Month: February 2019

Are you running out of new things to watch on Hulu? If so, how? March is almost here, and that means a whole bunch of new content for you to take in. From movies you know and love to brand-new Hulu originals, there is something for you.

March 1 is when Hulu has a massive dump of movies, some of which you may have seen and others that may have passed you by, and there are a lot of films dropping you’ll want to watch. If you’re a Batman fan, then you’re in for a treat. Both Batman Begins and The Dark Knight are coming to Hulu. Once again, you can watch Heath Ledger’s performance as the Joker in the Batman sequel, and it’s still–to this day–the best Batman movie.

If you’re looking for something a bit more light-hearted, then how about a gentleman talking out of his butt? Both Ace Ventura movies hit the service on March 1, so you can watch Jim Carrey search for animals and make references to The Crying Game. If you want something a tad less silly, but need a Jim Carrey fix, Yes Man also hits the service that day. It’s Liar Liar but Carrey’s character has to say “Yes” to everything.

While there is a lot coming to Hulu in March, there is also a lot leaving. On March 31, Hulu waves goodbye to Hollywood classics like Mortal Kombat and Mortal Kombat: Annihilation. Jokes aside, a bunch of Stephan King movies are leaving, so you may want to check them out before it’s too late: Pet Semetary, Graveyard Shift, Silver Bullet, and Thinner.

If you’re looking for more arrivals from your favorite streaming services, check out what Netflix and Amazon have coming in March. And below, you’ll find what’s coming to Hulu.

Coming to Hulu in March

Available March 1

• Drifters: Complete Season 1 (Funimation)
• Into The Dark: Treehouse: Episode 6 Premiere (Hulu Original)
• Rick Steves’ Europe: Complete Season 10 (PBS)
• 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag (1997)
• Abduction (2011)
• Ace Ventura: Pet Detective (1994)
• Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995)
• Alex & Emma (2003)
• American Beauty (1999)
• An American Haunting (2006)
• Astro Boy (2010)
• Basic Instinct 2: Risk Addiction (2006)
• Batman Begins (2005)
• Black Sheep (1996)
• Blast from the Past (1999)
• Boomerang (1992)
• Breakheart Pass (1975)
• Bruce Almighty (2003)
• Bushwhacked (1995)
• The Chumscrubber (2005)
• The Cider House Rules (1999)
• The Crying Game (1992)
• The Dark Knight (2008)
• Death at a Funeral (2007)
• Deuces Wild (2002)
• Dirty Work (1998)
• The Dogs of War (1981)
• Double Jeopardy (1999)
• Easy Rider (1969)
• Edward Scissorhands (1990)
• Fire in the Sky (1993)
• The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981)
• He Named Me Malala (2015)
• Heaven’s Gate (1981)
• I, Dolours (2018)
• The Ice Storm (1997)
• Impostor (2001)
• Inventing the Abbotts (1996)
• Ironweed (1987)
• It’s Arbor Day, Charlie Brown (1976)
• JFK (1991)
• Jumanji (1995)
• Legally Blondes (2009)
• Lego Batman: DC Super Heroes Unite (2013)
• Lego DC Comics Super Heroes: The Flash (2018)
• The Mighty Quinn (1989)
• Nacho Libre (2006)
• Not Another Teen Movie (2001)
• Office Space (1999)
• Open Season (2006)
• Open Season 2 (2009)
• Open Season 3 (2011)
• Open Season: Scared Silly (2016)
• Ouija House (2018)
• Ouija Séance: The Final Game (2018)
• Perfect Creature (2005)
• The Piano (1993)
• The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984)
• Rambo III (1988)
• Reasonable Doubt (2014)
• Red Corner (1997)
• Red Dragon (2002)
• Regarding Henry (1991)
• Return of the Living Dead 3 (1993)
• Return of the Living Dead 4: Necropolis (2006)
• Return of the Living Dead 5: Rave to the Grave (2007)
• River’s Edge (1987)
• S.F.W. (1995)
• Saved! (2004)
• Shaolin Warrior (2013)
• Small Soldiers (1998)
• Summer Catch (2001)
• Tapeheads (1988)
• Toys (1992)
• Tristan & Isolde (2003)
• Two Weeks Notice (2002)
• Vice (2015)
• W. (2008)
• Waterworld (1995)
• What a Girl Wants (2003)
• What Lies Beneath (2000)
• What’s the Worst That Could Happen? (2001)
• Witness (1985)
• Yes Man (2008)

