Month: July 2019

In a recent dev diary video, Bungie revealed that the Moon in Destiny 2 will be fairly different from the one that players remember from the original game. Though you’ll notice similar landmarks and structures, the Moon in the upcoming Destiny 2: Shadowkeep expansion will be roughly twice the size of the one you could explore in Destiny.

“In Shadowkeep, the Moon is entirely changed,” Destiny 2 art lead Mike Poe said. “It’s completely remastered. There have been a bunch of changes, both large and small, for players to experience and find.” Destiny 2 design lead Ben Wommack added, “We have about double the amount of space. There’s more than twice as many places you can go.”

Most of the changes are the result of a new Hive castle on the surface of the Moon, which acts as a stronghold for the enemy faction. The Fallen have also created a new base for themselves on the Moon by utilizing the remains of a destroyed starship. Poe added that several structures that were previously inaccessible on Destiny’s Moon will be explorable in Destiny 2: Shadowkeep.

The lighting used in the different locations on the Moon has been adjusted as well. “In [Destiny 1], the lighting is a little more clean-cut,” Poe said. “We went with a lot more saturated colors in some spaces. But in [Destiny 2], we were trying to give this feeling of desaturation and general spookiness. We wanted it to feel a little more mysterious.”

It’s this theme of mystery and discovery that lies at the heart of players’ return to the Moon in Shadowkeep. “There’s so much we don’t know about the Moon,” Destiny 2 senior writer Adam Miller said. “I think a lot of [Shadowkeep] is about mystery.” Poe added, “One of the things we really liked about the Moon in Destiny 1 was that it brought in this element of spacefaring and the height of humanity, the height of where we landed as humans before the Collapse. So there’s a lot of stories that we’re telling about the history of humanity here. The people that built the Accelerator. The people that built all these structures on the Moon. Like what happened to them, where did they go?”

Destiny 2’s creepy Shadowkeep expansion launches on September 17, coming to Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

Paramount Pictures used the occasion of San Diego Comic-Con to release the first trailer for its sequel to the 1980s classic Top Gun, titled Top Gun: Maverick. The movie stars Tom Cruise, reprising his role as Pete Mitchell, now an aging fighter pilot Captain who has refused promotions and seems to prefer staying in the air.

Tom Cruise took the stage at SDCC to introduce the trailer–watch it above–and explained the practical effects as well as his outlook on the significance of the Top Gun franchise.

“Everything you see in this movie is for real,” he said. “The flying, you know, we’re working with the Navy. All the flying you see in this picture is real. I really wanted to give you the experience of what it’s like to be inside that aircraft. For me, Top Gun is about competition. It’s about family, it’s about sacrifice, it’s about heroism, it’s about aviation. It’s a love letter to aviation.”

Alongside the trailer, Paramount has also released a poster for the film. In the distance, we see a jet flying in the sky; more prominently, the back of a jacket adorned with various Navy patches can be seen on a character standing inside of a hangar. Check it out below.

Maverick is directed by Joseph Kosinski, who previously directed another Cruise film, Oblivion. Alongside Cruise, the movie stars Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Lewis Pullman, and Ed Harris. It releases in theaters on June 26, 2020.

To make sure you keep up with all the revelations out of Comic-Con, keep up with our schedule of the biggest panels, including several Marvel panels.

In more recent years, Kevin Smith has been branching out beyond the comedies that made him famous with horror movies such as Red State and Tusk. But he returns to the characters for which he’s best known later this year with Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, a sequel to 2000’s Jay & Silent Bob Strike Back. The first trailer has now been revealed.

The plot sees our stoner heroes–played by Smith and Jason Mewes–heading to Hollywood in an attempt to stop a reboot of that earlier movie happening–in true Kevin Smith style, this looks like a very self-referential film. Along the way, there are appearances from lots of actors who have appeared in Smith’s previous movies, including Jason Lee, Shannon Elizabeth, Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Rosario Dawson, Jason Biggs, Justin Long, and Craig Robinson. There’s also an appearance from Chris Hemsworth. It looks like exactly the same brand of foul-mouthed pop-culture referencing comedy that has won Smith such a fan following over the years. Check it out below.

Jay & Silent Bob Reboot will be released into theaters for two nights only in October. The movie is set to screen in more 600 theaters on Tuesday, October 15, 2019 and Thursday, October 17. The second set of screenings will be part of a double bill with Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, Smith spoke about his intention behind the new movie. “It’s a statement on where we are, in terms of remakes, reboots, and sequels,” he said. “Pokes fun at the business. Pokes fun at remakes sequels and reboots while being all three of them at the same time.”

