A Potomac, Maryland, high school football team mourning the death of their head football coach shined in their first home game since he passed, trouncing the opposing team.
File photo of Coach Ray Butler. (Courtesy Bullis School)
File photo of Coach Ray Butler. (Courtesy Bullis School)
A Potomac, Maryland, high school football team mourning the death of their head football coach shined in their first home game since he passed, trouncing the opposing team.
Afterward, coach Ray Butler’s players talked about the lasting impact he had on them.
“It means everything to us. We grind so hard for this, we work so hard for this for coach Ray. We love coach Ray. We honor him. And I think the scoreboard says it all,” one Bullis High School football player told WTOP.
That scoreboard showed Bullis won 41 to 0 against Bishop O’Connell High School.
During the game, the Bullis team offered a tribute to their beloved coach who was suddenly hospitalized in late August and died earlier this month.
“Ray was everything for us. He was a rock in our life. When we were going through something outside of football, he was always there for us — always with the same energy. He was a mentor more than a coach to us,” said another player.
Skyler Springs, who worked under Butler, is now coaching the team and is using lessons he learned from his predecessor. Springs said the Bullis team has shown textbook toughness.
“So coach Ray always said: Every day you wake up, you have a chance and a choice. They chose resilience and I was really proud of those guys, and they really showed up to this big game,” Springs said.
Springs, 25, described Butler as “a best friend, a mentor, and someone who was always generous in giving to others.”
WTOP’s Juan Herrera contributed to this report from Potomac, Maryland.
Get breaking news and daily headlines delivered to your email inbox by signing up here.
House of the Dragon has been teasing a terrible civil war in Westeros since the foundations were laid in season one—and now, with House Targaryen bitterly divided, battles are just over the horizon. This week, in episode three, “The Burning Mill,” we see one last attempt at reconciliation—as well as the beginnings of a few journeys, a mysterious new character, and some spooky-castle shenanigans.
You Should Really Watch The Last of Us
Ah, the Riverlands. A place of green fields, picturesque windmills, and generations-long feuds between adjacent houses, as we see when young knights from House Bracken and House Blackwood get in each other’s faces at the border dividing their lands. These days, current events are bolstering their anger: one side’s loyal to Queen Rhaenyra, the other calls her a “babekiller” and “kinslayer” and takes the side of Team Green. Insults lead to shoving, shoving leads to swords, then the scene cuts and we see a full-on battle has taken place between the houses. The land is riddled with bodies, and that quaint windmill is now a burned-out husk.
Speaking of bodies, there’s a double burial happening on Dragonstone: the Cargill twins, reunited in their grave. As a somber Rhaenyra ponders her next move—a furious Jace wants to keep the cycle of revenge going—Rhaenys, who correctly senses that Otto Hightower has been shoved aside and that the assassination attempt was the work of “hotter blood,” sidles in with a suggestion, delivering the killer lines we’ve heard in House of the Dragon trailers. “There may be another way: Alicent Hightower … she knows war is coming and that it will be savage beyond all compare,” Rhaenys says. “There is no war so hateful to the gods as a war between kin. And no war so bloody as a war between dragons.” Alicent could be their last hope to prevent a terrible war. Rhaenyra’s skeptical, but Rhaenys’ words make her think of the raven that came from King’s Landing bearing a message from her old friend after Luke was killed… which she has yet to read.
Cole (Fabian Frankel) after reading your opinions about him on social media.Image: Ollie Upton/HBO
Speaking of King’s Landing, Ser Criston Cole–now Hand of the King, in addition to being Lord Commander of the Kingsguard–is dawdling before a Small Council meeting. When he gets there, war is (unsurprisingly) the main topic, with Aemond updating everyone about the Bracken-Blackwood battle, and King Aegon bitchily asking what their next move is. There are many suggestions, to the point where everyone is talking over each other and Alicent speaks sharply about the Council’s lack of discipline, but Cole opines that the Riverlands are the key to winning the war, and that Harrenhal is the key to the Riverlands. He’ll lead the army there himself, he says—this is a guy who really does not want to attend any more of these meetings—with Aemond, but not Vhagar, who is needed on the home front defending King’s Landing. “I’ll come too, with Sunfyre,” King Aegon pipes in, an idea nobody supports; you get the sense it’s partially because they want to travel without drawing too much attention (something a dragon always brings), but also because, let’s face it, nobody wants Aegon in the mix.
