Original Assassin’s Creed Director Apologizes for Towers

Patrice Désilet, the director of the first two Assassin’s Creed games, has jokingly apologized for introducing the much-mocked tower climbing mechanic to video games.

Talking at EGLX in Toronto, Désilet answered a question that asked if he was happy with being known as the “Assassin’s Creed guy”.

“A little bit! If you’re going to spend years on something I hope that happens,” he answered, reports Destructoid. “Breath of the Wild, wow! That was a game where you could do anything, once you finished the first half hour or so. Now, you’re going to just climb towers and unfog the rest of the map. Sorry – it’s my fault!”

Continue reading…

Robert Zemeckis in Talks to Direct Disney’s Live-Action Pinocchio

Back to the Future director Robert Zemeckis is the latest name to be carved into Disney’s live-action Pinocchio remake.

Variety reports that the acclaimed filmmaker is currently in early talks with Disney to direct the project, which will be written by Chris Weitz and produced by Weitz and Andrew Miano through their company Depth of Field.

Watch our video countdown of the 25 best Disney animated movies of all time:

Continue reading…

How Marvel’s Avengers’ Gear Works

A big part of Marvel’s Avengers will be gear; it is a game with several Destiny vibes, afterall. So far, though, developer Crystal Dynamics has been coy with the details. Eager to learn a little more, IGN attended EGX 2019 in London, where Virgin Media held the UK’s first play of Marvel’s Avengers. There we were able to chat with Crystal Dynamics co-studio head Scot Amos about gear and character appearances.

Take a look at how Ms. Marvel works in the latest Avengers trailer below.

“Gear comes in all kinds of rarities, from common, uncommon, rare, epic, legendary, and even beyond,” Amos explains (We’re placing bets now that ‘beyond’ is Excelsior rarity).

Continue reading…

Acer Nitro XF252Q Gaming Monitor Review

In the world of gaming monitors, few brands are better known than Acer. Across its catalog, Acer displays serve every niche; from hardcore esports athletes who demand the bleeding edge of monitor technology to the budget gamer who wants performance without breaking the bank.

For years, if you were part of the latter group, you were forced to sacrifice core features like refresh rate or response time, but no more. With the Nitro XF252Q (See it on Amazon), Acer aims to change that, delivering one of the first HDR-enabled 240Hz panels ever. Up until now the market has been full of very similar 25-inch Full HD displays designed for competitive gaming and Esports with sub-1ms response times being the only notable new feature—which this monitor can also handle.

Continue reading…

Breaking Bad Movie, El Camino, Opened To Millions Of Viewers

The new Breaking Bad movie, El Camino, premiered on Netflix earlier this month and it seems a lot of people tuned in. According research company Nielsen, the movie drew more than 6.5 million viewers over its first weekend alone.

The numbers, which were obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, state that El Camino had a 6.54 million “average minute audience” over its first three days. The numbers also state that about 2.65 million people watched on day one and that the largest percentage of viewers were people in the 18-34 age range (1.08 million on day one and 2.34 million over first three days).

Importantly, Nielsen’s numbers only cover the United States. Netflix has not yet released any official viewership data for El Camino, but Breaking Bad has a global appeal so the numbers are likely bigger than what Nielsen reported.

El Camino picks up immediately after the events of Breaking Bad, which ended its run on TV back in 2013. As THR mentions, the reported 6.54 million viewers for the first weekend is close to what Breaking Bad the TV show was getting during its final season.

GameSpot’s El Camino review scored the movie an 8/10.

“If you love Breaking Bad and Jesse Pinkman, El Camino is a beautifully crafted kindness, and a chance to spend another hour or so with a character you care about,” reviewer Meg Downey said. “If you don’t have strong feelings about either of those things, El Camino may feel like a really spectacularly shot screen saver. Either way, the fact that it exists at all, and that Sony TV and Netflix were willing to put money behind what is so obviously an extremely niche passion project, feels like a good omen for franchise TV.”

Read next: Breaking Bad Creator Reveals El Camino Alternate Endings, Breaking Bad Creator Reveals El Camino Alternate Endings

Tarantino Refuses To Recut Once Upon A Time In Hollywood For China

Just a week before its scheduled to premiere on October 25, Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was refused for release in China. It is unclear what the issue is, but Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, is said to have campaigned China’s National Film Administration over apparent issues with her father’s portrayal in the film.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Tarantino is refusing to re-cut his movie to please the regulators in China, however. As such, it appears Once Upon a Time in Hollywood may not be released in China.

“The decision to halt the release is speculated to be over Tarantino’s portrayal of the late martial arts hero Bruce Lee, who was of Chinese descent,” THR said. “Friends and family of the Hollywood action star have criticized Tarantino for his depiction of Lee, saying it doesn’t resemble the real-life man and is instead a caricature.”

According to the report, the regulators in China did not provide any explanation for why it refused the release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in China. A source told THR that one of the issues could be related to the level of violence in the film.

China is among the world’s largest movie markets, so Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is leaving a lot of money on the table, it seems.

Tarantino is known as a director who is known to have “final cut” privilege, meaning he gets decide on the content for a theatrical release, not necessarily the studio.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is Tarantino’s ninth movie, and it would have been the first to be released in China, though it appears that is no longer happening.

A director refusing to edit their movie to please the Chinese regulators is not always the case. 2018’s Bohemian Rhapsody was edited for China to remove all mention of Freddie Mercury’s sexual orientation.

New Will Smith Movie Gemini Man Is A Flop, Will Lose $75 Million – Report

The new Will Smith action movie Gemini Man is expected to lose many millions of dollars. According The Hollywood Reporter, Gemini Man could lose $75 million or more following a slow start at the box office.

Gemini Man only made $20.5 million million in the US and Canada over its October 11-13 opening weekend. Worldwide, it’s made $118.7 million thus far. That is a lot of money, but the film had a reported production budget of $138 million in addition to $100 million or more in marketing costs.

The good news, if it can be called that, is that Gemini Man’s expected losses will be spread throughout at least four different companies. The movie was financed by Skydance Media, Paramount Pictures, Fosun, and Alibaba. Paramount and Skydance funded 35 percent each, with the China-based Fosun and Alibaba making up the remaining 30 percent (25 percent from Fosun and 5 percent from Alibaba, according to THR’s sources).

As THR notes, Paramount’s losses on the project will be mitigated by the fee it gets as the movie’s distributor. Fosun is distributing Gemini Man in China.

Gemini Man didn’t score the highest reviews from critics, though it was praised by some for its technical work with the digital de-aging of Will Smith and its very high 120 FPS frame rate. In the movie, Smith plays a hitman whose younger clone is out to kill him.

The movie was directed by Oscar winner Ang Lee, who previously made Hulk (2003), Brokeback Mountain (2005), and Life of Pi (2012).