Category: News

Zack Snyder is always eager to give fans what they want, and apparently, that now includes indulging their wild theories. While taking part in Netflix’s Geeked Week event on Monday, Snyder was asked about the burgeoning fan theory that the characters in Army of the Dead are trapped in a time loop. The theory comes from Omari Hardwick’s Vanderohe noticing that a group of skeletons look exactly like the team pulling off a casino heist in the middle of a zombie apocalypse.

“It could be us in another timeline, and we’re caught in some infinite loop of fighting and dying, fighting and dying, fighting and dying,” he says. However, while there’s nothing in Army of the Dead‘s actual plot that suggests the story starts over again, Snyder conceded that the time loop theory “might be true” before adding the caveat of “Who knows?” Via The Wrap:

“There’s a lot of clues in the movie that would support that theory. For instance, you see in that sequence, you see that there’s some skeletons. in the vault there’s like a shot of each of them, and you see a shot of one of our characters, and they happen to be wearing like the same necklace or the same — it’s them.

“When they actually get in the casino there’s a set of plans, and Scott says Tanaka had other teams in here before us. If you notice, the dead guys around that table are them again. So if you wanna play that game, it’s there to play.”

While the time loop theory is a fun wild goose for fans to chase, Army of the Dead has a pretty straight-forward ending that doesn’t suggest any sort of loop. That said, the ending does set up a sequel, which Netflix will probably be very interested in kick-starting as soon as possible thanks to the Snyder film bringing in a huge number of views.

(Via The Wrap)

After the unfortunate forced cancellation last year, E3 is back, and you better believe we are embracing it with the most open of arms. Starting on June 12, E3 is the time of year where nearly all of the biggest names in gaming gather ’round to show off the games and tech they’ve been hard at work making for all us adoring players. While we’re simply happy to just have an E3 this year, naturally we do have our own wishlists made of what we hope to see there. While a lot of the games on this list are somewhat likely to make an appearance — as they are all confirmed titles their respective studios are working on — we don’t know everything on this list will be at this year’s E3. But man… wouldn’t that be cool?

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2
Back in 2017, Breath of the Wild revolutionized the Legend of Zelda franchise, and brought a breath of fresh air (see what I did there) into a series that, for better or worse, had become fairly formulaic. Millions of us sunk dozens upon dozens of hours into the gorgeous open-world experience, defeated the Great King of Evil once more, and restored order to Hyrule, all while basking in how different this game felt. It was freeing in a way we hadn’t seen in these games before. It felt exhilarating — endless. However, once players bested every boss and solved every shrine, a collective question arose: where does the 35-year-old series go from here? This question is still lingering in many of our minds, and as someone who enjoyed Breath of the Wild but found myself longing for the temples, bosses, time-related gimmicks, and iconic weapons/tools from previous Zelda titles I loved, I have an extremely vested interest in what happens next. I was incredibly intrigued by the trailer we saw a few years back, and am hoping we see more including a bit of gameplay if we’re lucky. — Jessica Howard

Gotham Knights
I don’t know what Gotham Knights actually promises when it bills itself as an “open-world action RPG” but sure, I’ll chart a skill-tree and accumulate too many quests at once. What I do know is that I can play as Robin. Robin! The other guy! Where the Arkham series’ combat system runs stale after a few hours, Gotham Knights instead lets you suit up as one of four playable characters (that aren’t Batman) with completely different move-sets and abilities. Now if we could also get a little more info on that Suicide Squad game… — AJ Lodge

Halo Infinite
Halo Infinite got off to a bit of a rough start. A perfectly average demo last summer — which was clearly a work in progress — spawned a successful meme (Craig the Brute!) and a less-than-successful reception from fans who were expecting…more, I guess? 343 Industries has since delayed the game well into this year, and been a lot more open about the game’s development and improving on what were already some pretty solid bones. This E3, it’s safe to expect a more impressive showing for Halo Infinite that could change the narrative around the game and remind Xbox fans they did in fact buy their Xbox Series X | S for a reason. Maybe we’ll even get a peek at the multiplayer suite this time around and that battle royale mode that’s been rumored to come with it. — Moises Taveras

