Month: September 2020

If you’ve watched trailers for Marvel’s Avengers, you might assume it’s a straightforward story-driven single-player action game. And while you’re technically half-correct, there’s far more under the hood of this game than you might expect. In fact, Marvel’s Avengers has a multiplayer component that pushes the game into operating something more akin to a Destiny-like live-service experience complete with battle passes, challenges, and rare gear to collect.

As such, there’s a lot to cover and try to keep track of as you spend time playing through the early- and late-game hours Marvel’s Avengers. To help you succeed all across your journey, we’ve rounded up all of our essential guides, which include our beginner’s tips, hero guide, endgame explainer, and more.

If you’re more curious about the game’s quality, read editor Phil Hornshaw’s Marvel’s Avengers early impressions ahead of his final review. You can also check out our review roundup to see what other critics think about the game.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Arcade1Up’s long-awaited Big Buck Hunter cabinet is finally available to pre-order. The cabinet features four games from the popular light-gun series and two rifles for multiplayer. The best part is that you don’t have to go to the local pub to shoot virtual deer anymore–something that’s particularly hard during the current pandemic. The Big Buck Hunter Arcade1Up cabinet is $550 at Best Buy, and while you can reserve yours now, it’s unclear when it’ll release–Best Buy says it’ll notify you when a release date is announced.

The Big Buck Hunter cabinet comes with Big Buck Hunter Pro, Big Buck Safari, Big Buck Hunter Pro: Open Season, and Big Buck Safari: Outback–that’s a lot of Big and a lot of Buck. It’s a 3/4-scale cabinet, meaning it won’t take up as much space as a real cabinet. It includes an 18×24-inch tin sign and a matching riser, the latter of which will raise the cabinet and make it playable for adults.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

A new update for PUBG Mobile has rolled out on Android and iOS devices that bolster the game’s extensive anti-cheat measures, PUBG Mobile’s Anti-Cheat Team announced in a press release.

The new wave of measures enacts of series of changes to eliminate the known exploits players are using to get an unfair advantage in-game. This includes cheats like auto-aim, plug-ins that let players kill others immediately after parachuting, hacks that grant players unfair visual advantages, and more. Should players be caught engaging in this cheating behavior, they could face a 10-year ban on their account. This anti-cheat update comes not long after PUBG Mobile banned some two million cheaters in a single week.

In addition to these measures, the latest PUBG Mobile update also features a few anti-cheat upgrades. The new updates optimize the spectator field of view so cheaters can’t exploit the camera and stabilize performance to prevent players from using lag or latency issues to their advantage, among other things. You can read the full patch notes below.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Disney takes their 1998 animated classic and turns it into a wuxia epic.

After much delay, the live-action adaptation of Mulan debuted on Disney Plus on September 4.

The story, based on a Chinese ballad that dates back to the 6th century, is now an action drama. The Huns are now the more historically accurate Rouran tribes. Mulan is a secret master of chi (which is employed as a Force-esque plot device). And characters can run up walls and catch arrows–a tribute to the wuxia films (fantasy-driven kung fu films) from decades past.

There are also no more songs, although you can hear familiar instrumental musical cues during pivotal scenes. What else changed or remained from the original animated classic? Here’s everything we’ve noticed in the live-action Mulan so far.

1. Poster

The comparisons start on the Disney Plus menu screen, which is a recreation of the poster for the 1998 animated film.

2. Hua and Fa

In the animated film, Mulan’s family name is spelled “Fa.” In the movie, her family name is spelled “Hua.” Fa is actually the Cantonese romanization of Hua. The family name of the Mulan in the original ballad is also Hua, which translates directly to flower.

3. The Girl with Chi

Both the original ballad and the 1998 movie portray Mulan as a girl with ordinary powers, who uses her wits and courage to save China. The movie retains her wit and courage, but also uses chi, the energy of all living things, to explain what makes Mulan more exceptional than her peers, and why she has unnatural reflexes and martial arts ability.

4. Trouble With Chickens

Chickens are employed as a comedic device in both films. They invade the religious shrine as a result of Mulan’s actions. But in the live-action film, the chicken also reveals her chi powers to the villagers, and they react with disgust and fear.

5. Two Daughters

In the animated film, Mulan is an only child. In the live-action film, Mulan has a younger sister named Xiu. Unlike Mulan, Xiu gives her parents no trouble at all. In the ballad, Mulan has a younger brother; when the army conscripts one man from each family to serve, the brother is still too young.

6. Two Rabbits, Side By Side

The first time we see Mulan as an adult, she’s riding horseback next to two rabbits. She later tells her family that she couldn’t be sure whether they were male or female. This is a direct homage to the original ballad’s final lines, which read:

“The he-hare’s feet go hop and skip,

The she-hare’s eyes are muddled and fuddled.

Two hares running side by side close to the ground,

How can they tell if I am he or she?”

7. “Honor To Us All”

In the animated film, during the scene where Mulan is getting ready for the matchmaker, the women perform “Honor To Us All.” In the live-action film, there is no singing, although you can hear the melody for “Honor To Us All.” playing in the background.

