The 2021 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo are fast approaching, and NBC is looking to turn Peacock into a major destination for Olympic coverage. While Peacock has the usual glut of movies coming, the service will focus on the Olympic Games for the back half of the month.

With that said, you’ll still find a host of shows to check out. The month starts strong with Peacock Original Smother, a BBC-produced thriller set in Ireland, which tells the story of a woman delving into her family’s secrets after her husband’s sudden death. The six-episode mini-series will be available in its entirety on July 1.

Another Peacock Original arrives on July 15: Dr. Death. This mini-series is a fictional retelling of the story of Dr. Christopher Duntsch, nicknamed Dr. Death. Duntsch, played by Joshua Jackson, was a rising neurosurgeon. A growing trail of dead or maimed patients began to alarm two other doctors, played by Alec Baldwin and Christian Slater, who feared that even revoking Duntsch’s medical license wouldn’t stop him from practicing elsewhere. Duntsch was eventually convicted and imprisoned in what is now considered a precedent-setting case in medical law.

Along with these standout shows, you can look forward to everything from anime classic Samurai Pizza Cats to movies like Darkman, Conan the Destroyer, and what looks like the entire Leprechaun series of horror films.

Here’s the full list of what you can look forward to on Peacock in July.

July 1

• 3 Bears Christmas, 2019
• 47 Ronin, 2013
• A Single Shot, 2013
• Abigail, 2019
• After the Wizard, 2011
• Albion the Enchanted Stallion, 2017
• All Eyez on Me, 2017
• And While We Were Here, 2012
• Antz, 2017
• Bad Teacher, 2011
• Baked in Brooklyn 2016
• Balls of Fury, 2007
• Because I Said So, 2007
• Bermuda Tentacles, 2014
• Better Watch Out, 2016
• Born on the Fourth of July, 1989
• Boyz N The Hood, 1991
• Cardboard Boxer, 2016
• CarGo, 2017
• Cavemen, 2013
• Conan the Destroyer, 1984
• Daredevil, 2003
• Darkman, 1990
• Dead Snow 2: Red vs Dead, 2014
• Death Becomes Her, 1992
• Deep Impact, 1998
• Dino King, 2012
• Do the Right Thing, 1989
• Doomsday, 2008
• End of Days, 1999
• Erin Brockovich, 2000
• Far From Heaven, 2002
• Fast & Furious, 2009
• Fast Five, 2011
• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, 1998
• Finding Fish, 2017
• Flashdance, 1983
• Ghost Squad, 2014
• Grown Ups, 2010
• Grown Ups 2, 2013
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, 2001
• Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, 2002
• Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, 2004
• Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, 2005
• Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, 2007
• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, 2009
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, 2010
• Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, 2011
• Hatched, 2015
• Hellboy II: The Golden Army, 2008
• I am Bolt, 2016
• I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry, 2007
• In the Doghouse, 2014
• Inception, 2010
• Izzie’s Way Home, 2016
• Jaws, 1975
• Jaws 2, 1978
• Jaws 3-D, 1983
• Jaws: The Revenge, 1987
• Jetsons: The Movie, 1990
• Jonah: A Veggietales Movie, 2002
• Junior, 1994
• Jungle Bunch, 2017
• Killing Escobar, 2021
• King Kong, 2005
• Knock Knock, 2015
• Kung Fu Panda, 2008
• Kung Fu Panda 2, 2011
• Leprechaun, 1993
• Leprechaun II, 1994
• Leprechaun III, 1995
• Leprechaun 4: Lost in Space, 1997
• Leprechaun Origins, 2014
• Leprechaun V: In The Hood, 2000
• Leprechaun VI: Back 2 Tha Hood, 2003
• Mamma Mia!, 2008
• Megamind, 2021
• Moon Man, 2013
• Monsters vs. Aliens 2009
• Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor, 2008
• Non-Stop, 2014
• Olympic Pride, American Prejudice, 2016
• Paper Soldiers, 2002
• Princess and the Pony, 2011
• Psycho, 1960
• Queens & Cowboys: A Straight Year on the Gay Rodeo
• Rain Man, 1988
• Robin Hood, 2010
• Role Models, 2008
• The Adventure Club, 2017
• The Best Man Holiday, 2013
• The Birds, 1963
• The Boss Baby: Family Business, 2021
• The Godfather I, 1972
• The Godfather II, 1974
• The Godfather III, 1990
• The Hulk, 2003
• The Hunger Games, 2012
• The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, 2013
• The Hunger Games: The Mockingjay – Part 1, 2014
• The Hunger Games: The Mockingjay – Part 2, 2015
• The Fast and the Fierce, 2017
• The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift, 2006
• The League of the Extraordinary Gentlemen, 2003
• The Little Witch, 2018
• The Magnificent Seven, 2016
• The Preacher’s Wife, 1996
• The Rundown, 2003
• The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, 2005
• The Skulls, 2000
• The Wedding Planner, 2001
• Sky Blossom: Diaries of the Next Greatest Generation, 2021
• Smokey and the Bandit, 1977
• Smokey and the Bandit II, 1988
• Smokey and the Bandit III, 1983
• Snowtime, 2015
• Spawn, 1997
• Twins, 1988
• Van Helsing, 2004
• Walking Tall, 2004
• Wanted, 2008
• XXX: Return of Xander Cage, 2017
• Lost Speedways, Season 2 (Peacock Original)
• Smother, Season 1 (Peacock Original)
• Baby Einstein Classics, Season 1-7
• Bad Girls Club, Season 8-12
• Family Karma, Season 1
• Magic City, Season 1-2
• Married to Medicine Atlanta, Season 7
• Mighty Ones, Season 2
• Million Dollar Listing Los Angeles, Season 12
• PINKFONG! Songs and Stories, Season 1
• Samurai Pizza Cats, Season 1
• Shah’s of Sunset, Season 8
• Very Cavallari, Season 3
• Women Behind Bars, Seasons 1-4
• World’s Most Evil Killers, Season 1-2

