biteho.com

Spoilers follow for Episode 4 of Marvel’s What If…? For more, see our review of the previous episode of What If.

Doctor Strange, with his limitless magical potential, has always felt like one the MCU’s most dangerous wild cards, and What If’s fourth episode makes clear why. As the guardian of our reality, Strange’s cosmic perspective and access to the Time Stone has mostly been a blessing up to this point – the upcoming events of Spider-Man: No Way Home notwithstanding – but here, the consequences of Strange obsessing over his great power with no thought to the great responsibility that follows it are dire. The Sorcerer Supreme’s descent into grief-stricken madness is an effective cautionary tale about what loss can do to a person and furthers the argument that these more mature stories are What If’s bread and butter. And that ending!

Episode 4 takes the foundation of Strange’s (Benedict Cumberbatch) mystical journey – the car accident that took his hands – and twists fate by putting Dr. Christine Palmer (Rachel McAdams) in the passenger seat. Strange losing the use of his hands was already an understandable motivator for his journey to Kamar-Taj in his solo film, but Christine’s death puts him in an even more desperate state of mind by the time he gets there. He’s still able to defeat Dormammu and become Sorcerer Supreme, but the Time Stone around his neck hangs heavier and heavier as Strange’s power grows.

While Strange is able to time travel back to the night of the accident, nothing he does saves Christine from dying: it’s a nexus event, or an “absolute point in time” as this episode refers to it. While our understanding of a nexus event’s importance to the MCU’s plot going forward is still growing, the concept is used wonderfully in this episode to represent the effects of tragedy, of loss so painful we’d unmake the world to reverse it. Strange’s centuries-spanning marathon of summoning monsters to absorb their power is a great illustration of this, evoking his intense focus on bargaining with Dormammu at any personal cost. With each creature (or evil garden gnome) absorbed, Strange literally becomes more of a monster. There’s an element of Gothic horror to the whole episode, with Strange positioned as both Doctors Jekyll and Frankenstein as he learns the cost of his meddlesome hubris. What If is a great vehicle for these morality plays when it can avoid dipping too much into the fan service well for easy thrills.

Cumberbatch turns in a good vocal performance, especially when Strange’s inability to save Christine is turning the screws in his mind. Rachel McAdams has a thankless role as little more than the source of Strange’s grief, but she does get time to bring some intensity to her performance in her final scene.

The episode does occasionally strain itself explaining the temporal shenanigans going on, overcomplicating the story by revealing that the Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) used the power of the Dark Dimension to create two versions of Doctor Strange in the same reality. Strange being “half a man, living half a life” is distracting, an unnecessary development that feels engineered just to give us a Strange vs. Strange magic fight scene at the end. The MCU is getting a little too obsessed with these mirror grudge matches, and all the glowy ropes and portals in the multiverse fail to make the whole “you’re literally your own worst enemy” bit feel fresh. In fact, most of this episode’s strongest visual moments are the more emotionally evocative ones, like the shadows of Strange’s new horde of inner demons giving way to his new gaunt appearance. Despite the Ancient One’s distracting involvement, the story sticks its landing, taking one of the darkest turns in MCU history going into the final moments.

The totality of Evil Strange’s failure comes crashing down on him when The Watcher (Jeffrey Wright) finally reveals himself, which we get a tease of earlier on when Strange hears him through whatever cosmic noise cancelling The Watcher uses to narrate to the viewer. He’s been promising he won’t interfere and, even with reality collapsing around Evil Strange, he holds true to his word. Seeing What If commit to creating a pocket universe for a single episode and then letting the hero’s choices be so devastating that they destroy that universe was incredibly gratifying, and it also gave us some important insight into The Watcher. This is the first time we’ve seen him actively ignore a character in need, instead chiding Strange for his failings. It’s an interesting development for such a dispassionate character, one who extols the importance of choice while being defined by his own apathy.

What If has the freedom to tell any kind of story that it wants, stories the live-action MCU movies may not have the courage to tackle, so ending on such a down note was an excellent reminder of the fresh possibilities that freedom allows for. Of course, there’s a Sword of Damocles hanging over every choice What If “commits” to: it’s impossible to know if any consequences are final. Sure, abandoning a corrupted Stephen Strange screaming in a collapsing reality is a bold and dark choice, but it’s also easy to picture The Watcher or some villain undoing that drama by plucking him out just to give the “Altvengers” What If is setting up someone to fight in the finale. Or to give Sacred Timeline Strange some extra madness in the multiverse to deal with once his solo sequel hits screens next year…

Frontiers, the next major update for No Man’s Sky, adds another layer of content to the game as it populates its procedural universe with bustling towns brimming with NPCs for players to interact with, explore, and even run – not to mention nebulas, expanded base building, improved combat, and more.