Ubisoft’s Star Wars
One of the best decisions Lucas Arts has made with the Stars Wars IP is not keeping it under exclusivity. EA had some success with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order but allowing only one company to work with that universe limited it far too much. Everyone loves Star Wars and it’s a title that we want fresh ideas from everyone on. Ubisoft in particular, with their history of making open-world games, could give us all the huge Star Wars world that we’ve all been wanting to explore since we were kids. There’s endless potential and I’m excited to see Ubisoft try and match it. — Chris Barnewall

Overwatch 2
I swore up and down when Overwatch first came out back in 2016 I was absolutely not going to buy it. As fun as it looked, I told myself and my more persuasive friends there was literally no way I could justify spending $60 on a game that didn’t even have a single-player campaign — a game that, I explained, I would play for 15 hours until everyone stopped playing it in a month. However, within a week, I caved. Against my better judgment, I went to Target and picked up a copy. Little did I know, that game would soon turn into one of my favorite games of all time. Since then, I have put close to 600 hours into Overwatch on PlayStation alone. I’ve mastered the perfectly placed D.Va ult, cheered on SF Shock during their league matches, and bested Dr. Junkenstein year after year. However, over time Overwatch has lost some of its luster. While Blizzard has done a great job keeping up with a five year-old game, I’m ready for a fresh start, some big structural changes, and to be re-captivated by the FPS that stole my heart. — Jessica Howard

Starfield
Starfield is likely coming next year, and it’s beginning to sound like its big debut is finally happening this year at Bethesda and Xbox’s joint E3 conference, so yes I will be allowing myself to get excited for Fallout/Elder Scrolls but in space. The Outer Worlds tried this some years ago on a smaller scale and it was okay, but maybe the scale that only Bethesda can produce is what will make this work for me. Starfield’s supposed to be their biggest game ever so it’s clear they’ll deliver on that at the very least. More than anything, it’ll just be good to see what this game is after talking about it in hushed tones for like half a decade now. — Moises Taveras

Hogwarts Legacy
I won’t pretend to know my Dracos from my Snape-os, but even I know that Slytherin’s aren’t supposed to be as excited as I am to spend $69.99 on a video game for someone else’s enjoyment. My fiancée has been desperately waiting for a full-fledged Harry Potter video game experience (forcing me to take the sorting hat test is probably the closest thing she has right now) and boy, does Hogwarts Legacy look like it’s gonna scratch that itch. I think she deserves it. I think the fandom deserves it. And I, who has a newfound joy for backseat gaming, also deserve it? — AJ Lodge

Bayonetta 3
Bayonetta 3 was first teased all the way back in 2017 and we’ve heard nothing about it since. What we all initially believed to be something close to a launch title for the Nintendo Switch has instead become a mystery. Where is it? What’s it about? One thing I know for certain is I’m ready for another crazy action game featuring everyone’s favorite heel gun hero. What’s also going to be fun is the potential for Easter eggs and secrets. Bayonetta has always been great about having fun little easter eggs and since Bayontetta 3 should be a Nintendo exclusive that means they have a whole history of great IP’s to pull from. — Chris Barnewall

Indiana Jones
Set photos from the latest Indiana Jones film broke (a section of) the internet over the weekend, making it all the more clear that we’re getting at least one more chance to watch Harrison Ford play his signature role (sorry Star Wars fans). But what happens next? Will Disney pass the torch to another actor to go back to Indy’s prime Nazi punching days in the ’40s? That might be one of Hollywood’s most compelling questions, but for video games, we already have a sense that that’s where we’re going with the previously announced Bethesda-made Indiana Jones game. The only question is will this also be the start of an all-new franchise and, more importantly, how is the studio going to both pay tribute to the films and build on their legacy? Is Ford going to be involved in some way? And what kind of experience are we going to get? There can be a “good enough” effect with pre-established IP games. They know you’ve been pining for it, so the levels of innovation and the foundation for more don’t need to be as high or strong. But with the Indiana Jones film franchise somewhat in flux, there’s all the more reason for Bethesda to establish something profoundly fun and interesting here that carves its own path. So gimme some confirmation of that or, at least, a slick-looking trailer that talks money out of my wallet. — Jason Tabrys

Final Fantasy XVI
Long before Magitek armor, blitzball, and cross-country road trips, Final Fantasy had crystals. Crystals have served as magical catalysts for many if not most of the series’ stories, and based on what we’ve seen in the Final Fantasy XVI trailer, they’re coming back in an extremely big way — a way that leans significantly more into the fantasy side of things than we’ve seen in many of the single-player games recently. For those who enjoy the series more fantasy-driven titles — titles like IV, IX, and even the side game , Final Fantasy Tactics — this game appears to tread the familiar terrain of royal family drama, politics, and magic given to the land through powerful crystals. With XVI, I am expecting a hard pivot away from a lot of the modernity we’ve come to embrace in the series as of late and I’m incredibly excited by the prospect and to see more of what’s to come. — Jessica Howard

Dragon Age (And Mass Effect)
I love two things: Big RPGs and games with long tails, apparently. The next Dragon Age game seems like the perfect crossover of these interests and the next big thing coming from BioWare based on how willing they’ve been to talk about and tease it over the last few years. Considering it’s now been about seven years since the last Dragon Age game, it feels about time to begin landing this one. But Bioware is a house built on two big RPGs, and last year they did tease a new Mass Effect that looks a long way out, though that certainly didn’t stop them from announcing it so who’s to say we won’t see more of it. — Moises Taveras

Marvel XCOM
Personally, I’m surprised this hasn’t happened sooner. The XCOM formula has been one that we know works and we know for certain is popular. It’s the perfect formula for spin-off licensed titles. Nintendo/Ubisoft ripped it off years ago with Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle to great success. It’s stunning that we haven’t seen more of that and if Marvel XCOM does it, well then we might see even more spin-offs following that formula. There’s also some fun potential here for exclusive features on separate consoles. Since Sony owns Spider-Man for example, he might be a secret PlayStation only character. It would also be cool if we could see more of the X-Men since they’ve been pretty absent from Marvel media for quite some time now. — Chris Barnewall

Elden Ring
It’s been literal years, Miyazaki-san. Please. Since the tease at E3 2019 two years ago, we’ve gotten nothing (official at least) on Elden Ring, and yet we all continue pining for this collaboration from the studio that brought us Dark Souls and George R.R Martin, the author behind the A Song of Ice and Fire series. All I want from this game and franchise is for it to look like a successor to Dark Souls. But I also want it to have more of the awesome warrior lady with the detachable arm from the initial teaser, please. She’s metal as hell. — Moises Taveras

Confections, a bakery in the small town of Lufkin, Texas, is a wonderful example of why hate is no match for the power of acceptance, pride, and love.

Confections posted an innocuous photo of Pride-themed cookies on its Facebook page on Wednesday with the positive message of “More LOVE. Less hate. Happy Pride to all our LGBTQ friends! All lovers of cookies and happiness are welcome here.”

But evidently, some are bothered by the idea of having “less hate” so a “significant” number of followers disliked Confections’ Facebook page after the post. One customer went so far as to cancel a large order of five-dozen summer-themed cookies that had already been baked.

The small business was going to have to take a loss on the large order if no one stepped up to purchase the cookies.

“My heart is heavy,” one of the owners wrote on Facebook. “Honestly I never thought a post that literally said more love less hate would result in this kind of backlash to a very small business that is struggling to stay afloat and spread a little cheer through baked goods.”

After the small business made the post, the internet got wind of it and the summer-themed cookies were sold out immediately. Then, a line quickly formed around the block and the massive influx of customers cleaned out every shelf in the business.

