It’s been nearly a decade and a half since the original Mass Effect was released, and while it was visually impressive at the time, like a lot of older games, it’s pretty handily outclassed by modern graphics. The newly announced Mass Effect Legendary Edition brings the original Mass Effect trilogy into the modern era–and a lot of that is updating the game’s look to bring it in line with current games and to unify the visuals between each of the trilogy’s entries.
Video producer Jean-Luc Seipke has painstakingly analyzed the shots found in the trailer for the Mass Effect Legendary Edition, then dug through the PC versions of the Mass Effect games for their corresponding moments. Check out the video above, where he compares the originals and the Legendary Editions point-by-point to show you just how much BioWare has improved the graphics of the original games.
While there is plenty of variety on The CW’s roster of DC universe TV shows, it’s hard to argue that they are not all action-first. Whether it’s The Flash, Legends of Tomorrow, Black Lightning, Supergirl, or Batwoman, these series spend the majority of their time with superheroes in colorful costumes saving the universe time and time again. While that’s not a bad thing, Superman & Lois, which premieres on February 23, is looking to change up the formula.
While the series, which sees Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch reprise their roles as Clark Kent and Lois Lane from a variety of Arrow-verse crossovers, is set in the same universe and will definitely see Superman flying around and battling evil, it’s first and foremost a family drama. In fact, when developing the series, showrunner Todd Helbing wasn’t looking at another superhero series for inspiration.
“From the first conversations [executive producer] Greg Berlanti and I had, it was really, you know, ‘How do we make Superman, in general, different?’ And we talked a lot about shows like Everwood and Friday Night Lights,” Helbing said during the TCA winter press tour. “[It’s] a family drama that has Superman in it.”
For Tulloch, focusing on the family drama, as Clark and Lois raise twin sons, is what she hopes will allow viewers to more deeply connect with these characters. “Part of what I’m hoping audiences respond to in our show is that this couple, even though she’s this dynamic journalist and even though he’s Superman, are incredibly relatable and they’re dealing with a lot of the same issues that normal people deal with, whether it is lost jobs or having hormonal teenagers who are pushing back against us at every turn,” she said. “It should feel, and I think it does feel, really, really grounded, like Superman and Lois Lane could be your next door neighbors.”
More than just focusing on the family life of these iconic characters, Superman & Lois is attempting to create a new visual style for the Arrow-verse, one that takes cues from higher-budget shows. After all, while The CW’s superhero shows should be commended for the visual effects they manage to pull off on limited budgets, it can be hard to compete–visually–with many of the biggest shows on TV.
“We’re competing with these shows on streamers and cable networks, and we want to do that and to be able to offer the audience something [of] an equal quality,” Helbing explained. To that end, the show is also taking inspiration from the big screen, be it through cinematography choices or even the aspect ratio being used.
“It looks like a movie,” Tulloch said. “It’s very cinematic. It’s just beautifully shot, the lighting is extraordinary, the writing was wonderful. I’m so proud of this cast and our entire crew.”
Superman & Lois premieres on The CW on Tuesday, February 23.
Electronic Arts will decide the fate of Anthem in the near future, according to a report. The publisher will supposedly make a call on whether the campaign to reboot Anthem after its disappointing launch is still worth the effort or if it should be scrapped altogether.
According to Bloomberg, EA executives plan to review the latest version of Anthem this week. The project to revamp Anthem is currently being worked on by 30 people, but developer BioWare supposedly needs closer to 90 in order to finish reworking Anthem’s original gameplay and also add new content. So EA has to decide whether to invest that time and resources.
Anthem had a rocky launch–the game released with bugs that crashed PS4s, a section of the campaign that required unenjoyable farming, an update that briefly broke the game, and an unsatisfying loot acquisition loop. BioWare has been attempting to overhaul Anthem in hopes of a successful comeback, similar to Hello Games’ No Man’s Sky and Square Enix’s Final Fantasy XIV.
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.”
