The live-action Pinocchio remake for Disney+ continues to fill out its cast.
Cynthia Erivo will play the role of the Blue Fairy for the film, per The Wrap. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was also announced as the voice of Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio’s wisecracking companion. Other casting news includes Keegan Michael-Key as Honest John, the swindling fox antagonist, and Lorraine Bracco as Sofia the Seagull, a new character that did not appear in Disney’s 1940 original animated film.
They join a cast led by Tom Hanks as Gepetto and Luke Evans as The Coachman. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth will voice Pinocchio.
Director Robert Zemeckis, who worked with Hanks on films like Forrest Gump and Cast Away, is helming the project. Production is set to begin this month and the film will debut on Disney Plus. No release date has been announced yet.
Gordon-Levitt is known for his roles in The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Looper. Last year, he starred in The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Project Power. Erivo starred in Bad Times at the El Royale and Widows. More recently, she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in 2019’s Harriet.
Pinocchio is just one of several live-action remakes that Disney is planning for both theatrical and streaming releases. Emma Stone stars in Cruella, an origin story for the 101 Dalmations villain, which is set to hit theaters on May 28. Other upcoming projects include a follow-up to The Lion King directed by Barry Jenkins and a Beauty and the Beast prequel series. Disney unveiled many live-action reimaginings during the company’s Investor Day last December.
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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.
Nintendo is allegedly set to reveal a new model of the Nintendo Switch with a bigger Samsung OLED display later this year that will be able to output 4K ultra-high definition graphics when in docked mode.
As reported by Bloomberg, Nintendo is planning to unveil this new model in hopes that the “larger touchscreen can prop up demand in time for the holidays.”
Samsung Display Co. will start mass production of 7-inch, 720p-resolution OLED panels as early as June 2021 with an “initial monthly target of under a million units.” These displays would then be sent to assemblers in July.
For reference, the current Nintendo Switch model features a 6.2-inch, 720p-resolution screen. This new screen would look as if you extended the current Switch’s screen that replaced most of the black bezel around it.
“The OLED panel will consume less battery, offer higher contrast and possibly faster response time when compared to the Switch’s current liquid-crystal display,” said Yoshio Tamura, co-founder of display consultancy DSCC.
The report also claims that Nintendo has decided to go with rigid OLED panels for this new model, a “cheaper but less flexible alternative to the type commonly used for high-end smartphones.”
IGN asked several industry analysts about their predictions on when and if we’d see a new Switch in 2021 or beyond, and the responses are range from no Switch pro this year to one possible coming before the year ends.
Guilty Gear Strive developer Arc System Works has announced plans to delay the launch of the next game in the series to June 11, 2021. This was announced shortly after the completion of the playable beta on PlayStation consoles, which allowed players to face off in multiplayer matches with a select number of playable fighters.
This is the second time that Guilty Gear Strive has been delayed. Originally planned for a late 2020 release, the developers delayed the game to April 9, 2021 in light of the added challenge of game development during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the developer’s statement, it was made clear that more work was needed in order to get the game to where it needed to be for its full launch.
“Since we have received valuable feedback after the recent Open Beta Test, we would like to make the most of this opportunity to provide the best game possible,” says the statement. “We need extra time to polish some aspects of the game, such as the online lobbies and the server’s stability.”
The response to the open beta was generally positive. However, a common topic of criticism was the approach to online lobbies, which made getting matches going a bit of a difficulty for players. According to the statement, Arc System works will be taking in this feedback to put some more work into it.
Recently, Arc System Works revealed the final character for Guilty Gear Strive’s launch lineup of 15 fighters, which sees the return of the time-traveling witch I-No. For more on Guilty Gear Strive, be sure to check back in with GameSpot for more updates on the state of the game.
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Guilty Gear Strive has been delayed until June 11, pushing it two months further back from its previous April 9 date.
ArcSystemWorks made the announcement Wednesday evening, citing feedback from the fighting game’s recent open beta test. ArcSystemWorks says they will use the extra two months to focus on improving online lobbies and server stability.
“We believe it best to use the extra time to improve the game’s quality and provide a better experience to all our players. Thank you for your patience and understanding,” ArcSystemWorks said.
Guilty Gear Strive, ArcSystem’s eagerly anticipated next installment in the popular anime-style fighting game series, has already received a relatively positive reception from the fighting game community. FGC members like Justin Wong and Jiyuna have praised the open beta’s netcode, saying it’s allowed for matches with international opponents with little to no lag.
One of the more common criticisms out of Strive’s beta was the game’s lobby system, a confusing social space wherein players must first find other players, whip out a sword signaling their willingness to fight, and then essentially hope the other player doesn’t back out. In short, many players saw it as more obtuse than even what’s come before in previous ArcSystems games, like Dragon Ball FighterZ.
Guilty Gear Strive was also previously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing it out of a 2020 release date. If you’re eager for more 2D/3D fighting goodness, here’s 25 minutes of high-level gameplay from the Strive beta.
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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and his heart is still blazing.
The Swamp is likely the third biome you’ll explore as you work your way through Valheim, and it’s significantly more deadly than the forests and meadows you’ve spent time in before. There’s a lot to find and a lot to avoid in the Swamp, and if you’re not prepared, you can find yourself struggling to stay alive and get the resources you need back to safety. We’re here to lay out everything you need to know about the Swamp, from what to expect from its enemies, to the things you’ll need to pilfer in order to continue your advancement through Valheim.
You’ll spend a lot of time in the Meadows and Black Forest biomes in Valheim’s early game, but the Swamp biome is a little tougher to track down. You’ll find this area along the coasts of various islands, usually attached to Black Forest. On your map, it’ll appear a mottled brown and black, indicating the flooded land; from a distance, you’ll know the Swamp biome by its bare, gnarled trees and the glowing green Guck resource stuck to many of them.
Swamp Resources
There are a few key later-game items to find in swamps that make them worth exploring, though they can be extremely dangerous to navigate if you’re unprepared. The enemies there drop a number of useful items you’ll need for late-game consumables, including mead and foods such as Sausage. Venturing into the Swamp is also where you get Iron, the next material you need to upgrade your armor, weapons, and equipment.
Here’s what you can find in the Swamp biome:
Iron – Found in Sunken Crypts
Entrails – Dropped by Draugrs; used to make Sausage
Bloodbags – Dropped by Leeches; used in Frost Resistance Mead
Ooze – Dropped by Blobs; used for making poison arrows and Ooze Bombs
Guck – Found in green pods attached to trees
Ancient Wood – Found by chopping down Ancient Trees
Iron Chains – Found in Sunken Crypts and dropped by Wraiths; used for Forge upgrades and in Wolf Armor
Surtling Cores – Dropped by Surtlings; used to make Kilns, Smelters, and Portals
Thistles – Found growing throughout Swamps; used to make mead and Sausage
Withered Bones – Used to summon Bonemass
Swamp Enemies
The swamps are home to some dangerous creatures, most notably because a bunch of them can inflict you with poison, which can do devastating damage over time. Here’s what you’ll face in the Swamp biome.
Skeletons
Like in the other biomes, skeletons have either swords and shields or bows. They’re not especially strong in the Swamp, but their arrows can be a pain when you’re battling other enemies.
Draugrs
These zombie-like fighters are tougher than skeletons and can do a lot more damage. Parrying them can make them easier to take down, but beware of the ones with bows especially, because they can do a lot of damage and be tough to avoid.
Blobs
These green masses of goo can be unpredictable as they jump toward you. They’re also more willing to go underwater than most enemies. Blobs don’t hit very hard but if you get close to them, they’ll release a poisonous cloud, so try to keep your distance from them and take them out with your bow. Higher-level red blobs will split into two smaller green ones when killed.
