The 50-second clip, titled ‘From Russia with Love,’ opens in the sprawling frozen fields of what appears to be a Russian facility, as a group of people perform manual labour on a snow-covered railway track. The camera focuses on one specific individual who is quickly identified to be a shaven-headed Jim Hopper, played by David Harbour.
“We’re excited to officially confirm that production on Stranger Things 4 is now underway — and even more excited to announce the return of Hopper!” the Duffer Brothers said in a statement. “Although it’s not all good news for our ‘American’; he is imprisoned far from home in the snowy wasteland of Kamchatka, where he will face dangers both human… and other.
“Meanwhile, back in the states, a new horror is beginning to surface, something long-buried, something that connects everything. Season 4 is shaping up to be the biggest and most frightening season yet, and we cannot wait for everyone to see more. In the meantime — pray for the American.”
Devil May Cry 3: Special Edition on Nintendo Switch will have a completely new and exclusive co-op mode.
Capcom has spent the past few weeks announcing the three new features it’s added to the Switch version of Devil May Cry 3. Now the third one has been revealed and it’s local co-op for the game’s Bloody Palace mode.
The co-op will work with Joy-Cons as well as the Switch Pro Controller, and any combo of them both. You’ll have to beat the intro mission before being able to start a co-op session of Bloody Palace. One player is Dante while the other is Vergil, and you’ll have separate save files for each, and can also have different controller setups for each character.
Bloody Palace is survival mode in which you have just one life as you try to climb up 9999 floors of a demon-filled tower. When you beat a floor, you get the choice of three portals to go through, letting up ascend one floor, 10 floors, or 100 floors.
The other two exclusive features that the Switch version of Devil May Cry 3 has are on-the-fly combat style switching, and on-the-fly weapon switching. In the original game, you had to switch weapons before starting a mission, or could do it mid-mission at a Divinity Statue. In the Switch version, you can switch styles and weapons wherever you want, and whenever you want.
Devil May Cry 3 comes to Nintendo Switch on February 20, 2020. Our Devil May Cry 3 review of the original 2005 game gave it a 9.6, so you know, it’s certainly worth checking out if you haven’t played it before.
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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot was the best-selling game in the U.S. for the month of January, according to NPD.
Kakarot brought in the third-highest first month sales total for a Dragon Ball video game, coming in behind 2018’s Dragon Ball FighterZ and 2002’s Dragon Ball Z: Budokai.
Grand Theft Auto V notably returned to the top five for the first time since August. As noted by NPD, it remains the best-selling video game of all time in the U.S.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, the best-selling game of 2019, finished second in January’s U.S. sales totals, dropping slightly from its spot atop the list in December.
For the fifteenth consecutive month, Nintendo Switch was the best-selling console. As of December 31, 2019, Nintendo has sold over 52 million Switch units.
According to Harrison Ford himself, Indiana Jones 5 is set to start shooting in “about two months,” which would see Ford back on set as Dr. Henry Walton “Indiana” Jones Jr. around April 2020.
Speaking to CBS Sunday Morning, Ford was asked by correspondent Lee Cowan what the challenges are when returning to roles such as Han Solo and Indiana Jones after such a long period of time.
“Trying not to look silly… you know… hang around in tight pants and high boots,” Ford joked. “I’ll give you a more appropriate answer, considering I’m going to start doing Indiana Jones in about two months.”
Assuming all goes according to plan, Ford will return as Indiana Jones this April for the first time since 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Square Enix has released the opening cinematic of Final Fantasy VII Remake way ahead of its April 10 release date.
The five-minute movie blends some very familiar elements with plenty of brand new ones. It opens with a highly detailed look at the eclectic city of Midgar, taking the viewer on a journey through the bustling streets that are filled with construction workers and kids speeding around on bicycles.
The establishing shots are supported by newly orchestrated, breath-taking music, which swells to a peak as Aerith gazes up towards the starlit night sky. The camera pans out to reveal more breathtaking views of the vibrant metropolis before Cloud Strife makes his highly-anticipated entrance atop a high-speed train.
The Final Fantasy VII Remake will invite players to jump into a hybrid battle system that merges real-time action with strategic, command-based combat, as they enter a world where the Shinra Electric Power Company – a shadowy corporation – controls the planet’s very life force.
Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX is a remake of the very first Pokemon Mystery Dungeon games (and the demo has been out for a while now) but of course there’s more to it than what we’ve seen so far. Though we didn’t get to check out the just-announced Mega Evolutions in action, we did go hands-on with a different story dungeon and some new features not shown in the demo or available in the originals.
Watch the video above for short break downs and gameplay clips of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX’s Rescue Team Camp system, new Rare Qualities, the Pokemon recruiting mechanic, a short boss battle, and more—some of which is completely new to the remake.
