Two of Marvel’s upcoming movies, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and the Eternals, feature Chinese-born creators in front of and behind the camera. And yet, these two movies may not make it to Chinese theaters if a hint from CCTV6 China Movie Channel ends up being accurate, according to a report from Variety.
CCTV6 aired a list of the United States release dates for all of the upcoming MCU Phase Four films, but Eternals and Shang-Chi were missing despite being the nearest films after Black Widow, which releases July 9. As Variety notes, their absence from the list doesn’t guarantee they won’t make it over, but the two films are already facing some challenges. These two movies are the first to significantly feature Asian creators; Shang-Chi stars Chinese-Canadian actor Simu Liu, while Eternals was helmed by Academy Award-winning director Chloe Zhao.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Now Playing: MCU Phase 4 & Beyond Revealed: Fantastic 4, Thor: Love and Thunder And More
Shang-Chi‘s major obstacle comes from its history as an older Marvel comic. Shang-Chi first appeared in Marvel comics in 1973, a time when Marvel creators were taking inspiration from Eastern film and culture. Doctor Strange first appeared in 1963, and the Mandarin and Iron Fist a year after Shang-Chi, in 1974. Marvel didn’t always handle these characters gracefully. Variety points out that Shang-Chi’s father in his original backstory is a character called Fu Manchu, a character long associated with Asian racism and stereotyping. Marvel tweaked Shang-Chi’s backstory for his movie, making the Mandarin his father and casting veteran Chinese actor Tony Leung, but Chinese moviegoers appear skeptical.
“So you change the name and it’s not Fu Manchu anymore? The Mandarin is inherently a character that blackens the image of the Chinese people,” one user wrote on Weibo, China’s major social media service.
The situation with theEternalsis a little bit different because there, it’s more about the director herself. An article fromTimeexplains that while Zhao was originally lauded in China for her groundbreaking Best Director win at the Golden Globes, comments from Zhao resurfaced, including one where she spoke about growing up in China, describing it as “a place where there are lies everywhere.” Chinese state-run publications did not report on Zhao’s similarly groundbreaking Oscar win, and a hashtag on Weibo mentioning Zhao was censored, along with mentions of her on other sites and services.
All movies that play in Chinese theaters are approved by the government before they get in front of citizens. For Shang-Chi, the issue seems to be more of a cultural one, but if the committee views the history of the movie’s villain as significantly offensive to Chinese culture and history, that may be enough to keep it from seeing release. For Eternals, Zhao herself seems to be the primary obstacle. Releasing a film created by someone the government views as persona nongrata, that would generate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue for Marvel, could be a huge sticking point. None of this is guaranteed, but Marvel is almost certainly keeping an eye on both of these issues.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings releases on September 3, 2021, followed by the Eternals on November 5.
With vaccines rolling out across the country, in-person gatherings are finding calendar dates again. Star Wars fans can look forward to their next event even sooner than planned, as Lucasfilm has moved the next Star Wars Celebration date up by three months, from August 2022 to May 2022.
Star Wars Celebration Anaheim was initially scheduled for August 18-21, 2022. Instead, Lucasfilm announced today that the event will run from May 26-29, 2022.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
“These new dates will provide fans with more incredible offerings to enjoy at Star Wars Celebration,” the organizers wrote in the official announcement.
Star Wars Celebration is the one-stop shop for Star Wars announcements. Celebration 2019 revealed the title of Episode IX, The Rise of Skywalker, along with a trailer for the film. The event also featured the first event-only Mandalorian footage, along with character reveals for the show, and tons of Clone Wars reveals. Gamers, meanwhile, got an early look at Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order.
Disney has a big batch of Star Wars movies and shows planned. Wonder Woman director Patty Jenkins’ Rogue Squadron and Taika Waititi’s untitled project are headed to the big screen. For television, Disney has announced shows for Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka Tano, Cassian Andor, Lando Calrissian, Boba Fett, and more. While the Book of Boba Fett is releasing this year, many of these projects are further out, and we can likely look forward to reveals for some of them come next May.
