A New Konami Code For Castlevania Was Discovered 25 Years After Its Release

With Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, this beloved, long-running sci-fi franchise has finally hit double digit movies, with the modern iteration of the series running for nearly as many films (4) as the franchise’s original run back in the 1960s and ’70s (5). While the first three movies in the rebooted series focused on the very beginning of the ape takeover of Earth, Kingdom jumps forward in time by “many generations,” taking us closer to the status quo of the original film.

For Kingdom director Wes Ball, who previously handled that same duty on all three Maze Runner films and is also directing the upcoming Legend of Zelda movie, that time skip is a significant move toward the endgame he wants for the series: to close the franchise at the same place it began, with 20th century astronaut Charlton Heston crash landing on future Earth without having a clue what’s been going on.

We’re not there yet, of course–there aren’t any crash-landing spaceships in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. While this is the fourth movie in the rebooted franchise, it’s really the beginning of a new era for the apes, with the previous three movies serving as the background lore for what’s going on in the present.

“The previous three movies were very much the ending of something,” Kingdom director Wes Ball told me while promoting the film. “They were stories about the end of the human world. They were a story about the end of Caesar. And we very much wanted to be the beginning of something. Getting that distance allowed us to start the movie in a way where the audience itself gets to go back and rediscover what’s happened to Caesars legacy, what’s happened to the human world, what’s happened to apes, how far along have they gotten, how many other different clans are out there, you know, all these different things.”

For Ball, the idea of all these different ape groups separately developing their civilizations made for a fascinating canvas on which to craft this film. In Kingdom, the protagonists are the ones who’ve never heard of Caesar, and the bad guys are the ones who fight in his name. But even with this film, Ball had his eye on the long-term prize.

“All throughout the planet, there are other apes that have their own kind of explosion into intelligence. So that’s a cool idea. We ran with that here with this Noa character and this whole tribe,” Ball said. “And this whole time as we’re leaving behind the Caesar trilogy, carrying forward all the stuff we want to carry forward, we also have in our sights that ’68 original that we’re heading towards…we’ve still a long way to go before it gets there, before Charlton Heston crashes down through the skies, but that’s gonna be really fun I think if we’re fortunate enough to continue on the story.”

For now, this plan is a nebulous one–it’s not a “we’re going to do this two movies from now” kind of situation. It’s more of an aspiration for now, and Ball freely admitted it might not happen.

“Will we ever get there? I couldn’t tell you. There’s plenty of stories to be told before you get to that ’68 movie. If I had my way, you wouldn’t remake the 68 movie, you would just build up to it. And you cut and you go back to the ’68 movie, and you start all over and that’s that’s the whole franchise. That’s my idea, but this isn’t my franchise to do with whatever I want. So take it with a grain of salt,” Ball said, chuckling.

A big development that should happen on the way to that destination is that the apes should eventually wear clothes–in that original film, the apes have normal human posture and wear clothes. In Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, ape society hasn’t reached that point yet, but it’s moving that direction.

“You see in this movie the beginnings of some of that stuff. You see Raka have adornments, and the Eagle tribe. Proximus Caesar starting to dress himself like the things he’s learned about from Roman history. You see an echo throughout all the designs, they’re starting down that path again,” Ball said.

It’s been one year since the release of Redfall on PC and Xbox Series X|S, and there’s been no sign of a few extra bits or promised DLC for the game.

Users over at ResetEra took notice of this and pointed out how the Bite Back Digital Edition included the Redfall Hero Pass. It promised that players who bought this edition would have access to two future heroes. However, developer Arkane Austin hasn’t provided any updates on when they would come.

Redfall’s biggest update so far was a patch that came six months after launch that added stealth takedowns, bug fixes, and accessibility features. Since then, Redfall hasn’t really gotten many substantial updates.

This is possibly due to Redfall’s lackluster reception and poor reviews. Redfall reportedly had difficulties from the start of production, and roughly 70% of the company’s staff that had worked on Prey (2017) were no longer there by the end of Redfall’s development.

In GameSpot’s Redfall review, we said, “Ultimately, Redfall is a game that should not have been released yet. Its litany of bugs hampers the gameplay loop of exploring its world with friends, and that loop itself feels compromised by elements that are poorly executed and ill-suited to the team implementing them.”

Star Wars Day is May 4–May the Fourth be with you–and while you’ll find plenty of discounts on video games and accessories, one of the coolest deals is actually for Citizen watches. Four models in Citizen’s popular Star Wars lineup are being discounted for the event–though two of them have limited inventory, so you’ll need to check them out soon if you want to cash in on the savings.

The C-3PO and Millenium Falcon models are the ones you’ll want to keep on your radar, as they’ve already climbed above 70% claimed. That means there’s a decent chance they’ll sell out by the end of the day. The R2-D2 and Rebel Pilot probably won’t run out of inventory, but these deals are also unlikely to stick around after May 4. The prices in parentheses are what you’d pay if you bought these Star Wars watches directly from Citizen–each watch’s original list price is $450-$475.

