Month: September 2018

Solo: A Star Wars Story is now available buy on digital formats, giving fans a second chance to dig into the latest movie in the much-loved franchise. The movie didn’t have the smoothest ride to the screen, with original directors Chris Miller and Phil Lord fired during production and veteran filmmaker Ron Howard brought in to take over and reshoot a reported 70% of the entire movie. Solo made its May release slot this year but underperformed at the box office, putting a sequel and further standalone Star Wars spin-offs in doubt.

Nevertheless, it’s a hugely entertaining movie well worth a revisit at home. The film, which focuses on the adventures of the young Han Solo, was written by Star Wars veteran Lawrence Kasdan with his son Jon. Last week, Jon took to Twitter to release a lengthy list of behind-the-scene observations and opinions about the film, which makes for fascinating reading as you watch it.

Kasdan goes into detail about the many influences that he and the other filmmakers used for Solo, the film’s many Easter Eggs, and how the new characters were developed. He explains what changed from earlier drafts of the script and what scenes were shot but ended up on the cutting room floor. He also reveals that, despite the reshoots, the influence of Lord and Miller was greater than many fans might expect, with several key moments remaining from their time on the movie. Finally, Kasdan speculates on the future of the younger incarnations of Han, Chewie, and Lando, and if we’ll get to see them in another movie. So here’s our pick of Kasdan’s most fascinating insights into the making of Solo, presented in chronological order and in his own words.

1. Mother Proxima

“I always hoped Linda Hunt would voice Mother Proxima because she had done the haunting opening narration (an Edgar Allen Poe quote) for the short-lived and criminally-underrated Shelley Duvall Showtime series Nightmare Classics, which you can find on YouTube. When I told Linda this was why I’d thought of her, she had absolutely no recollection of having recorded that narration and disputed it. But it’s definitely her. Also, Linda is one of the coolest people you’re likely to meet.”

2. Speeder Chase

“In early drafts of the script there was no speeder chase. This was something Chris and Phil conceived and Chris and Phil and Ron Howard executed, in my opinion, beautifully. They all felt we needed to see Han’s skill “behind the yoke” and that it could it pay off later in the Kessel Run. Lawrence Kasdan, much more focused on the Dickensian element, was more passionate about the foot-chase and the deleted eel barrel scene which is included in the extras.”

3. Coronet Spaceport

“Coronet Spaceport was a name we found on Wookieepedia while looking for spaceports on Corellia. We wanted the sequence to feel like the Ellis Island sequence in The Godfather Part 2, to give a sense of how small Han and Qi’ra are in the scheme of things and the cruel, impersonal machine that is the Empire.”

4. Mimban

“We wanted Mimban to evoke Kubrick’s Paths of Glory and put Han into the most hellish-possible war environment. Originally, there was a fourth member of Beckett’s crew, Korso, and in some shots you can even see him. His performance was great but, given the hectic environment, it became confusing to introduce that character we were going to immediately kill off. The original logic for Korso, who was a rather large man, was that Beckett had lost his muscle and Chewie is a useful replacement.”

5. The Beast

“Chris and Phil had the idea that Chewie would be ‘the beast,’ a punishment for disobedient soldiers (and I suppose droids) on Mimban. They also had the brilliant idea to have Han, at the crucial moment, speak Shyriiwook. The mud pit is pure Chris and Phil and for my money, it’s one of the best scenes in the movie.”

6. Beckett Leaves

“One action sequence that was never filmed but survived several drafts fairly deep into production involved Beckett’s crew leaving WITHOUT Han and Chewie, forcing Han and Chewie to steal an Imperial garbage ship on which they could escape. At one point, they dump the garbage onto several Stormtroopers who are chasing them. Writing this now, I’m relieved we didn’t actually shoot that. It would’ve cost a fortune and NEVER would’ve made the cut.”

7. Vandor 1

“We Kasdans spent many a Christmas, while I was growing up, in the Rocky Mountains of Southern Colorado which is only odd when you consider that NONE of us ski. The environment of Vandor 1 was always meant to evoke that beautiful landscape. It also made sense for the space-Western feeling we were trying to invoke.”

8. The Conveyex Job

“The Conveyex Job was in every draft of the script. It was something we conceived very early on that people were consistently responded to. Originally, the cargo was not Coaxium but rather an extremely-dangerous criminal en-route to a maximum security prison. Our idea was that Beckett’s crew was hired to bust this guy out by members of his gang. The criminal and his gang wordlessly departed after the job and wouldn’t return until some unspecified sequel where they would rescue Han at some crucial moment.”

9. Val

“In retrospect, Thandie Newton may actually have been too good and too interesting as Val. It was always in the design of the story that Beckett would lose his trusted crew members during the Conveyex Job-gone-wrong and be forced to rely on newbies, Han and Chewie, and this would also open the door for Lando, Qi’ra, and L3 to join the crew. But Thandie is so compelling to watch that the death of her character feels a little like a cheat. It’s an odd and unexpected problem that comes with working with such amazing, compelling actors in the Star Wars universe. You just want more of them.”

10. Dryden’s Base

“Dryden Vos’s base of operation was originally not a ship but an island fortress like Mont-Saint Michel but with an elaborate system of canals. In the third act Lando drove a Star Wars-version of a go-fast boat through the canals. It was pretty cool stuff but ultimately impossible to execute and incredibly time-consuming.”

11. Dryden Dispatches The Governor

“There was debate surrounding how exactly Dryden would dispose of that unfortunate regional governor. Some of us really wanted him decapitated and we actually shot a version where a head rolls across the floor. Others felt that was a little too rough for Star Wars.”

12. Dryden’s Influences

“Vos was Robert Prosky’s character Leo in Michael Mann’s Thief. Robert Prosky worked with Ron on Far and Away. Another influence was Don Draper. We wanted this character to be, physically, the antithesis of that other Star Wars crime boss. Ya know, the one with the weight problem.”

13. Kessel Planning

“The scene in Dryden’s study in which the Kessel Heist is first proposed is one of my personal favorites in the movie. It’s where Han really becomes Han in a lot of ways. The way he improvises to save their skin in that scene felt true to the man he eventually becomes. ‘We’ll get the ship, we’ve already got the pilot.’ felt like pure Han.”

14. The Lodge

“The Lodge at Fort Ypso was something that came from Chris and Phil. They were inspired by Robert Altman’s McCabe & Mrs. Miller and really wanted to have that dark, wintery mountain lodge-feeling in the movie. [Cinematographer] Bradford [Young]’s work on that particular set is especially beautiful and was an anchor point for the look and feel of the whole movie.”

15. Lando

“At this point it goes without saying, but Donald [Glover] was born to play Lando. I remember the thrill of seeing his screen test. Then the thrill of watching Bob Iger and Alan Horn watch his screen test, all of us knowing how much fun that was going to be and that he would steal each and every scene he was in. This was before Atlanta or Awaken My Love but after Community. In my opinion, Donald NEEDS to don the cape again and the sooner the better.”

16. L3

“L3 was a character conceived in conversations between Chris and Phil, Lawrence, and myself. It’s interesting to see how divisive she’s been in these extremely divisive and politically-charged times. If you’re interested in that particular conversation, there was a great piece by Spencer Kornhaber in the Atlantic and another by Kate Gardner on The Mary Sue that illustrate differing points of view and the passion people feel about Star Wars. The truth is, she actually evolved out of Chris’s astute observation that it was funny that the bartender at Mos Eisley objected to Threepio, considering droids seem to be the least rambunctious folk in the galaxy.”

17. The Falcon

“The night we shot the scene where Han sees the Falcon for the first time was one of the most fun nights of our shoot. I vividly remember the cast sitting around listening to Ron tell stories about growing up in the business and his experiences. Ron is a world-class storyteller and almost no one alive has worked more consistently, since they were five, than he has.”

18. The Cape Closet

“Lando’s cape closet, another great idea that’s pure Chris and Phil. That scene was always meant to parallel the scene between Leia and Han in the avionics closet in Empire. We liked the idea of seeing Han in a similar situation, with a similar type of banter, but a very different partner, one who maybe teaches him a thing or two. The relationship between Han and Qi’ra was never intended to be concluded at the end of this movie. It’s a story I hope we get to tell more of someday ’cause I like their diverging paths.”

19. Beckett and Han

“The scene between Beckett and Han in the lounge really demonstrates the Michael Mann influence on the movie. We wanted Beckett to be cut from same cloth as [Heat‘s] Neal McCauley. We wanted Beckett embody a moral cynicism that Han would, later in his life, outwardly project but never really posses. This kind of scene Woody does without a single false note. There was no take of his performance in this scene we couldn’t have used. Some actors, they say it and you just believe it. Woody is one of those guys and every moment you spend with him, whether on set or in a restaurant, is pure fun. Also, if you haven’t seen it yet, I can’t recommend his movie Lost In London enough. It’s truly sort of a marvel of filmmaking.”

20. The Maelstrom

“The Maelstrom. This is another idea that stuck from the first draft. Trying to solve the problem of how to make the Kessel Run visually exciting, inventive, and at least somewhat logical, weighed heavily on all of us throughout the process. It was something we discussed endlessly and knew would never satisfy everyone, and specifically never satisfy Neil Degrasse Tyson. We wanted a Jules Verne flavor and we loved the idea of a storm in space, what that might look like. The Hubble image of the Pillars of Creation was a huge influence on this concept. ILM did tests in which they blow up canisters of different colored powder and photographed the explosion in slo-mo. Those test were fun to watch.”

