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Source: Rachel Murray / Getty / Lance Reddick
Lance Reddick was loved not only in the real world but also in the virtual world.
The world was stunned following the tragic loss of Lance Reddick. The actor, best known for his role on the iconic HBO Series The Wire and other standout performances on other shows, was also HUGE in the video game space.
Reddick recently took on the character of Albert Wesker in Netflix’s now-canceled Resident Evil series, a role the showrunner said he was perfect for. Reddick himself wished he could continue playing.
The actor’s likeness brings to life Sylens, the mysterious antagonist in Horizon Zero Dawn and its fantastic sequel, Horizon Forbidden West.
But Reddick has become legendary with players of Bungie’s looter/shooter franchise, Destiny. The actor’s iconic voice is behind the Titan Vanguard of the Tower, Captain Zavala, who issues out missions to guardians.
He was also an avid player of the game as well.
To pay tribute to Reddick, Destiny 2 players have been showing love to Captain Zavala by kneeling in front of him and making other gestures to show love to the 60-year-old actor who died from what is described as “natural causes” by his family.
So dope.
It will be interesting to see how Destiny and the Horizon franchises handle Reddick’s passing because he was integral to the progression of both games’ main stories.
Until then, you can see more touching in-game tributes from Destiny 2 players and more in the gallery below.
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Photo: Rachel Murray / Getty
2. So cool
3. Lance Reddick will live forever
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Source: Variety / Getty / Jesse Williams
While white conservatives like Ron DeSantis are on a mission to whitewash and completely erase Black history from schools, Jesse Williams is countering their efforts in a unique, fun way.
Jesse Williams set Broadway ablaze with an eye-opening and thirst-inducing performance in Take Me Out as a gay professional baseball player. Now, he is returning to his activist roots with his latest project.
The Tony Award-nominated actor and conceptual artist Glenn Kaino linked up for Homeschooled, a brand-new gaming app for players of all ages that will teach and celebrate diversity in the United States through trivia.
Pop Culture will be the focus of the app, and it will feature categories like “Growing Up Black,” “Soul Brothas,” and “Divas.” There will also be multiple choice sections on sports, geography, and the internet and even a Grey’s Anatomy section with science-related questions, which is a nod to Williams’ role as Dr. Jackson Avery on ABC medical drama.
Each category has a time limit, and players can compete against family, friends, and celebrities.
Jesse Williams Says Its Time To Teach Ourselves
Per the Huffington Post, the father of two said, “You have to be more self-reliant if you want your history to be taught, because we have this war on nonwhite history in American schools. They’re not going to teach us about Black or brown or Asian history in school ― OK, how can we teach it to ourselves?”
Before getting into acting, Williams taught at a high school in Philadelphia. He said that the app is a product of the shift to homeschooling at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, plus the sudden pushback to diversity education in many conservative-led states.
On the app, he serves as the “dean of culture” and hopes to lure in other guest instructors.
“So much of my work is around serious social justice work, these things that really demand our sober attention,” he explained. “That’s of course a priority. But folks of color also like to game, have game nights and be spontaneous and be fun and be creative, and we’re often left out. We’re not included in those games and don’t see ourselves in them.
Homeschooled is available for download in the App Store and Googe Play by heading here.
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Photo: Variety / Getty
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Source: HBO / The Last of Us
HBO’s The Last of Us exceptional first season is in the books but, as expected, left many with questions and wondering if we are getting a season two and if one of the first season’s stars is returning.
Right off the bat, we are happy to report that, yes, there is a second season coming. In a no-brainer decision, HBO renewed its new hit series based on the PlayStation video game franchise in January.
The one question lingering was if Bella Ramsey would return as Ellie. Speaking with Deadline, showrunners Craig Mazin and Neil Druckman (who wrote the video game) talked about Ramsey’s return and her backstory, plus the infected or lack thereof in the show.
One burning question many had about the show was why didn’t Joel and Ellie encounter waves of infected or clickers as the season went along. For those who played the game, there are numerous encounters with raiders, cannibals, and the infected.
In the show, we saw people infected by the cordyceps in the first episode when things first popped off, and sparingly in episodes. We saw a new idea that everyone infected is connected, and if you step on a live vine, you can trigger a swarm. We also saw how real sh*t gets when waves of hordes arrive and how bad that can be.
So it’s not like we didn’t see any infected in the show, but according to Mazin, it’s much more complicated than that.
