Month: May 2020

Actor Simon Pegg has provided an update on the future of Star Trek movies–and unfortunately for fans, it doesn’t sound like there will be a new film anytime soon. Speaking to Collider, the actor who plays Scotty started off by reflecting on the death of Anton Yelchin, who played Chekov in the new Star Trek films.

“For us, losing Anton Yelchin the way we did was a real blow,” Pegg said. “And I think it slightly took the wind out of our sails in terms of our enthusiasm to do another one, just because we’re now missing one of our family. He would be conspicuous by his absence.”

Pegg went on to say that he remains in contact with the rest of the Star Trek cast–they are checking in with each other over email. However, no one is pushing Paramount to make more movies right now.

“If they say, ‘We’d like to do another movie,’ I’m sure we’ll all jump at the chance. I miss those guys, and I love making those films. But I just don’t know.”

Fargo writer Noah Hawley is said to be working on a new Star Trek movie, but Pegg said he doesn’t know anything about it. Quentin Tarantino was also rumored to be working on a Star Trek movie, but that doesn’t seem like it’s going forward.

Pegg went on to speak about how the Star Trek series doesn’t have the same level of pull or broad appeal as the Marvel franchise, so a new Star Trek movie would intentionally try to be “more restrained.”

“I think Star Trek is just a little bit more niche, so it isn’t gonna hit those kind of numbers. So yes, the obvious thing to do would be to not go for that massive spectacle, go for something a little bit more restrained in the vein of the original series,” Pegg said. “Yes, that would be a brilliant thing to do, and I’m sure it probably has been discussed… You specialize a little bit more.”

Pegg closed by saying that the future of Star Trek seems brighter on TV than on the big screen. TV shows these days don’t have to have reduced scope, and this could be a good path forward for Star Trek, Pegg said. Not only that, but it would be a return to the franchise’s origins on TV.

“Maybe television is a better format for Star Trek. That’s where it started, you know,” Pegg said.

Star Trek is thriving on TV right now. Star Trek: Discovery Season 3 is expected in 2020, and it will be followed by another show called Star Trek: Strange New Worlds that will focus on Captain Christopher Pike, Mr. Spock, and Number One. Star Trek: Picard, meanwhile, is returning for second season. These shows air on CBS All Access, which is operated by GameSpot’s parent company, ViacomCBS.

JJ Abrams rebooted the Star Trek series in 2009, with sequels Into Darkness (2013) and Beyond (2016) following in the years thereafter. The movies feature Chris Pine as Captain Kirk, Zachary Quinto as Spock, and Zoe Saldana as Nyota Uhura. Karl Urban played the doctor, Bones.

What the Golf, 2019’s hilarious anti-golf golf game, is at its best on Switch. Everything that was good in the Apple Arcade and PC versions, which we reviewed last year, remains good here, but the additions and improvements that the Switch version brings make it the definitive What the Golf experience.

The game arrives on Nintendo’s hybrid console with a new two-player “Party Mode” that wasn’t included in the PC or Apple Arcade releases. This mode, which sees you and another player each picking up a Joy-Con and facing off in a series of competitive levels, is an absolute hoot. Both players are made to compete across 11 random levels, each based on levels from the campaign, to see who can get to the hole first. There’s a great diversity across Party Mode’s levels, with some levels feeling more like puzzles, some purely based on skill, and others that could only work in multiplayer, like when you’re both controlling separate items that are tethered to each other or trying to goad the other into tipping over a tower of boxes that the pin is sitting atop. There are lots of levels here, and I still saw new ones pop up after playing for several hours.

In keeping with What the Golf’s style, very few of Party Mode’s levels really feel like golf, which is part of the fun. After you’ve played through 11 stages, you and your opponent compete in one final competitive arena-based game, and the number of lives each of you has depends on how well you did in previous rounds. There are only three types of final competition, but they’re all fun, particularly the combat-based game where you fling around in an office chair, trying to pick up and fire explosive beach balls at your opponent. Your victory depends on how you perform in this final game, and how many lives you have–if you won seven of the previous rounds, you can take up to six hits in the final competition, whereas your opponent can only survive three. A full round of games in Party Mode rarely takes more than 10 minutes, and you only ever need the analog stick and the A button. These are less mini-games, more micro-games, often lasting just a few wild, hilarious seconds.