July 3

• The Cabin in the Woods, 2012

July 4

• WWE Icons: Lex Luger
• WWE Icons: Revisited

July 7

• The Journey of USA’s Elite Gymnasts, Episode 4 (Peacock Original)
• Arpo, Season 1
• Gecko’s Garage, Season 1
• Go Buster, Season 1
• Little Baby Bum, Season 1
• Morphie, Season 2
• Playtime with Twinkle, Season 1
• Supa Strikas, Season 1-3
• T-Rex Ranch, Season 1
• The Ring-A-Tangs, Season 1
• Snowtime, 2015
• The Saddle Club, Season 1-3

July 9

• Chrisley Knows Best, Season 8
• Growing Up Chrisley, Season 1-2
• Snapped, Season 26-27

July 14-16

• Golden: The Journey of USA’s Elite Gymnasts, Episode 5 (Peacock Original)
• Signs, 2002
• The Sixth Sense, 1999
• The Happening, 2008
• The Village, 2004
• Unbreakable, 2000
• Dr. Death, Season 1 (Peacock Original)
• Archibald’s Next Big Thing is Here!, Season 3 (Peacock Original)
• Ming’s Dynasty, Season 1
• The Hollywood Puppet Set, Season 1-2
• The Read with Kid Fury and Crissle, Season 1
• The Sisters of ’96; The 1996 USA Women’s Olympic Soccer Team (Peacock Original)
• ’96 Olympic Women’s Soccer Final, 2021
• Ray, 2004
• The Adjustment Bureau, 2011

July 21-23

• Peacock Original Golden: The Journey of USA’s Elite Gymnasts, Episode 5
• Olympic Dreams Featuring the Jonas Brothers (NBC)
• Snapped, Season 9

Coverage of the Tokyo Games goes into full effect on July 24, when the service will offer four live studio shows each day:

TOKYO LIVE 6 a.m. – 11 a.m. ET daily

TOKYO GOLD 11 a.m. – noon ET daily

ON HER TURF AT THE OLYMPICS

• Monday – Saturday 7 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. ET
• Sunday 6 p.m. – 6:30 p.m. ET

TOKYO TONIGHT

• Monday – Saturday 7:30 p.m. – midnight ET
• Sunday 6:30 p.m. – 11 p.m. ET

July 29

• The Croods, 2013

One of the mysteries in Quentin Tarantino’s Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is whether or not Brad Pitt’s character, Cliff Booth, killed his wife. The novelization of the film is now available, and it confirms what really happened. Read on if you’d like to know.

SPOILERS FOLLOW BELOW/DESCRIPTION CONTAINS GRAPHIC LANGUAGE

According to Collider, the book confirms that Booth did in fact shoot and kill his wife, Billie, with the shark gun as it was alluded to in the movie in a flashback scene on a boat. The book confirms in grisly detail how it happened. The spear “hit her a little below the belly button, tearing her in half, both pieces hitting the deck of the boat with a splash.”

In the movie, we see Booth pointing the spear gun at Billie but the scene ends before anything happens, leaving it up to the imagination of the viewer as to what really went down. But the book makes it clear that Booth is a cold-blooded murderer.

