Month: November 2020

Call of Duty: Warzone won’t be switching engine when it welcomes content from Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War – even though Black Ops Cold War uses a new engine itself.

A verified Activision Art Lead revealed the news on ResetEra. “There will not be an engine shift for WZ,” writes ShutterMunster, in response to a comment chain about the future of the battle royale game.

Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War runs on a new engine, but it looks like Warzone won’t be making the switch, despite the fact that weapons, operators and loadouts from the latest Call of Duty game will be brought to Warzone as part of a cross-franchise integration, arriving in December.

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The decision means that Warzone should feel broadly the same to play, even while the tools of war you use may be altered drastically by the update (although existing, Modern Warfare-themed equipment will reamin available to players). Equally, it may mean that playing Warzone and Black Ops Cold War side-by-side may take some getting used to.

Some players in the same ResetEra thread are concerned about how the Black Ops Cold War arsenal of weapons will be balanced in Warzone when they make the jump between engines. We’re sure we’ll hear more about that when the game’s integration is detailed further.

Back in September, Activision reportedly banned around 20,000 Call of Duty Warzone cheaters during the launch of the game’s Season 6 update. If you want our full verdict on Call of Duty’s spin on Battle Royale, you can check out our full Call of Duty: Warzone review here.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Normally, New Releases highlights five big games in every episode, but that would be a real disservice this time, considering the imminent launches of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. The next generation of consoles kicks off with heavy hitters like Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Dirt 5, Bugsnax, Demon’s Souls, Spider-Man: Miles Morales, and Godfall. Just after the launches comes Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. And since we can’t leave Nintendo out, this episode also takes a look at Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla — November 10 (PS4, Xbox One, Series X/S, PC, Stadia) / November 12 (PS5)

Available on: PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X/S, PC, Stadia

The next entry in the Assassin’s Creed saga is set in the Viking era. As tribe leader Eivor, you’ll lead your people in raids across the isle of Great Britain. You’ll pillage villages, build your own encampment, and even dip back into social stealth. Expect more info on the mysterious Hidden Ones too.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

While Netflix is still considered, by many, the streaming service to beat, its super-powered offerings have been slowly drained over the years due to competing platforms. As all the Marvel movies slowly head to Disney+ and the DC films move over to Warner Bros.’ HBO Max, Netflix’s heroic content is dwindling.

That being said, there are still some really cool superhero movies and TV shows to check out on Netflix – from The CW’s entire Arrowverse to Marvel’s Defenders-verse to the last remaining MCU TV series, Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD.

So if you’re looking for awesome and epic tales of good vs. here are some key superhero movies and shows to stream on Netflix. The newest additions to this list will be added at the top and marked with an asterisk.

Oh, and when you’re done here, it’s also time to check out our ranking of the MCU’s entire Infinity Saga. Or find out what’s new to Netflix this month.

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Or follow these links for the best of other genres:

• Best sci fi movies on Netflix
• Best comedy movies on Netflix
• Best drama movies on Netflix
• Best action movies on Netflix
• Best horror TV shows on Netflix
• Best horror movies on Netflix
• Best anime series on Netflix
• Best Netflix original movies

Note: This list pertains to U.S. Netflix subscribers. Some titles may not currently be available on international platforms. This page is periodically amended to remove movies and shows no longer available to watch on Netflix, and to include great titles that are now available for streaming on the service.

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Though it just missed out on being the best Spidey film of all time in IGN’s ranking of the Spider-Man movies, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is wildly considered to be one of the greatest webhead outings ever. A gorgeous, emotional ride through an alternate universe featuring the rise of one Miles Morales, Spider-Verse blew up the entire concept of a superhero film while staying true to Spidey’s core principals and credo. A sequel is in the works too.

Read our Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse review or watch Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse on Netflix.

Arrow

One arena DC has solidly triumphed in in recent years is TV, where Arrow — which focused on a presumed dead billionaire heir named Oliver Queen returning to his city as a hooded vigilante — was able to kickstart an entire shared universe, and multiple sibling series, that eventually included The Flash, Supergirl, Black Lightning, and Batwoman. All of those shows are available to stream on Netflix.

Read our Arrow reviews or watch Arrow on Netflix.

