The next season of Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale has been pushed to 2021 after COVID-19-related delays, The Wrap reports. The fourth season of the TV adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s novel was originally scheduled to premiere in the Fall.
After Season 3 finished airing in August 2019, the series returned to film Season 4 in Canada this March, with Elizabeth Moss preparing for her directorial debut. However, production was soon halted by the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shut down film and TV productions around the world.
As to when in 2021 we should expect the new season, the timeframe is still unclear. The show hasn’t got a date for when it can resume filming yet, which will be key for Hulu to pinpoint the show’s new premiere window.
Canada, where The Handmaid’s Tale shoots, is starting to open up to production again, with Manitoba, Quebec, and most of Ontario (excluding Toronto) now open for filming. However even with this green light, production can’t resume immediately–each region has implemented its own restrictions to be followed while filming, leaving production companies with some work to do to make sure their sets are compliant.
Two new Skate-related positions have appeared on EA’s job page, both looking for people to work at the company’s Vancouver, Canada studio. Both roles specify that they’re looking for people to work on the Skate franchise.
The first is a Tools and Pipeline Software Engineer position, which is seeking applicants with five or more years of experience in a similar role. The eventual hire will be tasked with building tools within the Frostbite engine, and will have to “create user interfaces to empower the team to interact with content.”
The second job is seeking someone with 12 or more years of experience. This position is the Head of Production Management for the Skate franchise, which is a leadership position. “As the Head of Product, your central responsibility will manage our Product, Data and Live Ops teams of experts,” the listing reads. “You will develop the talent on these teams and guide them to develop excellent, performant, cross-platform games.”
Both positions are taking applicants now.
Creative director Cuz Parry and game director Deran Chung, both of whom appeared in the initial announcement, are veterans of the series, so it’s safe to say that some of the folks that helped make the original trilogy iconic will be working on this game alongside new talent.
Skate 4 does not have a release date or confirmed platforms yet, but Skate 1-3 all released on PS3 and Xbox 360. A Wii spin-off, Skate It, released in 2008.
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Electronic Arts is ramping up its efforts in the world of sports games. EA Sports VP Cam Weber said during an EA “fireside chat” that the company is looking to release more sports titles annually than in the past. Currently, EA’s annual release slate covers new Madden, FIFA, and NHL games.
“We’re looking a little further ahead into the future. We definitely do expect to increase the number of sports games we launch each year,” Weber said.
Weber teased that EA Sports is currently working on multiple unannounced new sports games, and some of them are “familiar faces.”
“We have a number of new games in incubation or early pre-production. Some of them are familiar faces you might remember, and others are completely new,” he said.
The “familiar faces” line is intriguing. It’s widely rumored that EA will bring back its EA Sports UFC franchise this year, while another report mentioned that EA is reviving its golf games. The company for years worked with Tiger Woods on the PGA Tour series, but after the two companies split apart, EA signed PGA Tour player Rory McIlroy for a new franchise. However, it fizzled out after one release.
EA used to release NBA games, too, but the company canceled NBA Live 20 and announced it would bring the franchise back on next-gen consoles.
Also during the call, Weber said EA Sports is looking to “reach new players” with all of its sports games, and this could include releases in the “mid-core” and “casual” markets.
Weber said for mobile in particular, there is a “lot of growth ahead of us.” He said players can expect more “connected progression” between mobile and console/PC.
Weber pointed out on the call that EA currently has more than 400 sports league licenses, which help the company make sports games that appeal to players around the world.
The Super Smash Bros. Ultimate roster continues to grow with the addition of Min Min, the ramen fighter from Arms. She’ll join the roster on June 29. That’s not the only returning character of the day either: Crash is back in Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time.
Meanwhile, Play For All keeps on trucking. Play For All is multi-week summer gaming celebration and charity event featuring special guests like Troy Baker, Danny O’Dwyer, and many familiar GameSpot faces. We’ve already raised thousands of dollars for #BlackLivesMatter and COVID-19 Relief Efforts thanks to all of you! Be sure to tune in every day between 12PM and 2PM PST for interviews, livestreams, and everything in between.
