Author: Trafficblast

At the end of John Wick 2, with what looked like the entire city of New York about to take up arms against Keanu Reeves’ titular hero, it seemed like the next chapter in the assassin’s saga would have to wrap things up one way or another. We were pretty surprised, then, when John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum concluded not with John’s death or his triumph over the High Table, but basically where it began: with John Wick on the run, out of friends, the whole world against him. But was Winston’s betrayal of John real, or is there more to it than that?

At the end of John Wick 2, Winston (Ian McShane) gave John an hour’s head start. He was still on the assassin’s side, despite the reality of John’s affront against the High Table’s laws when he spilled blood on Continental grounds. By John Wick 3’s conclusion, Winston has fully turned on John, shooting him repeatedly and sending him careening over the edge of the Continental’s roof. But are things really that black and white?

The Continental vs. The High Table

First off, let’s talk about the conflict that served as John Wick 3’s climax: the fight between the Continental (well, really John and Charon (Lance Reddick), since Winston mostly hid in a vault with John’s dog), and the High Table’s elite strike team. The High Table doesn’t take lightly to being defied, and the hour Winston gave John at the end of 2 was enough to get the NY Continental manager in deep trouble with his overlords. They sent the Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) to negotiate Winston’s “retirement,” and the High Table’s Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui) sent John back to New York to kill Winston.

Obviously, the High Table’s plans in this case didn’t work out, largely thanks to the bond that Winston and John share after years of working together. Winston had no interest in stepping down, and John didn’t really want to kill him. John may have gone through with it in order to survive, had Winston not offered him an alternative–teaming up to fight the High Table.

The Continental and John won the initial skirmish, but both sides knew this fight was just the beginning. When they met for a parley, Winston and the Adjudicator agreed to a ceasefire, under the shared revision that Winston had only risen up in the first place in order to prove his strength and devotion to the High Table. It was a simple show of force–at least, according to the version of events Winston and the Adjudicator settled on in the end.

Either way, that left one loose end: John Wick himself. Winston shoots John several times, seemingly taking the assassin by surprise, and John plummets off the Continental’s roof.

If you take this scene at face value, it seems that Winston betrayed John in order to reaffirm his loyalty to the High Table. But that may not necessarily be the case. Throughout these movies, the friendship and trust between John and Winston have seemed genuine. When Winston said he’d rather be killed by a friend, he appeared to mean it.

Another Possibility

In light of that, there’s another possibility: Winston was just doing what he had to in order to make it seem like he’d turned on John, while actually trying his best to ensure John walked away from the situation with his life. Winston shot John in the torso, where he knew John’s magic bulletproof suit would prevent the bullets from killing him, and he may have even known that John would hit some obstacles on his way down, breaking his fall, if he hurtled off the roof in that exact place. Winston never looked over the edge to make sure John was dead, and he didn’t seem too concerned about the fact that the boogeyman-assassin he’d just seemingly betrayed had apparently gotten up and walked away.

At the very end of the movie, Jason Mantzoukas’s character (the Tick Tock Man, who we didn’t get nearly enough of) finds John and takes him to the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne), who apparently lived through his seven slashes. Like John, the Bowery King isn’t looking so hot–but given both characters’ current standing with the High Table, that’s not the only thing the two now have in common.

Is there a real rebellion against the High Table brewing for the inevitable John Wick 4? Will Winston and John reconcile, or was that betrayal the last straw? We’ll have to wait and see, but the foundation is certainly there for a fourth chapter in John Wick’s saga.

Read next: John Wick 3 Is A Symptom Of A Much Larger Problem

A major PC game sale already launched this week in the form of Epic’s Mega Sale, but for those who may prefer to own games on Steam, another major sale just kicked off that you’ll want to keep your eye on. Digital store Green Man Gaming, which sells licensed digital game keys, is celebrating its ninth year in business with a week of flash deals.

A new wave of games will be available every day and stick around for 48 hours, so you’ll want to grab the deals you want quickly. In addition to the discounted games, Green Man Gaming is offering free bonus gifts with certain deals, including DLC and sometimes even a full game or two. All the deals that have been posted so far are for PC and/or Mac, and you’ll have to have a free Steam account to redeem them.

SHOP GREEN MAN GAMING’S BIRTHDAY SALE »

Browse the full offering of deals at Green Man Gaming, and see some of the current deals below! We’ll be updating this story as more deals become available, so stay tuned.

Day 2 deals

(end May 19 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 4 PM BST)

Day 1 deals

(end May 16 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET / 4 PM BST)

Bandai Namco has announced the dates for the upcoming Network Test for Code Vein. As we previously speculated, the test will begin at the end of May and continue into the first days of June.

