The Nintendo Switch eShop has some fantastic sales running this week, but the latest crop of deals discounts some of the Switch’s best indie games. The Annapurna Interactive publisher sale kicked off alongside Gamescom 2020 and brings markdowns on eight great games, including Florence, Sayonara Wild Hearts, and Kentucky Route Zero: TV Edition. The sale runs from now until September 10 at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET.
Annapurna has quietly been publishing some of the most thought-provoking indie games in recent years, and the new sale is a great opportunity to snag some of these gems for cheap. What Remains of Edith Finch, a first-person exploration game about a family repeatedly struck by tragedy, is down to just $8 in the sale. Last year’s Telling Lies, a mystery game featuring live-action footage, is down to just $14, while Kentucky Route Zero’s TV Edition, which packages the point-and-click episodic adventure in one complete bundle, is just $17.49. The gorgeous rhythm game Sayonara Wild Hearts ($7.79) is another must-play, along with Florence ($3), an interactive novel that’ll resonate with anyone who’s experienced a painful breakup.
Alan Wake had a problem. He’d been teased as being a big part of the final DLC expansion of Control, dubbed AWE, and with that came expectations. Fans of Remedy Entertainment’s 2010 psychological horror/thriller shooter had been waiting about a decade for the next phase of his tale. Wake worked furiously to make himself part of the AWE story, appearing in twisted cutscenes that captured his fractured mental state. But in the end, it wasn’t enough. Though his writing had the power to alter the very nature of reality, not even Wake could make AWE more than an unsatisfying addition to both his story and that of the game he’d invaded.
Control’s AWE expansion ultimately is an underwhelming addition and a thin follow-up to the Remedy cult hit it’s invoking. Especially following The Foundation, a DLC drop that added a lot of variety to Control with new powers and a new location that felt very different from everything else in the game, AWE comes off as more of a slightly tweaked rehash of the vanilla Control. AWE tries to tap into some of Alan Wake’s spooky suspense underpinnings, and while it sometimes succeeds, it can’t quite maintain them for very long.
It’s a bit of a whimper for a great game to go out on, as AWE feels more like a teaser for another game you’ll have to buy at a later date, rather than a satisfying expansion of (or conclusion to) what we’ve seen in Control so far.
AWE represents Remedy elevating Easter eggs found in Control and its other games (namely Quantum Break) to shared-universe territory. Alan Wake is a character in Control’s universe, and what’s more, he’s now directly impacting on protagonist Jesse Faden’s story. A spectral Alan guides Jesse to the Investigations section of the Oldest House, the living office building where Control is set. The Investigations section was sealed two years earlier after a huge horrific monster rampaged through it and killed a whole bunch of people. Wake’s messages send Jesse to investigate, and unsealing the section gives the monster the opportunity to escape–so it becomes Jesse’s job to hunt it down and kill it before it can get into the rest of the Federal Bureau of Control and start munching on the survivors.
So most of AWE is about Jesse wandering through the Investigations section, hunting the creature. The twist is that the monster is Emil Hartman, a character from Alan Wake (the game, not the guy). The Darkness, the evil force in that game, has turned Hartman into a monster, and the interference of Control’s Hiss has made him even worse. Merging the two games lets Remedy add Alan Wake mechanics to Control’s combat to create a new wrinkle: Hartman is invincible in the dark but afraid of the light.
That creates some of AWE’s best moments, where you pursue or are pursued by Hartman in heart-pounding, deadly interactions. Again and again, you’ll face Hartman in situations where you either have to run from light source to light source to avoid a distorted, 15-foot-tall, teleporting killing machine, or you have to flip switches and maneuver power sources to blast that killing machine with light and drive it away. The entire DLC campaign is a series of encounters with a creature that’s genuinely scary, and in its coolest parts, AWE taps into Alan Wake’s horror and filters it through Control’s superpowered lens.
It doesn’t always work, though. All of these encounters with Hartman aren’t really fights, since you can’t hurt Hartman while he’s in the dark. They’re more like a series of fast-paced puzzle encounters, and some of them–like a chase where you have to blow down walls in order to reach the next pool of light before you’re snagged in the creature’s huge, gnarled arms–are more exciting than others.
