The upcoming Joker movie is based on one of the most recognizable comic book characters, but the film itself doesn't borrow much at all from the source material, it seems. Director Todd Phillips said in an interview with Empire that the movie doesn't follow "anything" from the comic books. People are probably going to be upset about this, he predicted."We didn't follow anything from the comic books, which people are gonna be mad about," Phillips, who also wrote the script, said in the interview. "We just wrote our own version of where a guy like Joker might come from. That's what was interesting to me. We're not even doing Joker, but the story of becoming Joker. It's about this man."Todd Phillips' #JokerMovie 'doesn't follow anything' from the comics – world-exclusive image: https://t.co/EEUsBQVoT5 pic.twitter.com/qd6hmTH4Y0 — Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) July 8, 2019Pretty much every movie based on comic book characters varies in part from the source material, but it's interesting to hear Phillips say Joker will stray even further and that he anticipates some amount of blowback. The movie is an origin story of sorts, but beyond that, the plot details are under wraps.Three-time Oscar nomineee Joaquin Phoenix plays Arthur Fleck / The Joker in the upcoming film. Empire magazine also has an exclusive new image of Phoenix putting on his Joker makeup that you can see in the embed above. The movie also stars Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, and Frances Conroy.Joker opens in theatres on October 4. It's something of a change for Phillips, who previously made the Hangover and Old School comedies. He also wrote for Borat, which earned him his Oscar nomination.Info from Gamespot.com

Stranger Things Season 3 premiered on the 4th of July and a lot of people watched. The streaming network announced on Twitter that the show is "breaking records."According to Netflix, 40.7 million "household accounts" worldwide watched Stranger Things Season 3 after its first four days. That's higher than any other movie or TV show on Netflix after its first four days. According to Netflix, 18.2 million people finished the entire season in its first four days..@Stranger_Things 3 is breaking Netflix records! 40.7 million household accounts have been watching the show since its July 4 global launch — more than any other film or series in its first four days. And 18.2 million have already finished the entire season. — Netflix US (@netflix) July 8, 2019A "view" according to Netflix is when an account watches 70 percent of an episode of a show or 70 percent of a movie.Stranger Things Season 3 is pacing well ahead of some of the other most popular Netflix shows. 45 million homes worldwide watched Umbrella Academy during its first month, while Sex Education and You were pacing toward 40 million household views over their first months, according to The Hollywood Reporter.With Stranger Things Season 3 reaching 40.7 million homes in four days, it's clear to see how hugely popular Stranger Things in comparison to Netflix's other big shows.For lots more on Stranger Things 3 and what's to come, check out the story below (but beware, it contains spoilers!)Stranger Things Season 3's Ending, Credits Scene, And Season 4 Theories ExplainedInfo from Gamespot.com

Since its debut in 2013, Warframe has grown past its simple premise of so-called space ninjas slashing and grabbing loot across the universe and evolved into an action-RPG that dabbles in open-world gameplay and quests with a strong focus on narrative. At TennoCon 2019, the annual community event celebrating all things Warframe, developer Digital Extremes revealed what's to come for the evolving online game in 2019 and beyond. Along with a new cinematic questline, yet another open-world setting, and an update on the new ship combat mode known as Empyrean--the developers also revealed a new cinematic sequence to help ease new players into the game.During the closing TennoCon presentation, Digital Extremes unveiled a new cinematic trailer detailing events before the game, focusing heavily on the three starter Frames: Excalibur, Volt, and Mag. In collaboration with film director and Totally Rad Show alum Dan Trachtenberg, whose past works include 10 Cloverfield Lane and the upcoming Uncharted film, the new CG trailer aims to offer context for the game's expansive universe and overarching narrative. The trailer is unlike anything that Warframe has shown before, and it's certainly an exciting way to kick off the massive campaign.We also got to see some new updates for the core game's systems, which includes a new installment in the cinematic questline. In the trailer for The New War, it is revealed that the next cinematic quest will focus on a new threat that comes to Earth, which will pull together Lotus and the Tenno into an even larger conflict. Moreover, the developers also teased the next open-world expansion, called The Duviri Paradox. Not much was shown about the new setting, but it does seem to present one of the most visually distinctive areas to explore in Warframe yet.The highlight of the main presentation at TennoCon 2019 was the re-reveal of the upcoming gameplay mode focusing on large-scale ship combat. According to creative director Steve Sinclair, this new gameplay mode is all about the "connection" with other players and core features