Volition and Deep Silver have revealed new gameplay from Saints Row, and its shows that there’s still a little wild madness in the game, despite the more grounded nature of the reboot.
The new “Welcome to Santo Ileso” trailer, which you can watch below, is a seven-minute long introduction to the Saints Row reboot, with developer insights as well as a healthy showing of gameplay. While the overall vibe of the game appears to be closer to Watch Dogs 2, there’s definitely some of Saints Row’s more weird personality here. Enemies can be seen firing laser guns, and explosive helicopter battles and picking beef with huge, militarized international corporations is more akin to the Saints Row games of the past than the more serious-ish GTA games.
The city’s motto is also “Keep it strange”, which suggests that there will be weirdness, even if it’s not on the absurd levels of Saints Row 4 and its superpowers and alien invasions.
The trailer also offers a closer look at the main characters, as well as their adversaries. The Saints is a group of four friends headed up by The Boss, a customisable character controlled by the player. While The Boss has been shown to be a woman by default, the trailer does show a brief glimpse of character customisation options, and shows that a male protagonist can also be chosen, as well as a variety of body types.
The Boss is joined by Eli, an investor looking to make The Saints an enterprise rather than just a group of criminals. Nina is the group’s mechanic and getaway driver, and Kevin is a persistently shirtless wannabe chef. Volition emphasises that the group has “heart”, suggesting a sort of Fast & Furious family vibe for the reboot.
The Saints will butt heads with at least three different enemy factions, each of which has its own territory in Santo Ileso. Marshall is a huge international corporation that employs strategic assassins and high tech equipment – including laser weapons – and intends to secure areas and lock you down. Panteros, meanwhile, is a much more rough-and-ready gang that have bruiser-style troops and attack with melee and heavy weapons. The final group shown in the trailer are the Idols, a bunch of anarchists wearing deadmau5 style helmets that defeat their foes using overwhelming numbers and swarm tactics.
Wednesday, Tim Burton’s upcoming series reimagining The Addams Family, has just added 10 more actors to its ensemble cast, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The new actors come after the already impressive recent announcement that Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman will be starring, respectively, as Morticia and Gomez Addams.
Via THR:
· Thora Birch (The Walking Dead) will play Tamara Novak. “Wednesday’s dorm mother and the only ‘Normie’ on staff at Nevermore Academy with a focus on all things botanical.”
· Riki Lindhome (Knives Out) will play Dr. Valerie Kinbott. “A local therapist in the sleepy town of Jericho who takes a particular interest in her newest patient Wednesday Addams.”
· Jamie McShane (Mank) will play Sheriff Donovan Galpin. “Born and bred in Jericho, this Sheriff has always had an issue with Nevermore Academy and a vendetta against former student Gomez Addams.”
· Hunter Doohan (Your Honor) will play Tyler Galpin. “A townie who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Wednesday Addams. Tyler has a troubled relationship with his father, the local sheriff.”
· Georgie Farmer (Treadstone) will play Ajax Petropolus. “A student at Nevermore Academy who also happens to be a Gorgon. Awkward and shy, Ajax is anxious about looking anyone in the eye.”
· Moosa Mostafa (Nativity Rocks!) will play Eugene Otinger. “One of Nevermore Academy’s quirkiest students and president of the school’s bee-keeping club.”
· Emma Myers (Girl in the Basement) will play Enid Sinclair. “She is Wednesday’s sunny and colorful Californian roommate at Nevermore Academy. Enid hails from a pack of San Francisco Werewolves.”
· Naomi J. Ogawa (Skylin3s) will play Yoko Tanaka. “A vampire with Harajuku-inspired Goth flair and one of the cool kids at Nevermore Academy.”
· Joy Sunday (Dear White People) will play Bianca Barclay. “One of Nevermore Academy’s most popular students, Bianca descends from a long line of Sirens with a mesmerizing power to persuade.”
· Percy Hynes White (The Gifted) will play Xavier Thorpe. “A charismatic and supernaturally artistic Nevermore Academy student, who comes from wealth thanks to his celebrity psychic father.”
