After the COVID-19 pandemic caused movie studios to drastically reorganize their theatrical slates, it seems that some calendars haven't quite settled yet. IGN can confirm that Sony Pictures has moved Morbius' release date to January 28, 2022, one week after its planned date of January 21. Sony has shuffled the Jared Leto vehicle around its release calendar numerous times over the past year. The studio had originally set a release date of July 31, 2020 for Morbius. As the COVID-19 pandemic continued, the film was pushed to March 2021 to October 2021 before reaching its current window of January 2022. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/04/16/morbius-jared-letos-marvel-movie-explained"] Morbius' first trailer was released in January 2020 and culminated with a stinger featuring Michael Keaton, reprising his role as Adrian Toomes a.k.a. Vulture from Spider-Man: Homecoming. Keaton's involvement gives Morbius an explicit connection to Tom Holland's Spider-Man movies and the Marvel Cinematic Universe at large. Venom: Let There Be Carnage, another of Sony's live-action Spider-Man spin-offs and a sequel to the 2018 Tom Hardy film, has also undergone numerous delays. The sequel was originally planned to release on October 2, 2020, after Morbius' release. The film will now wind-up bowing before Morbius, with a release planned for September 24. Venom 2 had a similar one week-delay announced in March, moving from a September 17 release date. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-spider-man-movie-spin-off-in-development&captions=true"] Morbius will star Jared Leto as Dr. Michael Morbius, a biochemist that becomes a vampire-like monster while experimenting to find a cure to a rare blood disease. Morbius is a frequent adversary of Spider-Man in Marvel Comics. The film is being directed by Life director Daniel Espinosa. For more about Morbius, read our primer on the character's abilities and origin. [poilib element="accentDivider"] J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

The CW's DC line-up continues to get bigger. The first official photo from the network's upcoming adaptation of Naomi has been released, depicting Kaci Walfall as the DC heroine as she strikes a pose that recreates the original comic series' first issue. Though Naomi's pilot is currently in production, The CW has not given a series order yet. Should the network order a full season, Naomi would join a line-up featuring many other series based on DC properties. Superman & Lois was recently renewed for Season 2. Additionally, a Wonder Girl series focused on Yara Flor is in development. Meanwhile, The Flash, Black Lightning and Batwoman are all in the middle of airing new seasons. However, there has been no official confirmation that a Naomi series will take place in the Arrowverse continuity. Naomi was created by writers Brian Michael Bendis and David F. Walker and artist Jamal Campbell in 2019. The comic series follows Naomi McDuffie as she explores DC's multiverse and comes to terms with her powers. The character has gone on to play a role in both Young Justice and the Justice League. The CW series will follow Naomi as she moves from humble beginnings in a small northwestern town after she sets out to discover the origin of a supernatural event. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-arrowverse-episodes&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Naomi is being executive produced and written by Jill Blankenship and Ava DuVernay. Blankenship served as writer and co-executive producer on Arrow. DuVernay was set to helm a New Gods film for Warner Bros., though the studio recently cancelled the project. [poilib element="accentDivider"] J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

To kick things off this month, Christopher Nolan's Tenet will make its streaming debut on HBO Max on May 1. And if you missed the initial release of Wonder Woman 1984, you'll be able to catch Diana Prince in action on May 13. HBO Max will also be home to a new film from director Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone, Sicario) on May 14, titled Those Who Wish Me Dead. This new thriller starring Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie centers on "a smokejumper reeling from the loss of three lives she failed to save from a fire, who comes across a traumatized 12‐year‐old boy with nowhere else to turn," according to a logline from Warner Bros. You can watch the action-packed trailer for Those Who Wish Me Dead in the video below: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/07/those-who-wish-me-dead-official-trailer"] On the TV front, HBO Max is debuting the series premiere of its new dramedy, Hacks, on May 13, and the reimagining of the HBO series In Treatment on May 23. Check out the slideshow gallery below for the highlights of HBO Max's May offerings, followed by the full list: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=hbo-max-spotlight-may-2021&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"]

