Author: Trafficblast

Disgraced star Kevin Spacey has landed his first film role since a multitude of sexual assault allegations were raised against him. As reported by ABC News, Spacey will appear in the Italian movie The Man Who Drew God.

The film will be directed by veteran Italian actor Franco Nero (Die Hard II, Django), who confirmed Spacey’s involvement. “I’m very happy Kevin agreed to participate in my film,” he said. “I consider him a great actor and I can’t wait to start the movie.”

According to the Guardian, Spacey’s will play a “small role” as a police detective, who is investigating charges of sexual abuse against an artist played by Nero. Nero’s wife Vanessa Redgrave will also appear.

The first allegations of sexual misconduct were levelled against Spacey in 2017, by a number of men working with Spacey at the Old Vic theatre in London between 1995 and 2013. Star Trek Discovery actor Anthony Rapp also accused Spacey of sexual assaulting him when he was 14, and in 2018 Spacey was charged with indecent assault on a teenager in Massachusetts. This charge was later dropped, and Spacey has continued to claim he is innocent of all accusations.

As a result of these allegations, Spacey was dropped from the final season of the Netflix hit House of Cards. He was also replaced in Ridley Scott’s movie All the Money in the World, with the late Christopher Plummer playing his role in reshoots. The last movie he appeared in was 2018’s Billionaire Boys Club, which was shot before the allegations broke.

Monday has brought some especially good deals for Nintendo Switch owners. GameStop’s Memorial Day sale is live and features big discounts on Switch titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Splatoon 2, Yoshi’s Crafted World, and Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze. PlayStation and Xbox users can save big on some relatively recent releases, including Hitman 3 and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. Meanwhile, Best Buy has a massive discount on an excellent Alienware gaming laptop as well as deals on multiple monitors and a great Corsair gaming headset. We’ve rounded up the best gaming, tech, and entertainment deals for Monday. Don’t forget to check back tomorrow to see what’s new for Tuesday.

Amazon Prime Day 2021 News & Deals

Biomutant’s post-apocalyptic open world differs from the norm, even if it’s guilty of adhering to a few familiar tropes. The remnants of its neglected towns are still populated by dilapidated buildings and roaming bandits, and its overgrown roadways are littered with the burnt-out husks of abandoned vehicles. But Biomutant also utilizes a vivid color palette that makes its verdant fields and picturesque red mountains pop with the kind of striking vibrancy that’s rarely associated with the apocalypse.

Throw in some furry anthropomorphic creatures, and Biomutant’s character design and general style is certainly atypical of the genre. Yet it also consists of a mishmash of fairly obvious influences, from a Breath of the Wild-esque structure to combo-driven combat that’s similar to Devil May Cry, and other familiar elements from the likes of Fallout, Max Payne, and Borderlands. It’s a flavorful petri dish, for sure, and there are plenty of uneven and drab aspects to its overall design and structure. The mixture between old and new ideas doesn’t always sit right, but Biomutant also manages to carve out its own identity amid its many inspirations.

This begins with the character creator, as you step into the flocculent skin of one of the aforementioned creatures–an odd hybrid between a squirrel, rat, and any other scurrying critter that comes to mind. Choosing a breed affects your starting stats to a certain degree, and you can pump points into specific attributes if you fancy, say, dealing more melee damage or increasing your chances of bartering with merchants. If this sounds like your typical by-the-numbers RPG progression system, it’s because it is. There’s some personality to the character creator, as your body shape will change depending on which stats you opt to emphasize–big head for intellect, big biceps for strength. Ultimately, however, your starting attributes aren’t especially significant. You’re able to put 10 points into a category each time you level up, so it’s easy to build a fairly well-rounded character within a few hours.

The final part of creating your character involves picking a class, which impacts both your starting weapon and the addition of a unique skill. The Commando, for instance, inflicts 10% more damage with ranged weapons, while the Psi-Freak gets access to a lightning attack that otherwise isn’t available to the other classes. These aren’t game-changing skills, and you’ll be swapping out weapons by the dozen in no time at all, but they do add a smidgen of variety to subsequent playthroughs.

