Category: Gamespot

Twitch recently announced that it has secured exclusive broadcasting rights for the Overwatch League, and a new report asserts that the deal cost a pretty big sum of money. The streaming service apparently spent $90 million on getting broadcast exclusivity for the much-anticipated esports league over the next two seasons.

The number comes by way of Sports Business Daily, which also reported that this likely makes the deal the biggest in esports history. With the deal, Twitch becomes the exclusive third-party platform for viewing matches; half of this season will also air on MLG.tv, Overwatch publisher Activision-Blizzard’s first-party streaming service.

The report also states that some of the $90 million may be for other agreements beyond just streaming rights. Twitch also announced that it would work with Activision to develop rewards and programs for fans, which is possibly covered under the $90 million deal.

Overwatch League is one of the most formalized esports leagues in existence. It features teams centered on cities rather than esports organizations, and some teams have connections to existing professional sports clubs. The first match goes live on January 10 at 4PM PST when the San Francisco Shock take on the Los Angeles Valiant, and these can be streamed on overwatchleague.com, Twitch’s website, or at mlg.tv.

To celebrate the event’s launch, an Overwatch update has added a bunch of new Overwatch skins. To learn more about Overwatch League, check out GameSpot’s other coverage below:

• Here Is How, Where, And When You Can Catch Overwatch League
• Everything You Need To Know About Overwatch League

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While most hit horror movies have inspired multiple sequels over the years, few have made it to double figures. Hellraiser has now joined that exclusive club (alongside the Friday The 13th and Amityville franchises) with the upcoming Hellraiser Judgment. The first trailer for the tenth film in the series has now been released.

From the looks of it, Hellraiser Judgment contains all the elements that fans of the series will expect–bizarre killings, quasi-religious imagery, horrific creatures, and buckets of gore. And of course, Pinhead, the iconic leader of the demonic Cenobites, makes an appearance. Check the trailer out above.

A synopsis for the film has also been released. It reads, “The dreaded Pinhead returns in the next terrifying chapter of the classic Hellraiser series. Three detectives trying to stop a diabolical serial killer are sucked into a maze of otherworldly horror, where hellish denizens including the Auditor, the Assessor, and the Jury await to pass judgment.” The movie hits VoD and home entertainment formats on February 13, just in time for Valentine’s Day.

The Hellraiser series kicked off with Clive Barker’s classic 1987 movie, which was based on one of his short stories. The flawed but ambitious Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 followed a year later, and since then there has been a steady stream of movies, some better than others. Hellraiser Bloodline (no.4) took Pinhead to space, while Hellraiser Inferno (no.5) is notable for being the directorial debut of Scott Derrickson, who most recently helmed Doctor Strange for Marvel.

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The offbeat superhero show The Tick is returning to Amazon Video next month. The first six episodes hit the streaming service last summer, and the next batch will be available from February 23.

A new trailer for the show has been released. Guardians of the Galaxy‘s Peter Serafinowicz plays the antennae-spouting hero of the title once more, with Griffin Newman (Search Party) as his reluctant accountant sidekick, Arthur Everest. The cast also includes Watchmen star Jackie Earl Haley as the villainous Terror, and Rogue One‘s Alan Tudyk as the voice of Dangerboat (who is a talking boat). Check it out above.

The Tick was created by Ben Edlund and first appeared in 1986 as a spoof of superheroes, initially in a comic strip before heading up his own title in 1988. Edlund is an executive producer on the show.

In an interview with Uproxx last year, Edlund spoke about striking the right tonal balance for the show. “I’d say that’s the highwire act here,” he said. “To me, it’s a dangerous, but I think an exciting and interesting, move to take things seriously while still having fun with them. It creates a strange, interesting kind of crisp new air in it.

“I think for someone who cannot allow The Tick to grow or stretch, or find new territory, it might feel wrong, and that’d be okay. But I feel like what’s happened is, a lot of the people I was worried about–the people The Tick’s grown up around, and I’ve worked with, and fans that have weighed in so far–a very good number of them are feeling this new [approach].”

This marks the third time the character has been adapted for TV. In the mid-’90s he featured in an animated series, while a live-action show was broadcast on Fox in 2001. Although that only lasted nine episodes, it received strong reviews and has since gained a cult following. A terrible side-scrolling beat-em-up video game was also released in 1994.

