Month: April 2020

Working from home hasn’t stopped Digital Extremes, developers of free-to-play shooter Warframe, from working on a bunch of new content. Some big updates are inbound, including the Deadlock Protocol event that had to be delayed from an April release to sometime in May.

New details shared in a developer stream included the updated timeframe, but also gave players a look at the new Warframe Protea, and the story quest that will launch with Deadlock Protocol. Around 35:33 in the video below, the team show off some of the animations and aesthetics that have gone into 2020’s first new Warframe.

Around 1:19:00, you can see a demo of the next Warframe that will be available after Protea: the community-designed Broken Frame.

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Avengers: Endgame is celebrating its first birthday this week, and to mark the occasion, directors Joe and Anthony Russo have shared some neat behind-the-scenes videos.

The brothers shared the videos and images as part of a watch party for Endgame, during which they posted interesting behind-the-scenes details about the production of the blockbuster like how an early idea was to make Captain America the Soul Stone.

The videos include tender moments like the last days on set for Iron Man actor Robert Downey Jr. and Captain America actor Chris Evans. Another video shows Chris Evans in his old man makeup and outfit throwing a ball and running around like a much younger man. The Russo brothers also shared a video of Captain Marvel actress Brie Larson’s first day on set, including a nice moment where she embraces Black Widow actress Scarlett Johansson. You can see these videos and more embedded below.

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WarnerMedia is gearing up for the release of HBO Max on May 27, adding a third content-streaming option to a stable that already includes HBO Go and HBO Now. Current HBO Now subscribers may be wondering how Max will differ to the service they already use. Here’s the details on HBO Max, how it differs from Go and Now, and what the fate of the other two services may be.

As a quick rundown on how HBO’s platforms currently work: HBO Go is a service available to cable subscribers, making HBO content available to stream on internet-connected devices. HBO Now is a more traditional streaming service, offering HBO series and a number of movies to non-cable subscribers.

HBO Max works on a similar premise to HBO Now, but will be diversified with original Max content, plus series and movies from WarnerMedia’s larger stable of content. The big names coming to HBO Max include Friends, South Park, The Big Bang Theory, Wonder Woman, and the Studio Ghibli collection.

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The comic book industry has been hit especially hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, with many stores shutting down and Marvel and DC’s distributor halting shipments of new books. DC’s Publisher Jim Lee is one of many comic creators doing what they can to help struggling stores, and he gave IGN an exclusive look at his latest charity sketch art.

Lee is currently in the midst of an ambitious charitable effort, drawing one sketch every day for 60 days in a row, each featuring a different DC character. Today’s creation features the Clown Prince of Crime himself. Check out the incredible Joker artwork below:

And if you want to take a peek at the past 25 days’ worth of amazing DC sketches, we’ve put together a gallery of all Lee’s sketches so far:

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You can head over to eBay if you want to bid on this or other upcoming sketches. Each auction remains open for three days, and the winner of each auction is allowed to choose the next character Lee draws. All proceeds from these auctions are being donated to the Comic Book United Fund, which is managed by the Book Industry Charitable Foundation and aimed at providing financial relief to comic book retailers struggling to stay afloat during the pandemic.

According to DC, Lee’s sketches alone have already raised over $200,000 for the CBUF, and combined with other charitable auctions from creators like Art Adams, Ivan Reis, Sam Keith and J. Scott Campbell, the total raised is over $300,000. Additionally, DC has pledged $250,000 to the charity.

This isn’t the first outreach effort Lee has helped spearhead at DC. Last year Lee was among a group of DC employees who traveled to Kuwait, and he taught US troops how to draw Batman.

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It remains to be seen how much lasting impact the pandemic will have on the industry. Some comics pros have suggested a new Marvel vs. DC crossover may be just the thing to lure readers back into shops. But even if that project doesn’t materialize, there are plenty of great comics to look forward to in 2020.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

While everyone is preoccupied with the nostalgia of the Final Fantasy 7 remake, an even earlier Final Fantasy is celebrating its 30th birthday. Released on April 27, 1990, Final Fantasy 3 introduced the job-change system, and pushed the limits of what a game could do in those days.

Square Enix has released a new interview with game creator Hiromichi Tanaka about the development of Final Fantasy 3. With two Final Fantasy games already under their belt, and game carts increasing in storage space, the team wanted to push the envelope with Final Fantasy 3. “We had learned how to make good use of the NES, plus carts had gotten to megarom data sizes that were about double that of FFII,” Hiromichi Tanaka said. “So we were making FFIII with the mentality of pushing the amount of data that can be packed into these carts to its utmost limits.”

Tanaka also explains how they went from the story-heavy FF2 to the mechanics-dominated FF3. “That’s because Mr. [Akitoshi] Kawazu wasn’t involved,” he explained. “When Mr. Kawazu creates stories, they have a certain distinctive characteristic to them, so his involvement often has a tendency for that game to be remembered as story-heavy.”

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