AndaSeat Fnatic Edition Review

A good gaming chair does quite a bit more than a basic office chair, and the AndaSeat Fnatic Edition gaming chair offers pretty much all of the extras you can expect from a serious gaming chair. This racing-style seat, like many of its competitors, doesn’t come cheap. At $530, it’s even more expensive than the Secretlab Titan Series that tops our recommendations. So, let’s see how well it justifies its higher price.

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Design and Features

As I mentioned, this is a racing-style chair. Like many of its competitors, the tall backrest has the rearing-cobra look to it. It’s designed for use at a desk, with five 3-inch caster wheels that roll silently. The wheels have a PU coating that AndaSeat says prevents damage to hardwood floors. I haven’t seen any new damage to my flooring, but the wood floor in my apartment didn’t start out in pristine condition either.

The AndaSeat Fnatic Edition is a large chair. The seat rests on a piston that offers 2.24 inches of height adjustment, which surprisingly feels like a lot more range in practice. At its lowest settings, I feel like I’m almost squatting, and at its highest setting, there’s a little more dangle to my legs than there should be.

Its size and specs definitely make it a big and tall gaming chair. The company recommends it for users between 5’10” and 6’10” and weighing less than 330 pounds, though it can support up to 441 pounds. The Fnatic Edition is nearly identical to AndaSeat’s Kaiser 2 chair, just with some different exterior materials. Curiously, AndaSeat recommends users be 5’6”-6’8” for the Kaiser 2. I’m 6’3” and about 230 pounds, and I feel as though I’m on the upper end of the chair’s comfort range. Knowing that, the Kaiser 2’s ranges do feel more appropriate for the Fnatic Edition to me. That said, comfort could be an issue for heavier or broader-hipped gamers. This chair has a somewhat aggressive bucket seat that can put some uncomfortable pressure on my thighs, which gets a bit tiresome after some time.

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Part of what helps make this chair capable of holding up so much weight is the solid steel construction and heavy-duty piston and base. But, the result is a chair that’s a bit over 70 pounds. If it’s going to live in one spot, that may not be an issue, but it can be a real doozy to lift over the edge of a carpet or a stray cable on the floor.

The AndaSeat Fnatic Edition has plenty to round out the experience. 4D armrests provide adjustments vertically (just under three inches), horizontally, rotationally, and front to back. You can further expand or narrow the armrests at the connecting point on the bottom of the chair, though this is tedious to do. I have a broad build, and even the armrests’ narrowest position feels a hair too wide. The armrests are fairly large and somewhat soft, but not really cushioned in any way.

The seat is packed with a dense foam and wrapped in a sturdy-feeling PU leather. I haven’t sat in the chair on a scorching summer day, but the material doesn’t feel the most breathable and gets a tad sticky on skin when wearing shorts.

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The seat also includes memory foam-packed neck and lumbar pillows. The lumbar pillow simply sits in a nook on the backrest while the neck pillow runs straps through two holes at the shoulders or around the headrest. The through-hole position is far too low for me, but around the headrest is a much more appropriate fit.

There’s also some strong relaxing functions. It not only has a backrest that can recline 160 degrees, but the whole seat can also rock. This lets the backrest go into a deep recline while angling up the seat and armrest so you won’t slide out. That full recline is far enough back to be scary, but still felt surprisingly stable. The rocking function has an adjustable resistance, and it can be locked in place.

There’s plenty to like here, but it all lines up a bit too closely with the Secretlab Titan Series. That chair is more than $100 cheaper and offers a 5-year warranty, giving it a strong edge on the AndaSeat and its 2-year warranty.

Assembly

Assembly of the AndaSeat Fnatic Edition is fairly straightforward and only requires one tool that’s included in the box. The hardware that connects each part feels high quality, and each bolt is easy to initially thread by hand thanks to large bolt heads. Given that this chair is more than 70 pounds, some of the parts are very heavy, and that can make holding one part in place while trying to thread a bolt through another part tricky to do solo. But just as teamwork helps in gaming, having a second hand to build this chair would make it a breeze. It took a bit shy of an hour to put together on my own, and I felt like I’d gotten a minor arm workout by the time I was done.

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Gaming

A gaming chair has one job: to make sure you’re comfortable while you’re gaming. I’d say the AndaSeat Fnatic Edition does that, but there are some qualifiers.

