Mass Effect: Legendary Edition has received a sizable patch across all platforms, aimed at fixing some visual bugs and one particularly tricky issue on Xbox Series X. The patch is now available across all platforms, and appears to range from 7 GB to 18 GB depending on your platform and current installs.
According to the patch notes, the May 17 update makes improvements to the iris shaders, and fixes an issue that would crash the launcher on Xbox Series X while using a wireless headset. The notes mention that this might still happen if you enable or disable a headset while inside the launcher, but that will be resolved in a future patch.
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The other updates are broken down by which game(s) they apply to. A fix to the first and third games should make your Achievements and Trophies for kills track correctly, while the fixes to Mass Effect 2 are mostly focused on visual fidelity. Those include improved lighting and VFX enhancements.
The PlayStation version of the patch is roughly 9 GB. The Xbox patch is said to be 18 GB according to a Reddit user, but we’ve seen it come in at just 7 GB with only the first Mass Effect game already installed, so your mileage may vary. You can check out the full patch notes below.
The full trailer for Sweet Tooth is here. The Netflix adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s acclaimed DC comic hits Netflix on June 4.
When April’s first Sweet Tooth teaser focused more on action and atmosphere, the longer trailer sets up the show’s plot. After a pandemic sweeps the planet, part-human, part-animal children known as “hybrids” are born. Inevitably, mankind fears them, and most are hunted and killed. The series focuses on a hybrid deer-boy named Gus, who sets out on a dangerous journey to find others like him, with the help of a man named Gus. It looks like an epic mix of post-apocalyptic thrills and emotional drama, and should stand apart from all the other comic books shows currently available. Check the trailer out below:
Sweet Tooth stars Christian Convery (Pup Academy) as Gus and Nonso Anozie (Game of Thrones) as Jepperd, plus Stefania LaVie Owen (Messiah), Aliza Vellani (The Twilight Zone), and James Brolin (Traffic). It’s produced by Robert Downey Jr and his wife Susan Downey, and the showrunners are Jim Mickle (In the Shadow of the Moon, Hap and Leondard) and Beth Schwartz (Arrow, Legends of Tomorrow).
The comic book Sweet Tooth was published by the DC Comics imprint Vertigo, and was written and illustrated by Lemire. It ran for 40 issues between 2009 and 2013. The TV adaptation was originally set to be made by Hulu, but moved to Netflix in 2020.
EA’s new PGA Tour game, EA Sports PGA Tour, will launch in Spring 2022. The publisher announced the release window on Monday as part of its announcement that the new game will be the only PGA Tour golf game to feature all four Majors.
These include The Masters, the PGA Championship, The US Open Championship, and The Open Championship. The PGA Championship is taking place this week at Kiawah Island in South Carolina.
In its press release, EA said its new golf game will include the course at Kiawah Island, as well as the 2022 host course for the tournament, Southern Hills Country Club. The event’s Wanamaker Trophy and the champion’s ceremony event will also be replicated in the video game. Additionally, EA teased that players will be able to play as or against past PGA champions in the game, but a list of names was not provided.
The Wanamaker Trophy
PGA president Jim Richerson said it’s working with EA Sports to help grow the appeal of golf to the “next generation” of players.
Also in the press release, EA said its new PGA Tour game will feature tutorials and coaching challenges that were designed and developed in partnership with the PGA Education and Player Development departments. These cover in-game skills and also skills for the real world, EA said, though it did not share any further information.
EA said it will share more details about each of the four Majors as they unfold this year. The first was The Masters back in April. The US Open takes place in June, while The Open is scheduled for July, so that’s when you can expect more details.
Finally, EA revealed that its development team in Madrid is assisting the studio in Orlando on EA Sports PGA Tour.
Platforms for the new title remain unannounced, but during an earnings call recently, EA management said all of its sports games are being designed with next-gen consoles in mind. As such, it seems PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S releases are likely.
The hit Disney+ Marvel series WandaVision may have wrapped back in March on the streaming service, but it just picked up considerable further momentum thanks to recently winning four golden popcorn awards at the MTV Movie & TV Awards. The superhero miniseries set in the Marvel Cinematic Universe won for Best Show, Best Performance in a Show (to star Elizabeth Olsen), Best Villain (Kathryn Hahn), and Best Fight (Wanda vs. Agatha).
