Kidding, Showtime’s Jim Carrey vehicle about a man whose difficult personal life clashes up against his sunny exterior in his day job as a children’s presenter, has been cancelled. Showtime has announced that the show would not get a third season, after Season 2 having aired on the channel across February and March 2020 to low ratings.
Carrey starred in the series as Jeff Piccirillo, a children’s entertainer who finds himself emotionally spiraling following the death of his son and his estrangement from his wife. This leaks into his character, Mr Pickles, and leads to a lot of drama.
The show aired a total of 20 episodes, and the first season was nominated for two Golden Globe awards in 2019–Best Television Series and Best Actor in the Musical or Comedy catergories.
“After two seasons, Kidding has concluded its run on Showtime,” the network said in a statement, according to The Hollywood Reporter. “We are very proud to have aired this imaginative, critically acclaimed and rewarding series, and we would like to thank Jim Carrey, Dave Holstein, Michael Aguilar, Michel Gondry and the entire cast and crew for their brilliant and tireless work.”
Jim Carrey returned to cinema after a four-year absence earlier this year with a turn in Sonic the Hedgehog as Dr. Robotnik. That movie will probably get a sequel, and Carrey is expected to return if it does.
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Dirt 5 has revealed more of itself in a new trailer, showing off several of the upcoming racer’s new tracks and returning features–including the return of a focused gymkhana mode, featuring tracks that ask you to drift and perform stunts.
Gymkhana mode was last seen in spin-off Dirt Showdown, and while there were elements of it included in Dirt 4, this will mark its return as a full mode unto itself. Once again you’ll be able to perform stunts in arenas designed for impressive feats.
The trailer for the next entry in the rally series, below, promises 10 new events, and shows off examples from Brazil, the USA, and Morocco. Some of the livery options are shown off too–you can customize your car’s appearance in-depth. The game will feature 13 car classes.
Codemasters also confirmed in a press release that, similar to the Xbox Series X version, PlayStation 5 players will also be able to get a digital upgrade to the PS5 version if they own the PS4 version. In that same release, several new modes were mentioned. Here they are, along with the descriptions provided by the publisher:
Landrush: Circuit-based, rough terrain with jolting jumps and technically challenging sections. Weather and track conditions change on-the-fly during the event to mix-up this pack race mode.
Rally Raid: Controlling machines built for extreme off-road, Rally Raid challenges are point to point with split routes, where drivers can grab some serious air.
Ice Breaker: As the name suggests, players battle short circuits that take place entirely on ice. Throttle control and precise drifting are crucial to master this mode.
Stampede: Hard, unforgiving natural landscape, built for rough-and-ready machines. The layout is unmarked with major undulations over mud and sand.
Path Finder: Another new game mode. Controlled speed and more strategy are the keys to success. Hardcore off-road terrain packed with steep jumps and rock-strewn paths.
Sprint: Amplified racing at its craziest. 900bhp, enormous wings and four different sized wheels. Left turns only on oval and circular tracks. One for the drifters.
Ultra Cross: Varied terrain and unpredictable circuit design. Classic rallycross amplified for the ultimate challenge.
Robert Karp, the game’s development director, is promising further surprises, too. “We still have a few things under wraps including a feature never seen before in the Dirt series,” he said in a statement sent to press.
The game is also coming to Stadia, but not for a while–you’ll need to wait until 2021 to get your hands on that version.
GameSpot has gone hands-on with Dirt 5, and Michael Higham had some thoughts on its approach. “With Dirt 5, the series isn’t all about rally racing anymore; instead, it’s embracing the chaos of off-roading, and at least that’s still staying true to its name,” he wrote.
Solo: A Star Wars Story certainly wasn’t the worst Star Wars film,but it was the least profitable, and because of that its chances of getting a sequel are slim. But at least one person at the center of the original movie is keen for a follow-up–Alden Ehrenreich, who played the younger Han Solo.
In an appearance on the Happy Sad Confused podcast, picked up on by GameSpot sister site Comicbook.com, Ehrenreich has talked about where he would like to go with a Solo sequel. Asked if would like to come back, the actor said that he would, but that “it would have to be the right version of it.”
Ehrenreich says that the movie ends at the point where his favorite aspect of the character is starting to kick in. “It’s when he becomes that guy at the end, that’s the guy we love,” he says. “So getting to that, and going from there is interesting, so we’ll see.”
