Horizon Zero Dawn developer Guerrilla is looking for a game programmer to work on an “epic open world game”, who would ideally have multiplayer experience.
At current, Guerrilla has yet to announce what its current project is, but the open world descriptor in this new senior game programmer job listing (via GamesRadar) points towards a potential Horizon Zero Dawn sequel. The listing also notes that the game features “ranged and melee weapons, combat and traversal mechanics”, which are all characteristics applicable to Horizon, or at least a game with similar traits.
This all makes the ‘plus point’ of experience in multiplayer interesting, as the original Horizon was a purely single-player game. While it’s impossible to draw concrete conclusions from this posting, it does point to Guerrilla at least considering a multiplayer component for its next open world game. In short: if this is Horizon 2, then it may feature multiplayer.
A movie based on DC’s supernatural superhero team Justice League Dark has been in development at the studio for many years, with a variety of filmmakers attached at various stages. It’s been a long time since there was any news about it, but it’s been reported that JJ Abrams’ production company Bad Robot is now involved.
According to Deadline, the company is developing both film and TV ideas for the property, as part of its new deal with DC parent company WarnerMedia. The site states that Bad Robot’s movie boss Hannah Minghella and its TV head Ben Stephenson will soon be meeting with writers to start working on ideas for Justice League Dark projects.
Other filmmakers who have been involved with a Justice League Dark movie over the years include Guillermo Del Toro, Doug Liman, and music video director Joseph Kahn. In December 2017, Kahn tweeted concept art that was created for the film when he was working on it back in 2015.
Justice League Dark comprises more supernatural members of the DC Universe, such as John Constantine, Madame Xanadu, Swamp Thing, and Deadman. Some of these characters have made it to the screen in standalone titles, including last year’s Swamp Thing TV show, while an animated Justice League Dark film was released in 2017.
For February 2020, Netflix is releasing plenty of content you’ll want to check out, from ’80s comedies about an academy for police officers to original series, like one about aliens abducting a horse enthusiast. The streaming service–which has an interesting way to calculate views–is offering its subscribers more movies, TV shows, and original programming than they can handle for the month of February. Check out the full list of the month’s releases and a few of our recommendations.
Locke & Key is the latest comic book adaptation to hit Netflix, arriving on February 7. Based on the Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez comic of the same name, Locke & Key follows a widow and her children as they move into their ancestral home after the mysterious murder of the patriarch of the family. Inside this house are mysterious keys with mystical powers that have some connection to the murdered father. You can watch the first trailer here.
Season 2 of Altered Carbon arrives on February 27. The sci-fi series returns, and a teaser was recently revealed for the show. Anthony Mackie stars in the new episodes as main character Takeshi Kovacs. In a show about transferring consciousnesses into new bodies, recasting the star of the show isn’t a big deal. Netflix’s official synopsis of the series has arrived as well: “Altered Carbon Season 2 finds Takeshi Kovacs, the lone surviving soldier of a group of elite interstellar warriors, continuing his centuries-old quest to find his lost love Quellcrist Falconer. After decades of planet-hopping and searching the galaxy, Kovacs finds himself recruited back to his home planet of Harlan’s World with the promise of finding Quell. Haunted by his past and responsible for investigating a series of brutal murders, Kovacs is stunned to discover his new mission to solve the crime and his pursuit to find Quell are one and the same. With the help of his loyal A.I. Poe, Kovacs must now partner with new allies to outwit his enemies and find the truth: Who is Quellcrist Falconer?”
If you’re looking for a bunch of ’80s comedies that probably haven’t aged well at all–because they weren’t that great to begin with–seven Police Academy movies hit Netflix on February 1. You can relive all the wacky adventures of your favorite characters you barely remember like Mahoney, Hightower, Tackleberry, and more. Personally, I recommend the fourth film in the franchise, Citizens on Patrol (its acronym is C.O.P., get it?), as the movie features David Spade as an ’80s skateboarder.
Below, you’ll find all of this month’s releases for Netflix. If you’re looking for more streaming news, check out everything coming to Hulu in February.
What’s new to Netflix in February 2020?
