Capcom is showing off gameplay for Resident Evil Village for the first time today at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET. If you’re anxiously awaiting the next entry in the long-running survival horror franchise, now’s the perfect time to revisit older Resident Evil games. Multiple digital storefronts are hosting Resident Evil franchise sales, including Steam. Every mainline game and several spinoffs are steeply discounted on Steam through January 25.
Other mainline games in the franchise are available for even less. Resident Evil 7, which adeptly changed the perspective to first person, is on sale for only $9.89. Resident Evil 6 is slashed to $7.49, while the other numbered entries are only $5 each, including the great Resident Evil 4.
When it comes to Resident Evil spinoffs, the most notable ones featured in the franchise sale are Resident Evil Revelations and Revelations 2. The original is discounted to $6.89, while the sequel’s deluxe edition is down to $15.
For deals on Resident Evil games for consoles, make sure to check out the ongoing sales on the Xbox and PlayStation Stores.
As it turns out, Deathloop won’t feature a time loop that acts as a perfect clockwork system–even your best laid plans may become unraveled because of a little déjà vu. In an interview, game director Dinga Bakaba reveals as much, adding that this will result in inconsistencies in the time loop based on your actions.
“This time loop is a dirty process,” Bakaba said in an interview published in PlayStation Official Magazine’s February 2021 issue. “There is a limit to this, so an experienced player will know about all of the computations. These are rare, and most targets have a predictability.”
As an example, the game director talks about how a Visionary–one of the main targets you must kill to end the loop–may go for a gun after you mess with them, only for you to gun them down. In the next loop, this may cause the same enemy to suffer a case of déjà vu and get the funny feeling that hunting you down won’t work out for them. As a result, they may try something else even if you interact with them in the same way, forcing you to enact a contingency plan.
To help you out a bit, there are some ways that you can break the rules of the time loop as well, ensuring you don’t always start out from square one at the outset of every loop. “Very early on Colt will find that this island has a few weird rules and the time loop is not the only thing influencing the island,” Bakaba told POM. The game designer remained coy about what this other force is, only adding that it would allow you to upgrade Colt in more permanent ways before jumping into another loop.
“And because of that ‘thing’ there is some progression, it’s not a roguelike,” Bakaba clarifies. “There are powers, perks, weapons, and upgrades to unlock… you can basically build an arsenal.” We’ll have to wait and see what that something is, though not for much longer as Deathloop is scheduled to launch for PS5 and PC on May 21.
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The Rainbow Six Siege “Road to Six Invitational 2020” event has begun, letting you jump in as any operator in the specially designed Stadium map. Once again this year you’ll be able to grab a special battle pass with its own reward track, and some of the revenue will go toward the Six invitational prize pool.
Every weekend during the event, you can play in the competitive Stadium map, which combines elements from the Coastline and Border maps. The Road to SI event runs through February 22, after which you won’t be able to nap the battle pass. It features 100 tiers with 135 rewards. The Premium track goes for 1200 R6 credits, and team captains will get special themed outfits. Up to $3 million USD of the money generated from the battle pass will go into the Six Invitational prize pool.
The kickoff didn’t go off completely as planned, however. The R6 Siege Twitter shared that there was an issue with matchmaking shortly after it began. After a few hours it reported that the problem had been fixed and you no longer need to use a workaround.
UPDATE: We have resolved this issue and matchmaking in the Road to SI event should be working for all players with no workaround needed.
The Six Invitational 2021 event will take place February 9-21. It will feature 20 of the best teams in the world competing in Paris, France. No audience will be allowed at this year’s event due to social distancing guidelines, but it will be broadcast on Twitch and YouTube. The event will also once again serve as an overall celebration of R6 Siege, with developer panels.
WizKids, the company known for its highly-detailed Dungeons & Dragons miniatures, is partnering with Critical Role to bring characters from the world of Exandria to life–in mini form.
Coming in Q1 of 2021, fans of Critical Role will see some of the monsters and PCs from the series in a physical form–so you can use them on your own battlefield in a game of Dungeons & Dragons. This would include Critical Role’s game master Matthew Mercer’s “gargantuan” sized Udaak. And like many of WizKids’ minis, it will be pre-painted.