21. Qi’ra’s Job Title

“Is Qi’ra’s made-up job title, ‘Assistant to the Vice Admiral of Trade Route Allocation and Monetization’ a good-natured poke at some of the more confusing bits of exposition in previous Star Wars adventures? Of course not, we take all this s*** very seriously.”

22. The Kessel Heist

“While figuring out the Kessel Heist, we kept revisiting the Mission Impossible movies because we wanted the sequence to have the kind of momentum and feeling of coordinated effort that the best sequences in those movies always have. Ultimately though, Han’s personality is very different from Ethan Hunt. He’s much more… laid back, and things tend to go best for him when he just sorta bulls***s his way though. Which is why Han Solo is the patron saint of screenwriters.”

23. Lando’s Memoirs

“Would the movie have made more money if it had just been two hours of Lando dictating his memoirs into his holorecorder? Perhaps. You live and learn.”

24. Beckett’s Armor

“I wish there was a special feature where you see Beckett toss aside the Tantel Armor and Gondar-tusk mask he uses as a disguise on Kessel, then just settle into a time-lapse shot of that gear lying in a closet in the Falcon for like, fifteen years… until Lando picks it up and wears it as a disguise himself for Jabba’s Palace. And if you’re wondering why or objecting to how interconnected the movie is with the others, it’s ‘cos that’s the kind of nonsense I think about.”

25. Han And Lando Get Blasting

“When I was growing up, there was a stack of Star Wars Marvel comics in my grandparents’ house in Michigan that, I assume, belonged to my brother. It remained there, in exactly the same spot, for twenty-five years. I really wanted the shoot-out on the landing pad at Kessel to evoke the feeling of those wonderful Marvel comic covers from the ’80s, Han and Lando, their blasters blazing. I think Ron achieved that and then some. Seeing those three guys beneath the Falcon is the absolute realization of that particular childhood fantasies. Thank you Ron and George Lucas.”

26. Han The Pilot

“Does the movie work? I’m not the person to ask. But here’s what I think DOES work: the moment when Han jumps into pilot’s seat of the Falcon for the first time. It’s directed beautifully, Alden nails every movement and look, and unless you’re actively resisting it, John Powell’s perfect cue will make your heart swell. That moment is as good as this movie gets in my opinion.”

27. Imperial Blockade

“An Imperial Blockade was something we wanted to see the burgeoning smuggler deal with. We went through many iterations of that bit as well. For a long time, the idea was that the Falcon got stuck in a tractor beam and Han has the idea to disrupt it by removing a small amount of Coaxium, putting it into Lando’s mini-ship and launching the mini-ship at the destroyer. We even filmed this version but it was incredibly time-consuming and the Kessel Run hadn’t even started yet.”

28. The Kessel Run

“Love it, hate it, or indifferent, watch the Kessel Run on the best screen with the best sound you can find. It’s truly a technical marvel of visual effects and sound design that really represents the state of that art form at this moment. I’d put that sequence up against any visual effects in movie history. Rob Bredow knocked out of the park. It’s simply gorgeous. It’s also a testament to Chris Rouse, the brilliant writer and editor who came in and helped us streamline the Kessel Run sequence and the Conveyex Job.”

29. Summa-Verminoth

“SUMMA-VERMINOTH, the creature the Falcon encounters in the Maelstrom had a long road to the screen. In the earliest drafts, the Kessel Run was interrupted with a forced pit stop on a spooky Ridley Scott-type planet. On that Nameless Planet, Beckett’s crew encounters enormous Lovecraftian monsters that claim one of their number. When Chris and Phil got involved, they determined (correctly) that that pit-stop would kill the momentum of the Kessel Run. Later, when working on the sequence with Ron, the notion of a Lovecraftian monster returned (as we are both huge Lovecraft fans).

“I remember Kathleen Kennedy would go into her office and google images of frilled sharks and giant squids for reference. She loves that stuff. One thing we stumbled across while working on this was a fantastic short film/teaser directed Ruairi Robinson called The Leviathan. You can find it on YouTube and Vimeo. It has been long-rumored to be turned into a feature and I sincerely hope it will be. The name Summa-Verminoth is another Cthulhu mythos homage to Robert Bloch’s fictional tome, De Vermis Mysteriis.”

30. Savareen

“In the script, the area of Savareen where the refinery is located is identified as the Pnakotic Dunes, another Lovecraft nod. Where we shot it, on Fuerteventura, was an incredibly remote and punishing location. You’d return to the hotel at the end of the day, chapped everywhere and with your boots full of sand. But there were moments when you’d be standing on that set, and look off in a certain direction, away from the crew, at Neil Lamont’s incredible set and the hundreds of costumed extras, and you would swear you really were IN another galaxy.”

31. Efts Nest

“Erin Kellyman was a discovery of [casting director] Nina Gold and Chris and Phil that exceeded our wildest hopes for Enfys Nest. She has a face made for the movies and is, I believe, busy shooting a new version of Les Miserables as I write this. Personally, I’d love to see more of Enfys Nest.”

32. Warwick

“While shooting in Fuerteventura I had another dream-fulfillment experience, getting to know and hang out with Warwick Davis. Maybe it was partly the way Bradford photographed him, but that guy just seems to get handsomer and cooler as he gets older. He’s playing the same character he played in The Phantom Menace, Weazel, but I think maybe it’s time Ron and I worked with Warwick to bring back another legacy character he once played. I don’t know, what do you think?”

33. Qi’ra’s Betrayal

“Qi’ra’s betrayal/departure was also in the DNA of Solo from the very beginnIng. She was always intended to be more complicated and ambiguous than Han, at least at this point in their lives. This was a tricky thing to pull off as you’re constantly weighing how invested you want the audience to be in that relationship with properly setting up the choice she makes in the end. Again, this was always intended to be just the first and second acts of their story. The third act, the resolution of Han and Qi’ra, has yet to be told.”

34. Maul

“If you felt like it was just a cheap stunt, I suppose that’s fair, but the the truth is Maul was built into the design of Solo in many subtle ways, including the name Crimson Dawn, the artifacts in Dryden’s study, and Qi’ra’s use of Teras Kasi. Maul is my favorite character from the prequel trilogy. I love that Dave Filoni brought him back and expanded on his story in The Clone Wars and Rebels. I love that there is at least some continuity between the shows and the movies. For me, Maul was destined to pass through Solo as the ultimate Star Wars Keyser Sozé.”

35. Final Thoughts

“Will there ever be a sequel, ‘cos it really seems like you guys were setting one up? To be honest, I think the challenge has much more to do with the foreign box office than the US. Personally, I think there are great Star Wars movies to be made that don’t need to cost quite so much. Hopefully that will be the trend in the years to come, and maybe, just maybe that trend will allow us, one way or another, to tell more stories with Alden, Joonas, Emilia, and Donald. With those actors and Ron, I would jump at the opportunity. Given the way Hollywood, and the culture at large, seem to run from anything labeled a disappointment, the odds seem like they’re against it happening anytime soon. But, I suppose, Han wouldn’t have it any other way.

“We really appreciate the feedback, love talking about this stuff with the fans, and we couldn’t be more excited that Solo is now available to anyone who wants to see it anytime they want to. May the Force be with you… always.”

The original three Ace Attorney games are coming to the Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam in a single compilation.

The trilogy of Ace Attorney games was announced during the Ace Attorney panel during the Tokyo Game Show and will include updated HD visuals. The trilogy was originally released on 3DS back in 2014.

The compilation includes the original game, Justice for All, and Trials and Tribulations. Expect to see the trilogy launch in early 2019.

Capcom also previewed the second season of the Ace Attorney anime with stories focusing on cases from the third game. The Ace Attorney Orchestra was also confirmed to return in 2019.

Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice was released back in 2016 and in our review we thought it was a “less than essential entry in the Phoenix Wright saga.”

Continue reading…

A brand new, never-before-seen Pokemon has started to appear in Pokemon Go but can’t actually be registered to the Pokedex.

The mysterious new Pokemon, which was found by a dataminer yesterday, began to appear in the Asia Pacific region following the conclusion of Chikorita Community Day, a three-hour event that saw increased spawns of second generation Pokemon Chikorita.

After Chikorita spawns concluded, many players saw the mysterious new Pokemon appear on the “nearby” radar, but after encountering the Pokemon and attempting to catch it, the Pokemon immediately transformed into Ditto or Chikorita and did not actually register to the Pokedex as seen or caught.

Continue reading…

From Amazon Prime original series like The Man in the High Castle to films like You Were Never Really Here, here are our top picks for the best new Amazon Prime Video movies and TV shows to watch in October!

Update: Telltale has issued a statement in which it confirms fears that the studio is at least partially shutting down. It does not address the specific fate of its games, only saying more details will be shared in the coming weeks. It reaffirms that 25 people remain with the studio for the time being, but it’s unclear how long they will be employed. The full statement follows.

Today Telltale Games made the difficult decision to begin a majority studio closure following a year marked by insurmountable challenges. A majority of the company’s employees were dismissed earlier this morning, with a small group of 25 employees staying on to fulfill the company’s obligations to its board and partners. CEO Pete Hawley issued the following statement:

“It’s been an incredibly difficult year for Telltale as we worked to set the company on a new course. Unfortunately, we ran out of time trying to get there. We released some of our best content this year and received a tremendous amount of positive feedback, but ultimately, that did not translate to sales. With a heavy heart, we watch our friends leave today to spread our brand of storytelling across the games industry.

