Dame Maggie Smith, known for her roles in the Harry Potter films and Downton Abbey, has died aged 89.Her sons, Toby Stephens and Chris Larkin, issued a statement to the BBC saying she passed away peacefully in hospital on Friday morning.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings “It is with great sadness we have to announce the death of Dame Maggie Smith,” the statement reads, “She passed away peacefully in hospital early this morning, Friday September 27. An intensely private person, she was with friends and family at the end. She leaves two sons and five loving grandchildren who are devastated by the loss of their extraordinary mother and grandmother.”We would like to take this opportunity to thank the wonderful staff at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for their care and unstinting kindness during her final days. We thank you for all your kind messages and support and ask that you respect our privacy at this time.”During her career, Smith won two Oscars, four Emmys and countless stage awards. The Oscars were for her roles in The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie and California Suite. Smith was also was made a Dame in the 1990 New Year Honours, for her services to the performing arts.Her work saw her have success throughout, including in the eyes of a fresh audience via her roles as Professor McGonagall in the Harry Potter movies and as Violet Crawley, Countess of Grantham in ITV and PBS’ historical drama Downton Abbey, with the latter earning Smith three of her four Emmys.Tributes have poured in from across the entertainment industry, with actor Hugh Bonneville, who co-starred in Downton Abbey with Smith, saying to the BBC that Smith was a “true legend of her generation” and adding: “Anyone who ever shared a scene with Maggie will attest to her sharp eye, sharp wit and formidable talent.”
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Dragon Ball Daima finally has a release date, and it sounds like fans of the series are in for a good October.It’s generally always a pretty good time to be a Dragon Ball fan, but October 11 in particular is going to be a very good day to be one. It was already known that Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero, the return of the fan favourite Budokai series, was set to launch that day, but as reported by Mantan Web, Dragon Ball Daima, the newest anime based on the classic franchise, is coming October 11 too. It’ll be airing on Fuji Television at 11:40pm JST, which obviously isn’t much help for the international audience, but it’s still good to know that it’ll be airing in just over a month’s time.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings Yuichi Nakajima, head of progr…
Read moreThe creative director of Star Wars Outlaws has seen your complaints about some of the early stealth missions, and promises some changes are coming.Probably one of the most universally hated mechanics in games is stealth. Don’t get me wrong, a good stealth game like Metal Gear Solid or Dishonored makes playing sneakily fun, but when it’s in games where stealth isn’t the entire point, it can sometimes end up being a bit frustrating, particularly when there are moments that you can instantly fail. Star Wars Outlaws is the most recent game to fall victim to this, but luckily it sounds like some improvements are coming in a patch some time in the near future.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings The game’s creative director Julian Gerighty was recently asked…
Read moreAstro Bot has been delighting many a player with all of its cameos and references, and it seems like a few more could be on the way.For better or worse, Astro Bot is essentially a massive love letter to PlayStation games past, though it does feature plenty of characters that aren’t exclusive to the platform (though frequently have a strong connection to). There are a ton of cameos featured in the game, from classics like Crash Bandicoot and Spyro, to the more recent Sony tentpoles like God of War. And as spotted by VGC, the game’s credits, there’s a list of thanks to various developers like Konami and Sega, as well as more, because of their respective appearances in Astro Bot. Except oddly, there are also a few mentions of titles that don’t make any kind of appearance in the game in cameo …
Read moreWelp, not everything from the ’80s can make a comeback, as Apple’s Time Bandits series has already been cancelled.A couple of months ago, the first season of Time Bandits started airing on Apple TV+, but I doubt most of you knew that because clearly it didn’t do well enough to be renewed for a second season. As reported by Deadline, the iPhone maker’s streaming service has decided to not go ahead with a second season about a month after the last episode was released. If this comes as a surprise to you, I’m not really sure why, as on Metacritic the show sits at 66/100 on the critics side of things, with only 4.6/10 on the user score. That’s not a great start for a first season of television, especially in an era where shows need to be massive hits to have any chance of getting renewed.To se…
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Read moreThe somewhat-awaited launch of Final Fantasy 16 on PC is here, nearly 15 months after the game’s initial release on PS5. The PC version arrived on Tuesday, available for purchase on Steam and the Epic Games Store.So far, the reception has been… fairly lukewarm, even compared to the already small blip its predecessor, Final Fantasy 15, achieved at its launch – at least looking at it through the Steam prism.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings In its first few hours of release, Final Fantasy 16 peaked at 16,947 concurrent players on Steam (via SteamDB), which is a fairly low turnout for such a high profile game. That figure started out even lower than that, and grew over the course of several hours, before it plateaued. It may well grow toda…
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Read moreSony hasn’t revealed the pricing for its 30th Anniversary PS5 collection, but one reliable leaker might have.The PS5 might not have all that many games (go ahead, check the Wikipedia page for titles actually exclusive to the platform), but it is getting one thing this year: a fancy-looking original PlayStation-themed edition for the company’s 30th anniversary. I really don’t need any of it, and it’s absolutely trying to grasp at that nostalgic part of my heart, but hell, that PSX colour-scheme still just can’t be beat. The only problem is that a price point hasn’t been revealed just yet, so for those of you that love to post that Fry from Futurama “take my money” meme, you don’t know how much you’re having to part with just yet.To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage coo…
Read moreThe next PlayStation State of Play is upon us. Sony has officially confirmed the date and time of its next showcase. We’ve been expecting the September event for some time now, and you’ll be able to watch it right here.This is going to be the first State of Play following the recent reveal of the PlayStation 5 Pro, whose $700 price tag, and lack of any major upcoming releases to take advantage of its upgraded hardware, left most of us scratching our heads (though some will get one anyway).State of Play | September 24, 2024 [ENGLISH] Watch on YouTubeSony has confirmed in a blog post that this September State of Play will be kicking off on September 24 at 11PM BST, that’s 3PM PT, 6PM ET and 12AM CEST (that last one will be first thing on September 25). You’ll be able to watch it …
Read more2XKO isn’t out yet, it’s aiming for a vague 2025 release window as of writing, and a player has already got the game tattooed on his fingers. Here’s hoping it stays good and the name doesn’t change!Nitten, a long time supporter of the game for years now, posted their tats on Twitter. The game’s name – 2XKO – permanently inked onto four of his five fingers for the world to see. A sign of dedication for sure. Video game tattoos aren’t rare among gamers, with rich histories in the medium, but these games are typically classics. From what we could see, this is the first 2XKO tattoo out there (as long as one of the devs hasn’t beaten Nitten to the punch).To see this content please enable targeting cookies.Manage cookie settings The name itself – 2XKO – proved controversial when first announced.…
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