Things have been a little quiet on the PlayStation 5 front lately, but Sony has started drip-feeding us small amounts of information. Of course, it’s not enough to quench our thirst, but at this point, we’ll take whatever we can get. The relatively reserved approach Sony has taken on delivering details has us wondering what its strategy is, and that’s exactly what the subject of this episode of Generation Next is about.
Lucy, Jordan, and Tamoor talk through Sony’s decision to stay tight-lipped about all things PS5 and what it means for people that are currently thinking about making new console purchasing decisions. They also reflect on how this strategy impacts Microsoft, as it also gears up to launch the Xbox Series X/S in the same period.
From there, the team hits all the information that Sony has provided in the last week. This includes small details on how the DualSense controller identifies different players, how much hard drive space is allegedly taken up by the OS, and the decision to swap the function of two buttons around in Japan.
On top of that, there’s a discussion about the Tempest 3D Audio Engine (which won’t work at full capacity when the console launches), the official PS5 teardown video, and the recent Trophy changes, among other things.
Generation Next is GameSpot’s weekly video show all about the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Each Friday, join PlayStation Pro Tamoor Hussain, Xbox Xpert Jordan Ramée, and Console Connoisseur Lucy James as they discuss the biggest stories about the new consoles.
Disney+ may be the main hub for MCU content in terms of streaming services but Hulu isn’t abandoning its Marvel roster. Hulu’s Helstrom, a live-action supernatural thriller is just around the corner and will soon be joined by Marvel’s MODOK, an animated comedy done in the stop-motion style of classics like Adult Swim’s Robot Chicken. At New York Comic Con’s digital Metaverse event, the cast and crew presented a first look at the series to give fans an idea of exactly what’s in store for the off-beat streaming TV show.
The show stars Patton Oswalt as MODOK, Aimee Garcia as his wife Jodie, Ben Schwartz as his son Lou, and Melissa Fumero as his daughter Melissa. The show centers around MODOK’s villainous organization, AIM, as it goes through some hard times–they’re bankrupt and being bought out by a Silicon Valley tech firm to keep them afloat. So now, in the words of co-creator Jordan Blum, “MODOK is suddenly forced to sit through things like HR meetings.”
So who is MODOK? Well, in Patton Oswalt’s words, he’s a “supervillain who not only hates superheroes, he hates every other supervillain, so it’s just double barreled resentment all the way down.” This is in contrast with his son, the lab-created Lou who Ben Schwartz says “is unlike everyone in his family” and daughter Melissa, who according to Melissa Fumero, “has daddy issues and very much wants to follow in her father’s supervillain footsteps.” Apparently, despite Melissa taking after MODOK (as in, being a giant floating head with baby arms) she’s still the queen bee of her high school.
To cap it all off comes MODOK’s wife Jodie who is a career woman and mommy blogger. In an exclusive clip shared with the panel, we see that Jodie is a successful entrepreneur who would ideally like to see MODOK give up his supervillain lifestyle because she’s currently bringing in enough money to support the family on her own. Naturally, MODOK, who “doesn’t like change” according to Oswalt, isn’t thrilled with the idea.
Oswalt went on to explain that Jodie has a supervillain arc of her own, but doesn’t realize that it’s a supervillain arc until it’s too late. “In her mind it was like an Eat, Pray, Love thing,” Oswalt said.
The family will be joined by a revolving door of supporting characters and Marvel universe cameos. Blum said that fans can expect to see “A-listers and D-listers and characters you’d have to dig down deep to even find that they ever existed. We pulled from everywhere.” Blum also confirmed that they were even allowed to pull from other Marvel properties like the X-Men, but couldn’t elaborate exactly which mutants may be showing up.
Currently Marvel’s MODOK has no official release date and will be “coming soon” to Hulu.
Like Xbox Series X/S, the PlayStation 5 will support backwards compatibility with the previous generation of games. Sony has said that about 99% of the over 4000 games available on PS4 will be playable on PS5. But, of course, that raises questions. Like, how will saves work across generations? And will PS4 games look the same on PS5?
In the video above, Lucy James walks through the most burning questions that relate to PS5 backwards compatibility. She focuses on talking about PS5’s “Game Boost,” remote play, digital vs. physical, how different it will be to play certain games with a PS5 DualSense as opposed to a PS4 DualShock 4, PSVR, and save transfers.
