FINAL FANTASY XIV ONLINE’S AWARD-WINNING HEAVENSWARD EXPANSION GOES FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME

FINAL FANTASY XIV ONLINE’S AWARD-WINNING HEAVENSWARD EXPANSION GOES FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME

FINAL FANTASY XIV ONLINE’S AWARD-WINNING HEAVENSWARD EXPANSION GOES FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME

A Realm Reborn Owners and Starter Pack Players to Obtain for Free

Sydney, 3rd May 2019 – SQUARE ENIX® is today announcing Heavensward™, the award-winning first expansion pack for critically-acclaimed MMO FINAL FANTASY® XIV Online, will be free to select players for a limited time.

From today until 27th June, owners of base game A Realm Reborn™ or the FINAL FANTASY XIV Online Starter Edition on Windows, Mac, and the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system will be able to add Heavensward to their account to keep in perpetuity. Players will get access to flying mounts, three additional jobs, Dark Knight, Astrologian, and Machinist, an additional playable race: the Au Ra, and more.

In Heavensward, The Warriors of Light journey to Ishgard ─ a city-state mired in a thousand-year conflict with the dragons of the Dravanian Horde. Can our heroes uncover the ancient truths buried in Ishgard’s bloody history and help bring an end to the Dragonsong War? Can the Warriors of Light cast off the shadows that darken the realm?

As an additional bonus, anyone choosing to take advantage of the offer will gain access to all content additions and main scenario updates from the Heavensward patch cycle, including an array of dungeons, trials, side-quests and more:

• 3.1 - As Goes Light So Goes Darkness
• 3.2 - The Gears of Change
• 3.3 - Revenge of the Horde
• 3.4 - Soul Surrender
• 3.5 - The Far Edge of Fate

The trailer for FINAL FANTASY XIV: Heavensward can be viewed here.

Heavensward being free coincides with the ongoing Free Login Campaign, which runs until 17th June and gives lapsed players seven free days of gametime to come back and enjoy Eorzea. More information can be found here.

The offer gives players the perfect chance to jump back into the world of FINAL FANTASY XIV Online ahead of the launch of its upcoming third expansion, Shadowbringers™, the trailer for which can be viewed here. 

Players may pre-order all versions of Shadowbringers at the official pre-order website here.

Related Links

• Shadowbringers Teaser Site: http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com/shadowbringers/
• The Lodestone®: http://eu.finalfantasyxiv.com
• Official Facebook®: https://www.facebook.com/FinalFantasyXIV 
• Official Twitter®: @FF_XIV_EN

TOM CLANCY’S GHOST RECON® WILDLANDS ANNOUNCES NEW STORY CONTENT, OPERATION ORACLE, COMING MAY

TOM CLANCY’S GHOST RECON® WILDLANDS ANNOUNCES NEW STORY CONTENT, OPERATION ORACLE, COMING MAY 

TOM CLANCY’S GHOST RECON^® WILDLANDS ANNOUNCES NEW STORY CONTENT, OPERATION ORACLE, COMING MAY 2

Play Ghost Recon Wildlands for Free from May 2 to May 5

Today, Ubisoft announced that Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon^® Wildlands will introduce Operation Oracle, a new narrative arc containing two free missions on May 2 on PlayStation^®4 computer entertainment system, the Xbox One family of devices including Xbox One X and Windows PC. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands will be free to play from May 2 to May 5 across all platforms, allowing all players to access the full game, including Operation Oracle.

To watch trailer click image below

Playable in single-player or co-op, Operation Oracle sends the Ghosts on a rescue mission for a Skell Tech engineer taken hostage by Unidad. This typical rescue mission will soon turn into something much bigger. Forget what you know about your enemies and friends as you meet Cole D. Walker, a Ghost Team Leader on the hunt for truth.

Operation Oracle comes after two years of substantial post-launch support for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands and follows the completion of Year 2, which brought four free major updates to the game further expanding the Ghost Recon universe.

Players will be able to pre-load the game May 1 on Uplay PC and PlayStation^®4 system before the free weekend starts on May 2. All progress will carry over to the full game if players purchase the full game. Please visit http://ghostrecon.com/freeweekend for downloads and detailed timings and information.

