Sony is no stranger to anime. The actual purchase of Crunchyroll went through Funimation Global Group, LLC, which the official press release for the sale describes as “a joint venture between Sony pictures Entertainment Inc. and Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc’s subsidiary, Aniplex.” Funimation, founded in 1994, is one of the longest-standing names in anime in Western territories. Aniplex came together a year later, and has been producing anime and music, as well as publishing games, ever since.
“The Crunchyroll team has done an extraordinary job of not only growing the Crunchyroll brand but also building a passionate community of anime fans. Crunchyroll’s success is a direct result of the company’s culture and commitment to their fans,” said WarnerMedia’s Chief Revenue Officer, Tony Goncalves, in an official statement.
“Through Funimation and our terrific partners at Aniplex and Sony Music Entertainment Japan, we have a deep understanding of this global artform and are well-positioned to deliver outstanding content to audiences around the world,” said Sony Pictures Entertainment Chairman and CEO Tony Vinciquerra. “Together with Crunchyroll, we will create the best possible experience for fans and greater opportunity for creators, producers and publishers in Japan and elsewhere. Funimation has been doing this for over 25 years and we look forward to continuing to leverage the power of creativity and technology to succeed in this rapidly growing segment of entertainment.”
Whether this is a win for anime fans, as Funimation says in its post remains to be seen. On the one hand, Sony and its subsidiary Funimation both have decades of experience with running successful anime businesses. AT&T owns WarnerMedia, which owned Crunchyroll before the sale. AT&T’s recent decision to push WB’s entire slate of films to HBO Max for 2021 has raised the ire of actors, directors, and movie theater corporations and highlighted the question of how well-suited a telecom company is to running entertainment brands.
On the other hand, Funimation is one of the biggest North American anime distributors, and their acquisition of Crunchyroll further concentrates their influence over North American access to anime. Funimation also has its own streaming service, and has not yet commented on what will happen to that service. It seems likely that the two libraries and userbases will be folded together, with Funimation either turning Crunchyroll into its streaming brand name or dropping the Crunchyroll name to make it all Funimation all the time.
All the way back in 2012, Disney bought LucasArts, and the rights to Star Wars, for $4.05 billion, making series creator George Lucas even richer than ever before. In the years since, we’ve had insights into the man’s thoughts on the new films, and how he feels about no longer being involved with Star Wars. Now, in an excerpt from an upcoming book about the series, Lucas has talked more about his decision to step away from the spacefaring saga.
This excerpt, from Paul Duncan’s upcoming book The Star Wars Archives Eps I-III 1999-2005, is from an interview with Lucas, who directed Episode IV and the prequel trilogy.
Lucas reflects on how, before the sale, he had begun work on a new trilogy, and at the same time he was anticipating the birth of his daughter. “It takes 10 years to make a trilogy–Episodes I to III took from 1995 to 2005,” he reflected, saying that he was 69 years old at the time. “So the question was am I going to keep doing this the rest of my life,” he reflects.
Lucas says that working on the prequel trilogy took 10 years–so if he’d started work in 2012, he’d likely finish in 2022.
Ultimately, Lucas decided that he’d rather spend time raising his daughter and pursuing other projects. “I could have not sold Lucasfilm and gotten somebody to run the productions, but that isn’t retiring,” he says. “On The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi I tried to stay out of the way, but I couldn’t. I was there every day.”
Lucas says that he’d always wanted to build a museum, and knew that if he spent a decade making another trilogy, that likely wouldn’t happen. The Lucas Museum of Narrative Art was established in 2014.
“I’ve spent my life creating Star Wars–40 years–and giving it up was very, very painful,” Lucas says. “But it was the right thing to do.”
It’s previously been revealed that George Lucas felt “betrayed” over how the Disney deal played out. Lucas does not go so far in his own words, but he suggests that he had less input on the new films than he anticipated. “I thought I was going to have a little bit more to say about the next three because I’d already started them, but they decided they wanted to do something else,” he says. “Things don’t always work out the way you want it. Life is like that.”
