Diablo 4 season 4, formally called Loot Reborn, is coming. As the title suggests, it’s bringing a revamp to the loot system, some new blacksmithing mechanics, a new take on the Helltides mechanic, and a deadly plot involving the Iron Wolves mercenary company.
Here’s when Diablo 4 season 4 starts in your time zone, and details on what to expect from Diablo 4 season 4.
Diablo 4 season 4 release time in your time zone
Diablo 4 season 4 starts at 10 a.m. PT on Tuesday, May 14, according to a Blizzard blog post. Here’s when that is in your time zone:
10 a.m. PDT for the West Coast of North America
1 p.m. EDT for the East Coast of North America
6 p.m. BST for the U.K.
7 p.m. CEST for Western Europe/Paris
2 a.m. JST on May 15 for Tokyo
What’s new in Diablo 4 season 4?
Like the name suggests, Diablo 4 Season 4’s Loot Reborn is mostly about items:
Affixes are getting simplified descriptions with more straightforward effects.
Tempering and Masterwork let a blacksmith customize, swap, and improve your affixes using the new Tempering Manual and Crafting Manual items.
You’ll be rewarded with several of those Tempering Manuals when you fight along with the Iron Wolves mercenary company in Kehjistan.
Masterworking will require a specific material that can only be found in the new, timed, World Tier 4, 200-level challenge, The Pit of Artificers.
The Helltide will now include a threat mechanic inspired by Season of Blood that culminates in the player becoming Hell-marked and drawing the attention of a Hellborn. Collect their Baleful Hearts to start the Accursed Ritual and face the Blood Maiden for a valuable reward.
Amazon is currently discounting a handsome collection of core curriculum and supplementary adventures for Dungeons & Dragons. Whether you’re trying to rope your friends into your next tabletop session or need an ample supply of one-shot adventures to kill time while we all wait for D&D’s revised fifth edition, you’ll want to check out this modest selection of discounted tomes.
For instance, if you or a small band of adventurers are looking to test the waters of Dungeons & Dragons, the D&D Essentials Kit is currently discounted to $20.31 (was $24.99). However, if you need a more substantial introduction to the world of D&D, you can also find the Player’s Handbook on sale for $37.21, and the Monster Manual discounted to $28.86.
An abridged rulebook, modestly-sized one-shot adventure, six character sheets, 11 dice, and a wealth of supplementary material round out the D&D Essentials Kit.
The essential rulebook for playing Dungeons & Dragons 5e. Includes rules and errata for players to create their own characters and also features references for spells, equipment, and other items.
A guide detailing D&D monsters from Aarakocra to Zombie. The essential Monster Manual for D&D 5e includes over 150 creatures, complete with lore, illustrations, and stat blocks to populate your next campaign.
Amazon also has discounts on an impressive selection of one-shot adventures and campaign settings to spice up your next tabletop session. Become a space pirate with the Spelljammer: Adventures in Space bundle for just $34.99 (was $69.99). Or, perhaps you’d like to mull over a collection of 17 mystery-themed adventures in one of our personal favorites, Candlekeep Mysteries, which is on sale for $26.10 (was $49.95).
Regardless of your level of experience with the legendary tabletop franchise, you’re bound to find at least one tome that would make a fine addition to your armory of D&D texts.
This bundle includes the Astral Adventurer’s Guide, Light of Xaryxis adventure, and Boo’s Astral Menagerie monster manual. The box set also includes a DM screen and a double-sided map of the Rock of Bral campaign setting.
This anthology of 17 different one-shot adventures only requires Dungeon Masters to place a library somewhere in their world. Well, that and 3-5 hardy adventurers to find it.
This new campaign for the original role-playing game takes fans to the coldest reaches of the Forgotten Realms, as well as taking them from level one through level 12.
My Hero Academia returns this Saturday with the highly anticipated premiere of its seventh season. The latest season of the mega-popular superhero action anime is set to adapt the “Star and Stripe” arc of Kōhei Horikoshi’s original manga. That means the arrival of America’s No. 1 Hero, Star and Stripe, in Japan to aid Izuku Midoriya and his classmates in their battle against Tomura Shigaraki and the Paranormal Liberation Front.
Since its debut in 2016, My Hero Academia has grown to become one of the most popular shōnen anime in the world, inspiring a fandom arguably magnified by the pop culture shift instigated by the phenomenon of the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the DCU. During this year’s Crunchyroll Anime Awards, Polygon had the opportunity to speak to multiple celebrity anime fans about their love of My Hero Academia, as well as ask what quirk they think they would have if they lived in the world of Horikoshi’s superhero epic.
Megan Thee Stallion
“If I could choose my own quirk, I would choose to be a part of the Todoroki family because I feel like those are already quirks that I would have. Because I’m Tina Snow; that’s my ice powers, and I’m the Hot Girl coach; that’s my fire power. I just feel like that’s where I would be.”
