PlayStation 5 Future of gaming event live

PlayStation 5 Future of gaming event live

It's here!

Watch the future of gaming with the PS5 launch event today at 8am!

PlayStation 5 revealed Friday June 12

PlayStation 5 unveiled

PlayStation will finally unveil more details of its PlayStation 5 line up on Friday June 12 at 8am.

Jim Ryan of Sony says: "With each generation, from the first PlayStation to PlayStation 4, we aim higher and we push the boundaries further, to try and deliver better experiences for our community. This has been the mission of the PlayStation brand for more than 25 years. A mission I have been a part of nearly since the beginning. 

"There are few things as exciting as the launch of a new console. While this road to launch has been a bit…different, we are as thrilled as ever to bring you with us on this journey to redefine the future of videogames.

"We’ve shared technical specifications and shown you the new DualSense wireless controller. But what is a launch without games? 

"That’s why I’m excited to share that we will soon give you a first look at the games you’ll be playing after PlayStation 5 launches this holiday. The games coming to PS5 represent the best in the industry from innovative studios that span the globe. 

"Studios, both larger and smaller, those newer and those more established, all have been hard at work developing games that will showcase the potential of the hardware. This digital showcase will run for a bit more than an hour and, for the first time, we will all be together virtually experiencing the excitement together.

"A lack of physical events has given us an amazing opportunity to think differently and bring you on this journey with us, and hopefully, closer than ever before. 

"This is part of our series of PS5 updates and, rest assured we will still have much to share with you."

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See you Friday, 12th June at 8am (NZST) for a look at the future of gaming on #PS5

A post shared by PlayStationNZ (@playstationnz) on Jun 8, 2020 at 4:26pm PDT

The Trip To Greece: Film Review

The Trip To Greece: Film Review

Cast: Rob Brydon, Steve Coogan, the wonders of Greece
Director: Michael Winterbottom

Rob Brydon and Steve Coogan reprise their Trip persona for the fourth time.

And while the third time is apparently the charm (not so in The Trip To Spain's case), it feels like now really is the time to wind up this over-inflated travelogue series for good.

It's something which those involved have said will happen with this Hellenic outing, but in parts, this film feels like a retread of everything that's gone before and a greatest hits package of the Coogan-Brydon relationship.

Except in parts, this trip around Greece, as the pair follow Odysseus' journey, delves more in the maudlin and melancholy, a welcome touch from the incessant one upmanship that's been seen so many times before. Sure, the banter between Brydon and Coogan becomes more desperate as the duo tackle more impressions, but it really does start to grate the fourth time around.

This time, it's peppered with touches of the portentous as Coogan trumpets being known for his BAFTA for Stan Laurel, but hints at being tired of only ever being awarded for work playing other people; and Brydon's continual talk of being a light entertainer feels more savage as the legacy suffocates him rather than leaving him feeling fulfilled.

As with the previous films, this has been crafted out of the 3 hour TV version, and most of the intricacies and rhythms of the food tasting and the locations have been scythed through - which is a great shame.

The star of the Trip is still Winterbottom, whose eye for magnificent shots is evident once again.

But Brydon and Coogan prove to be game enough company - from a swimming competition that's more an old man's pissing contest to the constant jabs, their exploration of friendship is a more poignant and potent affair to spend time with, rather than a tiresome retread of who can do the best impression.

If this Trip to Greece truly is the last, it's a welcome end to the series which should have been a two course menu, rather than an endless degustation of middle-aged mimcry and midlife melancholy.

Sorry We Missed You: DVD Review

Sorry We Missed You: DVD Review

Ken Loach's latest piece of socially shocking miserabilism in the UK is a savage indictment of how the everyday family is being beaten down by those abusing the system.

And yet, in among the blood-boiling moments of Sorry We Missed You, Loach displays elements of everyday love and compassion along with humour that helps you along the 100 minutes of what plays out.

