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It Chapter 2 Features A Great Cameo

It Chapter 2 hits theatres this week. Reviews for the sequel to one of the highest-grossing R-rated movies of all time are mixed, but one thing that cannot be debated is that it has a fun cameo from author Stephen King.

Adult Bill, who is played by James McAvoy, is an author in his grown-up life. As part of a gag that extends through the whole movie, he is taken to task for writing unsatisfying endings. The joke here, in case it wasn’t obvious, is that King’s work is criticized for failing to stick the landing. That’s what makes the cameo from King so good.

Bill visits an antique shop in Derry, Maine, and it’s none other than King–wearing a Neil Young Harvest Moon t-shirt–himself who is behind the counter. The character King plays recognizes Bill as the author of books with bad endings, and the meta joke continues with King himself delivering the line.

It 2 is directed by Andy Muschietti and stars James McAvoy, Jessica Chastain, Bill Hader, James Ransone, Andy Bean, Isaiah Mustafa, and Bill Skarsgård.

GameSpot’s It 2 review called it a “messy finale.”

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan – Gruesome Character Deaths (Spoilers)

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, the new game from the developers of Until Dawn, is out now on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. Like Until Dawn, Man of Medan is a choice-driven game that follows the story of a group of young adults who find themselves in a lot of trouble. The characters you meet and bond with can die based on your decisions and other factors.

We’ve rounded up every death we could find into a montage to let you see what can happen when things go south. And things can indeed go south. Check out the video above to see some of the grisliest deaths that Man of Medan has to offer. Like the Saw franchise, Man of Medan gets very creative with how it dispatches with characters. Fair warning, this video is not for the squeamish.

Man of Medan is the first entry in Supermassive’s The Dark Pictures anthology series. Multiple more entries are on the way, though they have yet to be formally announced, beyond a teaser after the credits rolled on Man of Medan.

Red Dead Redemption 2 Online’s Big Summer Update Arrives Next Week

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Rockstar is rolling out a big update for Red Dead Redemption 2‘s online component, Red Dead Online, next week. The game’s Summer Update arrives on PS4 and Xbox One on September 10 and adds a variety of new challenges, Dynamic Events, items, and gameplay adjustments, along with new specialized roles for players to take on called Frontier Pursuits.

Rockstar describes the Frontier Pursuits as “an ongoing series of Roles for players to inhabit, delivering a wide array of themed activities that each offer unique items, skills and more as you progress through each Role.” As you complete these activities, you’ll earn Role XP that will help you unlock new Role Ranks, which in turn will net you Role Tokens, special items, new skills, and even role-specific Free Roam events.

The first three pursuits are the Bounty Hunter, Trader, and Collector, with additional roles coming in the future. The Bounty Hunter focuses on tracking down criminals; the Trader lets you open up a shop and sell animal pelts and meat; and the Collector specializes in searching for valuable treasures. You can read a more detailed breakdown of the three roles on Rockstar’s website.

In addition to the Frontier Pursuits, next week’s update will include new Free Roam events for each of the new roles, as well as other welcome tweaks like additional Stable slots and the ability to reset your character’s appearance without resetting your progress. Rockstar is also making balance adjustments to “reduce reliance on headshots as the primary kill method in PvP.”

In other news, Red Dead Redemption 2 recently surpassed 25 million copies shipped, Take-Two Interactive announced in its latest earnings report. Rockstar was also listed as the publisher of something called Bonaire according to the Australian Classification website. It’s still unclear what Bonaire is, although there has been speculation that it could be some kind of DLC for Red Dead Redemption 2. That, however, is unconfirmed.

The New Razer Blade Stealth has Nvidia GTX 1650 Graphics

Razer has updated the Blade Stealth with Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics, finally making it the gaming Ultrabook it always should have been

While this isn’t the first Blade Stealth to come with discrete graphics, this year’s model offers significantly more graphics power than its Nvidia MX150-powered predecessor. In fact, with the new GPU onboard I was able to play Doom at 60 frames per second with 1080p and Ultra quality settings turned on.

What’s more impressive is the new Razer 13-inch laptop is just as thin as last year’s model at just 0.66-inches. However, the gaming Ultrabook is a bit heavier, weighing in at a maximum 3.26 pounds (rather than 3.04 pounds) due to the addition of an extra heat pipe to mitigate the extra heat from the new graphics processor.

Mayans MC Season 2 Premiere Reveals Major Sons Of Anarchy Update

It’s been five years since Sons of Anarchy ended its seven-season run on FX. However, thanks to Mayans MC–which is set in the same universe–fans have gotten small bits of insight about what’s happened to the SAMCRO motorcycle club since the death of Jax Teller (Charlie Hunnam) in the series finale. How, after the Season 2 premiere of Mayans, Sons fans have been given a much bigger–and sadder–glimpse at life after Jax.

In the newest episode of Mayans, Chucky (Michael Ornstein) reconnects with Happy (David LaBrava), who is delivering a shipment of guns to the Mayans. Those who remember the end of Sons will recall that Jax’s final acts as SAMCRO president were to get the club out of the gun business. Unfortunately, that just hasn’t happened yet.

“The transition’s taking longer than we thought,” Happy tells Chucky about the club getting out of the gun business. “There’s a lot at stake.”

While he doesn’t elaborate, that short explanation says a lot about the state of the Sons in the aftermath of Jax’s presidency. It seems the status quo hasn’t changed all that much, making it questionable whether Jax’s final acts have much meaning. He put Chibs (Tommy Flanagan) in charge of the club to save it. Instead, it seems to be business as usual.

