The Mortal Kombat movie is getting a new trailer this Thursday, February 18.
The trailer announcement was made alongside a short video of Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero. Taslim is a renowned martial artist and appeared in such films as The Raid, Fast & Furious 6, and The Night Comes for Us.
The Mortal Kombat movie will arrive on HBO Max and in theaters on April 16, 2021, and we recently got a closer look at the film that will also star Mehcad Brooks as Jackson “Jax” Briggs, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Sisi Stringer as Mileena, Josh Lawson as Kano, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Max Huang as Lung Lao Max, and Lewis Tan as an all-new character named Cole Young.
This film is a reboot and will see Young, who is a “washed-up MMA fighter” and bears a birthmark in the shape of the Mortal Kombat symbol on his chest, meet up with Sonya Blade. She then leads him to the temple of Lord Raiden where he comes into contact with a group of highly-skilled fighters.
“When we first meet Cole, he’s in a really bad spot,” Tan said. “He’s down on his luck. He’s kind of a washed-up MMA fighter who used to be a champion, who used to believe in himself, who used to have a lot of hope in his career. And it’s all gone down the drain. It’s a very interesting place for a hero to start, and I think that, along the journey of Mortal Kombat and Cole discovering where he comes from, you’re introduced to all these other iconic characters and elements that everybody loves so dearly.”
There will also be some “crazy fatalities” in the film that will make fans of the franchise very happy.
“There are some crazy fatalities,” added Tan, who performed his own stunts on set. “We’ve picked a couple of iconic ones. There’s a lot of really cool signature moves that you’ll see, a lot of Easter eggs that we snuck into the film, but there are some really badass fatalities that I can’t wait to see on the big screen. They’re brutal, man. They, they don’t hold back.”
The new Presage Exotic mission in Destiny 2 sends you to a derelict Cabal ship to uncover what happened to its crew–and a fellow Guardian. There are many secrets hidden in the mission, including some tidbits that can reveal its story and unlock a Triumph called Figments of an Answer. To earn it, you’ll need to find and scan five different specific objects hidden in the mission.
Because the Glykon, the ship where Presage takes place, is so twisting and huge, it can be very easy to miss the five objects you’re looking for and the story that goes with them. We’ve marked down everything you need to find on the Glykon to unlock Figments of an Answer and get your first look deeper into Destiny 2’s strange new mission.
Here’s where to find each scannable object hidden in the Glykon during the Presage mission. These items won’t be available until your second run through the mission, so keep that in mind.
Object 1: Cabal Bodies
These Cabal, found wrapped in purple vines, are in the first room when you enter the Glykon proper.
Progress through the ship until you make it to the switch that opens the door to the loading ramp where you first spawned in on the Glykon. Throwing the switch unlocks the door that leads into the ship proper. As soon as you go through, you’ll be confronted with some weird plantlife. In the center of the room, you’ll see several Cabal bodies have been grabbed by the vines and suspended in the air. Scan them for your first hint at what’s going on in this place.
Object 2: Scorn Helmets
You’ll find these helmets just ahead of the first electrical barrier you encounter. They’re easy to miss, especially if you’re using the spores to sprint through the Darkness-sealed doorway they’re lying beside.
Continue forward until you hit a room with a pair of big electrical barriers splitting it apart. You’ll start on one side of this room and enter a narrower hallway in order to reach a switch. To get to the other side, you’ll need to jump a gap, then use spores to run through a sealed Darkness doorway. Before you do that, however, jump across and check to the right of the sealed door to find two Scorn helmets lying on the floor beside the path forward.
Object 3: The Guardian’s Jump Ship
You’ll find this ship in the back corner of the hangar after you fight two Darkmind Abominations. Scan it before you make your way back out around the edge of the ship.
After you complete the section with the trash compactor, you’ll drop into a fight with some Scorn enemies and see the Locus of Communion for the first time. Keep moving until you enter the ship’s hangar for a big fight with two Abomination Majors. Clear the room and head toward the back left corner, where you’ll exit out the big hangar opening and go back out into space. Before you do, scan the ship right next to the exit. It belongs to the Guardian you’re searching for, and it’s outfitted with some Season of Opulence gear.
Object 4: Dark Ether Canisters
These canisters are lying in a corner next to one of the switches you need to hit in a room featuring another electrical barrier.
Before much longer, you’ll hit another room with an electrical barrier, but this one will be above you. You’ll unlock a door exposing a power conduit that lets you interrupt the barrier briefly so you can pass through it. On the other side, turn left to find a side room with a switch clearing the path back to the far side of the barrier. To the right of the switch are some canisters with a light blue liquid inside, your fourth piece of evidence.
