Author: Trafficblast

Nintendo shared a new trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition during this week’s surprise Nintendo Direct Mini. Along with giving us another look at the upcoming game, the presentation revealed that there will be entirely new story content, and you’ll be able to play it right from the beginning.

Nintendo confirmed on Twitter that the new epilogue story in Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition–called Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected–will be available from the outset, so you won’t first need to clear the main storyline to access it. That’s good news if you’ve previously played the game and want to jump right into the new content, as the main story can take upwards of 100 hours to finish.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition is slated to launch on May 29. However, as Nintendo noted at the start of the Direct Mini, release dates that were announced during the presentation are subject to change due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to the standard edition of the game, Nintendo is releasing a special “Definitive Works” version that comes with a physical copy of the game and a hardcover art book. Europe, meanwhile, is receiving a more lavish Collector’s Edition, which includes a steel book game case, art book, poster, and vinyl and digital soundtrack. You can learn more in our Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition pre-order guide.

The second of Borderlands 3‘s DLC expansions–Guns, Love, and Tentacles: The Marriage of Wainwright & Hammerlock–has been released and so I figured it would be as good a time as any to jump back into Gearbox’s first-person loot shooter. The Borderlands franchise has a decent track record when it comes to DLC and it’s been a few months since I played the third mainline installment so, ya know, why not?

However, I wasn’t particularly enthused by my time with Guns, Love, and Tentacles, largely because Gearbox’s interpretation of H.P. Lovecraft’s work incorporates some of the problematic parts of the author’s worldview and then does nothing to address them.

It’s the DLC’s portrayal of black people that irks me the most, largely because of the Borderlands franchise’s style of storytelling. Borderlands games traditionally explore concepts or pieces of pop culture through sarcasm, satire, or playful homage. Gearbox takes something that already exists and adapts it to match its style of irreverent Borderlands mayhem.

When this process works, it really works. For example, Tiny Tina’s Assault on Dragon Keep from Borderlands 2, which sends you on a tabletop RPG adventure that riffs on Dungeons & Dragons, is a fun DLC, both in terms of theme and gameplay. There’s also the whole Greek mythology symbolism that acts as a throughline for all four games, such as each Siren being a beautiful but dangerous woman and the planet Pandora acting as a vault, all of which contributes to the more fascinating aspects of Borderlands’ lore.

Guns, Love, and Tentacles is a Lovecraft-themed DLC, incorporating certain aspects of H.P. Lovecraft’s stories and the Cthulhu Mythos as the backdrop to the overall narrative. Unfortunately, what makes the DLC feel more adaptive than interpretive is in how it treats Sir Hammerlock and Wainwright Jakobs, the two characters who are at the center of Guns, Love, and Tentacles. The DLC is about the two characters getting married and facing the unfortunate snag of holding the venue on a planet ruled by a cult. The cult’s leader, Eleanor, deems the couple’s love to be impure and weak and so Wainwright becomes the unwilling host of her husband’s spirit–doomed to slowly transform into her beloved unless you decide to do something to stop the process. As Hammerlock is rendered a passive bystander for pretty much the entire DLC (he helps you on your quest to save his fiance on only one occasion), all the agency falls to you.

So the story of the DLC is that a woman who’s essentially an otherworldly witch robs a gay couple of their happy day, questions their relationship, and then tries to fix the “flaw” of their love by transforming one of the men into her own husband, so as to create a supposedly more pure love. That’s already a little strange and more than a bit homophobic, but when you also consider that this DLC is Lovecraft-inspired, it becomes even more problematic.

It all boils down to this: H.P. Lovecraft was racist–and an outspoken white supremacist-level racist at that. This isn’t a case where we must separate the artist from his art either, as the man incorporated his views on people of color into his literary works. Just look at his poem “On the Creation of Niggers,” which states that the gods created man and beast and then created black people as some unexplainable in-between creature.

His hateful opinions regarding people of color extend to his stories that cover the occult and cosmic horror as well. For instance, “The Horror at Red Hook” refers to Brooklyn, a New York City borough with a citizenship mostly composed of colored folks, as “leporous and cancerous with evil dragged from elder worlds” and the people who live there as “hordes of prowlers” who elicit a “babel of sound and filth.” The third chapter of “The Call of Cthulhu” refers to the murder of the “queer and evil-looking crew of Kanakas and half-castes” as a “duty,” seeing as the group of people of color and those of mixed race are of “abominable quality.” The Deep Ones in “The Shadow over Innsmouth” are meant to be monstrously horrifying because they represent the impure offspring of interracial couples.

