Author: Trafficblast

Netflix In February 2020: New Movies, TV Shows, And Originals To Binge

For February 2020, Netflix is releasing plenty of content you’ll want to check out, from ’80s comedies about an academy for police officers to original series, like one about aliens abducting a horse enthusiast. The streaming service–which has an interesting way to calculate views–is offering its subscribers more movies, TV shows, and original programming than they can handle for the month of February. Check out the full list of the month’s releases and a few of our recommendations.

Locke & Key is the latest comic book adaptation to hit Netflix, arriving on February 7. Based on the Joe Hill and Gabriel Rodriguez comic of the same name, Locke & Key follows a widow and her children as they move into their ancestral home after the mysterious murder of the patriarch of the family. Inside this house are mysterious keys with mystical powers that have some connection to the murdered father. You can watch the first trailer here.

Season 2 of Altered Carbon arrives on February 27. The sci-fi series returns, and a teaser was recently revealed for the show. Anthony Mackie stars in the new episodes as main character Takeshi Kovacs. In a show about transferring consciousnesses into new bodies, recasting the star of the show isn’t a big deal. Netflix’s official synopsis of the series has arrived as well: “Altered Carbon Season 2 finds Takeshi Kovacs, the lone surviving soldier of a group of elite interstellar warriors, continuing his centuries-old quest to find his lost love Quellcrist Falconer. After decades of planet-hopping and searching the galaxy, Kovacs finds himself recruited back to his home planet of Harlan’s World with the promise of finding Quell. Haunted by his past and responsible for investigating a series of brutal murders, Kovacs is stunned to discover his new mission to solve the crime and his pursuit to find Quell are one and the same. With the help of his loyal A.I. Poe, Kovacs must now partner with new allies to outwit his enemies and find the truth: Who is Quellcrist Falconer?”

If you’re looking for a bunch of ’80s comedies that probably haven’t aged well at all–because they weren’t that great to begin with–seven Police Academy movies hit Netflix on February 1. You can relive all the wacky adventures of your favorite characters you barely remember like Mahoney, Hightower, Tackleberry, and more. Personally, I recommend the fourth film in the franchise, Citizens on Patrol (its acronym is C.O.P., get it?), as the movie features David Spade as an ’80s skateboarder.

Below, you’ll find all of this month’s releases for Netflix. If you’re looking for more streaming news, check out everything coming to Hulu in February.

What’s new to Netflix in February 2020?

February 1

  • A Bad Moms Christmas
  • A Little Princess
  • Back to the Future Part III
  • Blade Runner: The Final Cut
  • Center Stage
  • Cookie’s Fortune
  • Dear John
  • The Dirty Dozen
  • Dirty Harry
  • Driving Miss Daisy
  • Elizabeth
  • Elizabeth: The Golden Age
  • Fools Rush In
  • Hancock
  • Love Jacked
  • The Notebook
  • The Other Guys
  • The Pianist
  • Police Academy
  • Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
  • Police Academy 3: Back in Training
  • Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol
  • Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach
  • Police Academy 6: City Under Siege
  • Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow
  • Purple Rain
  • Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves
  • Scary Movie 2
  • Sex and the City 2

February 3

  • Sordo
  • Team Kaylie: Part 3

February 4

  • Faith, Hope & Love
  • She Did That
  • Tom Papa: You’re Doing Great!

February 5

  • Black Hollywood: ‘They’ve Gotta Have Us’
  • #cats_the_mewvie
  • The Pharmacist
  • Uppity: The Willy T. Ribbs Story

February 6

  • Cagaster of an Insect Cage

February 7

  • The Ballad of Lefty Brown
  • Dragons: Rescue Riders: Season 2
  • Horse Girl
  • Locke & Key
  • My Holo Love
  • Who Killed Malcolm X?

