biteho.com

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

After taking last year off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Halloween Horror Nights is back for 2021 at Universal Studios at its California and Florida theme parks–and a new haunted maze of the attraction has been revealed. Netflix’s The Haunting of Hill House–GameSpot’s #1 TV show of 2018–will take center stage at the event with a new maze at each park.

“Some of my favorite memories of Halloween were made at Universal Studios, screaming and laughing with my friends,” Haunting of Hillhouse creator Mike Flanagan said in a statement. “It is such an honor to be included among such fantastic Haunts, and I’m so glad that fans will be able to walk the halls of Hill House this Halloween. This is–without a doubt–one of the coolest things that’s ever happened to us at Intrepid. We are so excited to visit the Red Room again–we hope to see you all there!”

While the majority of the Hill House maze is being kept under wraps, Universal Studios has released a trailer for the attraction, which you can see above. What’s more, a couple of photos from inside of the maze have been revealed. You can take a look at those below.

According to the Universal Studios Orlando blog, this maze won’t follow a specific timeline or character from the series. However, it will be based on the first season of the Haunting franchise and loaded with hidden ghosts waiting to scare you. And, of course, you should absolutely expect to come face-to-face with the bent neck lady.

Gallery

At this point, only one other maze has been announced for Halloween Horror Nights on either coast. While the event didn’t take place in 2020, Universal Orlando Resort held a similar event, which included two mazes–The Bride of Frankenstein Lives and Revenge of the Tooth Fairy. Additionally, a Beetlejuice maze was briefly opened to guests in the park. Beetlejuice will return for 2021

Halloween Horror Nights will kick off September 3 in Orlando, Florida and September 9 in Hollywood, California.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Netflix Geeked, a virtual event that debuted on the streaming service’s Twitter account back in June, has announced it will be part of Comic-Con@Home with a whole bunch of panels and sneak peeks at upcoming content.

In all, there will be five Netflix Geeked panels, including a look at the highly-anticipated animated series Masters of the Universe: Revelation (which showrunner Kevin Smith hopes will launch “the MCU of He-Man”) and the omnipresent Zack Snyder on hand to discuss Army of the Thieves, a prequel to his Netflix film Army of the Dead. July 24th’s Lucifer panel should be particularly interesting, though, as actor Tom Ellis and executive producers Joe Henderson and Ildy Modrovich will be around to discuss the upcoming final season–and talk about how at the last minute it went from an expected five-season run to needing a Season 6 after all.

Check out the full Netflix Geeked Comic-Con@Home line-up below along with the official descriptions of each panel:

Netflix Geeked’s Comic-Con@Home panels:

NETFLIX GEEKED: MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: REVELATION

Date: Friday, July 23, 2021

Time: 12:00PM PT

Netflix and Mattel Television present an exclusive sneak peek at the highly-anticipated animated series Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Since its creation in 1982, the Masters of the Universe franchise has become a cultural phenomenon, transcending generations and igniting passion amongst fans around the world. This new action-packed series, which follows He-Man, Skeletor, Teela and the other classic characters of the Masters of the Universe franchise, picks up where the iconic characters left off decades ago. Now, nearly 40 years later, the new series will delight long-standing fans and introduce a new generation to Eternia and the thrilling, heroic adventures of the Guardians of Grayskull. The cast and creators will discuss all of your questions about reviving this beloved franchise.

NETFLIX GEEKED: FEAR STREET TRILOGY

Date: Friday, July 23, 2021

Time: 4:00PM PT

All roads lead to Fear Street…

In this exclusive first panel together since the release of the films, join Fear Street director Leigh Janiak, cast members Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., and Fear Street author R.L. Stine and celebrate the epic trilogy by hearing all the behind the scenes details on how they made the films and what it’s really like for R.L. Stine to see his vision turned into a blood-splattering epic.

NETFLIX GEEKED: THE LAST MERCENARY

Date: Saturday, July 24, 2021

Time: 3:00PM PT

Get in on all the action as Jean-Claude Van Damme and director David Charhon offer a peek inside the highly anticipated film, The Last Mercenary, set to premiere globally July 30 on Netflix. In an explosive comeback, Jean-Claude Van Damme stars as Richard Brumère, aka “The Mist,” as a former French secret service special agent turned mercenary, who must urgently return to France when his estranged son is falsely accused of arms and drug trafficking by the government, following a blunder by an overzealous bureaucrat and a mafia operation.

NETFLIX GEEKED: LUCIFER

Date: Saturday, July 24, 2021

Time: 5:00PM PT

Speaking of the devil, Lucifer himself, Tom Ellis will join executive producers, Joe Henderson and Ildy Modrovich, to share inside scoop on what is to be expected from the 6th and final season of Lucifer.

