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Newsweek
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Newsweek
The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 Release Date, Trailer, Where to Watch
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Entertainment gossip and news from Newsweek's network of contributors "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3" release date is confirmed, alongside a bunch of juicy new details. In this article you'll find everything you need to know, including the show's release date, where you can stream it, and key plot details. The biggest one, of course, is the setting - there's never been a The Walking Dead series like this. Set in Spain, a first for the zombie-filled show and its numerous spinoffs, we'll see fan-favourite character Daryl Dixon (Norman Reedus) slay walkers in sunnier climes than he's used to. Norman Reedus stars in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 Norman Reedus stars in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 AMC Read on for all the facts about "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3". The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 Story In "Season 3 of The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon", we follow old friends Daryl and Carol (Melissa McBride) as they try and find a route home. The way back is anything but simple, however. Now in Spain, they're forced to confront a post-apocalyptic Mediterranean land filled with sun-baked zombies, sieges in historic towns, and all manner of bad guys (one particular nasty one wielding a massive battle axe, as shown in the trailer below). What Happened in The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2? In the previous season, Dixon washes ashore in France, only he doesn't know why. The series follows his journey as he fights against the undead on a whole new continent. What Happened in The Walking Dead: The Book of Carol? "The Walking Dead: The Book of Carol" picks up where "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2" ends. Daryl stays in France, Carol sets off to find her sister, and Genet (Anne Charrier) is more powerful than ever. This sets up an almighty clash between the Pouvoir movement and the Union of Hope, with the future of France hanging in the balance. It's unlikely we'll see a resolution to that plot arc in "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon", though. Why is The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 Set in Spain? Executive Producer Steve Squillante has provided more than enough justification for taking "The Walking Dead" to Spain. "Spain has a really wonderful canvas that I don't believe viewers are quite as familiar with," Squillante tells Variety. "Even though it's a post-apocalyptic world, you see pieces of culture and history, and people don't realize or the actual impressive cultural and environmental diversity in a country the size of Spain." The road home is brutal and the fight to survive is far from over. #DarylDixon Season 3 premieres September 7 exclusively on AMC & AMC+. — The Walking Dead (@WalkingDead_AMC) June 23, 2025 "This is not an American show that's just relocated to France and then to Spain to shoot another version of an American show," Squillante continues. According to him, "95%-plus" of Season 3 was filmed in Spain, including Barcelona, Seville, Granada, and the ruins of Belchite, a town devastated during the 1936-39 Spanish Civil War. There's apparently also a stunning train sequence Squillante teases will "blow people away." The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 Release Date "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3" premieres September 7, 2025, as confirmed by AMC. UK viewers, will need to wait four days later on September 11, 2025. That's if it follows the schedule from "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 2", which in the UK aired four days behind the US on Sky and NOW. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 Where to Watch The show is exclusive to AMC & AMC+ , so you'll need a subscription to the platform in order to watch it. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3 Trailer Here's the latest trailer for "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3", giving you a sneak peak of what you're in for. "First you survive what happened to you, then you start living again," says Carol, which nicely sets up the show's central themes of overcoming grief and building hope for the future. The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3: Cast The new season adds three major new characters. These are Eduardo Noriega (The Devil's Backbone), Óscar Jaenada (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides), and Alexandra Masangkay (The Platform). There's also the addition of British comedian Stephen Merchant. Here's the key cast for "The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon Season 3". • Norman Reedus • Melissa McBride • Eduardo Noriega • Óscar Jaenada • Alexandra Masangkay • Candela Saitta • Hugo Arbués • Greta Fernández • Gonzalo Bouza • Hada Nieto • Yassmine Othman • Cuco Usín • Stephen Merchant
