Speaking to the developers from Gloam Collective about their upcoming PC and Mac game, Bravery Network Online, they raised a point that I hadn't considered before: despite its popularity, Pokemon's team-based combat system is rarely imitated, leaving a gap in the market. "It's super specific," Gloam says, "but we found ourselves craving more games like these, and not finding any. We want to fill that void!"
Bravery Network Online won't set you off as a plucky youth on a spirited adventure--it will instead present short stories in visual novel form to clue you into the world's backstory, and the various human characters that you'll take into battle--rough-and-tumble cuties that love nothing more than a good fight. Judging by a recent demo, combat and creativity are put front and center. I've never seen a cast of characters quite like these, which run the gamut from imposing fashionable warriors to equally stylish yet seemingly frail fighters.
Gloam made a point to mention that all of the characters in Bravery Network Online are essentially immortal, a detail that explains the range of physicality among the cast, and the game's standout combat mechanic: the use of feelings and emotions as status effects. "When we made the decision to have emotional attacks, it immediately clicked that feelings could be the status effects of the game," Gloam explained. "Feeling is a vague word that can refer to a more physical feeling, like 'Dizzy' or 'Hungry' but can also just straight up be an emotion like 'Guilty' or 'Excited.' This theming gave us a ton of room to play in, and we loved it."
Though you will get to build your own teams of offbeat characters, the recent demo we played had two pre-built teams, and two distinct headcanons. "Trust Punks are kind of this ragtag team being led by their elder mentor, Ferran," says Gloam. "They are a kind of well-rounded team, with a bunch of different avenues for winning, and good for exploring a bunch of BNO's mechanics. The Cold & The Beautiful on the other hand is a team filled with fast, gorgeous fighters. They focus on chipping their opponents away, tagging out with Escape Whip to build up charge, and then getting in the heavy hitters, Zael and Annora, to blast their foes apart."
Gloam currently plans to ready 25 fighters for launch. The ten characters available in the demo share a few moves here and there, but they are otherwise distinct, with strong visual identities that convey their individuality.
"Seyla's one of our favourite characters at Gloam," says the team, "just because of how emotive she is. She has a super short fuse, and a constant drive to be the best Bravery fighter, so you can imagine how she is when it's pretty clear she's losing. Mechanically though, Seyla's a ridiculously strong Physical attacker, and has a few ways of buffing herself up. A well-played Seyla can plow through an unprepared team."
As focused as Gloam is on delivering an interesting array of fighters, it's really all in service of making Bravery Network Online a hotbed of competition. Even though Pokemon was a direct inspiration, Gloam made some fundamental changes for Bravery Network Online's combat system. "One of the most obvious is that we removed randomness from the game, replacing them with fighting game-style meter mechanics. Flourishing is meant to represent those times you'd get a critical hit out of nowhere, or randomly have a move give a status effect. Parrying is essentially a reskin of your opponent's moves missing, but you control when it happens instead of it being a percent-based chance."
While playing the recent demo, even against computer-controlled opponents, I had to pay very close attention to the aforementioned meters and the specific fighter matchups in order to win. Bravery Network Online is built to reward careful, considered play, and while there's no doubt benefits to the element of surprise that random blocks or heavy hits bring to the table, it's refreshing to see a team-based battler that's closer to game of chess than a roll of dice. In Gloam's own words: "If you appreciate a rich strategy game with lots of room for customization and mind games, there's plenty to explore."
Bravery Network Online will be published by Alliance Games, and is currently in active development for PC and Mac, targeting a late-2019 release date.
Turn 10 Studios may have outed the existence of an upcoming Forza mobile game. A recent community update erroneously linked to a sentence mentioning an unannounced mobile game called Forza Street, and it even names the developer.
GT Planet reports that the mistaken link appeared in the latest Forza Motorsport Week in Review. The link was intended to lead to a story about a recent esports winner, but instead linked to a description of a game. The link has since been corrected on the Forza site.
"Developed in partnership with UK-based studio, Electric Square, Forza Street is built from the ground up to support a wide range of Windows 10, iOS, and Android devices," it read.
There is no announced game called Forza Street. The developer did develop a game called Miami Street for Windows 10 in 2018, in partnership with Microsoft Studios. It's possible Microsoft is putting that studio on a mobile version of its racing franchise, and borrowing the "Street" surname in the process. Alternately, Miami Street could have started as a Forza mobile game, but was changed at some point in development.