Available March 4

• American Idol: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)
• Cosmos: Possible Worlds: Series Premiere (FOX)
• Good Girls: Season 2 Premiere (NBC)

Available March 5

• A Frozen Christmas 3 (2018)
• The Closet (“Le Placard”) (2001)
• Where Hands Touch (2018)

Available March 6

• MasterChef Junior: Season 7 Premiere (FOX)
• Mental Samurai: Series Premiere (FOX)
• Available March 7
• Dudes (1987)
• Rock ‘n’ Roll High School (1979)
• Suburbia (1983)

Available March 8

• A.P. Bio: Season 2 Premiere (NBC)
• For The People: Season 2 Premiere (ABC)
• Hang Ups: Complete Season 1 (Fremantle)
• I Can Only Imagine (2018)

Available March 9

• Keeping Up with the Kardashians: Complete Season 15 (E!)

Available March 10

• Black Clover: Complete Season 1 (Dubbed) (Funimation)
• Middle Men (2009)

Available March 11

• The Party’s Just Beginning (2018)

Available March 12

• Acrimony (2018)
• Trigger (2018)

Available March 13

• Free Solo (2018)

Available March 14

• Shoplifters (2018)

Available March 15

• Shrill: Complete Season 1 Premiere (Hulu Original)
• Like Water for Chocolate (1992)
• No Way Out (2018)
• The Fog (2005)
• Wings of the Dove (1997)

Available March 16

• Tea with the Dames (2018)

Available March 17

• Divide and Conquer (2018)

Available March 18

• Assassination Nation (2018)

Available March 19

• Fear the Walking Dead: Complete Season 4 (AMC)
• Juda: Complete Season 1 (Banijay)
• The Fix: Series Premiere (ABC)
• A Frozen New Year’s (2018)

Available March 20

• The Act: Series Premiere (Hulu Original)
• The Village: Series Premiere (NBC)
• Girl Most Likely (2013)

Available March 21

• Pretty Little Liars: The Perfectionists: Series Premiere (Freeform)
• The Last Race (2018)

Available March 22

• Cardinal: Complete Season 3 (CTV)

Available March 24

• Catfish: Season 7, Episodes 1-28 (MTV)

Available March 26

• Dr. K’s Exotic Animal E.R.: Season 7 Premiere (National Geographic)
• A Cam Life (2018)

Available March 27

• Monsters and Men (2018)

Available March 29

• Abby’s: Series Premiere (NBC)
• The Domestics (2017)

Available March 30

• Chef Flynn (2018)