Developed by Ubisoft Paris,* Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands is a military shooter entirely playable in up to four-player co-op or single-player from beginning to end. Players have total freedom to accomplish their missions how they want and watch as the world reacts to their actions. Players can choose to move quietly in the night, go in hot at dawn or work together to execute a sync shot that takes out enemies in one fell swoop. Each choice has a consequence, and players must improvise or adapt their plans to ensure the completion and success of each mission. Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands Ghost War allows players to live the ultimate co-op experience in 4v4 modes. Featuring a growing roster of classes, maps and modes, Ghost War focuses on teamwork, strategy and tense tactical engagements.

For more information about Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands, please visit ghostrecon.com, follow us on twitter.com/ghostrecon orfacebook.com/ghostrecon and join the conversation by using #ghostrecon.

For the latest about Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands and other Ubisoft games, please visit news.ubisoft.com.

The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps: Film Review

The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps: Film Review

Director: Julia Parnell

A good documentary piques your interest in your subject, answers your questions and gives you insight; a great documentary makes you fall in love with your subject, makes you aware of something you never knew of before, and sends you scuttling to find out more.

Sadly, to those outside of New Zealand and never around for the key moments of the Chills, The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps is a documentary that falls into the slightly lacking if you don't already have pre-knowledge of your subject.

What director..... is aiming to do is at best, present a tale of someone who went through the musical machine and has hit the highs and the lows, and get them to reflect back on it. Throw in a medical character arc for Phillipps as well as the feeling there's a lot of unfinished business and it could, in all honesty, have been an intriguing meditation on the merits and perils of the industry and those who are chewed up and spit out.

But what The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps doesn't manage to do is fully convey the reasons why the band were so beloved, other than to show repeated amounts of concert footage attended by hardly anyone and have members of the band state they were so great. Earlier contributions from the likes of Neil Finn are quickly phased out, in lieu of spending time with Phillipps as he deals with the fallout from Hepatitis C and reflections back on some of his work.

It's here the humanity of the piece comes out; of a man who's lost his way a little, who's filled his house with inexorable amounts of junk masquerading as collections, and of a man whose desire to be arty sees him spray painting mummified cats. And it's here the most interesting kernels of the film emerge, only to be left - upon leaving this film, I still have no full idea why Phillipps is so alone in his darkest days, other than hints of how his behaviour pushed others away.

That's the prime gripe of The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps: it forces you to make assumptions about its enigmatic subject and proffers you hints of what artistry demands of you within the business.

Whilst it's nicely shot, conveys both the merits and perils of its Dunedin setting thanks to Phillipps' cluttered house and the pressure cooker weather elements, The Chills: The Triumph and Tragedy of Martin Phillipps is a frustratingly indecisive watch; by failing to take a stance on its subject, it's sadly too obtuse to be anything more than niche appeal.

The Aftermath: Film Review

The Aftermath: Film Review

Cast: Keira Knightley, Jason Clarke, Alexander Skarsgard
Director:

"The butler did it. It's always the butler."

It's a line spoken to Keira Knightley's Rachel as her husband Lewis (Clarke) apologises for the destruction of the Agatha Christie novel she's been reading.

But, as this story of life in Hamburg after the end of World War II progresses, and the love affair between former houseowner and German Lubert (Skarsgard) and Knightley burns, it's an apt comparison.

The truth of The Aftermath, based on the book of the same name, is that it's a film that feels lacklustre in its execution, its passions muted when really they should burn fervently within. Which is a shame as this is a story so rarely told in its early act.

It's an intriguing tale - the aftermaths of the title refer to many things within the movie; the aftermath of the war, the aftermath of grief affecting Rachel and Lubert, the aftermath of growing up for Lubert's daughter, the aftermath of a regime fall - it's all potent stuff to be stirred up and to be used for dramatic effect.

But for all of Knightley's intentions, her Rachel is petulant, icy, angry and unlikeable, her situation not intolerable, but her attitude just quite repugnant. Knightley does shine in moments, but given the script services her with moments that are simply meant to happen rather than organically evolve, the film's crippled in many ways.

Most effective in all this is Clarke, whose restrained and gradually overwhelmed colonel trying to be a shining beacon of decency is a real highlight in the movie. Moments where his humanity rises to the top in the face of all they deal with in Hamburg are critical to the stark and stilted moments elsewhere.

Ultimately, The Aftermath may be a slickly delivered period piece, but it's one that falls into the bland category far too quickly, with plots feeling rote, underwritten and underdelivered.

