The Rock’s Black Adam movie–which will introduce The Justice Society of America to the DC movie universe–has reportedly just found its Cyclone in Trinkets star Quintessa Swindell. Swindell’s stock has been continuing to soar since a breakout 2019 performance in HBO’s series Euphoria, and this casting choice demonstrates their growing range as an actor.
The Rock took to Twitter on December 14 to announce the news himself. Obviously, he’s pretty excited to bring a piece of JSA into the DCU.
Ready to rumble⚡️💪🏾 A pleasure to officially welcome, Quintessa Swindell to our BLACK ADAM cast. They’ll be taking on the role of CYCLONE. Can’t wait to work with them and we ready to rumble in the DC jungle. #bringit#cyclone🌪 #blackadam⚡️ Production starts spring 2021 pic.twitter.com/kIlHkZBmgh
Swindell’s casting announcement marks the fourth role to be announced so far for Black Adam, but little is known about the film overall. It was recently revealed that Underground and The Invisible Man star Aldis Hodge was cast for Hawkman, making him the third actor to sign on after Dwayne Johnson in the titular role, and Noah Centineo, who will play Atom Smasher.
Black Adam will be directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who previously worked with Johnson on the upcoming Disney movie Jungle Cruise. The current version of the script was written by Rory Haines and Sohrab Noshirvani (Informer). At this point, there is no public start date for production set and no announced release date.
The next DC movie set for release is Wonder Woman 1984, which will be coming to movie theaters and also HBO Max on Christmas.
It’s time for the final WWE PPV of 2020, as TLC–known for its tables, ladders, and chairs–comes to the WWE Network on Sunday, December 20. The year will end with a bit of a bang as TLC tends to be an extreme show, considering it’s named after a relatively extreme match. The wrestling promotion will close out 2020 with some big matches, many of which have titles on the line.
Taking place at Tropicana Field in Tampa, Florida–the new home of the WWE Thunderdome–TLC will take some of WWE’s biggest superstars and put them inside a wrestling ring located on a baseball field. It’s like two sports for the price of one. The event will be streamed live, so make sure to check out the start time in various time zones below.
Start time:
4 PM PT
6 PM CT
7 PM ET
12 AM GMT (December 21)
11 AM AEDT (December 21)
Like every other PPV, there will also be a pre-show, which you can watch for free on Twitter, YouTube, and on the WWE Network. The one-hour-long Kickoff Show typically features one match and a cast of famous faces analyzing the upcoming match.
How to watch:
If you’re looking to watch WWE’s TLC PPV, you’re going to have to sign up for the WWE Network, which costs $10 a month. The streaming service no longer offers one month for free, but it is well worth the price of admission, as there is plenty of other content to keep you entertained, like old episodes of Raw, Smackdown, WCW Nitro, PPVs, and original content. There is also a free tier, which you can use to watch the Kickoff Show of the PPV, but not the main card.
The match card is still coming together for the upcoming PPV, so we’ll keep you updated as more shows are booked. As of this writing, there are six matches on the card, two of which are TLC matches.
Match card:
Drew McIntyre (c) vs. AJ Styles – TLC match for the WWE Championship
Roman Reigns (c) vs. Kevin Owens – TLC match for the Universal Championship
“The Fiend” Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton
Sasha Banks (c) vs. Carmella – Smackdown Women’s Championship
Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler (c) vs. Asuka & Lana – Women’s Tag Team Championship
The New Day (c) vs. The Hurt Business – Raw Tag Team Championship
There is still time for more matches to be booked for the event. While WWE PPVs have been running a bit shorter during the COVID pandemic–which has actually been great–there shouldn’t be more than four additional matches booked for the PPV.
We’ll keep the match card updated in the following days leading up to the December 20 event. And like everyone else on the internet, we also have opinions about the outcomes of these matches. So check out a few predictions below.
