Month: April 2021

For those unfamiliar with the phenomenon that is Roblox, it’s less a self-contained game than it is a platform for third-party developers to release their own unique games and experiences onto. One of the most popular is Adopt Me, a game that sees players collecting and hatching cute collectable creatures from eggs. Adopt Me regularly breaks concurrent user records on the platform when releasing new content, and its latest release was no different, seeing almost 2 million players in the game at once.

The news was tweeted out by Adopt Me developer Josh Ling, who celebrated 1.92 million concurrent players logging on for the game’s April 17 Ocean Egg release. The Adopt Me studio DreamCraft beat their own previous record of 1.78 million, and have been record-setters many times before that. Many of the comments on Adopt Me’s tweets and YouTube videos come from Roblox players complaining about Adopt Me’s massive releases “breaking” the Roblox platform.

The game’s updates are designed to foster record-breaking numbers of concurrent users, encouraging players to log in to participate in a live countdown to new content releases. This results in the steep player spikes seen in Ling’s screenshots, which he has previously taken to YouTube to explain after criticism that the player data looked suspicious.

Then, Ling had tweeted a celebration of Adopt Me’s continued growth, pointing out that a concurrent user count of 465,000 was record-breaking in mid-2019, while by early 2020 the game was hitting those numbers weekly.

Adopt Me also recently celebrated being the first Roblox game to reach 20 billion total visits, and was officially recognized in the 2020 Bloxy Awards for Most Visits, Most Concurrent Players, and Highest Total 2020 Playtime. The game sees regular weekly spikes between 400,000 and 700,000 concurrents, though at the moment its dominance is being challenged by a roleplay game called Brookhaven, which won Best New Game in the 2020 Bloxys.

Roblox as a whole has seen a lot of growth in the last year, which culminated in an impressive debut on the New York Stock Exchange earlier this year–though as recently as March 2021, the company’s CEO confirmed that it still doesn’t make a profit.

DC’s Black Adam — which is scheduled for theatrical release on July 29, 2022 — is the second New Line/DC film production after 2019’s Shazam!

Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was originally slated to appear in Shazam! as Black Adam, though plans were reworked to give the star his own solo film before inevitably clashing with Zachary Levi and Asher Angel’s Billy Batson.

Here’s a quick look at everyone cast in Black Adam so far.

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Dwayne Johnson as Black Adam

Dwayne Johnson’s stupendously powerful anti-hero will face-off against the Justice Society of America in Black Adam.

Johnson has been attached to play Black Adam since 2014. In the five years since that official announcement, it was decided that Shazam! and Black Adam, one of Shazam’s most iconic villains, would get two separate movies in order to do each character justice.

Aldis Hodge as Hawkman

Aldis Hodge (Leverage, The Invisible Man, One Night in Miami) has been cast as Hawkman. Hawkman is Carter Hall, an archaeologist who is the reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian prince Khufu. As a member of the Justice Society of America, Hawkman has fought alongside Atom Smasher, Doctor Fate, Cyclone.

Noah Centineo as Atom Smasher

Noah Centineo (To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, The Perfect Date) will play Atom Smasher. Atom Smasher, born Albert Rothstein, is known for changing his atomic makeup to change his size and strength. In the DC Comics, Adam and Rothstein eventually formed a bond after the former joined the JSA’s ranks.

Quintessa Swindell as Cyclone

Quintessa Swindell (Voyagers, Trinkets) will play the role of Cyclone. Cyclone — aka Maxine Hunkel — is a junior member of the JSA with the power to manipulate wind and sound.

Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz

Sarah Shahi (Person of Interest, The Rookie, City on a Hill) hasn’t been officially announced as Dr. Adrianna Tomaz, but in an online post the actress mentioned playing a character named “Adrianna.” In the comics, Adrianna Tomaz is Black Adam’s wife who, with the Amulet of Isis, has power over the forces of nature.

Pierce Brosnan as Doctor Fate

007’s Pierce Brosnan (also the Thomas Crown Affair, Mamma Mia!) has been cast as Doctor Fate. Doctor Fate is a founding member of the JSA and possesses sorcery skills bestowed upon him by the Helmet of Fate. The character first debuted in 1940’s More Fun Comics #5.
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Marwan Kenzari in an Unknown Role

Marwan Kenzari (Aladdin, The Old Guard) has been cast in Black Adam. Kenzari’s role is unknown at this time.

James Cusati-Moyer and Bodhi Sabongui in Unknown Roles

James Cusati-Moyer (Prodigal Son) and Bodhi Sabongui (A Million Little Things) have been cast in unknown roles. Notably though, Sabongui is said to be playing “a key role in the Black Adam-DC canon.”

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It’s an interesting Sunday of deals, as one of our highlights is none other than Yoda. In LEGO form that is, as this 16″ statue is on sale, with of course user-assembly required. Best Buy has a great projector and screen combination that’s ideal for a first time user of the hardware, and GameStop has a ton of awesome collectibles on sale this weekend as well. It’s a flat 20% off anything over $100, which really helps ease the burden on the wallet when making those big purchases.