Back on Dragonstone, before a gorgeous sunset view featuring a lone dragon flapping around in the distance, Rhaenyra is having a chat with Mysaria—who, having been given her freedom in last week’s episode, turned back at the last minute when she realized a certain ill-meaning twin had just arrived on the island. Mysaria, who says she’s still surprised that Rhaenyra was willing to let her go, would like a reward: a place in Rhaenyra’s court. She has valuable information about the inner workings of the Red Keep, and no love for the Hightowers; she’s also here to advocate for the smallfolk, and figures Rhaenyra is the ruler most likely to show them mercy. “One turn for another, then,” Rhaenyra says, and we can see a mutual respect of sorts forming between these two very differently positioned women.
Inside the castle, we finally spend more than a few passing seconds with Rhaena: Daemon’s daughter, and the younger sister of Baela. (In George R.R. Martin’s text, they’re twins, but she’s definitely positioned as the second sibling here.) Rhaenyra has a task for her, involving the younger Targaryens: she’ll take Joffrey (Rhaenyra’s youngest dark-haired son) and his dragon to the Vale, where he’ll become the ward of Lady Arryn; then, Rhaena will become the de facto mother figure for Rhaenyra’s blonde kids with Daemon (Aegon and Viserys, and yes the repeated names are confusing), taking them to Pentos for safety. As we’ve seen, no cute little kid is safe in this particular war. “Make this sacrifice willingly, for all of us,” Rhaenyra urges her. Rhaena isn’t happy about it, but if there’s one thing women in Westeros know about… it’s making sacrifices.
That’s “Your Grace” to you. Matt Smith as Daemon.Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO
And now, at last, we pick back up with Daemon as he flies through howling night winds into Harrenhal, the biggest castle in Westeros and also, need we remind you, the spookiest. It’s also incredibly damp, thanks to all the damage it’s taken over the years, and Daemon stomps through puddles and flurries of bats indoors, killing a guard on the way just because he can. If this was a vintage horror movie, he’d encounter Lon Chaney Jr. lurking in the dark, but since this is House of the Dragon and not House of Dracula, instead he meets… Ser Simon Strong, played by British stage legend Sir Simon Russell Beale, having dinner in one of the castle’s few vaguely cozy rooms.
Ser Simon has no objection to ceding control of Harrenhal to Team Black—he’s no fan of his cunningly murderous great-nephew, Ser Larys—though Daemon’s skeptical of his hospitality, and snaps at him for mistakenly calling him “my Prince” instead of “Your Grace.” For his part, Ser Simon thinks Daemon’s plan to raise an army in the Riverlands is a dubious one; the region’s liege lord, Lord Grover Tully, is a frail old man unlikely to comprehend what’s at stake. What’s the endgame here, Ser Simon wonders? This very droll exchange follows.
Daemon: “We march on King’s Landing and take the throne.”
Ser Simon: “The throne?”
Daemon: “It’s a big chair… made of swords.”
In King’s Landing, Cole’s army prepares to march with a new face in tow: Ser Gwayne Hightower, Alicent’s brother. He meets Cole with a polite but frosty attitude (Gwayne’s not thrilled Cole took Otto’s place as the Hand), and things get a little weird when Cole says goodbye to Alicent, asking for her favor (which takes the form of a handkerchief she pulls out of her cleavage) as he departs, and Gwayne looks on quizzically. The camera pulls up as the host rides out, and in the foreground we see one of the rat catcher corpses from last week, looking a bit more decayed, and with a crow making short work of its eyes.
Rhaenys (Eve Best) and Corlys (Steve Toussaint)Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO
On Dragonstone, the tension is rising along with the anticipation of this army—which Team Black has yet to spot, but knowsmust be forming; the fact that Daemon hasn’t sent any updates since he flounced away isn’t helping. Rhaenyra’s Small Council wants her to act, be that by sending dragons to burn all who oppose her, or hiding herself away and letting the council (another way of putting that is “the menfolk”) rule in her stead. After Rhaenyra departs in disgust, Rhaenys has another notable quotable to share, reminding everyone that “their Queen wears the crown of my grandsire, Jaeharys the Conciliator, a prudent ruler, the wisest of Targaryen kings, whose reign outlasted every other, even Aegon the Conquerer’s.”
But Rhaenys knows there’s trouble afoot, and she doesn’t correct Corlys in the next scene, in a rainy Driftmark rendezvous, when he refers to the Small Council as “the ditherers of Dragonstone.” The interaction between husband and wife, like so many of their meetings, is shot through with affection as well as subtle disagreements, including that old question of who should inherit Driftmark (currently, it’s little Joffrey, who’s about to be spending the rest of his childhood far from the sea). There’s a new urgency to their talk of heirs, a tumultuous subject—as we saw last season, when Corlys suffered a great injury and it seemed Lucerys Velaryon (RIP) would be inheriting Driftmark sooner than expected. “We are at war,” Rhaenys reminds the Sea Snake, and worries that something might happen to him.