While Lucas wasn’t directly involved in the new films, there’s a single joke in Solo that was influenced by him–although we’re not sure which one, exactly. He also might have been under one of those Stormtrooper costumes in the new films. Lucas was working on a Star Wars TV show, Star Wars Underworld, 10 years ago. The series never released, but some test footage leaked earlier this year.
The Star Wars Archives Eps I-III 1999-2005 released in the UK on November 8, 2020. It’ll release in the US on December 13.
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You’ll find all sorts of weapons in Cyberpunk 2077, whether you earn them from completing mercenary jobs, buy them from stores, or pry them from the hands of your cold, dead enemies. But hidden out in the world among all the standard (if high-tech) guns, clubs, and swords you can find in Night City are much rarer, special weapons with unique properties. These are Iconic weapons, which you can only find in some key places and stand well above the other equipment you’ll find on your journey to become a living legend.
One of the earliest and extremely useful Iconic guns you can come across is Fenrir, a submachine gun that sets people on fire. A lot of guns you’ll find will do thermal damage, but Fenrir has an increased chance to apply Burn to enemies, making for an extremely deadly gun. This is a great weapon to pick up early to help you get through some of the tough story fights you’ll face on your way through Act 1.
Where To Find It: Sacrum Profanum Side Job, near where you find the monk in the warehouse.
Kongou — Power Pistol
Power pistols are fairly standard weapons, but can be very useful if you have the right cyberware to get some added functionality out of them. Power pistols can ricochet their bullets off surfaces, which you can use to your advantage with the right mods. The cool thing about Kongou is that it bypasses the need for equipping certain cyberware augments–just using the gun allows you to see potential ricochets and use it to its full capabilities.
Where To Find It: Yorinobu’s penthouse on the nightstand during The Heist in Act 1.
Lizzie — Tech Pistol
Lizzie is a fast-firing pistol, and dumping tons of ammo on enemies quickly is part of what makes it great. It also fires an extra round per shot, and can be charged to fire a volley of shots all at once. Plus, the pistol does Thermal damage, with a low chance of inflicting Burn, and while that chance is pretty low, it puts out so much ammo that you’re almost definitely going to set lots of bad guys on fire.
Where To Find It: Judy’s den at Lizzie’s bar, when you return there in Act 2 before Automatic Love.
Cocktail Stick — Katana
One of the best early swords you can find is Cocktail Stick, and it has the added benefit of being bright pink, making it kind of hilarious as you use it to behead enemies. The sword itself doesn’t have too much in the way of additional perks, but it does have added chances for critical damage and to inflict Bleeding on enemies, so slice away.
Where To Find It: Clouds VIP area during the Automatic Love story quest in Act 2. Check the dressing room before reaching Woodman.
Widow Maker — Tech Precision Rifle
Tech rifles are already some of the more useful weapons in Cyberpunk 2077 thanks to their ability to charge up and shoot through walls and cover. Widow Maker is an even better version of your standard Tech rifle because it doesn’t just fire one shot through walls, but two. It also lays down Chemical damage and comes with a chance to poison enemies, just in case you don’t manage to headshot everyone with your first blast.
Where To Find It: On Nash in the Raffen Scav hideout, during the Ghost Town story mission.
Cottonmouth — One-Handed Club
Cottonmouth is one of the best blunt weapons you’ll come by in the early part of the game. It hits hard and comes with some serious added benefits: namely, it inflicts both Chemical and Electrical damage and comes with the chance to Poison and Shock enemies. That’s great for taking opponents down quickly, especially if you’re trying to avoid killing them, since Cottonmouth is a non-lethal weapon.
Where To Find It: On Finger’s bed during the Disasterpeace story mission in Act 2.
Scalpel — Katana
To start with, Scalpel is a slick sword thanks to the addition of Electrical damage with every blow. It gets the added benefit of an increased chance for critical damage, as well. You get the most out of the Scalpel katana when you’ve got the Sandevistan cyberware equipped, though. When it’s active, hits apply Bleeding and your chance to deal critical damage increases by 50%.
Where To Find It: Reward for completing the Big In Japan Side Job.
