Polygon

Destiny 2’s newest expansion is on the horizon. Now that the previous Light and Darkness saga has concluded, this latest expansion marks the beginning of a new era in Destiny 2’s narrative. The Edge of Fate will include new navigation menus, new Vanguard and Crucible activities, and an overhaul to the gear system.

Below, we list the Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate release time in your time zone with an expanded look at what you can expect from the expansion.

Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate release time

Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate will be releasing for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X on July 15. Bungie has not announced the exact release time of the expansion; however, it’s a safe bet that the new content will go live at or around the weekly reset time, which occurs every Tuesday.

Here are the current weekly reset times for Destiny 2 in regions around the world:

10 a.m. PDT for the West Coast of North America1 p.m. EDT for the East Coast of North America2 p.m. BRT for Brazil6 p.m. BST for the U.K.7 p.m. CESTfor Western Europe2 a.m. JSTfor Japan3 a.m. AEST for the east coast of Australia

What to expect from Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate

The Edge of Fate is a new era for Destiny 2, and with its release will be the release of many new additions and features, such as:

A new location known as the Kepler Destination**,** with new puzzles to solve and new places to exploreA non-linear campaignA new power called Matterspark**,** which you will use for overworld navigationA complete overhaul to all armor known as the Armor 3.0 SystemNew gear tiers in the Gear Tiering SystemHeavy CrossbowsMelee damage has been changed to be additive, and glaives will now count as meleeAbility overhauls and reworksA new Firing Range in the Tower

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

When I first heard about Missile Command Delta, turn-based gameplay was not what I expected. Changing the 1980 arcade classic’s concept from a never-ending real-time rocket strike to a more relaxing puzzle experience seemed quite the gamble, but a few minutes in the game’s tutorial room won me over.

But as I left that tutorial, I didn’t walk into the virtual arcade parlor I had hoped for. Although Missile Command Delta presented me with plenty more puzzles, they weren’t solely of the tactical missile-defending kind. Although the sheer brilliance of the reimagined arcade gameplay kept me going, dreams of an arcade-only mode have haunted me ever since.

It’s no surprise to see the iconic red, blue, and yellow color scheme return, nor did I ever doubt the inclusion of different missile types — these things are a given if you decide to reimagine Missile Command. But to keep the suspense, despite the slower pace, that’s impressive.

In part, this effect can be attributed to the flickering lights combined with the eerie background music. Appearing as a warning sign, the blinking missile tracks constantly remind me that my cities are about to get bombed, either by this missile wave or the next. Make one error, and the next group of missiles will hit you with unpleasant feelings of “Oh no, what have I done?”

The constant need to optimize my defenses had me calculating rocket speed, frantically scrolling through my arsenal, and making tough decisions, such as waiting for the next turn in an attempt to destroy more bombs using the same missile. Especially during the “choose your arsenal” phase, before the real action kicks off, the uncertainty hits hard. This tactical freedom and pressure to find the optimal solution make for a highly compelling puzzle game, and I just don’t want to stop playing.

It’s too bad, then, that Missile Command Delta doesn’t indulge my longing for the next rocket storm. As Oli Welsh observed, a first-person narrative about some teens stuck in a bunker (don’t enter abandoned bunkers – mess around and find out, guys!) constantly interferes with the cool stuff. Undoubtedly, the intention was to turn this game into a thriller, but it already has a thriller in the form of tactical dread.

A Missile Command Delta arcade mode, available from the start and accessible from the main menu, would be the dream. Just boot up the game, enter the arcade, and start an ongoing stream of Missile Command puzzles. I don’t expect an endless mode, but a large stack of handcrafted challenges would do.

Naturally, a bunch of different game modes would be magnificent. Imagine the Atari 50 arcade collection, but as a modern, missile-only edition. I can’t help but think of the possibilities: a 50-wave challenge, a short-range missiles-only mode, a randomized arsenal, perhaps even a bomb-’em-back variation (let’s see how they like it). That last one would have you firing back at the enemy — it breaks with the original Missile Command’s vow to never let the player become the aggressor, but you’ve got to admit, it would be fun.

I realize my Missile Command dreams are getting slightly out of hand at this point, imagine how lovely it’d be to see a few arcade machines in the middle of that dreary Missile Command Delta bunker. One filled with missile puzzles, and — I’m sure there’s room — a replica of the original machine from 1980. Retro artwork and cute buttons included.

Don’t get me wrong, I am willing to suffer angsty teens with terrible survival instincts for the sake of the brilliant tactical puzzle game that’s already core to this game, but Missile Command Delta has awakened a thirst for more Missile Command, which it doesn’t quite quench — yet. If Mighty Yell and 13AM Games ever decide to develop a Missile Command arcade collection with a variety of innovative spins on the existing concept, which they already proved to be capable of, I’ll be first in line to get bombed.

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The New York Timesrecently published the results of a poll determining the 100 best movies of the 21st century so far, and the #1 slot went to Bong Joon Ho’s Best Picture winner Parasite. (It topped the paper’s subsequent readers’ poll, too.) As it happens, Bong Joon Ho also voted in the poll, and the Times made his ballot (along with many others) available online. He lists the 2005 Steven Spielberg/Tom Cruise movie War of the Worlds among his 10 choices, which makes that movie his selection for the best Steven Spielberg movie of the past 25 years. It’s a bold choice. But he may be right. At very least, War of the Worlds deserves to be talked about alongside classics like Jaws and Jurassic Park.

The Spielberg movie that actually made the overall top 100 list was his other (also excellent) Tom Cruise-led sci-fi film, Minority Report, at number 94. War of the Worlds, which recently celebrated its 20th anniversary, was a bigger but more divisive hit back in 2005, though it was overshadowed by Cruise’s talk-show antics and Scientology-stumping. In fact, it wound up as Cruise’s last big money-maker until he revived interest in the Mission: Impossible franchise six years later.

The Cruise factor is part of why War of the Worlds might seem like a counterintuitive choice for Bong’s favorite Spielberg movie. The South Korean director obviously enjoys dark-hued genre films, and he made his own movie where a family encounters a fantastical creature: The Host, released just a year after War of the Worlds. But that movie’s tone is vastly different from Spielberg’s, veering into comedy and satire to complement its heartfelt drama.

Moreover, like Parasite, it uses a family ensemble to offer different point-of-view characters. Spielberg’s WotW, by contrast, is both vastly bigger and strikingly smaller. It’s one of the most intimate large-scale disaster movies ever mounted, chronicling no less than a massacre of the global human population by invading aliens, while sticking almost exclusively to the ground-level point-of-view of Ray (Tom Cruise), a super-divorced New Jersey dock worker, and his 10-year-old daughter Rachel (Dakota Fanning). Ray’s teenage son Robbie (Justin Chatwin) is there, too, if only to wriggle away from Ray whenever possible.

The trio of characters initially navigating this alien-ravaged landscape vaguely recalls the three men venturing into the ocean in Jaws, and the boy-girl siblings bring to mind the kids in Jurassic Park. War of the Worlds does indeed scan as the third film in a trilogy of creature features that most closely resemble Spielberg horror movies. Its way into that material, though, is arguably stranger than either of its companions. It uses the framework of a genre most popular in the respective decades of Jaws and Jurassic Park: the disaster movie.

Though the 9/11 terrorist attacks on America didn’t put a total kibosh on the neo-disaster wave of the 1990s, they did push those types of movies toward an increasingly fantastical approach to mass destruction on screen. Though a few filmmakers like Man of Steel’s Zack Snyder did lean into a more harrowing sense of realism, later-period Roland Emmerich movies like The Day After Tomorrow and 2012 didn’t seem designed to remind people of 9/11. Their disaster-scapes were so outsized (and neutrally produced by Earth itself, rather than invaders) that they almost looked like simulations, or apocalyptic screensavers.

Spielberg’s War of the Worlds has plenty of outlandish, retro sci-fi imagery: Certain elements of the original H.G. Wells novel from 1898, like the aliens’ tripod ships, are faithfully included, and when the ships start fertilizing their own vegetation with human viscera, the wide landscape shots look like a vivid, super-saturated set out of a 1950s melodrama.

But beyond the base-level awe these sequences inspire compared to Emmerich’s SimCity destruction, the then-contemporary 9/11 references are unmistakable (and darker than the superficial building-smashing of superhero movies): After witnessing an initial attack, Ray realizes he’s covered in the dust of incinerated people. Later, a terrified Rachel makes it explicit; as they speed away from the mass devastation in a stolen car, she asks in panic, “Is it the terrorists?”

In its way, this directness is as vivid as the kid dialogue in E.T., like the faux-teenage way Elliott calls his brother “penis breath” in anger. Before Spielberg made a more intimate movie about real-life terrorism with Munich (which also came out in 2005), he brought the chaos and fear of terrorism into summer movies that were supposed to provide escapism. His gift for moving the audience through the action with fluid, longer shots takes on a frightening immediacy.

Though his two Jurassic Park movies are full of suspenseful sequences (and The Lost World is especially violent), War of the Worlds might be Spielberg’s most traditionally scary genre movie. (His depictions of war atrocities in movies like Schindler’s List and Saving Private Ryan are in another category altogether.) It’s not just the scale of the destruction, but its pitilessness; these aliens aren’t going through a list of symbolically powerful landmarks to blow up in perfectly framed wide shots. They’re open-firing into crowds and buildings, then eventually sweeping the corners to harvest human blood.

From a business perspective, it made sense to release War of the Worlds in what was essentially the Independence Day spot. The movie itself, though, where most of the anti-alien heroics are accidental or off-screen, and all-American Tom Cruise is a semi-deadbeat dad who survives mostly by luck, feels like an ID4 takedown as accidentally pointed as Tim Burton’s Mars Attacks! (There’s even a more gruesome equivalent of Burton’s darkly funny image of a herd of cows on fire when an Amtrak train zips past refugees, engulfed in flames.)

The fantastical touches aren’t the only scary parts, either. Rewatching a mob of people senselessly attempt to steal Ray’s car and nearly destroy it, endangering Rachel in the process, I had two simultaneous thoughts: 1) This behavior makes no sense, and 2) this is also exactly what would happen in real life. War of the Worlds feels so emotionally realistic that it’s no wonder Spielberg can’t quite find the precise note to end on, beyond a thematically appropriate but vaguely unsatisfying reversion to the basic outline of the Wells novel. (At least in terms of the aliens’ fates.) It’s a beautifully made movie that can’t offer the same reassurances as other Spielberg sci-fi; Ray’s lessons about parenthood come with a crash course in its horrors, too.

So what does Bong see in this Spielberg movie in particular? Many of his movies invert War of the Worlds’ arc of harrowing horror to unsettled respite by providing a wilder, often more “fun” ride before arriving at a tragic end. (Though sometimes those tragedies are still laced with a hint of hope.) But Bong’s films also gleefully mix genres in ways that feel informed by what’s happening in the real world. In the same way, there is something genre-warped about the Spielberg film that depicts post-9/11 anxiety by peeling back layers of disaster-movie blockbusters, 1950s sci-fi, and outright horror, right down to how it handles its most Spielbergian-seeming human relationships. There’s nothing especially predictable about War of the Worlds. It unfolds with the terrifying clarity of a nightmare.

War of the Worlds is currently streaming on Paramount Plus.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Despite the fact that you don’t see much of your character in Mecha Break, the PvP mech shooter has a god-tier character creator, which allows you to tweak everything from your pilot’s height and hair color to the length of their fingers. This character creator is supplemented by the Matrix Marketplace: an in-game store where players can sell or auction off their painstakingly customized pilot designs in exchange for Corite, the game’s premium in-game currency.

On the surface, this seems like a really neat idea, especially because the game’s standard seasonal cosmetic store has a very small selection of items that rotate out every three days. If you spot a pilot with cute pigtails, for example, you can’t just go into the cosmetic store and buy that exact hairdo, as it’s very unlikely that a specific hairstyle will be available for you to purchase at any given time. You might find another cool hairstyle for sale, but it probably won’t be the one you’re looking for. Thus, you have two options:

Option #1: Wait indefinitely for the store’s offerings to feature the hairstyle/lipstick/eyeliner/whatever that you’re looking for, checking back every three days when stock has been refreshed.Option #2: Buy it from another player.

You might think Option #2 is the best choice, but unfortunately, it comes with a catch. You see, once you’ve purchased another player’s custom pilot look, you’ll get to use it on your pilot. You will not, however, be able to edit it in any way, shape, or form. The hair color cannot be changed, and the hairstyle itself can only be used in conjunction with the rest of the purchased pilot’s features (collectively referred to as a “style” in-game). You can’t wear the hairstyle by itself — you can only wear the full style, essentially becoming a clone of another player’s pilot, right down to their face and body shape.

This is great if you just want a sort of cosplay skin for your pilot, as the Matrix Marketplace is full of interesting customizations that can make your pilot look like a specific character from an anime, movie, or video game, and will save you the work of spending endless hours trying to build them from the ground up by yourself. But if you’re just looking for a specific hairstyle, makeup type, or accessory, you’re pretty much screwed. You can only edit the player-created custom pilot designs you purchase in the Matrix Marketplace if you already own the cosmetic items being used in the design, which would require you to purchase those items from Mecha Break‘s standard in-game cosmetic store, which defeats the purpose of buying a player-made style to gain access to a cosmetic item that isn’t currently available in the seasonal cosmetic store.

