Author: Trafficblast

Hello IGN readers — I’m the new Community Lead for IGN, Jada Griffin. You may have seen me on NVC as well as commenting and moderating across Twitch and Youtube during E3 last few weeks. I wanted to take some time today to introduce myself as your point of contact to the IGN Team. To kick things off, a bit about myself and what I like to do and play. In my past life, I worked as a journalist covering everything you frequently see under the IGN content umbrella. I have led community efforts, content teams, and worked directly with game developers in a business development capacity for various companies like FANDOM.  While I enjoyed these areas I worked in, I inevitably found myself missing the connections I made when working closely with the communities connected to those industries. All of this brings me to this exciting new opportunity at IGN. 

I’m sure you all might want to know more about what kind of gamer I am, too. I play just about everything, so you can expect to see me across IGN in various discussions, podcasts, and live streams discussing easter eggs, optimized builds and loadouts, and probably my latest 100% game completion. A few of my favorite games include Apex Legends, Monster Hunter, Halo, LoL, God of War, Final Fantasy, and — my favorite franchise of all time — The Legend of Zelda. I could spend my entire introduction just talking about these games and others that have found their way into my list of all-time favorites. Instead, I would like to spend some time talking about my goals, intentions, and hopes for the future of the IGN community.

Games and entertainment (and tech and science, and the other topics IGN is increasingly exploring based on our audience’s interests) will always be topics that incite heated discussions of differing views. These viewpoints are born of our collective passion for the things we all enjoy. When we connect with games, characters, movies, etc, we often forge bonds with them. They sometimes then become larger than life itself and take on a greater personal meaning. This passion empowers communities and is one of the things I want to begin highlighting.

While many will probably agree with the fact that since its launch Final Fantasy VII has been the benchmark for what a traditional FF game should be, my aim is to have our community be one that ensures fans of FF can champion their favorite and share their point of view without the fear of toxicity. 

What to Expect

Over the next few weeks and months, I’ll be releasing blog posts like this to speak to various topics to further strengthen the connection between the IGN staff and our community. One of the first posts you can expect will be around subjects like our updated guidelines for communicating within the IGN community. Other topics will include discussions around how we approach reviews, moderation, upcoming initiatives, and updates to our existing formats and content. 

Now, I cannot speak for what has transpired within the IGN community in the past. However, I can address the steps we will be taking to put our best efforts into making this already great community even better, this will be through feedback surveys, Discord AMA’s, chatting regularly with viewers during streams, and more. I hope being transparent with you all about our practices, goals, and initiatives fosters and nurtures our relationship. 

This is where the community comes in. I am looking for your input and feedback. I’m not here to just moderate comments, I’m here for the bigger picture. This is a two-way street, and I’d like to be a resource to the community so we can make the best decisions possible to help you feel more connected to us and our work. This is going to work best with your input and assistance, with it we can make the community an even more vibrant, diverse, and inclusive space for everyone. There will be more options in the future for putting forward your suggestions but for now, the comments section of this post is a great place to start!. 

I look forward to working with you.

“Be Brave Enough to be Kind and Wise enough to continue learning how to be both”

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Jada Griffin is IGN’s Community Lead. If she’s not engaging with users here, chances are she’s developing her own games, maxing the Luck stat in her favorite games, or challenging her D&D players with Intense combat or masterful puzzles. You can follow her on Twitter @Jada_Rina.

Spoilers for The Last of Us Part II…

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Anyone that’s played The Last of Us Part II knows that there is a sequence while playing as Abby that sees her chase after Tommy. They also know that you don’t actually make it to Tommy and defeat them.

However, news popped last week that if you go too fast during this specific sequence, you can actually catch up to Tommy and kill him, as reported by Kotaku. This article spurred TLOU2 technical designer Asher Einhorn to create a lengthy thread on Twitter yesterday to explain how difficult it was to design this chase.

This sequence actually started off as a systemic prototype for a sniper enemy I made way back in 2016. This person was going to live in a number of levels and they would reposition if they saw you too close to them.

— Asher Einhorn (@AsherEinhorn) July 13, 2021

As noted by Eurogamer, Einhorn says that the Tommy chase in TLOU2 started as a sniper prototype he started working on in 2016 before the studio opted to turn this sequence into a boss fight. TLOU2 director Neil Druckmann decided that Tommy should be the boss.

“Tommy wasn’t going to die in this sequence, so we had the extremely difficult challenge of creating a boss fight where you weren’t going to win, AND one where you couldn’t even shoot him,” Einhorn said.

Einhorn said the team knew that if players shot at Tommy and he didn’t die, people would say he has “plot armor,” thus ruining the tension, so the team had a challenge before them: creating a boss fight where you aren’t supposed to win, despite feeling like you can.

