Month: April 2021

Imagine you’re Sebastian Stan, star of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. You’re getting your coffee order one morning when suddenly a stranger starts spouting the supposed code words that make your character Buckey Barnes, a formerly brainwashed assassin, turn into a murder machine.

Such interactions happen “quite often,” Stan confirmed to BBC Radio 1.

“It happens at coffee shops,” Stan said. “It happens a lot. And it’s always very funny. It’s an honorable thing I guess. You’re very taken with it all the time. You do have to sometimes look at people in the face and say, ‘No, I will not become the Winter Soldier when you say that. You can keep saying it, and maybe you should say it, maybe that’s a moment we both need to have together, now, here. But nothing crazy will happen.’”

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Fans first got a look at those mysterious code words, which the nefarious Hydra used to continually brainwash Buckey, in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. They were then later used by Helmut Zemo, a former Sokovian colonel, to reactivate Buckey’s Winter Soldier persona in Captain America: Civil War.

If you were wondering what the code words were in case you happened to stumble into Stan at your local coffee joint: “Longing, rusted, seventeen, daybreak, furnace, nine, benign, homecoming, one, freight car.”

Good luck trying to say it in Russian, though. Even that took Zemo some practice.

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If you’ve missed Zemo and his adversarial relationship to the Winter Soldier, you can check out IGN’s review of The Falcon and Winter Soldier episode 3. We’ve also got a lot of theories about the questions that episode 3 raises.

For more, visit our hub for The Falcon and The Winter Soldier.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/Manchurian Candidate for IGN.

Update 2 (4/5/21) – Sony has additionally confirmed that both Marvel’s Avengers and Borderlands 3 will be released on PS Now in their PS4 versions.

Update (4/5/21) – Square Enix has confirmed that this will indeed be Marvel’s Avengers for PS4. However, subscribers will be able to transfer their save to the PS5 version if they choose to buy it.

Original story follows.

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Sony has announced that Marvel’s Avengers, Borderlands 3, and The Long Dark will all be arriving on PlayStation Now on April 6, 2021.

Announced on PlayStation.Blog, these three games will all be available tomorrow, and Marvel’s Avengers will stay on the service until July 5, 2021, while Borderlands 3 will stay on until September 29, 2021. No removal date was given for The Long Dark.

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To help celebrate the arrival of these games, Sony is offering a seven-day free trial for PS4 and PS5 owners beginning on Wednesday, April 7, and it will be available to anyone who is currently not subscribed to PlayStation Now.

According to PlayStation, even though PS Now is available on PS5, the service still only gives subscribers access to PS4, PS3, and PS2 games. This would make us believe that, despite Marvel’s Avengers and Borderlands 3 having PS5 versions, the versions coming to PS Now will only be the PS4 versions. IGN has reached out to Sony for clarification.

PS Now has over 800 PS4, PS3, and PS2 titles available to stream, and over 300 PS4 games that are also available to download, in “up to 4K resolution if you’re playing on PS4 Pro.”

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While fans wishing to try Marvel’s Avengers will get to experience some of the updates arriving in the game’s 2021 Content Roadmap, the game will be most likely leaving the service before the War for Wakanda Expansion that will be adding Black Panther to the game later in 2021.

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

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

I’ve been a fan of the Phantasy Star series since the 90s when I grew up binging the single-player JRPGs on my Sega Genesis. In fact, Phantasy Star IV is still one of my all-time favorite RPGs. So needless to say I was pretty excited to learn we’d be getting more brand-new Phantasy Star Online content just a year after Phantasy Star Online 2 finally released in the West after eight years of Japan-only exclusivity.

Based on the title, Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis absolutely sounds like a spin-off, expansion, or next-generation port of some kind—especially since it still has the number ‘2’ in the title. In reality, it’s none of those things, it’s something bigger—but still not technically a sequel.

