It’s the final show before E3! This week on NVC, guest host Kat Bailey and the rest of the NVC panel discuss the highly-rumored Switch Pro announcement that has not yet come to fruition. Plus, hear about Nintendo’s recent firmware update that was abruptly pulled down, our thoughts on Game Builder Garage, and a whole lot more.
You can listen to NVC on your preferred platform every Thursday at 3pm PT/6pm ET. Have a question for Question Block? Write to us at [email protected] and we may pick your question! Also, make sure to join the Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast Forums on Facebook. We’re all pretty active there and often pull Question Block questions and comments straight from the community.
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Logan Plant is the Production Assistant for NVC. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.
Final Fantasy VII Remake finally has its PlayStation 5 upgrade with Intergrade, and along with the graphical boost and new photo mode, it also packs a new episode in the game’s story. Centering on Yuffie Kisaragi, a Final Fantasy VII character who hadn’t yet appeared in the Remake, the new Intermission episode fills in some gaps in the middle of Remake’s story, while showing what other members of the FF7 team were up to during the game.
The Intergrade addition spans two new chapters and includes its own new Trophies and some side content. But how long is it to finish? If you’re expecting a substantial addition, you might be disappointed–we managed to knock out Yuffie’s episode in a little over six hours, which included doing most of the side content the DLC has to offer. If you’re sticking to the critical path, you can probably expect to finish it in about five hours; maybe a little more or less, depending on your proficiency with Yuffie’s unique brand of combat.
For players who want to finish everything the DLC has to offer, though, you can probably squeeze quite a bit more time out of the DLC. In addition to the main story across the two chapters, you’ll also find several minigame-type experiences that will challenge your combat prowess and tactical skills. Those include a new version of Whack-A-Box, the box-smashing minigame in Remake, and a new virtual reality battle from Chadley, the kid in the Sector 7 Slums who trades summon materia for successful battles against the summoned creatures. You’ll also be able to fight new battles in the Combat Simulator found in Shinra Tower, if you’re looking for more challenges.
In addition to challenges that are mostly combat-oriented, the largest new addition to FF7 Remake is Fort Condor, a board game you play with various other characters in the DLC’s first chapter. Fort Condor is kind of a mix between Magic: The Gathering and chess, in which you and an opponent each summon characters to fight one another, in hopes of destroying your opponent’s three towers to win the game. You’ll find additional game boards and pieces throughout the DLC to up your Fort Condor game, and you can play against seven different opponents, with each one more difficult than the last.
As with Remake, you can also play Intermission on Hard Mode, which ups the challenge significantly for combat, as well as Fort Condor. Maxing out the DLC’s side content and playing it through on Hard Mode will likely add three to four hours to your total.
So if you just take the critical path through Intergrade’s Intermission episode, expect to spend around five hours on it. If you complete the side content, combat challenges, and Fort Condor matches, you’ll likely bump that up to seven to eight hours. And finally, maxing out the DLC with a Hard Mode playthrough and more Fort Condor should drive it up to around 10 or 12 hours.
If you’re jumping into Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade, whether returning to Remake or taking it on for the first time, check out our extensive FF7 Remake guides, walkthroughs, and tips rundowns to help you get absolutely everything you can out of it.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
For the next two weeks in Grand Theft Auto Online, players can earn extra rewards for completing vehicle cargo missions. Now through June 23, you can earn double cash and RP for vehicle cargo missions, plus a bonus of $250,000 for five boosted vehicles and an additional $250,000 for 10 total vehicles. The bonus cash will hit players’ bank accounts starting June 30.
The next two weeks in GTA Online are focused on Import/Export, offering double rewards for all VIP/CEO work, as well as double salary for all associates and bodyguards. The PvP mode Extraction is offering triple rewards for all participants. Players can also enjoy executive perks, like free drinks at the Diamond Casino Bar and the Music Locker. Plus, CEOs can waive the cost of changing their assistant and the renaming of their organization.