But it didn’t stop there, the next day it happened again. So, the store began baking more LGBTQ-themed cookies and its shelves were cleaned out again. When there was nothing left to purchase, customers pre-ordered cookies to send to nursing homes and civic events.

Others sent direct donations to the shop that the owners are going to send to local animal shelters.

The response has been overwhelming for the shop’s owners Dawn and Miranda and their baker Felicia.

“In the 11 years we’ve been open we’ve never seen anything quite like this,” Dawn wrote, adding they “are just so humbled and grateful and moved by this outpouring of love.”

On Sunday, the store reported that it was hard at work making rainbow bows to celebrate Pride and baking the nursing home orders.

One Facebook commenter perfectly summed up the overwhelming reaction to Confections’ story. “For every nasty and hateful person, there are 2,500 or more that are amazing and loving,” Kimberly Gonzalez wrote.

“Your shop looks amazing and the hate and heartache you experienced was for a purpose,” she added. “It brings me so much joy that you are receiving this amount of support. Keep doing what you love and supporting who you want. You are all amazing people and wish you all the prosperity for you and your business.”

One of the most important aspects of Pride Month is visibility, but that’s not limited to members of the LGBTQ community. It’s a month for everyone who supports them to renew their commitment to visibility as well. For some, that’s showing up to a Pride parade, for others, it’s supporting allied businesses.

The story of Confections bakery is a wonderful example of Pride in action.

In 2017 and 2018, Bruce Springsteen was the toast of Broadway with his descriptively titled show Springsteen On Broadway. Now that Broadway is opening back up, so too is Springsteen On Broadway, as more performances of the beloved show are on the way. The revival will take place St. James Theatre, starting on June 26 and running through September 4. Tickets will be available via SeatGeek starting on June 10 at noon ET.

Springsteen offered a statement about his Broadway comeback, saying, “I loved doing Springsteen On Broadway and I’m thrilled to have been asked to reprise the show as part of the reopening of Broadway.”

Uproxx’s Steven Hyden previously wrote of the show, “The show works like this: Bruce stands on stage for two hours, mostly alone — save for a stunning two-song cameo by his wife, Patti Scialfa — and performs 15 tracks from throughout his 45-year recording career on guitar and piano. And he also talks about the things that inform those songs: His father, his mother, rock and roll, Jersey, The Big Man, fame, social justice, transcendence, America. Is it a concert? A play? Performance art? Whatever you call it, Springsteen On Broadway is one of the best shows I’ve ever seen.”

Check out the full list of dates below and get tickets here.

06-26 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
06-29 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
06-30 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-01 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-02 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-03 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-06 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-07 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-08 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-09 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-10 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-13 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-14 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-15 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-16 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
07-17 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
08-17 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
08-18 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
08-19 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
08-20 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
08-24 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
08-25 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
08-26 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
08-27 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
08-28 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
08-31 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
09-01 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
09-02 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
09-03 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre
09-04 — Springsteen On Broadway @ St. James Theatre

After releasing the deluxe version of her acclaimed EP After The Rain and becoming a viral star with the video for her breakout hit “I Am,” Yung Baby Tate is now aiming to take over America’s televisions. The rising Atlanta star is joining the cast of the VH1 reality series Love & Hip Hop for its 10th season, making the announcement with a tweet bearing a teaser featuring “I Am” and revealing the new season’s air date: Monday, June 5.

Tate, whose tales of romantic entanglements have formed the foundation of some of her standout projects like Boys and After The Rain, will join a cast that has included longtime mainstays Rasheeda, Karlie Redd, and Mimi Faust, as well as Atlanta rap veterans such as Lil Scrappy and Yung Joc. The New York iteration of the show previously helped turn Cardi B into a household name; perhaps Tate hopes that the added exposure will help do the same for her.

Yung Baby Tate is already thoroughly established in the entertainment world thanks to her links to Insecure creator Issa Rae — whose label Raedio put out After The Rain — and her string of well-received albums, mixtapes, and EPs, as well as her appearance on Dreamville’s “Don’t Hit Me Right Now.”

Yung Baby Tate is a Warner Music artist. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

The structure of professional sports teams makes it so that, often, the person in charge of evaluating the roster is the same person who was tasked with building the roster. As such, they can have a difficult time admitting fault or avoiding looking at their creation through rose colored glasses. It’s why the first person to get fired is always the head coach, because that’s someone else to put the blame on for a team falling short of expectations, but at some point, all eyes turn to the person in charge of it all.

This is what is currently playing out in Portland, where longtime head coach Terry Stotts “parted ways” with the Blazers with two years left on his contract, which is the nice way of saying he was fired — a courtesy Charles Barkley pointed out is rarely extended to Black head coaches who just get fired. A coaching search is underway and it has already gotten off to a rough start, with Damian Lillard publicly stumping for Jason Kidd who quickly withdrew his name from consideration because he didn’t want that endorsement to become a distraction.

While coaching certainly could play a factor in turning Portland around, particularly defensively, one can’t help but see some roster holes that need to be addressed. The backup center position come playoff time was untenable and there are so few positive defenders on the roster that it will be hard for anyone to come in and make significant improvements on that end without some upgrades. It is widely accepted that changes need to be made, including by Damian Lillard, but the one person who needs to understand that seems to be pushing back on that idea and trying to lower the expectations of what changes could come this offseason.

President of Basketball Operations Neil Olshey did his exit interview with the virtually assembled media in Portland on Monday, and while no one expects a GM to bury themselves going into an offseason, the brashness with which he shrugged off responsibility for the Blazers’ first round exit was truly breathtaking.

Not even a little bit? Like, at all? Roster construction was just a complete non-factor in the Blazers losing to a shorthanded Denver team in six games? Sure. Still, surely you can look at this roster and note that it’s just not filled with strong defenders and that you need to be there to assist your new coach with roster upgrades on that end to bring more balance to the team, right?

Oh, alrighty then. To be sure that no one expected the Blazers to be able to do much this offseason to make drastic upgrades, he got on the old “woe is me” train about being the poor little general manager of a small market club no one wants to sign with.

There are absolutely hurdles for smaller market teams to landing top free agents. No one would dispute that, but complaining about it rather than trying to make your pitch of how you can come play in a fantastic place with one of the league’s absolute best players seems like just a weak way to go about this.

No one is asking the Blazers, who don’t have much cap space, to make a huge move in free agency, but just to simply construct a roster that, top to bottom, has a bit more balance. Everyone knows any major move the Blazers make is going to have to be via trade — we only need to look back a few months to them dealing for Norman Powell, which worked out pretty well all things considered. The only real trade chip they have is CJ McCollum, who would be incredibly difficult to part ways with as a player who has grown and developed his whole career in Portland, but those are the decisions you have to be able to make as a GM for the betterment of the team when you yourself can point out that this team has plateaued.

Changing the voice at head coach isn’t going to fix all of their shortcomings. Roster changes are required and likely more than just a few new complementary pieces. Maybe this is a massive smokescreen, but Blazers fans are understandably frustrated after hearing Olshey shovel blame on just about every possible person that isn’t himself for falling short of expectations this season. No one expects him to necessarily come out and say he failed the organization or something that dramatic, but simply saying, “we’ll be evaluating the roster and ways we can make this team a championship contender around a championship player in Damian Lillard,” would’ve been a much smarter way to have gone about this rather than insisting nothing could possibly have been the fault of him.

In the summer of 2018, Deafheaven offered their fourth album, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love. It was a critical favorite, but that was three years ago now and fans want more. The post-metal band tends to release a new album every two or three years, and based on their latest social media post, it appears another could be on the way soon.

The band shared a video this afternoon that simply reads “08.20.21,” suggesting that some sort of news on the Deafheaven front will be unveiled on August 20 of this year. Furthermore, they also captioned the post “5,” which suggests the news will be related to a new album, which will be their fifth one. The 14-second visual is also scored by some synth music.

At the very least, it appears they’ve been at least working on new material. In May 2020, the group shared a photo that indicated they were in the studio cooking up something fresh.

