Month: December 2020

Winter has come to Destiny 2, as its annual Dawning event will kick off from December 15 and run until January 5. Like previous Dawning adventures, new seasonal weapons and armor will be made available, allowing you to dress your Guardians up in snazzy festive gear before you head out to slay gods.

Eva Levante will also return, having last been seen during Destiny 2’s Halloween event, the Festival of the Lost. Levante has a new recipe for sweets to offer you, the ingredients of which can be obtained from participating in missions, completing bounties, and taking part in Destiny 2’s other activities.

You’ll also earn Dawning Spirit by completing objectives and activities, which will unlock more gear for your Guardian. This Dawning Spirit will also be tied to the Destiny 2 community, and the more Spirit that Guardians generate, the better the rewards that Eva will hand out to everyone.

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A new Exotic ship and Ghost shells can also be unlocked, as well three optional engine effects, a transmat effect, and an animated shader that is unique to the ship.

If you’re on PS5 or Xbox Series X/S and you’re looking to try out Destiny 2, now is a good time to hop into Bungie’s massive sandbox. The game just got a huge update that makes it look and feel like a next-gen experience, while the recent release of the Beyond Light expansion has created the perfect winter playground in which to take part in Dawning activities.

This review contains spoilers for The Mandalorian Season 2, episode 7, titled “Chapter 15 – The Believer.” Here’s our Mandalorian Season 2, episode 6 review to refresh your memory of where we left off. For more from the Star Wars small-screen universe, learn about two newly-announced Mandalorian spinoff TV shows, Ahsoka, and Rangers of the New Republic; get a first look at Rogue One prequel series Andor, read about how Hayden Christensen will return in the Obi-Wan Kenobi TV show, and get the first details on Leslye Headland’s mysterious dark side-tinged thriller The Acolyte.

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On the surface, “The Believer” seems designed to be a table-setter for The Mandalorian’s Season 2 finale – a stepping stone that gets all the pieces in place for the showdown between Mando and Moff Gideon. But while the episode ostensibly spends much of its story moving pieces around the board, it also excels at the worldbuilding that has become one of the show’s hallmarks. It doesn’t quite have the action spectacle or nostalgia factor of episodes 3, 5, and 6, but in the confident hands of returning director Rick Famuyiwa, who helmed Season 1’s “The Prisoner,” Chapter 15 still provides some meaty character development for Din Djarin and his reluctant ally Mayfeld (Bill Burr).

Watch the first trailer for Star Wars: The Bad Batch:

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Ever since Mando encountered Bo-Katan and her band of Mandalorians in “The Heiress,” we’ve been seeing subtle signs that our hero is reevaluating his devotion to the strict rules instilled in him by his adopted Death Watch clan – having lifted his helmet in front of Grogu earlier this season to drink. He’s already proven that he’ll do pretty much anything to protect Baby Yoda at this point in the series, so it’s no surprise that he’s willing to compromise his beliefs to rescue the child when necessary, but given that he was ready to die back in the Season 1 finale rather than allow a droid to take his helmet off, it’s still a satisfying and well-earned progression to see him remove it in a room full of Imperials.

Pedro Pascal plays the moment beautifully, fully embodying Din’s discomfort and awkwardness at being so exposed after years of hiding behind that impenetrable armor, even when it seems like the most normal thing in the world to everyone around him. As much as the costume and helmet have become an iconic part of the character, and Pascal and the stunt performers have done a spectacular job of imbuing Mando’s physical presence with nuance despite the armor, I can’t help but hope Din becomes comfortable enough to show his face a little more freely in Season 3, if only because we’re missing out on so much expressiveness from Pascal’s performance under the helmet.

Famuyiwa’s script finds other clever ways to illustrate that Mando’s out of his element here – we see just how much he relies on his beskar steel when his trooper armor shatters under the pirates’ attack, forcing him to be a little more creative as he’s swarmed by enemies – naturally, though, he adapts impressively to the challenge.

