In a new interview, Sam Raimi casually confirmed that he’s directing Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.
Speaking to ComingSoon and other oulets about his new Quibi series, 50 States of Fright, Raimi was asked about putting a Doctor Strange reference in Spider-Man 2 and then being attached to helm a Doctor Strange film all these years later.
For those who don’t recall, there’s a scene in Spider-Man 2 where the Daily Bugle’s J. Jonah Jameson and Ted Hoffman riff on supervillain names for Otto Octavius and pass on using Doctor Strange since it’s already taken.
Raimi also spoke of his love of the character of Doctor Strange, a superhero he only ranked, though, “at number five” among his picks for the best comic characters.
“I loved Doctor Strange as a kid, but he was always after Spider-Man and Batman for me, he was probably at number five for me of great comic book characters,” Raimi said, before going on to confirm his involvement with the Doctor Strange sequel.
“He was so original, but when we had that moment in Spider-Man 2 I had no idea that we would ever be making a Doctor Strange movie, so it was really funny to me that coincidentally that line was in the movie. I gotta say I wish we had the foresight to know that I was going to be involved in the project.”
Raimi being considered to direct Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness was confirmed by the project’s original director, Scott Derrickson, in a social media post wishing Raimi well with the film, but this is Raimi’s first direct confirmation that he’s directing the sequel.
Doctor Strange 2 AKA Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, has found a new director in horror legend Sam Raimi. This news comes after the departure of Scott Derrickson, who directed the first Doctor Strange film, due to “creative differences.”
Raimi’s involvement in the project was first discussed back in February as rumors of negotiations began circulating. Derrickson took to Twitter to congratulate him, but Raimi himself did not comment. However, during an interview with ComingSoon.net, Raimi spoke about including a Doctor Strange Easter Egg in Spider-Man 2, and in the process, seemingly confirmed that he will be involved in the new MCU film.
“I loved Doctor Strange as a kid, but he was always after Spider-Man and Batman for me, he was probably at number five for me of great comic book characters,” Raimi described. “He was so original, but when we had that moment in Spider-Man 2 I had no idea that we would ever be making a Doctor Strange movie, so it was really funny to me that coincidentally that line was in the movie. I gotta say I wish we had the foresight to know that I was going to be involved in the project.”
Back at San Diego Comic-Con, actor Benedict Cumberbatch teased that Multiverse of Madness would be the MCU’s “first film with a twist of horror” so Raimi, whose credits include Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, and Drag Me To Hell, certainly seems like an appropriate choice.
Unfortunately, due to the global COVID-19 (coronavirus) pandemic, Marvel has pushed back release dates for many of the upcoming Phase 4 films, so we won’t be venturing into the multiverse until November 5, 2021.
But fear not, there’s plenty to tide you over in the meantime. 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.
In a race to keep up with premium Android phones often costing more than $1,000, OnePlus has steadily been evolving from a budget brand to a premium handset-maker in its own right. The latest OnePlus 8 Pro is easily the company’s most expensive smartphone yet with a starting price of $900, but it’s also going toe-to-toe with the Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra, a phone that starts at $1,400.
To this end, the OnePlus 8 Pro features one of the best screens I’ve seen, with a QHD+ resolution, 120Hz refresh rate, and is ultra-bright all at the same time. Additionally, this new flagship has two 48MP sensors for both its main and ultrawide cameras, along with a few other new imaging tricks too. There’s a lot to like about the new OnePlus 8 Pro, so let’s get into it.
The OnePlus 8 Pro’s redesign is much more subtle than the evolution from the OnePlus 6T to the OnePlus 7 Pro. The OnePlus 7 Pro essentially reinvented itself with a new all-screen design with curved edges, while this year’s flagship has taken that design and refined it slightly.
The new phone features the same overall body, but the corners are sharper, and it’s thinner at 8.5mm thick – comparatively the OnePlus 7 Pro measured 8.8mm thick.
One major thing that has changed about the OnePlus 8 Pro is the removal of the mechanical pop-up front camera. Instead, you get a more traditional hole-punch camera pushed all the way into the top-left corner of the display.
It’s a shame that OnePlus has moved away from the completely all-screen design, but having a sleeker device does feel nice. Additionally, the new screen has even less of a bezel now that the bottom chin has been reduced to just 2mm thick rather than several millimeters in size.
All these little tweaks result in giving the OnePlus 8 Pro a 6.78-inch (1,440 x 3,168) AMOLED display that’s not only larger than the OnePlus 7 Pro’s 6.67-inch (1,440 x 3,120) display but also faster. Better, the new phone’s display can run at up to 120Hz even at its full QHD+ resolution.
That’s something no other phone has been able to do. The Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra is also capable of 120Hz, but to hit that refresh rate required lowering the display resolution from WQHD+ (3,200 x 1,400) to just Full HD+ (2,400 x 1,080).
The OnePlus 8 Pro’s display is also incredibly bright at 1,300 nits, which puts it just a few hundred candelas behind the iPhone 11 Pro. At the same time, shadows look inky black and colors are bold on this phone’s screen. OnePlus really has one of the best smartphone displays on the market.
