Author: Trafficblast

The upcoming Joker movie starring Joaquin Phoenix carries an R rating, and director Todd Phillips apparently had to work hard to convince Warner Bros. to allow him to make his more mature vision. He told The Los Angeles Times that it was a lengthy process to get the R rating for Joker. Some people within Warner Bros. were apparently concerned about merchandising, among other things related to the content.

“There were emails about: ‘You realize we sell Joker pajamas at Target.’ There were a zillion hurdles, and you just sort of had to navigate those one at a time,” Phillips said. “At the time I would curse them in my head every day. But then I have to put it in perspective and go, ‘They’re pretty bold that they did this.'”

Producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff said in the interview that it was difficult to get the green light for Phillips’ version of Joker, due in part to “concerns about some of the content.” However, after Warner Bros. agreed to a budget, which was reportedly much lower than typical superhero movies at a reported $55 million, everything got underway more smoothly.

“Once we locked and loaded our budget, they really gave us a tremendous amount of space to do what we needed to do,” Koskoff said. “The passion Todd has for this movie is palpable, and when he starts talking about it, he’s hard to say no to. At the end of the day, he got to make the movie he wanted to make.”

This sounds like a similar situation to the Wolverine movie Logan. Star Hugh Jackman reportedly took a big paycut so as to minimize the financial risk to the studio.

Also in the interview, Phillips spoke about his reluctance to make a comic book movie of his own. He said he’s been offered them in the past, but he always said no. “I don’t watch those movies,” he said. “It’s not because I don’t think it’s cool. It’s just like, quite frankly, they’re always so loud. It was just never something I imagined doing.”

It’s not exactly clear what convinced Phillips to sign on for Joker, but for what it’s worth, the film may not be a traditional comic book movie. He explained previously that his movie doesn’t borrow much at all from the source material.

“We didn’t follow anything from the comic books, which people are gonna be mad about,” Phillips, who also wrote the script, said in a July interview. “We just wrote our own version of where a guy like Joker might come from. That’s what was interesting to me. We’re not even doing Joker, but the story of becoming Joker. It’s about this man.”

Joker premieres at the Venice Film Festival this weekend before its wide opening in theatres on October 4. In addition to Phoenix in the title role, the movie stars Robert de Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Frances Conroy.

Joker is something of a change for Phillips, who previously made the Hangover and Old School comedies. He also wrote for Borat, which earned him his Oscar nomination.

In 1991, Terminator 2: Judgment Day told us when the world would end. August 29, 1997 was designated as Judgment Day, when the machines would rise up against the humans. Clearly, that didn’t happen, thanks to any number of movie sequels and timeline changes. However, the day still holds significance for Terminator fans, and Paramount Studios has chosen to celebrate it with a new trailer for Terminator: Dark Fate, the next film in the series.

The trailer explains what’s going on in this latest sequel. Although Sarah Connor successfully helped change the future in T2 back in 1991, she didn’t change humanity’s fate–which, based on the movie’s name, we’re guessing is pretty dark. There’s also an iconic Terminator line at the trailer’s end, so it’s worth watching all the way through.

While Arnold Schwarzenegger’s return for this movie shouldn’t come as much of a surprise–he’s yet to miss an installment–Dark Fate does see the return of two vital people. James Cameron is back producing the film, his first time being hands-on with the franchise since 1991’s Judgment Day. Also returning for the first time since T2 is Linda Hamilton, reprising her role as Sarah Connor.

The new film, from director Tim Miller (Deadpool), picks up 27 years after the events of Terminator 2, as Sarah and the original T-800 cyborg Schwarzenegger played in the first film come to the aid of a cyborg-human hybrid (Mackenzie Davis), who is trying to save a woman (Natalia Reyes) from being killed by a liquid metal Terminator (Gabriel Luna), sent from the future by Skynet. It should also be noted that Dark Fate is a direct sequel to T2 and is not connected to the franchise’s other installments–so don’t worry if you happened to miss 2009’s Terminator Salvation or 2015’s Terminator Genisys.

The movie will also reportedly flash back to the 1990s, with body doubles stepping in for younger versions of Schwarzenegger and Edward Furlong (John Connor). The doubles will likely have their faces digitally replaced by CGI versions of both actors, as Bloody Disgusting points out.

Terminator: Dark Fate arrived in theaters on November 1.

One of the common features across stylish-action games such as Bayonetta or Devil May Cry is a system that grades your performance in combat. It’s motivation for playing better and using your suite of abilities to its full potential, which often leads to better rewards. Nintendo Switch exclusive Astral Chain does the same if you play on either Platinum Standard or Platinum Ultimate difficulty, but it works a bit differently this time around.

Astral Chain’s combat scenarios conclude by giving you a letter grade from D (lowest) to S+ (highest), and there are several factors that go into the grade you get. The number one thing to keep in mind is to use your variety of Legions and different skills as much as you can. Another important tip is to always hit your sync attacks and sync finishers; these account for a good chunk of points at the end of combat. Getting multiple chain binds and consecutive critical backstab hits also heavily factor into point totals.

Essentially any sweet move you can do in Astral Chain contributes to the overall score you get (10,000+ being the requirement for S+ rank). Time to complete the combat scenario is also part of your score calculation so its best to be efficient, too. There is nothing that will explicitly take points away from you since there are no negatives in the calculation, just points you leave on the table.

However, Astral Chain differs from its contemporaries in a big way; its scoring system does not account for damage taken. That’s right, you can take as much damage as you want (though you don’t really want that) and still get the coveted S+ ranking–even using up your AED revives won’t prevent a top tank. The way damage can hinder your score is if your combos or abilities constantly get broken up, preventing you from pulling off the moves that add points to your overall score.

