Battlefield™ V Open Beta will begin on...

 Battlefield™ V Open Beta will begin on...

EA ANNOUNCES BATTLEFIELD V OPEN BETA WILL BEGIN SEPTEMBER 4 FOR EARLY ACCESS, SEPTEMBER 6 FOR ALL

In Partnership with NVIDIA, DICE Showcases Stunning Real-Time Ray Tracing in Battlefield V Powered by All-New GeForce RTXTM GPUs

SYDNEY, Australia - August 21, 2018 - This evening before gamescom DICE announced that the Battlefield™ V Open Beta will begin on September 4 for early access* and September 6 for all players on Origin™ for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation®4. The Open Beta will showcase the soon-to-be-iconic Rotterdam map on Conquest mode as well as the Arctic Fjord map on both Conquest and Grand Operations. Revealed just last week, the Rotterdam map will immerse players in a battle fought throughout the streets of Holland where the game’s dynamic physicality and destruction will be on full display. New to the Battlefield franchise, Grand Operations is a multiplayer experience across multiple maps and modes that that takes players through a powerful narrative journey inspired by historical events. All of this Open Beta content can be previewed by attendees of gamescom this week, where it will be playable in Hall 6 on the showfloor on PC and Xbox One X.

NBA 2K19 - MyTEAM

NBA 2K19 - MyTEAM

MyTEAM Trailer

Click the image below to see the trailer

New Character Creation trailer for Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

New Character Creation trailer for Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

New Character Creation trailer for Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition

One of the most expansive and immersive RPG experiences is just around the corner from launching and we’re excited to share a final glimpse of Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition ahead of the game’s release on August 31, 2018 for the PlayStation® 4 and Xbox One.

Today’s trailer features a look at the detailed character creation mechanics, where players can choose from six unique origin plots, as well as additional footage of crafting, conversation choices, and a taste of the game’s newly expanded dialogue – also featured in the game’s completely re-written third chapter.

Players also get a look at battle gameplay, including all new moves, spells, and environments to exploit against enemies’ weaknesses. In addition, the trailer also delivers a look at Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition’s split screen co-op and revamped Arena Mode which features solo gameplay, online multiplayer PVP, and pass-the-controller Hot Seat mode. Arena Mode also introduces 16 characters to the game, including some first-time playable characters such as Malady, Zandalor, and Radeka, each with their own unique set of skills and abilities.

Developed by Larian Studios, Divinity: Original Sin 2 for PC won PC Gamer’s 2017 Game of the Year award and a 2018 British Academy of Film and Television Arts award (BAFTA). Divinity: Original Sin 2 – Definitive Edition is a completely upgraded game, with thousands of tweaks and lifestyle improvements to create the ultimate console experience, including split-screen co-op and a completely rewritten third chapter, as well as beautiful 4K and HDR ready graphics.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 - Definitive Edition‘s Arena Mode aims to offer a slice of tactical turn-based combat outside of its core critically-acclaimed story experience and will be available to players when the game launches on August 31st!

Unsane: DVD Review

Unsane: DVD Review

Lo-fi and a bit grubby in parts, director Steven Soderbergh's Unsane continues both his obsession with psychological pieces and his apparent crusade against medicare in the USA.

The Crown's Claire Foy is Sawyer Valentini, a victim of a stalker in Boston and who's recently moved to Pennsylvania to start anew.
However, troubled by visions of her attacker, David Strine, she heads to Highland Creek Behavioural centre for help - and ends up inadvertently voluntarily checking in for an overnight stay.

Determined to get through the night, Valentini finds her incarceration extended when she lashes out at a guard, believing it to be her stalker.

But, is she crazy?

Unsane's claustrophobic feel contributes much to the overall execution, and anchored by Foy's strong turn, it feels like something likely to get under your skin.

However, the "shot on an iPhone" look and feel occasionally muddies the waters, and numbs the viewer to what's going on - certainly, in the final 15 minutes, Soderbergh seems determined to throw away the Hitchcockian paranoia to achieve nothing but horror shocks.
It's not that these are not effective in the final fun, but merely the number of them thrown at the viewer means each loses impact as the film reaches its hysterical finale.

