This week's PSN sale may be fairly underwhelming, but those aren't the only deals to be had on the PlayStation Store right now. Sony has kicked off a surprise PSN flash sale in the US, offering discounts on a ton of great titles for PS4, PS3, and Vita. But you'll need to hurry, as the deals won't be available for very long.
From now until January 21, more than 200 PS4 games are on sale for $20 or less. That includes the acclaimed platformer Hollow Knight, which is available for $9.89. Also on sale is Tearaway Unfolded, the PS4 port of LittleBigPlanet developer Media Molecule's Vita platformer; it can be yours for $10. Meanwhile, Street Fighter V: Arcade Edition and LA Noire are down to $20 apiece, and Just Cause 3 is $8.
The PSN flash sale is scheduled to end at 8 AM PT / 11 AM ET on January 21. The full list of deals can be found on the PlayStation Store and the PlayStation Blog.
Ubisoft has announced how PvP play will look in The Division 2. There will be two forms of PvP multiplayer in the game--the first of which takes place in the game's Dark Zones.
Similar to its predecessor's Dark Zone, The Division 2's three Dark Zones--of which there is an east, south, and west--are PvEvP areas where you can choose to take action against other players. In a blog post, Ubisoft explained how it has changed the way players will perceive you if you perform aggressive actions against others. There are three statuses you can hold if you attack other players in one of the Dark Zones.
If you're mostly performing aggressive, yet relatively harmless actions--such as stealing from other players or hijacking a supply drop--you'll be labeled as a Rogue. As a Rogue, you can enter Thieves Den, which operates as a black market that randomly moves around the Dark Zones. Exiting the Den returns you to your normal state, but killing a player while Rogue will cause you to become Disavowed.
Being Disavowed paints a target on your back. Any other player that kills you earns a bounty, so you'll have to be careful while exploring the Dark Zones. If you kill enough players, you'll be upgraded to Manhunt status. You'll still have to contend with bounty hunters while at Manhunt status, but you'll be able unlock huge rewards if you can reach one of the three random SHD terminals and clear your notoriety.
The Division 2's second form of PvP play is a more traditional, organized multiplayer called Conflict. Conflict is split into two modes, Skirmish and Domination. Skirmish is team deathmatch, while Domination is focused on capturing objectives and defending them from the other team. Ubisoft has announced three maps for both modes will launch with the game: Capital Ruins, Stadium, and Georgetown.
The Division 2 releases for Xbox One, PS4, and PC on March 15. The PC version of the game, previously scheduled for Steam, will now come out exclusively on the Epic Games Store. If you want to try out the game before deciding whether or not to buy it, there's a beta scheduled for all three systems that launches next month.
Alita: Battle Angel won't be in theaters until February 14. However, some cities are getting a taste of the upcoming manga adaptation early, thanks to a new interactive experience. Alita: Battle Angel - Passport to Iron City opens on January 23 in Los Angeles, with an installation in New York City following on January 25 and Austin on January 29.
Interactive experiences tied to movies are nothing new, whether it's the opening of Neibolt haunted house to promote the horror movie It or the Ready Player One event that sent visitors into the OASIS. After having the opportunity to try out the LA experience ahead of its opening, though, I can say with confidence that Passport to Iron City is unlike just about anything else.
The experience is a collaboration between iam8bit and TSG Entertainment, along with 20th Century Fox and Lightstorm Entertainment, that transports users from their world to Iron City, the cyberpunk city of the future in which the film is set. And right from the start, as writer and producer James Cameron explains, the entire 12,000 square foot space works hard to immerse you in the world of the film, starting with a stop at the Kansas Bar, which has been meticulously recreated to resemble the actual set used in production.
The bar actually serves wine and beer--including city-specific brews that are exclusive to the experience--for a fee. While the drinks, which include non-alcoholic options, aren't free, they do help in setting the tone that Kansas is an in-world pub you're free to hang out in. Like Iron City itself, Kansas is filled with actors playing characters and hints in the decor that could be very useful upon setting foot in Iron City, the proverbial "game board" of the experience, which is filled with elaborate sets and characters that are fun to interact with and filled with useful clues if you get them talking.
Once you're in Iron City, that's where the fun begins. Upon arrival, you're divided into teams that are competing to collect the most credits. The team that stands tall at the end--in the preview, it was my team--walks away with a special coin created for Passport to Iron City, which claims to be worth 1,000 credits.
How do you win credits, though? Great question.
The bulk of Passport to Iron City involves a series of team-based activities and scavenger hunts, each of which is worth a specified number of credits. They range from something as simple as piecing together a puzzle containing propaganda critical of the Factory--the in-world government--to digging through a tech scrapyard to find the highest-value items in an activity that includes some elements of an escape room.
What makes Passport to Iron City work, in this regard, is the challenges are all different enough that they appeal to different strengths. While one of the activities is based on how good your sense of smell is, another finds you tracking criminals on the loose in Iron City with the Factory's surveillance equipment.
Of course, you could just wander around the experience, admiring what's been built. Good luck with that, though, as Passport to Iron City has figured out how to turn the entire thing into a very competitive affair. Near the entrance of the experience is a scoreboard, which keeps real-time track of the credits earned by each team. I definitely didn't expect to find myself rushing around the play area trying to solve riddles and decipher words in other languages. After realizing that my team's score depended on it, though, it was hard not to get wrapped up in what was happening. Even as the experience came to a close with one final challenge involving all teams, everyone was shouting at and cheering on a game of motorball--Iron City's favorite pastime--as if we were watching a real sporting event unfold.
That all said, even those with no knowledge of Alita: Battle Angel--the movie or the manga it's based on--aren't going to be left out of the action. I know practically nothing about the franchise, but managed to easily figure out enough to operate within the experience. Still, fans of Alita will be able to pick up on small details scattered throughout the experience and may even have a bit of a leg-up in some of the challenges.
It's simply a fun and engaging experience set that draws you further into the world of the movie. I had very little interest in the film before visiting Passport to Iron City. Now I feel like I know the world a bit better and am curious to see how it unfolds on the big screen, even if I'm still unclear about how all of the cyborgs fit in.
What's more, I want to see other films take this approach to promotions. Yes, trailers and TV spots are still a useful tactic for many films, but as major blockbusters dive deeper and deeper into their world-building, why not take the audience into that world and let them explore pieces of it on their own?
Alita: Battle Angel - Passport to Iron City opens in Los Angeles on January 23, with New York and Austin locations following soon thereafter, with no announced end date. You can find out far more information and purchase tickets to the experience on the official website.
