Month: January 2021

The big Season 5 update for Halo: The Master Chief Collection is nearly here, and among its new additions are a whopping 80 new armor pieces for Halo 3 and Halo: Reach. 343 Industries has now revealed a number of these and spoke more generally about where they came from.

The new armors stem in part from the canceled Russian free-to-play game Halo Online, which was based on the Halo 3 engine. When they are released for Halo: MCC in the Season 5, they will officially become canon, 343 said.

Season 5 is called Anvil, a name that is inspired by the Anvil Station from Halo lore. “At Anvil Station, the UNSC would test skunkworks technologies and clandestine prototypes, some destined for full and successful production runs, other merely serving as a stop-gap in the development pipeline of Mjolnir components, weapon advancements, and more,” 343 said. “Warriors from both sides were eager to face off in field test simulations, hoping to not only advance their respective technologies, but hone their personal proficiency in battle.”

These new armors will be available in Halo 3 and Halo: Reach’s customization menus. One of them stands taller than the rest, if you ask me.

The Mister Chief helmet, pictured above, is described jokingly by 343 as, “The absolute zenith of human endeavor and a perfect encapsulation of human talent.”

Mister Chief is famous in Halo media, with the designed having been created by Halo franchise manager Frank O’Connor earlier in his career.

In the blog post, 343 joked that Mister Chief “might not be hard canon.” You can see the rest of the helmets and armor pieces in the gallery below.

Players who don’t want to see any of the new armors can toggle them off, along with any of the previously added skins for weapons and vehicles.

Gallery

The MCC Season 5 update is scheduled to release on January 27 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. It’s a big week for Halo, as 343 will follow that up with the next reveal for Halo Infinite where the developers will discuss the game’s sandbox elements.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons is getting a dose of Hello Kitty in March, with a set of Sanrio Amiibo cards. The Animal Crossing Sanrio Collaboration Pack will be available at Target stores on March 26 and cost $6.

The pack includes all six Amiibo cards, with functionality to be announced sometime in the future. Some of the cards are themed after popular characters like Hello Kitty and My Melody, while others just capture colorful or thematic backgrounds. Each of the cards also features an existing Animal Crossing character, like Marty, Chai, and Toby. You can see all six cards below.

These cards were first announced in 2017. Those cards worked with Animal Crossing: New Leaf and then later with New Horizons. Assuming the functionality is the same, they unlock a series of in-game posters for New Horizon that you can hang on your wall, displaying Animal Crossing and Sanrio characters.

The Sanrio announcement was made alongside word of the Festivale update coming this week, which will start in February. That event will let you capture feathers with your net to trade them in for dance moves. You can also grab new reactions like Feelin’ It, Let’s Go, Viva, and Confetti for a limited time during the event period. More items are coming to celebrate Valentine’s Day, Groundhog Day, and the Super Bowl, and another update is scheduled for March.

UK retailer Argos has been targeted by PS5 scalping groups, possibly contributing to lower-than-expected availability during a recent stock update.

In the early hours of January 26, UK gamers were delighted to see the PS5 back in stock at Argos. But, just as we’ve seen time and time again, the stock lasted for a much shorter time than expected, amid widespread issues. Not only was the site buggy, alongside the app, but there was also supposedly even less stock than expected on the already limited supply of consoles.

Multiple sources (who wished to remain anonymous) have confirmed to IGN that this is in part because individuals were able to order PS5 consoles from Argos on January 25, a full day before the aforementioned official stock drop. This was down to a loophole discovered by scalping group Express Notify, a paid-for Discord server that shared links allowing users to buy the PS5 before the general public even knew about the new stock. Express Notify has been publicly taking credit, with many of its users showing off their orders for multiple consoles.

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Argos supposedly shut these rogue links down quickly, but not without several consoles being sold and even collected from Argos outlets beforehand. There hasn’t been any confirmation of how many PS5s were claimed before the loophole was closed, but this is just another example in the growing list of frustrations that customers are facing when trying to purchase the next-gen system.

To compound the issues, those who were attempting to buy legitimately via Argos in the early hours of the morning weren’t exactly given a head start. At first, stock appeared to be available on the Argos app – which repeatedly dropped for maintenance – but not on Argos’ browser-based website. However, even success with the app was seemingly entirely dependant on your area, and whether it wanted to play ball in general. Some users reported success, others said the money came out of their account without a confirmation email, while many more were left without a console once again.