After Booth murdered his wife, he had a revelation. “The moment he saw her ripped in two…years of ill will and resentment evaporated in an instant,” reads a line from the book.

Booth then attempts to save his wife by holding the two fractured parts of her body together, and it works for seven hours as they chat and hash out their differences. A rescue team finally makes it to the boat, and this is when the woman dies.

Booth covers his tracks and gets away with the murder, but the book explains how he “felt really bad about what he did to Billie.”

“As much regret and remorse as he felt, it never occurred to him not to try to get away with murder,” according to the book.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: The Novel is available now. In other news, Tarantino recently revealed that he considered remaking Reservoir Dogs as his final film before retirement but ultimately decided against it.

July is only a few days away, and Niantic has now outlined some of the big events it’s holding in Pokemon Go next month. In addition to Pokemon Go Fest 2021, there are a number of activities to look forward to in the game over the next few weeks, including the return of Mewtwo and Deoxys, new Research Breakthrough rewards, and more.

July 2021 Research Breakthrough Encounter: Rufflet

Niantic is rolling out a new batch of Field Research tasks and rewards beginning July 1, including a new Research Breakthrough encounter. Each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough in July, you’ll earn a chance to catch the Flying-type Pokemon Rufflet. On top of that, you’ll also receive double XP and a free Remote Raid Pass each time you achieve a Research Breakthrough in July.

Raid Schedule

Legendary Raids

Immediately after the Bidoof Day event, which will see Bidoof appearing more frequently in the wild and in all Raid tiers, Defense Forme Deoxys will arrive in five-star Raids until July 16. Following its departure, Mewtwo will make its return until July 23. Not only does this mark another rare opportunity to catch Mewtwo outside of EX Raids, but you’ll also have a chance to find a Shiny Mewtwo. An as-yet unannounced Pokemon is scheduled to replace Mewtwo later in the month. You can see July’s full Legendary Raid schedule below.

• July 1-16: Defense Forme Deoxys
• July 16-23: Mewtwo
• July 23: TBA

Mega Raids

As before, Niantic will feature only one Mega-Evolved Pokemon at a time in Mega Raid Battles throughout July. Mega Houndoom is kicking off the month until July 16, when it will be replaced by Mega Gengar until July 23. Capping off the month will be Mega Charizard X. You can see July’s Mega Raid schedule below.

• July 1-16: Mega Houndoom
• July 16-23: Mega Gengar
• July 23-August 6: Mega Charizard X

July Pokemon Spotlight Hours

Every Tuesday evening in July, Niantic is spotlighting a different Pokemon and bonus for one hour from 6-7 PM local time. You can see July’s full Spotlight Hour schedule below.

July Community Day

July’s Community Day is set for Saturday, July 3. This month’s featured Pokemon is Tepig, the Fire-type starter from Pokemon Black and White. Not only will Tepig appear more frequently in the wild throughout the event, but any that you evolve all the way into its final form, Emboar, during the event will automatically know the Fire-type Charged attack Blast Burn.

Pokemon Go Anniversary Event

This summer marks Pokemon Go’s fifth anniversary, and Niantic is celebrating the milestone with a special anniversary event from July 6-15. Niantic says that additional details about the event will be announced in early July.

Go Battle Night

The second Go Battle Night of the season is set for Sunday, July 11. The event runs from 6-11:59 PM local time and will offer triple Stardust rewards winning battles, completing sets of battles, and ranking up.

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Giles Goddard, one of the programmers on SNES’ Star Fox, has said that he would love to work on another game in the franchise and would love to see it without any “gimmicks.”

As reported by VGC, Goddard was speaking to GameXplain and was asked if there was a Nintendo IP he would be interested in working on.

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“It would be interesting to do a Star Fox, I think,” he replied. “But not how the other ones were done. I think I would just dial it back a lot and not in gimmicks like, you know, the stuff Star Fox Zero had, and maybe not even put in the free roaming aspects and stuff like that.

“I would just bring it back, pull it back into what made the original Star Fox fun, and just make one based on that. I don’t know how popular it would be, but it would be cool to try.”

He was then asked if he’d like to see Star Fox to return to its retro roots and come back with the more basic, polygonal look of the original.

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“Yeah, a sort of retro Star Fox thing? Um, no,” he replied. “I think if we did it, it would have to be either an extremely stylised retro look, or just very updated and modern-looking. But I wouldn’t try to replicate the polygons from the Super FX chip because I don’t see the point. You don’t go back that far, you know. We’ve fixed that problem, you don’t want to go back to it.”