The evil Darkness in AWE mirrors that of Alan Wake: In the 2010 game, standing in a pool of light would heal you of wounds you received out in the black. In AWE, standing in the dark saps you of your ability energy, quickly limiting the superpowers you can use, while getting under a light restores them. That means that when you’re sprinting from light to light, you’re slowly losing the ability to effectively sprint from light to light.
On paper, that sounds like it would create a lot of tension, but in practice it just adds a limitation to your combat capabilities that can compound frustration. Control already can be a slog at times thanks to its health system, which requires you to hurt and kill enemies to restore yourself. The game is built to give you powers like super-speedy dodging and telekinetic shields to help you save yourself when you get hurt too badly. But fighting enemies in the dark also robs you of your superpowers. It helps create situations in which you’re not only struggling to keep your health up, but also scrambling to move to or stay in locations that strengthen your powers. In a few fights, like one where you slowly dismantle your light sources in order to power a much bigger one, this quickly puts you into situations where if you take too much damage you’ve pretty much got no chance to heal yourself, and need to start over.
The pendulum swings between fun, tense, scary fights and frustrating fights would be more forgivable if AWE felt like it delivered on the promise of its title, though. In Control, AWEs are Altered World Events, situations in which the supernatural bleeds into the real world. Exploring the area where the Bureau investigates those events feels like it should mean this DLC is overflowing with weird, inventive stuff–but it isn’t. There are only a small handful of side-quests and Control’s extra-cool altered items to encounter, and they’re extremely underwhelming, mostly consisting of momentary busywork. One is a train car where you need to interact with items in a certain order to piece together the story of how it derailed, which reveals next to nothing. The other is an encounter with a sentient NASA space suit that you only interact with through a door and never actually see in person. As a follow-up to encounters with items like a sentient rubber ducky and a refrigerator that murders people in the main game, or a movie camera that puts you in a Hollywood-style chase scene in The Foundation DLC, these AWE ideas are pretty lackluster.
The more interesting part is all the story AWE teases, although most of it presents cool possibilities for things that don’t actually appear in the game. Wake himself is around, and we get a little info on what’s going on with him, which suggests there’s more to find. There are other threads with Alan Wake characters, including his wife, Alice. And we learn about a very potentially cool aspect of the FBC’s mandate: dealing with “paracriminals,” people who try to use supernatural Altered Items and Objects of Power for crimes, or who try to actually create Altered World Events. A game about dealing with those people sounds like it’d be pretty compelling, and AWE gives the sense that that might be the direction Control goes, as a franchise, in the future.
But for now, you’re mostly just solving puzzles in Investigations so you can turn on lights to chase Hartman. You continue to fight the Hiss, but even with the introduction of a new flying enemy, it’s pretty much business as usual. There are some new power upgrades for Jesse’s arsenal–specifically, the ability to telekinetically throw three objects at a time instead of one–and the new Surge grenade launcher gun, which fires sticky bombs you can remotely detonate, give you opportunities to create new combat strategies. They combine well with what’s already on offer in Control, but none offer inventive new ways to address combat situations or exploration the way The Foundation’s additions do.
AWE is the story of expectations not quite meeting reality. It’s exciting to see Alan Wake become a full-fledged addition to the Control universe and to catch up on different aspects of Remedy’s growing universe. But this feels much more like a taste of what might come in future games than a strong addition to what’s been built in Control. AWE is a missed opportunity for Remedy to really embrace Control’s deep weirdness, and it’s a missed opportunity for it to really expand on the story of Alan Wake after so much waiting. It’s the unfortunate side effect of the idea of a shared universe–in teasing the next installment in the growing story, AWE doesn’t do much to serve the story it’s already in.
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There aren’t many movies in recent memory with as much release date baggage as The New Mutants. The delays sparked all kinds of speculation, everything from total genre shifts to major reshoots, though director Josh Boone has since set the record straight that neither happened. Now, with major studio tentpoles like Mulan being shifted to a digital release, New Mutants only feels like more of an anomaly–for whatever reason, the film did not get the video-on-demand treatment and instead opted for a semi-normal launch in what few theaters are actually open around the world. In the case of Los Angeles, California, that means an ad hoc drive-in, crafted in one of the Rose Bowl’s parking lots.
