Author: Trafficblast

One of the most noteworthy new features in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War‘s big new Season 5 update is a new mode called Double Agent. Similar to Among Us and Trouble in Terrorist Town, Double Agent is a game of cat-and-mouse, of sorts, as Double Agent characters try to sabotage a mission and stay cloaked.

This is a new mode for Call of Duty in general. There are 10 players in a match, and players are assigned to one of three roles. You can see a rundown of the roles and their missions below, as written by Activision:

• Double Agents, who must either eliminate everyone else or successfully set off explosive charges around the map.
• The Investigator, who can use clues to target suspected Double Agents as Wanted criminals.
• Operatives, who must work together to identify and eliminate the Double Agents before it’s too late.

Players begin with a pistol and can add more firepower in the “Preparing Stage” of the match by finding weapons on the map. Double Agents can a variety of tools to stay hidden, including gas mines, counter spy plans, combat bows, and attack helicopters.

Investigators can use trophy systems, stimshots, and hand cannons; they also can see the footprints of a the person who killed their teammate to help in their detective work. Investigators are also able to designate someone as “suspicious” and launch a Wanted order against them.

Meanwhile, regular Operative players need to then work together to piece the clues together and discover the true identity of Double Agents. Working together by voice chat is strongly encouraged. Double Agent is playable in matchmaking or by creating your own custom lobby with friends. Double Agent matches take place on existing maps and new ones coming in Season 5.

Season 5 is a huge update for Black Ops Cold War and Warzone. In addition to Double Agent, it ushers in five more multiplayer maps, three new Operators, more weapons, and potentially teasers for Call of Duty: Vanguard. Check out GameSpot’s Black Ops Cold War/Warzone Season 5 overview to learn more.

Get ready for new game announcements and sneak peaks at upcoming releases during the second /twitchgaming Showcase: ID@Xbox on August 10. Details here: https://t.co/du4uwYiJKO

— Xbox Wire (@XboxWire) August 5, 2021

FunKon 2021 is here. With the toy event happening now, you’ll have plenty of exclusive Funkon 2021 Funkos to choose from (if you can catch them before they sell out, that is). Below, we have a rundown on all the FunKon-exclusive figures and where to buy them. And if you scroll down further, you’ll find some of the other coolest upcoming Funko Pop figures you can preorder now.

FunKon 2021 Exclusives

A number of FunKon 2021 exclusive Funko Pops will be available to everyone at a variety of retailers starting at 6am PT / 9am ET on August 5. You can see which figures will be available at which retailers in the image above, and find links to the landing pages below.

• See at Amazon
• See at GameStop
• See at Walmart
• See at Barnes & Noble

• See at BoxLunch
• See at Funko
• See at Entertainment Earth
• See at Hot Topic
• See at Target
• See at FYE
• See at Walgreens
• See at Toy Tokyo

There will also be a series of Funko bags available exclusively at Loungefly.com.

If you’re looking for upcoming Funko Pops unrelated to Funkon 2021, ones you can preorder now, keep on reading. You’ll find Funkos based on Loki, Suicide Squad, and more.

Loki Funko Pop

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Many people consider Loki the best Marvel/Disney+ show yet. If you were a fan, you can pick up some great-looking Funkos.

Spider-Man: No Way Home Funko Pop

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Spider-Man: No Way Home is set to release in December, but you can preorder these figures from the movie, which will feature the cool new costumes shown here.

Suicide Squad Funko Pop

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This James Gun-directed film is set to launch in theaters and on HBO Max on August 6. You can preorder the great-looking Funko Pops now.

TMNT 2: Secret of the Ooze Funko Pop

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Nineties kids will remember Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: The Secret of the Ooze, a movie that hit theaters in the halcyon days of 1991. These Pops reference memorable moments in the movie.

