Author: Trafficblast

If you managed to go into Shazam totally blind without being exposed to any spoilers, congratulations! You just experienced one of the most fun twists in superhero movie history: the surprise introduction of the Shazamily. During Shazam’s climactic fight, Darla, Mary, Eugene, Freddy, and Pedro all got to Shazam themselves for the first time, transforming into their super-powered, adult alter egos and helping Billy to defeat Dr. Sivana and the seven deadly sins.

It was a fun, exhilarating moment on multiple levels. For one thing, it was a payoff for things the movie had been hinting at from the start. It fulfilled the thematic promise of Billy’s search for a family. And it was great to see the cleverly cast adult actors (including The OC’s Adam Brody) who played the superheroic versions of the kids.

In some ways, it seems like an unlikely twist. In the current superhero movie landscape of sequels, prequels, and ever-expanding connected cinematic universes, it’s easy to imagine a different version of Shazam that focused entirely on Billy Batson and saved the Shazamily for the sequel–maybe with a teaser thrown into the post-credits scenes. But for once we got to live in the best possible timeline, and Shazam really nailed this crucial twist.

Director David Sandberg told GameSpot that this was the plan from the start. “That was always the idea,” he said. “We wanted to have that payoff–you get to meet these kids and see their personalities, and then have that transferred into superhero form. That was always the big thing about the movie–that’s going to be the big payoff.”

“It’s a delightful moment,” Zachary Levi, who plays Shazam himself, told GameSpot. “The movie has so much wish fulfillment in it, and then you get it like times five, right? Five more kids get to be their super-self. I mean, that’s f***ing dope…I thought that about it when I read it in the script, and was like, ‘This is so cool! We’re team building in our own franchise–total Voltron superheroes,’ you know?”

Part of the magic is that the kids’ superhero forms really do look like juiced up versions of themselves. That’s down to good casting, including Meagan Good as the adult version of Faithe Herman (Darla), Michelle Borth as Grace Fulton (Mary), Ross Butler as Ian Chen (Eugene), D.J. Cotrona as Jovan Armand (Pedro), and of course, Adam Brody as Jack Dylan Grazer (Freddy).

“It makes your job as a director so much easier if you cast people who basically are these characters,” Sandberg said. “If you cast it right, your job just becomes 10 times easier.” That began with Zach Levi, who the director fondly referred to as “a big child,” and extended to casting the other Shazams later. Sandberg also said the most important thing was making sure the adult actors’ personalities matched their younger counterparts.

As an aside, it’s worth noting–as Sandberg pointed out to The Hollywood Reporter–that Brody and Cotrona were also at one point cast as The Flash and Superman, respectively, in George Miller’s Justice League: Mortal, production on which stalled around 2008. “So, afterwards, we said, ‘Oh, s***! They finally get to be superheroes in a DC movie,'” Sandberg told THR. “They didn’t even know they were auditioning for superheroes.”

Of course, if you pay attention to these things, you might have seen the Shazamily twist leak ahead of time. But the filmmakers went to great lengths to prevent that from happening as much as possible. For example, in order to prevent spoilers when they auditioned the actors that would play the adult versions of the kids, they wrote new scripts that weren’t actually from this movie. “We just wrote special scenes with characters that have their traits, basically–Darla would be the fast talker, and so on,” Sandberg said. “And so, when they auditioned, they had no idea what it was for really, or what it was actually going to be, but we still had close enough personalities to be able to cast from them.”

Levi said he’s glad he wasn’t responsible for any of the leaks. “I’m really good at keeping secrets. Loose lips sink ships, as I learned from my time in the Navy during the Second World War,” he joked. “You don’t want to spoil anything. It’s really interesting that people like to spoil things. They like the feeling like they’re the ones who gave the secret information. But that’s the worst. It’s way cooler to not tell people and let it be a surprise.”

As Sandberg pointed out, the Shazamily reveal works best as an unexpected twist. “I think it works so well when you don’t see it coming–and even if you suspect that it’s coming, but you’re not sure, it still works really well,” the director said.

Shazam is in theaters now. The latest DC movie had a successful opening weekend, and there’s already plenty of buzz about a sequel. Read our full review here.

