Bad news for fans of the Superman prequel series Krypton. SyFy has canceled the series, along with the planned Lobo spinoff.
Both The Hollywood Reporter and Deadline are reporting the cancellation, which comes just two days after Krypton’s Season 2 finale aired. Low ratings appear to be the culprit. As THR notes, average ratings for Season 2 clocked in at a mere 408,000 viewers, a significant drop from Season 1’s 1.8 million average.
That’s a disappointing turn of events for a series that was initially a strong performer for SyFy. The network announced the Season 2 renewal last May, calling Krypton: Season 1 the most-watched season for any scripted series on Syfy since 2015’s Defiance. Unfortunately, that momentum doesn’t seem to have carried over to Season 2.
The Pokemon Company dropped a new trailer for Sword and Shield ahead of this weekend’s Pokemon World Championships. Fittingly given the occasion, the video focuses primarily on new battle mechanics that are being introduced, and now the official Pokemon website has shared more details about how online battling will work in the titles.
Like previous Pokemon games, Sword and Shield will give players the ability to connect online and battle other trainers around the world via the Battle Stadium. This time, however, it appears your battling options have been expanded significantly. First, the games are introducing a Ranked mode. In Ranked Battles, you’ll be matched up against other players of a similar rank, and you’ll earn points depending on the outcome of your matches and potentially raise your standing.
Ranks are divided up into several different tiers, with the competition getting stiffer as you ascend the ladder. There will also be different Ranked seasons. The Pokemon Company notes that players’ ranks will “go down a certain amount at the end of each season before being carried over to a new season.”
For less competitive players, there will also be a Casual Battles mode, where wins and losses don’t matter. On top of that, Casual Battles allow players to use certain Legendary and Mythical Pokemon that would normally be barred from Ranked Battles. Both Casual and Ranked modes support two battle formats: Single (each player has one Pokemon on the field at a time) or Double (each player has two Pokemon on the field at a time).
In addition to the new Battle modes, Sword and Shield will feature two different types of Online Competitions: Official and Friendly. The former are held by Nintendo and feature different rules and restrictions, like the tournaments regularly held through the Global Link service for Pokemon Sun/Moon and their Ultra counterparts. A chance to participate in the Sword and Shield World Championships may also be on the line as part of some Official Competitions. Friendly Competitions, meanwhile, can be hosted by any player.
If you don’t have your own team of battle-ready Pokemon, you’ll have the option to use rental teams in both Casual and Ranked matches. You can read more details about all of the online battling options on the official Pokemon website.
Players will need to have a Nintendo Switch Online membership to make use of the Battle Stadium and other online features, such as trading and Max Raid Battles. Subscriptions are available for US $4 / £3.49 / AU $6 for one month, US $8 / £7 / AU $12 for three months, and US $20 / £18 / AU $30 for one year. Nintendo also offers an annual Family Membership that costs US $35 / £31.49 / AU $55 and covers up to eight Nintendo Accounts across multiple Switch systems.
As previously mentioned, Pokemon Sword and Shield’s latest trailer revealed a handful of new Pokemon Abilities and held items that will shake up battle strategies considerably, such as Galarian Weezing‘s Neutralizing Gas, which mitigates the Ability of every Pokemon on the field, including your own in Double battles. We also got a look at the Eject Pack; when equipped, it will cause your Pokemon to automatically switch out of battle if its stats are lowered.
The 1993 Super Mario Bros. movie is a classically infamous example of video game movies gone wrong, but it still has a place as a historical curiosity. The Super Mario Bros. The Movie Archive has been documenting this oddity and happened to recently discover an extended cut of the film, complete with extra footage. The fan site recently uploaded the first of these hidden treasures to YouTube.
The scene takes place before Mario and Luigi go on their wild journey into Dinohattan, while the two are just down-on-their-luck plumbers from Brooklyn. They go to the Riverfront Cafe for a job, only to find their competition already in the building. Doug and Mike Scapelli are insisting that fixing a broken dishwasher is a two-day job, but the always-honest Mario tries to let the owner know that it should only take a couple of hours. They end up losing the job but getting a free meal from the restaurant.
The fan site had previously documented the existence of this scene based on material found in the novelization and trading cards. This new footage confirms the existence of the scene, but serves as the first time the community has actually scene it. The site discovered a trove of deleted scenes by obtaining a VHS tape once owned by the film’s producer, Roland Joffe. This scene is part of a number of deleted scenes that the archive is exploring, totaling about 15 minutes of new footage.