Unless you somehow get lucky enough to unlock all the cosmetic items you need via direct purchase from the rotating styles listed under the Seasonal Cosmetics tab, you’ve got no choice but to wait around for the right cosmetics to pop up, or take the L and change your character’s entire look, just to use the hairstyle, iris/pupil design, or makeup style you want. I’ve been hoping to get my hands on a cosmetic that would give my pilot heart-shaped pupils, but it’s not available for direct purchase in my seasonal cosmetics store, and the only version of it that’s currently for sale in the Matrix Marketplace is locked to a pilot design that includes short brown hair and facial scarring. It’s a really cool look, but it’s not what I’m going for. I just want the eyes!

The ability to sell your creations to other players for in-game money is a really fun concept, and is a great way for Mecha Break to highlight its incredible character customization options — a feature that can be easily missed in a game that devotes most of its screen time to giant robots. I’ve listed a few designs for sale (no bites yet, unfortunately), and I am all for giving players the tools they need to create the character of their dreams.

The problem is that players also need the freedom to use those tools, and freedom isn’t something Mecha Break allows for when it comes to attaining cosmetics. The game lets you customize the heck out of your pilot, but if there’s a specific premium cosmetic you’re in search of, you’ll need either the patience of a saint or a great deal of luck to actually get your hands on all the items you need to create your ideal pilot.

As fun as the Matrix Marketplace is, the fact that the cosmetics are locked to one specific color and pilot design is unbelievably frustrating, and I’m struggling to understand the reasoning behind it. I’m sitting here practically begging the game to take my money, but I’m not going to spend it on a player-made creation when what I get in return is a completely un-customizable pilot who has the right hairdo in the wrong color. It feels like buying a Barbie who has all of her clothes fused to her body, unable to be worn by other Barbie dolls unless I get lucky and find additional versions of the same accessories for sale.

The most frustrating part of all of this is that all of the items I’m currently hunting for were fully available to players during *Mecha Break’*s multiple beta tests, and could be purchased using Mission Tokens, a free in-game currency earned just by playing the game. Amazing Seasun Games made it clear that items like outfits would need to be bought with Corite, but until the game’s launch, players were under the impression that they’d have access to a much wider array of customization options. I got used to customizing my pilot‘s hairstyle, iris/pupil shape, eye color, and makeup exactly how I wanted it using only Mission Tokens. Now I can’t even get what I want with real-life cash, and the options to customize certain cosmetics — like eyeshadow and lipstick color — has disappeared entirely.

Mecha Break‘s Matrix Marketplace has other issues, too — you can sell just about anything, including weapons and items that make life easier in the game’s signature Mashmak mode, leading to accusations of pay-to-win mechanics, and the auction house is a bit of a mess. But that’s a discussion for another day. For now, I just want a way to get my hands on specific cosmetics without having to cross my fingers and wait indefinitely, or completely change my pilot’s entire look.

Then again, things could always be worse. At least Mecha Break‘s hairstyles aren’t distributed via randomized loot boxes.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

If the internet loves one thing, it’s cats. Cat memes, cat rescue stories, cat vids. Cats have taken over people’s lives, real and virtual, and are quietly dominating the games space. Surely you’ve played a great cat game in recent years, like Stray, Little Kitty, Big City, or the Cat Quest trilogy. I’m not much of a cat person myself, yet even I fell in love with Stray and its orange, single-brain-celled feline. Still, I can’t help but lament the dearth of games starring cats’ mortal enemy: dogs.

Unfortunately, dogs are frequently featured in games as enemies destined to be killed by the player, whether we’re talking military dogs in first-person shooters or Bloodborne’s grotesque hounds. Let’s reverse that trend.

A dog game could be a very simple thing. Taking inspiration from Little Kitty, Big City, we could control a wayward hound searching for a way home. Naturally, hijinks would ensue — just think of all the trouble your homebound pup gets into, and imagine the damage he could do when loosed on the world. Digging random holes, rolling through mud, peeing on fire hydrants. Chaos!

What I’d really love is a dog game pulling narrative inspiration from Stray or the heartbreaking Copycat, which tackles themes like abandonment and loss. Having a dog is an emotional endeavor — they’re not called “man’s best friend” for nothin’ — and a game like Stray succeeds because of the emotion threaded through its six-hour playtime. No reason a “Stray but a dog” game couldn’t do the same.

Sure, there are games that have you play as a dog — Okami is a highlight here. And we’ve been able to pet dogs in many an open-world game, while others let you get a dog companion, like best boy Scratch in Baldur’s Gate 3. Wolves are common as well, like the titular Neva in Nomada’s emotionally devastating 2024 hit. But those aren’t strictly dog games in the way Stray or Little Kitty, Big City embody the idea of a cat game.

I need a game that lets me chase squirrels, get the zoomies after dropping a deuce, tear up a human’s socks before giving them an adorable “I’m sorry (but not really)” guilt face. I want a dedicated “snuggle” button in my dog games.

What I’m looking for is a rash of dog games, a wave of hound-starring adventures ranging from “Dog Quest The RPG” to a post-apocalyptic “Stray Pup” to a tear-jerking “From Shelter to Forever Home.” This shit writes itself!

Hopefully, that wave is on the horizon, and maybe even already begun. Farewell North launched last year and embodies the aspects of a dog game that I want out of this genre; it’s an emotional adventure where you, as a border collie, restore color to the world. Ikuma sits comfortably on my 2026 radar — blending the climbing and dog game genres, I can’t wait to check it out. And Haunted Paws is an upcoming cozy horror game where you and a friend each control a pup. Hell yeah. Give it to me now.

In the meantime, I suppose I’ll have to go back to the well and replay the excellent Stray a few more times. It’s not a dog game, but it provides a great cheat sheet for future dog games to steal from.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Lois Lane in James Gunn’s Superman cracked me up and annoyed me at the same time. My initial take on the 2025 version of Lois (played by Rachel Brosnahan) was that she’s an absolutely terrible journalist. Even by the standards of a comic book movie featuring a woman who can turn her hands into buzzsaws (because something-something nanotech, don’t examine it too closely), Lois’ idea of reporting in this movie seems hilariously unrealistic.

That’s nothing new for movies, which pretty much never get journalism right — or any other profession, for that matter. Screen interpretations of real-world jobs are almost always simplified and superficial at best, outright ridiculous at worst. Scientists usually laugh at movie science, lawyers don’t recognize anything about real law in courtroom dramas, and so forth. Movies and TV even get highly specific jobs like forensic pathology radically wrong in an attempt to goose the drama levels and keep the action moving.

For most viewers, that’s fine — a story that accurately depicted the slow, incremental, years-long process behind scientific research or a significant court case would generally be pretty dull. Generally, audiences will prefer the amped-up, imaginary, dramatic version of a given job. It’s just harder to ignore a laughable break from reality when it’s your job being done incredibly badly on screen.

Still, there’s another read to Lois’ actions in Superman. It’s possible she’s the worst interviewer on the planet (or at the Daily Planet), wasting an incredible opportunity to dig into one of the most important, powerful, and enigmatic figures in the world. It’s also possible that she’s more devious — or self-destructive, or daring — than Gunn ever openly admits or explores. And I admit I like that option a whole lot better.

The crux of the question comes in a scene not terribly far into the movie, a sequence highlighted in Superman’s first full theatrical trailer. Lois has been dating Clark Kent/Superman for about three months. During that time, Clark has been writing news stories about Superman where he quotes himself, presenting those quotes as “exclusive interviews” Superman has given Clark. Lois rightly points out that this is unethical for a journalist, so Superman invites Lois to interview him, instead. As the trailer shows, the interview goes wrong quickly.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for how this one specific scene turns out in Superman.]

Lois seems to be trying to offend and alarm her subject. She doesn’t try to establish any kind of rapport with him. She takes a confrontational tone from the start, with leading questions that imply there are “correct” answers, instead of neutral questions designed to bring out information. She doesn’t listen to the answers she’s getting, and she openly judges Superman for everything he’s trying to say. She twists his words in ways she knows he doesn’t intend, and throws them back at him while he’s still forming them. But her cardinal sin is that she doesn’t even let Superman answer her questions. Even when she’s getting information no one else knows, directly from the source, she interrupts him and speaks over him.

This is all unbelievably bad technique — or at least, it is if she’s actually trying to interview Superman. Given how it all goes, and assuming James Gunn wants us to see her as an actual professional journalist, it’s possible she’s trying to do one or more other things.

The simplest option here is that Lois is just confronting Superman with the fact that he isn’t media-savvy at all. He’s been tossing himself softball questions to answer, and that’s the extent of his interaction with the media. He’s clearly never faced another journalist before, and he’s too trusting and confident in his own intentions to realize how volatile an actual public interview could get. It’s possible Lois is just stress-testing him, preparing him for what it’s going to be like if he ever really faces the press. That would be an easy enough interpretation if she actually followed their confrontational conversation (I can’t really call it an investigative interview) with any warnings for him, or insight into her intentions.

The less savory option is that consciously or unconsciously, she’s trying to sabotage her relationship with Clark. She’s already made it clear at this point that she has her doubts about them dating, though we don’t know much about what her concerns are. She seems to think relationships are a bad idea in general, and that she’s failed at them in the past. It would be easy to infer that she has some reservations about dating a space alien with super strength. (Much less sleeping with one; see Larry Niven’s classic tongue-in-cheek essay on that subject, “Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex.”) She may just feel that it’s unethical to be dating someone she is inevitably going to be covering in the news. She doesn’t spell it out.

But given that Superman clearly doesn’t share her reservations — and clearly only sees the best in her, the way she gripes that he sees the best in everyone — it’s possible that she’s consciously or unconsciously trying to force any mismatch between them to a head, that she isn’t trying to interview him for an article so much as she’s trying to start a fight.

That’s just supposition. Lois is a bit undercooked in Gunn’s Superman script, as anyone but an ally who doesn’t turn on him or give up on him when so many other people do. Most of the motives viewers could ascribe to her are based on vibes and inference, not specifics. But the idea would mesh with her ambivalence and indecision about the two of them as a couple. Even if she isn’t expressly trying to force a breakup, she may be trying to test his boundaries, his limits, or his temper, to see what he does when someone he cares about — not the mob online that he’s trying to ignore, not strangers or enemies, but someone important to him — challenges his actions and withholds their approval. If that’s what she’s trying to do, she’s walking a dangerous line.

Given her lack of real follow-up with Superman, either about continuing the interview or continuing the relationship, one further interpretation is that even she doesn’t fully, consciously know what she’s doing by baiting and embarrassing him. It’s possible that she’s acting on instinct — putting her doubts about him into direct action without having any express, clear goal. Acting out emotionally without thinking through every possible reason or goal is a thing real-life people do all the time. It’s just rarer in blockbuster filmmaking, where every line, every scene, is meant to have a goal moving the audience closer to dramatic confrontations and big spectacles. (Though James Gunn demonstrably doesn’t always follow that model.)

All of which leaves the version of Lois we see in this Superman somewhere between intriguing and baffling. She’s clearly working through some issues. She’s clearly confident in her profession, if not in her relationships. (I have to admire her apparent ability to pilot Mr. Terrific’s ship and dictate editorial copy at the same time, though I’m pretty dubious about her getting the marquee Daily Planet exposé piece based on someone else’s source and someone else’s research.) But it isn’t always obvious who she is as a person, besides Superman’s romantic interest and narrative enabler.

I’ll tell you one thing, though: a great journalist would have prioritized making the most of an exclusive interview opp — really digging into what Superman believes, why he does what he does, and what that means for humanity — over any personal concerns, no matter how emotional or instinctive her agenda was. Granted, a great journalist also wouldn’t actually be sleeping with her subject. That’s another thing movies famously get wrong all the time. Maybe Lois was really just trying to dodge the cliché by breaking up with him before finishing that interview?

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Phoenix is in Marvel Rivals, which means I might finally put Overwatch 2 on the shelf for a bit and get back into NetEase’s hero shooter game. Not out of some deep admiration for Phoenix, mind you. The only things I know about her are what I gleaned from Wikipedia after NetEase announced her for Marvel Rivals season 3 and one important fact from her character trailer: She actually moves like a normal human — well, mutant — and that was exciting, something I couldn’t say for Rivals prior to this point.

Since the game launched in December 2024, Marvel Rivals players have periodically complained on Reddit about how slow character movement speed is, or seems to be. Some said it felt like walking in slow motion; others said it was just a perspective trick, that of course games like Overwatch seemed faster, since the camera is first person and seems more dynamic. I agreed with the former and lamented the slow strides and glacial attack pace that plagued every hero in Rivals, gradually playing less and less as the perceived issue grew more and more annoying.

Now that Overwatch 2 has its third-person Stadium mode, and after seeing how Phoenix seemed to move more quickly, I decided to see if my theory about the rest of Rivals being so slow was right. It was. Kind of.

