This week, during Good Morning America, a full trailer for the upcoming spring film was released. The extended trailer had a few Easter eggs as well as a few new characters that every Star Wars fan will be able to purchase a toy of in the upcoming months. More importantly, we also learned a lot about the new film; here are the main takeaways.
Solo: A Star Wars Story stars Alden Ehrenreich as Han Solo and Joonas Suotamo as Chewbacca. Donald Glover, Woody Harrelson, Phoebe Waller-Bridge, and Emilia Clarke are also featured in the film, which releases in theaters on May 25, 2018.
The movie has faced a somewhat troubled production, as noted above. Rumors have suggested more of the film was reshot than initially believed; we know Paul Bettany had to replace Michael K. Williams. It remains to be seen how the film turns out, but the new trailer provides us with our best sense yet of what to expect.
Registration for the beta test of a “major” new PS4 update recently began, and now the beta is officially underway. With the update beginning to roll out to select PS4 users, Sony has announced the details of what to expect from what we now know is system update 5.50.
These changes affect a wide variety of areas on the system. The Library has now been divided into two different areas: One lets you see everything purchased on your account, as normal, while the other only displays what’s currently installed on the console. There’s also a section where you can see which games you only “own” through PlayStation Plus. If your subscription has lapsed, games on the system will be shown with a lock icon on top of the PS Plus logo. This is meant to let you know you can re-subscribe to regain access to the game in question. Additionally, a new option will allow you to hide “certain” items from the Purchased list, such as demos, trials, and betas.
Custom wallpaper had been implemented to some extent previously, but 5.50 allows you to import any image via USB to apply as your background. A new USB storage device option has been added to the Themes area of the Settings menu. It features some (limited) options for modifying the image you have, such as zooming and cropping.
For those wanting to limit how much a PS4 is used, the new Play Time Management feature has been introduced, which is primarily intended for use with kids. This allows you to track time played and set daily time limits, even from a PC or smartphone. Notifications can be sent to warn the player about the upcoming cutoff, although you can decide whether or not the time limit immediately signs the users out or not.
PS4 Pro owners receive a new supersampling feature that will be of interest to those who have the system connected to a non-4K display. Similar to what’s offered through certain games with PS4 Pro enhancements, the new setting allows supersampling to be utilized for more games. This process involves a game being rendered at a higher resolution (up to 4K, in the case of certain PS4 games) and then downscaled to your display’s resolution, thereby providing greater clarity. While not everything will necessarily benefit, this complements the existing Boost mode as another optional way to leverage the Pro’s power.
Other features in this patch include new Quick Menu improvements (shortcut buttons for volume and Pause/Play when listening to music, faster access to individual friends) and customization options for team pages in Tournaments. You can also now manually delete notifications.
If you signed up to beta test the update, keep an eye on your email for details on accessing it. There’s not yet any word on how soon it will launch in full to the public. It’s also possible that the full release could include more features.
A new week of Switch games is upon us! So IGN has gathered a list of the latest eShop releases of the week for Nintendo Switch and 3DS in North America.
Dragon Quest Builders – $49.99
As the legendary Builder, you’ll construct rooms, towns, and defenses while fighting monsters. In Terra Incognita, build freely, share creations online, battle in an arena, and access exclusive content to the Nintendo Switch version of the game. You’re the only one in Alefgard who can rebuild and level up its ruined towns to attract new residents and raise their strength. But be wary: increasing a town’s level will also lure the Dragonlord’s monsters.
When you defeat monsters and break blocks of the environment, you’ll earn materials for crafting items and building structures. Enjoy content exclusive to the Nintendo Switch version in Terra Incognita: ride a Great Sabrecub, slay foes for Pixel Blocks, and use them to build a Dragon Quest Game Pak so you can access more items for building
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Whether your desk space is for work, school, gaming, or a hybrid of all three, there are quite a few products out there to help make the experience of sitting in front of your desk that much better. We’ve scoured Amazon to bring you some of the best stuff out there to bring order, brighten things up, or just add a touch of personality.
Not everything at your desk needs to be strictly-business. You have to have a little fun, too. It’s critical. Here are a few items to liven up your work space.
Monster Hunter World is a challenging game. Once you’ve acquired some better gear, the early monsters don’t present much of a threat, but difficult enemies still await players toward the end of the game–specifically, the vaunted Elder Dragons.