Since 2011, Microsoft has produced a new Forza game every year, now alternating between the simulation Motorsport series and the open-world Horizon series. The most recent game was Forza Horizon 4, which takes place in the UK and features track conditions that change with the seasons.
Season 8 of Fortnite is now live across all platforms, and just as Epic teased prior to the start of the season, this one is themed around pirates. Already the developer has added a new pirate area and weapon to the battle royale game, and it appears another pirate item is on the way this week: treasure maps.
Fortnite's in-game News feed is teasing the imminent arrival of new Buried Treasure maps. It's unclear just how these items will work, but the News feed says they're "coming soon" to the game, and they'll allow players to "scour the island for hidden loot." You can take a glimpse at the maps below.
Epic has yet to confirm when the Buried Treasure maps will go live in Fortnite, but the developer likes to advertise new items shortly before they're added in the game's next update, so the maps will presumably arrive alongside this week's patch. Barring any unexpected delays, Epic typically releases updates for Fortnite on Tuesdays, although the developer hasn't announced the timing of this week's patch yet.
Season 8 of Fortnite officially kicked off on February 28 with the release of the big 8.0 update. A lot has already changed this season, particularly regarding the game's map. Epic has added three new areas of the island to explore: Sunny Steps, Lazy Lagoon, and a giant volcano.
Of course, a new season has also brought with it a new Battle Pass, which gives players a chance to unlock a slew of new skins and other cosmetics. There are already some new challenges to complete as well. You can find tips for those in our complete Season 8 challenges guide.
The new trailer for Shazam is here. The latest DC release is a more comedic superhero adventure than many of the studio's movies. It stars Zachary Levi in the title role and hits theaters in April.
Like the previous trailers it shows teenage Billy Batson gaining incredible powers that transforms him into a full-size adult superhero. We see him learning how to use his new abilities with his pal Freddy, and then facing the evil Doctor Sivana. Although the movie is clearly packed with action and wild VFX, it doesn't look like it takes itself very seriously. Check it out above.
Shazam also stars Asher Angel as Billy, Jack Dylan Grazer as Freddy, and Mark Strong as Sivana. It's directed by David F. Sandberg (Lights Out) and hits theaters on April 5. For more check out everything we know about Shazam! so far.
A big part of the movie is Shazam's distinctive illuminated costume, and in a recent interview, costume designer Leah Butler revealed that the suit came with an extremely high price tag. "Each suit costs, oh boy, upwards of a million? We have ten suits," she said, via SyFy. "There is actually a battery in the back--we luckily had a cape to cover it all up or I don't know where we would have put all that stuff--and it is remotely lit through a switchboard operator. There is wiring throughout the costume. It's a 26-volt AA rechargeable battery. It lasts about two hours at full charge.
"It took 16 weeks to build the costume. We had to scan Zach's body and start building the costume even before he started his very strict regime--his diet and working out."
Shazam! is one of two DC movies arriving in 2019. The Joker prequel movie releases in October and stars Joaquin Phoenix as the Clown Prince of Crime. Beyond that, Suicide Squad spin-off Birds of Prey arrives in February 2020, with Wonder Woman 1984 releasing in July next year. Dates have also been announced for The Batman (June 2021), the James Gunn-written Suicide Squad reboot (August 2021), and Aquaman 2 (December 2022).
Bonnie Ross, the head of Microsoft's dedicated Halo studio 343 Industries, has shared her thoughts on the difficulty of recruiting women in games development, and how she thinks educators could address the gender gap. In an interview with CBS News' 60 Minutes, Ross said she would love to bring more women onto the Halo team.
"Boys and men, the numbers are moving up. We are getting a lot more into computer science. But with women and girls, it's going down," she said. "In many times there's not even a way where I could bring a woman into a specific job because the candidates are just not there."
Ross went on to point out that because women are so in-demand at tech companies, the market is very competitive for recruiting them. She cited that women with computer science degrees who intern at Microsoft are sometimes offered full positions, but already have offers from 5-7 other big tech companies.
"These women, basically they open every door because we all want them, and there's so few of them, and they're amazingly talented," she said. "There's just not that many of them."