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There are no fewer than three X-Men movies due in 2018–Deadpool 2, X-Men: Dark Phoenix, and The New Mutants. The latter is not as high profile as the other two hotly anticipated sequels, but it’s perhaps the most intriguing film of the lot. Director Josh Boone has previously described The New Mutants as a “horror movie,” and last year’s first teaser certainly suggested that this is what we can expect.

The movie arrives in April, so a full trailer is due very soon. In the meantime, a spooky new promo has been tweeted by the movie’s official account. It shows the character of Sam Guthrie–aka Cannonball–who is played by Stranger Things star Charlie Heaton and seems to be undergoing some sort of traumatic flashback. Check it out below:

The New Mutants is released on April 13, 2018. It also stars Maisie Williams (Game of Thrones), Anya Taylor-Joy (Split), Henry Zaga (13 Reasons Why), and Alice Braga (Elysium).

In an interview last October, Boone revealed that the movie could kick-start a trilogy of scary X-Men movies. “We brought it to Fox as a trilogy of films, really all based on that long run by [Marvel writer Bill] Sienkiewicz, and kind of incorporates some stuff from later issues in the ’80s,” he told Collider. “These are all going to be horror movies, and they’re all be their own distinct kind of horror movies. This is certainly the ‘rubber-reality’ supernatural horror movie. The next one will be a completely different kind of horror movie.

“Our take was just go examine the horror genre through comic book movies and make each one its own distinct sort of horror film. Drawing from the big events that we love in the comics.”

In related news, the first images from X-Men: Dark Phoenix were revealed last month. The movie will focus on the character of Jean Grey, who becomes corrupted by Phoenix Force that provided her with her powers, forcing her to turn them against the X-Men. It hits theaters in November.

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The first of 2018’s superhero movies is Marvel’s Black Panther, and it hits theaters next month. The character of T’Challa, the crime-fighting king of Wakanda, made an impressive debut in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War, and his standalone movie looks sets to deliver the action-packed goods.

A new extended TV spot has landed, and it features plenty of new footage. There’s more of Andy Serkis’s shady arms dealer Ulysses Klaue, confrontations between T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and the villainous Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), and tons of thrilling action. Check it out above.

The trailer follows the previous ones that were released in December, October, and June. The movie is directed by Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed), and the cast also includes Lupita Nyong’o, Martin Freeman, Angela Bassett, and Forest Whitaker. It hits theaters on February 12, 2018.

In a recent interview with Fandango, Coogler spoke about the character of Killmonger, and what sets him apart from previous Marvel bad guys. “I will say what makes him different–not from all Marvel villains, but I think a lot of Marvel villains–is that he has a real world sensibility to him,” he said. “I think it’s a benefit of having Mike as an actor, but he’s a character that I think will feel very familiar to audiences. I think Marvel has had villains who you can relate to, but I think even more than that, you feel like he’s of this world. He’s very grounded, I would say.”

In related news, it was confirmed recently that Jordan will return for Creed 2, the upcoming sequel to Coogler’s hit Rocky spin-off. The film is to be directed by Steven Caple Jr, following the decision of writer and co-star Sylvester Stallone to step aside from directing duties.

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The first of 2018’s superhero movies is Marvel’s Black Panther, and it hits theaters next month. The character of T’Challa, the crime-fighting king of Wakanda, made an impressive debut in 2015’s Captain America: Civil War, and his standalone movie looks sets to deliver the action-packed goods.

A new extended TV spot has landed, and it features plenty of new footage. There’s more of Andy Serkis’s shady arms dealer Ulysses Klaue, confrontations between T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and the villainous Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan), and tons of a thrilling action. Check it out above.

The trailer follows the previous ones that were released in December, October, and June. The movie is directed by Ryan Coogler (Fruitvale Station, Creed), and the cast also includes Lupita Nyong’o, Martin Freeman, Angela Bassett, and Forest Whitaker. It hit theaters on February 12, 2018.