It’s not the most traditional moviegoing experience, but for a movie with such a non-traditional path, it feels appropriate. Bizarre release and delivery method aside, New Mutants is hardly a novelty–it’s not the worst entry into the X-Men franchise you’ve ever seen, but it’s not likely to be a very memorable one, either.
The story of a group of teenage mutants who are trapped against their will in an all-but-abandoned mental institution run by an adult mutant named Dr. Cecilia Reyes (Alice Braga), New Mutants hopes to thread the needle between heartfelt ’80s coming-of-age dramas like The Breakfast Club and the horror classics of the era like Nightmare On Elm Street, all rolled up in the trappings of a superhero story. It mostly succeeds–with a strong emphasis on “mostly.” It’s not that New Mutants fails to nail down the hallmarks of any of its target genres–they’re all there, sometimes spelled out so blatantly that they all but hit you over the head–but it fails to do anything memorable with them.
Dani Moonstar (Blu Hunt), a mutant with newly manifested powers, wakes up to find herself the new girl in an already established crew of misfits. There’s the good Catholic girl, Rahne (Maisie Williams); the sweet-but-simple coal miner, Sam (Charlie Heaton); the preppy rich boy, Roberto (Henry Zaga); and the HBIC with anger issues, Illyana (Ana Taylor Joy). Each of them have their own mutant abilities–but because Dani’s the only new face in the clique, none of them really dive too far into exactly how their mutant powers work on a technical level. This will probably prove a little annoying for anyone coming to New Mutants as a fan of any of these characters’ comic book incarnations–the subtleties of someone like Illyana’s dimension-hopping “magical” abilities or the finer points of Roberto’s light-based mutation are thrown out the window. Instead, we get a rudimentary bullet-points style primer for each character–they’re mutants, they’re sad because their powers hurt people. Roberto is the fire guy. Illyana has a cool sword for some reason
If the core heroes are thinly characterized, the “villain,” Dr. Reyes, is entirely two-dimensional. She’s the only adult in the movie, and apparently the only employee of the entire institution. She spends half her screen time established as a tough-but-sincere caretaker who really, genuinely, wants what’s best for these kids and the other half being foisted into the role of brutal evil-doer. She has no real story or background of her own and no motivation beyond working for or with a vaguely defined directive to keep these mutants out of the world. In a better movie–or a better franchise–she likely could have fit into a bigger picture or made a real impact, but as it stands, her only purpose is to ignite some conflict and then step aside for the CGI monsters to start terrorizing the place.
New Mutants feels less like an X-Men story and more like the premise for a young adult-oriented TV show you’d find on the CW, or sent directly to Netflix as a limited series–a problem made exponentially worse by its tight 94-minute runtime. It’s not that New Mutants should have been longer as a movie, but the whole thing feels cobbled together, like swaths of exposition–perhaps ones that would have linked it more explicitly to the now DOA X-Men franchise at Fox–were peeled away in favor of the most pared down version of events possible.
It’s not bad, per se. The story is mostly easy to follow, if only because the plot is something you’ve definitely seen before, or read in a young adult fiction novel, but it lacks any sort of meaningful style or substance. It doesn’t feel particularly interested in making sure you care about or become invested in any of these characters beyond their big, painted-on archetypes–which, sure, makes sense. It’s not likely we’ll be seeing any of them again any time soon.
That said, the actual experience of watching New Mutants isn’t terrible. It’s campy–three of the five teens are doing cartoonishly overblown character accents and there are not one but two direct shoutouts to Buffy the Vampire Slayer–but the visual effects are all totally serviceable and the action isn’t boring. There’s even a fun little attempt at inverting some classic ’80s teen romance tropes by centering the love story on Rahne and Dani, whose scenes together are far and away the most enjoyable and engaging parts of the entire movie.
