Author: Trafficblast

At NYCC 2020, CBS All Access released the official trailer for its adaptation of Stephen King’s The Stand, which will premiere on the streamer on December 17, 2020.

Here’s how CBS All Access describes the miniseries: “The Stand is Stephen King’s apocalyptic vision of a world decimated by plague and embroiled in an elemental struggle between good and evil. The fate of mankind rests on the frail shoulders of the 108-year-old Mother Abagail (Whoopi Goldberg) and a handful of survivors. Their worst nightmares are embodied in a man with a lethal smile and unspeakable powers: Randall Flagg (Alexander Skarsgård), the Dark Man.”

You can check out the trailer if you follow this link, or in the video below:

Joining Skarsgård and Goldberg on this apocalyptic journey is an impressive ensemble cast, including James Marsden as Stu Redman, Odessa Young as Frannie Goldsmith, Jovan Adepo as Larry Underwood, Amber Heard as Nadine Cross, Owen Teague as Harold Lauder, Henry Zaga as Nick Andros, Brad William Henke as Tom Cullen, Irene Bedard as Ray Bretner, Nat Wolff as Lloyd Henreid, Eion Bailey as Weizak, Heather Graham as Rita Blakemoor, Katherine McNamara as Julie Lawry, Fiona Dourif as Ratwoman, Natalie Martinez as Dayna Jurgens, Hamish Linklater as Dr. Jim Ellis, Daniel Sunjata as Cobb and Greg Kinnear as Glen Bateman.

During the panel, the streamer also unveiled some new episodic images that you can check out in the gallery below:

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The 9-episode limited series event will premiere on CBS All Access on Thursday, December 17, with new episodes dropping weekly every Thursday until the series finale, which features a brand new finale storyline written by King himself).

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David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He’s also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

This season finale review of The Boys Season 2, Episode 8, titled “What I Know,” contains full spoilers. Amazon recently announced that it’s developing a spinoff TV series based on The Boys that’s described as “part college show, part Hunger Games.” Check out our deep dive into who Black Noir really is (at least in the comics), and learn more about Black Noir’s surprising weakness.

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The Boys Season 2 finale stays true to its patented blend of irreverent, gratuitous, and stylized drama, with an action-packed episode that wraps up most of the prominent plotlines, while also effectively setting up Season 3. One of the biggest and most unexpected reveals during “What I Know” is finally discovering that congresswoman Victoria Neuman (Claudia Doumit) is the one responsible for exploding all of those heads. Showrunner Eric Kripke and his team’s decision to save the reveal for the final episode was a wise choice, especially with Season 2 already stuffed to the brim with deranged new characters like Stormfront and the short-lived Lamplighter.

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But before we start looking ahead to Victoria and her potential role in Season 3, let’s dig deeper into this bonkers Season 2 finale. In terms of its narrative structure, director Alex Graves (Game of Thrones) and writer Rebecca Sonnenshine (The Vampire Diaries) crafted an entertaining hour of television that combined the show’s trademark blend of thrilling superhero battles, laugh-out-loud comedic moments, and a few scenes that pulled heavily on our heartstrings. From an action standpoint, the epic battle between Stormfront, Kimiko, and Starlight was a lot of fun. Actress Aya Cash has continued to be one of the standout performances throughout the second season and given Antony Starr’s Homelander a run for his money in the villain department. And wow, what a way to take Avengers: Endgame’s “girl power” moment in a totally different direction. Who needs the MCU’s fancy effects budget when you can just do a good old-fashioned stomp-down? On point, The Boys, on point.

Ever since we learned just how powerful Stormfront was after she withstood the full brunt of Homelander’s heat vision on her… chest area a few episodes back, it was fascinating and a bit disturbing to see how damaged she was after Ryan Butcher (Cameron Crovetti) did the same thing. After that devastating demonstration, he’s clearly more powerful than his dad, but hopefully less psychotic. The whole sequence between Billy, Ryan, Becca, and Homelander was ripe with tension and suspense, and very reminiscent of a standoff in one of those old Westerns.

One of the most endearing aspects of Season 2 has been the character progression of Karl Urban’s Billy Butcher. Over the years, Urban has proven that he can successfully play the hardened hero in films like Dredd and Lord of the Rings. And in the first season of The Boys, the New Zealand-born actor imbued Billy with many of the traits from those aforementioned roles. However, in Season 2, Billy’s character has grown into a fully-formed human being with genuine emotions. Watching his progression from the tough-as-nails vigilante early in Season 2, to the man who has a heartwarming conversation with his surrogate son at the end of the episode, is a truly amazing transformation. While it appears that Ryan is now under the protection of the government, we’re eager to see more of “Billy the father” in Season 3, if we actually see Ryan again (you can also see Kripke wanting to take him off the board for a while to focus on other plotlines).

