This might be one of the best deals going in gaming right now, as far as money spent compared to the amount of content you get. Cities: Skylines is one of those games you can easily sink hundreds, if not thousands, of hours into playing. But that’s without any DLC. This deal, at its most basic level, gives you hundreds of hours of gaming goodness for $1. And it only goes up from there.
In addition to the DLC and the game, paying full price also unlocks 10% on your first month Humble Choice, formerly the Humble Monthly Bundle.
Disclosure: Humble Bundle is owned by Ziff Davis, the parent company of IGN. Humble Bundle and IGN operate completely independently, and no special consideration is given to Humble Bundle announcements or promotions for coverage.
A Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles pinball machine has been announced by Stern Pinball Inc. and it features a magnetic spinning pizza disc (!), three ramps, three flippers, comic-book style art, and the original cartoon theme song to tie it all together. Stern worked with Nickelodeon – recent custodians of the TMNT brand – to make this machine.
This is not the first TMNT pinball machine, as Data East put out Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that was kinda dull, if colorful (it also had a non-magnetic pizza-shaped spinning disc). This new game, designed by John Borg (Iron Man, Metallica, Tron) holds a lot more promise than the 1991 game. The TMNT (2020) art is by Zombie Yeti (Ghostbusters).
The Limited Edition Playfield with van toy, Krang toy, and ramp diverter.
There are three versions of Stern’s TMNT (this is the way, in 2020). The Premium and Limited Edition versions have a cool turtle van that spews out pinballs for multiball, a glider toy diverter that allows you to select a ramp to send the ball down, and a Krang toy that… bounces. Here’s the full feature matrix.
Recent Stern machines like Stern’s Star Wars and Guardians of the Galaxy have made use of licensed footage, but TMNT doesn’t have any old cartoon footage, instead using custom animations you can get a tiny glimpse at in the features video below.
The Limited Edition (LE), limited to 500 total made games, green (ooze?) armor, a unique art package with mirrored backglass, a custom autographed (by game creators) bottom arch and numbered plaque, art blades for the cabinet interior sides, an “upgraded audio system,” fancy anti-glare pinball glass, and a shaker motor (basically a rumble pack, but huge).
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles is available now. The LE will set you back $9,099, while the Premium runs $7,699, and the Pro $6,099. You may have to wait a bit to find one of these on quarter play in public. Check out the tons of images below to help you make your decision.
Now that HBO Max is live, the battle of the streaming services is even more complicated. In fact, it’s not all that straightforward even if you’re only looking at the three streaming services with “HBO” in their names. What’s the difference between HBO Max, HBO Go, and HBO Now? Which one should you subscribe to? Read on, and we’ll sort it out.
HBO Go isn’t a standalone streaming service in itself. You get access to HBO Go automatically if you have a traditional HBO subscription through your cable company. Unlike the others, there’s no way to subscribe to HBO Go on its own. It offers subscribers access to HBO’s on-demand content, which includes a large catalog Hollywood movies, as well as HBO original series, comedy specials, and documentaries.
HBO Now
HBO Now is a standalone streaming service, and the content of HBO Now is identical to HBO Go. The only difference between the two services is that you can subscribe to HBO Now directly, without needing a traditional HBO subscription through your cable provider, making it perfect for cord-cutters. The regular price for HBO Now is $14.99 per month.
HBO Max
HBO Max is the newest entry in the streaming wars, and it also costs $14.99 per month. It combines select movies and TV shows from WarnerMedia’s many properties, plus HBO, plus new HBO Max originals. Put another way, it includes everything you get with HBO Go / HBO Now, plus a lot more.
That “a lot more” part is key. In addition to the standard HBO content, HBO Max offers shows like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, and Batwoman. In terms of movies, it hosts classics like Casablanca and When Harry Met Sally, as well as the entire Studio Ghibli movie catalog, plus movies like The Matrix, The Lord of the Rings, and DC superhero films like Wonder Woman.
You should get HBO Max – here’s how to sign up. It includes everything from HBO Now and HBO Go, plus a bunch of additional movies and TV shows. HBO Max costs the same price as the other two, but has a significantly larger library of content. That’s really all you need to know.
The only exception is if you currently subscribe to HBO through your cable service and don’t want to lose access to your HBO channels. But even in that case, you may want to consider canceling your current HBO subscription and signing up for HBO Max instead.
What If You Already Have HBO?
