Star Wars is expanding with a series of books and comics exploring a different period from the one we’re used to. The High Republic publishing campaign has been announced, and it will consist of several books set 200 years before The Phantom Menace, at the height of Jedi rule, power, and influence.
This story will be told across novels, children’s books, and comics. Five projects have been announced, including pieces from writers who have previous experience in the Star Wars universe, such as Charles Soule (numerous comics, including Lando, Poe Dameron, and Darth Vader – Dark Lord of the Sith) and Claudia Gray (Star Wars: Leia, Princess of Alderaan and three other books). They are:
Star Wars: The High Republic: Into the Dark (Claudia Gray, young adult novel)
Star Wars: The High Republic: A Test of Courage (Justina Ireland, middle grade novel)
Star Wars: The High Republic Adventures (Daniel José Older, comic, IDW Publishing)
Star Wars: The High Republic (Cavan Scott, comic, Marvel)
Star Wars: The High Republic: Light of the Jedi (Charles Soule, adult novel)
The purpose of picking this time is that the writers can have a lot of creative freedom–it does not overlap with any established canon period or character, so the attached writers are able to do whatever they want without worrying about the other Star Wars works out there.
Lucasarts president Kathleen Kennedy promises that these works will cover “a more hopeful, optimistic time,” but also that there will be more traditional Star Wars conflict as well: “But of course, into this glorious new era something wicked this way comes.”
The next new Star Wars movie will arrive in 2022, although it’s not clear what that will be yet. Director JD Dillard was recently brought in to develop a new Star Wars film project. Meanwhile, there’s plenty of Star Wars coming to the small screen: the last season of The Clone Wars is now airing on Disney Plus, a new season of The Mandalorian will release this year, and an Obi-Wan series is in development.
With Upgrade, Leigh Whannell demanded attention as an inventive writer/director with some serious action chops and an eye for the unusual and unexamined. In Universal’s newest take on the iconic Invisible Man, Whannell turns that eye to the terror of domestic abuse, making an impressive and delightfully dark return to the horror genre in which he made his name as a co-creator of the Saw franchise.
Though the character’s tenure as a Universal Monster made the Invisible Man a classic horror icon, the H.G. Wells story which inspired it is very much a science-fiction parable about the hubris of man and the danger of an unchecked ego. Without spoiling too much, Whannell is clearly invested in exploring those thematic threads with his electrifying reimagining which plays into the classic novel’s ideas of madness, murder, and mayhem with a very contemporary twist.
Set in modern-day San Francisco, The Invisible Man strays from other adaptations by following Cecilia (Elisabeth Moss) as she absconds from her violent and cruel ex-boyfriend Adrian (Oliver Jackson-Cohen), a Mark Zuckerberg-esque tech billionaire who made his fortune in “optics.” From the opening moments of the film where we see Cecilia sneaking out of the compound-like home she shared with Adrian, Whannell throws the audience into a nerve-wracking and chillingly realized ride through the absolute worst-case scenario of leaving an abusive partner.
Moss is the beating heart of the movie here as the distressed and desperate Cecilia, who spends most of the movie struggling against the waves of trauma that her relationship with Adrian has left her drowning in. This is another no-holds-barred performance from The Handmaid’s Tale actress who offers up an almost uncomfortably raw turn as a woman wronged so badly that she almost has no concept of how to treat the people who are left in her life. Though he is barely on screen, Jackson-Cohen is a solid choice as the handsome and sociopathic billionaire who can’t bear to let go of the one thing that he can no longer control.
The small supporting cast is equally as engaging with Aldis Hodge as Cecilia’s old friend James who takes her in after she makes her escape. His sweet and thoughtful daughter Sydney is played by the ever-watchable Storm Reid, who gets some seriously dark material and handles it brilliantly. If anything, their roles could have been expanded as both are characters that you want to know more about, but this is Cecilia’s story and so ultimately their paths (and screen time) are guided by her journey.
There is an effective coldness and chill to The Invisible Man which is tangible, from the grey skies of San Francisco to the concrete walls of Adrian’s looming home. There’s a gritty grimness to it all that can’t quite be escaped, and that’s entirely the point. Nothing about The Invisible Man is meant to be comfortable; Whannell and cinematographer Stefan Duscio fill every moment with dread and anxiety that is entirely fitting for a horror film that takes one of the darkest aspects of human nature and wrings every ounce of terror out of it that it can. Another highlight that needs recognition is the production design by Alex Holmes, which plays into the inescapable nature of Adrian. This is especially noticeable in his open-plan home, with its glass-walled structure that makes you feel like you can do nothing without being watched.
