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Warning: Spoilers for Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s two-episode season eight premiere, which aired on NBC on Aug. 12, follow.

It’s not solely Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s duty to account for the media’s funny, frivolous, and feel-good treatment of the NYPD — as law enforcement and TV have long had a mutually beneficial arrangement involving mass glorification — but in the wake of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countrywide protests against police brutality, it would be strikingly off and odd for it not to try. To that end, the show’s final season opener, “The Good Ones,” does that and more, managing to wonderfully change the core cast dynamics in meaningful ways while also hilariously accounting for how each character would specifically react to the unprecedented chaos of 2020.

It does all that while also acknowledging the pandemic and its psychological ramifications. What a juggling act! And what a joy to behold.

It’s a tough balance to strike (Terry Crews previously said that showrunner Dan Goor completely redid the first four episodes), but Brooklyn Nine-Nine, as clever and winning as it is, treats these topics with class, grace, and its own unique hilarity. By leaning way into everything, every issue, particularly with “The Good Ones,” the series is able to wrap this wonderful ensemble into our very real and tumultuous world and find an ample amount of laughs in the process.

“The Good Ones” has Rosa (Stephanie Beatriz) quitting the force, disgusted by her own profession, and Jake (Andy Samberg) is flummoxed by the news that his bestie is gone and that she might view him in a different way now. It’s not light stuff, as Jake also teams with Rosa to try and punish two officers who targeted and assaulted a Black woman while making a late-shift “arrest.” But since the premiere zooms in on Jake and Rosa’s relationship, using that to inform the rest and allow for open conversation, it’s able to paint things with a silly and satirical brush, especially John C. McGinley’s Billy Joel-loving union rep.

It’s also just plain interesting to see Jake in a more introspective mode. As John McClane’s number one fan, and a lover of all action movie cops, Jake’s basically been raised by our media’s obsession with tough, proactive police officers ready to take the law into their own hands. To Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s credit, Jake’s actually great at his job and remarkably insightful, unlike many of his reckless idols, and it’s good for him, with Rosa gone, to keep having these types of conversations with himself and others.

Meanwhile, Charles (Joe Lo Truglio) becomes an obnoxiously performative ally, a retired Hitchcock (Dirk Blocker) now only appears from Parts Unknown via Scully’s (Joel McKinnon Miller) tablet, and Amy (Melissa Fumero) returns from maternity leave with new fears about having grown apart from Holt (Andre Braugher). And this is where the premiere drops another admirable anchor: Holt is not okay. 2020 did a heinous number on him and in a moment of heartfelt vulnerability, he unmasks a bit and lets Amy into his turmoil. It’s a tremendous moment in an already powerful episode.

It’s interesting to see Jake in a more introspective mode.

Despite these serious and necessary conversations, Brooklyn Nine-Nine still manages to get away with laughs o’ plenty. Sometimes it’s absolute sorcery how well this series can get guffaws from some truly ghastly things (like, remember when Jake and Rosa were framed and sent to prison?). The second episode of the night, “The Lake House,” is more of a return to traditional shenanigans (though still very much continuing Holt’s story from “The Good Ones”) and a nice follow-up chapter, though it’d be great if Jake and Rosa’s crusade continued, on and off, throughout these last remaining episodes. Relegating the big elephant-in-the-room elements to just the premiere seems soft, and this series is better than that.

Ideally, season eight will feature a bounce between the tones of the first episode and the second, never forgetting the importance of how current events affect the Nine-Nine while also diving into absolute absurdities. “The Lake House” hones in on each character’s best/worst traits and even turns out to be a great Terry (Terry Crews) episode, which is refreshing, since the show occasionally struggles with giving him quality material. The bits in this second episode involving Terry hedging, ledging, and doing cardio are freakin’ gold. It’s sad to see this series go, but these two chapters start Brooklyn Nine-Nine’s final ride off in the best, most delightful way.

Marvel’s Avengers has not had a smooth first year, but as it approaches its one-year anniversary it’s become that much more self-assured with a steady stream of quality-of-life updates and new content. It will be marking the end of August with War for Wakanda, an expansion based on and starring one of the Marvel universe’s biggest heroes: Black Panther.

