ENTERTAINMENT

Careful, Sim fans… The Burglar is back.

The Burglar, a familiar sight for those of us who’ve spent time with any of the older Sims games, is sneaking back into your life as part of the latest update for The Sims 4.

Rolling out across PC and console, the update (re)introduces Robin Banks, which means it’s time to hide your valuables well out of sight. She only strikes at night, usually only sneaking into homes when everyone’s asleep, but she has been known to attempt a daring heist even when Sims are awake… so be alert.

To combat the thief, Sims can make use of the handy burglar alarm. If Banks trips it, the police are guaranteed to turn up in time to arrest her and recover your goods. But even homes without an alarm can call the police, you just have to be quick about it. Or there’s vigilante justice, of course. It’s your call.

Jon Bernthal’s Punisher will return after Daredevil: Born Again Season 1 in a Guardians of the Galaxy-style Marvel special.

Entertainment Weekly reported that Bernthal will also write the Marvel special with We Own This City director Reinaldo Marcus Green.

“It’s like a shotgun blast of a story, but also has all the pathos and emotion that you want out of a Frank Castle story,” Brad Winderbaum, the head of Marvel Television, said. “It’s so exciting.”

News of the Punisher one-shot comes as Marvel Television plots the return of the Defenders on Disney+. This street level superhero team, which includes Matt Murdock’s Daredevil, Krysten Ritter’s Jessica Jones, Mike Colter’s Luke Cage, and Finn Jones’ Iron Fist, was last seen breaking heads on Netflix before episodes were moved to Disney+ and made MCU canon.

“It’s certainly exciting to be able to play in that sandbox,” Winderbaum had previously told Entertainment Weekly. “Obviously, we don’t have the unlimited storytelling resources like a comic book, [where] if you can draw it, you can do it. We’re dealing with actors and time and the massive scale of production in order to build a cinematic universe, especially on television.

“But I can just say that all those variables taken into account, it is certainly something that is creatively extremely exciting and that we are very much exploring.”

Daredevil: Born Again, out March 4, continues the Daredevil story that began on Netflix, and includes a number of returning characters such as the aforementioned Punisher and Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk (Kingpin). The threat this time around is the artistically inclined serial killer Muse.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Tekken 8 veteran Anna Williams is returning to the roster, and while her redesign seems to be going down well with most fans, some aren’t so sure and are even comparing her new look to Santa Claus.

When one fan asked Tekken game director and chief producer Katsuhiro Harada if the development team could bring back the “old Anna design,” Harada slammed the criticism, saying: “If you prefer the old design, I am not taking those away from you.”

“While 98% of the fans are welcoming this, there will always be people like you,” Harada wrote. “I understand and sympathize that it may not suit your personal taste, but if you prefer the old design, past works already exist. I am not taking those away from you.

“Also, you refer to yourself as ‘Anna fans,’ as if you represent all Anna fans, but you should express your opinion as an individual.

“You threaten to quit if she isn’t brought back. You complain the moment she is brought back. You demand that she be reverted after she has been completely redesigned from scratch, including her model and framework,” he added. “And if she actually were reverted, you’d just say, ‘That’s recycling!’

“Either way, your method of expressing your opinion and the content of your argument are entirely unconstructive, utterly pointless, and, above all, disrespectful to the other Anna fans who are genuinely looking forward to her.”

When another commenter pointed out that Tekken “hasn’t rereleased one of [its] older games into modern systems with functional netcode” and summarized Harada’s response as “a joke,” the director said: “Thank you for POINTLESS reply. You yourself are the joke. MUTED.”

As mentioned, reaction to Anna’s new design is largely positive, although there are some complaints, mostly around her outfit. “Before she was announced I was hoping for an edgier, angry, violent Anna out for revenge for her fiance’s death and so I’m quit happy with this design!” said redditor AngryBreadRevolution.

“The hair is growing on me. It really suits the outfit and personality well. It wont look good on all her outfits naturally, but her original bob will still be available.

“Coat was ruined for me when it was pointed out the resemblance to Christmas. The leotard, tights, boots and gloves all look fantastic though so looking forward to being able to take off the coat.”

