Author: Trafficblast

This Saturday has brought with it quite the mix of deals, but they all have one thing in common, great savings. Need an air fryer? Best Buy has one discounted by over 50%. A new computer? We’ve got a couple great looking Dell laptops on offer. Games? Then you’ve come to the right place, as all kinds are currently on sale and can be found further down the page.

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The Guerrilla Collective online digital festival is back for its second year and the showcase is set to feature over 80 games from tinyBuild, 505 Games, Innersloth, and more. Produced by The Media Indie Exchange (The MIX), this year’s show takes place today, June 5, and next Saturday, June 12.

From Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night to Omni to Endling, check out each and every game, announcement, gameplay video, and trailer from the Guerrilla Collective’s first day below;

Aeon Drive

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Aeon Drive, the speedrun action-platformer set in Cyberpunk Barcelona, received a new gameplay video that features Jackelyne, her sword, teleportation dagger, and unique skill to control time. Players must retrieve faulty pieces of dimension-bending machinery in order to preserve the space-time of the universe.

AK-xolotl

AK-xolotl is a top-down arcade battle arena shooter featuring “the cutest amphibian.” In this game, you become an axolotl who is equipped with an AK and you must defend your pond from enemy invaders!

ANNO: Mutationem

ANNO: Mutationem is an action-adventure game with RPG elements set in a cyberpunk world, featuring a unique mix of pixelated 2D & 3D graphics with a rich, dark and bizarre plot.

Beasts of Maravilla Island

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Take on the role of a young wildlife photographer in the 3D adventure game Beasts of Maravilla, a game all about traversing a beautiful island to “discover extraordinary creatures, learn their behaviors, and, most importantly, photograph their majesty.”

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

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Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night is an exploration-focused, side-scroller action RPG by Koji Igarashi. Play as Miriam, an orphan scarred by an alchemist’s curse that slowly crystallizes her body. Battle through a demon-infested castle and defeat its master to save yourself, and all of humanity! It was announced that Bloodstained will be headed to Google Stadia.

Chernobylite

From developer Farm 51 comes Chernobylite, a science fiction survival horror RPG set in “the hyper-realistic, 3D-scanned wasteland of Chernobyls’ exclusion zone.”

“You will take on the role of Igor Khymynyuk, a former physicist and ex-employee of Chernobyl, 30 years on from that fateful day, April 26th, 1986,” The official description reads. “The day that changed Chernobyl, and his life, forever. Haunted by the loss of your fiancée Tatiana Amalievain, in the chaotic aftermath, you return to Pripyat for the first time to investigate her mysterious disappearance. Can you survive the harsh and unforgiving environment in your search for the truth?”

El Paso, Elsewhere

El Paso, Elsewhere is a supernatural neo-noir third-person shooter that has players hunting werewolves, fallen angels, and other damned creatures in “a vivid slow motion love letter to action classics.” Save victims of Draculae, the lord of the vampires, and explore a three-story motel that has somehow gained 46 stories… all below ground.

Elderand

Elderand received a new gameplay video, and it showed more of the Lovecraftian-inspired story-driven action-RPG that has players fighting in “a dreadful world rich in treasures and deadly creatures.”

Endling

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Endling tasks players with becoming a fox mother who happens to be the last of her kind after humanity ravaged the planet. Help your three vulnerable babies through a “dystopian future of an exploited Earth, where there is barely enough room or food for them to survive.

Fire Tonight

Fire Tonight is a narrative puzzle game set in 1990 following a couple’s quest to reunite in a city on fire. Become Maya and traverse city blocks while avoiding fires and solving puzzles to find Devin’s apartment. While Maya is making her way to Devin, Devin himself “reminisces about their time together as he looks at all the mementos scattered around his apartment.”

Grow: Song of the Evertree

As the last of the Everheart Alchemists, it is your ancestral task and privilege to care for the Evertree, a place where “many worlds resided on its countless branches.” The Evertree is now nothing more than a sapling and no one but you knows how to make it grow. See your actions change the world for the better and bring the Evertree back to life in Endling, a “breathtaking world-crafting sandbox, with life management and adventure elements.”

Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition

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Guild of Dungeoneering Ultimate Edition is a completely rebuilt version of the award-winning 2015 indie hit from Gambrinous. In this turn-based dungeon crawler with a twist, instead of controlling the hero you build the dungeon around them. Using cards drawn from your guild decks you lay down rooms, monsters, traps and of course loot!

INDUSTRIA

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INDUSTRIA is a first-person shooter that takes you from East Berlin into a parallel reality, shortly before the end of the Cold War. On the search for a missing work colleague, you decypher a dark past in a mysterious parallel dimension.

Kraken Academy

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Make friends, free spirits, and make sure that the world doesn’t end! Welcome to Kraken Academy, a technicolor fever dream that, for legal reasons, can only be described as “technically a school.” Join forces with a magical kraken to manipulate a time loop and save the world.

KungFu Kickball

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“Compete against your friends in a fantasy sport that mixes soccer with kung-fu action movies. Fly through the air and unleash a flurry of punches, kicks, and mystical arts to overpower the other team and smash the ball into their bell. Every bell ring counts as a point and the team with the most points when time runs out is crowned the winner.

Hone your skills in the single-player championship modes against increasingly difficult AI, then duke it out with friends in either local multiplayer or online multiplayer in versus or quickmatch modes.”

Lamentum

Lamentum is a pixel art survival horror game, set in New England in the mid-nineteenth century.

Legend of Keepers: Return of the Goddess

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Legend of Keepers: Return of the Goddess is the first DLC for the reverse dungeon crawler Legend of Keepers, and it includes a new master, new environments, new monsters and more!”

Moroi

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You are an amnesic hero that wakes up in a weird castle. Interacting with different characters, you find that the way to escape the castle is to defeat The Red King. Making your way lower and lower through the castle, you realize that he is not who you expect.

My Lovely Wife

My Lovely Wife delves into the depths of a man’s grief after the sudden death of his beloved wife. Explore the notions of one’s willingness to do anything for love and the importance of letting go in this mix of dating, management, and alchemy simulators.

Omno

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A single-player journey of discovery through an ancient world of wonders. Full of puzzles, secrets and obstacles to overcome, where the power of a lost civilisation will carry you through forests, deserts and tundras – even to the clouds.

Onsen Master

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Onsen Master is a hot spring customer management game where players must create ingredients to match the various customer ailments, across the fantasy island of Izajima!

Rubi: The Wayward Mira

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Rubi: The Wayward Mira is a 2D action-platformer game based in a lush pixel world where science and magic come together. Featuring ability-based progression, Rubi is a Metroidvania at its core, but features nonlinear gameplay with multiple playstyles and endings.

Run Die Run Again (RDRA)

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Run Die Run Again (RDRA) is a fast-paced first-person precision platformer, where every inch of the environment is out to kill you! A speed-running, trial and error endurance contest, where fast reactions and acrobatic dodging skills are rewarded.

Source of Madness

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“Source of Madness is a side-scrolling dark action roguelite set in a twisted Lovecraftian-inspired world powered by procedural generation and AI machine learning. Take on the role of a new Acolyte as they embark on a nightmarish odyssey. Uncover the cosmic secrets of the Loam Lands and The Tower of Madness, the moon’s mysterious Citadel.

Fight hordes of nightmarish beasts utilising powerful close-combat magic, explore labyrinthine environments, collect powerful loot and manage your item loadout, then infuse the beasts’ blood at magical altars to unlock additional abilities, perks and spells. Decide your Acolyte’s fate in the customisable skill tree.

As your journey progresses, the arcane lore of the Loam Lands unfurls and plunges you deeper into its dark depths. The world and monsters are rendered using a combination of hand-drawn assets, AI visual manipulation and procedural generation. The monsters inhabiting this dark world are animated using a machine learning AI. This means Source of Madness offers ever-changing landscapes to explore and new monstrosities to face on every run.”

Super Space Club

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In Super Space Club, journey alongside a group of anthropomorphic heroes as they set out to be the top-ranked defenders of the galaxy. You’ll take on various missions, partake in several space dogfights, and jam out to lo-fi beats in this chill, arcade-style shooter.

Tamarindos Freaking Dinner

Tamarindos Freaking Dinner – the spiritual successor of Baobabs Mausoleum – is the second game of the “Jacob Jazz´s Treelogy”. A mix between A 90´s sitcom, Luigi´s Mansion, Metroid Prime & the tabletop game Clue!