Predictions:
The New Day vs. The Hurt Business
If you’ve spent any time listening to GameSpot’s wrestling podcast Wrestle Buddies (what a plug!), then you know how I feel about The Hurt Business. Their stock is on the rise, as this group–led by MVP doing some of his best mic work ever–are making their mark on Raw. This feels like it could be a passing-of-the-torch moment, with longtime champions The New Day handing off the belts to the next up-and-coming stars… Well, “up and coming” is a bit of a silly thing to say considering Cedric Alexander is the only current member who didn’t debut in the early-to-mid ’00s. Regardless, this will be a fantastic match, and Hurt Business will get the win, with a long feud coming between them and The New Day.
Nia Jax & Shayna Baszler vs. Asuka & Lana
Remember the Women’s Tag Team Championships? Well, they’re back in the spotlight with the tale of Lana being bullied by Nia Jax–a storyline Jax was involved with a couple years ago where she was bullied by Alexa Bliss. This feels like the first time in quite a while where there has been any real emphasis on the titles. The problem with this match is that Asuka & Lana winning the titles doesn’t feel incredibly plausible: there is no reason for the duo to get the titles, especially with Asuka as a singles champion already. Jax & Baszler will get the win, and hopefully, WWE can rebuild the women’s tag team division.
And make sure to come back to GameSpot on Sunday, December 20 for live coverage of TLC.
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Over the next week, we will be posting features for what we’ve nominated to be thebest games of 2020. Then, on December 17, we will crown one of the nominees as GameSpot’s Best Game of 2020, so join us as we celebrate these 10 games on the road to the big announcement. Be sure to check out our other end-of-the-year coverage collected in ourBest Games of 2020 hub.
There’s often a fine line that must be tread when making sequels: Give people what they want, but still surprise them with something different. The Last of Us: Part II‘s expanded scope offered even more to appreciate about Naughty Dog’s harrowing post-apocalyptic world, yet the story of conflict between Ellie and newcomer Abby ultimately inspired an earnest and interesting, if at times heated discussion about storytelling in games. Along with being a great follow-up that ratcheted up the white-knuckle tension and anxiety of surviving in a post-apocalyptic world, its achievements in empathetic storytelling made The Last of Us: Part II one of the most unforgettable games of the year, and in PlayStation’s history.
Like its predecessor, The Last of Us: Part II strives to tell a similarly profound story about the bonds that can form in the bleakest of circumstances, while this time introducing a second protagonist to both compliment and complicate a plot that is already wrought with heavy themes of morality. The Last of Us: Part II puts you in control of characters that are in uncomfortable positions so that it–and by extension you–are forced to examine the human condition and cycle of violence in the harshest of times.
The Last of Us: Part II is a revenge story, and the game’s presentation is remarkably effective at getting you invested in the initial pursuit of righting a certain wrong. After the game’s shocking opening act, which introduced us to Abby, Ellie proceeds with her odyssey across the country, going through that familiar yet engrossing cycle of survival, exploration, and heart-pounding battles to the death.
Playing The Last of Us: Part II feels satisfying and invigorating. There’s a rush of adrenaline when facing off against rival factions or hordes of feral infected, whether you barely scrape by or take down your foes before they even know what hit them. There’s a sense that the game presents its violence in a way that will always come off as cruel and unforgiving even in the name of survival, which effectively places you in that bleak atmosphere where you’re forced to adapt to every situation the game throws at you.
Aside from the carnage, The Last of Us: Part II still shows remarkable tenderness and heartfelt moments that break this tension. Instances where Ellie and her girlfriend Dina talk about watching old movies like Point Break with Joel, or when Ellie remembers visiting an old museum, feel life-affirming–and are all the more effective when contrasted with their bleak realities in the present day. It’s a difficult thing to balance, but The Last of Us: Part II succeeds at placing you in a world that can be surprisingly friendly and caring, yet demonstrably cruel and unjust. To survive its world, you have to adapt to the circumstances, but doing so often comes at a personal cost.
The Last of Us: Part II is a story bolstered by its characters, and seeing the sequel examine Ellie–one of the most iconic characters in gaming–through a sobering lens led to some of the most powerful and uncomfortable narrative moments of 2020.