Tim Longo, the creative director for Halo Infinite, has left 343 Industries. Longo previously worked as the creative director for Halo 5: Guardians.
As first reported by Kotaku, Longo was a part of a 343 Industries leadership shakeup, having previously been moved out of the creative director role to another position a few weeks ago. Following this change in position, Longo left 343 Industries voluntarily.
In a statement, Microsoft wrote, “Roles and responsibilities of various team members regularly evolve to meet the needs of a game, throughout development. We have recently had two changes to the Halo Infinite development team. Our Executive Producer, Mary Olson will now take charge of the Campaign team on Halo Infinite as the Lead Producer, utilizing her many years of experience at 343 to help craft a great campaign for fans.” The other change is Longo. Microsoft added that “creative vision and production of the game remains led by [Halo Infinite studio head] Chris Lee” and that no ill will is felt over Longo’s departure.
Prior to working at 343, Longo was the creative director at LucasArts where he worked on an unannounced Star Wars first-person shooter. After being cancelled, the game was revealed to be similar to 2005’s Battlefront II and codenamed First Assault. Before that, Longo held a few positions at Crystal Dynamics and worked on the Tomb Raider franchise.
Though this can be viewed as a troublesome omen for Halo Infinite, it’s important to remember that leadership changes like this do occasionally happen in the gaming industry. Just because Longo has left, it doesn’t necessarily mean Halo Infinite’s creative direction is going to completely change. For context, Cyberpunk 2077 creative director Sebastian Stępień (who previously worked on all three The Witcher games) left CD Projekt Red for a role at Blizzard back in January 2019–as reported by Variety–and that game still looked very impressive at E3 2019.
Halo Infinite is the sixth mainline game in the Halo franchise, scheduled to release for Xbox One and PC in Fall 2020. The game will also be a launch title for the next-generation Xbox, codenamed Scarlett. 343 Studios boss Bonnie Ross describes Halo Infinite as a “spiritual reboot” for Halo though further details have remained sparse. As of right now, we’ve only gotten cinematic trailers and previews of Halo Infinite, no actual gameplay.
The newly released Mindhunter: Season 2 has an unexpected connection to the recent Quentin Tarantino film Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Both projects feature actor Damon Herriman playing the role of infamous cult leader Charles Manson.
Herriman spoke about the odd coincidence on an episode of the podcast Back to One (via IndieWire). He said that he filmed his role in Mindhunter before appearing in Tarantino’s project. And because the two projects take place several decades apart (Mindhunter in the 1980’s and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood in 1969), Herriman said the experience was essentially like playing two different characters.
Cliff Bleszinski tweeted recently that he had an idea for a new video game, and naturally this led to a lot of speculation and intrigue about what the Gears of War creator might do next, especially after he initially said he would probably never make another game.
Bleszinski has now clarified his comments, saying his new game would be “small” and developed “remotely.” It sounds like it would be very different from the productions he’s worked on in the past, including Gears of War and LawBreakers, both of which were made with relatively large development teams and published by big companies.
“I have some ideas gestating, but if I did something it’d be small and most likely done remotely. Indie stuff,” Bleszinski tweeted.
“I thought I was truly done. But then, stupid brain shows up. UGH,” he said.
Currently, Bleszinski is focused on signing a deal for his memoir, which he has positioned as “Kitchen Confidential” for the gaming industry. Kitchen Confidential was the late Anthony Bourdain’s breakout writing about what happens behind-the-scenes in professional kitchens.
Bleszinski said the deal-making process for his book “has been kinda painful,” but thankfully for him, he said he’s close to signing papers with a “major publisher.”
UGH guys I kinda have a game idea and it won’t get out of my head. I thought I was truly done. But then, stupid brain shows up. UGH.
OK to clarify, I have some ideas gestating, but if I did something it’d be small and most likely done remotely. Indie stuff. Right now the focus is on the memoir – the deal making process has been kinda painful, but we’re close to signing with a major publisher.
In his post-Epic Games life, Bleszinski turned his attention in part to another one of his passions: theatre. He was an investor/producer for the play Hadestown, which won eight Tony awards, including Best Musical.
After finding success with Hadestown, Bleszinski was approached to co-produce another Broadway play, a new version of Terrence McNally’s “Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune.” The new version stars two-time Oscar nominee Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald.