There’s the big question too: Given that the PS5 will only support 99% of the PS4 library, what 1% of games won’t be able to be played on next-gen? The list of unsupported titles currently includes Robinson: The Journey and Hitman Go: Definitive Edition. Sony will maintain and constantly update a page of all the games that don’t make the cut, though it shouldn’t be too long when all is said and done.
Sony jumps into next-gen just two days after Microsoft, with PlayStation 5 scheduled to release on November 12. The next-gen console will launch with both a standard version and a cheaper all-digital edition, which may save you a bit of cash up-front but could cost you in the long-run. Weeks away from the console’s release, the PS5 launch line-up is beginning to take shape, and includes The Pathless and the Demon’s Souls remake, among others.
Looks like the chapter on Amazon Games’ Crucible is coming to a close. Developer Relentless Studios is shuttering the game after its short-lived lifespan of a few months.
“We’ll be discontinuing development on Crucible,” Relentless Studios wrote in a blog post. “We very much appreciate the way that our fans have rallied around our efforts, and we’ve loved seeing your responses to the changes we’ve made over the last few months, but ultimately we didn’t see a healthy, sustainable future ahead of Crucible.”
Currently, servers for custom games will continue to remain live. But even those will shut down on November 9 at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET. All credit purchases are being disabled and refunds will be made to anyone who’s already made any in-game purchases in Crucible.
With Crucible soon to be dead-and-buried, Relentless Studios will focus its efforts on New World as well as “other upcoming projects” for Amazon Games. Originally scheduled to release earlier this year, New World has been delayed to Spring 2021.
Crucible had a rather unusual release cycle. First existing in closed beta, the game officially launched and was met with mostly mediocre reviews. In GameSpot’s Crucible review, for example, Alessandro Barbosa gave the game a 5/10, writing, “[Crucible’s] enticing characters and their occasionally exhilarating abilities are undermined by the unsatisfying third-person shooting underpinning them.” Relentless Studios decided to “unlaunch” the game following its poor reception, reverting Crucible to closed beta. It was set to eventually relaunch down the line, but apparently that’s no longer the case.
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If you spent enough time around a bunch of humans, would you want to kill them less, or more? Alan Tudyk’s character in Resident Alien will be asking itself the same questions this winter. Syfy has revealed the first seven mintues of its extra-terrestrial dramedy, which you can watch below, at New York Comic Con.
Resident Alien, based on a comic from Dark Horse, stars Alan Tudyk (Doom Patrol, Harley Quinn, Firefly) as Harry, an alien that crashed on earth and has to pass himself off as a human doctor living in a small Colorado town. When he gets involved in helping solve a local murder, he begins to question his mission to kill all of humankind.
Along with Tudyk, Resident Alien stars Sara Tomoko (Once Upon a Time), Corey Reynolds (The Closer), Alice Wetterlund (Silicon Valley) and Levi Fiehler (Mars). Chris Sheridan (Family Guy) serves as showrunner and executive producer. The series is still in production but Syfy says the crew is already back in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Resident Alien is set to premiere on Syfy in January 2021.
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The first change is a level cap increase. Previously, players could reach a level as high as 16. But now, the studio has made it possible for players to reach level 25. Additionally, Treyarch has added the 6v6 mode VIP Escort to the Cartel, Crossroads, Miami, and Moscow maps.
A series of weapons and equipment–including the AK-74u, tactical mask, SAM Turret, smoke grenade, and others–have also been added as unlocks following the level cap increase.
Elsewhere, the patch addresses several bugs that lead to game crashes. This includes issues with Operator selection and destroyed SAM Turrets still hitting targets. The update also irons out problems with player names being invisible in the pre-match lobby and controllers becoming unresponsive when loading into a match. Check below for the full patch notes.
Full Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Beta Patch Notes
New 6v6 Mode: VIP Escort on Cartel, Crossroads, Miami, and Moscow.
Level Cap Increase from 16 to 25.
Unlocks for the Krig 6, AK-74u, SAM Turret, War Machine, Tactical Mask, Gas Mine, Smoke Grenade, Tracker, and more.
Updated description for the Assassin Perk.
Fixed an issue where a controller could become unresponsive when loading into a match.
Fixed a crash that could occur while selecting Operators in the front end.
Fixed a crash that could occur when a SAM Turret missile hit a target when the turret was destroyed.