We’ve contacted Argos for comment on the issue.

Scalping has become a major issue for the low-stock, high-demand PS5, and has been particularly prevalent in the UK. Consoles have gone missing from Amazon deliveries, been stolen from moving trucks, and retailers have cancelled huge swathes of orders claimed by scalping rings. It’s been enough for a set of UK politicians to motion for a debate on making console scalping illegal in the country.

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Robert Anderson is a Commerce Editor and deals expert for IGN. Send him awesome gaming screenshots @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Credit to @PS5StockAlertUK for assisting with information. 

Among the new features brought to the World of Assassination by Hitman 3 are permanent shortcuts–doors and ladders you can unlock for quick access to handy paths through levels. Once you find a shortcut and unlock it, it’s open in all your subsequent playthroughs of a mission, no matter where you start from. These shortcuts can make it a lot easier to get to sensitive areas or to find particular items, disguises, or assassination opportunities. But in order to unlock them for future use, you’ll have to find them the first time, and they usually require a little hunting to find.

We’ve compiled a complete list of all the shortcuts scattered through Hitman 3’s six missions, as well as an explanation of how to unlock them. Note that you’ll usually need tools, so it’s always good to grab a crowbar and screwdriver to make sure you can unlock a shortcut when you get to it. You’ll also have to approach shortcuts from the long way around–all shortcut doors are one way until you’ve opened them, and shortcut ladders have to be dropped from the top. Expect to do some careful infiltration to find them all.

Don’t forget to check out the rest of our Hitman 3 guides, and to read our Hitman 3 review.

Mission 1: Top Of The World (Dubai)

Penthouse Ladder

The easiest of the shortcuts to find is the Penthouse Ladder, because it’s right next to Carl Ingraham’s putting green in the penthouse. Get a suitable disguise for the top two floors and head out to the northwest corner of the building. Open the hatch next to the green and you’ll find a ladder that goes down to the maintenance room below–which one worker calls the “maintenance scrub.” This is actually the place to find the exploding golf ball, hidden behind the red toolbox in the corner. The shortcut gives you easy access to Ingraham’s golf gear so you can set up the assassination easily.

Ventilation Area Ladder

This ladder is also accessible from the penthouse’s lower level. Head to the opposite side of the penthouse atrium from the putting green, near where the main stairs let you come up. If you push all the way into the southeast corner, you’ll find a maintenance area filled with ventilation machinery through a door in the wall. Keep moving to the southern corner of the room, where you can unlock a ladder that will connect the penthouse to the helipad below.

Atrium Lobby Door

You’ll see this door right away when you first enter the lobby at the start of the mission, but accessing it is less obvious. To access it, head up to Level 1 and the east side of the building, near the garden. Don’t go through the security frisk that leads you up to Level 2; instead, head into the blue room behind it where guards take breaks. You’ll find a maintenance door on the east wall–with the Burg Al-Ghazali staff key card, you’ll be able to unlock it. That gives you access to a maintenance staircase. Follow it all the way down (watch out for a camera or two and a maintenance worker) to find the Atrium Lobby Door and unlock it. This is a handy shortcut for trying to complete the Suiting Attire feat, as it allows you to grab the Skydiving Suit from the Atrium and move relatively unseen to the higher floors.

Helipad Ladder

Your last shortcut is on the Helipad, and since that’s not an especially large area, it’s not tough to find. Go to Level 3 and follow the hallway that leads away from the Security Room and the Server Room, toward the east side of the building. A glass door there empties out onto the Helipad, which is to the south. Immediately next to the glass door on your left is the ladder; unlock it for a quick way down to the tech area behind the art exhibit on Level 2.

Mission 2: Death In The Family (Dartmoor)

Balcony Ladder

The first shortcut is easily accessible if you do the Means, Motive, and Opportunity Mission Story (otherwise known as the Murder Mystery), as the balcony in question is connected to the murder scene. However, you’ll need a crowbar to unlock the shortcut, so make sure you’ve picked one up before heading there (look in the garden behind the Greenhouse). Enter Zachary’s Room and head out on the balcony, to your right, to find the shortcut.

