Life finds a way (Frontier) A new entry in the Jurassic World Evolution series has been announced, with baby dinosaurs and the return of Jeff Goldblum. While there have been plenty of games based on Jurassic Park over the years, the best is easily its […]
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FilmMartin Scorsese has opened up about making one of his most iconic films, confessing that it actually has ‘no plot’. The acclaimed director helmed 1995 crime drama Casino, starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Sharon Stone, Don Rickles and Frank Vincent, following mobster Sam ‘Ace’ […]
FilmAre we going back to Kratos’ youth? (Sony Interactive Entertainment) Sony will launch a God Of War ‘side story’ in 2025, according to a source, as the series looks set to return to Ancient Greece. The future of God Of War was left on an […]
GamingSony will launch a God Of War ‘side story’ in 2025, according to a source, as the series looks set to return to Ancient Greece.
The future of God Of War was left on an open-ended note after God Of War Ragnarök and its Valhalla DLC, with no clear indication of what could come next.
The ending of God Of War Ragnarök left open the possibility of a separate adventure led by Atreus, with rumours of a half-sequel, but other possibilities have also been suggested, like a pivot to Ancient Egypt or a return to Ancient Greece with a young Kratos.
A new rumour has given further credence to the latter, claiming that a new game set in Greece will launch this year.
The news comes from notable insider Jeff Grubb, who posted an update on Bluesky after God Of War’s 20th anniversary went by without any news of a new game, or the rumoured remastered collection of the original trilogy.
Returning to his own post about the rumours of a remastered collection, Grubb wrote: ‘Everyone keeps asking about this, so I’ve tried to find out more: there’s still a Greek God Of War thing coming out this year, but it’s not a remaster collection. It’s a new side story project.’
He added: ‘I was never told about a remaster collection, but I asked a source about the rumours (that I saw were focused on a collection) and they told me that nothing God Of War would happen at the State Of Play but something could show up at the anniversary.’
OK. Everyone keeps asking about this, so I've tried to find out more: There's still a Greek God of War thing coming out this year, but it's not a remaster collection. It's a new side-story project.
In the replies to the post, Grubb clarifed this project is a ‘video game’ which is ‘separate’ to God Of War Ragnarök, so it won’t be additional DLC. He doesn’t have any information on when it could be announced, but if it is out this year, the next likely possibility is a future State Of Play or during Summer Game Fest in June.
The side story description makes it sound like a standalone spin-off similar to Spider-Man: Miles Morales or Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
The previous rumour around a return to Ancient Greece – the period of the original God Of War trilogy – suggested it would revolve around a ‘younger Kratos’ in a storyline about ‘the relationship with his father’, aka Zeus.
While this new rumour doesn’t make any mention of it being a prequel or involving Kratos at all, it is perhaps the logical assumption, if true.
Kratos’ history has been pretty well covered in various prequels already though, between God Of War: Ascension and 2008 PSP game God Of War: Chains Of Olympus, so it’s difficult to imagine what new ground they could cover.
The jump back to Ancient Greece does make some sort of sense after God Of War Ragnarök’s Valhalla DLC though, which featured multiple callbacks to the Greek trilogy.
Also, a new God Of War project would fill a significant gap in Sony’s 2025 release slate, with only Death Stranding 2: On The Beach and Ghost Of Yōtei confirmed for this year.
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Could the original Switch be getting one last Nintendo Direct to itself? (Nintendo) Two more big name leakers have joined the list of people predicting an unexpected new Nintendo Direct, before next week’s all-important Switch 2 reveal. While everyone is anticipating next week’s Nintendo Direct […]
GamingTwo more big name leakers have joined the list of people predicting an unexpected new Nintendo Direct, before next week’s all-important Switch 2 reveal.
While everyone is anticipating next week’s Nintendo Direct for the Switch 2, new rumours suggest the company has a surprise up its sleeve over the coming days.
Earlier this year, several insiders claimed another Nintendo Direct, dedicated to the original Switch, was planned for February, prior to the Switch 2 blowout on April 2, 2025. This included talk about a Kirby: Planet Robobot remaster and one ‘final big game’ which is yet to be announced, described as a ‘new version of a niche beloved franchise’.
While these rumours were tossed into oblivion after February went by without a peep from Nintendo, multiple sources have now suggested a Switch 1 focused Nintendo Direct could be happening after all.
This latest wave of rumours stems from an insider on Chinese social media site Weibo (via Reddit), who previously leaked details about last year’s Nintendo Direct in June. In a somewhat cryptic post, he appears to suggest a Nintendo Direct dedicated to the Switch will take place on Wednesday, March 26.
While in isolation this could be brushed off as wishful thinking, two other sources have alluded to the same thing. Famiboards user ninspider, who posted accurate drawings of the Switch 2 last year, responded with a wink emoji when asked if a Nintendo Direct is planned for this month.
Similarly, VGC editor Andy Robinson responded with a thinking face to a post on Bluesky which praised Nintendo for ‘not having any more Switch Directs before the big Switch 2 presentation’, implying something might actually be on the cards.
