Production has wrapped on Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which is the comedy’s eighth and final season. Showrunner Dan Goor made the announcement on Twitter where he thanked the cast and crew for their efforts over the years.
“You changed my life,” he said in his thank-you message. The official B99 Twitter account replied, “BEST. SQUAD. EVER.” Michael Schur, who co-created B99, celebrated the milestone in a tweet of his own that showed the original email Goor sent to him that started it all. His email simply said, “Small town police force.” Schur remarked, “This email, when Dan and I were first talking about a new show, led directly to eight season of Brooklyn 99. Thank you to everyone who worked on the show, and to everyone who watched it.”
We just wrapped Brooklyn 99. I want to thank our amazing crew and cast. Andy Samberg, Andre Braugher, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Fumero, Joel McKinnon Miller, Dirk Blocker, Joe Lo Truglio, Terry Crews, and Chelsea Peretti, thank you. You changed my life.
This email, when Dan and I were first talking about a new show, led directly to eight seasons of Brooklyn 99. Thank you to everyone who worked on the show, and to everyone who watched it. pic.twitter.com/zvjDPhkCeI
Brooklyn Nine-Nine, which follows the story of a police unit in Brooklyn, originally aired on Fox for five seasons before the shoe was canceled. NBC picked it up for season six, and then extended it for two more. Season 8 premieres August 12 on NBC.
The show stars Andy Samberg, Stephanie Beatriz, Melissa Fumero, Terry Crews, Joe Lo Truglio, Andre Braugher, Dirk Blocker, Joel McKinnon Miller, and formerly Chelsea Peretti, who has since left the show.
In addition to being a comedy with some very silly jokes, the show is known for touching on serious issues, and this is expected to continue with the final season. The writers apparently had four episodes written for the final season and then threw them all out amid the political unrest in the US specifically focused around police.
In other news, Samberg was recently announced to be part of the celebrity voice cast for the Borderlands spin-off Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands. He’s joined by Wanda Sykes and Will Arnett, who are also lending their voices to the early 2022 game.
Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out
Developer Housemarque has released the patch notes for Returnal‘s Patch 1.4.0. The new patch fixes a number of issues, though players who are struggling to tackle the game’s tough challenges may be happier to see how the patch rebalances Returnal’s difficulty. Patch 1.4.0 goes live June 14.
In terms of gameplay balance, the major changes seem geared towards Returnal’s combat. Patch 1.4.0 makes adjustments to the challenge of enemies and bosses and the effectiveness of weapons in order to ease the difficulty for all biomes.
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In the full patch notes, Housemarque writes that this change should make for “a more balanced gameplay experience.” So if you’ve been struggling with Returnal, maybe take another stab at it come June 14.
On top of that, Patch 1.4.0 also removes parasites from the pool of rewards that players can earn for avenging the corpses of other players. Additionally, the patch changes when certain malfunctions can occur in the early parts of the game, which may ease the likelihood of getting run-ending malfunctions early into a new cycle.
The full list of adjustments made in Patch 1.4.0 are detailed below.
Returnal Patch 1.4.0
Highlights:
Platinum: Added support for replaying certain Act 1 & Act 2 Trophies
Platinum: Added support to retroactively award Trophies which cannot be replayed
Platinum: Added additional locations for Scout Logs 9, 34, 35 & 46 to appear more often
Platinum: Fixed an issue where 1 Cipher was sometimes unobtainable for Biome Survey Trophies
Platinum: Fixed an issue where some Activity Cards displayed an incorrect count
UI: HUD labels for items are now hidden when Selene is firing a weapon
UI: Fixed an issue where 2 actions could be mapped to a single button after switching controller presets
Cinematics: Fixed a rare audio sync issue in the secret ending
Audio: General mix improvements across the experience
Audio: Improved surround sound setup support across the experience
Audio: Added more DualSense haptics across cinematic moments for deeper immersion
Audio: Added DualSense haptics when using the Icarian Grapnel
Audio: Improved the dynamic range recommendations system
Audio: Allow users to override the dynamic range recommendations
Audio: Allow users to change audio output from the game menu
Game Balance:
Balance: Various bug fixes to certain artifacts, parasites, consumables, and when certain malfunctions can occur in the early parts of the game
Balance: Players no longer receive parasites as rewards when players avenge their corpses
Balance: Enemies, Weapons, and Bosses – difficulty adjustments in all Biomes for a more balanced gameplay experience
Misc Bug-fixes:
Fixed an issue where Hyperion may drop the Key out of reach
Fixed an issue where Ophion may become invisible if the player uses a Reconstructor during the fight
Fixed weapons not being found in Biomes after scanning but not collecting them
Fixed an issue where Selene could jump impossibly long distances
Fixed multiple issues where Selene may become trapped in a room
Fixed a rare freezing issue when teleporting in Crimson Wastes
Fixed occasional frame rate drops when using the Electropylon Driver
Performance improvements, crash fixes, and multiple minor bug fixes
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Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops — Daemon Hatfield, Justin Davis, Sam Claiborn, and Mark Medina — are discussing topics like Elden Ring, Death Stranding Director’s Cut, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.
Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.
The PS5’s design surprised players in a number of ways when Sony unveiled its latest console, one of which was the move away from its traditional launch colors, with consoles and controllers normally debuting in black rather than the stark white of the PS5’s design. That color scheme was first made apparent when Sony introduced the split-color white DualSense, but for those looking for some other options, including one that would fit alongside the last few generations of DualShocks, PlayStation has introduced a few new color schemes.
Check out the gallery below for an up-close look at the two new DualSense styles: Midnight Black, which features an all-black design rather than the launch model’s two-tone controller, as well as the Cosmic Red design.
The Midnight Black controller is a great return to the look most players have grown familiar with, especially given the DualShock 4’s standard color scheme. Both halves of the controller – for lack of a better term, we’re talking about the area that includes the face buttons, directional buttons, and touch pad as one area and the portion with the analog sticks, PlayStation button, and speaker as another – are uniform and offer a great, cohesive look for those who aren’t as into the dual-color schemes of the other DualSense’s. It is certainly easier to spot dust particles on it than the white, but it’s a nice addition to the lineage of PlayStation controllers. The Midnight Black DualSense is currently available for $79.99.
The Cosmic Red, meanwhile, offers the same split as the original DualSense, with its red wrapping around the entire back of the controller, similar to the white. Its majority red color isn’t as bright of a tone as some pictures convey, and is not identical to the red featured on, say, the Marvel’s Spider-Man special edition PS4. It’s more of a berry red, but looks great alongside the others. You can currently purchase the Cosmic Red DualSense for $74.99.
These are just the first two DualSense colors to be released by PlayStation, and while we’re less than a year out from the PS5’s launch, we’ll likely see more in the future – especially given Sony’s penchant for releasing batches of controller designs periodically throughout the PS4’s life. The PS5 hasn’t seen a ton of other accessories released since its launch, but when it debuted last November, alongside the console came both a charging dock for the DualSenses (seen in some of the above photos), and the Pulse 3D headset to take advantage of the PS5’s 3D audio capabilities.
And of course, stay tuned to our weekly PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!, for all the latest news, impressions, and analysis of everything happening in the world of PlayStation.
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Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior Features Editor and host of Podcast Beyond! Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.
Ubisoft announced its E3 2021 event and shortly after, revealed a bunch of details about which games they plan to touch on during the show. From a world premiere of the upcoming Tom Clancy game to updates on Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Watch Dogs: Legion, and more, fans are in for a show that already looks to be filled with plenty of news about current and upcoming Ubisoft games. If you don’t want to miss out, here’s everything you need to know about how to watch and what to expect.
When is Ubisoft Forward at E3 2021?
The Ubisoft conference at E3 2021 takes place on June 12 and officially starts at 12pm PT/ 3pm ET/ 8pm BST. Or June 13 at 5am AEST for our folks in Australia.
We’ll be kicking off the festivities early, however, with an IGN pre-show that starts at 10:30am PT, 1:30pm ET, and 6:30pm BST. That’s 3:30am AEST on June 13.
How to Watch Ubisoft Forward at E3 2021
Since Ubisoft’s conference is a part of E3 2021 (which is also part of IGN’s Summer of Gaming), you can count on us to carry the livestream on all of our usual platforms. Here is the list of places you can watch Ubisoft Forward at E3 2021:
Ubisoft revealed the show will start with a one hour pre-show focused on updates on live games such as Watch Dogs: Legion, For Honor, The Crew 2, Brawlhalla, Trackmania, and more.
