South Park: "The Pandemic Special" Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Warning: this review contains full spoilers for South Park: "The Pandemic Special"! [poilib element="accentDivider"] Normally Comedy Central would be kicking off a new season of South Park right about now. But whether because of the logistics of producing new episodes during a pandemic or just 2020 being the year that broke satire, there's no new season on the horizon. But there is "The Pandemic Special" to tide us over until things get back to normal. This standalone installment makes history as both the first South Park special and the first hourlong episode of the series. Unfortunately, it winds up feeling less like a classic South Park adventure than a weird coda to Season 23 no one asked for. Again, it's tough to conjure enough scenarios stranger than the reality of life in 2020, so it was always going to be an uphill battle for Trey Parker, Matt Stone and their team to find a new angle on current events. Their solution is basically to bet it all on Randy Marsh. Though once the show's most dependably hilarious character, Randy has pretty well worn out his welcome in the last couple years thanks to the played-out Tegridy Farms subplot. Sadly, Randy doesn't seem any closer to giving up the marijuana business. The people of South Park need their Pandemic Special, and he's the only one that can deliver. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/04/06/the-25-best-adult-cartoon-tv-series"] On paper, the idea of Randy being the secret culprit behind COVID-19 sounds like a great premise. And there are certainly some memorable moments along the way. It's fun seeing this episode tie back to Season 23's China storyline and revealing Randy's debauched antics with Mickey Mouse. You have to love the constant digs at people who refuse to wear their masks/chin diapers properly. And Randy's attempt at "engineering" a vaccine is certainly classic Randy Marsh. But those moments notwithstanding, this whole storyline is a meandering mess. There's too much self-aware dialogue, too many random plot twists (like the secondary mustache pandemic) and not much in the way of payoff in the end. "The Pandemic Special" actually succeeds more when it pivots to the periphery of the coronavirus storyline to tackle other timely issues like police reform and the psychological toll social distancing is taking on children. Those two ideas dovetail nicely in a bleakly hilarious subplot about South Park's defunded police department being contracted out as teachers. Here the special shows a much sharper set of fangs. South Park has rarely been more timely or relevant in the last few years than when it tackles gun violence, and this episode is no exception. This oddball premise winds up serving as a perfect examination of how poorly trained, over-armed police officers only make bad situations worse. It's that perfect double-edged sword of hilarious satire that hits all too close to home. It should also be said that "The Pandemic Special" makes excellent use of President Garrison. Garrison has pretty much receded into the background of the series lately, which is just as well. But this episode proves that he can still click when used properly and sparingly. Garrison only pops up for a brief interlude in the middle and a surprise return at the very end, and both scenes add an extra touch of darkness to an already pretty bleak installment of the series. Plus, the Mr. Slave callback is a standout in an episode full of references to older seasons. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=south-park-topical-episodes&captions=true"] Despite having more than double the runtime of a normal episode, "The Pandemic Special" winds up making the same mistake as too many recent episodes - it's less than the sum of its parts. The plot is messy and never quite builds to a satisfying finale. President Garrison's abrupt return helps smooth over some of the rough edges and end things on an appropriately dark note. But that doesn't change the fact that "The Pandemic Special" is a haphazard mashup of 2020 topics and really needed some fine-tuning and streamlining. If anything, it's a shame we aren't getting a more traditional season anytime soon. Spread out over the course of several episodes, these individual pieces might have had more room to breathe and grow.

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Gigabyte RTX 3080 Eagle OC 10G Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out The march of third-party RTX 3080s continues. Each new graphics card brings with it new options and it can be hard to figure out which card is right for you. I’ve been going hands on with different third-party cards to find out exactly what sets them apart. Today, I’m looking at the Gigabyte RTX 3080 Eagle OC 10G. It’s factory overclocked and comes equipped with the company’s new Windforce 3X cooling system. Coming in at the same $699 price as the Founders Edition, should this be the RTX 3080 that finds its way onto your wishlist? [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=gigabyte-rtx-3080-eagle-oc-10g&captions=true"]

Design and Features

The Eagle sets itself apart right from the get-go. It’s near in size to the RTX 3080 Founders Edition at 12.5 inches long and 5 inches wide, but it’s unassuming compared to most other third-party cards I’ve seen. I’m not a huge fan of its boxy design, preferring a bit more flash for such a pricey component, but if you like to keep things simple, this is a good option that won’t distract you mid-match. There’s a touch of customizable RGB above the center fan, but it’s subdued enough that you may not even notice it without a vertical mount. Like every RTX 3080, the Eagle is a build-upon of Nvidia’s reference design (you can read my thoughts on the Nvidia RTX 3080 Founders Edition here). It features the same improved RTX system and doubled CUDA core count (8704 total) and 10GB of GDDR6X memory, clocked to 19GHz. Running on a 320-bit bus, that brings the total bandwidth up to an incredible 760 GB/s. Compared to the reference spec, it features a 45MHz overclock, bringing the out-of-box boost speed to 1755MHz. Don’t let that fool you, though: with Nvidia’s GPU Boost technology, the Eagle routinely clocks itself up to just over 1900MHz without any tweaks whatsoever, offering extra performance over the default clock might indicate. It’s also PCI-E 4.0 compatible, so you can easily pair it with either Ryzen or Intel builds. The card comes bearing Gigabyte’s new Windforce 3X cooling system. Like many current RTX 3080 models, it features three fans over a large heatsink. Gigabyte’s solution uses two larger 90mm fans in the center and rear of the card and a smaller 80mm fan near the mount, each lined with ridges to guide airflow smoothly down onto the heatsink. The center fan spins in the opposite direction to decrease turbulence and better dissipate heat. The sink offers an impressive seven heat pipes and a large copper surface that makes direct contact with the GPU and video memory to draw heat away. Like the Founders Edition, Gigabyte isn’t trapping heat with a solid backplate and instead uses a screened back where it overhangs the PCB for easy passthrough. In practice, this system works well. Throughout my testing, I recorded a peak temperature of 69C, which is two degrees lower than the RTX 3080 Founders Edition. The default fan curve is more aggressive than others I’ve encountered so far (approximately 1:1 between 60-70C), so I wasn’t able to lower it further without adding a significant amount of noise. At stock speeds, the fan is also rather quiet, blending nicely with the fans in my system like the RTX 3080 Founders Edition. Gigabyte also claims to use high quality components to better support overclocking. While that level of component analysis is outside of our testing here at IGN, it’s clear that the card offers decent thermal headroom for overclocking, but also lacks advanced features like the third 8-pin power adapter found on the MSI RTX 3080 Gaming X Trio. With the controversy surrounding instability with many launch RTX 3080s, I am happy to report that the sample I tested was stable throughout testing. I experienced a single crash in Metro Exodus; however, I believe this was related to a resolution scaling preset I forgot to disable within the Nvidia Control Panel. Once that setting was reset, the card ran smoothly at the expected level of performance for upwards of 50 benchmark passes across eleven additional games. With the breakdown out of the way, let’s get to how it performed.

Performance

Test system: Z390 Asus ROG Maximus XI Extreme Motherboard, Intel Core i9-9900K CPU (stock), Corsair H115i PRO RGB 280mm AIO CPU Cooler, 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4-3200, 1TB Samsung EVO Plus NVMe SSD, Corsair HX1200 1200-watt power supply.

To test the Gigabyte RTX 3080 Eagle OC 10G, I ran it through our test suite, which includes a selection of synthetic and in-game benchmarks. All tests were performed before overclocks at stock speeds. Here’s how it performed. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=gigabyte-rtx-3080-eagle-oc-10g-benchmarks&captions=true"] As I’ve explored in other reviews, here’s how the Eagle OC 10G compares to last generations RTX 2080 Super and the RTX 3080 Founders Edition. Like any RTX 3080, the Gigabyte Eagle OC offers a massive leap in performance over the RTX 2080 Super. Compared to the RTX 3080 Founders Edition, the results are much more narrow, but the Eagle maintains a slight edge. Taken as a whole, however, the results between each RTX 3080 have been very similar. This is a direct result of Nvidia’s GPU Boost which automatically overclocks each card to its thermal and power thresholds. Because of this, the competition between models is dulled somewhat, with much of the differentiating factors coming down to thermals, acoustics, and overclocking potential. In this way, the Eagle is a competitive card but does oscillate back and forth between overperforming and underperforming the RTX 3080 Founders Edition. Bear in mind that the FE is itself an overclocked card and not a true reference model, but this does indicate that the performance is largely similar. Similarly, the RTX 3080 Eagle goes back and forth with the other RTX 3080s I’ve tested. If you’re willing to overclock, it’s likely the gaps I observed could be closed further if not eradicated altogether at the expense of some power draw.

Purchasing Guide

The Gigabyte RTX 3080 Eagle OC 10G has an MSRP of $699, the same price as the Founders Edition.  