In a hands-off preview, I saw an extended look at the first two stages of War for Wakanda, along with details of Black Panther’s abilities in combat. I was impressed, not only by how well this appears to be paying respect to the breakout character, but by how different it looks from anything else that came in the main game or previous character-based expansions.

In combat, Black Panther is a nimble melee fighter, but his agility and grace belies a level of ferocity that matches the animalistic name. He claws, kicks, and kinetic-blasts his way through enemies. In an interesting twist, though, many of his abilities grant passive buffs and debuffs, letting you boost your allies, weaken your enemies, and then rage your way through enemies to build up the energy to do it all again. His Ultimate ability, which summons the panther-god Bast, is a strong forward wave attack that also carries passive buffs or debuffs as you’d like.

The initial mission sees T’Challa letting an enemy go intentionally so that they lead him to the real target, the villain Ulysses Klaue. His traversal through the jungle is marked by athletic sprinting and leaping. When he reaches the end of this initial area, which serves as the introduction to his abilities, a brief environmental puzzle explains the history of the Black Panther line. After that you step into the kingdom of Wakanda, a lush environment that beautifully integrates nature and Afrofuturist technology.

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That same aesthetic is present inside the Wakandan palace, where T’Challa meets with the Avengers. Some brief narration ties Black Panther’s story to the existing Avengers plot, saying that as king of Wakanda, he had closed the borders after the death of his friend, Captain America, at A-Day. The current threats, established in other Avengers post-game content, are starting to pressure King T’Challa to reopen his borders and join the fight.

From there, the second area has the Avengers joining Black Panther on a mission–not the other way around. It’s more typical Avengers action with the familiar heroes we’ve already seen like Cap and Kamala, but Black Panther looks to be an excellent addition to the roster who fills his own niche. A minor villain cameo and a few big brawls later and T’Challa realizes the full extent of Klaue’s plan, just a moment too late. That looks to begin the story in earnest.

The demonstration left me eager to learn more, so I talked with War for Wakanda writer Hannah MacLeod and Marvel’s Avengers senior combat designer Scott Walters. The interview below has been edited for length and clarity.

You had this expansion in the works when we learned about the death of Chadwick Boseman, and held off on the announcement out of respect for him. Can you talk about the mood at the studio, working on this in light of that event?

MacLeod: Chadwick is going to be Black Panther for a lot of people forever. He made a huge stamp on pop culture. He’s become an icon and he really lifted T’Challa and Black Panther into that space as well. And that was prior to his passing. He has had that effect.

For the rest of the team, what we wanted to do with our version of Black Panther and our version of Wakanda is just extend that legacy to really expand people’s view of Black Panther and Wakanda. Let them get to know this character even better. I hope, I think, we’ve done him justice, but yeah, it was the kind of thing that we definitely talked about and considered a lot. The movies, cartoons, comics all really influenced us on this game, but I think our T’Challa is a bit different from what you’ve seen before. The hope is that we’re just extending the legacy, not trying to rewrite anything.

What Black Panther comics or eras or authors did you draw from the most when you were coming up with your version of T’Challa?

MacLeod: There’s a very short run called Flags of our Fathers, where Captain America actually visits Wakanda during World War II, and he meets Azzuri [T’Challa’s grandfather]. That ended up being way more influential than I thought it would be when I first read it. But also, the most recent two runs of Black Panther have both been pretty heavy discussions about the monarchy of the future of Wakanda, how Wakanda should be governed, and the Black Panther’s place in that leadership that ended up being very impactful. Ta-Nehisi [Coates] just blew my mind with a lot of the work that he’s done in recontextualizing Wakanda and taking a different look at it.

One of the things that we really wanted to emphasize is that Wakanda is not one big monolithic thing. It is made up of different tribes of people, there’s a factionalism within the nation where people have different opinions of how the country should be run, what their relationship to the outside world should be. And I think those two most recent runs have really dug into that.

