If you thought Xbox’s acquisition of Bethesda was the only big gaming console news drop for the week, you were wrong! The Console Crew gang is here to round up the biggest events of the week.
The discussion kicks off with PlayStation implementing Denuvo Anti-Cheat tech on the PlayStation 5. No one wants to play against cheaters, but is the tech itself going to impact our gaming at all? The crew also discusses Forza Horizon 4 lighting up the Steam bestseller list, even though it’s a three-year-old game going for full price. Finally, Apex Legends came out on Switch this week, and Jordan discusses his time with it. Spoilers, it’s not the place to play Respawn’s excellent battle royale title/
Console Crew is your weekly Friday roundup of the biggest news from PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo, hosted by Lucy James, Tamoor Hussain, and Jordan Ramée. Subscribe to youtube.com/GameSpot to never miss an episode.
Between television, movies, and video games, there is no shortage of DC Comics adaptations headed your way in the near future. During the AT&T Analyst & Investor Day 2021 call, WarnerMedia revealed what seems to be everything the studio is currently working on, and it’s a lot.
After the launch of Zack Snyder’s Justice League on March 18, there is a lot more coming from the world of DC Comics from the Suicide Squad movie and its HBO Max spin-off Peacemaker to the DMZ TV series, Aquaman 2 movie, and Gotham Knights video game. An image was revealed during the call, showcasing everything coming in the future. Some of the series listed below are already airing and have future seasons coming.
A banner of logos from the AT&T Investor Day presentation
Upcoming DC projects:
Black Adam
Harley Quinn animated series
Superman & Lois
Static Shock
Blue Beetle
Batgirl
Peacemaker
Green Lantern
Aquaman 2
The Flash
Teen Titans Go!
Suicide Squad
Batwheels
The Batman
Zatanna
Supergirl
Shazam! Fury of the Gods
Batwoman
The Suicide Squad
GCPD
DMZ
Gotham Knights
Super Hero High
League of Super-Pets
“We will then have more than two dozen new movies, series, video games, and documentaries from the world of DC, including the ones that you see here,” explained WarnerMedia CEO Jason Kilar during the call. “The DC Multiverse, and this canon of unforgettable characters is a very big deal. We intend to dive deeply into it. And our other beloved worlds, and characters beyond the series and motion pictures you have heard about today, we have a carefully crafted arc, filled with settings and characters that are beloved by fans, and which we believe are ripe for exploring and reimagining these franchises, these magnetic characters and settings have broad and deep fan appeal, and we have just begun to scratch the surface of the stories to be told.”
Specific details about these series were not revealed, but all of these have previously been announced over the course of the past few years. DMZ is one of the outliers on this list, as it is an HBO Max series based on a Vertigo Comic–which was formerly a DC Comics imprint that told stories based outside of the DCU primarily focusing on non-superhero characters and stories. Ava DuVernay will direct the series which follows a second American Civil War where Manhattan has become a demilitarized zone.
After the Snyder Cut of Justice League, James Gunn’s Suicide Squad is the next big DC movie to release. It will arrive in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day on August 6.
Actress Gwyneth Paltrow has said she’s open to the idea of portraying her MCU character Pepper Potts once again, but it would have to be under the right circumstances.
She told People TV that she would “of course” be open to coming back, provided she could film her part in a day or two. “I think if it was a small part that I could do in like a day or two, I would of course be open to that,” Paltrow said.
These days, the Oscar-winner is more focused on her company, Goop, for which she is the CEO. Paltrow last played Potts in the blockbuster 2019 action movie Avengers: Endgame.
Paltrow made her MCU debut in the very first MCU movie, Iron Man. She reprised her role as Pepper Potts in the Iron Man sequels, as well as the Avengers films and also Spider-Man: Homecoming. Paltrow completely forgot she was even in the Spider-Man movie.
Gwyneth Paltrow genuinely did not know she was in “Spider-Man: Homecoming” so this adorable interaction from “The Chef Show” is easily my favorite thing on the internet today pic.twitter.com/lc3VlSs1Hp
Paltrow is an accomplished non-superhero movie actress, too, having won the Best Actress in a Leading Role Academy Award for the 1999 movie Shakespeare in Love.
