By Anonymous on Sep 21, 2018 12:30 am Following the release of Marvel's Spider-Man on PS4, Mike Mahardy (@mmahardy) explores Insomniac's past to make the case for it being one of the most overlooked AAA studios out there.
As social media and other online spaces that we once naively hoped would provide a platform for real dialogue and make the world a better place continue to lose ground to spam bots, trolls, and clandestine fascist political operatives masquerading as spam bots and trolls, Ralph Breaks the Internet is preparing to send the two lovable, oddball heroes from Wreck-It Ralph to the least safe place in the world: the internet. Thankfully, the movie's creators at Disney Animation Studios aren't shy about discussing what role the internet's darker side will play in Wreck-It Ralph 2.
In Ralph Breaks the Internet, Ralph and Vanellope head online to find a new steering wheel for Vanellope's candy-coated kart racing game, Sugar Rush, before Mr. Litwack scraps her home for parts. The internet comes to life as a vibrant, bustling cityscape teeming with net users--real people represented by block-headed, app icon-inspired avatars--and "netizens," which are personified websites, companies, and algorithms that come in all shapes and sizes.
There's plenty of fodder for jokes here. In the trailers, an Ask Jeeves-like search engine called KnowsMore rudely interrupts Ralph's queries as its autofill turns "a touch aggressive." At the physical manifestation of eBay, brash auctioneers--including one voiced by real world reigning US auctioneering champion Brian Curless--tally digital votes cast by net users' avatars. But as has become excruciatingly clear in the last few years, the internet is not an inherently good place; it's a tool that can be used for good or evil. And whether in Ralph's trip to the dark web later in the movie or their willingness to talk about this potentially thorny subject, this movie's creators seem aware of that fact.
In one scene shown to press, Ralph happens on a place most people who spend any considerable amount of time online know intuitively to avoid: the comments section. It goes about as well as you'd expect; after reading some positive comments about himself, Ralph finds the dark heart that throbs in the comments all over the web. "Ralph's videos stink," he reads aloud. "So stupid. Ralph is the worst. I hate him. He's so fat and ugly. Just a worthless bum alone on a pile of bricks."
"First rule of the internet: Do not read the comments. I should have told you that," responds Yesss, a new character voiced by Taraji P. Henson.
Concept art for Yesss
Of course, no one's spewing racial or homophobic slurs at Ralph or trying to indoctrinate him with Nazi propaganda, but this scene is Disney's way of acknowledging the ugly elephant that's going to be present in every theater in which Ralph Breaks the Internet plays this November: The internet is not, as it first seems in this movie, a nice, friendly, or inherently good place.
"Our belief is that we're in a moment where the technology has outpaced our ability to understand it and to relate to it in a civil way," Ralph Breaks the Internet co-director Phil Johnston told GameSpot. "I think we're in a moment with social media and how rapidly information is transferred, and how little regard there is for civility...it's gross. There's a lot of stuff out there that's just hateful and not doing anything to make the world better."
During a presentation early in the day, Johnston's fellow co-director, Rich Moore, addressed the issue head on. "Over those four years [we've worked on the film], yes, the internet has become a more hostile place, and that's what really inspired that comments room scene that you [saw]. Because we felt like we can't do a movie about the internet and paint it as that it's all roses and sunshine, you know? We have to give due to the darker side of it," he said, comparing Ralph 2's approach to the internet to Zootopia's handling of racism.
"It would be bad on our part to say, 'Well, Judy Hopps is going to solve racism.' That's just not how the world works," he continued. "But she can experience it, and she can practice it, and she can learn from it, and she can rise above it. So that was our goal with this movie, that Ralph can encounter these things, and he can embody them, and he can fall prey to them, but ultimately what we want is him to--not to solve it, because I think that would be disingenuous of us, and the last thing we want to do is lecture the audience and preach to them. But we can show a character encounters what we encounter on the internet, and how he goes about rising above it."
"I believe that nothing is fully good or fully bad," Moore he told GameSpot later. "I know like, watching anything as a kid where something was depicted as, 'This is all great!' you know, that it felt not true to me."
