Month: May 2020

Half-Life: Alyx has received a new update, bringing the game up to version 1.4, and it’s added a nifty new feature–liquid inside bottles. That’s not normally the kind of thing that would excite us, but Half-Life: Alyx’s liquids are an exception.

The GIF below shows off the new liquid in action inside a bottle, and it looks extremely realistic. The new feature isn’t the liquid itself so much as the physics underpinning it, which should look extra impressive in VR.

Update 1.4 adds several other features and fixes to the game, including a raft of new subtitles, some UI improvements, and crash fixes. The Workshop has also been updated, which will be good news for anyone who likes to tinker.

The full notes for the update are below.

Half-Life Alyx Update 1.4

Game Features

• Added subtitles for: Brazilian, Czech, Hungarian, Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
• Bottles now appear to have liquid inside them that sloshes around as you shake them.
• UI appears quicker when returning to Main Menu
• Improvements to addon management UI

Game Fixes

• Added checks for users loading a savegame with missing addons (eg. unsubscribed or deleted)
• Added error message if a game fails to load due to a missing map requested by an addon
• Various crash fixes
• Fixed bug where exiting the game by closing SteamVR could generate bad save files

Workshop Features

• Enabled the Postprocessing Editor (Documentation)
• Added “Custom Character” example addon (Documentation)
• Added example maps for:
  • Blind Zombie (a.k.a. Jeff)
  • Hacking and Toner Puzzles
  • Parked Vehicles and other Interactive Prefabs
  • Visibility System (Documentation)
  • Postprocessing Volumes (Documentation)
• Added core functionality required for Lua scripting and added some Alyx-specific script bindings for querying VR controller input and creating nav mesh paths from entity scripts
• Enabled live bone constraints in SFM, which can be baked/enabled as procedural bones, like cloth

Workshop Fixes

• Fixed case where some explicitly specified meshes became hulls. (eg. func_shatterglass will now build in a map without having to enable legacy collision mesh.)
• Added some meshes that were missing from parked vehicle prefabs.
• Made SFM UI less Dota-specific in a few places
• Fixed missing map models (mostly combine stations) in SFM
• Fixed Import Sequence in SFM to work correctly on sequences with animated root orientation

Half-Life: Alyx received a 9/10 in GameSpot’s review. If you don’t have the VR set-up for it, you can check out our guide–or you can at least experience some of the joy of a new Half-Life by listening to the soundtrack.

Minecraft Dungeons is out now, and Microsoft has teamed up with the fashion company CLOAK to release a clothing series for the title–including, yes, a series of wearable cloaks. The brand, which was co-founded by Minecraft content creators Markiplier and Jacksepticeye, has released a whole range of Minecraft clothing.

Along with cloaks, which are undoubtedly the highlight (especially if you’re living in a cold climate currently), there’s also shirts, hoodies, jogger pants, and caps available. All the clothing in this range is inspired by Minecraft Dungeons, and the Bauhaus and De Stijl art movements are cited as influences.

The cloaks are “ultra-limited”, according to the press release, and are designed for comfort in mind. They’re also, of course, the exact sort of outfit you might wear if you were exploring a dungeon. You can see more from the range below.

10% of the proceeds from every sale of the CLOAK brand will be donated towards the United Nations Foundation’s COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund, too, assisting the World Health Organization in tracking and fighting back against the coronavirus.

Minecraft Dungeons is available now on Xbox One and PC through Xbox Game Pass, as well as PS4 and Switch. It received a 7/10 in GameSpot’s review.

Warning: Full spoilers for the final season premiere of Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD follow.

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The official end of the Marvel Television era is upon us as Agents of SHIELD, which was once the MCU’s heavily-hyped TV flagship, kicks off its farewell season with, appropriately, a storyline that’s almost totally untethered from the overall goings-on in the Marvel-verse – so much so that everything starts with a rollicking romp back to 1931 for a few time travel shenanigans.

Obviously, the story still involves SHIELD, and thus Hydra (thanks to the reveal that the Chronicoms are out to eliminate Hydra from forming so that – er – SHIELD never forms?), but it’s still all nestled within the show’s insulated Hydra mythology (Gideon Malick, Maveth, etc) that doesn’t veer too close to the MCU’s big screen storylines, and the Chronicoms, which were beings created for the series back at the tail end of Season 4. The draw here, in the show’s sunset season, are the characters we’ve been following for almost a decade. Anyone still on board with the show is watching because of Quake, May, Coulson, and the rest of this bizarre, unstuck-in-spacetime “family” (as, truly, none of them have anyone else except each other now).

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Marvel Television (which was officially folded into Marvel Studios last October) was a modest success in its own right — with programming on Netflix, ABC, Freeform, and Hulu — but it was a noble failure on the MCU front. It was always a one-way street, with the TV shows alluding to the movies but never the other way around. Eventually, when Runaways and Cloak and Dagger started, the shows just stopped acting like the Avengers existed at all. And Agents of SHIELD, as of Season 5 (or really the second half of Season 4), decided the best course for itself was to remove its players from the game board completely – whether it meant putting them in a Matrix-style reality or wiping them from the timeline altogether so they wouldn’t be affected by Thanos.

Fortunately, by the time that was necessary, Agents of SHIELD had built up a solid-enough team dynamic, filled with enough love affairs and close bonds and (numerous) resurrections that allowed it to evolve into a soapy superhero joy in its own right, no longer needing to rely on the Marvel Studios films as a backdrop. The gang’s new adventure, which now has them surfing their own rebooted timeline in that timeline’s past, feels like the kind of fun and charming adventure these crusaders should be having as the series winds down. That’s not to say the stakes won’t rise as the season pushes on, but right now even with the “Wilfred Malick” twist right at the end, the show feels more dopey than dangerous. (In a good way, mind you.)

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“The New Deal” drops our prime time players back in the Prohibition, as the Chronicoms (except for Enoch) intend to muss up the works so that they can lay claim to Earth as their new home. As soon as Deke mentions a theory that allows the team to create a smidgeon of havoc in the past without Butterfly Effecting things too much, it’s off to the races. Quake takes down hidden enemies posing as cops, Patton Oswalt shows up as the original Koenig, and Coulson — who has now (finally) become a full LMD — geeks out while meeting FDR.

We don’t know yet how many of this season’s thirteen episodes will take place in the ’30s, though it feels like perhaps the bulk of the season will have this post-Great Depression setting, as even the opening title graphic is done up in old-style noir. We do know that Enver Gjokaj’s Agent Carter character (and Peggy’s love interest), Souza, is headed our way, so given the Hydra element and the (presumed) super-soldier serum we saw, this final run could lead into some really cool First Avenger stuff. And since Agent Carter got axed before its time, perhaps this series can offer up some mini-closure on that front. It’s doubtful that Hayley Atwell will pop in, but perhaps a teenage Peggy is in the cards.

The SHIELD team is, more or less, the best version of themselves right now. Coulson’s back, but not as a deluded manifestation from the fear dimension (did I get that right?). Quake is still a badass in the field. Mac is still a “heavy is the head”-style of director. A recuperating Yo-Yo now has her “real” arms back while Simmons keeps the Z1 home fires burning. Deke is a drip, but a delightful one. Fitz is, naturally, gone, as he’s wont to do. And May is…well, we’re not sure yet. After being almost killed by Sarge last season, she spent the premiere in a healing pod – but then popped up right at the end in menacing fashion. The Season 7 premiere is a good (and semi-goofy) start to SHIELD’s last hurrah, giving us just enough teases to indicate bigger things are on the way.

Grand Theft Auto VI is presumed to be the next title in development at Rockstar Games, and now an SEC filing by publisher Take-Two Interactive might indicate that it won’t be ready until 2023. [Update: Take-Two has contradicted the takeaway in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, saying the table only reflects marketing commitments for third-party companies and not its internal projects. As a result, this wouldn’t indicate any potential marketing spend on a new Rockstar game.]

A 10-K filing by Take-Two, which includes presumed marketing spend for the next five years, shows that the company is planning to spend over $89 million in its 2023 financial year. This period starts on April 1 2023 and ends on March 31 2024, with double the marketing budget than any other year during this five-year stretch by. According to analyst Jeff Cohen of investment firm Stephens (and reported by VentureBeat), the budget is likely for Grand Theft Auto VI.

Despite this, Cohen points to previous 10-K filings by Take-Two where the marketing budget accurately predicted the launch windows of games before their announcement, with Red Dead Redemption 2 being the most recent example. Although timeline can change over a five-year forecast, it seems plausible that Take-Two’s current plan is to launch the next Grand Theft Auto installment a decade after Grand Theft Auto V.

