For those of you who are excited about Cyberpunk 2077 (which is currently 17% off on Amazon), there’s an awesome Cyberpunk themed SecretLab Titan gaming chair that just came back in stock. The PlayStation Plus 1-year membership just went down in price (using our own coupon code), and Best Buy is offering a gargantuan 12TB external drive for under $200. Check them all out here.
Zachary Levi, the star of the DC movie Shazam and the voice of Flynn Rider in Disney’s Tangled, is taking on a very different role for his next project. Lionsgate has announced that Levi will play former NFL standout QB Kurt Warner in sports drama called American Underdog, according to Collider.
David Aaron Cohen, who worked on the football TV show Friday Night Lights, is writing the script. The story will follow the real life of Warner, who indeed had an underdog story. After playing college football, Warner did not get drafted into the NFL, but he tried out for the Green Bay Packers. The team ultimately cut him, and Warner went home to Cedar Falls, Iowa to stock shelves at a grocery store.
Warner eventually signed with the Arena Football League’s Iowa Barnstormers, and he performed incredibly well. He was so successful that Midway made a game about him, Kurt Warner’s Arena Football Unleashed, which was released in 2000.
Later on, Warner finally got his shot in the NFL after signing with the St. Louis Rams where he won the Super Bowl in the year 2000. He was also named Super Bowl MVP for his performance in the game.
Given this incredible story, it’s surprising that a movie wasn’t made sooner. Whatever the case, brothers Jon and Andrew Erwin are directing American Underdog, with Kurt and his wife Brenda Warner producing. The movie is based on Warner’s memoir, All Things Possible: My Story of Faith, Football, and the First Miracle Season. The Erwin brothers are Christian movie directors who previously directed the independent movies I Can Only Imagine and I Still Believe. Levi is also known for being outspoken about his faith.
“Kurt’s story is one of relentless faith–in his own abilities but even more so in a higher power,” Levi said in a statement. “When I read Kurt’s story, I identified with the quiet strength he found to persevere–that’s something I think anybody can recognize in their own lives. This is the kind of underdog story that sports movies are all about, and the fact that it’s true makes it even more special. I’m thrilled to be part of bringing his story to audiences.”
Jon Erwin said Levi was his “first and only choice” for the role of Kurt Warner. “This is about an everyman who never let his dream die. Zachary was born to play this role–and when you add in his uncanny resemblance to Kurt Warner, we’re thrilled to be working with him,” Andrew Erwin said.
There is no word yet on when filming will begin or when American Underdog will come to theatres.
Speculation arose about whether or not Crash Bandicoot 4 would have microtransactions after the Microsoft Store’s listing for the game said it “offers in-app purchases.” The game’s developer Toys For Bob took to Twitter to clear things up, stating that it doesn’t include microtransactions at all.
Check out our interview with Crash Bandicoot 4’s producer here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHS3ps6gzA8
CD Projekt Red has removed wall-running from Cyberpunk 2077. Level designer Max Pears told GameReactor that the developer chose to remove it for design reasons, but said that the game will still allow the player “a lot of flexibility” with how they move through the world.
How Cyberpunk 2077’s gameplay works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6oaLn8T9kAw
Microsoft reportedly has a date for its live event coming later this month. According to VentureBeat’s Jeff Grubb, and corroborated by Video Game Chronicle, the next Xbox 20/20 event will happen on July 23. The event is going to focus prominently on first-party titles, including Halo Infinite.
Meanwhile, Play For All keeps on trucking. Play For All is a multi-week summer gaming celebration and charity event featuring special guests like Troy Baker, Danny O’Dwyer, and many familiar GameSpot faces. We’ve already raised thousands of dollars for #BlackLivesMatter and COVID-19 Relief Efforts thanks to all of you! Be sure to tune in every day between 12 PM and 2 PM PDT for interviews, livestreams, and everything in between.
Ghost of Tsushima is one of the most anticipated games of 2020, and it finally arrives this month. It’s an open-world action game set in the 13th century, and it focuses on a character named Jin Sakai, one of the last samurai warriors on the island of Tsushima during the Mongol invasion. The trailers and footage released by developers Sucker Punch reveal that the game has taken a lot of inspiration of Japanese samurai cinema. So while we wait for the game, now is a perfect time to explore some classics of this movie genre.