Though the game doesn’t make it explicitly clear what the conditions for achieving certain awards are, you can get a general idea of what they require based on their names. The following is a long list of the awards I’ve commonly earned in combat:

• Legion Skill
• Legion Skill Master
• Chain Bind
• Multi Chain Bind
• Backstab
• Perfect Call
• Finishing Touch
• Legion of Legions
• Long Range Only
• Running On Empty
• Accident-Prone
• Medicine Master
• Dodge and Sync
• Sync Attacker
• Drop and Sync
• Sync Attack Master
• Naked Eye
• Stunning
• Full Arsenal
• Multiple Legions
• Item Hoarder
• Chain of Command

At the end of the day, there are many ways to achieve S+ ranks in Astral Chain. It’s not exact science but in my experience, hitting multiple sync attacks, juggling between at least three different Legion, and using cool down attacks have been enough to earn consistent S+ grades. There comes a point in the game (especially in the endgame combat missions) where success is only really possible by playing in this manner; you’ll inherently earn top rank most times.

For more on Astral Chain, be sure to check out all our coverage and content:

Tips to Help You Master Astral Chain’s Combat

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Gears 5 brings back the series’ popular Horde mode but shakes things up with what developer The Coalition calls “Hero characters.” Gears of War 4 had character classes in its Horde mode, but they didn’t feel distinct from one another. This time, however, The Coalition has given characters their own unique ability cards and Ultimate to make them stand apart from each other. Some of these simply act as a great way to deal a bunch of damage, while others work in conjunction with each other to each become more effective–like Marcus’s instant headshots (and AOE buff that spreads to nearby allies) paired with Fahz’s ability to see and shoot through walls.

Despite these distinguishing traits, the vast majority of characters are still going to play like a Gears of War character. This isn’t a bad thing because playing Horde mode as Marcus Fenix, The Terminator’s Sarah Connor, or any other gun-toting character, is a ton of fun in Gears 5. And with the new adjustable difficulty, which increases your rewards for every modifier you flip on, there’s plenty to challenge yourself with. That said, The Coalition created a brand new type of character for Gears 5, repurposing the campaign’s drone assistant Jack as a support character in the same vein as Mercy from Overwatch.

I recently played as Jack for nearly 30 rounds of Horde mode, and in that time I got the hang of what a good Jack player is responsible for and should focus on. Healing your teammates and making sure they’re safe is the obvious priority, and with the various turrets, decoys, and traps that players can construct, keeping these contraptions repaired and full of ammo is also paramount to success. However, I wasn’t just babysitting my team the entire time. Jack can be impactful individually and is often the most important character on the battlefield, able to turn the tides of defeat and get his team back in the fight.

A great example of Jack’s importance came up when I spoke to lead multiplayer producer Otto Ottosson. We spoke about Jack and his different utilities in Horde mode, when Ottosson, who told me he’ll take any chance to play a good support class, mentioned that he mains Jack.

“I’ve had moments where the team is all down, and they’ve even been killed,” Ottosson recalled. “Jack has this cloak ability … but if he gets too close to the enemy he de-cloaks. They become aware of him. So I was going around, picking up their COG tags, and trying to find my way around as the enemy can’t see me to get to the fabricator and spawn them back in. It’s very different from any other character you play in Gears.”

And it’s true. Playing Jack in Horde mode almost turns it into a stealth game. Whenever you’re not performing an action or speedboosting, you’re cloaked. This lets you do things like sneak up on a particularly bothersome baddie and shock them with your zapper, freezing them in place and dealing a small amount of damage. You’re not going to take on an entire army by yourself, but utilizing Jack’s zapper and communicating with your team can mean the difference between success and defeat. Shocking an enemy to prevent them from destroying your team’s meticulously placed turrets and then calling over a teammate to help you defeat them is one facet of Jack that makes for a satisfying new way to experience Horde mode.

Jack’s innate stealth abilities also help in support situations. At one point in our match, one of our teammates was grabbed by a Snatcher and pulled away from us. A group of Swarm soldiers stood between us and the Snatcher, but as Jack, I was able to sneak my way up to the Snatcher and shock him until he let go of our teammate. It’s moments like this that made me feel like the MVP of our match, and I never fired a gun… at least, not as Jack himself.

Jack’s Ultimate is carried over from one of his abilities in the campaign. In Gears 5’s story, you can send Jack to use Highjack on an enemy, which turns them against their Spawn brethren to help you for a short period of time. This works similarly in Horde mode, except when you actually trigger the ability on a specific monster, you take control of them yourself. The enemies aren’t particularly interesting to control, as they’re mostly all just big, lumbering creatures, but if you hijack the right one at the right time, you can devastate the current enemy wave. I was able to hijack a rocket salvo-carrying DeeBee and completely obliterate the Swarm soldiers running ahead of me. It was extremely satisfying. You aren’t able to pull this off every wave, but when you can, it’s an incredible change of pace.

The focus on Hero characters with unique abilities and Ultimates is an interesting direction to take Gears’ Horde mode. The abilities and Ultimates seem to deliver another layer of teamwork that incentivizes working together and coordinating your attack. Jack is the cherry on top, serving as Gears’ first true support character, a stark contrast to the guns-blazing action that the series is so well known for. I think Jack could be a great way to bring new types of players into Horde mode. It’ll be interesting to see how players take to him and how he evolves as you level up and get new ability cards.

Thankfully, Gears 5 is expected to receive quite a bit of support for its multiplayer modes, Horde included. Multiplayer design director Ryan Cleven told me that Gears’ map builder is coming to Horde, in addition to new characters. There are also plans for big multiplayer expansions every three months, including a completely free progression system called Tour of Duty, which works similarly to a battle pass.

To learn more about Gears 5, how it handles microtransactions, and more, check out our articles below: