Image: Riot Games

If you haven’t noticed, there’s a new first-person shooter taking the internet by storm. And no, I don’t mean Call of Duty: Warzone, although that’s also blown up in recent weeks. Instead, I’m talking about Valorant, the first title by Riot Games that isn’t set in the League of Legends universe.

Riot’s new video game, Valorant, is both a breath of fresh air and completely unoriginal at the same time. The first-person shooter opened its closed beta on Tuesday to gargantuan Twitch viewership, thanks in part to Riot’s deal with the platform that let popular streamers gift access keys to its beta while they played the game live.

After watching many hours of the game and playing quite a few myself, it’s clear that Valorant is a hyper-competitive game catering to perhaps a small slice of the overall gaming community. (Right now, it’s only on PC, with no plans for a console release.) But that doesn’t matter, because it already seems quite likely to be the next big esports sensation, despite its hardcore nature and the fact that it borrows almost every single component of its design from previous competitive titles.

The closest parallel is Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Almost everyone who has played the game says the movement and twitch-based shooting feels similar to Valve’s long-running franchise. The colourful art style and character abilities, which include ice walls, poisonous gas and trip mines, have also drawn comparisons with Blizzard’s Overwatch. Most of the powers revolve around visibility, though, and limiting your opponent’s sight lines. So while it may look like Overwatch, you shouldn’t expect too many over-the-top weapons and finishers.

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That’s partly because Valorant, even in its beta form, is arriving at a crucial moment for the competitive gaming scene. Much of the esports world revolves around multiplayer online battle arenas, or MOBAs, like Valve’s Dota 2 and Riot’s own megahit League of Legends. There are peripheral esports communities, like the fighting game community and those that surround individual games like Psyonix’s Rocket League, that exist as niche subcultures within the broader esports field, but MOBAs reign supreme.

Image: Riot Games

The response from early testers has been overwhelmingly positive. And some professional gamers, including Harrison “Psalm” Chang — the runner-up at the Fortnite World Cup last year — have already said they’ll be switching to the game full time. This week, Riot launched a closed beta program with various streamers, influencers and esports teams. But here’s the kinda genius part: some Twitch streamers have a special "Drops Enabled" tag that means random viewers will be given beta keys. That’s kept the viewership and general interest around the game unusually high.

Only games made by companies with immense resources like Activision Blizzard with the Call of Duty League and Overwatch League and Epic Games with Fortnite have dared to try to buy a seat at the table through unique league structures, high-production values, and massive prize pools.

That’s precisely why Valorant seems primed for success. Simply put, the game combines character-specific superpowers heavily influenced by Overwatch with a tense, high-intensity tactical shooter model more or less carbon-copied from Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. Riot is attempting to build a modern Counter-Strike, one that appeals to a generation of MOBA fans that grew up on the idea of honing your skill as a specific hero with unique powers and an ultimate ability to use in crucial, match-defining moments.

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Going from the early reception on Twitch, Valorant is getting that recipe right in a way that might pull big streamers and pro players away from other games. The game broke Twitch’s record for most-watched ga

We don’t know if Valorant will be a hit when it actually launches. But the early signs are positive, and with Riot's stewardship there's a good chance it could turn into a heavyweight esport just like Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, Call of Duty and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege.

There’s another factor that could contribute to the game’s success: Valorant is not a battle royale game. Riot is bucking the trend that’s taken the gaming industry by storm for the last three years or so by releasing a tactical shooter. Since the release of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds in early 2017, BR games have consumed the shooter market. Fortnite is one of the most dominant games on the planet across all platforms, while a number of competitors have popped up to try to capitalize on Epic’s moneymaking potential, like Respawn’s Apex Legends and Activision’s Call of Duty: Warzone. But we’re also experiencing a bit of BR fatigue, as the initial excitement of the genre fades and its esports potential has proved hit-or-miss.