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The Walking Dead: Onslaught Review

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Stepping into the shoes of fan favorite Walking Dead characters like Daryl Dixon, Rick Grimes, Michonne Hawthorne, and Carol Peletier through the magic of VR certainly has its moments. The Walking Dead: Onslaught doesn’t offer nearly as nuanced an experience as its spinoff counterpart Saints & Sinners from earlier this year, but by focusing much more on the action and channeling popular elements of AMC’s TV series, it aims to scratch a different itch altogether. Weirdly, though, a lot of its mechanics don’t feel built for VR, and it never does much to contribute to Walking Dead lore. So it’s just fine if you’re here for a good old-fashioned zombie-themed arcade shooter with a lot of guts and only a few brains.

The developers at Survios don’t waste any time getting the action going. From the very first moment, Onslaught plops you into a rescue mission, hands you a hefty gun, and shows you a nice, big, shambling herd of walkers to shoot at. That’s what Onslaught is all about, and aside from some item collection, it never really moves beyond it. This is disappointing, because the premise is something I’ve wanted to experience for quite a long time as a lapsed The Walking Dead TV series fan, and this scaled-down implementation really does feel like more of a generic zombie game with a little extra walker skin stretched over it. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-walking-dead-onslaught-screenshots&captions=true"]

Onslaught is split into two major modes: a short five-hour story campaign starring Norman Reedus as Daryl Dixon, and an infinitely replayable Supply Run mode where you grab as much loot as you can while outrunning an impenetrable wall of walkers. In both modes, you spend a large portion of time running up to items and grabbing them, which racks up a score that gradually unlocks new survivors and introduces new side quests, which really only boil down to rote fetch quests. They’re linked together in that progression through the main story is gated by how many survivors you’ve recruited overall, so Supply Run mode is clearly there to serve as a loot treadmill that buffers out the length of the campaign. It does double as a fun way to test out your newest and best weapons, though, so it’s generally the acceptable kind of padding.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=The%20simple%20action%20of%20pushing%20through%20an%20entire%20swarm%20of%20them%20got%20my%20heart%20pumping%20at%20the%20best%20moments."]Of course, the Supply Run mode can be great fun if you just want to run around and slice through a bunch of shambling undead. The key is that Survios has made walkers genuinely fun to kill. You can grab them by the neck and go with the ol’ one-two face stab, or you can shoot them until their limbs fall off. You can also lop off their individual limbs with a katana or a fire axe. Either way, there’s usually a lot of them around you at once, and the simple action of pushing through an entire swarm of them got my heart pumping at the best moments. That said, this is no survival game, and because of that it never really builds up any meaningful tension or dread. While Saints & Sinners makes you worry about your weapons breaking down or ammo running out at the worst possible time, scarcity isn’t a problem in Onslaught. There’s no backpack or physics-based objects to finagle with either, which ironically takes a lot away from the clumsiness-fueled tension that made surviving Saints & Sinners such a joy in VR. In fact, I never came remotely close to getting killed, so I have no idea what happens when you die. The most dangerous position I found myself in was when I stood across a room full of zombies from an important door, and even then I just brainlessly stabbed my way through and went on with my business. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=a143b9a1-4bf4-4525-91a3-9d9894eb2a30"]

In its favor, Onslaught has a nice variety of comfort and movement options that each feel well-paced for VR play. You can walk around like you would in other VR games such as Asgard’s Wrath and Saints & Sinners, or you can go with teleportation or even an arm-swinger mode. There is an offering of convenience here that goes above and beyond, and it’s refreshing to see. The arm-swinger mode, which literally makes you move when you swing your arms, is just as fun and appropriately-placed here as it is in arena games like GORN or Hot Dogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=It%E2%80%99s%20entirely%20possible%20to%20clear%20a%20room%20of%20walkers%20by%20hastily%20stabbing%20your%20way%20through%20it."]What’s less fun is the way in which Onslaught attempts to offset its lack of challenge by making your guns feel underpowered. It’s to the point where you can unload several bullets into a walker’s head, only to have them get back up again (if you’re on higher difficulty levels). That’s pretty annoying and doesn’t feel true to the way walkers work on the show. Worse still, the reload process feels archaic and janky: instead of the traditional and satisfying interactivity of manually inserting a magazine and pulling back the slide, you just push a button and watch an animation in which your character does it for you at their own glacial pace. It looks okay, but it really slows down the natural pace of ranged combat we see in most VR shooters. Luckily, the gun “feel” is pretty good; aiming and firing feels right, and each firearm—including the shotgun—packs the punch you’d expect from its real-life equivalent. Weapons are quickly selected and switched out in a radial menu that even slows the action down to a halt while you choose. Partially because of that, melee weapons end up being some of the most powerful and useful in Onslaught. Between reloads, you can rapidly whip out your trusty knife and the toughest walkers go down with a single well-placed thrust to the nasal cavity. Since weapons don’t break and there’s no stamina system, it’s entirely possible to clear a room of walkers by hastily stabbing your way through it. This does feel great for a little while, but it grows repetitive and tiring by the end. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-walking-dead-best-daryl-and-carol-moments&captions=true"]

Collecting items is fundamental to progressing through Onslaught’s campaign, but it doesn’t feel good to do. To pick up an item, you simply point and tap the trigger button to make it disappear into an invisible inventory slot. That’s something that’s expected in a traditional game but really hurts the immersion in VR. It makes Onslaught’s world feel static by comparison to what we’ve come to expect after experiencing games like Saints & Sinners and Half-Life: Alyx. Adding to this disappointment is the fact that the world is flavorless. There are no physics objects or clear inventory management system here, and much of the level design itself feels clunky. Obstacles and corridors are often placed in such a way that it’s unclear how to move through them, and I quickly noticed how many of the same decorations and buildings are reused in each level.

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Alexandria%20is%20modeled%20exactly%20as%20it%20appears%20on%20TV%2C%20right%20down%20to%20the%20row%20of%20townhouses%20and%20that%20one%20solar%20panel."]To its credit, it’s great that the items you collect have some interesting uses. You can spend resources on upgrades for Alexandria, which serves as the primary hub town. It’s modeled exactly as it appears on TV, with some good attention to detail, right down to the row of townhouses and that one solar panel. The upgrades that you buy there in the form of structures like the Town Hall and the Forge can generously improve crucial stats like your max health and how much ammo you find, making them well worth the cost. And it’s a nice touch to see the buildings change as you improve them. On top of that, you can invest in upgrading your weapons and making them even more satisfyingly deadly. All of this looks and sounds just fine for a VR game in 2020, but the character performances and writing are mostly lacklustre and stale. Without ruining anything, Onslaught doesn’t seem to have that much to say or add to the The Walking Dead TV universe, and there are plenty of times where the delivery of its inconsequential story feels uninspired. The best writing easily goes to Eugene, played by the show’s Josh McDermitt. His awkward one-liners are as consistently well-delivered as fans will expect from him.

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Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro Gaming Keyboard Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out The Razer BlackWidow has been one of the most iconic gaming keyboards of the last decade. This month, Razer revealed its latest version, the BlackWidow V3 Pro, that officially brings HyperSpeed Wireless to the classic keyboard, as well as a suite of other improvements that aim to make it the best yet. Retailing for $229, should this arachnid crawl its way onto your Wish List? [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=razer-blackwidow-v3-pro-review&captions=true"]

Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro – Design and Features

The Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro is a major upgrade from last year’s release and redefines the quality of the BlackWidow line. Though it has been popular, the series has been challenged by increasing competition in recent years, even from within Razer’s own line-up. Its Huntsman Elite and Huntsman Tournament Edition optical gaming keyboards, for example, may have come to acclaim from its excellent switches, but also its aluminum top plate, wrist rest, media controls, and, at least since the Tournament Edition, PBT keycaps. With the BlackWidow V3 Pro, many of those features have trickled down and the entire keyboard is better for it. Instead of being entirely plastic, it now has a rigid aluminum top plate. It’s a change you can feel both when you first pick it up and with every keystroke since it makes the board feel more dense and less hollow. In fact, the top shell is entirely absent, exposing the switch housings under the keycaps. It’s cool when viewed from the side, but from above, the keycaps do a good job of isolating the light to just the legends – at least on medium brightness. On high brightness, there is definitely some glow around each key, but it’s far from the wash of light on boards like the Steelseries Apex Pro. The keycaps have also been upgraded. They’re made of thick ABS plastic and have doubleshot backlit legends. This means that the legends are made of an entire second piece of plastic and will never chip or fade. The legends are also thin and consistent, and the plastic around them is slightly textured to avoid shining. Keyboard enthusiasts have known for ages how much difference keycaps can make in your typing experience, and this is as good as it comes without jumping to more expensive PBT. Underneath those caps are Razer’s patented Green (clicky) or Yellow (linear) switches. I tested the green version and found them to be both louder and more tactical than Cherry MX Blues. I’m not usually a fan of clicky switches but these definitely have a satisfying typewriter-esque clack about them. The board will also be available in Razer’s linear Yellow switches, which Razer says are even more quiet this time around. Both versions are rated for 70 million keystrokes, which is impressively high compared to Cherry’s 50 million click lifespan. The V3 Pro also features dedicated media controls complete with Razer’s multi-function dial. Above the number pad are tall buttons for play, pause, and skipping tracks, as well as a nice knurled volume wheel that hangs just over the edge of the keyboard for easy access. This whole section appears lifted directly from the Huntsman Elite, including the sleek backlighting on each of these controls. Like that keyboard, the volume dial can also be programmed to control different functions in games, like swapping weapons or triggering skills. I also really like that Razer included a wrist rest this time around. It’s a plush leatherette that feels comfortable to use and is angled to exactly match the bottom lip of the keyboard, but isn't magnetic, which is a bummer. Even in my relatively cool office at work, I noticed my wrists sweat after a while, so it may not be practical in warmer climates, but enhanced the experience nonetheless. The defining feature here is clearly the wireless functionality. Razer has been building its stable of HyperSpeed Wireless peripherals for quite a while now, so it was only a matter of time before that tech made its way to the BlackWidow line-up. Like the Razer Viper Mini, it connects to the PC with a small USB dongle and offers responsiveness that is indistinguishable from the best wireless peripherals I’ve tried. Over HyperSpeed, it’s able to offer full 1000Hz polling, right up there with the Razer Huntsman Elite and Corsair K95 Platinum XT. If you’re playing less intense games or need to type out a quick email on your tablet, it also supports Bluetooth pairing with up to three devices and, of course, wired connectivity. Battery life is great with the lights off and only decent if you like to turn up the RGB. With no backlighting at all, Razer claims 192 hours of actual use time. If you turn the brightness all the way up and just let it cycle colors, that drops to only 13 hours, which is less than two days of use for me. RGB lighting is always a big drain on keyboard batteries, but it still left me careful to plug in every night, which gave me flashbacks to the early days of wireless peripherals.

Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro – Software

Like other programmable Razer products, nearly all of the customization is done through Synapse, the company's proprietary software engine. Synapse has come a long way over the years and allows you to easily program in any array of macros, Windows shortcuts, mouse functions, and more just by selecting your key and picking from a drop-down menu. It’s very intuitive, and thanks to HyperShift, every key can also be programmed with a secondary function. As an MMORPG player, that allowed me to turn my entire numpad into a big macro pad, which is great for quickly accessing skill rotations. With five profiles of onboard storage, the remap possibilities number into the hundreds. Synapse is also where you’ll control the keyboard’s lighting, which is plentiful. Every key can be illuminated with a custom color. Or, if you prefer, you can choose from a set of Quick Effects to make it look good without the fuss of creating your own static layout. With the program’s Chroma Studio, however, you’re given the ability to create truly unique lighting schemes, layering effects and synchronizing them between your other Chroma-enabled devices.

Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro – Performance

I’m a shooter fan, so wasted no time putting the board through its paces in Call of Duty: Warzone using the HyperSpeed dongle (which was used through all of my gaming tests). If you’re worried about gaming on non-Cherry switches, don’t be. The Razer Greens actuated just as fast (and technically faster with a 1.9mm actuation point versus Cherry’s 2mm), and were reliable and consistent over several hours of play. I swapped between CoD, Apex Legends, and Battlefield V and there was never a time when I felt like the BlackWidow was holding me back. Like the best peripherals, it got out of the way and let me focus on the game. In World of Warcraft, I really appreciated the ability to remap so many keys. Using only the number pad and modifiers like shift and control, I was able to map four separate skill bars to my number pad alone. For running dungeons, this wasn’t as practical since I keep my fingers locked to the movement keys, but with a mix of in-game remaps and HyperShift, I was able to map my most-used skills to the left side of the keyboard. Paired with the Razer Naga, Synapse let me customize my inputs so much that I had every tool I needed right at my fingertips while still being able to stay nimble and move around the boss fight without any downtime. I also have to say, in normal use, the keycaps may have been the most impressive of all. My harshest criticism of past BlackWidows was that the keyboards would pick-up finger oils and look old within mere days of use. It was their most off-putting feature. The finish and feel of these caps is so much better that it elevated the entire experience. Throughout all of this, the biggest drag was purely needing to plug in every night. I didn’t encounter the low battery warning, but I would have had I forgotten and still wanted to enjoy my RGB. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=best-gaming-keyboards&captions=true"]

Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro – Purchasing Guide

The Razer BlackWidow V3 Pro retails for $229 and it's available from Amazon, Best Buy, and from Razer directly.

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HBO's The Third Day Episode 3 Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out This review of HBO's The Third Day Episode 3, titled "Sunday – The Ghost," contains full spoilers. To remind yourself where we left off, read our review of The Third Day episode 2. [poilib element="accentDivider"] The Third Day hit its third episode this week, and while some answers to the preceding two weeks of enigmatic build-up are provided, the degree of satisfaction one draws from those answers will depend greatly on the degree of ambiguity they can tolerate from their serialized suspense thrillers. When last we left erstwhile protagonist Sam (Jude Law), he’d gotten himself beaned on the head, had a burlap sack tossed over it, and was dragged off by the ne’er-do-well residents of island enclave Osea for...reasons. Sam, still dealing with the aftermath of a marijuana high, is having a hard enough time differentiating reality from drug-induced fantasy, so the exposition dumped on him by his captors can’t go down particularly easy, especially as it finally explains why he’s been proclaiming some kind of long sublimated familiarity with this place, despite never having been there previously. Suffice it to say, the answers he’s given don’t exactly compel him to want to stay, and once again he attempts to hightail it over the narrow causeway connected Osea to the mainland, even as the tide is rapidly approaching. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=fall-tv-preview-2020-new-and-returning-shows-to-watch&captions=true"] Here again director Marc Munden shows his skill by heightening the tension of Sam’s predicament as he sets off on foot across the causeway, hoping against hope to somehow beat the clock and make it home. This production has consistently excelled on a technical level, as the jarring cuts, canted angles, and extreme close-ups put us squarely inside Sam’s head. And like the nightmares where you’re out to sea with the shoreline receding no matter how far and how fast you swim, so too does Sam see the mainland slip ever more out of reach as he’s enveloped by the encroaching waters. It’s a powerful series of images, arguably the most effective of the show’s first three hours. Of course, given that said sequence occurs only a quarter of the way through this episode, we instinctively know Sam’s desperate bid for freedom will end in failure, and once he’s dragged back to Osea the rest of this chapter never quite matches the horrifying immediacy of the causeway sequence. Instead, we’re dragged further into the mire of Osea’s rather complicated backstory, which is piled so high with coincidence and contrivance it becomes difficult to remain too deeply invested. This, despite Law continuing to put in a consistently strong effort, and he manages to forge an unlikely chemistry with Catherine Waterston’s Jess after having unburdened his conscience to her about his continued grief over his lost son. Needless to say, there’s something more going on with her, as there is with Emily Watson and Paddy Considine as the Martins, as well as Mark Lewis Jones as grieving father Jason. Most importantly, there’s something more to the seemingly random series of events that pulled Sam to the island in the first place. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/30/hbo-max-streaming-service-review"] Unfortunately, in this case, more also means less, as the story follows such a familiar trajectory that even if the specifics vary, we already have a general sense of where things will go, and most importantly where they won’t. Whether it’s Sam finally making contact with someone via his cell phone (at last, signal!) or making his way onto a boat for yet another desperate escape attempt, the tropes of these tales are just too firmly established to truly surprise, so it’s a lot of waiting for things to finally wind back around to the inevitable. This becomes especially, frustratingly true in the episode’s closing moments, which does offer some degree of closure but is too nebulous in execution to be truly satisfying.

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Syfy's Magical Girl Friendship Squad & Wild Life Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out Animated series are the closest thing to coronavirus-proof forms of entertainment these days, which might explain why Syfy is putting much more weight behind its Adult Swim-esque TZGZ animation block. As part of that effort, the network just debuted two new adult-oriented animated sitcoms: Magical Girl Friendship Squad and Wild Life. Is either series worth your time? Does Syfy have what it takes to dethrone the likes of Adult Swim and Comedy Central? Read on for our spoiler-free mini-reviews of both series' respective premieres.