Whole New World

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PSO2: NGS will co-exist alongside PSO2 (including the PC to Xbox cross-play features) and will even let you carry over your character, some of your items and skins, and so on, just not your actual character growth and levels. They’ll be interconnected, but still separate games, and the entirety of PSO2 is getting a massive engine update and graphics overhaul to put it closer to having parity with NGS when it launches. Previously, Sega has described the games as co-existing in “twin universes”, if that makes any sense.

Now, look: I don’t speak or read Japanese, but that didn’t stop me from playing the Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis Closed Beta Test last month. After logging onto a VPN to fool the game into thinking, making a Japanese SEGA ID, and using my phone’s camera with real-time Google Translate, I was able to fumble my way through logging in, patching, and making a character. After that, the language barrier wasn’t too bad.

When PSO2: NGS launches, I really hope the story is a bigger focus than it is in regular PSO2. One of my chief complaints about that game from my review last year was how all of the narrative is sequestered away to instanced conversations that you click through that have absolutely no impact on the game as a whole. In fact, you can just ignore the story and go run through missions and Urgent Quests on repeat. Making it optional is fine, but I’d really like some more effort to promote the rich, diverse, and compelling world that’s on display.

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Now that NGS is a fully open-world game, there is a ton of potential. In PSO2 everything is broken up into tiny instances and zones with loading screens in between everything—even sections of the Ship’s city are broken apart in this way. But in NGS, I don’t recall ever seeing a loading screen while traveling around the main open world map, not even when I entered and exited the city or changed zones. It’s just purely seamless.

At one point I climbed up to the highest point atop a cliff in a canyon region of the map, dove off the edge, and glided all the way back down to the city. It must have taken me a solid two or three minutes to hover that far, but there were no stamina limitations so I just got to enjoy the view and the ride down. Very few MMOs have worlds that are that open-ended.

Anime Action

The most dramatically altered part of the game in NGS, other than the visuals and open-ended design, is the combat. In PSO2 it’s pretty fast-paced and feels almost like Devil May Cry a bit, although a bit slower, but NGS just absolutely nails the speed and intensity you’d expect after watching the trailers. This is one of the only MMOs I’ve played in which the actual gameplay matches the cinematic trailers nearly perfectly and it absolutely drips with flashy action that’s insanely exciting to behold.

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I tried three of the six classes from the CBT—you can switch and level up a different class at any time at no cost—and surprisingly had the most fun with the gun-based ranged DPS class, Ranger. Its abilities are incredibly fluid and smooth so you can easily maintain a high-speed of movement while strafing and dashing around the battlefield and sustaining constant fire at enemies. Usually I play melee classes in MMOs, so Hunter was my first choice, and it feels like the Greatsword from Monster Hunter on the world’s most potent steroids. I tried Force for a little bit, the ranged magic class, but the attack wind-ups were too slow for my taste.

The downside to ranged classes in NGS is that it’s a target-based game, so you don’t have to physically aim your attacks. You just tab target the closest enemy and unload your abilities. The downside is that it feels noticeably less skillful, but the upside is that combat is always moving at a breezy pace. The verticality of the zones and sheer diversity of the landscapes kept me moving constantly because I wanted to try and explore as much as possible during my brief window of playtime.

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Combat in PSO2 and in NGS functions off of a ‘PP’ system in which your base attack builds PP and your special attacks spend PP to use, instead of putting abilities on individual cooldown timers. I’m a fan of the system because it lets you use the same ability over and over if it’s working well and you have the PP to spend, so you’re not limited by artificial timers.

Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis has a lot of potential to be something special. After what I saw during the CBT on PC it already feels more polished than some MMOs are at actual launch. Assuming the North American version can maintain that level of quality, deliver a compelling story, and keep that amazing open-ended world with its fast, anime-style combat intact, this has potential to be a big hit on both PC and Xbox.

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David Jagneaux is a contributor to IGN. Talk PSO with him on Twitter at @David_Jagneaux.

IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey sat down with IO Interactive CEO and co-owner Hakan Abrak to discuss the studio’s history in the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered (watch the full interview tomorrow), along with the team’s upcoming James Bond game, Hitman 3, separating from Square Enix, and much more.

