Month: May 2020

Breaking from longstanding tradition, the next round of PlayStation Plus freebies began before the new month even arrived. PS4 users can now grab one of June’s free games, Call of Duty: WWII. The second freebie, Star Wars Battlefront II, will be free starting June 2, the first Tuesday of the month. This is one of the strongest free games lineups we’ve seen this year.

Developed by Sledgehammer Games, Call of Duty: WWII released in 2017 and brought the series back to its original World War II-era setting for the first time since World at War in 2008. Call of Duty: WWII is particularly known for having a strong single-player campaign, which clocks in around six hours. The online servers are still live, and while they aren’t extremely active, you can expect the player count to tick up since far more people will have access to it on PS4.

In addition to the campaign and traditional multiplayer playlists, WWII also has a fun narrative-focused War mode with unique maps and lengthy attack/defend objectives. The strong package earned the first-person shooter a 9/10 in our Call of Duty: WWII review: “Ultimately, if every shooter set in the European Theater of World War II is measured by how it depicts its D-Day landing–assuming it has such a mission–Call of Duty: WWII emphatically succeeds in its impactful designs and delivery. The sensation of riding the troop carrier as it approached the beach filled me with depression more than dread, knowing I’d survive eventually while many of my surrounding brothers in arms wouldn’t. While not equally emotional, this battle’s reinterpretation in War mode proves to be a highlight in a superb suite of competitive modes,” we wrote. If you’re looking to jump in, check out our Call of Duty: WWII tips and tricks roundup for all of our guides.

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As a console that can be played both on a TV and in handheld mode, the Nintendo Switch occupies a unique space. Sure, you could choose to leave it in the dock forever and only play with one of the many great Switch controllers, but chances are you also like popping out of the Switch dock the convenience and portability of Nintendo’s nifty gadget. That’s why finding the best switch case should be one of your top priorities after you buy a Switch. You should take care to protect your Nintendo Switch console from damage, after all–a simple screen protector won’t cover every kind of accident, after all. And if you own the handheld-only Switch Lite, it’s arguably even more important to pick up a nice carrying case. We’ve rounded up our picks for the best Nintendo Switch and Switch Lite case you can buy today, and a significant number of them are a bargain, honestly.

In addition suggestions for a Switch case, we’ve also included the best Switch grips that make playing any Nintendo Switch game handheld mode more comfortable, backpacks and messenger bags for comprehensive travel options, and shells to snap on while playing. We’ve separated the Nintendo Switch cases from Switch Lite options, so make sure you grab a case that fits your model. After picking out the best Nintendo Switch case for youi, take a look at our best Nintendo Switch accessories guide to find more helpful products for your Switch.

Quick look: Best Nintendo Switch Cases

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Will Disney still release its live-action reimagining of Mulan in theaters in July as it’s long claimed it would? Obviously, any theatrical release is entirely dependent on when cinemas reopen following worldwide COVID-19 closures but a Wall Street analyst claims Disney may ultimately opt to “kill” Mulan’s theatrical release in favor of a digital debut. And that such a move may ultimately be better for Disney’s business than pushing it out to theaters that cannot run at full capacity.

Analyst Michael Nathanson of the firm MoffettNathanson said on an investors’ conference call that if Mulan can gross even half of the usual $1 billion Disney’s pre-pandemic spate of blockbusters usually made “it will be a freakin’ home run.”

Nathan, who Deadline describes as usually bullish on Disney’s business, recently downgraded the company’s shares in light of how hard hit and widespread the damage inflicted on Disney has been due to COVID-19 closures.

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=%22I%20don%E2%80%99t%20think%20it%E2%80%99s%20a%20given%20that%20Mulan%E2%80%98s%20going%20to%20be%20released%20as%20we%20think.%22″]As Deadline reports: “Exhibitors and Disney alike have held firm that they are moving forward with the July plan, but Nathanson isn’t sure the studio will follow through. Beyond the viability of theaters, he said, the company would have to ‘un-furlough a lot of their employees’ in distribution and marketing. ‘I don’t think it’s a given that Mulan‘s going to be released as we think.’”

As with Tenet, Hollywood’s other major July release, Mulan’s theatrical run depends on 80% of cinemas worldwide being open within the next three weeks, including major American markets like New York City, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. (And, remember, theaters will still be required to practice social distancing so attendance will be limited.) If theaters in such markets still remain closed, it’s likely Disney will have to push Mulan’s release date again. Or, as analyst Nathanson suspects, Disney will opt to release Mulan digitally instead.

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Pointing to the premium video-on-demand success of Universal’s Trolls World Tour, Nathanson believes Mulan shifting to PVOD and then early Disney+ debut could actually be more beneficial to Disney than may be immediately apparent. Disney has pushed Artemis Fowl to a Disney+ release instead, while studio brass has left the door open to pushing smaller movies to digital instead of theatrical.

