If you’re going to be alone this Valentine’s Day, or if your partner also wants to spend your time together gaming, PlayStation has you covered. At least we think that’s what the latest PlayStation commercial is trying to say among its odd dystopian imagery.
In “Feel the Power of PlayStation,” a group of armed men are sent into an abandoned facility with attack dogs, rappelling down into the darkness to uncover a secret below. They encounter no enemies, but after busting open a door they encounter rows of disembodied hearts. They’re still pumping as if they’re connected to a Matrix-style mainframe, but PlayStation 4 consoles replace the computers.
Are PlayStation consoles powered by human hearts? Hopefully not literally, but the imagery does have some connection to Valentine’s Day. It isn’t the most romantic, however, as there aren’t any flowers or chocolates in the entire commercial. The hearts want what the hearts want.
Sony is no stranger to strange campaigns for its PlayStation consoles. These have included PlayStation 3commercials with creepy baby dolls, eggs, and a floating Rubik’s cube. It’s still not entirely clear what they were supposed to convey, but they did grab our attention.
The latest PlayStation 4 exclusive, Dreams, arrives for its full release on February 14. You can create essentially any type of game using its tools, including a romantic gesture for your loved ones if our best Valentine’s Day gifts don’t cut it. The game previously launched in early access in 2019, and its pre-made campaign was designed using the same tools players have.
League of Legends developer Riot Games has been cagey with its team-based shooter “Project A” ever since the studio announced the game’s existence back in October 2019, but some information is starting to trickle out. Recently, Riot invited former Counter-Strike player Henry Greer (who goes by “HenryG”) to play a build of the game at its EU headquarters, and he had some interesting details to offer.
In a lengthy tweet-thread, Greer said that Project A resembles CS at a fundamental mechanical level, describing it as a 5-on-5 tactical shooter with elements of hero shooters like Overwatch and Apex Legends. He said that Project A has “super slick and satisfying” gameplay, while also noting that the mode he played was clearly inspired by Counter-Strike’s popular Defuse game type.
However, while Project A features character-specific abilities, such as enhanced movement abilities, Greer opined that these powers tend more toward utility than what he dubs the “overpowered spell/ultimate combinations that other class-based games suffer from.” In the current build, most of these powers are purchased with the same currency that you purchase guns with a la Counter-Strike, meaning that there’s a lot more room for strategic flexibility.
Given the fact that Greer is a former professional CS player himself, his opinions should be taken with a grain of salt, since it’s clear that Riot is patterning much of Project A on Valve’s ultra-popular shooter. That said, if it can truly excite the hordes of players who log onto Counter-Strike: Global Offensive every day, then it might have a fighting chance in the crowded shooter market.
After eight years away, EA is returning the Need for Speed franchise to Burnout developer Criterion Games. Current franchise leader Ghost Games is set to become EA Gothenburg once again.
“With a strong history and passion for racing games and vision for what we can create, the Criterion team is going to take Need for Speed into the next-generation,” EA said in a statement to Gamesindustry.biz.
All of this leaves Ghost Games to refocus, as the studio becomes an engineering hub supporting development across EA’s other projects. “The engineering expertise in our Gothenburg team, some of whom are architects of the Frostbite engine, is vital to a number of our ongoing projects, and they would remain in that location,” EA said.
The publisher is looking to transfer the creative team at Ghost Games to positions at Criterion and other studios within the organisation, but 30 roles still remain at risk. “Outside of the engineers and those that we plan to transfer to other positions, there would be 30 additional staff in Gothenburg, and we would hope to place as many of them as possible into other roles in the company.”
One of the key reasons for the change comes down to location. “Despite our best efforts to establish an independent development group in Gothenburg over several years, it’s become clear that the breadth of talent we need to maintain a full AAA studio is just not available to us there,” EA explained. Criterion is based in Guildford, which is one of the biggest hubs for the UK’s game development scene.
Much like the beginning of this generation, the Need for Speed series is moving house as the next-gen draws near. Criterion is a very different studio to the one that developed Most Wanted, with studio founders Alex Ward and Fiona Sperry departing in 2014. Nevertheless, it’s still exciting to see the studio back making a game that’s wholly its own, not to mention the first Need for Speed game for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
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Ubisoft has announced that The Division 2 will return to New York City for its upcoming Warlords of New York expansion, but you can visit Big Apple tourist destination Coney Island now if you’re a season pass holder. Episode 3 goes to the Brooklyn neighborhood for a new story and gear.
