The Penguin star Colin Farrell has revealed where HBO Max's upcoming The Batman spinoff series picks up while sharing new details about its opening scene.

ExtraTV fished for news about The Penguin series in a recent interview with Farrell about his new movie The Banshees of Inisherin. The actor decided to take the bait by offering some additional morsels of information about the show, specifically when it takes place and where we will find his titular character in the first episode of the season.

"[The Penguin] starts about a week after the film The Batman ends, so Gotham is still somewhat underwater," Farrell explained, referring to the closing act of Matt Reeves' movie. "I read the first script for the first episode, and it opens up with my feet splashing through the water in Falcone's office. Even just that alone, I read it, I was like, 'Oh, jeez.'"

Farrell described the script as "lovely" and "so well-written" before piling on the praise for Lauren LeFranc and the "extraordinary job" she has fulfilled on the project. "She's writing the whole thing and showrunning, and she's formidable," he said. "It's just a very exciting prospect because I love that character and I was greedy with it. I felt like I didn't have enough."

The actor shared his enthusiasm for getting the chance to return and do "more" with The Penguin following his acclaimed turn as the character in The Batman. "The world that Matt Reeves created for The Batman is one that warrants a deeper gaze through the eyes of Oswald Cobblepot," Farrell said in a previous statement about the HBO Max series.

"I couldn't be more excited about continuing this exploration of Oz as he rises through the darkened ranks to become The Penguin," he added, teasing a little more about what's to come. "Will be good to get him back on the streets of Gotham for a little madness and a little mayhem."

In our review of The Batman, IGN's Alex Stedman called Farrell's performance in The Batman "formidable," noting the actor is "deeply unrecognizable" under the convincing prosthetics.

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

FIFA 23 has proved incredibly successful for publisher EA so far as a record 10.3 million players logged in during its first week on the market.

EA revealed the news today, October 12, saying that the massive number of players signalled the biggest launch period in FIFA's franchise history.

"The response from our fans has been nothing short of incredible, and we’re thrilled that our community is playing with their favourite players and teams across FIFA 23 in record numbers," said SVP GM of EA Sports FC Nick Wlodyka.

"With both the Men’s and Women’s World Cups, and exciting updates to our women’s club football content in game still yet to come, we’re just getting started on providing players with the most authentic and immersive experience yet."

EA announced the inclusion of women's clubs in FIFA for the first time back in July, alongside the reveal that Chelsea star Sam Kerr would be the first woman to grace an international cover.

FIFA 23's record breaking launch will likely also be a pleasing send-off for EA - and perhaps a slightly worrying one for the actual FIFA association - as next year's entry will be called EA Sports FC. EA ditched the brand name after FIFA reportedly asked for $1 billion every four years for the name alone, spurring EA CEO Andrew Wilson to comment that all it gets from FIFA is "four letters on the front of the box".

In our 7/10 review of this year's entry, IGN said: "FIFA 23’s slick and dramatic virtual football is fitting for the series’ last hurrah under its long-time name, but familiar frustrations abound, and it still greatly undervalues some of its most beloved modes."

As for the Nintendo Switch version, however, IGN gave it a 2/10, saying "FIFA 23 on Switch is a prime example of minimal effort for maximum profit."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Witchfire, the long-awaited spooky shooter from The Vanishing of Ethan Carter developer The Astronauts, has been delayed to early 2023 to facilitate a shift to open world gameplay.

Announced in a blog post on The Astronauts' website, the development team blatantly said that Witchfire is now better thanks to the open world change, but such a drastic shift has required extra time.

Players will now be able to tackle the game in almost any order they want, presumably indicating a change from Doom-style arena-based combat to the more open style of something like Fallout 4.

"The feature is now 95% implemented. It makes the game better. It is kind of hard for me to imagine the player did not have that freedom before," said creative director and co-founder Adrian Chmielarz.

