Each week, digital storefronts and local retailers release a slew of new movies and TV series for you to purchase. While movies like Detective Pikachu are dominating the box office, maybe you want to stay home and watch something on your couch? This week is a pretty large week for releases, even though there isn’t anything huge of note.
Digitally, you can find new releases at digital storefronts like iTunes, Google Play, Vudu, and more. The Kevin Hart/Bryan Cranston dramedy The Upside drops this week. The movie follows a wealthy handicapped man who needs someone to help him with his daily routine. He hires a parolee who is trying to put his life back together.
Additionally, there is a new Batman movie available. In Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, the dark night teams up with the heroes in the half shell to fight Shredder and Ra’s Al Ghul. This is very much a movie title that explains the entirety of the plot. Other releases of note are Apollo 11, Cold Pursuit, and the A24 horror movie Climax.
On the physical side of things, on DVD and Blu-ray this week is Fighting With My Family. The film is the real-life story of WWE superstar Paige and her family, who are also wrestlers. Paige starts off in the indies and works her way through WWE’s developmental system, NXT. While the movie tends to make choices that may annoy hardcore wrestling fans, Fighting with my Family is a lighthearted and fun flick. The DVD release includes deleted and extended scenes, a gag reel, commentary, and making-of featurettes, including in-ring training for the movie. If I had a pick of the week, this would be it–mainly because I love wrestling.
Below, you’ll find the full list for his week’s releases, both digitally and physically.
Digital:
Physical:
Some links to supporting retailers are automatically made into affiliate links, and GameSpot may receive a small share of those sales.
Last week, Disney revealed the release dates for the three Star Wars movies that will follow Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker this December. It has now been confirmed that Game of Thrones showrunners David Benioff and D.B. Weiss will be making the first of these, which is set to arrive in 2022.
As reported by io9, this news was announced by Disney boss Bob Iger while was speaking at the MoffetNathanson Media & Communications summit in New York. It’s not a big surprise, as it’s been known for some time that Benioff and Weiss have been working on a new series of Star Wars films.
The new Star Wars movies will be released on on December 16, 2022, December 20, 2024, and December 18, 2026. There are two sets of movies in development, one from Benioff and Weiss, and the other from The Last Jedi director Rian Johnson. It had been rumored that work on Benioff and Weiss’s series was further along, and Star Wars Net recently reported that their first movie will begin production this fall. It has also been reported that their films will be set in the days of the Old Republic, hundreds of years before the events of the current movies.
It’s notable that the Star Wars release schedule has slowed down. When the series relaunched in 2015 with The Force Awakens, Disney’s plan was to release a movie each year. However, the commercial failure of 2018’s Solo: A Star Wars Story reportedly led to plans for further spin-offs to be cancelled, with Iger admitting that the movies so far had been released “a little too much, too fast.” The new films will now be released every two years, alternating their December releases with James Cameron’s Avatar sequels.
In related news, the live-action Star Wars show The Mandalorian premieres in the fall, when the streaming platform Disney+ launches. There is also a show focusing on the Rogue One character Cassian Andor in development for the service.
Over the 15 years since the launch of World of Warcraft, Blizzard has slowly sanded off some of Azeroth’s rough edges. The world is still bustling with dangerous dungeons and harrowing raids, but these days it’s a kinder, friendlier world. World of Warcraft Classic aims to fix that, to make Azeroth dangerous again–although it retains a few of the modern niceties.
Blizzard has announced a release date for World of Warcraft Classic, along with a closed beta and a series of stress tests leading up to its August launch. Recent hands-on time with WoW Classic showed a recognizably sparse version of the game, with even basic quest-tracking a little less clearly signposted. This is a WoW meant for fans who have been with the game since the beginning, and who want to recapture that feeling.
Production director Brian Dawnson and WoW Classic lead engineer Brian Birmingham explained the motivations behind this ambitious retrofitting of the popular MMORPG, and what they hope it brings to the fans.
“The community said, we want Classic WoW. And when we looked at it, it looked like a world with crashes, with teleport hacks. It didn’t meet the quality bar that Blizzard has today,” Dawson told GameSpot. “Well, what if we used our modern infrastructure? Can we retrofit that? So we embarked on a few weeks journey to explore what that world was.”
The decision to recreate the classic feeling within the new infrastructure led to some decision points. For some players, the rough edges are part of the original authenticity. Blizzard was left to make determinations on what belonged and what didn’t, and the question came down to tough judgment calls.