Williams and Hunt’s chemistry anchors the bulk of the movie. They’re charming and believable together–which is no small task considering how truncated every character arc was made to fit in an hour-and-a-half runtime. If anything, the fact that the two of them are so good together, and that this officially marks the first centralized queer relationship in a Marvel movie, kind of salts the wound. There’s the sense that, maybe in a different reality–one where the Disney/Fox merger didn’t interfere and the X-Men franchise had been left in more capable hands from the start–New Mutants could have really been something special. Instead, it’s a movie that will probably never outgrow the meme status it earned after three years in distribution hell, and definitely won’t be making waves in any of the genres it tries to dabble in.
Still, in a summer where the blockbuster has all but gone extinct, New Mutants isn’t an unwelcome reprieve–assuming, of course, you are able to go see it responsibly. It’s not going to blow your mind, but you’re not going to walk (or drive) out feeling like you wasted your time. And hey, sometimes that’s enough.
A clever modder has taken one of Nintendo’s most successful systems of all time and shrunk it down to the size of another of Nintendo’s most successful systems of all time. The WiiBoy Color is a modded Wii that fits into a case that’s roughly the size and shape of a Game Boy Color.
A video from modder GingerOfMods showed the process. They say that removing the disc drive actually leaves circuitry that doesn’t take up too much physical space, allowing for almost the entire hardware to fit into the much smaller space. They made custom circuit boards and a 3D-printed case, but also borrowed pieces like the screen from a car backup camera, and pieces of a GameCube controller.
The result is about the same max dimensions as a GBC, not counting the triggers on the back for full controller functionality. It also has custom settings to replicate some of the Wii motion functions that are missing from the hacked GameCube controller functionality, like shaking the Wii remote. Altogether it’s a very impressive build.
The system realizes the goal of making portable Wii games, as well as GameCube games through the system’s backward compatibility. That means games like Super Mario Galaxy are playable in portable form. Nintendo may be planning to deliver on that promise itself with rumored Super Mario remasters for Nintendo Switch, but no plans have been announced.
Madden NFL 21 is now available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. The latest game in EA’s annual football series introduces a few new game mechanics, including an all-new Skill Stick that allows for enhanced precision on both sides of the ball. There’s also Face of the Franchise: Rise to Fame, a documentary-style career mode that takes you through high school, college, and the NFL, while The Yard introduces a new way to play. The question is, is Madden NFL 21 worth your time and money?
Reviews are rolling in and we’ve rounded up a selection for you to read below. Critical consensus is varied so far, with the game receiving mostly mixed reviews on GameSpot sister site Metacritic. The gist of Madden NFL 21’s reception is that the core gameplay is arguably the best in the series so far, but attempts to add variety are flawed and underwhelming, and the long-standing Franchise Mode continues to be neglected.
Game: Madden NFL 21
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
Developer: EA Tiburon
Release date: August 28
Price: $60 / £50 / $80 AUD
Attack of the Fanboy — 4/5
“Madden 21 as a whole may feel like a bit of a letdown compared to the past few years in some areas, but The Yard definitely helps to make it worth it for players that are interested in trying something a little different. With the free upgrade to the next generation version and the promise of treating Franchise like a live service as the season goes on, Madden 21 is likely still going to be well worth the purchase in the long run, even if you may be left a little dissatisfied at this point.” – Dean James [Full Review]
IGN — 6/10
“Madden NFL 21 is a great example of why competition breeding innovation is a good thing. Without a comparable NFL experience on the market, EA has allowed its marquee sports franchise to fall behind in almost every significant way. In a world where its contemporary sports games continually evolve with innovative new game modes like NBA 2K20’s Neighborhood, deep franchise options like MyCareer, MyTeam, and MyLeague in the NBA 2K series, or even the cinematic story mode from EA’s own Fight Night Champion–a boxing game from 2011–Madden’s lack of innovation has reached a tipping point. There is no excuse for Madden’s stagnation. I appreciate the tweaks to the core gameplay and the chaotic novelty of The Yard, but that isn’t enough to make me want to sing its praises.” David Jagneaux [Full Review]
