In what is perhaps the most random video game adaptation casting since Chris Pratt as Mario, Aquaman‘s Jason Momoa has been tapped to star in the live-action Minecraft movie.
If that wasn’t odd enough, Napoleon Dynamite filmmaker Jared Hess will direct. The film, which will draw from Microsoft’s massively popular Minecraft video game, is being produced by Warner Bros.
Interestingly, The Ankler reports that Momoa won’t star as Minecraft mascot Steve. Instead, he’ll voice Gabriel the Warrior, one of the antagonists from Telltale’s spin-off game, Minecraft: Story Mode. Gabriel was originally voiced by Dave Fennoy, best known for playing Lee Everett in Telltale’s The Walking Dead.
Otherwise, no details on the adaptation have been revealed. Given that the film is set to be live-action, it’s possible that it will feature human actors alongside CGI characters à la Pokémon: Detective Pikachu or Sonic the Hedgehog.
In any event, it makes sense that Microsoft would be interested in a Minecraft adaptation, as the sandbox building title is the best-selling game in history. The company has slowly been expanding into adaptations of its franchises, with Halo, a TV series starring Canada’s Pablo Schreiber, premiering on Paramount+ last month.
Microsoft is looking into ways to introduce ads within free-to-play Xbox titles. The program, according to sources from Business Insider, aims to fold advertisements into games in a non-disruptive way.
Apparently, Microsoft wishes to include ads to help provide revenue for both the game developer and ad company. As such, Microsoft is not taking a cut from the ad revenue and instead allows the two parties to share the ad funds.
As for what this program will end up looking like, a lot still remains. The report claims that Microsoft is working to give “select brands” the ability to purchase ad space. These ads will then appear in free-to-play Xbox games. However, the company appears to be very aware of how players may react. Thus Microsoft and Xbox are investigating ways to not “irritate” players.
Theoretically, these ads could appear as billboards in a racing game or in an open-world title. Though, the full extent of how this program will implement ads is still relatively unknown. Likewise, it’s not known if the ads will be static images and logos or if video ads will run in-game. However, Business Insider did confirm that Microsoft will not be using collected data from Bing or other services to create targeted ads.
Microsoft may be moving swiftly on this program. The company could introduce it as early as Q3 2022. Though, it’s not confirmed whether Xbox has begun pitching advertisers on the program yet.
Microsoft and the Xbox ecosystem are not exactly strangers to presenting ads. Any console player booting up their Xbox One or Xbox Series X/S is immediately met with ads on the dashboard. These typically promote games, new movies, services, etc. However, given that Microsoft is creating a more “private marketplace” for ads within games, it’ll be interesting to see how it targets the gaming audience specifically.
Fortunately, this initiative will solely be focused on free-to-play titles. Publishers who attempted to implement ads into full-priced games, like EA, have received backlash in the past. UFC 4 saw an outpour of player criticisms as unskippable ads were featured in a $70 game. Meta also added in-game ads to Blaston, which again, wasn’t received well by players.
Ahead of its May 3rd debut, Halo Infinite developers 343 Industries share a look at the Season 2 maps. Dubbed Catalyst and Breaker, the two maps join the roster alongside the preexisting 10 maps.
In a short video lapsing under three minutes, 343 Industries shows us Catalyst, an abandoned Forerunner map. The studio describes it as a “symmetrical arena map nested high up inside of an expansive, tunnel-like Forerunner structure.” We see some of its verticality in its different levels. Catalyst features a light bridge running down the middle portion. While there are visible exterior potions, Catalyst is an interior map.
The second map that Halo Infinite Season 2 introduces is Breaker. As opposed to Catalyst, Breaker is practically all exterior. Its location is a Banished ship-breaking facility. 343 Industries states Breaker is a “pseudo symmetric BTB map set in a Banished scrapyard where each team’s base is a huge chunk of ship debris.” There are multiple dynamic aspects at play as shown in the preview. Hop-ups and ledges raise and lower. The middle of the map is split by a deadly moving plasma beam.
On the Halo Waypoint blog, the team discusses that Catalyst is meant to expand the game’s Capture the Flag suite. Though, its design and internal popularity made the team shift ideas. Upon Season 2, Catalyst will host many different modes including the new Land Grab mode.
343 Industries claims Breaker is one of the team’s “most ambitious BTB maps ever.” Once again, many design elements revolve around its use as a Capture the Flag map. “The central feature of this map is the middle, which divides the spaces with ramps over a death pit which has given way to some pretty memorable vehicle runs.”
Along with new maps, Halo Infinite Season 2, dubbed Lone Wolves, also introduces a brand new Battle Pass for players to purchase. New modes include Land Grab and Last Spartan Standing. Additionally, Season 2 sees weapons updated and balanced.
Note that Halo Infinite’s co-op will arrive during Season 2. Though, it won’t be available at launch. No specific date is known at this point, however.
Niantic has revealed its next mobile game, Peridot. The augmented reality (AR) title will enter a soft-launch phase on iOS and Android soon.
Revealed via a quick teaser, Niantic showed off a few of the creatures found in Peridot. Many of them share similarities to Pokémon and the game itself looks very much like what we’ve come to expect from Niantic.
Players collect creatures and raise them as their own. These creatures as referred to as Peridots and each have their own individual personality traits. Players must identify their likes and dislikes before breeding them with other Peridots. This then creates new generations of creatures to interact with.
In some ways, Pokémon Go’s DNA is very apparent here. However, there doesn’t seem to be an emphasis on catching Peridots. Instead, gameplay traits from Tamogatchi or Pikmin seem to be more present in the title. Players must play with their Peridots and feed them. Peridots are also able to learn new tricks along the way.
As Peridots are captured, each one is catalogued in the game. Once different species are bred, those new archetypes are discovered and shared in the game’s catalogue of creatures.
As an AR game, players can use their iOS and Android devices to bring their Peridots with them on the go. You’ll be able to take pictures and videos of the creatues in the real world using the game’s AR capabilities.
As for how the game’s UI looks or how players capture Peridots, those questions remain unanswered. Given Niantic’s previous work, it’s safe to assume that there will be a fairly streamlined gameplay loop. Peridot looks to be a title geared towards players of all ages and its gameplay will likely reflect that.
Niantic has opened up pre-registration to players. Those who want to stay up to date on the Peridot development and release can find out more on the website.
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt studio CD Projekt Red has announced that it’s delaying the release of its next-gen version of the game. Rather than hitting its promised Q2 2022 window, the studio is postponing its launch until further notice.
Fans of The Witcher game series have been patiently waiting for the next-gen upgrades, improving the title’s loading and performance. Sabre Interactive, the studio behind Wild Hunt’s Nintendo Switch port was onboard to complete the update. However, it appears as though CD Projekt Red is now stepping in.
“We have decided to have our in-house development team conduct the remaining work on the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt,” CD Projekt said in a tweet.
We have decided to have our in-house development team conduct the remaining work on the next-gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. We are currently evaluating the scope of work to be done and thus have to postpone Q2 release until further notice. 1/2
The studio continued to state that it’s “currently evaluating the scope of work to be done.” Therefore, CD Projekt Red is avoiding any mention of a new release window. It’s unclear how far along the next-gen upgrade is nearing completion. Given the delay, it’s hard to theorize whether The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt next-gen update could be more imminent or further out.
This news comes at a time when CD Projekt Red’s woes surrounding Cyberpunk 2077 continue. Although the studio released its ‘Patch 1.5’ in February, there has not been any major traction on further support. Although the game now features next-gen upgrades, there’s still a lot of work to be done.
CD Projekt Red also recently revealed the next Witcher title is in development. Rather than develop the title with its in-house REDengine, the studio is switching to Unreal Engine 5. CD Projekt Red has been clear that the new game is not The Witcher 4 and is in fact the start of “a new saga.”
Sony has released a new firmware update for the PlayStation 5.
‘Update 22.01-05.02’ is now available to install and provides minor system updates and improvements. Though, unfortunately, long-awaited variable refresh rate (VRR) support for PlayStation 5 is still unavailable.
Taking a look at the patch notes, Sony states right off the top that firmware update 22.01-05.02 “improves system performance.” If you were waiting with bated breath for anything more, you’ll unfortunately, be disappointed.
Update 22.01-05.02 is sadly far less substantial than the previous firmware update. Sony previously overhauled a surprising number of aspects of the PlayStation 5. Trophy cards are now easier to read and look better visually. Voice chats are now referred to as parties and players can set open and closed parties. The PlayStation 5 even includes several new accessibility options. The screen reader now supports six additional languages like Dutch, Polish, and Korean.
The current elephant in the room is VRR support on PlayStation 5. Many players anticipate Sony to add it soon. The company even confirmed that it’s due to arrive shortly. Though, as far as when that will be is anyone’s guess at this point.
VRR support feature many players are calling for on PlayStation 5. It allows for a smoother gameplay experience when playing on an HDMI 2.1-compatible TV or monitor. It can theoretically help negate screen tearing as well as provide better frame rates. Depending on how developers utilize it, VRR can also reduce input lag and improve graphics. As more players adopt HDMI 2.1 displays, support for the feature is increasingly important.
With April now off the table, we’ll have to wait and see if Sony plans to support VRR in May or later on in the summer months. With Sony games like Horizon Forbidden West and Gran Turismo 7 now available, VRR would provide a reason to go back to some of this year’s breakout hits.
YouTuber ETA Prime has plugged an AMD Radeon RX 6900 XT, one of the highest-end graphics cards on the market, into Valve’s Steam Deck handheld — and it works and plays games at 4K with max settings.
According to ETA Prime’s video, though some games run great on the Frankenstein-like setup, the Steam Deck’s slow CPU and PCI-Express bandwidth restrictions result in a bottleneck. The unwieldy setup is possible because the Steam Decks’ M.2 PCI-Express x4 socket works with eGPUs, according to ETA Prime.
Of course, this isn’t something the average Steam Deck owner should attempt because it defeats the purpose of the handheld in the first place. Not only is there a massive desktop-level graphics card attached to Valve’s handheld, but the RX 6900 XT also requires a bulky external power source. There’s also a chance that you mess up the Steam Deck’s internals, rendering the device useless.
That said, it’s cool someone was able to make this happen, and perhaps in the future, we’ll see an official version of the Steam Deck that works with an eGPU.
Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is kind of like your mom’s meatloaf.
Sure, there are better, more intricately-crafted meals out there, but that doesn’t make Mom’s cooking any less delicious.
The journey of The Skywalker Saga has been a long one. After being first announced nearly three years ago, developer TT Games has been hard at work on their next foray into the galaxy far, far away. Collecting all nine mainline Star Wars films into one brick-based package, this game looks to usher in a new era for the franchise, after more than a decade and a half of Lego titles.
The Skywalker Saga is inarguably the biggest Lego game ever made. While past titles have sported many levels and hundreds of characters, this does all that while including open, explorable worlds, a reinvented combat system, and a new over-the-shoulder camera angle. Even though this was announced before the next generation of consoles got started, this very much feels like a next-gen Lego Star Wars.
But it’s also very much a game of give and take. While it does innovate in almost every aspect, nearly everything comes with a caveat. However, none of these flaws are big enough to detract from just how good this whole package is.
For gamers who have been with the Lego Star Wars franchise since 2006, the gameplay of The Skywalker Saga is the first big change they will notice. There are some familiar trappings like collecting Mini Kits and grabbing as many studs as possible, but pretty well everything else is different.
