If you’ve spent any time on the internet over the last week you’ll know that Marvel’s Black Panther has had what can only be described as a sensational reception. Reviews for the superhero flick have been overwhelmingly positive and, based on early figures, it’s on track to be one of Marvel and Disney’s most successful movies yet.
In our Black Panther review Michael Rougeau said it is “a top tier Marvel movie with all the humor, style, action, passion, and fun that the MCU has come to embody.” Not to mention “a cultural event that’s going to be hard for Marvel to top.”
We’ve been thinking about where the Marvel Cinematic Universe goes from here, and while we can only take guesses at how the story plays out, we’re confident that Marvel is going to change the way they make films. The success of Black Panther, which feels different to previous entries in the MCU, could serve as a new template for Marvel’s movies, much like 2008’s Iron Man established the framework for most of the films up until now.
That’s the argument that Tamoor makes in the video above, where he talks through how he feels main character T’Challa is different from other heroes like Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Stephen Strange, and what makes his first standalone film unique from a characterization perspective. On top of that, he discusses why, alongside Thor: Ragnarok, Marvel is starting to lean towards creating films with a unique identity, instead of a bunch of flicks that feel uniform.
In related news, Chris Evans, who plays Captain America in the MCU, has indicated that a standalone Black Widow film starring Scarlett Johansson is in the works. Prior to this, it was reported that writer Jac Schaeffer had been hired to pen the script. However, as of yet, there has not been official confirmation from Disney or Marvel.
Rainbow Six Siege will soon be giving a number of its Operators away for free, Ubisoft has announced. Starting with the new season of DLC on March 3, all versions of the game except for the Starter Edition will include all 20 base Operators for no extra charge. In addition, all past and future weapon attachments will now be unlocked from the get-go, and the game’s Starter Edition will now include six Operators rather than four, as was the case before.
Currently, players wanting to unlock more Operators are required to either spend in-game experience points, called Renown, or pay real-world money to purchase various season passes. Going forward, all 20 Operators included with the game at launch will be automatically unlocked, along with all weapon attachments. The move comes just weeks after Ubisoft announced it would be discontinuing Siege’s Standard Edition in favor of a more expensive Advanced Edition, before reversing that decision based on fan feedback. The company says these new changes will ensure new players get more options from the beginning and a better experience when playing online.
Additionally, Ubisoft has unveiled more of its plans for Year 3. It’s introducing a new PvP mode called Pick & Ban that allows each team to prevent their opponents from choosing two Operators of their choice for the entire match. The catch is your team is also banned from choosing those two Operators for the match, as well as the two your opponents choose to ban. Pick & Ban will be introduced as an option in Custom Games only at first, with the potential for a rollout in public matchmaking further down the line if things go smoothly.
Later in Year 3, a number of maps will be receiving updates, some of which are minor and some major. The smaller of these, called buffs, will change maps in subtle ways such as adding a room between Bedroom and Cash Room on Clubhouse. The first map to receive a larger rework will be Hereford, in Year 3 Season 3. It will keep the British theme but the map’s layout will be completely changed and aesthetic very different to that of the current Hereford base.
Although it’s coming a bit later than expected, the new update for Fortnite has arrived on all platforms. The version 2.5.0 patch makes some big changes and additions for both Battle Royale and Save the World modes, including the addition of a new weapon to obtain and new areas to explore in the popular PvP mode on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
Battle Royale is now home to the Impulse Grenade, a new type of explosive that, after a short delay, sends all nearby players flying a long distance. It’s a Blue rarity item, and it can only be found in Treasure Chests and Supply Drops. You can get a glimpse at what it can do in the brief video clip below; it may lead to some hilarious match endings in the final circle.
Among the places you’ll now find Treasure Chests in during Battle Royale matches are new “thematic Shrines hidden across the map.” One of these is pictured in the gallery below, and they appear to have a Chinese architectural look to them. Meanwhile, Save the World has introduced new heroes and Dragon weapons themed around the Lunar New Year (also pictured below).
Other notable changes to Battle Royale include some technical changes for PS4 and Xbox One players. The standard versions of those consoles now feature dynamic resolution and high quality temporal upsampling; the former seeks to ensure a smooth framerate by decreasing the resolution when necessary. Those on an Xbox One X can now play at “full” 4K, while PS4 players should no longer experience excessively slow Fortnite patch downloads.
