Nintendo is billing the upcoming Metroid Dread as the end of a major saga for Samus. The Metroid storyline has continued through the decades, but with Dread, Metroid co-creator Yoshio Sakamoto says it’s time to close the book on this particular chapter and begin working on a new adventure for Nintendo’s leading bounty hunter.
Metroid Dread is also called Metroid 5 because it is the fifth and final chapter of a storyline that began with the original Metroid back in 1986. During a media event following the E3 2021 Nintendo Direct, IGN was able to speak with Sakamoto on the significance of Metroid Dread as a final chapter.
“So regarding the end of the Metroid saga and the five-part saga, the Metroid story until this point has dealt with Samus’ strange fate that’s been intertwined around this being called the Metroid,” Sakamoto explained. “And until now that has been the focus of the series, but what [Metroid Dread] represents is a bit of a pause or kind of a new start to something else.”
The storyline began with the first Metroid that was released on the NES revolving around the planet SR388 and the alien beings known as Metroid. This storyline continues through games like Metroid 2: Samus Returns, Super Metroid, and Metroid Fusion.
Each of these games has dealt with the consequences of SR388, Mother Brain, and the Metroid in one way or another; and the events of Metroid Dread are set directly after Metroid Fusion. But Sakamoto says that after Dread, a new chapter must begin.
“Nobody wants the Metroid series to end, and we know that. We ourselves don’t want that either, but we just want people to know that there is some kind of new episode that is waiting in the works,” Sakamoto says. “And we want you to look forward with what we do with that next, but there are no specifics now.”
This opens up a lot of possibilities for the future of the Metroid series. Canonically, Metroid Prime 1 through 3 is set in between the events of Metroid 1 and 2. But given Sakamoto’s comments, the setting for Metroid Prime 4 could suddenly be in flux. And if there are no more Metroids for Samus to deal with, what will the series be called?
Regardless, Metroid Dread is not the end of Samus’ tenure at Nintendo. Merely the conclusion of a 35-year-old storyline.
Yoshio Sakamoto has been trying to make Metroid Dread for a long time. Sakamoto, who designed the original Metroid on NES, says he always intended for Dread to be the follow-up to Fusion — the most recent in the 2D entry in the series that isn’t some form of remake. In 2005, IGN uncovered a document listing Metroid Dread as a key release for Nintendo DS.
It never happened. Metroid Dread passed into legend with the likes of Star Fox Grand Prix — games that were hotly-rumored but for one reason or another never materialized. Except Metroid Dread was real, and Sakamoto tried to make it at least twice. Each time, he was thwarted by the technological limitations of the Nintendo DS, which kept him from building on his vision of Samus being hunted by a powerful foe — a concept that he hoped to develop after the success of Metroid Fusion’s SA-X.
Enter MercurySteam, the Madrid-based developer responsible for Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, and more recently, Metroid: Samus Returns. “The reason that I actually met with [MercurySteam] was in the hopes that they’d be able to realize the concepts that I had for Metroid Dread,” Sakamoto says. “I was sure that with their ability and their technical know-how, that they’d be able to make what was once a concept in actual reality. […] In meeting with them, I got the sense that they were a team that I could work together with towards a singular concept and realize this goal that I had in mind for Metroid Dread.”
That vision became a reality when Metroid Dread was announced during Tuesday’s Nintendo Direct. As the first original 2D Metroid release in close to 20 years — Metroid: Zero Mission and Metroid Samus Returns were both remakes — Metroid Dread caps off the story that began back in 1986. It pits Samus against E.M.M.Is, powerful robots developed by the Galactic Federation that are hunting Samus for unknown reasons.
The desire to create a foe like the E.M.M.I was a big part of why Metroid Droid wasn’t working on the Nintendo DS, Sakamoto says. It’s easy to see why: the E.M.M.I robots in the trailer have a spooky, alien feel to them that would be hard to replicate on a less-powerful handheld like the DS. What’s more, they are more proactive than SA-X was back in Metroid Fusion, often moving in unpredictable patterns and even popping out of a door when Samus is trying to exit.
