South Park is returning for a 24th season, but ahead of that, Comedy Central will air a one-hour episode focused on, you guessed it, the pandemic. The episode is called “The Pandemic Special,” and it debuts on September 30.
In this episode, Randy capitalizes on people staying at home and smoking more weed than ever, while kids are heading back to school to find it to be a very different place. Here is the full description for the episode:
“Randy comes to terms with his role in the COVID-19 outbreak as the ongoing pandemic presents continued challenges to the citizens of South Park. The kids happily head back to school but nothing resembles the normal that they once knew; not their teachers, not their homeroom, not even Eric Cartman.”
“The Pandemic Special” will be available a day later on HBO Max. This will also be the case for Season 24, but a premiere date for the new season has not been announced.
A new trailer for The Crown Tundra, the second part of the Pokemon Sword / Shield expansion pass, has emerged. Interestingly, it comes from Nintendo South Africa, and hasn’t been posted by the US Nintendo YouTube account.
The trailer, though brief, squeezes in several Pokemon and gives us a preview of some of the expansions’s new environments.
It also shows off Regice, Registeel, and Regirock, just three of many returning Legendary Pokemon coming in the expansion. These are three Legendary Pokemon that were first introduced in Pokemon Ruby/Sapphire, and finding them required readers to read and translate braille. Whether this will be the case for Sword/Shield remains to be seen.
There will also be new “Regi” Pokemon coming in this second DLC. You won’t see them in the trailer, though.
A new Tracer event is now live in Overwatch on Nintendo Switch, PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. From now until September 28, you can earn a new Tracer skin and more by participating in matches.
Titled Tracer’s Comic Challenge, the event gives you two weeks to earn a total of nine rewards. Winning three matches in Competitive Play, Arcade, or Quick Play nets you a player icon. Similarly, six wins in either mode rewards you with a spray, and nine wins gets you the epic Comic Book Tracer skin.
In addition to playing the game to get new rewards, you can watch any Overwatch match on Twitch to earn additional cosmetics in two-hour increments. This means if you watch for two hours, you’ll get one new spray. Watch for four hours and you’ll get two sprays, and you’ll get three sprays if you watch Overwatch games on Twitch for six hours. You can check out the rewards below.
The event is in celebration of the new Tracer comic series, London Calling. Blizzard partnered with Dark Horse Comics to release the series, illustrated by Babs Tarr (Batgirl) and written by Mariko Tamaki (Skim, X-23), which focuses on young Tracer as she navigates London’s streets. There are five issues in total, each one releasing on a monthly basis, with the first one available to read right now. Physical editions of London Calling will be launch in the coming months.
While Seasons 1 and 2 of Cobra Kai recently landed on Netflix after originally airing on YouTube Premium, we’re still a ways off from getting Season 3 of the Karate Kid followup show. Cobra Kai Season 3 won’t be arriving to Netflix until 2021. However, in a recent interview with Conan O’Brian on TBS’s Conan, Cobra Kai star Ralph Macchio revealed a few details about next season.
Season 3 will see Daniel LaRusso return to Okinawa, Japan–something that was revealed at Comic-Con in 2019. In the interview, which you can see below, Macchio discusses the choice and what it means.
However, what the former All Valley Karate champion is doing there is still a mystery. “I have been to Okinawa, for some shooting of Cobra Kai season three, which I cannot talk too much about,” Macchio said in the interview. “But I can say it dives into the origin of Miyagi Do Karate. We learn a little bit, some secrets of past history that is new to the audience, and to LaRusso, my character, and we actually went to Okinawa to shoot.”
While 1986’s The Karate Kid Part II saw LaRusso and Mr. Miyagi (Pat Morita) visit Okinawa, production never filmed there. Most of the movie was actually shot in Oahu, Hawaii. This is something Macchio pointed out in a video that O’Brien made for his producer Jordan Schlansky–who is obsessed with Macchio. The end result of Schlansky seeing this led him to say, “I can get to Macchio”–mispronouncing it Mahk-ee-oh–which Macchio said became a running gag on the set of Cobra Kai.
A new set of iPads are on the way, Apple announced during its September event, unveiling the eighth-generation iPad and the new iPad Air.
The highlight of the iPad presentation was the discussion of the A14 Bionic chip, which is the company’s latest processor that promises 40 percent more performance over the previous iPad Air. In addition to the higher performance, the new iPad Air houses a 10.9-inch liquid Retina display that’s nearly edge-to-edge. In fact, the new iPad Air has a look more in common with the iPad Pro in terms of design. As such, the Touch ID is now located in the lock button on the top, as opposed to the home button previously found on the front. Apple also did away with the lightning port, giving the new iPad Air USB-C functionality. It retails for $599 USD and will be available next month.
Meanwhile, the eighth-generation iPad will feature the A12 Bionic chip, the same processor found in the 2019 iPad Air. The features and form factor remain the same in this latest iPad. It starts at $329 and will be available this Friday.
Apple also confirmed that its latest software updates–iOS 14, macOS Big Sur, WatchOS 7, and tvOS 14–will arrive on Wednesday, September 16.
Fortnite’s Season 4 Week 4 challenges bring more Marvel madness into the mix. One challenge will send you to a new location that recently appeared in the snowy mountains near Retail Row. The challenge tasks you with destroying Collector Cases at The Collection. This guide will show you how to find The Collection and complete the challenge with ease.
These Week 4 challenges leaked early; check back on Thursday to try them yourself.
Where Is The Collection?
The Collection is a new location based off the comic book equivalent of Benicio Del Toro’s character in the Guardians of the Galaxy and Avengers movies. It’s located near Retail Row in the H6 tile on the map. It’s near the peak of one of the snowy mountains. You won’t miss the giant floating structure with tons of glass cases on it. Here’s a map with the exact location:
Fortnite Week 4 The Collector Location
Once you’re there you’ll need to break three of the glass cases on the platform. That shouldn’t a problem as there are far more than three cases available. There are also plenty of weapons, ammo, and health scattered around the nearby area. Be sure to loot up quickly in case someone shows up. Try and be friendly though–we’re all trying to complete the same challenges.
Fortnite The Collector Glass Case
What Do I Get For Completing The Challenge?
Smashing three collector cases will net you 25,000 experience points to level up your battle pass towards unlocking Iron Man and other rewards. Be sure to check out our other guides on how to destroy twenty Gatherers and hack Stark Robots at Stark Industries this week as well.
In a Twitch blog post now edited to remove the announcement, the platform introduced new customized emote modifiers–which included sombreros, guitars, and rumba shakers–in celebration of Hispanic Heritage month. The exact text from screenshots still floating around reads, “Use a customized sub emote to show support for your favorite Hispanic and LatinX streamer.”
Needless to say, some members of the gaming community thought the images were insensitive cultural stereotypes and cliche depictions of Hispanic and LatinX cultures.
I would just like to say @Twitch this is crusty. This is not the way to support and uplift your hispanic and latinx creators with mexican stereotypes. Just saying. pic.twitter.com/yf2vN1KRdn
However, shortly after people on the internet criticized Twitch’s poorly thought-out emotes, the blog post was scrubbed of the announcement. Twitch then posted on Twitter apologizing for its actions and the images’ insensitivity. The platform has removed the emote modifiers.
We launched these emote modifiers today as part of our celebration of Hispanic Heritage Month but we clearly missed the mark, and we apologize. These were not an appropriate representation of Hispanic and LatinX culture, and we’ve removed them.
The platform has landed in hot water before for insensitive actions. Twitch’s Black Lives Matter video featured very few Black streamers and mostly featured white streamers, much to the chagrin of Twitter users, who took issue with the fact that Twitch was advocating for Black Twitch streamers, but not showing or promoting any in the video.
Twitch is also currently testing ads that can run in the middle of streams, a move that has so far been highly unpopular among much of Twitch’s audience. Both viewers and streamers have asked Twitch to not move forward with the feature.
Like everyone else here. No. If you tested this you had a skewed audience. If you didn’t test this before this, this is bad. Either way. Please don’t do this. Most of us have scheduled ad breaks during stream for a reason. Don’t interrupt our stream flow with a random ad.
Hey Griver, thanks for your comment. For what it’s worth, this *is* the test – we will be monitoring the data from this experiment coupled with your feedback to improve and provide a better experience over time.
In response to replies from concerned Twitch users, the company made sure to emphasize that the new ads are a test, and not permanently implemented. It remains to be seen how Twitch will pacify its user base and keep mid-roll ads.
Just as in its predecessor, you’re going to die a lot in Spelunky 2. That’s kind of the point. Throughout your runs, you’ll be stabbed, beaten, burned, crushed, bludgeoned–a regular Vigo the Carpathian. In some playthroughs, you’ll make permanent progress, whether that’s adding a new listing to your journal or unlocking a permanent shortcut. But more importantly, you’ll constantly be learning, uncovering new ways in which the game’s many elements can interact, often–but not always!–to your detriment.
Every Spelunky 2 run starts the same, with nothing but your trusty whip at your side. But your expanded pool of knowledge grows with each run, and it’s knowing how enemies behave, levels can be laid out, and items function that will prove invaluable. Spelunky 2 is a ruthless game where a run that feels like it’s going great can end in the blink of an eye, all due to a minor bump into a minor enemy.
With all of this in mind, we’ve assembled some beginner’s tips and tricks that should prove helpful in your journey, particularly if you’re a newcomer or relative novice to the Spelunky series.
Don’t Attack Everything
If you can safely deal with an enemy, it’s wise to do so, lest they end up coming back to hurt you when you’re not expecting it. But Spelunky 2 doesn’t reward you with XP, items, or money for killing enemies, so there’s no reason to go out of your way to pick a fight that you can avoid. The path of least resistance can often be the wisest one, especially as you’re learning the game.
Always Hold Onto Objects
It’s exciting to get your hands on a special weapon or tool, but it’s hard to overstate the importance of the more mundane objects you come across. That includes arrows, vases (more on those later), rocks–hell, even a skull can be a lifesaver.
Almost everything you come across in Spelunky can be deadly, but the traps that fire a single arrow in a straight, horizontal line can be among the most frustrating. These arrows deal two damage and can send you flying to your death, so it’s essential to deal with them while staying out of harm’s way. You should always be on the lookout for these traps so that you can trigger them safely. A bomb or rope will do, but it’s best not to waste those since they tend to be in short supply.
Instead, you can rely on more mundane objects to set off traps by throwing them, whipping them, or dropping them into the path of the trap. Just be careful when using breakable objects, like vases and skulls, since you may only have one chance. Simply get near the ledge of the gap you’re looking to pass and hold Down and Square to drop the item you’re holding, which will toss it just in front of you.
Beyond setting off traps, these objects serve other uses, namely as weapons. Practice throwing objects to get a feel for how far they’ll fly, and you’ll end up with a supply of ranged weapons that can take out or at least stun dangerous enemies from afar. Stunned enemies can also double as objects for setting off traps, or you can toss them out of the way so they pose no danger to you.
Throw a torch to light the way–maybe you’ll spot Monty
Pick Up And Throw Vases
As noted above, vases are among the objects you can use to set off traps, but there’s an added layer to why you should always throw them rather than break them open with your whip. Vases can contain enemies, and breaking one open right in front of you can lead to you taking a cheap hit. By throwing vases, you can put some distance between you and any potential foes awaiting you inside.
That said, don’t just mindlessly throw vases down into areas you can’t reach and then return from. Vases will often include valuables, and you want to be able to collect those without having to waste a rope or bomb to escape from wherever the vase breaks open.
Be Mindful Of Your Whip
You’ll want to become well-acquainted with your whip because, while other objects and items can be used to take out foes (in addition to jumping on top of them), it’s your whip that you’ll be using the majority of the time. One aspect of it in particular that’s worth noting is that it also deals damage behind you. In a pinch, that can take out an enemy that’s approaching your rear.
But it’s important that you keep this in mind so that you don’t deal damage when you don’t intend to. If there’s a vase behind you, you may inadvertently break it with your whip, which means you might have to quickly react to an enemy appearing next to you.
Bring The Dog With You
In every level, you’ll be able to encounter your pet dog, Monty (or some alternative, if you choose another option in the Settings menu). Aside from looking intensely cute and stupid at the same time, he’s also a real life-saver: By carrying Monty to the exit of the stage you’re on, you’ll be rewarded with a kiss that restores one health. This can take you beyond the four health you’ll start with, so it’s always wise to get Monty to the end whenever possible.
While Monty is initially stationary, as soon as he’s “activated,” he’ll begin to run when you aren’t holding him. He can accidentally set off traps or other hazards that can kill him, so be aware of what he’s potentially going to encounter. He won’t jump up, so you can safely leave him in holes and other safe spots until you’re ready for him. In a pinch, Monty can also double as an object for setting off arrow traps as described above. He can actually survive an arrow hit, although taking enough damage will kill him, leaving you without the health boost and feeling deeply guilty.
You Can Ride The Turkeys
Some turkey-riding action in Spelunky 2
Among the new features in Spelunky 2 is the ability to ride on certain animals. Early on, the most common example is the turkey, which can be picked up and delivered to a pen in certain stages to gain access to a locked room. (Be careful not to attack turkeys in the pen, or the guy nearby will go shopkeeper on your ass–more on that below.) But far more entertaining is the option to ride on a turkey by jumping on its back.
Doing so will initially send the turkey sprinting around aimlessly, which can prove disastrous depending on where it takes you. But after a few seconds, you’ll see some hearts pop up and you’ll gain direct control of it. Turkeys can prove extremely useful as vehicles, as they can attack, double jump, and slowly drift downwards (just hold the X button during a fall).
As with Monty, you can use these animals to set off traps if you have to, and if they come into contact with fire, they can be cooked to produce an item that restores one health (and, again, makes you feel awful).
What Does The Gold Key Do?
You’re likely to happen upon a gold key in certain levels. While there may be other uses for it–Spelunky is notoriously filled with secrets, and we suspect it can be used to activate a drill device in the lava world–the most straightforward use for the key involves heading into one of the “background” rooms you’ll encounter in certain levels. The room in question is a small one with two sets of ladders and a locked chest at the top. Deliver the key to this and you’ll be rewarded with the Udjat Eye, an item that allows you to see where treasure and items are hidden. That can help you to make the most of your bombs.
Don’t Piss Off The Shopkeeper
You can and should explore the ways in which you can rob the shopkeeper, although you should be prepared that he won’t stand idly by–this isn’t a Zelda game where you can break into someone’s house and take anything located in a vase or crate. But as you first start learning the game, avoid attacking the shopkeeper or doing anything to remove an item from the store without first paying for it–that’s likely to get you killed.
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Overcooked: All You Can Eat, a remastered version of Overcooked and its sequel, is getting a number of new accessibility features when it launches later this year. Developer Ghost Town Games will give players the ability to lengthen recipe times, turn off order expiration, and other features to make the game as easy as they want it to be.
On top of the ability to adjust in-game difficulty, the remastered bundle will also include dyslexia friendly text, color-blind friendly chef indicators, and a scalable user interface. Overcooked publisher Team17 detailed these features on its official blog.
Overcooked! All You Can Eat is a remastered version of Overcooked 1 and 2, complete with a visual overhaul that supports 4k resolutions. It comes with all previously released downloadable content, like the Sun’s Out Buns Out DLC pack that launched in July. The remaster will also feature cross-play online multiplayer, new chefs, and new levels.
The bundle is launching later this year for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X. Bake ‘n Switch, an Overcooked-like baking game, may satisfy your hectic co-op needs in the meantime.
Thor: Ragnarok director Taika Waititi is set to make a new period comedy show for HBO Max. It has been reported that Waititi will produce and direct a show titled Our Flag Means Death for WarnerMedia’s streaming platform.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, the show is based on the life of a real-life man named Stede Bonnet, who in the 18th century was known as The Gentleman Pirate. Bonnet was a wealthy aristocrat on the island of Barbados, who gave up his privileged life to become a pirate. Waititi will produce Our Flag Means Death alongside showrunner David Jenkin, and direct the pilot episode.
In a statement, HBO Max head of originals Sarah Aubrey said, “A series concept like this jumps off the page and you can instantly envision every moment. David and Taika’s unique take on Bonnet’s rollicking misadventures on the high seas is sure to thrill and delight audiences everywhere.”
Waititi will start work on Our Flag Means Death once he has finished directing the Thor: Ragnarok sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder. The Marvel movie is currently scheduled to hit theatres in February 2022, and will star Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, and Christian Bale.
The director is also developing two animated shows based on Roald Dahl’s classic book Charlie And The Chocolate Factory for Netflix. The first will reportedly be an adaptation of the book itself, while the second will focus on the Oompa-Loompas, the diminutive creatures who work in Willy Wonka’s factory.
Sadly, one Waititi project that is no longer happening is his adaptation of Akira. Waititi was the latest director to be attached to long-in-development live-action version of the manga classic, but in February admitted that he was now unlikely to make it.
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