The practice arena in both games includes areas with distance measurements to help calculate damage drop-off ranges, which also doubles as the perfect place to test movement speed. After messing around with multiple characters, I confirmed that Rivals characters take roughly half of a stride longer to travel five meters compared to Overwatch 2 characters. That sounds like a problem, but Rivals‘ distance scaling is also a bit different. Five meters in Rivals is about 11.5 inches, where the same distance is approximately 10 inches in Overwatch 2.

“Why does this matter?” you might be asking. The answer is that it means Rivals characters move about as fast as most Overwatch 2 characters, or even faster, since they’re technically covering a longer distance in the same-ish number of steps. It’s not a speed issue. It’s a style issue.

Cloak and Dagger, Namor, Spider-Man, and the rest move as if they’re auditioning for a role in Baywatch, loping dramatically down the battlefield in big, rangey steps. Lengthy pauses punctuate attack combos for everyone who isn’t the martial arts expert Iron Fist, turning what should be high-energy battles into something that wouldn’t be out of place in a ballet. Most attack sounds and animations are muted, too. Winter Soldier’s swanky pistol sounds like a popgun with a silencer on it, and Scarlet Witch’s life absorption has, well, no life to it. All this is elegant in an understated way, sure — but it’s not very super.

Phoenix changes all of that. A searing whoosh sound accompanies her attacks, with a small explosion after three consecutive hits on the same enemy. Her other offensive skill detonates an even bigger explosion. She zooms around in flaming-bird form to quickly relocate, and can even combine this with a second mobility skill, one that doesn’t have an obscenely lengthy cooldown timer. When she dodges or changes direction, she’s moving quickly instead of leaning lazily to one side as if she can’t be bothered, and there’s a quickness to her movement animations that adds a sense of urgency, even if she’s not actually moving faster. (She isn’t. Cloak and Dagger cover the same distance in fewer steps.)

Basically, NetEase finally found a combination of style and function that isn’t boring and doesn’t make you feel like you’re swimming through pudding. Phoenix plays and moves like you’d expect a trained fighter to move, so even though she may not be fundamentally different from other characters, her fights feel exciting. And that’s enough for me.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

All due respect to developer Rare — I really enjoyed my time with Diddy Kong Racing, team! — I’m choosing to willfully ignore almost the entirety of its work on the Donkey Kong franchise, because there’s a bunch of very confusing ape lore I’d prefer not to think about while I play Donkey Kong Bananza next week.

And, yeah, Candy Kong is a big part of that. I never want to think about Candy Kong in particular.

As a longtime fan of games Donkey Kong, Donkey Kong Jr., and 1994 Game Boy game Donkey Kong, I’m going to approach the events of Bananza as the next major milestone in that franchise — a legacyquel, if you will. I’m positively buzzing at seeing how the events of Bananza lead directly into Donkey Kong, a story about Mario climbing a building to save a woman — if that is indeed how the Super Mario Odyssey team has decided to handle this potential prequel.

Nintendo is, of course, withholding those important story details in the lead up to Bananza. The company hasn’t explained why the modern-day Donkey Kong is buddying up with a 13-year-old Pauline, a person he seemingly kidnapped some 44 years ago. I’m both excited to see where this story goes and therefore earnestly avoiding spoilers for the upcoming Switch 2 game in a way I never thought I would. Who cares about Donkey Kong spoilers? Me, apparently!

While it’s been made clear in last month’s Donkey Kong Bananza Nintendo Direct that Country-era Kongs like Cranky, Diddy, and Dixie Kong will show up in DK’s new adventure, I’m going to recanonize those apes to suit my own selfish needs. There will be dozens of named and unnamed simians in Bananza, and I’ll recognize their existence with fresh eyes.

Why do I choose to ignore those Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land games? Largely for their dated humor and Saturday-morning-cartoon-approach to extending the Donkey Kong universe in careless, corny ways. Also, the character designs are simply atrocious (see Swanky Kong, Candy Kong, Kiddy Kong, Chunky Kong, etc.). As previously mentioned, I have a real issue with the design of Candy Kong, an alarmingly sexed-up ape who feels like a barely disguised fetish and thus probably scarred impressionable children for life. (Funky Kong is OK.)

Donkey Kong Bananza, however, looks to flesh out Kong lore and ape variety in more visually intriguing ways. The game’s giant animal Elders and the menacing apes of VoidCo are a leap forward in design, and they give the world of Bananza a mystical, lived-in world feel. Bonanza’s bad guys look to be an evolution of the antagonists of Donkey Kong Jungle Beat, albeit much more creative.

None of my planned willful ignorance of the Donkey Kong Country games (and by extension the Donkey Kong Country Returns games) should be interpreted as a slight against how those games play. They are fine. Some of them are good! Some of them are Donkey Kong 64. But as a Nintendo enthusiast turned off by the Rare-era planet of apes, I’m perfectly fine to let them all live in the past and move on to a brave new Donkey Kong world.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Superman is the most powerful superhero in DC Comics, able to go toe to toe with its most powerful villains, like Darkseid and Brainiac. That’s why it’s surprising that his nemesis is Lex Luthor, a man without any superpowers.

The best versions of Luthor across comics, television, and movies make him a threat precisely because of that disparity. He fights Superman with wealth and connections rather than with fists or energy beams. He understands Superman’s moral code and uses it to his advantage, knowing that even if Superman is convinced Luthor is behind the latest scheme he’s unraveled, he can’t do anything about it without hard proof that will convince the authorities.

But superhero stories require an exciting climax, and writers have struggled with how to put Luthor at the center of the action. Some stories put him in a war suit so he can survive a punch from the Man of Steel. Justice League Unlimited gave him superpowers by fusing him with Brainiac. In Grant Morrison and Frank Quitely’s All-Star Superman, which James Gunn said was a primary influence for his 2025 Superman, Luthor uses Superman’s DNA to gain his powers.

Gunn found a different way to let Luthor fight Superman, one that leans more into his skills as a mastermind. It’s a spin that links up closely with a clever recent reinvention of a Marvel villain, and it forces Superman to find a new way to take his nemesis down.

[Ed. note: Major spoilers follow for Superman — and Spiderman: Far From Home.]

Supermanopens just after Superman (David Corenswet) gets absolutely pummeled by the Hammer of Boravia, a hulking armored figure who claims to be avenging his home country after Superman stops Boravia from invading a neighboring country. The supposed national champion of Boravia is capable of smashing the world’s most powerful metahuman into the pavement, but it’s quickly revealed that he isn’t actually Boravian: He’s a creation of Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult), who is guiding every blow in the fight from a command center in his Metropolis skyscraper.

It’s a team effort reminiscent of how the illusionist Mysterio operates in Spiderman: Far From Home. While Quentin Beck (Jake Gyllenhaal) is disguised as a hero from another dimension, supposedly battling to save Earth from invading elementals, he has a whole crew working behind the scenes to make the illusion convincing, in a scheme to earn Peter Parker’s trust. Luthor’s Superman clone Ultraman is inside the Hammer of Boravia’s armor, delivering the big hits and taking Superman’s punches while Luthor directs his every move, with the help of a small army of lackeys. Luthor doesn’t need to fight Superman himself, because he’s used his intellect to stage a battle entirely on his terms. “Brain beats brawn,” Luthor crows when he has Superman at his lowest.

Like the MCU’s Mysterio, who spent 12 years uniting other disgruntled Stark Industries employees and plotting his revenge, this Luthor is patient. Luthor’s spent the three years since Superman entered the world stage studying Superman’s every move so Luthor could choreograph a fight against him. Luthor combed through the sites of his battles for blood he could use to clone Superman. Luthor convinced Boravia’s leader that the tech billionaire wanted a war for real estate — a nice nod to the land-grabbing versions of the character played by Gene Hackman in 1978’s Superman and Kevin Spacey in 2006’s Superman Returns — when Luthor was really just looking for an excuse to kill Superman. Even the Hammer of Boravia attack is just a distraction Luthor can use to infiltrate Superman’s Fortress of Solitude, in search of something he can use to fight Superman in the court of public opinion.

Both Mysterio and Luthor want everyone to know just how smart they are. Mysterio lays out every part of his plan at the villainous wrap party he hosts after successfully tricking Peter into giving him control of the tech Tony Stark deeded to Peter. Luthor similarly villain-monologues to Superman after imprisoning him, confident in the redundant defenses of having him trapped in a sunless pocket dimension in a cell with a living hunk of Kryptonite. The hubris might seem silly if it wasn’t so very core to his character.

While Gunn’s Superman doesn’t follow the plot of All-Star Superman, where the dying hero completes a set of Herculean trials to put his affairs in order, the movie is true to Morrison’s excellent version of Luthor. The brilliant scientist sees himself as an avatar of human potential and ambition, and Superman as an invasive species that threatens to smother those qualities. Luthor doesn’t think of himself as a villain, but as a savior of a threatened humanity. Gunn’s version of Luthor has even more of a point than Morrison’s, since this Superman was sent to Earth precisely because he’s so much stronger than humans that he could easily dominate the planet if he chose to.

Hoult beautifully delivers those same sentiments. His Lex is a petty tyrant who enjoys the fear he inspires in his subordinates so much that after dropping a mug full of pencils just to watch them scramble to clean up the mess, he  immediately knocks over another one, like a sadistic cat. But he’s honest about his failings, admitting that he’s extremely jealous of Superman. He had to spend years scheming to create a credible threat for someone who fell out of the sky and became the most powerful man on Earth.

But while Luthor accounts for all of Superman’s fighting techniques, he doesn’t grasp his greatest strength: the ability to inspire others. Superman escapes from Luthor’s prison by enlisting the help of Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan). He stops his schemes in Boravia by getting the Justice Gang to take up the cause. His girlfriend Lois Lane (Rachel Brosnahan) leads the investigation that exposes Luthor’s crimes. Even Superman’s kindness to the misbehaving superpowered dog Krypto helps him win the final battle.Luthor ends the film shipped off Belle Reve, the base of operations of Amanda Waller’sTask Force X, so he will almost assuredly have more of a role to play in the future of Gunn’s DC Universe. Even defeated, this is a version of the character with huge potential. He’s already shown his skill at commanding a group capable of taking down Superman. With the ground laid for the Justice Gang to become the Justice League, hopefully Luthor will get to take on his other big role in DC Comics: leader of the Legion of Doom.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

I’ve played 500 hours of Elden Ring. I’ve beaten every boss, explored every invisible door, collected every rare armament. If I had to pick one favorite, generation-defining game above all others it would definitely be the base game and its Shadow of the Erdtree expansion.

But 160 hours into Nightreign, FromSoftware’s multiplayer spinoff that launched at the end of May, I know that there’s no way I could ever go back to the original open-world game anymore. Nightreign changed everything.

Nightreign is the brainchild of Junya Ishizaki, the developer who oversaw combat on Elden Ring. Ishizaki wanted to create a game with a different flow than that of Elden Ring, which is how FromSoftware arrived at Nightreign’s peculiar design proposition: “What if Elden Ring but make it Fortnite meets Monster Hunter?”

The drama of just barely reviving a player on their third wheel when no one has any flasks left is a shot of pure dopamine.

A team of three sets upon an expedition where the eventual goal is to defeat a tough Nightlord boss. You each start at level 1 with basic gear, and must scrounge your way into a better kit. Everything takes place on one large land mass, but the loot and boss battles are randomized. Things can be shaken up suddenly by events, like locust swarms that steal levels from players or gods who bribe the player into buying back their health.

It’s not exactly what fans would expect out of FromSoftware, who are known for lore-driven single-player experiences. The gameplay is still punishing, and players can expect to see “YOU DIED” often, just as they do in the main game. But while core Souls games offer co-op, the multiplayer is typically stuck behind a convoluted process involving arcane items and limited areas. Some players only do co-op as a last measure against boss fights that they can’t take on their own, and it’s something that is typically frowned upon by longtime diehards. Otherwise, the expected Souls gameplay loop involves slow-paced methodical exploration over dense areas pocked with winding routes and inscrutable secrets.

Nightreign’s lightning-fast design structure was bound to be a shock for even the most ardent FromSoftware fans. An ever-encroaching storm means that players cannot scour every pixel of an area, as they might in Elden Ring. Despite the emphasis on online connectivity, Nightreign is missing many of the modern conveniences people expect from multiplayer games. Matchmaking options are limited, and the game is best played with three people even if smaller teams are technically possible.

Group play, as a concept, also takes some getting used to. There are few ways to communicate with one another; players can emote or use items to say small phrases that are barely audible. Areas of the map can be marked, and equipment can be signaled to your squad. But Nightreign is a complicated game where little is explained and much is expected out of the player. It’s hard to optimize builds when you can’t talk to your team to discuss who gets what gear or why a specific area of the map is worth visiting over another, at least when you mostly play with randoms like I do. A third of my matches sometimes end early purely because someone has rage quit after dying once, which may not have happened if anyone could have reasoned with them.

There are no shortage of flaws in Nightreign, many of which have been spoken about at length by Elden Ring fans and detractors alike. I still can’t imagine going back to the core game.