Bleszinski is also involved in the restaurant business, having invested in The Raleigh Beer Garden and The Station in Raleigh, North Carolina.
Bleszinski was able to “retire” earlier than most in part because his career and investments in gaming and technology have proven to be lucrative. He saw a massive payday when Chinese internet giant Tencent bought shares in Epic. He was also an early investor in Oculus, and made a “very sizable chunk of money” when Facebook bought the virtual reality company.
He created and designed the massively popular Gears of War franchise while at Epic Games. After some time away, he set up a brand-new studio, Boss Key. The North Carolina studio would go on to release LawBreakers and the battle royale game Radical Heights. Both titles failed to capture a sizable audience, and Boss Key would eventually shut down. After that, Bleszinski said he would probably never make another game for a number of reasons, but now it appears he is at least entertaining the idea of coming back to gaming.
For the last four months, WWE Superstar Bray Wyatt teased his return with a series of “Firefly Funhouse” vignettes, in which he plays a creepy Mr. Rogers-esque kid’s show host.
As these segments continued, week after week, they got increasingly unsettling and began featuring a monstrous persona known as “The Fiend.” The buildup finally culminated in a legend-making entrance and match at Summerslam, where “The Fiend” took on and destroyed Finn Balor. Wyatt was a ball of energy, but most striking was his genuinely frightening clown mask and his new lantern: a likeness of Bray’s head, with the eyes stitched shut.
Both of these items were creations of Tom Savini Studios. Savini is a horror filmmaking icon, who made his name working on makeup and visual effects for Dawn of the Dead (1978) and Friday the 13th (1980). He’s also recognizable for acting in several Robert Rodriguez-directed projects, including the Machete films and From Dusk ’til Dawn.
Jason Baker, who Savini credited as supervisor of the Wyatt’s mask’s construction, moved from Seattle to Pittsburgh to attend Tom Savini’s Special Makeup Effects Program at the Douglas Education Center as a young man. From there, he worked in movies until Savini called him to work on Triple H’s golden mask and crown for WrestleMania XXX. The co-designer of the original WrestleMania 27 mask, Gino Crognale, was busy with his new gig on The Walking Dead. Baker jumped at the chance, and the rest is history.
“[Tom Savini Studios has] been working with the WWE for almost ten years now,” Baker told Gamespot. “We have a great relationship with them. We coordinate with the wrestlers to find out what they want, so we spend a lot of time on the phone with them.”
They’ve since built props and masks for Erik Rowan, Luke Harper, Kallisto, Stephanie McMahon, and more. But for the past year, it’s been all about Firefly Funhouse and Bray Wyatt. Tom Savini Studios crafted the props, puppets, set, lantern, and mask for the vignettes, and Baker actually helped direct the segments. He describes the studio as a team effort. He and his co-workers (Baker specifically namechecks Elizabeth Farrington) are worker bees, and Savini oversees their efforts.
“Firefly Funhouse has consumed my life,” Baker laughs. “I don’t want it to sound like I’m complaining though. I’ve had a blast working on it. It’s like a dream come true.”
Baker gives Wyatt all the credit for the mask and lantern’s concepts.
“It’s all Bray’s brainchild,” says Baker “He had these ideas, and we did some concept art, but it wasn’t really hitting home with Bray. So he got a really, really good sketch artist named Kyle Scarborough, out of St Louis, to do some concept art for him. Those sketches were awesome, and we took those and brought them to life.”
— Kyle A. Scarborough (@ScarboroughTWTC) May 14, 2019
They’re good blueprints, but we put our own stamp on the mask as well,” continues Baker. “It comes down to sculpting, logistics, and comfort. If the guy’s going to wear this while beating the living piss out of people, he should be able to see out of it and make sure it’s strapped to his head.”
But Baker is reticent about any additional details about their construction. He also doesn’t comment about the bigger picture–if he knows about Bray’s greater vision or concept behind the madness we see each week.
“I can’t talk about that,” says Baker. “That’s beyond my pay grade. And even if I did, I wouldn’t talk about it anyway, because that’s the fun of it. ‘Do you want to know what you got before Christmas or wait with your friends to open your presents?’ It’s about waiting every week and seeing what comes next.”
And he offers a tantalizing response, when asked if there’s anything he’d like to tell the WWE Universe.
“They need to keep watching because they haven’t seen anything yet,” says Baker. “If they think this is the greatest thing to ever happen, they just need to keep watching. It’s going to blow them away.”