Around back you’ll find the camera array has grown from three modules to four, and the sensors themselves have bloomed in sharpness. Both the main camera and ultrawide camera feature 48MP sensors. Then there’s an 8MP telephoto camera that offers 3x zoom and a 5MP color filter camera used solely for color effect modes such as adding a warmer glow to your image or switching on black and white mode. Lastly, the front camera uses a 16MP sensor.
Under the screen, there’s an in-display fingerprint scanner, a Qualcomm Snapdragon 865 processor, Adreno 650 GPU, and a sizeable 4,510mAh battery.
OnePlus 8 Pro – Performance and Gaming
The previous OnePlus 7 Pro’s 90Hz display made it feel incredibly smooth, and the 120Hz display on the OnePlus 8 Pro feels even faster. Refresh rate this fast on a phone might seem excessive, but it all makes sense when you’re scrolling through Google News and Twitter without any of the stuttering you would encounter on a slower phone display.
Of course, having the latest Snapdragon 865 processor and 12GB of RAM – which happens to be a faster LPDDR5 class of memory – also helps make this phone feel fast too. The underlying CPU had no problems powering the display running at maximum resolution and refresh speed at the same time – something I was potentially worried about after it was excluded on Samsung’s highest-end handset.
Thankfully my concerns were unfounded as the phone never hitched with regular everyday navigation, my creative applications, or even gaming. The 120Hz refresh rate and 240Hz touchscreen polling rate really feel like they give you an extra edge in competitive games like Shadowgun Legends. You see the action unfolding smoothly on the screen and have a chance to react faster than your opponents.
Gaming on the OnePlus 8 Pro is made even better with the built-in gaming mode that turns on automatically. When enabled, the phone will optimize graphics for improved shadow detail and enable stronger haptic feedback, along with the usual settings that prioritize performance and network bandwidth for the games you play.
For all your non-native 120Hz content, like YouTube and general streaming, OnePlus has also included a motion smoothing feature. But just like enabling the effect on a 4K TV, this ends up adding a soap opera effect which you may or may not like – personally I don’t.
OnePlus has always been one of the few phone brands to make consistently good cameras, and image quality has definitely improved with its latest phone. The main 48MP camera not only resolves stunningly sharp and detailed images but also extremely contrasty photos that I personally like.
The OnePlus 8 Pro has also finally given me something I’ve always wanted: a high-resolution ultrawide camera. Most phone makers have stuck with an 8MP ultrawide camera, leaving me to capture blotchy landscapes and soft up-close shots. This new handset’s 48MP ultrawide camera lets you capture a lot more detail in the clouds, the pavement on the ground, and generally everything in the frame.
Unfortunately, the 8MP telephoto sensor hasn’t been given nearly as much attention and it remains to be the weakest camera of the three zoom options on this device. The telephoto camera is what you pick when you really want to punch in the zoom to get a lot of detail, so it’s a bit odd that this sensor is still stuck at 8MP.
One other new feature the OnePlus 8 Pro adds is a Super Macro Mode, which should let you get extra up close to things like food and household nicknacks for some really detailed shots. It’s pretty neat that you can basically have the camera bump touch your subject and still be able to rack focus, but you’ll need an abundance of light for it to really work.
OnePlus 8 Pro – Battery Life
The OnePlus 8 Pro comes equipped with a sizable 4,510mAh battery and while it’s not the biggest one we’ve seen on a phone this size, I still ended most of my days with 30-40% of my battery life still leftover.
And that was with the display running full tilt at both QHD+ and 120Hz all the time. Not to mention most of my daily usage was spent playing mobile games after work and doing all of my email work on the phone throughout the day, as well as watching videos while I cooked and did other tasks while stuck at home.
The phone can also quickly recharge 50% of its battery life in 23 minutes with the included 30W Warp charger.
What’s more, this is the first OnePlus phone to feature wireless charging, which you can also get back up to 50% of your battery life with just 30 minutes of charging. Just know to get this extremely fast wireless charging, you’ll need to pick up a separate 30W wireless Warp charger
What about the OnePlus 8?
In most years the regular OnePlus 8 would simply be the OnePlus 8 Pro with a smaller screen but otherwise the same exact features. However this year the company has elevated its Pro series phone to be a higher-end premium experience to match the iPhone 11 Pro and Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra.
To that end, you’ll find the OnePlus 8 is not nearly as full-featured. For starters, you only get two cameras with different focal lengths – a 16MP ultrawide and a 48MP main camera. In place of a telephoto camera, you get a macro camera, which is a bit odd considering the previous OnePlus 7T finally gave us a telephoto, wide, and ultrawide camera combo.
The OnePlus 8 also lacks the Pro version’s wireless charging capabilities and you’re stuck with slightly slower LPDDR4X memory as opposed to LPDDR5. The smaller 6.55-inch display is also limited to a Full HD+ resolution of 1,080 x 2,400 and 90Hz refresh rate. But at least you get the equally powerful Snapdragon 865 processor.
Purchasing Guide
The OnePlus 8 and OnePlus 8 Pro will be available starting on April 29th with both phones featuring 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage in the starting SKUs for $699 and $899, respectively. The higher-end 12GB of RAM and 256GB model for both phones will cost $100 more.
The OnePlus 8 only comes in two colors, Glacial Green and Interstellar Glow. Meanwhile, the OnePlus 8 Pro will be available in Glacial Green, Onyx Black, and Ultramarine Blue – though this last option is only available on the higher end SKU.
