Lionsgate has added Ariana Greenblatt to its star-studded adaptation of Gearbox's Borderlands, with the young star having bagged the wild-eyed role of demolition expert Tiny Tina.

Greenblatt has worked in numerous Disney productions, and recently finished shooting drama 65 alongside Adam Driver. Most moviegoers, however, will know Greenblatt from Marvel's 2018 comic-book epic Avengers: Infinity War, where she portrayed a younger version of galaxy guardian Gamora.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, Borderlands director Eli Roth expressed his excitement in Greenblatt's casting. "Ariana is a spectacular new talent in cinema," said Roth. "She has already worked with many of my close collaborators and everyone raves about her. She blew us all away in her audition, and I cannot wait to see her bring the wild, insane and unpredictable Tiny Tina to the big screen. She’s going to blow up on screen like one of Tina’s grenades."

Making her debut in 2012's Borderlands 2, Tiny Tina is an NPC known for her unstable nature and love of all things explosive. Tina came into her own in DLC expansion Tiny Tina's Assault on Dragon's Keep, where she took the mantle of Dungeon Master for a particularly over-the-top session of Pandora's favorite RPG "Bunkers and Badasses".

Nvidia's DLSS has gradually evolved into one of the most exciting technological innovations in the PC space. The idea is remarkably straightforward: the GPU renders at a lower native resolution, then an AI algorithm takes that frame and intelligently upscales it to a much higher pixel count. There's an instant performance win, but remarkably, also a quality advantage too up against native resolution rendering. In the past, we've wondered whether this quality win comes down to mitigating the artefacts of temporal anti-aliasing - TAA - but the recent arrival of a DLSS upgrade to Nioh 2 provides us with an interesting test case. Nioh 2's basic rendering lacks much in the way of any form of anti-aliasing at all. It's pretty much as raw as raw can be. So the question is: can DLSS retain its performance advantage and still provide an actual increase to image quality up against native resolution rendering? Remarkably, the answer is yes.

Have you ever bought a movie or TV show through the PlayStation Store? Me neither. As a result, Sony announced today it will remove them, starting August 31, 2021.

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The last Wii U system update prior to this version was made in September 2018.

The post Wii U Receives Version 5.5.5 System Update After 2.5 Years of Inactivity appeared first on Siliconera.

There are a couple of caveats to keep in mind, but boy, this is a well-rounded month for a lot of PlayStation Plus subscribers. We've got a super-high-profile RPG, a pretty decent PlayStation VR shooter, a Souls-like co-op shooter, and the day-one debut of a promising puzzle-solving adventure.

It's time to claim the March 2021 PS Plus games:

• Final Fantasy VII Remake (PS4)
• Farpoint (PlayStation VR)
• Remnant: From the Ashes (PS4)
• Maquette (PS5)

About those caveats: Square Enix is letting people who buy FFVII Remake upgrade to the enhanced PS5 version of the game for free, however, that's not the case with this free PS Plus edition. Something to keep in mind if you're dead set on playing FFVII Remake Intergrade or the Yuffie DLC in June.

All you have to do is ... #DragonsBlood #Dota2 #Netflix pic.twitter.com/gzjLw6MT20

14 years after it came out, Halo 3 is getting back bling.

Taking a page out of the Fortnite playbook, Halo 3 is getting a raft of new customisation options, including what are called back accessories.

These new customisation options, which do not affect gameplay, are live now in the Halo: The Master Chief Collection flight (the version of the game where upcoming features are tested).

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Nintendo has today released a new firmware update for... the Wii U.

Today's Wii U system update, version 5.5.5, is listed by Nintendo as "improving system stability". Under the hood, dataminer OatmealDome (thanks, Nintendo Life) has suggested it updates the system's SSL verification code, which powers secure connections online.

It's been two and a half years since the last Wii U update, in September 2018. Do you still have yours plugged in?

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The latest Genshin Impact voice actor interview features Eri Kitamura, and ends on a sweet note with a special date.

The post Genshin Impact Eri Kitamura Interview Includes Date with Keqing appeared first on Siliconera.

In a huge but not exactly surprising move, Epic Games is buying Tonic Games Group, which means developer Mediatonic and Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout are "joining the Epic Games family."

"With our publisher Devolver Digital supporting and championing us along the way with Fall Guys, Foul Play, and Hatoful Boyfriend, we've been able to bring some truly unique experiences to players as an independent studio," said Mediatonic. "Joining forces with Epic will accelerate our plans to improve the game and bring Fall Guys to as many players as possible, while continuing to support the community."