February 8

The Coldest Game

February 9

  • Better Call Saul: Season 4
  • Captain Underpants Epic Choice-o-Rama
  • Polaroid

February 11

  • Good Time
  • CAMINO A ROMA
  • Q Ball

February 12

  • Anna Karenina
  • To All the Boys: P.S. I Still Love You

February 13

  • Dragon Quest Your Story
  • Love is Blind
  • Narcos: Mexico: Season 2

February 14

  • Cable Girls: Final Season
  • Isi & Ossi
  • A Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon

February 15

  • Starship Troopers

February 17

  • The Expanding Universe of Ashley Garcia

February 19

  • Chef Show: Volume 3

February 20

February 21

  • A Haunted House
  • Babies
  • Gentefied
  • Glitch Tech
  • Puerta 7
  • System Crasher

February 22

  • Girl On The Third Floor

February 23

  • Full Count

February 25

  • Every Time I Die

February 26

  • I Am Not Okay With This

February 27

  • Altered Carbon: Season 2
  • The Angry Birds Movie 2
  • Followers
  • Pokémon: Mewtwo Strikes Back—Evolution

February 28

  • All The Bright Places
  • Babylon Berlin: Season 3
  • Formula 1: Drive to Survive: Season 2
  • Jeopardy!: Celebrate Alex Collection
  • Jeopardy!: Cindy Stowell Collection
  • Jeopardy!: Seth Wilson Collection
  • La trinchera infinita
  • Queen Sono
  • Restaurants on the Edge
  • Unstoppable

February 29

  • Jerry Maguire

Leaving Netflix in February

February 11

  • Clouds of Sils Maria

February 14

  • District 9

February 15

  • Milk
  • Operator
  • Peter Rabbit

February 18

  • The 2000s: Season 1

February 19

  • Charlotte’s Web
  • Gangs of New York
  • The Eighties: Season 1
  • The Nineties: Season 1
  • The Seventies: Season 1

February 20

February 21

  • The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

February 26

  • Our Idiot Brother

February 27

  • Jeopardy!: Buzzy Cohen Collection
  • Jeopardy!: College Championship II
  • Jeopardy!: Teachers’ Tournament II
  • Jeopardy!: Teen Tournament III
  • Jeopardy!: Tournament of Champions III

February 28

  • My Little Pony Equestria Girls: Rainbow Rocks
  • Primal Fear
  • Trainspotting

February 29

  • 50/50
  • American Beauty
  • Anger Management
  • Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
  • Free Willy
  • Hustle & Flow
  • Igor
  • Layer Cake
  • Rachel Getting Married
  • Stripes
  • The Matrix
  • The Matrix Reloaded
  • The Matrix Revolutions
  • The Mind of a Chef: Season 1-5
  • The Taking of Pelham 123
  • Up in the Air

Now Playing: New On Netflix In January 2020 – Best Movies And TV Shows To Watch!

These Animal Crossing-Themed Switch Controllers Are Too Cute

Come March 20, Animal Crossing: New Horizons will probably consume my life. While I’ll likely play mostly in handheld mode due to convenience, a pair of freshly announced Nintendo Switch controllers look to offer the cutest way to play in console mode. Listings for two Animal Crossing-themed wireless controllers popped up at Amazon, and both of them are calling my name.

Animal Crossing Switch controller featuring Nooklings
Animal Crossing Switch controller featuring Nooklings

Designed by third-party manufacturer Power A, the controllers release March 10 for $50 each. The first design is green with a New Leaf logo pattern and a Timmy and Tommy Nook graphic on the right handle.

Animal Crossing Switch controller featuring K.K. Slider
Animal Crossing Switch controller featuring K.K. Slider

The second design has a more varied pattern–fish, butterflies, fruit, etc.–and everyone’s favorite musician K.K. Slider on the right handle. Both controllers have the Animal Crossing logo emblazoned above the start and home buttons.

We’ve tested out multiple PowerA Switch controllers in the past and found them to be a great third-party option; they even made our list of the best Nintendo Switch accessories.