Iman Vellani
“Freezing time, but without me aging. I would like more sleep; I would like more time to watch TV and movies. Sometimes I feel like when I’m doing press and I get to travel, it’s just all press and I don’t have enough time to just go where I want. So freezing time, or teleportation, though I do like being on a plane.”
Yaeji
“I think [my quirk] would have to do something with time, which is a heavy burden to carry. But maybe there’s more specific rules to it, something that manipulates time that allows you to speed up or slow it down.”
Mercedes Varnado
Image: Bones/Crunchyroll
“Either flying or being invisible. Just because I love overseeing things, I love being part of the world, and I love traveling. So just to be able to travel faster would be awesome. I’d like to be invisible so I can escape from any situation; Like, if I don’t like something, I could just go.”
What quirk would you choose to have in the world of My Hero Academia?
My Hero Academia season 7 premieres Saturday, May 4 at 2:30 a.m PT on Crunchyroll.
Iman Vellani is the kind of movie star whose enthusiasm, humor, and openness radiates off the screen and feels positively incandescent in person. The 21-year-old actress, best known for her role as Kamala Khan in 2022’s Ms. Marvel and 2023’s The Marvels,is unabashedly open in sharing her love of all things MCU-related, from playfully debating the finer points of canonical continuity with Marvel Studios head Kevin Feige to co-writing a Ms. Marvellimited series with Sabir Pirzada.
But Vellani has other passions beyond Marvel — her most recent being anime. Earlier this year at the Crunchyroll Anime Awards, Vellani shared with Polygon what convinced her to finally take the plunge into exploring Japanese animation.
“I was very intimidated by anime until very recently,” Vellani said. “I started watching anime about a year ago, so this is a new obsession for me, but I’m totally into it now. There’s just so much content, I didn’t know where to start. I mean, I can barely keep up with all the Marvel content that’s out there.”
Image: Wit Studio/Crunchyroll
Vellani attributes her nascent love of anime to Attack on Titan, which she was introduced to via family and friends and proudly names as her current favorite anime. “They just talk about it all the time,” Vellani said, “and Attack on Titan kept coming back up whenever they would talk about anime. I started watching it and was like, This is a story that seems like it’s about humanity. I think I can get into it.”
Of the entire ensemble of characters that appear in Attack on Titan, Vellani pointed out one in particular whose story resonated the most with her. “I love Mikasa Ackerman,” Vellani said. “The way that she kept Eren’s scarf at the end of the show, even though Eren told her to give it up and forget about him. Her being the only one who was able to kill Eren at the end to stop the Rumbling. That is a woman who — I don’t think I’ve seen many other female characters like her who have that authority, willpower, and determination to actually act on it. I recently cut my hair, and when I looked in the mirror, I was like, I know what my next cosplay is.”
Image: Wit Studio/Crunchyroll
Aside from Mikasa, Vellani also named one of the series’ other leading characters as one she especially enjoyed, going so far as to praise the voice actor responsible for their performance in Attack on Titan’s finale. “I like Armin because I always like to root for the nerdy characters,” Vellani said. “I watched the final half of the show with the English dub and, I don’t know who the actor who plays Armin is, but they deserve a raise because their performance in the final episode blew me away. He made me cry, his wailing and that flashback scene between him and Eren, it just hit me in all the right ways.”
After resisting anime for a while, Attack on Titan quickly became a show that stuck with her. “The ending was such a gut punch. It left me feeling so awful at the end, but it’s like one of those Succession-type endings where it’s not the ending you want, but it made sense. The ending made sense for the story, it made sense for the characters.
“I think they tied the knot so perfectly, and I can’t think of anything else I’ve watched recently that’s impacted me as much as that. I was crying in my bed watching it. My mom walked in on me and she was like, ‘It’s just an animation show!’ and I was like, ‘No, this is real!’”
Image: MAPPA/Crunchyroll
Shortly after finishing Attack on Titan, she dove into exploring other popular series suggested by her friends. “I finally started Jujutsu Kaisen and One Piece,” Vellani said. “One Piece was one that I did not want to get into initially because it’s like, what, a thousand episodes now, and that felt like too much. Grey’s Anatomy was more than enough for me, and I stopped at, like, season 10. But after the Netflix show came out I was so drawn to the characters, and after the heartbreak of Attack on Titan, I needed something lighter and funnier and that made me feel good. The characters are likable and I want to root for them all, so that’s a show I really like.”
And Vellani’s love for anime doesn’t stop at TV. “I watched Suzume just before coming to Japan and I loved it,” Vellani said. “That blew my mind. Truly a masterpiece. I also recently watched The Boy and the Heron and, as a 21-year-old, it really spoke to me and it reassured me that my inner child still exists.”