In terms of balance, a variety of adjustments have been made, including the temporary removal of the SMG weapon, which was done to create some breathing room for other weapons that have been added to the game. Additionally, several items are now less likely to drop, including the crossbow, minigun, and Chug Jug. There have also been some notable audio improvements, such as the crossbow making a noise when it’s ready to fire again. There are also now “above” and “below” versions of footstep sounds when running on wood, stone, or metal.
Save the World–which remains in paid early access but will eventually be for free everyone–also receives some significant additions in this update. In addition to the aforementioned Dragon weapons and Lunar New Year heroes, the Heartbreaker Crossbow is now available. Most importantly, the Spring It On event has begun, introducing new quests and rewards, with more to be added in the coming weeks.
All of this is available now. For a complete rundown on what’s new, check out the full patch notes here, or look at the silly new cosmetics now available. And if you’re new to Fortnite: Battle Royale or are just looking for some tips, have a look at our Fortnite building guide or our discussion about what makes the mode so popular.
Rainbow Six Siege‘s third year of DLC is about to kick off, introducing a new, limited-time co-op event and two new Operators. We’ll have more on Outbreak–the elaborate co-operative missions set during an extraterrestrial invasion–soon, but for now, let’s look at how Siege’s new characters will change the way you play its traditional PvP mode.
Operation Chimera, as this first new season of content is called, introduces a new Russian Operator, Finka, and an additional French character, Lion. The former is essentially an attacking form of Doc: she comes equipped with a stim pen that applies a 20 HP boost to both herself and every teammate for 20 seconds, and it even revives any downed allies, wherever they are on the map. In addition, each of the three adrenal surges grants the team a movement and reload speed buff for the same period, as well as a reduction in recoil and resistance to stun effects. Be warned, however: the health boost–like Doc’s–slowly depletes back to your normal HP level, and if you get hit while buffed to below 20 HP, you will be immediately downed when the buff ends.
Finka’s gadget is clearly capable, but I fear it will–again, like Doc’s–go underused. It takes considerable organization to be used to its fullest: it doesn’t last long, so it’s best triggered when you and a group of allies are about to breach and clear an objective room together. But these situations are infrequent, and despite some attempts to the contrary, Siege has since launch become more about individual talent than moments of coordination. And, like Doc’s med pistol, it’s rare you actually have chance to revive a fallen teammate before they get finished off; with Finka you stand more of a chance since you don’t need to be next to the injured player. However, it’s still unlikely you’ll have time to activate your stim and come to your friend’s aid, and even if you do, they won’t have much health left once the temporary buff subsides.
Perhaps the gadget is Ubisoft’s attempt to pull Siege back to its core of coordinated, timed attacks, and Finka will usher in a return to that style of offense as teams utilize her gadget’s effects to storm a room together. On the other hand, it could encourage attackers to roam further away from their teammates, since they can be revived from across the map at the click of a button.
Regardless of how her gadget is received, Finka could be a popular choice thanks to her weapon. While she can pack the ASG-12 shotgun or 6P41 LMG, it’s her Spear assault rifle which could propel her to similar high pickrates as Operation Blood Orchid’s Ela. It has very little recoil and decent damage, and it’s sure to be a go-to choice for those wanting to try out the Russian operative.
Lion–another two-speed, two-armor attacker–shakes things up in a rather more dramatic way. His gadget is the EE-One-D drone, and it can be used up to three times per round to scout out the positions of every moving member of the opposing team. Activating it not only supplies HUD markers showing you and your team which Operators opposing players have picked, along with their locations, but your squad will also see those players’ exact outlines for four seconds. This let me pop a headshot through a wall on more than one occasion, and it proved a powerful tool in both racking up kills and discovering which areas of the map enemies were hiding.
The counter is that both teams receive a three second countdown after the drone is triggered but before its x-ray vision comes into effect. This allows the defending team a moment to stop what they’re doing, lie still, and wait for the drone’s scan to pass, meaning they’ll remain undetected. On the other hand, this forces the defending team to stop what they’re doing, lie still, and wait for the drone’s scan to pass, so even if this happens and you don’t get their outlines, you can still gain an advantage by exploiting their lack of movement. For example, three members of my team got wiped out by enemies who used Lion’s ability immediately before Fuzing the objective room–the enemies already knew there would likely be at least one of us in that room, so Lion’s ability was used purely to make them stay still while Fuze worked his explosive magic. If my teammates had tried to escape, the enemies would know exactly who had gone where.
