Category: Gamespot

Thirty-eight years after Alien came out in 1979, Ridley Scott is back with the latest chapter in the sci-fi series, Alien: Covenant. A sequel to the Alien prequel Prometheus, Covenant comes to theaters in Australia on May 11, with a release in the US following on May 18.

Ahead of release, reviews have come online. To help you get an idea for if the movie is worth your time and money, we’ve collected excerpts from reviews published across the internet.

For more on the critical reaction to Covenant, head to GameSpot sister site Metacritic.

• Film: Alien: Covenant
• Release Date: May 11 (Australia), May 19 (US)
• Starring: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Danny McBride, Demian Bichir, Billy Crudup, Carmen Ejogo, Benjamin Rigby, Amy Seimetz, Jussie Smollet, Callie Hernandez, Nathaniel Dean, Alexander England, and Benjamin Rigby.
• Directed By: Ridley Scott
• Rating: R
• Runtime: 122 minutes

GameSpot:

“Covenant is a fun movie that has a number of standout scenes, including one of the biggest, most over-the-top (and somewhat silly) set pieces in the franchise’s history. It is a notable improvement over Prometheus, but it runs the risk of feeling too familiar and formulaic overall.” — Eddie Makuch [Full review]

The Hollywood Reporter

“Stylistically, the film is a thing of cool beauty, with superb effects and a lovely score. Creatively, it’s a major reset on a level with the series’ best.” — Todd McCarthy [Full review]

Entertainment Weekly

“One leg up that Covenant has is Scott’s refusal to entirely jettison the biblical weirdness of Prometheus. There’s still plenty of vague discussion about creation, but the movie is essentially a compromise between the prior film’s fans and haters. Some of us [clears throat] will miss those big swings, but regardless of where you landed with Prometheus, there’s bound to be something to delight you in Covenant because, Scott–thankfully–still makes ’em like he used to.” — Kevin Sullivan [Full review]

Empire

“An upgrade from Prometheus, Alien: Covenant amps up the thrills but doesn’t deliver a memorable crew member or the full-on onslaught of the series at its height.” — Ian Freer [Full review]

The Guardian

“The vu has never been so déja: it’s a greatest-hits compilation of the other Alien films’ freaky moments. The paradox is that though you are intended to recognise these touches, you won’t really be impressed unless you happen to be seeing them for the first time. For all this, the film is very capably made, with forceful, potent performances from Waterston and Fassbender. That franchise title is, however, looking increasingly wrong. It is a bit familiar.” — Peter Bradshaw [Full review]

Variety

“Ridley Scott’s official return to the Alien franchise is essentially a Prometheus sequel with Aliens in it.” — Peter Debruge [Full review]

The Verge

“The problem is that the Alien franchise started in an age where sequels could be complete films unto themselves–in fact, James Cameron’s Aliens is considered by many to be one of the best sequels ever made. That is simply not the same kind of cinematic landscape we find ourselves in today, so perhaps something like Alien: Covenant is the best we can hope for. That said, I’d like to think that Scott has one more truly great Alien movie left in him somewhere. Maybe we’ll get it next time.” — Bryan Bishop [Full review]

New York Daily News

“Further proving his mastery of creating tension and thrills, Scott has effectively created a satisfying hybrid of Alien, Prometheus and even James Cameron’s Aliens. Those looking for one of the better movies in the Alien franchise should appreciate what the latest movie brings to the mix. But it’s not for the squeamish or faint of heart.” — Edward Douglas [Full review]

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Much-loved indie game Risk of Rain is getting a sequel, developer Hopoo announced today, and the follow-up will make the leap from 2D to 3D.

“Risk of Rain 2 is our first fully 3D project,” the company revealed in a blog post. “We think that 3D allows for much deeper design spaces and more possibilities for cool gameplay. Feelings of scale and atmosphere are also much stronger. We are really happy with the core of Risk of Rain–and we’re finding it plays even better in 3D. It just won’t crash anymore.”

You can take a look at a short clip of the game in action above, though Hopoo did warn that the build shown off is “very, very early in development,” and that “none of the systems, art styles, assets, or game design choices will necessarily translate to the final game.” The company says it’s been working on the sequel “for about 6 months,” and it did not announce pricing, a release window, or what platforms the game might come to.

The original Risk of Rain launched on PC in 2013 following a successful Kickstarter campaign, before later coming to both PlayStation 4 and PS Vita.

“Risk of Rain is highly enjoyable,” said critic Cameron Woolsey in our review. “And with constant rewards of new items and character classes, it’s hard to put down once you start. Even as I watched the last of the end credits roll by, I wiped the sweat from my brow and jumped back into the fray: I have an item log that still needs to be filled.

Read more in our full Risk of Rain review.

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After legendary footballer Diego Maradona threatened to sue Konami in March, the two parties have now settled their dispute out of court, according to El Eco (via Kotaku).

Maradona had accused the publisher of using his likeness without his permission in PES 2017, a claim which Konami later denied, saying, “our company is using [this player] appropriately, with the basis of the license within the contract.” Now, Konami has reportedly paid the soccer star an undisclosed fee to avoid any further legal conflict. The Argentinian will also now promote PES for the next three years as an official ambassador.

As part of the negotiations, Konami Digital Entertainment president Takayuki Kubo reportedly flew out to Argentina to help resolve the dispute personally. And for his part, Maradona has apparently promised to donate some of the money to help improve grass-roots football facilities in his home country.

As a footballer, Maradona was considered the player of his generation, with a professional career spanning 21 years from 1976 to 1997. He twice broke the world record transfer fee, won countless trophies, and was deemed FIFA’s Player of the Century in 2000.