With both the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 launching later this year, and the on-going success of Grand Theft Auto Online, it seems Rockstar is in no hurry with getting a sequel out. That, coupled with the departure of Rockstar founder Dan Houser earlier this year, would likely tempt the developer to continue supporting its online offering while planning for a new era in their most popular franchise.

Take-Two Interactive recently announced that Grand Theft Auto V had passed over 130 million sales since its launch in 2013, which accounts for more than 40% of all Grand Theft Auto sales across the entire series. The publisher has also revealed that it has 93 games in development currently, but declined to talk about the future of Grand Theft Auto.

Josh Gad is gathering the cast of The Lord of the Rings for his quarantine-friendly web show Reunited Apart. Gad’s LOTR reunion special will air this weekend on his YouTube channel, but he’s released a brief teaser via Twitter.

Enjoy this tease! To watch the full trailer for #LordOfTheRings #ReunitedApart go to https://t.co/H5wpKJTjxm NOW and SUBSCRIBE! Catch the entire episode this Sunday at 9:00 AM PT / 12:00 OM EST only at https://t.co/PtdorqAZ6O pic.twitter.com/7G3WbUI6ho

— Josh Gad (@joshgad) May 27, 2020

The teaser reveals Sean Astin, Elijah Wood, Orlando Bloom, Dominic Monaghan, Billy Boyd, and Ian McKellen will make an appearance, but a recent post by Dominic Monaghan on Instagram confirmed the attendance of many other core cast and crew, including Sean Bean, Viggo Mortensen, Andy Serkis, John Rhys-Davies, Karl Urban, Miranda Otto, and Peter Jackson.

This upcoming Lord of the Rings reunion is the fourth Gad had arranged for Reunited Apart, following The Goonies, Back to the Future, and Splash. The specials aim to raise money for COVID-19-related charitable causes.

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Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter sporadically @MrLukeReilly.

Warner Bros. reportedly still intends to bring back Henry Cavill as Superman in a future DC movie, although which one remains unclear.

Deadline claims they’ve heard “Cavill could come back in a couple of different ways, not a standalone film, but there are plans to put him back in the big red cape again sources with knowledge tell us.” Variety reports that Cavill is “is in talks to return as Clark Kent in an upcoming DC Comics movie.”

Deadline points out that while Wonder Woman 1984 and The Suicide Squad are already done filming, and Superman isn’t expected to appear in 2021’s The Batman, Cavill’s Man of Steel could appear in such future DC productions as Shazam 2, Black Adam, or Aquaman 2.

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Shazam 2 seems like a likely bet given the Superman cameo at the end of the first movie, but Black Adam could also be a possibility given Dwayne Johnson’s previous pronouncement that a Superman/Black Adam brawl “is in the cards.”

Cavill recently appeared in Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel watch party during which time the release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League was officially announced.

Deadline’s report follows rumors from Heroic Hollywood which claimed Warner Bros. had put the brakes on developing a Supergirl movie in favor of another Superman project starring Cavill.

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It was reported in 2018 that Henry Cavill was out as Superman, while Cavill later insisted the role was still his (as did his Justice League co-star Jason Momoa).

Cavill still has to finish filming Season 2 of Netflix’s The Witcher, which was shutdown indefinitely due to the coronavirus pandemic.

His next movie, Enola Holmes, sees Cavill play Sherlock Holmes. The film was originally meant to be released theatrically by Warner Bros. but will now debut on Netflix instead.

WarnerMedia’s HBO Max has officially launched, with over 10,000 hours of movies and shows from the company’s vast entertainment library. (Here’s every TV show and movie available on HBO Max at launch.) For the price of a regular HBO subscription, you’ll have access to a library that includes Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty, HBO’s Game of Thrones, TNT’s The Alienist, and a slew of anime from Studio Ghibli and Crunchyroll, as well as HBO Max’s own Originals developed exclusively for the platform.

At launch, the streamer has a small collection of scripted, unscripted, and documentary shows for you to binge, including a new batch of Looney Tunes Cartoons, a rom-com series starring Anna Kendrick, and a new late-night show featuring Elmo as the host. Below, we’ve reviewed the first batch of HBO Max Originals, with more to come as new shows are released over the next few months, including the first of several Adventure Time specials, Season 2 of Doom Patrol, and Regular Show creator JG Quintel’s new animated comedy Close Enough.

