• Daily Deals: Save On FFXIV Game Time, Tales of Arise & More

    Are you a Final Fantasy XIV fan? Newegg has a deal for you, as you can save $5 on a 60 Day Game Time Card, stack those up a few times and you'll be set for time well into the Endwalker expansion. Tales of Arise has also released, and you can grab yourself a reduced copy down below on PC, Apple Gift Cards that come with Amazon credit and much more.

    Daily Deals for September 11th, 2021

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    This Is What Marvel’s What If…? Understands That the Previous MCU Shows Don’t

    Warning: Full spoilers follow for Marvel's What If…? through Episode 5.

    When it comes to the Marvel Cinematic Universe’s television shows, What If…? was always the wild card of the line-up. Yes, it’s the first animated MCU offering, each episode so far is relatively self-contained outside of the unifying gimmick of The Watcher’s limited involvement, and it’s a collection of multiverse stories rather than an installment of the mainline universe canon. Those are the obvious answers. But now that we’re several episodes into the first season, a more prevailing theme is becoming clear.

    It’s the first Marvel Disney+ show to actually take advantage of being a television show.

    Previously, on the MCU…

    With WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the first season of Loki all in the bag, Marvel’s production ethos for their live-action shows has crystallized: They are making six-hour movies. This isn’t even a supposition on my part; Kari Skogland, the director of Falcon and the Winter Soldier, said as such when discussing how she and Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige approached the series: “I approached [it] like a film. From the beginning, as Kevin said, we were making a six-hour film.” It is as plain a statement of creative intent as it’s possible to make, and it’s also indicative of the pitfalls that have held these shows back from being their best selves, because they are actively fighting against the medium they’re in.

    Aside from the first couple of black and white installments of WandaVision, it is remarkably difficult to distinguish the various episodes in any of these shows from one another, or to recall what specifically happens in each one. The narratives are segmented into episodes at relatively random intervals and widely differing runtimes, and this general lack of a consistent episode structure makes each one feel vague as an installment in itself. This is a recurring problem with a lot of “paced for the binge” mini-series television production in the last several years, but it’s an openly acknowledged part of the mindset for creating these shows. The episodes of MCU shows are not distinct entities because they are not designed to be. Beyond more readily apparent concerns like sluggish pacing and lack of thematic coherence, what this approach also facilitates is the shows as a whole feeling largely inconsequential.

    WandaVision begins with Wanda grieving over the death of Vision, and ends with her… grieving over the death of Vision, but with a new costume and the added loss of their hypothetical children. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier was essentially a prologue to Sam Wilson accepting the mantle of Captain America, something the audience could reasonably be expected to infer happened between films after being given the shield by Steve Rogers in Avengers: Endgame. Loki is basically now in a pocket dimension with the TVA, and although the show is responsible for Kang’s arrival, he will be properly introduced (and, we can assume, adequately explained) in his first film appearance in the upcoming Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. It is as if these series are designed on purpose to be ignored if the moviegoing audience happens to not have a Disney+ account, and while that’s sound from a business perspective, it’s unsatisfying from a viewer standpoint because the shows are so defined by their MCU connectivity to the point of diluting their own core narratives.

    [Episodes] are allowed to be more complete as narratives because they are not beholden to either building off of previous threads or setting up future ones in the larger franchise.

    A Universe of Infinite Possibilities

    In contrast, What If…? couldn’t be further from its brethren. Despite only having a handful of episodes to its name, What If…? has already cemented itself not just as the best Disney+ Marvel show so far, but the first to firmly coalesce as both a television show and an installment of the wider MCU, and it did so by not really mattering to the wider MCU. Each episode of What If…? is not only a specific entity that are (so far, anyway) only spiritually tied to each other by the show’s multiverse branding, they are also allowed to be more complete as narratives because they are not beholden to either building off of previous threads or setting up future ones in the larger franchise. That the individual episodes can even be judged against each other at all speaks to how much more distinct they are than the episodes from the live-action shows.