Update: Two more notable leakers have weighed in on the rumours and they both agree that a Nintendo Direct is happening this week. The well regarded NateTheHate claims he’s heard that it will be on or around Thursday but that he’s ‘not 100% certain on the format at present.’
At the same time, PH Brazil has said that his source told him that a Direct would be happening in the last week of March. He was one of those saying there’d be a Direct in February and states he wouldn’t have spoken now out if NateTheHate hadn’t also agreed with the rumours.
Original story continues:
Nintendo usually announces these presentations at least a day in advance, so if it is true, some form of confirmation will likely arrive on Tuesday or Wednesday.
In what may, or may not, be sheer coincidence, these rumours have coincided with new activity around Hollow Knight: Silksong.
Team Cherry’s long-awaited sequel, which was announced six years ago, recently received some minor backend updates on Steam (via SteamDB) related to revised images and a copyright date adjustment from 2019 to 2025.
There were updates to the game’s Steam meta data last year too, which amounted to nothing, but the timing in terms of the alleged Nintendo Direct is interesting.
This also comes after Microsoft mentioned Hollow Knight: Silksong in a blog post earlier this month, alongside games like Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 and FBC: Firebreak, which are both scheduled for this year.
Insider extas1s recently claimed the sequel is planned for June 2025 ‘at the latest’, although he hasn’t been reliable on the subject in the past.
Team Cherry has not announced any release date (or window) for Hollow Knight: Silksong, but the developer did reaffirm the game was ‘real’ and ‘progressing’ in January this year.
Any rumours around the Hollow Knight sequel are hard to take seriously given all the previous ones have come to nothing, but it would certainly be a smart move to launch it around the same time as the Switch 2 – which is also expected to launch in or around June.
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A legendary director with a career spanning five decades has shared how he almost didn’t make his iconic 90s film that wreaked havoc at the Cannes Film Festival.
David Cronenberg is famed for making terrifying and stomach-churning horror films such as The Fly, Dead Ringers, Videodrome, and Crimes Of The Future.
But he originally turned down helming an adaptation of J. G. Ballard’s thriller novel Crash, a film he did eventually make in 1996.
Starring James Spader, Holly Hunter, Rosanna Arquette and Elias Koteas, Crash follows film producer James Ballard (Spader) who, after surviving a car crash, becomes involved with a group of symphorophiliacs who are aroused by car crashes.
Appearing at London Soundtrack Festival alongside longtime collaborator Howard Shore, Cronenberg shared how he initially turned down making Crash into a film.
The director said he was approached by Naked Lunch producer Jeremy Thomas about reading Ballard’s book, but described it as ‘very clinical’, ‘very disturbing’, and ‘not a likeable book.’
‘I said no to making Crash. Then I ran into Thomas at a film event years later – it might have been Toronto Film Festival – and said to him “I think I want to make Crash.” So it must have ruminated in my mind,’ he told press including Metro.
Crash premiered at Cannes Film Festival in May 1996 and polarised audiences, something that Cronenberg used to his advantage.
‘It was Alexander Walker who said “This is a film beyond the bounds of depravity”, which I thought was a great review. I think we quoted it in the marketing.’
He continued: ‘It’s a bit more romantic than the novel… I certainly was seduced by the beauty of my actors and the lighting that Peter Suschitzky did which was phenomenal.’
It received the Special Jury Prize when then-jury president Francis Ford Coppola announced the award ‘for originality, for daring and for audacity.’
Speaking about its controversy, Cronenberg remarked that when the 4K remaster of Crash was shown at the Venice Film Festival in 2019 the ‘very young audience’ was ‘not in the slightest bit scandalised.’
‘When we showed the film at Cannes it was quite scandalous. We had 300 very angry journalists all wanting to attack us. We had to open another room with a separate video feed to accommodate them.
‘At one point after many of them yelled about how depraved it was, there was one guy who stood up, I think he was Norwegian, and he had a different way of attacking the film.
‘He said “I think the film is a complete betrayal of the novel. It’s not the novel.” But Ballard, who was sitting with us, said “Well actually I think the movie is better than the book.” So the guy just sort of had to sit down very slowly.’
Cronenberg’s appearance in London comes ahead of the release of his latest film, The Shrouds, set to be released next month.
Starring Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger and Guy Pearce, the film follows 50-year-old widower Karsh (Cassel), who is inconsolable after the death of his wife Becca (Kruger) and decides to invent GraveTech, a revolutionary and controversial technology to help him stay feeling close to his spouse’s body.
Crash is available to watch on Tubi for free.
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Assassin’s Creed Shadows – what happens next? (Ubisoft) The Monday letters page discusses the most overrated games of recent history, as a reader thinks £5 for Mass Effect Trilogy is disrespectful. To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk What’s next?I’m glad to hear […]
GamingThe Monday letters page discusses the most overrated games of recent history, as a reader thinks £5 for Mass Effect Trilogy is disrespectful.
