This is the most significant sign of a pulse since 2020 for the Ubisoft title, which popped up in 2017 with the promise of players sailing the seven seas and indulging in some salty naval combat, before disappearing below the waves for half a decade. After its reveal, Ubisoft let press members go hands-on with it back in 2018, but after that things started shifting around quite a bit over at the studio. In a 2020 update, we heard the game had a new vision and was aiming for a 2022 release date. 

Now, however, the tides have turned, and we’ve got a ton of new information about the mysterious and highly anticipated Skull and Bones. We’ve seen gameplay, spoken to the game director, and had a hands-off preview, and we can confidently say we’ve got all the information you’re looking for about Skull and Bones. Read on for more. 

Skull and Bones release date

Before we had a release date, we had rumors. It was revealed during a Ubisoft financial update with investors that the game would be due out sometime in the next year or so. “Skull and Bones will now be released in 2022-23,” it said in its earnings report – but for a while, there was no more information regarding a more specific release window.

Then, a Skull and Bones release date was leaked by a Twitter account just a few days before the worldwide reveal event, and it turns out this leak, in particular, was correct. Skull and Bones is set to release on November 8, 2022. Yes, that is one day before the highly anticipated God of War Ragnarok, so it’ll be interesting to see how both games fare. 

Skull and Bones trailer 

The latest trailer dropped on the same day as the worldwide gameplay reveal, and it will pull you in from the moment it starts. Promising to let you “chart a new course”, the trailer follows an unnamed character as they decide to try out the pirate life, become marooned on an island, and build their own ship to sail safely out of there. It cuts to other pirates in various stages of cool, swashbuckling garb before showing off some epic naval combat. 

Skull and Bones Insider Program

Back before we had a Skull and Bones release date or any idea what the gameplay looked like, we had the promise of the Insider Program, which was announced back in March 2022. After the July reveal event, we have a few more details on that what the program will entail.

We are kicking off our Insider Program, a unique opportunity for a selected few to test early versions of Skull and Bones & share feedback. Apply now if you think you have what it takes!March 9, 2022

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According to Ubisoft, the Insider Program is an “ongoing live testing initiative for which we’re inviting carefully selected players to play an early version of our game in real conditions before anyone else. Meaning for the very first time, members of our Insider Program get to play Skull and Bones and get a sneak peek at the work our development team has been doing behind the scenes.” According to the studio, the testing team will remain “relatively small” but if you’re interested you can sign up for the Skull and Bones Insider Program here (opens in new tab).

Skull and Bones 2021 update

We know that Skull and Bones will focus heavily on naval combat thanks to its roots lying in Assassin’s Creed 4: Black Flag. While working on our five key Skull and Bones questions answered, we spoke with game director Ryan Barnard, who gave us even more details beyond the July gameplay reveal. 

“The team developed their expertise in Naval Combat through their co-development work so we decided to capitalize on that to create a totally new world – the world of Skull and Bones,” Barnard says game director Ryan Barnard. “Since I joined, my focus has been about taking the creative vision to life.” His focus has been on adding  “depth to the naval combat,” the progression system, enemy factions, and crafting. 

Skull and Bones was initially billed as a game that would be made up of two main pillars: a single-player campaign where you play a fully customizable pirate and multiplayer 5v5 tactical naval combat. According to Barnard, the current iteration of Skull and Bones is not a “classic narrative-driven game” but a live game that Ubisoft is committed to working on far into the future. So, should you play it solo? “We want players to have advantages when they group up and pirate together. You can definitely play alone, but part of the risk in our world is that, if you are the lone wolf, you could potentially become prey for other players,” Barnard says. 

Solo play will include leveling up your ship, taking on pirate emissions, and battling on the high seas. It seems like ship customization will be very broad, so expect to see a variety of different vessels on the horizon.

Skull and Bones development issues

The co-director of the game, Antoine Henry, left Ubisoft after 15 years in January 2022, which many worried had to do with Skull and Bones’ development issues. In July 2021 a report from Kotaku (opens in new tab) offered insight into issues behind the scenes that have caused the development process to drag on so long.

The article, which included input from current and former developers on Skull and Bones, reveals constant changes to the game’s direction – like switching between naval combat and survival as the core concepts – and culture clashes on the development team. Three different sources put the cost of Skull and Bones at more than $120 million, and it’s not even finished yet.

In response, Ubisoft put out a statement updating Kotaku on the game’s progress and recent Alpha production milestone. 

“The Skull and Bones team are proud of the work they’ve accomplished on the project since their last update with production just passing Alpha, and are excited to share more details when the time is right. That being said, any unfounded speculation about the game or decisions being made only works to demoralize the team who are working very hard to develop an ambitious new franchise that lives up to the expectations of our players.

Over the past year, we’ve made significant changes to our policies and processes to create a safe and more inclusive workplace and empower our teams to create games that reflect the diversity of the world we live in.”

During the Ubisoft 2020-21 earnings call, chief financial officer Frédérick Duguet had this to say about the game. 

“We strongly believe in the team’s creative vision and they have been given an increasingly ambitious mandate for the game,”

“Production led by Singapore has been advancing well over the past 12 months and the promise is better than ever. The additional time will allow the team to fully deliver on its vision.”

Skull and Bones customization

There are loads of ways to customise your ship in Skull and Bones, and it seems that different set-ups will be useful for different scenarios. We see the ability to change sails, weapon set-ups, and figureheads in the demo, but expect there to be loads more options in the final game.

You’ll need to adapt because the conditions of the game will change according to the predictions of a fortune teller. Yes. You’re given an outlook for each session and will have to change your play accordingly – so, for example, high winds mean that there are more merchant ships to plunder, but greater competition for them. Not sure how that correlates, but it’s all in the demo. She’ll also advise on weather and trade routes too.

It’s worth noting that you can also hop off your ship and look around your own private island. Expect there to be plenty of distractions here too.

Why not jump into the best RPGs while you wait for Skull and Bones to drop?

The post Skull and Bones: release date, gameplay reveal, and more appeared first on Game News.

The best survival horror games are…

10. Resident Evil 2 remake

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, and PC

Almost 20 years after its original PS1 release, Resident Evil 2 is back and better than ever. The Resident Evil 2 Remake (opens in new tab) has rebuilt the original game from the ground up, which manages to simultaneously honour its roots and build a future for one of the most groundbreaking horror games of all time. Leon and Claire are attempting to escape the zombie-filled Raccoon City, and will face plenty of monsters and challenges along the way. Tight gunplay, clever puzzles, great set pieces and some strangely beautiful gore – seriously – all combine to make one of the most essential, and best, survival horror games.

