Summer is here. The air is warm. Thunderstorms are rolling through and new video game consoles should be getting shown to us soon. While there may be no E3 this year, the anticipation around the opportunity to see more of the highly anticipated Playstation 5 and Xbox: Series X is extremely high. While we know what the Series X looks like after Microsoft unveiled it at December’s game awards, we are still awaiting anything beyond a Wired article in relation to the PlayStation 5.
The last generation is largely considered a victory for Sony with the PlayStation 4 outselling the Xbox One and having a deeper and stronger library of games. Of course, Sony has not been without their own faults this generation.
While Microsoft embraced the new trend of crossplay, allowing gamers to play games with each other no matter the console they owned, Sony strongly pushed against it throughout the generation with only a handful of exceptions to major titles like Fortnite and Rocket League. On the other side though you have PlayStation with very strong exclusive titles like Uncharted 4, Street Fighter V, Marvel’s Spiderman, God of War, Persona 5, Horizon Zero Dawn, and the list can really go on. The Xbox One tried to continue some of their long-lasting titles such as Halo and Gears of War, but the reactions to Gears was that it was good, not great, and the less said about Halo 5‘s campaign the better.
While it’s hard to predict a company’s overall strategy going into a new generation, we can make some educated guesses. In the last few years, both companies have positioned themselves for the next generation. We’ve heard chatter and it’s always worth noting what has made each successful in the past. The first PlayStation arrived on the scene in 1994 and the first Xbox in 2001. Over the decades they have found what worked for them and it would not be surprising to see them stay in their lane, as it were, while appealing to both long-time fans and new ones. With all that said, let’s take a look at the tale of the tape, at least as it stands right now.
PlayStation 5: Strong games, more power
Going all the way back to the ’90s, when the PlayStation was entering the scene against Nintendo and Sega, they made their name by releasing high-quality exclusives. During the PS2 era, they continued this trend and that console is well known for having one of, if not the greatest game library of all time. They slipped up in the PS3 era. Their launch price point was too high, the system was too hard to develop for, and they flat out failed to keep up with the innovative ideas coming out of the Microsoft camp. For the PS4 era, however, they learned from their past fails, simplifying the formula. The price tag has been competitive, they made sure they had the best exclusives, and even though they took heat for fighting against crossplay, it was part of what made them who they were. You buy a PlayStation because they have games you can only play on a PlayStation.
Because of that, it’s hard to see them not keeping with the status quo as they enter this next generation. And that theory is reinforced by what we’ve seen so far through info released through Wired (with talk about 8K visuals and an SSD that sounds transformational) and the Unreal Engine 5 reveal. Sony knows what they do best: have great games and a powerful console. They’re gonna stick with that and present as a powerful workhorse.
Xbox will innovate through service
It’s odd to think that Microsoft, for as big a name as it is, has truly never “won” a console generation. Even the mighty 360 was still barely outsold by the Playstation 3. Xbox’s first foray into consoles saw a horrible launch that almost announced it dead on arrival. Had it not been for Halo and a little thing called Xbox Live we might be discussing the two console giants Nintendo and Sony instead of Microsoft and Sony. That said, the 360 era is where Microsoft truly made its name. Not only through incredible first-person shooters like Halo 3, but by offering everyone’s favorite online service Xbox Live, reinforcing the social element of gaming.
When we look at the Xbox One, we can see signs of Microsoft once again trying to make the services they offer the selling point for their console. Xbox made a huge push into the realm of crossplay this generation and is fully embracing the idea that anyone should be able to play any games they want. This includes older games. As gamers grow up they want to play their old favorites without hanging on to mothballed consoles from the past. As such, Microsoft has fully embraced backwards compatibility. They have already advertised that the Xbox: Series X will continue to support this.
Our commitment to compatibility means existing Xbox One games, including backward-compatible Xbox 360 and original Xbox games, look and play better than ever before. Your favorite games, including titles in Xbox Game Pass, benefit from steadier framerates, faster load times and improved resolution and visual fidelity – all with no developer work required. Your Xbox One gaming accessories also come forward with you.
