bring Alex back to the big screen,” he said.

The character Alex is a pilot who’s been stuck in Jumanji for 20 years. Jonas is best known for his music career with the Jonas Brothers and then his solo career, and he was a standout success in the 2017 Jumanji movie.

All of the other actors from the 2017 movie are coming back, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Jack Black, Kevin Hart, and Karen Gillan. The sequel is adding to its cast with a number of big names, including Awkwafina, Danny Glover, and Danny DeVito, while original director Jake Kasdan is also back to direct.

Welcome to the Jungle was an enormous success, banking more than $962 million on its way to becoming the 43rd biggest movie in the history of film. The Jumanji franchise is based on the Chris Van Allsburg book, and it was first made into a movie in 1995 with Robin Williams in the lead role.

Plot details are under wraps for the Jumanji sequel, but The Rock teased that Kasdan gave a “dynamite pitch” for the plot. The film hits theatres in December 2019.

GameSpot and Ubisoft want Australian readers to join us during the private beta for Tom Clancy’s Division 2 this weekend! It begins this Friday on February 8 at 8pm AEST.

Two main missions are playable, along with five side missions and additional activities in the open world. One of three new Dark Zones will show off The Division 2’s brand of PvPvE action, while you can sample the more organized PvP gameplay in a Conflict game mode named Skirmish.

Additionally, one slice of endgame content is included in the beta: an Invaded mission will unlock on February 9 at 8pm AEST. The test period will cap players’ progress at level 30.

To get access to the code, all you need to do is fill out the form below and follow one of our social media accounts! Along with your access rights, you will be able to invite up to 3 Uplay friends to the Beta.

IMPORTANT: This code will only be valid for the first 1000 people who redeem it. Once its allocation is exhausted it will cease to work.

For more info on The Division 2, including how the new Dark Zones work and how Ubisoft is planning on providing a surprising endgame, you can check out our features and articles on here on GameSpot.

Paramount has announced that it’s halting preproduction on the sequel to the World War Z movie. The sequel was originally scheduled to go into production this year.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the film was put on hold over budgetary issues, and it’s currently unknown whether the movie will resume development at some point or simply be canned completely. This isn’t the first problem the second World War Z movie has faced. Originally directed by J.A. Bayona and scheduled for 2017, the movie lost its director in 2016 and it took a year to secure another one in David Fincher–who Brad Pitt really wanted. Shooting was continuously pushed and rescheduled throughout the following year, before finally settling on a planned production date in spring/early-summer 2019.

2013’s World War Z is a movie adaption, starring Brad Pitt, of Max Brooks’ 2006 novel of the same name. The novel is a collection of accounts from various people of different social, religious, and political backgrounds that survived a zombie apocalypse that occurred 17 years prior to the narrative’s present day events. As opposed to a recollection of past events from multiple perspectives, the World War Z movie takes place during the zombie apocalypse from one perspective, and tells a more action-focused story about one man’s efforts to find a means for humanity to survive the plague.

Despite the differences, the movie was mostly well-received. However, it too faced considerable production difficulties. The film went massively over-budget and was consistently behind schedule in terms of development, resulting in the release being delayed by several months. Nevertheless, the movie still managed to made $540 million worldwide, making it the most successful zombie movie of all time.

Lawmakers from Pennsylvania have put forth a bill that proposes a 10% excise tax on violent video games. House Bill 109 seeks to impose the so-called “sin tax” on games sold at retail that are rated by the ESRB as M for Mature or Adults-Only. The money would go into a fund called the “Digital Protection for School Safety Account” that aims to enhance security measures at schools in the wake of the school shootings in Parkland, Florida and Newtown, Connecticut.

State representative Chris Quinn, a republican, initially put forth the bill in 2018, but it never made it out of committee during the 2018 legislative session. The new version is similarly worded.

The 10 percent tax would be in addition to applicable state and local taxes. The sales tax rate in Pennsylvania is 6%, which means a standard $60 game costs around $64. With the extra 10 percent tax on violent games, the cost of an M-rated game like Red Dead Redemption 2 would make the game end up costing about $70.

Explaining the bill last year, Quinn said violent video games might be an element in the rise of school shootings in America. “One factor that may be contributing to the rise in, and intensity of, school violence is the material kids see, and act out, in video games,” he said.

Quinn cited the National Center for Health Research’s statement that studies demonstrate a link between violent video games and increases in aggressive thoughts and behaviors. Quinn’s comments conveniently leave out the same statement’s disclaimer that other factors like mental illness, access to weapons, and adverse environments should be considered as other risk factors. Not only that, but the National Center for Health Research’s own reporting states that studies have not shown that aggression leads to increased instances of deadly violence or criminal activity.

Expectedly, the Entertainment Software Association, which lobbies on behalf of the video game industry, is taking a hard line against this bill. In a statement to Variety, the ESA the bill is a violation of the US Constitution.

“Numerous authorities–including scientists, medical professionals, government agencies, and the US Supreme Court–found that video games do not cause violence,” it said. “We encourage Pennsylvania legislators to work with us to raise awareness about parental controls and the ESRB video game rating system, which are effective tools to ensure parents maintain control over the video games played in their home.”

After the Sandy Hook shooting, a lawmaker from Connecticut proposed a similar tax in 2013. Also that year, a state representative from Missouri proposed a sales tax on games rated M and above. In both cases, the funds would have gone towards mental health programs. However, the bills never became law.

With Season 7 of Fortnite winding down and a new season on the horizon, strange phenomena have once again begun occurring in the hit battle royale game. Epic Games typically heralds the arrival of each new season with some kind of world-changing event, so this isn’t entirely surprising. This time, however, the developer is literally shaking things up, as players have begun to experience earthquakes while playing.

Following the release of game’s 7.30 update, dataminers discovered audio files indicating some sort of earthquake event would occur in the game (via Fortnite Insider). It appears the tremors have started, as players on Twitter and Reddit are posting clips of the map spontaneously quaking in the middle of a match.

The aforementioned audio files were labeled as “small,” “med,” and “lrg,” suggesting the tremors players are experiencing in the game will only continue to grow in strength as we approach Season 8. As for what they could mean for the new season, that remains anyone’s guess at this point, although it’ll likely result in some portion of the map being dramatically transformed.

Season 7 of Fortnite is set to end on February 28 according to Epic’s website, which means you only have a little time left to complete any outstanding challenges and unlock this season’s skins and other rewards. If you need help mopping up any remaining tasks, you can find tips and guides in our complete Season 7 challenges roundup.

In other Fortnite news, Epic recently rolled out the game’s 7.30 content update, which introduced another new item to the game: Bottle Rockets. The developer also tweaked environmental campfires so they can be lit to restore health and kicked off another limited-time mode.