Don’t try to fight the feeling Rock Band 4’s music library is growing with a couple of huge hits today in Outkast’s “Hey Ya!" and Daft Punk’s "Get Lucky," developer Harmonix announced yesterday.
The danceable guitar-based tracks are both being released today, along with Kelly Clarkson’s "Heartbeat Song," for $1.99 each on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.
In addition to this week’s DLC, Harmonix released a list of artists whose music will be coming to the Rock Band Music Store over the course of February. Rock Band 4 players can expect songs from Bruno Mars, Five Finger Death Punch, Generation X, J. Geils Band, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts, Masaya Matsuura, Motörhead, Orleans, Royal Blood, and Zac Brown Band.
Matsuura, the musician and game designer behind Vib-Ribbon and the Parappa the Rapper games, contributed music to Beat Sports, the Apple TV launch title from Harmonix.
Harmonix also confirmed that Rock Band 4’s February update — which was scheduled to be its January update until a last-minute delay — will be available today. The patch wipes the game’s online leaderboards because it includes fixes for score exploits, and it also brings in some new items, like Psychonauts-inspired clothing for the character creator.
For more on Rock Band 4, read our review.

The Figgis Detective Agency is open for business The creative team behind FX’s popular Archer are shipping the playboy spy and his group of misfit colleagues to the West Coast.
Speaking with Uproxx, producers Casey Willis and Matt Thompson said they wanted to incorporate Archer’s obsession with Magnum P.I. into the show, and thought having him essentially become his hero by becoming a private investigator would be a fun way to go about it.
In fact, the first trailer for the upcoming season was a shot-for-shot remake of Magnum P.I.’s opening, giving fans a look into what they could expect out of the new season. A comparison can be seen in the video below.

According to Thompson, there are going to be some big changes on the show that don’t just include the team’s uproot to Los Angeles. One of the biggest, however, will be that lowly accountant turned sometimes secret agent Cyril Figgis will now be Archer’s boss.
In order to own and operate a licensed private detective agency, the person applying for the certification must have either 2,000 hours of private detective work in the bank or a law degree, according to federal law. Since Cyril is the only one with a law degree, he’s in charge of running the business, appropriately named Figgis Detective Agency.
Thompson said that having Cyril as his boss is something that Archer can’t really come to terms with and will be a main source of contempt for the former spy and hilarity for the audience.
The producers also confirmed that the show would continue its tradition of bringing big name stars into various episodes, with J.K. Simmons (Whiplash) and Keegan-Michael Key (Key and Peele) joining the cast near the beginning of the season.
Patton Oswalt, Jon Daly and Jon Glasser are also confirmed for the new season, while Thompson said they’re working on bringing Tom Selleck — another hero of Archer’s — into the show, but there’s nothing concrete just yet.
The seventh season of Archer premieres on March 31 on FX.

Bizarro makes a complete mess of Kara’s romantic moment Last week, Supergirl was grappling with a galactic genocidal gangster, so it was must have been something of a relief for her to get back to the relative familiarity of her tangled love-life, in this touchy-feely episode that was all about relationships.
She (or at least, her alter-ego Kara Danvers) finally got it on with model sappy boyfriend material Adam, which was nice, up until the moment when an undead version of herself swooped in and flew her away.
This Other-Supergirl (nicknamed Bizarro by media queen Cat Grant) is an abominable creation of vile tech entrepreneur Maxwell Lord. As in the original Superman DC comic-books, Bizarro is an evil copy of heroic protagonists, in this case, Bizarro Supergirl. Lord plays the Doctor Frankenstein role, breathing new life into a dead young woman, so she can wreak havoc on the world.
In one teeth-grinding moment, he has her call him “My Lord." The way he strokes her hair and touches her skin is almost as unpleasant as his exhortation that she destroy Supergirl.

