IGN UK Podcast #572: The Sandwich Special

Merry Christmas! What better way to get festive than getting under your tree and listening to multiple stories about sandwiches. We’ve got huge sandwiches, disgusting sandwiches and beef-sweat inducing sandwiches. Basically a lot of sandwiches. Enjoy!

Remember, if you want to get in touch with the podcast, please do: [email protected].

IGN UK Podcast #572: The Sandwich Special

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Netflix’s We Can Be Heroes Review

We Can Be Heroes is now streaming on Netflix.

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There have been plenty of movies released this year that feel eerily topical, from the zombie movie #Alive to the legal drama The Trial of the Chicago 7. Robert Rodriguez’s new superhero movie, We Can Be Heroes, doesn’t feel like it’s (unintentionally) about 2020, but rather the future as his film declares that those who will truly be able to save the world are the kids — and everyone else should just shut up and let them work. Despite this being a colorful superhero spectacle, We Can Be Heroes nevertheless feels like Rodriguez’s most personal project in years.

We Can Be Heroes takes place in a world full of superheroes, who work together under the banner “The Heroics.” But when an army of aliens kidnaps all the superheroes on Earth, it is up to their superpowered children to do something about it. The film has been heavily marketed as the return of Rodriguez’s previous superhero duo, Sharkboy and Lavagirl, but this is not their movie. Sure, they show up — and there’s even a joke about Sharkboy liking to sing, probably in reference to the pop classic “Sharkboy’s Lullaby” — but original Sharkboy actor Taylor Lautner has been replaced by stunt actor JJ Dashnaw and that dynamic duo is not the focus of this film.

Instead, we follow Missy Moreno (Yaya Gosselin), the daughter of the Heroics’ leader, Marcus (Pedro Pascal). Though she has no superpowers, and is generally a shy girl who spends her morning deciding which outfit is more likely to get other kids to leave her alone, she alone can get a group of 11 mismatched superkids to work together. Though the script mostly follows the same story beats you’d expect, Rodriguez executes those beats to a T, crafting a kid-friendly response to The Avengers that nevertheless feels like its own thing.

One of the ways the film does that is by showcasing inventive superpowers we don’t often see in such films. Though the adults are your typical superhero team that includes a Superman stand-in (Boyd Holbrook), a guy with superspeed (Sung Kang), and a Cyborg-like tech guy (Christian Slater), the tweens’ powers are lesser versions of what their parents can do. The son of the movie’s answer to Flash only runs in slow-motion, the son of the tech guy who can do everything has every power in the book, but can never control them. A pair of twins have total control of time but only when they work together, otherwise they can only fast-forward or rewind a couple of minutes. The pseudo-Superman’s son is a wheelchair-user whose “legs are too strong to be supported by his bones.” Through them, the film conveys its main theme of kids actually being more powerful and capable of saving the world than their parents. It’s just that they’re conditioned to think otherwise.

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Rodriguez’s family-friendly output has always dealt with kids saving the day while rescuing their parents, but We Can Be Heroes feels like the first time he is actually saying something with these movies. It’s not just that the adults are too self-absorbed and would rather argue and fight among themselves than get things done, but that the younger generations should be trusted to fix the many problems their parents left them. With We Can Be Heroes, Rodriguez is confronting the world he is leaving behind for his kids, and making sure he encourages them to do better than his generation did.

It’s no coincidence then that We Can Be Heroes is not presented as a Troublemaker Studios film, but a Double R Production, referring to the production company Rodriguez formed with his sons Racer and Rebel. Indeed, the Rebel Without a Crew author is renowned for taking on multiple roles in his films and employing most of his family to help make them. While Rodriguez directed, wrote, produced, shot, and edited this film, his son Racer co-produced it, Rebel composed the score, and major elements of the film’s production design were made by Rogue and Rhiannon Rodriguez.

We Can Be Heroes has a unique aesthetic that feels like the logical step forward from Spy Kids and The Adventures of Sharkboy and Lavagirl in 3-D. It’s still very colorful and cartoonish, especially the set designs introduced in the third act, but now they don’t just feel like they’re aimed at youths, but rather are made by youths. This movie is the closest thing we’ve got to the spirit of classic Nickelodeon from the late ’80s and early ’90s.