Abrak confirmed that IO won’t be using the likeness of any actor who has portrayed 007 in the past, but that’s not the only place IO is differentiating itself from what Bond has done before. The team will also be creating a completely new story for their original Bond.

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When asked if IO would be taking inspiration from the Bond films or books, Abrak said, “It’s important to mention: doing a licensed game is new to us. We’ve only done our own, original IPs (intellectual property), right? We’ve created these characters… ourselves, from scratch.

“So, I think for us to really embrace this fully, and really, as I said before, we don’t like to work ‘mechanical.’ It’s not just because it’s a big IP, or it’s a licensed game, and commercially this is interesting… It means nothing to us. We’ve taken a lot of non-commercial risks before. So, for us, it’s about… we need to feel it, deep inside. The passion needs to be there, so it was very important for us that it wasn’t a movie adaptation. So, it wasn’t a game about… a specific movie, where the story has already been told.”

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He continued: “It’s very important that we could create a digital Bond. A Bond for the gaming industry… So it’s a completely original story. This felt really, really important for us and we conveyed that to [James Bond owner] EON and they agreed that the result would probably be better doing it like that.

“There’s always excitement around a new Bond. It’s amazing, what they have done with the franchise over the years. Every Bond kind of defines a generation and it’s amazing how they kept reinventing themselves over so many years. So, we’re not only inspired by one movie, or games and whatnot. We’re inspired by the whole thing, and just sucking things into us to make an original Bond, an original story, but that is absolutely true and recognizable in the values there is in Bond. I’m really looking forward to creating a new community that the gamers can call their own.”

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For more interviews with the best, brightest, most fascinating minds in the games industry, check out be sure to check out every episode of IGN Unfiltered, which includes talks with The Game Awards creator Geoff Keighley, Master Chief co-creator Marcus Lehto, 343’s Bonnie Ross, Valve’s Robin Walker & Chris Remo, Respawn’s Stig Asmussen, and so many more.

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Brian Barnett writes wiki guides, deals posts, features, and much more for IGN. You can get your fix of Brian’s antics on Twitter and Instagram (@Ribnax).

Yahoo Answers, a resource where users could ask the public questions on stuff like how to build a shelf, or whether it’s illegal to kill an ant, is closing permanently on May 4th. After which the Yahoo Answers page will redirect to the Yahoo homepage.

The news comes by way of the Yahoo Answers page which says the submissions to the site will end even sooner on April 20th. That means users have until then to say their goodbyes to a community that has been running since 2005.

Yahoo, which was purchased by VerizonMedia Group in 2017 for $5 billion, says that a decline in popularity is one of the reasons why Yahoo is sunsetting the Answers page. Since Yahoo Answers’ debut, sites like Reddit have exploded, allowing users to ask the internet going public any question they like and expect a deluge of responses.

i will miss yahoo answers dearly pic.twitter.com/TSOYPYOhUh

— Ammnontet! (@ammnontet) April 5, 2021

Still, the Yahoo Answers page will be remembered for a certain, let’s say chaotic brand of users whose questions range from the mundane (“Do you think humans will ever walk on the sun?”) to batshit (“IF YOU DIE IN CANADA DO YOU DIE IN REAL LIFE?”)

Given the decline in popularity for both Yahoo and Yahoo Answers, the current version of the site seems less like questions you’d ask if you were really drunk and more political conspiracies, so maybe it’s for the best ultimately that Yahoo focuses on other services.

Yahoo says users have until June 30th to request a downloadable copy of all your questions and answers users posted with their accounts. After which Yahoo Answers will securely delete all the Q&A responses tied to a person’s account permanently.

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Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.

(Photo Illustration by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

As part of the Spring Into Spring event, a new Collection Challenge is underway in Pokemon Go. Like previous Collection Challenges, this one tasks you with capturing specific Pokemon within a limited time, with a special medal and other rewards up for grabs if you’re able to complete the challenge.