To join in with the discussions yourself email gamecentral@metro.co.uk
What’s next?
I’m glad to hear that Assassin’s Creed Shadows is selling well, as I’m really enjoying it so far. That’s hopefully good news for Ubisoft in general, given their current trouble, but the obvious problem for them is that they’ve already got a gazillion Assassin’s Creed sequels and spin-offs in the work and as far as I know the one set in Germany during the witch trials is next.
People have been asking for a game set in Japan for years, but I don’t think a game where you play as a black cat was on anybody’s wishlist. I’m not saying it will be bad, that’s not the point I’m trying to make, but it’s not an obvious bestseller and that puts Ubisoft right back in trouble again.
Thing is though I’m not sure what is the next most requested setting? I’ve heard stuff about India and the Azetc era but I don’t know if they’re super anticipated. For a spin though why couldn’t they try setting one in the future? Maybe have it half and half with the ancient past? Something weird like that could be an interesting way to hype a new sequel and try and keep the momentum.
Hoosant
Previously on Half-Life
I’m seeing even more rumours about Half-Life 3 being nearly finished and coming out soon, but I just can’t believe it. How could you even hope to sell something like that to console owners, or even just younger or casual PC owners, who have no idea what the series is and even less about what happened in the last one.
Surely remasters, if not full remakes, with a big marketing campaign are essential to laying the groundwork for Half-Life 3. As I remember, Half-Life 2 only originally came out on the original Xbox, with some Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 ports a few years later – and none of them sold because no one knew or cared about Half-Life 1.
If any company is not going to care about spending money on a vanity project. it’s Valve but why not just do it anyway? I’d like a full fat remake of the two by Valve, especially if they update it with new story and gameplay elements.
Benson
Added extras
Nintendo could charge a tenner for a Switch 2 upgrade to games or provide it free out of the goodness of their own hearts. Alternatively, it could be a new feature of a Nintendo Switch Online subscription.
Either a new tier or bundled in the Expansion Pack, they could offer all upgrades for free when you’re a member. They keep talking about making subscribing appealing to players and giving value and so on. They already have DLC on there, if you keep your subscription, so a 60fps upgrade doesn’t seem too far-fetched.
Euclidian Boxes
GC: Yes, that sounds very plausible.
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Classic pricing
Does anyone else feel kind of bad when they see a great game for ridiculously cheap? I know it’s silly but when I see something like Doom or Mass Effect Trilogy for just a few pounds it seems… disrespectful?
I know what I’m saying, and I don’t consciously agree with it, because it’d be great if all games were that much, but subconsciously it doesn’t sit right. Not when I know how much trash is out there with a £70 price tag on it.
At the end of the day everything is only worth the price people are willing to pay for it and I guess with those two games Bethesda and EA reached the limit of people that were going to pay more than £5 for it. I hope they like them though. The idea of playing the whole of Mass Effect for so little is mind-blowing to me.
LemonZ
Repo man and boy
Just want to give a shout out to a fun new game that I’ve been playing with my son. I know you struggle to cover everything, so if anyone’s looking for a fun co-op with horror vibes then you can do far worse than R.E.P.O.
It’s only on PC (we’re playing it on Steam Deck) at the minute, so not sure if it will make its way to console, but if you have a few friends and are looking to laugh and cry together then check it out.
Chris
GC: The developer is very small and hasn’t said anything about console versions yet.
Netflix of Nintendo
I’ve been enjoying the love for the Nintendo GameCube recently and I hope that it will be a part of the Switch 2 from very early on. Although I don’t understand why it hasn’t been added already, given it’s not a technical issue, or at least I wouldn’t have thought it was.
I really hope that Nintendo has a proper virtual console that is a library of all their games right from the start. Previously, every time they release a new console they start their retro releases from scratch, so it’s the end of a generation before we get everything big and there’s always lots of smaller titles left out that they don’t have time for.
I’m hoping that backwards compatibility means they won’t be able to do this again but the fact that people aren’t buying the games but essentially renting them via Nintendo Switch Online makes me think that we’ll be back to square one again.
At the very least have a PlayStation style platinum tier where you get everything from the start. I know not many would pay for it, but I would. To have every Nintendo game ever in one place would be an amazing thing but Nintendo seems strangely committed to making sure that never happens.
Taylor Moon
Impulse purchase
I’m a massive fan of the first Darkest Dungeon (200+ hours) and it’s taken a while for the second to click but I’m about 60 hours in.
I’ve got the DLC and one of the trophies has a 0.9% completion rate – it isn’t even a difficult trophy! I messaged in a couple of weeks back and you said how most people don’t complete games, but do people even play them?
Simon
GC: It’s quite possible a lot of people buy DLC, because they like the main game, with the intention of playing it but never get round to it.
Overrated list
So, I mailed in a list a few months ago, detailing my ten favourite games of all time. I included titles such as Baldur’s Gate 3 and Silent Hill 2. I’d like to formally discuss another list. My personal opinion of the 10 games I consider to be the most overrated titles.