Object 5: Calus’s Message
After defeating the boss, exit the boiler room and continue until you blow a hole in a ventilation shaft and drop down. Do a 180 and climb over the square piece of machinery to find a message from Calus hidden behind it.
The fifth and final scannable object appears after your boss fight with the Locus of Communion. Defeat it and leave the boiler room through the newly opened door. Continue until you can blow open a hole in the floor and drop down into a ventilation shaft lit in red. Instead of continuing down the clear path, turn the other way and hop over the low pile of junk to get to an open space on the other side, where you’ll find a little hologram of Calus’s face. Scan it for one last tidbit of info about what happened aboard the Glykon.
When Disney cut ties with actress and former MMA competitor Gina Carano on February 10, it looked to many like a sudden move in response to a single social media post. According to a new story from The Hollywood Reporter, though, Carano’s exit from the Mandalorian and Disney was months in the making.
Exactly two months earlier, on December 10, Disney unveiled a whole host of Marvel and Star Wars content, including ten new Star Wars shows. Among those was Rangers of the New Republic. At the time, we and many others assumed Rangers was a vehicle for Carano and her character Cara Dune. Carano appeared in seven episodes of The Mandalorian across the show’s two seasons, and her story arc in the second had her picking up a Rangers of the New Republic badge, seemingly contemplating a new path for herself.
Indeed, that was exactly what Disney had planned, and THR says her agency, UTA, was negotiating for a pay raise for the actress, who was reportedly pulling in $25,000 to $50,000 per episode of The Mandalorian. Carano was meant to be part of that presentation, but an anonymous source told THR that Disney pulled her off the presentation. Sources say that Disney had repeatedly warned Carano even before the February 10 tweets Disney described as “abhorrent and unacceptable.” Carano had previously posted tweets mocking mask wearing during the coronavirus pandemic, promoting misinformation about voter fraud, and expressing transphobic views. Those tweets led to the initial warnings, while her February 10 tweet comparing American conservatives to Jewish people just before the Holocaust is what sealed Carano’s fate. The decision was reportedly made by Lucasfilm executives, going higher than Mandalorian showrunner Jon Favreau.
A few Disney stars have flirted with disaster in recent months. Black Panther star Letitia Wright retweeted a video questioning the safety of the coronavirus vaccine in December, and deleted her Twitter in response to the blowback from the post. It’s hard not to think about James Gunn here. Disney had fired Gunn in response to offensive tweets he’d posted nearly a decade previous and had already apologized for before they were resurfaced by right-wing activists and personalities. In that case, Disney moved quickly in response to the tweets, only to re-hire Gunn a year later to direct Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Since Disney pushed her out, Carano has announced a partnership to produce a film with Ben Shapiro’s Daily Wire, stating that she has “only just begun using my voice which is now freer than ever before.” The future of the Cara Dune character is in question, though THR says that its sources suggest recasting is likely. Season 3 of The Mandalorian is a ways off, likely hitting in 2022 after the Book of Boba Fett series announced as a stinger to the Mandalorian’s Season 2 finale, so Lucasfilm and Disney have plenty of time to make a decision.
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Streaming giant Netflix and gaming giant Valve have surprised the internet with the announcement of a new animated series based on the Dota game franchise. The companies each took to their Twitter accounts to announce the series, with a release date of March 25.
Both tweets refer to the series as “anime.” Some anime fans may wind up debating that classification–hard to tell, though, since we currently know nothing about who’s actually making the show. Netflix simply posted a teaser video in which a man identifies himself as Davion, Dragon Knight, a character from the game Dota 2. He then battles a dragon, before the logo Dota: Dragon’s Blood appears. The teaser says the series was made “in collaboration with Valve.” Meanwhile, Valve said in a tweet from the official Dota 2 account, “We’re excited to announce a brand-new anime series exploring the Dota universe like never before. As fellow fans of Dota and its passionate global community, we look forward to sharing this new adventure with you when it premieres on Netflix March 25.”
We’re excited to announce a brand-new anime series exploring the Dota universe like never before. As fellow fans of Dota and its passionate global community, we look forward to sharing this new adventure with you when it premieres on Netflix March 25.https://t.co/rHcL5QSi5b
Finally, Netflix’s official listing for the show describes its premise in brief: “After encounters with a dragon and a princess on her own mission, a Dragon Knight becomes embroiled in events larger than he could have ever imagined.”
