MLB Players League Features Real Pros Playing Against Each Other in MLB The Show 20
Sony Interactive, the MLB, and the MLBPA have announced the MLB The Show Players League today. This is a new online event where thirty professional baseball players will compete against each other in MLB The Show 20 to help raise funds for the Boys & Girls Clubs of America and Boys and Girls Clubs of Canada.
The MLB The Show Players League is comprised of 30 professional baseball players, including 11 former All-Stars, five World Series Champions, and eight players age 25 or younger. They will compete in a round-robin format throughout April against one another for a total of 29, three-inning games. The top eight players will advance to a Postseason and ultimately a World Series.
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The three organizations have agreed to donate $5,000 on behalf of each participating player to a Boys and Girls Club affiliate in their team’s community. The championship player will earn an additional $25,000 donation to their community’s clubs.
The MLB The Show Players League begins today, April 10, as Tampa Bay Rays’ Blake Snell takes on Amir Garrett of the Cincinnati Reds starting at 6 pm PT/9 pm ET. The games will stream on Twitch and YouTube, and details can be found on the @MLBTheShow Twitter account.
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Here’s a full list of MLB The Show Players League participants. Also, check out IGN’s review of MLB The Show 20 for our take on Sony's long-running baseball sim.
- Jon Duplantier - Arizona Diamondbacks
- Luke Jackson - Atlanta Braves
- Dwight Smith Jr. - Baltimore Orioles
- Eduardo Rodriguez - Boston Red Sox
- Ian Happ - Chicago Cubs
- Lucas Giolito - Chicago White Sox
- Amir Garrett - Cincinnati Red
- Carlos Santana - Cleveland Reds
- David Dahl - Colorado Rockies
- Niko Goodrum - Detroit Tigers
- Lance McCullers Jr. - Houston Astros
- Brett Phillips - Kansas City Royals
- Ty Buttrey - Los Angeles Angels
- Gavin Lux - Los Angeles Dodgers
- Ryan Stanek - Miami Marlins
- Josh Hader - Milwaukee Brewers
- Trevor May - Minnesota Twins
- Jeff McNeil - New York Mets
- Tommy Kahnle - New York Yankees
- Jesus Luzardo - Oakland Athletics
- Rhys Hoskins - Philadelphia Phillies
- Cole Tucker - Pittsburgh Pirates
- Fernando Tatis Jr. - San Diego Padres
- Hunter Pence - San Francisco Giants
- Carl Edwards Jr. - Seattle Mariners
- Matt Carpenter - St. Louis Cardinals
- Blake Snell - Tampa Bay Rays
- Joey Gallo - Texas Rangers
- Bo Bichette - Toronto Blue Jays
- Juan Soto - Washinton Nationals
Final Fantasy 7 Remake Trailer Hints at PC Release
A video released by Square Enix to commemorate the launch of Final Fantasy 7 Remake has hinted towards a potential PC release.
The 'Thank you for waiting' clip features Final Fantasy 7 Remake Director Yoshinori Kitase providing players with an overview of the game. Most interesting though is the text that appears below the gameplay shown, which reads "Gameplay captured on PC." You can see that text below in the video.
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We already knew that Final Fantasy 7 Remake has a timed exclusivity window on PS4, which lasts until April 2021, but this is confirmation that a PC version of the game exists in some form. We don't know if that's a development build, a full version of the game waiting for release, or otherwise.
It's a formality from Square Enix to show that the footage isn't exactly what you should expect if you pick up the game on PS4 today, but it's still a worthwhile tidbit concerning which platforms it might land on in the near future.
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The rest of the trailer explains the changes to the battle system in Final Fantasy 7 Remake and gives a brief rundown of how Square Enix has updated the 1997 classic for a new audience in 2020.
As you may know, Final Fantasy 7 Remake is not the full game - for an explanation about what the first part of this remake franchise covers, check out our handy guide. For even more on Final Fantasy 7 Remake, you can check out our review of the game, which we think breathes "exciting new life into a classic."
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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
Black Hole Appears to Break Laws of Physics, But It’s an Optical Illusion
A black hole was spotted seemingly breaking the laws of physics, before it became clear that what astrophysicists were seeing was an optical illusion.
Per Vice, the phenomena was captured by the Event Horizon Telescope – the same one responsible for capturing the first ever image of a black hole last year thanks to algorithms developed by Katie Bouman and her team. What scientists observed in this case was a beam of energy coming from the supermassive black hole at the centre of a galaxy called 3C 279. That beam of energy appeared to be travelling at up to 20 times the speed of light.