Daredevil

Even though interest, in general, had waned by the time Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, and Iron Fist all teamed up for The Defenders (due, in large part, to Iron Fist’s lackluster first season), the three seasons of Marvel’s Daredevil are about as solid and satisfying as you could hope for – with the third and final season being one of the best superhero seasons ever. The other shows, which also include two seasons of The Punisher, are also worth checking out, though they have more ups and downs in terms of quality.

Read our Daredevil reviews or watch Daredevil on Netflix.

Gotham

When Gotham began, fans and critics latched onto the grabby hook that it was a Batman show with no Batman. How could this be? This will never work! But after a few seasons, and some truly crazy storylines (including a massive heel turn for Barbara Kean), Gotham embraced its lunacy and gave us a world where, unlike Batman lore, all of Batman’s villains existed before him. And the more ridiculous the series got, the more it actually found its footing, allowing it to explore famous storylines from the comics and movies in new and inventive ways.

Read our Gotham reviews or watch Gotham on Netflix.

The Umbrella Academy

Based on the Dark Horse comic series from Gerard Way and Gabriel Bá, relative newcomer to the super-series game The Umbrella Academy was a big hit right out of the gate as fans fell in love with a squabbling squad of super-powered surrogate siblings trying to avert an apocalypse that they themselves might be responsible for creating. Seasons 1 and 2 are available now on Netflix.

Read our The Umbrella Academy reviews or watch The Umbrella Academy on Netflix.

Agents of SHIELD

Marvel’s Agents of SHIELD, featuring Clark Gregg’s Phil Coulson, started out as a direct tie-in to the MCU films, especially considering the Hydra reveal in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. But as the series went on, and the rift between Marvel TV and Marvel Studios became greater, SHIELD stopped fully concerning itself with the films and focused more on its own built-in dramas and sagas. After teaming with Ghost Rider, battling Hydra in a virtual world, and taking on the Kree in a dystopian timeline where Earth was destroyed by Graviton, the SHIELD heroes were able to create a legion of rabid fans without relying on Avengers scraps.

Read our Agents of SHIELD reviews or watch Agents of SHIELD on Netflix.

Lucifer

Recently renewed for a sixth and final season, after having been saved by Netflix when Fox canceled the show after three seasons, Lucifer, based on the character from Neil Gaiman’s Sandman comic series, is hellaciously good fun and features Tom Ellis as a restless and smug Lord of Hell who decides to give up his throne and live among mortals in Los Angeles.

Read our Lucifer reviews or watch Lucifer on Netflix.

Legends of Tomorrow

While the entire Arrowverse is worth watching, if not just to admire the ambition and scope of the shared universe, the most unexpectedly gleeful series in the giant machine is DC’s Legends of Tomorrow, which features Arrow and Flash castaways — like Atom, White Canary, Heat Wave, Constantine, and more — in a rambunctious and humor-laced ride through time and space.

Read our Legends of Tomorrow reviews or watch Legends of Tomorrow on Netflix.

I Am Not Okay With This

As a smaller, but notable, Netflix original, I Am Not Okay With This takes us into a dreary, dilapidated town for a look at a high school girl coming to terms with her sexuality and her dangerously new telekinetic powers. IT’s Sophia Lillis and Wyatt Oleff star in this humble superhero origin story that packs a big emotional punch.

Read our I Am Not Okay With This Season 1 review or watch I Am Not Okay With This on Netflix.

How We Choose the Best Superhero Movies and TV Shows on Netflix

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The superhero genre is wide-ranging, and one that can sometimes be difficult to pin down. We try to focus on superhero movies and shows that have a time-tested reputation like The Incredibles, as well as those movies that scored well on aggregate sites like Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic. In some cases, we may pick more critically divisive movies or shows like I Am Not Okay With This that we still feel are worth checking out. The one common thread is that all these movies and shows are true superhero stories, whether they’re based on comic books or are original creations themselves.

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

It’s likely that the remake of Demon’s Souls will have its own fair share of mysteries to uncover when it arrives this month. How many of the original secrets have made the jump from the original PS3 version of the game that From Software developed in 2009 remains to be seen, but Bluepoint Games will have plenty of guides available to players who reach a dead end in the PS5 game.

