Category: Games

Since Pokemon Go‘s first Legendary Lunch Hour back in March, Niantic has experimented with hosting hour-long Raid events at different times of the day, and now more are coming this month. The developer has announced it is holding a Legendary Raid Hour each week in June, giving players more chances to participate in Raid Battles and catch Legendary Pokemon.

The Legendary Raid Hour will take place every Wednesday this month from 6-7 PM local time. During that time, five-star Raids featuring the game’s current Legendary Pokemon will occur more often than usual. Niantic recently announced it will bring three Legendaries back over the next few weeks, and you’ll have extra chances to catch two of these thanks to the Legendary Raid Hours.

The Psychic-type Cresselia is the current Legendary Pokemon; it’ll be available until June 18. From June 18-27, the Water-type Kyogre will return to Raids, and from June 27 to July 10, its counterpart Groudon will make an encore appearance. This time around, players will also have a chance to encounter Shiny versions of each Legendary Pokemon when they return to Raids. You can read more details on the Pokemon Go website.

Shortly after this month’s first Legendary Raid Hour, Niantic will be holding Pokemon Go’s next Community Day on Saturday, June 8. The featured Pokemon this month will be Slakoth, the adorable sloth from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. If you can evolve it into its final form, Slaking, up to an hour after the Community Day ends, it’ll learn an event-exclusive move. On top of that, Eggs will hatch at a quarter of their usual distance during this month’s Community Day.

The Pokemon Go Adventure Week event is also returning soon. From June 4-11, more Rock Pokemon such as Geodude, Rhyhorn, Omanyte, and Aron will spawn in the wild, and Rock-types like Onix will appear as Raid bosses. Players will also have a chance of finding Shiny versions of Onix, Lileep, and Anorith, as well as earning extra Candy and XP during the event.

Daniel Craig is playing James Bond for a fifth and presumably final time with 2020’s James Bond 25, but who will take over once Craig says goodbye?

A number of names have been mentioned, one of which is Thor actor Chris Hemsworth. Speaking to Variety, Hemsworth said he’s open to the idea of playing the super-spy in a future movie. He also likes another actor for the role: Idris Elba.

“My vote would be Idris [Elba],” he said. “I think he’d give it a different sort of swagger, too, and each time someone new comes into the role, I think you’ve got to offer up something different.”

In 2016, Elba said he thought he was “too old” to play James Bond, also stating that no one from the production team had approached him. But in 2018, Training Day director Antoine Fuqua said he spoke with Bond series producer Barbara Broccoli about the possibility of a non-white actor playing 007. Broccoli told him that “it is time” for a more progressive casting decision, and that it “will happen eventually.” Fuqua also said Elba was a frontrunner for the role. “Idris could do it if he was in shape,” Fuqua said. “You need a guy with physically strong presence. Idris has that.”

Other actors besides Hemsworth and Elba whose names have come up in the discussion about playing Bond after Craig include Tom Hiddleston and Richard Madden.

James Bond 25, or whatever it ends up being called, hits theatres in April 2020. Craig recently suffered an ankle injury and needed surgery to repair it. Despite that, the movie is not delayed.

In addition to Craig, Ralph Fiennes, Naomie Harris, and Lea Seydoux will all reprise their roles for the 25th James Bond movie. Jeffrey Wright and Ben Whishaw also return.

Actors new to the series for Bond 25 include Rami Malek, Billy Magnussen, Ana De Armas, David Dencik, Lashana Lynch, and Dali Benssalah. Malek will seemingly play the film’s villain, as he said he’s looking forward to make sure “Bond does not have an easy ride.”

Bond 25’s story begins with Bond no longer on active service but instead enjoying himself in Jamaica. “His peace is short-lived when his old friend Felix Leiter from the CIA turns up asking for help,” reads a lin efrom the description. “The mission to rescue a kidnapped scientist turns out to be far more treacherous than expected, leading Bond onto the trail of a mysterious villain armed with dangerous new technology.”

The movie was initially going to be directed by Danny Boyle, but he left due to “creative differences.” True Detective’s Cary Fukunaga replaced Boyle before the film was delayed first from October 2019 to February 2020 and then again to April 3, 2020.

Sarah Schachner will return to the Call of Duty series to do the music for this year’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare reboot. Schachner said on Twitter that she “couldn’t be more thankful” to work on the game, and contribute again to the Call of Duty series.

Schachner also did the music for Infinity Ward’s 2016 game Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare. Outside of the Call of Duty series, she also scored Assassin’s Creed Origins and Anthem. She’s also contributed to huge movies like Iron Man 3 and The Expendables 2.

It’s not a continuation of the Modern Warfare trilogy but rather a reboot of sorts of the 2007 game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare. Captain Price is back as a main character, with some of the storylines involving Russia and the Middle East.

“The world we live in right now is more complex than the world was in 2007, or 2009, or even 2011,” narrative director Taylor Kurosaki said. “Even now the world that we live in, the battlefield is less defined than it’s ever been, and because it’s less defined and because enemies no longer really wear uniforms a lot of the time, that means that civilian collateral damage is a greater part of the equation more so now than it’s ever been.”

“So what does that mean? It means we’re creating circumstances where, as storytellers, we are taking these characters, and we are putting them into complex situations with a lot of pressure on them, and how they respond to that pressure reveals their true nature.”

In other news, it’s been confirmed that the new Modern Warfare supports cross-play and that it will not have a season pass. For lots more, check out the story linked below.

Disney has released a new TV spot for The Lion King, and this one for the first trailer showcases Beyonce’s character, Nala. The spot is called “Come Home,” and it covers the sequence in the movie where Nala convinces Simba (Donald Glover) to return home to save Pride Rock.