Hello Games has announced a range of details surrounding its free Frontiers expansion in a press release. The company says that since its launch, it has always wanted players to let players “step into the cover of a science fiction book” and that the release of the game’s new expansion brings another aspect of that into reality. Amongst other notable additions, Frontiers will allow players to find ‘living, breathing Mos Eisley type settlements’ on once-barren alien planets.

Following the update, new life will spring into the game’s procedurally generated landscape through NPC-populated settlements. Players embarking across galaxies will be able to interact with settlements and grant assistance to their residents many of whom will be harbored with their own problems.

In addition to providing citizen assistance, the Frontiers expansion will allow budding adventurers across the game to become the Overseer of a settlement. In addition to the new swanky title, becoming a Settlement Overseer will allow players a range of new in-game options.

First and foremost, settlement leaders will be able to grow their towns by constructing new buildings and accepting new inhabitants. According to Hello Games, newly formed settlements will start off as little more than a sparsely populated cluster of buildings inhabited by a small collection of NPCs. It will be the job of the town’s newly found Overseer to govern and manage the resources necessary to allow the population of the settlement to grow and become a flourishing town.

In line with the rest of the game, each settlement will be procedurally generated. This means that each community that players should happen across should be unique not only in terms of its inhabitants but also its buildings, neighborhood layout, color schemes, and both interior and exterior decorations. With the sheer size of the universe in No Man’s Sky, we’re willing to bet there will be some choice color combinations out there. Yellow and green anyone?

In addition to adding buildings to their new-found settlements, Overseers will also be able to make important policy decisions for their townsfolk going forward. Starting out as newly appointed galactic politicians, players will be able to grapple with a range of issues ranging from treasury management to town planning and conflict resolution. In the case of the latter, Hello Games says that when called upon to help resolve disagreements between settlers, “fair and compassionate judgments will result in happier citizens”. Whilst it isn’t yet clear exactly how happiness will be measured or what ramifications could result from unhappy citizens, it would certainly be an interesting twist to see a group of intergalactic NPCs surmount a revolution.

In addition to the new settlement mechanics that will feature in the Frontiers update, No Man’s Sky will feature a number of other noteworthy additions in the expansion. According to Hello Games, the studio will be making a number of improvements to base building. On top of adding new structural sets of timber, stone, and alloy pieces that will allow for a greater range of building shapes, Frontiers will also add more than a hundred new decorative parts for prospective builders. The expansion will also introduce a new HUD for placing building parts and incorporate a new free place mode which will allow players to pick up, duplicate and move parts that they’ve already placed onto the environment.

If, instead of building bases and settling down as an intergalactic Overseer, you’d rather be flying through the vast expanse of deep space causing trouble and fighting your way through anything that stands before you, Frontiers has you covered for content there too. Interstellar clouds gathering in deep space will add vivid nebulas to No Man’s Sky whilst Hello Games also notes that almost all of the game’s visual effects have been improved. In terms of combat, Frontiers should make weapons and explosions feel more powerful and add “a new visceral element to combat”.

Frontiers also brings the game’s third Expedition, called Cartographers. “The event starts all players in the same place and, as the name suggests, focuses on planetary mapping and exploration,” reads the press release. “With unique new challenges and rewards, players will need to thoroughly explore their starting world to escape the toxic atmosphere of planet Gisto Major.” One of the previous expeditions added Mass Effect’s Normandy ship into the game – here’s hoping for similar surprises here too.

Finally, the studio has also announced that it will be running another Twitch campaign for the game soon. This means that No Man’s Sky rewards will be available for players to earn by watching streamers play the game online. Despite the announcement, Hello Games hasn’t shared further specifics about its upcoming Twitch campaign at the time of writing. You an read the full Frontiers patch notes right now.

If you’d like to find out more about No Man’s Sky then why not check out our dedicated page for the game where you can read about the game’s previous expansions and more.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Developer/Publisher PM Studios has announced No Longer Human, a game with a unique visual art style and gameplay that’s described by PM itself as “a high-energy cybergoth action fvck-em-up.” It is expected to be released in 2022 for PC, with a console release also planned but no details given. Check out the announcement trailer above.

The developers cite Devil May Cry and Smash Bros. influences, with support for speedrunning also being baked into the design. You play Tsunono, a woman who is a total badass in the metaverse that anyone can easily access and immerse themselves in within this near-future world.

Gameplay features include upgradeable special attacks and moves, an “abrasive” digital hardcore soundtrack, and freeform combat. Stay tuned to PAX West, beginning today, for more on No Longer Human.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Originally released back in 2010 for the Wii, Sonic Colors marked a return to form for the Blue Blur. It righted the ship of Sonic’s 3D missteps by focusing entirely on what makes the series fun: feeling like you are the fastest thing alive. Sonic Colors: Ultimate is that same game, remastered for modern platforms with improved lighting, 4K/60 FPS support (except on Switch, of course), a remixed soundtrack, and a couple of other minor gameplay additions. None of these upgrades make Sonic Colors: Ultimate a must-buy for returning fans, but for anyone who missed it due to being put off by the likes of Sonic 06 and Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode 1, it’s still good enough that this trip to Eggman’s Interstellar Amusement Park is already an easy recommendation.

