Pokémon Scarlet and Violet is the next mainline game to release in the pocket monster series and will be making its way to Nintendo Switch later this year.
Announced during February’s Pokémon Presents , Scarlet and Violet will introduce the ninth Generation of Pokémon, three new starters, and a new region to explore across an open-world map. It’s under development at Game Freak, the same studio that released Pokémon Legends: Arceus in late January earlier this year.
Nintendo is framing Pokémon Scarlet and Violet as a big advancement in the Pokémon series, describing it as “a new evolutionary step” that will allow you to “explore freely in a richly expressed open world.”
Towns will “blend seamlessly into the wilderness with no borders”, and you’ll get to “see the Pokémon of this region in the skies, in the seas, in the forests, on the streets.”
The game’s three starter Pokémon include the Grass Cat Sprigatito, who has the Overgrow ability and is described as capricious and attention-seeking; the Duckling Quaxly, which Nintendo says is earnest and has the Torrent ability; and the Fire Croc Fuecoco who’s laid back and has the Blaze ability.
You can watch them in all of their incredibly cute glory in the announcement trailer below.
As is tradition with the Pokémon video games, Scarlet and Violet will be largely identical, although the outfit of your Trainer will change depending on which game you’re playing.
Analysis: building on the foundations of Pokémon Legends: Arceus
There are a couple of big takeaways from Nintendo’s reveal of Pokémon Scarlet and Violet. The first is just how adorable the three new starters are. Quaxly might well take the mantle for the cutest cartoon duck to ever exist, and that’s really saying something given the numerous Disney competitors it’s having to contend with.
But the bigger news is that Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will be the first fully open-world mainline Pokémon game. No more loading towns or wilderness each time you reach a new area; the wilds of this new region will be seamless and fully explorable, better implementing the feeling of wide-eyed discovery that the Pokémon video games have always tried to capture.
Game Freak already showed just how well Pokémon games can translate to an open-world formula with Pokémon Legends: Arceus . That spin-off title has been repeatedly praised for its level of freedom, which encourages you to explore the world at your pace, and rewards you for curiosity.
But Arceus wasn’t fully open-world. Although its areas were vast and open, they weren't interconnected, and its town served more as a central hub out of which you could explore the segmented areas.
From what Nintendo has said so far, Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will go further, giving you an entirely connected world that you can run across from one end to the other. That will open the door to potentially a whole new host of gameplay mechanics, as well as radically changing the pacing of the game. Being able to explore any direction of the map that you choose, rather than being funneled through a linear progression of areas, might introduce a whole new feeling to catching those pocket monsters.
If you can't wait for Scarlet and Violet to hit shelves, get your Pokémon fill with Arceus now.
How to watch World Darts Championship: live stream PDC 2021-22 anywhere
What better way to welcome in a new year than with the World Darts Championship? It's tradition! We've now reached the finale of the 2021-22 tournament, with Michael Smith and Peter Wright going dart-to-dart for the Sid Waddell trophy. Read on for details on how to get a PDC darts live stream today and watch the World Darts Championship no matter where you are in the world.
The final is set to take place at 8pm GMT on Monday, January 3 .
Having vanquished the champion Gerwyn Price in a 5-4 thriller and then James Wade in the semis, 'Bully Boy' Michael Smith is now the bookies' favorite to go on and win his first World Darts Championship.
Standing in his way is the ever-flamboyant 2020 champion Peter 'Snakebite' Wright. He dispatched fellow Scot Gary Anderson in the semis despite being dogged by a niggling knee injury. Can the number 4 seed take a second title in three years?
It's been a competition marred by Covid-related withdrawals - including the awesome Michael van Gerwen - and there were calls by some players to postpone the remainder of the tournament. But the tickets have been bought, fancy dress costumes prepared and a rowdy crowd ready to descend upon the Ally Pally.
Watching from home? You can find a World Championship Darts free live stream on Germany's Sport1 . Or follow our guide below out how to watch a World Darts Championship live stream from anywhere.
How to watch the World Darts Championship from outside your country
If the tournament clashes with a trip abroad, you'll want a VPN so you don't miss any of the action. This'll help you circumvent the geo-blocking that could otherwise stop you watching a darts live stream in particular parts of the world.
Virtual Private Networks are a legal means of getting around this issue, and it's nice and easy to set one up. Here's how it's done.
How to use a VPN
Using a VPN is as easy as one-two-three...
