After its launch just six months ago, bite-sized entertainment streaming service Quibi is shutting down. This follows news that Quibi was exploring a potential buyout or merger last month after raising nearly $2B in initial capital.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, Quibi is set to shutter the service according to a recent call to investors with co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg. He and his counterpart Meg Whitman launched the service in April with hopes that it would become “the third generation of film narrative,” according to an interview with the Los Angeles Times.
At launch, many users complained that its programming was only available to watch on mobile devices. Quibi begrudgingly reversed its original vision and made content available on TVs and other formats a few months later.
Quibi was expected to launch 175 original programs in its first year, with just over half of those already available on the service.
While the idea of watching 5-10 minute chapters of movies or series sounds great on paper, the unfortunate timing of its launch as the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic began spreading rapidly clearly had an impact on a service that was designed to thrive while people are on-the-go.
OLED television technology has been around for a long time, but now it’s more affordable than ever. We’re also less than a month away from the next generation of consoles. Whether you are a massive Xbox fan, a Sony diehard, or lie somewhere in the middle, these consoles are set to deliver graphics and performance for games that the console space has never seen before. This means your current TV may not have what it takes to keep up.
Luckily, the excellent 2020 LG CX Series OLED 4K Smart TV with Alexa is on sale and you can save over $500 on either the 55- or 65-inch models. The new discount actually puts the 55-inch model at the same price as the 48-inch model, which is pretty nuts. And if you are in the market for a high-end 4K TV for gaming, this is pretty much the one you want. It has all the capabilities to take full advantage of PS5 and Xbox Series X. In fact, we gave it our number one pick for our “Best High-End 4K TVs” piece for 2020, so be sure to give it a read if you want more information.
Brian Barnett writes wiki guides, deals posts, features, and much more for IGN. You can get your fix of Brian’s antics on Twitter and Instagram (@Ribnax).
In that same breath, Don’t Breathe 2 was confirmed to be released on August 13, 2021. The first film, Don’t Breathe, was released in 2016 as a critical and box office success, grossing $157 million worldwide on a $10 million budget.
Interestingly, Ghostbusters: Afterlife will debut the second weekend of June 2021, the same weekend as the very first Ghostbusters movie, which opened June 8, 1984.
As for Don’t Breathe 2, Rodo Sayagues will make his directorial debut with the film. He also co-wrote the script with longtime collaborator Fede Álvarez, who directed the first film. The duo also wrote the first film’s script. Sony didn’t spill any additional details about this sequel but back in 2016, Álvarez said he doesn’t want the sequel to be the same as the first.
“The challenge obviously is we just don’t want to do the same movie again and just have 2 in it,” Álvarez told IGN in 2016 when speaking about the possibility of a Don’t Breathe sequel. “We’ll feel so embarrassed if we do that. At first, our reaction when they told us was, ‘no no no no no that’s Hollywood, that’s the devil pushing us to do something just because we can.’ And then we had an idea that we got really excited about, we won’t tell you what it is, it’ll spoil the whole thing…”
It seems we’ll all find out exactly what that exciting idea is come August 13, 2021. If you haven’t yet watched Don’t Breathe, find out why we think it’s great in our Don’t Breathe review.
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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.
We were soaring towards Quarry alongside two other teams. I knew we’d have a better chance at taking them out if we landed together towards the back of the location–where we could loot before fighting. Our boots hit the ground and my two teammates, one picking up a molotov cocktail on the way there, ran towards the hum of the chest we could hear inside a nearby building.
“Holy crap! What the hell!?” one of my teammates spouted as he was greeted by a jump scare after opening the chest. He backtracked and threw the molotov cocktail, lighting our other teammate on fire. “Oh s*** man, I’m sorry.”
Call of Duty: Warzone’sThe Haunting of Verdansk event provides dozens of moments like this. The limited-time event that runs through November 3 brings back the same tension that first made battle royales a sensation in 2017. It turns Warzone upside down with creepy environmental changes, a haunted Easter egg hunt with numerous rewards, and two modes that are surprisingly terrifying.
The new modes, Trick-Or-Trios and Zombie Royale, offer two different types of Halloween-themed experiences. Zombie Royale is fast-paced action–the player-controlled zombies are more 28 Days Later than The Walking Dead–where the map is full of undead players leapfrogging over buildings and sprinting through the gas. Trick-Or-Trios offers slower, tension-building gameplay that comes directly from the new haunted map.
