PlayStation has revealed next month’s freebies for PlayStation Plus subscribers. A whopping four games are featured in March 2021’s PS Plus lineup: Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Remnant: From the Ashes, Maquette, and Farpoint. All of the new freebies will be available to claim starting March 2. Subscribers can also claim one of February’s freebies, Destruction AllStars, on PS5 throughout March.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake will be playable on PS4 and PS5 thanks to backwards compatibility. However, the PS Plus version of the excellent 2020 action-RPG won’t be eligible for a free upgrade to the newly announced PS5 version. You’ll have to purchase it to upgrade to Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Intergrade. If you already know you’re going to want to play it on PS5, Amazon is currently selling FF7 Remake for $30. It was one of our favorite games of 2020 and earned a rare 10/10 in our Final Fantasy 7 Remake review.
Published by Annapurna Interactive, Maquette launches on March 2 and will be free for subscribers only on PS5. The first-person puzzle game is set in a recursive simulation where everything appears to be both small and large. Players manipulate objects in the world to solve puzzles.
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Remnant: From the Ashes is a co-op focused survival action game set in a post-apocalypse. While the story is rather bland, the challenging combat is a thrill thanks to great enemy design and well-designed bosses. Over the course of the adventure, you obtain new loot to upgrade your gear. Remnant supports three-player co-op, and it’s definitely designed to be played with friends. It’s playable on both PS4 and PS5.
It’s been a while since PSVR owners have received a new PlayStation Plus freebie. Farpoint, a first-person shooter set on an alien planet, will be free all throughout March. It features a single-player campaign and online multiplayer. Though Farpoint can be played with a DualShock 4 gamepad, it really hits its stride with the Aim controller.
The Pokemon franchise is turning 25 this year, and it celebrated on Friday with a Pokemon Presents video presentation. Fans were calling it a Pokemon Direct, and it delivered some big news, with both a remake and brand-new game revealed for Nintendo Switch. The Pokemon Presents has now wrapped up, and you can watch the 20-minute broadcast here. We’ve also put together a recap of the big announcements below, including the new Diamond/Pearl remakes and Pokemon Legends: Arceus.
POKEMON LEGENDS: ARCEUS
The biggest news closed out the show, and that is Pokemon Legends: Arceus. This is a brand-new Pokemon game for Nintendo Switch that takes place in the Sinnoh region and serves as a prequel of sorts, telling an earlier story than that of the Sinnoh we know. It’s set for release in 2022. It’s unclear if there will be two versions of the game, as is usual for new Pokemon releases.
DS games Pokemon Diamond and Pearl are getting remakes on Nintendo Switch. These games also take place in Sinnoh, and this is being positioned as a set of faithful remakes of the original titles. Pokemon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl release in late 2021.
While not a brand-new announcement, we did get another look at the upcoming New Pokemon Snap for Nintendo Switch. You can watch the gameplay trailer above, which showcases the various regions, Pokemon, and mechanics at play in the game. It releases on April 30.
The presentation was a short one, focused on just a few games and a celebratory recap of the series’ past. We also know about a MOBA game called Pokemon Unite, but that didn’t make an appearance here, nor did the Detective Pikachu for Switch game that we know is coming.
The celebration will continue tomorrow with a virtual concert from Post Malone. The rapper and singer has already posted a cover he recorded for Hootie and the Blowfish’s hit song “Only Wanna Be With You.” We are not entirely sure why, but it slaps.
The recent red-band trailer for the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie has broken records. The promo was viewed more than 166 million times in its first week, making it the most-watched red-band trailer of all time.
As reported by Deadline, within four days, the Mortal Kombat trailer had overtaken the Logan and Deadpool 2 redband trailers, the previous record holders. In addition, the trailer trended in 52 YouTube markets and 28 Twitter markets.
Mortal Kombat will be released in theaters and hit HBO Max on April 16, where it will stay for a month before moving to regular on demand platforms. The movie is directed by Simon McQuoid and stars Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero, Josh Lawson as Kano, Sisi Stringer as Mileena, Max Huang as Kung Lao, Lewis Tan as Cole Young, and Chin Han as Shang Tsung. Check out GameSpot’s Mortal Kombat trailer breakdown here.
