Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a huge event for fans of Square Enix’s RPG series and anybody who got lost in the game’s world 23 years ago. If you missed the boat back in 1997 or if JRPGs like Final Fantasy aren’t your thing, though, you might be wondering what all the fuss is about. FF7’s world is a bit confusing to begin with, and that’s before you add all the additional caveats that come with the Remake–like the fact that it only covers a fraction of the original FF7 story.
If you’re bewildered by Final Fantasy 7 Remake and all the information swirling around it, the video above is for you. We’re laying out why you should care about FF7 Remake, how it relates to the original game, and what’s changed. Most importantly, though, is why you should care about FF7 Remake. Given that our review awarded the game one of GameSpot’s rare 10 out of 10s, we definitely think you should.
FF7 Remake is a good entry point for the Final Fantasy curious, whether you’re new to the franchise or just new to FF7. The original is a classic and the Remake is in a class of its own, but if you never experienced it for yourself, we’re here to tell you why.
Nifty Games has announced NFL Clash, which is described as a “mobile-first” football game that offers an “innovative take” on a sports game. Details are scant for now, but the California-based developer said the title will allow players “a new way to play an authentic head-to-head football game in just minutes.”
“To date, mobile sports games have been casual mini-games or simulations migrated from gaming consoles. Nifty Games is focused on delivering NFL fans fast, yet deep gameplay specifically designed for mobile,” the studio said.
NFL Clash is an officially licensed NFL game produced in partnership with the league and its players’ union, the NFLPA.
The announcement of NFL Clash came as part of Nifty’s wider announcement of a further $12 million in financing, bringing the start-up’s total to $15 million raised so far. The new investment was led by March Capital Partners, with previous investors aXiomatic Gaming and Defy Partners also adding more money in the new round of funding. Some of the new investors included Vulcan Capital, Courtside Ventures, Transcend Fund, Century Game, and OneTeam Ventures, as well as the NFLPA, MLBPA, MLSPA, USWNTPA, and WNBPA. These are players’ unions representing Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer, the WNBA, and the United States Women’s National Team soccer club. The NHL invested in an earlier round of funding.
NFL Clash is Nifty’s first game, and it’s due for release later this year. The company is also working on an NBA video game, while the investment from other sports leagues suggests new games based on those sports might also be on the way.
“The NFL has always been keenly aware that a large portion of our fanbase loves to engage our sport through video games,” NFL gaming boss Rachel Hoagland said in a statement. “We’ve looked to bolster our offering on mobile devices and are thrilled at the built-for-mobile clash-style gaming that Nifty Games will deliver to our fans.”
Nifty Games co-founder and chief creative officer Pete Wanat added, “Sports games have yet to hit their stride on mobile, and Nifty Games is excited to team up with the NFL and NFLPA with a mobile-first take that opens up new audiences and engages fans everywhere.”
The new NFL games from Nifty and 2K will release alongside EA’s established Madden NFL series, which is continuing as the exclusive simulation-based NFL game.
The NFL’s Joe Ruggiero, who heads up the league’s consumer products division, said in a statement that the NFL is specifically looking to push further into the world of video games. “Reviving our partnership with 2K was a natural step in that effort,” he said, and this new deal with Nifty is also presumably related as well.
WWE has announced a series of roster cuts and will furlough a portion of its workforce, even after it was declared an essential business and allowed to continue operating amidst the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement on its official website, WWE announced it has released several high-profile wrestlers including Kurt Angle, Rusev, Zack Ryder, Curt Hawkins, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Drake Maverick, Heath Slater, Eric Young, Rowan, Sarah Logan, No Way Jose, Mike Chioda, Mike Kanellis, Maria Kanellis, Ec3, Aiden English, Lio Rish, Primo, and Epico.
According to ESPN, WWE also released a press release announcing a series of cuts and furloughs as part of a financial restructuring of the company. Along with temporary furloughs, executives will have their salaries reduced and the construction of a new headquarters has been paused.
Some big WWE stars were released in today’s cuts, including Hall of Famer Kurt Angle who retired in 2019 but stayed on as a producer backstage. Rusev, Gallows, and Anderson were also prominent mainstays on the show in the past decade.