Image: Riot Games

Valorant is just the tip of what Riot Games has planned for 2020, however.
Take Legends of Runeterra. The digital card game was announced last year and released in open beta a few months back. For now, it's a PC exclusive, though the final version -- scheduled to launch on April 30th -- will also be available on Android and iOS devices.
There are already tons of digital card games to choose from, including Hearthstone, Gwent, Magic: The Gathering Arena, The Elder Scrolls: Legends, Artifact, and even an online version of the Pokemon Trading Card Game. So why care about Legends of Runeterra? For one, it's packed with cards and general references to the League of Legends universe. So if you play Riot’s MOBA religiously, or have any interest in the game's champions and lore, it might pique your interest.
For another, it has an arguably fairer economy. Legends of Runeterra doesn’t rely on digital booster packs filled with random cards, for instance. Instead, it has something called Wildcards, which can be earned for free or bought with a premium currency. It’s then possible to trade these special cards for something specific of the same rarity. That means you don't have to rely on pure luck to obtain a critical card for your next deck.

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If cards aren't your jam, there's also Teamfight Tactics. The strategic battler, inspired by Dota 2's popular auto chess mod, launched on PC and Mac through the League of Legends client last year. It was a huge success, and last month Riot released it as a standalone game for iOS and Android. If you prefer the classic MOBA, though, good news: a special version called Wild Rift is coming to consoles and touchscreen devices later this year. The port could have its own thriving playerbase, of course, like Arena of Valor and other touch-friendly MOBAs. But it could also encourage newcomers to try the original desktop version, strengthening the decade-old community and Riot's main source of revenue.
The League of Legends developer is also prepared to work with external partners. It's already commissioned Arcane, an animated TV series set in the League of Legends universe. We don’t have an exact release date, but an early trailer suggested it would be out this year. There’s also Riot Forge, a publishing initiative that allows third-party developers to make games with the League of Legends license. Two titles have been announced so far, called Convergence and Ruined King. Neither has a release date, but it's possible at least one of them will come out this year, further expanding the brand's exposure.
And let's not forget about professional League of Legends. Esports are in the spotlight right now. While every traditional sport is shut down and bleeding money, professional League is somehow putting on games every week, pulling in viewers and delivering on its advertising and sponsorship agreements.

So long, DualShock. Sony has taken the wraps off its PlayStation 5 controller and it won’t be clinging onto the branding that has adorned controllers through the last several consoles. Instead, the latest peripheral is called the DualSense, and Sony has at last revealed what it actually looks like beyond patent applications.

The new controller has some big changes on the inside, too: the previously announced haptic feedback (replacing the old rumble technology in previous controllers) and the new “adaptive triggers” that can adjust the resistance of the triggers for different gameplay effects. There’s also an integrated microphone, a first for Sony’s controllers, along with a (long-overdue) USB-C port. And of course, there’s the new two-tone color scheme (similar in style to the PSVR) and an overhauled design that gives a more rounded shape to the grips and face buttons.

The DualSense has a built-in microphone array, so you can chat with your friends without needing a headset. The DualShock share button is no more, with a Create button taking its place. Sony will spell out exactly what you’ll be able to do with that in the coming months. A closer look at the rear, meanwhile, suggests that the DualSense has a USB-C charging port.

Some of the buttons on the DualSense are also getting some light tweaks compared to the old DualShock 4 — the PlayStation button, for example, is now cut out in the actual shape of the PS logo, while the triggers have received a more angled design than past Sony controllers.

Other features from the DualShock 4 will still remain on the DualSense, like the center-mounted touchpad and the light bar (although the bar has been moved from the top / back of the controller to the left and right sides of the touchpad). Sony is also sticking with its symmetrical controller layout, with the D-pad and face buttons on the top half of the controller and the matching analog sticks on the bottom.

Further details about the DualSense — like how much additional controllers will cost, or if Sony will be offering more color options — will presumably be announced close to the PlayStation 5’s fall launch. For reference, the DualShock 4 cost $59.99 when it was first released.

The PS5 is still on track for a holiday 2020 release date, so it’ll only be six months or so before we find out how true that statement is, as well as whether the DualSense is as comfy as it appears. However, we’ve still no idea what the console itself looks like. Fingers crossed there’ll be more details on that front soon.

