Month: February 2021

New Zack Snyder’s Justice League Clip Is Stuffed With Easter Eggs

It won’t be long before fans will finally be able to watch Zack Snyder’s director’s cut of Justice League on HBO Max when it releases on March 18. Until then, though, you have to sustain on trailers and clips released in anticipation of the film–including the newest one released during IGN’s Fan Fest.

The clip, which doesn’t actually feature any of the actors from Justice League, was something Snyder was working on before he originally left the film. The director explained that he didn’t know if it would be used as an opening credits sequence or promotional material released ahead of the film.

In it, a Mother Box is shown, documenting the history of the DC universe’s superheroes. And while it looks impressive, it’s going to be something fans are going to want to study closely. “There’s a million Easter eggs in it,” Snyder teased during the panel.

He continued, “I feel like it’s important for everyone to kind of take it apart and analyze it and say, like, ‘Oh look I see this and I see that,’ and then we can talk about it more often.”

What Easter eggs do you see in the clip? Sound off in the comments before with everything you notice about the heroes. Zack Snyder’s Justice League launched March 18 on HBO Max.

Valorant’s Latest Agent Astra Shown Off In First Trailer

Hero shooter Valorant is getting a little bit bigger with the introduction of its next character. Astra was revealed with a new trailer on February 27, and she looks unlike anything else in the game to date.

In the trailer, we see Astra use some purple space-like fields placed on the ground, and she soon pops up into the air before sucking a few enemies into a gravity device that resembles Zarya’s ultimate ability in Overwatch.

We see a big purple bubble seem to envelop the map at one point, so it’s possible other players will be alerted when Astra is using a particular move. She seems designed to give the other team fits, breaking up formations and making it easier for others to go in for the kill. When players get trapped by her gravity move, for instance, another player fires a few shots at the sitting ducks to take them out.

Adding new characters to a hero shooter certainly makes balancing the game more difficult. This is especially true in something like Valorant, which focuses not just on special abilities, but also precision shooting like you’d find in legacy PC multiplayer games. In addition to the new Escalation mode, the game’s previous patch adjusted several different weapons and changed abilities and attributes on four different agents.

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StreetPass, Nintendo 3DS’ Best Feature, Deserves A Successor

In most ways, the now 10-year-old 3DS was an oddity–the next evolution of the equally strange Nintendo DS, and with a trendy 3D hook to boot. While glasses-free 3D was the marquee feature, riding the wave of renewed popularity from 3D films like Avatar, the real killer app was StreetPass. Serving as both enticement to tote your portable system around with you and a bulwark against the encroaching threat of mobile games, StreetPass is a social feature that no other gaming system has ever replicated as successfully, not even Nintendo has done something like it again.

With StreetPass, leaving your 3DS on in sleep mode and taking it with you would ping other 3DS owners doing the same thing, transferring your Mii to their Mii Plaza and vice-versa. This encouraged real-world exploration, especially in more densely-populated urban areas, because you would come home to a Mii Plaza bursting with new friends. It made 3DS owners part of their own little secret club, frequently and anonymously giving each other a handshake.

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Sometimes you might recognize someone with wild hair or a very identifiable set of glasses from your bus ride. Checking your Mii Plaza when you got home was a sweet way of realizing that stranger was, in their own way, a kindred spirit. It was an inclusive sense of belonging to the society of “gamers.” The concept was said to have originated from meeting fellow dog owners while walking your own canine companion, an activity oriented around getting to know your community.

But your new friends weren’t limited to waiting at your plaza. You could import them to help you in a variety of minigames. The initial slate of two games was fairly simplistic: a puzzle swap game in which your visitors would drop off puzzle pieces of classic Nintendo games and new releases, and a stripped-down RPG called “Find Mii” where your visitors were adventurers trying to save your own Mii, the monarch of a kingdom.