“Love everything but the white feathers,” said troonpins. “It’s giving Santa Clause.”

“Aside from looking like Santa Claus, she looks a lot younger than she did in Tekken 7 and before,” added Cheap_Ad4756. “She looks like less of a ‘woman’ now and more like a girl. I don’t get the dominatrix vibe from her at all anymore.”

“Horrible,” declared spiralqq. “It’s another overdesigned T8 look, feels like almost every costume in this game lacks a real focal point and everyone is just decked out in 100 bulky accessories from head to toe. I’d like it a lot more without the coat, or at the very least if the whole outfit didn’t look like Santa cosplay. You can’t have a bright red coat with white fur trims and a black belt and read as anything other than Santa.”

Tekken 8 has sold 3 million copies a year from release, achieving the sales milestone at a faster pace than Tekken 7, which took 10 years to sell 12 million copies worldwide.

“Tekken 8 is an amazing new entry in the long-running series,” we wrote in IGN’s Tekken 8 review, awarding it 9/10. “Interesting tweaks to its classic fighting systems, a full suite of fun offline modes, great new characters, incredible training tools, and a vastly improved online experience all add up to a fighting game I will be playing for many years to come. By honoring its legacy, but continuing to move forward, Tekken 8 manages to stand out as something special.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Channing Tatum’s canceled Gambit movie had a ’30s screwball romantic comedy vibe set in the superhero world, according to Lizzy Caplan.

Speaking to Business Insider, the Cloverfield actress discussed the Gambit movie in which she was set to star alongside Tatum, saying it had “a really cool idea.”

Tatum’s well-documented battle to play the fan-favorite X-Men superhero looked to have fallen by the wayside before his surprise Gambit cameo in MCU smash hit Deadpool & Wolverine. His previous attempt to get a Gambit movie made was scrapped after the 2019 Disney-Fox merger, and Tatum has spoken about how he feared he’d never get the chance to play the card-carrying mutant, and was even left “traumatized” by the ordeal.

Caplan was reported to be set to play the female lead in the Gambit movie as far back as 2017, and in the interview with Business Insider she confirmed that she had signed on for the film and even had meetings with Tatum about it. “We got down the road, we were gonna shoot it,” Caplan said. “I think there was a start date.”

In 2018, Simon Kinberg, the producer on the Gambit movie, told IGN it would have a “romantic or sex comedy vibe” due to the nature of Gambit himself.

“When you look at Gambit,” Kinberg said, “he’s a hustler and a womanizer and we just felt like there was an attitude, a swagger to him, that lent itself to romantic comedy.”

Now, seven years later, Caplan backed that up. “They wanted to do, like, a ’30s kind of screwball romantic comedy set in that world, which would have been really fun,” she said.

What next for Tatum and Gambit, then? Marvel Studios has yet to say, although it has confirmed the impending arrival of the X-Men in the MCU.

In August last year, Deadpool actor Ryan Reynolds tweeted a high quality version of a Deadpool & Wolverine scene that was hard to make out in cinemas — and in the process sent Gambit fans into speculation overdrive.

Warning! Deadpool & Wolverine spoilers follow.

Reynolds tweeted a clip showing Gambit in the aftermath of the movie’s final battle. The camera zooms in on Gambit’s face to reveal one of the MCU’s famous universe-hopping portals (or a Marvel Sparkle Circle, as Deadpool jokingly calls them) reflected in Gambit’s eyes.

*whispers* Marvel Sparkle Circle #DeadpoolAndWolverine❤️💛 pic.twitter.com/TtuZ5jSAdL

— Ryan Reynolds (@VancityReynolds) August 27, 2024

The suggestion is that Gambit makes it out of the void alive and potentially straight into future MCU projects.

Marvel Studios has yet to announce a Gambit standalone movie or TV series, or any future project involving the character, but following Tatum’s long-awaited turn as the superhero fans are calling for more.

Tatum himself thinks his character deserves more screen time with a standalone movie. “I sure hope so,” Tatum told Variety of a potential Gambit film. “From your mouth to God’s ears. Write it into existence, my friend. Please.”

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.