A lot of gamers have already pre-ordered the game because they want to take advanatge of the early access period, but others will wait to avoid hurting their wallets. Well, QVC is here to help those on the fence, offering a very good deal for College Football 25.

Heading to the QVC website will reveal an offer for $30 off of a customer’s first purchase over $60. So, while veteran QVC shoppers will be ineligible, newcomers have the perfect item to use it on. College Football 25 for both the Xbox Series S|X and PlayStation 5 are available on the site, and after entering the promo code HELLO30 at checkout, it will be under $50 total with shipping.

Related: All Legends & Alumni in College Football 25 Ultimate Team (CUT)

Now, it’s important to note that the QVC website says that the item will not ship until July 19, which is the game’s release date. That means there will be a brief waiting period while the game is in transit. However, with a discount this large, a few days or even a week isn’t a big deal. It just means there’s more time to say goodbye to NCAA Football 14 before the new game arrives.

With Dynasty Mode returning and the debut of the brand-new College Ultimate Team, College Football 25 has something for everyone. But just because the game is in demand doesn’t mean people should sleep on a deal this good.

EA Sports College Football 25 releases on July 19, 2024, for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

The New Shapeshifter in The Boys Season 4, Explained

The Boys catch wind of a new Supe on the scene via A-Train. Sage is meeting with them about taking out the president, and after the team scopes out the Supe’s apartment, they figure out why. The Supe is a shapeshifter who has to rip their skin off to change their appearnce. Their true identity remains a mystery, but there are some clues in Season 4, Episode 7 to at least make a guess.

There’s already been a prominent shapeshifter in The Boys, Doppelganger. However, despite Homelander using them to pull off his sexual fantasies after Madelyn Stillwell’s death, the leader of The Seven kills them, meaning they aren’t a candidate. That means it’s time to dive into The Boys comics to see whether Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson added another shapeshifter to their twisted lineup.

Related: The Boys: Who Is Tek Knight’s Old Sidekick?

The only shapeshifter in the source material is Malchemical, who can not only change his appearnce but his material and density. Malchemical fix isn’t exact fit for the new shapeshifter, as he is a lot more like DC’s Metamorpho, but Prime Video’s series has been known to take creative liberties with its characters. No matter their true identity, though, answers are sure to come in the final episode of The Boys Season 4, as this new Supe has their sights set on the president and is currently impersonating Starlight.

And that’s who the new shapeshifter is in The Boys Season 4.

The Boys is streaming now on Prime Video.

Exploring the depths of a procedurally generated planet with your buddies has never felt better than it does in DRG, and we all know that a quick stop at The Abyss is in order after a successful dig. Dwarves tossing around some “rock and stone” after tossing back a few ales and dancing the night away is always on the menu, and we may finally have an official theme song for our upcoming adventures.

Powerful riffs, booming bass, and thunderous drums roar from Wind Rose in the single “Rock And Stone,” lovingly named after the iconic phrase uttered from the mouth of the dwarves in Deep Rock Galactic. Whether you’re giving a Rock and Stone after a successful dig, or use it as a rallying cry to let your friends know that you’re not giving up in the face of adversity, it’s a powerful phrase for players to hear. Something that Wind Rose completely understood when undertaking this rather mammoth task.

If you’re familiar with the source material, “Rock and Stone” does a phenomenal job of bringing this Deep Rock Galactic collaboration to life. Even if you’re not a Deep Rock devotee just yet, this may be the final push that you need to take to the caves of Hoxxes IV. If you’re hoping to check out the video and the song for yourself, you’ll find the full music video below:

I think the best part of this whole track is that it isn’t as cringy as one may expect. When I think of people creating music based on video games, my mind can’t help but think of the admittedly meme-worthy Minecraft videos from yesteryear, but I can’t deny — I would happily blare this while driving down the freeway without a care in the world. I really hope this shows up in the in-game jukebox in a future update. FOR KARL!

It feels strange to start off an article where I’ll be complaining about a show with effusive praise, but it is important to acknowledge that Star Trek: Prodigy is an absolutely fantastic show. The series at this point could be in contention for the best non-comedic Star Trek show since Star Trek: Discovery relaunched the franchise on Paramount+. It takes everything that’s great about Trek and dilutes it down wonderfully while still developing a cadre of fantastic, diverse, and engaging characters into a crew. Of all the current running shows, it quite possibly “gets” Star Trek the most.

