Month: November 2017

Another week, another batch of hot new games to get your hands on. This Tuesday, you can race with the blue blur in Sonic Forces or in the driver’s seat with Need for Speed Payback. The 3DS proves it’s still standing strong with Mario Party: The Top 100, and the Nintendo Switch goes to hell with Doom. Finally, the PC crowd can enjoy the tense samurai combat of Nioh: Complete Edition.

Sonic Forces — November 7

You know the name of the game with Sonic, but the latest installment is shaking things up with custom characters. For the first time, you can design your own hero to race alongside the blue blur. And depending on which base you choose, your custom hero can use different powers to traverse each level.

Further Reading:

• Sonic Forces Nintendo Switch Demo Available Now, But It Has A Bizarre Catch
• Sonic Forces Bonus Edition Includes Persona 5, Jet Set Radio Outfits For Your Custom Hedgehog

Nioh: Complete Edition — November 7

PS4 players experienced this trial by yokai back in spring, but PC players will get a little more bang for their buck. Complete Edition includes the base game and every DLC expansion, plus an exclusive valve-topped kabuto helmet.

Further Reading:

• Nioh PC Release Date Announced For Steam, Will Support 4K
• PS4’s Nioh Receives Its Final DLC This Month

Need for Speed Payback — November 10

Much like Sonic Forces, Payback is also spicing up its series formula. Taking inspiration from the Fast and Furious movies, this entry is all about what EA calls “action driving.” With three drivers to choose from, each with different abilities behind the wheel, it certainly does sound action-packed.

Further Reading:

• Need For Speed Payback Director On Building A Believable Open World

• Need For Speed Payback PC System Requirements And Recommended Specs Announced

Mario Party: The Top 100 — November 10

Speaking of packing things in, the latest Mario Party brings together the best 100 games across the entire series, with new options for getting through each round faster. Thanks to the 3DS’s Download Play, you only need one cartridge to play with friends too.

Doom — November 10

If you didn’t experience Doom last summer, or if you’re looking to take the demon-slaying game on the go, this is the port for you. Multiplayer is available as a separate download, and the game is deliberately locked at 30 frames per second, but that’s the price you pay to go to hell, anywhere.

Further Reading:

• Nintendo Switch Gets Doom, Skyrim, and L.A. Noire Within 7 Days
• Doom Getting Unto The Evil DLC, SnapMap Free Updates Coming

More details have come to light regarding the potential Lord of the Rings TV series. Following Variety’s initial report last week that said Amazon emerged as the frontrunner to secure the show, Deadline’s sources say Netflix and HBO were also candidates.

Deadline also has the scoop on some of the financial details. Whichever company gets the show would reportedly have to pay $200-$250 million for the rights alone. With production costs included, the show could cost as much as $150 million per season to produce, Deadline reported.

Amazon and Netflix are reportedly in discussions with Warner Bros. TV and the J.R.R. Tolkien estate about the show, while HBO is said to have said no “a while back” because of the high production costs. Something that might also be giving the networks pause is that the rights package might not cover all of the Lord of the Rings characters, according to Deadline. However, there is no word as of yet which characters may be covered or not.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is reportedly personally involved in the discussions with Warner Bros. and the Tolkien estate about the potential Lord of the Rings TV show.

Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Rings trilogy of films collectively made more than $2.9 billion, with the final instalment, The Return of the King, making more than $1 billion alone. It won 11 Oscars, including Best Picture and best Director.

Following Jackson’s Lord of the Rings series, the director made three Hobbit films that also made a lot of money in theaters. While no new films have been announced, a movie about Tolkien’s relationship with with his wife Edith Bratt and his time in World War I is in the pipeline. Another film will explore the author’s relationship with Narnia writer C.S. Lewis and how he helped convert Lewis to Christianity.

In video game news, Middle-earth: Shadow of War launched in October for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. You can read GameSpot’s review here.

Bungie is updating the PC version of Destiny 2 again. The developer has announced that a “hotfix” is coming out tomorrow, November 6. The patch aims to fix the “hitching” issues that popped up in Destiny 2’s PC version after the release of 1.0.6.1.

That patch came out last week. Specific to PC, it fixed a problem with clan rosters not showing up as they should, along with an issue for when the game’s performance would drop during lengthy play sessions. This patch also made changes to the Faction Token system and several tweaks to the Crucible experience.

You can see the patch notes here.

Tomorrow’s PC hotfix comes just before Destiny 2’s weekly reset. This happens in the early hours US time every Tuesday, with a new Nightfall Strike and milestone progress for certain activities being reset at that time, among other things.

In other Destiny news, the game’s first expansion, Curse of Osiris, launches in December for all platforms. In addition to adding new content, it raises the level cap to 25 (up from 20) and boosts the Power level ceiling to 330 (up from 300).

Gran Turismo Sport saw its release in October, but it’s coming back for another lap. The next PSVR bundle will come with the latest driving simulator inside.

Gran Turismo got its start in 1997, but 20 years down the line, things have changed. This iteration of the game is online-only and has three different ways to play: campaign, sports, and arcade. Aside from letting you earn an actual racing license, it will have virtual championships. The winners of these will be treated like actual race victors too, having the results of these actually recognized by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile.

The PSVR bundle includes a physical copy of the game, a PSVR headset, a PlayStation Camera, and an updated version of the PSVR demo disk with 13 different demos to play. The bundle will be in stores for $400 in the US and $500 in Canada.

While Gran Turismo Sport can be played with just a controller or the PSVR, this bundle will still require a PS4 to work as the PSVR is an accessory to the system. Our thoughts on the title haven’t been published quite yet, but you can get a glimpse of what it has to offer in our preview here.

The new Thor film, Thor Ragnarok, is finally in theaters–and it’s crushing it. The Marvel film pulled in an estimated $121 million in the US and Canada on its first weekend Friday-Sunday, making it the No. 1 movie of the weekend by far.

With $121 million domestically, Ragnarok becomes the fourth-largest opening-weekend haul of the year, trailing juggernauts like Beauty and the Beast ($174.8 million), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 ($146.5 million), and It ($123.4 million). Comparisons to past Thor movies are also favourable, as Ragnarok‘s $121 million opening weekend is far better than the first Thor movie, which opened with $65.7 million back in 2011. It’s also much better than 2013’s Thor: The Dark World, which brought in $85.7 million domestically to start back in 2013. It’s also ahead of Spider-Man: Homecoming, which opened with $117 million in July.

Ragnarok stars Chris Hemsworth as the god of thunder, with Mark Ruffalo, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hiddleston, Tessa Thompson, and Jeff Goldblum rounding out some of the movie’s other big-name actors. According to EW, which supplied all of the box office figures, Ragnarok cost about $180 million to make. It was directed by Taika Waititi

Rounding out the top five movies at the US/Canada box office this weekend included A Bad Moms Christmas ($17 million), Jigsaw ($6.7 million), Boo 2: A Madea Halloween ($4.7 million), and Geostorm ($3 million). Also of note is the coming-of-age movie Lady Bird, which made $375,612 from only four theaters, giving it a per-theater average of $93,903, the highest of 2017 so far. The movie was directed by actress Greta Gerwig and stars Saoirse Ronan.

US/Canada Box Office Estimates November 3-5

via Entertainment Weekly

1. Thor: Ragnarok — $121 million
2. A Bad Moms Christmas — $17 million
3. Jigsaw — $6.7 million
4. Boo 2: A Madea Halloween — $4.7 million
5. Geostorm — $3 million
6. Happy Death Day — $2.8 million
7. Thank You for Your Service — $2.3 million
8. Blade Runner 2049 — $2.2 million
9. Only the Brave — $1.9 million
10. Let There Be Light — $1.6 million

Note: this is a mostly spoiler-free review of Rick and Morty’s third season. Check out my previous Season 3 reviews for more spoiler-filled, in-depth discussions of each episode.

The first episode of Rick and Morty’s third season ends with Rick breaking the fourth wall (as he’s often wont to do) and telling his grandson that they’re in store for the darkest, craziest season of their adventures yet. That scene really set the stage for what was to come. Season 3 lived up to its promising by even more dark and unpredictable than the previous two. It might be a stretch to call Season 3 the show’s best, but in many ways it’s the most consistent and ambitious so far.

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