It's no secret that the Borderlands movie did not perform well, with audiences and critics alike ridiculing everything from the film's casting choices to its dialogue. Even some of its creators disliked the film--writer Craig Mazin was so unhappy with the final cut that he requested his name be removed from the film's credits. Now, director Eli Roth is opening up about what went wrong behind the scenes, citing the COVID-19 pandemic as a major factor in the film's poor reception.

Appearing on a recent episode of The Town podcast, Roth was asked about Borderlands, and initially seemed unwilling to give a detailed answer, saying that if he talked about what happened, "someone's going to look bad, and usually it's just the director."

Roth did detail his first time viewing the final cut of the film, which grossed only $33 million worldwide. From the way he describes it, it seems the director wasn't sure what to expect when he sat down to watch his film.

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There were reportedly 5.3 million people in the US who watched the Season 2 premiere of The Last of Us. That same-day viewership tops Season 1's debut night over two years ago, which saw 4.7 million people checking out the HBO series.

According to Deadline, HBO noted that the 5.3 million same-day viewers for The Last of Us Season 2 premiere represents a 10% increase over Season 1. The debut episode of the show--which is based on Naughty Dog's video game franchise--has now been seen by 32 million people. That's apparently the most ever for an HBO and Max series premiere.

In 2023, The Last of Us saw the second-biggest debut on HBO since 2010 when Boardwalk Empire launched. Only House of the Dragon has started off stronger, with almost 10 million viewers watching the Game of Thrones spin-off's premiere on opening night in 2022.

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Bungie finally lifted the lid on its extraction shooter Marathon this week, and while the game looks like a vibrant entry in the genre, it has been negatively compared to Sony's live-service flop Concord. Both games share similar elements, being live-service sci-fi shooters with a colorful art direction, but one former Concord developer wants people to not only give Bungie's project a chance when it launches later this year, but to also show some compassion for the people working on it.

"After reading the comments about Marathon being Concord 2.0 on Reddit, YouTube, and Twitch, I just wanted to share a little insight into what a 40-year-old man is feeling after dedicating a large portion of his life to making videogames," former Firewalk Studios senior VFX artist Stephan Williams wrote on the Marathon subreddit (via VG247). "Seeing the faces of the developers on the Bungie stream gave me hope and excitement for what is to come for Marathon," Williams added. "I commend them for taking a chance, trying something foreign to them, that isn't proven, nor guaranteed to succeed. It takes a lot of courage."

Williams explained that while Concord "failed to inspire players," there were lessons to be learned from that "gut-wrenching" failure. Now a senior VFX artist at Warframe studio Digital Extremes, Williams stressed that video games are meant to be fun and that people need to be kinder to the developers working on them behind the scenes.

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Former PlayStation executive Shuhei Yoshida has shared his thoughts on the Nintendo Switch 2, saying Nintendo is "losing their identity" with the console due to its lack of new and exciting features. Appearing on the Easy Allies podcast, Yoshida said, "I have to be polite," adding, "To me it was a bit [of a] mixed message from Nintendo. In a sense I think Nintendo is losing their identity, in my opinion."

Yoshida, in his decades of experience working in the video game industry, said he observed over the years that Nintendo always stood out by creating some kind of "new experience" that no one saw coming.

"But Switch 2, as we all anticipated, is a better Switch, right? It's a larger screen, more powerful processor, higher resolution, 4K 120fps. They even had their hardware person starting the stream as other platforms do," he said. "And because it's a better Switch, the core premise of the whole Switch 2 is, 'We made things better.' And that's something other companies have been doing all the time."

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Ubisoft has released its colorblind simulation tool, Chroma, to the general public after several years in development. It's available to check out over on Github.

In the announcement, Ubisoft explained that there are an estimated 300 million people across the globe who are impacted by colorblindness. Chroma's purpose is to simulate the three major colorblindness types: Protanopia, Deuteranopia, and Tritanopia.

Ubisoft also said that its quality-control team in India started developing Chroma in 2021. The team wanted to create a tool that could provide real-time feedback so developers could simultaneously control the game and simulate colorblindness.

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The standard battle royale mode is still the main event in Fortnite, but among all the new modes that Epic has added to its metaverse in the past two years, the respawn-focused Reload mode is easily the most popular. And on Tuesday it's adding to its rotating roster of throwback maps with a new mini-island full of locations from Chapter 2, like Slurpy Swamp.