And then Evan Narcisse, who was our narrative design consultant on the game, [had] a short run called Rise of the Black Panther that really focuses on T’Challa’s family history. It digs into his birth mother and his father and Shuri’s mother and things like that. That ended up being really key to us, figuring out the why of our story points. We wanted him to be slightly more guarded and we needed to look at those key events in his past that would lead him to be the person he is. So we took the death of his father and tweaked it just enough to motivate him to become the Panther he is in our game. So yeah, those four runs were probably the most influential for the story.

So you were drawing inspiration from Narcisse as an author, but also you were interfacing with him directly as a consultant. What kinds of perspective and ideas did he bring to the table?

MacLeod: Working with Evan was the best. I love him. He gave a lot of direction in terms of character. He’s a comic book nerd, like the rest of us, but he’s got a deep understanding of the various areas of Black Panther. And he really helped us to focus on, like I said, those whys, those motivations for each of the characters. He also was always good at redirecting us in terms of the characters to points of their personalities that maybe haven’t got as much light. So for example, T’Challa is a scientist in his own right; he’s extremely intelligent.

The movies have kind of leaned off of that, but in the comics he works on his own suit. He developed his own gear and we really wanted to emphasize that intelligence and that strategist mindset in his character. And so Evan was always good at redirecting us on those paths. He gave me a lot of direction. He came to the office, we got to pre-COVID times. We got to show off what we were working on and had hours-long discussion on what we wanted to do with this character. I always feel like I’m in good hands because I and really, the entire writing team, got to lean on Evan.

Avengers has such a large roster of characters. When you’re designing a new character to fit in this space, like Black Panther, how do you go about making sure you differentiate him from other power sets while also staying true to the character?

Walters: Black Panther is our ninth hero, so we’ve gotten to this rhythm of, we know on paper what every hero needs to fit in our game and interact with all the mechanics. When we start researching, we hit up all the source material–comics, cartoons, you name it. And we figure out: what is the thing? What are the most recurring elements or skill sets that you see in his combat? What are the things that players are going to recognize the most and be iconic? And we want players to say, when they get their hands on playing Black Panther, they’re like, yep, that’s Black Panther. That’s exactly what I would expect or envision.

So when we look at making each new hero, we do try and make them distinct and feel unique. So the way we do that, as we look at those iconic moves and we say, oh, how is that different? I think a really good example is the power attack. On paper, it’s a grab. Hulk can grab, Kamala can grab, Black Panther can grab now. But they do it differently. Both Hulk and Kamala use their size and strength to basically pick up small guys and throw them. Whereas Black Panther is agile, he’s acrobatic, he’s strong, but he’s not going to hold the guy with one hand like they’re a ragdoll, right? So what he does for his grab is he leaps through the air, passes on top of the enemy and bears them down to the ground. And then he just unleashes a savage series of claw attacks. That felt really natural to what people would think of Black Panther doing in terms of his mood set.

And when we were looking at how to differentiate that one step further, we thought, Hulk and Kamala don’t grab these large suit enemies. They don’t grab the walking tanks. But Black Panther, he’s agile, he’s nimble, he can jump on top of them. And so that’s kind of a whole unique thing that he can do that the other heroes can’t.

When you’re going into designing a new character, do you look for mechanical gaps from the other heroes?

Walters: We do that in both scenarios. We look at, what gap or thing are we missing? And then also, what can this hero fill out of that list? And so when we were developing Panther, he’s primarily a melee guy. We needed a ranged attack for the puzzle mechanics or for enemies that stay outside your range, but he is a melee character. So when we were developing the ranged attack, we were like, what if his [ranged attack] stuck to the target and then made the melee damage better. And so we really liked that loop: Okay, let me throw a couple of daggers while I’m running over, then I can use my melee attacks to really deal the most damage. That spiraled into, well, what if he’s all about buffing and debuffing players and enemies.

And so his Overcharge mechanic is a big kinetic burst area. He stores up the energy in the suit. He releases it and knocks everyone down, but he also supercharges his melee attacks for a brief duration. And the idea is you want to build that meter up while that buff is active and then trigger it again and keep that loop going and maintain that effect. He’s got his support Heroic that can buff allies or debuff enemies on the fly. You get to choose which version you want to call in to best fit the scenario. His Ultimate does a similar thing. You can spec it to be very support-focused and help the team, or you can spec it to be very detrimental to enemies and lean into that.