A potential new Star Fox would be the first new entry since 2016’s Star Fox Zero on the Wii U. In our review of Star Fox Zero, we said that it “reimagines a classic Nintendo 64 game, but mastering its awkward control takes some time.”

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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.

There’s never been a better time to take control, because peripherals are going cheap today! Be it a premium mouse, a Pro controller or a DualSense, we’ve got you sorted for incredibly priced input devices. Also, we’ve sprinkled in our usual daily picks of the best game bargains out there. Get scrolling to get saving!

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Quentin Tarantino’s novelization of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood has officially hit store shelve and readers are discovering how the director expands the world of 1960’s Tinseltown beyond the events of the movie. The novel provides a bit of clarity on a certain ambiguity that featured heavily in the original film.

Spoilers follow for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, both the film and the novel.

Earlier this month, Tarantino revealed that Once Upon a Time in Hollywood would explore the history of stuntman Cliff Booth, played by Brad Pitt in the film. A question that hangs over Booth’s reputation in the film is whether or not he killed his own wife. A flashback sequence features Cliff handling a harpoon gun while being chewed out by his spouse Billie, played by Rebecca Gayheart. The scene ends with an ambiguous pause before cutting away. While no exact facts are offered in the film, the rumored murder understandably leads to the stuntman having trouble finding work in the entertainment industry. Moreover, later events in the film clearly show that Booth has a penchant for violence.

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Freed from the time constraints of a commercial film, Tarantino provides a definite answer to the question of Cliff Booth’s culpability. The novel confirms that the stuntman did murder his wife.

Not only that, Booth has apparently murdered several other people. Another passage in the book details Cliff’s altercation with another stuntman. The two initially share co-ownership of Brandy, the dog seen in the film. After the other stuntman plans on sending Brandy to die in a rigged dogfighting match, Cliff beats him to death.

Tarantino described Cliff’s act of uxoricide as a product of the stuntman’s rage and the precarious trigger of the harpoon gun. After slicing his wife in half with the spear, Cliff keeps Billie alive for hours before the Coast Guard arrives. Following Billie’s passing, the authorities can’t uncover enough evidence to prove the death was anything more than an accident.

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Once Upon a Time in Hollywood: A Novel is now available in paperback and e-book. Additionally, the novel has also been released as an audiobook narrated by Jennifer Jason Leigh, who starred in Tarantino’s 2015 western The Hateful Eight.

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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

Xbox has gone on quite the spending spree, acquiring studios for its Xbox Game Studios family including teams like Obsidian, Ninja Theory, and Zenimax Media. This has been the source of rampant discussion about the nature of studio acquisitions in the games industry, but Spencer says he thinks it is a healthy part of the business.

Speaking to Unlocked for its 500th episode, Spencer spoke at length about the role of Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) within the games industry, especially since Xbox and Microsoft are big facilitators of them.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/29/phil-spencer-interview-20-years-of-xbox-unlocked-500″]

“I know sometimes I see dialogue out in the industry about, well, are acquisitions a good thing or a bad thing,” says Spencer before congratulating Sony on their acquisition of Housemarque announced earlier today.

“One thing I’ll put out there is… starting a new studio — starting any small business, frankly, is a very risky proposition, starting a video game studio even more so. And if a team actually takes the risk of starting a new company, starting a new studio, building that over years, building value in that. To say they shouldn’t sell, I think, is just short-sighted.”

Spencer says that the value of growing a business to become something valuable is part of why creative teams start new studios in the first place. The immense risk it takes to start a new company is the potential reward that comes with it, and Spencer says “M&A is absolutely a part of that.”

Spencer clarified that not every new company has to sell and that there are a lot of studios that can fail. But successful teams growing and potentially getting acquired “is a natural and healthy part of our industry.”

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“It’s such a risk-filled journey for them to get to the point to create real value. I’m always going to congratulate when teams get to the point where they realize that value through acquisition or just massive independent success… many of those leaders will go off and start other things over time. It’s kind of the natural turnover that happens with entrepreneurs and startup businesses. And for us, we’re always out there looking at where we could continue to build our first-party capability and looking at teams that we think would be good fits for us.”

It is certainly true to say that leaders who create successful businesses can go off and try it again. Mike Morhaime, the former Blizzard Entertainment president, recently departed the studio he co-founded to start a new studio, Dreamhaven.

One thing is clear, however, and that is that the games industry like any other industry will have new companies pop up, and if there’s a business opportunity for an M&A, bigger companies like Microsoft, Sony, EA, or others will consider them.

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For more from the 500th episode of Unlocked, check out IGN’s round-up from our Phil Spencer interview, and why it’s the perfect time to bring back Joanna Dark for a new game.

