Dead Cells newest update, dubbed Rise of the Giant, is out now on Steam and slowly rolling out to consoles, bringing with it a ton of new content to a game that keeps getting better and better with age.
When I filed the IGN Dead Cells review last year, I thought it was one of the best action games I’d ever played, fusing breakneck speed, risk-versus-reward decision-making, and roguelike elements for something unique with an absolute ton of replay value.
And within that perfect storm of difficulty Dead Cells is known for, it’s also got an incredible tongue-in-cheek personality and is positively loaded with Easter Eggs that you might not have spotted yet, which helps alleviate some of that brutal atmosphere.
The question of whether Batman kills or not is one of the key moral quandaries in comics. Though it feels like his “No Killing” rule is a concrete part of his character it’s actually something which has shifted, evolved, and changed since the earliest days of his creation.
The debate has been reignited thanks to Zack Snyder’s recent profanity-filled comments about superheroes which included the line, “Someone says to me: Batman killed a guy. I’m like, ‘F**k, really? Wake the f**k up.'” As Snyder here implies Batman has and will always kill, we thought it would be a good time to look back at the history of the Caped Crusader and his stance on killing.
Emilia Clarke, Kit Harington and Peter Dinklage have gone on record discussing the consequences of Jon Snow and Daenerys Targaryen’s romance in the final season of Game of Thrones.
Spoiler Warning: Some spoilers for Season 8 ahead.
Via TV Insider, it’s clear Jon and Daenerys aren’t aware of their blood relationship at the beginning of Season 8, but appear to find out rather quickly – Jon (born Aegon Targaryen) is the son of Daenerys’ older brother Rhaegar Targaryen, making Jon not only the rightful heir of the Iron Throne, but Daenerys’ nephew. Fans were treated to this revelation at the end of Season 7 while the two began to consummate their relationship. Naturally, things were bound to get messy.
One of the several aspects that make Celeste a superb game is the soundtrack. Its catchy, rhythmic mix of piano and chiptune-style synths masterfully complement the game’s tone, story, and intense platforming at just the right moments. The Celeste soundtrack is also wonderful to simply listen to as a standalone album, and the remixed Piano Collections just as much. But you don’t have to take my word for it. It’s been nominated for multiple awards including Best Music at the upcoming BAFTA Game Awards, and it took home Best Audio at the 2019 GDC Awards. That’s because of the work of composer Lena Raine, and today she released her debut solo album titled Oneknowing.
Oneknowing is now available on multiple music streaming platforms such as Bandcamp, Apple Music, Spotify, Google Play, and much more. While you may recognize a few parallels between that of Celeste’s soundtrack and Raine’s new record, Oneknowing hits a more relaxing, ethereal vibe especially in the songs “Breath” and “Momodani.” Raine also sings in an expressive, artificial language with her voice modified via vocaloid software for tracks like “Tsukuyomi” and “Light Rail.”
Cover art for Lena Raine’s “Oneknowing” done by artist Erica June Lahaie (@aurahack on Twitter)
I caught up with Raine following the win for Best Audio at the GDC Awards this year and asked her about the approach in creating Celeste’s soundtrack. She said, “In a lot of ways, Celeste was sort of me finally claiming my own voice. I had been writing music for other franchises, like Guild Wars 2, that already had an established voice. And so Celeste was finally my chance to actually just go super into the kind of music that excited me. And in a lot of ways, everything that has come since then, that’s where I now need to diversify my sound and keep coming up with new things to challenge myself.”
You may have seen her performing at The Game Awards 2018 alongside renowned composers Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe. Celeste was one of GameSpot’s favorite games last year and we awarded it a spot in our 5 Best Nintendo Switch Games of 2018. In regard to the soundtrack, writer and editor Oscar Dayus said in his Celeste review, “The piano and chiptune-heavy soundtrack adapts in a similar fashion [as the art style and environments], moving from the serene to the spooky at the perfect moment, all while remaining forever catchy.”
After countless teasers and subtle misdirections over the years, developer Gearbox has finally lifted the veil over Borderlands 3. The game was revealed at the developer’s PAX East panel, which was met by as much fanfare as it was technical difficulties. Still, the game’s big debut trailer sparked excitement and a ton of questions. If you haven’t watched it already, be sure to check it out in the player above.
To catch you up on all things Borderlands 3, we’ve compiled all the latest news, features, impressions, trailers, and details we know about the game. Be sure to check back often as we update this article with even more new information about this highly anticipated loot shooter.
Borderlands 3 is the highly anticipated third game in the popular Borderlands franchise, a series whose mechanics and conventions predated many of today’s most well-known loot-based shooters, such as Destiny and The Division. Like previous games, it appears that you’ll be taking on the role of one of four treasure-seeking mercenaries known as Vault Hunters. You’ll explore the world and complete missions, which feeds into your overall skill progression and acquisition of new guns and gear. The series is predominantly known for its number of available guns; Borderlands 3 claims there are over a billion guns to collect, some of which are capable of walking and acting autonomously of its user.