It will be interesting to see what else fans will learn about the MC that started it all as Season 2 of Mayans progresses. Happy is being set up as a central figure in Season 2, as the man who killed EZ’s (JD Pardo) mother years prior. So chances are viewers will see his face, and potentially others from SOA, pop up with regularity through the current batch of episodes.

Mayans MC airs Tuesdays on FX.

Mayans MC: Season 2 Premiere Review

This is a (mostly) spoiler-free review of the Mayans MC Season 2 premiere, titled “Xbalanque.” For a refresher, be sure to read our review of the Mayans MC Season 1 finale right here.

FX’s gritty biker gang drama is back for a second season that revs up on the blood and violence, but thankfully, doesn’t forget about its most valuable narrative asset: The Reyes family drama involving EZ (JD Pardo) and his brother Angel (Clayton Cardenas). Series showrunner Elgin James does a commendable job of balancing several subplots while still keeping the Reyes brothers’ relationship front and center.

First Trailer For The Between Two Ferns Movie Looks As Absurd As You’d Expect

For some reason, Netflix is turning the Zach Galifianakis fake interview show Between Two Ferns into a movie. Now, the first trailer has arrived–and it is every bit as absurd as you’d expect.

The story is that Galifianaskis accidentally and temporarily drowns and kills actor Matthew McConaughey during a segment of his show. His boss, Will Ferrell, is understandably upset. So he sends Galifianakis out on a road trip to log 10 more celebrity interviews to get back in Ferrell’s good graces and potentially earn a network talk show of his own.

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It appears the rest of Between Two Ferns: The Movie will play out like the internet show, featuring absurd and cringe-worthy staged interviews, along with story sections when Galifianakis is on the road travelling between interviews. A long list of famous people will appear in the movie, including:

Peter Dinklage
Benedict Cumberbatch
Paul Rudd
Tiffany Haddish
Brie Larson
Keanu Reeves
Jon Hamm
David Letterman
Jason Schwartzman
Adam Scott
John Cho
Chance the Rapper
Rashida Jones
Hailee Steinfeld
John Legend
Chrissy Teigen
Tessa Thompson

Between Two Ferns: The Movie was written by Galifianakis and Scott Aukerman, who wrote the original web show, with Aukerman directing. Caitlin Daley and Mike Farah of Funny or Die, the production company behind the original show, are producing alongside Aukerman and Galifianakis.

The movie premieres on Netflix on September 20.

PSA: You Can Get Gears 5 For Only $1 With Xbox Game Pass

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Microsoft’s next big game, Gears 5, launches very soon. The new shooter from The Coalition arrives on September 10 for Xbox One and PC. It’s a full-price game, but there is an easy way to pick it up for as little as $1 USD.

Because it’s a first-party game, Gears 5 is included at no extra cost with Microsoft’s Xbox Game Pass subscription program on Xbox One and PC. Right now, Microsoft is offering the one-month Xbox Game Pass subscription for only $1 USD as part of an introductory rate for new subscribers only. Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One costs $10 USD / £8/ $10.95 AUD per month.

Xbox boss Mike Ybarra recently reminded us of this offer in a tweet of his own.

You can get Gears 5 for $1 on PC or Xbox with Xbox Game Pass.

— Mike Ybarra (@XboxQwik) September 4, 2019

Alternatively, you can sign up for Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $2 USD / £2 / $2 AUD for the first two months, and then $15 USD/ £11 / $15.95 AUD per month thereafter. Ultimate comes with Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Live Gold, which you need to play games online, including Gears 5.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate also includes access to Xbox Game Pass for PC, which is separate from the standard subscription for Xbox One. The PC version of Xbox Game Pass alone costs $5 USD / £4 / $4.95 AUD per month, though new subscribers can get their first three months for only $5 USD / £4 / $4.95 AUD altogether.

More information about Xbox Game Pass the the various subscription options can be seen on Microsoft’s website. Xbox Game Pass subscriptions can be canceled at any time, though the cheaper introductory prices are only available once per account.

All of Microsoft’s first-party games are available at no extra cost with Xbox Game Pass, and this will also include Halo Infinite next year and more titles.

Gears 5’s Hamilton Easter Egg Is A Real Treat

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Gears 5 features an extended Easter Egg that is very clearly inspired by and in reference to Lin-Manuel Miranda’s blockbuster Broadway play Hamilton. In a sequence in the game’s Act I: The Tide Turns chapter, JD Fenix and company escape the Swarm and find themselves in the “Palace Theatre,” which is currently hosting a play called “Embry.”

Nassar Embry is an important historical politician and the founder of the Coalition of Ordered Governments in the Gears of War universe. So basically he is the Gears of War franchise’s equivalent of Alexander Hamilton, or something like that.

The play “Embry” is Gears of War’s take on Hamilton, and the Easter Egg is very in-depth. There is even a secret collectable you can find that contains the lyrics to a song called “Nassar Embry (That’s My Name),” which is very clearly the Gears take on the song “Hamilton” that opens the play. You can read the lyrics and sing along to the tune of “Hamilton.”

What’s more, once you make your way through the dressing rooms you’ll reach the stage. It’s presented like the actual iconic Hamilton stage, featuring a wraparound wooden set and even a rotating section like the actual production. Even better, when the fighting breaks out, the music breaks from the franchise’s tradition and takes on a more theatrical score. And you can stand on the rotating stage and fight as you move around the circle. It’s really great.

Gears 5 launches on September 10, but people who buy the Ultimate edition or subscribe to Xbox Game Pass can start playing on September 6. For lots more, check out GameSpot’s livestream of Gears 5’s campaign here.