Sakamoto says that his intention was to make the E.M.M.I as creepy as possible. “I wanted to create something that was unsettling for players, and also would communicate this kind of unfeelingness that is inherent in something that’s robotic. And also the fact that its existence is purely just to chase after and catch Samus as well.”
The oppressive creepiness embodied by the E.M.M.I has always been a part of Metroid’s DNA. The series has long borrowed from films like Aliens, lifting elements like creatures that latch onto the heads of unfortunate explorers. It has a horror vibe that sets it apart from Nintendo’s other franchises, which may explain why it has struggled to find the same audience as Zelda or Mario despite its considerable influence.
Sakamoto insists that Metroid Dread isn’t intended to be a horror game. “It’s really about Samus encountering fear, but she actually stands against that fear and fights it and beats it. That part of it is important,” Sakamoto say. “As for where the inspiration came for wanting to take the game in this direction, it comes from what I said before about the tension surrounding the SA-X from Metroid Fusion and how we wanted to take that style of gameplay and put it into what is considered to be the normal Metroid gameplay to make for an exciting experience.”
Nevertheless, Sakamoto consistently returns to the concept of fear often in his comments. At one point he talks about how “fear-based gameplay” might help its overall appeal to newcomers. “As for the E.M.M.I gameplay… maybe this sense of fear, as I talked about before, you know, younger gamers who have not experienced the series before may look at that fear-based gameplay and […] want to try it out. And that’s what I was thinking.”
Prior to Sakamoto’s conversation with the press, Nintendo showed some of Metroid Dread’s gameplay, noting how the music changes and more ominous when Samus enters a room containing an E.M.M.I. It may not be a horror game, but it’s clear that Sakamoto understands horror sensibilities, and is capable of weaving them seamlessly into his games.
Despite MercurySteam’s involvement, Sakamoto has continued to play an active role in Metroid Dread’s development along with Nintendo. “My role in Metroid Dread was similar to or the same as what it was on Samus Returns, where NCL and Mercury Steam worked together to be one team. They’re different companies of course, but we had one mind. So also in the same as Samus Returns, I was always in communication with MercurySteam on a day-to-day basis, looking at the good and bad of what they were producing for designs. So I guess I was called a producer, but I was more involved on the creative side of things as well.”
Sakamoto says that his vision for Metroid Dread is turning out even better than he imagined 15 years ago, and that he feels “really, really satisfied” as a result. It’s the end of a multi-year journey in more ways than one, as Metroid Dread will also wrap up the original Metroid story. Just seeing the words “Metroid 5” in the trailer carries a weight with it, as it’s a nod back to a similar touch in Super Metroid.
Sakamoto says that Metroid Dread represents a “bit of a pause” or the start of something new, but reiterated that this isn’t the end. “Nobody wants the Metroid series to end, and we know that. We ourselves don’t want that either, but we just want people to know that there is some kind of new episode that is waiting in the works. And we want you to look forward with what we do with that next, but there are no specifics now. “
From Thor to The Old Guard, the comic book industry is full of stories about seemingly ordinary people harboring the power of gods. But not everyone necessarily wants to wake up one morning and learn they’re actually an all-powerful immortal with a grand destiny. That’s the basic premise fueling the upcoming Image Comics series Ordinary Gods.
IGN can debut an exclusive preview of Ordinary Gods #1, the first chapter in a new series from writer Kyle Higgins (Radiant Black, Mighty Morphin Power Rangers) and artist Felipe Watanabe (The Flash). Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:
Here’s Image’s official description of the new series:
For fans of THE OLD GUARD and GOD COUNTRY comes the extra-length first issue of a centuries-spanning action epic from writer KYLE HIGGINS (Radiant Black) and artist FELIPE WATANABE (The Flash)! The Luminary. The Prodigy. The Brute. The Trickster. The Innovator. Five gods from a realm beyond our own, leaders in the “War of Immortals.”
At least, they were—before they were trapped, sent to a planet made into a prison, forced into an endless cycle of human death and reincarnation. Christopher is 22. He’s got two loving parents and a 12-year-old sister. He works at a paint store. He’s in therapy. He’s one of the Five. Which means, in order to save everyone he cares about, Christopher will have to reconnect with his past lives and do the unthinkable: become a god again.