Telltale will issue further comments regarding its product portfolio in the coming weeks.

In a tweet clarifying the statement, Hawley says the 25 people will continue for the “foreseeable” future; this isn’t a complete shutdown, at least at this point. We’ll report back as we learn more.

Original Story: Telltale Games, the studio behind several acclaimed episodic adventure games based on a range of popular licenses, including The Walking Dead and Batman, has been hit with another huge wave of layoffs. News of the layoffs emerged via social media as former developers announced they were no longer employed at the company.

It is currently unclear if Telltale has shut down completely or will remain operational with a reduced workforce, but it appears a significant number of developers have been let go from the company. Telltale itself has yet to publicly comment on the layoffs. GameSpot has reached out to the studio and will report back with a response.

According to a report by Gamasutra, Telltale has released all but 25 employees (out of about 250), who will remain at the company to finish the remaining episodes of The Walking Dead: The Final Season. The outlet also reports that all of the studio’s other projects, such as the second season of The Wolf Among Us, have been canceled.

Kevin Bruner, a co-founder and former CEO of Telltale (who sued the company earlier this year after being forced out), has published a blog post commenting on the news. “Today, I’m mostly saddened for the people who are losing their jobs at a studio they love,” he wrote. “And I’m also saddened at the loss of a studio that green-lit crazy ideas that no one else would consider. I’m comforted a bit knowing there are now so many new talented people and studios creating games in the evolving narrative genre. While I look forward to those games and new developments, and continuing to contribute, I will always find ‘A Telltale Game’ to have been a unique offering.”

This isn’t the first massive wave of layoffs to hit the company. In November 2017, Telltale laid off 25% of its workforce, which then amounted to 90 people. According to a press release the company shared following that news, this reduction was done in order to make the studio “more competitive as a developer and publisher of groundbreaking story-driven gaming experiences with an emphasis on high quality in the years ahead.”

Telltale announced a number of projects in July 2017, including the aforementioned Wolf Among Us 2. That was originally planned for release in 2018 but was eventually delayed to 2019 following the November layoffs. The studio had also announced it was developing a game based on Stranger Things, but it appears those projects have now been shelved.

News of these layoffs comes shortly before the release of the second episode of The Walking Dead: The Final Season, which is scheduled to launch for PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC on September 25. Two additional episodes are still planned for the series. We don’t yet know what this news means for its previously announced release schedule; the same is true of the games it’s responsible for publishing, such as Stranded Deep, which it just yesterday announced would launch for PS4 and Xbox One in October.

Red Dead Redemption 2: All The New Features

A number of GameSpot staff members recently were able to play a near-final build of Red Dead Redemption 2, which releases in about a month’s time (October 26) on PS4 and Xbox One. Despite some initial familiarity as a Rockstar game, we discovered a wealth of new features and systems once we scratched the surface. There are a lot of mechanics to tell you about, a lot of stuff that we haven’t seen the full scope of, and potentially a lot of things we haven’t even seen yet. And that’s without diving into Red Dead Online, which largely remains a mystery and won’t launch until November (and even then, only as a beta).

But we’re excited to share all the things we discovered in our time with this highly anticipated open-world Western, so we’ve compiled all the things we noticed in this handy gallery. You’ll learn more about the nitty-gritty details about towns, your horse, your weapons, customization, Arthur himself, and more.

We’ll continue to update it as we uncover the breadth of Red Dead Redemption 2’s systems. Please note that due to the limited amount of available media, not all images will be completely representative of the features they’re depicting.

If you haven’t already seen our primary Red Dead Redemption 2 preview covering the story missions we saw, make sure you read: Red Dead Redemption 2: We Played It, Here’s Everything We Saw.

What do you think of all these new additions? Lets us know in the comments below, and check out all of our coverage through the following links.

Red Dead Redemption 2 News And Details

• Red Dead Redemption 2: We Played It On PS4, Here’s Everything We Saw
• Watch: We Played Red Dead Redemption 2
• Red Dead Redemption 2: All The New Features
• Red Dead Redemption 2’s Most Surprising Features And Details
• Red Dead Redemption 2: Everything We Just Learned
• Like GTA 5, Red Dead Redemption 2 Is Playable In First-Person
• Here Are Red Dead Redemption 2’s HUD Options
• Red Dead Redemption 2’s Arthur Can Swim, Unlike John Marston
• Here’s 27 New Red Dead Redemption 2 Screens
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Will Feature Woody Jackson’s Music Again
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Has A Selfie Camera
• Red Dead Redemption 2 Lets You Drift On A Horse
• Red Dead Redemption 2’s New Animal-Skinning Animation Is Truly A Sight To Behold
• Red Dead Redemption 2’s Online Mode Gets A Beta A Month After Release Day
• Why Red Dead Redemption 2’s Online Mode Is Launching After The Main Game
• Rockstar Will Stagger GTA 5 Online And Red Dead Online Update Releases
• Red Dead Online Learns Its Lessons From GTA Online

You Can Play The Whole Game In First Person

The entirety of Red Dead Redemption 2 can be played in first-person, much like Grand Theft Auto V when it was released on PS4, Xbox One, and later, PC.