Soderbergh can't resist throwing in some low level commentary over how medical companies treat facilities and appears to follow up his crusade from Side Effects; it's an interesting slant on it, and would have been all the better had it been fleshed out a little more and threaded a bit better within.

Ultimately, Unsane is anchored by Foy's impressive turn; part victim, part empowerment, she's all class and uncertainty as the pieces don't measure up and the puzzle doesn't quite come together for her.

Soderbergh's Unsane is yet again proof of a director trying to shake things up, and while it's effective in parts, the final execution and narrative decisions made place some of it squarely in capable B-movie territory. 

Win a copy of Samurai Jack The Complete Series

Win a copy of Samurai Jack The Complete Series

To celebrate the release of  Samurai Jack The Complete Series on home release, thanks to Madman Home Entertainment, you can win a copy.

About Samurai Jack

From Genndy Tartakovsky, creator of Dexter's Laboratory and Star Wars: Clone Wars, comes the tale of a young samurai cast far into the future by the evil shape-shifting wizard Aku. 

Join Samurai Jack on his quest to return to the past and undo the destruction that Aku has wrought upon the land. 

With award-winning artwork and intricate, action-packed plots, the many journeys of Samurai Jack are a must for any fan's collection.

To win all you have to do is email your details and the word SAMURAI to this address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Competition closes August 30th

Breath: Blu Ray Review

Breath: Blu Ray Review

A typical coming-of-age tale told in a slightly atypical fashion, former The Mentalist actor Simon Baker steps behind (and in front of) the camera for this adaptation of Tim Winton's book.

Centring on two kids, Pikelet and Loonie (Samson Coulter, sensitive and thoughtful and Ben Spence, instinctive and amusing) growing up in Western Australia in the 70s, Baker's Sando serves as mentor to the duo, helping them take in the waves.

But Sando keeps pushing them to go further, despite the condemnation of his other half Eva (Elizabeth Debicki, in waif and distant form) - however, Pikelet's reticence tests the boundaries of friendship with Loonie and his mentorship with Sando, as well as his own family unit.

Breath is an intriguing piece, simultaneously feeling distant in some of its narrative parts and yet frighteningly cohesive in others, and after reflection.

Perhaps consisting of one too many slow mo surfing or at water shots, Breath can be forgiven its indulgence in the waves of the ocean, thanks to some truly impressive water shots by cinematographer Rick Rifici. Pulsing waves are shot from below the surface, each one bubbling by and each showing the tumult in the relationships; the symbolism is not lost.

Elsewhere, some narrative threads feel a little unexplored; a potential school girlfriend for Pikelet is more dalliance and distraction and family tensions are hinted at rather than endorsed further.

But it's herein that lies the rub for Breath. On reflection after the lights have gone up, these relationships are explored in the way a teenager may approach them - distance helps evaluate what's transpired and why it's that way. Certainly, the relationship between Eva and Sando appears an odd one, a couple of lost souls who've found each other and are ebbing in and out like the flow of the ocean - there's much in Winton's prose that hints and there's much in Baker's restrained direction that offers deeper connections when probed.

In the relationship between the sensitive Pikelet and the gregarious Loonie, Coulter and Spence gel well, each pushing and pulling the tensions where necessary; feeling naturalistic in many ways, and evocative in others, this is a relationship that needs no deeper dissection; it breathes on its own and works well because of it.

"I've never seen men do something so beautiful, so pointless and so elegant" intones Pikelet in his later years - but in many ways, he could be hinting at the relationships that come from growing up; in caressing the tensions, and the triumphs of youth and friendships, Breath inhales deeply on its intensity and strips away its own profundity in places.

Breath is at once a complex beast at times, and yet one that feels familiar and simple, elegiacally executed - in many ways, it's one film that demands further introspection and re-examination. 

Avengers: Infinity War: Blu Ray Review

Avengers: Infinity War: Blu Ray Review

With a cast list as long as the page count of War and Peace, and capping a decade of Marvel films, it apparently has all led to this.