In short, expect a very intimate and even tragic take on the idea of an ordinary person embracing godhood. What good is absolute power if it means sacrificing your family and opening up many lifetimes’ worth of pain and misery?
“There’s a very grounded emotional core at the center of Ordinary Gods, and it all comes down to the relationship between Christopher, and his 12-year-old sister, Brianna,” Higgins told IGN. “Christopher is coming out of some pretty serious hardships and navigating some early adult crossroads. How will the revelation of his lineage and connection to immortals, change his life? And the life of his family? Issue 1 is about blow up everything that Christopher thinks he knows…”
“Ordinary Gods may look quite lush, with gods, epic battles, action scenes, and everything, but the fact that the characters face real dramas is exactly what brings us even closer to their paths and makes me, as a reader, unable to stop reading,” added Watanabe.
Perhaps the biggest surprise to come out of Nintendo’s E3 2021 Direct was Metroid Dread, the first brand-new side-scrolling installment in the series in nearly two decades. This isn’t the only Metroid game to release in that time, of course; there had been other titles in the interim, most recently 2017’s Metroid: Samus Returns. Metroid Dread, though, has been rumored for so long at this point that many fans had presumed it would never materialize. However, series producer Yoshio Sakamoto was always determined to bring the concept to life.
Metroid Dread’s history is a long and rocky one. Reports that Nintendo was developing a game with that title first emerged all the way back in 2005, and speculation was further fueled when a Space Pirate log within Metroid Prime 3: Corruption mentioned a “Metroid project Dread” nearing completion. Nintendo publicly denied the reports back then, but Sakamoto confirmed it was indeed in the works. However, the project was ultimately halted due to the limits of the technology at the time.
“I suppose that was around the time that the Nintendo DS was around, and it was just–speaking in terms of the specs that I had in mind–it was a bit difficult to realize that concept with that hardware,” Sakamoto said via an interpreter during a digital E3 panel.
According to Sakamoto, these technical limitations forced the team to put Metroid Dread on hold. He revisited the concept a few years later, but the project stalled again due to the same hurdles: “At the time that we came up with the idea [for Metroid Dread], the hardware wasn’t there, the technological concepts weren’t working with our vision, so we had to put it on hold. And then some time later we started again, but then we stopped again for pretty much the same reasons.”
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Metroid Dread Trailer | Nintendo E3 2021
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With the arrival of the Nintendo Switch, technology had finally caught up to Sakamoto’s vision, but the biggest factor that allowed him to finally create Metroid Dread was MercurySteam, the studio behind Metroid: Samus Returns. Sakamoto said that the initial reason for his meeting with the team was not the Metroid II remake for the 3DS, but rather Dread: “The reason that I actually met with [MercurySteam] was in the hopes that they’d be able to realize the concepts that I had for Metroid Dread, and with their ability and their technical know-how that they’d be able to make what was once a concept an actual reality.”
Despite the 15-year wait to realize Metroid Dread, Sakamoto said its core conceit has remained the same since the beginning. “The whole entire concept hasn’t changed over these 15 years. Really, it was that Samus, this powerful warrior, would be confronted with some overwhelming enemy that would chase her, and that was the idea.”
This overwhelming foe takes the form of the EMMI, menacing research robots that stalk certain sectors of planet ZDR, Metroid Dread’s setting. The EMMI were initially deployed by the Galactic Federation to collect DNA samples from unknown lifeforms on the planet, but something has turned them into literal killing machines. It becomes Samus’s mission to unravel this mystery and stop the EMMI.
Each EMMI patrols a different zone of ZDR, cordoned off by pixelated doors, and their presence completely changes the game’s atmosphere. Once you step into an EMMI’s territory, the music subsides, and the eerie beeps the EMMI emits can be heard echoing around you, creating a genuinely unnerving atmosphere. What’s more, the EMMI are effectively indestructible; the robots are impervious to Samus’s weaponry, giving you no choice but to flee if you encounter one. Getting caught means almost certain death. You’ll have a very small window of opportunity to escape the EMMI’s grasp–even tighter than the one to execute the game’s counterattack, Nintendo says–but if you fail, it’s the end of Samus’s adventure.