The Iron Banner is in full swing and the final Forge of The Black Armory has been unlocked, so there's plenty to do in Destiny 2 this week. As always, the weekend also means that Xur ventures back into the solar system, ready to sell to Guardians from his batch of Year One Exotic weapons and armor. If you're still chasing Izanagi's Burden and have to wait three more weeks to complete the Dreaming City's Shattered Throne, Xur's offerings might tide you over.
You'll find Xur on Io this week. Head to the Giant's Scar region, then ride your sparrow north to look for a cave in the northwest wall of the area. As is always the case, he's offering three pieces of Exotic armor, one for each class, and an Exotic weapon. While all copies of Exotic guns are identical, it's worth checking out Xur's armor: Each piece of Exotic armor gets random perk roles, which means you might be able to buy a more useful version of something you already have.
This week's Exotic weapon is Vigilance Wing, an Exotic pulse rifle that packs a punch. Instead of the usual three-round burst of weapons in the pulse rifle class, Vigilance Wing fires five rounds with each pull of the trigger. It also gets more accurate when you're the last living person on your fireteam, which includes amping up your recovery time to make you a little more likely to survive--which makes it great for Crucible.
In the armor department, Hunters can snag the Orpheus Rig boots, which give you more shots in the Moebius Quiver version of the Shadowshot super, and gives you back ability energy for each enemy you tether with your Shadowshot arrows. For Warlocks, it's the Varity's Brow helmet, which is great if you have an energy weapon you particularly like. The helmet restores grenade energy for each energy weapon kill you make, for nearby allies as well as yourself. Finally, Titans get Hallowfire Heart, a chest armor piece that amps up the recharge rate of your solar abilities, especially when your Super is active.
Here are all the Exotics Xur offers this week and what they'll cost you:
You can also buy a Fated Engram, if you can afford it. Dropping 97 Legendary Shards on the item will grant you one Year One Exotic you don't already have for that character. Xur also offers the Five of Swords challenge card for free, which allows you to add difficulty modifiers that increase your score in Nightfall runs.
The Iron Banner this weekend also means you have something to do while we wait on the next big event of Destiny 2's ongoing content rollout. That's another Exotic weapon quest, known as The Draw, which drops on January 29. If you're hungry for even more Exotics, check out our guide for hunting down Jotunn, one of The Black Armory's best.
Few game series carry such a reputation for obtuse and puzzling storylines as Kingdom Hearts. The series that began as an ambitious crossover project has produced a complex interwoven mythology. Compounding the difficulty is the series' tendency to add supplemental scenes out of sequence, and for several characters to appear in multiple distinct ways.
To help you navigate the convoluted tangle that is the Kingdom Hearts story, we've compiled this simple primer that will get you up to speed ahead of Kingdom Hearts 3's release on January 25.
Right now you're likely interested in the most important information you need to understand what's happening when you begin playing Kingdom Hearts 3.
As of the start of Kingdom Hearts 3, the Keyblade Master Xehanort has been reconstituted and plans to start a war that will force the warriors of light and darkness against each other. He hopes that, in doing this, he will reforge the original Keyblade, which will give him power over Kingdom Hearts, the source of all light and darkness. He needs seven beings of light--people who are pure of heart--to clash with his own thirteen beings of darkness to make this prophetic war happen, and previously he's attempted to do it by kidnapping seven Princesses of Heart--these are the recognizable Disney characters Alice, Snow White, Jasmine, Belle, Cinderella, and Aurora, along with Kairi, a princess created by Square Enix for the series. Now that the heroes have caught wise to Xehanort's plans, however, it's much more likely that they themselves will be the seven beings of light--presumably hoping that if this plan does result in a reforged Keyblade, they'll be there to stop him from using it.
To that end, we probably already know the identities of the seven Guardians of Light: Sora, Riku, and Mickey Mouse from the numbered games, along with Ventus, Aqua, and Terra from the prequel games. Many of them are in different states of distress: Sora's power is diminished, Aqua and Ventus are both hidden away, and Terra's body was possessed by Xehanort, while his soul lives on. The heroes' story in Kingdom Hearts 3 will very likely involve marshalling the forces of light. It has been strongly suggested that Kairi, Sora and Riku's childhood friend, will be the seventh Guardian of Light.
While all this is happening, of course, Xehanort will be gathering his own forces. He needs all of his Organization XIII in place to serve as the agents of darkness for the battle to take place. His initial plan fell apart, and his new plan is to gather versions of himself from across time to fill the roles.
With that, you know all you absolutely need to in order to begin playing Kingdom Hearts. If you want more detail, to fully understand all the background and how the characters reached this point, read on.
Chronological Story Summary
In sum, the story of Kingdom Hearts can be confounding for a few reasons. One of the largest factors is that the story itself has been told wildly out of sequence, with games released representing various points in the timeline, and even extra story sequences in special editions adding other pieces of plot in a completely different time. Telling the entire story chronologically helps clear up this layer of the confusion.
The Prophecy and the Dandelions
In the earliest point of the timeline, the world was pure. In this time we only know of seven named characters: the original Keyblade wielders. These were a band of six apprentices following the tutelage of the Master of Masters. Together they protected the source of all light and wisdom in the universe, Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts existed in a symbiotic relationship with the legendary weapon, the original Keyblade (commonly referred to in the series as the χ-blade). All Keyblades in the series are modeled after this original weapon, but none of them can unlock Kingdom Hearts like it can.
After warning of a prophecy that a cataclysm would destroy the world, the Master of Masters vanished and left his apprentices to form Unions, with their own Keyblade pupils and distinct tasks to perform. These assignments were ostensibly meant to protect the world, but it actually sowed distrust and pitted them against each other. The resulting Keyblade War killed nearly all the Keyblade wielders, and in the process, shattered the χ-blade into 20 pieces: seven pieces of pure light and thirteen of pure darkness. Without the χ-blade to protect it, Kingdom Hearts disappeared.
All Keyblades in the series are modeled after the legendary original Keyblade, but none of them can unlock Kingdom Hearts like it can.
The site of the great battle became the Keyblade Graveyard, a sprawling area filled with the Keyblades of fallen warriors. But they weren't entirely gone. One disciple named Ava had secretly assembled and trained a new team of Keyblade wielders, with explicit instructions to escape rather than take part in the battle. This group was called the Dandelions.
The intentions of the Master of Masters are left ambiguous in all of this. He appears to have intentionally engineered the Keyblade War, but he also instructed Ava on the plans to organize the Dandelions and escape. This new class of Keyblade Masters would be the only ones left to remember the perfect world as it was, and created Union χ to work together to protect the light.
As time passed and only a select few remembered the world as it was, the Keyblade War became the stuff of legends, and people began building their own Keyblades in an attempt to tap the legendary power of Kingdom Hearts.
