Category: Gamespot

Netflix’s hit sci-fi show Stranger Things doesn’t return to screens until this Halloween, but the wait will be worth it, apparently. Netflix content boss Ted Sarandos recently said he saw the first episode of the second season and was blown away.

“I have just seen the first episode of Season 2,” Sarandos told NME (via DigitalSpy). “It’s fantastic–it delivers on everything that every fan wants.”

The ending of Season 1 left fans with a lot of questions about what would happen next to the story and its characters, so it’s good to hear Season 2 will give us some answers right at the start, it seems.

Stranger Things Season 2 adds new cast members including Aliens actor Paul Reiser as a government employee in charge of cleanup for the events of Season 1. The Lord of the Rings actor Sean Astin will play a love interest for Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder).

The second season premieres on Halloween this year–October 31. The first teaser was released during Super Bowl LI and can be seen above. In other news, the general plot for the second season has been divulged–and it sounds pretty interesting.

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Looking for some new games? Retailer Target has announced a new Buy 2, Get 1 deal.

Now until Saturday, March 11, when you buy any two games, you’ll get a third free. As usual, the lowest-priced game is free. This deal works on Xbox One, PS4, and 3DS games (among others)–but not Switch titles. That’s a bit of a bummer if you were hoping to stock up on Switch titles at launch.

The promotion is good in-store and through Target’s website.

A number of high-profile games have already been released this year, including Resident Evil 7, For Honor, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Ubisoft’s Ghost Recon: Wildlands comes out tomorrow, March 7, and it works with the Target deal if you want to shop there.

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The next Kong movie, Kong: Skull Island, comes to theaters this Friday, March 10. Ahead of that, director Jordan Vogt-Roberts spoke to Den of Geek about a number of things, including how video games and Pokemon influenced the movie and its massive monsters.

Vogt-Roberts, who is also attached to direct the Metal Gear Solid movie, said Team Ico’s critically adored PS2 game Shadow of the Colossus had a major influence on the tone of Skull Island.

“Shadow Of The Colossus was a huge influence on me on this movie. It’s such a beautiful thing to have a boss fight where you feel sad after you’ve killed the boss,” he said. “And the way those creatures lumber around was such a huge, huge part for me… the colossi in those games have such a slow, melancholy, morose quality to them. And the sense of scale. Honestly, Shadow Of The Colossus was one of the biggest influences on this film. Just the vibe the creatures have. I think and I hope that Kong has a similar vibe in the film.”

A Shadow of the Colossus movie is in the works, but it’s been a long time since we’ve heard anything about it.

Also in Den of Geek’s interview, Vogt-Roberts talked about how one of Skull Island‘s monsters is at least partially inspired by the Pokemon Cubone for the Skull Crawler monsters.

“As we were designing it, I kind of gave a handful of references to people, and my best friend in the world came and did some concept work with me–this was my friend where we’d have LAN parties as a kid and, like, didn’t know how to talk to girls and spent our time in a basement playing video games, drinking pop and eating junk food.

“And we’re looking at this creature, and we’re like, ‘What does this remind us of?’ Because I was, like, ‘I want it to have this white face; this weird, bone-white face, and this black, scaly skin.’ Both he and I were staring at it, and we had this weird moment where we were like, ‘Oh my God.’ We realized that we’d created this unintentional fusion of all of our nerdy childhood influences.

“Because I love Cubone. Cubone has the saddest story of him wearing his dead mother’s skull on his face.”

You can read the full interview here at Den of Geek.

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The Batmobile is a key part of any Batman movie, and director Zack Snyder has now revealed what the Caped Crusader will be driving in the upcoming Justice League. Snyder posted the image of the enhanced vehicle on social platform Vero, and it can viewed on comicbook.com.

Snyder also recently tweeted a VFX test from the movie, showing Aquaman (Jason Momoa) in his watery lair. Check the footage out below:

These follow a variety of images that have been released from the movie, including this shot of the team together and a picture of Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot on set.

Justice League also stars Ben Affleck as Batman, Ezra Miller as Flash, and Ray Fisher as Cyborg. The movie is released on November 17, and features Henry Cavill as Superman, Amber Heard as Mera, JK Simmons as Commissioner Gordon, and Ciaran Hinds as the villainous Steppenwolf.

In a recent interview with Heroic Hollywood, visual effects supervisor Bryan Hirota spoke about the film’s tone, and whether it would be a reaction to the negative response to last year Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. “Justice League was always the rebirth of hope and the rise,” he said. “People try to say that it’s a response to the backlash, and I’d definitely say that criticisms were heard. But it’s not like we threw everything out and started with a blank slate.

“It’s a bit like Star Wars. Empire Strikes Back? Dark movie! But then Return of the Jedi is the rise and the rebuilding of hope.”

In related news, last month it was confirmed that Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Matt Reeves had signed in to direct the standalone Batman movie, currently known as The Batman. Affleck was originally slated to direct, but in January stepped down to concentrate on acting and co-writing the film’s script.

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The Nintendo Switch is off to a stronger start than the Wii U, in the UK at least, it seems. GI.biz reports today that the console has sold around 80,000 units during its March 3-5 opening weekend.

This is double the number of systems (40,000) that the Wii U reportedly sold for its first weekend in 2012.

The Switch’s 80,000 launch figure for the UK is not as good as the 3DS (113,000), while it is nowhere even close to the launches of the PS4 (250,000) or the Xbox One (150,000), GI.biz said.

