Streets of Rage 4’s upcoming DLC Mr. X Nightmare will bring a lot of new content to the game, and now it finally has a release date of July 15. As revealed in a post on the PlayStation Blog, the DLC will add three new characters to the mix, as well as a survival mode that’s designed to push players to their limit.
The survival mode injects some RPG elements into the game’s beat-’em-up formula, allowing players to choose perks in order to customize their character build. Obviously, some perks are more useful than others with certain characters, so it’s up to players to figure out what build works best for them. Players will have to see how long they can last against hordes of enemies.
Click To Unmute
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Now Playing: Streets of Rage 4 – 8 Minutes Of Mr. X Nightmare DLC Gameplay
The new characters include Estel, a police officer that you fight as a boss as part of the core Streets of Rage 4 campaign, as well as returning grappler Max and martial artist Shiva. As players last longer in survival mode, they’ll also unlock new moves for familiar characters like Axel and Cherry, which gives the game a whole new layer of depth.
In GameSpot’s Streets of Rage 4 review, critic Heidi Kemps praised the game as a retro throwback that celebrates the best qualities of its series while still pushing it forward.
“All in all, though, Streets of Rage 4 is an admirable comeback for this long-dormant series,” she wrote. “It looks great, sounds great, and plays very well. Even if the experience is relatively short, it’s the sort of game you and your buddies can easily enjoy playing and re-playing. If you’re craving some classic brawling action with a modern edge, these rage-filled streets are calling your name.”
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
EA has announced that in Madden NFL 22, all 32 teams will have unique home field advantage bonuses, giving the home team a slight boost. EA shared all of the bonuses on Twitter, detailing the wide variety of advantages, ranging from increased momentum gain to opponents having a shorter punt distance.
The home field advantages are part of the new Dynamic Gameday features, available only on the Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 versions of Madden NFL 22. There are three new features that make up the Dynamic Gameday: gameday atmosphere, gameday momentum, and Next Gen Stats Star Driven AI. The home field advantages fall under gameday momentum, which can give either team special perks depending on how the game is going. The home field advantage makes it harder for the away team to gain momentum.
Each teams’ home field advantage perk is inspired by real-life factors from the real stadiums, like away teams’ fatiguing faster in the cold climate of Green Bay.
All 32 home field advantage perks:
Tampa Bay Buccaneers – Fire The Cannons: home team players have their fatigue temporarily replenished while in the red zone.
New Orleans Saints – Who Dat: on away team 3rd/4th down conversion attempts, a random receiver will have an incorrect route when he lines up in preplay.
Carolina Panthers – Keep Pounding: the home team has more stamina during plays.
Atlanta Falcons – Rise Up: the home team gains a flat amount of momentum on every offensive play.
Dallas Cowboys – Deflected: away team punt distance is shortened when kicking across the 50-yard line.
Philadelphia Eagles – Linc’d In: while winning, the home team gains more momentum and the away team gains less.
New York Giants – Turf War: away team players fatigue faster
Washington Football Team – Unstable Ground: away team has an increasingly hard time changing directions
Green Bay Packers – Go Pack Go! The Frozen Tundra: home team gains more momentum and away team gains less. Away team fatigues faster and has a harder time changing direction.
Minnesota Vikings – Skol!: the home team gains a small amount of speed rating when in the red zone.
Detroit Lions – Motor City: home team accelerates slightly faster.
Chicago Bears – Bear Down: the away team’s kick meter moves slightly faster.
Arizona Cardinals – Rise Up Red Sea: home team gains momentum faster.
Los Angeles Rams – Rams House: home team gains bonus momentum for defensive stops.
San Francisco 49ers – Unstable Ground: away team has an increasingly hard time changing directions.
Seattle Seahawks – The 12’s: random portions of the play art for the away team offense will be squiggly and hard to read.
Kansas City Chiefs – Home of the Chiefs: Offensive audibles made by the away team have a chance to fail.
Los Angeles Chargers – Bolt Up: home team gains bonus momentum for yardage gains.
Las Vegas Raiders – Just Win, Baby!: home team gains momentum faster and has increased fatigue recovery while winning.
Denver Broncos – Mile High: away team players have less stamina during plays.
Cleveland Browns – Dawg Pound: away team hot routes have a chance to fail in the red zone, requiring them to be made again. Receivers who are hot routed will temporarily receive a “?” indicator bubble at the time of the hot route to signify they may be unsure of their route.
Baltimore Ravens – Truzz The System: home team gains momentum on every running play while winning.