Leaving Hulu in March

March 31

• 54 (1998)
• 10 Years (2011)
• 2 Days in the Valley (1996)
• 9 to 5 (1980)
• A Fish Called Wanda (1988)
• A Simple Plan (1998)
• Babe (1995)
• Bad Santa (2003)
• Bangkok Dangerous (2008)
• Battle for Haditha (2008)
• Bend it Like Beckham (2003)
• Brothers (2009)
• Bulletproof Monk (2003)
• Cake (2006)
• Capitalism: A Love Story (2010)
• Chinatown (1974)
• Christmas Town (2008)
• Come Simi (2016)
• Cujo (1983)
• Dark Blue (2003)
• Deep Blue Sea (1999)
• Dirty Pretty Things (2002)
• Dream the Impossible (2016)
• Dreamland (2007)
• East is East (1999)
• Extraction (2015)
• Fifteen and Pregnant (1998)
• Finding Neverland (2004)
• Fly Me to the Moon (2008)
• Forces of Nature (1999)
• Friday Night Lights (2004)
• Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953)
• Gimme Shelter (2014)
• Grizzly Man (2005)
• Into The West (2005)
• Kickboxer (1989)
• Kiss the Dragon (2001)
• Kurt and Courtney (1998)
• Lara Croft: Tomb Raider (2001)
• Mortal Kombat (1995)
• Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997)
• New York Minute (2004)
• Once Bitten (1985)
• Pacific Warriors (2015)
• Patch Adams (1998)
• Penelope (2008)
• Pet Sematary (1989)
• Pet Sematary II (1992)
• Rain Man (1988)
• Rent (2005)
• Right at Your Door (2007)
• Sabrina (1995)
• Sahara (2005)
• Scent of a Woman (1992)
• Skipped Parts (2001)
• Stephen King’s Graveyard Shift (1990)
• Stephen King’s Silver Bullet (1985)
• Stephen King’s Thinner (1996)
• Stranger than Fiction (2000)
• Teaching Mrs. Tingle (1999)
• Three Kings (1999)
• To Grandmother’s House We Go (1992)
• Tombstone (1993)
• Total Recall (1990)
• True Grit (1969)
• Tumbledown (2016)
• Twilight (2008)
• Valkyrie (2008)
• Wedding Crashers (2005)
• What’s Cooking? (2000)
• Wild Bill (1995)
• Words and Pictures (2013)

Fortnite Season 8, Week 1’s challenges are live now. Among them are a couple that will be tricky, primarily because the new world event has changed the way the island looks and introduced new areas. The first of these difficult challenges is available to everyone and asks players to visit the new Pirate Camps. The other, however, is exclusive to those that have paid for a Battle Pass and involves visiting three giant faces that are hidden around the map.

Specifically, these faces can be found in the desert, the jungle, and the snow. Now, the areas of the map these correspond to are fairly obvious, given that the Fortnite island is split up into distinct biomes. However, each of these locations are pretty big, so you could end up aimlessly running around looking for them. Fear not! We’ve done the challenge and have put together a map that shows you exactly where to go. Take a look at it below. Remember that you don’t have to do anything special when you get there, simply gaze in wonder at it for a brief period and then move on.

Giant Face In Desert, Jungle, Snow Locations

• East of Sunny Steps
• South of Paradise Palms
• South east of Happy Hamlet

If you haven’t already seen it, make sure to read the Fortnite update 8.0’s full patch notes. This has all the information you need on the new weapon that has been added as well as those that have been vaulted. There’s also details on the limited time modes and a new feature that lets players group up with friends to complete challenges together. We also have a Battle Pass explainer, if you need a bit more information on how you can unlock the skins and other cosmetics. You can also take a look at the cool new skins for Season 8, as well as all the other cosmetics in our Fortnite Season 8 Battle Pass cosmetics gallery.

The final season of Game of Thrones is now just over two months away, and while a full trailer is yet to be released, HBO is definitely increasing its marketing in the build-up. Following the new footage from Season 8 that was revealed during the Oscars this week, a series of new characters have been released.

Like the character images revealed earlier this month, they don’t exactly tell us what to expect from the new season, but they’re still pretty stylish. There’s 20 of them in total, and show all the main cast sitting on the show’s iconic Iron Throne. Check them out below:

In terms of what we do know about Season 8, this week’s new footage showed Daenerys’s lethal Unsullied army of eunuchs arriving at Winterfell, along with her dragon Drogon. A cryptic first teaser was released in January, and while that didn’t contain any actual footage, it did hint at the fates of members of the Stark family.

We also know the big battle in the new season is the largest in the entire series, and that creator George RR Martin won’t have a cameo in Season 8, despite showrunners D.B. Weiss and David Benioff asking him to appear. It premieres on HBO on April 14.