This is the third Mortal Kombat movie. The first was released in 1995 and was directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, who would go on to make the Resident Evil series. The movie made more than $120 million worldwide, but its 1997 sequel, Annihilation, was a disappointment by comparison with only $51 million. An internet video series called Mortal Kombat Legacy ran from 2011-2013, and there have been two animated movies.
In related news, it was announced this week that the highly-anticipated TV adaptation of the Halo game series will premiere on ViacomCBS’s new streaming platform Paramount+, rather than Showtime. The first footage from the series was also shown to investors, but unfortunately has not been made public yet.
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Hayao Miyazaki’s Oscar-winning 2001 anime film Spirited Away is being adapted for the stage. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a theatrical version of the Studio Ghibli classic will premiere in Tokyo in February 2022.
The stage adaption of Spirited Away will be written and directed by theatre veteran John Caird, with the full cooperation of Studio Ghibli. Caird was the original director of the hugely successful Les Misérables in the ’80s, and his extensive credits include many years working for the Royal Shakespeare Company and the National Theatre in the UK.
The movie follows the adventures of a 10-year-old girl named Chihiro as she enters as a strange and sometimes scary fantasy world heavily influenced by Japanese folklore. In a statement, Miyazaki’s producing partner Toshio Suzuki said, “We, Hayao and I, both liked John’s vision–he is a person we can trust. I am looking forward to seeing Chihiro grow on stage under his direction.”
Spirited Away was the sixth movie that Miyazaki made for Studio Ghibli, the company he founded in 1985 with director Isao Takahata and producer Toshio Suzuki. It was a big international success, grossing more than $383.4 million at the worldwide box office and winning the Academy Award for best animated feature in 2002.
Miyazaki’s most recent film was 2013’s The Wind Rises. Although the director stated at the time that he would be retiring from filmmaking, in 2016, a new Miyazaki feature was announced. The film is titled How Do You Live?, but don’t expect to see it for some time. In May last year, Suzuki stated that 36 minutes of the hand-drawn film had been completed so far and it would be finished “in the next three years.”
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Unfortunately, there were no musical numbers this week in WandaVision, but we did get a whole lot of information about what’s actually been going on in Westview. Not only did we get a firsthand look at Wanda’s history–including her oft talked about but never before seen origin story back in Sokovia–we also got some actual insights into what Agatha Harkness has been doing as she’s been pulling “every evil string.”
Of course, there are still plenty of questions to consider as well–specifically about SWORD’s director Hayward who has been spinning some interesting lies all his own, the fate of Vision when (and if) the HEX ever does come down, and the future of Wanda’s kids who may or may not be in the same precarious boat as their “dad.” There’s also the issue of Wanda’s position in the MCU at large, the nature of her powers, and what they could mean for her moving forward.
With only one episode of the show remaining, let’s take a look at some of the biggest Easter Eggs, references, call-backs, and tiny details you should note this week.
1. Agatha’s Origins
In the comics, Agatha is immortal, dating as far back as ancient times through which she amassed several “origin stories,” the most prominent of which related back to–you guessed it–the Salem Witch Trials, which we see the MCU version of here.
2. Agatha’s cameo brooch
Agatha’s mother is wearing the cameo brooch we saw Agatha wear earlier in the show. Apparently she plucked it off her mother’s corpse, yikes.
3. “That accent really comes and goes”
WandaVision is nothing if not extremely self aware, especially when it comes to Wanda’s accent–this is the show’s second crack at how inconsistent it’s been. At least now we know why–she was raised on American TV.
4. Fake Pietro
It turns out there’s something else going on with Evan Peters coming to the MCU. It’s unclear whether or not he’s actually the Pietro from the Fox X-Men who made the jump from one universe to another, or just some guy Agatha pulled off the street. The real story of “Fietro” as Agatha explains, was a necessity, since the real Pietro’s corpse is on another continent and “full of holes.”
5. So Agatha isn’t behind Westview
Interestingly, despite the lyrical claims of it being “Agatha all along,” it turns out she wasn’t behind Westview–she’s just very invested in finding out what Wanda did to make Westview, even though Wanda herself is a little lost in that arena.