Epic Games has announced that Fortnite Chapter 2: Season 2 has been extended until June 4, five weeks longer than its original end date of April 30.
Announced in an official blog post, Epic didn’t offer any specific reason for the delay but simply said that the season had been “extended” and that “our plan is to launch Chapter 2 – Season 3 on June 4.”
While Epic hasn’t detailed how the extended season will play out in exact detail, it is promising “lots of content coming in the current season.” Further, the developers are promising “multiple game updates” that will offer “fresh gameplay, new challenges, bonus XP, and a couple more surprises.” However, with the removal of patch notes, it might be hard to know when those updates have occurred.
With only two weeks of Midas challenges left, it should be interesting to see what Epic has planned for the next few weeks. However, for now it seems we will have to wait and see what tricks Epic has up its sleeve.
If you’re still trying to grind to Tier 100 and unlock the coveted Midas skin, you can earn tons of XP by completing the weekly challenges. Additionally, be sure to check out our guide on some of the best places to land in Fortnite Chapter 2.
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Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.
Like Chapter 3 of your journey through Midgar in Final Fantasy 7 Remake , Chapter 8 slows down the pace and lets you spend some time in another set of slums, completing side-quests. There’s a lot of ground to cover in Chapter 8 as you’re introduced to Sector 5, as well as a bunch of new characters. And with so many quests flying at you, it’s easy to miss stuff.
Below, we’ve got everything you need to know to find everything in Sector 5. Check out the rest of our Final Fantasy 7 Remake guides so you don’t miss a single secret or collectible. You can also read our FF7 Remake review.
Chapter 8: Budding Bodyguard Walkthrough
Boss Fight: Reno
As soon as the fight starts, take care of the two waves of Security Officers; the Triple Slash ability should come in handy here. Once they’re all dealt with, focus your attention on Reno. You want to maintain a steady balance between speed and measured defense. Similar to Roche, this is a duel, and you’ll need to block Reno’s attacks to open him up to your own blows. He likes to zip at you with a dash to get behind you, then attack you from the back, so you’ll want to be ready to guard when he closes the gap.
Beat Reno by guarding against his melee strikes to throw him off-balance and open him up to attack.
Reno can be easily hurt with some well-timed Punisher Mode counter-attacks, but any block of his electro baton will open him up for you to strike back. You want to be sure to block him, because the baton won’t just hurt you, it’ll stun you, too. If you’ve got enough ATB stocked, follow up your Punish Mode attacks with a Focus Thrust to drive up Reno’s stagger even more. Just be mindful of Reno’s named-attacks where he charges at you, as they cannot be countered.
Eventually, Reno will start to throw EM Mines at you, which will float around, arcing electricity between them to stun you and open you up to attack. Run away from the mines and either nail them with magic spells or cut in close and slice them out of the air, but be sure you don’t attack them when they’re charged with electricity or you’ll get zapped. The EM Mines are particularly dangerous toward the end of the fight, when Reno will come after you for close-range attacks while you’re dealing with the mines, so keep your distance and even up the odds as quickly as you can. Keep the pressure on, and you’ll eventually come out of this encounter victorious.
Escaping The Church
After fighting Reno, follow Aerith through the church. Go up the stairs and cross to the other side of the second floor, then take the stairs down to get to a chest containing a Talisman accessory.
Once you’re into the attic, check the alcove up at the north end of the area to grab smelling salts out of the treasure chest. Head out onto the rooftops and walk until you see a green metal plate ahead, where the path turns south; turn around and you can slip around the corner of the roof behind to find a chest with a Moogle Medal.
Eventually, the path will take you onto an old set of train tracks. Turn right to find a chest with an ether inside.
When you hit the train station, head to the far end and use the vending machine to buy the Cait Sith’s Theme Music Disc.
Up ahead, you’ll follow Aerith onto the backstreets, then eventually come to a gate you can’t open. Cloud can push a nearby cargo container out of the way, allowing you to take another path. When you clear the way and climb up a ladder, take the path to the right and cross over the walkway below with monkeybars. On the far side is a treasure chest with a Caliginous Bracelet armor inside.
Go hand-over-hand over the entrance of this area to reach the chest on the far side.
After gathering flowers with Aerith and leaving her at the Leaf House, head to the Materia Vendor in the Sector 5 Center District to buy the Costa del Sol Music Disc. You’ll also find Oates here; talking to him will move the story along so you can return to the Leaf House when you’re ready to move on.
Near the Materia vendor, you can find Chadley to get some new Battle Intel assignments, new materia, and unlock Chadley’s Combat Simulator to earn the Shiva summon materia–more on how to fight this optional boss below.
While you’re waiting, you can visit the shops. When you’re done, head for the southwestern corner of the map, south of the Leaf House. You’ll find a chest there with echo mist. Keep following the road to find the Sector 5 Community Center, which contains a jukebox. Open the chest near the sweeping man for a celeris, then use the jukebox to get the Tango of Tears Music Disc. When you return to the Leaf House, go inside to find a chest with an ether in it.
In the Kids’ Hideout, open the chest behind the crowd to get a Moogle Medal. Venturing behind the out into the Toad Marsh, follow the path and keep fighting through enemies toward the kids.