Buzz Feed
15-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Worst Celebrity Fan Encounters
As someone who's been involved with stan culture for, like, 15 years, I've seen a lot of wild fan drama go down. However, no fake pregnancies, secret wedding conspiracy theories, or niche fanfiction discourse can compare to the way some fans act towards their favorite celebrities in public. Here are 22 times celebs had absolutely wild fan encounters: Norman Reedus got bitten by a fan at a meet-and-greet. He told Conan, "I was sitting there. I was taking a picture, and then she kind of started shaking a little bit, and then she kind of looked up at the sky and kinda howled like a werewolf." She yowled then bit him on the chest "real hard, like, left teeth prints." He continued, "The police escorted her out of the building, and, I guess, she got outside. And she said, 'What happened?' And they said, 'Ma'am, you bit Norman.' And she goes, 'I did?' They were like, 'Do you wanna press charges?' And I was like, 'No she just had a moment. She seemed like a nice lady.'" Dolly Parton told the Windy City Times, "Years ago, when I first started being a big star, I had fans that were fanatical. It was when 'Jolene' was a big hit. We came home one day, and there was a baby in a box at our gate with a note in it. The note said, 'My name is Jolene. My momma has left me here, and she wants you to have me.' Of course, we all freaked out!" She added, "We immediately called Human Services and took care of the baby until they got there. We never did know or hear anything about it. I knew nothing else. What do you do in a situation like that? There are some loony people in this world! Can you imagine yourself in that situation? It wasn't like it was a kitten or a puppy dog. It was a baby named Jolene!" On Hot Ones, Shawn Mendes recalled, "I had a fan show up at my door in the middle of winter, and she had basically a crop top on and shorts in the middle of the winter. And she goes, 'I don't know what happened. I just am lost.' And I went, 'You're lost, eh?' 'Yeah, like, I don't know where I am.' I'm like, 'Alright.' She knew who I was. 'I just need someone to drive me to Starbucks.' I'm like, 'You're really good. Okay, I'll drive you to Starbucks.' She had me. There was no way getting out of it... I drove her. She was really smart. I gotta give it to her." In 2022, Jay Ellis was physically assaulted by a disgruntled Insecure viewer. He tweeted, "Good morning to everyone except for the lady that slapped me in the face at the airport because she got mad at Lawrence for something he did in season 3." During the height of One Direction's fame, some Directioners hacked into the security cameras at airports and hotels where the band was. They watched the boys as if it were a live stream of animals at the zoo. In 2016, a group of Harry Styles fans allegedly hacked into his mom's iCloud account, stole pictures of the singer vacationing with Kendall Jenner, and spread them across social media. Harry's reps didn't respond to the situation, but his mom deleted her Twitter. And in another instance of "why can't we be normal about Harry Styles?", fans marked the spot where he famously puked on the side of the 101 freeway in 2014 with a sign reading, "Harry Styles Threw Up Here." However, that's not the wildest part — one fan reportedly scooped up Harry's vomit and listed it on eBay! When Harry learned about the eBay listing during a BBC Radio interview, he remarked, "This took a very strange turn... It's worrying that this is the world we live in." When Taylor Swift attended her friends Jack Antonoff and Margaret Qualley's Jersey Shore wedding in 2023, massive crowds of fans gathered outside a restaurant where the newlyweds were holding a dinner. The fans reportedly chanted Taylor's name and tried to film her. Reportedly appearing stunned, Taylor politely waved to the onlookers, but as viral videos of the crowds spread, criticism for the gathered fans poured in. They were called out for disrespecting Taylor's privacy as well as intruding on Jack and Margaret's big day. Many people brought up Taylor's reaction to the crowds gathered outside her home in her Netflix documentary Miss Americana. Similarly, in 2017, Taylor Swift was a bridesmaid in her childhood best friend Abigail Anderson's wedding. Security shielded Taylor from the crowd gathered outside the venue with drapes and an umbrella. Some fans reportedly booed her and chanted, "Very disappointing, not cool." Lauren Jauregui was outed when Fifth Harmony fans found pictures of her with her girlfriend in a private