10. Assassin’s Creed – the one that started it all, but repetitive missions and clunky gameplay serve as a detriment.
9. Fallout 4 – serviceable graphics fail to mask a generic, boring, and repetitive role-player, that’s more of an action game masquerading as a role-playing game.
8. Final Fantasy 16 – the pinnacle of horrendous side missions, bloated content, and the worst role-playing game that I have ever played.
7. Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain – Kojima’s worst game and an embarrassment of a title, that features barren and empty environments. The cherry on top is an unfinished story.
6. Dragon Age: Inquisition – a textbook example of dreadful combat, mundane fetch quests, and boring political intrigue.
5. Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune – the beginning of Nathan Drake’s journey, hasn’t aged well and it is bogged down with awful platforming and below par combat.
4. The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim – adored at launch, this title barely even matches what The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 brought to the table
3. God Of War Ragnarök – tanky enemies, an unfulfilled narrative, and the premise of Ragnarök falling flat. No wonder Elden Ring beat it to Game of the Year.
2. Grand Theft Auto 5 – an abysmal story, more emphasis on the online portion, and restrictive elements. No bowling. Torturing Lazlow is always funny though.
1. The Legend Of Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom – a reused world. No story. No reason to care about Zelda. Link is boring and mute. Sky portion disappoints. Ganondorf is forgettable as a villain. Raphael from Baldur’s Gate 3 is more memorable. Shrines are just as repetitive and stale as Breath Of The Wild.
Shahzaib Sadiq
GC: The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077 came out more than eight years after Skyrim?
Inbox also-rans
I’ve been enjoying Aliens: Dark Descent and just finished XCOM 2 again. I’m about to go back onto Halo Wars which is one of my personal favourites but I’m just curious of your opinion on the game. Did you enjoy it?
Simon
GC: Not very much, no. But Halo Wars 2 is great, with a very good multiplayer – if anyone’s still playing it.
Glad to hear that Assassin’s Creed Shadows has been a hit. I don’t want Ubisoft to go under and I like the game so far. I just hope that doesn’t mean all they’ll make in the future is Assassin’s Creed games.
Wotan
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Atomfall – very British nuclear fallout (Rebellion) Fallout 5 may be a long time coming but the British-made Atomfall offers an interesting alternative, that has plenty of unique ideas of its own. Given there’s still no clue as to when The Elder Scrolls 6 will […]
GamingFallout 5 may be a long time coming but the British-made Atomfall offers an interesting alternative, that has plenty of unique ideas of its own.
Given there’s still no clue as to when The Elder Scrolls 6 will be released, it could be the best part of a decade before we see another Fallout game from Bethesda. The logical thing for them to do is get someone else to make a new game but so far there’s been no sign of that, which means the only alternative is to just play the old games again or look for a spiritual successor.
Although it’s not nearly as similar as it first seems, Atomfall is very clearly attempting to fill that gap. The fan-made Fallout: London is a much more literal homage but a lot of the basics in Atomfall are clearly very similar, given it’s a first person action adventure (but pointedly not a role-player) in which you play a hapless survivor emerging from a bunker to discover a world changed by nuclear disaster.
The difference is that Atomfall is set in the UK during the 1950s and the world hasn’t been destroyed. Instead, a portion of Cumbria has been sealed off, following an accident at what is now the Sellafield nuclear processing site. What results is certainly Fallout-esque but while Atomfall is covered in rough edges, the best parts are surprisingly innovative.
The nuclear disaster at the Windscale nuclear power station is a real thing that happened in 1957, except in Atomfall’s version of reality it was considerably more serious. Although one of the key questions of the game’s plot is whether what’s going on is due purely to the meltdown or if it has triggered some other pre-existing danger.
You certainly have no idea when you start the game as, in true Japanese role-playing style, you wake up with amnesia and have no clue who you are or what’s going on. In the first moments, a badly injured scientist gives you a hacked key to the door of the bunker you’re in, which he promises will open up a much larger complex called the Interchange.
Gaining full access to and reactivating the Interchange is implied to be your overall goal but Atomfall is surprisingly ambiguous as to what you need to do or how you should go about it. This is not a negative but one of the best things about the game.
Atomfall is much closer to Zelda: Breath Of The Wild than it is Fallout, or an even more extreme example like Red Dead Redemption 2 – where every interaction necessary to complete a mission is spelled out for you in patronising detail. Instead, you’re merely given suggestions, including by a mysterious ‘operator’ that keeps ringing you from red telephone boxes when you pass them by.
You’re told to go to a map location and maybe you’ll find the battery you’ll need somewhere near, or to seek out a trader who lives vaguely to the north of your current location. The lack of handholding may irritate some but if you want to take the quickest route through the game it’s all pretty clear and probably won’t take you more than a dozen hours (which could itself be considered a positive, given how frequent 60+ hour epics are getting nowadays).
