Elden Ring, the ambitious project partnering Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki and A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin, has been radio silent for well over a year, with that record looking set to continue into 2021. While From Software may not be ready to show us anything official from the game yet, fans still made sure that Elden Ring got a mention on the Game Awards stage after winning the award for the most anticipated game.
As a category voted on by fans, Elden Ring was up against upcoming titles including the God Of War sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, Halo Infinite, Resident Evil Village, and the Breath of the Wild sequel for the most anticipated game. Game Awards host Geoff Keighley seemed to anticipate that many fans were waiting on Elden Ring news from the event, adding “there, I said it,” after reading out the name of the game.
Unfortunately, this little tidbit was all we saw of Elden Ring from The Game Awards, which is the last big gaming event of the year. The last time anything was seen of From Software’s upcoming game was when it was announced at E3 last year.
The end of The Mandalorian Season 2 is close. There’s just one more episode, with many loose ends to tie up. After all, if Mando and Baby Yoda–we refuse to call him Grogu–aren’t reunited, the next year of waiting is going to be rough.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for Chapter 15 of The Mandalorian, “The Believer.” If you haven’t watched the episode, walk away now and come back when you’re done.
In the penultimate Season 2 episode, “The Believer,” there were plenty of Easter eggs and references to a number of things throughout the Star Wars universe–and even a strangely entertaining nod to something very far outside of this franchise. You can take a look at everything we found in the episode below, then sound off in the comments with what we missed.
While you’re at it, make sure to check out our breakdowns of every other Season 2 episode of The Mandalorian.
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1. TIE fighter junkyard
Where’s the New Republic going to put its prisoners to work? In a TIE fighter scrapyard, of course. Who better to sort through the destroyed remnants of the Empire?
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2. Another crane AT-AT
At the scrapyard, we see another AT-AT turned into a crane, like we first saw in Chapter 11. In that episode, one pulled the Razor Crest out of the water on the planet Trask.
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3. Boba Fett got an armor refresh
Someone got a paint job! After getting his armor back last week, Boba Fett emerged in this episode with a brand new coat of paint, looking good as new.
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4. Morak
Although Morak is the name of the forest planet in this episode, It’s also the name of a creature from the planet Irudiru. Moraks appeared in the novel Aftermath: Life Debt.
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5. Rhydonium refinery
Morak houses a rhydonium refinery. Rhydonium is a volatile starship fuel that can be scraped up or salvaged. It has appeared in The Clone Wars and Rebels. In Rebels, Sabine Wren referred to rhydonium as one of her “oldest and most explosive friends”.
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6. ISB
The ISB is the Imperial Security Bureau. It’s an intelligence agency of the Empire that deals with internal state security and enforcing loyalty to the Empire. While it has been mentioned throughout the franchise, the ISB was heavily featured in Rebels.
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7. Bad news about Mandalore and Alderaan
Mayfeld comments that neither Mandalore nor Alderaan exist anymore. As we all know from A New Hope, Alderaan exploded. While Mandalore the planet still exists, it doesn’t have the power it once had, and is no longer ruled by the Mandalorians.
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8. So many thermal detonators
Those space pirates sure do love thermal detonators. There were a shocking number of them armed in an attempt to blow up the rhydonium truck. There were so many, it makes you wonder if Disneyland was looking for a way to get rid of the Diet Coke and Sprite it can’t sell with the theme park closed.
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9. The annual Mando showing of the face
Does Pedro Pascal have it in his contract that he gets to show off his face once per season? He removed his helmet in this episode, for considerably longer than he did in Season 1. Thankfully, Mayfield promised never to tell anyone that he saw his face, so his Mandalorian pride is still intact or whatever.
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10. A nod to Office Space
When trying to explain to the Imperial officer why they had to leave, Mayfield says he and Mando had to file the TPS reports, which is clearly a shout out to Office Space. In the movie, the TPS report was mentioned throughout and was a quality assurance report.
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11. Operation: Cinder
Mayfield says he was part of Operation Cinder on the planet Burnin Konn. This mission was actually featured in the video game Star Wars: Battlefront II. That’s not its first appearance, though. Operation: Cinder was referenced in the second issue of the Star Wars: Shattered Empire miniseries in 2015.
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12. Shoretroopers
At the Imperial mess hall, we see Mando and Mayfeld face off with some coastal defender troopers, aka Shoretroopers. They are trained for combat in tropical environments. You probably recognize them from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, where they patrolled beaches on the planet Scarif.
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13. Hand me that Cycler rifle
Mayfield spent much of the episode proving he’s not such a bad guy, but his parting shot with the Cycler Rifle put a nice exclamation on his evolution. Cycler Rifles were most notably used by Tusken Raiders and were first seen in A New Hope.
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14. Seismic Charge
In one of the most satisfying scenes this episode, Boba Fett releases a seismic charge from Slave I. Seismic charges draw sound in from their surrounding vicinity and explode in concussive waves of blue light, causing everything in their wake to shatter. In Attack of the Clones, Jango Fett released a few seismic charges from Slave I in an attempt to kill Obi-Wan Kenobi in an asteroid field near Geonosis.
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15. Take that, Moff Gideon
In his hologram message to Moff Gideon, Mando simply sends him a recording of the same message Gideon sent him in Chapter 7. “You may think you have some idea what you are in possession of, but you do not,” he tells his nemesis.