Leeches
Watch out for these big black monsters in the waterways of the swamp. They’re not especially dangerous because they can’t leave the water, but if they get you while you’re too close, you’ll be poisoned. Leeches can also wreak havoc on your boats and sink rafts pretty easily, so stay clear of them. Since they can’t get out of the water, though, you can nail them with arrows pretty easily and collect the very useful Bloodbags they drop.
Wraiths
Wraiths are ghostly flying enemies, and they can be a real pain. They move very quickly as they cross land, making it tough to get away from them. If you can put some distance on them or spot them before they spot you, they’re fairly easy to drop with a bow and have no ranged attacks, however. If not, try to quickly melee them before they can do too much damage, as they hit hard when they’re up close.
How To Find Iron In Swamps
Look for Sunken Crypts in Swamps and make note of their locations, because they’re full of useful resources–Scrap Iron most of all.
The most important resource in the swamps is Scrap Iron, which you can use to make the next tier of gear after Bronze. You can’t just mine Iron out of the ground, however–you have to go to specific places in the swamps to find it and cut it from certain nodes. To get to those nodes, you need a particular item: the Swamp Key.
How To Get The Swamp Key And What It’s For
Scattered throughout the Swamp biomes are black dungeon entrances called Sunken Crypts. Like Burial Chambers in the Black Forest and Meadow biomes, these are underground areas where you’ll find chests, resources, and enemies. Sunken Crypts are the only places you can get Scrap Iron, but you can’t just walk into them like you can Burial Chambers, because Sunken Crypts are locked with iron gates. Opening those gates requires a Swamp Key.
To get the Swamp Key, you need to defeat The Elder, the boss of the Black Forest biome. It’s an especially hard boss to take down, but like everything in Valheim, summoning and defeating the Elder is an involved process. Check out our complete guide to beating the Elder for more details.
Once you’ve killed it, the boss will drop several Swamp Keys. you only need one, however, and you’ll be able to use it repeatedly to open any Sunken Crypts you come across.
How To Get Iron From Sunken Crypts
The Swamp Key will get you into the Sunken Crypts, but that’s only half the battle. You’ll still need to mine Scrap Iron. You’ll find it in the Muddy Scrap Pile nodes scattered throughout Sunken Crypts–these are usually big black piles of sludge that block doorways. Because they’ll be in your way a lot, they’re impossible to miss.
You’ll need a Bronze Pickaxe to mine Muddy Scrap Piles. Make sure you make the upgraded tool before you bother delving into Sunken Crypts, because you won’t get far without one. It’s also a good idea to take other players with you on your Sunken Crypt jaunts to help with any enemies you might encounter and to lug Iron out of the dungeon. Note also that you can’t teleport with Scrap Iron in your inventory, so if you’re at a distance from your base, you’ll likely want to bring a boat to take it back to where you can smelt it into Iron. Both Karves and Longships have storage bins in their decks, so you can dump some Scrap Iron on your boat and head back for another run, provided your pickaxe isn’t broken.
How To Find And Summon Bonemass
The boss of the Swamp biome is Bonemass, a giant blob that holds the Wishbone, a key item you need to continue venturing up Valheim’s tech tree. In order to kill Bonemass, you have to find it. Like the Elder, you’ll need to locate a rune stone that will mark Bonemass’s location on your map. You can find those rune stones hidden in Sunken Crypts, and if you’re already hunting for Scrap Iron, it’s likely you’ll identify Bonemass’s location along the way.
Once Bonemass’s location is marked on your map, you can summon the boss and take it down. The location marked on your map is a big skull-faced pit; if you sacrifice 10 Withering Bones there, you’ll draw the boss out for battle. You can find Withering Bones inside Sunken Crypts as well, either in Muddy Scrap Piles or in chests.
How To Beat Bonemass
Bonemass is strong against most physical damage types, but Blunt weapons like the Iron Mace can do a lot of damage. To keep your distance, though, use Frost arrows.