Fixed an issue where other players’ names were not visible in the pre-match lobby.
This series of updates follow a recent patch Treyarch dropped for the beta. The patch made detailed changes to the beta, including character movement adjustments and weapon tweaks.
The Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War beta opens to all PlayStation 4 players from October 10-12. The second beta period runs from October 15-16 and will welcome PC and Xbox One preorder customers, as well as all PS4 owners. Then, from October 17-19, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s beta opens to everyone on all platforms.
Green Lantern has received a 10-episode, straight-to-series order from HBO Max. Billed as a one-hour drama, Seth Grahame-Smith (IT, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter) will serve as showrunner and co-write with Marc Guggenheim. What’s most interesting, though, about today’s announcement from HBO Max is which famous Green Lantern Corps members will apparently not be on the show.
While it says the series “will depict the adventures of a multitude of Lanterns,” the official logline for Green Lantern makes no mention of iconic Lanterns Hal Jordan and John Stewart:
“From HBO Max, DC, Berlanti Productions and Warner Bros. Television comes a bold adaptation of the iconic comic book franchise, a saga spanning decades and galaxies. GREEN LANTERN will depict the adventures of a multitude of Lanterns, including Guy Gardner, Jessica Cruz, Simon Baz and Alan Scott — Earth’s first Green Lantern, who, true to the comics, is a gay man — and many more. The series will also include fan favorites such as Sinestro and Kilowog, and will also introduce new heroes to the ranks of the Green Lantern Corps.”
While Sinestro and Kilowog are aliens, the rest of the listed protagonists are all Earthlings.
Alan Scott was actually the original Golden Age Green Lantern, while Guy Gardner was a 1980s creation known for his pugnacious personality and bowl cut hairdo.
More recent characters Jessica Cruz and Simon Baz will bring some diversity to the ranks as the first Latina and Muslim members of the Green Lantern Corps.
While not stated, it’s possible HBO Max’s parent company Warner Bros. are holding on to the DC characters of Hal Jordan and John Stewart for another Green Lantern feature film.
Green Lantern’s last big-screen outing was, of course, the 2011 disappointment starring Ryan Reynolds as Hal Jordan. That movie also featured the characters of Sinestro and Kilowog.
The cast and executive producers of BBC America’s The Watch hit New York Comic Con’s virtual event today to discuss the new series, which is an adaptation of the late, beloved Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series of comic/fantasy novels. A trailer and several clips were also revealed for the show. Read on for the details of what happened at the panel, and be sure to also check out our preview of the NYCC 2020 panels we’re most excited about.
According to BBC America, The Watch focuses on “an unlikely group of misfits, The City Watch, [who] find the guts to save the world, surprising even themselves in the process. The comedic yet thrilling series pits trolls, werewolves, wizards and other improbable heroes against an evil plot to resurrect a great dragon which would lead to the destruction of life as they know it.”
Series stars Richard Dormer (Game of Thrones), Lara Rossi (I May Destroy You), Adam Hugill (1917), Jo Eaton-Kent (Don’t Forget the Driver), and Marama Corlett (Blood Drive) headed up the NYCC panel along with executive producers Simon Allen (The Musketeers) and Richard Stokes (Broadchurch).
Stokes explained that when developing The Watch, it became clear that none of the Discworld books individually lend themselves very well to an eight-part television series, which is what they were making. “So we had to do a sort of pick and mix of the best bits across the range of books and invent our own series, invent our own world,” he said. “And that’s where, with everyone’s blessing, Simon came in, who was able to do his own unique and original take on the characters and the stories. And that was attractive to BBC America, to have a show that was original, had a sort of anarchic, irreverent wit to it. You don’t need to know the books to be able to enjoy the series.”
Allen talked about the band of improbable heroes at the center of the story. “The City Watch … are these kind of flawed but adorable band of magical misfits in a corrupt fantasy city that they’re kind of loitering in the margins of when we meet them,” said the EP. “The world that [Pratchett] wrote and that we base our show in is so kind of warped and upside-down and off its axis.”
A variety of clips from the series were unveiled during the panel. The first began with a title card taken from the books: “Somewhere in a distant secondhand set of dimensions.” In it, we find Richard Dormer as Captain Sam Vimes as he meets Death itself. Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Selma) is voicing Death in the show, it was revealed during the panel, and Pierce even did a short voice-only Q&A after the clip (in character as Death).