However, criticizing something that’s great does not mean it isn’t great; it just means we can see how it can be better. And Star Trek: Prodigy‘s second second season has a worrying flaw that was handled so much better in its first season: nostalgia.

Star Trek: Prodigy’s Nostalgia Is Nothing New

Using nostalgia to help draw in an audience is nothing new to Star Trek: Prodigy or Star Trek itself. The franchise has been using it in one way or another since The Next Generation brought Scotty back for a very special episode. One of Deep Space Nine‘s best and most beloved episodes was a time-traveling crossover with The Original Series‘s “The Trouble with Tribbles.” This is even more true for the current run of Paramount+ shows, which are all heavily connected in one way or another to the past TV series, whether that be directly with Picard basically being three seasons of fan service (for better or worse) or indirectly with the plethora of references and cameos in Lower Decks. The point is that nostalgia, crossover, and cameo are tools regularly used in Trek, and a lot of the time it’s to great affect.

Prodigy is no different. In fact, its first season was one of the best uses of nostalgia the franchise has ever had. In that season, the show pulled Captain Janeway in to the series to help establish and teach new viewers just what Star Trek was all about. By inserting a holographic Janeway into the series, the show not only connected with the past for fans but also grounded itself squarely in the universe without requiring a PhD in Star Trek lore to understand what was going on. Hologram Janeway, acting as the guiding teacher for not just the young crew of the Prodigy but for the audience as well, could be any Captain for newcomers but was also a wonderful return for fans of the series. Nostalgia here was used perfectly, without the mess of continuity or the requirement of previous knowledge.

The series could then focus on Prodigy’s crew of ragtag escapees as they crossed the universe, not only learning about Star Fleet, friendship, and the bigger universe but also evolving themselves. Of course, by the end of the first season, the show started to pull in the actual Captain Janeway and hints of the second season’s bigger issue with nostalgia began to crop up.

Nostalgia as a Barrier to Entry in Star Trek: Prodigy

With Star Trek: Prodigy‘s second season, the creators dive hard into nostalgia in a way that’s far different from its first. In this season, the crew of the Prodigy is interacting directly with Star Fleet as they are pulled into a time travel plotline that involves not just the actual Admiral Janeway but also Captain Chacotay, The Doctor, Wesley Crusher, Beverly Crusher, and Voyager itself. That is a lot of lore to know for a series meant to be an introduction to Star Trek. This is especially true for Wesley, who has a convoluted and complex history involving becoming what is basically a time god. These cameos are all clearly far more played toward already-established fans of the show.

And, to be fair, it’s played really, really well, outside of The Doctor being mostly useless. Again, I’m pointing out an issue for sure, but for fans of Star Trek, this is an incredible season of television that gives us even more fantastic Janeway, explored a new side of Chakotay, and finally gave Wesley’s story arc at least a little closure. His exit from TNG left so many questions open thanks to that series’ episodic nature that even his cameo in Picard wasn’t truly enough to put a cap on his tale. Prodigy finally gave him and Beverly some closure, but at the cost of this season turning into far more of a fan love letter than a season of Prodigy.

The biggest cost of this, outside of the possible alienation of newcomers, is to the new Prodigy characters. Dal, Gwyndala, Murf, Rok-Tahk, Jankom Pog, Zero, and newcomer Maj’el lost some of the attention of the series as it dove into nostalgic storylines. This feels like even more of a shame because these are some of the best-developed characters in all of Trek, with actual evolution and growth throughout these two fantastic seasons of television. Season 2 of the series offers some truly great arcs, including Zero’s growth into a corporeal being and Dal and Gwyn’s growing relationship, but that just highlights the issue even more. It feels like we could have gotten more of it all if the show wasn’t so tied into a storyline focused on expanding the universe and emphasizing the past.

The fault here is not one in show construction or plotting, but a worrisome trend by Star Trek to veer into its past instead of constructing for its future. The crew of the Prodigy didn’t need a full season devoted to unpacking past storylines and characters because it had already delivered a season that gave us wonderful new characters. It’s a hard point to argue because Season 2 is truly fantastic, but it hints at an unfortunate overall issue with Trek‘s reliance on the past that Prodigy was so good at avoiding in its first season.

