Apex Legends Battle Pass Has Free Rewards For Everyone

Apex LegendsWild Frontier Battle Pass arrives on March 19, marking the start of the game’s first season. Just as in Fortnite, the Battle Pass costs 950 Apex Coins–roughly $10–and allows you to unlock a wide range of skins, cosmetics, and other rewards as you level it up throughout the season. Even if you don’t want to shell out money for it, however, you’ll be able to unlock some items for free.

As EA confirmed on the Apex Legends website, all players will be able to earn a handful of free rewards during Season 1. These include one Wild Frontier Legend skin, five Apex Packs, and 18 Wild Frontier stat trackers. If you do decide to spring for a Battle Pass partway through the season, you’ll also retroactively unlock any items you would have earned, so you won’t need to worry about missing out on the rewards.

Of course, those who do purchase the Battle Pass will have access to even more goodies. Respawn is offering 100 tiers of rewards to unlock throughout the season, ranging from character and weapon skins to XP boosts, banner frames, and other cosmetic items. You’ll also earn up to 1,000 Apex Coins through the Battle Pass, which would allow you to get Season 2’s pass for free.

If you want to get a head start on the rewards, EA is also selling a Battle Pass bundle for 2,800 Apex Coins, which will automatically unlock the first 25 tiers. You can also get some free Apex Coins by signing up for EA/Origin Access, effectively giving you a discount on the Battle Pass. You can read more about how the Apex Legends Battle Pass works here.

Alongside the Season 1 Battle Pass, Respawn is releasing Apex Legends’ newest playable character, Octane, on March 19. However, he’s not included as part of the Battle Pass, but rather needs to be purchased separately from Legends’ in-game store. Like Mirage and Caustic, he can be unlocked for 12,000 Legend Tokens or 750 Apex Coins.

Halo TV Show Adds Second Showrunner In Quest To Finally Get Made

The mission to get Showtime’s Halo TV show made is as epic a quest as anything seen in the Halo video games. After Showtime formally announced it was ordering the project to series in the summer of 2018, the series is slowly inching closer and closer to becoming a reality.

First, it was announced that Rise of the Planet of the Apes director Rupert Wyatt would helm multiple episodes, while Kyle Killen (Awake) served as showrunner. Then Wyatt dropped out before production got underway, citing scheduling issues. In his place, Showtime announced in February that Black Mirror alum Otto Bathurst would step in as director and executive producer of the series.

Now, according to The Hollywood Reporter, the project has added a co-showrunner. Steve Kane (The Last Ship) will reportedly work with Killen to bring the show to life. While Killen is believed to be spearheading writing and producing the series in the United States, it’s believed Kane will spend a fair amount of the production on-set in Budapest, where Halo will film.

At this point, casting and a start date for production have not been announced. However, we do know some things about the Halo series. Most importantly–for fans of the video game franchise, anyway–Master Chief will be a key figure in the series. However, it’s yet to be revealed if viewers will ever see his face.

In the games, Chief is never seen without his helmet, leaving his true identity a mystery. When asked last August, Showtime’s president of programming Gary Levine told GameSpot, “It is a key question and an important part of our series is all I’ll say.”

There is no premiere date set for Showtime’s Halo series.

Apex Legends Season 1 Battle Pass Arrives Tomorrow – GS News Update

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Kevin Feige Assures Captain Marvel Will Have an Achilles’ Heel

Spoilers ahead for Captain Marvel.

Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige has confirmed that while Captain Marvel appears to be unstoppable, she will in fact will have “limitations and there will be Achilles heels” for Carol Danvers.

In an interview with Slashfilm, Feige answered a question in regards to Captain Marvel’s extreme power that Feige had previously said makes her the “most powerful hero the MCU has ever seen.”

