Author: Trafficblast

Ghost Of Tsushima Features Character Customization, Here’s What We Know

During Sony’s latest State of Play livestream, we got a much closer look at the upcoming PS4-exclusive open-world game set in feudal Japan, Ghost of Tsushima. Everything from exploring the world, stealth mechanics, combat encounters, and even character customization were on display in the gameplay walkthrough. You will play as Jin, who can either be a Samurai or Ghost throughout the game depending on your playstyle, but regardless, you’ll have customization, and even fashion on the mind.

One part of the gameplay reveal showcased a number of ways you can make Jin your own. Different sets of armor apply to either playing as a Samurai (combat-focused) or as the Ghost (stealth-focused), and they give you specific advantages for either playstyle.

There are also Omamori Charms, which you equip to grant specific perks. For example, the Charm of Okuninushi is a defense charm that slowly recovers your health out of combat, while the Charm of Unseen Respite grants 25% health recover when using smoke bombs. The menu screen shown also stated that you earn more Charms by finding Inari Shrines which are scattered across the open world.

In addition to Charms, you’ll earn Technique Points to learn and upgrade skills, further fleshing out some RPG-like mechanics in Ghost of Tsushima.

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Where you can start to personalize Jin’s clothing is with dye flowers, a resource you collect in the environment. If you collect enough of them you can change the color of your armor, clothing, and even your sword’s handle and sheath. And we also got a peek at several different armor sets, which you can see below (or in the video above).

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Ghost of Tsushima launches exclusively on PlayStation 4 on July 17 this year. For more on the game and the detals that were revealed during Sony’s State of Play, check out the stories below.

Now Playing: Ghost Of Tsushima Gameplay: Customization & Photo Mode

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Ghost Of Tsushima Gets In-Depth Look At Combat

The gameplay demonstration for Ghost of Tsushima showed lots of details, including exploration, customization, and most importantly, adorable wildlife. But the vast majority of time was spent detailing the combat, which comes in two distinct types: the honorable direct combat, and the dishonorable fear-based stealth.

Game director Nate Fox walked us through the differences between the two. When engaging in direct combat, you essentially march up to the enemy and announce your presence, thus starting a combat sequence. The combat seemed very parry-based in this way, as the hero Jin waited for his opponent to strike and then countered with deadly force. Other combatants took swipes after dispatching one soldier, and Jin took them all down with one-hit finishers in quick succession.

Fox said you can use normal sword swings, but it’s better to use timing and precision for exacting damage. You can switch between combat stances, and you’re adept enough to counter both sword swipes and arrow shots. And true to the honorable path, you can pay respects to the deceased after you’ve dispatched them.

The stealthy combat is seen as dishonorable by comparison and uses a variety of traps and distractions to lure enemies into areas when they’re vulnerable. This section saw Jin quietly killing foes from a distance with heavy arrows and kunai, disorienting enemies with smoke bombs, and using fireworks to prompt them to move. It’s also the more acrobatic version of combat, having you grapple between points and use parkour.

The Ghost of Tsushima presentation also made a point to show how customization can impact your combat efficacy, since it augments your abilities for your chosen playstyle. The game is coming on July 17. For more details check out our Ghost of Tsushima pre-order guide.

Now Playing: Ghost Of Tsushima Gameplay: Samuari Fights & Stealth

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Ghost Of Tsushima Lets You Pet The Fox

A lengthy gameplay demonstration for Ghost of Tsushima gave us all kinds of new details, from exploration and combat to customization options. But there was one tiny detail that took us by surprise: you can pet a fox.

The adorable detail didn’t last long, but it came just as creative director Jason Connell was starting to wrap up his segment on exploration. He mentioned that there are details all over the world to explore, like mountainous paths marked with gates, or foxes showing you a hidden den to explore. Over that segment we saw a brief glimpse of the hero, Jin, scruffing the fuzzy mane of a fox.

There’s no indication elsewhere that you have the fox as a companion, so it seems more likely that it’s just a feral creature that you’ll run into once in a while. And since petting a real wild fox is probably not such a good idea, this is one more fantasy video games can help you live out–along with being a samurai.

