Warner Bros. has moved up the release date for Ben Affleck’s Prohibition-era crime movie Live by Night. The film will now see a limited release on Christmas Day, making it eligible for Oscar consideration this year. The wide theatrical release remains on schedule for January 13, according to Collider.
The site suggests Warner Bros. moved up Live by Night‘s release because it didn’t have a strong Oscar-hopeful film outside of Clint Eastwood’s Sully.
Live by Night stars Affleck as a gangster in the Prohibition era. Affleck directed the movie and wrote the screenplay. Oscar-winner Robert Richardson (The Aviator, The Hateful Eight) worked on the movie as its cinematopgrapher. You can see a trailer for the crime movie above.
Affleck’s co-stars include Elle Fanning, Zoe Saldana, Anthony Michael Hall, Brendan Gleeson, and Scott Eastwood. The movie is based on the Dennis Lehane book of the same name.
Live by Night is Affleck’s first time back in the director’s chair following 2012’s Oscar-winning Argo. He’s also slated to star in and direct a new Batman movie, which might be called The Batman.
Affleck will be seen next in this month’s The Accountant.
The new images, posted on the Tomb Raider Tumblr page, show off Rise of the Tomb Raider’s gorgeous and varied environments, including tombs of course and also one shot where Lara faces off with a bear. Check out all of the new images in the gallery below, and come back later today to see the launch trailer.
Crystal Dynamics also reminded fans that they can earn 100,000 in-game credits for Rise of the Tomb Raider’s Expedition Card Packs by simply playing the game on any platform before October 19. You need to be connected to the internet. You can read more about the promotion in GameSpot’s previous coverage.
Rise of the Tomb Raider’s 20 Year Celebration edition includes the base game, as well as a new story chapter titled “Blood Ties.” There is also a “Lara’s Nightmare” zombie mode, while the PS4 edition also includes PlayStation VR support. A number of other digital bonuses are also included, such as classic Lara skins that depict her appearance from past games.
Additionally, all previously released DLC, including Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch and Cold Darkness Awakened, are included. The new Rise of the Tomb Raider content will also be available on Xbox One and PC.
PlayStation VR always had a tough road ahead of it. Compared to high-end gaming PCs needed to power the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, the PlayStation 4 is under-powered. The fact that Sony was retrofitting its old 2010-released Move controllers and PlayStation Camera to work with PSVR, which were peripherals that weren’t initially designed for VR, also does not bode well for the platform. After going eyes-on with it over the past few days, I must admit that it’s surprisingly impressive in some areas, but it also has some issues.
One area where PSVR could use improvement is with resolution. The visuals unfortunately look a little blurry. The head-mounted display uses a 5.7-inch 1920×1080-resolution stereoscopic 3D screen. This amounts to a 960×1080 resolution per eye. While 1080p is fine on a TV that’s several feet in front of you, it’s a whole different story when the display is magnified in front of your eyes. Fortunately, the OLED panel here does offer deep black levels and is able to produce a rich color gamut. At the base of the display is a black rubber material that rests atop your nose and cheeks. This is used to block out light. While there will likely be some light leakage above the bridge of your nose, it’s not enough to hurt the experience.
The headset features a roughly 100 degree field-of-view, which makes your peripheral vision sort of tantamount to wearing ski goggles. PSVR also supports a 120Hz refresh rate panel, which allows the headset to render up to 120 frames per second. Just for some perspective, most TVs use a 60Hz refresh rate. Having a high frame rate is essential in VR, because when the frame rate dips too low, it causes an unwanted judder effect, which can contribute to VR nausea.
Poor head-tracking can also lead to VR motion sickness; luckily, that isn’t a problem here. PSVR has nine positional-tracking LEDs on the HMD and features 18 milliseconds of latency, which is low enough to prevent nausea in most people.
The headset itself may look bulky, but it feels really light. Weighing 1.3 pounds, I was surprised to hear that it’s actually heavier than the 1.2-pound Vive, which feels much more uncomfortable to me. It helps that the weight of PSVR is balanced from the front to the back. It can be a little confusing to put on at first, but you simply pull on the backstrap, put it on your head like a baseball cap, and then slide the front display onto your face until it rests against your cheeks. It’s got plenty of room for those who wear glasses, too, and it’s overall ergonomics makes you wonder why all HMDs don’t use this design. It’s something that I felt comfortable using hours on end at a time. It is worth noting that like other VR headsets, the display here does have a sweet spot where things look sharper. It can often take a second or two to adjust for this.
