Captain Marvel isn’t just another entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. It’s the second movie in the company’s history taking place decades in the past. The upcoming movie centers around the Earth during a very important decade, the 1990s.
Aside from the super rad ’90s-inspired website the movie got, the cast and crew came together to lament the past at a Captain Marvel junket recently. They were asked what they missed about the ’90s. Director Ryan Fleck said he missed VHS tapes, while Samuel L. Jackson simply said, “Laserdiscs.”
Director Anna Boden remembers a world where we were less connected as she talked about one thing she greatly missed: “Pay phones because then I wouldn’t have to check my email all the time,” she explained. One thing Brie Larson mentioned was butterfly clips, while Jude Law missed the band The Verve, who had a hit with their song “Freshman.”
“I wish MTV had videos again,” explained Clark Gregg. “I mean not just ’90s MC Hammer, which were awesome. But just videos, music videos.”
Since Captain Marvel takes place during this time period, you can expect a lot of references to the ’90s, but will the movie have the courage to discuss the greatest game of the decade, pogs? Or maybe there will be a scene of Nick Fury playing with some Gak. More than likely, there will be a bit of nostalgia in the film.
Niantic has announced the first details for next month’s Pokemon Go Community Day. The event is scheduled to take place on Saturday, March 23, and as usual it’ll only run for three hours. This time, however, Niantic is doing things a little differently with the event hours.
Up until now, the time that each previous Community Day took place was designated for an entire region; for instance, North America’s events would run from 11 AM – 2 PM PT. March’s event, however, will run everywhere from 3-6 PM local time. This should make it much easier to remember when the event is happening, as you won’t need to convert the event hours to your time zone as you previously had to.
Niantic has also revealed the featured Pokemon for March’s Community Day. This time, it’ll be the Gen 3 Grass-type starter Treecko. Throughout the event, Treecko will spawn more frequently in the wild than it normally does. Based on past Community Days, players will presumably also have a chance of finding a Shiny Treecko.
Moreover, if you manage to fully evolve Treecko into its final form, Sceptile, up to an hour after the Community Day ends, it’ll know a special event-exclusive move it wouldn’t be able to learn in Go otherwise. Niantic hasn’t confirmed what this move will be, but previous Grass Pokemon that have been featured during Community Days all learned Frenzy Plant.
In the meantime, Niantic has a lot of other events lined up for Pokemon Go. First, the Legendary Pokemon Latias has returned to the game for a special Raid event from February 22 to March 1. On top of that, the developer is hosting a new Limited Research event on February 23 that will give players their first chance to capture Clamperl. Niantic is also introducing a new Team Medallion item to the game next week that will let players switch teams–but only once a year.
Captain Marvel is still a couple weeks away from flying into theaters as the first Marvel Cinematic Universe movie of 2019, but we’re learning a few things about what it was like to work on the set. More specifically, what it was like to work with Reggie, the cat who plays Goose in the upcoming film.
During a press junket for Captain Marvel, the cast revealed that their lovable, furry castmate wasn’t the best to work with for the two human stars of the movie. “No, I am not a cat person,” Samuel L. Jackson explained. “But I’m also not a dog person or a fish person either… Reggie is like most animals that people bring to the set that have been trained to do this, that, or the other. He’s snack orientated. He shows off. You give him something to eat, you talk softly and nice to him, give him something to eat again. There were actually four cats, but Reggie did the majority of the heavy lifting, most of the time.”
While Jackson put aside his animal bias to be a professional on set, the other star of Captain Marvel had severe troubles working with Reggie and the three other cats who played Goose. Jackson explained that Brie Larson had more problems with the cat than he did. “Not personally,” Larson explained. “I’m severely allergic. It’s not sort of like ‘diva,’ we couldn’t work together.”
Luckily, Jackson didn’t reveal anything big this time around. Back in January, he let it slip that Captain Marvel can time travel. We’ll learn more about that and Goose’s role in the film when Captain Marvel hits theaters on March 8, but check out the first reactions to the movie on Twitter.
Only a few days remain in Season 7 of Fortnite, which means time is running out to complete any outstanding challenges from this season. If you’ve managed to finish at least 60 weekly challenges, you’ll receive the Legendary Prisoner skin, but it also has a few different variants that you can unlock by completing an additional set of hidden tasks.
As with other Season 7 content, you’ll need to complete these Prisoner challenges before the season ends next week on February 28 to unlock the different variants. The game isn’t clear as to what these tasks actually are, but they’re fairly straightforward once you know where to look.
As you can see in the image above, there are three additional variants for the Prisoner skin on top of its base look, and they must be unlocked in a specific order. The game doesn’t outright tell you where to go or what to do to unlock them, but it involves equipping the skin then visiting specific areas of the island and interacting with certain objects.