He’s very quick, but he has a wide array of abilities. And to really master the character, we want players to figure out what that rotation is, what that flow is and react to the situation as necessary.

He also occupies an interesting place on the ‘power org chart.’ He’s not superpowered, per se, like the Hulk, but he’s also not just a very skilled regular human, like Black Widow or Hawkeye. He’s in the middle range. So how do you go about illustrating that through gameplay?

Walters: Yeah, he’s not just really skilled. I mean, that is certainly one aspect to him, but he has super-strength through the heart-shaped herb. He is more resilient through his technology and being able to absorb and defend against certain attacks. And to some extent, it is a game and we need to make sure that everyone is within a certain band. Otherwise people are like, well, it’s no fun playing this hero because they’re just super-weak.

That’s where we lean into a place where, in order to get the most reward for Black Panther, you really want to lean into his skills, his ability to buff and debuff. Do that instead of Hulk where, oh you can just smash, right? That’s very core to his character, he just tanks things. Widow is really good because she’s agile and has the grapple, and has like her air combo where she kicks off the enemies or the ability to go invisible and sneak around and hit him from behind. So I think that’s basically our approach. We still try to keep them all fun to play within a power level, but then make them stand out through their unique mechanics.

Black Panther has a unique personality among the Avengers as well. He’s got a certain sense of self-confidence. And it’s a form of self-confidence I think is distinct narratively from like Tony Stark’s.

MacLeod: Absolutely. I think one of the things that surprised me most when I was reading the comics–you didn’t use the word, but I think we can–he’s arrogant. T’Challa has this level of arrogance. That really surprised me because you don’t really see it in the movie. He’s earned the right to be arrogant, though. He’s incredibly intelligent. He’s a scientist in his own right. He upgrades his own suit. He also prepares for everything. Even in his first appearance, in the comics, he is testing to see if he can defeat people that should be allies. He’s prepared even in the off-chance that the people he’s allied with turn evil. So he’s earned that arrogance, but it comes off a little off-putting, especially to the other Avengers. I really enjoyed that. It is a little bit different than say a Tony Stark character whose arrogance is a bravado. He hasn’t quite earned it. It’s a very different experience. We really worked hard to make sure that T’Challa had a different relationship with every single Avenger. The way that they relate to him based on that arrogance, the slight guardedness, the off-putting nature is different for each hero. But yeah, he’s got that confidence and he has every reason to be. We wanted that to be part of his character, that when you are Black Panther, you’re Black Panther, this is awesome.

Yeah, the Avengers do relate to him differently. Captain America seems very deferential to him. He knows he’s a visitor in someone else’s country and he’s trying to represent America well.

MacLeod: I really think Cap is the secret heart of the entire game, because there’s this earnestness to him that people can’t help but respond to. And our idea for the backstory of the game is that prior to A-Day, Cap and T’Challa were in talks to potentially become allies. And because of A-Day and Cap’s death, that’s what pushes Wakanda back into their isolationist policies. And a lot of that came from, again, this Flags of our Fathers run, where Cap meets Azzuri and has this deep respect for Wakanda. I think Cap approaches things with an earnestness that everyone is in it for the right reasons. I think Cap has a really wholesome, almost loving reaction to Wakanda.

How much research did you put into the broader field of Afrofuturism?

MacLeod: I worked with a bunch of the environment artists, and they did a ton of research. It was very important to the environmental art team that they look into African architecture, because the idea is Wakanda has not been conquered. It’s never been invaded. It’s never had an occupying force, it hasn’t been colonized. So they want it to look at African architecture to see, alright, if this got to develop, if it was suddenly technologically enhanced and got to really shine over 10,000 years, what would it look like? Wakanda is also really big on the balance between nature and technology. They don’t let their technology overrun nature. So a lot of the more ancient structures that you get to see in Wakanda have just been built, like using nature around it, rather than cutting down trees, they would bend trees to different directions.

