Category: Games

Actor and writer Phoebe Waller-Bridge (Fleabag, Killing Eve) was hired to contribute to the Bond 25 script, and now she has shared a little more insight into the “fantasy nightmare” of being James Bond. Not only that, but her reported pay for the movie has also been revealed.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Waller-Bridge said she’s been intrigued by how James Bond and the Killing Eve character Villanelle, who is an assassin, are similar. “They live a fantasy! But it’s a life none of us would ever want, if we’re honest. We don’t want to go put a bullet in someone’s head to sleep with people and have martinis,” she said. “It’s a kind of fantasy nightmare.”

Waller-Bridge is the fifth credited screenwriter for Bond 25; she joins director Cary Joji Fukunaga (True Detective, Beasts of No Nation), Scott Z. Burns (The Bourne Ultimatum, Contagion), and veteran James Bond writers Neal Purvis and Robert Wade.

“A lot has been made of me coming on board because I’m a woman, and that’s wonderful. But also I can’t take credit for the movie that was written. It’s Cary’s movie,” Waller-Bridge said.

According to the report, Bond actor Daniel Craig personally requested that the producers hire Waller-Bridge to write “sharper dialogue” for Bond 25. The report states that she was paid $2 million USD for her contributions to the script.

Also in the interview, Waller-Bridge was asked to respond to the rumors that Captain Marvel’s Lashana Lynch is playing a new 007 in Bond 25. She didn’t confirm anything one way or the other, but instead gave a teasing reply. “The whole thing has potential to birth new iconic characters all the time,” she said.

In a previous interview, Waller-Bridge said she wants to see the James Bond franchise move with the times. “There’s been a lot of talk about whether or not [the Bond franchise] is relevant now because of who he is and the way he treats women,” Waller-Bridge told Deadline. “I think that’s bollocks. I think he’s absolutely relevant now. It has just got to grow. It has just got to evolve, and the important thing is that the film treats the women properly. He doesn’t have to. He needs to be true to this character.”

Bond 25, or whatever title is eventually given to the film, will release on April 3, 2020.

The Crown season 3 will come to Netflix on November 17, the streaming site has announced. It’ll introduce a new cast to reflect the advancing ages of the characters, as season 3 will cover a period from 1963 (where the previous season ended) to 1977.

This first teaser trailer gives us the briefest of brief looks at Olivia Colman in the role of Queen Elizabeth II, taking over for Claire Foy, who played the character through her younger years in the first two seasons, and who won an Emmy for the role last year. The show, which has already been confirmed for a fourth season, is exclusive to Netflix.

Olivia Colman is no stranger to playing a queen – she won the Best Actress Oscar earlier this year for her performance as Queen Anne in Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Favourite. She’ll star alongside Tobias Menzies (Prince Philip), Helena Bonham Carter (Princess Margaret), Ben Daniels (Lord Snowdon), Josh O’Connor (Prince Charles) and Emma Corrin (Lady Diana Spencer). However, not all of these characters will necessarily be prominent, or possibly appear at all, in the third season – the third and fourth seasons of the show were filmed back-to-back, and Charles and Diana did not meet each other until 1977.

Expect a longer trailer at some point before the season’s November release.

Sega Europe president Gary Dale believes that, when it comes to movie adaptations of games, the studio should be allowed to do their thing without too much intervention from the game publisher.

Speaking to gamesindustry.biz during E3, Dale spoke about the upcoming movie based on Sega’s famous blue blur, saying that the film is a collaborative process, and that making the best version of the film possible means acknowledging that each team involved has unique skills. “Obviously we have a very deep knowledge of the character and the brand. [Paramount] has a very deep knowledge of how to make movies. The trick is just to bring those two skillsets together to make the best film we can.”

Back in May, the Sonic the Hedgehog movie was delayed until February 2020 to give the filmmakers more time to work on Sonic’s design, which was met with ridicule when the first trailer debuted. Dale spoke to this too, asserting his trust in Paramount. “To be fair, Paramount has been open to listening to feedback from the community around Sonic, which of course has got such a tremendously loyal fanbase with people with very specific views of who Sonic is, how Sonic should behave, how Sonic should look.”

Dale stated that trying to control Paramount, and to try and assert their own vision too much, “would be the wrong approach”, even if Paramount needs to “take into account (their) views on Sonic” to craft the ideal Sonic movie. “I look at the success of game franchises in film and it’s very mixed,” he says. “The idea that games makers can control the process and create great movies… I don’t know if that’s true or not.”

It’s been a decent year for video game adaptations on the big screen, with Detective Pikachu earning solid reviews and lots of money, while this week’s The Angry Birds Movie 2 is currently reviewing better than any previous game based on a movie.

343 Industries has responded to a Halo Wars 2 petition with some potentially bad news for the game’s community.

The petition, signed by over 2300 fans, asks for several updates and improvements for the Halo RTS. Fan requests included a Steam release; new features, such as replays, a UI design for PC, and keyboard and mouse support for Xbox One; new content, including maps and skins; and various bug fixes, quality of life improvements and balance patches. 343 Industries has responded to this petition over on Halo Waypoint, and it sounds like these requests are not going to be fulfilled any time soon, as the studio does not have staff free to update or support Halo Wars 2 further.