Burton will serve as director and executive producer on the eight-episode series. Al Gough and Miles Millar (Smallville) will serve as showrunners and executive producers alongside Burton and Andrew Mittman for 1.21, Kevin Miserocchi, Kayla Alpert, Jonathan Glickman for Glickmania, and Gail Berman.
According to the official synopsis for Wednesday, “The series is a sleuthing, supernaturally infused mystery charting Wednesday Addams’ years as a student at Nevermore Academy. Wednesday’s attempts to master her emerging psychic ability, thwart a monstrous killing spree that has terrorized the local town, and solve the supernatural mystery that embroiled her parents 25 years ago–all while navigating her new and very tangled relationships at Nevermore.”
If you’ve been one of the millions of people trying to get their hands on one of the new consoles over the past year, chances are you’ve also experienced frustration with scalpers and bots snatching up the limited supply. Not surprisingly, the recently announced Halo Infinite Xbox Series X console–which had an even more restricted preorder supply than the normal console–is already getting scalped months ahead of its launch.
Spotted by the NPD Group’s Mat Piscatella on Twitter, scalpers have started putting up preorders for the console on marketplaces like eBay. These listings are going for huge markups, too. While the console’s official listing price was $550 USD, scalpers are selling them for $900 and up.
A search on eBay reveals that a handful of these listings have sold, too. A lot more are currently on sale. Some listings are even trying to fetch enormous prices just for the controller that ships with the console. As you might expect, scalpers are also trying to flip preorders for the Halo Series 2 Elite Controller; its original $200 USD listings sold out immediately, as well. The scalped preorders are selling for not as huge of a markup, selling for roughly $280, but are still part of the bigger issue.
EBay regulates pre-sale flipping and recently took action in a similar situation when scalpers were selling Steam Deck preorders. Its specific policy requires sellers to ship preordered content within 30 days of the purchase, and since this console is still several months out, it is likely that these listings will get taken down. Console manufacturers and some retailers have taken a wide array of different actions to combat scalping, from randomized queues to quotas on the number of items one person can purchase. But when it comes to a limited edition version of an already scarce product, like this Xbox, the conditions make a perfect storm for opportunistic selling.
It’s a shame, as this special-edition Xbox does have a pretty cool design, and it’s one of the main ways that Microsoft is marking the 20th anniversary of the Halo franchise. For those who are still interested in picking one up through less nefarious means, there will likely be a couple of additional opportunities via Amazon and Best Buy–but we don’t know when those listings will go live yet. The console is slated for launch on November 15, a few weeks ahead of Halo Infinite’s December 8 release.
Team building is one of the first things you need to learn in Genshin Impact if you want to have a smooth experience. A great team can make the difference between failing and clearing domains, events, or the spiral abyss, so understanding how team building works will help you a great deal. This guide aims to help you understand the basics of team building from proper team composition to energy management, we got you covered!
Roles
Character roles are one of the determining factors in team building. In this section, we’re going to define the variety of roles characters fall into in Genshin Impact:
Main DPS
If you didn’t already know, DPS stands for “damage per second”. So it makes sense that in Genshin Impact, the main DPS character is primarily responsible for dealing damage while on the field. This character usually has great consistent damage output compared to the other characters on the team. Make sure to check out our Genshin Impact tier list to see which characters we highly recommend.
Examples of main DPS characters in Genshin Impact are:
Sub DPS is an interesting role and a very important one, too. Sub DPS characters do damage off-field. They have elemental skills or bursts that persist even if they aren’t the character currently being used. The rule of thumb is that the sub DPS character on your team must be a different element than the main DPS character as you want to utilize elemental reactions in combat as much as possible.
Examples of sub DPS characters in Genshin Impact are:
The support role is assigned to characters that provide utility to the party. Interestingly, some sub DPS characters can fall into a support role depending on how you use them, and vice versa. Support characters can be utilized in battle in a variety of ways and this includes healing, shielding, and even crowd control.
Examples of support characters in Genshin Impact are:
Generally, a team in Genshin Impact is composed of a main DPS character, one or two sub DPS characters, and one or two support characters. The number of sub DPS and support characters is interchangeable which means you can have two support characters and a sub DPS character or two sub DPS characters and a support character on the team. You should never have two main DPS characters on a team as this will hinder the overall damage output. Consider this team composition:
Mona
Eula
Fischl
Diona
This team composition features Eula in the main DPS role while Mona and Fischl act as sub DPS characters, leaving Diona to play the sole support role of the group.
