Monthly Archives: March 2020

Resident Evil 3’s Knife Is Now Indestructible

The knife in the upcoming Resident Evil 3 remake will be indestructible, unlike the blades in last year’s Resident Evil 2 remake which would break after a handful of uses. Capcom has made the change to ensure that players always have something to fall back on, even after emptying their inventory of everything else. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/11/resident-evil-3-comparison-remake-vs-original"] Talking to Game Informer, producer Peter Fabiano said: “We're dealing with survival horror and everything is exhaustible. You run out of bullets. You run out of herbs. You run out of all the items you can use. So if you did run out of everything, what would you have? The knife. The director always wanted to make it so that you at least have your trusty knife. That’s always something you can rely on.” Aside from finally giving a guaranteed get-out clause against at least Resi’s lowliest foes, an unbreakable knife also unlocks the potential of a knife-only run. These challenge playthroughs have been common amongst Resident Evil fans since the series began, but was near enough impossible in Resident Evil 2 remake because of the break system. Now not only is a knife-only run of Resident Evil 3 possible, but some members of the development team have even done it. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=resident-evil-3&captions=true"] For more, check out our hands-on with Resident Evil 3, where we discovered how terrifying Nemesis truly is. If you want to play, too, you can also jump into the Resident Evil 3 demo right now, where you can take on the challenge to find all 20 Mr. Charlie dolls. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter

Walking Dead Boss Says THAT Character’s ‘Story Isn’t Done’

Warning: Spoilers for The Walking Dead episode "What We Become" follow... [poilib element="accentDivider"] With tonight's Walking Dead episode "What We Become" marking star Danai Gurira's final appearance on the series as Michonne (as she and the character head off into the Rick Grimes movie trilogy), both Gurira and Walking Dead Chief Content Officer Scott M. Gimple appeared on AMC's Talking Dead after show to discuss the episode and Michonne's surreal "Sliding Doors"-style exit. Despite her character not dying, and living on to exist in a different Walking Dead property, Gurira was still, understandably, emotional about this episode. "It's overwhelming, in a sense, to have walked on this journey with this amazing character and this amazing family, the Walking Dead family out there in Georgia, for all these years." "[The episode] was an insane mind trip in so many ways," Gurira said, though she was hesitant to give this alternate Michonne a label. "I don't know if I'd call her evil, but she made a different choice at a pivotal moment. And there's this crazy aspect of how this one choice can send you on entirely different path." Gimple then spoke about what he and the writers wanted to convey with Michonne's final chapter on the show. "At the end of the day, we wanted to give an idea of what the point of the whole thing was," he shared. "The whole journey. And she enters the story by helping someone. She chose to stop and turn and help a stranger. Over the course of seven seasons she changed. She became vulnerable. She opened up. Now, in this episode, she has a lead on Rick, which is earth-shaking. It changes everything. She has to go. And even as she does that she crosses people who need help. And we see that's who she really is now. Even though she's on the most important journey of her life." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-best-and-worst-walking-dead-time-jumps&captions=true"]

Michonne as Negan's Enforcer

Gurira was asked about recreating several moments from the show's past, including the infamous Negan lineup. "[Michonne] could have chosen to let Andrea die. She was in this moment where she was very disconnected from her humanity. Just one little knock on her heart got through her armor and she saved Andrea and everything changed. But she could have done what we watched in this episode. I found that very chilling. One choice compounds upon itself. And the very idea that she ends up with Negan felt plausible." "Just the aspect of being aligned with Negan, I think that alone was freaky," she said. "[Jeffrey Dean Morgan] and I had this bizarrely good time but you're just still freaked out that you're doing that as an actor. But it was all plausible. The idea that there was a part of her, if she'd gone a different way, that made their connection plausible. It was a chilling thing. We spent a lot of time shooting that lineup scene originally. That scene was deeply traumatic, you know, losing Glenn and losing Abraham, and so to recreate it and to be on the other side of it...we set it up in the exact same place, the RV was behind us, and there was Negan with the bat. Everything was very chillingly the same as that night except I was batting on the other side. It was deeply trippy." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-walking-dead-what-we-become-photos&captions=true"]

