Fans of Jordan Peele’s psychological horror hit Us will be happy/terrified to hear the film’s been adapted into a haunted house maze for Universal Studios’ 29th annual Halloween Horror Nights event.
Those who’ve spent hours attempting to decipher the movie’s many mysteries, however, should not enter the attraction anticipating answers to their burning questions about the Tethered or the film’s twist ending.
Moviegoers have grown increasingly accustomed to new releases including an end credits scene, even for movies that wouldn’t seem likely to have one. With fans wondering if they should stick around after IT Chapter Two’s nearly three-hour run time (beyond obviously watching the credits to honor the many people who worked hard to make the movie), we’re here to report that, no, there is no end credits scene after the film — likely because there are no definite plans to make any kind of IT Chapter Two sequel.
There’s a good reason people might be wondering whether IT Chapter Two has a post-credits scene: its predecessor, 2017’s IT, had one. That stinger offered a clue that the saga of the Losers’ Club was not yet over, as the high-pitched cackle of Pennywise the clown was heard over the final seconds of the end credits.
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Xbox Game Pass has been kicking around the Xbox One for quite some time, but back in June, Xbox sweetened the pot with Xbox Game Pass for PC and Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. All of the different options can get a little confusing, and with the release of Gears 5, you might be wondering which plan you should subscribe to. There are a bunch of different benefits for each one, so we’ve compiled everything you need to know about Xbox’s Game Pass offerings.
The first of the subscriptions introduced was Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One. With it, you get access to a library of over 200 games, including all first-party titles when they launch. At the moment, these include Gears 5, Forza Horizon 4, Sea of Thieves, and much more. The entire Gears of War series is also available through Game Pass.
New games are added and removed all the time. Thankfully, if you want to keep the games that leave Game Pass, you’ll be happy to know that members get discounts on all Game Pass games.
Xbox Game Pass for PC works exactly like it does on the Xbox One. You get access to over 100 games every month and exclusive deals if you want to keep any of them. There are unique games on each platform, though much of the library does cross over. Almost all of Xbox’s first-party titles are available on PC, including Gears 5. Game Pass for PC offers quite a few titles that many would consider better on PC. These include games like Age of Empires Definitive Edition, Metro Exodus, and Prey.
Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One costs $10 USD / $12 CAD / £8 a month.
Xbox Game Pass for PC goes for $5 USD / $6 CAD / £4 a month. That is, however, an introductory price and will raise to $10 USD / $12 CAD / £8 a month eventually. However, at the moment, you can join Xbox Game Pass for PC with your first month only costing $1 / £1.
Sign-up for Xbox Game Pass for Xbox One
Sign-up for Xbox Game Pass for PC
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is exactly what it says it is: the ultimate subscription if you want all of the benefits Xbox currently offers. That even includes Xbox Live Gold, which has its own set of bonuses–free monthly games, online multiplayer, and exclusive deals.
With Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you gain access to both the Xbox One and PC Game Pass libraries–over 300 games. Other bonuses also become available over time, such as access to Gears 5: Ultimate Edition on September 6–regular Game Pass subscribers only have access to the standard edition when it launches on September 10.
At this moment, you can get your first two months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $2 / £2–you can also get one month for $1 / £1. Of course, this limited-time deal is only available to new subscribers. The regular cost of a monthly subscription is $15 USD / $17 CAD / £11.
The recently released Gears 5 is available through all of the Game Pass options, and there are much more to check out on both Xbox One and PC. Some of the latest releases are pictured below, but you can also see the full Xbox Game Pass list here.
Nintendo followed the lead of Xbox and PlayStation by offering a paid subscription service for online play on the Nintendo Switch. The Nintendo Switch Online service offers online multiplayer and some other perks like cloud saves, but the real deal-sweetener has come from a large library of NES and Super NES games available to play through dedicated emulator apps.
Aside from simply being a handy place to play a ton of classic games, the NES and Super NES emulation has a few extra bells and whistles. You can suspend or rewind game states to give yourself extra chances at getting past those tricky challenges. Plus, sometimes Nintendo releases “SP” versions of games, which grant you a save file with extras to give you a leg up on the competition.
For the service’s first year, the initial batch of NES games were joined by a handful each month. To mark in the first anniversary, Nintendo introduced Super NES games as well. At the same time, the company announced it would no longer be releasing new batches of games on a monthly basis, so we expect the pace of new retro releases to slow.
Check below for the full lineup of NES and Super NES offered through the service so far. Note that this list is based on the North American NES library, and Japan offers some different games.
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Gears 5 has been experiencing server and stability issues since its early access launch, with users seeing frequent disconnects and missing content. Developer The Coalition says it is working to resolve the problems plaguing the third-person shooter.
