Author: Trafficblast

Crysis developer Crytek’s new first-person, match-based survival/bounty hunting PvP game, Hunt: Showdown, is now available on Xbox One in beta.

To get into the beta, you need to sign into the Xbox Insider Hub on your Xbox One. From there you’ll see Hunt: Showdown. Click “Join” and then you’ll be able to download it.

Crytek notes that space in the beta is “limited,” and spots are available on a first-come, first-served basis, so if you’re interested you’ll want to act quickly.

The playtest runs until 6 AM PT on Monday, May 20. Since it’s a beta/playtest, the game in unfinished and you may experience some bugs or other oddities. Crytek encourages player to report issues and other feedback through the Xbox One’s built-in reporting tools.

“There are a lot of ways to play Hunt. You can work alone, or you can work in pairs,” Crytek says. “You can take a smaller risk and grind for XP, or you can risk it all and try to take out every enemy, every Hunter, and every boss you come across. And those are just a few of the options. There are so many strategic possibilities that players have a lot of space to make the experience theirs.”

Hunt: Showdown is currently in Early Access on PC as well.

Sony has published a neat mini-documentary about the music of the latest big PlayStation 4 exclusive, Days Gone. In the video, composed Nathan Whitehead, who worked on the Purge film series before this, talks about how he went about creating the music for the game.

He speaks about how the sounds he went for–acoustic, organic, folk, Americana–are rough around the edges just like main character Deacon St. John is. Another cool part of the video is Whitehead talking about how he came up with the musical expression for the Freakers.

“Scoring Days Gone is the same as scoring three movies, plus figuring out how the music can be interactive and how it can respond to what the player is doing,” Whitehead says.

GameSpot spoke to Whitehead recently, and he told us all about making the game’s dark and grimy music. He also offered some thoughts on the kind of music that Deacon might like.

You can listen to Days Gone’s complete soundtrack through the Spotify embed below.

Twilight and Harry Potter actor Robert Pattinson could be the next Batman. Variety reports that Pattinson will play the Caped Crusader in the new standalone film, The Batman, which is releasing in June 2021. The film is directed by Matt Reeves, who made the latest Planet of the Apes movies.

Deadline, however, reports that the deal isn’t done yet. X-Men actor Nicholas Hoult is also reportedly a top choice to play Batman in the film. According to Deadline, Warner Bros. likes both actors, but Pattinson is the No. 1 choice at this stage.

The Hollywood Reporter also weighed in. Their sources said Armie Hammer and Aaron Taylor-Johnson were also considered for the role of Batman in the movie.

Pattinson or Hoult will take over as Batman from Ben Affleck, who played the character in Batman v Superman, Suicide Squad, and Justice League. At 29, Hoult would be the youngest-ever actor to play Batman. As would Pattinson at age 32. Other actors to have donned the cowl include Christian Bale, George Clooney, Val Kilmer, and Michael Keaton, among others.

“Warner Bros., in giving Reeves plenty of time to develop the script, is hoping the latest iteration of the DC icon is done right, following the disappointments of Batman v Superman and Justice League,” according to Variety.

Sources told Variety that filming might begin on The Batman later this year or early 2020.

The Batman would be Pattinson’s latest project with Warner Bros. He’s also set to appear in Christopher Nolan’s untitled “event movie” that’s coming out in July 2020.

Affleck–who won Oscars for Good Will Hunting and Argo–was initially attached to write, direct, and star in a new Batman movie called The Batman. However, he eventually dropped out. Explaining his decision to leave, Affleck told Jimmy Kimmel that he “couldn’t crack it.”

You need a javascript enabled browser to watch videos.

Please use a html5 video capable browser to watch videos.

This video has an invalid file format.

Sorry, but you can’t access this content!

In 2017, actress Michelle Rodriguez said she might quit the Fast & Furious franchise if the producers do not “show some love to the women” for the franchise going forward. Now, she’s decided to come back for Fast & Furious 9 because the producers hired a female writer.

Speaking to Bloomberg, Rodriguez said about the Fast & Furious series, “I felt like there was not enough of a female voice in the franchise.”

Rodriguez said Universal Pictures executive Donna Langley agreed that the Fast & Furious franchise needed to do better, and it was decided to hire a female writer. “If I’m coming back, I really want there to be a female writer to give it a female voice. And finally, they showed me some love, and said yeah!” Rodriguez recalled.

The actress went on to say that she was tired of having to re-write lines that men wrote for her to say on the Fast & Furious series. Rodriguez didn’t say who the female writer joining Fast & Furious 9 is, but that information should become known in due time.

Rodriguez and Vin Diesel are the only remaining members of the Fast & Furious original cast still involved in the series, so it would have been a big deal if she left.

Speaking to Entertainment Weekly in 2017, Rodriguez talked about the “male-dominated environment” that she works in for the Fast & Furious series. “My heart doesn’t feel right doing this in front of millions of people, so I can always oblige myself and depart because money, to me, isn’t as important as my lines that you’re not allowed to cross,” she said.

The next Fast & Furious movie is the spin-off Hobbs & Shaw starring The Rock and Jason Statham. Fast & Furious 9 with Michelle Rodriguez is slated for 2020.