Since women with computer science degrees are such a rarity, Ross and other tech companies need a bigger pool of candidates. To address that, more women and girls need to become interested in the profession from an early age. Ross says that could come from how educators position tech jobs.
"Research that we've done at Microsoft of the girls we've talked to, 91% of them feel that they are creative, they identify with being creative," Ross said. "But when asked about computer science, they don't see computer science as creative. And so I think that we do need to connect the dots. Because it is incredibly creative, it's just that we're not doing a good job of showing them what they can do with it."
343 Industries is currently at work on Halo Infinite, which Ross recently called a "spiritual reboot" of the franchise. She was also the latest inductee of the Gaming Hall of Fame award at the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences.
Every week, Netflix drops new content onto its service for its subscribers to watch. Sure, it could just drop everything it's putting out in March on the first of the month, but where is the fun in that?
While all of Disney's movies are eventually migrating to its streaming service--reportedly coming this fall--Netflix still has the rights to streaming, for now. On Tuesday, March 5, Disney's Christopher Robin comes to the service. In the movie, an adult Christopher Robin reconnects with his friends from the Hundred Acre Wood: Winnie the Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, and more.
There are plenty of original movies and series headed to Netflix this week as well. The Order releases on March 7. The new series follows a college student looking to avenge his mother's death. On his journey, however, he finds himself pledging to a secret society that's in the middle of a war between werewolves and mystics. If you don't like werewolves, but you're really into vampires, Immortals comes to the service on March 8, and this Netflix original revolves around vampires warring between each other.
There's a lot more than those couple of examples. Check out our recommendations for Netflix in March above, a few of which come out soon. Below, you'll find everything coming to Netflix this week. If you'd like to look further ahead this month, check out the full list for March releases.
Avail. 3/3/19
Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj: Volume 2 (Streaming Every Sunday)-- NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Avail. 3/5/19
Disney's Christopher Robin
Avail. 3/6/19
Secret City: Under the Eagle: Season 2-- NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Avail. 3/7/19
Doubt
The Order-- NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Avail. 3/8/19
After Life-- NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Bangkok Love Stories: Hey You!-- NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Bangkok Love Stories: Innocence-- NETFLIX ORIGINAL
Apex Legends, the battle royale game from Titanfall developer Respawn Entertainment, made a huge splash when it launched in February 2019. An accessible FPS with a cool ping system, Apex Legends has seen critical and commercial success, with our own review awarding it a 9 out of 10. However, the game's map leaked nearly a year ago and no one noticed or seemed to care.
A Reddit user named hiticonic seemingly leaked Apex Legend's map on the Titanfall subreddit 11 months ago. Unfortunately, the post was met with both disbelief and disappointment. "They better not add battle royale in the next game," one Reddit user commented. "I really hope this doesn't happen," wrote another. After a handful of comments, the thread went radio silent. To everyone's chagrin--or excitement, depending on which side of the coin you fall on--Apex Legends was Respawn's "new Titanfall game."
The map, above, is very much the map currently playable in Apex Legends. After being rediscovered in the Apex Legends subreddit, users are taking trips down memory lane, reflecting on (and laughing about) the accuracy of the leak, with some calling into question the legitimacy of the user who initially posted it. "/u/hiticonic is a mod here. HMMMMMMMM I smell intentional leaks from the dev team. I'm onto you," wrote one user. "If the leak was intentional, it certainly didn't achieve the desired effect :D," commented another.
Leaks are strange. It's hard to verify the veracity of them, which is why they tend to remain untouched until confirmed by someone familiar with the project. Is it likely that hiticonic has a relationship with EA (perhaps via the company's Game Changers program) and Respawn Entertainment? It's possible, but a leak's a leak nonetheless. Always take them with a grain of salt.
In our Apex Legends review, we said the game is "a mix of smart shooter ideas that makes for a competitive, team-based game that gets at all the best parts of battle royale while addressing a lot of the weaknesses," calling it "more than just a worthy addition to the [battle royale] genre."
Apex Legends is available now--for free--for PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.
Apex Legends had a fast start, gaining 25 million players in just one week. The battle royale has crossed another player milestone now, with its developer announcing it has hit 50 million players. In a video detailing the milestone, Respawn shared some other stats regarding the game lifetime so far.
