September 2019 – Page 19

The Irishman Trailer Delivers De-Aged De Niro And Epic Gangster Thrills

The full trailer for The Irishman is here. The long-awaited crime drama stars Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, and is directed by Martin Scorsese. It’s set to hit the streaming service in November.

The Irishman tells the real-life story of Frank Sheeran, a union man who also allegedly worked as a contract killer. De Niro plays Sheeran, with Pacino as notorious union boss Jimmy Hoffa and Pesci as mobster Russell Bufalino. The new trailer shows how Sheeran works his way through Hoffa’s ranks, and, unlike last month’s first trailer, showcases the extensive de-aging technology used on the three main stars. Check it out below.

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The Irishman also stars Ray Romano, Anna Paquin, Bobby Cannavale, Harvey Keitel, and Stephen Graham. It’s penned by by Steven Zaillian, who also wrote Schindler’s List, American Gangster, and David Fincher’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The movie will receive a limited theatrical release from November 1, before it hits Netflix on November 27.

The extensive VFX work required to de-age the actors meant that the film required nearly two years of post-production. According to Deadline, the final budget is around $200 million, making it the most expensive movie of Scorsese’s career.

For more, check out GameSpot’s guide to new movies to get excited for this fall.

PS4’s Death Stranding Has Gone Gold

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Death Stranding, the hotly-anticipated PS4 exclusive, has gone gold, meaning development has been completed. Director Hideo Kojima shared the news on Twitter, posting an image of a master disc copy.

In his tweet, Kojima paid tribute to his staff and partners, including Sony and Guerrilla Games, whose Decima engine powers Death Stranding. Kojima also thanked the musicians, actors, artists, and more.

Of course, in modern games, development often goes on well beyond launch thanks to DLC, patches, and so on, but this is nevertheless a big milestone. It means work can now begin on producing the millions of discs to be sent to retailers and that we’re now within touching distance of the game’s release date of November 8.

With just weeks to go until launch, Sony has revealed a new limited edition Death Stranding-themed PS4 Pro console, for which pre-orders are available now. For more on the mysterious game, check out our explainer on Death Stranding’s plot, characters, gameplay, and more.

GTA Online: New Survival Maps, GTA$1M Giveaway This Week

This week in GTA Online, get GTA$1M to celebrate GTA Online’s anniversary and enjoy seven new Survival maps.

Fortnite Ready or Not Challenges and Rewards

Are you ready…or not?

Ring Fit Adventure Hands-On Preview

Nintendo’s newest innovation is a Joy-Con enabled Pilates ring that connects to an action-RPG – but you’re performing the actions.

We sent Josh Du to test out not only the game itself, but whether it provides a good workout – you can check out the preview in the video above.

Along the way, we even find out some extra little details, from how the Joy-Con R is used as a heart rate monitor, to off-screen workout tracking, to machine washable grips for the sweaty-palmed among us.

Save Big on PS4 Pro, Nintendo Switch, and More Amazon Warehouse Items

Amazon is running a terrific deal that gets you an extra 20% off tons of Amazon Warehouse (used) items, including video games, consoles, and accessories. As a result, you can nab deals like a Nintendo Switch for around $200, or a PS4 Pro for $270. The discount appears at checkout.

Inventory is limited, so you’ll want to hurry to take advantage of any deal you see. You’ll also want to pay attention to the item’s condition, and make sure the seller is Amazon Warehouse.

You can check out the list of video game items, or read on to see some of the highlights. And remember, the 20% is taken off at checkout, so the final price is lower than the price shown on the product page.

The OnePlus 7T Gives You High-End Smartphone Specs for $600

A few months ago, OnePlus introduced a whopper of an Android phone with the OnePlus 7 Pro, but we never got its smaller sibling, the regular OnePlus 7, here in the states. Well, now OnePlus is announcing we’re all getting a new OnePlus 7T complete with a 90Hz screen, triple camera setup, and a new processor.

The OnePlus 7T really is a better OnePlus 7 Pro squeezed into a smaller package. The phone has been upgraded with 90Hz Fluid AMOLED display that also hits a 1,000-nit peak brightness to meet the latest HDR10+ certification.

Why The Last of Us Part 2 Isn’t Open World

Naughty Dog didn’t intend to make its biggest game ever with The Last of Us Part II, back according to Creative Director (and co-writer) Neil Druckmann, the ambitions of the story necessitated it.

“We didn’t set out to make the biggest game we’ve ever done, we set out to tell this really ambitious story that became the biggest game we’ve ever done. And that’s why we took as long as we have,” Druckmann told me after my recent hands-on time with The Last of Us Part II.

“The story we laid out four years ago is really complex, has a large cast of characters. The core of it is simple, but where it goes and the twist and turns are complex,” he said. “We needed more time for cinematics, we needed more locations, we needed more types of enemies. So the scope of it kept growing.”

The Last of Us Part 2 Creative Director on Joel’s Role in the Sequel

The Last of Us Part II’s release date trailer gave us our first proper look at the first game’s protagonist, Joel, as he appears in the upcoming sequel. And given Joel’s relative absence in footage so far, as well as in the more than two hours I played of The Last of Us Part II, I was curious if that implied a downsized role or importance in the sequel.

So while speaking to Neil Druckmann, Naughty Dog Vice President and Creative Director of The Last of Us Part 2, I asked whether we should take Joel’s smaller role so far as indicative of his importance to Ellie in the sequel. Watch the video above to see his full response, plus some new gameplay from the sequel.

“Their relationship is strained. Some of it is because teenagers will be teenagers, and some of it is because of their history, which is why you haven’t seen them together a lot,” he said. “So much of The Last of Us is about this duo and their dynamic and how they are together, how they play together. I will say Joel plays a major part of this game.”

The Last of Us Part 2: What We Think After 2 Hours of Play

After just over two hours of my first hands-on time with The Last of Us Part 2, I finished my last encounter, and let out one of the longest-held breaths of my gaming life. Following many tense battles with clickers and humans alike, I’m absolutely confident in Naughty Dog’s impressive, brutal combat, set in a richly-detailed world. And I’m equally intrigued by the teases of The Last of Us Part 2’s story I glimpsed throughout my demo, including a knockout performance by returning lead Ashley Johnson as Ellie.

This preview for The Last of Us Part 2 will clearly mark story-focused elements, for those who wish to know nothing about the narrative content shown in our demo. Also, be sure to watch the video preview above, which features new gameplay from The Last of Us Part 2.