In addition to the bonus rewards, there are plenty of discounts and free items for players to snag. The big prize on the Luck Wheel in the Diamond Casino and Resort this week is the Overflod Entity XF. Players who log in during the next two weeks will receive the Vinewood Boulevard Radio T-shirt for free.
There are also discounts on a selection of vehicles, plus executive offices and related renovations are half off. Players can also pick up a vehicle warehouse for 30% off. Here are all the vehicles discounted for the next two weeks in GTA Online:
Pfister 811 – 40% discount
Benefactor Stirling GT – 40% discount
Dewbauchee Seven-70 – 40% discount
B-11 Strikeforce – 35% discount
Buckingham Volatus -35% discount
Prime Gaming members can get an additional $100,000 for logging into GTA Online anytime this week. Members also get an exclusive 70% discount on the Buckingham Valkyrie and an 80% discount on the Dinka Sugoi.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Xbox’s Free Play Days continues with three fresh games Xbox Live Gold and Game Pass subscribers can download and play this weekend at no additional cost. Whereas last week’s focus was on all things Warhammer, you’ll be able to test out Fallout 76, Ark: Survival Evolved, and Football Manager 2021 and pick them up at a pretty steep discount if you find them to your liking now through Sunday, June 13. As an added bonus–and perhaps because Microsoft knows you all are simply too busy keeping up with all our E3 coverage this weekend to give it your full attention–Xbox is extending the amount of time players can try out Fallout 76 until Wednesday, June 16 at 9 AM PT.
Both Fallout 76 and Ark: Survival Evolved offer players unique single-player and multiplayer experiences. In Fallout 76, players can build bases and explore the wastelands with a party of up to three other players, leveling your character up in true RPG fashion as you go.
In Ark: Survival Evolved, you take on the role of a survivor on a mysterious island who must hunt, craft, and create self-sustaining home in order to survive. Oh, and also you can raise and ride dinosaurs.
Lastly, in the management simulation game Football Manager 2021, “you can take your favorite club to the top or lead a nation to glory in an international tournament that you’ll no doubt be watching this summer.”
Each one of these titles can be downloaded through Xbox’s Free Play Days hub, or by navigating to the Subscriptions tab in the Xbox Store on your console.
When construction began in early 2019 at the Jurassic World area within Universal Studios Orlando’s Islands of Adventure theme park, nobody was quite sure what was going on. After all, Universal Studios Hollywood had completely re-themed its Jurassic Park area to match the new series of films. That wasn’t to be the case for Islands of Adventure, though. Instead, the new VelociCoaster attraction preserves the iconic land, while connecting it to the modern franchise.
“It’s amazing that here at Islands of Adventure you can experience both Jurassic Park and Jurassic World, especially knowing where the future of the Jurassic World franchise is going,” Universal Orlando Resort show producer Shelby Honea told GameSpot. “The filmmakers really see it as one big timeline. That was something that [Jurassic World director] Colin [Trevorrow] and [producer] Frank [Marshall] really emphasized to us. They don’t see it as Jurassic Park or Jurassic World, they see it as Jurassic.”
With that in mind, Universal’s creative team built a roller coaster that feels like it was pulled right out of the Jurassic World films and found a way to integrate it into the existing Jurassic Park area without overpowering it or taking away from the iconic sights fans of the area care about most–namely the Discovery Center that’s based on the one from the first Jurassic Park film and can be seen from around Islands of Adventure.
“We studied really extensively this park, the sightlines,” Honea explained. “We wanted to make sure that we were preserving a really iconic element, which was the view [of the Discovery Center] across the lagoon.”
Now, when guests arrive, they’ll still be greeted by the unique building, but find the VelociCoaster wrapped around it, rocketing guests through a pretty intense experience. After all, as Universal Orlando Resort art director Gregory Hall put it to GameSpot in simple terms, “You have to have dinosaurs on your dinosaur ride.”