The latter example is also one of the few instances where Biomutant will lock you out of using a specific ability. Even if you pick a class such as the rogue-like Saboteur, you’re still able to use Psi-Powers and Biogenetics and wield any of the available weapon types, so there’s plenty of freedom to play the game how you want. The only other time you’re unable to unlock certain abilities is when you come across Psi-Powers that are dependent upon your Aura alliance. Biomutant’s Aura system is split into light and dark sides, with good and bad deeds affecting your standing in each. It’s a typical morality system, with your deeds and dialogue choices impacting how other characters see you. You’re not locked into either light or darkness once you start going down one path, so there is some flexibility to play as a morally grey character and dabble in both sides of the spectrum.

In truth, the majority of your choices have an insignificant impact on Biomutant’s story. The biggest decision you’ll make occurs within the game’s first hour, as you’re asked to align with one of two tribes. While the obvious light-sided tribe wants you to unite the other clans and defeat four deadly Worldeaters to save the world, the dark-sided tribe would prefer if you did the opposite by conquering the other clans and defeating the Worldeaters to cleanse the world and start anew. This essentially sets up your overarching objective and impacts the ending you’ll get if you decide to stick to your chosen path, but doesn’t change the missions you’ll embark on to get there. Beating the Worldeaters and capturing the other tribe outposts makes up the bulk of the game either way, and the narrative just isn’t interesting enough to make your choices feel meaningful.

The story contextualizes your progression and gives you a reason to push on, but there’s little else to it. The presence of an amiable narrator is a nice touch, and this omniscient voice does add a dash of personality to the game. Aside from occasionally chiming in with destiny-centric tangents, the narrator also acts as a translator for every character in the game. It’s an unusual method of storytelling that alters the dialogue so that a character won’t directly ask you for help–rather, the narrator will say something along the lines of: “She explains that you need to gather wood to repair that building.” This makes conversations inherently amusing, at least initially, but it does mean characters struggle to stand out, considering they all share the same voice. The writing doesn’t do the cast any favors in this regard either, with most characters existing just to spew exposition and lore before sending you on a fetch quest. It’s clear that a lot of effort was put into fleshing out the backstory of this post-apocalyptic world–or at least throwing in as many kooky names as possible–but being told about it via a verbal salvo that foregoes any sense of character isn’t an engaging way to absorb it, particularly when adopting a “tell, don’t show” approach.

Unimaginative mission design compounds the story’s shortcomings, as your quest to defeat all four Worldeaters always boils down to a formulaic back and forth. The general structure is decent enough, with the Tree of Life looming high in the center of the map–its mammoth roots jutting out in four distinct directions. There’s a Worldeater waiting at the end of each root and a supporting character that’s willing to help you reach them. The problem is that the way you reach each one is always the same. You meet a character, they reveal the vehicle you need to use, then you’re sent to grab a part they need to get it working, and repeat. The vehicles themselves offer a nice change of pace, with a hulking mech and gun-toting speedboat on the agenda, among others. But the journey’s always short and quick, making the Worldeaters feel anticlimactic. It’s also a tad odd that you spend the game building up your own character, only to defeat the game’s biggest foes while behind the wheel of various vehicles.

Combat is fun in short bursts, too, although it takes a couple of hours to find its footing. The reasons for this are three-fold: both the dodge and parry mechanics require some time to get the hang of–the automatic lock-on is inconsistent–and your starting moves and weapons are underwhelming. Once your arsenal opens up and you attain a few more combos, the combat begins to find its groove, albeit one that’s dictated by routine. You’re always equipped with both melee and ranged weapons, and each weapon type has its own simple combos. If you perform three different combos in the middle of a fight, you can enter a state of Super Wung-Fu, where you’re able to pummel enemies with a rapid barrage of attacks, soar through the air in bullet time to rain down shots or deliver a devastating ground pound to disperse crowds. Combat is built around reaching Super Wung-Fu, so most fights consist of the same three-combo routine. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but your repertoire of combos isn’t particularly expansive, so you’re regularly using the same moves over and over again.

