It’s no secret that actor Dave Bautista really, really wants to play Marcus Fenix in a Gears of War movie, but it may not be entirely clear just how bad he wants it. In an interview with Collider, Bautista says that he turned down an offer from Universal to play a role in a Fast & The Furious movie in order to promote a Gears of War adaptation.
“I don’t make any pretense about it,” Bautista said. “I had a chance to get a meeting at WB, they were talking to me about this and that and I said ‘hey, let’s talk about Bane.’ That happened to me one other time in my career. They wanted to talk to me about Fast and the Furious, and I said ‘I’m not interested, let’s talk about [Gears of War character] Marcus Fenix.’”
Bautista later added that he thinks Universal was “a little put off,” but that he didn’t regret taking his shot.
“I don’t mean to offend anybody,” Bautista said. “I’m not putting down anything else, I’m just saying [Gears] is way more interesting to me. I don’t want to pretend like I’m actually interested in something I’m not when there’s something I’m actually really excited about that you guys have under control. ‘Would you consider me for that?’ I don’t think there’s any harm in that. I’m not trying to step on anybody else’s toes, I’m just saying like this is what I love and I’m seriously passionate about this. ‘I can do a good job for you guys on this.’”
The Gears of War movie has wallowed in development hell since 2007, with writers coming and going from the project until ownership transferred over to Universal. Bautista has lobbied for the position of the COG soldier Marcus Fenix for so long that the actor was actually added to Gears 5 as a playable multiplayer character.
While the Gears of War movie shows no recent signs of life, it can’t be understated that turning down a Fast & The Furious job simply to badger Universal again is no small decision. The Fate of the Furious surpassed $1 billion at the box office as of mid-2017, and F9 stars one of Bautista’s old WWE coworkers John Cena in a starring role as the brother of Vin Diesel’s Dominic Toretto.
Kathryn Hahn is jumping from one mystery into another as the WandaVision actress is the latest star to join the cast of Knives Out 2. This was first reported by Deadline.
As with the other cast members — which now includes Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, and Janelle Monáe — Hahn’s role is being kept a secret. The only character whose identity we know is Daniel Craig’s who will return as gentleman detective Benoit Blanc.
Rian Johnson is set to return as writer and director for the Knives Out sequel for Netflix. The streaming service paid over $400 million for the rights to the next two Knives Out movies, meaning there will be another one after this.
Hahn is a critically-acclaimed actress but many will recognize her as Agatha from Disney Plus’ WandaVision MCU series. While we won’t divulge spoilers here, Hahn’s character in WandaVision was more than she appears at first, and that could be the same case for her character in Knives Out 2.
Johnson has said a Knives Out sequel will be focused on a new mystery with new characters, so don’t expect any of the actors from the first film to appear again. This includes stars from the first Knives Out like Chris Evans and Ana de Armas.
As the cast for Knives Out 2 continues to grow, production is scheduled to begin filming this summer in Greece. Check out IGN’s full WandaVision review (mostly spoiler-free) for our thoughts on the last mystery Hahn found herself in.
Late on Monday afternoon, a Mass Effect: Legendary Edition code arrived in my email inbox. As of this writing, that’s about 65 hours ago – which would be roughly enough time to hurriedly play through two of its three large-scale RPGs if you did literally nothing else. I decided not to do that, because by now my only opinion on their quality would be that they are not as good as sleeping, eating, or seeing my family once in a while.
Put another way, I haven’t had enough time with them yet to write anything close to a review. My early impressions based on the first 10 or so hours haven’t revealed much about the updated original Mass Effect that you haven’t seen or heard previously: it looks much better than it did 14 years ago and the writing and voice performances are still wonderful but the human facial animations (and running) don’t compare to modern motion capture tech; combat holds up pretty well even though it’s not as smooth as the latter games (switching weapon mods on the fly is still a pain); the Mako is still bouncy but not ridiculously bouncy. I’ve had a few minor bugs but nothing too disruptive yet.
Off the cuff, I can say that revisiting the story after 14 years has been great – I’d forgotten how quickly things get going, the original crew is introduced, and we’re off on a hunt for the secrets of the Protheans and the Reapers. But there’s still a long journey ahead and it’s not meant to be played in one long forced march, so it’s going to take a while before I can get my head around all of it for a review. (Whether or not that’ll take the form of a full playthrough of all three games and their DLC or some abridged version of that I still don’t know, but I’ll make sure to be very clear on what I did and didn’t play in my final review.) So, wish me luck, and I’ll see you on the other side.
