Developer Red Hook Studios has revealed that Darkest Dungeon II will enter Early Access on the Epic Games Store next month. The studio announced the news today on Twitter, stating that the game will be playable via the Epic Games Store on PC starting on October 26.
Darkest Dungeon II (Early Access) is coming to @EpicGames on October 26th, 2021!
Red Hook also revealed that the first game’s combat system will return, but that it would be “tuned-up” for the sequel. The developers said the sequel will employ a very different metagame structure, but opted not to reveal more about what that means. It seems players will get the chance to discover that very different metagame structure first hand in a little over a month.
When the sequel was first announced, Red Hook said the team working on the game consisted of 14 people but that growing to 20 people was anticipated.
“We love our dysfunctional cast of characters, our atmosphere and our world,” Red Hook’s Tyler Sigman and Chris Bourassa told PCGamer when the game was announced. “Horror is a fantastic space to explore interesting and unconventional ideas, and we have a lot more story we want to tell. Mechanically, we also think we have some valuable nuggets and there is more there that we’d like to explore and build on. Above all, we are committed to crafting Darkest Dungeon II to be its own experience; it will have its own creative and thematic identity.”
You can check out that creative and thematic identity on PC on October 26 when Darkest Dungeon II enters Early Access on the Epic Games Store. In the meantime, watch the Darkest Dungeon II announcement teaser and then read our thoughts on the first game in IGN’s Darkest Dungeon review.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
Cassie’s Collection in Psychonauts 2 is another long, involved level with a ton of collectibles. The stage loops back on itself a number of times, allowing you to snag some things that you missed as you uncover its many secrets. Still, many are hidden off the beaten path, requiring you to carefully scope out, climb, and explore the library and its connected areas. Below, you’ll find a complete rundown of everything you can snag in Cassie’s Collectibles, and exactly where to find it all.
Emotional Baggage: Duffel Bag, Suitcase, Purse, Hat Box, Steamer Trunk
Half-A-Minds: 2
Figments: 227
Cassie’s Collection is divided into multiple sections–you’ll not only work your way through the actual library, but into various books and memories that will take you to other locations as well. You’ll have to scour all the locations to find all the many collectibles in the level, and many are in hidden spots.
Nugget of Wisdom: You’ll first start in Cassie’s library, which has some side sections you’ll need to make your way through. In this first room, however, you’ll find some alcoves set into the walls that you can’t quite climb up to. Climb up onto the counter of the library and onto the books to reach the globe hanging above you, and you can then use the height to leap across and float down to each of the alcoves. One contains your first Nugget of Wisdom.
Suitcase Emotional Baggage: This is also in the very first room you’ll enter. Look for the Suitcase on top of a stack of books in the corner; you’ll be back here a few times, so you can grab it after you’ve advanced to find the Suitcase Tag.
Suitcase Tag: Climb up through the library until you reach a room with a bottomless pit beneath it and flying books that make a path through it. Look for Mental Connection grapple points above you. As you use them to advance, you’ll be able to use them to make your way to a ledge attached to one of the columns in the room’s corner, where the Suitcase Tag sits.
Purse Tag: As you explore the library, you’ll enter several different rooms, each with a different theme. In the first room where you fight a battle after gaining the Projection ability, climb a stack of books to reach a high alcove among the suitcases. The Purse Tag is inside.
Purse Emotional Baggage: In this same room, look for a raised spot with the illustration of a knight fighting a dragon. The Purse is on the railing beside it.
Half-a-Mind: Once you have the Projection ability, head to the Children’s Literature corner. Before you jump into the book, look for a locked door and use your Projection to open it to reveal the Half-a-Mind.
Memory Vault: After the room with the math equations, you’ll enter another two-dimensional book level. Once you’re through that, when you come back into the 3D world, check behind the book to find the Memory Vault.
Nugget of Wisdom: Also after clearing the second book, check the room for Mental Connection points. You’ll be able to grapple your way up into the air to reach an alcove set in the wall that hides the Nugget of Wisdom.
