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Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle Review

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle begins an exclusive limited theatrical engagement on November 29, 2018 and launches globally on Netflix December 7.

Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle is a somber, serious retelling of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, a tale which has become, for better or worse, inextricably linked in the public consciousness with Disney’s animated, family-friendly adaptation. Director Andy Serkis’ Mowgli intentionally avoids any such cuddliness in favor of a less playful coming of age story set in a world full of danger, where learning to keep your guard up is a key lesson for survival. Forgetting about your worries and your strife will get you killed in Andy Serkis’ Jungle Book.

Marvel’s Ironheart Rises Above its Shortcomings

Perhaps the defining challenge of this new era of Marvel is finding a way to balance a renewed emphasis on classic heroes, classic costumes and classic status quos with a sense of experimentation and risk. What happens to all those younger, more diverse characters like Miles Morales and Amadeus Cho and Riri Williams that were introduced or elevated to greater positions of prominence in recent years? Do they get shoved to the side now that Marvel’s core fan-favorites are back in the spotlight? Particularly in the case of Riri, is there a path forward for this character now that Tony Stark has reclaimed the Iron Man mantle and co-creator Brian Michael Bendis has jumped over to DC?

Marvel certainly seems to think so, as Riri is back in her own solo series thanks to the debut of Ironheart. And rather than put this character in the hands of another mainstay creator, they’ve brought in a new voice in poet/academic Eve Ewing. That’s probably a wise move on Marvel’s part. As much as writers like Bendis, Mark Waid and Jim Zub have done to flesh out this new heroine over the past couple years, it might be nice to get the perspective of someone who isn’t a middle-aged white guy for a change. Ewing does bring a fresh voice to Riri’s world, though one that feels as though it needs some time to coalesce.

Red Dead Online is Off To a Promising Start – Beyond 568

BEYOND!

On this week’s episode of IGN’s PlayStation show, Beyond!, Max Scoville is filling in for the usual host Jonathon Dornbush, and he’s joined by Brian Altano, Tina Amini, and Andrew Goldfarb.

The big topics this week are the beta for Red Dead Online, which is off to a considerably smoother start than Grand Theft Auto V had, half a decade ago. There are some rumors of a new Alien game being announced at The Game Awards, and Andrew is very excited about those new Persona dancing games.

Console Wars TV Series: The Battle Between Sega and Nintendo Gets Legendary Adaptation

Console Wars: Sega, Nintendo and the Battle that Defined a Generation, a novel written by Blake J. Harris, is being adapted into a television series.

Announced by Legendary, a deal has been finalized to develop the novel, with Jordan Vogt-Roberts (Kong: Skull Island) directing, and Mike Rosolio (American Vandal, Sean Saves the World) writing the pilot episode. Point Grey Pictures’ Seth Rogen, his long-time writing partner Evan Goldberg and James Weaver will executive produce. Point Grey’s TV credits include Preacher and Future Man.

The novel focuses on the behind-the-scene drama that occurred while Sega attempted to take on Nintendo throughout the 1990s. It follows Sega of America CEO Tom Kalinske as the infamous war between the two industry giants progressed, and includes stories of internal conflicts between Sega’s American and Japanese branches. The novel used various interviews with notable people involved in these events to create its plot.

Path Of Exile PS4 Delayed, And Here’s Why

The wait for Path of Exile on PlayStation 4 just got a little longer. Developer Grinding Gear Games has announced that the PlayStation 4 edition won’t launch in December as planned.

In a blog post, the developer apologised for the delay, and explained that the studio “underestimated the amount of work it would take to finish the certification process during the busy Christmas period.”

Grinding Gear is now expecting to finish the certification process by January, with the game potentially launching in early February on PS4. The studio won’t be sitting by idly twiddling its thumbs between now and then, as the studio said the extra time will allow the developer to further improve Path of Exile’s performance and frame rate for PS4.

“Again, we’re very sorry about this,” the studio said. “We promise that Path of Exile will be awesome on PlayStation 4 when it is released early next year.”

A free-to-play role-playing game, Path of Exile originally launched in 2013, and here at GameSpot we gave it our PC Game of the Year that year. The Xbox One version came out in 2017. In May 2018, Chinese internet and gaming giant Tencent acquired Grinding Gear Games, but the company claims to continue to operate independently.