The most interesting way to play the game is by exploring on your own and stumbling on new locations and characters organically. This often results in what are technically side quests, but you slowly begin to realise – especially if you replay the game, in an attempt to get a different ending – that there’s multiple different ways to approach each problem, both physically and morally.
For example, the scientist at the start of the game wants you to make him a bandage, in what is a thinly disguised crafting tutorial, but you could just kill him and take his key without it being given to you as reward. The game has a Fallout style dialogue system and it’s entirely up to you how you treat people, as you deal with ordinary villagers, the increasingly unhinged military authorities, and a group of Wicker Man style druids.
You can simply kill people if they have something you want but you can also betray their confidence if you feel it suits your needs… or they deserve it. Atomfall isn’t all that impressive in its opening hours but the more you get into it the more you realise that that there’s not only multiple ways to complete a goal but more than one way to get sucked into that element of the story. This becomes particularly obvious towards the end of the game, when you realise how cleverly the game is juggling the various characters and your interactions with them.
All this works great, along with other unusual ideas like a barter system instead of traditional shops, where you have to swap collected or crafted items to get what you want. You can end up with multiple copies of most crafting recipes and weapons, so you have to consider whether some items are better to trade in rather than actually use.
Where the game struggles is in terms of the action, which is odd because Rebellion’s bread and butter is the Sniper Elite series and yet the stealth in Atomfall is much more rudimentary and the combat barely competent. Which is to say the ranged combat (particularly the bow and arrow) is fine, but the melee action is clunky, repetitive, and ruined further by rudimentary AI.
The lack of fast travel is also irritating, especially as there’s a lot of backtracking involved. It’s probably because the game world is actually very small, with four main open world areas that even if they were all put together would still be small compared to most other comparable titles.
Our biggest disappointment with the game though is the script, which gets little value out of the fact that this is a rare big medium budget game set in the UK. The homages to the work of John Wyndham, Nigel Kneale, and other early 20th century British sci-fi writers are mostly superficial, as are the attempts to invoke elements of folk horror – especially given that, although there are sort-of zombies in the game, it never really tries to be scary.
The dialogue and voice-acting is workmanlike at best and if we didn’t know Rebellion were British we’d never have guessed it, given how awkwardly over-the-top all the regional dialects are. Given that, it’s unsurprising that the game doesn’t actually have that much substantial dialogue in it, with the wider plot almost creeping into FromSoftware territory, in terms of what it leaves to your interpretation.
Atomfall is the sort of flawed but interesting game that – more so than the franchises that get them as a matter of routine – desperately needs a sequel, to further explore and refine its various unique ideas. For now, though, it has to be satisfied with being a diamond in the rough, because Atomfall is not just a Fallout surrogate but a genuinely unique open world adventure in its own right.
In Short: An alternative to Fallout rather than a homage, with a more freeform approach to open world gaming that offers more meaningful freedom than many other bigger budget titles.
Pros: Mission structure is impressively open-ended, while still offering enough handholds for those that want it. Character interactions are equally flexible and the bartering system is interesting.
Cons: The script is weak and the melee combat pretty bad. Lack of fast travel is annoying.
Score: 7/10
Formats: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, and PC
Price: £54.99
Publisher: Rebellion
Developer: Rebellion
Release Date: 27th March 2025
Age Rating: 18
*available on Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass from day one
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A horror film has fans amazed they’ve not heard more about it before watching (Picture: Everett/Rex/Shutterstock) A horror film with a near-perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes has been hailed a hidden gem and ‘pure cinematic gold’ from viewers stunned to have not heard of it […]
FilmA horror film with a near-perfect rating on Rotten Tomatoes has been hailed a hidden gem and ‘pure cinematic gold’ from viewers stunned to have not heard of it before watching.
The movie from 2014 is now available to stream for free in the UK too, ready to convert a whole new legion of enthusiastic fans.
Housebound – directed by Gerald Johnstone as his debut feature film before going on to helm M3GAN and its upcoming sequel – sees would-be thief Kylie (Morgana O’Reilly) sentenced to house arrest with her estranged mother Miriam (Rima Te Wiata) and step-father for eight long months.
Fitted with an ankle monitor, Kylie must stay on the premises and is frustrated further when her mother tells her she thinks their family domicile is haunted.
But Kylie starts to convince herself that there is indeed some kind of intruder in their house after being grabbed by a disembodied hand in the basement.
New Zealand indie flick Housebound marries its more chilling aspects with the darkest of humour to deliver the best of both the horror and comedy genres
‘This movie is the epitome of why I couldn’t sleep alone in the dark or walk home alone at night as a kid,’ shared one viewer in a five-star audience review, while another called it ‘such an underrated masterpiece’.
‘I wish I could go back in time and watch it for the first time again. Going from thinking it was a ghost story, to a home invader story, to a ‘this crazy girl is seeing things’ story, then back again was an absolutely delicious unicorn that almost never happens with today’s predicable garbage. Pure cinematic gold,’ added Alissa R.
