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Spring is in full bloom, and with the changing of seasons comes a new wave of digital games sales. The Nintendo Switch Eshop and PlayStation Store have already kicked off their respective sales, and now the Epic Games Store is jumping into the action with over 100 discounts on PC games. The sale will be live all month long, ending May 1. If you still have a $10 coupon from the Epic holiday sale, you can (and should) use that on any games $15 or more this month–the coupons expire May 1.

Epic’s Spring Sale includes Red Dead Redemption II, which released on PC last year. The acclaimed open-world adventure is on sale for $48; you can also find discounts on its Special and Ultimate editions. You can also get one of the best games of 2019, Control, for $39. With the new Foundation DLC out now, there’s no better time to dive into this mind-bending story. Alan Wake, another excellent Remedy game, is on sale for just $4.49.

If you’re feeling a bit lonely while stuck inside these days, the Jackbox Party Packs are an easy, fun way to play party games online with your friends or family, and all six bundles are currently on sale. Jackbox Party Packs each come with a variety of games that anyone with the room code can join in on using any device, including a phone or tablet. From Fibbage to Quiplash, Jackbox games usually involve coming up with wacky answers to questions or drawing something weird to pair with a phrase, and they’re always great to break out at parties. Of course, no one’s having IRL parties right now, but you could easily set up a Jackbox hang out to catch up and let out some tension with friends. Plus, Drawful 2 is one of several free games on Epic right now. (Plus, see our full roundup of all the free games you can claim on PS4, Xbox One, and more.)

Of course, there are plenty of other games on sale as well. The Division 2 is down to $9.89, The Outer Worlds is on sale for $39, and Borderlands 3 is discounted to $30. You can check out more of our picks from the Epic Spring Sale below, and see the full collection of deals at Epic.

Best game deals at Epic

• Alan Wake — $4.49 ($15)
• Ancestors: The Humankind Odyssey — $20 ($40)
• Anno 1800 — $30 ($60)
• Ape Out — $7.49 ($15)
• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey — $19.79 ($60)
• Borderlands 3 — $30 ($60)
• Control — $39 ($60)
• Detroit: Become Human — $36 ($40)
• The Division 2 — $9.89 ($30)
• Hades — $20 ($25)
• Into the Breach — $7.49 ($15)
• Jackbox Party Pack — $12.49 ($25)
• Jackbox Party Pack 2 — $15 ($25)
• Jackbox Party Pack 3 — $16.24 ($25)
• Jackbox Party Pack 4 — $15 ($25)
• Jackbox Party Pack 5 — $19.49 ($30)
• Jackbox Party Pack 6 — $21 ($30)
• John Wick Hex — $16 ($20)
• Journey to the Savage Planet — $18 ($30)
• Metro: 2033 Redux — $5 ($20)
• Metro Exodus — $20 ($40)
• Metro: Last Light Redux — $5 ($20)
• Observation — $12.49 ($25)
• The Outer Worlds — $39 ($60)
• Oxenfree — $5 ($10)
• The Outer Worlds — $39 ($60)
• Rainbow Six Siege — $8 ($20)
• Red Dead Redemption II — $48 ($60)
• Shenmue III — $25 ($50)
• Superhot — $12.49 ($25)
• Superliminal — $16 ($20)
• Tetris Effect — $16 ($20)
• The Walking Dead: The Telltale Series — $30 ($50)

The Simpsons was one of the many shows that arrived on Disney+ in November last year, with all 30 seasons to date available to watch. However, there was almost immediate controversy when fans spotted that all the episodes were in the 16:9 aspect ratio, meaning that older seasons were cropped from their original 4:3 ratio. Disney responded by stating that the first 19 seasons of the show will be made available in their original ratio at some point, and now the studio has revealed when this will happen.

In a tweet, Disney stated that it appreciates fans’ patience while they wait for the corrected episodes, and that the studio “expects to accomplish this by the end of May.” Check the tweet out below:

The main issue for fans was that that those earlier seasons were made in 4:3. By putting them into widescreen, bits of the top and bottom of the image were cropped out, which affected many of the visual jokes throughout the seasons. In November, a Disney statement read, “we presented The Simpsons in 16:9 aspect ratio at launch in order to guarantee visual quality and consistency across all 30 seasons. Over time, Disney+ will roll out new features and additional viewing options. As part of this, in early 2020, Disney+ will make the first 19 seasons (and some episodes from Season 20) of The Simpsons available in their original 4:3 aspect ratio, giving subscribers a choice of how they prefer to view the popular series.”