Read next: All The Obscure DC References, Easter Eggs, And Clues You Missed In Shazam

Destiny 2‘s latest event is Arc Week, a focus on amping up some of the game’s character subclasses. The event comes with a huge update to the game, Update 2.2.1, which makes a bunch of quality-of-life changes to the game and adds a few new things to for players to chase.

The Arc subclass changes are some of the most significant in the patch, to be sure, as Bungie’s patch notes show. Each increases the effectiveness of perks, abilities, and Supers for each character class. The durations of just about every Arc ability has been lengthened, which should make all the classes a lot more fun to play with. If you haven’t messed around with an Arc Super ability in a while, this week is definitely the time.

In keeping with the Arc theme, Bungie is also bringing back the quest to unlock the Exotic Arc machine gun Thunderlord. The quest became available last fall during the Festival of the Lost, but ended soon after, forcing players to rely on random drops to get the machine gun if they’d missed it. If you’re still Thunderlord-less, though, you can start the quest during Arc Week and finally get a lightning-spitting Exotic of your own. Use our guide to get you started.

Another big change in Update 2.2.1 is the addition of new Exotic catalysts. These are special drops related to Exotic weapons that increase they’re capabilities, making them even better than they are when you first get them. All the catalysts currently in the game require quite a bit of grinding, but the rewards are usually worth it. Bungie’s latest update brings four new catalysts to the game, for Hard Light, Rat King, The Prospector, and Suros Regime. The first three have a chance to come as rewards for regular Strikes and Nightfall Strikes; the last comes from Crucible matches.

For players chasing special rewards and Triumphs, Update 2.2.1 also has some major quality-of-life changes. It increases the drop rates for many special rewards, like the ship, Sparrow, and ghost shell that come from completing activities in the Dreaming City. Those items are tied to completing Destiny 2’s Seals, a set of major accomplishments that hardcore players chase. These changes should make completing several a few Seals quite a bit less punishing.

You can read the full patch notes below.

Destiny 2 Update 2.2.1 Patch Notes

Sandbox

Titan

Striker—Code of the Juggernaut

• Frontal Assault:
  • Buff duration increased from 10 to 16 seconds
  • Buff timer is now displayed on the HUD
  • Buff now increases weapon damage
    • 25% in PvE
    • 20% in PvP
• Knockout:
  • Buff duration increased from 3 to 5 seconds
  • Buff is no longer disabled after a melee attack
  • In addition to breaking a shield, buff now triggers once you deal 60% damage to a target
    • Any damage dealt after 60% refreshes the timer
  • Increased bonus melee damage from 25% to 60%

General bug fix

• Fixed an issue where Titans using Code of the Missile could perform the wrong melee

Hunter

Arcstrider—Way of the Warrior

• Combination Blow:
  • Bonus melee damage can now be stacked 3 times
    • Buff increases melee damage by 60% per stack in PvE
    • Buff increases melee damage by 22.7% per stack in PvP
    • This ability was previously 1 stack and increased melee damage by 50%
  • Kills with this ability now heal 40 health in addition to starting health regen
• Deadly Reach:
  • Increased buff duration from 6 to 8 seconds
  • Buff is no longer consumed by a melee hit

Arcstrider—Way of the Wind

• Disorienting Blow:
  • Increased the melee disorient distance from 4 meters to 6 meters
  • Increased duration of disorient on players from 1.5 to 2 seconds
• Focused Breathing:
  • Increased dodge recharge bonus while sprinting from 50% to 100%
• Combat Meditation:
  • Increased bonus grenade and melee regeneration while bloodied by 25%
• Lightning Reflexes:
  • Increased damage resistance while dodging from 25% to 40% in PvP
  • Increased damage resistance while dodging from 63% to 70% In PvE

Warlock

General Arc Changes

• Stormcaller Super
  • Damage scales up to 150% over 5 seconds of continuous use of the attack
  • Updated FX and audio to support this functionality

