Seemingly confirming the long-running rumours and reports, images of the supposed “All-Digital” Xbox One that has no disc drive have emerged online. The German website WinFuture.de obtained the images, which appear to be from a European retailer.
The supposed box art seems to suggest that Minecraft, Sea of Thieves, and Forza Horizon 3 may come pre-installed on this console. The box art also shows a 1 TB hard drive. Pricing details are unconfirmed at this stage. Also bear in mind that this may only be one version of an all-digital Xbox One SKU that Microsoft is planning. Bundles historically vary by region.
Whatever the case, given that what appear to be official images for the console are showing up online, it might not be long until Microsoft officially announces it. As it happens, Microsoft’s next Inside Xbox event is coming up on April 16. In addition to news about Microsoft’s plans for E3, the company might announce this console during the show.
Pre-orders for the All-Digital Xbox One console are said to open in April, with the system then scheduled to go on sale in May around the world.
The disc-free Xbox One might not be the last console Microsoft announces in the coming months. Microsoft is rumoured to reveal at least one next-gen console at E3 in June. And importantly, if Microsoft does make a disc-free Xbox One, it doesn’t necessarily mean the company will stop making Xbox One consoles with disc drives. Internet availability and speed vary by region, and all-digital consoles won’t work everywhere at this stage. It appears Microsoft will be providing the option to go all-digital for those who want to.
Would you be interested in a disc-free Xbox One? Let us know in the comments below!
The first episode of Game of Thrones Season 8 was load-bearing, and a bit rushed. How could it be any other way? We are racing towards a conclusion, and now, there are only five episodes left until we reach it.
It’s why the episode’s opening half was heavy on reunions. The main characters, many of whom have been separated for several seasons or more, took a few expository scenes to re-establish their relationships with one another: Arya and the Hound, Arya and Jon, Tyrion and Sansa, Samwell and Jon. And at the very end of the episode, we saw Jaime and Bran lay eyes on each other from across the courtyard. He knows. He knows that he knows. And he knows that he knows that he knows!
Here are some initial theories we have, based on Season 8, Episode 1. Winter is here, it’s marching on Winterfell, and we cannot wait to see what happens next.
HBO has released a teaser for next week’s Game of Thrones episode–and it looks dramatic. In the teaser, we hear Daenerys talking about wanting to do terrible things to Jaime.
“When I was a child, my brother would tell me a bedtime story about the man who murdered our father — about all the things we would do to that man,” she says to a council. It appears they are deciding Jaime. He also pushed Bran Stark out of a window and he might finally have to pay for that act as well. Jaime looks frightened as he stands before the group.
After that, the teaser moves to Daenerys talking with Sansa about Cersei and how she’s led them astray and betrayed their trust. We also learn in the teaser that the White Walkers are closing in, and they don’t have much time to prepare.
The Game of Thrones Season 8 premiere not only started to provide clues about how the show will wrap up, but it also revealed what probably happened to Ed Sheeran’s character.
SPOILERS FOLLOW BELOW
A scene in the episode shows Bronn “enjoying the attentions” of three women. One of them talks about how a Lannister soldier with ginger hair named “Eddie” met his fate at the battle when Daenerys scorched the Lannister soldiers with her dragons.
“That boy Eddie came back with his face burned right off. He’s got no eyelids now,” one of the women said, according to Polygon.
Sheeran appeared in the Season 7 Game of Thrones premiere, but that was the only episode he was in. He made his way into Game of Thrones thanks in part to Arya Stark actress Maisie Williams’ fondness for the “Shape of You” singer.
Sheeran himself told BuzzFeed that he thought his character was just “chillin'” after the battle. “It was fun being in Game of Thrones, but I definitely think they should’ve killed me off in the episode. I reckon that probably would’ve been the redemption for people that didn’t like it,” he said. So it turns out fans got what they wanted in a way.
Sheeran was not the first musician to have a cameo Game of Thrones. Sigur Ros, the drummer from Coldplay, and members of the metal band Mastodon have all been on the show in the past.
Mortal Kombat 11 developer NetherRealm has clarified its stance on microtransactions and loot boxes in the soon-to-launch fighting game. As was already confirmed, the game does not feature any loot boxes, but like with many other AAA games, Mortal Kombat 11 will feature optional microtransactions that players can use to buy cosmetic items.