According to the official announcement, fans who want to keep their tickets don’t have to do anything. If those new dates don’t work, though, you can request a refund through the Star Wars Celebration website.
There’s a lot more Steamworld in the works. Today, developer Thunderful announced that it’s developing a number of new entries in the post-apocalyptic robot steampunk series.
Howdy! We’re thrilled to share that several new SteamWorld games are in the making!
With this in mind, we’ll dedicate this space to SteamWorld games old and new! Image & Form is @ThunderfulGames nowadays. Same folks, new name! Follow us there for news on The Gunk and more games! pic.twitter.com/FQPpXS1t9i
— Image & Form is home Questing! 🃏⚔️🤖 (@ImageForm) May 12, 2021
In a Twitter post, the studio revealed that there are “several” new Steamworld games in the works. In addition, it explained that the Steamworld team is still intact, even though the original studio Image and Form merged with publisher Thunderful last year.
Thunderful hasn’t shared anything about the games yet–but in the case of Steamworld, this means we know even less than usual about what’s to come. We don’t even know what type of game it could be, considering that the Steamworld series has bounced around from genre to genre.
Steamworld Dig and Steamworld Dig 2, for instance, are both action-adventure platformer games (although they have pretty different aesthetic styles). Steamworld Heist, on the other hand, is a turn-based tactics game. And, finally, Steamworld Quest is a deck-building RPG. They’re all solid games, though, so it’s going to be exciting to see what genre Thunderful tackles next, or if it decides to put out a sequel.
Set in the beautiful, volcanic scarred high-desert of the Pacific Northwest, Days Gone is an open-world action-adventure game where you play as Deacon St. John, a Drifter and bounty hunter who would rather risk the dangers of the broken road than live in one of the “safe” wilderness encampments.
On paper, Hood: Outlaws and Legends has a lot going for it. It’s a competitive riff on the co-op multiplayer heist game where two teams of four merry men and women simultaneously attempt to unlock a vault and extract a giant chest of gold. Its stealthy race to elude computer-controlled knights and rival players rarely plays out with the grace implied by the concept. More often, the competition for keys, chests, and respawn points devolve into protracted brawls that showcase Hood’s clumsy combat, rather than dynamic stealth. Throw in some confusing UI, easily exploitable stealth-kill mechanics, and myriad small design flaws, and Hood’s execution fails to deliver the goods it’s promised.
Each match in Hood has four phases. First, someone needs to steal the vault key from the invincible (but generally unaware) Sheriff. Second, you find and open the vault. Third, someone carries the chest to one of a few extraction points on the map. Once the chest is locked in, one or two players use a winch to lift the chest while the others defend them. The “other team,” meanwhile, has opportunities to disrupt the mission to try and acquire the key or chest for themselves. With both teams naturally meeting at a few key locations, you have plenty of opportunities to surprise and overtake the objective.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
In this idealized version of the game, the match is a coordinated stealth run, where each character uses their unique skills to advance the mission or help their teammates. Each of the four characters theoretically has a role to play: Marianne, the stealthiest fighter, moves quickly and has abilities that let her steal the key or assassinate enemies discreetly. Robin’s bow allows him to take out enemies from afar. Little John can lift gates and move the chest quickly. Tooke is a solid backup fighter with a wide-reaching melee attack and a healing ability. Though some of these skills make certain characters well-suited to different tasks, there’s no moment where you need a specific character and their skills. This opens the door for players to choose characters based on their playstyles, but also minimizes the importance of class-based play around the heist itself.
Ultimately, the character combat abilities matter more than their other affinities. Though Hood is primarily pitched as a game about heists, things get more chaotic and aggressive when you add another team of players. Rather than picking each other off or a coordinated ambush, most matches devolve into a series of team battles for control of the key, the chest, or the winch. Once the fighting starts, any pretense of a stealth mission falls away. The AI-controlled knights, while powerful enough to overwhelm any one player if they are in large numbers, are still easy enough to avoid that most players will engage each other even if it means getting spotted by them. Even the sheriff, who instantly kills you when he gets in range and can only be temporarily stunned, is slow enough that you can fight around him.