Samus encountering an EMMI
The EMMI are immediately reminiscent of the SA-X, the unstoppable clone that stalked Samus in Metroid Fusion. This is no coincidence; according to Sakamoto, the team wanted to expand on the tension that players felt when being chased by the SA-X with Metroid Dread. “We wanted to take that style of gameplay and put it into what is considered to be the normal Metroid gameplay to make for an exciting experience,” Sakamoto said.
This pervasive sense of fear makes Dread a fitting moniker for the latest Metroid game, and it teeters even more obviously into horror than previous installments in the series have. However, Sakamoto doesn’t consider Metroid Dread to be a horror game: “From our perspective, this isn’t a game that is part of the horror genre, although it may have seemed that way. It’s really about Samus encountering fear, but she actually stands against that fear and fights it and beats it, and that part of it is important.”
To deal with this unstoppable threat, Samus will acquire new powers as she explores planet ZDR, including one called the Phantom Cloak. This ability renders the hunter invisible, allowing her to evade an EMMI’s detection. However, it can’t be used indefinitely. The Phantom Cloak slowly depletes an energy gauge, and after a certain point, it will begin draining your health, meaning you won’t be able to hide from the EMMI forever; you’ll need to employ it strategically.
Samus’s repertoire has also been expanded with some new moves, making the bounty hunter more agile than ever before. The melee parry introduced in Samus Returns has been tweaked in Metroid Dread, letting you now counterattack while moving. Samus has also gained a new slide ability that allows you to slip through tight spaces and move around the environment quickly. These new skills make the gameplay look fast and fluid, and Nintendo confirmed the game runs at 60fps.
The melee counter from Samus Returns is even more versatile in Metroid Dread
The biggest mystery surrounding Metroid Dread is its story. Each chapter in the franchise thus far has revolved around Samus and the life-sucking aliens that lend the series its name, but Sakamoto has teased that Metroid Dread will mark the end of this particular arc:
“The Metroid story until this point has dealt with Samus’s strange fate that’s been intertwined around this being called the Metroid, and until now, that has been the focus of the series. But what this game represents is a bit of a pause, or kind of a new start to something else. Nobody wants the Metroid series to end and we know that; we ourselves don’t want that either. But we just want people to know there is some kind of new episode that is waiting in the works, and we want you to look forward to what we do with that next, but there are no specifics now.”
Metroid Dread launches for Nintendo Switch on October 8. Alongside the game, Nintendo is releasing a new set of Amiibo figures based on Samus and an EMMI. You can learn more in our Metroid Dread preorder guide.
Cyberpunk 2077 has just released its latest patch, 1.23 for PC, consoles and Stadia. Among the usual mix of fixes, it makes clear that CD Projekt Red is continuing to work on making the game perform better on consoles.
Announced on the Cyberpunk 2077 website, patch 1.23 includes “various console CPU optimizations.” While detail’s lacking, CPU optimizations could help everything from frame rate to calculations made to improve the game’s simulation. Whatever those changes, it’s clear that the developers are continuing to work on the game’s general performance on last-gen consoles, or in backwards compatibility on new-gen consoles.
That’s particularly important in light of the game’s return to the PlayStation Store on June 21. Six months after being removed from the service, Sony clearly now sees the game as stable enough for sale on its store – but still made a point of telling users with original PS4 units that they will “continue to experience performance issues with the PS4 edition while CD Projekt Red continues to improve stability across all platforms.” Hopefully, patches like this will go some way towards remedying that problem.
Other headlines among the 1.23 patch notes (which you can read below) include improvements that should stop identical NPCs spawning in the same area, multiple crash fixes across all platforms, and fixes for issues that affect 17 different quests.
Here are the patch notes, in full:
Cyberpunk 2077 1.23 Patch Notes
Quests & Open World
Space Oddity
Fixed an issue where the “Open the package” objective could change location.
Gig: Family Matters
Fixed an issue where Juliet’s car could disappear on sight after completing the quest.
Fixed a streaming issue in Juliet’s house.
Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to enter Juliet’s house if the player didn’t meet either of the Attribute requirements.
The Heist
Fixed an issue where Jackie could go through glass.
Fixed an issue preventing some guards from attacking the player.