Elemental Reactions
As mentioned above, you want your main and sub DPS characters to be of different elements to utilize elemental reactions as much as possible. Elemental reactions are free additional damage for the taking. Who doesn’t like free damage, right?
There are team compositions revolving around specific elemental reactions such as melt and vaporize. For details on how this works, please check out our elemental weakness chart which covers how elemental reactions work. An example of a team composition that focuses on vaporize would be a Hu Tao-Xingqiu team composition:
In this team composition, Hu Tao plays the main DPS role while Xingqiu plays the sub DPS role. Bennett and Zhongli support Hu Tao with their main utility, namely healing, with additional support via damage boost from Bennett and shielding from Zhongli.
Keeping elemental reactions in mind while team building improves your team’s overall damage output. However, there are a few teams that can survive without elemental reactions, such as a full Geo team or a double Anemo, double Geo team. Keep in mind, these team compositions are very specific. They’re not as flexible as teams with elemental reactions built in them but they’re still really good teams.
Elemental Resonance
Elemental Resonance is a passive buff that applies to the team. Having an elemental resonance in your team can be quite beneficial depending on the resonance. Let’s take this team composition for a ride once more:
Mona
Eula
Fischl
Diona
This team composition features Eula and Diona who both hold a cryo vision, meaning cryo resonance would be activated, giving everyone a +15% crit rate against frozen enemies or enemies affected by cryo. This elemental resonance gives Eula a huge boost as it improves her damage as a main DPS.
Energy Management
Energy cost is another important factor to consider with your team composition. You’d want to have your character’s elemental burst be available as much as possible, which means you should avoid putting characters with high energy cost elemental bursts together in a team. This is due to the fact that you’d spend more of your time gathering energy for that elemental burst rather than casting it, therefore diminishing your total DPS.
However, if you have a main DPS character with an elemental burst that has an energy cost of 70 or 80, it can be alleviated by using a battery. No, not that kind of battery. In Genshin Impact, a battery is a sub-category of the support role played by characters who produce a large number of energy particles using their elemental skills. Let’s take this team composition again as an example:
Mona
Eula
Fischl
Diona
Eula’s elemental burst has an energy cost of 80. She will need a battery so she can cast her elemental burst more frequently. That’s why Diona is there. She is a support character who can also act as a battery for Eula.
You usually want your battery to be the same element as the character you’re trying to battery because characters with a different element will give your team less energy than those who have the same element.
A Short Dive into Team Composition
To show you an example of how team building usually goes in Genshin Impact, I’ll explain the reasoning behind the Eula team comp I always use, as an example. My current team composition has gone through quite a bit of revision. The first iteration of my team looked something like this:
This composition did not work as there’s no one to battery Eula, a character with an elemental burst that has a high energy cost. Qiqi does not produce her own elemental particles which means we had to rely on Mona. However, this also didn’t work as Mona struggled to keep up with particle generation due to the elemental difference between her and Eula.
Beidou as a sub DPS character didn’t work as we couldn’t consistently apply superconduct (an elemental reaction) with her. She also had an elemental burst with an energy cost of 80, so without a battery, it meant that we couldn’t use her elemental burst as much. That’s how the latest version of our team came to be:
Mona (Sub DPS)
Eula (Main DPS)
Fischl (Sub DPS)
Diona (Support)
Fischl provides a much better electro application than Beidou, not only that, but her damage off-field is incomparable. Diona replacing Qiqi provides me with a support character that heals, shields, and acts as an efficient battery for Eula. Mona also provides a damage boost with her elemental burst and quite a bit of crowd control with the taunt on her elemental skill.
By assigning characters to roles that work well together and keeping energy management, elemental reactions, and elemental resonance in mind, it makes for a better team composition and an overall boost in damage. All this to say, team building can be a complicated process that takes time to figure out. But experimenting and finding a team composition that works is what makes team building fun. If you want to test your team building skills, we highly recommend going to the spiral abyss blindly and trying to clear it!
