Debuting on July 2 on Netflix, Fear Street Part 1: 1994 is the first entry in a new horror movie trilogy that will be released over three consecutive weeks in July. Today, IGN can exclusively bring you the tense and terrifying opening five minutes of Part 1, which you can watch in the player above or via the embed below.
The Fear Street Trilogy is inspired by author R.L. Stine’s young adult horror book series of the same name, which was adapted for the screen by co-screenwriter and director Leigh Janiak (Honeymoon).
The trilogy is set in Shadyside, where a group of teenage friends in 1994 accidentally encounter the ancient evil behind a series of grisly murders that have plagued their community for over three centuries.
In the opening sequence, Stranger Things’ Maya Hawke plays a mall bookstore employee who is unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time when horror returns to Shadyside. Check it out:
In addition to Maya Hawke, the cast of Part One includes Kiana Madeira, Olivia Scott Welch, Benjamin Flores Jr., Julia Rehwald, Fred Hechinger, Ashley Zukerman, Darrell Britt-Gibson, Jordana Spiro, Jordyn Dinatale, and Jeremy Ford.
Fear Street Part 1: 1994 was scripted by Phil Graziadei & Leigh Janiak. It debuts on Netflix on July 2.
Fear Street Part 2: 1978 debuts July 9, and the summer movie event concludes with Fear Street Part 3: 1666 on July 16.
As far as we’re concerned, if you have a PlayStation 4 or 5, you need PlayStation Plus. It’s the way to get awesome free games every month, play online with friends, and unlock the full potential of your console. At the same time, if you’re a regular internet user, either to work from home or for play, then you should really have a secure VPN in place for unrestricted streaming and to protect your privacy.
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First off, this epic bundle will give you a huge three years of access to PlayStation Plus, the subscription service which takes your console to the next level, by unlocking its full online capabilities, getting you exclusive discounts on games, and perhaps most excitingly, giving you two of the biggest games to download for free, every single month. As an example of the caliber of free gaming you can expect from the service, last month’s selection of free games included the just-released PS5 online co-op Operation: Tango, 2021’s PS4 exclusive Virtua Fighter 5: Ultimate Showdown, and 2020’s Star Wars: Squadrons.
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It’s strange enough that Call of Duty: Modern Warfare got a couple of new maps this far into Black Ops Cold War‘s lifecycle. To make things even weirder, the two maps were originally added back in March, but then removed in April to spend more time in development.
Now, though, Al-Raab Airbase and Drainage are back, probably for good (although we can’t be sure). Al-Raab Airbase is a 6v6 map that’s currently featured in a 24/7 playlist, while Drainage is a 2v2 Gunfight map.
🚨#ModernWarfare Playlist Update!🚨Live now across platforms: – Adding ‘Al-Raab Airbase’ 24/7 – Adding ‘Drainage’ to Gunfight and Gunfight- Snipers Only playlists – Removing Search and Destroy Double Down
A new update is available now for Call of Duty: Warzone that makes changes to a series of weapons and attachments in the popular battle royale game. You can see the full patch notes at the bottom of this story.
The C58 and FARA 83 assault rifles in Warzone have had their recoil increased slightly, while the Nail Gun submachine gun’s maximum damage range has been decreased by 39%.
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Explaining these changes, Raven Software said the Nail Gun was designed to be lethal in close quarters like a shotgun. However, the max damage range was much greater than shotguns, allowing players to take down enemies at the same speed, or faster, than shotguns at nearly twice their effective range. As such, Raven is nerfing it. The developer didn’t explain why the assault rifles are changing, however.
As for attachments, several barrels are seeing their recoil control decreased by various percentage points. Raven said one of its goals is to reward players for learning things like reload times, the amount of bullets it takes to down an enemy, and the recoil patterns.
“Your proficiency with a Weapon should be a journey that is worked toward with an equivalent payoff. When we make weapons too effective and too easy to control, there is no journey of mastery and we can become disinterested with these weapons much quicker, which we feel can be a disservice,” the developer said.
“Even after these changes, we understand that there may still be incredibly effective and easy to control weapons when enough recoil control is applied through attachments. We will continue to target these Weapons as they arise to ensure that they strike a satisfactory balance between upside and downside.”
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever has started production. As reported by Variety, the sequel to the 2018 Marvel blockbuster Black Panther is now shooting in Atlanta ahead of its July 2022 release.