Epic dedicated itself to giving away free games on a weekly basis earlier this summer, and the PC game store is continuing that practice with this week’s latest freebie: Limbo, a 2D side-scrolling platformer where you play as an unnamed young boy in a surreal, monochromatic world. Limbo is free to claim now through next Thursday, July 25–and once you add the game to your account, it’s yours to keep forever.

If you don’t already have a free Epic Games account, you’ll need to create one before you can claim this free game and any future ones. Epic already has a track record of giving away some great games, so you’re not losing anything by setting up an account and keeping an eye on their weekly giveaways.

If you’re unfamiliar with Limbo, here’s the gist of it: The acclaimed indie game is a puzzle-platformer with a dark, eerie environment presented in black-and-white tones. At the beginning of the game, the unnamed boy wakes up in the middle of a forest and embarks on a journey to look for his sister. Dying is a huge part of solving puzzles in Limbo–the developers call it a “trial-and-death” experience–and the environment is lethal, with bear traps, glowing worms, a giant spider, and other creepy monsters lurking around. Its plot and ending are intentionally left vague and open-ended, but the game, which earned a 9/10 in GameSpot’s Limbo review, is absolutely worth experiencing, especially for free. And if you enjoy Limbo, you should check out its successor, Inside.

Get Limbo for free at Epic

Even if Limbo isn’t your thing, check back next week, because Epic will be offering two free games instead of just one: Moonlighter and This War of Mine. And while PC games are on your mind, be sure to check out Green Man Gaming’s sitewide sale, which launched this week with deep discounts on thousands of Steam keys for games like Frostpunk, Resident Evil 2, Devil May Cry 5, Monster Hunter World, Warhammer: Vermintide 2, and more.

The PC specs for Control have been revealed through the game’s Epic Games Store page. The minimum requirements for the game aren’t that high, so you’ll most likely be able to run Control on your PC without much issue if that’s the machine you normally use for gaming.

On PC, Control is a limited-time Epic Games Store exclusive. During GDC 2019, publisher 505 Games revealed Control has a similar arrangement to other titles on the Epic Games Store and will only be exclusive for a year. Control will release on additional PC storefronts, like Steam, in Summer 2020. To see whether or not your machine can run the game, check out Control’s PC specs below.

Minimum Requirements

• OS: Windows 7, 64-bit
• Processor: Intel Core i5-7500 / AMD Ryzen 3 1300X
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 / AMD RX580
• RAM: 8 GB

Recommended

• OS: Windows 10, 64-bit
• Processor: Intel i5-8600K / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
• Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080Ti / AMD Radeon VII
• RAM: 16 GB

Developed by Remedy Entertainment, Control stars Jesse Faden, a woman who possesses supernatural powers and is trying to discover the location of her kidnapped younger brother, Dylan. Her quest leads her to the Federal Bureau of Control, a government organization that contains and studies people and objects that defy known science. Upon entering the FBC, Jesse discovers that the organization is under attack and that the bureau’s director has been killed. Jesse is chosen as the next director by the supernaturally-powered Service Weapon, a shapeshifting firearm, and tasked with defending the bureau from an otherworldly threat.

Control’s story is convoluted, and perhaps Remedy Entertainment’s most interesting and intriguing mystery since 2010’s Alan Wake. After playing the game for an hour, we still have absolutely no idea what’s going on. This is by design though. Remedy developed Control’s story to be fairly deep and explore a variety of themes, trusting that players will be willing to slowly piece together the unreal narrative.

Scheduled to release on August 27, Control will launch on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

The latest attempt to revitalize the Terminator franchise is looking to tap into some of that classic Terminator 2 magic. Edward Furlong, the actor who played John Connor in the 1991 film, is being brought back for the same role in the upcoming Terminator: Dark Fate. The news was shared at the start of the movie’s San Diego Comic-Con panel.

Dark Fate will reunite Furlong with his T2 co-stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton, the latter of which is also making her first appearance in a Terminator movie in decades. Schwarzenegger has been regularly featured in subsequent films, including the aforementioned Genisys. During the panel, we learned that producer James Cameron insisted on Schwarzenegger’s involvement with the movie as a condition of his return to the series.

Furlong played Connor in only a single movie; later iterations have recast him depending on how old he was meant to be. Other actors to take on the role include Nick Stahl (Terminator 3), Christian Bale (Terminator Salvation), and Jason Clarke (Genisys). Furlong has continued acting over the past few decades, though Terminator 2 remains his defining role.

The SDCC panel featured a live call-in from Cameron, who is currently at work on the Avatar 2 set. Among other things, we learned that Dark Fate will carry an R rating in the United States. The last movie in the series, Terminator Genisys, was rated PG-13.

Dark Fate releases on November 1 and is directed by Deadpool’s Tim Miller.