Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 is almost here, and Marvel took the time at its San Diego Comic-Con panel to announce its post-launch plans for the game. That includes both an upcoming free update and the first details of the roster for its expansion pass.First, Cyclops and Colossus will come to the game as a free update on August 30. Those two are both X-Men, but they aren't the previously announced X-Men DLC pack. Instead, the first DLC pack will be Marvel Knights this fall, which will include Blade, Moon Knight, Punisher, and Morbius.According to a slide shown at the panel, X-Men will come next followed by Fantastic Four, which are planned for 2019 and 2020, respectively. The DLC is also said to contain additional story content and modes--it also nets you an alternative-color chef Deadpool outfit. DLC will not be sold separately, and you'll have to purchase the full expansion pass for $20; the pass is also being sold as a bundle with the full game.The new Nintendo Switch game releases on July 19. You can check out our Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 review in progress to get an idea of what to expect from this first new entry in the series in many years.Comic-Con has plenty of Marvel panels coming up, so keep checking back for more news out of the show, true-believers.Info from Gamespot.com

San Diego Comic-Con 2019 has officially begun and that means that the floodgates are open for new trailers. Whether it's an upcoming movie, live-action series, animated revival, or anything in between, there's sure to be a tease of it at the show, which means you'll no doubt be spending the next few days with your eyes glued to screens.To help you keep up with the latest trailers, we've put together a roundup where you'll find the coolest ones from the show in one, convenient place. Thus far we've been given our first proper look at Top Gun: Maverick and a terrifying look at It Chapter 2. The trailers are going to keep coming, so be sure to check back here regularly.Top Gun: MaverickAs you can probably guess from the title, Tom Cruise returns as Maverick in the sequel to Top Gun, the 80s-era flick about just a bunch a guys being dudes in high-speed fighter jets. It seems, however, Mav hasn't changed all that much. In fact, that seems to be the crux of the movie as, despite being a decorated pilot, Mav hasn't ascended up the ranks. He's still the same old cocky fighter pilot.It Chapter 2Pennywise the dancing clown is returning to terrify eggboys once again in It Chapter 2. At the end of the first film, the Losers Club drove him away but, knowing that the evil clown would one day return to Derry, Maine to feed on the fear of a new generation. Having faced the horror head-on and emerged victorious, they vowed to return to Derry should he reappear. And it just so happens that he's back...Jay and Silent Bob RebootAfter spreading his wings into the thriller and horror genre, as well as a few superhero TV shows, Kevin Smith is returning to a fan favorite. More specifically, two fan favorites: Jay and Silent Bob. The mischevious duo are back and getting a reboot, except, it seems like not much has changed. The trailer for Jay and Silent Bob is puerile, risque, and very silly in exactly the way fans expect. Snooch to the nooch.CatsEasily the most disturbing trailer so far, even topping It: Chapter 2's, belongs to Cats. The unsettling blend of animation and real-life performances makes for a bizarre trailer, especially when considering the talent involved: Judi Dench, Idris Elba, Ian McKellen, and more.Comic-Con's Cats Movie Trailer Is Kind Of Terrifying But Memes Are Here To Help Us ThroughAs mentioned above, there's going to be lots more trailers over the coming hours and days, so this article will be updated frequently. If you want to stay on top of the latest news stories as they break, make sure to check out our SDCC 2019 hub. It's going to be an exciting show and we've already had news that Edward Furlong is returning to play John Connor in Terminator Dark Fate, confirmation that Agents of Shield is coming to an end, and more.Info from Gamespot.com

During its panel at San Diego Comic-Con, Marvel gave the first new details on the Avengers game from Crystal Dynamics since it debuted at E3 2019.The company explained that once you finish the prologue--which acts as an introduction to each of its major characters--the world opens up and you gain access to a base on a reclaimed Helicarrier. From there you'll launch into single-player or co-op missions. The story campaign will be recognizable as a linear action game with you playing each character as the story unfolds.The story trailer hinted at cameos from other notable names in the Marvel universe, as it was narrated by Kamala Khan, aka Ms. Marvel, who was attending the A-Day celebration.Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 review in progressFor online missions, you can customize each Avenger with their own skill trees and cosmetics, and then team up with friends. The panel didn't announce what the larger world missions will consist of, but it's separate from the standard story missions.Fans will be able to see all this for themselves shortly after Gamescom. The panel announced that footage of the demo will be released the week after that event, which is set to take place in late August.For more on the many Marvel panels and much more out of Comic-Con, check out all of our coverage.Info from Gamespot.com

Crystal Dynamics showed an updated gameplay demo of Marvel's Avengers at San Diego Comic-Con 2019, providing a better sense of what the game will be like for players and revealing a little more about the game's story.Creative director Shaun Escayg ran down the entire game with a quick elevator pitch. "In Marvel's Avengers, you get to play an original Avengers story, you get to customize your hero as you want, and you get to assemble online with your friends and play," he said. The gameplay footage made that a little bit clearer, dividing the game between a story campaign and a cooperative portion. In the campaign, you'll play as all the Avengers; co-op is where you'll customize your Avengers character and play with friends.The footage Crystal Dynamics showed is the prologue of the story campaign. In it, San Francisco is attacked on A-Day, a celebration during which the Avengers are preparing to open up a West Coast branch. An explosion during the battle ravages the city and kills Captain America, leading to a disbanding of the Avengers as they struggle with picking up the pieces in the aftermath.The story sees players taking on the roles of each of the Avengers in turn. You start battling across the Golden Gate Bridge, brawling as Thor, before transitioning into flying and shooting as Iron Man, smashing as Hulk, and beating down boss character Taskmaster as Black Widow. The demo also featured a cameo of Kamala Khan, also known as Ms. Marvel, but it's not clear how much of a role she'll play in the story, or if she'll be playable.Kamala's brief moment on screen teased a major potential plot point, however. The explosion on A-Day results from a reaction in an experimental Terrigen generator, which bathes the entire A-Day celebrator in Terrigen mists. That includes Kamala, who was prominently featured as she was knocked out and surrounded in the swirling green gas.In Marvel's comics, the Terrigen mist is the catalyst needed to create Inhumans, triggering the activation of hidden Inhuman genes in