Dota began life as a player-made mod for the game Warcraft III and is credited as the origin of the MOBA (Multiplayer Online Battle Arena) genre that also includes League of Legends and Heroes of the Storm, among others. Valve partnered with the original creator of Dota to develop and release Dota 2 in 2013, and the genre has been going strong ever since.
The streaming series Dota: Dragon’s Blood looks similar to other animated video game adaptations Netflix has produced recently, including the Castlevania series and last year’s Dragon’s Dogma series. However, it’s unknown at this time whether these shows are related in any way.
Developer Larian Studios is holding another Panel from Hell livestream for Baldur’s Gate 3. It’s sure to be full of pretty big announcements–for context, last year’s Panel from Hell livestream revealed the date for when Baldur’s Gate 3 would launch in early access.
The livestream is scheduled to begin on February 17 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. You can watch the livestream via the video embedded below.
On the Baldur’s Gate 3 website, Larian Studios writes that this livestream will “divulge all the secrets in [the game’s] biggest patch yet.” The patch in question is Patch 4, scheduled to go live in Baldur’s Gate 3 sometime this year.
In GameSpot’s Baldur’s Gate 3 early access review, David Wildgoose writes, “To some extent, it is fascinating to play Baldur’s Gate 3 today with the knowledge you will be able to follow its progress over the coming months–and possibly years–with a kind of academic interest in how AAA RPGs are built. You’ll be able to witness first-hand how rough cuts are beaten into shape and finally polished. And for some small section of the audience, that alone will be worth the price of admission. For the rest of us, however, there’s no rush. Baldur’s Gate 3 isn’t done yet. It’s okay to wait until it is.”
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There’s a quote from author Douglas Adams about how we adapt easily to new things in our younger years, but how “anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.” It’s easy to look at tweets and essays from Hollywood’s old guard as little more than old men screaming at clouds shaped Netflix and Disney+ logos when they talk about the way streaming services and comic book movies are changing filmmaking, but a new essay from Martin Scorsese has a lot more to say than the idea that new things are bad.
In a new essay in the March 2021 edition of Harper’s Magazine, Scorsese looks at the lifetime and impact of Italian director Federico Fellini, which is interesting in its own right, but he bookends it with thoughts on the current state of cinema that both lament the passing of the old age but accept the reality of the current world.
“As recently as fifteen years ago, the term ‘content’ was heard only when people were discussing cinema on a serious level, and it was contrasted with and measured against ‘form,'” Scorsese writes. “Gradually, it was used more and more by the people who took over media companies, most of whom knew nothing about the history of the art form.”
“‘Content’ became a business term for all moving images,” he continues, correctly assessing that it encompasses everything from cat videos to television episodes to superhero sequels. The term as its used today, Scorsese says, “was linked, of course, not to the theatrical experience, but to home viewing, and on the streaming platforms that have come to overtake the moviegoing experience.”
Scorsese acknowledges that streaming platforms have been good for directors like him in their own way–Netflix produced Scorsese’s The Irishman and Pretend It’s a City, while Apple TV will get Killers of the Flower Moon–but says that streaming platforms present all content on a level playing field, which he says “sounds democratic, but isn’t.”
“If further viewing is ‘suggested’ by algorithms based on what you’ve already seen and the suggestions are based only on subject matter or genre then what does that do to the art of cinema?” he asks.
Often when directors talk about modern moviemaking, they take aim at things like superhero movies (as Scorsese himself has previously done) as a cancer that needs to be excised from cinema, but Scorsese doesn’t have anything bad to say about the movies themselves, the viewing experience (we’re looking at you, Christopher Nolan), or even streaming as a delivery medium. Instead, Scorsese’s pain point is the way streaming platforms are engineered. He differentiates services like Criterion Channel and MUBI because these services are curated rather than engineered.
Scorsese argues that curating movies isn’t undemocratic or elitist, but human; it’s someone putting a list together and sharing it, rather than a machine trying to assess what art you might like based on math.
“Algorithms, by definition, are based on calculations that treat the viewer as a consumer and nothing else,” he argues. This leads into his discussion of Fellini’s work and the way it was discussed and shared.
Toward the end of the piece, Scorsese comes back around to how Fellini, and the age of cinema he was a part of, and the current age of streaming piece together. He acknowledges that it’s only natural for people to focus on modern creations and that older artists would “eventually recede into the shadows with the passing of time,” but suggests that curation of film shouldn’t be left up to the people who stand to make money off of it.
