Monthly Archives: March 2020

Marvel’s WandaVision Wraps Production With Celebratory Cast Photo

Marvel's WandaVision has seemingly wrapped filming ahead of its release on Disney+ this coming December. Taking to Instagram over the weekend, crew member Taylor Grabowsky posted a huge group photo to celebrate the end of their lengthy production on the Marvel TV series, commending the extensive cast and crew for being the "best in the world." WandaVision Wrap Party In the accompanying caption, Grabowsky wrote: "Guys, I may or may not have gone a little overboard on the photobooth, though how can you not with these beauts?! Thankful for the BEST crew in the world, and not only were they up to the challenge, every person here helped to make this show beyond special!" Alongside the message, Grabowsky tagged Marvel Studios together with a hashtag confirming that the photos were taken at the WandaVision wrap party in Atlanta, Georgia. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/27/wandavision-is-the-mcus-first-sitcom"] Marvel's WandaVision was initially slated to debut in 2021, but the release date was recently moved up to December 2020, edging closer towards the release of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier in August. As it stands, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier is still set to be the first MCU spinoff series on the Disney+ release calendar, though it appears that this highly-anticipated miniseries is still currently in production. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=marvels-wandavision-all-the-tv-sitcom-influences&captions=true"] While little is known about the plot of WandaVision, Paul Bettany has previously described it as "the oddest of all the Marvel endeavours so far." To find out more about the mysterious MCU spinoff series, discover how WandaVision might tie into Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness, which is also set to feature Scarlet Witch, and check out our deep dive into the comic books that might have inspired the upcoming Marvel "sitcom." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Infinite: Exclusive Mark Wahlberg Sci-Fi Movie Synopsis, Logo Revealed

Get ready to enter a whole new action-packed science fiction world in the upcoming Paramount Pictures movie Infinite. IGN has the exclusive synopsis and logo reveal for the new Antoine Fuqua-directed Mark Wahlberg film, which hits theaters on August 7th, as well as the announcement of its first-of-its-kind SXSW activation, the Infinite ISM Hexadome Experience. Based on the novel The Reincarnationist Papers, Infinite explores the idea of reincarnation and the implications that come with being reborn throughout the generations with all your memories intact through the eyes of Mark Wahlberg's character Evan McCauley. The official synopsis for Infinite reads: "For Evan McCauley (Mark Wahlberg), skills he has never learned and memories of places he has never visited haunt his daily life. Self-medicated and on the brink of a mental breakdown, a secret group that call themselves 'Infinites' come to his rescue, revealing to him that his memories are real – but they are from multiple past lives. The Infinites bring Evan into their extraordinary world, where a gifted few are given the ability to be reborn with their memories and knowledge accumulated over centuries. With critical secrets buried in his past, Evan must work with the Infinites to unlock the answers in his memories in a race against time to save humanity from one of their own (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who seeks to destroy it." Check out the logo reveal for Infinite below: Unknown-1[2] Infinite is produced by Lorenzo di Bonaventura (Transformers franchise, The Meg) and written by Ian Shorr and James Coyne. In addition to Wahlberg, who also serves as producer, Infinite stars Sophie Cookson, Rupert Friend, Jóhannes Haukur Jóhannesson, Jason Mantzoukas, Toby Jones, Dylan O’Brien and Liz Carr. Executive producers are Fuqua and Raphael Crohn. In addition to di Bonaventura, the producers include Mark Vahradian, Mark Huffam, John Zaozirny, Mark Wahlberg and Stephen Levinson. To help introduce audiences to the movie's unique world, Paramount Pictures partnered up with Little Cinema, an award-winning art collective focused on reimagining film and creating multi-disciplinary live experiences, to develop an immersive reimagining of Infinite for the ISM Hexadome in Austin, Texas at SXSW 2020. The audiovisual installation will make attendees feel the visceral experience of being an Infinite and having your memories span many lifetimes by creating a unique piece of audiovisual content composed and designed for the ISM Hexadome from hundreds of hours of uncut material from Infinite, as well as found footage discovered inside the Paramount vaults. Designed by the Institute of Sound & Music in Berlin, the ISM Hexadome is comprised six giant screens, Epson advanced laser projection technology and a bespoke 52-channel Meyer Sound Labs spatial sound system, offering audiences complete, 360-degree cinematic immersion. [caption id="attachment_2311817" align="alignnone" width="1131"]The Infinite ISM Hexodome Experience The Infinite ISM Hexodome Experience[/caption] Demonstrating the power of shared direct experience through sound, art, film and technology, the ISM Hexadome exhibits exclusive commissioned works from artists such as Brian Eno, Thom Yorke, Suzanne Ciani, Holly Herndon, Herman Kolgen and Ben Frost. Wahlberg shared the first photo from the set of Infinite back on September 18, 2019, showing him and Fuqua in a hanger, surrounded by a jet and a sleek Aston Martin. In the caption for the Instagram image, Wahlberg wrote, "Excited to be back with #AntoineFuqua who has an incredible vision for this high-concept, ORIGINAL action thriller…it’s a classic story of good vs. evil with an epic twist." Fuqua and Wahlberg previously worked together on 2007's Shooter, which di Bonaventura also produced. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Terri Schwartz is Editor-in-Chief of Entertainment at IGN. Talk to her on Twitter at @Terri_Schwartz.