PSVR is a wired HMD. Going wireless would add latency to the mix, which could again, contribute to VR nausea. It helps that the cable isn’t very thick. I also like how Sony implemented a little inline remote on it that allows you to adjust the HMD’s audio. This little remote also allows you to plug in the PSVR’s earbuds–which are included–though you can plug in any 3.5mm audio headset here.
PSVR supports 3D audio, which, coupled with positional head tracking, is a vital aspect to delivering immersive VR experiences. It works really well, too. For instance, in The London Heist, when a character started walking and talking behind me, I could tell exactly where he stood. While it would have added to the cost, it would have been more convenient if Sony integrated headphones onto the headset, similar to what the Rift offers.
Aside from the HMD, the base PSVR package includes an HDMI cable, USB cable, AC adapter, connection cable, earbuds, manuals, PlayStation VR demo disc, and a processor unit breakout box that mirrors the visuals of the headset onto the TV. The overall setup process isn’t difficult, but there are a lot of cables to hook up.
It is important to note that PSVR requires a PlayStation Camera, which is sold separately from the base package. Furthermore, to get the full VR experience and to get your hands into VR, you’re going to want to get Sony’s Move controllers, which are also sold separately. There are games like The London Heist, which are designed with them in mind, and then there are games like Job Simulator, which require them.
Shark Encounter is great edge-of-your-seat entertainment.
After you’ve got the setup process out of the way, PSVR delivers some incredibly immersive experiences. Despite being a passive experience, Shark Encounter, which is a short segment within the PlayStation VR Worlds compilation, can be riveting. It virtually places you in a shark cage and anchors you deep down into the ocean where you encounter a massive great white shark that’s out to eat you. Seeing it pry open your cage with its massive sharp teeth provides a sense of danger that is impossible to replicate on a traditional display.
The London Heist has great production values and is highly immersive.
The London Heist is also another PSVR highlight. Two moments within this experience really stood out to me. In the first, a mobster points the barrel of his gun straight at my head. It’s extremely unnerving, but in the coolest way. Even though I knew that I was playing a game, I couldn’t help but flinch and futilely try to protect my face with my virtual hands. The second standout moment was towards the end of the game, where I had to choose who lived or died between two characters. In a moment of hesitation, one of the characters ended up stabbing me to death. It’s the arguably the most violent feeling I’ve ever experienced in a game, and it was amazing. It’s these little moments that perfectly encapsulate the power of virtual reality. In general, VR is great at making scary moments scarier. Because you often feel intimately present in the experience, situations can legitimately feel dangerous, and that makes games all the more exciting.
One concern that I had going into this review is whether or not the Move controllers would be accurate enough for VR, but they do a surprisingly good job of tracking your hands.
While there’s a lot to like about PSVR, it also has several of issues. The PlayStation Camera can encompass a max 6.2×9-foot play area, but I noticed that when I stood more than eight feet away from the camera, I experienced a very unpleasant visual jittery effect, as if the camera had started to lose depth perception. Even at closer ranges, I noticed the DualShock controller in front of me start to jitter, though it happened to a lesser extent. Getting too close to the camera, however, also presents problems. If you’re too close and are playing a game like Job Simulator, which recommends that you stand, your headset may pop above the camera’s field of view. While you can tilt the camera up, when you conversely play a game sitting down, the controller resting on your lap may be out of range.
It’s not the end of the world by any means, but it definitely feels like an ecosystem that’s cobbled together using existing parts. Furthermore, because PSVR uses only one camera, the Move controllers will get occluded if you turn completely around, as the camera needs to see the light emitting from the controller to track it. What this means on a fundamental level is that we are likely not to get 360 gameplay experiences. Another small gripe I have is that there is no system which indicates where your real walls are in VR. On more than one occasion, I swung the Move controller too far and conked a wall.
Oddly missing from PSVR is controller tracking when you’re in the PS4’s dashboard. As the Vive has shown, this feature can be helpful since you are effectively blindfolded. As long as the controllers are within the PlayStation Camera’s FOV, PSVR should technically be able to do this, so perhaps we could see this feature implemented in a future update. It’s also unfortunate that the Move controllers don’t have a D-pad or movement stick, as this limits PSVR’s capabilities.
Scavenger’s Odyssey made me really motion sick.
Despite all these little technical deficiencies, the biggest issue plaguing PSVR is motion sickness. Your mileage may vary here, as some people don’t have issues with VR nausea. I, unfortunately, am not one of them. Many of the launch games made me feel ill. The main culprit here is artificial locomotion: this is when a game binds first-person movement to a joystick. While this is largely fine on a flat-screen TV, in VR, your eyes are tricked into thinking that your body is moving, but your body does not get the same cues. This disconnect can lead to wobbly sea legs. These problems are further exacerbated when the game moves quickly and has a lot of sudden turns or incorporates jumping movements. Unfortunately, many PSVR games employ these measures. Making sharp turns in Driveclub VR forced me to quickly take the headset off. Furthermore, playing Scavenger’s Odyssey for 30 minutes, which is a mech game that takes place in space, not only made me feel sick, but its negative effects stayed with me for over an hour after I took the headset off.
