The Matrix Resurrections has revealed its first trailer, and if there’s one major takeaway, it’s that the fourth installment in the series seems to be riffing a lot on the original.
Released today, the new trailer introduces us to an older, seemingly amnesia-stricken Neo (Keanu Reeves), living on a diet of bad dreams and blue pills. He meets Carrie-Anne Moss’ Trinity, who half-recognises him, as well as what seems to be a younger version of Morpheus, played by Yahya Abdul-Mateen II. And, of course, there’s a whole heap of bullets and balletic martial arts. Check out the trailer below:
What’s notable about the trailer is how many references – big and small – there are to the first Matrix movie in particular. Aside from the red pill-blue pill motif, we see white rabbit tattoos, liquid mirrors, black cats, stopping bullets in place, and what seems to be a fight between Reeves and Abdul-Mateen that takes place in the sparring program where Neo and Morpheus originally trained. Even the way Abdul-Mateen’s character casually fires two submachine guns in separate directions harks back to Neo doing the same in the original Lobby Fight scene.
It’s perhaps no surprise that, after this long away, the latest Matrix would invoke the memory of the first. Two decades later, the 1999 original is heralded as a classic but its sequels, Reloaded and Revolutions, are looked back on less fondly overall. While this could simply be a tactic for the film’s first trailer, invoking nostalgia alongside excitement, it’s possible Resurrections is taking something of a Force Awakens approach, purposely riffing on the original film’s events – the title of this movie alone makes that feel fairly possible.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
After a very long wait, the trailer for The Matrix 4, now known as The Maxtrix Resurrections, is finally here. Coming to theaters and HBO Max on December 22, the new movie features a couple of your favorite characters from the series, alongside some new additions.
The trailer opens up with Neo, who is now Thomas Anderson, talking to a therapist, played by Neil Patrick Harris. Neo has been having dreams–more like flashbacks–to moments where he was unplugged and visions of the Matrix coding as well. In the real world, Neo seems bored and stuck in a rut. However, that changes when he meets Trinity (Carrie-Anne Moss), but the two don’t realize their history together. Watch the trailer for yourself below.
There sure are a lot of blue pills in this. From what it seems like in the trailer, The Matrix Resurrections may be about Neo reconnecting with who he truly is–The One–and getting unplugged once again, unless this Neo is simply a computer program whose had most of his memories wiped. It’s very hard to tell, as most of the footage from the trailer probably doesn’t tell the full story for the movie, though there could be an unexpected connection.
Of course, Reeves is sporting what’s now his signature long hair, which makes him look a bit like John Wick. The Matrix Resurrections will have another connection to that series by way of John Wick directors Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, who will both be helping director Lana Wachowski choreograph the fight sequences. Both men worked on the Matrix trilogy in the past, and Stahelski was Neo’s stunt double in the first film.
The new additions to the franchise include Priyanka Chopra (Baywatch), Jessica Henwick (Love and Monsters), Danial Bernhardt (John Wick), and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II (Watchmen).
The Matrix Resurrections will be available on HBO Max and in theaters on December 22.
Amazon Luna was released one year ago, and the retail giant continues to support and improve the streaming platform based on player feedback. Today, the company acknowledged that it “learned so much” from subscribers so far, and with their feedback in mind, plans to “make Luna even better” by expanding it to more devices, with more games.
Starting now, Fire table owners in the US can start streaming games. All they need is a compatible Fire tablet and the Luna app. The games support touch screen controls as well as the Luna controller or any supported gamepad.
One of the new channels launching today is the Family Channel, which offers a “carefully curated” group of 35+ games that are appropriate for younger players. The channel costs $3/month and includes titles like SpongeBob Squarepants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated, Garfield Kart: Furious Racing, and Transformers: Battlegrounds. Skatebird will come to the channel later this month.
Amazon also announced that Far Cry 6 (October 7) and Riders Republic (October 280 will launch day and date on Amazon Luna in October, while Rainbow Six Extraction will come to Luna early next year. These games are part of the Ubisoft+ Channel, and everyone who signs up by September 29 can lock in at the existing $15/month price before the cost goes up to $18/month on September 30.
Looking ahead, Amazon said it will launch a “retro-gaming” focused channel “soon” with games from Atari and SNK, among others. Some of the games in the channel will include Another World, Dragon’s Lair, and King of Fighters.