The Future of Star Trek: Prodigy Is Ditching the Past

All is not lost, however, especially given fans praise of the show. The minds behind some of Star Trek seem to understand that nostalgia will only get you so far. While Picard‘s final season was basically just an updated episode of The Next Generation, Discovery learned quickly that being pulled into the continuity of the past wasn’t going to work and launched the entire crew into the future so they could chart their own course. Did it work? Not all the time, but it definitely made the show better.

Prodigy seems to understand this as well, if the conclusion of the second season is any indication. While we don’t know if we’ll actually get a third season as, Netflix has yet to greenlight one, the show concludes with the Prodigy’s crew getting a revamped version of the ship and being sent off to explore the universe while Star Fleet struggles with the fallout of the synthetic attack on Mars. Of course, that attack is yet again a bit of continuity from Picard but the message is that the characters, along with hologram Janeway, will be on their own journey.

This is the correct direction, even if the excuse to have a crew of kids on a starship is ludicrous, and if the show gets a third season and does indeed go into a series focused solely on this crew, much like Trek before the Paramount+ shows, the future of Star Trek: Prodigy, if there is one, looks bright.

Star Trek: Prodigy is available to watch now.

Destiny 2 Titan Buffs Announced

During the livestream, the developers announced two buffs for Titans. The first is an increase to the damage of the Solar super ability Hammer of Sol. The second is an increase to the damage and range of the new Void super ability, Twilight Arsenal. It’s worth noting that, despite complaints regarding to viability of Prismatic Titan, these buffs are not aimed at the new subclass in particular. In fact, Hammer of Sol isn’t currently available for Prismatic Titans to use. The developers also stated that they are looking at the class closely for potential future changes.

Why are Titans Controversial in Destiny 2?

Many players have felt that Destiny 2‘s Titan class has fallen behind in power in comparison to Warlocks and Hunters. With the release of The Final Shape, all classes received new Super abilities and the Prismatic subclass. The main complaint is that the new content for Titans isn’t as strong or as varied as Hunter and Warlock, with many arguing that Titans are limited to melee builds. Similarly, the strongest new exotic weapons and armor, like the must-have Still Hunt, have benefitted Hunters and Warlocks more than Titans.

This power disparity was most clearly seen in the Salvation’s Edge World’s First Race. Reddit user Selpix_ noted that of the first 50 teams to beat the Raid, only three players played Titan. That’s three out of three hundred, or one Titan per one hundred players. This pretty clearly demonstrates that, at least for the hardest Destiny 2 content, the Titan class currently lacks power and utility that the other classes have.

According to reports, it has now been confirmed that the Shinjuku Showdown arc, which has been unfolding in the manga for months now, will be the final story told in Jujutsu Kaisen. This was unveiled in a Q&A with Akutami where he heavily indicated this would be the closing saga.

The good news for fans is that this doesn’t mean that the manga is going to end anytime soon. It’s always possible that this overarching story could be extended with the addition of new sub-stories within the arc, including the merger we’re all expecting to happen in the coming months.

It is also possible that translation issues could be misinterpreting the meaning of Akutami’s words, but in this situation, that doesn’t appear to be the case.

The Shinjuku Showdown has always felt like a natural endpoint for the series, especially with the major developments and character deaths that have happened along the way. If you’re up-to-date reading the manga then you’ve probably already felt that “final fight” feeling that has been unfolding in recent chapters.

Those who are anime-only fans can rest assured knowing there is still quite a lot of content to adapt, so even if the Shinjuku Showdown does wind up being the final arc in Jujutsu Kaisen, there will still be multiple new seasons on the way.

Without a doubt, there will be a changing of the guard within Weekly Shonen Jump coming soon with My Hero Academia ending in just a few weeks, and Jujutsu Kaisen seemingly in its endgame. So expect the next generation of Shonen to rise up in the coming years.

If you’re interested in catching up on the manga and enjoying the Shinjuku Showdown as it unfolds then you can binge through every chapter so far with a membership to Viz Media. If you’re just after the latest chapters you can read them for free.

The response comes from a line that dropped in the first trailer released for the upcoming film in which Reynolds, as Deadpool/Wade Wilson, insists that the only line Feige said the film couldn’t cross was drug use, specifically cocaine. That, however, was evidently just a punchline. In a Variety piece about the new film – which features Reynolds, Hugh Jackman, and director Shawn Levy – Feige was asked about restrictions Disney or he may have put on the film, and the head honcho of all Marvel films said there were none.

“We were open to anything,” Feige explained. “Maybe I’m slightly prudish when it comes to drug use, but I was like, ‘Eh, it’s not that funny.'”

Related: Can You Buy Deadpool 3’s Necklace in Real Life?

“There’s a line in the red-band trailer — you don’t have to write this in the article, for crying out loud! — about pegging,” Feige went on, providing an example of how new R-ratings and Deadpool are to the MCU. “I know what pegging is — it’s in the first Deadpool movie. But there were people I work with who didn’t know what it was. I had to explain it to them.” 

Obviously, there hasn’t been anything like Deadpool in the MCU. Yes, She-Hulk broke the fourth wall in a major way, but that was all pretty tame humor. Deadpool & Wolverine is a whole different beast, and it’s clear that the film is pulling no punches. Heck, even the interview that these comments are from features teabagging, cursing, and enough potty humor to warrant a parental advisory.

Deadpool & Wolverine will be in theaters on July 26.

The website Video Games Chronicle recently reported on this news. There is a new YouTube video from Xbox titled “No Xbox? Have no fear with Amazon Fire TV Stick” that showcases its new partnership with Amazon:

The whole ad has a creepy, stalker-like vibe like the Scream franchise, with a scary voice telling a woman, “You don’t need Xbox to play Xbox,” in a condescending tone. It is not the way I would try to sell my product, but hey, I am not a marketing executive. There are also silhouettes of who appear to be Raz, the Doom Slayer, and Vault Boy, bringing to mind the vast IP Microsoft spent billions of dollars to acquire. At least the commercial mentions Halo.

As the advert makes clear, gamers can now stream Xbox games from their Amazon Fire TV Stick devices. All that is needed is to install and launch the Xbox app from their Fire TV device, sign in with a Microsoft account, sign up for Game Pass Ultimate, and connect a controller to play.

Related: All Xbox Game Pass Changes, Explained

Xbox head Phil Spencer talked about the benefits of streaming back in 2021, saying, “The cloud will allow us to completely remove these barriers to play worldwide. Of course, there’s still a place for consoles and PCs and frankly, there always will be, but through the cloud, we will be able to deliver a robust gaming experience to anyone connected to the internet, even on the least powerful, least expensive devices, devices people already own.”

It’s certainly a bold strategy to tell users they don’t need to buy an Xbox anymore to experience its library. Also, it may be dangerous to place a lot of your trust into the cloud, seeing as how streaming can be spotty in certain parts of the world. We will see what the future holds and if Microsoft’s strategy pays off, but for me, give me a physical disc or download over streaming any day of the week.

The Once Human’s Terms of Service Controversy Explained

As of the time of this writing, Once Human is currently sitting at a ‘Mixed’ rating on Steam with just under 5,000 reviews. Many players have mentioned concerns over the game’s terms of service. To be fair, there are some interesting items that NetEase will have access to, including:

• First and Last Name
• Title
• Prefix
• Email Address
• Telephone Number
• Messaging Accounts
• Postal Address
• Date of Birth
• Age
• Gender
• Country/Region
• Government-issued ID (Passport, etc)
• Debit or Credit Card Details
• Account Details
• Billing Address

Related: How to Redeem Rewards in Once Human

Much of this information is par for the course, including credit card details when microtransactions are in the picture. But players have highlighted an issue with Starry Studio accessing government-issued IDs. There are a few reasons in particular that they could use an ID—let’s say, for age verification purposes—but players are seemingly not happy about that.

While the terms of service are huge in many games, it seems that Once Human has struck a chord, especially considering the need for things such as ID and even nicknames on social media.

NetEase Responds to Concerns

If you’re interested in seeing what NetEase had to say about the terms of service controversy, you can find their full Discord message below:

“We wanted to take a few moments to discuss data privacy.

NetEase takes our users’ data privacy very seriously and adheres to the data privacy principles such as data minimization, purpose limitation, and transparency.

For example, we would only collect government-issued IDs for the following reasons: where the local laws require us to do so (such as for a specific promotion), when the identity of a user’s parent must be verified to obtain consent for their child (if required by applicable child protection laws), or when the user wishes to correct their age information (again, if such verification is required by law). In any case, the ID information is deleted immediately after we have fulfilled the purpose for collecting the ID information in the first place.

Similarly, we may ask our users for additional information such as social media account usernames, names, and address in user surveys that users voluntarily participate in. Users are free to provide as much or as little information in these user surveys, if they choose to respond to the survey at all.

In the spirit of transparency, we have indeed included the type of information that we may collect (which may not be the case if the users aren’t accessing the specific functionality), the purpose for which we collect the data, and how we process the data in our privacy policy. Our privacy policy also clearly states how you can exercise your rights to manage your personal information by contacting our in-game customer services. We have recently revised our privacy policy with the aim to improve clarity and transparency, which will be published soon.

We have heard your concerns and will continue to improve on how we describe our data privacy practices. If you have any specific questions or concerns after your review of our privacy policy, then please feel free to contact us.”

Likewise, Once Human has stated in their terms and conditions that this is in compliance with the Know Your Customer and age verification requirements for the online gaming sector, as instituted by the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network. With that being said, it’s well worth reading the terms of service yourself.

Is Once Human Stealing Your Information?

Now, one thing to consider about NetEase is that Once Human complies with Chinese laws. As per AP News, children are only allowed 1 hour of online play per day, which could be part of this verification process. And looking through the Steam forums for Once Human brings up talks of the CCP and your information being given to them, or that the game is being used as a Crypto-mining scheme that is running multiple programs in the background while you’re playing the game.

There are no verified instances of Crypto-mining or any sort of issues regarding the ID systems, for what it’s worth. Once Human is a fantastic free-to-play experience, but you’ll have to use your own judgement when it comes to deciding to play or not.

Once Human is available to play now.

It Is Happening Again

The Exit 8 VR throws you directly into its world without a single note of instruction. I pushed forward, watching a single businessman walk down the hallway, holding a cellular phone in his left hand and a briefcase in his right. Posters adorn the wall to my left, and some doors to my right. I was confused — the bright fluorescent lights of this seemingly uninhabited hallway pierced directly into my eyes. I look around, and push forward, taking a few turns and ending up right back where I started.

At the end of the hallway, I notice a sign that gives me a few instructions and my main takeaway is this — pay attention to everything and let nothing pass by me. After seeing the Exit 0 change to Exit 1, I knew I was on the right track, but I quickly began second-guessing myself. Was this here last time? Wait, did this thing change ever so slightly? As I continued pushing forward, I kept an eye on my Exit number, watching it slowly increase. Then, everything went south as I must have missed a small detail that wasn’t like the others.

The Exit 8 VR is a pattern recognition game mixed with psychological horror. As I examined the world around me slowly changing or staying the same, I began to learn what made the game tick. I got too arrogant, too cocky, and would see a great run come to an end due to me not paying enough attention to the smallest changing details.

For the sake of spoilers, I will not say what any of these anomalies are — I went into the experience completely blind, and strongly suggest doing the same if you decide to try this one out. Some are extremely obvious, and some are small details that could be easily overlooked. It’s an extremely interesting way to deal with the idea of horror, making every moment unknowingly much more tense than it should be.

The goal is simple — avoid anomalies, and exit via Exit 8. If only it was that easy.

Visual Fidelity Is Fantastic on Meta Quest 3

Since The Exit 8 VR takes place in a single area, it can put excruciating detail into the smallest of objects. Virtual Reality, especially on standalone headsets, can sometimes suffer from visual deterioration that makes the experience appear muddled and much less immersive than its flat counterparts. However, The Exit 8 VR on Meta Quest 3 looks phenomenal.

