We’ve had TheHateful Eight and The Ridiculous Six, and now the granddaddy of numerical westerns is set to return to the big screen. The star-studded remake of the The Magnificent Seven is released later this year, and a first trailer is now online. Check it out below:
The film stars Denzel Washington as a gunman who is hired to stop a group of bandits from terrorising a village. He puts together a gang of sharpshooters that includes Chris Pratt, Ethan Hawke, Vincent D’Onofrio, and Byung-hun Lee. The movie is directed by Antoine Fuqua, who previously directed Washington and Hawke in the Oscar-winning Training Day.
The film is a remake of the 1960 movie starring Steve McQueen and Yul Brynner, which was itself a retelling of Akira Kurosawa’s classic Japanese epic The Seven Samurai.
Speaking to USA Today about his all-star cast, Fuqua revealed that Washington couldn’t be separated from his gun while the film as in production. “He had it with him all the time, even when he wasn’t on the set,” he said. “We’d have meetings and he’d be spinning and twirling his gun while we were talking.
“He used to walk around his house spinning guns, go to restaurants. Obviously, people knew it was for his character.”
The Magnificent Seven rides into cinemas on September 23, 2016.
One of the more interesting storylines in gaming this year has been the rumors and reports about Sony and Microsoft potentially planning to launch new hardware before the existing cycle is over. Not everyone has been pleased with the idea, but now gaming veteran Lorne Lanning has come out in support of it.
Lanning said on the latest Game Informer Show [YouTube link] (via NeoGAF) that, back in February 2015 at the DICE event, he asked PlayStation president Shuhei Yoshida at a private dinner to give him some details on what the PlayStation 5 might look like. Yoshida’s response surprised Lanning.
“I said, ‘What does the PlayStation 5 look like?’ And he said, ‘You mean if…’ And I was like, ‘Whoa. Are you willing to say that on stage?’ And he said, ‘Yeah, it’s an if.’”
If Sony is indeed working on something like a PS4.5, it’s an idea that Lanning would support, it seems.
“It was a really interesting thing; he didn’t give me a clear answer, but he’s hinting at, ‘We need to be more agile, none of us know what the future really looks like so how do we adapt to it faster?’” Lanning said. “To me, that’s the way he was sort of thinking about it, which I think is the right way think about it.”
Gaming consoles are quite different from smartphones, which are typically upgraded on a yearly basis or so. Consoles, on the other hand, usually remain viable for 5-7 years. This longstanding cycle could change, however, if the reports about upgraded PlayStation and Xbox consoles prove accurate.
“The idea that you’re going to release a piece of technology that’s going to last for seven years into the future is becoming I think less and less viable even though the generations of platforms are lasting longer,” Lanning said. “So it seems like it’s in conflict.”
Not everyone is thrilled with the idea of mid-cycle hardware upgrades, however. BioWare co-founder Greg Zeschuk recently said such a thing would be a “gigantic pain in the ass” for developers and consumers alike.
Wonder Woman made her DC cinematic universe debut in the recent Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and anticipation is high for her standalone movie, which arrives in 2017. The movie is currently shooting in Matera, Italy, and new production footage has been revealed on a local TV news show. The video showcases the impressive sets that have been built for Wonder Woman’s home of Themyscira. Check it out below:
Wonder Woman is directed by Monster‘s Patty Jenkins, and stars Gal Gadot as the Amazonian heroine. Joining her is Star Trek‘s Chris Pine as Captain Steve Trevor, plus Robin Wright, Danny Huston, David Thewlis, Ewen Bremner, and Elena Anaya.
In a recent interview with Digital Spy, Gadot explained that her character will seem very different to the way she was portrayed in Dawn of Justice. “We go back 100 years to when she’s more naive,” she revealed. “She’s this young idealist. She’s pure. Very different to the experienced, super-confident, grown-up woman you’ve seen.
“This would be the first time we ever tell the coming-of-age story of how Diana becomes Wonder Woman. It’s very interesting. It has moments of humour, but it’s pretty dark.”
The Simpsons: Tapped Out, EA’s popular mobile game based on Fox’s animated TV show, received a big update this week themed around the Wild West. The update introduces things you’d find in a Wild West movie or Red Dead Redemption, including old-timey buildings and dirt roads, as well as treasure to discover and bandits to stop.
The update is available now across iOS and Android.