The film went on to earn $392,924,807 worldwide on an estimated $275,000,000 budget. This budget does not include marketing, though, and international markets return less value per dollar to the filmmakers–which means that, overall, the movie would have lost a lot of money.
However, Ehrenreich’s contract means that he’s signed on for multiple movies, if they choose to make more, or even include his version of Solo in another Star Wars movie.
Taika Waititi, Rian Johnson, and filmmaking duo J.D. Dillard and Matt Owens are all currently working on Star Wars film projects. There are also several TV projects in the works, including shows based on Obi-Wan Kenobi, Cassian Andor, The Bad Batch, and upcoming seasons of The Mandalorian. If Ehrenreich returns as Han Solo, it could well be for television.
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After the review scores for The Last of Us Part II came in–and they were very good–writer-director Neil Druckmann sent an email to his team to thank them for their hard work. Druckmann has now shared some insight on what he said in the email, including his response to the haters.
Speaking to actor Troy Baker, who plays Joel in the game, Druckmann said he originally wanted to send thank-you texts to every developer, one by one. However, the team’s sheer size made that impossible.
Druckmann said he was writing a text to art director John Sweeney, with whom he clashed often throughout development, and he began to cry.
“When the reviews hit, he was one of the first people I thought of to text personally. I’m starting to writing this text to him, ‘Dude, I know we didn’t always see eye to eye…’ As I’m writing this text, I’m starting to cry, and I couldn’t even understand why I’m crying. I realize I can’t text everybody on the team–there’s just too many people on the team. I just have to write the whole team an email, and I’m not very good at that stuff.”
Druckmann said he doesn’t remember exactly what he wrote to his team, but it touched on how he was getting too much personal praise when people should understand that making The Last of Us 2 was a team effort. He also told his team that he’s never been prouder of any game he’s worked on.
He also had a message for the haters.
“I don’t remember exactly what I wrote, but I’m writing about my fears like I’m getting too much praise and it’s not being seen enough as a team project–but this is a Naughty Dog game, in every sense of the word,” Druckmann said. “I forget how I ended it, but it was something to the effect of, ‘Review scores are cool, but seeing your guys’ pride is what I live for.'”
“The reviews were awesome, and it’s great to hear people love the game and how much it resonates with them, but nothing comes close to hearing you, or Laura, or John, or any member of the team that has sent me an email since the game has come out to say this is the best game I’ve ever worked on. F**k the haters. Nothing makes me prouder that I’ve worked on in my life than this game.”
Also in the interview, Druckmann spoke about how he does not focus too much on sales. He only hopes his games can make enough money to convince Sony to allow Naughty Dog to keep doing what it does.
“Our job is not to maximize profits or sales,” he said. “The game is selling well, and I don’t care. Just to talk about sales for a second, I just want to sell enough so we can do it again. So Sony will keep trusting us and giving us the creative freedom to do whatever we need to do. And anything beyond that is just gravy.”
Greg Thomas and Ryan Schubert break down all the ins and outs of Jordan Peele’s second season of The Twilight Zone. In Season 2, Episode 6, a team of scientists discover a new highly intelligent species at the outer reaches of the world, but its existence may endanger more than their research.
Greg and Ryan break down the plot, list the Twilight Zone references and Easter eggs, and give their overall thoughts and reactions to “8”.
Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.
Bad Robot Games, the video game division of Star Wars and Star Trek director JJ Abrams’ production studio, has hired former Valve business leader Anna Sweet as its CEO, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
In addition to working at Valve, Sweet spent time as head of developer strategy for Oculus where she worked on virtual reality technology with Oculus Rift.
Bad Robot Games was founded in 2018, and it is partially funded by Tencent and Warner Bros. own internal game development arm, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. That company is reportedly up for sale, with companies like Microsoft, EA, Activision, and others said to be interested in a purchase.
There is no word yet on any specific future projects from Bad Robot Games, but president Dave Baronoff said in a statement that Sweet will help the company “lead us to incredible heights.”
Bad Robot Games is working with Fortnite developer Epic Games on the mobile game Spyjinx.
“As video games become a primary way to explore and experience new worlds and stories, I believe Bad Robot Games is uniquely suited to build something truly special and I am incredibly excited to be a part of the team,” Sweet said.
In September 2019, Bad Robot signed a $250 million deal with Warner Bros. to create all kinds of new content, including video games. As part of this announcement, Warner Bros. said Bad Robot Games will make“new large and indie consumer games for mobile, PC, and console.”
