Month: September 2018

After three stupendous Forza Horizon games, each better than the last, it becomes difficult to come up with new superlatives to describe Forza Motorsport’s open-world, more social-friendly spinoff (that, by the way, is even better than Motorsport). So here we are, with a Britain-based Forza Horizon 4, and after playing the first two hours of the campaign – experiencing the Summer and Autumn seasons in the process – I’m left with one simple word: “yes.”

Is Forza Horizon 4 Beautiful? Yes.

Polygonal Great Britain has never looked better, with real-life landmarks you can stop and take a look at by driving up to them and pressing X. So too are the seasons themselves stunningly rendered, from the high overhead bright sunshine of the summer to the red and orange leaves that settle on the roadways and blow away from the car when you drive through clusters of them.

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As the world of Mayans MC is being built, it continues to find itself populated with familiar faces from Sons of Anarchy. In the first episode of the series alone, both Gemma Teller Morrow (Katey Sagal) and Marcus Alvarez (Emilio Rivera) appeared. While Gemma’s cameo will play a bigger role in Season 1, chances are she won’t be seen much. Alvarez, on the other hand, will be a pretty constant presence. The following contains spoilers for the second episode of Mayans MC.

Now, a third fan-favorite character has been introduced. Chucky Marstein (Michael Ornstein) started off as a compulsively masturbating thorn in the SAMCRO’s side. Eventually, though, he became one of its most trusted allies and managed to escape the series alive. Now, Chucky has made his way to the Mayans MC, where he seems to essentially playing the same role for this new club.

Now, Chucky works at the same scrapyard the club operates out of, using his prosthetic hands to do office work. He only appears for a moment in the second episode, but you’d better get used to seeing him around the Mayans.

Speaking to GameSpot, showrunner and executive producer Elgin James confirmed that Chucky will recur throughout the season. “[Ornstein] is like such a gift as a human being, nevermind the Chucky character,” he said. “He does a lot on our show. I mean, he’s another one, it’s not just a little like, ‘Hey, check this out, isn’t this funny?’ Like Chucky plays a role in the season and in the series.”

While James won’t say exactly how Chucky will factor in the story, other than his role at the scrapyard, he couldn’t be more excited about weaving the character into his series. “He’s just been a gift to every single person [to] now have him in their life,” the executive producer explains. “It’s been great, it’s one of the greatest [gifts] Kurt [Sutter, creator of Sons of Anarchy] has given us, besides careers.”

Hopefully, Mayans MC makes as much use of Chucky as Sons did. What’s more, if this is how Mayans plans on continuing to integrate Sons of Anarchy characters into its story, James and his team should definitely sprinkle in a few more. Perhaps we can find out whatever happened to Nero (Jimmy Smits) and Wendy (Drea de Matteo) after they left Charming in the Sons of Anarchy series finale.

The showrunner of Netflix’s upcoming Witcher TV show has announced she is going on a Twitter hiatus in the midst of backlash surrounding rumoured casting details for the character Ciri. Lauren S. Hissrich announced on Twitter that she’s leaving Twitter, explaining that she is stepping away so she can spend more time writing the show.

“The love here [on Twitter] is amazing, and the hate is enlightening, like a real-life Trials of the Grasses,” she wrote, referencing the horrific-sounding fictitious trial that those looking to become Witchers must endure. She ended her note by asking her Twitter followers to be nice to each other.

Hissrich got slammed with negative comments after an unconfirmed casting advertisement suggested that the show’s producers were looking for a young woman of colour to play Ciri, who is Geralt’s adoptive daughter.

Others brought up the fact that in May, Hissrich said on Twitter that she would not change a character’s background because she was feeling “liberal” that day. Hissrich also pointed out at the time that The Witcher show on Netflix will feature minority actors. “But will there be minorities? Yes. A man would be a minority in Brokilon Forest. A person of color would be a minority in a small village. An islander would be an minority in Cintra. [The Witcher series author] Mr. Sapkowski has said–publicly, and to me–that the Continent is big and diverse in its population, in every way (race, culture, gender, and yes, occasionally skin color, which he said he did not always specify). I’m not sure how people insinuate I’m destroying the books by recognizing that. I’m honoring the author’s own intentions. He told me so himself.”

This week, Hissrich pointed out that she did not comment on the casting process for Geralt before it was revealed that Henry Cavill got the role. Similarly, she said she won’t discuss casting for Ciri or other characters until official announcements are made.

Some have already said they will boycott The Witcher TV show, and Hissrich said she doesn’t understand why. “How does one boycott a show that doesn’t yet exist, about a person who hasn’t been cast, in response to a writer who hasn’t commented? I think we’ve officially gone mad,” she said.

Finally, Hissrich said she believes the majority of nay-sayers are not “trolls,” but instead passionate fans. “I actually don’t think the majority of these people are trolls. I think they’re passionate fans, too, with really strong opinions,” she said.

The Witcher TV show is based on Sapkowski’s novels, which are the inspiration for the games from CD Projekt Red. The show is slated to premiere in 2019.

No new games in The Witcher franchise have been announced; CD Projekt Red is currently working on the ambitious futuristic game Cyberpunk 2077.