Microsoft has announced more games coming to Xbox Games Pass in January. One of which, Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3, is already available on the subscription service.
Two more games, We Happy Few and The Lego Movie Videogame, go live on Xbox Game Pass on January 17. We Happy Few is a first-person action game where you play as three different people trying to survive in a police-state society that forces everyone to remain happy all the time by taking a mandatory drug called Joy. The Lego Movie Videogame is based on the characters and storylines of the titular movie.
On January 24, two more titles, Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Saints Row: The Third, join Xbox Game Pass. The former acts as a loose prequel to the events told in The Lord of the Rings, and delivers a memorable action-packed gaming experience with a system that causes enemy orcs to evolve based on their combat encounters with protagonist Talion. The latter marks the moment in the Saints Row franchise where the games veered off from being a GTA-look-alike and, for the better, transformed into something ridiculously wacky.
Game Pass has proven popular with players, with Xbox boss Phil Spencer claiming that “millions of subscribers” are using the service. The service offers dozens of games to subscribers for $10 USD a month, which is a pretty good deal when compared against the combined library’s full retail price. Microsoft took great strides to improve the appeal of Game Pass in 2018, such as an announcement that all first-party titles would launch on the service the day they released. This includes games like Crackdown 3, Gears 5, and Halo Infinite.
In 2018, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella teased that Game Pass will launch on PC in the future, but there hasn’t been an official announcement as to when. For now, the service is exclusive to Microsoft’s family of Xbox One consoles.
Following a report that Electronic Arts had canceled the open-world Star Wars game in development at EA Vancouver, the publisher has finally responded with a statement. Unfortunately, it doesn’t offer any real insight, though tellingly it does nothing to dispel what Kotaku’s story laid out.
“There’s been speculation overnight about one of our Star Wars projects. As a natural part of the creative process, the great work by our team in Vancouver continues and will evolve into future Star Wars content and games,” the company said in a statement shared with GameSpot. “We’re fully committed to making more Star Wars games, we’re very excited about Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order from Respawn, and we’ll share more about our new projects when the time is right.”
That is far from a denial that it’s canceled the project, which was said to be an open-world game “reboot” of what had previously been in development at the now-defunct Visceral Games. When the former Dead Space developer was shuttered, Vancouver assumed control of the project, which morphed into something quite different but would use assets from Visceral. Kotaku’s report states Vancouver is now at work on a smaller-scale Star Wars game that can be released sooner than would have been possible with the open-world game.
It’s been rough going for Star Wars games at EA, both in terms of this specific project and more broadly. Battlefront II had an extremely rough launch after players objected to the use of what was perceived as pay-to-win mechanics, which were ultimately pulled at the 11th hour, just before release.
As noted in EA’s statement, the company does have Jedi Fallen Order in development at Respawn, the studio known for the Titanfall series. Little is known about the game, which stars a young Jedi Padawan after Order 66 is carried out in Revenge of the Sith. Respawn has multiple games set for release before the end of 2019, which could include both Jedi Fallen Order and Titanfall 3. It’s also working on an unannounced VR game.
What the future holds for EA’s Star Wars games is unclear, but the company does have a licensing agreement that gives it the exclusive rights to make Star Wars games on consoles. That deal runs until 2023.
Steve Carell is returning to TV for his first starring role since leaving The Office in 2011. What’s more, he’s doing it through a new collaboration with The Office executive producer Greg Daniels. The two have created a new Netflix series called Space Force, which Carell will star in. The idea of a space force was first proposed by President Trump in 2018.
Details on the new series are scarce, but a teaser released by the streaming service hints at this definitely being a comedy. “On June 18, 2018 the federal government announced the creation of a 6th major division of the United States armed forces,” the video proclaims. “The goal of the new branch is ‘to defend satellites from attack’ and ‘perform other space-related tasks’ or something.”
