Category: Games

Since it was rumored back in the heyday of Pokemon Go shortly after its release, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite has piqued interest. Developer Niantic’s monster-catching offering became a huge phenomenon, and the franchise power of the Wizarding World suggests a similar game could be just as significant. After spending a little time playing the augmented reality mobile game in Universal Studios Hollywood’s The Wizarding World of Harry Potter, what’s clear is that a lot of what works about Pokemon Go is also at the heart of Wizards Unite. But Niantic’s new offering is leap-frogging Pokemon Go’s early struggles to offer a lot more content at launch. The game is live a day early, so you can try it out right now.

As we saw in an earlier preview of Wizards Unite, the game’s big focus, like Pokemon Go, is on collecting stuff. An event called the “Calamity” has filled the Muggle World with people, creatures, and artifacts from the Wizarding World, and they’re all in danger of being discovered by the magic-less population. That’d be a violation of the Statute of Secrecy, an old Wizard law that dictates poor Muggles aren’t allowed to become aware of magic stuff, so as a member of the Wizarding World by way of your smartphone, your job is to collect all the magic junk (“Foundables”) and keep it away from the prying eyes of normies. You do that by physically wandering around, tapping on objects on a colorful Google Maps-like layouts of real-life locations, and attempting to break the spells (“Confoundables”) that contain Foundables.

Breaking spells requires spells of your own that you learn as you encounter Confoundables, and cast through tracing shapes on your screen with your finger–so the Foundables can be safely transported back to wherever (and whenever, in the history of the Wizarding World) they belong.

Click the image for a closer look at these screenshots.

From the outset, Wizards Unite engages players in the form of an unfolding story. Nobody is quite sure how or why this Calamity situation has sprung up, but they have some ideas as to who and what might be responsible. The story has you interacting with Ministry of Magic characters who are trying to solve the mystery of what’s going on, including familiar faces, like the current, adult versions Harry and Hermione, as well as a few new folks. In the meantime, you go about collecting familiar magic objects like the Monster Book of Monsters, creatures like Harry Potter’s owl Hedwig, and people like Sirius Black and Hagrid (both unstuck from where they belong in time in the Harry Potter universe).

Most of what we did in our brief time playing Wizards Unite was collect things, and that looks to be the main hook of the game. You have a book called the Registry that functions just like Pokemon Go’s Pokedex, and every time you collect a new person or object from the Wizarding World, the game catalogs it. Filling out the Registry earns you experience points for your profile, which allow you to go after tougher, rarer Confoundables and take part in other more advanced content like battles, while scratching the completionist itch that has kept Pokemon Go installed on so many phones for the last three years.

What’s evident about Wizards Unite, though, is how much Niantic has learned from its early struggles with the game’s predecessor. Pokemon Go was famously short on content; there were plenty of Pokemon to find in the world, but in its early days, expected elements of the Pokemon experience like trading and raids were missing. It would be months or years before quality-of-life improvements and additional content made it into the game, but today, Pokemon Go includes features like story quests and increased social support that make it feel more complete.

Wizards Unite, by comparison, is launching with what feels like a more robust content package. For starters, there’s a smattering of quest objectives to complete right out of the gate that boost your experience gains and dish out rewards like potion-brewing materials. You can immediately start adding people to your friend list, and playing along with them in some activities also offers greater in-game rewards. There are multiplayer “Wizarding Challenges” found at specific locations called Fortresses, battles to fight against dark wizards and other creatures by casting spells and using potions, and a Profession system that lets you unlock abilities in RPG-like skill trees, which can make you more effective against certain types of enemies.

Click the image for a closer look at these screenshots.

All in all, there’s just a lot more in Wizards Unite than there was in Pokemon Go, while maintaining many of the aspects that made the latter such a compelling AR experience. The bones of Niantic’s two games are pretty much the same–join up with other people to walk around the real world, zapping things you only see on your phone–but even after playing for just a short period, it’s clear there’s a whole lot of depth in Wizards Unite.

The question that remains after our short time with the game is how well having much more stuff to do in a mobile AR game will hold players’ attention. There are several limitations on what you can do while playing. You have a limited amount of “spell energy” that runs out as you cast spells on Confoundables, for instance, and while you can recharge it a bit by visiting “inns” (the Wizards Unite’s version of Pokestops), it’s not clear just how much your energy level might stall you out as you play. And it seems like you need to continually earn a lot of special items at all times to keep making progress. You need Gold and Silver Keys to unlock Portkeys, the Wizards Unite take on Pokemon eggs; potion ingredients to brew power-ups that’ll help you beat tougher enemies and Confoundables; scrolls to advance your professions; spell energy to keep plugging away at capturing Foundables; Dark Detectors to find and unlock the rarest Foundables; and Runes to access fortress battles. That’s a whole lot of stuff to manage, and while the early going of the game inundates you with everything you need to help you get moving, it’s tough to tell how steady the flow of rewards will be after a month, a week, or even a couple of days.

