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2024’s franchise blockbusters, ranked by their value to the series

In Hollywood, the question “Does this movie franchise need another chapter?” seems to have a pretty easy answer: “Sure, if we think it’ll still make money!”

For fans of a given franchise, though, the calculations are more complicated. Will that new installment in a movie series actually add anything worthwhile to the story, or just undermine the franchise’s original successes? Do we actually want to know more about our favorite characters, or will prequels and spinoffs ruin them? Do we have any reason to believe the latest movie using a familiar IP has a reason to exist that isn’t entirely mercenary? Will it at least be some big dumb fun?

While plenty of 2024’s would-be IP blockbusters have shifted to 2025 dates, the year so far has still seen its share of sequels, prequels, and spinoffs. So we’re running the numbers, ranking the year’s latest-in-a-series movies by how well they justify their existence — both as movies, and as installments in ongoing stories. 

16. The Strangers: Chapter 1

A man with his back to the camera holds a shotgun to the face of a person in a stylized female mask in the woods at night in The Strangers: Chapter 1

A remake of 2008’s home-invasion horror movie The Strangers wasn’t necessary, but it could have been good: With a premise as solid gold as “masked strangers break into a remote home and kill the couple vacationing there,” there are a million different takes that could have been great horror fodder that doesn’t follow the original movie beat for beat. Unfortunately, that’s exactly the uninspired approach director Renny Harlin (Die Hard 2) takes with this movie, the first in a planned trilogy that was originally written as one massive four-hour-plus movie, until Legendary Entertainment broke it down into chunks.

This new batch of Strangers movies is meant to follow the characters in the aftermath of this initial home invasion. But it kicks off with Harlin essentially remaking the first Strangers with less style and dread. Gone is the slow creepiness of the original movie, replaced by rushed horror sequences and a few moments of lackluster action. While it’s possible that parts 2 and 3 somehow redeem the kickoff, Chapter 1 is nothing more than a significantly worse retread of an effective shocker. —Austen Goslin

15. Madame Web

A man in a black Spider-Man-esque costume stands atop a building looking down, noticeably not-quite-blocking a Calvin Klein billboard on the building behind him, in Madame Web

Madame Web is only loosely connected to Sony’s already loosely connected universe of Marvel characters. Ironic, given that the tagline “Her web connects them all” was the central focus of all the teasers. The one thing this offers to longtime fans of the current live-action Spider-Man narrative is a tease about Peter Parker’s existence — something that’s always been a big question mark in the Sony Marvel movies. Paramedic Cassie Webb (Dakota Johnson) is friends with Peter’s (hot, young, not yet dead in a morally instructive way) Uncle Ben, after all! Except the film never actually acknowledges that Ben’s newborn nephew is Peter Parker, to the point where holding back on that detail becomes something like a bit. It’s almost pandering, but not indulgent enough to feel fulfilling at all. 

With its stilted dialogue and nonsensical plot, Madame Web is not a good movie at all. At least it’s the sort of terrible movie that’s fun to watch in a group setting, while making jokes and tuning out the slower bits? It’s more or less Cats for superhero fans. —Petrana Radulovic

14. Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Finn Wolfhard in a Ghostbusters uniform looking at slime coming from the ceiling while Kamail Nanjiani, Logan Kim, Paul Rudd, and Celeste O’Connor stand behind him in Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

This sequel to a sequelish reboot brings the new generation of Ghostbusters (Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, etc.) back to New York, and brings back the original characters (Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson, Annie Potts, etc.) for more than a glorified cameo. That might be enough to make it essential for superfans, but for everyone else, it’s a nostalgic callback to the original movie with not much new or engaging to make it stand out, apart from Grace’s character’s maybe-queer storyline with a cute ghost girl. —PR

13. Despicable Me 4

No one in the Despicable Me movies seems to age. Former supervillain Gru (Steve Carell) looks just like he did in the first movie, and so do his daughters, who have been children for 14 years now. And yet somehow, Gru and his wife Lucy (Kristen Wiig) pursued a relationship, got married, and had a baby. So at least there’s some sense of time passing, even if it seems like Gru Jr. might be an infant for the next decade of sequels. 


Despicable Me 4 contributes a few fun new world-building elements to the franchise, though it unfortunately doesn’t explore them enough to make them significant. Still, some of them could set the stage for future adventures. (A whole school for villains?) This installment also adds a small but absolutely hilarious detail to Gru’s past, a backstory involving a high school talent show and the song “Karma Chameleon.” Nothing about Despicable Me 4 is essential, but it’s cool to see a few more funky details about this broadly defined world. —PR

12. Bad Boys: Ride or Die

Martin Lawrence makes a really weird “I gotta poop” face, lips pressed together, cheeks puffed out, sweat on his forehead, and one eye squinted as he looks over at Will Smith in Bad Boys: Ride or Die

The fourth entry in the series Michael Bay inadvertently kicked off with his directorial debut Bad Boys back in 1995 brings back a lot of cast members — chiefly the Bad Boys themselves, Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. But the filmmakers clearly think Bad Boys fans want a lot more continuity than that. Screenwriters Chris Bremner and Will Beall do their best to build a Fast & Furious-style Bad Boys universe out of every bit of character work and villain lore they can scrap together from the previous three movies.

