The single biggest kept secret so far in Disney+’s The Mandalorian was the reveal of the “Baby Yoda,” and Jon Favreau and Dave Filoni have revealed just how tough it was to keep that little perfect green baby a secret from the galaxy.
Speaking to ET’s Ash Crossan at The Mandalorian’s premiere, Filoni explained how they fought so hard to keep it a secret so fans could experience it as a true surprise. In today’s day and age, that is quite an accomplishment, and Filoni is still “a little gun shy” about it.
“We kept it secret so long, that it’s still a little gun shy, having it out there in the world, but I’m glad it’s out,” Filoni said. “That was a big secret to keep, but Jon and I were pretty adamant that it would be the best thing for fans if we could get them to the finish line and they could experience it in the episode. So, I think it did it’s job.”
Pokemon Sword and Shield have finally arrived on Nintendo Switch. Like previous games in the series, your ultimate goal in the Gen 8 titles is to become the Pokemon League Champion, and to do so, you’ll need to travel around the Galar region, catching and raising Pokemon, battling rival trainers, and collecting eight Gym Badges. Your journey isn’t over once you’re crowned the champion, however; there’s still plenty to do in the new Switch Pokemon games after you’ve conquered the Pokemon League.
In the video above, we discuss some of the post-game activities that await you after you’ve cleared the main storyline in Sword and Shield. These include an additional story quest, which has you trying to stop two doofuses named Sordward and Shielbert before culminating in a chance to catch the Legendary Pokemon Zacian or Zamazenta. There are also several gift Pokemon you can claim from various NPCs, and you can test your battling skills at the Battle Tower, where you can earn Battle Points to purchase some incredibly useful items.
That’s just scratching the surface of the post-game activities in Pokemon Sword and Shield, so be sure to watch our video for a full look at all the things you can do in the games after you’ve beaten the main story. Sword and Shield launched for Nintendo Switch on November 15. We gave the titles a 9/10 in our Sword and Shield review and called them “the best new generation of Pokemon games in years.” For more tips and guides, check out our other Pokemon Sword and Shield coverage below.
This review contains spoilers for The Flash: Season 6, Episode 6, “License to Elongate” – if you need a refresher on where we left off, here’s our review for The Flash Season 6, Episode 5.
As my colleague Jesse Schedeen has noted in his recent reviews, The Flash has definitely gotten its groove back in Season 6, deftly rediscovering that trademark balance between humor and heart that made the series so compelling all the way back in Season 1.
“License to Elongate” continues the season’s winning streak, with a concept that, on paper, sounded decidedly schticky, but in reality proves to be one of the most charming installments of Season 6 so far. The episode goes all-in on the shameless James Bond homage promised by its title, and it works precisely because the premise is treated with such a light touch by director Danielle Panabaker (proving that the star is a natural helmer in her second time behind the camera), who confidently navigates the tricky tonal shifts between the hour’s self-aware comedy and weightier moments.
Before the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover event, The Flash will present its two-part mid-season finale. In “The Last Temptation of Barry Allen,” per an episode description, “a mysterious, hallucinogenic contagion tests Barry’s convictions.” Now, after the Season 6, Episode 6–“License to Elongate”–we know who will be doing the testing.
Warning: The following contains spoilers for “License to Elongate.” If you haven’t watched the episode, you should turn away now.
At the conclusion of “License to Elongate,” Ramsey Rosso/Bloodwork (Sendhil Ramamurthy) seemingly kidnaps Ralph (Hartley Sawyer), leaving Team Flash down one member going into the finale. As showrunner Eric Wallace revealed at a Q&A following a screening of the episode, that’s going to play directly into what Barry and the rest of the team will face in the two-part finale.
“The title has been released, ‘The Last Temptation of Barry Allen.’ Well, I wonder who’s tempting him? Yeah. Let’s just say it’s Bloodwork,” Wallace admitted. “And what’s great about his character is he has a really good point of view that when you hear it, I think next week, it’s insane–but it makes sense. And that’s what’s tempting to Barry. It’s all being set up here in [License to Elongate].”
Given that Barry believes he’s facing certain death during Crisis on Infinite Earths, it’s not exactly surprising that Bloodwork could tempt him. However, “License to Elongate” also saw a change in the way Barry is approaching the upcoming event. All season, he’s been preparing the team for life without The Flash, should he perish. However, Ralph and Joe (Jesse L. Martin) went out of their way that Barry, himself, is more important than The Flash could ever be.
When asked how that would factor into Barry’s mindset leading into the mid-season finale, Wallace laughed, adding, “Boy, you’re gonna love next week’s episode. That exact question is asked.” It’s an important one, given that Barry’s life will be on the line in Crisis.
As Barry faces his last temptation before possible death, though, it’s enough to make you wonder what the future of Central City could look like. With Ralph’s safety in question, thanks to Bloodwork, and Barry staring down the barrel of his own demise, who will be left as the official protector of this city when all is said and done?