This leads to the usual to-ing and fro-ing in abandoned buildings and dusty out-of-town locations. The two antagonists get down to some Rock-Paper-Supergirl. Lazer Eyes counters Lazer Eyes. Fiery Breath countered by Freezy Breath. Punchy Flying Attack blocked by Stone Fist.
Alex Danvers puts an end to all this nonsense, turning up with an anti-Bizarro weapon. Big Sister With Fancy Kryptonite Gun Wins. Poor Bizarro loses her looks and is rendered into a zombie, which actually matches perfectly with her stilted conversational techniques. "Must. Kill. Supergirl."
"Once again, a super-powered monster is on the loose in National City," sighs Hank Henshaw. But it turns out that if you reverse the ionic charge of Kryptonite and apply that to a weapons-grade discharge … something, something … resolution of final action sequence.
Just prior to Bizarro’s undoing, she has a quiet chat with James Olsen, who tries to make her feel better about the fact that she looks like someone who has been dead for a few weeks. "We all feel like we’re ugly sometimes," says this fantastically good-looking man who is dating one beautiful woman and in a pleasingly flirtatious relationship with another. "We all feel like no-one loves us," says the geezer who is best mates with a bloke who can fly.

Anyway, let’s get back to Adam. Supergirl and he went out on a date. They shared secrets. They smooched.
I mean, obviously, he’s not really right for her. He seems to me to be a prize berk. He’s the sort of cleft-chinned fellow who coos, "You’re amazing," on a first date. In my book, this alone makes him as much a monster as any freaky insect alien. But there’s no accounting for taste and no comprehending the mysteries of sexual attraction between good-looking people.
Suffice it to say, Supergirl likes him. So it’s painful for her to throw him over the side. Despite their romantic connection, she comes to understand that being a superhero AND fetching coffees for Cat Grant AND attending to her own human, emotional needs is just too much, so something has to give.

Adam is devastated. He exits the show, hopefully for a very long time, so we can get back to the far more interesting romantic ties with sad-sack Winn and spoken-for James. Also, Cat is mad at Kara because Adam is her son. This is bad for Kara but good for the rest of us.  If Cat starts being nice to Kara, this show is pretty much dead.
Now for the best bit. Alex has finally had enough of Maxwell Lord and his slimy shenanigans, so she pays him a little visit. "Maxwell Lord, You’re under arrest," she declares, whipping out her evil-proof handcuffs. Glory-be.
Lord is a wonderfully hateful villain, a zero-empathy, smug tycoon with a God Complex. Oh man, we all love to see dudes like that get their comeuppance.
You can read all Polygon’s Supergirl recaps here.

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The Division’s closed beta wraps up today, and despite the super limited amount of content available in this pre-release sliver of Ubisoft’s open-world third-person shooter, I’m gonna miss it. The beta showcased some slick progression hooks, let players take a run at an instanced co-op mission and, best of all, let anarchy run wild in the Dark Zone. That’s The Division’s player vs. player area, where you’re encouraged to trust nobody — unless, of course, in that cruel arena, an unlikely friendship is forged.
You can hear some thoughts from Arthur and me and watch a bunch of gameplay video from The Division’s beta above. The Division launches March 8 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Windows PC.

Thanks, EA Electronic Arts is giving away 2012’s Need for Speed Most Wanted on its Origin service starting today. The Windows PC version of the game is the latest addition to EA’s On the House offerings, joining the group of free, downloadable games.
An Origin membership is required to download the game; registration for an account is free, and all On the House titles are yours to keep forever.
The previous On the House game was Jade Empire, the role-playing game from BioWare. Other past titles have included Dead Space and Plants vs. Zombies.
Most Wanted first saw release in 2005 as the racing game series’ ninth installment. That version was developed by EA Black Box, but it was Burnout series developer Criterion Games that took charge of 2012’s reboot. Criterion’s version of Most Wanted drew inspiration from its forebears as well as the Burnout series, and combined open-world gameplay with a multiplayer focus.
We liked the game when we took it for a spin on the Xbox 360 upon release. It was later followed by 2015’s Need for Speed, another rebooted game in EA’s racing franchise.