6. Wanda’s actual past
Until this moment, Wanda’s actual history within the MCU has been delivered only in dialogue–we’ve never actually seen her parents, or her home life. Notably, it does not seem like her father was secretly a metal-controlling mutant, so that may put a damper on even more X-Men conspiracy theories.
7. Wanda’s secret love of American TV
One big question we’ve had about Westview from the beginning is “why sitcoms? Why American TV?” This week gave us our answer–Wanda and her family used American TV to learn English and she’s secretly had a love of sitcoms all along, it just never came up.
8. Stark Industries
Of course, we already knew a Stark Industries missile landed in Wanda and Pietro’s apartment in Sokovia. That was revealed in Avengers: Age of Ultron. Seeing it happen, though, is pretty horrifying given the age of the two young Maximoffs. However, this was also the first hint at Wanda’s true powers.
9. “Probability hex”
Wanda’s comic book history is riddled with retcon after retcon, especially with regard to her powers and abilities. Sometimes she uses actual magic, sometimes she affects probability, sometimes she’s a full-on mutant. Agatha calls out her use of a “probability hex” here as a smooth way to fold some of those threads together.
10. Strucker’s experiments
It was never entirely clear what Baron Strucker and HYDRA actually did in their experiments on the twins, but now we know–Wanda was simply asked to touch the stone in Loki’s scepter–a task that sounds deceptively simple but apparently had a 100% fatality rate. This comes as no surprise; touching Infinity Stones rarely goes well for anyone (just ask any of the HYDRA goons who interacted with the Tesseract back in Captain America: The First Avenger).
11. The Mind Stone
It’s easy to forget that Loki’s scepter was actually home to the yellow Mind Stone, hidden within the blue casing. The Mind Stone is, of course, the same stone that granted Vision his sentience when it combined with Tony’s JARVIS AI.
12. Wanda seeing her future self?
Wanda’s interaction with the Mind Stone does not go as planned. Not only does the real stone reveal itself to her, it comes with someone. We only get to see them in silhouette, but the shape of the costume and headdress certainly look like a version of the uniform Wanda herself has worn in the comics mixed with the uniform we’ve seen her wear in the MCU. Did the Mind Stone make Wanda see her future self?
13. Wanda and Vision’s Civil War era liaisons
This episode filled in a lot of gaps for the MCU’s past, including fleshing out some of the time Wanda and Vision spent getting to know one another before we saw them again in movies like Captain America: Civil War.
14. Breaking into SWORD
Much like we were previously led to believe, Wanda went to SWORD to collect Vision’s body and ultimately used her powers to break into the autopsy room where he was being dismantled. We saw footage of this in an earlier episode, though her actions were definitely misrepresented, as you’ll read below.
15. So she left without the body
Director Hayward said early on in the series that Wanda stole Vision’s body from the SWORD headquarters. We learn now that’s a lie. Wanda left SWORD without the body and we find out in a post-credits scene what’s actually become of it.
16. A mysterious letter
Everything about Wanda’s visit to the SWORD HQ seems to have gone down much differently than we originally thought–not only did she not leave without Vision’s corpse, she was also directed to head to Westview with a letter.
17. The real Westview
We see Wanda drive into the actual Westview, before she took over and shifted it into a sitcom horror paradise. Honestly, Wanda’s makeover is quite a bit of an upgrade compared to the town as it was. Still, we see the real versions of Herb, Norm, and Mrs. Hart.
18. “To grow old in V.”
It’s unclear whether or not this note is actually written by Vision or if it’s someone trying to manipulate Wanda into going to Westview, but either way, she’s been given a map to Westview and the promise of a home.
19. Making Westview/Reconstructing Vision
Since Wanda did not in fact take Vision’s corpse from SWORD HQ, she had to literally reconstruct him–likely using the energy she had gotten from the Mind Stone (note the yellow glow). This makes Hayward’s ability to track the Vibranium within the HEX a bit strange since he’s apparently had all the Vibranium pieces of Vision’s actual body this whole time. This raises the question: What was actually being tracked and why?
20. “Chaos magic.”
Another of Wanda’s many comic book powers is chaos magic–which in the comics, is a power that allows Wanda to manipulate the fabric of reality.