Ralph and Vanellope venture to the internet out of necessity, but they respond to it in very different ways. "Ralph is a guy who sees things more in black and white," Johnston said. The internet embodies constant change, and Vanellope adapts to it much more naturally. Based on the most recent trailer, it seems she's going to get into online gaming through a gritty racer called Slaughter Race, and the directors teased that video games will play a big role in the movie: "[Gaming] is a huge part of Vanellope's kind of falling in love with the internet," Moore said.
But gaming is only a small part of online life, and unlike in the first movie, gaming takes a back seat to the internet as a whole in this sequel. And that might worry some fans, whether you're concerned about Wreck-it Ralph going too dark in tone, or that it will try to paint the internet with a nauseatingly cheery brush. The reality will hopefully be somewhere in between.
"I know what you're talking about, because we obviously live in the same world, and we had conversations about that stuff throughout the entire run of [production]," said story artist Jason Hand. "I think what we were trying to put out there is that the internet is what we put into it, what we make of it, and what our characters are going through in it--that you can be positive about things, you can be negative about things, but it's up to your interpretation of what you want to be out there."
"We played around with an idea that I think is still in the movie that's like, who you are online matters," story artist Natalie Nourigat added. "It's real. It's not like a video game. And you see the impact on Ralph in real time."
Ralph Breaks the Internet has been in the works for several years, and the way we perceive the internet has changed significantly in that time. The story team said it's been tough to see that happen.
"This movie has gone through so many iterations," Nourigat said.
"I like that we put out something that's relatively positive, but doesn't shy away from the parts that are the darker side of life or that are negative," Hand continued. "That's kind of why I like working here, personally, but I hear what you're saying."
While these creators acknowledge the muddiness of these waters, they seem to share the view that the internet isn't inherently bad--just like it isn't inherently good.
"As easy as it is to demonize the internet, I think the thing that Yesss says is true, which is that it's also a place where people can connect, they can find things," said producer Clark Spencer. "It's easy to just focus on the hard, negative, dark part of it, but at the end of the day it really is something that has connected people in a way that didn't exist before."
But there's a fallacy in Yesss's thinking. The character is a type of netizen that embodies an algorithm, in this case for a fake website called BuzzTube, a clear portmanteau of Buzzfeed and YouTube. "Look, this place can bring out the worst in some people," she tells Ralph as he reads the comments. "But you've gotta ignore all this. This isn't about you, Ralph, it's about them...it's not all bad."
Yesss is wrong. If we've learned nothing else over the last few years, it's that ignoring the trolls, criminals, nazis, and worse doesn't make them go away. If anything, that approach can make our online problems worse, as it allows the nastiest elements of society to fester unhindered in a place that should be used for good.
That's not to say things will never change.
"My hope--and I hope I'm not being naive--is that in the next, I don't know, let's hope 10 years, we figure out how to deal with each other better as the internet becomes part of the fabric of our life the way that television did, or the radio did before that," Johnston said.
For now, Ralph can break the internet all he wants, and some might consider it a public service. Ralph Breaks the Internet hits theaters November 21.
Ralph and Vanellope are back in a new adventure that will take them to the internet.
The original Wreck-It Ralph followed the titular video game antagonist and his candy-themed kart-racing friend Vanellope on their quest to prove Ralph could be a good guy. With that out of the way, Wreck-It Ralph 2, AKA Ralph Breaks the Internet, will take them to the next logical destination for a couple of aging video game characters: the internet.
When Ralph and Vanellope's arcade finally joins this century and gets wi-fi, our heroes quickly realize that the best way to fix up Vanellope's game so it doesn't get sold is to buy the piece she needs--a new steering wheel--on eBay. Naturally, since they can't simply hop into meat space and start placing bids with Mr. Litwak's stolen credit card number, they head to a physical personification of the internet that resembles a bustling city full of net users and "netizens" who do their bidding.
That's just the basic plot, of course, and with the entire internet as its playground, Wreck-It Ralph 2 will no doubt go to some surprising places. We used the opportunity during a visit to Disney Animation Studios to chat with the team making Ralph Breaks the Internet and learn everything we can about the upcoming sequel.
When you're done, check out our breakdowns of the movie's first and second trailers for all the Easter eggs and references you might have missed, read all about Wonder Woman actress Gal Gadot's recently announced role in the film, and watched out for way more Ralph Breaks the Internet coverage here on GameSpot.