Half-a-Mind: This Half-a-Mind is right on the ground in the area known as Librarian Lane–you can’t miss it.
Duffel Bag Emotional Baggage: You’ll eventually jump into a giant world constructed out of books, as you search for evidence against Fannie Flats. Before heading toward the buildings, spin around from your entry point and take the winding street downward toward the docks to find the Duffel Bag.
Hat Box Emotional Baggage: This one is tough to miss. Look for it right in the center of the water in the middle of town, where paper boats sail around it in a circle.
Duffel Bag Tag: There are three main areas in this section of the level where you’re headed to look for evidence. You’ll find the Duffel Bag Tag in the newsprint location, straight across the water from where you start. The area is marked with a big fight, and after you’ve cleared the enemies, you can use your Projection power to open a locked door and reveal the tag.
Memory Vault: Once you reach the top of the newsprint area, go through the 2D book and grab the evidence. Before you leave, head off to one side and you’ll find a small gate you can slip through to find a doorway beyond. That doorway is a portal that will actually take you out to another island in the middle of the dockyard. On it, you’ll find the second Memory Vault.
Steamer Trunk Tag: On the left side of the circling boats, you can jump up onto some tightropes that’ll help you navigate across the archways and cross the water to where you can climb up to the Marketplace. Before climbing all the way up, you’ll hit the flat platform of an open book. Look to the left along the stack of books for a pathway you can take to reach the tag.
Nugget of Wisdom: At the top of the Marketplace, after you’ve found the evidence, you’ll have the chance to head back down using a grinding rail. Before you do that, look over the front edge of the area to a spot you can drop down to grab the Nugget of Wisdom.
Hat Box Tag Emotional Baggage: You’ll find the Hat Box Tag in the Cannery area, right behind the big ink waterfall to the right of the door near the water’s edge.
Nugget of Wisdom: Also in the Cannery, you can’t miss this one. Complete your two-dimensional adventure into a book and when you come out, the Nugget will be waiting ahead of you.
Steamer Trunk: Back in the main room of the library, climb up onto the globe hanging above the librarian’s desk. Use your Projection power to make your archetype pull a switch down on the ground–you might have noticed it before, and if you pulled it, it might not seem like it did anything. The switch will make the globe move, allowing you to reach a few things you couldn’t before, including some figments and the Steamer Trunk. When the globe is at its peak, jump across to the Trunk on the left using your Levitation Ball.
You Are Not My Mother was reviewed out of the Toronto International Film Festival, where it made its world premiere.
Director Kate Dolan’s 2017 horror short, Catcalls, sees a sexual predator get a brutal, bloody comeuppance at the claws of his female-turned-feline targets. Much more than an effective cautionary tale for would-be perverts, the award-winning project afforded the Irish filmmaker the recognition and clout to bring her inspired brand of frights to a feature-length movie. In You Are Not My Mother, she wastes no time doing just that, delivering an effectively unsettling horror effort with gripping performances.
Inspired by Irish folklore, specifically changelings – mythical, human-like creatures swapped for people abducted by nefarious forces – the film begins with a baby, a small ring of fire, and a middle-aged woman armed with a spellbook. Without spoiling too much, this unsettling prologue concludes with the infant crying and embers rising into the evening sky to form the film’s title card.
Upon planting the seeds of our next nightmare, the movie makes a sharp pivot, jumping ahead in time and introducing us to three generations of Irish women, all living under the same roof. We meet Char (Hazel Doupe), a high-school student who’s not only navigating the expected trials of teenagehood, but also dealing with her mother, Angela, who seems to have checked out.
Played by Carolyn Bracken, Angela appears to suffer from mental illness – and/or possibly something more sinister. She has “down” days, which find her sleeping lots and neglecting her parental duties, like keeping the kitchen stocked with essentials. Then there’s the young-ish grandmother (Ingrid Craigie,) a caring but distracted matriarch who doles out lunch money and protective talismans in equal measure. She’s also the same woman, albeit several years older, who maybe set a baby ablaze at the film’s start.