If you already have an HBO or HBO Now subscription, there’s a good chance you already have access to HBO Max. If you don’t, you can read the HBO Max FAQ for details about your specific situation. If all else fails, you can always cancel your current subscription and sign up for HBO Max separately, but you shouldn’t need to, since you’ll theoretically be able to log in with your existing cable service provider or HBO/Now credentials.
Zack Snyder has posted an image of his cut of Justice League’s take on Darkseid, and confirmed the iconic supervillain will appear in the version that hits HBO Max next year.
Posted on Snyder’s Twitter feed, the low-resolution image doesn’t give too much away about Darkseid’s appearance, but confirms that Ray Porter – who recently confirmed that he played the supervillain in unsued portions of the film – will finally get his debut in the role.
For a story where controlling the future is a critical plot device, it’s pretty ironic that Xenoblade Chronicles has never managed to get its timing right until now. After it’s unfortunate 2012 debut in the final days of the Wii’s lifecycle and a low-res port to the 3DS that didn’t do it justice, at long last it can shine on a console in its prime – and the result is an improvement as massive as the titan Bionis itself – and that’s before we even get into any of the Definitive Edition’s numerous and largely positive improvements.
The most noteworthy improvement is apparent the second you boot Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition up: it has been given an incredible facelift. Finally, Shulk looks like the dorky firebrand we know from Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, instead of a blurry piece of concept art. Environments, which were already unforgettable in low resolution, now take on a whole new life in HD. Some textures haven’t quite been given the same love and are still a little blurry, but it’s such a large upgrade over previous versions overall that it’s hard to complain about any edges left rough.
Even nearly a decade later, the premise of Xenoblade Chronicles and the weirdness of the world it takes place in maintains its charm, pulling me right back in after just a few minutes. After your hometown is attacked by the robotic, people-eating Mechon, you and your friends set out on a quest for revenge on an unforgettable odyssey that has you journeying across the titan corpses that serve as the setting. The world is remarkably weird and unique, and areas are diverse and include dense jungles, frozen wastes, and floating islands, just to name a few – you’ll even travel inside a creature’s body and fight the creatures inside it like a twisted episode of The Magic School Bus. Speaking of which, the enemies you encounter are equally varied, ranging from menacing beasts to sinister machines, and even with the enormous runtime of the campaign it’s uncommon that environments or enemy types become repetitive or dull.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=You%E2%80%99ll%20even%20travel%20inside%20a%20creature%E2%80%99s%20body%20and%20fight%20the%20creatures%20inside%20it%20like%20a%20twisted%20episode%20of%20The%20Magic%20School%20Bus.”]Like a lot of JRPGs the story goes to some really, really weird places by the end, and many of which are as confusing as they are preposterous. But Xenoblade Chronicles owns its own absurdity so well that it works. Is the dialogue laughably over-written, almost like characters are trying to find as many ways to say the same thing as possible? Yep. Is the story over-the-top and needlessly convoluted with cutscenes that run on for far too long? Absolutely. But we’re talking about a game that begins with a bunch of people living on a dead god’s corpse, so don’t be surprised when things only get weirder from there. That madness is part of the fun.
The Definitive Edition of Xenoblade Chronicles adds an all-new story chapter called Future Connected which takes place a year after the events in the main story. It’s great to have more time with Shulk and friends, but the standalone adventure – which can be played entirely separately from the campaign – doesn’t really add a whole lot. You spend a lot of time with Melia, one of the weaker characters from the main campaign, and two new, highly irritating Nopon named Kino and Nene. The core Xenoblade experience remains intact here, but everything feels tonally different and disconnected from the main campaign, despite being called Future Connected. Even though I enjoyed the almost 10 hours it took to complete, this bonus chapter was ultimately a bit underwhelming and I certainly wouldn’t consider it a major selling point for this remaster.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=The%20Definitive%20Edition’s%20bonus%20chapter%20was%20ultimately%20a%20bit%20underwhelming.”]Still, it just feels great to be back with Xenoblade Chronicles’ memorable cast of characters. Whether it’s the loveable meathead Reyn or the stoic and inscrutable Dunban, each one shines even when the wonky writing or grindy stretches of gameplay otherwise bog down the adventure. The story is squarely focused on Shulk’s quest for revenge and the war against the Mechon, but it also takes the time to introduce and develop its supporting characters, with entire chapters dedicated to fleshing out and resolving their major arcs. If you stray off the beaten path, there’s even more to be discovered through side quests and optional social sections between two characters called Heart-to-Hearts. You might learn more about the goofy but courageous Nopon, Riki, or gain a better understanding of the compassionate sharpshooter, Sharla. By the story’s end you’ll have spent so much time with your companions that it’s hard not to develop understanding and respect for each of them, even the ones you don’t use a whole lot.
