Vader Immortal, the episodic Star Wars VR game released for Oculus Rift and Quest last year, is making the lightspeed jump to PlayStation VR. According to an announcement on the PlayStation Blog, the game is coming this summer, and will include all three episodes and Lightsaber Dojo challenges together.
It was designed by ILMxLAB, an immersive experiences studio founded in 2015. While Vader is the focal point of the plot, you actually play as a smuggler recruited by the Sith Lord to find an artifact. The story was written by screenwriter David S. Goyer (Terminator: Dark Fate, Man of Steel). It was awarded Best AV/VR game at the 2020 GDC Awards.
This was announced as part of the Star Wars Day festivities, which comes every May 4. The unofficial fan holiday started as a pun, but has been quickly picked up by official channels as companies plan merch releases and other celebrations around the date.
Seafaring trade simulator Port Royale 4 has released its beta as a pre-purchase, with players who purchase the game now getting a discounted rate and instant access to the beta.
The latest in a series dating back to 2003’s Port Royale, the trading sim takes players back to the golden age of seafaring in the Caribbean, acting as the governor of an island-based colony. In a new twist for the series, sea battles will now be turn-based, with up to 8 different ships involved in each battle.
See what else is new in the series with the closed beta, available now for players who purchase the game through the Kalypso store. The beta will allow players to play through the entire tutorial, plus the full Spanish campaign. It will also feature Free Mode again just for Spain, with four playable characters.
The full game will also allow players to choose England, France, or The Netherlands to play as, with the complete release dropping later this year on September 25.
Port Royale 4 will be launching on PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, but the beta is available for PC players only.
The new Netflix movie Extraction, which stars Thor actor Chris Hemsworth, is lighting up charts and setting records at the streaming platform. The action-heavy film ends in dramatic fashion, and the director has now revealed that his original script was even heavier. It wasn’t until testing the movie and a conversation with an executive at Netflix that director Sam Hargrave was convinced to change the ending. Read on to get the full story, but of course, be aware that this includes heavy spoilers.
SPOILERS FOR EXTRACTION FOLLOW BELOW
In the ending of Extraction that made the cut, Hemsworth’s character, Tyler Rake, is shot by the teenage boy who is trying to make a name for himself with a local drug kingpin. Rake, breathing his last breaths, tips himself over the edge of bridge and collapses into the river below. It’s assumed that Rake died as part of his journey to save and rescue a young boy named Ovi.
However, it’s never explicitly confirmed that Rake succumbed to his injuries. And in the movie’s final frame, a character who bears a strong resemblance to Rake is seen, albeit in a fuzzy shot. Director Sam Hargrave, who made his directorial debut with Extraction, said the original ending was much more clear.
Rake would die. But this did not go over so well in testing.
“It was not surprising that a lot of people wanted the character to live, and some people wanted him to die. People were torn; it was almost down the middle,” Hargrave told Collider. “We want to appeal to as many people as possible without compromising the integrity of the story.”
The compromise that Hargrave made was to make it look like Rake died–he was shot through the neck, after all, and was coughing up blood when we see him last–but also give viewers the opportunity to believe that he might have survived. Hence, the ambiguous ending that you see in the film.
“If people on one hand feel like the story is complete and is a story of redemption through sacrifice, then for them, it’ll be where the kid is imagining [Rake standing there], and then now you go, ‘Yes, I’m satisfied,'” Hargrave said. “If you feel like you love Tyler Rake, and you love Chris Hemsworth, and you want a sequel, and you’re like ‘There’s no way, you can’t kill him!’ then that’s Tyler Rake standing there looking at you. So we kind of purposefully did not pull focus to the character standing there.”
Hargrave’s own preference would have been to kill Rake. It would have completed his story arc of finding redemption for his past transgressions through sacrificing himself to save Ovi. “He made the choice he was okay with. He had come to terms with his past and the choice he made in the present saved this kid, and if that meant him dying, so be it. And that was his journey in my mind,” Hargrave said.
