Month: December 2020

Jeff Goldblum has revealed that Jurassic World: Dominion has perhaps somewhat unsurprisingly been “tweaked” to better fit the pandemic–and hopefully sometime soon the post-COVID–era. In a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly, the actor divulged that the sequel to the 2018’s Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has been massaged a bit to reflect the reality that events in the film are taking place with a pandemic in the recent rear-view mirror.

At the very least, Goldblum indicates, it’s his character, scientist Dr. Ian Malcolm whose dialogue has been changed a bit to evoke the “fragility of our species and the global cooperation that’s needed and the foundation in science that is needed and the ethical use of science that’s needed to unite us… as a family and reach our potential and to do right by ourselves and this glorious planet.” He also says changes were made to make themes in the movie both “right for now” and “nourishing for now.”

And Goldblum being Goldblum, he also mentioned in passing that working on the original Jurassic Park back in 1993 was a “delicious experience.”

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Actor Hugh Keays-Byrne, known for his starring roles in both Mad Max and Mad Max: Fury Road, has died at the age of 73. The cause of death for the Australian actor has not yet been disclosed. Filmmaker Ted Geoghegan shared the news via social media, calling Byrne “an unsung hero of Aussie cinema… [and] an absolutely wonderful human who fought very hard for environmental and humanitarian issues.” Filmmaker Brian Trenchard-Smith, a friend of Keays-Byrne’s, reported on Facebook that the actor died in the hospital.

In addition to actor Mel Gibson and writer-director George Miller, Keays-Byrne shares the distinction of being synonymous with the long-running and still-enduring Mad Max franchise. In the original 1979 version, Keays-Byrne plays the merciless terrorist Toecutter who ruled the outback with his motorcycle gang; in 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road, he again played a villain–Immortan Joe.

In the many years between, Keays-Byrne made a name for himself as a versatile actor outside that cinematic universe, starring in films such as 2000’s Farscape, 1989’s The Blood of Heroes, and 1974’s Stone. Mad Max: Fury Road stands as the actor’s final role.

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Fortnite’s new season brought a ton of big changes to the battle royale with the addition of a new bounty system, a Mandalorian skin, and new game mechanics. It also brought a number smaller changes that players have been sifting through. Epic Games doesn’t include patch notes anymore, so players have to find out about most changes themselves.

“I love that we are finally getting lore for a lot of the skins like Burger Boss and Bunker Jonesy,” said Redditor JackBoyEditor about how NPCs interactions with players change depending on what skin they’re wearing. “Somebody has to go around wearing one of The Seven to see their reactions.”

Season 5 introduced a bounty system where players can start missions given to them by one of 40 different NPCs scattered across the map. Some NPCs will have special dialogue if they interact with players using specific character skins. Kit, for example, will purr if you talk to him while wearing the Meowscles skin.

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You’ve probably seen pretty much everyone you follow online posting their 2020 Wrapped info from Spotify, detailing everyone’s stats for time listened, top artists, genres, podcasts, and more. Well gamers, we haven’t been excluded from the trend. This year, Spotify recorded an almost 55% increase globally in streaming from game consoles, both Xbox and PlayStation, as revealed in a special Wrapped that highlights what those users were listening to this year.

Video game soundtracks did particularly well, unsurprisingly. Minecraft, Doom, and Death Stranding all had their soundtracks in the top streamed category this year, and the soundtrack for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2 spiked more than 316% once the game launched.

If you don’t currently have a Spotify Premium subscription but do have a Game Pass Ultimate membership, you can get a free three-month trial of the music service.

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A few days ago, Larian announced in a Baldur’s Gate 3 pre-patch update that players would have to restart their campaigns from the beginning if they updated their game to the latest patch. Considering the game is in early-access, this isn’t exactly a surprise. Now that patch is out and Larian took to Steam again to explain everything in Patch 3, now called Inspiration, Freedom & Pacifism.

The first change Larian noted is that going forward, players will be able to gain more experience rewards for avoiding combat situations, whether that’s through dialogue or exploration and environmental puzzle-solving. Another notable behavior change is that of your companions. Larian noticed that companions tended to drop approval ratings relatively easily, even if they weren’t actually involved in a given situation. To fix that, companions have been tweaked to focus on the bigger picture while still maintaining their personal beliefs. They also won’t be able to disapprove of situations they’re not present for. Arguably one of the most exciting changes coming with Patch 3 is that certain dialogue sequences with particularly harsh skill checks have been rebalanced so it’s not quite as easy to be locked out of content based on a bad roll. Instead of failing an entire encounter based on one bad roll, your odds of succeeding on that roll have instead been adjusted to be a bit more favorable.

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Developer Undead Labs has announced that State of Decay 2 on Xbox Series S and Series X has been optimized, alongside the launch of some other year-end updates and content.

State of Decay 2 players on Xbox Series S and Series X can now enjoy the benefits of the newer hardware. This includes faster load times, improved world and shadow detail, and other graphical enhancements. Both consoles will also run at 60 fps and up to 4K resolution.

A feature coming to all State of Decay 2 players is Lethal difficulty, which further reduces the resources in the open-world, makes enemies hit way harder, and increases the deadliness of blood plague. Lethal difficulty also causes plague hearts to grow faster, and there’s no guarantee of safety after one has been destroyed. Furthermore, the special “freak” zombies, malformed zombies that take on unique attributes and characteristics, have been replaced with a souped-up blood plague variant. Of course, Lethal difficulty settings can be mixed and matched with Custom difficulty, so players can fine-tune their State of Decay 2 experience.

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Fortnite’s Season 5 is all about hunters. The battle pass includes the Mandalorian and other unlockable characters from the Fortnite universe that are supposed to be the some of the world’s greatest hunters. It looks like a Kratos skin, based on the God of War protagonist is joining their ranks sometime soon, if a leak is to be believed.

Popular Fortnite leaker HypeX tweeted out an image of Kratos, saying that he’ll be added to the game “soon.” It hasn’t been confirmed by Epic Games yet, but HypeX has a notable track record of leaking credible Fortnite news early. It’s unclear how soon the skin will be released or if it might be an exclusive to PS4 and PS5 in some fashion. Season 5 will run for the next two-plus months.

More hunters are supposed to be added as Season 5 plays out, so Kratos could be added as part of a new set of characters at any point in the season. He will most likely be available in the item shop for around $20 (with a back bling and other cosmetics included). That’s been the price of other recent characters like Ghost Rider, Venom, and Daredevil, although it’s worth noting that those tied into last season’s theme and weren’t a part of one specific platform’s IP.

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