These were breezy time-wasters, but the real fun began when Nintendo introduced paid DLC games that expanded on the StreetPass Mii Plaza concept–and opened your gate to hold many more visitors at a time. These ran the gamut from slot car racing to stock trading to a strategy game. You might fend off zombies to save your StreetPass companions one moment in Battleground Z, and then switch to cooking a fine meal with ingredients supplied by your companions in Feed Mii. The sheer variety was overwhelming.

My personal favorite was Ultimate Angler, in which your visitors would provide you with new types of fishing bait, and you could take them out on boating trips to help with your catches. While it was still simple, this was essentially a full-fledged fishing game, complete with its own currency system, equipment, and upgrades–remarkably ambitious for a cute diversion to pair with a firmware feature. That level of quality should be no surprise considering it was developed by Sonic the Hedgehog creator Yuji Naka. Other StreetPass games were notably designed by similarly talented developers and studios, like Grezzo (3DS Zelda remakes), Good-Feel (Yoshi’s Wooly World, Crafted World), and Spike Chunsoft.

Nintendo further capitalized on the concept by showcasing some of its personalities. During special events, you could turn on your 3DS to find your plaza visited by notable figures like Reggie Fils-Aime, Shigeru Miyamoto, and Takashi Tezuka–all sporting golden pants that marked them as a special event Mii. These cameos often brought greater rewards than the standard Mii trades, which made it feel like a special experience.

StreetPass was even incorporated into standard games. In Pokemon X / Y, meeting other people via StreetPass earned you Poke Miles, which you could exchange for special items like rare candy. On the other hand, Super Smash Bros. utilized the feature for a mini-game called StreetSmash, where you fought against AI-controlled versions of the people you passed to earn currency to buy trophies. Dozens of games used Street Pass in creative ways like this, feeding into this larger overarching sense of community built by simple wireless communication technology.

The 3DS was a strange mishmash of design choices and priorities, but its best feature deserves a successor.

When Nintendo announced the Nintendo Switch, I was astonished. The company finally committed to tying the fates of its console and handheld businesses, and the new unified structure would mean less split development between its two platforms. The system’s success speaks for itself. But the one feature missing is StreetPass. The hybrid console is still portable–albeit less so than the comparably tiny 3DS–but there’s no tingle of excitement to taking it out and about. Admittedly, the portable functionality is an end to itself. You bring it along because you want to keep playing a video game on the go, and that’s all. But I just wish it had more of the exciting bells and whistles that helped define Nintendo’s dual-screen family of portables.

I still remember doubling back to my hotel when visiting a city, specifically to grab my 3DS because I didn’t want to give up the opportunity for new StreetPass pings. That encouragement was special, not just because it helped remind me that I might want to play a game on the go, but because it helped new places feel a little more familiar and friendly–a little more like home. The 3DS was a strange mishmash of design choices and priorities, but its best feature deserves a successor.

For more 3DS-related features, be sure to check out our roundup highlighting the best 3DS games, as well as our feature discussing our favorite 3DS games that actually utilized 3D well.

WandaVision: 5 Theories and 3 Lingering Questions This Week

Warning: Spoilers for WandaVision through Episode 8 follow.

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Slackin’ Off! is back with another crazy cannonball plunge into WandaVision, as IGN editors try to sift and sort through the awesomeness we all just witnessed in Episode 8, “Previously On.”

Yes, the office chat channels are absolutely flooded with theories, queries, speculation, and postulation about WandaVision’s penultimate episode and what it all might mean for both next week’s finale and the future of the MCU.

In Episode 7, we learned that Kathryn Hahn’s Agatha Harkness, who’d been hiding in plain sight as neighbor Agnes, was working some evil witchcraft behind-the-scenes of Wanda’s sitcom world. This week, however, Wanda’s control and creation of the Hex was reconfirmed as we discovered Agatha was merely an interloper, drawn to Wanda’s power and secretly working to find out how and why Wanda’s spell-casting skills were so powerful, and unlike anything she’d ever seen.