If Xbox can’t beat Sony with buzzy exclusives then they are going to try and win fans over with the ability to play just about every game under the sun on their console. One of the ways they do this through Gamepass. A feature that was released on the Xbox ONE, Gamepass allows players to stream games to their console and play them whenever they want. Similar to something like a Netflix for games. The library on Gamepass is incredible and it is probably the best service on any console at the moment. This is an area that the Series X can take advantage of.
Verdict
This generation of consoles could define what video games are for years to come. Is Xbox’s progressive idea of ignoring exclusivity and streaming games the future or will the traditional style of Playstation featuring exclusives and strong boxes win out? It’ll be fascinating to see which way video game lovers lean come release time and how each company evolves its strategy in response.
Friday marked what would have been Breonna Taylor’s 27th birthday. Taylor was killed by Louisville police on March 13 after a number of police officers used a battery ram to enter her apartment with a “no-knock” warrant. Upon entering her apartment, Taylor was shot and killed after officers fired at least eight gunshots at her. As protestors flooded the streets in response to the death of George Floyd on May 25, many protestors made sure to include Taylor’s name in their chants, especially on her 27th birthday. Taking to her Instagram page to remember Taylor, Beyonce shared a post with her fans honoring Taylor.
Sharing an animated picture of Taylor that read, “Happy Birthday Beautiful Breonna,” Beyonce posted the picture to her Instagram page while calling for justice for the Lousiville native. In the photo’s caption, Beyonce said, “Justice for Breonna. Click the link in my bio to take action.” Upon clicking the link in Beyonce’s bio, users are brought to her website and prompted to head over to another website, JusticeForBreonna.org. On the website, users are then asked to sign a petition demanding justice for Taylor.
Beyonce’s post coincides with tributes from other artists, including Chance The Rapper and Ari Lennox, that were also shared Friday. Her post arrives a week after she shared a video calling for justice for George Floyd while pleading for an end to “senseless killings” in America. “There have been too many times that we’ve seen these violent killings, and no consequences. Yes, someone’s been charged, but justice is far from being achieved.”
The Netflix doc series Tiger King may have lost its spot as the most-watched Netflix conent, its throne usurped by Gru and his Minions. But it’s still going strong, with new twists still coming. During last week, it was revealed the will belonging to Don Lewis, Carole Baskin’s missing husband, was a forgery. Speaking of which, the band from the show have released a new song with an interesting title: “Killer Carole.”
As per Entertainment Weekly, the Vince Johnson Band — the outfit that recorded all the songs “star” Joe Exotic used to pass off as his own, among them the quite popular “I Saw a Tiger” — returned with their first new song since getting a record deal, signing with BMG Rights Management and Create Music Group. And they don’t tread lightly. The song is based around the theory, floated most enthusiastically by Joe Exotic himself, that Baskin, his arch-nemesis, murdered her husband.
Does Joe, and all the others parroting this theory, have hard proof? No. But this song — written and performed only by Johnson, as former member Daniel Clinton died last year — has just added fuel to a fire that’s raged over the internet since the show’s release in March.
The lryics aren’t subtle: “Is the body buried deep, is the body underground?” sings Johnson. “Tell me, Killer Carole, where the body can be found? Was he chewed in little pieces in the belly of the beast? Tell me killer Carole, baby, how you gonna sleep?”
An entire episode of Tiger King was devoted to Joe’s theory about Baskin. Baskin, meanwhile, has denied all accusations.
The movie and TV industry has been for the most part shut down for nearly three months now, with many productions — among them The Batman — put on hold mid-stride. Consumers won’t start to feel the effects of this pause until later this year, when suddenly there’s no more new content, or at least no new content featuring actors standing less than six feet from each other. But at least there’s one program you can trust will arrive as previously scheduled: the second season of The Mandalorian.
This comes from The Hollywood Reporter, who reported on an appearance creator Jon Favreau made on a recent virtual panel. “We were lucky enough to have finished photography before the lock down,” Favreau revealed. “Thanks to how technology-forward Lucasfilm and ILM are, we have been able to do all of our visual effects and editing and postproduction remotely through systems that had been set up by those companies for us.”