Another big announcement is a new co-op feature for Amazon Luna. The new Luna Couch option lets you play games like Team Sonic Racing and Overcooked 2 (among others) cooperatively even if you’re not in the same room. Perhaps the most exciting part of this is that only the host needs to be a Luna subscriber–the guest can play for free. The host creates a game session, which generates a Luna Couch code that a friend can use.
Amazon also announced that all Amazon Prime members in the US can play four games on Luna at no cost for the next week (September 9-15), including Resident Evil 7, Metro Exodus, Katamari Damacy Reroll, and Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom. Prime subscribers can already request an Early Access invite for Luna, but now they can simply jump in through the Luna website.
For six years, the Life Is Strange series has consistently told stories about the ties that bind us, between friends, families, and communities. The latest entry, True Colors, represents the first time subtext becomes not just text, but the game’s core mechanic. The strength of Life Is Strange as a series is how it always seeks to answers the deeper questions about why people are the way they are, but even compared to the original Life is Strange protagonist Max Caulfield seeking to untangle her best friend’s life, or Sean and Daniel Diaz of Life is Strange 2 being at the mercy of an increasingly merciless America, True Colors drills deeper. It features a new hero who can delve into peoples’ lives on a level beyond the capabilities of the series’ other protagonists. That ability lets the game traverse some new, fascinating territory for this series, but it’s still a bit too bashful about staying there for too long..
You play as Alex Chen, a child of the foster care system who was separated from her big brother Gabe when she was 10. She bounced from family to facility and back again for over a decade before, finally, Gabe tracked her down and invited her to his new home of Haven Springs, an idyllic little village in Colorado. While it’s seemingly a peaceful-enough place to start a life, Alex is helpless when it comes to her big secret and the game’s supernatural hook: Alex is a superpowered empath who is not only able to see and read peoples’ emotions as giant bursts of psychedelic colors, but if the emotion is strong enough, she will actually inherit it. Unfortunately, the foster care system not exactly being the happiest place on earth means Alex finds herself consumed by crippling depressive episodes and extreme fits of rage beyond her control.
And so, as Alex begins her new life, Haven Springs starts to rub off on her, in more ways than one. When a major tragedy strikes the town, keeping the peace becomes an imperative, and it’s about protecting herself just as much as it is about protecting the town. For the most part, True Colors operates the same way as every other Life Is Strange title: As Alex, you walk around and interact with everything and everyone the game will allow you to, occasionally making crucial, life-changing choices through dialogue that affect the world and the course of the story. On the technical level, there are a few marked improvements over past games in the series, especially in terms of visuals. This is the most gorgeous and lush Life is Strange game, with a huge, impressive improvement to the character performances, though it comes at a price. The PS5 port we tested took some heavy hits in frame rate when wandering around the town and stuttered elsewhere. The PC port handled much better, but even there, keeping up with the workload isn’t easy on the computer.
Mechanically, though, there’s one major addition: There will frequently be the option for Alex to use her powers and read the true emotions from a person’s mind, or feel the emotional attachments and memories associated with an object in the environment. At its most benign and hilarious, Alex can see someone having an outwardly civil phone conversation with a customer service rep, only to use her power to hear them internally having an absolute toddler tantrum. At its most harrowing, Alex can read a scared child, only to see the fear physically manifest as a fire-breathing abyssal maw, ready to swallow the child whole at any moment. It allows True Colors to play around with visuals in a way we haven’t seen, and on PS5, there’s a thoughtful use of the DualSense’s haptics that adds another nice layer of immersion to how much of an effect Alex’s powers are having on her.
It would be all too easy to make Alex’s life a screaming hellscape, with her unable to hide from humanity’s worst and most primal instincts, but thankfully, True Colors shows more restraint than that. The vibe is more of a “life comes at you fast” approach where heartache and disappointment creep up and sideswipe Alex rather than flooding over her at all times. The restraint makes the moments where darkness and negativity do pervade land much better. But, for long stretches, the pendulum almost swings too far in the other direction. True Colors is almost too kind as a narrative. Every single character and NPC has a baseline niceness that, while comfortable and soothing, borders on disingenuous given the grim emotional stakes. There’s a Gilmore Girls-y vibe to the whole thing; even most of the bastards have their charms, and there aren’t a lot of bastards to begin with. The other Life Is Strange games–even Dontnod’s Tell Me Why–were more balanced in that regard.
