Month: December 2020

Tom Cruise Admonishes M:I 7 Crew Over COVID-19 Safety Breach

A recording has emerged of Tom Cruise berating crew members on the set of Mission: Impossible 7 for allegedly breaking coronavirus (COVID-19) safety protocols.

The Sun published the audio clip of the actor’s furious rant, which was reportedly triggered by two of the crew standing “less than a metre away from each other at a computer screen” on the set of the forthcoming Mission: Impossible movie, which is currently being filmed at Warner Bros. Studios in the U.K. after it was cleared to resume production.

“If I see you do it again, you’re f***ing gone,” Cruise warned the two rulebreakers in the leaked recording.

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“We are the gold standard,” he continued. “They’re back there in Hollywood making movies right now because of us. Because they believe in us and what we’re doing.I’m on the phone with every f**king studio at night, insurance companies, producers and they’re looking at us and using us to make their movies. We are creating thousands of jobs, you motherf**kers. I don’t ever want to see it again. Ever!”

The cast and crew of M:I 7 had been poised to shoot a major sequence in Italy in February but that was halted due to the pandemic, with production on the Tom Cruise-led film shutting down indefinitely for several months. During this time, Cruise and his team tried to figure out a way to create a safe environment in order to get production back on track by September.

“You can tell it to the people who are losing their f**king homes because our industry is shut down,” Cruise added, reiterating the impact and consequences of breaching the safety guidelines that have been implemented on set. “It’s not going to put food on their table or pay for their college education. That’s what I sleep with every night – the future of this f**king industry!”

“So I’m sorry, I am beyond your apologies. I have told you, and now I want it, and if you don’t do it, you’re out. We are not shutting this f**king movie down! Is it understood? If I see it again, you’re f**king gone,” he concluded in his impassioned speech. “Do you understand the responsibility that I have? Because I will deal with your reason, and if you can’t be reasonable and I can’t deal with your logic, you’re fired.”

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The recording sparked a bit of a debate on social media over whether or not Cruise handled the situation correctly, with many supporting the star for strongly enforcing COVID-19 safety guidelines, and others believing that he could have approached the topic in a more respectful manner.

Paramount previously shifted the wide release of Mission: Impossible 7 from July 23, 2021, to November 19, 2021, while Mission: Impossible 8, originally scheduled for wide release on August 5, 2022, is now expected to follow on November 4, 2022.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Next Mass Effect Features Several Veterans On Its Development Team

Back in November, BioWare confirmed that not only was a new Mass Effect game in development but that it would include a veteran team of developers led by project director Mike Gamble. With the first teaser trailer for the project surfacing at The Game Awards last week, Gamble introduced several members of that project on his Twitter account today.

Dusty Everman, who Gamble described as being “one of the key people responsible for bringing the original Normandy to life,” is now the principal narrative designer for the next Mass Effect, while Mass Effect trilogy cinematic director Parrish Levy has joined the project as its creative director. Joining Everman and Levy is 20-year BioWare veteran and producer Brenon Holmes, who is also currently working on Mass Effect: Legendary Edition.

“Brenon is a veteran of 3 Mass Effect games,” Gamble said. “His ingenuity and work helps to bring amazing gameplay systems to the Mass Effect Universe. Brenon is one of many who want to bring you the game you deserve. As time goes on, you’ll get to know more of us.”

Mass Effect and Anthem’s art director Derek Watts was the last name mentioned, with Gamble saying that Watts is “ready to rock.”

While the next Mass Effect game will have plenty of experience to guide the development of the next chapter, it’ll be done without the original game’s creative director, Casey Hudson. Hudson returned to BioWare several years ago as a general manager while Anthem was in development, but announced earlier this month that he would once again be leaving the studio.

Next year will also see a return to the Normandy, as Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is scheduled for release on consoles and PC. Including the original trilogy and all of its DLC, the first three Mass Effect games will also feature upgraded visuals, better character models, and more contemporary effects added to the classic saga.

