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The ’90s really are alive and kicking again at Marvel Comics. No sooner has the publisher wrapped up its Heroes Reborn re-imagining than we’ve learned Peter Parker’s clone Ben Reilly is coming back to reclaim the Spider-Man mantle.

This big status quo change kicks off in September’s The Amazing Spider-Man #75. That issue features the debut of a new creative team and a return to the thrice-monthly release schedule introduced during the “Brand New Day” era of the series. The Amazing Spider-Man will now feature rotating creative teams, including writers Zeb Wells (Hellions), Kelly Thompson (Captain Marvel), Saladin Ahmed (Miles Morales: Spider-Man) and Cody Zigler (Marvel’s She-Hulk TV series). It appears current ASM artist Patrick Geason will be both writing and drawing upcoming issues of the series.

Ben Reilly’s return comes at a particularly low point in Peter Parker’s life. Following the conclusion of Nick Spencer’s Amazing Spider-Man run, Peter is grappling with his failure as a hero, apparently to the point that he’s willing to cede the mantle back to his clone. Ben’s mission is to prove himself the greatest Spider-Man of them all, and he’s even got the backing of the mysterious Beyond Corporation and a redesigned costume.

Get a closer look at the new Spider-suit and other teaser art in the slideshow gallery below:

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Editor Nick Lowe reveals the new status quo was originally developed by Wells, with Thompson and Ahmed brought in to expand that growing saga and help the series meet its new thrice-monthly schedule.

“The whole point of working on Spider-Man is trying to put new unliftable weights on top of him—physical, metaphysical, emotional, psychological—and seeing if he can lift them,” said Lowe in Marvel’s press release. “But what if that weight truly is too heavy? What if someone with the exact same skills and formative years could do better? Ben Reilly is back and, with Aunt May and Uncle Ben’s lessons in the back of HIS mind as well, he’s here to step in where Peter Parker failed. Can he accomplish things the original Spider-Man never could? These questions are what sold me on this story.”

Lowe continued, “When Zeb Wells started building this story it became apparent that it needed a narrative velocity and a team of the best of the best to make it happen. So we gathered some of the greatest writers and artists in comics to join us and the story got even better and bigger and more surprising.

For those not up to date on the convoluted history of Ben Reilly, the character technically debuted way back in 1975’s The Amazing Spider-Man #149, which features The Jackal pitting Spider-Man against his clone. Though he was seemingly incinerated in that story, the clone survived and resurfaced under his new Ben Reilly identity in 1994’s Spider-Man #51. Thus began the infamous Clone Saga that dominated the Spider-Man franchise for several years. For a time, Ben became the new Spider-Man (wrongly believing himself to be the original Peter Parker) before finally sacrificing his own life.

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More recently, Ben returned to life and took on a more antagonistic role in Dead No More: The Clone Conspiracy. But following yet another death and resurrection, Ben seems to be back on the heroic path and ready to prove himself as Spider-Man.

The foundation of this new storyline will be established in Free Comic Book Day 2021: Spider-Man/Venom #1, which will be offered on Saturday, August 14. From there, Ben’s story continues in The Amazing Spider-Man #75, which is due out in September.

This big Spidey revamp is just one of several key developments in the franchise. Al Ewing and Bryan Hitch are spearheading a Venom relaunch in November, and Miles Morales is getting a brand new costume, fresh off of dealing with his own Clone Saga.

Let us know in the comments below if you’re psyched for the return of Ben Reilly.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Crimesight

Konami has announced a new video game called CrimeSight, a tabletop-style multiplayer game where an AI Sherlock must try and prevent an AI Moriarty from forcing a character to murder another one. The game is currently only announced for PC and the company is looking for participants in an upcoming closed beta.

Announced on Twitter, the upcoming title features two to four players in an online session, with players either working for Sherlock or Moriarty. Players can command the pawns to perform actions as the Sherlock team looks to deduce which pawn is the killer and which pawn is the victim before the crime actually occurs. Moriarty must have the murder take place within four days or else they lose.

CrimeSight has a closed beta running from June 25 through July 11 on Steam and anyone looking to get access needs to retweet this tweet and follow the game’s official Twitter account. You can also apply via Discord by joining the game’s channel and filling out the application there.

While Konami has announced and published a few smaller games in recent years, like Skelattack and upcoming Getsufumaden: Undying Moon, it seems as though the publisher is sticking to its reported plan of no longer developing AAA games other than PES. Konami also pulled out of E3 2021, stating that while it has several key projects in the works, it would not be ready to show them during the virtual event.

Just because Amazon Prime Day has come and gone doesn’t mean there aren’t still great deals to be found at the retailer, especially if you’re in the market for a great pair of headphones. The Apple AirPods Max are the company’s first premium, over-ear set of cans, with a distinct design and suitably high price. But you can grab a pair today for the lowest price ever, shaving $60 off what it’s usually sold for.

The Apple AirPods Max definitely look like an Apple product, starting with the knit-mesh headband to the memory foam earcups that sit next to the metal exterior that covers the headphone drivers. There’s a familiar dial on one earcup for volume control as well as a single button for numerous uses (pause and play, summoning Siri, and more), which might please you if you’re not a fan of the touch controls found on competitors like the Sony WH-1000MX4.

$490 (was $550)

The Apple AirPods Max are on sale for the lowest price they’ve been since launch, coming in at $10 lower than their discount before Amazon Prime Day. This deal includes Amazon Prime shipping if you’re looking to get them as soon as possible, but is exclusive to the Space Grey and Sky Blue versions of the cans.

Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire will be coming to AMC and AMC+ as a new series in 2022.

According to a press release producer Mark Johnson, who previously worked on shows like Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul, and Halt and Catch Fire, will lead the development of the full Anne Rice collection that AMC has acquired.

Friday Night Lights’ Rolin Jones will serve as creator and showrunner for Interview and will lead the eight-episode first season.

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“The challenge of adapting for television the groundbreaking and immensely compelling work of Anne Rice is both intimidating and exhilarating,” says Johnson in a statement. 

“In 1973, a grieving mother and extraordinary writer began what would become the finest Vampire novel ever written (all respects to Mr. Stoker),” Jones adds. “Nearly fifty years later we know what’s expected of us. We know how much this book and the ones that follow mean to their massive fan base.”

AMC announced it acquired the rights to Anne Rice’s novels in 2020 with plans to turn The Vampire Chronicles into an interconnected TV universe.

Interview With the Vampire is the first in a series of Vampire novels written by Anne Rice starting in 1976. The series primarily follows Lestat de Lioncourt, a French nobleman-turned-vampire who stars in several of Rice’s Vampire novels.

A movie adaptation of Interview with the Vampire was released in 1994 starring Tom Cruise as Lioncourt and became a box-office success.

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AMC’s president of original programming Dan McDermott says the Anne Rice series will sit alongside The Walking Dead and an upcoming Agatha Christie adaptation as part of a growing library of franchises for the network.

Given the numerous spinoffs AMC has produced for The Walking Dead and the size of the Anne Rice collection, the network seems eager to expand the Vampire universe as far as it can go. 

Meanwhile, AMC will continue to focus on developing movies and shows off popular franchises like The Walking Dead, which now include three upcoming movies starring Andrew Lincoln’s Rick Grimes.

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Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.

A new update for Borderlands 3 has rolled out on most platforms that makes some changes to the looter-shooter, particularly enabling cross-play support.

Cross-play lets users on PC, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S play together through SHiFT Matchmaking. Because of that, players must create a display name–which has to be unique, between 3-16 characters long, and contain no special symbols–to enable the feature. The display name can be changed on the SHiFT website or in the game’s menu. Back in May, publisher Gearbox Software said cross-play would not launch on PlayStation consoles, and it remains unclear if the feature will hit PS4 and PS5.