In related news, veteran Simpsons actor Hank Azaria recently spoke about his decision to stop voicing Apu on the show. The Indian-American character has appeared in the Simpsons since the very first season in 1990, but in more recent years, the show has become accused of racial stereotyping. “Once I realized that that was the way this character was thought of, I just didn’t want to participate in it anymore,” Azaria said. “It just didn’t feel right.”

The Simpsons is currently in its 31st season. The show may eventually go off in the air, and Disney (which now owns Fox) is preparing for that future by announcing many more animated shows.

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Despite The Last Of Us 2 delay, developer Naughty Dog has dropped a bunch of new The Last of Us Part 2 screenshots to tide eager fans over while we wait for the game’s now-unclear release date.

The screens are all captured on a PS4 Pro, showing off The Last of Us 2’s incredible detail in everything from its lighting to its skin textures and more. We also get a better look at Old Man Joel, both blinded by the sun and strumming around on an acoustic guitar. The TLOU2 screens also show Joel’s younger brother Tommy sitting across from Ellie in a room, Ellie exploring some overgrown forest, and more.

You can check them out below.

The Last of Us 2 was slated to launch this May on PlayStation 4, three months after the game was originally planned to release in February 2020. However, due to the impact of the coronavirus, Naughty Dog and publisher Sony have opted to push the game back “until further notice.” Sony also indefinitely delayed the release of Marvel’s Iron Man VR, which was similarly scheduled to launch this May.

Some other games are being affected by the coronavirus, including Halo Infinite and Final Fantasy VII Remake. Particularly in the case of FFVII Remake, Square Enix said it’s doing everything it can to ensure that physical copies of the game arrive at or around the April 10 release date. For now, the launch of both games remain unchanged.

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The novel coronavirus (COVID-19) has caused plenty of event cancellations this year, including this year’s SXSW. The city of Austin pulled the plug on the event, but alas, those who were excited about watching the movie premieres this year will be able to watch them from home very soon.

Amazon Prime Video revealed in a tweet that it has partnered with SXSW for an upcoming streaming event. That means you’ll be able to watch these movies from your couch. Check out the tweet below.

The key word here is “everyone.” That means that anyone in the United States–regardless of whether or not they have an Amazon Prime Account–will be able to take part in this event. All you need is a free Amazon account to access the movies. This will be a one-time event. It will be up to the filmmakers if they want to participate in the SXSW streaming launch. They will receive a screening fee for streaming their movies over this 10-day period.

GameSpot reached out to Amazon for more details about this event, and they stated that while a date for the event has not been finalized, they are targeting late April.

“We’re honored to be able to provide a space for the SXSW filmmakers to share their hard work and passion with audiences for the first time,” said Jennifer Salke, head of Amazon Studios. “It’s been a privilege collaborating with Janet Pierson and the SXSW team to bring these diverse and inspiring films to viewers around the country. We are supporters of SXSW and other independent film festivals, and hope this online film festival can help give back some of that experience, and showcase artists and films that audiences might otherwise not have had the chance to see.”

“Ever since SXSW was cancelled by the City of Austin, we’ve been focused on how we could help the incredible films and filmmakers in the SXSW 2020 Film Festival lineup,” said Janet Pierson, director of film, SXSW. “We were delighted when Amazon Prime Video offered to host an online film festival, and jumped at the opportunity to connect their audiences to our filmmakers. We’re inspired by the adaptability and resilience of the film community as it searches for creative solutions in this unprecedented crisis.”

While none of the movies participating in this streaming event have been announced yet, SXSW had a few key entries set to debut. One was Psycho Goreman, a bizarre horror comedy follows two kids who resurrect an ancient alien with a thirst for violence, and the first trailer is filled with gore. However, the movie comes off like an ’80s kids movie where they’ve made friends with an alien like E.T. or Mac and Me. It is truly bizarre looking.

Additionally movies that were set to debut at SXSW are Maureen Bharoocha’s comedy Golden Arm, Andrew Rossi’s documentary After Truth: Disinformation and the Cost of Fake News, Kris Rey’s comedy I Used to Go Here, and Shahad Ameen’s fantasy drama Scales.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 includes a lot of moments that stick in the memory, for a variety of reasons. The 2009 game’s campaign features a Russian invasion of the U.S., sees your player characters killed not once, but twice, and heralds the return of fan-favorite hero Captain Price. It also puts you in a position to gun down an airport full of civilians and police in the infamous mission, “No Russian.”

