E3 is cancelled, which is shit. Cardy, Matt and Jesse discuss what the backup plan is for all those game companies out there before going in deep on the new Call of Duty: Warzone modes and our (brief) experiences with both Battle Royale and Plunder so far. There isn’t really a lot of other fun stuff happening this week so instead dedicate a large portion of this week to listener feedback and return to some nostalgic PS2 chat and dreams video game concepts.
Jesse has finally stepped up to host a game of The Endless Search. Good lad.
I didn’t really know what music to put at the end this week, so enjoy some of The Beatles.
Stay safe out there x – Simon.
Remember, if you want to get in touch with the podcast, please do: [email protected]
The UEFA Champions League, professional soccer’s most prestigious club tournament, has been postponed indefinitely due to COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus. Its sister tournament, the Europa League, and the UEFA Youth League have also been delayed.
In an official statement, UEFA explained that all matches scheduled to take place this weekend have been postponed, and quarter final draws for both the Champions and Europa Leagues had also been called off for the time being, effectively suspending the tournaments until further notice.
The Champions League is currently in the knockout round of 16, with at least four matches in their respective second legs left to be played: Manchester City vs. Real Madrid, Juventus vs. Lyon, Barcelona vs. Napoli, and Bayern Munich vs. Chelsea.
Real-life NBA team Phoenix Suns will continue to play the current season that has been suspended due to the COVID-19 virus… in the NBA 2K video game.
In a post on Twitter, Phoenix Suns revealed that they plan to continue to play the Suns season games in the popular basketball video game, and fans can watch them live on Twitch.
The season isn’t over yet…
We will continue to play the Suns season games on @NBA2K!
“Saturday’s game will be moved to tomorrow,” says the tweet. “Join us live on Twitch as we take on the Dallas Mavericks!”
The tweet doesn’t make it clear who will be hosting the stream and if they will be playing against AI or online against the actual Mavericks. However, the Phoenix Suns’ Devin Booker is a known Twitch streamer, who was actually streaming Call of Duty: Warzone at the moment he discovered that the NBA season had been suspended, so it’s possible that he’ll be involved.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver placed the league on a minimum 30-day hiatus on February 12. With the Suns playing their scheduled games for the rest of the season in NBA 2K, there will be at least some action for basketball fans, even if the results are technically meaningless for the season.
The MacBook Air is an impossibly thin laptop that’s better than it has any right to be. It’s not a gaming laptop by any stretch of the imagination, but for your laptop needs, it’s got a lot to offer. I like my Air a lot: it’s super thin, super light and the battery lasts a surprisingly long time. If you’re in the market for a new laptop right now, Amazon and Best Buy both have deals happening today.
With Final Fantasy VII Remake just a few weeks away, you might want to start getting your PS4 ready for the occasion. Square Enix has your back, revealing three new dynamic PS4 themes in a growing collection for the game.
The first of the three should be familiar, especially if you’ve downloaded the Final Fantasy VII Remake demo. Featuring its heroes front and center looking out at a pink sunset, this theme will be free to all players that have downloaded the demo before May 11, and will be available to download from April 10.
Today we’re giving you a closer look at three dynamic #PS4#FinalFantasy VII Remake themes! These aren’t the only themes available, and we’ll be posting more over the coming weeks. First is a free theme available from April 10th if you download the #FF7R demo before May 11th! pic.twitter.com/0LC89hwNRW
— FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (@finalfantasyvii) March 13, 2020
The second features protagonist Cloud in his infamously stoic pose in front of a glowing Mako reactor–the image most attributed to this Final Fantasy entry. This theme will be free for all PlayStation Plus subscribers, with Square Enix teasing that it’ll be up for download soon.
The second of three dynamic #PS4 theme we’d like to show you today focuses on the city of Midgar in #FinalFantasy VII Remake and also features our main protagonist Cloud Strife! This will be available for free to all PS+ users soon! #FF7Rpic.twitter.com/qmCbpTDnEW
— FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (@finalfantasyvii) March 13, 2020
The third centers on antagonist Sephiroth, with crackling embers flowing around the screen and ominous red and green hues bathing your dashboard in a broody ambiance. This theme is an exclusive to pre-orders via Amazon and selected retailers around Europe, and will be available to download at launch.