“We can’t depend on the movie business, such as it is, to take care of cinema,” he writes. “In the movie business, which is now the mass visual entertainment business, the emphasis is always on the word ‘business,’ and value is always determined by the amount of money to be made from any given property—in that sense, everything from Sunrise to La Strada to 2001 is now pretty much wrung dry and ready for the ‘Art Film’ swim lane on a streaming platform. Those of us who know the cinema and its history have to share our love and our knowledge with as many people as possible. And we have to make it crystal clear to the current legal owners of these films that they amount to much, much more than mere property to be exploited and then locked away. They are among the greatest treasures of our culture, and they must be treated accordingly.”
All of this is, of course, reframed thanks to the pandemic. For the last year, American moviegoers have been unable to take movies in through theaters, removing the communal experience from moviewatching almost entirely, save for people diving into late-night Netflix watch parties and the like. The future of theaters is even more questionable, and we’ll be that much more dependent on viewing algorithms, which are built for the profit of the service, not the engagement of the viewer.
Image credit: Getty Images/Jon Kopaloff/Stringer
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Blizzard is preparing to unveil what’s coming next to Hearthstone at its BlizzConline event. This year promises to be bigger than most, as the company will not only be debuting its new expansion and annual changeover, it will also be making some big changes to how the card pool in Hearthstone works.
We haven’t gotten much information about the next expansion for Hearthstone, but Blizzard has started to issue teasers for whatever it is coming next. A short teaser-trailer titled “Quill You Be Ready” shows a lone adventurer in the middle of a dry landscape, who is then surrounded by the Horde logo.
Those clues have led many in the fan community to conclude that the next expansion will take place in the Barrens, a savannah-like setting in Kalimdor, under the control of the horde. The “Quill” in the title appears to be a clue as well, as the primitive Quillboar race is from the Barrens.
New Year, New Season
As usual, the spring expansion to Hearthstone will mark the changeover into a new year of content. For example, the current year is called the Year of the Phoenix, the umbrella term given for the three expansions that appeared throughout the 2020-2021 content calendar–Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy, and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire.
Each year of Hearthstone content includes three major expansions, alongside any bonus updates like the addition of the new Duels mode with Darkmoon Faire. The annual cutoff also rotates out certain sets into the Wild format, making room for new expansions that will be playable in Standard mode. Blizzard has suggested that its expansion plans from now on will also include mini-expansions mid-season, so we can likely expect three of those as well.
But this year will be even more of a radical change because, as already announced, Blizzard will be retiring the Classic and Basic sets into Wild in favor of a new approach: the Core Set.
The Core Set
As long as Hearthstone has existed, the main building blocks have been the Classic and Basic sets. The Basic set was a free, earned set in Hearthstone that you would unlock by leveling up each class, while the Classic set gave eager card collectors something to hunt when cracking open Classic packs. These are the cards that defined class identity and mechanics, and for the entire history of the game, Blizzard has built expansions around these features.
That will change this year. Instead of static Basic and Classic sets that never change, Blizzard is introducing the new Core set. This will incorporate hand-picked cards from the Basic and Classic sets and bring back some from Wild, and even introduce a bundle of new cards. Unlike the Basic and Classic sets, the Core set will change every year, allowing Blizzard more flexibility in rebuilding the foundation of Hearthstone for new expansions, providing a more dynamic experience. So this first set will be Core 2021, to be followed by Core 2022, and so on.
Also, unlike the Classic set, the Core set will be absolutely free, just like Basic. All of the cards in the Core set will be granted automatically if you’ve leveled up your characters the requisite amount, and each year when the Core set rotates, you’ll automatically be granted all of the new Core cards. That should make it easier for new and lapsed players to jump aboard.
Basic and Classic cards will be merged into a single “Legacy Set.” But we don’t know much about what cards will be included in Core 2021. We know it will consist of several Demon Hunter cards, as that class was added post-release, and the Priest card Shadowform will be returning from the Hall of Fame. Other than that, Blizzard has not revealed what’s included in the set of Core 2021 cards. The company plans to tell us more about the Core set at BlizzConline.
Classic Mode
One other big change coming to the game, though, has already been announced. Hearthstone is adding a Classic Mode. This will let you play the game with the original bundle of cards, exactly as they appeared in 2014, before any balance changes. Many of the cards from this era have significantly changed since their debut, so this mode will be a welcome nostalgia trip. It also sports its own ladder and matchmaking pool, so you can compete, unlock achievements, and even reach Legend rank completely in Classic Mode if it strikes your fancy.
