The long-awaited April 28 update for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare/Warzone has arrived, and it introduces some notable changes across the standard multiplayer and the battle royale game.
The update is a big one, as it clocks in at 13 GB on Xbox One and 10 GB on PS4. The file size of the PC edition depends on other factors. You can start download it right now.
While you wait, you can check out the full patch notes posted below.
The next Battlefield game is coming in 2021, developer DICE has confirmed. In a statement to IGN, the Swedish studio said that, with support for Star Wars: Battlefront II and Battlefield V winding down, it is “focused on the future of Battlefield” for a new game set for release in 2021.
This new Battlefield game was announced in October 2019, at which time publisher Electronic Arts said the game would launch in the company’s fiscal year 2022, which runs from April 2021 to March 2022. Now we know a more specific launch period–sometime in 2021.
EA hasn’t shared any concrete details about the new Battlefield game, but it did tease that the title will be “targeting new innovation that will be enabled by next-gen platforms.”
Universal’s new Trolls movie, World Tour, skipped theatres and released digitally where it enjoyed massive success, bringing in $100 million in rentals over its first three weeks in the US. Not everyone is thrilled, however. One of the largest global movie theatre chains, AMC Theatres, has fired back at Universal, and is now vowing to never show another Universal film again.
Universal CEO Jeff Shell told The Wall Street Journal that the success of Trolls World Tour in its new digital format demonstrated that paid video-on-demand can be a viable option for studios. He added that Universal plans to release its future movies digitally and in theatres. The digital release came amid the COVID-19 crisis where theatres globally are closed.
However, these comments ruffled the feathers of AMC boss Adam Aron. In a statement (via The Hollywood Reporter), Aron said Shell’s comments were “disappointing.”
With the start of the Battle Armor limited-time event and with Apex Legends Season 5 about to begin, Respawn has returned to its crafty ways on Twitter. Much like the tease of leviathan movement ahead of Season 2: Battle Charge, mysteriously hacked tweets containing secrets messages prior to Season 3: Meltdown, and manufactured media craze ahead of Season 4: Assimilation, Respawn has begun to use Twitter to hint at what could be coming in Season 5.
Interestingly enough, this hint actually ties back to Season 4 and Revenant’s introduction. Back when it wasn’t clear whether Forge or Revenant was joining the Apex Games, the Apex Legends Twitter account posted leaked emails that confirmed Season 4’s new character would be the nightmarish simulacrum. This latest Season 5 hint is once again those exact emails, but now the leaked image of them is pulled back–revealing post-it notes on the monitor display.
š PROJECT 617
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>> š HAMMOND_SYND pic.twitter.com/Nn0RHEhYP8ā Apex Legends (@PlayApex) April 28, 2020
Based on the messages scribbled on the post-it notes, it seems like someone is taking notice of Revenant’s source code–a means of shutting the murderous machine down permanently. The emails suggest that something is wrong with the means of getting the code to take, but the post-it notes posit that the fact remains that it still exists as a possible exploit for destroying Revenant for good.
Star Wars might be one of the biggest entertainment phenomena of the past 40 years, but it took until late 2019 for the first live action Star Wars TV show to arrive. The Mandalorian was one of the big selling points for Disney+, and the first episode was available from the service’s launch day in November last year. While there was much excitement for the platform in general, with its wealth of classic Disney movies and shows, there is little doubt that The Mandalorian helped create many of its 28 million subscriptions.
Of course, as the release of recent movies has shown, Star Wars fans are very vocal about what they want–and don’t want–from the franchise. Thankfully, The Mandalorian seems to have made most fans happy. Showrunner Jon Favreau, who previously kickstarted the MCU by directing 2008’s Iron Man, struck a great balance between the new and the familiar. While the look and feel was 100% Star Wars, Favreau wisely stayed away from obvious fan service. By presenting us with new characters and stories within a recognisable world, The Mandalorian proved that there is life beyond Skywalkers and Death Stars. And, of course, Baby Yoda gave us one of the year’s cutest pop culture icons.
Season 1 of The Mandalorian comprised eight 30-minute episodes, making it a concise and perfectly-paced experience. But, of course, it left viewers wanting to see more adventures of the mysterious bounty hunter. There’s a lot of uncertainty around Star Wars right now–there are no concrete new movies on the horizon, and while there are other shows in various stages of development, none are likely to arrive for some time. Thankfully, The Mandalorian Season 2 was announced before Season 1 even premiered, and will–hopefully–arrive later this year. So here’s everything we know about it to date.
And speaking of things you should be watching, consider listening to GameSpot’s weekly TV series and movies-focused podcast, You Should Be Watching. With new episodes premiering every Wednesday, you can watch a video version of the podcast over on GameSpot Universe or listen to audio versions on Spotify, Stitcher, Google Play, and Apple Podcasts.