9. The Last of Us

Available: PS4, PS5 

There was a BBC documentary on a little known fungus called Cordyceps, which infects the brains of ants, assumes control, and drives the ants to water before bursting from their skulls. This savoury topic became the inspiration for Naughty Dog’s The Last of Us, the tale of a man named Joel trying to take a girl called Ellie across post-apocalyptic America, when the cordycepts fungus has found a way to infect humans. Resources here are incredibly scarce, meaning you’ll have to scavenge for bullets or tape and scissors to hastily make shivs when creeping through infected ruins. The scares are brutal and unyielding, but punctuated by real tenderness in the narrative. The Last of Us is one of the most well-told stories ever and is a must-play for fans of horror and video games more broadly. With The Last of Us Part One recently announced at Summer Game Fest 2022, it seems pretty clear Ellie and Joel’s legacy will continue to stretch well into the future.  

8. Soma

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, and PC

Soma reaches far. The studio behind Amnesia: The Dark Descent decided to turn its hands to sci-fi, examining the fluid relationship between our bodies and minds. You wake up in an abandoned research facility and come face to face with broken robots who think they’re people. It soon becomes clear that real humans’ minds are actually inside these robotic shells, but they’re completely unaware they’ve been uploaded there and don’t understand why you don’t think they’re human. The story is intriguing, creepy, and at times heartbreaking, and well worth a play for those interested in the concept of AI. 

7. Resident Evil: Village

Available on: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Nintendo Switch, and PC

The opening of Resident Evil Village, a continuation of RE7’s story this time set in Eastern Europe, is strong, clever, and fun – full of atmosphere and intrigue as you explore (and features a part that’s probably one of the best stand-alone horror levels of the year). While the latter half veers into ‘okay’ territory, with some combat slogs, a boss fight that’s a bit of a stretch even by Resident Evil standards and, while it’s still good, it lacks the same spark and craft as the beginning. Resident Evil Village is an enjoyable, occasionally silly, monster hunt that’s entertaining – even if it almost completely resets all the incredible work Resident Evil 7 did to reinvent the series.  

6. Alien Isolation

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, and PC

Creative Assembly wanted to explore what happened between the events of Ripley blasting the alien out the airlock and the moment her floating sleep pod is recovered. The result is Alien: Isolation, where Amanda Ripley goes looking for answers about why her mother disappeared. Her search brings her to a remote space station called the Sevastopol, whose dark halls are being stalked by a familiar creature who literally does not stop hunting you. The AI in Alien Isolation was groundbreaking; the alien can’t be defeated, but it’ll learn your ways of avoiding it. Hide in too many lockers, and it’ll start throwing them open searching for you. Use the motion tracker to steer clear of its path, and it’ll hear the beeps and draw closer. If it sees you, it’ll remember which door you went through to escape. Thanks, sadistic game tech clever clogs. 

5. Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC

You have no gun. When the shambling creature hunting you in Amnesia draws near, the only thing you can do is hide or run. If you light your lantern to see in the dark it’ll find you more easily. If you extinguish the flame you’re better hidden, but your character goes slowly insane with terror. Amnesia is a Lovecraftian tale where you wake up on the floor of a castle with no memory of where you came from, but a note from your past self explains you must find and kill the master of the house. The loading screen instructs you to turn the lights off and play with headphones, and truly, that is the scariest way to play. The graphics may be a little dated now, but few games have an atmosphere this genuinely frightening and suffocating. 

4. Outlast

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC

There’s a moment in Outlast where everything could have been different. When your car groans to a halt in the deserted grounds of an eerie asylum, the front doors are locked but your character, an investigative journalist, spots an open window. At this point, anyone with a sliver of self-preservation would walk away and call for backup, but that would make a terrible game. Instead, you climb through the opening, video camera in hand, and what unfolds is five hours of pure terror. The inmates run the place, and in some areas the bloodstained corridors are pitch black meaning the only way you can see is through your camera’s night vision. True to survival horror form, camera batteries are scarce; jump scares aren’t, though.

3. Evil Within 2

Available on: PS4, Xbox One, and PC

Another one of Mikami’s creations was The Evil Within, which like Resi explores the corrosive effects of megacorp greed – but this time the suits are dunking people in an alternative reality called STEM rather than turning them into zombies. Here, each character’s worst nightmares play out as they’re trapped in their own heads, linked up to a collective consciousness like a messed up Matrix that no pill will let you leave. The sequel follows Detective Sebastian Castellanos who must venture into STEM to find his missing daughter, who’s been subject to experiments by the greedy company behind the simulation, Mobius. The sequel has much greater freedom in its map design than the first Evil Within, with more areas to explore and more ways to advance through a level, making it a great place to jump in.

2. Resident Evil 7

Available on: PS4, PSVR, Xbox One, and PC

The only place to start is with the inventor of survival horror, Shinji Mikami. The legendary Japanese video game designer directed many of Capcom’s biggest titles in the 90s, including Resident Evil. That first foray into the twisted world of the Umbrella Corporation is credited as the original survival horror game, and the series has spanned over two decades since. Resident Evil 7 follows the story of a man named Ethan, whose search for his missing wife leads him to a rotten old house belonging to the twisted Baker family. 

After the more action-oriented Resident Evil 5 and 6, Resident Evil 7 firmly re-roots the series in survival horror. And the series’ return to horror is deliberate, grimy, and effective. There’s a sense of dread that never lets up as the Baker family relentlessly pursues you, and every few turns brings another horrific monster to contend with. The whole game is playable in VR too, meaning when you peer around corners in-game you have to physically twist your body forward in your living room. Be prepared to have your toes forcibly uncurled via local anaesthetic after.

1. The Last of Us 2

Available on: PS4

Ambitious, disruptive, and brave, The Last of Us 2 set a new bar for video game storytelling by taking your hopes and affections, bringing a bulldozer to them, and then making you fall in love with the bulldozer. But even putting the monumental narrative achievements aside, Naughty Dog made a survival horror game that’s wicked smart, unpredictable, and scary on a whole new level.

