A new week’s worth of bonuses in Grand Theft Auto Online are now available and focus on Mobile Operations Missions. Players will get double the GTA$ and RP Rewards in Mobile Operations Missions, and if they complete any, receive an extra GTA$100K.
In this mode, players use vehicles and plenty of firepower to disrupt rival operations and supply lines. These missions can be launched by first getting a Bunker and Mobile Operations Center–both are discounted this week–from Warstock and then heading to the Command Center. To unlock new mobile operations, players can complete Resupply missions.
Players will also receive double rewards when participating in Gunrunning Sell Missions and the Survival Series. You’ll get a free Warstock Cache & Carry Cap if you play anytime between September 24-30. Additionally, if you stop by the Diamond Casino & Resort and spin the Lucky Wheel this week, you could win a Declasse DR1.
Hodge’s most recent credits include The Invisible Man and the forthcoming One Night in Miami, wherein he plays football icon-turned-actor Jim Brown. (Be sure to read our One Night in Miami review, which we gave a 10!)
Aldis Hodge as Jim Brown in One Night in Miami.
Hodge’s other appearances include Hidden Figures, Straight Outta Compton, City on a Hill, Star Trek: Short Treks, Black Mirror, TURN: Washington’s Spies, Brian Banks, Clemency, Underground, Leverage, and the small screen version of Friday Night Lights.
Should the deal be finalized, Hodge will play Carter Hall, the archaeologist who is the reincarnation of the ancient Egyptian prince Khufu. As a member of the Justice Society of America, Hawkman has fought alongside Atom Smasher (Centineo) as well as Doctor Fate and Cyclone, who are as yet to be cast.
Michael Shanks previously played Carter Hall/Hawkman in Season 9 of Smallville.
Jaume Collet-Serra directs Black Adam from a screenplay by Rory Haines & Sohrab Noshirvani and Adam Sztykiel. The movie is slated to open December 2021.
I have high hopes for Rogue Legacy 2. When developer Cellar Door Games announced its deserved, but unexpected sequel back in April, I didn’t realize how excited I’d be to play it. The 2013 original, with its then-unique progression, was my gateway to the roguelite and is still one of the best blends of an RPG and a run-based roguelite structure.
That’s high praise, and it begs the question: How do you top that? In the seven years since Rogue Legacy launched, the roguelite genre has expanded. Countless games have riffed on the blend of run-based Roguelike mechanics and RPG-style progression it helped popularize. What could Cellar Door Games possibly do to make its sequel feel as fresh and revelatory as the original? After spending more than six hours with the current Early Access version of Rogue Legacy 2, the answer isn’t clear. The game doesn’t try to meet those expectations.
Rogue Legacy 2 is building out, not up. The sequel expands on the ideas that made Rogue Legacy stand out years ago, like adding more ways to earn incremental progress between runs and creating flashier, visual-forward family traits. However, the overall experience hews very closely to the Rogue Legacy fans know. In each Rogue Legacy run, you control a new generation of a long-time adventurer’s bloodline, who all explore the same mysterious, dangerous castle and usually die in the process. Between each adventurer’s journey, you have the ability to spend the gold their predecessor amassed to upgrade the family castle, improving the prospects (and stats) of future generations.
Disney’s live-action adaptation machine is still chugging along despite low box-office numbers for their latest, Mulan. Peter Pan & Wendy, the upcoming live-action production of–you guessed it–Disney’s Peter Pan and has found its Tinkerbell in Grown-Ish star Yara Shahidi, Deadline reports.
Shahidi will be the first woman of color to star in the role in a blockbuster film, following in the footsteps of Julia Roberts who played the part in 1991’s Hook and Ludivine Sagnier in 2003’s Peter Pan. This is Disney’s second effort to diversify the casting of characters that have formerly been portrayed as white in their animated features, following the casting of Halle Bailey as Ariel for the upcoming live-action Little Mermaid.
Welcome back to Game Scoop!, IGN’s weekly video game podcast. This week the Omega Cops — Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis — are reeling from the news that Microsoft is buying Bethesda. Xbox Series went up for pre-order this week, and it was a mess just like the PS5 pre-orders. Sam has thoughts on Super Mario 3D All-Stars, while Daemon and Justin are playing Hades. The music in this episode is from the Sega Genesis classic Dynamite Headdy. Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.