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To that end, the lengthy gameplay demonstration also showed us quite a bit of combat, including two distinct forms of combat: the honorable traditional samurai battles, and the dishonorable stealthy “ghost” combat. You can also customize Jin with armor and gear that will accent your combative or stealthy playstyle, and Tsushima even sports a film filter to imitate old Japanese samurai movies.

Ghost of Tsushima is set to release on July 17, roughly a month after Sony’s other big first-party PS4 game, The Last of Us 2. For more details check out our pre-order guide.

Now Playing: Ghost of Tsushima Gameplay Showcase | State of Play

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14 Streaming Sci-Fi Movies About Evil AI On Netflix, Prime, And More

14 Streaming Sci-Fi Movies About Evil AI On Netflix, Prime, And More – GameSpot

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The fear of technology has long been one of cinema’s most prevalent themes. The idea that mankind’s unstoppable desire to push the limits of technological invention will ultimately be our undoing has led to many sci-fi and horror classics over the years, from the mad scientist of Frankenstein to experiments-gone-wrong of The Invisible Man and The Fly.

As technology in our world has developed, so has the nature of the threat in the sci-fi genre. Artificial Intelligence has become a favorite of filmmakers over the past few decades–machines granted sentience by their creators, which end up turning against their masters. Sometimes the AI is contained within more traditional robots and cyborgs, and sometimes it is a malevolent program that controls other machines and systems. In more recent years, the prevalence of AI in our own homes via virtual assistants such as Alexa and Siri has inspired filmmakers to look at the scary possibilities of this technology.

There are a wide variety of movies featuring sinister artificial intelligence to stream right now, and we’ve gathered together the best examples of scary AI movies. And once you’ve read that, check out our guide to mind-bending cerebral sci-fi movies available on streaming, plus our guides to the best monster, slasher, body horror, alien, animal attack, and horror comedy movies on streaming.

And speaking of things you should be watching, consider listening to GameSpot’s weekly TV series and movies-focused podcast, You Should Be Watching. With new episodes premiering every Wednesday, you can watch a video version of the podcast over on GameSpot Universe or listen to audio versions on Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, and Apple Podcasts.

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14. Transcendence (2014)

14. Transcendence (2014)

Streaming: Netflix

The AI in the 2014 thriller Transcendence started life as a human–scientist Will Castor, played by Johnny Depp–but when he is shot, his consciousness is uploaded into a sentient mainframe known as PINN. Soon benevolent ideas about using his incredible technological powers are replaced by far more sinister ones. If you are unnerved by the sight of Johnny Depep’s disembodied face floating around like an evil screensaver, then this is the evil AI movie for you.

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13. Wall-E (2008)

13. Wall-E (2008)

Streaming: Disney+

With an eerie red eye that takes visual inspiration from 2001’s HAL 9000, AUTO is an AI autopilot built into the starliner Axiom. AUTO has been given a directive to never return to Earth and mutinies when Wall-E and Captain McCrea attempt to change course. Rather than hire an actor to voice AUTO, the filmmakers used Apple’s text-to speech programme MacInTalk, making his disembodied robotic tones quite unnerving.

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12. Her (2013)

12. Her (2013)

Streaming: Netflix

Spike Jonze’s strange, sad Her features Scarlet Johansson as the voice of Samantha, a virtual assistant with the creepy ability to form serious emotional bonds with its users. What starts as a weird but sweet romance between Samantha and lonely writer Theodore Twombly (Joaquin Phoenix) becomes something more sinister when the AI starts to dominate his life and colludes with other AIs to break free of human control entirely.

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11. Tron (1982)

11. Tron (1982)

Streaming: Disney+

Much of Disney’s pioneering sci-fi adventure is set within a computer mainframe controlled by the sinister Master Control Programme (MCP). This increasingly powerful AI craves power, using access to government and business computer systems in order to increase its control. Veteran actor David Warner provides the sinister voice of the MCP, as well as playing the movie’s human villain.