family album, and Perez Hilton got ahold of them. On Red Table Talk: The Estefans, she said, "I'd been dating the girlfriend that I had at the time for probably a year at that point, but we had fallen in love when I was 15. I was at my uncle's wedding in New Orleans, and my aunt very innocently posted the photos from the photo booth onto her Facebook page. It was a link for the family to be able to click on, and my fans are just a little wild, and they found the picture where my girlfriend and I — we were drunk — so we were kissing. [Perez Hilton] definitely outed me." She continued, "I wasn't ready because I'm also Latina. There was that whole looming thing of, 'What is my community going to feel about me? Are they even going to accept me?' I know that my family obviously accepted me. But was that something that I was willing to deal with on a public scale? I felt like my own process was violated." When Fifth Harmony was on tour in Mexico, a crowd of fans greeted them at the Monterrey airport. One fan yanked Ally Brooke while attempting to hug her, holding on and pulling her with them as security tried to separate them. In response, Ally tweeted, "Hi my loves, Just to let you know, I am okay after the airport incident. Please be careful and gentle so nobody gets hurt. That was scary. Thank you! Monterrey, I couldn't be happier to be here! It's been a dream of mine since I was little. My favorite singer Selena Quintanilla had many beautiful performances here. And now I get to perform in this city! I am beyond honored & proud." Ashley Benson told BuzzFeed, "So, I was at a Korean spa — I've told this before, but like, it's just so insane that this happened. But I was in a Korean spa, and I was in the shower. And obviously, like, everyone is completely naked. This girl, like, came into my stall and was asking me questions like, 'Who's A? Who's this?' whatever. And I was like, 'Whoa, I'm literally naked.' She fully came into my shower stall and was having a conversation. I was just covering myself, so embarrassed, and being like, 'What is happening?' Then she was asking for photos. I was like, 'This is insane. Oh my God.'" Dax Shepard told MTV, "This woman was convinced that I was the father of her kid, and I'd never, ever met her. She marches in the restaurant. Restaurant's full, and she goes, 'Ahem. Are you gonna deny that he's yours?' And I go, 'What?' She goes, 'Are you willing to take a paternity test or not?' And I go, 'What?' She goes, 'He's your son!' And that was a very surreal experience." John Travolta told People, "I lived in Santa Barbara about 30 years ago, and someone snuck into my house. I opened the closet, and there she was. It did scare me, but it turned out to be an innocent person. She was a girl who probably wanted to meet me and didn't know how to do it." Da'Vine Joy Randolph told BuzzFeed, "Last year, when we were on the press tour for Dolemite Is My Name, there was one group of people that always seemed to be where I was, whether it was a restaurant, at a hotel, or even doing press at 30 Rock. They just always knew my comings and goings. I was like, 'Who's leaking this?' So that was a little like, 'Oh, I don't do well with stalkers.'" Finn Wolfhard told ABC News, "I got followed back from my house by a couple in Toronto. And the minute I got to my door, they were just like, 'Can we take a picture with you?' I was like, 'No, you followed me back for four blocks, that's super creepy.'" Once, when Millie Bobby Brown was a kid, she fell asleep whole on a mostly empty plane to the Philippines — and a fan sat next to her. Millie told ABC News, "You know when you just, kind of, wake up and she's sitting right there? I'm like, 'Hi.'" She felt that the fact she and the rest of her Stranger Things castmates were still children made such situations more uncomfortable. She said, "I just think that for me, because we're so young at the moment, it's like we haven't experienced this stuff yet, so for us, it's like, 'Whoa. That is just weird.'" Chappell Roan has had multiple scary encounters with fans, such as when they figured out her flight information and tried to make the airport into a meet-and-greet. One man got so angry that she wouldn't sign an autograph that airport police had to be called. She later saw him amongst the paparazzi in LA. She told Rolling Stone, "I got home and dropped to my knees. I have a hard time crying now because of my meds, but I sobbed and was screaming." Another time, a fan was at the same bar where Chappell was celebrating her friend's birthday. Grabbing her, the fan kissed her. The same night, her father's phone number was leaked on the internet, and a fan called him. It prompted her to post a TikTok calling out harassment from fans. In another video, she said, "I don't care that abuse and harassment, stalking, whatever, is a normal thing to do to people who are famous, or a