Maintenance Ladder

This shortcut can carry you to the top level of Thornbridge Manor, making it easy to get access to Alexa Carlisle’s office from the ground floor. To unlock it, you need a crowbar. Go through the mansion to get up to Carlisle’s office (a bodyguard or mansion staff uniform will keep you safe here), then take the stairs on the left side of the room as you enter it. Take them almost all the way to the top and watch for a prompt that lets you jump up and grab the molding. Shimmy to your left to find an open window; climb out and you’ll find your way to the rooftop section where you can unlock the ladder.

Mission 3: Apex Predator (Berlin)

Entrance Back Door

Your first shortcut is both incredibly easy to get to and incredibly convenient once you’ve unlocked it. Start the mission as normal either in your 47 getup or as a club attendee and go through security (remember to drop illegal items to avoid a frisk). As soon as you’re through the entrance, look to your right for an area marked “Staff,” behind the office that’s immediately behind the ticket counter. You’ll find the shortcut just past the signs, and once you’ve unlocked it, you can go get the stuff you’ve dropped and avoid entry security altogether.

Biker Basement Door

An aspect of this mission that’s not immediately apparent is the fact it’s connected to a drug-making operation run by a biker gang. You’ll find their building to the north of the area. You’re considered trespassing anywhere inside their facility without a biker uniform, but you can slip in unnoticed with the Basement Door. Get to it by going into the facility’s garage and finding the staircase down near the garage door (it’s where the food delivery scooter is parked). You’ll eventually find a staircase that leads back up and to the locked door, allowing you to slip into the building unseen.

Skylight Ladder

To unlock this shortcut, you first have to get all the way up to the roof of the nuclear plant. The best way to do this is from the outside, rather than trying to go through the club itself. You can take the overpass walkway that links the two buildings to reach the rooftop, or sneak into the stairwells visible on the outsides of the buildings. Once you’re on the roof, slip past the security officers (and one ICA agent) to find an open skylight window. Climb in and down to find and unlock the ladder, which requires a crowbar.

Mission 4: End Of An Era (Chongqing)

Inner Courtyard Door

You can best access this shortcut from inside the underground facility, preferably with a security uniform on. Take the stairs up to the enclosed glass walkway on Level 0 and head left to the facility’s main entrance. This will put you out into a courtyard with two street guards blocking an alleyway entrance, and another guard with a blue beret patrolling the other alley. Follow the path with the beret guard to find the door and unlock it. You can also access this courtyard by coming down the staircase from the Southeastern Rooftop–the one with all the drones.

Facility Elevator Shaft

You need to access this shortcut early in your venture into the underground facility, before triggering the alarm by wiping the data. From the main entrance behind the dumpling shop, enter the facility and follow the grey line to the Tier 1 Security Office. Go through the door on the north end of the room to enter a locker room. Look for an elevator door that you can open in here, then climb up and use your camera to hack a ventilation shaft cover. Push through that and you’ll find the door to unlock the shortcut.

The Block Ladder

This one is in the apartment building where Hush is conducting his experiments. Head inside and make your way to Level 2. Go outside on the west side of the building and look for a ladder in the southern corner of the balcony that you can unlock, which leads down into the fenced-in courtyard below.

Mission 5: The Farewell (Mendoza)

Cellar Door

Two shortcuts actually connect to the villa basement, and are easily accessed by completing some Mendoza’s Mission Stories. Work your way through the story called The Tour, allow it to play out completely, then keep going with the Closing Statement story that unlocks at its end. You’ll need to impersonate the Samolier to get access to the wine cellar. After the meeting with Don Yates and all the Heralds of Providence, look for the Cellar Door shortcut in the northeast corner of the basement.

Maintenance Door

The second shortcut opens up access to the underground tunnel near the winery. Look for the shortcut at the south side of the villa basement. You’ll pass through another room off the winery to get to it, but it’s easy to find.

Backdoor

You need to get into the villa proper to access this shortcut. Once inside, move to the eastern edge of the map, behind the villa. You’ll see a sign warning about a cliff path. Walk or climb down the path and follow it south to its end to reach a door you can unlock, creating easy access from the party to the villa and the underground tunnels.

Mission 6: Untouchable (Carpathian Mountains)

The shortcuts in Mission 6 aren’t really shortcuts, since you’re just making your way forward from the back of a train to the front of it. Unlocking these doors instead gives you access to rooms filled with weapons and tools.

