Month: September 2021

Daily Deals: $100 Off Arcade1Up Pac-Man Arcade Cabinet, 50% Off HBO Max, Preorder the New Apple iPad Mini and Save $40

There are a lot of great new deals this Monday. Save 25% off the Arcade1Up Pac-Man arcade video game cabinet (you can even get a discount on the Pac-Man stools), score 6 months of HBO Max for only $7.49 per month, and save $40 when you preorder the newest Apple iPad Mini with the A15 Bionic processor. In other deal news, Amazon has kicked off its B2G1 FREE board game sale, and for today only you can score Rockstar and Mountain Dew Game Fuel energy drinks at a hefty discount. These deals and more below.

Arcade1Up Pac-Man Arcade Cabinet

The classic Arcade1Up Pac-Man cabinet dropped to a new historical price low today, plus you’re getting free shipping from Walmart. The Pac-Man arcade cabinet is a 3:4 scale replica that measures 4 feet tall. A themed riser is also included that raises the cabinet by an extra 1 foot, so you can choose to play comfortably while sitting or standing. The included games are Pac-Man, Pac-Land, Pac-Man Plus, Super Pac-Man, Pac-Mania, Galaxian, Galaga, Dig Dug, Dig Dug 2, and Mappy Rompers. The entire package comes flat packed, but it is very easy to assemble and should take you less than one hour.

Arcade1Up Pac-Man Stools

Pick up a pair of officially licensed Arcade1Up Pac-Man adjustable stools to round out the classic arcade experience. These stools normally cost $79.99 each, but with this 2-pack you’re paying about $51 per stool. They’re extendable from 21.5″ to 29.5″.

New 2021 Apple iPad Mini on Sale

The recently announced 2021 Apple iPad Mini goes up for sale on September 24, but you don’t need to wait that long to get a discount. Amazon is already offering $40 off this iPad Mini when you preorder it from their site. If you need a tablet that has a much easier-to-transport footprint than your typical iPad, the iPad Mini is definitely the one to get. The newest iPad Mini features an 8.3″ Liquid Retina display with Tru Tone, powerful A15 Bionic chip, WiFi 6, USB Type-C charging, and more.

50% Off 6 Months of Ad-Free HBO Max

HBO Max is taking 50% off your first 6 months of its ad-free streaming service. That drops the price to only $7.49/mo. HBO Max hosts some of the biggest recent releases like Malignant, Suicide Squad 2, Mortal Kombat, Godzilla vs Kong, Zack Snyder’s Justice League, Tenet, and more. You’ll look forward to watching Dune on October 22 and Matrix 4 on December 22 with your HBO Max subscription as well. You also have access to some great TV shows like Lovecraft Country, Friends, Rick & Morty, and South Park. This is one of the best streaming services around and at this price it’s a steal.

Amazon Buy 2 Get 1 Free Board Game Sale

Amazon has brought back its excellent B2G1 FREE board game sale. There are plenty of choices here, including highly rated games like Pandemic, Dungeons & Dragons Starter Set, Splendor, Ticket to Ride, One Night Ultimate Werewolf, and much much more. Add the three eligible board games to your cart and check out. You’ll see the discount at the last step of checkout right before you pay.

Rockstar and Mountain Dew Game Fuel Energy Drinks

1 Day Only Deals!

This deal is always popular with the IGN crowd whenever it comes along. Rockstar energy drinks usually cost about $2-$3 apiece at your local convenience store. On sale you might be lucky to find them for about $1.50. For today only, this deal lets you cop a 12-pack for only $1.05 apiece. Get it to under $1 per can if you add a total of five items to your current Amazon Subscribe & Save order. Other flavor options also available:

ASUS ROG Strix RTX 2060 SUPER Gaming PC for $999

This gaming desktop packs a lot of punch for a rig that costs just under $1000. The RTX 2060 SUPER is a very capable video card; it’s pretty much on par with the RTX 2070 and can easily handle games at up to 1440p resolution. It’s paired with an AMD Ryzen 7 processor, 16GB of memory, and dual SSD and HDD storage.