Ralph Breaks the Internet is scheduled to hit theaters November 21.
1. The movie's version of the internet is visually based off the 1 Wilshire Blvd. building in Los Angeles.
This building in Los Angeles is apparently where all the internet traffic in North America passes through. "This building is literally filled from top to bottom with wires and boxes," said co-director Rich Moore. "It was this research trip that began to inspire our version of what the internet might look like."
2. The movie's version of the internet is made up of two types of character.
There are Net Users, and Netizens. Users come from the real world to use the internet, and are represented by square-ish avatars. Netizens are the websites and services they use, and take many forms.
3. Ralph and Vanellope have to venture to the internet when her game breaks.
When Sugar Rush's steering wheel breaks, Litwak realizes it would cost more than the machine makes in a year to fix it. That leaves it up to Ralph and Vanellope to head to the internet and find the wheel on eBay, which of course leads to plenty of hijinks.
4. Sonic the Hedgehog will return in Ralph 2.
When Ralph and Vanellope first venture to the internet, Ralph makes a reference to Sonic warning them what it would be like. We didn't get to see that scene, but it sounds like Sonic will return for another cameo.
Image: Sonic's cameo in Ralph 1
5. They got the world's great auctioneer to play the role of an eBay auction.
Brian Curless, AKA the reigning US auctioneering champion, lent his considerable vocal talents to the movie for a scene where Ralph and Vanellope visit eBay.
6. The movie will address the internet's dark side as well as what's good about it.
"As we were thinking about how to portray the internet, we thought, 'We don't want to just show what's good about the internet. We felt we had a responsibility to talk about those things that are complicated on the internet," said co-director Rich Moore. At one point, Ralph discovers the comments section. It goes as well as you'd expect.
7. Vanellope is glitching in the movie.
This "ability" is what allows her to teleport into the princess room in the Oh My Disney scene.
8. The princesses will don customized t-shirts.
It turns out they greatly enjoy Vanellope's casual fashion sense--especially Ariel, who attempts to sing a song about her new discovery, the t-shirt. Each princess's shirt is customized for her, like a poison apple for Snow White's.
9. They got the princesses' original voice actors (where possible) to return for that scene.
"It was an incredible moment, truly, truly amazing," said co-director Rich Moore.
10. C-3PO makes a cameo too.
Although there's no Princess Leia in the Disney princesses scene, C-3PO does have a cameo at the end of the scene. It's unknown whether he'll play any larger role in the movie.
11. They didn't get licensing rights for any of the brands used in the movie.
"Over the course of making the film, we said to ourselves, 'We're creating the internet, and all of us use it every day, so we should populate it with the actual websites we go to,'" said producer Clark Spencer. "Because of copyright, we could put them into the film without actually having to go to the companies. So we didn't approach them...there wasn't a case where somebody said they didn't want to participate, because we didn't actually have to go and ask for permission."
12. The internet companies and logos used include brands from all over the world.
"We said to ourselves, 'Let's make the internet be the internet we know, and put in everything that we know about it,'" said producer Clark Spencer. "And that included actually going to all of our different parts of our company around the world, and saying to them, 'Give us brands from your own parts of the world.' We wanted the world wide web to feel like the world wide web."
13. The reception to Zootopia made them more confident about this movie.
"To some extent the three of us were emboldened by the work on Zootopia, knowing that audiences are OK and actually eager for a more sophisticated approach in family films to tricky subject matter, like in Zootopia it was racism, in this one we're dealing to an extent with online bullying and trolling," said producer Clark Spencer. "But more on an emotional level with Ralph, just self doubt, and insecurity, and all those things I think parents and kids can relate to."
14. They felt it was important for them to make fun of Disney's own characters.
"It felt like, if everyone else does it, why shouldn't we?" said co-director Rich Moore. "And we could do it better than other places, because those are our characters and we know them intimately...why not have fun at our own expense?"
15. The Disney princesses scene started as an idea about a Buzzfeed quiz.
"It started as this idea of wouldn't it be funny if somehow, Ralph was taking one of those kind of quizzes or tests of like, 'Are you an Anna or an Elsa?' and he and Vanellope getting into an argument over it," said co-director Rich Moore. "And we thought, 'Well, wouldn't it be funny if somehow Anna and Elsa are there?'" From there they conceived of a scene where multiple Disney princesses were present, and how Vanellope would react to meeting them.