However, Netflix boss Scott Stuber convinced Hargrave to change his mind when he asked him to consider what would truly be a more satisfying ending.
“You have to remember the difference between an intellectually satisfying ending and an emotionally satisfying ending,” Hargrave said he recalls Stuber telling him. “And so we struggled with that concept of, ‘Is it more emotionally satisfying that Rake lives or that Rake dies?’ And truthfully, the vote was it’s more emotionally satisfying that he lives. Because the kid gave him something to live for, and now he’s living for that.”
The new Chris Hemsworth movie on Netflix, the action-thriller Extraction, is setting records for the streaming company. It’s on pace to become the most-watched Netflix movie of all time over its first four weeks. Hemsworth has now responded to the huge success of the film and commented about the possibility of a prequel or a sequel coming sometime down the road.
“I just want to say a massive thank you to everyone who checked out Extraction,” Hemsworth said in a post on Instagram (via Collider). “You’ve made it the number one film on the planet right now, and it looks like it’s going to be Netflix’s biggest feature film of all time, which is absolutely mind-blowing.”
According to Netflix, some 90 million households watched Extraction over its first four weeks. Even if Netflix’s reporting methods are a bit wacky, it’s still a record for the company, outpacing the number of views of Tiger King and everything else on the platform over its first month.
Extraction was directed by Sam Hargrave, a stunt coordinator on Avengers: Endgame, who made his directorial debut with the film. The movie was co-written by Avengers: Endgame director Joe Russo. He and his brother Anthony also produced Extraction.
Hemsworth also spoke about the possibility of another Extraction movie. He teased, “There’s been a lot of talk and questions about sequels and prequels and all sorts of things, and all I can say is who knows. But with this amount of support, it’s something I will be pretty stoked to jump back into.”
The final frame of Extraction offers a very strong tease that the story could continue with a sequel. A prequel could also be interesting approach, to help viewers find out more about Hemsworth’s character, Tyler Rake, who suffered a horrible loss that is only referenced in the movie but never fully explored.
Extraction is available to stream now on Netflix.
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Despite a delay in development due to coronavirus, the team at Amazon Games’ Irvine, California studio are forging ahead with New World, and have dropped new details on the epic-sounding PVP encounters in the 17th Century-themed MMO.
New World sees players claim territory on the cursed island of Aeternum, where they’ll have to contend with both PVE and PVP attacks as that territory is contested. A new developer blog has released information about the latter, detailing what will be involved in a player war.
Unlike other PVP games, attacking another player’s territory isn’t just a free-for-all. Firstly, players have to join one of three Factions, allowing them to team up with some players and wage war on others. In order to declare war on a territory, the controlling Faction’s influence must first be weakened by completing missions.
Once a war is set in place, the decision of who will go to war is all decided by Faction, its Governor, and Companies (which function like player-created guilds). The Governor is the leader of the Company who claims a territory, and it’s this player who gets to choose who gets to fight in a war. Mostly players will come from one main Company, but with 50 players per side fighting a war, the ranks can also be filled in from other Companies, or even by volunteers from the third faction that isn’t officially involved in the war.
The War system is complex but seems to be set up to allow for giant armies of players to face off in the field, with siege weapons and traps adding to the danger. If it works out as designed, PVP moments in New World should be an epic experience to be involved in.
You can read more about the intricacies of the War system here, or check out how New World’s PVE Invasions will play out in this post.
New World is releasing on August 25, 2020 for PC. The Irvine, California studio is also developing Amazon’s upcoming Lord Of The Rings MMO, which will hopefully benefit from any lessons the team learns from this year’s New World launch.
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A new set of challenges is live in Fortnite now, with one asking you to collect metal from either Hydro 16 or Compact Cars. If you’re looking to get these crossed off quickly, here’s where to go, and how to get the most out of your metal harvesting.