Mazin Explains The Process of Turning A Game Into A TV Show
“Part of the adaptation process is trying to figure out how to take source material that was built around gameplay and port it over to a medium that is passive,” Mazin said. “And a lot of the gameplay centered on non-playable characters that you have to get around by either avoiding them or stealth killing them or just confronting them head-on. That’s sort of your choices when you’re playing. And the NPCs were either raiders or cannibals, or they were the infected.”
“So there’s a lot of fighting. I don’t know what your ultimate kill count is on a typical run of The Last of Us, but it’s in the triple digits for sure. So we did at times have choices to make about how we wanted to present the infected. I will say that even though we were green-lit for a season of television, Neil and I felt like we couldn’t just make a season of television without considering what would come after. ”
Mazin Says More Infected Is Coming In Season 2
He continues, “There is more The Last of Us to come. I think the balance is not always just about within an episode or even episode to episode, but season to season. It’s quite possible that there will be a lot more infected later. And perhaps different kinds. But within the episodes that we were concentrating on, I think ultimately, we generally stressed the power of relationships and trying to find significance within moments of action. So there may be less action than some people wanted because we couldn’t necessarily find significance for quite a bit of it, or [they had a] concern that it would be repetitive. After all, you’re not playing it, you’re watching it. And although a lot of people do like to watch gameplay, it needs to be a little bit more focused and purposeful when we’re putting it on TV.”
The Last of Us HBO also gave us a lot more information than the game did. In the season finale, we finally saw Ellie’s backstory and met her mother, played by Ashley Johnson (the voice actor of Ellie in the video game).
Neil Druckman Explains The Last of Us HBO Resurrected A Storyline Originally Set To Be Its Own Game
“So trying to come up with a story, I wrote this short script about Ellie’s mom and how she gave birth to Ellie, how she was bitten at the same time, and wasn’t sure if she was infected during that birth,” Neil Druckman said. “And it just became this little character drama that spoke to the same themes of parental love and how much you’re willing to do even at when you’re on death’s door. That deal fell apart. Then we were talking to another game company to potentially do it as a whole other game. That deal fell apart. Then I became interested in live-action, and I was talking to Ashley Johnson about her starring in it, and then we both got busy, so that fell apart.”
The Ellie’s Backstory Helped Build An Important Storyline In The Show
Druckman continues, “I just kind of forgot about it until Mr. Mazin and I started meeting to talk about the show. Craig was like, ‘What do you have that we haven’t seen? What is Ellie’s backstory?’ And I was just telling him all this stuff. I’m like, oh, right, there’s this other story about Ellie’s mom and blah, blah, blah. I just kind of told him about it. He’s like, ‘Oh my God, we, that has to go in the show.’ And then we talked about how would it fit.”
“Does it make sense to put it in now? It does gives some theories about why Ellie’s immune, even though we don’t answer that conclusively. But I think, more importantly, it builds the relationship between Marlene and [Ellie’s mom] Anna, so that when you get to the ending, and we pit Marlene against Joel, they have their own opposite philosophical terms over how to approach of the end justify the means. Anna’s dying wish was, take care of my kid. I think it gives it more weight and maybe shows more of the tragedy behind Marlene’s sacrifice, that she was trying to make for the betterment of mankind, “Druckman continued.
Bella Ramsey Will Be Back As Ellie
Speaking of Ellie, there was also a question if Bella Ramsey would return for season two. Mazin put all of that to rest, confirming the young actress will be picking up things right where season one left off.
“When she joined us, she was 17. She’s only, she’s 19 now. Which by the way is the age of Ellie in The Last of Us, part 2. People were like, ‘She doesn’t look like [Ellie]. I’m like, it doesn’t matter. Just watch what happens,” says Mazin.
He continues, “It will be the show that Neil and I wanna make. But we are making it with Bella.”
Well, there you have it.
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Photo: HBO / The Last of Us
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Source: Illumination / The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Despite all the qualms about Chris Pratt being the voice of Nintendo’s beloved plumber/hero, The Super Mario Bros. Movie looks like a surefire hit. The final trailer has arrived to give fans one more mushroomed power boost excitement about the animated film.
The final trailer for The Super Mario Bros. Movie gives fans one more good look at the animated feature that is faithful to its video game roots, unlike the forgettable first movie based on the iconic game franchise.
Gamers will have a field day picking out all of the cool easter eggs related to New Super Mario Bros U., Super Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Mario Kart: Double Dash!!, Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze and more.
While we still don’t hear much of Chris Pratt as Mario, and that’s fine, we still get some incredible moments like King Bowser (Jack Black) addressing his minions, Donkey Kong (Seth Rogen), and Mario using power mushrooms fire flowers. To cap it all off, everyone hits the Rainbow Road track for one epic race in some vehicles we hope to see in Super Mario Kart 9 if and when Nintendo ever decides to drop that game.