Electronic Arts CEO Andrew Wilson shared some high level details on where the company is headed in the future, and betting could be on the horizon–but not anytime soon.
During a “fireside chat” with the company’s top management, Wilson said EA’s goal on a longer timeline is to reach players where they are as part of a bigger ambition to expand the company’s reach.
“On a slightly longer term time horizon, there are another couple of vectors we think will drive growth,” Wilson said. One of these is betting in some capacity, Wilson said.
“The skills and capabilities and experience that we have over 40 years in this industry has broad application to a great many industries,” he said. “You should think about the future of the consumption of sport. You should think about the future of consumption of entertainment. You should think about how we engage players throughout their daily lives with other things that are interesting to them that adjoin their gaming experience–one of those things might be betting.”
“These are on a longer-term time horizon but we have a number of projects incubating inside the company right now as we think about that one that five-year-plus time horizon.”
Wilson added that another growth vector for EA is its incredibly ambitious Atlas cloud service, which the publisher has more than 1,000 developers currently working on. Specifics about Atlas remain mysterious, but Wilson said the company will share this service with not only EA’s internal teams, but also outside studios. Additionally, EA could offer Atlas to other industries, markets, and categories outside of gaming, Wilson said.
On the subject of betting, EA has been criticized in the past for how some of its games use loot boxes, with some politicians and industry-watchers commenting that EA has created virtual slot machines. Whatever the case, these types of mechanics are incredibly lucrative already for EA. The company has made nearly $800 million from microtransactions–including Ultimate Team mode–already this year.
Betting on video games is a growing industry. Numerous Las Vegas bookmakers are currently taking bets on various competitive video games. It only makes sense that EA–and presumably other top publishers–would be looking at betting a growth category as they look to the future.
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Chris Avellone, a game designer who came to prominence in the ’90s following his work on Fallout 2, has been accused of sexual assault and harassment by multiple women, according to Gamasutra. Avellone has worked as a freelance writer after leaving developer Obsidian Entertainment in 2015, 12 years after he co-founded the studio with fellow ex-Black Isle Studio employees. Multiple studios he has recently worked with have now spoken out about his involvement with their projects.
Among the studios now addressing his work status is Paradox Interactive, which stated that none of Avellone’s contributions to Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 will be included in the game, although it appears this does not stem from the allegations. According to a Paradox representative, Avellone’s role in Vampire Bloodlines 2 was “brief” and whatever content he made for the game would not be used in any capacity. “Chris Avellone briefly worked with the Bloodlines 2 writing team early in the development of the game,” Paradox said. “Through an iterative creative process, however, none of his contributions remain in the game that Hardsuit Labs is continuing to develop.” Paradox didn’t specifically comment on the allegations made against Avellone.
Dying Light 2 developer Techland, in a statement on Twitter, said it has stopped working with Avellone amid the allegations. “We treat matters of sexual harassment and disrespect with [the] utmost care, and have no tolerance for such behaviors–it applies to both our employees as well as external consultants, Chris among them,” Techland said. “This is why, together with Chris Avellone, we’ve decided to end our cooperation.” Avellone had served as a writer on Techland’s upcoming zombie-parkour survival game.
Another developer he was writing for, Gato Studio, has cut ties with him, and his work on it will be re-evaluated.
“Chris Avellone is no longer associated with Gato Salvaje Studio or the Waylanders project,” Gato Studio said in a Twitter statement. “Chris was brought on as a design contractor on The Waylanders. As of last week, Chris’s contract is complete and the content provided will be assessed as development progress.”
According to Gato Studio writer Emily Grace Buck, Chris is “no longer on the project,” with Buck revealing she was the lead writer all along. “Waylanders has very little writing by him as it stands, and I’ll be taking a look at his scenes,” Buck said. “No one on the team knew anything about this. We’re handling it, and I’m open to feedback.”