Tapped Out fanside tstoaddicts.com reports that the new Wild West event begins by challenging players to complete tasks to build things like a Town Plaza and later a General Store. When you build the General Store, the Wild West event triggers, which in turn morphs the game into “event mode.”
When that happens, you will have the Wild Quest questline and new items available to you. Some of the items include frontier fences and gates, as well as quicksand and cacti. You can also buy a “Cowboy Homer” costume, while Gummy Joe will also show up if you play your cards right.
Head to tstoaddicts for a full rundown of what’s included with Tapped Out’s Wild West update.
Tapped Out is a free-to-play game, but players can spend real-world money to speed up their progress. The game has been a huge money-maker for EA, as it has brought in more than $100 million.
Update 8: Blizzard has announced a Whispers of the Old Gods release date, stating that the Hearthstone expansion will launch on April 26 across North America for PC, Mac, iOS and Android devices. In Europe and Asia, the latest card collection will ship one day later, on April 27.
Along with this announcement, eight more cards have been revealed; two for Hunter, two for Mage, one for Druid, one for Priest, one for Rogue, and one common Legendary. Blizzard has now revealed 71 Whispers of the Old Gods cards, of which the total is expected to reach 134.
Update 7: A fresh batch of new Hearthstone cards have been revealed for the Whispers of the Old Gods expansion, chief among them being a new Legendary ten-mana Deathwing with a 12/12 body and the eye-opening battlecry of summoning all dragons from your hand.
Another neutral legendary minion, Soggoth the Slitherer, is a nine-mana 5/9 taunt card that is immune from spells and hero powers. More new Whispers of the Old Gods cards include a two-mana Priest spell that makes heal effects deal damage instead for a single turn, as well as a six-mana Rogue card that appears to be supporting mill strategies.
Mage also now has two mid-sized minions, one of which casts a random five-mana spell and the other summons a three-cost card. Finally, a strong one-mana Warlock minion has been revealed with a deathrattle that summons a 1/1 minion.
On April 21 at 10am Pacific, Blizzard will host a special live stream where, at the very least, it will showcase a number of new cards.
Whispers of the Old Gods will launch during a time of major changes to Hearthstone. A new mode, called Standard, will be introduced and phase out old cards. Click here for the Best Hearthstone Cards Leaving Standard.
Click on the thumbnails of each card to get a closer view.
Druid
Hunter
Mage
Paladin
Priest
Rogue
Toxin Cards
Shaman
Warrior
Warlock
Neutral – Old Gods Legendaries
(C’Thun Cards)
Neutral: The Ancient One
(Can only be summoned with two Blood of the Ancient One cards)
The video explores the numerous changes the game’s combat system has undergone. Instead of the usual pulled-back third-person perspective Ninja Theory has used for previous games, the team decided to bring the camera in close in Hellblade to create a more intimate feel.
Initially, a directional combat system that allowed players to attack and block in one of four different directions. This, however, turned out to be very limiting.
Senior designer Juan Fernandez then joined the combat team and presented a system that focuses on “simple but tight core actions” and “flows responsively and intuitively.” Watch the video above to learn more about it.
The diary also shows how Chloe Bruce, who played Daisy Ridley’s stunt double in Star Wars: The Force Awakens, worked with the team to create combat strings for protagonist Senua.
As previously announced, Hellblade will be available on PS4 and PC at the same time. It does not yet have a specific launch date, however. Ninja Theory has said it will be available some time in 2016.
“I’m not a big fan of Xbox One and a half. If we’re going to move forward, I want to move forward in big numbers,” Spencer said recently. “For us, our box is doing well. It performs, it’s reliable, the servers are doing well. If we’re going to go forward with anything, like I said, I want it to be a really substantial change for people–an upgrade.”
Making matters potentially more interesting, however, is that NeoGAF member ekim recently found new Federal Communications Commission filings that show Microsoft is experimenting with a new Xbox One wireless chip. Interestingly, the Microsoft-FCC non-disclosure agreement ends on June 25, which is not even two weeks after Microsoft’s briefing at E3 this year.
We have contacted Microsoft in an attempt to get more details. Keep checking back with GameSpot for more on the future of Xbox hardware.
While Mafia III developer Hangar 13 is not ready to talk about exactly how many hours it will take you to complete the open-world crime game, studio director Haden Blackman has teased the game has “hours and hours and hours of content.” Not only that, but the game’s aims to be highly replayable.