That said, for fans of Harry Potter and Pokemon Go, there’s plenty of promise in Harry Potter: Wizards Unite. This is obviously a much bigger, better thought-out AR game than Pokemon Go was at its launch, with impressive production values that include its slowly unfolding story, a voice cast peppered with soundalikes of the well-known Harry Potter cast, and detailed characters and animations you interact with that capture the look and feel of the movies and books. Harry Potter: Wizards Unite might not be able to usher in the same kind of surprisingly sweeping cultural moment its predecessor did, but it should at least be the kind of complete, robust mobile game that moment deserved.

Russell Crowe has some serious drinking stories. He once got drunk and then bought a dinosaur skull from Leonardo DiCaprio.

The actor recalled the story during an appearance on The Howard Stern Show. He said he bought his for his kids, who were really into dinosaurs at that time in 2008 or 2009.

“I bought it for my kids, and you know, cut myself a little bit of slack here, there was a bunch of vodka involved in the transaction and it happened at Leonardo’s house,” he explained (via EW).

As Crowe tells it, DiCaprio was in the market for a new dinosaur head so the Catch Me If You Can actor was looking to offload his other one. Crowe says DiCaprio was “pretty cool about it” and only asked him for what he paid for it, which was 30 or 35 grand.

In 2018, Crowe set up an auction to pay for his divorce, and one of the items he was looking to offload was the dinosaur head. According to the listing, it’s the head of the massive lizard relative Mosasaur, and it dates back to around 65 million years ago.

Some of the other items in the auction include swords and equipment that Crowe won in Gladiator, as well as his boxing equipment–including his jock strap–from Cinderella Man. can see all of the items in the auction, called “The Art of Divorce,” here on Sotheby Australia’s website.

The sun beats down on the battlefield as the war cries of my fellow soldiers ring out. Catapults pelt us from a distance and the giant boulders explode onto the ground around us with a great thud, thinning our numbers before we can reach the contested checkpoint. Those who make it through are greeted by a line of enemies hastily building a blockade, but we tear through them like a hot knife through butter and take the checkpoint in a flurry of steel and blood. As I stand over the decapitated body of a downed enemy, a spear flies out from behind a barrier and catches me unawares, putting me down on the spot with a sickening, meaty crash, before I respawn back at the camp I’d just come from.

This is the bloody brutality of Mordhau, a strategic, punishing and ultimately satisfying first-person multiplayer medieval combat game. You need patience and perseverance to overcome the steep learning curve of its melee mechanics. Far from being a simple hack-and-slasher, Mordhau focuses largely on learning and executing the finer points of melee combat, from footwork and positioning through to timing numerous attack and defensive maneuvers. It feels clunky at first, but once it clicks, it’s brilliant. Timing a riposte–a parry followed up by a quick counter-attack–feels great, and even better if it causes heads to roll. But there are several hours of less-thrilling learning to do first, and despite its attempts at onboarding, the game could do more to help new players get up to speed.

A 15-minute tutorial will run you through the basics, asking you to prove you can perform a series of slashes, parries, and other moves. Helpful to a point, these lessons fail to provide the feedback needed to work towards more sophisticated techniques. Some, like chambering–a complex maneuver where you counter an attack with an attack of your own from the same angle, executed at the exact moment you’re about to get hit–require pinpoint timing and are difficult to execute successfully. The lack of visual feedback makes learning when to strike a process of trial and error, which, in the relatively safe confines of the tutorial, means taking a few extra swings at your NPC trainer until you get it right. But during a match it’s a slow, merciless grind of death after death, waiting to respawn then charging back to the action against the might of more experienced players.

Because of this, the first five or so hours online feel like a gauntlet in the worst way. You will be cut down time after time and not really understand why, and it’s here that most players will bounce off Mordhau. Annoyingly, you also don’t earn any progress when playing against AI offline, and they aren’t effective training dummies either–they mostly follow each other in long lines and clash in groups, slashing and stabbing wildly. So you’re essentially forced to head into the online meat grinder to progress.

