John Wick 3 Ending Explained: What The Heck Just Happened?
At the end of John Wick 2, with what looked like the entire city of New York about to take up arms against Keanu Reeves' titular hero, it seemed like the next chapter in the assassin's saga would have to wrap things up one way or another. We were pretty surprised, then, when John Wick Chapter 3: Parabellum concluded not with John's death or his triumph over the High Table, but basically where it began: with John Wick on the run, out of friends, the whole world against him. But was Winston's betrayal of John real, or is there more to it than that?
At the end of John Wick 2, Winston (Ian McShane) gave John an hour's head start. He was still on the assassin's side, despite the reality of John's affront against the High Table's laws when he spilled blood on Continental grounds. By John Wick 3's conclusion, Winston has fully turned on John, shooting him repeatedly and sending him careening over the edge of the Continental's roof. But are things really that black and white?
The Continental vs. The High Table
First off, let's talk about the conflict that served as John Wick 3's climax: the fight between the Continental (well, really John and Charon (Lance Reddick), since Winston mostly hid in a vault with John's dog), and the High Table's elite strike team. The High Table doesn't take lightly to being defied, and the hour Winston gave John at the end of 2 was enough to get the NY Continental manager in deep trouble with his overlords. They sent the Adjudicator (Asia Kate Dillon) to negotiate Winston's "retirement," and the High Table's Elder (Saïd Taghmaoui) sent John back to New York to kill Winston.
Obviously, the High Table's plans in this case didn't work out, largely thanks to the bond that Winston and John share after years of working together. Winston had no interest in stepping down, and John didn't really want to kill him. John may have gone through with it in order to survive, had Winston not offered him an alternative--teaming up to fight the High Table.
The Continental and John won the initial skirmish, but both sides knew this fight was just the beginning. When they met for a parley, Winston and the Adjudicator agreed to a ceasefire, under the shared revision that Winston had only risen up in the first place in order to prove his strength and devotion to the High Table. It was a simple show of force--at least, according to the version of events Winston and the Adjudicator settled on in the end.
Either way, that left one loose end: John Wick himself. Winston shoots John several times, seemingly taking the assassin by surprise, and John plummets off the Continental's roof.
If you take this scene at face value, it seems that Winston betrayed John in order to reaffirm his loyalty to the High Table. But that may not necessarily be the case. Throughout these movies, the friendship and trust between John and Winston have seemed genuine. When Winston said he'd rather be killed by a friend, he appeared to mean it.
Another Possibility
In light of that, there's another possibility: Winston was just doing what he had to in order to make it seem like he'd turned on John, while actually trying his best to ensure John walked away from the situation with his life. Winston shot John in the torso, where he knew John's magic bulletproof suit would prevent the bullets from killing him, and he may have even known that John would hit some obstacles on his way down, breaking his fall, if he hurtled off the roof in that exact place. Winston never looked over the edge to make sure John was dead, and he didn't seem too concerned about the fact that the boogeyman-assassin he'd just seemingly betrayed had apparently gotten up and walked away.
At the very end of the movie, Jason Mantzoukas's character (the Tick Tock Man, who we didn't get nearly enough of) finds John and takes him to the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne), who apparently lived through his seven slashes. Like John, the Bowery King isn't looking so hot--but given both characters' current standing with the High Table, that's not the only thing the two now have in common.
Is there a real rebellion against the High Table brewing for the inevitable John Wick 4? Will Winston and John reconcile, or was that betrayal the last straw? We'll have to wait and see, but the foundation is certainly there for a fourth chapter in John Wick's saga.
Random: These 3D Concepts Have Us Dreaming Of A Nindie amiibo Line
Nintendo’s amiibo line has been an absolute cash cow for the Japanese company since arriving alongside Super Smash Bros. for Wii U in 2014. To date, there are more than 170 amiibo available. While most of them are based on first-party Nintendo titles, there are a few exceptions such as Yacht Club’s Shovel Knight.
If you’ve always thought about what other notable Nindie characters would look like in amiibo form, a Madrid-based 3D modeler, sculptor and indie video game developer, who goes by the handle @JCirion3D over on Twitter, has been busy creating amiibo concepts for characters from games such as Hollow Knight, Cuphead and The Binding of Isaac. Take a look below:
The talented individual also ran a poll, asking followers what notable indie game they would like to see turned into an amiibo next. While Hollow Knight won, perhaps Dead Cells or Enter the Gungeon will receive the same treatment in the future.