Fixed an issue where the “Search the Arasaka officer” objective could remain active after fulfilling it.
Fixed an issue where the mech didn’t spawn in the lobby.
Fixed an issue where some Arasaka guards could clip through the door.
Fixed an issue where some guards could spawn on player’s sight.
Fixed an issue where Arasaka officer’s body could be unaccessible, making the player unable to loot the shard and blocking progression.
The Nomad
Removed unnecessary button prompts.
The Hunt
The news segment in the shard from River will now properly play audio.
The Beast in Me
Fixed an issue where progression could be blocked if the player left Claire after the Santo Domingo race too early.
Queen of the Highway
Fixed an issue where the Basilisk could clip through some of the trees.
Down on the Street
Fixed an issue where there were no quest-related dialogue options when talking to Wakako.
Forward to Death
Smoke and dust will no longer flicker when riding the Basilisk.
Gig: Goodbye, Night City
Fixed an issue where progression could get blocked after rescuing Bruce if the player called Delamain.
Path of Glory
Fixed an issue where V could get stuck in the AV if they stood at the landing spot before it arrived.
Gig: No Fixers
Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to open the door to Dakota’s garage at the end of the quest.
Fixed an issue where Iris could teleport instead of walking.
Gig: Getting Warmer…
Fixed an issue where fixer’s car could drive straight through the intersection instead of turning right.
Fixed an issue where the prompt to use the coolant on 8ug8ear could still be selected while plugging her out, which could break the animation.
Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to pick up 8ug8ear.
Fixed an issue where NPCs could spawn underground, blocking progression.
Gig: Many Ways to Skin a Cat
Fixed an issue where notifications from Regina regarding this gig could appear during The Heist.
Fixed an issue where it was possible to connect to the computer after failing the quest by destroying the van, which resulted in player getting stuck.
Fixed an issue where progression could get stuck on the “Go to the Revere Courier Servies facilities” objective.
Cyberpsycho Sighting: Where the Bodies Hit the Floor
Fixed an issue where after collecting the information the next objective to send it to Regina wouldn’t appear.
Cyberpsycho Sighting: On Deaf Ears
Fixed an issue where after collecting the information the next objective to send it to Regina wouldn’t appear.
I Fought the Law
Fixed an issue where River wouldn’t be present at the meeting spot before entering Red Queen’s Race.
Gameplay
Fixed an issue where after killing a NPC and stealing their car, their body could get stuck in the car.
Adam Smasher will no longer receive damage during animations between his attack phases.
Fixed an issue where dropping a NPC’s body caused too much destruction.
Cataresist cyberware should now work properly.
Visual
Fixed Johnny’s spectral appearance in various quests.
Fixed various issues related to clipping in NPCs’ clothes.
Fixed appearance of rocks in the Badlands.
The Pickup
Fixed an issue where one of the Maelstromers was T-posing.
Stability and performance
Numerous crash fixes in animations, UI, scene, physics and gameplay systems.
Memory optimizations and memory management improvements in various systems (reducing the number of crashes).
Various console CPU optimizations.
Memory and I/O improvement leading to fewer instances of NPCs with identical appearances spawning in the same area, and to improved streaming.
PC-specific
Fixed an issue where it wasn’t possible to click the upgrade button while playing with 1280×720 resolution.
Fixed an issue where toggling the Windowed and Fullscreen modes with Alt+Enter made the game appear unresponsive.
[Steam] Changing language settings to default will now set it to the language of the Steam client.
A popup message asking to verify integrity of game data will now be displayed when incomplete or corrupted game data is detected.
Xbox-specific
Fixed an issue where signing out during a scene fade-out could result in the game being partially unresponsive.
Fixed an issue where the Pause Menu would open again on its own if the Xbox guide and the Pause Menu were closed in quick succession.
EA Sports PGA Tour‘s Career Mode is starting to look pretty ambitious, with the inclusion of all four golfing Majors, as well as a host of amateur events. A new update on the game has confirmed that amateur events including the U.S. Amateur Championship will make a showing in the game, while The Country Club course in Brookline will be playable for its first ever appearance in a video game.
