Month: April 2021

The Fortnite Icon Series houses all of the game’s collaborations with famous musicians and whatever’s trending on TikTok. Tonight, the Icon Series grows one smooth move bigger with the debut of the “Leave The Door Open” emote, with choreography performed by Bruno Mars.

The “Leave The Door Open” emote features audio of the song by the same name, popularized by Mars and Anderson Paak under the duo’s stage name, Silk Sonic.

The song will hit the Item Shop tonight, April 2 at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET, though the price wasn’t revealed. While Bruno Mars makes his debut in the Fortnite world, Anderson Paak is no stranger. He performed a set in Party Royale, Fortnite’s social hub, in September of last year. The duo’s Icon Series emote joins others such as “Renegade” from K Camp, “Blinding Lights” from The Weeknd, and more. If it’s trending on TikTok or elsewhere in the music world, it’s usually not long before it’s available in Fortnite.

Leave The Door Open gained popularity after Silk Sonic performed the song at the Grammy Awards in March. You can watch that live rendition here. Today, Leave The Door Open has been downloaded more than 100 million times since the duo debuted their collaboration on March 5.

For more on this weekend in Fortnite, don’t miss the full details of tonight’s Spring Breakout Cup. If competitive play isn’t your thing, you could instead forage for Bouncy Eggs all over the island.

Pokemon Sword and Shield‘s brief April Fools’ Day event featuring nothing but uncatchable Magikarp is over, and a new Easter-themed event is now underway for a limited time. Until April 4, you’ll encounter various rabbit Pokemon in Max Raid dens across both games, including Shiny Azumarill.

Shiny Azumarill will be appearing in five-star Raids throughout the event, although your odds of encountering one will be slim, so you’ll need persistence if you’re hoping to catch one. You’ll also encounter standard Azumarill, Diggersby, Lopunny, and their pre-evolved forms in Raids throughout the event.

Gigantamax Cinderace will be appearing in Max Raids as well during the event. However, unlike the other featured Pokemon, Gigantamax Cinderace is not catchable, although you’ll earn extra candies if you can defeat it. The only way to obtain a Gigantamax Cinderace of your own (outside of receiving one in a trade) is to teach it how to Gigantamax in the Isle of Armor.

The Easter Max Raid event is scheduled to end at 4:59 PM PT / 7:59 PM ET / 11:59 PM UTC on April 4. Before you can participate in it, you’ll need to refresh your Max Raid dens. You can do so either by connecting the game online via the Y-Comm, or by opening the Mystery Gift menu and selecting Get the Wild Area News.

In other Pokemon news, there’s still a little time left to grab a free item bundle in Sword and Shield. Until April 3, The Pokemon Company is giving away an item bundle containing 12 Exp. Candy XL and 12 Big Nuggets. You can claim the free items by opening Mystery Gift and entering the password ADVENTUREB9F.

With Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey cast in the lead roles for HBO’s The Last of Us TV show, production is now set to begin relatively soon. It’s been discovered that production could start as soon as July in Calgary, with filming expecting to run for a period of about a year.

A listing on the Director’s Guild of Canada, reported on by CBC, reveals that filming could start in Calgary on July 5 and wrap up on June 8, 2022.

Representatives for HBO did not write back to CBC’s request for comment. The site reported that it has been rumored for months that a “massive production” is coming to Calgary.

Alberta Premier Jason Kenney recently teased a “very exciting announcement” for the region’s film and TV sector. “[It] will be the largest ever, I believe, film or television production in Canadian history,” Kenney said.

Pascal, who stars on The Mandalorian, has been cast as Joel, with Game of Thrones’ Bella Ramsey lined up to play Ellie. Neil Druckmann, the writer and director of the game series, is writing the TV show alongside Craig Mazin. Mazin is known for writing the Hangover and Scary movie sequels, as well as more serious fare like HBO’s Chernobyl. Mazin is also attached to write the new Borderlands movie that has a fantastic cast of huge names.

Recently, Druckmann spoke about how the Last of Us TV show will deviate significantly from the games. “Some of my favorite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can’t wait for people to see them,” he said.

As for the game series, Naughty Dog might make The Last of Us 3, or potentially a new IP, as its next game. On the more immediate horizon, Naughty Dog is developing a standalone Last of Us multiplayer game.

