Month: November 2019

Join IGN for Microsoft’s Inside Xbox livestream, live from the X019 fan event in London on November 14 at 12pm PT/3pm ET/8pm UK.

Immediately following Inside Xbox, we’ll have a live post-stream show featuring a recap of all of the big announcements, special guests from Xbox including Xbox Chief Phil Spencer, tons of developers from some of X019’s biggest games, studio special and more!

We’ll kick things off with a pre-show at 11:45am PT/2:45pm ET/7:45pm UK with our predictions and more. Get hyped, Xbox fans!

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

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Carrie Fisher’s brother, Todd Fisher, has revealed new details about director JJ Abrams’ original plans for Leia in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker.

In an interview with Yahoo Entertainment, Fisher elaborated on the original intentions for his sister’s iconic character going into Episode IX, prior to her sudden death in December 2016, claiming that she was actually meant to become the “Last Jedi” of the Skywalker saga.

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A new Grand Prix is heading to Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled on November 9. The free Nitro Circus update includes a new track, game mode, characters, karts, cosmetic items, and more.

Koala Carnival is a new track helmed by circus strongman Koala Kong. It twists and turns through a death-defying Big Top that’s full of neon lights, hot air balloons, and vibrant colors. There’s also a new game mode in Local Arcade called Ring Rally, tasking you with nailing the perfect racing line in order to drive through each ring and earn the Nitro that will propel you to victory.

Meanwhile, Pasadena O’Possum and Ebenezer Von Clutch join the ranks of competitive racers in Nitro-Fueled, while the aforementioned Koala Kong headlines the battle pass-esque Nitro Gauge rewards set. Sticking with the circus theme, the Nitro Bumper Kart provides a new way to travel, and both the Pressuriser and Daredevil karts return from the original Crash Team Racing.

In terms of cosmetics, there are some new circus-themed skins, in case you ever wanted antagonist Doctor Neo Cortex to resemble The Joker. You can also outfit your karts with animated paint jobs for the first time, and if you manage to finish in the top five percent of the Grand Prix leaderboards, you’ll win the Champion Kart and Neon Circus signature decal.

Last but not least, heading into Adventure Mode and collecting all of the hidden Golden Eggs scattered across each hub world will unlock King Chicken for some royal poultry-themed racing.

Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled was released back in June earlier this year. We gave it a score of 8/10 in our review, saying, “Simply put: This is a remaster done right. Nitro-Fueled maintains the spirit and rock-solid foundations of a childhood favorite while building on it and modernizing it where necessary–even if the handling might take a bit of getting used to. Adventure mode’s classic variant feels a little tough, but your first race on Roo’s Tubes or Sewer Speedway will bring a nostalgic grin to your face regardless. When the nostalgia fades, Crash Team Racing Nitro-Fueled remains fun and engaging enough to keep you racing on with a smile on your face for much longer yet. It’s good to have Crash back.”

Hermen Hulst, managing director and co-founder of Dutch developer Guerrilla Games, is PlayStation’s new head of Worldwide Studios. The change comes as part of Sony Interactive Entertainment’s restructuring ahead of the launch of the PlayStation 5, slated to release during fall 2020.

Worldwide Studios president Shuhei Yoshida is also leaving his current role to lead a new initiative nurturing third-party independent studios. These moves follow the departure of Worldwide Studios Chairman Shawn Layden after 32 years at the company.

Hulst will start his new role immediately and manage all of Sony’s game development across 14 internal studios, including the likes of Naughty Dog, Insomniac, Sucker Punch, and Santa Monica. In an interview with GamesIndusry.biz, PlayStation CEO and President Jim Ryan–who was previously PlayStation Europe chief–noted that Hulst’s appointment shows that Sony is thinking globally as it moves towards the next generation. “I think everybody in Europe should be thrilled and happy and proud that that is happening,” he said.

“Hermen is one of the most effective and well-respected leaders in the video game industry. He is a passionate advocate for the teams he leads and understands how to empower creative talent to build great experiences. I have no doubt Hermen can lead our teams to deliver compelling and diverse experiences at a steady cadence.”

Hulst most recently oversaw the development of Horizon: Zero Dawn at Guerrilla Games–a successful new franchise for PlayStation–and worked with Kojima Productions on the imminent Death Stranding. The studio is also well known for developing the Killzone series of games, and a sequel to Horizon: Zero Dawn is looking more and more likely. Angie Smets, Jan-Bart van Beek, and Michiel van der Leeuw will take over as joint studio heads at Guerrilla in Hulst’s place.

Meanwhile, Yoshida’s new role emphasises Sony’s commitment to supporting indie developers. “Everybody knows just how passionate Shu is about independent games,” Ryan continued. “These wildly creative experiences deserve focus and a champion like Shu at PlayStation who will ensure the entire SIE organisation works together to better engage with independent developers through a culture of supporting and celebrating their contributions to PlayStation platforms.

