!

> Paramount+ announced its next South Park special, and it’s titled South Park: The End of Obesity. > > Here’s the description: “The advent of new weight loss drugs has a huge impact on everyone in South Park. When Cartman is denied access to the life-changing medicine, the kids jump into action.”

https://youtu.be/oR52jRR0r0c

> Matt Stone and Trey Parker are combining forces with rapper Kendrick Lamar for a live-action comedy feature from Paramount Pictures. > > During its presentation Thursday at CinemaCon in Las Vegas, the studio announced that an original comedy from South Park creators Stone and Parker is set to begin shooting this summer and will hit theaters on the Fourth of July in 2025. Lamar and Dave Free serve as producers through their company PGLang, while Stone and Parker produce for Park County. > > “I’m excited to announce that we’re going into production this summer on a [comedy] from the creators of South Park, Matt Stone and Trey Parker,” Paramount film chief Brian Robbins told the crowd about the movie that is currently untitled. “This script is one of the funniest and most original scripts we’ve ever read, and it’s certain to create some fireworks when it hits theaters on July 4th, 2025.”

> 69%

> A charming but slight co-op action game where a basic combat system is elevated by clever bonuses and abilities, and half the pleasure is the world's incidental details.

> 6 / 10

> South Park Snow Day makes for chaotic, mindless fun when played with friends thanks to its roguelike-inspired upgrades and sense of humor, but it's a frustrating dud when going it alone.

> The snow’s falling hard over South Park, Colorado, and little Eric Cartman spies an opportunity to miss school. Tucked up in bed, he clenches his fists, shuts his eyes tight, and wishes for the blizzard to worsen to biblical levels to ensure the schools call a snow day the following morning. He wakes to a town in panic – numerous deaths, an outbreak of panic-buying toilet paper, and weather so unprecedented that many fear it’s a sign of the end times. He is, of course, delighted. > > The titular snow day that follows is the bright white canvas on which the neighbourhood kids paint a fantasy war, where elves and humans do battle according to rules that might change in an instant with the deployment of a “bullshit” card. South Park has always been wonderful at capturing the bits of childhood we forget about as we age, and with Snow Day!’s premise developer Question Games finds just such a nugget. Give some kids a day’s freedom and some cardboard swords, and they will build an entire universe then bicker about its precise workings. > > What this means for the player is a co-op action game with roguelike elements that is completely removed from South Park’s previous two 2D, turn-based role-playing games, 2014’s The Stick of Truth and 2017’s sequel, The Fractured But Whole. > > You’re permitted some chagrin for that departure. Those story-led games brought us countless gags too vulgar to sully this fine publication with, and in moments like the abrupt shift to retro 8-bit graphics when you entered Canada, they found ingenious ways to use the medium itself for comedy. Candidly, Snow Day!’s writing isn’t quite that sharp. But what it does have in its favour is pickup-and-play accessibility and unexpected depth as a roguelike. > > As you barrel through the ’burbs battling small children in ramshackle Tolkien cosplay, deploying your basic melee and ranged attacks, you amass toilet paper (the new gold, since the panic-buying started) and modifier cards. These do extra damage to bleeding enemies, extend your farting range, that sort of thing. The further you get into a run, the more you can spec out a specialist play style, and the more interesting each fight gets. > > Particularly when the bullshit card drops. This gives you and your enemies ridiculous abilities such as laser eyes or meteor showers on tap. They’re meted out sparingly and are always met with just enough outrage from Cartman and co to remind you that these rules are supposed to feel like 10-year-olds are improvising. > > It doesn’t always feel great to control – in fact, it rarely does, since the attack and movement animations are blighted by floatiness that robs you of proper weapon feedback – but Snow Day! keeps your brain engaged by getting you to plot increasingly efficient builds. There’s always a tougher encounter round the corner, and a boss fight at the end of the run, so there’s a consequence to every card you pick. That won’t keep you and your mates in South Park’s perpetual winter for as long as co-op gaming’s favourite hangout spaces, such as Fortnite. But it will deliver a fun weekend of fart-infused chaos for anyone who misses the days when snowfall meant freedom.

> 3 / 10

> Aggravating hack-and-slash combat and surprisingly sparse jokes make South Park: Snow Day! dull, toothless, and a big step in the wrong direction for South Park games.

> SOUTH PARK: SNOW DAY! is coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC on March 26, 2024! > > Hey, New Kid! Grab up to three friends, in this four-player co-op, and battle your way through the snow-piled town of South Park on a quest to save the world and enjoy a day without school. > > Equip and upgrade devastating melee and ranged weapons. Deploy special abilities and powers that will bring hordes of enemies and epic bosses to their knees.

> Matt and Trey discuss the process of going from 2D to 3D in the upcoming "South Park: SNOW DAY" video game.