select people. The process tends to be traumatic, involving a monstrous cocoon-based metamorphosis that usually results in some very confused, very scared, newly empowered Inhumans coping with powers they can't control or understand. Kamala undergoes the process and is transformed into Ms. Marvel in the comics. It's unclear whether or not Marvel's Avengers will play up the Inhuman angle in the game's story at large, but it certainly seems likely given the catastrophic events of A-Day and the growing distrust of superheroes that appears to be brewing in the world of the game. A sudden boom in the metahuman population would cause some significant unrest and tension, and an unavoidable conflict for the remaining Avengers to handle, regardless of public opinion. We also know more heroes than just the core Avengers will appear in the game, so we'd guess there's more Ms. Marvel on the way, and it could pave the way for the likes of Medusa and Black Bolt, who were considered as the leaders of the Inhumans. The story campaign footage appeared to be a more complete version of the Marvel's Avengers hands-off demo we saw at E3 2019. As the story of A-Day unfolded, the player took on the role of each of the Avengers as they fought various minions of Taskmaster, each using a different set of signature moves and play styles. Thor's moves channeled his thunder god abilities, allowing him to control and take down groups of enemies when he wasn't pummeling individual goons with his hammer, Mjolnir. One move saw lightning blasting across the ground to nail a group of enemies, while another caught them in tiny tornadoes that lifted them off the ground and took them out of the fight. When the action switched to Iron Man, play changed to a much more range-focused style as Iron Man blasted away at guys individually, before laying waste to several with a shot from his Unibeam, which blew up the vehicles housing enemies.Hulk, by contrast, used several aerial moves to come crashing back to earth like a meteor, sending people flying. He could also grab two enemies and smash them together, pick up and throw one tank at another, or rip through several enemies in front of him with his Sonic Clap. Cap, meanwhile, hucked his shield around quite a bit, with it bouncing around to take out several enemies at once. All the characters had a quick dodge move that briefly slowed time to let them get out of the way of danger or reposition to catch enemies from another angle.Black Widow's battle with Taskmaster took a page from games like God of War or Marvel's Spider-Man, with the spy taking on the boss by herself. To start, Widow flung herself off a collapsing portion of the bridge to catch Taskmaster in the air as he rocketed around with a jetpack, pummeling him with punches as button prompts appeared to help her dodge obstacles and get hits in. When the pair finally landed, Widow had to avoid Taskmaster's fast-moving attacks so she could find an opening to land attacks. Taskmaster's photographic reflexes allow him to adapt to whomever he's fighting, so Widow finished the fight by activating some active camouflage tech that turned her invisible. That allowed her to close the gap on the boss and hit him from behind. But as Black Widow mentioned after taking Taskmaster down, the whole fight felt like a distraction. When the Avengers reassembled a moment later, it became clear she was right. The team watched a SHIELD Helicarrier, where Captain America had been fighting, explode and crash into the San Francisco Bay--taking much of the city with it.The footage also demonstrated some of the cooperative portion, where you can customize your own roster of Avengers. The panel included footage of skill trees for characters like Iron Man and Thor, allowing you to change their abilities and stats to fit your play style. You'll also to be able to customize their appearances. The panel showed off quite a few different possibilities for each Avenger. The two most notable were a Mr. Fixit getup in which Hulk sports a suit and Fedora, and a Planet Skaar look that was heavy on animal skins.Escayg said that you can take your customized versions of the Avengers into a co-op version of the game with friends, creating your own Avengers teams. He didn't detail what exactly the co-op portion will entail, but brief footage showed Iron Man and Thor, controlled by different people, brawling against enemies.There's more Marvel news coming at Comic-Con beyond upcoming games like Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 and Marvel's Avengers. Check out the full list of Marvel panels at the convention, and keep an eye on our Comic-Con hub for complete coverage throughout the week.Info from Gamespot.com

Remember that Jurassic Park quote, "Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn’t stop to think if they should"? Never has that been as relevant as today, when the debut trailer for a movie version of the Cats musical made its debut at Comic-Con.Except, in this specific case the scientists are visual effects artist whose hubris has given birth to things that should not exist. Those things happen to be anthropomorphic cats played by Idris Elba, Rebel Wilson, Judi Dench, Ian McKellen, James Corden, Taylor Swift, and many other well-known celebrities.James Corden is a fat cat wearing a top hat and bumping other human cats with his belly. And Idris Elba is sitting on top of a building in a fur coat (PRESUMABLY MADE FROM ANOTHER CAT) looking like Batman but a cat... man. Why is Sir Ian McKellen a cat? Who asked for this? Is Taylor Swift a catnip drug dealer? I've never seen Cats on stage because I'm uncultured, but it seems cool and I'm up for it. On-screen, however, and with CGI involved, it's all just a bit ... unsettling.Needless to say, seeing these odd cat-faced humans has resulted in quite a visceral reaction from the internet at large. Twitter has been abuzz with shocked reactions to the unsettling depictions of part human part feline creatures dancing around--standing completely upright--in giant rooms that are supposed to show they're...still... cat-sized? I dunno, here are some reactions.I CAN’T BELIEVE THEY DID THIS ON PURPOSE. pic.twitter.com/oItHY9G7s1 — Saeed Jones (@theferocity) July 18, 2019why do the cats in the new Cats movie look like bad Medieval cat paintings lmao pic.twitter.com/mIHbJbrIhi — rae paoletta (in 🇨🇱) (@PAYOLETTER) July 18, 2019the new Cats trailer looks good pic.twitter.com/rQ4dJdjLiV — Pepin (@Dom_Pepin) July 18, 2019me watching the CATS trailer pic.twitter.com/MhEQKuXsJo — David Sims (@davidlsims) July 18, 2019Cats: The Musical. pic.twitter.com/GLWUkFn7fh — Amazon Movie Reviews (@AmznMovieRevws) July 18, 2019in a way, i'm glad grumpy cat never had to see this — Dave Itzkoff (@ditzkoff) July 18, 2019therapist: judi dench as a cat isn’t real she can’t hurt youjudi dench as a cat: pic.twitter.com/1cLqmS22xO — raya (@wewritelettrs) July 18, 2019What? That they're cats? pic.twitter.com/pEj3TscPJw — Limited Edition Pablo Hidalgo Funko Pop (@pablohidalgo) July 18, 2019We are the future, Charles, not them. pic.twitter.com/O12oKYp7mg — Lon Harris (@Lons) July 18, 2019Drifted further into the nightmare. pic.twitter.com/DP5vPm8z0c — Simon Cardy (@CardySimon) July 18, 2019Wow, CATS looks great pic.twitter.com/sONg5jgu7e — Asher 🐙🌍 (@buckligerzwerg) July 18, 2019pic.twitter.com/JTV6QtQUPB — unlicensed professional (@KrangTNelson) July 18, 2019pic.twitter.com/szQKDcL6ea — Wardy, as voted for by you (@td_ward) July 18, 2019Same energy #CatsMovie pic.twitter.com/ptOmrnqKlA — Aoife Wilson (@AoifeLockhart) July 18, 2019Cats (2019) pic.twitter.com/Xz2ND9NgUz — Jules (@Julian_Epp) July 18, 2019 Info from Gamespot.com