February 1
A Bad Moms Christmas
A Little Princess
Back to the Future Part III
Blade Runner: The Final Cut
Center Stage
Cookie’s Fortune
Dear John
The Dirty Dozen
Dirty Harry
Driving Miss Daisy
Elizabeth
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
Fools Rush In
Hancock
Love Jacked
The Notebook
The Other Guys
The Pianist
Police Academy
Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
Police Academy 3: Back in Training
Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach
Police Academy 6: City Under Siege
Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow
Purple Rain
Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
Scary Movie 2
Sex and the City 2
February 3
Sordo
Team Kaylie: Part 3
February 4
Faith, Hope & Love
She Did That
Tom Papa: You’re Doing Great!
February 5
Black Hollywood: ‘They’ve Gotta Have Us’
#cats_the_mewvie
The Pharmacist
Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story
February 6
Cagaster of an Insect Cage
February 7
The Ballad of Lefty Brown
Dragons: Rescue Riders: Season 2
Horse Girl
Locke & Key
My Holo Love
Who Killed Malcolm X?
February 8
The Coldest Game
February 9
Better Call Saul: Season 4
Captain Underpants Epic Choice-o-Rama
Polaroid
February 11
Good Time
CAMINO A ROMA
Q Ball
February 12
Anna Karenina
To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You
February 13
Dragon Quest Your Story
Love is Blind
Narcos: Mexico: Season 2
February 14
Cable Girls: Final Season
Isi & Ossi
A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon
February 15
Starship Troopers
February 17
The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia
February 19
Chef Show: Volume 3
February 20
February 21
A Haunted House
Babies
Gentefied
Glitch Tech
Puerta 7
System Crasher
February 22
Girl On The Third Floor
February 23
Full Count
February 25
Every Time I Die
February 26
I Am Not Okay With This
February 27
Altered Carbon: Season 2
The Angry Birds Movie 2
Followers
Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution
February 28
All The Bright Places
Babylon Berlin: Season 3
Formula 1: Drive to Survive: Season 2
Jeopardy!: Celebrate Alex Collection
Jeopardy!: Cindy Stowell Collection
Jeopardy!: Seth Wilson Collection
La trinchera infinita
Queen Sono
Restaurants on the Edge
Unstoppable
February 29
Jerry Maguire
Leaving Netflix in February
February 11
Clouds of Sils Maria
February 14
District 9
February 15
Milk
Operator
Peter Rabbit
February 18
The 2000s: Season 1
February 19
Charlotte’s Web
Gangs of New York
The Eighties: Season 1
The Nineties: Season 1
The Seventies: Season 1
February 20
February 21
The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
February 26
Our Idiot Brother
February 27
Jeopardy!: Buzzy Cohen Collection
Jeopardy!: College Championship II
Jeopardy!: Teachers’ Tournament II
Jeopardy!: Teen Tournament III
Jeopardy!: Tournament of Champions III
February 28
My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks
Primal Fear
Trainspotting
February 29
50/50
American Beauty
Anger Management
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Free Willy
Hustle & Flow
Igor
Layer Cake
Rachel Getting Married
Stripes
The Matrix
The Matrix Reloaded
The Matrix Revolutions
The Mind of a Chef: Season 1-5
The Taking of Pelham 123
Up in the Air
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Come March 20, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will probably consume my life. While I’ll likely play mostly in handheld mode due to convenience, a pair of freshly announced Nintendo Switch controllers look to offer the cutest way to play in console mode. Listings for two Animal Crossing-themed wireless controllers popped up at Amazon, and both of them are calling my name.
Designed by third-party manufacturer Power A, the controllers release March 10 for $50 each. The first design is green with a New Leaf logo pattern and a Timmy and Tommy Nook graphic on the right handle.
The second design has a more varied pattern–fish, butterflies, fruit, etc.–and everyone’s favorite musician K.K. Slider on the right handle. Both controllers have the Animal Crossing logo emblazoned above the start and home buttons.
We’ve tested out multiple PowerA Switch controllers in the past and found them to be a great third-party option; they even made our list of the best Nintendo Switch accessories.