21. The Scarlet Witch
Finally, she’s the Scarlet Witch. Why? Because Agatha said so. She said the twins, Vision, and the entire life she created was done using chaos magic, making her the Scarlet Witch, a being that should be just a myth.
22. Post credits
In a post-credits scene, we see a white version of Vision resurrected using Stark technology. This could be referencing White Vision, which was introduced in the “Vision Quest” storyline. After being dismantled, Vision was rebuilt but did not have any of Vision’s emotions or memories. If that’s what is happening here, can SWORD use him as a weapon like Hayward wants and will we see Wanda vs. Vision in the finale? More than that, can the original Vision be restored, somehow? Shuri was trying to download him back in Infinity War, after all. Beyond that, it’s entirely possible Wanda’s powers could potentially do the trick.
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Tom & Jerry premieres on HBO Max, and in select theaters, on February 26.
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Tom and Jerry, the perpetually feuding feline and rodent who’ve been warring for our amusement in over 160 animated Hanna-Barbera shorts (plus numerous TV shows and movies) since 1940 — not to mention serving as the inspiration for The Simpsons’ Itchy and Scratchy — are now starring in their own big city-set, hybrid live-action/animated adventure. And it doesn’t quite hit the mark.
Filled with frequent flashes of fun, Tom & Jerry ultimately gets bogged down with an overload of, well, let’s just call it humanity. In an effort to bring together the world of cartoons and real life, the headlining duo often feels sidelined, and supplemental to the story of Chloë Grace Moretz’s Kayla and her schemes and scams to keep a job that she conned her way into at a luxurious Manhattan hotel. The cat and mouse vanish for long stretches of the film while Kayla’s constant crucibles too often feel like they should exist elsewhere, in a different movie.
The cast, which includes Moretz, Michael Peña, Rob Delaney, and Colin Jost, is a lively and fun batch of game performers, ready to dive wholeheartedly into the silliness involved with interacting with animation, pumping up their performances a bit to fit into a world that’s just a little zanier than our own. Dynamic gesturing, big expressions, and a touch of heightened sitcom-iness are crucial when it comes to playing off of scene partners that only exist in your imagination.
Everyone here, top to bottom, knows what the movie is and how it’s supposed to feel, but the stakes often feel strange (are we supposed to root for the ultra-wealthy? Or a mouse who, let’s be honest, is kind of the worst?) and the story feels a bit too weighted on one side, with too much focus given to the real people. As family entertainment, Tom & Jerry is a perfectly adequate offering, though, depending on expectations, some viewers may be bummed to find less Tom and Jerry present than the title suggests.
To be fair, Tom and Jerry are both non-speaking characters and it’s challenging to craft a full story around that. There aren’t too many hard and fast rules to this specific world, except that all animals are cartoons and, randomly, some can speak (understood by other animals and maybe some humans). It’s a loose enough setting that Tom and Jerry can carry on with their chaos, with some moments nicely lifted from old routines from the shorts. There are segments of mirth that land really well but the story’s a bit too choppy to maintain momentum.
As both Tom and Jerry arrive in New York and begin squabbling in Central Park (from a situation that Jerry is 100% to blame for), hustler Kayla lies her way into a temp gig at The Royal Gate, a landmark hotel that’s hosting a huge celebrity wedding. Kayla’s frank homespun ways endear her to many, except Peña’s rigid hospitality nerd, Terrence. Through Kayla’s drive to keep a job she’s unqualified for, and Terrence’s need to expose her as a fraud, Tom and Jerry, and their penchant for punching each other, get used as pawns in larger human plots.
Which is the main reason they both feel underutilized. So much of what they do isn’t in service of their own story. Of course, neither one’s given an abundance of internal wants or needs. Jerry desires a nice, warm home and Tom dreams of – er – playing keyboard as an opening act for John Legend? Regardless, they’re the thinnest part of the movie. Director Tim Story‘s got some interesting elements here, filling the film with tunes from old school hip hop legends like A Tribe Called Quest and De La Soul, and the solid choice to make Jerry a super troll, but the end result is a mixed bag of good intentions, sporadically spirited moments, and an imperfect utilization of the title characters.