Pittsburgh Steelers – Terribly Distracting: away team hot routes have a chance to fail on 3rd/4th down, requiring them to be made again. Receivers who are hot routed will temporarily receive a “?” indicator bubble at the time of the hot route to signify they may be unsure of their route.
Cincinnati Bengals – Who Dey: no huddle results in reduced clock runoff.
Buffalo Bills – Downwind: the away team kicking arc is harder to control.
Miami Dolphins – Made in the Shade: the home team fatigues slower.
New York Jets – Turf War: away team players fatigue faster.
New England Patriots – Our House: home team gains bonus momentum on touchdowns and third-down stops.
Jacksonville Jaguars – Duuuval: home team gains bonus momentum on touchdowns.
Indianapolis Colts – Hat Count: the home team defense can see the hat count on plays via coach cam.
Houston Texans – The Bullpen: away team gains less momentum for touchdowns.
Tennessee Titans – Titan Up: Home team will avoid committing holding penalties.
Madden NFL 22 releases on August 20, 2021, for the Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, and PC. If you purchase the Madden NFL 22 MVP Edition it comes will three days of early access starting on August 17. EA Play Live is happening on July 22, showing off upcoming games, but EA has also announced a series of panels prior to the main showcase, including one focused on how the community is shaping Madden NFL 22 on July 19 at 1 PM ET/4 PM PT.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Fargo TV series showrunner Noah Hawley is working on an Alien TV series for FX, and according to him, the show will not be a Ripley story.
In an interview with Vanity Fair, Hawley was able to talk in-depth about the upcoming Alien TV series he is developing for FX, including a rough outline of the setting and theme. According to Hawley, the Alien series will be set on Earth and explore the poor grunts who end up getting killed in all the other Alien stories.
“On some level it’s also a story about inequality. You know, one of the things that I love about the first movie is how ‘70s a movie it is, and how it’s really this blue-collar space-trucker world in which Yaphet Kotto and Harry Dean Stanton are basically Waiting for Godot.”
Hawley also revealed that it will not be a story about Ripley, the protagonist for much of the original Alien films and played by Sigourney Weaver.
“It’s not a Ripley story. She’s one of the great characters of all time, and I think the story has been told pretty perfectly, and I don’t want to mess with it.”
Instead, going back to Hawley’s theme about inequality, the FX series will be set on Earth and what happens when the systems in place fail to contain the ultimate killing machine.
“The alien stories are always trapped… Trapped in a prison, trapped in a space ship. I thought it would be interesting to open it up a little so that the stakes of ‘What happens if you can’t contain it?’ are more immediate.”
The Alien saga is a long-running franchise about a race of deadly aliens and the poor souls who cross their paths. Ridley Scott directed the first Alien movie starring Weaver in 1979 and it was followed by several sequels directed by different directors like James Cameron, David Fincher, and Jean-Pierre Jeunet.
In 2012 Scott returned to the Alien franchise with his prequel Prometheus, which didn’t include Weaver as it was set before the events of Alien. A sequel, Alien: Covenant was released in 2017 and a third film in the prequel trilogy has been announced.
Hawley says he’s written two scripts so far for his FX series with plans to begin production next spring. There is also a new co-op PvE game called Alien: Fireteam Elite coming out later this year.
Kevin Feige pushed for Black Widow’s action to be “more truthful” and “more visceral,” according to the movie’s director.
This news comes by way of Variety, who spoke to Black Widow director, Cate Shortland, about the movie and especially the action contained within. She said as soon as Feige saw what she was doing with Black Widow, he pushed her to go even further.
“Kevin said, ‘Make it more truthful, make it more visceral,'” Shortland told Variety. “As soon as they saw what I was doing, they pushed me to go further. And I think that’s why Kevin is an amazing producer. Because he sees what you try to create, and he encourages you to do it more honestly, I suppose.”
Variety’s report says Shortland pushed for the action in Black Widow “to reinforce the visceral nature of Natasha’s world.” Marvel was unsure of Shortland’s approach at first, though, according to the director.
“It’s a fine line, because you want people to have fun and enjoy it,” Shortland said. “But also, you don’t want people to go and put the kettle on when the fight sequence happens because they know what to expect. So I had to fight to make things a little bit uglier.”
Black Widow is the first-ever standalone movie for Scarlett Johansson’s Natasha Romanoff, aka Black Widow, in the MCU and it’s a bit of a prequel that takes place before the events of Avengers: Endgame. It will theaters and Disney Plus as a $30 Premier Access title on July 9.