In the latest Kombat Kast, producer Shaun Himmerick confirmed that Mortal Kombat 11 will have Time Crystals as its form of virtual currency. Players can spend these Crystals to acquire various cosmetic items such as skins, intros, easy fatalities, and gear, among other things. There is “nothing pay-to-win” with Mortal Kombat 11’s microtransactions, Himmerick said. Regarding the gear, Himmerick said NetherRealm learned from Injustice 2–which let you buy gear with stats that impacted gameplay–and it won’t repeat that with Mortal Kombat 11. The gear you can buy with real money has no gameplay impact on its own. Players will need to acquire stat augments from gameplay to improve their gearsets.
Nothing in Mortal Kombat 11 requires Time Crystals, Himmerick said. “We don’t want to have any competitive advantage for money,” he said. Himmerick went on to say that NetherRealm will give players allotments of Time Crystals in the game as a means to give players a look at some of the content they can buy should they decide to spend real money.
NetherRealm has yet to provide any details on specific price points for Mortal Kombat 11’s microtransactions, but those details should become available soon as they game’s launch is right around the corner.
Regarding loot boxes, Ed Boon already confirmed Mortal Kombat 11 will not have them, and Himmerick offered more details. “There’s no loot boxes. We don’t want that. We’ve heard the community doesn’t want that. We’ve seen the reaction to other games that have it. We don’t want that reaction. There are no loot boxes in this game whatsoever,” he said.
Mortal Kombat 11 launches on April 23 for PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. You can see all of GameSpot’s written and video coverage here.
The new James Bond movie has brought on a new writer who will reportedly help add a further dimension of humour to the spy film. The Guardian reports that Fleabag creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge has been hired to “liven up” the script for Bond 25.
007 actor Daniel Craig reportedly specifically requested that Waller-Bridge come aboard to “bring her wit and quirkiness to the screenplay.” Craig reportedly said the movie needed further “polishing,” specifically in the area of additional humour and other elements.
Waller-Bridge is the Bond franchise’s second female writer. The first was Johanna Harwood, who worked on the very first Bond movie, Dr. No, along with From Russia With Love.
Bond 25 has seen a number of writers over the years. Original director Danny Boyle wrote an initial script with John Hodge, but Boyle ultimately exited the project due to “creative differences.” True Detective’s Cary Joji Fukunaga was later hired to direct, with veteran Bond writers Neil Purvis and Robert Wade coming aboard to adjust Hodge’s script. Later, The Bourne Ultimatum writer Scott Z Burns joined Bond 25’s writing team. And now Waller-Bridge is working on the script as well.
As you might have imagined, all this changed led to production and release delays. The film was originally expected to hit theatres in October 2019, but it was later delayed to February 2020 and then further out to April 2020 where it currently sits on the release schedule.
According to The Guardian, Bond 25 has done some location shoots in Italy, Norway, and Jamaica, along with sound stages at Pinewood Studios in the UK. However, the “proper” filming of the movie, as it’s described in the report, reportedly hasn’t begun yet.
Craig returns to play 007 for the last time in Bond 25, while Ben Whishaw is expected to come back as Q. Ralph Fiennes will play M again and Naomie Harris is expected to reprise her role as Miss Moneypenny. Rami Malek is reportedly going to play the main villain.
We’re starting to dig into Q2 2019, and Nintendo Switch is still going strong with ports of Cuphead and Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (that’s coming to Xbox One as well). This episode of New Releases also takes a look at some action-filled titles like the zombie-blasting World War Z and the sword-slashing Katana Zero. Strategy fans can also get their fix with Anno 1800.
Anno 1800 — April 16
Available on: PC
The latest in the long-running strategy series is set during the Industrial Revolution, letting you build cities full of factories and trade goods around the world. New workforce options let you manage those factories better, and expeditions will let you ship your goods across the globe.
More Coverage:
Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster — April 16
Available on: Xbox One, Switch
This two-in-one package includes double the RPG adventures. Final Fantasy X is the story of Tidus and company escorting the summoner Yuna on a pilgrimmage, and X-2 follows Yuna as she searches for Tidus after he disappears. It’s the same turn-based combat and Sphere Grid level-up system as before, plus a new option to toggle between classic and remastered audio.
More Coverage:
World War Z — April 16
Available on: PS4, Xbox One, PC
This co-op third-person shooter is based on the 2013 movie, but you can probably guess what it’s about just from the title: laying waste to zombies all over the world. You can pick from six different classes and hold back the horde using guns, grenades, rocket launchers, barbed wire, and more.
More Coverage:
Cuphead — April 18
Available on: Switch
The delightful and difficult action game is coming to a new platform–and this version actually lets you play as Mugman in single-player (he’s coming to other versions via an update). Otherwise, it’s the same adventure across three islands, where you’ll fight tough bosses and leap through tricky platforming levels.
