Back in August, toy company Funko published a mock-up for a new Pop Vinyl figure based on the character Eleven from the Netflix sci-fi show, Stranger Things. It was only a test design and there was no guarantee that the figure would actually be produced. Now we know it’s a real thing that is happening–and in fact, all the major characters from the show are getting Pop Vinyl figures.
Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive roundup of the toys–and they look great. There are three versions of Eleven–one with her shaved head, bleeding nose, and Eggo waffles, a second with her wig (and also the waffles), and a third in her underwater tank suit.
Funko’s original mock-up for the Eleven Pop Vinyl figure
Funko is also making Pop Vinyl figures for Barb, Mike, Dustin, Lucas, and Will. There is also a creepy Upside Down version of Will, while the Demogorgon gets its own horrifying-looking toy, too. Go to Entertainment Weekly to see the final designs.
There are Pop Vinyl figures for just about everything under the sun, so today’s news that Stranger Things is getting the toy treatment is no real surprise.
Marvel’s Doctor Strange is off to a strong start at the international box office. The movie has already opened in a number of key foreign territories and has accumulated an impressive first weekend take.
The fantasy adventure is now on release in the UK, Korea, France, Australia, Germany, and Taiwan. As Deadline reports, the movie has already made $86 million since Friday, making it the biggest international opening so far this fall. As the site notes, predictions had put it in line with previous Marvel movies such as Ant-Man and Guardians of the Galaxy, both of which were based on similarly lesser-known properties, but it is so far outperforming both.
Doctor Strange stars Benedict Cumberbatch as mystical sorcerer Stephen Strange, and also features Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tilda Swinton, Mads Mikkelsen, Benedict Wong, and Rachel McAdams. It is directed by Scott Derrickson.
The movie has picked up strong reviews so far, with many critics impressed by its humor and incredible visual effects. GameSpot’s review said that it is “an enchanting movie that is a reminder that superhero stories are at their best when they inspire wonder, depict larger than life characters, and realise fantastical worlds that leave our imaginations racing.”
Following the airing of Westworld Episode 5 last night, HBO has now released a teaser for future episodes. The video, titled “The Maze – Weeks Ahead,” is packed full of teases for major story reveals.
Seriously. The focus of the teaser is on the enduring mystery of “The Maze,” and in this video, we see that Logan appears to actually be a robot instead of a human (supposedly). We also see Maeve become aware of her status as a host and then apparently rise up. “It’s a difficult thing, realizing your entire life is some hideous fiction. It’s all a story created by you to keep us here,” she says, talking to a programmer. “I’d like to make some changes.” You may recall that Episode 5 ended with Maeve waking up in the control room.
We also learn more about what’s going on in the “real world,” as Bernard and Dr. Ford appear to be on a collision course. People with machine guns storm into a control room in one sequence. As is usually the case with Westworld, this video is mysterious and brings up a number of questions.
Sony has released the first trailer for its upcoming sci-fi movie Life, which sees Ryan Reynolds and Jake Gyllenhaal in outer space–and things are not exactly going to plan. They are part of a team on the International Space Station that finds life on Mars, but it’s not what they expected.
“Life tells the story of the six-member crew of the International Space Station that is on the cutting edge of one of the most important discoveries in human history: the first evidence of extraterrestrial life on Mars,” reads a line from its description. “As the crew begins to conduct research, their methods end up having unintended consequences and the life form proves more intelligent than anyone ever expected.”
The trailer uses JFK’s 1962 “We choose to go to the moon” speech in the background, which gives the trailer an eerie feel as his hopeful words are juxtaposed by scary things happening on the ship.
Life opens on May 29, 2017–Memorial Day in the United States. It also stars Rebecca Ferguson (The Girl on the Train), Ariyon Bakare (The Dark Knight), and Hiroyuki Sanada (The Wolverine).
It’s directed by Daniel Espinosa (Safe House) from a script written by Deadpool writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick.