Seven years after it was announced, Space Jam: A New Legacy is finally releasing in theaters on July 16. But you won’t have to head to your local theater to watch A New Legacy on release day. The film will also be available to stream on HBO Max as part of HBO’s commitment to offer Warner Bros. movies to subscribers the same day they hit theaters this year.
How to watch Space Jam: A New Legacy on HBO Max
Space Jam: A New Legacy will be available to all HBO Max subscribers. HBO Max now has two different subscription tiers: standard and ad-supported. The standard HBO Max subscription costs $15 per month or $150 per year ($30 savings overall). The ads-supported subscription plan is only $10 per month or $100 per year ($20 savings overall).
HBO Max does not have a free trial, so you won’t be able to subscribe to the service simply to watch Space Jam: A New Legacy and then cancel before you’re charged. You’ll have to commit to at least one month of the service, but chances are it will cost you less than a ticket to see the film at your local theater.
If you plan on seeing Space Jam: A New Legacy in theaters, presale tickets are available now at Fandango and Atom Tickets.
Space Jam: A New Legacy release date
Space Jam: A New Legacy releases July 16 in theaters and on HBO Max. As part of HBO’s release structure for Warner Bros. movies, Space Jam: A New Legacy will only be available to stream on the service until August 16, so make sure you watch it while you can.
What’s Space Jam: A New Legacy about?
Like its predecessor, Space Jam: A New Legacy sees an NBA superstar joining up with Looney Tunes characters to take on a group of villains in basketball. While the first movie featured Michael Jordan, A New Legacy stars LeBron James.
LeBron and his son Dom get trapped inside the Warner 3000, a virtual entertainment server ruled by a rogue AI played by Don Cheadle. In order to save him, LeBron and the Looney Tunes characters must take on the Goon Squad, super-powered digital avatars led by Cheadle’s character.
Click To Unmute
Space Jam Vs. Space Game: The Next Generation Comparison
Size:
Want us to remember this setting for all your devices?
Though Space Jam: A New Legacy is a standalone sequel, you still may want to revisit the 1996 original before it releases. Space Jam is streaming on HBO Max right now, so you have a couple of weeks to watch it on the service before A New Legacy arrives. Alternatively, you can rent it from Amazon Prime Video for $4.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Actor James Franco has agreed to pay more than $2 million to settle a sexual misconduct lawsuit filed by several former students of his acting school, NBC News reports.
Franco will pay $2.2 million, while the settlement will release claims by all parties, though Franco and other defendants involved continue to deny the allegations. A Los Angeles judge must now approve the settlement.
The lawsuit was filed in 2019 by two former students of Franco’s Studio 4 acting school, which ran from 2014 to 2017. The two former students alleged that Franco and his business partners coerced actors into filming sexual acts.
The lawsuit alleged that Franco and business partners attempted to “sexualize their power and fame by dangling the opportunity to aspiring actors of employment in film and television in exchange for explicit nudity, sex,” and as Franco put it, the “pushing of boundaries.’”
A joint statement made on behalf of the students and Franco was released on Wednesday.
“While Defendants continue to deny the allegations in the complaint, they acknowledge that Plaintiffs have raised important issues; and all parties strongly believe that now is a critical time to focus on address the mistreatment of women in Hollywood,” the statement reads. “All agree on the need to make sure that no one in the entertainment industry — regardless of sex, race, religion, disability, ethnicity, background, gender or sexual orientation — faces discrimination, harassment or prejudice of any kind.”
One million dollars from the settlement will go to the two named plaintiffs, while slightly more than $1 million will go to a fund meant for settling additional claims made by members of the class action lawsuit.
Franco has been accused of sexual misconduct in the past. He was alleged to have propositioned a 17-year-old girl on Instagram in 2014, an action he said was a case of “bad judgement.” In 2018, five women accused Franco of sexually inappropriate or sexually exploitative behavior.
PC peripherals brand Glorious has been around for a while, launching numerous great mice, keyboards, wrist rests, and more. But none of its products have been as eye-catching as its GMMK Pro keyboard–a new product that aims to make getting your hands on a custom keyboard kit easier while also opening the hobby to a much larger audience.
Custom keyboards have been an expensive and relatively small hobby for a while, but recently the scene has seen an explosion of interest. This doesn’t mean many of the components you need to make your own board are easy to get. Many kits, like the one Glorious is selling with the GMMK Pro, can usually only be purchased through extended group buys or in limited-quantity sales, meaning you’re either going to need to get lucky or have a lot of patience to get one.
