2K announces Carnival Games for Nintendo Switch

2K Announces Carnival Games®For Nintendo Switch™

Come one, come all! Whether you’re at home or on the go, Carnival Games® brings 20 exciting family friendly games to the Nintendo Switch for the first time on November 6, 2018 

Sydney, Australia – June 29, 2018 – 2K has announced Carnival Games®, the next entry in the popular franchise that has sold-in over 9.5 million units worldwide, is coming to Nintendo Switch™ for the first time on November 6, 2018.  Built from the ground up for Nintendo Switch, Carnival Games is fun forthe entire family and can be played alone or with up to four players simultaneously, leveraging the unique accessibility of the console’s Joy-Con controllers.  The game features 20 exciting and re-imagined games in four unique alleys that can be played at home or on the go, alone or with family and friends.

Like a real-life county fair, Carnival Games allows players of all ages and experience levels to enjoyclassic games like ring toss (“Post Master”) and alley ball horse racing (“Roll-R-Derby”), as well as brand new attractions like drone racing (“Light Speed”) and cosmic bowling (“Cosmic Strike”).  Four uniquely themed alleys – Jungle Lane, Saturn Station, Vulture Gulch and Nuts & Bolts – provide a different look and feel for the games within them.  Players have the chance to win tickets by playing any of the 20 games and redeem them for new games and outfits for their customizable carnival guest characters.

Carnival Games will be available on Nintendo Switch for $69.99 in Australia and $79.99 in New Zealand on November 6, 2018.  Developed by Mass Media Games, Carnival Games is rated G by the Australian Classification Board. For more information on Carnival Games, subscribe on YouTube, follow us on Twitter, become a fan on Facebook and visit http://www.2K.com/carnivalgames.

2K is a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. (NASDAQ: TTWO).

Overwatch: New Hero Wrecking Ball Now Live on PTR

New Hero Wrecking Ball Now Live on PTR

Be warned, heroes:

“Do not anger the hamster!”

Rolling into the fray with his newly upgraded battle mech, the champion of the Scrapyard—Wrecking Ball—our newest Tank hero, is ready to flatten foes and bulldoze frontlines on his way to victory!

Overview

Hammond, also known as “Specimen 8,” was genetically modified during his time on Horizon Lunar Colony and, like Winston, was granted increased size and intelligence as a result. He is a witty and conniving creature that loves to cause mischief. During the rebellion on Horizon, he secretly attached his escape pod to the back of Winston’s ship, hitching a ride to planet Earth to save himself from imminent destruction. He crash-landed in the Australian Outback near Junkertown, and over time upgraded his escape pod into a formidable mech, soon becoming a force to be reckoned with known as Wrecking Ball. He doesn’t speak any human languages, but his mech automatically translates his voice in a fittingly menacing tone.

Wrecking Ball brings a plethora of unique traits to the roster of tanks available in Overwatch. He can switch between a bipedal Combat mode with high-capacity machine guns and a Roll mode allowing him to cruise through maps and enemies alike with great speed. Entering the fray, his large health pool and shield-generating capabilities give him resilience when initiating and finishing battles. If that wasn’t scary enough, he can climb and swing on surfaces using his Grappling Claw and perform Piledrive, a devastating ground smash, to enemies below. In addition to setting up Piledrive, Wrecking Ball’s Grappling Claw enables him to reach top speed. Top speed increases his basic movement speed, damaging and knocking back foes in his path. His ultimate ability Minefield is just as versatile, allowing him to set a trap and control routes, or simply trigger a large area-of-effect explosion for enemies in the immediate vicinity.

Abilities

• Quad Cannons: Wrecking Ball fires machine guns
• Adaptive Shield: Grants Wrecking Ball a number of temporary shields based on the number of enemies nearby
• Roll: Wrecking Ball transforms into a sphere with increased speed
• Grappling Claw: While in Roll mode, Wrecking Ball can launch a short grappling hook to attach to surfaces, swing around, clear gaps, and move upwards. Using this ability allows Wrecking Ball to gain momentum , dealing damage and knocking back enemies upon impact
• Piledriver: Wrecking Ball slams down from the air, pulling enemies towards the center of impact and dealing damage
• Minefield (Ultimate): Wrecking Ball litters the ground around him with damage-dealing proximity mines

Wrecking Ball is now live in the PTR! To learn more, please visit: https://playoverwatch.com/en-us/news/21901631

Wrecking Ball’s new Origin video can be found here:  https://youtu.be/ZwC1AYAa2H4

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Available Now on Nintendo Switch

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus Available Now on Nintendo Switch

We are pleased to announce that Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is now available worldwide on Nintendo Switch. Spearheaded by veteran studio Panic Button with guidance from MachineGames, players can now experience the complete, uncensored, award-winning story and signature gameplay whenever and wherever they want. 

In Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, players take on the role of BJ Blazkowicz to experience an action-packed story, brought to life by extraordinary characters. Reunite with friends and fellow freedom fighters as they take on the evil Frau Engel and her Nazi army. With the Nintendo Switch, players can wage the second American Revolution at home or on the go. Swiftly and efficiently eliminate the Nazi threat with full motion aiming support for Joy-Con and Pro Controllers in the perfect blend of immersion and accuracy.

