A slew of additions are coming to both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and Warzone on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One, including multiplayer playlist updates, new game modes, and more.
Developer Infinity Ward shared a lengthy blog post announcing various updates coming to Modern Warfare, and the first is a change to the game’s playlist. Starting this week, players can take part in the new Cabin Fever moshpit that features tons of “medium-sized 6v6 multiplayer action” on maps like Hackney Yard, Hideout, Rust, Shipment, and Shoot House. Cabin Fever will be comprised of both deathmatch and objective-based game mode, Infinity Ward said.
Also in Modern Warfare is the return of the multiplayer game mode Cranked and the introduction of Gunfight Trios Tournaments. In Cranked, a deathmatch-style mode first introduced in 2013’s Call of Duty: Ghosts, players are tasked with getting kills in rapid succession or else their Operator will explode once the timer as expired. Meanwhile, the single-elimination bracket-style Gunfight Trios Tournaments will see teams of three attempting to be sole squad standing out of the 16 competing.
Over in Warzone, players can take part in the battle royale experience in Quads, Trios, or Solos now. Trios returned last week after Infinity Ward and Raven Software pulled the mode following the introduction of the “Quads” squad-type. The other game mode in Warzone, Plunder, is also playable in Trios thanks to this new series of playlist updates.
Niantic’s AR-enabled games like Pokemon Go and Harry Potter: Wizards Unite have encouraged gamers to meet up in-person for years now, but that’s not exactly possible for everyone during a global pandemic. As part of ongoing efforts to alleviate this issue, Niantic has introduced the Knight Bus to Wizards Unite.
According to the post announcing it, the Knight Bus will bring players to a special Fortress at Hogwarts Castle that functions similarly to the Fortresses that you would find just walking around. Fortresses are Wizard Unite’s equivalent of Pokemon Go’s raids, where multiple players team up to take on challenges and earn loot. Players summon the Knight Bus via a button on the game’s map, and it’s only available to those who are level 7 or above. Though it’s not currently live, the post suggests it will begin rolling out to players soon. It’s also a permanent addition to the game. “We hope this new feature will come to the aid of players and help them get back into one of their favourite aspects of the game from the safety of their homes,” a portion of the post reads.
Ubisoft has released the full patch notes for Title Update 9, the next update for The Division 2. The update will go live across all platforms during the maintenance period on April 21, which will see The Division 2 servers temporarily go down for three hours starting at 12:30AM PT / 3:30AM ET / 8:30AM BST.
Title Update 9 implements a new Exotic reconfigure feature that allows you to level up your gear’s power level and maintain its utility as you grow stronger. Several Exotics will be reworked as well–Sawyer’s Kneepads will get huge buffs while Imperial Dynasty, Dodge City Gunslinger, Diamondback, and Merciless/Ruthless get minor buffs. Both Lady Death and Bullet King get some minor changes too (they’re more straight reworks than all-out buffs or nerfs).
Like previous title updates, Title Update 9 is huge. Talents are being reworked, Named Items are getting adjusted, some main missions are changing, the loot system is getting some tweaks, and dozens of bug fixes are being implemented. You can get a better idea by looking through the patch notes, which are listed below. Warning: it’s pretty long.
The Division 2 Title Update 9 Patch Notes
Patch Size
Updating from 8.5 to 9 > approximately 10 GB
Fresh installation > 70-80 GB (depending on the platform)
New Features
Exotic Reconfiguration
You will now be able to upgrade Exotic items to level 40, as well as re-roll their attributes with the new Reconfiguration system available in the Crafting bench. Find out more in our dedicated article here.
Game Balance
Exotics, Talent, Named items
Exotics
Sawyer’s Kneepads – Reworked
Cannot be staggered by explosions.
Increase total weapon damage by 3% each second you are not moving. Stacks up to 10x and stacks are lost when moving
This exotic only provides defensive attributes and no brand bonus, so now has potential for high damage and makes it appealing to both red and blue builds.
Developer comment: The old version didn’t provide enough engaging gameplay; this change should help with that.
Imperial Dynasty – Buff
Reduced cooldown to 35s (down from 40)
Developer comment: This buff is to better compensate for the lack of brand bonus.
Dodge City Gunslinger
Reduced charge up time 30s (from 50s)
Developer comment: This buff is to better compensate for the lack of brand bonus.
Diamondback – Reworked
Now Grants all shots guaranteed crits for 5s after hitting a mark
Developer comment: The Diamondback is underperforming, and this change should make the bonus a bit more exciting.
Merciless/Ruthless – Buff
Explosion damage increased to 1200% (up from 900%)
Developer comment: Explosion Damage doesn’t scale with crit stats, so boosted to compensate.
Lady Death
No longer enhances Turret Skills.
Bullet King
Base damage is now the same as the non-exotic LMG version.
Exotic attribute roll quality
All exotics will now roll at the highest possible minimum roll regardless of the difficulty they are obtained in.
Exotic items can still roll higher than the minimum but minimum rolls are now higher.
Talents
Tag Team – Reworked
The last enemy you have damaged with a skill is marked.
Dealing weapon damage to that enemy consumes the mark to reduce active cooldowns by 6s.
Cooldown: 4s
Does not consume mark if no skill is on cooldown.
Reassigned – Buff
Killing an enemy adds 1 round of a random special ammo into your sidearm.
Reduced cooldown to 15s (down from 20s).
Tamper Proof – Reworked
Enemies that walk within 3m of your hive, turret, or remote pulse are shocked.
Arm time: 2s.
Increased cooldown per skill to 10s (up from 5s).
Empathic Resolve – Buff
Repairing an ally, increases their total weapon and skill damage by 3-15% for 20s (up from 10s). 1-7% if self.
Developer comment: Currently it is difficult to keep a high uptime in 4-man content as non-tank players try to be as safe as possible and NPCs have higher lethality, so chip damage is less frequent.
Creeping Death
When you apply a status effect, it is also applied to all enemies within 8m (up from 5m) of your target.
Reduced cooldown to 15s (down from 20s).
Overcharge talents now properly state they don’t work in PVP.
Named Items
Contractor’s Gloves
Damage to Armor lowered to 8%.
Firm Handshake
Status Effects increased to 15%.
Ammo Dump
Now correctly rolls 2 additional attributes.
Claws Out
Now correctly has a skill tier core attribute roll.
Now correctly rolls an attribute in addition to pistol damage and melee damage.
Melee damage increased to 400%.
Fox’s Prayer
Damage to out of cover lowered to 8%.
The Hollow Man
Damage to Health lowered to 10%.
Punch Drunk
Headshot Damage increased to 20%.
Send-Off
Removed Perfectly Rooted Talent.
Weapons
Assault Rifles:
Increased maximum roll of Damage to Health to 21%.
Players on Stadia will not see this be displayed correctly and instead see an increase to Damage to Health on other weapon types. This is an UI issue only and will be fixed with the next client update.
Gear Sets
True Patriot
White buff armor repair lowered to 2%/3% once every second.
Main Missions
Pentagon & Darpa Research Lab
Lowered difficulty to be more on par with other missions.
Liberty Island
Lowered difficulty to be more on par with other missions.
Wall Street
Reduced health and damage of the APC.
Stranded Tanker
NPC composition has been adjusted.
AI & NPCs
Signature Weapons Against Named NPCs
Slightly increased damage signature weapons deal to named enemies
Elite NPCs Damage Against Player Skills
Reduced damage elite NPCs deal to player skills.
Tank Sprint Speed
Reduced sprint speed of Tank archetype from all hostile factions
NPC Shotguns
Reduced damage of all NPC shotguns
Adjusted range of some NPC shotguns (including shotguns used by Black Tusk Rusher)
Status Effects
Reduced duration of Poison and Cleaners’ Napalm Ensnare (when applied to players)
Special Ammo Signaling
Any NPC with special ammo has the same UI indication as from the Special Ammo Directive.
Examples of who this affects:
Outcasts who pick up special ammo from boxes deployed by their Support archetype.
Bounties who spawn with special ammo.
Rogue Agents
Significantly reduced the armor of dynamically spawning Rogue Agents.
To prevent this from being too large of a nerf in 3-4-player co-op a Rogue Agent can spawn with an armor kit which can repair their armor up to 70%.
Slightly reduced the damage output of dynamically spawning Rogue Agents.
NPC Buff Allies Ability Changed
Previously, certain bosses and bounties would magically overheal themselves and their fireteam. This “buff allies” ability lacked clear messaging, so it has been replaced with a “leader overheal” ability. This is the same ability that the Rikers’ Leader archetype has. Once the boss (leader) is killed, all their friendlies lose their overheal. The UI indicator of pulsating circles inward/outward in their nameplate signals when this ability is active.
Loot/Rewards
Increased power of dropped Exotics to always be of the highest tier, giving the highest minimum rolls.
Added Operation Dark Hours raid gear set Chest and Backpack items to the general loot pool, making them available outside of Operation Dark Hours.
Lowered number of Exotic Components awarded from Exotic deconstruction to match the cost of Exotic reconfiguring.
Lowered Conflict XP amount from PVP weekly projects to match the required XP for 1 Conflict level.
Blueprints
Combined all Skill Mod blueprints of different qualities into a single blueprint per Skill, scaling quality with that of the Crafting Bench.
Added Skill Mod Blueprints for the Skills introduced in Warlords of New York.
Added Blueprints from the general Blueprints pool to first-time weekly completion rewards of Invaded Missions.
Added Blueprints from the general Blueprints pool to the rewards of Daily Projects.
Skills
The Sharpshooter’s Tactician Skill base radius has been increased to 50m.
Scoping is now enabled when using a Shield Skill.
Bug Fixes
Gear and Skills
Fixed several magazine attachments not matching their weapons and/or clipping with their models.
Fixed several Scopes being offset on multiple weapons.
Fixed a missing animation when picking up the Skill variant after defeating the final boss in The Tombs Main Mission.
Fixed an issue causing deployable Skills to not refresh their duration when receiving the Artificer Hive buff.
Fixed an issue causing some items created before Warlords of New York to have wrong attribute values.
Fixed an issue causing the “Glass Cannon” gear talent to amplify all healing received.
Fixed the text of the “Perfect Overflowing” talent to correctly state that it increases the base magazine capacity at the 3rd reload from empty.
Fixed the text of the Acosta’s Go-Bag talent “One in Hand…” to correctly state that the buff triggers when the grenade is thrown.
Fixed an issue causing cards to not correctly flip when having the “Poker Face” backpack talent of “Aces & Eights” Gear Set equipped.
Fixed an issue causing the Nemesis Exotic to not trigger the Focus Gear Talent while scoped.
Fixed an issue causing the muzzle flash VFX to be missing for the Lady Death Exotic submachine gun.
Fixed an issue causing agent to get stuck on slopes and stairs when having a shield equipped and moving diagonally.
Fixed an issue causing the Demolisher Firefly to sometimes target and destroy friendly decoys.
Fixed an issue causing the Sniper Turret to have odd behaviour when shooting at enemy NPCs with shields.
Fixed several issues causing attachments being misplaced on the Carnage and IWI NEGEV weapons.
Fixed the text for the Booster Hive to now correctly state that it delivers a stimulant to nearby allies that increases their weapon damage and handling.
Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to purchase the “Holster Intel: Go West, Young Agent” at Inaya.
Fixed an issue causing the “Plague of the Outcasts” debuff of the Pestilence to transfer the lower amount of stacks under certain circumstances.
Fixed an issue that allowed wild life to count towards the Technician and Flamethrower Special Field Research. Be nice to the animals, y’all!
Gameplay
Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to progress to a higher World Tier when completing any required Stronghold in another player’s session and leaving that session.
Fixed an issue causing The Violent Delights bounty to not be completable when it spawns at certain locations.
Fixed an issue that could cause players to not gain any Seasonal XP when disconnecting or crashing, requiring an additional restart of the game.
Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to reach The Angel of Mercy contaminated area.
Fixed an issue causing low level agents to deal higher than intended melee damage while in co-op with a player at Level 40.
Fixed an issue causing players to be able to change Global Difficulty when in a party with players without Warlords of New York or below Level 40.
Fixed an issue that allowed a party leader to invite crossplay players into the group while other party members had crossplay turned off.
This would cause the non-crossplay players to be kicked off the group. You will now no longer be able to invite crossplay players into the group if any group member has deactivated crossplay.
Fixed an issue that could cause odd grouping behaviour when a non-Warlords of New York player interacted with the helicopter pilot in Washington to transfer to New York.
Fixed an issue causing Specialization Skill Mods to not scale correctly at level 40.
Fixed an issue causing Global Event NPC challenges to only count for the player landing the killing blow.
Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to gain the Armor Breaker Distinction commendation under certain circumstances.
UI
Fixed misleading GPS pointing towards a SHD Tech position in the Civic Center area.
Fixed an issue causing Control Point Alert Level to remain after a player captured a Control Point in New York.
Fixed an issue causing Gear Score to be displayed when creating a raid group at Warlords of New York maximum level.
Fixed an issue causing the Directives tutorial to not trigger after finishing the Liberty Island Main Mission and activating Keener’s watch.
Fixed an issue causing the “Opt in to participate” message to show in the “Rewards” and “Challenges” menu when performing a server transfer despite the event being already activated.
Fixed an issue causing the “League activity started” celebration and “League activity: Time trial” objective to appear when starting a Time trial Mission on any difficulty.
Fixed an issue causing the buff icon after using an armor kit with the System Corruption Gear Set to disappear before its visual timer was finished.
Fixed an issue causing the Keener’s Watch tutorial to trigger on subsequent characters.
Fixed an issue causing the UI to enlarge when pressing the “I” key while browsing an inventory section through an item.
Fixed an issue causing non-functional apparel menu to remain on screen when exiting Apparel, Emotes or Weapon Skins while holding option button on any controller.
Fixed an issue causing non-functional inventory UI to remain On-Screen when accessing and then exiting the store menu through a lootable item.
Fixed missing VFX for completing a Rogue Agent Encounter.
Fixed an issue causing the Expedition matchmaking UI element to be available for Warlords of New York players that have not reached level 40 yet.
Fixed visuals for some modding icons in the weapon modding screen.
Fixed an issue causing the incorrect message “You left the group” to repeat when trying to invite a player on another platform when you have Crossplay disabled on Stadia or PC.
Fixed the text of the Shield Skills to correctly reflect that they also scale with the Blue / Defensive Core attributes.
Fixed an issue causing the “Please wait” message to remain on screen when the player quickly sells and buys back any item from the vendor menu.
Fixed an issue causing Warlords of New York skills to have placeholder render and missing stats on the Skills overview page of the Quartermaster menu.
Localization
Fixed missing Italian, Spanish and Arabic voice translation for cinematics.
Fixed an issue causing the error text “Can’t invite players that have not started the expansion” going out of border for certain languages.
Audio
Fixed an issue causing the voice over to overlap if the player goes through the Keener’s Watch tutorial too quickly.
Missions
Fixed an issue causing the Outcast Support NPC to remain stuck in the spawn area in the Federal Emergency Bunker Main Mission on Challenging difficulty.
Fixed an issue causing too many Outcast Tanks to spawn at the same time during the Stranded Tanker Main Mission.
Fixed an issue causing the mission objective to not update if the agent did not interact with the already open elevator doors when entering the Pentagon Main Mission a second time.
Fixed an issue making it possible to destroy the fuse box before raising the shutter in the New York Federal Reserve Side Mission causing progress to be blocked.
Fixed an issue causing the interaction with a door look weird after respawning during the Stranded Tanker Main Mission. Yes, technically this is a weird door.
Fixed a missing interaction highlight on a prop blocking the way during the Pathway Park Main Mission.
Fixed an issue causing too few Rogue Agents to be spawned for 4-player group in the Stranded Tanker Main Mission.
Fixed an issue causing the error message “Outside playable area” to appear when walking against sandbag props in the City Hall Side Mission.
Fixed an issue causing the Razorback generator hacking to not start when a player is inside the radius before it activates during the Liberty Island Main Mission.
Fixed an issue causing the objective “Meet with Faye and Rhodes” to not update after a Delta disconnect during cinematic during the City Hall Side Mission.
Fixed an issue causing the player character to not correctly be placed back in the mission area when disconnecting or quitting during the New York helicopter cinematic for the City Hall Side Mission.
Fixed an issue causing players to not receive any damage from airburst seeker while sitting behind a specific cover piece during the Liberty Island Main Mission.
Fixed an issue causing players on PC and Stadia to become stuck after climing a metal prop during the Pathway Park Main Mission when being in a 2-player group.
Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to fast travel to a group member when that group member was in a Classified Assignment entrance.
Fixed several issues with props in Missions.
Fixed collision issues in Missions.
Fixed a number of cover issues.
Fixed several occlusion issues.
Operation Dark Hours
Fixed an issue causing Razorback to not drop any subsequent keys after defeating it once.
Open World
Fixed an issue causing players to become stuck in a container after freeing a hostage.
Fixed an issue causing Black Tusks to take over too many activities in New York. They also need some time to relax.
Fixed some weird stairs.
Fixed an issue causing players to be able to loot a weapon container through a wall.
Fixed an invisible loot crate. You will ask yourself if there ever was an invisible crate or not…
Fixed several doors not opening when doing Bounties.
Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to re-spawn a Hunter encounter when they die to it.
Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to open a door after taking the appropriate key for a Hunter encounter.
Fixed an issue causing NPCs to spawn from a manhole and then become stuck in a wall.
Fixed some lighting issues in the Open World.
Fixed some issues with buildings.
Fixed occlusion issues in the Open World.
Dark Zone & PvP
Fixed an issue causing Agent nameplates to be visible at incorrect distances.
SHD Agent name plates are now visible at 15m.
Rogue Agent name plates are now visible at 30m.
Manhunt name plates are now visible at 50m.
These values can change depending on Dark Zone perks.
Fixed several props.
Fixed a prop that could cause players to become stuck and immune when dropping from a certain location.
Vanity & Store
Fixed some animation errors when a player uses the “Gunslinger” emote.
AI & NPC
Fixed an issue that could cause players to become immobilized by the Riot Foam of enemy NPCs through cover.
Fixed several issues where enemy NPCs would not shoot at the decoy.
Performance
Fixed several issues causing low FPS in various Side Missions.
Fixed a streaming issue in Haven at the beginning of the cinematic after the objective “Meet Faye and Rhodes”.
Fixed a streaming issue players could encounter when starting the Pathway Park Main Mission.
Fixed several streaming issues in the Open World.
Fixed several performance issues during the Operation Dark Hours Raid.
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It’s 4/20, meaning once again the annual stoner holiday has arrived. This year, circumstances are a bit different and most people are social distancing at home, giving everyone plenty of time to celebrate with some of the best stoner movies ever made.
How do you watch them, though? Thankfully, many of the best movies you’d want to binge on 4/20 are available through various streaming services for free right now. Some of them require subscriptions, while others will let you watch with commercials.
From classics like Reefer Madness and Cheech & Chong’s Up in Smoke through recent entries in the stoner pantheon like Jay & Silent Bob Reboot, there’s plenty to stream while you celebrate 4/20 at home. Take a look at the stoner movies you can stream below, and if you feel like watching with a friend, give Netflix party a shot–this only works with Netflix movies, though.
Of course, if stoner movies aren’t your thing, Netflix also has plenty of horror films for you to watch. We’ve gathered up the best of a variety of subgenres–cosmic, monster, alien, and slasher–for you to peruse.
And speaking of things you should be watching, consider listening to GameSpot’s weekly TV series and movies-focused podcast, You Should Be Watching. With new episodes premiering every Wednesday, you can watch a video version of the podcast over on GameSpot Universe or listen to audio versions on Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, and Apple Podcasts.
Where to watch 4/20 movies:
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Capcom’s Resident Evil franchise spans numerous games across multiple generations of hardware, both console and portable. And, rather amazingly, the majority of these games feed into one, ongoing storyline. Sure, it might be a sprawling, messy, complex, and often confusing story, but it’s also fascinating and fun.
Whether it’s the seven mainline games, the multiple spin-offs, or the handful of DLC expansions, each game has something key to add to the rather dense Resident Evil universe. Of course, given the magnitude of it all, you couldn’t be blamed for losing track of it all or even not quite understanding how the pieces fit together. Well, it just so happens we’ve put together a video to help you sort through it all.
In this episode of Timeline, we run through the entire story of the Resident Evil franchise, from its very start when Lord Oswell E. Spencer commissioned the creation of a certain mansion, to its most recent entry with Ethan Winters encountering a strange family in the Louisiana bayou.
Join Adam Mason as he walks you through every key narrative moment, explains the motivations of pivotal figures, and unravels who did what to who and why. By the time you’re done watching you’ll have a solid grasp of the story of Resident Evil, and we’re going to bet that you may develop an affinity for rocket launchers too. Either that or an intense dislike of boulders.
We’ll have more episode of Timeline soon, so make sure you’re subscribed to GameSpot on YouTube to see them. If you have suggestions for what video game franchises, or even TV shows, movies, and anime, we should make story explains on, let us know in the comments.
Fortnite: Battle Royale will soon play host to a special event that will be used to launch a new song from the rapper Travis Scott. The event, called Astronomical, will involve Scott dropping a new track as part of what’s being called “an other-worldly experience” that was “built from the ground up in Fortnite.”
The Astronomical event will run at specific times between April 23-25 (or 24-26, depending on your time zone). Think of it as a musical tour–if you miss the performances, they’re gone. Jumping into Astronomical at these set times will let you experience the new song, and pick up some Fortnite in-game loot in the process.
Travis Scott is also the latest addition to Fortnite’s Icon Series, and new outfits, emotes, and more will be available from April 21. Players who attend the Astronomical event will unlock two new loading screens and an Astroworld Cyclone Glider. The Astronomical Challenges will also be available from then, and there are more rewards you be unlocked from completing them (pictured below).
The track has not debuted yet, and details of the event itself are being kept under wraps. Fortnite has been used for marketing before–plot details from Star Wars Episode IX were revealed in-game before the film’s release, for instance–but this seems like something else entirely.
There are the five times you can catch the Astronomical event. Make sure you plan to attend in advance if you want to see what it’s all about.
While Ryan Murphy is primarily known for his work on the hit anthology series American Horror Story, the creator is bringing a new show to Netflix. Titled Hollywood, the series is created by Ian Brennan and Murphy and will debut on May 1. The first trailer for the show has been released.
The upcoming show “follows a group of aspiring actors and filmmakers in post-World War II Hollywood as they try to make it in Tinseltown–no matter the cost,” according to an official description of the series. “Each character offers a unique glimpse behind the gilded curtain of Hollywood’s Golden Age, spotlighting the unfair systems and biases across race, gender and sexuality that continue to this day.” Check out the new trailer below.
This is a limited series, so don’t expect an anthology like AHS. Hollywood will star Darren Criss, Patti LuPone, Michelle Krusiec, Samara Weaving, Jeremy Pope, and more. Additionally, it will feature plenty of well-known names from Hollywood’s past like Jake Picking playing Rock Hudson.
However, this take on Tinseltown will also rewrite some history, offering up more of a “What if” spin. “We turned to the past for direction, uncovering buried history to spin an aspirational tale of what ifs,” series director and writer Janet Mock told IndieWire. “What if a band of outsiders were given a chance to tell their own story? What if the person with greenlight power was a woman? The screenwriter a black man? What if the heroine was a woman of color? The matinee idol openly gay? And what if they were all invited into the room where the decisions are made, entering fully and unapologetically themselves to leave victorious and vaunted, their place in history cemented.”
Hollywood hits Netflix on May 1.
And speaking of things you should be watching, consider listening to GameSpot’s weekly TV series and movies-focused podcast, You Should Be Watching. With new episodes premiering every Wednesday, you can watch a video version of the podcast over on GameSpot Universe or listen to audio versions on Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, and Apple Podcasts.
Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace can be streamed in the UK for free on the Channel 4 website. It’s also available in the UK and Australia on iTunes. Sadly, there is currently no legal way to stream Darkplace in the U.S., though plenty of clips can be found on YouTube.
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What happens when the BBC runs out of programming? In 2004, Channel 4 desperately needed to fill several gaps in its schedule, and chose to finally air a series that, according to its creator, was “so radical, so risky, so dangerous, so goddamned crazy, that the so-called powers-that-be became too scared to show it.”
This is the premise of Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace, one of the best (and most criminally short-lived) comedies of the early 21st century. Darkplace is an absurd combination of genre-parody and mockumentary, presenting itself as the “long-delayed premiere” of a cancelled-before-it-aired TV show from the 1980s, wrapped in interviews with its creative team and cast. The fictional show in question, likewise titled ‘Garth Marenghi’s Darkplace’, was a procedural-hospital-drama-slash-monster-of-the-week-paranormal-thriller (the hospital having been built above a portal to hell, obviously) that asked questions like “What if the world’s worst bargain-bin Stephen King knock-off wrote a TV show,” and, “What would that series look like if it was produced with absolutely no budget?”
The answers were, perhaps unsurprisingly, hilarious… and, at times, grotesque – but usually both in equal measure. Its plotlines are ridiculous (ranging from simple fits of demonic possession to an alien broccoli invasion) and its production quality is purposefully abysmal (tip for you Hollywood types out there: if you can’t afford dirtbikes for a chase sequence, just use bicycles with BBBRRRRRRRRR sound effects overlaid instead) – but it’s the interview segments highlighting the outlandishly myopic worldview of Marenghi and his production team which really make the series exceptional.
Led by Matthew Holness as the titular “author, dreamweaver, and visionary… plus actor,” and Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd, The Mandalorian) as his publisher and very much not an actor co-star Dean Lerner, the talking heads that intercut each episode (assumedly because the originals weren’t long enough to fill a full half-hour programming block) turn what would have been an otherwise serviceable parody of cheap ’80s TV into a hilarious commentary on the creative process (or lack thereof) and the dichotomy of one’s ego vs actual talent. Marenghi is a parody in and of himself, a pitch-perfect sendup of every mediocre creator masking their insecurities in tropes of badassery from the ’80s and ’90s, and Darkplace is the half-rotten (yet, for us, absurdly delicious) fruits of those labors.
Okay, maybe that’s getting a little too analytical – after all, as Marenghi says, “I know writers who use subtext and they’re all cowards” – but whether you’re looking for high-brow conceptual satire or just a good old-fashioned monkey-man pissfest, Darkplace is a chapter of comedy history you won’t want to skip. Featuring a slew of other British comedians including Matt Berry (Toast of London, The IT Crowd) and Alice Lowe (Hot Fuzz), plus appearances from the likes of Noel Fielding, Lydia Fox, and Stephen Merchant, the six half-hour(ish) episodes of Darkplace are all well worth the couple of hours that it takes to binge the whole series.
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JR is a Senior Editor at IGN, and really hopes you give Darkplace a shot. Seriously, it’s great – like, it-was-his-ringtone-for-no-small-amount-of-time good – so if you do check it out, hit him up on Twitter
If you qualify for the federal government’s Economic Impact Payment, it should be showing up in your account sometime soon. I know people who have not only already gotten theirs, but already spent it, too. If you’ve been thinking about picking up a new gaming laptop, it’s a great use of your “free” money.
If you’re looking for a new gaming laptop for under $1200, the specs of the laptops above are pretty par for the course. Barring special promotions, you can generally find gaming laptops with RTX 2060 or GTX 1660/1660 Ti graphics cards coming in under the $1200 mark. Some are even down below $1000, making them a better deal. Keep in mind when you’re buying a gaming laptop which features you value. You might be able to squeeze in a bigger GPU or slightly better CPU, but it comes at the price of less RAM or SSD storage.
My personal pick from this list would be the Gigabyte Aorus gaming laptop. There’s an instant $300 rebate, so the price comes out to $1099 and it’s pretty stacked. My PC display is 144Hz and I don’t think I ever want to go back, so having it in a well-equipped, on-sale gaming laptop is just the icing on the cake. Check out our review of the (newer) Gigabyte Aorus 15G to get a rough idea of what to expect.
Desktop gaming PCs will always offer you more bang for your buck than a laptop. You can build one yourself for less money, and while it’s enormously rewarding, it’s also terrifying if you’re inexperienced. I’ve put together a lot of PCs over the years, and I still have a twinge of horror when I power it up for the first time. Another disadvantage to building your own PC right now is tracking down all the parts. You might be able to get the CPU and GPU you want, only to find yourself waiting on the right motherboard. In any case, there’s no shame in buying a prebuilt.
Unlike the gaming PCs of a decade ago, modern prebuilt gaming PCs aren’t built from proprietary, unswappable parts. Essentially they’re built with the same stuff you’d use to build your own, but with a warranty. Since they’re no longer doing stuff like soldering the GPU in place, you can upgrade as you see fit. Check out our guide to the best gaming PCs for a full list of our recommendations not restricted by price, if you’re feeling a little extra spendy.