That said, it’s not all doom and gloom for BioWare–the developer has a few exciting new projects in the works. Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is a remaster of the Mass Effect trilogy, scheduled to launch for Xbox One, PS4, and PC this May. BioWare is also currently working on new installments for Mass Effect and Dragon Age, tentatively titled Mass Effect 4 and Dragon Age 4, respectively.
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How ubiquitous is Disney? They can make high-budget films inspired by their decades-old theme park rides, and no one even bats an eye. When Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of The Black Pearl released in 2003 the conventional wisdom was that pirate movies, let alone one based on a 1967 boat ride, were box office poison. A $4.5 billion combined gross dispelled that notion.
Disney has established the formula for making this unlikely sort of adaptation work: Keep things light and fast paced, throw in enough Easter Eggs to please the die-hards, and cast an A-List actor to anchor it. But still, no ride-based movie has ever been as successful as Pirates. The Haunted Mansion, Tomorrowland, Mission to Mars, and The Country Bears all underperformed. Could the latest attempted ride adaptation, Jungle Cruise, succeed where those movies failed?
Here is everything we know about Jungle Cruise so far.
Jungle Cruise movie release date
Jungle Cruise will release in the United States on July 30, 2021. It is noteworthy that the movie actually wrapped production on June 1, 2019; it has been sitting on the shelf for over two years. The original release date was October 11, 2019, which was then moved to July 24, 2020. The COVID pandemic pushed the release to its current date.
Jungle Cruise movie cast
The two headliners are Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson as Frank, a riverboat skipper, and Emily Blunt as Dr. Lily Houghton, a swashbuckling Indiana Jones type scientist. Also in supporting roles are Paul Giamatti, Jesse Plemons, Édgar Ramírez, and Jack Whitehall.
What’s the story?
According to the official site, Jungle Cruise is set in the Amazon rainforest. Dr. Houghton (Blunt) enlists the services of Frank (Johnson) to travel downriver on his boat, La Quila. Her goal is to find the Tree of Life, which legend says has mystical healing powers, and could revolutionize medical practice. Along the way, they run into obstacles both real (such as a competing German expedition and wild animals) and supernatural.
The Tree of Life is potentially another Disney attraction reference; a tree by the same name is the visual centerpiece of Walt Disney World’s fourth main theme park, the Animal Kingdom. The two trees bear a striking visual resemblance to one another.
Who’s the director?
The director of Jungle Cruise is Jaume Collet-Serra. You might not know his name, but you probably know his movies–mostly horror and action thrillers, including House of Wax and Orphan. More recently, he’s directed several Liam Neeson action vehicles such as Unknown, Non-Stop, Run All Night, and The Commuter.
What’s the Jungle Cruise ride like?
When Disneyland first opened to the public in 1955, Jungle Cruise also debuted. Today, it remains one of the few attractions that has survived from opening day, that Walt Disney had a direct hand in creating.
It takes its audience, via boat cruise, through a series of jungle tableaus based on South America, Asia, and Africa. Like much of Disney, the fanciful exists alongside the realistic; there are animatronic hippos, a rhino who’s chased a group of men up a tree, and a group of hostile tribal natives who target your boat. You are accompanied on your cruise by a skipper, who pilots the boat and gives a dryly humorous, puntastic spiel about everything you see. The skipper role allows for a lot of improvisation; much of the ride’s appeal comes down to the self-effacing, meta narrative.
Will Disney change the ride?
In response to changing cultural norms, Disney will soon redo all of the ride’s scenes that include stereotypically hostile natives. They also plan to overhaul the ride’s story to include an animated skipper alongside the real one. As far as we know, however, none of these changes will add characters from the upcoming movie, like when they added an animatronic Jack Sparrow to the Pirates of the Caribbean ride–although that could always come later, depending on the movie’s success.
Are there any trailers or preview images?
There are two trailers available online. The first trailer promoted the Summer 2020 release date. The second trailer, released several months later, promoted the July 24, 2020 release date. There has been no new trailer since, though we can almost certainly anticipate a new one leading up to July 30, 2021.
