Month: March 2020

While we all practice social distancing during the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19, pandemic, we all need something entertaining to watch. There are plenty of ways to keep yourself busy, but every single week, new digital movies are arriving, and many of them are coming out earlier than expected. Here is what is coming out this week.

One of the best video game movies to date, right behind Detective Pikachu, is now available. Sonic the Hedgehog follows the titular character as he escapes his home planet, comes to Earth, befriends a cop, and spends his time running from Dr. Robotnik while trying to collect his magic rings in San Francisco.

The movie was an exceptional amount of fun with plenty of Easter eggs for fans of the video game series. In GameSpot’s Sonic review, Phil Hornshaw said, “As video game adaptations go, Sonic the Hedgehog is among the stronger ones. It’s smart enough to stand on its own, making use of longstanding aspects of Sega’s supersonic mascot and his franchise, while making sure that what really shines through are its characters. That restraint goes a long way to making Sonic the Hedgehog a light, funny movie, and while it definitely skews young, longtime Sonic fans should have just as much fun finally seeing the Blue Blur on the big screen.”

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If you enjoyed the recently-released Netflix original series V-Wars or October Faction, you’ll be disappointed to know that they’ve both been canceled, according to a report from Variety. Neither of these shows had been on the service for more than four months.

Debuting in early December, V-Wars was based on the IDW comic series of the same name. The Netflix original follows scientist Dr. Luther Swann and his friend Michael Fayne, as they deal with a deadly outbreak that turns people into vampires. As this is happening, a war between humans and vampires breaks out. The series starred Ian Somerhalder and Adrian Holmes. The first season consisted of 10 episodes.

Additionally, October Faction has been cancelled, after debuting in January. The series follows a couple, Fred and Deloris Allen, that spends their days hunting monsters, and they become members of a secret organization. Starring Tamara Taylor and J.C. MacKenzie, the first season consisted of 10 episodes as well.

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Dwayne Johnson has confirmed that a sequel to 2019’s Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw is in active development.

Screen Rant reports that Johnson, who starred alongside Jason Statham in the Fast & Furious spin-off last year, firmed up early sequel plans while responding to his fans on a recent Instagram Live Q&A.

“We are developing now the next film, the next [Hobbs & Shaw] movie, and I’m pretty excited about it,” the actor confirmed. “[We] just gotta figure out the creative right now, and the direction we’re going to go.”

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Johnson went on to thank fans for making the first movie “a huge success.” Hobbs & Shaw may not have quite reached the same box office heights that the F&F franchise achieved with its most recent sequels, but the action-packed feature still managed to race up to an impressive $759 million worldwide on a reported budget of $200 million.

In our review of Hobbs & Shaw, we said the film proves the “franchise still has places to go and people to see” despite being “the most removed stylistically and thematically from the first Fast & the Furious.” We praised Dwayne Johnson, Jason Statham, and Vanessa Kirby for ensuring that there’s still fun to be had in a F&F movie “not centred around cars or racing.”

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That said, the stunt-packed buddy movie left several plot threads unresolved for a potential sequel to pick up, including the identity of the leader of the terrorist organization Eteon, who still remains a threat at the end of the film, and cameo appearances from Ryan Reynolds and Kevin Hart, who may have been positioned for larger roles in the sequel.

“I’d love to see Ryan Reynolds come into the next Hobbs & Shaw. I think he would be a great team member,” Johnson previously told IGN. “I’d love to see Kevin Hart come into the next Hobbs & Shaw. The goal in this one was to set up what the future teams would look like. And who I felt people would find it really appealing to see Hobbs with and create this new unique team.”

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Meanwhile, Fast & Furious 9, the next instalment in the long-running film franchise, recently had its release date pushed back by almost a year, from May 2020 to April 2021, in response to actions taken in the film industry concerning the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

For a list of recommendations on how best to help, and stay safe, during the Coronavirus pandemic, please read our resource guide.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

While April’s PlayStation Plus freebies for PS4 leaked early, Microsoft’s Games with Gold lineup announcement arrived at basically the latest possible moment. As always, the newest batch of four games will be staggered across the month, with the first two games unlocking tomorrow, April 1. Xbox One users get to keep Games with Gold free games in their library as long as they have an active Xbox Live Gold or Game Pass Ultimate subscription.

Slightly Mad Studio’s 2017 racing sim Project Cars 2 will be free throughout the whole month of April. Project Cars 2 features a staggering collection of more than 180 vehicles to choose from and 140 tracks across 60 locations. The realistic sim earned a 7/10 in GameSpot’s Project Cars 2 review for its fine-tuned physics, dynamic weather system, and sheer variety of racing formats, which includes off-road contests with rallycross cars.

Xbox 360 title Fable Anniversary is also up for grabs on April 1. A remastered version of the original entry in the Microsoft series, the action-RPG also earned a 7/10 in GameSpot’s Fable Anniversary review. While the original Fable never truly lived up to its pre-release hype, it’s still a fun game that’s worth checking out if you’ve never visited Albion. Fable Anniversary will be free for subscribers through April 15.

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The Coalition is preparing the next big update for Gears 5, which will introduce Operation 3: Gridiron. The extensive patch notes for PC and Xbox One cover everything coming in the update, from new character drops, achievements, and changes to ranked playlists.

The biggest deal is the arrival of new additions to the roster: Cole, Clayton, Myrrah, and the Theron Guard. As a former Thrashball player, Cole gives the update its gridiron namesake. In response to player feedback, the studio has reduced the requirements to unlock the new characters. They’ll only take half as much character XP to earn as previous ones–30,000 down from 60,000–and they will no longer need to fulfill challenge requirements. Previous Operations characters will retain their old requirements, out of fairness to those who already earned or bought them.

If you’d rather just unlock all the new characters at once, you can buy the Gridiron Bundle for $20. That will grant you the four new additions, the Hot Rod weapon skin set, 1000 iron, and 30 days of boost. You can always buy individual characters for 500 iron apiece.

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Back in February, the Nintendo Switch version of The Outer Worlds was delayed because of the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, as port developer Virtuous has offices in Singapore and China. The pandemic continues, but the Switch port has a new release date this June.

The Outer Worlds will release for Nintendo Switch on June 5, and it will be available as both a digital download and a physical cartridge. The physical version, which was not originally planned, will require an additional patch on launch day that will take up to 6 GB of space, and it adds higher-resolution textures and other gameplay improvements.

“We appreciate your dedication to the Board,” Obsidian said in an in-character update post on its website. “And remember: it’s not the best choice, it’s Spacer’s Choice!”

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After experiencing technical issues that delayed the PS4 and PC versions of the Resident Evil Resistance beta past their Xbox One counterpart, the beta is now live on all platforms. It will run until Resident Evil 3 launches on April 3.

Game director Al Yang shared the news on his Twitter page, adding that players will need to download the game’s latest update if they still cannot play the game online.

The beta’s launch comes just a few days before Resident Evil 3 releases on the same systems. All copies of Resident Evil 3 come with Resident Evil Resistance as a free bonus, regardless of whether they are digital or physical. It was originally announced as a completely separate game, but was revealed as a freebie when Resident Evil 3 was revealed in January. It is the only way to get Resident Evil Resistance.

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