Erik Wolpaw (writer of Half-Life 2: Episodes One and Two, Portal, and Portal 2), has seemingly returned to Valve after apparently having left the company in 2017 to work on Psychonauts 2.

The discussion surrounding Wolpaw’s return began when Reddit user Trenchman noticed that Wolpaw’s name appears in the credits for Artifact (Valve’s recently released CCG title based on DOTA 2). Given that there had been no formal announcement of Wolpaw’s return to the company at that point, or even vague hints, his inclusion in the game’s credits struck many as being odd.

At the time, there was some discussion regarding whether or not Wolpaw had perhaps worked on Artifact in some capacity during his time with Valve. However, Reddit user Trenchman actually reached out to Gabe Newell’s Valve email address and was informed that Wolpaw had indeed returned to Valve. Trenchman has posted screens of the email and seems to have confirmed it is real, but this information is still being verified at this time.

Considering that Valve and Wolpaw haven’t denied the writer’s return to the company, though, we’re left to believe that he has indeed returned to Valve. The question now is: “What is he doing there?”

While it used to not be a big deal to hear that Valve has hired some writers, the fact that the company hasn’t made any narrative-based games (which used to be one of their trademarks) in some time now means that the apparent re-hiring of a name as big as Wolpaw is quite the big deal. Valve representatives (which include Newell himself) have stated that they are interested in making games again, so it’s highly likely that hires such as this might become more common as they seemingly put those plans into action.

Having said all of that, don’t expect Wolpaw to start work on Half-Life 3 as that project is pretty much confirmed to be dead at this point. However, there have been rumours of a Half-Life VR project, and we certainly wouldn’t discount the possibility that Valve could create another Portal or Left 4 Dead title (which Wolpaw also worked on).

It looks like Marvel is readying a major new video game project, with the iconic comic book publisher/modern multimedia giant teaming up a with talented team of developers.

The main headline here is that Marvel is working with Ben Brode, who previously worked at Blizzard Entertainment and served as director on the free-to-play card-collecting mobile game Hearthstone until his departure from the company in April 2018. 

Brode went on to set up a new indie studio called Second Dinner, along with Hearthstone executive producer Hamilton Chu and some other Blizzard alumni, and this is the team that will now be working on a Marvel title.

A Chinese company called NetEase has invested $30 million USD into Second Dinner, with the studio announcing that its first game will be set in the Marvel universe. Second Dinner officially announced the news with this video…

The game already exists in prototype form and play-testing has begun, and Second Dinner has plans to recruit new staff to push the project forward. The rather excitable current team describe the game as “sick” and “exciting” in the video above, with Art Director Jomaro Kindred offering this little statement:

“We are super excited to be working on a Marvel game. We’ve all loved this universe since we were little kids, we read the comics, we grew up with it. So if you want to be part of this experience with us at Second Dinner, let’s put our twist on it and bring it to the world.”

At this stage, details regarding the game itself are rather thin on the ground. It seems incredibly likely that it will be a mobile title, given that Second Dinner’s official website cites “deep, satisfying games that are optimized for mobile” as the company’s core focus. Marvel already has a card-collecting mobile game, though (in the shape of Marvel: Battle Lines), so it’ll be interesting to see what Second Dinner is cooking up.

As more news on this project comes to light, we’ll be sure to let you know.

This review contains spoilers.

5.1 Year Zero

At long last, the grand finale of Gotham begins. Gotham has always been a ‘throw it to the wall and see what sticks’ potpourri of madness and it looks like for the final season, all semblance of self-restraint is thrown out the window as Gotham plunges into the madness of No Man’s Land.

That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because while comic purists have always wanted to play connect the dots with comic book continuity, Gotham has consistently gone its own way and presented its own, shall we say, unique take on the Batman legend (we’re looking at you Jerome and Jeremiah). 

Needless to say, with a series finale looming, all bets are off. Characters could die or be eradicated from the Bat mythos because, for a show whose entire premise is a promise of tomorrow, there is no tomorrow. And while Gotham will be missed, it’s getting crowded in the Batman without Batman TV series world. Think about it, not including Gotham, there will soon be three other TV series that are going to be Batman adjacent without actually featuring Batman. 

There’s DC Universe’s Titans, there’s the upcoming Batwoman TV series, and there’s Pennyworth, an Alfred prequel of all things, with Gotham‘s Bruno Heller at the helm. Heck man, that’s a lot of Batman not Batman out there. So Gotham’s final season is going to have to stand out. And the first episode of the new season gets off to a fun start with the usual mount of plate spinning and scenery chewing. Because kids, ‘less we forget: This is Gotham! 

Things start off big with what seems to be a flash forward as Gordon, Bullock, Riddler, and Penguin lead a Helm’s Deep like defence against unknown invading hordes. This is all very appropriate because these four characters are basically our Gotham core four. While the series has gone very deep into the Bat legend and very deep into some strange places (that’s more TV Solomon Grundy than I ever imagined possible), the series has always orbited around James, Harvey, Edward, and Oswald.