TL;DR Summary: In ancient times, a group of guardians were manipulated into fighting among themselves, and in the process of the battle the original Keyblade was shattered and Kingdom Hearts vanished. But a few had secret instructions to escape the battle, and started anew.
The Rise of Xehanort
Xehanort was a resident of Destiny Islands, just like our eventual protagonists, and he set off on his own to become a Keyblade Master. In his research, he concluded that the war had left the world unbalanced in favor of light. In order to rebalance the world, he attempted to begin a new Keyblade War, so that light and darkness would clash and forge the χ-blade.
Meanwhile, three other Keyblade wielders were undergoing training of their own. Terra, Aqua, and Ventus were learning under Master Eraqus. In secret, Xehanort was already manipulating them. He encouraged Terra to embrace the darkness, and he likewise used the darkness in Ventus to create his own apprentice, Vanitas. Then Terra and Aqua, as the older trainees, took the Mark of Mastery exam together, and Terra was rejected due to the darkness in his heart.
When creatures called the Unversed started to attack various worlds, Master Xehanort vanished. Terra was sent to find him and to defeat the Unversed. Ventus had an encounter with his dark counterpart Vanitas, not realizing his origins, and was convinced to follow Terra as well. Eraqus sent Aqua to watch after both of them and to bring Ventus back safely.
While on his mission, Terra fell in with a dark crowd of Disney villains, who offered to trade information on Xehanort for helping them with their own schemes. Terra rationalized this as necessary to complete his mission, and tried to act as a double agent still on the side of good. He fed Aqua information about Xehanort's plan to kidnap the seven Princesses of Heart, and tried (but failed) to help Aqua convince Ventus to go home.
During this sequence of events, the trio briefly met with the younger versions of the eventual protagonists of the numbered Kingdom Hearts games: first helping Kairi strengthen the light in her heart, and then seeing potential in Sora and Riku. At this point Sora created a strong bond with Ventus, which becomes important later in the story.
Ventus found Xehanort, and learned of his plans to use Ventus's own heart to create the χ-blade. He claimed that Eraqus had known this all along, so Ventus went to confront his Master. Through a series of misunderstandings, Terra attacked Eraqus to protect Ventus, then realized his error too late. Xehanort killed Eraqus, and encouraged all three to go to the Keyblade Graveyard.
At that final confrontation, he explained his plan to the three and then badly injured Aqua and Ventus. The resulting rage from Terra opened his heart to darkness, allowing Xehanort to take control and use his body as a new vessel, referred to as Terra-Xehanort. Terra's mind transferred to his suit of armor and battled against Terra-Xehanort, defeating him. But meanwhile, Vanitas merged with Ventus to create the χ-blade. Aqua destroyed the χ-blade while Ventus' will did battle with Vanitas' will in their body, and the resulting burst of energy sent all involved scattered to different locations.
The heroes became separated, with Ventus rendered unconscious and unable to wake up until his heart returns. Aqua made sure he was safe inside a special chamber for the time being. She then went to confront Terra-Xehanort again, but an attempt to unlock his heart erased his memories and drew him towards the Realm of Darkness. Aqua sacrificed herself to save Terra-Xehanort and fell into darkness herself. Ventus' heart found its way to Sora and took refuge inside of him.
TL;DR Summary: Years later, the nature of Keyblades and Kingdom Hearts is the realm of scholars and researchers. A Keyblade Master and researcher named Xehanort had plans to reforge the χ-blade and use it to rebalance the world. In the process of enacting his plan, he took over the body of a young apprentice named Terra and in the process, Xehanort lost his memories. The apprentice's friends, Aqua and Ventus, were left worse for wear: Aqua was lost in the Realm of Darkness, and Ventus was rendered unconscious after being separated from his heart. His heart found a new home in a young boy named Sora, who he had forged a bond with previously.
Xehanort and Organization XIII
In a new body and lacking his old memories, Xehanort was discovered by a benevolent ruler named Ansem the Wise, who was conducting research into the nature of darkness. Ansem took Xehanort under his wing while conducting his experiments, but as Xehanort slowly regained his memories, he began his own experiments in secret, and kept records of the research posing under the king's name. Ansem ultimately shut down his research, deeming it too dangerous, but Xehanort led a rebellion of the other darkness-obsessed researchers and banished Ansem the Wise into the Realm of Darkness.
At this point in the story, the nature of Xehanort's corporeal form becomes complicated. He had fully regained his memories, but he was still in the body of Terra. So he gave his own heart over to the darkness completely, creating two distinct identities: his Heartless form, called Ansem, and his Nobody form, called Xemnas. Ansem appeared as a dark form of the wise king, while Xemnas looked like a dark form of Terra.
It's crucial to understand that a Heartless and Nobody are complimentary pieces of one whole being. A Heartless is a heart that has given itself over completely to the darkness, while a Nobody is a body that has lost its heart. Therefore, when someone gives their heart to the darkness, their heart becomes a Heartless, and their body becomes a Nobody. These often appear as monsters, but particularly strong-willed individuals can have their Heartless and Nobody forms develop their own distinct personalities, as in the case of Xehanort.
At this point in the story, the nature of Xehanort's corporeal form becomes complicated. He created two distinct identities: Ansem and Xemnas.
These two distinct identities would later exercise their own unique plans to take control of Kingdom Hearts, which laid the groundwork for the two core games. Ansem struck an alliance with the villain Maleficent to gather hearts of pure light. Meanwhile, Xemnas founded Organization XIII and filled its membership with the Nobodies created when the other researchers gave their own hearts to darkness.
Xemnas intended for these members to hold pieces of his own dark heart, to serve as his thirteen agents of pure darkness. To complicate matters further, though, Ansem sensed that Xemnas' new apprentices would develop their own personalities and wouldn't be accessible as vessels. So, he traveled backward through time and taught a young Xehanort the secrets of time travel, so that he could use it to gather different incarnations of himself to fill any necessary spots in the XIII. The young Xehanort wasn't left with specific memories of the encounter, but retained the skills.
TL;DR Summary: Xehanort split himself into two beings: Ansem, a Heartless modeled after the benevolent king who had helped him recover his memories; and Xemnas, his Nobody. Both personalities began undertaking their own actions, including the forming Organization XIII from the Nobodies of researchers who had lost their hearts--and learning the secret to time travel so that he could fill out the organization's ranks with versions of himself from different time periods as a backup plan.
The Quests of Sora and King Mickey
Finally the story has reached the core numbered games, which introduced the main protagonists and plot threads that will be developed and resolved in Kingdom Hearts 3. And it all starts, simply enough, with a few friends living on Destiny Islands: Sora, Riku, and Kairi.