Samurai movies–or chambara, meaning “sword fighting”–were made in Japan throughout the 20th century. But it was the huge success of Akira Kurosawa’s films in the 1950s and 1960s that truly popularized the genre, inspiring dozens of imitators and homages, and making the genre popular internationally. Kurosawa’s Yojimbo and The Seven Samurai were both remade as the classic westerns A Fistful of Dollars and The Magnificent Seven, while the director’s Hidden Fortress was an acknowledged influence on Star Wars.
But there’s more to samurai cinema than Kurosawa of course. Some movies took a more dramatic, contemplative approach, exploring the traditions and codes of honor of the samurai and ronin (masterless samurai). Others went the other way and cranked up the violence, especially during the 1970s, where jetting geysers of crimson blood became a familiar sight.
So here’s our selection of some key samurai movies to check out (and one fantastic film that doesn’t technically count but we’ve included it anyway). Many of these are also available to stream, so we’ve noted where you can find those on the various streaming platforms out there.
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11. Killing (2018)
Streaming: VOD rental
The most recent movie on this list, Killing is the latest film from acclaimed director Shinya Tsukamoto, who is best known for the cyberpunk classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man. As the title suggests, it’s a meditation on the act of killing, and how even the most ruthless samurai can be affected by taking lives. Tsukamoto himself plays a veteran warrior who takes a young samurai Tsuzuki under his wing, but things go horribly wrong when the family that Tsuzuki has been living with are threatened by a gang of bandits. It’s a small scale but intense movie, with sudden bursts of brutal violence.
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10. Harakiri (1962)
Streaming: Criterion Channel
Director Masaki Kobayashi is best known for his 1964 horror anthology Kwaidan, but two years earlier, he made this classic. It’s more of an intense melodrama than action movie, as a samurai warrior named Tsugumo comes to the palace courtyard of a feudal lord with the intention committing ritual suicide. Although Kobayashi does eventually deliver the samurai action, the movie really doesn’t need it to make it a compelling movie, with the intrigue and tragedy of the main story more than enough. It’s also worth checking out Takashi Miike’s impressive 2011 remake.
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9. The Tale of Zatoichi (1962)
Streaming: Criterion Channel
Zatoichi is one of the most iconic heroes in samurai cinema, and the success of this first movie spawned no fewer than 25 sequels, plus a TV show and a remake. Zatoichi is the legendary blind swordsman, whose sensitive nature conceals his incredible swordplay skills. Shintaro Katsu is perfectly cast, the action is exciting, and it was great way to kick off samurai cinema’s longest-running series,
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8. Ghost Dog: Way of the Samurai (2002)
Ok, Ghost Dog is not a Japanese samurai movie. Cult director Jim Jarmusch has dabbled in numerous genres over the years, but even when he’s making vampire or zombie movies, his films are marked by offbeat storytelling, deadpan comedy, and great performances. Ghost Dog: is one of his best; it’s a darkly funny crime drama, in which Forest Whitaker plays the mysterious title character, a hitman who uses an ancient samurai code. The tone, pacing, and themes of honor and tradition have more in common with the traditions of Japanese cinema than Western crime films. Plus the music is by Asian action cinema fan and Wu Tang Clan main man RZA.
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7. Lady Snowblood (1973)
Streaming: HBO Max
A huge influence on Tarantino’s Kill Bill movies, Lady Snowblood combines samurai cinema with the revenge movie. Japanese icon Meiko Kaji plays a woman who seeks bloody revenge on the men who destroyed her mother’s life 20 year earlier. The film is a blend of artistic filmmaking and over-the-top gory violence, as Lady Snowblood is trained in the way of the samurai warrior and uses her skills to chop and hack her way to vengeance. It was followed by the inferior but still entertaining sequel Lady Snowblood: Lovesong of Vengeance.
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6. Twilight Samurai (2002)
The Oscar-nominated Twilight Samurai is one of the most acclaimed samurai movies of the modern era. It focuses on Seibeia, a widowed samurai who reunites with his childhood sweetheart Tomoe after many years. It’s a slow and thoughtful film, but when the action does arrive it has real emotional power, as Seibeia must face Tomoe’s abusive ex-husband in a duel to the death.