While Mando’s figuring out which lines he’s willing to cross, Famuyiwa also finds time to further develop Mayfeld, who – along with the other members of his mercenary team – came across as a little one-note back in Chapter 6. Here, freed of the jailbreak gimmick, Burr gets to sink his teeth into Mayfeld’s obvious PTSD from his time as an Imperial sharpshooter, dimensionalizing a member of the Empire in a way other live-action Star Wars projects just haven’t had time for. (He still plays things a bit too broad for my tastes, but without Natalia Tena’s hissing Xi’an opposite him, it’s a little less egregious.)

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Famuyiwa does a deft job of juxtaposing Mando and Mayfeld’s triumphant delivery of the rhydonium to the Imperial base with the kind of visuals usually reserved for Rebel X-wing pilots returning after a successful mission, and it’s surprisingly jarring to be relieved by the sight of TIE fighters showing up to save our heroes from a gun battle for once.

There’s not quite enough time spent with the other Imps at the refinery to fully humanize them or get a sense of what they’re fighting for – not in the same way that the Clone Wars managed to muddy the waters between the Republic, the Jedi, and the Separatists – but Mayfeld’s takedown of the callous Valin Hess is satisfying enough. It is a little disturbing in context, though, when you stop to realize that the pirates who are sabotaging the Empire’s rhydonium deliveries are really the good guys in this situation, and yet Mando doesn’t hesitate to mow down anyone between him and the kid. Any parent would likely do the same, but while the show is examining the lines our characters are and aren’t willing to cross, it would’ve been nice to spend a beat on the morality of that choice and its potential ramifications.

The show once again sneaks in another deep cut easter egg this week by referencing Operation: Cinder from Star Wars Battlefront II and the Shattered Empire comics – a contingency plan the Emperor designed to clean the slate following his death and rebuild the Empire in secret, using climate-disrupting satellites to devastate targeted planets like Burnin Konn, destroying civilians, Rebels, and Imperials alike. “What they really want is first order,” indeed.

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Considering Mayfeld’s sharpshooting skills, it’s surprising that Mando and Cara Dune don’t at least ask him to join them in the fight against Moff Gideon (although given how vehemently he refused to track Gideon at first, he’d likely have said no) but after how impressed Cara was at his aim, we’ll probably see Mayfeld pop back up in the newly announced Rangers of the New Republic spinoff at some point.

This is also the first episode of the series that doesn’t feature Baby Yoda at all, although we’re not given much time to miss him, between the show’s lively twist on the western train robbery theme, Mando and Mayfeld’s snarky refinery break-in, Cara and Fennec Shand’s eagle-eyed team-up, and Boba Fett hanging out in Slave I being a stone-cold badass. It’s rad to see Boba’s armor with a fresh coat of paint, and even more thrilling to see the Slave I deploying a seismic charge to take out two TIE fighters in a neat callback to Jango Fett’s run-in with Obi-Wan in Attack of the Clones. (That vwommmm sound is still chill-inducing after all these years.)

And while it’s a little on the nose, Mando’s Taken-esque holo-warning to Gideon is immensely satisfying, with our hero ominously using the Moff’s Season 1 words against him with one key difference – calling Grogu “he” rather than “it.” You mess with papa mudhorn, you get the… well, you know.

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Multiple members of the teams that worked on the original Mass Effect Trilogy have returned to BioWare and are working on the new installment in the series officially announced last night at The Game Awards.

On Twitter, Mass Effect Project Director Mike Gamble singled out narrative designer Dusty Everman (Mass Effect 1, 2, 3, Andromeda) and Parrish Ley (Mass Effect 1, 2, 3) as two of those who had left BioWare, and returned to work on the new Mass Effect project.

Gamble adds that “there are more” ex-Bioware developers returning for the new game, and explains “We’ve heard what Mass Effect means to you.” While they’ve remained at BioWare, Gamble also points out that original Mass Effect art director Derek Watts, and programmer/designer Brenon Holmes are part of the new team.

