July is here, and it’s shaping up to be another busy month for Pokemon Go. On top of all the in-game events Niantic has lined up over the next few weeks, a new batch of Field Research tasks is now live, and if you complete enough of them, you’ll earn a new Research Breakthrough reward: Larvitar.
Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough in July, your reward will be an encounter with Larvitar, the base form of the powerful Tyranitar. There’s also a chance that the Larvitar you encounter will be Shiny, so there’s a good incentive to complete as much Field Research as you can this month.
As a refresher, Field Research tasks are distributed via Poke Stops. The first one you complete each day will net you a stamp, and collecting seven stamps will lead to a Research Breakthrough. You can see the full list of July’s Field Research tasks, as compiled by The Silph Road, below.
There’s a lot going on in Pokemon Go this month. Pokemon Go Fest 2020 takes place on July 25 and 26, and before then, Niantic is holding a series of weekly challenges that players can complete to unlock additional Pokemon during Go Fest weekend. The Legendary Kyurem is also making its debut in Pokemon Go this month, and Gastly is headlining July’s Community Day.
Pokemon Go July 2020 Field Research Tasks
Catching Tasks
Field Research Task
Rewards
Catch 5 Pokemon with Weather boost
Poliwag or Vulpix encounter; 200 Stardust, 3 Razz Berries, 1 Pinap Berry, or 5 Poke Balls
Catch 10 Pokemon with Weather boost
500 Stardust, 6 Razz Berries, 2 Pinap Berries, or 5 Great Balls
Diablo III’s Season 21 content is now live for all regions and platforms, bringing with it new class sets, item and skill changes, and season journey rewards. You’ll be able to get cosmetic rewards previously available from Season 9 as part of the content update, but there are a couple of new additions, as well.
Season 21’s theme is Trials of Tempests, and during the season your character will occasionally channel an elemental power that you can utilize for a short time. You can crush enemies with snowballs, breathe lightning, rain meteors, conjure a flame wall, or even cast tornadoes.
Those who complete the season’s journey in the Trial of Tempests will get the Stupendous Contraption pet and the Industrial Portrait frame. This is in addition to the Season 9 items that are also available for completing it.
A new Demon Hunter set is available with the season: Gears of Dreadlands. With a two-piece set bonus, you’ll gain four seconds of Momentum when attacking with a primary skill and will see increased damage with your primary skills during its duration. With a four-piece bonus, casting Strafe will also automatically shoot your last-used primary skill and offer damage reduction and increased movement speed during Momentum.
Necromancers also get a new set: Masquerade of the Burning Carnival. Its two-piece bonus means Simulacrums no longer take damage and it also gains all runes and has its cooldown refreshed upon your death. For four-piece sets, all damage is reduced by half when you have a Simulacrum and all damage you do take is split with your Simulacrums.
Diablo III continues to get new content as we approach the still-undated release of Diablo 4. The game will feature open-world multiplayer locations and a return to the darker tone seen in the second game. It will also make use of in-engine cutscenes so your character will sport the same equipment they have during gameplay.
These are the class sets granted for completing chapters 2, 3, and 4 of the season journey:
Barbarian – Might of the Earth
Crusader – Thorns of the Invoker
Demon Hunter – The Shadow’s Mantle
Monk – Monkey King’s Garb
Witch Doctor – Raiment of the Jade Harvester
Wizard – Firebird’s Finery
Necromancer – Grace of Inarius
And these are the season journey rewards granted for completing certain challenges:
Guardian of Sanctuary: Finish a level 70 Nephalem Rift on Torment XIII difficulty within 5 minutes.
Gem of My Life: Level three Legendary Gems to level 55.
All I Do is Win: Complete 2 Conquests this Season.
Lose Yourself: Kill the Skeleton King at level 70 in under 30 seconds on Torment XIII difficulty.
Money Ain’t a Thang: Slay Green on Torment XIII difficulty.
Take U There: Reach Greater Rift Level 60 Solo.
Power Amplication: Use Kanai’s Cube to augment an Ancient Legendary item with a level 50+ gem.
Cubic Reconfiguration: Use Kanai’s Cube to reforge a Legendary item.
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Following MCU star Anthony Mackie’s criticism of Marvel movies for lack of diversity, and his desire to use his status as the co-lead of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier to push for more diverse representation on Marvel Studios’ projects, Tessa Thompson, who will reprise her role as Valkyrie in Thor: Love and Thunder, thinks that Phase 4 will more fully embrace those ideals.
As part of Variety’s Actors on Actors series, Thompson and Ramy’s Ramy Youssef spoke about the topic and why it’s so important to the fandom at large. “I think in this next phase of Marvel, we’re really talking about what representation looks like in those spaces,” Thompson explained. “Because the truth is these movies travel globally in such huge ways and if you can represent people that are of color, if you can represent people with disabilities, if you can represent the LGBTQIA community inside of these films, it’s a pretty big deal.”
“There’s millions and millions of people, particularly young people, that show up to the cinema,” Thompson continued. “And I think if you can show them something that looks like them, they feel valued. Particularly inside of these narratives of the comic books, that’s what it’s all about. It’s that our differences make us special.”
“I’m really excited that we’re able to continue to push the bounds of that and that I’m able to do that with Valkyrie, because there’s so many cool queer characters in the comic books and they should have a place on-screen.”
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Ubisoft executive Maxime Beland has resigned from his position on the company’s editorial team following accusations of assault and sexual harassment. Beland had previously been suspended pending the outcome of an internal investigation, and the investigation is continuing despite his departure.
Ubisoft confirmed Beland’s resignation in a statement to GameSpot, adding that VP of editorial and creative services Tommy François has been placed on disciplinary leave as a second investigation is conducted and one employee from Ubisoft Toronto had been fired outright.
Watch Dogs product and brand marketer Andrien Gbinigie, who was accused of sexual assault in June, worked out of the Ubisoft Toronto location. However, Ubisoft did not confirm if he was the employee in question.
“Ubisoft will not tolerate workplace misconduct and will continue taking disciplinary actions against anyone who engages in harassment, discrimination, and other behaviors that infringe on our Code of Fair Conduct,” the company added.
Beland had returned to Ubisoft in early 2020 after briefly moving to Epic Games. Prior to this, he served as a creative director at Ubisoft Toronto. His projects included Splinter Cell Conviction and Splinter Cell Blacklist, as well as support work on the Far Cry series.
CEO Yves Guillemot announced this week that the company would be undergoing a structural shift in order to change its company culture, including the appointment of a new head of workplace culture along with the use of an external consulting firm to review its procedures.
The news is the latest in a growing list of departures stemming from allegations of sexual abuse in the game industry. Evo Online, a fighting game tournament already acting as a replacement for the canceled Evo 2020, was scrapped this week following the firing of president Joey Cuellar for alleged abuse of underage boys.
HBO Max has swapped out the theatrical cut of Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice for the three-hour Ultimate Edition.
In an Instagram post, the streaming service posted: “The full 3-hour Ultimate Edition of Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice is now streaming exclusively on HBO Max. Put that long weekend to good use.”
The jam-packed Ultimate Edition of Dawn of Justice includes a ton of axed story moments and character beats. Lois Lane becomes a more pivotal character when Lex Luthor’s plot to frame Superman in explored more thoroughly. We see Superman asking Gotham citizens about Batman, Lex communicating with Steppenwolf, Jena Malone’s Jenet Klyburn, and learn that Lois’ “camera man,” who met his gruesome end in Africa, was Jimmy Olsen.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
July 3 marks the first wave of Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ summer update, and with it comes a whole bunch of new features, including swimming and diving, a new category of critter to find, new visitor interactions, and a new DIY recipe set. Here’s everything new to Animal Crossing this week and how to dive in.
Swimming And Diving
You need the wetsuit to start swimming.
The biggest new feature from the update is the ability to swim and dive in the ocean around your island. We have a full guide on how to get a wetsuit and swim, so check it out to get started.
Catching New Sea Creatures
Start filling your Critterpedia with new sea creatures, like the sea anemone or moon jellyfish.
Swimming and diving on your island opens up a new world of wildlife to find and collect. There are 40 sea creatures you can catch, all categorized in their own “sea creature” label in your Critterpedia. You can also donate them to Blathers at the museum.
Pascal Is Here!
Pascal loves scallops.
Pascal is a new visitor you can meet while swimming around your island. He’ll trade you DIY recipes for scallops and sometimes reward you with pearls, a rare crafting item.
Mermaid DIY And Clothing Recipe Set
Craft mermaid-themed furnishings and clothing.
There’s a new mermaid-themed DIY recipe set you can collect and craft. Pascal will trade you recipes for scallops and sometimes give you pearls, which you can use to craft the recipes. Other crafting materials required for the set include shells and other items you can find along your beach, like coral.
New Gulliver Interactions
According to Nintendo, there’s a new Gulliver interaction. Gulliver will now sometimes appear on your shore wearing pirate-themed clothing. Nintendo’s press release states, “Offer him a helping him and he’ll send a special reward to how his gratitude.” We’ll let you know what this is once we find out.
The next summer update hits Animal Crossing: New Horizons this August.
Over a month ago, streaming service HBO Max launched. And one of the upcoming original movies that caught people’s eye was the wild An American Pickle. Now, a trailer for the film has arrived, and yes, it’s just as weird as we thought.
Seth Rogen pulls double-duty in the movie, which will premiere on August 6. He plays both Herschel Greenbaum–a man who is stuck in a pickle vat for 100 years–and Herschel’s great-grandson, Ben. Check out the trailer below.
Based on a novella from Simon Rich, the Brandon Trost-directed film follows Herschel, who immigrates to American in 1920. He wants a better life for his family, and one day while working at a pickle factory, he falls into a vat and is brined for 100 years. He is discovered in 2020, and the brine has somehow preserved him perfectly. He connects with his only surviving relative, Ben, and wants to start a business with him.
This isn’t the first time Trost and Rogen have worked together. While this is Torst’s first time directing a feature-length film, he worked on Neighbors 2: Sorority Rising and The Disaster Artist as as director of photography along with This Is The End as cinematographer.
You can’t swim in Animal Crossing: New Horizons without a wet suit. To buy a wet suit, head over to Nook’s Cranny. The wet suit will be available to purchase in the cabinet where you usually buy tools, seeds, and wallpaper/flooring.
The wet suit costs 3,000 bells. You can also purchase a wet suit from your Nook Stop terminal for 3,000 bells. They come in new designs daily, so you can keep checking back if you don’t like what you end up with. Your Nook Stop also offers a Nook Inc. wet suit for 800 miles.
Purchasing a wet suit from Nook’s Cranny.
To equip the wet suit, just select it in your inventory, press A, and select “Wear.” The wet suit will be equipped directly over your clothes, so you don’t need to manually remove shirts or bottoms in order to wear it. Your shoes and any socks or tights may still be equipped though–you can still swim with them on, but if you want to take them off or swap them for something more beach-appropriate, you’ll have to do that manually.
Once your wet suit is on, you’re ready to start swimming!
How To Swim
Requires: Wet suit
Once you purchase a wet suit, Timmy and Tommy will give you a quick how-to on swimming, but if you skipped it on accident or don’t remember, we’ve run through the basics below.
To swim, you need to head to one of your ocean’s beaches. There are two primary ways you can enter the ocean: wading in from the sandy beach, or diving in from either your beach rocks, that narrow strip of land that juts into the ocean, or your pier.
The first day of the summer update, and it’s raining on my island…
Either way, you’ll have to run up against the water and press A to enter the water. (You must have all tools unequipped.) To keep swimming, press A. Each time you press A, you’ll do a stroke, but if you just hold A down, you’ll keep paddling. You can use the left stick to move around. If you don’t press anything, your character will just tread water. While treading, you can still use the analog stick to paddle lightly around, but you will move very slowly. Your character will never get tired of treading water, so don’t worry about floating around if you get tired of pressing A.
To exit the water, you have to swim back to a sandy beach. Just swim right up to the beach until your character reaches land and can walk out of the water.
How To Dive
Requires: Wet suit
There’s no point in swimming in Animal Crossing: New Horizons if you don’t know how to dive.
To dive, just press Y while you’re in the water. Your character will dive under the waves, and from there, you can just use the usual swimming controls to move around–A to swim, joystick to move around. If you want to come back up to the surface, just hit Y again, but don’t worry–your character won’t run out of oxygen and will just come up for air when they need it, so you don’t have to time your dives.
How To Catch Sea Creatures
Requires: Wet suit
The new swimming and diving features are all about exploring the ocean around your island, which means there are new sea creatures to catch and rare treasure to find. All you need for this is your wet suit–no net or any other tools required!
A column of bubbles in the water signals a potential discovery.
When you’re swimming around, you might notice columns of bubbles floating up from beneath the waves. If you swim directly over the bubbles and press Y, your character will dive under and, if you positioned yourself right, come back up with a sea creature, like a sea star or a sea anemone. You can also find new types of vegetation, like seaweed.
Another way to catch sea creatures is to dive underwater and look for little shadows. When you dive, the camera will tilt and give you a better view of what’s below you. Those bubble columns and shadows line up, so an easier way to find creatures is to dive under and swim towards the shadows. Your character will automatically collect whatever’s down there once you reach the shadow.
Diving under reveals a shadow, which makes it easier to locate and collect sea creatures.
In addition to the new sea creatures you can gather up for your Critterpedia and the museum, you will also find scallops and pearls. You can use pearls to craft certain DIY recipes, including the new Mermaid set. Scallops can be traded in to Pascal, a red otter who you will run into on one of your swims, for DIY recipes.
What To Do With New Sea Creatures
If you check your Critterpedia, you’ll find there’s a brand new tab for “sea creatures.” Anything you find on one of your underwater excursions will end up in this section, even if–as Blathers later explains–it isn’t exactly a “creature.” Seaweed, sea grapes, and other ocean plant life will get categorized here too. Check out our full list of all 40 sea creatures added in the new summer update.
The new sea creatures tab in your Critterpedia. We’re still filling ours out!
Not only does the new swimming update mean new wildlife to log in your Critterpedia, but new things to donate to your museum as well. Blathers will gladly take any new sea creature or vegetation you find while diving as a donation to the museum.
You can also, as with any other wildlife find, place it as decoration. While most of what we’ve found so far will appear in a standard display tank, a few items like the seaweed have a unique placement style that you can use to decorate your island, so don’t forget to experiment!
An official release date has yet to be confirmed, as the world continues to wrestle with the coronavirus pandemic. Due to the surging cases in the United States particularly, theatres have pushed back their reopening dates, with AMC Theatres remaining closed until July 30 and California theatres seemingly closed for longer.
Funimation did share a new key visual for the Demon Slayer Mugen Train film in a tweet with the announcement, which you can check out below.
Mugen Train follows the events of Demon Slayer’s final episode, in which Tanjiro Kamado and company follow Flame Hashira Kyojuro Rengoku to investigate a mysterious series of disappearances occurring on a train. One of the Twelve Kizuki’s, Enmu, is also aboard the train and things quickly take a turn for the worst.
Earlier this year, it was announced that Demon Slayer would get two different video game adaptations: a battle-royale mobile game and a PS4 action game. Trailers for both games were unveiled back in March 2020 and though no specific gameplay elements were shown off, we have learned that the mobile game will launch this year and the PS4 title will arrive in 2021.