of the game. This new activity is called Empyrean, and it'll have a squad of players collectively control a ship to face off against AI ships and rival players. In your clan Dojo you can customize your Raijjack ship, outfitting it with new weapons, engine upgrades, and even decorations. You can also recruit new members and interact with some of the new characters that will be introduced with the update.However, a new aspect of the Empyrean that Digital Extremes showed off was multi-layered objectives. Along with controlling the ship as a squad, select players can exit the ship and enter derelict ships to secure resources and clear goals. During this time, the away team of other players will still coordinate with players on the ship, and the crew can even offer support. Another new feature that was shown off was Squad Link, which will allow clanmates and friends playing in different modes to assist one another. In the demonstration, players in the Planes of Eidolon could take on missions in the open world that will directly help other members of the team fighting it out in space. It felt very much like something out of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and seeing it play it out goes to show how much Warframe as evolved over the years.In addition to these announcements, we also saw the reveal of Prime variant of Wukong, who recently had an overhaul just last month, and a new installment in the Nightwave seasonal event called The Emissary--both of which were made available after TennoCon's completion. Also, the developers teased two new Frames in the form of Gauss and Grendel. Aside from The New War, which will launch Holiday 2019, The Duviri Paradox and Empyrean don't have a date at this time. However, the developers state that more info will be revealed in the immediate future.For more on what's to come with Warframe, including when these new updates and gameplay modes will drop for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, be sure to check back with GameSpot.Info from Gamespot.com

The first trailer for Mulan is here. It's the latest live-action Disney adaptation of a classic animated movie, and stars Liu Yifei as the Chinese teenager who disguises herself as a man to fight in the Imperial army against invaders.The trailer is visually stunning and suggests that, unlike recent Disney live-action movies such as Dumbo and Aladdin, Mulan will take a slightly different approach from the original. It's not a direct adaptation of the 1993 animated movie, and also takes influence from the original 6th Century poem "The Legend of Mulan." The trailer starts with quiet, domestic scenes of Mulan and her family before delivering some spectacular-looking martial arts action as Mulan takes up her place to fight in the Emperor's army. Check it out below.Mulan's cast also includes a number of high profile Asian stars, such as Donnie Yen, Jet Li, and Gong Li. The movie is directed by New Zealand filmmaker Niki Caro, who previously helmed The Zookeeper's Wife. Caro previously stated that this version of Mulan won't include any songs--and presumably Eddie Murphy's talking dragon Mushu will be absent too. It releases on March 27, 2020.The next live-action Disney adaptation will be The Lion King, which hits theaters later this month. It's directed by Jon Favreau, who previously helmed the recent hit remake of The Jungle Book--check out the latest Lion King trailer. Other Disney remakes in the works include Cruella, The Little Mermaid, and Pinnochio.Info from Gamespot.com

The latest weekend box office numbers are in via Entertainment Weekly, and Sony's Spider-Man: Far From Home was easily No. 1 for the weekend. It made a massive $93.6 million in the US and Canada over the July 5-7 weekend, which was close to setting a new record for the 4th of July weekend.The record-holder continues to be 2011's Transformers: Dark of the Moon, which made $97.9 million over the 4th of July weekend years ago.The numbers and analysis for Far From Home are not traditional because the movie opened on a Tuesday compared to the usual Friday premiere for many big films. Far From Home set the record for biggest domestic Tuesday ever with $39.3 million. The Amazing Spider-Man was the previous record-holder for a Tuesday, bringing it $35 million when it opened on Tuesday, July 3, 2012.Looking at the six-day box office period from Tuesday through Sunday, Far From Home made $185 million in the US and Canada. That's a six-day 4th of July record, surpassing Spider-Man 2.With domestic and international figures combined, Far From Home has already made $580 million worldwide after less than a week. The movie picked up an excellent A rating on CinemaScore, which suggests positive world-of-mouth will keep ticket sales strong in Week 2 and beyond.Toy Story 4 was No. 2 this weekend with $34.3 million, while Danny Boyle's Yesterday made $10.8 million. Another entrant, Hereditary director Ari Aster's new horror movie Midsommar, made $6.7 million to finish No. 6. The movie actually premiered on Wednesday, and with the full five-day period accounted for, Midsommar made $10.9 million. Producer A24 says that's the best opening for an indie movie so far in 2019.July 5-7 US/Canada Box OfficeVia EWSpider-Man: Far From Home -- $93.6 millionToy Story 4 -- $34.3 millionYesterday -- $10.8 millionAnnabelle Comes Home -- $9.8 millionAladdin -- $7.6 millionMidsommar -- $6.7 millionThe Secret Life of Pets 2 -- $4.8 millionMen In Black International -- $3.6 millionAvengers: Endgame -- $3.1 millionRocketman -- $2.8 millionInfo from Gamespot.com