The new Black Panther movie is written and directed by Ryan Coogler once more, with many members of the first film’s cast expected to return. Chadwick Boseman, who played the title role in Black Panther, died last year, and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige recently stated that making the new movie without him would be an emotional experience.
“It’s clearly very emotional without Chad,” he said at a virtual Black Widow event this week. “But everyone is also very excited to bring the world of Wakanda back to the public and back to the fans. We’re going to do it in a way that would make Chad proud.”
Marvel hasn’t officially announced the cast of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever yet. However, it was previously reported that Danai Gurira will be back as Okoye, while Lupita Nyong’o released this very silly video that seemed to confirm her return as Nakia. In addition, Martin Freeman recently stated that he will reprise the character of CIA agent Everett K. Ross. Feige previously announced that Boseman’s role of T’Challa wouldn’t be recast.
In an interview earlier this year, Coogler spoke about making the movie without Boseman, and admitted that he was finding it hard to separate his personal loss from the fact he has a job to do. “You have a professional life, you’ve got a personal life,” he said. “Personal life, I’m going to say that when you work in something that you love, those things blend, they come together. I’m trying to find a work-life balance. But I’m not there yet, so this is without a question the hardest thing I’ve had to do in my professional life.”
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Patch 0.12.11 for Escape From Tarkov has launched after days of hints and teasers from developer Battlestate Games. The patch includes a full wipe of player inventories, setting everyone playing the hardcore MMO first-person shooter back to square one. However, a full list of patch notes for update 0.12.11 has not been released yet.
It’s no secret that a wipe for Escape From Tarkov was coming up. The game has long been due for one, with its last wipe arriving last December. Escape From Tarkov issues player inventory wipes twice a year. Battlestate Games also implemented some in-game changes to prepare players for an inventory wipe, including the deactivation of secure containers, which players use to keep precious equipment and cargo between runs, and hefty discounts at the game’s vendors.
As for what else is coming in Escape From Tarkov’s 0.12.11 patch, it’s a mystery, and that’s on purpose. In a tweet, Battlestate Games said that it wasn’t releasing a full list of patch notes on purpose. Instead, “We want to give you some time to discover the new features of the patch. We will post a full list of new features and changes later,” wrote the developer.
For the time being, the only details of patch 0.12.11 made available by Battlestate games is a long list of fixes players can expect to find. That list can be found down below and will be updated with the update’s full list of changes when it’s made available.
Escape From Tarkov 0.12.11 Patch Notes
Fixed:
In some cases players wouldn’t spawn even after successful matching and would get back to the main menu.
Totally silent movement of Shturman and his guards.
The player hung on a blank screen after pressing the “Back” button on the treatment screen after a raid.
The progress of the “Crafting” skill diverged between the client and the backend after production was completed.
Inventory and animation of the player’s hands hung when the player tried to move a cartridge from the chamber of the weapon in his hands to a full stack of ammunition.
The difference in the actions of the character when switching between pressing and holding the keys. Strong and weak grenade throws now work the same way: held down the key, thrown by releasing the key, and does not depend on the aiming settings.
The mods locked behind a quest did not unlock on the purchase screen for presets even after completing the quest.
The consumption rate of the air filter was higher than necessary.
At the moment of the weapon assembly in the presets menu – the separate weapon mod would be applied to the gun even if the gun already had such a mod on it.
The production timer in the hideout, which has been partially cropped.
The library did not speed up the “Crafting” and “Hideout management” skills.
Bolt-catch animations would be replaced with a charging handle loading one.
Hits on the neck protection worsened the condition of the helmet itself, not the condition of the neck protection.
Saiga 12 and PP-9 Klin stocks would get folded together with a quick drop of the backpack.
Inventory and animation of the player’s hands hung if the player simultaneously opened the door with a key and threw a grenade.
The transfer screen from scav layered onto the main menu screen after restarting the game on the transfer screen.
The player could not go sideways through the doorway.
Filters for food and medicine that did not work in the player’s stash.
Quest “The Punisher. Part 4.” which could be done without the scav vest.
“Strength”, “Stamina”, and “Stealth” movement progress was not properly counted during the raid.
Weapon mastering progress was not properly counted during the raid.
Character’s empty hand animation at a distance.