Now Playing: Mass Effect Reveal Trailer | Game Awards 2020

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Monster Hunter Movie Review: A Monstrous Miscalculation

If video game movies have a king, that man is Paul W.S. Anderson. Starting with Mortal Kombat in 1995, Anderson is responsible for many of the most middlingly-acceptable video game movies of the last quarter century. That sounds like I’m dunking on the guy, but video game movies have historically bordered on unwatchable. Anderson, meanwhile, directed the first Mortal Kombat and Resident Evil films, which are considered two early examples that both honor the source material and work as films.

Now, Anderson has set his sights on another video game created by Japanese developer Capcom for adaptation: Monster Hunter. The result is a movie that tries to please everyone by both staying faithful to its source material and bending over backward to be “accessible;” it does both to its own detriment as it gets bogged down by reality before leaving many of its most interesting aspects unexplored.

The movie opens on one of the most visually impressive sequences, though it makes a promise the rest of the film can’t keep. A sandship–a sailboat moving across the desert as if in water–hurtles across the dunes, hinting at a strange world full of strange technology and even stranger monsters. And then we cut to humvees and a bunch of people in military fatigues singing songs about how much being in the Army sucks, and nothing that matters happens for at least another hour. That’s because Monster Hunter actually takes place from the point of view of Milla Jovovich’s character, Lt. Artemis. She and her Army Rangers are looking for a missing squad in the African desert when a Mad Max: Fury Road-grade sandstorm sweeps up the characters and they wake up in a different, sandier desert.

From that point, it’s almost an hour before we get any real action, and it’s over almost before it starts. The 103-minute movie feels like a stretched-out version of the first 45 minutes of a much more interesting movie.

Anderson spoke at length in interviews about wanting the audience to feel like a new player in a Monster Hunter game; a person from our world experiencing the expansive world Capcom has built up over the last decade. That sounds like a smart idea on paper, but it ignores the fact that, over the last decade, moviegoers have been engulfed in nerd culture. Casual viewers of superhero movies know what a multiverse is, and can make sense of the machinations of Houses Stark and Targaryen. They even know that some Mandalorians don’t take off their helmets, but others do. Anderson’s mistake here is that we don’t need onboarding into the world of Monster Hunter. The accessibility angle, largely pinned to the army aspect, comes across as condescending in 2020.

Another seemingly smart idea Anderson had was to be faithful to the games, right down to consulting with the game creators on his translations of the games’ monster designs. Anderson has told a story more than once in interviews of having to dull the Diablos’ claws at the behest of one of the game designers, because Diablos is a sand-burrowing creature and would have its claws worn down from the friction.

The way that manifests in the film is that we spend a lot of time in training and trap-preparation montages as Lt. Artemis gets to know Tony Jaa’s character, “the Hunter” (more on him later). These sequences are full of details that committed Monster Hunter fans will love, but do little to either move the story forward or flesh out the characters in any meaningful way.

It’s a shame, too, because Monster Hunter is a gorgeous movie. The filmmakers spent a lot on special effects and set design. Diablos and the other monsters look great, and both their size and threat are conveyed well; watching Artemis and the Hunter fight Diablos brought back memories of doing the same in Monster Hunter World. Anderson went out of his way to make the environments look like something otherworldly; the desert is stark and imposing, the jungle incredibly lush. The cave the Nerscylla spiders dwell in and the field of domes above them gave me the willies.

The movie rides on the backs of Milla Jovovich, Tony Jaa, and Ron Perlman. Jovovich looks at home in her Monster Hunter outfit, twirling around with twin blades. In addition to being married to the director, she’s a veteran of his movies, and it shows. Tony Jaa and Ron Perlman, meanwhile, are wasted. Jaa is one of the premiere movie martial artists in the world, and it’s always a treat to see him do his thing. Only here, he’s exclusively fighting Jovovich, and these sequences have more cuts than a dead Rathalos. Jaa goes a long way toward making the property’s trademark oversized weapons look even a little believable, but his world-class martial arts are otherwise unused, and the character never actually says a word in English and gets no subtitles when he does speak.

