Category: games

The Walking Dead’s Season 8 premiere, “Mercy” (which was also the 100th episode of the series), was overflowing with intense action as Rick coordinated a multi-pronged attack on Negan and the Saviors. This plan was also a major part of the comics story arc of “All Out War,” some of which we’ve already seen back in the Season 7 finale and Sasha’s transformation. Set-pieces have been shifted around a bit, for the sake of the TV series, but Rick’s assault on the Sanctuary remains mostly the same.

Continue reading…

Jens Matthies has made a name for himself by showing the gaming world his spin on IPs that may not be his own, but that have been forever changed as a result. Today, Matthies is the creative director at MachineGames, and is about to release Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus. Before his work on Wolfenstein: The New Order and its sequel The New Colossus, Matthies worked at Starbreeze Studios.

In its infancy, Swedish studio Starbreeze cuts its teeth on original IPs The Outforce, Enclave, and Knights of the Temple: Infernal Crusade. For its fourth title, Matthies and the rest of Starbreeze worked on an unoriginal IP, which had some cult-classic street cred, at least for movie fans. Writer/director David Twohy’s sci-fi action-horror Pitch Black was about to have a cinematic sequel, and Starbreeze was in charge of creating a game prequel that would tie in to the universe – The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.

Continue reading…

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

The Walking Dead opened up its eighth season (which also fortuitously synced up with its 100th episode) with an action-packed episode that dropped us right into the center of Rick’s cunning plan to take out the Saviors. “Mercy,” like all season premieres since Season 4, was directed by Executive Producer Greg Nicotero, who often tries to bring something artistically different to his episodes – for better or worse.

The most staggering thing about “Mercy,” despite all the bullets whizzing and cars exploding, was how dry it was overall. I’ll always give The Walking Dead points for the moments when it tries to elevate itself over run-of-the-mill horror fare, and it’s given us some truly mesmerizing moments over the years, but this assault on the Sanctuary, in an attempt to take out Negan and his group of marauders from all angles, wound up feeling a touch toothless. Sometimes the show just needs violence to be violence and not an artistically cut-up piece of meandering meditation, overly steeped in the gravity and sentiment of the moment.

Continue reading…

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode below.

How did The Simpsons go almost 30 years without attempting a full-fledged Exorcist spoof? It seems crazy given all the other iconic horror properties that have become fodder for the series’ annual Treehouse of Horror specials. But it also speaks t why this year’s installment worked so much better than most. The writers made some inspired choices when it came to material, and the result in the best Treehouse of Horror in many years.

In the grand tradition of classic Treehouse segments like “The Shinning” and “Nightmare on Evergreen Terrace,” “The Exor-Sis” took a classic horror film and delivered a faithful (if highly condensed) parody with a lot of self-aware silliness thrown in. Kicking off the segment with a little dose of “Tubular Bells” certainly didn’t hurt. Nor did roping in director William Friedkin for a little cameo. Friedkin’s character had easily the best line of the entire episode with “If you can’t trust a Catholic priest with a child, who can you trust?” It was one of several moments that proved the writers were willing to push the envelope a little further than normal thanks to the Halloween trappings.

Continue reading…

Shannon Loftis, the General Manager of Xbox Publishing, is coming down to PAX Australia this week in Melbourne. As part of this, GameSpot is sitting down with the 23-year Microsoft veteran to discuss the latest about all things Xbox.

We have our own questions teed up but we want to hear from you as well. In her role, Loftis works with internal and external developers to help bring their titles to Xbox. Post your questions in the comments, and we’ll select some to put directly to her.

Ask whatever you want about Xbox-related topics, but there is no guarantee we’ll select your question. We’ll choose them based on newsworthiness, originality, humour, and other criteria. We’ll look at questions through Wednesday, October 25 Australia time, so send in your burning questions now!

Our interview, with the select community questions, will run sometime in the week ahead. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest!

Loftis is a panelist on the PAX Australia panel “Always Here: Women In Games.” She will contribute to the discussion around women in the games industry and what steps can be taken to improve the gender ratio in the games industry.

And for lots more on PAX Australia, be sure to bookmark this page where all of our written and video content from the show will live. The event runs October 27-29 in Melbourne. GameSpot will be reporting live from the show all weekend.

Everyone knows Star Wars: The Last Jedi is going to make a lot of money. But just how much will it make and how will that compare to The Force Awakens? Box Office Pro recently published its first-weekend projections for The Last Jedi, predicting that it will make $215 million in the US over its first three days. That’s an enormous amount of money. It would be below The Force Awakens‘ first-weekend haul of $247 million, but of course that film benefitted from being the first new entry in the series in a very long time.

Box Office Pro also predicted that The Last Jedi would end its US run at $760 million, which would be below The Force Awakens’ $936.6 million domestic haul. But again, it’s a tough comparison for The Last Jedi, considering The Force Awakens holds the record for the highest-grossing movie in US history.