The premise for Sparklite sees a world where constant earthquakes shake up environments and the only true refuge is in the sky. Everytime you drop to the world below it’s both familiar and different; the environments are made up of different tiles, and like a game of Catan, they’re shuffled anew on every trip. It’s your job to learn and navigate this ever-changing land while upgrading your abilities so you can take down Mining Titans bent on further destroying the world. It starts off as an exciting adventure full of challenge and variety, but that’s not something that lasts forever.
Sparklite is a 2D roguelite whose bright and vivid pixel art environments feature prominently. The main world is shrouded when you first enter it and is divided into squares which take up the whole screen, much like a classic Legend of Zelda game. Moving through and uncovering the layout of the area provides a sense of discovery, especially in the early runs, and each square presents a scenario which will become familiar over time–the layout and enemies for map squares will stay the same, but you won’t know which variant you’ll get until you arrive. Each scenario feels like a crafted experience, each featuring its own unique little challenge or puzzle, but they still have random elements that keeps things fresh–hidden elements can be found breaking boulders or digging up treasure.
This structure, along with the visual flair and the rousing score full of synths and horns, help to evoke the adventurous feelings of classic JRPGs. The pixel art is exciting and bright, and the enemy and world designs have a stoutness that is reminiscent of a very particular style of top-down console adventure game. But despite being a throwback game, Sparklite’s movement and combat feel modern–they’re responsive and smooth. There are two different strengths of melee attack, and as the game progresses, different ranged weapons also become available to you. Ranged weapons rely on a form of energy generated by attacking enemies with your melee hits, and this creates a satisfying flow. There’s no standing back and trying to pick off enemies from a distance; instead, the game forces you to focus on the melee moves, which means you’re always in the thick of things. It’s an exciting challenge to be constantly on your toes, never able to totally avoid danger, and learning enemy patterns to stay alive.
This is made especially engaging because of all the different enemy types. Every time you enter a new environment you’ll discover new creatures who have different attack patterns, defences, and behaviors to learn–some will even let you by peacefully. There’s a real sense of danger when going to an unknown place, which later evolves into a sense of mastery once you’ve gotten a handle on the enemies there.
This goes doubly so for Sparklite’s intense bosses, as each of the five Mining Titans bring a slew of unique moves to the table. Every time I encountered a new boss I’d die, baffled at how to proceed. One boss in particular presented only one weak spot on its front, but that’s also where it would readily produce pincers. It could shoot missiles and laser beams, as well as cause sinkholes with a stabbing scorpion tail. I found myself mastering the pattern for one series of attacks only to quickly get taken down by the other. Overcoming these fights requires you to learn how each enemy attack works in tandem, on top of finding a safe opening to attack. Learning a little bit more after each death is a great sensation, and Sparklite definitely offers a real sense of accomplishment when you finally come out of the other side of what was once a difficult fight with barely any damage.
However, there are some occasions where combat just feels unfair. Little things, like enemies being able to hit you when they’re not even on the same screen as you, or being perpetually frozen by two enemies shooting staggered ice balls, can be incredibly annoying. I felt this especially hard during the final boss battle, where a bombardment of enemies would all jump on me in a staggered pattern, keeping me in an indefinite loop of knockdowns. There are ways to try to avoid all of these situations, but if you’re unlucky enough to get caught by them, they’re nigh impossible to get out of, especially if you’re already low on health.
Consumable items also play a large role in combat. You can find and collect an array of bombs, buffs, and healing items every time you drop down to the planet’s surface. They offer new strategies to defeat tough enemies or increase your survivability. However, you don’t keep any of them when you die. This creates the risk-reward dynamic seen in most roguelites–is it worth stockpiling items for an upcoming boss, or better to use them now and increase your chances of survival?
The downside to items in Sparklite is that most of them take a while to activate, and while you can get permanent buffs that help with this, using them during tough combat encounters is often more of a liability, which makes certain items feel useless. In some boss battles, I found bombs could be quite effective, for example, but in others, finding the downtime to set them off is often just too risky. Even taking the time to heal can be a tough and dangerous choice, so learning when to do so becomes crucial. Weapon items that I wanted to use and make me feel powerful often felt like they got me killed, and with such limited opportunities to use items, I ended up using them very sparingly and with trepidation.
Items are also completely random, so it’s easy to find yourself stocked with a bunch of things you may not even need. One item’s sole job is to illuminate dark areas, and there are only so many times you’ll ever want to use it. On the other hand, health is few and far between so repeatedly getting one item over the other can be very frustrating.
