How An Uber Ride Led To Fortnite Getting A Battle Royale Mode

The upcoming visual history of Minecraft just received a huge discount at Amazon, dropping the price from $40 to $28. Created by Mojang Studios and set to be published on September 3 by Random House Worlds, The World of Minecraft is a 224-page hardcover book that tells the story of the game’s 15-year history. It’ll include full-color art, development secrets, and interviews with Mojang developers, content creators, and notable members of the Minecraft community.

The World of Minecraft will launch just in time to catch up on your Minecraft history before the live-action Minecraft movie premieres in theaters next year. While we don’t know much about the movie’s plot, Jack Black will reportedly star as one of the main characters from the game, Steve. Emma Myers, Jason Momoa, Danielle Brooks, Jennifer Coolidge, Kate McKinnon, and Jemaine Clement are all confirmed to star in the movie as well. The movie recently wrapped filming in April, so we expect more news to be revealed soon. In the meantime, check our round-up of everything we know about the Minecraft movie for all the details shared so far.

The upcoming movie is far from the only piece of non-gaming media to tell a story within the world of Minecraft. The modern classic has also been adapted to the page. Multiple children’s book series focused on Minecraft are available now. You can get the six-book Woodsword Chronicles box set for $35 at Amazon (down from $60). You can also preorder the Stonesword Saga six-book box set at a 15% discount ahead of its May 7 release.

Minecraft is one of the wildest success stories in video game history. What started as a simple one-man project in 2009 ballooned into one of the best-selling games of all time that now ranks among the likes of Super Mario Bros., Fortnite, Grand Theft Auto V, and Pokemon Red/Blue as one of those rare generation-defining games for millions of players.

It used to be that if you wanted to dress up as a Star Wars Stormtrooper, your options were limited to cheap masks unless you invested heavily in a set of 501st-approved armor or learned how to make your own. These days? While you’ll still need a decent chunk of change for that iconic white armor, at least getting your hands on a helmet isn’t complicated. Previously an Amazon exclusive, Hasbro’s Black Series Imperial Stormtrooper voice-changing helmet is now available on the Disney Store. The helmet is just one of many new additions to Disney’s catalog as part of the Star Wars Day celebrations. Joining the Stormtrooper helmet is the new Boba Fett Prototype Armor helmet, a pretty cool collectible for those interested in the history of Star Wars.

The Stormtrooper helmet retails for $105 on the Disney Store, and you can get free shipping with promo code SHIPMAGIC. It’s worth noting the Stormtrooper helmet isn’t available directly from Amazon at the moment, and it’s unclear if it will be restocked. You can still buy it from third-party resellers, but the price is currently sitting at $130 minimum (plus shipping).

Star Wars – Imperial Stormtrooper Helmet (Rogue One) — $105

This Imperial Stormtrooper helmet is based on the cannon fodder trooper from Star Wars: Rogue One, and includes fine details based on that film’s Stormtrooper armor. It features an adjustable fit so that it can securely sit on most noggins, but the cool thing here is the inclusion of an electronic voice-changer. With that powered on, you’ll sound like you’re communicating through a ham radio at your next convention. As mentioned, this helmet was previously an Amazon-exclusive helmet, but after it quickly sold out, resellers were listing this helmet for hundreds of dollars at one point, so it’s nice to see it available at retail price again.

If you’d rather cosplay as the Artillery Stormtrooper from The Mandalorian, Amazon and Best Buy are selling that particular helmet for $103 (was $132) for a limited time.

Star Wars Boba Fett Prototype Armor Helmet (Empire Strikes Back) – $105

Though the voice-changing effect built into the Stormtrooper helmet is very cool, the new Boba Fett helmet is cooler from a historical standpoint. While it has the signature shape of Fett’s bucket, it pays tribute to the original concept of the bounty hunter back when he was envisioned as a Super Stormtrooper in concept art. Instead of the olive green that became his trademark color, this helmet has a crisp white finish. This one also has interior padding for a snug fit, a flip-down rangefinder, a heads-up display, and LEDs to indicate when you’re in “hunting” mode.

If you love Boba Fett but want a different style of helmet, the Axe Woves edition inspired by his role in The Mandalorian is on sale for $109 at Amazon (was $132).

Disney has a bunch of other new products and deals available for Star Wars Day, including Force FX lightsabers, Black Series action figures, and cool clothing.

Read more on Star Wars Day

On May 4, 1999, Universal’s The Mummy hit theaters and became one of the biggest movies of the year, even outearning James Bond and Julia Roberts films released in the same window, with over $400 million worldwide. It solidified Brenden Fraser’s star power and put him in the action-hero category for a new generation. That level of success helped spawn two sequels, video games, a spin-off series with The Rock, and an animated television series.

Oh, and of course the ride at Universal Studios theme parks. It’s still an absolute banger and hasn’t been updated in 20 years over at Universal Orlando. Even if the sequels didn’t capture the same sort of magic, 25 years later Stephen Sommers’ The Mummy is still a crowd-pleaser that somehow didn’t get lost in the shuffle in a summer where everything fell under the shadow of Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, and the one-two punch of sleeper hits The Matrix and The Sixth Sense.

Almost 100 years ago, Universal Studios’ band of monster movies helped forge a whole new genre and create a new batch of pop culture icons. These Classic Monsters–Dracula, Frankenstein, the Creature of the Black Lagoon, the Invisible Man (and Woman), the Wolf Man, and the Mummy made their own cinematic universe along the way with crossovers and tie-ins.

The latter of those monsters had five movies under Universal’s banner and four with Hammer Films, who had rebooted the series in 1959 with the final sequel coming out in 1971. There wouldn’t be another Mummy movie for 28 years, where it was again rebooted under Universal, who had already missed out on Dracula and Frankenstein’s remakes aimed at being truer adaptations of their source material. The Mummy was just a mummy, though, malleable to any kind of story, but still seen as an undead force of nature.

However, to get there we had to have a few missteps from Hollywood horror heavy hitters like George Romero and Clive Barker who tried their hand at resurrecting the franchise in the late 1980s’. Ultimately things fell apart on both directors’ attempts for one reason or another.

Enter Sommers who had made kids’ movies for Disney in the early ’90s, but wrote and directed a fresh take on The Mummy, loosely based on the original film from 1932. The three connections the movies share are the Mummy’s name, Imhotep, Oded Fehr’s character’s name Ardeth Bay, and the plot revolving around an Egyptian priest resurrecting his ancient love. Everything else was brand-new to the Mummy’s mythos and made the movie all the better for it.

The film switches genres from the upfront focus on horror to action, concentrating more on adventurous sequences, special effects, comedy, and more flavor regarding Egyptian mythology and lore. It feels more of a throwback to adventure serials of the same time the original Mummy was a part of with Fraser’s Rick O’Connell mirroring something out of an Allan Quartermain story. The studio had originally wanted a typical leading man with the likes of Brad Pitt and Ben Affleck in the role. While those guys have proven they can be funny, it’s Fraser’s effortless take on being cool while also being willing to mock himself that makes his portrayal play out so well.

To break more stereotypes, Rachel Weisz’s wise, charming, and beautiful librarian Evelyn Carnahan proved that within every bookish girl stirs an adventurer ready to save the day–and a brilliant one, at that.

“I may not be an explorer, or an adventurer, or a treasure-seeker, or a gunfighter, Mr. O’Connell, but I am proud of what I am,” she tells Rick. When asked what that is, she replies back “I…am a librarian.”

They’re electric on-screen together. The two of them should have won the Nobel Prize in chemistry if we’re being honest.

Balancing the good, we have Arnold Vosloo as Imhotep, the malevolent Mummy himself. What a performance. Apparently, Vosloo got offered the role after one audition and it’s easy to see why. He’s leagues from Karloff’s stoic and slow-moving, calculating undead creature to a man hellbent on finding his love and his unwillingness to let anyone or anything stop him. There’s a dramatic and sinister flair in everything he does.

As previously noted, 1999 was a pivotal year for big-budget action movies as special effects were becoming an art form and more computer-generated effects were becoming more mainstream. About a fifth of the movie’s $80 million budget, roughly $15 million, was set aside exclusively for the special effects, including digital prosthetic make-up, motion capture, and stop-motion.