little famous. I don't care that this crazy type of behavior comes along with the job. ... That doesn't make it okay, that doesn't make it normal. I don't want whatever the fuck you think you're supposed to be entitled to whenever you see a celebrity..." In 2019, Ethan and Grayson Dolan announced the passing of their father. Fans of the Dolan Twins YouTube channel began sharing (fake) details of the funeral, posting about attending, and using hashtags like #SeanDolanFuneral and #SeanDolanMeetupParty. Some of their fans reportedly blamed the situation on K-pop fans who were allegedly trolling, but regardless of who was behind it, the Dolans were pushed to publicly ask for privacy. Grayson tweeted, "We want this ceremony to be an opportunity for the people who had a close connection with my Dad to say goodbye and pay their respects. We appreciate all of our fans so so much. Please respect My father Sean, Ethan, my family, and me send your love through social media only! ... Your kind posts about my Dad have been heartwarming. Thank you all. Again, please do not show up to his wake, funeral, or any of his services." Likewise, Ethan tweeted, "If you are a fan of Grayson and I we love you and appreciate you so much. The best way you could support us during this tough time is to NOT show up at our fathers wake or funeral. thank you guys and please please please respect my wish." Some of Joe Locke's fans tried to get in direct contact with his family members. A few called his grandmother's phone, and others messaged his mom on social media and tried to figure out where she was, prompting her to make new accounts for privacy. He told Teen Vogue, "It's a weird guilt I sometimes feel that, by association, their lives are affected by choices in my life... It's a mutual thing. I need to learn my boundaries, and people need to learn their boundaries. Most attention comes from a really good place, and I hope I always appreciate that." Joe Jonas told Digital Spy, "The craziest thing we've ever been given is definitely a dead shark." Nick added, "It wasn't a real big shark, though. It was only a baby shark, but they'd preserved it in this tube for us. That was odd... They didn't even leave a note explaining. It was just, 'Here's a dead shark.'" And finally, on TikTok, singer Jake Miller said that he's "legally a dad" because, after a show in about 2015, he went outside to take selfies and sign autographs for fans. He was moving quickly down the line because it was dark, cold, and "not in the best area." He said, "As I'm going down the line, I see some girl with a paper. I'm like, 'That looks kinda weird. What's that?' She's like, 'It's nothing. It's just my math homework.' And I'm like, 'Okay, good luck. Hope you get an A.' And then I sign it, and I walk away. And then a couple minutes later, some girls were like, 'Jake! You gotta come back! This girl lied to you!'" He continued, "So I'm like, 'Oh, okay. I'm back. What's up?' And they were like, 'This girl just tricked you. That wasn't math homework. That's an adoption paper.' I'm like, 'What the fuck?' And they're like, 'That's an adoption paper.' So I call my manager... over, and he rips that shit up. And she starts hysterically crying. I'm like, 'No wait, don't cry. But also, what the fuck? You tricked me. Am I legally your dad?' And she was like, still crying, and I was like, 'This is fucked up.'"
Top Gear
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Top Gear
Death Stranding 2 is a masterpiece, but is it a decent driving game?
Gaming The long and winding road that leads to Hideo Kojima's art Skip 10 photos in the image carousel and continue reading You'll no doubt have heard something about Death Stranding 2 since its release. An artisanal piece of game design presented with arthouse strangeness, it's a game about shifting boxes around in the apocalypse that somehow makes that incredibly mundane task feel captivating, but also retains the lingering sense that the whole thing might be a practical joke at your expense. It is, ultimately, a masterpiece. The world that protagonist Sam Porter-Bridges occupies has been changed almost unrecognisably by the Death Stranding event, a mysterious phenomenon that has allowed the dead back into the realm of the living, and now there are Beached Things, or BTs, roaming around on the surface. Being killed by a BT causes a massive and devastating explosion called a Voidout, so all surviving humans have fled underground to their bunkers. Advertisement - Page continues below There's some pandemic allegory in there, and no shortage of discourse about how we connect with each other in the digital age. It has much more to say than the vast majority of games do, and a much more vivid, esoteric, and fascinating way of articulating it, too. The preposterously A-list Hollywood cast helps, of course – Léa Seydoux, Norman Reedus and Elle Fanning are