Author: Trafficblast

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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This story is developing…

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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.

It’s a new month, and that means Xbox Game Pass is adding another wave of titles. Microsoft listed off at least some of the games coming to and leaving Xbox Game Pass for July across console, mobile, and PC, and it includes some big names.

Already available on the Xbox/Xbox Series edition of Game Pass, Square Enix’s Dragon Quest Builders 2 launches July 8 for streaming over the cloud. Also arriving that day is Tropico 6 for console, PC, and the cloud. Another title coming to Game Pass on July 8 is EA’s UFC 4 on console for Ultimate subscribers via the bundled EA Play membership.

Then on July 15, the “murder ballet” game Bloodroots arrives on console, PC, and the cloud, alongside Farming Simulator 2019 on the same platforms. Finally, the Xbox exclusive that launched earlier this year on console and PC, The Medium, is headed to the cloud on July 15.

In terms of titles leaving the Game Pass catalog, EA Sports UFC and UFC 2 are leaving EA Play on July 14 as part of the previously announced de-listing for console. On July 15, Endless Space 2 (PC), Downwell (PC), and CrossCode (console, PC, cloud) will leave Xbox Game Pass.

Xbox Game Pass July 2021

July 8

• Dragon Quest Builders 2 (cloud)
• Tropico 6 (console, PC, cloud)
• UFC 4 (console)

July 15

• Bloodroots (console, PC, cloud)
• Farming Simulator 2019 (console, PC, cloud)
• The Medium (cloud)

Leaving Xbox Game Pass In July

July 14

• EA Sports UFC (console)
• EA Sports UFC 2 (console)

July 15

• Endless Space 2 (PC)
• Downwell (PC)
• CrossCode (console, PC, cloud)

In other Xbox news, Microsoft has announced major plans to expand Xbox Game Pass by creating its own Xbox-branded streaming devices, launching the service in more markets, and working with TV manufacturers to put Xbox directly into TVs.

For more games to play on Xbox, check out our guides to the best Xbox One games of all time and the best Xbox Series X games available so far. Plus, Game Pass subscribers should check out the best games available with Xbox Game Pass right now.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.

Restrictions on audience numbers in English theaters are set to be removed entirely on July 19. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced that venues such as cinemas, nightclubs, bars, and music venues will be be allowed to operate at full capacity from that date.

While the final confirmation that restrictions will be lifted won’t be given until July 12, it’s almost certain to happen. Other changes to the country’s COVID rules include the end of social distancing and the legal requirement to wear masks in shops and on public transport. These changes will affect England only, as Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have devolved governments that make their own laws regarding restrictions.

The changes come at a time when COVID-19 infection rates are climbing quickly in the UK, due to the more infectious Delta variant. However, Johnson and Health Secretary Sajid Javid argue that despite the rise in infections, hospitalizations and deaths remain at a far lower level than at other stages of the pandemic, thanks to the UK’s successful vaccination program.

To date, 45.3 million people have received the first dose of the vaccine, while 33.7 million are fully vaccinated. When Johnson laid out his plans for the coming months back in February, he stated it was the hospitalization rate that would define when the final restrictions would be removed, as opposed to actual infections.

English theaters reopened in May, having been entirely closed since December. However, social distancing rules meant they have had to operate at massively reduced capacities since then.

Nintendo has finally revealed its long-rumored new model of Nintendo Switch – the Nintendo Switch (OLED Model). It will be released on October 8, and retail at $349.99 USD.

The upgraded machine – which many had taken to calling the ‘Switch Pro’ when it was being rumoured ahead of this announcement – features a larger 7-inch OLED screen (but the size of the console is unchanged from the base Switch model), a wider, adjustable base stand, enhanced audio, 64GB of internal storage, and a wired LAN port in the dock.

Contrary to previous reports, the new model doesn’t appear to offer 4K TV output, or improve performance. The new OLED screen, while providing an improved picture contrast, remains a 1280×720 resolution screen. Battery life remains the same as the improved base Switch model from 2019, at an estimated 4.5-9 hours.

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The new model comes in two variants – the familiar red-and-blue colour combination of the original Switch (with a black dock), and one with with new white Joy-Con controllers, and a matching white dock. The new docks are mostly unchanged, aside from the LAN port and a more rounded edge. Pre-orders have not yet opened at time of writing.

Existing Switch docks, Joy-Cons, and other accessories will remain compatible with the new OLED model. The new Switch dock is also compatible with older Switch models, including its wired LAN port.

The new Switch has been timed to release on the same day as Metroid Dread, but no bundle has yet been announced. The trailer for the new model (above) shows yet-to-be released games like Metroid Dread, the Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild sequel, and Splatoon 3, but all footage appears to be pre-existing.

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Despite saying that it was focusing on existing Switch models, and saying it wouldn’t announce a new model ‘anytime soon’ in February, reports continuously emerged about a new model of the hybrid console. We’d previously heard that the upgraded model would come with a larger screen and 4K output, and that it would offer improved graphics, support Nvidia DLSS, and would come in at a higher price point. It remains to be seen whether another new model is on the way.

Nintendo had a record-breaking year in 2020, driven by huge sales of Switch and Animal Crossing: New Horizons, and is reportedly expecting to break that record again this year. That could be in part to do with the release of a new Switch, and getting existing owners to upgrade. The only impediment might be the ongoing global semiconductor shortage, which currently means Nintendo can’t physically make enough Switch consoles.

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After months of rumors, Nintendo has surprise-announced a new Nintendo Switch model. The Nintendo Switch OLED sports a 7-inch screen and a wider adjustable stand. It’s coming on October 8 alongside Metroid Dread, and will cost $350.

The announcement notes it includes 64 GB of internal storage, enhanced audio, and a wired LAN port built into the dock. Aside from the HD support in the dock, the debut trailer makes no mention of performance improvements or 4K support, and the technical specs from Nintendo confirm it maxes out at 1080p in TV mode. It will come in the white-and-black finish with a white dock, shown in the trailer and a neon red/blue set with a black dock. All previous Joy-Con controllers will be compatible with the new unit.

Prior to the announcement, reports widely suggested the device would have a 7-inch OLED screen and a faster graphics element from Nvidia, capable of outputting at 4K in docked mode. Nintendo confirmed to The Verge that this model “does not have a new CPU, or more RAM, from previous Nintendo Switch models.” You can check out the full technical specs below.

Nintendo tends to make hardware revisions for its most popular hardware, especially handheld systems like the Game Boy, DS, and 3DS families. The Switch is a cross between a console and handheld, and it already introduced one hardware revision with the Switch Lite. The $200 Lite will also remain circulation as the lower-end model.

Nintendo had previously claimed that it would not be announcing a Switch hardware revision this year. And of course, this announcement comes within the context of an ongoing semiconductor shortage that is impacting lots of high-tech industries, including game console production. Nintendo’s president says the company is no exception, and that the shortage has impacted Switch supply. That means that the remodeled Switch OLED could be difficult to find. President Joe Biden has launched an investigation into the problem.

Even without a hardware revision, though, the current Switch models have been selling very well. The system has sold almost 80 million units in total across both available models, which means it has now beaten the also-popular Nintendo 3DS. And its software has been no slouch either, as popular first-party game Animal Crossing: New Horizons has sold over 30 million units in total.

Nintendo Switch OLED Technical Specs