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Detective Pikachu Has Strong Thursday Night US Box Office Opening

Interest seems high in Ash Ketchum’s yellow-fur companion, as the Pokemon movie Detective Pikachu has opened at the box office with an impressive $5.7 million on Thursday night in the US.

According to Variety, Detective Pikachu–directed by Rob Letterman (Goosebumps, Shark Tale)–came in not far behind Shazam’s $5.9 million Thursday opening last month. With the movie expanding to 4,202 theatres Friday, the Warner Bros. Pictures/Legendary Pictures collaboration has positioned itself to take on the second biggest movie of all time, Avengers: Endgame, which is currently sitting comfy at $2.321 billion worldwide since its April 26 debut.

Variety suggests forecasts for Detective Pikachu shoot “as high as $80 million,” but Warner Bros. estimate it’ll fall closer to $50 million. We’ll know for sure in a few days.

Detective Pikachu, based on the 2018 3DS game of the same name, sees Ryan Reynolds (Deadpool 2, The Hitman’s Bodyguard) and Justice Smith (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, Paper Towns) team up to search for Smith’s character’s missing father.

Detective Pikachu also stars Kathryn Newton (Blockers, Lady Bird), Karan Soni (Deadpool 2, Ghostbusters), Ken Watanabe (Isle of Dogs, Transformers: The Last Knight), Rita Ora (Fifty Shades Freed, Southpaw), and Suki Waterhouse (Billionaire Boys Club, Divergent: Insurgent).

In our Detective Pikachu review, we said the movie “should prove enjoyable for any and all Pokémon fans, young or old.” If you’ve seen the movie, be sure to check out our look at all the Detective Pikachu Easter eggs and references.

Netflix’s Lucifer Season 4 Review

This is a (mostly) spoiler-free review of Netflix’s Lucifer Season 4. All 10 episodes are currently available to stream globally on Netflix. Check what else is new to Netflix in May, including teen sci-fi series The Society.

The titular crime-solving devil is back for season 4 of Lucifer, cast out of TV heaven by Fox and resurrected by Netflix thanks to the social media prayers of “Lucifans.”

If you’re wondering how much the show itself has changed with the switch to Netflix, the answer is… not much at all. Though it’s only 10 episodes as opposed to 22, the fourth season looks, sounds, and acts very much like the previous three. It’s still, at its core, a supernatural-police procedural with a campy, pun and double entendre-filled sense of humor. Though Netflix could have thrown it in, there’s not a lot of additional profanity, violence, or sex, though Tom Ellis’ bare butt makes its first appearance less than six minutes into episode 1, “Everything’s Okay.”

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Is Still Releasing In Multiple Parts

Square Enix finally released a new Final Fantasy VII remake trailer during Sony’s State of Play presentation on Thursday. While light on new details, the video did give us another look at how the highly anticipated PS4 remake is shaping up, and now the publisher has shared a few more tidbits about the game.

Following the State of Play broadcast, Square Enix sent out a Japanese press release about the new Final Fantasy VII remake trailer. According to Siliconera, the press release reaffirms that the remake will be a “multi-part production,” and that more information about the game will be revealed in June, presumably during Square Enix’s E3 press conference.

The Final Fantasy VII remake was first announced during Sony’s E3 2015 press conference, but since then, details about the game have been scarce. One aspect that Square Enix did confirm soon after the game’s reveal, however, was that it would be released in installments. The company further elaborated on this remark, clarifying the remake would be made up of multiple, full-sized games instead of a series of smaller episodes.

“It will essentially be a full scale game for each part of the multi-part series,” producer Yoshinori Kitase told Game Informer in 2016, likening the production to Final Fantasy XIII. “In XIII, each installment told the story from a different angle. It was kind of like approaching an unknown territory in a sense.

“Whereas with Final Fantasy VII Remake, we already have a preexisting story, so it wouldn’t really make sense if that isn’t encompassed in a multi-part series… So if we’re just looking at each of these parts, one part should be on par with the scale of one Final Fantasy XIII game.”

Following Thursday’s presentation, the official Final Fantasy Twitter account shared a message from Final Fantasy VII remake director Tetsuya Nomura, reiterating that more details about the game are on the way soon. “Most of the plans are already in place in the run up to launch, so please bear with us a little longer until we can release more information next month,” the message read.

The Final Fantasy VII remake is still without a release date, but it looks like the publisher is gearing up to finally pull back the curtain on the game. Square Enix’s E3 press conference takes place on Monday, June 10, at 6 PM PT / 9 PM ET–the time slot Sony’s E3 briefing traditionally occupies. Of course, the company isn’t using that slot this year, as it announced back in November that it is skipping E3 2019.

A Flash Sale On PS4 Games Just Launched In The PlayStation Store

The weekend is shaping up to be a good one for gamers. In addition to Steam’s free PC game offerings, you can also save money on dozens of PS4 games in the PlayStation Store this weekend. The flash sale just went live, so you can go take a look at all the deals available.

Some of the best offerings include Devil May Cry 5, which released two months ago and is now on sale for just under $40. You’ve also got Battlefield V, which is (once again) marked down to $30, and acclaimed RPG Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition, which is discounted to $39.