Meanwhile C.A. admitted that they ‘didn’t think it was going to be as good as it turned out to be,’ and Kevin R praised it as a ‘very unique horror-comedy’.
‘Did not expect it to be so well-crafted. Can’t believe I’ve never heard of nor watched it until a couple of nights ago,’ he continued.
‘Packed with surprises and shock moments till the end. Crazy like Hot Fuzz or Shawn of the Dead,’ chimed in Max N with popular comparisons, while Dale C Beauchamp admitted on Google that ‘my hair stood on end many times’.
‘This film somehow pulls off being both laugh-out-loud funny and hide-behind-a-blanket spooky. I love it!’ agreed M.E. Maloney.
Others were less convinced with Richard L writing on Rotten Tomatoes: ‘Amateurish and cliché. I’m sure the favorable reviews could be related to its country of origin. I’m all for encouraging lower budget films but this brings nothing new to the table.’
Another dubbed Housebound ‘a solid Edgar Wright imitator with an underwhelming ending’ – but critics were almost unanimous in their praise, awarding the movie now available to watch on BBC iPlayer with a massive score of 95% compared to fans’ rating of 73%.
‘The mishmash that results is by turns creepy, silly, inventive, darkly funny and, at one point, mind-blowingly bloody,’ read the Los Angeles Times’ review, while Little White lies observed: ‘Housebound winningly sticks two fingers up to tired genre persuasions, effecting a barnstorming crowdpleaser populated by people you want to root for and tension you can chew.
‘It’s the stuff Friday nights at the movies were made for.’
Housebound is available to stream for free in the UK on BBC iPlayer.
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Funny, poignant and star-studded – it’s the recipe for the perfect romance to kick your sunny season off to a riotous start.
Andrew Ahn’s theatrical debut, The Wedding Banquet, is a remake of Ang Lee’s 1993 classic that captures all the same warmth and humour with a delightfully modern twist.
Described as ‘a joyful comedy of errors about a chosen family’, the movie centres two gay couples – Chris (Bowen Yang) and Min (Han Gi-chan) alongside Lee (Lily Gladstone) and Angela (Kelly Marie Tran) – as they navigate existential questions around marriage and children.
When Lee and Angela are struggling to find funds for another round of IVF, Min uses his position as heir to a business fortune to offer a wild proposition – a green card marriage in exchange for the coveted pot of gold they need.
Of course, in classic rom-com style, they all agree.
But as Angela continues to navigate the complicated relationship with her overbearing, if not well-meaning, mother May (played by the inimitable Joan Chen) and Min’s grandmother (Oscar winner Youn Yuh-jung) arrives from Korea to investigate any foul play – everything quickly falls to shambles.
There is plenty to love about this adaptation – and Ahn’s adjustment to bring a sapphic couple to the fore was a stroke of genius that added a much-needed depth to the plot for a 2025 audience.
For a start – this film has some wonderful comedic acting from the ensemble cast.
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There’s a moment in the first scene when May’s exuberance is brilliantly contrasted to the quiet derision on Angela’s face that made me burst into laughter.
Kelly proves her knack for effortless humour that needs no words to translate to the audience throughout the movie and quickly became one of our favourite performances.
And she was in good company.
Bowen, Han and Lily all brought their own style to the table with camp quips, vibrant moments of physical comedy and melodramatic statements that hit just the right tone to be funny without feeling too overwrought.
SNL star Bowen specifically flexes his skills on this front and proves why he was such a hit in Wicked as he continues his fruitful comedy career.
And the dynamic between our core four is chaotic enough that you have no idea where a scene will go at any given moment – you just have to surrender yourself to the ride.
Sure, there are moments that border on the cringe and unrealistic (or, on occasion completely zoom past it) but the genre lends itself to the silliness, taking itself seriously but not too seriously.
Interwoven into this rom-com are several scenes of surprising tenderness and vulnerability.
Once more, the chemistry between Kelly and Joan shines through and there’s one heartfelt conversation between the pair that we guarantee will leave you misty-eyed, at the very least.
Meanwhile, Youn Yuh-jung adds a steady presence to the movie, grounding it with a touchingly layered performance as she attempts to wrap her mind around the new generation – and the madcap schemes they conjure up.
The element that rounds this heartwarming tale off is its grounded LGBTQ+ representation. It offers a progressive take on the issues facing queer couples while not allowing the struggles to take away from the overwhelming joy that comes with being yourself.
The celebration of love throughout, whether through heartfelt declarations or moments of quiet intimacy offered the kind of queer romance on screen that feels nourishing for the soul.
And who doesn’t love a found family who make it through their most trying times? It’s the hopeful tale we need to cut through an often depressing news cycle.
Tickets to watch The Wedding Banquet at BFI Flare on Sunday, March 30 are available to buy now. It arrives in UK cinemas on May 9, 2025.