Hood’s unwieldy combat mechanics make large battles painful whether you win or lose. Though every character has some capacity for hand-to-hand fighting, Hood’s melee attacks feel loose–they’re difficult to aim or time well. On the receiving end, most attacks stun slightly, leading to a situation in large battles where a single hit will leave you stun-locked. In theory, you have either a parry or dodge to keep an enemy from hitting you, but it’s nearly impossible to keep track of the action in a scrum. These large clumsy battles can turn into minutes-long wars of attrition where players fight, die, respawn, and run right back into the fray until one side wipes the other out, giving themselves enough time to make progress. This is especially true in the winching phase of the match, where one team needs to defend a fixed point.
Hood’s unwieldy combat mechanics make large battles painful whether you win or lose
Then there’s the assassination issue. Any player can stealth kill an opponent by crouching behind them and hitting a prompt. It doesn’t matter if the assassin’s already been seen or even if the two have been fighting previously. This frequently leads to situations where one player will engage another openly, only to get assassinated by another opponent waiting in the wings. Getting assassinated mid-fight feels abrupt and inappropriate in the situation and, at times, it feels unavoidable and is therefore extremely aggravating. Similarly, Robin Hood can kill other players with a fully charged headshot. While it isn’t always possible to land one, especially while getting attacked, it also leads to frustrating sudden deaths in and out of combat. While this kind of combat seems appropriate for a stealthy combat experience, its unregulated use feels more disruptive than additive; more like an exploit than a well-considered mechanic.
Since a team can get wiped out quickly, matches can turn on a dime. Just because your team got the key and moved it to an extraction point doesn’t have any bearing on whether or not you’ll beat the other team. All you need to do to win is winch the last of seven progress pips. I’ve had matches where my team did all of the work, only to have the match stolen at the last moment, and I’ve also stolen matches at the last second in the same fashion. Still, the only reward for match progress nine times out of 10 is experience. Sometimes a steal feels earned, but sometimes it doesn’t. Either way, it doesn’t feel like the better team always wins.
Whether you play the objective or you go after the other team, Hood requires a lot of coordination. The best teams attack as a group and find ways to cater to their best players’ strengths. Hood features a ping system that allows for some nonverbal communication, but when you’re predicting enemy movements or noting something not in direct line of sight, you need to be able to say more. It also helps to relay intel when you get it: For example, when you steal the key, you learn the location of the vault, which isn’t on the map. Without chat, it would be impossible to share that information. Hood’s in-game party chat is on by default, which seems to prompt matchmaking-assembled groups to chat more than other multiplayer games, but there’s no substitute for playing this game with friends.
You can experience the pure heist version of the game without a second set of players, but sadly that PvE experience is relegated to a “practice” mode, which doesn’t give you any experience or gold to unlock and earn cosmetics or character perks. Without any opportunity to experience a narrative or make meta-progress, the practice feels slightly wasteful of time, especially since it’s also not great practice for the main PvPvE experience.
That said, I don’t think it’s a problem that Hood sidesteps the lore that so many multiplayer games feel compelled to build. In fact, Hood deftly uses the Robin Hood myth to get around it. There’s almost no story in Hood–you can earn text-based snippets of character information, but there’s no plot, per se. While that leaves open the question of why there are two rival bands of thieves, the story doesn’t really feel missing. All you really need to know is that Robin Hood and his band of thieves–Little John, Father Tuck, and Maid Marian–steal from the rich and give to the poor. Chances are, if you were drawn to this game there’s a good chance you’ve got the gist already.
Gallery
It is not without its own sense of style, though. Hood does try to put its own slightly darker, edgier spin on the Robin Hood universe. The character designs are more intimidating than the simple green garb. Tooke, Hood’s take on Friar Tuck, looks more like a shaman than a monk. (Also, in the lore, he’s a reformed church Inquisitor who tortured enemies of the state before going rogue). The more brutal aesthetic touches feel in line with all the killing you do on any given heist, but without any real story to spotlight those characterization changes, they don’t really register. It’s been a while since I’ve seen any of the Robin Hood movies so I can’t say for sure, but I think the biggest difference between Hood and other Robin Hood adaptations may be that this is the first time I’ve ever heard Robin Hood say “F**k.”