Ron Perlman, meanwhile, looks less like a character who grew up in the same world as The Hunter and more like an aging cosplayer with lots of enthusiasm and free time. Plus, he’s barely in the movie, and when he does appear, he’s saddled with delivering big dumps of nonsensical exposition.

Monster Hunter fans will be bored by the entire first act of the movie, but will enjoy the dozens of Easter eggs and nods Anderson sprinkled throughout, from the game-perfect campfire that Artemis and the Hunter chill at in the second half to the Meowscular Chef (That’s his name. Seriously) that Artemis meets during her second escape sequence. Newcomers, meanwhile, will also be bored by the entire first act of the movie, and will wonder what’s happening throughout the rest of it. It’s not that the story is incomprehensible, but that very little happens, and it’s mostly in the service of setting up an action-packed climax with plenty of room for a sequel.

The parts that work, work really well. The same way that 2014’s Godzilla excelled when Godzilla was on the screen, Monster Hunter is a blast when Artemis and the Hunter are fighting the authentically realized monsters. But the movie seems more interested in seeing giant monsters destroying helicopters and Humvees than in exploring its actual interesting setting.

Devotion Won’t Be On GOG After All

Update: Just a short time after Red Candle Games announced Devotion would be released on GOG, the store’s official Twitter account said it had decided not to sell the game, after all. This was in response to “many messages from gamers,” according to the post.

Original story follows …

Last year, the horror game Devotion was removed from Steam after it was discovered that a piece of art in the game appeared to mock Chinese president Xi Jinping. As the game was developed by the Taiwanese developer Red Candle Games, this drew significant controversy, with the game eventually getting pulled from Steam in all regions–despite the outrage primarily occurring in mainland China. Now, it is finally returning via GOG for anyone who didn’t have the chance to play it before.

In a post on Twitter, Red Candle Games shared that Devotion would release through GOG on December 18 for $17, which is what the game initially went for on Steam. Red Candle didn’t make mention of a Steam version if it ever does plan to have the game to return to that platform.

It’s not for the faint of heart, with some truly disturbing imagery just in the brief teaser trailer involving a doll and flickering lights in a spooky hallway. Nothing bad ever happens in spooky hallways.

Devotion certainly got compared to other first-person horror games like Amnesia and the also-removed P.T. prior to its Steam removal, and at about three hours from start to finish, you don’t have to make a huge time investment to see if those comparisons are accurate.

Prior to getting pulled from Steam last year, Devotion had received very positive reviews from critics. In GameSpot’s Devotion review, Richard Wakeling praised the apartment setting, story, and “understated psychological horror,” awarding the game a 9/10.

Now Playing: Devotion’s Terrifying Gameplay Will Give You Nightmares

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Overwatch’s Winter Wonderland Event Is Now Live

Tis the season for Christmas and winter-themed in-game events, and the latest to drop is Overwatch‘s Winter Wonderland. Players can now load up the new 4v4 Freezethaw Elimination game mode or get started on weekly challenges to unlock Christmas-themed epic skins and other rewards.

The biggest mix-up Winter Wonderland brings is the new game mode, Freezethaw Elimination, which joins Mei’s Snowball Offensive, Yeti Hunt, and Snowball Deathmatch. In the new mode, four players must work together to freeze all four players on the other team. Players will become frozen instead of dying, and can be thawed with the help of a teammate.

Weekly challenges will reward players who win at least nine games per week. The weekly rewards are all epic skins: Elf Junkrat in the first week, Gingerbread Ana for week 2, while the week 3 reward is Frosty Roadhog.

As always with a new event, Winter Wonderland is bringing plenty of new cosmetics to be unlocked. The legendary skins for this event include Conductor Reinhardt, Penguin Mei, Ice Empress Moira, Toybot Zenyatta, and Lumberjack Torbjorn.