Tsumetogi — Katana
Tsumetogi isn’t too different from Scalpel, in that it’ll deal Electrical damage and potentially Shock enemies as you slice through enemies. The upside, though, is that Tsumetogi cuts the amount of Stamina it costs to swing your sword at enemies. It also gives you some slight resistance to Electrical damage, and increases your damage for “non-standard” attacks–which includes the strong attacks that are executed by holding down the attack button.
Where To Find It: Take it off the table in the room where you speak to the Tyger Claws bosses during the Pisces Side Job, as part of Judy’s story arc.
Overwatch — Power Sniper Rifle
It’s hard to come across a better sniper rifle than Overwatch. It does massive physical damage with each shot and comes with a custom silencer, making it easier to stay hidden while blasting away at enemies. It also has a relatively high critical damage chance and deals more than double damage for headshots. Overwatch is extremely powerful and can drop lots of enemies in just one shot.
Where To Find It: Reward for completing the Riders on the Storm Side Job in Panam’s story arc.
Tinker Bell — One-Handed Club
The story that goes with Tinker Bell is pretty upsetting, but it’s still a useful and powerful non-lethal weapon. It does massive Electrical damage and carries a big chance to inflict Shock on enemies, while also having a pretty good chance of landing critical damage, as well. Use a strong attack and you also get a chance to knock an enemy out in one shot.
Where To Find It: Located in The Hunt Side Job in River’s story arc. Look for it in the hidden room in Peter Pan’s farmhouse; you’ll need to find the switch in his bedroom to reach it.
Crash — Power Pistol
Crash combines the increased power of revolvers with the damage-dealing capabilities of a fully automatic weapon. It does high damage and has a really good chance for landing critical hits, but if you aim down the sights and hold down the fire button, Crash flips to full-auto and unloads ammo on your target. If you want a powerful and versatile handgun, this is a great one.
Where To Find It: Reward for completing River’s story arc, which starts with the I Fought The Law Side Job.
Malorian Arms 3516 — Power Pistol
You’ll use Johnny Silverhand’s pistol a few times during the main story of Cyberpunk 2077, which will show you how ridiculously powerful it is. You can eventually find the gun later and it’s worth hunting. It lays down huge damage, including extra Thermal damage, and reloads very quickly. It also sports four mod slots so you can trick it out even more.
Where To Find It: Loot it from Grayson during the Chippin’ In Side Job.
Apparition — Tech Pistol
Another useful Power pistol, Apparition is mostly a high-damage weapon that’ll show up later in the game. Though it doesn’t have any special elemental damage boosts, it does hit very hard with physical damage. The upshot is that Apparition monitors your health to give you boons when you get hurt. When your health is at critical, Apparition reloads faster, fires faster, and does more damage. If you charge up your shots with critical health, they’ll do double damage.
Where To Find It: Complete the Warpigs Side Job and loot it off a body. This one seems to only be available to characters on the Corpo life path.
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When you start a new game in Cyberpunk 2077, you’re asked to pick one of three life paths: Street Kid, Corporate, and Nomad. The path you choose will have some effect on the stories you see, the characters you meet, and the conversations you might have. While your life path will inform your V’s backstory, it won’t drastically change the game–but there are a few key elements that the choice will alter, including the prologue and your path into Night City.
Here’s what you need to know about the three Cyberpunk 2077 life paths and how they’ll change your Night City experience. It’s worth noting that, after the prologue section, all three paths merge together with the game’s main story to take you on a similar journey. Your life path will change some of the details, however, and it’s important if you want to immerse yourself in V’s experience. Your life path choice will bring you some specific side quests related to your prologue.
The Street Kid is a Night City local. They were born and raised in Heywood under the stark shadows of Night City’s neon-drenched skyline. They know the ins and outs of the city, like where to get weapons, drugs, and–most importantly–work.
The Street Kid path kicks off in the El Coyote Cojo, a dive bar located in Heywood that protagonist V frequents. Unfortunately, the bartender has found himself in a sticky financial situation with a local fixer named Kirk. V agrees to chat with Kirk to see if they can convince him to erase the bartender’s debt.
