Superman and The Witcher TV series actor Henry Cavill made a cryptic post on Instagram that’s leading some fans to speculate he’s working on a Mass Effect project.
The post reads, “Secret project? Or just a handful of paper with random words on it…. Guess you’ll have to wait and see. Happy hump day all.” It’s accompanied by a piece of paper with the writing blurred to obscure its contents. But when the text is sharpened, it appears to show some key phrases like “Cerberus,” “Tali’Zorah,” and “Geth,” via GamePressure.
GameSpot de-blurred and noted some of the same words, though it’s always possible that being primed to see certain key words influenced that perception. The paper could be a description of the Rannoch mission, pulled from the Mass Effect 3 Wiki, as it includes those key phrases in that order. It’s unknown why Cavill would be studying a particular game mission for a role, however.
BioWare currently has two Mass Effect projects in development that we know of: the remastered Mass Effect: Legendary Edition trilogy and the next Mass Effect game. There is no Mass Effect show or movie currently in the works, that we know of.
But Cavill is a fan of video games himself, having lobbied for his role in The Witcher on Netflix due to his enjoyment of the series. He’s also made a point of sharing himself building his own gaming PCs. It’s possible he’s looking to get involved in an upcoming project and researching the role. Or, he could just be trolling the fans. Time will tell.
When you die in 30XX, thus bringing your run to a premature and perhaps permanent end, there’s a good chance you will receive a message from the Bureau of Encouragement. In a roguelike platformer where death can feel like a crushing setback or at best wasted time, you would be forgiven for expecting to find comfort in such a message. A consoling pat on the back, some inspiring words, or at least a sliver of hope. You would be wrong. “Ooooh! So close…” says the Bureau of Encouragement. “Just kidding. That was terrible!”
I received a lot of messages from the Bureau of Encouragement because I died a lot in 30XX. But the Bureau was not the only regulatory agency to contact me in the aftermath of my demise. The Failure Board and the Department of Aggravation also got in touch to register their contempt at my performance. “Remember, you can stop whenever you have given up hope,” they laughed.
Despite their derision, I pressed on. Much like the classic action platformers from which it draws heavy inspiration, 30XX is a game in which defeat is never an ending but rather an opportunity to start over and try again. A roguelike structure is a smart complement to this life-death cycle and positions 30XX–even in its Early Access state–as an accomplished title, worthy of comparison to its 8- and 16-bit forerunners.
30XX in Early Access on PC
In a nutshell, 30XX is procedurally generated Mega Man. You run left to right, jump, shoot and slice your way across a series of themed 2D platforming worlds, taking down a boss at the end of each level. Moving through these areas feels great, thanks to precise and responsive controls. Actions like dash-boosting a jump to clear a larger-than-usual gap or sliding down a wall to adjust the timing of the next wall jump, for example, quickly become instinctive, erasing any additional barrier between you and obstacles ahead. When you die yet again you’ll be cursing your own ineptitude rather than any sluggish movement or control issues.
The procedural nature of the levels is derived from the way pre-made “chunks” are shuffled and randomly combined to generate the world ahead. It’s not quite the case that when you commence a new run you will find yourself facing a fresh challenge as, chances are, you’ll encounter chunks that you’ve seen before. Though I don’t know exactly how many chunks are in the currently available pool, my experience was that they seemed to repeat quite often. I suppose the idea is that even if you have seen the individual chunks of a level before, you won’t have experienced them assembled in this particular order, and in my time at least, that seemed to be the case.
Given that just three chunks comprise each level, however, hitting a repeat chunk does mean that an awful lot of the level of your current run will be familiar. At first I found it a disappointment to happen upon the same area. Here we go, I’d feel my shoulders slump, it’s the one with lots of falling crystal spike traps above a sequence of tiny platforms again. But many runs later that initial dismay had subsided, replaced with an eagerness to bound through a chunk I now knew well and a determination to hone my mastery of the level, ensuring I arrived at the boss with full health for the best possible advantage.