The series will follow the men and women tasked with creating the space force and figuring out what exactly it does. Outside of Carell, no other casting has been announced. It will be interesting to see if any of his former The Office comrades appear alongside him in the series.
At this point, there is no official release date for the project. However, chances are it’ll debut on Netflix long before the actual real-life space force is established, which is expected to be sometime in 2020. Meanwhile, there’s still no new word on whether or not that potential revival of The Office is going to happen.
Things are in a precarious state in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Technically, we’re waiting on the resolution of the events of Avengers: Infinity War, which are getting wrapped up in Avengers: Endgame on April 26. But anybody could have guessed that Thanos’s victory in Infinity War, which resulted in half the life of the universe ceasing to exist, wouldn’t last forever, and beloved characters would come back from the brink to appear in more movies. With the release of the first teaser trailer for Spider-Man: Far From Home, that assumption is essentially confirmed: Peter Parker will return, despite the snap.
The cool thing about the MCU, however, is that events have left some indelible marks on its characters. The heroes might have stopped the Chitauri invasion in The Avengers back in 2012, but the experience left Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) afflicted with PTSD, which has affected every decision he’s made since then. The events of the Battle of New York in The Avengers led Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) to steal alien weapons in Spider-Man: Homecoming, kicking off the events of that movie. And everything that happened in Avengers: Age of Ultron altered global politics so completely that it led to Captain America: Civil War, which broke up the Avengers and brought Black Panther and Wakanda onto the world stage.
The characters of the MCU successfully stop world-ending catastrophes and defeat villains, but they’re always the worse for wear. In the cases of people like Thor, Black Widow, Captain America, War Machine, and Iron Man, the effects of everything they’ve seen and done are adding up. So yes, the events of Infinity War are going to get undone–but everything we’ve seen of the MCU so far suggests the impacts of those events are going to remain to inform the MCU’s characters. The snap might not last, but it definitely will matter.
So now we come to Far From Home, which brings Spider-Man (Tom Holland) back to Earth after his stint in space in Infinity War and his disintegration after Thanos (Josh Brolin) made his wish. Marvel Studios boss Kevin Feige has confirmed Far From Home takes place after Endgame. And that means the trailer might include some hints as to what effect Infinity War has had on its characters.
The biggest change in the Far From Home trailer is Peter Parker’s distance from being Spider-Man. The setup for the movie is a school summer trip to Europe for Peter, Ned (Jacob Batalon), MJ (Zendaya), and the rest of their school friends. Early on, Peter chooses to leave his Spider-Man suit behind in New York rather than bring it with him. Dialogue from Peter gives us his state of mind: He just wants to go and enjoy the trip as a regular kid. Later remarks from Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) suggest that Spidey needs to be coaxed into using his abilities as a hero again.
That’s a far cry from where we saw Spider-Man in both Homecoming and Infinity War. In Homecoming, Peter was desperate for the opportunity to become an Avenger, and while he later decided to stick to being a small-scale neighborhood Spider-Man, he still was excited for the chance to be that hero; he even fights his way back aboard the Maw’s spaceship in Infinity War after Stark tries to leave him behind. It’s a big shift for Spidey to be finding opportunities to put the suit aside.
In the wake of Infinity War, though, Peter’s state of mind makes sense. After all, literally ceasing to exist after losing a fight for the universe is likely to have a sobering effect, just like nearly dying messed with Tony for years. Far From Home looks like it’ll be dealing with a Peter who’s thinking about his life without Spider-Man. While the story of Spider-Man is often about the push and pull between his civilian life and his great power and great responsibility, the post-Infinity War Spidey is a character we’ve never seen on film before. It seems Spider-Man is grappling with being a superhero who might be having second thoughts, and it seems very unlikely that a pep talk from Nick Fury is going to be the end of Peter’s misgivings after his traumatic experience on Titan.