FIFA 20 Pros Decide Match With Rock, Paper, Scissors Due to Server Issues

Two professional FIFA 20 players had to decide who would be the winner of a qualifying match for a tournament with a game of Rock, Paper, Scissors over the weekend.

Red Bull's Shaun Galea and free agent Hasan Eker were competing against each other to qualify in the FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) Champions Cup Stage V on February 29, 2020. Unfortunately, EA's online services experienced many problems over the weekend (now apparently resolved), which meant that both players failed to connect to the servers and each other twice.

As EA's statement on the matter says, "a double-failure to connect and compete in a qualifying tournament match results in a loss for both participants. This is to prevent connection issues from being exploited as a competitive advantage." However, rather than both automatically lose, the two pros took matters into their own hands and played Rock, Paper, Scissors to decide the winner.

Eker won with three rounds to one. However, EA let both players go on to play more qualifying matches afterwards, but neither of them advanced any further in the tournament. EA's statement says that it's "reviewing this really unique situation to understand what occurred and try to prevent this from happening again, especially as both competitors competed in subsequent matches with clean connections."

This game of Rock, Paper, Scissors is far from the only issue that FUT Champions Cup qualifiers experienced over the weekend. Giuseppe Guastella, a pro FIFA player for LA Galaxy, failed to qualify for the North American qualifiers after a last penalty kick wasn't registered as a goal despite it clearly being one.

Guastella provided video proof and released a statement that asked, "how can anyone take the game seriously when EA can't take the game seriously and fix these elementary school issues?"

FIFA pro and head coach for AS Roma Esports, Nathan Horton, also released a statement that expressed his disappointment over the state of FIFA 20 esports. He says that some of the issues with the game have simple fixes and that "blatant cheating needs to be eradicated" from FIFA 20.

Due to the server issues, EA did extend the Weekend League for 24 hours to give players a chance to qualify for the tournament.

In further FIFA 20 controversy, last week EA permanently banned pro player Kurt Fenech from all of its games and online services. EA says that Fenech crossed “a line of decency into very personal attacks and breach our Terms of Service.” A number of EA FIFA staff Twitter accounts were hacked in retaliation to Fenech's ban.

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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Dead or Alive 6 Now Charges Money Each Time You Change a Character’s Hair Colour

Dead or Alive 6 recently added the option to change a character's hair colour on PS4, but it costs money each time to do so. Players must purchase a Premium Ticket in order to pick a new hair colour for their fighter. However, purchasing a new hair colour doesn't unlock it forever, as it also costs a Premium Ticket to revert hair back to a previous colour.

The Premium Tickets can only be purchased at a minimum of two, which costs $1.99. They can also be bought as a bundle of 10 at $9.99, or you can get a discount if you purchase them in larger quantities - specifically 20 at $19.99, or 50 at $44.99. That means to change a character's hair even once it costs at least $1.99.

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The new hair colours were added to the PS4 version of Dead or Alive 6 on February 25 with the v1.20 update. Part of this update removed the limit on the maximum number of Premium Tickets that can be purchased - previously it was set at the number of Tickets needed to purchase all the game's costumes.