Kirk tells V that if they can steal a car from a specific Arasaka employee, he’ll cancel the debt. V sets off to do the job, but unfortunately, someone else also wants to get a hold of that car. Midway through the heist, V gets a gun shoved in their face by one Jackie Welles, a solo, or mercenary, who also has been assigned this particular job. But before either of them can make a getaway with the vehicle, the Night City Police ambush, detain, and beat on them both–although that’s because V knows one of the cops, and getting a little roughed up is better than going to jail. The story resolves with the bruised and battered V and Jackie bonding over the experience and becoming friends.
Starting out as a Street Kid gives you something of a relationship with some people in Night City, including local fixers, making you a known quantity early in the game. It also unlocks dialogue options related to gangs and the realities of being poor in the city, with V drawing on their experience growing up close to Night City’s criminal element.
Nomad
If the Street Kid is the Night City local, then the Nomad life path is that of an outsider. Most nomads roam the badlands, an area outside of Night City, in clans. However, V is a lone wolf. Their Nomad family is in shambles and V is trying to put their own life back together at the start of the game.
The Nomad path opens up in a backwater garage in the California desert as V is getting their car repaired. Before V can leave, a not-so-friendly sheriff shows up and questions V. Soon after, V meets up with a Solo named–you guessed it–Jackie Welles, in order to smuggle a package across the border into Night City. As you approach the border, Jackie starts to get cold feet. A border agent asks V to step out of the vehicle for an interview.
Of course, this doesn’t go as planned and Arasaka agents ambush V and Jackie. A fierce vehicular gunfight ensues, but V and Jackie ultimately escape and make it into Night City, where V begins their new life.
If you want to go into Night City for the first time with fresh eyes, the Nomad path is probably the one for you. It presents a V that is a bit warier of the city and its flash, and who has little or no prior experience with its gangs or corporations. This V also has a better sense of what life is like outside of Night City–and before long, the story will take you beyond its borders, where that knowledge will also be useful.
Corpo
Compared to the Street Kid and Nomad, the Corpo path almost seems a little too clinical to be cool at first glance. Corporations are, of course, the bad guys. But the journey of Corpo V, who begins by enjoying life in Night City’s upper crust, is actually pretty exciting.
The Corpo path begins with V throwing up in a bathroom sink in Arasaka tower, where they currently hold a job in counter-intelligence. V is on the phone to Jackie Welles, this time a lifelong friend, venting about problems with their job. Someone has leaked corporate intel, and everyone’s on edge.
From there, you meet up with your boss, Jenkins, who is infamous for being a cutthroat dude, and you watch him remotely massacre the European Space Council when you go to meet him in his office. He’s got some underhanded plans in the works to help him climb the corporate ladder and forces you to take part, giving you a wad of cash and ordering you to discreetly hire someone outside of the corporation to kill his boss, Abernathy.
V knows this is a bad idea, but equally bad is refusing to follow Jenkins’s orders, so V heads to a bar called Lizzie’s to meet Jackie and farm out the job. Unsurprisingly, Jackie thinks it’s a terrible idea and suggests cutting ties, but before V can make any decisions, some Arasaka employees appear. Abernathy has caught wind of the plan, and her goons hack into your cybernetics and wipe away all of V’s corporate perks–home, insurance, money. Jackie manages to talk the Arasaka guys out of killing V, but at this point, his Corpo life is over and he’s stuck rebuilding from the ground up.
With a Corpo background, V gets insights into how the rich and powerful of Night City live and work–and maybe more usefully, how corporations operate. You’ll get extra dialog options based on those insights when dealing with corporations and their employees, which often let V suss out the power struggles and corporate malfeasance happening in Night City in ways that help them complete jobs, or even save their life.
No matter which life path you choose, there are a lot of constants throughout Cyberpunk 2077–so while it’ll affect the game you play, you’re not going to have a hugely divergent experience choosing one over the others. That said, each of the paths have unique elements, and you’ll get the most out of your experience by embracing your V’s specific background. When you get opportunities to answer with knowledge that only a V with your background would have, you should definitely use it. And don’t forget what happens in your prologue, because elements of that story will come back into play at some point (if in small ways), and you’ll want to be ready.