Back in Stock (Including 1TB Model): WD Black SN850 M.2 SSD with Heatsink

The Western Digital official storefront has all models of the SN850 SSD with heatsink in stock right now, and that includes the extremely hard to find 1TB model. This is currently the most popular (and probably the best) SSD to get for your PS5 storage upgrade. It’s blazing fast drive with transfer speeds rated at up to 7,000 MB/s and a PCIe Gen4 interface and it comes preinstalled with a heatsink. It’s also confirmed by Western Digital themselves to be compatible with the PS5.

Dell XPS Intel Core i7 RTX 3060 Ti PC for $1369

Enjoy high end PC gaming on a budget. There is one of the best deals we’ve seen for an RTX 3060 Ti equipped PC and handily beats out a similar deal we saw on Labor Day by over $100. The RTX 3060 Ti is a very powerful video card; it’s better than the previous generation’s RTX 2080! It’s a big upgrade from the 3060 non-Ti model and the one to get if you’re going to play games at resolutions of 1440p or higher. This particular deal is found on the Dell Small Business site, but anyone can purchase there just like on Dell’s regular site; you can treat Dell Small Business as exactly the same as Dell Home.

Video Game Deals

More Daily Deals for September 20

Quantic Dream Reportedly Developing A Star Wars Game

Rumors suggest that there is another Star Wars game in the works, this one developed by Quantic Dream, which previously worked on Heavy Rain and Detroit: Become Human. The rumors began when French YouTuber Gautoz posted a video in which he claimed that Quantic Dream might be working on a Star Wars game, which was picked up by VGC.

Shortly after, Tom Henderson of DualShockers posted an article stating that an independent source provided evidence that the game was real and had been in development for the past 18 months, which Kotaku was able to corroborate from its own sources. The Star Wars game in question is supposedly different from Quantic Dream’s other, quick-time event-heavy games, like Detroit: Become Human. Instead, the game will have more traditional action gameplay, possibly in an open-world environment and with multiplayer elements.

Now Playing: The Evolution Of Star Wars Games

Quantic Dream, helmed by studio head David Cage, announced back in 2019 that it would be ending its deal with PlayStation and working on multiplatform titles moving forward. Similarly, earlier this year Lucasfilm Games announced that Electronic Arts will no longer be the exclusive developer of Star Wars games and announced that Ubisoft has an open-world Star Wars title in the works. It was also recently announced that Aspyr is working on a full remake of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

Considering the number of Star Wars games that have been announced so far, it wouldn’t be surprising that there are more on the way. Quantic Dream has not publicly commented on the rumors and it’s important to remember to take these things with a grain of salt until an official announcement is–or isn’t–made.

PS5 Firmware 2.0 Reportedly Brings (Small) Performance Improvements To Some Games

The PS5 recently got a big firmware update that, among other things, added the ability to expand system storage. Now some experts are saying the new software also improves the performance of select games.

In the latest Digital Foundry Direct Weekly show, the crew broke down the differences between the PS5’s performance on the new and old firmware. “In very select scenarios, it does seem as though [all] PlayStation 5s are running faster than they were before with this new firmware,” Digital Foundry’s Richard Leadbetter said.

He went on to explain that the performance differences are very minor. The new firmware was causing select games, Control and Devil May Cry 5, to run about 2 to 3% faster than the old firmware. This led to an increase in framerate, only by about 1 to 2 FPS.

The discovery came about when Digital Foundry was testing the recent PlayStation 5 hardware revision that features a different cooling assembly, an improved stand, and other minor improvements. By the end of testing, they didn’t find any meaningful differences between the revision and the launch edition of the PS5.

However, during testing, they started to notice the old PlayStation 5 was running slightly better than the new one. Upon further investigation, they realized the old PS5 was running updated firmware, while the newer hardware was running older firmware. After updating all test units to the latest hardware, which is now available to the public, Digital Foundry realized it was the software update that led to the performance change.

This performance boost impacts the launch versions of the PS5, and the new hardware revision. The enhanced performance likely isn’t noticeable to the naked eye, but it is fascinating to think about software updates further optimizing console performance.

