Ubisoft hosted a livestream where host and producer Youssef Maguid and PR intern Ellie Vengala sat down with Assassin’s Creed Valhalla narrative director Darby McDevitt to talk about the game’s ending. The conversation was full of fascinating insight into the design decisions behind many of the major storytelling moments in Valhalla, including the tidbit that the game’s major final reveal actually wasn’t a part of the original plan for the game.
Perhaps this goes without saying, but major spoilers for Valhalla follow. If you haven’t yet picked up the game and beaten it, you should. In GameSpot’s Assassin’s Creed Valhalla review, I said, “Despite its strong connection to past games, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is more than capable of standing on its own. It takes a little while to build momentum, but when it hits its stride, Valhalla is a confident Assassin’s Creed title that takes a few narrative risks which, as a whole, pay off.”
So onto the spoilers. Turns out, Valhalla originally didn’t end with the modern day protagonist becoming Basim. “Later in production–I remember [the game director] saying, ‘What if we switched to him as the modern day protagonist?'” McDevitt said during the livestream. “And that became an interesting idea because the original idea was that once Layla is gone, maybe you go back and you play as Shaun or Rebecca and you get to choose, you get to swap back-and-forth and play as them.”
McDevitt adds that, in the original story, Basim remained an enigmatic force. You had no idea if he would be a good guy or a villain. Ismail deposited that it would be more intriguing to surprise players by making Basim into the new modern day protagonist, giving the player just a hint to his motivations in the final moments of Valhalla’s modern day storyline. According to McDevitt, the process of coming up with the idea for the new ending and then actually designing and implementing it took “about a year.”
Also during the livestream, McDevitt refers to Eivor with she/her pronouns, reinforcing the implications of the game’s ending: Eivor is canonically a woman. “Male Eivor” is just Havi, the male Isu who is later reborn as Eivor, a woman. And to that point, Darby talks about how he originally had two working theories for how to allow players to play as both a man and a woman in Valhalla.
“The first idea I pitched was we could do a dual protagonist where the protagonist is a male viking and the female version is actually Layla projecting herself onto the avatar, which we kind of did in AC1,” McDevitt said. “Altair and Desmond look exactly the same, but we didn’t do that for Ezio and Connor–Ezio looks a little different from Desmond, and Connor looks very different. So because of those early games, there was this idea that you could just project your own avatar.”
He continued: “And the second one I pitched was that we could do a Sage, where you are the reincarnation of Aita, so you’re a female viking but you’re also the reincarnation of Aita so you can switch to also look like Aita.” The team at Ubisoft mulled over both pitches, ultimately deciding that Valhalla should pursue the second one, though with the tweak that Eivor is a Sage of Odin, not Aita.
Also throughout the livestream, McDevitt regularly details how Valhalla is designed to tie together the Assassin’s Creed franchise, pointing out ways in which the game makes reference to the original Assassin’s Creed, II, Revelations, III, IV: Black Flag, Origins, and Odyssey. With Valhalla’s story occurring so close to that of the original Assassin’s Creed, Valhalla references that one the most.
“We set a goal at the beginning: Let’s tie things together as much as we can,” McDevitt said. “All the cities in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla are direct homages to the cities in AC1, down to the characters you kill, the assassination set-up, everything. We did a one-to-one homage. And that’s an idea we actually had, one that I pitched on Origins but never got made. Cause we were pitching Origins as a refreshing of the brand, and I thought it would be fun to refresh the brand with a homage to AC1. But that didn’t get done, so we revived the idea here and it worked out.”
Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is available for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, PS4, PC, and Stadia. The game is scheduled to get two large post-launch DLC in 2021, the first of which, Wrath of the Druids, is set to release in spring.
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Valheim’s third boss is Bonemass, a giant green blob that makes the Swamp biome its home. Defeating it is tough, as the huge boss is relentless and uses massive attacks that are tough to dodge. With the right tools and strategies, though, you can defeat Bonemass and claim its power. Here’s everything you need to know to beat the boss.
You’ll need to clear out Eikthyr, the Meadows boss, and The Elder, the boss of the Black Forest biome, to get complete access to the Swamps. You’ll also want the toughest Bronze armor you have access to before entering the area, as the Swamps are full of deadly enemies that can poison you for massive damage. We’ve outlined the gear that’ll give you the best chances against Bonemass, even if you’re fighting the boss without your Viking comrades.