The infected are terrifying enough in their own right – if you thought clickers were bad, wait until you meet the Rat King – but The Last of Us 2 affects each kill with a moral dilemma at-times brought on by your personal relationship with that character, and other times by the visceral way in which they struggle to breathe another breath and eventually succumb. If the survival horror genre is meant to haunt, challenge, and question you, but somehow still be fun to play, The Last of Us 2 is the best of the best.

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The best games like The Sims…

My Time at Portia 

Developer: Pathea
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

Instead of taking up residence in Oasis Springs or Willow Creek, why not move into Portia? Pathea’s cutesy open-world life sim has so much to offer fans of the genre, with a whole mish-mash of occupations to keep you busy. As the new resident in town who inherits a workshop from their relative, you can earn money by crafting all manner of gadgets of gizmos to fulfill commissions. But it doesn’t stop there. With mining, fishing, farming, crafting, cooking and so much more besides, there’s no end of ways to making a living. The true heart of Portia lies in its thriving community and the many, many residents you can form friendships and romantic relationships with. Just like the Sims, you can get married, have children, decorate your house, and customize the look of your character. There’s so much to do in My Time at Portia, it’ll certainly keep you busy. 

Stardew Valley

Developer: ConcernedApe
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

Ah, Stardew Valley. As another time stealer with oodles of heart, this charming farming sim is like The Sims 3 if you were a farmer in the pixelated countryside. Going at your own pace, you can build up your farm, decorate your house and get engrossed in Stardew Valley’s endlessly interesting community. Just like the Sims, you can form relationships with every character in each household of the Valley, and all the residents have a their own unique story and background. There’s so much more than meets the eye to this delightful RPG. Fishing, mining, cooking, farming and raising farm animals are just a handful of ways to keep yourself occupied. From its relatable characters to its hidden secrets, playing one in-game day’s worth won’t be enough. Before you know it, you’ll sink hours upon hours into making your farm just right without realising how much time has past you by. 

Two Point Hospital

Developer: Two Point Studios
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

In the Sims 4 Careers expansion, being a doctor is arguably one of the most entertaining jobs to do because you actually get to control your sim and treat patients. If managing a little sim hospital ticked all the right boxes for you, Two Point Hospital will scratch that itch and then some. The endlessly fun management sim lets you design your hospital from start to finish and the mechanics aren’t a million miles away from building rooms in the Sims. You’ll also be tasked with managing your staff, improving the hospital’s reputation, and making sure everything runs smoothly. With its own unique blend of humor and its tongue and cheek representation of running a healthcare system, it’ll keep you playing just as long as any hearty Simming session. 

Cities: Skylines

Developer: Colossal Order
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

Who doesn’t love being able to decide the fate of Sims? Whether you want to help them fulfil their dreams, or be the cause of their untimely demise by trapping them in a pool or setting a stove on fire, having all the power is what makes it so much fun. If this is why you love to get stuck into the Sims world, Paradox’s Cities: Skylines will feed your desire to be a virtual god even more. Instead of just managing a household, you manage an entire city, with all manner of ways to help it thrive or cause chaos. And if building and designing is your bag, you’ll be glad to know you get to design and build up your city however you wish. All jokes aside, if you thought managing a big family household or town was a challenge, managing a city takes it to a whole other level. Contending with natural disasters, pollution, and traffic jams are just some the problems a city can encounter, and you can deal with it in whatever way you want.  

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Developer: Nintendo
Platforms: Nintendo Switch

We waited so long for Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and it was worth every second. The game doesn’t just let you build and decorate your own home, but a whole island. All the best features are there – designing your own clothes, sending letters and gifts to friends, and collecting adorable home furnishings – but now you can also travel to other islands courtesy of Dodo Airlines, and even indulge in a spot of terraforming to create ponds, rivers, and cliffs wherever you want.  Its never-ending gameplay loop of fishing, catching bugs, improving your home, and making friends with an ever-increasing cast of quirky critters is incredibly comforting, and if you’re looking for thrills there are always tarantulas to stalk and the turnip stock market to play.

Yonder: The Cloud Catcher Chronicles

Developer: Prideful Sloth
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

Ever wondered what lies beyond a Sim’s town? If you long for something with more exploration, Yonder’s world of Gemea might just be for you. In the shoes of a hero, the gentle open-world RPG lets you explore all that Gemea has to offer at your own pace. With some similar elements to the Sims – such as different jobs and skills to try out, tons of character customisations options, residents to meet, and friends to make – it’s a great option for anyone who’s are after a more laid-back experience. Those who loved befriending animals in the Sims Pets will undoubtedly enjoy befriending and adopting Yonder’s adorable creatures. And if you want to take a break from exploring, you can build up your very own farms across the various different landscapes – from tropical beaches to forested areas.  

Fantasy Life

Developer: Level-5
Platforms: Nintendo 3DS

While it’s a little older than most on our list, Fantasy Life is one of the best 3DS offerings that’s in a similar vein. As the title suggest, it’s essentially like a fantasy version of the Sims where you can create and customize your own character and take on any one of the 12 lifestyles with different occupations. With everything from being a paladin to a tailor or chef, it lets you live a life of your own making. Alongside crafting, decorating your home, having pets, befriending the neighbors and potentially getting married, there’s a lot of cutesy fantasy fun on offer. 

Jurassic World Evolution 

Developer: Frontier Developments
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

No one ever said you couldn’t swap the Sims with dinosaurs, right? Jurassic World Evolution is a dinosaur theme park management sim that lets you unleash your designer streak by creating your very own park from scratch. You then manage and maintain the park, and make sure the T-Rex you just added doesn’t get break free and starting snacking on your visitors. Keeping your dinosaurs secure and your park visitors happy isn’t always the easiest task, but seeing a theme park of your own making rack in the big bucks and operate smoothly is just as satisfying as running a happy household. With lots of nods to the Jurassic series, and a great look and feel, this is a slightly different kind of sim that will bring out the budding dino park manager in you. 

Graveyard Keeper 

Developer: Lazy Bear Games
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

Where there is a life sim, death will inevitably follow. If you’re after something a bit darker in tone and a lot more morbid, Graveyard Keeper will hit all the right notes. Just as Death appears in the shape of the grim reaper in the Sims, here death becomes a prominent part of your livelihood as you become the new manager of a graveyard in a medieval town. You can even design the layout of the graveyard and craft items to help you please the locals and make life in the medieval world a bit easier. The darker side doesn’t just stem from the element of death though – plenty of questionable decisions will pop along the way that will make the choices you make in the Sims seem like a piece of cake. 