As was made clear from the first teasers and trailers for The Outer Worlds, it is a game where megacorporations are taking over planets throughout space. As such, the game appears to have something to say about capitalism and power. And now, co-director Leonard Boyarsky has come forward to talk about how the game doesn't aim to be "politically charged.""I don't want people to think this is a really hard, politically charged game: it's supposed to be fun, it's supposed to be humorous," he explained to VGC.The game is more about how power is used against people who don't have it rather than acting as a critique of capitalism. "It can be insidious; the way which people control the stories you tell about the world. If you let other people control that narrative, then they can control you to a certain degree. That can be any form of government: if it wasn't capitalism it could be something else," he said.Boyarsky added that development on The Outer Worlds began in April 2016, which was before "things happened [in world politics]" that "nobody expected." He didn't mention any specific events but you can read into what he's saying.He and other members of the development team grew up during the "onslaught of consumer culture." As such, the developers are familiar with those events and will use the game to "poke fun at it," Boyarsky said.Boyarsky said the team at Obsidian has been "very careful" about how it tells its story about power imbalances, just Boyarsky did with the 2001 RPG Arcanum that dealt with racial issues. Overall, Obsidian's aim with The Outer Worlds is to tell a story and write characters that look at "all aspects of issues.""The last thing we want to do is make a game that people feel is lecturing them," Boyarsky said.The Outer Worlds launches on October 25. Though it is developed by the Microsoft-owned Obsidian, the game is published byGrand Theft Auto V parent publisher Take-Two Interactive's new indie games label, Private Division.The game is coming to Xbox One and PlayStation 4, as well as PC where it's exclusive to the Epic Games Store for a period of time. It'll come to Steam sometime in 2020. Like all of Microsoft's other games, it'll be playable at no extra charge for Xbox Game Pass subscribers.Info from Gamespot.com

Cliff Bleszinski is one of gaming's biggest and most recognizable names. He created and designed the massively popular Gears of War franchise while at Epic Games. After some time away, he set up a brand-new studio, Boss Key. The North Carolina studio would go on to release LawBreakers and the battle royale game Radical Heights. Both titles failed to capture a sizable audience, and Boss Key would go on to shut down. After that, Bleszinski said he would probably never make another game for a number of reasons.What's Bleszinski up to now?In a post on Facebook, Bleszinski said his life currently feels like that part of a role-playing game where the big world finally opens up and he can do whatever he wants after toiling for so long. "I'll never forget that it was games and the wonderful fans of my work that bought me this freedom and I'll be forever grateful for that," he said.Instead of working on more games, Bleszinski has turned his attention in part to another one of his passions: theatre. He was an investor/producer for the play Hadestown, which won eight Tony awards, including Best Musical. Bleszinski said that recognition was a "much-needed victory" after his game studio, Boss Key, "cratered" in his words.After finding success with Hadestown, Bleszinski was approached to co-produce another Broadway play, a new version of Terrence McNally's "Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune." The new version stars two-time Oscar nominee Michael Shannon and Audra McDonald.The limited run began in May and comes to an end in August. Bleszinski has his name in the playbill, which he said is "thrilling."Outside of his work in theatre, Bleszinski is still working on getting a publisher for his memoir. He said he recently took meetings in New York City with unnamed publishers, noting that he's getting close to signing a deal. "We're in mid-negotiation for a deal for that."Bleszinski said the memoir is being positioned as "Kitchen Confidential" for the gaming industry. Kitchen Confidential was the late Anthony Bourdain's breakout writing about what happens behind-the-scenes in professional kitchens.Bleszinski is also involved in the restaurant business, having invested in The Raleigh Beer Garden and The Station in Raleigh, North Carolina."Make no mistake, though, games will always be my first love," Bleszinski said.Bleszinski was able to "retire" earlier than most in part because his career and investments in gaming and technology have proven to be lucrative. He saw a massive payday when Chinese internet giant Tencent bought shares in Epic. He also also an early investor in Oculus, and made a "very sizable chunk of money" when Facebook bought the virtual reality company.Info from Gamespot.com