Stormcaller—Attunement of Conduction

• Chain Lightning Melee
  • Can now chain up to 5 times, up from 1, and each individual target can be hit twice
  • Chain damage decreased from 50 to 31 damage per hit
• Arc Web
  • Increase chain range from 10 meters to 12 meters
  • Can now chain to many more targets, and back and forth between targets
  • Chaining Arc damage now reduces the cooldown of your grenade
    • Works with Arc Web chains and chains from Chain Lightning melee
    • Earn 3% energy per instance of damage in PvE
    • Earn 10% energy per instance of damage in PvP

Stormcaller—Attunement of the Elements

• Electrostatic Surge:
  • Increased bonus regeneration rate of Rift by 600% per nearby friendly Guardian
  • Added a UI notification when the buff is active
  • Now extends Rift duration from 15 to 20 seconds
• Arc Soul:
  • Extended duration from 8 to 12 seconds.

Voidwalker Nova Warp

• Reduced initial charged detonation energy cost by 20%
• Reduced energy cost of holding the charged detonation by 7%
• Reduced time required to fully charge the charged detonation from 0.9 seconds to 0.7 seconds
• Reduced Dark Blink cost by 20%
• Increased base Super duration from 18 seconds to 22 seconds

Dawnblade Everlasting Fire

• Tuned the amount of Super gained from Everlasting Fire
  • Initial return increased from 10% to 13%
  • Return then decays linearly over the course of 30 kills from 13% to 0.75% returned per kill

Abilities Bug Fixes

• Fixed an issue where the Warlock ability “Bloom” was not dealing any damage
• Improved consistency of Handheld Supernova
• Fixed a bug in which canceling Blade Barrage allows players to traverse across the map

Weapons

Weapon Changes

• The Last Word
  • Added a timer to the Fan Fire perk
• The Wardcliff Coil
  • Reduced PvE damage by 25% against bosses and vehicles

General Weapon Bug Fixes

• Fixed a material on Coldheart that was no longer shiny
• Fixed an issue where ready audio on Veist Submachine Guns was not playing on PS4
• Updated the Meganeura perk’s description to be more accurate
• Fixed an issue where Grenade Launcher initial ammo had been unintentionally reduced
• Fixed an issue bug where the Powerful Statement ornament was visible in Loaded Question’s ornament socket before it had been obtained
• Fixed an issue where Thorn dismantled faster than other Exotic weapons
• Fixed an issue where the ATB Long Range scope was erroneously highlighting enemies when equipped on the Long Shadow Sniper Rifle
• The Recluse now appears in Collections only when it has been obtained to match the behavior of other pinnacle PvP weapons
• Fixed an issue that caused poor scope behavior on the Prospector’s ornament “Caution: Heavy Machinery”
• Fixed an issue where Wish-Ender did not highlight targets while user was invisible
• Fixed an issue where Jötunn was recorded as a Scout Rifle
• Fixed an issue where the Vow could not be infused above 650
• Fixed an issue where the accuracy ring was not visible on the reticle of Linear Fusion Rifles when using a controller on PC

Armor

Armor Bug fixes

• Using Getaway Artist with Storm Grenades now correctly spawns a super-charged Arc soul
• Crown of Tempests once again works with Ball Lightning
• Stronghold will no longer drain heavy ammo while guarding with Black Talon