The FAQ also reveals that "hair color change data is stored in the save data and any hair color changes you have purchased will be reset if you clear your save data." So if you lose your Dead or Alive 6 save then your characters' hair colours will return to their defaults and you'll have to buy each hair colour again.

The price of changing a Dead or Alive 6 character's hair colour has not gone down well with some of the game's fans.

Some fans thought that the being charged each time to change hair colour may have been a mistake on the developer's part. But Dead or Alive community forum Free Step Dodge reached out to developer Team Ninja and reports that a representative got back to confirm that it's intentional design.

The v1.20 update also came with new DLC costumes that are available on the PC and Xbox versions of the game too. Some of those costumes are mashups with the characters of Gust, one of Tecmo Koei's game developer studios, mostly known for its Atelier and Ar tonelico series.

Those new DLC costumes are sold separately or as a pack that costs $39.99 / £32.99. The costumes are also included in the Season 4 pass, along with other DLC released between January and March 2020, and that costs $89.99 / £73.99.

This new DLC adds to the long list of DLC that is now available to purchase for Dead or Alive 6, which at its smallest cost when bought on Steam as season passes totals to about $343 / £280. If you were to buy each DLC individually, and therefore at the highest cost, you're looking at a grand total of around $900 / £776. It's worth noting that the Dead or Alive 6 base game costs $59.99 / £54.99.

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In comparison, Tekken 7 offers season passes at $24.99 / £19.99 while all of its DLC sold individually costs about $94 / £77. Street Fighter V sells character passes at $9.99 / £7.99 except its fourth and most recent one which costs $19.99 / £15.99. Mortal Kombat 11 offers a Kombat Pack with new characters and extras for $39.99 / £32.99, and sells individual characters for $5.99 / £4.99, with a max cost of $78 / £65.

We gave Dead or Alive 6 a 7.7 in our review when it came out a year ago, saying that it "proves there's plenty of depth to this fighter beneath its skimpy outfits, but its story mode is disjointed and its multiplayer features are currently bare." Team Ninja is currently getting ready to launch its next game, Nioh 2, on March 13, 2020.

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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Red XIII Is Not a Playable Character in Final Fantasy 7 Remake

Final Fantasy 7 Remake features Red XIII, but the beloved character will not be playable in the first game in the remake series. Talking to VG247, Final Fantasy 7 Remake co-director Naoki Hamaguchi said "We felt the point at which Red XIII joins the party in the story is very late on so we thought okay, if we’re gonna have him as a full character and try and get the player to enjoy his character development arc and growth as a character through that, it’s not really enough time to do that." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/02/final-fantasy-7-remake-full-chapter-1-gameplay"] Instead of being a playable character, Red XIII will instead be an AI-controlled 'guest' party member, fighting alongside your playable team. "We thought that the best way to have him involved was as a guest character," Hamaguchi explained. "Normally throughout the game you’ll be playing as a three-man party, but you will have him as a guest character that fights alongside you during the the last part of the story.” Hamaguchi reassures that the talking wolf/dog/flame-tailed canine will still be equipped with all his "nostalgic" moves, so it seems sensible to expect a bit of Sled Fang action in the Shinra building towards the end of the game. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] Not explained in the interview is if Red XIII is confirmed to be playable in the second game in the remake series. Square Enix is not talking about the next game in general, though, so this isn't necessarily a sign of anything. For more from Final Fantasy 7 Remake, check out our latest hands-on preview, as well as a close look at one of the biggest changes revealed so far, and our discussion with producer Yoshinori Kitase about Sephiroth's expanded role in Midgar. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter

Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Why Sephiroth Is Showing Up in Midgar

