Category: Games

It’s officially September, and that means the next wave of additions to the Xbox Game Pass library is now available. There were 10 titles added to the catalog for September 2018, including some big first-party games such as Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Quantum Break. These add to the more than 100 games (across Xbox One and Xbox 360) that are already available in the library.

The Master Chief Collection, which originally launched in 2014, is the biggest Halo package ever released. It includes remastered versions of Halo: Combat Evolved and Halo 2, in addition to Halo 3 and Halo 4. All of the multiplayer maps for each game are also included. If you’re playing on Xbox One X, the game looks better and loads faster.

The other headlining game for September is Quantum Break, the 2016 time-bending game from Alan Wake studio Remedy Entertainment. In a big twist for games, the title mixes gameplay and live-action TV, featuring actors like Shawn Ashmore, Aidan Gillen, Dominic Monaghan, and Lance Reddick. Additionally, quality racing game Onrush, which released earlier this year, is included in this month’s offerings.

In addition to the dozens of back-catalog games available in the program, all of Microsoft’s first-party games launch into Game Pass, meaning subscribers can get games like Forza Horizon 4, Halo: Infinite, Gears 5, and others at no extra cost.

September 2018 Xbox Game Pass Additions

• Halo: The Master Chief Collection
• Quantum Break
• Onrush
• Aven Colony
• Shadow Warrior 1
• Sky-Force Reloaded
• Snake Pass
• Manual Samuel
• Giana SIsters: Twisted Dreams
• Innerspace

In addition to Amazon’s new Lord of the Rings TV show, an all-new “AAA” video game based on J.R.R. Tolkien’s iconic fantasy franchise is on the way. The untitled project is in the works at Athlon Games, which is the video game publishing label operated by the Hong Kong based chicken meat supplier Leyou‘s new video game publishing label Athlon Games.

It’s not immediately clear which studio is developing the game, as Athlon said it is working with an unspecified partner for the title.

The untitled game has an online focus, and The Hollywood Reporter describes it as an MMO (though the official press release does not say this). It’s officially described as a “completely new experience,” and one that will incorporate cooperative elements.

In terms of the story, it’s set in Middle-earth “a long time” before the events of The Lord of the Rings. The game will cover “lands, people, and creatures never before seen” in the Tolkien universe, and all of those possibilities are exciting to think about.

Athlon Games president Dave Miller, who formerly worked at Warner Bros., suggested in a statement that the new title is coming to PC and console, while it could have a games-as-a-service model. He said the game is being made to remain appealing “for years.”

There is a good reason to believe the new Lord of the Rings game will be a free-to-play title. Leyou says that while the free-to-play business model is popular, prevalent, and generally accepted in Asia, there remains “vast untapped potential” for the model in the rest of the world.

If the new Lord of the Rings game is indeed an MMO, it won’t be the first. The Lord of the Rings Online launched all the way back in 2007 and is still in operation to this day, though its ownership has changed hands.

Athlon partnered with Middle-earth Enterprises for the new game, though terms of the deal were not disclosed.

“We are extremely pleased to work with Athlon Games to create a new, immersive game experience, exploring epic regions in Middle-earth during the years leading to the events of The Lord of the Rings,” Middle-earth Enterprises licensing boss Fredrica Drotos said. “Athlon’s game will allow millions of Middle-earth fans throughout the world a unique opportunity for fellowship and epic exploration.”

Leyou Technologies owns Digital Extremes (Warframe) and Splash Damage (Gears of War 4 multiplayer), while it previously invested millions of dollars into Halo and Call of Duty co-developer Certain Affinity. As mentioned, video games are just one part of Leyou’s business. The company also operates a slaughtering and processing facility in China that is capable of processing 18 million chickens every year.

For nearly as long as there have been Power Rangers, which is celebrating its 25th anniversary, there have been kids that are jealous of Tommy Oliver, who was played by Jason David Frank. The character, first introduced in Season 1 of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, has controlled more powers than any other “teenager with attitude” on the series. While so many eventually become ready to grow up and move on with their lives, Tommy just can’t get being a Ranger out of his blood.

It’s led him to control seven different types of Ranger powers over the years, many of which are actually kind of amazing–at least in the fashion department. After all, the trademark of a good Tommy Ranger is found in the costume design. Does he stand out and make the rest of the team look sort of silly? If so, chances are that’s a great version of Tommy.

Since it’s been 25 years since Power Rangers first arrived, GameSpot has dug back through far too many episodes of the various incarnations of the show, along with a few comic books, to bring you the definitive ranking of Tommy Oliver’s Rangers. You may disagree with their placement, but I think we can all agree that the White Ninja Ranger is simply the worst.

If it’s more Power Rangers content you’re looking for, don’t forget to check out our rundown of every Megazord, as well as the weirdest monsters in the show’s history.