On nearby Dragonstone, Rhaena bids farewell, preparing for her journey with small children and small dragons in tow. She’s resentful; Baela, who’s not only older, but has her own dragon to ride, gets to stay behind and take an active part in the war effort. But there’s a softening when Rhaenyra shows Rhaena that she’ll also be caring for a clutch of precious dragon eggs; if the worst happens in Westeros, she’ll be an important source of hope for the Targaryen future.
Rhaena (Phoebe Campbell) and Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy)Photo: Theo Whiteman/HBO
After Rhaenyra says good-bye to her sons (except Jace, he gets to stay), we cut to King’s Landing, where Alicent and Heleana have a poignant conversation about motherhood, grief, and loss. And the elephant in the room comes out: “I forgive you,” Heleana tells her teary-eyed mother, and we all know she means her mother’s forbidden affair with Cole. In a nearby chamber, King Aegon (“the magnanimous”) is being fitted with… Aegon the Conquerer’s own snazzy armor. He’s planning to fly into battle, despite everyone else agreeing it’s a terrible idea. Ser Larys appears, as always armed with a bit of information that’s secretly manipulation in disguise, and says there’s talk that Aegon has been tricked into going into battle because that’s what his Small Council, including Alicent, wants, so that she and Aemond can rule in his absence. As Aegon is taking this in, he makes another impulsive appointment, naming Larys his Master of Whisperers.
And it works! Aegon decides that rather than going to battle, he’ll… spend another drunken night out on the town instead. In a scene that immerses us in King’s Landing after hours, we meet a new character. It’s a brief moment, but it’s important, since this is the bastard son of Baelon Targaryen—which makes him Daemon and Viserys’ half-brother, and Rhaenyra’s uncle. Why he’s sharing this information with random strangers (look closely; one is Samson Kayo from Our Flag Means Death) in a tavern isn’t clear, and we learn no more for now because just then King Aegon, who’s unaware of the man’s identity, shows up ready to party his face off.
King Aegon II (Tom Glynn-Carney) is the comic relief so far this season, in a truly awful way though.Photo: Ollie Upton/HBO
Awkward family reunion averted–until Aegon walks in on Aemond snuggled up with his favorite lady of the night, to Aegon’s hooting, taunting delight. Aemond’s reaction is to stand on the table—classic Game of Thrones-style full-frontal nudity alert, though there’s tasteful shadowing—and stalk out of the room (wearing not a stitch, not even his eye patch), pretending he’s totally unbothered.
On Dragonstone, a contemplative Rhaenyra decides that now, at last, is the moment to open her message from Alicent. We can’t read the message, but the word “mother” definitely appears.
En route to the Riverlands, Cole and Ser Gwayne Hightower continue to not like each other. Gwayne has decided to take his lieutenants to a nearby tavern so they can enjoy some creature comforts, while Cole’s men are all camped on the hard ground. “We will rendezvous with your army at first light,” Gwayne says breezily, as the camera tilts up to show us the current position of the sun, and—hey now, what’s that in the sky? Dragonnnnnn! Cole, Gwayne, and Gwayne’s men gallop for the safety of nearby tree cover as Baela, riding Moondancer, swoops in overhead. She’s there merely to observe, not engage, but you can see in her face she’s got a bit of that season-one Rhaenys “I want to set you all on fire” urge in her, and she gives the men a good scare. Ser Gwayne, for one, looks like he might have peed his pants a little, and finally admits Cole might know what he’s doing after all. Stealth is now the way forward for this army—“and no fucking inns,” Cole hisses.
When Baela reports back to Rhaenyra and her Small Council, again they urge it’s time to take action. Past time, really. She takes it in and says she’ll consider their arguments, as we cut to Rhaenys—and can tell she’s realizing Rhanyra is finally going to take her advice.
But first, you may be wondering, as the Small Council on Dragonstone certainly has been: what the hell has Daemon been up to? Wandering around the ruins of Harrenhal, it turns out—a place full of dripping water, barricaded doorways, and whispers from the past. He encounters an impossible tableau: young Rhaenyra, played by a returning Milly Alcock. “Always coming and going, aren’t you,” she sighs at Daemon. “And I have to clean up afterwards.” As the camera comes around we see she’s stitching little Jaehaerys Targaryen’s head onto his neck. In an instant, the vision is gone, and a strange woman—someone we saw earlier alongside Ser Simon—appears and says “You will die in this place.”