But without interesting characters or a story the focus falls solely on the gameplay, and Hood’s gameplay feels sloppy. It’s a heist game that usually devolves into a wild, frustrating melee combat arena. In its best moments, it’s a tense, highly cooperative experience, but those moments never last long. I want to believe in the competitive heist Hood tries to pull off and, in theory, a living multiplayer game could evolve into something better over time. (There are already plans to introduce a new game mode, map, and character for all players within the next 12 months). Still, there are too many points of frustration built into the experience to expect that Hood’s evolution will be transformative.
Singer Janelle Monáe (Homecoming) has joined the excitingly and suddenly growing cast of Knives Out 2, which now appears to be in full force ramping up pre-production. The addition was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter, but little is still known about what roles the ensemble will all be taking on or the movie’s plot.
In addition to Monáe, Dave Bautista (Army of the Dead) and Edward Norton (Fight Club) are among the earliest of what’s expected to be many casting announcements, based on the 2019 movie that kicked off the new franchise. Knives Out 2 currently has no set release date, but is expected to begin production in Greece sometime this summer.
Like the first installment, the movie will see Daniel Craig play master detective Benoit Blanc–with an inexplicable southern accent–solving a mystery where there’s a large pool of potential suspects. The original Knives Out starred Chris Evans, Jamie Lee Curtis, Christopher Plummer, Michael Shannon, and Toni Collette.
Netflix recently secured a deal with writer-director Rian Johnson for both Knives Out 2 and 3 for a staggering $400 million, which means eventually there will also be similar announcements for an upcoming third movie. In addition to working with Netflix, Johnson is also developing Poker Face, a 10-episode mystery series for Peacock that will star Natasha Lyonne (Russian Doll).
Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO Jim Ryan has acknowledged the PlayStation 5’s continued absence from store shelves, laying out his plans to fix the shortage as the year progresses.
In an interview with Wired about the new console–which has sold 7.8 million units since March 31 despite the shortage–Ryan spoke about the steps being taken to mitigate the shortfall. “We’re working as hard as we can to ameliorate that situation,” Ryan says. “We see production ramping up over the summer and certainly into the second half of the year, and we would hope to see some sort of return to normality in terms of the balance between supply and demand during that period.”
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Now Playing: Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart – The Final Preview
The lack of PlayStation 5s on the market has not hurt the console’s performance when compared to its predecessor, however. The Wired article mentions that according to Sony, from the November launch to the end of March, PS5 owners have spent 81 percent more time on the console than early PS4 owners did during its first months on the market in 2013-2014. Sony also notes an 11 percent rise in software sales between the PS5 and PS4 in that same period of time.
The PlayStation 5’s momentum will only continue with Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart launching on June 11 and both Horizon Forbidden West and the next God of War also on the way. In fact, PlayStation Studios head Hermen Hulst has confirmed 25 first-party PS5 games are in development, with around half of them being entirely new IP.
Amazon is reportedly spending $465 million to produce the first season of its Lord of the Rings TV show, making it one of the most expensive TV shows in history. Even if the figure is not that high, as some have suggested, Amazon is undoubtedly paying a lot of money to produce the show. Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke has now spoken about the huge price tag, saying–perhaps jokingly to an extent–that the show needs to attract “a lot” of viewers for the investment to be worth it.
Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter (via Collider), Salke said the entertainment market these days is “crazy.” She cited Netflix’s recent move to pay $469 million for the two Knives Out sequels as an example of this. For Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show, Salke said Amazon’s investment covers a “full season of a huge world-building show,” which incurs a major cost.
“The number is a sexy headline or a crazy headline that’s fun to click on, but that is really building the infrastructure of what will sustain the whole series,” she said.