The controllers mimic the layout of the Pro controller, but they aren’t exactly the same when it comes to features. Power A controllers require AA batteries and last roughly 30 hours before you need to pop new ones in. They also lack the Pro controller’s rumble feature and NFC functionality for Amiibo. If you can get past those concessions, Power A controllers have an awesome bonus feature: two additional triggers on the back that can be mapped to your liking with a programmable button.
These controllers aren’t the first themed offerings from Power A. The accessory manufacturer has made designs based on a number of popular franchises, including Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Spyro, and Pokemon. A Doom Eternal design is also up for pre-order and releases alongside the Animal Crossing controllers on March 10.
Disney has dropped a new trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which returns for one final season exclusively on Disney+ this February.
The trailer comes accompanied by a new key art poster, featuring Annakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka Tano, and Darth Maul, as well as a collection of Clone Troopers. The logo predominantly declares that this is the final season, and is accompanied by the February 21 release date.
Like The Mandalorian, the episodes are streaming “beginning Friday, February 21”, indicating a week-by-week rollout rather than a Netflix-style full season drop. The Clone Wars will be made up of twelve new episodes, exploring the events leading up to Revenge of the Sith.
One of the best things about Netflix moving into producing and distributing its own movies is not having to wait very long to see them. This is especially true in the case of smaller, stranger films that might previously take months–or years–to be released following their festival debuts. The mind-bending mystery Horse Girl is a case in point–the movie is set to premiere at the Sundance festival next week and will hit Netflix less than two weeks later. The first trailer has now been released.
Horse Girl stars Alison Brie (GLOW, Community) as a socially awkward young woman called Sarah, who enjoys zumba, horses, and dining out with her new boyfriend. But it seems she has a dark family history, with her grandmother having undergone some very strange, possibly alien-related experiences when she was a similar age. Sure enough, Sarah also starts experiencing weird visions and impromptu nosebleeds, as fantasy and reality start blending into each other. To be honest, it’s hard to work out exactly what’s going on, but it looks like an intriguing Lynchian mystery. Check the trailer out below.
Horse Girl also stars Molly Shannon (the Hotel Transylvania movies), John Ortiz (Kong: Skull Island), Robin Tunney (The Mentalist), and Jay Duplass (Togetherness). It’s helmed by Jeff Baena, who previously directed Brie and Shannon in the comedy The Little Hours. It hits Netflix on February 7. For more, erm, horse cinema coverage, check out GameSpot’s look at all the heartwarming horsie movies to enjoy on Disney+.
In related news, it was reported this week that Netflix has changed the way it counts its viewers. While watching 70% of any title previously counted as a view, two minutes is now all viewers have to watch for it to count. This followed the company’s announcement that 83 million people check out its recent action movie 6 Underground–but how many got past the two minute mark is unknown.
Xbox Game Pass is adding another four games to its Xbox One library over the remainder of January, including a few recent favorites. This comes just after Microsoft announced another set of PC games on the service. As always, the two lineups can be had with separate subscriptions, or one combined “Ultimate” subscription.
A Plague Tale comes as no surprise since it was just announced for the PC service, but it’s still a treat as it was one of GameSpot’s best games of 2019. Indivisible also received a warm reception, especially for its lovely art style, creative combat system, and representation of Southeast Asian culture. Sea Salt is an action-strategy game in which you play as an elder god punishing humanity for defying you. Fishing Sim World is exactly what it says on the tin–a detailed simulation of everyone’s favorite way to sport while you nap.
Xbox Game Pass is an all-you-can-eat subscription service, granting a library of roughly 100 games. The Xbox One and PC libraries are slightly different, and you can subscribe to either one individually for $10 per month. Game Pass Ultimate combines the two, and also includes a subscription to Xbox Live Gold, for $15 per month. Check out some of our recommendations if you’re just getting started.
Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One
A Plague Tale: Innocence — January 23
Indivisible — January 23
Sea Salt — January 30
Fishing Sim World: Pro Tour — January 30
Leaving Xbox Game Pass Soon
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Resident Evil 4
Saint’s Row the Third
The Division
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition
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One of the reasons why Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto left Bungie was because of the extended periods of crunch that negatively impacted his life. Speaking during a roundtable interview for his new game, Disintegration, Lehto said his new studio, V1 Interactive, is taking a stance against crunch and trying to do right by its employees for their health and happiness.