With that uneasiness lingering, we return to Dragonstone; there’s no sneaking into King’s Landing without the advice of Mysaria, so Rhaenyra gets all the intel she needs to engineer a face-to-face encounter with Alicent. This includes what disguise she’ll need (a septa; it’s not the first time this episode, nor this season, that someone points out most smallfolk won’t recognize a royal out of context) and where she’ll be able to find the Dowager Queen alone (in the Great Sept of Baelor, saying her prayers). And then, it happens: a scene between Rhaenyra and Alicent, something we were not expecting to see at all this season.
Alicent (Olivia Cooke), a nice church-going lady.Photo: Theo Whiteman/HBO
And it’s quite a powerful moment. Alicent’s shock when she realizes who’s come to call is one thing; it levels up when she realizes Rhaenyra isn’t there to kill her. Rhaenyra opens with a memory we all share: the tournament that kicked off in season one. “Men trained for battle are eager to fight,” she reminds her old friend. “I know you do not have that desire within you.” But Alicent knows the Dance of the Dragons is past the point of no return. There are no terms they can come to. Too much has happened now.
As they whisper-argue over Luke and Jaeharys, the real meat of the conversation comes to the fore: what did the dying King Viserys say to Alicent that made her think he’d changed his mind about Rhaenyra being his heir? Rhaenyra can’t believe her ears when Alicent, who steadfastly believes she was honoring her husband’s wishes, says he muttered about “Aegon” and “the prince that was promised to unite the realm.” Rhaenyra knows, as we did when we saw it last season, that Viserys was referring to the Song of Ice and Fire, a dream that Aegon the Conquerer had. Wrong Aegon, Alicent! Wrong Aegon. But for Alicent, it’s too late, no matter how much Rhaenyra protests that there’s been a mistake. “There’s been no mistake,” Alicent insists. Otto’s been kicked out of court, Cole is on the march, “you know what Aemond is,” and it’s too late. As Alicent stalks away, Rhaenyra sets her jaw. Time to go to war. At last?
New episodes of House of the Dragon arrive Sundays on HBO and Max.
Last night’s second season premiere of Game of Thrones’ spinoff House of the Dragon tackled one of George R.R. Martin’s most infamous deaths—in a new way that surprised the fandom.
You Should Really Watch The Last of Us
In an interview with Variety, showrunner Ryan Condal explained the reasoning for the Max show’s departure from Martin’s original recollection of an event known by readers of Fire and Blood—the author’s historical explanation of Targaryen history in Westeros— as “Blood and Cheese,” named for two assassins who are responsible for the murder of Jaehaerys Targayren. In “A Son for a Son” Blood and Cheese take center stage, hired by Daemon (Matt Smith) to retaliate for the death of Rhaenyra’s (Emma D’Arcy) son Lucerys at the end of last season. We pick up on the duo’s journey to do the dastardly deed which, in the show, is much more directly orchestrated than in Fire & Blood, having Rhaenyra call for Aemond’s (Ewan Mitchell) death.
“One of the things that’s challenging about adapting Fire & Blood is that there is this intentionally conflicting narrative in the book where there are often these three different viewpoints on the history that don’t line up with one another,” Condal explained, “so it’s our job as adapters to try to find the objective line through this to bring the audience into the narrative as we see it having been laid out.” In the book, it’s a whole lot more messy—Blood and Cheese weren’t given a specific target, just Daemon’s orders for “an eye for an eye, a son for a son,” and so try to kill the first boy they find.
“It felt like Rhaenyra, despite being in grief, she’s looking for vengeance, but she would choose a target that would have some kind of strategic or military advantage,” Condal continued. “Of course, if you did take out Aemond, not only would he be punished directly for his betrayal and murder of Luke, but it would eliminate the rider of the biggest dragon in the world, and immediately create an advantage for their side.” Jaehaerys still dies in House of the Dragon, but it’s presented more as due to Blood and Cheese’s incompetence—instead of finding Aemond, the assassins stumble upon his sister and wife, Queen Helaena, in her room with her twin children.
In the books, Helaena actually offers up her youngest son, Maelor (who isn’t included in House of the Dragon due to how the show has condensed the timeline of Fire and Blood), only for Jaehaerys to be killed by Blood and Cheese anyway—but in the show, Helaena is forced instead to sacrifice him to save her daughter. “We knew it would be horrifying and brutal—we didn’t want it to be gratuitous or over the top,” Condal said of the murder. “The idea of that sequence was to dramatize a heist gone wrong. So we move off the center narrative of Daemon, Rhaenyra, Alicent and Aegon’s world, and suddenly, we’re following these two characters that we’ve just met in an alley in Flea Bottom. Daemon’s given them an assignment to go in and find Aemond Targaryen, and we’re following them, and we’re following them, and we’re not cutting away and we’re not going back to the other narratives—‘oh, God, what’s going to happen?’”