Gallery

Psi-Powers and the mutated Biogenetics add more variety to combat, allowing you to blaze a trail of fire or encase yourself within a Mucus Bubble that enemies will helplessly stick to. Judicious use of slow-motion also gives your attacks a sense of tangible impact, and the relatively infrequent nature of combat works in its favor when it comes to staving off repetition. In between flights, you’re incentivized to explore Biomutant’s open world with promises of loot. Each location even features a convenient checklist so you know if you’re missing anything.

Although you’ll occasionally find new weapons and armor when scavenging through the wreckage of derelict buildings, loot is more geared towards attaining better materials, since the best weapons in the game are the ones you make yourself. Biomutant’s crafting system is dynamic, with an almost limitless amount of concoctions available for you to build. The items you make are essentially repurposed garbage, as you use whatever rusty contraptions you can get your hands on, whether it’s an oversized toothbrush that was previously attached to a billboard or the handle of a broken vacuum cleaner.

Experimenting with different combinations that shouldn’t work is part of the crafting system’s charm, and provides you with a sense of ownership over your nonsensical invention. Having said that, both melee and ranged weapons are split into distinct categories, such as one-handed slash, automatic rifles, and so on. The weapons within these categories don’t feel all that different from one another, which does take some of the shine off the crafting system. Charging into battle with a new weapon that has enhanced damage numbers is still inherently satisfying, however.

Biomutant often has these moments, where its systems don’t quite cooperate and you end up with something uneven. While combat is fun in moderation and the crafting system is bizarre in all the right ways, the flip side of this is dull and monotonous quest design, a forgettable story, and hollow morality. There’s still an enjoyable game here, but a lot of unfortunate caveats come attached to that statement. Yet while it might not always hit the mark, Biomutant is an ambitiously flawed game from a small studio, and the games industry could always use more risky endeavors like this one.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

E3 is drawing closer, and the ESA has revealed registration dates for press, content creators and industry professionals, and fans. Press can begin registering for E3 credentials now through the official E3 site., and fans registration will begin on June 3.

Starting next Monday, May 31, registration will expand to industry professionals and content creators. Fan registration starts the following Thursday. Registrants will gain access to an E3 2021 web portal and app that will include hosted events, video conferencing, virtual “booths,” avatar creation, and online forums.

Those with press credentials will be able to access the portal starting on June 7, followed by fans, industry professionals, and content creators on June 12. The event is set to take place June 12-15. You can also watch many of the individual announcement streams through E3’s Twitch or YouTube channels, or right here on GameSpot.

Confirmed E3 exhibitors include big name publishers like Nintendo, Xbox, Ubisoft, and Square Enix. This year’s event is all-digital due to the global COVID-19 pandemic, after last year’s E3 was canceled altogether.

In addition to being a media partner for E3, GameSpot is also hosting Play For All, our summer game celebration and charity drive. This year we’re raising money for AbleGamers, which does excellent work on accessibility and awareness for gamers with disabilities.

Biomutant’s post-apocalyptic open world differs from the norm, even if it’s guilty of adhering to a few familiar tropes. The remnants of its neglected towns are still populated by dilapidated buildings and roaming bandits, and its overgrown roadways are littered with the burnt-out husks of abandoned vehicles. But Biomutant also utilizes a vivid color palette that makes its verdant fields and picturesque red mountains pop with the kind of striking vibrancy that’s rarely associated with the apocalypse.

Throw in some furry anthropomorphic creatures, and Biomutant’s character design and general style is certainly atypical of the genre. Yet it also consists of a mishmash of fairly obvious influences, from a Breath of the Wild-esque structure to combo-driven combat that’s similar to Devil May Cry, and other familiar elements from the likes of Fallout, Max Payne, and Borderlands. It’s a flavorful petri dish, for sure, and there are plenty of uneven and drab aspects to its overall design and structure. The mixture between old and new ideas doesn’t always sit right, but Biomutant also manages to carve out its own identity amid its many inspirations.

This begins with the character creator, as you step into the flocculent skin of one of the aforementioned creatures–an odd hybrid between a squirrel, rat, and any other scurrying critter that comes to mind. Choosing a breed affects your starting stats to a certain degree, and you can pump points into specific attributes if you fancy, say, dealing more melee damage or increasing your chances of bartering with merchants. If this sounds like your typical by-the-numbers RPG progression system, it’s because it is. There’s some personality to the character creator, as your body shape will change depending on which stats you opt to emphasize–big head for intellect, big biceps for strength. Ultimately, however, your starting attributes aren’t especially significant. You’re able to put 10 points into a category each time you level up, so it’s easy to build a fairly well-rounded character within a few hours.