“This is my childhood, people. You have no idea how much this means… the golden popcorn!” said a tearful Hahn in an emotional acceptance speech. “You have no idea how touched I am.”
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Hahn, who was recently added to the ensemble cast of the upcoming Knives Out 2, went on tell an anecdote about growing up with a great fondness for The Wizard of Oz, and over time came to realize how she identified less with Dorothy, and that “deep in [me] was also that wicked witch.”
The MTV Movie & TV Awards is a film and television awards show presented annually on MTV. The nominees are decided by producers and executives at the network, and then winners are decided online by the general public. The two-night event began May 16 and will continue Monday night with comedian Nikki Glaser serving as hosting and giving awards for “the best jaw-dropping, no-rules, drama-filled moments from our favorite reality shows.”
Gaming monitors the size of TVs have been around for a while now, but there was a significant push in the market last year with the release of the HP OMEN X Emperium Big Format Gaming Monitor. The Philips 55-inch Momentum 4K HDR display doesn’t technically hold the BFGD brand, but at $1,500 it also doesn’t hold the $5,000 MSRP of the HP either. The Philips Momentum has some impressive specs – DisplayHDR1000 certification, FreeSync Premium Pro, 120Hz refresh rate, and an integrated B&W soundbar. So how do those specs hold up to everyday use?
Philips 55-inch Momentum 558M1RY – Design and Features
The Philips Momentum, based on its size, might look like a television, but its DNA is most definitely that of a monitor. This is most immediately evident by the -5 to +10 degree tilt, which can be a bit surprising when lifting it out of the box or if it ever needs to be moved. The monitor comes with its stand and soundbar attached, and it is heavy – weighing in at 58.3 pounds. It’s handy to not have to assemble anything, but be sure to have help to move it. The stand can be removed and there are 200x200mm VESA mounting points on the back for wall mounting the monitor.
Another monitor giveaway is the Momentum’s array of connections. It comes with a DisplayPort 1.4, three HDMI, a USB 3.0 hub (one upstream connection and four downstream, two of which are fast charge), and headphone out. The USB ports can be turned on even when the monitor is off in the user menu. The Philips site boasts that the Momentum “creates a new-level console gaming,” which brings to mind 4K/120Hz with the PS5 or Xbox Series X. The problem is the three HDMI are only 2.0 and therefore restrained to a 60Hz refresh rate at 4K. 120Hz over HDMI is only available in 1440p or less. If you want high refresh rate at 4K you’ll need to use the DisplayPort connection – which is only available on computers and not consoles.
Philips includes its Ambiglow technology on the Momentum, which utilizes a string of LEDs along the top and sides of the back panel. Ambiglow allows you to illuminate the wall behind the monitor with a single color or one that reacts to the images on the screen (the general term is bias lighting). It’s an interesting feature that could help with eye fatigue (especially by implementing a soft white light) while watching the bright screen in a dark room, but with colors I found it to be more of a gimmick at best. If bias lighting is your thing, the Momentum does a good job with it.
The monitor comes with a small, light, black remote with a minimal – although sufficient – amount of buttons. The buttons are slightly on the small side, but spacing allows someone with larger fingers to use it easily without accidentally pushing wrong buttons. Since there isn’t a built-in smart interface (again, it’s a monitor and not a TV), all you need is menu navigation, input select, and volume for the soundbar.
Ah yes, the soundbar. The Philips Momentum comes with a soundbar by Bowers & Wilkins. For the unaware, B&W is one of the more trusted and respected names in premium audio (their Diamond line of speakers are some of the best I’ve heard) and in addition to Philips, they have partnerships with BMW, Maserati, and McLaren. As mentioned above, the 2.1-channel soundbar is already attached to the monitor in the box so it’s a bit unwieldy to move the Momentum around (make sure you have help). It has two tweeters, two drivers for mids, and a 20-watt woofer, and delivers sound far better than any other monitor.
