Netflix has announced The Irregulars, a new series “that follows a gang of troubled street teens who are manipulated into solving crimes” for Dr. Watson and Sherlock Holmes. The eight-part drama is slated to hit the streaming service on March 26. Check out the first official teaser for the series below.
The verb “manipulated” in that synopsis above is intriguing, as it suggests some reimagining of both the characters of Holmes and Watson (or at least just Watson). However, it’s hard to glean any insight into what’s going on with Watson and his perhaps devious intentions. What instead is clear is these “misfit” kids collaborate with the famous detective duo on investigating “crimes [that] take on a horrifying supernatural edge.” The Irregulars is based on the Baker Street Irregulars gang from the original books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
The series stars Thaddea Graham (Letter For The King), Darci Shaw (The Bay), Jojo Macari (Sex Education), McKell David (Snatch), and Harrison Osterfield (Catch 22). Henry Lloyd-Hughes (Killing Eve) takes on the role of Sherlock Holmes; Royce Pierreson (The Witcher, Line of Duty) plays John Watson. A first look from Entertainment Weekly indicates that the show will focus on the teens, with Holmes not being a central focus.
The Irregulars is written and executive produced by Tom Bidwell (Watership Down). Its lead director is Johnny Allan (Endeavour) with Joss Agnew (Poldark) and Weronika Tofilska (Last Train) also directing episodes.
The upcoming Chains of Domination patch for World of Warcraft‘s Shadowlands expansion lets players do battle against the Banshee Queen herself, Sylvanas. It’s a fight that’s been brewing for years, and players are now finally getting the chance to go to war against her.
Sylvanas is the final boss in the Sanctum of Domination raid that’s coming to Shadowlands with the 9.1 update. At BlizzConline recently, we had a chance to speak with World of Warcraft technical director Frank Kowalkowski, who offered his thoughts on the greatly anticipated fight and what players can expect from it.
“This has been years in the making. This has been a very long story arc,” he said. “And tying back to Domination. It’s fitting that she’s at the top of the sanctum of Domination. Sylvanas’ own life began at the hands of Domination and she’s followed this path to eventually align with the Jailer going down the path that she’s had. So I think it’ll be a satisfying fight. I think it’s going to be very unique. We have some very cool things planned for players. Wish we could share them now! But players will see soon enough what we have planned there.”
Intriguingly, Kowalkowski also teased that the aftermath of the battle against Sylvanas will have major ramifications.
“The aftermath of that fight is going to be a very pivotal moment, not just for the Shadowlands but for Sylvanas as well,” he said.
Before players get to fight Sylvanas, they’ll have to successfully make their way through the Sanctum of Domination, which sounds like a truly challenging raid. The raid has 10 bosses and numerous encounters, culminating in the fight against Sylvanas.
Principal game designer Jeremy Feasel told GameSpot that players may notice that Blizzard’s developers have implemented some changes and improvements in the new Sanctum of Domination raid. Specifically, Blizzard created the raid with an eye on providing players with a greater clarity of the boss space surrounding them.
“We’ve been working very closely with our visual effects teams to make sure that we have custom visuals for raid fights and that they really stand out compared to player visuals,” Feasel said. “We’re also very closely looking into what we call the ‘noisiness’ of the player class visuals and player covenant visuals, and making sure that those in a raid space don’t overwrite the boss abilities. To make sure that we have a clarity level there.”
As for the encounters themselves, Feasel teased that Blizzard created some “new and interesting and novel mechanics,” going on to say that there will also be narrative elements woven into the raid fights.
“The purpose of putting out a whole 10-boss raid is we have a big story to tell there, we have a lot of characters we want to see in the Jailer’s personal torment chambers that are maybe characters from our past,” he said. “There’s a lot to accomplish there. We have a lot of big ideas.”
Finally, Feasel said he’s excited for the Chains of Domination update to arrive on WoW’s public test realm so the team at Blizzard can collect and examine feedback before rolling it out publicly to everyone. There is no word just yet, however, as to when Chains of Domination might hit the PTR or public servers.