Kind of feels like Left 4 Dead Pandemic, the new zombie film that stars Star Trek’s Rachel Nichols, wants you to see what it’s like to take on the undead from the scientists’ perspective.
The film follows a group of scientists — lead by Nichols — as they scour a post-apocalyptic Los Angeles that has become overrun by individuals infected by the virus that causes them to become zombie-like. The goal, like most zombie movies, is to hopefully find a group of uninfected survivors and develop a serum that will reverse the infection.
Based on the trailer, it looks like Pandemic will be similar to and other found-footage style horror movies, attempting to give it an up-close-and-personal feel.
Starring Alfie Allen, Mekhi Phifer and Missi Pyle alongside Nichols, Pandemic is slated to hit theaters April 1.

That’s a lot of people scratching their heads The Witness, the brain-melting puzzle game from Thekla Inc., racked up sales of “substantially more than 100,000 units" and over $5 million in gross revenue during its first week of release, lead developer Jonathan Blow announced today.
The figures are combined totals for the two platforms on which The Witness is available, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC. Blow noted that sales on both were "very strong," and said that "neither of these platforms dominates our sales." Thekla’s publishing contracts with certain online storefronts prevent the studio from revealing specific sales numbers for either platform, but Blow said that figures from Steam Spy — which currently estimates the number of Witness owners on PC at more than 50,100, with a margin of error of just under 5,000 — are "a bit too low."

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The Witness beginner’s guide

The Witness thus qualifies as "a really nice success," Blow said. Launch-week sales on each platform — PC and PS4 — "handily " those of Braid, Blow’s previous game, which debuted on the Xbox 360’s Xbox Live Arcade platform in August 2008. Braid launched at $14.99, while The Witness costs more than twice as much at $39.99.
"So the fact that we beat Braid by units, more than doubly, is a really nice success," said Blow. He also noted that the $5 million of gross revenue for The Witness’ first week is "a good chunk more" than what Braid generated during its entire first year of release, although he said Thekla has not yet broken even on The Witness. The studio does seem to be on its way to making its money back, which is great news for Blow, who said a year ago that he had borrowed "a bunch of money" to finish The Witness. (Braid’s development budget was $200,000, which Blow funded himself.)
Thekla is currently focusing on fixing issues with graphics drivers for The Witness on PC, and is also working on adding configurable controls and rendering options to both versions. Blow added that "in the near future," the team will "start investigating" bringing The Witness to other platforms, with Android, iOS, Mac and Xbox One all "under serious consideration." Thekla previously announced plans for an iOS version.
For more on The Witness, which was released Jan. 26, watch the trailer below and check out our review. If you’re stumped, you can get hints and even full solutions from our work-in-progress guide.

Where previous sequels to XCOM games have failed, XCOM 2 — the sequel to 2012’s reboot, XCOM: Enemy Unknown — succeeds.
Stand down, Terror from the Deep. Sleep softly, Apocalypse. Resquiat in pacem, Freedom Ridge. Your watch has ended. Firaxis, XCOM’s newest steward, is here to relieve you.
XCOM 2 is bigger, stronger and more capable than XCOM: Enemy Unknown in every way. And in spite of a few lingering technical issues, it may be the best XCOM game ever made — and a fitting tribute to those that came before.
“XCOM’s last remaining soldiers, scientists and engineers wage a guerrilla-style war without an end in sight."
XCOM 2 takes place after the first game’s alien invasion and the governments of the world’s attempts to stop it. 20 years later, humanity has fallen to the alien invasion, Earth’s militaries are routed and the original XCOM project overrun. The aliens, who now call themselves Advent, have taken control of the planet’s last remaining urban centers and remodeled them in their image. It is a police state, where order is ruthlessly maintained by heavily armed hybrid soldiers. Outside these futuristic urban centers mankind ekes by without running water, power or security of any kind.
What remains of the XCOM project has retreated inside of the hulk of an advanced alien UFO, constantly moving around the world to avoid detection. From this mobile base XCOM’s last remaining soldiers, scientists and engineers wage a guerrilla-style war without an end in sight.