Like GTA V, this feels like a much more involved first-person experience than a conventional FPS because your actions feel more weighty, and animations are more confronting. We were trampled by a horse at one point, and it felt awful.

You Can Disable The HUD

The HUD is minimal by default, only showing the mini-map in the bottom left corner, with meters fading in as it becomes necessary. An expanded HUD option shows you a larger minimap, but there’s also the option to turn everything off, as well as an option to only have a compass on the screen.

Cinematic Camera Has A New Implementation

If you’re familiar with Rockstar open-world games, then you’re probably familiar with the cinematic camera mode, which can be triggered while you’re driving and activates when you’re fast-traveling in a cab.

In Red Dead Redemption 2, the cinematic camera will now automatically trigger in certain instances, like the long journey to a mission location, and will frame the journey with a montage of shots that emphasize the landscape and traveling group.

You can break out of it at any time, but it’s a nice touch, an enjoyable filmic framing of what might have otherwise been a standard journey. As long as you hold X on PS4 or A on Xbox One to keep pace with the pack (like RDR1), you can just sit back and enjoy the naturally-flowing conversation and scenery.

This feature can also be triggered manually during gameplay.

You Can Inspect Everything

We spent a lot of time in town exploring stores, where items could be examined and purchased off the shelf individually, or via a catalog at the front counter.

Switching to first person, you can make Arthur manipulate the object in his hands as he takes a close look at it. This is also how you’ll interact with environmental narrative objects like notes and photographs.

You can also inspect your weapons, which is great for appreciating any customizations you’ve made to them.

There Are A Variety of Business, Activities, and Secret Stores

We spent time in town browsing the gunsmith and general store, sitting down for a bowl of oatmeal and playing some Five Finger Fillet. Rockstar told us that some stores would have more illicit secret businesses in back rooms.

Your Weapons Are Visible On Your Person

Drawing on learnings from Max Payne 3, all of the weapons Arthur carries will be visible on his body. You’ll be limited to carrying two long guns (or one long gun and one bow), two sidearms, a knife, a lasso, and a bunch of throwables.

When we switched weapons in the demo, Arthur would carry his rifle in his left hand while he used his pistol in the other.

There’s A Kill Cam That Changes Depending On Your Honor

Visible weapons aren’t the only Max Payne 3 DNA in the game–when you take out the final opponent during a gunfight, a kill cam will frame that final blow.

This will change depending on Arthur’s moral standing: If you’ve been a naughty cowboy, these kill cams will be gorier. If you’ve been upstanding and honorable, they’ll be framed in a more heroic fashion.

You Can Break Enemy Weapons

Speaking of heroic behavior, if you want to go the more non-lethal route, it’s possible to shoot weapons out of enemy hands. Not only that, but you can even shoot directly at their weapons and break them. This seems like a handy technique if you’re looking to be an outlaw with a heart of gold as opposed to a straight-up cold-blooded killer.

Dead Eye Has Five Levels Now

Red Dead Redemption’s version of bullet time-style slowdown returns in the sequel, and it has more levels to it. We were able to deduce that Level 1 allows for slowdown, Level 2 allows you to paint targets and unleash a barrage of shots, and Level 3 allows you to manually pick your shooting points.

However, Rockstar also mentioned that you had the ability to highlight critical hit points with higher levels, which will come in very handy for making clean kills when hunting animals.

You Can Customise Your Guns

In Red Dead Redemption 2, you’re able to examine environmental objects in great detail, and you can do the same to your weapons, by clicking the right analog stick from the weapon wheel. That’s handy because it lets you admire the customizations you can perform on them at gunsmiths, like personalized engravings and leather wraps.

You Can Craft Weapons

Aside from gun customization, you can craft special kinds of weapons and ammo. For example, you can craft molotovs and split-point bullets. This should make the going easier when caught up in firefights.

Your Guns Can Degrade And Jam

You need to take care of your weapon in Red Dead Redemption 2. You have the option to clean it, which is incredibly important to do regularly because guns can rust and jam due to disrepair and environmental conditions. This one’s sure to be a controversial feature, if Far Cry 2, which also featured gun jamming, was anything to go by.