Char gets the most screen time, and deservedly so. Doupe’s performance is incredibly layered, as she balances a strained home life, school’s difficult social dynamics – which include an increasingly threatening bully problem – and her, er, complex relationship with her mom. Each circumstance introduces different challenges for Char and, while she reacts to each with the expected anxiety and despair, she also injects these feelings with situational nuance. Doupe exudes palpable fear in the face of her bully, as well as when dealing with her mother’s progressively disturbing behavior. But it’s never a recycled, one-size-fits-all fear, but rather a complex, shifting emotion that we feel right along with her.
Speaking of shifting, it’s Angela’s erratic, often unsettling actions that not only help draw out Doupe’s brilliant performance, but lend the movie its more traditional scares. Following that frightening opening, You Are Not My Mother mostly settles into a slow-burn groove, save for the changes manifesting in Angela. Char’s generally troubled existence ensures a constant air of tension, while the film’s Halloween themes (it takes place during the Irish Samhain) and perpetually overcast skies set the mood. But it’s Angela, transforming in ways we won’t spoil here, that unmistakably slots this one into the horror genre.
Doupe’s performance is incredibly layered.
All that said, if you’re looking for a truly terrifying flick to take up permanent residence in your nightmares, this isn’t it. You Are Not My Mother packs a few frights for sure – including a couple that could elicit an audible gasp from more unsuspecting viewers – but it’s overall more unsettling than scary.
The film also suffers from some pacing issues and a couple of uneven character moments that undermine the otherwise excellent performances. Again, it takes its time building dread and elevating tension, establishing a cadence that mostly works well for the story. When its big reveal hits about an hour in, however, there’s a sense that the film’s rushing to the finish line to wrap things up. A principal character meets an untimely demise, but their fate is barely recognized before the story speeds toward its conclusion. Similarly awkward is an intended act by that aforementioned bully; while the character’s previously established as a menacing pain in the ass – and possibly a pyromaniac – her final scene stretches the bounds of believability.
Borderlands 3 is running two mini-events over the next two days in celebration of the game’s two-year anniversary. Announced on the Borderlands website, there will be two mini-events taking place, with each running for 48 hours.
The two events are Loot Monster Mayhem and Freebies at Maurice’s Black Market, both of which are live now, ending September 15 at 8:59 AM PT / 11:59 AM ET. The Loot Monster Mayhem event increases the spawn rate of loot variant enemies, which drop extra goodies. Players will also be able to seek out Maurice’s Black Market vending machine during the event, which will be offering free loot. Maurice’s vending machine spawns in a different non-DLC location every week, so players will need to hunt it down.
Gearbox is also offering up two special shift codes during the event. The first one unlocks three cosmetic items, the ice cream cake colored Popsychle Vault Hunter skin, the Pain Freeze weapon trinket, and Field Trip Echo Device skin. The second shift code gives players a diamond key, which gives access to the Diamond Armory, where players will get four items, one of which is guaranteed to be Legendary. Shift codes can be redeemed in the in-game social menu or on Gearbox’s shift code website.
The psychedelic music festival that is PSI King’s Sensorium in Psychonauts 2 is a huge location, with multiple smaller sections within a larger map. It’s big and involved, and requires you to drive around a campground to locate PSI King’s five senses to get the band back together. Scattered throughout its many locations are a ton of Figments, emotional baggage, Nuggets of Wisdom, and more. Here’s a full rundown of everything you can find in the level to increase your intern rank inside the PSI King’s mind.
Emotional Baggage: Duffel Bag, Suitcase, Purse, Hat Box, Steamer Trunk
Half-A-Minds: 4
Figments: 263
–Suitcase Emotional Baggage: You’ll first find yourself in a backstage area, with PSI King looking to put his band back together to get back on stage. Go beneath from the back and you’ll find the Suitcase.
