Month: July 2021

The full trailer for Transformers: War for Cybertron: Kingdom is here. The third and final part of Netflix’s animated Transformers series releases on July 29.

As teased last month, War for Cybertron: Kingdom introduces characters from the popular Beast Wars spin-off. Optimus Prime and the Autobots are in a race against the evil Decepticons to locate the missing AllSpark. The chase leads them to an ancient planet inhabited by dinosaurs–and the Predacons and Maximals, the two warring factions from Beast Wars. It looks like another stylishly animated adventure, that should keep fans happy while they wait for next live-action Transformers movie. Check the trailer out below:

Transformers: War for Cybertron: Kingdom is a six episode series. It follows War for Cybertron: Siege, which was released in July last year, and War for Cybertron: Earthrise, which followed in December.

Even though this series is about to end, there’s lots more Transformers on the way. The next movie is titled Transformers: Rise Of The Beasts, and as the title suggests, it will also feature Beast Wars characters. It’s currently in production ahead of a June 2022 release and is directed by Creed II’s Steven Caple Jr.

There’s also another live-action movie, directed by Angel Manuel Soto, in development, plus a new animated series, which is being produced by Nickelodeon. In February, it was reported that it will be a 26-episode “action-comedy series” that focuses on a new species of transforming robots.

Originally scheduled for a 2021 launch, The King of Fighters XV shifted its release date to Q1 2022–January to March–as developer SNK stated that a rise in COVID-19 cases within Japan was the cause of the delay in development. As for the platforms that The King of Fighters XV will launch on, a new tweet from SNK launch has confirmed that the game will arrive on PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC for the Epic Games Store and Steam. Xbox One, however, isn’t listed.

In case you missed it, SNK has been dropping a steady supply of character trailers ever since the game was announced. Of its massive roster, you can catch trailers of Leona Heidern, Shermie, Shiranui, and a whole lot more.

SNK has also teased updated graphics for The King of Fighters XV while confirming that the game will feature rollback netcode. It has been five years since the last game in the King of Fighters series, and the latest chapter will have some moderately-sized boots to fill when it lands.

“With plenty of opportunities available online or off, KOF 14 is a well-executed addition to the revered fighting series,” Matt Espineli wrote in his King of Fighters XIV review. “Those disappointed in its new visuals may be unwilling to give it a chance, but if you remain steadfast in parsing through the multiple layers of its mechanics, you’ll be rewarded with one of the most accessible, satisfying entries in the series to date.”

Paddington 3 is expected to begin filming sometime during Q2 2022, according to Deadline. The date was shared by production company Studiocanal during the Cannes Film Festival.

Expectations are high for this third outing to surpass its predecessors–after all, Paddington 2 was the film that briefly dethroned Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time, according to Rotten Tomatoes. It was announced earlier this year that Paddington 3 was finally in development after Paddington 2 hit theaters in 2018, along with the fact that Paul King–who wrote and directed the first two films–would be involved in some capacity, but not directing.

It was later announced that King would instead be directing the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prequel Wonka, which was announced in January. The Wonka reboot, in turn, isn’t expected to hit theaters until sometime in March 2023. Actor Timothee Chalamet (Call Me by Your Name) was cast in the titular role this May.

Paddington 3 will have a story by King, Simon Farnaby, and Mark Burton. The screenplay will be written by Burton, Jon Foster, and James Lamont. At Cannes, Studiocanal also shared that the production company plans to invest $1 billion between now and 2024 in the film. The company will also be producing a Season 3 of the counterpart TV series, The Adventures of Paddington.

Fortnite dataminers are at it again, this time apparently unearthing a major crossover with LA Lakers star LeBron James. The King’s Bling Quests and associated cosmetics seem just about ready to arrive in the game, and we could see The King drop onto the island of Apollo in just a few days with a brand-new Fortnite LeBron James skin.

Dataminers say the King’s Bling Quests will allow players to earn various cosmetics for the basketball superstar beginning next week when he arrives on July 14. Across his cosmetic set, players can gild their items like Fortnite’s gold-obsessed original anti-hero, Midas. If players complete all of LeBron’s related challenges, they can eventually unlock a gold slider, letting them choose just how gilded they want each item to be.

While images of the Fortnite LeBron skin or his related accessories like Back Bling, Pickaxe, and Emotes have not yet been discovered, they’re expected to be decrypted by the always avid Fortnite datamining community when Fortnite patch 17.20 goes live next week, a day before LeBron’s expected due date.

The launch of LeBron is corroborated by a recently commissioned mural spotted in Chicago which vaguely teased a new addition to the game, though before these datamined leaks, it wasn’t yet understood what it meant. The mural merely mentioned a date, July 14, 2021, and featured what looks like a future fantasy Back Bling and gold crown for what we now assume is the LeBron James crossover set.

The assumed launch date also fits nicely with the launch of Space Jam: A New Legacy which stars LeBron James and debuts in theaters on July 16. We’ve seen Epic release tie-ins with similar attention to timing, like the recent Loki skin which came on the heels of the villain’s Disney+ premiere.