What XCOM 2’s premise provides are opportunities to build characters, not the least of which is you —€” the Commander —€” who are dramatically welcomed into the narrative during the game’s tutorial mission. There’s Central Officer Bradford, your Jiminy Cricket from the original Firaxis game now hardened by 20 years of struggle. There’s An-Yi Shen, the daughter of your head of engineering in the 2012 game as well as Dr. Richard Tygan, who spent years as a slave before escaping the aliens and joining XCOM. They all give evocative digital performances and provide the game with its heart.
Traditionally the meat of any XCOM title are the turn-based, isometric battles. As in Firaxis’ first outing, in XCOM 2 they are fantasies about the kind of perfect, real-time information that allows remote commanders to order individual troops to pull their triggers from a comfortable distance. In practice players watch over their soldiers’ shoulders, march them into the dark parts of the map, push back the fog of war to activate hidden aliens and put a bullet in their brains.

Multiplayer
XCOM 2 features a peer-to-peer multiplayer mode, allowing for head-to-head battles between squads composed of mixed Advent and XCOM forces. Using a points-based system, players purchase units and then select the game type and the kind of terrain they’ll fight on. It features public and private games, ranked matches and options for playing over a local area network.
Unfortunately, we weren’t able to get enough experience with the mode before 2K’s embargo lifted. We’ll update this review with impressions of XCOM 2’s multiplayer mode in the next few days.

In that way, XCOM 2 plays like every other game in the franchise that’s come before. Except for the times when it doesn’t.
Much of the time it’s your troops that are hidden and lurking in the shadows, and it’s the aliens who are drawing aggro from you.
XCOM 2 is about the art of the ambush. A clever concealment mechanic means that during many missions your soldiers will be able to sneak up on the enemy without alerting them. This one change breathes new life into the formula. Suddenly there were twice as many tactical options, and twice as many different kinds of missions as there were before.
Firaxis has also added mission objectives to the mix. In addition to simple extermination, most have a thematic timer counting down. Not a can of "meld" sitting in plain sight but a piece of intel rigged to explode, or an off-map assault craft closing in to shoot down your ride home. XCOM 2 has search and destroy missions, rescue missions, covert sabotage missions, asset retrieval missions and good old-fashioned heavily armed assaults.
The incredible scenario variety, and the procedurally generated maps themselves, gives the gameplay an organic, deliberate kind of pacing. The progression from offense to defense, from reconnaissance to assault kept my attention. As importantly, where other XCOM games were a slog from start to finish —€” lengthy bug hunts bracketed by total party kills —€” XCOM 2 uses its different mission types to create a narrative arc that simply hasn’t existed in the series before.

The strategic layer of the game has also been completely overhauled. What was essentially a resource-optimization game, a race to unlock the next scientific advance, is now something on par with a finely tuned worker placement board game. You’ll assign engineers to specific tasks by hand, carefully pushing your mobile base to its limits. The Avenger itself will need to go on errands here and there, all while avoiding detection. You’ll travel to one corner of the world to launch a daring raid behind enemy lines, and the next moment you’ll swoop in to defend a resistance cell at their hidden base.
It’s as if the same kind of tension found in XCOM’s tactical layer has finally trickled up to the strategic layer, and XCOM 2 is all the better for it.
When the administrative work is done and missions are unveiled, they’re not rushing you from location to location to put out random fires. Instead, the game regularly feeds you goals and objectives that focus on supporting your civilian allies in the resistance and striking strategic blows against Advent military installations. It teases at plot points, it foreshadows climactic battles and provides solid feedback —€” in the form of in-game currency and loot, but also cinematic cutscenes — that make the effort worthwhile. In motion, XCOM 2 makes the original reboot from 2012 and its DLC expansion look amateurish by comparison.