Weapons mastery aside, progress comes in the form of gold, which is used to purchase items, armor, and weapons, as well as XP, with which you can unlock new gear to then buy with gold. As the hours tick over, not only does your character level grow, but you slowly become better at the game, and suddenly what seemed at the start like an impossible hill to climb begins to feel a lot less intimidating. The subtle windup of enemy attacks begins to stand out more, making parries and ripostes far simpler. You start to carefully change the timing of attacks by leaning in or out of each swing, and it’s once you start to grasp these more detailed nuances that Mordhau truly begins to shine and the real potential of its wonderfully intricate combat begins to show itself. Opening up an opponent after a successful parry, taking aim at their exposed points and landing the killing blow only takes a couple of seconds but requires the utmost control to execute, making every kill feel earned, and the open combat is more enjoyable and expressive than simple hacking and slashing.

There are three main game types to choose from–Frontlines, Battle Royale, and Horde–though you can also privately set up your own deathmatch or team deathmatch servers. Frontlines is the main mode, with two teams of 32 fighting to secure and hold each checkpoint until one either dominates the map and completes the objective or eliminates the opposition by clearing their respawn tickets. Battle Royale is a solo, winner-takes-all round where everyone starts with nothing and has to scavenge for weapons and armor in order to survive, while Horde lets up to six players run together in wave-based, PvE combat. As you clear each wave, you earn more gold that can be used to purchase items and weapons during the round at different points across the map.

Frontlines feels the best of these thanks to its objective-based gameplay, letting those less skilled with the weapons make an active contribution–though if the spectacle of battle does nothing for you, charging into the fray with your screaming teammates certainly will. It can be simultaneously chilling and empowering. As a single death ends the round in both Battle Royale and Horde, they’re far less forgiving compared to Frontlines and feel more geared towards experienced players. Once you know how to wield your weapon they can be just as rewarding, though, if a little slower in terms of action.

You can choose several loadouts with varying styles of armor and weaponry from the outset of each match. With less armor, you’re lighter and can move faster but are more susceptible to sword attacks, whereas heavily armored characters offer more protection against swords but are slower all around and can be more easily bested with blunt weapons. Each weapon type fits into varying play styles that all feel effective in their own right, but each has a more functional role depending on where you are on the map. Longer weapons will naturally have a longer reach but can’t be swung side-to-side in tight spaces as they’ll catch on the walls and obstacles, so they can only be thrust or swung overhead instead. Spears and other one-handed weapons can be thrown if need be, while larger weapons can use an alternative grip to better knock off opponents’ armor. There are always options for whatever situation you find yourself in, adding to the already excellent fighting experience by offering solid alternatives, provided you’ve got the right loadout.

The maps themselves are large, ranging from a snowy mountain castle to a wide-open battlefield with fortress encampments at either end of a rolling valley, but the game could still do with a bit more variety. There are seven maps in all, though some are limited to certain game types. They’re also a little static–you don’t have to worry about weather or adverse conditions–but they still look the part, especially when bathed in the bloody aftermath of combat. Battles can look spectacular from afar, but never quite as good as they do up close, where the raw energy is palpable and intimidating. Ragdolled bodies are stretched across the ground and blood washes over the landscape as the battle rages, leaving a trail of brutality in its wake as the fight moves from checkpoint to checkpoint.

Mordhau is tough, violent, beautiful, and doesn’t pull its punches. Despite an intense learning curve that could be better alleviated with more tutorials or better practice tools, its supreme swordplay and combat mechanics eventually outshine any initial frustration. The scale of battle is overwhelming and chaotic, but there’s a definite sense to all the nonsense that, once you uncover it, gives you an incredible rush every time you go toe-to-toe with the enemy–even if you don’t come out the other side intact.

One of the rumors about Project Scarlett is that it is the name for Microsoft’s overall next-generation console plan, covering two systems.

The one Microsoft showed off at E3 this year is reportedly the high-end model codenamed Anaconda, while a second, lower-spec model supposedly known as Lockhart, was also said to be in the works. Now, it appears things might have changed. Or possibly not.

This all goes back to E3 2018, where Xbox boss Phil Spencer said on stage that Microsoft was working on multiple new consoles. Spencer now tells BusinessInsider that Microsoft has already shipped a new console, the Xbox One S All-Digital Edition, and announced a second one with Project Scarlett. So that’s two right there.

“Last year we said consoles, and we’ve shipped a console and we’ve now detailed another console. I think that’s plural,” Spencer said.

“Technically that is plural,” he added with a laugh. “Right now, we’re focused on Project Scarlett and what we put on stage.”

In this interview, and others that Spencer gave at E3 2019 that we noticed, he never explicitly states that Project Scarlett is the name of one console or multiple systems. The release of Project Scarlett in Holiday 2020 is still a while off, so it appears plans could change, as people are speculating.

