Outriders developer People Can Fly has announced that its sci-fi co-op shooter will be slightly delayed from its original December 2020 release date and will instead launch on February 2 for current and next-gen systems. In a blog post, community manager Toby Palm explained that the COVID-19 pandemic had affected development on Outriders, but that the core game had been completed.
“COVID-19 has certainly affected our operations over the past months, but the teams have all worked extremely hard to adapt to changing circumstances,” Palm explained. “While the core game is now in a largely complete state, our testing operations were unfortunately among the most affected by the work-process-restructuring caused by the novel coronavirus. To that end, we need a bit more time to get it right and ensure that the Outriders experience will be as smooth and issue-free as it possibly can be when we launch.”
There is a silver lining to this delay, as players will be able to upgrade the game forto free on their respective next-gen systems. Xbox One users will be able to play Outriders on Xbox Series X and Series S through Smart Delivery, while PS4 owners of the game will also receive a free cross-play update on PS5. If you’d prefer to experience Outriders on the cloud, it’ll also be available on Google Stadia, or you can grab it on PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store.
Adding tusks to guns takes time
Outrider’s last big reveal was during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live, where it showed off the dangerous planet of Enoch that players will be able to explore as one of four distinct classes. These classes can use exotic superpowers to wipe out entire hordes of enemies.
Technomancers can control crowds and summon lethal turrets, Devastators are close range powerhouses who can absorb an incredible amount of damage, Tricksters bend time and space as hit-and-run assassins, and the Pyromancer specializes in reducing everything around them to ashes.
Xbox Series X and Series S are launching in just over a month, and Microsoft has put out the first ad for the new hardware. The Xbox Series X and Series S ad is light on the gameplay imagery and instead sells the Xbox as a gateway to fantasia. It features Academy Award-nominated actor Daniel Kaluuya (Get Out, Black Panther).
In the ad titled “Us Dreamers,” a young man comes home, puts on his headset, and is transported to a variety of locales. Those include hovering over a Viking naval battle, facing some kind of monstrous world-eater, and becoming/meeting Master Chief, who then grows larger than the planet he’s standing on. This may have been in production before Halo Infinite, which was to be the Series X’s big launch game, was delayed into 2021.
The accompanying tweet emphasizes the “dream” aspect, though it leans less on psychedelia and more on “blazing fast speeds” and “high visual fidelity with higher frame rates.”
In an announcement, Microsoft said this is the first of its Power Your Dreams ad campaign.
“We invite you to come on this journey with us,” the announcement says. “To dream of more vibrant and living gaming worlds. To dream of being instantly transported to your games at blazingly fast speeds. To dream of discovering your full gaming potential through high visual fidelity and even higher framerates, never experienced on consoles before.”
This is similar to the latest PlayStation 5 ad, which also featured dream-like imagery to showcase the hardware as transporting the player to new worlds. It was slightly more grounded and focused mostly on a narrative around ships at sea. That followed the very first PS5 ad, which centered almost entirely on the DualSense controller.
Ahead of Prime Day 2020, Amazon has unveiled a portion of the deals shoppers can take advantage of during the annual blowout sale. The list of deals includes some noteworthy Nintendo Switch discounts and a bunch of Amazon devices for low prices. Prime Day 2020 kicks off October 13 at midnight PT / 3 AM ET, so it won’t be long before you can start saving big on a wide assortment of gaming, tech, and entertainment products.
On the gaming front, Amazon has only revealed deals pertaining to the Nintendo Switch. Shoppers can save 36% on a bundle including a 12-month Nintendo Switch Online family membership and a SanDisk 128GB microSD card. Amazon didn’t provide specifics, but we assume the microSD card is the officially branded Nintendo model. If that’s the case, you’ll be able to grab this bundle for $44.80, down from $70.
You’ll also be able to save up to 33% on select Nintendo Switch games. No specific game deals were provided, but we expect this to include first-party Switch titles for $40–this would line up with previous Prime Day/Black Friday pricing for Nintendo’s lineup of $60 exclusives.