The speed of light is supposed to be a universal speed limit, and it's impossible to provide moving particles of conventional matter with the energy required to travel any faster than this. This is because a particle's mass increases in proportion to its velocity and requires a proportional amount of energy to accelerate. A particle travelling beyond light speed would need infinite energy due to its subsequent infinite mass, which is why this energy beam observation is so strange.
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The observational team, led by astrophysicist Jae-Young Kim, posted a study that explained this impossible vision was actually the cause of a mega-scale optical illusion. While the jet does reach speeds of a less law breaking 99.5% of the speed of light, it only looks like it was travelling at 15 - 20 times faster because of how it's oriented with the Earth.
Co-author Dom Pesce, a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics also explained the illusion in this statement, saying, “This extraordinary optical illusion arises because the material is racing toward us, chasing down the very light it is emitting and making it appear to be moving faster than it is.”
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Despite the optical illusion not breaking the laws of physics, scientists still learned some interesting things from their observations. Thanks to The Event Horizon Telescope's ability to observe distant objects in much greater detail than previously possible, they could see that the beam looks twisted where it emanates from the centre of the black hole. This could mean the beam is being distorted or deformed at the centre of the black hole, due to the contrast with the straighter beams further from the middle. That observation could help scientists understand how these jets of energy are formed.
For more on black holes, NASA's new simulation is also looking into how black holes can warp space time. A supermassive black hole has also recently been discovered to be responsible for the biggest explosion ever detected.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN who also only ever looks like she's breaking the law. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.
Thor: Love and Thunder Might Have Starsharks and Loki, But No Silver Surfer
Since Taika Waititi is 80 percent troll and 20 percent pure chaos demon, it's best to take everything he says with a large wheelbarrow of salt, but the director of Thor: Ragnarok appeared to reveal a few real tidbits about the upcoming sequel, Thor: Love and Thunder - and some very fake script pages teasing the return of Tony Stark - during an Instagram Live watch party of Ragnarok on his personal Instagram account on April 9.
Kicking things off by offering fans an exclusive look at what Waititi described as new concept art for the character of Miek and a look at New Asgard from Love and Thunder, Waititi also "accidentally" "leaked" a page of the "script" for Love and Thunder in the process. The fake script sees Tony Stark returning because of "science" to assemble a new team to face a similarly resurrected Thanos: The Avengererers. Oh, and the Iron Man suit has apparently had an upgrade, emblazoned with decals of "all the flags of every nation on Earth," obviously. (Why has no one let Waititi write an Avengers movie?)
Take a look at the concept art and script page below:
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Waititi then answered (or dodged) a number of fan questions, including whether Loki might appear in Love and Thunder ("can't say," said Waititi), who Christian Bale is playing (Waititi faked his mic cutting out while he was answering), if we'd see the Silver Surfer in the film (nah), or whether we might see Beta Ray Bill in the sequel, following an Easter egg nod to the character in Ragnarok. The Beta Ray Bill question came the closest to getting a straight answer: "Not sure how to answer that; I don’t want to tease and I don’t want to give anything away... It would be awesome to have him in the film but I just don’t know right now, it’s up in the air," Waititi said, after expressing his love for the character.
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Ragnarok star Tessa Thompson later made an appearance on the stream (as did Mark Ruffalo) and prompted further discussion of the upcoming sequel - which Waititi said is currently on its fourth or fifth draft, noting that he "can't wait to do it," because it's become "so over the top now, in the very best way." For her part, Thompson said she had read a recent draft, though she hadn't read the most recent iteration.
In a tease that could have no basis in reality, or could be entirely accurate (it's impossible to tell with Waititi), the director revealed: "it makes Ragnarok seem really run of the mill, a very safe film ... There’s a lot in it, a lot of set pieces. This new film feels like we asked a bunch of 10-year-olds what should be in the movie, and just said yes to every single thing," he laughed. "The combination of things as well, and some of the stuff from the comics... space sharks; if you look up space sharks, you’ll get a good idea of what this is."
Waititi was likely referring to the Starsharks, sometimes referred to as Space Sharks, which are often used for transportation in the comics since they can live and move in space. They were first created by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum for Uncanny X-Men, but also appeared in Jason Aaron's Mighty Thor and Thor: God of Thunder runs. Aaron's work is believed to be a major influence on the direction of the new movie, which will see Jane Foster return and take on the mantle of Thor, as she did in Aaron's run. Aaron's God of Thunder arc also introduces Gorr the God Butcher as an antagonist, and the character is rumored to be the villain in Love and Thunder.