How To Find Bonemass
Like other Valheim bosses, you can only summon Bonemass at specific altars. To find the location of such an altar, you’ll need to interact with rune stones located in the Swamps. These are found in the Sunken Crypts dungeons in the Swamp–you’ll need the Swamp Key, earned by defeating The Elder, to get into them. Once you find a rune stone and interact with it, Bonemass’s location will be marked on your map.
The same Sunken Crypts you pilfer for Iron will sometimes contain rune stones that will direct you toward Bonemass’s location.
To summon the boss, you’ll need to make a sacrifice of 10 Withered Bones at its altar. You can also find Withered Bones in Sunken Crypts, either lying on the ground or mined from Muddy Scrap Piles.
What You’ll Need To Fight Bonemass
Armor: Iron Armor (Upgraded If Possible)
Bonemass does a ton of damage with its attacks, but the blob is not the only thing you’ll face in the Swamps. It’s best to have as much protection as you can get–so it’s definitely recommended that you spend the time to mine Iron in the Swamp and craft a full set of Iron armor before trying to go after the boss. Use our Iron guide to get everything you need to upgrade your gear. It’s also a good idea to upgrade your armor if you can for even more damage resistance.
Ranged Weapons: Huntsman Bow, Frost Arrows
Arrows aren’t the most effective way to fight Bonemass, unfortunately. The boss is resistant to Pierce damage, so normal arrows are pretty worthless in most cases. However, Bonemass can be very tough to fight up close, so ranged weapons are definitely a must. Bonemass is weak to Frost damage (it is a blob, after all), so you can get around the weaknesses of arrows by crafting Frost arrows. You’ll need a whole lot of them, but the ability to stay away from Bonemass’s big, powerful attacks is worth the extra effort.
Frost arrows aren’t easy to come by, though. You’ll need to venture into the Mountain biome to get what you need to make them. To survive the mountains, you’ll need Frost Resistance Mead, which you can make with a Cauldron and Fermenter. Frost Resistance Mead Base is made from 10 Honey, 5 Thistle, 2 Bloodbags (dropped by Leeches in the Swamp) and 1 Greydwarf Eye.
Apart from Wood and Feathers, Frost arrows require Frost Glands, which you can get by killing flying Drakes that live in the mountains, and Obsidian, which you can get by smashing Obsidian rocks poking out of the ground with an Iron Pickaxe. You’ll likely need 200 or more if you’re trying to solo the boss, so get plenty of material.
Outfit yourself in as much Iron gear as you can manage before going after Bonemass, and make sure you bring Poison Resistance Mead if you expect to fight him up close.
Melee Weapons: Iron Mace, Iron Tower Shield
Bonemass is weak against Blunt damage, so if you can manage to fight it at close range, you can do more damage than you would with arrows. You’ll want the strongest weapon you can get, which, in this case, is the Iron Mace–made from 20 Iron, 4 Wood, and 3 Leather Scraps.
The boss also throws out melee attacks of its own, though, so if you want to go toe-to-toe with it, you’ll need to block at least some of the damage. The Iron Tower Shield is the toughest shield you can craft, requiring 10 Iron and 15 Fine Wood, and should let you block some of Bonemass’s melee strikes. But the shield will significantly cut your movement speed–by 20%, in fact–and won’t help with the Bonemass’s poison.
Food
You’re going to want all the hit points you can get for this fight, so your very best food is essential. Since you’ve been spending time in the Swamps, you should have Draugr Entrails, which you can use to make Sausages. Queens Jam is also pretty effective, as is Carrot Soup–you’ll likely want the stamina boost to help you keep mobile as you fight Bonemass. You should also have the capability to make Medium Healing Mead with a Fermenter and a Cauldron, which uses 10 Honey, 4 Bloodbags, 10 Raspberries, and 1 Dandelion. You’ll definitely want the ability to quickly heal while you’re in this fight.
There’s another essential mead you need to survive: Poison Resistance Mead. Bonemass has a seriously horrific Poison attack that can wreck you pretty fast. Make it from 10 Coal, 5 Thistle, 1 Neck Tail, and 10 Honey, and keep plenty on-hand–the Bonemass fight will last a long time, and you’ll need to re-up your protection more than once.’
Ability: Eikthyr
Bonemass is a very mobile boss that will pursue you pretty relentlessly, and it does a big area-of-effect attack that’s best dealt with by running to get clear. Stamina management is a big part of this fight, so use the Eikthyr power to help you run around at less cost.