Magical Girl Friendship Squad

If the title doesn't make it obvious, this wacky new series is basically a love letter to Sailor Moon, Cardcaptor Sakura, and various other examples of the "magical girl" anime subgenre. Created by Kelsey Stephanides, the series follows two chronically underemployed millennials, Alex (Quinta Brunson) and Daisy (Anna Akana), as they find themselves bestowed with fantastical powers by a mystical red panda named Nut (Ana Gastayer). To a certain extent, Magical Girl Friendship Squad is a real YMMV kind of series. It's steeped in anime tropes and references, even as it remixes all of that material through a distinctly 21st century American pop culture lens. Half the fun of watching the pilot comes from pinpointing all the various Easter eggs and references to various iconic anime. For instance, there's a really clever Cowboy Bebop poster inserted into the background of one scene, and the climax hilariously spoofs the more sexually explicit examples of the magical girl genre. Of course, all of this means that if you don't have at least some familiarity with/appreciation for that source material going in, MGFS may not entirely click. Still, the fast pace and tongue-in-cheek tone go a long way toward making the premiere a breezy and enjoyable 15 minutes. The two leads are entertaining, both lampooning all the millennial stereotypes and defying them at the same time. There's just enough plot in this first episode to provide a hook for the full six-episode season without getting in the way of the goofy humor and action. The animation style also works in its favor. MGFS strikes a balance between the irreverent style of most adult-oriented animated sitcoms and a more flamboyant and expressive anime style. The series resembles nothing if not a grown-up version of the similarly anime-influenced Steven Universe. All in all, Magical Girl Friendship Squad makes a decent case for switching over to Syfy for 15 minutes every Saturday night. What else is there to do these days? Score - 8

Wild Life

Wild Life is a series with a fairly intriguing premise, but one that tends to fall back on more familiar animated sitcom tropes. Created by Adam Davies and featuring the voices of John Reynolds, Claudia O’Doherty, Baron Vaughn, Reggie Watts, SkittLeZ Ortiz, and Natalie Palamides, Wild Life is set in a post-apocalyptic zoo where the inmates are quite literally running the asylum. Davies previously teased the series as, "If The Walking Dead smoked Adventure Time and stayed up all night watching Friends." The idea of a diverse community of animals thriving in a world where humanity has been utterly annihilated sounds intriguing enough. Unfortunately, Wild Life doesn't do a whole lot with that basic premise or the post-apocalyptic angle. The first episode is instead anchored mostly around a lovestruck cheetah named Glenn (Reynolds) as he pines after his dolphin friend Marny (O’Doherty). It barely matters whether these characters are human or animals – no doubt that's the point, but the end result is a show that still hits on a few too many sitcom tropes for its own good. The intentionally crude and simplistic animation style doesn't necessarily do Wild Life any favors or really take advantage of the post-apocalyptic setting, either. That said, there are occasional moments of brilliance in the premiere when it devolves into moments of pure, wacky surrealism – and Ortiz is a hoot as the lazy, hedonistic panda, Debbie. But in the end, Wild Life doesn't make a very strong case for an ongoing series, even with its lean 15-minute running time. Score - 5 [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-adult-cartoon-tv-series&captions=true"] For more animated sitcom news, find out which iconic Family Guy and The Simpsons roles are being recast and which controversial South Park episodes aren't being included on HBO Max. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

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MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out With the RTX 3090 Founders Edition review out the door, it’s time to start looking at third-party graphics cards. It’s an exciting prospect, as we can finally see how the Nvidia RTX 3090 Founders Edition can be improved with new coolers, factory overclocks, and unique designs. Today, I’m looking at the MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio. Retailing for $1589, is this GPU ready to become both the brains and brawn of your gaming rig? [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=msi-rtx-3090-gaming-x-trio-review&captions=true"]

MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio – Design and Features

MSI’s RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio is almost identical to its RTX 3080 version, which I reviewed here. Like the Founders Edition, it’s a massive GPU, coming in at 13.2 x 5.5 x 2.2. This allows it to take up two slots instead of the FE’s three, but is almost a full inch longer, thanks to its generous heatsink. It’s great for keeping temperatures down, but might pose a problem for some PC cases and installs with front-mounted radiators. It fit fine in my Lian Li Lancool II but when I swapped it over to my Ryzen Gaming PC and the Corsair 280X liquid CPU cooler, there’s only about a millimeter to spare before touching the PC fans. That extra space is being put to good use with MSI’s new Tri Frozr cooling system. This system is composed of three core parts: the new Torx Fan 4.0, which joins each fan blade at the end and provides greater air pressure, high contact core pipes that provide a greater surface area for drawing heat away from the GPU, and the new Wave Curved 2.0 fins, which disrupt airflow to increase cooling efficiency. It’s a multi-faceted system, but the fundamentals are sound: greater surface area on the heatsink and improved airflow are proven elements to any effective cooler, and it’s good to see MSI continue to innovate. The RTX 3090 needs a good cooler, too, because it’s a high-powered GPU. Like the Founders Edition, MSI’s version features 10,496 CUDA cores and 24GB of incredibly fast GDDR6X memory clocked to 19.5 Gbps, providing it with a total bandwidth of 936GB/s. The Gaming X Trio comes with a slightly higher out-of-box Boost Clock at 1785MHz versus the Founders Editions 1700MHz. With GPU Boost, however, both cards routinely exceed this. Where the Founders Edition would hover around 1900MHz, however, the Gaming X Trio would speed itself up to just over 2GHz, translating to a several FPS lead in most of my tests. The Gaming X Trio is also uniquely suited to overclocking. It features triple 8-pin connectors for enhanced power delivery. In the interest of time, I was not able to test its overclocking capability first-hand, but between the heightened power and massive cooler, it's positioned well to eek out every last ounce of performance. Just make sure you have an adequate power supply, as the card is specced to consume 370 watts of power, a full 20 watts more than the FE. That said, you’ll need to do some tweaking to help the card reach its potential. Despite the lengthy heatsink and triple fans, the card is tuned for acoustics over thermals. Out of the box temps peaked at 81C, a full 10 degrees warmer than the RTX 3090 Founders Edition. Even at this temperature, the fans never ramped above 55%. The card was fairly quiet with this tuning, but those temps also prevented the card from consistently boosting to its top speed, making it underperform compared to the Founders Edition. Applying the default fan curve in MSI Afterburner completely fixed this, dropping the temps to 69C at max and pushing fan speed between 65-69%, even earning a few extra FPS in the process. At those fan speeds, it was definitely louder, but still quieter than my Gigabyte RTX 2080 Ti XTREME. I completed my testing using this modified fan curve. The last thing to note before diving into performance is that the Gaming X Trio is absolutely a card for lovers of RGB. A large LED light strip lies on the back edge, the logo illuminates, and a trio of strips slash across the middle fan. It’s bright and bold, but if you’re not already a fan of RGB, this probably isn’t going to change your mind.

MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio – Performance

Test system: Z390 Asus ROG Maximus XI Extreme Motherboard, Intel Core i9-9900K CPU (stock), Corsair H115i PRO RGB 280mm AIO CPU Cooler, 32GB Corsair Vengeance RGB Pro DDR4-3200, 1TB Samsung EVO Plus NVMe SSD, Corsair HX1200 1200-watt power supply.

After testing the RTX 3090 Founders Edition, I went into this well-aware that I was testing what is, in essence, a Titan by another name. As such, I ran it through my battery of synthetic rasterization and ray tracing tests, gaming tests at all three major resolutions, as well as rendering and 8K gaming tests. Here’s how it performed: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=msi-rtx-3090-gaming-x-trio-synthetic-benchmarks&captions=true"] As I expected, the Gaming X Trio leads the pack in rasterization performance. The additional boost clock speed and GPU Boost overhead lend it a meaningful edge in these tests. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=msi-rtx-3090-gaming-x-trio-gaming-benchmarks&captions=true"] The same was true when it came to gaming. I tested the card at 1080p, 1440p, and 4K to start, but let’s be real: this is a 4K+ card and should be run as such. Here’s how it stacked up at 4K: Compared to last generation’s Nvidia RTX 2080 Ti (sadly, I did not have a Titan RTX to compare again), the performance uplift ranged from 32% to 87% higher, averaging out to 52.7% higher FPS in my testing. Do note, however, that the 2080 Ti used for testing here is factory overclocked and offers 5-7% higher FPS than the standard 2080 Ti Founders Edition. Since many gamers will be comparing add-in boards to the Founders Edition directly, I also ran a comparison to show what uplift you can expect there. It’s small by virtue of GPU boost, but the Gaming X Trio does offer an edge that could be extended further with a dedicated overclock. At 8K, the results seem to narrow further with the two cards consistently trading blows, both with and without DLSS. Needless to say, it remains amazing that we’re talking about 8K at all when only one generation ago 4K was still a struggle. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=msi-rtx-3090-gaming-x-trio-workflow-performance&captions=true"] The other half of the equation for any 3090 is going to be professional and creative workflows. As I noted in the original review of the RTX 3090 Founders Edition, this GPU is a rendering powerhouse and it’s here that its value really comes into perspective. Just like that OG GPU, the Gaming X Trio delivers simply remarkable rendering speed improvements. Likewise, that massive frame buffer allows video intensive multi-tasking to become a much smoother process and I was able to render while still working in alternate viewports or my Premiere Pro timeline. That said, the results here are extremely similar between the two variants, so it wouldn’t make sense to choose either based on rendering performance alone.

MSI RTX 3090 Gaming X Trio – Purchasing Guide

The Nvidia GeForce RTX 3090 Founders Edition is available for $1,589 from retailers  such as Newegg, and Microcenter.

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Lovecraft Country: Episode 7 Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out This review contains spoilers for Lovecraft Country episode 7, "I Am." To see where we left off, read our Lovecraft Country episode 6 review. [poilib element="accentDivider"]

“I Am,” the seventh episode of Lovecraft Country, is all about the power of names. Whether it’s the names that we give ourselves, are given to us, or are assigned to that ineffable tempest of feelings that well up deep inside of each of us from time to time, yearning for recognition through release; the simple act of naming a thing is to have a hand in its creation. It’s no coincidence that the most powerful and sought-after artifact in Lovecraft Country is named, literally, the Book of Names. For Hippolyta, the moral of this episode is simple: to know thyself, and thus to be set free through the certainty of that knowledge, one must name thyself.

Taking place just a few days after we last saw her driving to Ardham in search of answers as to the circumstances behind her husband’s death, Hippolyta is back in Chicago, still tinkering with the gold orrery she found in Leti’s house. Her curiosity, however, has taken on newfound urgency in light of the realizations she made while in Massachusetts: that Atticus, Leti, and Montrose lied to her about George’s passing, and that whatever foul play was responsible for his demise, it’s somehow connected to the mysterious nature of this orrery. We’ve seen the immense prowess of Aunjanue Ellis’ performance as Hippolyta throughout the series, but “I Am” is Lovecraft Country’s first episode entirely devoted to her character’s arc, and the occasion comes not a moment too soon. To the surprise of no-one, she absolutely knocks it out of the park, giving us not only the latest in a long line of terrific performances, but offering the viewer a firmer grasp of Hippolyta’s emotional interiority as a black woman in Jim Crow-era America.

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One thing that we see on full display about Hippolyta this episode, though vaguely gestured at through her previous appearances in the series, is her immense aptitude for mathematics and astronomy. Hippolyta has always seemed like a woman whose aspirations have been stifled by either her obligations as a wife and mother, or by the restrictive gender norms and unrelenting racial biases of her time period. Like Ruby and so many other black women, Hippolyta has been interrupted in her life, to the point of questioning whether her life is truly even hers to live anymore. After unlocking the mechanisms of the orrery, and with them a key and the coordinates to an unknown location, Hippolyta sets out on a journey not only in search of answers, but of self-discovery.

Everybody’s got a secret in Lovecraft Country. Everyone is concealing something from someone else, either deliberately out of fear of reprisal, or unbeknownst even to themselves in the vagueness of their own understanding. Secrets are the ties that bind the Freeman family, and the people caught in their immediate orbit, together, and if left unchecked for too long may very well be the secrets that threaten to tear each of them apart. “I Am” is an episode that not only sees the convergence of most, if not all, of Lovecraft Country’s primary cast in the same vicinity in what feels like forever, but the culmination of several plot threads the series has laid down throughout this season.

The prime example in this week’s episode is the explosive confrontation between Montrose and his son after Atticus and Leti discover his father with his lover Sammy. In a moment of shock and pain, Atticus calls his father a homophobic slur before staring him down in a short but intense argument. “Did mamma know?” Atticus asks Montrose, stepping forward as if to confront him. Montrose, his eyes brimming with tears, tells Atticus that yes, his mother did know. As his son storms off, a visible relief can be seen washing over Montrose’s uneasy expression, as if now relieved that at the very least he doesn’t have to hide who he is anymore from the one person in his life that matters. Jonathan Majors and Michael K. Williams’ chemistry has been nothing short of remarkable throughout their time together on-screen, and this scene in particular stands as one of the absolute best shared between the two. It’s gut-wrenching and exhausting to watch in a way that feels true to life - the uneasy dynamic of a child and a parent watching one other grow in ways that neither could have ever expected.

Atticus’ outburst is less an expression of avowed homophobia as it is one of anger towards his father for denying him the love and support he needed for fear that it would make Atticus “soft,” only for Atticus to discover his father’s fear of his son’s susceptibility to “softness” stems from a conflict within the man himself. It’s a salient example of toxic masculinity: the type of internalized hatred and generational trauma passed down from one generation to the next in the hopes of strengthening them for the future, only to inadvertently stunt their ability not only to fully love others but themselves. It complicates not only our understanding of Atticus’ character, but alludes to an unsavory and otherwise unspoken history of virulent homophobia that persists throughout many black communities to this day. It’s an emotionally raw, painful, and honest depiction of a paternal relationship gone awry that easily ranks among the best scenes of the series to date.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/10/28/the-10-best-horror-movies"]

Another convergence is the reconciliation between Leti and her sister Ruby. The two have neither spoken or seen each other since their argument in the season’s third episode, “Holy Ghost,” and much has transpired in their time apart. Ruby, having discovered the truth behind Christina’s deception, seems nonetheless compliant to her whims, if only in exchange for the serum which grants her the power of whiteness.

However sympathetic her motivations might seem, Christina’s machinations have proven that she is willing to do whatever must be done in order to achieve her aims, even at the cost of others’ safety. Ruby has too, for her own benefit, and so it is for this reason alone she seems to have aligned herself with Christina’s interests. Leti, for her part, has seen and done equally bizarre and extraordinary things since she last saw her sister. Having now experienced dreams of Atticus’ great ancestor Hanna, Leti now suspects that she is pregnant with his child; a fact that, if discovered by either Christina or the Order of the Ancient Dawn, would only endanger her life and the life of the baby inside her.

When Leti and Ruby first speak to each other after so long, the tension is thick enough to cut with a knife. It’s a small, yet in no way minor scene between the two characters, one which signals a positive turn in their relationship that will more than likely be undone when the fullness of the truth is finally revealed between them.

Hippolyta’s storyline however, compared to either Atticus or Leti’s, is far more bizarre by several degrees. After being sucked into a vacillating wormhole in space-time alongside Atticus, she’s transported to a far-off planet from our solar system and subsequently abducted by a strange, imposing extraterrestrial with an enormous afro. "You are not in prison,” her captor tells her as she is forcibly restrained. “but you want to be." It’s at this point that Hippolyta is commanded to “name” herself, and when asked where she most wants to be, she sarcastically replies dancing in Paris with Josephine Baker. And with that, she’s promptly whisked away at her own command. The scene itself marks one of the most hilarious and freewheeling to appear in the series, with Hippolyta quickly settling into her raucous new lifestyle as a dancer in a montage set to LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade.” It’s Hippolyta like we’ve never seen her: jubilant, carefree, confident, and spiritually and emotionally alive. Lovecraft Country’s non-diegetic music choices have wavered between being either tonally consistent and thematically meaningful or so irreverent and irrelevant as to come across as brazenly superficial. Luckily, this sequence fits comfortably in the former as an uplifting refrain paired appropriately with Hippolyta’s personal growth through her newfound sisterhood.

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Carra Patterson’s portrayal of Baker is terrific and all-too-short, with a charismatic presence and energy that almost manages to steal the scene right from under Ellis’ feet. As Hippolyta and Josephine relax after another successful performance, Hippolyta confides in her not only the utter freedom she’s felt having been a part of Josephine’s troupe, but her resentment for the life she left behind not more than moments before being dropped into this timeline.

Hippolyta strains to express the fullness of her outrage: at white society for making her feel small and helpless, and at herself for allowing herself to believe that she was in the first place. And something else too... but the words get caught in her throat, as if she’s afraid to give voice to what she truly feels. It’s then that Hippolyta is again whisked away across space through another invocation of her name, this time to an unnamed African village composed of warrior women where she is forced to train in mortal combat before facing off against an army of American Confederate soldiers.

The whole sequence of Hippolyta leaping across time and space feels like an anthology-lite take on Buck Rogers meets Quantum Leap with a Black female protagonist, which goes without saying is an amazing concept that’s executed superbly with awesome fight choreography and great energy throughout. As the carnage of the ensuing battle envelops all around her, Hippolyta invokes her name one last time in order to be where she wants to be the most: at her husband’s side again.