You Can Fire Warning Shots

By having your gun unholstered and holding Up on the d-pad, you can fire warning shots into the air. This is handy for intimidating people, scaring off animals, or generally being a rowdy buffoon while you’re riding around.

Shooting Is Not Your Only Option, Try Talking

Aiming at people with your gun holstered will give you access to a contextual menu, which lets you chat to people in the world. You’ll often find the option to verbally defuse or agitate situations with other inhabitants in the world, and these interactions seemed quite fluid and natural during our short time with the game.

For example, when a carriage rode past us, we had the option to call out to them to stop, greet them in a friendly manner, or antagonize them. We called out to the carriage and were then given the option to hitch a ride among other things, but we took too long to make a decision and the driver rode off. We called out again, and Arthur’s dialogue was more unsure and desperate.

The Eyewitness System Returns

The eyewitness system means that nearby onlookers to a crime can report you to lawmen, and like the first Red Dead Redemption, the effect of eyewitnesses can be mitigated if you manage to catch up with them and either kill or bribe them before they report the crime.

In the sequel, however, you have more options. You can speak to them in various temperaments in an attempt to intimidate or convince them not to report you, or you can beat them like a heartless jerk.

Melee Combat Has Been Expanded

We weren’t able to get into the mechanical intricacies of this one during our demo, but Rockstar reps mentioned that melee combat had been expanded. We were shown a fistfight where Arthur used grapple moves, blocks, and a variety of different punches to knock out his opponent.

Hunting Is More Realistic, Laborious, And Confronting

The ability to hunt animals and sell their meat and pelts returns, but with a more realistic (and therefore more confronting) presentation.

Once you successfully kill an animal, you can skin it. But where Red Dead Redemption’s skinning animation didn’t focus on the animal, Red Dead Redemption 2’s most certainly does.

You’ll see Arthur pull his knife out, get on his hands and knees, plunge his knife into the poor beast, carve the pelt from its flesh, peel it off the body, and roll it up into a bundle. You’ll almost certainly wince the first time you see it. Arthur actually carries the pelt now, and he’ll need to store it on his horse to free up his hands.

Similarly, to get the meat off a hunted animal, you’ll manually have to pick up the bloodied carcass and carry it to a butcher. We had to load a hunted deer on our horse and ride it into the nearest town, where we had the option of getting it chopped up into cookable components or simply selling it whole.

Time Is Cruel

Rockstar reps wanted us to know that these meat components had an expiration date–time would eventually take its toll and both the fresh pelt and carcass would start to rot and attract vermin, reducing its value and making us generally unpleasant to be around.

Time To Shave

Time also has an effect on Arthur’s hair, which will grow longer over time. Customizing Arthur’s haircut and facial hair styling is also dependent on length since you’re allowed to cut things shorter, but won’t have access to anything that requires more hair–a more realistic take on personal grooming compared to GTA V.

Time To Open

Time will also affect towns over the course of the game. While exploring, we noticed a half-constructed building and were told that these would eventually become new storefronts as days passed.

Stay Clean

NPCs will certainly react to the stink of your rotting deer corpse if you’ve been around it too long, or just haven’t taken a bath in a while. Arthur needs to get clean and change his clothes every once in a while, since townsfolk may refuse to talk or serve him based on his appearance–having a lot of blood on your jacket doesn’t attract the best reactions.

You Can Layer Your Clothes

Rockstar reps explained that the game’s clothing customization options will be comprehensive–each character will have different sets to coincide with weather conditions, while customizations would allow layering and minor adjustments, like the option to roll up your sleeves or tuck your pants into your boots.

It’s unclear whether outfits will have perks like RDR1, but we know that the type of clothes you wear will affect Arthur’s performance. For example, if you wear a weighty jacket during a hot summer day, your running stamina will take a big hit.

You Get A Camera. Yes, You Can Take Selfies

We started a side quest during our time with Red Dead Redemption 2, and the mission giver handed Arthur a camera. This camera could be used at any time via your inventory, and yes, the first thing we did was take a selfie.

These aren’t arm-out handheld selfies, though. The mode is titled “self-portrait” and will frame Arthur’s whole body as if the camera was set up on a tripod. You’ll be able to adjust expressions and poses, too–expect to see a whole bunch of self-portraits depicting Arthur squatting in front of various things.

You Need To Eat

Arthur’s core meters are health, stamina, and dead eye, and you’ll need to keep him fed with snacks and meals to keep his well-being topped up. If your health or stamina falls below a certain level, Arthur will experience dizziness–he’ll have trouble walking, and his vision will be blurry.

Arthur can carry snacks on him for a quick boost, but eating meals in town areas and in camp are more effective.

You Can Gain And Lose Weight

Sure, you need to eat. But don’t overdo it! Arthur can both lose and gain weight, much like Carl Johnson in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Presumably, you’ll also lose weight by performing strenuous physical activities like sprinting.