The rumored Mass Effect Trilogy remastered bundle, supposedly known as the Mass Effect: Legendary Edition, will launch in early 2021 instead of this October.
This is according to a GamesBeat report that claims “people familiar with the development” said developer BioWare and publisher Electronic Arts are holding off releasing the bundle because of the original game. Mass Effect, according to GamesBeat’s sources, currently doesn’t “live up to the quality of the rest of the package.” They go on to say that based on the graphical and gameplay differences between Mass Effect and Mass Effect 2, releasing the bundle without paying ample attention to the original game’s mechanics and visuals would “make a poor first impression for new players.”
Neither BioWare nor EA have publicly commented on the matter.
Batman can’t seems to catch a moment’s rest without bumping into another of Joker’s fiendish plots this year. The long-awaited Three Jokers is finally dealing with the revelation that there are actually three versions of Batman’s greatest enemy, and the series has also exposed Jason Todd’s darkest secret. We also recently learned Joker has a key part to play in the upcoming Batman/Catwoman, with the Clown Prince of Crime doing his best to ruin that perpetually troubled romance. But perhaps no conflict has been bigger or more destructive than Joker War, a crossover that’s shown us what happens when Joker steals the Wayne fortune and decides he’s finally ready to end his long feud with the Dark Knight.
While it remains to be seen how Batman and Joker’s final showdown will play out in Batman #100 (which wraps up the crossover on October 6), DC is already looking ahead to what’s next for Batman and his battered city. How will the reunification of the Bat-family and the loss of Bruce-ter’s billions affect how Batman wages his war on crime? What new threats will emerge after Joker is gone? To find out, we turned to Batman group editor Ben Abernathy for a taste of what to expect from the series post-Joker War. Check out a preview of the epilogue story in Batman #101 below, and then read on to learn more:
As much as Joker War has been about the latest and greatest clash between Batman and Joker, it’s become clear over the course of the crossover that this story is less about Joker himself than it is Batman’s emotional journey following the death of Alfred Pennyworth. Case in point – Batman #98 largely unfolds within Batman’s drug-addled mind, as the Caped Crusader confronts a hallucination of Alfred and accepts the idea that he hasn’t been the hero Gotham needs him to be.
If the post-Joker War direction for the series is about anything, it’s Bruce’s quest to change his methods, change his outlook and become a better hero. That also means finding a way to protect Gotham that doesn’t involve billion-dollar gadgets and a fleet of Batmobiles. While Batman #101 will reveal exactly what the state of Bruce Wayne’s bank account is, it looks as though our hero is going back to basics in 2021.
“Joker War was a massive wakeup call for Batman on just how much he’d lost focus on what his mission is and the utilization of resources, personnel, etc.” said Abernathy. “Bruce came to realize what his real strengths are and how he needs to evolve to match what Gotham City is becoming…and from that realization we’ll see a real status quo change in the year to come for Batman and the Bat Family… and the Joker.”
Interestingly, Abernathy seems to hint Joker War won’t actually mark the end of Batman and Joker’s long rivalry. We’ll have to wait and see what state Joker is left in by the end of Batman #100, though he certainly has a habit of cheating what seems like certain death.
We were curious how the end of Joker War ties into the conclusion of Tom King’s Batman run. Batman #85 ended with Bruce making a conscious decision to be happy and be Batman at the same time, contradictory as those goals might seem. Bruce has clearly failed in this goal leading up to Joker War, but will he rededicate himself to balancing Bruce Wayne and Batman in 2021?
“We’re going to see Bruce rededicating himself to being Batman again,” said Abernathy. “The Joker War revealed some hard truths about how poorly he managed that ‘balance’ over the last year, how he’d not really dealt with his grief over Alfred or his guilt over what happened to Dick [Grayson], and he pushed himself to be a version of Batman that he wasn’t or shouldn’t be. Bruce will always be working to find and maintain a balance but he’s going to have his work cut-out for him with what we have planned in 2021…mwhaha!”
How the Bat-Family Fits In
Batman has inspired a number of younger heroes to take up his war on crime. Unfortunately, it’s been quite a while since the Bat-family really worked together as a cohesive unit. 2012’s Batman: Death of the Family saw Joker drive a wedge between Bruce and his allies, in the hope of proving that having a family makes Batman weaker. Though these heroes eventually reconciled, it’s never quite been the same, and tragedies like Alfred’s death and Dick Grayson’s amnesia have only further pushed Batman away from his family.
