Month: March 2020

The Mandalorian season 2 is due in October on Disney Plus, and while it’s not filming at the moment due to the outbreak of COVID-19, an exciting new casting decision has been made. Making Star Wars is reporting that Michael Biehn is joining the second season as another bounty hunter who Mando has had past dealings with.

Biehn’s breakout role was Kyle Reese in 1984’s The Terminator, but he’s perhaps best known for playing Corporal Hicks in Aliens–both James Cameron films. You might also recognize him as Sgt. Rex “Power” Colt from the excellent Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon.

Biehn’s had fewer major on-screen roles lately, but he’s the sort of veteran actor who should fit in well with The Mandalorian’s casting of older action heroes, like Carl Weathers and Nick Nolte. As Making Star Wars notes, the initial production name for The Mandalorian was Huckleberry, a reference to Tombstone, which also starred Biehn.

The report also confirms that Bill Burr, who played Mayfield in the first season, will also return. Reports are also suggesting that Rosario Dawson will join the second season as a fan-favorite character who has only appeared in animated form before, Ahsoka Tano.

The Mandalorian is the only live-action Star Wars release scheduled for 2020. The final season of The Clone Wars is currently airing on Disney Plus.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has recently released on Switch, and many players are praising the game for its flexible position on gender identity–it never asks you to confirm a gender, and lets you use any hair, make-up, and clothing on any body, which was not the case with previous games in the series. Now, in a new interview with The Washington Post, the game’s producer Aya Kyogoku has explained the game’s relaxed stance on identifying and restricting gender.

Kyogoku says that the decision is “not just about gender,” but a wider consideration for how people identify themselves. “Society is shifting to valuing a lot of people’s different identities,” Kyogoku says. “We basically wanted to create a game where users didn’t really have to think about gender or if they wanted to think about gender, they’re also able to.”

Elsewhere in the interview, Kyogoku notes that she does not consider changing the Switch’s internal clock to skip time forward “cheating,” although the developers advise against it.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is all about friendship, but it can be confusing to figure out how exactly to play with your friends. You can’t just rely on your Nintendo Switch friends list for everything; New Horizons also has its own friends list, and your Switch friends aren’t automatically included. Here’s a rundown of what you need to do to start playing with friends and make sure you’ve added them as friends in New Horizons.

The first thing you need to do is wait a day after you’ve started your game. At that point, your island’s airport will be operational, and you can start traveling to friends’ islands and accepting visitors to your own. Keep in mind that you need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to play online with others.

Friends vs. Best Friends

New Horizons distinguishes between “friends,” meaning your Nintendo Switch friends, and “Best Friends,” which are friends you add in-game via the Best Friends List app on your NookPhone. To unlock the Best Friends List app, you have to play online with at least one other person (we detail how below).

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Apex Legends‘ first ranked series split is now live, resetting every player’s rank. The ranked series split also now makes it possible to play on either of Apex Legends’ maps for the rest of Season 4: Assimilation, as Kings Canyon has returned once again.

The ranked series was first introduced into Apex Legends during Season 2: Battle Charge, adding a competitive Ranked playlist to the battle royale. In both Season 2 and Season 3, each ranked series lasted for a full season–rewarding players with in-game cosmetic items based on their final rank and then resetting that rank at the start of the following season.

Season 4: Assimilation changes things up by introducing a ranked series split, causing players to get the rank reset halfway through the season. The split also changes which map that Ranked mode is played on. The first half of Season 4 saw you play Ranked on a reworked World’s Edge. The latter half sees the return of Season 2’s Kings Canyon.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Now more than ever, I’ll take any chance I can get to feel like a demigod – even if it’s just in a video game. Doom Eternal offers that power fantasy in spades but is always ready to check your first-person-shooting ego around the next corner with a bigger, faster, nastier demon from Hell. This evolved followup takes everything good about the fast and punchy 2016 reboot and proves it wasn’t a fluke. In fact, it’s largely ruined the first game for me in retrospect because the addition of Eternal’s mid-air dashes make the last thrillride of a game feel like wading through waist-high molasses by comparison. Even multiplayer’s been innovated on, with 2016’s forgettable vanilla DeathMatch replaced by Eternal’s inventive 2v1, Demons-vs.-Slayer Battlemode. The full package is expertly crafted from both a design and technical perspective.