Bonemass is a tough boss because it’s highly mobile, constantly pursuing nearby players. It also hits hard and can inflict poison in a number of ways, most notably with a giant area-of-effect attack where it belches poisonous goo all over the battlefield. What’s more, Bonemass triggers rain during the fight, which gives your character the wet effect and thus reduces your ability to regain Health and Stamina.
Ahead of the fight, it’s a good idea to craft Poison Resistance Mead, which shields you from Bonemass’s poison effects for 10 minutes. You’ll need a Cauldron, where you can craft Poison Resistance Mead Base from 10 Honey, 5 Thistles, 1 Neck tail and 10 Coal, and a Fermenter, which will turn the base into mead after a long wait.
Bonemass has three attacks: a wide swipe of its arms, which can do massive damage and has hits a wide area in front of the boss; a puke move that covers the area around the boss in poison; and a move in which the boss throws a glob off its own body, which will spawn random swamp enemies to attack you. With Poison Resistance Mead, you can withstand Bonemass’s poisonous puke, but the swipe attack and blob throw are both still very dangerous. Keep an eye out for extra enemies that might spawn from the throw or are wandering the swamps, because they can mess up your fight against the boss in a hurry if you don’t see them coming.
Blunt weapons have the greatest effect against Bonemass, so if you’ve got the resources for it, an Iron Mace is a good bet. Using melee weapons will put you in close proximity to Bonemass, though, and the boss does massive damage with its swipe attacks; you should absolutely block those with a shield, but even if you do, you’ll probably get punished for it. If you’re going to melee Bonemass, try to hit it from behind while another player distracts it, or catch it during certain animations, like when it winds up to throw its blobs or as it gets ready to spew poison, if you’re already immune. Your dodge roll can get you out of trouble when you’re in close, so keep that in mind.
A more effective strategy, however, might be to hit Bonemass with a ton of Frost Arrows. While the boss is pretty resistant to the piercing damage, which is what arrows inflict, the Frost effect is separate from piercing, and Bonemass will take the full brunt of the elemental damage. Using arrows allows you to stay well back from the boss and avoid poison and physical damage, which can make the fight a whole lot easier. That said, Frost Arrows are tough to come by, because you’ll need to venture into the Mountain biome to mine Obsidian and to gather Frost Glands from Drakes. Check out our Wolf Armor guide for some tips about how to survive the mountains before you’re able to make Silver armor to withstand the cold.
Beat Bonemass and you’ll get a trophy you can sacrifice at the altar where you first started in Valheim to get Bonemass’s Forsaken Power, which gives you increased resistance against physical damage for five minutes when activated. You’ll also get the Wishbone, which is essential for locating Silver and other hidden treasures buried beneath the ground.
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Nintendo will reportedly reveal a new version of its Switch that features a bigger OLED display created by Samsung and will output at 4K when docked and connected to a TV. The model, according to Bloomberg, will be unveiled this year and Samsung will begin mass production of the new seven-inch screen “as early as June.”
The OLED display panel will output at 720p resolution, according to Bloomberg, which cites people familiar with plans. Nintendo is said to be working to maintain interest around the Switch, as well as continue to sell software competitively against Xbox and PlayStation.
Reports of a more powerful version of the Switch have been floating around for some time now. In January a dataminer noted that a firmware update issued by Nintendo references an upgraded Switch console codenamed Aula. This ugpraded model allegedly uses the Mariko (Tegra X1+) SoC chip that was implemented with the Switch Lite and updated 2019 regular model Switches. Additionally, the firmware mentioned support for a Realtek chip, which has been advertised as a “4K UHD multimedia SoC.”
The same dataminer noted that it’s likely the new Switch’s display will not be a higher resolution when in handheld mode, and that the 4K chip may be located in the dock instead of the tablet itself. Bloomberg’s reports indicates this could be the case too.
The Switch is now in its fifth year and been a huge success for Nintendo. Sales of the handheld/home console hybrid reached over 68 million units sold as of September 2020.
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Zack Snyder’s Justice League‘s four-hour runtime is intimidating, but Snyder has split the film into six parts, breaking the story up a bit. The director announced the first two chapter titles for the film last weekend, but has now revealed the other four ahead of the film’s March 18 debut on HBO Max.