Regardless of whether you’ve played before, the story of Sonic Colors won’t be a surprise to anyone: Eggman is up to no good, seeking to harness the power of alien energy to fuel a mind-control weapon, and it’s up to Sonic and Tails to stop him. The plot obviously isn’t what anyone’s here for, but it’s at least well acted and sprinkled with a few chuckles here and there – especially thanks to Cubot and Orbot, Eggman’s two robot henchmen, who have their own little running gag of Cubot’s voice chip constantly getting damaged and replaced, much to the chagrin of Eggman.

What is important about the story, however, is that it introduces the Wisps, the small multicolored aliens that Eggman is hunting down. These Wisps are the main thing that separate Sonic Colors from every other mainline console Sonic game, both past and present. Think of them as transformation power-ups along the lines of what you’d find in a Mario game, only you get to choose when to activate their powers. Pink Wisps can turn you into a Spike Ball that allows you to cling to walls, yellow Wisps turn you into a drill that can dig underground, and teal Wisps turn you into a laser that can bounce off prisms and travel at the speed of light. They’re unlocked as you progress through Sonic Colors, but you can always revisit old levels and replay them with Wisps that you unlocked later on to access new paths, which is something that we’ll circle back to.

There are a total of nine Wisps that you can unlock over the course of Sonic Colors: Ultimate – including a brand-new Ghost Wisp that wasn’t in the original game – and they primarily enhance the two things that are key to a great Sonic game: your speed (duh), and the multiple paths that allow you to find your own way through a level. A pink Wisp might give you the opportunity to completely bypass a slow platforming section by zipping up a wall, a Drill Wisp might lead you to a subterranean path that’s way faster than the one above ground, and a Laser Wisp can instantly shoot you across a section lined with enemies, taking them all out at the literal speed of light. These particular wisps do a great job of varying up the level design without ever slowing Sonic down.

Then there are Wisps more geared toward secret collecting, light-puzzle solving, and platforming. While these are certainly less exciting than the ones built around speed, they still make exploration and revisiting levels with new powers a lot of fun, as they can help you discover new paths that dramatically change the flow of a level, and even help you improve your time or score.

The new Ghost Wisp is probably the weakest of the bunch, as it’s really only used to mix up the locations of some hidden Red Rings compared to where they were in the original game. With it, you can float through walls by pulling yourself to an anchor point, and… that’s about it. Unlike the other Wisp powers, it’s never really used in any sort of clever or satisfying way.

The one downside to the Wisps is that, because they’re drip fed to you one at a time over the course of the whole game, the first time through the early levels of Sonic Colors isn’t nearly as fun as they are when you’re able to replay them with all the Wisps unlocked. This causes the first few hours to be kind of a drag because you’re often forced along paths that are slow and tedious.

That’s an issue that carries over from the original, but one that Sonic Colors: Ultimate introduces for the first time is related to its remixed soundtrack. The first three levels of any world play a newly remixed theme and the last three levels play the original versions. The bummer is that there’s no way to choose which version you want to hear, which sucks because I’ve found that most of the original themes are far superior to the overly produced remixes. The soundtrack is still great all around, don’t get me wrong, but it seems strange to have both versions and not give you the option of selecting which one you want to hear on a given level.

The other big gameplay addition is a Rival Rush mode that lets you race against Metal Sonic in what is essentially just a dressed-up time trial. It’s a fun way to challenge yourself to beat a level quickly, but it feels like it should be something you can do on every level instead of there just being one per world, a total of just six races all together.

Cosmetic items were also added in this remaster, giving you the ability to customize Sonic’s shoes, gloves, aura, and boost effect by spending a new currency that you can collect throughout each level. None of them are particularly noteworthy though – it’s just some straight recolors, simple visual effects, and tacky patterns. I found myself sticking with the classic look.

On the graphical side of things, Sonic Colors: Ultimate holds up reasonably well for a nearly 11-year-old Wii game. The one sour spot is the cutscenes, which were not redone and are super low-res on a modern screen. But the actual gameplay runs at a steady 60fps in 4K on the PlayStation 5, and there are some nice improvements made to the lighting and character models.

Most importantly, Sonic Colors: Ultimate benefits from having been a gorgeous game to begin with. Its levels are among the most imaginative the series has ever seen, from the Rainbow Road-esque Starlight Carnival that has Sonic speeding through space while an intergalactic war plays out in the background, to the dreamlike Sweet Mountain that’s made entirely of junk food. Every world is beaming with creativity and the unifying theme of it all being part of an amusement park is just icing on the cake.