The Oscar nominations for 2022 are officially here, which means that it's also Oscar snubs season. As is tradition, a number of 2021's most notable films and creators were left off this year's list, with Dune director Denis Villeneuve and Spider-Man: No Way Home among the omissions that raised eyebrows on social media.

Villeneuve was not among those nominated for the Best Director category, which featured Steven Spielberg (West Side Story) and Paul Thomas Anderson (Licorice Pizza). His absence was striking in light of Dune picking up 10 nominations, including one for Best Picture. While not always the case, movies nominated for Best Picture generally get packaged with a Best Director nod.

Fans and industry observers were quick to note Villeneuve's absence from the Best Director category.

How is it even possible Denis Villeneuve was not nominated for Best Director for DUNE? #OscarNoms

— Geoff Keighley (@geoffkeighley) February 8, 2022

"How is it even possible Denis Villeneuve was not nominated for Best Director for DUNE?" The Game Awards founder Geoff Keighley tweeted, echoing the sentiments of a number of critics on the platform.

Some compared the snub to Inception, which also garnered a Best Picture nomination in 2011 while Christopher Nolan was snubbed for Best Director. Both films stand out due to their strong creative direction and visual aesthetic, which have typically been credited to their directors.

"This is a technically brilliant, visually amazing movie with a top-notch cast and deep sci-fi concepts," Scott Collura in IGN's Dune review, observing that Frank Herbert's sci-fi classic had previously been considered virtually un-filmable due to its sprawling scope and unconventional pace.

Vanity Fair called Villeneuve's snub "shocking," but argued that it could also "galvanize" the film's Best Picture hopes.

Voters and moviegoers already liked Argo, a lot. But it was in a tight race against Lincoln and Life of Pi. Blowback over Affleck's snub was just a little extra wind in Argo's sails, helping it pull ahead. And on Oscar night, Affleck did indeed collect the best picture trophy. What does this mean for Dune? Well, it's hard to engineer a campaign around sympathy; seek that sentiment and it immediately evaporates. But if a sense of “Denis was robbed" evolves naturally and authentically, it can be a powerful, invigorating force. If enough people—if enough voters—are scratching or shaking their heads over Villeneuve's absence, it could lend a little momentum to Dune in a year where there isn't already an established frontrunner.

Villeneuve himself didn't specifically address the snub, but he did talk about pancakes while saying that the Dune team had an "amazing morning."

"Here is a trick for all filmmakers on Oscar nominations morning. At the very last minute before announcements, make pancakes. It helps with the stress," Villeneuve wrote in a statement thanking the Academy. "Second, make sure you put enough eggs in the preparation, our pancakes were a disaster."

Dune already has plenty of momentum even without Villeneuve being nominated for Best Director. Apart from Best Picture, it was nominated for awards in the Best Costume Design, Best Sound, Best Original Score, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, Best Makeup and Hairstyling, Best Cinematography, Best Production Design, and Best Visual Effects categories. One way or another, Dune should clean up on awards night.

"...Second, make sure you put enough eggs in the preparation, our pancakes were a disaster.”

Full statement: pic.twitter.com/X1JwjgBaQf

— John Jurgensen (@johnjurg) February 8, 2022

Spider-Man and Lady Gaga also snubbed

In the meantime, there were plenty of other snubs, with Lady Gaga for Lead Actress (House of Gucci) and Spider-Man: No Way Home for Best Picture both drawing attention. Spider-Man's omission was notable but not surprising — out of all the superhero films released to date, only Black Panther and Joker have been nominated for Best Picture. Even a permanent expansion to include 10 nominees hasn't been enough to get more comic book movies in the mix. Spider-Man did earn a nomination for Best Visual Effects.

Among the films that did make the cut, Power of the Dog led the way with 12 nominations. West Side Story and Belfast received seven nominations each.

The Oscars will take place on March 27. While you wait, check out our list of the best reviewed movies of 2021.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN

America's Army: Proving Grounds, the video game used as a recruitment tool for the United States military, will shut down on March 5 after more than 20 years on various platforms. As first reported by Vice, It will be delisted from Steam and PSN, and online matches will cease to be hosted. Offline and private matches will still be available.

America's Army is a first-person shooter released in 2002 and developed and published by the U.S. Army. The game was explicitly designed to encourage American citizens to join the United States military, and represented the United States' government's first major use of video games as a recruitment tool, as well as being a free-to-play game long before such a term became standard practice in the video game industry.

America's Army released in three major iterations throughout the years, updating content and gameplay for an audience of 20 million players. Proving Ground was the latest version, released in 2013.