Elder Dragons are a recurring aspect of the Monster Hunter series, and they’re present once again in World. The game’s box features a new addition to the Elder Dragon ranks, Nergigante, but it isn’t the only such foe you’ll face over the course of the game. In the video above, some of our die-hard Monster Hunter fans take on three Elder Dragons you’ll need to face toward the end of World. It should give you a good idea of what to expect from some of the game’s most difficult encounters (or provide a glimpse if you don’t think you’ll make it that far yourself). We’ve also got a more detailed breakdown of what to expect from Monster Hunter World’s endgame.
Since its Xbox One debut in December, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds has been one of the platform’s most popular titles, recently surpassing 4 million players on the console alone. Microsoft bundled the battle royale game together with its new Xbox One X console for a limited time last holiday season, and now the publisher is doing the same with Xbox One S.
Beginning February 20, prospective Xbox owners around the world will be able to pick up the Xbox One S PUBG bundle. It retails for $300 and includes a 1 TB console, an Xbox One controller, and a full download of PUBG, which is currently only available in Xbox Game Preview for $30. You can take a look at the packaging below.
In addition to the game and hardware, the Xbox One S PUBG bundle includes a 14-day trial for Xbox Live Gold, as well as a one-month subscription to Xbox Game Pass. The former is required to play PUBG online against other players, while the latter is Microsoft’s Netflix-like game streaming service, which gives players unlimited access to a select library of Xbox One and 360 titles for as long as they have an active subscription. Microsoft recently announced that the Game Pass service will soon receive all first-party Xbox One exclusives on the same day they launch, beginning with Sea of Thieves.
Developer PUBG Corp. recently rolled out a new update for PUBG on Xbox One. That patch focused primarily on the amount of damage vehicles can inflict and receive, on top of an assortment of bug fixes and gameplay tweaks. To celebrate surpassing 4 million players, PUBG Corp. is also offering players a gift of 30,000 Battle Points to use on in-game cosmetic items this month.
Avengers: Infinity War got a TV spot during Sunday’s Super Bowl that we immediately broke down for hints as to what the movie holds in store. But we weren’t the only ones poring over the details – Marvel fans are adamant they’ve spotted Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel in the footage.
The supposed sighting is at the 11-second mark, when we see Cap, Black Widow, and Vision walking through what appears to be Avengers HQ. If you look closely, you’ll see a fourth figure behind Steve Rogers, next to Vision, sporting what looks like a black and gold suit at first glance.
PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds released version 1.0 in December, after a long and successful run on PC in early access. The PUBG Corporation put together an infographic of stats giving insight into some of the game’s numbers.
For example, players played a combined 310,000 years worth of PUBG during early access. At its highest point, 3.14 million players were battling it out concurrently on Steam, a record number for the platform.
Check out the infographic for more stats from PUBG’s early access run:
It may utilize the mix of action and humor that now defines the Marvel movie formula, but Black Panther refuses to blend into the crowd of superhero films. It stands out boldly, in part by opening up a beautiful new corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but also with its topical themes. Not everything works across the board, but when it sets this fantastic cast of relatable heroes on one side of real-world ideological debates and the MCU’s most compelling and dimensional antagonist in years on the other, a huge amount of it works wonderfully.
For a film that touches on so many very real and very serious topics, you might expect Black Panther to be an entirely solemn affair. Some parts are, but it’s also an entertaining adventure film about an action hero with awesome gadgets and a super-suit, a fun film with many laugh-out loud moments, and a gorgeous movie with a distinctive visual style that can’t be mistaken for any other big-budget movie. It’s a testament to director/co-writer Ryan Coogler’s skill that he juggles all these elements without his film ending up tonally inconsistent. As he did with his previous film, 2015’s Creed, Coogler has made a larger-than-life crowd-pleaser that works so well because he keeps it grounded in what is very human, emotional, and relatable.
Black Panther‘s core concept–that there’s a secretive African country full of otherworldly technology, affluent people, and godlike warriors–is incredibly fun and ripe for storytelling. But it also begs the potentially damning question: Where has Wakanda been while black people suffered all over the world throughout human history? The fact that Black Panther doesn’t just address that, but tackles it head on as the movie’s central conflict, is a large part of what makes it a fantastic film.
Wakanda was long ago settled by five warring tribes who united under one king, empowered by the mountain of “vibranium”–the strongest metal in existence–implanted in the earth by a wayward asteroid. As its civilization became ever more advanced, Wakanda grew more and more secretive, under the leadership of a succession of kings who took on the mantle of the Black Panther.