Do you wish any of these amiibo were real? What other characters would you like to see transformed into amiibo? Tell us below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-20-2019, 01:59 PM - Forum: Windows
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Video games: A unifying force for the world
My father, a chemical engineer, brought home our first computer, a Sinclair ZX81, which came out in 1981. We played games together and then later, we wrote games together.
Today, for many people around the world, gaming is the first entry point into technology, just like it was for me.
I believe in two fundamental truths about gaming:
First, gaming is for everyone. No one group “owns” gaming. Instead, whether you’re new to gaming or are a diehard e-sports fan, you are welcome to play and welcome to all the fun and skill-building that comes with gaming. In this way, when everyone can play, the entire world wins.
If you imagine gamers as predominantly men and specifically teen boys, think again. We are a 2.6 billion-person strong community of parents playing with our kids, adventurers exploring worlds together, teachers making math wondrous, grandmothers learning about their grandchildren through play, and soldiers connecting with their folks back home. Most gamers today are adults; nearly half are women.
Second, gaming must promote and protect the safety of all. Gaming must be a safe environment. Creating community is shared work, and protecting community is essential work, so, we all carry part of the payload of community safety – game industry and gamers alike.
This widespread embrace of gaming and its global communities have turned video games into the world’s leading cultural industry, bigger than movies or music. But it also comes at a time when digital life includes a growing toxic stew of hate speech, bigotry and misogyny.
No different from rock and roll, books and TV before them, video games are often dismissed or maligned as frivolous, fraught with violence or filled exclusively with hate-mongering. But gaming is uniquely designed for equality. We don’t just walk in someone’s shoes – we stand on equal footing, regardless of age, education, socioeconomics, race, religion, politics, gender, orientation, ethnicity, nationality, or ability. Gaming doesn’t just bring stereotype-defying gamers together; it unites us through our universal language of fun and answers our human need to play. Research has shown an effective way to battle polarization and prejudice is through relationships with people outside our own groups, known as intergroup contact theory. This is where gaming excels: forging unexpected friendships with people we might never meet in real life. Dr. Linda Tropp, a professor of psychology at University of Massachusetts Amherst, observes, “As an interactive form of entertainment, gaming environments have the potential to bring people together for collaborations across differences, and to build empathy and mutual understanding through play.”
By uniting as an industry, we can thoughtfully and deliberately continue building a safe and inclusive gaming environment for everyone. Microsoft, Team Xbox, and I are personally committing to this, beginning with the following principles and actions:
We commit to be vigilant, proactive, and swift. Our Xbox Safety team is nicknamed the “Defenders of Joy” because we will defend you in every humanly and technologically possible way, so gaming remains fun. We will identify potentials for abuse and misuse on our platform and will fix problems quickly. We are also intent on expanding the composition of our safety team so wide-ranging perspectives can help us identify future safety problems and solutions. Because hate and harassment have no place in gaming, we recently published a refreshed version of our Xbox Community Standards to communicate how each of us can keep gaming fun and safe for all and detail the consequences when any of us break these standards. A welcoming community is the key to a safe community, so our 150,000 Xbox Ambassadors – community leaders, stewards, and allies – will be engaged to embark on new community missions to help create an inviting and safe environment for all gamers. We will also continue to roll out new programs for the health of our entire gaming community.
We commit to empowering you to safeguard your gaming experience the way you want. We believe in equipping you with the tools to customize your gaming experience fit for your personal comfort level. This summer, we are empowering our official Club community managers with proactive content moderation features that will help create safe spaces for fans to discuss their favorite games. We plan to roll out new content moderation experiences to everyone on Xbox Live by the end of 2019. Creating a Child or Teen Account is the easiest way for parents and guardians to manage who their kids engage with as well as their family’s screen time, content and spending. While more than 26 million Child and Teen accounts have been created to-date, we will make it easier for parents and guardians new to console and PC gaming to discover and create Child or Teen accounts. This year, Microsoft Stores rolled out a series of family workshops to help parents understand the tools available to them on console and PC, and this summer we are launching Gaming Summer Camps offering young gamers new ways to explore life skills and practice healthy habits that can be used in gaming and everyday life. Additionally, we recently launched a new “For Everyone” destination on Xbox.com where parents, guardians and players can learn how we’re making gaming more fun for everyone with our new inclusivity, accessibility, and safety features. We’re innovating now in these and other concrete ways to reduce, filter, and develop a shared understanding of toxic experiences, and to ultimately put our community of gamers, and their parents or guardians, in control of their own experiences.
We commit to working across the gaming industry on safety measures. Because we intend to protect all gamers, we will openly share safety innovations with our industry the same way Microsoft has made PhotoDNA technology universally available to everyone from the police to the tech industry to fight the spread of child pornography. Today, multiple teams working in areas like moderation, user research, data science, and others are already aligning with industry partners to share insights, and best practices in areas of safety, security and privacy.