Outside of the Nintendo Switch deals, the most notable deals Amazon revealed will be found on Amazon devices, including big discounts on the Echo Dot, Echo Show, Kindle Paperwhite, and Amazon Fire TVs. Some of the deals are already available, too.
Amazon devices will likely be featured most prominently, but there will be plenty more entertainment, tech, and smart home deals. You’ll be able to save on Sony and Samsung TVs, Panasonic cameras, and more.
Up to 30% off select Samsung and Sony TVs
Up to 40% off Panasonic cameras
Up to 30% off headphones from major brands
Up to 46% off Garmin GPS devices and smartwatches
20% off Sindoh 3D printers
Up to 33% off iRobot Roomba vacuums
Up to 33% off Arlo Smart Home security products
If you’re shopping for kids this holiday season, there will be tons of deals on popular toys and brands, including Hot Wheels, Nerf, Marvel, and Star Wars.
Up to 30% off Barbie and Hot Wheels toys
Up to 30% off Nerf guns
Up to 30% off Marvel and Star Wars toys
Up to 30% off board and card games, including Magic the Gathering
Netflix has announced that Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous has been renewed for Season 2, with the all-new episodes set to premiere in 2021.
The streaming service released a teaser trailer for the second season of its animated adventure series on Friday, offering fans a first-look at the “new season of survival.” The teaser doesn’t reveal the exact release date for the new season, but it does confirm that the upcoming batch of episodes will debut on Netflix sometime next year. Check out the first trailer below:
A new season of survival begins in 2021. All new episodes of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous, coming soon to @netflix. pic.twitter.com/kzag0fsgYl
The short video shows the campers trying to escape the claws (and jaws) of the many dinosaurs that are now wreaking havoc across the island, which is located on the opposite side of Isla Nublar. Towards the end of the teaser, the terrified teenagers come face-to-face with an ominous new dinosaur threat, as a Ceratosaurus lunges out of the leaves straight towards the group.
Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous officially opened its gates on Netflix on September 18, with the first season coming from executive producers Steven Spielberg, Colin Trevorrow and Frank Marshall, together with Scott Kreamer and Aaron Hammersley who served as executive producers and showrunners on the series, which was developed by Zack Stentz.
The voice cast featured Paul-Mikél Williams as resident dinosaur expert Darius; Jenna Ortega as social media sensation Brooklynn; Ryan Potter as self-appointed VIP Kenji; Raini Rodriguez as gregarious and enthusiastic Sammy; Sean Giambrone as sensitive and bookish Ben; and Kausar Mohammed as world-class athlete Yaz. Elsewhere, Jameela Jamil and Glen Powell recur as camp counsellors Roxie and Dave.
The second season of Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous will help to fill the dinosaur-shaped hole in our lives next year after Jurassic World: Dominion was recently rescheduled for release on June 10, 2022. Production on the film was halted earlier this week after multiple crew members tested positive for coronavirus (COVID-19). Filming is expected to resume in two weeks time.
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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.
The Medium, the psychological horror game from Blair Witch and Observer developer Bloober Team will hit PC and Xbox platforms in December.
Bloober announced The Medium will be available for Xbox Series X and Series S, as well as PC via Steam, the Epic Games Store, and Microsoft Store on December 10. Preorders are now available for all PC versions. You can check out a new trailer for the game below.
The Medium offers players an adventure through a dual-reality world – the real world and the spirit world – as they take on the role of Marianne, a medium plagued by visions who lives in both worlds. The game also stars Troy Baker as the antagonist the Maw, a role that Baker told IGN earlier this year is “something like I’ve never done before.”
Bloober Team, the studio behind Blair Witch and Layers of Fear, has announced a new release date for its next title, The Medium. The psychological horror game is now scheduled to launch on Xbox Series X and Series S–as well as PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store–on December 10.