Image: Studio Ghibli via GKIDS/YouTube
When asked why she felt that her generation has embraced anime, and what it was about the medium that specifically spoke to her, Vellani cited the empowering roles and depictions of women and children, as well as the craftsmanship of studios like Studio Ghibli, as some of the reasons why anime is so popular among Gen Z audiences. “I just feel like anime feels so progressive with the way they depict women and children, especially in Studio Ghibli movies. All those movies are so good at showcasing youth and childhood and imagination in a way that’s encouraging children to keep that mindset.
“I feel like a lot of American cinema right now is just so depressing. It just wants to show the gritty real life of the world. I want to live in a world that makes me excited for the future, and I think anime does such a wonderful job in showcasing all the beauties of life. We went to the Ghibli Museum this morning and saw how they draw every single detail of the houses — the bricks, the walls, the windows — and you just realize how much people paid attention to these details when they drew it. Like, this is how they see the world, and that’s how I want to see the world, as something that’s full of life and joy.”
Manor Lords is a medieval city builder and management sim being developed entirely by a one-man team (his name is Greg Styczeń). With its three million wishlists on Steam, it’s safe to say that Manor Lords is highly anticipated. The early access releases on April 26, so let’s look at when the game will become available in your time zone for Steam, GOG, and PC Game Pass.
When does Manor Lords release?
The early access for Manor Lordsstarts on April 26, 2024. It’ll be available on Steam, GOG, and PC Game Pass.
Image: Hooded Horse
Manor Lords will be releasing simultaneously in all time zones, which means that it’ll drop at:
April 26 at 6 a.m. PDT for the west coast of North America
April 26 at 9 a.m. EDT for the east coast of North America
April 26 at 10 a.m. BRT for eastern South America
April 26 at 2 p.m. BST for the U.K.
April 26 at 3 p.m. CEST for mainland Europe
April 26 at 6:30 p.m. IST for India
April 26 at 10 p.m. JST for Japan
April 26 at 11 p.m. AEST for eastern Australia
April 27 at 1 a.m. NZST for New Zealand
What to expect in Manor Lords early access
Manor Lords is releasing in early access (or as a preview on PC Game Pass), which means that the game isn’t complete yet. There are a number of features that haven’t been implemented. But while there’s clearly still a lot to come, no roadmap has been published.
Image: Slavic Magic/Hooded Horse via Polygon
What you can do, though, is play three different scenarios on the game’s single early access map. You can also change the various settings for the scenario to customize your experience from something close to a sandbox all the way up to an exacting and battle-filled challenge.
Jesse Plemons is a brilliant actor. He’s also one of our most memeable stars. It’s not that he’s super expressive — quite the opposite, in fact. He’s usually quite placid, and almost hesitant in his line deliveries. He takes his time. But, whether he’s playing a timid everyman in The Power of the Dog or season 2 of Fargo or a stout lawman in Judas and the Black Messiah or Game Night, there’s always something going on behind his narrowed, watchful eyes. His stillness, his pauses, and his plain, unvarnished way of speaking act as a gravitational force, drawing the camera and other actors into his orbit. He’s also, in a low-key way, extremely funny.
A still image of Plemons in his ten-gallon Stetson in Killers of the Flower Moon, standing immovably in the doorway of Leonardo DiCaprio’s character’s house, has become internet shorthand for calmly and righteously calling bullshit. “I’ve been sent down from Washington D.C. to see about these murders.” “See what about ’em?” (A tiny pause, just long enough to be noticeable.) “See who’s doing it.”
That scene was used in the movie’s trailer, and Plemons’ masterful deadpan jolted it to life. Less than a year later, he was at it again in the first trailer for Alex Garland’s Civil War, with another pause, and another matter-of-fact line delivery, that lingered in the mind even longer than Garland’s stark, button-pushing imagery of America torn apart by war. Wearing military fatigues and a pair of bright red sunglasses with red lenses, and holding a rifle, Plemons is shown interrogating the film’s journalist heroes. “There’s some kind of misunderstanding here,” says Wagner Moura’s character, Joel. “We’re American, OK?”
“OK,” says Plemons, taking a second to scratch his stubbly cheek. “What kind of American are you?”
The full scene has much the same impact on the final movie, and the question posed by Plemons’ nameless character looms large over the whole enterprise long after the credits have rolled. For me, this was the moment Garland’s expertly made, thrilling, but somewhat withholding movie finally bared its teeth.
Civil War has come in for some criticism for not clearly articulating the root causes of the conflict it portrays, or for having its cake and eating it by marrying a fence-sitting political stance with deliberately provocative imagery. I’m not going to litigate the case for or against it here — Garland has laid out his reasoning for approaching the story this way very clearly in interviews, and the polarized reactions to the movie tend to say more about the viewers than the film.