Multiple audio modes with names like “RPG and Adventure” and “Shooting and Action” allow you to choose the frequency response for specific use cases (there’s also a Personal option for adjusting EQ bands). I found “Movie Watching” to be most pleasing to my ear and used that setting for everything. Dialogue came through easily with anything I watched or played. Bass response was decent, but lacking in the low rumble frequencies that let you feel explosions and car engines. It sounded as though the decibels rolled off starting around 80-100Hz, which is where you would generally have a home theater system cross over those low-end frequencies to a dedicated subwoofer. Still, great response for a soundbar.
The Momentum’s menus are just like any other Philips monitor. Menu categories for things like Ambiglow, Game Settings, and Picture are listed along the left side and selecting one opens up subcategory trees to the right. Navigation (especially with the remote) is easy. The Game Settings menu includes options for crosshairs (I never use them, but they’re there if you do), Low Input Lag (this can be left on without any visual repercussions), and Philips’ pixel response overdrive setting, SmartResponse. I left this in the fastest position and didn’t experience any ghosting.
Philips 55-inch Momentum 558M1RY – Performance
There are multiple picture modes listed under SmartImage in the picture menu that are designed for specific gaming situations like FPS, Racing, and RTS. The Momentum supports the DCI-P3 color gamut. Using Calman color calibration software from Portrait Displays, an X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter profiled with an X-Rite i1Pro3 spectrophotometer, and a Murideo Six-G signal generator I determined that the Gamer 2 picture mode had the most accurate grayscale and color measurements with average DeltaE values of 3.4 and 2.3, respectively. (DeltaE values are used to indicate how close to perfect an image is, with 3.0 or under being very good.) sRGB was virtually identical to Gamer 2 in measurements. The other picture modes aren’t nearly as good (mostly adding a blue tint to everything) and one that is meant to improve screen uniformity – cleverly called SmartUniformity – negatively affecting contrast. Performance is almost as good with the SmartImage picture modes switched to off and color temperature set to 6500K or Native. There’s a slightly red tint to light gray and white images, but it was only discernible with test patterns and never when playing games. Either choice is acceptable.
The Momentum is an DisplayHDR 1000-certified monitor and is able to surpass the required brightness to achieve that certification. In DisplayHDR 1000 picture mode it measures 1,118 cd/m2 (or nits), which means highlights in that mode really pop off the screen. DCI-P3 gamut coverage also matched the 95% claim that Philips makes, with green being slightly undersaturated but not enough to cause any visual aberration.
Since the Philips Momentum doesn’t have any built-in TV features, I used my Roku Streaming Stick+ plugged into one of the monitor’s HDMI to watch TV and movies and unfortunately the Momentum showed some of its flaws. The monitor is edge lit and doesn’t have any local dimming feature, which causes blooming around bright images in a dark space. The Millennium Falcon cruising through the Maw before running into the summa verminoth in Solo is a perfect example of this, and it can also be seen during credits. But more of an issue is a strange banding along the sides of the screen, as seen in the above photo, that was apparent on some streaming content. I will note that this was only when watching content via HDMI and wasn’t there with content from my computer over DisplayPort.
Philips 55-inch Momentum 558M1RY – Gaming
Gaming is where the Philips Momentum really shines. Sea of Thieves, still one of my HDR go-to test games, looked gorgeous both over DisplayPort from my computer and HDMI from my Xbox One X. The accurate colors were on display, especially the shades of blue and green in the ocean waves (the colors looked nice and vibrant on Outer Worlds as well). Bright highlights, like the burning sun during the day, practically popped off the screen and when my room’s lights were off, bordered on being too bright. Luckily switching to HDR Movie or Personal was able to cut that brightness a bit without anything else suffering. With SmartContrast turned on, there was also nice depth to the shadows while exploring some island’s caves for treasure chests.
On games like Call of Duty, where motion blur and accuracy are of utmost importance, the Momentum continued to perform well. With the SmartResponse set to Fastest, motion blur was reduced well without any ghosting being added (I left it in this setting for all of my gaming and never noticed an issue). Input lag was imperceptible for me as well. I had no issue getting the FreeSync adaptive sync to work with my Nvidia GeForce GTX 1070 Ti, and Final Fantasy XV was smooth with no evidence of tearing.