The new update also bumps up the maximum level cap to 72. There are now 70 more skill points for players to play around with.

The Revengeance of Revenge of the Cartels, a riff on the 2020 seasonal event Revenge of the Cartels, debuts. Players must eliminate various Cartel Operatives in the game before taking down Joey Ultraviolet. Again. Completing the challenges unlocks cosmetics for characters and weapons.

As part of the cross-play update, seasonal events no longer have “end dates,” meaning the fan-favorite Revenge of the Cartels is here to stay. Events can be perused on the main menu, where players can replay them endlessly. However, this infinite replayability only applies to seasonal events; players cannot go back into previous mini-events like the Arms Race and True Trials.

Elsewhere, the True Trials is set to wrap up on July 1, with all six of the mini-event’s effects active until its conclusion. This means all Trials bosses will get significant buffs and drop their respective Legendaries when defeated. Furthermore, the end chest for each Trial will be full of Legendary loot.

In other Borderlands news, Gearbox unveiled Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands during E3 2021. A completely standalone spin-off, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands launches in 2022 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

CI Games, the developers of the Sniper: Ghost Warrior series, have apologized for a recent press event that had members of the media pretend to shoot “bad guys” dressed as Arab stereotypes.

The event, which took place earlier this month, was intended to promote Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 as written about by TheGamer. It took place at a tactical training facility for police and military in San Diego called Strategic Operations, Inc. and was led by a group called Incredible Adventures, which advertises “extreme military counter-terrorism training” for civilians. TheGamer said it was not informed of the nature of the event prior to arriving.

The group was guided through a day of military training exercises in a mock-village that TheGamer described as “the Middle-East as we’re often shown it via Western media – a gross, twisted doppelganger that doesn’t actually represent life in that part of the world at all.”

An open response to @thegamerwebsite article regarding our recent press event. pic.twitter.com/gwxXUCtfZo

— CI Games (@CIGamesOfficial) June 24, 2021

Activities included using airsoft-like guns to fire at actors described as “bad guys” or “enemies” wearing white robes and keffiyehs, culminating in a photo opportunity where the media participants were asked to raise their fists at the actors, who were “instructed to put their hands in the air and ululate like a jihadist.” A flag displaying “Trump 2024: The Revenge Tour” flew from the facility’s main building.

According to the article, Sniper: Ghost Warrior Contracts 2 review codes had already been sent out at this time and the game had been released the day before. While there were stations to play the game at the event, there was no time allotted to do so.

CI Games’ apology for the event notes that it is based in Poland, and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the studio was unable to be directly involved in the event. Its intention, it says, was to provide an authentic US Navy Seal training experience akin to what players might experience in Contracts 2. It added that CI Games had asked the event company to change enemy outfits to be more in keeping with what is seen in the game, but its request was declined to preserve the training event’s “authenticity.”

It’s worth noting that Contracts 2 is still set in the Middle East and involves fighting off a local crime syndicate, as other games with similar settings and premises draw criticism for their depictions of Arabs as enemies.

BuT gAMeS sHOuLdN’T bE pOLiTicAL https://t.co/vMwAkoPujm pic.twitter.com/pIn55S14UI

— Rus McLaughlin (@rusmclaughlin) June 24, 2021

“We try very hard to ensure we’re avoiding stereotypes or representing cultures in any negative way,” the apology reads. “Respect and tolerance are keystones of our company’s culture and we were distressed to discover that an event meant to be fun and engaging for participants had instead caused offense for some attendees.”

“…We would like to apologize directly to Eric Switzer from The Gamer and to any other attendees who found the event offensive. Although the COVID restrictions made arranging the event unusually difficult, we take full responsibility and will work hard to ensure that in future any events associated with the Sniper Ghost Warrior franchise live up to the standards of respect and tolerance that we set ourselves.”