Source: Illumination / The Super Mario Bros. Movie
Nintendo & Illumination Came Together To Ensure Accuracy
While most video game movie adaptions opt for live-action, Nintendo and Illumination chose the animation route, and it looks like that was a brilliant decision. The Japanese video game company worked closely with the studio to accurately bring these characters to the big screen, which seems to be the case here.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie also stars Fred Armisen as Cranky Kong, Charlie Day as Luigi, Keegan-Michael Key as Toad, Anya Taylor-Joy and Princess Peach, and more.
The highly-anticipated film arrives in theaters in April.5, watch the final trailer below. You can buy tickets right now.
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Source: Nacon/Teyon Games / RoboCop/ Rogue City
RoboCop issues out his brand of justice in a new gameplay trailer.
Teyon Games aims to deliver the superior experience as the law enforcement cyborg in its RoboCop: Rogue City video game.
The gameplay overview trailer was dropped during publisher, Nacon’s, Nacon Connect showcase showing not only show RoboCop taking out thugs with his trusty auto-9, and knocking them clear across the room, but also handing out parking tickets. We are very serious about that last part.
We also learned the game will be coming out later than expected with its new release date.
Take Out Criminals & Hand Out Parking Tickets In RoboCop: Rogue City
The trailer shows the popular late 80s early 90s action film character patroling the crime infested streets of Old Detroit. Using his computer programmed detective skills we see Alex Murphy root out a drug den in the basement of an arcade.
Once he finds the perps, he whips out his auto-9, and even switches to a machine gun to vicisouly take out the criminals stupid enough to think they can stop RoboCop. The trailer also showcase exactly how bloody this game will be, which should be a welcome sign to fans of the RoboCop film franchise.
Blowing away crooks is not the only thing RoboCop will do in Rogue City. As mentioned above we see him the cyborg cop handing out a ticket to a car parked too close to a fire hydrant.
Another big deal is the fact Peter Weller, the actoer who played Alex Murphy/RoboCop in the first two films lends his voice for the game. He doesn’t sound exactly like he does in the films, but we’re gonna chop that it up to the fact he is 75-years-old now.
Still, this one of the games we are very curious about and are looking forward to playing RoboCop: Rogue City when it drops in September on on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.
No word if this game will be on the Nintendo Switch.
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Photo: Nacon/Teyon Games / RoboCop/ Rogue City
Jimmy Fallon, The Roots and the cast of Super Mario Bros. Movie just one-upped the game franchise’s original theme song.
In celebration of March 10 — aka “MAR10 Day” — Chris Pratt, Jack Black, Seth Rogen, Anya Taylor-Joy, Fred Armisen, Keegan-Michael Key and Charlie Day joined Fallon and his in-house band for a special Tonight Show video, singing a choral rendition of the instantly recognizable video game’s theme song. The actors make up the main voice cast of the upcoming animated Super Mario Bros. Movie, which hits theaters April 5.
In the video, Fallon and the actors take turns taking center stage as Questlove and other members of The Roots add layers of suave harmony. All the while, the singers are edited into the pixelated landscape of the Mario universe, where they pop in and out of green pipes and send shells flying at one another.
Then, Nintendo legend and Mario game creator Shigeru Miyamoto makes an appearance, and even has a little solo at the very end of the video.
Fans in the comments absolutely loved the creative take on the Mario music. “Broooo… This is so awesome!” wrote one. “Just to see the voice cast of The Super Mario Bros Movie and even seeing Miyamoto singing in acappella cover of the iconic Super Mario tracks is just phenomenal to watch.”
“The ending was a masterpiece in every way,” added another.
Watch Jimmy Fallon, The Roots and the Super Mario Bros. cast perform their elevated take on the film’s theme song above.
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Source: Joe Buglewicz / Getty / Sony
The ongoing battle between Sony and Microsoft over this Activision Blizzard acquisition continues to get weird.
Sony has numerous concerns about Microsoft’s still stalled acquisition of Activision Blizzard, and now thanks to a PDF, we know every one of them.
In the documents sent to the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), Sony says it fears that Microsoft could raise the price of Call of Duty, make it exclusive to its Xbox Game Pass service, and sabotage the game so that it runs poorly on PlayStation consoles.
To be more specific, Sony hints at Microsoft releasing a Call of Duty game on PlayStation full of bugs and errors.