Part tower defense, part city builder, They Are Billions is a real-time strategy game whose flow swings between cautious turtling as you hunker down to fend off the zombie hordes and well-considered dashes to expand your territory and exploit vital new resources. Introduced into Steam Early Access last year with a survival mode that challenged you to endure a certain number of days on a randomly-generated map, the game now features a hand-crafted campaign mode as part of its Version 1.0 release. The result is a hybrid RTS that shines when it plays to its strengths even if several of its new additions feel like unnecessary distractions.When you first start a new map and see your isolated base surrounded by zombies, the game's title will feel accurate, if an understandable exaggeration. Stray zombies take refuge in the fog of war, milling around in small groups until you alert them and occasionally shambling towards your settlement. There aren't really billions, but it looks like there could be. Fifteen days later, the klaxon blares to signal the arrival of the horde and soon, as a seemingly relentless river of undead lay siege to your defenses, you start to suspect billions may well be an understatement.The survival mode and the majority of maps in the campaign offer a similar experience. First, you establish a perimeter with patrol routes to pick off encroaching zombies, scout the immediate area to identify chokepoints and nearby resource deposits, build structures around your base to grow the economy, and secure it all with enough troops and fortifications to fend off the first wave of attack. Survive that, and the second step is an expeditious land-grab to claim whole swathes of fertile new ground, clearing away the errant undead and managing your production to generate all the resources required to populate and work your expanded colony.The ebb and flow at play here is lovely. The arrival of each new wave of zombies is clearly signposted, so you always know precisely how many days you have to prepare for the attack. How you use that time is where the interesting strategic choices arise. Weighing up whether it's wise to expand northward towards the iron that will let you build soldiers or eastward, where there's a large forest that provides natural cover and wood required to repair fencing and guard towers; such choices arrive with every wave and your prospects for surviving the next one hinge on the decisions you make.It's incredibly tense, too. Outside of the horde attacks, a single zombie that manages to elude your patrols and wander into your settlement can mean game over. If just one manages to attack a dwelling, everyone inside will become infected and proceed to join the assault, multiplying the danger to unmanageable levels in an instant. Death is swift. I lost entire colonies thanks to my failure to spot a gap in my defensive setup. Next thing I know, death is spreading across the camp and weeks of desperate survival count for nothing.Survival mode is based around permadeath, as you'd expect. But the campaign, too, incorporates various degrees of permadeath and iron-man elements in an effort to force you to accept the consequences of your choices. If you get overrun and fail a campaign mission, for example, you have to restart that mission from the beginning rather than reload a save from mid-mission before it all started to go wrong. There's even a penalty applied to the mission reward for each time you fail. Somewhat ironically, an option to back up your campaign save has been added since its 1.0 launch, and the developer has indicated it may continue to adjust its approach in this area in future updates, which makes these decisions feel unconfident.The campaign falters with the inclusion of survival elements, which don't mesh well with the flow of exploration. The campaign maps are hand-crafted--they're the same every time you play them. They are, essentially, puzzles in which the solution is discovered through increasingly efficient resource management. Most of the maps here deliver satisfying challenges, and the permadeath aspect punishes you for experimentation within these maps. When you know you messed up between 60 and 65 days, having to restart from day zero can be tough to swallow.The campaign fares better as a more gentle introduction to They Are Billions. The tech tree locks away many of the game's structures, units, and bonuses behind research points accumulated by completing missions. This means the early missions let new players learn the ropes by only having to worry about a handful of buildings and a couple of units, rather than potentially overwhelming them with too many concepts to understand at once. As a new player myself, I also appreciated the adjustable difficulty settings which let you advance more slowly through the research tree while at the same time serving up missions that let you progress with the lesser tech at your disposal. Then, once I was comfortable, I was able to bump up the difficulty to match my improved skills.Adding variety to the campaign are a couple of non-traditional mission types. There are Hero missions in which you control just one unit infiltrating a small base and Swarm Attack missions that are pretty barebones tower defense skirmishes. The elimination of much of the base-building and economic management--or indeed all of it in the case of the Hero missions--exposes the remaining combat as shallow. Worse, stripping out the core mechanics simply misses the whole point. As a result, neither of these mission types are particularly