Coinciding with the release date announcement, Bloober Team has shared a new trailer for The Medium. This video provides another look at the game’s macabre art style and premieres a haunting new music track that’s available to download on Steam. You can watch the new trailer below.
The Medium casts players in the role of a medium named Marianne, who lives in two worlds: the human world and the spirit world. After seeing visions of a young girl’s murder, Marianne travels to an abandoned hotel to search for the truth about what happened there years ago.
According to Bloober Team, The Medium is skipping Xbox One in favor of the Series X because the newer system allows the studio to realize its vision for the game. “Thanks to the power of Xbox Series X, we can develop the game the way we have always envisioned it,” Jacek Zięba, a producer at the studio, said. “This is truly a great piece of hardware, one that enables us to realize our vision of the game without compromises. I can’t wait for the fans to see what the console is really capable of.”
The Medium is available to preorder now ahead of its release. If you’re planning to pick it up on PC, Bloober Team recently revealed the system requirements and recommended specs you’d need to run the horror game. You can read more about the title in our Medium preorder guide.
Moon Studios doesn’t have any new Ori games planned right now, but has “left the door open” for a return to the series – perhaps in a prequel or spin-off. One spin-off the team doesn’t have much control over, but would very much like to see, is Ori making an appearance in Super Smash Bros.
With Ori & the Blind Forest and Ori & the Will of the Wisps now complete, the studio has said previously that it’s happy with how Ori’s story ended. In a new interview with IGN, the team made clear that was still the case, but it doesn’t necessarily mean Moon won’t return to the world it created.
Moon is now working on a brand new action-RPG for publisher Private Division, with no connection to its Ori games. “We are still in the pretty early stages of development,” said lead artist Daniel van Leeuwen, “but a lot of the things we already have are very exciting!”
Asked if there were any plans in place for an Ori follow-up after or alongside that new game, art director Jeremy Gritton made clear that, “For now we’re focused on our newest title, but we’ve left the door open for a return to Ori’s world. It would really come down to whether or not there’s a story that the team is excited to tell.”
With the character of Ori’s story seemingly complete, I asked if the team would prefer to approach a new game as a prequel or spin-off. “There are a lot of possibilities for stories to tell in [Ori game settings] Niwen or Nibel”, explains Gritton. “As you mentioned, both prequels and spin-offs would give us an opportunity to expand on the lore while giving a fresh perspective.
“Although we don’t have anything planned at the moment, I think there’s a lot of potential there. Sometimes I’ll have an idea that I think would be cool to explore, so I make a note of it and file it away for now. Continuing to expand on what we’ve already established could be a lot of fun.”
I ask if the Ori series could transition into another form, such as a comic book or animated show, an idea Gritton is clearly in favour of (although he gives no indication if anything is in the works): “There are some inherent restrictions to story-telling in a game, so that could be really interesting. I think Ori’s world could very easily transfer to other media. In terms of lore, there’s a lot we could dive into and explore more in-depth.”
And there’s another spin-off Moon would be happy to see, even if it’s not really the Ori developers’ choice. Before it was revealed to be Minecraft’s Steve, some had tipped Ori as a potential next guest fighter for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, given the series’ connection to Nintendo Switch (not to mention Ori’s appearance in a similar fighting game, Rivals of Aether).
Moon gives no indication that any formal discussions have taken place, but the team are very much in favour of the idea:
“I think all of us at Moon would LOVE to see Ori in Smash and we think that Ori’s moveset and fighting mechanics [would] be tons of fun”, says Moon co-founder Gennadiy Korol, before adding how fans could go about helping to make it happen: “I honestly think this could be amazing and you should tweet Phil Spencer about it!”
As for Ori’s immediate future, the team isn’t speaking much about the Optimized for Series X version of Ori & the Will of the Wisps, but Korol teases that, “I think people will be very surprised with how significant the upgrade to 120FPS in 4K would be. We can’t wait to share more on that later.”