Microsoft reported earnings for its latest period today, and the company's gaming numbers were up and down. For the quarter ended June 30, total gaming revenue for Microsoft was $2.053 billion, which is down 10 percent from $2.286 billion this quarter last year.Hardware revenue specifically was down 48 percent due to a decrease in the number of consoles sold. A downturn in console sales is to be expected, given the Xbox One has been on sale since 2013. It's also a historical pattern that console sales drop before the release of new hardware, and that seems to be the case here with Project Scarlett slated for release in Holiday 2020.Another thing to consider is that the money in gaming is made with software and services, not console hardware. It's not just Microsoft that's experiencing a downturn in hardware sales. The NPD Group reported today that total hardware spending in the United States fell 33 percent year-over-year. PS4 sales are falling as well; only the Nintendo Switch posted year-over-year growth.Microsoft's gaming revenue from software and services for the period was down a more modest 3 percent. Microsoft said this downturn was due in part to the same quarter last year being exceptionally strong due to a "third-party title," which is likely a reference to Fortnite. Also, Microsoft said its subscription revenue grew in the latest quarter, which is a positive.Microsoft has recently expanded its subscription revenue category through Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. The new streaming service, xCloud, could be yet another channel of subscription revenue for Microsoft when the platform rolls out later this year.Another positive for Microsoft is that Xbox Live users grew to 65 million for the quarter, which is up 14 percent compared to the 57 million members that Microsoft reported a year ago.Microsoft is one of the biggest companies on planet Earth, and gaming is just one part of its businesses. Altogether, Microsoft posted revenue of $33.7 billion for the quarter, which was up 12 percent. Additionally, Microsoft made $13.2 billion in profit for the three-month period.Looking ahead, Sony, Nintendo, and EA will all announce their own earnings on July 30, while Take-Two and Activision will follow in August.Info from Gamespot.com

The NPD Group has released its report for June 2019, and it wasn't a great month for the United States video game industry. Every tracked category--software, hardware, and accessories/game cards--posted a year-over-year decrease in sales. In total, across all categories, spending for June 2019 reached $959 million; that's down 13 percent year-over-year.In terms of game sales, Super Mario Maker 2 was June's top-seller. Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled, Mortal Kombat 11, Grand Theft Auto V, and Minecraft rounded out the top five. As for Mario Maker 2, its launch month sales were stronger than the first game in September 2015 and Super Mario Maker for 3DS in December 2016.Nitro Fueled's June sales amounted to the highest launch-month sales in the history of the Crash Bandicoot series. The N. Sane Trilogy was the previous record-holder.As for Mortal Kombat 11, it continues to be the best-selling game of 2019. Additionally, with June's sales accounted for, Mortal Kombat 11 has now passed the lifetime sales of 2011's Mortal Kombat, but it's still behind y Mortal Kombat X and Mortal Kombat III.Total spending on video games in the US for June 2019 amounted to $386 million, which is down 1 percent.Moving to hardware, the Nintendo Switch was the top-selling system of June, while it is also the No. 1 best-seller for the entire first half of 2019 in terms of unit and dollar sales. It's expected that the PS4 and Xbox One would be performing comparatively poorly due to their age relative to the Switch. Next-generation consoles from Microsoft and Sony are expected to release in Holiday 2020.Total hardware spending for June 2019 fell a dramatic 33 percent to $235 million. Only the Nintendo Switch posted year-over-year growth.In terms of accessories and game cards, spending dropped 7 percent to $338 million. Sony's black DualShock 4 controller was the top-selling accessory of June 2019 and the entire year so far. Top 20 Best-Selling Games Of June 2019Super Mario Maker 2*Crash Team Racing: Nitro FueledMortal Kombat 11Grand Theft Auto VMinecraft#Super Smash Bros. Ultimate*Spider-ManNBA 2K19Mario Kart 8*Days GoneRainbow Six SiegeRed Dead Redemption IIThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild*MLB 19: The ShowCall of Duty: Black Ops 4^The Division 2^New Super Mario Bros. U DeluxeAssassin's Creed OdysseySuper Mario Party*God of War*Digital sales not included^PC digital sales not included#Minecraft digital sales on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One included Info from Gamespot.com

The taxi cab is refitted as a confession booth in Night Call, a noir-styled visual novel that interweaves a series of murder mysteries through the tales of dozens of ordinary Parisians, the threads of their lives intermingling as you crisscross the streets of the city. Everyone's a little frail or fragile, much like the fabric of the game's core investigation, and it's the insights into people's everyday hopes, fears, and secrets that linger long after the end credits have rolled.You play as Houssine, an Algerian immigrant living in Paris. Much of his background is elided, or only revealed in suggestion over the course of the game, but he is Muslim, sports a thick, dark beard, and works as a cab driver on the night shift. Houssine is recently back behind the wheel after an assault that saw him hospitalized and, because of who he is, a suspect in the very crime of which he was a victim.Houssine understands what it means to feel like an outsider. There's been a terrorist attack recently, the details of which remain unspecified, but Arab men like Houssine are singled out for suspicion, their mere presence a cause for concern. His assault also resulted in the death of another person, the latest in a series of deaths that the police are keen to pin on him. One detective, however, disagrees and offers Houssine a deal: Help her investigation into the murders and he'll walk free.It feels right that Houssine would be of interest to the police given the political climate (both current and echoed in-game) and the hints at his troubled past. And it feels authentic that someone would pressure him to essentially become an informant, the kind of blackmail that insinuates that inside the moral grey area of society lies a corrupt, black core. These themes--of feeling like you don’t belong, of a rotten system operating to exclude all but the privileged few--infuse not just Houssine’s personal experience but of many of the people he encounters, and work well in linking together an otherwise disparate collection of stories. At one point a young black man from Chicago (he’s in Paris studying to become a mime, hilariously) gets into Houssine’s cab after a humiliating run-in with the police, and they bond over their shared experiences. “I’d say the police have a problem with black people,” Houssine says, then grins, “... and Arabs.”Each night, Houssine hits the streets to track down clues and follow up leads, all while performing his regular