Conversely, a poor Lion player could rely on the Frenchman’s drone too much, assuming the coast is clear when no enemy is detected, when in fact one lies in wait around the next corner. The Operator’s effects on the Siege meta are widespread: spawnpeeking is discouraged, since an early drone sweep will see you detected close to the enemy attack force or standing still in an open window, vulnerable to headshots. Roaming is also riskier, since Lion could take away your element of surprise and easily flank you. And, like Finka, Lion is useful during a final, last-minute push to the objective, when strategy goes out the broken-down barricade in favor of sheer panic. At this stage, defenders are more likely to be scrambling around, trying to cover multiple entry points, so a well-timed drone scan can be a massive advantage. Similarly, Finka’s health boost and stun resistance is a huge help to any attacking team that doesn’t have the precious seconds to check for Kapkan and Ela traps when dashing into the objective room, though her adrenaline does make every ally breathe faster and thereby take more damage from Smoke’s beauties.
[Lion’s] effects on the Siege meta are widespread … spawnpeeking is discouraged [and] roaming is also riskier
For those thinking Lion is simply a better Dokkaebi, think again. Dokkaebi’s phone hijack cannot be countered by simply keeping still, and Lion cannot hack into enemy cameras, so the Korean will still be required to help counter the increasing ubiquity of Valkyrie cams. The two are simply interesting twists on each other, and I feel at least one of those and Jackal are needed in any good attacking lineup to stop roamers from tearing an advancing attacking team apart.
When Operation Chimera launches on March 6, it will be another step towards countering roaming, pushing defending players back into the objective room just like how we all played on Siege’s launch. It’s interesting, then, that Ubisoft hasn’t introduced another Operator to counter the current trap meta, especially after Twitch’s recent nerf. Nevertheless, the two new Operators are worthy additions to Siege’s roster, with Lion in particular serving as a major shakeup that I’m eager to see in the wild.
Last month it was reported that Marvel is developing a standalone movie focusing on Black Widow, the Avenger played by Scarlett Johansson, and that writer Jac Schaeffer had been hired to pen the script. Now Captain America star Chris Evans has seemingly confirmed that the film is in the works.
In an interview with ET Canada, Evans was asked about the huge success of Marvel’s latest movie, Black Panther. “There’s nothing they can’t do, man,” he said. “I’m sure it’s going to have the exact same effect when Captain Marvel comes out, and then the Black Widow movie comes out. Marvel just has the winning recipe.”
To date, Johansson has appeared in five movies in the MCU–Iron Man 2, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Captain America: Civil War. She will reprise her role in this summer’s Avengers: Infinity War and next year’s currently untitled Avengers 4.
There has been much discussion about a standalone Black Widow movie for some time. In October 2016, Johansson said time might not be on her side. “If I did it, I’d have to do it while I still actually wanted to wear a skin-tight catsuit,” she explained. “I don’t know how much longer that’s going to be.”
In related news, Captain Marvel is now in production. The movie stars Brie Larson and will be released in March 2019. Last month, an on-set image and video were leaked. They showed Larson wearing a green costume, rather than the character’s distinctive traditional red, blue, and gold ensemble.
The acclaimed drama Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was the big winner at this year’s BAFTA awards. The movie claimed five prizes at the British film awards ceremony, which is seen as an indicator of who might succeed at the Oscars next month.
Three Billboards won Best film, Best British Film, Best Actress (Frances McDormand), Best Supporting Actor (Sam Rockwell), and Best Original Screenplay for writer/director Martin McDonagh.
McDonagh was also nominated for Best Director, but that prize was taken home by Guillermo Del Toro for The Shape of Water. Del Toro’s offbeat sci-fi fantasy actually led the pack in terms of nominations–12, compared to Three Billboard‘s nine. But in the end, it had to settle three wins–Best Director, Best Original Music, and Best Production Design.
Elsewhere, Gary Oldman won Best Actor for Darkest Hour, Allison Janney won Best Supporting Actress for I, Tonya, and Coco claimed Best Animated Film. Blade Runner 2049 won Best Cinematography and Best Visual Effects, while Get Out star Daniel Kaluuya took home the Rising Star award, which is voted on by the public.
We teamed up with RESPAWN Products to give away three of their Respawn-205 series gaming chairs, with the winners’ choice of Blue, Green, Red, or Gray. (List Price: $224.99, scroll down below to enter.)