To start, being able to get the chair into a comfortable, ergonomic setup is essential. Since the AndaSeat Fnatic Edition has excellent positional flexibility in terms of seat height, recline and tilt, it’s scoring strong marks here. The armrests prove far better than those that simply lock in place. They could afford to go narrower or have more padding, but they still make it easy to position at the right height for a comfortable reach to a desk while supporting my arms. The rotation also helps a little when I need to get both hands on a keyboard. The height adjustment can be somewhat finicky though, occasionally struggling to lock into place at the highest position.

That issue with locking is inverted when it comes to the backrest, which really doesn’t like having any pressure on it when I first pull up the recline level. The peccadilloes add up for the seat and backrest. As I’ve already mentioned, the neck pillow isn’t as easy to get in just the right position as some chairs that use a vertical strap system, and it’s even worse for the lumbar pillow. Nothing really holds the lumbar pillow in place, so I have to regularly slide it back up to where I need it until I lean forward and it inevitably slides back down.

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When everything is positioned just right, the AndaSeat Fnatic Edition can be really comfortable, but it doesn’t stay that way for as long as it should. For a couple hours of serious gaming, it can be a worthy companion. After that, I find the pressure from the sides of the bucket seat becomes bothersome. Fortunately, the foam in the seat itself doesn’t disappoint.

During longer sessions, the firm arm rests become a point of small discomfort as well. The wide spacing of the armrests is also particularly suited to keyboard and mouse gaming, but it’s a bit too wide to stay optimally comfortable when I’m spending a lot of time typing or gaming with a controller.

These are small issues though, as many of the AndaSeat Fnatic Edition’s closest competitors aren’t doing much differently, and it’s still a lot more comfortable than many basic office chairs. But, the AndaSeat Fnatic Edition doesn’t exist in a realm of its own, and the Secretlab Titan Series offers an incredibly similar feature-set while remedying some of the issues I’ve run into with AndaSeat’s option – namely the aggressive bucket seat and the lumbar pillow that just won’t stay put. Since Secretlab does that while charging less and offering a longer warranty, it’s clear to me the AndaSeat can only be a runner-up.

Multiple New SteamWorld Games are in Development

‘Several’ games in the SteamWorld series are currently in development at the developer now previously known as Image & Form.

Announced on the Image & Form Twitter account, the developer announced that not just one, but multiple new SteamWorld games are in the works. Image & Form also announced that it was formally rebranding as Thunderful Games, bringing it closer in line to it s parent company:

In 2018, Thunderful Games was founded to bring together indie studios Image & Form and Zoink Games under one umbrella. Then, in 2020, Thunderful Games also acquired Coatsink, creators of Jurassic World Aftermath and Esper. Now Image & Form itself has become Thunderful Games, with the company assuring fans that it’s the “Same folks, new name!”

The next game to come out from Image & Form / Thunderful Games will be The Gunk, exclusively for Xbox Series consoles, scheduled for later this year.

Image & Form built its reputation working on games for Nintendo platforms, with SteamWorld Tower Defense launching on DSiWare in 2010. But the series has since grown to become a popular and recognised franchise, spawning SteamWorld Dig, Dig 2, Heist, and Quest – and has shipped games on pretty much all major platforms. While the games themselves differ wildly, all of them are adventures led by charming, steam-powered robots, with the latest game, SteamWorld Quest: Hand of Gilgamech, launching in 2019.

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Whilst we don’t yet know what the new SteamWorld games will be, Image & Form has tried its hand at everything from tower defense, to platformers, and even card games. Whatever direction the team heads in next, fans can remain satisfied that the SteamWorld franchise is set to continue.

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Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman

M1 Mac Deals: Save Up to $150 on Apple’s Newest Machines

Apple is now making MacBooks that come packing the company’s own silicon instead of Intel’s. The Apple-made chip is the M1, and it’s been universally praised for its massive speed bump over the previous generation of Intel-based Macs and MacBooks. Basically, if you’re in the market for a new Mac, you want an M1 Mac.

Here’s where you can find them, including where you’ll get the best deals available now. For instance, the entry-level MacBook Air is currently marked down $100 at Amazon, and the MacBook Pro is $150 off.

All the Best M1 Mac Deals

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Above, you’ll find all the best deals available on M1 MacBook Air, M1 MacBook Pro, and M1 Mac Mini. If you want to spec out the machines yourself, you can do that at Apple (see below), but you won’t get any discount.