Although Game of Thrones is nearing the end, there is a prequel spin-off on the way. X-Men: First Class’ Jane Goldman will serve as showrunner and has developed the story with Martin. This week it was revealed that the show will start filming early this summer.

While it’s yet to receive an official title, Martin suggested last year that it would be called The Long Night. He subsequently walked that back, perhaps due to pressure from HBO that didn’t want that name shared yet. In any event, it does provide some insight into what to expect. It is expected to premiere in 2020 or 2021.

One week after its official launch, BioWare is planning major revisions to the loot drops in its latest game, Anthem. In a lengthy post on Reddit, the studio summarized the pieces of feedback it has received from the community, as well as what an imminent update will do about them.

BioWare identified a few key takeaways from its first week. Players feel inscriptions are too random and not useful for the item they’re attached to, which leads to repeatedly seeking different masterwork items to find one with a good matching inscription. This has led to requests for more masterwork drops, or more useful inscriptions.

In response, the studio plans to do both. In an update set to drop February 28 or March 1, inscriptions for items will better match the items they’re on, and masterworks will come more readily. The better inscriptions will only apply to newly found items, not ones already in your Vault. Crafting materials for a masterwork will reduce from 25 embers to 15, letting players craft them more easily. Finally, uncommon (white) and common (green) drops will be removed from level 30 drop tables entirely.

On the whole, these changes seem aimed at getting players better loot faster and easier. That should help ease one of the common complaints about the game, that getting the best gear in the post-game can turn into a grind. Coming just one week after launch, it also shows that BioWare is willing to be pretty nimble with its updates.

BioWare’s take on the loot shooter has received mixed reviews on GameSpot sister site Metacritic, and in our own Anthem review.

“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,” wrote critic Kallie Plagge. “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.”

If you’re just getting started, check out our essential tips and consider playing solo. Or if you haven’t picked up a copy yet, it’s received a price drop on PS4.

The new season of Fortnite has officially started, which means new challenges to do. The way it works hasn’t changed from previous season–though developer Epic Games has overhauled the interface so it looks slick and modern. As always, you’ll need to complete challenges to unlock Battle Stars, which level up the Battle Pass and give you new cosmetics. Among Season 8, Week 1’s challenges is one which asks players to visit all the Pirate Camps.

These camps are new for the season, as they have just appeared alongside the arrival of the pirates. This means you’ll need to spend some time running around the island trying to locate them. All you need to do is visit one to progress towards completing the challenge, but there’s a total of seven, so it could take some time and effort.

To speed things up for you, however, we’ve put together a quick guide that will direct you to exactly where these camps are located. Simply use the map below, head to the marked locations, and you’ll be done in no time. The fastest way to do it is to jump off the Battle Bus and land at one location, get yourself killed, and then repeat.

Fortnite Pirate Camp Locations

• North west of Lazy Lagoon
• Just south of the volcano
• North west of Paradise palms
• South of Salty Springs
• West of Dusty Divot
• South west of Tilted Towers
• West of Pleasant Park

Epic Games has released Fortnite update 8.0’s full patch notes, so you can get more information on everything that has changed for Season 8, as well as some of the new additions for it. The new season brings with it a fresh Battle Pass and some very cool new skins.

We’ve put together an image gallery that shows off all the cosmetics in the Fortnite Season 8 Battle Pass. Epic Games previously estimated that it will take players between 75 and 150 hours to unlock all the new cosmetics in a Battle Pass, so we suggest taking a loot to see what’s included before committing, and doing that will also help you prioritize.

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After seven mainline games in the Yakuza franchise, and having grown so close to series protagonist Kazuma Kiryu and his rollercoaster of a life, stepping into his hometown of Kamurocho without him didn’t feel right. But Ryu ga Gotoku Studios’ new game, Judgment, thrusts you back into the red-light district as Takayuki Yagami, a lawyer-turned-private eye, whose detective sensibilities spin a fresh perspective on a place we’ve seen so many times. And after two hours of hands-on with the localized version, I’ve come to appreciate seeing a familiar town in a new light, not to mention investigating the ongoing drama of Kamurocho’s criminal underworld.