We’ll be excited to see whatever Moon has for us next, given how impressive its first two games have been. We awarded Ori & the Blind Forest an 8.5 review, calling it “a beautifully realized, brilliantly designed, and at times brutally difficult sylvan Metroidvania-style platformer with enough charm to leave a lasting impression.” That was followed by Ori & the Will of the Wisps, which we said took “an excellent foundation and made even more out of it”, in our 9/10 review.
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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
Seeing as EA copy and pasted last year’s FIFA onto Switch again this year – once again saying it has the same gameplay “without any new development or significant enhancements” on its store page for the full price of $49.99/£44.99 – I’ve decided to do the same and copy and paste my review of FIFA 20 on Switch below as my review of FIFA 21:
There’s honestly no genuine reason I could give you to purchase FIFA 20 on the Nintendo Switch if you already own FIFA 19 on Switch. I don’t generally share the sentiment of the crowd that labels sports games as the same every year, but when it comes to FIFA 20 Legacy Edition, all of the comment section tropes are valid. For a series already drowning in microtransaction debate, the Switch version really doesn’t help EA’s case in currying gamers’ favour by essentially offering nothing but a barebones roster update for nearly the price of a full game. A ‘macrotransaction’, if you will.
Last year, I had this to say about FIFA 19’s gameplay on Nintendo Switch:
“FIFA 19’s moment-to-moment gameplay remains, disappointingly, largely unchanged from last year’s under-par outing. Still running on EA’s Ignite engine (last used on the PS4/Xbox/PC version for FIFA 16), it simply can’t compete with the fluidity of movement and authentically animated players the Frostbite-powered versions display […] All in all, FIFA 19’s gameplay on Switch appears to have been largely neglected when compared to last year, and especially when compared to its big brother.”
This year, I have this to say about FIFA 20’s gameplay on Nintendo Switch:
“FIFA 20’s moment-to-moment gameplay remains, disappointingly, largely completely unchanged from last year’s under-par outing. Still running on EA’s Ignite engine (last used on the PS4/Xbox/PC version for FIFA 16), it simply can’t compete with the fluidity of movement and authentically animated players the Frostbite-powered versions display […] All in all, FIFA 20’s gameplay on Switch appears to have been largely neglected when compared to last year, and especially when compared to its big brother.”
If you feel shortchanged by the fact that all I’ve done is changed a handful of small elements from the original version, mostly to change the date, then you know exactly how I felt when playing FIFA 20 Legacy Edition.
To EA’s credit, it has been wholly transparent about the nature of this version, including a name change and being up front about what ‘Legacy Edition’ actually means. It promises the “same gameplay innovation from FIFA 19 without any new development or significant enhancements” as well as “no new game modes”. In essence, it’s a stripped back version of FIFA 20 and indicative of its approach to the series on the Switch. On the other hand, EA still has the gall to charge £44.99/$49.99 for it, with no upgrade option for owners of FIFA 19.
And, as promised, none of the gameplay innovations implemented in FIFA 20’s big-league version have found their way onto Nintendo’s hybrid device. This includes the defender-beating strafe dribbling, occasionally bombastic set-up touch and the whole way that defending works now. Still missing are some of FIFA 19’s additions, most notably among them being the first touch system that allows for the ball to be nudged in any direction with the right analogue stick. It really adds to the flow of a game; how dearly I miss flicking the ball up in the air when receiving a pass and unleashing a powerful on goal when I go back to playing FIFA on the Switch.
This lack of subtlety over first-time control and often wayward passing due to the inherent lack of accuracy attainable from the Joy-Con sticks can lead to messy football, especially in the midfield where players operate like bumper cars, the ball ricocheting between them. Bringing the ball under control from a long, raking pass can be a drawn-out experience akin to trying to catch a rubber bouncy ball in the middle of an oil spill. Players often bundle into one another and knock them to the ground, both on and off the ball, and often to no repercussions, which further adds to the mayhem.
