Netflix continues to see success in 2021 as the company has hit 208 million subscribers (which it rounded up from 207,640,000) according to a recent press release. And Netflix plans on spending a lot of money on new content for all of 2021, $17 billion to be exact.
Since the coronavirus pandemic began, Netflix saw 25 million more paid subscribers sign up. This 13.6% year-over-year growth has been huge for Netflix, with revenue hitting a little over $7 billion in the first quarter of 2021. While Q1 saw a boost in subscribers and profits for the company, Q2 forecasts project a little bit of a plateau compared to previous quarters. Netflix is projecting that there will be 208.6 million subscribers, only adding a million paid subscribers in the upcoming few months.
Regardless of current projections, Netflix will be spending a lot of money on content, as many COVID-19 production delays from 2020 lead into 2021. Aside from Brazil and India, production around the world has restarted on Netflix movies and TV shows. There will be more Netflix originals this year than in the last, which–as previously mentioned–will cost the company $17 billion.
More information about Netflix’s upcoming originals should be revealed later today during the investor call for the company.
As for other Netflix news, more information has been revealed about Season 4 of Castlevania, the hit animated series based on the video game franchise of the same name. The streaming service is getting a Joey Ramone biopic which will star SNL cast member Pete Davidson. Season 2 of Love Death + Robots got a brand-new trailer, showcasing some impressive animated short films, and the latest offering of episodes lands on Netflix on May 14.
When the Guardian Games kicked off for the first time in Destiny 2 last year, it came with Heir Apparent, an Exotic machine gun that provides you with a protective shield when you fire it. Heir Apparent is available to earn again in the newly launched Guardian Games this year, but if you already have the gun, you can empower it with its new Exotic catalyst.
Triggering the quest to earn the Heir Apparent Exotic catalyst is pretty simple–it’s completing it that’s going to take some more effort. But in fact, if you’re participating in the Guardian Games anyway, the steps don’t seem too trying. The trick is the complete them while knocking out other requirements and helping your subclass advance in the Guardian Games ranks. You’ll need to rack up machine gun kills, Guardian Games medals, and something called Competitive Spirit, in order to complete the quest. Here’s everything you need to know to find the Heir Apparent Exotic catalyst quest and unlock it before the Guardian Games end on May 9.
If you haven’t earned Heir Apparent yet, you’ll need to complete its associated quest. Once you do that, you’ll be eligible to trigger the catalyst quest.
How To Get The Heir Apparent Exotic Catalyst Quest
First and foremost, you’re going to need to start earning medals. These are what score you points for your class in the Guardian Games, and while lower-level medals like Bronze and Silver can be earned by completing playlist activities such as Strikes, Crucible matches, and Gambit matches, you’ll have to work harder for the better Gold and Platinum medals.
Advance through the opening Guardian Games quests by visiting Zavala and picking up a class item, then completing the quest “The Games Being” and getting the Medal Case from Eva Levante. After that, knock out your first Contender Card to get access to the full slate of Guardian Games bounties and Contender Cards. Completing Nightfall Strike Contender Cards and Trials of Osiris Contender Cards get you Platinum medals, while the rest of the cards for playlist Strikes, Crucible matches, and Gambit matches will earn you Gold medals.
The Heir Apparent Exotic catalyst quest, “Competitive Catalyst,” drops randomly when you turn in Gold or Platinum medals to the Guardian Games podium. Therefore, you’re going to want to start completing Contender Cards in order to trigger the quest. There’s no telling how many it’ll take to get the catalyst quest to appear, but the drop rate seems fairly high–we got the catalyst quest upon turning in our very first Gold medal.
How To Unlock The Heir Apparent Exotic Catalyst
Once you’ve got “Competitive Catalyst,” you’ll have some grinding to do. The quest requires you to participate in the Guardian Games and to start turning in medals to increase your team’s score, then to rack up machine gun kills, among other requirements. Here’s what you can expect.
Step 1: Earn 50 Guardian Games Points
Turn in medals at the Guardian Games podium in the Tower to unlock the Heir Apparent Exotic catalyst quest, and then to advance it.
The first portion of the quest has you just participating in the Guardian Games. To do that, you’ll want to score points for your chosen subclass, which you can do by earning medals. Medals are rewarded for playlist activity completions, but the best way to get the highest-scoring medals is by completing Eva Levante’s Contender Cards. Here’s the rundown of how many points you’ll earn for each medal:
Bronze: 1 Point
Silver: 2 Points
Gold: 5 Points
Platinum: 15 Points
You’re notching a total of 50 points, so Platinum medals for completing Nightfalls and playing in the Trials of Osiris will get you there quickest. However, there are several Triumphs associated with the Guardian Games that award medals as well, so you might want to vary your play here a bit to take advantage of them to speed your progress. Points are awarded when you earn the medals, not when you turn them in, so you can knock out the activities quickly.
Step 2: Complete 3 Contender Cards
You can only get one Contender Card at a time, but in the second step, you can do whatever ones you most enjoy to advance.
This step is basically just a continuation of the one you were just working on, but with the stakes lowered a bit. You’ll need to knock out any three Contender Cards–and if you were trying to speed your progress through the first step, you’ll be familiar with these already. The good news is that you can do quicker cards like Strikes or Crucible matches to knock out this requirement, but note that you can only hold one Contender Card at a time.
Step 3: Earn 90 Competitive Spirit
Use the Medal Case to quickly see what the Daily Focus playlist is.
The third step is a little more nebulous, requiring you to earn something called “Competitive Spirit.” You can earn Competitive Spirit by participating in the Daily Focus playlist for that day, and by earning machine gun kills while you’re on it. The Daily Focus switches between Strikes, Crucible matches, and Gambit matches–you can tell what’s currently on top by checking the Medal Case in the Quests tab.
It’s worth nothing that it doesn’t seem like you’ll get the benefits of the Daily Focus for very long–after knocking out a few Strikes, the focus marker disappeared. So you might be working on Competitive Spirit for more than one day; we’ll update this section as we progress the quest and learn more about it.
Step 4: Get 700 Kills With Heir Apparent
Heir Apparent’s Arc shield gets a significant boost from the Exotic catalyst.
Your final step is just to use Heir Apparent, but you’ll need to do so kind of a lot. The quest requires you to notch some 700 kills with it. A good way to handle that is just to pack it along as you continue through the Guardian Games, but if you want to knock out this step more quickly, head to the Moon and complete a few Altar of Sorrow activities. You may want to equip a Heavy Finisher mod to make sure you can keep ammo in your Heir Apparent, but a few rounds should give you plenty of enemies and make completing this step fairly simple.
What The Heir Apparent Catalyst Does
Heir Apparent’s claim to fame is the big Arc shield it gives you when you spin up and fire the gun–much like some of the toucher Cabal enemies. The Heir Apparent catalyst amps up the shield, making it a lot more powerful. What’s more, when the shield inevitably shatters as you take damage, the catalyst will reload part of Heir Apparent’s magazine, so you can hopefully kill whatever’s threatening you.
You can pick up a full-size arcade cabinet for a relatively cheap price right now at Walmart. The X-Men vs. Street Fighter arcade cabinet from Arcade1Up is on sale now for $350, a savings of $150.
The arcade cabinet includes free delivery from Walmart, which as of the time of writing will arrive near the end of the month. On top of its original X-Men vs Street Fighter namesake, it includes three other Capcom fighters.
This stand-up arcade cabinet includes four classic arcade fighting games: X-Men vs Street Fighter, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel vs Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes, and X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse.
After 13 months, Call of Duty’s free-to-play battle royale has reached a huge player milestone. Activision announced today that 100 million players have dropped into Verdansk, which is a major feat in the battle royale realm with competition like Fortnite and Apex Legends.
Warzone’s accomplishment comes at an exciting time for players, as the ongoing zombies containment action is likely coming to a close, leading in to the Operation Rapid Sunder event on Wednesday, April 21, starting at 12 PM PT / 3 PM ET. This upcoming event remains quite a mystery, but with zombies spreading and nukes inbound, the rumored 1980s-themed map is likely on the horizon.
Call of Duty’s Season 3 will follow on April 22, so there’s a lot of content coming for Black Ops: Cold War and Warzone. Players can also expect a narrative-based “Hunt for Adler” limited-time event coming with the launch of Season 3. Completing challenges for this special event will be rewarded with items like weapon charms, calling cards, and a new operator skin.
If you’re planning on joining the millions of players dropping into Warzone for the events, be prepared for another beefy update, which will be more than 25 GB.
Ever since her reveal, Resident Evil Village‘s Lady Dimitrescu has dominated the internet thanks in part to her large stature, standing at 9 feet 6 inches tall. If there’s ever been a question fans might have wanted answered about the vampire misses, it’s just what it would feel like to get stepped on by her. The results? A YouTuber estimated what might happen and let’s just say it ends in instant death.