While Path of Exile is no longer coming to PS4 in December, the game will welcome a new expansion, Betrayal, that month. For lots more, check out GameSpot’s in-depth coverage of Betrayal here, while you can check out the announcement trailer in the embed above.

South Park Takes a Major Nosedive

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

Early on in this week’s South Park episode, we see Cartman ranting about ManBearPig, electric scooters, Black Panther being a lousy movie and pretty much every other recurring plot point from Season 22 so far. Cartman is sure it’s all somehow connected, even if he can’t quite put his finger on it. Cartman seems to be giving voice to the the frustrations of the South Park writing staff in that moment. They seem to want to tie together all the season’s loose ends in a neat little package. But it’s clearly not working, and the end result is the underwhelming “Buddha Box.”

“Buddha Box” tended to play to the show’s worst impulses in terms of taking good jokes and beating them into the ground until there’s nothing but dust left. Both halves of the conflict this week were basically one-note gags stretched well past the breaking point. On one hand, you have Cartman faking anxiety as a way of spending more time on his phone. On the other, you have the PC Babies crying at all the minor social injustices of the world. Neither plot point had nearly enough meat to support an entire episode.

Bethesda Under Investigation Over Fallout 76 Refund Policy On PC

A law firm has launched an investigation into Bethesda Game Studios over Fallout 76, and specifically its refund policy. The Washington D.C.-area law firm, Migliaccio & Rathod, said in a blog post that it’s launched an investigation into the developer for supposedly “refusing to issue refunds for PC purchasers of the game who found it to be unplayable because of its technical problems.” The law firm’s blog post calls Fallout 76 a “heavily glitched game.”

“While minor bugs and glitches are expected with the release of most new games, Fallout 76 launched with a 56GB patch that has proven to be but a starting point for the game’s problems,” the firm said. “Gamers who have tried to receive a refund because of the game’s myriad glitches have been unable to do so since they downloaded the game, leaving them to deal with an unplayable experience until patches bring it back to a playable state.”

If you’re attempted to get a refund for Fallout 76, the law firm wants you to reach out. You can find contact details and more information here on Migliaccio & Rathod’s website.

Many people on Reddit (via GI.biz) have reported that Bethesda acted quickly in responding to and completing their Fallout 76 refund requests. Not everyone has been so fortunate, however.

It’s important to note that Migliaccio & Rathod have not taken any legal action against Bethesda, and based on their public appeal for cases from the community, it sounds like very early days for whatever this amounts to. A search through the United States court systems shows no results for any legal action being taken against Bethesda over Fallout 76.

Nicholas Migliaccio, a partner at the firm, told Motherboard that they expect to draft a class-action lawsuit against Bethesda. “We’ve been inundated and we’re still investigating the claims, but we do intend to put together a class action lawsuit.”

The law firm said it had already received more than 200 phone calls and emails about Fallout 76. Another partner at the firm, Jason Rathod, added, “The vast majority of them are–‘I sought a refund and they’re not issuing one to me.’ The game is unplayable. We are inundated with those types of communications from people. I think people are just seeking to get their money back.”

In the same interview, Rathod pointed to Aliens: Colonial Marines as an example of a successful class-action lawsuit. As you may recall, players launched a class-action suit against publisher Sega and developer Gearbox, and in the end, Sega settled for $1.25 million, according to Polygon.

Another element at play for Fallout 76 is that the digital PC edition was released exclusively through Bethesda.net, and not Steam, a platform that has a generous refund policy. Bethesda’s own return policy states the following:

“Unopened CDs and DVDs can be returned under the guidelines of our General Returns Policy.”
“Digital Codes and opened CDs and DVDs cannot be returned under any circumstance. No exceptions to this policy unless where prohibited by law.”
“Please be very careful when purchasing video games at the Bethesda Store.”

We’ve contacted Bethesda in an attempt to get more details from their side.

GameSpot’s Fallout 76 review scored the game a 4/10. Reviewer Edmond Tran specifically called out the game’s numerous technical issues in his review. In other less-than-great news for Fallout 76 was the recent discovery that the promised canvas bag in the $200 Collector’s Edition was replaced with a nylon bag.