Agatha, a witch who was shunned and shamed hundreds of years ago by her coven (led by her own mother) for seeking forbidden knowledge, apparently feeds off the life force of other magical beings. But is that what her plan is for Wanda? Or Wanda’s Hex spawn, Billy and Tommy? Right now she seems more interested in the origins of Wanda’s witch powers (which were homegrown and actually amplified by the Mind Stone) and how Wanda might be the mythical “Scarlet Witch” from the supernatural lore of Agatha’s Salem-centric world.

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“Previously On” was both a reflection on grief — and how it truly was Wanda’s overwhelming pain that caused her to retreat into a sitcom realm and create a Vision modeled after Dick Van Dyke’s Rob Petrie — and a rewarding “This is Your Life” flashback to scenes that only previously existed off-screen (as the MCU films were a bit too crowded to fully do justice to Wanda and Vision’s story). Next week’s finale, which may run even longer than this chapter, will wrap up Wanda’s story for now while also, hopefully, providing closure on Agatha, Vision, Hayward’s new “Cataract” Vision, Monica’s powers, and the Hex. It’s a lot to address, for sure. Will we get a happy ending or a tragic one? “It’s not that kind of show,” Wanda told Vision, post-Age of Ultron, when Vision worried about the fate of Bryan Cranston’s dad on Malcom in the Middle.

What “kind of show” will WandaVision turn out to be?

Read on further for a few of the behind-the-scenes theories that have been bounced around at IGN this week. These are just some samples of friendly spitballing from the WandaVision Slack channel.

Be sure to drop your own take on WandaVision in the comments and don’t forget to vote in our poll at the bottom of the page!

Theory: The Hexes on the Spider-Man: No Way Home White Board…Mean Something?

Theories were flung about fervently a few days ago, actually, when Marvel officially announced the title of Spider-Man 3 – which is “No Way Home.” On the busy, jokey idea board fans were shown there were a few hexagons, which can hardly feel random these days given how much attention WandaVision has given to that shape.

With Wanda Maximoff appearing in Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, while Strange himself will appear before that movie in No Way Home, it stands to reason that the hexagons are connected to Wanda’s magic, and then Wanda’s magic will somehow directly connect to the cracking open of the multiverse.

Theory: Agatha’s Mom Is/Was Zhered-Na

As we look around for thick magical books in the Marvel Universe that are not the Darkhold (since that book was a major story element on Agents of SHIELD and looks different from the one in Agatha’s basement), some fans have wondered if WandaVisions spellbook is the Tome of Zhered-Na, which is another magically powerful collection of pages.

And if it is, maybe that means that Agatha’s mom, who Agatha killed when she was being punished for attempting to learn magic that was beyond her station, could have been ancient Atlantean sorceress Zhered-Na. Overall, probably not a crucial plot point, but a lot of WandaVision good-natured speculation involves looking for hidden Marvel lore and characters.

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Theory: Agatha Pushed for Wanda to Have Kids

Are Billy and Tommy Agatha’s own personal endgame here or is she just holding them hostage right now because that’s the only way she can hold an advantage over the more-powerful Wanda?

From the Salem flashback scene we know that Agatha can feed off the energy of other magic users, but is she too wary to do that with Wanda? Or does she want to turn Wanda over to her side and become allies with her? It would partially make sense for Agatha to have wanted Wanda to have kids, so that maybe she could swoop in and steal them and use them in her own designs, but are the beings Wanda creates with Chaos Magic actually real?

It would seem so. Like really real. For real.

Screen Shot 2021-02-26 at 12.11.01 PMWhile Agatha’s behind-the-scenes schemes involved trying to ruffle Wanda’s feathers so that she’d break character and snap out of the sitcom-a-thon, her on-screen antics involved a lot of encouraging of child-bearing – everything from asking Wanda if she had kids to helping Wanda learn to “seduce” Vision before a special date night. We’ll have to wait until next week to see how the twin lads factor into everything.

Recurring Theory: Somehow This Will All Help Retcon Mutants into the MCU

Even though the X-Men won’t arrive in the MCU for a little while longer, there are some theories out there about how the Hex might be a catalyst for the “M” word Marvel couldn’t previously use: Mutants. Especially when we found out that Monica’s DNA got scrambled and changed when she traveled through the Hex energy.