Randomness can also negatively affect your experience with other systems, like permanent upgrades. Permanent items are kept upon death, which means that death doesn’t usually feel too punishing, and instead feels like an opportunity to go back to the Sky Refuge and rework your loadout. You equip upgrades by slotting them into a grid–some will be larger than others, and you have to prioritise what you think you’ll need. It’s a neat little system, and experimenting with it is a rewarding exercise because you can see a tangible difference reflected in your character. However, this is the only way to level up your character, and though the game will let you buy some upgrades (like health buffs) as a guaranteed item, others are up for you to stumble across randomly, which can affect your trajectory of progress. This is a characteristic of the genre, of course, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t frustrating at times.. It wasn’t until I was facing one of the final bosses that I finally found a second damage upgrade, for example, something I desperately needed and explored the map several times in search of.
I also encountered a few frustrating bugs in the Switch version of the game which interrupted my progress; crashing during loading screens made me sacrifice more than one of my more lucrative runs. Even aside from bugs, sometimes loading screens seemed ridiculously long as I got into the later areas–areas which also felt like they weren’t anywhere near as diverse in design as earlier ones. Even the random dungeons, which you can find by breaking objects on all the maps, repeat far too often and by the end I could tell which one I’d dropped into immediately. Skipping these dungeons means fewer items and less currency, which in turn means a lower chance of survival or an inability to afford bigger upgrades. Their necessity means it eventually becomes a chore to do the same thing over and over again for random, often disappointing rewards.
This repetition in design seems especially odd when you consider that other puzzle aspects of the game are often introduced once and barely used again. For example, each time you discover a new ranged weapon, you’ll have a comprehensive tutorial on how to use it so you understand what puzzles it’ll work for. Several of these items went almost completely unused after I’d acquired them because I never came across an opportunity for them.
Sparklite has a great amount of challenge and diversity–until it doesn’t. When things are going well in the early game, progress always feels real and attainable, so it’s enjoyable to go exploring the world for whatever you’ll find next. The game’s upgrades are satisfying to implement (so long as you can find them) and there’s a real sense of growth and achievement. But when Sparklite gets you with an unfair death or technical issue that sets you back, and later causes you to do the same thing over and over again, it’s hard to endure. In the moments where I didn’t encounter these kinds of setbacks, I felt consumed by the desire to find more upgrades, learn how to defeat that boss, and unlock a new area. Sparklite’s loop can be rewarding, but not when it’s extended beyond its means.
In Pokemon Sword and Shield, your journey isn’t quite over when the credits roll and you’ve become Champion. You still have some fun surprises in store, a legendary to catch, and a whole post-game quest to embark on–plus, if you’re so inclined, some high-level battles to participate in. There’s actually quite a lot you can (and should) do when you finish the story, so if you aren’t sure where to start, start here! There are minor spoilers in this guide, though, so proceed with caution.
If you haven’t yet beaten the game, we have plenty of other guides that might help! Check out our quick list of rare and cool Pokemon and where to find them, plus our explainer on Watts. And if you’re trying to complete your Pokedex but running into some roadblocks, we have guides on how to evolve the trickiest Pokemon, including Milcery, Sinistea, and Applin. Stay tuned for more guides in the coming days as we dig into specifics, like how fossils and raids work.
In our Pokemon Sword and Shield review, Kallie Plagge (that’s me) wrote: “The vibrant Galar region is a consistent delight to explore, incentivizing and rewarding collecting and battling in equal measure, and grandiose battles add an exciting dimension to the familiar Gym formula to deliver an engaging adventure beginning to end. But most notably, Sword and Shield cut down on the tedious and protracted elements from previous games in favor of amplifying what makes Pokemon great in the first place. This is the most balanced a Pokemon game has felt in a long time, and with that, Sword and Shield mark the best new generation of Pokemon games in years.”
Halo: The Master Chief Collection will continue its PC rollout after the December release of Halo: Reach, with a beta planned for Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary in the new year. PCGamesN spoke with 343 Industries community manager Brian Jarrard, who confirmed that PC players will be able to get their first taste of this updated version of Halo, which debuted on Xbox 360 back in 2011, after the holidays. “Once Reach comes out next month, after the holiday, we will start to reset, and we’ll start to flight Halo CE,” he told the site. “We’re just going to keep going down the road until we fill out the rest of the collection.”
The plan, he says, is to update the game to run at 60fps and at 4K, and to “account for all the requirements that PC gamers expect nowadays,” like uncapped frame rates and an FOV slider. This has ultimately been a longer process than expected, but 343 is determined to get the game’s launch right, especially after the troubled Xbox One launch of The Master Chief Collection.
Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary was the first Halo game released by 343 Industries after Bungie stepped away from the franchise. It’s a remaster of the original Xbox launch title, and you can switch to the original visuals at the press of a button. This Halo game has, in fact, been released for PC before–Halo: Combat Evolved came to PC in 2003, and we gave that version a 9/10 in our review. It’ll be the second game in the Collection released on PC; each game will arrive separately.