The allegations, in which multiple women said he used his influence to coerce nonconsensual relations with women looking to break into the games industry, came to light over the weekend on social media. Avellone has not issued a public statement on the matter, though he has responded to certain tweets.
In 2017, Ready at Dawn started working with the Facebook-owned Oculus Studios on the Rift titles Lone Echo, Echo Arena, and Echo Combat. Echo Combat II is currently in development for Rift.
At Facebook, Ready at Dawn will continue developing “groundbreaking content” for virtual reality. “With Facebook’s latest advancements in VR technology, Ready At Dawn can readily explore a future of rich and immersive original VR content,” Facebook said in its news release announcing the buyout.
Ready at Dawn will continue to operate as an independent studio, Facebook said, and the company won’t move offices; they will stay at their current locations in Irvine, California and Portland, Oregon.
Facebook has been ramping up its game studio acquisitions of late. In addition to Ready at Dawn, the company owns Beat Saber developer Beat Games and Sonic and Spyro developer Sanzaru Games.
Did you catch these pre-MCU Marvel references in Tobey Maguire’s first Spider-Man movie?
Ah, Spider-Man. While the MCU era may have bolstered the popularity of dozens upon dozens of Marvel heroes over the years, Peter Parker sits pretty as the most famous of them all–and for good reason. His story has been adapted over and over, his look is iconic, his powers are so deeply ingrained in pop culture they need no preamble or explanation–he’s the poster boy for superhero comics, and likely always will be.
Of course, Peter Parker’s popularity pre-dates the live action movie boom–but we can’t discount just how much of an impact his movies have had over the years. 2002’s Spider-Man may not have debuted Peter on the big screen (that was 1977’s made-for-TV movie Spider-Man) but its record-breaking box office success solidified it forever in the pop culture pantheon. Tobey Maguire became a generation’s ideal Peter Parker, despite being well into his 20s as he played the web-slinging teen.
Now, 18 years after its premiere and with a brand new Spider-Man game heading for the PS5 this holiday season, we were left wondering whether or not Tobey’s Spider-Man debut actually holds up–and just how many Easter Eggs and references to Marvel we’d be able to spot now that the MCU has brought the Marvel Comics universe so heavily into the spotlight. The answer is pretty surprising–it turns out pre-MCU Marvel movies were a lot less interested in cramming comics references into every frame than we’re used to now–but our quest to unearth the secrets of Spider-Man turned up plenty of weird, wonderful trivia nonetheless.
Does it actually hold up? That’s for you to decide. Check out these 24 Spider-Man Easter eggs and let us know your favorites in the comments below.
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1. Directed by Sam Raimi
According to the book Comic Book Movies by David Hughes, Sam Raimi was one name among many on MGM’s short list of potential directors. With him were names you’ll no doubt recognize like Ang Lee, M. Night Shyamalan, Roland Emmerich, and David Fincher. Fincher, reportedly, nearly did make the movie–but he wanted to focus on Gwen Stacey’s death rather than an origin story, so the studio went a different direction.
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2. The Opening Narration
By now, Peter Parker breaking the fourth wall and addressing the audience with omniscient narration at the start of his movies is basically a tradition–look no further than Into The Spider-Verse for the trope carried out to maximum effect–but it all started here, with Tobey Maguire.
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3. Midtown High
There are shockingly few Marvel deep cuts in this movie–at least by modern day MCU standards. Most background signs and place names are made up exclusively for this film. One of the major exceptions, however, is Peter’s high school. Midtown High comes directly from comic book Peter’s teenage years.
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4. The Spider-Camo
This movie pre-dates the introduction of Miles Morales by 9 years but one of his most iconic and unique spider-abilities–the power to camouflage himself with his surroundings–is actually discussed at length here in the movie, despite Peter not winding up with that particular mutation this time around.
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5. Oscorp
Oscorp is shown as a giant, smoke-spewing factory here in the movie, which is unique–in every other Spider-Man film, and typically in the comics, Oscorp is headquartered in a sleek skyscraper similar to Avengers Tower.