enjoyable, and quickly become irritations you have to wade through to get to the proper missions. Adding variety for variety’s sake, in this case, only serves to diminish rather than enhance.At its best, though, in both the original survival mode, across the bulk of the campaign and in the one-off challenge of the week maps, They Are Billions remains a tight and compelling strategy game. The knowledge that you're always just one misstep away from disaster creates a gripping, tense atmosphere that's unusual for the genre. And the cycle from defense to offense and back again as you progress from one wave to the next offers both well-paced urgency and the ability to set clear short-term goals. It's a smartly designed game at its core, despite the distractions. Just like a lone zombie can bring about your demise, sometimes one strong idea is enough. Info from Gamespot.com

Over the years, Warframe has grown past its simple premise of so-called space ninjas slashing and grabbing loot across the universe and evolved into an action-RPG that dabbles in open-world gameplay and quests with a strong focus on narrative. At TennoCon 2019, the annual community event celebrating all things Warframe, developer Digital Extremes revealed what's to come for the evolving online game in 2019 and beyond. In addition to a new cinematic questline, yet another open-world setting, and an update on the new ship combat mode known as Empyrean--the developers also revealed a new cinematic sequence to help ease new players into the game.During the closing TennoCon presentation, Digital Extremes unveiled a new cinematic trailer detailing events before the game, focusing heavily on the three starter Frames: Excalibur, Volt, and Mag. In collaboration with film director and Totally Rad Show alum Dan Trachtenberg, whose past works include 10 Cloverfield Lane and the upcoming Uncharted film, the new CG trailer aims to offer context for the game's expansive universe and overarching narrative. The trailer is unlike anything that Warframe has shown before, and it's certainly an exciting way to kick off the massive campaign.We also got to see some new updates for the core game's systems, which includes a new installment in the cinematic questline. In the trailer for The New War, it is revelaed that the next cinematic quest will focus on a new threat that comes to Earth, which will pull together Lotus and the Tenno into an even larger conflict. Moreover, the developers also teased the next open-world expansion, called The Duviri Paradox. Not much was shown about the new setting, but it does seem to present one of the most visually distinctive areas to explore in Warframe yet.The highlight of the main presentation at TennoCon 2019 was the re-reveal of the upcoming gameplay mode focusing on large-scale ship combat. According to creative director Steve Sinclair, this new gameplay mode is all about the "connection" with other players and core features of the game. This new activity is called Empyrean, and it'll have a squad of players collectively control a ship to face off against AI ships and rival players. In your clan Dojo you can customize your Raijjack ship, outfitting it with new weapons, engine upgrades, and even decorations. You can also recruit new members and interact with some of the new characters that will be introduced with the update.However, a new aspect of the Empyrean that Digital Extremes showed off was multi-layered objectives. Along with controlling the ship as a squad, select players can exit the ship and enter derelict ships to secure resources and clear goals. During this time, the away team of other players will still coordinate with players on the ship, and the crew can even offer support. Another new feature that was shown off was Squad Link, which will allow clanmates and friends playing in different modes to assist one another. In the demonstration, players in the Planes of Eidolon could take on missions in the open world that will directly help other members of the team fighting it out in space. It felt very much like something out of Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, and seeing it play it out goes to show how much Warframe as evolved over the years.In addition to these announcements, we also saw the reveal of Prime variant of Wukong, who recently had an overhaul just last month, and a new installment in the Nightwave seasonal event called The Emissary--both of which were made available after TennoCon's completion. Also, the developers teased two new Frames in the form of Gauss and Grendel. Aside from The New War, which will launch Holiday 2019, The Duviri Paradox and Empyrean don't have a date at this time. However, the developers state that more info will be revealed in the immediate future.For more on what's to come with Warframe, including when these new updates and gameplay modes will drop for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Switch, be sure to check back with GameSpot.Info from Gamespot.com