Maverick released a video on his Twitter account talking about his cut from the roster. In an emotional video, Maverick revealed that while he’ll still be partaking in the NXT cruiserweight tournament, it will likely be the end of his wrestling career.
The state government of Florida declared WWE an “essential business” earlier this week, meaning the company was allowed to continue filming shows out of its Orlando training facility. Flordia’s governor Ron DeSantis said services declared essential are “critical to Florida’s economy.”
Shares of Netflix hit an all-time high on April 15, boosting the company’s value over that of rival Disney, which is deeply struggling amidst the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.
As reported by Variety, Netflix’s stock “closed up 3.2%, to $426.75 per share. That gives Netflix a current market capitalization of $187.3 billion, putting it just over Disney’s $186.6 billion.”
Netflix will report its first quarter 2020 earnings on April 21.
With people worldwide quarantined at home due to COVID-19, streaming viewership is surging. U.S viewership alone is up 109% in March 2020 over the previous year.
While both Netflix and Disney+ are the beneficiaries of this increased stay-at-home viewership, Disney, as a company dependent on consumers being out in public, has suffered more revenue loss than Netflix due to the pandemic.
Recently, an episode of Jeopardy featured some footage from The Last of Us Part II as a question on the show.
Contestants were given the clue, “The long awaited, upcoming sequel to this PlayStation game revisits Ellie and Joel after a cross country trek filled with zombies.” The clue was narrated over some footage of Ellie and Joel in the sequel, showing only a few seconds of what appeared to be an overgrown city. These clips have been shown already, at a preview event in Los Angeles late last year.
After 30 years viewers will be returning to Bayside High in Save by the Bell. Jesse Spano (Elizabeth Berkley) and A.C. Slater (Mario Lopez) are back, and this time around they will be supervising the new tech-savvy teens of the era.
The series will premiere on Peacock, the new streaming service by NBCUniversal, to a whole new generation dealing with themes of race, class, and teen drama. The story features now Gvonver of California Zack Morris (Mark-Paul Gosselaar) dealing with the unforeseen consequences of closing a large number of low-income high schools in the state.
Thanks to his antics, many inner-city kids have to enroll in new schools. Like Bayside High were the majority of students come from rich and well-to-do families. While old and new worlds collide, Slater will be there as the school’s resident teacher to guide newcomers Belmont Cameli, Josie Totah, Alycia Pascual-Pena, Mitchell Hoog, Haskiri Velazquez, and Dexter Darden.
Peacock tiers and cost:
Free: 7,500 hours of ad-supported programming. Includes current seasons of TV shows, movies, TV classics, news and sports, Hispanic, streaming channels, and more.
$5 a month: 15,000 hours of ad-supported programming. Includes everything in previous tier, plus original series, 4K/UHD viewing, premium moves, full tent-pole series, and more.
$10 a month: Everything in previous tiers, without ads.
According to Peacock, it’s hopeful that the reboot will premiere by the end of 2020. And even if it doesn’t premiere as planned, it’s alright ’cause I’m saved by the bell.
The long-gestating Fonzo, director Josh Trank’s film about gangster Al Capone starring Tom Hardy, has a new title, release date, and trailer.
Trank tweeted the first trailer for the retitled Capone with the reveal that the movie will be released on May 12. Trank noted the title change from Fonzo in his post: “Different title. My cut.”
Here’s the official statement on Capone’s VOD release:
“With theatres closed, Vertical Entertainment and Redbox Entertainment have teamed up to release CAPONE as a home premiere VOD release on May 12th with an on-demand 48-hour rental. The distributor is still hoping for a theatrical release later in the summer as things return to normal.”
Trank also tweeted that while Capone will debut on streaming, he hopes it will also receive a theatrical release later this year. Capone, the director explained, had initially been made for a theatrical release not streaming.
