Ever wonder how the statistic cards shown at the end of an Overwatch match are generated? You’re not alone. That’s why Overwatch principal designer Scott Mercer stepped in on the game’s forum to explain the process.

Earning a card on the Overwatch endgame screen means you earned the most of that statistic across all players. “Even if you have gold medals for eliminations on your team, if a player on the enemy team has more eliminations then they are eligible for the card and not you,” Mercer wrote. “This rule is in place because if someone else ever got a card and you had more of the stat in question, the system was considered to be broken.”

So that explains what the original poster complained about—always getting a card for assists, yet never for kills or healing. Likely, someone else had earned that statistic, but the player in question still did well enough to be commended in another way.

“The display of statistic cards are not tuned differently based on the hero you are playing,” Mercer added. “If I was to tune eliminations to show up more, I can’t do it just for Zenyatta. It would also affect Soldier: 76 or any of the other heroes.”

Likewise, tuning defensive and offensive assists to show up less for Zenyatta would also impact Mercy, he added.

Assists for Zenyatta work in two ways: Players get a defensive assist when the Orb of Harmony or Transcendence heals a teammate when they eliminate an enemy. An offensive assist is counted when the enemy eliminated had the Orb of Discord on them. “The statistic has nothing to do at all with whether you are on offense or defense during your game,” Mercer said.

Both have “nearly identical” weighting, however. If a player is never seeing a defensive assist card, it’s probably because there’s another support hero—on the player’s team or the enemy team—that has an easier time getting defensive assists. An Overwatch hero like Mercy is a good example: She’s always got her beam on someone.

Though the statistics cards listed at the end of an Overwatch match don’t really add up to anything—it’s just a display of how well you did—it’s still nice to understand the process behind how cards are generated.

Overwatch’s principal designer explains endgame statistics cards

Well, that was quick.

Before new Overwatch hero Doomfist even arrived in the live game—he arrives on July 27—he’s already got a cosplay on display at San Diego Comic Con. For the convention, which runs all weekend, Blizzard worked with costume designer Henchmen Studios to create the whole look.

The costume took six weeks to construct, and that’s working with a team of 14 people, according to Kotaku. The pieces include leatherwork and 3D printing. And the gauntlet itself? It weighs 15 pounds. Henchmen Studios worked hard to get every detail just right, but there’s one true test—is cosplay Doomfist able to shoot bullets out of his knuckles?

Blizzard hired a model from Toronto, “caviar_bleu“, to don the costume. And he’s got a hard job ahead of him for the rest of the weekend, carrying about 15 pounds of mechanical fist.

The developer is going all out for SDCC 2017, releasing new merchandise and participating in a wealth of panels. For Hearthstone, Blizzard even opened up an ice cream shop right outside the convention. SDCC runs until July 23.

There’s already a Doomfist cosplay at SDCC 2017

Don’t make Winston angry, or he’ll knock you out of the space station and into the depths of low gravity on Overwatch’s new map, Horizon Lunar Colony.

That’s exactly what Australian national Overwatch team tank Ashley “Trill” Powell, playing Winston, tried to do to Italy’s Tracer player in the map’s low gravity area during their Overwatch World Cup group stage match. But in space—as the commentator jokes—no one can hear you scream: And that worked in Italy’s advantage. Trill managed to knock Italy’s Tracer out the space colony’s doors and into the edges of the low gravity area, but her Blink ability was enough to pull her back to safety.

From there, all Winston could do was wave.

While most of Italy and Australia’s Overwatch players were fighting on the point, Winston got caught outside when backup—Italy’s Solider: 76—came in to relieve Tracer. By then, Trill accepted his fate and tumbled into the abyss.

It’s not the first time we’ve seen the low gravity area in a professional Overwatch tournament, though. In June, LuxuryWatch Red used the low gravity area to get closer to the capture point without taking fire from Meta Bellum during OGN Overwatch Apex’s Challenger Series.

And it worked. Using the unconventional flank, LW Red was able to capture the first point on Horizon Lunar Colony within seconds.

But moving back to the Overwatch World Cup, it wasn’t all bad for Australia. The Horizon Lunar Colony space mishap was not indicative of Australia’s overall play in Group C. Even without Trill, Australia managed to hold Italy on Horizon Lunar Colony’s first point to secure another point. Australia kicked off its home turf Overwatch World Cup debut with a massive showing, taking all four points on the first day of group play. Australia now leads Group C, followed by Sweden, Portugal, and Italy.

Over in Group D, Finland leads with a 4-0 record, followed by Japan, who upset Spain in a 3-1 series. A team full of players mostly unknown to an international scene, many expected Spain—which is packed with professional and former professional players—to perform better. Spain sits in third, with Vietnam rounding out Group D in fourth.

Overwatch World Cup Sydney begins again at 8pm ET on July 21. (That’s 10am AEST on July 22 for those local to Australia.) Sweden will take on Italy first, followed by Australia versus Portugal, Finland versus Spain, and Japan versus Vietnam. You’ll be able to catch all the action on the Overwatch Twitch stream.

Australia learns that low gravity isn’t the best place to fight in the Overwatch World Cup

Overwatch’s newest hero is already pummeling polygons in another game.

Minecraft has a dedicated community of players building out Overwatch in the block-based world. So it’s no surprise to see that one of them has already made a Doomfist.