8. Disaster At The Matchmaker’s

In the animated film, the matchmaker’s room gets destroyed as an indirect result of Cri-Kee, who bathes in the matchmaker’s tea. In the live-action film, Mulan causes chaos by revealing a spider underneath the matchmaker’s teapot, which she initially hid due to her sister’s fear of spiders.

The cricket in the animated film was a gift from Mulan’s grandmother, who gave it to her for luck. There is no grandmother in the live-action version.

9. Huns vs. Rourans

The villains in the animated film were Huns, and they were led by a monstrous man named Shan Yu. But this is not historically accurate. The Huns never attacked China; they are popularly conflated with the Xiongnu, nomadic people who lived north of China’s borders. The live-action film specifically names the Rouran people as the film’s antagonists. The Rourans, who lived in what is present-day Mongolia, had a number of skirmishes with the Northern Wei dynasty during the 5th century A.D.

10. The Great Wall

The first time we see the Huns in the 1998 film, they scale and break through the Great Wall of China. In the new film, we first see the Rourans when they attack a garrison stationed on the Silk Road. After defeating the garrison, they then slaughter the nearby villages.

11. Vengeance Plot

Shan-Yu’s motives in the 1998 film were fairly one-dimensional. He wanted to pillage and conquer for the sake of power. The leader of the Rouran, Böri Khan, has more personal motives for conquering China; the emperor killed his father in a prior battle.

12. Good Witch or Bad Witch?

The most notable new character is Gong Li’s Xian Lang, a “witch” who helps the Rouran army. She serves as a juxtaposition to Mulan; she’s a woman who, because of her chi, was rejected and outcast from society, and is embittered as a result. She represents Mulan’s fears about what might happen to her if she is discovered.

13. Hawk or Witch?

Xiang Li can turn into a hawk, which is a clear reference to Hayabusa, the pet falcon of Shan Yu in the animated film. Like most Disney animals, Hayabusa had humanlike intelligence; your headcanon could be that Hayabusa was actually a human the entire time.

14. Dragon or Phoenix?

Mushu, the family’s guardian dragon in the animated film, is not in the live-action film, although Mulan does have a non-comedic phoenix that protects her. Fittingly, it has Mushu’s color scheme.

15. Comb

In both versions of the film, Mulan leaves behind her comb as a memento, to tell her family that she took the armor.

16. Captain Shang

Captain Li Shang, Mulan’s commander and love interest in the first film, is split into two new characters: Commander Tung (Donnie Yen), who serves as her mentor and father figure, and Chen Honghui, who is a fellow soldier alongside Mulan.

17. Good Horse

The horse’s name in the animated film is Khan. The horse’s name in the live-action movie is Black Wind.

18. Yao

In addition to Honghui, the live-action movie retains Mulan’s three comrades from the first film. The first is Yao, who is a boorish, posturing lug in both films.

19. Ling

Ling is also in the live-action film; he’s the one who’s making elaborate metaphors about her bride-to-be’s eyes and skin. Ling also does this in the animated film, during the song “A Girl Worth Fighting For.”

20. Chien Po

Lastly, Chien Po is in both films, although his live-action version seems a little less good-natured than his animated version. Both versions, however, say they want a wife who cooks well.

21. “A Girl Worth Fighting For”

Again, there is no singing. Instead the basic sentiment of “A Girl Worth Fighting For” is reduced to a single campfire sequence, where all the men are talking about their fantasy wives.

22.Cricket

The adorable lucky cricket from the animated film, Cri-Kee, is not in the live-action film, but there is a Chinese soldier named Cricket, who is small in stature and a consistent underachiever until the ending sequence.

23. Training Sequence

The music during the training sequence is unfortunately not the melody for “I’ll Make a Man Out Of You,” the best song from the animated film.

24. Bathing Scene

Both movies have a bathing sequence where Mulan is nearly found out for being a woman, and the men who previously gave her a hard time try to become her friend. But in the animated film, the scene is largely played for laughs. There’s more anxiety during the live-action sequence, because Mushu isn’t around to bite Ling’s butt or drop one-liners to break the tension.

25. Retrieving The Arrow

In the animated film, one of the best moments is when Mulan climbs a pole with weights on her hands to retrieve an arrow. It took physical strength and discipline, but it also took cleverness. There is no arrow pole in the live-action film. Instead, it’s replaced with a mountain hike while carrying buckets of water, which Mulan is able to complete after embracing her chi.

26. War Atrocity

In the live-action film, on their way to meet the Rourans in battle, Mulan’s garrison passes by a slaughtered Chinese army. There’s an equivalent scene in the animated film, where the Emperor’s imperial army is slaughtered protecting a village near the Tung-Shao Pass, and Mulan’s garrison stumbles across the remains.

27. Avalanche

The climactic avalanche that kills off the bulk of the enemy army is triggered differently. In the animated film, Mulan uses the army’s last cannon shot to hit the mountain. In the live-action film, Mulan uses spare helmets to make the Rourans believe that there is a Chinese battalion on the mountain, and they fire a catapult at it, thus triggering their own destruction.