If The Exit 8 VR had lost the visual clarity in its VR port, the experience would not have been anywhere near as impactful as it could have been. Posters are clear and easily readable, the singular man walking down the hallway is visible at all times with high levels of detail, and just looks great all around. Bringing the world into VR worked out surprisingly well, and I was even shocked to see the detail on my virtual hands.

In a game all about pattern recognition, visual clarity may have been one of the most important parts of the experience, and it’s nailed perfectly. Not to sound generic, but it felt exactly as if I was plopped into the hallway that I was exploring instead of just playing another video game.

Sound design is also another strong suit of The Exit 8 VR. The monotonous humming of the electricity filled the air around me, breaking up the sterile and somewhat serene feeling of this liminal space. While there isn’t much noise overall — the footsteps of the approaching or retreating man repeatedly making his way through a neverending hallway is the main source of noise — it’s executed well. Even playing without headphones, a specific type of anomaly was easily detectable because of the clarity of the sound.

The Exit 8 VR Doesn’t Overstay Its Welcome

While The Exit 8 VR may be terrifying, it’s also rather short. All in all, once I picked up on the anomaly patterns, I was able to complete a playthrough in about 20 minutes. To be fair, it took me longer than that to finally start putting the pieces together to realize what sort of hellscape I had found myself in. When I finally escaped, my experience came to a close a little more than an hour after playing.

Repeated playthroughs are encouraged, thankfully — but some of the initial shock factor may have worn off by this point. That doesn’t mean that this is a title that shouldn’t be picked up, however. Its unique blend of horror, mixed with its interesting setting and general premise is enough to freak out even the most dedicated of horror aficionados. Pair this with its price point — roughly $7 — and it’s the perfect way to spend an afternoon or two. Consider putting a friend who knows nothing about the experience inside of this world and watching their world come crumbling down around them, perhaps.

To be completely upfront and honest, I hadn’t heard anything about The Exit 8 until I was approached with this review opportunity. What started as an obtuse walking simulator through the halls of a Japanese subway building quickly turned into one of the most tense experiences I’ve had in quite a while. While the horror isn’t as in your face as some of the genre’s giants, it’s a memorable and worthwhile experience that I’m glad I got to partake in. I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be scanning every room in my house when I enter it now, either.

Verdict: Recommended

The Exit 8 VR will be available on July 11, 2024, on Meta Quest. A code was provided for the purpose of this review. Reviewed on Meta Quest 3.

It didn’t take long to see what Square Enix wanted to do with the story, as the post-Endwalker quests quickly established that the Warrior of Light would continue exploring Eorzea and the continents beyond that, as hinted to by Emet-Selch back in Shadowbringers. FFXIV: Dawntrail is the first chapter of a brand new journey, and while it never quite comes close to the highs of Shadowbringers and Endwalker, it’s clear that there’s still plenty of adventure to be had in this world.

Speak With Wuk Lamat

FFXIV: Dawntrail takes place on an entirely new continent. In this expansion, we go west to visit the city of Tuliyollal and the regions that surround it. It’s a sunny, forested region that’s beautiful and vibrant everywhere you look.

Tuliyollal is bustling with activity; shops and market stalls line its winding streets, stone architecture envelops the city to give it a real sense of majesty, and it’s all tied together with a gorgeous view of the coastline.

The story itself centers around Wuk Lamat, who was introduced in the final post-Endwalker patch. As an old friend of Erenville, she’s come to Eorzea in search of a champion who can assist her in a rite of succession. She’s looking to compete with three other claimants for her father’s throne in Tuliyollal, in hopes of continuing to maintain peace in the land.

Perhaps the biggest shortcoming of Dawntrail is how the story is so centered on Wuk Lamat. Truly, the game’s success and whether it resonates with you will depend on how much you actually like her, and that can be a pretty tough sell, especially considering we really only had half a patch’s worth of content to get to know her before we’re running off to Tuliyollal. She’s the very embodiment of your typical anime protagonist: young and bright-eyed, a bit of a loudmouth and showboat, naive to the ways of the world, and clearly still has a lot to learn. This can make it difficult to latch on to her as a central character, particularly when you contrast her with the more dour tone of the prior two expansions.

It’s also important to recognize that while the Warrior of Light is basically a celebrity in Eorzea at this point, but she’s no one in Tuliyollal. I can see this being off-putting for some players, especially since a big part of FFXIV‘s appeal is how involved the player character is in the story, but I found it very refreshing. After a decade of being the central figure and having to save the world at every turn, it’s nice to finally be able to take the backseat and let someone else have the spotlight for once. Dawntrail is very much Wuk Lamat’s story, and you’re largely just here to support her.

Road to the Golden City

As part of the rite of succession, you’ll need to help Wuk Lamat collect several keystones. This involves visiting the various regions on the continent and completing feats to earn said keystones. After collecting all of them, the claimants are then tasked with finding the fabled Golden City.

Aside from Wuk Lamat, you’re also up against her siblings Koana, Bakool Ja Ja, and Zoraal Ja. While Koana is methodical and level-headed, the other two are much more aggressive and prone to starting conflicts with you. These two serve as the primary antagonists for much of Dawntrail, and I have to say that the lack of a proper central antagonist also hurts the game in the first half.

Bakool Ja Ja is your typical asshole villain who will lie and cheat at every turn to get in your way, though he does get some much-needed character development in the latter half. Zoraal Ja is more calculated, but his motivations are rather uninspired; he seeks to bring war to the land to teach his people the importance of peace. Neither claimant is particularly engaging or intriguing, which can make the first half of Dawntrail a drag.

The good news is that the game does pick up significantly once you reach the second half. Without diving too deep into spoiler territory, there are much more interesting revelations to be had here, including a fantastic redemption arc and even proper character development for Krile, who has been a criminally overlooked Scion for far too long. The bad news is that it just takes a little bit too long for Dawntrail to actually get there.

No More Training Wheels

For all of my complaints with Dawntrail‘s pacing, though, you’ll be glad to know that Square Enix hasn’t lost its touch when it comes to dungeon and encounter design. Final Fantasy XIV has truly come a long way from its ARR days, and with Dawntrail, the team has once again outdone themselves in terms of combat and boss fights.

The new dungeons feel fresh, innovative, and unlike anything else that came before it, and the trials are no slouch either. I was even caught off-guard by the very first trial in the expansion, which wasted no time in throwing some seriously tricky mechanics at the player.

Right off the bat, you’re hit with boss moves that don’t come with a cast bar tells after the first time they’re used, along with moving stack markers that you bounce between players with each cast. Being forced into proper coordination for the very first trial of the game was surprising but also very refreshing, as it’s clear that FFXIV is no longer interested in holding your hand. If you’re playing Dawntrail, the game assumes that you’ve already played through every other encounter prior to this, and you should be able to pick up on these mechanics within your first few tries. That level 93 trial felt very reminiscent of the early Stormblood Shinryu days, and that’s a good thing.

Snakes and Painters

Aside from all of the exciting new story content, I’d be remiss not to at least mention the two new DPS jobs that have been added to the game: Viper and Pictomancer.

Overall verdict? These jobs are kinda meh and don’t really add much to the game, in my opinion. Viper, in particular, is easily my least favorite melee DPS job in a long time, thanks to the game’s need to over-complicate its job actions and descriptions. And once you finally manage to wrap your head around all its different actions, buffs, and debuffs, you’ll quickly realize that Viper isn’t really all that complex at all and plays very similarly to the existing melee DPS jobs that we already have.

Viper is all about positionals and keeping your buffs up in a rotation. There’s nothing new here, and while I was initially excited about the prospect of swapping between single and dual blades, I was disappointed to see that it didn’t really matter in the grand scheme of things.

I’m a little more partial towards Pictomancer, though this is really just your typical caster job with a few bells and whistles thrown in. You’ll still be casting your usual spells like Aero, Fire, Ice, Thunder, etc, but the difference is that you’ve also got a few other job actions to weave in, and they’re pretty darn cute.

Painting the Pom and Wings or the Hammer will allow you to deal additional damage, while painting the Starry Sky will let you provide a group-wide buff to your party. All of this is tied together by an adorable job gauge that shows you what you have on your canvas at all times. I appreciated that you could prep all three paintings at any given point in time and hold the actual spells themselves so you could choose when to use them.

All in all, the jobs aren’t really anything special, but they’re serviceable. I would’ve much preferred getting a new tank or healer, and I suspect I’m not alone in that, but look, I’ll take what I can get.