In the last area, you’ll fight three waves of enemies, including Wererats and Hedgehog Pies. You’ve been dealing with these enemies for a bit now, but they’re dangerous here because of their numbers. Be careful not to get overwhelmed, especially by the Hedgehog Pies’ magic attacks, which can easily interrupt your strikes. Get in close with Cloud and pummel them to thin out their numbers, and use Triple Strike to knock out several at once.
You’ll finally face two Smogger robots. Keep your distance and hit them with ranged attacks as best you can–use Lightning in particular for big damage. If they use their Haywire attack, hit them with magic to interrupt it and stagger them. Be careful when you’ve killed them, though, because their final Self-Destruct can cause you serious pain.
You’ll fight one more Smogger and a handful of other enemies on your way out of the area, so be careful. Check up the path to the left of the ladder as you leave to find a chest with a mega potion inside.
Back in the Kids’ Hideout, talk to Oates to activate a series of side-quests. You can do the first before you leave the hideout by talking to Moggie, the kid dressed as a Moogle, before you leave. You’ll now have somewhere to spend all those Moogle Medals you’ve been finding throughout the game. You can also purchase the Gold Saucer Music Disc from Moggie.
This is also a good opportunity to make the run all the way back to the church, where you can find a Chakra materia in the small room in the back, on the north side.
And southeast of the train station on Station Way, talk to the merchant in the west corner of the small gathering area to get the Descendant of Shinobi Music Disc.
Chadley – Shiva Boss Fight
Hit Shiva with lots of Fire spells, and guard against her powerful ice crystals.
If you talk to Chadley, he should provide you with a new Battle Intel scenario that has you fighting the summon creature Shiva in order to earn a new materia. You’ll have whoever’s in your party when you take on this fight, so if you try it with just Cloud, it’ll be tougher than if you go after it when Aerith is back on your squad. It’s definitely recommended that you bring Aerith along.
Shiva is an Ice summon, and thus weak to Fire. Give Aerith your best Fire materia and make sure you have the Ifrit summon equipped, then head into the battle. Cloud can pretty much take care of himself, so you’re better off controlling Aerith to run up her ATB bars as quickly as possible; the more Fire or Fira spells you can cast on Shiva, the more quickly you’ll manage to stagger her. Make use of Aerith’s Arcane Ward ability, which automatically makes you cast two spells for every ATB bar you spend, to maximize your damage. A good Fire spell will knock Shiva to the ground, offering cloud a chance to lay down some melee attacks. Make sure you’re not too close when Shiva gets back up, though, because she’ll use the Icicle Impact area attack spell around her when she’s back on her feet.
You’ll want to keep laying down spells on Shiva while working to keep Aerith alive. You’ll need to be on top of dodging to keep her clear of incoming danger, including Blizzara spells that Shiva will shoot your way. She’ll also summon a bunch of ice crystals to shoot at you. Dodging that attack is a losing battle, so guard against it and power through.
Once you do enough damage, Shiva will get more aggressive, with spells that come faster and new Frost Familiars that protect her and increase the number of spells she sends. Keep firing away with spells to knock out the minions, but beware of the White Out attack, which will send ice crystals through the ground at you. If they hit you, you’ll fall asleep, opening you up to a huge but slow magic attack from Shiva called Heavenly Strike. You’ll see a massive ice crystal form overtop the sleeping character; quickly switch to your other character and use Smelling Salts to wake up the sleeper, then dodge away to avoid the big crystal.
As soon as you can get Ifrit in the battle, summon him and start using his abilities to do big damage and keep Shiva off-balance. The Fire attacks should end up staggering her quickly, allowing you to do a bunch more damage.
At about one-quarter health, Shiva will do her big summon attack, damaging your entire party. Makes sure you’re healed up before that happens, or she can take you out in one blow. After that, keep hitting her with Fire spells until she’s done.
Side-Quest: Kids On Patrol
Go to the Leaf House and speak with Ms. Folia out front of the building. She’ll dispatch you to find a bunch of kids who should really be in school. Talk to her again for some tips as to where the kids hang out.
Make your first stop near the Item Shop in the Central District to find a patroller hanging out in the middle of the street. From there, turn north and head up the street toward the train station to find your second kid. Another is standing right in front of the Weapon Shop. The “concrete pipes” Ms. Folia mentions are in the southwestern corner of the map, just south of the community center, where you’ll find another patroller. From there, continue to the community center to find the last patrol kid standing out front.
The kids have a job for you once you’ve talked to everyone while they’re on patrol. Your reward for completing it is Cloud’s Nail Bat weapon.
Return to the Leaf House and the kids will send you to their hideout to deal with a monster they call “the Toad King.” This is actually a tough, special version of the Hedgehog Pie enemies you’ve been facing all through this section, and fighting it is kind of a pain. Battle your way through the area behind the kids’ hideout to reach the Hedgehog Pie King, which will be backed up by two regular Hedgehog Pies.
The struggle with the Hedgehog Pie King is that it’s constantly buffing the other two Hedgehog Pies, which makes it tough to kill them in order to focus on your real target. With the King’s buffs, they’ll fling tough magic attacks at you like Fira, while also executing an annoying attack called Bounce that can keep one of your characters from moving. Your plan here should be to run from the regular Pies to avoid their bounce attacks, while charging up ATB to hit the King with Ice spells, which it’s weak against. Ice and physical attacks will pressure the King, which will knock him off his buff game, giving you time to then refocus and kill one or both of the Hedgehog Pies with Ice spells and melee attacks. The King has a lot of health, so you’ll want to get rid of his minions, which are the real threats in the fight; don’t overcommit to trying to bring down the king while getting blasted by his buddies.