The player with empty hands could not drop the backpack.
Incorrect sensitivity on the mechanical sight on the ACOG.
The remaining generator runtime counter was not synchronized between the fuel canisters and the generator itself.
The observer was not able to see the grenade in the dropped backpack if the player put it in the backpack right out of his hands.
The observer did not see the grenade that the player put on the ground right out of his hands.
The sorting of lots by time of removal on the flea market did not work.
The reticle on the MRS sight was placed below the alignment on the Vector and UMP.
Breath sounds were not played if the player used up stamina with the Kiver visor down.
Player would go to crouch position when trying to hide quest items from prone position.
Changing the “Shadow visibility” setting was not applied during the raid.
Hanging animation of the player’s hands after reconnecting to the server at the moment of throwing a grenade.
The “Apply” button on the treatment screen after a raid was active even when no treatment type was selected.
Player wouldn’t get out of ADS mode when chamber-loading the gun.
Medkits that removed the negative effect from a non-priority limb and left the priority limb untreated.
Hands freeze when reloading some weapons via the context menu.
Commission for putting a cultist knife with an incomplete supply of poison to the flea market.
Discrete shadow movement from distant objects on high settings.
Ability to load weapons with unexamined ammunition.
The edit pocket map marker window did not close after loading into the raid.
The lamp did not break for other players if you break it with a melee weapon.
Unable to fill items by drag and drop when purchasing from a merchant.
Game freeze when equipping an item from the letter during the transfer of items through the “get everything” button.
The aiming magnification is not switched when re-installing the optical sight with the additional reflex sight.
Change the icon of the position of the character, when you open the inventory while prone.
Correcting the effects of light sources (flicker, glare).
Abrupt change of the weapon model in the hands of a character when switching to another weapon.
Inaccessibility of loot on the shelf, in the red room.
Various audio fixes.
Fixes for various problems related to the use of weapons and equipment.
Fixes for various errors in trade and merchant services.
Minor fixes to character stats.
Fixes for various problems and exploits on locations.
Fixes for some audio issues.
Some graphics fixes and improvements.
Some server bug fixes.
Fixes for some backend issues.
Fixes for some game interface elements.
Some bug fixes in localization.
Fixes for some bugs in offline raids.
Optimization:
Physics optimization.
Various graphics optimizations.
Various server optimizations.
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Although Resident Evil’s previous endeavors on the big and small screens left a lot to be desired, Netflix’s anime series Infinite Darkness is a step in the right direction. While this show is based on the popular zombie games that have been around for more than two decades, Infinite Darkness does what most games adapted into TV shows or movies fail to do: tell a story that feels both organic and more than just another retelling of the games in a different medium. Even with an imbalance of screentime with the main protagonists, a few poor performances, and weak animation from a couple of minor characters, Infinite Darkness does enough right to work as more than a zombie-kill montage and adds substantially to Resident Evil’s overall story.
Each of Infinite Darkness’ four roughly 30-minute episodes have a clearly focused, self-contained story, but they’re all interconnected in an interesting way. That said, while you do not necessarily have to play the games to understand what’s going on in this zombie and conspiracy-filled universe, the show is also not the best starting point because of where it takes place within the existing lore: it’s set between the events of Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 5 and stars Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield (the protagonists from Resident Evil 2). There are definitely times when I got more out of the story because I’d played those games, and the blanks that it fills in Resident Evil’s lore are enriching.
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Infinite Darkness’ plot focuses on Leon investigating a mysterious hacking attempt at the White House which led to zombies infiltrating the Executive Mansion. Meanwhile, Claire, a staffer at a human rights organization on the other side of the world, encounters a child’s drawing depicting a zombie attack. The connection between those two events is the thread that ties Infinite Darkness’ episodes together and brings Leon and Claire together multiple times as they independently investigate.
While the show is set between two of the Resident Evil series’ more action-focused games, do not expect Infinite Darkness to be a nonstop action-fest with a ton of zombie killing. In fact, relatively few zombies and bioweapons are killed throughout the four episodes, but it makes the most of those opportunities for some pretty spectacular gore. There’s one scene in particular where Leon dispatches a bioweapon by smashing it with a fire extinguisher that made me lose my appetite – not to brag, but that’s a rare occurrence for me, and I watch a fair amount of horror shows and movies.
Instead of action scenes and zombie massacres, the plot moves forward through dialogue, which I found to be a major upgrade compared to the cheesy writing and lines delivered by past Resident Evil films, both animated and live-action. It helps to unravel the secrets and conspiracies that lead us up to the climax of the series overall, and again, it does so without requiring in-depth knowledge of the games. There are times when we’re launched into flashbacks that help provide context; early on I was very confused by certain side characters and how they were connected, and even the opening sequence had me perplexed. However, the dialogue exchanges between characters and the information they conveyed with these interactions soon helped provide a complete picture without the exposition feeling forced or rushed.
As the episodes go on Leon ends up getting more screen time than Claire, which is arguably required by the circumstances of the story, but it gets to the point where it becomes lopsided: by the final episode, I felt that Claire was just kind of in the way of Leon’s adventure. Yes, she has her own investigation to pursue, but she becomes somewhat of a background character who happens to intersect with Leon.
Despite this, I felt interested in the story it had to tell. The show has its own identity, and it’s quite clear where the series fits in the games’ canon, mostly because even though it’s clearly connected it also functions as a complete and self-contained story and not necessarily something that felt forced for the sake of having a Resident Evil TV series. While the show itself does not do much to explain the history of the viruses that produce the bioweapons fans of the games are familiar with, it does not have to.
Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness shines bright because it shows the emotional weight and consequences these bioweapons have on the everyday person, there was even a moment early on where Leon explains how angry and scared he was after enduring and surviving the Raccoon City outbreak. Thinking back on it now, the lack of this kind of introspection was something I found to be an issue with Resident Evil: Degeneration, Damnation, and Vendetta. Those movies were trying too hard to recreate a video game-style experience you could only watch and never play and suffered greatly in terms of the plot, which had no reason to exist in retrospect.
Unfortunately, what sets Infinite Darkness back from being great is that it failed to keep me on the edge of my seat. From the very first episode, it was very clear to me which characters would serve as the antagonists to this story. It’s quite clear from the conversations and convictions they have with specific characters in specific scenes that they are the ones that will try to foil Leon and Claire’s investigations. There’s no suspense or dramatic turns. But Infinite Darkness does make up slightly for this shortcoming by giving me interesting backgrounds and reasons for the antagonists’ motives.
The voice actors who portrayed Leon and Claire in Resident Evil 2 Remake reprise their roles in Infinite Darkness and do a fantastic job, representing a significant step up from the weaker performances in previous Resident Evil animated movies. The supporting characters also provide good voice acting for the most part, although some scenes range from borderline passable to just plain laughable. (Patrick, a rookie agent, stands out like a sore thumb – he’s overly cartoony and I could not help but laugh at his dialogue.)
Animation is good for the most part, with the exception of the President of the United States – I found his performance and animation to be very distracting as he moved and acted like a plastic action figure, which was odd when compared to the other characters on screen. Overall, Infinite Darkness is rather consistent with the quality of movements and facial expressions conveyed by the characters, and the voices accurately match up with their mouths. (That’s something that can’t be said for the CG Resident Evil movies, particularly Degeneration.)
Everything is wrapped up at a satisfying pace without feeling rushed to fit within the two-hour total runtime, but at the same time, a moment towards the end of the final episode made me feel like there was more story to tell. Even if you’ve played Resident Evil 5 and know where the story goes from here, I still have to wonder if a second season could explore some of the doors this one leaves cracked open.
It’s no exaggeration that if you use the internet every day, you simply need a VPN. There are numerous benefits to having one – not least to enjoy unrestricted browsing, to safely use public networks, and to protect your privacy.
And when it comes to securing that unrestricted internet access, you want one you can trust. Which is why we were excited to find a Private Internet Access VPN two-year subscription, plus $15 of store credit back to spend, on sale today for just $69.95 – that’s 73% off the regular price of $268.
This excellent offering will give you access to more than 34,000 servers in 77 different countries – which is the ideal setup for browsing the internet and streaming TV, movies and videos, without any region blocking. In our opinion, if you invested in this less-than-$70 deal for two years of unlocked freedom to stream global content on Netflix alone, you’d be doing yourself a huge service.
But this great VPN does more than that, too. Private Internet Access also uses the cryptographically secure Powerful Blowfish CBC encryption to masks your identity, keeping your private data, private – and that means you can freely work remotely on confidential documents, enjoy internet banking without worry, and can eliminate the risk of identity theft online, even when using public wi-fi hotspots.