We’ve shown off two dynamic #PS4 themes today and here’s a third. This Sephiroth theme is available as a pre-order bonus with https://t.co/ThA10iWA8z in the US, and at various retailers throughout Europe. Stay tuned for a closer look at some other #FF7R themes in the future. pic.twitter.com/mp48OvNC2c
— FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE (@finalfantasyvii) March 13, 2020
Square Enix tease that there are more Final Fantasy VII Remake themes to share in the lead-up to release. It’s out on April 10 exclusively for PS4.
When the world gets a little too loud, sometimes you just want to throw on a pair of headphones, crank up the volume to your favorite album, close your eyes, and drift away. Having a good pair of noise-canceling headphones can make all the difference when you’re faced with loud neighbors, a crying child on public transportation, or construction outside your home, but the best noise-canceling headphones tend to be quite pricey. Fortunately, there’s a great deal on one fantastic option, the Sony WH-1000XM3 wireless headphones, at Amazon, Best Buy, and Walmart, but it’s a limited-time offer that won’t be available for long.
The Sony WH-1000XM3 headphones are on sale for $278 at both Amazon and Walmart, down from the usual $350. They’re also on sale at Best Buy for a few bucks more, selling for $280. The Amazon deal is today only; the Best Buy and Walmart deals don’t have end dates, so it’s possible they’re price-matching.
Notably, Walmart is offering the headphones in bundles for the same price (with options for both black and silver versions) that also include a pair of earbuds and a USB Bluetooth 4.0 dongle adapter. There’s another bundle that includes the headphones with a Sony portable wireless speaker. You can see all the bundle options at Walmart.
Sony WH-1000XM3 wireless headphones
$278 ($350)
Sony WH-1000XM3 noise-canceling headphones
These wireless Bluetooth headphones feature an over-the-ear fit, making them comfy to wear for long periods of listening. They’re also integrated with multiple voice assistants, including Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, and Siri, so you can have your pick. Plus, up to 30 hours of battery life make them suited for all-day listening.
The high-quality headphones earned an impressive 9/10 in our sister site CNET’s Sony WH-1000XM3 review, in which critic David Carnoy noted the ear cups could leave your ears a bit warm but praised the headphones’ comfort, lightweight feel, battery life, and performance when making calls. “For more than a year Sony’s WH-1000XM3 has been the highest-rated wireless noise-canceling headphone on CNET, and it’s still my favorite overall,” he wrote. “It’s still hard to beat its combination of design, features, and performance — both its sound and noise-canceling capabilities.”
Tower of God, a popular South Korean webtoon by SUI, is receiving an animated adaptation that will be part of Crunchyroll Originals. The Tower of God manhwa started in 2010 and has earned almost 4.5 billion views worldwide.
The team behind the Tower of God show is stacked, and the director, Takashi Sano, has had a hand in some stellar anime. He was a key animator on the Neon Genesis Evangelion, the show that has continued to live on in various incarnations on the internet.
Sano was also the animation director for The Woman Called Fujiko Mine, the excellent Lupin spin-off that focuses on femme fatale Fujiko. He’s also directed episodes of Gantz and more recently, storyboarded on Vinland Saga. Gantz and Vinland Saga were both standouts in their seasons and action-packed. Tower of God is perhaps not as violent as the aforementioned series, but contains plenty of fights and scuffles. With Sano’s background in Gantz and Vinland Saga, the expectation for high-quality fight scenes is high.
The rest of the team also has participated in well-known shows too. Assistant director, Hirokazu Hanai did key animation for certain episodes on InuYasha, Fullmetal Alchemist, Naruto, and Hunter x Hunter (2011). Also, interestingly enough, the character designer for Bleach, Miho Tanino, is also on the Tower of God project.
The streaming service Quibi is shaping up to be pretty interesting. Arriving in April, the service stands out from the pack because all of its videos are 10 minutes or less. Now, the service has announced a new horror anthology series.