Disney+ has shared a trailer for Assembled, a new documentary series of specials that goes behind the scenes of Marvel Cinematic Universe television shows and movies. The Disney+ series has launched today, March 12, with a deep dive on WandaVision, one of the MCU’s more unusual offerings bursting with homages to sitcoms. Check out the trailer below.
Assembled debuts one week after WandaVision’s end with its ninth episode on March 5. According to Marvel’s announcement, the first episode will focus on WandaVisions’s creative team, allowing viewers to “learn how the production’s surprising concept took shape by drawing inspiration from classic sitcoms” and “witness how the crew went to great lengths to emulate various filmmaking methods used during the early years of television.”
Marvel has also indicated that future episodes of Assembled will feature similar looks atThe Falcon and the Winter Soldier, exclusive on-set footage ofLoki, and stars Scarlett Johansson and Jeremy Renner discussing theBlack Widowfilm and also theHawkeyeseries. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier debuts March 19.
Assembled looks to be a promising follow-up to the recently released and just as suddenly announced Marvel’s Behind the Mask, a documentary series that let fans “discover the inspiration behind Marvel’s greatest heroes.”
The PlayStation 5 is the fastest-selling console in U.S. history by dollar sales, but the second best-selling hardware platform in February 2021, with Nintendo Switch continuing to lead the market.
The NPD Group released its monthly report covering best-selling consoles, video games, and more for February 2021 in the U.S. and the Nintendo Switch leads the charge as the best-selling console for the month, with the PS5 behind it in second. However, the PS5 did overtake a record previously held by the Switch when it became the fastest-selling console in U.S. history after the NPD Group tracked “total dollar sales after four months in market.”
The Switch’s unit and dollar sales last month were the highest of any hardware platform in a February since the Nintendo Wii back in February of 2009. Lifetime dollar sales of the Switch passed those of the Nintendo DS last month too, which makes the Switch the second best-selling Nintendo console in U.S. tracked history after the Wii, and the seventh best-selling overall.
Elsewhere in video game numbers, consumer spending is up in a big way. “February 2021 consumer spending across video game hardware, content, and accessories reached a February record $4.6 billion, 35% higher when compared to a year ago,” the NPD Group’s report reads. “Year-to-date spending totaled $9.3 billion, 39% higher than the same period in 2020.”
Monthly sales of hardware increased by 121% this February compared to last February for a total of $406 million, which is the highest total since February 2011 when video game spending reached $468 million.
On the software side of things, Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury took first place as the best-selling game for February 2021 in the U.S., and it’s also the second best-selling game of 2021, despite a lack digital sales tracking for Nintendo games, according to the NPD Group. Little Nightmares II, which debuted in February, was the sixth best-selling game of the month, fifth best-selling game on Xbox platforms, and 10th best-selling game on PlayStation platforms.
Video game accessory spending reached $195 million in February 2021 in the U.S., which is 41% higher than last February and the PS5 DualSense controller was the accessory with the most dollar sales for the month.
People have been trying to play first-person Zelda games for years, whether it be in a Minecraft mod or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim on Switch. Thanks to a newly discovered glitch, however, they can now do so in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
Twitter user Axk_000 discovered the glitch, and it turns out that it’s actually not that complicated. It includes pulling out the in-game camera, holding an item from the menu, and then canceling that item hold. After doing so, the game will be in a first-person view. This isn’t just Link’s character model disappearing, either, as you can see it’s in first-person based on how his shadow is positioned in relation to the player’s view.
It seems like the technique is fairly consistent, so at least until Nintendo patches it out–if it even decides to–you can probably try it for yourself. It doesn’t really add any advantages and actually limits your environmental awareness, which is very important in a game like Breath of the Wild, but it’s definitely a neat novelty to try out if you’ve done everything the game has to offer already.
