Superman may be widely regarded as one of the greatest pop culture icons of all time, but theres one area where even the Man of Steel has struggled to fly. Why, after all these years, arent there any good Superman video games? Where is Supermans answer to Rocksteady Studios' Batman Arkham series or Insomniacs Spider-Man games?With James Gunns Superman movie putting Kal-El back in the spotlight, lets take a step back to explore Supermans incredibly rocky gaming history, and why there still hasnt been a great Superman game after all this time.Supermans Ugly Gaming HistoryIn many ways, the problem with properly depicting Superman in games isnt so different from movies or TV or even the comics. Hes an incredibly powerful character. Some would argue that hes overpowered. When a guy has this level of strength, speed, and invulnerability, not to mention all the other handy powers like flight and heat vision, its hard to paint him as the underdog. How do you build a game around a guy whos basically all-powerful and still create challenges for the player to overcome? The Problem With Supermans PowersSome Superman games have made the mistake of weakening Superman or walling off his powers. That problem dates all the way back to the very first Superman game, 1978s Superman for the Atari 2600. Like a lot of licensed games on that system, youd have to squint to even recognize the source material in those blocky, primitive graphics. But thats not the core issue with the game.Superman tasked players with repairing Lex Luthors damage to Metropolis and capturing the villain and his henchmen in as short a time as possible. Exposure to Kryptonite would cause Superman to lose his powers, with the only cure being a kiss from Lois Lane. Not the most auspicious start for the Man of Steel.The NES game is the perfect example of this frustrating trend. Similar to contemporaries like Castlevania II: Simons Quest and The Legend of Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, the NES Superman featured a top-down overworld map that transitioned into various side-scrolling action levels. However, the game committed the same sin as many superhero games of the time by locking Supermans various powers behind limited-use special meters. That, combined with a generally obtuse and punishing difficulty level, ensured the NES Superman was never much fun to play.When your flight, heat vision, X-ray vision, and other powers are tied to rapidly depleting special meters, you dont really get the sensation youre playing as Superman. Its not as if he normally has to ration his powers in the comics and films. Supermans Generic 90s PhaseThe late 80s and early 90s saw a handful of new Superman games released, including the 1988 Superman arcade game from Taito and the 1992 Sega Genesis side-scroller. These games werent as egregious as their predecessors about walling off Supermans powers. The problem during this period was more that Superman was relegated to generic side-scrollers and beat-em-up titles - the same fare gamers were being inundated with across the industry.The most notable release in this crop is 1994s The Death and Return of Superman. Based on the popular comic book crossover, that game cast players as both Superman and his replacements from the comics like The Eradicator and Steel. It was basically DCs answer to Spider-Man: Maximum Carnage, coming in an era when the prevailing wisdom for superhero games was when in doubt, make an arcade-style brawler. Fine for keeping Superman in the public consciousness, but not for forging games that truly take advantage of his vast powerset. Its tough to truly feel like a Man of Steel when youre just moving left to right and punching endless waves of generic enemies.The Infamous Superman 64Supermans gaming fortunes seemed to be on a slow upswing in the 90s, only for the franchise to reach its nadir with 1999s Superman: The New Adventures. Or as we all know it, Superman 64. Put simply, Superman 64 is still widely regarded as one of the worst games ever made, with clunky flying controls, frustrating difficulty, and more bugs than even Supermans heat vision could hope to melt. Its not exactly a looker, either. Superman 64 highlights the issue that no game has really nailed the art of controlling Superman in flight in a 3D environment. Superman 64 forced players to steer a clunky Man of Steel through an endless series of rings and obstacle courses in a fog-covered Metropolis. Much later, Superman Returns would emerge with a somewhat better and more intuitive system of flight control, but the lack of Superman games since means no one has iterated on that design. Fortunately, the franchise did bounce back a bit with the release of 2002s Superman: Shadow of Apokolips on the PS2 and Gamecube. Compared to Superman 64, that game did a much better job of capturing the look and feel of the animated series. That said, the gameplay never matched up to the production values. If this is generally considered to be the best Superman game of all time, thats still damning it with faint