Mark your calendars: the first event of very likely many in a second annual Summer Game Fest has been announced. It’s Day of the Devs.

Day of the Devs has historically been an indie games showcase produced by Double Fine Productions and iam8bit. Last year, in light of the pandemic, it was run as a digital event in June and again in July as a part of Geoff Keighley’s four-month-long Summer Game Fest, and included a number of gameplay trailers and announcements for indie titles like Sky: Children of the Light, Drake Hollow, and Sea of Stars.

This year’s showcase returns in a digital format once again, though this time the announcement specifies that both indie and AAA games will be involved, as well as some video game musical performances (last year, we got a Bugsnax concert!).

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Developers can submit their games for consideration in the showcase beginning today through April 9.

So far, this is the first and only event on the calendar for the Summer Game Fest, which is planned broadly for summer 2021 — though the official Twitter has indicated this year’s is likely to be a bit condensed from last year. Unlike 2020, E3 is also in the cards for the summer, but it is remaining firmly as a digital event.

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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

 

Bandai Namco has confirmed that Giorno Giovanna will be the final character for Jump Force‘s Character Pass 2, and he’ll be joining the game later in spring. You can see Giorno in action in the video below, which includes his trademark reminder that all resistance is indeed useless.

Jump Force already includes two other characters from Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, in the form of Stardust Crusaders protagonist Jotaro Kujo and series antagonist DIO. Like his father DIO and other Joestar family members, Giorno wields a powerful Stand known as Gold Experience that has the unique ability to bring life to whatever it touches.

In combat, a flurry of punches from Gold Experience will overwhelm an opponent’s senses, and after it was evolved into Gold Experience Requiem, it was able to trap enemies in an endless loop where their willpower and actions were constantly reset back to zero. Remember, anime is weird.

Giorno has been an open secret ever since his existence was leaked four months ago alongside Yoruichi Shihoin from Bleach. Since then, Jump Force has added Shoto Todoroki from My Hero Academia, Meruem from Hunter x Hunter, and Hiei from Yuyu Hakusho to its roster as part of its Character Pass 2 content.

In a surprise announcement in January, Capcom revealed that Resident Evil Village would in fact be launching on Xbox One and PS4, after previously announcing the game exclusively for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. Today, the publisher shared the first look at the anticipated sequel running on the older hardware.

Courtesy of IGN, you can enjoy around five minutes of familiar Resident Evil Village gameplay running on the PS4 Pro. The footage is strikingly similar to the visual representation on PS5, and, more importantly, seems to maintain a smooth high frame rate for gameplay. There are cases where you can easily spot some lower resolution textures, and the lighting is certainly a lot more accurate on the newer hardware, but otherwise it looks like a potentially great port.

More in-depth comparisons when the game launches might reveal more crucial differences between the two versions, but you may not have to wait that long to get a look at Village for yourself on older consoles. Capcom has previously confirmed that it intends to host another Resident Evil Village showcase in April, although an exact date has not yet been shared. The publisher also confirmed in January that a new demo would launch before the game’s release, which only leaves a few weeks.

Resident Evil Village continues the story of Ethan Winters, the series’ latest protagonist who was first introduced in Resident Evil 7. Village is said to conclude Winters’ story, as he and franchise mainstay, Chris Redfield, travel to an eerie village beset by werewolves and vampires, with Lady Dimitrescu and her blood-sucking daughters at the center of a occult ritual. The game launches on May 7, and you can check out its many editions up for preorder with our guide here.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga has been delayed past its Spring 2021 release window, and TT Games promises to “provide updated launch timing as soon as possible.”

TT Games shared the news on Twitter, saying, “All of us at TT Games are working hard to make LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga the biggest and best-ever LEGO game – but we’re going to need more time to do it. We won’t be able to make our intended Spring release date, but will provide updated launch timing as soon as possible.”

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LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga’s Spring 2021 release window was announced during gamescom 2020’s Opening Night Live alongside confirming the game would have upgraded PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions.

Originally revealed during E3 2019, LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga will include levels from all nine films in The Skywalker Saga and will feature the largest roster of playable characters in LEGO Star Wars history.

This isn’t just some collection or remake, however, as LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is brand-new game built from the ground up is meant to “shake the [LEGO games’] formula up and try something completely different.”

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