Not much is know about the Borderlands 3’s overall story; though, glimpses of several returning characters and a set of new baddies called the Calypso twins seem to be setting up a much larger conflict than previous games–as noted from the variety of new planets it appears you’ll be visiting this time around.
Release Date
There’s still no confirmed release date for Borderlands 3. More details are set to be announced about the game on April 3, but it’s unclear whether or not we’ll hear a release date during that time. However, we have reason to believe the game will be out in the next year. Coinciding with the other franchise news it had to share, Gearbox has dubbed 2019 the Year of Borderlands, which may suggest Borderlands 3 will be out this year. Beyond that, Take Two has repeatedly referred to a highly anticipated sequel to a 2K franchise during past earnings reports. That game was believed to be Borderlands 3, which–if true–means it is scheduled for release between April 1, 2019, and March 31, 2020.
Playable Character Classes
The first trailer features a few familiar faces from the series’ past, but much of the focus goes to a group of four new characters in the screenshot above, which are likely the Vault Hunters you’ll get to control. Currently, it’s unclear what specific classes they correspond to or even what their names are.
The Borderlands games tend to have a mixture of traditional shooter-RPG class archetypes, like Berserker, Hunter, and Soldier. However, the series is also known to utilize several unexpected classes that mash up a variety of interesting skills and abilities. This tradition seems to continue with one of the female Vault Hunters, a Siren who showcases a skill where she summons multiple ethereal arms, possibly alluding to her being a more melee-centric character.
We got brief glimpses of the remaining three that give some detail into what they are. The robotic fella appears to have a pet Skag that follows him around, the grizzled old guy seems to be able to create doppelgangers of himself, and the helmeted girl has a D.Va-like robot that she and other Vault Hunters can jump into.
Confirmed Returning Characters
As stated, many of the series’ characters are returning in Borderlands 3, which includes folks from Borderlands 1, Borderlands 2, and spin-off Tales from the Borderlands. Despite not making an appearance in the first trailer, Gearbox has stated that characters from Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel will appear too. Below you’ll find the confirmed returning characters so far.
Brick
Claptrap
Ellie
Lady Aurelia
Lillith
Marcus
Maya
Mordecai
Moxxi
Rhys
Sir Hammerlock
Tannis
Tiny Tina
Zero
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After watching the first trailer, we had a lot of thoughts to share about how the game appears to be shaping up. Check out our breakdown of the trailer and what we think about getting a new Borderlands game in the video above.
While traditionally, blockbuster sequels tend to keep major spoilers like character deaths a secret, the cast of Dark Phoenix has no problem discussing a major death in the upcoming movie. During an interview, Nicholas Hoult was open about how said character’s death affect his role of Beast. Warning, there are spoilers for the movie ahead.
During an interview at Wondercon, the cast of Dark Phoenix were open to discussing that a major character will die in the movie. Hoult, who has played Beast in all four of the new X-Men movies, starting with First Class, explained how the death of Mystique affects his character. “[Director Simon Kinberg] told everyone that Raven dies, and that’s the relationship that’s been culminating in these last few movies for the Beast role,” Hoult explained at a roundtable interview. “So that was obviously an emotional moment. And the catalyst for Hank to depart being with Charles and the X-Men and seek redemption and revenge in different forms. So emotionally, this film’s rooted in much more realistic, family drama and that’s what makes it different from the other X-Men movies in some ways.”
Jennifer Lawrence’s Mystique will meet her fate in Dark Phoenix, which has been hinted at in previous trailers. However, back in February, Kinberg told EW that she would be dying in this latest installment. Like Hoult, Lawrence has been a staple of this franchise since 2011’s First Class as both friend and foe to Charles Xavier. However, in trailers for Dark Phoenix, Mystique seems to have taken on a leadership role on the team, as a mentor to younger mutants. It won’t go well for her though, as Jean Grey accidentally kills her while fighting with the Dark Phoenix force raging inside of her.
While Dark Phoenix is set to hit theaters on June 7, it’s had a few bumps along the way. Originally set to premiere in November 2018, it was pushed back to February 2019, then again to its June release date. Both Dark Phoenix and New Mutants–another fox X-Men movie–had reshoots last year, but at least Dark Phoenix is coming out. There is no word yet on when New Mutants will be released, if at all, even though it was originally slated to come out a year ago.
Star Citizen‘s been trudging along since it debuted on Kickstarter in 2012. Initially seeking $500,000, Cloud Imperium Games’ space-sim closed its Kickstarter campaign after accruing a little more than $2.1 million in November 2012. Some years later, the studio’s first game has exceeded well over $200 million–and the numbers keep going up. Now it’s announced the game’s biggest update should blast off this weekend.
Titled Alpha 3.5, the update includes a new city-planet, overhauled flight models, and additional character creator options. The new planet is called ArcCorp, a planet with two moons that’s “almost entirely covered in man-made structures.” Players will be able to visit the Area18 landing zone where you’ll find an NPC quest-giver who will dish out new missions.
Alpha 3.5 takes gravity into consideration, as it’s factored into planetary flight. Further, the update adds a new map called Star Marine for the squad FPS mini-game, new guns for pilots and ships, some new vehicles, and additional performance balancing and improvements.