Don’t be afraid to switch to Aerith and let Cloud take care of himself. Her healing capabilities are very helpful here in keeping the team in fighting shape, and your primary focus here will be magic to keep the King off-balance. Once the two Pies are dead, mopping up the King won’t be a problem.
When you’re done, you’ll unlock a new quest in the hideout, called “A Verified Hero.” You’ll also receive a new weapon for Cloud, the Nail Bat.
Side-Quest: Weapons On A Rampage
Head north of the hideout to find a man talking about some Shinra “floating eyeballs” that are rampaging around town. You’ll need to hunt down five of them in the Nuts ‘n Bolts HIlls area that you came through after saving Aerith at the church. Equip some Wind materia and head out.
The first group of three enemies–Monodrive Mark IIs, they’re called–are in the north end of the area, in the Scrapyard Back Alley section. Head toward the train station and take the path north just before you hit it to find a deadend area with the first group.
The first group of Shinra floating eyes is way up at the north end of the Sector 5 map.
Monodrive Mark IIs are weak against Wind magic, but there’s a caveat to dealing with them: they use barriers that make them immune to specific kinds of attacks, which can make them pretty formidable. If their barrier is a white shell, switch to Aerith and lay into them with her regular magic attacks, or hit them with Wind spells. If they fire up a green barrier that looks more like electrons flying around an atom, switch over to Cloud and hit them with physical melee strikes.
Watch out for the attacks that send the Moondrives burrowing under the ground or shooting through the air like flying drills; keep your guard up and focus on one enemy first to knock it out. With a few rounds of magic spells and some of Cloud’s melee attacks, you should be able to stagger and kill it, then repeat the process for the other two. The best thing you can do is try not to over-commit on melee attacks, though, as the Monodrives will hit you pretty hard and can interrupt your spells if you’re not paying close attention. When you’re done, sneak out into the train station and use the blue bench there to heal yourself up.
The last two Monodrive Mark IIs are back on the path you took to bypass the locked gate when you first came through here. Head north on the path from the locked gate into the Twilight Valley area; you’ll find the last two enemies pretty quickly along the path.
Look for the second group along the path you used to bypass the locked gate when you first made your way to the Sector 5 undercity.
Side-Quest: Verified Hero
Drop back by the hideout after the “Kids on Patrol” quest to try the kids’ game, Whack-a-Box. Play one round of Whack-a-Box to finish the quest.
Whack-a-Box is pretty easy–you just melee through a bunch of boxes with different scores marked on each. The catch is that the boxes’ durability is equivalent to the score you get for destroying them, so you’ll need to think carefully about what moves you use to take the big boxes out and maximize your efficiency. You’ll have access to Braver, which is okay for hitting the big 1,500-point boxes, plus the move associated with whatever weapon you’re using. We found a lot of success with Triple Slash, and so recommend the Iron Blade. Use Triple Slash on the 1,500 boxes to clear them in two attacks; this move is especially good when you’ve got two 1,500s together, as you can destroy both at the same time.
Playing Whack-A-Box gets you some decent prizes, including a Spectral Cogwheel accessory. You also get a Moogle Medal every time you play a round, which you can easily farm to buy out everything Moggie has on offer.
Side-Quest: The Angel of the Slums
Speak to Damon, the reporter, near the community center to kick things off, then meet Mireille inside the community center for more info.
Return to Nuts ‘n’ Bolts Hill and head way up to the northeast corner to find Lookout Point. Bring Lightning materia; when you get there, you’ll fight a giant version of the Smogger enemy called the Chromogger. This thing is dangerous if it gets in close, as it’ll hit you for big damage with its giant wrecking ball arm, while also spraying you down with gasses that damage and cause status effects such as Silence. But it’s easily avoided, too, especially if you keep your characters on opposite sides of the arena from one another.
Lookout Point is in the northeast corner of Sector 5.
Switch to Aerith and go nuts with spells; Lightning does increased damage and will drive up the pressure meter, especially when you unleash some on its wrecking ball arm, while Cloud can use his physical attacks. The AI will do a pretty good job of keeping Cloud out of too much trouble, leaving you free to run up Aerith’s ATB bars for additional spells and healing abilities. It’ll take a bit, but just keep playing keep-away with the Chromogger while hitting it with spells until it ultimately goes down.
Return to Damon for your reward of 2,000 gil.
Side-Quest: Paying Respects
After completing the “Weapons on a Rampage” quest, stop by the Weapons Shop and talk to the old man out front. He’ll send you to the graveyard to kill some monsters, but you’ll need to purchase the Graveyard Key from the Moogle Emporium in the Kids’ Hideout to get through the gate.
Head north out of town toward the Nuts ‘n’ Bolts Hills. When the path forks, head to the right to find the cemetery on a small path off to the east. Here, you’ll fight three Venomantises, which might give you a run for your money if you’re not diligent. Make sure you have strong Ice materia equipped for this one.