Some of this realization is purely mechanical. You can run faster in Nightreign, and easily climb a hill at a 90-degree angle.There’s no such thing as fall damage, even if you’re vaulting off the tallest possible point on the map. There are two different running speeds, separate from the walking speed. The combat is also brisker, especially if you play agile classes like Duchess. Elden Ring now seems like it moves at a glacial pace, almost as if the player has been enveloped in a thick layer of molasses. That’s the last feeling I want on a revisit.

There’s no shortage of possible pain points, and most of them are the other people playing with you. Oh, the melee player has taken the staff that the magic user on our team would actually benefit from. Or Ah, there goes H1TL3R in a beeline in the opposite direction of the team, toward a boss that will kill them in a single hit. Also see: Why is the archer pinging a point on the island on the completely opposite side of the map? We love to watch in complete helplessness as a teammate runs toward the waypoint while contributing absolutely nothing.

Maybe it’s Stockholm syndrome, but I’ve also come around on the way Nightreign handles its social aspects. The fact that communicating is so difficult makes a good run feel phenomenal. The high of wailing on a boss with your crew with such precision that their AI stops being able to move is peak. No moment in Elden Ring matched the terror of seeing your entire team fall to its knees, only to have one player stand back up with his single-use revival item – and then proceed to beat the boss with a sliver of health left. The drama of just barely reviving a player on their third wheel when no one has any flasks left is a shot of pure dopamine.

The smaller moments stay with me as well. It’s noticing a player silently drop an item for you. It’s running back and forth between someone and a weapon on the ground until they notice you’re trying to tell them something. It’s watching the entire team run in happy circles after beating a boss, because in a few seconds the game will toss you back into the lobby and you’ll never see each other again.

Some things are as annoying as they are endearing. I’ve found myself in a pinging war against other teammates where everyone repeatedly ‘argues’ for going to a specific point in the map. It’s frustrating, but I also know that the people involved all care about having a good run. There are uglier emotions as well, like the shame of repeatedly getting downed by an enemy and needing your teammates to revive you. Conversely, I know that when I’m on the other side of that interaction, the person I’m risking life and limb to revive knows what the stakes are. I like to imagine they’ll try a little harder so that your efforts aren’t in vain. Ultimately, even when the emotional repertoire is difficult, I like that Nightreign can evoke such a wide range of feelings to begin with.

In recent weeks, my interest in Nightreign has been reinvigorated by its inclusion of souped-up versions of existing bosses, which it calls ‘Everdark’ Nightlords. But I’d probably be playing even if there wasn’t new content. Though I’ve spent nearly 200 hours bolting through its castles and ruins trying to evade the impending storm, I know that Nightreign is flush with secrets. There are events I’ve never seen before, only glimpsed in social media posts from bewildered players. There are routes I haven’t tried, treasures I’ve yet to find. I discover something new nearly every day about the way Nightreign’s world works. I’m constantly developing new approaches for better runs.

At first, I saw Nightreign’s design as anathema to everything Elden Ring stood for. I couldn’t understand the logic in rushing me through a landscape that was flush with opportunities. I saw Nightreign through the lens of denied possession: I wanted things, and the game was telling me that I couldn’t have them.

Here’s the thing: I’ve played Elden Ring. Really, I’ve wrung it dry. Whatever magic that brought that world alive to me is gone. I imagine this is what the Tarnished might have felt like at the end of the game, after the player becomes the Elden Lord. Getting to that point requires strength and persistence. The player has to survive countless monsters and forces beyond the realm of human understanding. Beating Elden Ring is unmistakably an achievement.

Your reward: a dead husk of a game, where every living thing has been snuffed out until the player is the only one left standing. A kingdom of ashes.

Nightreign only defies you. It tells the player they can’t have everything they want, just because they want it. Every time you set out to conquer it, the world of Nightreign is born anew. You can’t map out its contours, nor can you predict the gifts the world might bestow upon you. There’s only sacrifice: What will you pursue at the cost of all other possibilities? Are you certain?

But by denying me like this, Nightreign also makes me appreciative. It’s true, I can never go back to Elden Ring. I can also never fully possess Nightreign like a pinned butterfly in a frame. For a spell of this caliber to work, maybe it’s for the best that I can’t hear what my teammate CUML@RD has to say.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Don’t feel guilty for staying inside on a beautiful day — give yourself a break and soak up some television. Just remember to take your Vitamin D part-way through whatever you decide to binge-watch.

As the streaming business continues to collapse, evolve, and transform (did you see Max became HBO Max again?), Netflix has proven itself yet again to be a growing home for more and more licensed and original shows. Beyond the gluttony of reality TV and documentaries dedicated to [checks notes] poop cruises… there’s also a smorgasbord of genre fare that Polygon readers would delight in. Here’s three to get you started this weekend.

Twilight of the Gods season 1

With a brand new Superman reboot flying into theaters this weekend, let’s pour one out for Zack Snyder and celebrate his most successful project since Man of Steel: the animated series Twilight of the Gods.

Steeped in Norse mythology — and soaked in blood — Twilight of the Gods tells the story of Sigrid, a half-giant who watches Thor murder her future husband’s entire Viking clan as a goof. Where most people would mourn and accept that the gods will always have their way, Sigrid instead mounts revenge by banding together Earth warriors and marching toward Valhalla. Snyder’s visual instincts are on full display in the series, which he co-created with Eric Carrasco and Jay Oliva, from fetishistic action to tasteful 2D nudity (the guy loves Heavy Metal, and who can blame him?). The freedom of animation combined with the superpowered saga of deities becomes a sandbox for the director, and one in which he can screw with the traditions. People, thankfully, have much fewer beliefs about how the Norse deities should behave than the DC heroes. Snyder goes for broke in depicting the violent standoff, with godly antics that should play well for Hades fans. —Matt Patches

The Terror season 1

Temperatures in New York City have been hovering around 90 degrees Fahrenheit and muggy for two weeks now. When I step outside, I am immediately drenched in sweat. But 179 years ago, the crew of the Franklin expedition was trapped in the Arctic ice, suffering temperatures as low as -50 degrees! This is one reason that you should consider binge-watching season 1 of AMC’s anthology series The Terrorin the sweltering month of July.

The show’s first season follows the doomed crew of the expedition, who disappeared on an attempt to find the Northwest Passage. It’s a beautifully written exploration of what happens when Victorian society is pushed to its breaking point. The performances are sensitive and compelling, and above all, it’ll make you grateful that it’s not cold out. (Sorry to all my southern hemisphere readers, I see you — feel free to watch The Terror over Christmas, I’m sure it’ll hit all the same.) —Simone de Rochefort

Dan Da Dan season 2

The first season of Dan Da Dan, much like the manga, was raunchy, wacky, and unhinged. After learning about the existence of aliens and spirits, Okarun and Momo’s lives change when the boy gains powers from Turbo Granny (a yokai who takes his sexual organs) and the girl unlocks her psychic abilities. The pair face great danger during the journey to recover Okarun’s “golden balls”, but the greater challenge is to understand the romantic feelings they have for each other. I’m sure you can relate to all this.

Season 2 just kicked off — catch up! — and starts exactly where we left Momo, Okarun, and Jin in the previous season’s finale. Momo and Okarun are investigating what happened in Jin’s house and will soon learn about a long tradition of human sacrifices and hungry gods under a mountain. With the same production value and highly energetic scenes, Dan Da Dan season 2 starts strong, showing more of what we love: Momo Ayase’s punching creepy old dudes with her psychic powers; absurd situations that are laugh-out-loud funny; and loads of paranormal mysteries. Expect to see more of the (super)natural charm of Dan Da Dan as Momo’s and Okarun’s feelings develop this season. —Paulo Kawanishi

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Long series are not common in the gaming landscape, thanks to a wide range of factors. Franchises that stand the test of time face the challenge of keeping new iterations relevant to modern audiences while staying true to what the games mean. The Final Fantasy series, which began 43 years ago and is still running, is moved by the force of the classic titles that originated the series, but also due to never settling down to the obvious. Celebrating its 25th anniversary this year, Final Fantasy 9 crystallized the series’identity by making a point that a Final Fantasy game is made out of the desire to tell a good story and the courage to tell an authentic and fresh one.

Final Fantasy 9 starts with a familiar feeling, a kind of fantasy tale you might have heard once or twice. The kingdom of Alexandria is in celebration. On this auspicious day, fate puts a princess, Garnet, who’s trying to escape from her castle, on the path of thief Zidane, who was sent to the castle to kidnap her disguised as a member of the Tantalus Theatre Troupe. Steiner, an uptight knight, wants to desperately save the princess from being taken away from the safety of her home — which is exactly what she wants. Ignorant of these events, another character, a little boy wearing a pointy hat, Vivi, runs from guards who found him watching the shows in the castle without a ticket. The paths of all these characters converge on the main stage where Queen Brahne and the guests are waiting to watch a play. The commotion blends with the festival, making it all look like part of the show.

The goofiness of the starting segment of Final Fantasy 9 establishes the light tone the whole game will have, to some extent. However, the adventure of this group of iconic figures slowly unfolds into an intricate plot involving political conspiracies, militarization of nations, aeon-old civilizations hidden in plain sight, and a face-off with the materialization of “the darkness of eternity”. As I progressed through the four CDs of Final Fantasy 9, it was impossible not to feel awe at how the story grew more grandiose with each act.

Facing the imminent end of the world after experiencing a great journey with charismatic characters (maybe not all of them, right, Squall?) was something Final Fantasy games were already doing. Nevertheless, because the two previous games, Final Fantasy 7 and 8, strongly shifted away from the traditional narrative of medieval-esque fantasy that originally defined the series in favor of a sci-fi inspired setting, it felt like such distancing meant progression — as if sci-fi settings or realistic models were the natural step forward that afforded more serious and dramatic storytelling. Leaning toward cute character models and a simple fantasy setting gave many players the impression that Final Fantasy 9 was a childish game.

The success of Final Fantasy 7 could have justified making the next games in the series around the same concept, themes, or aesthetic. In Final Fantasy Ultimania Archive Volume 2, there’s a short passage where Toshiyuki Itahana, who worked on character design, background production, and minigame design in Final Fantasy 9, tells that event designer Kazuhiko Aoki — known for being the producer who put together the stellar team behind Chrono Trigger — said to his team that “there is a magic in Final Fantasy that stays with you to the very end.”

Would Square be able to capture this magic if it kept following the same recipe of Final Fantasy 7? Actually, doing so would go against the ideals behind these games. Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of the Final Fantasy games, said in an interview with Eurogamer that, in his opinion, making a game for the series involves using “cutting-edge technology” and “having a very strong story as a backbone,” but also the “desire to challenge the status quo.”

Final Fantasy 9, by being responsible for returning to the series’ roots, made its mission to show the soul of the series. It did so not only by using crystals and castles to tell a story, though. Final Fantasy 9 looked for technological improvement, presenting a step up to visuals compared to previous games with beautiful cutscenes. Square used the PlayStation hardware potential and came up with the Active Time Event (ATE) system, a new tool to enrich the narrative, which gave us a peek at what other characters are doing while the main events are taking place. But on top of all of that, Final Fantasy 9 gathered the courage to go against expectations.

Final Fantasy 9 marks the series’ history by cementing that what makes a Final Fantasy game is a great story, and that the developers behind them are capable of creating such memorable experiences regardless of how they choose to do it. Like artists who mastered their craft after having pushed their limits by moving out of their comfort zone, Square returned the series to its origins in Final Fantasy 9 with the confidence of knowing what it is, a clear vision that opened the path to all the new ideas and worlds we came to know in the following games.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

We may never get a sequel or remaster to FromSoftware’s 2015 gothic action game Bloodborne but that doesn’t necessarily mean that the tap has to run dry. Every couple of years over the past decade sees a new tidbit arise about Bloodborne, usually in the realm of cut content or ongoing secrets discovered by the community. This time, we’re treated to a hefty inside look at the alpha design maps for Bloodborne, before the game was polished with fancy textures or enemies. And apparently, Bloodborne began a little differently when FromSoftware initially put things together.

As known FromSoft sicko Lance McDonald details over the course of 27 minutes in a YouTube video, there are portions of the map that are inaccessible when the player begins a new adventure from Iosefka’s Clinic. Much later, the player can find a shortcut that will take an enormous loop back to the start of the game, where they can then open a locked door and explore more floors and rooftop areas. The shortcut is probably one of the most iconic moments in the entire game.

Originally, though, Bloodborne’s intro unfolded a little differently. The player could immediately walk out onto the rooftops, which at the time led to a building that didn’t make it into the final game. The way the game connected parts of the level also differed, as evidenced by the never-before-seen footage in the video that apparently took McDonald 18 months to assemble.

There are no bombshells here in terms of content that didn’t make it into the final game, but it’s worth a watch if you like Bloodborne. The video is a rare glimpse at what a game looks like during its earliest stages, when developers are still blocking out the experience in a big-picture way. It’s also a fascinating look at FromSoftware’s approach to level design. The Japanese studio is known for crafting dense worlds with winding routes and secret passages, but achieving that level of complexity is an ongoing process that requires revision.

