Month: March 2020

Free Comic Book Day 2020 has been postponed to an unspecified date later in the summer due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Diamond Comic Distributors made the announcement on their website on Thursday. The event was originally scheduled for Saturday, May 2.

“The severity and timing of the impact of the COVID-19 virus can’t be predicted with any certainty, but the safety of our retailer partners and comic book fans is too important to risk,” Diamond Founder and CEO Steve Geppi said in a statement. “As always, we appreciate your enthusiasm for and support of the comic industry’s best event and look forward to celebrating with you later in the Summer.”

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47 different comics have been announced for Free Comic Book Day. The Free Comic Book Day website lists comics featuring X-Men, Spider-Man, Donald Duck, Riverdale, Street Fighter, My Little Pony, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and Bloodshot, with even more available on the day.

Marvel is planning to launch new storylines for X-Men and Spider-Man on Free Comic Book Day. X-Men #1 comes from House of X writer Jonathan Hickman and artist Pepe Larraz. A press release from February said it “will lead into a game-changing summer for all of X.”

As for DC, they were planning a big event for the Flash on Free Comic Book Day that would followup the Flash Forward miniseries. DC says the comic “lays the foundation for even more seismic-level changes in the DC Universe.” Marvel and DC haven’t announced any release changes due to Free Comic Book Day’s delay at this time.

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Check out IGN’s list of the 20 most anticipated comics of 2020 and be sure to read these 25 issues while binging Comixology Unlimited.

While it’s always great to support local comic book stores, now is the best time to stay at home and go through some comics digitally. IGN has rounded up links to various charities and tips on how to stay safe during these times.

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Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN who will be ready to support local comic book stores when everything’s back up and ready.

March has brought a ton of Legendary Pokemon to Pokemon Go, and now one more is set to arrive before the month officially wraps up. Niantic has announced that Landorus, the third and final member of the Forces of Nature trio from Pokemon Black and White, will appear in Pokemon Go beginning March 31.

Until April 21, you’ll be able to encounter Landorus around the world in five-star Raids. That isn’t the only way you’ll be able to catch the Legendary, however; Landorus will also be available as a Go Battle League reward for a limited time. You can read more about the Legendary on the official Pokemon Go website.

In the meantime, another Gen 5 Legendary, Cobalion, is available in Go again as part of a limited-time Raid event, which is set to end March 23. The Legendary Lugia will also return for its own Raid event from March 24-31. Each of those two Pokemon has a special event-exclusive move this time around, and you may encounter their Shiny forms.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Rian Johnson wanted to test Star Wars: The Last Jedi while he was making the movie, but the secrecy surrounding the franchise made that impossible.

In the bonus features on the home release for Johnson’s latest movie, Knives Out, the filmmaker revealed the test screening for Knives Out went better than he could’ve imagined, sparking a wish that he could have done the same for The Last Jedi.

“[The Knives Out test] was like a party in the theater, it was really fun. It was like the first time I was like ‘Oh wow, this actually plays. This is good,'” Johnson said, according to Screen Rant. “Which is really nice and that’s something on Star Wars, you can’t test Star Wars movies for a lot of different reasons. I’ve always hated test screening, and when we were making Star Wars, at a certain point in the process you’re like ‘God, I would give my left arm to put this in front of 300 people in Burbank and just see how it plays.’”

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As Screen Rant points out, it’s anyone’s guess what the test audience response might have been, or what changes might have resulted in the final cut. Review aggregator Metacritic indicates a sharp divide between critics (with an average score of 85 out of 100) and general audiences (with an average score of 4.3 out of 10). Johnson also recently heaped praise on The Rise of Skywalker, a sequel that has also divided fans and is currently one of the lowest-scoring Star Wars movies on Rotten Tomatoes.

Johnson is now an Oscar and BAFTA nominee after Knives Out was nominated for Best Original Screenplay at both ceremonies. He lost both awards to Parasite. He is now set to work on a new trilogy of Star Wars movies that will move “beyond the legacy characters” but is planning a sequel to Knives Out first.

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For more Star Wars news, find out the revelations contained in the Rise of Skywalker novelization and learn about the new era being explored in The High Republic.

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Petey Oneto is a freelance writer for IGN who is more excited for Knives Out 2 than anything Star Wars at this point.

Times are tough right now for everyone. Social distancing has people feeling isolated, and things are generally a bit scary. Luckily, there is a wonderfully wholesome remedy on the way in the form of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. And, well, dammit, I need it now. I’ve got virtual fruit to pick, fake mortgages to amass, and the fossilized remains of prehistoric creatures to collect, catalog, and enshrine. (Have you ever considered how cute Animal Crossing dinosaurs would be? Makes you think.)

It’s been a long, long wait for the game, whether you’re looking at how long it’s been since the last core entry (New Leaf in 2013) or even just when New Horizons itself was set to be released before its delay (sometime in 2019, which feels like an eternity ago). While many had hoped Nintendo would break its own release date and start selling it early–there was even a petition to that effect–that hasn’t happened.

