A new Prince of Persia game is reportedly being developed by Evil Empire, the studio behind Dead Cells. The game is reportedly called “The Rogue Prince of Persia” and will be released in Steam Early Access.

According to a report from Insider Gaming, it’s apparently a new roguelite game and it’s been in development for the last four years. The art style is also reportedly inspired by Franco-Belgian comics. While it’s reportedly slated to be released later this year, it’s unclear when it will be officially announced. However, it could be revealed at the Triple I Initiative Showcase on April 10, as Evil Empire will present its new project there.

Evil Empire and Motion Twin announced back in February that they would stop creating new content for Dead Cells after the release of “The End is Near” update.

Ubisoft released Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown back in January to rave reviews. Another game in the series, a remake of Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, has seen rocky development and was delayed multiple times with no clear release date in sight.

In GameSpot’s Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown review, we said, “Nearly every part of Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown works so well, and the parts connect so seamlessly, that it feels as if the series has found its new genre home.”

Halo fans can pick up a pretty cool collectible for a nice discount at Amazon right now. The limited-edition Nerf gun based on the iconic Needler pistol wielded by The Covenant is on sale for $80 (was $100). The 20% discount is an Amazon Lightning Deal, so this offer likely won’t be available for long. It comes with free shipping, and Prime members can get two-day shipping (or faster).

The Nerf Needler replica fires Nerf darts and comes with 10 Nerf Elite darts as well as a display stand to show off the item. The needs on the gun light up when you grip the handle. Note that the gun requires six AA batteries, and they are not included with the blaster.

It has a 10-dart rotating drum that fires off the replica needles like it would in the video game series. The toy weapon also comes with in-game content for Halo Infinite.

The Needler replica was originally announced and released in 2021. You can get a closer look at the toy weapon in the image gallery below.

If you’re interested in the Needler but don’t want to spend $80, you can snag the Nerf MicroShots version for $32. You can also pick up the Mangler and the SPNKr. Other cool Nerf deals available now include this Fortnite Heavy SR Blaster and the Amban Phase-Pulse Blaster from The Mandalorian for close to 50% off.

The Jack Ryan TV series wrapped up its fourth and final season last summer on Prime Video, and now the complete series is finally making its way to Blu-ray later this month. If you’re interested in reliving the action–or checking it out for the first time–you might want to consider reserving a copy, as preorders for the standard Blu-ray are currently discounted to just $50 (down from $60).

Jack Ryan was nominated for several awards during its run, largely due to its impressive special effects and excellent performance from John Krasinski. The show follows Krasinski (who stars as CIA agent, Jack Ryan) as he jumps around the globe to track down conspiracy theories and prevent foreign threats from escalating.

The complete series clocks in at nearly 25 hours–so if you’ve yet to check out the adventure, you’ll have plenty of content to binge with the discounted Blu-ray series. If you’re unsure about the series, you can pick up the first season for just $21 (down from $26). Alternatively, you can stream it on Prime Video.

Jack Ryan the character was originally created by Tom Clancy, the legendary author of many espionage and military-themed novels. As Clancy’s best-known character, Ryan starred in 19 novels from 1984 until Clancy’s death in 2013. Several Jack Ryan novels have been adapted into action movies, including Patriot Games starring Harrison Ford, The Hunt for Red October starring Alec Baldwin, and The Sum of All Fears starring Tom Cruise.

The Prime Video series is essentially a refreshed origin story for the character, so you don’t need to be familiar with other iterations of Jack Ryan to enjoy it. But if you want to watch more media starring the eponymous CIA agent, you can get a five-film Jack Ryan collection on 4K Blu-ray for $52 (was $70) at Amazon. And if you’re interested in exploring the true beginning of the iconic character, a three-book Jack Ryan box set is available for $23 (was $30) at Amazon.

Several Marvel games are in development right now, but for anyone looking for something competitive, Marvel Rivals might catch your eye. This new competitive shooter game is being developed by NetEase and combines a striking art direction with comic book-inspired gameplay as you battle to save the Marvel Multiverse. Ahead of its eventual release, we’ve gathered up all the available information on the game, from alpha test dates to its roster.

When Will Marvel Rivals Be Released?

On its Discord, NetEase says Marvel Rivals is still early in development, so no set release date has been revealed yet. As noted below, an alpha test is on the way in the first half of 2024, so there will be an opportunity to try it out soon.

Marvel Rivals Gameplay

While it might look like a reskinned Overwatch on first glance, Marvel Rivals does make a few changes to the formula of its source inspiration.

Marvel Rivals uses a third-person view and character abilities can be boosted with dynamic “Team-Up Skills” to unleash powerful attacks. For example, the Hulk can channel some of his gamma radiation into Iron Man and supercharge the armored Avenger’s repulsor blasts or Rocket can hitch a ride with Groot and create a tag team of destruction.

Matches in Marvel Rivals will be 6v6 battles, which matches Overwatch’s original team composition before that game shifted to 5v5 in Overwatch 2.

Marvel Rivals Price

When it launches, Marvel Rivals will be available at the low price of absolutely nothing, as NetEase says the game will be free-to-play. Exactly what its microtransactions look like–including things like a battle pass, skins, and other cosmetics or boost–remains to be seen.

Marvel Rivals Closed Alpha Test

A closed alpha technical test for Marvel Rivals will be held in May 2024, and if you’re interested, you can sign up by filling out this registration form and answering a few questions about your gaming habits. For this early preview of Marvel Rivals, NetEase says it will be focusing on gathering player feedback, fine-tuning the gameplay mechanics, and identifying bugs before the full launch. At least 12 characters will be available as part of the test.