What you see when you open a haunted chest
Zombie Royale has players come back to life with special abilities after dying. Once dead, they lose all their gear and gain the ability to jump over buildings and sprint faster. They can revive themselves if they manage to kill (or loot) the bodies of two other players. It’s an exciting mode that makes the best use of zombie mechanics I’ve ever seen in a battle royale.
Final circles, many of which still have dozens of players left standing, are absolutely wild. The zombified remains of dead players will come running from inside the gas to flank you. Fighting for your life from inside a building, with the grumble of zombies approaching from every direction, gets the adrenaline pumping more than anything else thus far in Warzone.
Trick-Or-Trios is standard trios with all the new stuff introduced as part of The Haunting of Verdansk. Laughing can be heard in the distance while looting, ghosts appear randomly in windows, and the jump scares that sometimes come with opening chests can cause heart attacks. The tension in this mode is at an all-time high.
Just walking around in Trick-Or-Trios is suspenseful. At any given moment, you could see a ghost train roll past you in the Quarry or find blood gushing up from the floorboards in buildings. And the normal downtime that comes in Warzone, where you are looting a location or trying to decide what to do next, is no longer a break from the stress.
It’s hard to reset and get ready for another fight when it sounds like Bobby the Puppet from Saw is laughing in the other room. It’s even harder when a player dressed as Bobby the Puppet could pop out and kill you, too.
Both modes offer a new type of gameplay for the two core audiences of Warzone. Zombie Royale gives those who want non-stop action and carnage a new way to get 22 kills in a single game. Trick-Or-Trios adds new thrills without disrupting the slower style of battle royale gameplay.
Verdansk at night
The trick-or-treat reward system ties it all together. Special rewards, including everything from a new watch to a jack-o-lantern charm that can hang from your gun, are up for grabs. The rewards are spread all over the map–one in most major named locations–pushing players to explore every bit of the haunted Verdansk. They aren’t tied to a single spot, either. You need to search the location, opening every chest you come across to find the rewards.
Knowing that no landing spot is safe, along with all the scares that come from just walking around, makes every match feel new and exciting. Even the small changes in The Haunting of Verdansk made me change how I play. Building interiors are now lit with bright white lights, making anything inside them stand out like a target. It’s much easier to hide outside, in the dark, waiting to be a jump scare for someone else.
Infinity Ward has done a fantastic job of being inventive with an event that’s only going to last two weeks. My only complaints are that victories during the event don’t count and other team sizes–not just trios–aren’t available in the special Trick-Or-Trios mode. Even so, I hope they keep some of these elements beyond November 3.
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ScourgeBringer, developed by NeuroVoider creators Flying Oak Games, is a fast-paced free-moving roguelike platformer that’s sort of like a crossover between Celeste and Dead Cells. You play as Kyhra, the deadliest warrior of her clan, as you battle tough enemies and even tougher bosses to uncover the truth of what sent the world into the post-apocalypse. ScourgeBringer is available on PC and Xbox One. It can also be played on Xbox Series S/X when the next-gen consoles launch on November 10 for $300 and $500, respectively.
For those who would rather own the game outright, ScourgeBringer is available to purchase for $17 USD on the Microsoft and Steam stores. The game is currently on sale on Steam for $14.44 until October 28. Check out the PC system requirements for ScourgeBringer below.
Full ScourgeBringer PC System Requirements
Minimum:
OS: 64bit Microsoft Windows 7 SP1, 8.1, 10 (version 1607 or better)
Processor: 64bit 1.5 GHz CPU
Memory: 2048 MB RAM
Graphics: OpenGL 3.0 (DirectX 10) compliant graphics card and driver
DirectX: Version 10
Storage: 500 MB available space
Additional Notes: Intel graphics: please read the GPU compatibility thread on the forum
Recommended:
OS: 64bit Microsoft Windows 10 (version 1607 or better)
Processor: 64bit Multi-core 2Ghz CPU
Memory: 2048 MB RAM
Graphics: OpenGL 3.0 (DirectX 10) compliant graphics card and driver
DirectX: Version 10
Storage: 500 MB available space
Additional Notes: Game controller recommended
ScourgeBringer has been in early access for a while, most recently appearing in a Summer Game Fest demo event that featured over 70 verticle slices of upcoming Xbox titles. We included ScourgeBringer in a list of Summer Game Fest titles that left us excited. Associate editor Jordan Ramèe said he “loved it a lot” and admired its “hard but fair gameplay loop.”