Daily Deals for April 18

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More Video Game Deals

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Mare of Easttown premieres Sunday, April 18 on HBO and HBO Max. This is a spoiler-free review.

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HBO’s new deliciously dreary crime series, Mare of Easttown, starring Oscar-winner Kate Winslet as an emotionally weighed-down detective in a blue-collar crevice of Pennsylvania, is a chilling and thrilling piece of Neo-noir.

Like famous Dennis Lehane books-turned-movies Mystic River and Gone Baby Gone, Mare of Easttown is a mystery that rests on the frustrated, reluctant shoulders of its unhappy characters, who are resentful of their monotonous lives and overwhelming responsibilities. It’s superbly made and Winslet is a sluggish, bitter force as Mare Sheehan. Mare is Easttown’s former high school basketball star, who now lives in a post-divorce world of ghosts — both personal and professional. Not everything is spelled out right away in this first episode, “Miss Lady Hawk Herself,” but the setup is grand and the ensemble is somewhat of a magnificent misery parade.

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Mare is a year deep into a missing persons case that’s gone absolutely nowhere, and now a new detective from the county is being called in to assist (though he, played by Evan Peters, won’t arrive until episode 2). As the episode ends, a whole new case of nightmares opens up for Mare and the town in a way that suggests that the overarching “whodunnit?” stories shouldn’t be seen as the absolute focus here. For sure, they’re a big element, but the main draw is Mare and the chaos that engulfs her on a daily basis. There will be crimes around her, and they’ll (presumedly) be solved by the end of this limited series, but the primary arc we’re following is Mare — her family, her grief, and how (it sure seems like) everyone in her area code resents her for different reasons.

With a rogue’s gallery of suspects contained in a capable cast featuring the severely dressed-down Jean Smart, Guy Pearce, David Denman, Neal Huff, James McArdle, and more, Mare of Easttown gives us a formidable look inside the town’s inner drama. It’s the kind of show that hits you with big broad beats, but also sort of winks at the smaller moments, letting you know that you should be paying attention to everything said and shown because it’ll probably come back in some shape or form.

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Guy Pearce plays an out-of-towner who takes an immediate liking to Winslet’s Mare, despite her best efforts to shun him and most everyone else around her. It’ll be interesting to see (perhaps) how he creeps into her life as a romantic interest as the series progresses. She’s so reluctant to allow herself any happiness that his adoration is almost immersion therapy. Naturally, we have all the reasons in the world to be suspicious of Pearce’s character, but since he’s one of the more notable faces in the cast he could just be a Red Herring, and proof that Mare isn’t the only one to back away from a potentially good thing. The genre itself, like life, trains us as viewers to do the same.

The other story we follow in this premiere is teen mom Erin, played by Devs’ Cailee Spaeny, who’s beset on all sides by an abusive dad, a good-for-nothing baby daddy, and a local girl who wants to beat her ass. Erin and Mare’s story run side by side, proving that age has nothing to do with characters finding themselves trapped in ruthless ruts. Erin does her best to soar towards her new opportunity while Mare, for all intents and purposes, just envisions nothing but dead-end days.

Written (and created) by The Way Back’s Brad Ingelsby, and deftly directed by Craig Zobel (The Leftovers, Westworld), Mare of Easttown uses the first episode to paint a portrait and then nails us with a casket drop at the end. In a sense, the meatiest mystery doesn’t kick off until close to the closing credits, but again, the story is all about Mare and the town. It wants to make sure you’re invested in the characters before the story starts digging up dirt on all of them.

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The Falcon and the Winter Soldier’s Wyatt Russell has said that he has no interest in replacing his father Kurt Russell as Snake Plissken in an Escape From New York reboot, as that would be “like career suicide 101.”

As reported by ComicBook.com, Russell, who is the son of Kurt Russell and Goldie Hawn, was speaking to Esquire and responded to a fan question about this rumored reboot of Escape From New York and whether or not he’d be interested in the leading role or if he could convince his father to “go the Logan route and make a new one.”

“Although that’s very kind, that will not be happening,” Russell answered. “There will be no Snake reboot from me, that’s like career suicide 101. That’s like what not to do. I don’t know if anybody else could be Snake Plissken. Good luck, go get ‘em, I sincerely wish you the best of luck. I just don’t know how it’s possible. And for me, if I really wanted to get people sending me hate mail, I think that’s what I should do. I will not be ever doing anything like that.”

The reboot of 1981’s Escape From New York has been rumored for some time. In 2019, a report came out that Saw co-creator Leigh Whannell was being considered to both write and direct the film.

While Wyatt may not become Snake Plissken, he is currently the new Captain America in Disney+’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, which will be wrapping up its first season next Friday, April 23.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.