This week however, we learned that Wanda was born with powers. Straight up. And that witches exist, who were also born with these abilities. Magic that, up until this point, you cold only go to secret magic school to learn (and was open to everyone, not just those genetically predisposed to witchery). Now we know there are natural born witches. And, man, if you pair one up with the Mind Stone, you get an almighty welder of Chaos Magic, capable of rewriting reality as we know it.

Screen Shot 2021-02-26 at 1.59.39 PMBack when Marvel Television was in full swing, and not shut down and folded into Marvel Studios, it created its own version of mutants using Inhumans. And the idea that certain individuals had powers that could be awakened. In Agents of SHIELD’s case – Terrigen Mist.

Here though, it would seem that latent powers, that would have “died on the vine,” according to Agatha, were brought about by Infinity Stone energy. Does this mean that all of Earth now has people with powers after the Blip? Considering the amount of Infinity sauce in the air post-Thanos? Are they what will be known as mutants?

And was Pietro a mutant too, with speedster powers that were brought to the surface by the Mind Stone?

Theory: White ‘Cataract’ Vision Will Help Bring O.G. Vision Back To Life

Tyler Hayward’s version of Vision, which, if following this storyline from the comics, is more of an emotionless being than original recipe Vision was, may be the ticket to bringing Vision back to life in the MCU. Not that sitcom world Vision isn’t real, but he can’t pass through that pesky Hex barrier. Project Cataract Vision most definitely can so this might be how Wanda’s love makes it out of Westview in one piece.

Screen Shot 2021-02-26 at 3.49.23 PMOf course, it’s also possible that Vision will make the ultimate sacrifice, once again, as that’s kind of in his nature. We barrel into this finale not knowing if we’re headed toward triumph or tragedy. Hopefully…it’s a nice mix of both?

Question: Will We Find out More About Monica’s “Engineer” or Agatha’s “Husband Ralph”?

WandaVision feels so stuffed now that it seems unfair for the single episode that’s left to have to introduce someone new, be it a secret big evil watching over everything (Mephisto, Dormammu, Chthon, etc) or Monica’s unseen “aerospace engineer” (Reed Richards, Amadeus Cho, etc).

Of course, if this does happen, it doesn’t have to take up too much space. That’s what mid-credit scenes are for, right?

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Question: Will We Find Out Anything about Jimmy’s Secret Witness?

S.W.O.R.D. was originally called in to help the FBI because Jimmy Woo went to Westview looking for a missing witness from the Witness Protection Program. This is when Jimmy discovered Westview had been, basically, taken off the game board by Wanda. Will this witness ever come back into play or was that just sort of a throwaway bit used to get us into the story? Jimmy never mentioned his witness when the townsfolk’s real identities were being pulled and posted.

Question: Is Wanda Creating the Commercials Too?

The easiest answer to this is “yes,” right?

But the commercials-within-the-show always stood out because they represent Wanda’s secret pain squeaking through. Why would she create a hexed dream world, based on her love of sitcoms, but then make ad breaks that subtweet her so damn hard?

Plus, some of them, like the Nexus one, hint at things that Wanda doesn’t even actively know about. Yet. Unless within her psyche, trapped, is the knowledge of everything (because of the Mind Stone). Remember how it gave her a glimpse of Scarlet Witch’s costume back when she was a HYDRA experiment?

Either way, the ads have always felt like nefarious bullet points in Wanda’s giant presentation of paradise.

Did you have any lingering questions or theories? Share them below, and vote in this week’s poll too!

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Firearms Expert Reacts To Hunt: Showdown’s Guns

Hunt: Showdown is a supernatural take on the Wild West complete with an arsenal of period weaponry that includes interesting takes on the Colt Single Action Army revolver, the LeMat revolver, and the Winchester Model 1873 rifle.