May 1

• 17 Again, 2009
• Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, 2012 (HBO)
• Anaconda, 1997
• Anger Management, 2003 (HBO)
• Baby Boom, 1987 (HBO)
• Barry Lyndon, 1975
• Black Hawk Down, 2001
• The Cable Guy, 1996
• Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005
• Cursed, 2005 (HBO)
• Daddy Day Care, 2003
• Darkest Hour, 2017 (HBO)
• Darkness, 2004 (Extended Version) (HBO)
• The Dirty Dozen, 1967
• Dumb & Dumber, 1994
• Employee Of The Month, 2006 (HBO)
• Firehouse Dog, 2007 (HBO)
• Flight Of The Intruder, 1991 (HBO)
• Free Willy, 1993
• Frida, 2002 (HBO)
• Generation Por Que? (HBO)
• God's Not Dead, 2014 (HBO)
• Good Morning, Vietnam, 1987 (HBO)
• Happy Feet Two, 2011
• Happy Feet, 2006
• Harley Davidson And The Marlboro Man, 1991 (HBO)
• Hercules, 1983 (HBO)
• Igby Goes Down, 2002 (HBO)
• Igor, 2008 (HBO)
• Insomnia, 2002 (HBO)
• The Interview, 2014
• Jackie Brown, 1997
• Kansas, 1988 (HBO)
• Magic Mike, 2012
• Menace II Society, 1993
• Michael, 1996 (HBO)
• Mortal Kombat, 1995
• Movie 43, 2013 (HBO)
• Muriel's Wedding, 1995 (HBO)
• My Baby's Daddy, 2004 (HBO)
• Mystery Date, 1991 (HBO)
• Norbit, 2007 (HBO)
• Para Rosa (Aka For Rosa) (HBO)
• Precious, 2009 (HBO)
• Rabid, 1977 (HBO)
• Romance & Cigarettes, 2007 (HBO)
• Rosewater, 2014 (HBO)
• Rudy, 1993
• Rush Hour 2, 2001
• Rush Hour 3, 2007
• Rush Hour, 1998
• Save The Last Dance, 2001 (HBO)
• Save The Last Dance 2, 2006 (HBO)
• Senseless, 1998 (HBO)
• Separate Tables, 1958 (HBO)
• Serpico, 1974 (HBO)
• Serving Sara, 2002 (HBO)
• Summer Rental, 1985 (HBO)
• Tenet, 2020 (HBO)
• The Debt, 2010 (HBO)
• The Immigrant, 2014 (HBO)
• The Kingdom, 2007 (HBO)
• The Last Of The Finest, 1990 (HBO)
• The Perfect Man, 2005 (HBO)
• The Tuxedo, 2002 (HBO)
• The Wings Of The Dove, 1997 (HBO)
• The Witches Of Eastwick, 1987 (HBO)
• Tomcats, 2001 (HBO)
• Trust Me, 2014 (HBO)
• Tyler Perry's Madea's Witness Protection, 2012
• Varsity Blues, 1999 (HBO)
• Welcome To Sarajevo, 1997 (HBO)
• When Harry Met Sally, 1989
• Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, 1971
• Won't You Be My Neighbor?, 2018 (HBO)
• Words And Pictures, 2014 (HBO)

May 2

• Uri and Ella, Season 1

May 3

• 300: Rise of an Empire, 2014
• Pray, Obey, Kill, Docu-Series Finale (HBO)

May 6

• Hunger, 2008
• Legendary, Max Original Season 2 Premiere
• Take Me Out To The Ball Game, 1949
• That Damn Michael Che, Max Original Series Premiere
• West Side Story (TCM CFF Opening Night), 1961

May 7

• La Boda De Rosa (Aka Rosa's Wedding) (HBO)

May 8

• Greenland, 2020 (HBO)
• Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- Season 2 , (Subtitled, Episodes 14-25) (Crunchyroll Collection)

May 9

• Axios (HBO)

May 10

• Jujutsu Kaisen - Season 1, (Subtitled, Episodes 13-24) (Crunchyroll Collection)
• Race for the White House, Season 2
• The Crime of the Century, Two-Part Documentary Premiere (HBO)

May 13

• Hacks, Max Original Series Premiere
• Wonder Woman 1984, 2020 (HBO)

May 14

• Those Who Wish Me Dead, Warner Bros. Film Premiere, 2021 (Available on HBO Max for 31 days from its respective theatrical release in the U.S. included at no additional cost to subscribers.)