The episode is called “Homecoming” and like the other episodic DLC, it’s exclusive to season pass holders first. It adds a new (returning) faction, the Cleaners, along with two main missions, and two classified assignments. It also adds two new weapons: the Honey Badger, and an exotic assault rifle that changes color with your surroundings called The Chameleon. The mission takes agents to Coney Island to rescue a renowned scientist from the Black Tusk faction.
This seems to be laying the groundwork for a more complete return to New York for the Warlords expansion. That will mark the beginning of the Year 2 content, and will be sold as a standalone expansion for $30. It has the agents pursuing series antagonist Aaron Keener through Lower Manhattan. It will also overhaul some major game systems including the loot and power level grind.
Have you been missing the spooky porcelain doll-boy, Brahms, from the horror film The Boy? If so, you’ll be delighted to see there’s a sequel coming at the end of February, and one trailer has already arrived. Now, a second trailer for Brahms: The Boy II has arrived, but this movie comes off as more of a comedy than anything else.
The new trailer for Brahms: The Boy 2, which you can see below–if you dare–transcends horror to become a straight-up festival of laughs. Maybe it’s the rhyming story driving the unintentionally comedic elements to the trailer. Or maybe it’s that every jump-scare within the trailer is downright silly. Check it out for yourself.
In 2016’s The Boy, a woman moves from the US to a small town in the UK to be a nanny for a child. However, there is no child, only the doll named Brahms–which represented the child who died in the house years prior. Of course, things get spooky for the nanny as Brahms mysteriously appears and disappears throughout the film, and the audience is led to believe Brahms is a haunted doll.
However–spoiler alert for The Boy–Brahms wasn’t a doll haunted by a spooky ghost. The child that supposedly died is now an adult and living in the walls of the house. He was the one moving the doll around and creating the supposed supernatural elements of the film. That’s a pretty rad twist for what is ultimately a middle-of-the-road horror film.
The spooky doll followup seems to retcon that idea, giving Brahms supernatural powers of some sort. Sure, that could also be another swerve for the audience, but at this point, spooky dolls just ain’t what they used to be. Brahms: The Boy 2 stars Katie Holmes, Christopher Convery, Owain Yeoman, and Ralph Ineson. The sequel will be once again directed by William Brent Bell.
Brahms: The Boy 2 arrives in theaters on February 21. And if creepy dolls are your thing, check out our list of the scariest dolls in horror.
The whodunit homage Knives Out is officially getting a sequel, but what to call it? The official Twitter account requested title suggestions from fans, and has gotten a flurry of responses from the silly to the sincere. But mostly silly.
“Alright we need title suggestions for the sequel!” the tweet reads. “Drop em!” The result is a critical mass of replies, likes, and retweets. One suggestion is “KNIIVES OUT” to form the Roman numeral 2. Other popular suggestions include Knives In, and Knives Out 2: No Forks Given. You can see some of our favorite cheeky suggestions below.
Alright we need title suggestions for the sequel! Drop em! 👇
Knives Out was Rian Johnson’s follow-up to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but far from a special effects blockbuster. Instead he went for an ensemble mystery in the style of Agatha Christie, complete with a central detective character. Johnson announced that character, Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) will return for the sequel, but the rest of the cast is up in the air.
Johnson compared Blanc to Christie’s Hercule Poirot character, who was featured in several mystery novels with different surrounding characters–most famously Murder on the Orient Express. For more on Knives Out, check out GameSpot’s Knives Out review.
Put Those Knives Back Where They Came From Or So Help Me
Wes Anderson is one of the most idiosyncratic directors working today. His movies are marked by a mix of offbeat humour, stunning production design, and amazing ensemble casts. Films such as The Royal Tenenbaums, Moonrise Kingdom, and The Grand Budapest Hotel have given him a hugely dedicated fanbase over the years. Anderson’s latest movie is The French Dispatch, and the first trailer has been released.