Get Better By Doing

In our demo, we noticed that stamina limit could be raised by running. This suggests a similar progression system to previous Rockstar Games where your skill with something increases the more you perform that action.

Horses Are Complex Creatures

Your horse will have its own set of health and stamina meters, and like Arthur, you’ll need to keep it fed as well. You’ll also need to keep it clean and brushed, since it can become less effective, and you can pet your horse, which acts as a mechanism to calm it down after it’s been spooked.

We were told that bonding with your horse by caring for it and riding it regularly can unlock additional skills and improve responsiveness. During our hands-on, we were able to rear our horse on its hind legs, perform drifts to change direction quickly (apologies to equestrian enthusiasts), and move our horse precisely by performing dressage techniques.

You can bond with multiple horses and stable them in different locations around the world, as different breeds will be better suited to certain situations. A Clydesdale warhorse, for example, would be more suitable in a battle than the Tennessee walking horse, which is more of an all-rounder.

And yes, they poop.

Your Horse’s Saddlebags Hold Everything

Because Arthur can only carry a limited amount of weapons, your horse also acts as your storage. Being in close proximity to your horse will give you access to your entire arsenal, but you’ll need to transfer guns onto your person if you decide to stray.

You can move your horse without mounting it, thankfully, by grabbing the reins and leading it on foot. This gamut of horse interactions is accessed by Red Dead Redemption 2’s new contextual menu, by holding L2 with your gun holstered and aiming at your horse.

Also, you can also rob other people’s saddlebags. Just make sure no-one is watching.

Side Missions Are Potentially More Involved

The aforementioned side quest was a multi-part mission that we weren’t allowed the time to pursue. In it, a biographer fed up with his drunken subject asked Arthur to track down a number of famed gunslingers to ask them about who was the best, with the strong insinuation that we would have to duel them ourselves.

We were handed a number of photographs of the targets, each with some handwritten notes on the back. Physically analyzing these notes and photographs was likely the key to narrowing down our search, reminiscent of the Treasure Maps from the first Red Dead Redemption.

Camps Are Complex And Affected By Time

Your camp will not wait for you. We were told that the members of your gang who reside at camp will come and go, and finding out where exactly they’ve gone from others will be the basis of a number of quests and side quests.

We found that the day and night cycle will also affect who you’re able to interact with at camp. For example, we looked for our gang’s cook to try and fix up some of the deer we had prepared earlier, but he was sleeping, and though we prodded him awake, we didn’t feel mean enough to make him cook.

The stockpiling of supplies like these is just one of the ways you can affect camp morale. We’re told camp morale is an optional mechanic, but keeping this raised can provide Arthur with additional supplies and bonuses.

Gang Members Can Join You In Free-Roam

Rockstar told us that if available, gang members will offer to join you on free-roam activities, giving you access to the same kind of assistance saw in the story missions, like asking them to go ahead and take out an enemy.

You can also spend time talking to gang members at camp, including Read Dead 1 protagonist John Martson, and even butt into conversations midway to add your two cents. Unfortunately, due to the time of day in our demo, we didn’t have many of these opportunities to explore.

You Can Swim

Unlike John Marston, it’s possible for Arthur to swim. Though, it’s worth noting that he isn’t all that great at it.

You Have An Instinct Vision Called Eagle Eye

When you’re tracking and hunting animals, you can activate what’s called the Eagle Eye system. This displays key details in the environment that can help you close in on nearby game. It can also be used to see the scent coming off your body; a handy detail you can use to determine whether or not you should approach animals who might catch onto your presence.

You Can Swap Your Hat

Last, but certainly not least, we noted that while you can easily lose your hat in the midst of a shootout, Arthur can swap his hat for any other hat that just happened to fall off someone else’s head by no doing of your own.

Because at the end of the day, if you can’t wear the hat you want, what is the point of even playing?

We’ll continue to update this gallery as we discover more things about Red Dead Redemption 2. If you haven’t already seen our primary Red Dead Redemption 2 preview covering the story missions we saw, make sure you read Red Dead Redemption 2: We Played It, Here’s Everything We Saw.

Manners will maketh the man once again, as Fox has officially announced a third Kingsman movie will be released next year.

IGN can confirm that Fox has set an untitled Kingsman movie for a November 8, 2019 release. Matthew Vaughn, who wrote and directed the first two movies, is back on board to write and produce the third entry in the series.

No cast or plot details have been revealed. Taron Egerton, Colin Firth, and Mark Strong have been main stars of the series. The second film, Kingsman: The Golden Circle, introduced Halle Berry, Channing Tatum, Jeff Bridges, and Julianne Moore to the franchise.

Early last year, ahead of The Golden Circle’s release, Vaughn had confirmed he was already considering Kingsman 3.

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