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5. Yojimbo (1961)
Streaming: HBO Max, Criterion Channel
Yojimbo is one of Kurosawa’s most entertaining samurai movies, and its success helped kickstart the spaghetti western genre, when Sergio Leone remade it as A Fistful of Dollars. It adeptly mixes action, comedy, and drama, as Toshiro Mifune’s charismatic samurai finds himself playing two rival crimelords against each other as they both compete for his services.
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4. Shogun Assassin (1980)
Streaming: Criterion Channel, HBO Max
The six-movie Lone Wolf and Cub series was based on the classic ’70s manga about a vengeful samurai who travels the land with his young son in a booby-trapped babycart. In the early ’80s, the first two movies–Sword of Vengeance (1972) and Babycart on the River Styx (1973)–were edited together by American producers, redubbed, and released here as a single 90 minute movie titled Shogun Assassin. This version focuses more on the blood-spraying mayhem and less on the drama, but it’s still huge fun. Shogun Assassin is available on the Criterion Channel, while the superb original films can also be found on HBO Max.
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3. Samurai Rebellion (1967)
Streaming: Criterion Channel
Another samurai classic from Harakiri director Masaki Kobayashi. Like its predecessor, this is a dark and serious story that focuses on a samurai questioning his values and place within the constraints of the feudal system. In this case, a once faithful samurai leads a rebellion against his former lord to protect his son, leading to an exciting and violent final 30 minutes. It’s also stunningly directed, with beautiful black-and-white photography and stylish camerawork.
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2. 13 Assassins (2011)
Streaming: Hulu
Takaski Miike’s 13 Assassins is actually a remake of a 1963 movie of the same title, but it’s even better than the original. The movie is set in 1844, and focuses on a group of samurai who come together to assassinate an evil lord. The gripping first hour, as the group are assembled, builds to an incredible final 45 minute battle sequence. What’s so impressive about this final scene is that Miike continues to develop the plot and characters alongside the violent mayhem. It’s a film that both honors the classics of Japanese samurai cinema and pushes the genre forward.
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1. The Seven Samurai (1954)
Streaming: HBO Max, Criterion Channel
Kurosawa’s The Seven Samurai isn’t just one of the greatest samurai movies, it’s one of the best action movies ever made. This epic tale of a group of ronin who team up to protect a village from bandits set a new standard for action filmmaking, with Kuraosawa’s mastery of editing and choreography influencing filmmakers for decades to come. The action is matched by the compelling drama, with the three-hour running time allowing Kuraosawa to really explore all seven of his heroes, while the location photography gives it a realistic feel that still feels fresh.
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Actor Asa Butterfield was among those who auditioned for the role of Spider-Man in Sony’s latest reboot series. Butterfield was at one point considered to be the front-runner, but the part ultimately went to Tom Holland. Butterfield has now reflected on the past, saying it all worked out in the end because not getting Spider-Man allowed him to make the uber-popular Netflix show Sex Ed.
“Every so often there’s a part [that you really want] and it’s a script you love, and you kind of put your heart and soul into it, and you don’t get it. And it is tough and it is sh**, but I often find that something even better comes out of it at the end,” Butterfield told Collider. “And so in the case of Spider-Man, I did Sex Ed, because I wouldn’t have been able to do both of those at the same time.”
Butterfield went on to say that his take on Spider-Man was not the one that Sony wanted, and he’s OK with that in the end. The version of Spider-Man that Holland has on-screen is “entirely different” than what Butterfield had in mind.
“I think as an actor and going out for roles, there’s only so much you can do and everyone’s gonna have a different take on a part and look at a character in different ways, have a different sort of performance, and you kind of have to stick with what you think. And if that isn’t [necessarily] in line with what the director and the producers want, then it’s like, there’s nothing you can do about that. You might just not be the right person, and that’s out of your hands,” he said.
“And that’s something I’ve learned, something that I think is great to help me kind of get over it. Because Tom did amazing things with Peter [Parker] and he had an entirely different portrayal of him and I think it’s worked so well in the universe and in that part, and I don’t think I could do it. So I think all things work out in the end.”