16. They had to be tactful when proposing the princesses scene within Disney.
"If we were to go and talk to people and say, 'We're thinking of this scene where we make fun of the Disney princesses,' you know, that could be met with a little bit of resistance," said co-director Rich Moore. "But to actually do an animatic of it and be able to show it and say, 'This is what it's going to be, and it's funny, and respectful, and irreverent all at the same time,' it's hard to argue that that isn't working. Once everyone saw it, everyone [was on board]."
Image: Directors Rich Moore and Phil Johnston
19. Fix-It Felix and Calhoun return from the first movie, although their role is very different.
Ralph breaks the internet may put its focus on Ralph and Vanellope as the heroes once again, but Calhoun (Jane Lynch) and Felix (Jack McBrayer) return in the sequel as well. This time around, they take on a pseudo-parenting role for Vanellope's fellow racers when their game, Sugar Rush, breaks down.
18. Co-director Phil Johnston drew from his experience collecting clown paintings from the internet.
Johnston cited his expertise with online auction sites thanks to an obsession with buying clown paintings. "I have north of 200 clown paintings that have come from eBay, Etsy," Johnston said. He said he received several from John C. Reilly, who also collects clown paintings, when Reilly's wife made him get rid of some.
Image: A sad clown
19. Marvel will be represented somehow in the movie.
"It's represented pretty well as both kind of characters in the OH My Disney scene, and little avatars that are kind of 'cosplaying' as Marvel characters," said co-director Rich Moore.
20. They've come to view the first movie's ending as a little "dysfunctional."
"The first movie wrapped up pretty nicely with Ralph's line, which is, 'If that kid likes me, how bad can I be?'" co-director Phil Johnston said. "Which, at the time we made it, felt like a very sweet sentiment. However, as we started poking around at that idea, it's actually a little bit dysfunctional that Ralph is defining himself based on how another person feels about him. And so we were like, 'Well, Ralph still has some work to do.'"
"What is the worst place you could put someone who defines himself by how other people think of him? The internet," co-director Rich Moore added.
21. They were mindful of not using memes or internet references that were too fleeting.
"We knew when we started working on the movie, that the internet--or the things, the tropes of the internet--would not be the same that day as when the movie came out," said co-director Rich Moore. "So there would be moments where people would come up to us and say like, 'You know what you've got to put in there? Ken Bone! He's huge on the internet, this guy's big.' It's like, no one remembers Ken Bones today. It's so fleeting...so we decided we need to just kind of concentrate on the pillars of the internet, of social media, shopping, entertainment, [and online gaming]."
22. Ralph goes to the "Dark Web" at some point.
"We imagine that our city is basically floating above this big abyss, which is the deep web, and at the very bottom of it, we imagine that all the discarded and outdated stuff sort of collects at the bottom," described Matthias Lechner, the art director on the movie's environments. Even further down, at the bottom of an encrypted elevator, is the "dark web" where the users are all anonymous, and where stuff is probably going to get weird for Ralph.
23. A crazy number of artists worked on the internet.
There are so many posters, animations, and other small design touches all over the internet that at one point, they had every single artist in the studio working on it.
Image: Concept art
24. The art/environments team visited the Disneyland Dream Suite for inspiration.
The Dream Suite is a private apartment at Disneyland that few get to visit.
25. The environments team created 150 master sets (unique environments) and 5736 unique assets.
There are roughly 100,000 elements in any given city shot, which all adds up to 1.9 million render hours per day to create the movie.
26. The environments team had to let go of "logic" to make the city better.
"The thing is, we didn't really build the internet," described Matthias Lechner, the art director on the movie's environments. "Everybody knows the internet, and it's not [a city]. So at some point, the city just becomes itself, and you just have to make it believable and make the audience buy it. But we just let go of logic at some point and do what works, what looks good."
27. The story team went through many kinds of memes.
At one point in Ralph Breaks the Internet, Ralph and Vanellope will go viral. The story team had to come up with memes that would help them along the way. They tried "two kinds of people" memes with Ralph and Vanellope, as well as a "meme factory" that pumped out memes using randomized combinations of words and phrases like "otter disco party" and "liger wedding photobomb."