As for the main show, that will include news on Ubisoft’s upcoming games, including a world premiere featuring gameplay and trailers of the upcoming Tom Clancy game that received it’s final name, Rainbow Six Extraction. More details on Far Cry 6 were promised (make sure to check out our first Far Cry 6 preview), as well as news on the upcoming extreme sports multiplayer game, Riders Republic. Updates on upcoming content from Assassin’s Creed Valhalla and Rainbow Six Siege were confirmed for the show, too.
Outside of games, Ubisoft mentioned there would also be some information about the Mythic Quest series and Werewolves Within film.
It remains to be seen if we’ll get some unannounced surprises sprinkled into the show, like news on Beyond Good and Evil or the recently announced The Division Heartland. Updates on delayed titles like Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, Skull & Bones, and the Avatar game would be welcome, but it may also be too soon for that. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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Felicia Miranda is SEO Editor at IGN. You can find them on Twitter at @FeliciaVagabond.
Back in 2017, then global sales chief and now PlayStation boss Jim Ryan made an infamous remark regarding PS1 and PS2 versions of Gran Turismo he had seen at a recent showcase, and it’s followed him ever since.
“They looked ancient,” he said. “Why would anybody play this?”.
His quote was reported by Time, which was interviewing Ryan about his thoughts on bringing older games to the PlayStation 4 library. In context, Ryan was trying to make a point about why Sony wasn’t prioritizing backward compatibility. But in a new interview with Axios, Ryan wants to set the record straight.
“It goes with the territory, but I get a little bit frustrated at still being hit over the head with this one,” he said. “The point I was trying to make — obviously not very well — was just how great the PS4 version looked and how far the series had evolved. I certainly wasn’t trying to be disrespectful to our heritage.”
Ryan then pointed to Astro’s Playroom, with its many homages to past PlayStation games, as an example of the company honoring its classics.
That said, it seems that PlayStation and Ryan are both holding the line on backward compatibility with older titles. In the 2017 interview, Ryan suggested that it was a much-requested feature that was nonetheless “not actually used much.” And now, in 2021, that still seems to be the case.
“What is important to recognize when considering this question about designing a new platform, is that time, engineering resource, and money are all finite, and that important trade-offs have to be made in terms of what’s included, and what’s not,” he said to Axios.
All five episodes of Lupin Part 2 are currently available to stream on Netflix.
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Lupin’s second season picks up wherePart 1 left off, diving headfirst into the ongoing cat-and-mouse game between Assane Diop (Omar Sy) — a modern-day Parisian swindler taking after Arsène Lupin, the fictional gentleman thief — and Hubert Pellegrini (Hervé Pierre), the ruthless businessman who had Diop’s father framed for theft. The French thriller’s first five episodes were largely set-up, but they make way for a second-half filled with mile-a-minute payoffs since the police and other forces are hot on Diop’s heels when the season begins. Part 2, despite its bizarre penchant for diffusing tension at key moments, is much tighter than its predecessor, and it allows Sy to embody a much more interesting version of Diop, a man now dealing with the ripple effects of a criminal life he had hoped to leave behind.
Lupin: Part 2 largely surpasses Part 1, and it even overcomes a few genuinely deflating rug-pulls to create a season with swift pacing, alluring characters, and a clockwork action climax right out of a spy thriller. Part 3 has already beenconfirmed, but this second block of episodes is a fun and satisfying conclusion to Diop’s story — at least, for the time being.
Last season’s finale, “Chapter 5,” ended with the gripping one-two-punch of Diop’s son Raoul (Etan Simon) being kidnapped just as detective and fellow Lupin enthusiast Youssef Guedira (Soufiane Guerrab) caught up to the master thief. “Chapter 6” has an admittedly awkward start, since Guedira finding Diop doesn’t seem to line up with what Part 1 had teased. However, once its dramatic questions are clarified, the show falls back into its rhythm of entertaining action peppered with social commentary, largely born from placing non-white characters in traditionally white settings, like those of Maurice Leblanc’s original novels. Diop, the son of working-class Senegalese immigrants, is looked upon with far more suspicion than Arsène Lupin, even (and especially) when disguised as an aristocrat, while North African policeman Guedira — the modern equivalent of Leblanc’s Inspector Ganimard — doesn’t command the respect of his white peers the same way.
The season’s first episode pits them against Pellegrini’s Black henchman Léonard (Adama Niane), and what ought to play out as a standard chase to save Diop’s son is imbued with surprising intensity, when all three men are forced to tiptoe around scornful onlookers in a small, mostly-Caucasian town not far from Étretat, where Part 1’s finale took place and where Leblanc himself once lived.
