Games

With the launch of the new Knull comic series from Marvel, here are five essential stories to read to get you up to speed.

Following the closure of Ubisoft’s Halifax studio last year, the company is now shutting down its Stockholm branch and implementing further layoffs across other locations. As a result, several major projects, including a remake of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, have been cancelled. Ubisoft has also announced delays for seven other games. While the full list of delayed titles hasn’t been released, IGN reports that the game previously thought to be a remake of Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag is among them.

After a successful run in theaters last October, earning $132 million and becoming one of the year’s top horror films, Black Phone 2 started streaming on Peacock on January 16th. The movie quickly became one of the platform’s most popular titles, reaching the No. 1 spot and staying there, even ahead of well-loved films like Shrek Forever After, Despicable Me, and The Hunger Games. Ethan Hawke, Mason Thames, and Madeleine McGraw return in this sequel, which takes place four years after the first movie. It follows Finney, now 17, and his sister Gwen as they grapple with past trauma and a new threat from the Grabber at a winter camp.

Many fantastic TV shows don’t get the chance to run for multiple seasons. While long-running shows often allow for great character development, there have been plenty of excellent series that ended too soon. Interestingly, some of the best shows are actually quite short. Because they have to tell their stories quickly, these series consistently deliver high quality and don’t have any weak episodes.

Despite a lot of excitement for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning, the latest Tom Cruise film didn’t perform much better than the previous installment, Dead Reckoning, and didn’t reach the top spots for the series’ box office numbers. Additionally, Paramount+ released a Star Trek movie that’s considered one of the worst in decades, and it’s likely to win a lot of Razzie awards. However, the biggest challenge for Paramount this year wasn’t a company takeover attempt or failed merger – it’s the potential departure of Taylor Sheridan, a key creative force behind many of their successful shows.

Ubisoft announced a major company restructuring today, leading to the cancellation of six games, according to VGC. Four of these canceled projects haven’t been publicly named. One was intended for mobile platforms. The sixth was the highly anticipated Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Remake, which Ubisoft canceled because they’re now focusing more on ensuring high quality in their games.

From January 12th to 18th, the documentary One Last Adventure: The Making of Stranger Things 5 ranked as the third most popular movie on Netflix globally. It garnered 8.7 million views and a total of 17.9 million hours of watch time. People We Meet on Vacation and The Rip were the only titles watched more during that week. This marked the first week in the top 10 for the documentary, which premiered on January 12th.

Leon S. Kennedy first appeared in the second Resident Evil game, which came out 28 years ago. He started as a typical police officer having a terrible first day on the job, but quickly developed into a skilled and courageous hero. Since then, Leon has become a hugely popular and influential character, fundamentally changing the landscape of action and horror games. Let’s explore how his introduction and early development in Resident Evil 2 positively impacted the entire series.

Villain transformations often start out looking impressive and intimidating, but quickly become bizarre and unsettling, making you question their mental state – and exactly what they sacrificed to gain that extra power. These new forms usually show off the villain’s arrogance, serving as a visual cue that while they’ve gained strength, they’ve also lost touch with reality.

Ubisoft is undergoing a significant overhaul to revitalize the company and regain its position as an industry leader. After a period of challenges, they’re focusing on improving the quality of their open-world games and have cancelled projects that don’t meet these new standards. This reset aims to deliver a strong turnaround and return to producing top-quality games.