Rested Bonus Is Key: Make A Portal Or Campfire
One of the more frustrating things about the Bonemass fight is the fact the boss summons a constant rainstorm during the battle. That gives you the Wet debuff, which makes healing and stamina regeneration go slower. There’s not a lot you can do about the rain, but coming into the fight with the Rested bonus from sleeping and hanging out near a fire can help quite a bit. It’s also a good idea to build a portal (or at least a covered campfire) near Bonemass’s altar so you can retreat through it at intervals to repair your gear and spend a minute or two beside a fire to restore the bonus. Just don’t leave Bonemass alone too long or it’ll also regain health.
How To Beat Bonemass – Boss Fight Strategies
The hit-and-run approach can work against Bonemass, but expect it to take a long time. Be careful you don’t trigger other enemies as you play keep-away with the boss.
Bonemass is resistant to arrows, but makes the close-range fight very tough with its abilities and attacks. If you can bring a few extra Vikings to help you in this battle, it’s recommended that you do so. You can work together to kite the boss around and protect each other so that it doesn’t simply target you and stalk you until it catches you. It’s also helpful to have other players around to deal with another major threat during the fight: other random Swamp monsters who can show up and ruin your day.
At Range
The safest way to deal with Bonemass is at a distance. If you get too close to Bonemass, it’ll swing at you with its massive arms. Those attacks can be blocked, but the boss has a big reach and it’s tough to dodge those swings. Worse is Bonemass’s Poison attack, where it barfs a poisonous cloud that spreads out all around it. The cloud lingers, making it tough to stay close to Bonemass at all. You can avoid most of Bonemass’s capabilities by staying away from it, but it’ll occasionally pull off a chunk of its own body and throw it at you, spawning a couple of Blobs that you’ll have to deal with.
Your Frost arrows will do damage to the boss even though it’s highly resistant to Piercing damage, so you can just hit Bonemass with arrows until it dies–it’ll just take a lot of them. This strategy requires you to stay very mobile, though, because the boss will pursue you relentlessly. It’s also tough to fight this way, because Draugrs, Wraiths, Surtlings, and Blobs are likely to get mixed up in the battle as well. The Swamps are also a bit tough to navigate thanks to being flooded, so make sure you scout the area and have an idea of how you’ll want to move around during the fight. If you can make yourself an area that Bonemass can’t reach, say by cutting a trench with a pickaxe ahead of the fight, you can mitigate the need to run too much–but you’ll still have to avoid Bonemass’s AOE attack and the Blobs it’ll throw at you.
Up Close
Melee fighting is more effective against Bonemass in terms of doing damage, especially if you’ve got a good weapon that deals Blunt damage like the Iron Mace. You can use your shield to power through Bonemass’s big melee attacks, but you’ll probably want to run clear whenever it throws up Poison. There are good opportunities to hit the boss in the middle of its animations, though, especially when it throws its Blobs out.
If you can get some backup, it’s possible to keep the boss’s attention on one Viking while the others get behind it and attack from the rear, where Bonemass can’t get you. This is tough to maintain, though, so expect to spend a lot of time running clear of the boss and repositioning. Even if you’re doing a melee-focused strategy, you’re probably going to want a good number of Frost arrows so you can keep dealing damage even when you’re unable to get close to Bonemass.
What You Get For Beating Bonemass
Destroying Bonemass gives you some of what you need to move into the Mountain biome. In order to craft the next tier of armor, you’ll need to find and mine Silver, but unlike Iron, Copper, and Tin, Silver doesn’t pop up out of the ground or drop from nodes you can easily spot. Killing Bonemass gives you the Wishbone, which reveals secret things hidden under the ground–including Silver Veins. (Check out our Wolf Armor guide for help getting yourself set up to mine and use Silver.)
You’ll also get Bonemass’s power, which is one of the more useful ones in Valheim, especially as you head into the tough Mountain biome. Bonemass gives you resistance against physical damage, including Pierce, Blunt, and Slash damage. The ability makes you much more resilient in combat, which can help significantly when you’re fighting Stone Golems, Drakes, and Wolves in the mountains. With both Bonemass’s drops available to you, you’re ready to move on to Valheim’s next set of challenges.
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And it’s done, according to Deadline, James Cameron’s Avatar is once again the all-time worldwide box office champion after earning an estimated $21.1 million from its three-day re-release weekend in China. This puts Avatar’s total box office gross at around $2.81 billion. This surpasses Avengers: Endgame’s $2.7 billion gross. This puts Disney’s big Marvel event film in second-place for all-time box office records.
Congratulations to Disney for beating Disney at the box office.
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Original Story: Avatar is about to retake the title of the highest-grossing movie of all-time thanks to its return to Chinese movie theaters this weekend.
