It’s been 28 years since the release of a comic titled “X-Men #1” has been cause for so much excitement. This issue isn’t just the beginning of a new monthly series, it’s the next major step in the grand machine that is writer Jonathan Hickman’s X-Men revamp. House of X and Powers of X defined the scope of the X-Men’s new status quo. Now X-Men and the five other titles that comprise the Dawn of X line will begin the next chapter. Just don’t expect this ongoing story to maintain the brisk pace its maintained up till now.
It’s been five years since Angelina Jolie took on the iconic role of Maleficent, reimagining the stylish but one-note villain from Disney’s classic Sleeping Beauty for a whole new generation. Its sequel, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, is a definite step up from the first movie by expanding the story beyond its fairy tale inspiration and bringing in compelling new characters (and actors to play them), though it is held back by pacing issues.
The first movie expanded on the fairy tale by introducing a backstory that saw the horned fairy betrayed by the ambitious and cruel man that she once loved so he could become king, and eventually having her become surrogate mother to Aurora (Elle Fanning). Though you don’t need to have seen the first film to enjoy Maleficent: Mistress of Evil, this sequel gets the audience up to speed from its opening “Once Upon a Time” intro. It follows on directly from the end of that fairytale with Aurora living as the Queen of the Moors (the fairy folk), but both their lives are upended when Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson) asks Aurora to marry him, setting off a devastating chain of events.
Before I got my hands on the new Need for Speed game, I popped Payback into my PlayStation to remind myself why I bounced off the 2017 release quicker than my best Nürburgring lap. An unmemorable open world, annoying characters, and a weirdly grindy upgrade system were the culprits. Payback had promise, it was meant to let us live our Fast & Furious fantasies, but as Richard Wakeling put in his review, the game had a “general drabness that seeps into every layer of the game.”
Need for Speed: Heat will be the fourth game in the franchise from Swedish developer Ghost Games, but have the team managed to shift the series back into gear? Initial impressions are promising. Gone is the dusty dime-a-dozen desert of Payback’s Fortune Valley, we’re off to Palm City, a neon-lit urban sprawl, with collectible street art, tropical weather, and the colour saturation seemingly turned up as far as it will go. There has clearly been an effort to squeeze all the good bits of the open world a bit closer together, or create a “compact road network”, as producer Jeremy Chubb put it. Miami was a big influence on Heat’s Palm City, as you might guess, but there’s more than meets the eye when you hit the streets at a hundred miles per hour.
Palm City reflects your neon-trimmed car and the flashing sirens of police in pursuit.
One of the first things I noticed when I inevitably spun a supercar into a tree is that I blew right through it, rather than coming to a grinding halt on impact. Objects in the world are much more forgiving when it comes to the laws of physics, which makes navigating the winding roads a whole lot more fun. This, as demonstrated last year in Forza Horizon 4’s crumbling country walls, is a concession that usually has a positive impact on the feel of a racing game, so it’s a welcome change to the world of Need for Speed. Changes like this are what give me hope for this game being great, and thankfully they have been made where it matters most.
For example, the speed cards from Payback have been binned in favour of a much simpler upgrade system. Want to improve your engine? Cool, just earn money and buy the parts. Tuning your ride is not overcomplicated, but there’s enough there to give even the most hardcore of petrolheads a good whiff of gasoline. Cars aren’t divided into classes, nor are you restricted on what you roll up in for a race. It’s just you, a decent selection of cars to choose from, and some shiny extra parts to make you go faster and look good doing it. There’s even a dedicated ‘rev engine’ button in the tuning menu, with an emphasis on getting the tinny timbre of your exhaust to your personal preference of obnoxious harmony.
Press R2 to rev your engine and get the sound just right.
On the road, Heat has some refinements too. The handy live-tuning from Payback makes a welcome return, letting you tweak your car as you drive, and there’s a new focus on both drift and race handling. Depending on how sideways you want to go, you can swap in upgrades that will either make your car glide around the track, or tighten steering for precision handling. Drifting feels easier to pull off by just tapping the gas as you turn, then powering-on to slide around those corners, like an elegant figure skater but with more horsepower.
The biggest change to Heat, and also its biggest selling point, I think, is the contrasting day and night activities. Daytime sees you competing in totally legal races for cash prizes. Cops–yes there are cops!–don’t seem that fussed about you drifting the streets, and will only cause you a minor inconvenience if you do big and obvious crimes right in front of them.
Night is a different story. Switching to night mode makes you feel a bit naughty, like you’re out after bedtime and mum doesn’t know. Night is where you impress the cool kids by taking part in illicit races and earn Reputation, the game’s second currency. Reputation unlocks the opportunity to buy things, like new cars and upgrades, which you then purchase with the cash you’ve earned during the day. But causing mischief at night will have the cops on your bumper quicker than you can say, “Dude, I almost had you,” and they are relentless. As you race through the night your ‘Heat’ level, a multiplier for your reputation points rises, and with it more police attention. This is where the game feels most exciting, with a handful of cops on your tail as you try to reach first place without getting busted. It makes every race feel different, as you may happen to elude the law entirely, or they could be on your tail from the start. You have limited car health at night, and should you get busted or break down before you make it back to a safe house with your winnings, wave goodbye to your reputation. You could even say it’s the Dark Souls of street racing–Prepare to drive.