YouTuber Kyle Hill posted a 14-minute video detailing the possible aftermath of Lady Dimitrescu stepping on someone. Hill did this by assuming her body mass index (BMI) and working backward to get her mass, which is the real determining aspect for what would happen as it factors in force used and pressured exerted.
Hill assumed Lady Dimitrescu’s BMI is between 24 and 26. He plugs this number (it’s unclear what number he uses exactly) into a BMI equation to estimate that she weighs 450 pounds. This weight is increased because it’s assumed she will wear heels. After a few more calculations, Hill approximated that Lady Dimitrescu stepping on someone would emit 48 million psi (pounds per square inch). For reference, the Hadal Zone, the deepest region of the ocean, has a pressure level estimated at 15,000 psi.
But what would that actually feel like?
Hill performed a few more calculations and estimations, revealing that a single stomp from Lady Dimitrescu has more than enough pressure to puncture structural steel. To prove this, Hill improvised a Lady Dimitrescu-esque high heel (roughly 500 pounds attached to a workout rig suspended by a pulley system with a steel bolt slapped onto the bottom of a wood block) to step on a simulated head made of ballistic gel and a coconut.
You can imagine the results. Her heel glides through simulated flesh like butter, resulting in instant death. And even without heels, her weight cracks a coconut wide open, also resulting in instant death. Not a good time.
In other Resident Evil Village news, Capcom art director Tomonori Takano talked more about what went into Lady Dimitrescu’s design. We also had a look at about an hour of gameplay and walked away intrigued by how it melds Resident Evil 7’s first-person intensity with the claustrophobic frantic action of Resident Evil 4.
Resident Evil Village launches on May 7 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Check out our Resident Evil Village preorder guide to learn about the various bonuses and editions available.
Google added AR characters from well-known Japanese pop culture franchises in its search function on mobile. You can now find Hello Kitty, Pac-Man, Gundam, Ultraman, Evangelion, and much more represented in their 3D form. A few of the characters, including Cogimyun, Hello Kitty, and Pompompurin, come with their own audio and can “talk.”
You’ll need to be on mobile to use Google AR and view the 14 new characters. While in Google, search for a character’s name and then tap on View in 3D. Android devices can access the AR search function in Google search and iOS devices need to go through the Google app. Android 7 Plus with ARCore enabled and iOS 11.0+ devices can view 3D and AR content.
According to Google, Pac-Man is the most searched for character on the list. Previously, Google added a menagerie of animals to its AR search function, including cows, cats, and humongous dogs. Google’s been experimenting with AR in other places too, such as adding walking AR directions in Maps. It’s limited to specific malls and airports currently, but the idea is that digital directions are overlaid over the user’s real-word images in the Live View feature.
The latest Pac-Man game, Pac-Man 99, is a battle royale for Switch. Players will compete to be the last Pac-Man standing with a new twist on ghosts: Defeated ghosts will be sent to the other players’ games as a ghost than can slow them down. If you’re a Nintendo Switch Online subscriber, you can download Pac-Man 99 for free. Individual subscriptions cost $4 for one month, $8 for three months, and $20 for one year. An annual family plan costs $35 and covers up to eight different Nintendo Accounts.
MLB The Show 21 has made headlines this year for what it’s done off the field of play. In an unprecedented move, the Sony-developed title is now available on Microsoft consoles, signalling the end of 15 years of PlayStation exclusivity. It’s a monumental shift for a series that’s also making its debut on next-gen consoles, and MLB The Show 21 maintains the series’ high bar of excellence once the ball’s in play. Away from the diamond, however, there are a number of missing features and questionable decisions that take some of the shine off an otherwise fantastic game of baseball.
The card collecting mode, Diamond Dynasty, is the basis for most of these dubious decisions, particularly in regards to Road to the Show (RttS). MLB The Show 21’s career mode still revolves around the core idea of creating a player and taking them from the minor leagues through to the majors, but the structure of the mode has been significantly reworked. Your created Ballplayer is now a single unified entity that functions much like the NBA 2K series’ MyPlayer. This Ballplayer, with all the improvements you make to their attributes, also carries over into Diamond Dynasty, where they can be inserted into the starting lineup alongside current players and legends of the sport. It’s a solid idea on paper, but the execution severely hampers RttS in a few major areas.
