Scarlett Johansson, who plays Black Widow in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, is reportedly set to earn $15 million for the upcoming standalone Black Widow movie.
As reported by THR, Johansson’s salary, “equals what Chris Evans and Chris Hemsworth earned for playing Captain America and Thor, respectively, in this year’s Avengers: Infinity War.”
Evans and Hemsworth also secured $15 million each for their appearances in Captain America: Civil War, Thor: Ragnarok, and the upcoming Avengers 4.
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey is off to a flying start. The latest entry in Ubisoft’s blockbuster franchise had the best launch week for the franchise on the current generation of consoles, the French publisher announced in a press release. That means the game had a better first-week performance than the first Assassin’s Creed game released for PS4 and Xbox One, Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag (2013), as well as all the follow-ups including Assassin’s Creed Unity (2014), Assassin’s Creed Syndicate (2015), and Assassin’s Creed Origins (2017).
Ubisoft did not share a specific first-week sales figure for Odyssey, but the company said the milestone includes internal estimates of game sales–digital and physical–as well as revenue from microtransactions (called “player recurring investment” in the press release). In other words, it doesn’t necessarily mean Odyssey outsold the aforementioned games on a unit basis.
In a statement, Ubisoft marketing executive Geoffroy Sardin said the company is “humbled” by the reception to Odyssey from critics and fans alike. He added that launch is just the beginning for Odyssey, as Ubisoft plans to to release heaps of extra content in the coming year. As announced previously, there will be no new Assassin’s Creed game in 2019, so this extra content seems to be all that fans will get for some time.
Odyssey was developed by Ubisoft Quebec with support from eight other Ubisoft studios around the world. The game set in Ancient Greece during the Peloponnesian War.
Regarding the extra content coming to Odyssey, Ubisoft is promising the “biggest and most ambitious” follow-on content in franchise history. This includes two new storylines, Legacy of the First Blade and The Fate of Atlantis, which each contain three instalments that will be released episodically. That content is paid, but Ubisoft is also offering a third storyline, The Lost Tales of Greece, to all players for free.
GameSpot’s Assassin’s Creed Odyssey review scored the game an 8/10.
“Assassin’s Creed Odyssey’s ambition is admirable, which is reflected in its rich attention to detail for the era and its approach to handling the multi-faceted narrative with strong protagonists at the lead,” reviewer Alessandro Fillari said. “While its large-scale campaign–clocking in at over 50 hours–can occasionally be tiresome, and some features don’t quite make the impact they should, Odyssey makes great strides in its massive and dynamic world, and it’s a joy to venture out and leave your mark on its ever-changing setting.”
Unlike most other retailers that sell video games, Amazon doesn’t offer a regular weekly sale. Instead, it uses a more mysterious process for choosing which games to discount and when. So at any given time, you can usually find unadvertised sale prices on a selection of games, even if it’s unclear when they’ll go back to regular price. In any case, we’ve gone through the PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC game discounts that are live now and highlighted some of the best ones below.
For starters, if you’re an Amazon Prime member and you pre-order Call of Duty: Black Pro 4 before it launches on October 12, you’ll get a $10 reward certificate. Even without a traditional campaign, this year’s installment is shaping up to be an interesting one, thanks in part to the new battle royale-like Blackout mode. For more information, check out everything we know about Black Ops 4.
In other shooter news, you can grab Destiny 2: Forsaken Legendary Collection on sale for $40 right now. This package contains every piece of content Bungie has released for Destiny 2 to date, including the core game, both Year 1 expansions, and the huge new addition, Forsaken. That’s a great deal on a whole lot of content.
It’s October, so a horror game might be what you’re after. In that case, you should find Resident Evil 7 Gold Edition–on sale for $30–suitably terrifying. It locks you in a house with a deeply disturbing family that just can’t seem to stay dead. The Gold Edition also includes all three DLC packs that will keep you playing long after you’ve seen the credits roll.
Shadow of the Tomb Raider hasn’t been out long, but it’s already on sale for $45. For a relatively down-to-earth take on the action-RPG genre, you can pick up Kingdom Come: Deliverance for $30. It eschews the fantasy aspects of games like Skyrim in favor of a more historical take on medieval life (and warfare).
PS4 owners can pick up the incredibly stylish RPG Persona 5 for just $30. If an action-RPG that focuses on big muscles and hack-and-slash gameplay is more your speed, you might want to try Dragon’s Crown Pro for $20. Or perhaps a slower game is what you’re after; in that case, try Harvest Moon: Light of Hope for $30 (also available on Switch).
With Halloween looming, the launch of Destiny 2‘s Festival of the Lost event is drawing near. Bungie had previously only offered a small tease of what to expect, but it’s now provided an overview of the new types of activities that await players, as well as a look at the Halloween-themed rewards that will be available during the event.
Perhaps the most significant component of Festival of the Lost is something called the Haunted Forest. Either solo or with a team, players will be able to venture inside to defeat its “ghouls and demons, who are spooking up a storm.” There will be a 15-minute time limit to contend with, and the area will get more difficult as you make it further inside.