May 15

• The Personal History Of David Copperfield, 2020 (HBO)
• The Nevers, Part 1 Finale (HBO)

May 19

• Apple & Onion, Season 2A

May 20

• Adventure Time: Distant Lands - Together Again, Max Original
• The Big Shot with Bethenny, Max Original Season Finale
• Ellen's Next Great Designer, Max Original Season Finale
• Territorio (Aka Close Quarters) (HBO)
• This Is Life with Lisa Ling, Season 7

May 23

• In Treatment, Season 4 Premiere (HBO)

May 25

• Cinderella Man, 2005 (HBO)
• Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel (HBO)

May 26

• Curious George, 2006 (HBO)

May 28

• A Black Lady Sketch Show, Season 2 Finale (HBO)

May 30

• Mare of Easttown, Limited Series Finale (HBO)

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/21/tenet-review"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He's also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

It's Friday, which means it's another week gone by with no news of Mother 3 coming to the West. It's been 15 years and 10 days since the game launched in Japan, and ideas of a localization have long felt like a pipe dream. Well, Terry Crews is trying to change that. On Twitter, Crews left a simple and clear message for Nintendo, saying nothing besides, "LOCALIZE MOTHER 3!"

LOCALIZE MOTHER 3!

— terry crews (@terrycrews) April 30, 2021

While Crews' wishes certainly won't sway Nintendo one way or another, it's already adding fuel to the hype train, with dozens of folks voicing their approval of Crews' demands.

I hope @NintendoAmerica is hearing this!!

— Zion Grassl (@ZionDood) April 30, 2021

Mother 3 is the Japan-only sequel to the SNES cult-classic EarthBound, which was titled Mother 2 in Japan. Mother 3 was originally released for the Game Boy Advance in 2006. Fans have been asking for its localization basically ever since. At E3 2018, IGN asked then-Nintendo of America President Reggie Fils-Aime about a potential English release for the EarthBound sequel. At the time, Reggie said Nintendo is aware of the wishes for Mother 3's localization, adding, "When we have something to announce, we will." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2016/03/26/nvc-whats-the-deal-with-earthbound"] Having since retired from Nintendo, Reggie recently tweeted that an English version of Mother 3 was his oldest backlog game, saying he puts off playing it every time he gets trolled about it.

Mother 3 English version. Every time I think it’s time to play it, I get trolled and decide to put it off. Maybe I will fire it up this weekend. https://t.co/ocIKHaxUiK pic.twitter.com/zgUHomN5im

— Reggie Fils-Aime (@Reggie) April 16, 2021

While an official localization has not yet come to fruition, Nintendo occasionally comes back to the Mother franchise. Mother 3 protagonist Lucas has been a member of the Super Smash Bros. roster for the last four entries of the series, beginning with 2008's Super Smash Bros. Brawl. Additionally, Nintendo localized the original Mother as 'EarthBound Beginnings' back on the Wii U Virtual Console in 2015. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/06/14/earthbound-beginnings-announced-for-wii-u-ign-news"] As for Crews, the actor has always made his love for video games known. When rumors were swirling about the Overwatch character Doomfist, Crews was not shy about his wishes to voice the hero. The actor also voiced the main character in 2019's Crackdown 3. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Logan Plant is a news writer for IGN, and the Production Assistant for Nintendo Voice Chat, IGN's weekly Nintendo show. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

With the heyday of Nintendo's goofy avatar creation system long past, Miis have been enjoying a quiet retirement, the Miis have recently been enjoying a quiet retirement as a buried, unused feature on the Nintendo Switch. Until recently, when their goofy creative antics to light again by a demo of a port of a four-year-old 3DS game: Miitopia. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/29/miitopia-miitopia-makes-over-mii-characters-trailer"]

In its prior incarnation, Miitopia was an RPG where all the characters were Miis, and not just any Miis. In the 3DS version players were able to assign their friend’s Miis as party members or critical NPCs, while smaller roles were cast automatically from a pool of random Miis, meaning you got weird combinations like a romance between Princess Birdo and Nigel Thornberry, or Dr. Mario guarding the royal King Dr. Zoidberg. These assignments were played out to hilarious effect as the characters had both scripted and random interactions throughout your journey.