In a recent interview with Fandango, Coogler spoke about the character of Killmonger, and what sets him apart from previous Marvel bad guys. “I will say what makes him different–not from all Marvel villains, but I think a lot of Marvel villains–is that he has a real world sensibility to him,” he said. “I think it’s a benefit of having Mike as an actor, but he’s a character that I think will feel very familiar to audiences. I think Marvel has had villains who you can relate to, but I think even more than that, you feel like he’s of this world. He’s very grounded, I would say.”

In related news, it was confirmed recently that Jordan will return for Creed 2, the upcoming sequel to Coogler’s hit Rocky spin-off. The film is to be directed by Steven Caple Jr, following the decision of writer and co-star Sylvester Stallone to step aside from directing duties.

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Last time we saw Jennifer Lawrence, she was slowly going mad in a freaky house in Darren Aronofsky’s highly divisive arthouse horror allegory, Mother! Lawrence’s next movie is something very different–it’s an espionage thriller titled Red Sparrow in which she plays a deadly Russian assassin.

A new trailer for the movie has now been released. Unlike the first teaser, which focused on the movie’s tone and style, this reveals more of its plot. Lawrence plays Dominikia Egorova, a young woman who is recruited into Russia’s secretive Sparrow spy school and forced to undergo a brutal training regime, from which she emerges as a ruthless agent. Check it out above.

Red Sparrow also stars Joel Edgerton (Bright, Black Mass), Matthias Schoenaerts (The Danish Girl), Mary-Louise Parker (Weeds), and Ciarán Hinds (Justice League). It’s directed by Francis Lawrence, who previously directed Jennifer Lawrence in the last three Hunger Games movies, and also helmed the Will Smith sci-fi blockbuster I Am Legend. The film hits theaters on March 2, 2018.

In an interview with Inquirer.Net last year, the director spoke about working with Lawrence for the fourth time. “As I read the book, I pictured Jennifer in the role,” he said. “Actually, before we even started working on the script, while we were in post for [final Hunger Games movie] Mockingjay, I was already talking to her about the character and picking her brain to see if she would be interested. To see her transform in a brave way and truly push herself into a new territory has been one of the most exciting things about this project.”

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When PUBG first launched on Xbox One in December, some fans criticized it, saying it ran a lot less smoothly on Xbox than it did on PC. However, developer PUBG Corp. has stated it will continue to improve on its hit battle royale game, and as such it has now released another PUBG update.

This patch, like the Xbox One update that released just before Christmas, brings general “quality-of-life” improvements, as well as a few gameplay tweaks. The first of those is an increase in how much damage players can deal to vehicles–though PUBG Corp. says it will continue to monitor player feedback and adjust this as necessary in the future.

Elsewhere, the in-game options menu has added a new variable that lets you tweak aim acceleration, a change that will hopefully help players who have found PUBG more difficult to play with a controller than on PC‘s mouse and keyboard setup. You can also now turn music on or off via the same menu. Finally, PUBG Corp. says both server and player frame rates have been “slightly increased,” and a number of crashes have been addressed. Take a look at the full patch notes below, via PUBG Corp.

PUBG has been hugely successful to date, recently passing 3 million concurrent users on Steam alone. That milestone came after the game finally reached its full 1.0 release on PC. It has also been a hit on Xbox One, selling 1 million copies in its first 48 hours and more than 30 million across Xbox One and PC.

PUBG Corp. recently said it wants to bring the game to “every platform,” so a PlayStation 4 release could be on the cards. Additionally, the developer said it has spoken with Netflix and people in Hollywood about extending the game to new mediums. For more on the hit multiplayer game, check out our PUBG review.

PUBG Xbox One Update 4 Patch Notes

Gameplay

• Aim acceleration can now be adjusted by players via in-game option
• Player weapon damage has been increased against vehicles. We will continue to monitor player feedback and telemetry and make further balancing adjustments as needed in future updates
• FPP Solo matchmaking queue will be made available for NA / EU / Oceanic servers. We will open other modes within those regions as concurrency allows
• Fixed an issue that caused indoor lighting and shadows to appear too dark and blueish
• Analog stick acceleration added while exiting the plane and while parachuting

Optimization

• PhysX performance enhancements
• Server FPS slightly increased
• Client FPS slightly increased
• Some VFX received slight optimizations

Option

• Music on/off option added

Bug Fixes

• Addressed a number of known crashes
• Fixed a UI issue that occurred when multiple players attempted to loot from the same source

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