Citizen Star Wars Watch Deals

Whichever you pick, you’ll be treated to a design inspired by the first Citizen analog-digital watch, which features a variety of faceplates alongside a standard digital readout for easy access. They also include a five-year limited warranty and a unique Star Wars engraving on the back. As you’d expect, these are built to the usual high standards of Citizen, making them a great premium gift for any Star Wars fan.

The biggest price cut is for the C-3PO version, as it’s nearly 50% off compared to the May the Fourth sale price on Citizen’s website. That’s also the lowest price we’ve ever seen for the watch. Most other watches are also down to some of their best prices ever, so be sure to peruse the listings while you can.

For another great Star Wars deal, you’ll find the new Lego Star Wars TIE Interceptor Collector Series available with a bit of free swag.

Coming off the success of The Super Mario Bros. Movie early last year, which was both popular with critics and made a huge amount of money, Nintendo felt so good about how they handled that one that they greenlit a Legend of Zelda movie, to be handled by Maze Runner Trilogy and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes director Wes Ball–it’s still very early in that process, though, without even a planned release year at this point.

GameSpot had the chance to speak with Ball as part of his promotional efforts for his new Planet of the Apes movie, which lands in movie theaters on May 10. It didn’t take too long for the Zelda movie to come up after I asked him about how working on his Maze Runner movies, which were heavy on CGI despite having relatively small budgets, helped prepare him for life on this even-more-CGI-heavy Planet of the Apes movie.

Ball immediately gave me some perspective on just how much of an escalation Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes was for him.

“Those three [Maze Runner] movies’ budgets combined are less than this one movie. I’d call them low budget in a way. I mean, the highest budget we had was like $60 million, I think,” Ball said. And one of the most important takeaways for him was just learning to deal with a fandom that actually cares about the property you’re adapting.

“It was good practice. I think when we started Maze Runner, for the first movie, it had sold like 3 million copies, which is nothing compared to the Hunger Games, but we were able to, like, create a franchise, and the movies were really successful for the studio, and I think the fans that they were intended for really got a kick out of them. So I got a little taste of that whole expectations game on those movies,” Ball said.

But even more important than that, Ball went on, was simply learning how to do what he wants to do on a massive film like this.

“I got to really sharpen my skills on the craft and execution front on those movies, I think more than anything. But yeah, you learn something on every one that you do. I learned a ton on this one, too, you know, and we’ll take that into the next one.”

That “next one,” of course, is a whole other escalation for Ball when it comes to fan expectations, because with The Legend of Zelda he’s going to have to deal with a fanbase that’s been waiting a long time for this movie. So I asked him to detail what exactly he’s taking from his experience making Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes into his Zelda film.

“So much. All the stuff that you normally do, of how do you put the money on the screen, you know? And talk about expectations, there’s a tremendous amount of expectations on this one. I’m gonna wrestle with that.” Ball said.

“How to trust all the incredibly talented people around you, you know, to help kind of see the vision forward, you know what I mean? So there’s all those things that kinda carry forward. And then just the continued thing of, every movie you get a little bit of experience about things that you thought you knew or you thought you understood, but didn’t.”

Ball’s Zelda movie doesn’t have a release window yet. But you can see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes in movie theaters starting May 10.

The original X-Men movies famously shied away from using the characters’ iconic superhero costumes. So for over two decades, Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine couldn’t even wear his blue and yellow outfit from the comics. Deadpool and Wolverine finally gave Jackman a chance to change that, and he couldn’t be happier about it.

“We almost did it in The Wolverine,” Jackman told Empire. “But from the moment I put it on here, I was like, ‘How did we never do this?’ It looked so right, it felt so right. I was like, ‘That’s him.’ There are different sides of Wolverine we haven’t seen before in the movies. It was exciting for me.”

Jackman also recalled going for a long drive while considering his Wolverine comeback after seemingly ending his run with Logan in 2017.

“I was about an hour into the drive,” said Jackman. “And that question came into my head: ‘What do I want to do?’ And as soon as I asked the question, I wanted to do Deadpool & Wolverine. I just knew it. I drove for another hour. Couldn’t stop thinking about it. And I got out of the car, called Ryan, and said, ‘Ryan, if you’ll have me, I’m in.'”

Deadpool and Wolverine will hit theaters on Friday, July 26.

Apex Legends Season 21 is the first new season we’re getting after the implementation of the legend upgrade system, a feature that allows playable characters to choose options from a skill tree to upgrade their passive, tactical, and ultimate abilities mid-match. Apparently, this feature makes it easier for the devs to adjust each playable legend too, offering more opportunities to finely tweak each character beyond simply buffing and nerfing their abilities.

“It’s made it a lot easier,” Apex Legends balance game designer John Larson told me. “It’s just been easier to approach a certain element or vector of power in any given character’s kit without disrupting a core pattern–that can carry more risk or it can be a little trickier to nail down a healthy change. And so I think both in the [Season 20] mid-season update and with the update in [Season] 21, we’re trying to shift as much as we can that we have the bandwidth for, whether it’s just swapping one out or giving a character a different upgrade to see if it moves the needle anywhere or just makes it something fresh for players to experiment with. I think it’s been a great way for us to balance more quickly and flexibly.”

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