The title of the film refers to an American magazine operating out of a French city during the mid-20th century. Bill Murray plays the owner, and the movie is divided into three stories, all based on articles that are being written and researched for the publication. The trailer delivers everything you’d want from a Wes Anderson movie, and while it’s hard to keep up with the sheer number of famous faces appearing in just over two minutes, it all looks gloriously entertaining. Check it out below:
The French Dispatch hits theaters on July 24. Its cast also includes (deep breath)…
In an interview last year, Anderson provided a few details about the movie’s themes. “The story is not easy to explain,” he said, via The Playlist. “[It’s about an] American journalist based in France [who] creates his magazine. It is more a portrait of this man, of this journalist who fights to write what he wants to write. It’s not a movie about freedom of the press, but when you talk about reporters you also talk about what’s going on in the real world.”
The rosters of the upcoming Disney+ MCU TV shows just keep growing. After the addition of Owen Wilson, Loki has gained a new cast member in Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Variety reported. She will join Tom Hiddleston and Sophia Di Martino in the God of Mischief’s very-own solo spin-off, hitting the streaming service next spring. Thus far, there is no confirmation as to who Mbatha-Raw will be playing, but it could be that she’s playing an employee or associate of the TVA organization confirmed to be involved in the show during the Super Bowl spot.
Not much is known about Loki aside from the fact that the show will be spinning directly out of Avengers: Endgame where we last saw the trickster escape from SHIELD custody with the Tesseract during all the time-traveling chaos. The specific powers of the Tesseract have never actually been confirmed in the MCU, but given that it contains the Space Stone, we can assume it teleported Loki somewhere in space rather than somewhere in time, which would mean Loki the show will be taking place in or immediately around 2012.
However, we were treated to a brief clip of Loki during this year’s Super Bowl, which featured the trickster in what seemed to be in the custody of the TVA, or the Time Variance Authority, a group from the comics that exists to police continuity and preserve the timeline. Did Loki end up on their radar because he’s using the Tesseract to mess with time? Or is he there because his escape with the Tesseract was a variance in and of itself?
We’ll have to wait until Spring 2021 to find out.
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Birds of Prey is not officially changing names. Instead, movie theatre chains across the US have opted to change the title that they display on their websites and other promotional materials in an attempt to draw in more people and make it extra clear that this is a Harley Quinn movie. This is happening in response to Birds of Prey’s slow start at the box office. The idea is to give the movie a more eye-catching and recognizable name to attract new viewers.
According to Deadline, the Warner Bros. distribution department made this suggestion to theatre chains in an effort to help with “SEO optimizations, searches, and ticket reader boards.”
Some of the changes are happening behind the scenes, as searches for “Harley Quinn” on ticket-seller Fandango return results for Birds of Prey. Other theatre chains, like Regal, AMC, and Cinemark, have changed the name in a more upfront manner to Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey.
Also worth mentioning is that the official title of Birds of Prey is actually Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn), though most people and websites refer to it as simply Birds of Prey. This is similar to the Oscar-winning movie Birdman, which is actually titled Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) but is commonly shorted to Birdman.
Birds of Prey opened to $33.2 million at the US box office, which is the lowest box office number in the history of the DCEU. The movie, which is R-rated and released in the traditionally slow month of February, also had the lowest budget of any DCEU movie. Worldwide, the movie has made more than $81 million so far, which is close to its production budget (before marketing).
Birds of Prey star Margot Robbie, who plays Harley Quinn and is also a producer on the movie, recently foreshadowed the title change in an appearance on the Hot Ones show.
Asked what the most nerve-wracking part of being a producer is, Robbie said it’s watching the first-week box office numbers come in, because at that point, there is almost nothing you can do to improve the fortunes of a film. A marketing change might help things, but it might not be enough, she said. This very marketing change is now happening.
“The most nerve-wracking … probably the box office,” she said. “At that point, you can’t do anything anymore. You can pivot your marketing strategy a little bit but really there’s not a lot you can do. You just hope people like it. You and so many people have spent so much time on something that you just want people to like it, or even see it.”
In GameSpot’s review of Birds of Prey, Meg Downey said, “It’s the sort of kinetic, high energy romp that comes with built-in replay value, and proves exactly why Harley Quinn has become such an endearing, beloved character in the pop-culture pantheon. If this is the direction the DCEU is headed, the future’s looking bright.”