That isn’t a compliment. Where so many blockbuster movies suffer because the studio is trying to launch a profitable franchise instead of telling a decent story, Ride or Die assumes viewers are coming to the theater armed with nostalgia and a detail-oriented fascination with lore, rather than just wanting to see a couple of gifted comedic actors mouth off at each other between frenetic action sequences. Fans who care deeply about the posthumous legacy of Joe Pantoliano’s character, this is your movie. But mostly, the franchise-building gets in the way of the fun. —TR 

11. Alien: Romulus

Fede Álvarez’s 2024 installment in the Alien franchise is almost perversely defined by how much it copies from past Alien movies, and how little it adds to the canon: Álvarez and co-writer Rodo Sayagues can’t even conjure up their own catchphrase, and fall back on having a new character echo the series’ most famous line.


The film is effectively creepy as a stand-alone, and for viewers who’ve never seen an Alien movie, this might all be new, exciting horror fare. But it’d still come across as a bit underexplained, since this film is aimed directly at people who know the franchise forward and backward. It’s a greatest-hits montage, more or less: Remember how creepy Xenomorphs are in water? Let’s do that again. Chestbursters, facehuggers, Giger-esque genital imagery, evil androids suborning ships for the company — that was cool! More of that! And so forth. It’s a good time at the movies, but it could hardly be less essential. —TR

10. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Noa (a chimp) and Raka (an orangutan) from Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes look at each other while Noa holds a weapon

The fourth in the new-era Planet of the Apes movies (and the 10th Apes movie if you batch them all together) doesn’t add much to the franchise’s ongoing narrative — it jumps the story forward in time about 300 years for a story that’s frustratingly half-baked and surprisingly familiar from the previous entry, War for the Planet of the Apes, but with a gorilla dictator running a forced work camp instead of a human one. There are some powerful ideas at work — that history repeats itself, that communities are stronger than individuals, and that those communities need to band together to resist tyrants — but they aren’t communicated particularly clearly, especially since they’re mixed in with other threads, about a personal journey undercut by every Kingdom ad, and about the unreliability and unknowability of humanity.

Kingdom is enjoyable enough in the moment, an action blockbuster with impressive visual effects and some appealing characters. It isn’t a bad or boring entry in the series. It just never feels essential, or like it’s doing much besides echoing more propulsive, dynamic earlier entries in this run at the Apes story. —TR

9. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Godzilla and King Kong roar at the sky together in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire feels like the movie where the new MonsterVerse franchise hit its stride. While 2014’s Godzilla lightly parodies disaster movies and 2017’s Kong: Skull Island does the same for dark war movies, Godzilla x Kong is a buddy movie about a giant ape and a nuclear lizard who don’t like each other much, but are often forced to team up to fight bigger monsters. It’s inescapably dumb and uncomplicatedly entertaining. 

But what makes this franchise especially fun right now is that it has a secret weapon: television. While the big screen is reserved for silly monster brawls, the MonsterVerse’s TV show, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, is a much more reserved, character-focused family drama that feels like an old-school adventure movie with giant monsters thrown in. It’s an excellent counterbalance to the silly fun of movies like A New Empire, with the added bonus that the movie’s story likely means Kong will be in the show’s next season. The MonsterVerse is a strange franchise, but as long as every entry keeps proving itself entertaining, it’s awfully hard to complain. —AG

8. Kung Fu Panda 4

Po the panda (Jack Black) and Zhen the gray fox (Awkwafina) stand on the deck of a ship, both open-mouthed-smiling, in Kung Fu Panda 4

The adventures of panda kung fu master Po (Jack Black) could’ve been wrapped up in the series’ third installment back in 2016, but Kung Fu Panda 4 adds a bit of a postscript. The door is now open for another unlikely hero to take over the franchise, should DreamWorks decide to go that route: Basically, Po will eventually retire from his title as the Dragon Warrior, and a protégé will take up the mantle. (That definitely isn’t how it worked in the first movie, but I digress.) His heir apparent, the sneaky, thieving fox Zhen (Awkwafina), is actually a pretty cool character. I wouldn’t be too mad seeing more of her!