The LeBron James Fortnite skin was previously leaked as a potential future collaboration during the Epic versus Apple court battle. Some of the other leaked skins at that time, like Batman Looper, have been released since then, while others, like Naruto, haven’t appeared in the game yet and may never do so. Those same court proceedings did tip off the Fortnite community to the recent NBA crossover, however.

We don’t know yet whether LeBron will be a paid or free cosmetic, but given that Season 7’s midseason “secret” skin is Superman, we expect LeBron to fetch a few V-Bucks in the Item Shop, making his associated King’s Bling Quests entirely missable for players who don’t buy the set.

While we wait for The King to hit the Courtnite–er, Fortnite–we are all witnesses to the incoming Week 5 Alien Artifacts and Week 5 challenges.

Xbox has just released a ’90s-style R&B music video about its subscription service, Xbox All Access. And that’s not even the strangest thing about it. The song is performed by All-4-One, the hit R&B group best known for the song ‘I Swear’. And the song they are singing is an Xbox-themed remix of ‘I Swear’.

No, I’m not making this up. I swear.

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The song reimagines the 1994 hit as ‘It’s All There’, a ballad about the virtues of the Xbox All Access subscription, which includes a new Xbox console and Game Pass Ultimate for a monthly price. The music video that accompanies the track features All-4-One singing in a variety of incredibly 1990s locations – sometimes wearing white suits, sometimes nylon tracksuits – all in soft focus with a gentle breeze. The video has a storyline, too, about a woman upgrading her aging OG Xbox One for a new Xbox Series S through Xbox All Access. It’s a… trip, to say the least.

Xbox All Access provides users with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, which means you can use Xbox Cloud Gaming. The service is now fully available to all Ultimate users across Windows, Apple and Android devices. The system appears to now be at least partially powered by Xbox Series X server blades, meaning better performance.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.

The Witcher: Blood Origin has expanded its cast with Star Trek: Discovery alum Michelle Yeoh.

Netflix announced on Tuesday that Yeoh will play Scían in the upcoming prequel series. Scían is described as being the “very last of her nomadic tribe of sword-elves” and, according to her official character description, “no one can come close to her artistry with the blade, and no one carries as much loss within their heart.”

Set in an elven world 1200 years before The Witcher, Blood Origin will see Scían launch herself into a deadly quest to “retrieve a stolen sacred sword, taken from her fallen tribe by nefarious means.” It sounds like her actions will have a great impact on the story, as her mission is said to “change the outcome of the Continent.”

Yeoh recently starred in CBS’ Star Trek: Discovery alongside Mel Gibson and Frank Grillo. Her recent feature credits include Boss Level, Last Christmas, and Crazy Rich Asians. Earlier in her career, she appeared in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, as well as Memoirs of a Geisha, and the 1997 James Bond movie Tomorrow Never Dies opposite Pierce Brosnan’s 007.

She joins Laurence O’Fuarain in the cast of Blood Origin. O’Fuarain will star in the role of Fjall, a character that “carries a deep scar within” from “the death of a loved one who fell in battle trying to save him.” In the series, he will find himself “fighting beside the most unlikely of allies as he carves a path of vengeance across a continent in turmoil.”

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Blood Origin is being developed by the original series’ showrunner Lauren Schmidt Hissrich, and Declan de Barra who wrote The Witcher S1 episode ‘Of Banquets, Bastards and Burials.’ The Witcher novelist Andrzej Sapkowski is also onboard as a creative consultant. Netflix hasn’t set a release date for Blood Origin yet, but WitcherCon may reveal more details.

The upcoming virtual fan event will feature several interactive panels, cast conversations, game developer discussions, quiz-style trivia games, and so much more. The event, hosted by Julia Hardy, will run across two separate streams over consecutive days, with each one offering unique, exclusive content.

The digital convention will stream on Netflix and CD Projekt Red’s YouTube and Twitch channels. WitcherCon will first air on July 9 at 7:00 PM (CEST), with the second stream beginning at 03:00 AM (CEST) on July 10. If you’re interested in virtually attending the event, we have a rundown of everything you need to know, including the show’s full schedule.

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Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Sony has just announced that a new State of Play will air on Thursday, July 8 at 2 PM PT/5 PM ET. Bethesda’s upcoming title, Deathloop, is the main star here with nine minutes of extended gameplay footage. Cole will use his abilities to sneak around Blackreef Island or just simply go in guns blazing with his weapons.

The presentation’s total run time will be about 30 minutes, with an additional look at more third-party titles and indies to round it out. Sony also clarified that the showcase will not include any updates regarding the next God of War game and Horizon Forbidden West, as well as any new hardware updates such as the next generation of PlayStation VR.

Deathloop is slated for a September 14 launch on PlayStation 5 and PC after being delayed from May 21. Sony recently announced that the next God of War’s release date would be pushed back to sometime in 2022, while PlayStation is still hoping it can still launch Horizon Forbidden West this year. According to Bloomberg, the next generation of PlayStation VR should release in late 2022 as well.