The controllers mimic the layout of the Pro controller, but they aren’t exactly the same when it comes to features. Power A controllers require AA batteries and last roughly 30 hours before you need to pop new ones in. They also lack the Pro controller’s rumble feature and NFC functionality for Amiibo. If you can get past those concessions, Power A controllers have an awesome bonus feature: two additional triggers on the back that can be mapped to your liking with a programmable button.

These controllers aren’t the first themed offerings from Power A. The accessory manufacturer has made designs based on a number of popular franchises, including Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, Spyro, and Pokemon. A Doom Eternal design is also up for pre-order and releases alongside the Animal Crossing controllers on March 10.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Star Wars: The Clone Wars Launches February On Disney+

Disney has dropped a new trailer for Star Wars: The Clone Wars, which returns for one final season exclusively on Disney+ this February.

The trailer comes accompanied by a new key art poster, featuring Annakin, Obi-Wan, Ahsoka Tano, and Darth Maul, as well as a collection of Clone Troopers. The logo predominantly declares that this is the final season, and is accompanied by the February 21 release date.

Star Wars The Clone Wars poster key art

Like The Mandalorian, the episodes are streaming “beginning Friday, February 21”, indicating a week-by-week rollout rather than a Netflix-style full season drop. The Clone Wars will be made up of twelve new episodes, exploring the events leading up to Revenge of the Sith.

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If you’re looking to catch up on The Clone Wars, check out our correct episode order guide, as well as our look at the connection between the show and The Mandalorian. And if you’re worried about fan-favourite character Ahsoka’s fate, don’t worry: Gandalf has a few words for you.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Netflix’s New Mystery Movie Horse Girl Gets A Seriously Weird Trailer

One of the best things about Netflix moving into producing and distributing its own movies is not having to wait very long to see them. This is especially true in the case of smaller, stranger films that might previously take months–or years–to be released following their festival debuts. The mind-bending mystery Horse Girl is a case in point–the movie is set to premiere at the Sundance festival next week and will hit Netflix less than two weeks later. The first trailer has now been released.

Horse Girl stars Alison Brie (GLOW, Community) as a socially awkward young woman called Sarah, who enjoys zumba, horses, and dining out with her new boyfriend. But it seems she has a dark family history, with her grandmother having undergone some very strange, possibly alien-related experiences when she was a similar age. Sure enough, Sarah also starts experiencing weird visions and impromptu nosebleeds, as fantasy and reality start blending into each other. To be honest, it’s hard to work out exactly what’s going on, but it looks like an intriguing Lynchian mystery. Check the trailer out below.

Horse Girl also stars Molly Shannon (the Hotel Transylvania movies), John Ortiz (Kong: Skull Island), Robin Tunney (The Mentalist), and Jay Duplass (Togetherness). It’s helmed by Jeff Baena, who previously directed Brie and Shannon in the comedy The Little Hours. It hits Netflix on February 7. For more, erm, horse cinema coverage, check out GameSpot’s look at all the heartwarming horsie movies to enjoy on Disney+.

In related news, it was reported this week that Netflix has changed the way it counts its viewers. While watching 70% of any title previously counted as a view, two minutes is now all viewers have to watch for it to count. This followed the company’s announcement that 83 million people check out its recent action movie 6 Underground–but how many got past the two minute mark is unknown.

Xbox Game Pass For Xbox One Adding Four More Games In January

Xbox Game Pass is adding another four games to its Xbox One library over the remainder of January, including a few recent favorites. This comes just after Microsoft announced another set of PC games on the service. As always, the two lineups can be had with separate subscriptions, or one combined “Ultimate” subscription.

According to the post on the Major Nelson blog, the console version of the service will get A Plague Tale: Innocence and Indivisible on January 23, followed by Sea Salt and Fishing Sim World: Pro Tour on January 30.