They want to build a structure, or even in the more advanced architecture, there’s a lot of arcs and things that are closer to the shapes of actual nature rather than harsh, strong corners and other European influences.

Walters: Yeah. And for the combat, we obviously looked at the different weapons, daggers, the spears, the shields that really were core to culture in Africa. And so Black Panther’s daggers were all directly influenced and inspired by real weapons, and the same for his spears. You’ll see the shields–although they’re energy shields, because it is a high-tech future–you can see this very iconic shape and size, just made out of energy.

One element that I think is really interesting in the Wakandan culture is a strong emphasis on having women in positions of power.

MacLeod: Absolutely. It’s interesting, because Wakanda wasn’t always that way, there are some more traditional elements. Like, the Dora Milaje are this all-female fighting force, but their actual origin was as potential wives for the Black Panther. The idea was each tribe would submit a woman who could be a potential wife for Black Panther, but they’re also trained to be soldiers. They’ve left that tradition behind, and a lot of that has to do with the more recent Black Panthers who’ve taken up the mantle.

We’re at this point where I think Shuri especially feels like [she’s] on even footing with her brother. There’s some conflict there in our story, just by virtue of the fact that they have different ideas of what the future of Wakanda should look like. Also, they’ve been deeply affected by the death of their father, which we’ve tweaked some of the context of that death so that they have taken very different lessons from it, from each other. But at the same time, T’Challa would never disrespect Shuri’s knowledge and expertise.

Okoye is also an interesting character, both in the movies and in the comics. She’s one of those people who, while she deeply respects T’Challa and respects the position of Black Panther, she’s willing to speak up when something doesn’t feel quite right. She can question him and doesn’t fear repercussions for that. It was really fun to dig into those characters. There’s even some other female characters that we name-drop or show in various parts of this pack to really take a look at that. T’Challa is a king, but never takes for granted the expertise of the people around him.

You mentioned the ‘role’ of Black Panther. In the movie it seemed as if the king and Black Panther were one in the same, but in the comics I understand it’s more of a religious or ceremonial role. The king is not necessarily the Black Panther and vice versa. Do you play with that at all?

MacLeod: Yes. So that is actually deeply core to the overall story. I’m not going to speak too much to it because I don’t want to spoil things, but yes, that was something that stuck out in our research for the comic, because I too thought it was, this is one in the same. But in the comics, it is not, the king is one thing and it’s a monarchy, you’re born into it. You’re going to become king regardless, but to be Black Panther, you have to challenge. You have to fight in order to actually become Black Panther. It has to do with being able to take the heart-shaped herb, you have to get Bast’s blessing to even become Black Panther. There’s an arc in the comics where Shuri becomes Black Panther, but does not get Bast’s blessing, and so she doesn’t get infused with all of the powers that a Black Panther would have. There’s quite a bit to speak to how T’Challa is balancing those two roles, those two responsibilities. We dig into it a lot.

What’s the size or scope of this expansion as compared to the main campaign or the Hawkeye expansions?

MacLeod: So we can definitely say the story campaign itself is comparable to what you got out of Kate or Clint, but there’s quite a bit more stuff to add on to that. We have a new social space, an outpost which is very detailed. I highly recommend exploring it because the artists knocked it out of the park. There’s also additional Avengers Initiative content. So we’ve got Drop Zones and Threat Sectors that we’re adding. There’s also, later on, going to be an Omega-level threat mission that builds on the characters and situations from Wakanda. So yeah, it’s hefty.

The Pokémon Company has announced that it will hold a new Pokemon Presents stream on Wednesday, August 18.

The stream, which will begin at 6am PT, will feature new information about the upcoming Pokémon Diamond and Pearl remakes, Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl, as well as news on Pokémon Legends Arceus.

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Attention, Trainers!

Tune in to our YouTube channel on Wednesday, August 18, 2021, at 6:00 a.m. PDT for a #PokemonPresents video presentation featuring #PokemonBrilliantDiamond, #PokemonShiningPearl, and #PokemonLegendsArceus! pic.twitter.com/quBEdaCce2

— Pokémon (@Pokemon) August 13, 2021

Pokémon Brilliant Diamond and Shining Pearl are the next Pokémon games to be released, and will land this November. Pokemon Legends Arceus will land shortly after in January 2022. Considering it’s just a few months until these games release, this stream may offer a more informative dive into the features offered by the three games.

