“We don’t want people to see how we live!” An Australian poster for this film from the 2013 Sundance Film Festival arrived not too long ago, and now Infinitely Polar Bear, starring Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana, is poised for release in the United States this summer, and a domestic trailer has arrived. This is a charming, albeit schmaltzy, drama about a husband and father struggling with being manic depressive in the late 70s as he tries to keep his family together at all costs. His daughters seem to be more responsible than him, but he does the best with the mind that he has. Ruffalo really puts in a great performance. Watch! ›››
It seemed a little weird that when the rest of the character posters for The Avengers: Age of Ultron were released before the third trailer arrived that Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) and Quicksilver (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) didn’t get their own posters, especially since they were featured on the theatrical posters with the whole team. But it looks like they’re just arriving a little late as the siblings each get their own poster. As we’ve seen in the trailer, they initially are working with Ultron (James Spader) and cause trouble for our heroes, but then end up joining them in the end. I’m interested to see what makes them turn. ›››
Last summer, we learned that Horrible Bosses and Ray star Jamie Foxxwould be getting into the boxing ring to play iconic boxer Mike Tyson in a biopic that will be written by “Boardwalk Empire” creator and The Wolf of Wall Street scribe Terence Winter. Since then we haven’t heard anything regarding the development of the project, but Foxx recently appeared on Power 105’s radio program The Breakfast Club (via Uproxx) and he revealed that Martin Scorsese will be directing, marking a return to the sport after being behind the camera for the classic Raging Bull. And this Mike Tyson project just got really interesting. ›››
Amazon has the best new deal of the day, offering Wolfenstein: The New Order for $23 on the PlayStation 4 and $24 on Xbox One. It’s a great opportunity to pick up on the game and catch up before the release of the standalone expansion, Wolfenstein: The Old Blood.
Below you’ll find the rest of today’s best deals divided by platform:
Amazon prices are accurate as of publishing, but can fluctuate occasionally throughout the day.
GameSpot’s gaming deals posts always highlight the best deals we can find regardless of retailer. We also occasionally use retailer affiliate links, which means that purchasing goods through those links helps support all the great content (including the deals posts) you find for free here on the site. Got questions? Email news@gamespot.com or ask us in the comments!
I can’t avoid fate. I have turned down opportunities to play Bloodborne multiple times and have averted my eyes when I saw videos and articles on From Software’s upcoming role-playing adventure. It springs from a structure introduced by Demon’s Souls, and arguably perfected by Dark Souls, the game that proudly stands as my favorite of its console generation. I write this after returning from a visit to PlayStation headquarters just outside of San Francisco, where I clouded my previously clear eyes with the entrails of Bloodborne’s fantastical creatures. Soon enough, I will be in possession of the full game. And now I understand that I must unlearn some of the lessons Dark Souls taught me before I thrust myself into this difficult journey.
The span I played took me through a chalice dungeon–that is, an optional dungeon you enter by performing a particular ritual with a chalice, and which can be conquered on your own or with others. Some of these dungeons will be procedurally generated, snapping modules together into exploration spaces that house great danger. The dungeon I entered was wholly designed, however, leading me into its depths one level at a time, and gating my progress behind doors that required me to pull levers elsewhere in the area to open, and behind grotesque bosses that had me yelling out in terror, much to the chagrin/delight of the Sony representatives viewing my play session.
My usual reliance on brawn and bulk was the first Souls game inclination I had to unlearn. Flailing mutants and diseased rats needed to be vanquished, but there was no shield to hide behind. Instead, I wielded weapons in both hands, and could easily switch between two right-handed blades with the press of a button. In my left hand was a shotgun, which could do some damage from a moderate distance, but which (of course) provided more offensive power up close. I could also hold a torch aloft in place of my gun, which was a boon when the corridors darkened. (If you are worried that Bloodborne would make torches as pointless as they were in Dark Souls II’s original release, you can rest your mind in that regard.) However, it was the blades, in tandem with my firearm, that saw the most onscreen action.
With this setup, there was no chance to absorb the damage and counter with my own weighty blows. I had to stay on the move, not blocking, but tumbling in whichever direction would best help me avoid damage. But take damage I most certainly did, and while I had a plentiful supply of health potions to quaff, it is by doing damage that I was able to in turn mitigate the damage done to me. Once you take a hit, you have time to regain lost health by landing attacks against your attackers. This mechanic encourages aggressive, mobile play, and while I don’t know that I ever fully came to grips with the combat’s rhythms, I was soon able to put aside my usual Souls game tactics and embrace a new way to do battle.
This isn’t to say that I still didn’t proceed carefully. Some of the enemies are even more mobile than you are, and charge forward with gusto. One such foe was a fat demon I expected would stop, drop, and roll in the manner of his Dark Souls II cousins. Well, he performed that move, all right–in addition to a dash so quick that I could barely get my bearings. Ammo isn’t infinite, so offing him with a few careful shots wasn’t an option, and I had already used up the molotov cocktails I started with. I died. It wasn’t the first time I’d perished during the demo, but it was the first encounter that had me crying out a particular four-letter word that would make my mother blush.