Once Star Wars: The Force Awakensbrought back Luke, Han, and Leia to massive box office success, legacy sequels really started working overtime to keep the original (and available) franchise stars around when possible. Ghostbusters: Afterlife brought back the still-living Ghostbusters from the original two movies, and they’re back again alongside an also-returning Annie Potts for March’s Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire.
Are Fans Tired of Marvel and DC? Superhero Fatigue at NYCC 2023
Talking to SFX Magazine, director Gil Kenan promised the fifth film will do right by the original cast by having them be actual characters. Some legacy sequels bring back the older stars just to collect a paycheck, but Kenan promised the veterans would be “more fully fleshed out” here. “We had a duty to make those legendary characters integral to this story.”
Kenan co-wrote both Afterlife and Frozen Empire with Jason Reitman (who directed the former). As a fan of the series, having Winston, Venkman, and Ray show up in Afterlife was “really thrilling,” because he felt the film “redefine itself” with their arrival. “[They]grew and became more fully fleshed out in a way that speaks to the promise of the original Ghostbusters and Ghostbusters 2,” said Kenan. “There’s a direct line from there into who they are now and how they act here in our new story.”
Afterlife was dinged for overly relying on fan service, a criticism that’s stuck to Frozen Empire with some of its marketing so far. If the new film is going to have more to offer than seeing the original cast suit up One Last Time (again), hopefully that’s better conveyed so audiences know what to expect.
Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire releases in theaters on March 22.
Next Fest is Steam’s triannual event where hundreds of developers upload demo builds of their games for you to try for free. And it’s one of the very few things in gaming that just feels unambiguously positive! Indie sits alongside—or often above—AAA, nothing is about gouging anyone, and it revives the lost art of the demo in a way that makes the whole industry pay attention. But the number of demos can be a little overwhelming, so let us help with getting started.
Hollow Knight: Silksong’s New Gameplay Trailer Is Living Rent-Free In Our Brains
Steam
Highlighted during the PC Gaming Show at Summer Game Fest, The Invincible promises a hardcore sci-fi story based on the work of Stanislaw Lem. Luke recently highlighted the amazing work of one of the artists involved, and everything about this narrative-led philosophical story looks so enticing. Now you can play a chunk to see if it lives up to this.
Starward Industries
This eye-ticklingly lovely-looking voxel railway sim makes building a train network look enticing, rather than daunting. Station To Station’s emphasis on minimalism and relaxation really piles on that appeal. There’s now a portion of the game to try for yourself, and it really delivers.
Prismatika
I’m so pleased Word Factori is as fun and daft as it looks. This is a game about building all the letters of the alphabet out of the letter I, using, you know, factories. As you’ll likely know, a C is just a curved I, so you need to run those through a curving factory. And a V is two Is joined together at the bottom, so you’ll need to use a merging factory for that one. I totally made a CAT out of Is! The presentation is lovely and simple, too, even if the puzzles are not, making this well worth a look.
Star Garden Games
Galvanic Games’ co-op survival game revealed at Summer Game Fest shone at the show, and now has a demo you can play. Wizard With A Gun is about exploring the unknown as a wizard, alone of with a chum, in a sandbox game with all manner of combat and action.
Devolver Digital
When I first read about A Tiny Sticker Tale, I had one desire: that it feel like those laminated background scenes you’d get as a kid, where you could place the rubbery, restickable stickers on top, to create your own stories. It is that! It’s exactly like that! Except here, when you place a sticker onto a scene, it magically becomes part of the drawing. It’s so splendid that I could happily play with it even if it weren’t a bunch of sweet little puzzles.
Ogre Pixel
Ooh, there’s a new full-length Rusty Lake game coming! And from this demo, it plays like their classic Cube Escape games, returning to the series roots, and with all the menacing air that comes with the peculiar puzzles.
Rusty Lake
I’d never heard of Thronefall before, but it’s straight on my Wishlist. It’s the most extraordinary combination of city builder, auto-battler, tower defense, and direct-control RTS, but all presented in a calm, clear and minimalist manner. The demo neatly piles on the instructions and introduces all these elements in a way that feels manageable and frequently surprising.
Street Fighter 6 has a lot of modes to check out and knobs to turn, to the point where it might seem overwhelming if you don’t know where to start. The sickest of fighting game sickos will likely head straight for the training room to discover the finer points of their preferred fighter and figure out the matchups, but for the rest of us, here are a few tips for getting started, whether you’re a seasoned veteran or just hitting the streets.