Pokemon Go‘s Valentine’s Day event kicks off on February 14, developer Niantic has announced. As part of this year’s event, the Gen 5 Pokemon Munna and its evolved form, Musharna, will be available for the first time in Pokemon Go, and there will be various other Pokemon spawns and in-game bonuses.
Throughout the event, the following Pokemon will appear in the wild more frequently than usual:
Nidoran (F)
Nidoran (M)
Plusle
Minun
Volbeat
Illumise
Luvdisc
Feebas
Munna
On top of that, the following Pokemon will be hatching from 5 km eggs:
Eevee
Cleffa
Igglybuff
Togepi
Luvdisc
Munna
Woobat
Cottonee
In addition, the Legendary Eon Pokemon Latios and Latias will both be available in five-star Raids again, and any Kirlia that you evolve into Gardevoir or Gallade during the event will know the previously Community Day-exclusive move Synchronoise. There will also be event-exclusive Field Research tasks that will lead to encounters with Ralts, Volbeat, Illumise, Alomomola, and Spinda with a heart pattern, as well as a Valentine’s Day Collection Challenge that will reward you with five Silver Pinap Berries, a Lucky Egg, and other items.
Finally, you’ll have an increased chance to become Lucky Friends with another player during the Valentine’s Day event, and Pokemon you receive in trades will have an increased chance of being Lucky. Niantic is also temporarily increasing trading distance to 40 km, and you’ll be more likely to get berries in gifts you receive from other players.
The Valentine’s Day event runs until 8 PM local time on February 18. You can read more details on the official Pokemon Go blog.
In the meantime, new Field Research tasks and rewards are now live in Pokemon Go, and the game’s Lunar New Year event kicks off on February 9. As part of that event, red-colored Pokemon like Krabby, Tepig, and Magmar will be appearing more frequently in the wild, and Mega Gyarados will make its debut in the game. Niantic is also hosting a big Pokemon Go Tour: Kanto event on February 20 to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original Pokemon Red and Green versions.
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Grand Theft Auto V continues to be a huge success for Rockstar and Take Two. During its latest financial earnings call, Take Two revealed that GTA V has now sold more than 140 million copies–a number that will likely only continue to grow when the game comes to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X later this year.
Despite being more than seven years old at this point, 2020 was GTA V’s single best year since launch. Take Two said “more copies of Grand Theft Auto V” were sold last year than any other year since 2013, when the title first launched on PS3 and Xbox 360. Recurrent consumer spending–Take Two’s terminology for in-game purchases–for Grand Theft Auto Online grew 28% year-over-year, outperforming the company’s third-quarter forecast.
Grand Theft Auto V continues to receive a regular stream of updates to its GTA Online mode. Back in December, Rockstar rolled out the big Cayo Perico Heist update, which introduced the titular heist as well as a new island location, a new nightclub, new vehicles and weapons, and more.
GTA Online is undoubtedly a big reason for GTAV’s continued success. According to Take Two, the online mode “had more players in every month and for the entirety of calendar 2020 than in any other year since its launch.” Take Two said last year “also marked Grand Theft Auto Online’s highest participation rate ever by both new players and reactivated players.” Rockstar will be releasing a standalone version of Grand Theft Auto Online later this year on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
Grand Theft Auto V wasn’t Rockstar’s only big seller. During the same call, Take Two also revealed that Red Dead Redemption 2 has now sold more than 36 million units, and its online component, Red Dead Online, had “more players, including more new players, in the month of December than in any other month since its beta launch in 2018.” Take Two says Rockstar will continue to support both GTA Online and Red Dead Online with updates in 2021 and beyond.
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2020 was yet another record-setting year for Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online, according to publisher Take-Two Interactive’s quarterly financial results.