Of course, characters can still get on your nerves by literally never shutting the hell up before, during, and after combat, repeating the same tired lines ad nauseum. Thankfully you can turn combat dialogue off, which you’ll probably want to do once you’ve heard Reyn say “Man, what a buncha jokers” for the 5,000th time. But it feels like maybe there’s a middle ground between no combat dialogue at all and having all the characters scream at you, uninterrupted, for the 100+ hours it takes to complete the campaign.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Gameplay%20has%20been%20improved%20in%20some%20minor%20but%20certainly%20appreciated%20ways.”]The gameplay of Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition remains largely the same, though it has been improved in some minor but certainly appreciated ways: characters now have health bars, which is awesome and also kind of crazy that this wasn’t a thing already; the map UI now has a detailed waypoint guiding you towards your objectives instead of a vague arrow; and quest items are marked with a helpful exclamation point so you know which you should pick up instead of having to run toward every glowing blue orb. Each of these adjustments help modernize things just a bit without altering the Xenoblade Chronicles that you know and love, even if many of them are so subtle that you might not even realize they are new.
But probably the most crucial change is the addition of a “chance indicator” that pops up during battle to tell you when you are positioned to benefit from damage bonuses and special effects. This is especially important when you’re fighting bizarre looking creatures, like the floating, numerously limbed telethia as Shulk, where it’s genuinely difficult to figure out which side is their front and which is their back. Now you’ll always know when’s the right time to go for that satisfying backstab.
While those improvements are great, this remaster doesn’t go far enough elsewhere, opting to maintain a lot of outdated mechanics. The affinity coin and skill tree system, for example, remain an obtuse and bizarre way to buff characters based on social links, both soaking up far more attention than they seem worth. Gem crafting is still a time consuming and convoluted way to improve your gear, usually a huge chore I felt obligated to do rather than an exciting path to getting stronger. And it’s still a really weird choice to make all the most powerful versions of every Art (your characters’ special abilities) only obtainable via a random in-world drop, meaning you’ve just gotta grind certain areas of the world and farm certain enemy types for hours if you hope to reach the apex of your characters’ abilities. I’m all for staying true to the original when it makes sense to do so, but this Wii-era RPG design doesn’t do a whole lot to make you invested in your team and could benefit from more of a refresh – especially when so many excellent RPGs have come out in the eight years since.
Thankfully, another significant upgrade in this remaster is how dramatically the menus have been improved, at least making all of these systems easier to manage. Previously an incomprehensible series of blurry rectangle, menus have now been overhauled into a much more modern and functional UI. This is a godsend considering how much time you’ll spend in them customizing your characters’ abilities, upgrading equipment, and changing your outfits.
[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Combat%20itself%20is%20still%20just%20as%20tactical%20and%20addictive%20as%20ever.”]Combat itself is still just as tactical and addictive as ever, which uses an action-based battle system where your character attacks automatically within range of an enemy, but movement and the more powerful special abilities called Arts, are controlled by the player. Arts allow you to do things like heal your allies, apply status effects to enemies, apply buffs and debuffs, and more, and are absolutely essential for defeating the many of the world’s most powerful foes. Since you’re able to control any character in your party and have the others controlled by AI, you can select a character that matches your preferred playstyle or switch between them to break up some of the repetition.
Which is great, because combat can grow a little dull at times due to the fact that the campaign is a bit of a grind. Certain areas and boss fights essentially serve as power checks that aren’t usually winnable without a not-insignificant amount of running through an area and killing the same enemies repeatedly. This is especially painful towards the end of the campaign, where levelling requires a ton of XP and the power level of enemies goes up at a faster pace than you can organically scale with if you aren’t going out of your way to grind.