30XX benefits from the procedural generation of its levels across two game modes that both incorporate roguelike elements in different ways. Both modes allow you to keep all your gear, currency and upgrades between runs. The difference is, when you die in Standard all the levels are rerolled, while in Mega your progress persists. Standard is actually the more challenging of the two in that it forces you to beat the whole game in one life while in Mega Mode you’re able to cling to small feats of progress.
I played a lot more of 30XX in Mega Mode than in Standard. This is because, as I may have mentioned, I died a lot. And, despite the best efforts of the Bureau of Encouragement, I found myself far more inclined to hit restart knowing I was now armed with greater knowledge of what lay ahead. In doing so, I was able to appreciate that each death was but a scouting expedition to precede my eventual success.
Just as there are two game modes with distinct takes on the same premise, there are two playable characters offering their own particular approaches. Broadly speaking, Nina uses ranged weapons (her gun is even referred to as a buster) while Ace relies on melee. This difference necessitates the deployment of new strategies for even the most basic of enemies, transforming what may be a fairly straightforward section with one character into a fraught challenge with the other. Alone, this would be reason enough to warrant completing a full run with both characters. But the contrast between the pair runs deeper to include the types of powers they accrue, as well as the way you have to manage the energy required to use those powers. This ensures the two characters are unique and swapping between them for a new run feels meaningfully different.
30XX in Early Access on PC
To my surprise, there is a cooperative mode where a second player can join. I couldn’t find another player online whenever I tried the network option, but I was able to test local co-op (with player 1 using a pad and player 2 on keyboard) and was even more surprised at how well it worked. Impressively, when the two players became separated, the screen would smoothly zoom out–often displaying a ridiculous amount of the level at once–to keep both characters in frame, even if they were now barely a handful of pixels tall. (Don’t worry, things aren’t so tiny you can’t see what’s going on, and there’s absolutely no reason why players need to remain so far apart for any length of time.) The only letdown is that it doesn’t seem possible–at least at this stage–to import an already upgraded character as the co-op partner.
There’s also a level editor to allow players to design their own chunks of a level and share them with the community. It’s pretty easy to use and already comes with a clear and concise tutorial. Level design is not my forte, but I was able to build a very simple chunk with a few obstacles in just a few minutes. What happens to these chunks once created was less clear. I was able to browse other players’ creations in the chunk catalog and download and play any I wished, but I couldn’t work out if it was possible to play through a whole run of player-created levels. Enticing as it may sound to have your own chunk added to the rotation for others to encounter in their Standard Mode run, this doesn’t appear to be the case, though who knows what future updates in this area Early Access may deliver.
To that end, there’s a clock on the 30XX title screen counting down the time to the very second until the next update. The next few months, though perhaps not the very next update, will see the welcome addition of Leaderboard play with seeded daily and weekly runs, according to developer Batterystaple Games. Over the course of the planned year-long Early Access period, two new worlds and bosses, plus a ninth final stage, will be added to the existing half-dozen, along with new but yet-to-be-detailed items, powers and systems–all of which is not just reassuring but hugely encouraging for the game’s future prospects.
Bearing in mind what’s still to come, 30XX is nonetheless off to an excellent start. It’s already a thoroughly enjoyable homage to the likes of Mega Man or Turrican, with tight controls and polished character design securing the foundation and a roadmap to version 1.0 promising a steady supply of new content. I wouldn’t hesitate to start your run now, no matter what the Bureau of Encouragement might say to the contrary.
Destiny 2‘s Presage Exotic mission will earn you Dead Man’s Tale, a new Exotic scout rifle. But if you want to further improve the gun with its Exotic catalyst, you’ll have to take on a much tougher version of the mission, while also seeking out a whole lot of secrets aboard the Glykon. Here’s how to get the Dead Man’s Tale catalyst, what it’s good for, and how to unlock it quickly.