House Flipper

Developer: Frozen District
Platforms: Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, PS5, PC, Nintendo Switch

The Sims 4 truly perfected the house building system into a game of its own. Spending a good chunk of time creating a giant mansion plucked straight out of your imagination is incredibly satisfying and enjoyable. If building up towns and decorating homes is the main draw for you, House Flipper is the answer to all your prayers. Empyrean’s realistic house renovation sim lets you buy rundown houses off the market and fix up them to make a healthy profit from your efforts. Transforming a grimy, cockroach-infested kitchen into a sparkling, beautifully designed cooking haven makes you feel like a true DIY champion. All in first-person with some very fun building mechanics, you can let your creative juices flow and give some neglected houses a new lease of life in any style you want. 

Looking for more suggestions? Be sure to check out our list of games like Stardew Valley. 

The post 10 games like The Sims 4 appeared first on Game News.

We’ve rounded up all of Spidey’s big-screen adventures below to bring you the best Spider-Man movies ever, ranked from the worst to the greatest. That means we’ve got the Maguire, Andrew Garfield, and Tom Holland movies below, though we’re still waiting for Spider-Man: No Way Home to arrive…

To be clear, we’ve only included movies that are solely about Spider-Man on our list, so the likes of Civil War and Endgame are disqualified (even if they are very good). So, scroll on to check out the very best Spider-Man movies ever.

9. Amazing Spider-Man 2

Scraping the bottom of the Spidey barrel is Amazing Spider-Man 2, a movie that takes a solid (if unspectacular) prior movie and undoes all the goodwill built towards the rebooted series by making a flurry of baffling character choices.

Jamie Foxx’s Electro is played for laughs and, as such, never quite stacks up against Andrew Garfield’s webhead. Their showdown ultimately fizzles out into nothing more than an anti-climactic power struggle. 

The inclusion of the Green Goblin, meanwhile, does lead to Gwen Stacy’s heart-wrenching death. Yet Spidey’s nemesis never quite earns his place as a top-tier villain thanks to some rushed storytelling and a tendency for the script to skip over most of his motivations. Amazing Spider-Man 2 is instead content with a general hand-wave towards the Raimi trilogy, which made far better use of the source material.

8. Spider-Man 3

Where did it all go wrong? Spider-Man 3 (opens in new tab) should have seen Sam Raimi’s trilogy go out in a blaze of symbiotic glory. Instead, it reads a case study into how too many supervillains can spoil a previously finely-poised Big Apple broth.

Sandman, Venom, and James Franco’s Green Goblin all lack their own spotlight with the movie being far more concerned with hammering home Peter Parker’s internal conflict and dark suited shenanigans instead.

Yes, Tobey Maguire’s ill-fated emo phase on-screen is now played for laughs, but it’s proof that Spider-Man 3 doesn’t know what tone it should strike: it aims to be a goofball comedy, a character study about the fine line between good or evil, and an explosive end to a fantastic trilogy. It succeeds at none of those things.

7. Amazing Spider-Man

Despite Andrew Garfield’s best-in-class portrayal of Peter Parker, the first Amazing Spider-Man never quite soars to the heights of two-thirds of Rami’s trilogy. Garfield’s Parker fizzes with teenage angst opposite Emma Stone’s Gwen Stacy, making for a refreshing change of pace after the MJ/Pete drama that muddled its way through all three of Raimi’s movie. Yet, it’s mired by an utterly forgettable villain in the shape of Rhys Ifans, who plays Curt Connors/The Lizard.

It’s not bad, but it’s not particularly good either. Amazing Spider-Man is about as much of a cookie-cutter, middle-of-the-road offering as you can get from Spidey. Understandably safe given the backlash to Spider-Man 3, though it’s far outclassed by the vast majority of its more stylish, swaggering peers.

6. Spider-Man: Far From Home

We’re getting into the good stuff. Spider-Man: Far From Home excels thanks to fresh new surroundings, plus Jake Gyllenhaal’s terrific performance as Mysterio. Director Jon Watts manages to stealthily introduce a genuinely funny European vacation movie into the MCU and have it masquerade as a superhero movie. It shouldn’t work, but it absolutely does. You end up caring more about certain periphery characters and, therefore, Peter’s duty to protect them. There’s even scope for some of the best use of CGI in the series. 

It doesn’t quite break free of the specter of RDJ, who still casts a long shadow over this movie post-Avengers: Endgame. Still, it’s a genuinely thrilling affair – and one that comes bundled with the best cliffhanger in MCU history.

5. Spider-Man: No Way Home

Spider-Man: No Way Home brings together three generations of Spider-Man movies, bringing villains from both Garfield’s and Maguire’s universes into the MCU through the power of the multiverse. The result is a movie that has incredible highs for Spider-Man fans, there being plenty of Spider-Man: No Way Home Easter eggs throughout, and while the plot is slightly ropey in places, the sheer charisma of Tom Holland holds everything together. 

No Way Home is also one of the more emotional Spider-Man movies – not always a blast of fun, but takes time to deliver some sadder moments that really see Peter Parker at his lowest. Plus, the ending sets Spider-Man on a new path, and one that could be incredibly exciting – read more about our spoiler-filled thoughts on the Spider-Man: No Way Home ending here.

4. Spider-Man: Homecoming

Tom Holland’s debut MCU standalone flick does away from the past ills of Garfield’s movies – it’s got an actually entertaining villain in Michael Keaton’s Vulture, for one thing – and delivers a breezy affair that easily convinced audiences that the franchise was in safe hands with Holland behind the mask.

Tony Stark makes for a meaningful surrogate Uncle Ben figure, and the high-school shenanigans of Peter, Ned, and MJ are fun, making Spider-Man: Homecoming a truly confident, assured effort. The highlight? It has to be Pete’s skin-crawlingly awkward night with Liz, all while her supervillain daddy tries to uncover her doting date’s secret identity.

3. Spider-Man

To understand the quality of Spider-Man, you have to take stock of what came before it. Prior to Tobey Maguire putting on the webbed suit, only X-Men and the original Batman could stake a claim to having put out a worthwhile superhero movie. Spider-Man blows them all out of the water.

It’s at once both funny and heartfelt, while also a gripping origin story. Plus, any movie that can feasibly introduce Randy Savage as a larger-than-life character (he played Spidey’s wrestling opponent Bonesaw McGraw) gets two big thumbs up. 