That finally changed in Batman #99, with Batman assembling every member of the Bat-family and vowing to undo the mistakes of the past. Whatever happens in Batman #100, Batman’s victory will only come with a lot of help from Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, Batwoman and the rest of the team. And as Abernathy teases, that should pave the way for a more consistent presence from these characters in the future.
“I think one of my favorite sequences in all of The Joker War was the gathering of the Bat Family back together, as that’s been a goal of mine since taking over this position,” he said. “The Bat-Family is really a super hero universe in and of itself and greater connectivity among the titles is the goal for the coming year.”
We asked if DC might finally be reuniting Batman and Robin as a regular duo again, particularly given recent changes in the lives of Tim Drake and Damian Wayne. Abernethy would only say, “A return of Batman and Robin as a duo? Hmm…let me think on that… ”
Abernathy also teased that Batman #101 will reveal exactly what role Catwoman will play in the series going forward, as we see how her romance with Bruce weathers the storm that is Joker War and Selina’s own regretful role in allowing the Wayne fortune to be stolen.
Batman writer James Tynion IV has added several new faces to the Gotham City landscape in recent months, including Joker’s new partner-in-crime Punchline, the deadly vigilante Clownhunter and a black market financier known as the Underbroker. These characters are significant in that they don’t necessarily fall as neatly onto the hero/villain spectrum as the classic Bat-rogues. If anything, they’re a harbinger of a newer generation shaped directly by Batman and his rogues.
“They both really reflect the beast that Gotham City is developing into, a beast that Batman and The Joker have helped shape over the years,” said Abernathy.
The series will continue down this road in the aftermath of Joker War, with Batman #101 introducing a new character named Ghost-Maker. Ghost-Maker is another character whose affiliations and morality are fairly nebulous, though Abernathy does tease a major connection to Bruce’s life before he became Batman.
“Ghost-Maker is a very different animal as he’s a face from the past, a rival that was training during the same years that Bruce was on his journey to become the Dark Knight,” said Abernethy. “The timing of his arrival in Gotham City couldn’t be worse for Batman!”
And if that weren’t enough for Batman to deal with, issue #101 also features the long-awaited return of a fan-favorite Wildstorm character. Grifter is headed to Gotham City and looks to be playing a recurring role in Batman’s world. And if Abernathy has his way, this won’t be the only time a Wildstorm icon resurfaces in the DCU.
“Grifter has always been a favorite character of mine and having him appear in this issue is a dream come true!” said Abernathy. “Cole Cash has a clearly defined ‘role’ in the new Gotham City but there are a lot of on-going internal discussion on the WildStorm characters…however I DO like making my own dreams comes true, so HMMM…”
With Batman one of the few remaining DC titles still shipping twice-monthly, fans have grown used to plenty of artistic turnover. The timetable makes it difficult for any one artist to draw several consecutive issues. But in a refreshing change of pace, all six issues of the Joker War storyline are drawn by artist Jorge Jimenez. Jimenez has delivered characteristically stunning work on this story, with this instantly iconic page from Batman #98 being a particular standout:
Art by Jorge Jimenez. (Image Credit: DC)
Naturally, it would be too much to expect Jimenez to remain on board for this post-Joker War storyline. But Abernethy confirmed Jimenez remains attached to the series and will return soon.
“Jorge did an A-M-A-Z-I-N-G job on Joker War, channeling his inner Super Saiyan on the art,” said Abernethy. “The reality on these double ships, unfortunately, is we need a constant rotation of artists to meet the deadlines, so 100% YES Jorge is coming back on a future arc (in fact, he just sent me the first 3 inked pages from it!).”
Abernethy also gave us a rundown of the artists handling this next story arc. He said, “Starting with #102 we will have the awesome duo of Carlo Pagulayan and Danny Miki back as the lead art team for the story arc, but we’ll also have some additional contributors like Carlos D’Anda and Guillem March.”
Look for Batman #100 to officially wrap up the Joker War crossover on Tuesday, October 6, with Batman #101 following two weeks later on October 20.
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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.