Sony’s claims in its documents:
Microsoft might release a PlayStation version of Call of Duty where bugs and errors emerge only on the game’s final level or after later updates. Even if such degradations could be swiftly detected, any remedy would likely come too late, by which time the gaming community would have lost confidence in PlayStation as a go-to venue to play Call of Duty. Indeed, as Modern Warfare II attests, Call of Duty is most often purchased in just the first few weeks of release. If it became known that the game’s performance on PlayStation was worse than on Xbox, Call of Duty gamers could decide to switch to Xbox, for fear of playing their favourite game at a second-class or less competitive venue.
It remains unclear if Sony means that Microsoft would intentionally wreck the game or do the whole “plays best on Xbox” thing because it will own the franchise if the acquisition goes through.
Still, Sony has fears Microsoft could sabotage COD on PlayStation in multiple ways by “degrading the quality and performance of Call of Duty on PlayStation compared to Xbox”; “degrading Call of Duty to ignore PlayStation-specific features (eg. better controller haptics)”; or “restricting, degrading, or not investing in the multiplayer experience on PlayStation.”
None of This Makes Any Sense For Microsoft Financially
While these are legit concerns, financially and optically, it makes no sense for Microsoft to do such a thing even if they wanted to.
Sony is also very concerned about the Xbox Game Pass exclusivity for Call of Duty, fearing Microsoft would prevent the company from putting the game on its subscription service.
Ironically in documents submitted by Microsoft, they claim the exact opposite, with Microsoft claiming “any CoD Game in a Microsoft multi-game subscription is eligible for inclusion in Sony’s multi-game subscription service, at the same time and for the same duration.”
Sony is scoffing at that deal because it does not care about the licensing terms or pricing, adding the terms “would commercially destroy Sony Interactive Entertainment’s (SIE) multigame subscription business model.”
MS Has Made Two Big Offers To Ease Regulator’s Concerns
Microsoft did extend a 10-year offer to Sony to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation, but the Japanese company has yet to sign the deal. Microsoft secured a 10-year agreement with Nintendo hours before meeting with the EU regulators and reached a similar deal with Nvidia in what many saw as a way to put more pressure on Sony.
Sony remains firm in its stance, writing in its documents, “Microsoft has not shown any real commitment to reaching a negotiated outcome. they had dragged their feet, engaged only when they sensed the regulatory outlook was darkening and favored negotiating in the media over engaging with SIE.”
Still, Microsoft’s decision to strike deals with Nintendo and Nvidia seems to have worked, as the EU will reportedly approve the $68.7 billion acquisition deal.
That leaves the United States as the last remaining hurdle.
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Photo: Joe Buglewicz / Getty
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Source: Activision / Call of Duty / The Shredder
One of the greatest villains in pop culture history is coming to Call of Duty.
Wednesday, Call of Duty announced on its official Twitter account in a teaser that players will be able to play as The Shredder, the notorious villain from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, as an operator.
The brief teaser didn’t showcase any gameplay but did give us a glimpse of how Oroku Saki will look in the video game.
The Shredder will be donning his signature villainous drip with a Call of Duty twist while dishing out pain with not one but two katana swords.
Another cool feature is a mutagen canister with TCRI written on it that fans will recognize from the cartoons and films.
This will mark the first time The Shredder leaps out of the TMNT franchise into another IP. His eternal enemies, the Ninja Turtles, have frequently appeared in other video games.
The Heroes in a Half Shell have appeared in Injustice 2 thanks to a character DLC pack, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, Splatoon 2 Splatfest, and Knockout City.
Call of Duty Has A Rich History of Featuring Movie Characters
The Shredder will join the likes of The Terminator, John Rambo, Die Hard’s John McClane, Godzilla, Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface, and Saw’s Billy The Puppet as other popular movie characters to join the game.
The news of The Shredder coming to COD is a huge surprise and follows the release of the first trailer for Seth Rogen’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem animated film.
You can bet there will be more TMNT-related crossovers coming down the pipeline, and we will be looking forward to all of them.
The Shredder will arrive in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone 2.0 on March 21.
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Photo: Activision / Call of Duty
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Source: 2K Games / WWE 2K23
2K Games successfully rebooted its WWE 2K franchise last year with WWE 2K22 and is looking to continue the positive momentum and come back even stronger WWE 2K23. Ahead of the game’s launch, we now know what to expect in the form of DLC.
Monday, March 6, 2K unveiled WWE 2K23’s post-launch content roadmap revealing that fans can look forward to a consistent rollout of wrestling legends who have blessed WWE’s rings over the years.
WWE 2K23’s content roadmap boasts 24 playable characters featuring WWE Superstars, Legends, and several NXT superstars making their debuts.