Of course, in any monster movie you want to know about the titular monster. Well, not wanting to give too much away, what I can say is that Whannell makes a decision that is both creatively daring and almost monstrously simple. Think of the thrill of watching Paranormal Activity for the first time and trying to spot all of the spiritual shenanigans and you’re halfway to what makes this iteration of The Invisible Man so utterly terrifying.
Alongside the atmospheric visual landscape that the creative team built, composer Benjamin Wallfisch crafts entertainingly engaging dueling scores for both Adrian and Cecilia. The former is an appropriately pulsating electronic landscape closer to drone music than a classical film score, whereas our heroine is scored by a more expected orchestral arrangement that often soars as we follow her on a most unexpected and grim iteration of the hero’s journey. The coherence and narrative of the score and film together give The Invisible Man an immersive quality that delights and unsettles in equal measure.
At just over two hours, The Invisible Man never drags, instead successfully building tension to a breaking point. But depending on your patience for a slow burn start leading to some breakneck twists and turns, you might get a little cinematic whiplash when it comes to the film’s brutal and action-packed latter half. That final act is where Whannell really shows his power, though, with some truly gasp-inducing moments and more of the stunningly imagined and choreographed action that made Upgrade such a cult hit amongst genre fans.
The biggest issue that The Invisible Man faces is actually tied to how slick it is. There’s a rawness to Elisabeth Moss’ performance that hints at a deeper character study we don’t get, and whilst the clinical dissection of an abusive relationship and the horrors it has wrought are grimly effective, there is arguably a lack of depth to the conversation the film is trying to have. As a simple revenge story, The Invisible Man ends up delivering something truly satisfying. But the first two acts of the movie don’t always feel like they’re setting that up, and at times hint at an exploration of abuse that’s more nuanced and profound, yet it never materializes. Ironically, it’s the fact that Whannell is confident and experimental enough to try and utilize the nature of abuse as a structure for horror rather than a messaging opportunity that may lead some to ask: what is The Invisible Man really trying to say?
Whannell’s exploration of horror and abuse may not be for everyone. Not only is it deeply distressing in parts but it’s often brutal in its depiction of trauma — although something that feels radical is that we rarely see the violence that caused such trauma depicted on screen — and the fear of losing control. Seeing Cecilia seemingly lose her grip on reality and drive everyone around her away is tough, even though Whannell and company offer up an equally dark redemption. It’s that rawness and interest in shining a light on the most unappealing moments of being a survivor that makes The Invisible Man stand out, but it’s also miles away from the warmth and nostalgia that many viewers might be expecting when they walk into what is still a Universal Monsters movie.
If you’ve played Escape From Tarkov this past week, you’ve probably noticed particularly long queue times when waiting to load into a raid. These server issues have not gone unacknowledged by developer Battlestate Games. The team took to Twitter today to notify players of an update meant to reduce match loading times, but even after a series of technical updates and fixes, the frequent server outages persist.
Earlier today, Battlestate Games posted yet again that they are working on fixing the server issues. For updates on Escape From Tarkov’s server status, check back here for updates or consult Down Detector for moment-to-moment updates from the community.
Just a few weeks ago, Battlestate Games gave every player 1 million in-game roubles as an attempt to make up for lost time and gear resulting from server issues earlier in the month.
Rainbow Six Siege is a team-based game that is at its best when you’re playing with friends, but that won’t always be the case–often players will want to jump in alone, and when they do, there’s no option to solo queue. Solo queuing means being matched with other players who are also not in squads, so that you don’t end up facing an extremely communicative, well-prepared team.
This is a feature that players have wanted for a while, and it seems that the developers are taking notice. As reported by VG247, the official Rainbow Six Siege Twitter account recently responded to a tweet about a lack of a solo queue option to let the user know that the idea “had been passed up the chain to the devs”.
This is something the community has discussed over the past few weeks, and the idea has been passed up the chain to the devs.
This is not confirmation that solo queue will actually be added, of course, but the team behind Rainbow Six Siege has been pretty open about things that are not coming to the game–respawns, for instance.