For more, check out all of the changes that came to the PlayStation 5 with its latest update, including expandable storage, quality of life improvements, and more. Or, check out our thoughts on the PlayStation 5’s newest masterpiece in our Deathloop review.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Shudder’s Creepshow Season 3 Review: Satisfyingly Retro Anthology Scares

While there is a long history of anthology horror movies, TV has proven to be the format’s natural home. In recent years, anthologies have become increasingly popular–from American Horror Story/Stories and Monsterland to Black Mirror and the reboot of The Twilight Zone, the hunger of fans for short, sharp doses of terror shows little sign of abating. Creepshow is Shudder’s small screen update of the classic 1982 George Romero/Stephen King movie, and it’s now back for its third season, only a few months after the release of Season 2.

The format remains comfortably familiar. Like the film, Creepshow is a homage to the gaudy, controversial 1950s horror comic books that Romero and King grew up reading. Each story starts the same way, showing us the panels of a comic story, with the skeletal Crypt-Keeper introducing us to this particular tale of terror. The stories are short–each 45-minute episode contains two–and usually fairly light-hearted. They traditionally end with the story’s main characters either meeting a gruesome end or exacting some equally unpleasant comeuppance on their adversaries.

With Creepshow Season 3 arriving to Shudder on September 23, we got a look at the first episode of the new season, and overall, the stories so far deliver another satisfyingly varied mix of ghoulish storytelling. The first, “Mumms,” focuses on a young kid named Jack, growing up on a remote farm with his troubled mom and paranoid, gun-loving dad, played by Ethan Embry. When Jack discovers that his mom has met a nasty fate and is buried in the garden, he takes matters into his own hands. The second story, “Queen Bee,” features a trio of teenagers who break into a hospital where their pop idol, Regina, is about to give birth to her first child. Unsurprisingly, the birth isn’t exactly a normal one.

Three seasons in, the series has hit an easy, deceptively comfortable groove. Creepshow isn’t a show to challenge its audience, and despite some swearing and plenty of gore, it’s got a deliberately old-fashioned, retro feel that makes it comfort-viewing for fans, especially those who grew up loving the original film. Part of the show’s charm is the way it ties into the movie, and into the wider community created by Romero and King. Showrunner Greg Nicotero was a protége of Romero’s make-up effects genius Tom Savini, while “Mumms” is based on a story by King’s son Joe Hill.

Nicotero is one of the founders of Oscar-winning make-up effects company KNB, and his commitment to practical effects remains admirable. In Season 3, he continues to honor Savini’s work by ensuring that the monsters, aliens, throat-slitting, and killer vines are rendered in-camera with models, masks, and old-fashioned stage blood. There was undoubtedly some digital help in post-production, but for the most part, there’s a physicality to the effects that is refreshing in this era of CGI (because let’s face it, digital blood rarely looks any good). It’s also impressive that despite the variety of directors involved, a consistent and inventive visual feel is maintained throughout, with frequent use of odd camera angles, stylized lighting, and overlaid comic book frames.

Like all anthologies, the quality of individual segments varies, and the compressed running time of Creepshow’s stories can be both a hindrance and a help. Keeping things short and tight works really well in the case of “Mumms”; this is a simple, archetypical tale that is well balanced in terms of build-up and pay-off. “Queen Bee” never quite takes flight, however, with its more ambitious story of a pop star’s dark secrets needing more space, and the overtly comic tone stops it from building any sense of menace.

But while it’s easy to suggest that Creepshow Season 3 is “more of the same”–even though it basically is–that implies that this sort of show is easy to do well. Nicotero and his team of writers and directors (including genre faves Joe Lynch and Rusty Condieff) might be working from a template laid out decades ago, but there’s a reason the series is one of the most popular things Shudder has ever made. The mix of laughs, scares, monsters, and splatter is as finely tuned as any horror anthology currently out there–and let’s face it, way better than many. For all the flaws of any individual story, Creepshow remains the perfect viewing for those long, horror-filled October nights that horror fans anticipate every year. Here’s hoping Crypt-Keeper will be around for years to come.