Illustration by Grayson Blackmon / The Verge

It’s far too easy to make fun of Quibi. That’s the first problem. You can start with the name: an overly cute mashup of “quick bites.” It’s easy to say but difficult to attach meaning to — hence a bizarre Super Bowl ad campaign dedicated to explaining it. It’s Netflix, but only for your phone and mostly for those idle moments that are long enough to be felt, yet brief enough that you wouldn’t turn to anything but your phone. You know: waiting in lines, pausing to sip a coffee, sitting in a car while someone runs into a store to grab something. That’s Quibi’s second problem: it was created for a world that doesn’t really exist anymore, one put on hold by a pandemic.
This makes Quibi a harder sell. TV to watch while you’re doing something else doesn’t seem very appealing when no one really has anything going on. However, the contrary can also be true: we’re all staring at our phones anyway, so what’s another reason to do it some more? As of today, there are 24 reasons, each Quibi show delivered in installments of 10 minutes or less, each launch show with the first three episodes ready to stream. There are 72 snacks in search of a meal.

72 SNACKS IN SEARCH OF A MEAL

The content — normally a crass word for art but an apt one for Quibi — runs the gamut, with no real ethos beyond putting recognizable faces in front of consumers in a way many haven’t really seen before. There’s a Punk’d revival starring Chance the Rapper, a series called Skrrt where Offset is really into cars and car stunts, a remake of The Most Dangerous Game starring Liam Hemsworth, and Memory Hole, a truly bizarre show where Will Arnett stands in a studio and tells you about cringey moments in pop culture in less time than it takes to watch the YouTube clip yourself.

Quibi shows are designed to play equally well no matter how you hold your phone; almost every one is shot in a way that works in both landscape and vertical orientations. I checked this, incessantly, with every show I watched. There’s something mind-boggling about it, the way Quibi tries to have things literally both ways. It works well enough, but there are strange side effects. In scripted shows, the dual-composition means there can only really be one important thing in a shot at a time, and that can make a serious drama feel shallow. In unscripted shows, this adds a layer of uncanniness, as slick network production clashes with a visual composition that’s thoroughly associated with influencers and lo-fi meme makers. You can, ironically, gauge how good a Quibi show is by how well it plays in vertical orientation.

The majority of Quibi’s programming is the sort of stuff you can find on regular TV, just broken up into smaller pieces. Murder House Flip is a reality show in the vein of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition in seven-minute chunks. The Most Dangerous Game feels like a USA drama, delivered one plot development at a time. Punk’d actually was a TV show long before Quibi, but someone figured it might play better if you didn’t have to spend 30 minutes with it. (They were right.)

QUIBI’S BEST SHOWS ARE THE ONES THAT FEEL MOST LIKE THEY COULD ONLY HAPPEN ON QUIBI

Quibi’s best shows are the ones that feel most like they could only happen on Quibi. There’s not a lot of that in the launch lineup, but perhaps the best example is Chrissy’s Court, a Judge Judy-style courtroom show in which Chrissy Teigen is a courtroom judge mediating exclusively petty disputes, like who got someone a better Lizzo-themed sweater. It’s the perfect Quibi show — like a TikTok that got a little out of hand, but it ends just before it stops being funny.

Another, Gayme Show, features comedians Matt Rogers and Dave Mizzoni as hosts in a competition. In every episode, two different straight men will compete to see who is the better queer ally. Again, it’s a bit that’s perfectly pitched for the platform. It’s savvy and effective, with stunts loud enough to hold your attention and talent deft enough to keep it. (It also might be the most genuinely funny show on Quibi so far.)

Documentaries also fare pretty well on Quibi. The standout is I Promise, about LeBron James’ I Promise School in Akron, Ohio, which serves at-risk children with an approach that’s equal parts social work and education. Compelling, frank, and moving, each eight-minute installment absolutely flies by.

I ALMOST PUT ON A QUIBI SHOW WHILE WATCHING SOMETHING ELSE ON MY TV

Still, there’s a frivolousness to Quibi that none of its programming can seem to shake because the platform was built for frivolity. I could put on a Quibi show and keep up with it just fine while writing a grocery list, chopping garlic, or brushing my teeth and only glancing at it. Once, I almost put on a Quibi show while watching something else on my TV.