In an interview with The Washington Post, Demon’s Souls creative director Gavin Moore revealed that there’ll be more than 180 video guides available through the PS5’s new Official Game Help feature. Moore said that these videos will provide increasing levels of visibility on how to complete portions of the game.

Revealed alongside the PS5 user interface, Official Game Help can be accessed through the control center during a gameplay session and allows for gameplay cards to be positioned on the screen. This streams a video in picture-in-picture mode and shows a player how to get out of a tight spot in a particular video game.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Devil May Cry 5 is already a special game in the hearts of many, but the next-gen version is about to get even more special thanks to the addition of everyone’s favorite blue-clad brooding son of Sparda, Vergil. I got to play the PlayStation 5 version of DMC5 Special Edition to give him a test drive, and while he feels very similar to previous iterations, Vergil’s got more than a few tricks up his sleeves.

If you’ve played as Vergil in previous Devil May Cry special editions, especially his iteration from Devil May Cry 4, you’ll feel right at home with DMC 5’s version. For those unfamiliar, he uses three weapons: his trusty Yamato sword, the Beowulf gauntlets introduced in Devil May Cry 3, and the Mirage Edge, which is virtually the same as the Force Edge that he used in Devil May Cry 4. He also has a unique mechanic called Concentration, which rewards the player for playing Vergil in a way that suits his confident, stoic, and elitist personality.

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You see, Vergil is not the kind of character that would just rush head into action like Dante or Nero would. He’s calm, collected, and above all else, precise in his movements and strikes. As such, if you’re standing still or walking slowly towards your enemies, the concentration meter will start to fill. If you start running around, missing wildly, or get hit, the gauge will plummet. The higher your concentration, the more effective each of your weapons become: the range and damage of Yamato will increase, Beowulf will be able to charge up an additional level to deal massive damage, and the Mirage Edge will take on multi-hit properties.

The biggest change to Vergil’s gameplay in DMC 5 Special Edition is how he handles his Devil Trigger. Now when he activates Devil Trigger, instead of taking on a demon form, he summons a doppelganger that will mimic his own actions. The doppelganger only uses the Yamato, regardless of the weapon Vergil is wielding, which can make it a little tricky to effectively utilize if you’re not also using the Yamato while the doppelganger is active. Nevertheless, being able to put on twice the damage for a short period of time is quite powerful.

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One other interesting new ability Vergil has is the ability to stab himself with his sword and switch places with V for a powerful attack that utilizes all of V’s summons. It’s flashy as all hell, and has great utility since any enemies that are defeated with it drop green health orbs, but the animation is a bit long and gets a bit old for my personal liking.

If you’re upset about the loss of his demon form, don’t fret, because Vergil still has access to it, though this time it’s through his Sin Devil Trigger. You can hold L1 to transfer devil trigger energy into his Sin Devil Trigger meter, and when it’s full, holding down L1 will transform Vergil into his demon form, which gives him health regeneration, powers up all of his existing moves, and some gnarly special attacks that deal ridiculous amounts of damage.

If it’s not already apparent, Vergil is an extremely technical character. He doesn’t have a double jump that lets him easily escape bad situations; he gets actively weaker whenever he gets hit, whiffs, or runs away due to the loss of his concentration meter; and while he’s got a proper dodge and block, they require very strict timing to use effectively. As someone who only dabbled with him in Devil May Cry 4, this made the initial learning curve a bit rough to get over early on, especially because most of his really useful moves are locked away in the shop once you start off.

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Still, once his playstyle clicked with me, and I started learning how to best utilize the concentration mechanic, and how to use my air trick to cancel the animations of both my attacks and their recoveries, Vergil became a blast to play, easily on par with the rest of the cast.

Aside from Vergil and the returning Turbo Mode that speeds up the game by 1.2x, Special Edition also adds Legendary Dark Knight Mode, which is a difficulty mode that is unlike anything the DMC series has ever seen. And while DMC4: Special Edition also had a mode called Legendary Dark Knight, this version in DMC 5: Special Edition is on another level. It ups the number of enemies on screen to near musou levels of absurdity. At just the second encounter of the game where there were once maybe five or six enemies on screen at once, in Legendary Dark Knight mode, there are close to 30. It forces you to approach combat entirely differently, and while it isn’t my preferred method of playing Devil May Cry 5, it certainly has its unique appeal.