To be fair, Waititi has previously described Love and Thunder as "doubling down on how nuts Ragnarok was," so Space Sharks seem like a believable escalation.
Dodging questions about whether we'll see a love interest for Valkyrie, Thompson also asked about the status of Waititi's on-screen character, Korg, in the sequel. "We do touch on Korg’s culture, where he’s from, the cultural specificities of Kronans, if you will," Waititi said. "If you look in the comics about Kronans, there’s some interesting things about where they come from and how they procreate."
As for whether Thor will have regained his chiseled physique in Love and Thunder after the events of Avengers: Endgame, Waititi seemed to confirm the transformation by noting that he doesn't want to repeat the same beats of a previous film: "I feel like that’s done for him - I feel like we’ve seen that, haven’t we?"
Things fully got off the rails by the time Ruffalo joined the Instagram Live, with conversation veering from telling knock-knock jokes with Waititi's daughter to revealing fake "treatments" for the coronavirus pandemic. For much of the end of the watch-along stream, Thor: Ragnarok was not even on screen, nor was the focus on discussing the movie. But like Thor: Ragnarok (and, presumably, Thor: Love and Thunder), the overall experience was well-worth having, if a bit insane, and it was a nice breath of fresh air to see Waititi, Thompson, and Ruffalo catching up with each other while cooking and caring for their families while stuck inside, just like the rest of us.
Thor: Love and Thunder was scheduled to start filming in Sydney, Australia this summer, but production has since been delayed by the coronavirus pandemic. Waititi confirmed that he's still working hard on the film and hopes to begin production as soon as they can, but noted, "I think this little break that we’re taking is going to be good for all films, all scripts, all art."
Thor: Love and Thunder was initially scheduled for release on Nov. 5, 2021, but the recent release date changes for Marvel's Phase 4 have pushed it back to Feb. 28, 2022.
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Get The Mandalorian’s Ship in LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga by Buying Real-Life LEGO Set
Lego has put the Razor Crest Mandalorian set up for pre-order, which comes with a secret code that unlocks a digital version of the ship in the upcoming Lego Star Wars: The Sky Walker Saga video game. IGN has confirmed with WB Games that the code will redeem the ship only, and not any of the included minifigs.
The Razor Crest is the name of the eponymous Mandalorian’s space ship from the Disney+ series. When Lego put the set up for pre-order, eagle eyes observers saw a notice on the box that said there was a secret code somewhere in the kit that would unlock the ship in the Lego Star Wars video game.
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WB Games confirmed that it will just be the ship that gets unlocked in the game with the code. Meaning the Mandalorian, the Child (aka Baby Yoda), Greef Karga, and IG-11 — who are included in the set as minifigs — will not be unlocked through this code. Perhaps this means the characters will already be available in the base game.
Furthermore, IGN has learned that the included Lego code will be the only way to acquire the Razor Crest in Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga and that there are no plans yet to release the ship in-game or as DLC. WB Games says future Lego sets will include similar integrations where players can redeem digital goods from physical, boxed Lego sets.
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WB Games announced the Lego Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga at E3 2019 and that it would be released in 2020 following the release of Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker. Despite the release date for the Razor Crest Lego kit set for September 1, 2020, there’s still no confirmed release date for The Skywalker Saga video game.
You can read IGN’s Lego Star Wars: Skywalker Saga preview here.
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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.
Bleeding Edge Review – Teamfight Free-For-All
There's no easing into making a competitive game in 2020. Already inundated with games like Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, the battle royales, the MOBAs, and the auto chesses, players have plenty of choices, so if you want to present an alternative, it had better be ready for prime time. Bleeding Edge, the new third-person competitive brawler from DmC developer Ninja Theory, doesn't feel like it's there yet. There's plenty of potential: Its four-on-four scrums blend the mashy feeling of an old school beat-em-up with the tactical considerations of MOBAs and hero shooters, setting it apart from anything you're going to find in popular competitive scenes. However, it suffers from "early days" growing pains that may push players away, rather than draw them in.
Bleeding Edge is a self-described competitive multiplayer "brawler," but what does that actually mean? Depending on your point of reference, you could call it a "boots on the ground-style MOBA" or a "third-person hero shooter." It's an action game where two teams of four fight within the narrative framework of competing in one of two team sports--a King of the Hill-style "Objective Control" scenario and "Power Collection," a resource-hoarding mode where players need to break energy canisters and return their contents to designated points at specific times. Though the two variants have their quirks, both boil down to dynamic point control. Whether you're delivering energy or protecting your "hills," you need to defend a position. If you're trying to block your enemy from scoring in either mode, you need to take a position.