Why Mario Strikers: Battle League Could Be Nintendo’s Next Multiplayer Hit
Immediately change your graphics settings
For some reason, the console versions of Street Fighter 6 default to “Resolution Mode” instead of “Performance Mode.” This means the game will prioritize graphical fidelity over framerate in certain modes, like World Tour. So the game might look better, but it will run at 30 frames per second rather than a smooth 60. Any fighting game player will tell you that framerate is everything and it should be prioritized over all else because of just how reactive you have to be, so switch to Performance Mode first thing after you boot up Street Fighter 6.
On PC, meanwhile, there are no pre-set performance profiles and the game defaults to the standard 60fps. However, you can also increase the maximum framerate to 120, which is recommended if your PC has enough power. Also be sure to check the game’s resolution, which seems to default to 1080p even when you have a higher-res monitor.
Give every character a shot before settling on a main
If you’re new to Street Fighter and haven’t picked out your favorite based on past experience, it might be hard to suss out who you want to play as. If you have previous fighting game experience, you might gravitate toward certain characters based on their archetypes. For example, maybe you typically play grapplers and like to get in close so you might gravitate toward Zangief or Manon.
But if you don’t have any frame of reference for who you might like, sometimes the easiest way to feel out characters in a fighting game is to just try them out. Street Fighter 6 has a fair amount of tools to give you a taste of how characters play, from an arcade story mode to dedicated character guides. You’ll also be taking pieces from each of their movesets when customizing your character in the World Tour mode. Whatever avenue you choose to familiarize yourself with the roster, it’s always worth giving everyone a fair shot. You never know who you’re going to click with until you try them out, so be open to the experience of testing out characters and matchups before going hard on a specific fighter.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Change your online character and your control scheme to Classic
One of the big draws of Street Fighter 6 for casual players is it has two control schemes. One is called Classic and features the typical quarter circles and charge inputs of previous Street Fighter games. Then there’s the “Modern” control scheme, which has ultra-simplified inputs—think special moves from a single button press—at the expense of modestly decreased damage output.
If you like the simple Modern controls then you’re probably already set, as the game defaults to them across all modes. However, if you want something more along the lines of past games, as most returning players will, you’ll need to change it before you start fighting, and in a couple places. The first, most far-reaching toggle you’ll need to switch is in the Options menu under Controls, which will let you change from Modern to Classic controls for both players. However, for some reason, Street Fighter 6 doesn’t apply this setting to its online fights.
To change your control scheme for online play, you’ll have to maneuver through some decidedly unclear menus. Start by pausing the game in either the main menu or an online lobby and going to Profile. This will bring up your Fighter Profile, which will default your primary character to Luke. In the bottom-left corner you’ll see an option for “Battle Settings,” and here is where you can change your preferred online character, your matchmaking settings, and your control schemes. Jump over to the Character tab and you’ll see all the characters in the roster. Pick your favorite and that will be the one you use in online battles.
While you’re there you’ll likely want to switch all the other characters to Classic controls, too. You’ll need to press the “Update Character Settings” button for each of them. It’s a lot of button presses and menu scrolling to get there, but if you don’t take the time, you’ll load up a character online only to find none of their buttons do what they’re supposed to do.
Consider disabling the commentators
Capcom touted play-by-play commentators as one of Street Fighter 6’s big features, but while having pros narrate your fights might sound cool, in practice, it can get a little awkward. I tried both a single commentator and duos, and while I don’t think either experience is really worth having someone talk over the fight’s audio cues and banger soundtrack, having only one person narrating the match is the better experience. When you have two commentators, the tracks make half-hearted attempts at banter, but the discussion never sounds natural, and it’s easy to hear the flaws when they’re trying to sound coherent. Character names and moves are almost never called out with any specificity, and the commentary generally feels detached from the specifics of what’s going on in the fight. so the whole ordeal is hollow. It’s a fun idea, but the implementation never quite gets there. Sometimes the matches just speak for themselves better than any pre-recorded commentary can.
Turning off the commentator is easy enough in standard matches, as it shows up in the menu as you set them up. For online matches, you’ll have to open your battle settings and tab over to the “Other” menu. Just swap the Commentary Settings to off, or customize them to see if you can find a pair you like.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Remember your custom character’s physical appearance affects gameplay
In the World Tour mode, you create an original character whose moveset is made up of special moves drawn from the main fighters’ repertoires. However, while your custom avatar’s equipment, moves, and level will affect how they play, your appearance will, as well. For example, create a shorter character and they’ll have a smaller hitbox, but their kicks won’t reach as far. If you create a giant hulking beast of a fighter, they’ll have more reach but your opponents’ pokes will connect much easier.