Classic Mode should offer a nostalgic experience for longtime players.
A New Tavern Pass
The new season will also bring a new Tavern Pass. The battle pass-like system grants experience for unlocking achievements and completing daily, weekly, and occasional event-based quests. Those experience points then go toward unlocking rewards like gold, card packs, alternate hero portraits, and even a special seasonal version of The Coin. And like every battle pass, you can unlock certain rewards only by buying into the pass.
The system was surprisingly controversial when it debuted last year because fans calculated that it was actually granting less gold than the previous quest-based reward system. Blizzard explained that it had planned to offer XP boosts through special events that would make it grant more rewards. But based on feedback from fans, the company concluded that it should rebalance its rewards track to be more generous without the need to take part in special events.
For the next Tavern Pass, we can likely expect Blizzard to maintain something similar to the rewards track changes it already made, with a more generous structure. It’s also probable that the new Tavern Pass will offer a new set of cosmetic rewards or another seasonal Coin. For example, reaching the end of the previous Tavern Rewards track allowed you to select one of 10 exclusive hero portraits. It’s possible Blizzard will just bring back the same selection, letting you pick another from the pool across multiple seasons until you collect all 10.
Release Timing
The release timing for the new Hearthstone expansion is unknown, but we can make an educated guess. Blizzard has tended toward short announcement-to-release cycles recently, usually no more than a month. That would make a release for the next expansion likely to come in March.
For the last six years straight, the first expansion of the year was released in April. However, the Year of the Phoenix winter expansion came in November, rather than December as previous expansions usually had, so it’s possible that Blizzard is intentionally shifting plans to adjust the timing for new expansions to come earlier in the year. A March release would also mean that Darkmoon Races, the mini-set released in January, would have come midway through the expansion season between November and March.
Often when Blizzard unveils a new year, though, it’s much more than just the upcoming expansion. It has often dropped clues for the full year of expansions, and last year, it even included an expansive content roadmap that teased additions like the new Duels mode. So we may get much more detail to come at BlizzConline.
Bravery Network Online has been released on Steam Early Access. Buy the game by February 23 and you’ll save 10 percent–knocking the price down from $25 USD to $22.49 USD.
This stylish turn-based battle RPG sees you recruit fighters, forming a team to face off against opponents. The game includes traditional battle moves like kicks and punches, but it has its own unique flavor with its more unorthodox moves. For example, you can try to get your foe to forfeit by hurting their feelings or get them flustered by flirting with them.
Hey, I mean, whatever works right?
Gallery
For those looking to just battle it out against computer-controlled opponents, Bravery Network Online features several single-player stories that explore the post-post-apocalyptic world. But if you’re brave enough, Bravery Network Online has an online mode too, complete with a rankings system.
Granted, if you try to go online right now, you may encounter a few issues. With the game now out, Bravery Network Online’s server is being hit hard. “We’re aware the server has been having hiccups due to the increased number of players,” the game’s twitter account said. “We apologize and will be working to increase the stability of the game tons over the coming weeks!”
Gaming on mobile devices like smartphones and tablets has gotten a lot better in recent years, thanks to innovations like Apple’s Arcade subscription service and Xbox’s Project xCloud. If you’re a fan of mobile gaming, then you’ll be happy to hear that one of the best mobile controllers is down to its lowest price yet. The Android version of the Razer Kishi is currently $66 at Amazon. Prices on Amazon fluctuate regularly, so it’s unclear how long the Kishi will stick to this price.
The Razer Kishi interfaces with your Android phone via USB-C: all you need to do is slide a compatible USB-C phone into the controller and make sure it’s connected securely. This connection ensures there’s no latency tied to your inputs, giving you the edge needed in games like Call of Duty Mobile and Fortnite as well as the vast number of console games on Project xCloud, which comes with Game Pass Ultimate
While the USB-C port is occupied while using the controller with your phone, the Kishi features a USB-C port of its own that supports passthrough charging of your phone. Most Android phones can fit into the Kishi as well, making it a versatile device that can provide almost any phone with console-style controls for on-the-go gaming.
The Android version of the Razer Kishi is the only model discounted to $66 at the moment, but if you have an iPhone, you can snag that version of the Razer Kishi for under $100 from a number of reputable third-party sellers with Prime shipping.
There are a bunch of different mobile controllers available, and if you’re interested in looking at some of those options, check out our guide to the best mobile gaming controllers available right now.
Take a look at all the Overdrives from the main roster of the upcoming fighting game, Guilty Gear Strive. Captured from the beta on PS5.