Square Enix has released a trailer for season finale of Hitman. This mission takes place in Hokkaido, Japan, where Agent 47 will infiltrate “a hyper-exclusive hospital and must eliminate two targets.” As previously detailed, the mission is called “Situs Inversus” and is described as “the culmination of everything players will have learnt in terms of both gameplay and story,” according to Square Enix.
“The Hokkaido location is set within the grounds of the hyper-exclusive GAMA private hospital and resort. This secluded facility is a fusion of Japanese beauty and cutting-edge technology, featuring its own Zen gardens, organic sushi restaurant, and traditional Japanese hot spring.”
Episode 6 will be available at 7 AM PT/2 PM GMT. Here’s an overview of what it includes, courtesy of Square Enix.
Episode 6: Hokkaido Overview
New Destination: Hokkaido, Japan.
New Story mission: Situs Inversus
7 new Guided Opportunities for “Situs Inversus”
20 levels of Hokkaido Mastery, with the following unlocks:
New ‘The Sarajevo Six’ Contract. Target 6: The Controller. (PlayStation 4 Exclusive)
Note: Agent 47 starts in Hokkaido with a limited loadout. Upon reaching Mastery level 20, the full loadout will be available.
Live Content for Hokkaido will include: New Escalation Contracts, Elusive Targets and New Featured Contracts (Contracts Mode)
Hokkaido Release Notes
Target Images on Loading Screen: The images of targets are now shown on the loading screens. These are not shown for Escalation Contracts and other objectives are not displayed.
Checkmarks added to Target Kill Conditions: When viewing the objectives for a contract, targets will now have a checkmark next to the optional kill conditions for weapon and disguise to indicate if they have been achieved, or not.
Debriefing Screen shows Objectives Information: The scoring screen now displays a count of how many objectives have been completed. Example: “All objectives completed (8/9)”
Improvements to Gear and Weapon Lists: Gear and weapons are now listed in categories, rather than tabs. This should make it easier to find specific items. This can be seen when viewing the Loadout, Career and Agency pickup pages.
Mini Map ‘North’ Indicator: Added a new option that allows players to toggle a ‘North Indicator’ on the mini-map.
The HUD now displays a detailed ‘Visibly Armed’ status: The game now shows which item or weapon is considered to be ‘illegal’.
Kill Types in Inventory: The in-game inventory now displays the kill condition of each item. For example, a screwdriver will show ‘Lethal Melee’ and ‘Lethal Throw’. This is useful for identifying which item can be used for specific kill condition requirements.
Contracts Mode – Tagging Targets: When creating a Contract, it is now possible to unmark a target from the Notebook page. This is to allow players to unmark a target that may have been bodybagged or otherwise unable to be unmarked using the in-game camera view.
Contracts – My History: Players can now see all the contracts that they have played, sorted by most recently played, in a new ‘My History’ menu.
‘Contracts’ Page Adjustments: The Contracts Tab has been adjusted to only show options for Contracts Mode. As such, Escalation Contracts, Elusive Targets and Sarajevo 6 (PS4 only) have been moved to the respective page in the ‘Destinations’ Tab. Elusive Targets can also be viewed as a group via the ‘Career’ tab.
Featured Hub Adjustments: The Featured Hub will now display the most recently played Story Mission, rather than the most recently released Story Mission.
General Menu/UI Improvements: Added general improvements to displaying content in the menus, across the game.
Improved performance with Suspend / Standby modes on consoles: Reconnecting to the game’s servers after the console has previously been in a suspend or standby state for an extended time will be more consistent.
General fixes related to initial server sign-in: Fixed an issue that was frequently causing players to ‘timeout’ when attempting to connect to the game servers. Typically, this was affecting players that frequently restarted sessions in quick succession.
Fixed Issues
Fixed an issue that could cause opportunity steps to remain on screen when switching between opportunities.
Fixed an issue where General Zaydan would sometimes not react to Strandberg’s dead body. [Marrakesh, A Gilded Cage]
Fixed a naming inconsistency in the Lydon Gyration Escalation Contract.
Fixed an issue where 47 could get stuck in the environment after loosing the valve on specific gas tanks. [Freedom Fighters, Colorado]
Fixed an issue where ‘subdue’ and ‘inject poison’ prompts could overlap.