The 50 million players in just under a month have used 158 million finishers, used 170 million respawns, and activated 1.3 billion ultimates. The biggest number comes from its user-friendly ping feature, as the video notes that players have placed 31 billion pings.
When Apex shared its 25 million milestone, it also noted that it had hit a peak concurrent user milestone of 2 million users. This video doesn't detail a new peak concurrent number, so that one may not have been topped yet.
The ping feature is one that immediately set Apex Legends apart, but it's already inspired imitators. Fortnite, the current leader in the battle royale space, recently updated with its own ping system. And if BioWare takes our recommendation, Anthem won't be far behind. It makes sense that the ping system has gotten so much use, as the feature allows easy non-verbal communication to flag points of interest for your teammates.
Apex Legends is preparing to roll out its own battle pass. Its contents are still a mystery, but we have some ideas.
Anthem takes the No.1 spot on the UK sales chart for the week ending March 2, 2019. As confirmed by sales monitor Chart-Trak, EA and BioWare's loot driven shooter manages to fend off competition from three new arrivals to hold on to the top spot for the second week in a row.
At No.2 is FIFA 19, another title developed and published by EA, and it is followed by Ubisoft's Far Cry: New Dawn at No.3. The first of the three new entries in the top 10, The Lego Movie 2 Videogame, debuts at No.4, ahead of Red Dead Redemption 2 at No.5.
Codemasters' Dirt Rally 2.0, spends its first week at No.6, with Deep Silver's Metro Exodus at No.7 and Nintendo's Mario Kart 8 Deluxe--now in its 97th week on the chart--at No.8. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, another Nintendo title, is at No.9, with Ubisoft's Trials Rising: Gold Edition making its debut at No.10.
You can read the full top 10 sales chart for this week below, courtesy of UKIE and GfK Chart-Track. Note this table does not include digital sales data, and so should not be considered representative of all UK game sales.
In GameSpot's Anthem review, Kallie Plagge awarded it a 6/10, saying it "has good ideas, but it struggles significantly with the execution."
She continued: "It's a co-op game that works best with no one talking; it buries genuinely interesting character moments and puts its most incomprehensible story bits at the forefront; its combat is exciting until you get to the boss fights and find your wings have been clipped.
"Even the simple, exhilarating act of flying is frequently interrupted by the limitations of your javelin, and you never quite shake that feeling of disappointment--of knowing, throughout the good parts of Anthem, that you'll inevitably come crashing back down."
Marvel Cinematic Universe Movie End-Credit Scenes, Ranked
Captain Marvel had best be on her end-credit game.
It's too soon to judge the end-credits scenes from that movie, of course, but we sure can rank the rest. For 20 movies, fans have enjoyed teases, gags or clues to the direction of future flicks, all thanks to clever scenes popping up during the end credits.
From Iron Man to Ant-Man and the Wasp, we looked back at all 35 MCU end-credit scenes, and ranked them from so-so in the significance department to super entertaining. Take a look.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
Note: This gallery is part of CNET's month-long, cross-brand celebration of the women of Marvel. See interviews with the talent behind Captain Marvel; get updates on future Marvel flicks; vote for your favorite Marvel villainesses and heroines, and more.
35. Jane's mighty happy (Thor: The Dark World) (2013)
To date, the women of the MCU haven't gotten a lot of screen time in the end-credit scenes. So, it's a bit of a disappointment that when Natalie Portman's Dr. Jane Foster is given the spotlight, it's to moon over the return of her portal-traveling boyfriend, Thor (Chris Hemsworth). We mean, it's fine, it's Jane's life; if she wants to moon, she can moon. (But, c'mon...)