praise.Superman the ProtectorSome of the more modern games have veered in a different direction by making Superman himself invulnerable but centering gameplay on rescuing civilians and protecting Metropolis. In some ways, that feels like a step in the right direction. The key to understanding Superman is realizing that, as powerful as he is, he cant save everybody. He does have limits.For example, the Xbox got its own Superman game in 2002 courtesy of Infogrames in the form of Superman: The Man of Steel. Based on the comics rather than the animated series or movies, this game pitted Supes against Brainiac. While the game succeeded in giving players control of a wide variety of super-powers, the lousy controls and emphasis on protection missions served as a one-two punch of doom.Then theres 2006s Superman Returns, a game with interesting ideas but subpar execution. The game featured most of the cast from the film reprising their roles, along with other iconic Superman villains like Bizarro and Metallo for good measure. To its credit, the game didnt put many limits on Supermans abilities as it introduced an open-world version of Metropolis. In fact, the Man of Steel himself was effectively invulnerable, with Metropolis itself having a health meter. But between the poor controls, equally bad graphics, and the fact that the games final boss was a literal tornado, Superman Returns was ultimately panned. Building a game around rescuing innocent bystanders (like Superman: The Man of Steel) or protecting Metropolis itself (like Superman Returns) can be an exercise in frustration. Protection missions in games are always a tough sell. Without fine-tuned controls and an NPC AI smart enough not to be actively fighting against the player at all times, these missions can be aggravating at best and downright rage-inducing at worst. How Should the Superman Franchise Move Forward?Shockingly, thats it for Kal-Els gaming career. Its been almost 20 years since the release of Superman Returns, and the Man of Steel has yet to star in another dedicated game. His subsequent gaming appearances have been limited to Justice League-centric series like Injustice: Gods Among Us and LEGO Batman. Superman is also playable in Fortnite, but there hes basically just a dude that flies and shoots lasers. At some point, developers seem to have given up trying to crack the Superman code. The gaming world has yet to deliver that satisfying Superman experience that embraces all his incredible powers while still creating a sense of danger. Whats the key? Do you load up enemies with Kryptonite weapons? Do you follow the example of the Injustice games and create a super-strength-bestowing MacGuffin that levels the playing field? Maybe theres a better question to be asking. Does a Superman game even really need combat in the first place? Certainly, Telltale found success with the Batman franchise in an adventure game setting. Could Superman benefit from a similarly narrative-driven approach? Is a full-blown Superman point-and-click adventure game the way to go? Maybe, but there are other ways of downplaying action in superhero games.Does a Superman game even really need combat in the first place?Were seeing modern AAA games like Death Stranding start to deemphasize combat in favor of other mechanics (some would argue the Death Stranding games would be better if they eschewed combat entirely). Maybe the key is to pivot away from a traditional action game focus in favor of finding other ways to explore and utilize Supermans powers.2005s Shadow of the Colossus offers another possible path forward. That game isnt devoid of action, but it does break the traditional mold by focusing on exploration and limiting combat to the battles with a handful of massive boss characters. Maybe thats the key to getting Superman right. Rather than pitting him against generic goons like Parademons or Intergang agents, perhaps the goal should be to focus on a handful of epic, prolonged boss battles. Picture Kal-Els fight with the kaiju in James Gunns Superman movie and youll have some idea of how a Superman game could play out. Ultimately, flight, not combat, is the most important component of a Superman game. Flight in Superman games is really as key to the overall success as web-slinging in Spider-Man games. Activision nailed that element in 2004s Spider-Man 2, paving the way for Insomniac to cut loose in their Spider-Man games. We cant say the same for Superman. Without more modern Superman games to take risks and explore the possibilities, the character has completely stagnated in this medium. Its probably going to take some trial and error before a developer hits upon the perfect, Arkham-esque formula for Kal-El. And that requires DC to prioritize Superman in the video game arena once more. With any luck, James Gunns Superman movie will be a major success, thereby serving as the catalyst the character needs in the gaming world.For more, check out Wolverine's clawful history in video games and the long road to perfecting Batman in games.