Many of the elements visible at the earliest stages made it to the final game in some form, but the way these different pieces connect varies. FromSoftware evidently makes a level and then goes back and makes certain portions inaccessible as a way of building anticipation and wonder. It’s a trademark trick that’s evident across FromSoftware’s entire ouvre, and this video gives the viewer a sense of how the studio achieves that effect.

If you’d like to support McDonald’s work — he is often the source of many discoveries revolving FromSoftware cut content — you can check out his Patreon here.

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From Polygon via this RSS feed

Each week on Polygon, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.

The National Geographic documentary Jaws @ 50, which shows how the first summer blockbuster was made and explores its legacy, swims onto Disney Plus this weekend. You can also just embrace the silliness of the genre Jaws established with Hot Spring Shark Attack, where an ancient shark attacks a new tourist attraction. Cobra Kaimay have wrapped, but you can still see Ralph Macchio’s Daniel LaRusso alongside Jackie Chan in Karate Kid: Legends. David Cronenberg fans can find the horror legend’s latest film, The Shrouds, on The Criterion Channel, while Wes Anderson’s The Phoenician Scheme is available to rent.

Here’s everything new that’s available to watch on streaming this weekend!

New on Netflix

Brick

Genre: ThrillerRun time: 1h 40mDirector: Philip KochCast: Matthias Schweighöfer, Ruby O. Fee, Frederick Lau

A couple is about to call it quits when they discover that their apartment building has been surrounded by a seemingly impenetrable brick wall. Working with the building’s other residents, they try to figure out why their lives have turned into a twisted escape room and how they can get out alive.

Ziam

Genre: HorrorRun time: 1h 36mDirector: Kulp KaljareukCast: Mark Prin, Nychaa Nuttanicha, Vayla Wanvayla

A criminal enforcer and Muay Thai fighter plans to quit his job to pursue a safer line of work. But when the hospital where his girlfriend works as a doctor becomes the center of a zombie outbreak, he’ll have to kick his way through police and the walking dead to save her.

New on The Criterion Channel

The Shrouds

Genre: HorrorRun time: 2hDirector: David CronenbergCast: Vincent Cassel, Diane Kruger, Guy Pearce

The latest conspiracy film from body-horror master David Cronenberg follows an entrepreneur and widower (Vincent Cassel) who has invented a device called a shroud, which allows mourners to watch their loved ones decay in their graves. Vandalism and strange growths on his wife’s corpse lead him to investigate who might be trying to get their hands on his technology.

New on Disney Plus

Jaws @ 50

Genre: DocumentaryRun time: 1h 28mDirector: Laurent Bouzereau

The release of Jaws in 1975 transformed the movie industry and perceptions of sharks. This documentary combines archival footage and interviews with Steven Spielberg and other top filmmakers, including James Cameron, Guillermo del Toro, and George Lucas to reveal the story of how the first summer blockbuster was made, and explore its lasting impact.

Zombies 4: Dawn of the Vampires

Genre: MusicalRun time: 1h 29mDirector: Paul HoenCast: Milo Manheim, Meg Donnelly, Kylee Russell

Humans and all sorts of monsters live in peace in the town of Seabrook. But when car trouble strands alien Addison (Meg Donnelly) and zombie Zed (Milo Manheim) during their summer road trip, they wind up in the middle of a war between Daywalkers and vampires. They’ll have to try to bring the two groups together before the dance-offs get out of hand.

New on HBO Max

Opus

Genre: ThrillerRun time: 1h 44Director: Mark Anthony GreenCast: Ayo Edebiri, John Malkovich, Juliette Lewis

Former GQ editor Mark Anthony Green explores the cult of celebrity in this A24 film, where an enigmatic pop star (John Malkovich) invites a small group of journalists and influencers to hear his new album at his Utah compound. A young writer (Ayo Edebiri of Big Mouthand Inside Out 2) tries to figure out what’s going on with the musician’s strange followers even as everyone else falls under his sway.

From our review:

Opus, though it has some gory images and sudden reversals, is not a surprising film in the least; it’s deeply, but also satisfyingly, predictable. Its similarities to Midsommar, Blink Twice, and The Menu are not necessarily a sign of debut writer-director Mark Anthony Green borrowing too heavily from specific peers. To me, they’re a sign of this social-satire subgenre of horror — the one sometimes referred to, with either inverted snobbery or just plain snobbery, as “elevated horror” — settling into its own formulaic groove.

New on Hulu

Riff Raff

Genre: Dark comedyRun time: 1h 43mDirector: Dito MontielCast: Jennifer Coolidge, Ed Harris, Gabrielle Union

Vincent (Ed Harris), a former criminal, is spending the holidays with his wife and family in a remote cabin, when more family than he was planning for shows up. His estranged son is on the run from gangsters (Bill Murray and Pete Davidson) and have come seeking safety, along with Vincent’s ex-wife (Jennifer Coolidge).

New on Peacock

Drop

Genre: ThrillerRun time: 1h 35Director: Christopher LandonCast: Meghann Fahy, Brandon Sklenar, Violett Beane

First dates are always stressful, but things get terrifying for Violet (Meghann Fahy of The White Lotus) when hers is interrupted by a series of increasingly threatening phone messages. Someone is watching her every move, and is willing to break into her home and kill her son to get Violet to murder her date.

New on Shudder

Push

Genre: Horror thrillerRun time: 1h 29mDirector: David Charbonier and Justin Douglas PowellCast: Alicia Sanz, Raúl Castillo

The directors of The Boy Behind the Door combine the horrors of a home invasion and childbirth in Push, where a pregnant realtor is attacked at a showing for a possibly cursed house she’s trying to sell. When the assault sends her into labor, she’ll need to figure out how to escape a twisted killer before giving birth.

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Bang

Genre: Action thrillerRun time: 1h 28mDirector: Wych KaosayanandaCast: Jack Kesy, Tristin Mays, Marie Broenner

A notorious hitman has a literal change of heart after his life is saved by a transplant. He wants to make the most of his second chance, but will have to use all his skills and plenty of heavy weaponry to fight for redemption by killing his former gang, who probably should have just let him quietly retire.

Everything’s Going to Be Great

Genre: DramaRun time: 1h 35mDirector: Jon S. BairdCast: Allison Janney, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Bryan Cranston

Buddy Smart (Bryan Cranston) is a dreamer who risks everything to move his family across the country to take over a regional theater. Tensions mount between him and his more pragmatic wife (Allison Janney) when the audiences they need fail to manifest, forcing them to move in with her family.

Hot Spring Shark Attack

Genre: Horror comedyRun time: 1h 10mDirector: Morihito InoueCast: Takuya Fujimura, Daniel Aguilar, Shôichirô Akaboshi

In a particularly absurd spin on Jaws, the residents of a small town in Japan have to band together to fight an ancient shark that’s preying on visitors to the local hot spring ahead of the opening of a new spa meant to bring in tourists. The shark’s ability to fit into tight spaces means no one is safe.

Karate Kid: Legends

Genre: Family dramaRun time: 1h 34Director: Jonathan EntwistleCast: Jackie Chan, Ben Wang, Joshua Jackson

A continuation of the Karate Kid franchise and Cobra Kai, this movie features Mr. Han (Jackie Chan) and Daniel LaRusso (Ralph Macchio) teaming up to train a new martial arts prodigy to become a karate champion. Han’s niece (Ming-Na Wen) moves her family to New York and makes her son (Ben Wang) give up kung fu after his brother is killed, but he can’t resist fighting bullies.

The Phoenician Scheme

Genre: Black comedyRun time: 1h 45mDirector: Wes AndersonCast: Benicio del Toro, Mia Threapleton, Michael Cera

Set in the 1950s, Wes Anderson’s latest star-studded quirky comedy stars Benicio del Toro as an arms dealer whose latest brush with death leads him to try to reconnect with his nun daughter (Mia Threapleton). He teams up with her and an entomologist tutor (Michael Cera) to try to swindle his own investors (including Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Scarlett Johansson, and Jeffrey Wright) in the hopes that God (Bill Murray) will judge him kindly.

Sovereign

Genre: Crime thrillerRun time: 1h 40Director: Christian SwegalCast: Nick Offerman, Jacob Tremblay, Dennis Quaid

Inspired by real events, Sovereign follows Jerry Kane (Nick Offerman), who travels around the country with his son (Joe Kane) teaching people who feel they’ve been left behind by institutions about the Sovereign Citizen movement. As his anti-government rhetoric gets increasingly violent, Jerry ends up in a standoff with police and a manhunt led by Dennis Quaid.

The Unholy Trinity

Genre: WesternRun time: 1h 33Director: Richard GrayCast: Pierce Brosnan, Samuel L. Jackson, Tim Daly

Henry Broadway (Brandon Lessard) travels to Trinity, Montana after his father is executed and winds up caught between the town’s sheriff (Pierce Brosnan) and a charismatic outlaw (Samuel L. Jackson) looking for the gold he helped Henry’s dad steal. Henry will have to decide which side he’s on through a series of shootouts that threaten to tear the Trinity apart.

Watch the Skies

Genre: Science fictionRun time: 1h 55mDirector: Victor DanellCast: Inez Dahl Torhaug, Jesper Barkselius, Sara ShirpeyAfter her UFO-obsessed father disappears, a teenager goes on a quest for answers with the help of her father’s friends, trying to figure out if he was abducted by aliens or disappeared by a government conspiracy. Shot in Swedish, Watch the Skies is the first feature film to use AI to match the actors’ lip moments to the English dialogue.

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Shadow Miyazawa is the final boss of Miyazawa’s Palace in Persona 5: The Phantom X.

The fight against the dishonest food critic is full of tricks and gimmicks, so you’ll need to pay close attention to defeat him. Pick up on the little details to call out Miyazawa’s bluffs because if you attack the wrong person or object, the battle will become a lot more difficult.

Here’s how to beat the Shadow Miyazawa boss in Persona 5: The Phantom X.

How to beat the Shadow Miyazawa boss in Persona 5: The Phantom X

Before starting the Shadow Miyazawa boss fight, there are a few things you should know about the boss and the fight in general. We strongly recommend bringing an Ice and Physical damage dealer, either as Wonder’s Personas or as another party member, and a Medic as Miyazawa can deal a lot of damage in one turn if you make a mistake. For your last slot, feel free to bring your strongest damage dealer. However, make sure to avoid Psychic damage dealers as their damage is nullified.

Additionally, you’ll need a way to remove debuffs from your characters. Bring along a Medic that can remove debuffs like Minami Miyashita or Morgana or grab a Persona with the Patra ability such as Silky. You can also use items like Relax Gels and Alert Capsules if you don’t have any of the other methods.

Phase 1

During the first phase, you’ll face off against Miyazawa himself. There are no gimmicks or tricks here, so feel free to damage him as you please. Once Miyazawa drops to 50% HP or below, the fight will move on to phase two.

Phase 2 — Clones

In phase two, Miyazawa will summon two clones of himself, and if you hit a fake Miyazawa, he’ll immediately deal damage to the whichever character hit him. From here on out, don’t use AOE attacks because the clones will immediately counter.

To find the real Miyazawa, watch each Miyazawa’s idle animation very closely. One of the Miyazawas starts to doze off and you can see his head nod up and down. He’ll then try to wake himself up by shaking his head.

Alternatively, you can either hit each one or wait until the real Miyazawa goes in for an attack. Just after the real Miyzawa attacks, he’ll drop his sword onto the ground and retreat to his position. Now you’re free to attack the real Miyazawa for a turn before the three swap places. However, if you successfully damaged the real Miyazawa, you can look for whichever one has a lower health pool and focus on that one.

Phase 3

After the lengthy cut scene, you’ll end up in phase three, which doesn’t have any tricks that you need to look out for. However, Miyazawa will be a lot stronger than the previous phases. He’ll attack a single target and then deal AOE damage to everyone else in the party, so make sure to heal before he gets a turn.

Phase 4 — Nuisance

In phase four, Miyazawa will apply the Nuisance debuff to one of your characters and retreat into the wall behind him. With your healthiest or curse-resistant character, remove the Nuisance debuff through a Persona skill or either the Relax Gel or Alert Capsule items, or else the character afflicted with Nuisance will start to attack the other party members. With your other party members, use guard to lower the damage of the upcoming attack.

After he shows himself, deal as much damage to him as you can and repeat the process until you move onto phase five.

Phase 5 — Cameras

For the fifth phase, Miyazawa will spawn two cameras that are weak to Physical damage. The cameras themselves don’t really do anything, but, if you destroy the two cameras, Miyazawa will stop what he’s doing and enter a vulnerable state where he’s free to attack. Make sure to destroy the cameras as fast as possible because Miyazawa will target one of your party members and deal a lot of damage.

After the cameras have been destroyed, the fight will return to normal with no gimmicks or tricks. Deplete Miyazawa’s health pool to move onto phase six.

Phase 6 — Swords

The sixth phase is the final phase and one of the most dangerous if you don’t know what to look out for. Miyazawa will summon four swords that are weak to Ice and only one of the swords is real, like the clones in phase two.

