Blizzard has acknowledged player «dissatisfaction» after Overwatch 2was review-bombed into oblivion when it released on Steam last month, swiftly becoming the game with the lowest-ever user score on Steam.
04.08.2023 - 18:27 / polygon.com / John Cena / Sylvester Stallone / Jackie Chan
Netflix has had a solid year of movies, all things considered. Three of their originals are on our list of the best movies of 2023 so far, and that doesn’t even include Extraction 2 or the other solid genre movies that may not clear the bar of greatness but still deliver on Quality Thrills.
The latest hit on the platform is Hidden Strike, which is not technically a Netflix original but made its long-awaited premiere in July after spending more than five years in post-production. It’s been the No. 1 movie on Netflix pretty much since it arrived, unseating the Adam Devine/Ellen Barkin/Pierce Brosnan comedy The Out-Laws and beating out They Cloned Tyrone.
Hidden Strike is a no-brainer combination of two of the most charismatic action stars of their generations, pairing the legendary Jackie Chan with John Cena. The movie spent so long in development that Cena replaced Sylvester Stallone, who couldn’t make the movie work because of commitments to Creed II. Fast-forward through about five years of post-production, and Hidden Strike comes out after Creed III. But what sounds like a worst-case scenario is actually perfect Netflix fodder.
While the star pairing suggests an action comedy, Hidden Strike doesn’t actually settle into that groove until about 40 minutes in, when Chan and Cena’s characters first meet up (and play catch). Before that, it’s a pretty serious “protect the convoy” movie, with plenty of explosions and man-made sandstorms (non-Darude variant).
Chan plays commander Dragon Luo Feng, sent to Iraq to safely transport oil refinery workers across the “Highway of Death” to Baghdad; Cena co-stars as Chris Van Horne, a former mercenary now living in an Iraqi village and helping take care of local children who is tricked by his brother to hijack Dragon’s convoy (heading off spoiler complaints by letting you know the movie telegraphs this extremely clearly).
Hidden Strike’s post-production woes are definitely apparent, both in the extreme tonal shift of the movie and in some janky backdrops that take the concept of the “uncanny valley” to locations. But once Hidden Strike puts Chan and Cena on screen together, the movie transforms into a breezy (and silly) fun time.
Chan and Cena are both very funny action stars whose physicalities are wildly different. Director Scott Waugh plays their styles off each other for both humor and different styles of action, leaning on Cena’s brute strength and Chan’s still-remarkable acrobatic skills and physical comedy chops. The funniest recurring bit in the movie is the pair’s efforts to communicate in hand signals, which end up in some crossed wires as they differ on whether a sign means “six o’clock” or “let’s have a beer.” Both Chan and Cena (and their respective
Blizzard has acknowledged player «dissatisfaction» after Overwatch 2was review-bombed into oblivion when it released on Steam last month, swiftly becoming the game with the lowest-ever user score on Steam.
By Jay Peters, a news editor who writes about technology, video games, and virtual worlds. He’s submitted several accepted emoji proposals to the Unicode Consortium.
What is there to say about Fortnite that hasn’t been said before by us or by other writers and content creators? It’s the game that shouldn’t have been a big hit and yet came to define a gaming generation. Even now, years after the game came out, everyone is excited about what it will do next and who might show up in the game. Its “skin game” is legendary for all the right reasons. Regardless of where the franchise is media-wise, Epic Games will find a way to collaborate in some fashion. Fast forward to now, and WWE is apparently on the brink of a big collab with the title.
Six classic Jackie Chan films from the early stage of his career are coming to the Criterion Collection, in the form of a fantastic box set cataloging some of his work from the 1970s and 1980s.
Following the release of its iOS controller app, Netflix has started to roll out a «limited» beta test to stream its games via your TV.
Overwatch 2 has been available for a while on multiple platforms, though it was in Early Access. With the Invasion update, the game left early access and officially launched on August 10.
In just three days, Overwatch 2 has become Steam's worst-rated game of all time.
Furiously bloody shooter Turbo Overkill is now available in full, launching from Early Access on August 11th from developer Trigger Happy Interactive and publisher Apogee Entertainment. It's one we've described as the "hyper violent FPS of my dreams" and "boomer shooter bliss" but which should be best known for its greatest feature.
It was only released on Steam two days ago, but Overwatch 2 is already breaking records, albeit probably not the ones Blizzard was hoping for. In just 48 hours, the free-to-play hero shooter has become Steam's «worst game of all time».
Blizzard Entertainment released its first game on Steam on Thursday, bringing Overwatch 2 to Valve’s storefront. On day one, the game drew a sizable audience, peaking at more than 75,000 players. Not quite Baldur’s Gate 3 numbers, but high enough to rank it in the top 15 games played on Steam in the past 24 hours.
Until morale improves, the John Wick franchise will continue to hand out beatings — this time in the ’70s. The first full trailer for the prequel miniseries The Continental: From the World of John Wick is appropriately groovy, but it feels less like the work of John Wick director Chad Stahelski, and more like something dreamed up by Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino, working in Kill Bill/Jackie Brown mode.
The Apple Watch Series 9 will be unveiled at Apple's special event in the first half of September alongside the iPhone 15 lineup. So far, we have heard that the wearable will not see any changes in terms of design. However, the company could incorporate additional health sensors and features. Now, it is being coined that the Apple Watch Series 9 will come with a new magnetic band design. It makes sense for the company to introduce a new band design since the wearable itself looks identical to the Series 8.