job. From a map of the city, you select a fare to take and watch a yellow arrow navigate to its destination, the scene then overlaying an interior shot of the cab with Houssine front right and his passenger(s) in the back seat behind.At this point, the only thing to do is talk. Conversations are entirely text-based, with you selecting dialogue options on Houssine's behalf interspersed with his internal observations. Despite being minimally animated, with a handful of poses and expressions each, each character conveys a remarkable range of emotion and succeeds in bringing to vivid life each new person you encounter.It's a wonderfully diverse cast of characters, too. In total there are 75 passengers to meet over the course of the game, drawn from a broad range of ages, social classes, ethnicities, sexualities and, in one or possibly two cases, dimensions. They each have their own stories to tell, and Houssine seems to be the man chosen to hear them all.That's because while he's an outsider, as a cab driver, Houssine's difference is camouflaged. Many of the people he picks up are oblivious to him, at least at first. Couples discuss private matters as if he is not there. Lone passengers mutter to themselves, seemingly unaware of the possibility there's a real human being sharing the vehicle with them. When they do notice him, one passenger scoffs at the idea that a lowly cab driver could have any useful advice. Another passenger assumes Houssine has certain political sympathies because he's a brown, working-class man. "According to the people of this country, you don't count," one character tells him, with weary resignation. Houssine is both othered and unseen, tagged as different and yet simultaneously erased.However, some passengers are immediately warm towards Houssine, while others, if distant or cautious to begin with, soon find themselves disarmed. Regardless of their disposition, however, they're all willing to reveal the most intimate details of their inner lives with often only the slightest bit of delicate prodding. There's the politician who is at the end of his tether over endemic corruption and pleads with Houssine to help him leak confidential documents. There's the lesbian couple who are loudly debating the merits of the prospective sperm donor with whom they have just concluded a "date." There's the former porn actress who is eager to talk all about her new pro-union production company making gender-positive porn movies. These tales are often funny, moving, and sweet--but moreover, they're always fascinating and exceptionally well-written.In between these fares, Houssine can visit various locations to further his investigation. He knows someone who works somewhere who might have some information, that sort of thing. But these scenes don't feel as fleshed out as the cab ride conversations. It's not made clear how Houssine knows to go to these places or why many of these contacts are able to help him. Indeed, much of the casework he's pursuing is obscured, as if key details have been intentionally, frustratingly, left out of reach. When Houssine returns to his apartment each morning and assesses the clues he’s uncovered--presented as hand-written notes pinned to a board--I found it difficult to interpret what much of it meant. By the time Houssine was called upon to accuse a suspect, I made an unconvincing guess that just happened to be correct.The structure of this series of murder mysteries is strange. There are three cases to choose from when you begin a new game, and each is framed the same way: Houssine finds himself the inadvertent victim of a serial killer and strong-armed by a detective to assist the investigation. Recurring characters populate each case, though if you meet someone in one case, that relationship won't carry over into the next one. It was very odd to give a ride in the second case to the very same person I'd revealed as the killer in the first. I did learn some more things about him that complicated my feelings about how the first case was resolved, but I couldn’t help but wish I’d encountered this conversation while pursuing that first case.Houssine can't just focus on his detective work. He needs to earn a living, too. Fuel for your cab, daily car maintenance, and repayments on your cab license are all a drain on your bank account that can only be plugged by picking up new fares. Your boss says you're like a son to him, but if you don't make enough money from your shift and can't afford to pay his cut, the car maintenance, and the license fee, he fires you on the spot and it's game over.I like the theory behind this slight economic sim layer. It's there to ensure you feel the precariousness of Houssine's existence while also nudging you towards interacting with all the characters who don't really have anything to do with the core mystery. But my experience of the normal difficulty setting was that it felt too punitive. On my first case, I entered an all-too-real downward spiral where I simply couldn't pull Houssine out of the red and had to abandon the game. On the easy difficulty, Houssine still loses money each night, but he starts with a buffer sufficient to see the story through.If you're going to play Night Call, then play it on the "Story" setting. The normal difficulty claims it is "the way Night Call is meant to be played." I disagree. Night Call is at its best when you're behind the wheel, gliding through the rain-kissed boulevards, lost in conversation with whichever lost soul just happened to appear in the back seat of your cab. It presents itself as a noir mystery, but the murders you’re investigating are the least interesting narrative element. Night Call’s real strength is in the stories it tells about Paris, about the people who live there and the meaningful connections you can have with them no matter how brief or unexpected. It's these people you'll remember once you've solved each case, not the fares you charged them. Info from Gamespot.com

HBO debuted a new trailer for His Dark Materials during the show's Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con 2019--a panel that included executive producer Jane Tranter, writer Jack Thorne, Dafne Keen (Lyra Belacqua), Ruth Wilson (Marisa Coulter), Lin-Manuel Miranda (Lee Scoresby), and James McAvoy (Lord Asriel).The His Dark Materials books, beginning with The Golden Compass (Northern Lights outside of North America) in 1995 and concluding with book 3, 2000's The Amber Spyglass, are a fantasy series set in a world in which humans' souls are embodied in companion animals that live outside their bodies. The series follows Lyra Belacqua, a young girl whose journey goes to some very surprising places by the end.Tranter discussed why she chose to tackle this adaptation--one that's been attempted more than once in the past. "I thought it was time for the books to be liberated in a space which could do them justice," she said. "I think that all of those different adaptations have all been brilliant in their own ways, but the real estate of contemporary television--being able to stretch those books out and sound every note that Philip Pullman sounded in the novels--I just thought it was time."She said the show starts the same way as the Philip Pullman books on which they're based--with the attempted murder of Lord Asriel, which Lyra thwarts.Thorne, who handled writing the adaptation itself, said when he starts an adaptation (he wrote the stage play for Harry Potter and the Cursed Child