Can you become history’s first SOLDIER? FINAL FANTASY VII THE FIRST SOLIDER coming to iOS and Android in 2021.Housemarque’s Returnal is a new roguelike that leans into the developer’s pedigree for arcade-style shooters, yet it also has something to say about the effects of being trapped in isolation and in a perpetual cycle. Following an emergency landing on the planet Atropos, the game’s protagonist Selene finds herself stranded on a planet filled with ancient ruins and hostile monsters. After meeting her seemingly inevitable end, she re-awakens shortly after the crash, retaining memories of her past attempt at survival. Selene is forced to relive the day again and again until she can uncover why she’s trapped in a time loop, and why the strange world seems to have a growing attachment to its new visitor.
Ahead of its April 30 launch, I had the chance to view an extended preview of the game in action and also spoke with game director Harry Krueger and narrative director Gregory Louden about Returnal’s scope. During the preview, I noticed that Returnal adds a Metroid-style sense of action and exploration to its time-looping roguelike structure. I was surprised to see that the game uses its conceit to showcase Selene’s unsettling descent into a mysterious, sentient world that always seems to be two steps ahead of her.
The roguelike sub-genre has seen a significant surge in recent years, and 2020’s Hades was a breakthrough that demonstrated that a meaningful and poignant story with a personable cast of characters can have an impact within a structure that is inherently random. Returnal operates in the same territory as Hades, and with each run, Selene not only expands her powers and knowledge of the planet Atropos, but it in turn reveals more about the protagonist’s past, even forcing her to confront visions and constructs that evoke memories of what she left behind before her arrival.
A major outage is impacting certain aspects of Xbox Live, preventing users from signing in. That is effectively locking people out of content and the ability to play games online–which is unfortunate timing with Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Season 2 having just launched today.
Microsoft has already acknowledged the problem, with the Xbox Live status page highlighting an outage to multiple aspects of the service. On Twitter, it also provided an update, saying it’s investigating the issue:
We are aware that users may not be able to sign-in to Xbox Live at this time. Our teams are currently investigating to fix this issue. We will update here and on https://t.co/PzAdjUFMJj when we have more information to share!
— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) February 25, 2021
A subsequent update noted that party chat and the ability to purchase content are also impacted, so there are a variety of Xbox Live-centric services that aren’t working correctly. There’s no word on exactly when things will get back to normal, although the status page does suggest a fix could be near.
Square Enix just revealed Final Fantasy VII Remake: Intergrade for PS5, and if you want to get in on the free next-gen upgrade, you can snag the PS4 version of Final Fantasy VII Remake for $30 at Amazon and Walmart. It will upgrade to the 60fps PS5 version for free when it releases on June 10, though you will have to pay extra for the bonus episode that features fan-favourite Yuffie as a playable character. In addition to the improved frame rate and resolution, the PS5 version will also feature a photo mode, new difficulty setting, and quality-of-life improvements.
While the PS5 version sounds exciting, the last-gen version of Final Fantasy VII Remake is still a great game. It was named one of GameSpot’s best games of 2020 and received a rare 10/10 in our Final Fantasy VII Remake review.
343 Industries has released an interview-focused blog post for Halo Infinite, which looks at Zeta Halo, the open-world setting of the upcoming game. Halo Infinite campaign art lead Justin Dinges said that one of the largest challenges of creating the space was honoring the nostalgic feel of Halo, while creating something that feels brand-new.
“With Halo Infinite, we wanted to take this new adventure back to its roots and create a visually pleasing experience that doesn’t overwhelm with unnecessary complexity where readability and clear artistic composition prevail,” Dinges said. “This is our artistic interpretation of a beautiful world to exist within–rather than something that is purely grounded in photo realism. Both goals have been a true challenge to balance, especially against the expectations of what it means to be a ‘next-gen’ title.”
Part of honoring the appeal of Halo’s roots comes from Zeta Halo’s layout. As an open world, Zeta Halo invokes the same sensation of Halo: Combat Evolved’s opening hours when you could approach problems in different ways depending on what weapons you have, vehicles you’re driving, or pathways you uncover.
Hulu is working with the team behind 2017’s I, Tonya to examine the life of another infamous sports figure. This time, the team is taking on the baddest boxer to ever step into the ring, and the only one to get an iconic NES game, Mike Tyson, in Hulu’s Iron Mike.
Iron Mike will be an eight-episode limited series that Hulu says will explore “the wild, tragic and controversial life and career behind one of the most polarizing figures in sports culture–heavyweight champion Mike Tyson.”