To unlock the second stage of the Prisoner skin, you’ll need to go to the castle atop Polar Peak. Land there at the beginning of a match and make your way inside to the top floor, where you’ll find a room furnished with bookcases, tables, and a fireplace. On the far table will be a key; interact with it and you’ll unlock the second stage.
To get the third stage, make your way to the desert on the other side of the island. Atop the mountain north of Paradise Palms will be a campfire (just as pictured in the week 10 Snowfall challenge loading screen). Light it and you’ll unlock the third Prisoner variant. We recommend doing this step at the start of a match, as if another player lights the campfire before you arrive, you won’t be able to use it again that round.
For the fourth and final stage, you’ll need to go to the northeastern corner of the map, to the mountain north of Wailing Woods. There you’ll find a stone pedestal of sorts ringed by a circle of torches. After you’ve unlocked stages 2 and 3, step in the center of the ring and the torches will automatically ignite, thus unlocking the final variant.
You can see exactly where you need to go to complete each stage of the Prisoner challenge on the map below.
As previously mentioned, Season 7 of Fortnite officially ends on February 28, so you have until then to complete any remaining challenges. If you need a helping hand, you can find tips and guides in our complete Season 7 challenges roundup. You’ll also want to complete all of the game’s Overtime challenges before the season ends; doing so will allow you to get the Season 8 Battle Pass for free.
You’ll shoot a lot of guns as you fly around completing missions in Anthem, but the best and most fun part of combat is using your javelin’s special abilities to execute combos with your teammates. These moves do massive damage and create status effects on enemies that can turn the tide of battle, and each kind of javelin suit gets its own benefits from a successful combo. The Ranger suit does serious damage to a single character, the Colossus creates an area-of-effect explosion, the Storm can transfer status effects to multiple enemies, and the Interceptor gets an aura that afflicts any nearby enemy.
The trouble with the combo system in Anthem is that the game isn’t super clear on how it works. We’ve got a complete combo guide to help you make the most of your javelins, but for a top-level understanding of how to execute combos, you just need to know about two things: Primers and Detonators. Primers are abilities that set up a combo; Detonators are abilities that trigger them for massive damage and other effects.
The big question is, how do you know if an ability is a Primer, a Detonator, or neither? Anthem provides that information for you when deciding what gear to add to your javelin’s loadout, if you know where to look. You’ll sometimes see an icon next to the name of a gear piece–that’s how you know if it can be used in a combo or not, and what its function is.
Primers are marked by a circle icon with a dot inside that kind of looks like a bullseye.
Detonators have icons beside them that resemble throwing stars, like an explosion.
When you use a Primer in the field, you’ll know an enemy is ready for a combo when a red icon appears next to their nameplate. The icon will also tell you what status effect the enemy is suffering from because of the Primer, like freezing or burning. Using a Detonator on enemies with those icons will trigger the combo.
It’s not a hard-and-fast rule, but you’ll want to generally try to bring a Primer ability and a Detonator ability with you on every mission. That way, you can set up combos for your teammates, complete the combos they set up, and even “self combo” where you use Detonators on your own Primers. Combos are what make Anthem fun and especially at later levels and harder difficulties, they’re essential, so make sure you’re picking the right gear for your javelin to make the most of them.
We’ve got plenty more Anthem coverage coming in the days ahead, including more guides to make you the best javelin pilot you can be. Until then, check out our Anthem review.
Anthem is very different from anything BioWare has made before. It abandons the company’s choice-driven, single-player RPG formula in favor of a multiplayer focused game. If you’ve played some of BioWare’s recent titles, like Mass Effect: Andromeda, you’ll probably recognize the action-heavy third-person shooter mechanics.
However, setting up combos in Anthem is very different from how you would in past BioWare games. This doesn’t mean combos are any less important, though. In fact, they’re probably an even more essential part of Anthem’s combat than previous BioWare titles. However, the game doesn’t do a very good job of explaining how its combo system works.
With that in mind, and the game now being available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, we’ve put together a guide on how combos work. For a more detailed impression of Anthem and how each of its systems work in tandem with each other, check out our review.
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Anthem Quick Video Review
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Priming and detonating combos isn’t necessary for beating Anthem on the easier modes, but understanding how to do so can really help when your squad is ready to tackle the game’s Grandmaster difficulties. Each Javelin also creates a different special effect when executing a combo, so know who’s piloting what to bring the most pain during Freeplay or Stronghold missions.