Bear in mind that the new opening-weekend Switch figure does not come from Nintendo. Nintendo has not announced any information on Switch sales for the UK or other markets around the world.

Keep checking back with GameSpot for more.

In the UK, Switch launch title The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the second best-selling game of last week, behind only Sony’s highly touted PS4 exclusive, Horizon Zero Dawn. Almost 80 percent of Breath of the Wild’s sales were for Switch, the remaining 20 percent sold on Wii U.

In the US, retailer GameStop said the Switch had one of the strongest launches in recent years, though, again, no specific unit sales figures were provided.

For more on the Switch, check out GameSpot’s review of the console here.

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Ghost Recon: Wildlands launches on March 7, and as such reviews have started to go live. However, since much of the game is enhanced by online co-op, many publications have elected to delay their final reviews until public servers are live and reviewers have had a little more time to explore Wildlands’ Bolivian setting.

GameSpot is one such publication. You can read critic Miguel Concepcion’s thoughts here, or read on for a roundup of critics’ opinions below. We will continue to update this roundup as more final reviews surface.

• Game: Ghost Recon: Wildlands
• Developer: Ubisoft
• Platform: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC
• Release: March 7
• Price: US $60 / £45 / AU $100

GameSpot — No score (Review in progress)

“There’s comfort in falling into a tactical routine with your buddies as you reach the perimeter of every enemy outpost. This infiltration cycle begins when you use your tiny drone to survey the stronghold and mark all visible enemies. The ability to track marked enemies through multiple walls feels like cheating, though it hasn’t diminished the appeal of the many other Tom Clancy games that use this feature. The openness of Wildlands makes this feature all the more essential and helps your team decide on the best strategy. It remains to be seen whether Wildlands retains the same gadget appeal of Ghost Recon: Future Soldier later on in the game, though perhaps a drone is all the advanced tech you need in Bolivia.” — Miguel Concepcion [Full review in progress]

GamesRadar+ — 4.5/5

“None of those recurring glitches or other, one-time bugs I experienced were game-breaking, and most of the time they resulted in a fit of laughter rather than any actual frustration, but they’re definitely present. Still, it’s hard to look at those shortcomings as anything other than the small unwanted side effects of building a game as massive, detailed, and rich as Wildlands is. In fact, Wildlands is so far removed from what most have come to expect from a Ghost Recon title that it could have benefitted from shedding its sub-franchise namesake and simply standing on its own. It’s certainly got the legs for it.” — Mike Wehner [Full review]

Destructoid — No score (Review in progress)

“If Wildlands proves to be a solid co-op experience, it might be an easier sell as a multiplayer game and not an immersive epic. But as a single player experience, which is the way I’ve been playing the game, it has the misfortune of sharing a release window with two other expansive sandbox titles. Hopefully I’ll be able to definitively answer this question the closer I get to finishing this game–Wildlands might be a long one. Should you absolutely need an answer right now, based on what I’ve seen from all three games: Zelda > Horizon > Wildlands. Take that how you will, especially since I’ve spent the most time with Zelda and the least with Wildlands.

“Since I haven’t seen even half of what Ghost Recon has to offer, there’s no point in writing a full review at this juncture. It’s a fun game, but I’m only just starting to comprehend the sheer breadth of these wild lands. The cartel mechanic makes for a slick opening, but if the campaign is as long as I suspect, there’s a chance I’ll be sick of it by the time the credits roll. If Wildlands can keep things interesting (and the co-op works as advertised), then I’ll probably have a great time in the wilds of Bolivia.” — Mike Cosimano [Full review in progress]

PC Gamer — No score (Review in progress)

“There’s the lingering worry that, deeper into the game, this approach will start to drag. I rarely play on higher difficulty settings, but here I feel it might be necessary. Without a reason to engage in the unlock system, and a need to get new and better gear, the structure risks turning into a repetitive grind. Or maybe, in the right circumstances, it won’t. I suspect the idea is to make co-op play as easy and as frictionless as possible, and that could well be the case.” — Phil Savage [Full review in progress]

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Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 has been delayed for a second time, developer CI Games confirmed today. The title will now launch worldwide for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on April 25.

The three-week delay will allow the company to implement changes inspired by fan feedback after the recent beta.

“We’ve worked tirelessly creating a whole new Sniper: Ghost Warrior experience set in an ambitiously crafted open world new to the series,” said CI Games’ CEO Marek Tyminski. “While it’s an unfortunate decision to delay the game one last time, we believe these final changes will result in a better experience for players worldwide on day one.

Sniper: Ghost Warrior 3 was supposed to launch on April 4, itself a delay from the previously intended January release. That postponement was said to be in aid of further polish and optimization.

Ghost Warrior 3 marks a major departure from the previous games, as it shifts to the style of an open-world game and features multiplayer. You can read more about all of the major changes in our interview with Tyminski, or take a look at the game in action with some beta gameplay.

We enjoyed the most recent release in the Ghost Warrior series, with reviewer Brett Todd calling 2013’s Sniper: Ghost Warrior 2 “a worthy sniping experience.” Read our full review here.

An unrelated franchise from developer Rebellion Developments called Sniper Elite recently saw its latest release. Sniper Elite 4, which launched in February, fared well in our review: critic Richard Wakeling said the series is finally “living up to its long-standing potential.” Read more in our full Sniper Elite 4 review.

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