Winner of multiple awards, including Video Game Awards’ ‘Best Action Game of 2017’, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus is rated M for mature by the ESRB and is priced at $59.99 for Nintendo Switch. For more information, visit https://wolfenstein.bethesda.net/.

The Mercy: DVD Review

The Mercy: DVD Review

The name Donald Crowhurst may not mean much to many.

But The Theory of Everything's director is aiming to change that with this intriguingly melancholy and cautionary tale of hubris.

A failing inventor and salesman in the 1960s, a contemplative Crowhurst (a sincere Firth) decides to take on the 1968 Sunday Times Golden Globe Race to prove something to himself and to leave a legacy.

The round-the-globe race would see the amateur sailor granted fame and his family and help boost their family out of the financial mire.

So, with a not sea-worthy boat and a headful of doubt, as well as saddled with debt, Crowhurst sets out to fulfill his burning desire to do something with his life.

And along with a publicist plotting everything on land (a bullish Thewlis), Crowhurst finds the pressure building...

The thing about The Mercy is, much like Robert Redford's flashier All Is Lost, it's essentially all about the demons of a man left at the mercy of the elements and with only his own thoughts to spend time with.

Whereas All Is Lost was a little more of a traditional film, complete with danger, The Mercy's melancholy is the one over-riding element, as it washes over in the final back half of the film.

The tragic atmosphere's greatly helped by Marsh's sound team, who amplify the creaking of the mast, the lapping of the sea and the constant drip of water to maximum effect, building a soundscape which goes some way to giving an insight into Crowhurst's descending state of mind.

Whereas the first third of the relatively short film devotes an inordinate amount of time to telling backstory and simply presenting it with clunking ease, the rest of the film allows the actors the time to shine.

Particularly Weisz, whose initial appearances as a supportive wife are thankless at best - and superfluous at worst.

Aside from one awkward CGI presentation of great swells which appears to be cast offs from Mark Wahlberg's The Perfect Storm, the simplicity of the presentation of life on the sea gives the ever-reliable and always relatable Firth the chance to offer a subtle and nuanced turn as the woefully inept Crowhurst starts to face the reality of his situation.

Despite what Thewlis' PR person bellows early on, ("it's a story of derring do, waiting to be told,") The Mercy is not that kind of film.

Maudlin and with some narrative edges that will require leaps if you're not familiar with the events that transpired for Crowhurst, it's a once over lightly psychological piece that skirts with the psyche of sailing rather than fully diving deeply in. Something which becomes deeply more evident in the film's final straight.

The Mercy never quite achieves the insight into Crowhurst that perhaps it's aiming for, but in translating the smaller details to the bigger screen, it's a little more successful than you'd expect, but also a little more disappointing if you're after something more substantial as it strays from its course. 

Winchester: DVD Review

Winchester: DVD Review

Anchored in a potentially intriguing concept, The Spierig Brother's haunted house spooker Winchester is an exercise in genre ticking and trope crossing off.

Clark plays Dr Eric Price, a psychologist mired in guilt after the death of his wife, and fired up to the eyeballs in laudanum to try and cope with the day to day.

When he's called on to provide an assessment of Helen Mirren's Sarah Winchester, the proprietor of the Winchester Repeating Arms company, he's lured in by the promise of clearing all his debt for an easy job.

But Winchester's elusive, claiming a curse is hitting the house she's constantly having renovated - and as Price's time in the mansion continues, he begins to suspect she's right and that he's been chosen to be brought in...

Winchester has a kernel of an idea which could have hit the spot.

A gun company's owner plagued with guilt over the deaths of those at the hands of the weaponry she peddles and makes her fortune upon.

It's a great psychological idea, one which was ripe for a "What's real, what's not" approach.

Unfortunately, The Spierig Brothers, who delivered brilliantly with Predestination, seem more determined to fill the house with cliches and jump scares, that are rote, predictable and offer nothing new.

While they make reasonable fist of some of the atmospherics and some of the location, they wrap the whole thing up in a non-scary sheen that the only frightful thing going on is the level to which Helen Mirren and Jason Clark have sunk taking part in this clunker of a wannabe haunted house flick.
Mirren plays Winchester like a medium, swathed in black mourning gear, and with frightful pauses where there need not be. She lends Winchester the requisite dignity, but the script does her no favours.

Equally, Clark does what he can with a script that requires him to react. The direction even squanders the chance to offer some doubt over what he sees once he's taken his drugs, preferring to coat the whole thing in a blaring OST that signposts every single one of the beats of what lies ahead.

Ultimately, Winchester is far from scary - and the whole thing leaves you feeling the directors have wasted their considerable talents on a story that should have dabbled in ambiguity and doubt, but instead opted for generic and rote horror cliches. 

Incredibles 2: Film Review

Incredibles 2: Film Review

Vocal cast: Craig Nelson, Holly Hunter, Bob Odenkirk, Catherine Keener, Samuel L Jackson
Director: Brad Bird

What to say about Incredibles 2 that's not already been said from a multi-million dollar US Box office take and glowing reviews?