For more on our conversations with the WoW team at BlizzConline, along with some of the biggest news from BlizzConline, check out the stories below. There was plenty on both Diablo 4 and Diablo 2: Resurrected, the latter of which was officially announced during the opening ceremony:
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The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is currently the top-selling game on Amazon’s Nintendo Switch charts. While this isn’t exactly surprising, given that it’s an enhanced re-release of an entry in the beloved Zelda series, many fans did complain about the game’s $60 price tag after its reveal at the February Nintendo Direct. Fellow re-release Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is second on the charts, followed by Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
As a company, Nintendo is well-known for keeping its games at full price years after they came out. For example, 2017’s Zelda: Breath of the Wild still sells for $60 new at Amazon, though the price is currently discounted to $50. That said, that doesn’t mean that fans are happy about paying $60 for a HD re-release of a 10-year-old game. Though it received favorable reviews on its original Wii release, Skyward Sword generally has a reputation as one of the lesser entries in the series.
i love rebuying slightly enhanced nintendo games at full price as much as anyone but skyward sword (probably the worst mainline zelda game) at $60 is really pushing it.
Some fans were hoping to see other Zelda games ported to the Switch, such as the Wii U re-release of Wind Waker, or the early Wii entry Twilight Princess, or perhaps all three in a bundle. This wasn’t a particularly outlandish expectation, given that Nintendo just did something similar with Super Mario 3D All-Stars, which packed together three 3D Mario games. That said, Super Mario 3D All-Stars is only available until March 31, so if you’re looking to snag it, you better get a move on.
The Skyward Sword port comes to Switch on July 16. This year marks the 35th anniversary of the series–since the original Legend of Zelda released in 1986–and it’s possible that there’s more announcements to come from Nintendo.
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.
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The boutique retro console maker Analogue has announced that it will soon have restocks of several of its most popular items. These include the Super Nt, Mega Sg, and the company’s DAC, which allows users to convert those consoles’ digital output to analog signals.
The Super Nt and Mega Sg are reproductions of the Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis, respectively, that are powered by FPGA technology. Analogue often refers to its products as “reference-quality,” meaning that the experience is essentially identical to playing on original hardware. However, these products have more bells and whistles compared to playing on an old box, including support for modern video signals like HDMI. You must provide your own game cartridges, however.
Super Nt, Mega Sg and DAC restocks incoming asap. Super Nt in March/April. Mega Sg and DAC soon after. There will be a heads up before live on the store. As always, sign up for stock notifications to be notified the instant they are back in stock: https://t.co/wClKgtdVJQ
According to the company, the Super Nt restock will take place sometime in March or April, with the Mega Sg and DAC coming soon afterward. There’s still no word on a restock for the company’s latest offering, the Analogue Pocket, which is a portable handheld console that plays the entire Game Boy game library. The initial run of the Pocket is scheduled to go out this May.
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Watch Dogs: Legion Online brings a multiplayer component to Ubisoft’s most recent open-world action-adventure game. In the online mode, players can recruit new characters, take on daily and weekly challenges, level their seasonal ranking, find collectibles such as new masks, and generally cause mayhem with friends.
In this video, we talk about our hands-on experience playing free roam, solo and co-op missions, world events, and endgame activities. We talk over which activities are best for casual players versus coordinated teams that will need to be on mic and able to tackle complex mechanics. We also cover some of the difficulty challenges solo players might face with activities requiring simultaneous actions or fail states that kick players back several checkpoints.
Watch Dogs: Legion is the third game in the series and is available for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Google Stadia, and PC.
Last year, we told you about The Simpsons’ 2020 predictions that have been debunked. Now, Rich tells you about 10 times The Simpsons predicted recent events in 2020 and 2021! The long running Fox animated series has also predicted “Make America Great Again”, Vice President Kamala Harris’ inauguration outfit, Tom Hanks soothing the nation, a mayor hiding his vacation during a pandemic, chore simulators in gaming, The Godfather re-cut, how to save the Star Wars franchise, The Apple Car, business closures, and a banknote.
Ded_Sec is about to get a little bit bigger when Watch Dogs: Legion finally adds in online multiplayer on March 9. And while it’s fun to just get into trouble with your friends in the game’s giant open-world rendition of London, hacking everything and creating havoc, the really interesting stuff in the multiplayer mode is going to require you and your teammates to get serious about your revolution against Albion and big tech.