Dispatched by the crown as part of a secret expedition to a remote island part of the realm, you're ready for a life of adventure. But in third-person RPG Of Ash and Steel you're not one of the highly-trained, well-armored holy knights trying to enforce the will of the king you're the clever orphan-turned-cartographer along for the ride because the maps of the island, Grayshaft, are pretty bad. Perhaps they're bad because the island suffers periodic volcanic eruptions so devastating that it's blanketed in deadly ash that cakes inside your lungs and kills you, eruptions so awful that ships avoid the island for the entire year when one seems imminent.Which is obviously why brave cartographer Tristan has agreed to go there. And so like many fantasy protagonists, Tristan will soon be in way over his headall because he wanted a bit of adventurewhen the holy knights are all dead and he's the only one left to deliver the urgent missive. At least, that's what a hands-on preview with a beta build tutorial and first few hours of Ash and Steel told me.Of Ash and Steel looks like a pretty traditional RPG, reminiscent of classics from the 2000s. It's unapologetic about not giving you quest markers or anything but in-world directions, but at the same time it does highlight loot on the ground or chests you can interact with when you're near them. It's somewhere between Gothic and the first Witcher game, in its own way, with a nod toward the survival-centric games of the last decade or so. While it doesn't go all-in on survival and encumbrance, Ash and Steel still has something of the 2019 RPG Outward in it.It's unapologetic about not giving you quest markers or anything but in-world directions.More than anything, Of Ash and Steel feels like a game in the legacy of dearly departed mid-tier RPG studio Piranha Bytes, creators of the Gothic, Risen, and Elex series. That includes the signature campy acting mixed in with some decent drama, as well as plenty of oddball and unexpected humor. (One early quest has you finding the soiled trousers of a man who, when drunk, just craps himself and leaves the pants right there to clean up later.)Perhaps its most old-school feature is how it has no level scaling in its worldcreatures are a fixed level in a fixed location, forever. You're warned early on that going off the path can be dangerous, and each new enemy encounter is often a question of getting close enough to see if it massively out-levels you before you decide to try and take it on or notand hope for good loot when you do. Coupled with that lethal-but-rewarding exploration is the rudiments of a survival system, where staying fed and watered is a must to survive, and setting up shop at pre-determined campsites lets Tristan rest and cook to regain hit points and pick up buffs. It also passes time, which is useful in a world where the NPCs and monsters follow a schedule of their own as to when and where they appear, or even when they're taking a nap and won't talk to you about your very urgent quest.Tristan has three skill trees, and perhaps the most pressing one is Combat. Investing in combat skills lets you pick up to three different stances to fight from, each of which looks to have different effects based on what kind of weapons you're wieldingthere were axes, swords, clubs, daggers, and a crossbow. Sadly, poor starter Tristan wasn't strong or competent enough to wield most of them.Which is a big part of what I think the story developer Fire Frost is telling with Of Ash and Steel. This isn't a fantasy hero game where your character starts as competent at any useful skills relevant to his current situation. It's going to be a zero-to-hero story, with other characters in the world reacting to Tristan as he grows stronger. "If at the beginning of the game you were treated like a ragamuffin," said Fire Frost, "by the end of the game the characters will literally bow to your feet."There was a hint of that in action during the preview play, as characters who previously saw Tristan dressed only in threadbare clothing later had complimentary things to say about a suit of basic armor I'd purchased. Where before they'd just asked: "Are you really wearing that?" they later said, "Ah, I had a sturdy suit like that when I was younger."And a sturdy suit of armor is much needed, because the fighting can get pretty brutal. Armor will help you survive a few hits, but the stamina-based combat was really based around perfectly timed dodges and parries. Tristan's attacks, at least at the start of the game, are slow and clumsyhe's literally never fought before. As he got combat skills, though, he moved more confidently and picked up the ability to parry in a way that opened up enemies for counterattacks. That blended well with a fast knife, which let him get in those hits before quickly going back on his guard. Still, there's some tweaking to do on the early stages of the fightingsome people will definitely bounce right off of how clumsy Tristan was, or just won't be familiar with the time-honored strategy of "train the difficult enemy into a nearby powerful NPC."A sturdy suit of armor is much needed, because the fighting can get pretty brutal.Speaking of trying to survive, that's the focus of Tristan's other two skill trees: Survival and Crafting. They're much more down-to-earth, practical skillsets simply due to their nature. Survival lets you keep yourself fed and alive, while Crafting lets you upgrade and upkeep your equipment. Crafting also does one very important job: Makes you money. Quests and other odd jobs are a great source of experience and cash, sure, but paying people to train Tristan in all these new skills ain't cheap.What was cool is that investments of money and skill points into the Craft and Survival trees actually did pay off in combat. A good craftsman can better sharpen their weapon for bonus damage, or reinforce their armor for extra defense. Survivalists, meanwhile, could pick up nasty tricks like thrown daggers and the use of poisons on their weaponsthough poor preview Tristan was a bit too intellectually dull and low-level to get to try those skills out.Even with all the advantages of level and time, however, Of Ash and Steel is definitely going to be a game where you get your butt kicked. A lot. Quicksave, I expect, is Tristan's greatest friend in the world. Enemies hit hard, and enemies that are higher level than you hit extremely hardor even so fast that poor low-level Tristan simply stood no chance of reacting in time, let alone getting a single attack in. As a result, he got splatted by a lot of things. He got mauled by a giant rat-thing. Trampled by a big bug. Eaten by a lizard-thing. Dismembered by all manner of bandits, both living and apparently undead.And the only dang reason Tristan didn't get splatted by this giant troll is because when everything can splat you, well, you get pretty good pretty fast at running and climbing your way out of danger.While some people might find that kind of thing frustrating, Of Ash and Steel was pretty nice on that count. The action-RPG combat was somehow clunkier than a FromSoftware game but settled into its own rhythm after a while, and hopefully gets more and more fluid with more skills and abilities in the full game. Don't expect miracles from Of Ash and Steel, but the preview was evidence of a promising mid-tier RPG that'll likely enthuse ye olde genre purists while still being accessible and interesting enough to draw in lovers of more modern character-driven action.

This piece contains spoilers for Superman (2025) and Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow (2021)Ever since the "Gods and Monsters" slate was announced by James Gunn and his co-CEO at DC Studios, Peter Safran, one thing has been clear: Kryptonians are at the center of the new DCU. With Superman finally hitting screens, we've gotten to meet David Corenswet's delightfully pure Clark Kent who will clearly be the beating heart of the new franchise. Just like him, the film is colorful, kind, and filled with compassion. It's a perfect Superman and establishes a wide and expansive new DCU with centuries of characters, adventures, and villains to dig into. But as the film comes to an end we get an unexpected guest, one who will be key to the future of the franchise. See, it turns out that Clark is not the only one who survived the death of the planet he once called home. And as we learn in the final moments of the movie, Clark has another relative and we get to meet her in unforgettable style before she headlines the upcoming Supergirl film. Introducing Milly Alcocks SupergirlIn an actually shocking, not leaked, and very fun introduction we get our first on screen glimpse of the DCU's Supergirl. As Clark returns to the Fortress of Solitude to heal, Kara Zor-El crash lands into Kal-El's hideout looking for her pet dog Krypto. That's right, this is the foster situation that Superman alluded to earlier in the film. He's been babysitting the iconic Super Pet for his cousin who has been out partying on other planets where she can actually get wasted more on that later. But her introduction may have thrown off fans of the sweet-hearted baby-faced Kryptonian from the comics or the popular CW Arrowverse, seeing as this Kara is... a little different. As you may have guessed from the fact she loves drinking and she crash landed, this isn't the innocent, sweet, and often well behaved Kara that most of us know. Instead she swears, stumbles, and even calls Clark a bitch while sarcastically thanking him for dogsitting. As Superman Robot 4 A.K.A. Gary (Alan Tudyk) and Superman discuss her clearly unhealthy lifestyle as well as her rough and tumble relationship with Krypto, she exits stage left with her faithful pup and heads out on another adventure, which while not a post-credits scene does give us a glimpse at whats to come for the immediate future of the DCU. How Superman Sets Up Supergirl"Im sick of the superhero title, colon, other-name thing," Gunn recently shared in an interview. That explains why both Superman originally titled Superman: Legacy and Supergirl originally titled Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow ended up with their shortened names. That's important to note here as the version of Kara that we get in Superman is decidedly from Woman of Tomorrow, the 2021 eight-issue limited series by Bilquis Everly and Tom King, which director Craig Gillespie and writer Ana Nogueira are adapting for their upcoming 2026 Supergirl movie. Seeing as Supergirl is only in Superman for around two minutes, you might be questioning just how it's setting up her film other than introducing the curse-loving version of Kara. But it's all in the details, especially when it comes to her hard-drinking approach to heroics. During a press event that IGN attended, Gunn described this Kara as "much more hardcore and not the Supergirl we're used to" and that's underselling it. In the comic which inspired this version of our Kryptonian heroine, we see Kara as a hard-drinking 21 year old who has been touring planets with red suns in order to be able to get wasted. Why does she love to drink? Well, in this version she was raised on an exploded piece of her planet and forced to watch her loved ones die as she hurtled towards Earth. The story follows Kara as she drinks her way across the galaxy with Krypto in order to celebrate her 21st birthday. She gets into fist fights, brawls, and finds herself in more than a couple of life-threatening ruckuses, but it's when she meets a young woman named Ruthye Marye Knoll that her quest changes. Ruthye's father was killed by a brutal thief named Krem of the Yellow Hills, and she enlists Kara to help her kill him. Inspired by the classic Western film True Grit, with a wild fantasy sci-fi twist, this is a genre story unlike any other as Ruthye and Kara team up on a quest for revenge which feels like a far cry from the sweet, heartfelt, and decidedly family-friendly Superman. By simply name dropping the comic that will inspire her upcoming film, Gunn and Co. arent shying away from just how different Clark and Kara are. Weve already seen her curse and stumble about the fortress before clumsily flying away with Kyrpto to presumably wreak more havoc. By establishing the super cousins status quo early, fans already have a glimpse of whats to come when they next meet the Girl of Steel on her dangerous quest to help Ruthye get revenge for her father. Why Supergirl's New Attitude Works in the DCUDuring Superman we meet Rachel Brosnahan's fiercely driven Lois Lane and Nicholas Holt's obsessive Lex Luthor alongside the heroic titular Kryptonian. But the film isn't just concerned with the core cast as Gunn pulls from deep comic book canon to bring characters like the Engineer (Maria Gabriela de Faria) , Eve Teschmacher (Sara Sampio), and everyone's favorite Lex Luthor minion... Sydney Happersen (Stephen T. Blackehart). This is a world deeply concerned with the under utilized or unexpected takes on characters, and it's what makes this Kara feel so right. Instead of taking from the most well-known version of The Girl of Steel, we instead get the hard-drinking, depressed, and hilarious version from Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow. It opens up potential that could deal with some of the most interesting and under explored aspects of Supergirl and her history in comics. It's not just innovative, though. It actually makes a lot of sense. In the comics Kara was always supposed to be the elder Kryptonian survivor, sent to look after baby Kal-El as he heads to Earth in order to survive the destruction of his home planet. No matter what version of her story you read, you learn that Kara was essentially frozen in time as she took years to reach Earth, leading her to look younger than her cousin and arrive on Earth after he's already an established hero. That's not an easy thing to live with, and while Kara has often taken a more hopeful approach inspired by her famous relative, it's nice to think that we might see her get to explore and express the reality of that, which is far more horrifying and sad than you might think. More From the Fortress of SolitudeSuperman Ending and Post-Credits Scene ExplainedSuperman ReviewSuperman and Why the Battle for Truth, Justice and A Better Tomorrow Is NeverendingRanking the Superman ActorsThe Utterly Bizarre History of Superman's PowersSuperman Movies Ranked Worst to Best and Where to Watch ThemThis isn't even just something that is explored in Supergirl: Woman of Tomorrow either. Throughout Kara's history she's been dealing with this trauma and the nightmare of being killed and resurrected during the original Crisis on Infinite Earths, something you can learn more about in Mark Waid's recent New History of the DC Universe and we've never gotten to really see it on screen in a way that centers Kara and still allows her to be the hero of her own story. The upcoming Supergirl film has a chance to rectify that, giving us as the audience a rich and layered take on the hero and granting Kara a new lease on life when it comes to exploring her future after the horrors shes endured. .If you're looking for more Supergirl to read as you wait for the new movie, the current Supergirl series by award-winning cartoonist Sophie Campbell and colorist Tamara Bonvillian is a far cheerier affair, but it does reintroduce Kara in a really interesting and thoughtful way that also brings her back to around 21 years old. Given that this is around the same age as she is in the DCU and Gunns expressed interest in keeping a huge swath of the new DC Universe connected, it'll be interesting to see how else the mainline DC books dovetail with the DCU and the co-chairs wider exploration of Kara as a hero and survivor of the Kryptonian destruction. For now though, we'll just look forward to another yet another punk rock addition to Gunn's ever growing new roster of DC heroesThis Supergirl Will Finally Allow Kara to Grow UpIf Supergirl spent the majority of the Silver and Bronze Age as an empowered and self-assured young woman, representing the type of reader DC hoped to attract, she spent most of the modern era as a good girl in a mini-skirt. Readers have rarely gotten to explore the inner depths of Supergirl and even the most passionate Kara fans wouldn't say that her big screen career has been fruitful let alone layered. Here we get to see a Supergirl that is already defying our expectations, a young woman who is on her own journey after her life was upended on an unfulfilled quest to save her young charge. If the previous Supergirl iterations represented the type of audience that DC was trying to attract in the past, this Kara should tell us about what Gunn and DC are trying to attract to the DCU. There's an understanding here that women of all ages need complicated and thoughtful representation and that sometimes looks like a woman with a hangover calling a man (of Steel) a bitch. If The Suicide Squad's Ratcatcher II was Gunn's loveletter to tired millennials then Kara can be Gen Zs proverbial eff you to the expected contraints and respectability that women are forced into. Rosie Knight is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything from anime to comic books to kaiju to kids movies to horror flicks. She has over half a decade of experience in entertainment journalism with bylines at Nerdist, Den of Geek, Polygon, and more.

Stephen King is no stranger to unhappy adaptations, and MGM+s The Institute is merely the latest to lose most of the authors defining nuance and heart in the move from page to screen. His knack for capturing hope amidst ungodly challenges is nowhere to be found; neither is his way of depicting the peculiar spark that comes from being on the precipice of growing up in a world that cares too little for your feelings. But you can feel the bones there. The man loves underpinning his tales with earnestness, and, of course, has long been interested in supernaturally powerful children like Luke Ellis (Joe Freeman) and his fellow prisoners at the shows titular facility for unusually gifted kids. But this translation of Kings 2019 novel wants to quickly manufacture atmosphere rather than allowing it to build naturally. Theres no sense of dread or foreboding in the early episodes; everything seems fairly self-explanatory. Theres not much novelty in a story about kids with powers being enlisted by a shadowy organization, either (even one that purports to be doing its part for the greater good), and the plodding pace of The Institute gives viewers little more to chew on. Alongside the precocious and perceptive Luke and his peers, we get a sense of higher-up shenanigans through The Institutes head honcho, Mrs. Sigsby (Mary Louise Parker), and Tim Jamieson (Ben Barnes), a former cop with a heart of gold who finds himself trying to get to the bottom of what exactly is happening up at The Institute. But none of these plotlines ever get to spend enough time with the characters to make their conundrums seem compelling. When watching Tim forge connections with prickly town citizens feels more gripping than watching him unravel a mystery, its a problem. And not just because its built on a story by King, a writer so adept at gripping readers with foreboding heft in both style and substance. Instead, it feels like The Institute is consistently dodging the interesting parts of its own story. When Luke arrives, Mrs. Sigsby attempts to buck him up by saying that he and his fellow kids shouldnt be called kids because theyre working an adult job and may as well be grown ups. Its a small detail but a potentially telling one except The Institute doesnt invest in the mindset all that much.That choice becomes a tell for how it handles the reveal of what these kids are being used for. Again: theres no real surprises as to why theyre being imprisoned and experimented on youve seen one show about kids who can move things with their minds, youve seen them all. And the choice to draw out any reveals and then blow past their consequences doesnt read as confidence in the greater story and its emotional bedrock. The Institute cant quite make a case for itself on either end. In the beginning, its all set up where finer points cant be discussed in detail; with the final episodes, its all action-packed resolution with no time to slow down.The result is just the most boring version of itself, a show that wants us so badly to care about these kids and their strife it forgets to give them a reason to do so. By the time a character, completely out of nowhere, says he might need to use an unjustly vilified phrase, a final solution, its over. Whatever greater world the show is trying to build can't account for the lack of care for details or characterization that leads to Nazi sympathizer surprise. Theres no sense of dread or foreboding in the early episodes of The Institute.Perhaps its that Kings literary structure doesnt lend itself well to a backloaded TV adaptation. His books are studied, deliberately building towards a point with things that got peppered in along the way so he can really drive everything home all at once. Sometimes its a final straw driving a man insane, and other times its a surprise orgy, but his final acts have a knack for flowing out of everything hes built even as he twists it just one more time. Theres nothing like that in MGM+s The Institute; it crawls its way through its story just so it can limp across the finish line.

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Zach Cregger, the filmmaker behind the new Resident Evil movie, is keen to let fans of the franchise to know ahead of time that his adaptation won't be "completely obedient to the lore of the games".While the filmmaker doesn't specify how (or how much) his take differs from the source material in the new issue of SFX magazine, which features Alien: Earth on the cover and hits newsstands on Wednesday, July 16, he doesn't think it breaks "any major rules."Cregger, who's best known for helming twisty horror hit Barbarian, explains: "I am a gigantic Resident Evil game fan. I've played them all. I don't know how many times I've just looped [RE4] again and again. I just love it. I'm definitely not trying to be completely obedient to the lore of the games;"I'm trying to tell a story that just feels authentic to the experience you get when you play the games. I don't think Im breaking any major rules, but I also recognize that no matter what I do, people are going to come for me online," he candidly continues. "So all I want to do is just make a really good movie and tell a story that's compelling. I know that I'm gonna be happy with the movie, and hopefully other people will, too."Not a subscriber to SFX? Then head on over here to get the latest issues sent directly to your home/device!Since it's not even begun filming yet, little is known about Cregger's big-screen Resi outing, which he co-wrote with Shay Hatten -- though there are rumors circulating that it'll center on a down-on-his-luck courier who's tasked with delivering a package to a remote hospital. En route, he finds himself caught in the middle of a viral apocalypse and forced to fight hordes of mutated creatures. Austin Abrams (Euphoria, Wolfs) is the only actor linked to the project so far, and even then his involvement has not been confirmed.If he is cast, the film will mark the second collaboration between Cregger and Abrams, following upcoming mystery thriller Weapons. Starring Dune's Josh Brolin and Fantastic Four's Julia Garner, it centers on a small-town community which been shattered by the sudden disappearance of a bunch of neighborhood kids. The most bizarre part? All of the missing children were students in a local teacher's glass. Was she complicit? Brolin's devastated father is going to find out...Resident Evil releases on September 18, 2026, while Weapons comes out on August 8. Read more in the latest issue of SFX magazine, which will be available from Wednesday, July 16. Here's the Alien: Earth cover you need to be looking out for on newsstands below...This summer, everyone will hear you screamOur very special #AlienEarth issue, with brand new interviews, exclusive double-sided poster, art cards and stickers, is on sale worldwide from 16 July.Pre-order a copy from the link in our bio, while stocks last!@DisneyPlusUK @hulu pic.twitter.com/p1iBsWwomLJuly 10, 2025

Things are set to go bump in the night on stage with news that Paranormal Activity is returning to a different kind of theater. According to Variety, a new play inspired by the franchise that began in 2009 is set to scare audiences in a whole new way via a fresh chapter crammed with creaky floorboards and doors slowly closing shut.Set to arrive in the London West End this winter, Paranormal Activity: A New Story Live on Stage will follow James and Lou, a couple who move from Chicago to London and discover that their new pad has some unwanted tenants residing in it. Naturally, they take the standard approach that the franchise was founded on and set up a handheld camera to pick up whatever it is that's going bump in the night.Felix Barrett is directing the production, whose previous work includes the critically acclaimed Sleep No More, an immersive experience where the audience wears masks and is allowed to follow the cast of the production. Levi Holloway has penned the play, whose work includes the hair-raising stage play, Grey House. The new show will run at the Ambassadors Theatre for 12 weeks, creepily kicking things off on December 5.Following the announcement, Barrett gave a statement saying, From seeing the advertising campaign of the film 20 years ago, where you watched cinema audiences leap out of their chairs in horror, I have long wondered how you could recreate that visceral reaction in a theater setting. How do you bring one of the most frightening films to life? How do you break the inherent safety that a plush West End theater offers? Its been an incredible challenge, and we cannot wait to see how London audiences respond.It'll be interesting to see just how the tension can be ramped up on stage, given that the show is inspired by a franchise that depends on only minor alterations in scenes before the ghostly presence makes itself more aggressively known. For now, if you want your bones chilled this weekend, why not take a peek at our ranking of found footage horror films here.

Across almost 40 years of games, The Legend of Zelda series has reincarnated its central characters countless of times, putting them above the clouds or on the high seas or in a post-post-apocalyptic fallen kingdom. So it's not too outlandish to think that, at some point in the convoluted Zelda timeline, our heroes would be born again in the court room.That's the case with an uncanny Ocarina of Time mod called 'Hero of Law' that turns the N64 classic into the game it was always meant to be, kinda: Ace Attorney.The Newer Team modders have essentially used Ocarina of Time's polygonal models as a baseline for a legal drama set in Hyrule that riffs on Ace Attorney's deduction gameplay. You'll be cross-examining evidence, finding inconsistencies in witness statements, and making big fat objections, but this time with Zelda characters. Link even hits the Phoenix Wright pointing pose. Perfect.You can download the mod from Newer Team's website, though of course you'll need "to provide an Ocarina of Time N64 ROM or Wii Virtual Console WAD file." There's even a free, spoiler-free walkthrough if you're having trouble.In case you're unfamiliar, Newer Team is a modding collective focused on Nintendo games and it's previously put out mega popular mods for New Super Mario Bros. and 3D Mario, some of which have been downloaded more than half a million times. It's nice to see them stretching in more, wild directions.Court room beef not your thing? Check out the very best Legend of Zelda games of all time.

One scrapped Far Cry 4 idea sounded so cool, the open-world game's director thinks "that's where the fun of the whole genre might lie."Far Cry is obviously famous for its scene chewing villains - some of which are flamboyant, some of which are menacing, all of which are plain fun - and Far Cry 4 is no different. But the series almost always puts us at odds with the bad guys, so an early idea for the fourquel saw players being able to choose where their loyalties lie.Speaking to Edge 413 - out now - Assassin's Creed 3 and Far Cry 4 creative director Alex Hutchinson revealed that a discarded idea for the FPS let players give outposts back to the game's villain, Pagan Min, after capturing them the first time. Ubisoft's open-world games are traditionally about conquering/clearing a map, but this idea would've let you flip the script."Like, if you empathise with the villain - if you think, 'Actually, I don't think he was as bad as they said, and I don't like these people I've got into bed with'? That sort of freedom of expression, of going back and changing your mind, I thought could be really, really interesting," he explained. "I think that's where the fun of the whole genre might lie."Far Cry 7 is nowhere to be seen at the moment, but hopefully an idea like that can creep its way back into the series, especially since Far Cry 6 left me feeling kind of cold when all was said and done.Over 10 years since launch, Far Cry 4 reportedly censors nudity in a new PC patch, and Ubisoft hasn't explained why

One Ubisoft veteran reckons the key to making a good open-world game is embracing the genre's inherent slapstick comedy and giving up some of that authored control.Big old open worlds are just as popular as they've ever been. This year alone we've seen Assassin's Creed Shadows and Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 let players loose in sometimes scarily dense maps, people are still uncovering all the silly little details in Death Stranding 2, plus GTA 6 and Ghost of Yotei are also still on the horizon.Looking back on the genre he somewhat helped shape in an interview with Edge Magazine, Assassin's Creed 3 and Far Cry 4 creative director Alex Hutchinson said developers "need to put the player in deep" to really make an open world sing. "You need to immerse players in a satirical world and let them stumble across the bizarre situations and the excessive consequences.""I think in open-world games, specifically, once you give up the idea that there's authorial timing, and you say that, no, the player is in charge of the timing - and it's like slapstick, and you're just setting up the opportunity for jokes or scenarios that are funny - then suddenly it becomes the interactive comedy, and then that's funny again," Hutchinson said.For all the criticism, deserved and otherwise, that Ubisoft games get, you can't deny that they're really good at putting systems in place and giving players the tools to make their own fun. What starts as a simple outpost infiltration in Far Cry 4, say, turns into a hectic elephant vs. human beef before you paraglide the heck outta there. Maybe that's what makes the best open-world games tick.Far Cry 4 lead reveals a cut idea for enemy camps that would have completely changed the story: "I think that's where the fun of the whole genre might lie"