Blackman mentioned that there are several sequences in Mafia III that you won’t see on every playthrough. One of these involves a mob gang executing someone “in a pretty dramatic fashion.” As such, he hopes players will re-play Mafia III after they finish a first playthrough.
“We’re not talking about the exact hours yet, I’m a completionist too,” Blackman told GameSpot. “It is hours and hours and hours of content. I hope that people are encouraged to replay and see things that they didn’t see before. Hopefully people go back and look for those little hidden gems.
“I wanted to build games that really tried to push the notion that the players co-author in the experience,” he added. “We have that tag line for Hanger 13, that every player’s story is unique. That’s definitely something we want to try and push for everything that we do.”
Mafia III will be released for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on October 7.
The game is set in 1968 New Orleans, starring Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam War veteran who returns to find his home in ruin. The Italian mob now rules New Orleans, and it’s up to Clay–with the help of the Irish mob and others–to bring down the organization from within.
2K’s crime game Mafia III will launch on October 7, the publisher announced today, while also confirming preorder bonuses and various special edition versions of the game. Additionally, a new trailer has been released, providing a new look at the ’60s-set game’s story and characters. Check it out above.
Everyone who preorders Mafia III will receive what 2K is calling the “Family Kick-Back.” This comes with three “exclusive” vehicles and weapons. These will be “lieutenant-themed,” but no other details were shared.
In addition to the standard version of Mafia III, 2K will release limited deluxe ($80) and limited collector’s ($150) editions. The limited deluxe edition comes with the game and its Season Pass, while the collector’s edition has everything in the limited deluxe edition, as well as physical content such as the game’s score on vinyl, a collectible art book, art prints, and other, unannounced items.
Mafia III will be released for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It is developed by new 2K studio Hangar 13, under the direction of Star Wars veteran Haden Blackman.
Mafia III might be the most ambitious title in the series yet. Set in 1968 in a fictional version of New Orleans, Mafia III tells the story of Lincoln Clay, a Vietnam veteran who returns from the war to find his home in shambles. The black mob–the only thing he could ever call family–has been torn down, and the Italian mob has set up shop. With the help of the Irish mob, a self-exiled mobster from a big New England city, and the well-connected leader of the Haitian gangs, Lincoln will tear down the organization from within–and perhaps find a place to belong as well.
In development with Bay Area studio Hangar 13–named for its location in the hangars of the former Hamilton Field Air Force Base–and 2K Czech, the developers of the first two Mafia titles, Mafia III is already laying new ground. It’s the first open-world game in the series, as well as the first to feature a biracial hero set during a time in the Deep South when racial tensions were at their most divisive. Through this conflicted anti-hero–he’s a hard criminal raised by the mob, there’s no mincing words–players will claim the city of New Bordeaux for their own, breaking crime rackets down and building them up to their own liking.
“I wanted to build games that really tried to push the notion that the players co-author in the experience,” creative director Haden Blackman told GameSpot on the founding of Hangar 13, which was built to bring up Mafia. “We have that tag line for Hanger 13, that every player’s story is unique. That’s definitely something we want to try and push for everything that we do.” And during a recent hands-on session, we learned that there are indeed many opportunities for crafting your own story, for making Mafia III your own Mafia.
This is the first truly open world Mafia game, but it still has those cinematic moments characteristic of previous games.
“We didn’t want to go so far in that direction that we broke the stuff that worked very well with Mafia II,” Blackman said. “There is a very strong narrative that is pulling you through, and everything that you do feeds back into that narrative. I think our media team is doing a fantastic job. The cinematics are coming together really well.”
2K is hoping to “reclaim the term ‘Mafia’” with Mafia III, by setting it during a time period when the mafia began to lose its glory.
“As a writer, I didn’t want to go back to the world and tell the same kind of rags to riches story, or a guy working his way up from the bottom,” explained lead writer Bill Harms. “We are going to try and find a different twist on that and a different spin to it, which is where I think having [Lincoln] being a different type of mobster came in. The other thing that really came to play: this goes back to the time period. We did a ton of research for this game. Before we ever wrote a word, hours and hours of research went into this. One of the things that we all came away with is that in the 60s, it was kind of the end of the golden age of the Italian mob. Before that, people didn’t really even acknowledge that the Italian mob existed. If they did, it was, ‘Well they’re just a social club, they’re good for the neighborhood.’”