The gaming community continues to grow rapidly, and the imminent roll-out of new game services such as Apple Arcade, Google Stadia and Microsoft’s Project xCloud, will make gaming available to even more people worldwide. Our industry must now answer the fierce urgency to play with our fierce urgency for safety.
We invite everyone who plays games, and industry partners, to join us in following these principles to help unify the world and do our part: make gaming accessible for everyone and protect gamers, one and all.
Riot ignores calls to scrap mandatory arbitration for all employees
League of Legends maker Riot Games has refused to completely scrap its mandatory arbitration policy, despite employees staging a mass walkout over the issue less than two weeks ago.
The company had attempted to quell discontent by allowing new hires to opt-out of forced arbitration, but Riot claims it can’t extend that same courtesy to all employees because of the “complexities of ongoing litigation.”
“We will not change our employee agreements while in active litigation,” the studio told Bloomberg. “We know not everyone agrees with this decision, but we also know everyone does want Riot to continue to improve.”
Riot had previously committed to delivering a “firm answer around expanding the scope and extending this opt-out to all Rioters,” but the wording of today’s statement suggests the company could still change its mind once all active litigation has been dealt with.
For those wondering why employees are disgruntled, Riot recently filed motions to force two staffers involved in harassment lawsuits against the company into private arbitration to settle the matter.
That meant details surrounding the case would remain under-wraps, raising concerns about a lack of transparency at the studio — which last year came under fire for fostering a toxic and sexist company culture.
Although Riot has taken steps to address those issues, including appointing a ‘culture fixer’ to better foster inclusivity, the company’s inaction on the issue or arbitration shows there’s still plenty of work to be done.
UPDATE: In a statement provided to USGamer, the organizers of last week’s walkout said they are “disappointed leadership doesn’t seem to be considering any major changes to their active policy.”
“As we continue to pressure Riot to end forced arbitration, we are leveraging that teamwork and solidarity by involving more coworkers in the effort,” reads an excerpt from the statement. “We are weighing the options for our next steps, and will share more information next week. As always, our main goal is to make sure that workers at Riot feel heard and represented, and above all, safe.”
Magic Leap acquires Mimesys to boost spatial computing offerings
The augmented reality company Magic Leap has acquired Mimesys, a Belgium-based startup behind co-presence technology that brings hologram-like projections to AR conferences.
While a handful of companies have already tried their hand at integrating personalized avatars into VR and AR calls and conferences, Mimesys’ tech allows those using Magic Leap One AR headsets to see realistic 3D avatars based on actual images of a call’s participants.
Though terms of the acquisition weren’t released, a press release from Magic Leap notes that the move significantly boosts the company’s co-presence and communication offerings.
“As we expand the spatial computing ecosystem, integrating a best in class communication and collaboration solution helps us to further fulfill the promise of the next computing platform,” said Magic Leap chief product officer Omar Khan in a statement.
May 10th : New Preview Alpha Ring 1905 Update (1905.190509-1730)
Starting at 7:30 p.m. PST today, members of the Xbox One Preview Alpha Ring will begin receiving the latest 1905 Xbox One system update (19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1905\18362.3054.190509-1730) Read on for more about the new features, fixes and known issues in the latest 1905 system update.
DETAILS:
OS version released: 19H1_RELEASE_XBOX_DEV_1905\18362.3054.190509-1730
Available: 7:30PM PDT 5/10/19
Mandatory Date/Time: 3:00 AM PDT 5/12/19
Fixes:
Audio
Some users may have been impacted recently by their Dolby Atmos for Home Theater audio setting reverting to another audio setting. We have made a fix recently and are looking to our Insider Audience to verify it.
If you intend to use Dolby Atmos for Home Theater, please check out your Audio Settings and make sure it is enabled. If you are continuing to have problems enabling it, please file a bug.
My Games and Apps – Video Apps
We have fixed the issue with video corruption showing in apps such as Youtube and Netflix with 4k playback.
System
Localization fixes.
Known Issues:
Audio
Headsets are not being assigned to the users profiles and not working correctly.
Profile Color
Sometimes users may encounter the incorrect Profile color when powering on the console.
Death end re;Quest takes the classic turn-based RPG and flips it upside-down. Switch between the RPG action of the game world and the visual novel segments of the real world. In the realm of game development, it may seem all fun and games until the lines between fantasy and reality begin to blur.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-20-2019, 07:58 AM - Forum: Lounge
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[Today Only] The Best Game Deals In GameStop's Pro Day Flash Sale
GameStop Pro members, that annual membership is about to come in handy big time. GameStop just launched a one-day Pro Day Sale in stores and online today, May 18, with some pretty solid deals on PS4, Switch, and Xbox One games; consoles; Funko figures; and more. Plus, you'll get extra credit when trading in consoles, games, and accessories. Here's an overview of all the deals available now.