More Coverage:
Katana Zero — April 18
Available on: PC, Switch
The hero of Katana Zero can slow down time to help him slice through enemies and deflect bullets, but he goes down if he’s hit even once. Fortunately, the level will rewind to the beginning until you get that perfect run. Beyond the action, you’ll have to discover what’s really going on under the surface with your therapist, the drugs he’s giving you, and the nightmares they’re causing.
More Coverage:
April isn’t over yet, and next week New Releases will dive into two very anticipated (and very gory) titles. We’ll take a look at the Fatality-filled Mortal Kombat 11 and the PS4 exclusive Days Gone.
The Winds Of Winter: George R.R. Martin Says Writing On Next GoT Book “Going Very Well Lately”If you take the events of the last few seasons of Game of Thrones at face value, the question “Who is the Night King?” seems easy to answer: He’s an evil ice demon leading his forces south to annihilate the residents of Westeros with icy magic, rotting zombies, and even an undead dragon. That’s pretty cut and dried.
But this is Game of Thrones, and in this complex fantasy world, explanations are rarely that simple. Who is the Night King, really–and what does he want? Why is he marching south? And is the Night King really evil?
Not Bran
Let’s get this out of the way: The Night King is not, as one popular theory posits, Bran. Bran is not the Night King, and the Night King is not Bran. It’s a stupid theory, and I would like to be done with it.
The entire purpose of the Three-Eyed Raven, which Bran has become, is to stop the Night King. If Bran was the Night King, why would the original TER have put so much effort into luring Bran into his cave and teaching him? If Bran is the Night King, his entire arc for the past seven previous seasons is completely meaningless and void.
That’s not to say Bran is a hero in this story, as we’ve been led to believe. Bran could wind up being on the wrong side of this ultimate conflict, with his detached nature and the Three-Eyed Raven’s dubious origins (the show made zero effort to explore the figure’s backstory, so we have no idea who he actually is). But that doesn’t mean he’s going to go back in time, be transformed by ice magic, do nothing for thousands of years, and become a completely different person.
And just in case you’re not convinced, Bran actor Isaac Hempstead-Wright shot it down personally, telling Radio Times the theory is too “obvious,” “cheesy,” and lacking in dramatic weight. So, yeah. Please stop with this.
Good or Bad?
Even once we accept that the Night King isn’t Bran, we still know practically nothing about the character. Clearly he’s a thinking, sentient being, and the White Walkers around him have a society and hierarchy all their own. They make armor and weapons, and they have their own culture and, presumably, language (we’ve never actually heard one speak).
So what is the Night King’s true purpose? The stories passed down by humanity suggest that the White Walkers are a force of evil who arrive with the Long Night to murder everyone they can. But why? What are their goals? Why are they so hell-bent on traveling south?
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We learned during Bran’s scenes in Season 6 that the Children of the Forest created the White Walkers in the first place to help them defend against the First Men, who were cutting down their forests as they settled Westeros. The White Walkers turned on the Children, who then joined forces with the Men to drive them back to the far north. So the story goes, but that doesn’t really answer the question of “why.” Hopefully the show elaborates on the White Walkers’ background and goals more in Season 8, because if not, they’ll be the first truly boring bad guys on a show otherwise filled with great and complex villains.
Book Origins
There’s one other thing you need to understand about the Night King: He’s an invention of the show. In other words, there is no “Night King” in the books. There’s a “Night’s King,” who is actually completely different from the show’s Night King; while if the White Walkers have a leader in the books, we’ve yet to meet him.
It’s unclear whether the story of the Night’s King in the books will have any bearing on the show’s Night King, but it may be worth going over just in case.
In the books, the Night’s King is a figure from legend and myth who is said to have lived thousands of years before the series’ events. He was the 13th Lord Commander of the Night’s Watch (for reference, Jon Snow is the 998th Lord Commander, so yes, a lot of time has passed). Legend has it the Night’s King fell in love with a White Walker woman, took her as his bride, and ruled over one of the Watch’s castles (the Nightfort) as a rebel of sorts, until an alliance of Northerners and Wildlings defeated him.
Author George R.R. Martin actually addressed the relationship between the show’s Night King and the book’s Night’s King in a blog post in 2015: “As for the Night’s King (the form I prefer), in the books he is a legendary figure, akin to Lann the Clever and Brandon the Builder, and no more likely to have survived to the present day than they have.”
So yeah, according to Martin’s own words, the Night King is an invention of the show, as the book’s version is a figure from history who is no longer around in the present day. Whether the White Walkers in the books (or the “Others,” as they’re more commonly called) have a leader at all is something we might find out if George ever finishes the books.
And as for the Night King in the show? Hopefully we’ll know more about him by the end of Season 8.