The final part of creating your character involves picking a class, which impacts both your starting weapon and the addition of a unique skill. The Commando, for instance, inflicts 10% more damage with ranged weapons, while the Psi-Freak gets access to a lightning attack that otherwise isn’t available to the other classes. These aren’t game-changing skills, and you’ll be swapping out weapons by the dozen in no time at all, but they do add a smidgen of variety to subsequent playthroughs.

The latter example is also one of the few instances where Biomutant will lock you out of using a specific ability. Even if you pick a class such as the rogue-like Saboteur, you’re still able to use Psi-Powers and Biogenetics and wield any of the available weapon types, so there’s plenty of freedom to play the game how you want. The only other time you’re unable to unlock certain abilities is when you come across Psi-Powers that are dependent upon your Aura alliance. Biomutant’s Aura system is split into light and dark sides, with good and bad deeds affecting your standing in each. It’s a typical morality system, with your deeds and dialogue choices impacting how other characters see you. You’re not locked into either light or darkness once you start going down one path, so there is some flexibility to play as a morally grey character and dabble in both sides of the spectrum.

In truth, the majority of your choices have an insignificant impact on Biomutant’s story. The biggest decision you’ll make occurs within the game’s first hour, as you’re asked to align with one of two tribes. While the obvious light-sided tribe wants you to unite the other clans and defeat four deadly Worldeaters to save the world, the dark-sided tribe would prefer if you did the opposite by conquering the other clans and defeating the Worldeaters to cleanse the world and start anew. This essentially sets up your overarching objective and impacts the ending you’ll get if you decide to stick to your chosen path, but doesn’t change the missions you’ll embark on to get there. Beating the Worldeaters and capturing the other tribe outposts makes up the bulk of the game either way, and the narrative just isn’t interesting enough to make your choices feel meaningful.

The story contextualizes your progression and gives you a reason to push on, but there’s little else to it. The presence of an amiable narrator is a nice touch, and this omniscient voice does add a dash of personality to the game. Aside from occasionally chiming in with destiny-centric tangents, the narrator also acts as a translator for every character in the game. It’s an unusual method of storytelling that alters the dialogue so that a character won’t directly ask you for help–rather, the narrator will say something along the lines of: “She explains that you need to gather wood to repair that building.” This makes conversations inherently amusing, at least initially, but it does mean characters struggle to stand out, considering they all share the same voice. The writing doesn’t do the cast any favors in this regard either, with most characters existing just to spew exposition and lore before sending you on a fetch quest. It’s clear that a lot of effort was put into fleshing out the backstory of this post-apocalyptic world–or at least throwing in as many kooky names as possible–but being told about it via a verbal salvo that foregoes any sense of character isn’t an engaging way to absorb it, particularly when adopting a “tell, don’t show” approach.

Unimaginative mission design compounds the story’s shortcomings, as your quest to defeat all four Worldeaters always boils down to a formulaic back and forth. The general structure is decent enough, with the Tree of Life looming high in the center of the map–its mammoth roots jutting out in four distinct directions. There’s a Worldeater waiting at the end of each root and a supporting character that’s willing to help you reach them. The problem is that the way you reach each one is always the same. You meet a character, they reveal the vehicle you need to use, then you’re sent to grab a part they need to get it working, and repeat. The vehicles themselves offer a nice change of pace, with a hulking mech and gun-toting speedboat on the agenda, among others. But the journey’s always short and quick, making the Worldeaters feel anticlimactic. It’s also a tad odd that you spend the game building up your own character, only to defeat the game’s biggest foes while behind the wheel of various vehicles.