Gears 5 unlocked for Ultimate Edition owners and Xbox Games Pass Ultimate subscribers on September 5, a few days ahead of its official September 10 launch. Since this is an early access release, the game has been experiencing a number of issues, including long searches and connection errors, players getting kicked from Campaign, missing Ultimate Edition content, and more. The Coalition, in a series of tweets, confirmed that it is aware of these issues and actively working to address them.
The team are continuing to work on a resolution to this issue. We hope to have firm updates to share soon.
Thanks for your patience! https://t.co/BgZ6PE7S8P— The Coalition Studio (@CoalitionGears) September 6, 2019
One solution The Coalition has recommended, especially regarding the missing Ultimate Edition content, is rebooting the game and hard-resetting the device. Doing both should resolve connectivity issues and award the bonus content. Additionally, The Coalition has implemented a number of “server side updates” aimed at improving stability and fixing issues.
#Gears5 Service Update: 1:25am PT
Following our latest deployment, we are seeing a dramatic improvement to service stability.
The team will now be monitoring the impact of this change to determine if additional updates are needed. Thank you for your patience.— The Coalition Studio (@CoalitionGears) September 6, 2019
While things look to be improving, The Coalition notes that Gears 5 is still facing a number of persistent problems, particularly around matching and online services. It seems some players are have difficulty connecting–and staying connected–to matches. The developer tweeted that it is “actively investigating the issue” and trying to resolve things quickly.
#Gears5 Service Update: 9:50 am
We are deploying an update to improve matchmaking times and lobby dissolves. Players may be kicked out of matches during this rollout.
Thanks for your patience. We will continue to monitor and provide details.— The Coalition Studio (@CoalitionGears) September 6, 2019
Despite the issues Gears 5 is facing, the game has received a rather positive reception. In our Gears 5 review-in-progress we said, “Gears 5 might suffer from some of the same storytelling missteps as its predecessors, and it might not venture far out of the past, but the new ideas it brings to the series are all good reasons for fans to return.” We’ve also compiled a list of other Gears 5 reviews, with the scores tilting toward the more favorable end of the spectrum. The game’s even gotten the attention of the series’ former lead designer Cliff Bleszinski, who’s incredibly happy a woman is on the cover.
Remember a few years ago when people were dressing up as creepy clowns and just hanging out in public, which, in turn, scared everyone? What a bizarre epidemic. Well, there’s now a documentary coming out about one individual who does this for a living called Wrinkles The Clown, and you can see the first trailer for the movie below.
The film follows a 65-year old Florida man who dresses up in a creepy clown mask and gets hired by people–many times parents–to scare kids. He’ll appear in people’s backyards, outside their windows, and generally being frightening in random places. The film looks to find out who this man is, why he’s doing this, and the viral effect his actions had across the internet.
While the movie trailer seems to blur the line between fiction and reality, Wrinkles the Clown is a real person, and you can call him if you have some kids you want to freak out. This all originally took place in 2014, and the man behind the mask–a Naples, Florida retiree who didn’t want to spend his days playing golf. And his antics as Wrinkles the Clown drew national attention and spawned numerous copycats throughout the United States.
If you want to see the full story for yourself, check out Wrinkles The Clown when it comes to theaters on October 4.
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Fortnite‘s 10.20 content update arrived earlier this week, and now developer Epic Games has made a few more tweaks to the popular battle royale shooter. The 10.20.2 hotfix is now live on all platforms, and it vaults a handful of weapons and makes numerous other gameplay adjustments. Read on for the patch notes.
First, three guns–the Combat Shotgun, Drum Shotgun, and Proximity Launcher–have been moved into the vault, which means they’ve effectively been removed from the game. As always, there is a chance the guns could be re-added to Fortnite in the future, but for the time being, you won’t find them in the Battle Royale mode.
Those aren’t the only weapon changes. The Suppressed Assault Rifle has been unvaulted; it’s available in Epic and Legendary variants. Epic has also increased the damage dished out by the Automatic Sniper. “The Automatic Sniper was underperforming relative to some of the other Sniper Rifles. This adjustment to damage should make it more desirable as an alternative long-range weapon,” Epic said.
Additionally, Epic has made more tweaks to the controversial BRUTE mechs; now they’ll spawn less during storm phases 3-6. The developer has also increased the “duration of spiciness” of peppers to 60 seconds, and reduced the availability of Obelisks at Retail Row. You can see the full patch notes for the hotfix below courtesy of Epic’s website.
Fortnite’s aforementioned 10.20 content update added a new item to the game, the Zapper Trap, and also brought back another familiar element from a past season: the Floating Island. Fortnite’s Week 6 challenges are also now live. This set is called Boogie Down, and most of the tasks revolve around dancing. You can find maps and guides in our complete Fortnite Season 10 challenges roundup.
