Make Sure To Swallow Your Drink Before Looking At These Bugged MLB The Show 24 Faces
The newly released MLB The Show 24 has turned into a horror show after its latest patch, with multiple players sporting warped and distorted faces. From features clipping through players’ caps to eyes bugging out from strangely squished faces, the frankly hilarious glitch has added some unintentional comedy to San Diego Studio’s baseball sim.
Only certain players seem to have been subjected to the facial glitches, which seem to squish a player’s features in to result in weak chins and strange bug eyes. Multiple players have posted screenshots on X, formerly Twitter, of the warped players appearing in their games.
The glitches aren’t just present on the field, but also when a player’s likeness is blown up on the scoreboard, resulting in some hilarious imagery.
San Diego Studios tweeted to let fans know it is aware of the issue, with a fix already in the works. It seems that the glitch was introduced with this week’s Update 3, along with a number of other bugs that aren’t quite as fun as the goofed-up graphics, with players on Reddit reporting game crashes and even loss of progress since the patch landed.
MLB The Show 24 released earlier in March, and has received mixed to positive reviews, with an aggregate score of 79 on Metacritic at the time of writing. GameSpot’s review scored the game a 7 out of 10, saying: “MLB The Show 24 delights with another season of Storylines: The Negro Leagues and continued on-field excellence, but some modes are still in desperate need of an overhaul.” User reviews have been somewhat less positive, with a number of ongoing server and technical issues plaguing the game, and especially its co-op mode, since launch.
Dead Cells Studio Teams With Other Indie Devs For The Triple-I Showcase
30+ independent studios are teaming up to put on a showcase for their games. Called the Triple-I Initiative, this April presentation will reveal what studios like Mega Crit Games (Slay the Spire), Red Hook Studios (Darkest Dungeon), Heart Machine (Hyper Light Drifter), and Evil Empire (Dead Cells) are working on next, among many others.
The initiative was kicked off by Evil Empire, which first approached many of the studios at last year’s Gamescom to pitch the concept. “The goal is to have a straight-to-the-point show packed with announcements as a collective of studios, to speak directly to players, the people who have been directly supporting us since day one,” Evil Empire COO Benjamin Laulan said in a press release. “The show will run for about 45 minutes, featuring news by the most successful and creative folks out there. No hosting segments, no advertisements, no sponsorships, no extra fluff, just games.”
At GDC, I caught up with Evil Empire marketing director Bérenger Dupré and some of the folks at these other studios to talk about the Triple-I Initiative. First and foremost, with the seemingly rising number of showcases every year, I wanted to know why these studios wanted to make another one instead of preparing material for an existing virtual presentation.
“We’ve been known for the moment for working only on the live ops of Dead Cells for the past five years and–spoiler alert–we are also working on new games, and we had to announce one of these games at some point, and timing-wise, we couldn’t have the leisure to attach this announcement to a showcase because it was not matching with the dates,” Dupré said.
“It also allows us to experiment with visibility and another way of breaking through because sometimes you break through because you’re in the right spot at the right time or your game looks nothing like another game or its mechanics are so hooky that you just get a kind of a nice flashpoint.” Red Hood co-founder Chris Bourassa added. “But you can’t rely on a flashpoint every time you ship and none of us want to be one-hit wonders. So how you reach people and how you sell your game has a lot to say about how successful your game is going to be.
“And some of it’s timing,” Red Hook’s other co-founder, Tyler Sigman, added. “There’s been times in the past where I’m like, ‘Oh, we would consider being part of another showcase.’ But the timing didn’t line up. The common denominator there is you’re ultimately not in control–someone else is going to determine whether [your trailer is shown] and what I liked about this is [it] lets us just make our own [showcase]. If we make our own, no one can force us to turn it off because we are controlling the power button. So that’s good too just because [of] that level of making the opportunity yourself rather than waiting for someone to give it to you.”
In addition to these reasons, Dupré said that it feels like the games that will be featured in the Triple-I Initiative rarely fit anywhere else. “At Gamescom in August, we started meeting some friends [to discuss how] we felt that we could create [a showcase] because when you look at the showcase season, you have the big first party showcases, you have awards, and you have the more niche showcases for [specifically] wholesome games or VR, but you don’t have [a showcase] for the in-between space.”
It’s a sentiment that easily ties back to the idea of “indie” games having a very loose definition in the industry. Some think that so long as a game isn’t tied to a publisher, it’s indie. Others think having a publisher is fine so long as your team and the scope of your game is small enough, but then the definition of “small enough” varies from person to person. Thus the idea of a “triple-I” game and the Triple-I Initiative is born. These are games that aren’t large enough and don’t have the financial backing to contend with Xbox, PlayStation, and Nintendo triple-A first-party titles but they’re a bit bigger in scope and more well-known than a lot of other studios that are considered indie.