The real sword has a magenta colored tassel attached to the hilt, so make sure to look for the tassel before attacking any of the swords. If you attack a fake sword, Miyazawa will receive an attack buff, and, if you happen to destroy a fake sword, he’ll unleash a powerful AOE attack. Avoid using any AOE attacks when the swords come out or else Miyazawa will become a very difficult fight.

Additionally, when performing a “One More” attack, avoid using an Ice attack because the attack will go to one of the fake swords — giving Miyazawa a buff. Instead, use one of your other party members because they’ll attack the sword with the lowest HP.

After you destroy the real sword, Miyazawa will attack your whole party and you’re free to attack him until he repeats the whole sword process again. Continue through the fight by destroying the sword with the tassel until you successfully defeat Shadow Miyazawa.

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James Gunn’s Superman avoids rehashing the Man of Steel’s origin story, instead opening with a simple round of on-screen exposition explaining that Kal-El arrived on Earth 30 years ago, and has been known as the most powerful superhero on the planet for the past three years. But the film’s intro also contains another detail that will shape the rebooted DC Universe in film and on TV: People in this setting have been aware of metahumans for 300 years.

Metahumans in DC Comics are normal humans with a special gene that can give them superpowers. Unlike Marvel’s mutants, who typically manifest their abilities during puberty, DC metahumans typically have to be exposed to some sort of extreme circumstance, like intense stress or dark matter. Gunn is using a broader definition of the term by making it apply to Superman, whose powers come from being a Kryptonian, and to pretty much anyone else with superpowers.

In Gunn’s DCU, metahumans are no longer a terrifying new phenomenon, and have become more like celebrities. But why set their debut 300 years ago? The most likely reason is he just liked the parallelism of everything in his pocket history of the world coming in threes, since the crawl also has Superman intervening in a war in Boravia three weeks ago, starting a relationship with Lois Lane three months ago, and losing his first fight three minutes ago. Still, the “300 years” framing has implications for which familiar DC metahumans are known to be active in this new setting.

How long have metahumans been around in DC Comics?

Metahumans go way back in DC Comics. The first one is the supervillain Vandal Savage, a prehistoric man who was exposed to a meteorite that made him immortal 50,000 years ago. He’s often been at odds with Hawkman and Hawkgirl, who in some versions of their story have been reincarnating since ancient Egypt. Superman’s Hawkgirl doesn’t get any backstory, so it’s unclear whether this version is reincarnated, an alien from the planet Thanagar, or something else entirely.

There are lots of other very old characters with superpowers in DC Comics. Black Adam also hails from ancient Egypt. Wonder Woman’s age isn’t especially clear, but her mom Hippolyta goes back to ancient Greece. Jason Blood has been around since the 6th century, when Merlin bound him to the demon Etrigan. Ra’s al Ghul dates back to the 13th century, staying young with the power of the Lazarus Pit.

The fact that metahumans have been common knowledge for 300 years in Gunn’s DCU doesn’t necessarily mean that none of these characters exist in this setting. Black Adam was imprisoned for 5,000 years before the beginning of Jaume Collet-Serra’s 2022 film, and Vandal Savage, Ra’s al Ghul, and Jason Blood all prefer to operate in the shadows. The Amazonian island Themyscira could remain hiding until the Wonder Woman movie Gunn says is in development.

Who were the first metahumans to appear in Gunn’s DCU?

It remains to be seen how metahumans revealed themselves to the world 300 years ago. The oldest ones Gunn has introduced to the DCU are Creature Commandos’ Eric Frankenstein and the Bride of Frankenstein, who are about 200 years old. There aren’t any DC Comics stories set in the 18th century, unless you count the parts of The Sandman featuring Johanna Constantine. The 19th century introduces the Civil War veteran Jonah Hex and is the setting from the Elseworlds Gotham by Gaslight stories. DC Comics history really gets going in the 20th century. It seems like the 300-year mark gives Gunn the freedom to tell whatever story he wants, free from canon constraints. But as the DCU continues to unfold, we’ll see whether he has a specific hero or villain in mind to define that 300-year timeline.

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Donkey Kong Bananza will add even more chaos to the confounding timeline of the Donkey Kong games, which over the past 40-plus years, has been a tangled mess of contradictions and confusion.

But Nintendo’s revelations about Pauline and its coyness about her age — she’s just 13 years old in this game — plays into the story of Donkey Kong Bananza offer a glimmer of hope that the Switch 2 exclusive might help clear some things up. And this is big news for weirdos who think about the Donkey Kong timeline.

Of course, this is Nintendo after all, a company that has both contorted itself to try to explain away the diverging timelines of The Legend of Zelda franchise but also loves a paradox in which Baby Mario and adult Mario exist in the same time period and race karts against each other. The company is here to make fun games and put smiles on faces, even if it means frowns for the people who try to dissect whether Cranky Kong is Donkey Kong’s father, grandfather, or an older version of Donkey Kong himself.

In order to understand (or try to understand) the Donkey Kong timeline, we need to start at the beginning: 1981’s Donkey Kong.

Who even is Donkey Kong anyway?

Nintendo’s original arcade platformer game establishes that Mario (aka Jumpman) must rescue damsel-in-distress Pauline (aka Lady), who has been kidnapped by Donkey Kong. It wasn’t established at the time why DK wants to secure Pauline — Love? Hatred of Mario? — because arcade games of the ’80s didn’t have ROM space to waste on things like “narrative.”

Later games would establish events in the Donkey Kong timeline that occur prior to the events of Donkey Kong. 2006’s Yoshi’s Island DS confirmed the existence of Baby DK, an infant version of Donkey Kong roughly the same age as Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, and Baby Peach, which would assuredly put that game in the distant past. Remember: Mario is canonically (permanently?) about 25 years old, which means the Yoshi’s Island game occurs decades before Donkey Kong. Anyway, Baby DK wears a red bib with the initials “DK” in yellow, similar to how adult Donkey Kong wears a monogrammed red tie. (I’ll also note here that Baby DK and adult Donkey Kong exist in the same time-space, as established by 2005 baseball game Mario Super Sluggers.)

Baby DK’s connection to the baby Mario Bros. and other Mushroom Kingdom infants is fleeting, and he is presumably returned to his ape troop after the events of Yoshi’s Island DS.

Sometime between the events of Yoshi’s Island DS and Donkey Kong, Mario and Donkey Kong cross paths again in Donkey Kong Circus, a 1984 Game & Watch game in which Donkey Kong is forced to perform while in captivity, juggling pineapples (and avoiding fireballs) while birling on a barrel. Should DK fail in his task, Mario proceeds to laugh his ass off at the ape’s misfortune.

Donkey Kong Circus appears to provide proper justification for Donkey Kong to seek revenge on Mario, namely by kidnapping Pauline and throwing barrels and sentient fireballs at her would-be rescuer.

Donkey Kong Jr., which introduces the concept of Donkey Kong as a father and presents Mario as a huge dick, follows Donkey Kong. Junior must reclaim his father, who has been abducted by a whip-wielding Mario after the violence of its predecessor. In games set after the events of Donkey Kong Jr., the senior Donkey Kong breaks into Stanley the Bugman’s greenhouse — from Game & Watch game Greenhouse — and having escaped Mario and Stanley’s constant harrying, pauses to teach Junior basic arithmetic (see Donkey Kong Jr. Math).

At this point, the Donkey Kong timeline shatters.

Donkey Kong Country for Old Men

After more than a decade out of the spotlight, 1994’s Donkey Kong Country establishes that the Donkey Kong seen in Donkey Kong and subsequent arcade and NES games has aged considerably, and is now known as Cranky Kong. The Donkey Kong that stars in and is playable in Donkey Kong Country is the grandson of Cranky Kong (the original Donkey Kong) and the son of Donkey Kong Jr.

Adding to the confusion is that, just a few months prior to Donkey Kong Country’s debut on Super NES, Nintendo released Donkey Kong, a Game Boy reimagining of the original Donkey Kong that expands Mario’s quest to rescue Pauline into a globetrotting puzzle adventure. So, two entirely separate apes known as Donkey Kong get games that year.

Donkey Kong Country builds the foundation for a long list of Kongs, including the “new” Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Dixie Kong, and Wrinkly Kong — Cranky Kong’s late wife and therefore Donkey Kong’s grandmother, who is also a ghost. Later games in the Donkey Kong franchise, building on the new canon established by developer Rare, add even more Kongs, but keep much of the action centered on Kong Island and surrounding lands and the new Donkey Kong.

Despite Rare’s intention to turn the original Donkey Kong into Cranky Kong and establish a new identity for Donkey Kong, it seems that Nintendo, Rare, and other developers behind games like Super Smash Bros. and Mario vs. Donkey Kong can’t agree on the whole Crank-Junior-Donkey Kong lineage. Older games claim that the Donkey Kong that appeared in the arcade original is the Donkey Kong we know and play as today. Some recent games, like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, however, affirm the idea that Cranky Kong is grandfather to the character Donkey Kong, but the recent Super Mario Bros. Movie makes it pretty clear that Cranky is DK’s father, not grandfather. In some Rare-developed games, Cranky confusingly refers to Donkey as “son.”

Suffice it to say, the Donkey Kong family tree and timeline is confusing, and one should probably resign oneself to the canon established by the Rare games, in which the original Donkey Kong seen in 1981’s Donkey Kong is now Cranky Kong.

However! Donkey Kong Bananza appears to take place between the events of Yoshi’s Island DS and the original Donkey Kong, based on the age of Pauline. She’s just 13 years old in the Switch 2 game, much younger than her appearance in Donkey Kong and subsequent games, like Mario vs. Donkey Kong and Super Mario Odyssey. Exactly how Nintendo plans to explain this is unclear, especially since Cranky Kong, Diddy Kong, and Dixie Kong from Donkey Kong Country games set generations after the original Donkey Kong are also in Bananza!

Given Nintendo’s liberal use of time travel shenanigans in the Super Mario universe and a general “You guys really care about this shit?” attitude when it comes to gelling decades of canon, don’t expect a satisfying answer to how Teen Pauline fits into the larger Donkey Kong timeline. Or why Donkey Kong in Bananza has been slightly redesigned to match his classic look. Whatever the explanation, it’s enticing enough to care about seeing through Donkey Kong Bananza’s story, and uncovering what lies beneath the game’s deep layers.

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The peaceful Suburbia map in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 hides many secrets and you need to uncover themto get the Suburbia secret tape.

Old and new fans can skate around in classic maps like Suburbia in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4. The two titles are receiving the modernizing treatment that the first two games got five years ago, but keeping the series DNA by challenging players to complete a number of goals to progress in the campaign. Among these, finding the secret tape has always been one of the most difficult missions in the games.

In this Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 guide, we show you how to get the secret tape in the Suburbia map, covering all the steps you need to go through to reach the tape.

How to get the secret tape in the Suburbia level in THPS 3

Suburbia’s secret tape is floating on a flag pole above the big tree in front of the ramp from where we begin the level. The big question is how to reach it.

First, you need to complete the “Help the Thin Man” goal. You don’t need to complete the Thin Man’s mission and collect the tape in the same run. Focus on first completing the “Help the Thin Man,” then in the next run you can try getting the secret tape.

The Thin Man is a quite suspicious figure who is standing next to the haunted house beside where the secret tape is. To help him, you need to collect an axe that is stuck in a piece of wood in the construction site area. Slide on the wood or just pass close to the axe to grab it. The axe won’t stay in your inventory if you don’t manage to get it to the Thin Man before the level ends. So if you run out of time, you’ll need to start a new run and grab the axe again.

Delivering the axe prompts a short cutscene and opens a passage to a secret area behind the house. This passage will always be open after you have completed this goal. It will take you through a corridor that ends in a a vertical ramp. Use it to propel you to the hidden area on the other side of the wall.

In the new area, there is a bow that you need to gain velocity and reach a window at the backside of the house that you can break to enter a new corridor. Once you get there, you can jump from the other end to reach where the secret tape is.

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Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 + 4 is out now, and with it comes a wave of early 2000s nostalgia. Developer Iron Galaxy’s pseudo-remake perfectly recaptures the joys of grinding around airports while peppering in some new skateparks of its own. More crucially, it brings back some of the greatest punk rock bangers to ever grace a video game soundtrack. Classic songs from Adolescents and CKY return for the remake, but the soundtrack is much more robust than that. In fact, the bulk of the songs featured are entirely new additions, bringing in everything from modern hip-hop artists to gloriously sloppy punk bands.

While that may disappoint some purists, the new music is the highlight of the package. It contains a bounty of killer tracks that fit right in alongside Motörhead’s“Ace of Spades.” From my early hours spent skating around in search of secret tapes, I’ve found a music discovery tool that’s far more effective than Spotify. There’s value in a heavily curated playlist built around a specific vibe rather than the loose recommendations of an algorithm. It feels like listening to a mixtape hand-made by Tony Hawk himself.