Kris Hitchen plays Rikki, the head of a family who is scrabbling day to day to make ends meet. Taking the chance to become a franchisee of a delivery company, Rikki finds himself part of a contract that serves the masters better than it does the servants.

Coupled with the fact his wife Abby (Debbie Honeywood) is working 14 hours a day as a carer, the pair is left hardly any time for their two children.

Stretched as thinly as it will go, something is likely to snap in Rikki and Abby's lives...

Clothed in savage condemnation of the zero hours' slavery, Loach's film promotes a growing sense of depression, as well as a sense of latent activism in the audience.

But it's the realism here, and the intimate relatability that gives Loach his power in this film - a growing sense of desperation from both Hitchen and Honeywood creates an aching, gnawing sense of disillusionment as events threaten to swallow them up.

There's nothing here that's played for easy drama, merely a growing sense of a maelstrom about to encompass the everyday family. And because of that it's even more horrifying to behold.

There's an anger in Sorry We Missed You, but Loach is restrained enough a director to realise that simply playing out events will get the required results in the audience. It's horrifically affective and affecting - ultimately, Sorry We Missed You is one social drama not ignore - both on screen and off it. 

Portrait of a Lady on Fire: DVD Review

Portrait of a Lady on Fire: DVD Review

A male-free zone, the luxurious Portrait of a Lady on Fire from Girlhood's Celine Sciamma is in no hurry to get where it's going.

It's the 1700s, and Merlant is Marianne, a painter brought in for a commission of Adele Haenel's fresh-out-of-the-convent Heloise, who's about to be married off to a man she's never met. Heloise has already registered rebellion for this portrait destined for her husband-to-be, refusing to sit for her likeness to be captured.

So Marianne decides to be Heloise's companion by day and to paint her likeness by night.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is a film that luxuriates in the slow burn, and frames itself on fanning the flames of nascent desire.

Back and forths, stolen glimpses and caught looks add much to the burgeoning relationship between the two, and Sciamma lingers when needed and pulls back when expected.

It helps that Merlant and Haenel take their characters on a journey they need, and prove to be such bedfellows for a story. A side story involving the house maid and a situation proves to be a diversion, detracting from what really matters here.

The camera flirts between capturing Marianne's furtive glances, destined to capture details for her pictures and with Heloise's acknowledgement and potential misinterpretation of these glimpses, never once deciding to vocalise either way which is which. It all boils over to a head for obvious reasons, but the simmering before the bubble over is enjoyable to watch.

It may be a little heavy handed in some of its imagery and narrative at times (a long section on Eurydice overplays the looking/ being caught looking metaphor too much) and it may meander on its two hour journey, but Portrait of a Lady on Fire lends much to the story of desire and intimate voyeurs - even if it does so via stiffly starched formal presentation.

Farming: DVD Review

Farming: DVD Review

Cast: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, Kate Beckinsale, Gug Mbatha-Raw, Damson Idris, John Dagleish
Director: Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje

Bleak it may be, but equally sickening and compelling, former Lost and Oz actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje lays out a coming-of-age drama that grips as much as it occasionally frustrates.

Based on the true story of Nigerian Enitan (Idris) who was placed in the care of a British family by his parents, "farmed out" for the hope of finding a better start to life in a UK divided by Enoch Powell's Rivers of Blood speeches. But thrust into the home run by Kate Beckinsale's Ingrid (one note, and relatively stereotyped and underdeveloped), Eni begins to feel alienated and is broken by the lack of love and care afforded him.

Pushed to the edge, and into a pit of self-loathing, Eni falls into rejecting his culture, his heritage and his identity, and falls in with a group of skinheads, the Tilbury Skins, headed by Dagleish's Levi (easily one of the best villains of the year, dead-eyed, ominous and terrifying).

Rote in parts, with some awful Lahndon accents, as well as jumping back and forth to Eni's mother,

Farming's sociopathic edges take time to show through.