Civil War is essentially a road movie that follows a team of journalists on a dangerous odyssey to meet America’s fascist president before he’s overthrown by an alliance of independent-minded states. As the ravaged landscape scrolls by, Garland stages a series of Apocalypse Now-style vignettes that underline the surreal horrors of war, and provoke questions about the role reporting plays in society: torture at a gas station, summary executions after an intense gun battle, a weirdly peaceful town ruled by a watchful militia. At every stage, he’s careful to avoid naming sides, or bringing any kind of political ideas into the mix.
That’s true for the Plemons scene too — up to a point. The scene occurs a little past the halfway mark; cub photojournalist Jessie (Cailee Spaeny) and Bohai, another reporter, have been separated from their friends and get captured by Plemons’ small militia team. The soldiers — it’s not clear which faction they belong to, if any — are dumping a truckful of bodies into a mass grave. Joel, Lee (Kirsten Dunst), and Tony (Nelson Lee) approach to try to negotiate their friends’ release. As an opener, Plemons’ character shoots Bohai dead. Then he poses his question.
Image: A24
On a simple level, the scene works so well because it gives us a clear bad guy — perhaps the only one in the movie — played by a great, charismatic actor. That’s always been one of cinema’s purest pleasures. Plemons, who was cast only a week before filming after a different actor dropped out, is extremely menacing without breaking the movie’s muted, realist tone. His red sunglasses — a true stroke of genius from the costume department — give him an iconic pop on the screen. The scene is shocking and suspenseful, and it moves an already gripping film up a gear. It’s also a dramatic fulcrum for most of the film’s characters, none of whom is quite the same afterward.
But this is also the first and perhaps only moment in Civil War when its troubling subtext about our current time comes searingly to the surface. “What kind of American are you?” Is Plemons asking which side of the conflict the reporters belong to, or something else? Sensing the danger in the question, Joel replies that he’s from Florida. “Hmm, a central American,” Plemons replies, dubiously. Lee and Jessie are from Midwestern states, so they get a pass. Not coincidentally, they’re also white. “Now, that’s American.” Tony, crying with fear, admits he’s from Hong Kong, and is immediately shot in the head.
It’s racism; it always comes back to racism. With the truck and ditch full of noticeably nonwhite bodies in the background, Garland is pointing out that the evil of ethnic cleansing almost always follows on the heels of war. But the implications of Plemons’ interrogation are even broader and more frightening than that. While accepting Lee and Jessie’s heritage, he also mocks them for their rootless detachment from it. When a terrified Jessie admits she doesn’t know why they call her home state of Missouri the “Show-Me State,” Plemons responds with a chilling bark of derisive laughter. (The question was improvised; Spaeny really is from Missouri, and really doesn’t know why people call it that.)
When he asks “what kind of American,” Plemons’ character isn’t just insinuating about race. He’s posing a fundamental question of identity: How do you perceive your Americanness, and how deeply are you rooted in it? A reply that has any less than total conviction won’t pass muster. In this scene and this scene only, Garland gets to the heart of the matter — the scary, polarized essentialism that can push a country to tear itself apart, and that is all too easy to recognize in the current moment. All its threat and horror are contained in one of Jesse Plemons’ little pauses.
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree will send players on a new journey this summer to the Land of Shadow, where they will learn more about one of the game’s most mysterious demigods, Miquella of the Haligtree.
Game director Hidetaka Miyazaki says that players will track Miquella on their journey through the Land of Shadow, “tracing his path and following in his footsteps, trying to see what he’s going to do there,” similar to how players followed the light of grace in the base game. Players will also discover what compelled Queen Marika, who shattered the Elden Ring in the game’s story, to visit the Land of Shadow.
Elden Ring players who haven’t pored over the bits of lore scattered throughout the game’s dialogue and item descriptions may not know much about Miquella, and about his role in the game’s story. We’re here to tell you what you need to know so you don’t have to watch an hourlong lore video that unpacks it all.
Who is Miquella in Elden Ring?
A statue depicting Malenia and MiquellaImage: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Miquella of the Haligtree is a demigod in the world of Elden Ring and a being known as an Empyrean. That means he is a candidate to succeed Queen Marika as the vessel for the Elden Ring.
We don’t really see Miquella in the game, but he’s the older twin brother of Malenia, the fearsome, rot-afflicted boss who resides at the base of the Haligtree. An offspring of the game’s penultimate boss, Radagon, and Marika (who are, uh, the same person), Miquella only appears in withered cocoon form in the main game’s story. As teased in Shadow of the Erdtree’s reveal trailer, Miquella’s cocoon will be the doorway to the Land of Shadow when the DLC launches.
Malenia and Miquella were both born with terrible afflictions: Malenia with rot that would consume her limbs and sight, and Miquella with eternal childhood. Statues of the brother-sister duo are scattered throughout the Haligtree, showing full-grown Malenia embracing her twin, who is stuck in the body of a young boy. Other statues show the twins at a younger age being embraced by their older sibling, Godwyn the Golden.
Malenia calls Miqeulla “the most fearsome Empyrean of all,” with the wisdom and the allure of a god. Miquella is also said to be beloved by many, and can compel the affections of others.
What’s Miquella’s relationship to Malenia? And Mohg?
Image: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Malenia and Miquella were close. The former fought to protect her brother, earning her the name Malenia, Blade of Miquella. Miquella was similarly protective, and worked unsuccessfully to develop a remedy for Malenia’s rot affliction. One of Miquella’s inventions was an unalloyed golden needle, which players can use to undo the Flame of Frenzy. (Miquella strived to “ward away the meddling of Outer Gods,” according to the description of Miquella’s Needle; an Outer God appears to be responsible for the spread of rot, too.)
As part of his work to cure his sister and after leaving the faith known as the Golden Order, Miquella sought to create a new Erdtree, nurturing a sapling with his own blood. This endeavor would fail and produce the Haligtree, which would become a haven for the meek and afflicted. Miquella ultimately embedded himself within the Haligtree to grow it, residing in the cocoon, but he was kidnapped by Mohg, the Lord of Blood, who sought to become Miquella’s consort.
That’s why Mohg has Miquella’s cocoon in his chambers. Mohg essentially stole Miquella from his Haligtree womb, in which the Empyrean now appears to have grown older compared to his previous boylike form.
If Miquella’s stuck in that cocoon, how is he also in the Land of Shadow?
Miquella’s arm juts from his cracked cocoon in Mohg’s palaceImage: FromSoftware/Bandai Namco via Polygon
Miquella is said to have “divest[ed] himself of his flesh, his strength, and his lineage,” according to Shadow of the Erdtree’s official description. Miquella may not be a purely physical being in the DLC, and the Land of Shadow may not be a purely physical space; FromSoftware has a history of sending players to alternate time periods and dreamlike spaces in its expansions for games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne.
Furthermore, there’s well-supported speculation that Miquella is connected to a character named St. Trina, who is also unseen in Elden Ring. Trina is said to be a mysterious character of ambiguous gender who has close associations with sleep and dreams, according to a few in-game item descriptions. Followers of St. Trina are said to look for her while they sleep, and we know that Miquella has been slumbering for some time.
Both Trina and Miquella are also associated with nearly identical in-game items — Trina’s Lily and Miquella’s Lilly — that may connect them in still-unclear ways. However, in content that was discovered to have been cut from Elden Ring, it’s hinted that Miquella and St. Trina are actually the same person. That connection could be explained or confirmed in Shadow of the Erdtree, insofar as things ever get “explained” in FromSoftware games.
Greetings, Polygon readers! Each week, we round up the most notable new releases to streaming and VOD, highlighting the biggest and best new movies for you to watch at home.
This week, Kung Fu Panda 4, the new animated action comedy starring Jack Black, arrives on VOD following its theatrical run last month. There’s tons of other exciting releases this week, too, like the satirical spy thriller Argylle on Apple TV Plus, a new action thriller starring Aaron Eckhart as a former CIA agent landing on Netflix, the new romantic fantasy film The Greatest Hits on Hulu, and much more. And then there’s Mayhem!, one of the best action movies of the year so far, now streaming on AMC Plus.
Here’s everything new that’s available to watch this weekend!
New on Netflix
Strange Way of Life
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: El Deseo/Saint Laurent Productions
Genre: Western drama Run time: 31m Director: Pedro Almodóvar Cast: Ethan Hawke, Pedro Pascal
This Western short from legendary Spanish director Pedro Almodóvar (Volver, Pain and Glory) follows the story of two gunslingers (and former lovers) who reunite after 25 years apart.
The Bricklayer
Where to watch: Available to stream on Netflix
Image: Millennium Media/Vertical Entertainment
Genre: Action thriller Run time: 1h 50m Director: Renny Harlin Cast: Aaron Eckhart, Nina Dobrev, Tim Blake Nelson
The latest in a long tradition of “action movies with odd profession titles,” The Bricklayer follows a former CIA agent (Aaron Eckhart) needed by his former agency when journalists start dying. The movie has a bit of pedigree behind it, as Renny Harlin (Cliffhanger, Die Hard 2) directs.
Genre: Musical romance Run time: 1h 34m Director: Ned Benson Cast: Lucy Boynton, Justin H. Min, David Corenswet
After suffering the loss of her boyfriend in a car accident, a young woman named Harriet (Lucy Boynton) inadvertently discovers that she has the power to go back in time to various points in their relationship by listening to his old record collection. When Harriet meets a new love interest named David (Justin H. Min), she struggles between her desire to correct the past to resurrect her boyfriend or pursue the possibility of newfound love in the present.