In the meantime, we’ve got a ton of Mass Effect content to shoot directly into your veins/eyeballs (your preference), including a rundown of the gameplay changes made in the Legendary Editions, a recap of the entire Mass Effect story so far, and our reviews of every prior BioWare game to date. We’re also working on a full performance review video from IGN Graphics Wizard Destin Legarie to do a deep-dive into all the improvements EA has made to the trilogy, so keep an eye out for that!
A new generation of laptops with Intel Rocket Lake processors and RTX 30 series video cards have popped up at Newegg. Most of them are slated to be released this month and the initial crop of laptops could ship as soon as next week. Currently there aren’t any RTX 3060 laptops available, only 3070 and 3080 variants. These are some of the most powerful gaming laptops we’ve seen. The RTX 3070 performs better than the previous champ, the RTX 2080 SUPER, and the RTX 3080 is even faster than that. Check out all the options below.
Koei Tecmo has found a good deal of success of late with its licensed Dynasty Warriors spinoffs, ranging from Dragon Quest to The Legend of Zelda. More are undoubtedly coming, but what next? Koei Tecmo’s president has a couple ideas.
Speaking with TheGamer, Koei Tecmo President Hisashi Koinuma talked about the games he would personally love to see as a subject for a Warriors (also known as “musou”) game. “Mario and Star Wars are two great series that come to mind. Unfortunately, we haven’t had the opportunity to collaborate with these IP yet.”
Koinuma didn’t elaborate on why he picked those franchises in particular, but with a little imagination, it’s not hard to envision a Mario Warriors or Star Wars Jedi Warriors. Both franchise feature all the ingredients of a great musou game: distinctive settings, huge casts, and interesting settings.
Koei Tecmo’s most recent foray was Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which we called a welcome trip back to the world of Breath of Wild. While it missed some characterization opportunity, it was still a blast from start to finish, our review said.
Koei Tecmo has developed a strong relationship with Nintendo in general. Aside from Warriors versions of Fire Emblem and Zelda, it played a large part in the development of Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
As for Star Wars, the opportunity exists now that Disney is looking to partner with other developers outside of EA. It’s all too easy to imagine slicing through hordes of Battle Droids and Stormtroopers as Luke Skywalker or Mace Windu.
For now, Koei Tecmo is focused on the more traditional side of the Warriors series. Its next release is Samurai Warriors 5, which is due out on PC, Xbox One, PS4, and Nintendo Switch next month.
Beginning with Rift Apart, picking up bolts after you defeat an enemy will trigger a “tiny impulse” that you’ll feel in your hands, accentuated by a “subtle controller sound,” Sony said in a blog post. The game also provides a unique feel in the controller depending on what weapon you’re using. Additionally, striking different surfaces will yield unique haptic feedback with the controller.
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In Subnautica: Below Zero (which releases May 14), the controller aims to help you feel more “connected” to the in-game tools. “You’ll feel like you’re actually turning on the Flashlight’s switch, or feel the coil of the cable in your PrawnSuit as it launches from your Grappling Arm. The drilling sensation as you drill for resources with your Drill Arm also adds to the immersion,” the developer said in the PlayStation Blog post.
The game also uses the RGB strip on the DualSense controller to pulse faster when you get closer to a resource objective. “Driving both the directional vibration and the RGB pulse is the actual data that the in-game tool is receiving in real-time, so it’s always dynamic and accurate to what the player is seeing and feeling while playing,” the studio said.
In GhostWire: Tokyo, the haptic feedback includes “otherworldly voices” that come out of the controller’s built-in speakers. And when in combat, the adaptive triggers will have their own distinct feel based on what weapon you’re using.
“Even with your eyes closed, you can tell the difference between wielding snappy, precise bursts of wind; the destructive rush of water; and the raw devastation of fire. Attempting risky exorcisms at close range is even more intense, as the triggers help simulate the act of pulling a spectral enemy’s core out with your own hands,” the studio said.
Additionally, the feedback from the controller will become “stronger” as you level up your capabilities in the game. This creates a “noticeable sensation of real progress that we cannot wait for GhostWire players to experience themselves,” according to the developer.
