Month: February 2020

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Star Wars: The Clone Wars has proven surprisingly resilient for a series that was technically canceled in 2013. A number of in-progress episodes were completed and released as a shorter sixth season dubbed Clone Wars: The Lost Missions, while other abandoned stories were told in new forms, like the comic book Darth Maul: Son of Dathomir and the novel Star Wars: Dark Disciple. And even if the animated series itself never quite gave us closure for characters like Ahsoka Tano, Captain Rex, and Darth Maul, the followup series Star Wars Rebels was only too happy to oblige.

It’s much easier nowadays to be at peace with the show’s untimely cancellation – and thankfully, it’s no longer even an issue. The Clone Wars is back for a seventh and final season, and the series immediately finds its groove despite being off the air for the better part of a decade.

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“The Bad Batch” immediately sets the tone for the final season. Even as the war draws closer to its dramatic conclusion, the Republic’s clone army is feeling the strain of mounting losses and an enemy that seems to predict its every move. Many of the series’ best story arcs have hinged on these clone heroes battling against overwhelming odds, so “The Bad Batch” feels like a great way to welcome the series back and further explore the toll of the war on those who were literally born to fight.

While it’s enough to see fan-favorite clones like Captain Rex and Commander Cody back in action, this episode stands out by introducing a very different roster of clone heroes: the titular Bad Batch – a group of clones far more independent and genetically diverse than normal. While on one hand the Star Wars geek in me can’t help but wish the series had simply dusted off the Republic Commandos for this particular storyline, this episode pretty quickly establishes why Clone Force 99 is the better option. With the premiere being so overwhelmingly clone-focused, it really helps to have characters with such distinct personalities. We need the comic relief provided by clones like Wrecker and Crosshair. The subtle rivalry and unease between Rex and his new comrades add another interesting layer to what might otherwise be a straightforward clones vs. droids mission.

Plus, the addition of the Bad Batch allows voice actor Dee Bradley Baker to cut loose. Baker practically carries this whole episode on his shoulders given how many of the characters are voiced by him. The series has always been surprisingly deft about differentiating the many clone characters even though they all look and sound pretty much the same. But in the case of these genetic abnormalities, they don’t look the same. Their personalities are much more extreme and over-the-top. Even in scenes with half a dozen or more clones sharing the same space, it never feels like one voice actor is talking to himself.

It’s also easy to see how much the series’ animation quality has improved in the six years since the Lost Missions. Fans may already be familiar with the Bad Batch arc, given that these four episodes were screened in rough animatic form at Star Wars Celebration 2015 and later released online. But it’s quite another thing to see this story play out in completed form with full visual effects. This still looks very much like the Clone Wars of old, but with a greater sense of detail and more dramatic camera angles. The upgrades are most apparent with Anakin, who suddenly looks a lot more like his Episode III self.

The upgrades are a welcome reminder that The Clone Wars still serves as the gold standard for Star Wars animation. While a worthy sequel in many ways, Rebels always suffered because of its comparatively stiff characters and barren, sterile environments. There’s much more detail and energy in this Clone Wars episode, which bodes well as we slowly march toward the long-awaited Siege of Mandalore arc.

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Warning: the remainder of this review contains spoilers for Season 7, Episode 1!

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Aside from the introduction of Clone Force 99, the biggest hook with “The Bad Batch” is definitely the reveal that fallen Clonetrooper Echo may still be alive and in Separatist custody. Here, too, this twist gives the storyline a bit of extra weight and differentiates it from similar clone vs. droid skirmishes. The series sometimes struggles to justify these longer story arcs, a problem that may come back into play with Season 7 being divided solely into a trio of four-episode arcs. But for now, “Bad Batch” starts things off on an eventful note.

It’s also a fitting twist with which to kick off the final season. The saga of Domino Squad has been one of the most important throughlines of the whole series, with that story seeming to come to an end when Fives was killed back in Season 6’s “Orders.” It seems only fitting that Season 7 finds a way to continue that story and potentially even find redemption for the one surviving Domino Squad member. We’ll see over the next few weeks whether the show can make good on that potential.

2020 is a big year for Halo, as Microsoft is releasing Halo Infinite as a launch title for Xbox Series X. While the company is yet to show any proper gameplay footage, some of the first merchandise around the game has been revealed. Hasbro announced new Nerf blasters earlier this week, and now another company has followed with its own announcement.