It’s here where we’re finally treated to the long-awaited return of George Freeman. Or at least, a George Freeman. But the happy reunion is short-lived. After grieving her husband’s death, living life without him, enduring the trials of everything she’s seen and felt, Hippolyta finally has the chance to tell George something that’s been weighing on her heart since before the events of the series even began: that she’s had to shrink herself in order to conform to the world - and her marriage. It’s a great scene and profound emotional climax for the episode, with Hippolyta confronting her husband both out of respect for the love they shared together but the realization of her own worth. It’s a moment of affirmation of who she is, not only outside of what White America expects and demands that she be, but apart from even her existence as a wife and as a mother.  After all her journeys, Hippolyta finally has what she has always wanted— for her husband to see and support her for everything that she is, not just who she is to him. “I see you now, Hippolyta Freeman,” George tells her before taking her hand to embark on another adventure. “And I want you to be as big as you can be.”

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The episode’s concluding scene is one of the most whimsical and visually rapturous the series has offered so far. Hippolyta, dressed as her daughter’s space-faring superhero Orinthia Blue, and George, her trusted companion, travelling to distant worlds and cataloguing their findings as intrepid explorers, all narrated by a poignant excerpt from Jazz multi-instrumentalist Sun Ra’s 1974 film Space Is The Place. Like Hippolyta, Sun Ra was someone who felt estranged by the circumstances of his lived existence as a black person in a deeply segregated America, and created his own mythical name and persona in a bid to reclaim a sense of power and autonomy over his identity and place in the world. “You don’t exist in this society,” Sun Ra’s voice can be heard as Hippolyta floats weightless through the celestial ether. “If you did your people wouldn’t be seeking equal rights. You’re not real. If you were real you’d have some status amongst the nations of the world. So we’re both myths. I do not come to you as a reality. I come to you as the myth because that’s what black people are—myths.” After having become so much through this cosmic odyssey, Hippolyta chooses nevertheless to return to Earth, if not for herself then for the sake of her daughter. The only difference now is, the choice is entirely Hippolyta’s now. Having named herself, Hippolyta is finally free.

The episode, however, throws us one last curveball by showing us not Hippolyta emerging from the rift caused by Hiram Epstein’s machine, but rather Atticus. Gasping for air, he shouts his aunt’s name as police sirens can be heard growing closer in the distance. Desperately attempting to reactivate the machine to no avail, Atticus ruminates over the small object he was clutching in his hand as he emerged from the portal: a paperback book titled  “Lovecraft Country,” written by none other than his late Uncle George. It’s a delightfully meta cliffhanger capping off an already exceptional episode, and one that hints at a whole swath of possibilities in the immediate future. Is Atticus truly fated to die as Ji-ah predicted, or is this a ‘choose-your-own-adventure’ story? What did Atticus see and experience during his encounters through the rift? We’ll have to wait until next week to find out.

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Razer Naga Pro Gaming Mouse Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out The Razer Naga may be the most iconic MMO gaming mouse of all time. It’s no exaggeration to say that its thumb grid changed the way many gamers play, both inside and outside the MMORPG genre. As a result, it’s been a mainstay in Razer’s lineup since 2009, going through multiple iterations and inspiring more than a few clones. With the Naga Pro, Razer has severed its tail, fitted it with a 150 hour battery, and improved its internals – but does it do enough to justify the upgrade from the Naga Trinity? [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=razer-naga-pro-review&captions=true"]

Design and Features

The Naga Pro shares a lot of similarities with its predecessor, the Naga Trinity. It looks the same and feels the same in the hand. It features the same ability to swap the side panels and carries through the Naga’s history of versatility above all. Of course, looks are only skin deep, and once you take a closer look, the Naga Pro stands apart as the best Naga yet. This is a mouse laden with inputs ready to be mapped to the different skills and spells from your favorite MMO, but its benefits don’t stop with just one genre. The 12-button thumb-grid comes pre-installed and is clearly designed with skill-rich MMOs in mind. When you need fewer buttons, you simply pull the panel from the magnets holding it in place and swap it with the six or two button panels that also come included in the box. You don’t even need to turn the mouse off in between: Razer’s Synapse software will automatically detect the new panel and swap your keymaps on the fly. It’s an ingenious system that allows the Naga to be, in essence, three mice in one and is seamless in its execution. This system debuted on the Naga Trinity, but has definitely been refined here. The speed and ease of swapping plates, and how instantaneously Synapse reacts, reflects a level of polish that’s impressive and makes the system feel natural. Like its predecessor, there are three panels: a 12-button grid that’s perfect for MMOs, a 6-button for MOBAs and RPGs, and a 2-button panel for shooters. The middle panel has been changed since last generation, dropping the circle layout for two straight rows with buttons that are tall and narrow, extremely reminiscent of the Logitech G604. The mouse wheel also tilts to either side for two additional inputs. By default, these are mapped to “repeat scroll”  and will rapidly move up and down web pages and documents. It’s neither as fast or fluid as the Logitech G502’s Hyper Fast scroll wheel but is definitely an improvement over normal scrolling. Depending on your configuration, you could have anywhere from 9 to 19 inputs, plus one more if you count the profile button on the bottom. That’s already quite a few, but using Hypershift or combining inputs with modifier keys can easily double, triple, or even quadruple this button count. Unlike some of Razer’s more traditional, lower input mice, using HyperShift felt like a viable option here since I had buttons to spare. The ergonomics of the mouse are great no matter which side panel you’re using. It’s on the larger side and is wide as well as tall, so feels like an ideal fit for palm-gripped gamers, but I was able to comfortably claw grip it just fine. The right side flares out to support your ring finger, which decreases finger drag in games and helps brace the mouse to stay on target while triggering side buttons. I especially liked how the scoops on the left and right buttons guided me toward the wheel, which made tilting the wheel feel like second nature. Coming to grips with the layout of each side panel is surprisingly fast. The trickiest could easily be the 12-button grid, but Razer has angled each button and contoured the whole side to make it apparent which button you’re on without needing to look. Reaching the bottom row is just as difficult as past Nagas, however. The 6-button panel is likewise intuitive thanks to the narrow face of each button. I also really liked that each of the side buttons offered a nice, mechanical click instead of the spongy bump on my old Logitech G600 MMO mouse. The Naga Pro uses Razer’s latest HyperSpeed Wireless technology to deliver a steady, fast connection. The company claims HyperSpeed is 25% faster than any other wireless technology on the market today, tested by a third party certification body, and even faster than many wired gaming mice. I tested it side by side with wired options from Logitech and Corsair and can’t say that it felt noticeably more responsive to me, but even more importantly, but it didn’t feel any slower despite being wireless, and glided like a dream on its new PTFE mouse feet. This wireless gaming mouse also supports Bluetooth, which isn’t as fast, but is a welcome addition for when you need a mouse on the go. The battery life is excellent, with 100 hours using HyperSpeed Wireless and 150 using Bluetooth. I’ve used the mouse for around 30 hours and can report 30% lost battery, so the numbers seem accurate. The only thing I feel is missing is an indicator LED, which would eliminate the need to go into Synapse to check the remaining battery. Both the sensor and switches have also undergone major upgrades. The Naga now uses Razer’s premiere Focus+ Optical Sensor. It’s the cutting edge of what the company has to offer with a maximum DPI of 20,000 and advanced features like automatic surface calibration and Motion Sync to improve accuracy. The switches are also optical and the same as found on the Viper Ultimate. They use infrared light, not mechanical contacts, to actuate, which improves their responsiveness by eliminating debounce delay and cuts down on wear and tear over time. Compared to a typical high-end mouse switch, often rated at 20 to 50 million clicks, the Razer Optical switches are rated for 70 million. I obviously wasn’t able to test the mouse over the long-term, but the dreaded double-click issue that plagues aging mice should be a thing of the past with the Naga Pro.

Software Programming

Getting up and running with the Naga Pro can take some time if you plan to customize the inputs, but Razer’s Synapse 3 software makes the process easy. Every button but left click can be remapped or assigned a secondary function with HyperShift. By default, the inputs match the numbers printed on their sides, which works well in games with numbered skill bars, but Synapse allows you to program macros, trigger program launches, send text, control your media, and much more just by selecting from a menu. You can save keymaps for each side plate ahead of time, so when it comes time to switch, your keys will be ready and waiting. The Naga Pro can also store five profiles to its onboard memory, so you can take these bindings on the go. The body of the mouse sports two lighting zones — the mouse wheel and palm rest — but, oddly, only the 12-button panel features is backlit. Each of these zones can be customized within Synapse, either by selecting a Quick Effect (Spectrum Cycling, Breathing, Static, etc.) or an Advanced Effect using Chroma Studio. The app can be thought of a bit like Adobe Photoshop for Razer’s RGB lighting ecosystem. Nearly a dozen effects can be customized and layered to create a unique lighting scheme to match your setup. The effect is enhanced the more Razer peripherals you have, but I was able to match the Naga Pro, my FireFly mouse pad, and the charging base from my Viper Ultimate (which is also compatible with the Naga Pro) to the Corsair RGB PC fans in my gaming PC within minutes. Razer Synapse has come a long way since its debut and has become one of the most powerful, easy-to-use pieces of software from a major brand today. Best of all, once your profiles are loaded onto the Naga’s onboard memory, you’re safely able to shut down the program and take your macros and keybinds with you.

Performance

My first experiences with the original Naga were with World of Warcraft, so I wasted no time hopping back in to try again with one of my alts. The 12-button side panel is the perfect option for games like WoW, rich in skills but big on movement. By keeping the grid matched to my number row, it covered my entire first action bar. Using the game’s keybind system, I assigned my three others to numbers and modifier keys: Shift+1, Alt+2, Ctrl+3, and so on. With just the time it took to save those, the Naga Pro allowed me to have 48 commands just under my thumb — more than what even most dedicated MMO players will use. Hopping into a dungeon, I was able to move much more freely, keeping my hands on the movement keys at all times. Since I never had to move my left hand, and my thumb was always on the grid, I was able to fire off skills more quickly and move out of danger without missing a beat. The mechanical click of each key also made sure I never missed a taunt when tanking Eye of Azshara. The Naga Pro also gave me much more control in Battlefield 5. Swapping over to the 6-button panel, I was able to map crouch and prone directly under my thumb, making it easy for me to drop the minute bullets began to fly. I mapped the alternate weapon, gadgets, and grenade below that, leaving my left hand on WASD and my right hand doing the bulk of the work. Swapping back to my Viper Ultimate, I immediately missed having these extra keys. Once I got used to using the Naga, moving those functions back to my left hand felt genuinely cumbersome. No matter what I was playing, Razer’s HyperSpeed wireless performed flawless. Connection never dropped or even faltered, staying rock steady the whole time. Not having the tether to my PC also made big sweeps of my mouse, taking in the vistas and doing spin jumps between bosses feel more free than I’ve experienced on an MMO mouse.

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Paradise Killer Review

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Disclaimer: Former IGN host Alysia Judge worked on Paradise Killer, providing the voice of Judge.

Detective stories are almost always centred around the search for proof: that key bit of evidence, that slip-up in testimony, that missing cornerstone which holds together the rest of the story they’ve been searching to understand. But, if we’re honest, actually proving things isn’t really the detective’s job – they find evidence, piece it together, and present what they believe to be a plausible truth. It’s not proof so much as the confident suggestion that it could be proof. It’s a subtle distinction, and one that Paradise Killer understands intimately – and, as its credits rolled, I realised the entire game is about that distinction. Well, that and a demonic pleasure-world of ritual sacrifice performed to satiate the psychic energy-lust of unknowable, goat-headed cosmic entities. It’s about that too.

To be simplistic about it, Paradise Killer is something like a visual novel exploded into the structure of an open world game. It borrows much from Japanese mystery games, most notably the Ace Attorney and Danganronpa series, but eschews their carefully unfolded, mostly linear whodunnits for a fully explorable (and initially overwhelming) first-person investigation across a near-deserted island, ending in a trial at which you present the story you believe to be the correct one.

You play Lady Love Dies (which might be the least strange name on offer here), an immortal “investigation freak” who was exiled from Paradise 3 million days ago, and is only invited to return after a locked-room murder spree forces the island’s egoless arbiter of justice to bring in the only person deemed capable of solving the crime. Oh, and you get back from exile by skydiving from a mile-high plinth suspended above the actual game map while the opening credits roll.

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Yes, Paradise Killer is weird, with an aesthetic that can probably be best described as “Vaporwave Satanism” – imagine a neon sign covered in gouts of blood, and you’re on the way there. Among its best tricks is that it doesn’t just force you to piece together its mystery after the fact, but the workings of its entire world. People still act like people (and lie like people), but how does detective work change in a universe where ghosts can exist, gods can be imprisoned, and taxis can open transdimensional rifts? You’re essentially running two investigations: one building a case in your head, and the other building the world in which it took place.

That also means that telling you too much about that world would spoil some of the fun, but at its most basic level: you’re on an island, Paradise, built like a beautiful holiday destination, but actually created to offer ritual human sacrifices to gods from beyond the galaxy, run by The Syndicate, a group of immortals hiding in a pocket dimension beyond the reach of humanity. Honestly, that’s the basics. It’s one of the more compulsively unique fictional words I’ve come across in recent years – enough so that I’d welcome a sequel out of interest for that setting alone.

As Lady Love Dies, you travel the island entirely at your own discretion and pace, investigating its jarring mix of 3D architecture and 2D populace, combing for clues left behind at crime scenes, wrenching testimony out of old friends, and generally making a nuisance of yourself, as any investigator should. The beauty of that open-ended approach becomes apparent very quickly – the first piece of evidence you find, which can more or less be anything, will inevitably point you to another clue, which might offer a different line of conversation with one of many wild suspects (who range from married ex-assassins, to a horny Scottish doctor living on a yacht). That conversation might, in turn, break the alibi of someone else, or even open up an entirely new sub-case, promising brand new mysteries to find. The pleasure of unspooling a blood-drenched, twisting story behind the crime you set out to solve is only increased by the fact that you’re more in charge of how that crime’s solved than almost any other detective game I can think of.

Evil Vibrations

Special mention has to be reserved for Paradise Killer’s soundtrack, composed by Barry “Epoch” Topping. The mixture of vaporwave synths, infectious grooves, and Japanese city pop influences feels absolutely at home in the tropical setting, and totally at odds with the subject matter in a way that feels fittingly creepy. Wonderfully, the soundtrack has to be earned over the course of playing, with new tracks awarded for finding radio towers scattered across the island. I’m not a collectible hunter in almost any game I come across, but I went completely out of my way to grab every track before I closed out my time with Paradise Killer. I recommend listening to ‘Leaving’ immediately, and repeatedly.

The world you travel through to do that is almost equally fascinating, a mixture of the mundane and the bizarre slotted together seamlessly. Climb humble apartment blocks to hunt for hidden clues, or the many collectible Relics that offer glimpses at what this grim world once was, and you’ll stare across a landscape dotted with blood donation points, grotesque statuary, and pyramids jutting out from an endless sea. In an unexpected twist, Paradise Killer is also a platformer of sorts, asking you not just to travel the island, but work out how to in some cases - even offering unlockable double jumps and other abilities to help you find its most inaccessible corners.

You’re not travelling towards an ending, as such, more a culmination – you can begin the murder trial that closes the story at any time after its introductory sequence. The best comparison I can think of, weirdly, is in how you can take on Dragon’s Dogma’s final boss at any time, with almost no impediments put in place to stop you from doing so – it would likely be absolutely terrible to do it too early, but you can if you want to. But that element of choice in when to stop also lends Paradise Killer its greatest air of mystery – you’re never told when you’re done, you simply have to intuit whether there could be more clues out there that you’re yet to find. Are you confident enough to make your case on what you have, or will you keep scouring the island for more?

Unfortunately, that air of mystery gives way to Paradise Killer’s only real point of frustration. After around 10 hours of exploration, clues begin to dwindle, suspects have less and less to say and, without being able to effectively revisit any hints they may have offered, you can simply be left to trudge across a near-empty island for several more hours, looking for a glimmer of possibility based on nothing else than a hunch. Yes, that sounds authentically like a detective story, but in practice it can get pretty dull – in reality, you’re likely to start the final trial because you’re a bit bored of fast-travelling to areas you’ve already scoured, rather than because you have steadfast conviction in your conclusions.

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But no matter how you get there, that trial sequence itself is the jewel in Paradise Killer’s crown. For obvious reasons, I won’t discuss its story contents, but the structure is wonderful – an hour-plus long riff on Ace Attorney’s trial sequences, seeing you accuse suspects and then present your collected evidence to back up those assertions. Except, in Paradise Killer, there’s no truly wrong answer.

While there is a set backstory to be unravelled, it can be interpreted in different ways – the evidence I’ve collected might support one side, and the evidence you collect might support another, and the trial can account for both assertions. That’s not to mention the potential for corruption, as you could purposely accuse the wrong person to save an obviously guilty character you grew to like along the way, or just throw someone under the bus for no reason other than an evil whim. The characters who survive – of course there’s a death penalty – can be wildly different depending on any given playthrough.

Paradise Killer has no narrator in place to tell you the “true” story of what happened, and you’re never told if the actions you take – at any point – are right or wrong. You live as Lady Love Dies up until the bitter end, and your conclusions, whatever they end up being, are hers too, shaping the outcome of your time in Paradise. This is, in essence, a first-person game in more than physical viewpoint. It’s a truly bold storytelling choice, and one that makes Paradise Killer feel more authentically detective-like than almost any game of its kind.