How to avoid getting busted is up to you; outrun police cars with the raw horsepower under your hood, or nimbly weave through backstreets until you’ve lost them in the urban jungle. NOS is very much your friend when avoiding jail and getting ahead in races, but in Heat you will need to be more tactical with how you use it. Rather than one big bar that you can tap on and off as you please, this time you have single use canisters of Nitrous Oxide, so pick your moments to boost wisely. You can also equip auxiliary items to use when on the run, such as repair kits, nitrous refills, and kill switch jammers. Kill switches being one of the nasty tools the police will deploy to try and stop you, along with road spikes, helicopters, and heavily armoured ‘Rhino’ vehicles.
Limiting NOS by cannisters makes boosting more tactical.
The brief bit of story I got to see wasn’t far from what you’d imagine; a trendy crew of young drivers who want to make a name for themselves, but I didn’t find it cringy or annoying like I have with previous Need for Speed games. I was also introduced to a very corrupt cop, who seems to have a murderous vendetta against street racers in the city. I’m genuinely curious about how his story unfolds–it feels like it isn’t beyond the realms of something you’d see in a Fast & Furious movie. There’s also a virtual crew system–a list of 32 people who you’ll see in the world, stand beside their cars in your garage, and act as a familiar group you can compete with at any time. The game offers plenty of social options, but they don’t get in the way at any point, so if driving solo is your thing you can take to the roads on your own.
I had a blast in the few hours I played of Need for Speed: Heat, and I’m way more enthusiastic about tearing through the streets of Palm City than I was for Payback a couple of years ago. The refined upgrade system, improved handling, and the risk to reward baked into the day-to-night cycle could make for a better, more interesting experience, but I can’t say for sure until I get behind the wheel in the full game.
Stay tuned to GameSpot for more Need for Speed: Heat coverage, and take a look at the video above to see me kitting out my favorite car and taking it for a spin.
Fortnite Chapter 2 has brought along a brand new map, which means a whole new set of map learning to do. That said, you might recognise a few of the places scattered in there, with some returning favourites making it through the game’s black hole.
Here’s every named location on the Fortnite Chapter 2 – Season 1 map, and a little description of what you’ll find there. We’ll start with the returning favourites:
Fortnite Chapter 2 Returning Locations
Retail Row – Now clean of zombies, Retail Row is still a ring of commercial buildings and wide-open spaces, perfect for a snipe-off.
With Disney’s acquisition of Fox, Deadpool becomes a Disney/Marvel character who could theoretically join the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Nothing is decided yet, but now one of the writers of the Deadpool series has commented on the character’s future, while actor Ryan Reynolds has shared a teasing image of himself visiting the Marvel Studios offices.
In a tweet, Reynolds says he visited to Marvel to audition for the role of “Anthony Stark,” but he botched the audition and didn’t land the part.
Auditioned for the role of “Anthony Stark”. Didn’t come even remotely close, but the nice man with the taser escorted me to the ground. pic.twitter.com/1bwFDGdMOj
Reynolds, who is known for his silly social media accounts, did not provide any details on what he was actually doing at Marvel. It might have been to discuss a future project or for a meeting to get an update on Deadpool’s status at Disney now that the company owns Fox. We may never know, but Deadpool writer Paul Wernick shared some details on what’s coming.
“We’re always in touch with Ryan,” Wernick said. “We’ve got several projects with him in addition to the Deadpool universe. I think the party line and truth is we’re all still figuring it out. Marvel has promised to continue to let us play in the R-rated Deadpool universe, and the hope is that they will also let us veer into the MCU a little bit as well and play in that sandbox.”
“Our feeling and Ryan’s feeling is that it’s got to be the right idea, it’s got to be great… I think once we collectively agree what idea that great idea is we’ll be off to the races,” Wernick added. “Ryan’s super-busy, we’ve got a lot of projects lined up, but we wake up thinking about Deadpool, and we go to sleep thinking about Deadpool.”
Wernick and Reese’s latest project is 6 Underground, the Netflix movie they wrote for Michael Bay that stars Reynolds in the lead role. The writers are also behind the Reynolds movie Clue which is based on the iconic board game. Wernick, Reese, and Reynolds are expected to all team up again for a third mainline Deadpool movie at some point as well.
While flagship smartphones just keep getting more and more expensive, here are the best budget smartphones to keep you connected and your wallet happy.
Fortnite’s Chapter 2 patch is now available to download, but the season itself has still yet to begin.
The Chapter 2 patch is available on all platforms – PC, console, and mobile – and it’s a chunky update. The PS4 update files weighs in at just over 9GB, while on PC it’s 16GB. Don’t worry about how long that will take you download if you have a slower connection, though; Chapter 2 isn’t live quite yet.