These three games were first announced in February’s Pokémon Presents, and Legends Arceus and Brilliant Diamond/Shining Pearl have since gone up for pre-order.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.

The next Pokemon Presents video broadcast will take place later this month featuring updates on several upcoming titles. The Pokemon Company has announced that the Pokemon Presents event will take place on Wednesday, August 18, starting at 6 AM PT / 9 AM ET.

It will have updates on Pokemon Shining Pearl, Pokemon Brilliant Diamond, and Pokemon Legends: Arceus. Pokemon games are consistently very popular and players are understandably eager for more information, so this will likely be a can’t-miss event for fans.

Shining Pearl/Brilliant Diamond, which are remakes of the 2006 DS games, are coming to Nintendo Switch in November as part of the 25th anniversary of the Pokemon series. Pokemon Legends: Arceus, meanwhile, is a new title that “honors past Pokemon games’ core gameplay while infusing new action and RPG elements.”

This game is set in the Sinnoh region, which is where Diamond and Pearl took place, but the story is set in a “long-gone era” before Pokemon Trainers existed. Pokemon Legends: Arceus is slated for release in January 2022 on Nintendo Switch.

We’ll bring you all the news from the Pokemon Presents event on August 18 as it happens, so keep checking back with GameSpot for more.

After spending 90 minutes with Marvel’s Avengers first big expansion, War for Wakanda, I’m left feeling hopeful about Black Panther’s imminent introduction. He plays extremely well, seems to be part of an engaging cast and story, and there are even hints at some much-needed variety in Avengers’ often repetitive core gameplay loop. Whether it will be enough to turn the whole game’s ship around is an unanswerable question, but for now at least, it looks set to add a few more hours of enjoyable content to the game.

Let’s start with how T’Challa feels to play as. If you’re familiar with Avengers then you’ll find he fits somewhere in between Black Widow and Captain America, combining the agile movement of Natasha with the heavy combo-based melee attacks of Steve. His ranged option is a great-feeling throwable dagger that’s not too dissimilar from Batman’s batarangs in the Arkham series. These blades lower an enemy’s defense as well as inflicting damage, and so it’s always good to get a few of them into an opponent before choosing to move in close. This offers a tactical edge to combat that Avengers’ button-bashing nature has rarely provided with its existing roster.

Following up these daggers with a pounce attack – unleashing T’Challa’s claws as an enemy is restrained on the ground – is an effective series of blows that repeatedly served me well during my hands-on. Black Panther’s marriage of both agility and raw power instantly made me want to level him all the way up to power level 150 – and that’s before I had even tried out his Heroic abilities.

Kimoyo Beads are Black Panther’s Signature attack; a trademark piece of Wakandan technology which seeks out enemies and deals a heavy amount of stun damage. I found these to be particularly effective once I’d upgraded them with the ability to also scour the battlefield for health orbs, which got me out of more than one sticky situation. His Assault Heroic, meanwhile, is one of the more satisfying attacks in the whole game. Titled “King’s Mercy”, it’s a vibranium spear that inflicts heavy damage while also being able to pin up to three enemies that get in its path. As a Thor main, this gave me glorious flashbacks to pinning many hundreds of AIM soldiers against laboratory walls with Mjolnir. Finally, there’s his Ultimate, which summons the power of the panther goddess, Bast. The visual effect of the attack itself looks very cool, as a giant purple-tinted panther is projected from your body, but its buffs are ones we’ve seen elsewhere before; a simple increase in damage dealt and reduction in damage taken.

Black Panther is a blast to play with, but just as importantly he’s also a great character to spend time with.

