A new Life Is Strange: True Colors trailer sets the stage for the narrative adventure game’s events by highlighting Alex Chen’s exit interview from foster care.
In the nearly two-minute long clip, which comes from True Colors’ opening scene, Alex talks to her social worker at the Helping Hands Group Home about what’s next for her. After eight years there, Alex is heading to her brother Gabe’s place in the fictional mountain town of Haven Springs, Colorado. But her social worker has some concerns, particularly about Alex coming into contact with other people.
The social worker, named Dr. Lynn, asks if Alex’s brother knows about her “issues,” saying she “cares” about Alex and “just wants what’s best” for her. It’s an uncomfortable exchange, with Alex visibly sorting through her emotions to arrive at a simple point: She will just be a “normal girl in a normal town” once she leaves.
Things don’t turn out that way, unfortunately. While the specific events are still under wraps, True Colors’ narrative is thrust into motion when Gabe is killed. Alex then embarks on an investigation into her brother’s mysterious death by using her psychic powers of Empathy to tap into and manipulate the emotions of others.
We chatted with Alex Chen voice actor Erika Mori and senior staff writer Felice Kuan about True Colors, how developer Deck Nine crafted the character, and what it was like to tell a story with full body and facial mocap. Turns out, it was an “actor’s dream” for Mori, who has appeared in stage plays like A Christmas Carol and Macbeth.
Life Is Strange: True Colors drops on September 10 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Hit up our Life Is Strange: True Colors preorder guide to find out what comes with buying early.
Dave Bautista has revealed more about the time that he pitched Warner Bros. and DC to let him play Batman’s arch-nemesis, Bane.
According to Collider, Bautista shared details about his pitch to portray the classic Batman antagonist during an appearance at Justice Con promoting his role in Zack Snyder’s Army of the Dead. He revealed that, at one point, he went directly to the studios to strongly express his desire to portray Bane on the big screen in any future projects they had planned.
“I’ve made no secret about this,” Bautista said after highlighting the DC villain as one of his dream roles. “I want to play Bane so bad I went to Warner Bros., had an appointment with them, had an appointment with DC, walked in the door and said, ‘I want to play Bane.’ I’m not kidding. They were a little like ‘Woah, we’re not even casting Bane.’ I was like ‘I don’t care, I’m playing him.'”
After the event, Bautista took to social media to confirm his statements as fact. “I wasn’t joking,” he posted on Twitter alongside a photo of him at the Warner Bros. lot. “But in all honesty they did have a good giggle and show me the exit. At least I gave it a shot. My life seems to be a continuing mission to find an alternative route to get to where I want to be. I’m good with that.”
Bautista has been vocal about playing Bane for quite some time now. Last year, he replied to a comment on social media where the tweeter shared that they had read an article speculating that Bautista could be playing the iconic villain in Matt Reeves’ The Batman opposite Robert Pattinson. In response, Bautista explained that he had tried his best to win the role.
Though it sounds like he won’t be appearing in the next Batman solo movie, The Batman is set to feature a “rogues gallery” comprised of Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Colin Farrell as Penguin, Paul Dano as Riddler alongside Peter Sarsgaard as Gotham’s District Attorney Gil Colson, who may very well be one to watch out for, as Sarsgaard was previously rumored to be playing a pre-Two Face Harvey Dent.
Update 04/21/2021: People Can Fly has announced that players who lost their items due to the game’s now-patched inventory wipe glitch will get a pretty nice reward to make up for the inconvenience.
On Reddit, a spokesperson explained that items previously wiped will be returned with “the same attribute combinations but with God Roll values. This means that these items will be at least the same if not better quality than the originally lost items.”
On top of that, those items will be returned at your character’s highest possible equip level, and takes your World Tier and Challenge Tier into consideration, meaning you won’t be given back a weapon that’s immediately out-of-date for your progress.
For those who lost items and whose characters were made unplayable in the process, all lost legendaries, all lost equipped items, and 20 other items (ordered by rarity) will be restored. Completed Accolades will also be restored.
There’s currently no date on when the restoration will take place, but the developer says “we are working to an ‘ASAP’ schedule and fully understand how disappointing it is to not yet have your items back today.”
Outriders has released an inventory wipe prevention patch on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC, and also confirmed that the item restoration process is still a top priority and will be the full focus when this patch proves to be successful.
