Last year, we told you about The Simpsons’ 2020 predictions that have been debunked. Now, Rich tells you about 10 times The Simpsons predicted recent events in 2020 and 2021! The long running Fox animated series has also predicted “Make America Great Again”, Vice President Kamala Harris’ inauguration outfit, Tom Hanks soothing the nation, a mayor hiding his vacation during a pandemic, chore simulators in gaming, The Godfather re-cut, how to save the Star Wars franchise, The Apple Car, business closures, and a banknote.
Category: Games
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What To Know About Watch Dogs: Legion Online
Watch Dogs: Legion Online brings a multiplayer component to Ubisoft’s most recent open-world action-adventure game. In the online mode, players can recruit new characters, take on daily and weekly challenges, level their seasonal ranking, find collectibles such as new masks, and generally cause mayhem with friends.
In this video, we talk about our hands-on experience playing free roam, solo and co-op missions, world events, and endgame activities. We talk over which activities are best for casual players versus coordinated teams that will need to be on mic and able to tackle complex mechanics. We also cover some of the difficulty challenges solo players might face with activities requiring simultaneous actions or fail states that kick players back several checkpoints.
Watch Dogs: Legion is the third game in the series and is available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Google Stadia, and PC.
Anthem Was Released Two Years Ago: A Quick Recap Of Its History And What Could Come Next
Esteemed RPG studio BioWare released its sci-fi game Anthem on this day, February 22, in 2019, meaning the game is now two years old. Billed as an exciting new franchise from the developer of classic Star Wars games and the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises, Anthem wasn’t a hit like BioWare’s other franchises were, either critically or commercially. But the game might not be dead and buried just yet.
Following the game’s release in 2019, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said in no uncertain terms: “The launch of Anthem did not meet our expectations.” EA was predicting the game to sell between 5-6 million units by the end of March 2019, but it didn’t reach that.
While the game might not have met EA’s lofty sales expectations right out of the gate, the game achieved the second best first-month sales for any BioWare game in history in the United States, only behind Mass Effect 3.
Despite the slower-than-expected start for Anthem, EA announced that BioWare would not abandon the game but instead focus its efforts on improving and expanding upon it. New IP is the lifeblood of EA, and the company is apparently interested in helping Anthem to find a successful future.
“We believe in the team at BioWare, and we also believe in what they set out to achieve with this game–building a new IP and melding genres to reach a new audience,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in 2019.
BioWare has supported Anthem since launch with new content, features, and functionality. The latest we heard was that management at EA were planning to make a call about whether or not the campaign to reboot Anthem after its disappointing launch was still worth the effort or if BioWare’s developers would shift their time and attention to other projects.
Bloomberg reported that EA executives planned to review the latest version of Anthem earlier in February and make a call, but the decision might have been delayed due in part to the wild weather in Texas, which is the site of BioWare Austin.
For now, the future of Anthem is uncertain and seemingly undecided. We’ll report back with any notable updates that come through in the time ahead.
In GameSpot’s Anthem review, Kallie Plagge wrote, “Anthem has good ideas, but it struggles significantly with the execution. It’s a co-op game that works best with no one talking; it buries genuinely interesting character moments and puts its most incomprehensible story bits at the forefront; its combat is exciting until you get to the boss fights and find your wings have been clipped. Even the simple, exhilarating act of flying is frequently interrupted by the limitations of your javelin, and you never quite shake that feeling of disappointment–of knowing, throughout the good parts of Anthem, that you’ll inevitably come crashing back down.”
In addition to the effort to bring Anthem back from the brink, if that is indeed going to happen, the studio is launching Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in May. The game bundles together the original Mass Effect trilogy with various updates and enhancements.
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Marvel vs. Capcom Arcade1Up Cabinet Review — Are You Ready, True Believers?
In the realm of video games, nothing screams ’90s more than Capcom’s Marvel mash-up fighting games–you were greeted by a “Winners Don’t Use Drugs” screen seconds before being inundated with the overwhelming bliss, color, and sound of ’90s-era Capcom that drugs only wish they could match up to. It was a great time for fighting games. Arcade1Up’s latest cabinet attempts to capture some of that magic, and while seasoned fighting veterans may raise an eyebrow or two at its concessions, the company’s Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet serves as a wonderful throwback that’s as exciting to play as it is striking to look at.
Gameplay
Arcade1Up’s Marvel vs Capcom cabinet features five games from Marvel and Capcom’s beloved history. The first four are fighting game classics that called Capcom’s CPS-2 arcade hardware home: Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. Each game is as enjoyable as the last thanks to Capcom’s trademark style of bombast–I’ll never get tired of hearing “Shoryuken” and “Berserker Barrage” from my Ken and Wolverine team in X-Men vs. Street Fighter.