While the season frequently breaks the promises of its cliffhangers, its narrative still feels more incisive than Part 1. The show’s childhood flashbacks, previously deployed to fill scattered elements of Diop’s backstory, now portray episodic events from his early days as a teenage hustler (where he’s played with charm by the young Mamadou Haidara). These stories not only flesh-out his early relationships with ex-wife Claire (Ludivine Sagnier/ Ludmilla Makowski), best friend and accomplice Benjamin (Antoine Gouy/Adrian Valli De Villebonne), and former flame Juliette Pellegrini (Clotilde Hesme/Léa Bonneau), but they offer meaningful contrast with the current timeline, as both past and present see Diop navigating the consequences of his schemes, and their effects on the people around him.
These people become much more important in Part 2. Previously, Diop’s father Babakar (Fargass Assandé) was the only character who felt like a living, breathing human being with a recognizable personality, and he was already long dead by the time the story began. This time around, every character extends beyond their mere plot function starting with Diop himself, who not only feels more debonair, but more conflicted, and brims with anger and intensity after being backed into a corner by familiar foes. The difference between the two seasons is quite stark in this regard. Even the most minor characters leave lasting impressions, like Pellegrini’s scheming financial advisor Philippe Courbet (Stefan Crepon), who only features in a handful of scenes but has a mysterious, serpentine presence.
Diop and Pellegrini’s dueling revenge ploys unfold during a string of charity events organized by Pellegrini’s foundation. While these parties and concerts function mostly as backdrops, they continue to imbue the series with relevant subtext (in this case, about the perils of billionaire philanthropy). Where characters like Diop continue to shoulder the real brunt of systemic racism — his father, falsely accused of jewel theft, was an easy target in Pellegrini’s insurance scam — the show’s wealthy villains use philanthropy towards less-fortunate, non-white peoples both as their public-facing personas and as money-laundering schemes.
The challenge with a villain like Pellegrini is that he makes it damn near impossible to speak truth to power since he owns so much of the police force and can so easily have dissenting journalists killed. He’s an embodiment of systemic rot, and Hervé Pierre personifies his power in delightful fashion; the stench of his arrogance is nauseating, even when the character doesn’t speak. However, Pellegrini’s all-encompassing menace doesn’t often push Diop or the show to find innovative solutions. More often than not, the season’s ideas feel like variations on things Diop has already tried.
Part 2 lacks the slickness and novelty of Part 1’s episodic heists, but its story moves smoothly along a linear path, rarely meandering like its predecessor, and always twisting its narrative screws. The directorial duties this time are split between Ludovic Bernard (Chapters 6-7) and Hugo Gélin (Chapters 8-10), who help make the season more visually and emotionally engaging overall. The color palette rarely escapes Netflix’s all-too-frequently washed-out look, but the camera often matches intense moments with tight, unsettling framing, and romantic moments with telephoto portraits in free-flowing motion, all tied together by Mathieu Lamboley’s playful, jazzy score.
Of course, these scenes are also elevated by Omar Sy’s performance. Where Diop was previously defined by his single-minded mission, he now balances fleeting moments of honest joy, stolen from some fantasy life he hopes to live with Raoul and Claire, with a constant awareness of the dire consequences putting that future in jeopardy. The story, instead of living in the dialogue, lives in Sy’s changing expressions as the walls close in.
While plot and character details are sparse at the moment, Bacon will be going up against Game of Thrones actor Peter Dinklage, who is starring in the film. The cast also includes Jacob Tremblay and Taylour Paige. I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore director Macon Blair is helming the upcoming reboot.
The original Toxic Avenger movie was released in 1984. Directed by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, the film followed Melvin Ferd, a janitor who is submerged in toxic waste and transforms into a disfigured superhuman. With its basis in environmental issues and wicked sense of humor, the splatter film garnered a reputation as a cult classic. It also spawned three sequels, as well as an animated TV show, a video game, and a stage musical. Both Kaufman and Herz are attached as producers on the upcoming reboot.
It is not currently known if Dinklage will be playing the role of Melvin Ferd, nor what the upcoming film’s exact relationship with the original Toxic Avenger series will be.
Bacon has been somewhat absent from movies in recent years. The actor last starred in the 2020 thriller You Should Have Left and the 2016 drama Patriots Day. Bacon is currently starring in the Showtime series City on a Hill, which will begin its third season sometime in 2022.
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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.