"You can still be trapped by the witch in this or that spot, and some doors will be closed until you find a key, and it might be too dangerous to enter areas closer to the boss before you are ready, but the world is wide open for you to explore in almost any order, and you can both push forward and retreat as you please.”

Despite the delay only spanning a few months, as Witchfire was previously intended to enter Early Access in late 2022 (and will still be in Early Access when it's released in 2023), the game has been a long time coming given it was originally revealed in 2017.

Having gone quiet for nearly five years, however, Witchfire was re-revealed during Summer Game Fest 2022 with a new gameplay trailer that shows off its grimdark fantasy setting.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The developer behind Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance is working on a new, AAA D&D game and has rebranded from Tuque Games to Invoke Studios.

As reported by Polygon, D&D publisher Wizards of the Coast announced the new game is being developed in Unreal Engine 5 and will be "a AAA game derived from the Dungeons and Dragons universe".

No release date or further details about what the game will be were announced, but Wizards of the Coast did reveal that Invoke is planning to up its development team from its current 80 members to more than 200 by 2025, though it's unclear if this full, 200+ team will be necessary to complete development on the new game.

Dominic Guay is leading the studio after leaving Ubisoft in 2021, where he worked for 20 years on games including Watch Dogs and its sequel.

Fantastical, AAA open world games appear to be a theme for Wizards of the Coast at the moment as the publisher opened a new studio in July led by Dragon Age's former executive producer Christian Dailey and, elsewhere in the D&D world, Baldur's Gate 3 is now confirmed for a full launch in 2023.

In our 4/10 of Invoke Studios' previous game, IGN said: "Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Alliance is a tedious co-op adventure with lots of goblins and even more bugs."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Diablo: Immortal players are now able to earn the game's premium, end-game content without having to pay real money for it.

A blog post on Blizzard's website announced its plans to introduce a new currency called Telluric Pearls which can be used to craft five star Legendary Gems, items that were previously locked behind what are essentially loot box dungeons.

It's not totally clear how easy to get Telluric Pearls will be, but Blizzard did announce two ways to get them not linked to paying money. Players can trade Hilts with Lieutenant Fizriah, the Hilt Vendor in Westmarch, or earn them as rewards in Diablo: Immortal's limited-time events.

They'll also be available through in-game shop bundles such as Seekers Supplies and Rift-Runner's Supplies, but as the name implies these items cost money.

Diablo: Immortal's pushing of paid-for content in the end-game proved fairly controversial when it launched back in June, with many players upset because Legendary Gems (required for the most powerful upgrades) were only available after purchasing Legendary Crests. 45 of these cost $100 at their cheapest and still only presented a 0.5% chance to receive a Legendary Gem.

Blizzard CEO Mike Ybarra defended the monetisation, however, saying it was implemented to make Diablo: Immortal more accessible.

The late-game cost also came up in our 6/10 review, as IGN said: "Diablo Immortal's monster slaying action is visceral and satisfying, and the game offers up a huge amount of gameplay for free. That said, its monetisation model and numerous restrictions sour the end game experience, and leave plenty of room for improvement."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Microsoft held its annual Surface event today, dedicated to the latest products to bare the Surface name, with a new 2-in-1 tablet, a new laptop, and a refresh to the Surface Studio series. Here's everything announced at Microsoft's 2022 Surface Event.

Surface Pro 9

Succeeding last year's Surface Pro 8, the Surface Pro 9 offers a 13-inch PixelSense Flow display with a 2880 x 1920 resolution and a dynamic refresh rate of up to 120Hz. The Surface Pro 9 includes two CPU options: 12th Gen Intel Core or a Microsoft SQ3 processor, the latter is an ARM processor that offers 5G support. Depending on the CPU you choose, the Surface Pro 9 with the Intel processor has a battery life of up to 15.5 hours, while the Surface Pro 9 with 5G support offers up to 19 hours of battery on a single charge.