The newly released Modern Warfare 2 Remastered campaign updates the game’s visuals and sound, but the gameplay and story are identical to what was originally released. Revisiting the game demonstrates that Modern Warfare 2’s intense first-person shooter moments still stand up to more recent games and remain as powerful as they were more than a decade ago. But the whole game resonates a bit differently when considered in the light of what has happened in the last 11 years. That’s never more apparent than with “No Russian.”

I went into a replay of Modern Warfare 2 with the expectation that “No Russian” and the rest of the game’s story had been misunderstood over the years. After all, if there’s a subversive Call of Duty game, Modern Warfare 2 is probably it. The bad guy is an American general and the mission in which you have a hand in a massacre puts you in the role of an American CIA operative. I had come to think that Modern Warfare 2 was making a comment about United States foreign policy and militarization, rather than just being shocking for shocking’s sake. Especially after years of rising mass shootings, though, “No Russian” just comes off as callous. There might be interesting underlying ideas in Modern Warfare 2, but the game either fails to commit to them, or tells its story so poorly that they don’t come across.

At the point you hit “No Russian,” you play as PFC Joseph Allen, an Army Ranger who has been recruited for a secret mission by General Shepherd, the guy in command of your characters throughout the game. After a couple of levels as Allen in which you fight the bad guys alongside a bunch of other Rangers, you’re sent undercover to Russia to infiltrate the organization of a terrorist named Makarov. As the game notes, you take on the name Alexei Bodorin for the mission, but you’re not primed for what comes next.

When “No Russian” loads up, you’re armed with a massive machine gun and start in an elevator with Makarov and a few other guys. Makarov tells the group, “Remember: no Russian,” reminding them to speak only English, then steps out of the elevator into a crowded airport. With no warning, Makarov and his men start firing into the crowd of unarmed civilians, who scream, run in panic, writhe in pain on the ground, and, on several occasions, try to crawl to safety, only to be executed by the terrorists at point-blank range.

Essentially, “No Russian” is a mass shooting scenario, and you’re the one with the gun. You can choose not to participate, of course. No one forces you to pull the trigger, and refusing to do so relegates you to the role of watching your digital comrades commit murder after murder. At the same time, though, you’re also unable to stop the carnage; you can’t turn on Makarov and are forced to watch things play out. Eventually, you do have to do some shooting, as Russian police and FSB officers arrive to stop the attack. These guys are armed and fight back, though, making them more in line with your usual Call of Duty enemies–but they’re still security guards and police, not the soldiers, militia members, or terrorists you’re usually fighting.

On the surface level, “No Russian” is still shocking today, if not more so than when it was released in 2009. Mass shootings in the U.S. have increased significantly in the last 10 years, and here a game has you participating in one. A rundown of mass shooting incidents in the U.S. from Vox logs some 2,412 incidents since 2013, resulting in 2,730 people killed and another 10,057 wounded. Regardless of how you feel about games depicting real-world ideas, events, and tragedies, “No Russian” is a troubling thing to play through when you think about these real events and how they affect real people. (It should be noted that you don’t have to play through it. Modern Warfare 2 Remastered, like the original game, warns you about “Offensive Content” and asks you if you’d prefer to skip “No Russian.”)

At the same time, you can attempt to read “No Russian” as Call of Duty at its most subversive and artistically expressive. The franchise markets itself on realism–usually in its visual fidelity and the attention paid to creating digital versions of real-world guns–and mostly depicts soldiers as fraught good guys, willing to put their lives on the line to protect freedom and save lives. Dying in Modern Warfare 2 brings up a screen that usually includes a quote from a famous leader, war hero, or philosopher, either praising soldiers or decrying the horrors of war. Call of Duty usually comes off as pro-gun and pro-military at the very least, and even jingoistic.

“No Russian,” on the other hand, could be seen as Infinity Ward subverting its own genre by twisting how you feel about pulling the virtual trigger, changing you from heroic warrior to indiscriminate murderer (or at least, bystander to tragedy). It’s a level that’s meant to make you recoil, evoking empathy in players by doing the thing video games do best: putting you in a role you wouldn’t normally experience. That the role is a horrific one should make the moment all the more impactful, and maybe get you thinking about what you enjoy about the idea of shooting even digital depictions of humans, or what consequences gun violence has in the real world.