Whatever the case, Halo Infinite will release as a launch title for the new Project Scarlett console. That’s notable because it’s the first time since 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved that a Halo game has released on new Xbox hardware as a launch title.

One of the big announcements from Nintendo’s E3 2019 briefing was that CD Project Red’s celebrated RPG The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is releasing on Nintendo Switch this year. Now, Nintendo has shown more of the game by way of releasing new screenshots.

Images posted on Nintendo’s website show a series of characters, including Geralt, in a variety of environments and situations. he images are stamped with the message, “Captured on Nintendo Switch.” You can see them all in the image gallery below.

The Nintendo Switch version of The Witcher 3 is developed by Saber Interactive, which also worked on Halo: The Master Chief Collection, World War Z, and another new release Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered.

The Switch is a comparably less powerful console than the PS4 and Xbox One, and the game only runs at 540p in handheld mode and 720p while docked with dynamic resolution. UI coordinator Alvin Liu told Video Game Chronicle that Saber had to make “hardware trade-offs” for the Switch edition, including shorter draw distance and less foliage. That being said, Liu said CD Projekt Red is “really happy” with how The Witcher 3 plays on Switch.

While the game might not look as good on Switch, it contains all of the content from The Witcher 3’s other versions on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It’s coming to Switch with the Complete Edition that includes the base game and all DLC, including the major expansions Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine.

The Witcher 3 launches for Switch sometime in 2019 though a release date hasn’t been announced yet.

The sequel to the cult classic basketball movie Space Jam is still in production, and now it’s been reported that it’ll have a stellar cast of famous basketball players. Shams Charania of The Athletic and Stadium reports that a series of NBA and WNBA stars will join LeBron James in the movie.

Damian Lillard, Anthony Davis, and Klay Thompson will feature in the movie alongside WNBA stars Diana Taurasi, Nneka Ogwumike, and Chiney Ogwumike. “Several more” NBA and WNBA players will have roles in the film, Charania reported based on unnamed sources.

The 1996 original Space Jam featured the world’s biggest basketball star at the time, Michael Jordan, in the lead role. Now it’s James, who is also considered to be one of basketball’s biggest names. Actress Sonequa Martin-Green plays James’ wife in Space Jam 2, but no other actors have been confirmed for the movie.

The original film featured numerous famous basketball players of the time, with Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Patrick Ewing, and others joining Jordan. They teamed up with Looney Tunes characters in a very high-stakes basketball game. Bill Murray was also in the movie.

Klay Thompson recently tore his ACL, but it’s not clear what effect–if any–this may have on his supposed role in Space Jam 2.

Black Panther director Ryan Coogler is set to produce Space Jam 2, with Terence Nance (Random Acts of Flyness) on board to direct.

The director of the original Space Jam, Joe Pytka, doesn’t think a sequel is a good idea; he thinks it’s “doomed.”

Executives from Epic Games, the makers of Fortnite, and mega-publisher Electronic Arts, appeared in a United Kingdom government committee meeting today where they got grilled by lawmakers over loot boxes and microtransactions in their games.

The game executives, which included EA vice president of legal and government affairs Kerry Hopkins and EA UK Country Manager Shaun Campbell, as well as Epic executives Matthew Weissinger (director of marketing) and Canon Pence (general counsel) spend more than two hours answering all manner of questions about their games and how they handle loot boxes and microtransactions.

In one particularly interesting breakout, Hopkins says she sees loot boxes not as gambling, but instead as “surprise mechanics.” This is similar to things like toys that come with surprises such as Kinder Eggs and Hatchimals. You can watch the breakout segment in the video embedded above.

She also described EA’s loot boxes–which are most popular and prominent in EA’s sports titles with the Ultimate Team mode–are “quite ethical.” She added that EA believes loot boxes do not constitute a form of gambling, as gambling commissions around the world have already said. People enjoyed being surprised, and this is no different in video games with loot boxes, she said.

The executives from both EA and Epic also confirmed during the committee meeting that neither company works with psychologists or behavioural scientists to understand the mental state of the player.

Fortnite’s executives added during that they were taken aback by Prince Harry’s comments about Fortnite being addictive. They also discussed how they are not interested in maximizing profit in the short-term but instead they aim to offer microtransactions that are “generous” and “sustainable.”

You can watch the entire broadcast here, and you really should to get a full and complete idea about the context surrounding their comments. It is a fascinating examination of loot boxes, microtransactions, and other topics that is well worth a watch for people interested in these subjects and hearing from two of the biggest companies in gaming.

Earlier this year, the UK government announced it would launch an investigation into things like loot boxes, as well as game addiction and more, and this hearing was one part of that. This was only an oral evidence session, so it remains to be seen if any legislative action will take place.