M1 Macs at Amazon

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Amazon tends to have deals on a revolving selection of M1 Macs. If you don’t find a discount on the one you want right now, you can always check back later. The timing of the discounts and which models are on sale is generally either pretty random, or timed to price match other retailers’ sales.

M1 Macs at Best Buy

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Best Buy also offers deals on certain models of M1 Macs at any given time.

M1 Macs at Apple

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While Apple almost never offers discounts on its computers, it is the only place where you can spec out the machine to your exact preference. If that’s worth paying a little more than you might at another retailer for an out-of-the-box machine, go for it.

What Is the M1 Chip?

m1-macsThe M1 is the first chip Apple has ever designed specifically for a Mac. It’s a system on a chip, or an “SoC.” It includes a processor, I/O, security, and memory, all in one package.

Apple also developed the latest Mac operating system, MacOS Big Sur, to work efficiently with M1 Macs. With the hardware and software both designed to work together, the idea is that Macs and MacBooks can now achieve higher performance and better power efficiency than ever before. And, judging by the reviews of M1 Macs, Apple seems to have succeeded.

For years prior to the M1, Macs have run on Intel chips. While those machines worked just fine, the M1 Macs really are a major improvement. These machines run faster and cooler than their Intel-based predecessors.

Because they run cooler, Apple no longer even includes a fan in the M1 MacBook Air. In its place is an aluminum heat spreader, which is completely silent. The M1 MacBook Pro has a fan, but reviewers say it virtually never kicks on. If your previous Mac ever sounded like a jet engine that was about to take off, these new M1 models should be significantly quieter.

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Also as a result of M1 chip’s efficiency, these Macs get significantly better battery life than previous models. Apple says the M1 MacBook Air gets up to 18 hours of battery life, while the M1 MacBook Pro can go for up to 20 hours between charges.

The main drawback to the system-on-a-chip design is that, like most Mac models in recent years, you can’t upgrade the internals after purchase. That’s why it’s important to get a Mac with all the storage and memory you think you’ll need throughout the life of the machine.

But overall, all of these M1 Macs have been getting stellar reviews, citing big performance jumps over previous models. And as more and more apps get updated to take advantage of the new silicon, they should perform even better.

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Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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Spiral: From the Book of Saw Review

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is the worst of both worlds. It’s a hollow mimicry of the Saw series, unlikely to satisfy long-time fans, but it has just enough gory, Saw-like material to alienate general audiences. It is also, simply, not good enough on its own terms to qualify as a competent work of art — or even a competent studio product churned out on a conveyor belt and squirted with a dash of familiar franchise flavor. To make matters worse, it grasps at social relevance and weighty, moralistic messaging in a manner that feels downright mystifying.

Granted, it wouldn’t be the first Saw film to attempt this. Saw VI, the last enjoyable entry, took aim at America’s broken healthcare industry by placing a health insurance CEO in its central game, forcing him to choose which of his employees would live or die. Spiral, similarly, attempts to draw thematic connections between two forms of predatory death-dealing: Jigsaw traps, which force victims into self-mutilation in order to survive, and a brutal system of policing that shields itself from consequences, even when its officers kill people. The key difference, however, is that Saw VI knew how to have fun with its premise.

Spiral, the ninth entry in the series (and the second soft reboot in recent years), has an opening scene that promises an understanding of what made the series tick. It’s a simple, back-to-basics trap that pivots away from the large-scale Rube Goldberg torture houses of later entries. It’s gaudy, intense, and enjoyable in a way the series hasn’t been for ages, but everything tumbles downhill from there.

At the story’s center is Ezekiel “Zeke” Banks (Chris Rock), seemingly the only virtuous cop in a department of corrupt scumbags, and the son of a respected retired police captain, Marcus Banks (Samuel L. Jackson). Chris Rock originally approached Lionsgate with the idea for a new Saw film, and the final product feels like a vehicle for his talents, though not necessarily his dramatic ones. Zeke isn’t so much a real person in a tough predicament, but an evocation of the idea of virtue; when he’s introduced, he doesn’t speak in dialogue as much as he does in stand-up routines about divorce, as if Rock had simply re-used outtakes from his 2018 special Tamborine. It would be one thing if tapping into Rock’s comedic energy were the point — the marketing certainly seems to be courting mainstream moviegoers — however, Zeke puts on a serious face for the rest of the film once mysterious clues begin showing up at the station, and cops around him start being kidnapped and placed in Jigsaw games one at a time.