There are advanced strategies that go into team building in Genshin Impact that we didn’t get to cover in this guide. If you’d like another team building guide that dives into that, let us know in the comments!
Cedric Pabriga is a freelance writer for IGN. He spends most of his day listening to music or playing video games. He also writes short stories in his spare time. You can follow him on Twitter @IchikaRika.
Goichi Suda, the CEO of Grasshopper Manufacture and perhaps better known by his alias Suda51, says that the release of No More Heroes 3 marks the end of the series.
In a tweet shared by the No More Heroes 3 Twitter account, Suda joked about the game’s official title before stating that it would mark the Travis Touchdown’s final chapter.
“This game is called No More Heroes 3 FINAL BOUT – All-Out Galactic War! Or, it was going to be called that but the subtitle was just too long so we ended up taking a hint from the Rocky series and simply going with No More Heroes 3 instead.” said Suda. “As hinted at with the ‘Final’ thing, Travis Touchdown will finally be coming to the end of his final battle, and will be embarking on a much-deserved, long journey.”
— No More Heroes III-official-GhM (@nmh3_ghm) August 27, 2021
Following today’s release of No More Heroes 3 (August 27), Suda took to Twitter saying that he “truly hope[s] everyone enjoys Travis Touchdown’s final battle.” The developer also took the chance to thank fans for their kind messages following the game’s launch and bid farewell to Travis Touchdowns everywhere.
No More Heroes Ⅲ has been released. Thank you all so much for all your kind messages! I truly hope everyone enjoys Travis Touchdown’s final battle.
Goodbye, Travis. Goodbye, No More Heroes. Goodbye, fleeting moments and days. Farewell, to all Travis Touchdowns everywhere! pic.twitter.com/W5j7TrKrGG
No More Heroes originally debuted in North America in 2008 when it launched for Nintendo Wii. The series follows anime fan Travis Touchdown who starts out his role living in the fictional town of Santa Destroy, California. After winning a beam katana in an internet auction, the game then follows the character’s exploits as he looks to become the top assassin in the fictitious United Assassin’s Association.
Following the success of the original No More Heroes, its sequel No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle launched in 2010. No More Heroes 3 was then announced at E3 2019 and is now available to play on Nintendo Switch. Suda51 will take part in a special livestream event to celebrate the release of the game that will be streamed live on IGN Japan’s YouTube channel on August 29 at 6 pm Pacific / 9 pm Eastern (that’s August 30 at 2 am UK / 11 am AEST). The event will be viewable entirely in English. If you’d like to find out more about the series’ final installment then make sure to check out our No More Heroes 3 review, where we gave it a 6/10.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
Subscription services in video games are growing in popularity and prominence, and it’s only a matter of time before they completely take over, according to Double Fine boss Tim Schafer. He said in an interview with GI.biz that the push toward subscription services is “just unstoppable,” observing that it’s already happened with movies and music, and games may be next.
“I don’t really feel like there’s much of a choice about these things,” Schafer said. “The way things are going is not something I feel like I have control over. You look at what happened with streaming in other media and it’s just unstoppable. Even as a consumer, I went through a move recently and had all these boxes of DVDs and CDs and was like, ‘Why do I own all these things?’ So even as a consumer, I’m part of that move to subscription services. It just fits more of what I want.”
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Now that Double Fine is part of Microsoft, its new games will come to Xbox Game Pass, just like all of Microsoft’s first-party games do. Schafer said this is a good thing for Double Fine because it opens up the potential audience for the studio’s games beyond what might have been possible before if people had to pay $70 to get started.
“I think everything is moving in some form or another to subscriptions. That’s just a relationship with players which I think is really great for Double Fine, where we want to do something new and original and surprising, which means there might be a higher barrier of entry for players who don’t know what this is,” Schafer said. “And by lowering that barrier financially where it’s not a matter of buying one $70 game over another and it’s more about the time it takes to download them because they’re all up there on Game Pass, I think that’s a huge way for Double Fine games to find their audiences faster.”
Schafer also observed that, despite issues and concerns around the potentially negative aspects of subscription services, companies like Netflix have demonstrated the power of the subscription-based model to create huge amounts of money that can be reinvested into original programming.