New on Prime Video
The Exorcist: Believer
Where to watch: Available to stream on Prime Video
Image: Universal Studios
Genre: Horror Run time: 1h 51m Director: David Gordon Green Cast: Leslie Odom Jr., Ellen Burstyn, Ann Dowd
David Gordon Green’s new entry in the Exorcist franchise arrives this week on streaming. It’s a bizarre twist on the franchise, per our review:
Up until this most recent movie, the title The Exorcist carried some weight. While its role as a representation of quality was up for debate, its mark as a sign of ambition was not. Since the original Exorcist, the series has provided some of American cinema’s best and most interesting artists with space to ruminate on faith and evil. Believer lacks the ambition that’s meant to define an Exorcist movie. This is the most profound statement the movie has to offer, seemingly by accident: If the result of moving past God is that everything in the world will feel as empty and pointless as The Exorcist: Believer, we should cling to faith forever.
New on Apple TV Plus
Argylle
Where to watch: Available to stream on Apple TV Plus
Photo: Peter Mountain/Universal Pictures/Apple Original Films/Marv
Genre: Action comedy Run time: 2h 19m Director: Matthew Vaughn Cast: Henry Cavill, Bryce Dallas Howard, Sam Rockwell
What happens when you take the meta-fictional irreverence of Stranger than Fiction and smash it together with a premise similar to Matthew Vaughn’s 2014 movie Kingsman: The Secret Service?
You get Argylle, an action satire of spy novels à la 1984’s Romancing the Stone that follows Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), an introverted novelist who is dragged kicking and screaming into a world of international espionage when it turns out that her popular spy novels are predicting the future. Who is the real agent Argylle? You’ll have to watch in order to find out.
Argylle is too winking, too keen to show that it’s in on its own joke, to admit any real romantic feeling or any excitement that runs deeper than the surface level of its flashy choreography. Vaughn, the impish ringmaster, delights in challenging the audience to figure out what’s real and what’s fictional within his stylized, nested worlds. It’s just that he never really answers the question: Why should we care? With Argylle, he mounts a playful, rollicking thriller with an all-star cast and some dazzling action — but then holds the audience at arm’s length from it, just to show how clever he’s been in putting it together. The truly clever thing would have been to let the dumb film be joyously dumb, and invite the audience to lose themselves in it instead.
Genre: Road comedy Run time: 1h 24m Director: Ethan Coen Cast: Margaret Qualley, Geraldine Viswanathan, Beanie Feldstein
Ethan Coen’s first narrative feature without his brother Joel is an offbeat crime comedy about a pair of young women who embark on an impromptu road trip. Things get dicey after the two cross paths with a group of incompetent criminals sent to retrieve a mysterious briefcase on behalf of their shady employer.
Drive-Away Dolls’ well-worn beats are buttressed by tremendous style, a deep care taken with the film’s production and costume design. All that attention to the era that isn’t fully present in the script comes out in the visuals instead. There isn’t much narrative texture to Marian and Jamie’s various stopovers — in particular, there isn’t much for Jamie or Marian to connect with. While the pair have frequent and funny interactions on their trip, the people they meet are more or less cartoon characters setting up a gag.
New on Paramount Plus
Bob Marley: One Love
Where to watch: Available to stream on Paramount Plus, MGM Plus
Image: Paramount Pictures
Genre: Biographical musical Run time: 1h 47m Director: Reinaldo Marcus Green Cast: Kingsley Ben-Adir, Lashana Lynch, James Norton
This biopic follows the story of cultural icon Bob Marley, portrayed by Kingsley Ben-Adir (One Night in Miami…). The film follows Marley from his rise to fame in the ’70s up until his death in 1981.
An early contender for one of this year’s best action films, Mayhem follows Samir (Nassim Lyes), an ex-con and martial artist, who flees from France to Thailand to escape his former gang. Struggling to build a new life, Samir finds himself once again dragged into a world of deceit and violence when a powerful real estate tycoon kidnaps a member of his family.
Mayhem’s action is brutal and kinetic, with inventive kills, strong location work, and realistic choreography that makes the most of Lyes’ kickboxing pedigree. It’s a true star-making performance for him, as he juggles the role’s demanding physical requirements with a deep well of sorrow that permeates the entire affair, even as he dispatches foe after foe.
New to rent
Ennio
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Music Box Films
Genre: Documentary Run time: 2h 36m Director: Giuseppe Tornatore
Cinema Paradiso director Giuseppe Tornatore made a documentary on renowned film composer Ennio Morricone, one of the most accomplished people in that stacked field. The documentary includes Quentin Tarantino, Clint Eastwood, Bruce Springsteen, and many more luminaries from the entertainment world.
Glitter & Doom
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: SPEAK Productions/Music Box Films
Genre: Musical romance Run time: 1h 55m Director: Tom Gustafson Cast: Alex Diaz, Alan Cammish, Ming-Na Wen
A musical set to the songs of the Indigo Girls, Glitter & Doom follows a summer romance between a musician committed to this craft (Alan Cammish) and a “free-spirited circus kid” (Alex Diaz).
Io Capitano
Where to watch: Available to rent on Apple and Vudu
Image: Archimede/Cohen Media Group
Genre: Fantasy Run time: 2h 1m Director: Matteo Garrone Cast: Seydou Sarr, Moustapha Fall, Issaka Sawadogo
Desperate for an escape out of poverty, two cousins leave their hometown of Dakar, Senegal, to journey to Italy in search of a better life. Trekking across the hazards of the Sahara Desert and Mediterranean Ocean, the pair are met with sights and wonders beyond their wildest imaginations.
Kung Fu Panda 4
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: DreamWorks Animation
Genre: Martial arts comedy Run time: 1h 34m Director: Mike Mitchell Cast: Jack Black, Awkwafina, Bryan Cranston
The fourth entry in the Kung Fu Panda saga sees Po taking on a new apprentice to succeed him as the Dragon Warrior. When a mysterious sorceress plots to resurrect Po’s past adversaries, he’ll need to call upon all his strength and allies to save the day.
While the individual scenes and moments in Kung Fu Panda 4 are entertaining (and sometimes even great), it never quite gels as an enjoyable movie on its own. The message of change tying it together is flimsy, and the plot feels strung along, trying to get the characters in the right place to launch a few seconds of cool action. After four movies, it isn’t really a surprise that the Kung Fu Panda machine is running out of steam — thankfully, though, it has just enough power left to churn out some genuine laughs at the end.
One Life
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Photo: Peter Mountain/Bleecker Street
Genre: Biographical drama Run time: 1h 50m Director: James Hawes Cast: Anthony Hopkins, Helena Bonham Carter, Johnny Flynn
Anthony Hopkins stars in a dramatization of the life of Sir Nicholas “Nicky” Winton, a London broker and humanitarian who rescued the lives of 669 Jewish children in the months leading up to World War II. Hopkins portrays Winton in his late ’70s, while actor-musician Johnny Flynn portrays him during his youth in the late 1930s.
Sleeping Dogs
Where to watch: Available to rent on Amazon, Apple, and Vudu
Image: Nickel City Productions/The Avenue
Genre: Crime thriller Run time: 1h 50m Director: Adam Cooper Cast: Russell Crowe, Karen Gillan, Marton Csokas
After being diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, retired homicide detective Roy Freeman (Russell Crowe) is motivated to reopen an investigation into the murder of a college professor when a mysterious new witness comes forward with a compelling piece of evidence. As he works to track down the true culprit, he’ll have to fight to convince those around him to trust his intuition and theories.
Ocean fishing is a fun and relaxing Final Fantasy 14 side activity, though it can be stressful if you don’t know what you’re doing. Getting on a boat with friends to reel in big catches is a unique experience, but you can only ocean fish during certain times of the day.
You do not need to own any expansions to ocean fish and you can participate even if you’re playing the free trial. Yippee!
Below, we explain how to unlock ocean fishing in FFXIV. We’ll also tell you the ocean fishing schedule, what bait to use while you ocean fish, and tips to score big and rake in rewards.
What is ocean fishing?
Ocean fishing is like an alliance raid, but for fishing. You’ll board a big boat that’ll take you through three different parts of the water and you’ll have to complete objectives for extra points.
You’ll be put into a full party, with two other parties on your boat. The goal is to catch fish to score big during the time limit.
It’s not all just catching big, rare fish, though. Catching special “spectral” fish has a chance to trigger a spectral current. These spectral currents allow you to catch even more fish with higher point values, so triggering one of these is nearly always the goal.
There are also a handful of objectives to try to complete during the expedition, like catching a lot of sharks or jellyfish.
How to unlock ocean fishing in FFXIV
In order to start your grand ocean fishing adventure, you’ll need to unlock the Fisher job, which you can do by heading to the Fisherman’s Guild in Limsa Lominsa. You’ll also need to complete the next Fisher quest, “My First Fishing Rod.” You can ocean fish even if your Fisher is at level 1. (In fact, ocean fishing is a really easy way to level Fisher up super fast.)
Once you have your Fisher ready to go, you’ll just need to complete the quest “All the Fish in the Sea” in Limsa Lominsa, which starts at the NPC Fhilsnoe below:
Graphic: Julia Lee/Polygon | Source images: Square Enix
Once you finish that quest, you can queue for ocean fishing via Dryskthota at the Limsa Lominsa Ferry Docks (west of the Arcanist’s Guild Aetheryte), as long as it’s time to ocean fish.
Note that you will not be able to take the Ruby route through the Stormblood locations until you beat the Stormblood expansion.
Ocean fishing schedule
Unfortunately, you can’t ocean fish whenever you want to. Ocean fishing abides by a schedule and you can only register for it for fifteen minutes from the top of the real world hour, every other hour. For example, if the registration period starts at 2 p.m., you have until 2:15 to queue for ocean fishing. If you miss this period, you’ll have to wait until 4 p.m.