Earning the catalyst requires you to complete Presage at least twice, but you’ll get faster progress on the catalyst if you’re willing to run it several times. There are a lot of moving parts involved with the new Exotic quest, however. It seems that you’ll want to run the mission at least once a week to get the maximum speed out of your catalyst progress.
Once you’ve cleared Presage once and unlocked Dead Man’s Tale, Zavala will have a new quest for you, called At Your Fingertips. The Exotic quest sends you back to the Glykon, where Presage takes place, to explore it more thoroughly. It also unlocks the Master difficulty version of the mission, which has a suggested Power level of 1320. You’ll want to make sure you’ve geared up to handle the more-difficult enemies found within.
Step 2: Complete Presage On Master Difficulty
This is where the fun beings. Presage on Master has a suggested Power level of 1320, making the enemies found within drastically tougher to defeat than in the standard version–which is already no picnic. The tougher mission also includes a bunch of new modifiers, including Match Game, which makes it almost impossible to destroy enemy shields unless you hit them with the same element type. Finally, Master difficulty Presage includes a 25-minute timer, so you’ll need to sprint through it as quickly as you can; make sure you know the route through the mission very well or you’re going to fail a lot.
Master Presage also includes the Champions: Mob modifier, which suggests the mission will spawn extra Champion enemies throughout. At least in its first week, this doesn’t seem to be the case–the mission actually includes no Champions right now. It’s not clear if the inclusion of Champions: Mob is a mislabeling and the mission is not supposed to include Champions, or if it’s bugged and no Champions are spawning. Either way, you might want to complete it as soon as possible, before Bungie has a chance to patch it and make it even tougher.
The Locus of Communion fight is very tough in Presage on Master difficulty–we found Anarchy to be effective in taking it down.
We highly recommend you bring a full three-player fireteam for Presage on Master difficulty, especially if you’re not at max Power level. The mission is tough primarily because it’s easy to get overwhelmed thanks to Match Game and because the timer can end your run even if you’re doing well. Having three players also allows you to bring a variety of weapons to bear in the mission.
As far as loadout, we recommend bringing along powerful boss-killing weapons. We had the best luck with at least one Anarchy, which allows you to do sustained damage to the Locus of Communion boss even after you escape from the lower section of the boss room during the fight. Ticuu’s Divination can also be highly effective for clearing out weaker enemies with massive explosions. Hard Light is an obvious choice for knocking out enemy shields, and sniper rifles such as Succession from the Deep Stone Crypt raid can be very effective for taking down distant enemies who can make your life difficult.
Note that the final fight is almost all enemies with Solar shields on the top floor, and Arc shields on the bottom floor, so plan accordingly. You only need to defeat the boss within the time limit.
Finish the mission and return to Zavala to complete At Your Fingertips and earn the catalyst. You’ll now need to fully progress it in order to unlock its benefits.
Step 3: Search For Hidden Caches In Presage
There are two ways to complete the Dead Man’s Tale catalyst. First, you can rack up kills with the weapon–but that’s likely to take a while. Another method (arguably even slower, though) is to advance the catalyst by finding secret caches hidden throughout the Presage mission. This is a bit of a process in and of itself, but each cache you find will give you approximately 12.5% completion on the catalyst, allowing you to make significant leaps in unlocking it.
How To Unlock Presage Caches
There are seeming a lot of hidden caches aboard the Glykon, and you can find them in the Presage mission, but you can’t always access them. They’re marked by small datapad consoles you’ll find on the ground near locked doors; interact with the datapad, and the door opens, revealing a chest. The thing is, you can’t interact with the datapads until you accomplish a specific goal that seems tied to the lore book that drops from Presage completions, called Captain’s Log.
After the first time you complete Presage, you can re-run the mission to unlock new versions of Dead Man’s Tale with different perks. Completing the mission once per week after your first run also unlocks a page of the Captain’s Log lore book. At the end of each lore entry is mention of a hidden cache, so it seems like you need the lore page before the cache will become accessible to you. It appears that you can get one new lore page per week, per account.
Here’s where you can find the caches that are available in the mission so far.
