Month: September 2019
The Outer Worlds’ New Trailer Shows Off Corporate Life…and Death
You have to figure, space is a really big, really deadly place, so it only makes sense that when corporations take over and start building new societies, they’re going to make it seem as pleasant as possible. That’s the gist of the new trailer from The Outer Worlds, which shows off all the fun little diversions you as the player can get up to, and lots of death and dismemberment you’ll need to avoid.
Though we’ve seen a lot of these locations before, the newest trailer offers up a new perspective on things, all from the eyes of the corporate overlords that run most of the Outer Worlds’ planets. We can see the various ways corporations have influenced society, pushing people into work, and making it so every aspect of their life revolves around company-approved lifestyle choices.
Game Of Thrones Showrunners Talk About The Coffee Cup And All The Emmy Nominations
In one of the final episodes of Game of Thrones, a coffee cup can be seen on a table in front of Jon Snow and Daenerys. It was a flub that showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff are taking in stride. They spoke to Japan’s Star Channel (reported by Digital Spy) recently about that mistake and other topics, including the show’s many Emmy nominations.
Regarding the coffee cup mistake, Benioff joked, “It’s like in Persian rugs it’s tradition that you make a little mistake when making the rug, because only God can do anything perfect, so for us I guess that just was our [mistake].”
Weiss added a more direct joke, “That’s why I put the coffee cup there. It was a conscious, concerted statement of our imperfection,” he said.
Speaking more seriously, Benioff said he felt a mixture of surprise and embarrassment over the coffee cup, but over time he was able to see it as a silly mistake and move on.
“So, at first I couldn’t believe it, and then it was kind of embarrassment, because how did we not see this coffee cup in the middle of the shot? And then, eventually, it was just funny,” Weiss said. “This one is just a mistake, and it’s kind of funny to us now.”
Also in the interview, Weiss spoke about all the Emmy nominations that Game of Thrones picked up for its final season. The show nabbed 32 total nominations (including best overall drama series) which is a record for the show. He said it was “surprising” to see how many nominations the show got; “At least in my mind, I thought that the [previous] season would have been the peak and that we would’ve ended up with maybe a couple less, at best,” he said.
Weiss and Benioff are now finished with Game of Thrones. They recently signed a $200 million deal with Netflix to develop new TV shows and movies for the network. This is on top of their upcoming Star Wars films, too. Weiss and Benioff’s other HBO show, Confederate, is now reportedly cancelled.
Knights And Bikes Review
Even the most mundane, everyday things can seem full of mystery and adventure when you’re a kid. Especially when you have a like-minded friend to bounce ideas off and encourage your flights of fancy. Knights & Bikes channels this familiar childhood experience in a knock-about co-operative (but you can still play it solo) adventure that remains endlessly charming even when its core mechanics don’t join in the fun.
Nessa is a stowaway on a boat that’s just docked at the holiday island home of Demelza. Quickly, the two girls meet and, in that way only children can do, become firm friends almost instantly. Nessa is slightly older and seemingly orphaned; Demelza lives in the island’s caravan park run by her single dad, who is struggling to keep the business afloat. The pair seize the opportunity to escape into each other’s imaginations, setting off on a grand adventure to recover the island’s legendary buried treasure and, Demelza hopes, use it to reverse her father’s financial misfortune.
The girls may have a treasure map to guide them, but things aren’t quite so straightforward as realizing X marks the spot. Getting around town is a challenge. Nessa and Demelza can run–and if you hold down the run button they’ll do that thing kids do where they spread their arms like wings and yell “Vrrrrrrrmmmm!” like they’re a plane arcing through the air–but it’s often not entirely clear where they ought to be running to. Luckily, Demelza’s pet goose, Honkers, has a good nose for direction and will run off in the right direction, honking his little heart out if the girls fall behind. Oh, and don’t worry, you can absolutely pet the goose.