1. Download and install a VPN - as we say, our top choice is ExpressVPN
2. Connect to the appropriate server location - open the VPN app, hit 'choose location' and select the appropriate location
3. Go to the broadcaster's stream - head to your home broadcaster's site or app and watch as if you were at home - so that's Sports1 for Germany .
UK: World Darts Championship live stream 2021/22
How to watch World Darts Championship: live stream Canada
World Darts Championship live stream: how to watch darts online in Australia
How to live stream 2021/22 World Darts Championship in the US
Netherlands: 2021/22 World Darts Championship live stream
Obi-Wan's leaked release date may not be a Jedi mind trick
The release date for Obi-Wan Kenobi's TV series has leaked online – and, in our view, its rumored launch date is plausible.
On Friday (February 4), Star Wars fans were whipped into a frenzy when a tweet from Brandon San Giovanni, Disney Plus 's Enterprise Program Manager, appeared to confirm Obi-Wan Kenobi's TV show will be released in May 2022.
Unsurprisingly, the social media post garnered plenty of attention. That fan fervour led to San Giovanni deleting the tweet (thanks to this Reddit user for screenshotting the tweet beforehand!), setting his Twitter account to private, and then claiming that he got the show's release date mixed up with another product. What was the other item that led to San Giovanni's apparent confusion? A new Obi-Wan Kenobi comic book , which is due to be released – yes, you guessed it – in May 2022.
It's possible that San Giovanni simply got the the TV series and comic's launch dates mixed up. In our opinion, though, he didn't – and there's some evidence that suggests why.
The first piece of evidence is a simple game of 'connect the dots'. As Disney Plus' Enterprise Program Manager, San Giovanni will be privy to release dates for the streamer's upcoming movies and TV shows. His LinkedIn profile suggests as much, too, with San Giovanni's role including "overseeing feature development, content, artwork and metadata planning" for Disney Plus Originals. How can you plan such content launches if you don't have some idea of when a Disney Plus movie or TV series will be released?
Next, The Hollywood Reporter's Heat Vision newsletter has backed up Obi-Wan's release date rumors. The bulletin's author claims that THR's own sources have endorsed the show's leaked launch date, which lends some credence to its May 2022 arrival.
Finally, Obi-Wan's potential release would coincide with Star Wars Day – aka May 4, the day on which Star Wars fans celebrate everything surrounding Lucasfilm's legendary sci-fi franchise. Add in the fact that May 4 falls on a Wednesday this year – the day that new episodes for Disney Plus shows air on the platform – and the Obi-Wan TV show's leaked launch date seems to have some truth to it.
There are, however, a couple of Disney Plus shows that could throw a spanner in the works for this rumor.
First up is Moon Knight , with the next Marvel Phase 4 project debuting on Disney Plus on March 30. Given that the superhero show will run for six episodes, and the fact that it's unlikely to receive a two-episode premiere like Hawkeye did in November 2021, Moon Knight's finale won't air until May 4. Naturally, that would put it in direct competition with Obi-Wan's potential launch on Star Wars Day, which Disney, Lucasfilm and Marvel are unlikely to agree to.
The Bad Batch season 2 may also impact Obi-Wan's arrival. The animated Star Wars TV series is set to land sometime in spring 2022 , meaning that it'll be released on Disney Plus between March and June. Again, it's improbable that The Bad Batch and Moon Knight would run simultaneously on Disney Plus and eat into each other's viewing figures. With that in mind, we wouldn't expect The Bad Batch's second outing to launch before May 4, either.
Where does this leave Obi-Wan Kenobi's TV show, then? The important thing to note is that San Giovanni didn't actually confirm a concrete release date in May 2022. That means Obi-Wan could debut on another Wednesday that month – and the most likely date, in our view, is May 11.
If Obi-Wan launches on that date, its six-episode run would end on June 22, which would still allow The Bad Batch season 2 to make its spring 2022 release (by launching a week later on June 29). That May 11 date would also allow Moon Knight's own series to end before Obi-Wan begins airing.
So should we believe that San Giovanni genuinely made an error, or is there some truth to his accidental leak?
In our minds, San Giovanni is trying to pull a Jedi mind trick on us. Based on the evidence above, he unintentionally revealed Obi-Wan's release month and has tried to backtrack ever since. The saying goes that there's no smoke without fire, so we're pretty confident in saying that the Obi-Wan TV show will debut on Disney Plus in mid-May. If we're wrong, well, you can feed us to Boba Fett 's rancor.