"The free-to-play America’s Army PC Game represented the first large-scale use of game technology by the U.S. government as a platform for strategic communication and recruitment, and the first use of game technology in support of U.S. Army recruiting," a forum post announcing the shutdown said. "Three mainline titles and more than 20 million AA players later, the series’ original purpose continued. There have been over 30 million objectives completed, 180 million successful missions accomplished, 250 million teammates assisted, and many more in-game achievements attained in AA:PG alone."

The America's Army team said it will "shift our focus to other new and innovative ways to assist the Army with comms and recruitment," and promised "future announcements" for the series, suggesting it will return in some fashion.

Released in a time when support for the United States military was at an all-time high in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, America's Army quickly became a popular attraction, reaching nine million total players by 2007. As a first-person shooter, it resembled Counter-Strike or Rainbow Six's militaristic themes, but also included mechanics that reflected the real-world.

Its status as a recruitment tool made it controversial, particularly among those who opposed the Iraq War. It was a common sight at game events in the early-to-mid 2000s, with recruitment officers on hand to demo it for interested players. In 2007, Iraq War veterans protested an America's Army showing while chanting, "War is not a game."

Twenty years after release, public support for the military is actually waning, according to a 2021 survey by the Ronald Reagan Institute. In the years since America's Army: Proving Ground has launched, the military has found new, often controversial ways to recruit young adults and engender a familiarity with the military from a young age, such as Twitch streams and official esports teams.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

Bandai Namco announced Tuesday that it plans to develop an "IP Metaverse" for its library of games, and is spending 15 billion yen (or 130 million USD) on the project.

First reported by VideoGamesChronicle, the three main goals of the metaverse project include connecting Bandai Namco with fans of their games, enhancing the value of Bandai Namco's IP, and connecting each IP's world into an interconnected universe known as the "ALL BANDAI NAMCO concept."

Bandai Namco also plans to invest 25 billion yen (or 216 million USD) to "maximize IP value" through new IP creation, "groupwide IP projects," and innovation.

The metaverse is a popular term in the tech and entertainment world for a persistent virtual world where people can interact with one another and various brands. Several major companies and brands are rushing to get in on the idea, including Disney, Epic Games, Microsoft, Facebook, and Square Enix.

"Through the IP Metaverse, we will establish communities among Bandai Namco and fans, as well as among fans themselves," Bandai Namco shared on its mid-term plan presented to investors. "Through these communities and content, we will build deep, broad, multifaceted connections that continue for long periods of time, and we will focus on the quality of those connections. In this way, we will work to maximize IP value over the medium to long term."

Bandai Namco's library of IP includes the Dark Souls and Elden Ring franchises, Pac-Man, Gundam, Dragon Ball, Soul Calibur, Katamari, as well as its library of classic games like Dig-Dug and Galaga.

"One of our strengths is the ability to foster connections with both digital elements, such as games and the metaverse, and physical elements, such as amusement facilities," Bandai Namco said.

The 15 billion yen will go towards developing something called the "data foundation (data universe)" and "development of content."

Bandai Namco concluded its mid-term plan by stating that realizing the metaverse concept is one of its three primary strategies for its digital business unit.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

Four items in Demon's Souls on PlayStation 5 seemingly remain undiscovered, despite the game being released more than a year ago – but a prominent dataminer says they may be completely unobtainable.

Lance McDonald, who's previously revealed secrets from Bloodborne, P.T., and God of War, tweeted that he knows the items exist in the game code but doesn't know how to obtain them, or if it's possible at all.

In the tweet (below), Mcdonald said, "Bluepoint Games added a number of new items to the Demon's Souls Remake that still remain undiscovered."

"If I knew how to get them myself, I would," he said in a follow-up. "I just know they exist in the data. If we ever get a PS5 jailbreak, maybe I'll be able to figure it out, but for now all I know is there's four undiscovered items, and what they're called."

Bluepoint Games added a number of new items to the Demon's Souls Remake that still remain undiscovered.

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) February 7, 2022

Speaking to IGN, McDonald didn't reveal exactly how he came to know of the items, or what they're called, but did speculate that developer Bluepoint Games may have simply chosen not to include the items in the final game at all.

He said: "They could have created the items completely and chosen not to actually make it possible to find them. I have no way to know at the moment.

"Bluepoint added many new items, such as gold coins, ceramic coins, the penetrator armour, grains. All of these have been well documented and some were incredibly hard to find at first. There are just four more I know of that no one knows how to access."