What's Next for Michonne

While Michonne's move to the Rick movies hasn't been made official, it's one of the worst kept Walking Dead secrets at this point. And Gimple, while not being able to say anything outright, certainly teased as much. "I can say this: Both Rick Grimes and Andy Lincoln would not give up those boots very easily," he said. "There's the etching. There's a Japanese phrase there. There's Michonne, and there looks to be a more current Judith than perhaps Rick...yeah, there you go. Is he alive? Is he dead? What's the situation. Those are clues that there's a whole story unfolding somewhere." When Michonne saw those boots, she confronted a part of herself that she had to bury long ago. "[Seeing Rick's boots] feeds something inside of her that she's tried to keep down for many years, that she put aside for the good of everyone around her," Gurira said. "It was an awesome thing for me to see Michonne get back. To get connected to him again to have some of her hunches start to be validated." "[Rick leaving] was last year for us, as viewers of The Walking Dead, but for Michonne it's been years," Gimple added. "To see this, it just pulls her through time. It's a whole other world." "Her story isn't done," Gimple concluded. "And the thing we were so happy to find, thematically, was we were able to conclude the character. Michonne is the person who would help those people at the end, even though she has no idea who they are. And they have this weird fashion sense. And she has a lead on Rick. And we see this group, this organized, nomadic, strong-looking group. And she's going to them on behalf of these other people. Something's going on here. It was great to see the character fulfill her arc in the story while also opening up a whole other story while on the road to a story we want to know more about, which is Rick." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/25/the-walking-dead-world-beyond-trailer"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.

The Walking Dead Bids Farewell to a Major Character in an Excellent Episode

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow... [poilib element="accentDivider"] Walking Dead star Danai Gurira's final episode, "What We Become," turned out to be an exceptional and moving chapter that acted as both an alternate timeline retrospective and a nice push forward into the realm of...whatever the Rick movies are going to be about. Which is a relief not only because Michonne is such an important legacy character on the series, who deserves a proper send off, but also because the way the story shuffled Michonne off the board in the midseason finale felt rushed and clunky. For the show to rebound from this -- from Michonne's oddball choice to head off with a suspicious (to say the least) stranger across water, leaving Judith behind -- is a wonderful thing. Firstly, it involved giving Michonne an entire episode to herself, which is challenging to do when fans probably wanted to see an immediate follow up to Alpha's death. Secondly, the writers discovered a creative way to take us back through Michonne's history without anyone around for her to talk to. Meaning, she had no one, like Daryl or Carol, to reflect with or recollect the long road they'd all been on together. Michonne's trip here was all in her head, and it was a Jonathan Crane-style blast. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-walking-dead-what-we-become-photos&captions=true"]

Michonne Will Remember That

Curiously, the episode opened with a "WTF?" scenario in which Michonne doesn't save Andrea at the end of Season 2. We'd have to wait a little while before that multiverse version of Michonne was explained. As it turned out, all of our instincts were right about Virgil (The Leftovers' Kevin Carroll). Not that he was an evil person, per se, but that he was "off." He'd snapped. His family was dead and his claims of a weapons cache was a soft lie. Michonne was led into a Navy Research Facility because Virgil want her to put down the undead versions of his wife and kids, whom he'd accidentally trapped inside a building with walkers. He wanted to bury them properly and he needed her sword skills. Though this crucible, Virgil got to briefly become a Scarecrow-type villain, capturing Michonne in a Saw bathroom and dosing her with some type of psychotropic drug that put her through the mental wringer. Now...there's really only one big theme The Walking Dead ever tackles, and it's been doing it for a decade straight. Do humans become the real monsters in times of panic and peril? The show is all about the choices we make and how we need to cooperate and what happens when a single strand of that blanket starts to unravel. We've pretty much gone through every scenario for this. We've also witnessed enough show exits that also deal with the power of hope and good will. So the fact that we got a whole new take on the same tune was kind of thrilling. Michonne's vision/journey took her through a timeline of alternate Telltale Games choices in which: She didn't save Andrea, she got abandoned by Daryl, wound up joining the Saviors, rose up to become Negan's right hand, and then got killed by Rick in the big war. It was crazy. Also, the flashbacks were a stark reminder that -- oh yeah! -- Rick, Glenn, and others totally went into a Savior compound and murdered people in their sleep. Well, except in this world, Michonne survived the ambush and killed Glenn. And with him gone, she was the one who swung Lucille down on the head of...herself. Okay, that part was more trippy than timeline tweaking. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/25/the-walking-dead-world-beyond-trailer"] When Michonne came out of this left turn timeline, she was able to curb her anger and spare Virgil's life (while convincing the other scientists he'd imprisoned to do the same). It was yet another way for the show to remind people to be merciful in times of strife and sourness. And as a fortuitous reward, Virgil took her to an abandoned ship that just so happened to be a vessel Rick was once on. Yup, it had his boots and it had a log of ports that it had used in its travels. All in all, this escort side quest turned into a very compelling look into Michonne as a character who had to be coaxed back from the brink of wrath and isolation by love and camaraderie. Sadly, she couldn't convince Virgil to leave behind his anguish.