For now, I wouldn't expect any drastic changes to the game, and current Fall Guys owners should be in the clear – at least for a while – if Epic's Psyonix and Rocket League pickup is anything to go by. (As a reminder, Rocket League is now "unlisted" on the Steam store but it's still playable for owners.)

Mediatonic has "nothing to announce right now" for free-to-play plans, but yeah.

King Digital Entertainment has announced Crash Bandicoot: On the Run will come to mobile devices on March 25. The latest mobile auto-runner game sees the titular bandicoot running through a variety of colorful environments, drawing inspiration from the myriad titles in franchise history.

As Crash and friends run through the stages of Crash Bandicoot: On the Run, players will encounter classic characters, bosses, enemies, and levels. In the story, Crash's old nemesis, Dr. Neo Cortex is back to try and conquer the multiverse alongside his menacing henchmen like Scorporilla, Nitrus Brio, Dingodile, and more. As usual, it's up to Crash and his sister Coco to put an end to the shenanigans. The stages players can expect to run through include Temple Ruins, Turtle Woods, and Bear It. In addition to the platforming challenges, you can look forward to weapons crafting, customizable characters, and asynchronous multiplayer runs.

If you own or intend to own a PlayStation 5 at some point, you might have recently found reason to ask yourself an important question: how often am I going to have to drop $70 on new controllers because my old ones started drifting for no reason?

Ideally, if you're budgeting for a new controller, the ideal situation is because you want... well, another controller! As in, one more than you had before. But recently, numerous user-reported issues with DualSense controllers have made it clear that at least with the PS5, you might have reason to consider replacing the ones you have more often than expected. As more reports come in about DualSense drift and a class action lawsuit looms, you may be wondering how it is this problem will impact you, and what to do if you encounter it.

What is DualSense drift?

What's essentially happening is pretty straightforward: something is going wrong with some DualSense controllers where the controller is registering left or right stick inputs that are not actually being put in by the player. This Reddit thread from November 26 -- just a few weeks after the console's US launch -- shows off the problem pretty obviously in Destiny 2. The first-person camera is rotating around on its own, despite the player not touching the right stick at all.

Get your Monster Hunter Rise themed food items at the Capcom Cafe this March.

The post Monster Hunter Rise Capcom Cafe Collaboration to Appear in March appeared first on Siliconera.

Well, what a thing to wake up to!

Don't worry, it's not an exciting thing to wake up to. It's just a thing. Nintendo updated the Wii U again, for the first time in a while.

Nintendo stealth-dropped a March 1, 2021 update, which adds the classic "stability" verbiage into the mix. Here's the full rundown, the same as updates from 2016, 2017, and 2018: "Further improvements to overall system stability and other minor adjustments have been made to enhance the user experience." As a note, the last time the Wii U was updated, even tangentially, was September 3, 2018.

When something like this happens out of nowhere, usually it's Nintendo patching up an exploit. Although the Wii U is dead and buried at this point (and frankly erased from existence on several official Nintendo sites), Nintendo is always looking for ways to fight piracy.

I still use my Wii U! Not only can you earn My Nintendo points by signing into the Wii U eShop once a week (as well as the 3DS), but there's still some gems left on it that either aren't ported over to Switch, or cannot be replicated as easily (Nintendo Land).

Ver. 5.5.5 U (March 1st, 2021) [Nintendo] [Thanks John!]

The battle between Epic Games and Apple over in-game microtransactions is still rumbling on, and after months of arguing it seems a date has finally been set for an in-person trial. Yep, it seems this one is going all the way.

Yesterday a management conference was held in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, in which judge Yvonne Gonzalez organised a bench trial between Epic Games and Apple (as reported by MacRumors). A date has now been officially set for 3rd May, which will require witnesses to travel to Northern California to appear at court in person.

The reason for the physical trial is that judge Gonzalez feels the case is serious enough that it should be heard in person, and believes witnesses are less likely to lie when being sworn in a courtroom. Those required to travel will apparently be given the resources to quarantine for two weeks after the trial, while other Covid safety measures will also be taken, such as limited numbers of people in the courtroom at any one time.

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The latest series of Pokemon PON stamps includes Pokemon from the Unova Region.

The post Customize Your Signature With Pokemon PON Stamps appeared first on Siliconera.

Chinese video game developer miHoYo has suggested that it raked in close to $800 million USD in revenue over the course of 2020, almost entirely driven by the overnight success of its fantasy gacha title Genshin Impact, which launches on PS4, PC, and mobile platforms last September.

In a behind-closed-doors speech given at the Shanghai Jiaotong University, miHoYo President and co-founder Cai Haoyu reportedly stated that the company's revenue had essentially doubled in a single year, with miHoYo rounding out 2020 with a total figure in the region of ¥5 billion, or roughly $774 million USD. According to the number-crunchers over at Sensor Tower, around $400 million of this enormous figure came directly from the sale of Genshin Impact (and its ensuing microtransactions) a mere two months into the title's launch period.

Genshin Impact is an anime-themed fantasy adventure in which players build a party of charming and likeable characters before seeking open-world adventure in the seven regions of fictional universe Teyvat. Players visit new locations and engage in battle with monsters and other characters, while managing their skills and abilities - purchasing new party members and weapons via in-game/real-world currency. Like many games of the gacha genre, Genshin Impact's rare item and character pull rates feature very low odds.

Genshin Impact's newest banner event begins today, and sees the arrival of spooky gal Hu Tao. Available now on PS4, PC, and iOS and Android devices, ports of Genshin Impact are currently in the works for PS5 and Nintendo Switch with release tentatively scheduled for 2021.

Ariana Greenblatt, the actress who played Young Gamora in the Avengers movies, will play Tiny Tina in the Borderlands movie.

Greenblatt joins Cate Blanchett (Lilith), Kevin Hart (Roland), Jamie Lee Curtis (Dr. Tannis), and Jack Black (Claptrap) in the movie based on Gearbox's shooter series.

Tiny Tina is described as an "unstable 13-year-old explosive expert".

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The latest set of Neon Genesis Evangelion merchandise includes a pair of glasses inspired by Unit-01 and Unit-02.

The post Neon Genesis Evangelion Glasses Are Inspired by Unit-01 and Unit-02 appeared first on Siliconera.

Nintendo has a rep for being conservative with their IP. You don't say! The publisher has always been ready to give third parties a shot at crafting first party experiences. Just look at Minish Cap and several other Zelda games, which were handled by Capcom: and are often celebrated.

But in recent years, they have started lending some of their bigger properties to smaller studios more and more, perhaps best shown through Cadence of Hyrule; which was heavily promoted by Nintendo. Either way, Nintendo is always aware of the damage they could do to their own brand. That mantra hasn't changed, even in 2021.

Speaking to Nikkei (as translated by Nintendo Everything), Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa is smart enough to recognize how easy it would be to tarnish a franchise. Furukawa explains: "We must keep in mind that the origins of the characters are in the games. These are characters that fans have grown attached to through countless hours of playtime. We must develop those characters in a way that won’t destroy fans’ memories of the characters in their worlds."

Furukawa goes on to say that "proceeding with caution" is key, and that they don't want to "damage the value of the brand." He explains that although short term sales could be easy to create with a short-sighted strategy, "there are other ways" to do this. Instead, Furukawa is focused on "keeping Nintendo a beloved brand in the long run."

PlayStation 4 exclusive The Last of Us Part 2 has received 13 BAFTA Games Award nominations - the most for any single game in the history of the awards.

Sony games dominate BAFTA's nominations list, with 10 nods for Ghost of Tsushima, seven for Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, six for Dreams and four for Sackboy: A Big Adventure.

Supergiant's brilliant Hades - Eurogamer's Game of the Year for 2020 - has eight nominations, while Nintendo's Animal Crossing: New Horizons and Media Molecule's Fall Guys share five.

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Using these fishing lures won't catch you any Magicarp, fortunately.

The post New Pokemon Fishing Lures Help You Catch Em’ All appeared first on Siliconera.

Those of you still reeling from the inclusion of Ellen Ripley and a Xenomorph in Epic Games' Fortnite might take a little comfort in the news that a new, more "on-brand" game is also in the works. Aliens: Fireteam is currently in development at Cold Iron Studios and is expected to launch this summer on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC platforms.

Described as a co-op, third-person, survival shooter, Aliens: Fireteam will see your band of hoo-rah marines arrive on the outer colonies in response to a sudden distress signal. Surprise, surprise, it's fucking aliens. Players will squad up in teams of three to investigate LV-895, battling waves of Xenomorphs, Face-Huggers, and synthetic foes provided by everyone's favorite scumbag corporation, Weyland-Yutani. Check out the first trailer below.

Today in Japan, Nintendo released a new system update for the Wii U. The last firmware, 5.5.3, was released in early September 2018.

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Guardians: *find a glitch that allows them to go in raids as a squad of 12*

Those who don't have any VR devices can still enjoy the game in a first-person view!