It takes some time to adjust and accept Yagami, especially when I pass by the old Serena bar and Millenium Tower, or stop by the Sega Arcade in Theater Square and Don Quijote off Nakamichi street. These are the spots I’ve been to countless times as Kiryu, and a sense of nostalgia hit me as I was playing. However, the book’s been closed on the Dragon of Dojima and with a heavy introduction to Yagami’s own tumultuous life and how he ties into the overarching Yakuza narrative, I can’t help but buy into what Judgment is trying to do.

Takayuki Yagami (left), Masaharu Kaito (right), two misfits from opposite ends of justice whose circumstances have them caught in the middle.

New Stories From An Old City

In many ways, it’s the same old seedy Kamurocho–modeled after Kabukicho in Shinjuku, Tokyo–mainly because it’s literally the same map and assets from Yakuza X. Low-level goons trying to flex, shady types looking to swindle you, and thugs ready to fight fill the streets. But that’s only the backdrop to Yagami’s story. In a flashback, it’s established that he’d been a lawyer with Genda Law Firm in Kamurocho, and successfully defended one Shinpei Okubo, who Yagami seems to have a personal connection with. After being found not guilty, Okubo subsequently stabs his girlfriend and burns down their apartment; this is as it appears in the introductory cutscene, but knowing Yakuza games, there’s certainly more to this particular story.

Fast-forward three years later, Yagami left the life of a lawyer to work as a private investigator, trading in his suit for a sweet pair of skinny jeans and slick leather jacket, if he’s not in disguise. He stays close to his former associates at Genda Law who remain integral to the story, even taking on jobs for his old boss. Old cohorts aside, Yagami works alongside his partner Masaharu Kaito–the beefy, well-dressed right-hand-man who can hold his own against mobs of bad guys. He’s also ex-yakuza and was previously booted from the Tojo Clan for reasons currently unknown. Two misfits from opposite ends of justice whose circumstances have them caught in the middle.

Even the central drama pulls from what we already know; the Kansai-based Omi Alliance encroaches on the Tojo Clan’s turf yet again, but Omi goons are found murdered throughout Kamurocho, inexplicably with their eyes gouged out. Thus, the first chapter titled “Three Blind Mice” gets you involved in one of Judgement’s deeper mysteries. It leads to another web of characters who all seem to be building up to have roles in a larger conspiracy, setting the pieces for a potential plot twist down the road. One of them being Kyohei Hamura, a captain in the Tojo Clan’s Matsugane Family, who’s suspected of committing one of the said murders–and Yagami must help defend him.

I didn’t get to see the conclusion to this particular story thread, but I picked up some interesting bits along the way that painted a clearer picture of where Yagami fits in. He’s presented as a stand-up fellow and doesn’t appear to have any burning desire or motivation to help either side in this endless gang war, but does some basic (and shady) debt collecting for the Matsugane family to make ends meet. But Prior to Hamura’s arrest, it’s said that patriarch Matsugane had paid for Yagami’s law school tuition to defend Okubo in return; the aforementioned incident three years ago. As I inched closer to the truth in this early chapter and wondered how Yagami will handle the truth, the more complicated pieces started to fall in place.

With all the narrative juggling you’ll be doing and Yagami’s dynamic role as a veteran investigator and hardened fighter, it’s a sensibility that also pours into Judgment’s gameplay.

You Can’t Fight Your Way Through Every Problem

Compared to most Yakuza games, Judgment’s main story has you doing a bit more than beating dudes to a pulp before reaching an often respectful resolution. The opening hours give you a taste of the different phases of a typical mission. In one phase, you’ll follow a suspect in one of those tailing sequences where you fail if you get too close or stray too far from the target. In another, you’ll examine your immediate surroundings to gather evidence within a confined location for a case you’re investigating. At other times, you’ll engage in chases on foot a la Yakuza 3, 4, and 5 where you pursue a suspect and avoid obstacles to catch them before they escape. There’s also a phrase of talking to bystanders at key locations to hopefully obtain witness accounts that bring you closer to solving the case at hand.

