Cyberpunk 2077 has Gone Gold! 

Confirming that Cyberpunk 2077 has gone Gold Master and will be launching on 19^th of November 2020 for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. 

In addition the game will work day 1 with Xbox Series X/S and PlayStation 5 next-generation consoles. 

 

CD Project Red have also released new trailers featuring Keanu Reeves.

 

Cyberpunk 2077 will be releasing on November 19^th 2020 on Xbox One, PS4 and PC.

STEVE AND ALEX FROM MINECRAFT TO JOIN THE CAST OF SUPER SMASH BROS. ULTIMATE 

 On 14^th October, worldwide phenomenon Minecraft is sending two of its finest rectangular heroes to join the ever-expanding cast of playable fighters in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate for Nintendo Switch. Steve and Alex will be the seventh DLC fighters added to the game. They are part of the second Challenger Pack in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass Vol. 2, which also includes a new stage and seven music tracks from the Minecraft series.

 

In a video hosted by Masahiro Sakurai, the Super Smash Bros. creator detailed the boxy new fighters, providing a detailed breakdown of their one-of-a-kind move set, which involves digging into stages to gather materials to craft tools and construct blocks to use in a variety of ways in battle.

 

To view the video in its entirety and see Steve and Alex in action for the first time, visit Super Smash Bros. Ultimate – Battling with Steve & Alex (Nintendo Switch).

 

When selecting this new fighter, players will be able to choose between a Steve or Alex skin, each with three colour variations. Additionally, players can also choose to look like the Zombie or Enderman characters from Minecraft when playing. Each of these characters, while they look different, possess the same set of moves:

 

• The Basics: Like in Minecraft, players can hold down the attack button to walk while repeatedly swinging a sword, axe or pickaxe. These attacks have short range, but wide reach. These tools can also be used for abilities new to the Super Smash Bros. franchise: Mine, Craft and Create Block.
• Mine: While battling, Steve and Alex can use their tools to dig into the ground or walls of each stage to extract materials. The materials found – dirt, wood, stone, iron, gold and diamond – will depend on the type of surface Steve and Alex dig into. Dig into the trees of Kongo Jungle, for example, and players will find an abundance of wood, while iron can be discovered on the Corneria stage.
• Craft: After mining, players can then craft using the materials they collected. Steve and Alex’s tools have limited durability and can break, so crafting new tools is vital to maintaining an advantage on the battlefield. By standing in front of a crafting table, which will appear on the stage, players can use materials to craft these tools – the more valuable the material, the more powerful the tool.
• Create Block: Another move that Steve and Alex can use is Create Block. By activating this ability, players will, well, create a block. These blocks can be stacked and strategically placed as defensive manoeuvres. Blocks also use materials, like crafting, so players will have to continue to mine to maintain their material supply.
• Final Smash: Steve and Alex’s explosive Final Smash is called House of Boom. After destroying the Smash Ball, players will summon a giant piston, which sends opponents flying into the House of Boom. From there, the iconic Creepers from Minecraft will set off an explosion, dealing massive damage.
• Minecraft World: The stage included in this Fighters Pass Vol. 2 pack is Minecraft World, which consists of six different areas inspired by the original Minecraft game. The destructible areas randomly change for each match. When battling on this stage, players will experience a day and night cycle, with zombies and skeletons emerging at night to terrify players.
• Music Tracks: Since the music in Minecraft is meant to be soothing and relaxing to inspire creativity and building, the new music tracks selected for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are from more action-packed games in the Minecraft franchise, like Minecraft Earth and Minecraft Dungeons.

 

All of this new content will be available to players who purchase Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass Vol. 2 or who purchase Challenger Pack 7 separately for AU$7.80 / NZ$10.20 on Nintendo eShop*. By purchasing Fighters Pass Vol. 2 for AU$39.00 / NZ$51.00 on Nintendo eShop*, players will get access to Steve and Alex, along with previously released fighter Min Min from ARMS and four more yet-to-be-announced Challenger Packs as they release. Each pack includes one fighter, one stage and multiple music tracks.

 

Players can also still purchase Super Smash Bros. Ultimate Fighters Pass Vol. 1 at a suggested retail price of AU$32.50 / NZ$42.50 on Nintendo eShop* to gain access to the first five Challenger Packs that were released for the game. Playable fighters Joker, Hero, Banjo & Kazooie, Terry Bogard and Byleth are all available now. For AU$7.80 / NZ$10.20, players can also purchase these packs individually on Nintendo eShop*.