For almost 10 years, James Cameron’s sci-fi epic Avatar was the highest-grossing film worldwide until Avengers Endgame was released in 2019. The margin was thin as Endgame’s gross of $2.7902 billion narrowly overtook Avatar’s $2.7897 billion.
However, as reported by Variety, Avatar was re-released in theaters across China this weekend where it grossed $3.5 million on Friday and taking the film’s total to $2.7926. Box office watchers expect Avatar’s total to come out on top again once the weekend totals are tallied.
China’s film bureau requested popular films, like Avatar, to be re-released as a way to help its theater re-openings. Avatar was a hit in the country, grossing $206 million when it was released there in 2010.
Avatar’s record gross was helped along before when the film was re-released in theaters back in 2010 with an extended theatrical cut. This re-release added $33.2 million to Avatar’s box office gains.
Ultimately the big winner here is Disney which now owns Avatar after its acquisition of 20th Century Fox in 2019. Regardless of whether Avatar or Avengers Endgame is the top-grossing movie of all-time, both are Disney properties, along with six other of the top 10 grossing films of all-time.
According to Sucker Punch co-founder Brian Fleming, the most difficult feature to implement in Ghost of Tsushima “hands-down” was combat. Fleming went into detail about how perfecting this key component was a six-year-long journey for the team that was absolutely crucial to get right.
Fleming appeared at the GDC Showcase this week for a virtual Ask Me Anything (AKA) session to talk about the studio’s hit game Ghost of Tsushima. Fleming was asked early on in the session which feature was the most difficult for Sucker Punch to implement, to which Fleming responded without hesitation that it was combat.
“Easy answer and the answer is combat. The combat system was something that the team that worked on that — the handful of programmers and designers and animators — you know they worked nonstop for six years and built multiple versions of it with multiple approaches.”
In Ghost of Tsushima, players control Jin who starts out as a samurai but over the course of the game learns to fight using stealth. Ghost of Tsushima’s combat reflects this by incorporating both stealth combat and a unique sword dual system for more aggressive and straightforward combat.
Fleming says combat, along with travel, was such a central aspect of Ghost of Tsushima that implementing a system that worked with Tsushima’s vast open-world while still being challenging and unique, was a constant challenge for the developers.
“The combat system along with a few other systems… they’re kind of the center of everything,” says Fleming. “They have to work in every situation, they have to work in every lighting situation, they have to work in every terrain, they have to work in every strange mode the game might be in — combat could potentially break out in.”
This also meant that there was no room to cheat the system, as some developers may have to as a natural part of game development (just look at how developers struggle with doors.) “It was an elusive, nonstop effort over literally a six-year journey continuing to work on that. I think the results were good but it was a long, difficult road.”
Fleming shared some other stories about Ghost of Tsushima’s development, including working with PlayStation’s Shuhei Yoshida to get the authenticity of the setting right, and how the seamless load times were a result of good programming and data management.
The virtual GDC Showcase will continue all week with more talks from developers behind games like Demon’s Souls and Spider-Man, so stay tuned for more news from IGN.
Rockstar Games has announced that the fan-made solution to the lengthy load times that impact GTA Online’s PC version will be officially implemented in a future update.
Github user tostercx, who also goes by t0st, published a blog post that detailed how they reduced GTA Online’s loading screen time by 70%. This change would cut down the time players had to wait loading into the game from six minutes to just one minute and 50 seconds.
While t0st did share the fix, they warned that it was an unsupported “proof of concept” and was “not for casual use.” They also mentioned that it “shouldn’t take more than a day for a single [Rockstar] dev to solve” the problem.
Rockstar took notice of this situation and issued a statement to PC Gamer, confirming that t0st’s findings were accurate. Furthermore, it said it would be releasing an update that will incorporate their solution to improve GTA Online’s load times on PC.
“After a thorough investigation, we can confirm that player t0st did, in fact, reveal an aspect of the game code related to load times for the PC version of GTA Online that could be improved,” the company said in a statement. “As a result of these investigations, we have made some changes that will be implemented in a forthcoming title update.”
Rockstar hasn’t shared when the fix will be available, nor if fans can expect a 70% decrease in load times, but it did share that it has been in contact with t0st and that the company thanked him for his efforts.
T0st shared that Rockstar awarded them $10,000 through its Bug Bounty program. This is an even more impressive outcome as this service by Rockstar is usually meant for those who discover a security of privacy issue in the company’s online games. This was a special case, and Rockstar made “an exception” to honor t0st’s work.
