Author: Trafficblast

One of the most buzzed-about topics in games in recent years has been and continues to be cross-play. Now, one prominent developer has spoken up to talk about the benefits of allowing players on competing systems to play together. Stew Chisam, the CEO of Smite and Paladins developer Hi-Rez, outlined some of the benefits of cross-play in a post on Twitter.

For Paladins, which supports cross-play between Xbox One and Nintendo Switch, Chisam said overall match quality is improved thanks to cross-play. Wait-times for matches is down 30 percent, while the quality of matches is better because the level spread is down 40 percent. In all, Hi-Rez is reportedly seeing an 80 percent reduction in what it calls “bad” matches.

Anyone who has played a ranked multiplayer game knows how frustrating it can be when you’re matched with players who have a much higher skill level, so it’s good to see the statistics seemingly indicate that cross-play helps improve things. Whether or not other games see these results remains to be seen.

Chisam is an outspoken proponent for tearing down the walls between consoles to allow for wider adoption of cross-play. Just recently, Chisam said on Twitter that he wants PlayStation to “stop playing favorites,” and allow cross-play/cross-progression “for everyone.” He added that Smite, Paladins, and the battle royale game Realm Royale, are “ready to go” for cross-play on PS4, so the developer is just waiting for Sony to give the go-ahead.

Microsoft has supported cross-play for a while already between select games, such as Paladins, Rocket League, and Fortnite. But it took Sony a while longer to allow cross-play with PS4, only just recently allowing it for Fortnite and later Rocket League.

Would you like to see more adoption of cross-play in the future? Let us know in the comments below!

Game of Thrones is one of the most popular shows on the planet, so you might be wondering why HBO is deciding to end the show after eight seasons. Actor Liam Cunningham, who plays Davos Seaworth, says in a new interview that it’s good, actually, that the show is ending. Why? Because going on any longer might create the feeling that the show is overstaying its welcome, he said.

“I get asked all the time, ‘What the hell are you guys thinking? You could run Game of Thrones forever.’ If you want to stay cool, and the show is cool, the best way to stay cool is to not overstay your welcome,” Cunningham told IGN.

In fact, Cunningham said it “would be dishonorable to stay on longer than we should.”

He admitted that he will personally “dearly” miss Game of Thrones, adding that he expects to be referred to as “Game of Thrones’ Liam Cunningham” even on his tombstone.

“But it was time to get out and wrap up that story… People deserve the end of that story and to not drag it out just because there’s a book to be made. I think it’s very honorable what they’re doing,” he said.

Author George R.R. Martin said his novels are deep and rich enough to support as many as 13 seasons’ worth of shows. Martin said Game of Thrones showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff originally had only seven seasons planned, so Martin and HBO were successful in convincing them to do one more, at least.

Game of Thrones Season 8 premieres in April–you can see new photos here. While the mainline show is ending, a prequel TV series may be on the way, while Martin continues to write the novel series.

Disney has been on a trailer spree today. In addition to the new Aladdin trailer that revealed an unsettling look at Will Smith as the Genie, Disney and its subsidiary Marvel released new spots for Captain Marvel and Dumbo today.

The Captain Marvel TV spot, titled “Ready,” shows more of Brie Larson as Carol Danvers and some of the struggles she faces before becoming Captain Marvel. It looks like viewers are in for quite a journey with Captain Marvel. Check out the spot in the video embed above.

The new Dumbo spot is longer, coming in at around 60 seconds. It provides even more close-ups of the impossibly cute, big-eared Dumbo, as well as the best look so far we’ve gotten of Michael Keaton’s villainous character, who recruits Dumbo for one of his new attractions. Dumbo is directed by Tim Burton, who directed Keaton in Beetlejuice back in 1988.

Captain Marvel hits theatres on March 8, with Dumbo following on March 29. It’s a very busy start to the year for Disney, as Avengers: Endgame from Marvel arrives in April, with the new Aladdin coming in May. Star Wars: Episode IX comes out in December, so Disney is poised for another huge year.

Disney has released a new trailer for its upcoming live-action Aladdin. It’s a fine trailer, complete with colourful city shots and dark, ominous tones, but the real meat of the matter is at the end.

Will Smith’s CG version of the Genie is revealed, and, well, have a look for yourself in the video embed above.

I have questions. Why does Will Smith’s Genie look like a blue Shrek? Also why has the Genie been hitting the gym? Will Smith also plays a live-action version of the Genie, and you can see an image of him here.

Smith previously spoke to EW about the “terrifying” job of playing the Genie. As you may remember, the late Robin Williams portrayed the Genie in the animated classic, and he leaves very big shoes to fill.

“Robin didn’t leave a lot of meat on the bone with the character,” Smith said. “[But] I started to feel confident that I could deliver something that was an homage to Robin Williams but was musically different. Just the flavor of the character would be different enough and unique enough that it would be in a different lane, versus trying to compete.”

Disney describes the movie as a “thrilling and vibrant” take on Disney’s classic animated film. It’s directed by Guy Ritchie, and the Sherlock Holmes director’s trademark “fast-paced, visceral action” is said to infuse his take on Aladdin.