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For Life is Strange: True Colors, you can trigger the main character Alex’s powers with the left trigger. The trigger will get tougher to pull as Alex becomes more powerful. This is meant to demonstrate that Alex is losing control of the “volatile, supernatural sense” that she has.
In Bandai Namco’s Scarlet Nexus, the DualSense controller uses haptic feedback and adaptive controllers to heighten the sense of immersion for using the game’s psychokinetic abilities.
“When you lift and toss objects, you will feel the flow of the hero’s power, no matter if it’s from left to right, or front to back. When the object moves from left to right on-screen, the sensation is achieved by having the left motor vibrate then move along to the right motor,” the studio said.
Explaining the trigger features, Sony said: “Moreover, adaptive triggers provide players with a more realistic game experience. Just like you sense weight and resistance while picking up objects in real life, you’ll feel like you’re lifting an in-game object with your own strength.”
For Mobile Suit Gundam Battle Operation 2, the DualSense controller replicates the feel of each weapon in a unique way. The controller will also give you haptic feedback when you hit a target.
“When using L2 or R2 for attack, pilots will notice a resistance to simulate the pulling of an actual trigger. For example, with the bazooka the resistance will cause the trigger to catch at the input position just before the bullet is fired, and as you continue to pull the trigger, the bullet will fire and release the tension,” the developer said. “We have also created a stronger rumble at the time of discharge, and a longer trail (the rumbling will last longer) to recreate the discharge of a larger caliber bullet.”
In Kena: Bridge of Spirits, the DualSense controller’s adaptive triggers are used to make you feel the difficulty of drawing back the character’s bow. And finally, Returnal’s use of the DualSense controller pulses subtly when it’s raining. These pulses are “procedurally synthesised at runtime,” the studio said, meaning they can be changed on the fly depending on what’s happening in the game. “The end result of that approach is that along with the visuals and audio, the haptic sensations produced by the DualSense controller give your subconscious brain yet another indication that it really is in the world of Atropos, standing in the rain,” the studio said.
Be sure to check out the full PlayStation Blog post, which contains video examples of the new DualSense functionality, to learn more about how each game uses the DualSense controller.
Among the numerous projects that Xbox Game Studios has in the works right now is a new IP that has yet to be announced. Xbox’s Ben Decker told GamesRadar (via VGC) that this new game will “blow your mind” when it’s announced.
He didn’t share or tease anything further about the game, so we can only guess and speculate as to what it might be. One possibility is that it’s the new IP from Hitman developer IO Interactive which is said to be an Xbox-exclusive dragon fantasy game.
Another possibility is that it’s the rumored new IP in the works at Gears studio The Coalition. Microsoft operates 23 studios across Xbox and Bethesda, so it’s possible the new IP that Decker is talking about is from a different studio.
“We have 23 studios across Xbox and Bethesda, working on Halo, Forza, Fallout, and new IP that we haven’t even talked about yet that’s gonna blow your mind,” Decker said. “We can deliver all of that into Game Pass on day one.”
As for when this new IP may get announced, Xbox and Bethesda will have a showcase this summer where more details about this game and potentially others may be revealed. Microsoft has yet to announce the specifics of its summer showcase, so it remains to be seen if it will be part of E3 2021 (June 12-15) or at some other point in the summer.
Gears 5’s Operation 7 arrives on May 18, and when it does it will bring two new characters, new maps, a slew of balance changes, and forced cross-play across console and PC.
In a post outlining the changes coming in Operation 7, The Coalition writes that 40% of players disable the cross-play matchmaking option, which is “significantly impacting the matchmaking times for our players on both PC and console.” It’s for that reason The Coalition is disabling the ability to opt-out of cross-play, stating that new features included in Operation 7, such as the inclusion of new field-of-view options across all platforms, make the two versions of the game almost identical to one another. Gears 5 already supports keyboard-and-mouse for console, and the higher framerates and reduced input lag allowed for by the Xbox Series X|S make The Coalition confident in the decision to force the game’s two communities together.
Leading the charge in terms of new content is the addition of two new characters fans of the series are likely familiar with: Ukkon and Hana Cole. Ukkon is the big-bad Locust scientist from Gears Tactics that players spend much of that game looking to eliminate, while Hana Cole is a gifted scientist and daughter of longtime Gears of War character Augustus “Cole Train” Cole. Hana made her debut in Gears 5’s Hivebuster DLC, where she played a critical role in developing the hivebusting technology employed by Scorpio Squad.
