Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film Tenet has been delayed yet again. Given that most movie theaters are still closed, this shouldn’t come as much of a surprise. The latest news is that Tenet will debut internationally starting August 26, and will open in select cities in the US on September 3.
Originally, Tenet was supposed to hit theaters on July 17. However, it was delayed until July 31, before then being pushed to August 12, as it is seemingly trying to give New Mutants some competition for most scheduled release dates.
So what’s a Christopher Nolan fan to do when they were expecting to watch a new movie from the director and try to figure out what it means? What better time to dip back into his filmography and, instead, finally get to the bottom of his long list of movies like 1998’s Following or his war film Dunkirk. Chances are you’ve seen his Batman trilogy far too many times to count at this point, so don’t concern yourself with those.
Here are the Christopher Nolan movies to binge while you wait for whenever you’re actually going to get to see Tenet.
Once upon a time, we used to go to these giant structures to watch motion pictures with other people. It was a simpler time when you could go outside without a mask, and didn’t have to be so concerned about staying six feet away from everyone.
However, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic earlier this year, movie theaters have been mostly closed, leading to tons of delayed releases and for the first time in recent memory, no summer movie season. Eventually, though, theaters will open once again and when that happens, there’s going to be a long list of films blazing their way onto the big screen–including titles from franchises like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Fast & Furious, Star Wars, and Avatar.
When can you see them, though? As it turns out, we know most of the revised release dates. While it’s entirely possible that they could all move again, depending on when theaters reopen and movies reenter production, take a look below to find out when your most anticipated films are expected in theaters. Then sound off in the comments to let us know what movie you can’t wait to finally see.
The Brotherhood of Steel is coming to Fallout 76 and players can earn rewards for preparing for the faction’s arrival. A new NPC, Russell Dorsey, believes that the Brotherhood is headed to the ATLAS Observatory and players need to bring materials there.
The community will receive rewards for meeting an overall goal for materials over the next couple weeks, unlocking rewards including Brotherhood of Steel-themed cosmetics, a Purveyor Super Sale, and a Double S.C.O.R.E. Daily event. Each time a player donates materials they will also receive an ATLAS Donor’s Provisions pack, which contains rewards and a chance at rare plans.
The event is broken into two parts, Fortifying ATLAS Project Alpha and Project Beta.
FORTIFYING ATLAS: PROJECT ALPHA
Collection Dates
Objective
Reward
August 4 – 8
Deliver 125,000,000 Steel
Brotherhood of Steel Beret
August 8 – 11
Deliver 150,000,000 Concrete
Brotherhood of Steel C.A.M.P. Banner
August 11 – 15
Deliver 200,000,000 Cork
High S.C.O.R.E. Double Daily Challenges (August 20 – 24)
August 15 – 18
Deliver 150,000,000 Plastic
Bonus Challenges Week (August 26 – 31)
FORTIFYING ATLAS: PROJECT BRAVO
Collection Dates
Objective
Reward
August 27 – 31
Deliver 150,000,000 Wood
Steel Dawn Army Fatigues
August 31 – September 3
Deliver 200,000,000 Cloth
Brotherhood of Steel Collectron Station
September 3 – 7
Deliver 175,000,000 Leather
Purveyor 50% off Super Sale (September 10 -14)
September 7 – 10
Deliver 250,000,000 Glass
Meat Week, A Second Helping (September 22 – 28)
During the digital QuakeCon event–which takes place August 7-9–Bethesda will show off an upcoming boss event called A Colossal Problem. The Beelzebilly Outfit and the Mr. Demonic Backpack will be available to all players for free through the Atomic shop during QuakeCon.
Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass Ultimate subscribers can check out a few games for free this weekend, and two of them released in the past month. From now through Sunday, you can play Rocket Arena, Disintegration, and Two Point Hospital at no cost on Xbox One and other platforms. As usual, the free-play weekend is accompanied by discounts on each game so you can keep playing for cheaper.
Released July 14, Rocket Arena is EA’s new 3×3 shooter that has unique playable heroes like Overwatch but also functions similar to Super Smash Bros. in that you have to knock opponents off the battlefield. Disintegration released in mid-June–the sci-fi first-person shooter takes place in a post-apocalyptic future where human brains have been transferred into robotic bodies. And if management sims are more your thing than shooters, you can also check out Two Point Hospital, a hospital sim that puts you in charge of hiring employees, expanding the hospital, making sure patients’ needs are met, and more.
Free Play Days: 7/30-8/2
The free-play weekend for Rocket Arena matches discounts that have already been available for the past week. The base game is currently just $5 on PSN and Origin, and you can grab the Mythic edition, which gets you added digital content, for $10 at Best Buy and Amazon. The game recently earned a 6/10 in GameSpot’s Rocket Arena review. Meanwhile, Disintegration earned a 7/10, and Two Point Hospital received an 8/10. Be sure to check out our reviews for more information on these games.