Starting the sequel just moments after the original ended nearly a decade and a half ago is a fairly bold move for an animated film that rarely rocks the boat in terms of storytelling but produces a terrific family flick that's well worth your time.

In the latest, when superheroes are outlawed for the mess they make, the Parrs face a life where the world doesn't want them.

But they're offered a lifeline when the wealthy Deavor siblings offer them the chance to make superheroes great again by using Elastigirl and some body cameras to show the world what they can do.

So, reluctantly, Mr Incredible steps back and into the role of domesticity while Elastigirl faces a new enemy - the Screenslaver.

Incredibles 2 ticks all the boxes for animation, blockbuster and family fare. (Even if parts feel distinctly more aimed at adults).

While its 2 hour running time and some obvious plot points stand out, Bird's commitment to ensuring a modern day pastiche of spy drama from the 60s is more than commendable. From a big band OST from Michael Giacchino that is all brass and bluster to spy shenanigans, Incredibles 2 certainly zings as it zags.

From its action opening to some terrifically executed set pieces (Elastigirl vs a train being a well conceived highlight), the film never loses the audience from deep within its thrall. It's also smart enough to give baby Jack-Jack a raccoon nemesis and sequence that feels like an ACME  cum Scrat short film within the film to amuse the younger ends of the audience.

It's fair to say that perhaps the Parr family kids are a little underused - Dash, certainly, and Violet's slumped with a boy problem - but the film's commitment to female forward thinking is obvious from the start.

Slyly commentating on how stay-at-home mums do it all (Mr Parr ends up looking even more weary as the film goes on and he tries to juggle three kids) while putting Hunter's Elastigirl front and centre of it all is the film's smart modus operandi. And it's not just men who save the day here, but a family who pull together to make the difference - again, another positive message for those of all ages and of parenting role models.

And there is commentary on how we're slaves to our screens too - it may have taken nigh on 15 years but Incredibles 2 hasn't held back from embracing the world as it is.

But make no mistake, while Incredibles 2 has sly intentions painted throughout its DNA, its veritable cinematic chutzpah is never in doubt either - it's a film committed to entertaining and does so terrifically throughout.

Sicario: Day Of The Soldado: Film Review

Sicario: Day Of The Soldado: Film Review

Cast: Josh Brolin, Benicio Del Toro, Jeffrey Donovan,  Catherine Keener, Isabela Moner
Director: Stefano Sollima

The start of Sicario: Rise of the Soldado plays out like some kind of fever dream for current events, discussions and a wet dream for US President Donald Trump.

Under the watchful night eye of a US squad, a group of hopeful migrants race toward the US border - but their fleeing freedom is stopped by soldiers. However, surrounded, one of them reveals they're wearing a suicide vest, before detonating it. Moments later, a group of nondescript men walk into a supermarket, and blow themselves up.

Visually, it's shocking and terrifyingly present as well as prescient.

Yet, unlike the opening of the original 2015 Sicario where bodies in walls were discovered, it lacks the subtlety of horror and sets the stage for what loosely could be defined as a Call Of Duty: Cartels version of the movie.

Returning once again are Josh Brolin's gruff Matt Graver who teams up with Benicio Del Toro's Alejandro as events begin to unfold. With the US Government deciding to sanction an illegal kidnapping operation to spiral a war between the cartels, the duo are thrust into the middle of proceedings as leader and recruit respectively.

However, as the operation goes on, the duo find their allegiances and their quests tested.

There's no denying the tension of the grim and gritty Sicario: Rise of the Soldado. Scenes unfold with sickening dread and as the knotty politics play out, there's a feeling that what's happening is not going to end well.

Wiry and spry, Del Toro is excellent, as is Brolin, whose actions convey more than his words could. In fact, both these two do more with less throughout as the spiralling threads of the web unravels - minimalism may be the soldier's way but these two make it watchable and compelling throughout.

And while the film's executed well, it feels less fresh and enticing as 2015's Sicario did. It lacks the addition of an innocent face in proceedings (as provided by Blunt's agent in the first flick) and consequently becomes a grim exploration of politics, rather than the human touch brought by the first.

There are elements of that humanity within Moner's performance, as she goes from hard-bitten scrapper-in-the-school-yard to victim of her father's connections, but it's nowhere near as strong as the previous narrative.

Sollima (TV's Gomorra) strings together a series of overhead shots, convoy tensions and scenes of conflict with certain directorial flair (even if the menacing OST drowns things out at times) and despite some grim humour, the film grips but never fully suffocates as the first did.

There are a collision of seemingly disparate but ultimately interconnected threads, but disappointingly, a last act moment loses power by the lack of courage of conviction of the writers.

This is a world that shocks, and to lessen the shocks of one such consequence is a disappointment and is one that shows the film to lack the cojones and volatility it needs.

Make no mistake though, Sicario: Rise of the Soldado is no less a compelling watch because of it, but the strength and power of the first Sicario still outshines what feels like a story that wants to shock and outrage but lacks the finesse to fully do so on a narrative front.