“I’ve been a rabid collector of WizKids’ minis for… well, a very long time, and to be able to work directly with them to bring the denizens and dangers of Exandria to life for everyone to use is beyond exciting,” said Matthew Mercer, chief creative officer and cast member of Critical Role. “They bring such skill and expertise to their work, and this upcoming collection really captures the characters and atmosphere of Exandria. I think fans of Critical Role, as well as players new to our world, will greatly enjoy this opportunity for deeper play, collaboration, and imagination.”
In the spring, the first six box sets of premium painted, highly-detailed figures will be released at local gaming stores. Additionally, these sets can be preordered at WizKids, and here are the details for each of the sets below.
Factions of Wildemount: Kryn Dynasty & Xhorhas ($50):
Featuring Lotusden Halfling, Dark Elf Rogue, Echo Knight, Echo, Trader of Kryn, Kryn Noble, Graviturgy Wizard, Chronurgy Wizard, and Dunamancy Wizard.
Factions of Wildemount: Clovis Concord & Menagerie Coast ($50):
Featuring The Hollow One, Fisherman of Clovis, Clovis Noble, Clovis Concord Zhelezo, Shore Warden Soldier, The Grinner, Blood Hunter, and Pallid Elf.
Aside from the Critical Role content, WizKids is producing a lot of other miniatures and collectibles you may want to add to your collection. The Hand and Eye of Vecna may not be something that will land in your weekly D&D game, but the highly-detailed collectible will look cool on your shelf. Also, there are two new dragon “miniatures” you can check out, the Adult Red Dragon and Arveiaturace, and neither of them are very mini.
It might be a new year, but the coronavirus pandemic persists and movie studios are still reshuffling their plans for theatrical releases. The latest–and surely not the last–such film to be impacted is the upcoming sci-fi drama Bios, starring Tom Hanks. The Hollywood Reporter is indicating that the film will now open August 13, after previously being slated for April, and before that October 2020.
According to IMDb, the film’s synopsis reads: “On a post-apocalyptic earth, a robot, built to protect the life of his creator’s beloved dog, learns about life, love, friendship, and what it means to be human.” Hanks plays one of the few survivors of a cataclysmic solar event that has left the world a wasteland–but apparently he must rise to the challenge to teach a robot dog about companionship. Unfortunately, we’re all going to have to wait a bit longer to see a trailer and get a sense of the film’s tone.
Bios is directed by Miguel Sapochnik (Game of Thrones), and was written by Craig Luck (Sense8). In addition to Hanks, the film’s cast includes Caleb Landry Jones (Get Out), Samira Wiley (The Handmaid’s Tale), Laura Harrier (Spider-Man: Homecoming), Skeet Ulrich (Scream).
Netflix has acquired The Mitchells vs. the Machines, an original animated sci-fi family film from Oscar-winning producers Phil Lord and Chris Miller–the pair behind Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. The film, which was originally titled Connected, was also originally due out in theaters October 23 but was delayed due to the pandemic. It’s now expected to hit the streaming service sometime later this year.
Directed by Mike Rianda (Gravity Falls), the film is an original animated comedy “about an everyday family’s struggle to relate while technology rises up around the world. When Katie Mitchell (voiced by Abbi Jacobson), a creative outsider, is accepted into the film school of her dreams, her plans to meet “her people” at college are upended when her nature-loving dad Rick (voiced by Danny McBride) determines the whole family should drive Katie to school together and bond as a family one last time).”
In a quote from Rianda in a release announcing the streaming platform’s acquisition of the film, the director explains that the movie is autobiographical. “This is a very personal movie about my very weird family,” says Rianda. “I’m so grateful to all the incredible artists that poured their love and passion into this project to make it a reality, and to everyone at Sony who believed in us and were on board to make a different kind of animated movie.”
In addition to Jacobson and McBride, the film’s cast includes Maya Rudolph (The Good Place) as Linda Mitchell and Rianda as Aaron Mitchell. Jacobson’s Disenchantment co-star Eric Andre and The Crown’s Olivia Colmon also star in the film in undisclosed roles.
The start of the 2021 MLB season is coming up quickly, and ahead of that, the developers of RBI Baseball 2021 have announced the cover star for this year’s game.