previously), he learns as much as possible about the original work's author first. "I think that's what we've tried to do, is just try and capture the important notes, and tell them to the best of our ability," the writer said.Thorne revealed that he and Tranter worked on 46 drafts of the first episode. Getting the daemons--an integral part of the series' lore--right was particularly important. "You do sometimes get lost in other stuff, but the thing about the daemons is that they are characters," Thorne said. "Everything that Philip built is for a reason."Keen and Wilson discussed shooting with their "daemons," revealing that they used puppeteers to represent the CG creatures during filming. The puppeteers were later edited out as the CG daemons were added, but the actresses said it helped them to have physical representations in the room. Miranda, famous for his musical Hamilton, said the His Dark Materials book are particularly important to him. "When my wife and I started dating we read these books together," Miranda said. "They're in a really special place in my heart." He was thrilled when he was offered the part of Lee Scoresby, and he revealed how his character will enter the show: Lee's first scene is set on his hot air balloon, where he sings a duet with his daemon.Keen, on the other hand, revealed she wasn't a fan of the books when she auditioned for the part, and had only read about halfway through the first novel, The Golden Compass, because she didn't believe she'd be cast. When she got the part, though, she dove in again, and found she couldn't put them down."Literally until I finished the three books, I did not close the book," Keen, who X-Men fans know as X-23 in Logan, said. "They're just so fun, they're so entertaining, they're so good, because Philip's amazing." She repeatedly raised her hands to her head to mime her mind being blown.Part of the reason the books are so popular is they're far more than they appear. "That's why these books are so fascinating," Wilson said--they're not just a coming-of-age story, but deal with religion, philosophy, and more. Fans no doubt are hoping this adaptation won't shy away from those aspects the way some previous ones--particularly the 2007 movie--have.Tranter took the opportunity of the panel to clarify what she believes the source material's stance on religion is."Philip Pullman, in these books, is not attacking belief, not attacking faith, not attacking religion or the church per se," Tranter said. "He's attacking a particular form of control where there is a very deliberate attempt to withhold information, keep people in the dark, and not allow ideas and thinking to be free."She said that although that authoritarian force is represented by the Magisterium in His Dark Materials, it doesn't equate directly with any real-world churches or religions. Fans might have different ideas, but Tranter seemed firm in this position.The executive producer also said it took a while to get HBO on board. "It was a long process," she said. "It took us a couple of years to really begin to put the pieces together in a way that people other than myself and Jack...and a small group of people could see." Eventually, HBO got it, and they came on board as a partner to the BBC. "It's not an easily comprehensible piece, and I think [HBO] felt that was very much for them," Tranter said.Hopefully, fans will believe it's very much for them, as well, when His Dark Materials arrives on HBO this fall. Info from Gamespot.com

On the heels of that heartbreaking Season 2 cliffhanger, the cast and producers of Cobra Kai came to San Diego Comic-Con to give some idea about what's to come in the future. When last we left the characters, Miguel (Xolo Maridueña) was in bad shape in a hospital after a karate riot broke out in his high school, leading to him falling over a balcony and landing spine-first on the railing of a staircase.So what comes next? According to the show's producers, the students of Cobra Kai and Miyagi-Do will be figuring out how to move forward as they reflect on what's become of the two dojos full of students. As for Miyagi-Do sensei Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio), his moving forward will look a lot like revisiting his past. "We will see Daniel LaRusso return to Okinawa," executive producer John Hurwitz revealed.Fans of the Karate Kid franchise will remember Daniel took his first trip to Okinawa, Japan in The Karate Kid II, in which a then-young Daniel traveled to the country with Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita). Hopefully this time he doesn't get stuck in a typhoon or a fight to the death. After all, he's got a family to think about back at home in the valley.San Diego Comic-Con 2019 Schedule: Panels, Activations, And MoreWhen it comes to the other characters on the show, there's not a lot to be known as Season 3 production hasn't started yet. However, Martin Kove does believe that Sensei Kreese will find some kind of redemption after ousting Johnny (William Zabka) as the head of Cobra Kai. "Coming up soon, I think there's a lot of redemption," he said. "I think there should be. But if there isn't, I think that'll be a really good dance."As for what redemption looks like to Sensei Kreese, who has turned his back on his greatest student, that's anyone's guess. Given what we've seen of him so far on Cobra Kai, though, chances are he's not going to give up his devious ways without a fight.Cobra Kai will return to YouTube in 2019. Info from Gamespot.com

Today at San Diego Comic-Con, HBO released the first full trailer for His Dark Materials Season 1, which it is developing with The BBC. The show is based on the Philip Pullman trilogy of fantasy novels comprising Norther Lights (known as The Golden Compass in the US), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.This Season 1 trailer shows off stars James McAvoy, Ruth Wilson, Lin-Manuel Miranda, and Dafne Keen. Season 1 follows the story of Lyra, who is played by Keen, the breakout child star of the Wolverine movie Logan. "Her search for a kidnapped friend uncovers a sinister plot involving stolen children, and becomes a quest to understand a mysterious phenomenon called Dust," reads a line from the show's description. "As she journeys through the worlds, including our own, Lyra meets Will (Amir Wilson), a determined and courageous boy. Together, they encounter extraordinary beings and dangerous secrets, with the fate of both the living--and the dead --in their hands."The eight-episode His Dark Materials Season 1 was written by Jack Thorne, who wrote Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. He also also attached to re-write Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker before being replaced.His Dark Materials was already adapted through the 2007 Daniel Craig movie The Golden Compass. It was not the kind of commercial success that producers New Line wanted, and the two planned sequels were never made.His Dark Materials Season 1 on HBO premieres this fall.Info from Gamespot.com