Long Shot: Film Review

Long Shot: Film Review

Cast: Seth Rogen, Charlize Theron, O'Shea Jackson Jr, Alexander Skarsgard, June Diane Raphael, Andy Serkis
Director: Jonathan Levine

Imagine a wish-fulfillment West Wing romcom, set in the Seth Rogen Cinematic Stoner Universe that's mixed with heart and humour - and highs.

That in a nutshell is what Long Shot is.

Rogen stars as principled, but out-of-work journalist Fred Flarsky, who bumps into his former babysitter-turned-US-Secretary-of-State Charlotte Field (Theron) by accident at a party.

With a friendship rekindled, and with Field deciding to run for the presidency, Flarsky's recruited to the team as a speech-writer, much to the chagrin of Field's closest aides...

A little too long at two hours, Long Shot is a film which combines the usual Rogen stoner antics and outrageous crass moments and pairs them up with the kind of romantic elements previously seen before in many odd couple movies.

But whereas Rogen usually dials up the schlubby elements in his films, it's pleasing to note that in Flarsky's interactions with Field, rather than with his bros, there's a genuine warmth and feeling of an old relationship floating around. It helps build a plausibility for a romance that frankly is the classic out-of-your-league kind of material.

The film's other great strength is Theron.

Displaying an empathy and delivering many quips, Theron's the beating heart of Long Shot, a portrait of a woman who has it all, but whose inevitable path to romance is not to her character's detriment.

There's something of a Notting Hill style romance in here as well, but sparked through with R18 edges. Skarsgard trades well on a parody of Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, one who has looks but little else behind the eyes and toothy grin.

It's not to say that Long Shot doesn't misfire from time to time - but it does so while dispensing some strong unexpected laughs during proceedings.

Occasionally, a tonal shift into drama is delivered with a cinematic whiplash that's hard to shake and the whole thing could easily lose some 20 minutes of its meandering in the final strait, but overall, the heart of Long Shot is hard to deny.

It may be a riff on the odd matched romcoms of the 80s, but given its commitment to two likeable leads and a few sentimental edges which benefit from a sharpness, Long Shot proves to be a deeply enjoyable movie to shake us all out of a mid-winter malaise.

The Favourite: Blu Ray Review

The Favourite: Blu Ray Review

Building on the comic unease that's helped Yorgos Lanthimos carve a career and saw him hit a more mainstream audience with The Lobster, The Favourite emerges late in the year as both a potential award winner and best of the year, thanks to its delicious and devilish nastiness.

Set in the court of Queen Anne (Colman, delivering on multiple fronts and without ever missing a beat) in 18th Century England, it's a story of rivalry and a period piece that's clothed in black humour.
Anne is frail, and Lady Sarah (a curt and crisp Weisz) rules the country in her stead; but when her cousin Abigail (Stone) enters the court looking for work, Lady Sarah finds her world unsettled and the power dynamics changed forever.

The Favourite is a combination of a triptych of actors at their absolute pinnacle, dealing with material that's superlative.

Boiling down a microcosm of social interaction over a two hour period, filtering it through a prism of cutting dialogue and dynamics and then playing it out with gusto, The Favourite's acerbic touches make for greatly rewarding times in the cinema.

Lanthimos' use of fisheye lenses and whip-pan shots within the court are dizzying and exciting, a call to arms for how period movies could be presented.

But it's his actors who make this film what it is. From the fact all of the men within the film are varying degrees of buffoons to Olivia Colman's utterly compelling turn from the start, The Favourite is a delicacy worth devouring.

Balanced with off-kilter humour, and moments that drip with double meaning, Lanthimos builds an atmosphere of uncertainty from the frailties of humanity, picking at insecurities like scabs, and exposing the wounds below.

The central trio are more than worthy of praise, with the cameras lingering on moments that offer glimpses into what's bubbling deep below. This is more than a film that delights in the details, it's one which sees Stone, Weisz and Colman utterly deliver on their characters by offering so much with so little.

Colman in particular delivers a powerhouse performance of pain and conflict, as gout debilitates her and leaves her at the whims of those around her. But she has a fire too when provoked, and Lanthimos' desire to showcase it adds to the power. Stone and Weisz make for delicious sparring partners as the power dynamics shift, and the claws come out.

But The Favourite is more than a film exposing female insecurities and weaknesses; it's a portrait of strength under fire, and a towering movie that is commanding from beginning to end.