Players can look forward to mashing their controller buttons playing with inflicting pain with three-time former World Champion Bray Wyatt, former Raw Tag Team Champions Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson, aka The O.C, 2022 WWE Hall of Fame inductees Scott Steiner and Rick Steiner, Hollywood icon Zeus (Tommy Tiny Lister), SmackDown color commentator and five-time Intercontinental Champion Wade Barrett, and first-ever three-time WWE Divas Champion Eve Torres.
Peep the full slate of DLC coming to WWE 2K23 below.
Steiner Row Pack (April 19)
Scott Steiner
Rick Steiner
Top Dolla
Ashante Adonis
B-Fab – Manager only. Not a playable Superstar
Pretty Sweet Pack (May 17)
Karl Anderson
Luke Gallows
Tiffany Stratton
Elton Prince
Kit Wilson
Race to NXT Pack (June 14)
Harley Race
Ivy Nile
Wendy Choo
Tony D’Angelo
Trick Williams
Revel with Wyatt Pack
Bray Wyatt
Zeus
Valhalla
Joe Gacy
Blair Davenport
Bad News U Pack
Eve Torres
Wade Barrett
Damon Kemp
Andre Chase
Nathan Frazer
2K revealed the season pass will feature the MyRISE Mega-Boost, which includes an additional 200 Attribute Points, and Supercharger, which will unlock all of the base-level WWE Legends and throwback arenas.
WWE 2K23 Deluxe Edition and Icon Edition will launch on March 14, 2023. The Cross-Gen and Standard Edtion’s of the game arrive on March 17.
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Photo: 2K Games / WWE 2K23
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Source: Xbox / The Mandalorian-Inspired Xbox Series S & X Bundle
The folks are Xbox are back with another exciting giveaway that fans of Disney’s original Star Wars series, The Mandalorian, will absolutely love.
To celebrate season three of The Mandalorian, Xbox partnered with Lucasfilm to celebrate the return of the hit show starring Pedro Pascal as the titular character to giveaway Mandalorian-inspired gear.
Fans can enter a sweepstake right now where they can hope to win custom Xbox Series X and S consoles featuring Mando and Grogu, oops, we mean Baby Yoda and a custom controller that looks like The Child and a controller hoodie playing off his drip.
That’s not all. Fans can also win a life-size version of the Baby Yoda’s hovering ride, called The Pram XL, that they can actually sit in and either game or watch the new season of The Mandalorian.
Before you ask, no, it does not hover. Still, it is a fully operational gaming station featuring massaging cushions, cupholders, LED lights, and holders for your controllers and headphones, making it the best gaming chair on the planet and in a galaxy far, far away.
Source: Xbox / The Mandalorian-Inspired Xbox Series S & X bundle
Here’s How To Win
Retweet the official Xbox Twitter account starting today to enter for a chance to win the custom Mandalorian-inspired gear. You have until May 11 to enter the contest.
If you want to land the Pram XL, you will have to enter with Microsoft Rewards for the chance to win a full entertainment package by heading here starting March 16 until May 11.
In more Mandalorian news, Disney partnered with Xbox for a season three launch event in Los Angeles at the iconic El Capitan Theater.
In attendance were stars of the show Pedro Pascal, Carl Weathers, Giancarlo Esposito, Katee Sackhoff, Emily Swallow, Chris Bartlett, Rosario Dawson, and more. Series creator Jon Favreau, plus directors Rick Famuyiwa and Dave Filioni were also on hand for the big night.
Source: Xbox / The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
So, may the force be with you when trying to win that custom Mandalorian swag.
For more photos from The Mandalorian’s season 3 launch event, hit the gallery below.
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Photos: Courtesy of Xbox
1. The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
Source:The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
The Mandalorian-Inspired Xbox Series S & X bundle xbox,the mandalorian,xbox series x,xbox series s
2. The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
Source:The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
The Mandalorian-Inspired Xbox Series S & X bundle xbox,the mandalorian,xbox series x,xbox series s
3. The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
Source:The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
The Mandalorian-Inspired Xbox Series S & X bundle xbox,the mandalorian,xbox series x,xbox series s
4. The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
Source:The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
The Mandalorian-Inspired Xbox Series S & X bundle xbox,the mandalorian,xbox series x,xbox series s
5. The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
Source:The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
The Mandalorian-Inspired Xbox Series S & X bundle xbox,the mandalorian,xbox series x,xbox series s
6. The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
Source:The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
The Mandalorian-Inspired Xbox Series S & X bundle xbox,the mandalorian,xbox series x,xbox series s
7. The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
Source:The Mandalorian Season 3 Event
The Mandalorian-Inspired Xbox Series S & X bundle xbox,the mandalorian,xbox series x,xbox series s