In addition to overhauled flight mechanics and a new planet to explore, Cloud Imperium implemented a new character generator. Now, players will pick two parents when creating a new character–think the character creators from Rockstar’s GTA Online. Women will also (finally!) be playable, getting added to the character creator along with a variety of parents to pick from. Returning pilots can pick a new look and/or gender thanks to this update.
Star Citizen is available now on PC to those who backed the project. Alpha 3.5, similarly, will be available to all backers.
On the morning of March 29, 2019, a Red Dead Redemption 2AMV was shown on the news program Good Morning America. You might not have heard of it if you don’t browse TikTok, the short-form video platform colloquially known as “cursed Vine,” but that music video has, as of this writing, nearly 16 million views on YouTube and counting. It got over 80,000 views in the time it took to write this article.
The song, “Old Town Road” by rapper Lil Nas X, is at the center of both an explosively popular cowboy meme and country music drama, and it also slaps. It shot up the Billboard Hot 100 list and on Spotify and iTunes, reaching #1 on global Apple Music by March 26. It was so popular that DJs had to rip it from YouTube in order to play it on the radio. All the while, RDR2 was wrapped up in the hype–Lil Nas X tweeted on March 13 that Rockstar Games had followed him, and when he was signed by Columbia Records, he was welcomed using the Red Dead font.
“Old Town Road” debuted at #19 on the Billboard country charts, but by March 27, Billboard had confirmed that it removed “Old Town Road” from the charts because “it does not embrace enough elements of today’s country music.” This resulted in a bit of an uproar about what genre “Old Town Road” belongs in, be it country, hip-hop, or something else–though Lil Nas X listed it as a country song, and while noting that it’s not as serious, has said that it’s not simply a parody. That’s when the song really hit the mainstream, gaining attention beyond music publications and the meme-literate.
So how did this all happen? Lil Nas X, who was largely unknown before dropping the banger, uploaded “Old Town Road” in December 2018. It took off around February this year thanks in part to TikTok, where people use the opening moments of the song–right when the trap beat hits and the country drawl begins–to transform themselves or theirpets into cowboys, among other things. It often involves accidentally drinking “yeehaw” or “yeeyee juice.” (It’s what it sounds like.)
The power of teens making jokes really can’t be overstated. Compared to Vine, TikTok is currently a much more insular meme community, iterating on itself until the trends die out–often before they make it to Twitter or elsewhere. But TikTok has been responsible for songs going viral before, including the origin of the “hit or miss” meme, iLOVEFRiDAY’s “Mia Khalifa.” TikTok is also to thank for Solid Snake voice actor David Hayter saying the phrase “dummy thicc.”
Lil Nas X himself has a strong shitpost vibe on Twitter, where he recently became verified. But jokes aside, “Old Town Road” is simply a banger, and the music video is what’s good about AMVs. No yeehaw juice needed.
If you want more Red Dead 2 goofs, go ahead and check out our let’s play series Dirty Arty, where we do dirty dirty stuff as Arthur Morgan and friends. There are even multiple timelines, somehow.
Indie studio Heart Machine, founded in 2013, received a great deal of acclaim after Hyper Light Drifter releases in 2016. The 2D action-RPG found its way to the Nintendo Switch two years later with a host of new content, and now studio founder Alx Preston has revealed a TV adaptation.
According to a report by Polygon, Hyper Light Drifter will receive a TV series from Castlevania producer, Adi Shankar. Preston told Polygon that he and Shankar are actively developing the TV adaptation. No writer has been confirmed, but Preston and Shankar are actively seeking writers to lead the project. There’s also the matter of translating a semi-open world game to a TV show where there’s no interactivity with the viewer.
“The difference between a series and a game is vast in a lot of ways. Hyper Light [Drifter] as a game was pretty atmospheric and kind of overbearing at times,” Preston said. “For a series, the question is: how do you sustain and keep your attention on a non-interactive run? Does it get really, really dark and serious? Does it have some levity?”
Hyper Light Drifter the game lacks verbal, distinguishable dialogue, relying solely on world-building and environmental storytelling to tell its narrative. Preston wonders how he and Shankar will translate this to Hyper Light Drifter the TV show. “There’s still a question of how much dialogue we really have, if any. Could it be a more silent series or would we have voice acting?” he said.
Shankar expressed his love for video games as a medium and stated that he enjoys translating works by passionate creators like Preston. “It’s important for me not to just all of a sudden become the AAA junkie,” Shankar said. “To just go like, ‘OK, what are the biggest franchise, I’m going to jump on all of them.’ That’s not why I’m trying to do[with] this.”
Earlier in March 2019, Heart Machine unveiled its next project, Solar Ash Kingdom. The game features a familiar, vibrant aesthetic, but in a 3D setting. The announcement trailer didn’t divulge much information in the way of a release date or platforms, but it did conclude with the Epic Games Store tag, seemingly confirming the title will make its way to the Epic Games storefront when it launches.
Hyper Light Drifter is available now for Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, Xbox One, Linux, and macOS.