Marcia Lucas Was ‘Furious’ Over Star Wars Sequel Trilogy: ‘They Don’t Get It’

Disney’s Star Wars sequels certainly have their fans, but Marcia Lucas doesn’t count herself among them. The Oscar-winning editor behind the original trilogy (and ex-wife to George Lucas) makes her thoughts on the sequels very clear in a scathing foreword to the book Howard Kazanjian: A Producer’s Life.

In the foreword, Lucas slams Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and The Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, arguing “they don’t have a clue about Star Wars” and criticizing the decision to kill off franchise icons Han Solo and Luke Skywalker.

“They don’t get it,” Lucas writes. “And J.J. Abrams is writing these stories — when I saw the movie where they kill Han Solo, I was furious… Absolutely, positively there was no rhyme or reason to it. I thought, You don’t get the Jedi story. You don’t get the magic of Star Wars. You’re getting rid of Han Solo? And then at the end of this last one, they have Luke disintegrate. They killed Han Solo. They killed Luke Skywalker. And they don’t have Princess Leia anymore. And they’re spitting out movies every year.”

Lucas seems to have little love for Daisy Ridley’s Rey either, pointing to the many unanswered questions surrounding the character and her background pre-Episode IX (when this foreword appears to have been commissioned).

“And they think it’s important to appeal to a woman’s audience, so now their main character is this female, who’s supposed to have Jedi powers, but we don’t know how she got Jedi powers, or who she is. It sucks. The storylines are terrible. Terrible. Just awful.”

And perhaps to set the record straight, Lucas also directs her wrath at her ex-husband’s prequel trilogy, revealing her disappointment in Episode I literally brought her to tears in 1999.

“I remember going out to the parking lot, sitting in my car and crying,” Lucas writes. “I cried. I cried because I didn’t think it was very good. And I thought [George] had such a rich vein to mine, a rich palette to tell stories with… There were things I didn’t like about the casting, and things I didn’t like about the story, and things I didn’t like — it was a lot of eye candy. CG.”

Lucas is probably best known for her work editing the original three Star Wars movies. She won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing in 1977 for Star Wars, having previously been nominated for 1973’s American Graffiti. Lucas also won a BAFTA for her work on 1976’s Taxi Driver.

Lucas’ contribution to the Star Wars franchise is the subject of the YouTube mini-documentary “How Star Wars Was Saved in the Edit,” which reveals just how pivotal a role she played in shaping her then-husband’s rough cut into a global blockbuster.

Abrams seemingly acknowledged the lingering controversy surrounding the Star Wars sequels in 2020, admitting he’s “learned the hard way” to always go into new projects with a clear plan.

As for what’s next for the franchise, we recently learned the upcoming anime anthology Star Wars Visions will be the first project set after the events of The Rise of Skywaker, though it’s unclear whether the series is meant to be part of the official canon.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Diablo 2: Resurrected Devs Say They Have Plenty Of Ideas For New Content

Diablo II: Resurrected will bring Blizzard’s 2000 action-RPG classic into the modern age when it releases later this month, complete with updated visuals and small quality-of-life changes. What it won’t have, at least at launch, is new content, but that’s something that could come down the line according to a new developer interview.

As part of a group media interview (via Windows Central), Vicarious Visions studio design director Rob Gallerani and project lead Michael Bukowski discussed the creation of Diablo II: Resurrected and also touched on what the future might hold. Gallerani said the team is focused on getting the core game right first, but that there are plenty of ideas for what could come next.

Now Playing: Diablo II: Resurrected – Official Cinematic Trailer

“We wanted to build a really strong foundation before we started talking about the third and fourth floors on this building,” Gallerani said. “If we misstepped on what the core game was, anything else we were doing would have been kind of meaningless. […]We definitely have lots of ideas, but right now we’re waiting to make sure that we get the core game right. […] We’ll have to see once the game goes live what we do about new runewords, new items, rebalancing, things like that.”