What’s Next?

By the time you reach the end of the Dawntrail MSQs, it’s clear that there’s still plenty of life left in our Warrior of Light yet. The endgame loop remains the same: do your dailies and weeklies for gear and Tomestones, wait for the next major patch to drop for the story to continue.

Big picture thoughts: Dawntrail kinda feels like the filler arc as we gear up for bigger and better adventures. It’s rare to get to enjoy a moment of peace, where things don’t feel so doom and gloom all the damn time, and that’s exactly what FFXIV needed after a decade of facing world-ending threats. It won’t land for everyone and that’s okay; there’s always next time.

Verdict: Recommended

Final Fantasy XIV is available to play now.

Lost’s Worst Episodes Are Still a Part of Its Tapestry

For Nikki and Paulo’s haters, their episode was at worst an hour more torturous than anything Sayid Jarrah conceived of while working for the Republican Guard and at best the filler episode to end all filler episodes.

“Exposé” might very well be the filler episode to end all filler episodes, but when did filler become such a dirty word? It used to be a privilege to invite the characters we love into our homes every week to spend time with them, whether that time was spent advancing the plot or not. The act of binarily sorting episodes into filler and non-filler proves inherently faulty with its implication that the most load-bearing pillars of the medium—sitcoms and procedurals—are worthless investments. When one of the most beloved and iconic entries into the television landscape was proudly touted as “a show about nothing,” an aversion to filler reads as an aversion to television.

It might seem strange to examine Lost under the lens of arguably one of its worst episodes when the series gifted television with masterpieces like “The Constant” and “Through the Looking Glass”, but “Exposé” serves as an ideal microcosm for the show’s high-risk/high-reward nature. In 2004, ABC invested over 10 million dollars in Lost‘s pilot – a price tag never before conceived of in television. Moreover, the network was betting on an unproven and completely original concept, setting a precedent for risk-taking and innovation. But innovation did not always equate to perfection, and not just in critically panned episodes like “Exposé”. Lost‘s freedom to take creative risk meant it was rife with flaws, but to dub those moments skippable (or watchable at 1.5 speed) is an act of airbrushing history.

Television is designed to tell episodic stories, and while many of the best entries do service to an overarching narrative, they still maintain a distinct beginning, middle, and end of their own. In a binge model where an entire season of television is designed to be consumed in one sitting, episodes closer resemble micro-acts of an extended film rather than individual pieces of art. However, the most acclaimed television episodes of the past decade, like The Bear‘s “Fishes” and The Last of Us‘ “Long, Long Time” more closely resemble the storytelling model deployed in “Exposé”. While this risk didn’t pay dividends in “Exposé”, it doesn’t mean that filler, experiments, or deviations from a show’s main story aren’t worth experiencing because they’re a part of a show’s voice for better and for worse.

Lost’s Flaws Represent a Feature of Television, Not a Bug

Much like The Swan station’s pantry, Lost was stuffed with all the essential supplies to sustain a fandom-oriented audience – puzzle box mysteries, intriguing lore, genre tropes, and a vast ensemble of engaging characters. Though Losties feverishly flocked to their television sets from 2004-2010, the show’s contemporary devotees are much more defensive of its shortcomings than the ones swapping polar bear theories on message boards in the early ‘00s. In the streaming era, Lost has been reclaimed as more than a mere show, but as a symbolic bastion of network television as a whole. To many television lovers, Lost exemplified television as an art form not just despite its messiness, but because of it.

When “Exposé” unsurprisingly made its way onto Vulture’s list of “Lost’s 20 Most Pointless Episodes”, fans even began digging Nikki and Paulo out of their sandy graves. In 2007, complaining about Lost‘s criminal couple was as unifying as mourning favorite islanders or swapping Dharma Initiative conspiracy theories. “We have to go back” has become not just an appropriate mantra from Lost, but one about it as well. Lost invokes a nostalgia for appointment television, water cooler discussions, storytelling routed in original concepts over existing intellectual property, and 20+ episodes seasons that allowed room for zaniness and even the occasional misstep. Because to love Lost is to love television – warts and all.

Lost is available to watch now.