The biggest shame when it comes to gaming on the Philips Momentum is what’s missing. The company says the monitor will “take console gaming to the next level” but that next level for most, if not all of us is with the new consoles. The Momentum only has HDMI 2.0 though, and since the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S don’t have DisplayPort, there’s no possibility of 4K/120Hz gaming with either of them. That isn’t to say gaming on a console is a bust – as I said earlier both Sea of Thieves and Outer Worlds looked amazing – it just isn’t anything I would consider to be “next level.”
Rockstar’s L.A. Noire, a detective game set in 1940s Los Angeles, celebrates its 10th anniversary today, May 17. To mark the occasion, The Hollywood Reporter spoke with the stars of the game for a retrospective, and one topic that came up was a sequel.
Mad Men actor Ken Cosgrove, who played lead character Cole Phelps, said he never heard a peep about Rockstar making a sequel to the game, which was developed by the now-defunct Team Bondi out of Australia. Cosgrove said he wonders where a sequel might go, considering the fate of his character.
A scene from 2011’s L.A. Noire
“I never heard a word about a sequel,” he said. “If there was another story, I would be curious what they would tell since Cole Phelps died. I do get recognized from time to time from the game, which always makes me think how incredible the MotionScan technology was.”
The MotionScan technology was used by Team Bondi to scan the faces of the actors into the game in a lifelike way.
In 2012, Rockstar Games said it was considering the future of the L.A. Noire series, commenting that a sequel was a possibility. It never materialized over the years, but Rockstar did release the game on a new platform, Nintendo Switch, in 2017, along with a VR edition called The Case Files that came out in 2019.
“We’re all very pleased with how that game turned out and are considering what the future may hold for L.A. Noire as a series,” Rockstar said in 2012. “We don’t always rush to make sequels, but that does not mean we won’t get to them eventually–see Max and Red Dead for evidence of that. We have so many games we want to make and the issue is always one of bandwidth and timing.”
Michael Gladis, who played Dudley Lynch in L.A. Noire, said in the retrospective that he believes TV, film, and video games will “merge into these immersive alternate reality experiences.” He says he would be up to work on another video game some day, provided the writing is good enough.
Mass Effect 3 had no shortage of romantic partners that you could count, and after a brief fling on the Normandy, your Shepard would have a reminder of their one true love in the form of an artistic framed picture in their sleeping quarters. For fans of the character Tali, this picture was an extra special memento as it showed the Quarian without her trademark mask on. In Mass Effect Legendary Edition, that picture is still there but Tali’s face from the 2012 game has been swapped out for an image that’s more in line with her character and race.
Possible spoilers below
The original…and not the best.
The new image features Tali’s face now only partially uncovered, and her skin tone has lost the purple hue of the original photo for a more greyish tone. Here’s the new picture, from “Maxgoods” on Reddit:
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Lookin’ less stock photo!
Back in 2012. Tali’s original unmasked appearance resulted in a small controversy. Developer BioWare had used a stock image by photographer Matthew Leete, which was then modified to appear more alien. Some fans at the time pointed out inconsistencies in the image and Tali, such as several of the model’s fingers clearly having been photoshopped off, and the small fact that without her protective suit Tali should have been dead within minutes after the glamorous portrait shot was taken.
For newcomers to Mass Effect, Quarians have to live their entire lives while dressed in a protective enviro-suit as their weak immune systems cannot handle germs and microbes outside of sterile environments. If you’re looking to earn this new photo of Tali, you’ll need to play through both of her character arcs in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 to successfully romance her. Unfortunately, only male Shepard can date her.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition is currently doing very well since its release last week, having reached a concurrent player figure on Valve’s PC storefront that has broken new franchise records. This won’t be the last that fans see of Mass Effect either, as BioWare is also working on a new game in the series which still in an early stage of development.
In the long history of GI Joe, no member of the team’s elite force is more mysterious than their resident ninja Snake Eyes. Well, the veil is about to be lifted with the upcoming July 23 movie Snake Eyes: GI Joe Origins, and the first trailer has finally arrived.