FunKon 2021 Details

FunKon 2021 will be a hybrid event that takes place both virtually and in person. The virtual portion will be a series of events, livestreams, giveaways, and games–and participation is based on a lottery system (see below). The in-person portion of the event will take place at Funko Hollywood in Los Angeles. Pre-registration has already been filled. You can find the full details of Funkon 2021 on Funko’s blog.

If you want a shot at participating in the virtual events of FunKon 2021 (and the guaranteed purchase of any of the FunKon 2021 Funkos), you’ll need to enter a lottery. There are a few catches, though. To qualify for the lottery, you need to have made a Funko account and joined the Funko Fan Club before May 31, 2021. That date has already passed, so if you don’t have an account, you can sign up now to be eligible for next year’s lottery.

If you have an account and you’ve signed up for the Funko newsletter, you should have received a lottery invitation on July 19. Just follow the instructions in the email to sign up for the lottery. If you’re a winner, you’ll be notified on July 28, 2021.

Additionally, Walmart has a page dedicated to its Collector Con event, which runs July 22-25. That’s where you’ll find new reveals, as well as rare and exclusive collectibles with franchises like Star Wars, Marvel, DC, WWE, Transformers, and many more.

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Chris Reed is a commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

Evil Dead: The Game, a multiplayer-focused video game adaptation of the cult-classic Evil Dead film franchise and Starz television series Ash vs. Evil Dead, has been delayed to February 2022. First revealed during 2020’s The Game Awards, Evil Dead: The Game was originally slated to release sometime in 2021 for PC and consoles.

The game, developed by Boss Team Games and Saber Interactive, is being delayed so the teams can have more time to polish the title for release “to ensure this is the ultimate Evil Dead experience you’ve all been waiting for.” That time will also allow the developers to implement a single-player option.

Much of Evil Dead: The Game’s gameplay has put a spotlight on co-op action, as players take on the role of various iconic characters from the franchise, including Bruce Campbell’s chainsaw-wielding Ash. There are options for PvP as well, with players able to take control of the Kandarian Demon and possess various enemies to give the heroes a run for their money. No additional details on how the game’s newly announced single-player feature will work have been made public.

The best look at the game yet came during Geoff Keighley’s 2021 Summer Game Fest, where a new, bloody gameplay trailer gave fans an idea of what to expect. The title follows in the footsteps of other horror film franchises turned multiplayer-focused video games like Predator: Hunting Grounds and Friday the 13th: The Game. A similar asymmetric multiplayer title, Dead by Daylight, has found big success incorporating characters from throughout the horror genre, including Evil Dead and, most recently, Resident Evil.

We’ve seen bits and pieces of Axiom Verge 2 over the years, but this latest trailer from Thomas Happ Games shows off one of the game’s more impressive additions. According to a post on the PlayStation Blog, the metroidvania sequel will feature a second dimension that lies behind the default map, meaning that the game has a Link to the Past-style “dark world”/”light world” dynamic.

In the post, Happ says that players will have to find entrances to this “breach” dimension in the overworld in order to uncover secrets in both dimensions. The Metroidvania platformer The Messenger featured a similar idea, where one realm was styled on 8-bit games and the other realm was 16-bit. However, given that Axiom Verge was a game about exploration, it’s fair to say that this breach is going to be a big part of the game.

The trailer revealed today shows off many elements you would expect to see in an Axiom Verge sequel, including a glitchy aesthetic and the ability to manipulate enemies to better achieve your goals. There’s still no word on a release date for Axiom Verge 2, but the blog post does say that it’ll be “out before you know it,” whatever that means. The game was originally intended to come out in 2020, but was delayed due to the pandemic and the increased complexity of the game compared to its predecessor. Axiom Verge 2 will release for PS4, PS5, PC, and Nintendo Switch when it does come out. We recently got word that fellow indie darling Oxenfree will be coming to PS4 and PS5 later this year; its sequel, Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals, is also coming soon.

Deathloop, the time-bending action game from Dishonored studio Arkane, has crossed a major development milestone. The game has “gone gold,” which means Arkane has completed development to the point where it can be pressed onto discs.