NETFLIX GEEKED: ARMY OF THIEVES

Date: Sunday, July 25, 2021

Time: 2:00PM PT

Army of the Dead was only the beginning…Be among the first to get a sneak peek of Army of Thieves, the highly anticipated prequel to Zack Snyder’s Netflix blockbuster. Producers Zack Snyder, Deborah Snyder, and Wesley Coller will be joined by director and star Matthias Schweighöfer plus star Nathalie Emmanuel to reveal the heist that started it all. In this action-packed prequel, Dieter, our favorite safecracker, gets drawn into the adventure of a lifetime when a mysterious woman recruits him to join a crew of Interpol’s most wanted criminals, attempting to heist a sequence of legendary, impossible-to-crack safes across Europe.

Comic-Con@Home runs July 22-26, and a similar schedules Shudder has already been released. Disney’s Marvel Studios and Warner Bros.’ DC Films has announced it will be skipping out on the festitivities.

Regulation pinball machines are big, bulky, and quite expensive, all of which make them a hard sell for personal use in a home game room. That’s where Arcade1Up’s new virtual pinball machines come in. Much like it did with arcade machines, Arcade1Up has designed a digital pinball table that’s both size-appropriate and much cheaper than standard pinball machines. Three models are available–Star Wars, Marvel, and Attack from Mars–each of which is loaded with a bunch of different digital pinball boards in place of a traditional pinball playfields. For the purpose of this review, I tested Star Wars Pinball. While it doesn’t offer a wholly authentic pinball experience, it’s still a well-designed machine with lots of variety and a great addition to your home arcade.

Close to the real deal

As a digital pinball table, you’re not actually using the plunger to shoot a real ball onto the game board, nor are you moving real flippers with the press of the side buttons. Arcade1Up’s Star Wars Pinball is fitted with a 24-inch LCD screen that displays the game boards in 720p resolution. That said, Arcade1Up did an admirable job of making it feel like you’re actually playing real pinball thanks to haptic feedback and sounds that provide a similar sensation. Solenoid modules create accurate ball feedback all across the board. Overall, the moment-to-moment pinball gameplay is very impressive.

Gallery

Unlike Arcade1Up’s cabinets, Star Wars Pinball doesn’t replicate games from an actual machine released in arcades. The machine is loaded with 10 game boards from Zen Studios’ popular Pinball FX3 game, which you can also play on traditional consoles and PC:

• A New Hope
• The Force Awakens
• The Empire Strikes Back
• Ahch-To island
• Battle of Mimban
• Darth Vader
• Star Wars: Rebels
• Han Solo
• Boba Fett
• Masters of the Force

Each of the 10 games features its own theme, sounds, and general layout, which truly does make the gameplay experience of every single board unique. In this respect, Arcade1Up’s pinball machines have an advantage over conventional tables in terms of variety. I’ve put in a couple of hours of game time on each board, and all of them are exciting in their own way.

The 7.5-inch LCD score screen reacts like a dot matrix display, adding points and multipliers to your score in furious fashion as the ball clangs around the board. Up to four players can take turns competing on each board to see who can rack up the most points.

Though each of the 10 games works great without a hitch, there is a fairly sizable issue with each of the boards. All of this leads back to the 720p display, which muddies the on-screen text and dulls the colors. There tends to be a lot of text on each game board, so this does hurt the overall presentation. Characters and obstacles are still easily discernible, but it did take a bit for my eyes to adjust to the image quality. The screen is actually capable of running in 1080p, but apparently Arcade1Up locked the games at 720p to keep the frame rate steady. It’s a trade-off that’s probably worth it considering the overall performance is so smooth.

Great build quality

While the picture quality is a bummer here, the build itself is quite impressive. Everything about it feels sturdier than the average Arcade1Up cabinet. All of the buttons have a solid feel, the plunger doesn’t feel cheap, and the metal edges that surround the top of the machine give it a premium look. The dual speakers produce impactful audio that sounds significantly more crisp than the regular Arcade1Up cabinets I own. The scoreboard lights up, similar to the marquees on some of Arcade1Up’s other machines. Though the display is plexiglass, it seems thicker than that of Arcade1Up’s game cabinets. It’s also a very simple process to replace it with a real glass panel, should you wish to do so.

Gallery

The build process is pretty simple as well. While I put it together myself in under an hour, it would be much easier with two people. This is in large part because the table itself comes in one (heavy) piece. You only have to build and connect the scoreboard, attach the adjustable metal legs, and then you’re good to go.