Sora, the primary protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, began experiencing strange events--first a disturbing dream, then an encounter with a hooded figure. When the island was attacked by Heartless, Sora lost his friends, who had been scattered to various lands. Meanwhile, King Mickey Mouse left his kingdom to look into the darkness that was encroaching on the world, and instructed Donald Duck and Goofy to find a special key. Sora, Donald, and Goofy all met in Traverse Town, and resolved to travel together to find their friends.
Maleficent and a cast of other recognizable Disney villains were seeking seven Princesses of Heart to unlock a door to Kingdom Hearts. She recruited Riku by promising to help him find Kairi, and turned him against Sora. When Riku eventually did find Kairi, her heart was gone. Sora eventually confronted Riku, and the two argued over who was the proper wielder of the Keyblade. Riku was chastened, but his shame over the ordeal only drove him further toward the darkness. He encountered the dark Ansem and allowed his heart to be possessed.
With this newfound power, the possessed Riku revealed important parts of his plan. He told Sora that Kairi was the final Princess of Heart, and that her catatonic state was rendered when her heart transferred inside Sora during the attack on their home. To save Kairi, Sora released his own heart with Kairi's inside of it, and temporarily turned into a Heartless. When Kairi's heart returned and she regained consciousness, she used the strength of her own heart to turn Sora back into a human.
In a dramatic final confrontation, Sora, Donald, and Goofy faced Ansem. He explained his master plan to claim the power of Kingdom Hearts. He believed Kingdom Hearts was a dark power, and so when he was defeated in battle, he attempted to tap into its power to help him defeat the heroes. But in a final irony, the door Ansem had worked so hard to open finally unlocked and revealed the power of Kingdom Hearts was actually light, and it destroyed the dark Ansem.
Inside the door, King Mickey and Riku emerged and began to help Sora close the door. But the area was becoming overrun with Heartless, so Mickey and Riku remained inside to help seal it. Mickey and Sora worked together with their Keyblades to seal the door. At this point, Riku and King Mickey were lost, and Kairi was transported back to Destiny Island. Sora, Donald, and Goofy set out on a quest to find their friends again, chasing after Mickey's dog Pluto.
In a brief epilogue, Riku confronted a previously unseen character, later revealed to be Roxas from Kingdom Hearts 2.
TL;DR Summary: A young boy named Sora teamed up with Donald and Goofy from King Mickey's kingdom and embarked on a shared quest to find their friends. In the process they learned about the nature of the Heartless--and Sora became one himself for a short time. They all banded together to save Sora's friends Kairi and Riku, and eventually confronted and destroyed the dark Ansem. But they were separated in the ensuing chaos, and so the quest to reunite started anew.
The Bridge Between Hearts
Between the events of the first and second numbered Kingdom Hearts games, a supplemental story took place--partially overlapping with both. These events, as depicted in Chain of Memories and 358/2 Days are mostly table-setting for Kingdom Hearts 2, though they also start to establish important secondary characters.
Simultaneous to some of the events in the original Kingdom Hearts, we have the story of Roxas--the Nobody created when Sora briefly became a Heartless. Because of the piece of Ventus in Sora's heart, Roxas looks identical to Ventus. Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, found Roxas and dubbed him the thirteenth member of the cabal. He apprenticed under Axel, and went on missions to defeat Heartless in hopes of eventually summoning Kingdom Hearts so they could become whole people. Shortly after, Organization XIII received a fourteenth member, named Xion, whose physical appearance was different for each member of the Organization, almost as if she had a shapeshifting qualities. Axel and several other members were assigned to oversee a mission at Castle Oblivion.
After following Pluto down a path, Sora, Donald, and Goofy found themselves in Castle Oblivion. This area had them relive distorted versions of their memories, while slowly erasing the original memories. As they progressed through the castle, they discovered Namine, a Nobody created from Kairi's heart when Sora returned it to her body. Namine planned to take Kairi's place in Sora's heart by replacing his memories. All of this was being done at the direction of Organization XIII, which wanted to trick Sora into becoming loyal to them. In the process, Sora encountered several members of Organization XIII for the first time: Axel, Marluxia, Larxene, and Vexen.
Meanwhile, Riku was battling his own existential demons, fighting off the temptation to give in to the dark Ansem, who left a piece of himself inside Riku. Other members of Organization XIII were attempting to use Riku against Sora, as part of their group's ongoing infighting. Riku also met the mysterious DiZ at this point--the benevolent King Ansem in disguise.
Finally, Sora defeated Marluxia and Namine offered to put him into a deep sleep to restore his memories--the process of which would erase all of his memories of Castle Oblivion.
While Axel and some of the other Organization XIII members were busy at Castle Oblivion, Roxas was partnered with Xion. The two grew close, but then Roxas fell into a coma when Sora was put to sleep in Castle Oblivion. When he woke, he learned that all of the XIII sent to Castle Oblivion were eliminated, aside from Axel. The three remaining--Roxas, Axel, and Xion--became friends, even as Roxas' growing memories of Sora's life made him suspicious of the Organization's true purpose.
Xion discovered that Xemnas had created her from Sora's memories, as something of a backup plan if Sora resisted obeying the XIII. She left the Organization in a quest to become a true person, followed by Roxas, who also wanted to find himself. Xemnas intercepted Xion and turned her against Roxas. After defeating her, the two reconciled just before she died peacefully. The memories used to create Xion returned to Sora, and Roxas carried her Keyblade in her memory.
Roxas was suddenly confronted by Riku, who had been sent by DiZ to capture him and restore Sora's memories. Riku was forced to tap into the darkness in his heart to defeat Roxas, proving the piece of Ansem was still lingering there. Riku brought Roxas' unconscious body back to DiZ, who digitized Roxas and placed him in a virtual simulation. Finally, DiZ helped Riku draw out the memory of dark Ansem to defeat him and purify his heart, and he continued on his journey with King Mickey.
TL;DR Summary: Sora's brief transformation into a Heartless created the Nobody Roxas, who was tricked into joining Organization XIII. The Organization had several schemes going at once, but many of their members were wiped out during a single mission against Sora and Riku. The kind King Ansem was still alive, having taken on a disguise as "DiZ." He helped Riku conquer the darkness in his heart, and organized a mission to recover Roxas and place him in a simulated reality.
Sora vs Organization XIII
Inside his simulated world, Roxas began to question his reality. He acquired his own Keyblade and encountered Axel and then Namine, who explained that he was a Nobody. Soon after he met DiZ, who put him on the path to discovering digital versions of Sora and his friends Donald and Goofy sleeping. At this point Roxas understood his nature and merged with Sora, who was awoken.
