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Since the start, each mainline Assassin’s Creed game has typically grown in size and superseded that of the previous title, with the three games in the prequel trilogy–Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla–dwarfing all the others (with the exception of Black Flag, which continues to have one of the largest maps in the franchise to date). And though I’ve enjoyed my long journeys across the deserts of Ptolemaic Egypt, war-torn island communities of ancient Greece, and fields of Anglo-Saxon England, I think it’s time that Ubisoft created a smaller setting for Assassin’s Creed. A smaller setting could condense the overall experience of Assassin’s Creed, which would ensure certain storylines can be better realized and that players can more easily experience the best that the game has to offer.

To Better Serve The Story

Now it’s worth pointing out that I don’t think a big map is inherently a bad thing. Though I still have my qualms with the pacing of Odyssey’s story (especially Chapter 5, which can seriously drag), there’s such a sense of joy in riding your horse to the top of a hill, looking out at the glistening ocean, noticing a tiny speck of another island in the far distance, and knowing that you can set sail for it and reach it without encountering a single loading screen. Odyssey wants you to explore because your character, Kassandra, wants to explore after being cooped up on the same island for most of her life.

Of the three games in the prequel trilogy, Odyssey has managed to take advantage of its staggeringly large map size the best, utilizing a fully realized Greece to deliver on the promise of sending the player on an odyssey to reunite their biological family, only to discover that family is what you make of it–blood does not have to define it.

That’s the map acting in service to its story; Kassandra’s tale is an adventure, with some awesome side stories scattered around the vast map. There are encounters such as meeting Daphnae at the very start of the game and learning about the Daughters of Artemis, an all-women community that involves you in a a side-quest that continues until you nearly reach the endgame level cap, as well as running into and falling in love with Kyra over the course of the phenomenal nine-part Silver Islands questline. It all helps sell why Kassandra would regularly deviate from her path–which, in theory, should have been rather linear–and stretch her journey over the course of years. It’s a lifelong odyssey to discover the meaning of family, which is reflected in the giant setting that is filled to the brim with many families to meet; some are dysfunctional, others are loving, but they all shape Kassandra through the decisions you make for her, ultimately resulting in one of several possible families she can bring together by the end of the campaign.

You can’t really say the same for Origins and Valhalla, both of which possess stories that suffer a bit from the large settings they take place in. Origins is the story of a cop and his wife and how their quest for revenge twisted their actions so that they protected those in power and didn’t serve the people. The map is large and filled with many side quests and activities but rarely do they have much to do with the fact that you’re aiding Cleopatra in seizing control away from others to benefit her. Most quests actually see you aid the people, which goes against the overall story that Origins is trying to tell–only a few storylines support how Bayek and Aya are in the wrong for most of the game. But they’re drowned out; the setting is so big that it has to be filled with things to do in order to avoid having a large, empty map.

Valhalla isn’t much better. England is huge and thus filled with dozens of side activities, collectibles, and storylines that drown out the handful of quests that are tied to its overall narrative: The story of an invader trying to escape her cursed fate, only to learn that living for the here and now is a far more satisfying life than striving for a glorious afterlife. It’s difficult to invest in Eivor’s struggle to avoid her fate when she spends so much of her time across the course of Valhalla doing things that don’t relate back to that, or at the very least don’t seem to.

To Better Serve The Gameplay

And beyond just serving the story, there’s another problem that you can run into when you have a huge setting: You fill it with too many things to do. I’ve spent over 41 hours in Origins, over 142 hours in Odyssey, and just under 100 hours in Valhalla–and I’m still nowhere near close to completing all the side activities, finding all the collectibles, and meeting all the characters in each one. There’s just so much to do because a big map needs a lot to fill it up in order to not feel empty.

This problem is especially egregious in Valhalla, which actually tries to do something fundamentally different for an Assassin’s Creed game: It doesn’t tie all of its storylines and quests to symbols on a map. It’s a wonderful change that has led to some effective storytelling and sense of discovery in the game, but so much of it feels wasted in the avalanche of stuff to do.