Hey Jude(ith)

The final part of Michonne's journey on this series involved saying goodbye to Judith who, basically, gave Michonne permission to go. Looking back at how the final conflict with the Whisperers quickly played out -- over the course of four or five days, really -- it made a lot more sense that by the time Michonne ran through her Virgil mission (where he decided to stay back on the island and slip even further into madness) Alpha was dead and there was no need for her to have return to give them guns or protect her children. Everything needed to be safe back at home or else there's no way she'd be able to head off in search of Rick. In fact, the show teased us a tiny bit by not letting us in on what situation Judith was in. Was she locked down with the other kids during the assault on Hilltop? If so, Michonne would have had to come rushing back. After a few minutes, we were let in on what was happening in Judith's world. Alpha was defeated and things were, presumedly, calming down. Sure, it would have been better for Michonne to have a face to face with someone before leaving the series, but her walkie chat with Judith still managed to tug on all the heartstrings. The fact that, after six plus years, the two of them now have a breadcrumb that definitely suggests Rick was alive at some point in those six years, that he didn't go down with the bridge, is huge. And once Judith heard the news, she new her dad needed her mom to save him. "What if he needs you more?" was a great line. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/20/the-mandalorian-casts-rosario-dawson-as-ahsoka-tano-in-season-2-ign-now"]

Game Workers Unite Calls for Greater Aid for Industry Workers Impacted by COVID-19

Game Workers Unite has released a statement calling for more support for workers in the video game industry that have been affected by COVID-19. The statement calls for "flexible working hours, universal health service for all, a fair sick pay, and rent freezes." "Video games are and will be a crucial source of entertainment for millions of people right now," reads the statement posted to Twitter. "And yet — there's a huge disparity of job security between different roles, between different parts of the world." Game-Workers-Unite-COVID-19-Statement The statement continues with a call for companies to continue supporting developers and artists, but also "the people that are making the games' production and release happen," as well as "QA testers, event organizers, hard copy packing and retail staff, workers maintaining servers or shipping of games...cleaners, caterers, etc." For those not familiar, Game Workers Unite is an "international grassroots movement and organization dedicated to unionizing the game industry," aiming to give a voice to developers, artists, designers, freelancers, and others involved in the industry. With tons of studios being forced to shut their doors for the time being, there are some industry workers left without work, and more importantly without pay. It's an issue the whole economic world is grappling with, as debate rages on over what sort of economic support workers should receive when the companies they work for close up shop during the COVID-19 shutdown. Game Workers Unite did not specify any particular company or companies as bad actors in their statement. On one hand, some studios like EA and Rockstar have set up remote work solutions for its employees, allowing them to continue with business as usual. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=gamestop-in-the-news-timeline&captions=true"] On the other hand, GameStop was forcing employees to keep doors open amid COVID-19 concerns earlier this week, telling employees and law enforcement it was an "essential" business. However, only a day later, the company elected to close all stores in California, followed by all stores nationwide. Game Workers Unite is encouraging "everyone to use their voices to call out the companies and regions" that are not providing fair aid to its workers in an effort help industry "workers cope with the devastating effects of COVID-19." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.

Disney+ Lowering Streaming Bandwidth in Europe Due to COVID-19 Congestion

With both YouTube and Netflix agreeing to lower streaming quality to standard definition across Europe to help ease bandwidth strain amid concerns of surges in online traffic during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, Disney has now agreed to do something similar with Disney+ when it launches there in a few days. As THR reports, Disney's chairman direct-to-consumer and international, Kevin Mayer, stated "In line with Disney’s longstanding commitment to act responsibly, we are responding to the request of European Commissioner for Internal Market, Thierry Breton, to work together to ensure the smooth functioning of the broadband infrastructure." "In anticipation of high consumer demand for Disney+," he continued, "we are proactively instituting measures to lower our overall bandwidth utilization by at least 25 percent in all of the markets launching Disney+ on March 24th. In the coming days, we will be monitoring Internet congestion and working closely with internet service providers to further reduce bit rates as necessary to ensure they are not overwhelmed by consumer demand." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hidden-gems-on-disney-plus-11-classic-movies-to-watch&captions=true"] Disney+ is set to start on March 24 in the U.K., Ireland, Germany, Austria, Italy, Spain and Switzerland. France, having delayed the streaming service, will receive Disney+ on April 7. For those currently social distancing or WFH, here are the best movie and TV soundtracks to listen to while working from home, the most awesome anime on Netflix right now, and a plea for you to watch, or rewatch, FX's Justified (on Hulu). Also, here are how a handful of celebrities are entertaining their fans from home. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/20/animal-crossing-new-horizons-how-to-unlock-everything"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot DLC Will Feature Beerus, Super Saiyan God Form

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot is getting its first major DLC, and it’ll focus on characters from the more contemporary Dragon Ball Super series.

In a new blog post, Bandai Namco announced the “A New Power Awakens” DLC, which will bring Dragon Ball Super characters like Beerus, the immortal god of destruction of Universe 6, where Dragon Ball is set. It’ll also add Whis, Beerus’ teacher and attendant.

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Players will be able to access Goku’s Super Saiyan God transformation level (the one with the reddish hue, not Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan, obviously) by training against Whis and eventually facing off against Beerus in one of the game’s boss battle episodes.

Bandai says this new content will be accessible “anytime during the player’s game experience,” and Goku will be able to transform into his Super Saiyan God mode any time during the main storyline.

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The new DLC will be available through Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot’s season pass in Spring 2020, or you can buy it when the second DLC, appropriately titled “A New Power Awakens Part 2,” when that releases later this year.

If you bought the Ultimate Edition of Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot, you’ll also get a new music pack that includes a bunch of recognizable Dragon Ball series songs.

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Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot managed to top the video game sales charts during the relatively quiet month of January this year, bringing in the third-highest first month sales total for a DBZ game, after FighterZ and Budokai. If that isn’t interesting enough, here’s the absolute weirdest Dragon Ball games you’ve probably never played. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/super saiyan freelancer super saiyan.

PT Hacker Makes Another Terrifying Discovery About the Game’s Ghost

Lance McDonald, the YouTuber known for exploring the darkest depths of Hideo Kojima’s PT, is back with another terrifying discovery. You can watch his full video on his YouTube channel or his Twitter. Let’s dive into what makes his latest discovery so dang terrifying.

After plumbing the code in PT, Hideo Kojima’s “Playable Teaser” for the now-canceled Silent Hills project, McDonald previously discovered that the murderous ghost Lisa is in fact always behind you. Even better, McDonald managed to hack his way onto the street that Norman Reedus appears on at the end of the game’s trailer. This new discovery, however, returns to the haunted, looping house that the player explores, and shows what Lisa gets up to when we think we can’t see her during some key scares.

The first big detail comes when the player witnesses a windowpane crash to the ground in the home’s foyer. The player is able to look up to the balcony and spot Lisa before she slowly moves back into the shadows. PT players already knew that much, but McDonald discovered that Lisa performs a weird body contortion as she disappears and eventually vanishes into thin air.

[caption id="attachment_232399" align="alignnone" width="720"]lisa 1 Credit: Lance McDonald on YouTube[/caption]

Perhaps the highlight of McDonald’s newest video is the reveal of what Lisa is up to when the player is locked inside the bathroom. Normally, the door shuts, and the player’s attention is drawn to the, uh, somehow living fetus in the sink. Then the player can hear footsteps coming down the hall, before an unseen force can be seen twisting the door handle and pulling on it.

At least, we thought it was unseen. Turns out that P.T.’s development team actually did animate Lisa plodding her way down the hall (she seems to exhibit some sort of injury, most likely a result of her gruesome murder), and she stops right at the door. So those sounds you’re hearing are definitely Lisa’s footsteps. It looks like the development team didn’t bother to animate anything for Lisa’s arms or hands. She has a sort of hunch, and her hands remain close to her stomach, which is likely just a default posture of her character model’s rigging.

[caption id="attachment_232399" align="alignnone" width="720"]lisa 3 Credit: Lance McDonald on YouTube.[/caption]

“I hope that in giving you the chance to see something new from P.T., I might have helped you appreciate the work and care that went into bringing this playable teaser to life,” McDonald says at the end of his video.

You can find more of McDonald’s work doing deep dives into the hidden guts of popular games on his YouTube channel and through his Patreon, where it appears he’s taken a shine to the many secrets of Bloodborne, Sekiro, and Dark Souls.

Michael Giacchino Felt ‘Total Freedom’ Writing the Score to The Batman

Though production on Matt Reeves' The Batman is currently halted due to the coronavirus crisis -- along with many other film and TV show shoots -- Michael Giacchino (Lost, Spider-Man: Far from Home) is still cracking away on the score. Speaking to Collider, as part of the site's new interview series designed to keep fans connected to filmmakers during the COVID-19 outbreak, Giacchino discussed how creating the music for The Batman was akin to the way new artists and writers feel when taking over a Batman comic. “I felt total freedom to do whatever I want," Giacchino said. "Matt [Reeves] always agreed, this is our Batman, this is our vision. In the same way that I always loved, what I still do about Batman comics and graphic novels, is that each of these artists, each of these authors they take their own crack at what they want this to be. It’s their version of Batman." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-batman-cast-every-actor-and-character&captions=true"] "I love it when I see a graphic novel of Batman in the 1800s," he added. "To me that is cool. I love that. I’m not the kind of person that says Batman must always be this. It’s like 'no, why?' It can be whatever the artist wants to be and it has over the years done that, many times over. I love the idea of taking something and just kind of doing our version of it.” Over the years, Batman's movie score has been composed by the likes of Elliot Goldenthal (Batman Forever), Hans Zimmer (The Dark Knight Trilogy), and, of course, Danny Elfman (Batman, Batman Returns, Batman: The Animated Series). The Batman, starring Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz, began filming in the U.K. at the end of January. The film's take on the Batmobile has many influences, from the comics to the original TV series. For more on the new movie, here's everything we know so far about The Batman. Then check out IGN's ranking of all the movie Batsuits and our pick for the best movie Batman. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/20/disney-and-pixars-onward-to-be-released-on-demand-tonight-and-disney-on-april-3-ign-news"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.

Family Recreates Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean Ride at Home

It's yo ho ho and a bottle of fun! In this time of social distancing and quarantine, massive Disney Parks fans the Thornock family decided to bring some of the magic home with them since they weren't able to experience it out in the open world. Posting the video to Twitter (and YouTube), the clan has recreated several highlights from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride from Disneyland (since it starts with the bayou banjo player plucking "Oh! Susanna") - from the ride attendant to the splash down to the drunken dirty-footed swabbie to the prisoner trying to get keys from the dog! Check it out... Both Disneyland and Disney World are currently closed due to the the coronavirus outbreak, along with Disney Cruise Line and Disneyland Paris. In movie news, Disney has released Pixar's Onward to on-demand and the movie is coming to Disney+ on April 3. Likewise, Warner Bros' Birds of Prey is coming to on-demand on March 24 while Universal is releasing Trolls World Tour on-demand on April 10. [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.