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Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.

The Xbox Series X/S home consoles have been out for a little over seven months. As the one-year anniversary for both consoles draws near, Microsoft has reaffirmed that its current console models are here to stay, with no hardware refreshes expected anytime soon.

During the 500th episode of Podcast Unlocked, Xbox head Phil Spencer discussed the hardware road map for both consoles and noting that he does not expect either console to have a model refresh in the near future. “There’s nothing that’s going to come out next year that’s going to make you feel like, oh, I should have waited,” Spencer told IGN. “These are the consoles that we have in markets for years. And we built them with that in mind, and I love the tech that’s in there and that capability, and that’s where our focus is going.”

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With Spencer seemingly confirming that the future-proof build of both the Series X/S, it feels unlikely that either console will see a model refresh. During the previous generation, Microsoft released the Xbox One, which lasted for three years until it was succeeded by the Xbox One S in 2016. A year later, Microsoft released the Xbox One X, which gave the original hardware a substantial boost. In 2019, Microsoft released an all-digital version of the Xbox One S.

“We don’t have to go do hardware just to go do it. We want to do hardware because it actually creates new opportunities,” Spencer states regarding the Xbox Series X/S. “And I’ve said before, it could be at the lower end that we find more immediate opportunities.”

Yet, Spencer did not shut down the possibility of the future hardware models launching in the Xbox Series lineup as the company continues to explore ways to get more people playing Xbox products and services. On the question of a potential update in the future, Spencer says the team is “having those conversations right now.”

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“I’ve said before, it could be at the lower end that we find more immediate opportunities. There’s something for us to do that allows more people to play with xCloud,” Spencer said. “Is there something to do at a higher-end? We’re having those discussions right now. I love the capability of the hardware team and it will be kind of a constant conversation.”

This comes with no surprise for Xbox as the company has made it clear that as it expands the Xbox ecosystem to other devices like smart TVs and streaming sticks, the Xbox game console hardware will continue to remain the “flagship experience” for people looking to experience games through the Xbox brand.

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Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Shortly after Microsoft launched the Xbox Series X|S last year, it announced Perfect Dark, an attempt to revive the cult classic Nintendo 64 shooter. Little is known about the revival save that it will be a reboot by The Initiative, a new studio headed by veteran Darrell Gallagher, but Xbox boss Phil Spencer offered some insight into Microsoft’s thinking in reviving the series more than 20 years after its original release.

According to Spencer in an interview with Podcast Unlocked for its 500th episode, the decision to revive Perfect Dark was made before Gallagher even joined Xbox. Gallagher has a long history in the games industry, having served as the head of development at publishers including Activision and Crystal Dynamics. Spencer says that Xbox pitched Gallagher on multiple opportunities, one of them being the opportunity to revive Rare’s Nintendo 64 classic.

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“Obviously [Gallagher] had a great track record at [Crystal Dynamics], and the work that he had done with Warcraft and the re-imagining of Tomb Raider. So when we were looking at different opportunities, one that we brought up was Joanna and Perfect Dark, and it was something that he was excited about in the end,” Spencer says.

According to Spencer, a key consideration in reviving Perfect Dark is being able to feature a game with a female protagonist. “I think it’s awesome for us. We can focus on a female protagonist in our lineup. We don’t have a lot of that in our first-party [lineup].”

This has been changing in recent years. For example, Gears 5’s hero is Kait Diaz, who has succeeded Marcus Fenix as arguably the franchise’s main protagonist. Hellblade, a franchise recently acquired alongside Ninja Theory, is another example. Nevertheless, Spencer says Xbox sees an opportunity to continue building out its first-party catalog on that front. “I think Joanna offers a lot of modern opportunities that I love to see the team kind of focusing on, having a strong protagonist.”

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As for Gallagher, Spencer says that working on Perfect Dark wasn’t an ultimatum, “It didn’t have to be, ‘Hey Darrell, come and do Perfect Dark or don’t come to Microsoft.'” But ultimately, The Initiative and Xbox opted to go forward with the new game together, and its team was formed with that goal in mind.

Microsoft announced Perfect Dark at The Game Awards in late 2020. Like the original, it will be a “secret agent thriller set in a near-future world,” but otherwise Microsoft and The Initiative have remained tight-lipped about the revival. The original game was released on the Nintendo 64 in 2000 and was followed by an Xbox 360 sequel in 2005, which received lukewarm reviews.

It is the first game to be developed by The Initiative, a Santa Monica-based studio formed in 2018. No release date yet, but it is rumored to be set for a 2023 launch.

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Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.