The show, which chronicles the adventures of a mysterious, Boba Fett-esque bounty hunter played by a perpetually masked Pablo Pascal, is one of the crown jewels of Disney+; much like Netflix, the streamer doesn’t release viewership data, but its cultural impact can certainly be gleaned from, among other things, the persistent Baby Yoda memes. It’s also kept the Star Wars-verse alive even as movies like Solo and The Rise of Skywalker have underperformed or disappointed. Perhaps that’s what happens when you make a show that casts both Werner Herzog and Nick Nolte.
The Mandalorian is scheduled to return in October.
HBO’s finally entered the streaming game with its new platform, HBO Max, and for anyone still confused over how this new service differs from the O.G. HBO Now and HBO Go, we’ve just got one word for you: more.
More movies. More original series. More classic sitcoms and documentaries. Just more. That’s because HBO Max contains the full catalog of HBO’s original works and all the best stuff from Warner Brothers too — think Game of Thrones and Lord of the Rings, Watchmen and Wonder Woman. Of course, because there’s more, you’ll probably need help deciding what to watch first. That’s where we come in.
Here’s a roundup of the best movies currently streaming on HBO Max. Get to bingeing.
Peter Jackson gave fantasy fans a stunning adaptation of J. R. R. Tolkien’s epic book series which deserves to be watched in chronological order, hence why we can’t pick just one film to shout out here. The main story follows Frodo Baggins (Elijah Wood), a young hobbit faced with an impossible burden – to destroy the ring of Sauron, a Dark Lord with plans to destroy Middle Earth. He’s joined on his journey by wizards and elves and dwarves along the way as each faction fights their own battle against Sauron’s massive army.
In case you didn’t catch it in theaters, or you just want to revisit the chaos and mayhem of Joaquin Phoenix’s troubled clown, Todd Phillips’ Joker is now on HBO Max. This gritty origin story imagines the DC supervillain as a mentally-ill clown-for-hire named Arthur, who spirals when his stand-up career turns sour, and he discovers some details about his lineage. Really, it doesn’t take much to put this guy over the edge.
Spike Lee does some of the best work of his long, impressive career with this true story about the first Black detective in the Colorado Springs Police Department. John David Washington plays Ron Stallworth, an African-American cop struggling to balance his duties on the job with his personal life and his involvement in the Black Panther movement. Stallworth is able to pass as a white man over the phone and soon launches an undercover operation, infiltrating the Ku Klux Klan and befriending its leader, David Duke (a brilliant Topher Grace). When Stallworth is forced to meet members of the Klan face-to-face, his partner, Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) assumes his undercover identity, and both men lead an investigation that exposes the sinister core of the local KKK chapter.
There’s no YA fantasy series bigger than J.K. Rowling wizarding franchise, on paper or onscreen. It took a bit of magic to create a film adaptation that did this story justice but Warner Bros managed to pull it off, recruiting directors like Alfonso Cuaron and David Yates to thread the story of a boy wizard who must defeat a dark lord – and manage to pass his O.W.L.s – with bigger themes of friendship, loss, found family, and power. It’s epic. It’s our collective childhood. It’s everything a film series about magic and monsters should be.
Kristen Wiig and Maya Rudolph star in this raunchy comedy about a woman on the brink of marriage and her best friend who’s struggling through a series of failures in her life. Wiig plays Annie, a woman who lost her bakery and relationship in one fell swoop right before her friend Lillian (Rudolph) gets engaged. To make matters worse, there’s competition for the maid of honor spot when Lillian finds a new friend in the wife of her fiancé’s boss (played by the excellent Rose Byrne). Ruined bachelorette parties, Parisian wedding showers, and quite possibly the funniest, most disgusting poop explosion to ever happen onscreen, quickly follow.