Early on Nessa and Demelza procure the eponymous bikes which allow them to zip around the island much faster than on foot. The bikes can be upgraded, too, with all kinds of handlebar grips, paint jobs, spoke decorations, and so on. All of these are purely cosmetic, save for one–a particular set of wheels that lets the girls traverse pools of mud that would otherwise be blocking their progress. Cycling around the island is hugely entertaining in itself, not because it’s especially interesting to navigate the many crisscrossing paths connecting the handful of major points of interest, but because the presentation does such a great job of capturing the carefree abandon these girls are feeling. You mash to pedal and build up momentum then hold down the button for a short burst of extra speed, all the while the girls are hooting and howling and, it must be said, not necessarily obeying strict road safety procedures.
Their adventure takes them from the caravan park to a mini golf course that doubles as the site of some historical battle to a maze-like scrapyard that transforms into a terrifying dungeon with seemingly no way out; to a hiking trail through the woods that twists and turns back in on itself in the manner of other more famous Lost Woods. Every step of the way the girls imbue the world with unwarranted but understandable wonder. The history book the local librarian is reading is obviously full of clues to the whereabouts of the treasure. That old man with a beard is very probably a wizard. And, clearly, every stroke of misfortune they encounter is a sign of the horrible curse afflicting the island.
It’s all great fun. The (probably) consensual hallucinations of the two girls are for the most part light and breezy and carry them headlong into one thrilling scrape after another. Their humour is infectious and their bonds of friendship, forged so fast in the fire of fantasy, are never in doubt. They’re both such superbly written characters, flinging one-liners at each other and building upon the other’s latest witty invention. And they’re vividly expressive, each new close-up of their comically contorted faces frozen in shock, disgust, awe or sly realization will never fail to bring a smile to your lips.
Where Knights & Bikes falters is in the moment to moment, the rote combat and light puzzling that knits together its seat-of-the-pants dash through childhood curiosity. Each girl finds three pieces of gear over the course of the game and these are used to both fend off enemies and negotiate numerous environmental puzzles. Nessa’s water bombs, for example, can be thrown to deal damage to enemies, extinguish fires (and do extra damage to fire-based enemies) and, when splatted into a puddle on the ground, conduct electricity.
But combat is mostly trivial. Enemies aren’t especially hard to defeat and the girls can heal each other (via a cute high-five) as long as they have enough of the bandages that drop in consistently plentiful amounts. Combat has the same knock-about energy that infuses the rest of the game, so it’s sort of fun to button-mash your way through. But it’s never interesting enough to look forward to.
The puzzles fare slightly better. There were a few occasions where I had to pause for a minute to think about what I needed to do next to progress. And I always enjoyed watching the next nonsensical triggered event play out after solving a puzzle even if I wasn’t always sure what I was trying to accomplish. Most of the time I just chuckled and wondered what was going to happen next.
Remarkably, for a game clearly designed for two-player cooperative play (locally or online), it works well when played solo. Here, you can switch between the two girls whenever you wish and the capable AI will assume control of the other. In combat, the AI controlled girl will use her abilities effectively and, even more impressively, when required to help solve a puzzle she’ll smartly move to the right spot and perform whatever is necessary. Even if you don’t have a co-op partner, you’re not really missing out on much.
Knights & Bikes was created by a small team featuring several people who worked on LittleBigPlanet and Tearaway, and you can feel that all these games share a similar creative vision. There’s a kind of wide-eyed, rough and tumble spirit of adventure running through all three games that is hard to resist. Knights & Bikes is a wonderfully warm, effortlessly inviting experience that’ll make you feel young again.
Best PAX West 2019 Cosplay — Cyberpunk 2077, Borderlands, Overwatch, More (Day 2)
The Standout Cosplayers from Day 2 of PAX West 2019
As PAX West continues, more attendees are showing their talent for crafting and presenting their cosplay creations. Our roundup of cosplayers from day 1 of PAX West 2019 saw several visitors showing off their passion for games like Warframe, Borderlands, and Overwatch. It was an eventful day, but things were just getting started for the convention.
