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The DC Universe was launched with the promise of quality by James Gunn , the co-CEO of DC Studios. No film, he assured fans, would enter production without a script that everyone was satisfied with. The implication was the broader superhero cinema, and the preceding DC Extended Universe , had stopped prioritizing good storytelling. However, the critical and commercial failure of Supergirl , the second installment of Gunn and Peter Safran 's franchise, has blown the lid off the issues that continue to plague studio-mandated franchise movies. It was reported last week that Gunn and director Craig Gillespie didn't see eye to eye on Supergirl 's final cut, resulting in a movie that left most audiences shrugging their shoulders. A common complaint about Supergirl is that it is too generic to stand out, and almost as a collective response, fans are now revisiting one of the most unconventional products of the superhero era.

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Cox says affordability problems extend far beyond vehicle sticker prices.

Modern vehicles offer more technology, safety, and capability than ever before.

Missing from the discussion is the industry’s retreat from truly cheap cars.

The average new vehicle transaction price hovers around $50,000 these days, and according to Cox Automotive, that’s causing Americans to focus on the wrong culprit. In a recent analysis, the company argued that today’s affordability crisis has less to do with vehicle pricing and more to do with rising costs across nearly every aspect of daily life. It’s a compelling argument backed by plenty of data, but there’s one notable omission that makes the story far more complicated.

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Read: America Is About To Tariff Itself Out Of Its Last Affordable Cars

Cox’s central point is difficult to dispute. Housing costs have climbed, insurance premiums have surged, groceries are more expensive, and borrowing money costs significantly more than it did just a few years ago. Consumers don’t evaluate a vehicle purchase in isolation. They do it while juggling mortgage payments, utility bills, healthcare expenses, and everything else competing for a spot in the monthly budget.

Today’s Base Model Was Yesterday’s Luxury

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Erin Keating, executive analyst at Cox Automotive, also makes a strong case that today’s vehicles offer substantially more value than their predecessors. Features such as automatic emergency braking, adaptive cruise control, lane-keeping assistance, smartphone integration, and large infotainment screens have become commonplace.

Cox Automotive

A decade ago, many of those technologies were either unavailable or reserved for premium trims. Viewed through that lens, a modern vehicle is objectively more capable than the one it replaced.

Cox points to the Honda CR-V as an example. Sure, it’s nearly $10,000 more expensive than it was a decade ago, but it’s also dramatically improved. In other words, consumers are paying more dollars, but they’re also getting more vehicle. That’s where the analysis starts to get uncomfortable.

2016 Honda CR-V

In 2016, automakers offered plenty of genuinely inexpensive cars. Remember cars like the Honda Fit, Chevrolet Spark, Ford Fiesta, and Nissan Versa? Vehicles like that basically don’t exist anymore. Even when affordable entry-level trims remain available, they’re often produced in smaller numbers than the better-equipped versions dealers prefer to stock.

Also: Used Hybrid And EV Prices Have Jumped $3,600 Even After The Tax Credit Died

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2026 Honda CR-V

In that context, it’s difficult to separate consumer demand from industry strategy. Buyers may be choosing more expensive vehicles, but they’re doing so in a marketplace with fewer low-cost alternatives than existed a decade ago.

Cox isn’t wrong outright. The rising cost of everything is squeezing buyers. But if the auto industry wants an honest conversation about affordability, it needs to acknowledge its own role in moving the market upscale. The car isn’t the only villain in America’s affordability story. But it’s probably not just an innocent bystander either.

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Halo: Combat Evolved birthed the long-running and widely loved series Red vs. Blue, an animated show filmed inside of the classic sci-fi shooter that ran for decades. Now, in a sweet full circle moment, the remade Halo: Campaign Evolved is paying tribute to the series with a brand-new Machinima mode.

Halo Studios announced as much in a new blog post answering the community's most-burning, non-spoilerific questions ahead of the remake's release date later this month. Is Campaign Evolved playable on handhelds? Yep. Friendly fire during co-op? If you want. And is there a physical disc release? Yes, despite last week's PlayStation controversy .

Asked about a possible Machinima mode, the answer was another yes. "Halo: Campaign Evolved will have a Machinima mode," community manager John Junyszek writes . "With Machinima mode, you will be able to pop out a freecam, lower your weapons, and even control your Spartan while in freecam mode."

"Machinima mode is available to all players just by using input combos, and does not need to be unlocked by finding a Skull. If you're looking to create great content, you can leverage Machinima mode, in combination with the Acrophobia & Blind Skulls, and even various personal settings such as disabling your HUD UI, to capture unique videos and screenshots."

For those out of the loop, Rooster Teeth first struck gold in the early 2000s with its webseries Red vs. Blue, and is widely credited with popularising Machinima filmmaking, which mostly consists of editing in-game or in-engine footage to create narrative content. People had made Machinima content prior to the first Halo game, but Red vs. Blue is really the first of its kind to blow up to that extent.

At the time, Halo's Forge and Theatre modes were used to record and plan content. Halo: Campaign Evolved has neither series-staple this time around, but it's nice to see the new Machinima mode filling in for now.

Halo: Campaign Evolved is a faithful remake tasked with relaunching a legendary franchise for a new generation of players