I made my character look like me and wasn’t concerned about whether or not he was competitively viable. And really, I don’t think anyone should. Make your weirdest little guy, or make a big beefy lady who can swing Zangief up by his ankles. Or make a character who looks like you. Do what your heart desires, but do keep in mind that your character’s size does affect spacing and other things worth considering in a fight.
Drive Gauge moderation is key
One of Street Fighter 6‘s big additions is the Drive Gauge, which is used for things like Overdrive Attacks (the equivalent to EX moves) and your parry. The Drive Gauge is abundant and will fill up pretty quickly as you parry and block damage, but it’s important to not rely on it so much at the expense of your other tools. Sustaining your parry will nullify most attacks, but it will leave you open for a grab or Critical Art ability. If you run out Drive Gauge, whether by overuse of Overdrive or by keeping parry active, you’ll enter a “burnout” state that will not only deprive you of Drive Gauge skills, but also increase your blockstun and open you up to chip damage when blocking your opponent’s specials. Drive Gauge takes a lot longer to recover when you’re in this state, and you won’t be able to use any associated abilities until the bar is full again. So while you might want to go HAM on all the fun Drive Gauge moves, using them with reckless abandon will inevitably bite you in the ass.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Don’t rush to your master of choice in World Tour
For story reasons, your character in World Tour will start out with Luke’s moveset. As you meet other characters from Street Fighter 6’s roster throughout the story, you can ask for them to be your master and teach you their fighting style and special moves. As tempting as it might seem to rush through the game to find your main and learn their moves, World Tour mode’s balance isn’t really scaled for you to do that.
As I mentioned in Kotaku’s review, World Tour can be a real grind. Even when you’re leveled up to a comparable level to your opponents, their HP pool will often be higher than yours and their damage output will be, too. If you try to bulldoze your way through it trying to find Cammy or Ryu, you’re going to run headfirst into walls as the story missions escalate in difficulty. I spent more time than I would’ve liked using Chun-Li’s style as my base before finding my main to study under, but putting in that time helped make reaching the subsequent masters easier.
Use items in World Tour
While a competitive player may groan at the notion, performance-enhancing items are baked into how Street Fighter 6’s World Tour mode balances fights. These consumable boons range from healing items to damage and defense buffs, and you can use them in World Tour fights with no restrictions. If you want a challenge, you can certainly try and force your way through big fights without healing or buffing your character, but broadly, World Tour scales fights with the expectation that you’ll have items on hand with which to heal and power up. You have to pause the game during a match to use them, so it’s easy to forget about. But get into the habit of buffing up your attacks and healing when you’re in a pinch.
Grinding isn’t just fighting
One of the most important resources in the World Tour mode is Miles, Points you acquire through actions like doing quests and just walking around. These are important because they act as your continues throughout the game. For standard fights you encounter throughout the world, continues might not be necessary, but they’re a godsend in story segments like tournaments, where losing one fight without a continue means you have to restart an entire boss rush from the beginning. Earning Miles through side-quests and walking is another part of prepping for big fights that’s just as important as grinding character experience and buying items.
Screenshot: Capcom / Kotaku
Do not sleep on the social elements
I can’t overstate how good Street Fighter 6’s social elements are. Each master you meet has a relationship meter you fill up by using their attacks, facing enemies who also use them, giving them gifts, and doing their dedicated quests. The higher the meter goes, the more special moves you’ll learn. But more importantly, you’ll also unlock new interactions in which each character will tell you about their life, their training, and their future. These exchanges were my favorite part of World Tour, and while the fighting game grind might be what appeals to you most, don’t sleep on the social aspects. The writing is silly, fun, and helps make these characters feel like more than their moveset, which is something Street Fighter 6 excels at.
The line between an amazing video game name and a terrible one is nebulous. Some game names try so hard that they loop back around and become good, despite being objectively bad. Some game names are good only in that they use cool words, but the vibe screams, “I was created in a vat overseen by a focus group.” And some game names, who the hell knows what was going on there, but god bless the mind who came up with it.
Occasionally, there’s a video game name that is exactly right, managing to perfectly capture the essence of the game in question. More often than not, though, game names leave us scratching our heads. This year, we’ve decided to put together a list of some of our favorite game names of 2022, in no particular order.