Fixed issues that could occur after loading a save during the combat state.
Some sounds were still audible when all sounds were muted in the menu. Now they are not.
Fixed various issues on multiple locations that could cause NPCs to ‘teleport’ when performing specific actions.
Made adjustments to opportunities in Paris, so that the reveal and actions of NPCs are more consistent with expected behaviour.
Fixed an issue with ‘Down the Rabbit Hole’ opportunity in Marrakesh that would prevent it from being completed.
Square Enix has also detailed its release schedule for November:
Although this episode marks the end of season one, developer IO Interactive previously said that its plan for Hitman on PS4, Xbox One, and PC is to have three seasons in total. Speaking to GameSpot, lead writer Michael Vogt said that the story is “just getting started” when the first season ends.
“The story’s really only beginning [with the first season],” he explained. “Season 1 is the first act in a feature film. You know all the characters, you know the stakes, you know the dilemma, but it’s only getting started.”
The complete first season of Hitman will be released on disc in January. It will cost $60 and includes every update and piece of content that’s been added to the game in Season 1, in addition to some special bonuses. You can check out all that’s included in Hitman: The Complete First Season here.
The Austrian publisher inked a deal with NovaLogic Inc. to acquire all games owned by that company, including military franchises like Delta Force, Comanche, F-22, and Joint Ops. Additionally, THQ Nordic gets the NovaLogic trademark as part of the acquisition. Terms of the sale were not disclosed.
2009’s Delta Force Xtreme 2
NovaLogic CEO and founder John Garcia said in a statement, “After 30 years of creating ground breaking computer and video games, we are proud to pass the baton to THQ Nordic.”
For its part, THQ Nordic’s Reinhard Pollice teased in a statement that the company is open to possibly reviving the franchises.
“We are extremely satisfied with the new additions to our portfolio, and also very thrilled about how to continue some of said franchises. We are open for talks in this regard if any developer approaches us with a concept for a potential sequel to any IP,” he said.
THQ Nordic gets the following franchises from NovaLogic as part of the deal:
Before the holiday shopping craze really begins, Target has launched a new Buy 2, Get 1 promotion on all video games and board games. Now through November 5, you can get three games for the price of two.
You will see the discount when you add all three items to your cart. As usual, the lowest-priced game will be free.
It looks like you can’t mix and match between video games and board games, as the discount didn’t show up when I added Battlefield 1, Skyrim Special Edition, and Settlers of Catan to my cart. Oh well. This promotion is good now through November 5 at 11:59 PM PT.
It’s almost November, which means Black Friday is coming up. Keep checking back with GameSpot in the coming days and weeks, as Black Friday deals usually leak or are posted early.
The Special Edition, as it’s called, runs at a native 1080p on both consoles, the site said, adding that it’s believed to use the same temporal anti-aliasing that was featured in Fallout 4.
As for frame rate, both console versions target 30fps. Digital Foundry said the Xbox One version easily reaches 1080p with “some degree of overhead left over,” but not enough to get up to 60fps.
If you’re thinking about which platform–PS4 or Xbox One–to buy the Special Edition for, it looks like you can’t go wrong with either, based on specs. “So far, both consoles appear remarkably like-for-like in terms of their presentation,” the site said.
“Thus far, Skyrim Special Edition looks pretty solid–it can be viewed as an enhanced PC port for the current-gen platforms and in comparison to the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions, there’s a night and day improvement in terms of performance and stability, not to mention resolution, art quality and overall levels of detail.”
If you’re looking to pick up Battlefield 1 on console but not sure which platform to go with, Digital Foundry has now posted its analysis of the game’s performance on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
Starting with resolution, the site reports that both PS4 and Xbox One use a “dynamic framebuffer” that adjusts the resolution depending on the intensity of what’s happening on screen. Under normal load, the PS4 version outputs at around 1000p, falling to 900p during heavy load. The Xbox One version, meanwhile, has a baseline resolution of 900p that dips to 720p during certain scenes.