“Netflix definitely has its own ecosystem, but it’s funding a lot of original content,” Schafer said. “A lot of those services are funding and creating shows, and really high-quality shows are coming into existence that wouldn’t have existed under, say, network television models. For us, being part of Xbox and Game Pass was being on the positive side of that. Let’s be where original new great content is being funded and created, so that was our navigation choice.”
Double Fine’s latest game is Psychonauts 2, which finally released on August 25 after more than five years of development following its successful crowdfunding campaign. For more, check out GameSpot’s Psychonauts 2 review.
Seemingly in a single breath, BenQ has tagged its X1300i projector as “the world’s first 4LED gaming projector,” that’s simultaneously capable of supporting incredibly smooth gameplay and cinematic visuals. In reality, this peculiar cube doesn’t completely live up to all of that hype. The good news, however, is that it gets about as close to meeting those lofty expectations as you could hope for from a $1,300 projector in 2021.
Specs
Resolution: 1080p (1920×1080)
Brightness: 3000 ANSI lumens
Contrast Ratio: 500,000:1
Input Lag: 8.33ms@120 Hz
Resolution support: VGA (640 x 480) to 4K UHD (3840 x 2160); HDR10; HLG
Connections: two HDMI 2.0 inputs; one 3.5mm audio output; one optical audio output.
BenQ X1300i – Design and Features
First, and most notably, the BenQ X1300i makes a deliberate departure from the rectangular shape that most modern projectors have adopted. Instead, the X1300i is a 14-pound cube of a projector, and a stylish one at that thanks to a color scheme that utilizes a black faceplate surrounded by an orange trim. The different shape may make this projector a trickier fit depending on the configuration of your space. But in general, it’s an aesthetically pleasing design that sets this projector apart from the competition.
In addition to a pair of HDMI ports – one of which is an HDMI ARC connection – there’s also a third, hidden HDMI input that can be found by unraveling a few screws on the projector’s back panel and lifting the cube’s lid. That connection is meant solely for the Android TV dongle that BenQ included in the package, which is a usable, slightly flawed tool for streaming if you don’t have another option at your disposal. More on that in a moment.
For all the praise awarded to the X1300i for how it looks, it’s what is inside the box that should be the real cause for excitement. As a 4LED projector, BenQ says the X1300i takes the RGB color system found in standard LED projectors and incorporates an additional blue “pump” into the mix. We’ll expand on this shortly, but the 4LED technology built into the X1300i made for an exceptionally bright picture that portrayed remarkably accurate colors.
Another major bonus from the X1300i’s status as a 4LED projector is its presumptive lifespan. BenQ rates the X1300i as capable of 20,000 hours of use while operating under “normal” projector settings, with a peak of up to 30,000 hours if the projector is in energy-saving mode. Obviously, we didn’t have time to truly test the validity of this claim by BenQ. But if the reputable brand’s assumption is even close, the X1300i will still last far longer than the average, non-LED projector under similar conditions.
Not to go unnoticed, the remote for the BenQ X1300i is a sleek, streamlined way to access important settings and features on the projector. It may not have all of the options that the remote for its relative, the BenQ TK850, comes equipped with, but it isn’t nearly as bulky while offering most of the essential functionality that everyday projector users will find handy, including dedicated buttons for Amazon Prime Video and for switching between the X1300i’s three gaming modes.
BenQ X1300i Projector – Performance
BenQ specced out the X1300i to be a workhorse projector for gamers. Simply put, that is precisely what this product is. There are gaming projectors with better input lag (the Optoma UHD38 comes to mind), and gamers used to the miniscule lag of great gaming monitors may be able to nitpick the X1300i. But 8.3ms for 120Hz playback is solid for a projector in this price range, and we experienced hours of smooth gameplay throughout our testing period.
That impressively low input lag is bolstered both by BenQ’s GameMaestro Technology – which the company says is designed to “optimize visual and audio settings,” for certain gaming styles – and the X1300i’s trio of gaming modes designed for RPG’s, sports, and FPS. The differences in the various modes weren’t necessarily massive, but they were noticeable in certain situations. In FPS mode, for instance, the image seemed slightly more illuminated to help decipher details hidden in darker parts of the picture. We can’t say the same for the projector’s audio, which according to BenQ is supposed to adapt alongside the image depending on what gaming mode is selected, but these three modes had a positive impact on the specific genres of gaming that they are meant for.