The new assignment asks you to collect metal in three tiers, for a total of 90,000 bonus XP:
Stage 1 of 3 – Collect metal at Hydro 16 or Compact Cars (250): 10,000 XP
Stage 2 of 3 – Collect metal at Hydro 16 or Compact Cars (750): 25,000 XP
Stage 3 of 3 – Collect metal at Hydro 16 or Compact Cars (1,500): 55,000 XP
As you can only hold 999 metal at once, the final stage will either have to be completed over a few matches, or you can drop or use some extra metal to free up space.
The easiest way to finish this task, if you’re mainly playing for the bonus XP, is to play in Team Rumble mode, where material harvesting is sped up.
To collect the metal, head to either one of the locations above. Hydro 16 is the large power station and dam on the westernmost side of the big lake. In this area metal can be collected from the machinery inside the complex, but also from the cars and street lights along the top of the dam–make sure you’re hitting the weak points each time to maximize your material collection.
Compact Cars is the car junkyard in the northwest portion of the map, and again plenty of metal can be collected from the junked cars or any of the machinery in this area.
Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Star Wars: The Clone Wars – Season 7, Episode 12. If you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for Season 7, Episode 11.
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And so ends the Clone Wars. “Victory and Death” is a fitting conclusion o both the Siege of Mandalore arc and the series as a whole. It doesn’t necessarily have many surprises to add to the stories of series mainstays like Ahsoka Tano and Captain Rex, but it cements this arc as the very piece of Star Wars television to date. For all that The Clone Wars has struggled in the past to maintain a consistent level of quality over the course of longer arcs, this final tale has been a thrilling ride from start to finish.
“Cinematic” is really the operative word with this arc. Perhaps more than any episode of the series, “Victory and Death” leaves you with the impression that it must have been an extremely expensive and time-consuming. The scale of this finale is incredible, especially during the climax as Ahsoka and Rex battle their way out of a doomed Star Destroyer and the focus shifts to an impeccably rendered free-fall sequence. Maul has a terrific moment of his own, singlehandedly dealing a death blow to the ship by ripping its hyperdrive apart. More than ever, I’m crossing my fingers these four episodes are eventually re-released as a feature film, because those sequences would surely look incredible on the big screen.
Also impressive is how easily this episode maintains a high level of suspense despite viewers knowing the ultimate outcome. We know where Ahsoka, Rex and Maul end up years after the dust of the Clone Wars has settled, yet we’re still trapped on the edge of our seats watching the three battle overwhelming odds in a bid to escape. That tension remains even when the episode cheats a little bit and applies some of that Star Wars plot armor. It’s always funny how Clonetrooper/Stormtrooper armor is completely worthless as protection, yet someone like Ahsoka can take multiple, direct blaster hits and keep fighting.
It helps that the prolonged firefight in the hangar also emphasizes the tragedy of the situation and the fact that Ahsoka is fighting for her life against a group of soldiers who would have gladly given their lives for her just hours before. Ahsoka could have taken the easy way out by following Maul’s example and fighting to kill, yet she did her best to spare the lives of her men. Even more tragic is the fact that her efforts were all in vain. The ending gives no reason to assume anyone other than Ahsoka and Rex survived the crash. Ahsoka gained nothing by fighting honorably, but the fact she tried at all is a testament to her heroism. She may not be a Jedi, but the Force is with her.
Given how directly the previous episodes paralleled and mirrored the events of Revenge of the Sith, it’s a little disappointing we don’t see that element repeated in the finale. I would have liked to see these events somehow sync up with Anakin and Obi-Wan’s battle of Mustafar or Anakin’s rebirth as Darth Vader. It also might have been nice to see a more extended epilogue sequence showing how Ahsoka and Rex went into hiding and what set Ahsoka down the path toward becoming a Rebel agent. Did she ever make contact with Yoda or Obi-Wan? Granted, we have the Ahsoka novel to address some of that, but it still would have been nice to see a little farther past the events of Episode III.