A Plague Tale comes as no surprise since it was just announced for the PC service, but it’s still a treat as it was one of GameSpot’s best games of 2019. Indivisible also received a warm reception, especially for its lovely art style, creative combat system, and representation of Southeast Asian culture. Sea Salt is an action-strategy game in which you play as an elder god punishing humanity for defying you. Fishing Sim World is exactly what it says on the tin–a detailed simulation of everyone’s favorite way to sport while you nap.

In aaddition to A Plague Tale, the PC version of Game Pass also recently announced Children of Morta and Gris. A number of games are preparing to rotate out of the subscription soon, including Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor, Resident Evil 4, Saint’s Row the Third, The Division, and Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition.

Xbox Game Pass is an all-you-can-eat subscription service, granting a library of roughly 100 games. The Xbox One and PC libraries are slightly different, and you can subscribe to either one individually for $10 per month. Game Pass Ultimate combines the two, and also includes a subscription to Xbox Live Gold, for $15 per month. Check out some of our recommendations if you’re just getting started.

Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One

  • A Plague Tale: Innocence — January 23
  • Indivisible — January 23
  • Sea Salt — January 30
  • Fishing Sim World: Pro Tour — January 30

Leaving Xbox Game Pass Soon

  • Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
  • Resident Evil 4
  • Saint’s Row the Third
  • The Division
  • Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition

Now Playing: A Plague Tale: Innocence | Best Games Of 2019

Halo Co-Creator Left Bungie Due In Part To The Life-Altering Crunch

One of the reasons why Halo co-creator Marcus Lehto left Bungie was because of the extended periods of crunch that negatively impacted his life. Speaking during a roundtable interview for his new game, Disintegration, Lehto said his new studio, V1 Interactive, is taking a stance against crunch and trying to do right by its employees for their health and happiness.

“One of the reasons I left Bungie–and I know one of the reasons people from the industry have joined us here at V1–is that many of us have seen the bad side of extended crunch periods that would go on for months and months … and what kind of human toll that took,” Lehto explained. “We don’t want to experience that, we don’t want to replicate that at all again [at V1]. So at V1, one of our primary goals with the studio is making sure that we create an atmosphere where everybody is intimately involved with what we’re working on, so there is a lot of responsibility on everybody’s shoulders. And everybody wears several hats.”

“We also value, incredibly, the health of everybody here–both physically and mentally. Making sure they have that time outside the office to be with their family,” Lehto added. “And we support them to be home when they need to be home, to go to their kids’ school concerts and to have the weekends to themselves. That is a very important part to me, and it’s one thing we’ve extended to everyone here at the studio.”

“We also value, incredibly, the health of everybody here–both physically and mentally.” — Marcus Lehto

Lehto assured people that he and his team work hard, while he also acknowledged that the team pushes extra hard when milestones come up. However, these periods of extended working hours are limited to around “a week or so.”

“It’s not like we don’t work hard–we work really hard. And at the end of every milestone, we maybe spend a week or so working extra hours,” he said.

This kind of intense work schedule, so long as it doesn’t lead to burn-out, can actually be a good thing, Lehto said. That’s because it brings the team even closer together as they collectively grind on a particular objective. So long as these periods of crunch are few and far between, this can be a positive, Lehto said.

Bungie is known for its periods of crunch. Engineering boss Luke Timmins recalled to GI.biz in 2017 how the 18 months leading up to the release of Halo 2 in 2004 were “brutal” and nearly destroyed Bungie. The developer was crunching for nearly the entire 18 months, he said, and during that time, developers were spending at least 50 hours per week.

“The Halo 2 crunch almost killed Bungie as a company,” he said. “It is the most I’ve ever seen humans work in a year and a half. It was brutal.”

Bungie is said to have adopted policies and practices after that to lessen the instances of crunch, but it still happened. For the first Destiny, there was a “department-wide crunch” for the engineering team, Timmins said, though the team never had to crunch on any of the game’s numerous expansions. Destiny 2 also had no “full, enforced crunch,” he said.