For this reason, Quibi’s best point of comparison is podcasts, not streaming TV. It’s a medium for filling space that you probably already had filled with something else, but for some reason, you got it in your head that you should be finishing something in that time. It exists in a nebulous space between the steady dopamine rush of TikTok’s constant supply of novelty and the chill, lackadaisical time-sink of Twitch. Boredom is the constant, and it’s most often resolved by habit. This then, is the platform’s biggest ask: can you change your habits to accommodate it?

Because Quibi is designed to be habitual. New episodes are scheduled to drop every day, and new shows will premiere “every single Monday,” per Quibi. It’s a steady stream of quick bites coming from an endless bag of treats. Even in a world shut down by circumstance, Quibi is an interesting idea, one that wants us to use our phones the way we already do, like fidget spinners with Wi-Fi or a smoke break we can take anywhere. But that’s the third problem: no one remembers a snack. They remember a really good dinner.

via TheVege

Photo: Amazon Studios

New trailers: Killing Eve, Upload, Murder House Flip, and more

soapoperanetwork

John Callahan, best known for his role as Edmund Grey on the daytime soap opera All My Children, has died. He was 66.

"We're devastated to share that John Callahan passed away earlier today. Sending our deepest condolences to Eva La Rue and all his loved ones," the Daytime Emmys Twitter account wrote Saturday.

A cause of death is currently unknown.

From 1995 to 2005, Callahan played Edmund Gray on the soap opera, which ended its 41-year run on ABC in 2011.

The actor died after suffering a stroke, his representative, Marv Dauer, told USA TODAY. 

Callahan’s ex-wife and fellow All My Children alum Eva LaRue shared multiple throwback pictures of the pair and their daughter Kaya, 18, on Twitter. The actress also posted a lengthy Instagram tribute to Callahan.

“May Flights of Angels Wing You to Your Rest my Dear Friend,” LaRue, 53, wrote. “Your bigger than life, gregarious personality will leave a hole in our hearts forever. We are devastated-My great friend, co parent partner, and loving father to Kaya.”

The soap star added, “That big belly laugh, bear hugs, bad puns, ability to harmonize to any song, great kitchen table singing-fests, and two steppin bad ass! ‘Johnny Numbers’, my All My Children soap stud, the great time keeper, Beatles fanatic ( I wish to God we could go back to ‘Yesterday’).”




“Kaya and I are beyond broken hearted, so stunned, sorry that my thoughts are a mess,” LaRue said. “You gave the best most beautifully written tributes, and I am at a complete loss for words right now for you.”

LaRue concluded her heartfelt post, “I hope Heaven has baseball and that your team always wins! The Yankees has just lost their biggest Fan. ♥️♥️♥️♥️♥️🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼.”

A rep for LaRue did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

Tomorrow at 9am Pacific Time, PS5 lead system architect Mark Cerny will provide a deep dive into PS5’s system architecture, and how it will shape the future of games.

Watch tomorrow at PlayStation Blog: https://t.co/bgP1rXMeC8 pic.twitter.com/BSYX9tOYhE

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) March 17, 2020

The PlayStation 5's reveal has been a long and drawn out process. The special event follows Sony’s confirmation of the PlayStation 5 name back in October, and details about the power of the console earlier in 2019. Some basic details about the console were first revealed through a Wired interview last April. The article confirmed that the console will be powered by a third-generation AMD Ryzen CPU with eight cores built on the company's 7nm Zen 2 microarchitecture, and a custom GPU, built on AMD's Radeon Navi family, that supports ray-tracing. Cerny also confirmed that it would support 8K graphics, ship with an SSD and be backwards compatible with both PS4 software and the current PSVR headset.

That's a fair amount of information. Nevertheless, there's still a lot that we don't know. How much will the PlayStation 5 cost? (According to Bloomberg, it could be close to $470.) What does the console actually look like? And will the DualShock controller or system interface change at all?

