The creators of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness are reportedly working on a new episode that will focus on the master illusionists, Siegfried and Roy.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, the filmmaking duo behind the hit Netflix docuseries, have taken on a new project, under the Tiger King name, that will apparently explore the 2003 mauling attack that ended the Siegfried & Roy show.
Wildlife veterinarian and Tiger King production member Dr. James Liu told the outlet that the follow-up episode would “act as a higher-minded corrective to both the original seven-episode series as well as comedian Joel McHale’s aftershow special.” However, a spokesperson for Goode Films disagreed with this characterization of the sequel, claiming it was “untrue that the direction is going in a more conservational route.”
Regardless of the tone of the new episode, it is believed that it will centre around Siegfried Fischbacher and Roy Horn, a duo of magicians who were best known for their Las Vegas show that ran from 1990 until 2003, ending when a white tiger mauled Horn on stage during a performance. He survived the attack but was left permanently injured. Horn died this month due to complications from coronavirus (COVID-19) at the age of 75.
Details of the new episode are said to have emerged when Liu reached out to THR to request contact information for Chris Lawrence, a former tiger handler for Siegfried & Roy’s show, who spoke to the outlet in 2019 about his 15-year battle with PTSD following the infamous incident, which he claims to have been triggered by several operational failures and onstage handling errors made by Horn on the night.
In our review of the original Tiger King series, we called it “a fascinating and depressing look inside a community of big cat fanatics,” which can be “downright uncomfortable to watch” at times, but would likely be a valuable addition to the watchlists of “true crime fans hungry for something different.”
Following Activision’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD remaster in 2012, the company is returning with a bigger remaster package that features updated versions of the first two games. Following word from Tony Hawk himself, who sent a text message to fans shortly before the announcement was made official, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is coming to PS4, Xbox One, and PC in September.
Developed by Vicarious Visions, the games feature updated graphics, new tricks, additional features, and some of the original games’ most iconic music (to get this out of the way upfront, yes, Goldfinger’s “Superman” is included). In short, the 1999 and 2000 skateboarding games have never looked better–see for yourself in the screenshots and video embedded in this post.
The games offer all the original levels, professional skaters, tricks, and modes from the classic games. Some of the new features include additional tricks, more goals and challenges, and “secrets” to uncover. The game supports local split-screen multiplayer as well as online play.
The create-a-park and create-a-skater modes also return, and they have even more customization items available to players. You can share your parks online and play those created by other users. In terms of the create-a-skater customization options for clothing and more, all of the different content is available through gameplay exclusively, at least at launch.
Vicarious Visions boss Jen Oneal told GameSpot that there will be no microtransactions in the Tony Hawk remasters at launch, but these could come later. “Everything that you see at launch is going to be unlocked with gameplay. We’re not planning on having monetization at launch,” Oneal said, adding that Vicarious put a focus on making sure players are getting a “complete package.” If there is demand for additional content, Vicarious Visions might consider releasing more stuff to buy with real money down the road.
Tony Hawk’s remastered graphics
Something else that may come post-release is cross-platform play. Activision is already pushing into the cross-platform market with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone, but Oneal stopped short of confirming this for the Tony Hawk remasters. “When the time comes we will say more,” Oneal said.
In terms of the soundtrack, Goldfinger’s iconic “Superman,” which is synonymous with the series, is included, as well as songs by Rage Against the Machine, Powerman 5000, Bad Religion, Dead Kennedys, Naughty by Nature, Papa Roach, and Primus, among others. Oneal told GameSpot that Activision was not able to secure every song from the original games due to licensing issues, but the soundtrack will have most of what you remember. “All of your favorites will be there,” Oneal said.
Just like in the original games, you can expect to be able to skate as Tony Hawk, Steve Caballero, Geoff Rowley, Bucky Lasek, Elissa Steamer, Kareem Campbell, Andrew Reynolds, Bob Burnquist, Chad Muska, and all the other skaters from the first two games, now presented in HD.
Oneal explained to GameSpot that Activision is releasing this remaster in 2020 because the ’90s are popular again.
“Nostalgia is in. Everything ’90s is all the craze. The music, the clothes. And now we have the technology to make something truly superior,” Oneal said. “It just felt like now was the right time to do it.
Tony Hawk himself said on social media in 2018 that he was no longer working with Activision on the iconic video game series bearing his name. But things can change. Oneal explained to GameSpot that Hawk was involved from the beginning on the remaster project.