Combat is fun in short bursts, too, although it takes a couple of hours to find its footing. The reasons for this are three-fold: both the dodge and parry mechanics require some time to get the hang of–the automatic lock-on is inconsistent–and your starting moves and weapons are underwhelming. Once your arsenal opens up and you attain a few more combos, the combat begins to find its groove, albeit one that’s dictated by routine. You’re always equipped with both melee and ranged weapons, and each weapon type has its own simple combos. If you perform three different combos in the middle of a fight, you can enter a state of Super Wung-Fu, where you’re able to pummel enemies with a rapid barrage of attacks, soar through the air in bullet time to rain down shots or deliver a devastating ground pound to disperse crowds. Combat is built around reaching Super Wung-Fu, so most fights consist of the same three-combo routine. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but your repertoire of combos isn’t particularly expansive, so you’re regularly using the same moves over and over again.

Gallery

Psi-Powers and the mutated Biogenetics add more variety to combat, allowing you to blaze a trail of fire or encase yourself within a Mucus Bubble that enemies will helplessly stick to. Judicious use of slow-motion also gives your attacks a sense of tangible impact, and the relatively infrequent nature of combat works in its favor when it comes to staving off repetition. In between flights, you’re incentivized to explore Biomutant’s open world with promises of loot. Each location even features a convenient checklist so you know if you’re missing anything.

Although you’ll occasionally find new weapons and armor when scavenging through the wreckage of derelict buildings, loot is more geared towards attaining better materials, since the best weapons in the game are the ones you make yourself. Biomutant’s crafting system is dynamic, with an almost limitless amount of concoctions available for you to build. The items you make are essentially repurposed garbage, as you use whatever rusty contraptions you can get your hands on, whether it’s an oversized toothbrush that was previously attached to a billboard or the handle of a broken vacuum cleaner.

Experimenting with different combinations that shouldn’t work is part of the crafting system’s charm, and provides you with a sense of ownership over your nonsensical invention. Having said that, both melee and ranged weapons are split into distinct categories, such as one-handed slash, automatic rifles, and so on. The weapons within these categories don’t feel all that different from one another, which does take some of the shine off the crafting system. Charging into battle with a new weapon that has enhanced damage numbers is still inherently satisfying, however.

Biomutant often has these moments, where its systems don’t quite cooperate and you end up with something uneven. While combat is fun in moderation and the crafting system is bizarre in all the right ways, the flip side of this is dull and monotonous quest design, a forgettable story, and hollow morality. There’s still an enjoyable game here, but a lot of unfortunate caveats come attached to that statement. Yet while it might not always hit the mark, Biomutant is an ambitiously flawed game from a small studio, and the games industry could always use more risky endeavors like this one.

Electronic Arts and developer DICE are preparing to announce the next Battlefield game in June, but ahead of that, details around the new shooter have been leaking for some time.

We’re rounding up some of the most notable leaks here, but bear in mind that EA has yet to make any formal announcements about the new Battlefield game.

Leaked Screenshots

Back in March, allegedly leaked screenshots appeared on the internet and seemed to confirm the rumors that the new Battlefield game will return to modern-day combat. That’s notable because the two previous games, Battlefield 1 and Battlefield V, took place during World War I and World War II, respectively. The series hasn’t seen a modern-day setting since 2015’s Battlefield Hardline. The leaked Battlefield 6 images also seemed to suggest that the weather will play a big role in the game’s environmental destruction elements.

After this initial leak, more than 50 new images from the supposed announcement trailer appeared on Imgur that show off more of the setting of the new Battlefield game, if they’re real. All the images have the Lol Guy face meme slapped onto them.

Leaked Trailer Audio

Audio from what is claimed to be the Battlefield 6 reveal trailer emerged earlier in May. The audio featured sounds you might expect from a Michael Bay movie, which is to say lots and lots of explosions, gunfire, and yelling. A cinematic score can also be heard, while there is a “5, 4, 3, 2, 1, fire!” countdown that can be heard in the audio at one point. The audio certainly sounds legitimate and in keeping with the tone and style of Battlefield.

Insider Tom Henderson said the leaked screens and the audio are both from a work-in-progress version of the announcement trailer that was never meant to be broadcast publicly. More recently, Henderson claimed that about 80% of the announcement trailer has now made its way onto the internet ahead of EA’s formal unveiling in June.