On their own, these in-between sequences haven’t been all that great yet, and if anything, simply break up the pace of what we’ve come to expect. One thing that seems to stand above the rest is the addition of a more dynamic dialogue tree. These don’t necessarily influence the story’s outcomes the same way many modern RPGs do, but they put you in position to lead conversations and play at least a small part in digging out information and piecing evidence. By nature of taking the role of an investigator, you’re more inquisitive about the surrounding environment and the people within it. So much so that you can form bonds with some characters; we’re hoping for Persona-style social links, but we’ll have to wait to see how far this’ll take us.

Judgment’s added layer of investigation breaks up the pace and makes you think of story events a bit differently.

When it’s time to throw down, the series’ tried-and-true beat ’em up combat resurfaces, using a near identical control scheme. Yagami plays reminiscent of the footloose financier Shun Akiyama (playable in Yakuza 4 and 5), who relies more on agile kicks and acrobatics than haymakers and brutal throws. His high-flying fighting style also feeds into the EX Actions (formerly Heat Actions) in which you’ll see Yagami wall-jumping to deliver a devastating knee or follow up a roundhouse with a swinging double kick through a doorway. Although I was only able to mess with the demo’s available EX Actions, scrolling through the upgrades menu reveals even more stylish attacks–I get the feeling that Judgment’s humorous side may shine here (I mean, we saw Yagami kickflip a skateboard to kick a dude in the face in a previous trailer). Yagami gives off an air of parkour-influenced swagger as opposed to Kiryu’s traditional absurd brutality that I, and I suspect many others, will be onboard for.

Downtime And Minigames

As expected, minigames are found around the corners of the sandbox of Kamurocho, mainly at the Club Sega right in the heart of Kamurocho’s Theater Square. ‘Kamuro of the Dead’ delivers a light gun-style experience that throws back to House of the Dead and sparked thoughts of the ridiculous spinoff Yakuza: Dead Souls. And the smaller things like the dart boards and UFO Catcher crane game are still around. But the adorable plushies you pluck out of it serve a slightly bigger purpose: you can now decorate your office space with them. Yagami lives in his office and sleep on the couch as if he (like his fighting style) was pulled straight of the Akiyama template. And in this office, you can put your own flair on it with cute stuffed cats, office plants, and Super Monkey Ball monkeys–a nod to director Toshihiro Nagoshi’s pre-Yakuza claim to fame.

You’ll still find Club Sega down by Theater Square with plenty of arcade games to play!

Sadly, karaoke isn’t present in Judgment. The rhythm-based minigame that brought so many beautiful and hilarious moments throughout the Yakuza series was said to not be a great fit for Judgment and its characters. It’d also be pretty difficult getting new Yagami’s voice actors Greg Chun (English) and Takuya Kimura (Japanese) to sing karaoke songs in the voice over booths in a way that makes sense for both languages.

A New Watermark For The Series’ Localization

For the first time in Ryu ga Gotoku Studios’ history, its game will feature dual audio; you’ll have the option for the English or Japanese voice track with separate subtitles for each. It’s a new challenge for Sega’s localization team that’s been renowned for its stellar work on bringing the current generation of Yakuza games to the West with their original spirit in tact. While I find the Japanese voice work to be the best fit, the English voices left me pleasantly surprised, especially with the extra effort made to animate proper lip-syncing for a separate script.

Prominent anime and video game voice actors were brought on for Judgment; alongside Greg Chun in the lead role are Matthew Mercer, Max Mittelman, Yuri Lowenthal, Cherami Leigh, and SungWon “ProZD” Cho to name a few. Having spent some time with the English track, I began to ease into it and found myself brought into the story all the same. Having this option opens the door for those who’ve always wanted a dubbed version.