So far I’ve done in-depth reviews of both the single-player and multiplayer modes. First, here’s what I said about the campaign:

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Doom Eternal Single-Player Campaign Review

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Simply put, Doom Eternal is one of the best first-person shooter campaigns I’ve played in years. As the second game of its kind it’s lost some of its novelty but none of the joy of its intense and furious combat style. This excellent refinement of the already outstanding 2016 reboot makes you an unspoken deal: if you can keep up with it, it will keep up with you. It continually teaches you how to play faster, smarter, and more efficiently, with lots of options at every step of the way to tailor fights to your prefered slaying style, and it’s an absolute blast along the way.

And here’s my Verdict on multiplayer:

Doom Eternal Battlemode Multiplayer Review

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A quick Battlemode walkthrough intro and bare-bones tutorials for each playable demon give you a quick look at what each bad guy can do in your hands, but the fun of Battlemode is getting out there and figuring out how to best put each Demon’s abilities to work. Doom Eternal is a game that demands and respects player skill, and while Battlemode doesn’t allow you to put yours to the ultimate test on a traditional level playing field, it is nevertheless a clever mode that’s a lot of fun if you’re willing to give it a try and get to know its nuances.

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Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood will remain closed beyond the original March 28 reopening date that Universal announced March 12.

“We are extending the closure of Universal Orlando Resort and Universal Studios Hollywood through April 19 as we continue to respond to current conditions and make the health and safety of team members and guests our top priority,” Universal said in a statement posted Tuesday.

“This includes our theme parks and Universal CityWalk at both destinations. The Universal Orlando Resort hotels have also temporarily suspended operations. We will continue to monitor the situation and make adjustments as needed, based on guidance from health agencies and government officials.”

Our original report follows.

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Universal has shut down operations at the Universal Studios theme park, with current plans to reopen as of March 28 at this time.

Variety reports that in response to and in order to help contain the spread of novel coronavirus COVID-19, Universal will be closed starting March 14.

“The health and safety of our team members and guests is always our top priority,” Universal Studios spokesperson told Variety. “Out of an abundance of caution and in response to the guidance provided by the California Department of Public Health, Universal Studios Hollywood will temporarily close beginning Saturday, March 14. The theme park anticipates reopening on March 28 as we continue to monitor the situation.”

Universal CityWalk, however, will remain open.

Universal joins Disneyland and Disney California Adventure in closing in response to efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. Those two parks, however, are closed indefinitely as of this time. News of Disney World’s closure has yet to be announced, and that park is operating normally as of press time.

The film world has also seen several changes due to efforts to contain COVID-19. Universal Pictures earlier announced nearly a year’s delay for the release date of Fast 9. And Disney has delayed the releases of Mulan, as well as pushed the release dates for New Mutants and Antlers.

IGN spoke with a number of medical experts to learn how movie delays may help stop the spread of COVID-19. Events like E3 2020 and SXSW that bring large amounts of people together have closed as well.

Veteran actor Michael Biehn has been cast in the second season of The Mandalorian, Disney+’s Star Wars series. The actor is best known for his turn as Kyle Reese in James Cameron’s The Terminator.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Biehn is set to join the second season of the Star Wars series as a bounty hunter, though details about the character remain sparse. Other actors appearing in The Mandalorian season 2 include Rosario Dawson who is reportedly cast as Ahsoka Tano.

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Biehn is best known for his collaborations with director James Cameron. Aside from playing the protagonist Kyle Reese in the first Terminator movie, Biehn worked with Cameron by appearing in Aliens (1986) and The Abyss (1989).

The Mandalorian premiered alongside Disney+ in 2019. The Star Wars live-action series starred Pedro Pascal as the titular Mandalorian tasked with finding The Child, popularly referred to as “Baby Yoda” as the two characters are from the same species.

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Jon Favreau, director of Iron Man, served as creator and showrunner, while a rotating cast of directors helmed individual episodes including director Dave Filoni, Fick Famuyiwa, Deborah Chow, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Taika Waititi.

Season two is set to premiere this October on Disney+.

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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.