That’s the opening story dump necessary to get audiences on board. But the film’s events actually begin in 1992 Oakland, where the Black Panther/King of the day, T’Chaka (the same one who died in 2016’s Captain America: Civil War), travels to confront a treasonous Wakandan who grew disillusioned with his homeland’s selfish isolationism after witnessing black people’s suffering throughout the tumultuous period.
When the story picks up in the present day, it’s that same issue that the new Black Panther, T’Challa (Chadwick Boseman), must face. His love interest, Lupita Nyong’o’s Nakia, is a philanthropist who believes Wakanda should share its wealth and technology to help the suffering. His underlings, including Daniel Kaluuya’s W’Kabi, believe Wakanda should wage war on the outside world. T’Challa would be more comfortable simply preserving Wakanda as it is, but throughout Black Panther he’s confronted over and over with the same question: How can Wakanda continue to stand by while black people suffer all over the world?
That’s where Michael B. Jordan’s Killmonger comes in. As dangerous as he is charismatic, Killmonger seeks to seize control of Wakanda so he can use the nation’s hyper-advanced weapons to undo millennia of injustice, remaking the world with black people on top. Through fierce monologues full of biting condemnations, Killmonger wields years of suffering–his people’s and his own–to cut right to the core of everything wrong with Wakanda, and the world. Once his motivations are revealed, it’s hard not to sympathize, and that combined with an absolutely stunning performance from Jordan makes Killmonger easily the best and most complex Marvel Cinematic Universe villain ever.
It’s not a case of the villain becoming the good guy, though. Killmonger is undeniably evil–in fact, Black Panther‘s most unfortunate misstep is making him too villainous in the first half, which in turn makes it difficult to fully empathize with him later on. And besides, T’Challa’s position is just as understandable: If Wakanda were to reveal itself to the outside world, they would almost certainly lose their way of life forever.
That may be selfish, but it works, in large part because Wakanda is so gorgeously realized in this movie. Think of it like an earth-bound Asgard, except unlike Thor’s homeland, Wakanda seems like a place that might actually exist in the real world (besides all the hover trains and holograms, of course). T’Challa and Nakia stroll through the markets, while magnetic bullet trains criss-cross vibranium-laced caverns underground. Priests and priestesses tend the sacred garden of the Heart-Shaped Herb, the vibranium-infused flower that gives the Black Panther his powers.
The whole city pulses and thrives, colors and structures simultaneously informed by African heritage and an alienness granted by vibranium technology. The original songs by Kendrick Lamar fit perfectly, lending each scene both modernity and an added sense of history. And the characters who live there easily cement themselves in this movie as some of the most fully fleshed out in the whole MCU.
Danai Gurira’s Okoye leads the Dora Milaje, a small army of ferocious female warriors, in some incredible fight scenes. Angela Bassett’s Queen Mother Ramonda infuses a dignified monarch with a core of intense emotion. And Letitia Wright’s Shuri, T’Challa’s younger sister and chief inventor–the Q to his 007–threatens to steal the movie in her own right. Whether she’s gawking hilariously at T’Challa’s latest fashion faux pas or joining battle with the aid of some awesome new vibranium-powered gadget, Shuri will be many viewers’ favorite character by the end.
Kaluuya (from Get Out!), Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis, Winston Duke, and Martin Freeman round out the excellent cast, each getting their moments in the movie to make a mark. Freeman is the only one who stands out as kind of pointless, although he gets plenty of standout moments–arguably too many, as viewers and other characters alike will occasionally wonder why he’s there at all (besides that his Agent Ross is a fan favorite character from the comics). Yes, his incredulity at Wakanda’s advanced technology makes him a sometimes welcome surrogate for the audience, but as the most benevolent CIA agent ever portrayed he ultimately muddies the message somewhat.
The main reason the world thinks Wakanda is a third world wasteland is that’s what Wakanda wants them to think. But it’s also because that’s easy for the world to believe. Black Panther is a movie that succeeds in challenging that type of preconceived idea, from the gut-punches of Killmonger’s condemnations to the simple reality of seeing an affluent African nation never touched by–to borrow the movie’s own terminology–any of history’s many “colonizers.” The fact that Wakanda isn’t real only emphasizes the point.
And on top of all that, Black Panther is a top tier Marvel movie with all the humor, style, action, passion, and fun that the MCU has come to embody. Black Panther is a cultural event that’s going to be hard for Marvel to top, no matter how many worlds Thanos conquers later this year in Infinity War.