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Brie Larson is famous for her movie roles, which include Captain Marvel, Scott Pilgrim, and an Oscar-winning turn in Room, but she’s also famous for being a huge Nintendo fan. Consequently, Gary Whitta, who has started his own talk show hosted inside Animal Crossing: New Horizons (it’s called Animal Talking), says that Brie is the show’s most-requested guest.
And now it’s happening–Brie Larson is coming to Animal Talking for the July 23 episode. She’ll join streamers Dr Lupo and Friskk, as well as musician Kenny Fong.
Don’t say I never do anything for you people. Next week’s ANIMAL TALKING headliner is the most-requested guest in the show’s history – the marvelous @brielarson! And the rest ain’t no scrubs either. @DrLupo! @Friskkmkay! And live music from Kenny Fong! See you next Thursday! pic.twitter.com/qEPK7mVSbJ
If you want to see Larson’s island, though, you won’t have to wait–Brie Larson has also released a 17-minute video of her starting her Animal Crossing journey on her recently started YouTube channel. You can watch below, but since she’s just starting, there’s very little on the island just yet–perhaps by the time she goes on Animal Talking she’ll have built her island up more.
Brie will be arguably the second most exciting guest to feature on the show, after GameSpot’s own Chastity Vincencio. Host Gary Whitta, meanwhile, had his own exciting news recently. The writer, who is famous for writing Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, is working on a “big” new movie.
Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles: Remastered is releasing on August 27, but it’ll be missing a major feature from the original GameCube version. The game’s Japanese Twitter account has confirmed that the game will only feature online multiplayer, and you won’t be able to set up an offline co-op session.
The tweet below, roughly translated, says that the game does not feature offline multiplayer, with online play prioritized so that more people would be able to play together.
The original GameCube release had couch co-op, but with a twist–extra players beyond the first would need to connect with a Game Boy Advance link cable and play on Nintendo’s handheld device. Getting together three extra players who all owned the console and the link cable meant that co-op Crystal Chronicles was a fairly niche activity.
Interestingly, a team of four can tackle the game online as long as just one person owns it. A Lite version demo will let you play through the full game if the host owns it, or three dungeons with other folks who downloaded this free version.
Since crossplay is enabled, there’s theoretically nothing stopping Switch and mobile players, at least, playing together on separate devices in the same room. But if you’re looking to get four players together on a single television, you’re out of luck.
Death Stranding is out now on PC, and players who didn’t get the chance to experience Hideo Kojima’s unusual, yet still prescient take on the post-apocalypse now have a fresh way to experience it. Playing as Sam Porter Bridges, you’ll make many deliveries across an alternate North America changed by a supernatural event that has forever blurred the lines between life and death. In addition to a variety of quality-of-life changes and upgrades for the PC release, Death Stranding now comes with a slew of items paying homage to Valve’s Half-Life and Portal franchises.
On the surface, this new side-story featuring a mysterious imposter who admires games from Valve may seem like another set of references to games and broader pop-culture that you’d expect to see in a Hideo Kojima game. But as it turns out, this extended side-story offers some surprisingly useful perks for Sam, along with a fun payoff at its conclusion. However, it should be noted that this side-story spans across the entirety of Death Stranding. To see this storyline to its finish, you’ll need to complete the main story of the game and reach its post-game chapter.
In this spoiler-free guide, we’re going to tell you how to take part in this questline, and what you’ll need to do to get each Valve item in Death Stranding on PC. It all starts with an email marked with a λ symbol in Chapter 2, and from there, you’ll get a total of six emails that make some bizarre references to Portal and Half-Life. And as you’ll come to find, the requests from these emails run much deeper than the ramblings from a supposed Valve fanboy. So with that, here’s how to get each Valve item in the game.
The First Email: Chapter 2 | Reward: Gordon’s Glasses
Following your return from the Wind Farm delivery in Chapter 2, you’ll get an important email from Benjamin H marked with a λ symbol. While you’ll recognize the name as the person in charge of the Distribution Center west of Capital Knot City, it becomes apparent that something is amiss in the email. “Benjamin” will instruct you to head north of the distro center to find a stray piece of cargo near the river. This one isn’t too hard to find. Just follow the river outside of the center north, and you’ll come up to an extra-large piece of cargo, which, as it turns out, is a lost Companion Cube from the Portal series. After picking it up, return to the distro center to claim your reward.