So now, looking at the storyline of Guns, Love, and Tentacles, you have to take into account how Gearbox has written the black characters–in this case, Wainwright and Hammerlock–because that’s a part of Lovecraft fiction too. And in this sense, Gearbox is rather spot-on. The two black men are too worthless to help themselves and have a love that’s constantly scrutinized and questioned throughout a majority of the DLC, while the antagonist is “purifying” their love by transforming one of them into her white, heterosexual husband. If she just falls in love with and marries Wainwright, that would be, in Lovecraft’s eyes, a gross intermixing of the races, so Wainwright has to transform into her husband first in order for the love to be genuine. Lots of red flags there, but very Lovecraft.

The problem is that Gearbox does nothing to dismiss them.

Now, I get it. It’s a Borderlands game. I don’t expect Borderlands 3 to tackle the nuanced ins-and-outs of every aspect of what makes a Lovecraftian story. But if your game is going to adapt Lovecraft’s stories and incorporate the themes and messages of those stories, then you should address their problematic parts too. Guns, Love, and Tentacles doesn’t do that. Wainwright and Hammerlock don’t even get the chance to showcase how their love is worthy of overcoming Eleanor and her husband–you defeat the villainous couple while your allies helplessly watch. Guns, Love, and Tentacles is one of the few situations where Borderlands’ traditional irreverence could have been sharpley used to mock Lovecraft’s horrible views and actually address issues with his work, but the DLC makes no attempt to do so despite the opportunity.

And, of course, in doing so, Guns, Love, and Tentacles takes on the same flaws as Lovecraft’s work. The actual mission structure in Guns, Love, and Tentacles is of okay quality–like Borderlands 3’s main campaign, you have too many annoying platforming sections and bullet-sponge boss fights breaking up the enjoyable bouts of looting and shooting. But Gearbox’s seemingly wilful hand-waving of Lovecraft’s views in Guns, Love, and Tentacles gives the DLC’s story a terrible aftertaste that ultimately results in a poor campaign expansion for Borderlands 3.

Jared Leto made the most of his Thursday night by dressing up as Joe Exotic, a central figure in the Netflix True-crime documentary Tiger King, which Leto was hosting a viewing for on Twitter.

Leto announced Wednesday afternoon that he would be hosting a Tiger King viewing party that night at 6 p.m. PDT on Twitter. The tweet came with a picture of Leto’s face edited onto Joe Exotic, who is the subject of the documentary miniseries and the most-watched program of the day on Netflix in the United States. The series focuses on an eccentric man who bought an Oklahoma horse farm in the 90s and converted it into a zoo. The Netflix Twitter account clarified 30 minutes before the event began that it would be a viewing party of just the first episode.

 

Leto posted his first tweet one minute before the 6 p.m. start time. “Got my popcorn. Pressing play on #TigerKing Episode 1. Let’s do this @Netflix #JaredLetoCinemaClub,” Leto wrote. An image accompanying the tweet showed Leto in a colorful collared shirt in the essence of the flamboyant subject of the documentary. Instead of a real tiger, Leto has what looks like a stuffed animal bracelet.

 

Leto then says in a follow-up tweet that he’s already seen the entire series and promises viewers a wild “ride.” In his next two tweets, he thanked Netflix “for keeping us entertained during this challenging time” and thanked Joe “for keeping fringe alive.”

The multi-hyphenate consistently commented on the wardrobe of the people in the documentary and found a striking comparison between a shirt that he previously wore and a shirt that somebody wears in the show.

Leto tweeted throughout the episode and ended his viewing party with more praise for the Netflix miniseries.

“Wow. Mind blown again – end of episode one,” Leto wrote. “Masterful direction and great job to all involved with the production!!!”

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Tiger King consists of seven episodes running 40-50 minutes each and was released on March 20 on Netflix. IGN’s review of the series calls it “a fascinating and depressing look inside a community of big cat fanatics.” Kate McKinnon is starring in a scripted miniseries based on Joe Exotic’s story, and Dax Shepard and Edward Norton are fan-casting themselves as Joe Exotic.

For those that have seen the series, here is what the subjects of the series are doing today. Leto was also in the news himself recently after finding out about the coronavirus way later than most people.

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Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN.

Fortnite‘s Week 6 challenges of Season 2 are now live, and like last week’s batch, these are themed around the Meowscles skin. That means that you’ll need to do some cat-like things to complete a few of the missions, such as destroying dog houses. If you’re not sure where those can be found, we’ve put together the map and guide below to help you out.

Where Are The Dog House Locations?

Dog houses aren’t exactly prominent fixtures, so you may have some trouble tracking them down. Fortunately, there are quite a few of them scattered around the map, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to find three and complete this challenge. Many can be found by houses in big residential areas like Pleasant Park and Holly Hedges, so you’ll definitely want to narrow your search to places like that. To make it easier, we’ve marked down some areas where you can reliably find dog houses on the map below.

