Category: Games

A movie based on Ghost of Tsushima is in the works, with John Wick’s Chad Stahelski attached to direct it, according to a report from Deadline.

The movie is coming from Sony Pictures and PlayStation Productions, the internal company that is charged with adapting Sony’s video game franchises for TV and film. PlayStation Studios is also behind the Uncharted movie with Tom Holland and the Last of Us TV show with HBO.

Sucker Punch, the developer of Ghost of Tsushima, is an executive producer on the movie.

“We’re excited to be partnering with Chad and 87Eleven Entertainment, to bring their vision of Jin’s story to the big screen,” PlayStation Productions boss Asad Qizilbash said. “We love working with creative partners like Chad, who have a passion for our games, ensuring we can create rich adaptations that will excite our fans and new audiences.”

It’s still early days for the Ghost of Tsushima movie, and there is no word yet on the cast or when filming may begin. Similarly, the film has no release date yet.

It’s just the latest video game to get spun into a film, as it was just recently announced that Rebellion’s Sniper Elite is coming to the big screen from the producers of the Assassin’s Creed movie.

Back 4 Blood has been pushed to October 12, 2021, a delay of nearly four months from its previous date. In a statement, Turtle Rock Studios said it needs more time to make the zombie co-op shooter. On the bright side, it will be offering another chance at the beta in the meantime.

“Turtle Rock Studios is working hard to make Back 4 Blood the best game it can possibly be at launch and the team needs more time to do this,” the studio said in a statement on Twitter. “Therefore, we will release Back 4 Blood on October 12, 2021. We thank our community for its continued support and are excited to share that there will be an open beta this summer.”

The release date had previously been set for June 22. This explanation notably does not cite the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which has impacted development for many games and studios in the past year.

Turtle Rock hosted a brief PC alpha test last year. It did state at the time that players should “stay tuned for more opportunities to play the game in the future.”

Back 4 Blood is Turtle Rock’s shot at creating a new property similar to Left 4 Dead, with a team of four players working together to fend off hordes of vicious zombies. You play as a group of humean “Cleaners” fighting against zombie “Ridden.” It will sport both cooperative PvE and competitive PvP, the latter of which will have teams taking turns playing as both the Cleaners and Ridden sides. Turtle Rock does see room for improvement on the classic, though, saying it wants to facilitate better teamwork.

Many more details about MLB The Show 21 have come to light, including updates on helping new players learn the basics, new two-way player abilities, more animations, and the Stadium-creator feature. Sony announced these new details in a blog post, and we’re rounding up the key highlights here.

Easier For Newcomers

Described as “the friendliest Show yet,” MLB The Show 21 includes a number of features to help learn the ropes. This includes a new “route to ball indicator” that shows you the best approach to take to field the ball, an improved throw accuracy meter, and other assists for jumping and diving. There is also a brand-new Casual mode that teaches you the basics. You can graduate out of Casual and try more advanced difficulty modes later on.

A New Player Type

New for MLB The Show 21 is the ability to create a two-way player, which means a player who excels at both offense and defense. Players can use their created character across Road to the Show, the online mode Diamond Dynasty, and others.

More Animations

There are lots of new animation and stances in MLB The Show 21, including more than 100 that are based on the real-world actions of players in the league for bat flips, home run swings, and tosses. There are 140 new batting stances, 250 batting stances that have been made over, 160 new pitching animations, and 180 redone pitching animations. There are also 1,000 new fielding animations to help the game look more realistic.

Stadium Creator

Probably the biggest and most-exciting new feature for MLB The Show 21 is the Stadium Creator, which allows players to make whatever they want. PlayStation’s Ramone Russell told GameSpot this is the biggest new feature for the game in the past 10-15 years. Available only on next-gen platforms, the Stadium Creator has more than 1,000 props that players can use to create the field of their dreams. And it’s not limited to the real world, as players can create floating UFOs that hover in the background. These creations can be shared with friends and the community at large, and Russell tells GameSpot there will be a moderation system to help keep griefing and other bad behavior to a minimum.

More To Be Announced Later

For every Thursday until launch, PlayStation will announce more features and details for MLB The Show 21. Some of the upcoming reveals include more information on the next-gen updates, new details on Diamond Dynasty, and fresh insight on the franchise mode.

MLB The Show 21 launches on April 20 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. For more, check out GameSpot’s interview with Russell where he talks about bringing the game to Xbox and more.

March 25 is a special day in the Lord of the Rings universe. It was on March 25, in the year 3019 of the Third Age, that The One Ring and Sauron were destroyed at Mt. Doom. Frodo’s perilous journey began the prior September, and he struggled for months to bring the Ring to Mordor and eventually cast it into the fire from whence it came.

What actually happened was Gollum stole the ring again from Frodo, but he fell into the Cracks of Doom, thus destroying the Ring and ridding Middle-earth of the great terror.

The internet is celebrating this momentous Middle-earth memory. Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt marked the Gondorian New Year, as it’s known, with a tweet featuring an image of the white tree of Gondor. Plenty of other people on Twitter and across social media are celebrating the occasion as well.

Tolkien, who was Christian, likely did not randomly choose March 25 for such an important day in Middle-earth history. March 25 is also known in religious circles to be the day of creation, when God decreed, “Let there be light.”

Another important event that happened in Middle-earth on March 25 was the birth of Elanor the Fair, the daughter of Samwise Gamgee and Rosie Cotton. In giving Elanor this birthday, Tolkien is seemingly discussing life and death coming full circle.

You can read more about important Middle-earth events for March 25 on Tolkien Gateway.

As it happens, Daedalic will announce more details on its new game, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum later today during the Future Games Show, and it’s probably no coincidence this is happening on March 25.

The Gollum game is not the only new Lord of the Rings title in the works, as Amazon is developing a new free-to-play Lord of the Rings MMO. Additionally, The Lord of the Rings Online is reportedly coming to PS5 and Xbox Series X in the future.

Outside of games, Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV series continues production, just recently bringing on Doctor Who and Preacher director Wayne Che Yip.

Humankind, the 4X strategy game from Amplitude Studios, has been delayed to August 2021. The studio said it is taking extra time to implement changes based on the feedback of early players from the game’s OpenDev program.

“Through the OpenDev program, you have given us invaluable feedback on the game. While Humankind is already a great game, many of you think it could be even better, and after analyzing all your great feedback, we realized that we could make even further improvements to make Humankind the best game that it can be,” the studio said. “These improvements take time, however, so we have decided to move the release date.”

The new release date for Humankind is August 17, 2021.

“This will give us time to further polish the game for a great day one experience, address the feedback from the OpenDev scenarios, and keep working with our community to improve the game,” the studio said. “We want to thank you all for your passion for our dream, the feedback you have given, and the support for this decision many of you have already expressed.”

Now until release, Amplitude will be focusing on improving Humankind’s pacing and balancing across numerous gameplay systems and features, as well as further enhancing the game’s diplomacy tools. The studio will also take more time to improve the onboarding experience, while the studio is looking to enhance the user interface and overall experience in various areas. You can read Amplitude’s ridiculously in-depth blog post here to learn more.

Amplitude also released some early stats for Humankind from its OpenDev release, and this includes 26,000 games played, 2.7 million turns played, and 8.5 million districts built. Check out the infographic above to see more stats.

For more on Humankind, check out GameSpot’s preview, Making History In Humankind Makes 4X Less Confusing.