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At this point, you may be wondering what the film’s central premise even is. I’m afraid I’ve just described it. The first Saw was an escape room; the second was an escape house; the third was a walkthrough of a hellish meat factory — and so on. Spiral, despite marketing itself as a Saw movie (or at least, Saw-adjacent), doesn’t actually have a central “game” of which to speak. It’s simply CSI: Jigsaw, with Zeke and his fellow officers responding to hints and discovering gruesome crime scenes while trying to figure out the killer’s identity.

Not only is the film un-Saw-like in structure, but it has a strange relationship to the Saw series’ sprawling continuity. The Saw sequels are usually obsessed with drawing tenuous connections and filling in narrative gaps through flashbacks. They’re incredibly sincere about it, too. It’s part of their bizarre charm. The Spiral trailers pose a central question about whether these new killings are the work of a copycat or someone connected to the original Jigsaw, John Kramer (Tobin Bell), which wouldn’t be too much of a stretch, since he recruited enough apprentices to have his work continue well beyond his death in Saw III. Spiral no doubt answers this question, but it does so gutlessly and guilelessly, simply stating it outright instead of unveiling it through its narrative.

Spiral treats its lack of structure, and its lack of narrative intrigue, as virtues. Sure, these are “unique” for a Saw film, but in the same way, having a Fast and Furious movie without cars would be “unique.” It even tries to highlight its supposed novelty by having Zeke say, of the original Jigsaw killer, that he “didn’t target cops,” even though he most certainly did. The central premise of both Saw II and Saw IV, directed by Darren Lynn Bousman, involved cops being the targets of Jigsaw games. Spiral was also directed by Darren Lynn Bousman. What gives?

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The new killer has a bone to pick with law enforcement, and the film does, at least, draw a connection between the many pig masks throughout the series and these new targets (the classic “Billy” puppet is replaced by a pig puppet in police uniform). A few of the traps are fun if torture-porn is your thing. And while the monotone, robotic voice used by the new killer is a far cry from Jigsaw’s menacing rasps, the recorded instructions for each victim are suitably laden with puns, in a classically Jigsaw manner. If the recording mentions “pointing fingers,” you can pretty much assume which body part the trap will target.

However, none of this makes the film remotely interesting. Bousman certainly returns the color palette to the garish tones of the early series, but those dingy, primary washes worked for the sickly, claustrophobic enclosures of the initial films. Most of Spiral takes place out in the open. It follows cops moving from place to place, with scenes often ordered and connected incoherently, and the traps themselves don’t take up all that much of the runtime.

With the traps sidelined, and the series’ winding lore no longer much of a concern, there’s only one real Saw-esque target left for Spiral to hit: the plot twist. Every film in the series has one, and it usually comes out of left field, even if it needs to cheat to fool the audience. However, Spiral’s premise is that of a murder mystery, and it’s entirely about trying to uncover the killer’s identity from the start. Even if you don’t know the answer, the film asks the question so many times that it leaves little possibility for surprise. What’s more, the film doesn’t even have the decency to use Charlie Clouser’s “Hello Zepp” for its big reveal, the musical composition that has scored every one of the series’ twists till date (strangely, the film uses the track elsewhere, in a distinctly non-twist capacity).

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Between its cast of Black A-listers (who barely share the screen), its hip hop and R&B heavy soundtrack, its 21 Savage remix of “Hello Zepp” and its focus on police brutality, the film clearly hopes to insert itself into the post-Get Out wave of socially-minded Black mainstream horror. Although, it does this about as deftly as the dopey slave-sploitation thriller Antebellum. It even goes as far as employing imagery evocative of police shootings, in a moment that tries (and fails, quite egregiously) to echo the social commentary of George Romero’s The Night of the Living Dead. You’ll know it when you see it, and good lord, is it mishandled.

And yet, despite all this, the film doesn’t want to actually confront the specter of race that looms over it, other than by having two of its lead characters be Black police officers (along with two other non-white supporting cops, played by Max Minghella and Marisol Nichols). For that matter, the film doesn’t want to confront any of its own ideas. Between its “Book of Saw” subtitle and the protagonist’s name, Ezekiel, it hints at some religiosity in its subtext, but apart from a trap that vaguely resembles the idea of turning away from fire and brimstone, à la the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah — it’s a reach — these are mostly empty platitudes.

Spiral: From the Book of Saw is barely a Saw film, delivering only briefly on the visceral thrill of mutilation, and on none of the series’ other tenets. It’s also the most artless, tactless version of what it plays like instead: a rejected pilot episode for a rote police procedural.