It would be absolute blasphemy to not talk about Xenoblade Chronicles’ outstanding soundtrack. This was already a major bright spot in previous versions, and now many of these memorable tracks have been re-recorded and somehow sound even better. While other elements of the sound design, particularly the grating combat dialogue, might give you cause to play on mute, the soundtrack is a reason to turn the dial to 11. Open areas have upbeat melodies that incite a spirit of exploration, which then adjust to an appropriately slow tempo at night. Dramatic moments and crucial confrontations are punctuated with pulse-pounding and dramatic themes. It’s pretty crazy that an adventure weighing in over 100 hours without side quests manages to almost never disappoint when it comes to the soundtrack.
A major new streaming service has arrived. HBO Max is now live, bringing with it loads of content, including HBO’s enormous catalog of movies and original series, the classic sitcom Friends, plus movies from DC, Studio Ghibli, Criterion, and much more. Here’s how to sign up for HBO Max, as well as everything else you need to know about the newest streaming service to enter the crowded and competitive field.
You Might Already Have HBO Max
Many current HBO and HBO Now subscribers automatically get access to HBO Max. You can check here to see if your sign-in credentials work. If they don’t, you can check the HBO Max FAQ for details about your specific situation. However, the best route may be to cancel your current subscription and then sign up for HBO Max separately.
Assuming you haven’t been grandfathered in to the new service, the easiest way to sign up for HBO Max is by going to the HBO Max website and creating an account. This is what you should do if you don’t currently subscribe to HBO in any form.
How to Sign Up for HBO Max in the US
Alternatively, you can also sign up for the streaming service through another provider if you so choose. At the moment, WarnerMedia says sign-ups are available through AT&T, DIRECTV, AT&T U-Verse, Spectrum, Altice, Suddenlink, Optimum, Cox Contour, Verizon Fios, Hulu, YouTube TV, Samsung, Apple, Google Play, Microsoft’s Xbox One, Sony’s PlayStation 4, and select independent cable and broadband providers. More providers are expected in the future, but HBO Max isn’t currently available through Roku, Comcast, or Amazon Fire TV.
Is HBO Max Available Outside the US?
HBO Max is only launching in the US on March 27. While there are plans for an international rollout in 2021, HBO Max won’t be available in the UK or Europe at launch thanks to existing licensing deals. There are plans for HBO Max to launch in Latin America and the Caribbean in 2021, with WarnerMedia CEO John Stankey telling investors, “We’re prioritizing our international expansion in Latin America and Europe where we currently operate HBO networks and have existing over-the-top services.”
HBO Max is populated with content from three providers. There’s HBO; other WarnerMedia properties including DC, Warner Bros. Pictures, The CW, and Adult Swim; and new original content, called HBO Max Originals.
HBO
HBO Max has an enormous amount of content to stream. For starters, it contains all of HBO, which means you can stream every episode of nearly all HBO series – from past favorites like Game of Thrones, The Wire, The Sopranos, and Six Feet Under, to current hits like Barry, Succession, Insecure, and Westworld, to upcoming shows like Lovecraft Country and the reboot of Perry Mason – including new episodes the minute they go live. You also get access to HBO’s vast selection of movies, documentaries, and specials.
WarnerMedia Properties
The second big pillar of HBO Max content comes from HBO parent company WarnerMedia (which owns Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, CNN, TNT, TBS, TCM and TruTV) and includes shows like Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Doctor Who, Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, and many more. It also features over 2,000 movies, with films from the DC cinematic universe, Criterion Collection, Studio Ghibli, Warner Bros. and, eventually, the Justice League Snyder Cut.
Finally, HBO Max offers a growing selection of Max Originals. Available now are a handful of series, including a new Looney Tunes cartoon and a romantic comedy anthology called Love Life, starring Anna Kendrick. Several additional shows have been announced with future release dates. Coming in June, subscribers will be able to watch new seasons of Doom Patrol and Search Party, as well as the Seth Rogan movie An American Pickle, among others.
It’s a lot of content, and it costs $14.99 per month, which is also the price of a standard HBO or HBO Now subscription. If you’ve been thinking about subscribing to HBO, it’s safe to say that HBO Max is the best way to do it. It gets you everything available in HBO Now or HBO Go, and a lot more.
Actor Josh Gad’s quarantine show, Reunited Apart, is seemingly going to feature a Lord of the Rings reunion for a future episode. Gad teased the news in a tweet.
There is no word yet on when the episode will air or who may feature in it, but presumably it will be actors from Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies. Frodo actor Elijah Wood has already appeared in a show that spawned from quarantine, Star Wars writer Gary Whitta’s Animal Talking. It’s possible some behind-the-camera talent could appear, like Peter Jackson.
