Monthly Archives: October 2019
Joker: The Batman Easter Egg You May Have Missed
Minor spoilers ahead for Joker!
Joker is obviously not a typical comic book movie in that it's lacking the typical hallmarks of the genre that fans have come to expect, debuting without a post-credits scene or many notable comic book references. However, both Joker director Todd Phillips and editor Jeff Groth confirmed to IGN the existence of a Batman Easter egg during the scene where Arthur Fleck visits Wayne Manor.
As Arthur (Joaquin Phoenix) approaches Wayne Manor, he spots young Bruce Wayne (Dante Pereira-Olson) playing on the front lawn in his gazebo-like jungle gym. (Seriously, what kid goes outside to play in a cashmere overcoat?! Only Bruce Wayne.)
Atari’s Lead Console Engineer Quits After Dispute
A new report has revealed that the system architect for Atari’s retro console, the Atari VCS, has left the project after he claims the company hasn’t paid him in six months.
Atari architect Rob Wyatt, who was previously a founding member of the Xbox team, told The Register that he left the Atari project last week. “As of Friday, October 4th, I have officially resigned as the architect of the Atari VCS,” Wyatt told the publication.
According to Wyatt, his design consultancy Tin Giant has not been paid for invoices dating back over six months. “As a small company, we have been lucky to survive this long,” Wyatt says.
Netflix’s The End of the F***ing World S2 Gets a Release Date
The eight-episode second season of Netflix's The End of the F***ing World will be released on November 5; UK viewers can stream it starting November 4 on All 4.
Netflix announced the return date for the dark comedy on Twitter, alongside the poster seen below and a caption teasing what's to come: "I'm Alyssa. I'm nineteen. And I thought I'd already had the s***test day of my life."
NHS Opens Clinic for Game Addiction
The United Kingdom’s National Health Service (or NHS) is opening its first treatment clinic for video game addiction, the Guardian reports.
Focusing on children and young adults between the ages of 13 to 25, the new clinic, dubbed the “Centre for Internet and Gaming Disorder” will start treating patients next month. General practitioners in England can make referrals for patients starting today.
The clinic is part of the UK’s National Centre for Behavioural Addictions, based in London. The new clinic will feature the services of clinical psychologists, therapists, psychiatrists focused on the treatment of youth, and nurses with a focus on mental health.
John Wick Hex Review – Tick Tock Wick
John Wick is an orchestrator of death. He efficiently uses both the tools and space around him in a fight, delicately flowing between enemies and intelligently picking them off. John Wick Hex effortlessly replicates the slick violence of the films, allowing you to embody the feared assassin in combat scenarios that are both challenging and satisfying to overcome. It also introduces a fast-paced spin on traditional turn-based action, letting you think and act like the elusive Baba Yaga while also looking as refined and controlled as he is.
At the core of John Wick Hex is an overhead timeline, which records actions both you and enemies take. Each action takes a set amount of time, represented plainly in the timeline to give you a clear view of when you’re taking a shot versus when you have to dodge an incoming one, for example. After each turn, the action you’ve made plays out in real-time, only pausing if a new enemy enters your line of sight or if you take damage to let you adjust accordingly. You’re always aware of how the action is going to play out when it starts moving again, which lets you plan ahead and position yourself for your next turn.
The choices you make in combat are vital, though. Sometimes an enemy might be quicker on the draw than you, forcing you to decide between potentially taking a hit or throwing your gun to stun them in time. This has its own set of consequences. If the enemy is too far, you’ve now disarmed yourself with too much ground to cover for a close-quarters takedown, or left yourself vulnerable to the surprise appearance of another foe. Each turn is a new step in a moving puzzle, rewarding careful consideration of positioning, sight lines, and resource management with a graceful flow of murder.
Aside from health, you have to consider both ammunition and a resource called focus. John Wick is great with a gun, but Hex limits the number of bullets you can carry at a time to force you to experiment with new weapons that you find. Knowing how many bullets you have in the magazine before a fight helps you manage how many enemies you think you can dispatch before needing to find a new one, which in turn helps you move efficiently from one kill to the next, collecting dropped firearms in the process. It’s a satisfying balance; I constantly had to adapt to the firing speeds and effective ranges of new weapons, which in turn changed the way I advanced on or retreated from a fight.
Focus governs most of your actions outside basic movement and shooting. Everything from performing an instant melee takedown to reloading your weapon requires some focus points, making it the backbone to most of your available repertoire. Although it can be replenished easily enough, finding space in a fight to do so without taking too much damage is tough, encouraging you to only bite off as much as you can chew and space your enemies out to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Your successes and failures are governed but how well you’re able to manage both ammunition and your distribution of resources, with Hex focusing less on hit percentages and random rolls and more on the choices you make and your ability to anticipate how things will play out.
Levels are designed to challenge your understanding of movement and its inherent risks, too, stuffing you into long, cramped corridors laden with doors that enemies can spawn through at any point. Sight lines are obscured to keep you guessing about who's just around the corner; a reckless roll could put you in the firing line of a group of previously hidden enemies. Each step you take towards the exit of each level has to be a calculated one, taking into account acute angles of doorways and the benefits of elevation from overhead balconies.