The game is framed as a documentary detailing the events of 1968 involving lead character Lincoln.
Between large missions, we’ll see Jon Donovan–a new character–speaking in a courtroom about the events surrounding Lincoln’s activities. These scenes look like they’ve been pulled off an old VHS tape. These are pieces of a documentary made about Lincoln’s activities, and provide the narrative framework for Mafia III. This was inspired by all the research the Mafia team did for the story, and a nod to the numerous documentaries the team had to watch.
The city of New Bordeaux has nine districts, each with its own distinct look, atmosphere, and missions.
Mafia III’s take on New Orleans includes nine separate districts. One, the French Ward, was revealed last year at Gamescom following the game’s announcement. Our recent hands-on demo took us to New Bordeaux’s downtown area, which is situated between the high-end district and the poor district. There’s also an industrial ward, a suburban area, a harbor, a shipyard, and the Bayou, the swamps to the south of the city where mobsters tend to hide their most prized secrets.
“There’s crime run out of the Bayou, but it doesn’t have the same structure as some of the other districts, where they’re running kind of a criminal enterprise out of it,” Blackman said. “You go to the Bayou to do a lot of damage to some of the other rackets that rely on the area. [For example,] there’s a moonshining racket in one of the districts, and you can go to the Bayou to hunt down and destroy some of the stills–because that’s where they’ve hidden the stills.”
Each district will have its own unique crime rackets.
Every place has its own problems. In Mafia III, you’ll encounter an extortion racket in a bathhouse, illegal seizing and re-selling of gasoline and construction materials, drug and prostitution rings, and even a moonshine business. Once Lincoln takes over these districts, he will start getting a cut of what they earn, bulking up your wallet.
Protagonist Lincoln Clay is biracial an orphan, and Vietnam veteran–which stacks a lot of decks against his desire to find a place he belongs.
According to Blackman and Harms, Lincoln’s driving force is a search for a place to call home–hence his falling in with the black mob on his return from Vietnam. Having spent his childhood in an orphanage only to be moved to a foster home during America’s routine shuttering of orphanages country-wide, Lincoln never really had one. After leaving the orphanage, Lincoln is taken under the wing of Sammy Robinson, the head of the black mob, and becomes friends with Sammy’s son Myles. But they’re still not his blood family, and he never feels he truly belongs.
You will build relationships with your subordinates that affect your personal and professional life–of crime, that is.
Lincoln will have three people working under him: the mysterious Haitian gang leader Cassandra, the boisterous Irishman Burke, and Vito–the protagonist of Mafia II now residing in New Bordeaux. After Lincoln busts up operations in a mobster safehouse or conquers a district, he will have the opportunity to hand off its management to one of these three. After each territory is conquered, Lincoln and his comrades will have what Hangar 13 is calling a “sitdown,” where they sit around a table and give Lincoln reasons why they should have the territory.
Entrusting a safehouse or entire district to one person has its pros and cons. Giving Burke territory will provide you with more backup in combat. Burke provides Lincoln with underlings that, when called in combat, will show up with weapons and help you take down opponents. This is particularly helpful in sticky situations when you know you’re outgunned and need a few extra bodies on your side. It also helps that their aim is spot on. As you give Burke more to work with, he in turn will give you more support.
This is the same for Vito, who in exchange for territory will you give you access to better weapons and items. Giving Vito power means more and better guns, more protective gear, and other equippable items. Cassandra’s offerings are the only outlier, as she gives you more control over combat spaces instead of physical items. Cassandra has friends in high places at the phone companies, and Lincoln can call her in combat and have her cut the phone lines in a specific area to prevent reinforcements from coming.
Favoring one associate or another will cause the other two to get feisty, deriding Lincoln for his decisions. You also can’t unlock every perk these three give you in one playthrough–you have to think about what you want more when deciding who to curry favor with. For example, giving all your territory to Burke will anger Vito and Cassandra, which means you won’t get that super powerful gun Vito has.
“This is by no means an RPG,” Blackman said of this relationship system. “But I’m a huge RPG fan, and the thing I love most about the ones that do [relationships] well is that relationships evolve over time. We knew we wanted some element of that, but we wanted to do it in a different way than anybody had done it before.”
Wire-tapping makes everything easier.