For the fourth movie in an animated series, Kung Fu Panda 4 is decently enjoyable, mostly suffering from wasted potential. But the fight scenes are still cool, and the humor is funny enough, even if it never reaches the highs of the originals. —PR

7. The First Omen

A pale woman (Nell Tiger Free) with deeply shadowed eyes lies on her back on a bed amid crumpled sheets, long black hair fanning around her head in a dark sunburst in The First Omen

The First Omen is a complicated addition to this list. On the one hand, it isn’t necessary, really. And its worst moments come at the close of the movie, when the implied connections to the original film series are made even more explicit than they already were. The First Omen does, however, earn its place on this list via an entirely different version of this metric: It might just be the best movie in the Omen series, which makes it a necessity by default.

Even better, by making a movie this scary, director and co-writer Arkasha Stevenson (Brand New Cherry Flavor) actually retroactively improves the rest of Damien’s story, just by making his origins this disturbing. The First Omen is simply an excellent horror movie, and that’s more than we can say for most franchise entries on this list, which is exactly why it clawed its way near the top. —AG

6. Ultraman: Rising

Netflix’s animated Ultraman movie isn’t following a strict franchise continuity like so many of the sequels, prequels, and spinoffs in this ranking. Instead, it’s part of a sprawling history of anime, manga, comics, books, live-action movies and shows, and much more, many of which reinvent the tokusatsu hero in radically different ways. This particular installment also focuses far more on repackaging Ultraman for a new generation than on tapping into or expanding his existing lore. In this case, its value to the franchise isn’t additive, it’s introductory: This is a fine, accessible place for new and younger viewers to step into the story, especially if they happen to be fans of creative, dynamic animation. Longtime Ultraman fans won’t learn anything radically new here, but they will get a perfect launch point for the next generation of fans. —TR

5. Inside Out 2

Pixar’s sequel to 2015’s Inside Out is the definition of a sequel expanding on a previous movie, sometimes to a fault. The first movie goes inside the head of 11-year-old Riley to explore how her personified emotions interact with each other; the sequel ages her up to 13, introduces new emotion characters, and shoves her into a series of new, anxiety-related decisions. In a lot of ways, this is a more-of-the-same sequel, leaning on a similar “important characters lost in the back of Riley’s brain, other characters taking over at center stage” plot, and plenty of the same corny-to-clever puns about how familiar thoughts, emotions, or related structures might manifest as landscape features.


But the way it recognizably tells a story about the same central characters, while focusing on how profoundly time and the events of the last movie changed them, is unusual for an animated sequel. (We’re side-eying you right now, eternally-suspended-in-time Despicable Me franchise.) Inside Out 2 forwards Riley’s evolution in meaningful ways, even if that does raise some bigger questions about the rules of this particular world. —TR

4. A Quiet Place: Day One

You’d have to go back a few years to Dan Trachtenberg’s Predator franchise movie Prey to find a prequel that feels as vital, engaging, and meaningful to a film series as A Quiet Place: Day One — and it’s notable that both movies get to that point the same way. They both keep continuity with the stories they’re setting up, but neither one is trying to dole out unnecessary series lore, or explain things that never needed explaining: They’re both just telling riveting action stories in an established setting, and shifting focus to completely different characters with their own unique dynamics.


Most disaster movies in this vein (whether they’re alien-invasion-focused or not) center on survivors. Writer-director ​​Michael Sarnoski tunes in on someone who doesn’t have survival as an option: Sam (Lupita Nyong’o) is in the last weeks of a fatal illness, and when killer aliens start raining from the skies and chumming New York City and anyone in it who makes a noise, it’s barely moving up the time table on her mortality. Sarnoski gives her a perversely meaningless goal — to get across town to her favorite pizza place and enjoy a final slice before she dies — and then spends half the movie on taut, tense alien-stalking scenes, and the rest on exploring why she’s so doggedly determined to do this one last thing before she goes. The focus on her combination of fatalism and obsession makes Day One an indelible story that expands the Quiet Place franchise in the best way possible, without piling on a bunch of extra, unnecessary world-building. —TR

3. Deadpool & Wolverine

Deadpool’s third live-action adventure, and his first under the Disney-Marvel Studios banner, certainly earns high rankings for popularity: It has broken records on its way to the top of the box office. But more significantly for the purposes of this particular ranking, it pushes Deadpool’s story forward, to the extent that anything really means anything in a Deadpool movie. Death certainly doesn’t. It’s possible that MCU canon does. Narrative rigor and character continuity don’t — but who goes to a Deadpool movie for those?

