Man of Steel Plot Details Revealed

With Comic-Con fast approaching, director Zack Snyder will no doubt have plenty of Man of Steel goodness to showcase in San Diego. Until then, Warner Bros.' Superman reboot has been held under lock and key, with only a logo and the promotional image below to whet our appetites.

However, /Film reports that an update to the official IMAX website -- a posting which has already been removed -- has revealed two very important bits of information: one, the film will be in both 3D and IMAX (obviously); and two, we've also been given a new plot synopsis:

"In the pantheon of superheroes, Superman is the most recognized and revered character of all time. Clark Kent/Kal-El (Henry Cavill) is a young twenty-something journalist who feels alienated by powers beyond his imagination. Transported years ago to Earth from Krypton, a highly advanced, distant planet, Clark struggles with the ultimate question ‘Why am I here?’ Shaped by the values of his adoptive parents Martha (Diane Lane) and Jonathan Kent (Kevin Costner), Clark discovers having extraordinary abilities means making difficult decisions. When the world is in dire need of stability, an even greater threat emerges. Clark must become a Man of Steel, to protect the people he loves and shine as the world’s beacon of hope -- Superman."

Still a little vague, yes, but it does give us a general sense of what's to come. Also, since Man of Steel was not shot using IMAX cameras; the movie will be DMR up-converted for the final release.

Man of Steel is scheduled to hit theaters on June 14, 2013.

Source : ign[dot]com

PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale preview

Last week in California, Sony hosted an event to showcase some of its bigger games for 2012.  Among them was a title that’s been rumored for a long time; one that’s been leaked in several places and somewhat confirmed with the securing of several domain names — PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale.  The company gave us the opportunity to go hands on with the game and the initial six fighters it will include.

Now, before you go off on any sort of “hey, this looks like Smash Bros.!” tangent, yes, it’s true.  PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale is essentially Sony’s equivalent of Nintendo’s multiplayer fighting game.  However, the newly formed development team at Superbot has done a good job making it feel like its own little party, adding certain things to the engine and making familiar characters from the PlayStation universe fit right in to the battle.

The first six characters are an interesting bunch.  You’ve got Fat Princess, a character who’s a better melee fighter than you might expect; Sly Cooper, who’s good on both speed and quick attacks; Twisted Metal’s Sweet Tooth, a guy that’s handy with a hatchet and mines; Kratos from God of War, a character who kicks ass on the ground and in the air; Parappa the Rapper, who has a few good moves along with several great super attacks; and Killzone’s General Radec, who’s nasty from a distance with an assault rifle.  All six bring something to the game, and over the next few months, several additions will be announced, including rumored favorites like Ratchet and Clank, Sackboy and Nathan Drake.

As for the gameplay, it’s got a lot in common with Smash.  You’ve got your various attacks that you can use on opponents, and they can change up depending on which direction you’re holding the D-pad or analog stick, so you can easily juggle someone in the air or lay them out with a vicious ground attack.  Once you hit an opponent enough times, you’ll be able to hit them with a super technique.  You can build this up three times — level one through level three — and the higher the super, the more enemies you can take out.

For instance, level one attacks consist of a quick strike, like what Sweet Tooth or Kratos can do with their weapons.  Level two offers a better range for taking out enemies, like with Parappa jumping on a skateboard and running people over.  Level three attacks go all out, from Parappa’s slamming stage attack to Radec jumping behind the camera and mounting a gun in a first-person perspective, shooting everything that moves.  Sweet Tooth’s robotic transformation is awesome as well.

An interesting fact about PlayStation All Stars Battle Royale is that you can’t knock anyone out of the ring.  They can’t fall off a platform to their death (like in Smash), nor can they be knocked into the stratosphere for instant kills.  Here, you have to fight in order to win the match.  It’s an interesting perk, along with the ability to pick up weapons throughout each battle, such as Resistance’s spiky grenades and a laser spear.

The backgrounds mix up quite a bit throughout the game.  So far, we know of four — a LittleBigPlanet level, a Hades stage, Ratchet and Clank’s Metropolis, and Jak and Daxter’s village.  Each one changes quite vastly, with serpents popping up in Metropolis to give Captain Qwark a hard time, and the LBP stage suddenly converting into a Buzz! TV show, complete with questions in-between rounds.  (You need to stand on the right answers to avoid taking damage.)  These are splendid additions to the game and keeps things unpredictable enough so you’ll continue to move around.  Our favorite of the bunch so far is Hades, as he tries to pound enemies in the foreground before becoming surrounded by Patapon.  Yes, Patapon.

So far, Sony has only confirmed local multiplayer (up to four people) for All Stars, but come on.  They’re going to announce online play soon enough, as that’s one of Smash Bros.’ more popular features on the Wii.  Look for that confirmation around E3, along with a few more surprises.

Source : http://gamezone.com

Gareth Evans Talks The Raid Remake

The Raid director Gareth Evans discussed the future of the franchise at Kapow In London today. During the Momentum Showcase at the Comic Convention, the Welsh director explained his involvement in the American remake, as well as the upcoming sequel.

 

He said the remake would incorporate some changes as the original was, “a movie in a foreign language with a star nobody knew and a director nobody knew.”  It won’t be anything too drastic though, as Evans is on board as executive producer and the Indonesian star of the first film, Iko Uwais, will be choreographing the action.

 

While fans may be sad not to see him at the helm for the remake, he said he felt it was important that he stood back.  He explained, “I’m not remaking it myself.  My approach is to be hands off; in order for them to do the job properly they need to be given freedom.”

 

The good news is that this leaves Evans free to focus on getting the Indonesian sequel underway.  When The Raid was still in script form, Evans was primarily focused on another project called Berandal.  After seeing how well people responded to The Raid, he decided that with a small rewrite (“about 15 per cent”) Berandal could serve as a sequel.

 

He’s now planning a full trilogy and shared today that *SPOILER* Mad Dog will be reappearing in the next film, though we’re not sure in what capacity.  With filming due to start January 2013, he said he felt hopeful about releasing by “the tail end of next year.”

 

Finally, with the American remake underway, Evans was asked how he’s coping with the influx of Hollywood offers.  He said that he hasn’t received any, putting this down to the level of violence in his films.  He teased, “I make violent movies, so I don’t quite fit the Hollywood mould… yet.  But at the moment I can make smaller films that allow me to do what I want.”

Source : http://www.ign.com/articles/2012/05/19/gareth-evans-talks-the-raid-remake