Daniel Day-Lewis, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Cameron Diaz star in Martin Scorsese’s historical epic that re-imagines the birth of New York City. DiCaprio plays Amsterdam, an Irish immigrant who returns to the Five Points years following his father’s murder, looking for revenge. To get it, he infiltrates Bill the Butcher’s (Lewis) gang, a group of proud natives tired of the influx of foreigners in their city. Diaz plays a prostitute who forms a relationship with Amsterdam as he befriends Bill, then struggles to follow-through with his plan to kill the man who murdered his father and lead the Five Points in a rebellion against the city’s elite.
Embraced by critics and filmgoers alike, Wonder Woman is living, breathing, ass-kicking proof that the DCEU is capable of providing superhero fare that doesn’t have to lead to shouty arguments over a Rotten Tomatoes score. Gal Gadot stars as Diana Prince (the titular woman of wonder) in Patty Jenkins’ exhilarating comic book motion picture set during World War I. Leaning into charm and fun alongside scenes of villain thumping, Wonder Woman sees our heroine as something too special not to stand out in her surroundings and the film is all the more captivating for it.
Humphrey Bogart and Ingrid Berman star in this cinematic classic. It’s on every must-watch list. It’s a national treasure. We really don’t need to sell it at this point but in case you’re unfamiliar, it’s the story of a cynical American expatriate who struggles to decide whether or not he should help his former lover and her fugitive husband escape French Morocco. Bogart and Berman’s chemistry is off the charts and the writing here is so smooth, so well-done, it makes you wonder why any other film ever tried after this thing came out.
Bruce Willis stars in this action classic that gave birth to a genre-defining franchise. Willis plays John McClane, an NYPD officer tasked with rescuing his wife and children from a group of German terrorists who hold a Christmas gathering hostage at an LA hotel. Alan Rickman plays the group’s leader, and it’s his bad guy that makes this thing so enjoyable to watch. That, and Willis’ iconic one-liners.
This ’90s sports documentary remains one of the most inspiring looks at the game of basketball, even 30 years after it first premiered. The film follows the lives of two inner-city Chicago boys who struggle to become college basketball players on the road to going professional. It’s filled with grit and emotion, joyous triumphs and devastating loss, and it feels like a relevant watch, especially right now.
Clint Eastwood directs and stars in this sports drama that catapulted Hillary Swank into the ranks of Oscar-worthy echelon. Swank plays Maggie Fitzgerald, a woman determined to dominate inside the ring. To do that, she needs to put in hard work and find herself a hardened coach who believes in her. Enter Eastwood. The two have a combative, emotionally heavy relationship that only gets more complicated as Maggie begins taking on dangerous fights.
John Chu’s Asian-led romcom became a breakout hit, so it’s only right that HBO let us binge-watch it whenever we choose. Constance Wu plays Rachel, an economics professor at NYU who travels to Singapore with her long-term boyfriend Nick (Henry Golding) and discovers he’s been less-than-honest with her about just how many zeroes reside in his bank account. Faced with a wealthy family who refuses to accept her American roots, Rachel goes to extreme lengths to impress Nick’s mother and learns a valuable lesson about family and heritage in the process. Awkwafina and Michelle Yeoh are highlights here, but it’s Wu who carries this flick and elevates it beyond just a two-hour laugh riot.
Ridley Scott basically invented sci-fi horror with this alien thriller about a crew on a commercial space tug who must battle a violent extraterrestrial being that’s infiltrated their ship. Sigourney Weaver plays Ripley, an officer aboard the Nostromo, who’s forced to face down the titular Alien, an aggressive life form intent upon killing the ship’s human crew. Most of the action revolves around Weaver’s attempts to destroy the creature and save her shipmates, but it’s Scott’s direction behind the camera that creates the suspense and terror this film has become known for.
Josh Brolin and Sean Astin star in this beloved family-friendly film developed by Steven Spielberg. The movie follows a group of misfit kids who discover an ancient treasure map and set out to find a pirate’s long-lost booty. Along the way, they fight villains intent on stealing the treasure for themselves and dig into the history surrounding the gold and its previous owner.