–Half-a-Mind: To the left of the Suitcase, you’ll see some posters. Burn them with Pyrokinesis to open a tunnel beneath the stage, which will lead you to a Half-a-Mind at its end.
–Purse Tag: Also in the Backstage area, look for a couple of camper trailers near the fence at the back of the area, furthest from the stage. Hop on top of the camper to find the Purse Tag.
–Half-a-Mind: Not long into your time in PSI King’s Sensorium, when you enter the Eye King’s Shrine, you’ll unlock a new ability called the Time Bubble. It allows you to slow down fast-moving enemies and items, providing you access to new areas. Your first Half-a-Mind is located behind the first spinning fan you’ll find in the level, which you can slow down and jump through with Time Bubble.
–Nugget of Wisdom: In Eye King Shrine, slow the spinning stars accessible from the pile of roadie boxes just before you take the swinging rope to the spotlight to activate the second rainbow bridge. This is something of a side path and leads to a platform with the Nugget waiting.
–Memory Vault: A little farther into the Eye King’s Shrine, you’ll find a spot where you need to move a spotlight to hit a prism to create a rainbow bridge. On the left side of this area is the path that’ll lead you to the light, with two spinning fans. Just past the fans, look to the right for a spot with a door made of jail bars. You’ll need the Projection power to open it, but once you have it, you can snag your first Memory Vault.
–Duffel Bag Emotional Baggage: Deeper into the Eye King Shrine, you’ll have crossed a couple of rainbow bridges. When you hit the third prism, check underneath the roadie boxes below it; you can climb the ladder and spin the camera around to see the opening and grab the bag.
–Hat Box Tag: Continue toward the tower with the light for the third rainbow bridge, through two spinning fans you’ll have to slow down with Time Bubble. After you clear the second fan, turn to the right and look for some posters you can burn through to reveal a secret area, which will lead you to the tag.
–Duffle Bag Tag: Once you finish the Eye King Shrine, you’ll gain the ability to drive around the rest of the fairgrounds. You can go wherever you want, but we’ll take you to the Concessions area next. Immediately after you enter the area, turn around and walk back toward the van you arrived in and look left behind some rainbow-colored bushes to find the tag nestled in a corner.
–Memory Vault: When you arrive, look for another caged area like the one you found in the Eye King Shrine near the start, just where you find the first tightrope to climb over the line of customers below. You’ll need to use the Projection power to get through the bars to snag your second Memory Vault.
–Purse Emotional Baggage: Deeper into the Concessions area, you’ll hit a spinning platform you need to slow with Time Bubble. As you cross the platform, look for a spot where you can drop down behind the high fence to find the Purse behind it.
–Half-a-Mind: At the end of the Concessions area, you’ll enter the Nose Mouth Shrine. Toward the end of it, you’ll see another prism for making a rainbow bridge, next to a couple of grind rails. You can bypass this area and continue to the end of the shrine, but if you divert here and make your way to the spotlight, the rainbow bridge will take you to the Half-a-Mind; the grind rails are for returning to the main path.
–Nugget of Wisdom: As you make your way through the Nose Mouth Shrine, you’ll see some tongues slapping the pathway, and you’ll need to use Time Bubble to slow them so you can slip past. Get through the first two tongues and look for a trampoline you can use to head into a tower. Turn around and look for a third trampoline, which will allow you to jump a gap to a platform where the Nugget of Wisdom is waiting.
–Steamer Trunk Tag: Return to the tower you just left to get the Nugget of Wisdom. From here, the path ahead should allow you to run straight up to the Steamer Trunk Tag without much difficulty.
–Hat Box Emotional Baggage: When you complete the Nose Mouth Shrine, you’ll next use the van to head to the Woods area. Check to the right of the path that heads off to your left from the starting area, opposite the small stream, which should be on your right. There’s a campsite along the way with two tents in it; the Hat Box is nestled just behind them.
–Suitcase Tag: Keep moving through the woods until you hit a waterfall with logs falling down it. On the right side, you’ll be able to ascend the cliff by wall-jumping your way up. When you hit the top, check around the corner to the right to find the Suitcase Tag.