And to be clear, I’m not even talking about the quests like finding Excalibur or lifting Mjolnir, which require you to find a lot of items hidden behind some seemingly unrelated quests. You can luck into doing that just by reading Valhalla’s Achievement/Trophy list. No, I’m talking about the really obscure things, the stuff that you will not find unless you carefully read every document and explore every inch of England.

Like, take the “quest” to discover the fate of Victus, a long-dead magister for the Hidden Ones. There’s no reason to even think the quest exists. To “start” it, you’ll need to find five Hidden One bureaus scattered across England, notice notes in each one written by some guy named Victus, discover pieces of Victus’ armor that cryptically reveal his fate is still not known, and then just think to yourself, “Ya know, I bet I can figure this out,” without any prompting from the game.

That search will ultimately require you to carefully observe seemingly unimportant details carved into random towers, do a little triangulation to find the location of a hidden well that’s not marked on your map, discover the right book of knowledge in order to unlock the necessary ability to open a secret crypt, crack the cypher on an encrypted note, and then translate some Latin.

There’s no concrete reward for doing any of this, no Achievement or weapon or anything, beyond the joy of just figuring out another piece of the overall lore of Assassin’s Creed. And there are dozens of other unmarked “quests” like this across Valhalla that you can only find and complete through careful observation and sound reasoning–some do give you concrete rewards like a powerful bow or spear, but they’re all primarily serving the purpose of fleshing out the world and telling stories. The community of players still playing Valhalla are finding new ones all the time, working together to slowly piece together more story and lore, much like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild community banded together to discover the game’s undisclosed mechanics and secrets following its release.

And I would think all of that is incredibly cool if it wasn’t for the fact that all of these storylines are so easy to miss because Valhalla’s map is massive and the main campaign is 60 to 80 hours long. That’s a staggeringly long commitment for a single-player game, especially one like Valhalla that has more maps on top of England (such as Norway, where the game begins) and will get more through DLC (like Ireland in Wrath of the Druids). So it’s not one giant map–it’s one giant map and several other not-as-big-but-still-pretty-big maps. When you hide cool questlines, lore-changing Easter eggs (like connections to every single mainline game in the series), or secret rewards (like the best piece of musical composition for an Assassin’s Creed game since Ezio’s Family) behind a towering wall of other so-so stuff to do, it’s unlikely that most of the playerbase is actually going to see them.

All that Valhalla (and to an extent, Origins) does would be better served in a smaller setting where the player can take the time to stop and really look at the world around them. So I’d love to see Ubisoft do just that, embracing less expansive locations as the settings for its Assassin’s Creed games. Plus, with the power of the new generation of consoles, Assassin’s Creed could create a small town or city setting the likes of which we’ve never seen. Instead of a massive map that captures a whole country, Ubisoft could make a super detailed location where all that Xbox Series X|S and PS5 power is devoted to creating some incredible in-game systems, like more reactive AI, a more in-depth social-stealth system, and a wider array of enemy types. And then you can also drop the cluttered assortment of points-of-interest; if an area is small enough, you can rely on environmental context clues to inform what the player should do next instead of handing them a checklist. The best quests in Valhalla could just be a staple part of the franchise in a smaller setting with less distractions.

The smaller details are what makes Origins and Valhalla such special games, Ubisoft just gave them too much room to breathe and then overshadowed them with too much other stuff to do–usually stuff that does nothing to support the underlying narrative of the main campaign. Bigger can mean better, and Odyssey is proof of that. But not every Assassin’s Creed game needs to one-up its predecessor by being the biggest game the franchise has ever seen. There’s room for smaller settings that allow Ubisoft to better support its efforts to be a bit more experimentative with the types of stories it wants to tell and gameplay it wants to offer.

Movies are coming back. Nature is healing. Distributors are still looking at their films on a case-by-case basis, and that means each movie has a separate distribution plan. Similarly, Universal is staggering the worldwide release of the upcoming F9: The Fast Saga, Deadline reports.

