LGBTQ media advocacy organization GLAAD has released its first annual report on LGBTQ representation in video games, finding that the games industry is lagging compared to the average gamer's opinions on representation.

In a study conducted with partner Nielsen Gaming, GLAAD polled gamers to find out how many identified as LGBTQ, as well as asking their opinions on representation. The survey revealed that around one in five, or 17% of active gamers are part of the LGBTQ community. This is an increase of 70% on a Nielsen Gaming report from 2020, which reported 10% of gamers were LGBTQ.

Despite the increasing numbers of LGBTQ gamers, only 2% of games include LGBTQ characters. "It is time to move past the idea that LGBTQ-inclusive games are a separate, niche category," GLAAD associate director of gaming, Blair Durkee said on the findings. "All games should strive to reflect the people who play them. And when 1 in 5 gamers are LGBTQ, any game with five or more characters has no excuse for lacking LGBTQ inclusion."

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Indie developers Seedy Eye Software have just released Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore, a new game in the style of the classic 1990s Zelda CD-I games. Don't worry, you don't need to buy a CD-I to play it because it's available on all modern platforms.

According to the Arzette: The Jewel of Faramore Steam page, players will "explore the Kingdom of Faramore, slay fearsome foes, acquire powerful items, discover secrets, assist colorful characters, and defeat the evil Daimur!" Based on what was shown in the trailer, Arzette is a love letter to older Zelda games.

It does a great job capturing the cheesiness of the over-the-top voice acting and art style that made the Zelda CD-I games memorable. Like the older games, Arzette is a 2D platformer that'll have players solve various puzzles and fight monsters. According to the trailer, the backgrounds in the game are "hand-painted."

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We're in a new golden age of television, but between rubbery pirates, ruthless family succession struggles, and dark superhero romps, nothing compares to Columbo, right? Peter Falk's cigar-chomping LAPD lieutenant was a mainstay of television in the 1970s, a relentless but disarmingly friendly homicide detective who had an unnerving talent for solving even the trickiest of murders.

Yes, it's the show that your parents remember fondly--and actually regained a popular following during the COVID pandemic--and it received a fresh Blu-ray release last December. If you didn't pick it up at launch, you can take advantage of the best offer yet at Amazon and Walmart. The Columbo box set is on sale for $81.

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This particular Blu-ray box set collects all the Columbo TV series that ran from 1971 to 1978, while a second box set collecting the revival TV movies that ran from 1989 to 2003 will be released at a later date. Each episode of Columbo is essentially a feature-length film, and this release has commentary tracks for each episode, archival interviews, and feature contributions from Columbo experts Mark Dawidziak and Amanda Reyes.

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2024 is an important year for Capcom. Not only does this year mark the 40th anniversary of Capcom's first video game released in 1984--arcade shooter Vulgus--it's also the 10th year of the annual Capcom Cup fighting games tournament. In honor of the milestones, Capcom has teamed up with Humble Bundle on a giant PC game bundle deal with nearly 70 Capcom titles from the last four decades for just $20.

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There is also a smaller two-item bundle available for just $2 that includes PC codes for Ultra Street Fighter IV and a coupon for 34%-off Street Fighter 6, but the full $20 bundle is the real draw.

We won't list all 70 products included in the bundle, but you'll get fighting games from series like Street Fighter and Darkstalkers, puzzle titles like Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo, and dozens of arcade classics like Vulgus, Ghost 'n Goblins, Bionic Commando, Strider, Final Fight, and more, totaling a $207 value for just $20. The full lineup is listed at Humble Bundle.

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Sony has announced the games coming to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium this February. Nine games are headed to PS Plus Extra and above, while four additional games are being added to PS Plus Premium exclusively.

Starting on February 20, PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium members can play Need for Speed Unbound, The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition, Tales of Arise, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Lego Worlds, Lego Jurassic World, Roguebook, Rogue Lords, and Tales of Zestiria. Premium members will also gain access to Resistance: Retribution, Jet Moto 2, Tales of Symphonia, and Tales of Vesperia.

The Outer Worlds: Spacer's Choice Edition includes all the DLC for the hit sci-fi RPG. Sort of a spiritual successor to Obsidian-developed classic Fallout: New Vegas, The Outer Worlds is a choice-based, first-person RPG. You are a newly-awakened colonist of the titular planets, thrust into a system-spanning conspiracy equipped with your wits, a spaceship, and your loyal(ish) crew.