Rainbow Six Siege is in a good place right now, and recently broke its own record for the most concurrent players on Steam. The operator Tachanka is getting the game’s most significant ever overhaul, and the game is being planned for launch on next-gen systems. But there is, of course, always room for improvement.
Another Rainbow Six game, a three-player co-op tactical shooter called Rainbow Six: Quarantine, is also in development for PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
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Square Enix has announced it is scaling back some of its plans for PAX East later this month due to ongoing concerns about the coronavirus. In a blog post, the publisher said the Final Fantasy XIV Online developers who planned to travel from the team’s HQ in Japan will now stay home.
“Sadly Square Enix has decided to cancel the PAX East attendance of staff who would be travelling from the Japan offices,” the company said in a statement. “This difficult decision was based on our desire to prevent any potential spread of the virus and to prioritize the health and safety of our team and our fans.”
Because the development team won’t be attending PAX East, Square Enix is scaling back its events surrounding Final Fantasy XIV. Specifically, Square Enix is cancelling the “A Look Behind the Screen” panel. But it’s not all bad news, as the team will conduct a livestream featuring the developers in place of this. The developer signings and photo opportunities will of course no longer go foward, while the fan gathering event slated for February 28 has also been scrapped.
While the Final Fantasy XIV events have been scaled back, Square Enix is still coming to PAX East with a lot to show and discuss. There will be a playable demo for the Final Fantasy VII Remake, a panel discussion for the new third-person shooter Outriders from the developers of Gears of War Judgment, and more. Check out Square Enix’s blog post to see a full rundown of its PAX East plans.
Devolver Digital has announced Disc Room, a new game from the creators of Minit and High Hell. It’s Devolver’s latest challenging 2D affair, with an interesting art style and the promise of plenty of violence.
The game is set inside a deadly alien craft, a huge disc that appears in Jupiter’s orbit in 2089. You play as a scientist who must explore rooms filled with alien saw blades that are constantly trying to slice you up, figuring out the labyrinthine structure of the craft and gaining new abilities as you go.
You’ll unlock an invincibility dash, time-bending, and even a cloning mechanic as you go, and the press release promises that you’ll die plenty–“In Disc Room the only way out is through Death.”
The game has only been confirmed for Steam so far, and you can wishlist the game now. The game will release later this year in autumn 2020.
If you’re attending PAX East, the game will be playable there. It’s a good thing, because not every planned game is making its way to the expo–Sony has dropped out over coronavirus concerns, meaning that the planned playable demo stations for The Last of Us Part II will not be there.
It’s safe to say that Animal Crossing fans are hyped out of their minds for the newest mainline entry in the series, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which releases March 20 on Nintendo Switch. The highly anticipated game takes players to a deserted island via the Nook Inc. charter plane, where you’ll begin to create your own island paradise by gathering natural resources, crafting items, and building a community from scratch.
Animal Crossing fans are so excited to start their New Horizons journey that people have started creating their own passports and boarding passes to celebrate their upcoming island adventures. First shared in a post on Reddit, this free Animal Crossing passport and boarding pass generator was created by user T0Rtur3 (with designs by user Celesmeh), and you can check out examples of what these look like below. When creating your passport, you can choose from a few stock character designs and stamps as well as input your name, friend code, and name of your island. There aren’t a ton of customization options yet, but this is still a really cute way of sharing your friend code with other players.
The boarding pass doesn’t include a place to list your friend code, but you can list your real-life city, airport code, and seat number to generate what your own ticket aboard the Nook, Inc. charter might look like. After creating your boarding pass and passport, you can download them directly or actually print out.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer recently sat down with Insomniac Games CEO Ted Price recently for a wide-ranging and very fascinating interview that covers a number of noteworthy topics.
In the hour-long interview, Spencer speaks about the future of Xbox, including the xCloud streaming service along with some high-level thoughts on what Microsoft will deliver in the next-generation of gaming. Spencer also speaks about Microsoft’s efforts in the area of accessibility and helping make sure gamers with disabilities don’t feel left out on Xbox.
Also in the interview, Spencer spoke about why he enjoys Fortnite, some of his regrets over the years (like moving the Bungie team from Chicago to Washington after the acquisition), and how things have been progressing with all the game studios that Microsoft acquired over the past few years. Spencer also discusses Microsoft’s thinking around business models, including subscription offerings and microtransactions.