Some changes will already be live when Diablo II: Resurrected launches, such as the inclusion of previously ladder-only runewords and items being made available for all players and the fact that it will be playable on consoles. The game also won’t have the original’s TCP/IP support, which was removed out of security concerns.

Diablo II: Resurrected will release on September 23, as Blizzard continues to deal with the fallout from a state of California lawsuit accusing Activision Blizzard of fostering a workplace culture of harassment and discrimination towards women. The lawsuit’s allegations led to the departure of numerous Blizzard veterans, including former Diablo IV game director Luis Barriga. Diablo IV does not currently have a release date.

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The Numbers Event In CoD: Warzone/Black Ops Cold War – Start Time, Rewards, And What To Expect

Call of Duty Season 5 is winding down, but there’s still one last big event happening, as the Numbers event is set to go live across Black Ops Cold War and Warzone on Tuesday, September 21 at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET.

It’s uncertain exactly what will happen during Season 5’s Numbers event, but this will be a seasonal event across Black Ops Cold War and Warzone that players can participate in to earn in-game rewards. Treyarch’s patch notes for Season 5 Reloaded detailed this upcoming event as including a set of nine Cold War challenges that can be completed in multiplayer or Zombies. Warzone will also receive a unique set of nine challenges to complete, for a total of 18 challenges and 19 rewards to earn during the event. Completing a full set of nine challenges in either game will unlock a Sai melee weapon reward.

Sai melee weapon
Sai melee weapon

This event’s storyline revolves around the mysterious Red Doors found on Warzone’s Verdansk map and the iconic Black Ops campaign narrative of the brainwashing Numbers program. Warzone players should finally notice some activity around Verdansk’s Mobile Broadcast Stations when the update goes live. Raven Software detailed these points of interest in the Season 5 Reloaded patch notes for Warzone, stating, “It is suspected that they will soon begin amplifying the ‘Dragovich Program’ tapes – A.K.A. the Numbers broadcasts – across the region.”

Players who successfully interact with the Mobile Broadcast Stations during the event will earn $2,000 cash as a bonus for their current match. Additional incentives will be cosmetic rewards tied to challenges in the Numbers event and include items such as a sticker, calling card, and weapon charm.

In other Warzone news, Season 5 also added a new Easter egg to Verdansk that unlocks a unique calling card for completing it. There’s also the new Iron Trials ’84 mode with a tweaked set of rules and features meant to provide a more grueling battle royale experience.

All of the Call of Duty content continues as Activision Blizzard faces a lawsuit from the state of California over alleged harassment and discrimination against women.

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Huge Buy 2, Get 1 Free Sale on Board Games at Amazon Right Now

Without warning, Amazon has started up one of its excellent buy two, get one free deals, this time on board games. But it’s not JUST board games qualifying for the promotion: there are also toys on sale, too. Most of the toy offerings skew younger, but there are quite a few Nerf blasters on the list, and those are timeless.

At the time of this writing there are over 8 pages of results on Amazon for qualifying products, so you can either browse the entire thing or check out a few of the highlights I’ve pulled for you below.

Buy 2, Get 1 Board Game Deals at Amazon

Amazon runs these types of sales fairly regularly, and they often last a few days. There’s no way to tell with this particular deal how long it will be around, but my guess is at least 2-3 days.

Also it’s worth checking back every day, because these promotions tend to expand in scope and size. There are already 8 pages of results but Amazon almost always adds more items to the sale. In any case, there’s more than enough to get started and honestly, it’s not too early to start your Christmas shopping.

See How Star Trek Made Leonard Nimoy into Spock In a New Making Of Book

Star Trek – The Original Series: A Celebration is a brand new 256-page coffee table book that dives deep into the making of the original adventures of Captain Kirk and the crew of the USS Enterprise, and IGN has a preview of the chronicle that features rare and never-before-seen images from the show that boldly went where no show had gone before.

The book will be available on September 21, 2021 – the same month as Star Trek’s 55th anniversary – and its pages are filled with new and archival conversations and over 200 photos and sketches that, according to the publisher, “shine a fresh light on the actors, writers, directors, production and costume designers, composers, prop builders, visual effects and makeup artists, and more, who brought Star Trek to life.”