Looney Tunes Cartoons

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Official Plot Synopsis: Looney Tunes Cartoons is an all-new series from Warner Bros. Animation starring the cherished Looney Tunes characters. Looney Tunes Cartoons echoes the high production value and process of the original Looney Tunes theatrical shorts with a cartoonist-driven approach to storytelling. Marquee Looney Tunes characters will be featured in their classic pairings in simple, gag-driven, and visually vibrant stories. The new series will include 80 eleven-minute episodes, each comprised of animated shorts that vary in length and include adapted storylines for today’s audience. Fans can also look forward to holiday-themed specials. Looney Tunes Cartoons is produced by Warner Bros. Animation and features a talented group of voice cast members including Eric Bauza, Jeff Bergman, and Bob Bergen. Pete Browngardt (Uncle Grandpa) and Sam Register (Teen Titans Go!) serve as executive producers.

Verdict: Warner Bros.’ wacky 90-year-old animated franchise returns with a hefty batch of new adventures (80 in total, with 10 episodes available at launch) featuring iconic characters like Bugs Bunny, Porky Pig, Daffy Duck, Tweety Bird and more. Looney Tunes Cartoons honors the past with its distinct animation and over-the-top comedic antics that evoke classic storylines – such as Bugs battling a mad scientist and his hairy monster Gossamer. Everything here feels (if you’re familiar) very much like the Looney Tunes of old without trying to modernize any of the subject matter or violence for today’s audience. Whether or not this new iteration will appeal to a new generation remains to be seen, but if you’ve been longing for some old school Looney Tunes, then this should scratch that itch. (And if not, HBO Max also boasts all the classic Looney Tunes cartoons as part of its library.) – David Griffin

Score: 8

Love Life

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Official Plot Synopsis: Love Life, the first full-length scripted series to star Oscar-nominee Anna Kendrick, is about the journey from first love to last love, and how the people we’re with along the way make us into who we are when we finally end up with someone forever. This fresh take on a romantic comedy anthology series is from creator and co-showrunner Sam Boyd (In a Relationship) and is produced by Lionsgate Television and Feigco Entertainment. The series will follow a different protagonist’s quest for love each season, with each half-hour episode telling the story of one of their relationships. Anna Kendrick (Pitch Perfect, A Simple Favor) stars in the first season along with Zoë Chao (Downhill, Strangers), Peter Vack (Someone Great, The Bold Type), Sasha Compere (Miracle Workers, Uncorked), and Lesley Manville (Phantom Thread, Another Year). Kendrick serves as an executive producer alongside Paul Feig (A Simple Favor, Bridesmaids) and Dan Magnante (Someone Great). Sam Boyd, who wrote the pilot and directs, also executive produces with co-showrunner and executive producer Bridget Bedard (Transparent and Ramy).

Verdict: Anna Kendrick is reliably charming in her most prominent TV role to date, providing Love Life with its beating heart; it’s just a pity that the show surrounding her feels so conventional. Coming after Hulu’s stylish (and considerably more adventurous) High Fidelity, which also tackles the idea of revisiting a person’s formative relationships over the course of one season, Love Life is a bittersweet but frustratingly safe exploration of how our dating choices can have ripple effects throughout our lives, treading ground that many dramedies have explored before. Kendrick keeps things buoyant (assisted by a scene-stealing Zoe Chao), and the series’ 30-minute episodic structure helps keep the momentum going for an easy, diverting binge, but for a show about the highs and lows of love, it can’t help but feel strangely half-hearted. – Laura Prudom

Score: 7

The Not Too Late Show With Elmo

Official Plot Synopsis: Elmo is the host of his very own talk show and he’s going to bring you some (not-too-late) fun with an all-new, celeb-studded talk show series. This brand-new “primetime” series brings familiar Sesame Street friends like Elmo, Cookie Monster, celebrity guests, and laughs the whole family can enjoy! Elmo will interview guests such as fellow late-night hosts Jimmy Fallon and John Oliver, comedian John Mulaney, New York Times best-selling author Kwame Alexander, actress Blake Lively, and award-winning musical acts Lil Nas X and The Jonas Brothers. The Not Too Late Show with Elmo is produced by Sesame Workshop.