The manicured lawns in Etherborn are minimally sculptured. Their soil is thinly layered with patches of grass contained within grey slabs of concrete, and they stand in stark contrast to a backdrop of crumbling pillars and decrepit buildings. And like examining the self-contained scenes of a diorama, you'll find yourself ruminating over these landscapes as you unravel the puzzle of how to traverse them. But while Etherborn's minimalist beauty carries suggestions of loftier and more ambitious storytelling it's instead hampered a dissonant narrative, and a brevity that makes it feel lacking.Like many platformers, Etherborn seems deceptively simple initially: just leapfrog your way towards the level's finale while collecting crystalline orbs that unlock previously inaccessible areas. In fact, some of Etherborn's geometric planes and architectural complexity very much harken back to Monument Valley, a title that famously plays on optical illusions and the mathematically-inspired art of MC Escher. What makes this puzzle game different is that its laws of gravity aren't like our world's. You can simply walk across any surface--even those perpendicular to your character--as long as there's a curved edge that connects them. However, you're still vulnerable to injuries and death; accidentally sliding off these landscapes and into the endless void below is a possibility.Scaling these lopsided grounds introduces another dimension and new, unforeseen challenges. Etherborn often manipulates your perspectives, challenging you to find the abstract solutions to its puzzles. There are occasions where I was left baffled, unable to move on, only to realize much later that I didn't notice a few platforms I could jump on because they were turned onto their sides. At other times, you may even spend the bulk of a level on a horizontal wall and leaping over chasms within the same plane--a perspective that's tough to get the hang of. It's highly likely that you'll slip through the cracks at least once or twice due to the obtuse angles and see yourself spiraling downwards into the emptiness below (or sideways, given the game's unconventional gravitational pull).Key to solving some puzzles is a keen eye for detail, which can help you to spot obscure passageways that open another route to your goal. Becoming intimately familiar with the nooks and crannies of every miniature world is something you'll want to do not only to satisfy your curiosity about the environment--it's also necessary if you want to get through the game's levels. Upping the ante in later chapters are shifting monochrome blocks, which expand and retract depending on where you are--and they can be a great source of grievance when they hinder your path.It would have been a drag to commit to all these efforts if Etherborn's ecosystem were a lusterless one. Luckily, wandering and discovering each microcosm is mostly joyful and even oddly meditative. You can hike along the side of a flight of steps and find a starkly different landscape tucked away underneath, or run along the contours of the structures surrounding the island. Even though Etherborn's world is sparsely decorated and may even appear sterile, with only a few shrubberies, dandelions and elements of urban decay adorning each world, it is a universe still feels genuinely intriguing.Discovering a hidden passage or a curved pathway as a new means of moving forward toward uncharted surfaces is hugely gratifying. Given that you'll probably be devoting a fair amount of time tinkering away at its puzzles, it also helps that the orchestral, instrumental soundtrack is soothing and non-intrusive. And while there are only five chapters in the game, each will probably take you at least an hour to figure out. Coupled with its steep levels of difficulty, it's also comforting that mistakes via accidental deaths are also quickly forgiven, with the game swiftly transporting you back to the state you were in a few seconds ago.What's decidedly less impressive, however, is how hard Etherborn tries to shoehorn an ill-fitting narrative within the puzzles. You're a featureless, transparent humanoid figure with a very visible circulatory system, a character vaguely resembling the human anatomy mannequin found in a biology classroom. At the behest of an incorporeal, hallowed voice, you're tasked to travel across these lands in search of a series of waypoints. Tapping on these will eventually reveal various paths on a massive tree called the Endless Tree, its bark gradually peeling off to expose a meandering, vein-like system across its trunk that ties all the chapters together. It's a nifty inclusion that references the game's imagery of humanity and anatomy, but ultimately an inconsequential one.Even as this disembodied voice tells a story that alludes to the beginnings of human civilization, the plot feels perfunctory and strangely divorced from its puzzles. Aside from introducing each chapter, the voice doesn't influence the game very much; instead, it simply delves into vague parables about the folly of human nature, without really explaining the significance of your mannequin character and this exotic world. This sense of dissonance makes the tale rather tenuous to follow. Exacerbating this is how the dialogue is filled with abstract ideas that teeter on pretentiousness, bloated with lofty lines like, "And so, their vast ego was also reduced to mere language." Etherborn would have been even more intriguing had it allowed you to project your own stories and interpretations onto this universe--like many curious onlookers would as they peer into a diorama.The highlights of Etherborn are undoubtedly its inventive puzzles and its constellation of small, compelling worlds. But with just five chapters, its brief runtime feels lacking, and it left me wanting for more puzzles to solve. Etherborn attempts to compensate for this by unlocking a new game plus mode after you've completed the game, which lets you dive into the same worlds once more. This mode is largely similar to the original one, the only difference being the crystalline orbs, which are located in harder-to-reach places. Apart from the slightly more challenging platforming puzzles, however, the electrifying thrill of discovery has largely subsided--you've already found all the secrets, after all--and there's little incentive to revisit it. By the end, even the allure of these small worlds isn't enough to make you return, with only the yearning for more remaining in its wake. Info from Gamespot.com

Marvel's popularity has grown exponentially in the 10 years since Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 was first released, as forays into shared universes in both film and TV have propelled the company to the forefront of pop culture relevance. Previously obscure characters such as the Guardians of the Galaxy, Captain Marvel, and Black Panther have risen to prominence thanks to appearances in movies, becoming household names, while new characters like Miles Morales, Ms. Marvel, and Spider-Gwen have made their debuts in the vibrant pages of comic books. The stacked roster in Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order reflects the past 10 years of Marvel's history, assembling a cast of beloved characters, both old and new, that extends its reach into almost every corner of the cosmos. The diversity of Ultimate Alliance's playable characters has always been the series' strongest aspect, and that remains true in Ultimate Alliance 3, where our favorite heroes team up for an enjoyable adventure brimming with synergized action.Much like its predecessors, Ultimate Alliance 3 is an isometric action-RPG, hack-and-slash hybrid featuring four playable characters at any one time that you can switch between on the fly. There are a couple of left-field character inclusions counted amongst its comprehensive roster, like the monster-hunting Elsa Bloodstone and The Inhumans' Crystal, but it's an