Investment

Rewards

• Increased drop rate of items in the Last Wish Raid
  • One Thousand Voices: 5% → 10%
  • Glittering Key: 5% → 20%
    • Used to acquire Last Wish ship “Ermine TAC-717”
  • Wish-Maker Shell (Last Wish Ghost Shell): 2% → 20%
  • Cleansing Knife (Last Wish Sparrow): 5% → 20%
• Increased drop rate of items in the Dreaming City
  • Pallas Galliot (Dreaming City Ship): 2% → 20%
  • Starlight Shell (Dreaming City Ghost Shell): 2% → 20%
  • Silver Tercel (Dreaming City Sparrow): 5% → 20%
• Increased drop rate of Lore Books
  • Cayde’s Stash Lore
    • Cayde treasure map chests: 40% → 100%
    • Planetary chests: 4% → 50%
  • Dreaming City Lore
    • Public event completed: 2.5% → 50%
    • Ascendant challenge completed: 2.5% → 100%
    • Blind Well completed (Tier 1–3): 5% → 50%
    • Lost Sector completed: 1.25% → 100%
    • The Marasenna lore book was missing two entries: Revanche I and Palingenesis III; these entries now unlock after you unlock all other entries.
  • Tangled Shore Lore
    • While Tangled Shore is the Flashpoint
    • Public event completed: 6.5% → 50%
    • Heroic adventure completed: 16% → 50%
    • Lost Sector completed: 3% → 50%
• Gunsmith reputation packages now only reward Gunsmith Weapons
• Four new Exotic weapon catalysts are now available to drop in Nightfall, strikes, and the Crucible
  • Prospector (Nightfall, strikes)
  • Rat King (Nightfall, strikes)
  • Hard Light (Nightfall, strikes)
  • SUROS Regime (Crucible)
• Xûr’s inventory now offers random rolled perks for armor
• Fated Engrams from Xûr now have the chance to reward Forsaken Exotics

Quests/Bounties

• Power Surge Bounties that have expired or been deleted are now available on the Drifter, though each bounty can still be completed only once per character
• Power Surge Bounties now specify “Requires Annual Pass and Level 50” if either requirement is not met
• Reaping in the Wilds Gambit Prime bounty now progresses from all high-value targets in free roam
• Players who sided with the Vanguard on the Allegiance quest can now also bank Motes in normal Gambit to progress on the Prime Research quest step
• Quest progress for the Survival Guide or Hidden Messages quest steps will now re-initialize properly; if you are stuck on these quest steps, you should abandon them and pick them up again from the Drifter to update the “tapes discovered” count
• The weekly lockout reset for Invitations of the Nine has been moved to Thursday Reset (1700 UTC); players will now have two extra days to complete them before being locked out of a new Invitation the following Friday
• Lost Sector Gambit Prime bounty now progresses from all Lost Sectors
• All four weekly role bounties for Gambit Prime now grant powerful head rewards
• Yes Sir, I’m A Closer weekly Gambit Prime bounty now awards 4 points for a win and 2 points for a loss, with a completion value of 20 points

Pursuits

• Ada-1 will now offer all seven weapon frames each week
• Players can still complete only two powerful frames each week, at which point remaining frames are removed until weekly reset
• Fixed an issue where players could acquire pinnacle weapons once per character; pinnacle weapons are meant to be acquired only once per account
• Drifter’s weekly role bounties will now properly count Motes wagered in the Reckoning when the Mote is a lower tier than the activity itself
• Gambit Prime now counts to unlock the weekly Gambit clan engram
• When recycling Synths at the Drifter, the error “Your Glimmer is full” will now be properly displayed on all four Synths
• Fixed an issue with the Sentry emblem where killing Giant Blockers wasn’t incrementing the “Blockers killed” stat
• Fixed an issue where the Gambit Prime weekly challenge didn’t display completion in the UI

Triumphs

• Fixed an issue where Triumphs from previous seasons were counting Glory Win Streaks in the current season
• Fixed an issue where the Triumph “The Best Offense” was not giving credit for all orbs generated
• The Haul Triumphs “Greater Powers” and “IX” can now be completed and will initialize for players who have already completed them as soon as they enter Orbit

General

• Arsenic Bite now drops with random rolls; removed Vestian Dynasty from the general loot pool
• Fixed an issue where the BrayTech RWP Mk. II could not be infused above 600
• Increased drop rate of Polestar II Ghost Shell from 1% to 4%
• Fixed an issue where Obsidian Crystal would sometimes not drop from the Unidentified Frame quest step

Activities

Reckoning

• Reckoning Tier 2 and Tier 3 boss kills now always have a chance to award a Gambit Prime weapon
• Chances for weapon rewards increase each time a boss is killed without a weapon drop
• Players near the bank should no longer be able to see waypoints until they jump through the portal
  • When players jump through the portal, they should be placed in one of three active locations:
    • Anytime before players begin capturing the bridge: over the horde mode area
    • Anytime after players begin capturing the bridge, before they fully capture the bridge: at the beginning of the bridge
    • After players fully capture the bridge and begin the boss fight: at the end of the bridge
• Fixed an issue where the Tier 1 Deceived Nokris was not summoning its Taken Warbeasts