ScourgeBringer isn’t the only game to join Xbox Game Pass this week. The company confirmed that a bevy of titles, including the trippy platformer Katana Zero and isometric RPG The Swords of Ditto, will make their way to Xbox Game Pass throughout the week.
But as some games enter, others leave. A handful of titles will be leaving the subscription service this month, such as Afterparty, Metro 2033 Redux, Saints Row IV Re-Elected, and Tacoma. Check below for a full list of games entering and leaving the Game Pass vault this month.
Titles Now On Xbox Game Pass
Age of Empires III: Definitive Edition – PC
Heave Ho – PC
Katana Zero – Android, PC, Xbox
Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition – PC, Xbox
The Swords of Ditto: Mormo’s Curse – PC
ScourgeBringer – PC, Xbox
Titles Arriving On Xbox Game Pass Soon
Cricket 19, October 21 – Xbox
Supraland, October 22 – Xbox
Titles No Longer Available On Xbox Game Pass
Felix the Reaper – PC, Xbox
Metro 2033 Redux – PC, Xbox
Minit – PC, Xbox
Saints Row IV Re-Elected – PC
State of Mind – PC
Titles Leaving Xbox Game Pass On October 30
Afterparty – Xbox
LEGO Star Wars III – Xbox
Rise & Shine – Xbox
Tacoma – PC, Xbox
The Lord of the Rings: Adventure Card Game – PC, Xbox
Super Mario Bros. 35–a multiplayer battle royale take on the original Super Mario Bros.–is one of the strangest games Nintendo has released in a long time, and it’s garnered quite a bit of attention recently. Now, some clever players have discovered that you can play as Luigi in the game, just like in the original Super Mario Bros., though they haven’t quite agreed on how to unlock him.
The original Reddit post claimed that you had to reach Star Rank, which is progress level 100 in the game, before you could play as Luigi. Follow-up posts and replies from fans seem to indicate that you have to complete every stage in the game at least once, including the final Bowser in 8-4. It’s unclear if Star Rank is also required. Players simply hold L during the matchmaking process, and they’ll play as Luigi instead of Mario.
This isn’t the first time that fans have tried to find Luigi in a Mario game. For many years, a rumor circulated that Luigi was playable in Super Mario 64, which was seemingly bolstered by a blocky texture on a fountain in the castle courtyard that supposedly read “L is Real 2401.” Earlier this year, hackers discovered Luigi in the game’s source code following a massive leak, finally confirming that he was indeed hiding in the game all along.
Super Mario Bros. 35 is available to Switch Online subscribers, and it will only be playable until March 31 of next year.
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It has been 10 months since the first trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, a movie that was originally going to hit theaters in July 2020. However, Sony has announced the movie is getting pushed back for a second time. In addition, the movie studio has revealed the release date for the sequel to Don’t Breathe.
In December 2019, we got our first look at the next movie in the Ghostbusters franchise–which takes place present day after the events of Ghostbusters II. Sony has announced that the film is being pushed back to June 11. Interestingly enough, this is the second weekend of June, which is the date when the first Ghostbusters debuted in 1984.
Additionally, the Don’t Breathe Sequel will be hitting theaters on August 13, 2021. Rodo Sayagues will co-write and direct the film. He also co-wrote the original alongside Don’t Breathe’s director Fede Álvarez. The Don’t Breathefollow-up was announced back in 2016. At this time, there is not much known about the film, but Álvarez has said he knows “exactly where it goes.”
Ghostbusters: Afterlife will be directed by Jason Reitman, the son of Ghostbusters’ director Ivan Reitman. The film will star Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Finn Wolfhard (Stranger Things), and McKenna Grace (Captain Marvel). Additionally, Bill Murray, Dan Akyroyd, Ernie Hudson, Sigourney Weaver, and Annie Potts will reprise their roles from the original movies, but it’s unknown how large these roles are.
The Orange County Department of Health is investigating several buildings that are considered COVID-19 hotspots in the county. The buildings where WWE is running shows are part of that list.