If you were planning to purchase a Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, or PS4 soon, you'll save some money at GameStop in the form of a $25 gift card (Switch), $50 gift card (Xbox One), or $20 off (PS4, if you bundle it with PS Plus). Various gaming accessories are also discounted, including headsets, controllers, chairs, and blue light-blocking glasses. Funko Pop Vinyl figures are $9 each, and collector's boxes are 50% off.
Finally, Pro members can receive 10% more trade-in credit for games and accessories (that bumps it to 20% credit for Pro members, and 30% credit for any existing Elite Pro members). You'll also get $300 trade credit for a PS4 Pro or Xbox One X, $225 credit for a Switch or PS4 Slim, $175 credit for an original PS4 or Xbox One S, and $125 credit for an original Xbox One.
As a reminder, GameStop PowerUp Rewards Pro membership costs $15 per year and doubles your points earned with every purchase, boosts your trade-in credit by an additional 10%, decreases the cost of pre-owned games and accessories by 10%, and more. If you're interested in any of these Pro Day deals and don't have a membership, you can always enroll during checkout.
Rumour: A Sequel To Detective Pikachu Is Already In Development
If you haven’t seen the live-action movie Pokémon Detective Pikachu yet, you might want to hurry up. After an electrifying opening weekend, ComicBook.com is reporting a sequel is already in the early stages of development.
According to the source, multiple individuals involved in the original production have confirmed Legendary Entertainment is moving forward with a second outing, once again starring the electric rodent voiced by Ryan Reynolds. Apart from this, there’s no other information about the film and Legendary itself did not respond when contacted by the website.
This follows on from an exclusive on The Hollywood Reporter website earlier this year, suggesting Legendary Entertainment had reportedly hired Oren Uziel to write a script for the sequel. Uziel previously worked on films such as 22 Jump Street, The Cloverfield Paradox and is also responsible for the live-action CGI adaptation of Sonic the Hedgehog.
The latest news also lines up with rumours about expanding the Pokémon universe with additional films, including one live-action CGI movie based on the original Game Boy video games.
The big question is, would you like to see more live-action movies based on the Pokémon series? Tell us below.
Posted by: xSicKxBot - 05-20-2019, 01:53 AM - Forum: Lounge
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Pokemon Go Week-Long Raid Event Announced, Features Two Shiny Pokemon
Pokemon Go's next Community Day is this weekend, but that isn't the only event on the horizon. Niantic has announced it is holding an Extraordinary Raid Week for the mobile game beginning Tuesday, May 21, and it'll give players a chance to earn special bonuses for participating in Raids--and even catch a couple of Shiny Pokemon.
The Extraordinary Raid Week kicks off at 1 PM PT / 4 PM ET / 9 PM BST and runs until the same time the following Tuesday, May 28. During that week, new Pokemon will be featured as Raid bosses. Bronzor, for instance, will appear in Tier 1 Raids, and you may even come across its Shiny form, while the rare Clampearl will be one of the possible Tier 2 Raid bosses. On top of that, you'll receive twice the usual amount of Stardust and XP for participating in Raids.
There are also a couple of dedicated events within the broader Raid week. On Wednesday, May 22, Niantic will host a special Raid Hour from 6-7 PM local time, during which there will be more Raids occurring than usual. Then on Saturday, May 25, a special Lapras Raid will occur from 11 AM-2 PM local time. During that time, Lapras will appear as a Raid boss, and you may even come across a Shiny one. Additionally, you'll receive up to five Raid Passes from Gyms during the event. You can find more details on the Pokemon Go website.
In the meantime, the next Pokemon Go Community Day takes place this Sunday, May 19. The featured Pokemon this month is Torchic, the Fire-type starter from Pokemon Ruby and Sapphire. If you manage to evolve it into a Blaziken up to an hour after the event ends, it'll learn the powerful Fire attack Blast Burn. On top of that, you'll receive triple the normal amount of Stardust for catching Pokemon during the Community Day.
The Legendary Gen 4 lake trio Azelf, Mesprit, and Uxie are also still available in the game. Each one is appearing as a Raid battle in certain parts of the world until May 27. Azelf is currently available in the Americas and Greenland; Mesprit is spawning across Europe, Africa, and the Middle East; and Uxie is appearing in the Asia-Pacific region.