All of the games are presented well, too, with the 17-inch screen shining bright enough to do the colorful ensembles justice. And while the cabinet’s built-in speakers lack some much-needed bass, each game’s iconic audio is able to shine through that shortcoming. This Arcade1Up cabinet is by no means the best way to play these games, but it’s hard to deny just how attractive the whole experience is, especially when you’re standing next to a friend and playing these classic games in a way that represents them well.
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Marvel vs. Capcom Arcade1Up cabinet games list
- Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
- Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
- X-Men vs. Street Fighter
- Marvel Super Heroes
- Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems
The black sheep of the Marvel vs Capcom Arcade1Up cabinet is the inclusion of the SNES game Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems. This home console beat-’em-up lacks a lot of the flourish of the beat-’em-ups you’d find in arcades, such as Konami’s X-Men game and Turtles in Time. And while it’s not necessarily a bad game, War of the Gems’ simple side-scrolling gameplay feels underwhelming on a stand-up arcade cabinet. The arcade-style controls don’t map well to the original D-pad and button controls on SNES, making the game feel less responsive than it does on the original console, too. War of the Gems is a strange inclusion when there are plenty of other CPS-2 fighting games that are more appropriate thematically.
The Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet also features online multiplayer with lobbies for its fighting games, which works surprisingly well the few times I’ve been able to secure a match. Latency feels minimal, and I didn’t notice any significant issues. I wouldn’t buy this cabinet with the plan of playing online a lot unless you plan on coordinating with other cabinet owners, though. There aren’t an abundance of players online at any given time. Arcade games tend to be more enjoyable when you’re playing with someone who’s standing next to you, so online multiplayer feels more like a bonus than a staple feature.
Marvel vs. Capcom Arcade1Up cabinet specs
| Included accessories: Riser, light-up marquee, Marvel vs. Capcom stool |
| Measurements: 45.8″ x 19″ x 22.75″ (H x W x L) |
| Screen size: 17 inches |
| Wi-Fi connection: Yes, for all games but War of the Gems |
Build quality and design
Arcade1Up went with Marvel vs. Capcom’s iconic faceoff art for this cabinet’s panels, which was a great choice. While not what you’d find on the original cabinet, the beloved art by Japanese illustrator Bengus is striking, featuring some of the classic characters’ best designs–when people think of Marvel vs. Capcom, they often think of this very artwork. The X-Men are evocative of their ’90s cartoon series, Spider-Man and Venom are ripped straight out of a Todd MacFarlane comic, and the various Avengers bring back fond memories of pre-MCU adventures. On the flipside, Capcom’s cast of characters retain their classic looks and appear ready to fight as they’ve ever been. This clash of heroes and color make it one of Arcade1Up’s best cabinet designs so far.
Where the build quality breaks down a bit is in its controls. Arcade1Up’s joysticks and buttons are of middling quality compared to the higher-end options out there, and while that’s not as noticeable when you’re playing something like Galaga or Pac-Man, it becomes much more apparent when you’re playing fighting games. The joystick doesn’t feel particularly solid, and the plastic handle feels very cheap. While the controls are disappointing overall, the novelty of playing these games on a stand-up cabinet in your home is enough for the Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet to get by on. Think of it less as a competition-level product and more of a fun toy to gather around at parties or when company is over. And after a month of casual use, the controls still feel like they did when I first set the cabinet up, so as long as you and your friends aren’t overly rough with them, you should be fine.
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The bottom line
The Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet’s cheap-feeling controls are disappointing, but when you’re in the middle of a match with a friend, taking on their Magneto and Zangief with your Wolverine and Ken, Capcom’s fighting game action takes over and delivers an exciting experience. Arcade1Up has done a great job capturing one of fighting game history’s best chapters, each game boasting quality emulation that keeps that ’90s nostalgia intact. If Arcade1Up had provided higher-quality controls, it would have sealed itself as a truly incredible cabinet. If you can get past that, the Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet is a no-brainer.
The Good:
- Games are vibrant and smooth on the cabinet’s 17-inch screen
- Each game is emulated well, providing a great experience no matter your favorite
- Cabinet design utilizes Capcom’s gorgeous artwork
The Bad:
- Joystick and buttons feel cheap compared to higher-end options
- War of the Gems is a strange inclusion among the arcade fighting games
About the author: Mat Paget tested the Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet for more than a month. To him, nothing beats X-Men vs. Street Fighter, and while he owns it on Sega Saturn, he’s still happy to play it on the Arcade1Up cabinet every now and then. Arcade1Up provided the cabinet for review.