“Since using letters seems to be the trend in the industry, we figured that adding a couple of Is to indie was a fair way to describe this new format,” Dupré said. “Also, triple-I just sounds cool.”
“I’m trying to think of when [the term triple-I] first started popping up, but it often gets attributed to some of our games for that reason because it’s like, ‘Well [we’re] not triple-A and double-A is kind of a weird [because] it undersells it because it’s still indie, but how indie?'” Sigman said. “And it’s not a spectrum where there’s a good and a bad side of that. It’s more like we identify in a certain way and I think that often our games get mentioned a lot together by either players or friends and so I think the smart thing that [Evil Empire] did was realizing, ‘Wait, we already kind of work together,’ [and] I think that’s really good and it doesn’t come at the expense of anyone. We all benefit from more heightened awareness of our type of games.”
“It’s not [meant to be] a gatekeeping thing,” Mega Crit Games co-founder Casey Yano added, clarifying that even the triple-I label has nuance to it. But the hope is that fans will tune into the Triple-I Initiative knowing they won’t see trailers for huge games driven by the latest graphics. These are smaller passion projects. “Maybe [it’s a game] made by somebody [who] broke off from a big studio and wanted to do something a little bit smaller scale, or something doing something more experimental without any red tape. We’re all different. It’s not like ‘This is a triple-I, this is not triple-I.'”
Regarding what players can expect to see, all of the studios are currently keeping things close to the chest, but I was told that I can expect to be wowed by some of the announcements. “At least ours is not a small thing,” Bourassa teased. “[Evil Empire] was pretty adamant that these trailers, whether it’s a world premiere or whatever the content is, need to be impactful and noteworthy. Yes, this is an evasive answer, but basically, there’s a standard in terms of the impact.”
The Triple-I Initiative will premiere on April 10 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. You can watch it on YouTube and Twitch.
Get The Stellar PS5 Slim Spider-Man Bundle Deal Before It Expires This Weekend
The PS5 Slim Digital Edition hasn’t seen any notable discounts since arriving last year, making this an incredible offer. Along with the PS5 Slim Digital Edition console and a DualSense controller, you’re getting a digital copy of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2. Keep in mind that this version of PS5 can’t play discs, though you can add a disc drive at a later date by purchasing the $80 expansion.
The PS5 Slim Digital Edition bundle is out of stock at Amazon, so grab it at one of the other retailers below while you can.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Ending Explained
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire includes a metric ton of outlandish monster-on-monster action, which is obviously the main draw. But it’s also a movie that’s dense with story and lore about Kong and his people, and the seemingly timeless humans who used to live on Skull Island. And, on top of that, it sets up a new status quo in Warner Bros’ MonsterVerse that opens up some interesting possibilities for a franchise endgame, should they decide to go that direction from here.
Let’s talk about it.
Warning: This remainder of this article will consist of spoilers for the plot of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, including its ending.
There are three core plotlines in Godzilla x Kong: Kong and his fight against the Skar King in the Hollow Earth; the people from Monarch (Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Kaylee Hottle returning from the last movie, and new addition Dan Stevens) who are also exploring Hollow Earth and trying to figure out what Kong has gotten himself into; and Godzilla back on the surface, leveling up his powers in anticipation of the Skar King’s arrival.
Kong’s thread is the primary one that drives all the film’s action. He’s still exploring Hollow Earth in search of his people, and new pathways keep opening up–and one of these new holes allows him to finally find some other giant apes. But these are hostile, and they attack Kong, but he defeats them and escapes, with the unwitting assistance of a giant kid ape named Suka who ends up serving as his sidekick–a son of Kong, if you will.
With Suka as his guide, Kong finds the ape base and discovers the main villain, the Skar King, has enslaved a bunch of other apes for some nefarious purpose. Kong attacks, and the Skar King unleashes his biggest weapon: another Godzilla-like titan named Shimo, this one crawling on four legs and firing a beam of ice from its mouth. Kong escapes, barely, but more evil apes are in pursuit. Kong is very much overmatched.
Our human characters, meanwhile, are investigating some kind of signal that’s coming from beneath the Earth–one that young Jia, who is deaf, can’t stop seeing in her head. And so Ilene (Rebecca Hall) sets off into Hollow Earth with Trapper (Dan Stevens), Bernie (Brian Tyree Henry) and a Monarch military guy destined to be killed off quickly, to try to find out what’s going on.