The six chapters are as follows:
Don’t Count On It, Batman
The Age of Heroes
Beloved Mother, Beloved Son
“Change Machine”
All the King’s Horses
Something Darker
This can look a little confusing at first thanks to the complex history of Zack Snyder’s Justice League. Snyder was in the process of directing Justice League when he had to step away due to a family tragedy. Warner Bros. handed the film off to Joss Whedon, who finished and released the film to negative reviews from critics and moviegoers alike.
Fans of Snyder’s previous DC superhero films, Man of Steel and Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, began to call for Warner Bros. to release a version that they believed already existed that reflected Snyder’s vision, using the hashtag #releasethesnydercut. Eventually Warner Bros. would greenlight the film as an HBO Max exclusive four-part miniseries with a $20 million budget for reshoots.
The Justice League miniseries’ budget would eventually balloon to a reported $70 million, and it returned to becoming a single film. The official Snyder Cut Twitter account addressed fan confusion about a four-part show that became a film with six parts, clarifying that it is “Six parts. One Film.”
Zack Snyder’s Justice League will release on HBO Max on March 18.
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While some titles are more vague than others, this news gives fans some hints of what to expect from the film’s narrative.
Though Zack Snyder’s Justice League is organized as individual chapters, it has been produced as a single, cohesive film. The streamer confirmed that the running time of the movie will be 4 hours and 2 minutes. It will feature two-and-a-half hours of unseen footage and won’t include footage from Joss Whedon’s reshoots for the theatrical version of the film.
Zack Snyder’s Justice League has seemingly gone through different structures during its production. The director originally revealed the project as a four-part series at DC Fandome last August.
Super Mario Kart began what’s known as the “character go-kart” genre in the world of videogames. Ever since that game’s release more than a decade ago, it’s almost been like a development creed for a team stuck with a license: “When in doubt, make it a racing game.” We’ve seen these in all shapes and sizes across every videogame system, putting a wide variety of characters like Looney Tunes, Rugrats, Spongebob, Shrek…even videogame heroes from Hudson and Konami went four-wheeling at one time or another.
As the story goes, the one game that came close to being as good as Nintendo’s original kart offering was Naughty Dog’s Crash Team Racing released a half decade ago on the original PlayStation One. Vivendi Universal obviously wants to return to the success of that game design, especially since Crash is a multi-console hero now. In comes Crash Nitro Kart for the Game Boy Advance, a handheld-specific rendition of the racing game released for the Xbox, GameCube and PS2. In portable form, the developers did a great job on racing design with excellent attention to car handling, challenge, track design, and a ton of racing modes to increase replay. But the graphic engine’s habit of continuously slowing down during particularly hectic moments is too prominent to ignore…and is a serious downer to an otherwise great GBA kart racer.
Features
Eleven racers
Arcade and Adventure modes
Link cable support for four players (multiple cartridge)
Just like the console versions, the Game Boy Advance rendition of Crash Nitro Kart has been handled by Vicarious Visions, the development team that originally brought the bandicoot to the handheld in The Big Adventure and N-Tranced platformers. Though the development studio originally started in the Game Boy market with racing games such as Polaris Snocross and Sea-Doo Hydrocross, this is Vicarious Visions’ first Game Boy Advance racer…and the team’s first GBA design to utilize a Mode-7 engine for the game design.
The plot of Crash Nitro Kart puts Crash and crew on a remote planet where they’ve been kidnapped by the “evil” Emperor Velo, forced to race against the alien posse as well as Neo Cortex and his crew of cronies. While players can just jump right in and race the game’s circuits in Arcade mode, some tracks and racers aren’t available until they go through the game’s Adventure Mode. Here, players can either choose the good or bad side from the start; Crash is fighting to save the world, while Neo’s got other plans for Earth. Both teams have their own balance of characters and racer abilities, from heavy and fast to light and spry, so there’s a kart suited for your specific style of racing.