Unfortunately, XCOM 2 suffers in overall fit and finish. For instance, placing grenades and rockets precisely where you want them will still devolve at times into a hunt for the perfect pixel. The game’s bullet-time effects are gorgeous, except for the times when there’s a wall in the way that completely obscures the action. More than a few times messages popped up over units without any text inside, and the game has a nasty habit of grinding to a standstill while the AI considers its next move, while someone fires a gun or merely takes a step forward.
The most irritating thing I discovered in XCOM 2 was the ghost of an annoying save game bug found in the Enemy Unknown. If you have too many save files it jumbles them up and gets their timestamps wrong. While I never lost a save as a result of the bug, it was challenging to find where I left off from day to day. The only solution was to selectively delete saves every so often to keep them at a minimum, but in this day and age that shouldn’t be something I have to worry about.

The maps
The environments in XCOM 2 are richly detailed and much more diverse than those found in Enemy Unknown. That’s in part because they’re procedurally generated to be different every single time. But they also benefit from an exceptional amount of set decoration. The spots I enjoyed the most were the ruined suburban spaces, because they told the story of what’s happened to humanity over two decades of alien rule. Makeshift wood gas fuel cells power broken-down SUVs. Burned out buildings sulk below sunken roofs. Rain barrels huddle next to salvaged solar panels.
Every once in awhile I would catch a glimpse of tattered XCOM posters pinned to bedroom walls or a bit of inspirational graffiti. By keeping my Avenger flying I was giving the people of Earth hope for a better future, and the game world reflected it.

Worst of the worst of the worst, sir Suicide Squad has been holding fans riveted since the first footage of it hit the web (or maybe even when the first pictures of Jared Leto as a tattooed Joker hit).
And speaking of tatted-up Joker, part of the reason that Suicide Squad hype has not slowed down in the intervening months is that the production has made some wild choices, in design and tone. For once, it seems like Warner Bros. is producing a DC Comics movie that isn’t retreading tropes and hero arcs we’ve already seen a dozen times in previously released superhero films. But the question remains: Will Suicide Squad ultimately fly at the box office, or will it trip on those wild choices and fall flat on its inked-up face?
Who knows? But with that kind of attention from fans, combining Suicide Squad with footage from Batman: The Animated Series, Justice League Unlimited and other fan-beloved shows in the DC Animated Universe can’t go wrong.

American Harry Potter fans have a new acceptance letter to look for J.K. Rowling has named three other schools of magic in the Harry Potter canon, following a teaser at Universal Orlando Resort’s Celebration of Harry Potter last weekend. The author shared new writing on the Pottermore website about Ilvermorny, Castelobruxo, Mahoutokoro and Uagadou, each one an institution devoted to educating young wizards around the world.
Rowling has said the least about llvermorny, the North American school, thus far, but she did offer backstories on the other three schools. Castelobruxo is, appropriately, a castle tucked into the Brazilian rainforest; the palatial Mahoutokoro stands on the Japanese island of Minami Iwo Jima; and Uagadou is the largest magical institution across the African continent.
These are just three of what Rowling claims are 11 wizarding schools in total. Uagadou represents the largest of all 11 schools, while Mahoutokoro is the smallest. As to where these other schools are located, Rowling has yet to say, nor is it known whether she’ll ever reveal them.
This news came shortly before a new look at the latest tale in the Harry Potter franchise, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. A behind-the-scenes featurette, below, is meant to warm fans up for their winter return to the cinematic wizarding world.

As the adaptation of a 2001 side story, the film marks the first in a planned trilogy of movies deepening the Harry Potter lore. It premieres Nov. 18, with the second and third films to follow in 2018 and 2020, respectively.