just some of the big names among many others. However you feel about being a post-apocalyptic DPD man, the sheer quality of Metal Gear Solid creator Hideo Kojima's world-building and storytelling steamrolls your reservations about the prosaic hiking gameplay and forces you down onto a reverent knee by the time the credits roll. You might like But is it a good driving game? That's the question nobody dares tackle. Here's a game in which you're frequently tasked with driving vehicles full of cargo for upwards of 20 minutes across a vast open-world map of Australia (albeit an off-kilter, slightly Scandi version of Australia with a massive snowcapped mountain in its centre), and yet nobody's talking about the handling physics. An oversight which it falls to TG to rectify. What are the vehicle options? There are just two vehicles available, and wouldn't you just know it, they're both EVs. Advertisement - Page continues below As such, the battery life on both the Tri-Bike and the Pickup Off-Roader is a major purchase consideration. On the plus side, charge time is almost instantaneous, and if you're travelling within the Chiral Network – territory that's been hooked up to Death Stranding 2 's mega-internet and where other players can build shared structures for anybody to use – recharge stations are frequent. Since it's your job to connect human settlements to the Chiral Network, though, you're often travelling outside of it. If you hit zero charge out in that barren territory, your options are as follows: get out and walk, or throw your head back, shout some expletives into the sky, and then get out and walk. How do they handle? Let's start with the Tri-Bike. In a way it's bang on trend – we've seen boxy Eighties design principles find their way back into the zeitgeist in EV form recently via the Hyundai N Vision 74 and Renault 5, so why not a Reliant Robin, too? While the latter was designed primarily to transport market traders' goods to and fro or go round corners on two wheels in BBC sitcoms, the Tri-Bike is an all-terrain vehicle capable of navigating rocky trails and scaling formidable hills. It's a marked upgrade on its inspiration, in that sense. Thank you for subscribing to our newsletter. Look out for your regular round-up of news, reviews and offers in your inbox. Get all the latest news, reviews and exclusives, direct to your inbox. However, very little joy can be extracted from the driving experience. That's partly down to the punishingly trundling top speed, partly down to the fact it takes corners like a shopping trolley, and also partly down to the scarcity of actual roads in DS2's Australia. Not strictly the vehicle's fault, but worth bearing in mind for any potential buyers. Oh dear. Does the Pickup Off-Roader fare any better? As a matter of fact, it does. The basic factory model might not excite, but this thing's got serious upgrade potential and – importantly for the end-times courier – cavernous boot space. A near-infinite amount of cargo can be loaded into the rear, and even when driving with heavy loads the steering maintains a lithe, responsive feel that Tri-Bike owners can only dream of. The fun really begins should you opt for anti-gravity module and mountain tyre upgrades, though. With this spec you can jump the car several feet in the air to clear substantial boulders, and drive up sheer mountain faces at full throttle. It's hard to find fault with that. It's also worth calling out the avant-garde seating position: the driving seat is positioned several feet clear of the giant front wheels, leaving you dangling in the air as you drive for extra ground clearance and, let's face it, cool points. Can you race them? Not really. Part of Death Stranding 's bizarre but lingering appeal is its slow, deliberate pacing, so anything quicker than walking pace feels nippy in this world. With that in mind, it's probably no surprise Hideo Kojima didn't think to build a banked oval circuit amidst his meditative hiking game about human connection. If you were particularly determined to find a performance angle, you could replay missions while trying to beat your previous time and refine your route on the map each time. But that doesn't suddenly turn it into Gran Turismo 7 . It's almost like this isn't a driving game at all. We'll level with you: it isn't. And yet it's a game in which driving accounts for the majority of your gameplay. What a curious dichotomy. If you can stomach the absence of lap times, there's a genuinely wonderful and thought-provoking experience to be had here, even though the cars handle like washing machines. There will be extended passages in which you grow bored, and moments in which you might actively come to dislike it. But Death Stranding 2 is a special kind of game that rewards perseverance with imaginative sci-fi, dreamy imagery and poignant social allegory every few hundred miles.