It only took Minecraft creator McMakistein one week to model the new Overwatch hero and recreate his abilities in the game using more than 400 Minecraft command blocks. “The first thing in my process is always making the models,” McMakistein said on Reddit. “Once they’re done, I then program a running animation and just the visual appearance in general.”

The abilities get created one-by-one after that. He’s able to get it all done so quickly because hero mechanics are usually pretty similar, so he’s able to reuse code from older characters. Doomfist in Minecraft has all the same abilities as he does in Overwatch—Hand Canon, Seismic Slam, Rocket Punch, Rising Uppercut, and ultimate ability Meteor Strike.

Like with in Overwatch, your ultimate ability meter needs to be filled up to 100 percent to use it. The best part, though? You can import Doomfist into your own game using McMakistein’s work. The command is available on his site. The video explains how to get everything to work.

He’s also uploaded other heroes, like Genji, Hanzo, and Tracer, but it’s unlikely we’ll be able to see two teams of six in action on a Minecraft-based Overwatch map.

“It’s not possible with the scale I’m making these characters at,” McMakistein said. “Even one character produces a considerable amount of lag. Having 12 different characters active at once would kill the user’s computer.”

Overwatch fan recreates Doomfist in Minecraft with all his abilities and it’s incredible

Minecraft: Story Mode Season 2, Episode 1 review

Minecraft players come up with some pretty creative creations, but this one in particular makes us wish we could live inside Minecraft, even just for a week or two.

Redditor FamilyCraft shared their own Minecraft rendition of a tropical resort, a stunning plot of land complete with palm trees, pools, and architecture reminiscent of Dubai.

Take a look at the tantalizing Minecraft resort posted on Imgur:

Don’t you just want to slip on your sandals and book your plane ticket right now? There’s even a helipad there.

Of course, its beauty partially comes from the add-on texture packs that brighten the colors and up-res the water and sky. Here’s the same resort in vanilla Minecraft:

Still impressive, from a creative standpoint. FamilyCraft said they were inspired by the Aperion Hotel project in Dubai.

The entire project took about one week with work being done by three or four active players and three or four more part-time players.

We regret to inform you that you can’t vacation at this beautiful tropical ‘Minecraft’ resort

Moraine Lake in Alberta, Canada is a beautiful, picturesque scene: a crystal-clear lake surrounded by snow-touched mountains and green pine trees.

The lake’s beauty is so captivating that a Minecraft player who goes by JakBB recreated the real-world scene in all its glory, sharing it on Reddit side-by-side with an actual photo of the lake. The visual mod that JakBB used makes it extra realistic.

If you can’t tell, the Minecraft recreation is the one on the left, and the picture on the right is a real photograph.

JakBB said he used external software to generate the terrain, but the project still took about eight hours to complete.

Fittingly, while JakBB’s Moraine Lake recreation grew in popularity, an actual photograph of the lake was on the front page of the EarthPorn subreddit.

Earlier this month, JakBB posted another stunning Minecraft creation on Reddit: a recreation of the MacOS Sierra wallpaper.

Yes, that’s all created with Minecraft blocks.

Can you tell which picture is real and which picture is ‘Minecraft’?

Considering that Game of Thrones is all the rage right now – especially with everything that went down during last night’s episode – we couldn’t help but point out how the series’ world was expanding in an entirely different place. And that place is Minecraft.

Three years ago, a group of Minecraft players tasked themselves with recreating the world of Westeros in the game. The team made quite a bit of progress over the course of the following year, making the world about 70 percent complete at that time. But we haven’t heard too much from them since, indicating that it was either taking a break or investing even more time in making sure that Westeros looked better than ever, even with all the blocks.

And that’s exactly what they’ve done. The team recently provided an update to the project that shows just how much it’s grown over the past three years. We’ve included before and after shots below, and, as you can see, the team’s taken the extra time to improve on current models in the game, as well as expanding the world to three times the size of what it started with back in 2014.

According to the team, the map is hardly child’s play, as it was built using approximately 22,000 x 59,000 blocks, which measures up to around 501.14 square miles or 806.51 kilometers – and that measures out to about the size of Los Angeles, according to GameZone.

And, best of all, for those players that feel like roaming around Kings’ Landing and stirring up trouble, the downloads have been made available here, so you can add them to your world and have miles upon miles worth of terrain to explore in the fictional world of Westeros.

Granted, you won’t be seeing people jumping out of buildings or dragons tearing up the place, but there’s still something absolutely magical about how the team has managed to recreate Westeros without breaking a sweat. It makes us wonder what other equally talented teams may be capable of within the game.

Minecraft is available now for various consoles and PC.

These Devoted Minecraft Players Have Added Game Of Thrones’ Kings Landing To Their World – In Beautiful Fashion

Who would have ever thought that a whole engaging storyline could actually come out of a simple but popular mobile game that doesn’t have a storyline originally? Well apparently with the folks over at Telltale Games, nothing is impossible as here we are with the second season of Minecraft: Story Mode. We can assume that the first season was a success as Jesse and friends are back with a new adventure to explore on your mobile device when you buy the game from the Google Play Store.

Jesse probably thought that he/she and the gang would have pretty uncomplicated lives since they basically saved the world by vanquishing Wither Storm in the first season. But of course since we have a second season, they are now faced with an even more difficult challenge – go on an adventure to an ancient underwater temple and figure out how to get Jesse’s hand unstuck from that creepy gauntlet he/she inadvertently picked up.

You will get more of the same in this new Story Mode adventure as you get to face the usual tough choices you have to make in a game like this, together with all the characters you probably fell in love with in the first season. The first episode is entitled Hero in Residence and based on the trailer, you get the same brand of humor, the same graphics you enjoyed but with what we hope is a more challenging storyline.

The first episode will be at 10% off for the first 48 hours of the game’s release. You can expect four more episodes this season, although there will probably be a few more bonus episodes just like the previous one. The regular price of the first ep is $4.99 but as more episodes are released, it will eventually transition to free.

Minecraft: Story Mode Season 2 now available for your mobile device

Microsoft and Minecraft developer Mojang do an excellent job at updating and bringing new additions to the game. Many skin packs evoke famous characters, such as the Power Rangers and Mario. However, for other non-official skins, mods are the way to go.

One of the most popular in recent times has been a Pokémon mod for Minecraft. Now, the company behind that modification has said it is pulling the plug. Pixelmon says that it is ending development of Pokémon on Minecraft due to a request from The Pokémon Company.

The Pokémon Company is the owner of the hugely successful franchise. A subsidiary of Nintendo, the company oversees everything to do with the series. Pixelmon says it has decided to pull away from Minecraft after the request.

“We have had a great time making this mod and creating such a wonderful community but after a request from the Pokémon company we will be shutting our doors,” reads the post.

“I’m sorry for the disappointment this will cause but let’s remember all the great times we had playing Pixelmon, discussing Pokémon, making awesome things inside this mod and everything else that we’ve done.”

Of course, it seems obvious that ‘the request’ means a little more than The Pokémon Company asking Pixelmon to stop development. We guess a request was really a legal threat.

Either way, the popular mod has gone. That’s going to be a shame for many Minecraft users as it was a very good modification. It let gamers capture and use Pokémon within the all-conquering sandbox building and crafting game.

Why Now

The only confusion is why The Pokémon Company is waiting until now to issue its request. The Pixelmon mod has been running on Minecraft for years, and it has never been targeted before.

Perhaps the company has struck a deal with Microsoft to bring an official Pokémon skin pack to the game? That would certainly explain why The Pokémon Company is clearing a patch now. Interestingly, the Japanese company has teased some big news for later this week.

We guess it’s a case of watch this space.

Pokémon Mod Gets Pulled from Minecraft, Official Pack Coming?

When Minecraft exploded on the scene I was one of the countless people who assumed it would just be a fad. We were all wrong, and the game has sold more copies than any other game except Tetris. It’s so popular that Microsoft put up $2.5 billion to acquire the game’s developer Mojang. Part of the game’s strength has been catering to kids and adults alike, and it does that through several different games on various platforms. Minecraft: Story Mode arrived on Android a couple of years ago and has been immensely popular. Fans of that game will be thrilled to hear that the sequel has just been launched.

Developed by highly regarded studio Telltale Games, in conjunction with Mojang, Minecraft Story Mode – Season Two brings you more of the same point and click adventure action that made the first title so successful. Protagonist Jesse returns for this all-new 5 part story arc and will be joined by returning characters plus plenty of new ones, too.

As before, you’ll have to pay for each episode via an IAP, and that’s after forking out $4.49 (£4.19) in the first place, so playing the game won’t be cheap. Luckily, you can get 10% off the first episode for a limited time, so hurry up and download it now to make use of that. A list of compatible phones and GPUs can be found on the Play Store listing, so be sure to check that before you buy the game.

Here’s the trailer to whet your appetite:

Reviews on the Play Store have been positive so far, but it’s hard to know if they’re mostly biased super fans or not. Let us know what you think about it in the comments.

Minecraft’s next adventure arrives with Story Mode – Season Two

After an extended eight-episode Season One, the cast of Minecraft: Story Mode returns in a brand-new adventure. Story Mode’s selectable hero Jesse, having saved the world from the Witherstorm in the first five episodes, is now the leader and de facto mayor of Beacontown. In Beacontown, intrepid builders craft their homes into the most creative shapes and forms imaginable and Jesse stands at its head. The only problem is Jesse and his authority as the “greatest hero ever” is all that keeps the town running smoothly. 

The same is true for the rest of Jesse’s cohort from the first season, who have all settled into their roles as the New Order of the Stone. Axel presides over Boom Town, Olivia is the head teacher in Redstonia, and Lukas is the best-selling author of the New Order’s adventures. When the last adventuring member of the crew, Petra, invites everyone on a job, only Jesse takes time out of his busy schedule to answer the call. 

Jesse probably shouldn’t have bothered through, as the job ends up with an ancient gauntlet stuck on Jesse’s hand and a giant portal spitting out charged Creepers under Boomtown. The journey to close the portal will take players from the neighboring town of Champion City to an ancient temple on the far edges of the known world map, deep under ocean. 

While I enjoyed this episode overall, that’s mostly down to the characters involved, not the story itself. There’s a feeling that things just sort of happen here, but stepping back and thinking about it, that’s because of a major divergence in the story. There’s a whole section involving Champion City the feels like it just drops the main story completely. Everything improves once you get to the underwater temple, but until then it doesn’t necessarily feel like the story is heading in one direction.  