There is still, however, a pitch-black undercurrent to the game, asking big questions about sickness, death, grief, parenting, relationships, and what it costs to empathize with or forgive the monsters who threaten us. Where the game is most impressive is in asking questions that don’t have easy answers, and it does recognize that in the spots where it counts the most. One of the most harrowing moments in the game involves Alex comforting a mother who’s lost the love of her life, a man who eagerly wanted to be stepfather to her child. The resolution ends up in an unexpected place, with Alex reading the woman’s emotions and discovering she secretly resents her child for robbing her of her agency. Even more impressive is the fact that this is not a scenario with an easy solution. Alex using her powers to influence the situation ends up backfiring in a huge way later. This is a problem that Alex cannot solve, and she has to figure out the best way to offer herself and her support to the mother. There are a few situations in the game that maintain that level of maturity, and its final chapter is absolute perfection in that regard: an incredible, ambitious sequence of abstract storytelling, flashbacks, flash-forwards, creepy hallucinations, and beautiful catharsis. But by and large, the game settles for being syrupy sweet and heartfelt. It’s a town where the local Nextdoor equivalent is a quirky place populated by residents telling good-natured in-jokes, the local bar is full of awkward couples who are all nice to their servers, landlords willingly defer rent while a tenant is bereaved, and the local cop is a kindly schlub.
Haven Springs is a lovely place to visit, especially nowadays. These are people who deserve to have an empath in their midst, helping them process their negativity and fear into something healthier, and it’s a perfect place for Alex to truly come into her own as a person. But the feedback loop is a little stilted. With few exceptions, Alex’s immense kindness only comes back to her toward the end of the game. She is essentially the catalyst for anything happening in town. But Alex’s own actualization comes from trauma, when she is utterly alone. The typical video game structure of you, the player, being the only one shouldering the burden for an entire community feels more unfair than usual here, and for a game that so wants us to buy into the idea of Haven Springs as a community, that lopsided generosity comes off as a little awkward. The primary complaint really is that previous games in this series had cynicism that our protagonists had to rise above, and the journey to do so felt like more of a struggle, which is something that Life is Strange: True Colors lacks. Until the climax, Alex’s journey feels low-stakes across the board, even when it arrives at difficult solutions to problems. It’s never in doubt that Alex might persevere and leave Haven Springs better than how she found it.
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There’s merit in that approach, especially given how the other games have ended on such emotionally devastating notes. Alex being able to just purely help, without compromise, feels good in the moment. This is a game full of well-drawn places and characters with depth and stories worth telling, a game of diners and ice cream shops, flower-covered houses, golden sunsets, and blissful spring festivals. It’s a town that puts together an entire town-wide LARP session just for the sake of making one little boy feel better about his life.
There is light that developer Deck Nine just never allows darkness to touch, and there is joy to be had in being able to play some small part in making sure they all do better. But the disconnect between that vibe and the turmoil that brought Alex here to begin with is tangible, and the game would achieve brilliance if those two concerns could connect. Dropping by Haven Springs is still time well-spent–but it’s simply a pleasant visit, rather than a powerful, emotionally resonant one.
Video game retailer GameStop, which has become a “meme stock” in recent months thanks in part to Reddit traders, has announced its latest earnings–and it was a mixed bag.
The company made $1.18 billion in revenue, which was up from $942 million in revenue during the same quarter last year. However, GameStop did not post a profit. The company had a loss of $61.6 million, which is an improvement over the company’s loss of $111.3 million for the same period last year.
For the six-month period, meanwhile, GameStop made $2.46 billion in revenue, up from $1.96 billion, and had a loss of $128.4 million, compared to a loss of $277 million during the first half the year prior. The launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, along with the enduring popularity of the Switch, might have helped GameStop’s revenue in the past year.
Looking deeper into the earnings report, GameStop said it had $1.775 billion in cash on hand, and the bulk of this came from GameStop’s decision in June to issue 5 million shares of common stock, generating $1.1 billion in the process. This money, as announced previously, will be used for corporate purposes and for its growth initiatives.
On an earnings call, GameStop management said it had 4,642 stores globally at the end of the quarter, which is down from the year before due to the retailer’s decision to close stores that amounted to about 9% of its total store count. CEO Matt Furlong appeared on the earnings call, but only spoke for seven minutes to run through the earnings numbers. There was no question-and-answer session with analysts.