Yes, there has always been a deep focus on Selina as well but she could not be featured in this flash forward tease because of reasons that will be made clear in a bit. Needless to say, No Man’s Land is going to get ugly very quickly and when you think about it, No Man’s Land is the perfect crazypants Bat story to close out Gotham.

After all, Gotham has become bloated with Bat villains so a No Man’s Land inspired story arc to end the series allows for every villain introduced to play a part in the final episodes. Here’s the breakdown: 

Penguin controls city hall and the Gotham armoury, Barbara Kean and her Sirens control the area around Barbara’s club and also control food distribution, the west of Gotham is controlled by Scarecrow (still wearing the best freakin’ comic accurate costume in super hero media), Firefly and Mister Freeze are warring for the north of Gotham, and the GCPD controls the area around the precinct while caring for the citizens of the besieged city. Plus, we are left with a few wild cards. We don’t know where Lee Thompkins or Hugo Strange are, Riddler is waking up in dumpsters as his Edward Nygma personality tries to reinsert itself, Jeremiah is still among the missing, and we still have the enigma of the newly introduced Orphan. Man, that’s a lot of plot.  

So where’s Bruce Wayne in all this, you ask? Bruce is with Selina who is paralysed after the tragic events of the last season finale. But Bruce has not abandoned his civic responsibility as, through Lucius Fox, Bruce is supplying Gordon and the GCPD with supplies. This week, Bruce orders a chopper delivery, which kicks off the main action for the season five premiere. 

As for Selina, seeing the always confident and capable young woman paralysed has the emotional resonance it’s supposed to. It’s hard to watch such a powerful portrayal of Catwoman confined to a bed, and it’s all played with the appropriate amount of gravitas despite the camp trappings of the rest of the series. There is hope, as Selina undergoes an experimental surgery to restore some of her mobility, but during the operation, Scarecrow raids GCPD and the hospital where Selina is being operated on. This leads to the most Batman moment of arguably the entire series so far as Bruce dons night vision goggles to take down Scarecrow and his goons. Scarecrow makes off with a tonne of prescription drugs leaving Bruce desperate to help Selina. This would all be just mindless action without Selina at the heart of it. Later in the episode, Selina tries to kill herself because she can’t stand having lost her mobility. 

It seems like through the whole No Man’s Land ordeal, it will be Selina’s life that will be the highest stakes.  But there is a dark hope. A mysterious nurse tells Bruce, “She needs the Witch.” Who can the witch be? Might it be Lee Thompkins? When last we saw Lee, she was dying but in the insidious hands of Hugo Strange?  Or is there a new player in Gotham? Because with our boat load of current characters and with Bane and Harley on the way, one not just front load the final season with a hardcover DC’s Who’s Who worth of players? 

So really, none of the heroes start off the season in a good place, nor does the Riddler. But somehow, Penguin is doing better than ever. He is munching on steak and feeding his bulldog (named Edward in a nice touch) more vittles than most Gotham citizens eat. He controls the flow of bullets and has kind of become the Gotham version of The Walking Dead‘s Negan. Penguin even gets a Dark Knight Rises inspired knee brace to help with his limp. So when Bruce’s copter goes down thanks to a mystery assailant (Bane? Jeremiah?), Penguin and the GCPD led by Gordon race to retrieve the much needed supplies. 

A stand-off ensues until Tabitha Galavan shows up to kill Penguin. Don’t forget, Penguin killed Butch right after Butch was cured of the Grundy curse. Butch died in Tabby’s arms and Barbara Kean’s gal Friday has sworn revenge. It’s a fun stand-off with Penguin taking the fallen copter, GCPD arriving and Tabby Galavan making her last stand for Butch. And it all ends badly as our cast whittles down by one. Penguin gets the upper hand on Tabby and stabs her in the heart. Barbara arrives to see her most trusted confidant die, so I guess Barbara will be motivated by revenge this season as the multi-part gang war heats up.  

Bruce and Gordon end up with the chopper swag as we close things out with a subtle but effective change to the Bruce/Gordon dynamic. After the battle with Scarecrow and the battle to save the supplies, Bruce really stepped up to help save the day. It’s clear that Gordon does not see Bruce as a kid anymore. Gordon is no longer Bruce’s caretaker; he is Bruce’s peer as the Batman and Commissioner Gordon bond continues to evolve.

But Bruce and viewers are left unsatisfied because Selina is still essentially suicidal and Bruce will have to help her fight her toughest fight as Gotham slowly starves and burns. Well, that should certainly make for a dramatic new season as we are left with the questions of who shot down the copter and who is the Witch?

I guess we’ll find out nest week, same Bat time, same Bat channel. 

Read Marc’s review of the season four finale, No Man’s Land, here.

Gotham season 5 is expected to air in the UK from Spring 2019 on E4.