Blizzard is currently working on a sequel to Overwatch, with new details about the upcoming Overwatch 2 expected to be announced during a virtual Blizzcon event in February.

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Sky: Children Of The Light For Nintendo Switch Confirms New 2021 Release Window

After Sky: Children of the Light was announced for the Nintendo Switch in March this year, the release had to be delayed into 2021 due to work changes caused by COVID-19. Now, Thatgamecompany has confirmed a new release window of Spring 2021, after the game was featured on Nintendo Japan’s Indie World presentation.

Sky first launched for iOS in July 2019, followed by an Android launch in April this year. The game has since racked up over 50 million downloads across both platforms, and won awards such as Apple’s 2019 Game of the Year and Best Gameplay and People’s Choice in the 2020 Games for Change awards.

While the Switch version of the game was originally intended to launch in Summer 2020, the release has been pushed back–though a tweet from the game’s official account has confirmed it’s not too far away, now being planned for Spring 2021.

We still have few details on the Switch version of the game, especially around questions involving cross-play and cross-save with mobile platforms, and whether mobile players will be able to transfer or link accounts.

GameSpot’s review of the iPhone version of the game scored it 8/10. “Sky is both different to everything thatgamecompany has made before but also a smart evolution of what makes its games special,” said reviewer Alessandro Barbosa. “It’s simple to play while feeling incredible at the same time, making the act of flight exciting every time your feet leave the ground. It also features a fascinating spin on in-game purchases, locking its most alluring rewards behind the action of making friends and making a positive enough impression on them.”

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John Stamos’ Disney+ Show Suspends Production Due To COVID-19

A Disney+ comedy series starring John Stamos has had to suspend production for the rest of 2020 due to a positive COVID-19 test from someone on the set, Deadline has reported. The show Big Shot previously had to suspend filming for a day in November for the same reason, though the result was eventually deemed a false positive.

According to sources cited by Deadline, the person who returned a positive result had previously tested negative multiple times that week. The positive result then triggered COVID-19 guidelines followed by Disney’s production, with production members tested and anyone with close contact to the individual required to quarantine for two weeks.

Being so close to the holidays, the shutdown will be extended until January 1. The show, which stars John Stamos as a basketball coach forced to take a job at an elite private girls school, apparently only had one scene from the season’s second last episode and the full finale episode left to shoot.

This hasn’t been the first production disrupted by COVID-19 positives–Apple TV+’s gaming-themed series Mythic Quest recently saw a second shutdown due to outbreaks on set. The CBS Radford lot where Mythic Quest is filmed has been considered “ground zero” for COVID cases in Los Angeles’ production industry, with over 41 cases confirmed in the last month.

Now Playing: 13 Biggest TV Shows To Watch For Fall 2020

Gnosia, A Single-Player Visual Novel With Among Us Vibes, Is Coming To Switch

Gnosia was announced for an English language release on Switch during the latest Nintendo Indie World Showcase, and it looks very interesting. This is a social deduction game about figuring out which members of a spaceship crew are alien invaders disguised as other crew members. It’s a similar premise to Among Us, except that this is a single-player visual novel game.

A round of Gnosia lasts only 5-15 minutes, with the player losing if the number of Gnosia on board overtakes the number of humans. Each time you play, which characters are human and which aren’t changes, so you’ll need to make fresh deductions each time.

Over many games, you can learn some of the secrets of the Gnosia.

Gnosia
Gnosia

While the premise might be similar, it’s extremely unlikely that Gnosia was directly inspired by Among Us. In Japan, the game first released on PS Vita in 2019–technically after the 2018 release of Among Us, but well before that game exploded in popularity.

The original Vita version was warmly received in Japan, with Famitsu scoring it a 36/40 (per Gematsu). The game is coming to Switch worldwide in early 2021, having already released for the system in Japan earlier this year.

If you want to play an Among Us-style game on Switch, you can now play…well, Among Us itself. It’s available on Switch now.

Now Playing: Nintendo Indie World Showcase 12/15/2020 – Full Presentation

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