The post Laid-Back Camp -Virtual- Can Also Be Played Without VR appeared first on Siliconera.

If you've been playing the Outriders demo since it came out last week, you may have picked up on an annoyance: loading cutscenes.

The third-person looter shooter game from People Can Fly (Bulletstorm, Gears of War: Judgment) plays a short cutscene whenever you want to move to a new area.

These cutscenes show everything from a character opening a door to climbing a ledge. They include a full fade to black opening before playing the cutscene, then another fade to black before you get back into the action.

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Right around when Zelda: Skyward Sword came out so many years ago, folks were trying to figure out ways that they could emulate it with traditional controls.

I mean, I had that exact same thought. Given that motion was used for pretty much everything from shimmying around vines, to flight, to rolling bombs; deadzoning (even with the new Gold Wiimote and several other MotionPlus remotes I owned) was a problem for me. I longed for a traditional control method, and finally, we're getting one with Skyward Sword HD.

Will it work well? Nintendo thinks so, despite touting that motion was the only way to play way back when. A new tweet sheds some light on things already discussed in the presentation, most notably how sword strokes will work. The tweet showcases how sword motions are triggered by tilting the right analog stick, which allows players to enjoy Skyward Sword even in portable form (or on the Switch Lite, where traditional controls are their only option).

Truth be told, the mere existence of the Lite is a huge boon for me. I'm enjoying mine, to be sure, but I also like how it now forces Nintendo to try and support traditional controls as an option. Skyward Sword was occasionally fun with motion, but after that 1000th waggle to do a basic movement a button would have sufficed for, I was ready to swap to another control option; even for just a little while.

Nintendo of America [Twitter]

So along with 4m other people, you're really enjoying Valheim at the moment - but perhaps there are a few quality of life improvements you'd like to see, or maybe you just want to turn the game into a building sandbox. Despite the lack of official support, the modding community has been hard at work on Valheim, and has already produced a number of mods to serve almost every community request. Here's a round-up of some of the most useful mods so far - along with a quick explainer on how to get started.

Before you get stuck into Valheim modding, you'll need to download a couple of prerequisite mods that make the rest of Valheim modding possible. One of these is Valheim Unstripped DLLs, which Vortex (Nexus Mods' mod manager) will recommend installing. Another mod called BepInExPack for Valheim carries out a similar function, providing a general purpose framework for Unity modding, which basically gives mod creators the tools they need to alter Valheim ( and you'll need to download it for these mods to work). You can find it over on Thunderstore. Oh, and remember to back up your save files before diving in - you can find them through Steam by opening the properties menu for Valheim, then 'local files' and 'browse'.

Video-game-loving restaurant Arby's has announced a fun new collaboration with Shovel Knight, bringing a range of cheeky themed DLC to Yacht Club Game's indie platforming hit.

For a limited time, customers who purchase Arby's Kids Meals at participating locations will receive a special Shovel Knight launcher token, complete with a Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove code. The codes - which can be redeemed on the platformer's Steam and Switch ports - will unlock one of seven exclusive in-game item, such as a sandwich erm... familiar, or the classic Arby's stetson. Check out the items on offer in the video below.

We don't have Arby's here in the UK. We almost got it in the early '90s, but plans fell through. Hell, we only got Taco Bell in the last decade. As such, I've personally not experienced an Arby's menu, I just know the sandwiches feature rolls of meat stacked in a bun. Is Arby's any good? I can't tell you. I can tell you that Shovel Knight is great, and well worth your time and money - whether accompanied by a tasty (checks notes) "Reuben" or otherwise.

There are shooting games, and there are shooting games. Irem's 1987 R-Type can't exactly claim to be the first of its kind, and you could well argue there are more widely acclaimed shooting games, but you'd be hard pushed to find any as iconic as this stately sci-fi venture. Cold, composed and challenging, it's the archetypal 80s shooter, and a prime example of the genre in its pomp.

The popularity of shooting games would wane throughout the 90s, however, and by the turn of the century those in charge of the series wondered whether it had a future at all. Which explains the brilliantly fatalistic air that hangs over R-Type Final, the 2004 entry that was imagined as a full-stop for the series.

R-Type Final lead designer Kazuma Kujo has since discovered there's life yet in the series, though. The veteran of Nazca, Irem and now Granzella - the studio where many Irem alumni ended when the company moved away from video games - now finds himself heading up development of a sequel, somewhat bafflingly called R-Type Final 2, after a Kickstarter campaign more than doubled its targets. A month ahead of R-Type Final 2's release on April 29th, we spoke to Kujo about R-Type's return, and what it will entail.

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