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For the first time, Hollywood heavyweights and Oscar-winners George Clooney and Ben Affleck will work together on a feature film. According to Deadline, Clooney will direct an adaptation of the book The Tender Bar, with Affleck set to appear in the starring role.
While Clooney and Affleck have never worked directly with one another, they did win an Oscar together for the movie Argo. Affleck starred and directed that film, while Clooney produced it.
According to Deadline’s report, Clooney and Affleck have been trying to work together more directly for years. Affleck was said to have been “high” on Clooney’s list to star in The Tender Bar.
It’s not currently clear if Clooney will also appear in The Tender Bar. The movie is based on J.R. Moehringer’s memoir of the same name of that chronicles his life and his time at his uncle’s bar.
The movie was originally set up at Sony with Ted Melfi (Hidden Figures) set to direct, but that fell apart, and now it’s coming to Amazon Prime.
PC players of Destiny 2 who have stuck with the game’s free-to-play version following the launch of Beyond Light might want to keep their phone on hand while playing from now on. A new security measure has been added to the game to prevent cheating as of Update 3.0.1, adding SMS verification to certain activities.
As Bungie explains in a help article, this applies only to “certain pinnacle level activities,” and players who have purchased a Destiny 2 expansion do not need to do this. Trials of Osiris, competitive Crucible matches, and the Iron Banner will be affected–all PvP activities.
Here are the steps necessary to activate and use SMS verification from Destiny 2 on PC:
Launch into an SMS restricted activity when playing on PC, and receive a pop-up requesting SMS verification
Click the “Verify Now” button. This will redirect players to Bungie.net
Sign into their Bungie.net profile
Enter their phone number in the space provided and request a verification code
Enter the verification code sent to their phone number
This might be a minor hassle, but hopefully it will have an impact on cheating and account theft on PC. Players with the expansions can also choose to opt-in for SMS verification, if they would like to do so.
If you’re a console Destiny 2 player who has managed to get their hands on a PS5 or Xbox Series X version, make sure you check the game out after this latest update–it’s a major upgrade.
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Rocket League Season 2 is now live and it brings a host of changes to the game about supersonic acrobatic rocket-powered battle-cars. Season 2 adds a new battle car and arena, as well as player anthems.
The new battle car is the R3MX, unlocked in the first level of the Rocket Pass. The R3MX possesses the Hybrid hitbox, so it strikes the ball similarly to battle cars like the Venom and X-Devil. Meanwhile the new arena, Neon Fields, is a colorful field that reacts to the music being played during the match.
Neon Fields interacts with Rocket League Radio and each individual player’s player anthem, reacting to songs as they play.
Really, music is the overall theme of Season 2. For example, several new goal explosions, battle car decals, wheels, and boosts in the Rocket Pass all relate to music. This theme most comes through in the brand-new player anthems. You can now assign yourself a player anthem, a song that will play when you score a goal, get an epic save, or earn MVP for a match.
For the full list of changes implemented in Season 2, check out the patch notes. We’ve listed them below.