Gambit Prime

• Some Reckoning weapons now have a chance to drop as match completion rewards from Gambit Prime
• Chances increase after each Gambit Prime match without a weapon drop
• An invasion kill now heals 8% of the Primeval’s health, down from 12%
• The invasion portal cooldown time during the Primeval phase has been increased to 40 seconds, up from 30 seconds
• This cooldown triggers after a player has been killed or successfully returns from an invasion
• Fixed an issue where all Gambit medals that shipped in Forsaken were not displaying in the HUD when players earned them in Prime
• Fixed an issue where the Primeval Hobgoblin was not functioning properly in Gambit Prime
• Boss reintroduced to Gambit Prime
• Fixed an issue where killing players in subsequent Wells of Light would unintentionally count towards earning the “Well Well Well” medal
• Fixed on issue on Deep Six and New Arcadia where the Ascendant Primeval Servitor wasn’t summoning Immunity Blights
• The Burrow front on Six Deep had some minor adjustments to reduce combatant/environment collisions

Gambit

• High-value targets now have a chance to spawn during the first round of a Gambit match; the chance for the HVT to spawn in the second round has been increased
• Private Matches: Sudden Death can now be enabled or disabled via the Rounds to Win options
• Fixed an issue where the “Open 24/7” medal could be acquired during a Sudden Death round of Gambit
• Fixed an issue where the “Rainmaker” medal could be acquired during a Sudden Death round of Gambit
• Gambit intro cinematics now run at unlocked framerates on PC
• Fixed an issue where Scorn Captain’s immunity totems were not properly shielding combatants
• Fixed an issue where Drifter was announcing “Portal’s Up” after the round had ended
• Reduced the number of required Blockers to send for the Taken Herder, Shepard, and Whisperer Triumphs
• Reduced the number of required number of Motes to bank in order to achieve the Protect the Runner Triumphs
• Fixed an issue where players who are restricted from the Crucible/Gambit due to poor network quality were unable to launch Gambit Private Matches
• Fixed an issue where Infamy ranks could be repeatedly reset without needing to progress through the ranks between each reset

Strikes

• Fixed an issue where the gravlift would sometimes be missing in the Warden of Nothing strike
• Nightfall tickets now have min/max and +-25 for incrementing power reduction; this will allow players to get to the +100 power reduction easier to increase the score multiplier

Crucible

Competitive

• Fixed an issue where players who are disconnected from Destiny servers could not rejoin games in the Competitive Crucible playlist.

Iron Banner

• The curated roll “Wizened Rebuke” Fusion Rifle awarded from completing the “Atlas, Unbound” Triumph will now appear in Lord Saladin’s inventory so that players can inspect it prior to acquisition
  • Once earned, the weapon may be viewed in Collections
• The curated roll “Wizened Rebuke” Fusion Rifle can now be reacquired from Collections for the same cost as other Masterworked, curated roll weapons
• The Heavy as Iron emblem may be earned when securing 2500 kills under the effects of the Iron Burden
• Removed ship “Volk-CER” from Collections due to an issue impacting the ship
  • Expect this to return in a future Season

Patrols

• Fixed an issue where the architects would sometimes kill Guardians for absolutely no reason in a very specific area of the Dreaming City

Combatants

General

• Fixed an issue where the Taken Hydra rotating shield would flicker when shielded by Taken Goblins
• Fixed an issue where the Ultra Taken Hobgoblin was using the Swarm attack more frequently than intended

UI

General

• Player will now always see equipped titles when inspecting another player
• The weapon ornament “Powerful Statement” is no longer visible in the socket preview for Loaded Question before being obtained
• Postmaster “open bundle confirmation” dialogue now shows appropriate strings when it pops up; would previously cause occasional crashes
• Material cost no longer appears red on vendor tooltips if the item is not purchasable, but you have enough material
• Fixed the description on some bounties to correctly read ” ability kills” instead of ” kills”

PC

General

• Fixed an issue where performance on PC would slowly degrade over time

Among the things that change with each weekly reset in Destiny 2 each week is the Ascendant Challenge, a great way to get yourself new Powerful gear on the road to the new Power level cap of 700. Bungie has once again shuffled the activity back to Week 2, offering up a chance to return and complete the Forfeit Shrine. We’ve got even more details in our written guide.