TheGamer — 3.5/5
“Last year’s Madden release was one of the best in recent memory, so–at least in my eyes–Madden 21 had a lot to live up to. For the most part, it did so. Madden traditionalists will enjoy familiar game modes (which are all par for the course in their own right) with improved control mechanics, while The Yard adds an exciting element for those looking for something new. The Yard still has room to improve, but, personally, I’m excited to see where the game mode goes and how its long-term placement in the game (and competitive esports scene) plays out.” – Sam Watanuki [Full Review]
Game Informer — 7.75/10
“Those looking for a huge step forward in the EA Sports’ football franchise won’t find it with Madden NFL 21. However, despite its lack of major upgrades, Madden NFL 21 is still a mechanically sound and fun football game.” – Brian Shea [Full Review]
GamesRadar+ — 3/5
“This year’s game features six distinct modes spanning Exhibition, Franchise, Face of the Franchise, Superstar KO, Ultimate Team, and The Yard, but the breadth of a half-dozen game modes veils a lack of improvements in half of them. Last year, I said Madden was in a rebuilding year, showing promise but not a contender quite yet. With Madden NFL 21, like the perennially doomed Browns, Lions, and Jets, forever seeking consistency in their staffs and stars, it feels like the Madden team needs to hit reset once more.” – Mark Delaney [Full Review]
USgamer — 3/5
“Madden 21’s gameplay takes some appreciable steps forward as the generation comes to a close, with The Yard providing some casual fun. The experience is marred by an abnormal number of bugs though, and the single-player modes remain a major sore point. Ultimately, it’s able to pick up a few yards on the way to the next generation of consoles, but just a few.” – Kat Bailey [Full Review]
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Hitman 3’s January 20 release date has been revealed alongside a free next-gen upgrade.
A blog post from IO Interactive notes that Hitman 3 will launch early next year on January 20, 2021 for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Stadia and PC via the Epic Games Store.
Players who purchase a digital edition of Hitman 3 on current generation platforms will be eligible for a next-gen upgrade free of charge if they decide to jump to the PS5 or the Xbox Series X in the future. This means if you buy the PS4 version of Hitman 3 on the PlayStation Store, you’ll also be able to download the PS5 version at no extra cost.
Alongside the release date and upgrade system, IO Interactive has detailed the game’s pre-order bonus content and special editions. Those who pre-order the game ahead of launch will be able to access the Trinity Pack, which includes 9 items homaging all three games in the World of Assassination trilogy, including coloured suits, weapons and equipment.
A Deluxe Edition of Hitman 3 is also available to purchase, which adds deluxe suits and items, deluxe escalations, a digital artbook, digital soundtracks and a special director’s commentary that will introduce players to the game’s missions. Pre-orders are now open, so fans can pick up Hitman 3 – Standard Edition for £54.99/$59.99 or the Hitman 3 – Deluxe Edition for £74.99/ $79.99.
HBO has released a thrilling new trailer for His Dark Materials Season 2, offering fans a closer look at the great war that is on the horizon.
The official His Dark Materials Twitter account shared the trailer for the second season, announcing that it is coming to HBO in November of this year. The footage provides an extended glimpse at the seven-episode series, which is adapting the events of The Subtle Knife, Philip Pullman’s second novel in the His Dark Materialstrilogy.
The Subtle Knife follows the adventures of Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, who work together to investigate the mysterious Dust phenomenon in the eerie disquiet of an abandoned city called Cittàgazze. In this crossroads between worlds, Lyra and Will discover that their destinies are tied to reuniting Will with his father, but their quest is challenged when a war breaks out around them.
His Dark Materials Season 2 is returning with all of its main cast members, including Dafne Keen as Lyra, Amir Wilson as Will, Lin-Manuel Miranda as Lee Scoresby, Ruth Wilson as Mrs Coulter, Ariyon Bakare as Lord Boreal, and James McAvoy as Lord Asriel. Newcomers include Andrew Scott as Colonel John Parry, Terence Stamp as Giacomo Paradisi, Jade Anouka as Ruta Skadi, and Simone Kirby as Dr Mary Malone.