28. Ralph Breaks the Internet has many more characters than previous Disney Animation movies.
Bolt had 57 characters total. Wreck-It Ralph had 223 characters, with 421 variants (similar models with altered clothes, hair, etc.). Zootopia had 182 characters with 687 variants. Ralph Breaks the Internet? 434 characters, 6752 variants, plus "color swings" (different skin, hair, and clothes colors and patterns), which equals 500,000+ options.
29. The character Yesss was modeled visually after Cruella de Vil.
The character design team modeled parts of Yesss's look, including the way she walks and the way her jacket moves, after Cruella de Vil, since both characters are considered fashionable.
30. The character Knowsmore originally had a much larger part in the story.
And they played around with making him an owl instead of a tiny know-it-all man.
31. Ralph Breaks the Internet co-writer Pamela Ribon also voices Snow White.
They got as many original Disney princess voice actors as they could to return to their roles for the Oh My Disney scene, but for some that wasn't an option. Co-writer Pamela Ribon did the "scratch" voice performance for the princesses in the scene, and her impression of Snow White was so good, they wound up using it for the final version.
Yet another detail about Red Dead Redemption 2 has come to light--and it has to do with selfies. During our preview recently, we encountered a mission with a character who gave us a camera. You can take out the camera at any time to snap pictures of the gorgeous surroundings, but of course, the first thing we tried to do was take a selfie.
You can take selfies in Red Dead Redemption 2, but not quite in the same way you can in Grand Theft Auto V. Instead of holding the camera and extending your arm, the "selfie" perspective is called "self-portrait" and it shows Arthur Morgan from a further away perspective. Presumably, that's to be era-appropriate, with the camera being set up on a tripod or something of the sort. Still, if you want to snap a picture of Arthur, you do have a means for doing so.
There are a number of different poses--like squatting and standing with your arm on your waist--and expressions you can select from. You can then share your snaps to your Rockstar Social Club page. it's not immediately clear if you can post your selfies directly to social media from the game, but we hope so. If nothing else, you can use the PS4 and Xbox One's built-in sharing functions to accomplish that.
If you want to know more, we've rounded up everything we saw in Red Dead Redemption 2. We got to go hands-on with the game and came away very impressed. We've also broken down all the details you could want in the stories below. This is a big, dense game, and we've only just gotten a taste of it, but it's wildly apparent that there is a lot to take in.
By Anonymous on Sep 21, 2018 12:20 am Velocity X2 combines side scrolling platforming action with fast paced space flying as we blast through the first several stages to see how it looks and plays on the Nintendo Switch.
Nintendo's online subscription service for Switch has arrived, and along with online play and cloud save backups, one of the benefits it provides is access to NES - Nintendo Switch Online, a library of classic NES games exclusively for subscribers. There are 20 titles available in the library right now, with more to come every month, and they all feature modern amenities such as save states, HD resolution, and even online play. If you're interested in trying out the latter, however, it may not be readily apparent how exactly to play NES games online with a friend.
If you subscribe to the Nintendo Switch Online service, you'll be able to download the NES app from the Switch Eshop or Nintendo's website for free. You'll have unlimited access to this app for as long as your remain a subscriber, and the NES games can be played offline for up to seven days, but you'll need to "check in" periodically to verify that you still have an active subscription.
Once you've installed the NES app, you'll be able to play any of the included NES games either solo or with another player. Many of the titles in the initial lineup feature a dedicated two-player mode, but some, such as The Legend of Zelda, only support one player; in these games, you and your friend will be able to share the same screen and switch between who is controlling the game at any time.
To set up an online session, you'll first need to select the Play Online option from the left sidebar. Once you've chosen that, you'll see the screen below, which displays a box of the players on your friends list who are playing the app online. Chances are the box will say it is unable to find a friend's game session; if so, select the Play While You Wait option beneath the box, and one of your friends will then be able to join you.
The user hosting the session will choose which games are played. If you select one that features a two-player mode, such as Dr. Mario or Super Mario Bros. 3, simply select that option and you'll play together just as you would locally. In any game, you can also move the right control stick on the Switch Pro Controller (or the right Joy-Con's control stick if you're playing with a Joy-Con Grip) to bring up a hand cursor, which you can use to point things out to the other player or applaud by pressing the stick in.
