Month: December 2020

The Lord of the Rings actor Viggo Mortensen has shared his thoughts on Amazon’s new Middle-earth TV show, which is currently filming in New Zealand with a big cast.

Speaking to NME, Mortensen responded to the interviewer’s suggestion that Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV show might be more adult-themed, not unlike Game of Thrones. Mortensen, who played Aragorn in Jackson’s movies, said he’s not over the moon about the idea of a Lord of the Rings TV show adding “arbitrary violence.”

But overall, Mortensen said he’s optimistic about the series because of the talent behind the camera, including director J.A. Bayona, along with the fact that it’s filming in the closest thing we have to Middle-earth: New Zealand.

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The Crown, Netflix’s hit show about the still on-going reign of Queen Elizabeth II, is based on true events, but is dramatized in many ways–the show’s creators don’t have unfettered access to over 50 years of royal life, after all. Because of this, there has been some call for Netflix to put a disclaimer at the start of the show, but the streaming giant has stated definitively that it has no plans to do so.

In a statement to Variety, Netflix has stated that there’s no need for such a thing. “We have always presented ‘The Crown’ as a drama–and we have every confidence our members understand it’s a work of fiction that’s broadly based on historical events,” a spokesperson said. Thus, Netflix can “see no need” to explain that the show is fictionalized in places.

The UK Culture Secretary has previously claimed in an interview with The Daily Mail that Netflix should implement a disclaimer, and has contacted Netflix privately about his concerns.

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The Game Awards will air on December 10, 2020, and voting for the Player’s Choice game of the year is still open. Separate from the full nominee list, voted on by press and industry, the third and final round of the Player’s Choice vote has whittled the entries down to five games, with one a clear frontrunner.

The five titles, in order of votes right now, are as follows:

• The Last of Us Part II
• Ghost of Tsushima
• Hades
• Doom Eternal
• Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales

You can vote for your favorite right here.

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After years of development and multiple delays, CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 is finally releasing on December 10. But launch is just the beginning. In addition to the expansions to the single-player campaign, which will be revealed later, CD Projekt Red has another team working on a standalone multiplayer game set in the Cyberpunk 2077 universe.

But when is it releasing? CDPR has not locked in a date yet, but it probably won’t be soon. In terms of a release date for Cyberpunk 2077’s multiplayer game, CDPR says you should expect it to release in 2022 at the soonest.

CDPR executive Adam Kicinski recently spoke about the game during an earnings briefing. He said it’s not right to call it just a “mode” for Cyberpunk 2077.

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Warner Bros. has released a new trailer for Wonder Woman 1984. The 60-second spot features a heartfelt voiceover heralding Diana’s journey in the sequel.

Director Patty Jenkins debuted the new trailer at the CCXP Worlds 2020 event today.

After multiple delays related to COVID-19, Warner Bros. made a major change for Wonder Woman 1984 when it announced the film will play on HBO Max and in theatres on Christmas Day. After this announcement, Warner Bros. announced that its entire 2021 movie slate would be available on HBO Max and in theatres where they are open.

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In November, a major Super Smash Bros. online tournament was canceled after a cease and desist from Nintendo, which took issue with the tournament’s use of the “Slippi” mod to play Super Smash Bros. Melee–a game released for the GameCube in 2001, and never re-released–online. Now, the controversy over that decision has spilled over into the competitive Splatoon 2 scene.

Heading into the December 5-7 weekend, Nintendo was advertising the upcoming Splatoon 2 North American Open on its Twitter channels, and promising a livestream. However, on the day, the stream was canceled, with a Discord announcement (screenshotted in this Reddit thread) not providing many details for what was happening.

Fans and players are pretty sure they know what happened, though. As commentator Slimy points out, about 30% of players in the competition had “FreeMelee”, or similar, in their usernames. It’s likely, although unconfirmed, that Nintendo canceled the livestream because of this.

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The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red’s next big game, Cyberpunk 2077, releases on December 10, but that’s just the start. The game will be playable on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S through backwards compatibility, but the true next-gen editions aren’t releasing for some time longer.

When Does Cyberpunk 2077 Release For PS5 And Xbox Series X|S?

The bespoke editions of Cyberpunk 2077 for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S are penciled in for 2021 at the soonest. Business development boss Michal Nowakowski said of the new-gen editions, “When it comes to a proper, full-blown next-gen version, that’s going to come later.”

People playing Cyberpunk 2077 on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will see some improvements due to the power of those machines, however. “It will look better on next-generation consoles,” CDPR has said.

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Xbox is gearing up for the next step in its “#PowerYourDreams” marketing campaign, which has been used throughout the launch of the Xbox Series X and S. The next ad, which is due to drop on December 7, looks like it’s going to feature Master Chief in some capacity.

With Halo Infinite due in 2021, any new Xbox ad that features Master Chief is likely to draw speculation and whip up excitement. Here’s a teaser for what’s to come, posted by the official Xbox Twitter account.

Following this tweet, Xbox senior marketing manager John Munsee hinted at the bigger reveal on the way, promising a “full reveal” soon. Whether this means we’ll actually receive new Halo Infinite news or not remains to be seen, but the game is likely to be a big part of Microsoft’s marketing push for 2021.

However, Halo Infinite being part of their marketing does not mean you should expect major news–Halo Infinite will be skipping the Game Awards this week, which would have been a major platform to debut important details.

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