So with that, I could focus more on the scripting. This whole sequence is pretty custom, and Tommy has a controller in each beat that will kill the player when out of bounds and punish them if they try to get a shot off at him.

— Asher Einhorn (@AsherEinhorn) July 13, 2021

Einhorn continued and said that it was important to the team to make the fight feel fair, which is why “Tommy gets into position before you can get to a good vantage point…so that you can’t ever really discover that Tommy is essentially invincible [as] he will shoot you pretty much as soon as you try to aim at him.”

Einhorn’s thread talks about how the team ultimately decided to create a sequence that linearly leads you forward, using destructible objects to make Tommy feel legitimately dangerous until Abby reaches the terminal lobby.

This next section was, to be blunt, a fucking huge pain in the ass to make work, but actually a lot of fun to do. I love doing this stuff. We wanted it to feel like you were just catching up to Tommy, that you almost had him, and that it was your brazenness that gets Manny killed pic.twitter.com/2y59m50fjE

— Asher Einhorn (@AsherEinhorn) July 13, 2021

Einhorn says that ultimately, he feels the sequence “suffers a little because it’s just not long enough to let the beat breathe.”

“I think it needed to be a much larger space, with more forced route crossing and zigzagging and way way more destructible things for Tommy to hit as he shoots you,” one of Einhorn’s final tweets in the thread reads. “It’s not quite the matrix lobby fight I wanted it to be, but I hope it’s still cool.”

“I was thinking about this sequence a lot post-launch because it was just SO much work but that work isn’t especially noticeable,” they continued. “We’re trying to prevent the player from doing something they’ve done all game so far and have it not be frustrating and that was SO hard. But ultimately, when you play it, you don’t FEEL the effort that’s been put in like you would with a bigger dramatic set-piece.”

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/19/the-last-of-us-part-2-15-minutes-of-ps5-gameplay-4k-60fps”]

For more about the TLOU2, check out our thoughts on the game in IGN’s The Last of Us Part 2 review, and then check out this video about how its 1.08 Update on the PlayStation 5 pushes the game to 60FPS. Read what Xbox thought of The Last of Us Part 2 after that.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

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

Since launching, Chivalry 2 has been plagued with a number of bugs, most of which relate to its party system on PC. Developer Torn Banner Studios has been working on a massive patch to address these issues, as well as some others, including the game’s performance on Xbox Series S consoles. However, the patch has been delayed due to issues found in its final stage of quality assurance verification.

According to a post on Chivalry 2’s site, the problems in question are directly related to the game’s matchmaking systems. While the patch would have fixed a number of issues with Chivalry 2’s multiplayer for most players, issues are present that “would have broken the matchmaking process for a portion of the population.” To spare that group of players from a below-standard experience, Chivalry 2’s 2.0.1 patch was delayed.

Torn Banner Studios also addressed why it wouldn’t simply release a hotfix for Chivalry 2 that would fix the game’s party system issues on PC. According to the developer, “a hotfix cannot be prepared due to the complex nature of how these patches are worked on internally (also known as branches that separate builds live on).”

Despite its issues, Torn Banner Studios is still set on releasing the 2.0.1 patch for Chivalry 2 this month.

Along with the upcoming patch, more content is also coming to Chivalry 2 soon. A new map, titled Galencourt, was revealed last month and will have players fight through the immaculate halls of an Agathian castle. A release date for the new map has not been revealed yet.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection received a playlist update on July 14 that brought back the Gun Game-style Escalation Slayer mode and removed a fan-favorite, Grifball.

In Escalation Slayer, you get a new weapon each time you get a kill. The fast-paced, frenetic mode is playable in Halo: Reach, Halo 2: Anniversary, and Halo 4 inside MCC. There is a dedicated playlist for it accessible through the match composer so you can play it 24/7 if you want.

As for Grifball, the popular mode involving huge hammers is now out of rotation. This is nothing out of the ordinary, as developer 343 regularly updates MCC’s playlists.

In other Halo news, 343 has been very vocal in reminding players to sign up for Halo Insider for a chance to be selected for the upcoming Halo Infinite beta test. Even the official Xbox Twitter account posted about this today, which may suggest the beta’s start is coming up soon.

Additionally, a new 500-page Halo Encyclopedia is set to be released in early 2022. It’s not coming until then to help avoid spoilers about Halo Infinite.

Dirt 5 came out back in late 2020, but a big update will bring new life to the game, especially the PS5 version. According to a post on the PlayStation Blog, the upcoming July 20 update will improve the game’s DualSense integration, with adaptive trigger support and full haptics that can simulate the clunk of a gear change, as well as the feel of different traction on discrete surfaces.