Competition ends Monday, February 19 at 11:00AM PT. Three (3) winners will be chosen. Entry is open to USA residents only. No purchase necessary.
Enter below (the additional entries are OPTIONAL to increase your chances of winning):
The RESPAWN-205 series is a reclining gaming chair defined by its innovative mesh-backing, which provides a comfortably flexible yet supportive experience. With an adjustable headrest and lumbar support, this chair provides top tier comfort whether used during intense scrims or MMO marathons. Crafted for ergonomics and priced affordably, RESPAWN lets you game longer, game better, and game without compromise.
If you haven’t had a chance to jump in on Blizzard’s team shooter Overwatch, now might be the perfect time to do so. This weekend, Overwatch is free to play on PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
To make the deal even sweeter, the base title and the game of the year edition are 50% off on Steam, the PlayStation Store, and Xbox. The sale also includes retail and will last until February 26.
Overwatch’s Lunar New Year event, Year of the Dog, is currently underway until March 5. This year’s event includes new skins, emotes, and more for the game’s loot boxes, as well as changes to the Capture the Flag mode, a new competitive mode, and a new map called Ayutthaya.
Rainbow Six Siege‘s third year of DLC is about to kick off, introducing a new, limited-time co-op event and two new Operators. We’ll have more on Outbreak–the elaborate co-operative missions set during an extraterrestrial invasion–soon, but for now, let’s look at how Siege’s new characters will change the way you play its traditional PvP mode.
Operation Chimera, as this first new season of content is called, introduces a new Russian Operator, Finka, and an additional French character, Lion. The former is essentially an attacking form of Doc: she comes equipped with a stim pen that applies a 20 HP boost to both herself and every teammate for 20 seconds, and it even revives any downed allies, wherever they are on the map. In addition, each of the three adrenal surges grants the team a movement and reload speed buff for the same period, as well as a reduction in recoil and resistance to stun effects. Be warned, however: the health boost–like Doc’s–slowly depletes back to your normal HP level, and if you get hit while buffed to below 20 HP, you will be immediately downed when the buff ends.
Finka’s gadget is clearly capable, but I fear it will–again, like Doc’s–go underused. It takes considerable organization to be used to its fullest: it doesn’t last long, so it’s best triggered when you and a group of allies are about to breach and clear an objective room together. But these situations are infrequent, and despite some attempts to the contrary, Siege has since launch become more about individual talent than moments of coordination. And, like Doc’s med pistol, it’s rare you actually have chance to revive a fallen teammate before they get finished off; with Finka you stand more of a chance since you don’t need to be next to the injured player. However, it’s still unlikely you’ll have time to activate your stim and come to your friend’s aid, and even if you do, they won’t have much health left once the temporary buff subsides.
Perhaps the gadget is Ubisoft’s attempt to pull Siege back to its core of coordinated, timed attacks, and Finka will usher in a return to that style of offense as teams utilize her gadget’s effects to storm a room together. On the other hand, it could encourage attackers to roam further away from their teammates, since they can be revived from across the map at the click of a button.
Regardless of how her gadget is received, Finka could be a popular choice thanks to her weapon. While she can pack the ASG-12 shotgun or 6P41 LMG, it’s her Spear assault rifle which could propel her to similar high pickrates as Operation Blood Orchid’s Ela. It has very little recoil and decent damage, and it’s sure to be a go-to choice for those wanting to try out the Russian operative.
Lion–another two-speed, two-armor attacker–shakes things up in a rather more dramatic way. His gadget is the EE-One-D drone, and it can be used up to three times per round to scout out the positions of every moving member of the opposing team. Activating it not only supplies HUD markers showing you and your team which Operators opposing players have picked, along with their locations, but your squad will also see those players’ exact outlines for four seconds. This let me pop a headshot through a wall on more than one occasion, and it proved a powerful tool in both racking up kills and discovering which areas of the map enemies were hiding.
The counter is that both teams receive a three second countdown after the drone is triggered but before its x-ray vision comes into effect. This allows the defending team a moment to stop what they’re doing, lie still, and wait for the drone’s scan to pass, meaning they’ll remain undetected. On the other hand, this forces the defending team to stop what they’re doing, lie still, and wait for the drone’s scan to pass, so even if this happens and you don’t get their outlines, you can still gain an advantage by exploiting their lack of movement. For example, three members of my team got wiped out by enemies who used Lion’s ability immediately before Fuzing the objective room–the enemies already knew there would likely be at least one of us in that room, so Lion’s ability was used purely to make them stay still while Fuze worked his explosive magic. If my teammates had tried to escape, the enemies would know exactly who had gone where.