The larger themes of the first season of Story Mode came in two flavors. The first was “You can’t do it without the help of your friends,” and the second was “Don’t meet your heroes.” Those themes carry over to Season Two whole cloth. Most of this is focused around Petra this time, her attempts to find her own place away from the team end in failure and her hero, at least in my playthrough, doesn’t quite live up to the hype. When it comes to these themes, Season Two just feels like it picks up right where the early part of Season One left off, which is a bit different from how Telltale handled The Walking Dead. 

That’s fine though. This isn’t the Walking Dead, it’s Minecraft. The stakes are low; it’s more about the light-hearted humor and Minecraft community jokes. When Jesse and Petra try to cover the portal they’ve unearthed, their first attempt involves simply covering the hole with dirt, like any Minecraft player would. When you find what remains of one of Jack’s original adventuring pals, you see Jack crying over a pile of inventory, not a body. This is an adventure for the whole family; it’s here to make you chuckle more than make you ponder ethical dilemmas. 

Minecraft: Story Mode looks to have been updated with Telltale’s newer engine, meaning the graphics look better and he environments are more expansive. One of the things I enjoy about Story Mode is how the blocky Minecraft presentation actually papers over the weaknesses of the Telltale engine, which is the sparse details on the characters and their environments. Telltale Games have to be ported to wide variety of platforms and that level of detail is one of the things that goes first. In Minecraft though, it’s all blocks! This seemingly saves up resources to play around and there are some scenes, like Beacontown and the Temple, that look great here.  

The developers have also revamped a few mechanical aspects of Minecraft: Story Mode. Quick-time events comprise most of the action, but there’s a whole new combat system, with movement, dodging, and a stamina meter. Crafting via crafting tables returns in Season Two, but there’s also one section where you get to freeform build with a list of materials. As a Minecraft fan, I found that kind of fun and hope to see more of it integrated into the game’s puzzles in the future.  

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Minecraft Story Mode – Season Two Episode One Review: Nobody Beats The Admin

Pixelmon, the Pokemon mod for Minecraft, is ending development after a request from The Pokemon Company.

In a forum post titled “It’s Been A Gréat Ride,” the Pixelmon development team bid its players a fond farewell.

“We have had a great time making this mod and creating such a wonderful community but after a request from the Pokémon company we will be shutting our doors,” reads the post. “I’m sorry for the disappointment this will cause but let’s remember all the great times we had playing Pixelmon, discussing Pokémon, making awesome things inside this mod and everything else that we’ve done.”

Pixelmon was an impressive mod which let you capture and play with Pokemon inside Minecraft, and you could even battle other players. The extremely popular mod has been around for several years, but it is only recently that The Pokemon Company decided enough was enough.

If you’re looking for some other mods for Minecraft now, have a look at our Wiki Page. In other Pokemon news, The Pokemon Company has been teasing a reveal for this Wednesday.

Pokemon Minecraft Mod Shut Down

It’s been 30 years since Disney debuted its animated series DuckTales, about the adventures of Duckburg’s trillionaire Scrooge McDuck, his grandnephews Huey, Dewey and Louie, and his nephew Donald. And while fans, many of whom now have kids of their own, still have a warm place in their heart for the series, Disney XD is starting from scratch as it reboots DuckTales on Aug. 12, with a marketing campaign that targets favorite kids platforms like Minecraft and Angry Birds in order to hook a new generation.

“They don’t have the nostalgia for the DuckTales brand,” said Marc Buhaj, svp, programming and gm, Disney XD, of the network’s core audience of children age 6-11. “A basic goal of us at Disney XD is to ensure that our content is on the most relevant platforms. However, we’re also conscious that there had to be an organic desire and need for audiences on those platforms to take your content. And that doesn’t always happen.”

But few series would be as organic a fit for Angry Birds as DuckTales is. “One could argue that the original Angry Bird might be Donald,” said Buhaj.

From Aug. 3-12, the characters will be incorporated into Rovio’s main Angry Birds game—with a targeted audience of kids in the XD demo— as a “branded spell” that greets players and explains their mission: to help Donald Duck retrieve Scrooge’s stolen gold from the piggies. In the game, Donald will sling coins at the pigs and make gold coins rain down on the screen. Then, normal gameplay will resume.

“The integration exemplifies branded content, since our ducks seamlessly fit into the Angry Birds universe, it just made sense. A really natural extension,” said Buhaj.

The team took a similar approach to Minecraft. In September, Minecraft users can play on an integrated Quackburg server and explore the world of Duckburg, where DuckTales is set. “We’ve got all of the significant geographic locations of Duckburg in Quackburg. It’s all the places you’ll recognize, and also some new environments,” said Buhaj.

One likely highlight for Quackburg users: “I think Scrooge’s money bin is a place that a lot of us would head to, to swim in gold coins,” said Buhaj. “You have a universe in Duckburg that fans enjoy exploring. We couldn’t do that with every property that we have, nor would be try.”

While its rare for companies to use Angry Birds and particularly Minecraft as part of their marketing, “it all comes down to having IP that people want to work with and works for their brands as well” said Buhaj.

Ahead of the launch, Disney rolled out a series of short-form YouTube videos to introduce audiences to the characters, like this clip from Donald’s birthday, which debuted last month.

For Disney, the short-form videos are part of a “content ecosystem” in which stories of various sizes are created simultaneously for multiple platforms. “Rather than being an add-on that gets produced at the end, we launched with six, 30-45 second shorts that really introduce characters to the audience, to that young audience that didn’t know the Ducks,” said Buhaj.

Between August and October, Disney will roll out several themed games in the Disney XD and Disney Channel apps to drive more interest in the series. DuckTales: Duckburg Quest, which will launch with the Aug. 12 premiere, is an open adventure game in which players can play as one of the main characters and explore Duckburg or take on frequent troublemakers the Beagle Boys.

In the game Crash n’ Dash, which will debut later this year, users can play as DuckTales’ chauffeur and pilot Launchpad McQuack and go behind the wheel of several vehicles. Ultimately, said Buhaj, “I’m hoping that with the heritage behind this, there might be interest in a bigger game.”

While much of the campaign is focused on the core demo, some of the marketing elements will appeal to older fans. The DuckTales: All Ducked Out avatar creator, which came out last month, allows viewers to create their own personalized cartoon duck character. Last week, the Disney XD app added DuckTales: Bill Me!, a Snapchat-like filter in which viewers can take a selfie with their favorite DuckTales character and personalize it.

“We want our audiences talking back to us, and sharing their love of IP when they’re engaged with everyone else. So the more toolkits that we can drop off to audiences of all ages, I think is always positive,” said Buhaj.

DuckTales will launch on with an hour-long premiere Aug. 12 as part of a 24-hour event on Disney XP—repeating the one-hour premiere 24 times—which the network has never done before. “This series is a special one,” said Buhaj. The launch will also include the Disney XD app, Disney XD VOD. Regular-sized episodes will begin airing on Saturday, Sept. 23.

DuckTales Is Taking Over Minecraft and Angry Birds to Launch Its Reboot on Disney XD

Director Jon Watts has revealed what he believes is the only acceptable flaw in Spider-Man: Homecoming, citing the ferry scene having an unrealistic portrayal of the current operations of the Staten Island Ferry. The movie has finally swung into the theaters and so far it is proving to be worth all the wait and hype, earning a certified fresh Rotten Tomato score. It’s also doing very well in terms of box office, on track to rake in over $100 million in its opening weekend.

Initially debuting in last year’s Captain America: Civil War, Tom Holland has now fully dived into the bigger world of the MCU with his first standalone film. Despite all the talk about Homecoming nailing its coming-of-age tone mingled with some comic book-y tropes, though, Watts is the first to come out and share what he believes is the big thing they missed the mark in terms of its on-screen depiction.

In an interview with EW, the director has cited the Staten Island ferry action piece where they took the creative liberty to tweak some elements to make sure that the scene fits the movie’s narrative:

“The only real flaw is that [in our movie] there are cars on the ferry, and there haven’t been cars allowed since the ’90s. So I’ll declare that in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, they never had these rules.”

Fans are sure to be very forgiving of Watts’ point as Homecoming makes up for it with so much attention to detail on other aspects of the setting. The movie’s Queens looks and feels like it is the real New York; There’s graffiti-laden buildings (with name scribblers of Spider-Man comic book artists), the local bodega cat named Murph plus Queens-native rock band Ramones featuring in the movie’s soundtrack.

While Spider-Man may have joined the bigger MCU, Homecoming is arguably is the most contained film of the character thus far. The set pieces are very localized with the majority of the film grounded in Queens further driving the point of the wall-crawler being the “friendly neighborhood superhero.”

This will likely be carried over to the character’s next standalone film due in 2019 as it seems like Marvel is looking to have the ongoing trilogy all set in during Peter’s high school life; meaning after he finishes up saving the world in Avengers: Infinity War and its yet-to-be-titled sequel, he will eventually come back to proceed with life as a normal kid.

Spider-Man Director on Homecoming’s ‘Only Real Flaw’

The ongoing filming for Avengers: Infinity War is nearing its end. Production for the Marvel film, initially planned as the first chapter in a two-part epic, has been going on for roughly six months now in Atlanta, Georgia beginning in January with frequent breaks for scheduling and location changes. The film will pit all of Marvel Cinematic Universe’s heroes, thus far, against Mad Titan Thanos (Josh Brolin) who endeavors to collect all Infinity Gems.

In the last couple of weeks, various photos teasing fans from the set of the film have hit the internet. From Science Bros selfies with Robert Downey Jr. and Mark Ruffalo who plays Iron Man/ Tony Stark and Bruce Banner/Hulk to The Russo Brothers (Joe and Anthony) spending some time in Doctor Strange’s Sanctum Sanctorum and a wrecked New York cab prop, fans are always on the lookout on what other teases what we can get from the closed-off set. And if the tip holds true, we may have to wait a couple more weeks before we are treated for another photo sneak-peak again.

The nugget of information comes from Atlanta Filming – the Twitter account that tracks production developments and star citing in the city where a lot of movies and TV shows are shooting. According to them, principal photography for Infinity War is almost done with just a handful of actors left in the area to finish their respective parts. Production is expected to officially wrap up on July 14th with its direct sequel, the yet-to-be-titled Avengers 4 set to start work on the 27th.

Pretty much everyone is wrapped for Avengers until part 2 starts July 27 th.

— Atlanta Filming (@AtlantaFilming) June 25, 2017

With cumulative film boasting a massive cast, it is interesting to know who among the reported over 60 stars are still in Atlanta shooting. We know that Tom Holland, who plays Peter Parker aka Spider-Man, and RDJ are currently not in the area since the two are busy promoting Spider-Man: Homecoming in new York. Last week after he debuted the trailer for his upcoming film, Marshall, Chadwick Boseman, who takes on the role of Black Panther, revealed that he is scheduled to be back in the city to continue filming.

Interestingly, we have not really spotted any of Steve Rogers/Captain America’s (Chris Evans) crew in the set of Infinity War. No social media selfies and or any other indication that Evans and the rest of his squad from Captain America: Civil War although it has been confirmed that most, if not all of them, are going to be a part of Avengers 3. To be fair, however, there were just a handful of actor photos that came out of social media despite the fact that the Russos posted a photo of a vacant lot full of trailers – presumably owned by the film’s actors, a couple of weeks ago.

Originally, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers 4 would be shot simultaneously. Eventually, that was changed to the movies going to be filmed back-to-back instead. On top of the main base camp for the project in Atlanta, location shoots were also held in  Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands, as well as in Durham Cathedral in England. A scheduled New York shoot is also expected to take place sometime in the summer.

Avengers: Infinity War Cast Very Close to Finishing Production

Tom Holland will not be the only one crossing over from Spider-Man: Homecoming to next year’s Avengers: Infinity War as his Peter Parker’s classmate, Sally Avril, played by Isabella Amara has also been confirmed in to appear in the ensemble movie. The young actress did not have a huge part in the web-slinging superhero’s first standalone under the Marvel and Sony collaboration banner, but she was featured in a handful of scenes.

As we all know, Infinity War will bring together almost every significant character in the Marvel Cinematic Universe thus far as the heroes convene in the hopes of putting a stop on Mad Titan Thanos’ plans of universal domination. And while Amara did not drop any hints about her involvement in the Russo Brothers’ project, it’s likely to once again see her at Midtown High School.

The confirmation came from Amara herself in a conversation with BlackFilm.com while promoting her latest project, Wilson, where she co-stars alongside veteran actors like Laura Dern and Woody Harrelson.

“Yes. I’m in Spider-Man: Homecoming & Avengers: Infinity War. They are filming both Infinity Wars back to back but I’m only in the first one.”

Currently, it is still very difficult to gauge what Sally’s role will be in Infinity War but like most comic book characters, she also had a complex history in the pages of the comics. At one point, Peter’s schoolmate wanted to be a photographer like him. She also took on a superhero role for a while calling herself Bluebird. Unfortunately, she was eventually killed in tragic car accident while trying to score some snaps of Spider-Man in battle.

Infinity War‘s growing cast list is only more of an indication of how big Marvel’s plan of bringing the MCU’s superheroes together is. Although cramming a lot of game players while telling a cohesive storyline can be difficult, the Russos’ work on Captain America: Civil War is a testament to their ability to make ensemble casts work

Avengers: Infinity War has been in production since January of this year in Atlanta, Georgia and as Amara mentioned, it’s yet-to-be-titled sequel will be filmed shortly afterwards. Other location shoots have also taken place including scenes filmed in Edinburgh, Glasgow and the Scottish Highlands and Durham Cathedral in England.

One Of Spider-Man’s Classmates Is In Avengers: Infinity War

Everyone is waiting to see the Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy share the screen in Avengers: Infinity War, but not many had thought about how they will communicate. Thankfully, James Gunn has the answer. Gunn has become a staple in the Marvel Cinematic Universe with Marvel Studios seemingly appointing him to the position of ruler of the cosmos. So far, he’s crafted the first two Guardians of the Galaxy films and will return to do another, but he’s also in charge of setting the stage for the future of the Marvel Cosmic Universe.

This will all come in the aftermath of Infinity War, where the cosmic story of the Guardians will cross paths with Earth’s Mightiest Heroes. The thought of so many Marvel heroes together has been the source of much anticipation, with Zoe Saldana teasing the space encounter. Because of the excitement, it has often been overlooked that many of the Guardians do not speak English, but Gunn appears to have revealed how the two teams will communicate.

Following a post on Facebook, a fan asked Gunn this question. While at first it may seem obvious considering the history with the Guardians, the question is quite valid since the Avengers (and most of the human race) have yet to encounter different alien races. Based on his response, it appears the Avengers will be getting some upgrades in the form of translators that allow them to understand the various languages spoken by Gamora, Drax, and Rocket – but not Groot.

They all have translators imbedded. They all speak different languages. Not all languages (including Groot) are in the translators.

Gunn has made it very clear that in the cosmic circles in which the Guardians exist, it is common practice for each individual to have translators imbedded in them. This is how Peter can understand his ragtag family and easily explains to the audience why everyone in the entire universe speaks English, when it actually is all being translated to Peter’s perspective (or that of the audience as well).

Something to keep an eye out however may be how exactly this happens. While the initial miscommunication that will spawn from the language barrier could provide a laugh or two, having all the Avengers get translators imbedded in their heads or suits could take some time and resources. The Avengers already rely on earpieces to communicate with one another, so one possible fix could be for one of the many geniuses of the group – whether that be Tony Stark, Bruce Banner, Rocket, or T’Challa – having the ability to download the language database from one of the Guardians’ translators and upload the translations through these earpieces. Otherwise, it could be up to them to design and install translators of their own.

This will not change the Guardians at all with each of them already having a translator that can understand the English language, but this will further show the Earth-based heroes just how big and different the rest of the universe is. If the Avengers’ battle with Thanos takes them further into the cosmos, this may not be the only piece of technology that they adapt from the Guardians. After all, they’re the ones with translators, jet packs, protective space suits and helmets ready to go, and many of the Avengers may need to rely on those to survive in space.

How Avengers & Guardians Can Communicate in Infinity War

Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3, released in May of 2007, is one weird movie. It suffers from the curse of the “threequel“, a film with potential that is overwhelmingly disappointing. In my previous editorial in this ongoing Spider-Man retrospective series, I talked about how Spider-Man 2 swings among some of the best sequels in cinema history. If Spider-Man 2 is the Superman II of the Spider-Man series, then Spider-Man 3 is the Superman III of the franchise – but with considerably weirder dance sequences. In the newest edition of our “Looking Back” series, let’s take a look at why Spider-Man 3 begins the series of diminishing returns for Spider-Man movies as one of the most disappointing threequels in modern superhero film history.

It’s very hard for filmmakers to make a good third movie in a trilogy or film series. When you think of most modern film trilogies, it is undoubtedly common to consider the third one the worst. The case is especially strong with superhero movies. It doesn’t matter if it is X-Men: The Last Stand or Blade: Trinity or Batman Forever, the third film all too often disappoints. It might be hard to figure out exactly why filmmakers so often stumble in the third act, especially since most third movies usually come next after two very strong installments. In the specific example of Spider-Man 3, the problem and explanation is a bit more clear: Sam Raimi was forced to make a movie he just didn’t want to make.

When Sam Raimi set out to make Spider-Man 3, he had a very clear idea. As he fleshed out the treatment with his brother Ivan Raimi, Sam wanted to explore the complex nature of being a costumed hero. “The most important thing Peter right now has to learn”, Raimi said in an interview back in 2007, “is that this whole concept of him as him as the hero – he wears this red and blue outfit, with each criminal he brings to justice he’s trying to pay down this debt of guilt he feels about the death of Uncle Ben. He considers himself a hero and a sinless person versus these villains that he nabs. We felt it would be a great thing for him to learn a little less black and white view of life and that he’s not above these people.”

As Raimi began developing the story, he wanted to complete the character arcs for Peter Parker, Mary Jane Watson and Harry Osborn. He also wanted to introduce the Sandman, a character he found to be visually and emotionally compelling. Sandman’s arc would overlap with Peter’s arc, which would center around Peter learning forgiveness. In the comics, the Sandman is a petty criminal. In Raimi’s updated version of the character, he was directly tied to the murder of Uncle Ben, thus challenging Peter’s simplistic view of the event. In Raimi’s original outline for the story, the main focus centered on Peter, Mary Jane, Harry and Sandman. At one point, he also wanted to introduce the Vulture, which he had envisioned Ben Kingsley for the role. It was during these early discussions of the film that the story started to radically change.

While Raimi was overseeing the script written by Spider-Man 2 scribe Alvin Sargent, the film’s producer Avi Arad (who held the rights to the movies at the time) was pushing for Venom to be included in the film’s narrative (due to fan pressure). Raimi has always been very critical of Venom, citing the character’s “lack of humanity” as a reason why he always disliked him. Arad argued Venom had a big fanbase among the Spider-Man faithful, constantly pushing for his inclusion in the story. Raimi eventually relented, including Eddie Brock, Jr. in the screenplay. Raimi’s version was an amalgamation of different versions of Brock, making him more of a mirror for Peter by giving him a similar job and love interest. Arad also pushed for Raimi to include Gwen Stacy in the screenplay, which started to balloon the narrative of the story very quickly.

At one point, Sargent literally contemplated splitting the screenplay into two, but cited that he couldn’t create a “successful intermediate climax” to bridge the two movies. This is where I feel Spider-Man 3 started to fall apart at the webs. When Raimi initially started developing the film, he knew exactly the kind of story he wanted to tell. As a result of Arad’s interference (and the studio siding more with Arad than Raimi), Raimi was shoehorned into telling a story he wasn’t wholly comfortable with telling. The film itself was, at the time, criticized for being overstuffed with characters while lacking the appropriate narrative cohesion to interweave all of the different plot threads and characters.

This is why Kevin Feige is such an integral part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. He is the guiding hand of every film, a steady presence with comic book knowledge and a foot firmly in the film world. He is the perfect combination of comic book aficionado and film producer. Avi Arad, however, is none of those things. He’s the atypical Hollywood producer, pushing Venom not because he truly liked the character, but because he knew it would excite the fans. He didn’t trust his director, even though he proved himself two times before. He stuck his webs into Raimi’s business, and the end result is a movie clearly at war with itself.

If Arad had not insisted upon using Venom, Spider-Man 3 may have been a better movie. It certainly would have been a different movie. However, even if you disregard the Eddie Brock/Gwen Stacy subplot, the other existing storylines still lack a certain subtlety and nuance. In preparation to review these films, I revisited all of them. As the “Editor’s Cut” of Spider-Man 3 was surprisingly released last month, I decided to revisit the film watching that version. I discovered the Editor’s Cut isn’t all that much different than the final film. The only changes include small omissions, like the scene where Peter tries to give Aunt May back her wedding ring. Christopher Young’s score is re-inserted into the film as a whole. The Editor’s Cut is actually shorter than the theatrical release, which is probably a wise decision taking the film into account as a whole.