Even though we’ve played kart racers of varying quality on the Game Boy Advance, Crash Nitro Kart is definitely the one, apart from Mario Kart: Super Circuit, that had so much attention paid to its game design. The handling of the cars is really spot-on, especially with the powerslide in action. And the weaponry is well-balanced with a nice assortment of offensive and defensive attacks, most of which are inspired from Mario Kart, just retuned to fit the Crash Bandicoot universe.
But it’s the Boost element that really gives Crash Nitro Kart its charm, and makes the game feel more its own than simply a Mario Kart clone. In a powerslide, the racer quickly builds up a boost meter that must be activated at a specific time, and a successful powerslide can give skilled players as many as three linked boosts. This is where the champions are made; without the powerslide technique mastered, there’s no way you’ll be able to become Earth’s champion. This mechanic is mapped extremely well to the GBA’s button limitations: during a powerslide, you actually have to release the accelerator and tap that button to activate the Nitro blasts. It may sound awkward, but once you play it in action you’ll understand just how well it works in Crash Nitro Kart.
The Game Boy Advance game goes further by offering additional incentives to continue playing with extremely challenging tasks; to collect CNK tokens in each track, players will have to collect C, N, and K tokens scattered along the track and come in first. Each world also contains a “Crystal Arena” that challenges players to collect all the scattered crystals in a set amount of time. Other tracks have a Relic Race that requires players to race the track under a certain time, smacking into crates that will freeze the clock for the designated time painted on the box. Of course, there’s link cable support for four players, with a few racing and battle modes in the multiplayer features. And let’s not forget the Time Trial where players can rank their times up on the Vicarious Visions website through a password system.
But with all this implemented, the one factor that brings it all down is a sluggish game engine. As great as the track, character and weapon graphics are, the game is meant to move at a speedy and smooth clip…and when characters group together on-screen, it’s almost too much for the system to handle. The game chugs noticeably, and it’s not just occasionally, either. Any time there’s multiple characters boosting or activating a specific power-up, the engine just slows down. It doesn’t happen much, if at all, in time trials or during “boss battles,” but when most of the game takes place in an eight-character race, it’s just unforgivable to have such a fast-paced game slow down to a crawl in patches during the gameplay. And it definitely affects play during a race, especially when players are used to the timing of the Nitro meter during regular, non-sluggish play and must adjust their button presses where the engine bogs down.
We’re not sure if we’re ready for a revival of Showtime’s Dexter series, but it’s coming whether we like it or not. As the show begins to ramp up production, it’s also adding new cast members. Actor Katy Sullivan, a former Paralympian and Paralympic analyst, has joined the cast according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sullivan will play the part of Esther, a dispatcher at the Iron Lake Police Station. As an actor, Sullivan has also appeared in shows like NCIS: New Orleans, My Name is Earl, and Last Man Standing. As an athlete, Sullivan is a four-time U.S. champion in the 100-meter dash, who set a U.S. record in the event at the 2012 Paralympic Games in London, where she came in sixth in the world. Afterward, she worked as an analyst for NBC during the 2016 Brazil Paralympic Games.
The Dexter revival is set 10 years after the much-maligned ending of the original series. Dexter Morgan, once again played by Michael C. Hall, now lives under a different name in upstate New York. Cast members include Clancy Brown as the antagonist, as well as Jamie Chung, Oscar Wahlberg, Michal Cyril Creighton, Julia Jones, Alano Miller, Johnny Sequoyah, Jack Alcott, and more. Original showrunner Clyde Phillips returns to run the revival and produce alongside Hall. The show is currently set to run for 10 episodes as a closed-ended revival.
Hall addressed the ending of the original series in an interview with the The Daily Beast, saying that “people found the way the show left things pretty unsatisfying, and that there’s always been a hope that a story would emerge that would be worth telling. I include myself in the group of people that wondered, ‘What the hell happened to that guy?’ The revival acts as a sequel to the series that acknowledges the original ending.