He believes a Mulan digital release could serve as “a bit of a boost” to Disney+ and help Disney’s stock in the long run: “If they do kill Mulan, that could help the narrative. In a perverse way, that could be better for Disney stock in the long run than having Mulan go to theaters.” (It should be noted that Mulan was tracking to be the biggest box office hit of 2020, domestically, before the pandemic struck the U.S.)

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This analysis doesn’t appear to account for what sort of backlash Disney could face from theatrical exhibitors should it pull such a high-profile movie as Mulan and release it on digital instead. AMC Theaters is at war with Universal over the studio’s decision to drop theatrical releases for Trolls World Tour and The King of Staten Island in favor of VOD, and Warner Bros. has been careful to reiterate that Tenet will be a theatrical release after shifting Scoob! to digital.

Would you be more willing to watch Mulan in theaters or on digital? Let us know in the comments!

More than ever, people are turning to streaming services in order to get their entertainment. Whether it be watching moves, TV shows, or originals content, these services offer up programming just as good–and sometimes higher quality–than what cable or satellite TV can provide. And watching on-demand services has never been easier, as users can watch on-demand video on their computer, television, phones, and video game consoles. Premium channels like HBO and Showtime are also getting into the streaming game as well, offering standalone apps. But for those who aren’t ready to leave cable, there are also services streaming local channels to your streaming device as well. Live TV streaming services are also a legitimate rival to TV, and that’s not changing anytime soon.

The days of an Netflix merely complimenting your cable package are gone. There are a ton of options out there now, for better and worse. Subscribing to one streaming service is a steal compared to cable, but sticking to just the best TV streaming service isn’t as convenient as it used to be. Most services don’t have access to all the TV channels like Comedy Central, As you rack up subscriptions to other services, the combined price can start to look a lot like that cable bill you were so eager to ditch. Even just a combination of the most popular services–Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Prime Video–will cost you $30 a month on the low end.

To help you make the best decisions, we’ve put together this handy guide outlining the best TV streaming services to consider in 2020. We weighed both cost and content and will continue to re-evaluate over time as services change and new options become available.

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It’s easy to recognize Crucible‘s many design influences. The Amazon-published third-person multiplayer game features hero-style characters with abilities similar to those found in Overwatch. Its one MOBA-centric game mode should feel familiar to you if you’ve played Smite or the now-defunct Paragon. And even its light progression system echoes the one found in Gearbox’s Battleborn. Crucible attempts to remix a lot of existing ideas and cohesively tie them together into something more successful, but as a result, it fails to create an identity for itself.

Crucible takes place on an alien planet primed for off-world mining, which plays host to three game modes on its single map. Heart of the Hive is as close to a MOBA as Crucible gets, with a focus on PvP and PvE play as two teams fight to secure the hearts of dangerous hives. Alpha Hunters is a spin on battle royale, with teams of two skirmishing in short matches. Lastly, Harvester Command combines traits of team deathmatch and classic point control, rewarding players for kills and the number of objectives controlled on the map. In each mode, you have a choice to play as one of 10 characters, each with a handful of unique abilities and unlockable traits.

Heart of the Hive is the main event, pitting two teams of four against one another on a large map filled with AI enemies as you hunt down periodically spawning hives and attempt to capture three of their underlying hearts. Like in most MOBAs, you kill these enemies for XP, levelling up your character to improve your health, damage, and ability effectiveness. But in Crucible, there’s no challenge involved in killing these enemies; it’s easy enough to tackle a large group of them alone without any risk, dancing around their slow and predictable attack patterns. It reduces the necessary farming of experience to a mindless annoyance, made even more irritating by the fact that it’s predominantly how you’ll spend most of your time in this mode.

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Mafia II: Definitive Edition, the new version of the 2010 game available now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC, opens with a message that primed me for a game that might not have held up well. It reads:

“Mafia II: Definitive Edition presents the game’s narrative content in its original form from 2010. The game includes culturally sensitive content and themes, and is intended only for mature audiences.”

In some ways, this feels like an abdication of responsibility for some elements of the game that have aged poorly. And indeed, as I replay the game on my PS4, there are many such parts. Mafia II was never the most sensitive game, and in 2020 the “culturally sensitive content” made me squirm more than it might have 10 years ago. The game’s plot contains few women with any real agency, and the script is full of slurs against them, as well as various racist slurs. When your character goes to prison, there are the prerequisite homophobic jokes about the showers.

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Rod Serling’s The Twilight Zone eerily hit the mark when it comes to our technology, prejudices, and vanity. Greg takes a look at past classic episodes to see what future predictions came true.