When you install the patch, there may be multiplayer connectivity issues followed by inventory items being momentarily invisible. This is all part of the “three-step inventory safeguarding measures” and can be resolved by waiting a few moments and restarting your game. This issue will be addressed in a future patch.
If you still find yourself with your inventory wiped after installing this patch, be sure to report the problem to Outriders’ Edge Case sub-thread.
Once this patch has proved to be effective in the wild, Outriders will share the timeline for the upcoming Inventory Restoration process. This restoration process will be run “via our server database and does not require a patch to be implemented.”
This bug is another example of Outriders’ rocky launch, but also an example of Square Enix and People Can Fly’s transparency, excellent communication, and prompt fixes to the issues that arise.
A remake of the 2003 Bioware RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is reportedly in the works at port studio Aspyr Media.
The news was revealed by Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier during an interview with Ben Hanson of MinnMax. “This is public at this point, I’ve basically confirmed that Aspyr – which is the company that has ported a bunch of KOTOR games is working on [the remake],” Schreier said.
Eurogamer subsequently backed up that assertion, saying that it had also heard of Aspyr’s involvement: “While the developer is known for often releasing straight ports, work is currently underway to make the project more of a remake instead.” Aspyr has recently released a number of Star Wars ports, most recently the PS4 and Switch version of Star Wars: Republic Commando.
Rumours of a KOTOR remake have been swirling for some time, with reports from January 2020 suggesting that the game was in development and would “integrate elements from the first two games in order to bring certain things into the current Star Wars canon.”
Schreier then tweeted in February of 2020 “if it’s really happening, it’s not at EA.” In January of this year, we heard reports that the remake was in the works, but not at EA or original developer Bioware – and Aspyr fits that bill.
Sylvester Stallone has revealed that the new version of Rocky 4 will be titled Rocky Vs. Drago – The Ultimate Director’s Cut.
Stallone shared the movie’s title in a recent Instagram post alongside a brief teaser of a new full-length documentary, titled ‘Keep Punching: The Present Meets the Past,’ that will accompany the director’s cut of Rocky 4, offering fans insight into the behind-the-scenes process of re-editing the movie. Check out the video for Keep Punching in Stallone’s post below:
“If you can go back to recut your film, I guarantee you, you would approach it with a sensitivity and a wisdom, and a confidence, ‘Oh, why didn’t I see that before?'” Stallone says in one of the clips. “All of us are entitled to follow our dreams, to stick to our beliefs, because in the end that’s all you have and if you keep believing in that eventually your dreams will come true.”
The original Rocky 4, released in 1985, followed Rocky’s training journey in the lead-up to his fight against Ivan Drago, a hulking Russian newcomer who mercilessly killed Rocky’s friend Apollo Creed in the ring. Stallone indicated in a follow-up Instagram post there would be more footage of their final face-off match as he promised “major payback” for Drago in the new release.
We also previously learned that Paulie’s robot will be scrapped from the director’s cut entirely, with Stallone telling a fan that “the robot is going to the junkyard forever.” In the 1985 film, Rocky’s brother-in-law Paulie received the six-foot robot as an unexpected gift on his birthday, to which he humorously responded that he wanted a sports car, “not no walking trash can.”
The events of the 1985 movie served as a backstory to Creed II, in which Apollo Creed’s son, Donnie, challenges a new component in the ring, though it comes with mixed results. In our review of Creed II, we said the story failed to “let the past go, abandoning the exciting new path blazed by [Ryan] Coogler in favor of evoking what’s come before, with undeniably diminished results.”
Shortly after its release, Stallone announced that he was stepping out of the ring and officially retiring his iconic Rocky character for good, having portrayed the boxing legend in eight movies in total: Rocky I, II, III, IV and V, Rocky Balboa, and Creed I and II, receiving Academy Award nominations for best actor and best supporting actor in the process.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
Remember Quibi, the short form video streaming service that raised billions of dollars only to completely shutter in about six months? After Quibi executives called it quits, its library was acquired by Roku. Those series will now live on the streaming platform as Roku Originals, the company announced today. Roku will also use the same branding for all future original projects that appear on the Roku Channel, a free entertainment offering for Roku device owners. While it remains unclear what those originals will look like, Roku’s blog does note that more details will be announced in May.