None of the Bluepoint's added items made a significiant difference to the original fabric of Demon's Souls, interesting though they were. Gold and ceramic coins offer mild, temporary boosts and can be traded to certain NPCs for other items. Grains offer temporary resistance to fire, and most of the other new items are also basic consumables.

The biggest change is the inclusion of the Penetrator armour set that can only be obtained after trading ceramic coins for a special key, and then unlocking a door behind a hidden wall tucked away in an early level, that itself had fans stumped for weeks.

Fans have speculated that the hidden items may be another armour set, given that armour in Demon's Souls is made up of four items. As the Penetrator set is hidden in such an intricate and fiddly way within the game, it wouldn't be a huge surprise if the missing items simply hadn't been found yet.

McDonald said "it's hard to say" whether these items are discoverable or completely off limits. "I don't know much about how Bluepoint feel about messing with the flow of games they remake," he said. "I think it's 50/50."

When McDonald spent three months trawling through Bloodborne files in 2018 he found a number of unused assets within the game code including characters, enemies, and objects, meaning it's entirely possible that a similar situation applies here.

That being said, FromSoftware's Hidetaka Miyazaki - the man behind the Souls games and Bloodborne - only confirmed that players had rinsed Dark Souls of all its secrets after four years, so even if the items did exist in Demon's Souls it may be a while before they're found.

Demon's Souls was originally released in 2009 and started FromSoftware on the path of its difficult but rewarding RPGs, adding Dark Souls, Bloodborne, Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice and soon Elden Ring to that lineage.

Like the original, IGN said Demon's Souls on PS5 was "amazing", because "a touch of smart quality of life changes and gorgeous visuals go a long way in modernizing this tough PS3 classic."

Elden Ring, like its predecessors, will also be wrought with secrets but IGN already has you covered with our evolving guide that will cover everything from dungeons, to bosses, to the best loot.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

The Batman star Robert Pattinson has revealed that he spent a lot of time on set dressed as Batman, even in his downtime – which meant he did everything from reading to making music in costume.

During an interview with GQ Magazine, the 35-year-old actor revealed how he would unwind on the set of The Batman. It's kind of an amazing image.

“I’d be in the tent just making ambient electronic music in the suit, looking over the cowl,” he said. “There’s something about the construction of the cowl that makes it very difficult to read books, so you have to kind of almost lean forward to see out of the cowl.”

Who would have thought that Pattinson's Batman would have something in common with fellow composer-in-a-cowl, LEGO Batman?

The grueling shoot, which took 18 months to complete, took place in pandemic conditions. Pattinson described the set, on the outskirts of London, as a “bubble within a bubble.” And after the crew built him a tent to decompress between takes, it looks as though he spent a lot of his time in the batsuit.

“The nature of the shoot was so kind of insular,” he said. “Always shooting at night, just really dark all the time, and I felt very much alone. Even just being in the suit all the time. You’re not really allowed out of the studio with the suit on, so I barely knew what was going on at all outside.”

Thankfully, it seems he’s pleased with the end result. Inspired by the Zodiac Killer murders, this new Batman movie apparently edges more towards horror and detective fiction than previous films.

“I watched a rough cut of the movie by myself,” he said. “The first shot is so jarring from any other Batman movie that it’s just kind of a totally different pace.”

“It was what Matt was saying from the first meeting I had with him: ‘I want to do a ’70s noir detective story, like The Conversation.’ And I kind of assumed that meant the mood board or something, the look of it,” he explained. “But from the first shot, it’s, Oh, this actually is a detective story. And I feel like an idiot because I didn’t even know that Batman was ‘the world’s greatest detective’; I hadn’t heard that in my life before—but it really plays.”

“Normally, when you see Batman, he arrives and beats people up,” he added. “But he’s having conversations, and there are emotional scenes between them, which I don’t think have been in any of the other movies.”

Robert Pattinson stars as The Batman alongside Zoë Kravitz as Catwoman, Andy Serkis as Alfred Pennyworth, Jeffrey Wright as James Gordon, Colin Farrell as The Penguin, and Paul Dano as The Riddler.

The Batman is directed by Matt Reeves, based on a screenplay he co-wrote with Peter Craig.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

A brand new trailer for Lightyear has shown off more from Lightyear, the upcoming Pixar movie about the 'real' Buzz Lightyear.

Once again set to David Bowie's Starman, the trailer features Chris Evans' 'real' version of Buzz Lightyear, who is working with Star Command to attempt to escape a planet that he and his fellow Space Rangers have been marooned on for a full year. The film appears to feature the first test flight for a ship that will be used to finally escape the Mars-like planet, which uses the experimental ship that we saw in the previous trailer.