Conversely, a poor Lion player could rely on the Frenchman’s drone too much, assuming the coast is clear when no enemy is detected, when in fact one lies in wait around the next corner. The Operator’s effects on the Siege meta are widespread: spawnpeeking is discouraged, since an early drone sweep will see you detected close to the enemy attack force or standing still in an open window, vulnerable to headshots. Roaming is also riskier, since Lion could take away your element of surprise and easily flank you. And, like Finka, Lion is useful during a final, last-minute push to the objective, when strategy goes out the broken-down barricade in favor of sheer panic. At this stage, defenders are more likely to be scrambling around, trying to cover multiple entry points, so a well-timed drone scan can be a massive advantage. Similarly, Finka’s health boost and stun resistance is a huge help to any attacking team that doesn’t have the precious seconds to check for Kapkan and Ela traps when dashing into the objective room, though her adrenaline does make every ally breathe faster and thereby take more damage from Smoke’s beauties.
[Lion’s] effects on the Siege meta are widespread … spawnpeeking is discouraged [and] roaming is also riskier
For those thinking Lion is simply a better Dokkaebi, think again. Dokkaebi’s phone hijack cannot be countered by simply keeping still, and Lion cannot hack into enemy cameras, so the Korean will still be required to help counter the increasing ubiquity of Valkyrie cams. The two are simply interesting twists on each other, and I feel at least one of those and Jackal are needed in any good attacking lineup to stop roamers from tearing an advancing attacking team apart.
When Operation Chimera launches on March 6, it will be another step towards countering roaming, pushing defending players back into the objective room just like how we all played on Siege’s launch. It’s interesting, then, that Ubisoft hasn’t introduced another Operator to counter the current trap meta, especially after Twitch’s recent nerf. Nevertheless, the two new Operators are worthy additions to Siege’s roster, with Lion in particular serving as a major shakeup that I’m eager to see in the wild.
The quirky crossover costumes continue in Monster Hunter: World, but unlike the previous Horizon Zero Dawn armor–which was an understandable fit for Monster Hunter–this new Street Fighter V set is a bit of a surprise. Have you always wanted to hunt monsters as Ryu? Your wish has been granted. The quest to unlock the Ryu gear is relatively simple, but if you’re curious about how the process works, we’ve outlined the timing and quests below to access the extras. It’s worth noting that the Street Fighter V gear is only available on PS4 currently for people with a Street Fighter V save on their system, and will be available on for others on PS4 and Xbox One later.
Ryu is the first of two Street Fighter V armor skins available now for the game; Sakura is the second and will be available at a later date. Like the Aloy gear, you’ll have to wear the entire Ryu set together–you can’t just wear the pants or chest alone. And the set will also alter your appearance so that your character looks like the legendary wandering shotokan fighter.
To unlock the Ryu armor, you must complete a quest called “Down the Dark, Muddy Path,” which you can find at the Arena Quest Board in the Gathering Hub. The quest is a three-star mission that requires a Hunter Rank of 3 or higher. You only have access to the following loadouts: Greatsword, Dual Blades, Hammer, Gunlance, and Heavy Bowgun. It’s also important to note that the quest is only available for a limited time, until March 1.
The quest objective is to slay a Barroth. When you complete the quest, you earn a Street Fighter V Ticket, a special currency used to unlock the Street Fighter costumes. However, you need to defeat Barroth seven separate times in order to earn enough Street Fighter V Tickets to unlock the Ryu gear.
Since the quest battle is in an arena, slaying Barroth has been scaled up to fit the space. As a result, its hit boxes are much larger, so make sure to dodge accordingly. In addition, avoid hitting its head, as that’s where its armor is the thickest. Once you’ve defeated Barroth seven times, simply take all the Street Fighter V tickets you’ve earned to the Smithy to craft the Ryu gear. Check out the screens above for a more visual break-down of where to find everything.
Monster Hunter World’s second Horizon event begins on February 28. Like the previous quest, it will be exclusive to PS4 players. The mission this time around will be to hunt a giant Anjanath, and the reward will be materials to craft Aloy’s bow and armor. Equipping the armor will change your appearance to look like Aloy, regardless of your hunter’s gender.