For now, anyone who wanted to check out Quibi originals but didn’t want to sign up for the short lived streaming service can do so via Roku. This includes viral hits such as the woman with the golden arm or…well, Quibi wasn’t long enough to create any real hits, but that show featuring the woman with the golden arm certainly caught attention on Twitter last year. Look, Quibi tried its best in 2020 and that’s all any of us tried to do last year.
What Quibi lacked in hits, however, it certainly made up for in talent. Hollywood A-Listers like Anna Kendrick, Chrissy Teigen, Lena Waithe, Idris Elba, Kevin Hart, and Liam Hemsworth all have Quibi originals, as noted in the Roku blog. Is it programming that you’ll actually want to watch? That’s up to you, but it’s free and short and doesn’t require signing up for yet another streaming service.
The push is part of Roku’s efforts to go from being a hardware company to a hardware and software company. Roku used to be the device people connected to their televisions sets to watch Netflix, Disney+, YouTube TV, and dozens of other entertainment offerings. Now, Roku wants people to spend time watching Roku Originals, too. Why? The simplest answer is advertising — it’s also why Roku acquired a key Nielsen technology, Roku wants to own digital entertainment advertising, and the company is hoping that having a slate of original series will help.
As the blog notes, “more than 75 Roku Originals on the Roku Channel, including a dozen unreleased series” will debut this year. Roku doesn’t want to be another streaming service for people to consider, but wants to be the streaming home for everyone’s needs. Whether that’s watching Netflix and diving into some Roku Originals from time to time or just being the most convenient tool for consumers to access the entertainment they want, Roku’s ambitions are pretty clear.
So, for one last time: RIP Quibi. I’ll always think of what could have been if there was a clearer business model.
Rocky star Sylvester Stallone has announced that his new cut of Rocky IV has been retitled. The movie will be released as Rocky Vs. Drago–The Ultimate Director’s Cut.
Stallone confirmed the new title on Instagram and revealed that the movie will be accompanied by a feature-length behind-the-scenes documentary titled Keep Punching: The Present Meets the Past, which documents the process of reworking the original movie.
The star also posted a trailer for the documentary. It shows Stallone working in a “basically empty” post-production facility alongside an editor on the new version of Rocky IV. In the trailer, he states that he made the movie to give him something to do during the pandemic, and that he was approaching the re-edit with “a sensitivity and a wisdom, and confidence.” Check it out below:
Rocky Vs. Drago–The Ultimate Director’s Cut doesn’t have a release date yet. The project was first announced in August last year, to tie into the film’s 35th anniversary. While we don’t yet know how the cut will differ from the hugely successful original, Stallone has confirmed that Paulie’s robot will no longer appear. The very silly AI robot that Paulie is given for his birthday early on in the movie has become much-loved by fans, but Stallone has sadly stated that “the robot is going to the junkyard forever.”
In related news, it’s been confirmed that Stallone will won’t reprise the role of Rocky Balboa in the upcoming Creed 3. The actor co-starred in the first two Rocky spin-off movies, as well as co-writing Creed 2. However, star and director Michael B. Jordan stated that, “this is a Creed franchise, and we really want to build this story and this world around him moving forward.” Creed 3 releases in November 2022.
Life Is Strange: True Colors introduces a new protagonist to the choice-driven supernatural franchise: Alex Chen, a woman with Empathy powers. I sat down with True Colors senior staff writer Felice Kuan and Alex’s voice actor, Erika Mori, to talk about how developer Deck Nine created the character as well as what it was like to make a Life Is Strange game and tell a story with full body and facial mocap–an experience that Mori describes as “an actor’s dream.”
I also asked both of them to pick between team Ryan or team Stef to get a better sense of which romance option would be better to pursue first.
Was there a desire from the start to connect True Colors to previous Life Is Strange games? Why specifically Before The Storm?
Felice Kuan: Sure. We wanted to have a standalone tale. We were excited to be able to pair our protagonists with her own dream and her own power. So we didn’t seek to tie into previous games, except for the fact that it’s the same world, and that Stef is an important character, regardless of whether you romance her or not.
Even though True Colors won’t have an episodic release schedule, is it still written like an episodic series?
Kuan: Yep. True Colors is five chapters, each with their own exciting ending. So you can binge it all, or you can do individual episodes if you want to.
Erika, how was it recording Alex’s voice lines considering she can regularly shift between different emotions? Did you come in one day and just record all the angry takes and then the sad takes or did you go scene by scene, voicing different interpretations of each conversation?