“Anything that would affect gameplay we want to make sure that we deliver something that is authentic.” Birmingham said. “Where we feel like quality-of-life improvements are okay are things like, tabbing to complete a name in in-game mail. That’s not a core part of the gameplay experience of leveling, and questing, and trying to explore the world.
“Challenge is part of it,” Birmingham continued. “The world feels dangerous. There are difficult group quests out in the world, elite quests that you can’t do by yourself, or you would have to over-level if you wanted to do them by yourself. Where they really push you to find somebody else to help you out, or out level them and come back later, or you can just leave them and go on. You don’t have to complete every quest in every zone. You can choose your path through the world. So I think that is exactly the classic gameplay that people are looking for.”
A different brand of challenge is presented by the PVP, which has undergone multiple phases and metas throughout the game’s long lifespan. As in any competitive live game, some classes will be a fan favorite criticized as overpowered in one era only to be left behind in the next. The team says this is one of the main reasons it chose this specific iteration of WoW.
“The 1.12 system is what we’re starting with, that’s the one target that we aimed at,” Birmingham said. “We said, ‘1.12 was where the game was the most patched, the most complete, and the most balanced.’ That’s what we wanted to set the systems at for WoW Classic.”
That isn’t to say that the game will be completely static, however. While the plan is to retain the game as it was in the 1.12 update in perpetuity, players will still find some content unlocking over time, recreating the feeling of being an active player as the game was first rolling out with updates.
“People are asking to be able to go back and play WoW Classic as it was,” Birmingham said. “We wanted to create this, almost like a snapshot in time, but we do want have these progressive content unlocks. So things like, Blackwind Lair, and Ahn’Qiraj, and Naxxramas. We want those to unlock over time, as the community is ready for them, as they progress through those various pieces of content. At the same time the systems overall we want to lock in at 1.12, where we feel like they were the most complete and balanced.”
The notion of ongoing updates as they originally appeared, though, raises the question of expansions. Blizzard has released seven expansions in all. And while later ones like Legion or Battle for Azeroth would feel out-of-place within the Classic framework, it stands to reason that some players may want to experience earlier expansions–such as The Burning Crusade or Wrath of the Lich King–in the context of World of Warcraft Classic. Blizzard isn’t committing to this, but also hasn’t ruled it out.
“The community’s demand for WoW Classic is why we did WoW Classic,” said Birmingham. “So we are certainly open to hearing what people think about it. At the same time what we are focused on right now is WoW Classic. That’s what we are committed to delivering. We don’t have any plans to announce anything past that.”
World of Warcraft turns 15 this year, and Blizzard is celebrating in a few different ways. One of those is the launch of World of Warcraft Classic, coming this summer, for those who want to experience WoW in its original flavor. But for fans of the popular MMORPG as a whole, the company is also releasing an anniversary Collector’s Edition filled with goodies.
The CE launches on October 8 for $100, and pre-purchases are now available through the Blizzard store. The bonus items include a pair of special mounts, fine art prints, a mouse pad with a map of Azeroth, and an Onyxia pin. The centerpiece of the collection is a large black-and-gold colored statue of Ragnaros.
Meanwhile, Blizzard also announced that WoW Classic will launch on August 27. You may actually get a chance to try it before then, though, as a closed beta is set to begin on May 15. It will also be running a series of stress tests through July. You can sign up to participate through the official site. If you’re already a WoW subscriber, you’ll get access to Classic as well.
Classic rewinds the clock to World of Warcraft as it existed as of the 1.12 update. It also includes some under-the-hood modern conveniences like Battle.net social features and modern server infrastructure.
Join GameSpot as we celebrate gaming history and give recognition to the most influential games of the 21st century. These aren’t the best games, and they aren’t necessarily games that you need to rush out and play today, but there’s no question that they left an indelible impact on game developers, players, and in some cases, society at large.
From Software’s Dark Souls launched in 2011 and, at the time, seemed destined for obscurity. As the spiritual successor to PS3 curio Demon’s Souls, it initially garnered interest from a small but passionate fanbase, but few would have bet on it to leave a lasting impression. After all, 2011 was a year littered with tentpole releases: Skyrim, The Witcher 2, Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Batman: Arkham City, Uncharted 3, Portal 2, and Modern Warfare 3, to name just a few.