For one, having a single Ballplayer limits your options since you’re unable to create more than one distinct character. You can still create multiple saves to make characters who play in different positions, but you’re stuck using the exact same player in each. On top of this, there’s also a new loadout system that allows you to create multiple custom loadouts. Each one features one main archetype and up to two perks that improve certain attributes while slightly decreasing others. This change appears to be geared towards another new addition, which gives you the option to play as a two-way player similar to Shohei Ohtani. For games when you’re hitting and playing the field, you might select a loadout with perks based around improving your contact, power, and arm accuracy; on days when you’re pitching, you might opt for another loadout with pitching-centric perks.
Again, this is a decent idea on paper, but the execution is once again lacking in a number of key areas. Attributes still improve during the process of playing games and completing training drills during your off-days, but natural progression like this is exceedingly slow to the point where it feels like it barely has an impact. By the end of your first season it’s very likely that your Ballplayer’s overall rating will have only risen by two or three points. Loadouts and equipment offset this meager progression by pumping up the numbers, but it’s difficult to feel any attachment to your created player when you have next to no palpable input on how they improve. Completing missions by achieving a specific number of hits, strikeouts, and so on, contributes to a linear upgrade tree for each archetype that gradually unlocks new perks and equipment. At the moment, however, this only adds to the grind, since a glitch is currently preventing the game from properly registering all of your actions.
Of course, you can purchase perks and equipment from the in-game marketplace, too, either by using Stubs earned by playing, or by using real money to bypass this entirely. The series has always been relatively generous when it comes to handing out rewards, and MLB The Show 21 is no different, but introducing microtransactions to a single-player mode is still a cynical maneuver that might also explain part of the reason why year-to-year saves are absent.
When it comes to Diamond Dynasty, there’s an “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” approach this year. The time-consuming mode is still bulging at the seams with various challenges and different ways to play, whether you’re recreating famous moments with legends of the past, stealing fans from other teams in Conquest, or simply competing against other players online. The same can also be said of Franchise mode–only the dearth of updates in this case is disappointing. Trade logic has been improved, and the addition of a yearly depth chart gives you a clear outline of how your team might develop and which areas will eventually need reinforcements. Budgets have also been streamlined so that they’re now readable, making it easier to plan ahead, but Franchise is still missing a number of key features that are mainstays in other sports games, such as online Franchise, expansion teams, and league re-alignments.
Like RttS, year-to-year saves are also absent in Franchise as well, so you won’t be able to carry over your 10-year Orioles rebuild from the previous games. Sounds of the Show is another feature that was lost in the move to newer consoles, meaning there’s no way to import custom music for batter walk-ups and so on. Commentary is also behind the times. There are a couple of new commentary lines in RttS relating to two-way players, but otherwise the three-man booth is overly familiar at this point. As a prime example, new Texas Rangers player David Dahl is still constantly referred to as “the speed outfielder,” despite the fact his speed stat has now regressed to 56. Sideline reporter Heidi Watney also regurgitates the same voice lines as last year.
MLB The Show has always been one of the better-looking sports games, so the increase in graphical fidelity on PlayStation 5 isn’t a significant leap. Lighting has been improved, and managers in particular look more lifelike than before. The addition of hundreds of new animations has a much more discernible impact on the visuals, though, adding to the game’s fluidity and sense of realism. The PS5 controller’s haptic feedback is also utilized to good effect, sending vibrations through your hands that mimic the ball careening off the end of the bat or nestling in a fielder’s glove. The oft-requested Stadium Creator also finally makes its series debut, letting you build ghastly monstrosities from the ground up, recreate famous ballparks, or add your own personal touch to a selection of pre-built stadiums. The only negative right now is you can’t play night games in created stadiums, but this is expected to be introduced in a later patch.
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Pinpoint Pitching is the headline new feature once you step out onto the diamond. As the name implies, this is a new pitching interface with an emphasis on precision. Obviously, how precise you are depends on your ability to successfully execute on this new mechanic, and it’s the most challenging pitching interface in the game. Once you’ve picked the pitch type and its placement, you need to use the right analog stick to accurately trace a pattern that’s dictated by your pitch selection. Timing is crucial, as you’re either rewarded or penalized for being too fast or too slow. There’s definitely a steep learning curve to mastering Pinpoint Pitching, but it’s tactile and feels very natural to pull off as though you’re mirroring the player’s pitching motion. It won’t be for everyone, and the series has never forced players into using a particular system, so you can still stick to meter pitching or another interface if need be. It’s a solid new addition, though, and adds another wrinkle to The Show’s on-field quality.