It set the template for years to come and, whisper it, the MCU still hasn’t created a dynamic as compelling as the ones between Maguire’s Peter Parker, Kirsten Dunst’s MJ, and the outstandingly cheesy Willem Dafoe as Norman Osborn/The Green Goblin.

2. Spider-Man 2

For the longest time, Spider-Man 2 (opens in new tab) was the cream of the Spidey crop. And it’s easy to see why. The movie’s breakneck pace never slows, even when it has to factor in a Doc Ock origin story. Alfred Molina glowers and menaces his way through a thrilling final act that ranks right up there among the very best in action cinema.

It also features scenes that are still timeless today, such as when Peter loses his mask and is carried through a crowd or New Yorkers. Spider-Man 2 effectively juggles Parker’s own self-doubts, a brooding Harry Osborn, and a will they/won’t they relationship tug-of-war with MJ in a way that Spider-Man 3 could only dream of – all without missing a beat.

1. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (opens in new tab) isn’t just the best Spider-Man movie. It’s cool. It’s daring. It’s essential. It’s a fashion statement for those who were told superhero movies were for sad acts and shut outs. It flaunts its minority status and wears it as a badge of pride like no other movie that has come before. And all while weaving in a wonderful story about what it means to grow up as an outsider.

Miles Morales has done the impossible and potentially usurped Peter Parker as the friendly neighbourhood Spider-Man. He’s delightfully awkward, but still carries with him a charm that makes him bounce off the other Spiders with complete ease. It helps that each Spider-Man from the multiverse gets a chance to shine – even Nic Cage – and the kinetic ground-breaking animation lends itself to an energetic, ensemble-led affair that never once lets up.

When the dust finally settles on the superhero craze, Into the Spider-Verse will be held up as one of the genre’s shining beacons. It’s a movie that has you smiling all the way through. That is if you’re not too busy bopping along to its tune-laden soundtrack and effortless sense of style.

Spidey isn’t the only show in town. Here are some of the best superhero movies (opens in new tab) to ever swing from the rooftops and leap tall buildings in a single bound.

The post Best Spider-Man movies ranked, from No Way Home to Spider-Verse appeared first on Game News.

As a result, we’ve been treated to some truly jaw-dropping video game openings in our time, from the quiet profundities of Firewatch (opens in new tab) to the tear-jearking, heart-stopping pre-credits sequence of The Last of Us (opens in new tab). 

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Dialogue Options | What games subverted our expectations? (opens in new tab)

Equally, there’s plenty of video game openings that drop the ball, presenting lethargic tutorials wrapped up in lengthy cutscenes that refuse to give the player the promise of agency and freedom that they may have been offering on the box (why hello there, Assassin’s Creed 3 (opens in new tab)).

With that in mind, what makes a good video game opening… well, good? Is it the storytelling, the gameplay, the subversive design, or all of the above? And why do they sometimes struggle to invest us in their worlds, even after hours of introductory tutorials? 

Video Editor Ellen Causey, News Editor Ben Tyrer, and Features Writer Alex Avard are discussing exactly that in this week’s episode of Dialogue Options, exploring the games with the opening sequences that left the biggest impact on us from the start, along with the ones that we can’t forget for all the wrong reasons… 

Be warned, the following video, which can be seen above or found here on YouTube, does contain minor spoilers for The Last of Us, Spider-Man PS4 (opens in new tab), Firewatch, Life is Strange 2 (opens in new tab), Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, God of War (opens in new tab), and Horizon: Zero Dawn (opens in new tab).

For more on GamesRadar+, why not check out the biggest new games of 2020 on the way? 

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It’s quite a conundrum. Let’s look at the data: last year, a 1TB PS4 with a game (Marvel’s Spider-Man (opens in new tab), which is considered quite good) dropped to $199 on Amazon. Add Horizon Zero Dawn (opens in new tab): Complete Edition (also riding high in the review scores) and you would have paid $250, which at the time was a fine bargain. That same console without the games is currently retailing for $289 on the same site (last year it was $299 in October), so we could see similar prices, or perhaps even $10 lower, this year. It’s perhaps better to buy a second game separately this year, however, as Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition is now part of PlayStation Hits, and goes for $20 or less, making the $50 premium for it look poor value in 2019.

Get ready

Cyber Monday game deals (opens in new tab): what to expect, and when to buy

Other PlayStation Hits games you can pick up for a snip with your new console include Uncharted 4 (and the Nathan Drake Collection too), The Last of Us Remastered, Metal Gear Solid 5 Definitive, Yakuza 0, Destiny 2, and Bloodborne. Just three of those, which all reviewed well, would provide a bonanza of gaming if you’re new to the PlayStation 4.

We don’t recommend getting a PS4 with a 500GB hard drive if you see one still being offered. No doubt it will be reasonably priced, and might do if you’re a light user, but the sheer amount of data that games and system updates like to store on the internal drive means you’ll be fishing around for a PS4 external hard drive (opens in new tab) pretty soon after you start using the console. Having 1TB of storage from the start means you’ll be able to go for longer, and play more games, before you need to make the soul-crushing decision of what to delete to make way for something new. The only real exception here is if you’re just looking to play a couple of games on the console, like FIFA 20 (opens in new tab) and COD: Modern Warfare (opens in new tab), for example – if so, then 500GB will probably be ok for you.

Time to go Pro?

Up until now we’ve concentrated on the PS4 Slim, which is essentially the same PS4 model that launched in 2013, just in a swanky new smaller casing. It took just over three years for the PS4 Pro to appear, an upgraded model with faster and bigger bits inside that allow it to run games at a higher resolution (4K), and slightly more efficiently, than its older brother. It’s worth mentioning that a PS4 Pro is probably only worth getting if you have the TV to make the most of it – while it will work perfectly well with a ten-year-old 1080p LCD, you might as well save money and go with the PS4 Slim. Those whose eyes gaze upon 4K HDR models, however, will definitely benefit from the increased resolution and performance on offer. The Pro also comes with a 1TB HDD as standard.  If you plan on upgrading your screen in the future, with one of those handy Cyber Monday TV deals (opens in new tab),  it might be worth considering the Pro now so you have something to show off when the new screen arrives.