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Plug ‘n’ play is still possible in 2025 (Michael Veal) A reader explains why he values the plug ‘n’ play simplicity of the sixth generation of consoles and details the best way to play them with modern tech. The sixth generation of consoles – which […]
GamingA reader explains why he values the plug ‘n’ play simplicity of the sixth generation of consoles and details the best way to play them with modern tech.
The sixth generation of consoles – which comprised the original Xbox, the PlayStation 2, and the GameCube – is probably the generation that I have the fondest memories of. I was heavily into gaming back then. I regularly bought gaming magazines. I visited the high street at weekends and visited shops to look out for bargains and new releases. Most importantly I played games for hours in my free time.
The quality and innovation of games definitely peaked, and you could say plateaued, during the generation that followed, but the sixth console generation was great because of its astonishing variety of games and genres. Game development wasn’t as financially precarious as it is nowadays. There were more developers and publishers around and (especially on the PlayStation 2) there were games for every taste and possible market.
I’ve become dispirited with gaming these days, because it’s too involved. Modern consoles are just so needy. If you’ve only got a spare moment for some gaming you definitely don’t want to be watching the progress of a download or an installation while your console updates itself for whatever reason.
After waiting for your console to update, the game that you actually want to play might itself require a patch. You’re initially asked to log on too. And try not to forget your username and your password. With these hassles in mind I decided that I wanted to skip back at least a couple of decades to a time when video game consoles were a much more straightforward proposition.
At various points during the sixth generation I owned all three of the main consoles. I should have kept them, but I sold my PlayStation 2 and GameCube. These days the only sixth generation console that I still own is the original Xbox.
One snag with retro gaming is that older consoles aren’t compatible with modern televisions. Fortunately, there are lots of different HDMI adapters available to buy on the internet. I bought my HDMI adapter for the original Xbox from a company/seller called xdevpro-net on ebay.
The adapter arrived promptly with instructions and it proved easy to fit and doesn’t require an extra power source. One end of the adapter plugs into your original Xbox. You plug an HDMI cable into the other end of the adapter and then you plug that HDMI cable into your TV.
Everything worked well after I fitted the adapter and the games looked and sounded pretty good to me. I can’t as yet figure out how to display full widescreen. Maybe you need a more expensive adapter or a better TV. My television’s cheap and fairly basic but I had short goes on Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, Need for Speed: Most Wanted, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and after a short time I wasn’t bothered at all that the games weren’t fully widescreen.
Graphical fidelity and framerate is important to some people but I don’t mind if an old game looks a bit rough. Blocky graphics are part of the charm of retro gaming as far as I’m concerned. First and foremost, I want to have fun with a game and the occasional visual glitch doesn’t trouble me at all.
My old Xbox is a bit scuffed and knackered. I bought the console years ago second-hand, so the machine has had quite a life. Thanks to the HDMI adapter that life isn’t over yet. Playing this old machine again has made me appreciate its simplicity. The whole selling point of consoles is their simplicity. You want to switch your console on and just start playing. An HDMI adapter makes this ambition possible in 2025.
By reader Michael Veal
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.
Pretty Woman nearly featured a nude scene with Richard Gere (Picture: Disney) In a conversation on Pretty Woman’s 35-year-anniversary, Dan Lester, the costume supervisor from the film revealed Richard Gere said no to going nude. The 1990 film was nothing short of iconic and featured […]
FilmIn a conversation on Pretty Woman’s 35-year-anniversary, Dan Lester, the costume supervisor from the film revealed Richard Gere said no to going nude.
The 1990 film was nothing short of iconic and featured some of the most beloved lines and fabulous outfits that are still applauded today.
Julia Roberts, 57, stars as Vivian Ward, a young prostitute working Hollywood Boulevard who ends up spending the week with rich millionaire Edward Lewis (Gere) after giving him directions.
The film grossed $463 million (£357 million) at the global box office and was Disney’s highest-grossing R-rated movie until 2024 when Deadpool & Wolverine surpassed it.
Thanks to roles in legendary films Pretty Woman, Runaway Bride, American Gigolo, Days of Heaven and Primal Fear, the 75-year-old has been a staple of our screens for decades – but this role nearly included a very revealing scene for the actor.
Speaking to Metro, Dan Lester who worked as the costume supervisor on the film, revealed that the actor had a lot of input into his role.
‘Richard was always terrific. Julia’s character was always fully developed, Richards really wasn’t. So he had a lot of input into changing things.
‘The one thing one scene with Richard, is that I remember is there was a bathtub scene and it started out with just Richard in the bath and they wanted him to be nude.
‘And he’s like, “I’m not doing that.” Like, “well, that’s what it says in the script.”
‘He was 45 or something – And he’s like, “this in this movie is not about that. I’m not going to do it. I’m going to be covered, whether it’s bubbles or, you know, or the scenes going to take place outside. I’m not going to be naked in the bath that we’re not doing that.”
‘And he got his way, you know, he was right that isn’t what the movie was about.’
In the film, the actor appears topless in a bath with Julia but avoids any full-frontal scenes that would have exposed anything more than just his upper chest.
