Sharks, more sharks everywhere. In addition to the giant shark movie Meg finally getting a new director (Eli Roth, details below) another shark movie has found a director. Deadline says Spanish filmmaker Jaume Collet-Serra, of House of Wax, Orphan, Unknown, Non-Stop and Run All Night, is looking at directing a movie called In the Deep at Sony Pictures. While it sounds a lot like that 2003 found footage thriller Open Water, the descriptions compare it to Gravity or 127 Hours meets Jaws – or any shark movie. It’s about a young woman surfing on an isolated beach who gets stranded at a buoy off-shore because of a great white shark in the water and she can’t swim back. I’m sure there’s more to the story, but that is a scary scenario. ›››
A Major Emotion Picture. Pixar Animation Studio’s latest movie, Inside Out, is now playing in theaters everywhere. Hopefully you’ve had the chance to see the movie (Sound Off) as it’s one of Pixar’s best in years, a return to form for the studio with another wonderful original story. Over the last few months leading up to the release, our friends at Poster Posse put together a series of poster designs for the movie. They reached out to their usual group of designers and the final set of artwork is beautiful, so feast your eyes on all of the pieces below. Inside Out is about the five emotions inside our heads – Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust and Sadness. ›››
“For the first time, I’m a little bit optimistic you might not become that creepy guy.” IFC Films has debuted the first trailer for Sleeping with Other People, a Sundance comedy that was one of our favorites of this festival earlier this year. Jason Sudeikis and Alison Brie star as two compulsive cheaters who end up in a relationship, but will it work out from them? This actually looks really good, don’t skip it. Sleeping with Other People is the follow-up from Bachelorette filmmaker Leslye Headland, and it seems to be a very big improvement. Adam Scott, Amanda Peet & Natasha Lyonne also star. Ethan wrote in his review from Sundance that it’s “one of the most entertaining and honest love stories of the past 10 years.” Check it out. ›››
“Screw you, Grandma!” Sony Pictures Classics has debuted the trailer for Paul Weitz’s Grandma, starring Lily Tomlin as a feisty grandma who spends a day trying to round up cash with her granddaughter, played by Julia Garner. Marcia Gay Harden and Judy Greer also co-star. This film actually premiered at the Sundance Film Festival earlier this year, and also played at the Tribeca Film Festival, Sydney Film Festival & Los Angeles Film Festival. I’m not sure how many people it will connect with, as some of the scenes look like they may be a bit grating, but others may find some charm in this quirky indie comedy. Give it a watch. ›››
“The greatest hits of arcade game characters in one movie – it’s pretty insane.” Sony has debuted a set of featurettes for Pixels, the video game invasion movie still due out this summer. The first one introduces us to the “arcade heroes” that we follow – Adam Sandler as Sam Brenner, Peter Dinklage as Eddie Plant, Josh Gad as Ludlow Lamonsoff, and Michelle Monaghan as Lt. Col. Violet Van Patten. Kevin James also co-stars. The other featurette focuses on Ashley Benson as Lady Lisa, another video game character come to life. She plays a badass villain of sorts, fighting Ludlow with swords most of the time. From Sony: “Watch the cast of Pixels describe what it was like working with their favorite 80s arcade characters.” Enjoy!›››
The PC edition of Batman: Arkham Knight appears to be carrying noticeable bugs and glitches, especially for those using AMD graphics cards, with message boards lighting up as players report numerous problems.
Chief among the PC version’s technical issues are sporadic freezes, frame-rate stutters, and audio glitches. Some players had expected issues after Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment adjusted its system requirements, leaving with it a warning about AMD compatibility problems.
[Update 1: Developer Rocksteady has released a statement: “We’re aware that some users are reporting performance issues with the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight. This is something that Rocksteady takes very seriously. We are working closely with our external PC development partner to make sure these issues get resolved as quickly as possible.”]
[Update 2: A mass of disappointed customers have begun to criticise the game on its user Steam page. At the time of going to press, 70 percent of customers have not recommended the title, with some 2,000 customers penning negative reviews.]
[Update 3: Retailer Green Man Gaming has pledged to offer refunds if the next patch for the game does not fix most of the issues. Ahead of its patch, publisher Warner Bros has offered guidelines on which Batman Arkham Knight PC settings people should select to curb some of the problems.]
[Update 4: Ahead of its patch, publisher Warner Bros has offered guidelines on which Batman Arkham Knight PC settings people should select to curb some of the problems.]
[Update 7: GameSpot has produced a graphics comparison video, below, which shows that the PC edition lacks some of the key graphical features of the PS4 version.]
Gary Lake-Schall, the VP of game technology at Warner Bros Interactive, wrote on Steam that “there are some known issues with the performance of Batman: Arkham Knight for PC owners using AMD graphics cards.”
He added: “We are working closely with AMD to rectify these issues as quickly as possible and will provide updates here as they become available. We thank you for your patience in this matter.”
Technical discussions on the games forum NeoGAF offer some unofficial workarounds to various problems, including means to lift the 30-frames-per-second cap.
Batman: Arkham Knight shipped across North America and Europe on June 23.
In a statement provided to VideoGamer, an Nvidia representative said it is offering assistance on quality assurance and engineering to the publisher.
“We are working with WB Games and the development teams to address the performance issues of the of the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight,” the company said.