In the above video, Jonathan Ferguson–a weapons expert and Keeper of Firearms & Artillery at the Royal Armouries–breaks down the guns of Hunt: Showdown and compares them to their real-world counterparts.

If you’re interested in seeing more of Jonathan, you can check out more from the Royal Armouries right here. – https://www.youtube.com/user/RoyalArmouries

If you would like to support the Royal Armouries, you can make a charitable donation to the museum here. – https://royalarmouries.org/support-us/donations/

And if you would like to become a member of the Royal Armouries, you can get a membership here. – https://royalarmouries.org/support-us/membership/

You can purchase Jonathan’s book here. – https://www.headstamppublishing.com/bullpup-rifle-book

Google Stadia Reportedly Canceled Hideo Kojima Horror Game

One of the games reportedly canned as Google Stadia struggled to gain traction was from Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima. It appears to have been canceled last year, though the studio is also working on a different game.

According to VGC, a game Hideo Kojima had mentioned getting canceled in 2020 was set to be an episodic horror game released for Stadia. Former studio head at Stadia Jade Raymond had visited Kojima Productions prior to this, but the report says it was Stadia boss Phil Harrison who stopped the project. Prior to working for Google, Harrison had been an executive at both PlayStation and Xbox during some of the brands’ lowest points, including the launch of the PS3 and Xbox One.

Kojima is no stranger to having projects canceled. The horror reboot Silent Hills, which he was creating with film director Guillermo del Toro, was canceled by Konami after the high-profile PT was released. Kojima later put del Toro’s likeness in Death Stranding, along with planned Silent Hills actor Norman Reedus in the lead role.

Google recently shut down its internal game development division for Stadia, reducing the service to third-party companies’ projects and putting its long-term viability into even greater question. Another project reportedly canceled was a Journey to the Savage Planet sequel. The original game’s studio, Typhoon, had been acquired and absorbed by Google in late 2019. With the studio now dissolved along with the rest of Google Stadia’s development team, it’s unclear if the original creators can produce a sequel, at all.

Now Playing: The Rise And Fall Of Stadia Games And Entertainment

The Sinking City Studio Asks Players Not To Buy Game On Steam

Last summer, horror game The Sinking City was delisted from several stores, including Steam, as developer Frogwares disputed unpaid royalties as well as publishers Bigben and Nacon allegedly demanding it hand over the source code. The game is back on Steam now, but Frogwares says it didn’t make the current version and urged players not to buy it.

Writing on its official Twitter account, Frogwares said it doesn’t “recommend the purchase of this version” and promised that more news would be coming soon.

The game is still for sale on the Xbox and PlayStation digital stores, but while its original licensing agreement also included selling the game via the Epic Games Store, it’s no longer listed there.

Frogwares alleged in 2020 that Bigben and Nacon had demanded the game’s source code and that when the studio refused, it didn’t receive financing for several months. It said packaging for the game had the studio’s name largely removed and there was even a tabletop RPG based on the IP created without its knowledge.

The ongoing dispute here isn’t the first Frogwares has found itself in. It has also accused Focus Home Interactive of removing its games from storefronts after not transferring title IDs back to the studio at the conclusion of their publishing and distribution agreement.

Frogwares continues work on new games, and Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One is set to release this year. The game stars a younger version of the detective, and Frogwares is self-publishing the game. A PS5 version of The Sinking City is also out now, also self-published, but is not eligible for a free upgrade from PS4 because of the dispute.

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The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run Review

The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge on the Run premieres on Paramount+ on March 4.

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Who lives in a pineapple under the sea, boasts 13 seasons of kooky cartoon hijinks, and is finally fronting his third feature film? SpongeBob SquarePants! The giggling goofball with a heart of gold returns with The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run, a road trip romp that is celebrity-studded, candy-colored, and full of family-friendly humor.