Playing with a Pro Controller can ease the chaos slightly, its better analog sticks bringing more order to proceedings when in possession of the ball, but it is still clear to see that FIFA 20 on Switch lacks the tweaks that the real FIFA has benefitted from over the past couple of years.
Shooting is still an entirely underwhelming experience. Efforts from distance still balloon into the air before dipping under the bar with off putting regularity. Scoring one of these 40-yard strikes feels great at first, but loses its appeal considerably after the fourth time it happens over the course of 90 minutes. Scoring the same goal over and over again offers no challenge or spectacle to proceedings.
Despite still being prone to absolute howlers, one area that appears to have seen slight improvement is the competence of goalkeepers when attempting to save these shots. Even this displays a certain level of inconsistency, though, and has me questioning whether I’m just searching for something different lost in the malaise of hollow familiarity.
On the presentation front, player models have been updated, as well as the kits they play in. They are all well rendered and true to life, especially when viewed on the Switch’s small screen. You’d hope for this, though – after all, this is mainly what you’re paying for when you get FIFA 20 on Switch. Besides “more money”, is there any reason EA could have offered a roster update and a fresh batch of new kits as an update (even a paid one) for last year’s version?
This is the main crux to why FIFA 20 is quite so disappointing. Without any major changes to the way you play the game, there just doesn’t feel like there’s anywhere near enough there to warrant a full release, and tacking the words “Legacy Edition” onto the end isn’t enough for EA to get a free pass on this one. Especially when the ‘legacy’ left from the last FIFA switch release was less than a glowing one.
Yes, the menus also have benefitted from a fresh lick of paint but what lays within them is sadly exactly the same as FIFA 19. Again true to its word, EA has added literally no new game modes since last year’s outing, nor have any tweaks been made to the existing ones. House Rules are still there but the zany new Mystery Ball mode has sadly not made its way onto the handheld. Most disappointing of all, there’s no sign of Volta; the premier new addition to the core game is nowhere to be seen. The changes made to Career mode, however minor they are, have also not made their way across. There’s still FUT, though, complete with it’s controversial microtransactions and surprise mechanics.
Microsoft’s gaming boss Phil Spencer told employees that the company is planning to bring Xbox Game Pass streaming to Apple’s iPad and iPhone devices using a “direct browser-based solution,” according to a Business Insider report.
“We absolutely will end up on iOS,” Spencer reportedly told employees this week. According to The Verge, Spencer also mentioned bringing this browser solution to Windows 10 PCs next year.
Microsoft’s game-streaming portion of Xbox Game Pass has so far only been available on Android as Apple at first blocked it and similar services such as Google Stadia, but then agreed to allow those apps onto its iOS devices provided that there were separate apps for each game. Apple also required that each game be submitted individually so that it would comply with the company’s 30% profit-splitting policy.
Microsoft declined to participate, calling the solution a “bad experience for customers” as it wanted all of its games to be available within one app for ease of use.
Specific details on Microsoft’s browser-streaming solution have not been detailed yet, but the company did reveal that it planned to bring streaming to Game Pass on its Xbox consoles as well.
A new trailer for Worms Rumble, the upcoming real-time Worms spin-off, has arrived. It doesn’t just contain new footage, though–it also announces a beta date and release window. Worms Rumble will be available on PS5, PS4, and PC in December 2020.
The game, which features 32-player Battle Royale matches and a Team Deathmatch mode, will be playable on PS4 and PC during an open beta beginning November 6. During this time, anyone can download the beta and test out the game’s online multiplayer.
You can check the trailer out below. The game’s visual style is closer to the 3D models of Worms Battlegrounds than the more-recent Worms W.M.D.
The game has previously run a closed beta, but now more players will be able to experience the game.
Worms Rumble is very different from previous games in the series, which has always been turn-based. The game, and the beta, will be cross-play across all systems the game is available on.
In GameSpot’s review of Worms W.M.D., reviewer Jason D’Aprile gave the game an 8/10 and called it “easily the best game in the Worms series in several years.”