This is a game that, when the storytelling hits its highest highs, plunges the player into deep emotional lows. While this can make for a grueling experience, it’s still fulfilling to see events and character moments play out, and witness the nature of people bent and twisted by an unforgiving world filled with uncompromising people. There’s a pervading sense of dread and sadness in watching Ellie’s spiral into violence. Though it seemed justified from the outset, the game recontextualizes actions in a way that turns assuredness in your–and Ellie’s–actions into self-doubt and even guilt. However, in its most profound moments, The Last of Us: Part II illustrated that Ellie, above all, was an adult who was fallible and could make catastrophic errors in judgment.
The switch to Abby in the game’s second half is a significant turning point in the sequel. From here, we see Ellie not as the protagonist who survived David’s camp in the first game, or as someone who had a peaceful reprieve with Dina in the sequel’s opening act, but as the antagonist of someone else’s story. If Ellie is the spine of the game, then Abby is its heart. The swap to Abby offered a rare and unique opportunity to examine Ellie and the chaotic events of the original game through the lens of someone who had gone through her own share of anguish.
What makes The Last of Us: Part II’s approach to storytelling work is that it presents its revenge story from different sides, while examining Ellie with unflinching scrutiny. Abby, meanwhile, isn’t innocent in her story, but her side is still a heartbreaking experience that ultimately feels more redemptive than it would initially seem. You see firsthand the slow deterioration of her inner circle following the end of her overzealous quest for revenge in the opening act, which gives rise to some unexpected growth with her eventual bond with outcasts Lev and Yara. In addition to the highs it reaches with the story, Abby’s arc also includes some of the game’s most intense and gripping gameplay sequences, with a particular highlight being the descent into a ruined hospital that houses one of the scariest monsters to ever grace the series.
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At its heart, The Last of Us: Part II is a story bolstered by its characters, and seeing the sequel examine Ellie–one of the most iconic characters in gaming–through a sobering lens led to some of the most powerful and uncomfortable narrative moments of 2020. The addition of Abby heightened this sense of discomfort, yet the character manages to present some much needed perspective on the state of the game’s world beyond the scope of the previous protagonists. For these reasons, The Last of Us: Part II also became one of the more controversial games of the year.
The Last of Us: Part II’s choices in gameplay and presentation may not always make for a smooth landing, and it often takes a long time to see its payoff, but it manages to provoke a discussion and emotional response in the ways that matter. It can inspire impassioned conflicts and challenge beliefs, but does so in ways that foster growth and encourage seeking out new perspectives on the bleak setting of the series. With its story set in a morally ambiguous world where every character carries the scars of trauma, the sequel presents a question: Who among them gets to decide who’s in the right? The Last of Us: Part II makes many brave and profound choices with its focus on the toxic cycle of violence and its study of Ellie as a character–and not just as a protagonist. In doing so, it is one of the most engrossing and painful experiences of the year, and it’s a game you should not miss out on.
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Oh, scalpers. The bane of everybody’s lives, and one of the major forces behind next-generation console and PC hardware scarcity. Gamers this year were frustrated at not only the competitive process of getting a standard-priced console from retailers, but also the sky-high second-hand prices set by scalpers looking to make a profit.
So exactly how much did scalpers make off of this new set of hardware? Data engineer Michael Driscoll created an analysis that tried to answer the question (via Tom’s Hardware). He processed sold listings on eBay for PS5 and Xbox consoles, as well as AMD and Nvidia graphics cards, and recorded the median percentage of the manufacturer’s suggested price (MSRP) that a certain hardware type sold for since launch. Take note that he only pulled US listings, so it’s not a global resell market estimate.
To no one’s surprise, scalpers made a killing on the PS5, specifically the standard version. Since November, it has consistently sold for more than 250% of its suggested retail price. Considering a standard PS5 edition retails at $500, that means people were consistently paying above $1250 for a console. Driscoll commented, “Over 32,000 PS5s have been sold on eBay, resulting in scalpers netting $19 million in profits.” The disc-less edition sold above 125% MSRP and at a maximum of 200% MSRP, staying between $500 and $800.
Interestingly, Driscoll noted that the PS5 sold around 13% more units on the eBay resell market than the Xbox Series X and at an 18% higher cost. But if you were worried about scalpers’ profit margin from the Xbox next-gen consoles, don’t be. The Series X consistently sold above 140% MSRP–so more than $700–since launch date, and sold more than the Series S. In total, Driscoll estimates that scalpers made $9 million from Xbox Series X and Series S resells.