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Dune Explained: What to Know Before the New Movie

Dune is one of the most beloved and celebrated science fiction novels ever published. It’s also an incredibly dense book, with many rival factions and characters set against the backdrop of a futuristic human civilization. And that’s even before factoring in the many sequels, prequels and spinoffs that have cropped up over the years. Dune movie director Denis Villeneuve definitely has his work cut out for him as he becomes the latest filmmaker to attempt to bring this sprawling saga to life on the big screen.

If you have a hard time making sense of the Dune franchise and its many heroes and villains, we’re here to help. Here’s everything you need to know about the original book, its follow-up stories and the various attempts at adapting the story to film.

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Thanos’ Snap Almost Happened in Avengers: Endgame

Warning: Spoilers follow for Avengers: Infinity War.

The Thanos snap that wiped out half of all life in the universe at the end of Avengers: Infinity War was originally discussed for the upcoming Avengers: Endgame in early drafts.

In a new interview with Empire magazine, co-writer Stephen McFeely revealed that early on in the writing process, the original placement of the snap was going to take place after Avengers: Infinity War.

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The Grudge Remake Will Take Place In America

Remember the J-horror craze of the early 2000s? When American remakes of The Grudge and The Ring terrorized the world? Well, one of those franchises is coming back–but not in the way you might think.

The Grudge, or Ju-On as it is known in Japan, is a franchise that started in 2000 and spawned eight Japanese sequels, an American remake series, short films, a video game, and more.

Hollywood’s relationship with the franchise started in 2004’s The Grudge, starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. The film was a remake of the Japanese supernatural horror film Ju-On: The Grudge, the third installment in the franchise. Gellar plays an exchange student in Japan who finds herself the victim of a curse. The Japanese films deal with a curse created in a house in Tokyo, where a woman who was murdered by a jealous husband is turned into a ghost because she died with a deep rage, so she haunts the location, killing anyone who encounters the curse.

A new English-language movie was announced with writer Jeff Buhler penning the script around 2014. During an interview at SXSW promoting his newest film, Pet Sematary, GameSpot spoke with Buhler on his approach to the famous Japanese ghost story.

“My original pitch to Sam Raimi was to forget about the original story and not revisit the same old ghosts,” Buhler said. “We have seen the story of Kayako and Toshio being told so many times over [in] so many films both in Japan and the US, as well as the short films.”

He went on to explain exactly what he would change from the mythology, and GameSpot can exclusively reveal that Buhler’s script moved the story away from Japan into more familiar territory.

“The phenomenon of a grudge, which happens when someone dies in a violent rage, could happen anywhere,” Buhler told GameSpot. “It could happen again, and it’s probably happening somewhere right now. So the idea was to take what we’ve seen happening in Japan, and ask what would happen if that cycle were to happen in our own backyard? We wanted to start a new cycle of ghosts in a completely new setting.”

This certainly makes sense considering the largely non-Asian cast, which includes star Lin Shaye, as well as Andrea Riseborough, Demian Bichir, Betty Gilpin, William Sadler, Jacki Weaver, Frankie Faison, and John Cho. The only issue is that we don’t exactly know how much of that script is in the movie, as Buhler told us that the film’s director, Nicolas Pesce (The Eyes of My Mother), did some writing of his own.

“I pitched my idea to Sam Raimi, and then Nicolas Pesce came in and did a huge amount of work on his own script and directed the movie,” Buhler said. While Buhler wouldn’t say whether Pesce completely discarded his script or just added to it, he said he’s seen the film. And we sure are excited for the possibility of a new mythology in the franchise.

The Grudge is slated to hit theaters January 3, 2020.

1-Year PS Plus on Sale, Save Big on Hundreds of PS4 Games

If you buy something through this post, IGN may get a share of the sale. For more, read our Terms of Use.

PlayStation Plus is on sale right now for just $44.95, and PS Plus members can save big on over 800 games in Sony’s The Great Indoors PlayStation sale event. In other words, if you’re one of the almost 92 million people who own a PS4, you can save some money right now on both games and the membership to get free games every month.