otherwise familiar list of names that features everyone from Hawkeye and Doctor Strange to Iron Man and Thor. Somewhat predictably, the plot revolves around the Infinity Stones after a Guardians of the Galaxy-related mishap scatters them across the Earth and into the hands of the evil-doers in Marvel's rogues' gallery.Thanos and his ruthless Black Order play their part, but the story is less Marvel Cinematic Universe and more Saturday morning cartoon. That works in the game's favor, and the light-hearted writing and enthusiastic voice acting carry a narrative that does as much as it can with so many characters vying for screen time. There are fun one-liners, and the characters feel true to the ones we know, with their iterations pulling from the MCU, comics, and TV. It also helps that this isn't simply a rehash of well-trodden ground, despite the presence of many common elements. Instead, Ultimate Alliance 3 tells an original tale that takes some inspiration from 1991's The Infinity Gauntlet, while also encompassing various aspects of Marvel's films, comic books, and TV shows to create something of its own.You only need to glance at the roster to see how Ultimate Alliance 3 pulls from every eclectic branch of the Marvel machine. Costumes and character designs are judiciously plucked from numerous sources--all homogenized by a uniform comic book-inspired art style that's full of color. The most important thing about these characters, however, is how each of them feels to play. Each hero has light and heavy attacks that can unleash various combos, as well as four super abilities that are gradually unlocked as each character levels up. There's also a block that negates some damage and a handy roll for dodging out of danger. Simple stuff. What elevates Ultimate Alliance 3's combat is the variety inherent to each of its heroes and the numerous ways in which they work in tandem. Take someone like Captain America, for example, who's all about punching enemies in the face and following up with a vibranium shield to the ribs. He plays a lot differently to a ranged character like Star-Lord, who is ideally suited to fighting from a distance with his dual elemental pistols and flight-enabling jet boots. The differences aren't just restricted to each hero's choice of weaponry or traversal, either; the Hulk is a lumbering force of nature, Wolverine strikes with quick and agile ferocity, and myriad damage types like piercing, ethereal, fire, and ice differentiate each character even further.Then there are the abilities that tap into every hero's spate of superpowers. An energy meter governs how often you can let loose with these snazzy attacks, but Ultimate Alliance 3 is fairly generous about replenishing any lost energy in rapid fashion. This is important because using these abilities with abandon and combining them with others is a ton of fun. The basic light/heavy combat is satisfying on its own. There's a lot of button mashing, but fights can get pretty hectic when enemy projectiles are bouncing all over the screen, so you still need to be wary of your positioning and be able to avoid danger. Abilities add another layer, letting you blast away a crowd of goons with a wrecking ball comprised of Spider-Man's webs, spin Mjolnir around in a deadly electrified circle, or mow down anyone unfortunate enough to get in the way of Ghost Rider's hellfire bike.Proximity to teammates also allows you to combine certain abilities with others to unleash devastating synergy attacks that amplify their damage output, whether it's Iron Man reflecting his beam off Captain America's shield or Deadpool tossing a deluge of grenades as Storm shoots a bolt of lightning out of her fingertips. Dole out enough punishment and you can activate a big Alliance Extreme attack that triggers all four of your character's synergy attacks at once, filling the screen with a vivid cascade of particle effects, explosions, and ever-increasing damage numbers. The frame rate can take a hit during these moments, but you're just watching the fireworks at that point, so it isn't really an issue in gameplay.The diversity of Ultimate Alliance's playable characters has always been the series' strongest aspect, and that remains true in Ultimate Alliance 3, where our favorite heroes team up for an enjoyable adventure brimming with synergized actionThe level design is fairly straightforward, funneling you down corridors and into more open areas with little deviation. This does, however, lend itself to a sense of forward momentum as you're constantly encountering new foes to fight. The only thing that slows it down are some terribly dull puzzles that are fortunately few and far between, revolving around pressing levers and pushing boxes, and a camera that has a tendency to get stuck behind objects or jitter up and down when not completely stuck. This is an occasional problem during combat when you're momentarily blind to enemy attacks, but it can be an annoyance when simply traversing as well.It's a shame you can't just forget the camera is even there because each level takes place in a new location and the environments on show are fantastically varied. Dimension-hopping allows the action to venture away from Earth and into some of Marvel's more outlandish settings as you barrel towards the end credits, and Ultimate Alliance 3 makes good use of the sheer number of enemy factions that exist in the Marvel universe. Within the first couple of hours you'll brawl your way through The Raft and tangle with Spider-Man's nemeses before joining Daredevil and Iron Fist in a battle against The Hand's ninja army. This makes for a disparate mix of enemy types and aesthetics that keeps each level feeling fresh, and the same can be said of the plethora of boss fights you regularly encounter, too.Facing off against the likes of Green Goblin, Dormammu, and Ultron can be quite challenging by yourself on the default difficulty level. Fortunately, there's a surprising amount of depth when it comes to upgrading each hero. Aside from accumulating XP to unlock more abilities, you can also spend currency to enhance each of their powers, reducing the energy cost or improving their potency. There's also a sprawling hexagonal skill tree that allows you to purchase stat increases that are applied to every hero on the roster, whether you're improving their strength, vitality, and resilience or unlocking various offensive and defensive buffs. Meanwhile, ISO-8 crystals give you the opportunity to apply additional bonuses to specific heroes. It's minute stuff like increasing health or decreasing damage under certain conditions, but it makes a difference and gives you a degree of customization that can be used to turn the tide of battle--and that's without even mentioning the importance of your chosen team's makeup.Picking heroes that work well together applies various team bonuses that can further enhance their stats. This is based on tangibles like their team affiliation, intelligence, agility, and so on. You could assemble a team of the original Avengers, the X-Men, Defenders, or Midnight Sons and see an increase in particular stats that will also take into account whether any of the heroes have shared traits like "wisecracking warrior" or "anti-hero." Maybe you want to compile a team of web-slingers, Marvel royalty, or one that encompasses the women of Marvel. You have the opportunity to recreate canon teams or mix and match to create your own based on which bonuses are applied