For all of the innovative features it introduces to the series, Monster Hunter Rise is still very much a traditional Monster Hunter game at its core. Your overarching goal is to embark on quests, then use the various materials you’ve gathered from those missions to forge better pieces of equipment for your hunter. It’s a familiar and compelling gameplay loop, but Rise also fine-tunes the experience in some helpful ways, which Capcom recently demonstrated to us in a video presentation.
Our look at the game took us on a guided tour of Kamura Village, Monster Hunter Rise’s primary hub area. Like many other aspects of the game, Kamura has a distinctly Japanese flair. The village is lined with cherry blossom trees, merchant stalls, and thatched buildings, while cat-like Felynes scurry about carrying oversized bundles on their backs.
You’ll spend much of your downtime between hunts in Kamura, making use of the village’s various vendors and other amenities to prepare for quests, purchase supplies, craft new gear, manage your items, and advance the story. Monster Hunter veterans will be immediately familiar with this routine, but Rise makes things a bit more manageable by introducing some welcome refinements.
For one, navigating the hub is much smoother than in earlier games. As in Monster Hunter World, you can fast-travel to specific points of interest around Kamura simply by selecting them from the map. You can also use Rise’s game-changing new features, the Wirebug and the Palamute, while in the village, allowing you to travel around the area much more quickly than you could on foot.
Kamura serves not only as the hub for solo missions, but for multiplayer sessions as well. By speaking to Senri, the Felyne courier, you can switch the village to “online” and have other players join you for cooperative hunts. Much like Generations Ultimate, Rise allows up to four players to team up either locally or online, with each hunter bringing along one companion. Senri also distributes add-on content, so you’ll need to speak to the mailcat to receive any DLC items.
The quality-of-life tweaks extend out in the field as well. Items that you find for side jobs like special deliveries will be delivered automatically, completing those side quests for you while you’re in the middle of a hunt. Rise also allows you to join another player’s quest even if it’s already in progress, and you can enter the tent in the base camp after you’ve embarked on a mission to do some last-minute preparations, including swapping out your current buddy.
As in previous games, one of the most important stops before setting off on a quest is the canteen. Tying into Rise’s Japanese aesthetic, Kamura’s canteen takes the form of a tea shop, and it serves up a new type of dish: dango. These come in various flavors, each of which has a chance of activating a particular skill that grants a buff for your next quest, such as increased health or stamina. You can order up to three different varieties of dango on one skewer to potentially combine their effects, with even more flavors unlocking as you progress through the game. Rise helpfully also gives you the option to save your favorite dango combination, making it easier to order that same set again before you embark on future hunts.
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Monster Hunter Rise – Official Gameplay Trailer | Nintendo Direct
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Another vital resource you’ll find in Kamura is the Buddy Plaza. Here, you’ll be able to recruit new Palamutes and Palicoes, as well as manage your companions’ equipment, appearances, and behavior settings. You’ll also be able to leave companions at the Buddy Dojo for training or send any buddies you have on standby off on missions to gather materials, putting them to work in the background while you take on your own quests.
Like Monster Hunter World’s hub, Astera, Kamura Village features a training area as well where you can test new weapons and equipment, and this likewise boasts some notable refinements. At the heart of the area is a mechanical training dummy known as the Toadversary. You can adjust its settings and attack patterns as you see fit to better simulate battling an actual monster, making this a helpful resource for experimenting with new weapons and practicing Silkbind attacks.
With these numerous refinements complementing its big new features, Monster Hunter Rise is shaping up to be an exciting addition to the franchise. Rise launches for Nintendo Switch on March 26. Releasing alongside the game are three new Amiibo figures as well as a limited-edition Monster Hunter-themed Nintendo Switch bundle and Pro Controller. The Amiibo figures unlock special layered armor sets for your hunter, Palamute, and Palico based on Rise’s flagship monster, the Magnamalo. You can learn more in our Monster Hunter Rise preorder guide.
Rise is the first of two new Monster Hunter games coming to Switch this year, with Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin set to follow later this summer. Little has been revealed about the game thus far, other than it’s a follow-up to 3DS’s Monster Hunter spin-off and will have some connectivity with Rise, but we’ll get another look at both titles when Capcom hosts its trio of Monster Hunter streams in early March.
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