Both of these things require all four players to work as a team. Though some fighters are better suited for one-on-one combat than others, moving and fighting as a squad is mandatory because the team with larger numbers almost always wins, regardless of skill. Inevitably, each match becomes a series of teamfights for control of an area. In the moment, these battles can feel a bit mashy and sloppy as you rapidly jam on the attack button, but there's a good deal of strategy involved around creating favorable matchups, combining skills to maximize damage dealt and minimize damage taken, and positioning yourself to avoid wide-reaching crowd control attacks. On top of that, all of the levels present some kind of environmental hazard around one or more of the key points on the map, which can throw a wrench in the gears of the most pivotal moments in a match.
Continue Reading at GameSpotBleeding Edge Review – Teamfight Free-For-All
There's no easing into making a competitive game in 2020. Already inundated with games like Overwatch, Rainbow Six Siege, the battle royales, the MOBAs, and the auto chesses, players have plenty of choices, so if you want to present an alternative, it had better be ready for prime time. Bleeding Edge, the new third-person competitive brawler from DmC developer Ninja Theory, doesn't feel like it's there yet. There's plenty of potential: Its four-on-four scrums blend the mashy feeling of an old school beat-em-up with the tactical considerations of MOBAs and hero shooters, setting it apart from anything you're going to find in popular competitive scenes. However, it suffers from "early days" growing pains that may push players away, rather than draw them in.
Bleeding Edge is a self-described competitive multiplayer "brawler," but what does that actually mean? Depending on your point of reference, you could call it a "boots on the ground-style MOBA" or a "third-person hero shooter." It's an action game where two teams of four fight within the narrative framework of competing in one of two team sports--a King of the Hill-style "Objective Control" scenario and "Power Collection," a resource-hoarding mode where players need to break energy canisters and return their contents to designated points at specific times. Though the two variants have their quirks, both boil down to dynamic point control. Whether you're delivering energy or protecting your "hills," you need to defend a position. If you're trying to block your enemy from scoring in either mode, you need to take a position.
Both of these things require all four players to work as a team. Though some fighters are better suited for one-on-one combat than others, moving and fighting as a squad is mandatory because the team with larger numbers almost always wins, regardless of skill. Inevitably, each match becomes a series of teamfights for control of an area. In the moment, these battles can feel a bit mashy and sloppy as you rapidly jam on the attack button, but there's a good deal of strategy involved around creating favorable matchups, combining skills to maximize damage dealt and minimize damage taken, and positioning yourself to avoid wide-reaching crowd control attacks. On top of that, all of the levels present some kind of environmental hazard around one or more of the key points on the map, which can throw a wrench in the gears of the most pivotal moments in a match.
Continue Reading at GameSpotNew World, Amazon’s Upcoming MMO, Delayed to August
Amazon has announced that it will delay the release of its upcoming MMO, New World, until August 25, 2020, as a result of the global COVID-19 pandemic. The New World CLosed Beta has also been delayed to July, pushed back from its original April 2020 launch.
In a new blog post, Amazon Games announced that despite developers working on the game from home, “developing an ambitious MMO like New World remotely has introduced some challenges.” This is why the developers opted to delay the launch “to reach our quality bar as we work remotely for the foreseeable future.”
New World is an upcoming MMO from Amazon Game Studios. Set in a fictional world, players will take up the role of colonists exploring a new land terrorized by supernatural monsters. Players will scavenge for resources and build settlements that they’ll then have to defend from monsters and other players.
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The Alpha for New World will remain open as development continues, and Amazon is promising more information and updates between now and the August launch. The developers also shared new details about a mechanic called “Invasion.”
In Invasion, monster hordes will build up power and numbers before laying siege on a Fort that’s become too powerful. Players must work together to defend the Fort against invaders. Failure will result in the Territory losing some upgrades, like Crafting Stations, and other assets.
Invasion appears to be co-operated PvE events that take place every four days. A Governor of the Territory can choose 10 heroes for the Invasion, and the remaining 40 slots will be filled randomly from a pool of players who signed up to take part in the next invasion.
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An Invasion is split into multiple phases. During Preparation, players will need to use special Battle Tokens to purchase ammo and potions, and other weapons to help fight off the monsters. The enemies will arrive in hordes, first trying to tear down the gate.
Players will either successfully defend the Fort or be overrun. Amazon says this is a level 50 activity, so it will be reserved for high-level players.
Read IGN’s hands-on preview for New World, or check out our interview with Amazon Game Studios about the company’s first major video game launch.
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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.