If you're looking for the best new games available in the Google Play Store, you've come to the right place. Because of the new coronavirus, we have a lot of free time, which makes us bored during this period of health detention. And whether you're new to Android and need some fresh, new games to start building out your Google Play library or simply looking for the latest trendy games that are worthy of your time and attention, these are the best Android games you can find right now. and we present it exclusively on your favorite site NatGlob, and before we start we wish to share the topic with your friends, and let us know in a comment the best game for you.

Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley is easily one of the best premium games from 2020 and one of the best games overall. It's basically a farming simulator built atop a robust 16-bit open-ended RPG that lets you play and develop your character and farm as you choose. You start out with a neglected farm and must rebuild it to its former glory. Players catch fish, grow crops, raise livestock, and interact with the various townspeople. You can even get married and have a family. The retro graphics helps keep things simple, but the game has dozens of hours of content. It’s the best farming sim on mobile even if it’s not entirely realistic.

                                             $8 at Google Play Store

PUBG Mobile

PUBG Mobile hit the ground running upon its releases. It already has over ten million downloads and nearly a million user reviews. Thankfully, it’s actually a very competent mobile FPS. It features simple, effective controls, decent graphics. and a simple premise. Basically, 100 people drop from a plane onto an island and duke it out until only one is left standing. The island is littered with gear, weapons, and vehicles along with a mechanic that lowers the play area over time to keep matches from lasting too long. Recent updates added new game modes as well as a freemium element. PUBG Mobile Lite is a lighter version of the game with fewer players per match and lower graphical settings. It’s only available for some devices, though. Fornite is another excellent option if you don’t mind downloading the game directly from Epic Games instead of Google Play.

PUBG Mobile somehow delivers all the epic moments you'd expect the PC game scaled down perfectly for mobile devices, and they've truly embraced the success by continuing to add new EvoGround game modes including a dedicated zombie Battle Royale mode, multiple team deathmatch modes, explosive new vehicular assault RageGear modes, and Payload mode, which introduced helicopters, miniguns, and a rocket launcher. Get your squad together and I'll see you on the battleground!

                                            Free w/IAPs at Google Play Store

Oddmar

Of all the games I've played in 2020, Oddmar stands out as one of my absolute favorites in part because it's absolutely gorgeous from its opening sequence through its beautifully animated levels that show a depth of detail you rarely see in a mobile game. I'm also somewhat biased because I absolutely adore well-crafted indie platformers but Oddmar still stands out for having a great protagonist and excellent story to tell.

Oddmar tells the story of a disgraced viking looking to redeem himself in the eyes of his village. The actual game play super smooth and enjoyable. Additionally, the game comes with 24 levels, a 3-star scoring system for replay value, and hardware controller support for play on Android TV or just on a controller. It’s not the longest game, but it’s a complete game and we felt the developer’s earned our $4.49 by the time we got to the end.

Overall, the level design is pretty linear but never feels stale thanks to the good variety of enemies to bounce off of and the unique obstacles and some quick puzzles to solve to progress. On top of all that, Oddmar also comes across these hallucination-like Valhalla challenges that are mixed into most levels. These challenge you with a quick scrolling bonus level that add some really nice gameplay variety.

                                   Free, $5 to unlock full game at Google Play Store

Call of Duty: Mobile

Call of Duty: Mobile is the latest game on this list. We usually wait a while before adding a game, but Call of Duty: Mobile is so intensely popular with such a high rating that we added it more quickly than usual. The game has both a normal FPS online PvP mode along with a 100-player battle royale. That puts it in a rare category where it does battle royale like PUBG Mobile, but also regular FPS PvP like Critical Ops or Modern Combat. There is a surprising amount of stuff to do.

Because it's a free-to-play game, there are the usual trappings including in-app purchases for buying in-game currency, which can then be spent on battle crates filled with random rewards, and a tiered progression path with premium subscriptions available to net more rewards. Considering the console or PC versions of Call of Duty will set you back at least $60 upfront, along with all the eventual paid DLC and inevitable microtransactions for cosmetic upgrades, the mobile version ends up feels superior in terms of up-front value.