Mega Construx, the new toy brand from Mega Bloks, has announced it will be releasing new sets based on Halo Infinite. The company revealed these in a tweet today through a series of shadow-y images. From the looks of it, you can expect new Halo Infinite Mega Construx toys for the Warthog, Pelican, and Mongoose.

The announcement of these new Mega Construx toys for Halo Infinite arrive not long after Hasbro announced a new Halo Infinite-inspired Nerf blasters. Additionally, Wicked Cool Toys will produce new toys and collectables inspired by Halo Infinite.

Mega Construx and Wicked Cool Toys will show and discuss more of their Halo Infinite products during the New York Toy Fair this weekend.

Halo Infinite is poised for a big showing at E3 2020, which is coming up in June. In addition to Xbox Series X, Halo Infinite will play on Xbox One and PC.

Every now and then an Xbox Game Pass game will drop without any previous fanfare or announcement, which is always a nice surprise. The Early Access version of World of Horror has just joined the service, bringing a low-fi black-and-white scares to users worldwide.

World of Horror is an RPG with roguelike elements, set in a Japanese fishing village that is being reclaimed by the Old Gods. There are five characters to choose from in this Early Access version, and you can solve 10 mysteries through a text adventure-style interface.

If you’re familiar with the comics of Junji Ito (particularly Uzumaki, his masterpiece about a town infected by spirals), elements of World of Horror will look familiar. The game is also inspired by the works of H.P. Lovecraft.

The game is also available on Steam for $15, and will eventually make its way to Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One (including Game Pass) later in 2020. The launch trailer is below.

Cassandra Khaw, a scriptwriter for Ubisoft who previously worked on The Silence Under Your Bed and Where The Water Tastes Like Wine, is credited on the game’s script.

The first major patch for the game has also been released, addressing many early issues players have reported.

If you’re a subscriber to Xbox Game Pass for PC or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you can check the game out now at no additional cost.

In December, it was reported that League of Legends developer Riot Games would pay $10 million to settle a gender discrimination lawsuit. However, this settlement total was later thought to be many millions lower than what it should have been, and now it’s been withdrawn by the legal team representing the staffers who filed the lawsuit in the first place.

A new team of lawyers hired by the former female employees of Riot Games withdrew the proposed settlement of $10 million, saying it was the result of “alleged mistakes and improprieties by prior class counsel,” according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The members of the class action group have now hired women’s rights attorney Genie Harrison and employment lawyer Joseph Lovretovich to take over for the previous counsel.

The new legal team will fight for a much larger payout for the class group. The California Department of Fair Employment and House and the Department of Labor Standards and Enforcement said in January that the initial $10 million settlement was “rushed.”

The groups maintain that Riot Games should actually be on the hook for a further $390 million in damages, bringing the total settlement to $400 million.

All of the approximately 1,000 female employees who worked at Riot from November 2014 until the settlement is complete are set to receive a share of the payout. If it does come out to $400 million, and if it is divided equally, it would work out to $400,000 each–but that won’t be how it works. The Los Angeles Times reports that the payouts will depend on the length of their employment and their status as full-time versus contractor.

“These brave women spoke out against gender inequality and sexism, and I want to make sure they are fairly compensated,” Harrison said. “Our well-qualified statisticians are already analyzing pay data. We intend to recover the compensation due to the women of Riot Games and achieve institutional reform, in order to level the playing field for women.”

Lovretovich added: “We don’t step into these types of cases lightly, but where questions of fairness and justice are at stake, we want to ensure these class representatives are getting the justice they seek.”

An August 2018 expose from Kotaku’s Cecilia D’Anastasio contained numerous serious and dramatic accusations about the “bro culture” within Riot. Among the details was that managers were said to have had lists where they ranked women by attractiveness.

In August 2019, when the initial settlement was first announced, Riot maintained that it doesn’t have systemic issues related to gender discrimination, though it did acknowledge that the workplace environment was less than ideal.

“After extensively reviewing these issues, we can confidently state that gender discrimination (in pay or promotion), sexual harassment, and retaliation are not systemic issues at Riot,” the company said. “But, what we also learned during this process was that some Rioters have had experiences that did not live up to our values or culture. In addition, we’ve encountered considerable fatigue among Rioters, who have been drained by constant engagement with the internal and external dialogues emerging from these lawsuits and recurring media cycles.”

Riot Games is yet to comment on the withdrawal of this $10 million settlement.

Riot is owned by Chinese internet giant Tencent. The free-to-play MOBA reportedly brings in billions of dollars in revenue every year.