That brings us to Nick Fury. The former leader of SHIELD has been more or less out of the picture since Captain America: The Winter Soldier, when he was nearly killed by HYDRA agents who had infiltrated the organization. SHIELD was disbanded and Fury went into hiding. He’s showed up once or twice to help the Avengers, but for the most part, Fury hasn’t been much of a player in the MCU for years.
We know Fury has still been keeping tabs on things, and in the world after Thanos, it looks like he’s returned to a much more active role. Fury started the Avengers Initiative specifically to deal with threats like Thanos, so in the wake of nearly losing half the universe to a nearly invincible alien, one would expect him to redouble his efforts to protect Earth. That probably means recruiting people like Spidey once again, consolidating power, and preparing for the next threat. It could even mean that Fury is looking to rebuild something like SHIELD.
Seeing Fury running around, talking to superheroes again, raises some questions about what his role will be going forward and why. There’s some speculation that Tony Stark and/or Captain America (Chris Evans) will die in Endgame (both actors’ contracts only extends to Avengers 4, and Evans has already talked about moving on from his role), which could leave Fury as the de facto leader of Earth’s mightiest in the MCU. But like Spider-Man, we can bet that Fury’s experiences, like the infiltration of SHIELD by its greatest enemies, are going to have a profound effect on what he does in the future.
It’s tough to make many more guesses without more information about the story of Far From Home, but there are things in the trailer that could be providing more hints. Take Mysterio for example: Some of the most plausible-seeming theories about the character, who is a longtime Spider-Man villain in the comics but appears in a heroic role in the trailer, is that he’s using his illusory powers to create the threats he’s then defeating. If Mysterio’s goal really is to paint himself as a superhero, one might guess that’s a response to Infinity War as well. Maybe Mysterio is some kind of superhero profiteer, using the trauma of Infinity War to make himself famous, rich, or both. Or maybe he’s just some guy searching for some measure of control in a world where genocidal aliens can kill half of everyone you know with a snap, and your only hope is that a variety of super-powered randos will manage to stop it. Maybe Mysterio is the first of a new trend of people trying to brute-force themselves into being superheroes, lest they find themselves vanishing into oblivion when the next Thanos shows up.
It does seem like Spider-Man: Far From Home will give us a sense of how the MCU is coping with the aftermath of Infinity War, on both the large and small scale, though. While it’s tough to know exactly what that’ll look like, the MCU’s history of fully exploring the consequences of its events should mean that, even though the Avengers might eventually save the universe from Thanos, not everything will go back to the way it was before the Mad Titan arrived.
Check Point security researchers discovered vulnerabilities in Epic Games’ website, which could have been used to hack into someone’s Fortnite account. According to CNET, the researchers found the exploit in November 2018, and it was subsequently fixed by Epic this month.
“We were made aware of the vulnerabilities and they were soon addressed. We thank Check Point for bringing this to our attention. As always, we encourage players to protect their accounts by not reusing passwords and using strong passwords, and not sharing account information with others,” an Epic Games spokesperson said.
Unfortunately, the exploit was not one that could have been avoided via constant password changes. The vulnerability existed through an unsecured URL that was first created in 2004 for an old Unreal Tournament records page. Before the page was deactivated, a hacker could have used it to take advantage of the access tokens a player might use to log into Epic Games’ servers, and their Fortnite account as a result as well. The hackers wouldn’t even need to know the player’s Epic Game’s password either, as the exploit takes advantage of any corresponding accounts that the player might use to log in, such as Facebook, Google, or Xbox Live. When completed, the exploit allows someone to listen in on the victim’s conversations with other players and also purchase in-game items with the hacked person’s credit card.
“Even if you [had] a security product looking for anti-phishing, it wouldn’t catch [the hack] because it’s coming from a legitimate domain,” Check Point head of products vulnerability research Oded Vanunu said. Vanunu went on to encourage players to enable two-factor authentication for their Epic accounts. Doing so won’t protect you from all forms of hacking attempts, but it will help protect you from people trying to get at your account through access tokens. Epic seemingly agrees, as the company released a free Fortnite emote for players who enable two-factor authentication.