Zelda fans won’t have to wait too much longer to get new content on the Switch, either, but it won’t be Breath of the Wild’s sequel. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD releases for the system on July 16, and it adds a motion-controls-free mode for those who want a more-standard control scheme. However, even this option requires you to swing your sword with the right analog stick in order to replicate the precise slashes of the Wii Remote.
HBO Documentary Films has announced that production is already underway on a two-part documentary about Pee-wee Herman actor Paul Reubens. Directed by Matt Wolf (Spaceship Earth) and co-produced by the Safdie Brothers (Uncut Gems), the films don’t yet have a release date.
The official synopsis calls the project “a kaleidoscopic portrait” that “traces the life of the imaginative artist behind one of pop culture’s most celebrated and unlikely icons.” In a statement, Reubens strikes a characteristic joking tone, saying, “I’ve been working with HBO since they were called Home Box Office! I’m honored and excited to continue my long history there. I love HBO, but I’m not going to marry them.”
Whereas Wolf counterbalances with his included quote saying, “We all know Pee-wee Herman; it’s time for the world to meet Paul Reubens. I can’t wait to share his story.” Producer Emma Tillinger Koskoff (Joker) adds, “I’m thrilled to partner with HBO on Paul’s incredible life story. He is a once in a generation talent whose brilliance created an indelible pop culture phenomenon. Audiences will be inspired and entertained by Paul’s creativity, resilience, and determination as they get to know the person behind the iconic character.”
Reubens is best known for his long-running character, Pee-wee Herman, who rose to prominence in 1980 and has stayed there since. Through the decades, the character has spawned feature films that have been both huge critical and financial successes and also a generation-influencing children’s program, Pee-wee’s Playhouse. The actor has also made many memorable cameos and appearances in shows including Reno 911!, 30 Rock, and Pushing Daisies.
Actor Benedict Cumberbatch has said he has no interest in playing the evil Grand Admiral Thrawn, who is rumored to appear as a villain in the third season of The Mandalorian.
The Doctor Strange actor told Collider that he would rather spend time with his children than take precious time out of his day to sit in a make-up chair and get turned blue to appear as Thrawn.
“That’s a straight no from me, right now,” he said. “There’s no way I want to be turned blue. I turned the air blue, very recently. No no, seriously, I have precious time with my children and I think sitting in a makeup chair and being painted blue, and the amount of time it would take to do that and then take it off at the end of the day might just… it’s not the right time in my life for that.”
The character Ahsoka Tano mentioned Thrawn by name in an episode of The Mandalorian, which prompted speculation and hope that the character might appear in the next season of the Star Wars TV show. That remains to be seen, but it appears Cumberbatch has no interest in the part.
You can try a pair of strategy and sim games this weekend for free on Xbox platforms, as long as you’re an Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate member. Stellaris and Cities: Skylines are free to play as part of Xbox’s Free Play Days promotion.
Stellaris is a sci-fi strategy game that has you expand your territory throughout the galaxy. Cities: Skylines is a management sim that has you building your own city layout and infrastructure to keep your citizens happy.
The free period lasts through Sunday, March 14 at 11:59 PM PT. To claim them, just find them on the Xbox marketplace and download for free. You can also click on the Subscriptions tab to navigate straight to the Free Play Days promotion. Free Play Days are similar to demo periods, but you get access to the full game during the trial period.
Both games are also available for a discount for Gold members in case you want to make them part of your permanent collection. Stellaris is 67% off for both the Standard and Deluxe edition, while Cities Skylines is 75% off for the standard, Mayor’s Edition, and the base game with the Surviving Mars bundle. You can check out those prices below. The sale period lasts through the Free Play Days.
Cardy and Joe are back to right the wrongs of last week’s conker debacle. They’re joined by Alex to talk about their new-found love of Loop Hero, Disney’s latest film Raya and the Last Dragon, plus talk about what an exciting week of TV we have ahead with the start of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier and return of both Taskmaster and Line of Duty.
Alex has conjured up an Endless Search game based on this week’s purchase of Bethesda by Microsoft and there’s plenty of your feedback, including some wild guesses as to what the game of conkers actually is.
Remember, if you want to get in touch with the podcast, please do: [email protected].