Tim Anderson of the Chicago White Sox will grace the cover of this year’s game. Anderson is the first White Sox player to appear on the cover of the RBI Baseball franchise.
Anderson was the 2019 AL batting champion with a .322 batting average and other standout statistics like 45 runs scored and 67 hits.
RBI Baseball is an arcade-style, budget-priced baseball series developed internally by Major League Baseball. New for 2021’s game is play-by-play commentary from Fran Charles of the MLB Network, a create-a-player mode, and new environmental effects that showcase the changing light during the day.
“Like a lot of kids, I grew up playing video games,” Anderson said in a release. “When I couldn’t get outside to play ball or we had bad weather, that was a time to have fun with my friends and live out some fantasies. And it was always cool to see who was on the cover every year – those were guys I aspired to be. So now to see myself on the cover of R.B.I. 21 is really part of a dream come true. And I hope that kids will see my picture on the cover and realize they can do this, too. They just have to believe in themselves, follow their dreams and work at it.”
The soundtrack for RBI Baseball 21 has also been announced, and it includes title songs from a variety of famous bands and artists, including All Time Low, American Authors, and Justin Bieber.
RBI Baseball 21 releases in March for PS4, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch; a mobile edition of the game is also in the works.
Nvidia has release a new hotfix for its GeForce desktop graphics cards, addressing several long-standing issues with SteamVR, game crashes, and more.
The hotfix is available to download now, with Nvidia headlining the update with a fix for SteamVR that has been anticipated for some time. Some users have reported stuttering and lag when trying to play VR titles, which Nvidia hopes has been resolved with this latest patch.
Other issues addressed include consistent crashes with games like Detroit: Become Human and Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, as well as some optimizations for Adobe Premiere Pro. The full patch notes for the hotfix can be found below.
Nvidia usually reserves GPU updates for big PC releases, such as the last Game Ready Driver that launched with Cyberpunk 2077, but has since been releasing smaller hotfixes. The company does note that the fixes included don’t undergo as rigorous testing as those included in Game Ready Drivers, so keep that in mind before updating.
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Having already worked with Disney on the Star Wars TV show The Mandalorian and HBO’s Westworld, Fortnite studio Epic Games is investing in movies now.
Deadline reports that Epic’s MegaGrants fund is contributing money to the animated movie Gilgamesh from Argentinian director Tomas Lipgot. The movie is being produced by the animation studio Hook Up, along with DuermeVela and FilmSharks.
The companies will use Epic’s Unreal Engine, among other tools, to produce the film about the Mesopotamian mythological hero. The movie will have English and Spanish versions.
FilmSharks CEO Guido Rud told Deadline: “It’s an honour to see Epic Games supporting Gilgamesh through the Epic MegaGrants program. Although animation has done an excellent job of entertaining through comedy and colorful creatures, there is also a huge appetite and opportunity to share cultural stories and tell larger-than-life mythical tales.”
The MegaGrants program is a $100 million fund that people and companies across the games, enterprise, technology, education, and other fields can apply for. It’s not immediately clear how much money the producers of Gilgamesh received from their grant.
The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the new behemoth on the block. It’s Samsung’s most expensive and feature-rich “basic” smartphone now that foldables like the Galaxy Z Flip and Z Fold series are around. At $1,199 for a base model with 128GB, it’s actually kind of a steal compared to 2020’s Galaxy S20 Ultra, which retailed for $1,399 for the 128GB model. It’s still expensive for a phone though, so let’s see what all it does to justify the expense.
In design, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is more of a proper successor to the Galaxy S20 family than the S21 and S21+ are. It continues the curvier front glass (albeit more subtly) that has been abandoned by the other S21 phones. The glass is the new Gorilla Glass Victus flavor, and in the case of the Ultra, it’s on both the front and back, which surely adds to the cost compared to the plastic back on the S21 and S21+. Naturally, the S21 Ultra continues to offer a metal frame to further its durability as well as an IP68 rating.
Aesthetically, the only things that give the Galaxy S21 a new look are the remodeled camera bump and the color scheme. In the corner where the cameras are situated, the metal frame stretches up to blend with the metal housing around all the cameras. Unfortunately, there is a seam between the frame and the housing that sort of ruins the effect (but likely improves repairability). The camera housing is also massive, as it accommodates four cameras, a flash, and a laser auto-focus system. It’s just over two inches tall and 1-1/4 inches wide – in other words, about a third the height and half the width of the entire width of the phone. It makes me think it’ll be a bit difficult to keep centered on charging pads for those who love wireless charging.