“We have made our QA and engineering resources available and will provide updates when they are available.”
Gary Lake-Schaal, VP of Game Technology at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, apologised for performance issues in a statement posted on Steam.
“We want to apologize to those of you who are experiencing performance issues with Batman: Arkham Knight on PC,” he said. “We take these issues very seriously and have therefore decided to suspend future game sales of the PC version while we work to address these issues to satisfy our quality standards.”
“We greatly value our customers and know that while there are a significant amount of players who are enjoying the game on PC, we want to do whatever we can to make the experience better for PC players overall.”
Ahead of its patch, publisher Warner Bros has offered guidelines on which Batman Arkham Knight PC settings people should select to curb some of the problems.
Retailer Green Man Gaming has pledged to offer refunds if the next patch for the game does not fix most of the issues.
Yu Suzuki, creator of the Shenmue series, has addressed questions regarding the funding of Shenmue 3 and Sony’s involvement in the project.
In a update posted on the Shenmue 3 Kickstarter page, Suzuki ensured fans that crowdsourced “funds are going strictly to Ys Net for development of Shenmue 3.”
“Sony and Shibuya Productions are not seeing a cent of your Kickstarter dollars,” he added.
According to Suzuki, Sony will provide assistance on production, marketing and publishing.
“While it is not business practice to discuss the specific details of such arrangements, I can say that with their assistance on the production and marketing end, and in Sony’s case with some publishing support as well, Ys Net is able to use more of the money we collect through Kickstarter purely for Shenmue 3’s development.”
Continuing, Suzuki laid out his ambitions for expanding the game, provided that stretch goals are reached. At the $5 million mark there will be “an all new gameplay feature,” and at $10 million “a much larger, completely open world will be yours to explore.”
“Even if these Stretch Goals are not reached, Shenmue 3 will already be a sequel true to its name, and one we can all be proud of,” he said. “It is my hope though, that together we can make this Shenmue just as revolutionary as the first two were.”
Development is being handled primarily by Ys Net, a studio founded by Yu Suzuki in 2008. Shibuya Productions, a Monaco-based company that produces and promotes animation, games and movies, is also involved in the project, alongside Sony.
Suzuki has said the game will be a “full-on Shenmue experience,” and initially asked for $2 million in funding to start work on the project.
Within a couple of hours the campaign crossed $1 million mark, and just a few hours later, its funding goal. At the time of writing this it has raised more than $3,600,000, with 22 days to go.
Take a look at some of the artwork for the game in the gallery below.
[Update] Batman: Arkham Knight’s PC problems and the resulting repercussions have now spread to physical copies of the game. An employee for UK retailer Game has told Eurogamer that it is “not allowed to sell” the game as Warner Bros. has requested the retailer cease supplying the title while its problems are remedied.[Update ends]
After a string of reports about PC performance issues, Batman: Arkham Knight is being taken off the Steam store temporarily. The news was posted on Steam today by Gary Lake-Schaal, VP of Game Technology at Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In it, he apologises for the performance issues being experienced by owners of the PC version of the game and states that future game sales will be suspended while they work out the problems. The same post was also made on the official Warner Bros. forums. GameSpot reached out to Warner Bros. who has confirmed the authenticity of the post.
The post opens with:
“We want to apologize to those of you who are experiencing performance issues with Batman: Arkham Knight on PC. We take these issues very seriously and have therefore decided to suspend future game sales of the PC version while we work to address these issues to satisfy our quality standards. We greatly value our customers and know that while there are a significant amount of players who are enjoying the game on PC, we want to do whatever we can to make the experience better for PC players overall”
Players are also reminded that they can flag issues they are experiencing in the game with Warner Bros. customer support. Refunds can also be requested via Steam or at the retailer where the game was purchased.
Earlier today it was reported that the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight was carrying a number of prominent bugs and glitches, especially for players who were using AMD graphics cards. Developer Rocksteady has released a statement in response to this, stating: “We’re aware that some users are reporting performance issues with the PC version of Batman: Arkham Knight. This is something that Rocksteady takes very seriously. We are working closely with our external PC development partner to make sure these issues get resolved as quickly as possible.”
Destiny developer Bungie sparked controversy this week as it became known that some in-game items would only be available with the purchase of Destiny: The Taken King’s Collector’s Edition.
Several class items, shaders, and emotes were to be locked behind the $80 purchase, meaning that current players would have to buy the base game and first two expansions again to get those items. Yesterday, I wrote an editorial about how Bungie should fix this by letting loyal players get this content in a different way.
Collector’s Edition content
Bungie listened to the criticism and today in its Weekly Update announced that the digital items in the Collector’s Edition would be available as a purchase outside of that version of the game. The Taken King creative director Luke Smith explained that players will be able to buy a $20 upgrade to the $40 expansion to get that digital content. In other words, players who own the base game and its previous expansions can pay $60 to get The Taken King, the class items, the shaders, and the emotes.
Players who have reached level 30 or have played both prior expansions will still rank as VIPs and will receive some exclusive rewards. You can see the VIP shader, emblem, and sparrow below:
The Taken King launches in September, and it will feature a new raid, some strikes, a new story, and multiplayer changes and additions. Check out our previews of the multiplayer and the story.
![Batman: Arkham Knight PC Problems Reported [Update 8]](https://playerschoicegames.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/2893166-4163891961-batma1.jpg)