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In light of Disney officially revealing the cast and date for the upcoming Fantastic Four movie, Thunderbolts has moved its release date up by two months, with the Fantastic Four taking its original release window.

As detailed by a Collider's report, Thunderbolts will now have a release date of May 2, 2025, while Fantastic Four is expected to be released on July 25, 2025. Similar to other MCU films, like the Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy, Thunderbolts will be another ensemble movie with multiple established characters.

But unlike the Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy, the upcoming films' characters will consist of antiheroes as opposed to the traditional heroes we've seen in past movies. The cast includes the likes of Sebastian Stan as Bucky Barnes, Florence Pugh as Yelena Belova, David Harbour as Red Guardian, Wyatt Russell as John Walker, Hannah John-Kamen as Ava Starr, Olga Kurylenko as Taskmaster, and Julia Louis-Dreyfus as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine.

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As a Marvel movie, Madame Web deviates pretty wildly from the brand's big-screen norms: It didn't cost $200 million to make, it was mostly filmed on location rather than on soundstages, it's got a guy who looks like Spider-Man but he's evil, and it's got Marvel Easter eggs but tries to hide them rather than make them obvious. But perhaps the most surprising aspect of Madame Web might be that it focuses on a Marvel Comics superhero team like the Avengers or Guardians of the Galaxy or Web Warriors--but this group has never had a real name.

In the comics, Madame Web is a sort of cryptic mentor to various Spider-folks, and she's specifically known for teaming up with groups of Spider-Women. In the movie, that group is Celeste O'Connor as Mattie Franklin, Sydney Sweeney as Julia Cornwall, and Isabela Merced as Aña Corazón--with Corazón in the comics being known as Araña. Naturally, I had to ask Sweeney, O'Connor, and Merced if they had any ideas for what to call themselves when I spoke to them together at the Madame Web junket.

"We have our own group name for ourselves. Our group chat name," Sweeney told me. "We like to go by 'the Boo Crew.'"

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Ever wish you could experience San Diego Comic-Con International, but with 2,000 other people on a giant floating resort on the high seas? Well, there's good news for you, then: 2025 will see the first-ever Comic-Con Cruise, which aims to bring the experience of seeing a ton of cosplay, attending celebrity panels, and navigating ludicrous crowds to a large boat.

The Carribbean cruise will span February 5-9 next year, leaving from Tampa, Florida, and venturing to Cazumel, Mexico, before returning to Tampa. Felicia Day (Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer) will serve as host for the cruise, and the cruise's website lists a number of celebrities as attending--including Warwick Davis (Leprechaun, Willow), George Takei (Star Trek: The Original Series), Michael Trucco (Midnight Mass, Battlestar Galactica), Mary McDonnell (The Fall of the House of Usher, Battlestar Galactica), and Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters, The Crow).

The website says you'll also get access to some of the other elements that often define Comic-Con.

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Madame Web is a Marvel movie, but it's completely standalone. It's not a part of the MCU, and it doesn't connect to the other Marvel movies that Sony has produced, like Venom and Morbius. But that's something that could change in the future, with Sony's Kraven the Hunter coming up later this year, and the MCU's preoccupation with the multiverse allowing any Marvel-related thing to theoretically be incorporated if Disney and Sony can make a deal for it.

And it helps that certain aspects of Madame Web, about a woman who gets the ability to see the future thanks to a mythical Amazonian spider, could make it pretty easy to integrate into a greater franchise if they want to. Let's talk about what exactly those things are.

Warning: The rest of this article will contain major spoilers for Madame Web, including details about its ending.

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If you want to unlock some of the most important blueprints in Skull and Bones, you need to find a variety of different outposts across the map. Some blueprints are only sold by specific merchants who are located at a single outpost, making it imperative that you explore the East Indies as much as possible.

However, even if you've explored a solid chunk of the map, there are likely some outposts you have missed. One of those might be Dragon's Back, which is tucked away on a small island in a remote location. Dragon's Back is a terrific outpost with a couple of high-profile blueprints and an intriguing contract. You can see the exact location of Dragon's Back and what you can purchase there in the guide below.

Dragon's Back location in Skull and Bones

Dragon's Back is located on an island in the Islands of the Moon region in Skull and Bones. You have to sail directly toward the island before you even get an icon indicating that something of significance is nearby. The island you're looking for is on the northern side of the Islands of the Moon text on the map. It's the largest island out of the three that encompass the region, as you can see in the screenshot below:

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There are 10 total ships you can acquire throughout your time in Skull and Bones. Each ship has a different name and class and you need to be a specific level to captain certain ships. One of the best early-game ships you can build is called the Defender, which is in the Hulk class.

As you might expect with a name and class like that, the Defender is a part of the Tank Ship Type, meaning it has extra defenses and specializes in reducing damage when bracing. You can read more about the Tank and the other Ship Types in our previous Skull and Bones guide. For now, though, if you want to get your hands on the Defender, you need to find its blueprint in a specific spot on the map.

Defender blueprint location in Skull and Bones

All ships, weapons, and other parts require you to find a blueprint before you're able to craft them. Sometimes the blueprints are awarded to you after completing a quest, but for the most part, you'll be purchasing these blueprints through merchants around the map in Skull and Bones.

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The Xbox February update is on the way, bringing new ways to play on your phone, more organizational tools, and other quality-of-life features.

You can now play Xbox games via remote play with touchscreen controls. These are the same controls as offered with Xbox Cloud Gaming. Most games support basic touch-control layouts. Over a hundred games support custom controls, including Psychonauts 2, Sea of Thieves, and Minecraft Dungeons.

In other control news, a new thumbstick calibration tool has been added to Xbox. You can use the tool to address minor thumbstick issues, like inconsistent responses. Bigger issues, like drift for example, cannot be fixed with this tool. You should also recalibrate your controller if you repair it yourself.

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Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has officially exceeded 10 million copies sold on PlayStation 5, marking a new milestone for the game.

According to Sony's latest earnings report, it says that Insomniac's Marvel's Spider-Man franchise has now sold over 50 million copies, which includes the PC ports. As of February 4, 2024, Marvel's Spider-Man 2 has contributed over 10 million of those sales.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 sold 2.5 million copies within 24 hours and more than 5 million within its first 11 days on the market. the game is also receiving a major update in March which includes new features such as New Game Plus and story mission replay.

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Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure is celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2024, having released in February 1989.

Whenever I watch time-travel movies, I find myself yelling at the screen a lot. You know how people shout at horror movie characters when they inexplicably head into the dark basement or wander alone into the woods to investigate a strange sound that's obviously coming from an eight-foot-tall monster? That's me, but I'm desperately trying to get Denzel Washington to understand his future self left that note in the past for his present self to find.

I've spent so much time thinking about how time travel movies and their characters mess up that I even wrote a book about it--So You Created a Wormhole: The Time Traveler's Guide to Time Travel--which I'm obligated to plug roughly once a year for the rest of my life.

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Arrowhead Game Studios, the developer behind Helldivers 2, is going on a hiring spree to capitalize on the co-op game's success. According to CEO Johan Pilestedt, the process is about to start, with the aim of helping the team "accelerate and beef up content plans" around the shooter.

As tweeted by Pilestedt on February 13, job listings will be "going up soon," but Arrowhead encourages senior devs to express their interest regardless via an open form. At the time of publication, there's a total of 10 positions available on Arrowhead's site. These range from production director to programmer roles, and half of them offer a hybrid remote model.

Pilestedt has also been sharing updates about the server issues surrounding Helldivers 2, which have affected both PC and PlayStation since its launch. The latest server maintenance saw three "rapid-fixes" to address login issues, server capacity, and rewards not being handed out properly. "The total capacity of concurrent players was increased from 250,000 total to 360,000 total," Pilestedt said in the message shared on Twitter. "This was however still not enough as the player count jumped to 360k after five and a half minutes."

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Supernatural had quite the run, airing for a staggering 327 episodes across 15 seasons from 2005-2020. That's a lot of ghost, demon, and monster hunting to enjoy--and if you're looking for the best way to indulge in the series, you'll want to pick up the Supernatural: Complete Series Blu-ray, which is on sale for just $125 at Amazon (down from $230). You'll also get digital copies of every episode with your purchase.

Supernatural: The Complete Series (Blu-ray) $125 (was $230)

This is one of the lowest prices we've seen for the collection, with it hitting $120 during Black Friday 2023. The complete series features a jaw-dropping 58 discs and clocks in at 13,700 minutes. In other words, if you watched an episode a day, you'd be watching Supernatural for 11 months. Or, if you wanted to break the world record for fastest Supernatural series watch, you could get through every episode in only 9.5 days of nonstop watching.