When you hit a stride with this balancing act, John Wick Hex feels like it’s almost moving in real time. Your decisions will start feeling instinctive, with moves playing out as if you’re beholden to a ticking clock. Hex is tuned to make you feel like you’re always one step ahead. Because you have a beat or two to react to new enemies before they make their moves, you'll often feel like your reaction times are split seconds ahead of them--so long as you're thinking carefully. But it’s equally unforgiving if you’re too bold. If you don’t learn how to break sight lines while moving, you’ll quickly find your timeline overwhelmed with enemy actions that you can’t address entirely. Hex is a power fantasy with the odds ever so slightly tilted in your favor, but it’s also a game that wants you to understand the fine margins that John Wick operates within during every fight.
With such dynamic and engrossing combat at its center, it’s disappointing that John Wick Hex’s original story fails to live up to the same standard. It takes place well before the events of the first film--when John was the most dangerous weapon the High Table had in their employ, and before he ever met his wife--with John searching for series stalwarts Winston and Charon, reprised by Ian McShane and Lance Reddick respectively (Keanu Reeves' likeness is used in the game's stylized cartoonish aesthetic, but John Wick has no dialogue to speak of). Hex, a new villain to the series, has kidnapped the pair in an attempt to dismantle the High Table in a fit of revenge, inviting the wrath of John Wick as he ruthlessly hunts him down over a variety of locales, like neon-soaked night clubs with harsh electronic music and silent, snow-slicked forests which quickly become drenched in bright pink streaks of blood from fallen foes.
While the narrative gives the game a reason to bounce from one location to the next, it never taps into the intriguing layer of lore that sits on top of the high-octane action from the films. You’ll learn nothing new about the High Table or their seedy, mysterious Continental hotels, and even less about John’s time before giving up his assassin lifestyle in pursuit of something quieter. Hex’s revenge tale also fails to establish any interesting backstory or lasting impression on the franchise, making the story feel meaningless in the grander scheme of things.
It’s a disappointing thread that ties together the exceptional gameplay, which faithfully captures the feeling of being John Wick in a strategic and pulsating formula. John Wick Hex has turn-based gameplay at a pace you’ve likely not experienced before, and it intricately balances its systems to give you a sense of being an expert hitman while also making it feel earned. It’s a slick and well-oiled game that succeeds in giving you a new, engrossing way to experience John Wick and its signature brand of chaotic action.
John Wick Hex Review – Beware The Boogeyman
John Wick is an orchestrator of death. He efficiently uses both the tools and space around him in a fight, delicately flowing between enemies and intelligently picking them off. John Wick Hex effortlessly replicates the slick violence of the films, allowing you to embody the feared assassin in combat scenarios that are both challenging and satisfying to overcome. It also introduces a fast-paced spin on traditional turn-based action, letting you think and act like the elusive Baba Yaga while also looking as refined and controlled as he is.
At the core of John Wick Hex is an overhead timeline, which records actions both you and enemies take. Each action takes a set amount of time, represented plainly in the timeline to give you a clear view of when you’re taking a shot versus when you have to dodge an incoming one, for example. After each turn, the action you’ve made plays out in real-time, only pausing if a new enemy enters your line of sight or if you take damage to let you adjust accordingly. You’re always aware of how the action is going to play out when it starts moving again, which lets you plan ahead and position yourself for your next turn.
The choices you make in combat are vital, though. Sometimes an enemy might be quicker on the draw than you, forcing you to decide between potentially taking a hit or throwing your gun to stun them in time. This has its own set of consequences. If the enemy is too far, you’ve now disarmed yourself with too much ground to cover for a close-quarters takedown, or left yourself vulnerable to the surprise appearance of another foe. Each turn is a new step in a moving puzzle, rewarding careful consideration of positioning, sight lines, and resource management with a graceful flow of murder.
Aside from health, you have to consider both ammunition and a resource called focus. John Wick is great with a gun, but Hex limits the number of bullets you can carry at a time to force you to experiment with new weapons that you find. Knowing how many bullets you have in the magazine before a fight helps you manage how many enemies you think you can dispatch before needing to find a new one, which in turn helps you move efficiently from one kill to the next, collecting dropped firearms in the process. It’s a satisfying balance; I constantly had to adapt to the firing speeds and effective ranges of new weapons, which in turn changed the way I advanced on or retreated from a fight.
Focus governs most of your actions outside basic movement and shooting. Everything from performing an instant melee takedown to reloading your weapon requires some focus points, making it the backbone to most of your available repertoire. Although it can be replenished easily enough, finding space in a fight to do so without taking too much damage is tough, encouraging you to only bite off as much as you can chew and space your enemies out to avoid becoming overwhelmed. Your successes and failures are governed but how well you’re able to manage both ammunition and your distribution of resources, with Hex focusing less on hit percentages and random rolls and more on the choices you make and your ability to anticipate how things will play out.