I’d been shouting out other curses, though, even in the first, relatively simple area, where both Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls were each represented in their own ways. In one area, I had to cross a narrow bridge above which giant axes swung. I was taken back to Dark Souls’ Sen’s Fortress, though my greatest nemesis here wasn’t a swinging axe, but instead the lanky demon that flung a dart into me, which in turn sent me reeling–once into the axes, and once off the bridge completely. (Down below, I was monster meat in about half a second.) Demon’s Souls came to mind when I encountered bell-ringing witches, though thankfully, they were not mind flayers. Instead, they continuously summoned more gangly demons from the bowels of hell until I destroyed them.
Three bosses stood between me and final conquest. The first was the kind of gargantuan flesh demon I’d come to expect from Souls games, and it didn’t take too much effort to end its existence with some well-timed dodges and swings. The second and third encounters were standouts, however. The second boss encounter set me against three rotund attackers at once, one of which had his own firearm at hand. Luckily, the three-tiered arena allowed me to separate them by leading them up and down opposite sets of stairs, and while it took me a couple of tries, I had soon defeated two of them, leaving the shotgunner for last. To annihilate him, I hid behind a pillar and popped out to slash away before tumbling back to safety. Eventually, he ran out of ammo, and chased me around with a giant club until I sent him back to whatever circle of hell he came from.
The final boss was an ancient guard dog, a flaming pup who found all number of ways to burn me to a crisp. It was here that I really began to appreciate how well Bloodborne’s combat arenas supported its fundamentally agile gameplay systems. The canine could spread bubbling lava from its mouth, and while there was plenty of room to steer clear, the dog could cover a lot of distance very quickly, which in turn could send me rolling into lava when I tried to avoid it. I also came to appreciate the game’s fluid weapon-switching: when he would swing his head towards me, I could get in a swing of my longer, heavier cleaver, while my smaller blade was most helpful when he paused to coat the ground with fire, and I could swing multiple times before dashing to safety.
It was a tense and eerie gameplay session, with each new enemy crushing my soul as I gripped the controller. One creature–a looming skeletal arthropod–looked like an ancient fossil come to life, and several of them lobbed balls of fire towards me. It was a phenomenal sight and a challenging area, given that I had to deal with bell-ringers and other adversaries in addition to the fireball-spewing freaks. But once I learned to close the distance and flail away on the skittering things’ tails, they weren’t long for this world. And so it will go in the full game, I imagine: moving through the darkness and fog, and discovering new ways to destroy whatever gross brute stands in your path. We’ll know soon enough–and I am already stocking up on anti-anxiety medicine in anticipation.
Rockstar Games has released a Title Update to the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 3 versions of Grand Theft Auto V, which should make it more stable online, the developer has said.
Rockstar said the update includes “fixes for GTA Online to improve stability, and other minor fixes for both GTA Online and Story Mode.”
If you’re playing Grand Theft Auto V on Xbox One or Xbox 360, Rockstar said that it’s working on releasing the update on those platforms as soon as possible. To be notified via email as soon as there’s more information about the update, log into Rockstar’s support site and subscribe at the top of the page.
The Heists mode is described as “massive, multi-layered, 4-player co-operative missions” where players will work together to take on a number of jobs similar to the way they did in the main Grand Theft Auto V campaign.
There are five total Heists available in GTA Online right now including an “introductory” Heist that can be played by two people instead of four. For a full rundown of what to expect from Heists, check out the video above and GameSpot’s previous coverage.
You’ve probably heard a lot about Star Citizen at this point, but unless you backed the first-person universe game‘s crowdfunding campaign, you haven’t been able to play it. Until now.
Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium Games was at the PAX East convention last weekend, where it handed out codes that give players access to parts of the game for free for a limited time. Even if you weren’t there, you can still enter a code to get the same access.
You’ll have to create a free Star Citizen client on the game’s website, then go to this page, and enter the code PAXEASTFREEFLY2K15.
This will let you walk around the Hangar Module and sit in an Anvil Hornet F7C trainer ship that you can then take into flight in Arena Commander, a multiplayer and wave-based, combat oriented mode. Once activated the pass is valid until March 15, 2015.
Sony has posted a new trailer for Bloodborne titled “Undone by the Blood,” and it’s fully loaded with creepy things like giant monster pigs, a gravelly-voiced narrator, and crying babies.
The trailer mostly includes footage of things we’ve already seen in the coverage leading up to launch, including giant boss monsters (the Darkbeast makes an appearance), the game’s gothic environments, a variety of ranged and melee weapons, and what looks like a glimpse at player-versus-player gameplay, which developer From Software detailed last week.
The trailer was first spotted on PlayStation Japan’s YouTube channel, which called it a launch trailer. That certainly makes sense, as the greatly anticipated PlayStation 4-exclusive and Dark Souls successor is nearly upon us.
Rome wasn’t built in a day, but I’m starting to get the impression that Cities: Skylinesplayers could’ve made it happen. The game’s only been out for a few days and someone’s already made an eerily accurate recreation of Grand Theft Auto V‘s Los Santos.
There’s no getting around it: a lot of modern, graphically intense games look kinda same-y. At a glance, it can be hard to tell the difference. But show me a shot of the Mass Effect series and I’ll instantly be like, “Yeah, that’s Mass Effect.” Why? A single shape that’s everywhere.