Passenger Car Door

You’ll find this shortcut locked, but the means to enter and open it is pretty clear. Go past the shortcut into the dining car and climb out a window. You can’t reach the shortcut room by shimmying along the side of the train; you have to climb up to the roof and find a path to climb back down. Look for a gap in the ice as you make your way back that will allow you to climb back down and slip in through a window to unlock the shortcut.

Container Door

Accessing the last shortcut in this level is a bit more involved. You’ll need to find a yellow valve to open the big green container, but to get at it, you’ll need either a rusty nail ro pick a lock, or to fight your way through two guards. If you’ve got a tool, open the door past the cargo container and take the valve off the box in front of you. If not, use the ladder to get to the other side of the car, then enter and take out the two guards inside. A silenced gun will drop the guard close to the door without the other one realizing he’s down. Use the valve to open the container and get inside to unlock the shortcut.

The MonsterVerse is Legendary’s shared universe which positions the secret government agency Monarch at the center of an eco-system of monsters, or “Titans” as they call them, both new and classic. And now the latest chapter in this saga is coming with Godzilla vs. Kong (watch the trailer here), which promises to pit not only the two titular Titans against each other but some new monsters as well, including maybe, just maybe… Mechagodzilla!

Click through the slideshow, or read on, for all the monsters we know of so far… But watch out for spoilers for all of the MonsterVerse movies through Godzilla: King of the Monsters!

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Godzilla

Rogue One’s Gareth Edwards directed the somber and grim opening chapter to the MonsterVerse, 2014’s Godzilla, which of course reintroduced the titular monster to the world. Starring Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Bryan Cranston, Godzilla features the titan emerging from a long slumber to stop two rampaging parasitic monsters from mating.

King Kong

Kong: Skull Island, from The Kings of Summer’s Jordan Vogt-Roberts, features a more adventurous tone than Godzilla ground zero, and stars Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L Jackson, John Goodman, and Brie Larson as members of an expedition filled with soldiers and scientists who travel to a mysterious island in the Pacific… where they of course find King Kong himself. This stands as the MonsterVerse’s Kong reboot/restart, 12 years after Peter Jackson remade King Kong (a film that also featured Skull Island).

M.U.T.O.s

Okay, so Godzilla’s M.U.T.O.s (Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms) probably won’t marquee their own movie, but these prehistoric parasites continue to wreak havoc on human civilization as they’re drawn to man-made radiation. They seem to love to trample anyone and everything in their path. Two unnamed M.U.T.O.s (a male and a female pair) appear in the first Godzilla, while a second female debuts in the third film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, heeding the clarion call of King Ghidorah. King of the Monsters also phased out the M.U.T.O. name, instead referring to these massive beasts as Titans.

Skullcrawlers

Scavenging Skull Island are pesky pack-hunting predators called Skullcrawlers (a term coined by John C. Reilly’s stranded islander Marlow) who generally make life miserable for both man and beast as an intelligent, burrowing, bullet-proof species of crawling carnivore lizard creatures.

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Mothra

First heralded by a fun Kong: Skull Island Easter egg, the iconic Mothra is a creature that dates back to 1961 when she (yes, it’s a she!) starred in her own solo movie before becoming a recurring monster in the Godzilla films. A massive psychic Moth, who comes with her own tiny translating priestesses in the original films, Mothra is one of the most powerful beasts in the MonsterVerse. She plays a major role in King of the Monsters, helping Godzilla battle his rivals and ultimately sacrificing her life to give her partner the energy boost he needs.

King Ghidorah

Also seen in the Skull Island post-credit scene, and making a sinister showing in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, is King Ghidorah – the three-headed cinematic arch-nemesis of both Godzilla and Mothra who dates back to 1964. King Ghidorah is the main baddie of King of the Monsters, where he’s revealed to be the main rival to Godzilla at the top of the monster food chain. Ghidorah is also capable of attracting other Titans and bending them to his will. Though Ghidorah is ultimately defeated by a charged-up Godzilla in King of the Monsters, a post-credits sequence shows Charles Dance’s Col. Jonah purchasing one of the beast’s severed heads for some nefarious purpose that is yet to be determined…

Rodan

Dating back to 1956, and the third monster entering the fray in King of the Monsters, is Rodan – the famous flying Kaiju based on the prehistoric Pteranodon. Faster than supersonic jets and able to produce destructive winds and shockwaves with his wings, Rodan definitely has the air and speed advantage in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, though Mothra eventually gains the upper hand.