While PGA Tour boasts being the only game to feature all four Majors, the amateur events are just as important to its Career Mode. “Winning the 2015 U.S. Amateur Championship was a highlight of my early career that helped propel my game forward, ultimately winning the 2020 U.S. Open Championship,” said pro golfer Bryson DeChambeau. “I’m a big video game fan, and EA SPORTS bringing not only the U.S Open but also amateur golf events, is very exciting, especially given how important they are to golfers growing their career.”
Play the U.S. Open Championship on courses like Torrey Pines and The Country Club in Brookline, Massachusetts ⛳️ 🏆
— EA SPORTS PGA TOUR (@EASPORTSPGATOUR) June 16, 2021
Despite the range of tournaments available to play, it’s clear PGA Tour is still centered around the U.S. Open, which an EA press release describes as “the toughest major in golf.” The game will include the Torrey Pines course, which is hosting this year’s U.S. Open, as well as next year’s host, The Country Club. The newly added course will be rendered in the game with the help of new aerial scanning technology.
EA Sports PGA Tour is due out in Spring 2022, with EA promising more information on the game to be released in line with this summer’s biggest golfing events.
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While the sniper rifle is standard issue in almost every first-person shooter, few games manage to capture the challenge and coldblooded thrills of being an actual expert marksman. At its best, Sniper Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 does a good job of satisfying the desire to splatter bad guy brains with a buzzer-beating bullet from way downtown – but it all too quickly unravels into an average action game the moment your cover is blown.
In Contracts 2 you slip on the augmented reality equipped mask of Raven, a super soldier in possession of steady aim and a penchant for a particularly deadly form of social distancing. Raven may be a newcomer to the series, but his mission will be eminently familiar to anyone who played the previous game since it centres around yet another tale of international espionage and political upheaval, told very loosely by forgettable flurries of mugshots and confidential documents that put the ‘brief’ into pre-mission briefings.
The mission structure, however, is slightly different to that of 2020’s Contracts. Whereas the last game presented you with a series of sandboxes to sneak around in, Contracts 2 brings some welcome variety by alternating between two traditional open mission areas and three concentrated ‘long shot’ contracts. The latter restrict your movement to smaller maps, such as the top of a mountain range, but task you with eliminating targets that are in some instances over a thousand metres beyond your perimeter. I found these long distance executions to be the strongest sections of Contracts 2. Zeroing your scope, adjusting your aim for wind and bullet drop and then nailing a headshot in another postal code remains thrilling long after the novelty of the skull-shattering slow-mo gore shots has worn off, but the annoyingly accurate return fire from humble enemy assault rifles at such long ranges admittedly shatters the sense of realism somewhat.
Poor Patrol
Enemy soldiers might be blessed with supernatural levels of precision, but their actual smarts aren’t nearly as sharp. At times they show some signs of tactical nous, by tossing a smoke grenade to mask their movements or bombing your last known position with a mortar strike in the more open areas, for example. But mostly they’re far too easily dispatched, either with a long range headshot or, should you miss and therefore raise an alarm, by simply hiding in the nearest bush with a silenced pistol and calmly picking them off as they form an orderly queue like it’s all-you-can-eat night at the Hot Lead buffet.
Since I only faced the same handful of recycled enemy types over the course of Contracts 2’s 12-hour campaign, I found myself becoming increasingly cavalier with my infiltration methods because I knew that no matter how many CCTV cameras or automated gun turrets were alerted to my presence I could always fall back on the old conga line of carnage method to reduce each area’s enemy numbers down to zero. This gave each objective an air of predictability, and it didn’t help that the bulk of Contracts 2’s key targets and optional bounties lack the flexibility and flair of the more devious assassinations in Io Interactive’s Hitman series in order to make them each feel unique. I certainly didn’t go in expecting to be able to disguise myself as a sad clown or sushi chef, but I do wish there were more interesting ways to snuff out each mark. It’s effectively just spot the target, shoot the target, and move on to the next.
There are also non-assassination objectives in most levels, typically involving the planting of explosives to sabotage stockpiles of enemy weaponry or the uploading of viruses into mainframe computers. Much of this is pretty stock standard, although I did enjoy the rare occasions I was able to use my sniper skills for non-lethal means, like when I had to take out three sets of revolving gears situated around a massive satellite antenna. The fact that these gears seemed to be exposed for no other reason than to be specifically shot at by a meddling sniper did seem a little contrived, but I was happy to forgive it in a Death Star exhaust port design flaw sort of way.