The new map will feature eight named locations, several of which appear to be lifted directly from the Chapter 2 battle royale island, and a few others which are inspired by it. Slurpy Swamp is at the center, which will make for a pretty big change of pace from the urban environments of Tilted Towers and Paradise Palms, the centerpieces of the other two Reload maps. Considering how expansive the swamp is on the map below, it seems as though there will literally be healing slurp just lying around all over the place.

The new Fortnite Reload map.

Fortnite Reload is an OG-ish battle royale mode in which you'll automatically respawn as long as your team doesn't wipe--or, if you're playing solo, you haven't used up all your lives. Reload takes place on much smaller islands than the standard battle royale one, and has a limit of 40 players. Currently, Reload rotates between its two maps every 30 minutes. Presumably, the Slurp Rush map will join that rotation, but not until after an introductory period in which it's the only map available.

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Screenings of A Minecraft movie now have a disclaimer before the movie starts. This is most likely a response due to some of the reported ruckus happening in theaters showing the movie.

A recent recording of someone at A Minecraft Movie showing displayed the new disclaimer. It goes, "Be kind, be respectful. Remember that popcorn buckets are not to be used as Ender Pearls." In Minecraft, an Ender Pearl is an item that can be thrown and it teleports the thrower to where it lands.

Cops have been called into showings of the movie in response to moviegoers throwing popcorn, so this disclaimer is presumably to dissuade this behavior.

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Blizzard posted a lengthy new overview of Overwatch 2's Stadium heroes and how equipping new skills will work ahead of the mode's April 22 release date. Every playable hero has a selection of tweaks that make their kits work differently, though Stadium's initial roster is much more limited than the base game's.

Overwatch 2 Stadium launches with 17 heroes: a mix of classic Overwatch characters and those who debuted with Overwatch 2. All of them will be playable in third-person for Stadium matches.

Tanks

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Mouse Work is a Nintendo Switch 2 game that Shovel Knight Dig developer Nitrome announced shortly after the Nintendo Switch 2 Direct. It's a party game specifically built around the fact that Joy-Con 2 controllers can also be used as mice. There's just one catch: Nitrome doesn't have a Switch 2 development kit yet.

Dev kits are necessary for a game studio to release their game on a platform like Switch 2. Nintendo has reportedly been quite restrictive in distributing Switch 2 development kits prior to its launch this June, which puts indie developers like Nitrome in an awkward situation. Games that get on a new system early are often closely associated with the platform for its lifespan, which can majorly benefit indie titles.

"We recognize that there is an opportunity there if you get something new out of the gate or close to launch, and [if] you use some of the features, there's going to be a decent audience there that wants to try it," studio founder Matthew Annal told me in an interview.

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Former Dragon Age series lead writer David Gaider says that during his later years at BioWare, the studio's Dragon Age team and the Mass Effect team did not get along--nor did the team making Anthem.

"For a long time it was basically two teams under one roof: the Dragon Age team and the Mass Effect team," Gaider said on BlueSky. "Run differently, very different cultures, may as well have been two separate studios. And they didn't get along."

According to Gaider, BioWare knew of the tension between the teams, but despite the fact that various attempts had been made to fix it (including transferring developers between teams), nothing seemed to work.

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When you love horror games as I do, you scour places like Steam for hidden gems. I've come to find a lot of those hidden gems come from DreadXP, the offshoot publishing label of longtime horror outlet Dread Central. But even in the brand's already-strange catalog, White Knuckle stands out. Its scares, so far anyway, don't come in the form of monsters or malicious beings like a usual horror game would feature. Instead, the scares are induced one step at a time in a massive silo where one wrong move means falling to your death.

White Knuckle is a first-person wall-climbing horror game that sees you trying to stay ahead of some kind of murky sludge slowly creeping up an enormously tall silo that was built for reasons I couldn't ascertain in my preview of the game. The context of the place is clearly meant to be part of White Knuckle's allure, and players are surely already trying to piece together that story.

I thought I would persevere through the game's challenging platforming to see more of the story for myself, especially since, early on, the controls were hard to understand, and I wondered if they'd be an obstacle. When a game is so dependent on its controls, it's often the case that the best examples feel natural and fluid right away. White Knuckle is odd in that it feels off at first but doesn't take much longer before it comes together. It's merely the difference of minutes versus seconds.

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A Minecraft Movie has been one of 2025's biggest success stories so far at the box office, so it's no surprise that a sequel is reportedly in the works. Mike De Luca, one of the bosses at Warner Bros., has now commented on plans for a sequel.

He told Deadline that Warner Bros. is planning a sequel to A Minecraft Movie "imminently." The same is true for a sequel to Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, he said.

"The ink might not be dry on the deals yet, but imminently," De Luca said.

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Nintendo's new Zelda Notes app includes a way to fix your damaged equipment in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom for Switch 2--if you're lucky. The weapon-degradation fix is tied to the free app's daily bonus feature, which gives you a random item or effect once each day.

Nintendo highlighted the feature during one of its lengthy Treehouse Live segments following the Switch 2 Direct, and the bonus roulette included things such as meal effects, energy-cell restoration, and stamina recovery. However, Zelda YouTuber Zeltik spotted two additional bonuses during a hands-on with Breath of the Wild's and Tears of the Kingdom's Switch 2 versions--equipment repair and bow repair.

The roulette didn't land on either for Zeltik during their demo, so it's unclear how the repair bonus actually works. "Bow repair" is self-explanatory in that it'll repair a bow, of course, though "equipment repair" is a little more vague. Link's other, non-bow equipment in both games includes shields and breakable weapons, but there's no indication yet as to which category that repair might apply to.

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GoldenEye 007 is one of the most iconic and beloved games ever, but it's never gotten a proper remaster. That's not for a lack of trying, though. Stephen Kick, the head of Nightdive Studios, said in an interview that the company tried to make it happen--but Nintendo apparently shut it down.

Nightdive is known for bring back old games for modern consoles, with some of the titles under its belt including Turok, Doom 64, and Quake II, among many others.

Kick told VGC that it was "a real heartbreak" for the GoldenEye remaster to fail to come together. Kick said Nightdive put "a lot of effort" into pitching the game and assembling a "dream team" to make it happen. He said the MGM/Eon side of the equation was on board, but things fell apart when it came to Nintendo.

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Lego Wednesday Addams Figure (702 pieces)

$30 (was $50) | $27 with coupon

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Lego Wednesday and Enid's dorm room playset (750 pieces)

$63 (was $90) | $53.54 with coupon

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Fans of Netflix's Addams Family TV series Wednesday can take advantage of terrific deals on the pair of Wednesday Lego sets that launched last fall. One of the deals slashes the price of a 702-piece Lego set to just $30, while the other reduces a $90 set to only $63. Depending on where you live in the US, you can possibly save even more on both of the Lego Wednesday sets by clicking the coupon boxes on the store pages.

Lego Wednesday Addams Figure (702 pieces) $30 (was $50) | $27 with coupon

First off, there's the Wednesday Addams figure for only $30 (was $50). Shoppers who live in the Midwest can get an additional 10% off, dropping the price to only $27.

Based on the incarnation of the character played by Jenna Ortega, this is a cute replica that reimagines her as a cartoon-like character on a stylish display base. This brick-built version of Wednesday comes with two face and outfit options, Thing, and two secret lockable drawers containing various accessories. Once fully built, the 702-piece set stands nearly 13 inches tall.

See at Amazon Lego Wednesday and Enid's dorm room playset (750 pieces) $63 (was $90) | $53.54 with coupon

The second set, Wednesday and Enid's Dorm Room, is geared toward younger fans and is a faithful recreation of the academy location. Normally $90, it's discounted to $63 for all customers as part of a limited-time deal at Amazon. Once again, shoppers in the Midwest can save more by clicking the 15%-off coupon box, dropping the price all the way down to $53.54.

This is a 750-piece set that includes a buildable dorm room with a spiderweb window that opens, a base with buttons that open secret drawers, and a balcony with four gargoyles. It also comes with four minifigures--two versions of Wednesday and Enid--alongside different outfits, wigs, and facial expressions for them.

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Looking for more deals on classic film and TV franchises turned Lego sets? You can save $40 on the Lego Icons Back to the Future Time Machine at Amazon. The 1,872-piece building set lets you build one of the three different designs of the DeLorean car from the film trilogy.

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Studio Chaf has announced that it is shutting down its debut game, Velev, days after it launched into Steam Early Access on April 9.

"As some of you may have already noticed, we weren't able to reach the point we needed to continue supporting and servicing Velev," the development team said in a statement. "Despite our best efforts, we couldn't secure the investment we needed from VCs or larger partners. With limited options, we made the decision to launch in Early Access, hoping for the best."

Chalf added that the studio understood that Velev wasn't in the best state when it launched as a paid early access title on Steam. However, it was the only viable path forward in order to continue development. Unfortunately, Chaf is stepping away from development and bringing Velev to a close.