–Half-a-Mind: Keep ascending and at the top you’ll find Audie O. and Mr. Touch. Jump across the waterfall to the left side to find the Half-a-Mind before talking to them to enter the Ear Hand Shrine.
–Nugget of Wisdom: Now inside the Ear Hand Shrine, you should see a prism just after the start of the level. Head forward and look for a rotating fan ahead. If you turn around, you’ll find a ledge you can climb up to with a spotlight atop it. Use it on the prism to create a rainbow bridge that leads to an island where the Nugget of Wisdom waits.
–Steamer Trunk: As you near the end fo the Ear Hand Shrine, you’ll make a second rainbow bridge that leads you to the island where the instruments are located. Look to your right to see the Steamer Trunk on another platform you can leap across to.
Dan Trachtenberg’s upcoming Predator movie has seemingly finished filming according to the movie’s cinematographer.
Jeff Cutter announced on Instagram that Predator Skulls had finished wrapping, which itself is an announcement as the movie was previously just called “Skull.”
Cutter’s Instagram post reveals a lot of details about the movie which has, for the most part, remained secretive. He even seemingly revealed two more cast members have joined the Amber Midthunder-led movie as well, as reported by Collider.
“And that’s a wrap on Skulls,” Cutter’s Instagram post above reads. “Can’t thank [Dan Trachtenberg] enough for inviting me on this epic journey and entrusting me to help achieve his vision for this film! Thanks to a great cast led by [Amber Midthunder, Dakota Beavers, and Dane DiLiegro], and much love to a brave Calgary crew for diving headfirst in with us!”
As Collider points out, Beavers and DiLiegro’s roles in Skulls are still unknown, but considering DiLiegro has played monsters in American Horror Stories before, there’s a good chance he might be the actual Predator in the movie.
DiLiegro also commented on Cutter’s Instagram post and said “was a pleasure being your sasquatch.” Predators are basically alien sasquatches, right? Beavers’ role in Skulls is anybody’s guess at this point, though, and it might remain that way for now considering how secretive the movie as a whole has been so far.
New details about this Predator movie emerged back in July when it was revealed that the movie was going to be a female-fronted origin story tracing the Predator’s first journey back to Earth. Skulls producers John Davis and John Fox revealed this information back when the movie was called “Skull.”
The last Predator movie released was 2018’s The Predator, and it was written and directed by Iron Man 3 director, Shane Black. It grossed $160.5 million, which is the highest box office gross for a single Predator movie ever, but because the movie cost $88 million to make and more to market, a sequel was not greenlit. Check out our thoughts on the movie in IGN’s The Predator review.
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
Even before The Suicide Squad hit theaters and HBO Max, it was known that one of the (anti-)heroes in the movie, John Cena’s Peacemaker, would be getting a TV spinoff. We now have a first-look image from the show.
Entertainment Weekly has an exclusive image from the Peacemaker series which includes a couple of familiar faces for anyone who has seen The Suicide Squad.
Massive Spoilers for The Suicide Squad Below
In James Gunn’s Suicide Squad reboot, Peacemaker and Bloodsport (Idris Elba) have something of a not-so-friendly rivalry that culminates in a shootout towards the end of the film. Bloodsport shoots Peacemaker through the neck, but a post-credits stinger revealed that Peacemaker survived the shootout and is recruited by Amanda Waller’s subordinates to save the world from some new threat.
And the first image basically picks off from there. Cena’s Peacemaker is back up and running, and he’s sitting at a table with some folks from Waller’s office including Economos and Harcourt, as well as another costumed character, Vigilante.
Gunn says he’s not a fan of bringing back characters after they seemingly died, but he became his worst enemy to get Peacemaker his show. “I did exactly the thing I hate when other filmmakers do [it],” Gunn told EW. “But I did it! I’ll have to live with the repercussions, which is the most incredible TV show people will ever see.”