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Finally, as for how DMC5 plays on PS5, the DualSense controller has an excellent form factor and felt great in my hands while playing, though interestingly, Capcom decided to use the adaptive triggers to apply resistance to the left trigger when you try and rev Nero’s Red Queen sword. Sure enough, it has the feel of revving a motorcycle, but considering how much any seasoned player uses that technique, having to apply extra force in order to get it to work got tiring very quickly. Fortunately, you can turn it off in the options menu.

Stay tuned for more Devil May Cry 5: Special Edition, including a look at the various visual modes available in the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 as we get closer to launch.

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Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN who has an SSS rank in his love for the DMC series.

 

Bethesda’s Todd Howard has said that the company’s current engine – which will be used for Starfield and The Elder Scrolls 6 – is getting what could be its largest upgrade yet, and is being worked on by the largest number of employees the company has ever assigned to engine work.

Speaking during the Develop:Brighton keynote session, Howard was asked how much work was being done on Bethesda’s proprietery Creation engine, which has attracted criticism in the past.

“We too will acknowledge it needs more work than it has in previous times,” Howard replied, “and we do that between generations – and we’ve been doing it. I can say that the engine work started a while ago.”

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It sounds as though this is a major rework, too – perhaps the largest leap for the engine in its long history (Creation was born out of the older Gamebryo Engine, which was initially released in 1997). “We have more people doing engine work now, by a factor of five, probably than we’ve ever had,” Howard explained. “So the overhaul in our engine is the largest we’ve probably ever had, maybe larger than Morrowind to Oblivion.”

Howard went on to explain that there are elements of Creation that Bethesda continues to like, but pointed out the sheer number of changes being made:

“There are things we do that we still like. The way we build our worlds, the way people can mod it – these are things that I think are fundamentally good about our tech stack. But from rendering to animation to pathing to procedural generation – I don’t want to say everything, but it’s a significant, significant overhaul.

“It’s taken us longer than we would have liked, but it’s going to power what we’re doing with Starfield and Elder Scrolls 6, and when people see the result, they’ll hopefully be as happy as we are with what’s on the screen, but also in how we can go about making our games.”

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We’ve previously heard that the engine was being worked on, when Howard explained that it was being rewritten for Starfield and next-gen consoles.

That news came alongside Microsoft’s $7.5 billion acquisition of Bethesda parent company ZeniMax. Howard’s also explained that it’s ‘hard to imagine’ The Elder Scrolls 6 becoming a full Xbox exclusive after the buyout.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Justice League star Ray Fisher has claimed that almost every single scene featuring Cyborg ended up being reshot for Joss Whedon’s theatrical cut of the film.

Speaking to the hosts of the Geek House Show podcast, Fisher addressed the extent of Whedon’s reshoots and how they altered Zack Snyder’s intended arc for Cyborg, as he alleged that every single scene with Cyborg in the theatrical version of Justice League turned out to be a reshoot, except one brief appearance from his character assembling alongside the Justice League to meet up with Commissioner Jim Gordon on the rooftop of the Gotham City Police Department.

“Some things were, like, similar with the reshoots as what we did with the original, and so it’s hard to, like, tell with certain shots of other people for scenes that I wasn’t there for,” Fisher said of the reshoots. “But what I can tell you from my character, and for what you saw in the theatrical version, that every single scene with the exception of the Gotham City police rooftop scene with Commissioner Gordon and Batman and Flash and all that… every single scene that I’m in was reshot. I reshot almost the entire film on my end. As far as other people’s stuff where I wasn’t there, I can’t really tell you.”

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Most of Cyborg’s origin story was cut from the theatrical version of the film, including seeing the character learn to fly, use weapons, and hack into other computer networks, as well as his deeper connection to Mother Boxes (since he’s basically born from a Mother Box). The majority of these scenes are expected to be restored in full for Zack Snyder’s four-hour cut of Justice League, which will release across four parts on HBO Max in 2021.

Snyder has already stated that he will not use even a “single frame” from Whedon’s Justice League reshoots for his version of the film. In fact, he said that he would “literally blow that f***ing thing up” before using any of Whedon’s material. Snyder has, however, started working on his own reshoots for the director’s cut of Justice League, with several of the main cast reportedly returning to shoot additional footage to presumably flesh out existing scenes.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.