Amazon's upcoming Lord of the Rings show is set to be the biggest in the studio's history, and pre-production has already started in New Zealand. It has now been announced that two episodes will be directed by Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom's JA Bayona.Amazon has confirmed that Bayona will helm that first episodes in Season 1, and also executively produce alongside partner Belén Atienza. As well as last year's Jurassic World sequel, Bayona is known for the Guillermo Del Toro-produced horror The Orphanage and the acclaimed drama A Monster Calls.In a statement, Bayona said: "J.R.R. Tolkien created one of the most extraordinary and inspiring stories of all time, and as a lifelong fan it is an honor and a joy to join this amazing team. I can't wait to take audiences around the world back to Middle-earth and have them discover the wonders of the Second Age, with a never-before-seen story."The Lord of the Rings show will be set before the events of JRR Tolkien's trilogy of books and Peter Jackson's movie adaptations. It will take place during the Second Age, which is a 3,441-year period that covered major events like the forging of the Rings of Power, the War of Sauron, the beginning of the Ringwraiths, and and the Numenor island sinking into the ocean.The series will be written by JD Payne and Patrick McKay, who have also penned the upcoming Dwayne Johnson vehicle Jungle Cruise. It currently has no confirmed cast or release date.In related news, a new Lord of the Rings video game focused on Gollum is in development at Daedalic Entertainment, while a AAA online Lord of the Rings game is also on the way.Info from Gamespot.com

When the PS Plus games lineup for July 2019 was announced, PES 2019 was listed as one of the free PS4 games for the month. However, this was later changed, with Detroit: Become Human replacing the soccer game at the last minute. Now, Konami has responded to questions about the news by stating it was Sony's decision.In a short statement, a Konami spokesperson told GameSpot: "This decision was made by Sony and so please make an inquiry to Sony."In its own statement, Sony admitted it had taken the decision itself but declined to elaborate: "We have decided to make a change to the PS Plus games lineup this month, and will be offering Detroit: Become Human Digital Deluxe Edition instead of PES 2019. This was a decision we decided to make as a company, and we apologize for any inconvenience."European PES brand manager Lennart Bobzien, meanwhile, told GameSpot on the day of the change that it was not planned and had taken Konami by surprise: "I cannot really tell you what happened because I just found out today, in the morning when I opened my laptop. I can't really explain."PES 2019's successor is on the way later this year. It's officially titled eFootball: PES 2020--see why PES has changed its name here--and will include Manchester United as a licensed team. It won't, however, feature any women's teams.PES 2020 launches for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on September 10. A demo version, which includes online and offline match types as well as the game's edit mode, will launch on July 30. Stay tuned to GameSpot for a full PES 2020 gameplay preview.Info from Gamespot.com

Atlus has been rolling out teasers in the lead-up to Persona 5 Royal, the definitive version of the original RPG. It's going to include a ton of content and significant overhauls to the story, much of which has been shown off in trailers and the "Morgana Report." The latest teaser to drop is a video revealing new events around the character Ann Takamaki, and further showcases how this new version is putting more emphasis on its cast.The first thing you'll see is one of the all-new partner attacks; this time it's between Ann and Morgana. They find themselves in a flower field as Ann is flattered by Morgana's offering of roses. By the end of the trailer you see how it all brutally ends--Ann rains down on enemies with her submachine guns while Morgana tosses a bomb to finish them off. It seems that P5R is leaning into its wacky side, especially considering the partner attack with Ryuji and Yusuke (think the silliest heat moves from Yakuza with a hint of JoJo's Bizarre Adventure).As for social events, you get a glimpse of how Ann's best friend Shiho Suzui gets brought back into the mix. In the original game, she didn't really get any screen time following the tragic events at Shujin Academy. However, you get to see her, Ann, and Joker hanging out in the underground mall in fresh new outfits on January 4, which would be fairly late in the game. According to fan translation (via Harry Type-C), Ann is talking up how Shiho was a star on the school's volleyball team.Ann has other new scenes as well; she leads a school clean-up project at Inokashira Park and shows students how to properly recycle trashed umbrellas. There's also a scenario in which Ann and Joker have a talk in what appears to be her room (she's got a lot of shoes). She seems to be wearing a letterman jacket over a proper Shujin uniform, which she's never worn before.As if Persona 5 wasn't anime enough.Persona 5 Royal launches exclusively for PlayStation 4 in Japan on October 31, 2019 and sometime in 2020 in the West. For all things P5R, be sure to read (or watch) our analysis of the first full reveal trailer, breakdown of all the new information that followed, or details on the new playable character Kasumi Yoshizawa. Info from Gamespot.com