Hidden Cache 1: Inside The First Vent
The very first ventilation duct you can shoot as you enter the Glykon hides your first hidden cache.
Right after you find the entrance to the ship by platforming around the side of it, you’ll enter a tight, red-tinted ventilation shaft. Watch for a vent cover you can shoot out on your left, covered by some of those weird Darkness vines. Inside is the datapad and your first locked door.
Hidden Cache 2: In The Floor
You’ll find this hidden cache right along the pathway from the beginning of Presage, after you enter the ship from the outside.
Keep moving through that first set of vents and you’ll walk right over the second hidden cache. It’s in a hallway painted blue along the path back to the front door of the Glykon, still in the first set of hallways after you enter the vent from the outside.
We’ll continue to update this list as more caches become available.
What The Dead Man’s Tale Catalyst Does
Like all Exotic catalysts, the one for Dead Man’s Tale significantly changes how the weapon works, adding new benefits to using it. First, the gun will now drop Orbs of Power whenever you score multikills, which can allow you and your teammates to earn your Super abilities more quickly.
The catalyst also adds a new perk that increases the gun’s hip-fire rate, making it fire very quickly when you’re not aiming down the sights. The catalyst also does away with the targeting penalty you’d normally suffer for not aiming, making it possible to score headshots with the gun a lot more easily. Essentially, this makes Dead Man’s Tale very similar to another well-loved Exotic, The Last Word, allowing you to unload on targets from the hip with a high degree of accuracy. The catalyst increases the lethality of Dead Man’s Tale quite a bit, especially in PvP situations.
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Of course, Train to Busan is only the latest foreign language movie to get the US remake treatment. Hollywood has long been a place where original ideas take second place to making movies based on existing properties that have already been a success. While international cinema might not always have the built-in recognition factor of a franchise sequel or remake of an older American film, there’s no denying that it’s a source of great storytelling ideas. Why think of a new story when some guy in another country has already done it?
Unfortunately, very few Hollywood remakes of great foreign language movies are actually any good. In many cases, the American filmmakers take a great story but remove much of what makes the original so effective–whether that’s tone, style, or acting. Other times, the desire to make a movie more accessible to mainstream US audiences means that the darker, weirder, and ultimately more interesting edges of the original are blunted.
There are exceptions of course. Movies such as Matt Reeves’ Let Me In (remaking Let the Right One In), Martin Scorsese’s The Departed (Infernal Affairs), William Friedkin’s Sorcerer (Wage of Fear), and James Cameron’s True Lies (La Totale) all brought something new to the source material, and stand separate from the originals as great movies in their own right. But for every one of these, there are many more bad, silly, and utterly redundant remakes. Asian horror has been particularly badly served over the years, which doesn’t necessarily bode well for the Train to Busan remake. But while we wait for that movie with our fingers crossed, here’s a look at some of the worst US remakes of foreign language films.
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Season 2 will launch on all platforms on February 25 at 12 AM ET, or 9 PM PT on February 24. However, the content varies a little bit based on the game you’re playing. It introduces new multiplayer modes and maps, new weapons, and new zombie-themed challenges across both games. Read on more for about what Season 2 has in store, including a link to the patch notes where you can find a full breakdown.
In the case of Call of Duty: Warzone, there’s a rolling update happening on February 24 between 9 PM PT and 11 PM PT. The Outbreak content will last until March 5, so you won’t want to wait to try it out.
For Black Ops Cold War, updates are also rolling out to prepare for the full Season 2 launch, and you can gain immediate access to the new Death Machine scorestreak reward as well as other minor cosmetic additions.
What’s In Season 2?
You can check out a full breakdown of the Season 2 update, including the patch notes. Along with the addition of the Apocalypse map, Gun Game, new featured playlists, Death Machine, and Outbreak, the update also makes several changes to League Play and other quality-of-life changes across nearly every aspect of both games. Even Dead Ops Arcade 3 got some love with changes to events and a number of gameplay fixes.