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
34. Cap's PSA (Spider-Man: Homecoming) (2017)
This self-aware bit sees Captain America (Chris Evans) preaching the virtues of patience, even when, as he says, what you've been waiting for, such as an end-credits scene, natch, turns out to be nothing more than a self-aware bit.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
33. Howard the Duck! (Guardians of the Galaxy) (2014)
A Seth Green-voiced Howard the Duck interacts with Benecio Del Toro's Collector. Even five years on now, the scene doesn't seem to point to anything larger in the MCU. In a way, that's refreshing. But it also makes it just a throwaway bit.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
32. Mordo doesn't like sorcerers (Doctor Strange) (2016)
There's been too much going on in the MCU for this end-credit scene to feel meaningful yet. It's a set-up for a villain, the "too many sorcerers"-decrying Karl Mordo (Chiwetel Ejiofor), in a sequel that hasn't happened yet.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
31. Tony Stark bores Bruce Banner (Iron Man 3) (2013)
This bit -- showing Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) nodding off during what Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) thinks is a therapy session -- is cute, but it undercuts the real psychic damage Iron Man 3 tells us Tony suffered as a result of the Avengers' Battle of New York.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
30. Falcon knows a guy (Ant-Man) (2015)
Apropos of nothing we've seen in Ant-Man proper, this end-credit scene brings us Sam Wilson (Anthony Mackie) and Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) discussing what to do with perennial troublemaker Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan). Sam, who does pop up as Falcon in Ant-Man, says he "know[s] a guy" who can help, meaning Ant-Man's Scott Lang. This is all set-up for Ant-Man to join Captain America: Civil War, and, as such, is just a twist on the MCU's familiar Avengers Initiative recruitment drive.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
29. D'oh! (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) (2017)
Kraglin (Sean Gunn) tries out one of his dearly departed boss Yondu's Yaka Arrows, and sends Drax (Dave Bautista) reeling in the process. It plays like a cute, if minor, gag in a movie stuffed with five end-credit scenes.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
28. Adam who? (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) (2017)
Defeated Vol. 2 villain Ayesha (Elizabeth Debicki) seeks to hold her critics at bay by creating a would-be Guardians-destroyer named Adam, as in the Stan Lee-Jack Kirby character, Adam Warlock, presumably. It's a nice tease at the future of the Guardians franchise -- or, at least it was until James Gunn got fired. Who knows where Vol. 3 is heading now?
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
27. Bucky lives! (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) (2014)
The presumed-dead Bucky (Sebastian Stan), a familiar face in the MCU end-credit scenes, visits a present-day museum tribute to his World War II-era self. It's fine. (But we already kinda guessed Bucky wasn't really dead.)
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
26. Captain America gets the call (Captain America: The First Avenger) (2011)
We get it, we get it, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson): You're recruiting for the Avengers Initiative, and the star-spangled Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) is next on your list. Oh, how quickly jaded we become...
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
25. Aunt May! (Captain America: Civil War) (2016)
We get that the main point of this sequence is to tell us, hey, kids, a new Spider-Man movie (Spider-Man: Homecoming) is on the way! But we think the important thing is that it tells us, hey, people, while there's nothing wrong with elderly aunts, there's also no rule that says Aunt May can't be played by the fiftysomething Marisa Tomei.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
24. Bucky in Wakanda (Black Panther) (2018)
If you watch the MCU end-credit scenes back-to-back-to-back, you start to see patterns: Like, how Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan) is bad news, and that wherever he's dragged (and he's dragged to a lot of places) bad things follow. So, rather than be entertained by the sight of Bucky meeting T'Challa's sister, Shuri (Letitia Wright), you're just waiting for something terrible to happen to her and/or her homeland. (See: Avengers: Infinity War.)
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
23. The Vulture doesn't sing (Spider-Man: Homecoming) (2017)
The imprisoned Adrian Toomes (Michael Keaton) lies about knowing Spider-Man's true identity. What does this mean other than what it literally means? We still don't know.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
22. T'Challa at the United Nations (Black Panther) (2018)
Chadwick Boseman's hero reveals Wakanda to the world, and offers to share its resources. This storyline thread hasn't really paid off yet, but we've still got Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame to go in this life cycle of the MCU.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
21. Tony Stark walks into a bar (The Incredible Hulk) (2008)
This time, it's left to Robert Downey Jr.'s MCU character to do the recruiting for the Avengers Initiative. His mark: Thunderbolt Ross (William Hurt). The end-credit scene, only the second one in the MCU, hits the same note as Iron Man's, but we forgive it (mostly) for being a trailblazer.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
20. Grandmaster's spin (Thor: Ragnarok) (2017)
Ragnarok's deposed and disgraced Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum) tries to spin a win from defeat in a funny bit that, if not significant, delivers one of our favorite MCU end-credit scene lines: "Yay, us!," the Grandmaster tells the momentarily baffled inhabitants of Sakaar.
