Month: April 2021

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Netflix is making a new limited series based on the thriller The 39 Steps, and the streaming company has hired Benedict Cumberbatch to star in it, according to Deadline.

Cumberbatch will play the lead, a man who gets mixed up in a global conspiracy. The series is inspired by the 1915 novel that was adapted by Alfred Hitchcock for a movie in 1935. The new limited series will be set in the present day.

Edward Berger is set to direct The 39 Steps from a script by The Revenant’s Mark L. Smith. It’s a re-teaming of sorts, as Berger wrote the TV show Patrick Melrose starring Cumberbatch. Berger recently directed episodes of the Bryan Cranston TV show Your Honor.

Deadline reported there will be six “or more” episodes, each of which will be one hour long. The plan is to film the series in Europe in 2021.

Cumberbatch is keeping very busy, as he recently starred in The Mauritanian and he is currently filming Doctor Strange: In the Multiverse of Madness. He’s also rumored to have a role in Spider-Man: No Way Home, but he refuses to talk about that.

In other news about Netflix, the company just announced a deal with Sony Pictures to become the exclusive streaming home in the US for movies like Uncharted, Morbius, and the Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse sequel, starting in 2022.

As long as Star Wars has been around, fans have been dying to own their very own working lightsaber, and following a surprise announcement by Disney, that could soon be a reality. During a Disney Parks press event on April 8 to announce the opening date of Avengers Campus, Disney also revealed a working prototype for a lightsaber that will likely end up for sale by the company sometime in the near future.

As Disney’s Parks, Experiences, and Products chairman Josh D’Amaro wrapped up the press conference, he reportedly ended his remarks by unveiling the device and simply teasing, “It’s real.”

No pictures were allowed to be taken of the event and Disney has yet to publicly release anything about the device. However, Walt Disney Imagineering’s portfolio creative executive Scott Trowbridge has confirmed that it exists and hinted that photos and video will eventually be released.

“A lot of questions today about whether the lightsaber that Josh D’Amaro revealed today was real or CGI, and, whether I’d share photos or video,” he wrote in a tweet. “Yes it was/is really real, and….. not yet.”

That said, don’t start thinking about all of the trees you’re going to chop down with it. There’s no way this going to be an actual weapon. Instead, it’s likely just going to be one of the coolest collectibles ever, complete with a retractable blade.

As for how it works, that remains a mystery. However, Disney did register a patent in 2017 for a lightsaber device. A description of the patent reads as follows:

“A special effects device for providing an energy sword effect. The device includes two long plastic semi-cylinders, and these two blade body members are rolled perpendicular to their length, which creates compact cylinders of material of small volume that can be provided on a pair of spools in a hilt. To extend the blade, a motor provided in the hilt unrolls the blade body members from the spools. Each blade body member passes through a blade forming guideway that nests the semi-cylindrical blade body members together as they leave the hilt. To retract the blade, the process is reversed. The lighting of the blade is achieved with a flexible strip of light sources. The light source strip is attached to a blade end cap and positioned in the center of the two blade body members such that it is pulled up along with the blade body members during their extension.”

Obviously, Disney has not revealed when these will be available to the general public. With that immersive Star Wars hotel coming to Walt Disney World in Florida, though, one would expect you’ll be able to buy one there when it eventually opens.

First released in 2005, Star Wars: Republic Commando acted as many a young Star Wars fan’s initial introduction to the concept that the clone troopers of the prequel trilogy are human beings–creating unique identities for the seemingly identical soldiers. Republic Commando has a strong legacy among Star Wars fans–despite the game’s removal from the official canon, it remains a key part of the Star Wars universe, especially when it comes to video game entries.

Handled by Aspyr Media, Star Wars: Republic Commando Remastered brings the original 2005 Xbox and PC game to PS4 and Switch with enhanced HD graphics and modernized controls, though the multiplayer is absent. Otherwise, it’s the same game. And though the flaws in its gameplay are only more noticeable now 16 years later, this remaster manages to still deliver a compelling story of four specialized commandos engaging in a variety of combat missions across the Clone Wars.

Squad Up

In Republic Commando, you play as RC-1138 aka “Boss,” commanding sergeant of a specialized commando unit trained to take on missions that require a greater level of skill and cognitive ability than standard clone troopers possess. Your unit, Delta Squad, is also composed of sarcastic demolitions expert RC-1262 aka “Scorch,” by-the-books hacker and technical analyst RC-1140 aka “Fixer,” and morbidly grim sniper RC-1207 aka “Sev.” The game takes place over several locations, beginning with an assignment on Geonosis at the end of Attack of the Clones and concluding on Kashyyyk just prior to the events of Revenge of the Sith.