“Token hijacking is something that is happening on all major platforms,” Vanunu continued. “We are starting to see malicious attackers looking for tokens more.”
Ubisoft has announced that the private beta for Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 will begin in early February.
The beta will last from February 7-10. Players can gain access to the beta by pre-ordering the game or by registering for limited spaces through The Division’s website. While details weren’t given, the beta will allow for players to “Experience the dangers of post-pandemic Washington, DC.”
A new story trailer was also released by Ubisoft today, which begins with the lines: “After we survived the initial attack in New York, our capitol needed us. But with the country slipping into civil war, who can we trust?” It goes on to describe that those left by the beginning of The Division 2 survived the viral outbreak that crippled America, but the struggle is far from over.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is currently in theaters in Australia. It opens in the UK on Feb. 1 and in the US on Feb. 22.
How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World is a fantastic finale for the film franchise and a poignant farewell to this beautiful realm of humans and dragons. Seeing these characters evolve over the past two films to where they are in The Hidden World feels not only believable but deeply emotional and weighty as well.
The Hidden World takes place one year after the second film, which means there aren’t as many massive changes like the five-year jump between How to Train Your Dragon 1 and 2. While the main characters are still massive goofs, they also feel more like burgeoning adults now. Everyone’s been riding, fighting, and living alongside their dragons for at least six years so they’re a more capable bunch now (well, most of the time). Meanwhile, their home, Berk, has grown into a ridiculously overcrowded viking/dragon utopia.
Ubisoft has announced a private beta for The Division 2, which will give players their first look at the new setting. The private beta will kick off on February 7 and run through February 10. It will be open to everyone who pre-ordered the game and then registered through the official site, where you can also pick your beta platform of choice.
More details on the beta are said to be coming soon, but we can glean some details from what we already know. The Division 2 continues the story of a society-disrupting pandemic, but moves from the first game’s setting in New York City to the US capital, Washington DC. The sequel will bring back the realistic loot-driven RPG elements from the first game, with more focus on player choice to impact the world.
The first game established that a pandemic was spread by infected dollar bills distributed during Black Friday shopping, at which point the Division was dispatched to restore order and contain the outbreak. They apparently failed, however, and now Washington DC is a hollowed-out husk, so the secret government agency is being put back into the field.
The Division 2 on PC will be using the newly launched Epic Games Store for distribution rather than Steam, and Ubisoft recently revealed its system requirements. It’s coming on March 15 for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Check out our pre-order guide for more details.
Dragon Ball FighterZ‘s season pass wrapped up back in September with the release of Android 17, but it appears that a new DLC character is on the way to the fighting game. Ahead of the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals this weekend, Bandai Namco teased that “the Warrior from Universe 11 is joining the fight.”
No further details about the upcoming DLC character have been revealed yet, but Bandai Namco is presumably referring to Jiren, one of the Pride Troopers hailing from the aforementioned universe and the most formidable foe Goku and his companions faced off against during the Tournament of Power in Dragon Ball Super. The publisher says it will reveal more information during the World Tour Finals, which take place on January 26-27.
If Jiren is indeed added to the roster, he would mark the ninth DLC character released for Dragon Ball FighterZ. Bandai Namco hasn’t teased if any other additional fighters are also planned for the game, but this does open the doors for a second season of DLC, which hopefully means there’s still a chance Master Roshi can join the fight.
Dragon Ball FighterZ first launched for PS4, Xbox One, and PC last January, with a Nintendo Switch version following this past September. We awarded it a 9/10 in our Dragon Ball FighterZ review, calling it “a Dragon Ball fighting game that can go toe-to-toe with the best of the genre.”
In addition to the new Dragon Ball FighterZ character, Bandai Namco announced that a new Dragon Ball game is in development. The publisher didn’t share any details beyond that, but we’ll likely learn more about it during the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals later this month.