It's a good thing future Black Panther hero T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) and Wakanda are introduced here, otherwise it'd be yet another MCU end-credit scene where the co-dependent Steve Rogers (Chris Evans) goes out of his way for bad-luck-charm Bucky Barnes (Sebastian Stan).
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
18. Doctor Strange, Thor and beer (Doctor Strange) (2016)
Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch) keeps the refills coming as he and Thor (Chris Hemsworth) discuss Asgard's version of Bucky Barnes, Loki. It's a funny scene, Cumberbatch and Hemsworth are great together and it sets up Thor: Ragnarok. This is an all-around solid entry.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
17. Suiting up the Wasp (Ant-Man) (2015)
Evangeline Lilly's Hope van Dyne is presented her rightful superhero suit by her father, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas). "It's about damn time," Hope says, and we concur.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
16. Yo, old-school Guardians! (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) (2017)
Sylvester Stallone's Stakar Ogord assembles the gang that, in the comics, comprised the Guardians' original lineup. Ogord's crew includes Aleta Ogord (Michelle Yeoh) and Mainfame (voiced by Miley Cyrus). The scene's a nice nod to fans of the nine-panel world.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
15. The drumming ant! (Ant-Man and the Wasp) (2018)
While the Thanos-thinned world goes mostly silent, Scott Lang's giant pet ant pounds the skins. This is a good, if disquieting, teaser for Avengers: Endgame.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
14. Teen Groot (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. ) (2017)
The rejuvenated Groot is growing up, and going through teen-aged growing pains, as the exasperated Star-Lord (Chris Pratt) learns in this awesome, one-off bit.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
13. Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch! (Captain America: The Winter Soldier) (2014)
The excellent Winter Soldier brings us this chilling intro to the captive twins, Pietro Maximoff (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) and Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olsen). For the time, it stood as further proof that the MCU was committed to mining the Marvel catalog beyond Iron Man, Thor and Hulk.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
12. The Tesseract ... and Loki! (Thor) (2011)
This tease is a one-two punch. One, Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) introduces us and Stellan Skarsgard's Dr. Selvig to the Infinity Stone-containing Tesseract. Two, in a great shot (and twist!), Loki (Tom Hiddleston) steps into the frame, and reveals that he isn't as dead as he seemed to be at the end of Thor.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
11. Ant-Man mystery solved (Ant-Man and the Wasp) (2018)
If you wondered where Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) was while half the world's population was getting wiped out in Avengers: Infinity War, then you learn here that he was in the Quantum Realm. Not only that, you learn he's trapped there after his compatriots, Hank (Michael Douglas), Janet (Michelle Pfeiffer) and Hope (Evangeline Lily), get vaporized themselves. This is the rare MCU end-credit scene that explains far more than it raises questions: Thank you!
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
10. The Collector collects (Thor: The Dark World) (2013)
This is where the MCU end-credit scene oeuvre definitively moves on from assembling the Avengers to collecting the Infinity Stones. It also begins to set up the world, and characters, including Benecio Del Toro's Collector, that we'll see in Guardians of the Galaxy. All in all, an important clip.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
9. Enter Thanos (The Avengers) (2012)
This clip is a testament to how well-planned the MCU is. Thanos wasn't even a glint in actor Josh Brolin's eye when the genocidal supervillain character, who speaks evil only through his eyes here, is introduced. This scene is the first of two Avengers end-credit sequences; the movie is the first MCU film to feature multiple end-credit scenes.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
8. Hammer time! (Iron Man 2) (2010)
The third MCU end-credit scene is one of the simplest, and still one of the best. It teases the arrival of the Thor with a shot of his hammer. "Sir, we found it," reports S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Agent Coulson (Clark Gregg) from the New Mexico desert.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
7. If the Infinity Glove fits... (Avengers: Age of Ultron) (2015)
Thanos is back in an MCU end-credit scene, and now he's fully realized, and played and voiced by Josh Brolin. The character, who's determined to gather the Infinity Stones himself, means business, and so does this clip.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
6. Famous last words (Thor: Ragnarok) (2017)
Reunited brothers Thor (Chris Hemsworth) and Loki (Tom Hiddleston) are bound for Earth and enjoying life. "I feel like everything's going to work out fine," Thor says before the scene foreshadows troubles ahead with a literal shadow -- a shadow cast by Thanos' approaching ship. Too on the nose? Nah. It's a perfect lead-in to Avengers: Infinity War.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
5. Dancing baby Groot! (Guardians of the Galaxy) (2014)
The potted twig that's all that's left of Groot after the character sacrifices himself at the end of Guardians grooves to the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back." So long as Drax (Dave Bautista) doesn't turn around, that is. The scene is almost too cute, but in the end it's just totally awesome.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
4. Enter Nick Fury (Iron Man) (2008)
This is where it begins -- the MCU, the MCU's promise of end-credit teases and the Avengers Initiative. Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) enters his penthouse pad to find a mysterious stranger in the shadows. "You've become part of a bigger universe," Samuel L. Jackson's S.H.I.E.L.D. leader tells Stark. "You just don't know it yet."