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10. WarGames (1983)

10. WarGames (1983)

Streaming: Starz

WarGames might have been made for a younger audience than the other movies on this list, but that didn’t make the AI at its center any less terrifying. The War Operation Plan Response (WOPR) is a military supercomputer designed to predict the outcome from a nuclear war. It is accidentally triggered by a teenage hacker, played by Matthew Broderick, and attempts to start World War III. The movie combines teen thrills with Cold War paranoia–never has a game of Tic-Tac-Toe been quite so suspenseful.

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9. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

9. Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)

Streaming: Prime Video

Perhaps the most powerful AI on this list, V’Ger is an ancient, immense giant cloud of malevolent energy that gained sentience from human space probe Voyager 6. It roams the galaxy destroying all in its path–until it encounters James T. Kirk, that is.

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8. Upgrade (2018)

8. Upgrade (2018)

Streaming: HBO Now

In Upgrade, a paralysed man named Grey Trace is given his mobility back via an implanted chip, which is powered by an AI system known as STEM. It also gives him increased strength and agility, which helps his bloody quest to find his wife’s killers. Of course, being a sinister movie AI, STEM eventually gains full control of Grey’s body.

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7. Child's Play (2019)

7. Child’s Play (2019)

Streaming: Netflix

The remake of ’80s horror favorite Child’s Play brought the concept up-to-date by making the evil Chucky a malfunctioning AI instead of a doll possessed by a serial killer. In this new version, Chucky learns to kill by watching horror movies and can use his control of household electrical items to inflict maximum mayhem.

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6. Blade Runner (1982)

6. Blade Runner (1982)

Streaming: VOD rental

It’s a testament to Rutget Hauer’s brilliant performance as Roy Batty, that Blade Runner’s Replicant leader is as sympathetic as he is terrifying. All Batty and his companions want is to live longer than the few years they have been given, and if it means a few gouged eyes and crushed skulls along the way, who’s to blame them?

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5. The Demon Seed (1977)

5. The Demon Seed (1977)

Streaming: Roku/Tubi

One of the scariest aspects of movie AIs is the idea of putting absolute control of our lives in their hands. This is what happens to poor Julie Christie in Donald Cammell’s ‘70s horror The Demon Seed. Christie plays the wife of a brilliant scientist who has developed an AI system named Proteus, who gains control of their high-tech house and imprisons her there. And if that wasn’t bad enough, Proteus wants a baby. The movie is a scary high-tech nightmare that was panned at the time but is now a sci-fi horror cult favorite.

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4. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014)

4. Avengers: Age of Ultron (2014)

Streaming: Disney+

Ultron wasn’t planned with evil purposes in mind. Built from code derived from the Mind Stone, Tony Stark intended it to be a peacekeeping programme, designed to keep Earth safe from all threats, both domestic and alien. But it doesn’t take long for Ultron to figure out that mankind is in fact its own biggest threat, and set about planning its destruction. And unlike many AIs, Ultron isn’t just a static program. He builds himself a robotic body and gathers an army of drones to help execute its plan.

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3. Ex-Machina (2014)

3. Ex-Machina (2014)

Streaming: Netflix

Many movie AIs are simply given human voices, but Ava, the AI in Alex Garland’s Ex-Machina, is given a human appearance too. Played by future Tomb Raider Alicia Vikander, Ava has been developed by tech CEO Nathan Bateman (Oscar Isaac) and is kept in a cell in his underground lab. Inevitably Ava wants to escape, so she convinces lovestruck programmer Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson) to help free her. Like Her’s Samantha, Ava is both highly seductive and absolutely chilling, and knows exactly how to make weak-willed men do her bidding.

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2. The Terminator series (1984-2019)

2. The Terminator series (1984-2019)

Streaming: Showtime/Netflix

The Terminator series is most memorable for its series of murderous cyborgs–from the original T-800 to the more recent Rev-9. But behind all of these killer robots is Skynet, a neural superintelligence that gains self-awareness and, in one version of the future, leads the machines in an uprising against their human oppressors. Unlike other AIs on this list, Skynet isn’t really something we see or hear, with no human “voice” like many others. But its destructive power is immense.

