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Celebrity Juice celebrates its 10th anniversary soon, and Danny ‘I’m f***ing Danny Dyer’ Dyer is getting on the action by joining his daughter, Dani, and her current squeeze Jack, as they go head-to-head against Ashley Roberts and Paddy McGuinness. when he’s not busy beating the s*** out of his mate Stuart at the Queen Vic, that is.
Speaking of EastEnders, the BBC has confirmed that Alfie Moon is returning to the show this year, although I somehow doubt a fairytale reunion between him and Kat is on the cards. Not when he’s got fellow Slater and foghorn-mouth Hayley up the duff, that is. What’s a bloke to do?
Elsewhere, Celebrity Big Brother’s Dan Osborne seems to be channelling his inner Joey Essex, getting confused between an avocado and a pomegranate. Prime TV there, folks.
Sony on Fortnite cross-play: ‘PS4 is the best place to play’
Remember that Captain Picard meme of him doing an epic facepalm? Well, that pretty much sums up this trainwreck of a story. Gordon Bennett. We had a little discussion about this in the office, and I’ll say it again here: Sony is regressing back to the same arrogant mentality it had back during the PS2 days. It’s not pretty. I mean, you would have thought getting slapped about in the PS3 era would humble them somewhat but apparently not. Needless to say, the reaction to Kenichiro Yoshida’s comments weren’t exactly pretty, so much so that Microsoft has also weighed in on the subject, stating Sony is failing once again to listen to gamers. Honestly, I can’t see them doing a 180 on this until the PS5 comes knocking.
The Witcher TV series casts Henry Cavill as Geralt
Well, he did say that he wanted the role, didn’t he? While Cavill might look a bit too clean cut for some, the Superman actor definitely boasts the bulging biceps and steely gaze to bring Geralt to the small screen. The question is, will they CGI his beard or let him grow it himself? We know he can rock a moustache pretty well, at least. Plus, regardless of what every Tom, Dick, and Harry thinks about the casting, Doug Cockle, aka the Voice of Geralt, has his back.
The Lord of the Rings is getting a triple-A, free-to-play MMO
There’s been more Lord of the Rings games the past 15 years or so than I’ve bunked off school sports days as a teenager. To be fair though, a lot of them weren’t half bad – remember EA’s movie-based trilogy? Those were cracking little hack-’n-slash romps, and wicked couch co-op time sinks to boot. Still, Tolkien’s sprawling fantasy world of weed-smoking wizards and talking tree-things was always suited more to a non-linear adaptation, which is why the prospect of an MMO is so tantalizing. To be honest, I still think the greatest loss for the series is the cancellation of The White Council back in 2007 – that sounded totally mint.
The PS2 is finally dead in Japan
Sony’s PS2 kind of reminds me of an old London gangster. You know, the type who is still chugging along after all these years, long after they were deemed relevant, but still standing nonetheless. Yeah, PS2 is totally the Dirty Den Watts of the video game world. Still, you gotta give props to Sony: PS2 launched 18 years ago, is the best-selling home console of all time, and remained a strong seller long after PS3 arrived on the scene. It’s kind of sad to see the final nail in the coffin, but it had to happen eventually. Still, who says it’s dead? A new Mega Drive game got released this year, and even Dreamcast still had a new lease of life after Sega gave it the boot in 2001. It’ll live on in our cupboards and dusty shelves.
Kingdoms of Amalur acquired by THQ Nordic
Blimey ‘o Riley, THQ Nordic is on a bit of a roll, innit? Not content with snapping up TimeSplitters and Second Sight, the publisher has also got its paws on Kingdoms of Amalur, an admittedly underrated gem that didn’t get the proper attention it deserved back in 2012. Hopefully, the results of this acquisition will mean a proper sequel, rather than a quick cash-grab of the original; 38 Studios went bust before a follow-up could be made, so it would be great if a Kingdoms of Amalur 2 could finally see the light of day. Fingers crossed.
Battlefield V’s battle royale mode is being made by Criterion Games
This is an interesting one. Criterion Games is obviously best known for dabbling in the racing space with the likes of Burnout and Need for Speed, so making a battle royale game for a series like Battlefield is a pretty big leap. However, it’s probably more interesting as Criterion hasn’t dipped its toes in any other genre besides racing in 12 years, back when it churned out a brilliant little shooter in the shape of Black. So yeah, there’s no concerns in my mind that they’ve got the chops to pull this off; let’s just hope it’s unique enough to differentiate it from CoD’s effort, eh? Speaking of which, a big shocker came this week with word that Blackout will support 80 players, while the newly-named Firestorm will boast 64. Battlefield traditionally leads the pack when it comes to the number of players capping each other in the head, so this was definitely a bit of a shocker. The ball’s in Criterion’s court now.
Happy weekend, folks!