We recently got a chance to spend a few hours trying Watch Dogs: Legion Online, doing everything from dancing on top of cars to taking on high-level endgame content. And Legion runs the gamut, borrowing ideas from similar live games like Destiny 2 or The Division 2 to provide players with a bunch of options for how they want to spend their time. Watch Dogs: Legion’s most interesting idea–recruiting any character you come across in the world and using them as a member of your revolutionary hacker group–carries forward in the online mode, and it’s even cooler when you can work together with teammates to put together the perfect hacker squad for a mission.
The experience is at once very similar to Watch Dogs: Legion’s single-player mode, and very different. The online side of the game offers a lot of variety in stuff you can do, ranging from solo missions and low-key public events to very involved, multi-stage cooperative operations. The best part is the opportunity to combine all the tools you get in Legion, like hacking surveillance cameras to recon an area and calling giant drones that let you ride high above roaming security, with the teamwork you get from other human players. But that combination can also make Legion Online very tough, with the game expecting you to work together in combat and to solve problems. This is likely not an online game you want to take on with random players on your squad.
Teambuilding Exercises
Like the single-player version, Legion Online runs on recruiting different characters to your Ded_Sec team. Every character has different possible perks, drawbacks, and special skills, so having a variety of different people on-hand allows you to handle any situation that might arise. During the preview, our team went out of its way to recruit soldiers from Albion, the private military corporation dominating London, for the added capability of blending in while infiltrating restricted areas. Having characters like doctors, police officers, and construction workers on the team helps out a lot too.
Rather than convincing the residents of London to join Ded_Sec by completing missions for them as in the single-player game, adding character in Legion Online requires spending Influence points on them. Those points come from advancing up the online progression system. You earn ranks on the pass by completing missions and earning experience points, so everything you do and accomplish while playing in the online mode contributes to your progress. Influence also doubles as your currency for unlocking different technical skills for your characters as well, like hacking certain kinds of drones or packing a spider-bot that can slip through ventilation ducts.
Like other live games, Legion Online also features daily and weekly challenges of all sorts that award extra progress and Influence, as well. Some ask you to do certain things in combat, like take down enemies with headshots, while others are of the goofier open-world variety, like the one we completed that had us depositing several double-decker buses into the Thames.
Hacking The Planet
Once you’ve got a few characters on your team, you can start taking on Legion Online’s various missions. We played through a few, ranging from simple solo jobs like you might see in the single-player campaign, to more complex four-player offerings. Cooperative missions often require some fairly close teamwork, and in our experience, Legion Online is not the kind of game you want to dig deep into without the benefit of a microphone for communication.
In one mission, our team was sent to free a vigilante who was being interrogated by Albion troops in a construction site. Our goal was to infiltrate the site, find the vigilante, and get him out, and like in the single-player game, the options for doing that were pretty broad. We could hack surveillance cameras to identify the site’s defenses, send in spider bots to hack doors and disconnect security systems, and overload fuse boxes and steam pipes to set traps for patrolling goons. While stealth was always an option, our team could never quite get it together, and the mission turned into a massive shootout against Albion troops and drones about halfway through.
The upshot of having a team full of other players is that you also have a bunch of guns on your side when things go south. Legion Online is a solid third-person shooter, and four-player combat makes for some intense situations. Coordinating with teammates to bring a diverse set of weapons and skills means you can have one teammate specialize in hacking drones and turning them friendly while another disables enemies’ guns or sneaks up on them. The opportunities for working together, bringing in specialized characters, and fulfilling specific roles in your squad brings an element of creativity to Watch Dogs: Legion Online that adds a lot of fun to the idea of teaming up with friends. Missions are pretty open-ended, so working together to figure out how best to approach them is always a part of the experience.
We eventually fought our way to the vigilante and freed him, which required one player to release his handcuffs while another hacked a computer to disable a bomb that would blow him up if he tried to escape. It wasn’t especially difficult, but missions include cooperative elements like that one that mean you do have to work together and communicate if you want to succeed. The same is true of combat; if a player takes too much damage, they’re knocked down and start to bleed out, requiring another player to revive them. Bleed for too long and your character will die, taking you out of the action for a short while. Luckily, there’s no permadeath mode in Legion Online, but losing a teammate can make a mission much tougher–and higher-tier content will fail everyone if one squaddie goes down for good.