Amazon Prime Day has been officially confirmed for June 21-22, which means there’s just a few days left until the retailer’s biggest sale outside of Black Friday. Prime Day is a great time to shop for some new tech, making it an opportunity to upgrade your personal computing situation. We’ve rounded up the best Prime Day laptop deals ahead of the two-day event, with some amazing deals already on offer before Amazon discounts more for its big sale.
Last year, we saw great deals on many popular ultrabooks and gaming laptops, including the enduring Dell XPS 13 line, HP Spectre X360, Razer Blade 15-Inch, and Microsoft Surface Laptops. It’s likely that a lot of these will be on sale again this year, albeit their 2020 models that are now making way for newer 2021 models currently. There’s nothing wrong with a 2020 laptop though, especially one that might be equipped with AMD’s 4000 series CPUs or RTX 20-series graphics cards.
Dell’s XPS 13 is one of the easiest ultrabooks to recommend. The XPS line has been consistently fantastic, with its stunning design, slim screen bezels, fantastic keyboard, and consistent performance. This model comes equipped with Intel’s 11th-generation Core i7 processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and Intel Iris Xe graphics. That makes it one of the few laptops that qualifies for Intel’s Evo program, which lets you know you’re getting some of the best performance on the market today.
Microsoft’s Surface Laptops have been great go-to devices that strike a good balance of being both sleek and powerful. While the design has endured for multiple generations now, you’re still getting a top-of-the-line keyboard, an accurate 13.5-inch touch display, and a gorgeous matte black aluminum chassis. Pair that with 8GB of RAM, an Intel Core-i5, and a slew of ports (that aren’t just USB-C), and you’ve got a capable machine that can go anywhere with you.
The Razer Blade is as close as you can get to a gaming laptop with the profile of a MacBook, and even though it’s due for a hardware refresh there’s still some great deals on 2020 models. Just like this powerful Razer Blade 15 Base configuration, which comes equipped with an RTX 2060, a 10th-generation Intel Core i7 (6 Cores/ 12 Threads) CPU, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. That should be more than enough horsepower for popular shooters like Apex Legends and Fortnite, while also providing enough processing grunt for mobile video rendering and editing.
While Dell’s XPS 13-line balances performance with portability, its XPS 17 line is for a more power-hungry user. While it’s still relatively thin for a laptop of this size, you’ll benefit from the 10th-generation Intel Core i9 CPU, 32GB of RAM, 1TB of SSD storage, and RTX 2060 for graphics. That’s all the encoding and rendering prowess you need for a fast and efficient laptop that can easily be popped into a backpack, and although you’re paying for that luxury you are able to snag it for an attractive price today.
This might not be the best price on Apple’s latest 13-inch MacBook Pro, but you’re still saving on the amazing M1-powered laptop that launched last year. Apple’s first attempt at producing its own processor has been a massive success, with the MacBook Pro helping the chip push itself even further with the addition of a fan for cooling. There’s still the OLED touchbar at the keyboard, but the keyboard itself is also the latest iteration that does away with those terrible butterfly switches. It’s one of the best thin and light laptops around.
If the Dell XPS 13 is just a bit too high for your budget but you like the performance it offers, then Dell’s Inspiron range has become a great middle ground for exactly that. You get an Intel 11th-generation Core i7 CPU, 12GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and Intel Iris Xe graphics, which is almost on par with the above Dell XPS 13. But instead of just a 13-inch display, the Inspiron comes equipped with a 14-inch FHD touch display in a convertible design, which gives it a bit more flexibility if that’s what you need.
Asus is known to make some impressively thin and powerful laptops too, and this ZenBook Flip S 13 laptop is no exception to that rule. The near bezel-less display crams in a 4K resolution with an extremely impressive OLED panel that can display HDR content with up to 400 nits of brightness. That will come in handy with the laptops convertible design for content consumption, but when you want to get some work done you can equally depend on the 11th-generation Intel Core i7 CPU, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB SSD for storage. That’s an impressive package in a small, and discounted, package.
Chromebooks are extremely popular choices for students and users who just need something to get through light workloads and word processing, but Samsung has managed to turn even the most modest of laptops into a premium piece of tech. The 13-inch Galaxy Chromebook comes with an AMOLED display, Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of SSD storage, which brings it ever closer to the entry specifications of ultrabooks. You will of course have to be comfortable with ChromeOS and its limitations, but if you’re willing to pay a bit more this is one Chromebook that you’ll keep around for a long time.
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