With so many new artists featured, the idea of finding your new favorite musician in that playlist may feel a little daunting. So, in the spirit of curation, allow me to sort through the record crate and hand you a few gems. These are some of my own favorite artists featured in the game who really capture the spirit of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and the skate culture that birthed it. If you dig the songs included in the soundtrack, consider checking out their albums — and preferably in a way that will actually pay out for them.

Jeff Rosenstock

Recommended album: Hellmode

Even before the remake was announced, I dreamed of the day when Jeff Rosenstock would be featured in a Tony Hawk game. The cult icon has been a staple of the New York punk scene ever since his days in The Arrogant Sons of Bitches and Bomb the Music Industry. He’s since spun that into a successful solo career that’s earned him a loyal fanbase. I saw him perform at a residency in Brooklyn a few months back and the guy ripped through a 36-song setlist where he played through an entire album, front to back, and stopped to cover a bunch of Neil Young songs with Laura Stevenson (who just released her terrific new album, Late Great). Rosenstock’s excellent “Head,” a blitz of a punk song, is featured in THPS 3 + 4. If you dig it, there’s plenty more where that came from.

Vince Staples

Recommended album: Summertime ‘06

The Tony Hawk games aren’t just about celebrating skate culture, but also California, where Tony Hawk made a name for himself. The Pro Skater’s series’ soundtracks have long paid tributed to bands from cities like Los Angeles, and THPS 3 + 4 very much continues that run. Not only that, but it makes an active effort to represent more genres of music, including hip-hop. As a result, Long Beach rapper Vince Staples gets a well-earned spot on the soundtrack with his 2015 single Norf Norf. It’s a great choice too, as it’s the breakout song that helped springboard the rapper to what’s since been a consistent career. While he’s put out several albums since then, his debut Summertime ‘06 remains a fantastic starting point if you’re looking to dig in.

Danny Brown

Recommended album: Old

Few musicians are as unmistakable as Danny Brown. Even if you don’t know his name, you’ll instantly be able to identify him by his untraditional voice. Even before finding mainstream success with albums like XXX and Old, the Detroit rapper was making a name for himself as a gust on tracks by the likes of El-P, and Ab-Soul. He’s since gone from a prolific feature artist to the main attraction, getting more experimental with each new release. That came to a head in 2023 with Scaring the Hoes, his excellent collaboration with JPEGMafia. You might want to work your way up to that one, so I’d recommend getting your feet wet with the critically acclaimed Old first.

Fontaines D.C.

Recommended album: Romance

There are plenty of rising artists on the soundtrack, but Fontaines D.C. are currently on the most meteoric run of the bunch. The Irish rock outfit has been impressing critics since 2019 with albums like Dogrel, where THPS 3 + 4 highlight Boys in the Better Land comes from. They took off like a rocket last year with the release of Romance, their biggest commercial success to date. You may, in fact, already be familiar with their music. Their hit “Starburster” soundtracked Borderlands 4’s debut trailer at last year’s Game Awards, and is also the title credit song for Paramount Plus show Mobland. Don’t be surprised if you see them popping up in more video games soon.

Wavves

Recommended album: King of the Beach

THPS 3 + 4 is a great early 2000s time capsule, but it also takes me back to 2008. That was right smack dab in the era of “blog rock” bands, as music outlets like Pitchfork were creating careers for acts like Tapes ‘n Tapesand Vampire Weekend. One of my favorite bands to come out of that era was Wavves, a San Diego project from songwriter Nathan Williams. The band’s debut, King of the Beach, is peak blog rock. It’s an energetic little debut headlined by the killer surf title track now featured in THPS 3 + 4. While that album is still arguably their best, Wavves has kept kicking since. Their latest album, Spun, just released in late June and it’s still as peppy as ever.

X-Ray Spex

Recommended album: Germfree Adolescents

While I love that THPS 3 + 4 includes so many newer artists, it’s important to pay respects to the classics too. That’s why I’m so happy to see X-Ray Spex in the mix with the furious “Identity.” The short-lived British punk band was the brainchild of singer Poly Styrene, an artist who went on to influence the ‘90s riot grrrl movement in America. If you’ve never heard them before, you owe it to yourself to check out Germfree Adolescents, the band’s only album during its original run (they would briefly reunite in 1995 for a final album). It’s a foundational punk record full of shrieking guitar riffs that paved the way for plenty of bands that would go on to become Pro Skater staples.

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We were supposed to get a Black Superman movie. During a 2021 interview with Polygon, author and journalist Ta-Nehisi Coates, who was hired by Warner Bros. to write the film, opened up about his excitement over the opportunity. His greatest hope for what would ultimately a major twist on Superman’s cinematic legacy: that people could “have an experience of their own with the art” and allow his “Superman to have his chance.”

All signs point to Coates’ Superman not having his chance. According to a new report from the Wall Street Journal, the studio’s Superman reboot announced in 2021, which was to be produced by J.J. Abrams, was dismissed by WB CEO David Zaslav in 2022 for the movie’s racial themes. According to anonymous insiders, James Gunn, who now runs DC Studios for WB, still thinks the movie could happen, although Coates’ film wasn’t part of his initial DCU slate announcement.

Coates’ vision for the film reportedly revolved around a reimagined Kal-El and was set during America’s Civil Rights era, which would put him alongside real-life heroes like Dorothy Height, James Baldwin, Martin Luther King Jr., Daisy Bates, and Malcolm X. However, to “fix” a derailed and misguided DC that was coming off the Zack Snyder era, Zaslav canceled the film, asserting that the project was “too woke” (WSJ’s words, paraphrasing insider sources).

I know the internet loves the new co-opted definition of the term “woke.” I know that the crusades against “wokeness” — a term given to seemingly anything with a message that isn’t straight, white, and male-centered — are all the rage these days. (Emphasis on rage.) And yes, I know that, in Zaslav’s case, things being “woke” is likely a euphemism for “no Black stories allowed if said stories challenge or simply state a historical fact opposed to the opinion of loud rich white people.” But we can all agree that pejoratively calling something like Superman, whether Black or white, “woke” is a little foolish?

The term “stay woke” originated as an African American Vernacular English (AAVE) phrase that urged people to stay aware of political issues that plagued Black Americans. These issues are typically associated with racial and social injustices that Black people faced at the hands of legalized racist ideologies like segregation during the 20th century. Protest songs like Lead Belly’s 1938 “Scottsboro Boys” — a track referencing the nine African American teens who were falsely accused of raping two white women in Alabama and denied a fair trial — called for Black Americans to be aware of the social injustices around the country. In an interview about the trial and the song, Lead Belly doubled down on his mission to keep his brothers and sisters socially aware, calling for them to “stay woke and keep your eyes open.“

Since then, Black artists and activists have carried on the spirit of staying woke to the injustices around them. Activist Georgia Anne Muldrow, the woman who introduced new, modernized version of the “woke” term to neo-soul legend Erykah Badu and uttered the words on the 2008 track, “Master Teacher,” echoed Lead Belly’s sentiments and detailed the term as “definitely a black experience” and “understanding what your ancestors went through…just being in touch with the struggle that our people have gone through here and understanding we’ve been fighting since the very day we touched down [in America].”

As time and Black people have marched on, “stay woke” transformed into a rallying cry, becoming the backbone of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2014. Black folks, along with allies in the fight, continued onward in the mission to stay socially conscious of America’s historically oppressive systems, which, as you know, impacts all Americans.

In the aftermath of the BLM protests, the term underwent a third transformation; right-wing media had co-opted the term, mutating the phrase’s essence into a contested, negative criticism often flung at people of color and other allied parties. In 2025, the term exists as a catch-all for anything that is socially seen as “other” or people fighting for the rights of the “other.” Which even includes a white Superman, apparently.

Superman is an alien from the planet Krypton. By definition, Kal-El, whether Black, white, or half-Japanese in Lois & Clark star Dean Cain’s case, is an immigrant, in both the literal and metaphorical sense. And Superman has always been conscious of its social efforts to thwart the villainous machinations of comically crafted evildoers, whether it’s punching Nazis in 1938’s Action Comics #1 or stomping on the tech bro oligarchy in Gunn’s 2025 Superman — being “woke” is a part of the gig, guys. Cape comics are built on the foundational principles of vigilantism and the act of fighting for what’s right, not fighting for the right.

If the WSJ report is accurate in David Zaslav describing Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Superman project as “too woke” — and it’s conceivable considering how it’s the culture-war terminology of the day — he’s using a bastardized version of “stay woke.” Which bears repeating: Considering the true origin of being “woke” and how it has been co-opted to suppress, oppress, and repress marginalized communities, why it is socially taboo to give a voice to the voiceless and why stories different than your own experience make you uncomfortable?

To “stay woke” is to stay true to the fight that my ancestors fought before me, and while it’s upsetting that Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Superman and other projects are demonized for fighting for what’s right, it’s not surprising; this is precisely what Lead Belly wanted us to be aware of. So stay woke.

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Magic: The Gathering is venturing into a new genre with the science fantasy set Edge of Eternities, a space opera set in a rich world featuring a holy war, the return of the Eldrazi, and spaceships that can travel through the planets of the Sothera system. Wizards of the Coast has been slowly doling out previews at some of the new cards ahead of the set’s Aug. 1 release, Polygon has three uncommons to exclusively reveal.

The white instant Reroute Systems can either deal two damage to a tapped creature or give an artifact or creature indestructible until the end of turn. It’s a decent combat trick for limited play where it will be nice to be able to protect your spaceship, especially after you’ve spent turns stationing creatures on it. The new “Station” mechanic also makes the other half of the card better since it might let you kill a creature your opponent tapped to put counters on their own spacecraft. Reroute Systems could also find a home in Feather, the Redeemed Commander decks that can capitalize on its low cost by playing it over and over again.

The red artifact creature Roving Actuator uses “Void,” another new mechanic from Edge of Eternities, meaning you’ll want to play it on a turn when a nonland permanent has left the battlefield or a spell was warped in order to exile an instant or sorcery from your graveyard that costs 2 mana or less and then cast a copy of it for free. Red has plenty of cheap spells it can use to take advantage of this ability and Edge of Eternities has already revealed a lot of robots, so its type might wind up being important. It could also play well in decks that incorporate Blink effects, Treasure, or Clues to ensure you’re always triggering Void.

Seedship Broodtender is a green-black insect that mills three cards when it comes into play and can be sacrificed at the cost of 3BG to return a creature or spacecraft to the battlefield at sorcery speed. Eumidians are an insectoid species that have been terraforming Sothera’s planet Evendo, which means Edge of Eternities offers plenty of insects to build a deck around. Golgari insects was already a well-supported Commander archetype led by Grist, the Hunger Tide and Zask, Skittering Swarmlord, so Seedship Broodtender would be right at home in those decks.

Edge of Eternities will be released worldwide on Aug. 1. Prerelease events will be held from July 25-31, with the set also releasing on MTG Arena and Magic Online on July 29.

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Symbiotes and searing flames are the themes for Marvel Rivals‘ Season 3 battle pass skins. The likes of Wolverine and Namor get Phoenix-inspired outfits in blazing crimsons and gold, while Groot, Jeff the Land Shark, and Spider-Man embrace their inner villains with looks inspired by Klyntar, the symbiote planet and Rivals‘ newest map. There’s a handful of other, off-theme skins as well, along with the usual array of sprays, currency, and other items up for grabs in the free and paid battle pass.

Below, we’ve listed all the Marvel Rivals Season 3 skins and battle pass rewards, along with which ones you need the luxury pass for and how much they cost.

Marvel Rivals Season 3 skins list: How many skins are in the battle pass?

You can get 10 new skins in Marvel Rivals Season 3’s battle pass, all of which cost Chrono Tokens and eight of which require you to own the Luxury Pass, Marvel Rivals-speak for the battle pass’ premium track. The Luxury Pass costs 990 lattice, or approximately $10. You can earn a few hundred lattice in each season’s free battle pass, but as it’s Rivals’ premium currency, the only other way to acquire lattice is by spending real money for it.

These are all the battle pass skins this season.

As with Marvel Rivals‘ battle pass in previous seasons, you’ll need to earn Chrono Tokens to unlock each page and spend Tokens to purchase the items on that page, even if you own the premium pass. Finally, NetEase is continuing the feature it introduced in Season 2 where you can spend 1,000 Chrono Tokens to get 100 units after completing the battle pass.

Squirrel Girl: Symbiote Squirrel (Page 1)

Squirrel Girl’s Symbiote Squirrel skin unlocks when you purchase the luxury pass and is the only one that doesn’t cost Chrono Tokens. Page 1 doesn’t come with a second skin this time, but there are other emotes and unlockables, all of which cost 200 Chrono Tokens.

Fun for all emote (Squirrel Girl)Symbiote Squirrel sprayPhoenix nameplateSymbiote Squirrel nameplate (luxury pass)Alien Awesomeness MVP screen for Squirrel Girl (luxury pass)100 unstable molecules (luxury pass)

Black Panther: Golden Panther (Page 2)

Black Panther’s new Golden Panther skin costs 400 Chrono Tokens, and the rest of the unlockables on Page 2 will run you the usual 200 Chrono Tokens each. You need to earn at least 1,200 Chrono Tokens to unlock this page.