Dishonored is slated to release on September 14, so its release is still sometime off. In addition to Deathloop, Arkane has a team working on a second project, Redfall, an Xbox-exclusive shooter coming in 2022.

Deathloop is unique in that it was announced before Microsoft acquired ZeniMax and assumed ownership of Bethesda’s various studios, including Arkane. As such, the previously agreed-upon deal between Bethesda and Sony to launch Deathloop as an exclusive on PlayStation 5 remains in place. The game is also coming to PC at launch, and an Xbox version could be released as soon as September 14, 2022 following the game’s one-year exclusivity deal on PS5.

Deathloop was originally expected to launch in May but Bethesda pushed it to September out of a desire to hit the studio’s quality goals without negatively impacting the health of its employees.

“We’ll be using this extra time to accomplish our goal: create a fun, stylish, and mind-bending player experience,” the studio said about the delay.

Deathloop takes place on a resort island where rich patrons use a constant timeloop to indulge their whims without consequences–including killing you, the player character. To escape and break out of the loop you’ll need to methodically take out the shadowy organization running the operation, but all the while you’re engaged in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with an island enforcer.

Check out the gameplay trailer above to see Deathloop in action.

After years of fan requests, FIFA 22’s Career mode will finally let you create your own club to manage, with customisable kits, stadiums, and more, as well as fully generated squads of players.

Player-created clubs will be available in Manager Career mode, and can be used in any of the game’s leagues – your created club will replace an existing club, which will be moved to the Rest of the World section. You’ll start by creating a name, choosing a preset nickname to be used by commentators, and assigning a rival club (which will be treated with more importance in news stories and commentary).

You’ll also be able to customise your own home and away kits, crest, and stadium. Kits come with a choice of three colours, as well as dozens of pre-made patterns, seemingly based on Adidas designs. Crests are slightly more simple, offering a selection of design and a single colour. Your home venue begins as one of the game’s existing unlicensed stadiums, but canbe customised with different seat colours, pitch patterns and net shapes, and you can assign goal and walkout music, as well as crowd chants (and you can customise the stadium for any real club without a licensed stadium too). You’ll be able to change your kits, crest, and stadium before the start of each in-game season.

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Your custom club will begin with a squad of generated players, which can also be tinkered with. You’re able to choose the overall star rating of the squad, and the average age of its players – as well as the transfer budget you’ll begin with to replace those you don’t want. Players will be tailored to feel authentic to the league you’re playing in – as senior game designer Alex Constantinescu puts it, “let’s assume that 7% of the players in the English Premier League have French nationality. Each time a player is generated for your squad in the English Premier League, there’s a 7% chance that they could be French.”

You’ll also be able to set your club board’s priorities for you, altering their focus on youth development, financial stability, and more. Your competition success will be somewhat determined by your squad’s star rating, and the league it’s in, however.

Aside from the custom clubs, Career Mode is getting a number of other changes, too. Player Career mode has gotten an overhaul, adding coming on as a sub, a manager rating system, match objectives, player growth, a levelling system, skill tree, perks, and even cinematic sequences showing the dressing room atmosphere after matches.

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Transfer cinematics are being refreshed, and the game will also attempt to better tell your manager or player’s stories as you progress through your career, including adding commentary that reflects your achievements. Tifos are also now dynamic, meaning that any player from your club – even generated ones – can become important enough to your fanbase to earn a huge banner of themselves in the stadium, displayed before matches.

Taken together, the changes mark yet more promising signs from a game we already came away impressed with after a hands-on. We also talked to the game’s producer about how FIFA 22 will tackle the series’ long-standing problem with pace.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Playing video games on a tablet has never felt…good. With so many different brands, shapes, and sizes, there isn’t a “universal” solution. The GameSir F7 Claw aims to fix both issues by attaching to most tablets – from dozens of iPad models to the sea of Android tablets – and creating a unique hybrid that utilizes physical buttons along with the touchscreen on your device. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite excel at combining the two and makes playing games on your tablet more cumbersome than just choosing a single input device.