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Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company
In an opinion piece published on Variety, Dune director Denis Villeneuve has slammed the decision to debut Dune on streaming service HBO Max, saying he learned about the decision “in the news.” The director has condemned the move as purely profit-based, placing blame on Warner Media’s parent company AT&T for “[hijacking] one of the most respectable and important studios in film history.”
Dune director Denis Villeneuve has been one of the most vocal critics of the move, writing “there is absolutely no love for cinema, nor for the audience here. It is all about the survival of a telecom mammoth, one that is currently bearing an astronomical debt of more than $150 billion.”
“Streaming services are a positive and powerful addition to the movie and TV ecosystems,” Villeneuve clarified. “But I want the audience to understand that streaming alone can’t sustain the film industry as we knew it before COVID. Streaming can produce great content, but not movies of Dune’s scope and scale.”
“Dune is by far the best movie I’ve ever made,” he continued. “My team and I devoted more than three years of our lives to make it a unique big screen experience. Our movie’s image and sound were meticulously designed to be seen in theaters.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has played havoc on the film industry in 2020, especially in regards to theatrical releases. Tenet, one of the first big blockbusters to debut after the pandemic shut cinemas down around the world, played to a disappointing domestic box office that led to other films pushing theatrical release dates back.
“The moviegoing experience is like no other,” Villeneuve concludes. “In those darkened theaters films capture our history, educate us, fuel our imagination and lift and inspire our collective spirit. It is our legacy.”
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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia is already making records with the upcoming Season 15, which will make it the longest-running live-action scripted sitcom ever–and now it’s going to break that record by at least four seasons. The show has been renewed through to Season 18, meaning we’ll be getting many more adventures from The Gang.
FX has announced that the low-budget, critically acclaimed sitcom, which began in 2005, will keep going for a while yet.
can I offer you four more seasons in this trying time? it’s always sunny in philadelphia has been renewed through season 18, making it the longest-running live action sitcom in TV history. pic.twitter.com/EtIbGBljrO
Co-creator Rob McElhenney took to Twitter to assure fans that the team still has plenty of ideas, and envisioned the show as a 36 season arc. and while his tweet might be tongue-in-cheek, with the show still very good 14 seasons in, there could be some grain of truth to it.
It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia also stars Charlie Day, Glenn Howerton, Kaitlin Olson, and Danny DeVito. 154 episodes have aired in total so far.
This was just one of many announcements coming from FX today, including the news that Fargo showrunner Noah Hawley is working on a series based on Alien.
Marvel Studios has announced that Armor Wars, an original series headed to Disney+ that stars Don Cheadle as James Rhodes aka War Machine.
Armor Wars, based on the classic Marvel comic series, is a classic tale “about Tony Stark’s worst fear coming true: what happens when his tech falls into the wrong hands?”
Armor Wars was a seven issue Iron Man story arc that was written by David Michelinie and Bob Layton, with art by Mark D. Bright and Barry Windsor-Smith. It ran from December 1987 to June 1988.
Here’s a left-fielder. Just Cause is coming to mobile in the form of a free-to-play action shooter set to be released on Android and iOS in 2021.
Just Cause: Mobile will have both single player and multiplayer experiences which will bring the grappling, gliding, and shooting we all know from the Just Cause series to a top-down mobile experience.
You can check out the trailer that premiered during The Game Awards below.
Just Cause: Mobile will let players team up with friends online and compete in multiplayer and co-op challenges for upgrades and gear. Players will customize their own character and take them on a brand-new single player story campaign featuring cameos from favorite Just Cause characters.
At launch there will be four modes. A story campaign where players will use their custom created characters to explore a large open-world in the Just Cause universe.
There will also be a 30-player competitive multiplayer mode where three teams of 10 will fight to claim bases and earn points. Players can use both weapons and vehicles to take on enemy players.
4-player co-op is also available for select missions, or players can take part in Challenge Mode to test their destruction and racing abilities.
Actor Tommy ‘Tiny’ Lister has died at 62, reports Variety. Lister was found in his L.A. apartment and an investigation is underway.
Lister’s entertainment career began in the 1980s, including an appearance opposite Hulk Hogan in the 1989 wrestling movie No Holds Barred as the heel, Zeus. A short stint in the WWE and the WCW followed, but it was his role as Deebo in F. Gary Gray’s 1995 film Friday that shot him to stardom.
Tom Lister as President Lindberg in 1997’s The Fifth Element.
Lister reprised the role in 2000 in the sequel Next Friday, but the 6’5’’ actor is also remembered for many others, including President Lindberg in 1997 sci-fi cult classic The Fifth Element and Winston the bail bondsman in Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, plus The Dark Knight, Little Nicky, and Zootopia.
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Luke is Games Editor at IGN’s Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter sporadically @MrLukeReilly.
From The Last of Us Part 2 to Final Fantasy VII Remake to Ghost of Tsushima, here are all the winners of each and every category of The Game Awards 2020. You can also check out all The Game Awards 2020 nominees.
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Game of the Year: The Last of Us Part 2
Best Game Direction: The Last of Us Part 2
Best Narrative: The Last of Us Part 2
Best Art Direction: Ghost of Tsushima
Best Score/Music: Final Fantasy VII Remake
Best Audio Design: The Last of Us Part 2
Best Performance: Laura Bailey – Abby, The Last of Us Part 2