A PS4 Pro 1TB is $379 right now on Amazon. It wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that to drop to $299, and perhaps to have a game bundled with it too. We didn’t see significant drops on the Pro last year, but that was because Sony teamed up to offer a Pro+Red Dead 2 bundle, which was popular enough to sell at full price. Rumours persist of a Game of the Year Edition of Marvel’s Spider-Man, which would be worth looking into if you haven’t already played it. FIFA 20 is a persistent bundled game – the number seen on shelves in second hand stores is testament to this – but also look out for God of War (opens in new tab), Borderlands 3 (opens in new tab), Resident Evil 2, and The Witcher 3.

Most PS4 games get some sort of upgrade when slotted into a Pro, but not all are created equal. Look out for GT Sport (another frequent bundle choice), Red Dead Redemption 2 (opens in new tab), Wipeout Omega Collection, Hellblade, Hitman, and Final Fantasy 15 to see what 4K HDR gaming is all about. 

The final thing to consider is PSVR. You could easily pick up a PS4 Slim and a VR headset for the price of a PS4 Pro this Black Friday. If your TV isn’t up to the PS4 Pro’s pixel-pushing prowess, the PSVR is a great way to experience a new facet of gaming, even if you do look a bit of a noodle using it. PSVR is no longer limited to bespoke experiences, with big-name games now coming tailored for the immersive thrills of virtual reality. VR games worth checking out include Doom VFR, Borderlands 2 VR, No Man’s Sky, Tetris Effect, Superhot VR, and Resident Evil 7. You’ll find them heavily featured in Cyber Monday PlayStation VR (opens in new tab) offers.

If you can’t be bothered to trawl through the Cyber Monday sales, here are some of the best PS4 deals around right now.

PS4 Slim deals

PS4 Pro deals

The post PS4 Pro or PS4 Slim: which should you buy during this years Cyber Monday sales? appeared first on Game News.

Every Football Manager story starts somewhere. How will yours end? #FM20 #CreateTheFuture Find out now: https://t.co/iwmpHojNV5 pic.twitter.com/WCSVs9cs94October 29, 2019

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The Sports Interactive office in Stratford, East London, is an absolute haven for a football fan like myself. Historic shirts signed by legendary players are framed across almost every wall, numerous TVs are mounted in corners with 24/7 Sky Sports News showing the latest football gossip and transfers, and a bookshelf towards the back has countless reads on tactics and theories around the beautiful game. Step into Miles Jacobson’s office, and you’re presented with a similar display, although one item did immediately stand out against the stacks of football memorabilia; a huge, soft Pikachu toy sat in the corner.

“I’ve always been a Pokemon fan,” Miles explained. “I’ve always been an RPG fan. And Pikachu is lovely! Look at him; it’s little Pikachu! He’s also Watford colours, which helps.” Miles’ love for Watford FC is no secret; he hasn’t missed a game in two years, although he tells me the upcoming match against Everton in the cup may be off the table as Sports Interactive enters the final few weeks of production before Football Manager 2020 (opens in new tab) launches.

Football Manager is an RPG

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Football Manager isn’t like other games, in that anyone who doesn’t already play it will likely fail to see the appeal whatsoever – it does, after all, look like a collection of colourful spreadsheets. So I’m curious to learn about how the team takes inspiration from other titles, if at all. Thankfully, Miles doesn’t look at me like I’m talking nonsense when I enquire about whether Pokemon influences Football Manager, as absurd as the concept may seem on its surface.

“For at least 15 minutes every day, I’m playing Pokemon Go. So that’s 15 minutes I’m not playing [or working on] FM. FM is an RPG, but you’re playing yourself. So we are an RPG that doesn’t have a defined story, but it allows the user to create their own story because every game is different. As soon as you press the Continue button, your game is different.”

“A lot of people don’t realise that it’s always been an RPG; they think of it as this management simulation. But there are quite a lot of books that people have released, and lots of blogs of people who have released their Football Manager stories, and what’s gone on in their career, because every story is unique. I don’t want to define how people play the game, but if you think about any of the footballers in the game, you’re interacting with them regularly. Every decision you make affects their career as well.”

Forging unique stories

If you’ve played a Football Manager game before, you’ll know just how important those unique stories are to play. One of my personal favourites from my time with Football Manager 2019 came just a few seasons after joining Aston Villa and steering them back up to the Premier League; in a moment of madness, I decided to sign French striker Jean-Kevin Augustin from RB Leipzig. In his first season, he scored 34 goals in 33 league games, taking the golden boot, before going on to become one of the most prolific strikers the Villans had ever seen. In a case of life imitating fiction, Augustin was even linked to Villa before eventually moving on loan to AS Monaco in September 2019, showing just how accurate Football Manager can truly be sometimes.

The Football Manager community is full of stories like this. You regularly hear about people who have started following low-tier teams on the other side of the world, only to eventually go out and purchase their shirt with a fictional newgen (a player generated by the game) name on the back. Better still, it isn’t unheard of for Football Manager players to go out and get a real-life job at a football club thanks to their success in the beautiful simulation. 

“Football Manager is a universe,” Miles tells me, considering the community that has built up around his series. “So the fact that people live in that universe and come up with stories, which is why they end up having fake player’s names on the back of their shirts, or start following clubs that they’ve had a good relationship with in the game – it makes me proud, but it doesn’t surprise me, because of the amount of time that people spend playing in that story. The two realities merge. With people getting jobs in real football, that’s been happening for years. People just don’t tend to talk about that.”

“We’re part of the football world. I don’t get surprised by those stories anymore. I love the press they generate, and I love the fact that the bosses of Sega in Japan see those articles, and always email them to me, going, ‘This is good, isn’t it?’ And it’s like, ‘Yeah, it’s great!’ but it’s pretty much day-to-day stuff for us.”

Keeping it fresh for the long-term players

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It’s those players that are willfully dedicating hundreds of hours to single careers that Sports Interactive is targeting with new features in this year’s Football Manager 2020. Your Club Vision is what you’ll be introduced to as soon as you start a new job, which outlines your goals for the next five years, according to what the board thinks you should achieve. The Development Centre is a revamped way of looking at your youth players and planning for the future. Football Manager 2020 is all about keeping the game feeling fresh whether you’re in a simulated 2021 or 2071.

There’s just one issue with that, which is the topic of how Sports Interactive can bring in new players. Football fans who haven’t played Football Manager before aren’t going to suddenly be enticed by the premise of agreeing to a five-year roadmap with a board of directors, but Miles is keen to stress the game can be played however you like, thanks to the new extra staff responsibilities.