The end result of the BenQ X1300i’s intriguing combination of specifications is a gaming experience that should satisfy both casual and more experienced players alike. Make no mistake, the X1300i won’t replicate the performance of a great gaming monitor or comparable 4K TV. But in the gaming projector space, it’s a very capable machine.
Outside of gameplay, the X1300i can be a solid streaming solution, just as long as you’re willing to work with its faults. It’s ridiculously bright, making it compatible with non-light controlled spaces. Plus, BenQ’s auto color calibration feature shines with the X1300i, displaying astonishingly accurate colors with content like the breathtaking visuals showcased in The Grand Tour.
If you do want to play with the picture, the X1300i gives you the tools to do so. In addition to several picture presets (bright, living room, game, sports, cinema, and user), you can adjust standard settings like brightness, contrast and sharpness. Or, you can dive into the projector’s advanced color settings and tinker in areas like color management or HDR brightness for supported content. The average person will likely enjoy the picture that the X1300i presents right out of the box. But it is comforting to know that it’s possible to tune things to your own individual taste.
The X1300i is limited, however, to a 1080p native resolution, effectively putting a low ceiling on how spectacular of an image it can create. And, while the Android TV dongle is certainly better than other built-in streaming platforms we’ve tested in other projectors, it is missing native Netflix support. BenQ tried to include a workaround here by providing the option to cast Netflix to the dongle via a separate mobile device or computer. It works, but the best alternative here is simply to stream through your console or one of the many great, affordable streaming sticks available today.
The built-in stereo speakers of the BenQ X1300i follow a similar pattern to the Android TV dongle. They will work if you need them to, and are in fact better than other projector speakers we’ve dealt with. But there are better, more satisfying solutions readily available, from modest soundbar systems to full home theater setups.
The Fortnite Icon Series, like its more general list of crossover cosmetics, has grown enormously as of late. Over the past year, players have seen not just Marvel heroes, Star Wars Jedi, and other fictional characters come to the island, but several real-life celebrities.
Since Chapter 2, Season 1, Epic has been adding new outfits to Fortnite based on musicians, streamers, athletes, and more. Each of these Icon sets also includes their own cosmetics such as back bling, gliders, and more. The first Icon to ever arrive in-game was Ninja, the professional Fortnite player and Twitch streamer.
He would later be joined by other streamers who were each at the height of their Fortnite powers when they hit the Item Shop. While some streamers have moved onto new games as their primary streaming material, you’ll still find plenty of players donning their outfits in-game in any given round.
Sometimes being really good at Fortnite will lead to your immortalization in the game itself.
Retroactively, masked DJ and the first in-game concert headliner, Marshmello, as well as one member of the Jamaican-American EDM trio Major Lazer were added to the Icon Series, though their debuts in Seasons 7 and 10 respectively both predated the creation of the Icon Series that would come months later. Today, the modern-day Icon Series is also home to athletes like LeBron James, who arrived in the game in a custom outfit as well as his Toon Squad jersey from Space Jam: A New Legacy.
The Icon Series’ versatility also makes it unpredictable. As it can apparently encompass any real-life celebrity big enough who deserves the Fortnite spotlight, it keeps players guessing as to who will be next. For now, the Icon Series still isn’t as big as, say, the list of every Fortnite Marvel skin, but it’s growing fast. Here’s the list of every Icon Series so far. As Epic seems intent on growing this list at least once per season, stay tuned as we continue to update it as often as the world of Fortnite requires.
Vacation Friends premieres on Hulu on Friday, Aug. 27.
Vacation Friends, starring Lil Rel Howery and John Cena, may not reach the absolute heights of comedy, but it’s still an enjoyable hang featuring fun chemistry and another standout performance by Cena (in what’s become a summer bubbling over with good ol’ John).
When headlining wrestlers transition over to movies, the first instinct is usually to start them out as a straightforward action star. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson traveled this path, with films like The Scorpion King, The Rundown, and Walking Tall, and while he was fine in those films, Johnson was able to separate from the pack because of SNL and Be Cool.