The Batman Director Matt Reeves on the “Surreal” Production Shutdown
Director Matt Reeves may be eager to resume shooting The Batman -- its production was shut down last month due to the coronavirus pandemic -- "when the time is right" but says for now "there are bigger things" that he and his team "have to do to make our loved ones and the people that we care about safe."
"The whole thing is quite surreal. As much as we wanted to proceed, we wanted to make sure we were safe," Reeves said of his film getting put on hold over a global pandemic in an interview with the New York Times.
"We didn’t want anyone on our crew to get sick. But there was a crew member who actually got it, an incredible dialect coach named Andrew Jack, and he passed away. We were all in utter shock and heartbroken. It’s been weeks since we shut down, so I don’t think it was passed among the crew. But it’s very, very upsetting."
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Reeves also allayed any concerns about whether Warner Bros. shared his vision for The Batman -- which he previously said was a noir-style, detective-driven story -- by saying he wouldn't have made the film just to make another Batman movie.
And as Joker took inspiration from the early films of Martin Scorsese, Reeves cited two classic 1970s detective films when explaining what he was going for with The Batman.
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Reeves said he told the studio "I want to do something that has some emotional stakes. My ambition is for it to be incredibly personal using the metaphors of that world. It feels like this really odd throwback to the movies I came up on from the ’70s, like Klute or Chinatown. I’m not saying we’re achieving anything like that. Those are masterpieces. But that’s the ambition."
For more on The Batman, check out Reeves' picks for his favorite Batman movies, learn what composer Michael Giacchino had to say about scoring the film, and trace the origins of the new Batmobile.
iam8bit Creates Charity Bundle to Aid Button Mash Arcade Bar
Button Mash, an arcade and bar located in Los Angeles’ Echo Park neighborhood, has teamed up with video game collectibles company iam8bit to help raise funds to keep the restaurant alive during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Button Mash is a bar fitted up with a room full of arcade machines and games, including pinball and video game cabinets. The restaurant already furloughed most of its 33 employees, but need help raising funds to last through the mass shop closures in California.
Enter iam8bit which created the Button Mash Quarantine Boredom Pack that lets supporters purchase fundraising packages that include games, comics, soundtracks, arcade tokens, and more. Prices range from $25 to $1,000 with different merchandise available at each prize level.
Iam8bit is a video game collectible company known for publishing physical copies of indie games, soundtracks, and more. You might know them for the super cool and gross collector’s edition of Inside which IGN unboxed. iam8bit was also tapped to serve as a creative director for this year's E3 before the show was canceled.
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“The incredible staff at Button Mash, many of whom have been there since opening night, have been serving us for years,” Button Mash writes on its fundraising page. “They’ve been there for us — and now it’s time for us to step up for them.”
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Button Mash and iam8bit are offering five different reward packages whose profits will go towards supporting its employees. They are:
Level 1 - $25
- $5 in tokens (local redemption)
- Samurai Gunn - Steam (from Scrambler)
- Button Mash Recipes by Starry Kitchen
- Button Mash Coloring Book by Joseph Harmon ft. Amanda Visell
- Iam8bit 20% OFF Coupon (for a future purchase, not applicable for a pre-order product)
- $10 in tokens (local redemption)
- Iron Brigade - Steam (from Double Fine)
- Stacking - Steam (from Double Fine)
- Hyper Light Drifter - Steam (from Heart Machine)
- Absu - Soundtrack by Austin Wintory
- A Guide to Dogs by Jon Vermilyea - Digital Comic
- Cat Agent by Kent Osborne - Digital Comic
- Menestrel by Valentin Seiche - Digital Comic
- Plus all rewards from level 1 except tokens
- $20 in tokens (local redemption)
- Costume Quest - Steam (from Double Fine)
- The Banner Saga Trilogy - Soundtracks by Austin Wintory
- Journey - Soundtrack by Austin Wintory
- A Fine Day to Be by Jon Vermilyea - Digital Comic
- J+K: Eggy’s Party by John Pham - Digital Comi
- Plus all rewards from Level 2 except tokens.
- Unlimited tokens for one night (local redemption)
- X1 Random Steven Universe collectible zine
- Plus all rewards from level 1, 2, and 3 except tokens
- Unlimited tokens for one night
- Plus all rewards from level 1, 2, and 3 except tokens
- Steven Universe Set of x3 Different Zines
- Personalized Drawing by Chris Prynoski, founder of animation studio Titmouse (Big Mouth, The Midnight Gospel, The Venture Bros, The Legend of Vox Machina)
- Personalized Family Guy portrait ft. Stewie or Peter by Show Director Greg Colton