At a time when superhero movies dominate both the box office and the pop culture conversation, there are surprisingly few of them aimed squarely at kids, the main intended audience that comic books were originally created for. Robert Rodriguez’s We Can Be Heroes aspires to fill that void with a cheerful, optimistic story for children that inspires them to be better than their parents and save the world, while still offering all the thrills you’d expect from mainstream superhero films that adults also enjoy.

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WWE’s Worst Toy Ever Features A Magnetic Sable Head | Wrestle Buddies Episode 35

Happy holidays from the Wrestle Buddies, the hosts of GameSpot’s professional wrestling podcast. Gearing up for The Buddiesies–our annual award show–Mat and Chris are taking a week to dive into a very dumb WWE toy from the late ’90s. Also, it’s the return of WrestlePiece Theater.

Kicking things off, a few weeks back, Chris picked up a WWE toy from eBay, and it brought him a lot of joy, so Mat tried the same thing. However, Mat’s journey to joy was rough as he purchased something called WWF Bangerz–he wanted Pogs but those were too expensive. Mat opens up these Bangerz and tries to learn how to play them. At first, it seems like a pretty dumb game; however, Mat can’t stop playing.

Following that, there’s one last fun trick up our sleeves, as we have the final WrestlePiece Theater for 2020. Reenacting one of the most famous promos pre-Attitude Era are some of GameSpot After Dark’s and We Enjoy Wrestling’s hosts. Kallie Plagge, Tamoor Hussain, Chastity Vicencio, Matt Fowler, and Eric Goldman all lend their talents to voice “Stone Cold” Steve Austin. Why did Fowler choose a British accent? The world may never know.

All that, plus we answer your questions. New episodes of Wrestle Buddies are released every Thursday on the podcast platform or app of your choice, including Spotify, Stitcher, and Apple Podcasts. You can also keep up to date with the podcast by following it on Twitter.

Mass Effect 4: Everything We Know

At The Game Awards 2020, viewers were surprised with an announcement trailer for a brand-new Mass Effect game. Currently unnamed, the new Mass Effect looks like a direct sequel to Mass Effect 3, though if you break down the trailer further, there are hints it could be a follow-up to Mass Effect: Andromeda as well.

Developer BioWare had already confirmed that it was working on a new Mass Effect alongside Dragon Age 4 and Anthem 2.0, but the Game Awards trailer is our first official view of what the game could be about. Admittedly, it’s not much–the trailer showcases two galaxies, zooms in on the Milky Way, plays radio transmissions that showcase humanity’s evolution when it comes to space travel, and then finally focuses on an icy planet.

On this planet, we see a hooded figure ascend a destroyed Reaper, where they find a piece of N7 armor among the snow and ice. The figure then pulls back their hood to reveal that it’s Liara T’Soni, a returning character from the original trilogy, and the camera refocuses to show that she’s joined on this expedition by three other figures, though their identities can’t be made out. Because Liara is an asari–a race of aliens that appear youthful for centuries and live for close to 1000 years–and she’s only 109 in Mass Effect 3, we can’t actually use her appearance to estimate how much time has passed. It kind of feels like BioWare specifically chose to feature only her in the new game’s first trailer for that very purpose.

For more on other upcoming new games, check out our most anticipated games of 2021.

Release Date

BioWare hasn’t announced a release date for this new Mass Effect. Given that Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is scheduled to release for Xbox One, PS4, and PC in February 2021 and other teams within BioWare are still in the midst of redesigning Anthem and working on Dragon Age 4, we assume this new Mass Effect is still a ways out.

Platforms

The launch platforms for this new Mass Effect haven’t been revealed yet, though we’re under the assumption that it will release for the current generation of consoles, Xbox Series X|S and PS5, and PC since it appears to still be a few years out. We doubt it will be released for the past generation hardware, but nothing has been officially ruled out.