He later went on to manage his home country in the 2010 World Cup, though he failed to guide a strong Argentina team past the quarter-finals.

Most recently, he was appointed manager of Al-Fujairah SC, in the second tier of UAE football.

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Bethesda’s Prey failed to knock Mario Kart 8 Deluxe off the top of the UK physical sales chart this week. The sci-fi action game finished at No.2, below Nintendo’s racer, for the week ending May 6.

The rest of the top five is made up of the evergreen Grand Theft Auto V, which maintains its place at No.3, while Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare (No.4) and Lego Worlds (No.5) both rise, week-on-week.

Elsewhere in the chart, Telltale’s Guardians of the Galaxy debuts at No.31. The episodic game’s physical version launched this week–just a few days after Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 hit cinemas in the UK–though the first episode has been available digitally since April 18.

It is worth noting that Prey launched on Friday, May 5, so it had less time on the market this week compared to Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, which launched a week earlier. Deluxe is, however, exclusive to Nintendo Switch, whereas Prey is available for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Last week, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe set a new franchise sales record in the US and zoomed to the top of both the Australian and UK games charts. In our Mario Kart 8 Deluxe review, Kallie Plagge said Nintendo’s racer was already a “great racing game” when it was released in 2014 on Wii U, but the overhaul of Battle Mode makes it “well worth reinvesting yourself in Mario Kart 8 on Switch.”

Our Prey review in progress, meanwhile, noted the game’s frustrating Mimic enemies, and critic Tamoor Hussain said that, so far, the game offers a “vanilla combat experience.” Keep an eye on GameSpot for our full Prey review in the near future.

You can read the full top 10 sales chart below, courtesy of sales monitor Chart-Track. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.

1. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
2. Prey
3. Grand Theft Auto V
4. Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare
5. Lego Worlds
6. Rocket League
7. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
8. FIFA 17
9. Horizon Zero Dawn
10. Forza Horizon 3

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The PlayStation 2 had loads of great games, some of which are now playable on PlayStation 4 through the PS2-on-PS4 catalog. With a pair of games being added to the group this week, we’re rounding up all the games to help you see all the games in the program in one place.

Sony started bringing PS2 games to PS4 in December 2015, and right now, there are more than 40 games in the catalog. The PS2 games have been updated with Trophy support and are upscaled to 1080p. Games in the program also support PS4 features such as Remote Play, Share Play, Activity Feeds, and Live Broadcast, giving them something of a modern spin.

This is not exactly backwards compatibility. Even if you still own the PS2 discs, you’ll have to buy them again to play on PS4. They typically cost between $10 and $20.

As with our list of Xbox One backwards compatibility games, we will continue to update this post in the days, months, and years ahead with games as they’re added.

• ADK Damashii
• Ape Escape 2
• Arc the Lad: Twilight of the Spirits
• Bully
• Dark Cloud
• Dark Cloud 2
• Destroy All Humans
• Destroy All Humans 2
• FantaVision
• Fatal Fury Battle Archives Vol. 2
• Fu’Un Super Combo
• Grand Theft Auto III
• Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
• Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
• Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life Special Edition
• Hot Shots Tennis
• Indigo Prophecy
• Kinectica
• Manhunt
• Max Payne
• Metal Slug Anthology
• Okage: Shadow King
• PaRappa The Rapper 2
• Primal
• Psychonauts
• Puzzle Quest: Challenge of the Warlords
• Red Dead Revolver
• Red Faction
• Rise of the Kasai
• Rogue Galaxy
• Samurai Shodown VI
• Siren
• Star Wars: Bounty Hunter
• Star Wars: Jedi Starfighter
• Star Wars: Racer Revenge
• The King of Fighters 2000
• The Mark of Kri
• The Warriors
• Twisted Metal: Black
• War of the Monsters
• Wild Arms 3

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The new Walking Dead game from the makers of the Payday series is not coming out on time. Overkill Software has announced that its licensed game is now coming in the second half of 2018.

It’s been a long time coming for the game. Announced in 2014, the game was at one point scheduled to come out in 2016, before being delayed to 2017, and now again to 2018.

In a news release announcing the latest delay, Overkill said it needed more time to allow the team to “expand on its original vision for the game and realize the title’s full potential,” according to IGN. This echoes the reasoning behind the delay to 2017, with Overkill at the time saying it wanted to add “more content” to the game and create an Asian version to launch simultaneously with the western edition.

Little is known about Overkill’s Walking Dead game, but the developer previously talked about how it will deliver a “completely new co-op experience” to the Walking Dead universe that will explore new characters and storylines. The game is being made with the blessing of The Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman, who says he was certain from the first day he saw the project that it was the “co-op action game fans have been waiting for.” It is also the result of a new “long-term” partnership between Starbreeze and Kirkman’s Skybound Interactive company. This partnership will extend “into the next decade” and marks a new era for Starbreeze, the company said.

“It will be gameplay focused, ferocious, and bring chaos to the traditional industry model–from us developers straight to you,” Starbreeze CEO Bo Andersson Klint said about it back in 2014. He added that the game represents Starbreeze’s “biggest endeavor to date.”

505 Games, which is publishing Overkill’s new Walking Dead shooter, has high hopes for it as well. Raphael Galante, the CEO of 505’s parent company Digital Bros, previously said that it could duplicate or surpass the success of Payday 2. That game has sold more than 9 million copies, performing so well that it single-handedly pulled Starbreeze out of a 15-year loss in six months.

We’ll report back with more details on Overkill’s Walking Dead game as they’re made available.

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