The phone, given it bears the Ultra moniker, features a 6.8 inch screen – the largest of the S21 family. Having recently used the iPhone 12 Pro and the LG Wing, I was ready for this thing to be another unwieldy monster. To my surprise, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is fairly easy to hold. It’s not as tall as the LG Wing (and doesn’t have a flip-up screen to shift all of its weight to the top), and it’s a few millimeters narrower than the iPhone 12 Pro Max, which is just enough difference for me to use it in one hand. And, even though it’s 1 gram heavier than the iPhone 12 Pro Max, the extra grip I get around the sides makes it less straining on my pinky.
The 6.8-inch screen continues to offer tiny bezels, which only further put the iPhone 12’s dated design to shame. The screen brings with it some new features, too. It’s still a bright AMOLED display with HDR10+ support. There’s still a fingerprint scanner under the glass, though it’s now noticeably faster than the scanner on my Galaxy S20. And, this year, Samsung doesn’t lock the display’s refresh rate to certain resolutions. The display can run its full 3,200 x 1440 resolution and 120Hz refresh rate at the same time. This model also has a wide adaptive refresh rate range, letting it hit up to 120Hz for smooth visuals and drop down as low as just 10Hz to save battery while displaying static or slower-moving content. This model also borrows a feature of the Note line with support for the S Pen through a Wacom digitizing layer, though I wasn’t able to get my hands on an S Pen for this review, and the random Bamboo Ink stylus I had lying around didn’t register.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra is ready for the latest in wireless connectivity. It features the necessary antennae to connect to the big three flavors of 5G: low-band, mid-band, and mmWave. It also offers support for Wi-Fi 6E. Samsung’s Dex desktop experience is still on board here as well, including Wireless Dex. Reverse wireless charging is also still around. Unfortunately, one more feature is going the way of the headphone jack on this latest model: There’s no more microSD card slot for easy, affordable, post-purchase storage upgrade. Samsung also didn’t decide to go bold and throw a 3.5mm headphone jack back onto the phone even though the top edge is largely barren save for two microphones holes and a single antenna line.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra – Software
The Galaxy S21 Ultra comes running Android 11 with the One UI 3.1 interface. I find the experience continues to offer plenty of customization to get it running just how I like (yeah, I still prefer the old-school Android navigation buttons at the bottom of the screen). The system settings are also easy to navigate. A few things are still a little irksome, like the power button defaulting to serve as a Bixby button instead. Samsung’s rebranding of display mirroring/casting as Smart View also continues to puzzle me.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra – Gaming and Performance
The Galaxy S21 Ultra, like the rest of its family, runs on the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset. Unlike the Snapdragon 865 chipset, the 5G modem is integrated into the chipset which in theory lends the whole system more efficiency.
Predictably, the Snapdragon 888 is a fast performer. Loading games, launching apps, and switching between them all happens in a flash. The navigation is only made to feel that much smoother thanks to the ability of the display to speed up to 120Hz when needed. The system is helped along by 12GB of LPDDR5 memory, though the 512GB model packs 16GB of memory instead.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra runs games smoothly. Playing the Hitman Sniper game, the graphics were perfectly clear and the game never stuttered as I scoped in, shot targets over ledges, and quickly shifted over to my next target. Asphalt 9 showed one shortcoming of the phone, as the large screen let small details show up that much more clearly: namely, aliasing. The game is perfectly fluid at max quality even in the thick of a race, but the highest graphics quality may not be taking full advantage of the power available to smooth out the picture. Thatgamecompany’s Sky had a similar issue, though some of the graphics options were unavailable, perhaps a result of the app not yet recognizing the phone and Snapdragon 888 chipset.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra packs a 5,000mAh battery which is on the big side for any smartphone, but it’s tasked with running a fast, 5G-capable chipset and a massive display. With light use, I’m able to make it just through two full days on a charge, but I’d expect that to shrink to a single day if I was out and about all day relying on my phone for photos, chat, navigation, and entertainment. Streaming a 42-minute episode of the new Netflix show Lupin at medium brightness saw the phone lose just 6% of its battery, so it’s still on the efficient side. And, the video looked stunning, with capable stereo audio to match.