Peacemaker is set to premiere in January 2022 with an eight-episode season. He’ll team up with three new characters, a mercenary named Murn, the character Vigilante, and a character named Adebayo.
Gunn wrote all episodes of Peacemaker and directed five of the season’s episodes. Meanwhile, Gunn is still working on Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 after becoming re-united with Marvel. Check out IGN’s The Suicide Squad review where we praised Gunn’s irreverent take on the DC villain-verse.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Fortnite is one of the most popular online games ever for young gamers. This sentiment isn’t just because of its enormous player count – Fortnite’s fluctuating daily average tends to land somewhere between 6 and 12 million players – but also because it is deeply accessible. Fortnite’s cost of entry is a new-ish phone and a decent WiFi connection.
It theoretically shouldn’t have come to anyone’s surprise that TIME Studios chose it as the platform to deliver its March Through Time project, which brought Martin Luther King, Jr’s seminal ‘I Have a Dream ‘ speech to the battle royale game. But considering the cartoonish youthfulness we tend to associate with Fortnite, it was. Black people were especially vocal online in highlighting both its problems and its potential to spread a positive message; I personally believed that a confusing rollout and lack of foresight made Fortnite a poor choice to host this event. However, after experiencing it for myself in-game and talking with others, I’m more convinced by its intentions, if not its execution.
The Background
On August 26th, 2021, TIME Studios partnered with Epic Games to launch March Through Time, an educational project centered on Martin Luther King, Jr’s ‘I Have a Dream’ speech housed within Fortnite Creative (a mode that allows players to build structures on private islands and/or create custom games and experiences). This year-long event, acting as an extension of TIME’s “The March” VR experience (a virtual recreation of the 1963 March on Washington installed at the DuSable Museum in Chicago), celebrates the 50th anniversary of MLK’s speech by inviting players to a digital recreation of The National Mall. Once there, players can listen to MLK’s words while completing mini-games that shed more light on the Civil Rights movement.
The idea, according to Time’s announcement around the event, was to work with a handful of community creators to spread awareness of MLK’s speech addressing racial injustice. But TIME and Epic’s March Through Time event wasn’t welcomed with open arms when it launched on August 26th. Quite the contrary, a lot of people were baffled when it was announced onTwitter (the common concern being that children would only recognize MLK through Fortnite). The disconnect was exacerbated by the suddenness of the event’s reveal and the lack of context; though the initial Tweet said “presented by TIME in Fortnite,” most people seemed unaware that TIME Studios had anything to do with the project. This of course led to speculation and a large portion of Black Twitter voicing a shared concern about respecting MLK’s legacy, which is hard to do in a game like Fortnite where a Xenomorph can kick it with Rick Sanchez.
Epic Games and TIME didn’t respond to our requests for an interview. Because of this, we weren’t able to learn what went into the planning and selection process (concerning the community creators) for the March Through TIME event.
The thinking behind Epic’s efforts drew more suspicion because the company doesn’t have a great public track record when it comes to the black community. It wasn’t long ago that Epic was being sued by people like Fresh Prince of Bel-Air star Alfonso Ribeiro, rapper Terrance “2 Milly” Ferguson, and James “BlocBoyJB” Baker (among others), who claimed Epic monetized their popular dance moves without compensation. And while the lawsuits were withdrawn due to the plaintiffs needing to complete their copyright registration before filing – which can take a long time due to the Copyright office’s backlog – the idea that Epic could essentially take from creators without compensating them doesn’t sit well with black people in this space. (Regardless of the fallout of these potential lawsuits, companies co-opting black culture for profit without acknowledging or paying its original creators is old hat at this point). This sentiment was echoed by host, producer, and content creator Tamika “REDinFamy” Moultrie during a recent talk with IGN.
Tamika explained that, for her, there was a dissonance between March Through Time and Epic’s relationship with the black community. “It’s kind of like an oxymoron to me if you don’t have things put in order that MLK was about,” Tamika said. “Essentially, Epic Games can’t take advantage of black creators while trying to spread a message of equality.”
