From a week packed with news, to a very quiet one. Maybe it’s the looming Thanksgiving holiday in the US, social media upheaval, or people are just starting to mentally check out for rest of the year. Either way, this week we’re keeping it pretty short.

As for celebrity deaths, today we pay tribute to the iconic voice of Batman (on TV, the big screen and in multiple games), actor Kevin Conroy, who died on 10 November aged 66 from intestinal cancer.

Gaming

It’s that time of year. The nominees for 2022’s edition of The Game Awards have been announced. You can view all the nominees on a per category basis here, or scroll through a handy complete list here.

In short, Action Adventure games had an exceptionally strong showing, with 4 of the 5 nominees in that genre category (A Plague Tale: Requiem, God of War Ragnarök, Horizon Forbidden West, and Stray) joining Elden Ring and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in the most prestigious category of all: Game of the Year. While the GOTY battle will likely be punched out between Elden Ring and God of War: Ragnarok, here the games that have received the most nominations this year.

For the record, the final results are determined by voting from The Game Awards jury (90% weighting) and public voting (10%).

The winners will be revealed on 8 December at an event held in Los Angeles. The Game Awards will also be livestreamed on all major social, streaming and digital platforms for its ever-growing global audience.

A few other bits of gaming news this week:

  • We thought it was already out there, but Remedy finally announced Control 2 officially this past week. A few other details were revealed about the upcoming action adventure game, like its platforms. Control 2, which centres on a top secret government organisation (the Federal Bureau of Control) that studies and contains paranormal phenomenon, will be coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC. More here.
  • Fans have been waiting for a while, but The Witcher 3 next-gen upgrade (free for owners of the game on previous console generations and PC) finally has a release date: Wednesday 14 December 2022. Learn more about The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Complete Edition, and its numerous promised visual, performance and technical enhancements here on the CD Projekt Red blog.
  • Hey, Avatar: The Last Airbender fans! Aang, Toph and Zuko have now joined Ubisoft’s free-to-play 2D platform fighter Brawlhalla as Epic Crossovers. They’re available for 300 Mammoth Coins each via the in-game store. For the record, you can play Brawhalla on PC, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch and Mobile devices. Watch the trailer here to see the character models in action.

Film

We stan Olivia Colman, and there’s apparently a very good chance she could win another Oscar thanks to Empire of Light. Coming from American Beauty, 1917 and Skyfall director Sam Mendes, Empire of Light is set in an English coastal town in the early 1980s, and focuses on the power of human connection during turbulent times. Also in the cast are Micheal Ward, Tom Brooke, Tanya Moodie, Toby Jones and Colin Firth. Empire of Light hits cinemas in limited release soon, on 9 December.

Another performer we love is Willem Dafoe, and he’s pretty much a one man act in psychological survival thriller Inside. The film centres on Nemo, an art thief, who is trapped in a New York penthouse after his heist doesn’t go as planned. Locked inside with nothing but priceless works of art, and the temperature rising, he must use all his cunning and invention to survive. Inside opens in cinemas on 10 March 2023.

Two other movie tidbits this week:

Comics & Books

In June, we reported that Conan the Barbarian comics were migrating from Marvel to Titan Comics, with a brand new series set to kick off in mid 2023. Well, the reboot is happening with some fanfare, as the newest take on Conan the Barbarian will be debuting with a primer edition as part of Free Comic Book Day 2023.

The FCBD edition of Conan the Barbarian will be available in comic book retailers on 6 May, before the ongoing series begins properly in July 2023. The new series will be headed up by the creative team of writer Jim Zub (Thunderbolts, Uncanny Avengers), and artist Roberto De La Torre (King-Size Conan, Iron Man: Director of S.H.I.E.L.D). Both are returning Conan veterans from the Marvel days.

The plot synopsis of the FCBD comic: On the eve of his first major battle, young Conan of Cimmeria pictures a life beyond the borders of his homeland and yearns for a life undreamt of in his small village. Visions of future allies and unspeakable evils he will eventually encounter throughout his fabled career fill his mind as he takes his first fateful steps toward a life of great adventure in the Hyborian Age!