Another benefit Nintendo Switch Online subscribers receive is access to special offers, such as a set of NES-style Joy-Con controllers that only members can purchase. The controllers can only be used to play the aforementioned NES games and don't work in handheld mode, but they can be slotted into the sides of the console to recharge, just as regular Joy-Cons. Each set comes with two controllers and costs $60; if you're a subscriber, you can pre-order the NES Joy-Cons now.
Nintendo is offering Switch Online subscriptions in three increments: one month (US $4 / £3.49 / AU $6), three months (US $8 / £7 / AU $12), and 12 months (US $20 / £18 / AU $30). You also have the option to sign up for an annual Family Play, which costs US $35 / £31.49 / AU $55 and can be shared with seven other Nintendo Account holders. If you're on the fence about subscribing, Nintendo is offering a seven-day free trial of the service, but you'll need to opt out of automatic renewals, otherwise it'll become a one-month subscription.
After 10 weeks of challenges, Fortnite Season 5 is drawing to a close, which means Season 6 of the phenomenally popular (and matrimonially detrimental) battle royale game is just around the corner. Developer Epic Games hasn't formally announced when the new season will begin, but all signs indicate that Season 6 will kick off next week. We still don't know what to expect, but the mysterious cube plunged into Loot Lake after making its way around the map.
According to the official Fortnite website, Season 5 is set to conclude on Tuesday, September 25. In the past, Epic would begin a new season just as the previous one was ending, which suggests that Season 6 should arrive shortly after Season 5 officially wraps up. Tuesday is also typically the day the developer rolls out a new Fortnite update, further suggesting that Season 6 will start early next week.
As for what we can expect, the lead up to Season 6 has been fairly quiet, particularly compared to that of Season 5. In the weeks running up to that season, mysterious rifts started to form in the game, which would eventually swallow up Fortnite objects and "drop" them in the real world. There haven't been any unusual happenings on that scale recently, but there have been some strange in-game phenomena. A giant lightning bolt struck the desert last month, leaving the aforementioned a mysterious purple cube in its wake.
Epic hasn't formally commented on the cube or its purpose, but it certainly has some relation to Season 6. It also has some rather strange properties; when it first materialized, it would rejuvenate a player's shields when they stood near it, but striking it would cause them to launch backward and take damage. The cube also began to mysteriously roll around the map, ultimately ending up in Loot Lake--which is now purple and has the same properties as the cube.
Last year, to commemorate the release of Pokemon Gold and Silver on 3DS Virtual Console, The Pokemon Company gave players who purchased either title a free gift: a download code for the Mythical Pokemon Celebi. If you've yet to pick up one of the classic games, you can still do so and receive the free code, but you only have until the end of this week.
The free Celebi code will be given out with a purchase of Pokemon Gold or Silver until this Friday, September 21. This offer only applies to the Gold and Silver versions; Pokemon Crystal, which released on the 3DS Eshop several months after the other two Gen 2 titles, doesn't come with a free code as you're able to catch Celebi in the game after completing the main adventure.
The Celebi code can be redeemed in either Pokemon Sun and Moon or the newer Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon versions. Regardless of which game you claim it in, the Mythical Grass/Psychic-type comes at level 30 and knows the moves Heal Bell, Safeguard, Ancient Power, and Future Sight.
Redeeming the Celebi code is a bit trickier than usual, as you'll first need to go into the 3DS Eshop, access your Account Activity, and look through your receipt for Pokemon Gold or Silver to find the code. You'll then need to input that via the Mystery Gift option in your Gen 7 game of choice. You can see exactly how to redeem the code here.
The next Pokemon Go Community Day is nearly here. This month's event takes place this coming Saturday, September 22, and as usual, it'll give players a chance to capture rare Pokemon and take advantage of other in-game rewards for a brief window of time.
Live previous Community Days, this month's event will be held around the globe, but it will only run for three hours, and its timing will vary depending on which part of the world you live in. You can find the full schedule for each major region, as taken from the official Pokemon website, below.
Every Community Day stars a special "featured Pokemon" that will spawn much more frequently in the wild than it typically does for the duration of the event. This month, the featured Pokemon is the Gold and Silver starter Chikorita. On top of appearing in greater numbers than usual, you'll also have your first chance of encountering a Shiny Chikorita during the event.