Snake Eyes will fight for freedom, where ever there is trouble, and if you’re wondering, “How does Cobra-La and Nemesis Enforcer play into this?” you’ve gone too far, as this movie focuses on where Snake Eyes came from and how he became the ninja everyone knows and loves. This trailer contains a lot of what you’d expect: sword fights, fist fights, and high-octane action. However, since this is an origin story, here’s one thing you probably didn’t think about: Snake Eyes can talk. Check it out below.
Henry Golding (Rich Crazy Asians) plays the titular ninja who is welcomed into the Arashikage–an ancient Japanese clan. In Japan, Snake Eyes learns the way of the ninja warrior, but he is challenged after secrets from his past are revealed. We’ll finally learn how Snake Eyes became mute. Was it a vow of silence, because Zartan shot him in the neck, from shrapnel from an exploding helicopter, or a sword fight? Seriously, those are all supposed reasons he doesn’t talk through various pieces of media throughout the years.
A few other of your favorite characters from the classic cartoon series pop up in the new film as well. Snake Eyes starts Andrew Koji as Storm Shadow, Úrsula Corberó as The Baroness, and Samara Weaving as Scarlett, but there’s also Haruka Abe as Akiko, Tahehiro Hira as Kenta, and Iko Uwais as Hard Master.
Snake Eyes is directed by Robert Schwentke (The Time Traveler’s Wife) featuring a script from Evan Spiliotopoulos (The Unholy) and Anna Waterhouse (Race) & Joe Shrapnel.
Originally, Snake Eyes was to be released in October 2020, but like most movies the past year, it was also delayed because of COVID-19. It originally went into production in January 2020–two months before the pandemic.
Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops Cold War have introduced some strange and unique DLC weapons before, but the latest one may take the cake. The new Music Legend Mastercraft bundle is now available in the games, and it adds a keytar gun that actually plays music.
As you can see in the video below, the “Shredder” weapon has a keyboard built into the side of it, with an on/off switch and various knobs also represented for the musical instrument/gun. You can trigger the gun to play a song, which includes an animation of your Operator playing a little jingle on the keyboard.
The Music Legend DLC bundle, which costs 2,400 Call of Duty Points, also includes an Amped Up handgun, the Rockstar skin for Wolf, the Soul Searcher watch, and the Center Stage vehicle skin. The bundle also comes with the Riff vehicle horn, the Super Disco charm, and Battle Shredder emblem, and the Cultural Export calling card.
Chivalry II, the upcoming medieval combat title from developer Torn Banner Studios, is going into open beta later this month. This is the first opportunity for people to play the game since its closed beta, which ran for just one weekend.
Unlike its previous beta though, anyone will be able to hop in for some head-chopping action this time around. The Chivalry II open beta will start on May 27, 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET, and run until June 1 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET. Anyone trying to get in on the medieval action can also preload the game starting on May 26 at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET.
Chivalry II’s upcoming beta will be available on all platforms and include cross-play. On PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X, players will simply have to head to the game’s store page to download the open beta. PC players on the other hand will only find Chivalry II on the Epic Games Store.
It also seems that the upcoming open beta for Chivalry II will include some never-before-seen content. In the game’s closed beta, players could access multiple medieval fighting classes and battle it out across two deathmatch maps and two objective-based maps, which have typically been the stars of the game. However, a third map was shown in an Open Beta Announce Dev Diary from Torn Banner Studios. Called “Coxwell,” the map embodies a classic siege on a town. Attackers run into the town’s outlying village, where defenders play as hastily armed villagers instead of armor-clad warriors.
Another new objective-based map, The Battle of Darkforest was also mentioned in a news post on the Torn Banner website. In it, defenders will spring ambushes and traps on an army marching to kill the Duke of Fogbern Keep.
Customization options will also be present in Chivalry II’s open beta. Players will be able to dress up their warriors in different kinds of armor, customize their weapons, and even change the facial features of their character. Beyond that, players will also be able to change the personality of their character. You can play as an ego-filled demigod or whimpering knave, with each different personality giving you access to different emotes and voice lines.
Chivalry II is currently set to launch on June 8, with two separate editions. The game’s standard edition will cost just $40, while a special edition that comes with some cosmetics will run for $50.