But when they do, and the skinheads arrive and our totally broken lead falls apart, Farming genuinely shocks in the same way American History X did..

Akinnuoye-Agbaje doesn't scrimp from the details of the horror, or allow you an easy escape in terms of viewing, filling the screen with 80s UK nihilism, a mirror to a society tearing itself apart with hate and violence.

It's here that Farming makes its viewing as compelling as it is sickening, as in other parts of the movie, the generic tropes and hollow descent into eventual redemption don't quite measure up to what's proffered at the end - a rushed reality check.

Characters such as Beckinsale's mother and Mbatha-Raw's teacher feel less than real, ripped from the pages of a book, giving Farming a feel of stereotyped TV movie fare. It's no This Is England, or the TV spinoff, but it does have moments of pure dread and evil seeping in.

Thankfully, the stunning pairing of Dagleish and Idris as the tormentor and the victim gives Farming a sharpness of focus that is worth hanging onto, a thread that spins a tightly sickening web around the viewer, and makes the emotional beats land as they truly should.

It is not to detract from the story Akinnuoye-Agbaje is looking to tell, but if parts had been beefed up this would have been a searing drama, a white knuckle ride to hell and back. But a lack of some character depth robs the insights and horror of some of the heft they should carry. It's not to say they don't, because when they land, the moments are utterly repugnant and disgusting, as they should be.

Ultimately Farming is unrelenting, its redemption feels too briefly mentioned, and the rawness of the central actors a little too numbing to fully embrace and only endure.

New OUTRIDERS Gameplay Revealed

New OUTRIDERS Gameplay Revealed

NEW OUTRIDERS GAMEPLAY REVEALED

Debut Outriders Broadcast Showcases New Powers, Environments and Features

SQUARE ENIX® debuted new gameplay footage from OUTRIDERS™, the highly anticipated upcoming RPG-Shooter from People Can Fly, the developers of Gears of War: Judgment and BULLETSTORM, and Square Enix External Studios, the minds behind SLEEPING DOGS® and JUST CAUSE®.

Seen through the lens of drop-in co-op, the First City gameplay reveals never-before-seen Pyromancer powers, brand-new, hyper-evolved creatures, information on the OUTRIDERS World Tier system, a look at an immersive new environment and more.

Set in an all-new, dark sci-fi world, OUTRIDERS is a true genre hybrid that combines the depth and story of an RPG and the intensity of third-person shooter combat with awe-inspiring powers. Deep character progression and itemization allow for a wide variety of creative class builds, and evolve People Can Fly’s trademark over-the-top, skill-based gameplay to create a brutal RPG-shooter experience.

“We are making the game we always wanted to play. The team at PCF are all gamers and we love shooters. Shooters are in our DNA and we have been making them for decades. At the same time, we also love RPG’s,” said Bartek Kmita, Creative Director of OUTRIDERS at People Can Fly. “We always wanted to play a deep RPG, with an epic story and the flexibility to create lots of interesting character builds, but we also wanted a skill-based, challenging and intense real-time combat system in our RPG. When the opportunity to create it ourselves came along, it was like a dream come true.”

The OUTRIDERS First City gameplay video is just one of the segments in the OUTRIDERS Broadcast, a new monthly show that will dive deep into the various features of the dark and desperate world of OUTRIDERS. Discover all-new gameplay, environments, character class deep dives, and updates from the team.

OUTRIDERS will release on PlayStation 5®, PlayStation 4®, Xbox Series X, the Xbox One family of devices, and PC in Holiday 2020.

OUTRIDERS official Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/outridersgame
Follow OUTRIDERS on Twitter: https://twitter.com/outriders
Follow OUTRIDERS on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outridersgame
Subscribe to OUTRIDERS on YouTube: www.youtube.com/outriders

Join the OUTRIDERS Discord: discord.gg/outriders  
Learn more about SQUARE ENIX® here: http://www.square-enix.com
Learn more about People Can Fly: https://peoplecanfly.com