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Rarest Mass Effect Moments You Might Not Know About

Video Transcript

There’s this side quest in the original Mass Effect where you must collect 16 ancient asari writings, which you do by scanning planets as well as landing on uncharted worlds and searching for them. It’s an awful collection task quest, deathly boring to do even with a guide. The reward isn’t even all that great, being nothing but some measly experience points. The saving grace being that because the whole thing is so meaningless, you can skip it without fear of missing out.

However, in Mass Effect 3, there is a small side quest on the Citadel for Shepard stan Conrad Verner. Turns out that before Conrad devoted his life to worshiping the Commander, he wrote a doctoral dissertation on xenotechnology and dark energy integration and can help Shepard obtain some ancient tech, tech that happens to be written in ancient asari dialect. If you collected 10 of the 16 asari writings all the way back in Mass Effect 1, you get some special dialogue as well as a plus five bonus to your war assets.

This is one of those rare moments most players didn’t fully experience in their Mass Effect trilogy playthrough: Strange or unique outcomes that required you to do something either really obscure to get or because you made choices in the past that fall in-between the cracks of the series’ mortality system. Most players tend to play a pure pure paragon or renegade playthrough, but if you mix and match you get some pretty interesting consequences. In this video, I’m going to go through a few of my favourite rare Mass Effect outcomes.

Originally this video was really long, so if you have other moments you’d love to see, or have your own favourites, drop them in the comments below or like this video and subscribe so we know you want to see more. It goes without saying this video contains spoilers for the whole series, except Andromeda cause I don’t talk about that game.

Mordin Lives

Mass Effect may be all about choice but some things are predestined. Some characters won’t make it to the end no matter what decisions you make. The first and most heartbreaking loss in Mass Effect 3 is Salarian scientist Mordin Solus, who is doomed to either sacrifice himself to cure the genophage, or betrayed by Shepard and shot in the back. Either way Mordin has to die.

Or does he? Yes! Mordin can live and you might be thinking “well that sounds like the best situation, I love Mordin and I would like him to live”, but the reality is to get this outcome you actually have to f**k up really badly.

Mistake number one: You killed Wrex back on Virmire, which means his bloodbrother Wreav is in charge of clan Urdnot. Wreav is both stupid and bloodthirsty and a future with him in charge of the Krogan may very well lead to another Krogan Rebellion. But that’s ok because with Eve at his side, she can help guide him in the right direction.

Mistake number two: You didn’t save Mealon’s research data in Mass Effect 2 and Eve is now dead. Or mistake 2.5, Eve dies because you didn’t stop the bomb on Tuchanka.

With Eve not around to keep Wreav in check, Shepard now has a pretty compelling case as to why it’s not a good idea to save the Krogan right now. This is enough to convince Mordin, who then fakes his death so Wreav thinks he died curing the genophage. He then assists in building the crucible, brings you a small boost to your war assets, and sends Shepard a nice little thank you email. You even get a final goodbye with him on Earth. But as far as everyone else is concerned Mordin is dead.

Was his survival worth the genocide of a whole species? I leave that up to you.

Salarian Councilor’s Death

Another tragic death in ME3 is Thane, who dies at the hands of series edgelord Kai Lang as he’s saving the Salarian Councilor. There is no way around this one. If Thane is alive in Mass Effect 3, he is fated to die here.

But what if Thane isn’t in Mass Effect 3? What happens to the Salarian Councilor? Well remember Captain Kirrahe from Mass Effect 1?

Kirrahe’s hold the line speech

Yeah that guy. You actually meet him briefly on Sur’Kesh, now Major Kirrahe. Congrats on the promotion. For most players this is just a nice little nod to the character, but for those who don’t have Thane around it’s actually a clever reintroduction and setup because, you guessed it, Kirrahe shows up in Thane’s place and saves the Councilor. You held the line good buddy.

Of course Kirrahe can actually die all the way back on Virmire if Shepard chooses not to help the Salarian squad by turning off a couple defenses. If that’s the case, well then the councilor just dies. Whoops. If this happens Udina will actually use doctored security footage to make it look like Shepard was the one to kill them, making it harder to convince Ashely or Kaidan. Speaking of…

Ashley/Kadian Refuse to join Shepard

Let’s touch on the fate of another pair of squad members, Ashley and Kadian, who’s roles are largely identical in Mass Effect 2 and 3 depending on who you saved. For simplicity we will refer to them as the Virmire survivor.