IGN has reached out to Rockstar for a comment.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
The invite-only virtual premiere of Zack Snyder’s Justice League was scheduled for earlier tonight, but outages at Microsoft have delayed it by more than four hours.
This virtual premiere was happening via Microsoft Teams, but those who were expecting to finally see Zack Snyder’s Justice League were met with an error message instead of the much-anticipated film.
“Microsoft is currently experiencing a systemwide outage affecting the platform for our virtual premiere. We will distribute access codes and links as soon as the system is restored. Thank you for your patience.” The message reads.
Zack Snyder himself took to Twitter to apologize for the delay, saying, “I have no words. Still waiting for info. So sorry.”
In our review of Zack Snyder’s Justice League, we said that it “is a surprise vindication for the director and the fans that believed in his vision. With a mature approach to its superhero drama, better-realized antagonists, and improved action, Snyder’s version of Justice League saves the movie from the dustbin of history, something that likely only could’ve happened on a streaming platform like HBO Max.”
A trio of Fortnite competitive players has been disqualified from the Fortnite Championship Series following a tweet that came from one of the team members that stated Epic Games chief creative officer Donald Mustard should kill himself.
According to Polygon, in a now deleted tweet, player Wrigley posted a message that read, “Like literally fucking k!ll your$elf @donaldmustard,” tagging Mustard. Epic disqualified Wrigley afterwards, along with their teammates Dictate and Userz, citing the company’s community rules that it is not allowed for players to interact “with others in a way that is predatory, threatening, intimidating, lewd, demeaning, derogatory, invasive of privacy, or abusive.”
The three players were competing in the NA East region of the FNCS, and the upcoming championship presented the possibility of earning a $3 million cash prize for the winning team. Following the disqualification, members Dictate and Userz spoke out about the ban.
“I wish we would be able to have an opportunity for an emergency sub, what Wrigley did was completely out of our control and we put endless amount of time into the game for a chance at life-changing money,” Userz tweeted, calling for folks to tweet at FNCS organizers in hopes of reversing their and Dictate’s ban.
“Gonna be honest I was kinda just laughing it off yesterday when I got the email but now I wanna cry,” Dictate tweeted.
Talking to Polygon, Dictate said, “I’m really confused on why my teammate and I, who didn’t have anything to do with the comment our other teammate made, don’t get to receive our $600 in prize money? We did not cheat our way into the grand finals so it makes no sense that our guaranteed prize was just completely taken away from us.”
We’re always curious–and a little worried–to see how popular stories make the transition when they’re adapted to a new medium. We’re even more worried about the live-action adaptation of fan-favorite Cowboy Bebop for Netflix because it’s one of our favorites, too. The wait to find out just got shorter, though, because the series’ first season has wrapped filming according to one of its stars.
News come from actress Daniella Pineda (Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom), who will be playing iconic con artist Faye Valentine in the upcoming show. Pineda writes on her Instagram, “I’m coming back on the air to say… Season 1 of Cowboy Bebop is finally, finished. Gonna dip again, but will return after these messages.”
The live-action show has picked up a few names from the original anime as a result of the downtime. Original creator Shinichiro Watanabe joined the team in a consulting role. Jeff Pinkner, who is developing the show alongside André Nemec, revealed last April that original composer Yoko Kanno is involved, stating that the show’s hour-long episodes “really tell stories set in that world in a way that hopefully will not only delight the fans of anime but expose a whole bunch of new people to the world of Cowboy Bebop, the awesome work of Yoko Kanno.”
Cowboy Bebop is based on the 1998 anime of the same name, which follows bounty hunters Spike Spiegel and Jet Black on their ship, the Bebop, as they’re joined by con artist Faye Valentine and hacker Radical Ed, taking bounty hunting jobs to get rich (or maybe just scrape by). The original anime appears regularly in anime top lists both from fans and critics alike.
The Cowboy Bebop live-action series stars John Cho as Spike Spiegel, Daniella Pineda as Faye Valentine, and Mustafa Shakir as Jet Black. There’s no word yet on Radical Ed joining the cast, but super-smart corgi Ein is confirmed to be on the cast. Netflix has not announced a release date, but we’re expecting it this year right now.
Netflix’s live-action Cowboy Bebop series has finished filming its first season, according to one of the series’ actors.
Daniella Pineda, who is set to play Faye Valentine in the series, announced the first season has finished filming in an Instagram post on Wednesday (via Funimation).
“I’m coming back on the air to say…..Season 1 of COWBOY BEBOP is finally, finished,” Pineda wrote. “Gonna dip again but will return after these messages.”
