Month: September 2019

Naughty Dog has given the enemy AI in The Last of Us Part II a big upgrade, so the foes you’ll be going up against are smarter and will try to take you down with some deductive reasoning and tricky tactics.

“Our AI now has a new state of awareness between complete awareness of your position and totally unaware of where you are,” The Last of Us Part II co-director Anthony Newman said in an interview with GameSpot. “We sometimes call that vague knowledge.” For example, even if you were to stealthily take down an enemy with a silent weapon–such as a bow or pistol with a silencer attached to it–another enemy can still find the body, look at where the arrow or bullet is lodged in their comrade, and infer in which direction they were attacked.

They’ll then begin their search for you in that general direction, using any other bodies you drop to hone in on your position. Of course, you can prove to be smarter by utilizing the enemies’ own search patterns against them. “Not only does this make them more intelligent to new situations where these systems can cause more intense moments to transpire for the player, it also gives the player the opportunity to make predictions,” Newman said. “We all know human beings, we interact with human beings every day. We can make predictions about what they’re going to do next. By having these more refined and nuanced layers of knowledge and perception and coordination, players can make better and better predictions and make more refined strategies about what to do next.”

Even if you’re able to consistently outsmart the new enemy AI, don’t expect combat to be a walk in the park. Naughty Dog wants there to be an emotional toll to combat as well. “[The Last of Us Part II] is meant to be unsettling,” Newman said. “I think along with, honestly, every aspect of the game–narratively, mechanically, and technologically–the AI was just one facet of the game that we really wanted to take to the next level and ask, ‘What can we do that’s next-gen?'” In this regard, individual enemies now have their own names, and their friends will mourn and call out to them when they discover their murdered corpses. It’s just another aspect of the game that helps to really highlight that, within the context of The Last of Us Part II’s story, your actions are questionable even if they seem motivated by what feels like truth and justice.

The Last of Us Part II releases for PS4 on February 21. For more on the game, make sure to read our hands-on preview of The Last of Us Part II.

Developer NetherRealm Studios announced the full DLC roster for Mortal Kombat 11‘s Kombat Pack last month. As previously reported, The Terminator is scheduled to launch on October 8, with NetherRealm now confirming that a gameplay trailer will go live very soon.

The official MK Twitter account shared a short, 20-second video with some targeting system locking onto various MK11 characters like Baraka and Erron Black. The tweet, below, confirmed that The Terminator’s gameplay reveal is scheduled to debut tomorrow, October 1, at 6 AM. The teaser video concludes with The Terminator’s launch date.

MK11’s Kombat Pack, which retails for $40 USD, features a bevy of characters. Alongside The Terminator, the Kombat Pack includes Shang Tsung, Nightwolf, Sindel, Joker, and Spawn. Shang Tsung and Nightwolf are available now, with Sindel launching in November, Joker arriving in January 2020, and Spawn debuting in March 2020. Previously a pre-order bonus, Shao Kahn is also available as a DLC fighter for $6 USD.

The new Mortal Kombat movie has gained some momentum as of late. After filling a few pivotal roles, like Sub-Zero, Liu Kang, and others, the full cast list has been revealed. Actors from both The Dark Knight (Chin Han) and Avengers: Endgame (Hiroyuki Sanda) have been cast in the reboot.

Last week, the NPD Group shared a prediction for the top 10 best-selling games of the year. While MK11 sits at number five, it’s joined by titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, Borderlands 3, Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, and others.

You can’t play multiplayer yet, but you can add your friends for other things in Mario Kart Tour.

All September long, IGN is highlighting the best TV coming your way in the 2019-2020 season. Today we’re slicing and dicing with AMC’s The Walking Dead, which is headed into its 10th season, premiering Sunday, October 6. After last season left us with harrowingly high body count, the war between our heroes and The Whisperers is just getting started. But how can you fight an enemy who can blend into the hordes of undead roaming the wasteland? For your viewing pleasure, we’ve got an exclusive sneak peek from the new season, featuring Danai Gurira’s Michonne and Ross Marquand’s metal-armed Aaron getting into a heated exchange after a startling discovery leads them into a dangerous encounter.