Their story culminates during Udina’s attempted coup of the citadel council. There is a hidden score based on a number of factors that will determine the outcome such as romance, saving the council in ME1, and how you’ve interacted with them in ME3. If you get a positive score, you can convince them of Udina’s betrayal and then get the option to have them join you on the Normandy for the rest of the game. If you end up with a negative score you can’t convince them and they’ll get shot by either Shepard or one of your squadmates. Brutal.

There is however a rare third outcome. It is possible to have a high enough score to persuade the Virmire survivor to back off during the confrontation with Udina, while simultaneously still having a broken relationship with them. This means they will straight up refuse Shepard’s offer to join the Normandy and can’t be a squadmate for the rest of the game. I didn’t even know this could happen until very recently, which just goes to show how much work and thought the devs really did put into these games.

Confused Liara (Saving her last in ME1)

Ok why don’t we want to take a break from all the death and sadness and talk about a more fun lighthearted moment in Mass Effect 1. One of the required missions of the game is to head to a Prothean dig site on the planet of Therum and find Dr. Liara T’Soni. Most players will head to Therum first as it’s what the game recommends and you’ll want Liara early if you’re interested in romancing her. But you don’t have to. You can wait. And wait. And wait.

In fact you can wait all the way until the ending of the game until there is nothing else to do but save Liara. When you finally show up it turns out she’s been trapped in the Prothean security bubble this whole time and is losing her goddamn mind.

You get a unique conversation where Liara believe’s Shepard is a hallucination followed by an equally hilarious scene back on the Normandy where you inform Liara that the plot of the game basically happened without her.

Party Member’s showing up as enemies in Combat (Legion, Jack, Morinth)

As we’ve made pretty clear so far in this video, party member death is a pretty major part of the Mass Effect trilogy. In Mass Effect 3 not only can many of the major characters die but often Shepard is the one who kills them, which makes a Renegade run pretty brutal. Most of this friend murder happens in cutscenes but their are several you can kill in combat.

The first being everyone’s favorite space psychopath Jack. After parting ways with Shepard, Jack becomes a teacher at Grissom Academy, a school for gifted biotics. A major side mission in the game involves rescuing Jack and her students from Cerberus, but it’s possible to ignore it. In Mass Effect 3 if you carry on with the main story you’ll get locked out of side content as time moves forward and this is taken into account, as Jack and her students are kidnapped by Cerberus.

When storming the Illusive Man’s base near the end of the game you’ll come across a special recording of Jack being tortured. Further in, you’ll find Jack, now brainwashed into a Phantom, and you’ll have to put her down.

Along the same vane as Jack is Legion. It was possible to give up Legion’s body to Cerbrus back in Mass Effect 2, a choice absolutely nobody made cause who’s gonna give up the chance at a Geth party member. We’ll if you did Cerbrus will indeed have kept the body and experimented on them. The empty shell that was once Legion shows up as a special enemy type in the Cerberus base, the same room where Phantom Jack also appears.

The final party member to talk about is Morinth, one of Samara’s Ardat-Yakshi daughters who you can side with in Mass Effect 2. Morinth was always a limited party member. She pretends to be Samara for the rest of Mass Effect 2 as to not arouse suspicion, which basically means she still says all the things Samara does outside of a few small moments.

With her being so limited in Mass Effect 2, it’s disappointing but not at all surprising that she doesn’t make a proper appearance in Mass Effect 3. Shepard gets an email from her, but that’s about it. However at some point in the game Morinth was found by the Reapers and turned into a Banshee. In the final battle on Earth Morinth will appear. She behaves just like any other Banshee and gets no special dialogue.

Romance with Javik and James

Everyone is horny for someone in Mass Effect and while BioWare does it’s best to make your dreams a reality, there are some party members you just can’t romance. Two of those were military beefcake James Vega and Prothean sadboy Javik, which a vocal group of fans were pretty disappointed with. Javik makes total sense to me. He’s the last of an ancient alien species with a really hot voice. He can throw me out of an airlock anyday. James on the other hand… well he’s not for me but he is voiced by Freddie Prinze Jr., aka The Iron Bull in Dragon Age, so I sorta get it.

BioWare must have heard the fan’s cries because they added two hidden “romance paths” in the Citadel DLC. During the big party, if FemShep doesn’t have a romance partner and makes certain dialogue choices they’ll wake up the next morning having slept with either James or Javik.