These were new entries in blockbuster franchises that leveraged the cachet of well-known and respected developers–Dark Souls, on the other hand, came from an underappreciated Japanese studio which had cultivated a niche following through the challenging gameplay and obscure design of its previous games. On lists of notable game releases of 2011, Dark Souls still looks like an awkward outsider. And yet, what it achieved resonated with game developers and players in a way that made it one of the century’s defining games.
From Software may have received mainstream recognition with Dark Souls, but what made that game special wasn’t that it came up with completely new ways to play, it was instead the execution of ideas that From Software had been playing with since its very first title, King’s Field. From Software is a studio that iterates more than it innovates, and the building blocks of what made Dark Souls a landmark title were laid out in Demon’s Souls, albeit in a configuration that felt less cohesive than they would be in the follow-up.
Dark Souls is a game in which players are cast as the Chosen Undead, a prophesied figure that would appear at the end of the Age of Fire and journey to Lordran to either sacrifice themselves to the flame and extend the Age of Fire, or snuff it out and usher in the Age of Dark. The Souls series has come to be notorious for its difficulty. Death is inevitable, and often woven in on a thematic level. Enemies, large and small, are ruthless, often punishing missteps and undoing progress in a way that feels particularly ruthless. This trait of Dark Souls is what is most prominently discussed and, at the time, showed that games didn’t have to be power fantasies where the player always has the upper hand. Instead, the grueling struggle of facing insurmountable odds and the satisfaction of overcoming them was a valuable and appreciated design philosophy.
In the wake of Dark Souls, games began to bear their teeth once again, harkening back to classic, punishing experiences of old school platformers and action games. Titles such as Titan Souls, Nioh, Lords of the Fallen, Dead Cells, Hollow Knight, Dragon’s Dogma, and The Surge, among many others, were built around offering the same sense of powerlessness that Dark Souls popularized. They challenged players to work for the satisfaction of victory and earn their progress, instead of handing it to them on a platter. This is perhaps the most immediate ramification of Dark Souls on games as a whole, but the game’s achievements extend so much farther.
Ask a From Software or Souls fanatic what the most impactful part of Dark Souls was, and why they think it has been influential, and they are more likely to cite the game’s delivery of narrative and its world-building. Demon’s and Dark Souls are games that reflect the way their director, Hidetaka Miyazaki, experienced stories as a child. Growing up poor, he became an avid reader, often delving into stories that were still beyond his comprehension. He would reach passages that were difficult for him to understand, and in those moments would craft his own narratives to fill in the blanks.
That kind of co-authorship is at the heart of Dark Souls. The world of Lordran is rich with history, with various gods, disciples, factions, and ideologies laid out to build a compelling world for players to unravel and understand. But all of the necessary details to do so are scattered around the game as small pieces of a larger puzzle. Those interested in seeing the full picture would need to read item descriptions, which contained small nuggets of information, or listen closely to the vague chatter of characters, and then draw their own connections. Like the gameplay, the process of experiencing the story demands patience, a studious nature, and the willingness to read between the lines and draw conclusions that may never be overtly verified. That sense of narrative minimalism also became pervasive in the post-Dark Souls era.
From Software’s depiction of Lordran is one of its crowning achievements, and to this day few games have been able to capture an atmosphere in the way Dark Souls did.
Audiences began placing scrutiny on aspects of games that were previously an afterthought. Things like item descriptions were no longer just treated as simple flavor text, and set dressing didn’t just have to be eye-candy. It became an expectation that even the smallest details should be meaningful to the game in some way. In turn, developers seized the opportunity to explore narratives in more emergent ways. Bungie’s Destiny, for example, is a game that–on the face of it–launched with a barebones story, but obsessives that read the text attached to guns, armor, and other items could find so much more buried beneath the surface. With that in mind, it’s perhaps more appropriate to say that Dark Souls was a game that emphasized lore more than story, and showed that players didn’t need to be held by the hand and dragged through a narrative. They could be teased with it and left to find meaning at their leisure. The delivery of narrative and lore became more sophisticated, and you only have to look at the massive online communities that have developed around dissecting Dark Souls’ story to see just how valuable this has been.