After turning in this lost cargo, you’ll get your first Valve crossover item, a pair of Gordon Freeman’s glasses from the Half-Life series. These glasses are purely a cosmetic item for Sam to change his look, and they don’t offer up any gameplay benefits. Still, it is a neat cosmetic for Sam, especially if you’re tired of the sunglasses.
The Second Email: Chapter 3 | Reward: The Valve
After making it to the second map in Chapter 3, you’ll get a new objective to carry out a chain of orders from the head of Lake Knot City. This set of deliveries will task you with bringing items to the Engineer, the Elder, and finally to the Craftsman–all located in the northeast section of the map. While making these deliveries, you’ll get a lay of the land and learn the best paths to your destinations. Once the deliveries are complete with the Craftsman, you’ll get another mysterious email with the λ symbol. This time, it’s coming from someone impersonating the head of Lake Knot City. You’ll need to find another Companion Cube, which is stashed at a remote bunker owned by Peter Englert, directly west of Lake Knot City. Once you get there, look to the water towers next to the building to find the Companion Cube. On another note, remember this location. You’ll eventually get an odd request to deliver pizzas to Peter Englert–which also happens to have a unique payoff.
Returning the Companion Cube to Lake Knot City will reward you with another cosmetic item, the iconic valve from, well, Valve. Anyone who’s played a Valve game will remember its games always begin with a somewhat ominous opening featuring a man with a red Valve stuck in his head. Now, you can have Sam wear that valve as a cosmetic item, which is placed on the back of his head as well. While it offers no gameplay benefit whatsoever, it’s still a cool nod to Valve.
The Third Email: Chapter 3 | Reward: The Gravity Glove
When you head further south in Chapter 3, you’ll eventually reach the Weather Station west of the Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City. Your main order from the Weather Station will be to deliver to the Timefall Farm, which is directly south past the wheat fields. Once you complete the order there and head back to the Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City, you’ll get a new email from the imposter. You’re tasked with finding another Companion Cube that was stolen by a group of MULEs to the northwest of Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City. At that northwestern MULE camp (just before the mountains), you’ll find several bandits keeping guard. It’s best to sneak in, knocking out MULEs as needed, and hightailing it out of there back to the distro center with the Cube.
When you return to the Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City, you’ll be able to claim your reward from the person impersonating Thomas Southerland. This order will grant you the Gravity Glove, the central item from Half-Life: Alyx. While the previous rewards were purely cosmetic, the Gravity Glove has gameplay purposes, and it’s one of the more useful pieces of gear in Death Stranding. Like in Half-Life: Alyx, you’ll be able to use the glove to pull in objects that are several feet in front of you, at the cost of some of your suit battery. While it doesn’t outright break the game, it is an incredibly useful item. This is a must-have, and you’ll want to get it as soon as you’re able to.
The Fourth Email: Chapter 3 | Reward: The λ Truck
Following your exploits with the Junk Dealer near the tar lake, you’ll eventually get another order from the individual impersonating Thomas Southerland. They’ll ask you to retrieve another Companion Cube lost in an abandoned factory directly northeast from the Craftsman. Unfortunately, this area is filled with BTs, including the rare giant BTs that are a bit harder to deal with. The best way to get the Cube and escape with minimal resistance is to be as careful and patient as possible during your trek inside the hostile territory. Once you get the Cube, quietly backtrack and leave the area.
After returning the Companion Cube to Distribution Center South of Lake Knot City, you’ll get a special Half-Life-branded truck. Just like the long-range truck that Sam can fabricate at distro centers, this vehicle is able to carry tons of cargo and trek great distances. What’s special about this particular truck is that it is not only more energy-efficient than the standard vehicles, but it also takes much less damage from Timefall. So if you’re going to fabricate a truck, this is the one to choose.
The Fifth Email: Chapter 8 | Reward: Headcrab
After the fourth email from the mysterious imposter, it’ll be a while till you see another. The next λ email arrives during Chapter 8. After meeting Heartman in person, he’ll ask you to get three preppers on the Chiral Network: the Geologist, the Paleontologist, and the Evo-Devo scientist. This delivery run can be pretty tricky, as the heavy snow, presence of BTs, and the rough terrain can be troublesome to deal with–especially all at once. So, of course, this is the perfect time to get a new message from the imposter. Shortly after getting the Paleontologist on the network, the imposter will break their silence. Impersonating the Paleontologist this time, they ask you to retrieve another Companion Cube from a ruin in the mountains directly south of Heartman’s Lab. Once you arrive, be sure to avoid the BTs in the area and be careful when trekking back down to the Paleontologist’s shelter.