In our review of His Dark Materials Season 1, we praised the series for being an “exciting fantasy adventure, full of weighty threats to its lead characters and stakes that reverberate through its multiple worlds,” even though we noted that “there are times when the scope of the story slightly exceeds the bounds of what its budget is capable of.”
HBO has released a trailer for Season 2 of His Dark Materials, which is due to debut this November. The show is based on the Philip Pullman trilogy of fantasy novels comprising Northern Lights (known as The Golden Compass in the US), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.
The Season 2 trailer shows off stars Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, Amir Wilson, Ariyon Bakare, Andrew Scott, Will Keen, Ruta Gedmintas, and Lin-Manuel Miranda. Joining the cast this season are Terence Stamp, Jade Anouka, and Simone Kirby. According to a release, the second season “begins after Lord Asriel has opened a bridge to a new world, and, distraught over the death of her best friend, Lyra follows Asriel into the unknown.”
Like Season 1, this upcoming season was written by Jack Thorne, who wrote Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. He also was attached to re-write Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker before being replaced.
If you missed the first season on HBO last year and are wondering whether to start by reading the books or watching the adaptation first, you can read our rundown of how the two differ here. His Dark Materials was also adapted previously in 2007 for the Daniel Craig movie The Golden Compass, and also a video game of the same name.
Comedian Ayo Edebiri will be replacing comedian Jenny Slate as the voice actor playing Missy on Netflix‘s Bigmouth, Variety reports. Slate had announced her departure in July over Instagram, explaining: “At the start of the show, I reasoned with myself that it was permissible for me to play Missy because her mom is Jewish and white–as am I. But Missy is also Black, and Black characters on an animated show should be played by Black people.”
Slate’s departure came as the puberty comedy was mid-production on Season 4. Edebiri will take over the role in the second to last episode of that season, and will be joining the writers’ room for the fifth season (which, due to the show’s production schedule, she began on first).
“I was definitely a very uncomfortable child, so I think the show speaks to that and a lot of those feelings, which still resonate with me as an adult,” Edebiri said. “I’m back home in my childhood bedroom right now and on my bookshelf in between A Series of Unfortunate Events’ is Bill Clinton’s autobiography and Nelson Mandela’s autobiography and a translation of The Iliad in Latin. I was a true dork. So I don’t think I have to go too far to connect with Missy.”
Of the transition, Edebiri said it will be “a nice farewell to Jenny” and that she intends to pay “homage… while also bringing something new. The voice I found is also because of the work Jenny did, too.”
Big Mouth debuted on Netflix in 2017 and was co-created by Nick Kroll, Andrew Goldberg, Mark Levin, and Jennifer Flackett. In addition to Edebiri, its cast includes Kroll (The League, Kroll Show), John Mulaney (Saturday Night Live, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse), and Maya Rudolph (Idiocracy, Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping).
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Ford unveiled a new flagship vehicle during Gamescom Opening Night Live, but it’s a hypercar that won’t be seen on a showroom floor. The Team Fordzilla P1 was designed especially for esports by Ford’s exterior stylist Arturo Arino, and had various elements of its virtual manufacturing selected by fans. The drivetrain, dashboard, and seating position all received fan input that Ford factored into the final design, according to CNET.
The Team Fordzilla P1 was also inspired by the GT90 concept car and features a shape-shifting design. A longtail configuration allows it to gain more speed when racing down a straight, while its alternate and more compact body configuration allows for tighter maneuvering around a corner. The roof also features a transparent design, and there are no exhaust tips to be seen at the rear.
Ford hasn’t revealed what’s under the hood of this car or even which video game it will appear in, but the company did confirm in a blog post that talks are currently in place to have it featured in a “well-loved game.” Ford also plans to build a full-size scale model of the vehicle before the end of the year. The car manufacturer does have a history with Microsoft’s Forza series, as the Ford GT was used as the cover car in Forza Motorsport 6.
Ford entered the esports scene a year ago, joining other brands such as Coca-Cola, Red Bull, McDonald’s, Audi, and Mercedes-Benz when it announced the formation of its team at Gamescom 2019.
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