As an extension of What the Golf’s brand of irreverence and comedy, Party Mode is wonderful. It’s also hugely accessible–I jumped in with my partner, who is not a big gamer and never played the campaign, and it didn’t take long for her to start collecting wins. Granted, it’s not the most balanced experience (one player will start some games with a slight advantage), and it would be nice to be able to toggle certain levels on or off–over time we’ve learned the tricks to overcome the levels that initially caused frustration. One level also seems to award the win to the wrong player consistently, but it’s unclear whether that’s an error or the game trolling players as it tends to do. Yet every time we’ve sat down for a quick session it has turned into multiple rounds, with lots of swearing, shouting, and laughing. It’s rare for competitive party games to be built specifically as two-player experiences, and What the Golf is great for forming an intense rivalry with another person.

The single-player campaign is essentially unchanged from previous versions, at least in terms of levels and layouts, but playing on Switch gives you some extra control options and a few bells and whistles. Players now have the option to use either a controller or the touchscreen, and if you’re playing in handheld mode you can switch seamlessly at any time. You can play through the full game docked, but a few levels that use first-person motion controls will prompt you with a recommendation that you switch to handheld for the best experience–these are also the only levels that require you to have the Joy-Cons connected. I found that I preferred a docked experience for party mode and undocked for the campaign.

While initially I wanted to only use the touchscreen controls, touching the screen and swiping to determine the direction and power of my shot, the more I played, the more often I found myself switching to traditional controls if they suited a level. It’s not that the touch controls don’t work well–they’re responsive and feel natural–but it’s nice to have options. You can change at any time without needing to enter a menu or toggle anything–touch the stick or the screen and the game will immediately switch control schemes. The game supports every configuration of controller the Switch supports, and it’s clear that a lot of care has gone into making this feel like a game that was made with Nintendo’s platform in mind. HD Rumble adds an extra layer to the experience, too–while it’s used fairly sparingly, the little rumble that kicks in whenever you hit the pin is just right and makes completing a challenge all the more satisfying.

As an extension of What the Golf’s brand of irreverence and comedy, Party Mode is wonderful.

All of these extra touches have made replaying the campaign a pleasure, and I found myself more inclined to dig into the extra optional challenges on each hole, switching between touch and stick control methods to see which ones best suited each. There are occasional frame rate stutters and some slight visual glitches in this version, but nothing that impacts the experience in a meaningful way.

What the Golf was already excellent on PC and mobile, but the Switch version is the definitive one, especially if you have another player handy. It’s still wildly funny, weird, and lots of fun, and if it was just the campaign again, it would still be the best version of the game thanks to the ability to switch between touch and stick controls–but the addition of Party Mode really elevates the whole package. In my original review I said, “Like all great jokes, you’ll want to share it,” and now that’s easier than ever.

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Cate Blanchett played Galadriel in Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings series, but if she had her way, she would have pulled double duty by portraying a second character.

Appearing on the WTF With Marc Maron podcast, Blanchett said she pitched Peter Jackson and co-writer Fran Walsh on the idea of her playing a dwarf woman during a banquet scene in the epic fantasy movie. The Australian actress lobbied to play the role to help create another female character in a film franchise that is focused on men.

“There’s not too many chicks in the Tolkien universe,” she said (via CinemaBlend). “I loved it so much and I did say to Peter and Fran, they were doing a banquet scene with a whole lot of dwarves. I always wanted to play the bearded lady, so I asked them, ‘Could I be your hairy wife woman when you pan across the banquet table of dwarves?'”

Blanchett did not get her way due to the filming schedule changing. Filming on Galadriel’s scenes lasted just three weeks, Blanchett added.

Blanchett reprised her role as Galadriel in Jackson’s The Hobbit films. She’s been in the news lately, as a report said she will play Lilith in the upcoming Borderlands movie.

In other Lord of the Rings news, a new game focused on Gollum is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. The first images have been released–check them out here. Additionally, Amazon is producing a new Lord of the Rings MMO alongside its big-budget TV show.