The update will also bring a ton of new content to the game, including weekly challenges and creator rewards in Dirt 5’s Playgrounds mode, five new Trophies, two new circuits, and 27 new events. Additionally, it will improve the game’s 3D audio integration on PS5, to really enhance your immersion as you race around each track.

It’s important to note that the 27 new events and four new cars does require the Amplified/Year One Edition, or a purchase through the PS Store. However, all of the other content is free to all players, so there’s something new for everyone regardless.

In GameSpot’s Dirt 5 review, critic Richard Wakeling praised the game’s arcade sensibilities and large amount of content, but faulted its handling model as lacking depth.

“Dirt 5 doesn’t quite stick the landing due to its simplistic handling model, but there’s still plenty of fun to be had when racing door to door in an excessive snowstorm or throwing a Porsche 911 R-GT down the side of a mountain in a frenetic race to the bottom,” he wrote. “It doesn’t reach the heights of Dirt 2, but that game’s influence is keenly felt in Dirt 5. If the series continues along this path, it won’t be long until it’s soaring high again.”

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl’s debut trailer showed beloved cartoon characters like SpongeBob, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Reptar, and Danny Phantom all duking it out in developer Ludosity’s Super Smash Bros.-like, but a piece of leaked cover art seems to imply even more characters are on the horizon, including Korra from Avatar: The Last Airbender sequel series The Legend of Korra.

Cover art for Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl that appeared on Target’s website, and has since been removed, clearly shows a silhouette for Korra, as well as additional, yet-to-be announced characters like CatDog, Ren, Stimpy, and, possibly, Aang. Confirmed characters like SpongeBob’s Patrick Star, Oblina from Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, and others also appear on the leaked cover art.

The artwork was first spotted by Twitter user El Blitzy (via Kotaku). Target has since replaced the cover art with a now silhouette-less version that only includes the game’s logo.

Fans will have to wait for official confirmation to see if any of the characters mentioned above do make their way into the game, but it certainly would be strange for a Nickelodeon fighting game to not include any characters from Avatar: The Last Airbender. Korra has been featured in a number of games in the past, including a Legend of Korra action-brawler from PlatinumGames and as a skin in Hi-Rez Studios’ free-to-play MOBA Smite. She’s also appeared in other Nickelodeon games, like the recent Nickelodeon Kart Racers 2: Grand Prix and the mobile game Super Brawl Universe, which may give fans a good indication of what characters are likely to make an appearance in Ludosity’s upcoming fighter.

Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl will feature rollback netcode, a much-requested fighting game feature that should make for more reliable online matches compared to games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The game is scheduled to release this fall for all major platforms.

EA has confirmed that a Steam listing of FIFA 22 that stated the game will have a one machine limit on PC was a listing mistake.

This confirmation comes by way of Eurogamer, which reached out to EA after fans spotted a line on the FIFA 22 Steam page yesterday that said “one machine activation limit.” As of yesterday, that’s what the Steam listing said but today, that “one machine activation limit” line is gone.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/07/12/fifa-22-official-reveal-trailer”]

EA said in a statement to Eurogamer that there is, in fact, no such activation limit on PC.

“We can confirm there is not a one machine limit for FIFA 22 on PC via Steam,” the statement reads. “This was listed incorrectly and the limitation has now been removed. We apologise for the confusion and thank our community for noticing the error.”

It seems this was not the kind of situation where a limit was in place only to be removed following fan backlash but rather, a simple listing error. It’s been fixed and now FIFA 22 players no longer need to worry about such a limit when the game hits PC and consoles on October 1.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”slug=best-sports-documentaries-you-can-stream-right-now&captions=true”]

FIFA 22 was announced over the weekend and it was revealed that Paris Saint-Germain’s striker Kylian Mbappé will be the cover star. The FIFA 22 announcement came with the reveal of what EA has dubbed HyperMotion Technology, which the company says marks a “revolution in football gameplay.”

Alongside HyperMotion Tech, FIFA 22 will feature the return of many fan-favorite modes like Career Mode, VOLTA FOOTBALL, Pro Clubs, and of course, FIFA Ultmate Teams. The game will feature over 17,000 players across 700 teams in more than 90 stadiums and 30 leagues.

Check out IGN’s story about the FIFA 22 announcement for more details about what to expect in the game and then read about how the FIFA 22 PC version won’t include the next-gen improvements being added to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/06/fifa-21-review”]

Be sure to read about how players wishing to take advantage of FIFA 22’s next-gen upgrade will have to shell out a hefty $99.99 USD/£89.99 as the next-gen upgrade only comes with the Ultimate Edition of the game.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

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