As a reminder, Xbox Game Pass Ultimate still lets you sign up for your first month for $1, so if you’re interested in participating on Xbox, you can sign up for the free trial and start playing right away.
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2K has announced a partnership with OneTeam Partners and the National Football League Players Association to include “football’s most prominent star players” in future NFL 2K games.
2K currently has “multiple football games in development” which will start launching in 2021, and this partnership will allow them to feature “the names, numbers, images and likenesses for over 2,000 current NFL players.”
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. 2K President David Ismailer noted that the partnership will bring “the biggest and best stars in football” to 2K’s upcoming NFL titles. “We want to give fans experiences that are authentic, memorable and fun, and having a roster of real-life sports heroes through The Players Association and OneTeam is a huge part of delivering on that promise.”
EA penned a deal with the NFL in December 2004 to make Madden the only series able to use NFL teams and player names, but this partnership suggests that officially licensed players will also feature in NFL 2K games going forward.
2K Sports is getting back into the football market with non-simulation games that are set to be released beginning in 2021. And now, Take-Two has announced that these games will benefit from having the official NFL license for players, numbers, likenesses, and more.
2K Sports today announced a new deal with the National Football League Players Association and the company’s licensing representative, OneTeam, to include the names, numbers, images, and likenesses of more than 2,000 current NFL players in the new games.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
2K president David Ismailer said the deal with the NFLPA is a “huge part” of delivering new football games that are “authentic, memorable, and fun.”
OneTeam CEO Ahmad Nassar said in a statement that working with 2K and the NFLPA will help “reach untapped future audiences” for football games.
Again, 2K’s upcoming football games will be non-simulation based. Electronic Arts remains the exclusive publisher of simulation-based NFL games, continuing with Madden NFL 21 in August.
2K’s new football games are in “early stages of development,” the company said. Details about the developers, gameplay, and release dates will be announced later.
With 2K getting back into NFL games, the publisher is extending its sports game catalogue. 2K already makes NBA, WWE, and PGA Tour games.
As a reward for completing the global challenges during Pokemon Go Fest 2020, developer Niantic is hosting a handful of Ultra Unlock events in Pokemon Go over the next few weeks. There will be three Ultra Unlock events in total, with the first kicking off tomorrow, July 31, and each will bring out certain kinds of Pokemon and even some Legendaries. Here’s the full schedule of Ultra Unlock events and the Pokemon you can find during each.
Ultra Unlock 1: Dragon Week
July 31 (1 PM PT) – August 7 (1 PM PT)
The first Ultra Unlock event kicks off on July 31 and revolves around Dragon types. Throughout the week, the following Dragon Pokemon will appear in the wild more frequently than normal:
Alolan Exeggutor
Horsea
Dratini
Bagon
Trapinch
Swablu
Gible
All of the aforementioned Pokemon (except Alolan Exeggutor) will also be hatching from 7 km eggs throughout the event, as will Deino. You’ll also have your first chance to catch a Shiny Deino in the game during Dragon Week, and the Legendary Rayquaza will return to five-star Raid Battles for the event.
Finally, a special Timed Research questline will be available throughout Dragon Week. If you complete the research, you’ll be guaranteed to encounter two Deino.
Ultra Unlock 2: Enigma Week
August 7 (1 PM PT) – August 14 (1 PM PT)
Immediately after Dragon Week ends, the second Ultra Unlock event, Enigma Week, will kick off. This event revolves around mysterious, otherworldly Pokemon, so the following monsters will be appearing in the wild more frequently than normal:
Staryu
Jigglypuff
Clefairy
Lunatone
Solrock
Baltoy
Bronzor
Elgyem
Additionally, Cleffa, Igglybuff, Lunatone, Solrock, and Elgyem will all be hatching from 7 km eggs throughout Enigma Week, while Bronzong, Claydol, and Unown U, L, T, R, and A will appear as Raid Bosses. The Mythical Deoxys will also return to Raids for the event, and you’ll have a chance to catch Shiny Normal Forme Deoxys and Shiny Staryu.
Ultra Unlock 3: Unova Week
August 14 (1 PM PT) – August 21 (1 PM PT)
The final Ultra Unlock event focuses on Pokemon from the Unova region, the setting of the series’ fifth-gen games, Pokemon Black and White. Throughout the week, you’ll be more likely to find Sewaddle, Cottonee, Emolga, and other Gen 5 Pokemon in the wild. Bouffalant will appear as well; the bison Pokemon will spawn throughout the event in New York City and the surrounding areas.
On top of that, the Mythical Pokemon Genesect–which was previously exclusive to EX Raids–will be featured as a five-star Raid boss. You’ll also have a chance to catch Shiny versions of Genesect and Roggenrola during Unova Week. You can read more about the Ultra Unlock events on Pokemon Go’s website.