Top-Tier Operators
Our preview also included Legion Online’s endgame content, known as a Tactical Ops mission. While the vigilante cooperative mission included a couple of different steps, where we had to infiltrate a second location using information we gleaned from our rescue, it wasn’t nearly as involved as the Tac-Ops mission we attempted. This is content where planning, quick thinking, and teamwork are essential.
Our mission involved several military drones that had gone haywire, attacking anyone alive in a certain stretch of London. The trouble was, the drones were invulnerable to attack. In order to find a way to take them down, we had to sneak through the streets, avoiding the patrolling drones, in order to hack certain bits of machinery to try to gain some intelligence about how we might eventually deal with the killing machines.
So the first part of the mission involved stealth, something at which our team failed miserably. We eventually got around the tough sneaking portion by piling aboard a construction drone and flying above the patrollers, dropping down to download the info from our objective before flying away. But that only got us halfway to our goal; the next step required getting close to the drones and hacking them in order to render them vulnerable. In order to do it, we had to be on the ground–a fact we only discovered after a lot of trial and error.
Our team never got much farther than that; we failed again and again as the killer drones descended on us. Tac-Ops in Watch Dogs: Legion Online is reminiscent of high-level live game content like Destiny 2’s raids or The Division’s Dark Zones, where your whole squad has to be on their toes. Missions are lengthy, tough, and seemingly full of specialized objectives and mechanics. Most of all, though, you’ll need to be communicative and cooperative, and you’re going to want to bring your A-game and your best hacker pals to Legion Online’s toughest content.
Relaxed Fit
Watch Dogs: Legion Online isn’t all tough cooperative missions, though. As mentioned, the open world offers the opportunity for more casual messing about, with challenges and solo missions existing to give you something to do if you’re not able to raise your squad of elite hactivists.
There are also occasional public events to take on for extra experience points. We played one called a Drone Storm, in which a bunch of small drones (and one big one) attacked a London park. The situation basically amounted to a lengthy boss fight that anyone could jump into, and required a great deal of running for cover and blasting away at robots before we finally took down the big drone leading the pack.
There’s also a competitive spider bot arena mode, in which players face off against one another while piloting weapon-wielding robotic spiders. You can take on up to three other players in the mode, in which you run your spider around various arenas, picking up weapons and trying to turn everyone else into scrap. Racking up kills puts you on a kill streak that gives your spider temporary benefits, like higher damage resistance, so it pays to move fast and try to take down everyone you can, as quickly as you can. But the mode itself is pretty low-impact; it’s a frantic and fun version of deathmatch that’s easy to pick up and understand.
The spider bot mode, like the solo missions and elements like collectibles hidden throughout London, mostly feel like they exist to keep you busy in between the more involved cooperative missions. Those are the places where Legion Online really shines–the game already offers a lot of fun ideas with its various hacking and technological tools, and the opportunity for fun and creative solutions to problems only rises when you’ve got a few more people on your team.
But it feels like, while Watch Dogs: Legion Online does have some fun opportunities to mess around in its open world, that it’ll require you to get serious if you want to get the most out of it. Cooperative missions can be tough, especially if your crew doesn’t work together well. In Tac-Ops, cooperation is essential, because losing progress thanks to a teammate’s deaths can be pretty punishing. To get the most out of Watch Dogs: Legion’s multiplayer mode, you’re going to want to team up with hackers you can trust–and make sure you’ve got a mic at the ready.
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Esteemed RPG studio BioWare released its sci-fi game Anthem on this day, February 22, in 2019, meaning the game is now two years old. Billed as an exciting new franchise from the developer of classic Star Wars games and the Mass Effect and Dragon Age franchises, Anthem wasn’t a hit like BioWare’s other franchises were, either critically or commercially. But the game might not be dead and buried just yet.
Following the game’s release in 2019, EA CFO Blake Jorgensen said in no uncertain terms: “The launch of Anthem did not meet our expectations.” EA was predicting the game to sell between 5-6 million units by the end of March 2019, but it didn’t reach that.
Despite the slower-than-expected start for Anthem, EA announced that BioWare would not abandon the game but instead focus its efforts on improving and expanding upon it. New IP is the lifeblood of EA, and the company is apparently interested in helping Anthem to find a successful future.