Capone follows the titular gangster’s later years after his release from federal incarceration, as he slowly loses his mind to the ravages of neurosyphilis. Here’s the official plot synopsis:
“Once a ruthless businessman and bootlegger who ruled Chicago with an iron fist, Alfonse Capone was the most infamous and feared gangster of American lore. At the age of 47, following nearly a decade of imprisonment, dementia rots Alfonse’s mind and his past becomes present. Harrowing memories of his violent and brutal origins melt into his waking life. As he spends his final year surrounded by family with the FBI lying in wait, this ailing patriarch struggles to place the memory of the location of millions of dollars he hid away on his property.”
It was revealed earlier today that Capone will be rated R “for strong/bloody violence, pervasive language and some sexuality” and that its domestic distributor is Vertical Entertainment.
This review contains mild spoilers for the What We Do in the Shadows Season 2 premiere, episodes 1 and 2, “Resurrection” and “Ghosts.” WWDITS airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on FX and the next day on Hulu.
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What We Do in the Shadows, FX’s fangtastic supernatural comedy, returns as sharp and absurd as ever in its second season, with our hapless vampires taking on real and existential threats, including ghosts, zombies, email spam, and the social minefield of a Super Bowl party.
After their run-in with the star-studded vampire council last season, life has mostly returned to normal for Nandor (Kayvan Novak), Laszlo (Matt Berry), and Nadja (Natasia Demetriou) as Season 2 kicks off – mostly because, unbeknownst to them, Nandor’s familiar Guillermo (Harvey Guillen) has been secretly taking out the vampire assassins sent by the council to punish them, protecting his ungrateful employers and trying to deny his heritage as a Van Helsing.
While Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja remain reliably frozen in time, just as self-obsessed, horny, and oblivious to human progress as ever, Guillermo’s personal growth continues to serve as the throughline to the series. He’s still adorably loyal to Nandor no matter how cruel he is to his human servant, but it’s clear that some friction is building as Guillermo becomes more proficient in the art of vampire slaying. The universe certainly seems to be telling him that it’s his destiny to rid the world of these suckers, not just fetch them virgins and clean the blood off their cloaks. This focus on Guillermo is an excellent showcase for Guillen, who can play long-suffering exasperation better than just about anyone else – but it’s those quiet, subtle moments, when you can see him considering just how easy it might be to simply stake his insufferable master, that lend the season a delicious bit of tension.
While these serialized elements help the show maintain a sense of momentum that was slightly lacking in Season 1 (the first four episodes of Season 2 were sent to critics), I’d honestly be just as satisfied and entertained by What We Do in the Shadows if every episode was just a series of self-contained vignettes as Nandor, Laszlo, and Nadja struggle to assimilate to human life or wrestle with modern conveniences. An upcoming episode that sees them forced to use a laptop proves to be one of the most hilarious installments to date, purely on the strength of Novak, Berry, and Demetriou’s increasingly unhinged performances. Not every joke lands, but the ones that do are usually gut-busters.
Like last season, the show smartly deploys a number of perfectly-utilized guest stars, kicking off with a hilariously douchey turn from Haley Joel Osment as Nadja and Laszlo’s obnoxious familiar Topher in the first episode, adding another layer of ridiculousness to the proceedings.
While Topher is mostly used as a device to highlight just how underappreciated Guillermo is, he does serve as a window into the wider supernatural world when he’s resurrected as a zombie after a surreal trip to a necromancer (who is basically running a zombie sweatshop in his basement – apparently there’s no escaping capitalism, even after death). The show seems eager to deepen its paranormal mythology in Season 2, as the second episode tackles the existence of ghosts. It makes total sense for the whimsical Nadja to be the only one who believes in other, kookier aspects of the occult, and it’s nice to see the show expanding on other creatures who might inhabit the world established in the movie, especially considering the existence of Wellington Paranormal – another Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement-created series set in the same universe – which also delves into the many other creepy creatures that humans are oblivious to.
On a related note, Mark Proksch’s scene-stealing energy vampire Colin Robinson remains a delight by being as mind-numbingly boring as possible, with the trailers hinting at a bigger storyline for him as the season progresses. Since energy vampires were an invention specifically for the show, there’s plenty of runway for the writers to experiment with Colin Robinson and his abilities, and since he’s a consistent scene-stealer, that can only be a good thing.