In 2019, following Bungie’s split from Activision for the Destiny series, Bungie announced it would delay a Destiny 2 patch so its developers did not have to crunch.

As for Lehto, he left Bungie in 2012 while the original Destiny was just getting started.

Going back to Lehto’s new game, Disintegration, the first beta test for the FPS launches on January 28–here’s how to sign up. The game, which is made by a team of around 30 people, mixes FPS and strategy elements to create a type of game that Lehto says has never existed before. You fly around the map on a “grav-cycle” while simultaneously commanding soldiers on the ground. Check out the gameplay footage above to see Disintegration in action.

Here are some other things Lehto said about Disintegration:

  • The “incredibly ambitious” campaign will take you around 9-10 hours to complete, though it could stretch into the mid-teens depending on how you play
  • There will be no ranked multiplayer or stat-tracking at launch, though this could be added down the road
  • There will be microtransactions that allow players to customize their grav-cycles
  • It’s possible V1 will support the PS5 and Xbox Series X down the road, but nothing is confirmed yet. The same is true for Nintendo Switch

Disintegration is published by Private Division, the independent games label run by Grand Theft Auto parent company Take-Two. Private Division also published Obsidian’s The Outer Worlds and Assassin’s Creed creator Patrice Desilets’ new game, Ancestors.

Now Playing: Disintegration – Technical Beta Gameplay Trailer

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The Witcher TV Show Is A “Massive New Franchise” For Netflix, CEO Says

The Witcher is really, really popular–so much so that Netflix’s CEO gave it special mention above all others during the company’s latest earnings report. Reed Hastings not only called out The Witcher as the company’s latest big win, he described the series as a “massive new franchise.” He also suggested that it will continue to live on for years and years.

Hastings said he was really happy with The Witcher’s performance and that it helped Netflix end 2019 “on a high note.” He described the show as a “massive new franchise that will develop season after season.”

His line about “season after season” suggests that Netflix is keen to invest in The Witcher for a number of seasons to come. Netflix believed in The Witcher from early on, as the company greenlit the second season before the first even premiered.

Season 2 is expected to debut in 2021, and it seems Season 3 may follow after that, though no announcements have been made.

The Witcher Season 1 was viewed by 76 million accounts over its first four weeks, and the show is tracking to become Netflix’s “biggest” season one of any Netflix show ever. Netflix recently changed how it counts viewers, so the numbers are inflated–but still impressive.

Mortal Kombat Kollection Rated for Multiple Platforms by European Ratings Agency

A collection of Mortal Kombat remasters that Warner Bros. reportedly pulled the plug on back in early 2019 appears to have been resurrected, based on a new rating spotted in the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) database. Mortal Kombat Kollection Online, for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch, has been rated PEGI 18 due to “frequent strong violence.” The entry can still be found in the PEGI rating database at the time of writing.

pegi-rating-mk

The explanatory text provided alongside the new PEGI rating describes Mortal Kombat Kollection Online as “the original Mortal Kombat trilogy that MK fans always wanted” and makes reference to “[u]pgraded art, gameplay, and online features.”

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In April 2019 it was reported that Blind Squirrel Games (BioShock: The Collection, Forklift Simulator 2019) had been preparing to work on a remastered collection of the first three Mortal Kombat games following a successful pitch to Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon, but Warner Bros. quickly opted not to have Blind Squirrel Games continue on the project. WB reportedly claimed it could not “trust development of such an important project to a team without any completed game titles.”

The PEGI scheme covers the bulk of Europe and the UK (and Israel) in a similar fashion to North America’s Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB).

There’s certainly plenty going on in the Mortal Kombat realm at the moment, with Joker joining the Mortal Kombat 11 roster next week, production on the upcoming live-action film reboot wrapping last month, and the recent announcement of the new animated movie Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge.

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Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.