Each Community Day also provides an opportunity to get a Pokemon with a special move that it cannot typically learn in the game. This time around, any Bayleef that you manage to evolve into Meganium before the Community Day ends will learn the powerful Grass-type attack Frenzy Plant, even if they were caught outside of the event.
Niantic will also provide a few other bonuses as an incentive to take part in this month's Community Day. First, you'll earn triple the usual amount of XP for capturing Pokemon. Lure Modules will also last longer than they normally do; any that are used during the event will remain active for three hours, rather than their typical 30-minute duration.
While you're out participating in the latest Community Day, you may also have a chance of encountering a Mewtwo. As part of the Ultra Bonus Event, the Legendary Psychic-type will appear in regular Raid Battles for the first time from September 20 - October 23. Previously, Mewtwo could only be found through the invite-only EX Raids.
Nintendo's online subscription service for Switch has launched, and one of the benefits you get for subscribing is access to a library of NES games. Each of these classic titles supports some form of online play, whether that be competing directly against another player in Balloon Fight or taking turns controlling the action in a traditionally single-player title, but until recently, it had been unclear whether or not the NES games could be played offline. It turns out they can, but there's a slight caveat.
According to the FAQ page on Nintendo's website, the NES games included in the Nintendo Switch Online service can be played offline for up to seven days. That means you'll periodically need to "check in" online every week in order to verify that you still have an active subscription and maintain your access to the games.
20 NES titles are available now that the Nintendo Switch Online service has launched, including some of the console's most iconic games, with additional titles coming each month. As previously mentioned, each NES game supports online multiplayer; in single-player titles, you'll be able to switch between who's controlling the game, or the second player can use a hand-shaped cursor to point out hints and applaud certain actions. You can take a look at the complete launch lineup below:
Balloon Fight
Baseball
Donkey Kong
Double Dragon
Dr. Mario
Excitebike
Ghosts'n Goblins
Gradius
Ice Climber
Ice Hockey
The Legend of Zelda
Mario Bros.
Pro Wrestling
River City Ransom
Soccer
Super Mario. Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 3
Tecmo Bowl
Tennis
Yoshi
In addition to the NES library, Nintendo Switch Online subscribers will be able to back up their Switch data via cloud saves; however, not all Switch games will support the feature, and you'll need to have an active membership in order to keep your cloud saves. There will also be "special offers" exclusive to Switch Online subscribers, such as a pair of NES-shaped Joy-Cons for use with the aforementioned NES titles.
Nintendo offers Switch Online subscriptions in three increments; you'll also have the option to purchase an annual family plan, which will extend the service's benefits to up to eight Nintendo Accounts across multiple consoles. If you're unsure about subscribing, you can sign up for a seven-day free trial, but if you don't cancel before the trial period ends, it will automatically turn into a one-month subscription. You can read more about the service in our roundup of everything we know about Nintendo Switch Online.
By Anonymous on Sep 21, 2018 12:11 am The Dragon Prince is the new animated Netflix original series from the head writer of Avatar: The Last Airbender. But does this new fantasy adventure series pale in comparison?
Nintendo's online subscription service for Switch is finally. The service rolled out earlier this week, and you'll now need to have an active subscription in order to play most Switch games online going forward. If you're still undecided about signing up, Nintendo offers a free trial--but like most trial periods, you'll be charged if you forget to cancel.
Switch owners can now sign up for one seven-day free trial of the Switch Online service from the console's Eshop. However, as detailed on Nintendo's website, if you don't disable automatic renewal before the trial period ends, your trial will automatically convert into a one-month subscription, which runs for US $4 / £3.49 / AU $6.
In addition to online play, the Nintendo Switch Online service provides subscribers with access to a library of classic NES games. 20 titles are available at launch, with more to be added to the service on a regular basis. These classic games also boast online play and other modern amenities, such as HD resolution, voice chat through the Nintendo Switch Online phone app, and save states.
Like 2010's Red Dead Redemption, October's Red Dead Redemption 2 will let you skin animals and sell their meat for profit (assuming it doesn't go bad first). But the skinning animation in the sequel is extremely different from what you might remember--and it's a lot more intense.