In keeping with the motif of the Spring Into Spring event, the Pokemon you need to catch for this Collection Challenge are spring-themed. You’ll have to capture 10 monsters in total to complete the Challenge. Fortunately, most of them will be appearing fairly frequently throughout the event, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble. You can see the full list of Pokemon to catch, along with where to find them in the game, below.

Pokemon	Where To Catch
Exeggcute	Spawns in the wild
Shadow Exeggcute	Defeat Team Go Rocket grunts
Buneary	Spawns in the wild
Bunnelby	Spawns in the wild or one-star Raid boss
Plusle	Spawns in the wild
Minun	Spawns in the wild
Flower crown Pikachu	Spawns in the wild
Diggersby	Evolve Bunnelby
Azumarill	Three-star Raid boss or evolve Marill
Flower crown Chansey	Spawns in the wild or Research task encounter

The Spring Collection Challenge runs until April 8, giving you only a few more days to complete it. If you do manage to finish the challenge before time runs out, you’ll receive a handful of nice rewards, including one Lucky Egg, 50 Lopunny Mega Energy, and 2,500 XP, plus a medal commemorating your achievement. You can see all the Pokemon you have left to catch by tapping on the Research icon in the bottom right corner of the screen and opening the Today tab.

That’s not all that’s happening in Pokemon Go this month. Niantic has a variety of events lined up for the next few weeks, including April’s Community Day, which takes place April 11 and features Snivy. The Rivals Week event is also set to kick off on April 13, and new Field Research tasks and rewards are live this month.

DC Comics’ upcoming Festival of Heroes will introduce a new Monkey Prince superhero to the mythos of DC.

The company will release its 100-page DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration commemorative anthology on May 11 and one of the 11 stories inside will tell the tale of a new superhero, Monkey Prince. This hero is inspired by the Monkey King of Chinese mythology and will be the star of the 12-page story, The Monkey Prince Hates Superheroes.

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“Debuting in a story written by award-winning writer Gene Luen Yang (Superman Smashes the Klan, Batman/Superman, New Super-Man) with art by Benard Chang (Teen Titans, Batman Beyond), Monkey Prince is inspired by the Monkey King, legendary hero of Chinese mythology and the classic tale, Journey to the West,” a release from DC reads. “In Yang and Chang’s original 12-page story, ‘The Monkey Prince Hates Superheroes,’ Monkey Prince battles and teams up with Shazam to defeat both the evil Dr. Sivana and a Chinese deer demon spirit.”

Monkey Prince is inspired by the same Monkey King from Chinese mythology featured in Game Science’s Black Myth: Wukong video game, which received a new trailer focused on bosses, enemies, areas in the game, and spells last month.

To celebrate this character’s arrival to the DC Comics universe, the publisher is releasing a special, 1 in 25, Monkey Prince variant cover by Chang. This Asian superhero celebration anthology will feature 10 other stories about Asian superheroes and it will arrive to comic book stores and digital platforms on May 11, 2021.

Other characters featured in the anthology include stories starring Batgirl Cassandra Cain, Green Lantern Tai Pham, Cheshire, Katana, and more.

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“DC Festival of Heroes: The Asian Superhero Celebration is an incredible celebration anthology spotlighting DC’s past, present, and even future Asian super heroes, featuring some of the most dynamic Asian storytellers in and out of comics,” the release reads. “Featuring an incredible cover by the team of DC Publisher and Chief Creative Officer, Jim Lee, and colorist Alex Sinclair, this anthology includes a foreword by activist and CNN and WSJ Online contributor, Jeff Yang, a selection of tribute pinups of DC’s Asian super heroes, plus an awesome variant cover featuring Cassandra Cain by artist Stanley ‘Artgerm’ Lau.”

While waiting for that to release next month, check out IGN’s breakdown of every new DC Comics series confirmed for 2021 and then check out this list of all new DC movies and TV shows coming this year and beyond. Read our list of the 25 best heroes of DC comics after that and then  check out this list of all DC Extended Universe movies, TV series, comics, and video games coming in 2021.

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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Image Credit: DC Comics