According to the report, Fast & Furious 9 will release in China on May 21, five weeks before its North American release date of June 25. South Korea will apparently be able to see the film even earlier, on May 19. Deadline notes that one element that may be driving the early release date is the upcoming 100th anniversary of the founding of the Chinese Communist Party, which occurs on July 1.

The Fast & Furious films have become a huge attraction for movie-hungry Chinese audiences, with the last few films grossing three to five times in international markets what they have domestically.

As vaccination rates climb, release dates will likely sync up more and more, but for now we’re left waiting. That leaves plenty of time to read about the Fast & Furious going to space or to check out the latest trailer, which prominently features magnets. We also ranked the Fast & Furious series by how bonkers the titles are, and you definitely shouldn’t miss that.

If you watch any amount of television and film, you’ve seen the “Made in Georgia” emblem in the credits to something. Following the passing of a restrictive voting law, though, there’s been some question about whether various productions will pull out of the state and find a new place to film. Marvel Studios’ Black Panther 2 will stay in Georgia, though, director Ryan Coogler said in a new op-ed published in Shadow and Act.

“When I was informed of the passage of SB202 in the state, and its ramifications for the state’s voters, I was profoundly disappointed,” Coogler writes. “While I wished to turn my concern into action, I could not do so without first being educated on the specifics of Georgia. Having now spoken with voting rights activists in the state, I have come to understand that many of the people employed by my film, including all the local vendors and businesses we engage, are the very same people who will bear the brunt of SB202. For those reasons, I will not be engaging in a boycott of Georgia.”

Instead, Coogler writes, he intends to continually speak out about SB202 and its effects and ways to overturn it, as well as donating to appropriate organizations. In the piece, Coogler also asks the United States Senate to further consider passing the recently-introduced voting rights legislation, the For the People Act. While Coogler intends to stay in Georgia, at least one production, Will Smith’s Emancipation, has announced the intention to film elsewhere. James Mangold, director of Logan and the upcoming Indiana Jones 5, also said that he plans to boycott. Major League Baseball also pulled its July All-Star Game from the state. Atlanta-headquartered companies like Coca-Cola and Delta Air Lines have spoken out against the law as well.

Black Panther 2 will begin filming in July and is currently scheduled to hit theaters on July 8, 2022. Both Coogler and Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige have stated that they will not recast the late Chadwick Boseman, who starred as King T’Challa in Captain America: Civil War, the Avengers Infinity War and Endgame films, and Black Panther.

If you missed your earlier chances at the PvP favorite hand cannon Igneous Hammer in Destiny 2, good news–it’s back in this weekend’s Trials of Osiris. You’ll absolutely want to play some this weekend to earn one (or several), along with the other new Trials gear this season. Here’s the map you’re facing this week and a full rundown of the rewards you can earn.

As always, this weekend’s Trials event continues to the Tuesday weekly reset, so you’ve got until April 20 to earn rewards and spend tokens with Saint-14.

Trials of Osiris Map And Rewards (April 16-20)

• Map: Cauldron
• 3 wins — Igneous Hammer, Solar hand cannon
• 5 wins — Hunter, Warlock, or Titan Class Item: Pyrrhic Ascent Cloak, Bond, or Mark
• 7 wins — Exile’s Curse, Arc fusion rifle
• Flawless run — Igneous Hammer (Adept)

The Trials of Osiris is Destiny 2’s toughest challenge, but even if you’re not a Crucible champion, you shouldn’t hesitate to participate. You can still earn Trials rewards–some of the best gear in the game, like Igneous Hammer–just by playing matches. The End Game bounty from Saint-14 awards each week’s three-win reward even if you rack up a bunch of losses. There’s also a Seasonal Challenge that awards another weapon drop if you can win a total of seven rounds (as opposed to complete matches).

The Trials of Osiris takes place from Friday to Tuesday every week, and it represents some of the highest-level challenges and rewards in the game. Your goal is to win as many matches as possible before you suffer three total losses, which forces you to reset your Trials run, or Passage, and try again. You’ll earn loot at certain points as you rack up victories, but the best rewards in the event come when you go on a winning streak of seven matches in a row–a “Flawless” run.