According to Bethesda, “millions” of people have played Fallout 76, so it appears to be successful by some measures. The developer plans to release new features, fixes, and changes for the game on a regular basis, beginning with the first major patch next week.

Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men Relaunch Keeps Getting Worse

Marvel’s Uncanny X-Men relaunch seems poised to go down as one of the great comic book-related disappointments of 2018. Even after three issues, the series has done little to rectify the problems that have been apparent from the beginning. There’s little sense of direction to the series beyond the rehashing of old tropes and a constantly revolving door of old characters making their return. It seems that the weekly format simply doesn’t suit the X-Men as well as it has Spider-Man and the Avengers in the past.

When Marvel first revealed that this initial ten-issue storyline would be titled “X-Men Disassembled,” the hope was that the execution would diverge a lot more from “Avengers Disassembled” than it actually has. This story follows the same basic pattern, with the X-Men facing overwhelming threats from all sides and a mysterious enemy working feverishly to bring the team to its knees. But for various reasons, none of the chaos and destruction carries much weight. The story never lingers on any one character long enough for the reader to form a strong connection. The best that can be said for the story is that it’s at least become more digestible since issue #1 now that it has a more straightforward, linear structure. But “digestible” is still a long way from “compelling.”

Vikings Midseason Premiere Review

Warning: Full spoilers for Vikings’ Season 5 midseason premiere follow…

“The Revelation,” featuring Clive Standen’s Rollo return to the fold as Lagertha’s lovelorn opponent once again, is a good opener for the second half of Season 5, though most of it operates as a dry piece-mover, getting characters into proper position for the stories ahead.

Rollo’s arc, and his moments with Lagertha and Bjorn, are the heart of this chapter while the rest features acceptable aftermath-ish scenes, showing the consequences of Ivar’s conquering of Kattegat. Cliffhangers, like Floki’s yearn to sacrifice himself out in Iceland, are answered in short order (Helgi casts the deciding vote against the idea), while King Alfred (with Prince Aethelred as his attack dog) is briefly shown ruffling the feathers of his court by suggesting education be made available to all – while the realm’s under constant attack from Norsemen on all sides.

Riverdale: What’s Next For Archie And Jughead After “Manhunter”

After breaking out of jail and hiding in a bunker, it didn’t take Archie Andrews (KJ Apa) long to realize Riverdale wasn’t big enough for both Hiram Lodge (Mark Consuelos) and himself. Warning: The following contains spoilers for the November 28 episode of Riverdale, “Manhunter.”

So with his best friend Jughead (Cole Sprouse) in tow, Archie has broken things off with his girlfriend Veronica (Camila Mendes) and hit the road. Where the two friends will end up is anybody’s guess, but according to Sprouse and Apa, it’s going to make for a very different Riverdale in upcoming episodes.

“It’s really an Archie-Jughead narrative, which is kind of in rare supply,” Sprouse told GameSpot and other reporters during a visit to Riverdale‘s set. “So you get that for a good chunk of episodes. It’s really just Archie and Jughead for a little bit and it’s a lot of fun and they’re on the lam and they’re running away, kind of [like] Stand By Me. It’s really fun.”

He’s not wrong when pointing out that there are very few storylines centered on the friendship between Archie and Jughead. While they are the best of friends in comic books, the two are so heavily weighed down by the trials and tribulations in living in a horrible and dangerous town like Riverdale to have any time to be friends.

Now, with Riverdale in their rear-view, thanks to Hiram’s obsession with destroying this teenager, Archie can have an adventure with his buddy, wherever it may take them. Of course, that doesn’t mean it’ll last too long. Eventually, both will have to come back to Riverdale. As Apa tells it, though, they may not come home at the same time.

“Eventually, they end up finding themselves having to kind of — like the fork in the road,” he said. “They have to go their separate ways at some point.”

What breaks them up remains to be seen, but there’s plenty unraveling in Riverdale that’s going to need their attention. Betty (Lili Reinhart) is locked up in Sisters of Quiet Mercy, while her mom has run off to join a cult. The Gargoyle King is leaving a trailer of bodies because some people take Dungeons and Dragons too seriously, and Hiram is seemingly involved in every dastardly thing happening within city limits. Archie and Jughead can only ignore the atrocities literally happening in their backyard for so long.

Riverdale airs Wednesdays at 8 PM ET on The CW.