The biggest change in the film is the removal of the scene featuring James Franco’s Harry Osborn and the family butler, Bernard. In the version that was released theatrically, Peter goes to Harry asking for help to save MJ, who has been captured by Sandman and Venom. Harry rejects Peter’s request. In a later scene, Bernard tells Harry that he tended to his father’s wounds the night he died, and there was “no question” he died by the blade of his own glider. The awkward scene is baffling and cringe-inducing in and of itself, and begs such questions as “How was Bernard able to tell he was gutted by his own glider?” and “Why was Bernard tending to his wounds and why didn’t he just take him to the damn hospital?” Regardless, it’s a bad scene. The Editor’s Cut thankfully removes the scene.

In this alternate version of the film, when Peter goes to Harry he still rejects him, but when he leaves he finds a photograph of himself with Peter and MJ and tears run down his cheeks. It’s a small moment, but it is effective. It also makes Harry’s eventual return and sacrifice hold so much more thematic significance because he never gets told the truth about what happened to his father, but he helps his friends anyway. When Harry dies, he dies a hero in the Editor’s Cut. In the theatrical cut, he dies like someone who just literally got spoonfed something and he decided it was time to stop acting like a petulant child.

I feel like that change and the effect it has, while small, is a microcosmic example of why Spider-Man 3 doesn’t live up to its predecessors. As I discussed in my Spider-Man 2 editorial, that movie is chock full of emotional moments that are handled with nuanced ease. They resonate because they are authentic and minimalistic in execution. Any nuance or subtlety is, for the most part, lost in Spider-Man 3. Even Harry’s arc, which involves him becoming the New Goblin for one battle with Peter before he temporarily loses his memory, is very poorly handled. The exact purpose of why he even bothers to lose his memory in the confines of the film’s narrative is beyond me, especially when only a couple scenes later Willem Dafoe comes back from glider blade heaven to remind him of what Peter did. It feels like wasted material, where a more streamlined version of the story could’ve focused on Harry’s constant pursuit of Peter while he has to fend off Eddie Brock on the professional side and Flint Marko on the superhero side.

The only aspect of the film’s narrative that works in my mind is the one actually belonging to Flint Marko, aka Sandman. Thomas Haden Church was a brilliant casting choice, and with his green and black striped shirt he embodies Sandman perfectly. He’s more than just a petty criminal here, thanks to Raimi’s interest in the character. Raimi continues his tradition of giving the Spidey series sympathetic villains. Marko is motivated by his quest to steal money to pay for his daughter’s surgeries, so she can be healthy again. It’s a perfectly solid motivation and arc, and Church is brilliant at the quieter moments and just as compelling in the more villainous ones. The “Birth of Sandman” scene is without question the most effective moment, echoing monster movies of yesteryear with a hauntingly beautiful score by Christopher Young.

Unfortunately, even the film’s most successful story thread is left unresolved. In one of the film’s climactic scenes, Peter forgives Marko for the death of his uncle and he literally transforms into sand and whisks off into the wind. We have no idea if Marko acquired the appropriate funds for his daughter’s healthcare, or if she’s even going to live. Oh, and Marko is still a wanted felon, so good job there Spider-Man on letting him go. That doesn’t even delve into the film’s sillier moments either. In one respect, I can understand Raimi’s decision to turn Peter Parker into a nerdier version of who he was. In the film, the Venom symbiote amplifies aggression in its hosts. Peter Parker is not exactly an aggressive guy to begin with, and his idea of aggression would probably equate to him wearing eye-liner and flicking back his bangs.

In a way, it almost feels like Raimi is mocking the whole Venom storyline in Spider-Man 3. Peter Parker’s infamous Saturday Night Fever strut is memorably hilarious, but also strangely out-of-character for a film series that had, to that point, taken itself fairly seriously. Even worse, Peter takes Gwen to a nightclub where Mary Jane is working. Peter starts playing the piano and does a dance number taken straight out of The Mask. It’s an incredibly goofy scene, but it is somewhat indicative of Raimi’s approach that the darkest the film gets (besides Peter thinking he killed Sandman) is Peter accidentally hitting Mary Jane. Peter isn’t forced to snap Venom’s neck, like Superman killing Zod in Man of Steel. He doesn’t even let Sandman die at the end of the movie, like how Batman didn’t save Ra’s al Ghul in Batman Begins. The critical apex of the film is Peter accidentally pushing Mary Jane to the ground. While that’s obviously an awful moment, it pales in comparison to how Raimi could’ve handled Peter’s darker side. It feels like this is how Raimi perceives Peter at his “darkest”, and the Venom symbiote concept, and it is a fairly silly one.

Who knows if Spider-Man 3 would have been a better movie if Sam Raimi was able to tell the story he originally wanted to tell. If Harry’s subplot is any indication, it possibly still would’ve been somewhat of a letdown. Raimi clearly felt exhausted by the time he got around to making Spider-Man 3, and it shows. For seven years, all Raimi did was make Spider-Man movies. Creative fatigue was going to hit sooner or later. Couple that with someone as persuasive and formidable as Avi Arad making demands and you have a recipe for a film that has some good moments, but is uneven and downright goofy at times. It’s a shame, because like most third films Spider-Man 3 could’ve been something special. Instead, it was just another lackluster threequel in a long line of disappointing third chapters. Later this week, the “Looking Back” series examines Marc Webb’s The Amazing Spider-Man movies. Unfortunately, it doesn’t get better from here.

So what do you think? Is Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 genuinely bad, or just misunderstood?

Looking Back: Raimi’s ‘Spider-Man 3’ is Still Bad & Goofy 10 Years Later