Black Panther is a blast to play with, but just as importantly he’s also a great character to spend time with. This is in no small part to the performance of Christopher Judge. He sounds unrecognisable as T’Challa – especially when compared to his previous role as Kratos – but fills the shoes of this Wakandan king perfectly. That’s no mean feat, considering the last person to walk in them was the outstanding Chadwick Boseman. Judge’s interactions with both Okoye (Debra Wilson) and Shuri (​​Erica Luttrell) provide a charming, and often funny, back and forth as you leap around the jungle.

The jungle is where you’ll be spending most of your time, aside from when visiting the expansion’s new outpost, located in a beautiful depiction of the city of Birnin Zana. With giant panther statues guarding shiny, modern skyscrapers, it’s a very different location to the SHIELD dens we’ve visited before. Beyond its borders, the jungle playspace provides a welcome new biome to Avengers, and everything from loot chests to resource pods have been re-skinned to reinforce that ‘Wakandan feel’.

It’s clear from the outset that Crystal Dynamics feels at home in the jungle, giving it a chance to flex its dormant Tomb Raider muscles. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the expansion’s first mission, which has you enter a cave system that houses a trial to overcome and a symbol-based puzzle to solve. It’s not a far cry from somewhere you’d find Lara Croft. This is an encouraging sign that the developer has bolstered the variety of gameplay, going beyond just throwing wave after wave of robots at you. That’s not to say that there isn’t plenty of that going on as well; this is still Marvel’s Avengers, after all. You’ll still be completing a lot of similar objectives such as capturing control points and defending areas throughout the expansion.

During my hands-on session I played through the first two story missions, which were both surprisingly lengthy, clocking in at around 30 minutes each. The opener is an attention grabber, as you’re thrust straight into the action amid an assault by Klaw on Wakanda. It includes the aforementioned puzzle sequence alongside a very welcome boss battle. One of my main criticisms of Avengers has been its reluctance to unleash members of Marvel’s rogues gallery into the action, so it was a pleasant surprise to see it waste no time in throwing Crossbones into the equation. His fight isn’t revolutionary, but does shake things up a little by making you split your time between attacking him and a sonic cannon he’s protecting before it breaks through the Wakandan perimeter shield.

Crystal Dynamics feels at home in the jungle, giving it a chance to flex its dormant Tomb Raider muscles.

From this point on the story picks up pace nicely and does a great job at bringing the rest of the Avengers into T’Challa’s world. A second mission initiates the team-up and serves as a great introduction to Klaw and his motives. My only concern so far would be just how much new content there truly is here. While the missions were chunky enough in length, it did look as if I were almost halfway through the mission chain after just two, and so I’d estimate a rather brief campaign. Nevertheless, this may well be a great Black Panther story regardless of its eventual length – and as close to a solo game as we’re getting anytime soon. Whether T’Challa is Marvel’s Avengers’ saviour, though, still remains the big unanswered question.

Simon Cardy can’t wait to level Black Panther all the way up to 150 and has all the polychoron in the world waiting. Find him over on Twitter at @CardySimon.

Amazon Games has reportedly eased up on guidelines that allowed the company to claim the rights of personal projects worked on by employees outside of work hours.

The elimination of the rules, which Bloomberg reports has come into force immediately, was apparently shared in a company email from the Head of Amazon Games Studios, Mike Frazzini.

“These policies were originally put in place over a decade ago when we had a lot less information and experience than we do today, and as a result, the policies were written quite broadly,” Frazzini reportedly wrote.

The update to Amazon guidelines comes only a month after they originally came to light. Software engineer James Liu reportedly shared the policy in a tweet, which has since been deleted. The previous policies laid out rules that gave Amazon “a royalty-free, worldwide, fully paid-up, perpetual, transferable license” to IP rights for any games created by staff.

Amazon is not a stranger to studio controversy; previously it has seen struggles with both management and the company’s in-house game engine.

In addition to the aforementioned struggles, Amazon Games has also seen a string of projects cancelled, shut down, and removed from sale. Perhaps the most notable of these were Crucible, a free-to-play multiplayer third-person shooter that the studio closed in November 2020, and a Grand Tour Game which was taken down from storefronts in late June 2020. Despite these setbacks, if New World’s popular open beta is anything to go by, the studio may finally have a truly successful title on its hands.

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