“One of the reasons I left Bungie–and I know one of the reasons people from the industry have joined us here at V1–is that many of us have seen the bad side of extended crunch periods that would go on for months and months … and what kind of human toll that took,” Lehto explained. “We don’t want to experience that, we don’t want to replicate that at all again [at V1]. So at V1, one of our primary goals with the studio is making sure that we create an atmosphere where everybody is intimately involved with what we’re working on, so there is a lot of responsibility on everybody’s shoulders. And everybody wears several hats.”
“We also value, incredibly, the health of everybody here–both physically and mentally. Making sure they have that time outside the office to be with their family,” Lehto added. “And we support them to be home when they need to be home, to go to their kids’ school concerts and to have the weekends to themselves. That is a very important part to me, and it’s one thing we’ve extended to everyone here at the studio.”
“We also value, incredibly, the health of everybody here–both physically and mentally.” — Marcus Lehto
Lehto assured people that he and his team work hard, while he also acknowledged that the team pushes extra hard when milestones come up. However, these periods of extended working hours are limited to around “a week or so.”
“It’s not like we don’t work hard–we work really hard. And at the end of every milestone, we maybe spend a week or so working extra hours,” he said.
This kind of intense work schedule, so long as it doesn’t lead to burn-out, can actually be a good thing, Lehto said. That’s because it brings the team even closer together as they collectively grind on a particular objective. So long as these periods of crunch are few and far between, this can be a positive, Lehto said.
Bungie is known for its periods of crunch. Engineering boss Luke Timmins recalled to GI.biz in 2017 how the 18 months leading up to the release of Halo 2 in 2004 were “brutal” and nearly destroyed Bungie. The developer was crunching for nearly the entire 18 months, he said, and during that time, developers were spending at least 50 hours per week.
“The Halo 2 crunch almost killed Bungie as a company,” he said. “It is the most I’ve ever seen humans work in a year and a half. It was brutal.”
Bungie is said to have adopted policies and practices after that to lessen the instances of crunch, but it still happened. For the first Destiny, there was a “department-wide crunch” for the engineering team, Timmins said, though the team never had to crunch on any of the game’s numerous expansions. Destiny 2 also had no “full, enforced crunch,” he said.
As for Lehto, he left Bungie in 2012 while the original Destiny was just getting started.
Going back to Lehto’s new game, Disintegration, the first beta test for the FPS launches on January 28–here’s how to sign up. The game, which is made by a team of around 30 people, mixes FPS and strategy elements to create a type of game that Lehto says has never existed before. You fly around the map on a “grav-cycle” while simultaneously commanding soldiers on the ground. Check out the gameplay footage above to see Disintegration in action.
Here are some other things Lehto said about Disintegration:
The “incredibly ambitious” campaign will take you around 9-10 hours to complete, though it could stretch into the mid-teens depending on how you play
There will be no ranked multiplayer or stat-tracking at launch, though this could be added down the road
There will be microtransactions that allow players to customize their grav-cycles
It’s possible V1 will support the PS5 and Xbox Series X down the road, but nothing is confirmed yet. The same is true for Nintendo Switch
Disintegration is published by Private Division, the independent games label run by Grand Theft Auto parent company Take-Two. Private Division also published Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds and Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Desilets’ new game, Ancestors.
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The Witcher is really, really popular–so much so that Netflix’s CEO gave it special mention above all others during the company’s latest earnings report. Reed Hastings not only called out The Witcher as the company’s latest big win, he described the series as a “massive new franchise.” He also suggested that it will continue to live on for years and years.
Hastings said he was really happy with The Witcher’s performance and that it helped Netflix end 2019 “on a high note.” He described the show as a “massive new franchise that will develop season after season.”
His line about “season after season” suggests that Netflix is keen to invest in The Witcher for a number of seasons to come. Netflix believed in The Witcher from early on, as the company greenlit the second season before the first even premiered.
Season 2 is expected to debut in 2021, and it seems Season 3 may follow after that, though no announcements have been made.