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6. Green Goblin
Norman Osborn was almost not in the film. The original draft of the script made use of Electro and Sandman as the main villains. Sandman was eventually incorporated into Spider-Man 3 but Electro would have to wait until the second Andrew Garfield movie to make his big screen debut.
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7. The Lunch Tray
The scene where Peter catches MJ and her lunch in the cafeteria is, shockingly, not CGI. John Dykstra, the head of the VFX team for the film, confirmed that it was done practically with only some adhesive to secure the tray to Tobey’s hand. It took 156 takes.
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8. Organic Web Shooters
The (pretty disgusting) concept for Peter’s organic web shooters was actually James Cameron’s idea, apparently. Thanks, Jim.
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9. Flash Thompson
Flash Thompson is played by a virtually unrecognizable Joe Manganiello–a name you’ll recognize from things like True Blood and Magic Mike. It’s really no wonder why no one remembers him being in this movie.
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10. Web slinging
Peter tries out a handful of familiar superhero catch phrases when trying to make his web shooting work on purpose for the first time–the gag being that the character catchphrases he uses are all from DC Comics, including Superman (“up, up, and away web!”) and Captain Marvel (“Shazam!”).
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11. The Stingray
One of Peter’s costume sketches is actually a reference to an obscure Marvel hero called The Stingray. Don’t worry if you’ve never heard of him–there isn’t much to know. He was introduced back in 1967. Sometimes he works with Namor. He wears an exo-suit that allows him to work underwater. That’s pretty much it.
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12. Bonesaw McGraw
Randy Savage’s iconic character wrestler Bonesaw McGraw was invented for the movie. In the Spider-Man comics, Peter faces off against a wrestler named Crusher Hogan.
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13. Bruce Campbell
Bruce Campbell has a cameo in every one of Raimi’s Spider-Man movies. Here he can be seen as the ring announcer for Peter’s match.
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14. Octavia Spencer
A pre-breakout Octavia Spencer (The Shape of Water, Hidden Figures) plays the woman who registers Peter for the wrestling competition.
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15. Quest Aerospace
Oscorp’s competition, Quest Aerospace, was invented for the fim and, strangely enough, never made the jump to Marvel Comics even after the movie broke box office records.
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16. Lucy Lawless
Another big-name cult cameo–Xena herself, Lucy Lawless, shows up during the talking head interview segments as “punk girl,” who thinks Spider-Man has 8 hands.
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17. Eddie the Photographer
J. Jonah Jameson and the Bugle are introduced almost exactly halfway through the film where, mid-rant about what a menace to society Spider-Man is, one of JJJ’s subordinates explains that “Eddie’s been trying to get a picture of him for weeks.” This is a reference to Eddie Brock, who wouldn’t be properly introduced until Spider-Man 3.
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18. Betsy Brant
Ned Leeds doesn’t exist in these early Spider-Man movies but his wife, Betsy Brant, does, in her comic book accurate role as a Daily Bugle reporter played by a pre-breakout Elizabeth Banks.
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19. SFX Goof
In the shot of Peter swinging away from Times Square with Mary Jane in his arms, he is shown swinging from left to right while Mary Jane’s hair blows back from her face as if they’re swinging from right to left. She’s also very clearly holding on to a Spider-Man mannequin, but we’ll forgive 2002 for that one.
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20. Nearly Goblins
According to Amazon’s X-Ray commentary feature, before Willem Dafoe was offered the role of Green Goblin, Bill Paxton, Mel Gibson, Nick Cage, Charlie Sheen, John Travolta, and John Malkovich were considered for the role.
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21. The Spider-Kiss
Now considered one of Spider-Man’s most iconic moments, the upside down kiss in the rain actually originated here in this movie. Apparently it was a nightmare to film and Tobey’s nose kept getting flooded with water. Gross.
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22. Fin Fang Foom?
One of the more eccentric masks in the Osborn household looks like a very oddly rendered model of Fin Fang Foom’s head, one of Marvel’s weirder villains: A giant, green dragon.
