Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure set to release on December 6th

Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure set to release on December 6th

Based on the blockbuster film franchise, this brand-new 3D action-adventure will invite players to join Scrat’s unrelenting quest to retrieve his cherished acorn. 

Players will guide Scrat through a perilous journey across icy terrains, raging geysers and burning lava.  

Explore adventure-packed locations to discover treasures that unlock special powers and help Scrat to jump higher, grab heavier objects and find every last treasure in this all-new Nutty adventure!

Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure will release worldwide on PlayStation®4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch™ and PC digital on December 6th in Australia and New Zealand and is available to pre-order now from local retailers and digitally.

For more info about Ice Age: Scrat’s Nutty Adventure or other BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment Europe products, , follow us on Facebook or Twitter, or subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Fan Favorite Zinogre Charges into Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Fan Favorite Zinogre Charges into Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Fan Favorite Zinogre Charges into Monster Hunter World: Iceborne

Capcom released a new trailer today revealing “shocking” new details for Monster Hunter World: Iceborne, the highly anticipated massive expansion to Capcom’s best-selling Monster Hunter: World. The video reveals the return of the fan-favorite thunder wolf wyvern, Zinogre, and includes a new look at the Elder Dragon Namielle, which dispenses powerful water-based attacks. Additionally, the latest trailer is jam-packed with footage of every new, returning fan-favorite, Elder Dragon, subspecies, and variant monster that has been revealed (thus far) for Iceborne.

Zinogre is the latest monster added to the massive expansion’s roster, ready to challenge hunters with its electrifying attacks. Players will need to bring their Master Rank skills and use extreme caution when Zinogre activates its supercharged state in order to successfully take down this thunderous beast. The trailer also offers the first detailed look at Namielle, an all-new Elder Dragon who has the power to summon water at will and unleash high pressure attacks onto unsuspecting hunters. Players should proceed with caution and not underestimate the bright, multi-colored appearance of this second new Elder Dragon that’s been discovered inIceborne. Hunters have a collection of new monsters and subspecies to look forward to when the massive expansion releases – and there are still more to be revealed!

Ahead of the Monster Hunter World: Iceborne massive expansion’s global console release on September 6, a reminder that hunters have a chance to try the game in the upcoming beta sessions for PlayStation®4 and Xbox One. The Monster Hunter World: Iceborne PlayStation®4 beta will be available for all PS4™ users from 5:00pm AEST on Friday, August 30 through 4:59pm AEST on Monday, September 2. Following that, a beta for Xbox One will be available from 5:00pm AEST on Monday, September 2 through 4:59pm AEST on Thursday, September 5. Preload options will be available a couple of days before each beta period begins. The Monster Hunter: World base game is not required to participate in the Iceborne beta sessions.

These beta sessions will be the last chance for hunters to earn up to four special commendation packs upon completing each beta quest for the first time. The commendation packs contain helpful consumable items that will be available to use in the Iceborneexpansion when it releases.

Disney’s Aladdin and The Lion King video games return this spring

Disney’s Aladdin and The Lion King video games return this spring

DISNEY’S CLASSIC ALADDIN AND THE LION KING VIDEO GAMES RETURN THIS SPRING

Includes new features and enhancements for Nintendo Switch^TM, PlayStation^®4 system and Xbox One

This spring, the 16-bit magic of Disney’s Aladdin and The Lion King games, complete with new features and enhancements, will be released for Nintendo Switch^TM, PlayStation^®4 and Xbox One. Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King will include the fan-favourite versions of each original title, featuring upscaled graphics to support high definition displays and additional upgrades to enhance playability on current consoles. The collection also includes a brand-new “final cut” of Aladdin and an original Aladdin “tradeshow demo” that has not been publicly available since 1993.

Check out the trailer here

Fans will be able to revisit these beloved games and take advantage of a variety of modern support options, including instant save states, a “Rewind" button to jump back up to 15 seconds, level select, invulnerability, infinite lives and an “Interactive Game Viewer”. The Interactive Game Viewer enables players to view full game playthroughs, with the ability to skip forward, jump in and start playing at any point.

In addition, Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King features:

• Authentic Game Content with Modern Improvements – Fans old and new can enjoy the original game builds, upscaled graphics, customisable controls, special filters for visual enhancement and more.
• Variety of Game Versions – The collection includes multiple playable platform versions of the games including their Sega Mega Drive, Game Boy and Super Game Boy releases, as well as The Lion King Super Nintendo Entertainment System version.
• A Helping Hand – Players who want to experience the Disney magic in true “Hakuna Matata” fashion can use the Interactive game viewer, rewind feature and cheat codes to aid gameplay progression.
• Curated, Explorable Museum – A treasure trove of behind-the-scenes development assets including interviews, an art gallery and a music player shares the rich history behind the Aladdin and The Lion King 16-bit games.’

Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King has been updated for current consoles by publisher Nighthawk Interactive and development studio Digital Eclipse. Disney Classic Games: Aladdin and The Lion King is coming to retailers this spring on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation^®4 and Xbox One.

Red Joan: DVD Review

Red Joan: DVD Review

Inspired by a true story it may be, but Red Joan's insistence on miring everything in flashback means sadly it squanders its best asset - Judi Dench - as nothing more than a bookend to proceedings, with glimpses throughout.