“It’s kind of like an oxymoron to me if you don’t have things put in order that MLK was about”
Tamika — who amplifies black and brown voices through her work (among other content, she hosts a series called Uncovering Black Women in Esports) — is passionate about representation and sees a pattern of Epic prioritizing white creators. She notes that its Icon Series – a collection of skins dedicated to musicians and Fortnite’s top content creators – was particularly unbalanced, and prioritized white creators over black. “When we see black people attached to Fortnite, it’s always because of an entertainer like Travis Scott or LeBron James, you know, having a skin in the game. What about the people who actually play the game? The people who built their careers off this game? That should be worth something.”
Epic Games’ CEO Tim Sweeney has also made comments that have drawn scrutiny from black audiences. In November 2020, Sweeney compared his company’s legal spat with Apple to fights for Civil Rights. He then doubled down on Twitter, asking his critics to confirm if he was “actually wrong” in comparing the two. As you can see from the responses to Sweeney’s tweet, his critics were quick to explain that yes, the comparison was incongruous to the respective situations.
TIME’s Target Audience
So what was it like, as a black person, to actually experience the event inside Fortnite?
Surreal is the first word I’d used to describe my experience. As I walked through a giant TIME magazine and stepped onto a miniaturized version of the National Mall, I was greeted with a video of MLK’s speech. It was playing in a small, closable window on the left-hand side of my screen and at various landmarks across the Mall so you could hear Martin Luther King, Jr’s voice regardless of where you went. There were plaques describing events tied to the Civil Rights movement and old photos that depicted some of our struggles. Some of them elicited an emotional response from me. It was evident that a lot of work had gone into creating this space.
That said, all of this poignant visual data was still nestled in, well, Fortnite. The Civil Rights-era photos were a backdrop to superheroes running back and forth to key areas. Interactive prompts intended to make you connect with the struggle – such as pushing a boulder up a hill – fell a little flat. Again, it was surreal, and it didn’t all sit right with me.
The Civil Rights-era photos were a backdrop to superheroes running back and forth to key areas.
There were others, however, who more fully appreciated the goals behind March Through Time. Kahlief Adams, host of the wildly popular Spawn on Me podcast, valued the initiative as this was the first time he’d listened to MLK’s speech in its entirety. “I’ve seen it in snippets over the years,” Adams explained. “Like, of course you have because you’re a black person in America. We’ve all seen parts of the ‘I Have a Dream’ speech. But I never really sat down and like, watched the entire thing.”
“After the first initial moments,” continued Adams, “the couple of people who were kind of running around and acting a fool [stopped], everyone just sat down and just chilled. It was kind of dope.”
Adams said that the gamification of historical events isn’t a foreign concept, despite the easy cynicism it elicits. “I know that there’s an expectation for everyone to be really cynical about the connectedness that you can have in a moment like this, with a game that is about building things and shooting people. But it is really awesome to be able to have whoever those other humans were at that moment that were sitting down with me. I don’t know what they’ve got out of that speech. I don’t know if they care about Civil Rights. I don’t know if they care about blackness. But they sat and they listened. And to me, that’s really important.”
For a variety of reasons, we can’t expect young people to be taught a robust education around black history. Adams sees massively popular online spaces such as Fortnite as an alternative when the education system fails, or when legal guardians are focused on more immediate tasks. “I think that people don’t remember just how much time and mental space is given or used up just around safety,” said Adams. “I grew up in a black-as-hell household. Like my grandma was raising fists and walking with Panthers. But that’s also not a thing that you sometimes engage with depending on your household. She was a single mom. She didn’t have time to sit me down and say, ‘Alright son, we’re going to watch the MLK speech from beginning to end.’ She was like, ‘do your homework and go to bed.’”
Developer Neil “Aerial_Knight” Jones explained that, while he understands the immediate negative reaction, he feels like the event was planned and executed with good intentions. “My thing is that, in general, I try not to get mad at genuine attempts,” Jones said. “[Epic] is genuinely trying to do something good. And sometimes they’ll try it and still be really predatory. But other times, like this, I feel like this one is a really awesome situation and a good learning experience. They made their mistakes but I hope they try it again. Maybe not with Martin Luther King again but someone else.”