Mena Massoud plays Aladdin, while Naomi Scott portrays Jasmine. Marwan Kenzari plays Jafar and Navid Negahban plays the Sultan. Alan Menken, who worked on the music for the original Aladdin, is back again and contributing “recordings of the original songs” from the first film. In addition to new versions of the classics, Menken and award-winning songwriters Benj Pasek and Justin Paul wrote two new tunes for the film.

The new Aladdin hits theatres this May. The studio that made Sharknado, Transmorphers, and Abraham Lincoln Vs. Zombies is making its own Aladdin.

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While no official title for the new Terminator movie directed by Deadpool’s Tim Miller has been announced, producer James Cameron has now revealed the working title for it. It’s being made with the tentative title “Terminator: Dark Fate,” Cameron told Yahoo!

“That’s our working title right now,” he explained.

Cameron is an executive producer on Dark Fate, or whatever it ends up being called. The movie reportedly scrubs sequels Rise of the Machines, Salvation, and Genisys from the timeline, in essence resetting the story to 1991’s Judgment Day. Linda Hamilton returns to play a new version of Sarah Connor in the new film, though specifics about the story are under wraps for now.

Cameron said on Jimmy Fallon’s late night TV show that Connor will “kick some serious ass” in the film. Dark Fate, or whatever it ends up being called, comes to theatres November 2019.

Cameron’s latest movie, Alita: Battle Angel, which he produced, hits theatres on February 14. He’s also working on all of the Avatar sequels, the first of which arrives in 2020.

After years of development and multiple delays, Microsoft’s next big exclusive, Crackdown 3, launches this week–and you can play it for only $1 if you meet a few requirements.

As a first-party game, Crackdown 3 is free for Xbox Game Pass subscribers. And right now, Microsoft is offering a one-month Xbox Game Pass trial for only $1. The catch is that you need to be a new subscriber to enjoy the savings.

Xbox Game Pass already has “millions” of subscribers, but if you’re not among them, right now seems to be a good time to jump in. You can sign up for Xbox Game Pass on the Xbox website or through your console.

Crackdown 3 is coming to Xbox One and PC, but Xbox Game Pass is only on Xbox One right now. It could come to PC and other platforms down the road, but no announcements have been made as of it. Crackdown 3 launches on February 15.

Crackdown 3 is not the only game coming to Xbox Game Pass in February; you can see a full rundown of February’s additions below.

For $10/month, Xbox Game Pass subscribers get access to a growing library of free games to download and play for as long as their membership stays active. There are more than 100 Xbox One and backwards-compatible Xbox 360 titles in the catalog, including Halo 5, Halo: The Master Chief Collection, Sea of Thieves, PUBG, Mortal Kombat X, and many more.

February Game Pass Games

• Shadow of the Tomb Raider – February 7
• The Walking Dead: The Complete First Season – February 7
• Pumped BMX Pro – February 7
• De Blob – February 14
• Crackdown 3 – February 15
• Batman: Return to Arkham – February 21

Throughout its nine seasons, The Walking Dead has been known just as much for its charismatic and over-the-top villains as it has for the zombie apocalypse it’s set in. With the newest big bad, though, those two things are blended together to create something pretty terrifying.

The Whisperers is a group within The Walking Dead that survives by wearing skin suits made from walkers and blending in with the undead as they roam what’s left of the country. It’s a storyline and group of characters pulled right from the pages of the Walking Dead comics and, as GameSpot learned during a visit to the AMC show’s set, adapting it for TV was no easy task.

It was a hot day in September when I headed outside of Atlanta, where the series films, to get my first look at the Whisperers. Along with other members of the press, we wandered through a big open field in the sweltering heat, walking by groups of extras and actors wearing zombie masks, rather than the typical makeup and prosthetics you see on the series.

As executive producer and visual effects Greg Nicotero explained to the press, though, these new masks are, in some ways, even more detailed than the makeup because the way the Whisperers are presented in the comics simply wouldn’t work on TV. “It’s tricky because the way they were drawn in the comic books, they were trying to emulate that sort of sagging skin, so they all looked melted,” he said. “And I was like, ‘I don’t want them to look melted and I don’t want it to look like Leatherface either.'”

The key, it turned out, was a bit of a cheat. “The trick is, you got to preserve kind of the bone structure of the skull, even though theoretically the bone structure wouldn’t be there because they’re flaying the skin off,” he continued. “But when you look at the masks, you can see that we maintained that kind of deep eye sockets, because I wanted the brow to stick out enough to put a shadow over the eyes, so when you look at the faces, everything’s in shadow so you get nothing there. I wanted to over-texture everything, so all the sculptures are really over-textured and really shriveled-looking and a lot of rot and decay.”

And, in practice, it’s hard to argue with Nicotero’s vision. As I sat on set and heard a member of the crew shout, “3…2…1…Whisperers!,” before calling action, it was disturbing to watch the new foes shuffle into frame on the monitors set up for viewing. As they whispered at each other in a guttural tone reminiscent of the show’s signature zombie moaning, it became difficult to distinguish those in skinsuits from the actual walkers.

And that difficulty, paired with the kind of depraved mind that would sew together pieces of rotting skin into a full-body suit are what makes this group so horrifying. “How many recent movies have had the masked killer that that’s what scares people is you can’t bargain with them because they’re soulless, they’re human-less?” Nicotero wonders. “And now we have a group of people that they’re wearing dead fucking skins, you know?” Nicotero says.

The Walking Dead airs Sundays on AMC.