“We believe in the team at BioWare, and we also believe in what they set out to achieve with this game–building a new IP and melding genres to reach a new audience,” EA CEO Andrew Wilson said in 2019.
BioWare has supported Anthem since launch with new content, features, and functionality. The latest we heard was that management at EA were planning to make a call about whether or not the campaign to reboot Anthem after its disappointing launch was still worth the effort or if BioWare’s developers would shift their time and attention to other projects.
For now, the future of Anthem is uncertain and seemingly undecided. We’ll report back with any notable updates that come through in the time ahead.
In GameSpot’s Anthem review, Kallie Plagge wrote, “Anthem has good ideas, but it struggles significantly with the execution. It’s a co-op game that works best with no one talking; it buries genuinely interesting character moments and puts its most incomprehensible story bits at the forefront; its combat is exciting until you get to the boss fights and find your wings have been clipped. Even the simple, exhilarating act of flying is frequently interrupted by the limitations of your javelin, and you never quite shake that feeling of disappointment–of knowing, throughout the good parts of Anthem, that you’ll inevitably come crashing back down.”
In addition to the effort to bring Anthem back from the brink, if that is indeed going to happen, the studio is launching Mass Effect: Legendary Edition in May. The game bundles together the original Mass Effect trilogy with various updates and enhancements.
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In the realm of video games, nothing screams ’90s more than Capcom’s Marvel mash-up fighting games–you were greeted by a “Winners Don’t Use Drugs” screen seconds before being inundated with the overwhelming bliss, color, and sound of ’90s-era Capcom that drugs only wish they could match up to. It was a great time for fighting games. Arcade1Up’s latest cabinet attempts to capture some of that magic, and while seasoned fighting veterans may raise an eyebrow or two at its concessions, the company’s Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet serves as a wonderful throwback that’s as exciting to play as it is striking to look at.
Gameplay
Arcade1Up’s Marvel vs Capcom cabinet features five games from Marvel and Capcom’s beloved history. The first four are fighting game classics that called Capcom’s CPS-2 arcade hardware home: Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men vs. Street Fighter, Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes. Each game is as enjoyable as the last thanks to Capcom’s trademark style of bombast–I’ll never get tired of hearing “Shoryuken” and “Berserker Barrage” from my Ken and Wolverine team in X-Men vs. Street Fighter.
All of the games are presented well, too, with the 17-inch screen shining bright enough to do the colorful ensembles justice. And while the cabinet’s built-in speakers lack some much-needed bass, each game’s iconic audio is able to shine through that shortcoming. This Arcade1Up cabinet is by no means the best way to play these games, but it’s hard to deny just how attractive the whole experience is, especially when you’re standing next to a friend and playing these classic games in a way that represents them well.
Marvel vs. Capcom Arcade1Up cabinet’s light-up marquee
Gallery
Marvel vs. Capcom Arcade1Up cabinet games list
Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes
Marvel Super Heroes vs. Street Fighter
X-Men vs. Street Fighter
Marvel Super Heroes
Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems
The black sheep of the Marvel vs Capcom Arcade1Up cabinet is the inclusion of the SNES game Marvel Super Heroes in War of the Gems. This home console beat-’em-up lacks a lot of the flourish of the beat-’em-ups you’d find in arcades, such as Konami’s X-Men game and Turtles in Time. And while it’s not necessarily a bad game, War of the Gems’ simple side-scrolling gameplay feels underwhelming on a stand-up arcade cabinet. The arcade-style controls don’t map well to the original D-pad and button controls on SNES, making the game feel less responsive than it does on the original console, too. War of the Gems is a strange inclusion when there are plenty of other CPS-2 fighting games that are more appropriate thematically.
The Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet also features online multiplayer with lobbies for its fighting games, which works surprisingly well the few times I’ve been able to secure a match. Latency feels minimal, and I didn’t notice any significant issues. I wouldn’t buy this cabinet with the plan of playing online a lot unless you plan on coordinating with other cabinet owners, though. There aren’t an abundance of players online at any given time. Arcade games tend to be more enjoyable when you’re playing with someone who’s standing next to you, so online multiplayer feels more like a bonus than a staple feature.