They are a mix of good and bad and everything in between. Some of them will speak for themselves, but we’ll have the occasional commentary for some of the titles accompanying the list as well. Preemptive shoutout to Square Enix, the GOAT at bewildering game names such as this year’s Various Daylife. Never change, Square Enix. Speaking of which…
CRISIS CORE –FINAL FANTASY VII– REUNION – Claire tells me that it’s an admittedly annoying name to type out, but to its credit, it does incorporate the themes of the game in there.
You Suck At Parking: I’m queer so they’re probably right, but still, lol.
Melon Journey: Bittersweet Memories: Tell me you don’t immediately want to find out what this game is about? Spoilers, it’s as cute as it sounds:
[Search for your friends] in a town full of adorable animals with eccentric personalities. Yet under this sweet surface lies a tale of crime and corruption… Where did Cantaloupe disappear to? Is the Cavity Crew as dangerous as Captain Hamley believes? How does the Kitten King fit into Hog Town’s struggles?
Warhammer 40K: Chaosgate: Daemonhunters – Luke says: Warhammer 40K? There are too many of them! Chaosgate? Which one? It’s been over six months since this game came out and we still have to call it “that XCOM game with Space Marines in it.”
Super Kiwi 64
Unsouled: This is the most video games title I’ve heard all year.
You may have already seen, but Street Fighter 6‘s June 2, 2023 release date leaked late in the day on December 8. Apparently Sony, whether accidentally or intentionally, published the date on the PlayStation Store, alongside three different editions that will be available come launch. Now, during Geoff Keighley’s The Game Awards, Capcom confirmed the date is in fact real. Mark your calendars, folks: Street Fighter is coming back next year.
Street Fighter 6 – Pre-Order Trailer
The Game Awards dropped a new trailer for Street Fighter 6 during the pre-show, where we saw fighters travel around the (digital) world: France, Italy, the United States, and the like. There were also some minigames, including bottle chopping, board breaking, and basketball blocking. Weird stuff. We also saw some new characters, such as the capoeira fighter Dee Jay and the gladiator brawler Marisa, alongside a cool-looking 2v2 mode where a player-created fighter and Ryu battled against two other fighters on the same screen at the same time.
Street Fighter 6 is looking wild.
The June 2023 release date slip-up was spotted on the PlayStation Store by Twitter users bestprosplay3 and SurpriseBum. It then proliferated on gaming forum website ResetEra, with preorder pages allegedly corroborating the date. There appear to be three editions of the game: Standard, Deluxe, and Ultimate. The Standard Edition will apparently come with the base game, one outfit color for six unspecified characters, and “special titles and stickers.” The Deluxe and Ultimate versions feature the same stuff, with the only difference being the Deluxe packages the Year 1 Character Pass, whereas the Ultimate houses the Year 1 Ultimate Pass. Prices for these editions weren’t disclosed at the time.
More than seven years after Street Fighter V came out in February 2016, Street Fighter 6 is Capcom’s latest entry in the long-running fighting game series. It’ll feature all the usual characters—Chun-Li, Guile, Ken, Ryu, etc.—as well as some new faces, such as the fire-fisted Luke and (my personal fave) the kunoichi Kimberly. There are some new elements introduced in the upcoming entry, too, including the combo-breaking Drive Impact move, a robust character creator you can use in the single-player open world, and the incredible training mode that actually teaches you fighting game lingo. It’s an exciting release I’m stoked to get whooped in.
G/O Media may get a commission
You don’t have to wait long to get your hands on the game. Yes, it does drop in June 2023, which is about six months away. But if you were part of Street Fighter 6‘s first closed beta, you can check out the second one that runs from December 16 to 19. Even if you didn’t get an invitation to play the first beta, you can still submit an application to get in on the second one through the game’s website. Two caveats here, though. The first is you must have a registered Capcom ID account. The second is that account must then be linked to whatever platform you’re applying to play on. Once you meet that criteria, and should you be selected, you will gain access to Street Fighter 6.
If you weren’t lucky enough to be picked for access to the game’s second closed beta, however, you will just have to wait until Street Fighter 6 launches in full on June 2, 2023. The game will land on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC via Steam.
The episode included another harrowing birth scene in which Rhaenyra delivered her own baby, pulling out the stillborn herself.
But perhaps the most devastating scene of all came later in the show, when it was decided that Rhaenyra’s sons Jacaerys (Harry Collett) and Lucerys would ride their dragons to Winterfell, Storm’s End and the Eyrie in order to secure loyalty from the Starks, Baratheons and Arryns.
During Lucerys’ visit with Borros Baratheon (Roger Evans), it’s revealed that Aemond (Ewan Mitchell) has already arrived with the news that his brother now sits on the Iron Throne after Rhaenyra was usurped by the Greens.