Verdict: In his latest venture, Elmo attempts to carve himself on spot on the Mount Rushmore of iconic television late-night hosts like Carson, Letterman, and Leno with a talk show of his own. The Not Too Late Show features all of the elements you’d come to expect in this genre, such as a house band, live studio audience, and celebrity guests like the Jonas Brothers. The problem with HBO Max’s take on this type of show is that it doesn’t offer anything new (despite the puppet host) and is a bit awkward at times, as celebrities try to interact with Elmo in a natural way. But more often than not, the conversations feel forced and the concept feels too adult for kids to enjoy (does the Sesame Street audience really crave a late-night format?) and too juvenile for grown-ups. Elmo, adorable as he is, is no Conan O’Brien. – David Griffin

Score: 5

Craftopia

Official Plot Synopsis: Craftopia is an epic kids crafting competition show hosted and executive produced by YouTube influencer Lauren Riihimaki aka (LaurDIY). Creating and demonstrating crafts to over 8.9 million subscribers on her YouTube channel, LaurDIY has been deemed the “millennial Martha Stewart” by Forbes. On Craftopia, 9 to 15-year old contestants put their imaginations to the test and make their crafting dreams come true in a magical studio. After racing to fill up their carts with inspiring materials from the studio “store,” crafters meet larger-than-life challenges, making truly inventive and amazing creations in order to take home the ‘Craftrophia.’ Craftopia is executive produced by Rhett Bachner and Brien Meagher for B17 Entertainment.

Verdict: This delightful crafting competition series, featuring contestants between the ages of 9 to 15, showcases the unique talents of these creative youngsters in their quest to win a $5,000 grand prize. Each episode has a different competitive theme, like creating a memorable wall hanging or party invitation using the various tools and crafting supplies found in the colorful studio store. YouTube star LaurDIY is a great host, who not only encourages the contestants but also offers insightful tips about how you can make similar creations at home. Whether you’re a long-time crafter or a newbie, Craftopia is an inspiring and charming look at some of the best young talent around. – David Griffin

Score: 8

Legendary

Official Plot Synopsis: Pulling directly from the underground ballroom community, voguing teams (aka “houses”) must compete in unbelievable balls and showcase sickening fashion in order to achieve “legendary” status. The cast includes MC Dashaun Wesley and DJ MikeQ as well as celebrity judges Law Roach, Jameela Jamil, Leiomy Maldonado, and Megan Thee Stallion. From Scout Productions, Emmy Award ® winners David Collins (Queer Eye), Rob Eric (Queer Eye) and Michael Williams (Queer Eye) serve as executive producers. Jane Mun (People’s Choice Awards, MTV Music Awards, America’s Best Dance Crew) and Josh Greenberg (Lip Sync Battle, Sunday Best, America’s Best Dance Crew) serve as executive producers and showrunners.

Verdict: Legendary is pure chaos, and you’ll either love it or hate it on those terms. If you’re a newcomer to the world of ball culture (or, like me, only have cursory knowledge thanks to FX’s Pose), Legendary doesn’t offer much background or context on the diverse community at its heart – diving headfirst into flashy dance contests with only a brief introduction to each of the eight competing houses who are vying for supremacy. That breakneck pace – not to mention the jaw-dropping death drops – makes this glitter-packed competition series an engaging (if slightly overwhelming) watch, but it’s unlikely to serve as an easily digestible introduction for anyone who’s not already interested in voguing or the underground ballroom scene, and by focusing solely on the performances, it feels like we’re missing out on the human connection that has made RuPaul’s Drag Race such an addictive hit. – Laura Prudom

Score: 6

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What do you think of HBO Max’s launch day lineup? Weigh in below! If you’re still confused how to sign up for HBO Max, check out our guide, the key differences between HBO Max, HBO Now, and HBO Go, and which notable DC TV shows and movies are missing from the launch. Plus, learn why you can’t watch HBO Max on Fire TV and Roku yet, and get the intel on the addition of Darkseid to Zack Snyder’s cut of Justice League.

Hitting more than a year after launch, the big patch that coincided with the release of Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath is exactly the kind of shot in the arm that MK11 needs to keep going strong in its second year. There are new stages, Friendships for every character, a plethora of big-time balance changes that shake up the meta, stage fatalities, quality of life improvements, and more.

