A black hole was spotted seemingly breaking the laws of physics, before it became clear that what astrophysicists were seeing was an optical illusion. Per Vice, the phenomena was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope – the same one responsible for capturing the first ever image of a black hole last year thanks to algorithms developed by Katie Bouman and her team. What scientists observed in this case was a beam of energy coming from the supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy called 3C 279. That beam of energy appeared to be travelling at up to 20 times the speed of light. The speed of light is supposed to be a universal speed limit, and it's impossible to provide moving particles of conventional matter with the energy required to travel any faster than this. This is because a particle's mass increases in proportion to its velocity and requires a proportional amount of energy to accelerate. A particle travelling beyond light speed would need infinite energy due to its subsequent infinite mass, which is why this energy beam observation is so strange. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/04/10/scientists-have-revealed-the-first-photo-of-a-black-hole"] The observational team, led by astrophysicist Jae-Young Kim, posted a study that explained this impossible vision was actually the cause of a mega-scale optical illusion. While the jet does reach speeds of a less law breaking 99.5% of the speed of light, it only looks like it was travelling at 15 - 20 times faster because of how it's oriented with the Earth. Co-author Dom Pesce, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics also explained the illusion in this statement, saying, “This extraordinary optical illusion arises because the material is racing toward us, chasing down the very light it is emitting and making it appear to be moving faster than it is.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/27/biggest-explosion-in-the-universe-detected"] Despite the optical illusion not breaking the laws of physics, scientists still learned some interesting things from their observations. Thanks to The Event Horizon Telescope's ability to observe distant objects in much greater detail than previously possible, they could see that the beam looks twisted where it emanates from the centre of the black hole. This could mean the beam is being distorted or deformed at the centre of the black hole, due to the contrast with the straighter beams further from the middle. That observation could help scientists understand how these jets of energy are formed. For more on black holes, NASA's new simulation is also looking into how black holes can warp space time. A supermassive black hole has also recently been discovered to be responsible for the biggest explosion ever detected. [poilib element="accentDivider"]Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN who also only ever looks like she's breaking the law. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