Several EA sports titles are considerably cheaper, such as Madden NFL 19 for $15, and FIFA 19 and NHL 19 for $18 each. Guacamelee 2‘s Complete edition is notably on sale for $13.79, and fans of Quantic Dream games may want to snag the Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls bundle selling for $20.

As “flash sale” implies, these deals won’t stick around long–they’ll be available now through Monday, May 13, at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. So grab the games you want–and while you’re at it, check out the rest of this week’s best PS4 deals.

SHOP PSN’S FLASH SALE ON PS4 GAMES »

See more of the available deals below!

Ghost Recon Breakpoint Skipping Steam For Epic Store

Ghost Recon Breakpoint is to skip Steam in favor of an Epic Games Store-exclusive release, publisher Ubisoft says. The game will also come to Ubisoft’s proprietary Uplay store, but will otherwise not be available digitally from alternative sources on PC.

The company confirmed the news to PCGamesN, but did not give a reason why it had decided to withhold Breakpoint from a Steam launch. Ubisoft’s two most recent games, Anno 1800 and The Division 2, have also skipped Steam in favor of the Epic Store. GameSpot has contacted Ubisoft to ask why the company has made this decision.

A possible explanation is that Epic takes a much smaller share of revenue than Valve does on Steam, making the former an attractive proposition for developers and publishers. On the other hand, Steam has a significant install base and has been around for much longer, meaning it possesses features the Epic Store does not, including cloud saves, achievements, and more.

Other big games, such as Metro: Exodus and Detroit: Become Human, have also skipped Steam, as Epic continues its drive to secure exclusives. Epic has stated it will change its policy of chasing exclusives if Valve reduces the cut it takes from game sales on Steam

Ghost Recon Breakpoint was revealed just recently and will launch on October 4 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For more, check out our hands-on impressions and thoughts on why Ghost Recon Breakpoint is both promising and concerning.

Lobo Trailer for Krypton Season 2 Revealed

Back in October of 2018, we learned that Guardians of the Galaxy alum Emmett J. Scanlan would bring the interstellar mercenary to life in Season 2 of Krypton. Per Syfy, Lobo is “a ruthless bounty hunter, who murdered his entire species, and possesses a genius level intellect when it comes to matters of warfare, making him a deadly adversary.”

For a closer look at the alien in action, check out the new trailer below:

IGN asked Scanlan if he drew inspiration from any of the previous Lobo interactions – comic books, DC animated series, etc. “Comic books, yes for sure,” Scanlan explained. “Plus I was surrounded by a team of Lobo fanatics. Cam Welsh (showrunner) and Cam Cuffe (Seg-El) know their Lobo inside out. My barometer was ‘Are they happy?’ My job was to inject life into this beast, and with the boys, the comics, the scripts, and the world already built, I had a plethora of stuff to pick from… Once I found the characters inner music, his heartbeat, I just danced.”

Denis Dyack Learned Nothing Is Impossible From Hideo Kojima

Denis Dyack has made his fair share of interesting, groundbreaking games, but even he never saw the chance to make a Metal Gear game coming. That’s just what happened when the late Nintendo president Satoru Iwata and Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto sat down and informed Dyack, then the president of Silicon Knights, he’d be working with Hideo Kojima himself.

For Dyack, the biggest takeaway from working on what would become Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes was that nothing is impossible in game development. He took the chance elaborate during this month’s episode of IGN Unfiltered with Ryan McCaffrey (see the full episode below).

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum Review

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum brings the title character back to his roots while also offering new twists to where things could go from here, all with the over-the-top, brutally executed action set-pieces fans have come to expect from the franchise. They will not leave disappointed.

Picking up moments after the end of John Wick: Chapter 2, Parabellum takes place over the course of a few very bloody, desperate days as John faces the proverbial music for breaking the rules of the High Table in the preceding film. His breathless journey to stay alive — and hopefully find a way to set things right with the High Table — will take him through dingy back alleys, arcane buildings, exotic overseas interludes, and finally back to … well, you’ll see.

Michael Rooker in Talks to Play King Shark in The Suicide Squad

Michael Rooker, who has worked with James Gunn previously on both Guardians of the Galaxy films as Yondu Udonta, is in talks to join Gunn’s The Suicide Squad as King Shark.

As reported by TheWrap, Rooker would portray the supervillian who was created by Karl Kesel in 1994 and is the son of Chondrakha, the God of all Sharks. He was originally introduced as a Superboy villain and “has been a member of the Secret Six, the Secret Society of Super-Villains and the Suicide Squad.”

Rooker has also worked with Gunn on The Belko Experiment and the upcoming Brightburn, which asks “what if a child from another world crash-landed on Earth, but instead of becoming a hero to mankind, he proved to be something far more sinister?”

Reminder: You Should Order Flowers for Mother’s Day Right Now

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Mother’s Day is heading our way faster than a bullet train, and there’s nothing you can do to stop it. This year, Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 12, so you’re running out of time to buy a gift if you’re like me and you’ve been putting it off. We’ve reached the point where you basically need to stop what you’re doing right now and get a gift.

Flowers are always a good option, and the best part about them is you can order a beautiful bouquet right now using the device you’re reading this on. What could possibly be more convenient? (Nothing. The answer is nothing.) Here are some excellent flower delivery options.