Update: IGN reached out to UberStrategist PR, the PR firm through which the event was organized, for additional comment, but was referred back to CI Games’ original statement.

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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

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Pokemon Go developer Niantic has outlined a slate of changes it will be making to Raid Battles. Beginning this summer, the studio will introduce a new feature called Trainer Achievements, and it will also implement various other quality-of-life improvements.

As detailed on the official Pokemon Go blog, Trainer Achievements “are designed to celebrate Trainers of all levels for taking part in a raid.” Players will receive a commendation after the battle for certain criteria, such as using a Mega-Evolved Pokemon or dealing the most damage. Niantic has outlined some of the feats that will net you a Trainer Achievement after the Raid:

• Delivering the final attack
• Dealing the most damage overall
• Keeping a single Pokemon in battle for the longest time of all participants
• Using the tallest Pokemon among all participants in battle
• Joining the raid from furthest distance
• Using a Mega-Evolved Pokemon during the battle
• Changing your avatar’s clothing or pose
• Using the most Charged Attacks of all participants

According to Niantic, you’ll receive a medal the first time you earn a Trainer Achievement. The medal will initially be bronze and can be upgraded to silver and, eventually, gold.

In addition to Trainer Achievements, Niantic is going to give Raid Battles a visual makeover. The studio says it will implement new art and UI to make Raids “look better than ever.” In particular, Niantic says that the stadium in which Raid Battles take place will sport a “whole new look.”

Pokemon Go’s current five-star Raid boss is Regigigas, which began appearing as part of the game’s recent Solstice event. You’ll be able to encounter Regigigas until July 1. Mega Gyarados has also returned to Mega Raid Battles until July 2.

In other Pokemon Go news, the game’s July Community Day is set for Saturday, July 3. The featured Pokemon this time is Tepig, the Fire-type starter from Pokemon Black and White. Pokemon Go Fest 2021 is also on the horizon. The two-day global event takes place July 17-18.

During Microsoft’s “What’s Next for Windows” event, the software giant unveiled its latest operating system, Windows 11, following months of teasers and an accidental leak a week before the event. Windows 11 will offer a free upgrade, according to Microsoft.

A successor to Windows 10, Microsoft’s latest operating system introduces some improvements to the user interface, such as a new Start menu that is now located at the center of the taskbar. At first glance, Windows 11’s user interface resembles the canceled Windows 10X, which was an OS that was planned for dual-screen devices like the Surface Neo.

Windows 11 will also integrate and built-in several other Microsoft-owned products, such as the Xbox App plus the communication platform Microsoft Teams.

Developing…

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Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Writer-director James Gunn is getting deserved kudos for helping to promote comic shops with his upcoming film adaptation of DC’s Suicide Squad. On Twitter, an eagle-eyed Mitch Gerads (the comics artist behind Mister Miracle and Strange Adventure) called appreciative attention to a message encouraging fans to “get DC comics at comic shops” on a poster shared by Gunn.

Responding to the thanks, Gunn explained that he “was so freaking happy to do that” and that “post-pandemic I want to support our movie theaters and our local comics shops and all the wonderful comic book publishers, writers, and artists out there.”

That Gunn is using his considerable platform for a noble cause–especially as we’re winding our way back from the pandemic–only makes him a cooler dude than we already assumed him to be. Gunn’s fondness for comics is also no mystery, just going by his upcoming projects alone. We’re quite sure how he finds time to sleep with the upcoming Suicide Squad movie (due in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6), a Peacemaker spin-off from that movie (expected on HBO Max in January 2022), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (releasing May 2023), and a Guardians Holiday Special (landing on Disney+ in late 2022).

Speaking of busy dudes, wrestler and movie star John Cena–who plays Peacemaker in both the movie and upcoming TV series centering on the character–has announced he’ll be returning to the WWE for more matches at some point, pending a cooperative schedule.