“Tony really wanted a very faithful remaster, which is what we are doing. He is still really close to all of the skaters from the first two games, and they’re all present [in the remasters],” Oneal said. “We ran plans by him from the get-go, and shared with him any new ideas that we had. He knows what the culture of skate is and how we need to represent it.”
The Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater remasters launch on September 4 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The PC edition is exclusive to the Epic Games Store. The games are only going to be sold through the remaster package containing both titles, and not individually.
The latest new Tony Hawk game was 2015’s Pro Skater 5, but it ended up going down as one of the most poorly received mainstream games of that year. Hawk himself released Tony Hawk’s Skate Jam in 2018 for mobile devices, marking the first Tony Hawk game not published by Activision.
A new Max Raid event is now underway in Pokemon Sword and Shield. Unlike most previous Max Raid events, this one features only a single Pokemon, but it’s a rare one: Gigantamax Pikachu.
Until May 18, Gigantamax Pikachu will appear as a Raid boss in dens across the Wild Area. This marks the first chance most players will have to catch the Pokemon. Previously, the only way to obtain Gigantamax Pikachu was if you had save data for Pokemon: Let’s Go, Pikachu on your Switch. If you fell into that category, you would receive the special Pokemon as a free gift from a character in the Wild Area station.
Even if you already have a Gigantamax Pikachu, there are a few good incentives to participate in this event. Not only do you have a chance of finding a Shiny Gigantamax Pikachu, but each Pikachu you catch from five-star Raids will know the move Surf. You may also earn some helpful items from the Raids like Nuggets, Exp. and Dynamax Candy, and more.
After the Gigantamax Pikachu event ends, two more previously exclusive Pokemon will be featured in Max Raids. First, Gigantamax Eevee–which was similarly only available as a bonus for playing Let’s Go, Eevee–will appear from May 19-25. After that, Gigantamax Meowth–which was available as an early purchase bonus–will appear from May 25 to June 1.
Two DLC expansions are on the way for Pokemon Sword and Shield this year: Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra. The former is slated to launch next month, while the latter is set to follow sometime this fall, and each will introduce a new area to explore, new and returning Pokemon to catch, and more. You can catch up on all the details in our roundup of everything we know about Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra.
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Iron Man VR has been the subject of a few delays, most recently when it was delayed alongside The Last of Us 2 due to the coronavirus pandemic. Recently, Sony has been getting its displaced release dates back on track, and now we know when you can take to the virtual skies as Marvel’s Iron Man.
PlayStation tweeted that the PSVR game will now be coming to PS4 on July 3, just in time for the Independence Day weekend for the US.
The game from Camoflaj had been slated for February 2020, and then was pushed to May before the coronavirus crisis shook up Sony’s schedule. At the time it had been delayed indefinitely due to supply chain disruptions. Under the new schedule, The Last of Us 2 is coming in June and Ghost of Tsushima in July. Iron Man VR sits comfortably sandwiched between those two AAA exclusives.
SIE Update: We are pleased to announce that Marvel’s Iron Man VR will release on July 3. Please look forward to more news in the coming weeks! pic.twitter.com/aVk2khLNEW
Iron Man VR is a PlayStation VR exclusive, using the VR headset to put you inside Tony Stark’s Iron Man helmet. The character was popularized in Marvel’s cinematic universe as played by actor Robert Downey Jr. Game director Ryan Payton says the studio wants to make “a deeply personal, and appropriately funny, narrative” in which Tony has to confront “ghosts from his past.”
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With movie theaters around the country remaining closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, some movie studios have been releasing movies to on-demand instead of pushing back release dates, like Universal did with Trolls: World Tour. However, in the midst of this, Universal received backlash from Regal Cinemas and AMC. Now, WarnerMedia is the latest to go straight to on-demand with Scoob on May 15. However, the company is already attempting to calm the raging waters.
During a recent virtual webcast (via The Hollywood Reporter), John Stephens, CFO of WarnerMedia parent company AT&T, said that they will “continue to work with theater owners.” This comes days before the animated movie Scoob hits VOD.
“Our launch of Scoob took a different path than normal because of the virus, and we’ll learn from that,” Stephens said. “We understand the importance of … big theatrical releases. We are interested in new ideas, whatever is best for the consumer, but we will continue to work with our partners.”
“The results for Trolls World Tour have exceeded our expectations and demonstrated the viability of PVOD,” NBCUniveral CEO Jeff Shell said back in April. “As soon as theaters reopen, we expect to release movies on both formats.”