I don’t have much to report about 5G performance. I tossed my T-Mobile SIM card into the review unit and was largely running on the 5G network. But, data speeds will come down based upon the network you’re on and the 5G band used. I seem to have only ever connected to low-band towers during my testing, as I never came close to breaking 100Mbps in my speed tests.
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra – Camera
To put it briefly, the Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra camera system is excellent, but it suffers from one little foible that crops up from time to time. I’ll get to that in a moment.
The Galaxy S21 Ultra features the following cameras:
12MP Ultrawide at f/2.4
108MP Wide at f/1.8 with Nona-binning and OIS
10MP 3x Telephoto at f/2.4 with OIS
10MP 10x Telephoto at f/4.9 with OIS
40MP Front-facing at f/2.2
Those four rear sensors are capable of some really impressive shooting, especially at the longer focal lengths. The ultra-wide sensor is the first to show off its weakness, as it can get pretty noisy in the dark and often just takes decent photos (which is still commendable, since many ultra-wide sensors are pretty ho-hum).
The primary sensor shoots some great photos, and it handles low-light scenarios quite well thanks to its wide aperture. It fares quite favorably next to the fantastic main sensor on the iPhone 12 Pro Max. In fact, in most comparisons, the camera systems between the two phones are very closely matched. That holds true of the selfie cameras as well. The iPhone does a better job at shooting low-light photos fast, which helps avoid the blur risk of a long shutter. But, outside of the darkest scenes, I found the Ultra taking sharper shots. I also noticed the Ultra’s noise in darker photos was less distracting than the iPhone’s, as the iPhone’s noise appears to have a pattern to it that draws the eye, almost like the texture on the skin of an orange.
When it comes to zoom capability, there’s no competition. The Galaxy S21 Ultra’s 10x zoom sees to that plainly. It can produce a useful image with a high level of detail at 10x and even some distance beyond where the iPhone 12 Pro Max offers up a hazy photo.
It actually manages to see details further out than I can with my own eyes – something I don’t think I’ve experienced on a phone in the past. At 16.4x, it can make the fine print on the back of a book across the room easily readable.
That same book cover would have been easy to read at 10x as well, but I did mention a problem though. After way too much troubleshooting, I discovered the laser AF system on the back of the phone was playing a large role in determining which camera was used to shoot. Often, I’d try to shoot at 3x or 10x and find that the phone was digitally zooming from a different sensor rather than using the sensor corresponding to the zoom level, and the result was an unusable image.
Samsung explained that the phone should use the 3x telephoto camera for all zoom levels from 3x up to 10x and use the 10x telephoto from 10x and beyond (using multi-frame processing from multiple sensors when shooting at zoom levels between sensors). But, when something comes near the laser AF, the phone seems to prioritize focus and force the phone to use a sensor with a shorter focal length. It’s not a problem if you know to avoid it, but it’s easy to run into if you hold your phone like a game controller when shooting photos. I had a similar issue with getting my finger in frame on the iPhone 12 Pro Max’s ultra-wide sensor.
Beyond photos, the Galaxy S21 Ultra is also a capable video shooter. This go-around, the phone can shoot 4K60 on every sensor. 8K video at 24fps is also an option, but only on the wide-angle camera. There are some trade-offs while shooting. Jump up to 4K60 or 8K and you lose the option to record in HDR10+. Samsung Super Steady mode is also only available at Full HD. These are trade-offs that are a tad disappointing given the iPhone 12 Pro Max is putting its muscle right into shooting 4K60 with Dolby Vision.
Samsung has also introduced a mode called Director’s View. In effect, it shows you the view of three of the rear sensors (the 10x is excluded) and the front-facing camera all at the same time. It could be helpful if you’re trying to record a video and plan to do lots of punching in and out. But, the video previews are actually all coming from the ultra-wide sensor with a crop to approximate what the other sensors are seeing. That doesn’t mean it’s not useful, but it’s another situation where you’ll want to be careful about how you’re holding the phone.