Whether you want to go hands-on with absolutely everything, from day-to-day training to renewing youth contracts, or if you only want to dabble in new transfers for the first team and tactics for the big matches, anything is possible. “If you start with one of the bigger clubs that has a director of football, and has a few of these other staff roles, you won’t have to do absolutely everything at the start. You can define what you want to do, and what you want to delegate.”

“I know that it’s daunting when people first boot up the game because there’s so much stuff there to do – if you want to do it. If you don’t want to do it, assign it to your assistant,” Miles continues. “We also still have Football Manager Mobile for people who want something easier to start with, and Football Manager Touch, which is the halfway house and tends to be played by people who don’t have the time to play the full game anymore, because life has taken over, but they still want to play it.”

Tackling Brexit

In Football Manager 2019, when you got far enough into a save – usually after a year or so – Brexit would come and go. It goes without saying that it’s a sensitive subject for most right now, but there were actually three potential outcomes presented to players, each with various combinations and possibilities of specific rules; hard Brexit, soft Brexit, or no Brexit. There was no way to influence it yourself, but if you were unlucky enough to face a hard Brexit, the rules on signing foreign players to British teams would become much stricter.

At one point, it was widely believed that Football Manager had one of the most accurate and in-depth Brexit simulations out there. But how was it developed? Miles explained to me that he couldn’t find any resources for how Britain leaving the EU would affect football, so he spoke to politicians and academics about the scenarios he came up with to work out how probable each one was.

“I then presented all of that data to the government, when we got data back in of how it was affecting people’s games, and put a proposal forward for what should happen post-Brexit for football. We will continue making changes until literally the day that the game comes out for the different scenarios. It’s more a case of what year we think it’s going to happen that needs to be tweaked now, rather than the possibilities of what will happen. Because those haven’t been decided.”

The fastest way to play

Before the PR kicked me out of Miles’ office for taking up too much of his time, there was one more topic I wanted to touch on; Google Stadia. The Internet giant’s new console-hybrid platform has been confirmed to feature Football Manager 2020 as a launch title on November 19, and Sports Interactive hasn’t been shy in suggesting that it will be the fastest way to play the game.

“We have some technology that’s gone into it that was originally designed internally for use by our QA team to be able to play more matches,” Miles explained to me without using too much jargon to keep it on a level that we can all understand and appreciate. “So our matches are one of the most intensive parts of the processing of the game, because every match – even the matches that you aren’t playing – they still simulate the full match. There are eight-time splices per second. Multiply that up to 90 minutes. It’s a lot of splices, a lot of maths, [and] a lot of decisions that get made.”

“What the match accelerator software does, it works in a similar way to Bit Torrent. But rather than an internet connection, it uses computational power. So any spare computational power on any of the PCs on our network will start churning away, doing processes for matches, and running more matches. We’re going to be doing that in Google’s data centres. So the spare capacity in Google’s data centres will mean that other machines in those data centres will be playing matches, and then streaming those to you quicker.”

Stadia isn’t the end goal for Miles though; he tells me he wants the game on as many platforms as possible, from “Virgin shuttles going to the moon” to “every single train in the UK on the back of the seat”. He concedes that it would be slightly too expensive, but pushing Football Manager to as many people as possible is one of his ultimate goals. Which led me to wonder why there has never been a PS4 or Xbox One version of the game…

“The research we did a couple of years ago showed that people tend to play FM in different ways. A lot of people play on their laptops while doing something else. [On console] taking over the living room for the period of time that it takes becomes problematic. I’m certainly not saying we won’t be on Xbox or PlayStation again, but if you look at the kind of platforms that we have been on, they all have elements of portability in some way.”

The dream isn’t over though. Miles concluded the interview by saying that they’ve “had a pretty good breakthrough with both watching on the Switch and Stadia with control pad methodology. So that makes it more probable in the future.”

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“Silence the Whisperers” opens, like so many other Walking Dead episodes, with a soap opera style, low-key musical montage. On this occasion, we catch up with everyone’s beleaguered states of mind at Alexandria and Hilltop to the tune of Gordi’s “Heaven I Know”. Daryl, Michonne, Judith, and AJ are a happy nuclear family (with Carol playing the part of the moody teenager who stays locked up in her room for dinner); Yumiko and Magna are finally consummating their relationship; Lydia still feels like an outcast in her own home; Sadiq’s PTSD refuses to subside; and Ezekiel is on the brink of suicide. 

Oh, and on top of that, a tree that may or may not have been cut down by The Whisperers has destroyed Hilltop’s defenses, leaving the settlement vulnerable to an all-night barrage of Walker herds. 

Episode 4, despite its title, wants you to forget about The Whisperers for a second, and remember that these communities of people are just that: people, each with their own individual fears, desires, needs, and emotional baggage. Everyone’s hurting – a message that is hammered home most surprisingly by Ezekiel’s suicide attempt, which sees one dreadlocked leader being slowly talked down from a ledge by another, Michonne. It’s tough to watch this once iron-willed and gregarious king acting as a shell of his former self but, annoyingly, the scene is mismanaged by the pair sharing an awkward, unearned kiss.

That embrace, which was the talk of The Walking Dead season 10’s Comic-Con trailer, is written off soon after, with the pair admitting it as nothing more than a desperate grasp to feel something on Ezekiel’s part. It’s a moment designed to acknowledge the fact that these characters have been through some of the worst the apocalypse has had to offer, yet the scene feels designed to be a trailer talking-point rather than adding anything meaningful to their stories.

Speaking of characters bound by mutual respect, Lydia and Negan continue to bond over their shared pariah status in Alexandria, culminating in the accidental manslaughter of Margo at the hands of the former Saviour boss, who steps in to rescue Alpha’s disowned daughter from an undue beating. Seeing Negan affectionately calming a terrified Lydia, before horrifyingly realising what he’s done, is easily the episode’s best scene, adding texture to two characters who have been difficult to truly empathise with until now.

More than that, Lydia now has two surrogate father figures to look up to in Daryl and Negan, fleshing out season 10’s ruminations on parenthood and generational tensions. In any case, I’m fully on board with Team Negan at this point, and I hope his upcoming trial at Alexandria can officiate his full retribution in the eyes of both the show’s on-screen characters and its long-term audience.