The next clip featured Dormer’s character meeting Lara Rossi’s Lady Sybil Ramkin. Vimes is in chains along with several other prisoners as Lady Sybil enters, leaving a hellscape of fire behind her in the previous room… though her arm is on fire just a tad. Vimes tries to tell her this, but she insists he raise his hand before speaking, like a child in school, which is fairly difficult because, again, he’s in chains. It’s all very over-the-top, and anyone expecting Dormer’s more stolid approach from Game of Thrones will be surprised by the array of comedic facial tics and exaggerated expressions he brings to his character here.
This carried over to his answer during the panel when he was asked that old chestnut of a question: How did you approach the role?
“Ooooh, the boots,” he said. “I had a great pair of boots. And I just thought it’s all about the walk. And it’s about a man who’s downtrodden. Nobody listens to him, he’s dissolute, he’s an alcoholic. He’s pretty low in his life.”
Rossi explained that Lady Sybil is a character who has a problem with the way her world operates. “She decides that it’s wrong and she wants to do something about it, and she takes matters into her own hands,” she says. “She’s also extremely pompous and entitled and makes mistakes and she kind of learns from them, and she knows that she’s always trying her best, but she’s always on a mission on her own very much.”
The next clip introduced Adam Hugill as Constable Carrot, Jo Eaton-Kent as Constable Cheery, and Marama Corlett as Corporal Angua as Vimes ingests some “poison” which causes him to go blind before having a vision of “stars, the universe, so many worlds…” All of which pop up on screen floating around his head as they might Daffy Duck in a Looney Tunes short. And that’s before things go off the rails due to the concentration of poison, with Vimes being “driven through sobriety and out the other side of it.” The City Watch assemble!
Look for The Watch on BBC American in January, 2021.
While Marvel Comics recently wrapped up its Avengers/Fantastic Four team-up Empyre and kicked off the X-Men crossover X of Swords, the publisher is saving arguably its biggest event comic for the end of 2020. King in Black is the climax of writer Donny Cates and artist Ryan Stegman’s Venom saga so far, and the creators are teasing some profound changes for Eddie Brock in the wake of this crossover.
Both Cates and Stegman headlined Marvel’s “Venom: King in Black” panel at NYCC 2020. The duo discussed their latest collaboration and how this new story serves as the final part of a trilogy that began in 2018’s Venom: Rex and continued in 2019’s Absolute Carnage. But even though the start of King in Black is still nearly two months away, they weren’t afraid to hint at the major fallout of the crossover and tease the upcoming Venom #200.
“The events of King in Black change Eddie Brock in a profound way,” said Cates. “I know that we here at Marvel say that all the time. We say, ‘This is a game-changing thing! This character will never be the same. The universe will never be the same.’ I like to think I’ve never said it and it not come true. But this is a fundamental change to Eddie Brock and his place in the larger universe and his place as a Marvel character going forward.”
Stegman added, “Pretty much, good luck to whoever has to work on it after us.”
Interestingly, Stegman’s comment seems to confirm that both he and Cates are finished with Venom after King in Black wraps up in early 2021. However, Marvel isn’t yet confirming whether the series is due for a creative team change next year.
King in Black #2 cover by Ryan Stegman. (Image Credit: Marvel)
Cates did, however, reveal that Venom will temporarily revert to its legacy numbering when the series reaches the issue #200 milestone immediately after King in Black #5.
“The issue right after King in Black is Venom #200,” said Cates. “[King in Black is] earth-shattering and insane and it’s oversized. It’s filled with things that I’ve been imagining in my head since I was a little kid. And right after that, Ryan and I are doing issue #200 – Venom’s 200th issue.”
Cates continued, “It’s gonna be a really, really, really special issue, and it’s gonna be the beginning of something new – the beginning of something you’ve never seen before from Eddie, that you’ve never seen before in the dynamic between him and his family and his symbiote… It’s a really special issue that will set the stage for the next 200 to 2000 to 2 million issues of that amazing character going forward.”
A variety of clips from the series were unveiled during the panel. The first began with a title card taken from the books: “Somewhere in a distant secondhand set of dimensions.” In it, we find Richard Dormer as Captain Sam Vimes as he meets Death itself. Wendell Pierce (The Wire, Selma) is voicing Death in the show, it was revealed during the panel, and Pierce even did a short voice-only Q&A after the clip (in character as Death).