Still, the closing scenes are excellent about setting a somber mood and making that transition from the Prequels into the gloomy Imperial era. The emphasis on silence and mournful reflection really seals the deal. The final shot of a robed Ahsoka contemplating her future seems an intentional callback to the finale of Star Wars Rebels. And though we don’t get a new perspective on Anakin’s final descent into darkness, we do get a very welcome closing scene of Vader surveying the wreckage of the Star Destroyer and finding Ahsoka’s discarded saber. Without Vader uttering a single word, it’s clear the burden of the war and all the empty victories and painful losses remains with him. And at long last, The Clone Wars has a true and proper finale.
Bringing the Master Chief Collection (MCC) to PC is a big undertaking–with two games live and needing support, and three games still to be released, the team has a big job ahead of them. This is only complicated by the added need to work from home, but a new dev blog shows that the MCC team is taking this well in stride.
The new post showcases some of the team’s home offices as they work to bring the MCC to PC, with setups ranging from a backyard farm with multiple goats to a desk set up in the garage to ensure work-life separation. You can check out the rest of the teams set ups in the post, featuring many pictures of developers’ pets and PCs.
The blog also includes updates on the progress of Halo 2 after April’s Insider testing. The team received 2000 tickets from the test period, and will now work on bringing Halo 2 to PC “in the not too distant future.”
While all focus at the moment is on getting Halo 2 to release, the team have also released some work-in-progress screenshots from Halo 3 and Halo 3: ODST, and once Halo 2 is released they will be looking towards further Insider playtests for those games.
The Xbox Series X games showcase on May 7 promises to be a big and exciting event, featuring next-generation gameplay footage for a series of titles. But there is something very important to remember. Microsoft has said this event will focus on titles from its “global development partners.”
This means you should expect to see footage of titles like Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and others from third-party publishers, but not games from Xbox Games Studios like Halo Infinite.
Xbox marketing executive Aaron Greenberg confirmed on Twitter that Microsoft is planning a separate, later event to showcase the work of Microsoft’s various Xbox Games Studios teams. Greenberg said Microsoft has “some big summer plans” for showcasing first-party titles.
There are many options here. Microsoft could hold another one of its Inside Xbox livestream events to showcase footage of new Xbox exclusives. It’s also possible the company may choose to share information during the newly announced summer games shows, including the Gamescom digital event and Geoff Keighley’s Summer Game Fest. Microsoft may do both, or something else altogether.
Whenever this event does happen, it could be stacked with news and reveals. Thanks to recent acquisitions and studio formations, Microsoft now has 15 game development studios, many of which have not announced new games yet.
The Xbox Series X releases this holiday, and Halo Infinite is a launch title. Despite being around six months away from release, give or take, Microsoft has not shown any Halo Infinite gameplay whatsoever. Halo fans are surely hoping that changes soon. The game will also release on the regular Xbox One and Xbox One X, as well as PC.
The Xbox Series X games showcase takes place on Thursday, May 7 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 3 PM GMT. You can watch the Inside Xbox livestream on FacebookMixer, Twitch, Twitter, and YouTube.
Xbox Series X And Xbox One News
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While it may be sometime longer until we finally see Halo Infinite gameplay, developer 343 Industries continues to share neat behind-the-scenes videos about how the team made the game.
This latest video, posted on Instagram, shows how the Halo Infinite audio team captured the sounds of bullets flying overhead. Earlier, the team actually captured real rounds flying overhead, but in this video, the studio got more creative. As you can see in the video below, they used a slingshot to launch bullet casings, washers, and various other objects overhead to capture more unique sounds.
These behind-the-scenes videos are fun to watch, but Halo fans are surely hoping to see some actual gameplay soon. Microsoft is hosting an Xbox Series X event on May 7, but this is focused on third-party games, so fans will have to wait a bit longer to see Halo Infinite in action.
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