Category: Games

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

I’m here again to extoll the virtues of buying certified refurbished tech from eBay. Right now, eBay is featuring Samsung phones, earbuds, and smartwatches in its certified refurbished program. If you want to get your hands on one of Samsung’s excellent mobile products, you can do so without paying full-price if you don’t mind refurb, and they’re being offered direct from the manufacturer.

Samsung Galaxy Deals: Note10, S20+ and More

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If you’re unaware, all eBay certified refurbished products include a 2-year warranty and a 30-day money-back guarantee. On top of that, these Samsung Galaxy products are sold direct from Samsung. Lots of brands and retailers operate eBay stores. It’s where I buy like half my shoes.

Since they’re refurbished, that means they’re statistically less likely to fail than factory-new, but if you’re still worried about it, the warranty covers you for 2 years. It’s a really sweet deal, and a great way to score tech for way cheaper than you might otherwise. I recommend checking out the certified refurbished Apple MacBook deals if you haven’t already.

A new trailer for Life is Strange: True Colors gives us an introduction to Haven Springs, Colorado, a gorgeous mountain town where host Steph Gingrich tells us we’ll find “family” rather than mere friends.

Haven Springs’ aptly named Main St. features “all the action,” according to Gingrich. You’ll find a record shop, bike and ski shop, ice cream, flowers, and a townie bar called The Black Lantern. The bar not only features lots of locals to chat with but also some “classic” arcade game cabinets. An Arkanoid game is on display, as Taito is a Square Enix subsidiary now, and you can even play foosball or try out the jukebox.

If you’re into LARPing (live-action role-playing) and yelling “lightning bolt!” while throwing napkins at people, then you’ll be pleased to know Steph runs her own game with the locals, and she wants to get it up and running again for your visit. You’ll also be able to check out a spring festival featuring campfires and local music, which we’re guessing will include a sad Sufjan Stevens song if the past games are any indication.

While this introduction to Haven Springs is a pleasant and breezy one, Life is Strange: True Colors is going to be much darker when it comes to Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, PC, and Stadia on September 10, and a remastered version of Life is Strange and Life is Strange 2 comes with the Ultimate Edition. Unlike the previous games, the entire “season” will release at once, and a prequel comic is out next month. Using protagonist Alex’s psychic abilities, you’ll investigate the truth behind her brother Gabe’s death. Hey, wait a minute!

Netflix film chief Scott Stuber wants to work with Christopher Nolan to distribute his future movies.

According to Variety, Netflix’s recent deal with Steven Spielberg’s production company Amblin has “given Stuber hope that he might be able to lure Christopher Nolan” to release his next movie on the streaming platform, even though Nolan has always been a strong advocate for the big screen theatrical experience. Stuber says he’ll do “everything” he can to change that.

“If and when [Nolan] comes up with his new movie, it’s about can we be a home for it and what would we need to do to make that happen,” Stuber said on the prospect of teaming up with Nolan. “He’s an incredible filmmaker. I’m going to do everything I can. In this business I’ve learned you need to have zero ego. I get punched and knocked down and get back up.”

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Spielberg officially entered the streaming wars in June when Netflix announced it had reached a deal with Amblin that will see the company produce at least two films a year for its library for an unspecified amount of years. While most of these projects will only be produced by Spielberg, it is possible that movies directed by the filmmaker will also land on the streamer.

Prior to this partnership, Spielberg had voiced his opinions on the differences between streaming and theatrical releases, sharing his belief that original movies produced for streaming platforms should not be eligible for Oscar competition. Spielberg later clarified that he did not attempt to prevent Netflix from winning Oscars at that year’s ceremony.

Nolan reinforced his distaste for streaming films last year when he voiced his concerns over Warner Bros.’ decision to move its entire 2021 film slate onto HBO Max. He said the studio didn’t understand what they were losing by dismantling their traditional release model in favor of moving to HBO Max, which he described as “the worst streaming service.”

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Nolan is known for his directorial work on The Dark Knight trilogy, Inception, and Interstellar, and has partnered with Warner Bros. on his films dating back to 2002’s Insomnia. His last film Tenet underperformed at the box office last year, grossing just $45 million before theaters were permanently closed again due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

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Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

The Last Mercenary premieres Friday, July 30 on Netflix.

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Split-kicker Jean-Claude Van Damme both mocks and embraces his iconic action hero status in The Last Mercenary, an action-comedy about a dangerous secret agent meeting, and teaming with, his sheltered 25-year-old son. Van Damme himself is vibrant and playful, but the overall familiarity of the story and unsurprising nature of the jokes leads to a somewhat dull watch. In short, only a few high kicks find their (hard) target here.

An earnest effort to craft a family comedy out of Van Damme’s decades of dark, violent films (Street Fighter excluded, naturally), The Last Mercenary features silly disguises, bumbling bureaucrats, a villain who thinks he’s Tony Montana from Scarface, gentle Van Damme action, and some slapstick. And look, at times, the movie wields a charm. When Van Damme’s shadowy merc, Richard Brumère (aka “The Mist”), has to mold a special ops team out of, basically, his normie son and a few other scared civilians, the film finds its best and sweetest spot. But the bulk of this movie is leftovers from capers you’ve seen before and the film suffers immensely whenever it’s not focused on Richard and his son and decides to shuffle us off to watch the bad guys and/or the government bozos being duped.