and how they can benefit you.The only problem with all of this is that heroes only level up when you use them. Increases in strength, vitality and other similar skills are applied to everyone, but as you reach the latter half of the campaign, the lack of abilities, their upgrades, and the capability to equip multiple ISO-8s is keenly felt in your lower-level heroes, which means you end up neglecting most of the roster because they just aren't powerful enough. The workaround for this comes in the shape of XP boosts you can discover within levels and by completing optional Infinity Rifts that task you with repeating modified boss fights and challenges to earn different rewards. Getting enough XP boosts can be a long, grindy process, though, and that's just to get enough to significantly level up a single character. The diversity of Ultimate Alliance 3's roster is one of its core pillars, so feeling restricted to only using a few heroes during its final hours is a glaring disappointment.More so than its predecessors, Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order excels because of its character diversity and the ways its disparate heroes work together. For this reason alone it's an ideal co-op game, whether you're playing with another friend in the same room or with three friends online, but the AI more than holds its own if you're playing alone, too. It falters in places, but there's still nothing quite like the Ultimate Alliance series, and this long-awaited third entry makes it a triumphant return for a superhero brawler that feels more relevant than ever.Editor's note: This review will be updated and finalized once we've tested more of the cooperative multiplayer, both locally and online, after the servers are populated.Info from Gamespot.com

After a lengthy hiatus, Sega's Super Monkey Ball series is making a return later this year with the release of Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD, a remastered version of the 2006 Wii game. The title will arrive on PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch this October, with a PC release set to follow sometime in winter.Along with updated visuals and "optimized control schemes for each platform," Banana Blitz HD will feature 100 single-player levels and 10 different multiplayer mini-games. The game also introduces some new features such as online leaderboards and a new Decathalon mode, which challenges players with completing 10 mini-games in a row.Banana Blitz HD launches for PS4, Xbox One, and Switch on October 29. The game is available for pre-order now and retails for $40 USD. Banana Blitz HD will also launch on PC via Steam later in Winter 2019, although no specific release date for that version has been announced yet. You can take a look at the first trailer for Banana Blitz HD above.The original Banana Blitz launched in November 2006 alongside the Nintendo Wii. At the time, GameSpot awarded the title an 8.3/10 in our original Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz review, writing, "Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz serves as a great proof of concept, making some great, varied use of the Wii Remote and Nunchuk. The length of the single-player game and the inconsistent quality of the multiplayer minigames are lamentable, but the highs are high enough to make this one of the most highly recommended Wii launch games."Pre-order Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD at AmazonSome links to supporting retailers are automatically made into affiliate links, and GameSpot may receive a small share of those sales.Info from Gamespot.com

The 2016 Warcraft movie from director Duncan Jones made more than $433 million worldwide, but despite that huge box office number, it appears the sequels that Jones wanted to make are not going to happen--and there are a number of reasons why that is. Jones told Collider that he would have "loved" to make two more movies to complete the trilogy, but it's looking unlikely that the follow-ups will be made. Despite that, Jones said he thinks Warcraft is being appreciated more and more now, as time goes on."It really would have been pretty special," he said of his plans for a trilogy. "It's unfortunate now, you gotta try and go with your harp on these things. I made the film as best I could on the first film hoping that it would connect with an audience. I genuinely think that in retrospect and as time has moved on, people are starting to appreciate the film than maybe the critics did when it first came out but unfortunately I don't think we're going to get to make any more."Jones said this three-film arc for Warcraft would have included further storytelling for Gul'dan and Thrall, and on a wider level, how the orcs left their home world to live in Azeroth.Also in the interview, Jones spoke about the challenging nature of working with so many different stakeholders to get Warcraft made."It was an absolute… The essence of studio filmmaking," he said. "I got a chance to experience multiple studios takes on what a film of this size should be on one movie because it was originally. Originally, we were Warner Brothers, I was working with Atlas, I was working with Universal. It was working with Legendary, I was working with Blizzard and obviously Blizzard were very passionate about what film should be because they are who had been with the game for so long and they didn’t want to detract from that. So there were more points as to what the film needed to be. And then Legendary was bought by Wanda while we were making the movie. So it was a unique moment in time for experiencing what kind of craziness studio filmmaking could be."Warcraft only made $47.4 million in the US and Canada, but it made $386.3 million--or 89.1 percent of its total box office revenue--from overseas markets. China accounted for a massive $213.5 million of the movie's international grosses. On a worldwide basis, Warcraft is the 258th biggest movie ever, ahead of Detective Pikachu and numerous other franchise movies.Warcraft had a reported budget of $160 million, so $433 million in worldwide grosses sounds like a success story. However, as ScreenRant points out, Hollywood studios only make about 25 percent of a film's gross in China, so Warcraft's $213.5 million in China netted Legendary only $53.4 million. In America, a film studio typically takes home around 50 percent off the box office. Using that math, ScreenRant estimates that Warcraft actually only made $145 million, which is below its reported production budget; and this number doesn't even count marketing expenses. Looking at the numbers through that light, it's not hard to understand why the Warcraft sequels aren't coming.Warcraft stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Robert Kazinsky, Clancy Brown, and Daniel Wu.As for Jones, he went on to release the low-budget sci-fi movie Mute for Netflix in 2018. It is in the same universe as his 2009 breakout hit Moon starring Sam Rockwell. Jones had said he had plans for a third movie in that connected universe, but for now, it's only a graphic novel. ""It's going to be a tricky one to finance in this era where original material on a bigger budget is difficult to get made, so I definitely want to do the graphic novel so at least it will exist in some form," he told Polygon. "Then, hopefully, if people read the graphic novel and get really excited about it, I’m gonna try and use that as a way to leverage getting the movie made." Info from Gamespot.com