12-months PS Plus for $44.95

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Bumblebee Producer Says Next Transformers Movie Will Be A Reboot

The Transformers film franchise is in a bit of a predicament now. In the five straight movies about the giant robots that transform into various things led by Michael Bay and his eye for explosions, the movies have grossed millions upon millions of dollars, but critical and audience opinions have gotten worse with nearly every installment. However, Travis Knight’s Bumblebee blew expectations away and gave the franchise its first certified fresh rating. The problem? While Bumblebee was well-liked, the film failed to impress at the box office, ending up as the least grossing film in the series.

Yet Paramount still wants to move forward with more Autobots and Decepticons, and it was reported earlier this week that the studio is moving ahead with sequels to both Bumblebee and the main Transformers series. We spoke with producer Lorenzo di Bonaventura about the new Stephen King adaptation Pet Sematary at SXSW, and he revealed that the new film in the main Transformers series will be a little different than expected.

“The main Transformers movie we are working on is a reboot, and I will say that the Bumblebee sequel will be more directly linked to the timeline that we set up,” Di Bonaventura told GameSpot.

While it may come as a surprise to most fans, the timeline for the Transformers franchise has been all over the place, especially after Transformers: The Last Knight, which introduced an order of humans protecting the secret of Transformers who’ve lived among us for centuries, as well as a Transformer the size of the Earth.

While Bumblebee didn’t really connect to the other Transformers movies, it basically served as a prequel to the franchise. Thus, it complicated things further when Optimus Prime appears on Earth decades before his supposed first trip here in the very first Transformers movie.

So what is the release plan? Di Bonaventura doesn’t seem to know, and he prefers it that way. “I think Paramount should just pick the best script and release that first,” the producer said. “I don’t think there is a plan in terms of what movie comes out first, and I always think you should just go with the best script first instead of planning a franchise based on release dates.”

He went on to say that the Bumblebee sequel will be bigger than the previous one, despite the spin-off having had the smallest budget in the franchise. “It is going to bring Bumblebee into a bigger adventure,” Di Bonaventura said. “What was fun about the first one was that we didn’t have to be beholden to the other Transformers movies.”

Check out GameSpot’s full Bumblebee review here.

Apex Legends Adding Octane Tomorrow, But He’s Not Part Of The Battle Pass

Respawn is kicking off the first season of its new battle royale game, Apex Legends, tomorrow on March 19 with the release of the Season 1 Battle Pass. That’s also the day when the game’s newest playable Legend, Octane, will arrive–but you’ll need to purchase him separately if you’re hoping to try him out.

Despite being promoted heavily alongside Apex Legends’ Season 1 Battle Pass, Respawn has confirmed that Octane will not be included as part of it. Rather, like Mirage and Caustic, he’ll be sold through the in-game store for 12,000 Legend Tokens or 750 Apex Coins. The former currency can be earned through gameplay, while the latter is purchased using real-world money. However, you can get some free Apex Coins by signing up for EA/Origin Access.

Ahead of Octane’s release, Respawn has shared some more details about the new Legend on the PlayStation Blog. Outfitted with metal legs after blowing his off during a “record-breaking gauntlet speed-run,” Octane is a thrill-seeker who uses “death-defying moves.” With his Adrenaline Junkie ability, Octane is able to exchange health for speed, and his Ultimate–Launch Pad–can send the squad flying through the air.

While this marks the first time Octane has officially been confirmed, players have known about him for several weeks now. The character’s existence had been previously been leaked, most credibly when an image of him appeared on the Origin website. Respawn also teased his impending arrival by placing his jump pads in the game near Market.

Like Fortnite‘s Battle Pass, the Apex Legends Season 1 Pass costs 950 Apex Coins (roughly $10). Through it, players will be able to unlock 100 tiers of cosmetic rewards, including character and weapon skins, banner frames, and more. You’ll also be able to earn enough Apex Coins to pay for Season 2’s Battle Pass. You can read more about how the Apex Legends Battle Pass works here.