Leaked Trailer

What might be new footage of the next Battlefield game popped up on TikTok recently. The video shows footage of old Battlefield games spliced together with what is claimed to be video of Battlefield 6 at the start and the end. PC Gamer reports that this footage is not from the reveal trailer. A source told the site that the footage is legitimate but it represents an in-development version of the game that was never supposed to be shown to the public.

What We Do Know

Electronic Arts has officially confirmed that a new Battlefield game is coming this holiday and it will feature more players than we’ve ever seen in a Battlefield game before. On an earnings call recently, EA management discussed how Battlefield 6 might adopt more of a live service element than earlier entries in the series.

“I think you’ll see that and what we’ll talk about in the future, it is an opportunity to extend the Battlefield experience for people because it is such an engaged community,” EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said.

Jorgensen also hyped up the Battlefield 6 reveal trailer, as well. Jorgensen said he recently saw an early look at it and he was so blown away that he could only describe it in words that aren’t acceptable in polite company.

“I’d love to tell you what I said when I saw the trailer last week, but I can’t because it would get censored. I think people are going to be really blown away. And I’ll tell you on [PS5 and Xbox Series X|S], it is even more spectacular, but it will be great on either console.”

As for Wilson, he said the four development teams working on the new Battlefield game are doing a great job and he’s excited to share more details in June.

“What the team has been able to do in the context of next-generation consoles and epic scale battles, unbelievable player accounts, destruction in terms of those which is really incredible, and it’s a very innovative and creative mode for the future of the franchise,” he said.

Also during the call, Jorgensen spoke about Burnout developer Criterion’s involvement in the new Battlefield, suggesting that the studio will lend its expertise in driving and flying elements to the new game. Jorgensen also said the team at Criterion is happy to be working on Battlefield as part of its continued cooperation and collaboration with DICE over the years across the Star Wars: Battlefront series and others.

“They are experts in driving, flying–the things that are really hard to do,” he said. “And so, it’s not the first time that we pulled them into projects and they love it.”

Battlefield 6, or whatever EA decides to call the game, will be announced in June and then presumably shown off again during EA Play Live 2021 in July. In other news, an EA representative has responded to fan frustration about the long wait for the game and its cross-gen nature.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

A new image from Sony’s upcoming Uncharted film has been revealed, showing off a new look at Tom Holland as Nathan Drake and Mark Wahlberg as Sully. It’s also been confirmed that a God of War movie or TV show is not happening, at least not yet.

In the image, Holland is shining a flashlight on something with a serious look on his face. Wahlberg stands behind him, also appearing with a look that he and Holland are seeing something important. They’re standing inside of what might be a church. Presumably they are on the hunt for some kind of artifact.

The image was released as part of The New York Times’ story on the trend in Hollywood to create movies based on video games. Sony is pushing extra hard, recently opening a new division called PlayStation Productions that oversees all of Sony’s efforts to spin its game franchises into movies and TV shows.

Asad Qizilbash heads up PlayStation Productions. He told The New York Times that there are three main objectives for the company–“Grow audience size for games. Bring product to Sony Pictures. Showcase collaboration.”

“It’s risky,” Qizilbash said. “But I think we can do it.”

The same NYT story quoted a Sony spokesperson as saying there will not be a God of War movie or TV show anytime soon. “Contrary to speculation, one that is not, at least not anytime soon, according to a Sony spokesman: God of War,” the spokesperson said.

A God of War movie was originally set up at Universal, and the film studio even hired Saw veterans to write the script, but it seems plans may have changed.

The first image from the Uncharted movie, which was released in October 2020, showed Holland as Drake. Fans quickly pointed out that he’s missing Drake’s famous half-tuck.

In addition to the Uncharted film, PlayStation Productions is working with John Wick’s Chad Stahelski on a Ghost of Tsushima movie, while Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin is writing a TV show for HBO based on The Last of Us. Another Sony franchise, Twisted Metal, is being made into a TV show. PlayStation’s top boss, Jim Ryan, has told fans to expect more adaptations of Sony franchises down the road for film and TV.

The Uncharted movie, after numerous delays related to COVID-19 and other reasons, is scheduled for release in February 2022. After its run in theaters, the Uncharted movie will come to Netflix exclusively as part of Sony’s deal with the streaming company.