Rescue Team Camps
The path to the left of your home base in Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX (as seen in the video above) leads to the Rescue Team Camps! You can purchase these camps from Wigglytuff, and each camp can be inhabited by certain species of Pokemon. You won’t be able to permanently recruit Pokemon unless you have the Camp where they’d reside, and there’s a limited number of Pokemon you can “store” this way. The higher your Rescue Team rank, the higher this limit.
Rare Qualities
The Rescue Team Camps menu is also where you can manage your Pokemon and feed them Gummis to raise stats or unlock a Rare Quality. Rare Qualities are new to Rescue Team DX and grant Pokemon abilities that affect the entire team – like Brawl, which increases your team’s damage with more enemies in the room.
Preparing for a Dungeon
The ability to manage your team, items, and money from the dungeon departure screen appears to be a new feature of the remake, and a handy one at that. You always want to make sure to store money and items you don’t need, or else risk losing them if you suffer a full party wipe inside the dungeon.
Recruiting Pokemon
Sometimes, there will be fainted Pokemon in a dungeon. Find it and give it an apple – there’s a chance it will want to tag along. Rarely, a Pokemon you defeat in a dungeon will ask to join you too. Once you leave the dungeon, you can let these Pokemon join your Rescue Team as long as you have the right camp.
You’ll get a notice if you don’t have a camp a Pokemon can reside in. In which case, you can use a Wigglytuff Orb to summon Wigglytuff and purchase the camp you need to recruit said Pokemon, another new feature!
Unlike the original Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Blue Rescue Team and Red Rescue Team, you can have up to eight Pokemon with you at a dungeon at a time, increasing the number from a sad four before, so recruiting Pokemon in Rescue Team DX will be much more efficient. Speaking of efficiency, the new Auto Mode substantially increases the pace you can explore a dungeon, but automatically switches off when an enemy is encountered, so it doesn’t do everything for you.
Watch the video at the top of this page for the boss fight and an extra minute of Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX gameplay within the Sinister Woods. Otherwise, that’s about all the new stuff we saw so far. For more on Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX, check out the first 15 minutes of it in the video above.
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Casey DeFreitas is an Editor at IGN who loves monster hunting, slaying, and catching. Catch her on Twitter @ShinyCaseyD.
The multiverse was first mentioned in the original Doctor Strange movie when Tilda Swinton’s Ancient One schools Benedict Cumberbatch’s Stephen Strange. She explains how our universe is only one in an infinite number. “Who are you in this vast Multiverse, Mr. Strange?” she asks him. It looks like the sequel will answer that question. And while the film’s main plot has something to do with Doctor Strange and Scarlet Witch teaming up to combat some threat spawned from the multiverse, Raimi could use it for the ultimate fan service: bringing back Tobey Maguire’s Spider-Man.
The parallel realities of the multiverse reflect our own world but with various differences. One world might be overrun by a zombie plague while another one is populated by cartoon animals. The world of the Raimi Spider-Man films could be one of these alternate universes, meaning that Doctor Strange could cross paths with Maguire’s Spidey during his journey through the multiverse. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse already showed various Marvel characters from different realities meeting one another, so Doctor Strange 2 would just be making that happen in live-action.
In 2004’s Spider-Man 2, Raimi even included a reference to the good doctor when J. Jonah Jameson’s assistant, Hoffman, pitched “Doctor Strange” as a name for the escaped Doctor Octavius. “That’s pretty good, but it’s taken,” Jameson says. While played for laughs, that moment seemingly confirms a Doctor Strange exists in the Raimi-verse, so it wouldn’t be a stretch for the MCU Strange to cross paths with that version of himself and bump into Maguire’s Peter Parker along the way.
Speaking of Jameson, the credits stinger for Spider-Man: Far From Home featured JK Simmons reprising his role in order to curse the name of Spider-Man. While this was technically the MCU’s version of the character and not the Jameson from Raimi-verse, it shows that Sony and Marvel Studios are certainly open to the idea of utilizing actors and characters from the Raimi trilogy.
Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy ended on a sour note thanks to Spider-Man 3, and Raimi’s plans for a fourth Spider-Man movie never saw the light of day because Sony decided to reboot the franchise instead, so revisiting that world via this Doctor Strange sequel would give him the chance to properly tie up loose ends.
Raimi himself isn’t a very big fan of Spider-Man 3. In a 2015 interview with Collider he got out his feelings, saying, “It’s a movie that just didn’t work very well. I tried to make it work, but I didn’t really believe in all the characters, so that couldn’t be hidden from people who loved Spider-Man. If the director doesn’t love something, it’s wrong of them to make it when so many other people love it. I think [raising the stakes after Spider-Man 2] was the thinking going into it, and I think that’s what doomed us. I should’ve just stuck with the characters and the relationships and progressed them to the next step and not tried to top the bar.”