Rocket League Season 2 Patch Notes
Season 2
Live Now
Season 2 is live on all platforms
Season 2 Rocket Pass, featuring the new R3MX car, has begun
R3MX uses the Hybrid hitbox
Tournaments
Season 2 Tournaments are now available
New Tournament Rewards and Titles have been added
Tournament player population cap has been significantly increased
We will continue to add more capacity and additional support per region over time
Changes and Updates
Previewing an item when a Tournament finishes will no longer hide a player’s Tournament Summary
The Tournaments card no longer says “Joinable” after the player has signed up
“Checking In…” message now has a clear time-out state
Challenges
Stage 1 Challenges for Season 2 are now live
Players now need to complete 22 or more of 24 Challenges to earn the Season Challenge Reward
Competitive
Season 2 Competitive has begun
3v3 Standard: This season’s soft reset will be less aggressive than Season 1
Grand Champion and Supersonic Legend Ranks in 3v3 Standard will be slightly easier to reach
Rumble: Champion I and higher Ranks will be slightly tougher to reach
New Content
New Arena: Neon Fields
Neon Fields has been added to the Online Playlists rotation, and can also be used in Private Matches and Free Play
The new Arena interacts with Rocket League Radio, and Player Anthems for all players in a match
Player Anthems
Player Anthems are a new customization option that let you play your favorite music from the Rocket League soundtrack at key moments during a match. Players Anthems play when you:
Score a goal
Make an Epic Save
Earn MVP honors
To use a Player Anthem, go to Profile > Choose Player Anthem
Under Settings > Audio > Player Anthems, there are three choices:
Always On: Plays during matches and in Free Play
Matches Only: Only plays during matches
Off: Turns off your anthem and anthems from other players
Player Anthem volume is controlled by ‘Music – Gameplay’ under Settings > Audio
Five Player Anthems are now available to all players from the Rocket League Soundtrack Vol. 1:
“We Speak Chinese” by Mike Ault and Abandoned Carnival
“Love Thru The Night” (feat. Morgan Perry) by Mike Ault
“I Can Be” (feat. Crysta) by Mike Ault
“Flying Forever” (feat. Morgan Perry) by Mike Ault
“Angel Wings” (feat. Avianna Acid) by Mike Ault
Season 1 Competitive Rewards
Season 1 Competitive has ended. Season Reward Items and Titles will be awarded for your highest Rank achieved during the season, and successful completion of the appropriate Season Reward Levels.
Season 1 Rewards are custom, non-tradeable, universal Decals
The wait is over: CD Projekt Red’s Cyberpunk 2077 is finally here. The RPG has released on Steam, and it’s already doing huge numbers.
According to Steam’s public data page, Cyberpunk 2077 peaked at more than 1 million concurrent players on December 9. That makes it Steam’s biggest game, exceeding Valve’s own free-to-play juggernaut Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
There have been some reports about issues and outages with Steam, but as always, your mileage may vary.
Cyberpunk 2077 officially releases on December 10, so it won’t be long until everyone everywhere can play the next game from the makers of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.
Cyberpunk 2077 is a big and expansive game. To help you get started, GameSpot has put together some top tips to help you on your way:
GameSpot’s Cyberpunk 2077 review scored the game a 7/10. “The side quests and the characters they showcase are the shining beacon through the neon-soaked bleakness of Night City, and they give you room to explore the best the core RPG mechanics have to offer. These are what carried me through an otherwise disappointing experience,” reviewer Kallie Plagge said.
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Google has released its Google Trends for the year, and looking over the stats for searches in the US, as well as the global searches, there’s some interesting insights into the entertainment people wanted to know more about in 2020.
The most searched term in the US was “election results;” globally, it was “coronavirus,” for reasons that should be obvious. Tom Hanks was the most searched-for actor, in the US and globally, likely because he was the first major celebrity to contract COVID-19.
The impact of COVID-19 can also be seen in searches that start with “Where To Buy,” with “toilet paper” ranking high. But in the US, “Where to buy PS5” was the top search, ahead of toilet paper in second. Of course, in a normal year it would not be that surprising that the new PlayStation was in rarer supply than toilet paper, and anyone seeing this headline after time traveling here from 2019 would be confused and worried. But 2020 was not a normal year.
The Xbox Series X was the 4th most popular “where to buy” search term, while the Nintendo Switch–which had fewer supply issues, but still sold out earlier this year–landed 7th.
If you’re still searching for the new consoles, GameSpot has restock guides for both:
Among Us was the most searched-for game in 2020, which makes sense–not only because it was a phenomenon, but because people likely wanted to try and figure out how a mobile game from 2018 blew up so suddenly this year. Fall Guys, Valorant, Genshin Impact, and Ghost of Tsushima make up the rest of the top 5 in the US; globally, the list is almost the same, but with The Last of Us 2 pipping Ghost of Tsushima.
In the US and globally, Parasite was the most searched-for movie, suggesting that Bong Joon-ho’s Best Picture winner has been popular with people in lockdown.
The full Google Trends stats are an interesting way of reflecting back on the year that was–make sure you look at the “how to help” searches if you want to feel better about the world, and note that “baby platypus” was a major search term in 2020.
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