Concluding his analysis, Driscoll notes that scalpers made $82 million in sales and $39 million in profit since September from next-gen consoles, as well as new Nvidia and AMD hardware. Though not all the profits funneled into resellers’ pockets; eBay and PayPal took a cut of around $6.6 million and $2.4 million, respectively.
The reseller market is likely much larger, since people also sell items on Facebook Marketplace, Twitter DMs, and more informal platforms. Driscoll conservatively guesses that the real scalping market is at least 2-5x bigger. That means scalpers probably as a whole made a lot more on top of Driscoll’s eBay analysis.
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Fortnite got a big performance and visual boost for early adopters of the PS5 and Xbox Series X, but Epic Games wants to share the love with PC gamers as well. The studio behind the battle royale is adding a performance mode on December 15.
“We’re launching a new performance mode on all PCs that meet Fortnite’s minimum specifications,” reads a post on Epic Games’ official site. “Available in Alpha, Performance Mode will be selectable through the in-game settings menu and offers significant performance gains by trading out visual quality to lower memory usage and lighten the load on CPU and GPU.”
Due to the addition of Performance Mode, please note that the patch size of the upcoming v15.10 will be larger than normal on PC for players who have high resolution textures installed (approx. 23 GB).https://t.co/uY3JTQPZwQ
Epic Games says that this new mode should help PC players, even those who run the game on the lowest settings possible, enjoy a smoother frame rate.
Players will need to opt in to the feature, which can be found in the game’s settings menu, starting on December 15. Epic also advised players to opt-out of using high resolution textures which can be found in the “Fortnite PC Settings Options” menu.
Epic Games has also started to offer in-game rewards for players who get their friends play Fortnite with them. The “Reboot a Friend” program is similar to other referral programs, granting a series of rewards the more matches you play with the lapsed players that you’ve brought back. Maybe they’ll want to come to see how much the game has changed–with characters like Kratos, Michonne from the Walking Dead, and Master Chief in the battle royale.
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Syfy has dropped a trailer for its upcoming series Resident Alien. It follows an alien who crash lands on our planet in Patience, Colorado and poses as Dr. Harry Vanderspeigle while he awaits a rescue after carrying out his mission to kill all humans. It’s actually a bit more complicated than that, as the alien gets sidelined after being roped into solving a local murder–meaning he must assimilate into his new world before destroying it. It’s hard to convey the humor that’s infused through the high-stakes tone the show trucks in, so see for yourself in the new clip below.
Due to premiere on January 27 on SyFy, the show is an adaptation of the Dark Horse comic series co-created by Peter Hogan and Steve Parkhouse, which ran from 2012 through to 2018. The trailer looks promising and strikes a fun balance between humor and drama, which isn’t a shock given its star Alan Tudyk (Firefly, Rogue One), and the fact that the show is executive produced by Chris Sheridan (Family Guy). The show’s cast also includes Sara Tomko (Once Upon a Time), Corey Reynolds (The Closer), Alice Wetterlund (Silicon Valley), and Levi Fiehler (Mars).
A SyFy release further telegraphs the show’s emphasis on balancing comedy and drama, explaining Vanderspeigle’s struggle to assimilate sees him “wrestl[ing] with the moral dilemma of his mission and asking the big life questions like: ‘Are human beings worth saving?’ and ‘Why do they fold their pizza before eating it?'”
Based on the trailer, though, most of the show’s laughs will be mined from Tudyk’s pitch-perfect embodiment of an alien exerting great effort to seem not only normal, but human.
We’re halfway through December, and the holidays are right around the corner. However, most people already have their holiday movies planned and want to know what else is coming to Netflix this week. Well, it’s an interesting lineup where you can watch Chadwick Boseman’s final film, a music documentary featuring Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, and a few reality TV shows where people yell at each other for no reason at all.
On Friday, Boseman’s final performance comes to Netflix. In Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Boseman plays Levee, a trumpeter looking to make a name for himself in the music industry. Based on the play by August Wilson, the story also follows a recording session in Chicago during the 1920s where the Mother of Blues, Ma Rainey, is late to her own session as she battles with her music manager. Check out the trailer below.