Toward the end of the event, there will also be a questline to investigate the killing of Master Ives, a cryptarch previously located in the Vestian Outpost. As you work to uncover the truth, you’ll be able to earn a piece of Powerful gear, but this won’t begin until the weekly reset on October 30.
Amanda Holliday, the shipwright at the Tower, has been charged with leading the general festivities during Festival of the Lost. The Tower will be adorned with spooky decorations, and she’ll offer daily bounties that pay out a new type of item called Fragmented Souls. These can be cashed in for Festival of the Lost masks and a new Legendary auto rifle called Horror Story. There will also be new Triumphs to work toward completing, presumably related to all of the aforementioned activities.
As with the Solstice of Heroes event back in August, filling your XP bar (if you’ve reached the level cap) during the event will be particularly valuable. You’ll still receive the standard Bright Engram but also get an Ephemeral Engram, which includes new rewards. Those include a guitar emote and a new dance, both of which you can see here, as well as new Ghosts, ships, and a sparrow, which are all pictured above. Ephemeral Engrams will be sold by Tess at Eververse, who will also have a selection of these new items for direct sale in exchange for Bright Dust.
Festival of the Lost begins next Tuesday, October 16, the same day that the first of two big updates arrives for Destiny 2. The event concludes on November 6. It does not require owning Forsaken to take part in.
This is an advance review out of the New York Film Festival. If Beale Street Could Talk opens stateside Nov. 30.
Barry Jenkins is a director of rare precision and skill in bringing out the soul of his films. Following up one of the most deserving Best Picture Oscar winners since the turn of the century, the Moonlight helmer has devised a visually nurturing love letter to author James Baldwin. An adaptation of his 1974 novel of the same name, If Beale Street Could Talk is packed to the brim with details that instate a dreamlike quality on this Harlem period romance.
With all the racism in today’s world seemingly getting louder, Jenkins smartly chooses to keep the novel within the era it was written to send a message of love that feels more classic than contemporary, while also dealing with issues disturbingly still relevant today. The script not only discusses the injustices our legal system serves on black people, especially the men, it juxtaposes them against the ongoing sexual assault conversation to tell a rich, complex story that digs into the layers of societal issues currently making headlines.
Bungie has officially revealed the details for Destiny 2’s spooky-themed mode, Festival of the Lost, which includes a new horde-style mode.
Destiny 2’s Festival of the Lost will kick off on Oct. 16. The event will focus on the character Eva Levante having gone missing in the wake of the in-game events that saw beloved Cayde-6 die as the Red Legion razed the Last City. But in Festival of the Lost lore, Amanda Holliday is decorating the Tower for the season to help everyone remember the lost and celebrate their continued fight.
Festival of the Lost’s biggest addition, though, is Haunted Forest. The aforementioned horde-style mode gives players 15 minutes to progress as far as possible in the Haunted Forest, wiping out as many ghouls and demons as possible along the way. Naturally, Haunted Forest grows increasingly difficult the further players progress in each run. The mode can be tackled solo or in a group with either a pre-made team or through matchmaking.
It was another big week for comic book readers, especially Spider-Man fans. Marvel debuted the epic crossover Spider-Geddon and a new story arc in the massively popular Venom. Check out our reviews for these new issues, and be sure to let us know your favorite books of the week in the comments below.
Written by Christos Gage & Dan Slott | Drawn by Jorge Molina
The tale of the R.M.S. Titanic’s fateful maiden voyage has been told by countless documentaries, a blockbuster movie, and even some weird old video games. Somehow, it’s now made its way into a Call of Duty game, of all things. As someone who completely adores the story, drama, and beauty of the doomed ship, I can safely say that Treyarch has created my most eagerly anticipated Zombies scenario yet.
The story begins with a rogue-ish group of four devising and executing a plan to steal an artifact from a safe located in the Titanic’s Millionaires Suite. The plan is foiled by a mysterious hooded figure who then – whoops! – accidentally turns everyone aboard the ship into flesh-eating zombies. Then, of course, the Titanic does what it was always fated to do: it sideswipes an iceberg.
Genre distinctions are supposed to exist for our convenience, but Luigi’s Mansion defies them all. It exists somewhere between a kid-friendly take on survival horror, a competent puzzle adventure, and a terrific unlicensed Ghostbusters game. The new 3DS version of the Gamecube launch title adds a few new features to the original, but Luigi’s Mansion on 3DS is a faithful port that delivers fun moments while showing its age in some key areas.
Luigi’s Mansion’s gameplay is entertaining but simple: Enter a new area, use detection gear and wits to solve a mystery, fight a mini-boss ghost, loot the room, and move on. I enjoyed many of the distinctive encounters that invited me to overcome gravity-flipping puzzles, utilize mirrors to detect invisible enemies, and manipulate environments to render ghosts vulnerable. But not all of the challenges are equal. Catching ghosts in Luigi’s mansion required me to overcome puzzles that ranged between simple-but-satisfying to slightly irritating. Clues were ample and there was never a moment that defied all logic — but I did occasionally find myself just banging on things hoping something would happen. I also didn’t particularly enjoy the rare moments when I was forced to backtrack, heading for a life refill or trying to locate a wardrobe I’d last seen hours before.