Intriguingly, Spencer says he believes creating new models of monetization will help expand the audience for gaming globally.
“I think for us as an industry, we should embrace monetization dexterity, because I think it leads to the best creativity,” Spencer said.
Spencer said he recently visited Africa on a Microsoft trip, and he observed that one popular model for internet-usage in the country is that people might sit in a taxi or a bus and watch an advertisement to earn themselves currency to spend on using the internet. A model like this could work in gaming, Spencer said, where players engage with ads to earn currency to play games.
“Could that be a model that works in games? Absolutely I think it could,” Spencer said, acknowledging that he is not talking about a specific plan but rather a high-level idea that is in no way a concrete idea or plan that may ever come to fruition.
Still, Spencer said the video game industry needs to come up with new monetization methods to help reach new audiences and grow the business overall.
“We need to find new players, and new forms of monetization to open up those those new playerbases and new ways to build games, new creativity; that’s a great path to growth,” he said.
Another interesting topic that came up in the conversation was Xbox Game Pass. As many have been themselves wondering, Price directly asked a question that has occurred to many of the service’s subscribers: how does this model make financial sense?
Spencer said Microsoft is in a unique position as a platform-holder because it has the resources of Microsoft, which recently became one of the world’s first trillion-dollar companies. Overall, more people playing more games and spending more hours gaming is a good thing, Spencer said, but he shied away from directly answering the question about the financial viability of the Game Pass model.
Elsewhere in the interview, Spencer spoke about how he believes the xCloud streaming service will not replace traditional, hardware-based gaming anytime soon. He said he believes playing games on an Xbox (or another console) will be the best way to play games until 2030. The appeal of streaming services like xCloud is for the times when players are away from their main screens and still want to play, Spencer said.
“I think I’m going to have a game console plugged into my television for the next decade-plus. I think it’s going to be the best way for me to play on my television; to have a local device, download the game, and play,” he said.
Looking into the future, Spencer said he sees a future where there are more consoles, not fewer. These could include things like streaming-only consoles or other devices that live under your TV. He said the gaming industry will follow the music business where streaming has taken over and allows for all different types of experiences based on what people want.
He pointed out that in the music world, people listen to music however they want, on any device they want, whether that be relatively lower quality audio on the train to work or at home on a high-fi, surround-sound setup. With gaming, Spencer said he wants to unlock and allow gamers to play whatever they want, wherever they want.
“I think with games, it’s going to go similar. I think what we’re going to find, is as games are able to run in multiple contexts on different devices, you’re going to see a lot of different devices grow up to support different use scenarios,” he said.
One console experience in the home might have the “most capability,” while others on different screens could offer different experiences. Spencer foresees a future where users can beam content at home to any screen they want across a “multitude of different devices.”
You can listen to the full AIAS Game Maker’s Notebook podcast interview below with the Spotify embed. It’s also available everywhere podcasts are. Note that this interview was conducted during the DICE conference earlier in February, meaning it was recorded beforeSpencer’s big announcements about the Xbox Series X this week.
The Game Maker’s Notebook is one of the best gaming podcasts around. Some of Price’s previous guests have included Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order director Stig Asmussen, veteran and prolific voice actor Troy Baker, and Dreams developer Abbie Heppe, among many others.
It’s been six years since the Xbox One released, but the system has just now gotten a feature that players have wanted since the beginning. Xbox Insiders are now reporting on Reddit that the latest update allows players to eject the discs from their systems with a press of the X button, meaning that you can make the system spit out the disc without needing to get up and press the button on the console.
Of course, with so many players going digital now, especially with Xbox Game Pass, this feature might get less of a workout now than it would have in 2013. Still, it’s going to be a handy feature for many players once they receive the update, especially collectors or anyone who uses their Xbox One as a DVD player.
This is one area in which the Xbox One has lagged behind the Xbox 360, which allowed players to eject discs with the controller, too. The PlayStation 4 has also long allowed users to eject discs with the controller.
Hopefully this new feature will carry over to the Xbox Series X, which will be able to play all of the games on Xbox One–and the two previous models of Xbox as well, since it’ll have complete backwards compatibility.
Xbox has a huge 2020 planned, not just because of the new console on the way–the long-awaited Halo Infinite is also coming. If you buy it on disc, you’ll be able to eject it easily; however, it’ll also be on Game Pass.
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