Back in the real world, Sora and his friends briefly encountered Mickey Mouse, who rushed them onto a train. The train took them to the Mysterious Tower, and set them on a mission to stop the Heartless and Organization XIII. As Sora continued on his quest, he learned more about the nature of Roxas and heard that Riku could be alive. Meanwhile, Axel abducted Kairi.
After a massive battle against the Heartless, Sora learned the truth about Xehanort--that the Ansem he defeated was Xehanort's Heartless, and Xemnas was his Nobody. He also learned at this point that the real King Ansem had been overthrown and was still missing. He caught wind of the Organization's plan to create a new Kingdom Hearts in order to restore their own hearts and become full beings again.
This led to a series of internal struggles that revealed even more to Sora. He battled Roxas within his own heart, and then learned the nature of Roxas and Namine as his and Kairi's Nobodies. He then fought through the Organization and reunited with Riku and Kairi. King Ansem's machine, which he had been using to digitize data, became overloaded and Ansem sacrificed himself to save Sora and the others. Similarly, Maleficent and Pete allied themselves with Sora and held off the Heartless so that he could confront Xemnas.
Sora defeated a series of Organization XIII members, culminating in a fight against Xemnas. While he seemed incapacitated, Namine merged with Kairi, and Roxas with Sora. Xemnas got his strength back and Sora and Riku teamed up to defeat him and close his newly created Kingdom Hearts. The two found themselves reunited in Destiny Islands with all of their friends: Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey. Meanwhile, Xehanort enacted a new plan to fill the new Organization with manifestations of himself from throughout time.
TL;DR Summary: Sora learned about the true nature and plans of Organization XIII, Ansem, and Xemnas. Roxas merged with Sora, making him whole. Sora and Riku teamed up to defeat Xemnas. The Organization was fractured and the newly reconstituted Xehanort was forced to use his backup plan: finding incarnations of himself from throughout time.
Preparing for Battle
Following the events of Kingdom Hearts 2, a few more supplemental story pieces have set the stage for the third installment.
The sorcerer Yen Sid gave Sora and Riku the Mark of Mastery exam, which included a mission to restore several more worlds from creatures called Dream Eaters. During this quest, Sora encountered a young Xehanort, who revealed that he had been visited by his older self and taught the secrets of time travel. With that knowledge, he has been hopping throughout time looking for various incarnations of himself to create a new Organization XIII. Sora fought Xemnas, one of the incarnations of Xehanort brought back through time, but the battle left him unconscious and Xemnas abducted him, with plans to place a piece of his own dark heart inside Sora's body.
Meanwhile, several of the former Organization XIII members awoke in their own original bodies after the destruction of their Nobodies. Several more were missing, though, so Lea (the real form of Axel) went looking for them.
Riku attempted to save Sora, and was eventually flanked by several allies including Lea, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. Riku brought Sora back to Yen Sid and helped revive him. Once Sora regained consciousness, Yen Sid named Riku a Keyblade Master--but not Sora. Sora left on his own quest, having lost most of his power from nearly becoming a vessel for Xehanort. Lea found he was able to summon his own Keyblade for the first time. Ventus, though still asleep, began to regain consciousness. Finally, Yen Sid asked for Kairi to come and undergo her own training.
TL;DR Summary: Xemnas abducted Sora with plans to turn him into a vessel for Xehanort, a process that left Sora severely weakened. Riku became a Keyblade Master. Lea, the real form of Axl, wielded his own Keyblade for the first time, and set off to find the real identities of several missing Organization members. Kairi has been summoned to undergo her own Keyblade training.
The Stage Is Set
All of this puts the pieces in place for Kingdom Hearts 3. Sora is on a quest to regain his power, Riku and King Mickey are both full-fledged Keyblade Masters, and Kairi is undergoing training. Aqua is still lost in darkness but fighting her way through, while Terra is battling his own darkness having served as a vessel for Xehanort. Ventus, meanwhile, is starting to regain consciousness. That makes seven potential Guardians of Light, though Lea's newfound power to wield a Keyblade is bound to come in handy as well. Lea is also still searching for the other original forms of the displaced Organization XIII members, and any of them could become allies or adversaries.
Finally, Xehanort is gathering his power, preparing for the confrontation that will give him control over Kingdom Hearts to rebalance the world.
Character Cheat Sheet
A large part of the confusion over Kingdom Hearts is the multitude of distinct characters with Russian nesting doll connections to each other. Multiple characters reside in the hearts of others, or have had their bodies taken over. Others have embraced the darkness and a Heartless persona, which also creates a Nobody--a heart without a body, and a body without a heart. Making matters more confounding, these Heartless and Nobody characters often develop their own personalities. They may even look slightly differently than their source, or take on the appearance of someone they had some connection with.
To help untangle all of this, we've outlined all the notable multi-layered characters below.
Xehanort
The chief antagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series has the most forms and connections of any character, making him the most complex. First, he implanted his own heart into the body of Terra, one of the Keyblade wielders in Birth by Sleep. This body was struck down in battle and recovered by the good king Ansem the Wise. As a partial amnesiac, he became Ansem's pupil and did research on the nature of darkness in hearts. Ansem the Wise later realized the danger of these experiments and ended them. Xehanort continued the experiments in secret as he recovered his memory, and eventually staged a coup with his fellow apprentices to banish Ansem the Wise. At this point he cast off his body and made a Heartless, which appeared as a dark form of Ansem. In the process this also created his Nobody, named Xemnas, who looked very similar to Terra. Each of these beings enacted their own distinct plans to recover Kingdom Hearts. After the defeat of the dark Ansem (KH1) and Xemnas (KH2) his body has reconstituted itself in its original form as an elderly man.
Terra
Terra was a Keyblade apprentice who battled against Xehanort, but in the process Xehanort forced his heart into Terra's body. Terra's own heart remained, battling with Xehanort's heart for dominance over the body--in part because he has the memory of his Keyblade Master, Eraqus in his heart as well. When Terra's body was used to create Xehanort's Heartless and Nobody, the Nobody (Xemnas) took an appearance similar to Terra. His heart still exists, but it's unclear whether he has any physical body to occupy.
Sora
As the main protagonist of the series, Sora's various connections are nearly as complex as the antagonist, Xehanort. Sora is holding Ventus' heart inside his own while he heals. Because Sora's heart connected with Ventus' when Xehanort was creating Vanitas, Vanitas appears very similar to Sora. When Sora was briefly made into a Heartless, a Nobody was created, named Roxas, who looks like Ventus due to Sora's connection with him.
Ventus
Ventus was one of the Keyblade wielders in Birth by Sleep. The darkness in his heart was used to create the villain Vanitas. His heart was severely damaged by this process, and later by an ensuing battle, so his heart has gone to rest inside Sora to recover. His body is currently unconscious and waiting to be rejoined with his heart.
