We all know how Keanu Reeves killed it in The Matrix, he was born for the role... but did you know he wasn't the first choice of The Wachowski bros at the time. I've known this for a while and whenever conversation steers to movie trivia, or The Matrix trivia, I pull this out. Now, Smith himself has talked about it on his vlog.

Will talks about coming off of massive hits in Independence Day and Men in Black, after which he was approached by the Wachowskis about The Matrix. Their pitch to him made him steer clear of it, opting to star in Wild Wild West at the time, and we know how that ended up. I do love that he says Keanu killed it as Neo and Laurence Fishburne as Morpheus, where he says the races would've been switched if he took the starring role of Neo as Val Kilmer would've most likely been Morpheus.

Can you imagine that? Val Kilmer as Morpheus? Yeah, I can't either.

Every gamer knows the conversations that video games cause violence, and many studies have been done backing-up both sides of the debate, but now a new study has published. The study comes from Oxford University and it has shedded some new light onto the subject.

The controversy claims of video games causing violence has been around since the creation of the video games, and really took off after the Columbine High School Massacre. The tragic massacre was conducted by two high school students, Eric David Harris and his friend Dylan Bennet. Harris showed extreme enthusiasm for the Doom series, he owned novels from the game and even pointed out in the videos that the massacre would be much like Doom and even the shotgun used was "straight out of doom". This connection sparked the already present idea that video game use directly correlated to increasing levels of violence.

The new study that has come out of the online Oxford Internet Institute, which comes under the title of 'Royal Society Open Science'. The published study provides substantial evidence towards there being no connection between video games and violence. The method used ensures that bias' were not a variable when conducting the study, this was done through hypothesis' done before the research was completed. Research professor, Andrew Przybylski said; "A cherry-picked result can add undue weight to the moral panic surrounding video games. The registered study approach is a safeguard against this."

Metro Exodus will have a 2GB day-one update that developer 4A Games is blasting out to gamers, with the update fixing up a bunch of stuff on all versions of hte game and a bunch of PC-specific updates as well.

On the PC version of Metro Exodus we have improved DLSS thanks to updated learned data from NVIDIA, RTX improverments and bug fixing, tuned HDR saturation, additional HUD removal options in Ranger Mode, and added Motion Blur options. The full list of updates is after the jump.

I'll be starting my DLSS testing early next week on all GeForce RTX cards, as well as 8K benchmarking of Metro Exodus (and the nearly-released Far Cry New Dawn, too).

Well folks... here we are. We're at a time when I'm writing news about a nude mode for the super-successful Resident Evil 2 remake, with somone wanting to mod Claire Redfield into a nude model running around the horrific world of the RE2 remake.

The new nude mod for Resident Evil 2 remake is available on Nexus Mods, and will be invisible to you if you're a guest. You'll need to make an account on the site to enable the adult-rated mods, such as the nude Resident Evil 2 remake mod.

Claire isn't fully nude in the mod, with just the top half of her being naked and the bottom half of the character covered in pants. It's funny watching the videos of it though, because it even changes the cutscenes with the topless version of Claire crawling and running around. For those who want to check out the chops on Leon Kennedy, yeah well you aren't in luck just yet.

Respawn has just released the first patch for battle royale smash hit Apex Legends, with a bunch of fixes built into the patch and a surprise Valentine's Day treat for gamers, too.

The new update for Apex Legends has the usual improvements in performance, the UI, and to bugs that saw gamers exploiting holes in the Apex Legends. Respawn have improved stability on both client and server side, with the patch rolling out on Origin by the time you've read this. For the full change log, click into the full story to see what Respawn has tuned in Apex Legends.

Apart from that, what do you think of the game? I've played it for a few hours and I'm thoroughly impressed with what Respawn has done. I want to play a bunch more of it and definitely write about it from the perspective of an Overwatch addict, as it's all I play.

A group of collectors have just spent a huge $100,150 on a copy of the original Super Mario Bros. in mint condition, with Heritage Auctions selling the original NES game that "set a world record for a graded game".

Super Mario Bros. in mint condition being auctioned off for $100,150 makes it the most expensive copy that had its condition professionally graded and certified, which is pretty crazy. The $100,150 wasn't a single person purchasing it either, rather it was a group of collectors that purchased a piece of gaming history.

The unopened copy of Super Mario Bros. changed over the course of its run between 1985 and 1994, with Nintendo pumping out 11 different box variations. The first two variations of the game were "sticker sealed" copies that only reached New York and LA test market launches of the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) in 1985 and 1986. This mint condition copy of the game that sold for over $100,000 is the only known "sticker sealed" copy that was certified by Wata Games which gave it a Near Mint grade of 9.4 and 'Seal Rating' of A++.

If the new trailer is anything to go by, Anthem's new film is nothing short of sci-fi mastery.

Renowned sci-fi director Neill Blomkamp (Elysium, District 9, Chappie) is making a live action short film centered around Anthem. The film is called Anthem: Conviction, and today EA and Blomkamp released a three minute trailer. The results are legitimately one of the most impressive bits of science fiction cinematography I've ever seen. Conviction has big-budget production values of a million-dollar film, with a delicious blend of practical and CGI effects that crystallize the true potential with video game films.

The best thing about Conviction is how epic it makes BioWare's new IP look and feel.

Microsoft reveals key data about its buffet-style Xbox Game Pass service, underlining why the subscription is so important for its current and long-term growth.

Xbox Game Pass is doing wonders for Microsoft's engagement-driven strategy. The $10 a month service feeds into every moving part of the new cross-platform Xbox business strategy: not only do Game Pass subscribers buy more games, but they actually play more games too. With a selection of more than 100 games, the service tremendously boosts visibility across genres and invites players to try out both new and old titles. In short, Game Pass users are buying more titles and spending more time playing games (this last part is great for live games with microtransactions and will typically ensure subscriptions don't lapse).

Although Microsoft is typically coy with data, it makes exceptions when things are going well. In a recent interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, key Xbox execs gave some interesting data points. Game Pass users are playing games 20% longer, and subscribers are playing new games; their overall variance jumps by a huge 40%.

Ubisoft's new slate of games for Fiscal Year 2020 (April 1, 2019 through March 31, 2020) will include up to four new major frontline releases. And one of them could be Watch Dogs 3.

Today Ubisoft announced strong nine-month revenues on the back of continued engagement monetization, game sales, and long-term appeal of its IPs. But what does the future hold? Ubisoft's game release cadence will continue as it has with a steady stream of titles. In the Ubisoft earnings call, company CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed it'll release anywhere from 3 to 4 major new AAA games in FY2020.

"I cannot comment on the contents, but I can tell you that our usual template is to come with 3-4 AAA games per year, and this is still a valid template for next year. At the same time we're going to come with 3-4 AAA games but we can't comment more," Guillemot said.

Hollow Knight is getting a fully-fledged sequel with a new hero, new environments, and new bosses--it's more of the same classic hack-and-slash platforming in a new exciting wrapper.

Today Team Cherry announced Silksong, a sequel for their fantastic indie hit Hollow Knight. Originally planned as a DLC to the main game, Silksong morphed into something much bigger and became its own beast over time. Hollow Knight vets will recognize Silksong's hero, Hornet, and her ninja-like reflexes and iconic needle-spear.

That distinct exotic visual style is there in spades, and Silksong's combat looks absolutely amazing. Hornet zips around like an insectoid acrobat, deftly double-jumping, rush-slashing, and flipping across the game's eerily beautiful stages. As a huge fan of the original Hollow Knight, I can't wait to try this one out--I have a feeling it'll be like Specter Knight was to Shovel Knight's original launch.