It takes some time for them to learn anything, because the Monarch outpost they try to visit has been destroyed, but eventually they encounter more humans–members of the Iwi tribe from Skull Island. Jia was thought to be the last of them, but it turns out they had relocated underground in order to more closely monitor the Skar King, who had been imprisoned in a part of Hollow Earth that was completely closed off. The evil ape has made a lot of progress toward escaping, and the signal that Jia had felt was the Iwi’s distress signal, essentially.
It also turns out Jia, as the only surface-dwelling Iwi remaining, is the only one able to fulfill an important prophecy related to this situation, in which an Iwi from Skull Island would summon Mothra at an ancient temple. And Jia does just that.
That’s going to end up being a crucial contribution to the coming fight against the Skar King, but it’s not the only way the humans are able to help. Kong, after repeated fights against the bad apes, is pretty beat up and one of his arms is basically useless at this point. But Trapper has an idea–the folks at that previously mentioned destroyed outpost had in storage a mechanized arm brace for Kong that had never been used. They manage to fit it on the big guy (we’re not going to worry about how), and now he’s stronger than ever.
But he still needs more help. He needs Godzilla, who had killed another irradiated kaiju and absorbed its power, and is now even more powerful than before. So Kong heads to the surface to try to recruit him. It goes poorly at first. The two encounter each other near some of the Pyramids in Egypt, and proceed to completely wreck the ancient landmarks by fighting too close to them. Kong tries to stop the fight, but Godzilla ain’t hearing it. But that changes when Mothra shows up–when Mothra speaks, Godzilla listens. Mothra is able to get Godzilla on board, and they all head back down to Hollow Earth to face the Skar King.
A spectacular major battle ensues, but it’s just the prelude to the real thing. The Skar King escapes to the surface with Shimo during the fight, and this titanic battle continues in Rio de Janeiro. From here we get what we expect from this franchise: these giant beasts beating the crap out of each other and devastating an iconic world city in the process, with Shimo’s ice beam freezing the city’s famous beaches. (This is the second time a movie has frozen those beaches in the past decade, after Gerard Butler”s Geostorm.) It’s anybody’s game for a while, but the breaking point comes when the chain that the Skar King uses to control Shimo is broken. And Shimo responds appropriately, by sending an ice blast the Skar King’s way–the balance of the fight completely upended, Kong is able to use the Skar King’s new vulnerability to put him down.
And this leaves us with the titular new empire, and a new status quo with Kong, Godzilla, Mothra in some kind of alliance, and the humans of Earth left to continue to hope they don’t get stepped on.
Does Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire have a post-credits scene?
No, Godzilla x Kong doesn’t have any bonus scenes after the credits that might tease the direction that Warner Bros. plans on taking this franchise. It’s likely that the studio is in wait-and-see mode with this one, without much urgency to get the next one started–while these movies have been successful, they haven’t done well enough to warrant a sequel greenlight before the numbers have been crunched.
So for now, the situation after Godzilla x Kong is basically the same as it was after Godzilla (2014), King of the Monsters, and Godzilla vs. Kong, with titans running around everywhere and the humans unable to do much about it. That obviously leaves open the possibility for more, should Warner Bros. choose to make another movie or another season of the Monarch series on Apple TV. But this ending is open-ended, allowing for the possibility of doing more in this universe without broadcasting any specific intent. So we’ll have to wait and see.
The Witcher Book Deals: Save On Novel Box Sets, Graphic Novels, And More
Before it was a video game or Netflix series, The Witcher was a book series penned by Andrzej Sapkowski, and if you’ve only played the games or seen the TV show, you’re missing out on some of the most iconic fantasy novels in recent memory. Catching up will require you to flip through thousands of pages of action, but at least you can do it for cheap, as several of the original books, along with spin-off comics and manga, are currently discounted at Amazon.
New readers will want to start with The Complete Witcher Saga 5-novel box set, as it covers the vast majority of Geralt’s journey. It’s also close to its lowest-ever price, at $39.50 (down from $90). The collection includes updated cover designs and a sleeve to store the volumes when you’re not reading them. Despite the collection’s name, it’s not the full series, but you’re still getting five great books. This box set includes:
- Blood of Elves
- The Time of Contempt
- Baptism of Fire
- The Tower of Swallows
- Lady of the Lake
For something smaller, you can check out The Witcher Stories Box Set, which gets you two more books, The Last Wish and Sword of Destiny. It’s down to $20 (was $35). To round out these collections, you can grab Season of Storms, the eighth book in Geralt’s journey. Consider picking it up now even if you won’t get to it for a while, as it’s discounted to $12.49 (down from $18).
Beyond books, you’ll find a nice collection of comics and manga on sale, including the 440-page Witcher Omnibus Comic Series for $18 (down from $30) and The Witcher: Ronin for $12 (down from $20). Plenty of other great books are on sale, and you’ll even find a hilarious Witcher 3 statuette on sale that depicts Geralt relaxing in a tub with his rubber ducky. Consider picking up your own rubber duck, along with a book, to unwind like the world’s most famous witcher.
Best Witcher Book Deals
This Indie Game Has You Control A 2D And 3D Character At The Same Time
Indie game developer and publisher Crescent Moon Games and Those Dang Games recently revealed its latest game, Screenbound. What’s especially unique about this game is that it’s played in both 2D and 3D.
A video posted to X/Twitter by @ JakeSucky showcases firsthand how the game runs. Players control a person playing a Game Boy-like system while running around certain obstacles. But the catch is that whenever the player moves, their Game Boy character will also move, and on top of that, the handheld character will also have to fight monsters to progress forward.
It’s clear that the game is making fun of how some people may be glued to their devices. The developers are clearly self-aware because, on the game’s Steam page description, it reads, “Screenbound is a game about being distracted, but totally in control.”
The Steam page goes on to explain that the combat will be in the 2D world, and players will be able to collect their rewards in the 3D world. Screenbound will also have tons of hidden items scattered across the world for players to find.
It’s unclear when the game will be released, but we do know that it will support Xbox controllers.
Universal Reveals Epic Universe’s How To Train Your Dragon Land
Although Universal Orlando already has three theme parks in the resort, the fourth park, Epic Universe, has grand plans for the future including lands built around Universal’s Dark Universe, Super Nintendo World, and The Wizarding World of Harry Potter – Ministry of Magic. Today, Universal Orlando shared the first look at the fourth major land in Epic Universe: How To Train Your Dragon – Isle of Berk.
Set between the second and third movies in the How to Train Your Dragon series, Isle of Berk will be an immersive experience that allows visitors to go through Viking Training Camp and even lets fans meet and greet Hiccup and his iconic dragon, Toothless.
Universal’s announcement video included an early look at several of the attractions in Isle of Berk, including the family coaster, Hiccup’s Wing Gliders, and Dragon Racer’s Rally, which puts guests in control of how fast they’re going to spin and how long they’re going to be upside down.
Additionally, there is a water-based attraction called Fyre Drill, in which guests will ride in boats armed with water cannons to practice putting out fires. Beyond the rides, perhaps the most intriguing addition is the live-action stage show, The Untrainable Dragon, which is being adapted from a similar play that originated at Universal Beijing Resort. The Untrainable Dragon will feature the characters from the films and elaborate fire-breathing dragons on stage.
Universal Orlando hasn’t set a specific date for Epic Universe yet, but the new theme park is expected to open in 2025.
Disney Villainous Board Games Are Up To 50% Off – Star Wars, Marvel, And More
What started as a single board game that lets you take control of iconic Disney villains, Villainous now has multiple expansions and spin-offs. From Star Wars and Marvel to Toy Story and the Incredibles, a lot of high-profile bad guys from popular franchises have found their way into this board game universe. If you haven’t checked it out, now is a good time to finally pull the trigger–a bunch of Villainous games are on sale at Amazon, some of which are seeing a nice 50% discount.
The best deal is for Star Wars Villainous: Power of the Dark Side, as it’s listed for $20 (down from $40). It includes everything you need to start playing Villainous, allowing you to jump into the shoes of Darth Vader, Kylo Ren, General Grievous, Asajj Ventress, and Moff Gideon. The game also comes with five sculpted villain pieces, over 200 illustrated cards, and all the other tokens and trackers you need to effectively play the game.
For more Star Wars fun, you’ll find the Scum and Villainy set discounted to $25 (down from $30). Ravensburger bills this as an “expandalone” pack, as it works with other Star Wars Villainous games or can be played on its own with the need for other packs.
Villainous games typically support up to four players and run for less than an hour, making them a great option for family game nights.
Aside from Star Wars, you’ll find a nice variety of other Villainous games on sale that let you play as Thanos, Ultron, Doctor Octopus, Venom, Gaston, Syndrome, and several other iconic faces. You’ll find all the best Villainous deals below.
Best Villainous Deals
Nintendo Switch Joy-Con And Pro Controllers Get Rare Discounts At Walmart
First-party Nintendo Switch controllers aren’t cheap, and they don’t commonly receive meaningful discounts. The Switch Pro Controller clocks in at $70 and a pair of Joy-Con are more expensive at $80. Things are a bit better today, however, as several great Switch controllers are discounted at Walmart, including a nice $10 discount on the Switch Pro Controller and a massive $16 discount (very rare) on the Pastel Purple/Green and Pastel Pink/Yellow controllers.
Best Nintendo Switch Joy-Con and Pro Controller deals
Before going any further, it’s worth noting that these products are being sold by third-party retailers via the Walmart website. The orders are fulfilled by Walmart and all of the sellers have high ratings–one of the main sellers is rated by Walmart as a “Pro Seller,” which indicates they have a history of selling quality gear and creating an overall positive shopping experience. Since they are fulfilled by Walmart, they also come with a free 30-day return policy–which should give you peace of mind.
Nabbing a Switch Pro Controller for $60 is a pretty great deal, as it rarely drops below its standard $70 price tag. With motion controls, HD rumble, amiibo support, and a great ergonomic design, it’s ideal for pretty much every game in the Switch library. For a Switch Pro Controller alternative, be sure to check out the 8BitDo Pro 2, which is also on sale right now for $40.
If you need a new set of Joy-Con, the Pastel Purple + Pastel Green and Pastel Pink + Pastel Yellow pairings are on sale for $64 each (down from $80). Additionally, you can pick between three different neon Joy-Con models for $67 each, including Neon Purple + Neon Orange, Neon Blue + Neon Yellow, and Neon Green + Neon Pink.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Review Roundup–Here’s What The Critics Think
Legendary’s Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire arrives in theaters on March 29, and reviews for the monster brawl film have begun to appear online. We’re rounding up review excerpts below to help you get an idea for if the film is worth your time and money.
GameSpot gave the film an 8/10 in our review. Reviewer Phil Owen wrote, “Godzilla x Kong is instead just a sleek and very well made action movie with a coherent story that wraps itself up well before you’ll get the chance to be tired of it, and yet never feels like it had half its plot removed the way most Marvel movies do in recent years.”
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is directed by Adam Wingard, who had directed the previous installment Godzilla vs Kong. The film stars Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen, and Rachel House.
You can see a sampling of review scores and excerpts below and more critical consensus here at GameSpot’s sister site Metacritic.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
- Directed by: Adam Wingard
- Written by: Terry Rossio, Simon Barrett, Jeremy Slater
- Starring: Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, Dan Stevens, Kaylee Hottle, Alex Ferns, Fala Chen, Rachel House
- Release Date: March 29
GameSpot — 8/10
“Just as it was last time with Godzilla vs. Kong, director Adam Wingard has delivered a rather lore-heavy movie with a running time under two hours, which is pretty unusual in the current landscape of blockbusters that frequently last more than 150 minutes, like the recent Dune Part Two. Wingard seems to have a knack for streamlining his movies down to their essential story beats while still keeping them coherent.” — Phil Owen [Full review]
RogerEbert.com — 2.5/5
“If you love the ‘what the hell, let’s try it’ sensibility that the Legendary Pictures monster franchise has embraced thus far, you’ll still find plenty here to enjoy. But it shouldn’t have been necessary to go looking for it.” — Matt Zoller Seitz [Full review]
Variety — No Score
“The director, Adam Wingard (who made Godzilla vs. Kong), knows how to choreograph a beastie battle so that it does maximum damage in a way that appeals to your inner toy-smashing seven-year-old. In an early sequence where Godzilla ravages Rome (before curling up and going to sleep in the Colosseum), I actually winced at the image of all those gorgeous old buildings–all that history– reduced to rubble.” — Owen Gleiberman [Full review]
Chicago Sun-Times — 2/4
“Godzilla x King Kong: The New Empire is the definition of an old-fashioned (with new technology) popcorn movie and there’s certainly no harm in that, but at the end of the day, it feels like the stakes have never been more medium.” — Richard Roeper [Full review]
Washington Post — No Score
“Wingard’s not a sentimentalist, and Godzilla x Kong stumbles whenever he tries to slap phony emotions onto the film to make it more like a generic crowd-pleaser.” — Amy Nicholson [Full review]
IGN — 6/10
“Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire serves up a berserk dreamscape with plenty of payoff to please the Monsterverse faithful. Shame about the human stuff, though.” — D. Hood [Full review]
The Hollywood Reporter — No Score
“Director Adam Wingard (reuniting with Stevens after the terrific 2014 thriller The Guest) orchestrates the monster madness with impressive visual flair even if he relies on an excessive number of ‘80s-era pop song needle drops to make things seem more exciting than they actually are.” — Frank Scheck [Full review]