Scope for Improvement
Speaking of design flaws, Contracts 2 features a skill tree for Raven along with an expandable arsenal of rifles, sidearms, and gadgets, but it all feels decidedly non-essential given that the missions don’t really scale in difficulty nor do they feature any objectives that demand experimentation with alternative weapon loadouts. Aside from adding silencers to my weapons early on, I actually forgot about the progression system entirely until I got to the very last mission, at which point I just spent all the cash and skill points I’d racked up in one go purely for the sake of it. Some of it would have been useful in retrospect, such as the motorised gadget that allows you to use ziplines in reverse, but the bulk of the health and armour upgrades I was very easily able to do without.
This largely unnecessary upgrade system also makes the optional level challenges seem redundant for anyone who isn’t an absolute completionist. There are cash and skill point bonuses to be earned for killing five enemy snipers with melee attacks or eliminating a key target without raising an alarm, but I wasn’t compelled to retry any objectives in order to complete these challenges both because I didn’t need the rewards and also because none of them seemed particularly imaginative. There’s clearly been a lot of work put into each of Contracts 2’s settings, particularly in the massive Mount Kuamar map that stretches from mountainous forest areas down to multiple levels of a subterranean, Bond villain-like lair, but I passed through all of it once, never to return again.
With its fifth anniversary on the way, No Man’s Sky is still building and improving on its impressive intergalactic world. Earlier in June Hello Games released the ambitious Prisms Update, which added furry creatures and flying pets for the first time. The latest update 3.53 is a smaller hotfix, mopping up some of the issues created by Prisms.
The biggest addition in the new patch is what Hello Games describes as “improved ship explosion effect during space combat.” The other major changes in the update are all fixes for issues in Prisms’ new content–such as bugs around how furry creatures are displayed.
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While the list of fixes in this patch is pretty concise, Hello Games has encouraged players to keep reporting new bug through Zendesk or console crash reporting so they can be fixed by the development team.
Patch Notes
Fixed an issue that could cause some furry creatures to be missing the hologram effect when on the Space Anomaly.
Improved ship explosion effect during space combat.
Fixed an issue that could cause stars to appear closer than they should in VR.
The way that MCU movies framed Black Widow back in the days of Iron Man 2 and Marvel’s The Avengers and the way we look at her now, a decade later, are very different. With Black Widow less than a month away, star Scarlett Johansson is looking back at the character’s evolution in a new interview with Collider.
“You look back at Iron Man 2 and while it was really fun and had a lot of great moments in it, the character is so sexualized, you know?” Johansson said. “Really talked about like she’s a piece of something, like a possession or a thing or whatever, like a piece of ass, really. And even Tony refers to her as something like that at one point.”
“[Tony] at one point calls her a piece of meat and maybe at that time that actually felt like a compliment. Because my thinking was different,” Johansson continued. “Now people, young girls, are getting a much more positive message, but it’s been incredible to be a part of that shift and be able to come out the other side and be a part of that old story, but also progress, evolve. I think it’s pretty cool.”
Johansson also talks about Black Widow’s objectification as it pertains to the character’s internal development.
“I think actually Natasha uses her sexuality as a means to feel, sort of manipulate a situation and then be coquettish and sly, and then she’s going to take your legs out, right? She’s going to be seductive in this way, and that’s her power; her power’s in her sexuality, and then that changed over time, right?” Johansson said. “Her strength was actually her vulnerability. In Endgame she sacrifices herself out of love. She saves her friend, she saves everyone. And I think just being in that kind of headspace and being able to make taht decision, that selfless act, is so incredibly powerful.”
The interview is long and Johansson talks about a variety of topics, so it’s worth a read in addition to these tidbits. Tickets for Black Widow are on sale ahead of its theatrical debut on on July 9, when it also hits Disney+ Premier Access. In the meantime, read up on what the director had to say about her inspirations going into the movie and what Black Widow will look like in IMAX. Don’t forget to check out the latest trailer, either.
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