 

In addition to the minecart full of details about Steve and Alex, some additional news about Super Smash Bros. Ultimate was revealed in the video, including the reveal of a new in-game Mii Fighter costumes and new amiibo figures. Mii Fighter costumes including Bomberman, Creeper, Pig, Diamond Armor, Gil and Travis Touchdown will be available on 14^th October, while three new amiibo figures are also in production – Banjo & Kazooie, Byleth, and Terry Bogard – and scheduled to launch in 2021.

 

Star Wars Squadrons is out now

Strap in pilots, and prepare for battle! 

Electronic Arts Inc. (NASDAQ:EA), Motive Studios and Lucasfilm released the highly anticipated immersive, first-person, Star Wars™ space dogfighting experience, Star Wars™: Squadrons. 

The game features thrilling 5v5 multiplayer starfighter combat along with an original Star Wars™ story set after the events of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi™. 

Polygon even says, “Star Wars: Squadrons is every inch the spaceflight simulation that fans have been dreaming of for a generation.” 

In the authentic new story, players will speed to the frontlines of an escalating conflict experienced from the alternating perspectives of two customizable pilots, one serving the New Republic and the other the Galactic Empire.  

Spies in Disguise: Neon NZ Film Review

 

Spies in Disguise: Neon NZ Film Review

Cast: Will Smith, Tom Holland, Rashida Jones, Ben Mendelsohn
Director: Troy Quane, Nick Bruno

If the thought of Will Smith playing a talking pigeon in a spy movie repels you, this is still utterly the film for you.

A veritable cinematic cartoon blast of pacy fun, Spies in Disguise gets 2020 off to a great start in ways you could never imagine.

Smith is Lance Sterling, a smooth go-it-alone spy, who's framed for a theft of a drone. Holland plays Walter, a socially inept tech genius who finds himself in the middle of the conspiracy when Sterling decides he has no one to trust...

So far, so Odd Couple, and so not really re-inventing the wheel - yet Spies in Disguise respects the spy genre and the mismatched buddy trope with absolute aplomb.

Packing in spy stunts and heart before the Bond-riffing titles even begin, it's clear that Spies in Disguise knows and respects its target market, as well as the history of what's gone before for the respective genres.

What emerges is a whipsmart film that's aimed at the kids but keeps the adults (and the young at heart) firmly in its grip too - puns riff of Fifty Shades of Grey in one moment, another involving Glitter and Kittens is rolled out to great effect.

Based on animated short, Pigeon: Impossible, Spies in Disguise's strength is that it keeps the pace up, knows the dynamic is where the fun lies, and knows its animation isn't groundbreaking but showcases it to dazzling effect.

Sure there are messages about accepting being weird, and teamwork over loner behaviour, but Spies in Disguise is smart enough not to ram them down throats and concentrate on the goofy edges above all else. But it also knows that the smart thing to do is not dwell on one element above all else, and as a result, the coherency is compelling.

Spies in Disguise deserves to be a hit - fresh, funny and frantic, it's animation at its most basic - there to entertain from beginning to end.

New Borat movie trailer drops

“BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM: DELIVERY OF PRODIGIOUS BRIBE TO AMERICAN REGIME FOR MAKE BENEFIT ONCE GLORIOUS NATION OF KAZAKHSTAN”

 

Film to Launch Globally on October 23^rd Exclusively on Amazon Prime Video

Directed by Jason Woliner

Written by Sacha Baron Cohen & Anthony Hines & Dan Swimer & Peter Baynham & 

Erica Rivinoja & Dan Mazer & Jena Friedman & Lee Kern

Produced by Sacha Baron Cohen, Monica Levinson and Anthony Hines

Executive Produced by Buddy Enright, Nicholas Hatton, Peter Baynham, Dan Mazer and Stuart Miller

Starring Sacha Baron Cohen & Irina Nowak

Marvel's Avengers: PS4 Review

Developed by Crystal Dynamics

Released by Square Enix

Platform: PS4

Unfairly rounded on because the heroes didn't look like The Avengers many knew from the big screen, Crystal Dynamics' Marvel's Avengers game went on to be one of the biggest betas of the year.

Millions got in on the action, and thousands were unhappy with the game's progression and loot-based shenanigans.

But in truth, Marvel's Avengers is more a game that will appeal to the casual player, interested in being one of the superheroes from the comics and in Marvel's Cinematic Universe.