You might also see the mission as Infinity Ward calling out the U.S.’s cavalier foreign policy. After all, you play a deep-cover CIA operative tasked with getting close to a terrorist–but you don’t stop the terrorist attack, you participate in it. Whatever the goal the CIA or Shepherd have in infiltrating Makarov’s group, they’re willing to allow a massacre to proceed in order to achieve it. Given the real history of CIA intervention around the world and its aftermath, it’s pretty bold for Call of Duty, a franchise usually about brave soldiers fighting off hordes of enemy combatants, to suggest that maybe the U.S. and its institutions aren’t always on the side of right.

That’s amplified further when you see how the story campaign all plays out. At the end of the massacre, undercover agent Allen is killed by Makarov; apparently, the terrorist knew the agent’s true identity the whole time. Allen’s body is left behind as evidence that the massacre was carried out not by Russians, but by Americans, resulting in a full-on world war. Russian troops invade the U.S. in response to the attack, and you and the other Army Rangers repel parachuting soldiers in American suburbs and the literal White House in later missions.

But it turns out that Shepherd was actually behind the whole thing, somehow. Shepherd placed Allen undercover, and it seems likely he leaked the agent’s true identity to Makarov. He later betrays and kills another player character in order to intercept intelligence that links him to Makarov and to instigating the war. The entire story of Modern Warfare 2 is a false flag operation carried out by an American general to create a new war for, seemingly, personal gain. Again, that’s a pretty subversive point of a view for a franchise that’s consistently pro-military.

The trouble is, the game does so little to get any of these ideas across in its story (or any other ideas) that it’s not clear Modern Warfare 2 actually has any. “No Russian” doesn’t put any emphasis on the fact that you’re a CIA operative in a very compromised position; the rest of the characters move on after Allen is killed, cursing Makarov’s name, never acknowledging the fact that the gambit of blaming the U.S. for the massacre was possible because you were there, helping him–or at least, not stopping him. Modern Warfare 2 doesn’t use any dialogue or context to suggest what point “No Russian,” or any other part of its story, is trying to make, and so it’s hard to guess at what the scene is meant to convey. It’s easy, then, to chalk “No Russian” up as nothing more than cheap and tasteless, an example of Call of Duty trying to be edgy for edgy’s sake.

If Modern Warfare 2 were better at storytelling, a challenging point of view on violence, militarism, or war would be easier to accept. But Shepherd’s betrayal comes abruptly and out of nowhere toward the end of the game, and it’s tough to parse his motivations. (He seems mostly mad that a lot of soldiers died in the first Modern Warfare, and he’s trying to engineer himself as a war hero, although even this much explanation is being generous with how he’s portrayed in the game.) And while there are American military bad guys to fight, there are just as many American good guys (as well as allies from the UK, Australia, and Russia), fighting the good fight for freedom. The game doesn’t stray too far from lionizing the military, especially by portraying it fending off a massive surprise attack on home soil.

And Modern Warfare 2 doesn’t slow down in parading digital humans before you to kill, so it’s tough to buy that the inclusion of “No Russian” is meant to make you stop and consider the damage guns can inflict on real people. Mixed in among the enemy soldiers are the occasional teammate or civilian who might stray into your line of fire. Shoot too many of them and the game will fail you, but a little collateral damage goes by without remark.

So Modern Warfare 2 maintains its shock value and controversy, but if it’s an attempt to make a comment about the American fetishization of guns, the U.S.’s foreign policies, the willingness of the greedy and powerful to sacrifice civilians and soldiers for their own ends, or the military industrial complex’s need to self-perpetuate through warfare, those things are muddled at best.

Modern Warfare 2 Remastered is an impressive visual update of what is inarguably a classic shooter, and its big moments–like retaking the White House or going house-to-house through an American neighborhood–are just as exciting and impactful as they were in 2009. But age and distance haven’t improved the questionable parts of Modern Warfare 2, and they’re even tougher to overlook in the modern climate. It might be exciting to defend the Burger Town and chase down Shepherd in a Zodiac, but Modern Warfare 2’s weaknesses make moments like “No Russian” feel exploitative more than informative to the story or an important part of the experience–especially in 2020.