The all-star lineup for DC FanDome 2021 has been announced and the humongous list features cast, crew, and creators from a variety of movies, TV shows, comics, and games.
The guest list for this year's global streaming event, scheduled to air on October 16, features dozens of notable names, including big hitters such as Matt Reeves, Robert Pattinson and Zoe Kravitz, which means we're likely to hear more news and chatter around The Batman — in addition to getting to see a brand new trailer for the film.
Dwayne Johnson, Noah Centineo, Pierce Brosnan, Aldis Hodge, and Quintessa Swindell are also in attendance, so we should expect some updates on Black Adam, while the virtual stage also gears up to invite The Flash star Ezra Miller to the spotlight. Grant Gustin andCandice Patton from The CW superhero show are also listed as attendees.
While we knew that Warner Bros. Games will showcase new reveals from the highly anticipated Gotham Knights and Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, interestingly, Ed Boon, the creator of the Injustice games series, is also set to make an appearance. Epic CCO Donald Mustard is also listed, meaning we can likely expect a Fortnite announcement too.
Jason Momoa and Yahya Abdul-Mateen II are both along for the ride, so hopefully, that signals some incoming news for Aquaman 2. Similarly, Zachary Levi is part of the proceedings, so we're expecting to hear more about Shazam! Fury of the Gods. Injustice movie voice actor Anson Mount is also there, presumably for the project's first look.
From the world of DC television, the likes of Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Jordan Elsass, and Alex Garfin are in attendance from The CW's Superman & Lois, together with a roster of cast members from other popular shows such as Batwoman, Sweet Tooth, and Supergirl, which is set to get a farewell tribute as it approaches its epic conclusion after six seasons.
HBO Max will show off the Suicide Squad spinoff Peacemaker, with James Gunn making an appearance at the event. John Cena, who stars as the show's title character, reprising his role from The Suicide Squad, will also take to the stage alongside his fellow co-stars Steve Agee, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Holland, Freddie Stroma, and Chukwudi Iwuji.
The DC Comics contingent is expected to focus heavily on Wonder Woman, highlighting three new books, though there are also plans to show more of the Batman/Fortnite comic crossover, Batman: Fear State, the Black Manta miniseries, and the return of Milestone Universe, with DC publisher and chief creative officer Jim Lee also confirmed to be there.
DC FanDome found success as a virtual event in August 2020, having been conceived in the wake of the cancellation of San Diego Comic-Con that same year. Virtual panels covered many of the top films due at that time, including the Snyder Cut of Justice League and The Batman. The event was ultimately viewed by 22 million people in more than 220 countries.
The second-annual virtual DC FanDome premieres on October 16 at 10 am Pacific / 1 pm Eastern / 6pm UK (that's October 17 at 3 am AEST). Check out IGN for all the latest trailers, news, and announcements from the show.
Like a flashlight flickering to life from a freshly inserted set of Energizers, Alan Wake Remastered takes the 11-year-old survival horror shooter and presents it in its most radiant form. Yet while the details in its moody environments are now far easier to make out, its gameplay shortcomings are presented in equally stark relief. Alan Wake Remastered’s twisted brand of psychological torture by torchlight still makes for a supremely tense trip through the woods, but as a shooter it’s stuck in the past compared to more modern games – including developer Remedy’s own Control.
If you missed it the first time around, Alan Wake Remastered’s story remains a novel one in every sense of the word. When crime fiction author Wake’s wife goes missing in a small town, the only clues to her whereabouts are the loose excerpts from a book he has no memory of writing. The details described in this breadcrumb trail of manuscript pages manifest themselves into the subsequent events, making for a consistently enthralling journey down a descent into madness in which Wake is armed only with a small arsenal of guns and a battery-powered torch to keep the darkness-cloaked townsfolk at bay. It’s a pulpy, Stephen King-style thriller viewed through the dreamlike lens of David Lynch, and it’s every bit as gripping and surreal as that pairing of influences would suggest.