Dan also added that the film was originally much darker and didn’t have a happy ending for the pair.
‘The first script was dark,’ he said. ‘It was originally called 3000 because that was the dollar amount.
‘And it was kind of a dark script originally and was rewritten a bunch of times.
‘It wasn’t a fairy tale, he didn’t come back in the end and do all that. It was a different script.’
JF Lawton, a scriptwriter on the film previously told Yahoo: ‘The basic story is very similar, Vivian and Edward make a deal for six days for three thousand dollars, but at the end of those six days Edward doesn’t fall in love with her.
‘Vivian however, kind of imagines she loves him or at least doesn’t want to go back to her old life.’
Describing the rather dramatic and hardly fairytale ending, Lawton added: ‘Edward drives her back to Hollywood Boulevard and they get into an argument, with Edward not understanding why Vivian is so upset. When she won’t get out of the car, Edward tries to pull her out and she starts hitting him.
‘He throws her off and as she is sobbing, he tries to give her the money in an envelope. She won’t take it, and when he puts it on the curb for her, she grabs it and throws it in his face. But as he drives off, she slowly picks the money up from the street.’
In 2024, while chatting to the Awards Chatter podcast, Richard said there was ‘no character’ and felt he was just ‘a suit’ in the initial scripts.
‘There was no character. I read this thing and I said, “It’s not for me”. To me, it’s just a suit that is there in the movie.’
He was asked to meet the director Garry Marshall – who passed in 2016 – but confessed: ‘I’m uncomfortable because I really don’t want to do this. I wouldn’t mind seeing the movie, but I don’t see myself doing this…’
Fortunately, the actor was convinced by Julia and the director to take part in the movie, and the rest is history.
Metro has reached out to Richard Gere’s representatives for comment.
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Not every Xbox 360 innovation caught on (Microsoft) A reader calls for one of the more forgotten aspects of the Xbox 360 era to be brought back, and help gamers get a better idea of what a game’s like before they buy it. I don’t […]
GamingA reader calls for one of the more forgotten aspects of the Xbox 360 era to be brought back, and help gamers get a better idea of what a game’s like before they buy it.
I don’t think there’s any real answer to what is the best generation of video game consoles. It all depends on not only your age but what you were doing at that time in your life. The Xbox 360 era was a very happy time for me, so maybe that influences my positive feelings about, but I think there’s more to it than that.
The release of the Xbox 360 feels like the start of the modern era, in terms of digital downloads and online, and while that was always inevitable it only happened as soon as it did thanks to Microsoft. Which together with things like achievements is the sort of innovation that’s been so lacking from them lately, especially in terms of things that Sony are then forced to adopt themselves to keep up.
Backwards compatibility is the only similar things since then, but there is one feature of the Xbox 360 that I sorely miss and which I find no one seems to talk about. Perhaps they’ve forgotten but back in the day it was a rule from Microsoft that every game, no matter what it was, had to have a demo. I miss that and I wish they’d bring it back.
The reason that Microsoft changed the rules behind demos is that publishers found that if people played a demo they were actually less likely to buy the game. I don’t think they ever explained why that was, but I think the assumption was that with games people were on the fence about, or couldn’t really afford, they felt they’d already played it to some degree and so it was skippable.
I kind of get that but it still seems a bit strange to me, since surely people would’ve liked some of the games they demoed, enough to buy the whole thing. Although I guess we’re talking averages here.
By the end of the Xbox 360’s life the rule had been taken away and demos were up to a publisher and most chose not to do them. The thing is, that was 15 years ago now and a lot has changed about gaming. There are less big name games overall and we learn very little about them before they’re released. Some aren’t properly announced until a few months until they’re out and they often get little or no hands-on previews from websites.
At the time the Xbox 360 was getting demos for every game we knew a lot about them, through previews and interviews and often a good year or so of hype before it’s released. That is bound to affect how people viewed the demos.
Maybe, after all that build-up, they thought the demo was a letdown, whereas now they’d be more wowed because they didn’t even know what the game was until they started playing it. Indie games have got more expensive nowadays so demos for them are a lot more important than they used to be, and often it’s even less clear what an indie game is until you try it.
Publishers must value demos to some degree because they’ll often do beta tests for multiplayer games. These are usually released so close to the game’s release I can’t believe they are at all useful in working out technical problems, let alone whether people liked it or not. They’re just demos with a degree of plausible deniability if there’s something wrong with it.
Sony certainly didn’t take any notice of everyone saying they hated Concord, and it came out anyway and, well… you know the rest. So why not release demos for every game and then not only can people understand better what your games are, but companies can get advanced warning of a problem. Whether they choose to pay any attention to it or not is their business.
By reader Cyclops
The reader’s features do not necessarily represent the views of GameCentral or Metro.
You can submit your own 500 to 600-word reader feature at any time, which if used will be published in the next appropriate weekend slot. Just contact us at gamecentral@metro.co.uk or use our Submit Stuff page and you won’t need to send an email.