Granted, the VelociCoaster is packed with plenty of terrifying roller coaster thrills–including a 140-foot top hat drop, a barrel roll close to the lagoon they call the Mosasaurus roll after the aquatic dinosaur in Jurassic World, and plenty of other chances to get flipped upside down and feel weightless as you blaze through at up to 70 miles per hour. What sets it apart, though, is the story baked into it and the sheer amount of dinosaur-centric thrills that the creative team refers to as the “teeth” of the experience.
The attraction features an original story set just prior to the first Jurassic World movie. “We found this really fun spot and the filmmakers were so awesome in letting us play around with this and have fun with it,” Honea said. “We know there’s the gyrosphere ride, there’s all these great attractions at Jurassic World. But we also know that Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard) is under a lot of pressure to add more teeth. So we know the Indominus Rex is having some challenges. It ate its sister, it needs a bigger wall. As a kind of interim step to get more teeth in the park, she greenlit a coaster to go into the Velociraptor paddock. She’s very proud, she thinks this will look great to the shareholders, and Owen (Chris Pratt)–who you see in the attraction–is not into it one bit.”
Who can blame him? Not only does sending a roller coaster through a Velociraptor paddock seem incredibly dangerous, it’s also a public relations nightmare waiting to happen. All it takes is one lost arm. However, for Hall, it gave the team the opportunity to do something that’s not been seen in the movies.
“We came to the realization that the Raptors have never been on public display in the films,” he said. “In the films, they’ve escaped. But what does that look like when you know guests are in the park and they see the Raptors in there in the Raptor paddock?”
And as guests in this park, you will get that chance to not only come face-to-face with them in the line queue with the use of animatronics–which you can see above–but be chased by them throughout the ride. “The intensity gets more and more intimidating as you go through the queue,” Hall teased. “In the queue you see the coaster flying through the building at 70 miles per hour with Raptors chasing it. Who else could do that?”
So while the Jurassic Park experience may be preserved at Islands of Adventure–including the fact that it’s one of the last two places you can still experience the original Jurassic Park: The Ride–the area has evolved to embrace the present and future of the franchise.
The Jurassic World VelociCoaster is open now at Universal Orlando’s Islands of Adventure.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Verizon is holding its first E3 keynote this year and will focus on how 5G impacts gaming. You could expect discussions of speed, latency, the capacity of the 5G network for game developers, and how 5G affects esports. It wouldn’t be surprising if Verizon emphasized mobile games in its show.
However, there is speculation that Verizon could highlight the cloud gaming service called Verizon Gaming it’s reportedly developing. According to The Verge, Verizon Gaming was in its alpha testing phase back in 2019 and was running on the Nvidia Shield. Verizon has yet to acknowledge Verizon Gaming publicly.
Verizon E3 Keynote 2021 Stream Stream Start Time
The livestream event is set for June 14 at 9 PM PT/12 PM ET. Chief marketing officer Diego Scotti and chief product development officer Nicki Palmer will host the show. Game studios Team Liquid, Dignitas, and Riot Games will join the presentation as well. Viewers should expect a handful of announcements from those studios.
How To Watch Verizon E3 Keynote 2021 Stream
Verizon posted on its site that the event will stream on E3’s YouTube and Twitch channels.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Metal Gear and Death Stranding director Hideo Kojima has been rethinking his creative process in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the developer said during Thursday’s Summer of Games event.
In an interview with Geoff Keighley, Kojima touched on how his usual process for coming up with a video game idea — namely, trying to predict what the far-off future will look like and wrapping it in the context of entertainment — doesn’t feel quite right since the world went into lockdown.
“In the past, about creating things, I was always thinking about what could happen in society in 5, 10, or 20 years,” Kojima said. “It was like predicting the future and adding the entertainment essence. And that’s how I always created. But this time, [the pandemic] came much too soon. The reality came much too soon, especially on Death Stranding. So I’ve changed how I think and create now.”