It also celebrates the fans who helped save the show in its early days, gives a glimpse of the earliest Star Trek conventions, and breaks down 12 of the most important episodes from the series.

You can check out a few pages of the new book below alongside the cover jacket:

This new hardcover book comes with an MSRP of $34.95 USD/$44.95 CAD and follows Star Trek: Voyager – A Celebration as the second release in Hero Collector’s Celebration line.

Star Trek – The Original Series: A Celebration is written by both Ben Robinson and Ian Spelling. Robinson is in charge of Eaglemoss’ official Star Trek Starships collection and was not only the launch editor of the Star Trek Fact Files reference work, but also was an editor for the US Star Trek: The Magazine. Spelling is an entertainment journalist who has interviewed such Star Trek legends as Gene Roddenberry, George Takei, James Doohan, and more. He was also an editor of StarTrek.com from 2010-2019 and has made a couple guest appearances on Star Trek itself.

“Our goal was to craft a book that was the written and visual equivalent of a great convention,” Spelling says. “We’ve brought fresh eyes to everything and tried to strip the myths away from the reality and we’ve discovered new stories that had never been told. We tracked down actors and crew whom people hadn’t heard from much – or ever – and are thrilled to include them in A Celebration.”

“Fans have read and seen bits and pieces of Star Trek’s production history, but A Celebration gathers everything in one place and puts it in context,” Robinson added. “We tracked down some incredibly rare pictures and artwork that have never been printed before. However well you think you know Star Trek, there’s something new for you. It’s really the Star Trek book I’ve always wanted to add to my collection.”

You can order a copy of Star Trek – The Original Series: A Celebration right here.

For more on Star Trek, check out the biggest news from Star Trek Day 2021, including a new look at Picard Season 2, the premiere date of Star Trek: Discovery’s fourth season, and the newest cast members of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, a list that includes younger version of classic Star Trek: The Original Series characters like Cadet Nyotah Uhura.

Also, be sure to also check out our interview with William Shatner on the occasion of the first four Trek films hitting 4K.

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.

Kena: Bridge Of Spirits Launch Trailer Shows Off The Game’s Exploration And Story

Ahead of its release this week, developer Ember Labs has released a launch trailer for Kena: Bridge of Spirits. In case you missed out on its debut during Sony’s June 2020 Future of Gaming PS5 event, Kena: Bridge of Spirits is an adventure game that mixes exploration and puzzle-solving with combat. As the protagonist Kena embarks on a quest to restore balance to an ancient village in a once-thriving environment, she’ll befriend tiny creatures known as Rot in her journey.

Not just cute critters, the Rot can disarm adversaries, unlock new skills, uncover secrets, and restore the beauty of the land as Kena fulfills her Spirit Guide duties. If players get attached to any of their Rot comrades, they’ll be able to grab a selfie with them in the game’s Photo Mode. Players can pause the game to set the characters up for a photography session, which includes outfitting the Rot with a wardrobe of optional hats before a snapshot is taken.

“We’re very excited to share the ‘Cheese!’ function in Photo Mode,” Ember Lab’s animation director Hunter Schmidt explained in a press release. “When players have set up their perfect photo angle, they’ll have the option to have the characters in the photo say ‘CHEESE!’ and strike a pose. Many characters have multiple poses, so you can snap a great variety of fun shots in the same location. I’m very excited to see what kinds of photos players will capture!”

On PS5, Kena: Bridge of Spirits will take advantage of that console’s gameplay guides function as there’ll be more than 200 Game Help videos available. Visually, the game can be played in Fidelity Mode’s native 4K resolution that runs at 30 frames-per-second or Performance Mode, which targets 60 FPS and has upscaled 4K resolution.

Kena: Bridge of Spirits also launches on PS4 and PC via the Epic Games Store on September 21. A physical version will follow in September via Maximum Games. For more on the game, check out some behind-closed-doors gameplay that impressively mixes Kena’s world with fascinating narrative development.

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