Titled 50 States of Fright, the series will revolve around urban legends from around the country. The first teaser for the show has arrived, which you can check out below.
This series is executive produced by Sam Raimi, Debbie Liebling, Van Toffler, Tony DiSanto, Cody Zwieg, Barry Barclay, Tommy Coriale and Chris Mangano. Raimi will also direct and co-write alongside Ivan Raimi.
There are plenty of recognizable names for the first season of the show. This includes Christina Ricci (Black Snake Moan), Ming-Na Wen (Mulan), Ron Livingston (Office Space), Rory Culkin (Signs), and more.
Quibi will launch on April 6. The cost of the service will be $5 a month with ads or $8 a month without. It will launch with 50 original shows, including reboots of MTV’s Singled Out and Punk’d. Additionally, there is a Legends of the Hidden Temple revamp for adults coming to the service as well.
Pokemon Go‘s March Community Day has been postponed due to concerns about the COVID-19 coronavirus outbreak, but a few other events are still going on in the Pokemon mobile game. Niantic is bringing back two more Legendary Pokemon–Cobalion and Lugia–for special Raid weekend events over the next couple of weeks, and now you’ll have more time to catch them.
Niantic has announced that it is extending the next two Legendary Raid weekends. “We want to make sure Trainers have enough time to challenge these Legendary Pokemon, so both will be available for a longer time in Raids,” the developer explained in a blog post.
The Cobalion Raid event will now run from March 17-23, while the Lugia event will run from March 24-31. You’ll also have a chance to encounter both Legendary Pokemon as rewards for participating in the Go Battle League’s inaugural season, which officially begins on March 13.
Both Cobalion and Lugia have previously appeared in Pokemon Go, but there’s a good incentive to try to catch another one if you already have them; this time, each Legendary will know an event-exclusive move. Cobalion will know Sacred Sword, while Lugia will know Aeroblast. You’ll also have a chance to encounter Shiny versions of each Legendary.
Those aren’t the only Legendary Pokemon returning to the game. Niantic has also brought Registeel and Cresselia back to Raids to help players bolster their Go Battle League teams. The Mythical Pokemon Genesect is also set to make its debut as part of a Special Research story event that kicks off March 20. You’ll need to purchase a virtual ticket to gain access to that story event, but you’ll also have a chance to encounter Genesect in EX Raids starting in April.
Baldur’s Gate 3 might be a sequel to the beloved RPG series, but it hasn’t been entirely clear that it would be a story sequel, and the community has been asking about that ever since announcement. Today, fans got a far more definitive answer, as developer Larian revealed it would feature direct connections to the first game, including returning characters.
In a Reddit AMA on r/baldursgate, Larian founder Swen Vincke answered a question asking if the upcoming game’s story will follow on from the first two games:
“We really don’t want to spoil anything but we wouldn’t call it Baldur’s Gate 3 if there wouldn’t be a link”, he explained. “Let me just say that we touch upon the story of [Baldur’s Gate] 1 & 2 in meaningful ways, there are returning characters and what happened in BG 1/2/[Throne of Bhaal] leads to what happens into BG3. You won’t necessarily see that at the start of the adventure but you will quickly understand once you get further into the game.”
It’s proven a very popular answer, with multiple commenters saying it was the best one given in the AMA.
While it might seem clear that the third game in a series would follow up on the story of the first two games, the question arose from the Dungeons & Dragons setting it’s based on, Forgotten Realms. In the two decades since the last game’s release, Forgotten Realms has canonically shifted a century into the future – meaning Baldur’s Gate 3 has too.
Initially, some wondered whether that meant BG3 would simply share a gameplay style and setting with the original games, but it seems that’s not the case. Vincke didn’t go into any more detail about connective story in the AMA, but we can assume that the likes of Minsc and Boo – who appeared in the original Baldur’s Gate, and have since appeared in recent Forgotten Realms media – could be popping up along the way.
Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News, and he remembers playing Baldur’s Gate 1 mainly because of the fact that he had absolutely no idea how to play it when he was 9. Follow him on Twitter.