The first season of Netflix and Marvel’s Iron Fist was borderline unwatchable. Terrible writing, lame fight scenes, awful performances, an absurd magical story that didn’t fit with sister shows like Daredevil and Luke Cage, and many more flaws made it the worst entry yet in Marvel’s modern live-action universe. The presence of bland, unlikeable Danny Rand even weighed The Defenders down, too, despite the rest of the cast’s strengths. Hopes are not high for Iron Fist Season 2, which arguably shouldn’t even exist.

The surprising news, then, is that based on the first six episodes, it seems Iron Fist Season 2 is perfectly watchable. It falls short in some areas, while excelling in others. You’ll like some characters, and despise some others. The story can meander at times, while occasionally grabbing your attention in a narrative kung fu grip. Many of Iron Fist Season 1’s problems are still present in Season 2, not least of them Finn Jones’ Danny Rand being pretty much insufferable. But in many other crucial ways, Iron Fist Season 2 is a massive improvement. It’s now pretty much on par with the other Netflix/Marvel universe shows in terms of quality–for whatever that’s worth.

In The Defenders, Danny Rand–AKA the Iron Fist–and several other heroes defeated The Hand, a secretive cabal of poorly developed villains who bogged down several seasons of multiple Netflix/Marvel shows. The Hand’s end was the best thing to happen to these shows, and luckily, Iron Fist Season 2 isn’t bringing them back–at least not in the first six episodes. The Hand’s lingering influence is felt only in the shifting relationships among the characters, which is exactly how it should be.

Danny and Colleen (the very good Jessica Henwick) are living a relatively simple life, despite Rand’s great wealth. She volunteers at a local community center and he works as a professional mover; they live in Colleen’s former dojo, which they converted into a neat but down to earth living space following Colleen’s discovery that she’d been unwittingly training recruits for The Hand. Ward Meachum (Tom Pelphrey) is in a 12 step recovery program, while his sister Joy (Jessica Stroup) is out for revenge against him and Danny for reasons you’ll only vaguely understand, even if you powered through Iron Fist’s first season. It doesn’t especially matter; what’s important is that she’s teamed up with Davos (Sacha Dhawan), Danny’s “brother” and rival while in training at the mystical K’un-Lun.

K’un-Lun plays a fairly big role in Season 2’s early episodes, but the flashbacks there are nowhere near as tedious, repetitive, and pointless as the flashbacks from Season 1. They almost make K’un-Lun seem like an actual place, with small doses of intrigue as Davos’s mother pressures him to defeat Danny and become the Iron Fist. It sure makes Davos’s perspective–that Rand stole the mantle of the Iron Fist from its rightful recipient, then abandoned his duty and left K’un-Lun to the wolves–more understandable. You might even find yourself sympathizing with Davos more than you do with Danny, which is a thread that the rest of the season will hopefully continue to tug.

Iron Fist Season 2’s leap in quality can most likely be attributed to a much needed change in showrunner, as Raven Metzner (Sleepy Hollow and Falling Skies, among other credits) replaced Scott Buck this season. Buck was also responsible for Marvel’s disastrous Inhumans show, so it’s probably safe to blame much of Iron Fist Season 1’s failure on him as well. But Metzner isn’t the only personnel upgrade behind the scenes; Iron Fist Season 2’s massively improved action scenes have been designed by new fight choreographer Clayton Barber, whose previous credits include working with director Ryan Coogler on the phenomenal Creed and Black Panther. It’s a no-brainer that the fight choreography is crucial to a martial arts show, so Barber’s improvements are a welcome change.

Other happy additions come in the form of a couple of new–to this show, at least–characters. Simone Missick’s Misty Knight, a Luke Cage series character who crops up in Iron Fist Season 2’s first few episodes, appears like she’ll have a significant presence throughout the season. Knight teams up with Colleen–arguably the other strongest character in the mix–while Danny is otherwise occupied, and his absence makes their dynamic even better. They aren’t quite calling themselves the Daughters of the Dragon yet, but the seeds are there. And Alice Eve plays Mary Walker, a comics villain known as Typhoid Mary who makes her live action debut here. Mary’s split personality–pure comic book camp–keeps the rest of the characters on their toes, though it remains to be seen just where her story’s headed.

Blessedly, Iron Fist Season 2 is only ten episodes long (the 13-episode runs of all these shows up to this point was too long in every single case). In the first six chapters, a gang war is brewing in Danny Rand’s corner of New York, while Joy plots to bring him low and Davos works to take back what he believes belongs to him. Even if you hate Iron Fist, it might be worth checking out Season 2 just to see Danny finally brought low–though no doubt he’ll bounce back by the season’s end. That is, of course, if you don’t mind the generally slow burn of all of Marvel’s Netflix universe shows. That lethargic pacing is one of the worst things you can say about Iron Fist Season 2–at least based on its first six episodes–and that alone should speak volumes as to how big an improvement it is.