 
The snark is tamer and less transgressive this time out, but the Deadpool & Wolverine movie is still ambitious about expanding the character’s reach into new arenas, from bringing in the Loki series’ Time Variance Authority as villains to letting him beg for a shot at joining the Avengers. You can really feel producer-star Ryan Reynolds, his co-writers, and director Shawn Levy leveraging the Deadpool franchise’s popularity to get their hands on any property they want, from gleefully defiling the end of 2017’s Logan to lining up cameos designed expressly for in-the-know comics fans. They hop around Marvel movie continuity, grabbing and dropping whatever they want like nerdy magpies, and the movie is more fun for it. Most franchise filmmakers could only dream of this kind of freedom and access. Say what you want about the recent movie-multiverse boom — at least one franchise is just using it to create a bigger, more colorful sandbox. —TR

2. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

…Furiosa (Anya Taylor-Joy) in George Miller’s Furiosa

Furiosa is the rare prequel that feels not just equal to the hit movie it’s setting up, but like it adds vital context rather than gilding the lily. Conceived and written at the same time as Max Max: Fury Road so it would be consistent with that film’s story and characterization, Furiosa doesn’t unnecessarily just fill in how-did-this-character-get-here blanks, it tells its own distinct story and answers questions about who Fury Road’s most compelling new character is, and why she’s Max’s equal. More importantly, though, it’s wildly entertaining in its own right. —TR

1. Dune: Part Two

Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson), cowled and with symbols written across her face in ink, stands in the desert, surrounded by similarly robed figures in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune: Part Two

The second half (or with luck, middle third) of Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptation has an advantage no other movie on this list has: It isn’t just an adjunct to other movies, it’s the vital continuation of an opening-act movie that was mostly setup, building to this payoff.

Even leaving aside the compelling performances and visuals, the epic warfare, and the fascinating shift in perspective — which is to say, leaving aside the fact that it’s one of 2024’s best movies so far Dune: Part Two would top this list purely because it’s an essential part of its franchise’s story. It doesn’t just contribute new things to a franchise, it’s a cornerstone of the story Villeneuve is still hoping he’ll get to tell more of someday. —TR

This Pokémon made a historic return at the 2024 World Championships

Od: Ana Diaz

Pikachu might be the main mascot of Pokémon, but it just got one-upped at the 2024 Pokémon World Championships. And it’s all because a very special Pachirisu captured the hearts of spectators both near and far when it emerged from its Poké Ball.

Players and fans alike gathered for the 2024 Pokémon World Championships in Honolulu, Hawaii, over the weekend. The tournament hosted competitions for several games, including the Pokémon Trading Card Game and the most recent generation of video games, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. While this meant spectators got to see newer additions to the Pokédex, like some of the powerful Paradox Pokémon, the real showstopper was a Pachirisu that belonged to Sejun Park, the 2014 world champion in the video game Masters Division.

To understand the hype around Park and his Pachirisu, it’s helpful to run down a brief history of their roles in the competitive Pokémon scene. Prior to his win in 2014, Park regularly placed at the top of the global player rankings, but never won. Then, in 2014, he ran a creative team centered around Mega Gyarados and Pachirisu. Because of the success of his team, and the fact that his Pachirisu stood out in a sea of similar but more competitive options, his Pachirisu took on a legendary status within the Pokémon community. Today, a video from the Official Pokémon YouTube channel describes his win as “arguably the most iconic moment in competitive history.”

On Friday, 10 years after his big win, Park decided to bring Pachirisu back again, and onlookers could not have been more thrilled. A recording from the Worlds stream shows the moment when Park sent out Pachirisu and you can hear the crowd roar. Pachirisu had the title “the Chosen One,” and fans watched as the little guy tanked an attack with a critical hit from Aaron Zheng’s Chien-Pao.

I really don't wanna start this conversation right now but people that are like "win with my favourites?? my favourites are calyrex and landorus 🤪🤪" looking a bit silly after the crowd ROARED when Pachirisu showed on screen. pic.twitter.com/4161cBkNTb

— cecilily (@cecililytweets) August 17, 2024

Online, people on X hailed the return of “King Pachirisu” and shared clips and art featuring the adorable Pokémon. One tweet, with almost 16,000 likes, showed an image of Park’s lineup and said, “HE BROUGHT BACK PACHIRISU NOOOO WAY?!?!”

HE BROUGHT BACK PACHIRISU NOOOO WAY?!?! 😯 pic.twitter.com/vqV7cPdgFF

— PulseEffects ☕️ (@PulseEffects) August 16, 2024

return of the king pachirisu pic.twitter.com/hSGqcnh1nF

— orphe (commissions open) (@orphetoon) August 16, 2024

ゴツメパチリスさん〜!!#WCS2024 #Pachirisu pic.twitter.com/z2WklM7X05

— 鳥茶 𓅫𖤣𖥧𖥣 (@tori_tya3) August 18, 2024

Unfortunately, Park’s strategy didn’t work as well this time. Park went up against Zheng and lost two games in a row — and, later that day, his spot in the tournament. Still, I have to give him respect for being loyal to Pachirisu. At the end of it all, he shared a celebratory tweet with side-by-side images from his win in 2014 and the 2024 competition. While it’s been 10 years since Park’s Worlds win, it warmed my heart to see his plushie pal Pachirisu is still by his side.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will be released on PS5, too

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle will debut on Xbox, but the adventure game will also make its way to PlayStation 5. Bethesda confirmed at Gamescom 2024 that the game is set to launch on Dec. 9 for Xbox and PC, followed by a PlayStation 5 release in spring.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle looks like a faithful tribute to the classic movies, while still managing to have its own distinct identity as a game. While the Gamescom trailer shows off lots of dialogue, there’s still a good look at the game’s hand-to-hand combat system, and classic tools like Jones’ whip and revolver.

The Verge reported that Bethesda and Microsoft were considering a PlayStation 5 port of the game in February. The Indiana Jones movies famously inspired the Uncharted franchise, one of the most successful of PlayStation’s original intellectual properties. It seems appropriate to have an Indiana Jones game come to PlayStation to serve as a stand-in for fans who are yearning for a new Uncharted adventure.

This isn’t the first game to make its way from a first-party Xbox developer over to PlayStation 5. Sea of Thieves, Grounded, Pentiment, and Hi-Fi Rush all began as Xbox exclusives, but were released on Sony’s console. Doom: The Dark Ages, another upcoming Bethesda title, will also be ported to PlayStation 5. Exclusivity on consoles was one of the sticking points in Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision-Blizzard in 2023, with exclusivity over games like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle and the Call of Duty franchise being a point of contention.

PUBG dev’s new life sim looks like The Sims with a dash of GTA

Od: Ana Diaz
An image of two Zois in Krafton’s realistic life sim game, Inzoi. The screenshot shows a bunch of people hanging out by the water and a couple is taking a selfie.

Krafton, the developer and publisher behind PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, shared a trailer for its upcoming life sim game, Inzoi, as part of Gamescom Opening Night Live on Tuesday. The developers describe Inzoi as a game where players “have full control” and the power to change “everything as they wish” in their virtual lives. The new trailer shows some of the scenarios players can expect to simulate, like getting married, partying, and even getting into a car crash.

Check out Polygon’s Gamescom 2024 hub page for all our coverage of the world’s biggest games event.

Krafton shared a gameplay reveal trailer for Inzoi in November 2023. It’s one of two games the Korean developer showcased at Gamescom this year; the other is a fantasy extraction game called Dark and Darker Mobile. Although this trailer doesn’t include a specific release date for Inzoi — though the game is scheduled to be released on Windows PC by the end of 2024 — Krafton is offering one small treat to interested players: Starting Aug. 21 and running until Aug. 26, players will be able to download the character creator for Inzoi for free to try it for a limited time.

The new trailer shows a lot of gameplay you would see in any other life sim, like The Sims franchise. Your character can get married, babble at other characters in a gibberish language, and even set their kitchen on fire. However, other aspects of the game, like its realistic art style and urban city setting, appear to add just a dash of Grand Theft Auto vibes. As shown in the trailer, your character can get into car accidents and experience road rage. Or if you’re the partying type, you can make it rain cash while you’re dancing on the beach — your choice.

The developers have emphasized in previous updates that the team wants user-generated content to play a large role in this game. A development roadmap said that the team plans to add plugins to support mods and an in-game UGC platform called Canvas. As the developers explained in the FAQ, they want the game to be a “tool for creativity” where players can share and discuss their creations on Canvas.

Inzoi might not be the only reason you’ve heard Krafton buzz lately. In August, the company announced that it acquired Hi-Fi Rush studio Tango Gameworks. The news came as relief to many fans after the beloved games studio was shuttered by Microsoft and ZeniMax Media in May.

The Dune MMO sure looks like a worm-eat-worm world

Od: Ana Diaz

Developer Funcom released an in-depth look at Dune: Awakening game as part of Gamescom Opening Night Live on Tuesday. It’s a survival MMO game set in the desert world of Arrakis and its larger sci-fi universe. So far, it’s looking like a sleek, but gritty take on Dune that’s all about working your way up the ladder of the world and fighting off other players for spice and other resources.

Check out Polygon’s Gamescom 2024 hub page for all our coverage of the world’s biggest games event.

According to the trailer, Dune: Awakening is coming to Windows PC in early 2025 and will get release dates for PlayStation and Xbox consoles later down the line.

As shown in the presentation, you start as a nameless poisoner who must survive the scorching dessert heat and monstrous sand worms. The stream showed a scenario where a player made a deal to help another person take out a rival encampment in exchange for some vital resources in the early game. Once you establish a rapport with people, you can form a group and build a base of your own design and craft tech that allows you to drink the blood of your enemies — yummy! After that, your group can even form a guild and you can pledge your allegiance to one of the three houses of Dune.

Just like with anything Dune, spice is the name of the game. It’s a precious commodity and the key to power in the larger world of the game. Because of this, you’ll be constantly at war with hundreds of other players as everyone fights over spice. As far as warfare goes, it looks like anything from flamethrowers to mischievously summoning sand sand worms is fair game.