The GMMK Pro aims to change that while also being a compelling option at its price point. Glorious ran its own pre-sale period for this keyboard earlier this year, but starting July 6 you’ll be able to get it from its website without needing to register for a chance to purchase it. Glorious says that stock will likely be limited from the outset, but that it plans to always have the GMMK Pro as a standard item on sale, eventually allowing you to grab one whenever you want.
If you’re new to custom keyboards, it might come as a shock that the GMMK Pro isn’t useable out of the box. This is a barebones custom kit, meaning you’ll need your own mechanical switches and keycaps to use it. You do get everything else, including a 5-pin hot swappable PCB (meaning you can swap switches with no need to solder), a gasket-mount design, and an all-aluminum body with tasteful diffused RBG strips on the sides.
As a barebones kit, you will need more items to really bring it all together, which Glorious streamlines with its suite of accessories. If you need keys, Glorious offers its own version of tactile Panda switches as well as a range of colorful options for PBT keycaps, coiled USB-C cables, and more. You can even grab additional plates for the GMMK Pro (in polycarbonate or brass), a lube station if you plan to add some to all your switches, and smaller items like switch pullers, cleaning kits, and the company’s own G-Lube.
If building your own keyboard sounds like too much work, there’s still plenty of great options that you can get going with right out of the box. Check out our guide for the best gaming keyboards on the market right now.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Warning! Spoilers below for what we saw at the Sony Pictures special footage Q&A event. Don’t Breathe 2 will be released exclusively in theaters nationwide on August 13, 2021.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Sony Pictures held a special footage Q&A event in Century City for Don’t Breathe 2, the anticipated sequel to the 2016 horror-thriller film about three friends breaking into the home of an elderly blind man, who turns out to be the intruders’ worst nightmare. In the new film, directed by Don’t Breathe co-creator Rodo Sayagues, Norman Nordstrom (Stephen Lang) returns eight years after the first film’s events and seems to have found the family he’s been longing to recreate through his guardianship of 11-year-old, Phoenix (Madelyn Grace). As shown in the trailer, Norman is shown to be truly happy as he trains Phoenix on survivalist skills until they are threatened by new intruders who are clearly after the girl. The evil within Norman is unleashed as he will do whatever it takes to save her.
Don’t Breathe creators and executive producers Fede Alvarez and Sayagues revealed three clips from the upcoming movie. The first clip that was shown, which Alvarez sets up in Norman’s home, was shot in the first week of filming. Norman is preparing to feed his beloved dog, Shadow. As he grabs the kibbles to take outside, he feels the bowl still has food in it and begins to search for Shadow in the woods. Criminals Jim Bob (Adam Young), Jared (Bobby Schofield), and Duke (Rocci Williams) have a sense of Norman’s abilities and invade the home while Norman is out in an attempt to kidnap Phoenix, who uses her survivalist skills to evade capture. The scene is tense as the sound is only filled with creaks and footsteps as the criminals search throughout the home for the child. After finding his dog killed under suspicious circumstances, Norman returns home and goes into fight mode against the invaders, causing a jump scare that left the audience gasping. The footage contrast shown was really dark, which Alvarez assured will be lighter when the film actually releases.
Sayagues credits the director of photography, Pedro Luque, who is a regular collaborator with Alvarez and Sayagues, for the scene’s structure. Sayagues shares, “Pedro and I [are] just having fun and exploring that. In pre-production, the house is already built and we’ve just been formulating what we would like to do and what we would like to see, how would you like to tell this scene, and then when we got there, how we [would] do it. He has a big camera and there’s always a way and he just figures it out. It’s funny [and] interesting. Sometimes it feels like it’s impossible and never going to happen – you’re never gonna be able to pull that on camera or whatever, but then somehow, it does happen. There’s so many talented people around you. It’s a common goal. As a director, your job is to make it clear what we all want to achieve. Once that is there, [the] magic happens.”
The second clip shown involved super glue. In the garage, Norman is tending to his wounds, sustained from the previous scene, using super glue, but is interrupted by Jared, who is searching for Norman. Norman is able to subdue Jared with the latter being found to with his nose and mouth covered with glue. Jim Bob saves his fellow criminal by doing a disturbing, but smart, type of surgical procedure with a screwdriver that left many in the audience shocked.