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A few of Season 2’s weaker plot threads, including Queen Maeve’s downward spiral in her personal life and The Deep’s adventures with The Church of the Collective, never felt truly substantive. Sure, it was a welcome sight to finally see Maeve heroically stand up to Homelander without any fear, but overall, her storyline felt inconsequential compared to the rest of the ensemble. The same goes for The Deep, even though it can be humorous to watch Chace Crawford act like an imbecile, in the end, his character hasn’t changed at all – but perhaps that’s the point, and some people truly can’t (or don’t want to) change. A-Train, on the other hand, at least stood up for something in the finale, as he helped expose Stormfront for the villain that she was. Perhaps Season 3 will be a new chapter for him? Time will tell.

And speaking of Season 3, there are a lot of potential stories for us to get excited about. Going back to Victoria, we didn’t get to learn very much about her in Season 2, but that air of mystique surrounding her character makes her story all the more interesting. From what we’ve seen so far, she doesn’t appear to be on anyone’s side except her own, which makes her more of a wildcard for Season 3. There’s also Hughie, who wants to be less “clingy” and take on some responsibilities of his own, so the fact that he’s joined Victoria’s new Superhero Affairs group opens the door for some tantalizing possibilities. It will also be interesting to see Hughie chart his own path, instead of being so reliant on The Boys for support, especially Billy.

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DC is currently in the midst of Dark Nights: Death Metal, a massive crossover that serves as the climax of writer Scott Snyder’s work on both Batman and Justice League. But even though DC has billed this story as its first “Anti-Crisis,” fans shouldn’t expect Death Metal to rewrite the history or continuity of the DC Universe in the same way past Crisis stories have.

That was the big takeaway from DC’s “In Conversation With Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV” panel at NYCC 2020. As the two friends and creators reflected on their respective DC careers, Snyder made it clear that one of the central themes of Death Metal is Wonder Woman’s realization that the past matters and shouldn’t be ignored or overwritten. That’s the crux of the crossover’s tagline “It all matters.” That theme is at the heart of Death Metal #4 (due out on Wednesday, October 14), as Diana leads her friends on a quest to revisit the events of 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, 2005’s Infinite Crisis and 2008’s Final Crisis and gather the Crisis energy needed to repair the DC multiverse.

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Snyder said, “What Wonder Woman really comes to realize… going through this battle and seeing these horrible Crises where the villains have won and seeing what they might become, is that at the end of the day they have to reckon with the whole history of the DCU. Every story they’ve been through has happened, and the only way to move forward is to not only accept that, but have that as their arsenal to fight with. What that means is that, on the other side of that battle, I’m not going to take that power to erase my enemies or erase what I don’t want you to look at and start over in a brand new way that makes me comfortable. Instead, what I’m going to do is say that everything happened and everything’s true, and what I need to do going forward is accept all of that, even if you as a reader or as a person of Earth within the story looking up to the heroes reject me and find new heroes. That, to me, is a love letter to all of DC Comics.”

Snyder continued, “All of these great stories that you’ve grown up with, whether you love them or hate them – they all matter. They all happened, They’re all real. They’re all part of this epic, generational story. And at the end, what we do is say is all of it was material, all of it was consequential. And now, whatever DC is going to be going forward, both narratively within the story and characters, and as a company, because there have been a lot of changes as well – we’re excited for that, and we welcome it with open arms, and we hope that it’s going to be even better than what it was before. You can only move forward with that kind of faith if you’re a comic fan and you look up to superheroes.

While it remains to be seen how DC will change course in 2021 in the wake of widespread layoffs and an editorial regime change, it’s clear the company isn’t using Death Metal as a foundation for another New 52-style reboot. Snyder’s comments mesh with Jim Lee’s recent confirmation that DC’s long-rumored 5G reboot is officially dead. DC won’t be overhauling its 80-year history or attempting another New 52-style reboot. But that doesn’t necessarily mean big changes aren’t coming in early 2021. We have some ideas for how DC could transform itself in the months to come.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Nintendo is offering another Super Smash Bros. Ultimate freebie for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Right now, members can claim the Vault Shopper Set 2 bundle, which comes with 3,000 Gold and five tickets. The latter can be wagered during Classic Mode for additional rewards.

To claim the Vault Shopper Set 2 pack, you’ll need to open the Switch eShop and select the “Nintendo Switch Online” option from the left sidebar. After you’ve done that, you’ll find the pack listed among the other free offers near the top of the page. Click on the pack and select Download to claim it.

Like previous Smash Bros. freebies, the Vault Shopper Set 2 is only available to those who have an active paid Switch Online membership; you can’t claim the pack during a free trial to the service. You can learn more about subscription costs and benefits in our Nintendo Switch Online guide.

The next DLC character for Smash Bros. Ultimate is Steve from Minecraft. The blocky fighter arrives alongside the game’s 9.0 update on October 13. Like previous DLC characters, Steve brings his own new Minecraft-inspired stage, as well as new music tracks and additional Spirits to unlock in the game’s Spirit Board mode.

Steve is the second DLC character to arrive as part of Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Fighters Pass Vol. 2, following Min Min from Arms. Four more DLC fighters are still on the horizon, but Nintendo hasn’t teased who those will be. The Fighters Pass Vol. 2 costs $30 USD. Each character pack can also be purchased individually for $6 USD.