The different actors for Boss (Temuera Morrison), Scorch (Raphael Sbarge), Fixer (Andrew Chaikin), and Sev (Jonathan David Cook) do most of the legwork in differentiating each member of the squad from one another. Most of the game sees all four working together, providing numerous opportunities for conversations between the squad. This helps to build a rapport with your AI-teammates–Scorch and Sev’s brotherly rivalry with one another is still amusing years later, as are Fixer’s repeated but useless reprimands for the two of them to act more like adults. As you’re in command, the others look up to you as a big brother figure, and this familial bond creates a tendency to act protectively towards your squadmates.

That’s a good thing, because that desire to keep your squad alive will help motivate you to make good decisions. Having elements of a tactical shooter, Republic Commando offers you options in how to lead your squad through combat gauntlets–these range from general orders such as “defend a spot” or “search and destroy,” to more specific commands like telling Sev to use his sniper rifle from behind a certain piece of cover or tasking Scorch with setting a demolition charge on an obstacle in front of you. Holographic outlines of where a squadmate can do something will appear on your HUD, allowing you to know what options you have in each area and easily assign squadmates to where you want them to go.

The Illusion Of Command

Early on, there isn’t much agency in how you can command your squad, which, along with the game’s linear nature, can feel disappointingly restrictive. There’s very little choice in how to tackle a problem on Geonosis–usually the solution is just given to you as you’re funneled into a plan instead of making your own. But your possibilities do open up in later levels.

For example, my favorite part of the game has you enter a hangar where you know droid soldier dispensers are going to land–in fact you can see them in the distance, giving you a window of opportunity to quickly devise a plan before the fight breaks out. Throughout the hangar, there are spots where your squad can take up positions to snipe or throw grenades or man a turret, but there are also a dozen or so canisters where you or a squadmate can attach motion-sensing explosive traps. So it’s a mad dash to get a good idea of how the hangar is laid out, decide where to assign your squad to do the most damage, and figure out where to put traps to plug the holes in your defense. It encourages you to make good judgment calls fast because the threat is so imminent. And it’s impossible to do everything before the first dispenser arrives, forcing you to react to any of your mistakes. It’s a tense moment but so incredibly rewarding, because it’s one of the strongest examples of seeing how your plans can save the day.

Republic Commando doesn’t give you something like that prior, nor does it do anything too similar for the rest of the campaign (there are a couple of other standout moments like it, but they don’t quite require the same level of strategic prowess), which unfortunately means that this tactical game isn’t actually all that tactical. Sure, you’re directing the squad and making the decisions, but when the decision is whether or not you want to use a certain sniping spot (without much downside either way), the decision-making process isn’t as impactful.

And that’s where Republic Commando Remastered struggles the most. In 2005, the illusion that you were regularly making impactful decisions was only broken after playing the game several times and noticing that you were largely making similar decisions to your first run through the game. In 2021, with 16 more years of game design iteration to compare to, it’s a lot more obvious. It’s not like you can assign your fellow commandos to snipe from anywhere for instance, you can only tell them to snipe from predetermined locations and there’s typically no more than one or two spots per area. If you enter an area and there’s a computer to hack in order to proceed and one place to provide cover with sniper fire, the level design is automatically funneling you into solving the immediate problem by splicing into the computer and placing a sniper for overwatch support. Sure you could just choose to not place the sniper where the game has designated the ideal spot, but that doesn’t really impact the battle other than making it a bit longer because no one is taking out the far-off targets since everyone in the squad is waiting for enemies to close in. That’s not you making a strategy to the best of your tactical abilities, that’s the level design telling you what to do–and there’s no satisfaction in following someone else’s plan in a game all about tactics.

And so for several moments throughout the game (especially the start), it can feel like you’re just going through the motions of assigning squadmates to the two or three necessary positions that need filling. It’s a problem that becomes less prominent further into the game when you start being put into larger spaces with four or more possible commands and thus giving you the opportunity to actually decide what you want to do, but your lack of agency as a commander never really goes away.

Even though tactical command options are fairly limited, the absence of them is still noticeable, and the rare moments when your tactical abilities are stripped from you are still incredibly effective at instilling a sense of vulnerability. After you build rapport with the other members of Delta Squad, you’re occasionally thrown into situations where you must fight solo. With no teammates chirping in your ear, it’s incredibly lonely and that feeling is reinforced through the gameplay in the lack of squadmates to assist you in battle–you can’t assign Sev to cover you or task Fixer to slowly hack a computer while you and Scorch hold off an oncoming threat, you have to do everything on your own. It’s definitely not as stressful as playing a survival horror game, but the sensation is similar; it sells the urgency of the situation where you need to reconvene with your squad as soon as you can. Even if your ability to direct your team is somewhat limited most of the time, your role as the commander builds a strong sense of camaraderie and it’s noticeable when it’s gone.