Where the first trailer largely focused on the wonder of interstellar flight, there's a bit more action shown off here. We see more of Buzz in his traditional green and white Space Ranger suit, which may perhaps be a combat model to aid in his fight against a bunch of heavily armoured enemy soldiers. He also contends with a "massive robot" that, with its triple-barrelled cannon and red glowing eyes, has more than a passing resemblance of Emperor Zurg from the Toy Story films. Is this Zurg himself, or one of his minions?

There's also more clips featuring Sox, Buzz's robot kitten companion, who looks to be the movie's comedy buddy character.

A new poster features Buzz in the iconic suit walking down the runway of a spaceport, as well as the June release date.

For more, check out how Lightyear fits into the Toy Story canon, and how excited Chris Evans is to be taking on the role of the world's most beloved Space Ranger. Lightyear will release on June 17, 2022.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

Gerard Butler has landed the lead role in upcoming heist movie, Just Watch Me.

According to Deadline, the film is being written by John Wick and Nobody creator Derek Kolstad, based on a novel by Dexter creator, Jeff Lindsay. “As both a fan and a friend of Jeff Lindsay, I am excited to bring Just Watch Me to the screen,” said Kolstad.

The novel, Just Watch Me by Dexter creator Jeff Lyndsay, is the first in the Riley Wolfe series. A world-renowned thief and master of disguise, Wolfe targets only the richest 0.1 percent of people. He despises the degenerate and immoral ultra-rich and won’t think twice about killing them if they get in his way.

Now, he teams up with a master forger named Monique, and a group of expert thieves, for the biggest job of their lives – stealing the Crown Jewels of Iran.

“I’m eager to see Gerard Butler bring Riley Wolfe to cinematic life with the incredible team of Dylan Russell, Scott Steindorff, Alan Siegel, Raven, and Sculptor Media,” added Kolstad.

Kolstad’s last film, Nobody, wowed audiences as Bob Odenkirk stepped in his own John Wick-style action flick, taking on thieves and gangsters with brutal efficiency.

IGN’s own review said: “[Bob Odenkirk’s] role here allows the actor another fascinating turn in an acting career fairly filled with them. Yes, it’s gruesome and violent, but it’s also wickedly funny and surprisingly poignant. And while those Keanu comparisons are always going to be there, Nobody easily holds a candle to Wick.”

Warren Goz and Eric Gold will produce Just Watch Me alongside Scott Steindorff, Dylan Russell, Joel Falderon, Gerard Butler, and Alan Siegel. James Masciello, and Matt Sidari are on board as executive producers.

“What attracted us to this project was the veritable dream team of producers, creatives and partners,” said producer Warren Goz. “We are also excited to team with Derek, who has a renowned track record of great commercial achievement.”

Notably, John Wick 4 and 5 will move forward without Kolstad, as will its upcoming spin-off series, The Continental, which will focus on a young Winston. John Wick: Chapter 4 was recently delayed until March 25, 2023.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus players have found an exploit that allows rare shiny Pokémon to be duplicated several times.

Per Polygon, the method means that players still nedd to find shinies themselves, (though using our guide will help), and only Pokémon found in trees, rock ore, and treasure chests can be multiplied.

Discovered by @Kqttling on Twitter and explained in-depth by YouTuber PhillyBeatzU, the exploit allows the a single shiny Pokémon to be duplicated a seemingly infinite number of times.

Start by turning off autosave, and once you've found and caught a shiny from one of the three types of spawns, save your game manually. Now find and enter a nearby cave within the same overall area and wait for 30 minutes, making sure not to interact with anything else.

When time's up, go back to the exact same spawn from which you found the original shiny and it should be shaking again with the exact same Pokémon, down to its ID number, waiting inside. This can be done with any Pokémon, shiny or not, so if there are any others you want to duplicate then this method will work.

Shinies are rare versions of Pokémon with different colorations, and have historically been very difficult to find. Arceus' more open approach to catching 'em all makes shinies a little easier to find than in previous games, but they're still not a common sight.

It's very possible that developer Game Freak will look to patch out the exploit. Pokémon Legends: Arceus puts far less emphasis on trading and battling than previous games, but with it set to be added to the Pokémon Home service (which allows you to trade monsters across multiple games), an influx of shinies could disrupt the balance the company aims for across its games.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus sold 6.5 million copies in its first week, meaning the somewhat experimental title has sold faster than recent mainline Pokémon games.

IGN said Pokémon Legends: Arceus was "good", and "an ambitious revamp that successfully revolutionizes the defining Pokemon experiences of catching and battling, but is unfortunately set in a drab, empty, and at times tedious world."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

X-Men ’97 will pick up from X-Men: The Animated Series' cliffhanger ending, and will reportedly consist of 10 episodes, premiering in mid-2023.

During an interview with Justin Underwood on YouTube, original X-Men: The Animated Series showrunners Eric and Julia Lewald (who are consulting on the new show) lifted the lid on the upcoming revival.

“They want this show to pick up where the original X-Men series wrapped,” said Julia Lewald. The original show ended on a bit of a cliff-hanger.

After Charles Xavier was gravely injured by Henry Peter Gyrich, it looked as though the classic X-Men mentor might not make it. Thankfully, Empress Lilandra arrived to take the wounded Professor X into space to be cured by the Shi’Ar Empire.

X-Men ’97 will “build off of that” according to original showrunner Eric Lewald, who emphasized that the new show will continue the X-Men story fans were left with.

X-Men ’97 was announced last year during Disney+ Day, with the streamer reviving the much-loved original X-Men show. Although details have been scarce since, it looks as though we now know when it will debut.

“I believe they’re looking at ten episodes for the first season that's going to come out mid-next year,” said Eric Lewald. “They're starting it soon after ours ended... ‘Where is [Charles Xavier] and what are we going to do with him?’”

“They want it to be an extension,” he continued. “Whoever it is doing this new show is going to make it their own. No matter who is involved. There is great love and affection and respect from an entire group of people that are doing this show, starting at the top with Beau DeMayo, who's the showrunner.”

X-Men ’97 will aim to recreate the style of the original ‘90s Saturday morning cartoon, with many of the show’s original voice actors returning to reprise their roles.

“They could have just said, ‘We’re just going to do a new show’,” he explained. “We have friends that were part of other very successful shows, and when they get rebooted, not a phone call, not a card, not a bit of recognition, just, ‘Oh, we're going to do the new whatever.’”

But in this case, it looks as though Disney was keen to pay respect to the original series. “We said, ‘It's your show. We're here if there's a red flag,’” he said. “But we're on for that, or for maybe some ideas of things we'd like to see. But really, it's their show. You can tell by the design. It's the same design but slightly modernized, slightly more beautiful, five times the money spent on it. Not that we're bitter!”

“These are real superfans, really respectful superfans of the show, extending the show into new places,” he added. “We couldn't have asked for a better setup than that.”

X-Men '97 will see Cal Dodd return as Wolverine, alongside Lenore Zann as Rogue, George Buza as Beast, Alison Sealy-Smith as Storm, Chris Potter as Gambit, Catherine Disher as Jean Grey, Adrian Hough as Nightcrawler, and Christopher Britton as Minister Sinister.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Dark Souls creator Hidetaka Miyazaki said meeting Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin to discuss Elden Ring was "like speaking with an old friend" in an interview with Edge – and explained more about how the two legends of their fields collaborated.

Martin helped construct the fantasy world of Elden Ring – effectively its history and major figures, but not the game's plot – and Miyazaki has good memories of travelling to America to have the initial conversations, saying Martin already knew about the Dark Souls games before they met.

Miyazaki said: "I knew immediately from talking to him, it just became apparent his skill and his passion for the fantasy genre, and for games as well. There was a little bit of a generation gap between us, so I felt a bit apprehensive about going to these talks, but after a lot of these conversations, it was just like speaking with an old friend.

"It just felt so fresh to have those conversations with someone who was so passionate about the same things, and to show that pure joy and sense of curiosity for these fantasy worlds."

The two seemingly developed a high level of respect for each other, professionally and personally, and this helped Miyazaki tell Martin that From Stofware only wanted him to write Elden Ring's history, not the actual story or in-game text.

Miyazaki said: "We started off by giving him these very vague and broad themes and ideas for the mythos that I had swimming around in my head, along with what kind of games we typically make, and the sort of themes we'd like to explore in our games.

"It was all very loose and quite vague. Then he would come back to us with a lot of ideas: how about this, this, and this? That back-and-forth started the exchange of ideas."

Martin provided Miyazaki and his team with samples of text depicting different parts of Elden Ring like its history or important figures, along with a "sort of backbone" story to the world.

Developer FromSoftware interpreted these to build an actual game, Miyazaki said, and "the issues that Mr Martin dealt with in his writing provided these motifs for the game itself, so that is something I am very grateful for."

Miyazaki recently commented that Martin may be "shocked" by what he's done to the characters in teh final game, and confirmed that Elden Ring's gameplay is as hard as ever.

The game will be released on February 25, and IGN already has you covered with our guide that includes everything we already know about Elden Ring's dungeons, bosses, secrets, and more.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.