Other Titans

King of the Monsters introduces a number of minor new Titans, all of which are original creations rather than adaptations of existing Toho monsters. These new Titans include Scylla, the crab-like Titan who emerges from underneath a Texan oil field, Methuselah, a massive, armored creature and Behemoth, a huge, mammalian Titan who’s basically a combination of a woolly mammoth and a sloth.

Several other new Titans also have cameo appearances in King of the Monsters, where they appear on computer screens rising from their collective slumber to join King Ghidorah. These monsters include Abaddon, Baphomet, Bunyip, Leviathan, Mokele-Mbembe, Sargon, Tiamat and Typhoon. These Titans play a bigger role in the film’s novelization.

Mechagodzilla…?

This is an educated guess at this point, but it sure looks like the infamous robotic version of Godzilla known as Mechagodzilla could be showing up in Godzilla vs. Kong. There’s a moment in the trailer where a mob of panicked people are running from a giant monster attack, and a pair of glowing red eyes can be spotted looming above the crowd. There’s also a shot in the trailer of a computer screen that seems to display the schematics for a mechanized Titan. Indeed, it’s not unreasonable to consider the possibility that the whole reason Kong and Godzilla are fighting is because Mechagodzilla is actually the creature that has been destroying cities (while covered in a replica of Godzilla’s scaly exterior) but everyone has been blaming Godzilla for the devastation.

Will this come to be? And what lies beyond Godzilla vs. Kong? Well, there are clearly plenty of Kaiju to kick around — King of the Monsters reveals that there are 17 known Titans to date — which means more skyscrapers to topple and monuments to mangle. We can’t wait…

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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association (TCA). Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.

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Hitman 3 has its fair share of locked doors to open and safes to crack, but if you’re observant and persistent enough, you should be able to find the codes to access them. But if you need a helping hand and would rather spare yourself the time required to discover their codes organically, then we’ve compiled all the code solutions to the game’s various locked doors, safes, and keypads for your reference.

For more tips and secrets, be sure to read our Hitman 3 walkthrough and guide hub. Otherwise, check out our other codes guide below.

Dubai

There are quite a few locked doors and safes keeping you from getting to your objectives in Dubai. Fortunately, the majority of them are repeated codes.

• Staff Meeting Room Door Code: 4706
• Atrium Door Code: 4706
• Level 2 Security Office Safe Combination: 6927
• Level 3 Security Office Safe Combination: 6927
• Penthouse Guest Room Safe Combination: 7465

Dartmoor

While the Dartmoor Mission Story titled Means, Motive, And Opportunity leads you directly to the case file objective, there are other ways to get your hands on this elusive document. One way involves getting into Alexa’s office and nabbing it yourself by opening her safe. If you’re savvy enough to break into her office and find the safe, then all you need to do is enter the combination 1975 to get the file.

Berlin

Berlin has but a single safe you can find and access. It’s located on Level 2 in Rolf Hirschmuller’s office, which you can find in the biker area. The combination is 1989–the year the Berlin Wall fell. You’ll learn that historical tidbit if you listen to the thieving tech staffer talking just outside the office.

Chongqing

There are many locked doors in Chongqing, but lucky for you, they’re only sealed by two possible codes: 0118 and 2552. Below we pinpoint the doors that each of these codes unlocks.

• Container Door Code To ICA Facility Entrance: 0118
• ICA Apartment Door Code: 0118
• Laundromat Door Code: 0118
• Benchmark Lab Staircase Door Code: 2552
• Therapy Room Door Code: 2552
• Arcade Door Code: 2552

Mendoza

You’ll need these codes if you’re looking to nab some of the more flashy, over-the-top assassination challenges in Mendoza. The first is involved with the To Loyalty challenge, while the second helps you complete the Domestic Disturbance challenge.

• Wine Fridge Vault Code: 1945
• Villa Basement Door Code: 2006

Carpathian Mountains

This code is for the door locked by a keypad that you’ll encounter not long after starting the mission. The solution to this one is rather simple, as the code is literally written on the wall to your left. But don’t worry, we won’t judge you if you searched up this guide to find this code. So take it, the solution is 1979.