F4WOnline is reporting that the Orange County Department of Health is asking its COVID-19 strike team to investigate 17 businesses where COVID-19 may be spreading. Well-known bars, a church, and two Crunch Fitness gyms are being looked at, but so are the big three WWE venues. The WWE Performance Center, Full Sail University, and the Amway Arena, all places WWE are currently holding events, are on the list.
In a statement, WWE said: “WWE is not open to the public, but rather operating on a closed set with only essential personnel in attendance. As part of on-going weekly testing protocols, Aventus Labs have administered more than 10,000 PCR tests to WWE performers, employees, production staff, and crew resulting in only 1.5 percent positive cases as compared to the current national average of more than 5%. Additionally, extensive contact tracing takes place and impacted individuals are placed in 14-day quarantine and then only cleared after they test negative.”
However, there reportedly have been at least two COVID-19 outbreaks in WWE since moving all of their tapings to Florida. One in June and another in September, with the case of the latter, matches for the Clash of the Champions card had to be changed as a result.
WWE, like most televised sports, has felt the ramifications of the global pandemic and moved Wrestlemania 36 this year to the Performance Center. It’s reported that the company won’t even attempt to do live-events until January of 2021.
Just when you thought he was out, they pull him back in. Jared Leto is returning to the DC movie universe as the Joker once again–and it’s not for The Suicide Squad. Instead, Leto will evidently appear in the upcoming Zack Snyder’s Justice League, which will premiere on HBO Max in 2021.
The news comes from The Hollywood Reporter. Leto will reportedly be filming new scenes for Snyder’s cut of the Justice League movie. According to THR, filming of the new scenes is currently underway with other DC movie actors Ben Affleck (Batman), Ray Fisher (Cyborg), and Amber Heard (Mera) involved, among a long list of others.
This development comes a year after reports surfaced that Leto was unhappy Warner Bros. made a standalone Joker film with Joaquin Phoenix in the role. As previously mentioned, he also hasn’t been announced as appearing in James Gunn’s upcoming Suicide Squad sequel, while the Birds of Prey movie revealed that he and Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) were no longer together.
For those who somehow remember the plot details of 2016’s Suicide Squad, this won’t be the first time Leto’s Joker and Affleck’s Batman appear in the same film. There are a few scenes of the two together in Suicide Squad, though chances are it’s actually Affleck’s stunt double donning the cape and cowl for those moments.
Given that Matt Reeves’ upcoming film The Batman is going a different route and star for the Caped Crusader, chances are the Snyder Cut will be the last time we’ll see this particular duo on-screen together. Unless they also throw Leto into The Flash, which will Affleck play the Dark Knight once again, along with Michael Keaton returning as Batman from the 1989 film.
Yes, the DC movie universe is confusing. Multiverses often are. Zack Snyder’s Justice League hits HBO Max next year.
Being terrorized in an underground reliquary might not sound fun to everyone, but the stout RPG Darkest Dungeon has managed to garner a lot of players since its release in 2016. Now, after a barrage of DLC packs, developer Red Hook–note the Lovecraft reference–have announced that Darkest Dungeon 2 will be available in Early Access on the Epic Games Store in 2021.
Based on the trailer, players can expect a lot more in the way of darkness and plenty of dungeons in the sequel. Several of the pre-release materials reference your party of characters going on a “journey” rather than staying in one location, as they did in the first game. When Darkest Dungeon 2 was revealed in February 2019, the developer also noted that the team has increased from five to 14 in order to increase the game’s scale and quality.
In GameSpot’s Darkest Dungeon review, critic Daniel Starkey called the game an expertly-balanced take on the roguelike genre.
“Darkest Dungeon plays the long game,” they wrote. “It builds you up for a grand bout that will test everything you’ve learned, as well as your ability to plan several in-game weeks out. The pay-off for this constant offensive comes in short bursts–just enough to keep you going, just enough to keep you hopeful for the next excursion. It’s an extraordinary cycle that bears a special teacher–rewarding your cleverness and punishing your foolishness. It transfixes and binds you to this grand journey, dotted with failures and successes. And because you endured, because you thought your way through it, the final victory against the unimaginable evil you face at the bottom of the Darkest Dungeon is personally valuable.”
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