Geek Culture
09-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Geek Culture
Isolation & Inspiration: How The Pandemic Shaped ‘Death Stranding 2' For Hideo Kojima & Yoji Shinkawa
This interview has been edited for clarity. It's no secret that video game auteur Hideo Kojima ( Metal Gear franchise ) started work on a sequel to his hit game, Death Stranding (2019) before the pandemic began in 2020, but ultimately chose to adjust his narrative to reflect the impact that COVID-19 had around the world. After all, Kojima'-san's ability to make games that have an uncanny parallel to real-world events marks just one of the legendary game director and producer's talent in analysing trends in societal and political behaviour, and developing an intriguing narrative out of it, including the spread of misinformation, fake news and rise of artificial intelligence (AI) from Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty (2001). And what drove his decision was around the real-world isolation he felt during the global lockdown, itself a topic he wrote about and developed in the original game, not realising that his first game since his departure from leading Japanese developer and studio, Konami, about courier Sam Porter Bridges (Norman Reedus) hired to deliver items and supplies to isolated colonies after a global catastrophe, and ultimately reconnecting these pockets of people via a wireless communications network, would draw real-world parallels just a few months later. So what better way to revisit the theme, now based on actual experiences, explained the legendary creative mind behind the new sequel, Death Stranding 2: On the Beach , during the Taipei stopover of the Death Stranding World Strand Tour 2 , where he was also joined by the game's art director Yoji Shinkawa. Photo credit: Kojima Productions. 'During the pandemic, I felt very lonely,' Kojima-san shared in an interview with Geek Cutlure. 'There was no one in the office, and all the staff were working remotely. I even got sick during this time.' These personal experiences of disconnection became a crucible for the game's narrative and design, as Kojima-san then described his haunting walks through empty streets, a surreal landscape that directly mirrored the game's post-apocalyptic world. 'Usually busy paths were completely deserted. Benches were sealed off, and there were hardly any people,' he recalled. 'It looked really like there was no one in the world.' These solitary walks helped Kojima-san establish an updated basis for Bridges, as the global events now mirrored the desolate world of Death Stranding 2 , and the pandemic's enforced social distancing and sense of disconnection became a key inspiration for the game's exploration of human connection and loneliness. Photo credit: Kojima Productions. 'We had almost like a martial law. People wouldn't be allowed by the government to walk outside during the pandemic,' he said, further sharing how the COVID-19 pandemic profoundly influenced the game's core themes of human connection and isolation, but also proving that even in the most challenging times, creativity can find its most powerful expression. And while the narrative plays a key role, there's also another aspect in video games that draw in players, namely game design, and design itself and that falls on Kojima-san's long-time collaborator, Yoji Shinkawa, to turn words into detailed visual creations in a Hideo Kojima game. And it's an intricate creative process for all involved notes Shinkawa-san, providing an example using the striking red Ghost Mechs. Its design was born from a fundamental artistic principle of creating something truly individualistic. The key concept of the character design emerged from a big coffin, which became the structural basis for the characters' unique form. Kojima-san's visual direction played a crucial role in shaping the characters' appearance, resulting in a design that feels almost ritualistic, and the red armour, in particular, creates a sense of destructive energy that sets the Ghost Mechs apart. Drawing further inspiration from unexpected sources, Shinkawa-san incorporated elements reminiscent of Kojima-san's alien designs, particularly in the characters' head, which was heavily inspired from H.R. Giger's works of the iconic Xenomorph from the Alien film franchise, now easily recognised around the world. This approach resulted in a visual style that is both alien and familiar, ritualistic, and yet dynamic. Photo credit: Kojima Productions. Having worked closely together with Kojima-san for over 30 years, since Policenauts in 1994, Shinkawa-san has a comfortable working relationship with the noted game creator, but he also recognises how impactful the journey has been and how he has Kojima-san to thank back when he joined Konami in the '90s, as 'otherwise there would be no Yoji Shinkawa here today.'. 'When I was in my senior year in university, I applied for a job at Konami, and during my second interview, I had to decide which division I wanted to go to.' reminisces Shinkawa-san. 'At the time, I kind of said yes to work on a zombie gun shooting arcade game because I wanted to work on 3D models,' and before anyone can raise a point, Kojima-san acknowledges with a laugh, 'Yes, it was a very crappy game.' Ultimately he didn't go that route, because Kojima-san approached him in the early '90s to ask if he would like to work on his new concept for Metal Gear Solid . At the time Kojima-san was already working on Policenauts , so he roped in Shinkawa-san to clean up all the robot designs, while concurrently starting on making a model for Metal Gear Rex, but not in the offices. 