This delivery will earn you the Headcrab hat. Like in the Half-Life series, the Headcrab is a gross creature that latches onto your head and sucks the life out of you. Thankfully, it’s much more friendly and helpful in Death Stranding. Not only is the Headcrab a neat cosmetic, but it also has the bonus of restoring lost stamina by draining Sam’s blood supply. To trigger this effect, Sam will need to be relaxed once the stamina meter is nearly empty. It will begin to feed off Sam’s blood to get him back into solid shape. If you bring a blood bag, the Headcrab will dip into those resources instead of Sam’s health, which removes the risk when having this hat active.
The Sixth and Final Email: Chapter 15 | Reward: The Reveal and the Half-Life: Alyx – Strider Hologram
The final Valve crossover mission in Death Stranding takes place after completion of the game’s story. During Chapter 15, the post-game where you freely explore and finish outstanding orders, the real Benjamin Hancock from the Distribution Center West of Capital Knot City will send you an email about looking into the identity of the mysterious imposter. He’ll direct you to a location just outside of Middle Knot City’s crater–which is just north of the Craftsman’s shelter. In a surprising twist, this side-objective adds a slightly new section of the map that wasn’t present in the original PS4 version. In front of the crater past the tar belt is a small ruin with numerous BTs, including giant and rare red variants, which makes it a tough encounter. After securing the next Companion Cube, you’ll need to bring it to the incinerator station just west of your present location.
After cremating the final Companion Cube, you’ll get a message from the imposter who reveals their true identity to you and explains the rationale behind this elaborate, fourth-wall-breaking side-story. We won’t say who it is, but it was a fun payoff that also fits perfectly into Death Stranding’s weird world. The final reward you’ll get from the imposter is a chiral hologram depicting the Strider from Half-Life: Alyx. You can engage this hologram by placing it on any level 2 structure built from a PCC item. This special hologram doesn’t offer any unique benefits, but like the giant Tallneck projection you can also find the game, it’s a nice surprise for other players who approach your structures.
That does it for this guide on the Valve crossover storyline in Death Stranding. For more guides on Hideo Kojima’s bizarre open-world game, including the full list of memory chips, be sure to check out GameSpot’s roundup of content for the game. If you want to know more about the PC release of Death Stranding, give our updated review a look as well.
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We’re only days away from the release of Ghost of Tsushima, and if you’re excited for the upcoming open-world samurai game, then you might like to know there’s a free PS4 dynamic theme you can snag while you wait. This is the same dynamic theme that was being offered earlier this year, but now it’s made a comeback. It’s unclear how long it’ll be available for, so you’re going to want to claim it as soon as you can.
Some of these are also the same unlimited-use codes that were offered via developer Sucker Punch’s Twitter account earlier this year. They originally expired on January 31, but it seems they’re once again active (thanks, Wario64).
Free Ghost of Tsushima theme for PSN (unlimited use codes, seems to be the same theme from late last year) Americas: 5NEC-F9N4-75M8 Europe/AU/NZ/Russia/Middle East/Africa/India: 8T2T-CRNJ-FM72 Japan: N4TK-59NH-2LH3 Korea: EM56-NTNC-EHX8 Asia: DHLN-HANF-F6LH pic.twitter.com/AQTOr2z0Vd
Ghost of Tsushima releases July 17 for the PS4, marking itself as the last big PS4 exclusive before the next-gen PS5 launches this holiday season. It received a positive 7/10 in GameSpot’s Ghost of Tsushima review for its “stunning open-world environment” and “stylish combat.” However, critic Edmond Tran was disappointed by the “rote open-world quest structures” and “unfortunate camera positioning.”
“[Ghost of Tsushima] hits a lot of fantastic cinematic highs, and those ultimately lift it above the trappings of its familiar open-world quest design and all the innate weaknesses that come with it–but those imperfections and dull edges are definitely still there,” he wrote. “Ghost of Tsushima is at its best when you’re riding your horse and taking in the beautiful world on your own terms, armed with a sword and a screenshot button, allowing the environmental cues and your own curiosity to guide you. It’s not quite a Criterion classic, but a lot of the time it sure looks like one.”
There’s still time to pre-order Ghost of Tsushima before it releases and get its included pre-order bonuses. There are a number of special editions you can reserve as well, including a collector’s edition with protagonist Jin Sakai’s mask.