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23. The Bridge Scene
The scene in which Spider-Man is forced to choose between saving MJ and saving a cable car full of children was adapted from one of Peter’s most famous fights with Green Goblin in the comics. In the comics version, however, the scene on the bridge is done with Gwen Stacey and ultimately results in her death.
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24. Norman’s “death”
Norman being impaled by the spikes on his own glider is taken directly from Norman’s first death in the comics in The Amazing Spider-Man 122. To be clear, Norman definitely did die for real here in the movie universe–but he was resurrected (several times over) in the comics. You know how these things tend to happen.
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This portion of The Last of Us Part Two guide includes all collectible locations in Chapter 10: Santa Barbara – The Resort. This includes all Artifacts, Workbenches, Safes, and Collectible Coins. Remember that you can revisit any chapter section to replay an area and collect missing items by returning to the main menu and selecting a chapter once you have completed it.
The Resort Collectibles Overview
View the sections below to locate a collectible in the order they are found.
Artifacts: 2
Trading Cards: 1
Journal Entries: 1
Workbenches: 1
Journal Entry – Rattler Van
After passing the train ticket station, there are more Rattlers patrolling outside the cafe. Once they’re all dead, approach the van with the Rattler graffiti. Interact with it to add it to your journal.
Artifact – Santa Barbara Slave Note
After climbing up the tank truck and seeing where you need to go you’ll automatically drop down to the other sidewalk forward and go to the crate and cargo on the far left (before continuing through the fence). While looting supplies turn around and look at the dead body. To the right of that body is a barrel with a note attached to it.
Workbench Location – Inside the Garden Shack Near the Chained Runner
After killing the Rattlers, enter the shack to upgrade your weapons one last time at the final workbench.
Trading Card – Sparkthug
Near the workbench. Go through a door in the building to the left of where you entered from the fence. To the right of the doorway is a small table where you can find the final trading card.
Artifact – Rattler’s Letter Home
Enter the mansion near the empty pool with chained infected reach the top. Go up the spiral staircase and keep alongside the banister until you see the mattress, shelves, and nightstand. On the nightstand, by the lantern, is the final note to collect.
Looking for more Collectibles in The Last of Us Part Two? Find even more artifacts and trading cards in Chapter 10’s 2425 Constance and Pushing Inland. Be sure to also check out our complete The Last of Us 2 Collectible Hub to find every secret in every chapter and location.
This portion of The Last of Us Part Two guide includes all collectible locations in Chapter 10: Santa Barbara – Pushing Inland. This includes all Artifacts, Workbenches, Safes, and Collectible Coins. Remember that you can revisit any chapter section to replay an area and collect missing items by returning to the main menu and selecting a chapter once you have completed it.
Pushing Inland Collectibles Overview
View the sections below to locate a collectible in the order they are found.
Artifacts: 3
Trading Cards: 1
Journal Entries: 1
Workshops: 1
Artifact – Abby’s Note
You start this section on a boat. Immediately turn left and pick up the note on the counter.
Artifact – Mansion Note
Once you get up to the street from the beach below, start moving down the road – being wary of infected (including Stalkers!). Look for a U-Haul outside a garage, and head right to enter the open garage where you can find a note.
Trading Card – CBB-73
Climb up to the roof of the mansion at the top of the hill, and look for a way in through the second floor. Search the floor for a bedroom, and approach the white desk in the bedroom. Pick up the trading card to add to your collection.
Artifact – Runaway Warning
After defeating all infected in the lower part of the mansion, check the island table in the kitchen (1st floor) and pick up the note.
Workbench Location – Mansion Kitchen (1st Floor)
After all threats in the mansion have been cleared, move into the large kitchen area. There’s a workbench in the mansion kitchen.
Journal Entry – 2425 Constance
When you’re outside, after crawling through the hole as you left the mansion, look at the view (when prompted to press L3) to sketch.
Looking for more Collectibles in The Last of Us Part Two? Find even more artifacts and trading cards in Chapter 10’s 2425 Constance and The Resort. Be sure to also check out our complete The Last of Us 2 Collectible Hub to find every secret in every chapter and location.