Futhermore, they also teased new music last year when they released their live album 10 Years Gone. In a statement about the project, the band wrote, “We’re thankful we were able to do this project and that fans have stuck with us as we make new music for 2021. Thank you for helping us move forward and I hope you enjoy this record as a small interim in the Deafheaven story. We’ll see you soon.”

Revisit our review of Ordinary Corrupt Human Love here.

Loki’s midweek arrival on Disney+ has plenty of Marvel fans excited to see the trickster god back in fine form and, well, alive. You know, maybe.

But before all that gets underway on the Disney streaming service, there are some convenient product tie-ins to show off. And the latest one is a very cleverly-named cereal that certainly fits the bill for the chaotic neutral superhero. Lucky Charms detailed a tie-in and a name change on Monday: Loki Charms, with a slightly modified catch phrase that matches Loki’s nature: Mischievously Delicious.

The cereal company set up a website specifically for the ad, in which Lucky the Leprechaun names off all the marshmallow shapes in Lucky Charms, then makes a mysterious portal he gets sucked into. He reemerges as a cartoon version of Loki, then swaps out the regular box with a special Loki-themed one.

According to the site, the special Loki Charms go on sale Wednesday, just in time for the show’ debut. But there’s a bit of a twist here: if you can figure out the encrypted password, you’ll get access to the sale two hours early. For those who really want to complete their Marvel merch collection, that password might be a bit of a project. But knowing the rabid fans Loki and the MCU has, I’m sure it’s a task they will crack in no time.

BTS’ new single “Butter” debuted atop the Billboard Hot 100 chart last week, making it their fourth song to debut at No. 1 in just the past nine months. Now the new charts are out, and on the Hot 100 dated June 12, “Butter” remains on top for a second week. Of the 54 songs that have ever debuted at No. 1, “Butter” is now just the 23rd of them to stay on top for its second week.

The group shared a grateful message upon learning the news, writing on Twitter, “Billboard #Hot100 No.1 AGAIN. We topped HOT100 chart with #BTS_Butter for two weeks straight! Thank you again, #BTSARMY.”

As Billboard notes, part of the reason “Butter” was able to remain on top were due in part to a “Hotter” remix of the song that was released on May 28, as well as the original and instrumental versions of the song. Meanwhile, the other new versions of the song, the “Cooler” and “Sweeter” remixes, came out on July 4, and those will factor into the June 19-dated chart, which reflects sales from June 4 to 10.

Meanwhile, the group also achieved what must be another No. 1 feat: An Among Us-shaped chicken McNugget from McDonald’s BTS Meal has sold for $100,000 on eBay, which is likely at least a contender for the most expensive chicken nugget of all time.

Battlefield 6, or as some rumors are calling it ‘Battlefield 2042‘ is going to be revealed to the world very soon. We were teased an announcement about the game for June 9 and ever since a rather odd marketing campaign has begun.

Early Monday morning, Battlefield sent out a tweet teasing the upcoming Battlefield updates, but similar theming has started to appear across all Battlefield titles. The Battlefield V news page has odd distorted text all over it.

Interestingly, eagle-eyed gamers noticed a similar video to the update tweet will play when starting up Battlefield V itself. It seems like a safe bet that hacking and digital warfare will be a major part of the upcoming Battlefield if this is what their marketing looks like.

Viral marketing like this isn’t uncommon with games, but it’s rare to have a title influence other ones in this way. We might see Easter eggs, but a whole new intro? That was a surprise to see. Of course, anyone that is playing Battlefield V is likely going to be even more excited for Battlefield 6 after seeing an intro like this when they start their game.

That said, if you’re not a fan of Battlefield it comes off as a little weird. As Giant Bomb’s Jeff Gerstmann pointed out, the news page just looks bizarre and isn’t really helpful at the moment.

Either way, this is definitely different from the standard way that games are marketed so points for creativity and trying something new. But we’ll have to see what Battlefield actually has in store for gamers later this week.