Spoilers are rife in any reviews of Marvel's Avengers, but the main storyline concerns the ramifications of A-Day, a day that's supposed to celebrate the Avengers. However, it all goes disastrously wrong, leading to the death of one of the team, and infecting the whole of San Francisco with the possibilities of superhero powers.

Five years later, what's left of the team must re-assemble when a new threat emerges.

What's great about Marvel's Avengers is playing the game from the perspective of Kamala Khan. The giddy enthusiasm she opens with as she hero-worships the Avengers is infectious. Add into that the chance to play as all of the Avengers in the opening mission when disaster strikes, and there's a sort of superhero-tinged thrill that's hard to shake, as you sample various powers, play as the various members and generally feel like a team up.

But it's in the latter stages of the game that it feels a little misshapen, a mix of loot-grinding and repetitive missions that leaves a slightly sour taste in the mouth. Quests result in rewards, but the rewards themselves are largely cosmetic pieces that don't feel essential or worthy of the effort put in. And multiplayer doesn't really add much more than an AI would as the game goes on.

Also, the microtransactions intrusion into the game seems slightly out of step with the benevolence of the Marvel world. Costumes and gear bits are earned in-game or can be bought, but it's a move that's not really befitting of what the game actually should be about.

Ultimately the game works when it sticks to basics - using each of the superheroes' powers is a supersized thrill. Square Enix has promised more characters to come and a free upgrade to the next generation consoles, but unless the game radically overhauls some of its basic repetitive fight MO, no matter how good it is and how well it's executed, Marvel's Avengers will be consigned to the darker recesses of the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond: Amazon Prime Video Review

A Walking Dead spinoff set 10 years after the very first outbreak isn't in theory a bad idea.

But in practice, The Walking Dead: World Beyond suffers from feeling way too tween and way too underdeveloped in its first two episodes.

For a series that's airing on AMC, and has the pedigree of the talent behind the camera involved that are, it has to be said The Walking Dead: World Beyond just doesn't feel like it leaps out of the gate in episode one.

Sure, it has a lot to do as it delves into a new mythology and follows the first generation raised in a surviving civilisation that's all too familiar to watchers of Rick Grimes et al.

However, what emerges is a large feeling of deja vu in the first two episodes of the ten episode season.

By centring on two sisters and by promising only a two season run, there's a feeling that story is everything and pace will be vital to keeping this fresh. Unfortunately, what transpires in only two episodes is a weaker attempt at mystery and a definite feeling of too much young adult frustrations.

Alexa Mansour and Aliyah Royale star as the sisters Hope and Iris, who are worried about their father who is away from home and working for the shadowy Civic Republic. Headed up by Julia Ormond, there's a division between the sisters who are split - one between loyalty for the republic on Monument Day (Iris) and one (Hope) who wholeheartedly mistrusts them.

As the tenth anniversary begins of the pandemic (the Monument Day and a meta acknowledgement that the Deadverse has been going for a decade), Iris receives a message from her father saying his safety cannot be guaranteed.....

So, deciding to strike out and find him, Hope and Iris find their conflicted beliefs coming to the fore - and their inability to navigate the new world.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond has some potential.

With its double entendre title implying both the teens can find a whole new world outside of what they've known and that the Deadverse is bigger than ever suspected, there's a chance to expand the scope and utilise the knowledge everyone has of the universe without alienating newcomers.

Unfortunately, what transpires is a feeling of general indifference thanks to some fairly rote characters, some ineffective moments of tension and a general lack of life in the pilot episode alone. Episode two offers some potential with a sequence seeing the group having to avoid a horde of zombies trying to provide some uncertainty. 

Sure, there's kismet given Covid-19, and teens growing up in a world that's only ever seen a pandemic feeling like a horrible coincidence, but there's not enough done with the writing and the characters to give the show the bite it needs.

But it's not a great thing that you're left feeling uninterested if any of the characters don't make it (and in some cases, you're willing them to be zombie fodder before it's really even got going). There's not enough unpredictability in a new iteration of a show that's become too scared to kill off regular cast members and occasionally shuffles through deadly dull episodes.

If there were more chances taken and if there was a stronger core cast that were better written characters rather than cyphers for dialogue and the quest to find the father, then The Walking Dead: World Beyond would have a case for living.

Because based on the two episodes provided for reviewing, it would be kinder to put this corpse of a show down now, rather than sacrificing everything great the franchise has created.

The Walking Dead: World Beyond airs every Friday on Amazon Prime. Episodes one and two were provided for the purposes of this review.