Black Panther emblem sprayGolden Panther sprayGolden Panther nameplate100 unitsMystic Herb Might emote for Black Panther (luxury pass)100 lattice (luxury pass)

Wolverine: Weapon Phoenix (Page 3)

Wolverine’s new Phoenix Force skin is the highlight of Page 3 and costs 400 Chrono Tokens, while the rest of it goes for 200 Chrono Tokens apiece. Unlocking Page 3 requires a total of 2,400 Chrono Tokens earned in Season 3.

Wolverine emblem sprayWeapon Phoenix sprayFiery Fury emote for Wolverine100 unstable moleculesWeapon Phoenix nameplate (luxury pass)100 units (luxury)

Groot: Symbiote Flora (Page 4)

Tree man’s colorful new skin, Symbiote Flora, costs 400 Chrono Tokens on Page 4, and it doesn’t require the luxury pass. You can also splash out 200 Chrono Tokens each on sprays and emotes, and you need to earn at least 3,600 Chrono Tokens to access this page.

100 units100 unstable moleculesGroot emblem spraySymbiote Flora spraySymbiote Flora nameplateBlossoming Hope Groot emote

Namor: Phoenix King (Page 5)

Namor’s shiny (literally) new costume, Phoenix King, costs the usual 400 Chrono Tokens, while the rest goes for 200. Unlocking Page 5 requires at least 4,800 Chrono Tokens.

100 latticePhoenix King sprayPhoenix King nameplateDivine Assisstance MVP screen for Namor (luxury pass)Burst of laughter emote for Namor (luxury pass)100 units (luxury pass)

Flarkin’ Klyntar Gallery Card (Page 6)

Page 6 costs 6,000 Chrono Tokens to unlock, and then you can spend 200 more Tokens to get the Klyntar gallery card.

Adam Warlock: King in White (Page 7)

Adam Warlock’s sleek new King in White look is the Big Thing on Page 7 and costs 400 Chrono Tokens. The rest of the nameplates and sprays cost the usual 200 Tokens each, and unlocking the page requires 7,200 Tokens.

100 unitsAll Black collectableBlade nameplateKing in White sprayKing in White nameplate100 units (luxury)

Spider-Man: Black Suit (Page 8)

Spider-Man’s symbiote suit finally makes its debut in Marvel Rivals, and he even gets a little dance emote to go along with it. The prices are the same as they are for the rest of the battle pass – 400 Tokens for the skin, 200 apiece for everything else. Unlocking the page costs 8,400 Tokens.

100 unstable moleculesBlack Suit sprayBlack Suit nameplateEvil Dance emote for Spider-Man (luxury)Ties Reforged MVP screen for Spider-Man (luxury)100 lattice (luxury)

Emma Frost: Phoenix Diamond (Page 9)

Emma’s new skin is the Jane Grey-inspired Phoenix Diamond, which you get for 400 Chrono Tokens. Unlocking the page costs 9,600 Chrono Tokens. The other items cost 200 Tokens and are:

Fiery Toast emote for Emma FrostPhoenix Diamond spray100 units100 lattice (luxury pass)Phoenix Diamond nameplate (luxury pass)Celestial Flames MVP screen for Emma Frost (luxury pass)

Rocket Raccoon: Symbiote Raccoon (Page 10)

Rocket Raccoon’s Venom cosplay, Symbiote Raccoon, costs you 400 Chrono Tokens, but it and everything else on Page 10 is claimable without the luxury pass. You just need 200 Chrono Tokens for every other item and 10,800 Chrono Tokens to unlock the page.

100 unstable moleculesVictory Bound MVP screen for Rocket RaccoonSymbiote Raccoon spraySymbiote Racoon nameplateJeff the Land Shark emblemCozy Chaos emote for Rocket Raccoon

Jeff the Land Shark: Devouring Duo (Page 11)

Symbiotes everywhere, and Jeff the Land Shark is one of them. His cute little evil alter ego  Devouring Duo skin has a price tag of 400 Chrono Tokens, and everything else on Page 11 costs 200 Chrono Tokens. Unlocking the page costs 12,000 Tokens.

100 latticeDevouring Duo sprayCohesive Cling emote for Jeff the Land Shark (luxury pass)100 lattice (luxury pass)Devouring Duo nameplate (luxury pass)Master of the Playground MVP screen for Jeff the Land Shark (luxury pass)

Light in the Darkness gallery card (Page 12)

Earn 13,200 Chrono Tokens in total to unlock this page, and then spend 200 more to get the pass’ final gallery card.

For more Marvel Rivals guides, here’s an up-to-date list of all the active Team-Up Abilities in Season 3.

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In Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, the skate park in Canada is perfect for long sequences of moves and tricks, which is exactly what you need to complete the “Impress the Skaters” mission.

Canada is still the second map you unlock in the revamped version of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3+4. Because of that, you need to complete as many missions in this level as you can to unlock the Rio, the first competition park. The “Impress the Skaters” goal is a good option to focus on, because you can complete other missions at the same time.

Below, we explain how to impress the skaters in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3 Canada level and some tips on how to achieve the scores you need.

How to impress the skaters in THPS 3

To complete the Canada “Impress the skaters” mission, you need to hit scores of 5,000 points or higher next to five skaters who are spread around the skatepark. There isn’t a predetermined method or any specific trick you need to include in your combo to impress them. We do have, however, a few suggestions if you’re having trouble hitting 5,000.

Part of the challenge to complete this goal is to do it within the time limit. With this in mind, we came up with the following route. To impress the first skater, who is next to the starting area, you can go for a slide, manual plus any other move combo in the bowl to hit the score you need.

After this one, your next target should be the skater to the right of the first skater’s bowl. They’re standing at the top of a vertical ramp. You can start heading to where they are located doing a flip and holding a manual until you reach the top of the ramp. When you get there, perform a slide. If you don’t fall, you’ll definitely get a high enough score.

The next three skaters are close to each other. The third you should focus on is located to the left of the first skater at the top of another vertical ramp. You can follow the same strategy we used with the second skater to impress this third one since the structures around them are similar**.**

The fourth skater is to the right side of the third. To get the points you need, start by skating on the rail in front of them, follow it up by doing a manual, and then using the ramps for an ollie and a couple of flips.

The last skater is close to the fourth one near the tallest ramp in the area. You can get a good combo with aerial tricks connected by reversals and manuals. Another option you have is to use the edge of the ramps to slide, drop connecting a manual, and then doing a simple aerial.

You’ll want to practice this route a couple of times before landing all the points you need. Besides memorizing their locations, you need to land all the tricks without falling to be sure to hit the scores you need. If you don’t want to stress too much about it, you can activate the “No Bails” mod in the Game Mods section in the Options menu to prevent you from falling. This mod doesn’t guarantee a 5,000+ combo, but at least makes the task less punishing.

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Fans have spent the last few years eagerly awaiting the early access release of Subnautica 2, the sequel to the underwater survival game that was supposed to be playable by 2025. Instead, publisher Krafton announced that the futuristic exploration game would be delayed until 2026. While disappointing, news of this sort is rote: Games get delayed all the time. But the circumstances around the delay involve a lawsuit, an attempt by Krafton defend its reputation and a Subnautica community in complete turmoil.

In early July, Krafton first caused a stir after it revealed that leadership at Unknown Worlds, the developers behind the hit game, were leaving the company. These included Subnautica 2 director Charlie Cleaveland, Unknown Worlds co-founder Max McGuire, and CEO Ted Gill. A new CEO was appointed, and while Krafton promised that the internal changes would help development gain some momentum, things seemed amiss. Charlie Cleveland was calling the ousting “quite a shock” after dedicating much of his career to building the company that would go on to sell millions of copies of a survival game. Cleveland reminisced on his years in the gaming industry in a heartfelt social media post where he also claimed that Subnautica 2 was already ready to hit early access — but that the future of the game was now squarely in Krafton’s hands.

A week later, Krafton posted an update on Subnautica 2 that included the very first gameplay reveal for the upcoming game. There, the publisher said that recent playtests had been encouraging, but that ultimately it did not feel that the game was ready for early access just yet. The playtests “provided some insight that there are a few areas where we needed to improve before launching the first version of Subnautica 2 to the world,” the post reads. “Our community is at the heart of how we develop, so we want to give ourselves a little extra time to respond to more of that feedback before releasing the game into Early Access.” By pushing the game back, Krafton said, the development team would be able to flesh out new biomes, mechanics, and story beats that would not be possible if the game were released earlier.

The discrepancy in the two narratives put forth by the people who had worked on the game and the people who actually own the game is, by itself, enough to raise eyebrows. But what really sparked ire for Subnautica fans is a recent report by Bloomberg that claimed the delay was happening on the precipice of an upcoming $250M bonus payout for the developers working on the game. The money was tied to an unspecified sales target that Unknown Worlds was forecasted to hit had it been able to release Subnautica 2 in early access in 2025 as it originally planned. With a delay, however, there will presumably be no payout.

Since the report, Krafton has released a testy statement on the Subnautica 2 ordeal. “We are deeply disappointed by the former leadership’s conduct, and above all, we feel a profound sense of betrayal by their failure to honor the trust placed in them by our fans,” a Krafton representative told Polygon.

Krafton maintains that the management decisions were made in an effort to create the best possible game and noted that it still intends to honor the rewards it promised the team. The publisher also says that the agreement at the center of it all would have routed most of the $250M toward the three people who recently left the company, meaning that most of the development team won’t benefit from it. As Krafton tells it, and despite the apparent surprise from parties like Cleaveland, the former leadership team reportedly abandoned Subnautica 2 to work on other projects.

Nonetheless, the Subnautica community has been in total uproar, and there’s been rampant skepticism that things are as kosher as Krafton portrays. After all, the people who were seemingly pushed out of the studio were instrumental in building the digital worlds fans have fallen in love with, and their departure inevitably calls into question the larger direction of Subnautica 2. Public statements made by Cleaveland make it sound as if everyone was blindsided by the changes, which makes it harder for people to take Krafton’s statements at face value. Krafton’s assertion that a delay might result in a better game might be true, but if the release was tied to early access, players wouldn’t necessarily be thrown off by a game that is buggy or incomplete — they might in fact expect it. Unknown Worlds could ostensibly update the game as it created the new material, as is standard for early access games.

On social media sites like Reddit, fans are urging each other to not purchase Subnautica 2 in light of recent developments, and to outright remove the game from wishlists on Steam as well in posts that are receiving thousands upon thousands of upvotes. Others say they’d still like to play the game, but that they might resort to piracy now to ensure that Krafton doesn’t benefit from their patronage.

Meanwhile, things are only getting uglier for Krafton and Unknown World’s ex-leadership. In a Reddit post on Thursday evening, Cleaveland announced that he was pursuing legal action against the publisher.

Cleaveland says that, “Details should eventually become (at least mostly) public – you all deserve the full story. Suing a multi-billion dollar company in a painful, public and possibly protracted way was certainly not on my bucket list. But this needs to be made right. Subnautica has been my life’s work and I would never willingly abandon it or the amazing team that has poured their hearts into it.”

The former Subnautica 2 director also disputed many of Krafton’s claims by reiterating that he considered the game fully ready to hit early access, and moreover, the $250M bonus would not have been limited to the three men who recently left the company.

“I’m in this industry because I love it, not for riches,” Cleaveland writes. “Historically we’ve always shared our profits with the team and did the same when we sold the studio. You can be damned sure we’ll continue with the earnout/bonus as well. They deserve it for all their incredible work trying to get this great game into your hands.”

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Before James Gunn was tapped by Warner Bros. and DC to revamp its superhero slate of films and TV series, Warner Bros. tried to poach someone else from Marvel: Kevin Feige.

After Zack Snyder and Joss Whedon’s Justice League flopped in 2017 — it made about $660 million and has a 39% on Rotten Tomatoes — Warner Bros. met with Feige “to try to convince him to switch sides,” according to a new Wall Street Journal report. Feige is the president of Marvel Studios and has been a producer or executive producer on just about every Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) project since 2008’s Iron Man.

WSJ noted “those talks fizzled” between DC and Feige, and Feige has remained as the leader of the MCU since. The DC Extended Universe (DCEU) continued post-Justice League with films like Aquaman (the only DCEU film to top $1 billion at the box office) and Birds of Prey, but it too fizzled out after Warner Bros. announced plans to reboot the universe. Gunn and producer Peter Safran were brought on board to lend their vision.

Gunn’s first DC Universe (DCU) film releases Friday in Superman (Gunn’s 2021 The Suicide Squad is technically apart of the former DCEU). Superman has landed well with critics so far, and could open to more than $125 million domestically, according to pre-release surveys. Right behind it to give it a run for its blockbuster money: The Fantastic Four: First Steps, produced by Kevin Feige, opening on July 25.

Peacemaker season 2 is the next DCU project, premiering Aug. 21, while Supergirl arrives in June 2026. Gunn and Safran’s goal is to “re-establish” DC’s Trinity — Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman — in the DCU and “unite them in a new Justice League film,” according to the report. Second time’s the charm?

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