Month: September 2020

Eiji Aonuma, producer of The Legend of the Zelda series, has said those looking for new updates for The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2 will have to “wait a bit longer.”

Speaking during the announcement video for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, a new game set 100 years before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Aonuma said the team is working hard on the long-awaited sequel, and he asked fans to have a bit of patience until new updates arrive.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/08/hyrule-warriors-age-of-calamity-official-trailer”]

“We mentioned in the June 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation that we had started development on the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” Aonuma said. “Many people around the world are still playing Breath of the Wild, so I’d like to thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Everyone, thank you so much. Regarding the sequel, in order to make the vast world you enjoyed exploring in the original game even more impressive, the team is working hard on its development, so you’ll have to wait a bit longer before we can provide more updates.”

In the meantime, Aonuma helped announce a new game that will let players return to Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule 100 years before the events of the first game and experience the Great Calamity.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/11/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-sequel-reveal-trailer”]

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will allow players to learn more about the BOTW’s world and play as Link, Zelda, the four champions – Mipha, Revali, Urbosa, and Daruk – and more. Additionally, it will feature 2-player co-op, and will be filled with environmental puzzles, unlockable weapons and skills, crafting, shops, the Sheikah Slate, and more.

For more The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild 2, check out our piece that looks at what we want out of this sequel, why it can’t give us more of the same, and what Breath of the Wild 2 might mean for the Zelda timeline.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=hyrule-warriors-age-of-calamity-screenshots-and-art&captions=true”]

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

CI Games has announced the creation of a brand-new development studio called Hexworks. Situated in both Barcelona and Bucharest, the new studio will develop Lords of the Fallen 2 before focusing on new IP.

“It’s been a long time since we started talking about Lords of the Fallen 2 and trying different ideas,” CI Games CEO Marek Tyminski said. “I am very excited for us to be able to announce the new studio that has been already at work for the last half of the year and made significant progress.

“Initially we decided to keep that quiet as we didn’t want to bring that to public eyes before we would build the core team and before we would all agree on the details of the first project and move forward with our vision. So, this is the time to officially say we are here and we’re here to stay.”

The 25-person team at Hexworks is comprised of veteran staff with AAA game development experience, led by creative director Cezar Virtosu and executive producer Saul Gascon. Virtosu was previously at Ubisoft Bucharest and Paris-based support studio Virtuos, while Gascon was global development director at Overkill Software (and executive producer on the now-discontinued Overkill’s The Walking Dead) before a brief tenure at Smilegate Barcelona.

The new studio will finally provide a stable home for Lords of the Fallen 2. The action-RPG sequel has had a troubled development thus far. First, it lost its original executive producer, Tomasz Gop, back in 2015. Gop was heavily involved in the development of the first game and was previously a senior producer on The Witcher 2: Assassins of Kings. Then, Defiant Studios began work on the game in 2018 after taking over from an in-house studio at CI Games. In May 2019, however, Defiant was removed from the project in a less than amicable split between the two companies.

CI Games announced that it had terminated its agreement with Defiant because of “inadequate execution” at a key milestone in the game’s development. The studio said the quality of work was lower than expected, although Defiant categorically disagreed with this statement.

Hexworks will now finish development of the game, which is described as “a shift from the original’s power fantasy to a dark fantasy.” CI Games also promises it will be much more challenging than its predecessor, matching the combat experience those in the Soulsborne and Souls-like communities enjoy.

Lords of the Fallen 2 will be coming to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and PC.

Fortnite continues to be one of the biggest games in the world, to the point where it’s broadened our ideas of what a game can even be. As part of that, Fortnite’s Party Royale mode will soon begin its Spotlight concert series, with different musical artists performing on the newly-constructed Spotlight sound stage.

Dominic Fike is the first artist to perform in the series, and his concert will air Saturday, September 12 at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET, with encores later in the weekend. The event will also mark the debut of a new outfit, titled Shimmer. Fan-favorite costume Tender Defender will return to the item shop for a short period, as a nod to Fike’s song Chicken Tenders.

The concert series will continue into the fall, with unannounced artists performing on September 19 and 26. Noted rapper Travis Scott was the first artist to perform a concert within Fortnite, and the massive success of that event led fellow major performers like Diplo and Young Thug to follow in his wake.

Recently, Fortnite players have been congregating at the game’s Black Panther statue to mourn the tragic death of actor Chadwick Boseman. Meanwhile, the legal feud between Fortnite developer Epic Games and Apple had continued, and director Ridley Scott isn’t exactly happy about his famous Orwellian commercial getting leveraged in a battle between massive corporations.

Fortnite Party Royale Concert Times

• Dominic Fike’s concert will air Saturday, September 12 at 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET
• Encore 1: Saturday, September 12 at 8 PM PT / 11 PM ET
• Encore 2: Sunday, September 13 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET

Zelda fans who are eager to get back into Link’s colorful world won’t have to wait long. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is coming exclusively to Nintendo Switch on November 20. Preorders are beginning to go live now.

Set 100 years before The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity has you participate in the events of the Great Calamity, which brought the world to the devastated state it’s in in BotW. Nintendo promises “dramatic cutscenes” will show Zelda, the four Champions, and the King of Hyrule trying to stop Calamity Gannon and his forces from unleashing the apocalypse.

As for gameplay, you can play as Zelda, Link, and more characters from the original game. Like previous Warriors games, this one is primarily action-based, with your hero often single-handedly taking on entire armies of enemy forces. In fact, the developers at KOEI Tecmo Games call it “1 vs. 1,000” gameplay.

Preorder Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity

• Get it at Nintendo eShop (digital) – $59.99

Currently, the game is only available for preorder in digital format from the Nintendo eShop. I expect the listing to go up on Amazon, Best Buy, and the rest of the usual retailers soon. I’ll add those links as they go live.