There are ways to combat VR motion sickness. For instance, most first-person titles on the Vive use a teleport mechanic that allows you to point your controller and beam around the environment. On the other end of the spectrum, Oculus has implemented VR motion sickness ratings for each game. While this isn’t the most elegant solution to fix this problem, Sony doesn’t have anything similar in place. Instead, Sony tells me that gamers should take 15-minute breaks each hour to combat motion sickness. That’s not a very good long-term solution.
While you can play movies and traditional games on a massive virtual movie theater-sized screen within the headset, because it’s relatively low-res, the experience is simply better playing on your TV. There isn’t a huge, noticeable screen-door effect, but it certainly looks blurrier than both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, which use 2160×1200-resolution panels.
I imagine some people will think it’s unfair that I’ve compared PlayStation VR to the Rift and Vive so many times in this review. I understand that the two other HMDs are much more expensive and require much more powerful PCs, but there’s a reason that high-quality VR is expensive. Sure, PSVR is more affordable, but it also takes shortcuts. While it sometimes works surprisingly well given these constraints, it reminds me of the adage, “you get what you pay for.”
As a VR fan, I want PSVR to succeed, but it trips up too many times to wholeheartedly recommend at this point. Many of the launch titles will make a large percentage of people sick, and it may lead to the false impression that VR has to make you nauseated. If you have a PS4 and are dying to get PSVR, then I’d recommend the $499.99 bundle which includes the PlayStation Camera, two Move controllers, and PlayStation VR Worlds. If you have a PS4 and are simply curious about VR, I’d hold out until more titles are released. While there are a handful of fun titles, there’s nothing that I’ve played at launch so far to indicate to me that the PSVR is a must-buy right now. For everyone else, I’d recommend saving up for a better reality.
With the launch of Rise of the Tomb Raider‘s PS4 version coming up soon, Square Enix held a livestream where it showed off 60 minutes of gameplay from the action-adventure game.
The livestream event was held this week by Square Enix Japan, so the video below cut by Azario Lopez is in Japanese (via DualShockers). The video also covers some story points, so if you’re hoping to play with fresh eyes, it might be best to avoid this.
Rise of the Tomb Raider comes to PS4 in the form of the 20 Year Celebration edition. It includes the base game, as well as a new story chapter titled “Blood Ties.” There is also a “Lara’s Nightmare” zombie mode, while the PS4 edition also includes PlayStation VR support. A number of other digital bonuses are also included, such as classic Lara skins that depict her appearance from past games.
Additionally, all previously released DLC, including Baba Yaga: The Temple of the Witch and Cold Darkness Awakened, are included. The new Rise of the Tomb Raider content will also be available on Xbox One and PC.
Rise of the Tomb Raider: 20 Year Celebration and the associated DLC comes out on October 11.
Rise of the Tomb Raider originally launched in 2015 as a timed-exclusive for Xbox One and Xbox 360, coming to PC in January 2016.
As explained on the site, a Moogle is a “lucky item” that appears in Final Fantasy XV. They will appear in doll-form. “Take Moogle dolls and goods as your lucky charm to help avoid all kinds of troubles,” Square Enix said. “Maybe Moogle will help out when Noctis and his friends are in a tight spot.”
A Moogle-themed reward program, Moogle Collection, has also been announced. For every new follower to the official Final Fantasy XV English and Japanese Twitter accounts, a new Moogle will appear. When the number of new Moogles reaches a “certain amount,” users will receive a Moogle reward.
These rewards have not been revealed, but the website suggests there will be at least seven of them, in addition to a “Moogle Movie,”though it is unclear what that is.
The No Man’s Sky subreddit has been closed and all content has been purged from it, except for a single message from the moderator, R0ugeW0lf, explaining the decision to shut it down.
“So I purged the subreddit. It’s become a hate filled wastehole of no actual discussion,” the mod said. “It’s not what we intended it to be and I don’t like providing a platform for hate. I’m sorry to everyone who used the subreddit as intended but you are now in the majority. I’m sure you can find a different place to discuss this game. It’s not hard.”
According to the R0ugeW0lf, the decision was made unilaterally and although “other moderators tried to sway my opinion … cynicism got the best of me as usual,” and it was shuttered.