Zack Snyder Isn’t Getting Paid For Snyder Cut, Reshoots Cost $70 Million
Ahead of the release of the “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, Zack Snyder has shared some new insights into his work on the re-cut version of the film. Among other details, he shared that he isn’t being paid to create this version of the movie, nor has he ever seen the original theatrical version of Justice League.
This was shared as part of a new Vanity Fair profile, which is bursting with new insights that will likely be revelatory for hardcore and fair-weather fans alike–including the fact that the persistent rumors that Snyder himself asked Joss Whedon for help finishing the film were false. Instead, says Snyder, at the time he tried to make the best of a bad situation and remained optimistic that “maybe he could write cool scenes. I thought that would be fun.” And as it turns out, Snyder–at his wife Deborah’s (who produced the film) insistence–he has never seen the version Whedon made.
But even before the death of his daughter Autumn, Snyder and the project were facing mounting headaches, ulcers, and conflicting marching orders from Warner Bros. Chief among them, says Snyder, was an expectation to make the film shorter.
“How am I supposed to introduce six characters and an alien with potential for world domination in two hours? Clearly it was done,” says Snyder. “But I didn’t see it.”
According to Vanity Fair, part of what helped Snyder get the leverage he needed to execute his vision was to forgo a salary: “I’m not getting paid… I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone, and it allowed me to keep my negotiation powers.” Not that filming his four-hour version of the film was a spartan undertaking–the reshoots cost a reported $70 million “to undo Whedon’s redo.” It’s unclear if that budget also includes the re-scoring.
The piece is well worth a read, and also has even further new looks at Jared Leto’s Joker beyond what was released earlier this month, including the shot above.
Justice League: The Director’s Cut will hit the HBO Max on March 18.
Zack Snyder Hasn’t Seen Whedon’s Justice League, and Isn’t Being Paid for the Snyder Cut
Zack Snyder has never watched the version of Justice League released in 2017, despite being credited as its director. And for his re-cut of the film, he’s not being paid anything.
In a new feature from Vanity Fair, Zack Snyder reveals that his wife, Deborah Snyder, recommended that he not watch the final version of Justice League. That version had been partially re-shot and edited by Joss Whedon, who took over directorial duties when Snyder left the project following the death of his daughter.
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“They came and they just said, ‘You can never see that movie,’” Snyder said, referring to a time when his wife, along with executive producer Christopher Nolan, had just seen the Whedon’s final cut of Justice League. Deborah Snyder said that she knew the version would “break his heart”.
Now, just weeks away from Snyder releasing his own version of Justice League, it has been revealed that Warner Bros. are not paying the director for his work. “I’m not getting paid,” Snyder told Vanity Fair. He claims that going without a wage has meant he has held onto creative control of the project. “I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone, and it allowed me to keep my negotiating powers with these people pretty strong.”
For more on the project, check out the news of the Snyder Cut’s international release, and why the film is not in widescreen. And be sure to visit us for IGN Fan Fest, when we’ll be interviewing Zack Snyder himself about his new cut of Justice League.
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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Valheim Studio Reacts To The Game’s Huge Success
The open-world multiplayer survival RPG Valheim is tearing up the charts right now, both in terms of players and sales, and now the developer has said the early results for the game are “mind-blowing” and have far exceeded the studio’s expectations.
Iron Gate co-founder Henrik Törnqvist told PC Gamer that Valheim’s success is “mind-blowing” and “really awesome.” He also thanked fans for their support so far.
Törnqvist told the site that his team believed that Valheim would sell enough copies to “sustain” the studio, but it has far exceeded that. At the time the interview was conducted, Valheim reached 2 million copies sold, a figure that Törnqvist said he “could never have guessed.” The game is now up to 3 million copies sold, and with its peak concurrent user figure recently passing 500,000, another sales milestone might not be far off.
Valheim is published by Goat Simulator studio Coffee Stain’s new publishing group, which is headed up by Sebastian Eriksson. He told the site that the sales results for Valheim so far are “quite incredible” and “very humbling.”
“We were also fairly optimistic, or I would say very optimistic, in terms of how the game would perform. But this is above and beyond all of our wildest imaginations,” Eriksson said.
Valheim was developed by a team of just five people, but Törnqvist confirmed in the interview that Iron Gate plans to expand. “We will hire some people, absolutely,” he said. The developer said the team has reached its limit of what it can do as a five-person studio.