Roxas
Roxas was the Nobody created when Sora briefly became a Heartless. Since Ventus' heart was residing in Sora when this happened, Roxas looked identical to Ventus. Eventually he realized his true nature and merged with Sora to restore him.
King Ansem / DiZ
The real Ansem was a kind and benevolent king who found Xehanort (in Terra's body) and nursed him back to health, and conducted experiments meant to help restore his memory. After deeming his experiments too dangerous, Xehanort staged a coup and cast him into the Realm of Darkness so that he and the other researchers could continue the experiments themselves. When Xehanort embraced the darkness himself, his Heartless took the form of a dark, gray-haired Ansem. Meanwhile, the real Ansem lived on and disguised himself in bandages, calling himself DiZ. DiZ offered help to the heroes before sacrificing himself to save them.
Riku
Riku was briefly possessed by the spirit of the dark Ansem. He also appeared as a digital representation inside DiZ's simulation.
Organization XIII
The antagonist Organization has changed its membership over time, which can create confusion over who is and isn't a member. At first the name applied to the Nobodies of the researchers who helped to overthrow King Ansem, and they were led by Xemnas, Xehanort's Nobody. Roxas was also inducted for a brief time, as well as an imperfect clone of Sora named Xion. Once the heroes defeated several of the Organization and left them scattered, some are lost and others have changed loyalties. Having thirteen beings of darkness is vital to Xehanort's plans, though, so he's filling the empty spots with manifestations of himself plucked from throughout time.
Simple and Clean: The TL;DR Story of Kingdom Hearts
In ancient times, a group of guardians were manipulated into fighting among themselves, and in the process of the battle, the original Keyblade was shattered and Kingdom Hearts vanished. But a few had secret instructions to escape the battle, and started anew.
Years later, the nature of Keyblades and Kingdom Hearts is the realm of scholars and researchers. A Keyblade Master and researcher named Xehanort had plans to reforge the χ-blade and use it to rebalance the world. In the process of enacting his plan, he took over the body of a young apprentice named Terra and in the process, Xehanort lost his memories. The apprentice's friends, Aqua and Ventus, were left worse for wear: Aqua was lost in the Realm of Darkness, and Ventus was rendered unconscious after being separated from his heart. His heart found a new home in a young boy named Sora, who he had forged a bond with previously.
Xehanort split himself into two beings: Ansem, a Heartless modeled after the benevolent king who had helped him recover his memories; and Xemnas, his Nobody. Both personalities began undertaking their own actions, including the forming Organization XIII from the Nobodies of researchers who had lost their hearts--and learning the secret to time travel so that he could fill out the organization's ranks with versions of himself from different time periods as a backup plan.
A young boy named Sora teamed up with Donald and Goofy from King Mickey's kingdom and embarked on a shared quest to find their friends. In the process they learned about the nature of the Heartless--and Sora became one himself for a short time. They all banded together to save Sora's friends Kairi and Riku, and eventually confronted and destroyed the dark Ansem. But they were separated in the ensuing chaos, and so the quest to reunite started anew.
Sora's brief transformation into a Heartless created the Nobody Roxas, who was tricked into joining Organization XIII. The Organization had several schemes going at once, but many of their members were wiped out during a single mission against Sora and Riku. The kind King Ansem was still alive, having taken on a disguise as "DiZ." He helped Riku conquer the darkness in his heart, and organized a mission to recover Roxas and place him in a simulated reality.
Sora learned about the true nature and plans of Organization XIII, Ansem, and Xemnas. Roxas merged with Sora, making him whole. Sora and Riku teamed up to defeat Xemnas. The Organization was fractured and the newly reconstituted Xehanort was forced to use his backup plan: finding incarnations of himself from throughout time.
Xemnas abducted Sora with plans to turn him into a vessel for Xehanort, a process that left Sora severely weakened. Riku became a Keyblade Master. Lea, the real form of Axl, wielded his own Keyblade for the first time, and set off to find the real identities of several missing Organization members. Kairi has been summoned to undergo her own Keyblade training.
By Anonymous on Jan 18, 2019 09:30 pm The doctor is in! After slaughtering the residents of Valentine is his last escapade, he's decided to make some amends. Will the good citizens of Valentine accept his new calling, or will they put him behind bars where he belongs?
The next fighter to join Dragon Ball FighterZ looks set to be Jiren, the incredibly powerful member of the Pride Troopers that served as the main antagonist for Dragon Ball Super's Tournament of Power arc. Although developer Arc System Works and publisher Bandai Namco haven't officially announced Jiren yet, a scan from Japanese magazine Shonen Jump has appeared online showing him.
The image, which you can see below, features Super Saiyan Blue Goku clashing with Jiren, which is reminiscent of their brawls in the Dragon Ball Super anime series. The Dragon Ball FighterZ logo is featured prominently alongside them, all but officially announcing his arrival.
The Dragon Ball FighterZ ~ Goku Vs Jiren ~ visual with slightly better quality. pic.twitter.com/pUzYERMPws
On January 17 it was teased that more information about DLC for the fighting game would be revealed at the Dragon Ball FighterZ World Tour Finals, which take place on January 26-27. "The Warrior from Universe 11 is joining the fight," Bandai Namco said in a tweet, sparking speculation that the character in question would likely be Jiren.
Plans for Dragon Ball FighterZ DLC beyond this character haven't been confirmed as of yet, but Jiren could be the first in a second season of content for the game. Dragon Ball FighterZ has proven itself to be popular among fighting game aficionados and was one of the big draws at 2018's EVO fighting game tournament. This, along with a resurgence in popularity thanks to the Super series and the new Broly movie, no doubt makes ongoing support for the game more enticing for its developer and publisher.
The game was also received well by critics. GameSpot awarded it a 9/10 in our Dragon Ball FighterZ review, calling it "a Dragon Ball fighting game that can go toe-to-toe with the best of the genre." Critic Peter Brown described it as "complex and distinct enough to be enjoyed by fighting game competitors, but there's no question that it's been designed to tap into the hearts of Dragon Ball's most dedicated fans."
"Where past games attempted to get there through huge character rosters and deliberately predictable trips down memory lane, FighterZ has bottled the essence of what makes the series' characters, animation, and sense of humor so beloved and reconfigured it into something new," he added.
In addition to more Dragon Ball FighterZ DLC information, Bandai Namco is expected to talk about other Dragon Ball games at the World Tour Finals. The company has confirmed that a new Dragon Ball RPG is in development, and fans are no doubt hoping to hear and perhaps see more of that.
By Anonymous on Jan 18, 2019 07:30 pm We played four hours of 4A's upcoming Metro Exodus on Xbox One, and have a lengthy discussion about the shooter's shift into sandbox survival.