Now, it's being ported to the Nintendo Switch, but without the same robust Mii sharing features that the 3DS had, it’s taking a different approach by introducing more robust Mii creation tools. This has inspired the Nintendo community, who are using the surprisingly detailed wig and makeup tools in the demo to get real wild with their creations.

The expressions are pretty hilarious! pic.twitter.com/3vMbqtnzDA

— Naki is holding a raffle! ✨ (@Nakios_) April 29, 2021

The make-up tool in particular is allowing creators to get real, real silly with the Miis they make, as when used correctly it's essentially a palette for anyone to make, well, almost anything, and stick it on the face of a Mii. Members of the community are sharing everything from weirdly detailed Mario characters to Five Nights at Freddy's animatronics to Tingle. Someone made a $19 Fortnite V-Bucks card and slapped that on a face, for some reason. And some are going a step further and inserting these characters into Miitopia, using their goofy juxtapositions to create some very, very strange stories.

We've collected a handful of our favorite Miis from the community below for your perusal. My personal favorite is Hot Squidward, who I desperately want to add to my Miitopia game despite not actually liking the game very much when I played it years ago on the 3DS.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=some-of-the-wildest-miitopia-creations-on-switch&captions=true"]

Miitopia has a free demo out now on the Nintendo Switch if you want to make your own silly Mii characters and you can share them with your friends to put in their games via in-game access codes. You can transfer your demo save data to the full game once it launches on May 21.

[Header Image Credit: @awesome_kirby]

[poilib element="accentDivider"]

Rebekah Valentine is a Reporter at IGN.

Kat Bailey is Senior News Editor.

Housemarque's ambitious PS5-exclusive roguelike shooter Returnal is out today, and while it's received plenty of praise (including from us) for its haunting atmosphere, clever story, and shooter action, it's also sparking discussion about its considerable difficulty. And now, the game's director has weighed in too.

On Next-Gen Console Watch, game director Harry Krueger and marketing and business development director Mikael Haveri both affirmed that Returnal's challenge stems from Housemarque's "arcade roots." Housemarque has historically incorporated arcade systems and styles in its games since its origins in the 90s, and while it declared years ago after Nex Machina that "arcade is dead," Housemarque clearly isn't abandoning that spirit in its newer titles.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/30/returnal-is-a-showcase-for-the-ps5s-power-next-gen-console-watch"]

"We started development four years ago, and I don't think the vision has changed that much. Housemarque games are known for their, let's say... challenge... there's usually a difficulty to them," Haveri said. "Nex Machina for example, you can go through the game on Easy, but you'll never get to the last level, and then there's other unlockables, and so on. So there's an 'easy to learn, but hard to master' mentality at work there."

Krueger agreed. "Without a challenge we don't feel like you can have that strong sense of accomplishment, you know? The closer to the verge of frustration you get, the bigger the feeling of triumph when you do eventually prevail."

He added that while Returnal does have more traditional difficulty options, Housemarque wanted players to feel that every new run was completely unique. Hence the roguelike formula, which allowed for "a lot of unpredictable swings" in how a session might play out even with difficulty options in place.

"So as we were saying before [...] if you take one too many gambles, you get a little bit overconfident, you might end up digging your own grave, so to speak," Krueger concluded. "But if you play a little bit more conservatively, try to play it safe, you can kind of "tune" the difficulty of that particular session to your desired skill level. So we're hoping that can act as a bit of a pressure valve for the times that you hit an impassable obstacle. Next time you try them, there will always be something a little bit different, something that gives you a little bit more of an edge so you can overcome that next time."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/29/returnal-review"]

Returnal follows the story of space explorer Selene Vassos, who crash lands on an alien planet and begins searching for the source of a strange signal. However, when she inevitably dies on her first expedition, she's returned to her ship as if nothing had ever happened. As she continues to explore the planet, Selene discovers that each failed expedition results in her being looped back to the beginning as the world shifts around her.