After numerous teases, various hints and gradual reveals, the Avengers, still ruptured after Civil War factions and broken by various continual conflicts, now face their greatest threat - Thanos (Josh Brolin).

A despot of intergalactic infamy, and emerging from the cosmic shadows, Thanos is collecting six Infinity Stones, aka the McGuffins of the franchise which have been glimpsed before.

With the Avengers and their various allies determined to stop Thanos and his army waging war on reality, it looks like this is the battle to end all battles - the fate of Earth, the Avengers collective and existence itself has never been more uncertain.

After countless build ups and the growing feeling that the Marvel Cinematic Universe franchise has become stale with comedy elements undercutting any sense of drama, there's a real feeling that Avengers: Infinity War has to draw a line in the sand, and lay down some stakes for all involved.

For a large part, Avengers: Infinity War walks the tightrope of uncertainty for all the characters you've come to love (thanks to repeated over-exposure over the past decade) and imbues proceedings with an occasional sense of dread for some.

However, the writing keeps a lot of it emotionally grounded with themes of sacrifice and human selfishness and fallibility mingling and bubbling away throughout thanks to some briefly engaging interactions.

But it has to be said, that doesn't stop Avengers: Infinity War from becoming, at times, Avengers: Infinity Bore - nor does it feel like some of the inherent emotional heft falls flat.

With its straight-into-the-action-and-peril proceedings picking directly up from the end of Thor: Ragnarok and the Asgardian survivors facing off a ship from Thanos, the film decides to simply settle a lot of proceedings on the punch-fight-exposition-fight-exposition-fight method.

It's well executed as it bounces around the globe and into space, but there's definitely an over-riding feeling of weariness as the relentless CGI action kicks and smashes its way through (and certainly, a couple of scenes creak under the weight of being generated and rendered).

It tries to fights the curse of quite obvious writing in parts with lots of patently obvious signposting (all of which are too spoilery to discuss) and doesn't quite succeed at times, and there's definitely a feeling of set-up throughout.

As a sense of spectacle, Avengers: Infinity Wardoes deliver what the rabid Marvel fanboys want - a team up of epic proportions and scale and the Russo brothers deliver it mostly with considerable aplomb. Handling the unwieldly character roster with ease, most of the cast get a moment or some time in the spotlight (albeit with brevity and largely through a fight scene or two - and certainly Hulk's reunion with Black Widow is a massive disappointment), and it's a relative reward for the decade of set-up.

The Guardians provide the obligatory (and occasionally annoying) laughs as usual after entering to Rubberband Man, but teeter dangerously close to ripping the stakes' foundations from under proceedings with their flippancy. And disappointingly, Wakanda's involvement feels piecemeal, rote and written to provide a Phantom Menace fight redux sequence in the final act.

However, it's Brolin's motion capture Thanos who impresses most in Avengers: Infinity War.
Built up as a major threat in the preceding films, Thanos is a relatively complex and solid villain with the emotional depth and degrees of tragedy which give weight and heft to proceedings and parts of his motive. This is the villain the Marvel Cinematic Universe has needed and the threat that comes from him is as tangible as it is terrifying.

There is a feeling though throughout Avengers: Infinity War that death should have come knocking a bit more and certainly for some of the bigger names within the ensemble to truly hit the emotional mark, and while the oddly audacious but curiously emotion-free downbeat ending is to be lauded, it does reek of the usual tropes of the genre - ie fantasy deaths never really tend to stick, and slightly feels like a quick "this can be done over" in the next film - and certainly, there is a distinct lack of feeling permeating the screen.

Epic in popcorn entertainment and scale, but disappointingly limited in parts of its narrative, the at-times soapy and occasionally narratively uneven Avengers: Infinity War may feel like Marvel's trying to clear the table in lieu of the next phase, and setting up for the next one. (Though the time to be daring and dispatch with the post-credits sequence has been squandered with this one).

It possibly could have done with easing up a little here and there, and giving space to breathe, however, in terms of rewarding the fans of the franchise, Avengers: Infinity War certainly ups the game, even if it still doesn't really take the bold chances and daring gambles it could have easily afforded to after a decade and 18 films.