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You may not have heard of the 1997 Japanese RPG Moon, but it’s had a major influence on many famous games, particularly Toby Fox’s offbeat Undertale. Now, the cult game is finally receiving a long-overdue English translation when it comes to Nintendo Switch on August 27.
Described as an “anti-RPG” by several of the developers behind it, Moon satirizes many of the conventions of the genre, particularly the concept of killing endless hordes of monsters in order to level up. It was one of the very first games to have NPCs follow a set schedule, presaging the more famous Shenmue by only a few years.
Moon will cost $19 on the Nintendo eShop. Many of the developers behind Moon worked on more notable RPGs of the era, particularly Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. The game is often compared to Shigesato Itoi’s fellow cult hit Earthbound for its irreverent attitude and playful twists on classic RPG tropes.
Early on in Ghost of Tsushima, protagonist Jin encounters an easily missed poet in the forest around Hiyoshi Springs who teaches him the art of haiku, one of Japan’s oldest and foremost poetic traditions. Heeding the poet’s advice, Jin rests at a nearby rock and tries his hand at composing a haiku, scanning the idyllic scenery for inspiration as he contemplates his quest and the natural beauty around him in a moment of quiet reflection.
It’s a picturesque scene that captures the solemnity and Zen-like nature of haiku in Ghost of Tsushima’s interpretation of 13th century Japan. The only problem is none of this would have actually happened.
While it’s true that samurai were expected to be versed in other arts beyond swordsmanship and often practiced poetry, haiku as they are presented in the game did not begin to emerge as a standalone poetic form until around the 1600s–roughly 400 years after Ghost of Tsushima takes place. Moreover, none of the characters in the game would have referred to their poems as “haiku,” as the word did not enter into common usage until the 19th century, when it was coined by noted writer Masaoka Shiki–widely regarded as the last of Japan’s “four great haiku masters.”
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Haiku as we know the form traces its roots back to hokku. These were indeed written at the time of Jin’s adventure, although they were quite different from the haiku he composes throughout the game. Rather than being standalone poems, hokku were the opening stanzas of renga–collaborative poems that were played as a word game at gatherings. While hokku were often considered more important than the stanzas that would follow, they were not intended to be read independently of the renga, and they wouldn’t be commonly written as standalone poems until the 17th century.
That’s not all that Ghost of Tsushima gets wrong about the form. Ask anyone what a haiku is and they’ll likely tell you it’s a short poem written in three alternating lines made up of five, seven, and five syllables, respectively. The haiku that Jin writes in the game all adhere to this pattern–only that rule isn’t entirely correct. Traditional Japanese hokku did indeed generally follow a five-seven-five pattern, but their lines were made up of on–phonetic sounds–rather than syllables. This is an important distinction, as a syllable could contain more than one on; the word “Tokyo,” for instance, contains two syllables but four on. As a result, haiku that followed a strict syllable count, particularly in English, would often end up overstuffed with superfluous words to meet the required number.
It’s largely for this reason that–as Kotaku points out–the haiku you can write in Ghost of Tsushima are not very good. The title’s haiku-composing mini-game is understandably rudimentary, limiting you to selecting from different pre-written phrases until you have a three-line poem, so it would be impossible to replicate the nuance of a real haiku in the game. Even with this in mind, however, Jin’s poems will almost always turn out to be completely meaningless, as amply demonstrated by my Jin’s first haiku:
Whispers through the trees A cool bed beneath the stars Growing ever strong
Ultimately, however, haiku in Ghost of Tsushima are effectively just another type of collectible to check off your lengthy to-do list between clashes with the Mongols, so it’s easy to overlook these inaccuracies in the grander scheme of the game, particularly when so many other aspects of it are so polished. Developer Sucker Punch has also never advertised Ghost of Tsushima as being historically accurate. The studio has always said it was more concerned with capturing the feeling of being a samurai than recreating the past, as Sucker Punch co-founder Chris Zimmerman told GameSpot:
“The way I think about it is: we’re going to deviate from historical truth, we just want to do it intentionally. A lot of the support we get from our friends from Sony in Japan, and our Japanese friends in Sony US, and all the cultural consultants we’ve assembled to help us do this stuff, is to make sure we don’t deviate accidentally. There are things we are going to do that are different and we want to choose those wisely.”
It’s a bit ironic, then, that Ghost of Tsushima would have been more authentic had it not included haiku at all, but it’s hardly the only historical inaccuracy in the game, and it doesn’t detract from its other merits. And on a more positive note, the quiet moments of respite that inspire Jin to compose his haiku help add some levity to the adventure and highlight the game’s breathtaking environments, which is never a bad thing.