The best part is, all of that is free. You don’t need the $40 Aftermath expansion to experience any of it. …Which makes the value of the actual expansion itself a bit questionable. Don’t get me wrong, what little content Aftermath offers is great. The three-hour campaign is a worthy epilogue to the main Mortal Kombat 11 story, and the trio of new characters – Fujin, Sheeva, and RoboCop – are all interesting in their own ways (though some are more interesting than others). But no matter how you slice it, there’s just not much meat on Aftermath’s bones when you compare it to most expansions.

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Aftermath’s campaign picks up right where Mortal Kombat 11 leaves off and takes us on a predictable but enjoyable and action-packed side-story that inserts all of the non-guest DLC characters.

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Shang%20Tsung%20has%20one%20of%20the%20best%20shit-eating%20grins%20I’ve%20ever%20seen.”]Easily the best part of the whole Aftermath campaign is actor Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa as Shang Tsung, who – along with stealing souls – also steals every single scene that he’s in. It should be obvious to any MK fan that Shang Tsung isn’t to be trusted, but the way Tagawa and the writing plays with that expectation is delightful. Few characters are as smug and smarmy as Shang Tsung, and Tagawa is able to convey that masterfully not just with his voice, but also one of the best shit-eating grins I’ve ever seen.

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Apart from Tagawa’s performance, everything else is business as usual for a NetherRealm story mode, with the exception of it being over in just about three hours or so. There’s tons of well-choreographed fight scenes, smart integration of gameplay that forces you to learn characters you might not otherwise play, and a couple of head-scratching moments of questionable logic as Shang Tsung, Nightwolf, and Fujin attempt to pull off a time-travel heist. Still, if you’re able to turn your brain off and just enjoy the ride it takes you on, Aftermath’s campaign is a good time for as long as it lasts.

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Aftermath%E2%80%99s%20campaign%20is%20a%20good%20time%20for%20as%20long%20as%20it%20lasts.”]In addition to serving a mini-campaign, Aftermath also doubles as a mini-character pack. The three characters it adds to the roster are Fujin, the God of Wind (making his first appearance in a Mortal Kombat game since Mortal Kombat Armageddon 14 years ago); Sheeva, the four-armed Shokan queen (last playable in Mortal Kombat 9 in 2011); and RoboCop, whose voice and facial capture (when you do actually see his face,) is actually performed by the man himself, Peter Weller.

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RoboCop is no doubt the most prolific of the pack, but unfortunately, he’s also the least interesting fighter. His basic moveset feels very plain, just about every special move he has feels like it’s been done before, and overall his playstyle just isn’t one that’s very fun to play. That said, he’s an extremely effective zoner, with what is probably the best low projectile in MK11, so if you like characters that hang back and bombard your opponents with a constant barrage of bullets, bombs, and missiles, RoboCop was custom made for you.

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Unfortunately%2C%20RoboCop%20is%20the%20least%20interesting%20new%20fighter.”]Sheeva, on the other hand, is a blast. She’s an absolute bruiser with extremely satisfying combos that make me feel like I’ve hit my opponent a thousand times by the time I’m done. She’s a close-range powerhouse with a nice variety of playstyles in her three competitive variations. Her first variation gives her the ability to alter the landing spot of her iconic teleport stomp for some risky mind games; the second focuses almost entirely on combo damage; and the third is a mixup machine with overheads, lows, and command grabs.

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In stark contrast to RoboCop, virtually everything that Fujin does is completely unique to him, which makes him a very strange and exciting, if slightly unwieldy, character. Nothing about him is conventional, from his ability to run on air, to his weird launching tornado that requires you to actually manually direct it, to his unique slide that can be used to slip under projectiles and either start a combo or hit with an extremely satisfying krushing blow.

It’s kind of a bummer that currently the only way to get any of them is to buy the $40 Aftermath package, whereas all of the other DLC characters are available for $6 a piece. Hopefully somewhere down the line, NetherRealm will offer the option to buy these characters a la carte, or at the very least as a part of a new reasonably priced kombat pack seperate from the Aftermath campaign, because.Sheeva and Fujin especially are great additions to the roster. Even RoboCop, despite being a bit boring to play, is still fun to see in action.