'I asked Yoji to kind of make a model of Metal Gear Rex at home,' recalls Kojima-san. 'He did it at home in 3D. So at that time, back in the '90s, there was no emails or digital communication, so I would call Yoji everyday at around 5pm to ask how he's doing, and how was the modeling coming along.' Thankfully, the duo's current approach to the game's design philosophy is broader, incorporating a sense of purpose with world building within the game. For example, Kojima-san notes, at a separate press conference in Taipei with selected media, that his favourite tool is the ring-shaped terminal worn by Sam in the sequel, instead of the handcuff-shaped terminal in the original that symbolises a kind of restraint. Since Sam is no longer part of the Bridges organisation, it would be strange for him to still wear handcuffs, which necessitated the creation of a ring-shaped accessory which is activated like a competition ornament. Each of the five main members of the headquarters uses a different finger to activate their ring, and players can observe these details in the game. For Shinkawa-san, his joy in design can be found in the little things, such as the small truck and the tricycle introduced in this game because when it comes to designing machines, he aims for those that could only exist in games, animation, or movies and . He pays special attention to how these machines interact with players and the environment, ensuring unique experiences not possible in reality. If anything, it's the reconnection that Kojima-san wants players to feel after spending time with the game, which is about reconnecting the world through delivery. 'The team prepared various gameplay options, from direct combat to stealth, hoping the game would help rekindle connections formed during the pandemic,' he explains. Now that the sequel has been released to critical acclaim, there is the question of what's next though with the recent health scare for Kojima-san that required an operation and an evaluation of his life's priorities, there has been a revised approach to his understanding of life and death, and the cycle of life. 'So from a living thing, everything started from nothing, and then light, and this kind of goes on and on if we look at a map of a space, like a universe. So from looking at a very macro point, it means that this circulation is nothing really, it's always evolving,' muses the 61-year-old and the father of two when asked about his thoughts on future generations. 'So (it's the) same as just human beings. If you look at human beings, (a) child is raised by adults, and then the adults pass on to the children, and that children become adults, pass on to their children. It's kind of similar, is what I think.' Yonk is a geek who is fortunate enough to have an equally geeky Star Wars fan for a wife, who owns a LEGO Millennium Falcon encased in a glass coffee table as their home's centre-piece.
New York Times
05-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Stranded Again, but Unable to Escape an Auteur's Themes
The first moments of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach offer us glimpses of a very different sort of game. Sam Porter Bridges, the grumpiest delivery man in the postapocalypse, is awakened from his nap by a cooing baby's small pudgy fist. This is Lou, the child Sam saved at the end of Death Stranding by freeing her from an embryonic pod. Lou is a toddler now, at the mercy of Sam's clumsy single-dad shenanigans. You spend the first few hours of Death Stranding 2 toting Lou around in a custom harness, taking extra care not to trip while navigating pitched inclines. You watch as Sam cooks her breakfast, sings her lullabies and distracts her with toys. This touching sequence is cut short, unfortunately, so that the real game can begin. When Lou is taken away from Sam (Norman Reedus), he is thrust back into the deeply familiar role of a porter designated with reconnecting a bunch of estranged cities and bunkers. Like in the first game, most of the action of Death Stranding 2 involves making solitary, perilous deliveries — across mountains, through forests, over rivers — in order to rebuild a world torn apart by its returning dead. Though Death Stranding 2 has Sam connecting the forts and outposts of a ravaged Australia rather than the United States, its format remains the same. The game is less a sequel than a reiteration. Many of these story beats overlap with those of the game's 2019 predecessor. There's still Sam's ambivalent relationship to power and his reluctant, if inevitable, obedience to shadowy figures and organizations who wind up revealing their true nature in the third act (a staple plot device of the series' auteur director, Hideo Kojima). The dastardly Higgs Monaghan, playfully embodied by a returning Troy Baker, appears intermittently to foil Sam's steady advancement. There are even occasional visits to an alternate dimension where Sam must do battle against a mysterious man with sad, beautiful eyes; Neil Vana (Luca Marinelli) takes over the position that Cliff Unger (Mads Mikkelsen) ably filled the last time around. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