However, while this story begins in a leafy English suburb with Dench's Joan Stanley being arrested as a suspected informant who leaked top secret information, its flashbacks soon reveal another equally strong presence in the form of young Kingsman actress, Sophie Cookson.

Ripping back to Cambridge and exploring how Joan became affiliated with the disaffected communist movement, Red Joan seeks to keep questions in place about whether she is a willing participant in a crime or had been manipulated via love (fake or otherwise) in the past.

It's an interesting proposition, and while the relatively formulaic, almost TV-movie like telling of the story feels flat, the central performances are not. Its open-endedness is also its strength, with a final shot and simple facial smirk from Dench offering to throw everything up in the air that you've already seen in a kind of Keyser Soze-esque tribute.

But where Red Joan falters is in some of the film's innate ability to play it safe.

Period details are nicely rendered, and the sense of atmosphere is palpable, but what transpires lacks some of the edge that say a pulpy thriller may have helped you get to the edge-of-your-seat and leave you questioning throughout.

Likewise, the almost minimal use of Judi Dench feels criminal; even the briefest of scenes in the present day, with her son's suspicions swirling around her, hint at a frustrating promise that narratively had to take place.

However, as mentioned Cookson's turn as the young questioning intellect caught up in the cold war and its machinations gives the film a welcome human edge. Hers is a performance that anchors the film and almost makes you forget about the bookending of its sidelined mammoth talent.

All in all, Red Joan's commitment to the straight storytelling serves it fine, but with a little more flair and more uncertainty, the sense of panache in this wartime tale of love and betrayal, both personally and at a country-wide level, could have helped it into some truly sterling stuff.

Watch all the 2019 Loading Docs

Watch all the 2019 Loading Docs

The eight Loading Docs have been unveiled for 2019.

Watch them all below

2019 Loading Docs unveiled

2019 Loading Docs unveiled

Loading Docs: Power Trailer from Loading Docs on Vimeo.

Loading Docs: Power Powerful people. Powerful stories. ANNOUNCING EIGHT BRAND-NEW POWERFUL DOCUMENTARIES New Zealand’s most successful short documentary initiative takes a powerful approach to digital storytelling. Releasing today is a brand-new collection of eight short documentaries, housed onLoadingdocs.net now.

This year, Loading Docs has extended the durations of the shorts to between six and eight minutes, enabling greater opportunities for fresh perspectives and deeper exploration. Unified by the theme of power are stories that will have audiences questioning their own interpretation of power and revealing how unlikely characters can become the heroes of the story.  Celebrating New Zealand perspectives on world issues, subjects include Kiwi icons William Trubridge, Pania Newton, the ‘Nek Minnit’ guy – Levi Hawken, and revered celestial navigator Sir Hector Busby.  He Hekenga Tūhura presents the extraordinary final interview with Sir Hector Busby – in te reo Māori - just weeks before his passing. Also part of the collection is My Breakup with God, about a devoted Christian who slams the door on the Church - against her parents’ hopes - and pursues a path of sexual freedom and love. Operation: RAMBU! propels audiences back to 1980s Indonesia to meet an unlikely Kiwi action hero.  SOUL co-founder Pania Newton’s personal struggles are revealed in Mana Wahine. The documentary, providing a unique perspective on Ihumātao, was released on August 2 and featured on RNZ and The Guardian - so far being seen more than 300,000 times. “Fostering the celebration of Aotearoa’s stories and storytellers is our business,” says Executive Producer Julia Parnell. “By providing a foundation for the elevation of filmmakers and innovation, our documentaries are able to bravely reflect the drama and complexity of life. This year’s collection extends these foundations by powering eight longer format documentaries to audiences here and around the world.” Watch the collection now:  Loading Docs: loadingdocs.net/shorts/

Apollo 11: Film Review

Apollo 11: Film Review

There's no way you don't know how this story goes.

And on the 50th anniversary of the lunar landing, with timing that can only be described as fortuitous in extremis, the film festival is playing the Apollo 11 doco on the day the moon landing happened.

The film is of the kind of calibre you'd expect from those like CNN who are involved, but director Todd Douglas Miller manages to create a kind of unfussy portrait of the hours of the build up to the launch and the days after.

It's intriguing in that, despite some over-produced moments of the bombast of a score intruding and trying to provoke drama, a film takes you directly back to the era, and the ordinary everyday "heroes" of NASA, who were not called Buzz or Neil.

Camera footage early on chooses to focus on the scale of the gantry by shooting from the ground up, sets the tone by focussing the cameras on those inside the control centre, and the gathered crowds who look like they're there to be part of a rock-n'roll event; it's here Miller pitches the actual event as something that everyone aspired to be part of, and which was monumental at the time, but has slowly been dwarfed by the extraordinary times we live in, and the naysayers who try to detract from its happening or its relevance.

CCTV footage, and footage shot within the craft, along with some Asteroids-level graphics build a portrait that's selective in the imagery it presents, but one which builds a tapestry of our greatest achievement.

Apollo 11 uses footage only of the moment, archives of the time and sights and sounds to create something that is never heart-stopping but is always awe-inducing. It's a time capsule, definitely, but it's a film of its time, and also one that showcases the fearlessness of man's occasionally indomitable spirit.