Monthly Archives: June 2019

Final Fantasy VII Remake: New Screenshots Released

Square Enix has released 22 new screenshots and pieces of character art, showing previously unseen parts of Final Fantasy VII remake.

The screenshots include glimpses at the Shinra Building, Aerith gameplay (including what appears to be her Limit Break, Healing Wind), the Air Buster boss and more.

Character art also shows Cloud and Aerith's new models in more detail. The screenshots run the length of what we expect the first episode of the Remake to encompass - although, as we know, these episodes have been inflated to the size of full games in their own right.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Could Get Witcher-Style Expansion DLC

CD Projekt Red is considering the possibility of producing expansion packs for Cyberpunk 2077, akin to how The Witcher 3 was greatly expanded with the Hearts of Stone and Blood and Wine DLC.

Talking to Prima Games, UI coordinator Alvin Liu said “We are talking about expansions in the future."

“We want to make sure everything's complete, but we also want to build open worlds,” he explained. “I know when I was playing The Witcher 3 and I finished everything, I still want to know what everyone was up to. I think we're going to have opportunities like that as well for Cyberpunk 2077."

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EA Defends Loot Boxes, Calls Them ‘Surprise Mechanics’

EA has defended the company's use of randomised purchases, saying that they aren't actually loot boxes, but simply "surprise mechanics".

PCGamesN reports that during an oral evidence session with the UK Parliament's Digital, Culture, Media, and Sport Committee, EA's VP of legal and government affairs, Kerry Hopkins, made the statement.

Hopkins not only termed purchases with a random result as "surprise mechanics", but also likened them to children toys like Kinder Surprise Eggs or Hatchimals.

Hopkins then went on to speak as to the ethics of such purchases when questioned by Scottish National Party MP, Brendan O'Hara.

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GOT: The Long Night Director Reveals Why the Battle of Winterfell Was So Dark

The director of Game of Thrones’ The Long Night Episode, in which the city of Winterfell is defended from an attack by the Night King, has defended the lighting of the episode, explaining that it is entirely intentional.

You may remember how many viewers took to social media to discuss how difficult it was to see anything in the episode. At the time there was talk about how HBO’s compression had negatively affected the episode, as well as the issues with incorrectly calibrated TVs. But while those issues certainly can cause problems, the episode was intentionally made dark and the action difficult to see.

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New Details of Avengers: Endgame Re-Release Revealed

Details of the new footage in the Avengers: Endgame re-release have been revealed, courtesy of a Cinemark listing spotted on reddit. News of the Avengers: Endgame re-release came from Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige himself, who said it would not be an extended cut but would have some post-credits extras that include a deleted scene, a tribute, and a few surprises.

Here's everything revealed in the listing:

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The Battle of Winterfell Was Supposed to Have a Higher Body Count

One of the main complaints about Game of Thrones Season 8, episode 3, "The Long Night" (aside from how dark it was) was that the Battle of Winterfell didn't feature enough major character deaths, especially given the sheer number of wights and White Walkers laying siege to our heroes.

Apparently, we weren't the only ones who thought that "The Long Night" needed more death and destruction. In a new podcast interview with IndieWire, director Miguel Sapochnik (who also directed the show's penultimate episode, "The Bells") revealed that he tried to convince showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss to kill off more characters to raise the stakes - partially because he was concerned that pulling off another episode-long battle with no breaks would end up boring the audience.

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Marvel’s Kevin Feige Is Having ‘Fun’ Making Plans for X-Men and F4

It sounds like Marvel Studios mastermind Kevin Feige is having a good time working the X-Men and Fantastic Four into the MCU now that the Disney acquisition of Fox has brought those characters back home.

"It's still early days, but it's been a fun exercise, and it's one, by the way, that we've been doing for years,” Feige told Fandango when questioned about the progress of bringing Marvel characters whose film rights were previously controlled by Fox into the MCU. “Every development meeting starts with cool ideas and fun ideas, and our wheels are always turning in terms of what if... to use a Marvel publishing term,” -- referring to how Marvel Comics explores ‘What If’ ideas that would never happen in normal continuity -- “What if we did this? What if we did that? What if we had access to such and such characters? That's how Spider-Man: Homecoming came together in the first place, and it's fun to now be in this position with the Fox characters, too, because if we come up with a great ‘What If’ we can actually do it."

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Marvel’s Feige Debunks Deadpool Spider-Man Movie Rumor

Marvel Studios president and producer Kevin Feige has shot down a rumor circling online that there are three ideas being kicked around internally for how to introduce Deadpool in the MCU now that Disney's acquisition of Fox is complete.

A recent report by MCU Cosmic claimed the following three options were being explored by Marvel for how to bring the merc with a mouth into the fold:

"A new solo film, such as Deadpool 3. A Disney+ limited series. Guest-starring in Spider-Man 3."

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Spider-Man: Far From Home – First Reactions Twitter Roundup

Members of the press had the opportunity to attend early screenings of Spider-Man: Far From Home. With the embargo now lifted, those who saw the film can freely give their opinions on social media - and reactions are very positive.

Praise has been heaped on Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance as Mysterio and how the film manages to follow up the heaviness of Avengers: Endgame with smart, lighthearted storytelling.

Twitter Reacts to Spider-Man: Far From Home

IGN’s Jim Vejvoda was highly positive on Far From Home, calling it “an extremely fun, cleverly executed, and frequently hilarious culmination of the MCU’s wall-crawler’s journey so far."

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