A new map PvP, Ephyra, will have players battling for control of a desolated hotel amidst a burning city. Three new Horde maps are also being added alongside a new Horde Frenzy event mode, plus there is a long list of changes to challenges and balance updates for PvE.
Players who enjoy custom games will now earn experience points for completing custom matches, albeit at a slower rate than in official matchmaking modes. Mutators with various effects such as headshots causing explosions and new screen effect options are also making their way into custom games.
Developer Housemarque said it’s “actively trying” to address the complaints about Returnal‘s inability to save mid-game, Axios Gaming reports.
Business developer and marketing director Mikael Havari told Axios Gaming that the team is investigating what options there are to implement a save system in Returnal’s rogue-like design.
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“It’s something that we’re actively, very actively trying to get out as soon as we can,” Havari said.
I talked about Returnal’s save system with Housemarque’s Mikael Havari today. Regarding an update: “It’s something that we’re actively, very actively trying to get out as soon as we can,” he told me. A bit more in today’s newsletter. Much more from the interview in tomorrow’s. pic.twitter.com/8iI4i7ckPH
Havari said the feedback about Returnal’s difficulty and lack of save function has been heard.
“We understand that there are some systems in place that are currently a hindering factor,” Havari said. He also said Housemarque is unsure of what the best approach would be, telling Axios that “we just don’t know exactly what [the solution] is.” Havari said “it’s very difficult to announce anything, because I think there’s a lot of different people looking for different things.”
Returnal’s difficulty, coupled with the lack of save options, lit the internet ablaze when the game launched on April 30 as a PlayStation 5 exclusive. Some complained about the PS5’s Rest function, which could interrupt a run in Returnal if players weren’t careful. Others cited real-life responsibilities–such as kids and work–that hindered their ability to get further in the game.
GameSpot editor Phil Hornshaw countered the fervent discourse, suggesting that players should die more–and get used to it–because Returnal narrative necessitates the player’s death.
Despite the criticisms, Returnal was still well-received by critics and fans alike. In our Returnal review, we scored the game a 9/10, saying, “Returnal’s many moving parts coalesce into a rare shooter that grabs you with its mechanics and its story and never lets go, seducing you with its challenges and a foreboding sense of dread every step of the way.”
Another lawsuit has been filed against Sony regarding its digital game sales, alleging that PlayStation customers have been overcharged by “billions” of dollars because of policies that prevent retailers from selling digital game codes on their own.
Before April 1, 2019, PlayStation Store digital games could be purchased at retailers via code cards, letting the retailers set prices and put them on sale. That is no longer an option, leading to Microsoft’s digital game store sometimes getting better prices than what Sony’s gets. Microsoft still allows retailers to sell code cards for Xbox systems.
The Cendejas case also specifically calls out the PlayStation 5 Digital Edition. While the standard PS5 supports discs, and thus gives players the chance to shop around for the physical versions of many games, the Digital Edition only supports the PlayStation Store.
“Consumers, limited to a single source for purchasing any digital PlayStation content, are forced to pay a higher price for digital PlayStation games than they would in a free and unrestrained competitive retail market,” the suit says.
You’re limited to just one store to buy games on the PS5 Digital Editiion
According to attorney Richard Hoeg, we’ll likely see similar cases like this lumped into one to be heard by a court. There probably won’t be a whole bunch of different lawsuits arguing the same case against Sony, especially since there doesn’t appear to be much difference between them.
“You’ll only get multiple lawsuits if there is some element of a complaint/proposed class that is materially different from other claims,” Hoeg told GameSpot. “In general, though, you’ll just be looking at one case.”
It’s likely we’ll see similar lawsuits filed before too long, as Hoeg said attorneys make money when they’re chosen to be the counsel for a class in a class-action lawsuit.
“Because of that, there is often a ‘race to the courthouse’ of overlapping proposed lead plaintiffs, in an effort for a plaintiff’s class-action firm to get that position,” he added.
Sony’s decision has made it impossible for certain retailers to offer console parity on their digital game sales. Newegg, for instance, has run $10 off deals on digital Xbox versions of a few different games lately, including Resident Evil Village and Biomutant. Without a way to sell game codes, retailers can’t offer the same savings to PlayStation users.