“I think we’ve always been there with indies, and when they were fascinated and engaged with virtual reality, that’s when we pivoted our engagement with them. So our work with the indie community has remained at the levels that it was during the early days of PS4.”

AMD has finally announced its long-awaited Ryzen Threadripper 3rd Generation line of high-end desktop processors.

In this new generation of 7nm CPUs, we’re only getting two chips: the Threadripper 3960X and 3970X. The new 3960X is AMD’s new baseline Threadripper CPU and it offers 24 cores and 48 threads meanwhile the 3970X offers 32 cores and 64 threads.

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After weeks of teases, Pokemon Go‘s mysterious Team Rocket bosses–Cliff, Arlo, and Sierra–have finally made their debut in the game. Players around the world now have the opportunity to encounter and battle the three evil trainers, and they’ve arrived alongside a new Special Research questline that leads to the mastermind behind the organization: Giovanni.

The key to encountering the new Team Rocket leaders is the Rocket Radar, a device made out of the Mysterious Components that Rocket grunts have been leaving behind when defeated. If you collect six of these Mysterious Components, you can assemble a Rocket Radar, which will reveal the leaders’ hideout and allow you to challenge them.

Just as with Rocket grunts, if you defeat the Team Rocket Leaders in battle, you’ll then have a chance to catch one of the Shadow Pokemon in their possession, and Niantic teases that these monsters “might have special qualities.” Defeating Rocket leaders and grunts will also help you complete tasks in the game’s newest Special Research questline, which will culminate in an encounter with Team Rocket head honcho Giovanni. Defeat him and you’ll have a chance to rescue a Shadow Legendary Pokemon.

Of course, that’s not all that’s happening in Pokemon Go right now. The game’s first Gen 5 Legendary, Cobalion, recently made its debut in five-star Raids, and you’ll be able to encounter it until November 26. The paid Regigigas event recently ended, but the Legendary Pokemon will return to the game as part of EX Raids later this month.

Finally, November’s Community Day is right around the corner. This month, the event takes place on Saturday, November 16–the day after Pokemon Sword and Shield launch for Nintendo Switch. The featured Pokemon this time around is Chimchar, the Fire-type starter from Diamond and Pearl. On top of increased Chimchar spawns, you’ll have your first chance to catch a Shiny Chimchar during the event, and Pokemon eggs will hatch at a quarter of the distance they normally require.

Black Friday is no longer confined to a single day. In 2019, Black Friday is a multi-day, multi-sale series of savings events. The price drops have already started and several retailers have dipped their toes into the lake of savings to test the waters.

Amazon remains one of the most dependable and easy-to-access retailers for Black Friday savings, but it lacks the doorbuster deals offered at retailers with physical locations like Walmart. That doesn’t mean it still doesn’t have drastic savings to entice you to spend your holiday money on the sort of items you’d expect to see for Black Friday.

There’s no flier or ad for Amazon Black Friday 2019, but we can do our best to predict some of the deals based on past deals and announcements from companies like Nintendo. Also, Amazon is notorious for price-matching competitors, so if you see a great deal at Walmart or Best Buy, expect it to show up on Amazon soon thereafter.

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Sony is continuing its leadership shakeup ahead of the PS5 launch as Shuhei Yoshida steps down from his Worldwide Studios presidency to helm a new indie-focused venture. Meanwhile, Guerrilla Games co-founder and managing director, Hermen Hulst, is the new head of Worldwide Studios effective immediately.

Yoshida’s switch in focus to independent developers is part of a wider push by Sony to bring in fresh talent. His initiative will nurture external indie studios that PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan called the “lifeblood of the industry.”

Speaking to GamesIndustry.biz, Ryan said Yoshida “will ensure the entire SIE organization works together to better engage with independent developers through a culture of supporting and celebrating their contributions to PlayStation platforms.”

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The creator of the original Fallout and co-director of The Outer Worlds, Tim Cain, loves chocolate so much that developer Obsidian has a Slack channel dedicated to daily tasting sessions. To immortalise their boss’s adoration of cocoa, the dev team deliberately snuck a few Easter Eggs into The Outer Worlds – not literal chocolate eggs though. Sadly.

During development, The Outer Worlds staff had daily chocolate meetings arranged over Slack by Cain who would begin by sending out the details of that day’s confectionery. He explained the process to PC Gamer, how he’d write “if it’s single origin, what country it’s from, the cacao percentage, any flavoring agents. We all eat a piece and we talk about it and then I blog it, and so that way I have a list of everything chocolate I’ve eaten since 1993 and whether I liked it.”

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