Gone is the fixed camera and fairly basic platformer gameplay, and in comes a new more modern approach to playing the game. The camera now follows your character over their shoulder, as it would in God of War or Uncharted. This change makes the game instantly feel like an upgrade from past Lego titles. Not to say the other games in the franchise have felt lesser, but this new camera does elevate the experience quite a bit.
Instead of going through fairly linear missions making up each movie of the franchise, these linear sections are now broken up by larger open-world hubs. While at first, I did question why they were there, after a few hours these explorable zones had me hooked.
While moving through each of the movie’s stories it became so easy to get lost in these open sections searching for collectibles. Sure, the upgrades these hidden relics grant you are, for the most part, fairly inconsequential; however, that did not stop me from wanting to collect every single one of them.
These small carrot-on-the-stick collectibles all come with their own set of challenges, offering some of the most fun creative thinking moments of the game. The solutions never hit the level of creativity of something like Super Mario Odyssey, but they are simple, yet fun diversions that had me straying off the beaten path more often than not.
When going through the linear missions, however, it does feel very much like a Lego game. You will build, traverse, and solve minor puzzles as you venture across the galaxy, and for the most part, it is a good time. It is a simple formula, but it works.
Some of the shake-ups found in these story missions are the best moments The Skywalker Saga has to offer, though. Taking a break from swinging a lightsaber to pilot a speeder on the Forest Moon of Endor has never felt better. Or how about the sudden surprise of puzzle-solving from two different perspectives in the droid factories of Geonosis? These little mix-ups keep the experience fresh in a title where you are doing a lot of the same thing over and over.
Like many of the systems in The Skywalker Saga, combat has been entirely reworked as well. The new combat system takes notes from the past games in the franchise but reinterprets them into something wholly new.
However, gamers looking to find something as complex as either of those games will not find that here. This is almost like a low-calorie diet version of either of those. Yes, there is a combo system in place, but it is quite simple and fairly easy to master. And yes, there is dodging, parrying, and a giant health bar in boss encounters, but most can easily be beaten by mashing the attack button.
Something that is a welcome addition is the third-person shooting. Similar to games like Gear of War, you can take up arms behind cover and pick off enemies that way. Again, this is nothing as complex or as pinpoint accurate as other games, but it does feel good to shoot a blaster.
The combat here may look and feel different than the Lego games of yore, but ultimately, The Skywalker Saga never makes it feel quite like the revolution that many had thought it could be before release.
Co-op is back as well! And while it can be fun to play through these epics with a friend, adding another play does take the already thin screen real estate and double the issues. This of course wouldn’t be a pressure point if you could jump in with a friend online; however, at launch co-op can only be done locally.
From a technical standpoint, The Skywalker Saga is, far and away, the best-looking Lego game ever made. The character models give off this authentic Lego sheen, making them look like they have come to life on your living room floor.
The way that light bounces off of these plastic characters is truly stunning. And the attention to detail on these figures is something to behold. You can see the seams along the side of minifig headpieces, or the dirt or snow collecting in their joints as you traverse various worlds. It’s these small touches that really make this feel like seeing your favourite Lego sets come to life.
The playable characters and set decorations are the highlights there, however, the game’s many environments can be a little hit or miss. While locales like Ahch-To or Bespin look great with pops of color and excellent lighting effects, others disappoint.
Planets like Tatooine, Crait, and Geonosis can look messy at times, with these mostly one-color environments becoming a bit of a brown, orange, or white mess when looking at them closely. This is especially the case when focusing on objects in the distance. With the lack of general palette variety on these planets, backgrounds can look splotchy and can take away from the immersive Star Wars experience found in other locations.
The sound design of The Skywalker Saga is a dream. The soundtrack is, of course, masterful, as it features nearly all of the series’ John Williams-composed work. Despite this being a Lego game, I found myself welling up at certain moments if only because of the masterful score (damn you, “Binary Sunset”).
The rest of the soundscape created here is impressive. Each locale has its own sonic flare, and the Lego of it all adds these nice familiar clicks and snaps to everything as the world is disassembled and rebuilt around you.