Since Taika Waititi is 80 percent troll and 20 percent pure chaos demon, it's best to take everything he says with a large wheelbarrow of salt, but the director of Thor: Ragnarok appeared to reveal a few real tidbits about the upcoming sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder - and some very fake script pages teasing the return of Tony Stark - during an Instagram Live watch party of Ragnarok on his personal Instagram account on April 9. Kicking things off by offering fans an exclusive look at what Waititi described as new concept art for the character of Miek and a look at New Asgard from Love and Thunder, Waititi also "accidentally" "leaked" a page of the "script" for Love and Thunder in the process. The fake script sees Tony Stark returning because of "science" to assemble a new team to face a similarly resurrected Thanos: The Avengererers. Oh, and the Iron Man suit has apparently had an upgrade, emblazoned with decals of "all the flags of every nation on Earth," obviously. (Why has no one let Waititi write an Avengers movie?) Take a look at the concept art and script page below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=thor-love-and-thunder-preview-art-from-taika-waititi&captions=true"] Waititi then answered (or dodged) a number of fan questions, including whether Loki might appear in Love and Thunder ("can't say," said Waititi), who Christian Bale is playing (Waititi faked his mic cutting out while he was answering), if we'd see the Silver Surfer in the film (nah), or whether we might see Beta Ray Bill in the sequel, following an Easter egg nod to the character in Ragnarok. The Beta Ray Bill question came the closest to getting a straight answer: "Not sure how to answer that; I don’t want to tease and I don’t want to give anything away... It would be awesome to have him in the film but I just don’t know right now, it’s up in the air," Waititi said, after expressing his love for the character. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=thor-love-and-thunder-6-characters-christian-bale-could-play&captions=true"] Ragnarok star Tessa Thompson later made an appearance on the stream (as did Mark Ruffalo) and prompted further discussion of the upcoming sequel - which Waititi said is currently on its fourth or fifth draft, noting that he "can't wait to do it," because it's become "so over the top now, in the very best way." For her part, Thompson said she had read a recent draft, though she hadn't read the most recent iteration. In a tease that could have no basis in reality, or could be entirely accurate (it's impossible to tell with Waititi), the director revealed: "it makes Ragnarok seem really run of the mill, a very safe film ... There’s a lot in it, a lot of set pieces. This new film feels like we asked a bunch of 10-year-olds what should be in the movie, and just said yes to every single thing," he laughed. "The combination of things as well, and some of the stuff from the comics... space sharks; if you look up space sharks, you’ll get a good idea of what this is." Waititi was likely referring to the Starsharks, sometimes referred to as Space Sharks, which are often used for transportation in the comics since they can live and move in space. They were first created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum for Uncanny X-Men, but also appeared in Jason Aaron's Mighty Thor and Thor: God of Thunder runs. Aaron's work is believed to be a major influence on the direction of the new movie, which will see Jane Foster return and take on the mantle of Thor, as she did in Aaron's run. Aaron's God of Thunder arc also introduces Gorr the God Butcher as an antagonist, and the character is rumored to be the villain in Love and Thunder. To be fair, Waititi has previously described Love and Thunder as "doubling down on how nuts Ragnarok was," so Space Sharks seem like a believable escalation. Dodging questions about whether we'll see a love interest for Valkyrie, Thompson also asked about the status of Waititi's on-screen character, Korg, in the sequel. "We do touch on Korg’s culture, where he’s from, the cultural specificities of Kronans, if you will," Waititi said. "If you look in the comics about Kronans, there’s some interesting things about where they come from and how they procreate." As for whether Thor will have regained his chiseled physique in Love and Thunder after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Waititi seemed to confirm the transformation by noting that he doesn't want to repeat the same beats of a previous film: "I feel like that’s done for him - I feel like we’ve seen that, haven’t we?" Things fully got off the rails by the time Ruffalo joined the Instagram Live, with conversation veering from telling knock-knock jokes with Waititi's daughter to revealing fake "treatments" for the coronavirus pandemic. For much of the end of the watch-along stream, Thor: Ragnarok was not even on screen, nor was the focus on discussing the movie. But like Thor: Ragnarok (and, presumably, Thor: Love and Thunder), the overall experience was well-worth having, if a bit insane, and it was a nice breath of fresh air to see Waititi, Thompson, and Ruffalo catching up with each other while cooking and caring for their families while stuck inside, just like the rest of us. Thor: Love and Thunder was scheduled to start filming in Sydney, Australia this summer, but production has since been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. Waititi confirmed that he's still working hard on the film and hopes to begin production as soon as they can, but noted, "I think this little break that we’re taking is going to be good for all films, all scripts, all art." Thor: Love and Thunder was initially scheduled for release on Nov. 5, 2021, but the recent release date changes for Marvel's Phase 4 have pushed it back to Feb. 28, 2022. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/04/disney-reveals-massive-changes-to-marvel-phase-4-ign-now"]