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
3. Stan Lee and the Watchers (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2) (2017)
Not only is this one of the best MCU end-credit scenes, it's arguably the best Stan Lee MCU cameo. The Marvel great, playing "Watcher Informant," per the credits, implores the all-seeing, all-knowing Watchers to let him tell them more stories. ("Aw, guys...," he calls after them.) Especially in the wake of Lee's death, there's something special in thinking of the comics great (or, Watcher Informant) up there on the moon, spinning more Marvel tales.
A helpless Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) sends out a distress signal to Captain Marvel (indicated only by her insignia) as he disintegrates in the Death Snap. It's an eerie, sad and very effective teaser for both Captain Marvel and Avengers: Endgame.
Image: Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment
1. Shawarma! (The Avengers) (2012)
The MCU's best end-credit scene doesn't tease, shock or surprise. It just chews. Or, rather, Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.), Thor (Chris Hemsworth), Black Widow (Scarlett Johansson), Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo) and Hawkeye (Jeremy Renner) just chew on some well-deserved middle-eastern cuisine following the Battle of New York. A tasty touch.
Ahead of the big show, a fan has create a mock-up for what they imagine the Halo Infinite menu screen could look like. This is only a concept. It's not real. But it did catch the attention of Halo franchise director Frank O'Connor, who said it is "very cool." The video was made by GoBroPros YouTube channel. It is a sleek menu screen that borrows some of the sensibilities from the menu screens of Halo: The Master Chief Collection and Halo 5; have a look:
Halo Infinite, which is in development for Xbox One and PC, is said to be a "spiritual reboot" of the series, but it's not exactly clear what that means at this point. It is rumoured to be a launch title for the next wave of Xbox hardware that Microsoft will supposedly announce at E3.
A Metal Gear Solid movie from Kong: Skull Island director Jordan Vogt-Roberts is in the works, but basically nothing is known about the cast or story at this stage. It's still early days for the film, but now one big-name actor has come forward to say he wants to star in it.
Oscar Isaac, who is known for portraying the pilot Poe Dameron in the new Star Wars movies, told IGN that he wants to play Snake in the upcoming film. "I'm throwing my hat in for that one," he said. Isaac also talked about why he thinks video game movies have struggled in the past.
"With the video game thing, I think the trick will be how do you replicate the feeling of what it feels like to play a video game. I think where it goes wrong often is with the plots," he said.
Vogt-Roberts responded to Isaac's comments on Twitter where he said casting for the Metal Gear movie hasn't started yet. He did, however, commend artist Boss Logic's mock-up of what Isaac might look like as Snake--check out the image below.
The Metal Gear movie has been in the works for a long time. Vogt-Roberts teased the film's script in 2018, saying it will blow your mind in a way that many things associated with series creator Hideo Kojima do. "We just turned in the script, and I think it's one of the best scripts I've ever read," he said. "It's one of the coolest, weirdest, most Kojima things. If I wasn't involved in it, I would still look at that script and [say], 'Holy sh**.'"
Jurassic World and Star Wars: Episode IX writer Derek Connolly was announced (via Variety) as the writer for the Metal Gear movie in November 2017. He and Vogt-Roberts have a history together, as Connolly co-wrote Kong: Skull Island, which Vogt-Roberts directed.
The Metal Gear video game franchise celebrated its 31st anniversary in 2018. The latest entry in the series was the poorly received Metal Gear Survive. Kojima no longer works at Konami, but instead starting his own studio that's working on Death Stranding now.
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