The Legendary Pokemon Mewtwo is returning to Pokemon Go soon, and this time it'll have a different look. To coincide with the Japanese release of Mewtwo Strikes Back: Evolution, a CG remake of the first Pokemon movie, Armored Mewtwo is making its debut in Raid Battles next week, but it'll only be available for a limited time.Armored Mewtwo will begin appearing in five-star Raids at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST on July 10 (the same day the current Legendary, Groudon, is scheduled to leave the game), and it'll be available until July 31. It's unclear whether or not this version of Mewtwo will boast different stats, but this will mark the first time it has appeared in this armored form in any Pokemon game.You'll be able to transfer Pokemon you've captured in Go to the upcoming Pokemon Home cloud service when it launches next year, allowing you to store all your Pokemon in one place. That will presumably apply to Armored Mewtwo as well, so you don't want to miss your chance to add it to your collection. Niantic will also be adding some new Mewtwo items to Pokemon Go's in-game Style Shop next week. You can take a look at Armored Mewtwo in the trailer below.As previously mentioned, Groudon is currently appearing in five-star Raid Battles, as is its Shiny form. Groudon and its Pokemon Sapphire counterpart, Kyogre, are also two of the Legendaries you can possibly encounter through July's new Field Research tasks. Meanwhile, a lot of new Shiny Pokemon are currently available in the game. Shiny male Nidoran has debuted to coincide the Pokemon Go Fest event in Dortmund, Germany, and Shiny Alolan forms are available to celebrate Pokemon Go's third anniversary.The next Pokemon Go Community Day event is scheduled for July 21. The featured Pokemon this month will be Mudkip, the Water-type starter from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. If you manage to evolve a Mudkip into its final form, Swampert, up to an hour after the Community Day ends, it'll learn a special event-exclusive move. You'll also earn triple the usual amount of XP for capturing Pokemon during this month's Community Day.Meanwhile, the next mainline Pokemon games, Pokemon Sword and Shield, are coming to Nintendo Switch on November 15. The pair take place in the Galar region, a brand-new setting that's home to a variety of returning and new Gen 8 Pokemon. However, unlike most past titles, Sword and Shield won't support every Pokemon--a controversial decision that has prompted the series' producer to issue a statement about the drama. For more on the titles, be sure to check out our Pokemon Sword and Shield release date and pre-order guide.Info from Gamespot.com

A new anime series based on Akira is in the works, creator Katsuhiro Otomo has announced. Speaking at a panel held during Anime Expo, which is currently taking place in Los Angeles, Otomo confirmed that the series is based on his manga.Although 1988's Akira is considered a seminal piece of cinematic work, it is an adaptation of Otomo's manga series and, as such, truncates the series to fit it into a shorter runtime. The Akira manga offers a much deeper dive into the various characters involved in the story and more thoroughly explores the powerful political, social, and personal themes that manifest during the struggle for the future of post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo. The new anime will adapt the manga more faithfully.The original 1988 film is also being treated to a 4K remaster. It was briefly shown during the panel and is being worked on by Sunrise, the Japanese animation and production studio owned by Bandai Namco. The 4K remaster is expected to launch in Japan sometime in Spring.Otomo's next major project, however, is Orbital Era, a feature film that is also being created in collaboration with Sunrise. "The plot takes place in the near future on a space colony under construction, and it's an action-adventure story of some boys in this peculiar environment and society who keep living their lives while they're being tossed about by fate," reads the official description. "'The real in the mankind's future' will be depicted through a perspective of those boys." You can watch the Orbital Era trailer to get a feel for the vibe of the flick.A live-action version of Akira is also in development with Thor: Ragnarok, Hunt for the Wilderpeople, and What We Do in the Shadows director Taika Waititi at the helm. Like the new anime, Waititi is looking to the manga when making the movie. He discussed how he's approaching the live-action Akira adaptation in September 2017. "I haven't really started to get my head around it yet," he said. "What I want to do is an adaptation of the books, 'cause a lot of people are like, 'Don't touch that film!' and I'm like, 'I'm not remaking the film, I want to go back to the book.'"A lot of the people freaking out haven't even read the books, and there are six gigantic books to go through. It's so rich. But Akira is one of my favourite films. My mum took me to see it when I was 13 and it changed my life." Info from Gamespot.com