Changes In The Remaster

The lack of multiplayer is the remaster’s most noticeable change, though admittedly, multiplayer was never Republic Commando’s strong suit. The multiplayer included two variations of deathmatch and two variations of capture the flag on eight different maps that were inspired by levels from the campaign–it was your standard mid-2000s multiplayer shooter affair (meaning it was not Halo 2), and it lacked the squad-based banter that makes the single-player campaign as enjoyable as it is.

I also don’t miss the game’s old control scheme, which was somewhat annoying on the original Xbox. On Switch and PS4, the game takes advantage of the Joy-Con and DualShock 4’s bumpers, two extra buttons that the original Xbox controller didn’t have, in order to make switching grenades and visor modes easier.

For this review, I played Republic Commando Remastered on Switch. Playing it docked and with a gamepad controller is my preference considering it’s easier to see far off targets on a larger screen, but the game holds up in handheld mode with the Joy-Con controllers too. Having not tested the remaster on PS4 (or PS5 via backwards compatibility), I can’t comment on that version, but the Switch did hitch on occasion–basically every time the game loaded into a new area, registered a manual save, or tried to manage numerous enemies and/or explosions on the screen. It never put me in a more difficult situation, but it is noticeable and thus a bit annoying. My game also outright crashed once, but the generous auto save feature meant I only lost a few seconds of progress.

On Switch, aiming can take some getting used to, but Republic Commando is quite loose on demands for precision so the Joy-Con controllers can effectively line up a shot–you don’t have to be exact, you just have to ensure your gun is aiming in the right direction. It’s thankfully generous in what counts as a hit, so it’s never frustrating that you can’t achieve the same level of precision as a mouse and keyboard.

Same Game, New Paint Job

In the end, Republic Commando Remastered doesn’t do anything to drastically change the experience of playing the original game. And to that end, its shortcomings have only become more apparent with time–tactical shooters have evolved to offer more satisfying experiences with choice and consequence–so you likely won’t find much replayability here.

But it’s still entertaining all things considered. If you loved its campaign back then, you’ll see that it has aged well in some respects. And if you haven’t played Republic Commando before, the remaster’s upgraded graphics and modernized control scheme allow you to enjoy a game that’s 16 years old.

Plus, Vode An, Republic Commando’s main theme, is still the most epic piece of original composition made for a Star Wars video game, and that alone deserves to be experienced.

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The Trials of Osiris and Exotics vendor Xur are back in Destiny 2 for the weekend. Jumping into the event this week will give you a chance at the Sola’s Scar sword, plus a bunch of other Trials gear that’s new this season. Here’s the map you’re facing this week and a full rundown of the rewards you can earn.

As always, this weekend’s Trials event continues to the Tuesday weekly reset, so you’ve got until April 13 to earn rewards and spend tokens with Saint-14.

Trials of Osiris Map And Rewards (April 9-13)

• Map: The Dead Cliffs
• 3 wins — Sola’s Scar, Solar sword
• 5 wins — Hunter, Warlock, or Titan Leg Armor: Pyrrhic Ascent Strides, Boots, or Grieves
• 7 wins — Igneous Hammer, Solar hand cannon
• Flawless run — Tomorrow’s Answer (Adept), Void rocket launcher

Though the Trials of Osiris is Destiny 2’s toughest challenge, you shouldn’t be hesitant about participating. You can still earn Trials rewards–some of the best gear in the game–even if you’re not a Crucible master. The End Game bounty from Saint-14 awards each week’s three-win reward just for playing Trials in general. You can also snag another weapon drop the first time you complete a recent Seasonal Challenge if you can win a total of seven rounds (as opposed to complete matches).

The Trials of Osiris is Destiny 2’s super-tough weekend competitive multiplayer event, which takes place from Friday to Tuesday every week, and it represents some of the highest-level challenges and rewards in the game. Your goal is to rack up as many victories as you can before you suffer three total losses, which forces you to reset your Trials run, or Passage. You’ll earn loot along the way as you rack up more and more wins, but the best rewards in the event come when you go on a winning streak of seven matches in a row–a “Flawless” run.

If you can manage to go Flawless, you’ll visit the Lighthouse, which is only available to Flawless players, where you’ll get some exclusive rewards. Opening the chest in the Lighthouse now gets you an “Adept” weapon, which has extra stat boosts you can’t get almost anywhere else.

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For many, Hot Wheels was a cornerstone of childhood entertainment. Racing a set of micro-cars on bright-orange tracks, painstakingly pieced together into what you thought would make for a cool layout at the moment, offered a lot of amusement. The upcoming Hot Wheels Unleashed from developer Milestone looks to rekindle that same sense of fun and excitement with a full-fledged racing game, and now it’s more true to the Hot Wheels experience we imagined as kids.