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After the less well-received Mass Effect: Andromeda, and departure of BioWare general manager and Mass Effect director Casey Hudson, the future of Mass Effect could have been seen to be moving in something of an unknown direction, with a new team in place. Gamble appears to be attempting to counter that assumption by showing the direct line between teams on the much-loved original trilogy and new game.

That’s held up somewhat by the appearance of the Mass Effect Trilogy’s Liara T’Soni in the teaser trailer for the new game. BioWare has already stated that the next Mass Effect game will have a “veteran team”.

Mass Effect was one of many, many new announcements last night – here’s everything announced and revealed at The Game Awards 2020.

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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].

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has seen its stock price fall in the days around the game’s launch, with a steep decline of 29%.

As reported by Gamesindustry.biz, shares are currently priced at PLN (Polish złoty) 313.9, down from PLN 443 on December 4. The decline is likely due to the release and press coverage revealing that Cyberpunk 2077 suffers from a plethora of bugs and glitches, and has notably poor performance on previous generation consoles. Such issues have spread widely via social media.

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Share prices appear to have dropped since the embargo on reviews was lifted. A few days later, the release of the game did little to counterbalance the fall, with shares on December 10 slipping from PLN 390.6 to PLN 362. That’s a 7.3% decrease.

CD Projekt Red experienced an all-time high in share price back in August, with a share price of PLN 460.8 and a total market cap of 42.5 billion złoty. Overtime that has declined around the announcement of major issues, such as the reports of the studio enforcing mandatory crunch and a delay for Cyberpunk 2077.

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While stock may have declined, CD Projekt Red has generated a huge amount of sales for Cyberpunk 2077; the game sold eight million copies before it even released. With over one million concurrent users on day one, it was Steam’s highest peak for a single player game.

If you’re starting out on your Cyberpunk 2077 journey, don’t forget that we’ve got all the help you could need; check out our Night City map to plan your missions and visit our Cyberpunk 2077 walkthrough if you need a guide for the quests.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

Cyberpunk 2077 has finally launched this week, but if you’re planning to play CD Projekt Red’s latest game on older consoles then you could be in for a shock. Digital Foundry has examined how Cyberpunk 2077’s first three hours perform on the base model PS4 and the PS4 Pro after patch 1.02 has been installed, and has detailed a compromised experience on those platforms.

On the base PS4, game performance “mostly” reaches a resolution of 720p, but the 30fps performance target is prone to dropping to 15fps during more intense sequences. “There’s just so much less detail,” Digital Foundry’s John Linneman noted of Night City’s car and NPC count. This results in Cyberpunk 2077 having frequent slowdowns, stuttering, and a messy visual presentation according to Digital Foundry’s analysis.

“It’s about 45 minutes into the game when you realize things have taken a very sour turn and this is just not playable anymore,” Linneman said. “It’s this set-piece moment where you’re driving down through the inner city and you’re in a shootout car chase and it just cannot run. It’s not just that it’s running at 20fps, under 20fps, but it stutters as well as it streams in the world.”

“For me, this is not acceptable. I would never want to play the game this way. It’s terrible,” Linneman concluded.

The PS4 Pro fares slightly better though, reaching a 1080p resolution most of the time, although it also dropped to 18fps during sequences such as an alleyway brawl. Cyberpunk 2077 is still far more playable on PS4 Pro when compared to the base PS4, and on PS5 the game is capable of reaching a 60fps presentation when run through that system via backwards compatibility. Digital Foundry also expects the Xbox One consoles to have similar results when it tests the game on those platforms.

“Cyberpunk 2077 is phenomenally buggy,” our Cyberpunk 2077 review reads. “I played a pre-release build that was updated during the review period, and there’s a day-one patch planned as well, but the scale of technical issues is too large to reasonably expect immediate fixes. I encountered some kind of bug on every mission I went on, from more common, funnier ones like characters randomly T-posing to several complete crashes. I didn’t notice much of an improvement after the update, either.”