Loneliness exists on a broad spectrum that isn't always synonymous with simply being alone. It's a state of mind, an overwhelming feeling of isolation that can still affect a person even if they're surrounded by loved ones and friends. Sea of Solitude understands this all too well. Its opening cutscene begins with a poignant musing: "I have family. I have friends... And yet here I am, feeling lonely. Again." Sea of Solitude is a game about loneliness that's very personal for the 12-strong team at German developer Jo-Mei Games, and it shows. It tackles the subject matter with a deft touch, exploring the myriad ways these feelings of isolation, sadness, and anger can impact people's lives in a refreshingly authentic way, using the backdrop of a puzzle-platformer to tell its story.Click image to view in full-screenYou play as Kay, a young woman who inhabits a world where lonely people are transformed into monsters. Kay is a monster herself, so she's desperately trying to find out why this happened and how can she can return to her human form. The rest of the narrative spirals out from this core concept, forcing Kay to confront her past and her relationships with the people around her. Loneliness affects different people in different ways; a lonely child who's struggling to make friends at school has different needs than someone going through a breakup or someone who's just moved to another country where they don't know anyone, for example. Sea of Solitude shines an introspective light on the various ways loneliness can affect people, doing so through Kay's interactions with other characters and the monsters that reside in this world, whether they're antagonistic or seeking help.The voice acting in these moments is uneven amongst the small cast of characters, however, the consistent writing is a strong point throughout. Conversations feel very raw and are oftentimes uncomfortable, yet Sea of Solitude manages to sprinkle in moments of levity to offset the otherwise bleak subject matter. The ending lacks closure in a very realistic and human way, but the story's profound throughline of self-discovery and healing naturally reaches an empowering conclusion.The story's profound throughline of self-discovery and healing naturally reaches an empowering conclusionEach aspect of Sea of Solitude has some kind of underlying meaning, and these are frequently conveyed through the use of both literal and figurative metaphors. The sea is one of the more blatant allegories at its disposal, as the entirety of the game takes place upon the undulating waves of a flooded city. Being alone on a small boat is inherently isolating; you just have to imagine the terrifying feeling of being marooned or adrift at sea, far away from civilization in an unpredictable environment that can deviate from being calm to violent at the drop of a hat. Kay uses this small vessel to traverse the flooded streets of the Berlin-inspired city, utilizing some basic platforming to get around when on dry land. Her interactions with the various monsters that populate the city are the catalyst for everything that follows. There's a familiarity to each monster's design, with the vast majority of them being reminiscent of specific animals, albeit in a fantastical way. Each one shares a mutual feature in the form of jet black fur and unsettling red eyes, but they're often human at their core, transformed into monsters due to their disparate struggles with loneliness and anguish.You spend much of the game coaxing the human side out of these ghoulish beasts by confronting Kay's own past and dispelling the corruption that's seeped into the city. Corrupted areas are bleak and coated in muted shades of grey and black, with the night sky lashed by swirling winds and torrential rain. Removing the corruption in an area by finding and inhaling it into Kay's backpack introduces light to the world, revealing the incandescent vitality of the sun and turning the sea as blue as the sky. The stark contrast between night and day accentuates the daytime's beauty, while the painterly art style--not to mention the nautical theme--can't help but bring to mind the vivid aesthetic of The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. It's in these moments that the "Solitude" of the game's title is captured, presenting the positive side of being alone.Dispersing the corruption is a task fraught with danger, however, and not just for Kay's mental well-being. Some of the monsters are aggressive and will attack on sight. Death isn't really an obstacle, as you're immediately placed back right where you left off, but Sea of Solitude does manage to wring moments of tension out of these interactions. The problem is that, despite a brief three-hour playtime, it introduces new mechanics every few chapters and then drags them out until they're nothing short of monotonous. There are numerous occasions where you have to lure spectral children into light by running close enough to aggro them, for lack of a better term, before dashing away. It's all relatively straightforward, which isn't a bad thing on its own, but the act of playing Sea of Solitude is never particularly engaging and mostly consists of dull mechanics that far outstay their welcome.The story, and the way it confronts a universal but often misunderstood part of life, is Sea of Solitude's biggest draw. The gameplay is passable at best and tedious at its worst, but this is still a journey worth experiencing because of the way Jo-Mei Games has managed to weave a heartbreaking tale out of genuine characters and believable grief. Kay wants to know why she turned into a monster, and this is the driving force behind the whole game. What could have triggered it and why are these monsters so intrinsically linked? Despite some missteps along the way, Sea of Solitude is difficult to put down until you can answer those questions for yourself. Info from Gamespot.com