Salke remarked that “it is a crazy world” out there for executives looking to sign projects as it relates to their cost, and The Lord of the Rings is no different. She said The Lord of the Rings needs to draw a major audience on Amazon, and she’s confident that it’ll work out.
“There’s a lot of wooing and we have to make decisions on where we want to stretch and where we want to draw the line. As for how many people need to watch Lord of the Rings? A lot. (Laughs.) A giant, global audience needs to show up to it as appointment television, and we are pretty confident that that will happen,” she said.
Amazon’s Lord of the Rings show is set in the Second Age, but we still don’t know anything about the story or characters. To date, Amazon has not released any footage for the show, nor do we know when it’s scheduled to release. It will be on Amazon Prime.
It turns out that Mass Effect 3’s online multiplayer experience could make some kind of return in the future, according to Mass Effect: Legendary Edition‘s project director.
In an interview with GameSpot sister site CNET, project director Mac Walters was asked if the still-active Mass Effect 3 online multiplayer offering would come back in some capacity. Walters didn’t deliver a straight answer but said it depends on the reception the Legendary Edition receives and if there’s a demand for multiplayer.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Now Playing: Mass Effect Legendary Edition – Official Remastered Comparison Trailer
“I would never say no to that,” Walters said. “We want to see what kind of reception the Legendary Edition gets and what the demand for the multiplayer is. And then we’ll ask ourselves if we have the resources and time to bring it up to the quality level we and fans want.”
This echoes a similar sentiment from earlier this year, in which Walters confirmed that multiplayer would be cut from Mass Effect: Legendary Edition so developer BioWare could focus on overhauling the single-player experience.
Mass Effect 3’s multiplayer was praised at the time for its squad-based, cooperative action and integration into the game’s overarching narrative.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition launches on May 14 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, as well as PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S via backward compatibility. It’s currently discounted on Amazon, so be sure to check out our Mass Effect: Legendary Edition preorder guide to learn about the available bonuses and our preloading guide to find out when Mass Effect: Legendary Edition can be downloaded.
Adult Swim has greenlit and will be producing three new movies based on its original hit series Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Metalocalypse, and The Venture Bros. According to a release, the movies will be released globally on Blu-ray and DVD and on TVOD (transactional video on demand) services for a 90-day exclusive window, followed by premieres on HBO Max and Adult Swim. No release dates for any of the films have been announced.
“Leveraging the power of WarnerMedia allows us to deliver original content to our amazingly dedicated and not-shy fans, while also giving our talented series creators an opportunity to tell stories in new and interesting ways,” said Michael Ouweleen, president of Adult Swim.
The fact that each of these series is coming back in any form is both incredibly exciting and unexpected–but the biggest shock may go to The Venture Bros., which was canceled last September. The long-running series had Season 7 air in 2018, which unceremoniously ended a run that began with the pilot episode’s release in 2003. It had been a couple more years since anything was last heard about either Aqua Teen Hunger Force or Metalocalypse, which were both canceled in 2015.
Brief synopses for each film were also included in the release, which are as follows:
Metalocalypse: The power-hungry TRIBUNAL unveils their secret and deadly “Falconback Project” as the world grows in embattled chaos and the menacing Doomstar breaches the Earth’s atmosphere while the mysterious and twisted dissent of a band member threatens the future of Dethklok. Picking up directly after the heroic rescue of Toki Wartooth: Can Dethklok choose between their egos and the greater good of the world to embark on a gauntlet of dangers that will try their very souls and finally write the song that will be their salvation?
The Venture Bros.: Doc’s latest invention will either bankrupt the Ventures or launch them to new heights, as Hank searches for himself, Dean searches for Hank, The Monarch searches for answers, and a mysterious woman from their pasts threatens to bring their entire world crashing down on them.
Aqua Teen Hunger Force: A continuation of the hit animated series, fans will find out what happens next with Frylock, Meatwad and Master Shake, who consider themselves crime fighters, but the truth is they never fight crime.
As of this writing, it’s unclear if these movies are intended to give each series the intended finale each creative team intended to provide for their canceled series, or might leave the door open to further sequels.