As usual for Nintendo games, Hyrule Warriors will only be available in a standard edition. No special editions have been announced, but we’ll add them here if that changes in the future.

Preorder Bonus

If you preorder the digital version of the game, you’ll get the Lucky Ladle weapon. Nintendo says this item will not be immediately available to owners of the physical version of the game.

Other Preorder Guides

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=other-preorder-guides&type=list”]

Back at E3 2019, Nintendo ended its Direct live stream with the surprise announcement that The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild would receive a sequel. Since then, any information on the sequel has been kept tightly under wraps, as Nintendo isn’t ready yet to divulge any new details on the game. In a brief update regarding progress on Breath of the Wild 2, Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma asked fans to wait “a bit longer.”

“Regarding the sequel, in order to make the vast world you enjoyed exploring in the original game even more impressive, the team is working hard on its development so you’ll have to wait a bit longer before we can provide more updates,” Aonuma said at the beginning of the Hyrule Warriors reveal video.

Breath of the Wild had received downloadable content after it launched, and shortly after the reveal of the sequel, Aonuma explained that the development team simply had “too many ideas” for original content that would be better utilized in a standalone sequel.

“When we released the DLC for Breath of the Wild, we realized that this is a great way to add more elements to the same world. But when it comes down to technical things, DLC is pretty much data–you’re adding data to a preexisting title,” Aonuma said. “And so when we wanted to add bigger changes, DLC is not enough, and that’s why we thought maybe a sequel would be a good fit.”

“Initially we were thinking of just DLC ideas, but then we had a lot of ideas and we said, ‘This is too many ideas, let’s just make one new game and start from scratch.'”

Nintendo does have a Legend of Zelda spin-off arriving soon, in the form of Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Developed by Koei Tecmo, Age of Calamity is a prequel set 100 years before Breath of the Wild.

Much like other Koei Tecmo games that are inspired by Dynasty Warriors, players will be able to take control of Link, Zelda, and Hyrule champions Mipha, Revali, Daruk, and Urbosa as they face off against hordes of enemies that Calamity Ganon has unleashed.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will launch exclusively for Nintendo Switch on November 20.

While Nintendo continues to work on The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel, Zelda fans itching to get back to Hyrule can pick up a new game this November. Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity releases November 20 on Nintendo Switch. It’s the second game in the Hyrule Warriors spin-off series, but it will actually tell a story that will be of great interest to Breath of the Wild fans. If that sounds up your alley, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is available to preorder now for $60.

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, as the title suggests, deals with the lead-up to the Great Calamity. As those who played Breath of the Wild know, Ganon changed the foundation of Hyrule 100 years before Link awakens in Breath of the Wild. Age of Calamity will dive into the events that led to that fateful turn for Hyrule.

As a Hyrule Warriors game, you can expect it to be far more action-oriented than mainline Zelda games. If you played the original Hyrule Warriors or Fire Emblem Warriors, you’ll know what to expect here. These crossover games use Dynasty Warriors’ hack-and-slash combat as a foundation with flashy combos and droves of enemies to defeat. While there will be tons of action, there will also be some environmental puzzles to solve across Hyrule.

Nintendo has revealed a bunch of characters you’ll get to play as in Age of Calamity, including Link, Zelda, and the four Champions from Breath of the Wild (Mipha, Daruk, Revali, and Urbosa). Based on the cover art, it also seems that you might be able to play as a tiny Guardian, which sounds pretty cool. Over the course of the story, you’ll unlock new weapons and skills for your heroes. You can also buy items in shops and craft new ones.

Nintendo will re-release the four Champion Amiibo on November 20 as well. It’s safe to say they will interact with the game in some way, though it’s unclear at this time what they will do. You can expect each of the four–Mipha, Daruk, Revali, and Urbosa–to cost $16 each.

A new Zelda spin-off is coming to Nintendo Switch this November, Nintendo has announced. Titled Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, the game is another Dynasty Warriors-style Zelda adventure developed by Koei Tecmo, and it serves as a prequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

Set 100 years before the events of the Switch launch title, Age of Calamity chronicles the Great Calamity that devastated Hyrule as it unfolded. As in the previous Hyrule Warriors, the game will feature multiple playable characters, each with a unique play style. Players will be able to take control of Link, Zelda, and the four champions of Hyrule–Mipha, Revali, Daruk, and Urbosa–and cut through waves of Ganon’s minions. Along with the aforementioned characters, a small Guardian can be seen among the heroes in the game’s official key art, suggesting it could be playable as well.

In addition to over-the-top battles, Age of Calamity incorporates traditional Zelda elements like puzzles. Players will need to use the Sheikah Slate and other skills to overcome these and other environmental obstacles. Nintendo also says the game features “a robust story that depicts the events, relationships and dramatic moments of the Great Calamity in captivating detail.”

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity is not the Breath of the Wild sequel that was announced back in June 2019. Development on that game is still progressing, series producer Eiji Aonuma confirmed in a video message, although he noted that fans will have to “wait a bit longer” for news about it.

“We mentioned in the June 2019 Nintendo Direct presentation that we had started development on the sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,” Aonuma said. “Many people around the world are still playing Breath of the Wild, so I’d like to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart. Regarding the sequel, in order to make the vast world you enjoyed exploring in the original game even more impressive, the team is working hard on its development, so you’ll have to wait a bit longer before we can provide more updates.”

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity launches exclusively for Nintendo Switch on November 20. Pre-orders for the game are now live on the Nintendo Switch eShop and at other retailers. Those who pre-order the game digitally will receive an exclusive bonus weapon: the Lucky Ladle.