“This leads to a consistently sharper image on PS4, where intricate texture details resolve more cleanly. In fact, at 1000p the presentation often looks very similar to a native 1080p image,” Digital Foundry said.
However, the Xbox One version of Battlefield 1 can in some cases reach 1000p, which puts it right next to the PS4 version. This is something of a rare occurrence, however, and only happens during scenes with short draw distances and lower levels of detail.
As for frame rate, Battlefield 1’s campaign targets 60fps, but falls on both platforms during heavy load. “It’s not a major problem, though it does mean that the action doesn’t always appear silky smooth,” Digital Foundry said. The Xbox One has the edge in terms of campaign frame rate, with the PS4 edition lagging around 14fps behind in some cases. This isn’t a deal-breaker, however. “The PS4 version doesn’t feel overly compromised during the campaign, and the game remains very playable throughout,” the site said.
In terms of multiplayer, Digital Foundry found that the PS4 version lags behind here as well in terms of frame rate. It comes in at around 40-45fps most of the time, dropping into the 30fps range when a lot is going on. By comparison, though performance can vary on Xbox One as well, the frame rate dips are less significant. “As a result the experience when playing online is definitely smoother [on Xbox One],” the site said.
“Overall, from a console perspective, the experience is certainly smoother on the Xbox One, though this does come at the expense of image sharpness due to the game running at a lower resolution much of the time,” Digital Foundry said. “In this case, it’s a worthy trade off as online matches ideally require high frame rates for consistent competitive gameplay, although the situation isn’t ideal on either platform. It’s a different story in the impressive campaign though–performance is much more consistent here and Xbox One’s frame-rate advantage isn’t as pronounced as PS4’s persistently higher resolution.”
Of course, the PC version of Battlefield 1 is likely the best-looking and best-performing of all, provided your computer is strong enough.
Battlefield 1 came out on October 21 behind strong reviews, including a 9/10 from GameSpot.
“With Battlefield 1, EA and DICE have proven the viability of World War I as a time period worth revisiting in first-person shooters,” reviewer Miguel Concepcion said. “It brings into focus countries and nationalities that do not exist today while also shedding light on how the outcome of that war has shaped our lives. As World War II shooters proved many years ago, no game can truly capture the entirety of a global conflict. This is why the focused structure of the War Stories anthology works well. Moreover, Operations succeeds as an effective educational primer on the battles that this gripping adversarial mode are based on. Battlefield 1 is just an introduction to one of the deadliest world events in history, but it is an outstanding, feature-rich package in both its emotional stories and strong multiplayer.”
One of the most interesting elements of the Nintendo Switch–at least based on what we know so far–is that it’s a console/mobile hybrid that you can play at home or on the go.
Nintendo already has an on-the-go device in the form of the Nintendo 3DS, so you might think that business could be negatively impacted by the Switch. Not so, according to Nintendo president Tatsumi Kimishima.
Asked directly by Bloomberg, “Will you discontinue the 3DS?” Kimishima pointed out that 3DS hardware sales are still improving. The launch of the Switch, though it could have some impact on 3DS sales, won’t kill the 3DS, Kimishima said.
“Thanks to our software, the 3DS hardware is still growing,” he said. “So that business still has momentum. And certainly rather than being cannibalized by the Switch, we think the 3DS can continue in its own form.”
About the Switch in general, Kimishima said, “We didn’t just want a successor to the Wii U or the 3DS. So our original concept was, ‘What kind of new experience can we create?’ And what we showed this time was an object that’s both stationary and one you can take outside to play with anyone you want.”
Also in the interview, Kimishima was asked if the Switch will have VR capabilities. It sounds like it won’t at launch in March 2017, though Kimishima said nothing is ruled out for the future.
“If you asked as if this might be possible in the future, certainly we can’t say no,” he said. “In terms of how it can be used for gaming, it’s something we must consider. It depends on the system specifications. I can’t say that we have no interest in VR because VR offers new ways of playing, but that depends on what kind of software can be played. But what kind of software works, that’s only something you only know once you actually experience it. And our games are ones that are usually played for a long time.”