A couple of Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga’s biggest misses come in its presentation. The two most notable of these are its voice acting and the HUD.
The voice acting here can be a bit of a mess. TT Games utilizes both actual dialogue from the Star Wars films as well as added lines read by voice actors. And while in practice it can be cool to hear Daisy Ridley or Mark Hamill every once in a while, it is a little jarring to hear these characters jump back and forth between the original actors and hired talent.
Most of the voice acting team do a serviceable job, usually chiming in with that signature Lego game humor, but there are some that are downright bad. Not to take anything away from the voice actors who lent their talent to The Skywalker Saga, but hearing Adam Driver and the actor brought in to play Kylo Ren back to back makes it sound like this character is two completely different people.
Also on the presentation front is the busy HUD. The act of playing this game can be messy at moments, with your health, a combo metre, stud counter, quick-time events, mission log, a map, and a boss’ life bar all on-screen at once.
This problem increases exponentially after unlocking upgrades to reveal the game’s many collectibles, creating little light blue halos all over the screen at any given time. These HUD elements can, for the most part, be turned on and off, but it is annoying that you have to go digging in the menus to make that happen.
In short, Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga may not be the qualitatively best Star Wars game ever made, but it just might be my favorite. This really does feel like the beginning of the next generation for the franchise, and an evolution of what has come before.
Yes, it does have its missteps with messy environments, simple combat, and lackluster voice acting. But it’s the “just one more puzzle” nature of the open world, the stunning character models, and getting to relive some of my favorite moments in film history that kept me playing.
This is a love letter to Star Wars in nearly every way. While it stumbles in a few places, it puts fun at the forefront of the experience, and is that not what gaming is all about?
Despite revealing an official launch date for the PlayStation VR 2 (PSVR 2,) Sony may have delayed the launch of the headset to 2023.
Sony has been slowly pulling back the curtain on its follow-up to the PSVR headset. Aptly dubbed the PSVR 2, the new headset brings 4K HDR support, enhanced features and wraps it in a new design. Though, unfortunately, it appears players may be waiting a bit longer to get their hands on PSVR 2.
Industry analyst Ross Young reports that Vvirtual reality (VR) display shipments are rising by 50 percent in 2022. In total, shipments are to increase to 15 million in the year. However, Young also states that both Sony and Apple are experiencing delays with their respective VR devices. He concludes that the adjusted target is now 2023.
VR display shipments to rise >50% to >15M in 2022 despite delays to 2023 at Apple and Sony. Big jump forecasted in 2023.https://t.co/4m1FfgkeoM
It’s worth noting that Sony has not officially disclosed a release window for the PSVR2. The company recently unveiled the official design of both the headset and its PSVR 2 Sense controllers. Amongst the technical improvements, Sony says that the headset will deliver true 4K visuals with support of up to 120FPS. The display consists of two 2000 x 2040 pixel resolution OLED panels. It will also support eye-tracking and inside-out tracking thanks to four fixed cameras on the headset.
Haptics will also play a large role in the PSVR 2. The headset itself has a single built-in motor to feed subtle vibrations for further immersion. The Sense controllers also support haptics as well as the now-standard DualSense features such as adaptive triggers.
Sony has also revealed the first big tentpole title for PSVR 2. Horizon: Call of the Mountain is exclusive to PSVR 2 and is in development by Guerrilla and Firesprite Games.
Leading up to this month, it seemed more and more likely that Sony may have been slowly building towards a full-scale reveal with pricing and release info. During GDC, Sony showed off PSVR 2 to developers, allowing hands-on time with the device. However, it now seems as though that goalpost may have been moved.
Given that PlayStation 5 consoles are still difficult to come by thanks to supply chain issues, there’s no reason to rush the launch of PSVR 2. If Sony aims to launch PSV R2 in 2023, it’ll enable more people to purchase a PlayStation 5 prior to that point.