Gad’s Reunited Apart series has already released reunion videos for Back to the Future, featuring Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd; Splash, featuring Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah; and The Goonies, featuring the main cast of the movie including Sean Astin, Corey Feldman, and Josh Brolin.
Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts with the help of our friends from around the gaming world.
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Hot on the heels of Hi-Rez Studios’ announcement regarding the latest Smite Final Boss Battle Pass is news that Cthulu will be officially announced as the MOBA’s next god. Smite will be showing off their next big update, called The Great Dreamer, as part of a streamed show on May 26 at 3PM ET. The stream will give fans a better idea of what’s to come.
The Great Dreamer update show will debut on Smite’s official Twitch channel, offering players a chance to catch their very first glimpse of Cthulu in action. Cthulu will be the first god in the Old Ones pantheon added to Smite, and others could be introduced over time.
The fact that the pantheon is called the Great Old Ones likely signals that there will be more Lovecraftian horrors to look forward to in the future. Cthulu is going to be available for players to access from early June, which will give those who haven’t quite familiarised themselves with the Smite battleground a chance to git gud.
Smite is free to play on PC, Switch, PlayStation and Xbox currently, though players have the option of purchasing premium in-game currency using real money should they wish to pick up Battle Passes and other seasonal content drops.
The Smite Final Boss Battle Pass costs 600 Gems in-game, and it will come with a host of new skins and narrative content that you can currently access while you wait to hear more about Cthulu’s grand entrance. Those who want more detail about the upcoming patch can check out detailed notes on the official Smite website in advance of the 7.5 Update going live on June 2.
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Chastity brings you all the biggest gaming stories for your May 26 Save State. No Man’s Sky is coming to Xbox Game Pass and the Windows PC store in June. Developer Hello Games has more ambitious updates to the game planned for 2020.
XCOM 2 Collection, Borderlands Legendary Collection, and BioShock: The Collection all come to Switch May 29th. Could more big games get ported to Switch? One dev definitely thinks so. And finally, Sony’s next State of Play will focus on The Last of Us Part 2, and it’s happening tomorrow! We tell you what to expect. For all the latest gaming news stories, be sure to get your Save State every Monday through Thursday on GameSpot.
Iconic Marvel villain Mister Sinister narrowly missed his chance to appear in Fox’s X-Men movie franchise. According to Dark Phoenix writer/director Simon Kinberg, the plan was for Sinister to appear in the now canceled Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum.
Kinberg confirmed those story plans while taking part in IGN’s Watch From Home Theater for X-Men: Days of Future Past. 2016’s X-Men: Apocalypse was indeed meant to set the stage for a Mister Sinister-driven X-Men movie. Just maybe not the one fans would have guessed.
“We had a tease of it at the end of Apocalypse. The Essex Corp is something that you see in a tag at the end of Apocalypse,” said Kinberg. “We had talked about doing something with him, and I won’t get into the specifics of it since it’s no longer a 20th Century Fox property and now it’s part of the MCU. I have no idea what the plan is. But Mister Sinister was going to be part of the Gambit movie starring Channing Tatum.”
This seems to discredit another popular online rumor suggesting Sinister would have a cameo in New Mutants (with actors like Jon Hamm and Daniel Craig rumored for the role), setting him up as a major villain in that particular spinoff series.
A Gambit movie has been in various stages of development ever since the character’s live-action debut in 2009’s X-Men Origins: Wolverine. Channing Tatum came aboard to star in and produce the Gambit movie in 2014. Sadly, despite appearing at Comic-Con in 2015 alongside Stan Lee and the rest of the X-Men movie-verse cast, Tatum’s dream of playing the Ragin’ Cajun never materialized. The film cycled through several directors, including Rupert Wyatt (Rise of the Planet of the Apes), Doug Liman (The Bourne Identity), and Gore Verbinski (the original Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy). But ultimately, Gambit was one of many planned X-Men movies canceled after Disney’s acquisition of 21st Century Fox.
As Kinberg alludes, there’s no telling what Marvel Studios’ plans for the X-Men franchise are right now. It’s always possible the Gambit movie will survive the transition to Disney (as Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool 3 seems to have done) and we may still see Tatum given the chance to play Gambit at long last. But for now, fans may need to wait a very long time to see Gambit finally battle Mister Sinister on the big screen.
Check back soon for even more juicy tidbits revealed during the Days of Future Past WFH Theater stream.
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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