When asked whether he regretted the show’s previous silence and slow public deliberation, Groening remarked, “At a certain point it doesn’t matter what you say. You’re going to be attacked by whoever, you know? We’re not going out of our way to comfort bigots. On the other hand, if you do any kind of gesture and people perceive a weakness, you’ll be criticised.” This comment isn’t all that different from past reactions from Groening, which were initially dismissive of the criticism.
Earlier in the show’s current, 32nd season, The Simpsons recast Carl Carlson with Alex Désert (Better Things, Better Call Saul) in for Hank Azaria. The move was met with a wide spectrum of reactions from fans, from wholehearted enthusiasm to shrugging indifference. Following a much-publicized, lengthy controversy over representation, whitewashing, and stereotyping sparked by comedian Hari Kondabolu’s 2017 documentary The Problem With Apu, The Simpsons has opted to either re-cast or, in the case of Apu, seemingly completely phase out the objectionable roles.
In the same interview, Groening–who is currently working on Netflix series Disenchantment–expressed an appreciation for the change taking place broadly in the culture. “We’re trying to make it better,” Groening told the BBC. “Bigotry and racism are still an incredible problem and it’s good to finally go for more equality and representation.”
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If you’ve been champing at the bit for a new mid-range graphics card from AMD, your prayers may finally be answered on March 3rd.
AMD has just announced it will reveal the latest addition to its Radeon RX 6000 graphics family on March 3rd. At 8am PT/11am ET/4pm UK/2am AET, users will be able to tune into the livestream on AMD’s website.
The computer CPU and GPU maker promises its event will continue the journey for RDNA2, the architecture behind AMD’s latest Navi graphic cards for gaming PCs as well as the graphics processors found inside of the Xbox Series X and PS5. We strongly predict that AMD will announce a new or several new graphics cards to compete with the Nvidia RTX 3060.
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Kevin Lee is IGN’s Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam
The first details on David Fincher’s next movie have come to light, with Deadline reporting that the Oscar-winner is adapting the Alexis Nolent graphic novel series, The Killer, for a movie.
Fincher is working on the project with screenwriter Andrew Kevin Walker, who wrote the script for Fincher’s murder movie Seven. Sources told Deadline that Michael Fassbender is in talks to star in the movie, though no deal has been made.
The movie is headed to Netflix, according to the report. Fincher recently inked a four-year deal with the streaming company that began with the movie Mank, which told the story of the process of making Citizen Kane and starred Gary Oldman.
Fincher is no stranger to directing projects about killers, murder, and death, so The Killer should be right in his wheelhouse. The graphic novel tells the story of killer who has a crisis.
Fincher directed the movies Fight Club, Panic Room, Zodiac, The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, and Gone Girl, while he earned Oscar nominations for two other movies that he directed, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and The Social Network. Fincher also directed a number of episodes of Netflix’s criminal psychology drama Mindhunter.
It sounds like it’s very early days for Fincher’s new The Killer movie, so there is no word yet on a full cast or release date.
Nintendo Switch owners can snag a free copy of Ghosts ‘n Goblins if they claim it by February 25. It comes as part of Capcom Arcade Stadium, which is a digital arcade that you can fill with a bunch of classic Capcom games. The arcade collection comes with 1943: The Battle of Midway, and there are additional game packs you can purchase it. You can claim Ghosts ‘n Goblins below–just sign into your Nintendo account, then “purchase” it.
Ghosts ‘n Goblins is one of Capcom’s most beloved retro games, and while it did release on the NES and multiple home computers, Capcom Arcade Stadium focuses on the company’s arcade titles. That means you’ll get the arcade version of Ghosts ‘n Goblins, which is considered by most to be the superior version.
This giveaway ends on February 25, which also happens to be the day that Ghosts ‘n Goblins Resurrection releases on Nintendo Switch. It’s an all-new game in the series that uses the same engine as the recent Resident Evil remakes. Despite that, it retains the series’ classic 2D gameplay, paying tribute to its past and creating new surprises at the same time.