For the US, Code Vein’s Network Test begins May 30 at 8:00 PM PT / 11:00 PM ET and continues until June 3 at 12:00 AM PT / 3:00 AM ET. In Europe, the test starts May 31 at 4:00 AM BST / 5:00 AM CEST and ends June 3 at 8:00 AM BST / 9:00 AM CEST. Though Code Vein is releasing on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, the Network Test will only be live on consoles. To participate in the Code Vein Network Test, sign-up on Bandai Namco’s website. You’ll receive your Xbox One or PS4 code on May 29, allowing you to preload the demo before the test goes live.

In the Network Test, you’ll be able to play through the opening chapter of Code Vein and try the game’s multiplayer. In Code Vein, you usually travel throughout the world with an NPC companion. If you want, you can also team up with one other human-controlled character for a three-person party. Though Code Vein takes inspiration from Dark Souls—both thematically and mechanically–Bandai Namco’s game does not feature invasions. Multiplayer in Code Vein is entirely supportive.

We played through Code Vein’s opening chapter during a preview event and had the chance to try the game’s revamped Blood Code system. After delaying the game in July 2018, Bandai Namco changed how Code Vein’s build system works. Now, thanks to Code Vein’s eight unique Blood Codes, you can quickly respec your vampiric character with new stats and abilities in seconds whenever you want. Most of the eight Blood Codes are too melee-focused, but a few do provide interesting abilities, such as a teleporting backstab called Phantom Assault.

Code Vein is a perfect example of how Dark Souls has had a lasting impact on the gaming industry. In our The Most Influential Games Of The 21st Century series, Tamoor Hussain wrote, “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.”

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!

As ever, Bungie is continuing to tweak Destiny 2 with balancing changes through live updates, but the next one hasn’t garnered much excitement from fans. With the Season of the Drifter coming to a close at the end of the month, Bungie used a blog post to detail its next slate of changes to the game, and they’re all of the “nerf” variety–weakening some of the game’s most-used, best-loved equipment.

On its blog, Bungie detailed some of the upcoming changes coming with its next content season, the Season of Opulence, which starts on June 4. The new tweaks focus on ratcheting down the power of several Exotic weapons and pieces of armor. According to the post, through the Season of the Drifter, Bungie saw a lot of Exotics becoming “must-pick” items for various loadouts, and the changes are meant to get other items back into the rotation a bit more. Most of the changes focus on players’ Super abilities, which charge up over time but which can be fast-tracked with certain pieces of armor and “Orbs of Light” created by other players.

“Primarily, we’re paying attention to pieces of Exotic armor that grant back Super energy,” the post reads. “We felt they are increasingly becoming ‘must-pick gear choices. Orb generation from teammates is meant to be the best way to accelerate your Super generation. These Exotics are allowing players to bypass this teamwork mechanic by generating a large amount of Super energy without relying on other players’ orbs.”

Exotics like the Skull of Dire Ahamkara helmet for Warlocks and the Ursa Furiosa gauntlets for Titans give Super energy back to players when they use their Super abilities, and under the right circumstances, can almost fully fill up a player’s energy bar–which means they can launch several Supers in succession. That’s great if you’re enjoying wrecking a lot of enemies all at once, but apparently, it’s not really what Bungie is going for.

Several weapons are also receiving nerfs in the update, most notably the Whisper of the Worm. The Exotic sniper rifle currently sports infinite ammo if you can manage to land only critical hits with it on enemies. The change will remove the infinite ammo perk; Bungie says it’s hoping to make other sniper rifles more viable with the change, instead of Whisper being the de facto choice in all circumstances. It’s worth noting that Bungie made this same change in Destiny 1 to Black Spindle, an Exotic sniper rifle that’s very similar to Whisper.

Players haven’t responded too well to the upcoming slate of changes, even though they’re not actually in the game yet. Bungie’s Twitter post pointing to its blog was awash in memes mocking the changes as fans protested the weakening of armor and weapons that have become staples in the game.

It’s worth noting that Bungie hasn’t released the full patch notes for the Season of Opulence update, so there will probably be others to go with these changes that might change how players feel about them. And Bungie is constantly making adjustments to Destiny 2 in order to make weapons, armor, Supers, and abilities more or less viable. It’s very likely we’ll see further adjustments to a lot of these things as the game continues to evolve.

But it’s undeniable that much of the Destiny community is pretty upset with Bungie’s upcoming changes, with some even threatening to defect before the next content drop. That seems like a major overreaction, but Destiny has a pretty vocal community, and Bungie often talks about how much it’s paying attention to what players want. The question now is whether the developer responds to those complaints, and how it might do so.