Arriving on Tuesday is another round of Song Exploder. Based on the podcast of the same name, the series explores musicians and how they wrote some of their most influential songs. Season 1 featured Alicia Keys, Lin-Manuel Miranda, R.E.M., and Ty Dolla $ign. Season 2 features Dia Lipa discussing “Love Again,” The Killers exploring “When You Were Young,” Natalia Lafourcade explaining “Hasta La Raíz,” and Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails breaking down one of the breakouts from The Downward Spiral, “Hurt,” which was also famously covered by Johnny Cash.
Below, you’ll find everything coming to Netflix this week, which obviously includes some Christmas movies as well. For more info on Netflix, check out what’s coming for the month of December.
Codes for the Mythical Pokemon Zarude are now being distributed to Pokemon Sword and Shield players in the US. The codes are included as part of this month’s Pokemon Trainer Club newsletter, so if you signed up for that before the cutoff date last month, you should find the email waiting in your inbox.
Zarude is the new Mythical Pokemon featured in the series’ latest animated film, Pokemon the Movie: Secrets of the Jungle. The Dark/Grass type is level 60, and it comes equipped with Leftovers and knows the moves Close Combat, Power Whip, Swagger, and Snarl.
To claim the Pokemon, you’ll need to fire up your copy of Sword or Shield and follow these steps:
Select Mystery Gift from the menu screen
Select Get with a Code/Password
Follow the prompts to connect online
Enter the code you received in your email
Although this is US players’ first chance to get Zarude, the Mythical Pokemon was distributed in several countries across Europe last month. If you missed it then, you’ll soon have another opportunity to snag the elusive Rogue Monkey. The Pokemon Company has announced it will likewise distribute Zarude codes to European players via the Pokemon Trainer Club newsletter. You’ll need to sign up for the newsletter by December 18 to receive a code. If you already have a Pokemon Trainer Club account, make sure you’re opted into marketing communications to receive the newsletter.
Zarude isn’t the only Mythical Pokemon up for grabs right now. All players who transfer a Pokemon from Go to Pokemon Home will receive a Melmetal that’s capable of Gigantamaxing as a free bonus. After you’ve made a transfer, you’ll find the Melmetal waiting in your gift box in Pokemon Home.
In other Pokemon news, a new Max Raid event is underway in Pokemon Sword and Shield. All December long, players will have a better chance of encountering certain Fire and Ice Pokemon–including Weavile, Turtonator, Kantonian Rapidash, and Gigantamax Lapras and Centiskorch–in Max Raid dens. February 2021 also marks the Pokemon series’ 25th anniversary, and The Pokemon Company has already started teasing an anniversary celebration of some sort.
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Something new and weird is happening over on The Witcher Netflix series’ Twitter, which has recently sounded a clarion call for “the six days of Witchmas.” The thread–which you can see the beginning of below–indicates that starting December 15 and for the following six consecutive days, gifts (which are only referred to as “content”) will be given out a day after fans are given the opportunity to vote.
I come bearing an invitation to a special #Witchmas celebration! You are cordially invited to the 6 DAYS OF WITCHMAS, a holiday feast where nobody has to mingle, and everybody receives a gift!
It seems the account is putting a flare out to announce it will be holding a series of Twitter polls, which will allow fans to decide what new screenshots or other assets (video or sound clips, maybe?) will be “gifted” to fans through the same account. The event will end on December 21, so hopefully there will be some more clarity at the latest by then, if not sooner once it gets underway. In hindsight, this Twitter event was teased in a YouTube clip last month, but it all still raises more questions than answers at this early date.
Meanwhile, the series restarted production on The Witcher Season 2 back in August. Like many other series, it had to retool to accommodate COVID safety protocols. However, with all precautions honored, the series has had two pauses due to positive COVID-19 tests. What’s worse, star Henry Cavill has reportedly sustained a minor leg injury–and the production is continuing without him for the moment. Hopefully, in the end, the show will not have suffered for all these complications–and for all involved to still be safe.