Butterfield plays the lead character, Otis Milburn, on Sex Ed. The second season debuted in January, but Netflix has yet to say anything about a third season.
As for Spider-Man, the final entry in the Homecoming trilogy will debut in November 2021 with Holland returning as the web-slinger.
Kongregate, the online flash game portal and game publisher, has been hit with layoffs amid a restructure that will bring major changes to the site. This news, announced via the Kongregate forums and picked up on by Gamesindustry.biz, indicates that the site will no longer take new game submissions going forward, and that the site’s forums will close.
“We will be rolling out several changes to the website over the coming days and months, the first of which is that we will no longer be accepting new titles on Kongregate.com as of today,” the forum post reads. “We also will not be adding any more badges to games. You will still be able to play our existing library of over 128,000 amazing games and developers will be able to update their games as normal.”
The site will also be disabling social features over time, including closing all but 20 chat rooms and moving forums to a read-only state.
“Please be aware that as part of our focus on developing games, we will have fewer resources to support Kongregate.com,” the statement continues. “That said, our support team will do their best to help players experiencing in-game issues.”
Several Kongregate employees have been let go without notice, gamesindustry.biz notes.
In a statement given to Forbes, a representative from the company has acknowledged that some members of the team have been let go, and that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted Kongregate.
“Over the last few years, we have been transitioning our focus to better align with our strengths and the gaming industry as a whole,” the statement reads. This year has been especially difficult for us, and the rest of the world, with COVID-19 affecting our business in a negative way and changing the overall games market. That’s why we had to take this unfortunate step to reshape our organization.”
The company will focus on developing games and reaching out to acquire others, rather than providing an open submission flash gaming platform. “As we outlined on our website, all of the current games on Kongregate.com will remain playable, we are just not allowing any new games to be uploaded at this time,” the statement reads.
Kongregate, which first launched in 2006, has historically been an important portal for games designed in Flash. As Flash fades away, though, the site has had to change. Competing site Newgrounds has developed its own proprietary Flash player for when Adobe Flash’s support ends; it’s not yet clear how far Kongregate will go in support its legacy catalog of games.
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A trailer for director David Ayer’s next film has debuted, and it shows off Shia LeBeouf in a particularly intense mode. He stars in The Tax Collector as Creeper, a man working for a crime lord called Wizard, who goes between gangs to collect Wizard’s cut of their money. Naturally, things go wrong, and his partner David (Bobby Soto) ends up having his family kidnapped.
The trailer below shows off LeBeouf’s performance, as well as plenty of action. There’s a clear mythology built up around his character, who is called “the Devil” in the trailer’s first scene. The movie also stars Lana Parrilla, George Lopez, and Jay Reeves.
The film will release on demand from August 7. You can watch the trailer below.
Ayer, who wrote and directed The Tax Collector, has been on a bad run lately. His latest films, Suicide Squad and Bright, earned awful reviews and received plenty of criticism. His earlier End of Watch was better received. LeBeouf previously worked with the director on World War II tank film Fury.
Whether The Tax Collector will reverse his fortunes remains to be seen. The director is also committed to making a sequel to Bright, once again starring Will Smith and Joel Edgerton.
In addition to launching the Xbox Series X console this year, Microsoft is rolling out its xCloud streaming service with Game Pass to help reach a bigger audience. The head of Xbox, Phil Spencer, wants to assure people that Microsoft remains committed to the physical console, which really should be no surprise given that Microsoft has plans to make another Xbox console after the Series X.
Speaking during a GameLab fireside chat, Spencer stressed that cloud gaming will not take over and replace consoles anytime soon. The xCloud service is merely another option for people who want it.
“I’ve never tried to position xCloud as a replacement for your gaming PC or for a console,” he said. “I like to sit down in front of the big screen and play on a console. I’m sitting here at my PC rig right now and I like to play here. But I’m not always in front of those two devices and I want to be able to play where I want to go play on the device that I choose.”
“I don’t think the highest fidelity place to go play a game is going to be streamed from an Azure data centre or anybody’s data center any time soon,” he added.