“Simba, you have to take your place as king. We need you. Come home.”

In addition to teasing out some of the drama when Simba returns home, the new trailer briefly teases the playful and silly comedic duo of Timon and Pumbaa, who are voiced by Billy Eichner and Seth Rogen respectively.

This new spot for The Lion King follows the release of lots of character posters that Disney put out last week. You can see the posters in the gallery below; click through to see them all.

The Lion King opens in theatres on July 19. It is directed by Jon Favreau with a script from Jeff Nathanson, who previously wrote the Steven Spielberg movie Catch Me If You Can starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

James Earl Jones returns in The Lion King as Mufasa, while Chiwetel Ejiofor voices Scar.

5. Blade

The first Marvel movie with a superhero of color, and the movie that jumpstarted the superhero movie renaissance of the early 2000s, Blade gave us the coolest-looking vampire hunter in Wesley Snipes, and the best action in a superhero movie to date, with Hong Kong-worthy bursts of bullets and action mayhem.

Blade is an action movie first and a comic book movie second, yet it still manages to blend martial arts with slasher horror in a way we haven’t seen before or since. Thankfully, despite its focus on action, the movie doesn’t skimp on the crowd-pleasing horror and gore. The bloodsucking beasts are gruesome, and the blood flows like rain. Honestly, we’re due for another one of these.

In anticipation of another big showing at this year’s E3, Microsoft has announced another entry for its line of custom Xbox One consoles, this one themed after Fortnite: Battle Royale, Epic’s zeitgeist-defining competitive shooter. Available starting June 7, the Xbox One S Fortnite Battle Royale Special Edition Bundle (1TB) will normally sell for $300 from the Microsoft Store, but for a limited time in celebration of E3, Microsoft will offer a $50 discount off the bundle through June 17.

In addition to the console itself, which sports a stylish royal(e) purple gradient, the bundle includes a matching purple Xbox wireless controller, a copy of Fortnite, a Dark Vertex cosmetic set for the game (comprising a Legendary Outfit, Epic Glider, and Rare Pickaxe), 2000 in-game V-Bucks, and a one-month free trial Xbox Live Gold and Xbox Game Pass (the former of which is required to play Fortnite). While the base game is free, so much of Fortnite’s culture revolves around cool player cosmetics, so this package should give any new player a leg up in the real battle royale: fashion.

Although Microsoft recently announced a move away from physical media with the reveal of the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition, the Fortnite Battle Royale Special Edition appears to be a holdover from earlier versions with a disc drive. The Fortnite console bundle is launching as part of a huge upcoming Xbox sale on a variety of games, consoles, and accessories–check out all the discounts that’ll be available from June 7 through 17.

The season is finally over. PSG are champions (again), Juventus are champions (again), and Liverpool fans are crying (again, although for a much better reason this year). While there’s more to look forward to in the world’s biggest sport this summer–the Women’s World Cup and UEFA Nations League are bound to be summer highlights–many football fans now have one major date in their diary: the release date of FIFA 20.

FIFA 20’s release date hasn’t actually been revealed yet–the game hasn’t even technically been announced–but it’s a safe bet it will follow series tradition and fall toward the end of September. With that disclaimer out the way, let’s take a look at everything we do know about the world’s biggest soccer game, as well as what we’d like to see from FIFA at E3 2019.

What We Know So Far

Even though this year’s game hasn’t been revealed, developer EA has already shared some of FIFA 20’s gameplay improvements. Top of the list is AI defending, with a larger emphasis and incentive placed on manual defending, as opposed to letting the computer defend for you. One of the ways EA plans to do this is by increasing the likelihood a manual tackle will propel the ball to a teammate. Automatic defending will see its overall efficacy reduced and reaction times slowed.

Shooting is also being revamped, with attackers given greater accuracy during easy shooting scenarios, such as being clean through against the ‘keeper. Goalkeepers’ reaction times will be reduced in these situations to resolve the sometimes “superhuman” reactions players complained of. Additionally, the timing window for green timed shots is being reduced to two frames for all shots, and they’ll also be “slightly less precise.” EA did, however, reassure players that green timed shots will “still be more accurate than non-timed shots.”

Lots of work is being done on making passing and shooting more realistic, EA says, especially when it comes to difficult strikes. Volleys will be more variable and less accurate, for example, while 180° and first-time passes will result in “slower/weaker balls.” To compensate, easy situation passes will now be more accurate. Two new passing options will also be introduced: the driven pass-and-go (which will replace the current manual pass button combo) and the dinked pass, which will cease to be an automatic, contextual pass variant and instead be user-controlled only.

What’s Confirmed For E3?

EA has confirmed an E3 livestream discussing FIFA 20 will air on June 8 at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET / 7 PM BST (that’s 4 AM AET on June 9). The stream, which is part of EA Play, will be hosted by esports commentator Alex “Goldenboy” Mendez. EA says it will demonstrate some of the gameplay improvements mentioned above, “as well as some other surprises we’re excited to talk about.”

What We Hope To See At E3

FIFA 19 felt great, and the addition of the officially licensed Champions League made for a slicker product. However, career mode was left sorely lacking. No major new features were added to the mode, with very few changes at all from the year prior. With that in mind, we’d love career mode to see a radical overhaul. Give us a proper scouting system, stadium developments, opposition reports, and a way to actually converse with players outside of contract negotiations. Talking of which, the option to pay for new players in installments is long overdue.

Elsewhere, the Ultimate Team community is gasping for more on what FIFA 20 will have in store for FUT, and from a selfish point of view, I’d love to see the English National League introduced. The license for England’s fifth tier would surely come relatively cheaply, and its addition would add another layer of authenticity to an already very lifelike ecosystem.