Many questions about how the PlayStation 5 actually works remain unanswered as we quickly approach its November 12 launch date, but Sony has recently detailed the way PS4 backwards compatible games will take advantage of the next-gen console’s hardware via Game Boost.

As its name suggests, Game Boost provides benefits for supported PS4 games, including improved frame rates, higher-resolution visuals, and faster load times. Though Sony has not laid out all of the titles that will support this performance increase, some developers are revealing the games that will take advantage of Game Boost. We’ve rounded up the list of games that use Game Boost, and will continue to update this list as news rolls in.

Ghost of Tsushima

Developer Sucker Punch Productions took to Twitter to confirm that not only is its open-world samurai-RPG Ghost of Tsushima playable day one on PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility, the game will also get a frame rate increase thanks to Game Boost. Specifically, Ghost of Tsushima will get a 60 FPS option as well as further decreased load times.

While 99 percent of the over 4,000 PS4 titles will be playable on PS5, the company said a handful of current-gen games–including Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma Volume One and Hitman Go: Definitive Edition–won’t work on the next-gen console. If other games end up on this list, they will be marked with a “Playable On: PS4 Only” marker on the PlayStation Store. Sony also detailed how players can upgrade their PS4 games to PS5.

The PlayStation 5 launches on November 12 in most regions and November 19 worldwide. Two editions are available for $400 and $500, so check out our PlayStation 5 preorder guide to learn about which console is right for you and your at-home setup.

Legendary Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy breaks down how he found the right voice for the 80-year-old version of Bruce Wayne he portrayed in Batman Beyond, which originally aired from 1999-2001.

During the Batman Beyond panel at NYCC 2020, Conroy was joined by co-star Will Friedle (voice of Terry McGinnis) and iconic voice director Andrea Romano (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Batman: The Animated Series).

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“They actually had me read for the role because Bruce Wayne at that point he’s 80 and he physically can’t do it anymore and that’s the whole genesis of the show, the whole reason it exists, is because [Bruce] needs a new recruit to do the stuff that the can’t do,” Conroy explained. “That first episode, when he goes to shoot a gun and that moment when he realized that he’s crossing that line, that he’s relying on a gun because he’s own physical strength isn’t enough anymore. So this [version of Bruce] had to be in his eighties. I was 45 [at the time], so it was a jump, so they had me audition. It wasn’t so much the register of the voice because they very much went into that Batman range for my voice. But for me, it was more about the weight of life. It wasn’t just the depth of the voice, it was the pace of the character.”

Ramona went into even more detail about how Conroy would change his physical posture while he was in the recording booth to find the proper cadence for the elderly Bruce Wayne.

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“You would physically sit at the microphone differently when you were voicing older Bruce Wayne,” Romano informed Conroy. “Because it actually helps to make Bruce Wayne’s voice older if you hunch over a little bit, so he doesn’t have that nice diaphragm strength, you know? You want him to be weaker. As much as your ability to manipulate your voice, it was really a lot about the acting. What is it like to be eighty, and to realize that [Bruce] can no longer do this? So there was a bitterness that Bruce Wayne had about that too, he was not pleased about the fact that he could no longer do it anymore.”

For more Batman Beyond, watch Kevin Conroy and Will Friedle swap lines and see how awesome the Batman Beyond Blu-ray remaster look compared to the original.

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David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He’s also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

Nintendo has rolled out a new update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This patch is another fairly minor one, primarily addressing a small handful of issues that have cropped up in the game following its big 1.5 update late last month.

According to the patch notes on Nintendo’s support website, New Horizons’ 1.5.1 update resolves a couple of bugs, including one where Nook Miles keywords would not appear in the passport list, and another that caused villagers to talk about pumpkins when they were given a bamboo shoot. You can read the full patch notes below.

The aforementioned 1.5 update released on September 29 and introduced an assortment of fall-themed content to the game, including the Halloween event, pumpkins, and spooky DIY recipes. Another big New Horizons update is coming in late November, and it appears that one will add the game’s Thanksgiving and Christmas events.

That’s not all that’s coming next month; Nintendo also announced that the Animal Crossing Amiibo cards are returning to stores this November. Each pack will cost $6 USD and includes six cards, which you can scan to invite villagers to live on your island or take photos of them in the game’s Photopia mode. The long sold-out Animal Crossing-edition Switch console is also starting to return to select stores.

In the meantime, a variety of new October bugs, fish, and sea creatures are appearing in the game right now. The Fishing Tourney is happening this weekend for both Northern and Southern Hemisphere players. The event takes place on Saturday, October 10, giving you another chance to earn exclusive fish-themed furniture and other items.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 1.5.1 Patch Notes

General updates

The following issues occurring in Ver. 1.5.0 have been fixed:

• Fixed an issue where some title keywords obtained via Nook Miles would not appear within the Passport.
• Fixed an issue where certain messages would display in English for users playing in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, or Russian.
• Fixed an issue where animal residents would talk about pumpkins when given a bamboo shoot.
• Fixed an issue where it was no longer possible to jump over a river based on the location of certain furniture.