Back in March, the first trailer for Greyhound debuted, and it heavily featured star Tom Hanks talking on a phone on a boat. Originally, the Sony Pictures film was going to theatrically release the movie on June 12. However, it’s now making the move to Apple TV+.

Apple recently acquired the rights to Greyhound, according to Deadline. The upcoming movie follows Commander Ernest Krause (Hanks), a captain of a naval skipper, as he joins forces with other allied boats in order to battle German U-boats during the height of the Second World War. It is unknown at this time when Greyhound will appear on Apple TV+.

This is the biggest and most important “get” for the service, which up until now focused solely on original content like Mythic Quest, Servant, and others. Apple TV+ made numerous deals with high-profile actors and directors–like Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks, who are making a WWII TV series together. Now, Apple TV+ is moving away from the “originals only” model.

In addition to acquiring Greyhound, Apple TV+ is filling out its back catalog with previously-released movies from various studios, according to Bloomberg. Video-programming executives have been in talks with Hollywood studios in order to make licensing deals for the streaming service, adding both movies and TV shows.

With 2020 seeing the release of two different major streaming services–HBO Max and Peacock–Apple is working on being a major player in this space, and the only way to do that is to offer more content to its consumers, like Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Prime Video already do. The one thing Apple has over competitors is that Apple TV+ costs $5 a month, which is roughly half the price of a Netflix subscription.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Thomas Harris’s novels about cannibalistic serial killer Hannibal Lector have inspired numerous adaptations over the years, from movies such as Manhunter and Silence of the Lambs to the acclaimed TV show Hannibal. But almost as iconic is Hannibal’s nemesis in Silence Of the Lambs, FBI agent Clarice Starling. A new show focusing on Starling is on the way, and it’s set to premiere in the fall.

The show is titled Clarice, and it will be part of CBS’s fall line-up. The series stars Rebecca Breeds (Pretty Little Liars) in the title role, and it’s set six months after the events of Silence of the Lambs. Clarice is produced by Alex Kurzman, who oversees CBS’s various Star Trek shows, and also stars Kal Penn (Designated Survivor), Michael Cudlitz (The Walking Dead), and Nick Sandow (Orange is the New Black). The show doesn’t yet have a confirmed premiere date.

Starling first appeared in Harris’s 1988 novel The Silence of the Lambs, which was a sequel to his 1981 book Red Dragon. Jodie Foster played Clarice in the 1991 Silence of the Lambs adaptation, for which she won the Best Actress Oscar. Julianne Moore played Starling in Ridley Scott’s 2001 sequel Hannibal.

Another CBS show set to premiere in the fall is a reboot of ’80s thriller The Equalizer. Queen Latifah takes over from Edward Woodward in the original show and Denzel Washington in the more recent movies, and plays an ordinary woman who leads a secret double life as a streetwise vigilante. There’s also the comedy B Positive, starring Thomas Middleditch, and the return of the popular Big Bang Theory spin-off Young Sheldon.

For more, check out GameSpot’s guide to the biggest upcoming TV shows of 2020 and beyond.

While live sports are on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic, there is one sport returning this June that was highlighted on HBO’s Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. And that’s marble racing. On the May 17 episode, Oliver highlighted the YouTube sensation and made an exciting announcement for June.

Last Week Tonight will be sponsoring Jelle’s Marble Runs for the upcoming season. The YouTube channel features nothing but marble racing, and they are surprisingly entertaining. Below, you’ll find the announcement from the tail end of the episode, which covered the return to live sporting events during the pandemic.

Along with sponsoring this year’s marble-racing season, Oliver announced that the winner or each event will have $5,000 donated to a food bank in their name. Additionally, the overall season winner will get a $20,000 donation in their team’s name to the International Rescue Committee–a group that aids people going through crisis, around the world.

The next season of Jelle’s Marble Runs will return on June 21, 2020. And if you’re interested in learning more about marble racing, you can watch all of the Season 1 races from Jelle’s Marble Runs on YouTube.

And speaking of things you should be watching, consider listening to GameSpot’s weekly TV series and movies-focused podcast, You Should Be Watching. With new episodes premiering every Wednesday, you can watch a video version of the podcast over on GameSpot Universe or listen to audio versions on Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, and Apple Podcasts.