To help you get started in Valheim, we’ve rounded up some Valheim beginner tips. These include the tips you need to build, repair, improve your skills, and acquire more resources. You might also be interested in our Valheim armor guide to help you outfit your character to survive.
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Final Fantasy 16 Will Be More Action-Oriented But Not At The Expense Of Its Story
Final Fantasy XVI producer Naoki Yoshida appeared this week on the Tokyo FM radio show One Morning, where he briefly talked about the development of the upcoming game. Much like Final Fantasy XV and Final Fantasy VII Remake, the latest chapter in Square Enix’s long-running RPG series will be more “action-oriented,” but not at the expense of its story.
“Final Fantasy XVI is quite action-oriented. It’s a Final Fantasy featuring story and action,” Yoshida said during the radio show as translated by Gematsu. “We really want players to enjoy the story, so we’re preparing a mode for players who want to focus on story. Since we have quite the substantial support actions, we’re of course preparing something easy to operate and smooth to play.”
As for the actual storyline, Yoshida hinted at a tale of hardship that adults could relate to, as he felt that certain challenges could only be understood by an older generation that had experienced “the good and bad of reality.”
“I’m from the generation that has been playing the Final Fantasy series from the first game in real-time. I’m almost in my 50s,” Yoshida said. “I believe there are certain hardships that are experienced when becoming an adult, so I want to make the main theme of this game something that those who grew up playing Final Fantasy and understand reality can still enjoy, get something out of, and think about.”
Development on Final Fantasy XVI appears to be going smoothly, as its reveal at last year’s PlayStation 5 showcase had plenty of gameplay footage to show off. In a new recruitment page for Final Fantasy XVI, Square Enix mentioned that basic development and scenario production had already wrapped up, with the team seeking new recruits to work on specific set-pieces using large-scale resources.
Final Fantasy XVI will once again launch exclusively on PS5 thanks to a timed-exclusivity deal between Sony and Square Enix. A PC release was briefly listed during the reveal trailer but it was removed shortly after.
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Reverse-Engineered GTA 3 And Vice City Fan Project Taken Down
A fan project that reverse-engineered the source code of Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto Vice City has been taken down, seemingly by Rockstar’s parent company.
You can see the project in action in this YouTube showcase video, which shows all of the improvements brought to the game due to the team’s reverse-engineering efforts over many years, such as fully-featured debug menus and modernized video settings. As reported by Eurogamer, accessing the repository for Re3 or ReVC on GitHub will now lead users to a “Repository unavailable for DMCA takedown” page.
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The DMCA itself is available to read here, which appears to come from the copyright holder Take-Two Interactive Software, the parent company of Rockstar Games. The project would have allowed fans to thoroughly mod the game and port it to various platforms, now that the game was fully decompiled and understood.
The project lead told Eurogamer that the DMCA could be from a troll, but it was “better to assume it was real” going forward. Asked about the move by IGN, Rockstar declined to comment.
In other GTA-related news, a report has alleged that a new Grand Theft Auto game is in development, with the studio reportedly making changes to fix crunch culture. Here’s every IGN Rockstar game review, to tide you over until then.
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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
Daft Punk, Legendary DJ Duo, Break Up
Legendary French DJ duo, Daft Punk – who created four hit studio albums, wrote the soundtrack for Tron: Legacy, and appeared in DJ Hero – have announced that they have broken up.
The duo, made up of Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo, announced the news in a video called Epilogue (in which one of the pair quite literally self-destructs), and confirmed the news to Pitchfork, giving no reason for the split. The duo have almost always worn robot-like headgear in public appearances
The duo, who spanned pop, dance, house and more, released the likes of ‘Da Funk’, ‘Robot Rock’, ‘Around the World’, ‘One More Time’, and ‘Get Lucky’, and release four studio albums. 2001 album Discovery was accompanied by an anime movie, Interstella 5555: The 5tory of the 5ecret 5tar 5ystem, which used the entirety of the album as a soundtrack.
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Daft Punk went onto write the soundtrack to Tron: Legacy, which we awarded a 9/10 review, saying it did “an excellent job crafting a triumphant yet measured score that captures the spirit of the Tron world exceptionally well.” Fortnite just released a number of crossover items based on Tron.
In the world of video games, Daft Punk appeared in 2009’s DJ Hero, and offered up 11 original mixes featuring their music. I also can’t help but think that Insomniac might have been a little bit inspired by Daft Punk’s image when making the coolest costume in Spider-Man: Miles Morales:
This costume is just Insomniac showing off, and I absolutely love it. pic.twitter.com/9Gd5TjpdTW
— Joe Skrebels (@2plus2isjoe) November 30, 2020
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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].