Jon Favreau is returning as showrunner for The Mandalorian Season 2.
While a specific premiere date hasn’t been announced yet, we know The Mandalorian Season 2 is due to hit Disney+ in October 2020. This was confirmed by Disney in February. And luckily, Season 2 had wrapped filming before the COVID-19 pandemic shut down production across Hollywood, so hopefully its release won’t be affected.
Several actors from Season 1 are returning for Season 2. Pedro Pascal is back in the title role, and Gina Carano (Cara Dune), Carl Weathers (Greef), and Giancarlo Esposito (Moff Gideon) have all stated that they will reappear in the next season.
There have been two big casting reports for Season 2 so far. Terminator and Aliens star Michael Biehn was the first new actor to be announced–specific details about who he will play are unknown, although The Hollywood Reporter states it will be a “bounty hunter.” The other new addition to the Star Wars universe is Rosario Dawson, who recently appeared in Zombieland 2: Double Tap and Netflix’s Daredevil. It has been rumored that Dawson will play fan-favorite character Ahsoka Tano, who first appeared in the animated movie and show The Clone Wars, but this is yet to be officially confirmed.
The Mandalorian Season 1 assembled an impressive roster of directors, including Taika Waititi, Dave Filoni, Deborah Chow, Bryce Dallas Howard, and Rick Famuyiwa. The full line-up for Season 2 has yet to be confirmed, but we do know that Famuyiwa and Filoni are back. Favreau has himself helmed an episode this time, as has actor Carl Weathers, who plays Greef in the show. Unfortunately, Waititi has stated that scheduling issues meant he couldn’t return to direct in Season 2.
This is Star Wars, so plot details are mostly under wraps right now. However, from interviews with the cast and crew, we do know a few details. Season 1 ended with Mando setting off to find others with the same powers as Baby Yoda/The Child, and darksaber-wielding Moff Gideon is likely to be looking for revenge. Esposito recently revealed that Gideon gets plenty of action, and he had broken several darksabers during production. In addition, a list of potential episode titles has leaked but, unsurprisingly, none of these have been confirmed.
The Mandalorian Season 3 is definitely happening. The show has been greenlit, and according to reports, writing and pre-production design work has already started. Of course, the current situation means that the third season is unlikely to start shooting any time soon, but at least we know it’s on the way.
Throughout Destiny 2‘s current content season, the Season of the Worthy, one gun has been a mainstay in the game’s competitive mode: Hard Light. Thanks to tweaks to auto rifles at the start of the season and the gun’s unique perks, it’s been the go-to weapon in the Crucible for weeks. That might be about to change, however, thanks to an upcoming patch.
Developer Bungie previewed the update it plans to release on April 29, Hotfix 2.8.1.1, on its blog. The patch is set to tweak Hard Light to make it a little less deadly in PvP. Right now, Hard Light is a mainstay of competitive play for a couple of reasons: it’s highly stable, making it very accurate at long ranges for PC players and its bullets can ricochet off walls–and when they do, those bullets do double damage.
Hard Light also currently lacks damage falloff, a major perk over other weapons. Falloff is the reduction in damage for Destiny’s bullets the farther they travel; most auto rifles can have their damage reduced by half at longer ranges, but not Hard Light. That has resulted in lots of players using Hard Light in the Crucible and the Trials of Osiris, landing long-range kills and taking out opponents around corners. At the moment, Hard Light is so dominant that not using it puts you at something of a disadvantage.
The Academy’s current rules require a film to be shown in a commercial movie theater in L.A. County “for a theatrical qualifying run of at least seven consecutive days, during which period screenings must occur at least three times daily.”
Going forward, but for only the 93rd Oscars,Ā films that were previously planned for theatrical release but are initially made available on a commercial streaming or VOD service may qualify in the Best Picture, general entry and specialty categories for the 93rd Academy Awards.
There are provisions, though. The Academy dictates:
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The Academy also says that when theaters reopen in accordance with legally specified guidelines and criteria, and on a date to be determined by the Academy, those rule exemptions will no longer apply and all films released thereafter must comply with the Academy’s previous standardĀ theatrical qualifying requirements.
And when theaters do reopen, the Academy will expand the metropolitan areas for qualifying theatrical runs to also include the City of New York; the Bay Area; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; and Atlanta, Georgia.
Previously, Netflix titles such as Roma, The Irishman, and Marriage Story all had to have qualifying limited theatrical runs before debuting on streaming in order to be considered for Best Picture.