GameStop is looking to grow in the future. It recently signed a lease on a 530,000 square-foot fulfillment center in Reno, Nevada, which is expected to be operational in 2022. It adds to GameStop’s 700,000 square foot facility in York, Pennsylvania, which started shipping products during the quarter. When the Reno facility opens, it will give GameStop coverage on both coasts of the US for the first time in the company’s history to help expand its product offerings and speed up shipping.
In the wake of GameStop’s sales report, the company’s stock price dropped by around 7%.
In another development, another so-called “meme stock” that surged earlier this year thanks to Reddit’s WallStreetBets, the movie theater chain AMC, might be cooking up a partnership of some kind with GameStop. CEO Adam Aron told Fox Business that AMC’s new public investors called on AMC to work with GameStop in some capacity, and as a result of this, Aron opened discussions with GameStop.
“We have made contact with GameStop. We are talking. But it’s too early to say what the shape of what some cooperative marketing efforts might be,” Aron said.
No Time to Die director Cary Joji Fukunaga has addressed one popular fan theory about a Bond 25 character.
In an interview with SFX Magazine, Fukunaga dispelled rumors that Rami Malek’s Safin in No Time to Die is a rebooted version of Dr. No, the original Bond baddie from the franchise’s first movie back in 1962, insisting that Safin is, in fact, an all-new villain albeit one that he hopes will have an enduring impact in James Bond’s extensive gallery of rogues.
“Everyone thinks it’s so easy to make these tentpole films, that it’s just formulaic and you just plug-and-play and people are going to show up for the cinema,” Fukunaga explained. “It takes a lot of smart people to create these films, and also to create these characters that will hopefully last. This is a new villain. He’s not, as some have speculated, Dr. No. Hopefully, he’ll be one that is lasting in some way.”
Fukunaga recalled some of the early development meetings he had with Bond producers Barbara Broccoli and Michael G. Wilson to create No Time to Die’s villain and the challenges they faced in coming up with an entirely new antagonist, knowing there’s a possibility that the character could end up being parodied and not taken seriously.
“Making a villain that doesn’t seem laughable, that you can take seriously, where it’s still frightening what they’re attempting to do and why they must be stopped, is more difficult than people actually acknowledge,” Fukunaga admitted. “I remember us sitting around early in the development stage. Barbara and Michael have been doing this for decades and even Barbara admitted, ‘This is really hard!'”
It’s worth noting that a number of fans correctly identified Christoph Waltz’s “Franz Oberhauser” as Bond’s archnemesis Ernest Stavro Blofeld in Spectre before that movie hit theaters in 2015, even though Waltz himself maintained that his character was “definitely not” Blofeld on the lead up to the movie’s release.
Little is known about the mask-wearing Safin, other than the fact that he is a “mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology,” who may be “007’s most terrifying adversary yet.” All will be revealed when No Time to Die finally hits theaters, with its theatrical release in the UK set for September 30, just ahead of its US release on October 8.
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has taken Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games to task for advertising ships for sale that aren’t playable or even viewable in game. ASA has asked Cloud Imperium to clarify what players are actually purchasing when they advertise for so-called “concept ships,” Eurogamer reports.
The offending advertisement was reported to the ASA by Redditor Mazty, who posted a screenshot of the email in question and details of the complaint to Reddit. The email urges players to pledge for the Gatac Manufature Railen ship before it leaves the pledge store, making no note that the ship doesn’t currently exist other than calling it an “alien concept ship.”
Since the ASA confirmed that the email went against the UK’s Advertising Code of Practice, Cloud Imperium has added a new disclaimer to emails advertising pledge ships, reading in full:
“The Crusader Ares (Inferno and Ion), A2 Hercules, Genesis Starliner, are being offered here as a limited vehicle concept pledge. This means that the vehicle is in development but is not yet ready to display in your Hangar or fly in Star Citizen. It will be available as playable content in a later patch. In the future, the vehicle price may increase and Lifetime Insurance or any extras may not be available. If you pledge towards a Crusader Ares (Inferno and Ion), A2 Hercules, Genesis Starliner, you will receive a loaner vehicle for use in Star Citizen until such time as the Crusader Ares (Inferno and Ion), A2 Hercules, Genesis Starliner, is included in-game. This loaner vehicle will be a currently playable vehicle of similar approximate size and/or function to the concept ship pledged. We offer pledge ships to help fund Star Citizen’s development. The funding received from vehicles such as this allows us to include deeper features in the Star Citizen world. These vehicles will be available for in-game credits and/or will be otherwise earnable through play in the final universe. They are not required to start or succeed at the game.”