At 59.5 inches tall (measured from the top of the scoreboard to the floor), it’s taller than other Arcade1Up machines with risers attached. The table is 35 inches from the floor, so if you have other Arcade1Up stools, you can use them with Star Wars Pinball. It’s only 36 inches long, which helps it fit against walls without sticking out excessively. While a 3/4 scale pinball table does look somewhat odd at first, I quickly got used to the constrained dimensions. The Star Wars art on the sides and scoreboard looks great and features many of the most iconic heroes and villains from the franchise.

Price and value

Arcade1Up’s Star Wars Pinball machine has a list price of $600, but Walmart is currently selling it for $549. This price range is becoming more of the norm for Arcade1Up. With 10 included boards and an impressive build quality, Star Wars Pinball offers good value for a home pinball machine. There are home pinball machines that feature even more boards, though. For instance, AtGames’ Legends Pinball has 22 licensed games. That said, Zen Studios’ pinball games are exclusive to Arcade1Up.

The bottom line

Arcade1Up Star Wars Pinball cleverly replicates the feel of pinball on a digital table. Though it’s slightly disappointing that all of the boards hail from Zen Studios’ video game, each of the boards offers a distinct experience that celebrates different movies and moments in Star Wars history. While 720p resolution hurts the overall look of each game, Star Wars Pinball still makes you feel like you’re playing real pinball for a fraction of the cost. The compact build size takes a little while to get used to, but the components have a premium look and feel.

The Good

• Haptic feedback admirably recreates real pinball on a digital screen
• Lots of variety thanks to 10 game boards
• Great build quality
• Compact size
• Much cheaper than real pinball tables

The Bad

• 720p display makes text hard to read and muddies colors

---

About the author: Steven Petite tested Arcade1Up’s Star Wars Pinball for about a month, racking up dozens of hours of play. Arcade1Up provided Star Wars Pinball for review.

Mark Millar’s Kingsman franchise is about to take fans all the way back to the beginning with the first team to bear the name. The King’s Man is an origin story of the Kingsman guards and secret service that shows us the formation of the group and their role. A new legacy trailer just dropped and summarizes the history and gives us a sneak peek at what’s to come.

In the special look, we see Colin Firth’s Harry, Taron Eggerton’s Eggsy in the introduction, but then take a step back in time with Ralph Fiennes and Harris Dickinson as the Duke of Oxford and Conrad, respectively. Notably absent though is any footage of Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s Lee Unwin–Eggsy’s great relative. There’s also Gemma Arterton (The Girl With All The Gifts) as Polly, who acts as the team’s sharpshooter, and Djimon Honsou as Shola.

There’s also the trademark fight scenes, this time including mad Russian Rasputin, played by Rhys Ifans. Though it’s going to be difficult to top the church battle royal in the first film.

The King’s Man formation centers around the events of the first World War and how people of money and influence came together to help the world and work within the shadows outside of their government.

Fiennes, Dickinson, Arteron, and Honsou are joined alongside Daniel Bruhl, Charles Dance, Matthew Goode, Stanely Tucci, and Olivier Richters (who is about to have a really big summer playing Ursa in Black Widow).

The King’s Man hits theaters December 22, 2021.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

South Korean film director Bong Joon-Ho has finally shared some meaty details about the upcoming Parasite HBO series at the Cannes Film Festival, according to IndieWire. Explaining that he never expected Parasite to become such a hit–including several Oscars and a Palme d’Or win–the director has said his goal for the series is for it to rise to those accolades by “be[ing] something of great genius.”

“Parasite is a film on wealthy and poor families, and that is a problem everywhere,” said Bong. “The subject continues to have resonance in France and elsewhere… Many of [us] would like to be rich, but I think in all of us there is a fear of becoming poor.”

All we’ve really known until this point is just that it exists, is happening, and Bong is collaborating with writer-director Adam McKay (Succession) for it. Even with McKay’s involvement, we really had no insight into another fact that Bong shared–that the show will be a black comedy. The pair seized on much of 2020 in isolation to collaborate on the series, though there haven’t yet been important announcements to finally seeing it, such as casting or a production start date.

Bong also shared a bit more about a script he cryptically talked earlier this year about having finished, which is an adaptation of the 2007 book The Deep: The Extraordinary Creatures of the Abyss, by Claire Nouvian. Noting that it’s a “French scientific book that my wife bought and brought home,” the director says his “imagination took over” in using the book as a starting point for what will be an animated film. Of course, animated films take time–Bong said a conservative guess at a release date would fall sometime in 2025 or 2026.

Succession recently released its first teaser for Season 3, which will air on HBO Max this fall.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.