Saori Shirosaki works at Genda Law, and isn’t one for words, but will gladly scarf down dorayaki.

Awaiting Judgment

Judgment is tempered in a way that fits what the game is going for. No longer are you navigating the ranks of a yakuza clan or sorting out your own family drama while taking breaks to hit the dance floor or belt out a few songs at the karaoke bar. I’ll miss that, it’s what made Yakuza’s story and characters full of life. The masterful fluctuation between absurdity and melodrama takes a back seat, at least that’s how it appears.

There are a lot of new faces, and keeping track of who’s who comes part-and-parcel, and even with just two hours with the game, there’s still plenty of detail I haven’t laid out here. But if I’ve learned anything from seven Yakuza entries, it’s that Ryu ga Gotoku Studios makes good on the details it throws into its games. Judgment provides a fresh perspective of a familiar setting. It may not be a Yakuza game by name, but the spirit seems to still be there. You can investigate Kamurocho’s latest crimes as Takayuki Yagami in Summer 2019 when Judgment launches exclusively for PlayStation 4.

Ape Out is, at heart, a game about jazz. The soundtrack is crafted by your improvised actions as you careen a runaway ape through the game’s levels, leaving a path of destruction and bloodshed in your wake. It’s high energy and exciting, even if, by the end, it feels like you’re playing the same basic tunes over and over.

It’s a very simple game, at least in terms of how it’s played–You’re an ape, and you must run through each level without getting blown up or shot three times by human enemies. The camera is positioned above you, giving you a Hotline Miami-esque omnipotence when it comes to where your enemies are positioned. You can push enemies, who will splat and die if they hit a solid object, or you can grab them, at which point they’ll fire at least one shot from their gun straight forward, hopefully into another person. A grabbed enemy can be thrown with more precision, which is especially handy if they’re wearing an explosive pack, which will blow up and take out anything within its blast radius. You’ll spend most of your time running forward, smacking enemies as you go, occasionally snaking away to avoid a mob or stopping to rip a steel door off its hinges.

But the way Ape Out elevates its relatively straightforward gameplay loop is by evoking the feeling of creating music, thanks to Matt Boch’s captivating procedural soundtrack, which generates a drum-heavy percussion beat under the action. During lulls, the music fades to a calm, but when the action gets frenetic the drums and cymbal crashes kick in hard, and there are occasional horns and contextual changes depending on what’s happening in any given stage. Additionally, the levels are presented as though they were albums, with each new subsection representing a track, complete with transitions from Side A to Side B at the midway point. It’s a fascinating system which gives those moments where you’re in the middle of a killing spree a significant extra kick. It’s a repetitive game–you’re ultimately doing the same thing continually over the whole course of the game–but it can also be quite propulsive and thrilling, especially when you’re on a good run.

The stages themselves are starkly designed, with limited color palettes and simple geometric shapes. The ape itself is a single orange shape, and enemies are demarcated by a handful of different designs. There’s a slight film grain effect over the action that gives everything a subtle jittery quality, and the album motif is even baked into the loading screens, which make the faint scratching noises of a vinyl record that is left on the turntable after the music has finished. The game’s greatest strength is how defined and consistent this aesthetic is. The unique art blends perfectly with the soundtrack, making the game’s violence a bit more palatable than it might have otherwise been, and its boldness pulls you into the action very well.

It’s great that Ape Out has so much style and flair, because it’s essential to your investment due to the game’s lack of variety. There are slight variations in how each level operates–the third album, for instance, features combustible liquids that can create walls of fire if you throw an explosives expert into them, and in the second (and best) album there are windows that riot police can rappel through–but they never dramatically alter how you need to play the game. A few new enemy types pop up, but the methods you use to deal with them never really change. There are a handful of good sections where the lights go out and you need to track enemy movements based on the beams of their flashlights, and they highlight how much the game could have benefited from more interesting gimmicks and variety. It’s a shame that Ape Out isn’t more playful, because whenever new ideas are introduced, they’re always welcome–there just aren’t that many of them. The game is short, yet some levels still feel superfluous and samey. I kept hoping a level would come along that would fundamentally change how I had to play, but this never happened.