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GameSir F7 Claw – Design and Features

The F7 Claw is two separate controllers that attach to both sides of your tablet to create a “left” and “right” grip which not only allows you to hold the device more comfortably, but also adds four mappable physical buttons. However, unlike traditional controllers, these grips don’t connect via Bluetooth or need to be plugged into your device to work. Instead, they work by sending a signal to each of the four capacitive pads resting on the front of the display and emulate physical touch, essentially telling your tablet that you’re tapping that specific section of the screen. While this is extremely neat in concept, the design and execution leave much to be desired.

The capacitive pads (dubbed L1, L2, R1, and R2, respectively) sit at the end of the clip portion that attaches to your screen. The issue is that each of the four arms rest on top of your screen and covers about a square inch of your display on each side. While this may not be an issue for larger-screened tablets, it is distracting and can sacrifice precious screen real estate when playing on smaller devices. Furthermore, every game’s UI elements are positioned differently, and I found many instances where these arms covered important information. It’s an odd design choice and one that could potentially be improved upon with future iterations.

The controllers themselves are actually very comfortable to hold with each one featuring a textured grip on the back. They are designed ergonomically and fit nicely into each hand while distributing the weight of the tablet equally. The benefit of having two small independent controllers means you’re not adding significant bulk to what is already a large device to hold. The L1 and R1 buttons are positioned on the top portion of the back of each controller, while L2 and R2 sit just below the curve of each grip and can easily be pressed by your middle fingers. All four buttons have a satisfying click when pressed and each side also features a turbo button to enable burst frequency of the L1 or R1 buttons.

Both controllers feature a built-in rechargeable battery that boasts a whopping 120 hours of playtime on a single charge and up to 200 days of standby time. When you do finally need to recharge them, each one must be charged independently with the included USB-C cable and only takes two hours to charge completely. There’s also a power toggle on each controller to prolong the already impressive battery life.

GameSir F7 Claw – Gaming

Setting up the F7 Claw is pretty straightforward. Each controller clips to the side of your tablet and adheres to itself thanks to 16 small suction cups on the rear. Since there’s no Bluetooth connection, you don’t need to pair it to your device. Instead, you just need to power on each controller and launch the game you’re interested in playing. From there, you’ll need to head to the settings and remap the on-screen touch controls. This part can be a bit finicky as not every game has this option available and trying to position the on-screen icons underneath each of the capacitive pads requires extreme precision. After you’ve got your buttons mapped, you’re ready to finally play.

I took the F7 Claw through many sessions of Call of Duty: Mobile which features an overwhelming amount of on-screen touch icons just begging to be mapped. I chose to map aim-down signs, shoot, reload, and jump to the four rear buttons. While the F7 Claw seemed novel at first, the feeling quickly began to wear off as buttons frequently became unresponsive and I constantly found my thumbs bumping into the capacitive arms while trying to move and aim. This forced me to stretch my thumbs further towards the center of the screen which was uncomfortable for long periods of time, to say the least.

The grips, while firmly attached to the back via the suction cups, would constantly slide up, down, and away from the tablet leading to a constant feeling of anxiety that the grips were going to slide off and my tablet would fall to the floor. Even worse, the slightest movement of the grips meant the capacitive pads didn’t register button presses any longer, requiring me to remap the controls or slide the grips back into the precise position. Thankfully, GameSir does provide stickers that you can slap on the back of your tablet to help with the grip issues. While I did find this reduced the frequency of the problem, I wasn’t fond of having two large stickers permanently attached to my tablet to make these lackluster controllers work properly.

After spending time with the F7 Claw I found myself either longing for joysticks to simplify movement or wanting to remove the Claw completely and just stick to the on-screen touch controls. Honestly, you’re better off just connecting a Bluetooth controller and propping your tablet up on the table to play as it’s going to be a much better experience.