One can’t blame Kojima for making the comparison. Death Stranding, which was released in November 2019, is set in a post-apocalyptic America in which remaining survivors either live in walled-off cities or hunker down in isolated homesteads.
The main character Sam Bridges (played by Norman Reedus) works as a courier, crossing vast swaths of land to deliver packages. Less than six months later, COVID-19 would force countless people to take shelter in their homes and avoid in-person interaction with others.
Kojima’s past work on the Metal Gear Solid franchise has been lauded for their depiction of the increasing robotization and corporatization of military warfare, among other themes.
“But since the era is catching up so quickly, it’s not really just fiction anymore,” Kojima said. “So I’ve been re-thinking my creative process. I guess all creators are thinking the same way. It’s almost similar to what happened after 9/11, considering which direction we should go as entertainment. I think that this is a big assignment for us.”
When asked about his next project, Kojima declined to offer details, but said “it won’t be like the past, it won’t be one step at a time.”
Kojima did however announce Death Stranding: Director’s Cut, coming to PS5, though a release date has not been revealed. Fans got to see a brief teaser trailer of Norman Reedus’ character climbing in and out of a cardboard box Metal Gear Solid-style, but as for what’s different in the Director’s Cut, we’ll have to wait until Kojima’s full reveal of the game, which he says is “weeks away.”
Whitaker’s involvement in the series was revealed by Star Wars: Andor cast member Stellan Skarsgård during an interview with Swedish radio station Sveriges Radio. The actor revealed that he had shot a scene opposite Whitaker, confirming rumors that Whitaker had been seen on the show’s set.
Star Wars: Andor will take place five years before the events of Rogue One, exploring the history of Andor’s operations in the Rebel Alliance. Saw Gerrera was first seen in the animated series Star Wars: The Clone Wars and later appeared in Star Wars: Rebels. Rogue One’s portrayal of Gerrera hinted at a falling-out between the character and the Rebel Alliance due to his more radical methods of resistance.
Alongside Luna, Whitaker, and Skarsgård, Star Wars: Andor will also star Adria Arjona, Fiona Shaw, Denise Gough, Kyle Soller, and Genevieve O’Reilly. The production is being led by showrunner Tony Gilroy, who co-wrote and oversaw reshoots on Rogue One. The twelve-episode series is to premiere on Disney Plus sometime in 2022.
In our review of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, IGN gave the film a 9, saying it offered “a remarkable recreation of the original Star Wars’ world, while exploring the universe from a different, edgier perspective.”
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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.
Disney Plus’ She-Hulk series may have found its villain as Jameela Jamil has reportedly been cast as She-Hulk rival Titania.
Variety reports that the Good Place actor has joined Disney Plus’ latest Marvel outing. She-Hulk is one of Marvel’s many Phase 4 TV shows for Disney Plus and will star Tatiana Maslany as Jennifer Walters, a lawyer, and Bruce Banner’s cousin.
After an accident, Walters receives a blood transfusion from Banner and becomes She-Hulk, though unlike Banner she retains her intelligence and psyche.
Titania is another super-strong villain in the Marvel Comics universe, though recent story arcs in books like Immortal Hulk have reformed Titania. According to Variety Marvel Studios and Jamil did not respond to requests for comment.
The cast for She-Hulk also includes Renée Elise Goldsberry, Ginger Gonzaga, and Tim Roth who will reprise his role as the villain Abomination from The Incredible Hulk film. This is the Hulk film that starred Ed Norton as Bruce Banner, who was later recast with Mark Ruffalo.
She-Hulk is just one of the many shows Marvel is cooking up for Disney Plus. We are currently on a new Loki series, which you can read our review here. Up next aside from She-Hulk are shows for Hawkeye, Ms. Marvel, and Moon Knight, which finally confirmed Oscar Isaac as the star.
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Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.
(Photo by Frazer Harrison/Getty Images for The Recording Academy)