To combo in Anthem, you’ll first need to know which of a Javelin’s unique abilities act as a primer and which are a detonator. Primers set an enemy up for a combo. A detonator, meanwhile, will execute a combo. There are also standard abilities in the game, which neither prime nor detonate, and the Storm’s Ultimate attack–Elemental Storm–is both a primer and detonator. In-game, primers are marked in the Forge customization window with a circle icon, and detonators are identified by a four-pronged star. If you don’t see either symbol, then the ability is neither a primer or a detonator and just does damage.
Both primers and detonators can be used alone and still cause enemy damage, much like a standard weapon. However, you’ll want to execute combos as often as you can to do the most damage in the shortest amount of time. Some enemies tend to be bullet sponges and take a while to kill with firearms alone, so detonating a primer on them is a much easier way of dealing with them.
Detonating an enemy won’t remove a primer’s effect either, so you don’t have to worry about neutralizing status effects by pulling off a combo. If you freeze a group of enemies with a Ranger’s Frost Grenade, detonating the combo with a Colossus’ Lightning Coil won’t unfreeze them. You will have to prime the enemies again for another detonation, but the ice status effect remains until it naturally fades away or its melted via a fire-based attack.
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Anthem’s Ranger Javelin Has Some Neat Tricks! 10 Minutes Of Gameplay
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Because each Javelin creates its own unique special effect when it detonates an enemy, in combat, you should know when to combo and when to let a teammate take the lead. Each Javelin and their corresponding combo effect are outlined below.
Ranger — Critical Target Damage: Detonating an enemy causes more damage than any other Javelin’s detonation
Colossus — Explosion: Detonating an enemy causes an explosion which damages all nearby enemies
Storm — Spread: Detonating an enemy causes an explosion which spreads the enemy’s elemental status effect to nearby foes
Interceptor — Aura: Detonating an enemy causes its elemental status effect to imbued into your Javelin, which can then be spread to nearby targets through proximity
Each Javelin’s Role When Setting Up A Combo
Ideally, you’d have Ranger handle all of the detonations when fighting a boss, as its combo effect allows it to do the most damage on a single target. Colossus, Storm, and Interceptor, on the other hand, are great for handling mobs of enemies bunched up together.
That’s not to say these roles can’t be reversed, though. Ranger’s Ultimate, the Multi-Target Missile Battery, hits a bunch of enemies and is a detonator. If you prime a mob, you can do huge amounts of combo damage with this attack. Conversely, Storm and Interceptor’s combo effects are ideal in situations where a boss is joined by enemy mobs. Also, Colossus’ Ultimate, Siege Cannon, launches three detonators, which can do a lot of damage if your teammates can quickly prime a boss between each shot.
Each Javelin’s melee attack needs to be taken into consideration as well. The Ranger’s Shock Mace is a primer, while the Colossus’ Heavy Smash, Storm’s Fiery Strike, and Interceptor’s Bladed Daggers are all detonators.
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In Anthem, it’s good practice to have at least two loadouts for each Javelin, one for solo play and another for when you’re with others. Because when by yourself, you want a Javelin that can both easily prime and detonate so you’re not scrambling against high-powered foes. For example, it’s not the best strategy to play by yourself with a Ranger armed with Inferno Grenade and Venom Darts–both of which are primers–as then you’ll only be able to detonate a combo with the Javelin’s Ultimate. It’s a great loadout, however, when playing with another player who’s armed with a powerful detonator.
By yourself, one of the best Ranger loadouts is Frost Grenade and Seeking Missile if you prefer fighting from long range. This loadout will allow you to keep enemies in place and detonate them from afar. For close range, consider Inferno Grenade and Pulse Blast. Colossus has a devastating solo build with Lightning Coil and Flamethrower, and it’ll put you right in the enemy’s face where the Javelin can do the most damage. Interceptor, who also excels at close-range, has two solid solo loadouts: Cyro Glaive and Tempest Strike for those who prefer to shoot firearms or Venom Spray and Spark Dash if you enjoy using melee attacks and a hit-and-run playstyle. You’ve got a ton of choices for solo builds with Storm, since most of its primers and detonators are really good and can be mixed and matched.
Marvel’s current Venom comic has already dramatically rewritten the history of the symbiote, and now it’s doing the same for its host, Eddie Brock.
Warning: this article contains spoilers for Venom #11!
Much of Eddie Brock’s story over the past 15 years has been dominated by his battle with cancer. The 2003 Spectacular Spider-Man series first revealed Eddie’s cancer diagnosis, while also showing that the symbiote was drawn to Eddie specifically because it feeds on the adrenaline his sick body releases. Later, 2004’s Marvel Knights Spider-Man featured a storyline where the dying Eddie auctioned off the symbiote to the highest bidder. And even as other characters like Mac Gargan and Flash Thompson had their stints as Venom, Eddie himself found himself cured by Mister Negative and transformed into Anti-Venom.