You’ll need the Graveyard Key from the Moogle Emporium to open this gate.
Venomantises like to use ranged strikes to put you to sleep, then big melee strikes for devastating damage. Watch out for their Torpid Strike attacks, which shoot a gas bomb at your characters that immediately put them to sleep, leaving them open to attack for a long time. You’ll want to use Cloud’s Punisher mode and guards for quick counter-attacks, but watch out for Leaping Strike–you really want to dodge clear of that one.
Pick a Venomantis and have Aerith use Blizzard or Blizzara as much as she can, while also healing herself and Cloud. Ice magic kicks up the Venomantises’ pressure meter quickly, which can help slow them up and keep them from attacking you. While Aerith concentrates on Ice, use Cloud to get in close with Punisher attacks and counter-attacks, but be sure to keep on the move so you don’t get overwhelmed. If you can stagger a Venomantis, you’ll likely be able to take it out, or at least damage it significantly and finish it in a second round.
Repeat this process for the other two, but again, try to keep your situational awareness up to avoid getting put to sleep, and dodge clear when you see Torpid Strikes coming your way. If you can keep from getting overwhelmed, the Ice magic should do the trick until you can kill all three enemies.
You’ll get a Studded Bracer armor for your efforts when you finish the mission.
With everything else done, head back to Aerith’s house.
Boss Fight: Rude
Rude is the exact opposite of Reno, forcing you to keep your distance and dodge to beat him.
Rude is basically the opposite of Reno, in that his attacks are big, powerful, and tough to block–instead, you want to be ready with a dodge to avoid taking the brunt of it. Focus also on trying to dodge sideways rather than backward, as Rude will travel forward with a lot of his attacks to keep hitting you even if you back off. Keep away from his Haymaker attack, which does a whole lot of damage, and do what you can when he comes at you with the Running Tackle, which will leave Cloud bound and exposed to the suplex that follows.
Before the fight begins, equip Wind materia on Aerith. She’ll be almost completely ignored by Rude, giving you a chance to use her to dump spells on the boss. Wind magic will hugely push up Rude’s stagger meter. So try to keep Cloud safe in the melee fight while focusing on Wind magic to do the real damage.
After you get Rude’s health down some, you’ll trigger a second phase, where he starts using attacks called Shockwave and Spirit Geyser. Shockwave travels through the ground and will track you some, while Spirit Geyser will cause explosions underneath you–in both cases, keep moving to avoid the damage. Keep firing away with Wind spells and you’ll make pretty quick work of Rude.
Head back to Aerith’s house, and be sure to snag the MP Up materia from the flower garden after the cutscene. Be sure you’re done with everything else in town before you enter the house, as you won’t be able to return.
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If you’re a long-time Civilization player, settling your first city in Old World is going to feel pretty familiar. In fact, a lot of things about it will – from warfare to the way settlements exploit tiles to produce resources. That’s not too surprising considering it’s the work of Civilization IV lead designer Soren Johnson; his first new game since 2016’s economic RTS Offworld Trading Company. Even down to the look of the map, it would be easy to mistake the build I played for a Civilization V mod. And while it brings some new and cool tricks to the table, it plays a lot like one as well.
While Civilization covers the entire scope of human history, Old World is, as the name might suggest, fully focused on the ancient era – roughly modeling the Mediterranean region in the period from the rise of early Iron Age civilizations until the height of European antiquity. Rather than progressing through nation-wide technological ages, you accumulate Culture on a per-city basis, which models how socially advanced that particular urban center is and affects things like what tile improvements and buildings you can produce there. You might have a very advanced imperial core full of advanced structures, for instance, while newly-settled or conquered areas in the borderlands are far less able to exploit their surrounding resources. There is still a technology tree, but it’s relatively limited in scope and many things you can unlock with it also have a culture requirement if you want to actually create them.
The way you found cities is also different than it is in Civ. You can’t just order a settler to plunk down a marketplace and some houses anywhere. Instead, there are a limited number of city sites spaced roughly evenly around the map that everyone will be competing for early on. If any of them remain unclaimed for too long, they will eventually be colonized by barbarians who will begin producing armies to send out and raid the countryside. This takes away some of the choice 4X games usually offer in choosing a great city location, which I’m not totally sold on yet. It also means cities will always be roughly the same distance apart, so you won’t have dense, clustered empires competing with more spacious and sprawling ones.
Aside from the generic barbarians who can take up residence in a settlement site, Old World also has Tribes, which are specifically modeled on historical cultures like the Goths or the Celts and function as kind of a halfway point between barbarians and full-blown empires. They can conduct diplomacy, marry into the ruling family of major factions, demand tribute, and conquer territory. They might just be my favorite new addition to the 4X formula, though as a self-avowed barbarian fanboy, I’m a little disappointed you can’t play as them.
The playable factions in this build include Assyria, Babylonia, Carthage, Egypt, Greece, Persia, and Rome. Each is led by a historical or semi-mythical founder and comes, in classic Civilization fashion, with their own set of bonuses and unique units. Egypt is great at farming along rivers and can recruit mobile Light Chariots and Kushite Cavalry. Roman units, including their unique Hastati and Legionaries, accumulate experience twice as fast in combat. Each faction also starts with a different suite of technologies already unlocked. The Greeks, naturally, excel at Stonecutting and Drama. Babylonia gets a head start in Rhetoric and Administration.