Erika Mori: No [laughs]. Thank goodness. We didn’t use all of the shoots for one particular emotion during one day. I feel like the sadness day would have been really brutal. No, so we didn’t do it like that. We started at the beginning and then bopped around based on availability and when scripts were ready and when the rest of the crew was prepared. But I think that we were very lucky that we had the tools for an entire performance capture versus just the body being done by one person and then voice being done by someone else and trying to combine it. Plus, we had facial capture. So because we’re dealing with emotions and empathy as the crux of this game and of Alex’s journey, having all three of those together and captured at the same time, it really gave us a deeply authentic performance.
Erika, how is it sharing a character with another person, since you primarily voice Alex but Maia handles the vocals for when Alex sings? Did the two of you have a chance to bounce ideas for the character off each other or was there little overlap between you two?
Mori: No, initially I had sung everything and then later in the process, Square Enix made the decision to bring mxmtoon in. And so she took the performances that I had already done and reinterpreted them.
I’d be foolish not to take the opportunity of this unique situation: Usually I get to talk to just a writer or just an actor, not both at once. So, how was it bringing Alex to life? Was there much collaboration between actors and writers? Does True Colors have a few improvised lines in there?
Kuan: Improvise lines? Not as often. But we very much improvised the way a scene went down sometimes. One of the nice things about full facial and body mocap and VO at the same time is we’re essentially seeing the scene in front of us like it’s a theater. And very often we would find that the character would say something, and Erika would convey her reaction with her face. And it would be either hysterical or heartbreaking. And so we would often change the shape of the scene right there, just to let more come through from the emotion on her face or from her body movements, to better reflect real life.
Mori: We always had the writer for the scene on set, and I’m sure they got super annoyed with me because they created such a collaborative space that I really took advantage of. And you read through the scene, run it a few times, and then if there was a line or a word that I wasn’t able to find a way through or say in a way that I thought Alex would, I would just ask if I could change it. And a lot of times they said, “No,” [everyone laughs]. But a few times they did say, “Yes.”
We would also talk a lot about how the writers were approaching a line or the actors were feeling in a moment or what someone was thinking. And that inner psychology was really useful for us, because we would wrap that into future scenes. I think the character of Alex was built collaboratively as we went on.
How is it to write for–and, I guess now that I think about it, voice–a character where their story can fluctuate in how it plays out? I assume True Colors will have multiple endings, but even if it doesn’t, players will have agency in who their Alex is. What is it like to create a character in a story where there’s no “right” way for the story to play out?
Kuan: Oh, I’m excited to hear Erika’s answer to this. I know that from our perspective, even though there might be a few choices you can respond to, they all still exist within the group of choices that would be right for Alex. And what’s exciting about that is that you get to see what the limits and boundaries of this character are. What really defines her? You know, how far will she go?
Mori: I think that this narrative adventure game genre is really an actor’s dream. Especially because with that type of game, the character you create is one you develop over years, so you get really, really knowledgeable and intimately involved with who this character is.
And the idea of having to play different choices–I mean, who among us hasn’t gotten into a car after a conflict or a conversation and said, “Damn it. I wish I could do it again. I totally would have said this and this, and then I would have done this.” In a way, as Alex, I got to do that by performing all of these different conditional branches. And so I think that because of that process, it helps me flesh out Alex; like Alex was so much more real because I was able to go down those optional scenario branches of what she would do as a person.
Between the two romance options, do y’all have a favorite? Help a brotha out here who has to play many games for work and will likely only be able to complete True Colors once before end-of-the-year “Best Games” conversations?
Kuan: You know, you can also just be friends with them.
Mori: I would not choose that. I would not choose that.
Kuan: But you can ’cause it’s Alex’s story, right?
Mori: So which team are you–are you team Ryan or team Stef? Is that the question?
Pretty much, yeah.
Kuan: I mean, all right, there are going to be a lot of people who try the Stef branch. So I think that you should give Ryan a shot–see what that’s like. He’s a good guy.
Mori: There’s no wrong answer. I will tell you that both the Stef romance and the Ryan romance are very aww-inducing. It’s also nice because regardless of who you pick or whether you pick anyone at all, they will both still be around. They’re still your good buddies. So you won’t rule anybody out of your life.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