The Surface Pro 9 and Surface Pro 9 also have different RAM configuration options, with the non-5G variant offering 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB of LPDDR5 RAM, while the 5G model offers LPDDR4x RAM in just two options: 8GB and 16GB. Storage options also differ slightly, as both the 5G and non-5G models offer 128GB, 256Gb, and 512GB of removable SSD storage, but the non-5G model offers a 1TB option.

Surface Laptop 5

The Surface Laptop 5 was also announced during today's Surface Event. The latest iteration of the Surface Laptop offers a PixelSense touchscreen display with an option to either buy it in 13.5-inches or 15-inches. The 13.5-inch model offers a resolution of 2256 x 1504, while the 15-inch offers a 2496 x 1664 display. And like the Surface Pro 9, both models of the Surface Laptop 5 include a 10-point multi-touch.

The 12th Gen Intel Core processors are available for Surface Pro with an option of i5 or i7. Memory options include up to 32Gb of LPDDR5x RAM and three removable SSD storage options: 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB.

Microsoft touts that the Surface Laptop 5 promises all-day battery life, and it now includes support for Thunderbolt 4. According to Microsoft, the Surface Laptop 5 is over 50 percent more powerful than its predecessor.

Surface Studio 2+

Back in 2016, Microsoft shocked everyone with the Surface Studio, an all-in-one PC, followed by the Surface Studio 2 in 2018. Four years later, Microsoft announced yet another product as part of the lineup, the Surface Studio 2+.

The Surface Studio 2+ features a 28-inch 3:2 display with a 4500 x 3000 resolution, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and 1TB of SSD storage. The Surface Studio 2+ includes Windows 11 Pro operating system installed on the device, along with an 11th Gen Intel Core i7 CPU. and an Nvidia RTX 3060 laptop graphics card with 6GB of GDDR6 GPU memory.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Horror classic The Wicker Man is being adapted into a TV series.

According to Deadline, the upcoming show is being developed by Urban Myth Films and The Imaginarium – Andy Serkis and Jonathan Cavendish’s production company.

The show has reportedly been in the works for some time following the 2006 adaptation of The Wicker Man starring Nicolas Cage.

War of the Worlds writer Howard Overmann has already penned the script after Urban Myth and The Imaginarium acquired The Wicker Man rights from Studio Canal.

“They are in the early stages of pitching to potential broadcasters,” said Deadline.

The 1973 original starred Edward Woodward as Sgt. Neil Howie – a policeman who travels to the island of Summerisle to investigate the disappearance of a young girl. One of the founding films of the folk horror genre, The Wicker Man tells the story of a small community that has abandoned Christianity in favor of a form of Paganism, with Christopher Lee as the enigmatic Lord Summerisle.

Overman told Deadline that the TV show will differ from the original film but will “explore the same themes of sacrifice, superstition, and ritual that were at its core.”

The Imaginarium co-founder Jonathan Cavendish said that Overman has “created a bold, shocking, and unique series, pulling the themes and terrifying power of the original Wicker Man into a thrilling modern setting.”

IGN’s review of The Wicker Man remake gave it 7/10 and said: “The Wicker Man is a competent thriller with some clever moments, a few nice scares, and some inventive visuals. It's weird enough to engage those seeking something a little different, but not really daring enough to break ground. The cast aid the story with strong performances across the board, and LaBute's direction gives the film an edginess that drives Wicker's best moments.”

Want to read more about The Wicker Man? Check out Nicolas Cage’s top 10 misfires as well as the 21 movies audiences hated the most.

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

Sydney Sweeney has been tapped to star in and executive produce a Barbarella reboot, giving new life to Jean-Claude Forest's comic series that spawned a 1968 film with Jane Fonda.

Deadline reported that Sweeney had partnered up with Sony Pictures again for the new feature film that would see her stepping into the iconic Barbarella role made famous by Fonda. The project is reportedly in the very early stages of development, with no writer or director attached to the new version of the sci-fi flick as of right now.

Sweeney confirmed her involvement in the project on Instagram by posting an image of the original artwork for the 1968 movie that positions its titular space heroine at the center of the action. The Emmy-nominated star of Euphoria and The White Lotus also included a screenshotted image of the news along with the caption, "time to save the universe."

Barbarella is Sweeney's latest collaboration with Sony Pictures, having already signed up to star alongside Dakota Johnson in the Spider-Man spinoff Madame Web. She is also said to be gearing up to star in and produce the dystopian thriller The Registration after Sony reportedly acquired the rights to adapt the book by Madison Lawson.

Roger Vadim's original adaptation of Jean-Claude Forest's comic starred Fonda as an outer space special agent tasked with finding a missing scientist. Along the way she fights and/or has sex with just about everybody. The design of Barbarella is distinctive and bizarre, which arguably makes it one of the Best Space Opera Movies (outside of Star Wars and Star Trek).

Adele Ankers-Range is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Cyberpunk 2077 players can now succumb to cyberpsychosis thanks to a PC mod that adds Cyberpunk Edgerunners' risk-reward system into the game.

As reported by Games Radar, Nexus Mods user DJ_Kovrik uploaded a Wannabe Edgerunner mod that adds a humanity stat into Cyberpunk 2077.

The mechanic hails from the Cyberpunk tabletop RPG, but has recently been a big topic of discussion between fans thanks to the new Edgerunners anime. The mod has your humanity stat lower as you install more cyberware, kill more people, and use Berserk mode or the Sandevistan operating system from Edgerunners. Letting the humanity stat drop to zero will cause you to turn cyberpsycho.

While middling humanity only causes a few visual glitches and other minor side effects, entering full cyberpsychosis will cause heavy visual glitches to reflect the hallucinations seen in Edgerunners.

Players will gain the "positive" side effects too, though, getting buffs to their movement speed, armour value, and health regeneration. Again, just as it happens in the show, police will also arrive to take out the player if they go cyberpsycho.

It can be somewhat prevented however, as Edgerunners' Neuroblockers have also been added in the mod, letting players temporarily remove low humanity side-effects and halt it from dropping any lower. You can also sleep to ward off some earlier visual glitches.

Preventative measure are also available, as cyberware has a different impact on players' humanity level depending on its quality. Installing more expensive, minor implants will have a small effect on humanity, for example, while installing major, cheap ones will have a big impact.

While the mod may not be terribly practical (per design) for those looking to embrace every aspect of Night City, it does appear to be a good way to fully role play a character from the Edgerunners anime.

The show's release on Netflix last month appears to have triggered a resurgence of interest around Cyberpunk 2077, as developer CD Projekt Red confirmed that more than one million players had been playing each day towards the end of September.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

The Dune sequel will be eating the release date of a recently vacated Marvel movie and will arrive a few weeks earlier.

It was announced earlier today that Marvel will pause Blade as it searches for a new director, removing the vampire movie from its November 2023 release date. Now, Dune Part Two will be jumping in to take its place. The sequel will be released on November 3, 2023, instead of the originally announced date, November 17, 2023.

This is a two-week jump forward for the sequel and exciting news for fans who enjoyed Denis Villeneuve's cerebral take on the classic sci-fi novel.

Dune Part Two has already begun filming and will include new cast members like Austin Butler, Florence Pugh, and Christopher Walken. The sequel will premiere exclusively in theaters, and will not be released simultaneously on HBO Max like Dune Part One.

In an official plot synopsis, the sequel will explore "the mythic journey of Paul Atreides as he unites with Chani and the Fremen while on a warpath of revenge against the conspirators who destroyed his family."

The film was originally set to be released in October 2023 but was delayed to November 17. Now the sands shift again as Dune Part Two moves forward two weeks.

Check out IGN's review of Dune Part One here for our take on one of the best movies of 2021.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.