Mazty has said the disclaimer is still not enough, as it doesn’t allow for the possibility that the ships, which can sell for hundreds of dollars each in the pledge store, may never actually make it into the game. Commenters on the Reddit post have related experiences of players buying concept ships that have either never eventuated or are released in a different form to what was promised, with no updates or explanations forthcoming from the studio.
Star Citizen has become a controversial game thanks to its extended development time and heavy focus on fundraising from fans. The game this year hit a milestone of $350 million raised, but still doesn’t have an official release date, though parts of the game are playable in alpha.
After you’ve delved into the three aspects of Ford Cruller’s personality in Psychonauts 2, you’ll find yourself pulled into the darkest depths of the Psychonauts founder’s mind–the Tomb of the Sharkophagus. But while the level might seem spooky, it’s actually not so bad, provided you can keep your wits about you while descending into its horrific subconscious pit. And as always in Psychonauts 2, there are collectibles for you to uncover along the way.
There’s not too much ground to cover in the Tomb of the Sharkophagus, but while the number of collectibles is small, there are a few in out-of-the-way places that are easy miss or accidentally pass by. And at least one–the Memory Vault–will require you to return to the level for a second pass.
Memory Vault: Upon entering the graveyard, turn to your right. You’ll see a small alcove with a tombstone that looks like a Memory Vault. The Vault itself didn’t show up the first time we ran through this level, but when we came back for a second look, the Vault was in this spot waiting.
Purse Tag: After escaping from the giant comb, you’ll slowly fall down a pit. You can direct Raz to fall toward the edges of the pit to access some side doors. On the second ledge down, you’ll find a wooden shark–the Sharkophagus–darting around near the ledge. Slow it with Time Bubble and jump onto its back to grab the Purse Tag.
Half-a-Mind: Drop down to the third ledge in the pit and enter a door to find the giant typewriter from Cruller’s Correspondence. The Half-a-Mind is to one side of it.
Purse Emotional Baggage: Continue to the bottom of the pit and follow the hallways until you reach a larger room, with the drill-shaped Astrolathe in the middle. Check around the back of the device to find the Purse in the back corner of the room.
HBO Max launched in May 2020, and has continued to expand over the past year, adding original movies and TV shows, anime, kids content, and catalog items from both Warner Bros.’ vault and licensed content from other companies. As with other streaming platforms that offer a lot of content, the problem isn’t lack of things to watch–it’s knowing what to choose.
There are hundreds of movies on HBO Max, from practically every genre you can think of. It’s a daunting amount, so we’ve been through the catalog to pick out some must-watch titles. Not all of these films will appeal to every viewer, but all are great movies in their own genres.
There are Oscar-winning epics, influential sci-fi movies, ground-breaking ’70s films, world cinema classics, and some of the biggest movies from the past two decades. All are available to watch right now on HBO Max, so if you’re stuck for something to check out, you could do a lot worse than pick something new from this list…
You can currently save £37.55 on The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Edition (Deluxe) when you preorder at Amazon. This is an incredible deal, and this slipcased edition of Tolkien’s classic epic tale will be releasing on October 14, so there’s not much longer to wait. If you want to complete your Lord of the Rings celebration next month, I can also recommend the Middle Earth 4K Collector’s Edition, with preorders live, this grand collection of this Hobbit and LOTR films looks like a vital addition to your Blu-ray shelf.
Not only that, but the Nintendo Switch OLED Model preorders are still in stock at Amazon. This is a fantastic opportunity to get hold of the console, especially since we believe it may get increasingly harder to get hold of one after release day. Our other favourite deal right now is definitely Audible, with the 3-months for 99p promotion returning until September 15.
Audible: Get 3-Months for just 99p (Save £23)
Preorder The Lord of the Rings Illustrated Editions
Switch OLED Preorders Live at Amazon
Preorder Middle-Earth Ultimate Collector’s Edition in the UK
Preorder Horizon Forbidden West in the UK
Horizon Forbidden West is finally available to preorder in the UK, costing £69.99 at launch on PS5 (£59.99 on PS4 with a free upgrade). Or, for £10 more, you can pick up the Special Edition on PS5, which includes the game, plus a SteelBook case, mini art book, digital soundtrack, and a Nora Legacy Spear + Outfit.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