“It is always awesome to see the passion of fans wanting to see change come to the games they love in a positive manner,” the post, from community support and engagement coordinator Tyler ‘Postums’ Davis reads. “As awesome as all of these requests are, and as much as we personally share these same desires, the unfortunate reality is that we currently are unable to commit to any future Halo Wars 2 continued development or support at this time.”

343 Publishing Team, the team that created Halo Wars 2, is currently porting Halo: The Master Chief Collection to PC, and working on the Xbox One and PC versions of Halo: Reach. “With the large scope and immense amount of work surrounding MCC for PC, the resources that were previously focused on Halo Wars 2 have been pulled over to help support MCC and Halo: Reach development,” the post states. Davis says that while the team count potentially revisit the game in the future, it is unable to commit to any of these requests.

Halo Wars 2 joined Xbox Game Pass in February 2018 and remains available on the service. It has received 18 content updates since its release in 2017. In her 6/10 review of Halo Wars 2, reviews editor Kallie Plagge said that the game “carries forth enough of the series’ beloved elements to make any fan of Halo feel right at home at first, but not in the long run.”

There will be another Metro game, following on from this year’s Metro Exodus.

This news comes via an Instagram post from series author Dmitry Glukhovsky, who has confirmed that the series will continue. The post is direct and to the point: “The Metro gaming series will be continued. Working on the story”.

Metro 2033, the first game in the Metro series, was an adaptation of Glukhovsky’s book of the same name. Glukhovsky’s second Metro book, Metro 2034, doesn’t have a direct analog in the games, while third book Metro 2035 is, in an interesting twist, inspired by events from Metro: Last Light, the second Metro game.

Metro Exodus reviewed and sold well, so the series’ continuation is not unexpected news. In his 8/10 review, Michael Higham said that the game “embraces the sense of vulnerability and post-apocalyptic terror alongside impactful weapons used in refined combat and stealth scenarios.” Exodus still has DLC on the way as well, which will expand the game out with new playable characters.

Metro Exodus was one of several high-profile Epic Games Store exclusives when it launched, and reported that sales in the first few weeks were approximately double what they had been on Steam for the previous Metro game, Last Light.

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After showcasing the hot-blooded Misako in a recent character spotlight, developer WayForward Technologies has shone a light on River City Girls‘ second playable character, the cute and bubbly Kyoko. And she’s ready to batter the boys and girls who touch her precious boyfriend Riki.

Kyoko’s character spotlight shows the breadth of her moveset, which includes a plethora of kicks reminiscent of One Piece’s Sanji or Street Fighter’s Chun-Li. Similar to Misako, Kyoko’s moveset is customizable with an assortment of moves from crescent moon kicks to WWE-style back throws. There seems to be some light RPG mechanics as you collect money to spend on upgrading your waifu.

We had an opportunity to play River City Girls at Anime Expo 2019, calling it one of the better anime-like games we’re watching closely this year. The beat-em-up features retro-inspired graphics that call back to previous Kunio-kun games like River City Ransom and River City: Tokyo Rumble. Instead of focusing on series mainstays Kunio and Riki, though, River City Girls modernizes its formula by putting girl power at the forefront, making the protagonists’ girlfriends the stars of the story.

River City Girls is set to launch on September 5 for Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

The classic platforming franchise Bubble Bobble is coming back. Bubble Bobble 4 Friends recreates the old bubble-based challenge with co-op for up to four players, exclusively on Nintendo Switch. It will hit Europe on November 19, followed by a North American release sometime in early 2020.

A brief trailer shows off the new 4-player co-op, along with a revised art style–think the classic Bubble Bobble, with some bright Pac Man Championship Edition-like visual flourishes. It even pays homage to fellow Taito series Space Invaders with a stage showing the familiar pixel-art aliens.

Bubble Bobble was an arcade game first, later ported to consoles, and from the inception it always had a co-op element as players controlled Bob and Bub. This updated version shows a player select screen with those two (Bubblun and Bobblun) along with a yellow dragon (Cucurun) and a pink dragon (Cororon). The select screen also shows the players picking their skills (in this case all of them set to “Thunder Bubble”).

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Rare has announced a new update cadence for Sea of Thieves, promising new content on a regular monthly schedule. The studio says that updates will begin dropping on the second Wednesday of every month, giving the community a more predictable schedule to clear their calendar and take to the high seas.

The new schedule starts with this month’s update, Dark Relics. It features spooky skeletons stealing dangerous artifacts, which you can trade for gold and rep. Plus the update includes special challenges for pirate legends, Reaper’s Mark chests with special loot, grappling hooks for your dinghies, and more. Check out the trailer below to see it all in action.

Sea of Thieves had a rough launch with middling reviews, but Rare has continued to add more content on a regular basis with free updates. Those included a big anniversary update and a ship that paid homage to the Halo series.

As a first-party game from Microsoft, Sea of Thieves was included with Xbox Game Pass at launch, and it’s still available through the subscription service if you want to give these latest updates a whirl. One third-party developer recently revealed that, somewhat counter-intuitively, being included on Game Pass appears to have dramatically boosted its sales. For more on Microsoft’s strategy surrounding Game Pass as it heads into the next generation, check out our in-depth interview with Xbox head Phil Spencer.