The Javik scene is played as a joke, but the James one I find genuinely creepy. Shepard can make several advances on James throughout the game but he always turns her down, making it pretty clear he’s not interested. Yet in the citadel DLC Shepard eventually resorts to getting James drunk enough so he’ll sleep with her. To cap the whole thing when they wake up in the morning he sounds like he regrets that it happened. Like what the f**k BioWare? I don’t think this is what the fans had in mind. If the genders in this situation were reversed this would have never made it into the game.

The Saddest Party on the Citadel

I don’t want to end this video on such a downer so let’s go back to the fun stuff; killing squadmates. During the previous section where the… bad thing happened, I mentioned the Citadel DLC and the big party you can throw at the end. Citadel was the final content made for the original trilogy. As such the whole thing is one massive celebration of it’s characters. BioWare went all out, bringing back the whole cast and stuffing in as many in-jokes as possible. As a finale to these beloved characters, you couldn’t ask for anything better.

But the thing is, Citadel’s charm is dependent on those characters, and what happens if none of them are alive? We’ll that’s what my co-worker Jake Dekker and I went on a journey to find out in our series The Saddest Party on the Citadel, a multipart let’s play where we planned out the murder of all our squadmates in order to get the fewest number of characters possible available for the party. Turns out there are three party members you can’t kill in the whole series; Liara, James, and EDI. That’s it.

This is a bit different from everything else we’ve been talking about. There isn’t extra dialogue or a new scene. The party goes on, exactly the same, except nobody is present. I don’t think BioWare expected anyone to actually play the game this way, but I love that it’s possible. It’s the ultimate example of what happens when you push this series emphasis on player choice to its limits. You get a sad Shepard, throwing a rubbish party for the only few people left they haven’t gotten killed.

So, as I said upfront, if you’ve got any rare outcomes you’d love to see us feature in a future video, let me know in the comments below. If you like Mass Effect, and if you made it through this video, it seems like you do, make sure to stick around, we’ve got plenty of it coming up on the channel.

Regina King To Direct Image Comics’ Bitter Root Movie Adaptation

Regina King blew us away as Angela Abar in HBO’s Watchmen, and now she’s diving back into comic books on the other side of the camera, directing the film adaptation of Image Comics’ race-themed Bitter Root for Legendary Entertainment, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Bitter Root, created by David F. Walker, Sanford Greene, and Chuck Brown, tells the story of the monster-hunting Sangreye family during the Harlem Renaissance. Here’s Legendary’s official synopsis: “For generations, the Sangeryes have hunted and cured those infected by a supernatural force that feeds off of prejudice and transforms humans into monsters. But with most of the family gone, the remaining Sangeryes disagree over saving or killing the monsters.”

Legendary is calling the film a cross between Blade and Get Out. The book was nominated for an Eisner in 2019 for best new series.

In addition to directing, Regina King will produce along with Reina King and Ryan Coogler, among others. Bryan Edward Hill is rewriting the first draft. Regina King most recently directed One Night in Miami… and won an Emmy Award for 2019’s Watchmen show, our #1 show of 2019.

Marvel “Dropped The Ball” On Drax’s Backstory, Dave Bautista Says

Marvel films carefully balance comedy, drama, and action. But for Dave Bautista, that meant leaving out big parts of Drax’s story, according to a new interview by Collider.

With two Guardians of the Galaxy films and two Avengers films under his belt, Dave Bautista has enough time as Drax to look back and think about what he wishes had been done differently.

“I really wish [Marvel Studios] would have invested more in Drax, personally,” Bausita told Collider. “Drax has a really interesting backstory which they dropped the ball on.”

“That’s no dig on Marvel,” Bautista added. “They had their slate, I know what they focused on.”

Drax was initially presented as a dangerous murderer with a tragic backstory–Thanos servant Ronan killed his wife and daughter–but became more and more of a goofball as time went on. It started with that line, “nothing goes over my head. My reflexes are too fast; I would catch it,” and culminated in Drax convincing himself that he’s invisible while (very) slowly eating a bag of chips. His tragic loss just never came up again.

“As a performer, that would have given me the opportunity to show different sides of Drax, emotionally. And physically as well. If you notice, Drax, although he looks like a badass…Drax gets his ass kicked more than any other Marvel character.”

“People just fell so in love with the comedic side of Drax that they tapped into that, then they tapped into it more, then they really dug a hole into it. But we missed a huge boat on that character.”