Vaulted
Unvaulted
Automatic Sniper
B.R.U.T.E
Lowered the spawn rate of the B.R.U.T.E in Storm phases 3-6 in core modes. Arena spawn rates will remain unchanged.
Peppers
Retail Row
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Sony has revealed the US PlayStation Store’s top digital downloads for the month of August. A couple of new games entered the PlayStation 4 top 20, but there’s one new release that stands out for its somewhat surprising absence.
Madden NFL 20 took the No. 1 spot in the rankings after launching at the very beginning of the month on August 2. Its position on top of the pile isn’t too surprising considering EA recently announced that digital sales for Madden 20 have exceeded physical sales for the first time in series history. In celebration of the NFL’s 100th season kicking off last night, EA is currently offering a free trial for Madden 20 that you can play until September 8. This gives you a good chance to try out the new Superstar KO mode.
The rest of the chart is business as usual with mainstays like Grand Theft Auto V, Minecraft, and Marvel’s Spider-Man hovering around the top of the chart. Scroll all the way down to No. 20, however, and you’ll find another new entry: The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan. Supermassive Games’ story-driven horror game was only released on August 30 but managed to shift enough digital units to crack the top 20. PlayStation doesn’t reveal sales numbers so it’s impossible to tell how well it did.
By comparison, Remedy’s Control was released three days before Man of Medan and is notable for its absence in the top 20. It sold enough physical copies to crack the UK’s all-formats top four during the week of its release. Amazon also heavily discounted the paranormal shooter which may have led to fewer digital purchases.
The full list can be found here. Make sure you check out GameSpot’s reviews for Madden NFL 20, The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, and Control.
Erica never lets you feel at ease for long. In one scene, a character teaches Erica how to play a song on the piano–you’re encouraged to memorize the cute little melody and try to perform the correct timing. But just when you start playing along, somebody suddenly starts coughing up blood everywhere, it’s messy and gross, everyone starts screaming, and the vibe is killed. In Erica you have to treasure those sweet breaks before they’re swiftly swiped from your hands and replaced with a solid helping of worry, stress, and a side of confusion.
A fully filmed playable thriller in which the titular character is on a mission to help solve a murder case that she has strange family ties to, Erica utilizes some subtle yet effective film-inspired techniques–like match on action and screen wipes triggered by touchpad interactions–to tell its enigmatic tale. To progress each scene, you choose dialogue options and make various adventure game-like actions. The game bounces back and forth in time between Erica’s childhood with her father to the mess that is modern-day life, in which she has to move to a strange hospital her late parents helped create for her own safety.
Erica, played by real-life actor Holly Earl, is a relatable, if malleable, protagonist. Earl regularly looks like she’s bewildered or uncomfortable, exactly how you feel as a viewer in most of the situations. She seems thoughtful and patient, but other than that there isn’t too much of a set personality for her. You decide through your in-game choices if she’s more passive or aggressive or unhelpful during the case, and because of the high stakes murder circumstances, switching her attitude and approach never feels abrupt nor out of character. Even if you spend most of the game being rude, you can be friendly to someone and it doesn’t feel weird. Your reactions, and in turn Erica’s, are likely to change frequently during a playthrough every time new information pops up, objectives change, and new, incredibly peculiar characters enter the picture.
Somehow, every new character you meet is more suspicious than the last. Everyone talks to you like they just poisoned the food you’re eating. There’s a sequence in the courtyard where you can choose a girl to hang out with and get to know better, and right after you pick a possible pal to spend the afternoon with, the head of the hospital says, “Just remember that some of the girls here… Uh… They can be quite manipulative,” and just walks away. The guy is nowhere to be found after that, and you’re left sitting there wondering why would he say that–and before you know it, you’re overthinking every interaction because you don’t know which person he was insinuating was going to manipulate you. All of the secrets, ulterior motives, and Erica’s own faulty memory cause for some very intriguing “Trust nobody, not even yourself” gameplay.
Perpetual disorientation is the central feeling of Erica, and it’s what keeps you searching for the truth no matter how many crooked obstacles stand in your way. The plot is ever-changing and chaotic; you’re attempting to solve a crime by talking to a plethora of weirdos in an unfamiliar, creepy place while having stifling flashbacks of your messed-up childhood. There’s so many forces clashing and intense situations going on that you find yourself yearning to make sense of even the smallest mystery just to feel grounded. There was a time where Erica was being gaslit by a character and I ended up shaking my fist and yelling “She’s not crazy, you’re just lying!” at my TV–but even though that character annoyed me I kept listening to them in case they accidentally dropped a small hint to steer me in the right direction, and they did. Erica is a striking example of a whodunit that’s heightened by its enthralling characters, shady occult science, and recollections of previous trauma.