Tom Hanks stars in and directs this musical drama with Liv Tyler and Tom Everett Scott. The film follows a local Pennsylvania band who scores a one-hit wonder that launches them to fame. Scott plays a drummer hopelessly in love with Tyler’s Faye, who’s the girlfriend of the band’s leader, and Hanks plays the group’s fast-talking, hustling manager, Mr. White.
Mel Gibson and Joaquin Phoenix star in M. Night Shyamalan’s alien thriller about a family plagued by supernatural signs sent from space. The buildup is worth more than the reveal with this one, and Gibson, in particular, sells the scared-sh*tless-single-dad trying to parent his children while battling an invading alien race.
With just a few bars on the piano and an oversized mechanical shark, Steven Spielberg terrorized generations of moviegoers with Jaws. The film follows a local sheriff, a marine biologist, and an old seafarer who team up to hunt a great white shark who has a worrisome bloodlust and seems to be targeting a small beach town during the busiest time of the year. Spielberg’s camera work — the lingering, underwater shots, the quick cuts of flesh being torn from bone and rows of teeth flashing to the surface — make this exercise in inciting aquaphobia even more chilling. You’ll never look at a carefree day at the beach the same way again.
Stanley Kubrick returned to the topic of war and what it does to those who fight it with this bifurcated story of the war in Vietnam. As with his great 1958 film, Paths of Glory, Kubrick opted to take the long view and look at war as an enterprise in all its dehumanizing absurdity. It’s a film less about a particular conflict than what it means to prepare for war (the first half of the movie) and what it means to fight it (the film’s second half). Both keep returning to the notion that to become a soldier is to surrender some essential part of one conscience, and that war at its heart makes us lesser beings than we might be without it. It’s a tough film filled with black comedy that captures the dark heart of what it means to take up arms against others.
If you’re old enough to remember VHS players, then you’ll probably have not-so-fond memories of having to switch out tapes midway through this behemoth of a movie. That’s because there’s a lot to get through — the American Civil War, the Reconstruction — and it all plays a part in the movie’s main romance between a Southern heiress and her roguish lover. Luckily, since it’s on HBO Max now, you won’t have to press pause on all of the action, drama, and romance contained in this thing.
Sure, the best time to watching this Christmas comedy is around the holidays but the yuletide season plays just a small part in this slapstick romp about an eight-year-old troublemaker, who fends off a pair of would-be burglars when his family accidentally goes on vacation without him. The film launched Macaulay Culkin’s career, and he’s brilliant as Kevin McCallister — a clever kid saddled with an annoying family and the responsibility of protecting his home from two idiot thieves.
Another classic, this Judy Garland starring staple is a fantasy adventure that never gets old. Garland plays Dorothy, a restless young woman, tired of living on her family’s farm, who gets swept by a tornado to a magical land filled with witches and cowardly lions and scarecrows and tinmen and all-powerful wizards. It’s a childhood classic and a nostalgic re-watch.
Another Kubrik classic, this sci-fi adventure set the tone for so many space flicks that followed it. The film follows a crew of galactic explorers, who set out to find the origins of a mysterious object buried beneath the Lunar surface. Part thriller, part futuristic drama, there’s a lot to love about this genre entry, even if some of the special effects are a bit outdated.
So, Studio Ghibli is one of the most legendary Japanese animation house in the film industry and fans have begged for years for some of its most popular films — Ponyo, Spirited Away, and Castle in the Sky — to be made available. Well, beg no more animae geeks, because HBO Max has got pretty much every Ghibli creation you can think of.
If you’re looking for some nightmare fuel, HBO Max has this horror classic which should do the trick. From the truly disturbed mind of Wes Craven, this story follows a small town terrorized by a murderous spirit that invades people’s dreams, and well, you can probably guess the rest.
Why is a movie about a talking pig, who’s raised by a sheepdog and dreams of managing his own herd, on this list you ask? Because it’s a damn masterpiece, that’s why. Babe is a farm animal who has dreams of a better life, and he works to make it happen with help from his friends James Cromwell’s Farmer Hoggett. If you don’t cry at least five times while watching this movie, then you’re not human.
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