This is obviously an unprecedented move on the part of the Academy given the nationwide closure of cinemas due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the subsequent delays in studios’ being able to release their films theatrically. Several studios, including Universal and Warner Bros., have opted to release some of their titles that had been meant for theatrical release straight to VOD now instead.
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The Academy’s Board of Governors also announced the following rules changes in the categories of Sound, Music and International Feature Film:
What do you think of these Oscar rules changes? Let us know in the comments.
Riotās strategy card game, Legends of Runeterra, has officially launched after three months in open beta. From April 28 to April 30, the game is being launched around the world on both PC and Mobile, with regions releasing the game at different points over the course of the two days.
The full release comes with an all-new card set called Rising Tides, and a range of new champions and cards from League of Legends have been introduced. The update also adds 11 champions, six keywords, a new cosmetic board, two cosmetic guardians, new card backs, over 120 new cards, and a series of new emotes.
Regions have been updated as well, with the pirate-themed region Bilgewater officially becoming its own region and the region roads for existing regions have been expanded on.
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The second half of The Flash: Season 6 doesn’t feel quite as fast-paced as the first. Maybe it’s that there are more moving parts to juggle in the aftermath of Crisis, or simply that new episodes have aired more sporadically over the last few months. Either way, “Liberation” is a big step in the right direction for the series. This episode helps push the Mirror Master storyline into its next phase while even linking back to the first half of Season 6 and working to tie everything together. Ignoring the inescapable fact that this season isn’t going to get the conclusion originally planned, things are shaping up nicely for the next several weeks. Mostly, anyway.
Several running plot threads come to a head in “Liberation,” with Eva making her big play to escape the mirror dimension and Barry finally coming to terms with the fact that the person he thought was Iris is actually an impostor. Continuing the general Season 6 theme of finding a balance between humor and tragedy, there’s a welcome dose of comedy to Barry’s discovery. The scene where Cecile confronts Barry at home is basically the Arrowverse’s take on that infamous Pepe Silvia meme from It’s Always Sunny.
That moment helps cleanse the palate before things take a much darker turn in the latter half of the episode. Eva once again proves how adept she is at manipulating Team Flash and turning them against one another when they should be confronting a common enemy. And even after Cecile frees Barry to go confront Mirror Iris, we see just how unequipped he is to deal with a foe who can hide behind the faces of those he cares for most. Barry’s depleted speed definitely stacks the deck against him, but this episode is successful in showing how Mirror Master can be a formidable threat even against a speedster at full power. The battle between Barry and Mirror Iris uses the mirror mechanic to its fullest, culminating in that cool moment where Iris shatters the ceiling mirror and strikes at Barry from countless directions at once.
Another big strength of this episode comes with its focus on giving the mirror doppelgangers a clearer sense of personality and motivation. It’s much easier to appreciate these characters as, well, actual characters now. We understand the subservient bond they share with their “mother,” even as we see Mirror Iris beginning to develop feelings of independence and longing for a humanity she can never achieve. That helps give the eventual death of Mirror Iris a weight and significance that might otherwise be lacking. Even Mirror Kamilla’s sacrifice has an aura of tragedy, showing us just how callously Eva will throw these creations away once they served their purpose.
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On that note, it’s quite a treat seeing Sendhil Ramamurthy return as a captive Ramsey Rosso. As novel as the two-pronged approach to Season 6 has been, it’s also nice to see some extra connective tissue form between the two halves. And given that Ramsey never quite seemed like he got his due as the main villain of a half-season story arc, the implication that he still has a big role to play in the series is a welcome development. I do wish there were a clearer sense of why Eva needed Ramsey’s metahuman blood to achieve her escape, other than just “because it furthers the plot.” But regardless, it’s nice knowing we can look forward to Bloodwork’s return, whether that means he resurfaces later in Season 6 or his “long game” pays off further down the road. If Legends of Tomorrow has proven anything, it’s that there’s no reason to discard good villains after one season of television.
It’s also worth pointing out the unique approach taken to the closing epilogue scene. These scenes are almost always used as stingers – a chance to toss in one more unexpected plot twist before the credits roll. But in this case, we’re treated to a heartfelt moment where both Barry and Iris reach out to one another and pledge to reunite. It’s a nicely emotional way to cap off the episode, as well as providing a reminder of what’s at stake as Barry struggles to figure out how to deal with the Eva problem.
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Only one subplot serves to drag down an otherwise strong episode here. The brief detour in Caitlin’s chilly apartment feels like an unnecessary bit of fluff tacked onto an episode that didn’t need it. Granted, the series is clearly setting up something bigger with Caitlin here, but why not save this quick preamble for the main event? Not to mention that it’s very difficult to muster excitement for any new plotline that involves Caitlin’s family. The series may have improved a lot this season, but that dredges up bad memories of Seasons 4 and 5.