Sony has announced that a 30-minute State of Play will take place on Thursday, July 8 at 2pm PT/5pm ET/10pm BST that will focus on Deathloop, indies, and third-party titles.

Announced by PlayStation.Blog, fans of Deathloop will be treated to a “nine-minute look at Deathloop’s time-twisted world.” In this extended gameplay look, players will see “Cole use his abilities to stealthily skulk across rooftops… or go in
guns blazing to create a whole lot of mayhem. Lots of options available on Blackreef Island.”

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Sony was very clear in saying that this State of Play will “not include updates on the next God of War, Horizon Forbidden West or the next generation of PlayStation VR. Stay tuned throughout the summer though, as we’ll have more updates soon.”

Deathloop, which comes from Microsoft-owned Arkane Studios and Bethesda Softworks, was recently delayed and is currently set to be released on PlayStation 5 and PC on September 14, 2021.

In our Deathloop hands-off preview, we said, “The idea of a Hitman game where you jump into a level not to kill the target, but to discover how you can force them to move to a different location so that you can blow them up at the same time as someone else, is undeniably attractive. But mixing that with Dishonored’s supernatural assassin gameplay and top-tier level design quickly makes Deathloop one of the most exciting propositions of the year.”

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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.

Devolver Digital and DeadToast Entertainment have announced My Friend Pedro: Ripe for Revenge, a free-to-play mobile spin-off to the popular shoot ’em up released in 2019.

My Friend Pedro: Ripe for Revenge was unveiled alongside a debut trailer for the game, teasing a new adventure of blood, bullets, and bananas as Pedro sets out on a rampage to serve up some ice-cold revenge, with a sprinkle of bullets on top, following the kidnapping of his wife and kids. Check out the game’s official announcement trailer below:

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According to a blurb on the game’s press release, players will be able to flip and fire their way through “dozens of action-packed levels on foot, on a motorcycle, and even on a skateboard” while also executing some “high caliber choreography for the best scores.” Additionally, there’s a “Blood Rush” mode to really test your skills, but only if “your skin is tough enough.”

Pre-registration for the “free-to-slay carnage” is available right now, with the game expected to launch on Android and iOS devices on August 5.

The Ripe for Revenge mobile spin-off follows on from the success of My Friend Pedro, which was first released on PC and Switch in June 2019 and was later ported to Xbox One and PS4. The crazy 2D shooter opened fire on a violent ballet of friendship, imagination, and one man’s struggle to obliterate anyone in his path at the behest of a sentient banana.

IGN awarded My Friend Pedro an 8.5 out of 10, and commended the action-driven adventure for its delivery of “slow-motion gunplay, fantastical stunts, and score-attack-driven mechanics,” which “all work together to create one hell of an adrenaline-filled ride, even if it doesn’t give you much reason to come back to it once that ride is over.”

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If the original game left you feeling hungry for more, then you’ll be pleased to know it’s being adapted into an R-rated TV series by the creator of John Wick. Derek Kolstad has reportedly signed up to write the series and serve as an executive producer alongside David Leitch, the uncredited co-director of the first John Wick, who will executive produce the project.

The company behind the upcoming series is the same one behind the Disco Elysium TV series adaptation announced last year. It joins a growing list of video game adaptations that have been announced, planned, or are currently in production right now, including Amazon’s Fallout TV series and Netflix’s Cyberpunk 2077 anime.

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Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Michelle Yeoh has joined that recast of The Witcher: Blood Origin. The Star Trek Discovery star will play a character named Scían in the spin-off from Netflix‘s fantasy show The Witcher.

Netflix has released a description of Yeoh’s character. It reads, “Scían is the very last of her nomadic tribe of sword-elves. No one can come close to her artistry with the blade, and no one carries as much loss within their heart. When a chance presents itself to retrieve a stolen sacred sword, taken from her fallen tribe by nefarious means, she launches herself into a deadly quest that will change the outcome of the Continent.”

Yeoh has played Philippa Georgiou in three seasons of Star Trek Discovery to date. She will next appear in the Marvel movie Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings and is also known for movies such as Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Tomorrow Never Dies, and Police Story 3: Super Cop.

The Witcher: Blood Origin is a prequel to the main show, set 1,200 years earlier. It will tell the story of the very first monster-hunting Witcher and the events that lead to the “conjunction of the spheres,” where the worlds of monsters, men and elves merge to become one.

The show doesn’t have a release yet, but we know it will be a six-episode limited series. It will also star Laurence O’Fuarain (Game of Thrones) as a warrior named Fjall, while Declan de Barra (Iron Fist, The Originals) is the showrunner.

The Witcher Season 2 has now finished shooting and is in post-production ahead of a release on Netflix later this year. A new promo was released during Netflix’s Geeked Week last month. In addition, the first ever WitcherCon is set to take place on July 9. The virtual event will give fans updates on both the Netflix shows and the video game series–check out the WitcherCon schedule here.