Monthly Archives: March 2020
Amazon, Disney+ and More Lower Streaming Quality in Europe
Resident Evil 3’s Knife Is Now Indestructible
Walking Dead Boss Says THAT Character’s ‘Story Isn’t Done’
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
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
Disney+ Lowering Streaming Bandwidth in Europe Due to COVID-19 Congestion
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.
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=dragon-ball-z-kakarot-a-new-power-awakens-dlc-1-screenshots-gallery&captions=true"]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.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/23/top-10-dragon-ball-z-kakarot-moments"]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.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/13/5-facts-1-lie-dragon-ball-z"]
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"] 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"] 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
Family Recreates Disneyland’s Pirates of the Caribbean Ride at Home
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.Yo ho yo ho a quarantine’s life for me! My family’s Disneyland Staycation! #Disneyland #PiratesoftheCaribbean #SocialDistancing pic.twitter.com/0VCKnuhOeY
— Brooke (@Brookie_disney) March 20, 2020