You have the option to wire-tap each sub-area of a district. Wiretapping will not only grant you access to your enemies’ phone lines, it also links to one of Lincoln’s abilities. A click on the analogue stick brings up your Intel Vision, which shows you how many enemies are in the area, where they are, and which one is your target or the squealer that will call reinforcements. This is incredibly useful–but only available if you’ve wiretapped the place beforehand. Wiretapping is done by locating the phone box–usually somewhere in enemy territory with a bit of a puzzle to get through–and activating it. This will feed enemy conversations directly into your ear, granting you more information to plan your next moves.
When you interrogate people, you can either kill them or make them work for you.
Obviously the latter has the most benefits, bringing you money and resources. But you can also choose to completely clean up shop and kill that safehouse owner or racket leader before handling it all off to Vito, Cassandra, or Burke.
Missions are open-ended and can be tackled a number of different ways.
There are several ways to handle things, whether it be sneaking in, grabbing want you want and getting out, or going in guns blazing. Each mission has its own checklist of tasks in order to get to the boss at the end, but in some cases, one action or another will allow you to bypass a few of those points, letting you go right to top if you’re ready. Or, you could still choose to take out all subordinates, if you’re a completionist that likes to leave no mess behind and maybe have fewer obstacles blocking your final target.
I was given a few options for bringing down one particular racket. Rather than sneak into a hideout, I chose to go in guns raised, call in a squad of Irish mobsters to help me, and pick everyone off one by one. It took me a few tries–and eventually I decided to enter the building from a different entrance, but by coming in on a middle floor instead of the basement, I was able to wipe everyone out successfully.
Later, I had two choices for infiltrating the hotel where my target lived. I could go the garage, steal a car, and engage in some subterfuge, or I could walk into the hotel lobby and start shooting. I went with the latter and had to battle my way up multiple floors of a penthouse, tossing molotovs to wipe out multiple mobsters at once.
Depending on what paths you take, you’ll see different content. The place and time matter.
You can stop some actions from happening–like someone get murdered–or let them happen. Who lives and dies is sometimes up to you, depending on where you are and when. For example, one mission required I steal money from a construction site. I snuck into through the back without killing anyone and the money I needed was just lying on the desk. Beyond the money, through a doorway, I saw two mobsters preparing to murder two men. I found out later that I could have just grabbed the money and ran, leaving those two to die. But instead I ran forward and killed the mobsters–but just a second too late to save the men. Later, in a cutscene, I heard someone ask what happened to one of those guys, not knowing he was dead.
Muscle cars handle like muscle cars in real life.
During my hands-on time with Mafia III’s vehicles, I had a difficult time steering the classic cars of the 1960s, which handle like giant boats. According to Blackman, this design decision was intentional. The team wanted these cars to be just unwieldy enough to feel true-to-life in their handling. I eventually get a solid grip on driving them around, but it did take some time.
You will unlock different cars throughout your playthrough, and when you’re out on foot, you can even call someone to deliver them to your location. You can also upgrade your fleet with things like improved suspension and handling, as well as stronger tires that can’t be shot out. And yes, you can steal vehicles from NPCs–but you can’t keep them.
The soundtrack is unique and contains a ton of licensed music.
You’ll be able to take out rackets to the stylings of Creedence Clearwater Revival, Aretha Franklin, Lonnie Youngblood, and Sam Cooke–all artists of the period. As I was driving through the streets of New Bordeaux, The Rolling Stones’ “Paint It Black” and The Animals’ “House of the Rising Sun” came on. Blackman was particularly passionate about making sure Mafia III had a soundtrack to match the setting.
“1968 was such an interesting time on so many levels, and it all comes out in the music, the kind of crush of cultures and philosophies and ideals all comes out in the music,” Blackman explained. “You’ve got that pop thing going on, the crooner still going on, you’ve got RnB really exploding, then you’ve got the hard rock stuff and the British invasion. It’s all colliding at this time and everybody is stealing from each other in terms of musical ideas and the music starts to really evolve rapidly. For us, it was important we have that wide swipe of music.”
Additionally, you won’t be blasted by hard-hitting strings and drums as you shoot your way through missions. Instead, you’ll be treated to sassy, brassy jazz and other period music. I worked my way through an elaborate puzzle-like setup in a hotel, and as I moved between floors, I was accompanied by the swanky drawl of trumpets and trombones. It was hardly boss fight music, but it was unique and fun. The rest of the score includes themes from each character, tunes that evolve throughout the game, Blackman said, changing as they change.
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