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In recent years, Van Damme became overly at ease with winking at his legacy as an ’80s and ’90s martial arts movie star. 2016’s Ridley Scott-produced Jean-Claude Van Johnson, which lasted one season on Amazon, featured Van Damme as a kaleidoscope version of himself in which the Hollywood “Van Damme” persona was merely a cover for a real-life secret agent. In a similar vein, 2008’s better-received JCVD featured the “Muscles from Brussels” as a down and out semi-fictionalized version of himself.

So now, once again, Van Damme toys with these meta-aspects, though The Last Mercenary ditches the actual Van Damme-ness and presents a character whose past exploits only resemble the types of things Van Damme heroes would have done in movies 30 years ago. And there’s nothing coy happening here. In fact, one character even commands, “It’s time to make the ’90s obsolete once and for all!”

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The trick then becomes to turn Van Damme’s tongue-in-cheek take on his persona into a full movie (when it already didn’t work as a TV series). For this, Richard gets a son: a boy he chose to give up to the French government long ago in exchange for his silence (and exile). Young Archibald (Samir Decazza) grew up safe and secure, though never knowing why. Now, thanks to some bizarre machinations from the film’s bad guys — again, the actual spy plot and secret weapon (called “The Big Mac”) story is a boring mess here — Archibald’s protection gets erased. Richard is forced to come out of hiding and become a father for the first time while Archie receives a crash course in espionage. There are glints of acceptable silliness, but in the end, the film’s not quite clever enough to carry us the full distance.

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Tonally, speaking in ’90s terms, The Last Mercenary finds uneasy ground between the genre-bending laughs of True Lies and the ultra-camp of Hudson Hawk. The heart works more than the humor and ultimately the film is a valiant sputter. The message is warm and rewarding, the supporting cast is decent, but the end results just don’t pass full muster. Too many gags don’t land and when the comedy drags, and the film already has somewhat stale stakes, the entire effort spins out.

After a major delay and multiple trailers, a chosen group of players have access to Halo Infinite’s technical preview, or beta, this weekend. The beta started on July 29 and will end on Monday, August 2 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Players signed up for the beta through Halo Insider, and can now install it on either their Xbox One, Xbox Series X, or PC via Steam.

While players won’t be able to access Halo Infinite’s campaign during the technical preview this weekend, they will have an opportunity to try out the game’s upcoming free-to-play multiplayer. Throughout the beta, a few different types of playlists will be available, which pit players against both bots and other players.

While matches against players will go on as they have in any other Halo title, matches against bots will be a little different. As part of a playlist called Bot Slayer, these matches will get more difficult and take place on different maps as the technical preview goes on.

Developer 343 Industries is also asking players to play regular matchmaking games at certain times corresponding with when it would expect heavy server load for the game. Naturally, these timeframes are from 7 PM PT / 10 PM ET to 9 PM PT / 1 AM ET on July 30, 31, and August 1, all late at night in the US during the weekend.

Surprisingly, players will be getting a peek at more than just Halo Infinite’s multiplayer this weekend. 343 Industries has also enabled parts of the game’s battle pass and store for players to access. Technical Preview participants have even been given some in-game currency to purchase some extra items along with the battle pass. However, any progress gained during the beta, in both the battle pass and general XP, will not extend past this beta.

Halo Infinite is currently set to launch this holiday season for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. While we don’t currently have a concrete launch date, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has reaffirmed that the game’s release date has been narrowed down to “a few weeks.”

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

The Halo Infinite beta (or technical test) has kicked off and is running this weekend, giving you the chance to try out the game’s new weapons and systems in competitive multiplayer. However, the process for playing doesn’t end with getting an invitation. You also have to install the Halo Infinite beta client, and that varies depending on where you’re playing the game. Here’s how to do it and get playing. Were it so easy? Well, yes, if you listen to us.

Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S

Head to the Xbox Store from your console and search for the Xbox Insider Hub app, which you’ll need to access beta apps. From here, go to Previews, choose Halo Infinite – Insider, and then register for the build.

From here, you should see a “Manage” prompt, after which you’ll need to go through some terms and conditions before you can install the beta build. Once it’s installed, you’ll be able to access and run it just like you would any other game via the My Games & Apps section of the Xbox UI.

PC

For PC, you’ll be going through Steam. Using a key sent to you via Halo Waypoint (where you registered for the beta), sign into your Steam account and choose “Activate a Product on Steam” like you would with any other Steam code. Once you’ve entered the code you were given, you’ll see Halo Infinite – Insider as a title within your game library.

Start the game and when prompted, make sure you use the same Xbox Live account you used when you registered for the beta. Once that’s done, you’re ready to play.

Halo Infinite will release this holiday season for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It features new accessibility settings that should make it easier to play for those with colorblindness.