For The Mummy, Sommers chose to utilize both cutting-edge CGI from Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) and practical effects with the help of Oscar nominee Nick Dudman. Dudman had gotten his start as a puppeteer assistant for Yoda in Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back and already had a hand in several blockbusters by the time he was developing the mummies. He would also return for the sequel, The Mummy Returns. This combination helps those effects hold up to this day. It wasn’t all special effects, though. The scene with Evelyn covered in rats and locusts? Those are those actual creatures all over Weisz. Sometimes, you can’t beat the real thing.

Following its massive success at the box office, a sequel was quickly greenlit and almost 70 years later, Universal had another monster movie franchise in its cloth-wrapped hands. The Mummy Returns had more of a mixed critical reaction, but still managed to earn over than $430 at the box office. The subsequent spin-off Scorpion King franchise helped launch the movie career of Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson–for better or worse–but added more monsters and magic to this already mysterious world.

Obviously, the Tom Cruise-starring reboot of The Mummy and Universal’s proposed Dark Universe was tombed pretty much on arrival. It’s hard to mess with the cosmic gumbo of what made The Mummy such a hit, but other franchises have sniped the recipe and made their own versions–and there’s nothing wrong with that.

Maybe someday we’ll finally get that Mummy 4 that’s long been rumored, maybe not, and if not–that’s okay! We have Rick and Evelyn riding off into the sands before the credits roll, and sometimes, that’s the best kind of ending.

Halo Infinite’s Forge mode and the creators who make it sing never cease to amaze, as work has now begun on a Helldivers 2-inspired game mode within 343 Industries’ free-to-play FPS.

Helldivers 2 may have popularized the idea of space marines dropping from orbit in drop pods to do battle with alien threats, but before there were Helldivers, there were Halo’s ODSTs, aka Helljumpers. That certainly makes the Helldivers 2 formula of dropping into a map, battling aliens, and completing objectives before extracting a perfect fit within the Halo universe, but to date there has only been one official ODST spin-off: 2009’s Halo 3: ODST. A former Halo developer stated that a number of ODST games were pitched during his time working at 343, though none were ever greenlit.

Now, a group of around a dozen Forge creators under the banner of the Forge Falcons, have taken it upon themselves to give Halo fans an unofficial ODST spin-off inspired by Arrowhead Studio’s immensely popular Helldivers 2. Appropriately titled Helljumpers, it uses Halo Infinite’s robust custom game and map creator, Forge, along with the recently implemented ability to add AI enemies, to recreate the Helldivers 2 experience. The group has previously released a full-fledged zombies mode inspired by Call of Duty Zombies, as well as a battle royale mode, making them no stranger to big Forge projects.

From what the Forge Falcons have shown so far, Helljumpers looks to already be coming together nicely. The Forge Falcons recently showed off a brief teaser of the urban map the mode will take place on, noting that aspects of it will change over the course of development. A full gameplay trailer for Helljumpers is slated to release in May, with the mode itself aiming for a June release. As with all Forge creations, Helljumpers will be completely free to download and play.

“We’re glad we can finally show this off to you all, it has been a lot of hard work over the last two months to really nail down the layout we want for this experience,” The Forge Falcons stated on X.

In another post, the team welcomed feedback on its map reveal, and said it was looking forward to bringing “the Helldivers 2 experience to Halo Infinite.” Far from a simple game mode, Helljumpers is aiming to be a complete game-within-a-game, featuring a story campaign that will take “approximately 2-3 hours” to complete if players focus on main objectives. The Forge Falcons say it will include “expertly crafted cinematic events” and even its own original soundtrack (albeit one that won’t be heard in-game).

While fans hopefully won’t have to wait long for Helljumpers to release, there is new content in Halo Infinite to keep players occupied. Halo Infinite officially launched its latest Operation, Banished Honor, on May 30. The update introduces Banished-themed cosmetics as well as a new cosmetic store where players can spend points earned through playing to unlock previously available items. The update also restores one iconic Halo weapon to its former glory via a balance change that fans have been asking about ever since the game’s launch.