A Question of Character
These leaders aren’t simply immortal mascots like in Civilization, though. They’re individuals who exist in and interact with the world like a diet version of Crusader Kings. They have traits like Courage and Discipline which can affect your nation’s resource generation. They can age, fall ill, and die. They also, hopefully, get married and produce heirs who will carry on in their stead once they’re gone. Frequently, you’ll get pop-ups about a character’s life that require you to make a decision. In my Egypt run, Queen Hatshepsut ended up adopting a pet monkey who quickly drew envy from everyone at court, as they felt I was giving it too much attention. The way these interactions play out is not much more than a dialogue box with a handful of options to pick from, and it’s not as deep as interactive as Crusader Kings II. I’d love to see it expanded upon more before the final release.
You’ll also be managing the state’s relation with each of its four most prominent families. Each city you found, you’ll have to select a family to be its patron. If you don’t want to make any of them angry, you’ll have to take turns and make sure they each patronize the same amount of territory. If the Julii already have one city and the Fabii have none, the latter will be mad if they are skipped over and Caesar’s clan are given another patronage. Each family is good at something specific and will grant bonuses to cities they patronize. The Argeads of Greece will allow you to build better cavalry, while the Seleucids will help their domains progress through cultural milestones faster. Families that stay in your good graces will be helpful, but those that are shunned can create problems.
As you progress through the years, you’ll also unlock laws that offer a choice between two paths with their own advantages and drawbacks. One of the first is deciding if you want to be a slave society, which increases production but also makes your cities more prone to revolt, or a free society, which generates more science. There are 15 categories of laws to mix and match, deciding everything from your civilization’s relationship with the gods to their currency system, but each is merely an A or B choice.
Drums of War
Combat should be very familiar to 4X veterans, with the exception that a unit being wounded doesn’t seem to affect combat performance like it does in Civilization. There are a couple wrinkles in how you create and deploy armies, though. For one, Training is its own resource that is spent to produce military units exclusively, while most civilian units use a separate value called Growth. This means you can have cities that specialize in raising armies, but aren’t so great at creating workers or settlers. You can still only build one thing in each city at a time, but how long it takes to do so can vary based on what you’re building.
For another, each nation has a limited number of Orders they can issue per turn. You might have a far larger army than your enemy, but if they have more Orders, they may be able to out-fight and out-maneuver you as half of your military sits idle. You can focus on getting more Orders like you would any other resource, and doing so turned out to be very powerful in the campaigns I played. At the start, unused Orders at the end of a turn are converted into money. But later on you can unlock the ability to bank Orders across several turns to, for example, prepare for a huge, coordinated assault.
Look to the Heavens
I didn’t play around much with the religion system, but there are four historical faiths you can adopt in the course of a campaign: Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, and Manichaeism. They’re all mechanically identical, giving cities where they are present a bonus to Culture growth. Over time, you can also unlock philosophical tenets like Dualism and Legalism that come with their own benefits. You don’t have to ever adopt a state religion, though. Some laws will lend themselves to creating a very strict religious hierarchy, while others favor a more pluralistic society. I really like the way this plays out, since most other 4X games tend to take a very narrow and anachronistic view of religion.
In spite of everything that’s different, Old World still feels mostly like playing a detailed Civilization mod focused on the Ancient Era. In all fairness, it is at a very early stage of development. But a lot of systems feel underdeveloped and don’t turn out quite as impactful as I would have hoped – particularly when it comes to combat and interacting with characters. It seems to focus mainly on adding little dashes of spice to the time-tested Civ recipe rather than majorly rethinking it, and as such comes across as strangely less than the sum of its parts. But I’ll definitely be keeping my eye on its continued development, as there are enough cool ideas lying half-buried in the sand to allow it to go forth and conquer its genre siblings one day. Old World is now available for pre-purchase on the Epic Store and will launch into Early Access this summer.
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T.J. Hafer is a 4X and strategy game enthusiast. Talk games with him on Twitter at @AsaTJ.
What kind of game is Old World?
Old World is a 4X strategy game from Mohawk Games and designer Soren Johnson, who previously worked on the Sid Meier’s Civilization series as well as Offworld Trading Company.
When is Old World’s release date?
Old World is due to go into Early Access on the Epic Games Store in Summer 2020.
While Echo may be the update’s headliner, Blizzard added a brand-new feature for players to experiment with. The Training Partner Spawner can be found in the Practice Range, allowing you to create a bot of any hero. This means new Echo players can test out her ultimate ability, Duplicate, which basically lets her to fit into just about every role despite technically being a Damage character.
The patch makes some quality-of-life improvements, particularly for players in the Middle East. Blizzard said the Overwatch team opened a new data center in the region to help stabilize the experience. These servers are now available. Other bug fixes include issues with hero switching when spectating D.Va in custom games, enemy voice lines being heard during hero selection, knockbacks not performing as expected, and more.
Heroes and maps have also been adjusted in Overwatch thanks to the update. Tracer’s quick-maneuvering ability Blink has been tweaked so that she more accurately lands where the cursor is pointed, players should no longer get stuck on maps like Dorado and Havana, Moira’s Fade icon should appear disabled when she’s stunned, and more.