The Eternal Cylinder

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“In The Eternal Cylinder, players control a herd of adorable creatures called Trebhums and must explore a strange alien world filled with exotic lifeforms, surreal environments, and the constant threat of the Cylinder, a gargantuan rolling structure of ancient origin which crushes everything in its path. In this unique alien ecosystem, real-time world destruction, animal AI, and organic exploration and puzzle design all combine to deliver an unforgettable adventure.

Your Trebhums begin at the bottom of the natural food chain but can mutate and evolve with new physical attributes and abilities by eating a variety of flora and fauna. Discover and adapt dozens of mutations, including new traversal skills like flying and swimming to reach new areas, and new senses to help overcome puzzles and dangers. Your many Trebhums can each have different mutations, empowering you to create a unique herd. Each mutation will also change the physical look of a Trebhum and stacking these will generate surprising new creature designs which players will be able to organically discover as they explore this unique alien world.”

The Legend of TianDing

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The Legend of Tianding is a sidescrolling action game about Liao Tianding, the legendary Taiwanese Folk Hero. Explore the dazzling streets of Colonial Japanese Taiwan in the early 20th century, as you rob the rich, feed the poor, and expose the darkness lurking in the heart of Taipei.

The Lightbringer

The Lightbringer is a poetic adventure/puzzle platformer with light combat elements, set in a beautiful world claimed by a vile corruption. Guided by your sister’s spirit, you must prevail where she could not. Cleanse the corruption, become The Lightbringer.

Tinkertown

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Tinkertown is a multiplayer sandbox game where you build your own village and community while exploring dungeons. The latest update, coming June 16, adds a new Desert Dungeon, which includes new “trap” mechanics and monsters, including a new boss.

Trifox

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Trifox is a twin-stick action-adventure game set in a colorful world inspired by classic platformers. In Trifox you play as a multi talented fox on a quest to restore and return peace to his recently invaded and plundered home.

Ultra Age

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Take on hammer-wielding robots and giant enemies in this trailer for Ultra Age, as showcased during Guerrilla Collective 2021.

Vertigo

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“Ed Miller, a writer, came out unscathed from his car crash down into Bixby Canyon, California. Even though no one was found inside the car wreckage, Ed insists that he was traveling with his wife and daughter. Traumatized by the event, he begins to suffer from severe vertigo. As he starts therapy, he will try to uncover what really happened on that tragic day.

Prepare yourself for a most disturbing investigation inside the human mind: truth is sometimes worse than madness.”

Ynglet

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“Swim, launch and bounce through this meditative floating platformer.

A reactive soundscape creates the soundtrack to your exploration through the playful puzzles of Ynglet’s hand-drawn levels.

In Ynglet you jump between bubbles that float in the sky like you’re a space dolphin, as you melt into a highly reactive and dynamic soundtrack created by Ynglet’s custom (and needlessly complicated) music software!”

Zodiac Legion

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Zodiac Legion is a turn-based tactical RPG featuring lethal combat, squad management and strategic elements. Lead your heroes through daring raids and forgotten ruins, defend your land in a time of conquest and betrayal, and master the secrets of volatile ancient magic to restore a realm beset by the armies of undying fiendish sorcerers.

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

Lance McDonald put himself through hell while hacking the modern horror classic, P.T. Lisa — the ghostly maiden who haunts the game’s endless, amniotic corridors — is hard-coded to jumpscare the player whenever they clip out of bounds. So, if you clip through the game map or interact with the geometry in an unintended way, Lisa pounces through the screen and restarts the loop. For McDonald, that means when he was messing with the game code and exploring the underbelly of the universe, he was constantly risking a frightening interruption.

“I had spent months trying to move the camera around arbitrarily in P.T.,” he recalls. “I had to turn my speakers off most of the time to mitigate those constant jump-scare triggers.”

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McDonald’s hard work paid off. In his months of exploratory hacking, he managed to position P.T.s camera to show him the entire game map from a distance. It was from that vantage point where he discovered a horrifying truth. Apparently, Lisa stood a few feet behind the protagonist at all times, mirroring his movements, and matching his pace as he gingerly crept down the hallway. There was no way to glean that unsettling knowledge in-game; one of P.T.’s more malicious tricks is how the ethereal adversary on your tail is constantly stowed away in your dim periphery. But from way up high, the whole narrative is recontextualized. Lisa was toying with you the whole time — you just needed to hack a PS4 to find out.