On the second day of PAX West 2019, we saw even more cosplayers at the show who paid tribute to their favorite games and pop-culture icons. One of the big standouts from the show so far was the number of people dressed as characters from the Borderlands series. With its release coming on September 13, many fans took to the show to show off their love and anticipation for the Gearbox’s looter-shooter.
Another big standout from the second day was the many cosplayers for CD Projekt RED’s action-RPG Cyberpunk 2077. With the recent reveals focusing on the core gameplay and other facets of the game, cosplayers were excited to display their best outfits modeled after the central protagonist of the game.
And with that, here’s a roundup of some standout cosplay outfits from day 2 of the show. For more on all things PAX, including news on Cyberpunk 2077, recent hands-on impressions with Luigi’s Mansion 3, and our growing gallery rounding up the most exciting games of the show, be sure to check back with GameSpot throughout the show.
Neon Abyss – Decend Into A Roguelike Neon Dungeon | PAX West 2019
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New Cyberpunk 2077 Gameplay Reveals Playstyles, Gangs, And More – GS News Update
Everspace 2 Is Diablo In Space | PAX West 2019
Cyberpunk 2077 New Gameplay Livestream
Borderlands 3 Details Endgame Content – GS News Update
Cyberpunk 2077 Gameplay Deep Dive
Sony Outlines Its Tokyo Game Show Plans – GS News Update
Young Souls Is A Stylish Co-op Dungeon Crawl with An Amazing Sense Of Style | PAX West 2019
World of Horror Is Junji Ito And Lovecraft Fused Into An Old School RPG | PAX West 2019
Serve Drinks In A Cyberpunk Anime Future In N1RV Ann-A | PAX West 2019
Luigi’s Mansion 3’s Co-Op Is A Blast | PAX West 2019
Journey To A Savage Planet Co-op Gameplay | PAX West 2019
Dauntless Running On Nintendo Switch | PAX West 2019
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WoW Classic: Essential Leveling Guides and Tips for All Classes
How Star Wars’ Defeated Empire Fits Into The Mandalorian
Disney and Lucasfilm are gearing up for the debut of the Disney+ streaming service with the release of The Mandalorian, the first live-action Star Wars TV series ever produced.
The show, which launches on November 12 with the service itself, will tell the story of the mysterious bounty hunter of the title (Pedro Pascal) some five years after the end of Return of the Jedi… and the fall of the Empire. Gina Carano, Carl Weathers, Werner Herzog, Nick Nolte, Giancarlo Esposito, and Taika Waititi also co-star in the series.
Esposito (Breaking Bad) plays Moff Gideon, a soldier of the fallen Empire who has achieved a position of power in the aftermath of the Battle of Endor. The actor spoke to IGN at D23 Expo about his character, the state of the Empire in The Mandalorian, and what it’s like to make the jump to the Star Wars universe.
Pixar’s Soul: Pete Docter Answers All Our Biggest Questions
Pixar Animation recently revealed the first major details about their upcoming film Soul at Disney’s D23 Expo, a film that ponders nothing less than the meaning of life itself.
The film, directed Up and Inside Out’s Pete Docter, follows music teacher and aspiring jazz pianist Joe Gardner (voiced by Jamie Foxx) whose life is cut short. His death isn’t the end of his journey but rather the beginning of a whole new one as we follow his soul to a cosmic realm — the You Seminar — where souls are made.
According to producer Dana Murray, the idea for the film came from Docter’s own personal life. As Murray explained: “The idea really started with when Pete’s son was born and seconds after he was in the world, he looked at him and he was already there, like who he was, his personality. And I think that was the ultimate question was like, how does that happen?”
Daily Deals: Early Labor Day PC Sales, Preorder Final Fantasy VII for $49, New Nintendo Switch V2 Bundle
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