You can check out the full PC patch notes below, or head over to the official Overwatch site for patch notes on Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Full Overwatch Patch Notes For PC
General Updates
New Feature: Training Partner
Within the Practice Range, use the Training Partner Spawner to create a bot of any hero on which you can test your abilities.
General
The Overwatch team has opened servers in a new datacenter to improve the gaming experience for players in the Middle East. Servers will be available beginning April 14, 2020
Added a “Patch Notes” button on the main menu and within the options menu. Selecting this button will open a web browser with the latest available game updates
Competitive Updates
The new Competitive Open Queue will be available in the Arcade for roughly 4 weeks. This mode will use standard Competitive Play rules, including hero pools, but will have no role restrictions or role queues.
Hero Updates
Tracer
Blink:
Improved the accuracy of Tracer’s blink movement such that Tracer will more likely end up where the crosshair is pointing
Developer Comments:
Tracer will now blink around and over obstacles more easily to move towards the crosshair location. For example, if you aim alongside the corner of a wall, Tracer will blink past the corner
Tracer cannot blink through a space where she otherwise cannot fit normally
Tracer cannot blink over an obstacle which she otherwise cannot jump over normally, with the jump originating from Tracer’s height at the start of the blink movement
We hope that these changes to Tracer’s blink will feel more responsive than before.
Bug Fixes
General
Fixed an issue preventing switching to the next hero when team spectating D.Va in Custom Games
Fixed an issue preventing Team FFA settings and some Hero settings from being pasted back into Custom Game Settings via copy-paste
Fixed a bug that could cause voice lines from opposing teams to be heard at Hero Select screens on certain maps
Fixed a bug where knockbacks were not working correctly if the target was moving down a ramp
Alt+Tab now will cancel saving a highlight, instead of causing problems with playback
Fixed an issue where support players were getting incorrect credit for some plays, when determining the play of the game
Maps
Blizzard World
Fixed a bug that allowed players to stand in an unintended location between the first and second point
Busan
Fixed a bug that caused Sombra’s translocator to float when thrown in certain spots
Dorado
Fixed a bug that could cause players can get stuck between the scooter and wall
Havana
Fixed a bug that could cause players to get stuck on some bushes
Hollywood
The capture area for the first capture point no longer extends outside of the visual capture boundary
Ilios
Fixed a bug that could cause players to get stuck between a wall, plant, and tree
Heroes
Moira
Fixed a bug that prevented Moira’s Fade icon from appearing disabled when she is stunned
Mei
Fixed a bug where an already frozen enemy getting hit by Blizzard would cause the frozen visual effect to end too early
Tracer
Fixed a bug where the Pulse Bomb’s “Stuck” message would sometimes appear on the wrong target
Workshop
Fixed an issue preventing Big Message and Small Message from displaying messages in Practice Range
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In March, Capcom offered a wonderful Humble Bundle that supported the fight against the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. This month, 2K is offering its own stellar Humble Bundle, with a portion of 2K’s revenue going toward another organization that is combating the pandemic, the International Medical Corps. Like other Humble Bundles, you can pick what you pay, with more PC games unlocking at each of the three tiers. The Game Together Bundle is valued at roughly $500, but you can get all 13 games for only $20 total until April 28 at 11 AM PT / 2 PM ET.
Needless to say, the 2K Game Together Humble Bundle is a phenomenal deal. All told, you can snag 16 games (including the collections) for just $20, most of which are great. Plus, you’re supporting a great cause, and you can allocate your purchase to the publisher, a charity of your choosing, or a combination of both. Every game in the Game Together Bundle can be claimed on Steam.
On the new Quibi series, Fight Like A Girl, WWE superstars team up with people in need of some change in their lives. The short-form series features some familiar faces like Alexa Bliss, the Bella Twins, and Sonya Deville.
In a time of uncertainty, everyone needs a little positivity, motivation to keep chugging along, and changes in our routines to become better people during a scary situation. And while Deville is currently involved in a very dramatic storyline with Mandy Rose on WWE’s Smackdown–as their friendship is on the rocks–Deville in real life is passionate about changing people’s lives for the better.
Deville knows that she and her peers in WWE have a daily impact on people’s lives, and she’s taking that impact one step further on Fight Like A Girl. “We have a platform that we’re blessed with at WWE where we can have a positive influence on the world through social media and through our weekly television series,” Deville told GameSpot. “But it’s really cool to break that down on a more personal level and kind of talk to a fan one-on-one who’s experiencing something, and hopefully, you can help push them through. And with my girl Samantha [the woman Deville worked with in her episode], that was exactly what we were able to do. And it was just such a rewarding experience for me, hopefully as it was for her.”
Deville wants and hopes that she can lead people–not just Samantha–down a positive path, and she really embraced the idea of the series, as she stated it was “right up her alley.” And while the mentorship between Deville and Samantha all happened on camera, they still keep in contact with each other. “When we filmed the final piece of the episode, I gave her my email address and so we email back and forth every once in a while,” explained Deville. “Obviously, after the episode, I told her I was proud of her, and I’m just so happy how far she’s come. To see the girl she was on day one and look at what she was on the last day of filming, it’s really special and not everybody gets to experience something like that. So I’m blessed to be a part of that journey and she’s really affected my life in so many positive ways.”
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.