Lordran itself also holds as significant a place in the history of games. On a broader level, its construction stands out as intricate and thoughtful, with disparate areas connecting in a natural way that imprinted a vivid impression of its whole, but it’s the artistic expression that elevates it all. Lordran is a world that feels suspended in time and on the precipice of a great change, waiting for the player to arrive and instigate it. The Age of Fire has not been kind to its people, who have lost their purpose and become husks of themselves because of an endless cycle of death and rebirth. Lordran is oppressively somber, a sad echo of a kingdom that was once prosperous and ruled by a benevolent king. The desperate struggle to hold on to the Age of Light only served to plunge the land into further turmoil, and this is overwhelmingly apparent at every turn. From Software’s depiction of Lordran is one of its crowning achievements, and to this day few games have been able to capture an atmosphere in the way Dark Souls did. From its very outset, the game is melancholic, and as you stand in Firelink Shrine–a hub area that players return to frequently–evocative music makes you mourn for a world you barely even know. There’s a restraint to the way From Software presented Lordran, with many areas left eerily silent, devoid of life, and bearing the marks of cataclysmic events from ages gone.
In Dark Souls, less was very much more. It sought to instill feelings and evoke emotions: isolation, loneliness, fear, or uncertainty, these are what remain most memorable about the game. In GameSpot’s review of Dark Souls, Kevin VanOrd said, “Its terrors emanate from its very core … how amazing that such a terrible place could be so inviting. The game’s world is so memorable, and its action so thrilling, that it might invade your thoughts even when you aren’t playing, silently urging you to escape the real world and return to this far more treacherous one.” This achievement can’t be held up as entirely unique to Dark Souls, as games that came before it, most notably Nintendo’s Metroid series, Thief, Shadow of the Colossus, and more modern titles such as BioShock, managed similar feats. But somewhere along the way, this method of creating a striking sense of place through minimalism fell by the wayside. In the years following Dark Souls, however, they sprung back into the spotlight, obtuse, empty, and often hostile game world became the aesthetic du jour, with games like Hollow Knight, Sunless Sea, and Darkest Dungeon.
Dark Souls’ impact on gaming is undeniable. Such is its influence that the term Souls-like has become a genre in and of itself. But describing a game as “Souls-like” can mean so many things, from challenging gameplay to emergent storytelling, or even a distinct sense of place. The fact that the term can be used in such a diverse way to explain facets of action games, RPGs, puzzle games, or even text adventures is the strongest indication of just how important the game was and is to this day.
World of Warcraft Classic, the retro re-release of WoW in its near-original state, will launch on August 27, 2019. Blizzard announced the release date alongside a nifty collector’s edition, but you may not have to wait until the summer to try out the game. A closed beta is starting this week.
The closed beta will begin on May 15. Participants will be selected from a small pool of existing WoW players. Subsequent stress tests will run regularly from May through July. You can opt in through the official site.
Blizzard also announced a boxed Collector’s Edition for World of Warcraft to ring in the game’s 15th anniversary. It includes a Onyxia pin, map of Azeroth mouse pad, art prints, special anniversary mounts, and a large black-and-gold statue of Ragnaros the Firelord. It will release on October 8 for $100, and you can pre-purchase from the Blizzard store.
World of Warcraft Classic lets you play the game as it existed almost 15 years ago, upon the release of the 1.12 “Drums of War” update. Blizzard says it considers that era to be the correct balance of the game resembling its original launch state while also having ironed out some of the rough spots of launch. This version is also including some updates under the hood, like modern server infrastructure and Battle.net social features.
If you’re already a WoW subscriber, you get access to Classic as well at no extra cost. WoW Classic will also be releasing content in phases, following the original order of content releases.
A new Nintendo Direct presentation is airing this week, the company has announced. The broadcast is scheduled to take place tomorrow, May 15, and will focus entirely on one of this summer’s biggest Nintendo Switch games, Super Mario Maker 2.
According to Nintendo of America’s official Twitter account, tomorrow’s Nintendo Direct will run for approximately 15 minutes and be “packed” with new details about the upcoming Mario level creator. The broadcast is set to begin at 3 PM PT / 6 PM ET / 11 PM BST.
You’ll be able to stream the presentation from the usual venues. Nintendo will broadcast the Direct on its website, Twitch, and YouTube channels. GameSpot will have the stream up as well, so you can tune in right here to watch the Direct. We’ll also have full coverage of all the new details Nintendo will reveal.
Super Mario Maker 2 was first announced during February’s big Nintendo Direct. Much like the original Wii U/3DS game, it allows players to create and share their own custom Super Mario levels using a suite of assets and tools. Nintendo showed off a handful of new customization options in the game’s reveal trailer. Among other things, players can now create slopes for Mario to slide down, adjust the direction autoscrolling levels scroll, and use assets from Super Mario 3D World.