How To Complete The Challenge

Now that we know where dog houses are, all you need to do is smash three of them and this challenge will be complete. Your best bet will probably be Holly Hedges; there are four dog houses in that area alone, and you only need to destroy three to clear the mission, so you can conceivably complete the challenge in one go.

A few other Week 6 challenges may prove to be tricky, so if you need help completing them, be sure to check out our guides on where to use a secret passage and where to dance at Lake Canoe, Camp Cod, and Rainbow Rentals. You can find more maps and guides for this season’s challenges in our Fortnite Season 2 challenges roundup.

The Letter for the King is currently available on Netflix.

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I miss Game of Thrones, and if you were one of the millions who tuned in every week for eight seasons to catch the latest machinations of the Starks, Targaryens, and Lannisters, you’ve likely spent the better part of the past year looking for a show to fill the void HBO’s (mostly) stellar political drama with dragons left behind. While Netflix’s The Letter for the King isn’t a perfect replacement for the cultural phenomenon that was GoT, I’d highly recommend it as a relatively quick binge that scratches that itch. (You can also read David Griffin’s official IGN review for The Letter for the King!)

Binge It! James Acaster’s Repertoire Is a Meta Stand-Up Absurdity Loop

The new series, which is available on Netflix globally, can be most easily pitched as Game of Thrones with kids — and I mean that as a positive, if all things YA don’t immediately put you off. The plot is pretty straightforward: while training to become a knight, 16-year-old Tiuri (His Dark Materials’ Amir Wilson) finds himself in possession of — you guessed it — an important letter for the king of the realm.

But despite that simple premise, which is an adaptation of the 1962 Dutch novel of the same name from Tonke Dragt, the show is very ambitious in its scope and ultimately fulfills its promise. It has a surprising amount of political intrigue, interesting fantastical elements, and surprises throughout its six episodes that keep things interesting and engaging to someone used to the complexity of GoT, even as it leans into some familiar fantasy tropes, like “The Chosen One.”

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What I liked most about The Letter for the King is the world it created. I’m a sucker for most things fantasy, so I’m predisposed to give your show a shot if you’ve got interesting characters, a solid magic system, and a good mystery. The Letter for the King checks all those boxes, and it also looks great. Shot in Prague and New Zealand, The Letter for the King feels akin to Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones in its scale, bringing its fantastical backdrop to life better than the likes of The Shannara Chronicles or, I’d argue, even The Witcher.

Unlike those previously mentioned titles, there aren’t really any big names you’ll recognize in The Letter for the King. The one key exception is Andy Serkis, who appears opposite his real-life daughter Ruby Ashbourne Serkis (adorably, he plays her dad in the show). But the young cast is great, with believable chemistry and strong performances that anchor the show even as it spins up in a fantastical way.

This isn’t YA in the same way as, say, the darkly, delightfully campy Riverdale or Pretty Little Liars. The Letter for the King is more Lord of the Rings than Game of Thrones in its earnest tone and commitment to its high fantasy setting, just with a younger cast. So if you’re looking for something new to watch and missing Game of Thrones like me, I can recommend The Letter for the King as a fantasy world I’m glad I sank six hours into.

For more new Netflix titles, be sure to check out the full rundown of what’s new to Netflix in March!

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More From Binge It!…

• Justified Is a Stylish, Modern Western That Still Hits the Target 10 Years Later
• Netflix’s Castlevania Is a Bloody Exploration of the Human Condition… With Vampires
• Netflix’s Voltron Is a Surprisingly Complicated Update of the Classic Cartoon
• Letterkenny Is the Smartest Small-Town Comedy Ever
• James Acaster’s Repertoire Is a Meta Stand-Up Absurdity Loop

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Binge It! is IGN’s recommendation series. Movies, TV shows, books, comics, music… if you can binge it, we’re here to talk about it. In each installment of Binge It!, we’ll discuss a piece of content we’re passionate about — and why you should check it out.

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Terri Schwartz is Editor-in-Chief of Entertainment at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.

Welcome back to Game Scoop!, IGN’s weekly video game talk show. This week we’re discussing the latest entry into IGN’s 10/10 Hall of Fame, this week’s surprise Nintendo Direct, The Last of Us Part 2, and more. Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.

Listen on:

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Spotify

Stitcher

Things won’t be getting stranger until at least next year, with the Season 4 Stranger Things trailer dropping on Valentine’s Day of this year. But the show remains an excellent watch, not too serious but just serious enough to stand up to multiple rewatches. If you’re a Stranger Things fan like I am, the good news is we just added a ton of Stranger Things designs to the IGN Store to tide you over.

Stranger Things T-Shirts and Pullovers

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Stranger Things is just one of tons of officially licensed properties we have available in the IGN Store. We keep adding more, too, so check back regularly. Right now you can find some truly awesome designs from The Legend of Zelda, X-Men, Animal Crossing, DC Comics and way, way more.