The site (via Collider) predicts that The Last Jedi will benefit from the “family component” of the film, in that its story involves new characters that may appeal to a new audience and classic characters like Luke Skywalker that the older generation might be more interested in. Another thing working in the movie’s favour, according to the site, is writer/director Rian Johnson. He directed the wonderful time travel movie Looper and some of the best Breaking Bad episodes.

Worldwide, The Force Awakens is the third highest-grossing movie in history, making $2.06 billion. It’s behind two James Cameron movies: Titanic ($2.18 billion) and Avatar ($2.78 billion). All of these figures come from Box Office Mojo.

The Last Jedi stars Daisy Ridley (Rey), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), John Boyega (Finn)–whose character is a big deal in the new film–Oscar Isaac (Poe Dameron), and Adam Driver (Kylo Ren). Tickets for The Last Jedi are now on sale prior to its December 15 release. The next Star Wars game is November’s Star Wars: Battlefront II. We recently played a portion of the campaign and you can read our thoughts on that here.

Full spoilers follow for this episode. Click here if you want to learn how to watch Star Trek: Discovery.

Man, this show keeps getting better and better. Right off the bat in this latest episode, we get three WTF moments in the cold open alone: Burnham namedrops not just the Constitution Class starships, but the most famous one — the Enterprise; Lorca and Tyler play shoot ‘em up on a holodeck (wha?!); and Sarek is almost killed by a fellow Vulcan who turns out to be a “logic extremist” on a suicide mission.

Of course, those three tidbits also do a good job of summing up what some folks love, some hate (and some love and hate) about this show. The Enterprise namedrop is fan service of the highest order, while the holodeck is a potentially frustrating addition because basically that tech isn’t supposed to exist during this time period (though more on that below). And the Vulcan suicide attack is the kind of thrilling dramatic twist that Discovery does so well.

Continue reading…

Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds is one of the biggest games on the planet right now. The Hunger Games-style action game has sold more than 13 million copies and continues to break Steam records for concurrent players and more. Its success is even more notable given that PUBG is an unfinished game, available on Steam Early Access for $30.

GameSpot has an interview with the team around the game coming up this week. We plan to ask about the state of the game, what’s coming up next, the soon-to-launch Xbox One version, and more. But we also want YOU to submit questions. Post them in the comments, and we’ll select some to put directly to the team.

Ask whatever you want, but there is no guarantee that your question will be selected. We’ll choose them based on newsworthiness, originality, humour, and other criteria. Go ahead! We’ll look at questions up until Friday, October 27, so send away!

Our interview, with the select community questions, will run sometime in the next 10 days or so. Keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest!

Mike and Jake delve deeper into the appeal of challenging games, and whether games such as Cuphead should be compared to Dark Souls anymore.

With the release of the Nintendo Switch earlier this year and the revamping of its six-year-old handheld, the 3DS, 2017 has undoubtedly been a big year for Nintendo. We’re already deep into Nintendo’s fall releases, but there’s plenty more coming through this fall and holiday season.

In a graphic shared via Facebook, Nintendo details every major release on Switch and 3DS since the end of August. You can get a good peek of it below, or check out all the details a little further down.

We’ve already seen the latest in the Professor Layton and Yo-Kai Watch series’ already hit 3DS, and the releases of crossover title Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle and Fire Emblem Warriors on Switch. But the next few months still have a lot in store, like major Bethesda titles LA Noire, Doom, and Skyrim.

Another title worth keeping your eyes on is co-op puzzle title Snipperclips: Cut it Out, Together! Plus. This expanded version of the game adds 30 new stages. If you’re really itching to try something new, RPG Project Octopath Traveler currently has a free demo available in the Eshop. It is slated for full release in 2018.

August

• Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle – 8/29

September

• Metroid: Samus Returns – 9/15
• Pokken Tournament DX – 9/22
• Yo-kai Watch 2: Psychic Specters – 9/29
• FIFA 18 – 9/29

October

• Mario and Luigi: Superstar Saga + Bowser’s Minions – 10/6
• Layton’s Mystery Journey: Katrielle and the Millionaires’ Conspiracy – 10/6
• NBA 2K18 – 10/17
• Etrian Odyssey V: Beyond the Myth – 10/17
• Fire Emblem Warriors – 10/20
• Just Dance 2018 – 10/24
• Super Mario Odyssey – 10/27

November

• Mario Party: The Top 100 – 11/10
• Snipperclips: Cut it Out, Together! Plus 11/10
• Doom – 11/10
• LA Noire – 11/14
• Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon – 11/17
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – 11/17
• WWE 2K18 – TBD Fall

December

• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 – 12/1

Holiday 2017

• Rocket League
• Minecraft

2018

• Kirby Battle Royale – 1/19
• Project Octopath Traveler
• Sushi Striker: The Way of Shushido
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus
• Super Meat Boy Forever
• Radiant Historia
• Shin Megumi Tensei: Strange Journey Redux
• Shovel Knight