That means we’re stuck counting down every last second until its unlock time on the Eshop, which we expect to be 9 PM PT on March 19 (12 AM ET on March 20) in the US. If you’re like us, that won’t stop you from refreshing the Eshop, repeatedly trying to open the preloaded game, restarting your system, and messing with the console’s date in the hopes that the game will shake loose like a dangling Snickers in a vending machine. It ain’t gonna work, so save yourself the heartache.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic may cause some disruptions in Amazon’s shipments of Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Doom Eternal. Customers who have pre-ordered either title through the online retailer have been receiving emails notifying them that there may be a delay in their delivery, as the company will “temporarily” be prioritizing shipping out household and medical items.

“As COVID-19 has spread, we’ve recently seen an increase in people shopping online which has had an impact on how we serve our customers,” Amazon said in a statement shared with GameSpot. “So in the short term, we are temporarily prioritizing household staples, medical supplies, and other high demand products coming into our fulfillment centers so we can more quickly receive, restock, and ship these products to customers. As a result, customers who ordered Animal Crossing: New Horizon or Doom Eternal may experience a delay in the delivery of their items. We are very sorry for the inconvenience this may cause our customers.”

Doom and Animal Crossing certainly aren’t the only games that may be impacted by the COVID-19 outbreak. Square Enix recently shared a message informing fans that although Final Fantasy VII Remake is still scheduled to launch on April 10, the coronavirus outbreak may prevent some from being able to get the game on launch day.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

The latest in tech, gadgets, and electronics can make for excellent gifts, and they don’t always have to break the bank (in fact, you can find plenty of cool tech gifts under $50). However, if you’re looking to splurge for a special occasion like a graduation, birthday, or anything in between, then you might be wondering what the absolute best tech gifts are. With everything from iPads and AirPods to Elite controllers and coffee makers, there is a ton to choose from, and it can get overwhelming fast. Thankfully, we’ve got you covered.

We’ve rounded up the best tech gift ideas, so read on for some great ideas for that special person in your life–or even a nice treat for yourself. Just keep in mind that the prices below indicate the regular price and won’t reflect any discounts or fluctuations–Amazon regularly discounts most products, so you might get one of these awesome items for a cheaper price.

Quick look: The best tech gifts for 2020

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Overwatch‘s 32nd playable hero is Echo, a flying artificially intelligent robot with the ability to mimic other heroes and borrow their abilities. Echo has popped up in Overwatch’s fiction a few times over the last two years, and it was with her appearance in the McCree- and Ashe-focused story video “Reunion” that the team really started developing the character for inclusion to the game. But Echo’s origins stretch back much further than that cinematic from 2018.

“Typically, heroes in our game can come from a bunch of different angles,” Overwatch lead designer Geoff Goodman explained to GameSpot. “So often they come from design by prototype–like, we really need a sniper or something, we should try to get a sniper there, and build a character around the gameplay. In other common cases, we’ll have somebody whose story just gets created for background, or an artist has a cool idea, and they just draw something. We don’t have a gameplay part yet. So we have all these cool characters hanging out. And in Echo’s case, it was more that we had the art for her for a long time ago. Technically, the real origins of her as a character goes back to Titan, which was our earlier projects that got canceled before Overwatch 1.”

Titan was an MMO project Blizzard was developing in the years following the release of World of Warcraft, but the project was eventually scrapped. Much of what was created for Titan eventually was repurposed into Overwatch, and that included a number of characters. Concept art for Echo was among the things originally made for Titan, and Goodman said it was one character the development team particularly liked, which helped Echo to be eventually added to the new game.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

After being canceled earlier this year due to concerns over COVID-19, GDC organizers have announced that the event will now take place this summer. GDC Summer will be held on August 4-6 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, California.

GDC Summer will “retain the same high level of expert-led talks as the traditional GDC,” according to event organizers and will continue to provide an immersive two-day expo show floor experience. Organizers are also promising a “new series of microtalks and fireside chats, as well as a dedicated space for comprehensive career development sessions.”

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Registration for GDC Summer is set to begin soon, according to the official event website. Expo and Conference passes can be purchased for a reduced price before July 10 for $99 and $299, respectively. At this time, it is unclear if tickets will be refunded if the event is canceled or postponed once again. IGN has reached out to event organizers for a comment and will update this story accordingly.

GDC officials have stated that they will “continue to monitor the latest information from health officials to ensure a safe and compelling event.”

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GDC was originally set to be held in March, but after Kojima Productions and a handful of other developers announced that they would no longer be attending due to COVID-19 concerns,  GDC ended up being postponed just weeks before the event. A few weeks later, E3 was canceled for the first time ever.

Despite the slew of events being canceled and postponed, Gamescom, one of the biggest shows in gaming, is still set to take place this August.

Be sure to check out the full list of game events that have been affected by the coronavirus.

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Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.