Lego has put the Razor Crest Mandalorian set up for pre-order, which comes with a secret code that unlocks a digital version of the ship in the upcoming Lego Star Wars: The Sky Walker Saga video game. IGN has confirmed with WB Games that the code will redeem the ship only, and not any of the included minifigs. The Razor Crest is the name of the eponymous Mandalorian’s space ship from the Disney+ series. When Lego put the set up for pre-order, eagle eyes observers saw a notice on the box that said there was a secret code somewhere in the kit that would unlock the ship in the Lego Star Wars video game. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=star-wars-the-razor-crest-lego-set&captions=true"] WB Games confirmed that it will just be the ship that gets unlocked in the game with the code. Meaning the Mandalorian, the Child (aka Baby Yoda), Greef Karga, and IG-11 — who are included in the set as minifigs — will not be unlocked through this code. Perhaps this means the characters will already be available in the base game. Furthermore, IGN has learned that the included Lego code will be the only way to acquire the Razor Crest in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and that there are no plans yet to release the ship in-game or as DLC. WB Games says future Lego sets will include similar integrations where players can redeem digital goods from physical, boxed Lego sets. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/24/lego-star-wars-the-skywalker-saga-announcement-trailer"] WB Games announced the Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga at E3 2019 and that it would be released in 2020 following the release of Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker. Despite the release date for the Razor Crest Lego kit set for September 1, 2020, there’s still no confirmed release date for The Skywalker Saga video game. You can read IGN’s Lego Star Wars: Skywalker Saga preview here. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Amazon has announced that it will delay the release of its upcoming MMO, New World, until August 25, 2020, as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The New World CLosed Beta has also been delayed to July, pushed back from its original April 2020 launch. In a new blog post, Amazon Games announced that despite developers working on the game from home, “developing an ambitious MMO like New World remotely has introduced some challenges.” This is why the developers opted to delay the launch “to reach our quality bar as we work remotely for the foreseeable future.” New World is an upcoming MMO from Amazon Game Studios. Set in a fictional world, players will take up the role of colonists exploring a new land terrorized by supernatural monsters. Players will scavenge for resources and build settlements that they’ll then have to defend from monsters and other players. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=new-world-screens&captions=true"] The Alpha for New World will remain open as development continues, and Amazon is promising more information and updates between now and the August launch. The developers also shared new details about a mechanic called “Invasion.” In Invasion, monster hordes will build up power and numbers before laying siege on a Fort that’s become too powerful. Players must work together to defend the Fort against invaders. Failure will result in the Territory losing some upgrades, like Crafting Stations, and other assets. Invasion appears to be co-operated PvE events that take place every four days. A Governor of the Territory can choose 10 heroes for the Invasion, and the remaining 40 slots will be filled randomly from a pool of players who signed up to take part in the next invasion. [ignvideo width=610 height=374 url=https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/12/amazons-new-world-mmo-everything-we-know-so-far] An Invasion is split into multiple phases. During Preparation, players will need to use special Battle Tokens to purchase ammo and potions, and other weapons to help fight off the monsters. The enemies will arrive in hordes, first trying to tear down the gate. Players will either successfully defend the Fort or be overrun. Amazon says this is a level 50 activity, so it will be reserved for high-level players. Read IGN’s hands-on preview for New World, or check out our interview with Amazon Game Studios about the company’s first major video game launch. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Director Matt Reeves may be eager to resume shooting The Batman -- its production was shut down last month due to the coronavirus pandemic -- "when the time is right" but says for now "there are bigger things" that he and his team "have to do to make our loved ones and the people that we care about safe." "The whole thing is quite surreal. As much as we wanted to proceed, we wanted to make sure we were safe," Reeves said of his film getting put on hold over a global pandemic in an interview with the New York Times. "We didn’t want anyone on our crew to get sick. But there was a crew member who actually got it, an incredible dialect coach named Andrew Jack, and he passed away. We were all in utter shock and heartbroken. It’s been weeks since we shut down, so I don’t think it was passed among the crew. But it’s very, very upsetting." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=7-detective-stories-the-batman-could-adapt&captions=true"] Reeves also allayed any concerns about whether Warner Bros. shared his vision for The Batman -- which he previously said was a noir-style, detective-driven story -- by saying he wouldn't have made the film just to make another Batman movie. And as Joker took inspiration from the early films of Martin Scorsese, Reeves cited two classic 1970s detective films when explaining what he was going for with The Batman. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/the-batman-camera-test"] Reeves said he told the studio "I want to do something that has some emotional stakes. My ambition is for it to be incredibly personal using the metaphors of that world. It feels like this really odd throwback to the movies I came up on from the ’70s, like Klute or Chinatown. I’m not saying we’re achieving anything like that. Those are masterpieces. But that’s the ambition." For more on The Batman, check out Reeves' picks for his favorite Batman movies, learn what composer Michael Giacchino had to say about scoring the film, and trace the origins of the new Batmobile.

Button Mash, an arcade and bar located in Los Angeles’ Echo Park neighborhood, has teamed up with video game collectibles company iam8bit to help raise funds to keep the restaurant alive during the COVID-19 pandemic. Button Mash is a bar fitted up with a room full of arcade machines and games, including pinball and video game cabinets. The restaurant already furloughed most of its 33 employees, but need help raising funds to last through the mass shop closures in California. Enter iam8bit which created the Button Mash Quarantine Boredom Pack that lets supporters purchase fundraising packages that include games, comics, soundtracks, arcade tokens, and more. Prices range from $25 to $1,000 with different merchandise available at each prize level. Iam8bit is a video game collectible company known for publishing physical copies of indie games, soundtracks, and more. You might know them for the super cool and gross collector’s edition of Inside which IGN unboxed. iam8bit was also tapped to serve as a creative director for this year's E3 before the show was canceled. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/19/insiderealdoll-collectors-edition-unboxing"] “The incredible staff at Button Mash, many of whom have been there since opening night, have been serving us for years,” Button Mash writes on its fundraising page. “They’ve been there for us — and now it’s time for us to step up for them.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=inside-collectors-edition&captions=true"] Button Mash and iam8bit are offering five different reward packages whose profits will go towards supporting its employees. They are: Level 1 - $25

• $5 in tokens (local redemption)
• Samurai Gunn - Steam (from Scrambler)
• Button Mash Recipes by Starry Kitchen
• Button Mash Coloring Book by Joseph Harmon ft. Amanda Visell
• Iam8bit 20% OFF Coupon (for a future purchase, not applicable for a pre-order product)

  Level 2 - $50

• $10 in tokens (local redemption)
• Iron Brigade - Steam (from Double Fine)
• Stacking - Steam (from Double Fine)
• Hyper Light Drifter - Steam (from Heart Machine)
• Absu - Soundtrack by Austin Wintory
• A Guide to Dogs by Jon Vermilyea - Digital Comic
• Cat Agent by Kent Osborne - Digital Comic
• Menestrel by Valentin Seiche - Digital Comic
• Plus all rewards from level 1 except tokens

  Level 3 - $100

• $20 in tokens (local redemption)
• Costume Quest - Steam (from Double Fine)
• The Banner Saga Trilogy - Soundtracks by Austin Wintory
• Journey - Soundtrack by Austin Wintory
• A Fine Day to Be by Jon Vermilyea - Digital Comic
• J+K: Eggy’s Party by John Pham - Digital Comi
• Plus all rewards from Level 2 except tokens.

  Level 4 - $500 (limited 8 available)

• Unlimited tokens for one night (local redemption)
• X1 Random Steven Universe collectible zine
• Plus all rewards from level 1, 2, and 3 except tokens

  Level 5 - $1000 (limited 15 available)

• Unlimited tokens for one night
• Plus all rewards from level 1, 2, and 3 except tokens

  And one of the following prizes at random:

• Steven Universe Set of x3 Different Zines
• Personalized Drawing by Chris Prynoski, founder of animation studio Titmouse (Big Mouth, The Midnight Gospel, The Venture Bros, The Legend of Vox Machina)
• Personalized Family Guy portrait ft. Stewie or Peter by Show Director Greg Colton

  You can check out the various prize packs at iam8bit. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Warning: spoilers follow for both Final Fantasy 7 Remake and the original game. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Final Fantasy 7 Remake isn’t just a straight retelling of the original game’s story. Instead, it turns the first few hours of that tale into a massive JRPG in its own right, expanding on ideas and even adding a few new ones. Want to know what’s different? These are the seven biggest changes to Final Fantasy 7’s story in the remake. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/03/final-fantasy-7-remake-vs-final-fantasy-7-early-scenes-compared"]

Avalanche is huge, and has a spy in Shinra

Unlike in the original game, Avalanche is not just a tiny rag-tag band of warriors. Instead, it’s a much larger organisation with multiple cells, of which our heroes are just one. Barret’s team isn’t much loved by Avalanche’s leaders, though, hence their independent-like status. The organisation at large is surprisingly well equipped, with an arsenal of weapons and even helicopters. Both of these come in handy as Avalanche basically has to bail out Cloud and his pals at a couple of points in the story. More helpful, though, is the fact that Avalanche has a man on the inside at Shinra: Midgar’s Mayor Domino. Dissatisfied with being demoted to little more than a librarian, Mayor Domino helps Cloud with his attack on Shinra HQ.

Shinra blows up its own reactor

Unlike the original game, the bomb Cloud and Barret set in the Sector 1 reactor in Remake does not blow the facility up. Instead, Shinra does the dirty work itself, causing an explosion far bigger and more devastating than Avalanche had planned. But why did the company do this? Surely they’d want to keep the Mako reactors working, in order to generate electricity and profit? Well, turns out the one thing that makes more profit than energy is war. Shinra wants to encourage the population of Midgar to support a second war with the nation of Wutai, and so it begins to spread propaganda that Avalanche is in allegiance with them. In the original, Wutai is never brought up in relation to Avalanche, and the only direct sabotage of Midgar by Shinra is when they drop the Sector 7 plate, which remains here. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="legacyId=20028754&captions=true"]

Jessie’s mission

One of few completely new locations in Final Fantasy 7 Remake is the Sector 7 Employee Housing Area, a residential zone on Midgar’s upper plate. Here we get to see how the wealthier people of the city live, as well as visit Jessie’s family home. Turns out her mom is very, very good at making pizza. Apart from this entire mission being new, including the attack on a Shinra warehouse to secure more explosives, we’re also introduced to a whole new villain in the form of Roche, a flamboyant member of Shinra’s elite SOLDIER division. This marks Roche’s first and only appearance in the whole game, but it’s pretty memorable thanks to some absurd motorbike acrobatics and a boss fight that sees Cloud 1v1 him within a circle of Shinra guards, as if they were in a Midgar underground sword-fighting club.

Sector 7’s hidden lab

We’ve already established that Shinra is pretty evil, but did you know they’re evil as in secret-underground-lab-conducting-human-expeirments evil? After the company drops an entire sector of the upper city on the slums to try and wipe out Avalanche, the party discovers a hidden laboratory that’s been operating in secret beneath Sector 7 – something that doesn’t exist (or at least is never mentioned) in the original. While exploring its tunnels in search of Wedge, Barret and Tifa discover practically a whole army of fishman-like creatures who attack them on sight. These creatures are failed experiments, and appear to be Remake’s answer to the original game’s Makonoids; humans who have been saturated with Mako to the point that they have become monsters. These creatures were not revealed until Cloud’s later flashback to the Nibelheim Incident in the original game, but bringing a similar story into Remake helps cement Shinra as the big bad that it is. Well, until Sephiroth takes on that job, of course. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/06/final-fantasy-7-remake-review"]

Whispers of Fate

The most frequently appearing new element in Remake’s story are the Whispers. These hooded spirits seemingly prevent Cloud from dying after falling from Sector 5, and protect Aerith from being captured by Reno and his Shinra guards. And, in one of the biggest changes from the original, Barret is not only killed by Sephiroth, but these spectres restore him to life, too. Red XIII explains that these entities are Whispers of Fate, and their entire existence is dedicated to ensuring Destiny (yes, with a capital D) plays out according to plan. Red XIII only learns of their nature after connecting with Aerith, and so it stands to reason that the Whispers may be connected to the Ancients. In the penultimate boss battle, the team battles against their own destinies in a fight against the gigantic Whisper Harbinger within a singularity. The Harbinger is joined by three additional Whispers; one armed with a sword, another with a gun, and a third with melee fist attacks. Just like Cloud, Barret, and Tifa. Yup, it all gets a bit meta. Or, as our review puts it, “Some Kingdom Hearts BS”.

Sephiroth and Jenova

It’s not a huge surprise that Remake’s final boss is Sephiroth - who better for a final clash? - but his appearance is an important change as he never makes an on-screen appearance during the Midgar section of the original game. Despite him now being around, his role isn’t really expanded, just reinforced: he’s a really evil guy who wants to destroy the planet. What has changed is his link with Aerith; rather than Cloud, it is she who convinces the group that Sephiroth must be stopped, and she seemingly has much more knowledge about him than she has been letting on. In addition to Sephiroth, we also get a new battle with his ‘mother’, Jenova. After Sephiroth breaks into the Shinra building using his clones to steal the creature’s body, he unleashes it against Cloud in the form of Jenova Dreamweaver. Again, this is almost identical to how Sephiroth uses Jenova in the original game, it just happens much earlier in the story in order to stage it during the timeframe Remake is set in. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"]

Zack is alive

Here we go: the biggest - and no doubt most controversial - change to Final Fantasy 7’s story is the reveal that Zack Fair, Cloud’s war buddy and Aerith’s ex, is alive. Sort of. During the original game, Zack and Cloud escape from the Shinra Mansion in Nibelheim after being subject to human experiments as part of Professor Hojo’s Jenova Reunion project. Dragging a barely conscious Cloud, Zack walks towards Midgar in hope of building a new life as a mercenary. As he reaches the city’s borders, he is brutally gunned down by Shinra guards. Left to die by the soldiers, Cloud crawls to his body and takes up the Buster Sword. This scene is also seen in the PSP prequel Crisis Core, albeit made more dramatic and flamboyant. In Remake, however, Zack fights off a whole squad of Shinra soldiers, leaving them dead at his feet. He then picks Cloud back up and continues his journey towards Midgar, very much not dead. Importantly, it appears that this all happens in an alternate timeline. A chips packet blows past in the wind, and as the camera focuses on for just a couple of seconds, you can see that it features the hat-wearing dog mascot frequently seen during Cloud’s journey through Midgar. However, rather than a helmet-wearing beagle, the dog is now a cap-wearing border terrier, which points to an alternate reality. Quite how this ties into Cloud’s reality remains to be seen. [poilib element="accentDivider"] And those are the biggest changes from the original story in Final Fantasy 7 Remake. There's plenty more, but they are the seven with most impact. For more, why not check out our breakdown of how long the Remake is, our unboxing of the expensive Collector's Edition featuring Cloud on his bike, and our pick of the weirdest parts of the original game. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

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