Levels are semi-procedurally generated, so while some landmarks and choke-points will always pop up in roughly the same spot, the exact layout and enemy placements will change. This means that you’ll sometimes find yourself in situations where a huge number of enemies swarm you at once, and properly defending yourself is all but impossible. Several times I encountered enemies wearing explosive vests and found that avoiding both their blast radius and gunfire from another enemy was frustrating and futile. The game isn’t too difficult on the default difficulty, although there are occasional spikes when a level is a bit longer, which gives enemies more time to put bullets into you.

Ape Out is a game that draws you in with its strong aesthetic style and flair, but it feels short on ideas. When you’re barrelling through a room, knocking multiple enemies into walls and watching them explode into puddles of blood, it can be quite exciting. But the game never really rises above being a mild thrill, and a lack the variety means that it’s too repetitive to truly make a strong impact. Ape Out isn’t as creative with its level designs and challenges as it is with its soundtrack and art, but as it stands it’s a pleasant, jazzy way to spend a few hours.

The transition from one season to the next is rarely a smooth one in the world of Fortnite, as developer Epic Games likes to make significant changes that turns everything that veteran players know on its head. Epic does this through large-scale world events that both develop Fortnite’s lore and also rework the island that players spend all their time on. Season 8, which is now live, is no exception.

As Season 7 was coming to a close, players reported earthquakes and, eventually, cracks began forming on the island. Now, it has been revealed that an incredibly powerful figure–the Prisoner–being held captive by the Ice King has now escaped. Alongside this enigmatic figure finding his freedom, a volcano has emerged on the island and ninjas have appeared. If the Ice King’s Ice Fiends and strange fire ninjas wasn’t enough, pirates have also arrived on the island. Each of these factions have their eyes on a treasure, and as the weeks progress, the struggle to acquire said treasure will no doubt get messy.

All of this has changed the Fortnite island in significant ways. When looking at the map, it’s most noticeable in the northwest corner, where the new volcano can be seen, with a pool of lava surround it. That lava isn’t just for show, as touching it will do one point of damage and also bounce the player away. That might not sound like a lot, but when a skirmish gets heated, backing into some lava when your health is low could be the difference between a Victory Royale and coming in second place.

Another new gameplay element are Volcanic Vents. These have appeared around the map and shoot out air that can be used to aid traversal. If you or a vehicle you’re in gets caught up in an air stream coming out of a vent, you’ll be launched into the sky. They work very similar to how the jump pads used to, so they essentially function as a replacement.

Around the volcano, two new areas have also appeared. Sunny Steps is to the east and has a distinct Mayan aesthetic, with pyramid structures that look like temples. It’s also nestled in the jungle and surrounded by greenery. With the sun beaming down over it, the area looks quite idyllic, though we anticipate it won’t be long before it’s home to chaotic skirmishes.

To the west of the volcano is Lazy Lagoon, which is an area themed after the new pirates that have arrived on the island. A huge pirate ship can be found docked there, and we expect the challenges coming over the next few weeks will have us boarding the ship regularly. Already, a Week 1 challenge sends you to track down pirate camps.

But the changes aren’t just constrained to the island, as the spawn island, where players gather before boarding the Battle Bus has also changed. It now has a little more of jungle theme, while also having some touches to remind players that there’s pirates out there now. You can take a look at the map, as well as the new locations in the images above.

Epic Games has released the Fortnite update 8.0 patch notes, so you can see everything that’s changed and added for the new season. The new Battle Pass is also available, and we have a comprehensive Fortnite Season 8 Battle Pass cosmetics guide, which has images of every unlock available, so you can check it out before purchasing a pass or figure out what you want to focus on getting. The highlight are the new skins, including the banana from one of the teaser.