Marvel Rivals Character Roster

So far, 18 characters have been revealed for the Marvel Rivals character roster. You’ve got obvious inclusions like Iron Man, Spider-Man, and Storm, as well as a few lesser-known characters like Magik and Luna Snow. There’s a big comic book influence on the design of each character, and NetEase has added its own artistic touch with vibrant colors and interesting costume redesigns. If Marvel Rivals is anything like the mobile games developed by the studio, you can probably expect some terrific alternate costumes to unlock. Overall, you’ll be able to choose characters from the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men, and many more.

• Hulk
• Storm
• Namor
• Loki
• Doctor Strange
• Spider-Man
• Black Panther
• Magik
• Groot
• Rocket
• Star Lord
• Mantis
• Peni Parker
• Luna Snow
• Iron Man
• Scarlet Witch
• Punisher
• Magneto

Marvel Rivals Platforms

For now, only PC has been confirmed as a platform that Marvel Rivals will release on. NetEase will likely fine-tune Marvel Rivals on PC first, before rolling the game out to modern platforms like PS5 and Xbox Series X|S, although that is speculation at this point. The game can currently be wishlisted on both Steam and the Epic Games Store.

Marvel Rivals Story And Setting

Fantastic Four supervillain Doctor Doom has teamed up with his successor in 2099 to mess about with the timestream, creating a cataclysmic event known as the Timestream Entanglement. With heroes and villains from multiple realities colliding and battling one another, it’ll be up to players to join forces, face off against their parallel selves, and stop the Dooms in the process.

Matches take place across comic book locations like Asgard and Tokyo 2099. These stages also feature destructible elements, like statues that can be blasted to pieces so that the opposition can’t hide behind them for long

Marvel Rivals Post-Launch Plans

As a live-service game, NeatEase says each new season in Marvel Rivals will introduce more characters and maps to the game. Beyond that, the company hasn’t mentioned how these characters will be unlocked, if they’ll be free additions to the roster, and the types of microtransactions players can expect to see in the game’s marketplace.

Eternal Strands is a new action/adventure title from Yellow Brick Games, and it looks to channel the big-boss-climbing energy of Shadow of the Colossus in its reveal trailer.

As debuted by IGN, who will have more on the title in the weeks to come as part of its April cover story, Eternal Strands comes from developer Yellow Brick Games. The team is said to be composed of various AAA game development veterans who previously worked at places like Ubisoft and Bioware, including longtime Dragon Age creative director Mike Laidlaw.

In Eternal Strands, players will take on the role of Brynn, a magic using Weaver and one of the last of their kind after a magical cataclysm nearly destroyed their world. Alongside a group of other Weavers, Brynn embarks on a quest that will pit them against foes both big and small and which will require mastering the various spells at their disposal.

The giant, climbable boss encounters definitely look to be the star of the show, as the trailer shows Brynn climbing atop massive enemies and stabbing their weakpoints with a sword, reminiscent of the PlayStation 2 classic (which was later remade for PS4) Shadow of the Colossus. The trailer additionally highlights the ways the game’s spells can be used to interact with both enemies and the environment in interesting ways, with one boss shown being frozen in ice or Brynn taking apart pieces of the environment and throwing it at enemies with magic.

Unlike Shadow of the Colossus, which famously only features colossal bosses to defeat in its otherwise empty world, Eternal Strands will also include smaller, human-sized foes for players to battle against. The trailer shows Brynn hacking at enemies with sword and shield while also employing telekinesis magic to throw enemies at one another. According to IGN, the game channels physics-puzzles seen in games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, an example of which is shown in the trailer when Brynn uses their powers to create an ice bridge in order to traverse a crevasse.

Eternal Strands is slated to arrive in 2025 and more information about the game’s worlds, characters, and its bosses will be shared in the days and weeks ahead on IGN. The game will be coming to Xbox, PlayStation, and PC, and can be wishlisted now.

Oscar-nominated filmmaker Alex Garland (Men, Ex Machina, Annihilation) says he is planning to stop directing films following his newest movie, Civil War, at least for the time being. Speaking to The Guardian, Garland said he continues to feel how he felt in 2022, and that is that he wants to stop directing and instead write for other people.

“Nothing’s changed,” he said. “I’m in a very similar state. I’m not planning to direct again in the foreseeable future.”

In 2022, Garland told Screen Daily that he he feels “quite strongly that I should stop directing films and I should write for other people.” The idea, Garland said, is that he wants to try to “execute the film they want to make, rather than trying to force through the film I want to make, which is what used to happen in the old days.”

Part of the reason Garland said he felt this way in 2022 is that he had just 48 hours after post-production on the movie Men before he began principal photography on Civil War. “So maybe that was just exhausting,” he said. However, in 2022, Garland said he believed that Civil War would “definitely be my last film as a director for at least a while,” and he still feels that way now.

Garland told The Guardian that the pressure he feels “doesn’t come from the money,” but instead from something else.

“It comes from the fact that you’re asking people to trust something that, on the face of it, doesn’t look very trustworthy,” he said. As an example, Garland said he asked his Civil War cast to picture in their minds what would be created behind them using CGI to animate mortar fire. And for his Ex Machina movie, he said an example would be lead actress Alicia Vikander trusting that her nude scenes would be handled “thoughtfully and respectfully.” In today’s cinema, however, the trend is “towards not doing that,” Garland observed.

And so, Garland wants to step away from directing–at least for now.

His new movie, Civil War, releases on April 12. It stars Kirsten Dunst, Cailee Spaeny, Nick Offerman, Jesse Plemons, Wagner Moura, Nick Offerman, and Stephen McKinley Henderson. It tells the story of a fractured United States with warring factions facing off in new… civil war.