Jaws captures the greatness of movie-to-pinball adaptations

The full list of nominees for the upcoming 96th annual Academy Awards was officially announced this morning, Tuesday, January 23, 2024.

A is in the works, with a writer who has experience with the franchise already lined-up.

By far, the biggest reveal at the second Xbox Developer Direct was Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. The new first-person action/adventure game in development at MachineGames looked great in its first presentation and isn't too far off, either, since it is slated to launch later this year on PC and Xbox Series S|X.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the newly titled next video game starring everyone’s favourite whip-wielding archaeologist, is set in the year 1937. But where does that place it in the grander Indy timeline? Well, we know it’s set in-between the Raiders of the Lost Ark and The Last Crusade, the first and third films in the original trilogy respectively. But it’s a little more complicated than just that, with other films and games coming both before and after Dr Jones’ latest adventure. Let’s take a quick look at his story so far, the artifacts he’s already discovered, and the relationships he’s forged (and broken).

Yesterday we got the big reveal of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and Bethesda and MachineGames didn’t hold back, revealing quite a bit of first-person gameplay and other info about the game’s approach and story. That said, there were a few lingering questions after the presentation, such as, who’s playing Indy and what kind of tech is powering the game? Well, we now have answers on both.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, a new whip-cracking adventure coming from Wolfenstein studio MachineGames and avowed Indy fanboy Todd Howard, was revealed on Thursday to be a first-person game. Well, mostly. Players will see through the eyes of Indiana Jones on a globe-trotting story where they’ll explore ancient temples, recover mysterious artifacts, and punch, shoot, and whip Nazis.

It’s only been a little over 10 years since Alfonso Cuarón’s space-disaster survival adventure Gravity made a huge, Oscar-winning splash with a story that takes place almost entirely in a zero-gravity setting, leaving Sandra Bullock and George Clooney bobbing around like balloons throughout most of the action. At the time, the visuals seemed shocking and attention-grabbing, enough to spark an extensive wave of “How did they do that?” technical pieces focusing solely on the zero-gravity effects.

MachineGames revealed the first look at its upcoming title, at Xbox's Developer Direct 2024 showcase. The Xbox Series S/X and PC exclusive title was announced back in January 2021, but the showcase finally gave players their first look at gameplay and provided some insight into the story, and when it takes place on the wider timeline.

Nope, Harrison Ford is sadly not voicing the titular tomb raider in Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. 

We should know by now never to count out Indiana Jones. First The Last Crusade was proven to be a misnomer when it was followed up by 2008’s Kingdom of the Crystal Skull and then even that was replaced as Indy’s final adventure with 2023’s Dial of Destiny.

Xbox kicked off its 2024 with a jam-packed Developer Direct showcase, bringing reveals and updates on four upcoming releases from four studios, plus a bonus update from Square Enix. The 45-minute presentation, streamed live on YouTube and Xbox's other social channels late Thursday, took the covers off MachineGames' upcoming Indiana Jones game, provided a release date for the highly anticipated Senua's Saga, and revealed a release window for Avowed, Obsidian's next big fantasy RPG.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, the now-confirmed name of the adventure game in the works at Wolfenstein studio MachineGames under the watchful eye of Bethesda and executive producer Todd Howard, is set between the plots of the first and third films.