Difficulty aside, Returnal has come under some criticism due to the length of its runs (at times 2-3 hours) and the inability to save, turn off the game, and resume play from where you leave off in the middle of a run, making it doubly challenging for those who cannot commit to play for that long a session. Housemarque has responded to this concern saying there was "nothing to announce now" but that the studio was listening to the community.

We also found the length of each run to be a barrier in our review, but aside from that, we found Returnal's challenging gunplay and intriguing story compelling, calling it one of Housemarque's best games to date. If you're playing too and struggling to figure out where to start, check out our guide to the 20 Things to Do First in Returnal, as well as our tips guide on all the things Returnal doesn't tell you. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Mark Medina -- are discussing topics like the PS5 outselling the PS4, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, the 9.9s of IGN, how we chose games before reviews, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions. Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service. Listen on: Apple Podcasts YouTube Spotify Stitcher   Find previous episodes here!

Respawn's beloved shooter, Titanfall 2, will be free-to-play on Steam this weekend. After a resurgence of popularity for Titanfall 2, which recently hit new player count highs on Steam, Respawn has decided to open up the pilot fun to anyone on PC. Simply head to the Titanfall 2 Steam page and download the game. It's important to note that the game is not being given out for free, but rather, it's receiving the free weekend treatment that many other titles have received in years past.

We heard people want to play Titanfall 2 this weekend? So do we!

Join us on Steam when we make TF2 temporarily free-to-play starting RIGHT NOW through May 3rd @ 10am PT. Get it here: https://t.co/rn4rUSF0RG Your journey begins here, Pilots. pic.twitter.com/SQ9eAIAWka — Respawn (@Respawn) April 30, 2021

Titanfall 2 saw its Steam player base skyrocket 650% in just two days earlier this week, bringing its average daily peak of active players over the last 30 days to 6,815, which is up from its 1,940 player average seen in March. This peak likely occurred as a result of the game going on sale for 75% off on Steam during the weekend of April 17. That's not the only possible factor for the shooter's resurgence as of late, though. Beyond its status as a beloved shooter that many want a sequel too — a sequel that is not in development as of last May — the game's popularity has likely also risen as a result of the new Titanfall-related content coming to Respawn's battle royale, Apex Legends. "Next season, Season 9, you're actually going to see a ton of Titanfall coming back into the game, in one way or another," Apex Legends game director Chad Grenier said. "I've told some people before, if you're a Titanfall fan, hang on for Season 9 because there's gonna be some really cool stuff there." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/29/apex-legends-meet-valkyrie-character-trailer"] The first bit of Season 9 Titanfall-related content came by way of the battle royale's newest character, Valkyrie, who is the daughter of Titanfall 2 villain, Viper. You can read more about Valkyrie, who is a jetpack-equipped Titanfall throwback, here. Be sure to check out this Apex Legends Legacy Update story for details about Valkyrie, Apex Legends' new Arena modes, and more. Read about how Titanfall 2 can now be played at 120fps on Xbox Series X after that. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