Fielding has also been improved via more fluid animations and better indicators. Check swings are also entirely based on player skill now, removing the element of randomness that was present before, even if the player discipline attribute had an impact. Whether you hold up on a swing or not is predicated on your ability to quickly cancel out of it. This is bound to be a divisive change considering it results in more strikeouts, but favoring skill over an element of luck is a positive change.
Much like its predecessors, MLB The Show 21 is still one of the best sports games available once you step over the foul line. The gameplay has been tightened up and Pinpoint Pitching is a potential game-changer, and all of these elements go some way to dampening the disappointment of its missing features, stale commentary, and changes (or lack thereof) to Road to the Show and Franchise. It’s not the strongest debut the series could’ve had on new hardware, but if you’re in the mood for nine innings of America’s favorite pastime, MLB The Show is still the undisputed king.
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World Of Warcraft now automatically blocks messages containing “reserved words” such as slurs and other banned or derogatory language. WoW-focused outlet Wowhead discovered the change on live servers recently and published a news post outlining the change.
As with most online games, WoW has used a text filter to automatically censor and filter certain words for years now. However, this new system that Wowhead discovered–which only appears to apply to one particular racial slur at the moment–would appear to indicate that Blizzard is planning to punish derogatory language more harshly in the future. The new system blocks the message from being sent on live servers entirely, though you can still send the message via Battle.net chat.
Given the fact that it only applies to one word, it’s likely that this is just an experimental feature for now, but it could soon expand to include more “reserved words.” In other WoW news, the game’s Chains of Domination update has been out on the game’s Public Test Realm for a few days now. Blizzard also recently released a Lich King Arthas statue as part of its 30th anniversary celebration.
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Activision’s longstanding tradition of celebrating weed culture’s big holiday–4/20–continues this year with the launch of a “Stoner’s Delight” DLC bundle for Black Ops Cold War and Warzone.
This bundle leaked weeks ago, but it’s now available to buy in both games. The DLC brings a variety of leafy content to the game, including the “Kushwacked” operator skin, as well as the “Homegrown” and “Big Smoke” weapon blueprints. There is also a “Rolling Leaf” charm, a “Kush Keeper” watch, and more. The bundle costs 2400 COD Points (about $20). You can see a preview of some of the content from the bundle in the image below.
Activision has released weed-themed DLC packs for Call of Duty games going back years, so it’s not a surprise to see Activision blaze that trail once again. Recreational marijuana is legal in California, which is where Activision’s main HQ and developer Treyarch are based, not that it necessarily factors into a release like this.
This pot-themed DLC is just the start of what’s new in Black Ops Cold War and Warzone this week. The much-anticipated Season 3 update will begin its rollout this evening, April 20, for Black Ops Cold War and then continue with an update for Warzone on April 21. Big things are planned, including the rumored nuke event that could see Verdansk blown to smithereens.
In other news, a recent leak revealed that 2021’s Call of Duty game is called Call of Duty: Vanguard, and it’s a World War II-set shooter from Sledgehammer Games. Activision has yet to formally announce the game, but that could happen soon if historical trends continue.
HBO Max has released a new teaser for Together Again, the third hour-long episode in a planned run of four revival specials titled Adventure Time: Distant Lands. The latest entry in the long-running fantasy series is due to hit the streaming service on May 20.
Together Again’s official logline says this adventure “brings Finn and Jake together again, to rediscover their brotherly bond and embark on the most important adventure of their lives.” The special will also reportedly answer the question: “Will Finn and Jake be best bros forever?” More specific plot details have not yet been announced. Check out the clip below.
Adventure Time was created by writer and animator Pendleton Ward (Bravest Warriors), and ran on Cartoon Network from 2010 to 2018. Despite ending only a few years ago, and having also spawned many comic book and video game spinoffs parallel to its original run, these revival specials carry on in the show’s other tradition of regularly having related miniseries. The first of Distant Lands’ specials aired back in June.
Also in 2020, Ward teamed with comedian Duncan Trussell for the Netflix series, The Midnight Gospel. The unusual show sets actual podcast interviews between Trussell and various guests into whimsical and weird animated adventures. Its guests/co-stars have included Stephen Root (Barry), Drew Pinsky (Loveline), author and mortician Caitlin Doughty, Maria Bamford (Arrested Development), comedian Joey Diaz, and songwriter David Nichtern.