    While the first episode is not much more than a gender-swapped remake of Captain America: The First Avenger as a way to get the ball rolling, each subsequent one has created more of a unique identity, with the T’Challa-starring second having fresh takes on an array of well-known MCU characters, and the third and fifth embracing wholly new genres as a murder mystery and zombie apocalypse story, respectively.

    But none have succeeded so far as much as Episode 4, which takes place in a reality where the death of Christine Palmer was an inextricable part of Doctor Strange’s origin story. This “absolute point,” as the Ancient One calls it, is what Strange seeks to reverse, leading him down a dark path that ultimately results not just in his own moral dissolution, but also the destruction of his entire reality. As a take on the Doctor Strange mythology, it is a sibling to the film instead of a sequel, one that mirrors its live-action counterpart without needing to act as connective tissue to everything it established.

    This is clear in the episode’s central conceit, which pumps up Christine Palmer’s importance to a level that doesn’t match the film’s use of the character at all. In the movie Stephen and Christine were distant exes at the time of his fateful car crash, while in the episode their romance had apparently never died out. What If…? builds on Strange’s central traits: his brilliance, his determination, and his ego, but channels them towards an inevitably tragic conclusion.

    The same principle applies to Hank Pym’s chance to reconcile with his daughter being ripped away, which turns him into an Avengers serial killer in Episode 3, and Vision’s emotional dependence on Wanda causing him to betray his ideals by feeding people to her zombified form in Episode 5. As for the Doctor Strange story, it ends exactly as the story needs it to: with Strange alone, defeated, his world destroyed in exactly the manner he was told it would. It’s a brave and heartbreaking note that stands in stark opposition to Strange’s formative journey of accepting humility in his origin film.

    By being the “least important” show to the wider universe, What If…? has ironically wound up being the one with the most genuine consequence.

    Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Twitter.

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    God of War Ragnarok: Cory Barlog and Eric Williams on Changing Directors, Why Williams Was Right for the Role

    God of War 2018 shook up the franchise dramatically – as both 2018's director Cory Barlog and God of War Ragnarok's Director Eric Williams put it, that game tore the house down to its studs, only so they could build it back up again.

    That radical reimaging of what Kratos' journey could be is one Barlog directed and shepherded through to its acclaimed launch, and though he had grand plans for the series, as he told us in our God of War spoilercast, he isn't directing Ragnarok. Williams, a veteran of the franchise who has been involved with it in some form or another since 2004 across many of its entries, is now sitting in the director's chair. In speaking with both Barlog and Williams following Ragnarok's first gameplay reveal, though, it's clear not only how integral Williams has been to the entirety of this new era of God of War, and how much he understands the responsibility of leading the charge.

    "I've been with the studio a long time, this franchise means everything to me. I've worked on a lot of different games at a lot of different studios, and there were only a few that really felt like they could be home once I was done consulting and wandering around the landscape of video games," Williams told IGN. "It just happened to line up that 2018 was very successful. [Before that], we had a little bit of a rough spot with the studio and this was like, 'We're going to come back, rebuild it strong again, and have a good foundation for the future.

    "I've worked with every director on the franchise in a different capacity. I worked with Cory as an animation lead. I worked with David Jaffe as a director. I worked with Todd Papy as a level designer. I worked with Stig as an artist. And with Ru [Weerasuriya] and Dana [Jan] at Ready at Dawn in different capacities. Learning from each one of them, to me it's just doing right by everyone that's come before me and taking the franchise in the right direction. You don't want to be that director that sends it off the rails. A lot of big franchises this can happen with, and so I just want to pay respect to what we've done in the past and still try to keep it fresh for the future at the same time."

    For Barlog, the transition to Williams as director has its roots in how closely the two worked together when God of War 2018 was taking shape. In fact, Barlog credits Williams with really pushing him and the team to go as far as they did with the foundational changes and updates to the game.

    "When Cory and I sat down and first talked about [2018], he was like, 'Well, we're going to tear the house down to the studs.' I was like, 'What does that really mean?' We went back and forth on whether some things were just sacred.
    And I was like, 'Well, if we're going to do it, we have to do all of it.' We got to those places where it was, no blades, no jump, new camera, companion, all that," Williams said.

    "When Cory and I sat down and first talked about [2018], he was like, 'Well, we're going to tear the house down to the studs'… And I was like, 'Well, if we're going to do it, we have to do all of it.'"

    "I remember that point when we were talking about ripping everything down to the studs," Barlog said, offering his take on that time. "Everything I've ever worked on with Eric, Eric is the sounding board and also the boundary limit testing, where I didn't want to say to him, 'I want to take all of it out and then I want to re-examine it and choose the things that work and figure out how to build them.' I was like, 'Oh, we'll keep some stuff,' just to see how his reaction was. And his reaction was 'Well that's dumb. You should absolutely just take it all out.'"

    Barlog and Williams' camaraderie comes through as they both reminisce about this moment, Barlog recalling how much trust they had in one another by how frank and honest they could be.

    "Either we're really bad for each other or in this instance, we are really good for each other in the sense that we push each other beyond our comfort level," Barlog said.

    A Directorial Transition

    That push resulted in IGN's Game of the Year winner of 2018, Santa Monica Studio's new God of War. At the time, Barlog spoke at the time of thoughts surrounding the story specifically told in that game, and so I was curious about how he and Williams addressed letting the latter take the reins, and what, if any of Barlog's original intent, was kept in the plans for the sequel now that Barlog was no longer directing.

    "There was a lot of discussion in the beginning. A lot of me wanting to understand where his head was at, what was interesting to him," Barlog said. "There are obviously certain things where I'm like, 'Okay, I really want these things. They're laid out in the chronology and the timeline and I have some plans and then some hopes and desires.'"

    But Barlog made it clear it wasn't as if he had demands for how Williams' vision needed to play out. He genuinely wanted Williams' take on things, and simply asked him to respect the storytelling that had come before, which of course Barlog had full confidence in him to do.

    "It was much more of, 'What are the things that are interesting to you? Where is the true north of where you want to go? And then in doing so, if you choose to not want to do any of these things [we created], totally awesome. Just don't destroy what those things are. Either ignore them, move around them, but keep them somewhat in place so that we can build this larger latticework of what everything is.'"

    And for Barlog, once he understood where Williams wanted to take things, and how it was built from a similar shared interest in exploring the emotional, relatable core of this story, he felt confident in what the future held.

    "[When Eric landed on] 'This is what you're going to feel, and this is the conflict that exists between these two characters, but the details and the specifics of all of that are not known.' In my mind, [those specifics] didn't really matter because they're all driven by the engine of that idea. And [his take] was so solid that I was like, 'All right. Yeah, we're good. I have nothing left to teach you Padawan.' So then I just sort of took a nap for about two years."

    Which would certainly explain why Barlog had never heard of it all this time.

    Barlog and Williams both said that, when it came to specifics, there were only three core things Barlog asked Williams for – and no, of course they didn't spoil what those things were. Williams thought those aspects lined up with his vision as well, though he was open and frank about how, following that discussion, the path forward wasn't always an easy one, but the two trusted each other's creative process thanks to their history together.

    "There were tough times, I'll be straight up honest, where he was like, 'Hey, I think you're messing this part up. Look at it again.' And I'd be like, 'Okay, f**k you.' And I'd walk out of the office and then come back like 10 minutes later and be like, 'God damn it. You're right. Let me go look at that,'" Williams said. 'Then other times he'd be like, 'Hey, I thought about that thing again. Maybe don't put as much stock into that as I was saying.'

    "I just want to pay respect to what we've done in the past and still try to keep it fresh for the future at the same time."

    "That's the good thing about the creative process and having somebody you can bounce off and be very fast with. We can be very off the cuff. Back in the old days, we'd probably argue to the point where people were like, 'Are they going to kill each other?' And then we go to lunch, literally five minutes later, we'd go to lunch together."

    Back in those old days, the two, amusingly, mentioned they had an outlet as well – playing competitive fighting games like Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with one another.

    Finding Williams' Truth in God of War

    Williams further elaborated on how, as he was trying to discover his in and what interested him most about taking on this sequel, he held onto a piece of advice Barlog gave him.

    "One of [Cory's] best pieces of advice early on about this was, 'You've got to find your way in. If you can't, then we have to have a different discussion,'" Williams said. "I was already a little, 'Oh shit, this is scaring me a little bit.' But it's when you're uncomfortable, that's when you can do your best stuff because you're ready to grow. Finding the way in was tough. Once I jettisoned what I thought people wanted it to be, it was like, 'Okay, well what do I think is right for it?'"

    What was right for Williams was an exploration of trust in relationships, particularly centered around Kratos and Atreus, but extending out into the wider cast, including characters like Freya, Thor, and more.

    "There's something that happens in boxing a lot. You'll have this very, very skilled young boxer and his father is his trainer, his coach, his manager, his everything. And it gets to a point where the kid is so good that it's time to go pro, right? That's where the promoters and all this stuff starts to come in and wants to pull him this way, and the dad's like, 'Stay with me. We'll do this right, you'll be champ forever. You go over there, they're going to send you to the wolves, you're going to get knocked out,'" Williams explained.

    "And Kratos has this mindset. It's like, 'There'll be a time for this, but now is not the time. We don't need to go pick a fight. Let's just grow and be together and have this time.' But the kid, being young, wants to go, right? That young boxer wants to get out there, wants his title shot."

    So what Williams is after with this new chapter in their story, is understanding, exploring, and giving validation to both those perspectives, and hopefully offering players something to connect with in turn.

    "That's the good thing about the creative process and having somebody you can bounce off and be very fast with."

    "Atreus' got two names. He's already split by default, right? And I think those are really interesting things as you start to grow because, I'm sure as you remember, you get to a certain age in high school and it's like, 'Do I want to be this person? Or do I want to? Do I want to try on this personality this year?' You don't know who you are yet," Williams explained.

    "Somebody that's already grown, they can sympathize with that, but they're also like, 'Oh man, you're going to make a lot of bad mistakes that I could tell you about. But me telling you is just going to make you make them more, I got to just let you do it. But I also don't want to watch that happen.' So that's kind of what Kratos is going through."

    "It's so beautiful. The truth in each of their perspectives, that sense of if the kid had just listened to his dad, he's going to have that career. But there's that little paranoia inside the kid that, 'Is he holding me back because he doesn't want to let me go?' And while the father can always have that well-meaning, there's never a way for him to fully know," Barlog elaborated. "Each one of them has a pretty valid point…there is no clear-cut right answer ever."

    Wanting to explore such emotionally complex ground in any medium, let alone an interactive one, is never easy, and Williams wasn't coy about how difficult it could sometimes be to find the right balance of things, and wanted to do right by the work Barlog and the wider team, including Williams, had done previously.

    "I feel like if we do the job that I hope that we do, it'll only enhance the previous game. And the previous game, when you go deeper, will enhance this game, when you start to see little connections made," Williams said. "I know some people always want it to be a completely brand new game. That is a difficult task to undertake. This one is an evolution of what we've made, something that sits beside it."

    And players will have a chance to see for themselves just how God of War Ragnarok complements its predecessor when the sequel hits PS4 and PS5 in 2022.

    Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior Features Editor, PlayStation Lead, and host of Podcast Beyond! He's the proud dog father of a BOY named Loki. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

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    People Don’t Want to Hear About Grand Theft Auto 5 Anymore

    Rockstar Games was one of the developers that presented a game during PlayStation’s much-anticipated showcase this week. But instead of a new game, Rockstar’s announcement was for Grand Theft Auto 5 and Grand Theft Auto Online coming to PlayStation 5 in 2022.

    After nearly a decade of continued success and popularity, GTA’s fans are ready to move on and are letting Rockstar know it.

    With a shelf life that will eventually extend across three console generations and millions of sales under its belt, folks already know about GTA 5 and still play GTA Online in droves. But since being first released on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 consoles back in 2013, fans just don’t want to hear about GTA 5 anymore.

    As of this writing, the latest GTA 5 and GTA Online Remastered trailer from the PlayStation Showcase has 32,000 dislikes compared to just 15,000 likes. A similar dislike-to-like ratio appears on the same trailer across different channels including Rockstar’s own official YouTube.

    “Welcome back to Los Santos?” one commenter writes in the YouTube trailer on the official PlayStation channel. “No thanks. Been stuck there since 2013.”

    The trailers advertising the re-release of an already massively successful game might sting less if the trailer didn’t highlight things like “Seamless character switching,” which is a feature of Grand Theft Auto 5 and not necessarily something new that’s only possible on the PlayStation 5.

    Fans have also called out how the trailer highlights the improved graphics and enhanced gameplay. Without specific details, many say the visuals and gameplay look largely unchanged from existing versions of the game.

    And though fans have been happy to celebrate GTA 5’s success, in the past year or so, the community has shifted focus towards a possible sequel, Grand Theft Auto 6. One fan even went so far as to crash a German game show to ask Rockstar on live TV where GTA 6 might be.

    Unfortunately, Rockstar hasn't said much at all about a potential Grand Theft Auto 6. Rumors have suggested a sequel will not arrive until 2024 at the earliest, and Rockstar itself has undergone some changes after Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser left the company earlier this year.

    With the hype cycle in full swing for the next GTA game, fans are now more than happy to take shots at GTA 5. After all, with 150 million units sold as of 2021, they’re punching way up.

    Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

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    Gene Roddenberry’s Son Says Tarantino’s R-Rated Vision For Star Trek “Doesn’t Work” For Him

    One of Star Trek's stranger subplots over the past several years has been Quentin Tarantino's evident desire to direct an R-rated Star Trek. Styling it as "Pulp Fiction in space," the director said he wanted to feature both gangster elements and time traveling.

    Tarantino has since said it's unlikely that he will be able to work on a Star Trek movie, and at least one major fan is apt to be breathing a sigh of relief: Rod Roddenberry, son of series creator Gene Roddenberry.

    The CEO of Roddenberry Entertainment, Rod Roddenberry is something of a traditionalist who over the years has become heavily involved in Star Trek's culture, from the memorabilia to the podcasts.

    Roddenberry evidently wasn't a fan of Tarantino's approach to Star Trek. "I'm pretty myopic with the way I see Star Trek," he told Forbes in a new interview.

    Roddenberry said that he prefers the optimism of Star Trek, saying that a Star Trek story solely built around action "is not Star Trek." Rather, Star Trek is about hope and optimism, which is one of its key differences with Star Wars, he said.

    "I do not think you could say we're going to do a Reservoir Dogs Star Trek. I'll be honest, that doesn't work for me, but he is a fan, and I think as a fan, he probably understands to some degree that Star Trek has to have some of this messaging," Roddenberry said. "I would be curious, and I would try to have an open mind, but I'm not sure what it would be. I am glad that people are willing to explore that at least."

    While Tarantino's project appears to be dead, other Star Trek shows and movies are warping on ahead, with Picard Season 2 slated for a February 2022 release date Discovery Season 4 out in November 2021. Other series include the well-received Lower Decks; Star Trek: Prodigy, which is oriented toward younger audiences, and Strange New Worlds, which feature the adventures of Christopher Pike aboard the Enterprise.

    For more Star Trek, check out our list of the Top 10 Classic Star Trek episodes as well as our interview with Gates McFadden, who played Dr. Crusher in Star Trek: The Next Generation.

    Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN

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