Yet, all of these moments are mildly interesting pieces of flotsam caught amidst a stagnant stream of inconsequential fluff. The entire siege scene at Hilltop falls flat, not least because it suffers from the kind of poor lighting that infamously ruined Game of Thrones season 8’s most ambitious battle scenes. Not only does it scream of meaningless filler, but the pacing of the sequence fluctuates preposterously, interspersed throughout the episode without the needed context explaining where it’s situated in the overall timeline. Then, suddenly, it’s resolved off-screen without little fanfare.

You have to ask, what was the point of this entire sequence, other than to once again leave our characters questioning whether The Whisperers are playing a cruel game of shock and awe? Whatever the aim, it’s hard to argue The Walking Dead achieved anything that’s left the show better off. The episode ends with Michonne, Judith, and Luke riding off to Oceanside while Daryl begins the hunt for a now missing Negan, setting up the threads for the next few episodes. Unfortunately, I can’t say I’m excited.

For more, check out our full Walking Dead recap (opens in new tab) to catch up before season 10, or watch below for our guide to everything else worth checking out right now. 

The post The Walking Dead season 10 episode 4 review & recap: “Inconsequential siege makes for meaningless filler” appeared first on Game News.

This is (almost) the premise of Hogwash: a brand new game that’s about to join the Apple Arcade line-up from the crew at Bossa Studios. Unlike Untitled Goose Game, created by developer House House, it’s an asymmetrical multiplayer game that similarly lets you embrace your rebellious animal side – now with friends! 

It’s a 3v1 multiplayer affair, where one of you has to play as a farmhand, while the others get the distinct pleasure of rolling around in the mud as one of three cheeky piglets. Their sole task is to get key items on the farm as muddy as possible. Instead of any kind of weapons, you literally just have to leg it around the farm rolling in as many muddy puddles as you can, effectively charging up your piglet with as much mud as possible. 

Then it’s a case of strategically planning with your piggy pals which of the farm buildings you’re going to muddy up first by shaking the dirt from your body as soon as you get into its vicinity. The big advertising sign? The tractor? The brilliantly white, fluffy sheep? Or are you going to go for the big time – the farmhouse itself? Handily, you can get extra mud by charging through the vegetables scattered around the farm, causing additional chaos as you scoot away from the grasp of the farmhand. 

The farmhand, on the other hand, is all about trying to keep things clean, and – if possible – hogtying the little pig devils. If you manage to stop the pigs from dirtying either all of the farmhouse, or all the other three targets, you win. And the same goes if you hogtie all three pigs before the timer runs out. 

Happy as a pig

The resulting five or so minute-long match is a chaotic scramble to keep yourself up to the eyeballs in mud if you’re a pig, or sprinting across the map to protect your livelihood if you’re the farmhand. Pigs can ping an item to coordinate their mischief efforts, which is kept hidden from the farmhand, and makes it a much more tactical affair. And yes, I realise I’m saying this about a game about dirty piggies. 

But, it’s the pure glee in the squeals that emit from the mouths of the pigs that make this game so akin to the antics of our aforementioned favourite goose. There’s a playfulness and quirkiness in ditching guns for mud, as Splatoon has done with ink, that really sets this multiplayer apart from the rest. Plus, because it’s an Apple Arcade title, it helps that it’s super family-friendly. I found myself chuckling away at the chaos of it all as much as I was getting stressed at just how easy it is to end up with rope around your trotters. 

For a service that includes so many wonderful titles, there’s a certain multiplayer element missing from Apple Arcade. This is quick to jump into, delightfully adorable, and can be played solo, online or with your family and friends on the couch. If you’re craving more cheeky animal game antics, you need Hogwash in your life. 

Until you can play Hogwash for yourself, why not check out our pick of the best Apple Arcade games (opens in new tab) right now?

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 That relationship between The Whisperer leader and her second-in-command is the driving force of episode 2, as we flashback seven years earlier to discover how the pair first met. Interestingly, the show deviates heavily from the comics, presenting Beta, not as a celebrity turned psychopath, but a tormented hermit whose run-in with Alpha and Lydia forces him to abandon the last remnants of his own humanity. 

The creepy but electrifying chemistry between “A” and “B”, to use the names they first adopt for each other, is brought wonderfully into focus by Samantha Morton and Ryan Hurst’s performances, together portraying a duo who seem to understand each other on an innate, primordial level. 

Just as Alpha forces Beta to let go of his past (namely by killing his zombified friend/lover and ripping his face off for headwear), so too does Beta confront his leader when it’s discovered she’s still yearning for Lydia’s return in the present day. The dynamic makes for compelling viewing as the pair continually push each other beyond the boundaries of their human nature, especially as the show still refuses to confirm whether the relationship is a purely platonic one, or something more. 

Unfortunately, the rest of “We are the End of the World” isn’t quite so engaging. The present-day scenes, in which we’re introduced to new Whisperer sisters Gamma (Thora Birch) and Frances (Juliet Brett), adds little to the story other than bringing the cult’s state of affairs in line with Alpha’s sudden appearance at the end of the season 10 premiere. 

The Walking Dead wants us to care about Frances and her trauma (we learn that she was the Whisperer who gave up her baby in season 9), but it’s hard to empathise with a character who’s given fleeting screen time – and even harder so when her face is covered by a decaying flesh mask for the majority of it. 

And while I’m interested to see how Gamma will evolve as a character over the course of the season (especially after throwing her sister under a herd of Walkers to save Alpha), it’s hard to connect with the woman behind the mask right now. We need to see more of an actual personality if The Walking Dead wants us to invest in the Whisperer’s new third-in-command going forward.  

In better news, this second episode featured some of the goriest moments seen in the show since Negan took a baseball bat to Glen and Abraham. The opening moments, in which a woman’s cacophonous screams are heard through Lydia’s noise-muffling headphones as Walkers eat her alive, make for stark viewing, while Beta’s WWE-style tussles against a group of Walkers – smashing their heads against the wall as though they were overripe melons – leaves no doubt about the raw, muscular power of this towering giant. 

We often forget how capable The Walking Dead is when it comes to on-screen violence but, as displayed here and countless times before, the presentation of the gore is always handled effectively in the context of its presentation. 

Yet “We are the End of the World” stretches a threadbare story over its 42-minute runtime, undermining the episode’s pace and value as an addition to season 10. That’s not say its exploration of Alpha and Beta’s origin story doesn’t contain a number of important and entertaining scenes, but these moments are interspersed amongst a Whisperer focused romp that’s about as inert as the group’s meandering shuffles amongst the dead. 

The Walking Dead airs weekly on AMC in the United States and Fox in the UK.

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