During my time with the game, tracked and killed a deer in Red Dead Redemption 2's open world. I walked up to it and pressed the button to enter the skinning animation. I was not prepared for what happened next. In one seamless animation, Arthur Morgan plunges his knife into the animal, sending its guts spilling onto the ground. He then removes the fur, and you see the fur peel back over the animal's body. It was shocking.
By contrast, in the 2010 game, the camera cut away from the animal as John Marston plunged his knife into it to remove the meat. Blood splashed on the screen, and Marston sometimes makes remarks about the animal smelling bad. But in the sequel, the animal-skinning experience gets elevated to a new, more visceral level with Arthur Morgan in the driver's seat.
We only saw the skinning animation for the medium-sized deer, and we can only imagine what it will look like for bigger animals like bears, as well as alligators and more.
We also learned a little more about hunting. Once you kill an animal and skin it, you can place it on the back of your horse to bring to a town to sell. The meat and the pelt are separate objects in the game, sitting on your steed independently.
Once you reach a town, you can sell the meat and the pelt like you could in Red Dead Redemption 1. But one of the twists for the sequel is that you must sell the meat in a timely fashion to get the best price. Wait too long and merchants will pay less for your time-spoiled meat.
Also new for the sequel is hunting-related advancements to Dead Eye. You will eventually earn upgrades for Dead Eye that let you target specific animal organs when you shoot. This is important because getting clean kills through the heart will keep the meat in its best condition. Fail to drop an animal cleanly, and you might see it squirming on the ground in pain. If this happens, you might want to put the animal out of its misery.
For even more on Red Dead Redemption 2, check out our hands-on preview that looks at two stories missions and some open-world exploration. We've got even more coverage through the links below.
Like Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar's next big open-world adventure, Red Dead Redemption 2, will feature a sprawling online component titled Red Dead Online. The mode will launch as a public beta this fall, and judging by the level of support GTA Online has enjoyed, it will likely receive a regular stream of updates for a long time to come. With a second open-world multiplayer game to support now, fans may wonder if GTA Online's updates will slow down, but Rockstar assures this won't be the case.
In an interview with IGN, Rockstar North director of design Imran Sarwar said the developer still intends to support GTA V's online mode after Red Dead Online arrives. "We still have big plans for Grand Theft Auto Online and we will continue to roll out updates for the foreseeable future," Sarwar said.
To avoid competition between its two big online games, Sarwar says Rockstar hopes to "stagger" updates for each one out so that players will be able to keep up with both, but there may be some overlap. "We vaguely plan to stagger the updates of both games so that players can switch between the two, but our development plans may not always allow this!" Sarwar said.
Rockstar still hasn't revealed many details about Red Dead Online. According to the studio, the mode is "an evolution of the classic multiplayer experience in the original Red Dead Redemption, blending narrative with competitive and cooperative gameplay in fun new ways." The public beta will go live sometime this November; those who own Red Dead Redemption 2 will be able to jump in for free, although the studio warns "there will inevitably be some turbulence at launch" given the scale of the endeavor.
When Red Dead Redemption 2 debuted, Sony touted PS4-exclusive content and promised we would hear "more details soon." A year later and even having gotten hands-on with the PlayStation 4 version of the game, we still have no idea what it is.
"We are pleased to announce that PS4 players get first access to earn select online content in the vast open world of Red Dead Redemption 2," said a post on the PlayStation Blog. "Check back on PlayStation Blog for more details soon and for all of the latest information on Red Dead Redemption 2."
This is noted "online content" specifically, so it would make sense for it to be tied to the recently revealed Red Dead Online multiplayer mode, which will launch roughly a month after single-player game. It stands to reason that any announcement would have to wait for Rockstar to take the wraps off of Red Dead Online, but now that it has, we can likely expect more firm details on the exclusive content to be on the way as well. With the game fast approaching, this could help fans determine which version to pre-order.
Following the release of Marvel's Spider-Man on PS4, Mike Mahardy (@mmahardy) explores Insomniac's past to make the case for it being one of the most overlooked AAA studios out there.
Velocity X2 combines side scrolling platforming action with fast paced space flying as we blast through the first several stages to see how it looks and plays on the Nintendo Switch.
The Dragon Prince is the new animated Netflix original series from the head writer of Avatar: The Last Airbender. But does this new fantasy adventure series pale in comparison?
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