I recently got to go hands-on with a pre-alpha build of Hot Wheels Unleashed, racing across a set of constructed tracks with vehicles that pay homage to old-school and modern cars from across the entire Hot Wheels toy franchise.

Playing Hot Wheels Unleashed felt like I was getting reacquainted with the same excitement I felt when playing Hot Wheels as a kid. Some of the available vehicles in the pre-alpha included throwbacks to the ’70s Rodger Dodger muscle car and the Dragon Blaster from the recent Color Shifters line of collectibles. In the final game, there will be more than 60 vehicles to collect and take for a spin. I found it fun to take the ’90s Twin Mill for a ride, which was a favorite of mine back in the day. There’s an undeniable sense of nostalgia in Hot Wheels Unleashed, and the game certainly leans into that when it comes to reimagining the micro-racing vehicles as high-octane speed machines competing in races on the iconic bright-orange tracks.

The full game will also feature a variety of tracks with different themes and backdrops. The ones present in the preview build showed a solid sampling of the more challenging race types you can expect in the full game. These tracks had names like Speed Vault, Spider Trial, Dragon’s Den, and Attic Troubles, to give you a sense of the difficulty and in-level gimmicks they had. In the preview build, we got to race on four tracks set in one of the game’s backdrops, a garage, and the full release will include other settings to have your races. Like in real life, the various tracks are constructed in common areas around the house, including bedrooms, backyards, and even a kitchen.

In keeping with an arcade racer’s tenets, Hot Wheels Unleashed keeps the racing mechanics simple, letting players of different skill levels jump in and start racing. The focus is on maintaining speed, building your boost meter with drifts, and staying ahead of the competition, but there are no power-ups to collect. Without worrying about tuning your vehicles, your success in the races depends on your skills controlling your toy car of choice and how well you understand the track. While Hot Wheels Unleashed does stick very closely to the familiar aspects of an arcade racer without adding anything entirely new to the formula, it still manages to offer a sense of quick fun and excitement that’s accessible across the different tracks.According to the devs, every Hot Wheels car–each with its unique performance and handling–are viable for competition. As this game is an exaggerated and stylized racer, you can expect to encounter a set of challenges and obstacles on the tracks that will require split-second decisions to overcome the odds, and that’s where Hot Wheels Unleashed feels at its best. One particular track that stood out was the Spider Trial, which, as the name suggests, features a live spider who shoots webbing onto the track, ensnaring racers who aren’t able to dodge it.

Though Hot Wheels Unleashed is an accessible racing game, it was surprising to see just how challenging the races can get, all due to the aggressive AI. While I was eventually able to overcome the odds and get the best of the other racers, the game’s early build still presented some jarring moments of overly aggressive AI making the races tough to finish in a decent rank. Even on the easier tracks, it was a challenge to keep up due to the rubberbanding AI, which resulted in other racers easily ganging up on my vehicle with collisions and overtaking me with sudden bursts of speed at inopportune times. Lead designer Federico Cardini told me the AI was still being tuned to be a little more forgiving to players, while still retaining a sense of aggression on the tracks.

This early build does nail the sense of speed and precision for a fast-paced racing game starring a suite of toy cars. However, it still keeps it simple when it comes to getting a grip of your chosen vehicle’s sense of speed and handling. Cardini explained that shifting over to a more relaxed style of racing came from the development team’s understanding of the genre based on their years of work on racing franchises like MotoGP and Ride.

“I’ll be honest, from a development side, it made me ecstatic, I’d say. We are also fans of racing in general, and we felt like with an arcade racer like this, we could show our love for the genre,” Cardini said while reflecting on Milestone’s jump from racing sims to an arcade racer. “One of our most famous games is Screamer, from the nineties, and that was an arcade racer, and we have an incredible amount of knowledge and expertise on racing games. This is a great opportunity for us, where we can really create something unique for a game like [Hot Wheels Unleashed] that uses our years of experience on racing games.”

In addition to the quick races that I got to take part in, there are also a career mode and time trials to jump into, which will tie into the game’s unlocking of new vehicles and tracks. Unfortunately, we didn’t get a chance to experiment with the game’s track editor, which sounds like it will be a defining feature of Hot Wheels Unleashed. According to the devs, every standard track in the game was built from the ground up with the track editor, and the same tools will be available for players at launch. Along with creating your custom tracks, set in the six different environments, you can also share them online to have other players try them out. The online network will let everyone share and download new tracks to race on, which will give players a constant stream of new places to compete with their chosen vehicles.

Hot Wheels Unleashed stands as a tribute to the entire Hot Wheels franchise and the impact it had on fans. I enjoyed my brief time getting reacquainted with the Hot Wheels series and remembering what I liked about the toy cars from my youth. So far, this is shaping up to be a solid arcade racer that understands what people love about the long-standing line of toy cars. Hot Wheels Unleashed is currently scheduled for release on September 30, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch.