My local game store is closing down. News of its closure was, ruefully, the thing that motivated me to pay one last overdue visit. I picked over its second-hand PS4 games like a vulture, while the last remaining, slightly-mishapen Bowser plushie stared at me with accusatory eyes that seemed to ask: why are you only visiting this place now that it is dying?

Despite growing up spending all my pocket money on second hand video game cartridges and discs, doing this now – after years spent buying digitally – feels forced, like a consolatory pat on physical media's coffin. A defeated admission that we had it better then.

There’s a desperation to it, isn’t there? Clinging onto hard copies as if they’re tiny mountain grips that will keep games tangible in an inevitable digital landslide. The pursuit of permanence now appears futile, like trying to fix a chain on a snowflake.

But it was us who moved toward digital gaming willingly. We chose to make full game sales "around 80%" digital on PlayStation and "over 90%" digital on Xbox according to games analyst Daniel Ahmad. We demonstrated that we no longer need game discs or the stores that sell them. And yet the impending loss of physical games and game stores feels like a step forward for tech that’s dragging us along with it in surrender.

The cost of convenience

When it comes to video games, I’d give anything to go back to the physical world. My shelves are bare. I buy my games from a machine. Two clicks of a button and voila, the game is downloading. It’s a transaction that bears no humanity or shared sense of occasion, especially when compared to buying a game in the 00’s.

Looking back on memories of visiting my local game store brings a sharp awareness of what we have sacrificed for convenience. The thrill of finding a game you wanted for ages on the shelf and soaking in every detail of the box art. The lively in-store conversations debating which game titles were superior that month. Discovering new games through staff recommendations, or making new friends with other customers when you both reach for the only second hand copy of PaRappa the Rapper in the bargain bin.

Back then, going to the video game store for a new game was a quest in itself. A journey that required enough initiative and determination to traipse into every second hand game store in town, in pursuit of the cheapest copy of Shadow of the Colossus. That effort meant something, as did holding the game in your hands for the first time. It felt like a reward that has been earned.

When I was a teen, the clerks working in video game stores were the first adults I met who took games seriously. They didn’t scoff at them or admonish them as a waste of time. They were like guiding figures, chatting to them in the store and hearing their recommendations for other games was validating. Maybe I wasn’t so weird for being way more interested in video games than TV or movies, like the other grown ups in my life at the time would have me believe.

I remember my first midnight in-store game release, queueing up in the brisk cold on 11/11/11 to get my hands on a copy of Skyrim. Talking excitedly with other gamers while we waited in line. It felt like a magical shared experience where the game store became a safe haven for an othered passion.

Downloading a game, on the other hand, offers no human interaction. No shared excitement. Just another numbingly convenient, instantly gratifying, solitary moment between me and my machine.

This is why Sony killing PlayStation discs is not just "the latest attack on our diminishing rights" – it’s an erosion of the choice to live in an offline world.

Choice paralysis

When discs die, so do the stores that sell them. As does the shared human interaction and sense of occasion of buying a physical game in real life. We’re going to miss these moments when the next game like Hollow Knight Silksong releases and immediately crashes the Steam and Nintendo eShop, or a PSN outage removes access to our libraries and all we can do is wait, helplessly dependent on digital.

I understand that technically, digital distribution of video games is an improvement in terms of accessibility, production costs, waste management, and availability. But emotionally, it feels like a downgrade.

It might seem silly to feel attached to old gaming discs and the stores that sell them, but these plastic cases are a physical representation of the digital worlds that moved me. Gazing at their box art is like staring at an old photo, it has the power to unlock a million memories. It makes an experience that has only ever existed on a screen feel a little more grounded in reality.

In the 00’s, a screen was once a source of escape from everything. But now that everything is confined to the screen, the escape route has become a claustrophobic tunnel with no end in sight. Collectively, we all chose the digital future. So why didn't it feel like a choice?

Perhaps because PlayStation removing the option to physically own a game is not something we would ever actually choose. Yes, it's the sensible course of business action when you look at the stats of digital vs. physical sales. But in a disc-less world we are unable to trade or resell, unable to borrow from a friend, unable to buy a game in a real life store and own it for life.

We have been railroaded on to the digital path, where all roads lead to reliance on publisher-owned storefronts.

I fear we are passing a point of no return in the games industry. I keep asking myself the same question, one which also rattled through my brain when I stared at the “closing down sale” poster in my local game store: What can I do?

Can the world where we walk into a game store, talk to staff and buy a new game on disc still be saved? Or is it time to let go of those we're still holding onto? Maybe we can't stop the industry from changing, but we can support real game discs and real game stores before the choice disappears entirely.

Escape to a simpler time with the best PS2 games ever

It may sound counterintuitive, but D&D World of Warcraft isn't trying to be like the MMO. The book – which was just announced at Gen Con 2026 – may take us back to Azeroth with all the familiar classes and species you'd expect, but it's not interested in slavishly recreating the video game. That isn't ever going to work, so principal game designer James Wyatt took a different approach.

"So much of what I love about WoW is really intangible," Wyatt tells me when we sit down for an exclusive deep dive into D&D World of Warcraft. "That's very hard to put into a book, and the process of doing something like this is not about translating mechanics on a one-to-one basis. It's about evoking the feel of playing one of these characters of this class and this species, even fighting this boss in a dungeon."

The promos we've seen so far are exciting, but avoiding that temptation to just play the hits is what tips me into 'fully seated.' You're never going to capture everything that makes WoW so beloved on pen and paper, and it's a fool's errand to try. But you can nail how it feels, as well as straying off the beaten path.

"This is your chance to explore Azeroth as you never have before," Wyatt promises.

From Teldrassil to Darkshore

While the crossover will be launching with 11 new species for us to play, six brand-new subclasses alongside three updated ones, a chance to explore major locations from across Azeroth, and seven dungeons drawn from the video game's most beloved raids, this isn't the best bit for Wyatt.

"It's the stuff you can't do in the MMO that I'm most excited about," he says. "My Night Elf character can have a completely different origin story than any Night Elf character in World of Warcraft, because they all have the same origin story [in the MMO]. I can choose any background from the D&D Player's Handbook. I can be a Night Elf sailor. What does that even mean? Turns out I ran the ferry from Teldrassil to Darkshore until Darkshore blew up. That is my origin story. So, just opening up the possibilities is the most exciting part."

Not that revisiting classic dungeons isn't exciting, of course. In terms of size, these are "more than mini and less than maxi." These range from two pages long for Onyxia's Lair to around six pages for the rest, and each one comes armed with everything a Dungeon Master needs to lead their party into the dark – a map, boss stat blocks, encounter tables, treasures, inhabitants, and inspiration for why adventurers might go there in the first place.

Long-time fans won't have any trouble recognizing these famous settings. Aside from Wrath of the Lich King's Azjol Nerub, all of them are classic dungeons – including Blackfathom Deeps and Dead Mines. Actually, the problem was knowing where to stop.

"Our original list was a lot longer, and then we realized that we needed more space for each one than we originally planned," Wyatt admits.

Delving into the past

With all this talk of 'classic' dungeons, will the book take place during a specific time period? No, Wyatt tells me – and that's because it focuses on the themes that define WoW instead. This in turn dictated which dungeons made the cut.

"The adventures chapter starts off by talking about the main conflicts of Azeroth, which are the conflicts that have driven all the expansions of the game," says Wyatt. "In the same way that the Dungeon Master's Guide talks about choosing three conflicts to drive your campaign, that's the way we're presenting these. You could choose to build your campaign around the Burning Legion and the Dragon Flights and the Scourge, and so the dungeons were chosen to have some connection to those major themes."

With that in mind, some dungeons include sidebars that let you tweak its foes based on time period. The book's take on Blackfathom Deeps uses the Naga version, for example, but there's a section detailing how to tweak it for when Twilight's Hammer moves in.

While I'm sure navigating 20 years of in-game history like this was a headache, nothing compares to the tangled knot of jury-rigging D&D classes to fit WoW. This ended up being a unique challenge for Wyatt and the team, because there's no one-size-fits-all solution – some builds could be represented accurately with added Feats, while others required all-new subclasses. This is what made the project "really fun from a design perspective."

Something new, something old

To help you recreate WoW's distinctive classes, the book begins by recommending certain combos to reflect those ideas. (The Mage could be created using D&D's Evoker Wizard with a handful of specific Feats, say.) This isn't always what you might expect; if you want to create a Shaman, for example, you're pointed toward D&D's Barbarian class "which surprises people," Wyatt says with amusement.

New subclasses are then introduced if the build requires more work, like the Oath of the Ebon Blade for Paladins which represents a Death Knight. Some of these update previous ideas, such as the Warrior of Mystic Brews subclass for Monks that tweak the Drunken Master we saw in Xanathar's Guide to Everything. (The Barbarian's Path of the Elements does something similar but on a more radical scale – it's 90% new compared to its inspiration, Path of the Storm Warrior.) Others are entirely new, like the Paladin's Oath of the Holy.

You'll certainly have enough to fight using these builds. Wyatt explains that the bestiary is crammed with foes who fit the book's themes, from demons and dragons to representatives of the Horde and Alliance. That stretches to famous faces like Arthas the Lich King, Anduin, or Thrall.

Crucially, though, these adventures will be distinctly yours. Rather than sticking to the linear path laid out by the MMO, your shackles are off and your leash is cut.

"This is where you can interact with anything you can see, you can talk to anyone you meet, you can learn about the world first person in a whole new way," Wyatt says when I ask what he thinks will tempt WoW fans to try this D&D crossover. "It super excites me. I think it's gonna excite everybody."

D&D World of Warcraft has an early access launch on November 3, 2026. A full retail release follows on November 17.

It's been a busy Gen Con for D&D so far; alongside revealing a long-awaited Dark Sun revamp, a new imprint called D&D Icons resurrects Greyhawk, Dragonlance, and more with new books from legendary creators.

• Check the latest D&D products at Amazon

The rampant contraction, consolidation, and uncertainty in the games industry risks boxing out creators and denying opportunities for teams to develop and master their craft. A new generation of household names like Larian, Remedy, FromSoftware, CD Projekt Red, or Respawn may never be allowed to bloom today. At least, that's the concern of veteran game developer Xalavier Nelson Jr. of (mostly) Strange Scaffold fame.

Originally, I spoke to Nelson Jr. about how, in his view, generative AI won't solve the games industry's budget problems – one of many reasons a lot of game developers don't want to use gen AI. In short, AI didn't cause the unsustainable approach to game development afflicting many publishers, and worse games made cheaper with AI won't fix it. As Nelson Jr. puts it: "We are spending an unknown amount of money in an unknown amount of time to make a game of unknown quality to reach an unknown amount of people." And so far, AI has only added another budget problem: the AI-driven RAM drought has seen console (and Steam Machine) prices rise so high that these machines are no longer accessible to many.

Taking another step back, Nelson Jr. raises an increasingly evergreen point about the confounding combination of industry-wide disasters and endless good games, and it touches on how the effects of the past few years will linger.

Good games in bad conditions

"That's part of why everyone seems like they're losing their minds. It's because, every day, a game is coming from an unexpected place and having an impact on the industry and on players," observes Nelson Jr. "It seems like, without even trying, great games will continue to emerge." Just this week, I wrote about how two devs made a game in four months and watched in awe as it earned over $360,000 in 24 hours.

"The invisible damage of investors, executives, publishers, and even players waiting for great games to emerge from the ether is that the voices that could be producing those projects and refining their craft and making your next favorite game will never have the ability to practice their art such that they can bring that to you," he adds.

A huge problem, Nelson Jr. reasons, is that more and more successful games are coming from unexpected places. Now, this sounds like a good thing. People are finding success and good games are coming out. The actual problem is that the expected places, the bedrock of the industry and the spaces that once represented stability and legacy, are shrinking or dying. This contributes to that uncertainty, making a career in games more dangerous and stunting studios.

"We regularly celebrate the studios and the individual artists that have had a chance to refine their craft for decades at a time, not just in games, but beyond," Nelson Jr. argues. "When an artist gets that much time to figure out what they're doing and why and how to make it meaningful, great things occur. And it happens over and over again. We look at Remedy, we look at Larian. Every single time these studios talk about what they do and how they do it, people get excited. Then simultaneously, we create none of the conditions for another Remedy or Larian to occur.

"If you look at FromSoftware before [its] modern era, they would put out like three or four video games a year minimum. If you look at their time between releases, Dark Souls 3 to Sekiro to Elden Ring was three years each time. How fucking crazy is that? And how much of that is built on a team which has shipped dozens of games beforehand? You don't get the next FromSoftware without having a group of people, individually and together, exercise their craft."

Your first game

Likewise, CD Projekt Red didn't start with The Witcher 3. Larian didn't start with Baldur's Gate 3. But if any of these studios were just sprouting today, they'd be hard-pressed to ever get the chance to make their Elden Ring, Witcher 3, or Baldur's Gate 3. That might require a debut on the level of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which is a huge outlier. Which is not to reduce the scope of the games industry's culling to, horror of horrors, fewer games to play. The actual problem is that more people will not have the means or opportunity to build and sustain careers that enable games like that. Because games don't emerge from the ether. Ask Amazon, Xbox, Hasbro, or Embracer what happens when all you have is a bunch of money, control of some IP, and people who are worried about their livelihood.

For all the deserved concern in the air, video games are not going to up and vanish. But plenty of people will be forced out of game development, or forced to accept misery to stay in it. In Nelson Jr.'s view, an approach to games that is decidedly focused on people is probably the best way to help those people.

"I mourn the world where we are waiting for more studios like that to emerge because we haven't created the conditions for it to happen," he concludes. "It's like waiting at the door for a package you've never ordered. That's what the games industry has created in terms of not consistently supporting creators, and one of the only ways we can reverse that is by audiences paying attention to who makes the games that they are loving right now, and showing up for them as often as possible, and evangelizing those projects so that they can keep making them."

"I like finding a new, special, best-selling game on Steam that takes a hold of the zeitgeist as much as anyone. But when that story comes out of nowhere and I can't especially identify with a journey that the developer has gone on to build it, there is something missing. And I also know, because of the patterns in the games industry, I might not see them ever make a game again, and we have to change that."

"Our bosses would have stopped us," if PS2's Spider-Man was made today, says director: "There were several months of us telling our bosses 'Don't look at it yet! Don't look at it yet!'"

A few months after Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty launched alongside v2.0, I stepped into Night City for the very first time. The experience was baffling. If I wasn't puzzling over the different kinds of operating systems and playstyles, I was getting an eyeful of every townie's butt cheeks as they strutted about Watson looking like randomized Sims. I powered through the weirdness and learned to embrace it, going on to complete it three times in less than six months.

Anything I didn't understand was chalked up to being a newbie. The lack of handholding or mechanic explanations confounded me at first, but I reminded myself that I was playing a three-year-old RPG for the first time. Maybe developer CD Projekt Red saw no need to tutorialize it too much for the hordes of returning fans, I wondered?

Only now, on my fifth playthrough, has curiosity finally gotten the better of me. One YouTube rabbit hole later thanks to videos like this, I've been confronted with how incredibly different this game was at launch. Not just in terms of being far more stable and less prone to bugs and crashes these days, but in the evolution of some pretty interesting mechanics and systems that I honestly wish I'd gotten to experience for myself. Cyberpunk 2, take note please.

Threaddy to rock

I adore games that let me diva out. I want to be the most dripped-out baddie in the Badlands, so it makes sense that one of my biggest draws into the world of Cyberpunk 2077 was V's impressive wardrobe.

I made it my mission from day-one to traverse every nook and cranny of Night City in search of the coolest threads V could lay her chromed-out hands on, and for the most part, I succeeded. One thing I shrugged off on my hunt for sartorial supremacy was the fact that clothing items, much like weapons or cyberware, are color-coded into tier grades. In the end I'd just assumed it was a Night City classist thing; grey tier-one gear was simply the cheap bargain bin stuff I'd start out with, while orange tier 5 pieces might run me a few more eddies in exchange for looking like street punk royalty. It wasn't until I finally took it upon myself to research why clothing items are tiered despite only being cosmetics that I started to feel left out.

Surprise, surprise: the color-coded tier levels on clothing items in Cyberpunk 2077 are a vestige from a time when they did serve a greater purpose. Once upon a time, gear could be crafted out of tiered parts just like quickhacks, weapons, and grenades, granting V different buffs and armor values depending on the tier level. They even had mod slots!

This resulted in some truly, uh, interesting fashion choices as players sought to min-max the hell out of their gear (as you can see from the vintage screenshot above, circa-2021). Transmog didn't exist at all, so it was perfectly acceptable to slink into a stealthy thief gig dressed to the nines in stilettos, a polka dot bra, and a hideous fluorescent beanie.

Suddenly, it all made sense. I feel highly privileged to be playing a version of the game that looks and feels fantastic, but there's something fittingly absurd about mercs cutting about Corpo Plaza like a half-dressed Barbie doll found in a dumpster. Sometimes I feel bad for being the only fashionable person in Night City as it is; how could these commoners possibly compete with Queen V's perfectly coordinated red, black, and gold outfits? But in another life, I, too, was meant to be clad in mesh vests and office slacks. Maybe I'm the weird one for sticking out like a sore thumb after all.

This is not me championing for CDPR to bring back a transmog-less world in Cyberpunk 2077. I'd sooner zero myself than let Judy see me in stained sneakers. But I do wonder how it would have felt to play the game relying on my gear to actually power me up rather than adding yet more weight and importance to the ever-grindy path of cyberware leveling instead.

Chop shop

While I'm at it, why did nobody tell me that cyberware used to come with added steps, too? Higher-level tech could only be attained at specific ripperdocs in a pre-2.0 Night City, incentivizing players to travel far and wide in search of unique ways to buff their builds.

Much as I love being faithful to V's pseudo-pops Vik Vector, it makes so much sense to me now that this is how cyberware was supposed to work, considering how districts used to be level-locked. Watson, being the pre-Heist mission "tutorial town", is the perfect low-level training ground to get familiar with the games' mechanics before nudging the difficulty level up. You can still only buy or craft tier-appropriate items tied to your character level these days – with the exception of clothing of course – but once your V is strong enough, they can get any bit of cyberware et al from any ripper closest to them.

Removing the gated difficulty settings makes for a more realistic RPG experience, with varying enemy toughness largely a surprise that keeps you on your toes until you see a quadruple-segmented health bar, but it does take away some of the signposting that helps players know exactly how they are progressing. One of my biggest difficulties with Cyberpunk 2077 when I first started playing was having literally no idea how crafting worked, or what a Sandevistan was, or which of the many, many mission pop-ups I should be tackling first.

I understand why that sense of overwhelm is part and parcel of the overall experience, but I do think CDPR missed a trick by cutting the ripperdoc stock exclusivity factor alongside the zoned difficulties. Imagine getting a call from that one doc across town who has something awesome in stock – he can't talk about it on the phone, and can only hold it for you for a few in-game hours. Or what if specific rippers specialized in different areas, offering a huge range of skeleton or appendage upgrades that grant you an extra special bonus in return for seeing a true connoisseur? Some of the lore of the ripperdocs has been lost in the homogenization of their craft, and it's something I would love to see rectified in the sequel.

I tell you all this as I dig deeper into my fifth playthrough. I'm a stone-cold corpo with a chip on her shoulder to match the one in her neck, both tucked beneath layers of plush nanoweave and velvet, as she searches for fair competition in the game of threads. It's too easy to be the most chromed out queen this side of the Blackwall, let alone the best-dressed merc. Please, Cyberpunk 2: look to your past to give me a challenge. I'll be waiting at Embers with Hanako until then. She, at least, knows how to dress.

Wake up, samurai, there are plenty of other games like Cyberpunk 2077 for a dose of dystopian RPG mayhem!

Treyarch's original Spider-Man game lacked something. It was solidly made, and enjoyable enough to play, but failed to replicate the visceral thrill of hurtling through New York as a web-slinging superhero. It didn't capture the freedom, speed and fluidity of movement that makes Spider-Man so compelling.

Jamie Fristrom, one of Treyarch's first employees and a key member of the development team, had been away on his honeymoon when work started on Spider-Man, which was based around the first instalment of the Sam Raimi trilogy. Fristrom returned to the office to find that his colleagues had embarked down a different path to the one he envisaged.

Webs were essentially cosmetic and players could swing continuously from one to another, regardless of whether they attached to anything or not. They didn't respond to your momentum either, carrying you along at the same steady pace regardless of circumstance.

Fristrom felt that the web-swinging experience wasn't anywhere near dynamic or immersive enough. It also made Spider-Man too easy, depriving the game of the necessary speed and peril. "I was pretty disappointed by that, but I also knew that doing something more 'realistic', with physics and grappling hooks, where you actually attach to stuff, was probably not going to fly," he says. "But, during the development of that game, I did work late to cobble together my own ideas. About six months into production, I'd got something that I liked and I showed it around the team. They thought it was interesting and had potential."

That initial discussion with team members gave Fristrom the confidence to push his idea further. "I talked to the owners of Treyarch – my college buddies – and said, 'Here, look what I did.' They were like, 'Come on, Jamie, be reasonable. You can't change the core game mechanic halfway through!' It also wasn't quite there yet. You'd swing and you'd stick to a wall automatically, because Spider-Man was pretty sticky back then. That wasn't fun."

Treyarch decided to continue with the initial plan and put Fristrom's ideas to one side, at least temporarily. After the game was released in 2002, the development team went to watch Spider-Man in the cinema for the first time, an experience which changed everything. Spellbound by the film's sheer dynamism, they recognised that a more ambitious approach would be needed to ensure the sequel lived up to heightened expectations.

"Maybe we still didn't know what to do next, but we knew exactly where we were heading. Now we could do iteration after iteration. If you feel it strongly enough, getting there is just a matter of work. And we were excited enough that we didn't care how much work it would take," says Tomo Moriwaki, the game's creative director.

Soon after Spider-Man shipped, the next game was underway. Treyarch had two years to deliver Spider-Man 2 and spent the first six months of that in preproduction, refining Fristrom's prototype. "We had this period where we had one team working on gameplay and controls and character and how the camera would work, and then another team working on the tech," he explains.

"In today's world, with the kind of budgets that would be in place for a game like that now, it's unreasonable. Our bosses would have stopped us," says Moriwaki. "But, at the time, there was more distance between publisher and developer, and even the leaders of the development company. We were given a wider berth."

There was no guarantee that all this experimentation would deliver the results they wanted, causing a lot of anxiety. "There were several months of us telling our bosses, like, 'Don't look at it yet! Don't look at it yet!' That moment came where we couldn't hold them off anymore," recalls Fristrom. "That was a great day for us because they were all very impressed. They ran it all the way up the chain to the chief operating officer of Activision to show everybody what we'd done."

The new fluid style of web-swinging, in which Spider-Man would latch onto a building, lamppost, tree or other structure and pivot like a pendulum, was given resounding approval. The more attachment points that were added, the smoother the experience became. You could suddenly cover large distances much more quickly than before, in a way that felt liberating and much truer to the film. "Spider-Man becomes more like a ball that just moves through space and is influenced by the choices we make with the controller," says Moriwaki. "That shifted our thinking towards uninterrupted movement. We were on the hunt for animation transitions that took account of player velocity. If you were swinging at like 70 miles an hour, if you let go, you'd fly at that speed before starting to slow down."

This one fundamental change served as the catalyst for so many others that came together to make Spider-Man 2 far more engaging and memorable than its predecessor. Building a large open-world environment – a faithful recreation of Spider-Man's version of Manhattan that players could freely explore outside of missions – was one of the most significant, drawing inevitable comparisons with Grand Theft Auto.

Programmer Greg Taylor led the city's construction, which was a huge task. "It took longer than we expected. Greg definitely did get pretty stressed out," says Fristrom. "One of the things we had that GTA 3 didn't have was the verticality. On GTA, you're usually down on the road so you can't see that far. If you haven't loaded in distant neighbourhoods because you don't have the memory, or whatever, then it didn't matter that much.

"With Spider-Man, you could go up to the top of the Empire State Building and look around so we needed something. You couldn't just have a fog plane, like so many games did back then. Somebody came up with the idea of loading in these low-detail neighbourhoods that were basically just boxes. Always having those things in memory was pretty key, and then just having the nearby stuff loaded in high detail."

Eric Pavone and other designers populated Manhattan with activity to keep players occupied between missions. You can make deliveries for the pizzeria and take photographs for the Daily Bugle. There are various races to complete, hidden tokens to collect and crimes to stop, each earning you Hero Points that are used to buy upgrades like new attack moves or increased swing speed.

The most common type of challenges in Spider-Man 2, where you have to stop a crime or help a member of the public, were referred to as 'shenanigans' by the Treyarch team. Some had to be initiated by players, while others occurred at random, leaving you to choose whether or not to intervene. Time limits occasionally applied, like when a ship was sinking or a construction worker was about to fall from a ledge.

The lack of variety in shenanigan scenarios is one of the game's biggest drawbacks, forcing players to stop an armed carjacking, rescue a kid's lost balloon or retrieve a stolen purse from a mugger many times over. This was a by-product of the approach the team had taken and the scale of what they were trying to achieve. "Part of the problem is that, in hindsight, we were a prototype game long enough that we had to use whatever the results were," says Moriwaki. "We were just diligently going on, building all kinds of complex infrastructure for a system that we didn't know would work. Because of the way we were doing it, it had to work.

"Some of that stuff, like the armoured car robbery, was really complicated. It was already a huge logical difference to the way we scripted gameplay. It meant we were going to have to be responsible for itemising what we pulled into the scene, and also when we dumped it out. That required a difficult and complex memory management and streaming logic model."

Screen to controller

Matthew B Rhoades adapted the Spider-Man 2 screenplay to create the story. It covers the main plotline, the rise of Doctor Octopus and his fusion experiment that threatens to destroy New York, but other Marvel villains like Rhino, Mysterio and Shocker are drafted in to extend the gameplay. A highly sexualised Black Cat competes with Mary Jane Watson for Spider-Man's attentions as he struggles to reconcile his superhero responsibilities with his normal life as Peter Parker.

"We had to get approval and that wasn't automatic for us. We did a first round of just asking for a lot of different characters and a bunch of them came back 'no'. All the stuff that they said 'yes' to, we basically came up with a rationale for it," says Moriwaki. "We broke up the overall story into half a dozen pieces and then plopped the movie script's key points across that timeframe. We just found a place for it to fit in."

There was lots of extra content that the team wanted to include. Too much, as it turned out. "We were definitely behind schedule near the end. If the movie had come out when they originally said it was going to, I don't know what we would have done," says Jamie. "We got a three-month reprieve. That gave us time to bring more polish. Even with that, we had plans to do this whole sewer system with the Lizard boss, which ended up making it into the third game eventually."

Looking back, Moriwaki believes that the team were simply too close to the project, and too passionate about it, to recognise that their bold plans were getting out of hand. Eventually, Activision had to intervene, requesting that Treyarch narrow the scope of the game considerably to ensure that everything could be finished in time. Some painful sacrifices had to be made. "Spider-Man 2 must have more cut content than any game that had come out until that point," says Moriwaki. "The amount that was cut is staggering. There were some people on the project who had almost their entire work removed from the shipped game and that's terrible."

The control system used in Spider-Man was completely overhauled to make the sequel's gameplay as fluid and fast-paced as Treyarch wanted it to be. Amid all the excitement about what they'd created, there was an underlying concern that players might find the new controls too complex, potentially alienating a significant chunk of their audience.

Feedback from playtests was inconclusive. The team estimated that 10% of players might struggle but worried that the true figure could end up being even higher. "It's probably one of the most difficult core game mechanics that you can dump in somebody's lap and say, 'Here, learn this!'" says Jamie. "I was nervous as we were shipping the final thing. It was like, 'Will people just buy this and not be willing to figure out how to play it?' Most games with 3D swinging do fail, but I have a theory that the lure of Spider-Man means people are willing to get over that learning curve."

The new control system was much less intuitive than the previous one, but with the time and space to practise, which the open-world setting offered in abundance, its intricacies would gradually become second nature to most players, making Spider-Man 2 a far more rewarding experience. Treyarch's leap of faith paid off spectacularly. With the success of the film, which was the third-highest grossing of 2004, Spider-Man 2 was always destined to sell in huge numbers. Perhaps more significant was the overwhelmingly positive reception from players and critics, who praised the game for its vast scale, daring style and sheer fun factor. Sprinting, swinging, climbing and leaping around Manhattan was an absolute joy.

The developers reflect fondly on the process that led them there too. "I had an extremely good time and a ton of those people are still basically like family to me," says Tomo. "What we were able to discover, and accomplish, together was super-satisfying. It was a lot of work and, I think in hindsight, it was maybe at a somewhat unreasonable pace, but even that over-commitment just felt like mad science and experimentation.

"We developed a control scheme and a locomotion experience that could sustain an almost unlimited amount of exploration. We had no precedent for what we did and the way we did it gives me this clear example of why we take chances."

"In a lot of ways, I still feel like it was the peak of my career. Even over 20 years later, that's the coolest thing I've ever done, other than having kids!" laughs Jamie. "There's just something about Spider-Man 2 that's special and enduring.

"The fact that Spider-Man games keep coming out, and they keep paying homage to that swinging mechanic we developed, really makes me happy and proud still to this day. We changed gaming history in our own tiny way, right?"

Take a look at the best Spider-Man games for more web-head adventures!

Even the best online multiplayer games aren't firing on all cylinders all the time. In fact, I'd argue that's what makes their best moments standout – the clutch sniper nest you establish to help your team make a comeback in Black Ops 7, finally clawing back some rounds in Tekken 8 from a random player who for that evening has become your absolute nemesis, the (for some of us) rare, glittering Victory Royale in Fortnite.

The same holds true for Gears of War: E-Day's newest mode – Horde Siege – which I've been playing in early access, which at times feels like Gears as you've never played it before. At others, the same old. But, the attempt to craft these moments across large-scale player-versus-environment co-operative play is ambitious enough to be worth a respectful hat tip. Three squads of four players battle locusts across a stonking massive district of Kalona City while clearing a checklist of activities before battling to safely extract.

City boy

Gears of War E-Day's Horde Siege vision comes together when these squads collide, interacting across their different objectives to make it really feel like the city has burst into war. A few of your squad's goals may have you circling the edge of the district, before all at once lines moving through the city intersect with those of other players, bullets fly, and hulking groups of locusts all converge as well.

Kalona City, even as it's being reduced to rubble, is gorgeous – bringing to life the mix of brutalism and futurism that so characterizes what remains of civilization in the Gears games set after this prequel (E-Day, 'Emergence Day', is when the world is rocked by a locust invasion from beneath the earth). Gears of War: E-Day's single-player campaign is set entirely within Kalona City, aiming to ground this disastrous first incursion with a real sense of place. The same seems to be true of Horde Siege, maps centering on districts so large it's easy to barely see players not in your squad during large chunks of play. (There's one district in my hands-on, but there will be three maps at launch).

All this is to say that the map design is incredibly open, and the unpredictable nature of how other squads are moving through it means battle lines can feel like they emerge anywhere. If the match was only catering for to squad, you'd have a good idea of how to move through, say, a courtyard, while making effective use of cover. But when another squad is coming from a different direction with the same idea, things can get messy. Yet, thanks to the overall co-operative nature, alliances come naturally, firefights ebbing and flowing between units all driven by the same goal to wipe out locusts and get out of there intact in order to do it all over again.

Gears of War: E-Day marks a rare case where I'm more curious about the multiplayer than the campaign. I remain a bit grumpy about fleshing out the titular E-Day, as I think the still-incredible first Gears of War handles its gritty, sci-fi worldbuilding almost immaculately.

But, I'm not so cold-hearted that the prospect of a back-to-fundamentals approach to Gears doesn't appeal (I vastly prefer the original trilogy to the later games), and I can rock more with the idea of E-Day being a backdrop to multiplayer scenarios than I really need to have my 'Solo explaining Han Solo's name' moment with Marcus Fenix and the iconic lancer chainsaw rifle.

Which doesn't mean Gears of War E-Day's Horde Siege multiplayer is without flaw (for clarity, I only played this mode – not Versus). For all the moments where Kalona City comes alive with converging squads, there are many more when it doesn't, and I'm left with just my squad defending a point from oncoming Locusts, and the action doesn't feel all that evolved from my recent replay of Gears of War Reloaded.

Shifting gears

Gunplay, once meaty, feels sedate in these more modest encounters, with bullets glancing off enemies like they don't feel it as they plod directly for cover, almost ignoring I'm there. (Executions, though, are delightfully brutal). I'm not sure if this is a consequence of Horde Siege's sheer scale – combat looked more tactile in the campaign footage I've seen. After all, even when two other squads are duking it out on the other side of the map to me, they're still there.

Some of this is also the case in Reloaded, but there I can excuse it because it's a remaster of a game from 2006, and constant splurges of gore to cap off kills are frequent. Here, draining whole clips into locusts, I'm conscious of the fact I'm not seeing the chunks of them flying I'd like to see. Perhaps, also, I'm spoiled by the excellent Warhammer 40K Space Marine 2, where co-op encounters felt considerably meatier – though I understand that Space Marine 2's encounters are more tightly crafted than the sprawling scale of E-Day's Horde Siege. Whatever the case, it's true that Gears has more meathead gore-blasting competition now than it did back in the day.

I'm not sure what the solution is other than to see how Gears of War E-Day's Horde Siege mode performs once it's out in the wild. There's a chance squads run into each other more frequently than in my experience, and it feels more electric as a result. As it stands, those moments where Horde Siege shine are few and far between, and rather than feeling like exemplar moments that make the build-up worth it, I'm left soaking enemies with whole clips while I wish it was happening more often.

There's definitely solid craft within what I've played of Gears of War E-Day so far, but I'm struggling to really get a sense of overall intention. Did I mention you can jump at any point now? No, I didn't, because it seems – at least here – relatively pointless. You can slide constantly now as well, which I can see getting annoying much as it did in Modern Warfare 3. The variable cover size is a nice touch, the tutorial having me crawl along small bits of rubble on my back. But, in what I play in Horde Siege, it's still all waist high cover still rules the day.

Alongside Halo: Campaign Evolved, Gears of War: E-Day is yearning for the past, much as I'm sure Xbox is as it enacts thousands of lay-offs across some of its best-in-class development studios, has become the target of boycotts, and is staring down the barrel of massively inflated hardware prices thanks to the component crisis. But, I'm not yet convinced E-Day or Xbox fully understand what made its historic moments work. The same old can never be entirely new, and while Horde Siege can feel special, too much of the time I'm left grasping for reasons to play another match, especially when Versus mode is right there.

But what about you? Looking forwards to returning to Gears' online offerings when E-Day launches? Let us know in the comments!

Take a look at our best co-op games ranking for more!

It's time for a fresh start for everyone's favorite neighborhood Spider-Man – but the webhead's latest cinematic instalment may have secretly done a whole lot more than that.

Already, Spider-Man: Brand New Day has introduced a prominent mutant, likely set up Spidey's next Avengers adventure, and has taken Hulk off the board for the foreseeable future.

Those are all easy-to-follow story beats and straight out of the Marvel Studios playbook of setting up narrative threads for future payoffs down the line.

But what if I told you there was a major Spider-Man sequel tease hiding in plain sight, one that could finally introduce an iconic character to the Sacred Timeline?

Unlike Ned's tireless tracking work in attempting to uncover Spider-Man's identity, I can prove I'm not crazy. I swear.

My two pieces of compelling evidence arrive at the house party early on in Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

First up, Ned speaks to MJ about a job interview. Despite arriving home looking glum, MJ was offered the job – but turned it down. She then rants about how she doesn't want to work for corporations.

An odd talking point, but fair enough. Dig a little deeper, though, and it seems like this is more than just incidental dialogue. It's world-building of another kind.

After all, how many prominent corporations are there in the Marvel universe? Stark Industries is too big not to be named. Others, such as Roxxon, could be a possibility. But the smart money is on Oscorp, the New York company owned by Norman Osborn, AKA Green Goblin, a shadowy figure who hasn't yet appeared in the MCU (outside of Willem Dafoe's iteration arriving from the multiverse in No Way Home).

Zendaya's MJ certainly has the skillset to appear on Oscorp's radar. She majored in aerospace engineering in MIT – perfect for a Goblin Glider, perhaps? – and mentioned while being holed up in Punisher's hideout about her past experience in biochemical engineering, too.

Norman's on sabbatical, honey

Then there's The Boyfriend. No, the capital letters aren't for dramatic effect; it's how Marvel itself credits MJ's unnamed partner, played by Ahsoka's Eman Esfandi. Curious.

We later learn through MJ that The Boyfriend is controlling and isn't happy with how "withholding" she is in arguments. That's the sign of a toxic relationship right there. Enough to set up a young, prodigious villain like Harry Osborn, perhaps? Maybe. Maybe not. But why cast a relatively prominent actor if you aren't going to do something with him outside of giving MJ and Peter a ham-fisted reason to grow a little closer?

Marvel Studios has history with dropping in familiar faces for bit-part roles, but someone of Esfandi's standing deserves more than 10 seconds of screen time.

My theory? The Boyfriend will be unmasked in a Brand New Day sequel as a major comics character. Whether it's Harry Osborn offering a link to Oscorp or someone else remains to be seen, but Marvel and Sony are clearly trying to pull the rug out from under us in real time. And I'm not falling for it.

It would also go some way to resolving one of the main problems I have with Spider-Man's MCU saga: Tom Holland's lack of personal villains as Spider-Man. He needs a rogues' gallery of his own.

Michael Keaton's Vulture was a great start, but Jake Gyllenhaal's Mysterio was twisted by Tony Stark, not Peter Parker. No Way Home's multiverse mash-up also lacked the personal touch for Peter 1.

Even Brand New Day felt like Jean Grey's story rather than Spider-Man going up against villains – something diluted further by the sizzle reel of C-list foes Spidey takes down in the opening act's montage. So, Spider-Man and Harry Osborn/Oscorp would be something that adds a spicy ingredient that these movies have been lacking.

Hopefully, director Destin Daniel Cretton and star Tom Holland will be interrogated about this in the coming months. It's already playing on my mind, and it's been mere days since I've seen Brand New Day. I need a fiery Peter Parker/Norman Osborn on-screen rivalry again in my life. It's been decades since the last one – and it might be the best way to turn Brand New Day from an exceptional Spider-Man movie into the start of the wallcrawler's best trilogy yet.

For more, zip on over to our ranking of the best Spider-Man movies.

After months of keeping Sadie Sink's role in Spider-Man: Brand New Day under wraps, Marvel Studios has finally let the cat out of the bag. Below, we get into just who Sink is playing, and the history of the Marvel comics character.

It should come as no surprise that major spoilers follow, so make sure you have seen the new MCU movie before reading on. But before you head to the cinema, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review.

Up until the new Spidey movie hit the big screen, Sink had been kept out of all movie promotions, trailers (bar one faceless appearance), and even had to keep tight-lipped during the press run. However, that didn't stop Marvel fans from theorising who the Stranger Things star could be playing, pitching everything from The Punisher's vigilante pal Rachel Cole to mutant Angelica Jones, AKA Firestar.

But now, the secret is out. So what are you waiting for? Scroll down to find out who Sink is playing in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. You can find answers to other burning questions in our breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene and our Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained.

Who does Sadie Sink play in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

Well, it looks like some fans were right all along. Sadie Sink officially plays X-Men hero Jean Grey. Due to Sink's red hair and sightings of the star wearing green and yellow on set, many fans were already certain that Sink would suit up as Marvel Studios' latest mutant. The character has been brought to life on the big screen twice before, first by Famke Janssen in the original X-Men trilogy, and then by Sophie Turner in the prequel films X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix.

So, who is Jean Grey? Introduced in the very first X-Men comic in 1963, Grey has great telepathic and telekinetic powers that allow her to enter minds and control them, read thoughts, project her own thoughts onto others, form psychic links, and physically control others. However, Sink's version of Grey differs from the original comics. Instead of being dropped off at the X-Mansion by her parents, Sink's Grey and her sister Sara Grey were given up for adoption when their mother couldn't cope with their powers.

Though Sink's younger representation of Jean is at the very start of her superhero journey, in the comics, Grey's powers grow to unprecedented levels. Not only can she fly, but while using the Phoenix Force, Grey can seize control on a molecular level, meaning she can manipulate structures, create and absorb energy, and resurrect the dead. However, her powers can also be her downfall. The Phoenix Force has worked against her multiple times, causing her to do terrible things, including attempting to destroy a world.

As for Spider-Man, Grey has had multiple team-ups with the webslinger throughout the years. The pair first crossed paths in the 1972 comic Marvel Team-Up #4, when the X-Men blame Spidey for kidnapping one of Professor X's old colleagues. Of course, it wasn't Parker who committed the crime, so the two quickly went from enemies to friends, much like in the new movie.

What does Sadie Sink's MCU future look like?

As of this moment, Marvel has yet to cast Sink in any further MCU projects, which may just be down to the fact that her role had been kept a secret. However, there is a new X-Men movie on the way from Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier, which is set to "start anew" and introduce a new, younger class of mutants. Could Sink be a taste of what's to come?

As mentioned before, Sink's Grey is just at the start of her superhero journey, and has a long way to go to become one of, if not the, most powerful Marvel hero. It would be a shame to waste Grey's huge character development in Brand New Day.

As for the original mutants, most of the Fox-era X-Men are returning in Avengers: Doomsday. But from the new Doomsday synopsis, it sounds as though that may be their last day in the sun. However, original Grey star Famke Janssen is not returning for Doomsday, which makes us wonder if Sink will make an appearance. We're not holding our breath, though, as it doesn't look like Tom Holland's Spidey will be included in the fifth Avengers outing at this point.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in UK cinemas now, and hits theatres in the US on July 31. For more, see where Brand New Day places in our list of the best Spider-Man movies, and keep up with new Marvel movies and TV shows heading your way.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day might introduce a major plot point for the X-Men movie.

Marvel will be reintroducing the X-Men in an upcoming film from Thunderbolts director Jake Schreier, after the Fox-era squad returns in Avengers: Doomsday. Heavy speculation has linked Sadie Sink's mystery Spider-Man: Brand New Day character with Jean Grey – but there's actually another plot point in the film that may well be setting up the mutant movie.

Below, we've explained exactly how Spider-Man: Brand New Day might be setting up the X-Men movie, which means there are heavy spoilers ahead. Turn back now if you're not up to date! For even more, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review.

How Spider-Man: Brand New Day sets up the X-Men movie explained

During Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Peter Parker becomes overwhelmed by his spider DNA, a consequence of his unresolved trauma. He seeks help from Bruce Banner, who wears an inhibitor on his wrist that stops him from transforming into the Hulk. The inhibitor works by controlling the gamma radiation in his blood, and Peter thinks he can make a similar device to suppress his own arachnid DNA.

However, Peter has some ideas for tweaks that Banner – and later, MJ – warn him about. The version Peter works on, a universal inhibitor, could suppress any type of superpower on any powered person. Peter uses it on Jean Grey – who is indeed the character Sadie Sink is playing – to shut off her powers. But Jean is strong enough to overwhelm the device, so the chip breaks and falls to the ground near the end of the film.

But it's also revealed that Damage Control has contingency plans to take down Spider-Man, with a weapon that neutralizes his webs. Considering Peter has developed technology that could essentially turn off anyone's powers, it seems likely Damage Control would be interested in manufacturing more – which feels like crucial setup for the X-Men movie.

X-Men are mutants with genes that give them their powers, and a universal inhibitor that works via DNA seems tailor-made to target them specifically. Peter might have had the best intentions making his device, but there's every chance it could be used for anti-mutant means going forward.

Anti-mutant prejudice is a very common theme across the X-Men movies and comics, and, if the MCU continues down that road, our best guess is that Peter's inhibitor might be used to control the mutant population. While Damage Control is exposed by Peter – with Yelena Belova hard at work decoding their redacted files – another organization, or the escaped Bill Metzger, might pick up where they left off in the future. And, it does seem the heroes left the broken inhibitor behind…

Jean Grey is able to overwhelm her inhibitor with her powers, and Peter realizes he's better off without his own chip and takes it off in the final fight. So, while Brand New Day lays the groundwork for a serious threat to the X-Men, it also spells out how to defeat it. All hope is not lost.

For even more on the MCU, check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

If you've seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day, you might be wondering, who is Sara Grey? The telepathic cat is out of the bag, and it’s finally confirmed in Spider-Man: Brand New Day that Sadie Sink is indeed mutant master of messing with heads, Jean Grey. Making for what feels like a huge departure from the kind of introduction we’ve been used to with the X-Men character in other movies, the Stranger Things star has easily become one of the most compelling and complex villains of Peter 1’s (Tom Holland) rogue gallery.

So why such a mean streak during her first appearance in the Marvel Cinematic Universe? Well, as is often the case with any good villain, their evil deeds stem from vengeance, and in this case, it involves Jean’s sister, Sara Grey (played here by Olivia Booth-Ford). Now for movie fans of X-Men, Sara Grey might sound like a brand new addition to X-Men lore, given that she’s never appeared in any X-Men film up until now. Rest assured, though, Jean’s big sis is very much a real character from the comics with a history of her own and one that could help further mold one of the founding members of the X-Men before Jean is even enlisted by them.

Read on for all there is to know about Sara Grey in the comics and in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and when you're done, be sure to check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and our guide to watching the Marvel movies in order.

Sara Grey in Marvel Comics 

In the comics, Sara Grey was fortunate to have a considerably longer lifespan than the one we’ve recently met in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but her exit is perhaps far worse than the one we’ve seen in the MCU. To begin with, the biggest difference was that she wasn’t gifted like her sister; she was just a regular human.

First mentioned in X-Men #22 from 1966, Sara wouldn’t appear on the page until X-Men #136 in 1980, when Jean, imbued with the power of the Dark Phoenix, comes out to her family about being a mutant. While Jean’s parents are pretty vocal about their youngest daughter being different, Sara is just shocked to see her return. That’s before Jean goes on a typical Phoenix tirade right before the X-Men turn up to restrain her.

A year later, in a story from Bizarre Adventures #27, Sara Grey goes to visit the grave of Jean, who is presumed dead for one of the bajillion times everyone thinks she’s kicked the bucket in the comics. It’s during this moment of grief that it’s revealed in a flashback story that Jean blocked out Sara’s memories of her sister's secret, after all. In fact, at one point in time, the two were kidnapped by Atlantean general Attuma (played in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever by Alex Livinalli), who transforms the Grey sisters into one of his own kind. Jean saves the day and turns them back, but Sara continues to grieve her sister's loss and to advocate for mutant equality.

Unfortunately, Sara’s brush with danger doesn’t end there (such are the dangers of being a Grey, really). Besides her children being kidnapped and Jean and Scott Summers having to save them in X-Factor #35, X-Men #36 revealed that Phalanx had captured and consumed Sara, and when Phalanx was defeated, any hope of Sara surviving went with him.

That, as they say, was that. The older sister of Jean Grey was killed off-screen and endured a far more pitiful demise than the one we got in Spidey’s new movie.

Sara Grey in Spider-Man: Brand New Day

In what feels like a great effort to apply a fresh spin on Jean’s backstory, Sara Grey gets a significant upgrade on her comic book counterpart in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In the seventh installment of Marvel’s Phase 6, Sara is revealed to share the same power set as her little sister and has a far better grasp of them, as well. We see in a flashback that Sara trained Jean to hop from body to body when a target was too far out of range, which Jean masters before her encounter with Peter.

Unfortunately, it’s because of this capability that she’s snatched up by Damage Control, who are doing far more than just tidying up the world from the regular super-powered scuffles. Sara is kidnapped and subjected to tests until she dies from the ordeal, sending Jean on a mission and leading to an eventual power upgrade that stretches her reach far beyond a mere 33 meters.

As is often the case with any good hero origin story, it’s the loss of a loved one that sets them on the path for justice and heroism. In the case of Jean from the MCU, however, she performs a few minor acts of terrorism and mental kidnapping before seeing the error of her ways. She’s last seen heading out of New York into a far more rural area that looks awfully Westchester-like (that being the location of Xavier Mansion, for the uninitiated). Who knows wherever she ends up, if Sara will get name-dropped in future MCU installments that Jean inevitably appears in. After reports that Jean's already set to return in Avengers: Secret Wars, there's a good chance she might.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in UK theaters now. For more, here's how to watch the Spider-Man movies in order, or see if you agree with our ranking of the best Spider-Man movies.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is now out in theaters (in some parts of the world, at least), and sees Peter Parker swing his way back into the MCU after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home. Tom Holland, Zendaya and Jacob Batalon return, alongside Punisher star Jon Bernthal and the Hulk himself, Mark Ruffalo. And now that we've seen the movie, we even know who Sadie Sink is playing, and the identity of the film's mysterious villain.

Given this is a Marvel movie, you're no doubt expecting a post-credits scene or two. Bonus scenes before, during and/or after the credits are commonplace for MCU movies, but you probably want to know if you need to stick around until the theater staff descends to sweep up the dropped popcorn.

That's why we've got everything you need to know about the Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scenes right here, from how many there are to what they mean for the future of Spider-Man, and how they could be setting up Avengers: Secret Wars. The first section is spoiler-free for before you've seen the movie, followed by detailed spoilers about what goes down in the Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene, so proceed with caution!

Does Spider-Man: Brand New Day have a post-credits scene?

Yes, Spider-Man: Brand New Day does have a post-credits scene. But only one, and you have to wait for the very end of the credits to see it, so stay put till lights up! We've got the full details below, but be warned: this is where we start getting into spoiler territory.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene explained

The Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene gives us a pretty big clue about Spidey's MCU future. The brief scene doesn't feature a single actor, but instead unfolds in the Spidey tracker's UI. Initially zoomed in on New York, the tracker suddenly announces 'location unknown' after seemingly losing track of Spider-Man.

As the tracker zooms further and further out, it's still unable to detect Spider-Man. Eventually, the tracker zooms so far out that it seems Spider-Man is no longer on Earth. As the tracker pans right, it finally locates Spider-Man… in deep space. Cut to a stark title card: Spider-Man Will Return.

Firstly, that title card is noteworthy for what it doesn't say, namely, return in which movie? In all likelihood, this information has been omitted to preserve a surprise cameo in Avengers: Doomsday, or an unannounced role in Avengers: Secret Wars. It could also mean – heaven forbid – that we won't see Tom Holland's Spider-Man again until his next solo outing, post-Secret Wars.

It's not clear how the Spidey Tracker works exactly (user-generated sightings? DNA sniffers?), but as for the deep space of it all, there are a few explanations. The most likely is that the scene is directly setting up Avengers: Secret Wars, and Spidey has been transported to Battleworld. In the comics, Battleworld is a patchwork planet created by Doctor Doom from the remnants of other worlds after the multiverse is destroyed, so it would be a break from comics canon for Battleworld to exist within Earth-616, as it traditionally exists in a whole new reality.

The second explanation is that another Spider-Man has arrived in a spaceship from a different universe. As we know from the Thunderbolts post-credits scene, the Fantastic Four will be doing exactly that in Avengers: Doomsday. Could this extend to other Spider-Men as well, including Miles Morales?

The final possibility is that the Spidey tracker has detected a symbiote that has already bonded with a Spider-Man and is currently on its way to Earth. However, this doesn't explain why Spider-Man can no longer be located in New York. The only theory that accounts for Spidey's disappearance from New York is that he's been transported somewhere. Spidey in Secret Wars confirmed?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now in the UK, and releases on July 31 in the US. For more, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review or our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

Does Ned remember Peter Parker at the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day? It's an important question, as it could change everything as far as Pete's world is concerned, and the answer isn't clear-cut.

The fallout and magical hijinks of Spider-Man: No Way Home are still keenly felt in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, with Peter desperate to reunite with his old flame MJ (Zendaya) and his best pal, Ned (Jacob Batalon). But all that seems to change in the final moments.

So just how do Ned’s memories of his best friend get jump-started, and what could they mean for MJ and Peter in future Spider-Man adventures? Well, grab your shark-themed energy drink and take a seat while we break it all down for you. But beware: full spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day lie ahead. Why not check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review if you've yet to see the latest Marvel movie?

Does Ned remember Peter Parker at the end of Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

It might’ve taken a heartbreaking written confession from Peter to reveal everything to MJ, but it seemingly took only a handshake for Ned to realize the piece that had been missing from his life for the last few years. During Peter’s routine trip to get flowers for Aunt May (Marisa Tomei), "Maynard" once again bumps into Ned, who still has no idea that he’s either Spider-Man or his former Lego-building BFF. After an awkward reintroduction, Peter goes for a handshake before daring to try out their secret one. Muscle memory quickly kicks in, and before he knows it, Ned is giving a new greeting to an old friend before letting out a relieved "Peter."

It’s a great note to end things on, but one that might raise a few questions for fans unsure about how magic works in the MCU. While Doctor Strange’s memory spell at the end of Now Way Home certainly did the trick, it’s clear that all it takes is a small trigger to undo the magic and put things right. Ultimately, as any self-respecting magic wielder will tell you, no matter how strong a spell might be, it’s nothing against the power of friendship. But with that spell seemingly lifted, what does it mean for the one other person who confessed to essentially moving on to a Spider-Man-free life? Our guess is, she won’t be in that state for long.

Does Ned's reminder spell hope for MJ?

In what might be one of the soul-destroying moments of the entire film, Peter gets a long-awaited kiss from Mary Jane, who he believes has finally remembered who he is, before learning that Jean (Sadie Sink) has taken over his ex-girlfriend in a clever ruse. Laughing at his struggles to be reunited with her, she mocks the hero at the idea that a kiss might break Strange's magic. Now, unfortunately, with Peter too busy trying to find balance within himself and eventually bringing Jean back to the light, the two former high school sweethearts don’t get a chance to test that out, but that doesn’t mean it might not work in the future.

If a handshake set things right for Ned, there’s a chance that a kiss really could work for MJ, but a subtle scene with Peter’s old girlfriend suggests it might not even need that. Intercut with the handshake between Spidey and Ned, we see Mary Jane sat on the roof of their old school, clutching at the necklace she got from Peter. To have kept hold of that suggests that there might be some fragment of a memory tucked away, and that the next time around she’ll remember just how much she loved Spider-Man. Well hey, a webslinger can dream, right?

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out now. For more, here's how to watch all the Marvel movies in order.

If you've seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day, you probably have questions after that shock finale, which is where our Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending explained comes in. We won't spoil it for you just yet, but we're sure you're searching for answers after spending two and a half hours with Peter Parker and co.

The fourth movie in the Tom Holland-led film series takes place after the events of Spider-Man: No Way Home on the Marvel timeline, when Peter had Doctor Strange enact a spell to make the world forget that he's Peter Parker. Following the death of Aunt May and the loss of his friends, Peter lives in anonymity as New York City's Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man. When a new threat arrives, however, Peter is forced to confront his old life and deal with some strange new changes.

As with every Marvel movie, there's a lot to keep track of, and that's where we come in. Below we've answered every burning question you might have after watching Spider-Man: Brand New Day. But be warned: there are major spoilers below. When you're done, head over to our frull Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scenes breakdown, and our list of 43 Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending recap

After Jean jumps into MJ's body and cruelly tricks Peter Parker, MJ wakes up mid-air as Peter takes her to Frank Castle's cartoonishly booby-trapped hideout on the outskirts of New York City. Frank is reluctant to let MJ stay, but Peter reminds Frank that he owes him because of whatever happened in Staten Island. While there, Peter manages to get a hit on Jean's face and identifies her as Jean Elaine Grey. Realizing he has to "get his shit together" (as DeWolff told him) before he enters into this final fight, he uses Frank's tools to work on his inhibitors. MJ, using her biochemical engineering knowledge, figures out that Peter's goggles are too close to the inhibitor chip, and are therefore making the inhibitors overheat. After fixing it, she points out that the tech he's working on is enough to control a "monster," and that Peter doesn't seem like one to her.

In the morning, Peter is drinking coffee with his mask on – which becomes a point of contention for Frank that leads to an emotional moment between the two – and explains that he's created a universal inhibitor that would halt Jean's powers. Meanwhile, Jean has broken into Damage Control and is looking up "V-Max" on the computer. Bill Metzger and his staff are hiding in the room with the big protected vault that Peter pointed out earlier. Jean is controlling Hulk, and makes him fight Peter when he arrives. Having convinced him that he probably needs some backup, Frank Castle arrives at Damage Control guns a-blazing. Bruce manages to get Jean out of his head after some back-and-forth struggle, and he wakes up confused. Peter attempts to give him the universal inhibitor he made, but her rooting around in his head causes Bruce to turn into Savage Hulk. Jean takes control of Frank, tells Spidey 'Good luck,' and goes to blow up the vault.

Spidey gives up on attaching the inhibitor to Hulk, as it is unable to pierce his skin, and tries to appeal to his humanity instead. He lets go of the building, but is caught safely in Peter's web. Inside Damage Control, the vault is opened with Jean controlling Frank. "Where is she?" Jean demands before Spidey swoops in and attaches the inhibitor to the back of her neck. Before she passes out, she says the name Sara. Before Spidey leaves, he asks Bill what she meant… but Bill says it was something that Jean pulled out of his mind.

Back at Frank's hideout, MJ is standing in the kitchen with the letter Peter wrote to her four years prior. She demands an explanation, and finds it unfair that he would do that to her. He explains that after the Green Goblin killed Aunt May, he couldn't let anything bad happen to MJ. Peter tells her that he still loves her, that he never stopped, but MJ tells him that Doctor Strange's spell really must've worked… because she doesn't love him and doesn't even really know who he is. He takes her home, and Peter (still in his Spidey costume, of course), MJ, and Ned all hang out for the first time in years. When they have a second alone, Peter apologizes for kissing MJ while Jean Grey was controlling her, but MJ says she doesn't remember anything. This means Bill lied about Sara. He uses Ned's computer to call up Yelena, who is able to figure out that Sara is Jean's kidnapped sister. Realizing he's been wrong about Jean the entire time, he decides to go to Roosevelt Island where she's being held by Bill and co. We go inside a memory to when Sara was captured by Bill, shortly after their mother abandons the sisters for being mutants.

Bill tells Jean that she and Sara have power that could help a lot of people if placed into the right hands, and that it's essentially not fair for a "child" to possess these powers. Before he goes to Jean, Frank warns Spidey about setting her free and plans to come in armed. Bill begins torturing Jean by way of tracking all of her jump patterns and seeing how many she can attempt in a certain amount of time. When Jean looks up at the ceiling, she sees a "V-Max" label on the vent, which really reads, "Ventmax." "V-Max" is the last thing Sara sent to Jean telepathically before she died in the very same chair that Jean is being held in. Overcome with emotion, Jean sends out a massive power strike that freezes most of the city and rips out the inhibitor. When Peter arrives, she unfreezes the Hand and makes them fight Peter. During the fight, Peter is wearing his inhibitor and is therefore using his home-made webshooters. As it turns out, the weapons that the Hand is using (based on Shocker's arm technology) were designed specifically to destroy Peter's artificial webbing.

As Peter is losing the fight, he unmasks himself and coughs up blood, revealing black eyes. Jean tells Spidey that Sara died in that room simply because she was special. "We don't get to have a normal life… No friends, or family… Those people are gone. That life is over." She then asks Peter, "Be honest with yourself. Are you Peter Parker, or Spider-Man?" Peter breaks off the inhibitor and replies, "I'm both." He takes off the inhibitor, but is able to retain enough self-control that he traps the Hand instead of killing them. The Damage Control weapons also have no effect on his natural, organic web.

After defeating the Hand, Spidey pleads with Jean not to kill Bill, as it won't make it right or bring Sara back. She traps Peter in that weird frozen power aura, and he allows him to enter his mind. Jean walks into a memory of Aunt May, and sits down on the bed next to her. "Because you're special, people can do dark, monstrous things to you… We love you, not because you're special, but because you're you." May and Jean hug. Peter sits down on the bed next to Jean and says, "I'm sorry about your sister… Just because we lost someone, doesn't mean we have to do this alone." She says, "I have no one." Peter says, "You have me." In a split second, he senses a bullet heading towards them and manages to pull Jean out of the way. It breaks her frozen hold over the city, but Peter is near-fatally wounded. Frank realizes he shot Peter, and carries him to the hospital.

News that Spider-Man is potentially on his deathbed spreads over New York City. There are candlelight vigils, and the Empire State Building lights up red and blue in honor of Spider-Man. Jean is elsewhere trying to wake up Peter's mind telepathically… and he finally wakes from his coma. Frank explains that Jean has been "using her magic voodoo shit" to keep him alive. He apologizes, and says, "I've seen real bravery in my day, but that was something else." After a sweet and funny moment, Frank explains that they had to cut through the suit, but he has a plan that'll allow Peter to leave anonymously. He walks out of the hospital, and Frank stands in the window with the mask on. The crowd goes wild. Peter is moved by the crowd, which is full of people wearing Spider-Man masks and holding signs.

We cut to Peter back at Frank's, watching the sunset, then cut to MJ sitting on their high school rooftop watching the same sunset. Jean is on a bus headed to what appears to be upstate New York. In the final moments of the film, Peter goes to visit Aunt May's grave, and says he won't "do it alone" anymore. We cut to him at the bodega while on the phone with DeWolff, who tells him that Bill is missing. Ned walks in, and Peter introduces himself. Instead of saying anything else, they do their best friend handshake without missing a beat. Ned, in what appears to be a moment of recognition, says, "Peter!" Cut to credits.

In a brief post-credits scene, Ned's Spidey Tracker tracks Spidey off-planet, aka in outer space somewhere.

What happens to Jean Grey?

After Peter saves her from Frank's bullet, she manages to escape before any law enforcement or government officials arrive. When she wakes Peter from his coma, she's sitting on the same park bench where she and her sister sat in the flashback we saw. At the very end of the movie, she's on a bus that appears to be moving through Upstate New York (which we can tell from the autumn leaves and otherwise rural landscape).

This is speculation, but the X-Mansion is located in Upstate New York. Given that an X-Men movie is on the horizon, could it be possible that Jean is headed to meet Professor Xavier and be one of the core mutants who form the X-Men? Other than that, we're not sure where the bus is headed, but we know she's safe.

What happened to Jean Grey's sister Sara? What is V-Max?

After being kidnapped in broad daylight by Damage Control, headed by Bill Metzger himself, Sara Grey is subjected to the same torture that Jean was subjected to. The torture in question involves forcing them to use their telepathic abilities to their absolute limit in order to push as many jumps as possible so they can record the pattern in order to utilize it as some sort of weapon. The last thing Sarah sees before she dies is the vent above her head that reads, "Ventmax," though the "ent" part is faded away. She's able to send one last telepathic message, "V-Max," before ultimately dying during the experimentation.

What happens to Bill Metzger?

After Peter is shot and Jean gets away, Bill is nowhere to be found. We know that he's a powerful man who likely has a lot more cronies, a lot more money, and a lot more dark tech tucked away somewhere. In the comics, Bill Metzger is a vocal anti-mutant activist who goes up against the X-Men (though we'll let you guess how that ends). At the time of writing, we have no clues as to Bill's whereabouts, though we do know that it's hardly the last we've seen of him.

What happens to Hulk?

Jean enters Hulk's mind and uses him to fight Peter, but Hulk isn't the average superhero. Bruce is able to fight back and forth with Jean to get her out of his mind, and Peter warns her about rooting around in his brain. After Jean exits, Bruce is unable to think straight, and this sends his humanity out the window and turns him into Savage Hulk. There are many iterations of Hulk, but Savage Hulk is the most violent, most unpredictable, and easily the most lethal. Peter is able to subdue him by appealing to his humanity, and the last we see of him is via stretcher in an ambulance.

The creation of the universal inhibitor, however, presumably has some big implications. The one Peter crafted is too small to pierce Hulk's incredibly thick skin, but if Bruce can develop one of his own… then that certainly changes things. Hulk is presumably not in Avengers: Doomsday, so we don't know when we'll see him again.

Can Peter control his new powers?

It takes some trial and error, but one final push from Jean by way of manipulation (the verbal, emotional kind, not the telepathic kind) causes him to rip off his inhibitor chip and harness his new power in a way that doesn't allow him to be ultra-violent – but still allows him to kick some major ass. It's important to note that Peter didn't stand a chance against the hand, or even the guards at Damage Control who weren't being controlled by Jean, as the weaponry they made from Shocker's arm device was designed to destroy Peter's synthetic web. The organic web, however, was able to suspend them, and his heightened senses allowed him to sense Frank's oncoming bullet.

Going forward, we can expect Peter to utilize his own webbing, much like Tobey Maguire's Spider-Man or "Peter 2," as Peter refers to him. We don't know if the black eyes will return during particularly tense or difficult moments, but we'll just have to wait and see.

Does Ned recognize Peter?

The million-dollar question. When Peter walks up to Ned at the bodega, he recognizes Peter from the housewarming party as "the flower guy." Peter goes to shake his hand, and the two naturally go into their special best friend handshake without missing a beat. The movie simply ends with a smiling Ned exclaiming, "Peter!"

It's worth noting there that MJ had no recollection of Peter whatsoever, and that Doctor Strange previously said that the spell could not be undone. It's possible that Ned remembered the handshake through muscle memory. But if Ned could recognize Peter, then that means that MJ could eventually recognize Peter some way, somehow.

How does Peter leave things with MJ?

While the three hang out at MJ's place, with his mask still on, Peter apologizes for kissing her while Jean was controlling her. MJ admits that she has no recollection of this, which makes Peter realize that Bill was lying about Sara. Peter uses Ned's computer to call up Yelena Belova to do some research, and said research reveals that she is indeed Jean's sister who was kidnapped. The scene cuts to Peter on his way to Roosevelt Island to free Jean from Bill's clutches.

The next time we see MJ, she's seated on the rooftop of her building watching the sunset. We don't know exactly how the two left off, but I think Ned's implied revelation at the end of the movie holds the key to what happens next with her and Peter.

Who dies in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

There are no major deaths in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and that's thanks in part to Peter's no-killing policy and his reluctance to let Frank shoot anyone dead. Sara Grey does die, but this happens before the events of Spider-Man: Brand New Day.

Each villain, including Scorpion, is apprehended and taken elsewhere with the exception of Bill Metzger. He gets away sometime after Peter is shot. The cop whose car Peter throws also presumably lives.

Is there a post-credits scene?

There is a very brief post-credits scene that shows the screen of Ned's Spidey Tracker. The tracker shows Spidey on a planet that goes far beyond the moon of Earth-616, and registers his status as "Off-planet." We don't know what this means yet, but before you jump to the excitement of a new interplanetary Spider-Man – remember that Ned's technology was designed to track Peter's Spider-Man specifically (though we don't know how that all works).

This means that Peter specifically is off-planet, and I think this is a key to Avengers: Secret Wars. The upcoming film is based on the comic book arc that takes all the heroes to a terrible planet known as Battleworld, and it introduces the alien symbiote that turned Eddie Brock into Venom and gave Tobey Maguire's Peter the black suit in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 3. Only time will tell.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. For more on the MCU, here's our guide to how to watch all the Marvel movies in order.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is finally here, and you might be wondering where it fits on the Marvel timeline. Following the effectiveness of Doctor Strange's spell in Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter now lives an anonymous life as Spider-Man and is very much alone in a rented storage room when he's not out catching bad guys. When a new, seemingly undefeatable threat emerges, however, Peter is forced to confront his old life when it clashes with a brand new threat.

The latest Marvel movie takes place just before Avengers: Doomsday, which is set to usher in a completely new, mutant-filled era. Though other MCU projects have had some wonky time setting that make their place within the Marvel timeline a little confusing, Spider-Man: Brand New Day is a bit more cut-and-dry.

So if you're wondering how Spider-Man: Brand New Day fits into the Marvel timeline, read on for our complete breakdown below. But bewar, full spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day follow, so make sure you've seen the latest Marvel movie first!

When does Spider-Man: Brand New Day take place on the Marvel timeline? *SPOILERS*

In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Peter keeps up with Ned and MJ as they enter MIT as freshmen. After a quick fast-forward, we learn that four years have gone by, and Ned and MJ have officially graduated. Because Spider-Man: No Way Home takes place in 2024, this means Brand New Day takes place in 2028. This also puts it the furthest ahead on the MCU timeline.

The movie heavily features Frank Castle, who decided to become the Punisher once again after the events of the Disney Plus special Punisher: One Last Kill. Weirdly, the events of Punisher: One Last Kill take place "before and during" Daredevil: Born Again season 2, but Spider-Man: Brand New Day technically comes after One Last Kill. Brand New Day is also the last Marvel movie before Avengers: Doomsday, which hits theaters in December. We don't know if there will be another time jump before Doomsday, or if Spidey or the Hulk will make an appearance, but that would put us at late 2028 or even early 2029. This is because there are autumn leaves towards the end of Brand New Day, as Jean takes a bus through Upstate New York.

And in case you're wondering: yes, the "8 Years Later" time card at the beginning of Spider-Man: Homecoming is indeed incorrect. Homecoming takes place in 2016, just two months after the events of Captain America: Civil War, not sometime randomly in 2020. Keep this in mind in case you decide to watch all of the Marvel movies in order before Avengers: Doomsday arrives.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is in theaters now. For more on the MCU, here's a list of all the upcoming Marvel movies and shows you need to know about.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day isn't just a fresh start. Throughout the fourth Spider-Man MCU movie, narrative breadcrumbs are deployed which set up everything from Avengers: Doomsday to X-Men – as well as Peter's next (webbed) steps in his own trilogy.

Below, we'll explain exactly how Brand New Day operates as a roadmap for Marvel Studios' exciting future, as well as speculate about how some of the biggest cliffhangers and MacGuffins could actually clue us into what Kevin Feige has planned next for his heroes.

Once you've discovered what might lay in wait for the MCU, be sure to check out our complete breakdown of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day ending, plus our collection of Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter eggs.

Spider-Man in space?

An interstellar Spidey adventure wasn't on our bingo cards. But that's what the Spider-Man: Brand New Day post-credits scene appears to be setting up.

In the after-credits stinger, Ned's Spidey Tracker maps out the webhead's current location in New York, before zooming out. After some flickering and distortion on the app, Spider-Man is 'located' in the far reaches of outer space.

What gives? In our estimation, this is a prelude to both Avengers: Doomsday and Avengers: Secret Wars. The synopsis for Doomsday, after all, has made pointed reference to multiple universes literally colliding. We wouldn't be surprised if the webhead is suddenly in the Fox X-Men universe or off elsewhere in the multiverse fighting Doctor Doom. Essentially off the map, so to speak.

Another possibility is that Spider-Man has suddenly been transported to Battleworld. In both the 1980s and modern-day Secret Wars comic book events, Battleworld is a location that brings together most of Marvel's heroes and villains. In the latter, it's for a more transparently cynical crossover battle, while the latter sees Doctor Doom construct his own universe out of various building blocks brought in from various worlds and timelines.

Could Spider-Man be one of those figures? The post-credits scene certainly lays the groundwork for Peter Parker to factor into Doomsday and Secret Wars in a major way – which might surprise those who recognize he has been left off the Doomsday cast for the time being.

X-Men and Jean Grey

An X-Men movie is coming, and Sadie Sink's Jean Grey appears to be the first step towards rebooting Charles Xavier's mutant group for a new generation.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day leaves off with Jean Grey in the wind, giving enough narrative space – and an excuse – to keep the psychic out of the attention of the public before she inevitably re-emerges as part of Jake Schreier's upcoming X-Men movie (which we hope arrives in 2028).

So, no, don't expect Jean Grey to start leaping into bodies in Avengers: Doomsday or Secret Wars. Instead, X-Men will be her next destination.

Intriguingly, it also sets up a bond between Jean and Peter Parker. The mutant clearly cares about Spider-Man, even going as far as saving his life after Frank Castle inadvertently shoots him during the third act. We wouldn't be shocked if Spider-Man briefly shows up in an X-Men adventure – a la Captain America: Civil War – or Jean operates in a role similar to Yelena, offering some encouraging words from the sidelines in a future Spider-Man movie if the going gets tough.

Universal inhibitors

Inhibitors were a major part of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, both for the wallcrawler, but also the superhero community at large.

Bruce Banner was shown wearing his device during his classes at Empire State University, before showing just how bad things can get when it's removed during Jean Grey's attack on Damage Control HQ.

It's Spider-Man's creation of a universal inhibitor – thanks to some scientific mambo-jumbo that talks of splicing DNA to its host and nullifying its 'bad' parts – that should raise eyebrows.

After all, any new tech introduced to the MCU is almost immediately going to be on the radar of various rogues' galleries. With the universal inhibitor now a thing, there's plenty of reason for villains to get their hands on it – especially those who can dampen any mutant's latent abilities. X-Men, take note: this might be a weapon that can stop you before you even set foot in the MCU.

A brand new trilogy

Brand New Day, as the name suggests, was never going to be the end of Peter's story. In fact, his handshake with Ned hints that – somehow, some way – there are some who are regaining memories of Spider-Man's secret identity.

That, of course, would prove fertile ground for a fifth movie – as, too, would the likes of Tombstone (only seen briefly in Brand New Day).

Spider-Man's newfound control of his arachnid powers also paves the way for a stronger Spidey in future and, presumably, stronger foes. There's always the small chance Man-Spider rears its ugly, hairy head if Pete crashes out once more again.

Then there's the small matter of MJ's partner, only known as The Boyfriend. All we know right now is he dislikes MJ for being 'withholding' – not exactly hero traits if you ask us. Could this be setting up a villain for the next movie? Harry Osborn, perhaps? Speaking of Harry, it's curious that MJ turned down a job at an unnamed corporation. Did Oscorp come calling for the MIT whizzkid? Watch this space.

For more, take a look at when Spider-Man: Brand New Day could be on streaming, plus all the upcoming Marvel movies currently in the works.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is finally here, and we're entering a brand new era for the MCU. It's always fun to see one of favorite comic book characters get the live-action treatment... but what about lesser known characters that may actually be a lot more important than we could've ever realized?

Tramell Tillman, perhaps best known as the morally grey Mr. Milchick from Apple TV's Severance, plays Bill Metzger, head of Damage Control, in Spider-Man: Brand New Day. In the trailers, he just seems like a nice government official man concerned with stopping the mysterious threat is facing the city... but is there more to the story? If you've already seen Spider-Man: Brand New Day, then you know the answer.

Scroll down to find out more about the mysterious Bill Metzger, his comic book origins, and just how he might end up fitting into the MCU. But be warned: there are major spoilers for Spider-Man: Brand New Day ahead.

Who is Bill Metzger in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

In Spider-Man: Brand New Day, Bill Metzger is introduced as the head of Damage Control. In the MCU, Damage Control is a federal executive agency (in conjunction with Stark Industries) that specializes in protecting the United States of America from "supernatural" threats. They also seize "dangerous artifacts," i.e., Shocker's mechanical arm technology, as shown in the beginning of the film. Before we know that the "invisible" threat is Jean Grey, Bill brings Peter into his office and tells him that he seems to be the only one who is both immune to her powers and can sense her coming. Peter is more than happy to help, as Jean is putting the citizens of New York City in danger while on her (completely understandable) albeit ruthless mission.

Towards the end of the movie, we learn that Bill ordered the kidnapping of Jean Grey's sister Sara, in order to experiment on her in hopes of harnessing her mutant powers to use as a weapon of sorts. He does the same thing to Jean, though she proves to be much more powerful than he or his cronies could've ever fathomed. It's there in the last 30 or so minutes of the film that we learn that Bill is the true villain, and that his hatred for superpowered children runs deeper than Jean and Sara. Bill ordered his cronies to use Shocker's tech to make weaponry that dissolves Spidey's artificial webbing – which makes you wonder how many other anti-hero tech they have hiding away somewhere. At the end of the movie, Bill gets away, and is reported missing by DeWolff.

Both Damage Control and Bill Metzger are a bit different in the Marvel comics. In Marvel Age Annual #4, which was released in 1988, Damage Control is introduced as a construction company partially owned by Tony Stark that specializes in repairing the property damage caused by conflicts between superheroes and supervillains, i.e., cleaning up debris after The Battle of New York.

William Metzger is introduced in Children of the Atom #1 circa 1999 as an already-established Anti-Mutant activist who heads the Anti-Mutant Militia and publishes a propaganda paper known as The Militia Press. Throughout his comic book arc, Bill experiments on and tortures a young mutant with mental projection powers named Arthur (nicknamed Artie), who is ultimately killed while Magneto attempts to stop the experiment. Magneto kills Bill by hurling him into space in Children of the Atom #6.

Something important to keep in mind: at the time of her introduction in the MCU, Jean Grey is still just a young girl with mutant powers. The X-Men have not officially been formed yet, nor have the rest of the core team members been introduced. It's likely that Bill will become the X-Men's first big threat as they train at Xavier's school and become the MCU's newest superhero team. It's also likely that Bill has power, money, and tech that we don't even know about – and that Damage Control is just the beginning. I'll put money on seeing him in the MCU's first live-action X-Men movie, which is now in pre-production.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in UK cinemas now, and hits theatres in the US on July 31. For more, see where Brand New Day places in our list of the best Spider-Man movies, and keep up with new Marvel movies and TV shows heading your way.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has swung into theaters as we finally pick up with Tom Holland's Peter Parker after the world forgot who he was. Set four years after the events of No Way Home, the new movie sees Spider-Man living a lonely life, solving crimes and stopping bad guys by night and keeping his head down during the day. However, when an enemy he can't see begins to threaten those he loves, Peter must confront his past again.

With so much going on in the Marvel Phase 6 movie, you'd be forgiven if you missed all of the references that director Destin Daniel Cretton snuck in there. Well, that's where we come in. Below, we have used our Spidey-senses to compile a comprehensive list of every Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter egg and cameo we spotted in the MCU movie – and there are a lot.

From comic book references and niche Spider-Man villains, to pop culture nods and MCU mentions, we've combed through every frame of Brand New Day to bring you all the moments you missed. Naturally, we'll be getting into heavy spoiler-territory from here on out as well, so make sure that you've seen Spider-Man 4 before reading on.

Every Spider-Man: Brand New Day Easter egg, listed

E.V. Peter Parker has a new AI helping assistant called E.V. While she doesn't have any history in the comics or the MCU so far, it seems Parker has been inspired by Tony Stark's tech and trusty assistant J.A.R.V.I.S. for his new companion.

Amazing Spider-Man covers: During an early montage scene of Spider-Man facing up against some iconic comic book villains, the web-slinger also recreates some pretty cool covers from the Amazing Spider-Man run. We spotted the covers of Amazing Fantasy #15, Amazing Spider-Man #134 from the Tarantula scene, The Amazing Spider-Man #345 in the Boomerang scene and Amazing Spider-Man #221 for Ramrod's appearance.

Coffee cup from No Way Home: At the very end of Spider-Man: No Way Home, Peter Parker goes to visit MJ at work in a donut shop to grab a coffee. He still has the cup from their interaction sitting on his desk at the start of Brand New Day.

Street destroyed in Avengers: When Spidey swings onto a New York City street you can overhear a bus tour explaining that this is the same street that was destroyed in the Battle of New York back in the first Avengers movie.

BERO: In the bodega where Peter sees Ned buying caffeine drinks and beer before heading to a party, you can see some of Tom Holland's own alcohol-free beer brand BERO on sale in the shop.

Mysterious job offer: During the house party, Ned asks MJ how her interview went. She says she got the job but turned it down because she's not sure she wants to work for that specific company. No names are mentioned but our money is that this could be Oscorp, the morally grey tech and chemical enterprise run by Norman Osborn.

Saint Ryder posters: There are some Saint Ryder posters plastered around New York City in the background of Brand New Day. These could be a subtle nod to Richard "Rich" Rider, also known as Nova, after the announcement that a Nova movie was in the works for the MCU.

Bellevue Hospital: When Scorpion is being transferred under the mind control of Jean Grey, she sends the helicopter to Bellevue Hospital, which is an iconic location from the Marvel comics. It's been mentioned in everything from Daredevil to Thor.

Yelena's references: When Peter goes to see Yelena in her "office", she mentions the Red Room as Peter is wondering if Jean Grey's mind control works similarly. Explored in Black Widow, this was the Soviet-Russian program that trained young girls to become assassins.

The New Avengers: We get a reference to the work that Yelena is currently doing post Thunderbolts in the movie as well. She tells Parker that he's working on "small potato" stuff while the New Avengers are dealing with bigger threats.

Damage Control / Bill Metzger: Damage Control and William 'Bill' Metzger are also pulled right from the Marvel comics, but Spider-Man has combined them. Historically Metzger was an anti-mutant activist and Damage Control had its own comic book run as a company cleaning up superhero messes.

Naruto: In Ned's room, he has a poster of Naruto. This is director Daniel Destin Cretton's next film.

Spider-Man investigation: There are lots of fun details on Ned's Spider-Man board. One post-it note reads, "Could he be British?", which is a reference to actor Holland's nationality. Roger Harrington and Flash Thompson also appear as potential Spider-Man suspects

"Friendly neighbor": Zendaya's MJ has a fun nod to the "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man" moniker that Peter Parker often is called. When he gives her flowers at the party, she calls him a "friendly neighbor".

Maynard: Peter Parker introduces himself as Maynard to Ned and MJ, which is a niche comic book reference to the character Maynard Tiboldt, also known as the Ringmaster.

Peter 2: When his arachnid hormones start increasing, Peter gets organic webbing, which he's never had before. When he tries to learn how to use it, he mentions that Peter 2 has this. This is Tobey Maguire's Spidey, who he met during the events of No Way Home.

Empire State University: Bruce Banner is working as a professor at the Empire State University, which is an Ivy League college drawn straight from the pages of the Marvel comics. It was first introduced in Amazing Spider-Man #31.

Thanos gag: One of Banner's students has a question about Thanos, asking if he was so concerned about overpopulation, why didn't he just make more food with the Infinity Gauntlet. This is in reference to several plot holes that have circled the character for years, questioning Thanos' decision to snap away half the population.

Peter and MJ's kiss: On the rooftop, Peter Parker and MJ share a kiss that's similar to several iconic Spider-Man ones. She rolls up the bottom of his mask, just like in the upside down alley kiss in Tobey Maguire's 2002 Spider-Man.

Catching MJ: Another iconic Spider-Man moment follows when MJ is thrown off the roof during Jean Grey's mind control. Spider-Man manages to catch her, but we know that this doesn't always happen in the webslinger's history, just like in the heartbreaking The Amazing Spider-Man 2.

Mayor Fisk poster: In the alleyway, there are some Mayor Fisk posters. Spider-Man: Brand New Day takes place after the events of Daredevil: Born Again season 2 and Fisk is currently mayor of New York City.

Punisher's boat: Peter brings MJ to Frank Castle's hideout to keep her safe, but the locale is actually also a comics reference. He's standing on Golden Girl, the same boat that is featured in Gerry Conway's Spectacular Spider-Man run.

Punisher's family: We also see pictures of Frank Castle's family on the boat as MJ asks a question about them. Those familiar with Frank's backstory will know that his family, a wife and two children, were killed, which is what turned him into a vigilante.

Shocker's Gauntlet: During the fight against the Hulk (being controlled by Jean Grey) at Damage Control, Spider-Man uses Shocker's gauntlet, which was last wielded back in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

Scarlet Witch: Bruce Banner says "not again" when he wakes up from Jean Grey's mind control. This is in reference to the last time he was controlled by Wanda Maximoff in Age of Ultron.

Spider-Man 1960s theme: Ned's Spidey Tracker uses the iconic theme from Spider-Man's '60s cartoon.

Star Wars: There are several Star Wars references in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, all linked to Ned. He has a Chewbacca figure in his room, is watching Empire Strikes Back at one point, and is later building what seems to be an X-Wing LEGO set.

Lord of the Rings: Spider-Man and Ned also bond over their love of The Lord of the Rings, quoting the iconic "keep your secrets" scene between Frodo and Gandalf in The Fellowship of the Ring.

Macaroni fiend: Yelena's screen name when Peter calls her up is a reference to Hawkeye when she meets Kate Bishop. She breaks into her apartment and makes a pot of boxed mac and cheese.

Insomniac moves: Tom Holland has said that several of his finishing moves in Spider-Man: Brand New Day were inspired by Insomniac's Spider-Man game.

Stranger Things: Before playing Jean Grey in the MCU, Sadie Sink's most famous role is as Max in Stranger Things. When she's running in slow motion to save her sister we got serious 'Running Up That Hill' vibes.

Responsibility: Spider-Man's most famous quote gets another nod from Aunt May. When she's speaking to Jean Grey during a flashback vision, she talks to her about her "biggest responsibility" of being so powerful.

Tony Stark: During Peter's dream sequence with Jean Grey and Aunt May, the paper bag that Tony Stark gave him can be seen in the background. Written on it is "This belongs to you – T.S.", which is the bag that Stark returned Peter's costume in back in Spider-Man: Homecoming.

MJ's necklace: Right at the end of the movie, MJ can be seen holding on tightly to a necklace. This is the broken Black Dahlia pendant necklace Peter gave her back in Spider-Man: Far From Home.

Every Spider-Man: Brand New Day cameo, listed

Boomerang

During an early montage sequence, we see a whole host of Spider-Man villains appear in quick succession. Boomerang is one of them. The character also known as Frederick Myers was an Australian-born Spider-Man rogue who was first introduced in 1966. Known for his skills throwing boomerangs as his opponents, he's faced Daredevil, been a part of a version of the Sinister Six, and joined the Thunderbolts across his storied career. In Brand New Day, he just appears very quickly throwing his signature weapon at Peter Parker.

Ramrod

Ramrod is another Spider-Man villain who appears in the Brand New Day montage. He's quite a deep-cut character who was an ordinary man transformed into a cyborg. Over his comic book appearances, he's come up against Daredevil, Black Widow, and Spider-Man.

Tarantula

Tarantula, otherwise known as Anton Miguel Rodriguez, appeared briefly in the fight against Spider-Man too. He is an original Spidey villain, debuting back in 1975 in the Marvel comics. In his human form, he's just an ordinary man, albeit a very agile and adept fighter. However, he could also mutate into a spider form, which gave him superhuman strength and durability.

Tombstone

Tombstone has a slightly bigger cameo during this villain sequence, as he's questioned by Jean DeWolff. Played by Marvin "Krondon" Jones III, this is the second time that we've seen the character in a Spider-Man movie. Krondon previously voiced an alternate version of the role in Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. However, this is the first time he's appeared in live action. Real name Lonnie Lincoln, Tombstone is a Marvel supervillain in the comics and a notorious New York City crime boss who often comes up against Spider-Man and Daredevil.

Manfredi Crime Family

Another blink-and-you'll-miss-them appearance in the villains sequence are the Manfredi Crime Syndicate. They've appeared in some pretty deep cut MCU moments in the past, including the character of Joseph Manfredi appearing in Marvel's Agent Carter season 2. They also appeared in a deleted scene from Spider-Man: Far From Home where he took down the Maggia-affiliated Manfredi family before his European trip. The sequence was reportedly cut when the action moved away from New York City so it makes a lot of sense for it to be brought back in Brand New Day, which focuses on life in the city.

The Boyfriend

Ahsoka star Eman Esfandi appears very briefly in Spider-Man: Brand New Day as MJ's boyfriend. We see them together at her house party, which breaks Peter Parker's heart. Later in the film, MJ tells Peter that her boyfriend thinks she's a "withholding" person and he jokes that he sounds like an arsehole.

While we don't know what he's called in the movie (he's only referred to as 'The Boyfriend'), we have a theory that this may be Harry Osborn. As the son of Green Goblin (Norman Osborn), he's a key Spider-Man character who often appears as Peter's best friend. Given that MJ has a mysterious job offer too, which could be from Oscorp, we wouldn't be surprised if these characters are being set up for another Spider-Man movie.

Yelena

Kevin Feige might have spoiled Yelena's appearance in Spider-Man: Brand New Day, but it's always a treat to see Florence Pugh back as Black Widow. She appears briefly in two scenes in the new movie in a consulting role for Spider-Man while he tries to figure out what Jean Grey is up to. She operates out of a bath house, which she calls her office, providing a lot of humor in her few moments on screen. Yelena also moves the plot along nicely, making reference to the work that the New Avengers are doing ahead of Avengers: Doomsday.

Sara Grey

When we finally learn more about Jean Grey's backstory in the third act of Spider-Man: Brand New Day, we find out that she had a sister. Sara Grey shares the same powers as Jean Grey, growing up in the foster system with her sister. During one moving scene, the pair use them in the park, bonding over being all that each other has. Played by Olivia Booth-Ford in the film, sadly Sara does not get a happy ending. She's killed during experimentation on her by Bill Metsker, leading Jean on a path of revenge. Interestingly, Sara is pulled straight from the Marvel comics, but her storyline in those is a little different.

Aunt May

Marisa Tomei returns as Aunt May in Spider-Man: Brand New Day in several flashback/dream sequences. She was killed in No Way Home and Peter Parker is mourning her loss throughout Spider-Man 4, bringing flowers to her grave constantly. In the movie's third act she appears in a sequence with Jean Grey where she gives her some advice about how "scary" the world can be with so much power. It's a turning point for Jean, and another person who May has helped. It's good to have her back, even briefly.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day is out in UK cinemas now and US theaters on July 31. For more, check out our Spider-Man: Brand New Day review and our breakdown of how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

The Spider-Man: Brand New Day villain was kept secret in the run-up to release, but now that the film has arrived, we finally know the identity of the bad guy pulling all the strings.

Below, we've broken down the identity of the Spider-Man: Brand New Day villain and how it all plays out in the Marvel Phase 6 film. Naturally, that means there are major spoilers for the new film ahead! Turn back now if you're not up to date!

So, for all you need to know, head to the below. For even more, check out our spoiler-free Spider-Man: Brand New Day review.

Who is the villain in Spider-Man: Brand New Day?

For much of the runtime, the Spider-Man: Brand New Day villain appears to be Sadie Sink's mystery character. She is able to possess random, innocent people and use them for her schemes, and she even takes over MJ to fool Peter Parker into thinking his love remembers him in a particularly cruel moment.

Sink's character is eventually revealed to be none other than Jean Grey, as many had guessed. But soon after the reveal, we learn more about her, including that she has a psychic older sister named Sara who was kidnapped and experimented on by Damage Control.

After Spidey helps Damage Control catch Jean, he quickly realizes his mistake when he learns the organization's boss Bill Metzger lied to him. Metzger claimed that Jean said "Sarah" to Spider-Man before passing out because she'd learned the name from Metzger's mind. However, MJ tells Peter she remembers nothing from being mind-controlled by Jean, meaning Metzger shouldn't remember anything from Jean's time in his head.

It then becomes clear that Metzger and Damage Control killed Sara with their experiments, and they intend to continue their work with Jean. Throughout the film, Jean hunts for something called V-max, because Sara beamed the word into her head. When Jean is being held captive by Damage Control, she looks up and sees the word "Ventmax" on an air vent above her, though the sticker is peeling off so it instead reads "V-max." Jean then realizes Sara died in this same room, which prompts her to unleash a huge blast of her psychic powers.

Spidey fights his way to Jean, learning along the way that Damage Control had weapons on standby to use against him that neutralize his webs. He also has to go up against the Hand, who have been enlisted as security by Damage Control. Peter is able to get Jean on his side, but Punisher, aiming for Jean, accidentally shoots the webslinger instead. Punisher takes Spidey to hospital and Jean uses her powers to keep him alive, and he ultimately recovers.

In the confusion, Metzger escapes – though Yelena Belova is helping to decode all of Damage Control's redacted files.

So, while Jean was certainly working against Spider-Man throughout the film, the real villain was Metzger and Damage Control.

For even more on the MCU, check out our guide on how to watch the Marvel movies in order.

In Project Zomboid, it's rare to go out with a bang. Most of my characters in the zombie survival RPG have died with terminally short notice, be it a car crash, a bite I didn't notice until getting home, or a cooking mishap with comically flammable chicken (a story for another time).

But with the game's upcoming Build 42 finally launching this week – adding animals, basements, and more than I can mention in one breath – developer The Indie Stone has confirmed that saves will not carry over, spelling an end to the survivor I've kept alive in the update's beta branch. So why not go out in style?

Rather than go gently into that good branch, my friends and I were intent on giving our latest run a worthy send-off. Which was, unanimously, shorthand for driving into Louisville and taking as many zombies down with us as possible.

Highway to hell

This run in Project Zomboid has been unlike any other. For starters, my friend group survived an in-game month – no small feat, given we hid rotten worms in each other's beds and nearly burned down Rosewood with a stray molotov cocktail. But with our save based on an earlier version of Build 42's beta, it also offered a great taste of the update to come.

The rural town of Muldraugh has been my preferred starting point for over a decade. But a lot has changed. Cortman Medical, for example, has been transformed from a one-floor clinic to a fenced property, the clinic tucked to the side of a far larger mansion. The police station now spans multiple floors, including a basement with an evidence room and a morgue. Speaking of basements, we found our earliest ammo supplies in a doomsday prepper's basement – alongside several unlabeled tins of food that nobody was brave enough to eat.

But chief among the changes are animals. After finding a small farm on the outskirts of Muldraugh, we hunkered down with plans to build for long-term survival. There were already cows and chickens there when we arrived, and with animals being fairly intuitive to manage, we soon had a steady supply of eggs and milk, as well as a livestock trailer to rescue sheep and pigs from neighboring farms. Cortman became our armory, a nearby mechanic was restored to keep our cars in good condition, and when I wasn't picking corn or foraging for farming supplies, I was searching for basements to marvel at.

With so much to do, I didn't notice the passing of milestones we'd usually celebrate: a week without dying, or our first out-of-town supply run. Zomboid tends to slow down for me once my base is barricaded up and its cupboards stuffed with supplies, but in Build 42's beta it seemed there was as much ahead as behind. New skills like blacksmithing and woodwork promised plenty still to do once loot dried up, while huge chunks of the map remained unexplored.

But last week (July 24) The Indie Stone announced that Build 42 was coming to the main branch of Project Zomboid on July 29 – launching as an official update for those who weren't already braving its beta. Furthermore, the stable version will include additions not seen in its beta, including big overhauls for many towns. Knowing we'd jump into the flashier build as soon as it was available, we agreed that a guns-blazing trip into Louisville – an overrun city to the southwest – would be a fitting send-off for our latest adventure.

And it was! It took most of a day to drive from Muldraugh to Louisville, as the roads were choked with wrecked cars that made driving in a three-van convoy difficult. We stopped twice: first at a military checkpoint isolating Louisville from the rest of the state, where we had to leave our vehicles and fight through a horde to remove barricades from the roads, and again at the city's outskirts to sleep. The next day we travelled into Louisville proper, cutting loose from the cautious playstyle that Project Zomboid usually mandates to create as much chaos as possible – stuffing microwaves with metal cutlery to start fires, using emergency vehicle sirens to draw out hordes, and generally being post-apocalyptic nuisances.

When the inevitable happened, it was quick and bloody. Zombies chased me into a supply closet, and only after closing the door into pitch blackness did I realize it was occupied. Those last moments were lit by the muzzle flash of my panicked shots – say what you will about being eaten alive, at least Build 42's lighting overhaul makes it look good. My friends didn't fare any better, with one killed trying to rescue me and another while climbing a fence.

Sure, letting the save falter naturally would have given our characters a peaceful send-off. But loading into Project Zomboid, you're always given the same crystal-clear message. "This is how you died," not how you lived happily-ever-after. Build 42 certainly offers more reasons to live (and I can't wait to dig into them properly as the update is out now), but for these hardy survivors there are no nice farms upstate – only fire, dark closets, and lots of gnashing teeth.

Introducing my friends to Project Zomboid ended in disaster, but it's given me a newfound appreciation for the best zombie survival sim around

Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced has been a massive (and much-needed) success for Ubisoft, even if that hasn't stopped the publisher from laying off a number of its devs. Looking at the player reactions, it's evident longtime fans of the series were ready for a return to the series' pre-RPG roots.

Understanding where open-world games are right now is impossible without studying what happened in the early 2010s. Skyrim proved density trumps raw size and that immersive sim elements are the key to immortality. GTA 5 became a new gold standard for modern-day sandboxes that many studios still haven't reached before GTA 6 arrives. Assassin's Creed, meanwhile, toyed with a bit of everything and began rowing towards beautiful worlds of deceptive depth and excess.

Even as someone who loves to get lost even in the largest of Ubisoft's sprawling maps, Assassin's Creed Black Flag Resynced feels like the most satisfying and leanest the series has been in a very long time. Mind you, clearing its upgrade of a pirate-infested Caribbean still takes tens and tens of hours, but coming from behemoths like Crimson Desert – which are obsessed with stuffing as many mechanics and systems as possible into a disjointed package – Edward Kenway's seafaring adventure hits a sweet spot I think we didn't fully appreciate back in 2013.

Land ahead

Assassin's Creed Black Flag's biggest trick when it came to its scope was – and still is, despite Resynced's notable additions – that most of its Caribbean map is just water. It sounds obvious, but even with points of interest emerging from time to time and entire fleets of Spaniards and Englishmen hunting down pirates, the vast majority of the map isn't the icon-filled nightmare we started getting with Assassin's Creed Unity. Even clearing Black Flag's biggest towns, such as Havana, doesn't take too long.

By building the game around the core premise of a pirate simulator and raiding forts and small outposts in remote isles during most secondary tasks, "cities" (they aren't big) are more of a fancy set dressing for a handful of shops and key locations. Of course, they're still fun to traverse and are put to good use by scripted story missions, yet they were far from becoming "black holes" surrounded by even more content grind. I must underline Black Flag Resynced isn't a small or mid-sized game, but I recommend booting up one of its later relatives, such as Odyssey, and comparing how each of them uses its square kilometers.

Less obvious (at least at first) is the fact you can't really fully explore any chunk of land bigger than an islet with a hidden treasure and two turtles. Assassin's Creed hadn't yet reached the "you can climb anything and walk in any direction" approach that made the rebooted saga so sprawling. Dense walls of vegetation and rocky formations are used to "enclose" handcrafted areas that are rarely bigger than they need to be. Stunning vistas abound, but they're no more than that: pretty backgrounds to look at. You can't climb every mountain. Sorry, Todd Howard.

True freedom

Even rebuilt in 2026, Black Flag avoids becoming an endless expanse as gargantuan and playful as Tears of the Kingdom or a Bethesda-style simulation like the upcoming Fable. It also escapes the gravitational pull of last year's Assassin's Creed Shadows, a lovely but eventually tiring Japan-set action RPG that feels like the end of an era. It's an interesting result, and with some remaining traits – such as the lingering deluge of cosmetics – still around, it almost feels like both developers and executives fighting against their worst impulses in an attempt to chart the series' future.

There's a way to make ridiculously detailed open worlds engaging – Rockstar Games and Bethesda Game Studios figured that out ages ago – but Ubisoft isn't interested in following those schools of design. As gorgeous and well-researched as these historical romps are, Assassin's Creed exists in a different sphere, one that's concerned with more immediate thrills and "snackable" stealth action. At some point, probably influenced by entirely different mainstream hits, it moved away from that in an attempt to produce massive games for everyone. As a proud Origins truther, I've been okay with those, but like many others, I've had my fill and would like to go back.

Of course, we still don't know how Assassin's Creed Codename Hexe will implement these learnings while also serving as the next big blockbuster for Ubisoft. Success aside, Black Flag Resynced is more of an experiment – but it's safe to say we'll be getting more remakes that could be more transformative. In any case, the larger message is clear: We still like to get lost in open worlds, we just don't want them to become second lives.