Because of Shell’s statements, Universal responded by refusing to play any movies from the studio in the future. Shell reiterated the fact that Universal movies will not all be digital releases, and the studio still work with theaters. Regal Cinemas owner Cineworld CEO Mooky Greidinger chimed in, echoing AMC’s statements.
Regardless of Stephens’ comments about working with theaters in the future, there will likely be blowback for going straight to on-demand for Scoob. AMC’s Adam Aron has been very vocal about this situation, which some find a bit preposterous.
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The Summer Game Fest, a season filled with game announcements and reveals lead by Geoff Keighley, has added a new stream on Wednesday, May 13. And according to Keighley, it’s one of the most important events of the season.
The stream was added to the Summer Game Fest schedule yesterday. The listing doesn’t reveal much, aside from the stream being a showcase followed by an interview session with Keighley. The stream will go live at 11 AM ET/ 8 AM PT.
Responding to a question on Twitter about whether this second event would be “fun and cool” in the same way that Keighley described today’s announcement, the host replied, “Wednesday is one of the more important moments this summer.”
Considering both Microsoft and Sony have new consoles on the horizon with the Xbox Series X and PS5 respectively, and many studios presumably have projects to announce for next-generation hardware, Keighley could be hinting at many possibilities.
Denis Villeneuve’s take on Dune is shaping up to be on of our most anticipated upcoming movies, thanks in part to a series of glimpses at its star cast.
We’ve put together a gallery of every official image so far (below) – the newest being a shot of Josh Brolin’s Gurney Halleck and Timothée Chalamet’s Paul Atreides clinging to the back of what may be a Carryall.
Villeneuve has made it clear that this movie will be the first of two, because Frank Herbert’s seminal sci-fi novel is “too complex” to fit into a single feature film.
Arnold Schwarzenegger is coming to Predator: Hunting Grounds as DLC later this month.
Announced today on PlayStation.Blog, this paid DLC arrives on May 26 and will see Schwarzenegger’s Dutch character from the original 1987 Predator movie added to the game. Considering Predator: Hunting Grounds is a game based on the universe of that movie, Dutch joining in on the hunt only makes sense.
You can check out what Dutch will look like in the game below.
“Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger has reprised one of my favorite roles from childhood for this game,” IllFonic Chief Creative Officer Jared Gerritzen said. “We got to spend a day in sunny California recording with Arnold.”
As indicated by Gerritzen, Schwarzenegger himself returned to the role to voice lines for Dutch. In order to introduce Dutch into the game, IllFonic will add cassettes to the game for players to earn that allows them to “learn where Dutch has been all these years and hear his story in his own words through a series of voice tapes that you earn as you level up.”
When the DLC is released on May 26, players will get access to the Dutch character and the QR5 “Hammerhead” Rifle, as well as Dutch’s knife. The rifle and knife will be made available to all players, free of charge, later in June.
The Dutch DLC pack is the first of at least four paid DLCs with the second coming in June, the third coming in July and the fourth in August. The blog post does not mention a price for this DLC.
I’ve got some news for you, are you sitting down? If you’re not, the news is actually related to being seated, so this works out well. Gaming chair maker Vertagear has one of its best chairs on sale right now, meaning you can sit yourself down in comfort while you game or work. You can also save on its chair RGB conversion kits to take your chair to extremely ridiculous levels of awesome. Or am I the only one who demands RGB lighting everywhere?
The SL2000 on sale is for preorder with an estimated ship-date of June 21. The RGB kits are available right now, if you’re looking to turn your chair into a wireless light-up beacon of hope in these troubled times. There are other discounts advertised on the Vertagear website, but unfortunately the other deals are out of stock at the moment.
If you’re unfamiliar with Vertagear, it works with FaZe Clan for their chairs, and two of its seats are on our list of the best gaming chairs, so they’re top-notch.
VPNs are a hot commodity these days. Short for Virtual Private Network, VPNs offer the promise of privacy online – or just access to another country’s Netflix catalog. But they tend to cause as many problems as they solve when it comes to gaming online.
IGN and its sister site PCMag recently surveyed our readers on VPN usage with PC Gaming. 58% of respondents said they use a VPN to protect their privacy online, while gaming-related uses such as accessing games from another region or to play with people in different countries together accounted for just 15%.
There’s a reason gamers tend to not like VPNs either: of those who do use a VPN while gaming, more than 75% reported performance issues or lag. Not exactly what you want when trying to land headshots in a fast-paced shooter.
This matches with another survey question, which indicates that prospective VPN users care most about speed when choosing a service.
For more insights from the survey, check out PCMag’s analysis as well.