While we would recommend looking out for the odd or even hours, the exact time changes depending on daylight savings and on your timezone, so we actually recommend Lulu’s Tools, which has a live ocean fishing schedule, even noting which objectives and routes the next few boats will take.
Which bait to use while ocean fishing
There are three main bait types used during ocean fishing: krill, ragworm, and plump worm. You can nab all three of these baits from the merchant on the docks where you queue for ocean fishing. You should stock up and buy a ton of each of the three.
In every ocean fishing experience we’ve had, there has always been somebody in the group who will use alliance chat (the orange chat) to say which bait to use —or, alternatively, somebody who will tell you which bait to use if you ask. However, if you don’t want to rely on these genius fishing strangers every time you get on the boat, here are the best baits to trigger spectral currents by location:
Bloodbrine Sea: krill
The Ciedalaes: ragworm
Galadion Bay: plump worm
Rhotano Sea: plump worm
Rothlyt Sound: plump worm
Northern Strait of Merlthor: ragworm
Southern Strait of Merlthor: krill
Sirensong Sea: plump worm
Kugane Coast: ragworm
Ruby Sea: krill
One River: krill
In a very broad sense, these three baits will keep you covered. There are some specific catches that take a different bait from the three, but for the sake of simplicity and scoring points, using these three baits should lead you to success.
How to get a high score in ocean fishing
You can min-max in ocean fishing, and while scoring big also relies on luck, there are a few things you can do to help boost your score:
Empty your inventory to prepare for the fishing trip, as you’ll be hauling in lots of unique fish that take up a ton of inventory slots. Do not use the “release list” feature to automatically discard fish, as the animation that plays to discard the fish wastes your precious time on the boat.
Bring and use Cordials and Hi-Cordials to restore your GP. You should be using your fishing skills, whether you’re using Patience, Powerful and Precision Hookset, or other fishing skills. You should not just be using your basic Hook skill.
Don’t forget to use Thalaik’s Favor, a level 15 skill that gives you back 150 GP in exchange for three stacks of Angler’s Art (a buff you get for just catching big fish).
Use Chum between catches during spectral currents to get fish to bite faster.
Don’t stress too much about your point value while fishing, as there are a ton of bonuses at the end that’ll shoot your score up. You’ll be surprised about how many bonuses you may get at the end.
Just by following the above, we’ve been able to score above 10,000 points (which is all you need to get the mount and minions).
Ocean fishing rewards
Every time you finish ocean fishing, you’ll get a boatload of EXP, as well as gatherers’ scrips (if you’re high enough level to have them). Notably, there are a few exclusive rewards to ocean fishing that are locked behind specific achievements.
The following achievements give minions and mounts:
On a Boat IV: Earn a cumulative total of 1 million points while ocean fishing (Much-coveted Mora minion)
No More Fish in the Sea I: Score at least 5,000 points during a single ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (The Major-General minion)
No more Fish in the Sea II: Score at least 10,000 points during a single ocean fishing voyage on the Indigo route (Hybodus Horn for the mount)
Near, Far, Wherever Fish Are II: Score at least 10,000 points during a single ocean fishing voyage on the Ruby route (Mossasaurus minion)
Police in Japan arrested on April 3 a 27-year old man suspected of threatening Nintendo staff, events, and spectators. Due to these threats, Nintendo announced in December it was canceling several events, like Nintendo Live and the Splatoon Koshien 2023 finals, and postponing others. Japanese newspaper the Kyoto Shimbun first reported the arrest. According to the report, the man admitted to the threats.
Nintendo of America confirmed the arrest in a statement to Polygon, where a representative also said the Japanese headquarters “was receiving constant threats targeting its employees, and most recently, received threats targeting the spectators and staff of the Splatoon Koshien 2023 Grand Final.”
Here’s the full statement:
Nintendo’s Japanese headquarters was receiving constant threats targeting its employees, and most recently, received threats targeting the spectators and staff of the Splatoon Koshien 2023 Grand Final. Given the threats, Nintendo postponed and cancelled the series of events, and has been in contact with the police ever since. Nintendo is extremely thankful for the investigation and effort made by the police on arresting the suspect. Nintendo’s Japanese headquarters will continue to cooperate fully with the police’s investigation.
Nintendo Live, the event that was canceled in December, is a big, multi-day celebration of everything Nintendo. It was set to be held at the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition center in January. The Splatoon grand finals were slated for December at the Tokyo Ota Ward General Gymnasium.
News of Nintendo’s event cancelation came during the trial for the devastating 2019 Kyoto Animation arson attack that killed 36 people and injured many others. The attack was one of the deadliest in recent Japanese history. The suspect plead guilty and was sentenced to death in January. In the aftermath of the attack, Japanese police have treated threats with “heightened seriousness,” according to Japan Today. Police have also arrested several people who’ve made threats against both Sega and Square Enix.
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