But that doesn’t mean it’s not a viable place to go play. We’re building this capability to enable you to go play the games that you want to go play, but not as a replacement to where you go play them today.”
Spencer mentioned that “hundreds of thousands” of people are already using xCloud through its closed beta tests in some parts of the world. The feedback has been helpful for Microsoft to build a better product, and Spencer said he’s excited to expand the rollout and add Game Pass to the mix this year.
“We’re going to bring xCloud into Game Pass. A natural way to extend where you can play your Game Pass library is to add the ability to stream to mobile devices,” he said. “We’ll be talking more about that pretty soon–it’s actually not too far off now–where we’ll give more clarity on the business model, which I think people will really like, as well as the library of games to go play and where you can go play that. We’re close. We feel good about the tech.”
Right now, Microsoft’s engineers are preparing for the launch by adding “hundreds of thousands” of Azure server blades around the world to help xCloud reach people globally.
“I think [xCloud] will have an impact in a lot of places–some expected and likely some unexpected,” Spencer said.
Also during the interview, Spencer said it’s been intriguing to hear what developers think about xCloud. Specifically, he’s having conversations with creators about things like what types of games people want to play on a streaming service, if the gameplay session lengths are different than on console/PC, and what are the reasons people stop playing on a streaming game versus on a console or PC.
Whatever the case, Spencer said he’s optimistic about the future for xCloud, saying it represents a “new canvas for us as creators.”
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Jurassic World: Dominion, the sixth film in the wider Jurassic series, will bring back three major stars from the first film–and now one of those stars has promised that their roles are major. Sam Neill, who returns as Dr. Alan Grant for Dominion, has spoken about the roles offered to him, Laura Dern (Ellie Satler) and Jeff Goldblum (Dr. Ian Malcolm) for this film.
Talking to Yahoo Movies, Neill has promised that these three returning characters are “all the way through the film,” and will not just be making a cameo (as Goldblum did in Jurassic Park: Fallen Kingdom). He also says that he “probably won’t be running as fast” as he did in the original, filmed 27 years ago.
The Australian actor is looking to join the production soon, although he’ll need to self-quarantine before filming. Neill, who calls Dern and Goldblum his “dear friends,” is excited about the unique way the film is handling the pandemic. “We’re all going to be living in the same joint for three or four months, so that’s going to be fun,” he says.
It’s an interesting set-up, and actor Bryce Dallas Howard has previously said that there has been a lot of communication to make sure the cast and crew feel safe.
The film is directed by Colin Trevorrow, who also directed Jurassic World, and whose career has been on a strange trajectory. Trevorrow was fired from Star Wars Episode IX, which was generally considered a good move after tepid fan responses to Jurassic World and the awful reviews of his film The Book of Henry. However, after The Rise of Skywalker disappointed many critics and fans (here’s our review), details of Trevorrow’s script leaked–and it sounded pretty interesting.
There will be another returning character in Dominion, but with a different actor–the part of Dodgson has been recast. We’ll be able to see all of these returning characters when the movie releases in cinemas on June 11, 2021.
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Publisher Annapurna Interactive has unveiled a new first-person puzzle game, and it looks incredible. Maquette is the debut game of studio Graceful Decay, and it’s focused on recursive, nested environments. We were confused by that description at first, but the trailer below clears up everything.
The environments within Maquette seem to be matching concentric areas that scale down. In a simple example in the trailer, an area might contain a block that is too large to move–but if you head into one of the buildings there you’ll find a smaller version of that same building, and moving the block there moves the bigger block, too.
It looks like many of the puzzles will involve manipulating the size of objects and moving smaller versions of large items. The trailer below shows off a few examples, and make the game look very clever.
According to a post on the PlayStation Blog by creative director Hanford Lemoore, the game’s goal is to “deliver plenty of ‘ah-ha’ and ‘mind-blown’ moments, while the narrative asks you to take a journey of love, loss, and acceptance.” The story involves the memories of a young couple, and moving through the history of their experiences as a couple. The game is meant to evoke the feeling in a relationship of how minor incidents and issues can start to feel very big.
A release date has not been set for Marquette, but the game’s Steam page lists it as a 2020 game.