From the overall murder case to smaller questions like what kind of hospital you’re staying at, there are a number of mysteries weaving together concurrently throughout Erica. It’s easy to miss context that’s vital to understanding the full picture. You might get an answer to a question that’s been burning in your mind for the last half hour, but that answer could be a truth that presents new pathways to choose from or a lie that leads you astray. That mystery management is exciting and makes every experience with the game its own curious, isolated thriller molded by whatever answers and stories you care about at the time.
You can use either a DualShock 4 controller or a companion phone app to play Erica; the latter is smooth and seamless for the most part, while the former is bogged down by a clunky implementation of touchpad controls and is the far less preferable option. As you move through the narrative, you alternate between selecting which areas to explore, choosing dialogue options like “contempt” or “desperation,” and performing no-stakes everyday actions like cleaning the fog from a mirror or turning on the sink. Potential actions are shown as silhouettes on-screen, and there’s also a mock trajectory of where to swipe your hand on your phone if you’re using the app. The inputs are all done by small, comfortable hand swipes, not extending to the full horizontal or vertical reach of the screen.
Most actions are intuitive, and you feel like you know where to swipe and what you can do before the game even tells you. There’s a moment where you and a detective walk up to an empty reception desk that has a bell sitting on it, for example. I lit up when I saw it and I started tapping on the screen a bunch–Erica didn’t hesitate to mimic my actions in her world and ding away, so much so that the detective swatted her hand off of it because he got annoyed. The straightforward motions make navigating trouble-free, and being able to quickly deduce what moves you can make adds a connection to the moment-to-moment gameplay. It keeps your focus on the important things, like figuring out what the heck is going on in the story.
Choices and quick-time events happen every 30 seconds or so, which may sound overwhelming, but it isn’t so in practice. Most of the time, they aren’t high pressure actions; they’re a chain of a few choices, and those chunks are separated by longer cutscenes every so often. They do eventually get mundane and feel unnecessary, especially if you choose to use the DualShock 4, though. The game is controlled entirely with touch, and while the swipes are supposed to be a convenience for your hands, it’s difficult to perform them on the small DualShock touchpad without your fingers slipping off or hitting the joysticks. There were also a few occasions where the companion app was slightly unresponsive, which is something that can have game-changing consequences if it happens at a critical moment. It takes a second to get back into the game’s rhythm after there’s a blip in the controls. They’re small things, but those shortcomings pull you out of what is otherwise a really engrossing experience.
In general, the filmic elements are integrated so carefully that it’s a genuine and mostly calculated mix of two mediums. Erica is in the middle of game and movie, and a lot of small mechanics add up to show that. For example, the character Erica is an artist, and there’s a scene fairly early on where you can flip through the pages of her artbook. Looking through a character’s personal items is a common feature in interactive adventure games, but the detail that went into shooting the natural angles of each flip makes it an even more intimate way of gaining insight into who the character is. Outside of the footage itself, all of the trophy pop-ups are paused until you complete the game, which goes a long way to keep you from getting distracted. It’s a small, fitting touch for a game that values story so much.
Perpetual disorientation is the central feeling of Erica, and it’s what keeps you searching for the truth no matter how many crooked obstacles stand in your way.
There are also some sneaking situations that are made better by the film aspect. There are always conversations happening behind closed doors, and because you have so many questions that you need answered, sometimes you have to be a weirdo and eavesdrop on people. If you peek out for too long or open the door too fast, they’ll see you, stop their conversation, and share an awkward glance with you. Because it’s footage of actual peoples’ facial expressions, it makes you cringe a little more–and that is one of the most high-tension fail states I can imagine.
The whole time, the game marinates you in a constant anxious energy that fuels a curiosity for the dodgy, mysterious world that you’re influencing. Some scenes you’re just holding a book or a photo and staring at it for details, but since it’s paired with an insidious sting it transforms what would be a normal occasion into bitter dread. There are flashbacks, dreams, and abnormal things happening frequently; oftentimes you’re forced to decide on the one secret you want to uncover the most and drop the others. Should you pick up the phone that’s been ringing in the lobby or check out that weird ghost thing in the hallway? There are some decisions that are straight-up difficult–high-stakes ones where, in the bottom of your heart, you don’t know what the right thing to do is, but you know you have to do something. Those times will have you wishing that this game was just a movie, but Erica is more than that.
Erica has a strong, fleshed-out narrative full of twists and turns that each bring their own unique piece to the story. Its cryptic tone is carried through the audio, visuals, and writing; it never lets you relax. Sometimes weird controls jolt you out, but there is an abundance of enticing threads to follow, and it’s a treat to be able to mold your own adventure out of it. Using a combination of crisp cinematography and FMV-specific game mechanics, Erica never fails to hook you into its haunting, mysterious world.