Obviously Doctor Strange going on a full-fledged side-adventure with Maguire’s Spidey would detract from the main story, but a lot could be done even with a small cameo. Even if we just get a short scene that shows that everything turned out alright for Peter and Kirsten Dunst’s Mary Jane Watson, it would mean a lot to fans who were left unsatisfied with what went down in Spider-Man 3. Raimi could finally give us a taste of how he would have progressed those character relationships after all these years. His take on Spider-Man is beloved by millions of fans and is remembered for helping kick off the modern superhero movie craze, so if he doesn’t use Doctor Strange’s jaunt through the multiverse as an opportunity to give that world a proper send-off, then that would just be, well, madness.
For more on Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, check out our video primer below:
Joshua is Senior Features Editor at IGN. If Pokemon, Green Lantern, or Game of Thrones are frequently used words in your vocabulary, you’ll want to follow him on Twitter @JoshuaYehl and IGN.
The illustrated hardcover editions of the original four Harry Potter books have been on sale this week, and they’ve been a massively popular set of items with you (the IGN readers). The sale prices are beginning to cool off, but not entirely, and now the best deal on the first three books is the illustrated boxed set.
Some of the books are also available as paperbacks, and some are available on Kindle, so if you’d rather just read the books and enjoy their illustrations without the bother of a hardcover (for whatever reason), you could buy them on Kindle and enjoy them on your PC or your iPad. But honestly, why deprive yourself?
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Seth Macy is IGN’s tech and commerce editor and just wants to be your friend. Find him on Twitter @sethmacy.
Just in time for Valentine’s Day, Quibi has released the first trailer for its upcoming thriller, The Stranger, which is set to premiere on the new mobile streaming platform on Monday, April 6, 2020 — the same day the service launches.
Here’s how Quibi describes the movie: “A rideshare driver (Maika Monroe) is thrown into her worst nightmare when she picks up a mysterious Hollywood Hills passenger (Dane DeHaan). Her heart-stopping ride with ‘The Stranger’ unfolds over 12 hours as she navigates a spine-chilling game of cat and mouse.”
For a sneak peek at The Stranger, check out the teaser trailer in the video below:
Quibi, which is short for “quick bites,” is a mobile streaming app that will feature (among other things) short-form videos, and will cost you $5 per month with ads ($8 for no ads). The Stranger falls under Quibi’s “Movies in Chapters” umbrella. Each chapter will run around 10 minutes in length, with all of the episodes available for viewing in portrait or landscape modes via your cell phone.
The Stranger is written, directed and executive produced by Veena Sud (Seven Seconds, The Killing). Zombieland: Double Tap’s Avan Jogia will star alongside DeHaan and Monroe. Watch the first chapter of The Stranger on Quibi on April 6, 2020.
The winners of the DICE Awards have been announced and it’s quite the assorted pot. From indie to triple-A and from sequels to new IPs, a little bit of received an accolade.
Control wins in terms of most awards–coming out on top in four categories: Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction, Action Game of the Year, Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition, and Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction.
That said, Remedy Entertainment’s game didn’t nab the coveted Game of the Year award. That went to Untitled Goose Game. House House’s absurd game about an annoying goose also won Outstanding Achievement in Character and Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game.
The full list of categories and their corresponding winners are listed below.
DICE Awards 2020
Game of the Year – Untitled Goose Game
Outstanding Achievement in Game Direction – Control
Outstanding Achievement in Game Design – Baba Is You
Portable Game of the Year – Sayonara Wild Hearts
Outstanding Achievement for an Independent Game – Untitled Goose Game
Immersive Reality Game of the Year – Pistol Whip
Immersive Reality Technical Achievement – Blood & Truth
Outstanding Achievement in Online Gameplay – Apex Legends
Strategy/Simulation Game of the Year – Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Sports Game of the Year – FIFA 2020
Role-Playing Game of the Year – The Outer Worlds
Racing Game of the Year – Mario Kart Tour
Fighting Game of the Year – Mortal Kombat 11
Family Game of the Year – Super Mario Maker 2
Adventure Game of the Year – Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order
Action Game of the Year – Control
Outstanding Technical Achievement – Death Stranding
Outstanding Achievement in Story – Disco Elysium
Outstanding Achievement in Audio Design – Death Stranding
Outstanding Achievement in Original Music Composition – Control
Outstanding Achievement in Character – Untitled Goose Game
Outstanding Achievement in Art Direction – Control
Outstanding Achievement in Animation – Luigi’s Mansion 3