So, Was the Event Successful?
Now the dust has settled, it’s hard to measure how successful the March Through TIME event was. One could argue just being able to reach millions of kids around the world could be considered a win, despite the criticisms. “I think it was a success just for it being a first of something,” said Jones, “and we can’t expect the first pass to be exactly what we want it to be. Because they are just trying to figure it out.”
The conversation surrounding the potential benefits of Epic Games and TIME Studios collaboration, and what another collaboration like that might look like in the future, is ongoing. That’s a good thing; black people should be given the space to discuss how we’d like our history to be presented. That said, I’m still not entirely convinced that Fortnite is the best choice. If an important message becomes distorted because of the issues associated with a given platform, then maybe that platform isn’t the right fit for that particular message.
Black people should be given the space to discuss how we’d like our history to be presented.
My hope is that these companies will work on proving people like me wrong, and that black developers and consultants are given the power to guide these experiences. And hopefully, with the proper planning and foresight, these types of events will be better received. Will they ever enact meaningful, positive, long-term change? Maybe one day.
“I think, if you’re really being honest about all of this, it’s never really about did something move the needle at all,” said Adams. “The question is more, did it move the needle fast enough? And the answer will always be no, because we’re already 200 years behind.”
Kenneth Seward Jr. is a freelance writer, editor, and illustrator who covers games, movies, and more. Follow him on Twitter @kennyufg and on Twitch.
Diablo II: Resurrected is almost here, and when it arrives, it will bring with it a whole batch of beautifully remade cinematics, as highlighted in the game’s new launch trailer.
Fans have already gotten the chance to view the remade cinematics for the game’s first two acts as part of the Diablo II: Resurrected open beta. But the new trailer includes footage from the cinematics for Act 3-5, including the horrifying transformation of the Dark Wanderer into the Lord of Terror himself.
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The cinematics are all incredibly faithful to those found in the original Diablo II, but are now reborn with more modern visuals. Blizzard has always been known for some of the best cinematics in video game history, and that continues to be the case here.
While Diablo II: Resurrected is largely that same game as the 2000 original from a gameplay perspective, its arrival on consoles for the first time will bring some changes to that version of the game will include more direct character movement and an ability bar reminiscent of Diablo III.
Blizzard’s recreation of the action-RPG classic features improved visuals and small qualify-of-life improvements, along with support for the modern version of Blizzard’s Battle.net and cross-progression between consoles and PC. The game won’t, however, have true ultrawide monitor support at launch for PC, thanks to it breaking the game’s AI.
Diablo II: Resurrected releases September 23 on Xbox, PlayStation, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Its release will come as Blizzard continues to address allegations of widespread discrimination and harassment towards women, as detailed in a state of California lawsuit.
A new leak suggests that Santa Monica Studios’ 2018 hit God of War is the next PlayStation exclusive to make the leap to PC.
As first spotted first on Reddit, Ighor July, a software developer recently performed a datamine of Nvidia’s GeForce Now database notes several titles headed to the service, and subsequently on PC. That’s because Nvidia’s cloud gaming service streams PC games from storefronts like the Epic Games Store and Steam.
In particular, it notes that God of War is coming to PC via Steam with that version streamable on the cloud gaming service.
The datamine also mentions several other games, ranging from games rumored to be in the works, games that were already announced or available on PC, or games that are currently console exclusive. This includes the long-rumored Grand Theft Auto Remastered trilogy as well as PlayStation exclusives, such as Bluepoint’s Demon Souls Remake and Housemarque’s Returnal. Again, the datamine does not confirm nor deny any of the games listed and should be taken with a grain of salt.
To further assist in this direction, earlier this year, Sony announced that it had acquired Dutch studio Nixxes, a company specializing in porting games onto PC.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