Another way to look at it is that you're getting each season of the show for only $8.33. That's a serious bargain.

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Supernatural earned widespread acclaim from viewers on Metacritic, with the series sitting at an impressive 8.2 rating with nearly 3,000 reviews. It's a great match for fans of thrillers and (surprise!) supernatural mysteries, as its bleak world is haunted by vampires, demons, and other monstrous beings. Consider checking it out if you need a series that could legitimately keep you entertained through the rest of 2024.

Along with Supernatural: The Complete Series on Blu-ray, a handful of other Supernatural items at Amazon may be of interest to fans. If you're a big fan or need to buy a gift for someone who is, here are some neat options to check out.

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Square Enix will roll out an update on on February 21 that will improve the visual quality of the Final Fantasy VII Rebirth demo.

More specifically, the improvements to the visual quality will be applied when selecting "Performance Mode" from the graphics options. Square Enix has also confirmed in a Twitter post that that these changes will apply to the full game.

Square Enix released the demo on February 7, shortly after its dedicated State of Play presentation. While many have enjoyed the demo, some have criticized the game's visuals when switching between Performance and Graphical modes, saying that the former option makes the visuals noticeably worse, more so than in other games.

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It's official: Marvel's first family is headed to theaters next year as a date and cast for Fantastic Four has been officially revealed. First announced several years ago, Fantastic Four will be released on July 25, 2025 and will star Pedro Pascal as Reed Richards / Mister Fantastic, Vanessa Kirby as Sue Storm / The Invisible Woman, Joseph Quinn as Johnny Storm / The Human Torch, and Ebon Moss-Bachrach as Benjamin Grimm / The Thing.

Happy Valentine’s Day from Marvel’s First Family! Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, and Joseph Quinn are The Fantastic Four.
Marvel Studios' #TheFantasticFour, in theaters July 25, 2025. pic.twitter.com/dOmLG0m7ie

— Marvel Studios (@MarvelStudios) February 14, 2024

Marvel made the announcement in a pair of Valentine's Day tweets, showing off teaser art for The Fantastic Four. There's a retro look to the quartet in the image, one directly inspired by the original Jack Kirby and Stan Lee stories that began publication in the Silver Age of comic books, the 1960s. You can even spot HERBIE--who was first introduced in the 1978 Fantastic Four animated series--serving a drink to Grimm. There's also an image of Moss-Bacharach framed on the wall, before he was transformed by cosmic rays into the rocky Thing.

While Moss-Bacharach had recently been playing coy about being cast as the powerhouse of the Fantastic Four, it had been reported that Pedro Pascal was in talks for the role of Reed Richards. This won't be the first time that a live-action Fantastic Four film has been made, as there was the infamous Roger Corman-produced 1994 Fantastic Four, Tim Story's two films starring the Marvel icons, and another version released in 2015 directed by Josh Trank.

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Dune is one of the most iconic sci-fi series of all time. With Part Two of Dennis Villeneuve's film adaptation releasing March 1, now's a great time to visit the desert planet of Arrakis. One unique way to do that before heading to the theater is to check out the various graphic novel adaptations and prequel series, many of which are currently on sale at Amazon. Along with two official prequel series, there's a well-received adaptation of Frank Herbert's original Dune trilogy. Some of these books are eligible for Amazon's buy one, get one 50% off promotion, which is expected to end after today (February 14).

If you're a Dune newcomer and prefer graphic novels to regular novels, your best bet is to start with the original graphic novel series, which currently consists of Book 1 and Book 2. Both of these are on sale, with the first installment down to just $20 from its usual $25 and the second listed for $17.36 (down from $25). Both are gorgeous hardcover volumes filled with color illustrations and clock in at nearly 200 pages each. You'll also find deluxe collector's editions of Book 1 and Book 2 for roughly 50% off if you want a fancy way to show off your items. As you can see below, the deluxe editions come with elegant slipcases and are printed on higher-quality matte art paper. You can also preorder the graphic novel adaptation of Book 3 for $26 ahead of its July 16 publication date.

Gallery

Longtime Dune fans and newcomers alike can also check out the pair of prequel series that focus on the two rival houses in the Dune saga. All three prequel graphic novels that tell the story of Paul Atreides are available now and discounted. Meanwhile, Vol. 1 of House Harkonnen is on sale for roughly eight bucks off, and Vol. 2 and 3 are available to preorder ahead of their respective March 5 and June 25 release dates.

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