It’s an average day in Bikini Bottom. An ever-ready SpongeBob (Tom Kenny) frolics with his pet snail, Gary, before heading to work as a fry cook at the Krusty Krab. Like clockwork, Mr. Krab’s pint-sized nemesis Plankton (Mr. Lawrence) will endeavor to steal the secret recipe for the delectable Krabby Patty. As always he will fail in a way hilariously embarrassing. But change is on the horizon when this aspiring “slop king” realizes the only thing standing between him and formula is the “boob savant” behind the grill. To kick SpongeBob out of the kitchen, Plankton steals Gary and sells him to the vain and dangerous Poseidon (Matt Berry), who rules over the Lost City of Atlantic City. To rescue his beloved pet, SpongeBob teams up with his BFF Patrick (Bill Fagerbakke) on a quest that will take them through wild terrains, bonkers beats, and a show-stopping musical number.

Of course, Plankton, Squidward (Rodger Bumpass), Mr. Krabs (Clancy Brown), and Sandy (Carolyn Lawrence) will join in on the shenanigans too. This signature cast crackles, delivering the sugar-high energy that fans have come to expect from these outlandish undersea creatures. The visual gags and banter are still gleefully silly. For instance, when SpongeBob commends Patrick for his sense of “irony,” the dopey starfish responds by ironing a shirt with comically smug satisfaction. Yet for all this familiar fun, there’s a new look to the crew.

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The hand-drawn animation originated by the late Stephen Hillenburg has been re-imagined in bouncy CGI. This is a cuddlier 3D aesthetic than was unfurled for the climax of The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge Out of Water, where the gang took to land and briefly became superheroes. This time, the characters look like squishy toys that might spring from the screen to run amok around your living room. Their soft makeover pairs with a string of childhood flashbacks to serve as a backdoor pilot for the upcoming spinoff series, Kamp Koral: SpongeBob’s Under Years. Though these detours to the past are fun, they slow down the rollicking ride of this road trip comedy. Thankfully, a pit stop in the Western ghost town of Goner Gulch provides a wallop of welcome wackiness.

In this live-action setting, a parade of celebrity cameos begins, including Danny Trejo, Snoop Dogg, and Keanu Reeves, who plays a talking tumbleweed of sage, named Sage, who is a wise sage! While some co-stars might match SpongeBob’s level of zany, Reeves plays his role surprisingly straight. Tumbling after the dim-witted duo and delivering advice, Sage grows irate as they barrel into one radical mistake after another. A recurring gag is born from their irrepressible impulsiveness challenging Reeves’s trademark chill, turning his grumbles into our gain.

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Matt Berry proves another stellar addition to the SpongeBob universe. The What We Do In the Shadows star lends his bold voice and bravado to Poseidon, swiftly establishing the immodest merman as a megalomaniac from the first boom of a petty pronouncement. Whether he’s hollering at his servants or applauding a stage show, Berry brings the kind of over-the-top energy that makes Poseidon snap right into place with the rest of these wild maroons.

Poseidon’s kingdom is a casino metropolis under the sea, providing a dramatic contrast to the small-town vibe of Bikini Bottom. Naturally, SpongeBob and Patrick get caught up in the razzle-dazzle and sugary churros. The bright lights, big city vibe allows director Tim Hill to pack the final act with eye-popping color. Plus, this more mature location sets the stage for allusions that’ll play better to grown-ups, like a tentacle parody of Kenny G or spoofs on courtroom dramas and castle-crashing showdowns. There’s a healthy dose of action in chase scenes and fights, more playful than violent. Yet there’s something missing that keeps The SpongeBob Movie from being great. It’s just not weird enough.

SpongeBob has long been defined by a brand of humor that is kid-friendly, silly, slyly observational, but ultimately unapologetically weird. The films thus far took Hillenburg’s bonkers realm and spun it into wondrously WTF big-screen spectacle, like SpongeBob and Patrick riding the freckled back of Baywatch’s David Hasselhoff as he serves as a human jet ski. Moments like these are so bizarre they feel like Pop Rocks are bursting in your brain. The surreal unpredictability brings a rush of joy! The SpongeBob Movie: Sponge On The Run absolutely has bizarre bits, but nothing so out there that it achieves that Pop Rocks rush.

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