GTA Online is also doing well years after launch, with Take-Two saying the game had more players each month in 2020 than any other month since launch, as well as for the full year of 2020 than in any other year since its launch. It also saw the game’s highest participation rate from both new and returning players, and its revenue was up 28% year-over-year for the quarter.
As a part of its earnings, Take-Two reaffirmed its commitment to release GTA 5 on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S in the second half of 2021, as well as continue to update the game with new content this year.
GTA was not the only Take-Two franchise that saw continued surges of interest in 2020. Red Dead Redemption 2 has now sold over 36 million units worldwide, and Red Dead Online reached more players in December of 2020 than it ever has since its beta launch in 2018. NBA 2K21 has now sold over 8 million units and Borderlands 3 has sold over 12 million units.
Take-Two attributes much of GTA Online’s ongoing success this year to its ongoing slate of new content releases, including the recently-released Cayo Perico Heist — the first-ever heist that GTA Online players can play entirely by themselves if they choose.
Players have also taken GTA Online’s sandbox to create their own storylines and entertainment. The Green versus Purple Alien gang war in GTA Online was something players devised on their own within Rockstar’s online universe and speaks to GTA Online’s enduring popularity.
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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
Silent Hill fans were overjoyed when longtime series composer Akira Yamaoka seemed to tease a new entry in the series in a recent video interview. However, the clip was later taken down by the original publisher AI Hub, who simply said that they “were asked to remove the clip” by an unspecified party.
Statement: We thank you for your support which contributed to the spread of the interview that we published yesterday with Akira Yamaoka around the world. We were asked to remove the clip, and it has been removed. We apologize and stay tuned for the next interviews https://t.co/sMuGmf6NIT
In the clip, Yamaoka stated that he was working on a new project that would be announced this summer, and specifically said, “I think it’s the one you’re hoping to hear about.” This would seem to indicate the Silent Hill series, since Yamaoka is closely associated with that franchise. News of the clip’s removal prompted some to point at Konami as the party who asked AI Hub to take it down, given that the company has quashed similar rumors before.
However, Konami told multiple sources (including PushSquare) that they didn’t communicate with AI Hub, suggesting that perhaps Yamaoka himself asked them to take it down. Silent Hill rumors have swirled for years at this point, with Konami outright stating last year that rumors of a Silent Hills reboot were not accurate. Recently, an unknown fan bought SilentHill.com as a response to the popularity of a certain Resident Evil Village character.
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The fate of Anthem hangs in the balance depending on how an internal review of the reboot goes. That’s according to a new report which says there is a chance EA expands the Anthem Next team or shelves the game altogether.
In a new report from Bloomberg, EA executives will review the latest version of Anthem Next later this week. Depending on how the project is progressing, EA will continue to back and grow the Anthem Next team or “abandon the project.”
Anthem Next was set to be a re-do of sorts for Anthem, BioWare’s live-service action RPG which quickly lost traction with players. BioWare handed Anthem to BioWare Austin which specifically works on live projects like Star Wars: The Old Republic.
BioWare Austin executive producer Christian Dailey became the face of Anthem Next, writing three blog posts about Anthem Next’s development throughout 2020. But according to the report, Dailey left the Anthem team in December as part of a management shake-up. BioWare’s Casey Hudson and Mark Darrah also the company in December.
Dailey’s departure put more questions around the future of the project.
In its development blog, BioWare Austin detailed some changes that the team considered for Anthem Next, including updates to loot drops, weapons, the Javelins — the robot armor players pilot and customize — and skill tree changes. Basically, a top-down overhaul and Bloomberg says other major changes have been made to Anthem’s “core systems and user interface[.]”
This isn’t to say Anthem Next has been officially canceled. That remains to be seen following EA’s internal review, and if the project is shaping up to satisfaction the dev team will be expanded to pursue the project further.
IGN reviewed Anthem and gave it a 6.5 saying its energetic combat can’t save the lack of content and tedious grind. But second chances have become increasingly common in video games thanks to success stories like Final Fantasy 14 and No Man’s Sky.