                                        Free w/IAPs at Google Play Store

The Room series (four games)

The Room is a series of four puzzle games. It was the first franchise that did the puzzle genre really well on mobile. The latest game in The Room series is just as big of a hit as its predecessors and they remain among the best Android games. The Room is a series of escape puzzle games. Each room has bunch of mysterious objects. Your goal is to solve the puzzles and get out. You progress from room to room to find even more unique objects and solve their puzzles until you win the game. The latest one, The Room: Old Sins is the latest epic puzzle game from Fireproof Games and the 4th in the award-winning 'The Room' puzzle game series. You are exploring the home of an ambitious engineer who has gone missing when you find a rather peculiar dollhouse in the attic. 

                                           The Room: Old Sins ($5 at Google Play Store)

Pokemon GO

Pokemon GO exploded onto the mobile gaming scene in July 2016 and immediately became of the best Android games ever. It’s an augmented reality game similar to Ingress where you walk around the real world, catch Pokemon, complete little side missions, battle for Gyms, and hit up Pokestops to restock on items. It beat virtually every record in the books as the world’s most popular mobile game. Thanksfully, the game gets frequent updates with new features. Some more recent features include an AR camera mode, new Pokemon, and a bunch of other neat stuff. Niantic also launched Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, a Harry Potter AR game with similar mechanics.

It's just nice to see this phenomenal game continue to grow and expand and that's why we've re-added it to our list of the best games for Android. Pokémon Go is still one of those rare games that is entirely free to play as long as you're willing to put in the physical work, with in-app purchases if you need a little boost along the way. Despite challengers from other brands trying to cash in on this unique mobile gaming genre, it feels the most authentic to its source material and continues to outpace the competition in terms of gameplay variety, scope, and popularity.

For the best Pokémon Go coverage on the internet hit up or friends over at iMore for the latest news, tips, tricks, and other great guides to help you out on your Pokémon Go journey.

                                                         Free w/IAPs at Google Play Store

If we missed any of the best Android games, tell us about them in the comments!

Animal Crossing has always been a slow burn. It’s not the kind of game you marathon for hours at a time. Instead, its joys reveal themselves over days, weeks, and months. It’s a quirk of the premise: Animal Crossing is a laid-back life simulator that takes place in real time, forcing you to wait for things to happen. This also makes it an acquired taste. Even by these standards, the latest entry in the series — New Horizons on the Nintendo Switch — starts out slowly. It has an entirely new premise: instead of being the sole human moving into a town full of animals, you start out on a deserted island and create a community from scratch. Initially, it can feel a little too empty, especially for series veterans who are more accustomed to bustling little villages. But the change is ultimately for the best. New Horizons still maintains the charm and style that have made Animal Crossing so beloved, but with a newfound sense of purpose: the satisfaction that comes from building something from nothing. It’s also the first Animal Crossing where I’ve felt truly in control.



To start, there isn’t much on your island. You get a small yellow tent, as do two other computer-controlled animal residents. There’s an airport for accessing multiplayer options, and a service tent for selling goods and crafting items. Aside from the natural elements, that’s it; initially, you can’t even access large swaths of the island that are blocked by rivers or cliffs. The goal of the game, loose as it is, is to turn that blank slate of an island into something bigger and more interesting.

You do this, well, pretty much just by living your life. You can catch bugs, go fishing, decorate your living space, collect wood and minerals, and chat away with your neighbors. As you do, you’ll earn points and cash to improve the island. At first, it can feel pretty limiting, especially if you’re not accustomed to the relaxed pace of Animal Crossing. Once you acclimate, though, it’s almost soothing. Small victories can feel huge, like the first time you craft your own fishing rod out of twigs or when you use that rod to catch a fish that earns you thousands of bells. When I paid off my first loan in order to swap out the starter tent for a small house, I honestly couldn’t wait to wake up in the morning.

YOU PROGRESS BY LIVING YOUR LIFE

Helping this along is a new progression system. At the beginning of the game, you’ll get a new smartphone — cleverly called a NookPhone — with a handful of apps. The most important is called Nook Miles, and it’s essentially a way to earn points by doing normal Animal Crossing tasks. It’ll feel familiar if you’ve ever played a mobile game before. You’ll get miles for catching a certain number of fish, breaking a certain number of fishing rods, or even just pulling a certain number of weeds. These miles accumulate and can be redeemed for various things. You can use them to pay off your initial loan (though subsequent loans have to be paid in cash) as well as unlock items and DIY recipes. This setup makes it so it always feels like you’re inching forward in the game, even when you’re just doing regular stuff. And for players who are intimidated by Animal Crossing’s wide-open nature, it gives you very specific tasks to work toward.

Taking a page from the PlayStation 4, the new controller features a dedicated Share button. Tapping the button will allow you to quickly and easily upload screenshots and videos of a game you're playing. The accessory also borrows a couple of design ideas from Microsoft's Elite controller. Notably, it features a hybrid d-pad that combines the strengths of the Elite controller's standard and faceted d-pads. Microsoft also added more tactile texture to the controller's triggers and bumpers. There's a similar "yet more subtle" pattern on the grips, as well. Lastly, the d-pad, bumpers and triggers now feature a matte finish to make them feel more consistent.


The miles system isn’t the only big change. New Horizons also introduces crafting so that you can gather natural resources to build tools and other items. First, you have to get a recipe — which is housed in a DIY app on your phone — and then gather the requisite materials. This also means that all of your tools, from fishing rods to bug-catching nets, are breakable and will need to be regularly replaced, which can be annoying, particularly early on. But there are two interesting things that come from the crafting mechanic. First, at least for me, is a sense of accomplishment. It’s cool walking around your virtual house and seeing items you virtually built and customized yourself. Second, it opens up the amount of things you have access to tremendously. You no longer have to wait for new items to show up in the store. Instead, over time, you’ll steadily form a huge library of things you can build yourself, many of which have multiple color and style options



As I said, everything still moves forward very slowly. New Horizons, like past games in the series, runs on a real-world clock, and there’s only so much you can do in one day. When a new building is constructed, you’ll have to wait a day or two before it’s actually finished. But that doesn’t mean your island will be empty for long. Here’s an example: after two solid weeks of daily play, my island is currently home to a large museum full of fossils and fish, a clothing shop, a large resident services building, a general store, three new residents each with their own home, and a tent for anyone who wants to stop by for a visit. It’s a completely different place from where I started. I even have an orchard full of fruit that I collected on other islands.

There are also a number of quality-of-life fixes, some of which you won’t see right away. You have much greater customization over your character, for instance; you start out the game by choosing your appearance, and you can continue to change your look whenever you want with a surprisingly large number of hairstyles and clothing options. Once I unlocked the clothing store in my town, I stopped paying off my mortgage and instead spent too much money on shoes and jackets.

IT’S THE FIRST GAME IN THE SERIES THAT GIVES YOU THE FREEDOM TO PLAY EXACTLY HOW YOU WANT

Similarly, you also have much more leeway for customizing your house. Much like in the spinoff Happy Home Designer, there’s a simple menu for moving furniture about, so you don’t have to drag things around the room, and there are more options for where you place things. I have one wall full of hanging plants, and what’s essentially a walk-in closet with shoes and hats on the walls. Two of my favorite additions are a new tool ring so you can quickly access your axe or net whenever you need it and a smartphone app that keeps track of every bug and fish you’ve caught. Perfect for completionists.

What this all amounts to is a greater degree of control — more control over how you look, where you live, what you do, and how you do it. While the core of New Horizons is the same as past games, it feels like the first game in the series that really gives you the freedom to play exactly how you want to. In many cases, there are multiple ways to solve a problem. If your fishing rod breaks, you could buy a replacement or make a new one; if you’re short on cash, you can go fishing or venture to a mystery island to gather rare fruit. I haven’t even unlocked the late-game option where you can customize the landscape by building pathways and knocking down cliffs. (I did just build my first ramp… but I have to wait until tomorrow morning to actually use it.)



When you factor in the open-ended nature inherent to Animal Crossing, where there are no time restrictions and there’s no punishment for not doing things like paying off your loan, you end up with arguably the most engrossing game in the series to date. It’s also easily the best-looking, maintaining the series’s adorable art style but adding in much greater detail and bigger locales. Seriously, the new museum is one of my favorite video game locations ever; it’s a massive space where you can just wander around with friends looking at butterflies and T. rex skeletons. Overall, the world just feels more alive. I love heading out on a Sunday morning to see my animal friends exercising in the town square or meeting up at night to listen to them sing gibberish.

Of course, it’s impossible to fully judge an Animal Crossing in such a short time. I’ve spent two weeks with the game, playing multiple times a day, and it feels like I’ve only scratched the surface. I wasn’t even able to test the online features in my prerelease copy of the game. Even still, the refinements that New Horizons makes to the formula are clear. It’s not a game that drastically changes how Animal Crossing works. If you found past entries boring or directionless, it’s unlikely the latest will change your mind. But if you already enjoy this kind of experience, if the idea of playing 20 minutes daily seems like an escape rather than a chore, this is the most refined iteration of that concept to date. And it’s one that promises to continue to change and group with regular events and updates.

It’s the video game equivalent of a relaxing getaway — and we could all use that kind of respite right now.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons launches on March 20th on the Nintendo Switch

Image: Sony Pictures Animation

If the world weren’t on lockdown, I’d suggest you all go out to see First Cow, which just came out last weekend. It’s the latest movie from Kelly Reichardt, it’s a really great film. It can be loosely described as a heist movie about stealing milk from a cow, but it’s also about friendship, capitalism.

One of the really neat things the movie does is spoil the ending right at the start of the film. I can’t remember seeing another movie do anything exactly like this. TV shows, like Breaking Bad, have often teased out climatic moments, but First Cow telegraphs where it’s going in a way that actually amplifies the tension. You know a certain event is coming. The questions are when and how it’s going to happen.

Since you probably aren’t going to the theaters anytime soon, I’ll just point out that some other excellent films from Reichardt are available on popular streaming platforms. Night Moves, a thriller about eco-terrorism, is on Amazon, and Meek’s Cutoff, which is about a band of settlers lost in the desert, is on Amazon and Hulu.

Check out the nine trailers from this week below:

1-SOUL

2-BEASTIE BOYS STORY

3-JUNGLE CRUISE

4-BLACK WIDOW

5-CENTRAL PARK

6-BAD TRIP

7-HOME BEFORE DARK

8-THE THIRD DAY

9-TIGER KING: MURDER, MAYHEM AND MADNESS

(Image credit: Disney Plus)

NEW YORK — The Walt Disney Co. will release “Frozen 2” on Disney Plus several months early to give families cooped up by the coronavirus a welcome distraction — and give its streaming service a boost.

Disney will now release Frozen 2 this coming Sunday, March 15 on Disney Plus in the US. In Australia, you'll be able to watch it on Tuesday March 17. Grab a free Disney Plus trial here if you haven't given the service a go yet.

Surprise! #Frozen2 is coming early to #DisneyPlus. Start streaming this Sunday. pic.twitter.com/5xXAFCGArV

— Disney+ (@disneyplus) March 14, 2020

Most upcoming new releases have been postponed due to the virus, including Disney's own lineup. “Mulan” had been set to hit theaters next week. Few March or April movies remain on the calendar. Some movie theaters have shuttered, though most are currently imposing new restrictions on audience crowding to help facilitate the social distancing recommended by health officials.

The move by Disney could presage how other media companies funnel their films to streaming services in the coming weeks as studios look for ways to capitalize on audiences stuck at home. And it could prove a pivotal moment in the evolution of streaming services in relation to theatrical release. The major studios have largely guarded the traditional three-month exclusive theatrical window.


Frozen 2 will likely be a massive draw for the streaming service: it was the third highest-grossing film of 2019 at $1.449 billion, only behind two other Disney films, Avengers: Endgame and The Lion King. Frozen 2 was released on digital home video on February 25 – so the waiting time for it to land on Disney Plus is almost exactly four months.

The vast majority of people recover from the new virus. According to the World Health Organization, people with mild illness recover in about two weeks, while those with more severe illness may take three to six weeks to recover.