Despite those regrets, Bautista says he’s looking forward to filming the third (and presumably final) Guardians of the Galaxy film, which begins filming this year, and then releases in 2023.

“I’m really excited to wrap up this whole journey with these guys. I love the Guardians cast like family. They know it. I think everybody knows that I’m pretty vocal about it.

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Lego Friends Apartment Is Full Of Easter Eggs

The Lego movie told us that we should throw out the instructions and, as Master Builders, make whatever we want. But for many, Lego sets are all about reliving our favorite things one brick at a time; in just a few weeks, fans of the NBC show Friends can with the upcoming Friends Apartments Lego set.

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Set to arrive on June 1 (May 19 if you’re a Lego VIP), the new Friends set is in 2,048 pieces, including minifigs of the main cast (and Chandler’s ex-girlfriend Janice). With this set, you’ll be able to build out the apartments belong to Rachel and Monica, and to Chandler and Joey. It comes with all kinds of things to reference specific episodes, like that time Joey got a turkey stuck on his head or when a cat attacked Ross on the balcony. Phoebe’s dollhouse, Mrs. Braverman’s cheesecake, and the giant poking device are all there, too.

Lego hopes you’ll pair this with the existing Central Perk set to capture the whole Friends collection. At the same time, if you want something a little smaller than this set, both apartments feature lift-out carpets to create smaller models.

The Lego Friends Apartments set hits shelves, it’ll go for a cool $150 on the Lego website. If the Central Perk crew isn’t for you, our Christmas Lego guide has a bunch of other options. You could also check out the latest Mario Lego set, the Winnie the Pooh set or a Nintendo Entertainment System. If you’d rather just look, you can check out the record-breaking Lord of the Rings build, which features 150 million pieces. That sounds really expensive.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

Mayans MC boss Breaks Down Huge Season 3 Cliffhanger

The third season of Mayans MC has come to a close with a massive cliffhanger that’s sure to send shockwaves through the show’s universe. Thankfully, Mayans MC will continue into Season 4, promising at least some closure about what just unfolded. For those who can’t wait that long, though, GameSpot spoke to showrunner Elgin James about the message the Season 3 finale was sending and what fans can expect in Season 4.

The following contains spoilers for the Season 3 finale of Mayans MC, “Chapter the Last, Nothing More to Write.” If you haven’t watched this episode yet, turn away now because we’re going to break it all down.

So much of Season 3 has seen EZ (JD Pardo) striving to be a good man and even, at times, leaving the MC life behind for a peaceful existence with Gaby (Sulem Calderon). Ultimately, though, Felipe (Edward James Olmos) advises Gaby to leave town without him, realizing that EZ is already lost to the violent lifestyle–something EZ himself finally accepts by the episode’s end. As it turns out, though, that journey almost didn’t happen.

“There was sort of a push to have EZ fully formed, to come back and maybe he’s a VP of the club or something in a position of power,” James explained. “We’ve never done EZ right, I didn’t believe.”

In previous seasons, EZ’s genius-level intellect has shown him to have a nearly photographic memory and also be a much-needed source of ideas for the club. He found himself in bad situations as he earned his way into the club, a place he wanted to belong. Less prevalent, though, was the natural inclination for the darker side of MC life that EZ leaned toward–something James personally identifies with.

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“I know what it’s like for me. In my life, I have such an incapacity for joy that even when I start to feel it start to bubble up a little bit, there’s all these things where I just don’t allow it because of the things that I’ve done and the people that I’ve lost and everything else,” he said. “And that’s what I wanted to explore.”

And by the end of Season 3, after accepting that outlaw life is what he was always destined for, he’s standing alone, ready to protect his club from an invading force, regardless of what it will cost him. According to James, this next evolution of EZ–one who embraces the darkness in his life–is what fans should get ready to see in Season 4.

“I know he’s kind of seemed he’s got a foot in each world for the last three seasons now,” he said. “[In] Season 4, he’s going to plant his feet both firmly into this other world… [I] can’t wait to see what that looks like.”

Beyond that, though, this new turn for EZ isn’t going to be a subtle one, which might be surprising given how quiet and reserved of a character he can be. “I think that’s what we’ve always talked about where EZ’s always been trying to escape this darkness,” James said. “He’s already so introverted. He’s so internal and JD [Pardo] so smart and so internal, that it’s gonna be really exciting just to watch that explode.”

When it does explode, good luck to anyone in the blast zone. The fourth season of Mayans MC will most likely premiere in 2022.

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