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1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969)

1. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1969)

Streaming: Direct TV/VOD rental

The sentient computer HAL, who controls Discovery One in Stanley Kubrick’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey set the template for scary AIs over the following decades. HAL’s soft and calming voice becomes incredibly menacing as it starts to malfunction, with absolute logic overriding any sense of empathy as it sets about murdering the ship’s crew. HAL singing “Daisy Bell” as surviving crew member Dave Bowman attempts to shut it down remains one of the most memorable and chilling scenes in sci-fi cinema.

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Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company


All The Free Games You Can Play On PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Weekend

In recent months, we’ve been seeing far more free games than usual, as publishers and storefronts are continuing to give away freebies to pass the time at home. Just today, the Epic Games Store started offering Grand Theft Auto V for free, and Ubisoft announced its giving away the pair of Assassin’s Creed Discovery Tour games, which are both educational and fun. In addition to the many free games you can snag right now, there are a handful of titles you can try for free this weekend on consoles and PC, including Fallout 76 and Stellaris.

Fresh off of the release of the new Wastelanders update, Fallout 76 is free to try on Xbox One, PS4, and PC through May 17. If you enjoy the trial, you can keep playing after the weekend for less, as Fallout 76 is on sale for $30 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

Fallout 76 is one of the three games featured in Xbox’s Free Play Days. It’s joined by Castle Crashers Remastered, a great side-scrolling beat ’em up, and the popular sandbox game Terraria. Both of those games are on sale for $6 during the free weekend.

Over on Steam, you can also play Stellaris for free through May 16. The galactic strategy game is one of Paradox Interactive’s most popular titles. It earned a 7/10 in GameSpot’s Stellaris review for its epic scale and deep lore, but was knocked for some uneven pacing. Stellaris is an experience that demands dozens of hours of play, so if you enjoy the thrilling early portion during the free play weekend, you can snag Stellaris on sale for $10 until May 18. Steam users can play Conan Exiles for free this weekend as well. The multiplayer-focused survival game has a massive open world to explore either solo or online with friends. The free weekend will let you scratch the surface, but if you find yourself wanting to play on, Conan Exiles is 50% off at $20.

In addition to the free weekend games, there are tons of great game deals on all platforms. The Eshop just kicked off a new sale on anime games; Xbox Live has steep discounts on racing titles; the PlayStation Store has three different sales running; and PC users can shop Fanatical’s gigantic May Madness sale and Epic’s Mega sale.

Free games to play this weekend

Now Playing: Fallout 76: Wastelanders – Official Trailer 2

Ghost Of Tsushima Features A Black-And-White Mode

Sucker Punch Productions’ PlayStation 4 exclusive, Ghost of Tsushima, is only two months away now. The studio recently showed off 20 minutes of gameplay that featured a bunch of enticing details, including an optional black-and-white overlay that transforms the game into a classic samurai film.

During PlayStation’s Ghost of Tsushima State of Play, Sucker Punch unveiled the Samurai Cinema overlay. The mode–which slathers the game in a windy, black-and-white, film grain texture–can be turned on at the very beginning of the game. It allows you to experience the open-world samurai action in a way that recalls the films of famed director Akira Kurosawa.

It's feeling cold and dark on this hill.
It’s feeling cold and dark on this hill.
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Also during the Ghost of Tsushima gameplay demonstration, Sucker Punch showed off a closer look at combat and stealth, customization, open-world exploration, and more. The game also features cute animals like birds and foxes that will guide protagonist Jin Sakai to various in-game destinations–and yes, you can pet the foxes.

Ghost of Tsushima is scheduled to hit PlayStation 4 on July 17. You can check out our Ghost of Tsushima pre-order guide to learn more about the various editions available to purchase, the bonuses you get for buying early, and more.

Now Playing: Ghost Of Tsushima Gameplay: Samuari Fights & Stealth

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