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Some spoilers ahead for Frozen 2!

Six years ago Disney Animation Studios gambled on Frozen, a computer-animated retelling of Hans Christian Andersen’s fairy tale The Snow Queen. The female-focused princess story was risky because it countermined many of the tropes that Disney itself had so successfully established, yet it proved a cultural phenomenon and became the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, scoring an Oscar for Best Song to boot.

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“I wanted to do something different,” explains Matthew Vaughn on the set of The King’s Man. “When I was a kid, films like Lawrence of Arabia filled the screen and were epic but not boring. And I was thinking that I want to bring back that genre.”

It’s April 2019, and Vaughn is in an office at a soundstage on the outskirts of Turin, somewhat frazzled as it’s Day 67 of a 75-day shoot. But the writer-director is also excited to share details of the new direction in which the Kingsman franchise is going. Because where 2014’s Secret Service and 2017’s Golden Circle were contemporary stories – featuring cutting edge action and futuristic technology – this new installment journeys back more than a century, to detail the origins of the world’s first independent spy organization.

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With Destiny 2‘s Shadowkeep expansion launching this week and years of content for the game already mapped out, it’s clear the MMO shooter franchise is very much the backbone of Bungie’s plans moving forward. However, it appears the studio’s ambitions are not just limited to Destiny–Bungie is also looking to release at least one other IP in the next several years.

In an interview with IGN, Bungie CEO Pete Parsons discussed the developer’s plans to become one of the industry’s “best entertainment companies” by 2025, and part of that vision involves not just continuing to redefine Destiny 2, but also establishing other franchises.

“So, by 2025 we have a pretty specific path to make sure we transform Destiny and that we have other franchises within the marketplace,” Parsons said. “We need to build our publishing group, but part of our vision is also to become a multi-franchise entertainment company.”

Parsons didn’t share any details about Bungie’s potential non-Destiny franchise(s), but the studio has planned to branch out from the MMO series for some time now. In 2018, Bungie received $100 million from Chinese internet giant NetEase, part of which would help it establish one or more separate internal teams beyond the one currently working on Destiny.

In the meantime, Bungie continues to make big changes to Destiny. The studio recently released a free-to-play version of the game called New Light, while the aforementioned Shadowkeep expansion arrives tomorrow, October 1. Ahead of Shadowkeep’s release, Destiny 2 has gone offline until the expansion launches at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. You can read more in our Destiny 2: Shadowkeep pre-order guide.

OK, granted, no one needs an 8K TV. Buuuuuut… if you have money to burn, you’re not likely to be disappointed by Samsung’s line of Q900 8K televisions. They offer a jaw-dropping picture, plus the next-gen consoles are almost certain to offer 8K capability, so you’ll be ahead of the curve when those arrive. Better yet, both Amazon and Walmart have just lowered prices on these bad boys, saving you up to 40% off list price, and bringing them down to their lowest prices ever.

Samsung Q900 Series QLED 8K TVs Are Up to 40% Off

• 55-Inch Model – $2197.99 at Walmart | Amazon

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Marvel’s Disney+ shows, such as The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Wandavision, will have budgets comparable to Marvel’s MCU movies.

Variety reports that Marvel Studios is putting movie-scale budgets behind each of the Disney+ projects, meaning something around the $100-150 million mark. With each of these seasons running between six and eight episodes, this would place episode budgets at between approximately $12m and $25m.

For comparison, Variety reported in 2014 that the first slate of Marvel Netflix shows – the debut seasons of Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist – had a budget total of $200million, equating to $3.8 million per episode. That’s significantly lower than the money being set aside for the new Marvel shows; effectively one season of Disney+ Marvel costs as much as two or three of the Netflix shows.

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