“The most fun with this movie is just figuring how Norman is going to defend himself against these guys, which in this movie, are deadlier and more dangerous than the guys in the first [film],” Sayagues explains before showing the clip. “It’s just figuring out how [this] guy can defend himself and, also, in a fun way that has never been done before.”
The final clip shown during the event has Duke, played by MMA fighter Rocci Williams, taking on Norman in the basement of his home. Alvarez noted that Norman fought against kids who didn’t know what they were doing in the first film. In this film, they wanted Norman to take on a well-trained big guy and see what he could do. In the scene, Duke attempts to lure Phoenix out of her safe box, but is alerted by his colleagues that Norman is present in the basement with him. Duke and Norman battle it out with impressive hand-to-hand combat which showed a lot of ingenuity that hasn’t been seen before in horror-based films. The sound design was highlighted in the scene to add some consequential depth to the fight. Alvarez and Sayagues credit composer Roque Baños for the score for the film, especially for this fight.
“It makes you way more present when you just hear the sound design everything,” says Alvarez. “I think it’s important just to understand how the alignment operates and how [Baños] works. Otherwise, you won’t understand how he did certain things. He just puts you more in tune with every assignment.”
“Usually when you read in the script, you’re not thinking about some sound that much,” Sayagues adds. “But, in this case, you have to. So [it] becomes a narrative element in the story, and that translates into the sound design. [We] understand that it’s in the DNA of the story. So, [the sound] becomes a character [and is] a very important element. [It] allows you to play a lot with it. It’s huge. The sound in this story is huge.”
Don’t Breathe 2 stars Stephen Lang (Avatar, Tombstone), Madelyn Grace (Grey’s Anatomy), and Brendan Sexton III (El Camino, Black Hawk Down). It will be released exclusively in theaters nationwide on August 13, 2021.
2021 marks the 10th anniversary of BioWare’s Star Wars: The Old Republic MMO, and the developer is marking the occasion with a big new expansion and more.
The new expansion is called Legacy of the Sith, and it’s slated for release this holiday. The expansion marks the start of the MMO’s 10th anniversary festivities that will include special events and new content throughout 2022.
In Legacy of the Sith, players take part in a military campaign and are trying to take control of a planet, Manaan, as they unravel the true plans of Darth Malgus. A new feature, Combat Styles, comes to The Old Republic in the expansion as well, while the level cap is rising from 75 to 80. New co-op missions, which are billed as the most challenging to date in the game, are coming as well.
One of these is a new Flashpoint that takes place in a tomb on top of a mountain on the planet Elom. A new Operation, set on a deep space research station, is included with Legacy of the Sith as well.
Combat Styles, the new feature, allow players to independently select a class story and mesh it with ability sets from tech- or force-wielding classes. A “refactored” character creation system is included with Legacy of the Sith as well, while items and loadout menus are now streamlined, according to BioWare.
It’s been a while since the last major expansion for Star Wars: The Old Republic dropped, but now we know what’s coming next. Star Wars: The Old Republic – Legacy of the Sith has been revealed, and will be launching later this year. It adds a new story chapter, quality of life improvements, and is designed as a welcoming point for new players.
Announced in a press release from BioWare Austin, the latest expansion continues the story of The Old Republic, as players seek to hunt down the renegade Sith, Darth Malagus. Players will explore a variety of new planets, including the aquatic planet of Manaan, and a mysterious world with a mountaintop tomb called Elom. There will also be further Operations in remains of a deep space research station.
The expansion also comes with a suite of enhancements for the game, including Combat Styles, which will “expand player options” alongside a variety of quality-of-life upgrades. Combat Styles will allow players to choose a specific class story and combine it with ability sets from other classes. This flexibility should allow players more options for customising exactly how they want to play. And with level caps will also increasing by 5, up to the cap of level 80, it looks like there will be plenty more content for Star Wars fans to dive into.
BioWare seems to be treating this expansion as a great jumping in point for new players, as the developer is also revamping the character creator to provide more options and to entice new players to jump in. The aim is to streamline the experience through improving the process for itemisation and selecting loadouts, which should make the game easier to control and more enjoyable to play as a result
The expansion comes as Star Wars: The Old Republic celebrates its 10th anniversary this year, but the celebrations will go beyond just 2021, as BioWare has also teased some future content, including events and updates that will tie in with the anniversary festivities.
Star Wars: The Old Republic – Legacy of the Sith is scheduled to launch this Holiday season, though we don’t have a more specific release date just yet. Are you looking forward to returning to Star Wars: The Old Republic? Or will this expansion sway you to jump in for the first time? Let us know in the comments below.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman
