Animal Crossing: New Horizons is getting more island visitors on April 23 thanks to a new update. Starting that day, Leif the sloth will make periodic visits to your plaza to sell seeds for flowers and shrubs, the latter being new to the game. Redd will also dock his boat at your private beach to sell furniture and art. And yes, that art can be donated to the museum’s new art wing.
The game’s next named event is Nature Day, which adds special Nook Miles+ objectives for tending to your trees, flowers, and new shrubs. The event runs from April 23 – May 4, as detailed in the video above.
This is one of several upcoming events headed to the game in the near future. May Day, which includes island tours not available via Nook Miles tickets, will overlap with Nature Day by a bit. International Museum Day and Wedding Season will follow after that.
Ubisoft has released the latest patch for Rainbow Six Siege. Previously only on the PC test server, Patch Y5S1.2 is now live on official PC servers and scheduled to come to Xbox One and PS4 sometime this week.
The patch is primarily geared towards balancing certain Operators and weapons, namely Ying. A previous update replaced Ying’s frag grenades with a claymore, but now Ubisoft is replacing her claymore with smoke grenades in hopes it will “increase the level of synergy she deploys when spearheading,” specifically when it comes to the attackers trying to counter Mira or Goyo. She’s also getting more Candelas and the damage rate of her T-95 LSW is getting a nice buff.
Patch Y5S1.2 also implements several bug fixes, with the most notable one addressing the barricade replication glitch. In the patch notes, Ubisoft also says that the quick match map pool won’t change for the rest of the season, only rotating to new maps in Year 5, Season 2. The full patch notes are listed below.
Rainbow Six Siege Y5S1.2 Patch Notes
Update
Update–the quick match map pool will remain the same throughout Y5S1 and will rotate again in Y5S2.
Balancing
Buck
Frag Grenades replaced with Claymores.
Increased Skeleton Key Magazine Capacity:
Skeleton Key magazine capacity increased to 5 + 1
Skeleton Key max ammo count is now 25+1
Goyo
Reduced number of Volcán shields to 2 (down from 3).
Jager
Now a 2-speed/2-armor operator.
Mozzie
Removed Super Shorty secondary.
Ying
Increased number of Candelas to 4 (up from 3).
Replaced Claymores with Smoke Grenades.
Increased T-95 LSW damage to 46 (up from 43).
M12 (Caveira)
Added a Razor Holographic Sight option to her M12.
TCSG12 (Kaid, Goyo)
Added an additional magazine to the TCSG12.
Reduced TCSG12 damage to 57 (down from 84).
Bug Fixes
FIXED – Barricade replication issues where the barricade is not destroyed for all players in game except the shooter.
FIXED – The Dynamic Play button does not update properly when last match was on an Event/Discovery playlist.
FIXED – Players can clip inside the excavator in EXT Construction Site of Oregon.
FIXED – Game boots with DX11 when players manually select the Vulkan executable in the steam installation folder.
FIXED – Minor menu/shop visual and cosmetic fixes.
FIXED – Lighting issue on Consulate map for consoles (hotfixed on PC on March 30).
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Developer GungHo Online Entertainment has announced that you can pre-load Ninjala from the Nintendo Switch eshop before its open beta goes live later this week.
Ninjala’s open beta is scheduled during a 17-hour period from April 28-29, with three different time slots spanning those two days. The first one takes place from 12-12:59 PM PT / 3-3:59 PM ET / 7-7:59 PM GMT.
Players can check out the eight-player battle royale and training modes, as well as experiment with the game’s four available weapons: Ippon Katana, Drill Beat, SK8 Hammer, and Trick Ball. Check below for a breakdown of Ninjala’s open beta schedule.
GungHo Online recently shared a second developer diary in which the studio went over the flow of in-game battles and some of Ninjala’s mechanics. Sometime after launch, GungHo said Ninjala will receive a season pass, which the studio will discuss in its next developer diary.
Ninjala is a free-to-play online multiplayer game that shares DNA with Bleeding Edge and resembles the aesthetics of Splatoon. The game is slated to launch on May 27 for Nintendo Switch and will not require an active Nintendo Switch Online membership to play.
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Riot Games’ Valorant has become the hottest shooter of the moment even in its closed beta, but some fans have voiced complaints about the balance of certain characters, particularly the explosive Raze. A new update dubbed 0.47+ takes aim at some of Raze’s more powerful abilities, reducing her number of Paint Shell grenades from 2 to 1, and forcing her to get two kills before she can use the ability again. The patch also adjusts the sound effects on all of Raze’s powers to make them easier to hear in a chaotic match.
The patch affects several of Sage’s abilities too, though mostly indirectly. Melee attacks against Sage’s barrier will now deal double damage, and players will no longer be able to bunny-hop their way through her Slow Orb. However, if you walk through her Slow Orb, you no longer make noise, which makes it less useful as an enemy-finding tool. The update also fixes a well-documented bug that allows Cypher’s spycam to fire weapons.
If you still haven’t had a chance to play Valorant, you can get a beta key by watching participating Twitch streams, among other things. If you’re the kind of player who delights in finding ways to break the game, Riot is offering bounties up to $100,000 for players who can find and identify exploits in the game.
Full patch notes below:
Gameplay and Balance
Melee damage
Melee attacks now inflict double the damage per hit to destructibles, including
Sage’s Barrier
Haven’s metal double doors
Why?
There weren’t enough options during low econ rounds—such as the first round and right after switching sides—to combat Sage’s Barrier Orb. Our intent is to add a high-risk, high-reward method for players to interact with her wall, while still being able to take it down, no matter their loadout
Raze
Reduced Paint Shells from 2 to 1
Paint Shells now have a kill reset, requiring players to get 2 kills to refresh cooldown
Tuned and adjusted audio for Paint Shells, Blast Pack, and Showstopper so that they’ll be easier to hear in hectic scenarios
Fixed an edge case where the secondary cluster of Paint Shells would explode quicker than intended. They now have a minimum duration before exploding.
What’s up with that?
Raze’s goal is to be a highly-threatening duelist that punishes enemies posted in predictable positions, but we felt like the cluster grenades and their number were creating overly oppressive scenarios. Also, players should be supplied proper gameplay information and the audio cues on all of Raze’s abilities didn’t match their threat, so we changed the audio of each. For example, when the Showstopper is equipped or fired from a distance, players should be able to clearly identify and interpret the threat.
Sage
Slow Orb now also slows the air speed of players in the zone
Players can now walk through the Slow Orb without making noise
Why though?
Players were able to circumvent too much of Sage’s Slow Orb by bunny hopping through the zone. We want the minimum slow amount to be a bit more consistent with all movement in the zone, while still allowing for bunny hopping and walking to provide a slight benefit to traversing the zone. Also, we feel adding a stealthy yet slow way to move through the field brings more nuance to playing against the zone and a bit more uncertainty for Sage, since she can’t necessarily hear people who move through
Map Updates
Several exploits fixed on Bind, Haven, and Split
Split: Orb moved from B Mid to B Main
The intent is to alleviate some pressure from mid and provide more incentive for players to control B Main.
Quality of Life
Reduced outbound network traffic from client for players running at high frames-per-second
Some ISPs and network setups were throttling game traffic, impacting gameplay by causing large spikes in network latency as FPS increased.
No impact to gameplay / responsiveness
Bug Fixes
Fixed a rare server crash caused by packets occasionally being corrupted by some players’ networks
Cypher’s Spycam can no longer use weapons
Fixed a bug where footstep audible range would sometimes not appear on the minimap
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If you’re browsing the Switch Eshop this week, you’ll likely see a bunch of AAA games from Capcom and Bandai Namco on sale for low prices. While there are some truly great deals in both of those publisher sales, I’m here to let you know about the best deal on the Eshop right now: Celeste for $5. If you haven’t played the brilliant 2018 platformer from developer Matt Makes Games, you shouldn’t pass up this deal.
The lowest price we’ve seen Celeste for on Switch up until now was $10–so yes, this is an excellent deal at $5. This price is only good through April 26, so make sure you snag it before it goes back up to $20 next week.
Celeste was my favorite game of 2018. You play as Madeline, a young woman grappling with mental illness, who decides to scale the titular mountain. Madeline’s journey is moving–it’s certainly one of the more poignant games that deals with mental illness. Each level asks you to run, jump, and climb to avoid increasingly precarious obstacles. Throughout the nine chapters, clever new mechanics are introduced to spice up the platforming. Gorgeous pixel art and catchy tunes round out the stellar package.
Fair warning: chapter 9, which was added in a free update last year, is extremely challenging. But Celeste also has welcome accessibility options that let you tweak the gameplay to meet your skill level.
The game earned a 9/10 in GameSpot’s Celeste review for its fine-tuned platforming, compelling story, and emotional use of music to impart its themes.
Celeste isn’t the only wonderful indie game available at a discount on Switch. For its one-year anniversary on Switch, Cuphead is 25% off at $15. Meanwhile, the gripping roguelike Dead Cells is down to $20.
DC’s The Flash has finally caught a break. The upcoming solo superhero movie has had plenty of issues, mainly replacing numerous directors dating back to 2016. Now, the theatrical release of the film is releasing a month earlier. Meanwhile, the majority of Hollywood movies are seeing long delays, including all of Marvel’s upcoming films.
According to a report from Deadline, The Flash was originally going to arrive to theaters on July 1, 2022. However, it’s been slated now to debut on June 3, 2022. The move happened when it was revealed Warner Bros. was moving The Batman from June 25 to October 21 of 2021 and Shazam 2 from April 1 to November 4 of 2022.
Supposedly, the story was going to be based on the Flash comic event Flashpoint. In that story, Barry Allen uses the Speed Force to travel back in time to prevent his mother’s death. In doing so, he changes the present. Bruce Wayne was murdered as a child and his father, Thomas Wayne, becomes Batman, Aquaman leads Atlantis and is at war with Wonder Woman and the Amazons, and Deathstroke is a pirate.
It is unknown at this time if Warner Bros. is moving forward with the Flashpoint story line.
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As part of the ongoing Season of the Worthy, Bungie has kicked off Destiny 2‘s first-ever Guardian Games–an event seemingly inspired by a mixture of the real-life Olympics and Destiny’s Faction Rallies. In it, players of each class will compete with each other to decide (for now) who is best among Titans, Hunters, and Warlocks. Along the way, you can earn a variety of rewards, the most tantalizing of which is a new Exotic machine gun called Heir Apparent. Here’s how to get it and what you need to know about the event.
How To Get Heir Apparent
Eva Levante at the Tower serves as the primary vendor and hub for Guardian Games, and you’ll immediately see Heir Apparent in her list of available gear for “sale.” However, you can’t buy the Exotic outright; you’ll first need to complete the Class Act triumph. This calls for you to complete any seven Guardian Games 2020 triumphs, of which there are 12 total (including Class Act and Star Athlete, the latter of which asks you to complete all 11 others).
The other triumphs largely consist of taking part in the event, as we’ll explore below. You’ll need to redeem medals, kill enemies with abilities in Vanguard Strikes or Nightfalls, earn points by completing Guardian Games bounties, redeem gold medals, and so on. The triumphs are spread across generic goals that can be completed in any activity, and those that require specific types of Strikes or participation in either Gambit or Crucible. As a result, you’ll need to take part in an array of activities–you won’t be able to grind out everything in one activity type.
Heir Apparent
After finishing any seven triumphs, simply complete Class Act by selecting it in your Triumphs screen (these are all located on the Events page of the Seasonal section) and then head to Eva to pick up Heir Apparent–you won’t get it automatically. Heir Apparent features the Heavy Slug Thrower trait, which requires you to spin up the weapon before it can before. If you’re at full health, spinning up the gun provides an arc shield.
How Guardian Games, Laurels, And Medals Work
To kick off the event, speak with Eva at the Tower–she’s located right in front of the main landing zone. She’ll have you speak with a few other NPCs, including the Drifter, to get you a class item and walk you through the process of depositing medals, which works a lot like banking motes in Gambit. The class item features the Spirit of Competition perk, granting bonus glimmer and XP when completing certain types of activities during Guardian Games 2020: Crucible matches, Gambit matches, Vanguard Strikes, patrols, adventures, and forges.
Once you’ve “registered” your class item, you’ll get the A Classy Challenge questline, the first component of which is the On Your Laurels quest. This involves earning points by collecting laurels–essentially motes that drop when players secure final blows with Supers, grenades, and charged melee abilities. These are collected off the ground like motes, and the color will be dictated by the class of the player who generated it. You’ll receive three points per laurel from a player of your class, while others will net you just one point. The quest reward is a ghost shell, with three available: the Rival Warlock Shell, Rival Titan Shell, or Rival Hunter Shell.
Eva offers weekly and daily bounties that work much like the standard ones you’d expect to get from most vendors. But she also has medals for sale, which are essentially quests that pay out class progress and rewards packages (in bronze, silver, and gold tiers). When you finish one of these, you bank the medal at the setup just behind Eva at the Tower. Doing so contributes to your class’s collective progress, with all Titans, Warlocks, and Hunters each working toward one goal.
You’ll get daily rewards packages, the quality of which is dictated by how well and your fellow class members perform. Special “metallic” class items will be available during the event, with their bronze, silver, or gold status determined by your class’s progress. At the end of the event, a winner will be announced and commemorated for the remainder of the year.
What Guardian Games Rewards Are Available?
The aforementioned Heir Apparent is the big prize up for grabs, but there are also ghost shells to be obtained through Eva’s quests, and shaders and emblems to earn through specific triumphs. Beyond the gear and items you’ll earn by playing, Eververse is home to new items: these include ships, sparrows, emotes, armor ornaments, and more.
Guardian Games Dates
Guardian Games is now live, following the release of the new 2.8.1 update. It ends on May 11.
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For years, that’s what many thought Takako Konishi did. Deceived by the Coen brothers’ assertion that the movie was based on real events, it was believed she set off to find the buried riches and met her sad demise on the journey. It’s an outlandish story turned myth, and inspired the documentary This Is A True Story, as well as the film Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter.
The truth, however, is a sobering twist that turned Konishi’s real-life struggle, into a fictional urban legend…
Social distancing is more fun when you’ve got something to binge.
As we enter into week, uh, something, of social distancing and self-quarantine, keeping ourselves entertained has become more important than ever. It’s not that we’re all clawing at the proverbial walls, but we’re kind of clawing at the proverbial walls. Thankfully, this is the internet and there is absolutely no shortage of content to consume. From YouTube series to classic TV re-watches, the GameSpot crew is all over the map in terms of how we’re spending our free time.
How has self-quarantine been treating you? Let us know what you’ve been watching in the comments below!
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.
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Community — Chris Pereira, Engagement Editor
I often save shows or movies until what feels like the right time to watch them. Community is one such case. While I wasn’t sure if I would love it, enough people had recommended it to me that I felt confident I would enjoy it whenever I got to it. Having wrapped up Veep, I wanted another half-hour comedy show to speed through.
Sure enough, I love it, and in retrospect, that NBC block of The Office, 30 Rock, Parks and Rec, and Community is just an embarrassment of riches. Community is particularly fun to binge, in part because of how it likes to mess with its own format, throwing in episodes like the stop motion animation or branching timelines ones. I also get inordinately excited to hit moments that I only know from memes and gifs, like that timelines episode that features Donald Glover walking into a catastrophe with a stack of pizza boxes.
The cast is great, and it’s been particularly fun watching Glover. Knowing how his career has panned out may unavoidably impact my perception of him as I make my way through the series, but it’s hard not to pick up on his charisma and magnetism–he just sticks out as someone primed to be a star. That Chevy Chase guy seems like he could have a future, too.
Kipo And The Age Of Wonderbeasts — Jordan Ramée, Associate Editor
Netflix has this hidden treasure trove of all-ages animated TV series that are just so, so good. Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts happens to be the latest one I’ve stumbled across and binging through all 10 episodes of the series’ first season proved to be the highlight of my week–but that’s probably because I’m a sucker for storylines with the creative wit to appeal to both children and adults.
Adapted from Radford Sechrist’s 2015 webcomic Kipo, Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts has a ton of phenomenal talent behind it. It’s produced by DreamWorks, animated by Studio Mir (Legend of Korra, The Boondocks, Young Justice: Outsiders), and features Karen Fukuhara (Suicide Squad’s Katana and She-Ra and the Princesses of Power’s Glimmer) as the voice for the titular heroine.
The show follows Kipo Oak, a 13-year-old girl who’s life underground is interrupted when she becomes trapped on the Earth’s surface–one that’s become a post-apocalyptic wasteland mostly inhabited by sentient animals. Befriending a young girl raised by wolves, a carefree scavenger, an adorable pig, and a wise-cracking bug, Kipo sets out to find a way to return home, a journey that’s full of wonderful original musical numbers and hilarious misadventures.
I’m so annoyed that the first season ends on as huge and intriguing of a cliffhanger as it does, because there’s no indication as to when we can expect a Season 2 and I desperately need to know what happens next.
YouTube Rabbit Hole — Eddie Makuch, Associate Editor
Instead of spending my days trying to expand my mind and learn new things, I’ve spent a good portion of my time in lockdown watching stupid old YouTube videos that I had forgotten about. First, and most importantly, there’s the machine that destroys everything. Synced up to a wonderful ’80s synth soundtrack, it’s oddly entertaining and satisfying to watch tennis balls and tables and eggs get destroyed by a machine. And who could forget one of SNL’s greatest modern digital shorts, The Beygency, featuring Keifer Sutherland and Andrew Garfield. I also enjoyed returning to some classic College Humor videos, including the Tetris God that still makes me laugh with its simple idea executed wonderfully. I’ve also found myself watching every single Between Two Ferns episode, and the one with Steve Carell gets me every time. Everyone has different tastes, so these videos may not resonate with you. But I’m confident you can think of a long list of classic YouTube videos from years ago that are worth returning to.
The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel — Mat Elfring, News Editor of Entertainment
Once upon a time, primarily before working here, I was a stand-up comedian in the bustling Chicagoland comedy scene. While that chapter in my life is closed, it was a decade of fun and pain all at the same time. Luckily, I get to relive some of my favorite and least favorite moments on the Amazon Prime Video series The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. Sure, the series takes place in a post-World War II America–a culture far different from the one we’re in now–but it somehow hits all the same beats of grinding in a comedy scene in order to try and make a name for yourself.
Whether it’s 1950s New York City or 2000s Chicago, comedy–as an artform–hasn’t changed much. There are still rough nights of bombing on stage, shady producers who stiff you on your pay, venues that have no business hosting comedy shows, and personal relationships being affected by your choice to talk about said relationships on stage. Marvelous Mrs. Maisel is the perfect encapsulation of what it means to be a comedian and the numerous balancing acts you have to go through while trying to yell jokes into a microphone.
Rachel Brosnahan as Midge Maisel is really the key to this show’s success. She’s quick, witty, and extremely charismatic. Sure, she’s the type of comedian that never really “turns it off,” but that’s honestly what makes for the most compelling television, as her choice of words tends to get her in quite a bit of trouble. Also, the show is very funny, so that’s probably something I should mention.
The Chris Gethard Show — Chris E. Hayner, Entertainment Editor
While you may know comedian Chris Gethard from his stand-up comedy or appearances on shows like The Office, Broad City, and Parks and Recreation, you’re missing out on his best work. I’ve been taking comfort in rewatching The Chris Gethard Show, the talk show for weirdos, that Gethard hosted between 2011 and 2018. The series, which is largely available to watch for free on YouTube, is my comfort zone. It’s a mostly-improvised comedy show that caters to anyone and everyone who considers themselves outside of the norm. It also shows just how overproduced and unoriginal most talk shows are. Where most shows strive for some manner of perfection, the Gethard Show strives to be flawed, show its imperfections to the audience, and watch them be reflected back. Oh, and it also happens to be one of the funniest and most engaging things I’ve ever watched, making something as ludicrous as guessing what’s inside a dumpster into a riveting hour of television. No, seriously, it did that.
Chris and his band of misfits made the show TV could use more of right now. It’s a show that speaks to a generation of people who don’t know how to feel about most things, other than hoping to find a connection with like minded folks. Given the current state of the world, with everything staying home, that’s something that feels more valuable now than ever.
I can’t stop watching Jeff Golblum movies — Kurt Indovina, Host/writer
Like all things relative to this quarantine, the circumstances that led myself and my girlfriend down a path of 80s Jeff Goldblum films is fragmented and blurry. It all started with Earth Girls Are Easy (1988), and again, for reasons I’m not entirely sure. The film opens with Jim Carrey and Damon Wayans in furry alien prosthetics pervertedly gawking over a holographic furry alien woman while Jeff Goldlbum is in some sort of unexplained hibernation. The movie unravels in what feels like a series of self-contained music videos featuring a scantily clad Geena Davis, and Jeff Goldblum plays the piano at one point. The whole experience made me uncomfortable.
The fuzzy dream of reality continued when we watched Transylvania 6-5000 (1985). Another one of many 80s Geena Davis and Jeff Goldblum soirees. Again, another under-dressed Geena Davis plays a vampire, while Jeff is working for a tabloid newspaper on the hunt for the real Frankenstein. This movie actually got some good chuckles out of me, and features the classic fast talking methodical Jeff Goldblum we know so well.
Oh, but it doesn’t stop there. Into the Night (1985), a crime romance by John Landis (Blues Brothers, American Werewolf in London), was up next. This time with the absence of Geena Davis, but instead Michelle Pfeiffer. This one was alright, and seemed really conflicted between being a violent crime film and a comedy. It’s also loaded with unsuspecting cameos like David Cronenberg and David Bowie.
(I swear I’m almost done.) While we were on the Goldblum escapade, I couldn’t help but revisit The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension (1984). It’s a film that I wish one day to be my biopic. That’s all I’ll say. Oh and that Jeff Goldblum is a neurosurgeon dressed as a cowboy. Okay, I think that’s it? No, wait — there’s that movie Beyond Therapy (1987), but it was making this twisted reality of quarantine more confusing so I shut it off. Okay, it’s clear I’ve overstayed my welcome. Bye.
I’m staying with my parents for the time being, and my dad got it into his head that there was a new season of Stranger Things available. When he discovered that there was, in fact, no new season yet, he decided that we needed to watch it all from the beginning (me for the first time). It’s been less than a week and we’re already in Season 2, so… that’s what indefinite isolation will do to you, I guess. But I’m actually fully obsessed with it and I have no idea why I’m so late to this party.
I genuinely really like the show on its own merits, but one of the best things has been hearing my parents’ commentary about the ’80s as we watch–my mom insists that people in California did not think mullets were cool even then. My dad was a teenager in the midwest in 1983, so it’s cool to see what his teenage years would have been like if there were also horrible monsters and (more) government secrets. Also, I really miss arcades.
Run BTS — Meg Downey, Associate Entertainment Editor
Quarantine is the perfect time to start trying new things, and in my case, that means getting super, super invested in a brand new fandom. I’m like a hyperfixating shark, if I stop obsessing over something for even a second, I’ll die.
I’d been listening to K-pop mega-hit boy band BTS passively (mostly thanks to Spotify algorithms and recommended playlists) for a while but in the last month and a half, something changed. I went from “oh fun, a catchy song” to hours and hours spent learning the ins and outs of the band’s seven members, consuming their entire discography, and blitzing through all of their music videos. So you can imagine my absolute delight upon finding out that along with all their music, they’ve also starred in over a 100 episodes of their own online unscripted TV show.
Run BTS is silly, kind-hearted, and occasionally deeply arcane (even as a veteran subtitle reader it gets hard to keep up with seven people all talking over one another sometimes). The members of BTS are made to do game show style challenges, taught how to do arts and crafts, let loose in shopping malls or followed on vacation, all accompanied by slapstick editing and sound effects. It’s one part fever dream, one part wholesome good time, and exactly the sort of content I need right now.
Succession, finally — Mike Rougeau, Managing Editor, Entertainment
When Succession Season 2 was airing in 2019, everyone told me to watch it–“It’s a Shakespearean tale of betrayal and backstabbing among the members of a Murdoch-like family of media moguls,” they said. Well, that sounded terrible to me, and so I abstained. Naturally, the current situation means much more binge time than usual. So here we are. I still hate every single character, but with Season 1 in the rearview and Season 2 partially consumed, I’ve come to understand that that’s the point. I guess I’m invested now.
Giant Bomb’s Persona 4 Endurance Run — Tony Wilson, Video Producer
I’ve decided to rewind 11 years and start up Giant Bomb’s Persona 4 Endurance Run. Since playing and absolutely loving Persona 5 in 2017, I’ve wanted to go back through the series and see what I missed. Thing is, I have no (legal) way to play Persona 4 myself right now, so a Let’s Play is the next best thing.
Early Giant Bomb has me covered, with a 155-episode series that runs through Persona 4’s original PS2 release. The guys break whenever they reach a good stopping point, which means episode lengths vary wildly, from just 8 minutes to an hour twenty. That makes it easy to whittle away an evening watching Charlie and the gang save people from being dragged into an alternate dimension inside the real world’s television sets.
So far, the party has gathered a few party members and completed a few dungeons, ranging from a regal castle to a steamy bathhouse. I love the series’ creative dungeon design, based on the psyche of the character being held inside. I’m excited to see where the adventure goes as the team grows and the plot around these missing people thickens.
I love a good high school slice-of-life anime like any ol’ weeb out there, but I often wish for more stories about young adult life as they’re of course more relatable at this point. And boy did I strike gold when discovering Shirobako. Not only does it revolve around the struggles of being a budding young professional, but also covers the unique challenges of working in a passion-driven industry.
Shirobako follows the different routes in which a group of friends (who ran their high school anime production club) break into the anime industry in their early 20s. It’s an anime about making anime. Beyond the meta novelty, Shirobako offers a genuine look at office and social dynamics when dealing with the quirks and habits of others along the production line. Key animators, producers, directors, writers, artists, voice actors, contract workers, everyone has specific roles which are touched on from episode to episode. You see how working in what you love can lead to moments of unrivaled fulfillment, but not without showing the risks of increased stress and long hours.
I started Shirobako a while back, but never got around to finishing it. But having been holed up in my small apartment, I really miss my own office dynamics and remembered just how Shirobako encapsulated that to near-perfection.
I originally started watching Ozark on Netflix when Season 1 dropped in 2017, but I never finished it. I remember finding the premise–risk-averse middle class man foolishly launders money for the cartel–compelling and reminiscent of Breaking Bad. It should’ve hooked me, but for some reason I stopped watching. Perhaps it was partly because I mostly only watch TV with my wife, and she wasn’t a fan at all. Anyway, I’ve always wanted to revisit it, and wow, am I glad I gave it a second chance.
For the past week or so, I’ve watched an episode or two each night. I’m almost done with Season 2, and let me just say: this show is a high-quality trainwreck that I cannot look away from. Jason Bateman is great as Marty Byrde, but at this point in the show, Laura Linney’s Wendy Byrde steals just about every scene she’s in.
Much like Breaking Bad, the writing constantly forces the main cast into a corner, and each time I have no idea how they are going to get out of it. The threats to the Byrde family are multiplying with each episode, which makes it a stressful yet riveting watch. I’m also unsure if I’m rooting for these characters. Is Marty Byrde an anti-hero I should cheer for under my breath or a villain I should despise? This moral dilemma is made even harder to decipher thanks to the top-notch performances and masterful writing that has made me both admire and loathe a character in the span of a single scene.
As of now, Ozark has a pretty good chance of becoming my favorite show I’ve ever watched on Netflix. It’s simply phenomenal.
If nothing else, lockdown has proven to be a great time to make use of the (too) many streaming services I subscribe to, as well as trying out some new ones. One of my favourites is Mubi, which stands apart from the most other services by only ever featuring 30 movies at any one time.
The concept is simple–one film is added each day and it stays there for 30 days, before leaving again. In this age of the seemingly endless, often daunting choice offered by the likes of Netflix and Amazon, there’s something weirdly liberating about a limited choice, especially when the film selection is such a superbly curated mix of new international films and classic movies (admittedly the constantly ticking clock to get films watched before they leave adds a different kind of streaming-stress). This month’s first time watches included last year’s weird and very violent Brazilian thriller Bacurau (think a drugged-up desert-set Battle Royale) and Jean-Pierre Melville’s gripping 1969 French Resistance drama Army of Shadows. I also revisited some older favorites, such as the time travel mind-f*** Primer and the Nick Cave-written Australian western The Proposition.
After a public dispute with Google over its mandatory 30 percent pay cut for in-app purchases, developer Epic Games has conceded to the company and released Fortnite on the Google Play Store.
Epic had submitted the battle royale to the digital storefront but quickly rescinded the decision once it saw how much Google took from earnings. In a December 2019 exchange with 9to5 Google, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney said that the 30 percent pay cut was “illegal in the case of a distribution platform with over 50 [percent] market share.” This disparity led Epic to keep Fortnite from the Google Play Store.
However, Epic turned a new leaf as it recognized the setbacks Google puts on games not distributed through the Google Play Store. In a statement to Polygon, Epic said that it “[came] to a basic realization: Google puts software downloadable outside of Google Play at a disadvantage, through technical and business measures such as scary, repetitive security pop-ups for downloaded and updated software, restrictive manufacturer and carrier agreements and dealings, Google public relations characterizing third-party software sources as malware, and new efforts such as Google Play Protect to outright block software obtained outside the Google Play store.”
Despite releasing Fortnite on the Google Play Store, Epic is intent on operating Fortnite on the Epic Games Store outside of Google’s digital storefront.
In other Fortnite news, rapper Travis Scott is scheduled to debut a new track inside the game later this week. Before the Astronomical concert goes live, players have the opportunity to pick up a bunch of Travis Scott-designed items, including emotes, outfits, and more.
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