Flashlight Flashback
Make no mistake, this rerelease is very much a remaster as opposed to a full remake; its graphics may have been overhauled to an appreciable extent but gameplay remains unchanged. It looks pinsharp at 4K and runs at a fluid 60 frames per second on the PlayStation 5, and the slightly shoddy cutscenes from the 2010 original have been given a welcome new lick of paint. Even so, Alan Wake Remastered remains a fair way behind the big-budget visual standards that have become the norm in 2021. Perhaps to best illustrate this, after my first 10 minutes with the PS5 version I had to pause it and double check that I hadn’t downloaded the PS4 version by accident.
Still, the gloomy setting of Bright Falls has certainly never looked better, with jagged edges straightened out by anti-aliasing, textures more clearly defined right down to the woolen weave of Wake’s coat, and the neon signs in the local diner popping with a more realistically vibrant glow. Unfortunately, the character animations seemingly haven’t received similar attention in the remastering process, making their stiff movements seem as wooden as the western pines that surround the small town.
Otherwise, Alan Wake Remastered plays in the exact same way as the original did, and in some respects I admire the streamlined nature of the survival-horror shooting at its core. Ammo and batteries can certainly be scarce at times but for the most part there’s little need for any complicated inventory juggling, and there aren’t any crafting systems to fuss with or skill trees to flesh out like so many shooters released in recent years. Aside perhaps from the collectible coffee thermoses, nothing you pick up feels superfluous; every flare is precious for buying a bit of breathing room when you’re surrounded, and each hunting rifle bullet is best kept in your back pocket for when one of the more brutish Bright Falls locals attacks.
There aren’t any crafting systems to fuss with or skill trees to flesh out like so many shooters released in recent years.
Of course, the downside to such simplicity is that there’s not a great deal of depth. By the story’s midpoint you’ve had your hands on all the weapons you’re ever going to get access to, and each shadowy enemy ambush starts to feel largely indistinguishable from the next, causing Alan Wake Remastered’s second half to become increasingly mired in repetition. Remedy would later go on to, well, remedy this issue with the excellent Control in 2019, which evolved its combat over the course of its duration via a transforming gun and expanding set of superpowers, but that just makes Alan Wake’s one-note action seem even more antiquated in retrospect.
While I wouldn’t expect a huge shake up to the combat system in what is otherwise a purely superficial remaster, playing Alan Wake Remastered did make me wish for at least some light improvements to its interface. An on-screen stamina indicator for Wake’s sprint ability would have been a plus, since judging how far you can run without him fatiguing feels like total guesswork. Similarly, you’re not really given much indication of incoming attacks from offscreen. While the dodge button is extremely effective anytime you see an axe spinning towards you, I found myself routinely copping a shovel to the back of the head with no time to anticipate and react to the blow. Minor HUD changes such as these would have gone a long way towards mitigating the occasional frustration I felt this time around.
Two bonus episodes that were originally paid DLC, The Signal and The Writer, are also included with Alan Wake Remastered, and they come complete with the same level of visual polish. Having skipped over them the first time around I was delighted to discover how they expand on the transforming-words-into-objects mechanic that is only briefly used at the end of the main campaign; however, having replayed the entire story and its two epilogue episodes I still have no real idea what the meaning is behind it all.
That artistic vision may remain intentionally ambiguous, but at least it’s no longer compromised, since the much-maligned product placement from the original version is now gone. Packets of Energizer batteries have been substituted by a generic off-brand replacement, and obtrusive Verizon commercials no longer play on in-game televisions – making for possibly the first time in history that Verizon dropping out in a remote part of America can actually be considered a good thing.
Outside of the new commentary track, the one bit of truly new content in this remaster is the QR codes that are hidden throughout the environment. They’re arguably just as conspicuous as the now-absent in-game ads, but at least they serve a useful purpose for fans: scanning them with your real-world phone takes you to some intriguing new videos that I won’t spoil here.
Ubisoft has confirmed a long-held fan theory about the villain of Far Cry 2, the Jackal, and how he connects to the original Far Cry story.
“The Jackal is actually supposed to be Jack Carver from the original Far Cry,” said Clint Hocking, Far Cry 2's Creative Director, while talking to IGN for the latest Inside Stories documentary, How Far Cry's Iconic Villains Were Created.
“Jack Carver in the original Far Cry was this shifty, smuggler, gun runner kind of crook,” Hocking explained. “The idea was [the Jackal] is just him, 10 years later or something, after he's seen whatever he saw on this island [during the events of Far Cry]. Maybe it was drug induced, maybe it's post-traumatic stress disorder, or maybe it's real. But the idea is, a decade later, he has levelled up his smuggling game, and he's gotten embroiled in this conflict.”
For over a decade, fans of Far Cry have theorised that the Jackal is Jack Carver (specifically the version of Carver from Far Cry Instincts). The theory stems from two areas: the first is that the Jackal's background is similar to that of Jack Carver's. Both characters served in the U.S Navy, and both had an illegal arms trading operation. It has also been theorised that the box given to Jack Carver at the end of Far Cry Instincts is full of conflict diamonds, which are a major part of Far Cry 2's story.
The second, more conclusive evidence is that the texture files for the Jackal are all named 'jackcarver'. Files such as 'jackcarver_shoes_d.dds' and 'jackcarver_hair_d_mip0.dds' make it fairly clear that at some point in development Ubisoft referred to the Jackal as Jack Carver.
Despite this, there is no concrete evidence within the events or world of Far Cry 2 that confirm the theory. Hocking's comments on the Jackal is the first time Ubisoft has clarified the link between the two characters, finally confirming a fan theory that's been held for well over a decade. So if you've been arguing since 2008 that the Jackal is Jack Carver, well you were absolutely right and now you have the proof.
Illfonic, the developer behind Friday the 13th and Predator: Hunting Grounds, is working on a Ghostbusters game.
As pointed out by ResetEra user chairhome, Illfonic studio co-founder Raphael Saadiq casually revealed the title in a recent interview on the music podcast Questlove Supreme.
Saadiq let slip news that the company is working on a Ghostbusters tie-in after being asked how many games the studio currently has out. "Friday the 13th [is] the last one and Predator and we're working on Ghostbusters right now," Saadiq says before quickly moving on to talk about the studio's most recent project, Arcadegeddon, which is currently available in early access and out in 2022.
Saadiq didn't return to the topic of Ghostbusters for the rest of the interview, so we haven't learned anything more about the game itself, or even which movie (if any) it will be drawing on. However, Sony published the developer's previous movie tie-in game, Predator: Hunting Grounds, and also owns the Ghostbuster's franchise, so news of the studio's work on a game may not feel too far out of the realms of possibility for many fans. After all, who else is Sony gonna call?
While it's still speculation at this point, Illfonic's involvement may point to the kind of game we'll be getting. The studio's previous movie tie-in projects were both asymmetric multiplayer games, with both Predator: Hunting Grounds and Friday the 13th seeing one player control a formidable enemy who must defeat a group of other player-controlled survivors. Are we looking at a Busters vs. Ghost game, then?
In recent years, Ghostbusters has seen few attempts at video game adaptations. 2019's Ghostbusters: The Video Game Remastered was the last entry to enter into the franchise and even that was a re-release of a game made ten years previously. While the Ghostbusters brand has featured to varying degrees in add-ons for games like Fortnite and Planet Coaster, fans of the supernatural series will feel that a fully-fleshed-out tie-in is long overdue.
For more Ghostbusters news, make sure to check out the latest trailer for Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The film was recently re-scheduled for a November 19 release, following a short delay.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
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Amazon has got an incredible sale on the Apple AirPods Max headphones right now, bringing them down to just $489.99. Now I know this is still a lot of money, but it's still a great discount considering the set usually starts at $549.99.
Not only that, but Amazon has also discounted the Apple AirPods Pro, and standard AirPods, with both receiving stellar discounts coming into the holiday season. This is a limited time deal only, and we likely won't see it again until Black Friday, or even next year.
Save $60 on New Apple AirPods Max at Amazon
Apple AirPods on Sale at Amazon
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