Final Fantasy 7 Remake producer, Yoshinori Kitase, has explained why Sephiroth features in the game, despite the character not being present in the section of the original game that the new project recreates. Remake only covers the Midgar section of the original story. The opening hours of the 1997 original holds back the reveal of the game’s big bad, Sephiroth, instead opting to just hint at his existence with snippets of dialogue. But for Remake, Square Enix did not feel the need to be so cryptic. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] Talking to IGN at a Final Fantasy 7 Remake hands-on event, Kitase - who also directed the original game - said: “In the original players had no prior knowledge of that world or many of its characters, so I really wanted to build Sephiroth up as this really major threat. You don't see him, you see the after effects of what he's done. You hear rumors about him to build up the fear of this massive evil presence without actually seeing it. “Obviously nowadays, of course, everyone knows who Sephiroth is, so I thought we didn't really need to go quite as far to hold him back and to hide so much,” he explained. “Looking at the the remake overall, it's clear that Sephiroth is going to be this massive presence overarching throughout the whole of the story, and this rival of Cloud’s throughout the whole story,” he added. “So I really felt I want to include that in this first game in the project, to really have that feeling of him as a really clear presence right from the start.” Sephiroth can be seen in many of the Remake’s trailers, sometimes even clashing blades with Cloud. It’s unclear from this footage if Sephiroth is actually present in these sequences, or if it’s just a figment of Cloud’s imagination, but no doubt veterans of the original game will be able to come to their own conclusions about this. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/01/31/final-fantasy-7-remake-theme-song-trailer"] In regards to “everyone” knowing who Sephiroth is, this is actually one of the reasons Square Enix opted to remake Final Fantasy 7. “There's a lot of people who may not have played the original Final Fantasy 7, but who know the characters,” Kitase said. “They have come to love the lore and the story of the characters, but never really saw their origins. And when these people will come to say ‘Okay, I want to play, I want to see what the start of story was’, the only game available to them was the original Final Fantasy 7 with PlayStation 1 generation graphics. So I felt that I really wanted these people to be able to experience that story with this more modern, more realistic style of Cloud and Sephiroth.” More graphically advanced titles such as Crisis Core, Kingdom Hearts, and the Final Fantasy 7 movie Advent Children helped more realistic depictions of characters such as Sephiroth permeate pop culture. It’s easy to understand how after seeing those interpretations, for some the blocky polygons of the 1997 original may have been a difficult sell. For more, check out our latest preview of Final Fantasy 7 Remake, as well as our breakdown of one of the new game’s biggest changes from the 1997 original we’ve seen so far. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter

Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s Biggest Change So Far

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a faithful retelling of the original story, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t big changes. In a new hands-on preview, it has been revealed that the Sector 5 Reactor - the second target of the Avalanche freedom fighters group - has been substantially reworked in a couple of key ways. As you’d expect of the remake, the area is notably larger and more detailed, with wider spaces to allow for the action-focused combat to unfold. The core journey through the reactor remains the same as in the 1997 original game; Cloud, Tifa, and Barret must place the bomb, use a simultaneous button switch to unlock the gates, and then fight the Airbuster boss battle. But the route through the reactor to this techno soldier fight involves a new mechanic unseen in the original game. Spoiler warning: the following paragraphs reveal in detail how the contents of Sector 5 Reactor have changed. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] As the party enters the reactor, they discover that this is not just an electric power plant. It is also an assembly line for anti-armour robots known as Airbusters. Pretty much the first thing you see is a powered-down shell of one held in a docking clamp. After placing the bomb and setting a remote trigger, the party is confronted by huge holographic representations of both President Shinra and Heidegger, Shinra’s head of Public Safety. They threaten the team with the Airbuster, but cannot immediately deploy it due to the robot not yet having been assembled. Subsequent rooms contain the production line being used to manufacture the Airbuster, which introduces a new mechanic for the reactor. Components can be removed from the production line, which prevents them from being installed into the robot and thus allowing for a slightly easier fight. Removing components is done by plugging a keycard into a console. After defeating a room’s enemies, the card is easily found, but there is a catch: there are not enough keycards to deactivate every console. After the first room, which has one card and one station that can deactivate one of the Airbuster's three ‘M Units’ that provide Mako-fuelled attacks, the further two rooms each have one keycard, but two and three consoles each respectively. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/14/final-fantasy-7-opening-movie-comparison"] This setup forces players to make a decision about which element is removed. Available to deactivate are 3x M Units, 3x Big Bomber Shells (hugely damaging explosives), and 4x AI Programming Cores (which enable a stunlock ability). The options provided in each room means you’re unable to completely deactivate any one of these attacks, but allows you to focus on reducing abilities you know you struggle with. For instance, if you know you’re often tripped up by stuns, then you can spend the keycards on removing two of the AI Programming Cores. For more Final Fantasy 7 Remake, check out our big hands-on preview for extra details on the Airbuster fight, the party’s abilities, and summons. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter

Final Fantasy 7 Remake’s Biggest Change So Far

Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 Remake is a faithful retelling of the original story, but that doesn’t mean that there aren’t big changes. In a new hands-on preview, it has been revealed that the Sector 5 Reactor - the second target of the Avalanche freedom fighters group - has been substantially reworked in a couple of key ways. As you’d expect of the remake, the area is notably larger and more detailed, with wider spaces to allow for the action-focused combat to unfold. The core journey through the reactor remains the same as in the 1997 original game; Cloud, Tifa, and Barret must place the bomb, use a simultaneous button switch to unlock the gates, and then fight the Airbuster boss battle. But the route through the reactor to this techno soldier fight involves a new mechanic unseen in the original game. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] Spoiler warning: the following paragraphs reveal in detail how the contents of Sector 5 Reactor have changed. [poilib element="accentDivider"] As the party enters the reactor, they discover that this is not just an electric power plant. It is also an assembly line for anti-armour robots known as Airbusters. Pretty much the first thing you see is a powered-down shell of one held in a docking clamp. After placing the bomb and setting a remote trigger, the party is confronted by huge holographic representations of both President Shinra and Heidegger, Shinra’s head of Public Safety. They threaten the team with the Airbuster, but cannot immediately deploy it due to the robot not yet having been assembled. Subsequent rooms contain the production line being used to manufacture the Airbuster, which introduces a new mechanic for the reactor. Components can be removed from the production line, which prevents them from being installed into the robot and thus allowing for a slightly easier fight. Removing components is done by plugging a keycard into a console. After defeating a room’s enemies, the card is easily found, but there is a catch: there are not enough keycards to deactivate every console. After the first room, which has one card and one station that can deactivate one of the Airbuster's three ‘M Units’ that provide Mako-fuelled attacks, the further two rooms each have one keycard, but two and three consoles each respectively. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/14/final-fantasy-7-opening-movie-comparison"] This setup forces players to make a decision about which element is removed. Available to deactivate are 3x M Units, 3x Big Bomber Shells (hugely damaging explosives), and 4x AI Programming Cores (which enable a stunlock ability). The options provided in each room means you’re unable to completely deactivate any one of these attacks, but allows you to focus on reducing abilities you know you struggle with. For instance, if you know you’re often tripped up by stuns, then you can spend the keycards on removing two of the AI Programming Cores. For more Final Fantasy 7 Remake, check out our big hands-on preview for extra details on the Airbuster fight, the party’s abilities, and summons. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo Now Live

The playable demo for Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 Remake is now available to download from the PlayStation Store. The demo allows you to play the first chapter of the game that includes the iconic Mako Reactor 1 bombing mission and the Guard Scorpion battle (now known as the Scorpion Sentinel). Downloading the demo not only allows you to dive into the game and experience the FF7 remake over a month before release, but will also bag you a PlayStation theme that will unlock when the game launches. If you want to check out what's in the demo before you play, check out the full Mako Reactor 1 in the gameplay video below. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/02/final-fantasy-7-remake-full-chapter-1-gameplay"] It should be noted that any progress that you make in the demo won't be carried over to the full version upon release however. A demo for Final Fantasy 7 had previously been leaked back in February, which resulted in spoilers making their way across the internet. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] Final Fantasy 7 Remake launches April 10 this year on PS4, and could come to additional platforms in 2021. It will feature new boss fights alongside remakes of the classic ones, as well as new characters. Many elements have been remixed, including the Sector 5 Reactor and how much of Sephiroth is shown. You can see everything we know about Final Fantasy 7 Remake right here, too, or read our latest hands-on preview. [poilib element="accentDivider"]

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Demo Now Live

The playable demo for Square Enix's Final Fantasy 7 Remake is now available to download from the PlayStation Store. The demo allows you to play the first chapter of the game that includes the iconic Mako Reactor 1 bombing mission. Any progress that you make in the demo won't be carried over to the full version upon release however. A demo for Final Fantasy 7 had previously been leaked back in February, which resulted in spoilers making their way across the internet. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-over-100-screenshots&captions=true"] Final Fantasy 7 Remake launches March 3 this year on PS4, and could come to additional platforms in 2021. It will feature new boss fights alongside remakes of the classic ones, as well as new characters. You can see everything we know about Final Fantasy 7 Remake right here, too.