Similarly, Cena began with stunted actioners like The Marine and 12 Rounds, but it was Trainwreck and Blockers that helped him ascend. It took someone being able to see beyond a dude seemingly sculpted out of stone to give him a chance to show off his true charisma. The same can even be said of Dave Bautista and his MCU Drax role. The actual comedy, and improv, talents of top-level wrestlers cannot be understated.
So, naturally, Cena is pure joy here, as he’s able to use his wit and charm to their fullest while also borrowing another key ingredient from wrestling: finding the right dance partner. Like Johnson, who was lighting up the screen this summer with Emily Blunt in Jungle Cruise, Cena is able to make magic with fresh and formidable scene partners. Both Howery and Insecure’s Yvonne Orji are great here as the “reactors” to Cena and co-star Meredith Hagner’s wild antics. Howery and Orji’s Marcus and Emily aren’t fully free, but also not firmly rigid, so they’re able to take a few beats to absorb the craziness while still having a blast partaking in it.
Vacation Friends isn’t mean-spirited. At first glance, it may seen like Cena and Hagner’s Ron and Kyla are destructively chaotic, like something out of a Hangover movie. It’s all a little warmer than that. This is not a “one guy annoys another guy for 90 minutes”-style comedy, though the ads may steer you into thinking that. Marcus and Emily genuinely like Ron and Kyla, and during their week in Mexico, the two couples have a good-natured (and only slightly debaucherous) time. It actually makes the petty and predictable blowup near the end of the movie feel a bit too forced, since this foursome only ever benefits from being friends. That third act conflict aside, the medium levels of shock here help the movie feel less aggravating overall and more enjoyable.
Much of the tension and conflict in Vacation Friends is fairly easy to map out ahead of time. It’s basically all misunderstandings which we’re way ahead of, and while that stifles the story a teensy bit, it doesn’t fully squash the fun. After Marcus and Emily have their raucous romp with Ron and Emily, who are wackily cordial and earnest (especially with drugs and sex), they go back to their old non-vacation lives until their wedding day arrives seven months later. Ron and Kyla unexpectedly show up, never realizing that they’d gotten the brush-off, and the stuffy affair (lorded over by Emily’s disapproving father, played by Robert Wisdom) livens up.
Vacation Friends isn’t mean-spirited.
The only times Vacation Friends doesn’t really work is when it strains to make Marcus and Emily actually angry with Ron and Kyla, because, aside from a few instances, they’re actually incredible people who are liked by almost everyone. They just commit the sin (for the sake of comedy) of speaking freely in front of the repressed and uptight. Another bright spot here is Hagner, who you may have seen in Search Party or Palm Springs, as Cena’s zany partner in crime. These two obviously need Marcus and Emily to bounce their nuttiness off of, but they also need each other as perfectly synced-up social pterodactyls always willing to live every moment in life to the Nth degree.
The Saints Row series is coming back with a reboot that takes players to a brand-new city and a new cast of characters. In a new video, voice actress Bryce Charles and the team at developer Volition discuss the project and reveal gameplay footage for the first time following a CG reveal trailer at Gamescom. Some people were upset over the lack of real gameplay footage in the announcement trailer, and now we’re seeing some.
Chief creative officer Jim Boone said one of the challenges at the onset of development of the new Saints Row was figuring out how to up the ante in a series known for being over the top. The studio initially looked to its past for inspiration, but this ultimately felt limiting, so the team opted to “zoom out” and forge ahead with a plan to reboot the series instead of making a sequel.
The new Saints Row is set in a fictional American southwest town called Santo Ileso, and the developers spoke about how the “postcard imagery” of the setting lends itself to new opportunities in the context of Saints Row.
There are four main characters in Saints Row, including The Boss, Eli, Nina, Kevin, each of whom have their own distinct personalities and quirks. Kevin, for example, always has his shirt off and aspires to be a TV chef.
We also learn a little more about the different factions of enemies who will come after you, including Marshall, an international corporation headquartered in Santos Ileso known for their advanced technology. The Panteros, meanwhile, are all about pure physical strength. The Idols, meanwhile, are a cult of personality enemy faction that relies on overwhelming you with their sheer numbers.