Red Dead Redemption 2‘s multiplayer component, Red Dead Online, has been receiving a steady stream of patches and content since launching in open beta last November, and now the online mode is finally moving out of its beta phase with this week’s update. Rockstar is introducing an assortment of new story missions, Free Roam activities, and more to Red Dead Online, with additional content on the way in the coming weeks.
First, players will be able to take on a variety of new Land of Opportunities missions. There will be different ones depending on which side of the law you fall on. Those following the Gunslinger path will go up against the Del Lobos gang and help Marshall Davies save the town of Valentine, while Outlaws will commit highway robbery and other misdeeds with Samson Finch.
Additionally, Rockstar has added a variety of new Free Roam missions featuring new characters from Red Dead Redemption 2’s main campaign. There are also three new Posse Versus contests–fishing, bird shooting, and herb picking–as well as dynamic events that may occur as you travel the old west. On top of that, Rockstar has added another new Showdown mode, Overrun, as well as a handful of poker tables in certain towns around the map, where you can challenge up to five other players to high stakes games of Hold ‘Em.
Also arriving as part of this week’s update are the previously detailed Offensive and Defensive play styles, which allow you to tailor how you’d prefer to experience Red Dead Online. Offensive is the default play style and gives you the ability to freely attack other players, while Defensive is designed for those who’d prefer to avoid PvP skirmishes and rather explore the world.
Along with the Offensive and Defensive modes, Rockstar has implemented a hostility system to further stem griefing in Red Dead Online. According to the developer, this system “tracks aggressive behavior across both Playing Styles, making hostile players visible to others and helping to balance the needs of players who want to get away from others who habitually attack or kill during unstructured Free Roam gameplay.”
Rounding out this week’s update is an assortment of gameplay improvements. Among other things, Rockstar has added a new control scheme based on player feedback, increased weapon swap speed, added new daily challenges and rewards, and removed auto-aim headshot tracking. You can more details on everything that’s new in this week’s Red Dead Online update on Rockstar’s website.
Rockstar has more content and updates lined up for Red Dead Online. The developer says it will add new Free Roam characters, Showdown modes, and more “in the weeks to come.” Starting this summer, Rockstar will also introduce three new roles that players will be able to choose from, each of which will “come with a range of unique gameplay along with a host of new outfits, weapons and other rewards to earn.”
Ubisoft has announced the first raid for The Division 2, titled Operation Dark Hours, goes live on May 16 at 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 PM ET / 5:00 PM BST. The Division 2 is available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC. Regardless of where you play, you’ll unlock an exclusive reward if your squad completes Operation Dark Hours before anyone else.
“The first team to complete Operation Dark Hours after it goes live will be forever immortalized in-game by having their team photo and names displayed in The Division 2’s White House for all players to see,” a Ubisoft press release reads. “All other players that complete Operation Dark Hours between May 16 and May 23 will receive a commemorative Arm Patch, while players who complete the raid after those dates will be rewarded with a clan banner icon and a trophy in their clan space.”
Tap To Unmute
Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 Video Review
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Operation Dark Hours will be available for players who’ve reached World Tier 5 and defeated Tidal Basin. Taking place in Washington National Airport, the eight-player raid will task you with retaking the location after it falls into the hands of the Black Tusks. You’ll be able to earn exclusive loot for completing the raid, ranging from new gear sets to exotic weapons and unique rewards.
Initially, Title Update 3–which adds Operation Dark Hours to The Division 2–was supposed to raise the Tom Clancy game’s maximum Gear Score to 515. However, community complaints caused Ubisoft to go back on the decision, and keep the maximum Gear Score capped (for now) at 500. “We don’t want to invalidate your progression and we heard that feedback loud and clear from our community,” Ubisoft said.
In our The Division 2 review, Edmond Tran wrote, “[The narrative] letdown is hard to ignore for the game’s initial hours, but the strength of the systems and design that fuel The Division 2 as a game are compelling enough to keep you captivated for dozens more. The range of enemy types continues to keep combat encounters challenging, the equipment I earn and pick up continues to feel different, valuable, and asks me to consider new ways of play. The ravaged environments continue to intrigue, and sometimes they’re so stunning I find myself needing to take screenshots before I move on. It might not have much to say, but The Division 2 is a perpetual cycle of tension, relief, and reward that’s difficult to stay away from.”