Levels are designed to challenge your understanding of movement and its inherent risks, too, stuffing you into long, cramped corridors laden with doors that enemies can spawn through at any point. Sight lines are obscured to keep you guessing about who's just around the corner; a reckless roll could put you in the firing line of a group of previously hidden enemies. Each step you take towards the exit of each level has to be a calculated one, taking into account acute angles of doorways and the benefits of elevation from overhead balconies.
When you hit a stride with this balancing act, John Wick Hex feels like it’s almost moving in real time. Your decisions will start feeling instinctive, with moves playing out as if you’re beholden to a ticking clock. Hex is tuned to make you feel like you’re always one step ahead. Because you have a beat or two to react to new enemies before they make their moves, you'll often feel like your reaction times are split seconds ahead of them--so long as you're thinking carefully. But it’s equally unforgiving if you’re too bold. If you don’t learn how to break sight lines while moving, you’ll quickly find your timeline overwhelmed with enemy actions that you can’t address entirely. Hex is a power fantasy with the odds ever so slightly tilted in your favor, but it’s also a game that wants you to understand the fine margins that John Wick operates within during every fight.
With such dynamic and engrossing combat at its center, it’s disappointing that John Wick Hex’s original story fails to live up to the same standard. It takes place well before the events of the first film--when John was the most dangerous weapon the High Table had in their employ, and before he ever met his wife--with John searching for series stalwarts Winston and Charon, reprised by Ian McShane and Lance Reddick respectively (Keanu Reeves' likeness is used in the game's stylized cartoonish aesthetic, but John Wick has no dialogue to speak of). Hex, a new villain to the series, has kidnapped the pair in an attempt to dismantle the High Table in a fit of revenge, inviting the wrath of John Wick as he ruthlessly hunts him down over a variety of locales, like neon-soaked night clubs with harsh electronic music and silent, snow-slicked forests which quickly become drenched in bright pink streaks of blood from fallen foes.
While the narrative gives the game a reason to bounce from one location to the next, it never taps into the intriguing layer of lore that sits on top of the high-octane action from the films. You’ll learn nothing new about the High Table or their seedy, mysterious Continental hotels, and even less about John’s time before giving up his assassin lifestyle in pursuit of something quieter. Hex’s revenge tale also fails to establish any interesting backstory or lasting impression on the franchise, making the story feel meaningless in the grander scheme of things.
It’s a disappointing thread that ties together the exceptional gameplay, which faithfully captures the feeling of being John Wick in a strategic and pulsating formula. John Wick Hex has turn-based gameplay at a pace you’ve likely not experienced before, and it intricately balances its systems to give you a sense of being an expert hitman while also making it feel earned. It’s a slick and well-oiled game that succeeds in giving you a new, engrossing way to experience John Wick and its signature brand of chaotic action.
Marvel’s Avengers’ Story Will Roll Out ‘Over The Course of Multiple Years’
Marvel’s Avengers developer Crystal Dynamics has explained the length of the upcoming superhero game is “comparable” to the studio’s Tomb Raider titles.
Initially, talking to Comicbook, senior brand director Rich Briggs said, “We're not putting exact numbers on it just yet, but you can expect something comparable to what we've done in the past.” He alluded to the campaign's length by referencing the kind of hours you’d expect to get out of a Crystal Dynamics game: “If you think about previous Crystal games, you know that if you want to be playing your way through the core story, it's going to be in that area, 10 to 12 hours. But if you want to see everything there is, and do all the side missions and everything else, you're generally looking at 30 plus hours in the Tomb Raider games."
Update: Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order’s Recommended PC Specs Revised
Update 10/8/19: Since publishing this article, EA reached out to let us know that it has updated Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order's recommended system requirements on its Origin store page to a much more reasonable 16GB, down from the originally listed 32GB. Seems this was simply a mistake, as I speculated below that it might be.
The original, unchanged story follows below:
Original Story: The PC system requirements for Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order have popped up on its Origin store page, and the steep RAM requirement listed in its recommended specs is turning some heads.
Man Steals $40,000 Worth of Games and Equipment From Valve
Charges have been filed against a man in Bellevue, Washington for allegedly breaking into Valve’s company headquarters in Lincoln Square and stealing more than $40,000 worth of video games and equipment, according to a report by KIRO 7, first spotted by GamesIndustry.biz.
Charges for the burglary were filed last month against 32-year-old Shawn Shaputis. At the time, Shaputis had six warrants for his arrest.
Robert Downey Jr. Responds to Scorsese Saying Marvel Movies Aren’t Cinema
In the ongoing saga of celebrities reacting to Martin Scorsese’s comment that Marvel movies are “not cinema,” actor Robert Downey Jr. has thrown his hat into the ring with his own response, according to Deadline.
In an interview on Howard Stern’s satellite radio show, Downey took a measured amount of umbrage with Scorsese’s comment.
“According to Scorsese, it’s not cinema. I gotta take a look at that,” Downey said.