Plus, this subscription supports a generous ten devices – to keep all your tech protected, as well as your family’s.
What really makes us excited about this VPN, though, is that it comes so highly rated, with an impressive 4.3/5 stars from more than 7,000 ratings on TrustPilot, a highly impressive 4.7/5 on the iOS Store from over 65,000 reviews, and 4.5/5 on Google Play from over 35,000 reviews. Then, Private Access’s status as the best in the VPN biz was further cemented when it was named one of the best VPN Services of 2021 by the expert judges at Cnet.
Whether you want to become a six-figure influencer, a renowned guru in your field, or connect with an engaged online following for your business, everyone knows that harnessing the power of social media is the way to do it. In fact, 73% of marketers say social media has been effective for their business, while 54% of users say they use it to research products to buy. The numbers don’t lie: social media can transform your business.
But, social media management is literally a full-time job. That’s why large companies have full teams dedicated to creating and scheduling their social content. If you’re an individual or a small business, how do you keep up? The answer is with HelloWoofy Social Media Management, and right now, a one-year subscription on sale for just $49 – a 91% discount off the regular price of $588.
So, how does it work? HelloWoofy uses advanced AI tech to automatically create social media content and blog posts, all based on data science and trends, which you can then post immediately or schedule as either single posts, or as part of entire campaigns. Then, it’ll even recommend hashtags and suggest the perfect emoji to increase engagement with the post, and allow you to integrate your posts with graphics and copyright-free images. It’s like having your own personal social media manager on your team – without the salary to go with it.
If the idea sounds familiar, that’s because you may have seen it before: HelloWoofy competed against dozens of companies to win the coveted 2nd place on billionaire investor Tim Draper’s business competition TV show, “Meet the Drapers”.
Aside from accolades from billionaire TV business people, it comes highly reviewed by everyday users, too, with a 4/5 star rating. And as one recent reviewer commented, it rivals other products which can cost hundreds of times as much: “This is an amazing tool with so many features that it can be easily compared to similar tools that charge thousands of dollars… a must for anyone with an online business”
A new advertising platform could bring TV-like advertising to mainstream console gaming, with EA and Hi-Rez Studios (Smite) apparently already involved.
According to a report from Axios, the platform, called playerWON, has been designed by advertising company Simulmedia, and will allow advertisers to run advertising in console video games. In a method similar to som mobile games, playerWON would give players a choice of watching a 15 or 30 second ad in exchange for perks and in-game items. However, the platform is targeting marketers more used to high-cost TV advertising.
According to the report, Simulmedia has already agreed deals with high profile developers and publishers like EA and High-Rez Studios. Data from Simulmedia’s research suggests that players will be willing to watch up to 10 adverts a day in order to obtain free or exclusive perks and items. In-game ads are likely to be much cheaper for developers and publishers to integrate, compared to spending millions on large flashy ad campaigns.
Apparently, whilst developers have already noticed the money-making potential of in-game advertising, they have generally stayed away from it in fear of causing issues with overall game performance, as a “clunky ad experience would mess with user engagement”. However, the platform allows developers to code adverts into their games, allowing users to select which ads they want to engage with.
In-game advertising has been a staple of the business model for many free-to-play mobile games for years at this point, though it has never really come to console in the big way it has for mobile devices. The have been occasions where large publishers like EA have previously included in-game ads in sports games like UFC 4 (you can read all about that controversy here), but following a public outcry they’ve repeatedly backed down.
If this platform is implemented, however, it could mean that in-game advertising becomes the norm for console gaming as it has on mobile. Whilst there has been no further information revealed about what games EA might be considering using this technology for, their track record suggests they would start with their sports games such as FIFA and Madden. We’ve contacted EA about its plans for the system.
The inclusion of Smite developer Hi-Rez Studios as a partner suggests that free-to-play MOBAs are likely to utilise the platform as well. Smite has been used to test the viability of the playerWON system, and revealed that players are significantly more likely to spend money in-game if they had been shown ads that gave them access to other perks and items
In other controversial business practises news, EA is reportedly allowing some FIFA Ultimate Team players to look inside loot boxes before purchasing them, and earlier this year an EA staff member was caught selling rare FUT cards online.
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Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman