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Respawn Entertainment and Bit Reactor have announced the official name of their Star Wars turn-based tactics game, which is Star Wars Zero Company. It will release for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S.

While they didn't provide any other info for the game aside from confirming that it's single-player, they did show a piece of key art and said that the first look at the game will take place at Star Wars Celebration on April 9.

The key art shows a variety of different people, including Jedi, Droids, Mandalorians, and more, indicating that these could be possible playable classes in Star Wars Zero Company.

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Call of Duty developer Pete Actipis, who is the game director on CoD: Warzone at Raven Software, has teased Activision's plans for the OG map, Verdansk, which just recently returned to the game.

As many may recall, Warzone's original battle royale map was featured in the game from launch in March 2020 to December 2021. It was gone for years until its return earlier this month. Actipis told IGN that Activision "brought Verdansk back for a reason."

"It wasn't just to bring it back for a season and kind of say goodbye to it again. A lot of effort went into it," Actipis said. "So for the time being Verdansk is sticking around and this is just the beginning of the Verdansk 2025 journey, and then we'll see how things go from there."

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When it comes to PC games, nothing is odder than the Oddworld series, and you can get every game--barring that one Game Boy Color spin-off--in the series for just a $1 right now through Fanatical. This includes six games and two pieces of DLC, and once purchased, you'll receive codes that can be redeemed on your Steam account.

Oddworld: Complete Collection Bundle See on Fanatical

• Oddworld: Abe's Oddysee (Steam Deck Playable)
• Oddworld: New 'n Tasty (Steam Deck Playable)
• Oddworld: New 'n Tasty Alf's Escape DLC
• Oddworld: New 'n Tasty Scrub Abe costume
• Oddworld: Abe's Exoddus (Steam Deck Playable)
• Oddworld: Munch's Oddysee
• Oddworld: Soulstorm Enhanced Edition (Steam Deck Playable)
• Oddworld: Stranger's Wrath HD (Steam Deck Playable)

In case you've never played it, the Oddworld series kicked off in 1997 with Abe's Oddysee, a platforming game with impressive visuals for the time and unforgiving gameplay. As Abe, a Mudokon slave who discovers that his downtrodden people are about to be slaughtered and turned into a new product. Abe sets out on a quest to escape the factory he's imprisoned in and rescue as many of his fellow Mudokons as he can. The game had a fairly steep learning curve, but it was still praised for its imaginative design and clever platforming segments.

Abe's Oddysee would receive several direct sequels over the years, starting with Abe's Exoddus in 1998 and continuing through 2001's Munch's Oddysee, and 2005's Stranger's Wrath. Each one of those games added new twists to the Oddworld formula, and in 2014, Abe's Oddysee was remade and was released to positive reviews. The last game in the series, Soulstorm, was released in 2021 and it was a remake of Abe's Exoddus. Reception to the game was mixed at best, but it is worth noting that "Enhanced Edition" tweaked Soulstorm and it includes two bonus levels that were previously exclusive to the Xbox Series X|s and Xbox One versions.

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Sonic Prime: The Complete Series Steelbook (Blu-ray)

$50 | Releases June 24

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Multiverses are the in-thing when it comes to cinema these days, and even Sonic the Hedgehog has hopped onto that trend with its animated show on Netflix. Following the conclusion of its three-season run, Sonic Prime is now getting a fancy Blu-ray box set with a steelbook case. Sonic Prime: The Complete Series Steelbook is up for preorder for $50 at Amazon ahead of its June 24 release.

Sonic Prime: The Complete Series Steelbook (Blu-ray) $50 | Releases June 24

This set includes three 1080p Blu-ray discs featuring all 23 episodes from Sonic Prime's three-season story arc. It comes with a few extras to make it quite display-worthy. There's the eye-catching steelbook case with custom artwork on the front, back, and interior. You'll also get a protective cardboard sleeve and a transparent sleeve, which is admittedly a bit peculiar.

For the extras, there aren't any listed for this release, which isn't too surprising given that the previous Blu-rays for the first two seasons of Sonic Prime didn't contain any bonus material. On the plus side, this is over nine hours of Sonic content, so you--or younger members of the family--will have plenty to watch.

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Like all catastrophes, Sonic Prime kicks off with the universe being shattered because the titular hedgehog didn't heed the advice of his friends when he was facing off against Dr. Eggman. With the multiverse in peril, Sonic has to travel to distant worlds to fix his mistake, and along the way, he encounters new and strange versions of his allies who are the key to helping him on his quest.

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