Monthly Archives: August 2019
What the Marvel/Sony Spider-Man Deal Means (Or Doesn’t) for Games
The timing couldn’t have been much worse for Spider-Man fans. The very next day after Sony proudly announced its acquisition of decorated studio and longtime collaborator Insomniac Games – makers of 2018’s award-winning PlayStation 4 exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man – and that Spider-Man: Far From Home was Sony Pictures’s highest-grossing movie ever, news broke out of Hollywood that Disney and Sony Pictures failed to come to terms on an agreement to keep Spider-Man in the MCU. While there are safeguards in place to prevent Insomniac’s series from suffering as a result, there are still a couple of reasons to worry.
Scorsese’s The Irishman Sparks Conflict Between Netflix and Theaters
Negotiations over the theatrical release of Martin Scorsese's The Irishman have recently picked back up after initial talks broke down in July.
According to The New York Times, Netflix and national theater chains AMC and Cineplex are locked into a discussion that has been continuing for months, as both parties are struggling to reach an agreement over the distribution of the mob drama.
The two national theater chains are reportedly looking to secure a nearly three-month exclusive window for their showings of The Irishman before it becomes available on the streaming service, which is something that Netflix allegedly does not want to do.
Netflix’s Cowboy Bebop Series Casts Its Julia
Netflix has cast another major role for its upcoming Cowboy Bebop live-action series. Elena Satine (Street Angel) will play Julia.
Netflix's official character description reads, "With a sultry beauty and a voice to die for, Julia is the dream-like object of Spike Spiegel's desire. She struggles to survive in a violent world."
In the original anime, Julia is a figure from Spike's violent past that continues to haunt him in the present. This casting choice suggests Season 1 will feature flashbacks to the freewheeling bounty hunter's days in the Red Dragon Syndicate and his relationships with Julia and arch-rival Vicious.
New to Amazon for September
Amazon Prime Video's new genre-bending animated series, Undone, will premiere on September 13. Starring Alita: Battle Angel's Rosa Salazar and Breaking Bad's Bob Odenkirk, the series centers on "Alma, a twenty-eight-year-old living in San Antonio, Texas. After getting into a car accident and nearly dying, Alma finds she has a new relationship to time. She develops this new ability in order to find out the truth about her father’s death," according to a synopsis from Amazon.
On the movie front, Amazon is showcasing sci-fi genre favorites including Event Horizon, Stargate, and Total Recall.
If you're not a Prime member, you can sign up for a free 30-day Amazon Prime trial and reap all the benefits, including streaming Amazon video. That means you have the opportunity to check out every new video this month without having to pay for it.
The Flash Movie Is ‘Absolutely Confirmed’ Says Ezra Miller
Ezra Miller has confirmed that The Flash standalone film is still happening, despite numerous setbacks.
The actor, who has played The Flash since Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, recently spoke to W Korea about his long list of upcoming projects, assuring DC fans the Scarlet Speedster's solo film is moving forward with him in the lead role as Barry Allen.
When asked about his forthcoming commitments, Miller discussed the projects that were definitely on his agenda, saying, "Well, I'll tell you the ones that I can tell you about, because they're absolutely confirmed."
Carrion is More Metroidvania Than Horror Game
When we first saw Carrion back in 2018 (and again at E3 2019), it introduced us to Phobia Game Studio’s visceral “reverse horror game” and immediately became a disgusting novelty that I couldn’t wait to see more of.
I got to sit down with it at Gamescom 2019, and was glad to find that Carrion isn’t just a disgustingly delightful upending of the horror game, but a uniquely clever action-platformer.
The Groundhog Day Video Game is Real and We Played it
Groundhog Day: Like Father Like Son was one of the more unusual games that we saw at Gamescom this year. After all, the entire premise is unusual - a VR game based on a 25-year-old movie which in itself has a very "rinse and repeat" video game premise. But video games are a twisty medium, and here I am, with a PlayStation VR headset strapped to my head, playing Groundhog Day.
The premise is smart. Phill Connors Jr spent his life in his father’s shadow; no matter what he lent his hand to, his perfect father was of course already a master of it. So he does what any rebellious young person does and moves from Punxsutawney to Pittsburgh, leaving behind his mother, his brother, his high-school girlfriend, and the gold-tinged memory of his (presumably late) father. Something brings him back to Punxsutawney, he gets stuck in the Groundhog Day loop, and the game begins proper.
Why a Spider-Man and Venom Crossover Should Be Sony’s Next Priority
With Sony and Marvel’s deal to share Spider-Man on the big screen abruptly coming to an end, we’re now faced with a future where Peter Parker’s next solo movie will presumably not take place in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Luckily for Sony, they just kicked off a cinematic universe of their own with last year’s smash hit, Venom, so there’s already a place for Spider-Man to land. Given that a sect of fans have already promised to boycott Sony over the split with Marvel, it’s in Sony’s best interest to turn lemons into lemonade as fast as possible and get to work on a Spider-Man and Venom crossover.
Windjammers 2 Remains Gaming’s Greatest Fake Sport
I’m of the mind that the 1994's Windjammers is a perfect game. I also think it's gaming's greatest made-up sport, an absurd kind of frisbee-battle-tennis, decked in Global Hypercolor and built with fighting game nous. The original is the epitome of ‘easy to learn, hard to master’ design, a constant rush of lightning-fast rallies, clutch saves and big, stupid effects. It begs the question - how do you make a sequel to that? The answer, at least according to developer DotEmu, is to tweak, not overhaul.
You might be forgiven for thinking the French dev had gone for the latter option - Windjammers 2 drops the original’s pixel art in favour of a ‘90s cartoon aesthetic, inspired by the likes of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It’s a big change, and not one I was entirely enthralled with at first. There’s a reason ‘pixel-perfect’ is a gaming cliche, and it’s because games like Windjammers exemplified the idea that you could play better by learning the game at a micro level - where an opponent’s finger is pointing, whether you can place a power lob outside of their reach by the merest dots on an old CRT.
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