By Anonymous on Jan 18, 2019 10:30 am In Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown, the challenge doesn't just lie in the dogfight, but the weather and terrain. Strap in for some tight turns and close calls in this gameplay video captured on the PlayStation 4 Pro.
There's more to war than just weapons and politics. Ace Combat is a series that showed us just that, hitting its stride in the early '00s with an enchanting mix of jet fighting and human melodrama. But in the past decade, its entries suffered from putting less importance in its signature stories. It dropped four games' worth of fictional lore in favor of real-world locations, traded pathos for machismo, and attempted to add cinematic blockbuster bombast to the clinical nature of flying jets, all at the cost of losing its identity. Thankfully, Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown brings the series back on course and is a significant return to what it was in its prime: a thrilling interpretation of modern aerial combat that also tells a war story with heart, a conscience, and personal stakes.
The narrative of Skies Unknown dives back into the fictional series universe last seen in 2007 and deals with a conflict between the familiar powers of the Osean Federation and the Kingdom of Erusea. You play a silent, faceless Osean pilot who will go through some changing allegiances, but half of the plot actually occurs in cinematics that run parallel to and separate from your actual missions, and come from the perspective of seemingly minor players around the periphery. It's a war story that pivots with the actions of its small cast of characters as much as it does military victories, and leans heavily into themes of the human condition--the greys of fabricated ideas like nationality, borders, and cultural identity as well as the ethics of advancements in technological warfare.
To be clear, there aren't many nuanced discussions to be had between the pronounced personalities of the cast; this is a drama first and foremost. Radio chatter is filled with bold statements of ideology ("As long as our nation stands the young will carry on!"), and sometimes it feels like there's a naivety in the writing for entirely different, slightly juvenile reasons ("How penal is this penal colony?"). It's regularly hammy and melodramatic, but the entire endeavor is so wide-eyed and earnest, so endearingly heartfelt and ultimately optimistic in nature, that it's easy to let yourself be swept up and moved by it all.
Larger-than-life voices amp you up over the radio when you're flying into a sortie, adding an infectious passion to the affairs. They remind you what you're fighting for and sometimes make you feel bad and question your actions. The overlapping conversation can be a little distracting when you're trying to dodge a missile, but it's that vital human element that keeps you really invested in this game about shooting down planes.
But that's not to say that aerial combat in Ace Combat 7 is anything but superb. The fundamental actions of chasing down enemies at high speeds, out-maneuvering them to line up a clear shot, or banking hard to avoid an incoming missile while your dashboard beeps and flashes wildly at you is enough to keep you on the edge of your seat constantly. Skies Unknown strips away recent mechanical additions to the series seemingly in service of returning to simplicity--gone are the wingman commands of Ace Combat 6: Fires Of Liberation and, thankfully, so are the in-your-face, on-rails close combat mechanics of Ace Combat: Assault Horizon.
Your focus lies solely on your plane and your surroundings. There's a variety of familiar factors to take into consideration while flying--different air and ground-based threats, the topography of terrain when fighting at low altitudes--but a significant new element is clouds and the tangible risks and possibilities they invite. Juking into a bank of clouds can break missile locks and give you the element of surprise, but come at the cost of reduced visibility, the possibility of icing up your plane and hindering maneuverability, and even things like strong wind currents and lightning strikes messing with your ability to keep control of your jet. Clouds are legitimately useful strategic considerations, on top of just being a pretty thing to admire, and they make the skies of Ace Combat 7 a more interesting place to be.
There's also an impressive variety of distinct scenarios across the game's 20 campaign missions. Generally, the scope of most battles are quite large and require you to split your attention between different kinds of skirmishes across the map with a broader objective in mind. But many missions also come with unique challenges that make for some memorable moments--dogfighting in a thunderstorm at night, stealth canyon runs, and avoiding huge area-of-effect blasts in the midst of a busy battle are some enjoyable standouts. The game's few boss-style encounters are a highlight too, as you go up against impossibly good ace fighters and the game's white whale superweapon--which itself fills the map with a terrifying amount of hostile drones. There are a few scenarios that aren't as exciting, however--hunting for trucks in a sandstorm and chasing ICBMs grew tiring pretty quickly, and the game's final challenge was a tricky exercise in plane maneuvering that feels like it necessitates multiple retries by design, which puts a damper on an otherwise grand finale.
The act of retrying will inevitably come with a pang of resentment, too, since checkpointing in Skies Unknown is sparse. Checkpoints typically only occur only at the halfway point of a mission, and it's common to get 20 minutes into a battle before failing to hit an objective and having to start from the very beginning. This can get frustrating in the tail end of the campaign, where threats are more abundant and more relentless and the overall demands are higher. Granted, there is a light emphasis on score performance, and your mission score persists even if you need to retry from the halfway point, but a little more generosity wouldn't have gone astray.
Ace Combat 7 features a straightforward, peer-to-peer online multiplayer component featuring 8-player Battle Royal (free-for-all deathmatch) and team deathmatch modes. Dogfighting with other human beings is certainly a lot more challenging and frenetic, and because matches are only five minutes in length, they consistently feel fast-paced and full of excitement. The planes and equipment you unlock as part of the campaign carry over to multiplayer and vice versa, but everything has an assigned value and you're able to play matches that have a limit on how much you can bring, which helps keep a level playing field.
Online sorties also feature a weighted scoring system where leading players are clearly marked and have a higher score value attached to their destruction. In my experience, it's an idea that works well in practice, stopping you from being a target if you're doing poorly and keeping you on your toes if you're doing well. It also allows for some great match dynamics too--there were plenty of times where I was falling behind in score, decided to zero in on the leading player, and made a spectacular comeback to take the lead in the last few seconds.
The PlayStation 4 version of Skies Unknown also features an exclusive VR mode consisting of an Ace Combat 4-inspired mini-campaign. There are only three missions, and their objectives are less complicated than those of the main campaign, but even so, the experience of flying from the cockpit of a plane is engrossing. The feeling of speed and height is literally dizzying, the ability to freely look around and track a target with your gaze is terrific, and the act of pitching and rolling your plane is so effective at eliciting a feeling of actual g-force that I personally had a hard time doing more than one mission at once without breaking out into a nauseous sweat. It's a shame that there's no option to play the main campaign in VR--the head tracking and freelook alone would be incredibly useful--but the mode is a great addition nonetheless.
Good aerial combat is important for a game involving jet fighters, but it's a given quality for Ace Combat. Skies Unknown boasts a beautiful photorealistic world, entertaining mission variety, and a reason to get excited about clouds. But most importantly, it carries renewed devotion to the history and stories of its fictional universe, and with that, it brings back the human, emotional center that makes it remarkable. Ace Combat 7 is a fantastic return for a series that is at its best when it wears its heart on its wings.