Nintendo had a big surprise for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate fans during The Game Awards on December 10, announcing that Final Fantasy VII villain Sephiroth would be coming to the game. However, that wasn’t the only news the company had to share. It also announced that some of the most highly anticipated Amiibo figures will be released in a matter of months.

Starting on March 26, you’ll be able to buy Amiibo versions of Banjo & Kazooie, protagonist Byleth from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Terry Bogard from Fatal Fury. The Banjo & Kazooie figure includes both characters, as the name implies, and Byleth’s sword is lit aflame in his Amiibo.

Because Nintendo’s goal is to have an Amiibo released for all the game’s characters, we can expect a Sephiroth Amiibo eventually. Revealed during The Game Awards in a silly video that had us thinking Mario was no more-io, the legendary rival to Cloud Strife will make use of the superior range on his blade to keep foes at bay. Should everything be to scale, it would likely be a pretty big Amiibo, but it could help to make the wait for the next Final Fantasy VII Remake installment a little easier.

Other recent characters announced for Super Smash Bros. Ultimate include Minecraft’s Steve, along with various skins. We’re still holding out hope that Gex will slither onto the battlefield, but it’s not tail time just yet.

Award-winning comic book creator Brian K. Vaughan has been tapped to write the television adaptation of Buck Rogers for Legendary.

According to The Wrap, Vaughan, the writer behind Y: The Last Man, and more recently Saga, is developing Legendary’s new Buck Rogers TV series alongside producers Don Murphy and Susan Montford, whose credits include Transformers and Real Steel, via their Angry Films banner together with Flint Dille, the grandson of the original Buck Rogers creator, Philip Francis Nowlan.

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The project is based on Nowlan’s Armageddon 2419 A.D. novella, published in a 1928 issue of the Amazing Stories magazine. The story opens with Rogers trapped inside a coal mine, where he falls into a state of suspended animation and wakes up almost 500 years into the future. The character rose to further prominence when he appeared in a 1929 John F. Dille comic strip.

Now, Rogers is expected to make a comeback in a multi-platform sci-fi franchise at Legendary. This new deal will see the popular property branch out across various projects and platforms, starting with “a big-screen take,” which will pave the way for the “prestige television series as well as an anime series, giving audiences a 360-look at heroics sets in the 25th century.”

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The adventures of the spaceman protagonist have appeared in a variety of formats over the years, including comics, movies, radio, and television. The developing project at Legendary could lead to many more adventures with the Rogers, as Hollywood continues to revisit past properties. For more reboots and revivals, check out our rundown of the quickest movie franchise reboots.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Elden Ring, the ambitious project partnering Dark Souls director Hidetaka Miyazaki and A Song of Ice and Fire author George R.R. Martin, has been radio silent for well over a year, with that record looking set to continue into 2021. While From Software may not be ready to show us anything official from the game yet, fans still made sure that Elden Ring got a mention on the Game Awards stage after winning the award for the most anticipated game.

As a category voted on by fans, Elden Ring was up against upcoming titles including the God Of War sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, Halo Infinite, Resident Evil Village, and the Breath of the Wild sequel for the most anticipated game. Game Awards host Geoff Keighley seemed to anticipate that many fans were waiting on Elden Ring news from the event, adding “there, I said it,” after reading out the name of the game.

Unfortunately, this little tidbit was all we saw of Elden Ring from The Game Awards, which is the last big gaming event of the year. The last time anything was seen of From Software’s upcoming game was when it was announced at E3 last year.

Elden Ring was among our most anticipated games of 2020, but obviously, it didn’t come in 2020 after all. From Software recently mentioned it by name to give a sign of life, and Xbox head Phil Spencer says he’s played “quite a bit” of it.