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The Boys Season 2, Episode 6 Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out This review of The Boys Season 2, Episode 6, titled "The Bloody Doors Off," contains full spoilers. Amazon recently announced that it's developing a spinoff TV series based on The Boys that's described as "part college show, part Hunger Games." Check out our episode release schedule for The Boys Season 2 to find out when new episodes are debuting on Amazon.  [poilib element="accentDivider"] Amazon's The Boys delivers another thrilling adventure this week with an insane action-packed sequence inside the Vought testing facility, plus a shocking reveal about Stormfront's true intentions for the future of the diabolical corporation. And while the mayhem throughout "The Bloody Doors Off" is glorious to behold, writer Anslem Richardson along with director Sara Boyd do a solid job of character building as well. While Queen Maeve's storyline concerning her troubled relationship with Elena continues its lackluster journey to who knows where in Season 2, the exploration of Frenchie's backstory in this week's episode is really engaging. The parallel between Frenchie's story and Shawn Ashmore's Lamplighter is cleverly executed as we discover how their histories are connected. It makes so much sense now why Frenchie is so concerned with protecting Kamiko after we learn that he still feels a tremendous amount of guilt over abandoning his old comrades... Even if they were a bad influence on him. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/07/23/the-boys-creator-breaks-down-that-insane-whale-clip-from-season-2"] And speaking of Lamplighter, Ashmore does a brilliant job of imbuing his character with a bit of menace and vulnerability, especially since we tend to remember him as that baby-faced version of Iceman from the X-Men film franchise. As with most of The Boys ensemble, Lamplighter is another memorable example of why it's so important to give your characters a bit of nuance instead of keeping them one-dimensional. At first, it was easy to hate Lamplighter after learning he was responsible for burning a bunch of kids alive, but after getting to know him better even in the short amount of on-screen time he has here, we're hoping he sticks around for a few more episodes. The complex (to say the least) romance between Stormfront and Homelander is definitely one of Season 2's highlights -- it's all just so unbelievable but somehow it works. Sure, Eric Kripke and his team of writers know how to craft a compelling story, but it's also Antony Starr and Aya Cash's palpable chemistry that pulls you in. Starr's bewilderment at Stormfront's reveal in the episode's final moments is suspenseful due to the face that you're never quite sure how Homelander is going to react in a given scene. Stormfront is just as difficult to read even when she appears to be telling the truth about her connection to the Nazis. Ok, so let's chat about that bonkers Vought facility scene. For fans of the comic books series, Kripke dropped a few Easter eggs in there like the unexpected appearance of the well endowed Love Sausage (played by Andrew Jackson), who uses his... manhood as a weapon. There's also a new character named Cindy (Ess Hödlmoser) who can crush or explode anything she desires. Perhaps she's the most powerful superhero out there? With only two episodes remaining in Season 2, it's unclear whether Kripke is just planting a seed with Cindy for something down the road in Season 3, or if she'll make more of an impact before the Season 2 finale. Time will tell. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-boys-season-2-gallery&captions=true"] And finally, it looks like The Deep is gathering more recruits in the form of A-Train. It's difficult at times to take this particular story seriously, however. particularly as Chase Crawford's charming performance usually offers a few good laughs with each new episode. How A-Train will play a role in the Church's scheme remains to be seen, but this particular arc doesn't appear to be wrapping up anytime soon. While not the most compelling story of Season 2 (so far), I'm still very curious if The Deep will truly change his ways and actually do something selfless for once. What do you think?

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Amazon's Utopia: Season 1 Review

The latest game news from IGN - one of my fave channels ever - check it out This is a spoiler-free review of Amazon’s Utopia. All eight episodes are currently available to stream on Amazon Prime Video. [poilib element="accentDivider"] After six months of enduring a pandemic, many of us have likely seen at least one conspiracy theory making the rounds on social media, suggesting that the virus has been engineered as part of a shadowy plan to control us. Amazon’s Utopia - the US remake of a stylish British thriller - asks the outlandish question: what if the conspiracies were true? The result is a satisfyingly twisty, well-paced labyrinth of mysteries that delivers on thrills, but can’t quite live up to the high bar set by its source material. It should be made clear out of the gate that, despite its timing, Utopia is not a response to our current world situation, nor is it actually all that interested in exploring the effects of an epidemic. There are no masks or social distancing here, and the story largely follows in the footsteps established by the 2013 British original, back when nationwide quarantine seemed a sci-fi concept in itself. However, the current pandemic does add an uneasy layer of paranoia to the proceedings that Utopia doesn’t provide itself. Penned entirely by Gone Girl author Gillian Flynn, Utopia follows the gradually more desperate journey of a group of comic book nerds obsessed with Dystopia; a graphic novel that predicted a variety of deadly epidemics via messages hidden in its artwork. Within the first hour, the group discover that an unpublished sequel - Utopia - exists, and that it could hold the key to solving the mysteries behind a future epidemic conspiracy. But as the group travel further down this intriguing rabbit hole, they face violent opposition from those who’d rather the secrets were kept in the dark. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/18/amazons-utopia-season-1-official-trailer-2020-john-cusack-rainn-wilson"] The best of these obstacles is Arby (Christopher Denham), a ruthless hitman offset by a childlike demeanor. His sloped shoulders and schoolboy haircut, combined with the occasional use of an inhaler and continual munching of chocolate raisins, contrast fantastically with his brutal efficiency. His methods seemingly have no bounds, resulting in the show’s most alarming, impactful sequences. He’s the tool that keeps The Harvest - Utopia’s shadowy force - continually dangerous and unpredictable. The Harvest itself delightfully revels in all the best conspiracy tropes. Its methods slowly escalate over the season, from simple assassinations to the obsessive construction of false identities and online scapegoats. As more is revealed, the group becomes progressively more cult-like, which neatly encapsulates their genuine belief in their own monstrous actions. Flynn’s writing is at its best when scripting John Cusack and Rainn Wilson’s characters, who admirably tackle their roles as major players within the pharmaceutical company attempting to battle the virus outbreak. Cusack’s Dr. Kevin Christie has a remarkable calmness about him - he’s a wise dad to staff and family alike - which makes his delivery particularly magnetic. Meanwhile, Wilson’s virologist, Michael, is amusingly thrilled by the potential oncoming apocalypse’s link to his previous work. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=The%20puzzle%20box%20mystery%20format%20actually%20pays%20off%20audience%20dedication."]Unfortunately, Utopia’s core cast of comic obsessives are less engaging. While part of the charm is that they are regular folk in over their heads, they’re all a little too regular. Bluntly, they’re forgettable (with the exception of Jessica Rothe, who brings to Sam the same delightful energy she displayed in the Happy Death Day movies.) This sadly also covers Jessica Hyde - the conspiracy’s lynchpin, played by Sasha Lane - who, despite her ragged appearance, simply doesn’t feel odd or unpredictable enough. I’d had high hopes for Lane, but despite a clear dislike for showers and a taste for grim violence, there’s little about her that’s unsettling. She’s just a bit flat, and that’s a great disservice to a character that’s not just fascinating conceptually, but also delightfully strange in her original British incarnation, played by Fiona O'Shaughnessy. Characterisation is not the only area where this US remake pales in comparison to the British original. 2013’s Utopia, created by Dennis Kelly (who serves as executive producer on this remake), was shot using a CMYK color model, with prominent use of acidic yellows and eye-searing cyan skies. Its direction was mathematically precise, with static, perfectly framed scenes contrasting with both the chaos of the narrative and the brutality of its violence. It was scored by a soundtrack that layered wheezy breathing, strange beats, and unusual melodies. In short: it’s one of the most striking shows produced in the last decade, and stands as proof that style can become substance. Amazon’s Utopia has no style. It’s shot like a regular TV show. A good TV show, yes, but it looks and feels like anything you’d expect from a decent network or streaming service. Utopia should feel different. I can only imagine what kind of a show this would be if headed up by, say, Legion’s Noah Hawley, or even David Fincher, who was set to create it alongside Flynn when this was a HBO project several years back. I’m not asking for a replica of that original style, but this is a show that absolutely needs its own stamp. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=amazons-utopia-20-images&captions=true"] But what if you’ve never seen the original? Well, you’re still getting one of the most enjoyable TV conspiracy thrillers since The X-Files ruled the airwaves. In essence, it’s the same fantastic lyrics, just set to less interesting music. The puzzle box mystery format actually pays off audience dedication; you’re kept in the dark until the very end, but major plot reveals are dropped at just the right moments, creating an energetic pace. And that mystery is delightfully dark; a twisted look at how people in power can twist the world around their little finger that is unashamedly fictitious rather than reflective of the real world. Sadly, it’s also a show so fascinated with its own puzzle and mythology that its characters barely get a look in. The people you meet in the pilot are left essentially unchanged by their experiences; still boring, still sometimes inexplicably able to find meaning in the art of a graphic novel, just now injured or wearing worse clothes. Again, it’s a shame Utopia stumbles here, because the perfect blueprint for these characters - a different version of the same series - has been sat there since 2013.  

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