Activision and Bungie broke up recently, with Bungie getting the rights to Destiny and announcing it will self-publish the sci-fi series going forward. Now, for the first time Destiny's franchise director, Luke Smith, is speaking out about the breakup and what it means. OK, so Smith did already respond with a fiery tweet, but this is his first full statement on the matter.
Speaking on behalf of the Destiny team, Smith started off his note by thanking Activision for supporting Bungie and the Destiny franchise over the years. Bungie and Activision locked down a 10-year publishing deal back in 2010 for a game that we now know is Destiny. The first game was released in 2014 with a sequel arriving in 2017, in addition to numerous expansions. Activision was behind Destiny and Bungie in a big way, even if the relationship isn't continuing. Smith also thanked Destiny support studios High Moon and Vicarious Visions, the latter of which continues to work on a new piece of content for Destiny 2. Smith teased that Vicarious Visions is "currently readying their Destiny swan song with content that will appear in the upcoming Season of [Redacted]."
After this, however, it remains to be seen if Bungie will enlist the help of other outside studios to work on new Destiny content or if Bungie will develop everything in-house. We also don't know what this move means for High Moon and Vicarious Visions; it's possible that the studios, which are owned by Activision, will shift to other projects within the publisher.
"We've learned a lot from Black Armory that we will apply to future releases, most notably that we'd like the beginning experiences of content drops to be a better point of convergence for the playerbase," he said. "In Black Armory, we set the Power requirement for the first forge too high, and that meant it wasn't a great chance to jump into some new content. We want to find the line between new content that many players can play, and aspirational content for players to progress toward. We're exploring improvements to catch-up mechanics for players in upcoming seasons."
On a longer timeline, Smith said Destiny fans can rest assured that Bungie is "committed to Destiny." Now that Activision is out of the picture, Bungie controls its destiny (sorry).
"We created the universe and we hold its future entirely in our hands," Smith said. "The vast majority of the team is hard at work envisioning future experiences, enemies, and ways to play the Guardian you've been building since 2014. We're going to keep doing that."
Without the help of an established, global publishing leader like Activision, it sounds like Bungie is moving fast to determine the best way forward.
"We're thinking about what it means to be truly independent, what it means to self-publish, and crucially, what Destiny's future can now look like for our players," Smith said. "It was a busy Fall, and it is going to be a busy year. When I look ahead and think about Destiny and where it could go, I see a bright future, with roots in a memorable past. Not everything has been lost in the dark corners of time. See you soon."
On the immediate horizon for Destiny are changes to Super Abilities, and fine-tuning for weapon balance in the forthcoming 2.1.4 update. A number of changes for the Black Armory are also planned for the next update; head to Bungie's website to see a full rundown of the changes.
Destiny 3 is expected to launch in 2020, according to an analyst, who also said Bungie likely paid Activision a fee to end its publishing arrangement. In addition to more Destiny content, Bungie recently raised $100 million from Chinese internet company NetEase for non-Destiny projects, so it seems the studio is keeping itself very busy these days.
The NFL has announced who will sing the national anthem at Super Bowl LIII next month. The "Empress of Soul," Gladys Knight, will sing the tune, following Pink last year.
Knight won seven Grammy awards and is known for songs like "Midnight Train to Georgia" and "That's What Friends Are For." Knight hails from Atlanta, Georgia, the site of this year's Super Bowl at the Mercedes-Benz stadium. The NFL interviewed Knight about her singing the anthem this year, and she says she hopes the anthem carries even more weight this year given the controversy and discussion about racial inequality and Colin Kaepernick.
Knight expanded in an interview with Variety, telling the site that she's saddened by the current climate and how the anthem is entangled in it.
"I understand that Mr. Kaepernick is protesting two things, and they are police violence and injustice," she said. "It is unfortunate that our National Anthem has been dragged into this debate when the distinctive senses of the National Anthem and fighting for justice should each stand alone.
"I am here today and on Sunday, Feb. 3 to give the Anthem back its voice, to stand for that historic choice of words, the way it unites us when we hear it and to free it from the same prejudices and struggles I have fought long and hard for all my life, from walking back hallways, from marching with our social leaders, from using my voice for good--I have been in the forefront of this battle longer than most of those voicing their opinions to win the right to sing our country's Anthem on a stage as large as the Super Bowl LIII."
She added: "I pray that this National Anthem will bring us all together in a way never before witnessed and we can move forward and untangle these truths which mean so much to all of us."
In other Super Bowl LIII news, it was recently confirmed that Maroon 5 will headline the halftime show, with Big Boi and Travis Scott also set to appearing as supporting acts. Jay-Z, Cardi B, and Rihanna said no to performing at the Super Bowl as a show of solidarity with Kaepernick. Kaepernick made headlines when he kneeled during the National Anthem in protest of the racial inequality in the United States, and he hasn't played professionally since 2017.
Scott told Billboard that he only agreed to performing at the Super Bowl if the football league agreed to make a donation to an organisation fighting for social justice. Scott himself donated $500,000 to Dream Corps.
Super Bowl LIII takes place on Sunday, February 3, from Atlanta, Georgia. You can watch the game on TV or stream it through CBSSports.com.
Sam Elliott's next movie The Man Who Killed Hitler And Then Bigfoot is coming out soon, and now it's received a new trailer. As the title suggests, the movie stars Elliot as the man who killed Hitler during World War II but couldn't tell anyone about it. Decades later, the governments of the United States and Canada call on him to take down another foe: Bigfoot.
In this timeline, Bigfoot carries a disease capable of wiping out humanity. Elliott's character, Calvin Barr, is finally coming to terms with his life when he's called back to fight the beast.
"Bigfoot has been living deep in the Canadian wilderness and carrying a deadly plague that is now threatening to spread to the general population. Relying on the same skills that he honed during the war, Calvin must set out to save the free world yet again," reads a line from the movie's official description.
The Man Who Killed Hitler And Then Bigfoot also stars Aiden Turner (The Hobbit trilogy), Caitlin FitzGerald (Masters of Sex), Larry Miller (10 Things I Hate About You), and Ron Livingston (Office Space). The film was written and directed by Robert Krzykowski; this is his feature debut. Douglas Trumbull, a multi-Oscar winning effects legend who worked on Blade Runner, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind, worked on the film's visual effects.
The film originally premiered at the Fantasia film festival in 2018. It comes to theatres and digital stores on February 8.
Elliott has been acting since the '60s. He's perhaps best known for his roles in the films Roadhouse and The Big Lebowski. More recently, he starred in A Star Is Born with Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper.
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