PC System Specs

Again, this game hasn’t been confirmed for any hardware yet, and that includes PC. We don’t yet know what this Mass Effect’s minimum and recommended PC specs will be, or whether the game will even be released for PC.

Trailers

So far, we have one trailer for the new Mass Effect. It’s embedded below.

Multiplayer Details

BioWare has not shared whether the new Mass Effect will have multiplayer. Hopefully, it does, as both Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda featured a very fun horde mode multiplayer that placed emphasis on teamwork and strategy.

DLC/Microtransaction Details

There’s no word from BioWare or publisher EA on whether the new Mass Effect will support DLC or microtransactions. Both Mass Effect 3 and Mass Effect: Andromeda featured microtransactions in their respective multiplayer, and the original trilogy featured DLC expansions that added additional squadmates, story-driven side quests, and extra weapons and armor. To this day, both Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3 have some of the best post-launch DLCs of any RPG in their Lair of the Shadow Broker and Citadel expansions.

Preorder

BioWare’s new Mass Effect is not yet available for preorder.

Now Playing: GameSpot’s Top 10 Games Of 2020

Fable 4: Everything We Know

The Fable series is about to be reborn on Xbox Series X|S. We know that, because Microsoft told us so during its Xbox Series X showcase, throwing in a reveal trailer for a new Fable game along with a number of other titles. Sadly, though, info about the return of the beloved action-RPG series is extremely thin otherwise.

We’ve run down all the details currently out there about Fable (which is often referred to as Fable 4 as the follow-up to the original game series, although we don’t know if that number is reflective of where the game will fit in the franchise). It’s not much, but you can be sure that we’ll keep you apprised of any new details as Microsoft makes them available.

Fable Release Date And Platforms

Sadly, we know next to nothing about when Fable will actually be available to play (or much of anything else, for that matter). Microsoft’s website for the game lists no date, but does run down what machines you can expect to play Fable on when it does eventually arrive. Fable will be available on the Xbox Series X and Series S, as well as on PC. Given that all first-party Microsoft titles also appear on Game Pass at launch, we can expect Fable to be part of that subscription service as well.

It’s notable that there’s no mention of a Fable release on Xbox One. According to Xbox Games Marketing general manager Aaron Greenberg, that doesn’t discount the possibility of an Xbox One version of the game, necessarily, but it does seem possible that Fable will be a game that requires you to either buy an Xbox Series X|S or play on PC.

Reveal Trailer

The Fable trailer that appeared during the Xbox showcase gives precious little information, although it does set an irreverent tone consistent with the rest of the fantasy series.

Who’s Making It?

The originator of the Fable series, Peter Molyneux’s Lionhead Studios, shuttered in 2016 alongside the cancellation of Fable Legends, a co-op action-RPG entry into the series. There hasn’t been a mainline entry in the Fable franchise since Fable III back in 2010. So who’s behind the new Fable?

The new Fable title is helmed by Playground Games. The studio is known for the Forza Horizon games, and while those are racing titles, they’re known for their vast open worlds–which is a check in the pro column for a new Fable game. Playground created a second studio, separate from the Horizon team, back in 2017, to handle what was an unnamed game at the time. Now we know that game as Fable.

In December, Anna Megill, the lead writer on Remedy Entertainment’s Control and narrative director of Arkane Studios’ Dishonored: Death of the Outsider, revealed on Twitter that she is heading up the Fable writing team. We have some information about that team as well, and it features some notable people from Batman: Arkham series developer Rocksteady. Batman: Arkham Knight’s lead scriptwriter, Martin Lancaster, will serve as the game’s narrative director, and is joined by Rocksteady veterans Craig Owens, another former Batman script writer, and cinematic director Martin Tan.

Other members of the Fable team include Will Kennedy (GTA V) as chief designer, Juan Fernández de Simón (Hellblade) as principal game designer, and Adam Olsson (The Division 2) as lead environmental artist. Naturally, many members of the team also previously worked on the Forza Horizon series.

Now Playing: Halo Infinite, Fable, Forza, & More Xbox Series X Game Reveals | Save State