Tyson himself is not involved with the show and is, in fact, not happy about the announcement. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Tyson had no kind words for the production.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Avengers: Endgame’s Joe and Anthony Russo, who have now spent the majority of their filmmaking careers in the trenches of the MCU, switch gears for a sullen and sulky dive into the unwell mind of trauma and addiction in Cherry, featuring Marvel’s own friendly neighborhood Spider-Man, Tom Holland. But Holland’s riveting, anti-Peter Parker turn here isn’t enough to save Cherry from being a struggle to get through.
Based on the semi-autobiographical novel by Nico Walker, Cherry tells the story of an introspective Holden Caulfield type, from a hard-knock area of Cleveland, who joins the army after a bad break-up only to wind up severely wrecked by his wartime experience overseas as a medic. He crash-lands back home, adorned in medals, with very few recourses other than to escape via heroin — and then bank robbery to support that horrific lifestyle loop.
The film itself is separated into named chapters, like a book, and that helps slice up the story into more digestible pieces, but it never fully prevents Cherry from falling into a repetitive rut of feelings and themes. Drug addiction is a heavy topic and films about it can be a thick wall to chisel through. Cherry doesn’t offer up anything new nor does it tighten its runtime for the sake of brevity. So the end result is, well, nothing you haven’t seen play out in other movies about maladjustment, anxiety, and drug use.
[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/25/cherry-official-trailer”]
As mentioned, the acting is quite compelling here. Most of it falls squarely on Holland’s shoulders as he’s not only the lead but also the narrator and a fourth-wall breaker. Nothing happens here outside of Holland’s scope as he’s in practically every scene, and when he’s not in a moment his voice still looms over it.
Most of the sad-sack characters who orbit Holland’s unnamed character (though he’s supposed to be “Cherry”) feel overly quirky and ornamental, as they’re always viewed through his eyes and he’s a borderline sociopath. The one exception is Ciara Bravo’s Emily, Cherry’s long-suffering partner who winds up meeting his madness halfway and getting torn to pieces in the process. Bravo’s showing is a strong second here, but overall the film is still Holland’s clunky cart to pull.
The gimmicky entryway for Cherry is that it’s from the directors of some of Marvel’s most complicated, and rewarding, films, starring arguably the most likable MCU actor. But it’s a wholly different story and the MCU star is delivering the goods in an Oscar bait-ish role that’s a far cry from what most people are familiar with him doing.
[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=ranking-the-spider-man-movies&captions=true”]
Once you get through all that webbing (heh) though, there’s some really good stuff in Cherry that can exist on its own merit. It can, at times, offer up quiet devastation. It’s just that, all lined up, it’s a slog that needs a trim down. It’s ambitious, sure, but threading multiple stories together, each of which could be their own movie really makes for a lot of bad bloat.
Cherry certainly has a distinct vibe to it, which is sometimes darkly comedic, and it’s definitely a welcome and ambitious swerve for the Russos and Holland, as the latter says he never wants to stop playing Spider-Man but also wants to play someone other than a teenager (The Devil All the Time, Uncharted, etc), but the movie regurgitates a familiar story (several, in fact) while stretching things out to a sometimes unnerving degree.
We get our hands on the demo for Outriders on the PlayStation 5 and trek our way through Enoch. We explore the world of Enoch and also shoot our way through some sticky situations.Announced by The Fortnite Team, Ripley arrives with her Nostromo Crew Outfit variant and the Weyland-Yutani Cat Carrier, which comes complete with Jonesy the Cat.
[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/26/fortnite-ripley-and-alien-xenomorph-trailer”]
The Xenomorph comes equipped with not only the Xenomorph Tail Back Bling, but also the Xeno Menace built-in Emote.
The Space Gear Bundle is another purchasable addition from the Alien universe, and includes the P-500 Power Loader Arm Pickaxe, the Cheyenne Dropship Glider, and a new emote that’s “bursting on the scene.”
Ripley and the Xenomorph follow both Fortnite’s addition of Street Fighter’s Chun-Li and Ryu and the crossover with Tron.
This news also arrives a few days after Epic Games announced that any player who purchased its loot boxes called Loot Llamas in the Fortnite: Save the World mode will receive 1,000 V-Bucks for free following a class-action settlement.
For more on Fortnite, check out where you can find every Surface Hub so you can scan every server, and other crossovers including the Flash, The Terminator, and Sarah Connor.
[poilib element=”accentDivider”]
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.