Other features of gameplay include exploration of the planet via ornithopters and building bases, but unfortunately, none of the gameplay showed any scenarios where you could overthrow Timothée Chalamet as Paul Atreides.

Masters of Albion’s god hand is the meatiest part of its Gamescom trailer

Watching world reveals and announcement trailers at an event like Gamescom 2024 is always interesting; I enjoy seeing what titles are on the horizon that I might enjoy. One of these trailers, however, is stuck in my mind like a bit of steak might get caught in your teeth. I’m immediately obsessed with Masters of Albion’s god hand, which hovers above the inhabitants of a city as both protector and threat.

Masters of Albion is the next game from 22cans, the game studio headed by Peter Molyneux. Molyneux is known for his work on titles like Black & White and the Fable series, and Masters of Albion seems to pull from this familiar territory. The announcement trailer shows one of the most important aspects of Masters of Albion: the god hand, the player’s avatar in the world.

The god hand can do all sorts of things, like pick out the ingredients for a meal, move building blocks about, or pick villagers up. The poor pawns seem utterly helpless once the hand picks them up; they simply dangle, like a cat who is resigned to receiving affectionate cuddles, until the player puts them down somewhere else. The giant hand can also reach out and take control of one of the village’s heroes, turning him into essentially a vessel to be puppeted by a divine force.

This isn’t unprecedented territory for a Molyneux-led game; the developer is known for similar franchises where the player has god-like control, including Black & White and Populous. But the hand in Masters of Albion benefits from modern visuals. While the game’s graphics are relatively simple and stylized, they’re just realistic enough to put the hand in an unsettling uncanny valley. Being able to inflict evil acts upon the villagers is just more unsettling when you’re watching that big paw hovering overhead, the tendons moving as the fingers flex and roll.

I can see the appeal of Masters of Albion, as someone who enjoys other colony simulators. I just find the big hand to be a little unnerving; it has a real sense of weight and meatiness. There is no release date yet, but Masters of Albion can be wishlisted on Steam.

Mafia: The Old Country is a return to the series after at least 8 years

Mafia maker Hangar 13 is returning to the iconic franchise with Mafia: The Old Country, the developer announced during Gamescom on Tuesday.

Check out Polygon’s Gamescom 2024 hub page for all our coverage of the world’s biggest games event.

The short teaser trailer is just over a minute long, and begins with dramatic, still-life shots of paintings and weapons. That’s before the camera pans over to what’s presumably the Italian countryside. There is a chapter in Mafia 2 called The Old Country; it takes place in Sicily, Italy in 1943. However, the majority of the Mafia games are set in fictional versions of American cities.

2K Games said in a news release that Mafia: The Old Country is a story about “the origins of organized crime” in the 1900s. “Fight to survive in this dangerous and unforgiving era, with action brought to life by the authentic realism and rich storytelling that the critically acclaimed Mafia series is known for,” 2K wrote.

The first game of the franchise, Mafia, was released in 2002 by Illusion Softworks, followed by Mafia 2 in 2010 from 2K Czech, and Mafia 3 in 2016 from Hangar 13. There have also been several expansion packs, mobile spinoffs, and remastered editions. Most recently, Hangar 13 released Mafia: Definitive Edition, which is a remake of the original game set in Lost Heaven, Illinois, in the 1930s. 2K Games said in a news release that the Mafia franchise has sold more than 34 million copies on console and PC.

Mafia: The Old Country is coming in 2025 for PlayStation 5, Windows PC via Steam, and Xbox Series X. More information will be revealed in December 2024.

Blur Studio’s cinematics-inspired series Secret Level gets a trailer, but co-founder Tim Miller choking up at Gamescom was the real treat

Tim Miller, co-founder of Blur Studio and director of Deadpool (2016), took the stage at Gamescom Opening Night Live to show off the first trailer for Secret Level, a 15-episode anthology of video game adaptations coming to Prime Video on Dec. 10.

Miller also managed to bring quite a bit of personality and emotion to the otherwise cut-and-dry event — as he geared up to announce Secret Level, which he’ll executive produce, Miller’s eyes brimmed with tears and his voice cracked. “We fucking love video games,“ he said before diving into details on the show, which will include narratives inspired by games like Concord, Dungeons & Dragons, Pac-man, Sifu, and The Outer Worlds, among others. Like Blur Studio’s popular Netflix anthology, Love, Death, + Robots, each episode will stand on its own.

The announcement was refreshing in several ways, and not just because the show looks more promising than the Borderlands movie that came out earlier this month. The animation looks like classic game cinematics, the trailer was well cut, and it gives fans who really don’t want to see their favorite thing go the Borderlands route.

It also included a man not so different from all of the other men we see on stage at events like Gamescom, but this time, he was crying. He stopped his speech multiple times to collect himself, and honestly, who wouldn’t? Miller said his team’s been working on Secret Level for three years, so the emotion is understandable if not commendable — but we rarely see figures like him getting emotional on stages like Geoff Keighley’s. His reverence for his team’s work is appropriate and welcome, and it makes me all the more excited to watch Secret Level when it premieres.

Maybe Miller will chock the emotions up to the high pressure of speaking to a crowd of thousands of people when he has a chance to reflect — Polygon couldn’t reach him for comment after his speech — but as someone who watches every minute of events like this, I found Miller’s emotion was profound and, hopefully, speaks to the care with which Secret Level was made.

The Blur Studio and Amazon MGM Studios-created series will premiere on Prime Video on Dec. 10.

The big games, reveals, and trailers from Gamescom Opening Night Live 2024

Gamescom’s Opening Night Live showcase is once again here to highlight games coming your way in the near future (and beyond). Hosted by Geoff Keighley, the creator of The Game Awards, the stream primarily focused on new or first looks at previously announced games like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, Sid Meier’s Civilization 7, Monster Hunter Wilds, and Dune: Awakening.

But there were more than a few surprises, including new game announcements and reveals, at Gamescom ONL. Here’s a breakdown of the biggest trailers and announcements that were shown.

Borderlands 4

Gearbox Software is officially back in the Borderlands business. At Gamescom ONL, 2K games and Gearbox announced Borderlands 4 in the form of a cinematic teaser. The new Borderlands game is out sometime in 2025 and, according to an official description, “players will assume the role of a legendary Vault Hunter as they blast their way through hordes of enemies in search of new treasures to loot on an all-new planet.”

Mafia: The Old Country

Developer Hangar 13 is returning to the Mafia franchise in 2025. The studio, and publisher 2K Games, revealed Mafia: The Old Country, a new entry that will send the series back to Italy. Mafia: The Old Country promises to “uncover the origins of organized crime” with a “gritty mob story set in the brutal underworld of 1900s Sicily.” Hangar 13 promises the “authentic realism and rich storytelling” the Mafia series is known for. Details are scant, but expect more in December, the game’s makers say — probably at The Game Awards, if we’re guessing.

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Bethesda not only gave us a new look at Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, we also (finally) got a release date: Dec. 9 on Windows PC and Xbox Series X. But PlayStation fans can also get their hands on Indy, with a PS5 version announced for spring 2025. For more on Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, read Polygon’s preview of the game.

Call of Duty: Black Ops 6

Call of Duty fans got a lengthy look at new gameplay from Black Ops 6, which ran the gamut from political blackmail to stealthy close-quarters gunplay to a gunfire-and-explosion-filled street chase through Washington, D.C. on the back of a motorcycle. More to come at Call of Duty Next.

Dying Light: The Beast

Techland revealed a new game in its zombie adventure franchise at Gamescom with Dying Light: The Beast, which the developer describes as a “thrilling standalone zombie adventure set in a tightly-crafted rural region.” Players take on the role of Kyle Crane, who breaks free after years of brutal experiments and seeks revenge. Dying Light: The Beast is coming to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms

Directive 8020

A new entry in the The Dark Pictures anthology, Supermassive Games’ Directive 8020 stars Lashana Lynch (Captain Marvel, The Woman King) in an all-new sci-fi survival horror adventure. Lynch plays the ground-breaking astronaut, Young, in what Supermassive describes as “an immersive cinematic horror experience that blends intense survival gameplay with a branching narrative storyline.” Directive 8020 is out in 2025.

Goat Simulator Remastered

For the 10th anniversary of Goat Simulator, Coffee Stain Publishing is bringing back the original in remastered form with upgraded graphics and lighting, as well as “many intentional features that definitely aren’t bugs, and fan-favourite DLC, all in one package.” Goat Simulator Remastered drops in 2024.

King of Meat

Geoff Keighley himself starred in the reveal trailer for King of Meat, a four-player hacking, slashing, co-op combat game from Amazon Games and studio Glowmade in which players fight through “ridiculous” user-created dungeons. King of Meat is coming to Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X.

Lynked: Banner of the Spark

Developer FuzzyBot announced Lynked: Banner of the Spark at Opening Night Live. It’s an “arcade-inspired co-op adventure that blends hack and slash combat with roguelike and town-building elements.”

Lost Records: Bloom & Rage

Life is Strange developer Don’t Nod revealed new gameplay and a release date for its next game, the ’90s-set narrative adventure Lost Records: Bloom & Rage. The episodic game will launch in two parts on PlayStation 5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X on Feb. 18 and March 18, 2025.

ARC Raiders

Embark Studios, creator of The Finals, brought its long-delayed shooter ARC Raiders to Gamescom for a re-reveal. The PvPvE action survival shooter is now coming in 2025 to PS5, Windows PC, and Xbox Series X. ARC Raiders’ first public tech test is now scheduled for Oct. 24-27.