In the video above, you can see exactly where the location of the portal is, as well as what tasks await you inside. Before starting, be sure to claim the appropriate bounty from Petra. You’ll need a Tincture of Queensfoil in order to see the Taken portal, and once you’re inside, you’ll have to dunk some orbs and kill some enemies. Do all that, and you’ll net yourself a piece of Powerful gear that may increases your overall Power level.

Pokemon Go has received a regular stream of new events and Pokemon over the past few months, but that’s not the only new content Niantic has planned for it. In a blog post on the Pokemon Go website, the developer shared the first details about Lucky Friends and avatar poses, two new features coming to the hit mobile game.

Lucky Friends is a new level of friendship you can achieve once per day with players you’ve become Best Friends with. Much like Lucky Pokemon, there’s a chance you’ll become Lucky Friends when you interact with a Best Friend, be it by trading Pokemon, opening gifts from each other, challenging them to Trainer battles, or fighting alongside them in Raids.

If you do become Lucky Friends, you’ll both see a notification indicating it, and your next trade is guaranteed to give you both Lucky Pokemon. Once the trade has been completed, however, your friendship status will revert to Best Friends, although Niantic says you will have a chance to become Lucky Friends again the following day through the same methods.

In addition to the Lucky Friends mechanic, Niantic is introducing avatar poses to Pokemon Go. These can be purchased through the in-game Style Shop for 500 Coins apiece and allow you to customize your Trainer’s pose in your profile, the Friend list, and other areas where your avatar appears.

Pokemon Go’s next in-game event is the Legendary Lunch Hour, which runs from 12-1 PM local time on April 10. Shortly after that, Niantic will hold this month’s Community Day on Saturday, April 13. The Legendary Pokemon Latios is returning for a special week-long Raid event from April 15-22, and the annual Eggstravaganza event is coming back for another year starting April 16.

It’s the season of deals at many games stores, with both the PlayStation and Microsoft stores wrapping up huge sales on critically acclaimed games recently. GameStop’s massive spring sale is still ongoing, and in the midst of all these deals, Nintendo has been gearing up for a sale of its own. The Nintendo Eshop Blockbuster Sale launches this Thursday, April 11 at 1 PM GMT / 3 PM CEST and will be available for two weeks, ending Thursday, April 25 at 10 PM GMT / 12 PM CEST. As of right now, the sale is only confirmed in Europe–it’s not clear if these deals will be available in North America.

Some of the Switch’s biggest games will be discounted up to 60% off, including select first-party Nintendo games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Odyssey, which are 30% and 33% off, respectively. The sale also includes popular Switch ports, like The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim (50% off), Doom (50% off), Dark Souls Remastered (30% off), and Diablo III: Eternal Collection (30% off).

A selection of Nintendo 3DS games will also be marked down, including Super Smash Bros. (33% off), The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D (33% off), and New Super Mario Bros. 2 (33% off). In total, more than 20 games for Switch and 3DS will be part of the sale and available to download directly from the Eshop, according to the press release. We’ll update this story when all of the deals become available; in the meantime, check out the list of currently confirmed deals below.

Nintendo Switch deals

• Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy — 34% off
• Dark Souls Remastered — 30% off
• Diablo III: Eternal Collection — 30% off
• Doom — 50% off
• The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim — 50% off
• L.A. Noire — 66% off
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild — 30% off
• Mario + Rabbids Kingdom Battle — 50% off
• Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate — 42% off
• Octopath Traveler — 33% off
• Super Mario Odyssey — 33% off
• Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus — 33% off
• Xenoblade Chronicles 2 — 33% off

Nintendo 3DS deals

• The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask 3D — 33% off
• New Super Mario Bros. 2 — 33% off
• Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS — 33% off

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