If you can manage to go Flawless, you’ll visit the Lighthouse and earn exclusive rewards. Opening the chest in the Lighthouse now gets you an “Adept” weapon, which has extra stat boosts you can’t get almost anywhere else.

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Rumors have been swirling for months that Alfred Molina would reprise his role as Doctor Octopus for Spider-Man: No Way Home, and treated as all but confirmed. Now, though, we have word straight from Doc Ock himself thanks to a new interview with Variety about his role in the recent thriller Promising Young Woman.

“When we were shooting [Spider-Man: No Way Home], we were all under orders not to talk about it, because it was supposed to be some great big secret,” Molina told Variety. “But, you know, it’s all over the internet. I actually described myself as the worst-kept secret in Hollywood!”

Going back to the role of Otto Octavius, Molina said, “was wonderful.”

“It was very interesting going back after 17 years to play the same role, given that in the intervening years, I now have two chins, a wattle, crow’s feet and a slightly dodgy lower back,” Molina continued.

Molina appeared as Spidey’s classic foe in the 2004 film Spider-Man 2. At the end of the film, Spider-Man talks Octavius into doing the right thing, neutralizing his critical fusion reactor and himself in the process. Molina said that his story picks up from “that moment.”

Molina was rightfully concerned about playing a supervillain at his age. Molina is currently 67 years old, two years older than Michael Keaton was when he appeared as Adrian Toomes/Vulture in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

“[Director Jon Watts] just looked at me and said, ‘Did you see what we did to Bob Downey Jr. and Sam Jackson?'” Molina explained, referencing the de-aging technology used on the two actors in Captain America: Civil War and Captain Marvel respectively. Even so, a 67-year-old man moves differently from a 50-year-old one, but then Molina said he had an epiphany.

“It’s the tentacles that do all the work!” he said. Variety described what Molina called his basic physical move as Doc Ock, in which Molina “glared intensely at the Zoom camera and made a menacing noise.”

“I just do that a lot, and the arms are doing all the killing and smashing and breaking,” Molina said. “I’m just going (glares again) with a kind of mean look on my face. It was fantastic.”

It also probably helps that Sam Raimi is off directing another Marvel film, since the Spider-Man 2 director is infamous for beating the snot out of his actors.

Marvel still has not commented on Molina’s casting, or that of Jamie Foxx’s rumored return as Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

The first season of Amazon’s highly anticipated Lord of the Rings show will cost around $465 million to produce. The news comes via The Hollywood Reporter, which states it has confirmed the incredible cost of Season 1.

The series is currently shooting in New Zealand. The cost of the season was initially revealed by Stuart Nash, the country’s Minister for Economic Development and Tourism, who said that “Amazon is going to spend about $650 million in Season 1 alone,” referring to the cost in New Zealand dollars. While Amazon has not commented on this, THR has confirmed the figure as correct.

This is considerably higher than the $500 million that was initially reported as the cost for the first two seasons, and will make it it the most expensive show ever made. However, Amazon will be gaining a considerable tax rebate of US $114 million. This means the New Zealand government will, in effect, be subsidizing the show’s production, but the employment and potential tourism it will create is considerable.

The Lord of the Rings series doesn’t have a confirmed title or release date yet. While plot details are currently under wraps, we know it will be set in the Second Age, which is long before the events of The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. Amazon has released a synopsis, but it doesn’t reveal any new details beyond the fact it will feature characters “both familiar and new.” The showrunners are JD Payne and Patrick McKay, and the first two episodes are directed by Jurassic World: Dominion’s J.A. Bayona.

The cast includes Roberto Aramayo (Nocturnal Animals), Morfydd Clark (Crawl), Owain Arthur (The Palace), and Ismael Cruz Cordova (Ray Donovan). In March, actor Tom Budge revealed he had left the show, stating that Amazon had “decided to go in another direction with the character I was portraying.”

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