Month: November 2020

One of Microsoft’s secret weapons for next-gen is Xbox Game Pass, the company’s subscription service that already has 15 million members. It could be a big deal in the future, as the subscription model shakes things up in terms of the business of how people consume games.

Todd Howard, a veteran Bethesda executive who recently joined Xbox with ZeniMax’s sale to Microsoft, has offered some thoughts on Game Pass–and he is optimistic about its ability to positively impact gaming.

He told GI.biz that Game Pass has the potential to help games succeed where they might not have otherwise.

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Lone Survivor, the hit 2012 2D horror game, is getting an expanded, improved remake in 2021. Super Lone Survivor has been announced for PC and Switch, and developer Super Flat Games has said that it’s being totally rebuilt in a new engine.

The game, which has been revealed with a new trailer, will feature a new scenario called “Ascending,” which we don’t not much about yet. The PC version will now support gamepads and ultrawide, as well as 4K effects. The Switch version will run at 60fps.

The developer says they are “considering difficulty modes,” and the Ascending content is being designed because they have no interest in making a sequel, but still want to revisit the game.

You can check out the trailer, made in-engine, below.

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Halloween fell on a weekend in 2020, and in a normal year that would probably lead to a huge box office take for whichever horror film released. However, with Halloween Kills delayed and the COVID-19 pandemic meaning that cinemas are still not entirely safe, just one new horror film went wide over the weekend, and while it topped the US box office, it didn’t earn much.

Come Play, aka The Babadook But With An iPad, was the weekend’s top movie. Deadline reports that the movie has earned an estimated $3.15 million over the weekend from 2183 screens, overtaking last week’s #1, Honest Thief. That movie, which stars Liam Neeson, dropped 43% for a $1.35 million weekend.

Come Play stars Gillian Jacobs (Community), John Gallagher Jr. (Westworld), and Azhy Robertson (Marriage Story). Reviews have been mixed, but leaning positive, with a 59 rating on Metacritic.

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While Halo Infinite has been delayed to 2021, Halo fans are getting a treat this year when Halo: The Master Chief Collection gets an update to take advantage of the power of the Series X/S consoles.

Producer Matt Hohl has now shared some new insight on the updates, and they sound exciting. In an interview on Halo Waypoint, Hohl first reminded players that the update will land on November 17, so it won’t be there at launch, but fans won’t have to wait long.

In terms of the upgrades, there is a “raw performance improvement across the board,” Hohl said. If you have a supported display, you can play Halo: MCC at up to 120fps/4K on Series X and 1080p on Series S. “

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A new Vampire: The Masquerade title has been announced, and it’s something a bit different from the others titles. The game, a battle royale set within the universe of the RPG series, has been unveiled by developer Sharkmob on the company’s project page.

The currently unnamed game has a teaser trailer and a brief description on Sharkmob’s website. It promises a gameplay scenario “where vampire sects are at war across the streets and rooftops of Prague,” and that players will be able to either go solo or team up with others. There will also be a hostile “Entity”, which is going after all vampires on the map.

You’ll have access to supernatural powers and weapons, and can tap into blood reserves to make yourself stronger as you hunt down your foes from other factions.

You can watch the teaser trailer below. It does not contain gameplay footage, however.

As some comments on the video point out, open street warfare goes somewhat against the concept of the “Masquerade” of the game’s title, which is meant to keep vampire affairs secret–but perhaps the game will deal with this in some way.

The game is currently tracking for a late 2021 release. Platforms have not been confirmed.

There are two Vampire: The Masquerade RPGs, Bloodlines 2 and Swansong, due out in 2021. Two visual novels, Coteries of New York and Shadows of New York, were released in 2019 and 2020, respectively. Bloodlines 2 was meant to release in 2020, but along with a delay, it has lost many key creative figures involved with the project.

A second game in the Dark Pictures series, Little Hope, has revealed a third game with a post-credits trailer. The next game is called House of Ashes, and it’s got some serious “the opening scenes of The Exorcist” vibes.

House of Ashes looks like it’ll incorporate elements of Sumerian mythology, and will feature Ashley Tisdale in a major role (presumably not as one of the “Ashes” that the house belongs to, though). It looks likely that she’ll be one of the playable–and potentially killable–characters.

The trailer has not been officially released by Bandai Namco yet, but you can watch a capture from the finale of Little Hope below.

This is the same way that Little Hope was revealed, with a trailer shown at the end of Man of Medan. It’s unclear which systems House of Ashes will come to, but the two previous games have launched on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.

The Dark Pictures films follow on from Supermassive Games’ earlier hit Until Dawn, which was a PS4 exclusive. The games that have followed have been shorter and featured multiplayer modes.

Director Brad Peyton, who worked famously well with The Rock in the films San Andreas and Rampage, is now teaming with another ex-WWE Superstar, Dave Bautista.

Deadline reports that Bautista, sticking with the cosmic warrior genre that served him well in both Guardians of the Galaxy movies, is set to play an intergalactic peacekeeper on the trail of alien criminals in Peyton’s Universe’s Most Wanted.

The story centers on a cabal of space-crooks who land in a small town and hunker down in the quaint settlement. Bautista’s lawman will work with the son of the local sheriff, along with the town’s citizens, to defeat the extraterrestrial evil-doers.

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In other Bautista-related news, “The Animal” revealed that he lobbied to play Bane in Matt Reeves’ The Batman and that he hid inhalers under the ring during wrestling matches to help battle his asthma.

Last year, Peyton co-created Daybreak for Netflix, though it only lasted one season.

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

Ellen Page and former Disney star Paris Berelc are set to appear in a new video game-themed movie from BuzzFeed Studios.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the “underdog comedy”–which is called 1UP–is described as “being in the vein of Pitch Perfect but set in the world of eSports.” The story will apparently take place with the backdrop of Gamergate.

“The story centers on a female gamer named Vivian Lee who quits her college eSports team rather than put up with sexism from her male counterparts,” reads a line from the description. “But with her scholarship on the line, she is forced to assemble a Varsity-caliber, all-women’s team that can compete with the boys. With the help of an enigmatic coach who returns to the spotlight after her own Gamergate scandal, the young woman recruits an unlikely crew of unskilled misfits to kick some serious gamer butt.”

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