Marvel vs. Capcom Arcade1Up cabinet specs
Included accessories: Riser, light-up marquee, Marvel vs. Capcom stool
Measurements: 45.8″ x 19″ x 22.75″ (H x W x L)
Screen size: 17 inches
Wi-Fi connection: Yes, for all games but War of the Gems
Build quality and design
Arcade1Up went with Marvel vs. Capcom’s iconic faceoff art for this cabinet’s panels, which was a great choice. While not what you’d find on the original cabinet, the beloved art by Japanese illustrator Bengus is striking, featuring some of the classic characters’ best designs–when people think of Marvel vs. Capcom, they often think of this very artwork. The X-Men are evocative of their ’90s cartoon series, Spider-Man and Venom are ripped straight out of a Todd MacFarlane comic, and the various Avengers bring back fond memories of pre-MCU adventures. On the flipside, Capcom’s cast of characters retain their classic looks and appear ready to fight as they’ve ever been. This clash of heroes and color make it one of Arcade1Up’s best cabinet designs so far.
Where the build quality breaks down a bit is in its controls. Arcade1Up’s joysticks and buttons are of middling quality compared to the higher-end options out there, and while that’s not as noticeable when you’re playing something like Galaga or Pac-Man, it becomes much more apparent when you’re playing fighting games. The joystick doesn’t feel particularly solid, and the plastic handle feels very cheap. While the controls are disappointing overall, the novelty of playing these games on a stand-up cabinet in your home is enough for the Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet to get by on. Think of it less as a competition-level product and more of a fun toy to gather around at parties or when company is over. And after a month of casual use, the controls still feel like they did when I first set the cabinet up, so as long as you and your friends aren’t overly rough with them, you should be fine.
Photos taken of screen
Gallery
The bottom line
The Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet’s cheap-feeling controls are disappointing, but when you’re in the middle of a match with a friend, taking on their Magneto and Zangief with your Wolverine and Ken, Capcom’s fighting game action takes over and delivers an exciting experience. Arcade1Up has done a great job capturing one of fighting game history’s best chapters, each game boasting quality emulation that keeps that ’90s nostalgia intact. If Arcade1Up had provided higher-quality controls, it would have sealed itself as a truly incredible cabinet. If you can get past that, the Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet is a no-brainer.
Games are vibrant and smooth on the cabinet’s 17-inch screen
Each game is emulated well, providing a great experience no matter your favorite
Cabinet design utilizes Capcom’s gorgeous artwork
The Bad:
Joystick and buttons feel cheap compared to higher-end options
War of the Gems is a strange inclusion among the arcade fighting games
About the author: Mat Paget tested the Marvel vs. Capcom cabinet for more than a month. To him, nothing beats X-Men vs. Street Fighter, and while he owns it on Sega Saturn, he’s still happy to play it on the Arcade1Up cabinet every now and then. Arcade1Up provided the cabinet for review.
Ahead of the release of the “Snyder Cut” of Justice League, Zack Snyder has shared some new insights into his work on the re-cut version of the film. Among other details, he shared that he isn’t being paid to create this version of the movie, nor has he ever seen the original theatrical version of Justice League.
This was shared as part of a new Vanity Fair profile, which is bursting with new insights that will likely be revelatory for hardcore and fair-weather fans alike–including the fact that the persistent rumors that Snyder himself asked Joss Whedon for help finishing the film were false. Instead, says Snyder, at the time he tried to make the best of a bad situation and remained optimistic that “maybe he could write cool scenes. I thought that would be fun.” And as it turns out, Snyder–at his wife Deborah’s (who produced the film) insistence–he has never seen the version Whedon made.
But even before the death of his daughter Autumn, Snyder and the project were facing mounting headaches, ulcers, and conflicting marching orders from Warner Bros. Chief among them, says Snyder, was an expectation to make the film shorter.
“How am I supposed to introduce six characters and an alien with potential for world domination in two hours? Clearly it was done,” says Snyder. “But I didn’t see it.”
According to Vanity Fair, part of what helped Snyder get the leverage he needed to execute his vision was to forgo a salary: “I’m not getting paid… I didn’t want to be beholden to anyone, and it allowed me to keep my negotiation powers.” Not that filming his four-hour version of the film was a spartan undertaking–the reshoots cost a reported $70 million “to undo Whedon’s redo.” It’s unclear if that budget also includes the re-scoring.