It’s important to note that this subreddit isn’t affiliated with No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games in any official capacity, and as such it doesn’t have any control over it. Using an archiving website, it’s possible to see discussions thread prior to its closure and, for the most part, they are of a negative sentiment.
No Man’s Sky’s launch and its reception has been controversial, with many players unsatisfied with the content of the game. It has been argued that the game doesn’t fulfil promises made prior to its launch and is lacking numerous features developer Hello Games promoted in the lead up to release.
PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida previously said the strategy studio founder Sean Murray took of discussing features that didn’t make it into the launch version might not have been the best way to go.
“I understand some of the criticisms especially Sean Murray is getting, because he sounded like he was promising more features in the game from day one,” Yoshida said. “It wasn’t a great PR strategy.”
According to Yoshida, part of the problem may have been that Murray apparently did not have a PR person or team to help him determine what he should and shouldn’t say. Looking ahead, Murray has talked about adding new features to the game over time as free DLC, including base-building and more.
As announced previously, preorders for the $80 and up versions of Infinite Warfare get to play Modern Warfare Remastered’s campaign 30 days early–and that’s now.
People who preordered a premium version of Infinite Warfare digitally from the PlayStation Store should automatically be granted access to the Modern Warfare Remastered campaign.
On launch day, November 4, people playing the early access version of Modern Warfare Remastered will need to install the full version of the game. Not to worry, though, as all of your progress will carry forward.
The early access to Modern Warfare Remastered’s campaign is only offered on PS4 and there is no multiplayer. For more on how you can play Modern Warfare Remastered early on PS4, read the full FAQ.
Modern Warfare Remastered’s campaign and multiplayer will be available for everyone who buys a premium version of Infinite Warfare on PS4, Xbox One, and PC on November 4.
For more on Modern Warfare Remastered, check out GameSpot’s playthrough video above.
Following his cameo in this year’s X-Men: Apocalypse, Hugh Jackman will play Wolverine one final time in the upcoming Wolverine 3. Now Jackman has revealed that we might get an first look at the film in the next week.
Speaking to ET Online, Jackman stated that the movie was now in post-production. “We’ve finished shooting,” he said, via Den of Geek. “I just saw [director] Jim Mangold today. He’s editing away and finishing that.
“There’s going to be some stuff coming out in the next week or so. That’s all I’ll say. I’m not good. I’m the kind of person who tells everybody everything. Basically it’s going to be different. Very different in tone and hopefully to anything we’ve done”.
“It’s a very radical, bold, different Wolverine than you’ve ever seen in any of these [other] movies,” he said. “It takes place in the future, and as you and others have reported, it is an R-rated movie. It’s violent, it’s kind of like a western in its tone.”
Wolverine 3 will also see Patrick Stewart return as Professor X. In August the star teased that this might also be his final appearance in the series. “I would imagine this is probably the end of this franchise for me,” he told ITV News. “But the thing about science fiction and fantasy is that you can never, ever say it’s the end, it’s over.”
Newzoo reports that Pokemon Go continues to bring in around $2 million every day–and this does not include the 30 percent cut that Apple and Google take. When the game launched in July, it was pulling in $16 million in revenue every day, according to the report.
Newzoo’s report claims Pokemon Go has now reached 550 million installs and $470 million in lifetime revenue.
Pokemon Go stands to expand even further in the future, as the game has yet to be released in major markets like China and South Korea.
“Pokemon Go has opened our eyes in many ways. It has refreshed the top-grossing mobile game ranking that has been dominated by a small number of publishers and games for a long time,” Newzoo CEO Peter Warman said. “It has proven beyond a doubt that AR can be applied in ways that appeal to a mass audience. Equally important from a business perspective, it has given Niantic investor Google enormous insight and data that it can incorporate into its location-based advertising and services strategy. The fact that Pokemon Go has motivated kids and youngsters to spend more time outside is an additional bonus, even if that means they take their screens with them.”
As of October 4, Pokemon Go sits in the No. 2 position on the iTunes top-grossing chart, only behind Clash Royale. It formerly held the No. 1 spot on the Free apps chart, but currently sits at No. 56.
The PlayStation Store will refresh for the first time this month later today, ushering in more free PlayStation 4, PlayStation 3, and PlayStation Vita games for PlayStation Plus subscribers to pick up.
The price of PlayStation Plus recently jumped from $50 to $60 for a year-long subscription. Three months will now cost $25, while the monthly plan remains the same $10 as always. In Canada, the prices are $70 CAD for 12 months, $30 CAD for three months, and $12 CAD for one month.