Late last year, when We Are the Caretakers designer Sherveen Uduwana approached LIONKILLER creator Sisi Jiang with a game idea, the concept for Midautumn was, in his own words, very vague: Asian diaspora, a midautumn festival, and...something about gentrification. Fortunately, Jiang ran with the concept, teeing up the game's transformation for its announcement today. With Jiang's writing, Uduwana's gameplay and leadership, and the talents of lead environment artist Kiana Mosser, lead character artist Mai Pham, and character portraits by Chi Ngo, the team is ready to show off their roguelike adventure set in a fictional Asian enclave in California, where the spirit world is beginning to encroach on the physical world in parallel with more grounded, real-world gentrification. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/30/midautumn-announcement-trailer"] Speaking to IGN, Uduwana describes Midautumn's gameplay as similar to recent indie hit Hades, but with a very different premise. It takes place in the town of Nambo Quay, a fictional town founded by Chinese immigrants during the gold rush that is now reckoning with economic instability and frustration that will be familiar to most millennials and Gen Z-ers. The main character, Robin, discovers in the opening act that there's a gate to the spirit world beneath their grandmother's basement, and in exchange for rent, they must descend into its depths to keep the spirit world from wrecking the real one using their grandmother's magic staff. Robin will fight through procedurally generated dungeons, avoiding traps and hazards, and discovering the town's secrets by defeating spirit world denizens in top-down, action combat with a focus on magic. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=It's%20like%20this%20place%20I've%20known%20my%20entire%20life%2C%20but%20is%20nowhere%20in%20the%20American%20cultural%20consciousness.%20These%20places%20exist!"] Their activities in the spirit world will ultimately have an impact on the denizens of Nambo Quay, as the creatures beyond the basement gate increasingly try to push their way into disrupting day-to-day life. And in between spirit world jaunts, Robin will explore Nambo Quay, getting to know their neighbors and their community's frustrations, struggles, hopes, and desires. Central to Midautumn is its portrayal of Asian diaspora, specifically surrounding the representation of a very specific type of Asian community that exists in America and which all the team members were familiar with: one where multiple different Asian groups come together, both melding and maintaining their disparate cultures. Jiang says much of their inspiration for the community of Nambo Quay came from visual novel game Butterfly Soup, a lesbian Asian diaspora visual novel about baseball. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=midautumn-announcement-screenshots&captions=true"] "[It's] an Asian ethnoburb," Jiang says, describing their first experience with Butterfly Soup in relation to Midautumn. "It's like this place I've known my entire life, but is nowhere in the American cultural consciousness. These places exist! But you don't know they exist unless you live in one." They add that while Midautumn starts out as a very personal, individual story, it later widens "to how different Asian groups interact and how it's not one monolith and how there can be different strategies to combat the things that are happening with the town. It works really well when you have this cast of characters from different backgrounds, perspectives, and cultural touchstones." That said, Jiang didn't want to make a game about the solutions to the problems these communities are facing, largely because they don't have clear, concrete answers. Instead, Midautumn is "about people doing their best." [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=I%20thought%20that%20the%20roguelike%20structure%20would%20be%20really%20interesting%20to%20do%20a%20narrative%20about%20--%20something%20where%20combating%20it%20takes%20repeated%2C%20almost%20unending%20work."] "I thought that the roguelike structure would be really interesting to do a narrative about -- something where combating it takes repeated, almost unending work," Jiang continues. "Gentrification was really interesting with that; you have to keep working against it." Uduwana says he wanted to create something specifically about Asian diaspora in part because of his own background: He's Sri Lankan, but spent 13 years growing up in Vietnam, and also a portion of his life in Singapore. "I have a weird mish-mash of different influences where I am almost incapable of telling a story that will read as authentic to any other Asian diaspora person if I were to write it," he says. "It's difficult, when you're making games that cater to marginalized audiences, you have to account for the fact that lots of people who play these games have a certain level of wariness in how they're depicted," he says. "So we're trying really early to build up goodwill and trust. We're doing our best to portray these characters, so hopefully people can kind of relax. When I play games, once I get to the point where I feel a certain level of trust with a developer, that's really only when I can start to enjoy games where people like me are depicted." Pham tells me that it was this concept in Uduwana's pitch that drew them to work on the game in the first place, referencing the frustration many Asian Americans have with a lack of Asian representation in video games, and the view of their very separate and unique cultures as a monolith. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=I%20was%20like%2C%20'Oh%20my%20God%2C%20I%20can%20see%20myself%20in%20this%20game.'%20It%20was%20representation%20for%20who%20I%20am."] "There's a lot of Asian representation [in games], but when it comes to different types of Asian people, or Vietnamese people like I am, I was like, 'Oh my God, I can see myself in this game.' It was representation for who I am, and I think that's really cool." Pham is clear that Asian representation isn't the only kind of representation important to the team, though. They tell me about several characters who are diverse in their gender identities, including the game's non-binary protagonist Robin. It's been fun to design such a diverse and colorful cast, they say, and they're trying to be attentive and sensitive to portrayals to ensure that players can see themselves in the game, first and foremost, as human beings. "What really struck me when I was sent the character bios was that Sherveen had said to focus more on body diversity," they add. "It's been really fun tackling different body shapes and different types of people who have such different personalities." For Mosser's part on the environments, she's been making pixel art since she was young, but with Midautumn wanted to do something that both incorporated the themes and roots of the game while also looking very different from anything else that was out there. "One problem I have with pixel art games is they can feel very samey a lot of the time, because they all draw from the same references," she says. "It gets into this cycle of people referencing the same few games, like Earthbound or Pokemon or Final Fantasy. So you end up with styles that look very similar to each other. "But when I came to work on this project, I told Sherveen I wanted to pull from real life. Pixel art is just a medium; we can depict whatever we want. So we took a look at a bunch of different locations across Asia, at a bunch of different art styles and painting techniques people use, and I wanted to take the essence of those and use them in the art style of the game. So in the wood biome, it's a mash-up of three different styles: there's the traditional ink painting you might be familiar with from Chinese landscape paintings. There's a more messy style that's inspired by palette knife paintings that you might see on the street...and then there's a bit of influence of graffiti art as well in the foreground...I think it turned out really unique." [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=The%20kind%20of%20communities%20that%20coalesce%20around%20the%20games%20you%20make%20are%20defined%20by%20the%20values%20and%20morals%20you%20put%20into%20that."] Midautumn is currently planned for release on PC with controller support. While Uduwana is open to console releases down the line, he's not thinking about it for the time being while they focus on development. He's not looking at a release date just yet, but is expecting late 2021 or early 2022 for an early access launch. He says that whether or not Midautumn takes off, he hopes that people who find the game resonates with them are then in turn able to find one another and make connections through the shared story. "Building communities has always been really important to me," he says. "In your career as a game dev, you have a finite number of games you're going to make. The kind of communities that coalesce around the games you make are defined by the values and morals you put into that. For me, especially in a time when I'm getting more disillusioned with a lot of things in the games industry, I become more and more impatient to see the kinds of things that represent me or people I know." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