“Over the course of a few weeks after discovering this, I tried to make sense of what I’d seen and actually get the camera in a reliable location so that I could demonstrate it clearly,” says McDonald. “The process of actually getting to that point was genuinely intense.”

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McDonald has made a name for himself by turning up the secrets like these abandoned deep within the Playstation library. Scroll through his Twitter account and witness a proud gallery of exploits. Remember the first boss battle in God of War? That bare-knuckle brawl with Baldur that sets the tone for the rest of the game? McDonald dredged through the assets, and found that Baldur is flipping the double-deuce as he’s tumbling down a cliffside, (off-camera, of course.) A few weeks ago McDonald managed to melt away Jin’s clothing in Ghost of Tsushima and found a tight, perfectly-modeled butt underneath. Here he is, sprinting naked through a torchlit beach. McDonald is not the first hacker to unearth cut content and taciturn easter eggs, but he is one of the few to grind out these vulnerabilities on a console. Cracking into a PC game is relatively simple — the command prompt is only a “~” away. Doing the same on PS4 is much more complicated. According to McDonald, that’s part of the appeal.

“I’ve always really enjoyed the strange limitations and tools that are required to hack games on console hardware, rather than just running games on emulators and relying on PC tools, where possible. The very messy process of finding a way to actually connect to a modern video game console, and researching or making tools to hack a game in the way I want is something I grew up with and have always found extremely rewarding,” says McDonald. “People often take literal offense to the fact that I insist on always working on physical console hardware instead of using emulation but I’m just over here doing things the way that I grew up doing them, and by taking a unique approach I seem to always find something interesting that no one has seen before, so I feel like it’s justified.”

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McDonald tells me he first became curious about video game hacking after acquiring an Xplorer Cheat Cartridge — similar to a GameShark — as a teenager. He hooked that cartridge up to his PS1 and connected it to a tiny, extremely late-90s 486 laptop. That apparatus allowed McDonald to see all the RAM on the Playstation, which allowed him to edit game code in real-time. He didn’t have internet access, so he slowly decoded the source code without a digital index to rely on. “I was always interested in working out how the camera worked in games like Silent Hill, and making it so I could see things that would otherwise be impossible,” says McDonald. “Especially with games of that nature. There’s always so many things hidden just off screen or obscured. Being able to see things no one else had before was an incredible prospect.”

Three decades later, that passion hasn’t left McDonald, and today he can call himself one of the few full-time video game hackers in the world. His primary source of income is his Twitch stream, and while he doesn’t decompile games live on air, McDonald says a large portion of his audience discovered his stream because of the amazing ways he can bend a PS4 to his will on his Twitter. “It all comes together,” he says. “I upload YouTube videos showing my discoveries when possible but that’s not really a sustainable income compared to the hundreds of hours that go into each video.” Just more proof that in 2021, anything can be your job.

But does McDonald have any lingering white whales? Does the man who exposed Lisa, Baldur, and Jin feel that he has a few more stones left to be unturned? Of course. You won’t be surprised to know that McDonald dreams big. Someday, he hopes to restore Project Beast, the very early Bloodborne build that is said to resemble a much different video game than the Yharnam we eventually received. “[Project Beast] notably had a double-barreled shotgun with reloading animations among so many other things,” he says. It sounds like a long shot, but as everyone who’s followed McDonald’s career, it’s impossible to count him out.

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Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart’s Day 1 patch will add a Performance RT mode that will allow the game to run at 60FPS with ray tracing enabled.

Revealed by Insomniac Games, the Performance Mode and Performance RT Modes will both be available to all players who update Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart when it is released on PS5 on June 11, 2021.

Players who update #RatchetPS5 on launch day gain access to our Performance & Performance RT Modes.

Enjoy a sneak peek at 60fps gameplay with ray-tracing enabled! pic.twitter.com/85ecP4LDZl

— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) June 5, 2021

This is another example of Insomniac Games giving players a best-of-both-worlds option and follows the Performance RT Mode being added to both Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Marvel’s Spider-Man Remastered on PS5.

Speaking of options, Insomniac has also added an extensive list of accessibility features to Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, which includes the ability to adjust Fire Modes, Aim Mode and Auto Aim, various contrast options, adjusting motion blur and screen shake, and much more.

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For more, check out our final Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart preview, how the latest entry in the series that began on PS2 in 2002 uses PS5’s DualSense and 3D Audio, and how Rivet is core to the game’s ambitions.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The Xbox Series X/S and PC exclusive The Medium has been rated for PS5.

As reported by Gematsu, the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB) has rated The Medium Mature 17+ for Blood, Strong Language, and Violence, and it lists the platforms as Xbox Series and PlayStation 5.

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Koch Media announced a publishing partnership with The Medium developer Bloober Team earlier this year, and its pre-E3 Koch Primetime Gaming Stream on June 11 could be the perfect place to make this official announcement.

Considering it’s already been announced that Saints Row, Dead Island 2, and TimeSplitters will not be making an appearance at the show, The Medium coming to PS5 could fill that void.

In our review of The Medium, we said, “Brilliantly paced and palpably tense, The Medium is a psychological horror adventure that’s all thriller and no filler.”

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This could also help drum up excitement for Bloober Team’s next project, which the studio teased earlier this year by saying it was working on “another horror IP” with a “very famous publisher.” Speculation has run wild, and there are rumors and reports that this game could be a new entry in the Silent Hill franchise.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

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

Developer BioWare first teased a new Dragon Age-related project in December 2018. Two years later, BioWare officially confirmed that it is working on a fourth, currently untitled Dragon Age game (which we will henceforth refer to as Dragon Age 4). Since then, we’ve heard small nuggets of information about the upcoming role-playing game.

With Anthem abandoned and Mass Effect: Legendary Edition now out, it stands to reason that BioWare is now fully focusing on its next projects, namely Dragon Age 4 and a still untitled new Mass Effect game. So there’s a chance that we learn more about either game at E3 2021, which is right around the corner.

Below, we go over everything we currently know about Dragon Age 4, as well as what we might see of the game at E3 this year.

What We Know So Far

Currently, we know very little about Dragon Age 4–we don’t even know what it’s going to be called. But since the game’s announcement in December 2020, BioWare has revealed a few details.

BioWare: Stories and Secrets, a book that encompasses the developer’s history, revealed that the primary setting for Dragon Age 4 is Tevinter–which matches what Dragon Age: Inquisition‘s Trespasser expansion teased. We’ve never actually seen Tevinter in-game, though it’s been referenced several times, referred to as a human nation ruled by a council of mages.

On top of that, reports state that the planned multiplayer component to Dragon Age 4 has been cut so that the game will launch as a completely single-player RPG. Dragon Age 4 executive producer Christian Dailey has also teasingly released concept art for the game.

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What’s Confirmed For E3 2021

Right now, there is no planned announcement in regard to Dragon Age 4 for E3 2021. BioWare isn’t even currently scheduled to make an appearance at the conference.

Dragon Age 4’s publisher, Electronic Arts, is set to have its own event just prior to E3 (like it’s done the past few years) on June 9, but the headlining game for the livestream is a new Battlefield. EA hasn’t confirmed any of its other games for the event, presumably saving them for EA Play Live on July 22.

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What We Hope To See At E3 2021

At this point, we’d love to see something concrete for Dragon Age 4. Hopefully, that’s a new teaser trailer that reveals the game’s title, as well as official word from BioWare that the game doesn’t have multiplayer (or, if it actually does, what that will look like). It still feels like we’re a ways off from seeing actual gameplay, but obviously, we wouldn’t be opposed to a gameplay reveal if BioWare is ready to show it off.

Assuming EA’s June 9 event is exclusively geared towards the new Battlefield and nothing else, we hope to see Dragon Age 4 pop up during the Xbox & Bethesda showcase on June 13. Xbox looks to be striving towards being the go-to console for western RPGs, with first-party role-playing games like Fable and Avowed coming to the Xbox Series X|S. Xbox has also hosted several big-name third-party RPG developers at E3 in recent years, such as CD Projekt Red. So a Dragon Age 4 trailer would feel right at home on the Xbox & Bethesda stage.

Personally, if I can be selfish for a moment, I want to see BioWare announce that Dragon Age 4’s planned release window is 2022. It doesn’t really match BioWare’s current release schedule of a new game every two to three years (Dragon Age: Inquisition in 2014, Mass Effect: Andromeda in 2017, Anthem in 2019, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in 2021), but given that Dragon Age 4 was first teased in 2018, I’m hopeful that that means BioWare has actually sunk a fair amount of development time into the game already.

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Warning: This article contains full spoilers for The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It.

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While The Conjuring franchise has thrived on its roster of colorful supernatural foes, The Devil Made Me Do It takes the road less traveled by centering on a human antagonist. The motivations of the Occultist (Eugenie Bondurant) are left vague for much of the film, but a third-act twist recontextualizes her devotion to the demonic and hearkens back to an element of Conjuringverse lore first established (and last referenced) in 2014’s Annabelle. 

Early in The Devil Made Me Do It, Ed and Lorraine Warren (Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga) discover a witch’s totem hidden under the Glatzel house and very astutely observe that this creepy-ass thing is probably connected to the demon plaguing the Glatzels and Arne Johnson (who claims that, yes, the devil made him commit a murder, just like his real-life counterpart asserted). For more information on the totem, the Warrens’ friend Father Gordon points them to John Noble’s Father Kastner, a priest who helped to bring down a cult of Satan worshippers before he retired. That cult is the Disciples of the Ram, which was first mentioned in 2014’s Annabelle.

Who Are the Disciples of the Ram and How Do They Connect to Annabelle?

The Disciples of the Ram are a Satanic cult which, in Father Kastner’s estimation, is devoted to causing chaos and despair through blasphemy and pain. Case in point: the senseless and seemingly random murder of the Higgins family in 2014’s Annabelle, where Mr. and Mrs. Higgins are brutally killed by their estranged daughter Annabelle and her lover. Annabelle: Creation gave this moment some additional background by retconning Annabelle Higgins to be the assumed identity of Janice, an orphan who was possessed by a demon inside the Annabelle doll during an encounter with it at a farm in 1958. After this encounter, Annabelle/Janice escapes the farm, gets adopted by the Higgins family, grows up, loses contact with her adoptive parents, and joins the Disciples… all while still possessed by the Annabelle demon. It’s only when Annabelle/Janice kills herself while holding the doll (which the Form family next door very conveniently and coincidentally just purchased for themselves) that the demon is transferred back into its initial vessel.

News reports at the time of the Higgins murders specify that Annabelle/Janice and her boyfriend were members of a cult, but it’s only later in Annabelle that Mia Form’s research leads her to identify that cult as The Disciples of the Ram. Mia discovers that the Disciples of the Ram work to call forth inhuman spirits into our world, which require a soul to stay on our plane. These inhuman spirits target the weak and defenseless, like children and infants, and that’s a thread that remains relevant all the way into the events of The Devil Made Me Do It.

In The Conjuring 3 (a.k.a. The Devil Made Me Do It), we learn that Father Kastner was responsible for uncovering the Disciples of the Ram and helping to bring them to justice. But they didn’t go down quietly. Kastner tells the Warrens that while the cult was on trial the lead prosecutor’s wife gave birth to a stillborn baby whose heart had grown on the outside of its body. This horrific tragedy led the prosecutor’s wife to commit suicide by laying down on a train track. As Kastner says, the Satanist’s “sole aim is chaos, its nectar despair.” Kastner, who has an artifact room somehow more unsettling than the Warrens’, surrounds himself in memorabilia related to the Disciples, obsessed with the fallout his unearthing of the Disciples caused. At the time, it seems like it may just be the loss of the prosecutor’s wife and child plaguing the old priest’s conscience, but when Lorraine returns to Kastner’s house alone later in the film, we learn his guilt hits much closer to home.

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Is Isla Kastner a Disciple?

Father Kastner reveals that he raised a daughter, Isla, in secret on his secluded property. While Kastner was busy taking down the Disciples of the Ram, he failed to see that the isolated Isla was becoming increasingly obsessed with his research… and not in a “send demons back to hell because that’s what God wants” way. Isla grew apart from her father and pursued her fascination with the dark arts, becoming The Occultist who plagues the characters in The Devil Made Me Do It.

So it was Father Kastner’s obsession with the Disciples of the Ram that led Isla Kastner to become the Satan-worshipping Occultist, but does that mean she was a card-carrying member of the Disciples? And what do those cards look like? Neither of those questions have clear answers in The Devil Made Me Do It. Isla never mentions the Disciples herself, nor do we see her having drawn their symbol, the vaguely “A”-shaped rune that Annabelle/Janice scrawled in blood in the Forms’ house when she killed herself in Annabelle. But what Isla taught herself about demons she learned from texts gathered during her father’s investigation of the Disciples, so it’s likely that at least some of her evil education came from material tied to the cult. 

The Future of the Conjuring Universe’s Disciples

As of now, it seems unlikely that we’ll ever learn more about the Kastners and their connection to the Disciples of the Ram, seeing as Isla slices her father’s throat and then gets her soul taken by a demon at the end of The Conjuring 3. But what about the Disciples themselves? Was Isla the very last Satanist inspired by their teachings, or was Father Kastner’s victory over the group only partial? A resurfaced cult of chaos-spreading devil-worshippers sounds like they’d leave a big mess in their wake… messes that Ed and Lorraine could investigate over the next few Conjuring movies. The Conjuringverse has always propelled itself forward with already-established lore, so it doesn’t seem like a stretch to imagine the Disciples of the Ram evolving into the series’ shadowy antagonistic group, similar to HYDRA or SPECTRE. Too bad it’s not a cool acronym. 

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is in theaters and streaming on HBO Max now.

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Marvel’s Loki series on Disney+ features Tom Hiddleston’s God of Mischief causing all manner of mayhem across the MCU timeline, but when does Loki take place in the MCU timeline? The short answer is Loki takes place just after the Battle of New York (as seen in Avengers and later Avengers: Endgame), but to better explain Loki’s somewhat confusing timeline we’re going back to the beginning and recapping his whole story so far.

By the time you’re done with this Loki timeline, you’ll be fully prepared for Loki’s big solo Disney+ debut on June 9, 2021.

Loki Timeline: Thor

A long time ago in a realm far, far away Loki was born as a tiny blue baby and left to die by his father Laufey, ruler of the Frost Giants in Jotunheim. But after dear ol’ dad was defeated in battle, Odin rescued the little Smurf and raised him as a prince of Asgard alongside his son, Thor. There’s no way that’ll ever blow up in his face, right?

Wrong! Growing up in the shadow of his big brother, Loki resented him for his burly muscles, beautiful blonde locks, and for being the heir to the throne of the Realm Eternal. He spent his days scheming to remove Thor so that he, Loki, God of Mischief, could take the throne instead. On the day of Thor’s coronation, Loki provoked his hot-headed older brother into launching a counter-attack on the Frost Giants in direct defiance of the All-Father.

While the other Asgardians battled, Loki was shocked to learn he was actually a Frost Giant. Loki’s plan worked and Odin banished Thor, leaving Loki to confront Odin about his true nature. And when Odin fell into the Odin Sleep, mother Frigga had no choice but to grant the throne to her son Loki and name him ruler of Asgard. Ahh, don’t you love it when a plan comes together? 

But it wasn’t meant to last. Soon enough, Loki lost in battle to a once-again-worthy Thor, faced the disappointment of his father, and rather than admit he was wrong, let himself fall into a bottomless abyss.

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Loki Timeline: The Avengers

Loki may have lost his family, but he made some new friends in Thanos and his Chitauri army. Using the powerful scepter gifted to him by Thanos, Loki laid siege to Earth and stole the Tesseract. 

You see, Loki was so over ruling Asgard–he didn’t get the power and respect he wanted there, so he thought he might get it by making himself king of Earth instead. As part of his master plan, Loki let himself get captured by the Avengers in order to break them apart from the inside with a little help from the Jolly Green Giant. And it almost worked. 

With Earth’s mightiest heroes scattered, Loki was free to open up a portal above New York City and launch a full-scale invasion on Earth. Unfortunately for him, the Avengers assembled to kick his butt and save the world. (Remember this moment later because it’s of key importance for the new Loki show!)

Loki Timeline: The Dark World

Now a prisoner in the dungeons of Asgard, Loki had some time to reflect on his life of mischief. We learned he actually does have a soft side, but only in regards to his sorcerer mother Frigga who taught him his many magical tricks. It sure would be a shame if something were to happen to her… So of course she dies, thanks to Malekith and his Dark Elf army during the Sacking of Asgard.

This tragedy inspired Loki to team up with Thor to take revenge on Malekith and to stop him from using the Aether to cover the universe in darkness. But Loki gonna Loki–he faked his own death, and while Thor went on to save the Nine Realms, Loki snuck back into Asgard and disguised himself as Odin to at long last take the throne of Asgard. Aah, don’t you love it when a plan comes together… again!

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Loki Timeline: Thor: Ragnarok

Hats off to Loki for finally pulling off his scheme and getting what he wanted. Well, for a few years, at least. Loki ruled over Asgard in a life of luxury, casually eating snacks and rewriting Asgardian history with a little help from Matt Damon. Then Thor had to go and show up and reveal him as a fraud. 

To make matters worse, then they had to go talk to Doctor Strange, who bullied poor Loki, all so they could find Odin just before he passed away and released Hela from her prison. Thor blamed all of this on Loki, and we kind of agree with him, but how did Loki know his long lost sister was going to show up, swat him and his brother away like flies, and take over their home?

Now stranded on Sakaar, Loki did what he does best and wormed his way into the favor of the Grandmaster while Thor fought Loki’s least favorite person in the universe, the incredible Hulk.

Despite everything that happened between them, Thor and Loki shared a moment of brotherly bonding, with Thor finally seeing his brother for who he truly is, and Loki finally getting a taste of his own back-stabbing medicine.

Eventually the Revengers took the fight to Hela, and Loki chose to fight alongside his brother to save their people. Yet even as he seemingly turned to the Light Side, Loki couldn’t stop himself from stealing the Tesseract. Loki summoned Surtur to defeat Hela and hopped a ride with the survivors as his adopted home exploded in the distance.

And then, to Thor’s surprise, Loki chose to stay among his people and turn over a new leaf. It was a beautiful moment of growth for the God of Mischief. Unfortunately, it wasn’t long before his past caught up with him in a big, purple way.

Loki Timeline: Avengers: Infinity War

That’s right, Thanos and his Black Order tracked Loki down because he was in possession of the Cosmic Cube housing one of the Infinity Stones. Suddenly things got real, real bad for Loki. The Mad Titan disabled the Asgardian ship, slaughtered half of the people on board, and took the stone from Loki. With his brother’s life on the line, Loki played the greatest trick of all: being selfless for once. He tried to take out the Mad Titan and paid for that heroic act with his life.

And yes, Thanos did say no resurrections, but he didn’t say anything about spin-off TV shows! 

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Loki Timeline: Avengers: Endgame

As part of the Avengers’ plan to beat Thanos and restore half the universe back to life, they used time travel to revisit the Battle of New York–back when Loki was still alive and well. And when the time heist went awry, this past version of Loki seized the opportunity to escape with the Space Stone! 

So while the present day Loki died at the hands of Thanos, this past version has avoided that fate and is charting a new course through time and space. And remember, this Loki is fresh off getting his butt kicked by the Avengers, meaning he never experienced the character growth seen in The Dark World and Ragnarok, so he’s probably feeling angry, spiteful, and more power-hungry than ever. In other words, it’s the Loki we all know and love! 

When Does Loki Take Place? 

Where the God of Mischief made off to with the Tesseract remains a mystery, but we’re about to learn all about it in the new Disney+ series, Loki. The show takes place just after the events of the Battle of New York, which means it will start years in the MCU’s past. The Battle of New York happened on May 4, 2012 in the MCU timeline, so expect the Loki show to start on that date in MCU history.

What we know about the story so far is that Loki’s escape seems to have created fractures in the timeline, the sort the Ancient One warned Bruce Banner about in Avengers: Endgame. Removing an Infinity Stone (in this case, the Space Stone housed inside the Tesseract) from its proper place in time will eventually destabilize the entire universe, so now the Time Variance Authority, AKA the TVA, have captured Loki and are insisting he help fix what he broke. Something tells us Loki will probably go along with it up until the point they find themselves cursing him for his sudden yet inevitable betrayal. And being fans of Loki, we wouldn’t have it any other way.