Infinity Nikki

Infinity Nikki, the cozy, open-world adventure game fueled by the power of dressing up, got a new look at Gamescom — and news of an upcoming closed beta on mobile platforms.

Dune: Awakening

Funcom showed actual gameplay from its open-world survival MMO set in the Dune universe, detailing the journey from “survivor to spice hunter.” Players will expand their influence on Arrakis through combat, spice, building, and trade when Dune: Awakening arrives in early 2025 on PC. PS5 and Xbox versions are due later.

Reanimal

Little Nightmares developer Tarsier Studios revealed its next game, a terrifying new adventure called Reanimal. Described as a co-op horror adventure game, players take on the roles of brother and sister who “go through hell to rescue their missing friends.” Reanimal is playable solo or in local and online co-op, and it’s coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.

Monster Hunter Wilds

Capcom showed off more from its impressively open-world new Monster Hunter game at Gamescom ONL, covering the new area the Scarlet Forest, new monster Lala Barina, and Windward Plains apex predator Rey Dau. Monster Hunter Wilds also has some tasty looking meat — increasingly a Capcom specialty.

Sid Meier’s Civilization 7

Firaxis Games showed off first gameplay from Sid Meier’s Civilization 7, but the depth of the next Civ will warrant much more than that. Expect gameplay deep dives and interviews from Gamescom throughout the week. Firaxis also announced a release date of Feb. 11, 2025.

Marvel Rivals

Marvel and NetEase Games’ kinda-Overwatch-y team-based game, Marvel Rivals, has two new heroes: Captain America and The Winter Soldier (aka Bucky Barnes). And it has a release date: Marvel Rivals is coming to PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X on Dec. 6.

Prime Video’s Secret Level

Secret Level is a new animated anthology series from the creatives behind Love, Death + Robots. It will feature original stories set in the worlds of Armored Core, Dungeons & Dragons, Mega Man, Pac-Man, Sifu, Spelunky, The Outer Worlds, Unreal Tournament, Warhammer 40,000 and more.

Starfield

Bethesda Game Studios showed up with some Starfield content, including a look (and imminent release) of the REV-8 land vehicle and a tease of the Shattered Space DLC coming on Sept. 30. The free REV-8 update gives players the freedom to explore new frontiers and reach new heights, Bethesda said.

Monument Valley 3

A new Monument Valley game is coming. Monument Valley 3’s gorgeous, mind-bending puzzles will arrive exclusively on Netflix Games on Dec. 10, along with both Monument Valley and Monument Valley 2

Batman: Arkham Shadow

The next Batman Arkham game is for VR. Set between the events of Batman: Arkham Origins and Batman: Arkham Asylum, players will step Batman’s cape and cowl as he takes on the Rat King and reunites with familiar faces Harleen Quinzel, Jim Gordon, Harvey Dent, and Dr. Crane — before some of them become villains — in Batman: Arkham Shadow.

Masters of Albion

Fable, Populous, and Black & White creator Peter Molyneux is back and making a new game for consoles and PC. Masters of Albion will tap into some of Molyneux’s most beloved games, giving players godlike control and letting them possess characters for direct, third-person action.

Squid Game: Unleashed

The deadly survival games of Netflix’s breakout hit Squid Game are coming to mobile with a new, even deadlier series of challenges. Squid Game: Unleashed is (of course) coming to Netflix, but does not have a release date.

Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred

Players won’t go it alone when Diablo 4’s first expansion, Vessel of Hatred, goes live on Oct. 8. They’ll be joined by members of the Pale Hand, a group of mercenaries that got an introduction from Blizzard Entertainment at Gamescom ONL.

Buy 2 Nintendo Switch classics, get 1 free from Best Buy

Looking to get the most out of your Nintendo Switch? Got a few selections on the backlog you’ve yet to pick up and play? My Best Buy and Best Buy Total members can use this Best Buy Offer Builder to buy three Nintendo Switch games for the price of two.

There are over 40 games to choose from when building your bundle, but if you ask us, you should focus on Nintendo’s first-party titles, which often maintain their full $60 price well after launch and rarely go on sale otherwise. There are five Nintendo-developed games that you can choose from in this build-your-own-bundle deal, and each one is already a classic in its own right:

Also part of the deal? Sonic x Shadow Generations, which comes out Oct. 25 and gives Shadow the Hedgehog some suspiciously Venom-looking powers. With the Best Buy deal, you can pre-order Sonic x Shadow Generations while picking up two other games to play while you wait for its release.

In order to qualify for the deal, you do need either a My Best Buy Plus or Total membership. A My Best Buy Plus membership costs $49.99 per year and gets you free 2-day shipping, an extended 60-day return window on most products, and exclusive discounts (like this one). A My Best Buy Total membership costs $179.99 per year and includes all the benefits of Plus as well as protection plans, 24/7 tech support, and 20% off repairs.

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