A billion-year-old fossil discovered in the Scottish Highlands may provide the "missing link" in how animals evolved. That "missing link" is the bridge between the transition of a single-celled organism and multicellular animals, according to the Current Biology study published about the discovery. This billion-year-old fossil "shows an organism which lies somewhere between single cell and multicellular animal," according to a press release published by The University of Sheffield. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/04/dinosaur-fossils-may-belong-to-largest-animal-to-have-ever-walked-ign-news"] "The origins of complex multicellularity and the origin of animals are considered two of the most important events in the history of life on Earth (and) our discovery sheds new light on both of these," University of Sheffield's Department of Animal and Plant Sciences investigative lead Charles Wellman said. "We have found a primitive spherical organism made up of an arrangement of two distinct cell types, the first step towards a complex multicellular structure, something which has never been described before in the fossil record." Wellman continued on to say that the evolution of multicellular animals occurred at least one billion years ago and "that early events prior to the evolution of animals may have occurred in freshwater like lakes rather than oceans." Another researcher on the team, Paul Strother from Boston College, said it's long been speculated that the origin of animals included the repurposing of genes from already-evolved "unicellular organisms," but that what's seen in Bicellum Brasieri, which is the formal name of the fossil discovered in Scotland, is an actual example of such an occurrence. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=dueling-dinosaurs-fossil-photo-gallery&captions=true"] "What we see in Bicellum is an example of such a genetic system, involving cell-cell adhesion and cell differentiation that may have been incorporated into the animal genome half a billion years later," Strother said. The fossil, which was discovered at Loch Torridon in the Northwest Scottish Highlands, was in a state of "exceptional preservation," according to the press release, which made analyzing its cellular and sub-cellular levels possible. The team expects to find even more fossils from the Torridonian deposits that could lead to additional revelations about the evolution of multicellular animals. For more about fossils, check out this story about a dinosaur fossil discovered that may reveal the largest animal to ever walk on Earth and then read about this Tyrannosaurus rex fossil that recently sold for $31.8 million. Check out this story about a T.rex and Triceratops locked in the same fossil after that, then read about evidence found by researchers that suggests a microevolution in humans. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.