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Alongside brand new screenshots, Playground Games has detailed the 11 unique biomes players will drive through when Forza Horizon 5 released later this year.

As revealed on Xbox Wire, Forza Horizon’s locations are just as important as its cars, and Forza Horizon 5 is no different. This latest game is set in Mexico, and the team made sure that each biome was “painstakingly researched and recreated by the team.”

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“Our team collects reference from the location and creates concept images that highlight the beauty and unique detail for each biome. We employ techniques such as photogrammetry to recreate the environment with precision accuracy,” says Don Arceta, Art Director for Forza Horizon 5 at Playground Games. “And we bring the beauty of the world in, through the sights and sounds you’ll find throughout every area. The goal of the artistic process is to make it feel like you’re really there.”

Playground also confirmed that seasons, which first debuted in Forza Horizon 4, will also be returning for the fifth entry. However, each of the 11 biomes will experience these seasons differently. The team explains that “spring means the rainy season in the jungles and farmland of Mexico, while summer could bring intense tropical thunderstorms along the coasts.”

As for the biomes themselves, they are detailed below in the slideshow and images by Playground Games and help make up a map that is one-and-a-half times the size of Forza Horizon 4’s;

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Forza Horizon 5 Biomes

Canyon

You might recognize this as the biome that was shown in the Forza Horizon 5 reveal trailer in June. It’s filled with rock formations patterned with unique striations, many of which erode into hoodoos that are only found in the canyon. Fun fact: each of the biomes have unique audio and the canyon has more echoes than any of the others.

Tropical Coast

This might be what you think of when you imagine a tropical Mexican vacation. Filled with palm trees, seagulls, white sand beaches and calm waters, it feels a lot like a postcard come to life. At least that’s the case until you reach storm season, which completely changes how you need to navigate it. Watch out for flying palm trees!

Farmland

Unlike the flatter or drier farmland found in some of the previous Forza Horizon games, these rolling hills are filled with lush vegetation, fruit-bearing trees, and wide, shallow rivers. You’ll have plenty of fences to smash through and picturesque homesteads to explore while you’re cruising through here.

Arid Hills

As you might suspect given the name, this biome is full of dry grasses on rolling hills and plains, providing plenty of open spaces to drive across if you feel like off-roading. One of the coolest features in this biome is a lake that actually dries up in the winter season, opening up shortcuts via fast passages and secret areas.

Jungle

Filled with lush, dense vegetation and towering trees that let beautiful rays of sun through the canopy, this biome also sports some impressive waterfalls and winding rivers. There are also a number of hidden temples in this area, all of which are based on real locations in Mexico.

Living Desert

In a first for the Forza Horizon series, Forza Horizon 5 features a cactus desert that’s full of towering saguaros. There are also a number of rock formations and rock piles that are unique to the area. As the name implies, it’s full of life and features plenty of flowers and wildlife.

Rocky Coast

While the tropical coast features lots of trees and vegetation, this one has a completely different vibe. Since there aren’t many trees, you’ll get a full view of the ocean and some excellent views of the sun setting at the end of the day. As a bonus to all you golfers out there, you can even take a spin around (read: through) a golf course.

Sand Desert

Full of towering sand dunes, this biome is perfect for cruising around in a buggy and carving into the sand. If you don’t feel like getting sand between your toes, many of the roads in this area feature long straightaways so there are plenty of opportunities to see how fast your favorite ride really goes.

Swamp

Although a swamp might not sound like the best place for a race, this biome’s shallow waters are a great place for it. The swamp also features a lot of mangrove trees that sport very thick, interconnected roots. You can actually smash through these during races, changing the route depending on whether or not your car can handle it.

Urban City of Guanajuato

Like a number of cities in Mexico, there’s a good deal of amazing architecture and vibrant colors everywhere you look. Unlike a lot of cities, however, it features a lot of rolling hills and tunnels, making for some really fun race routes. As with the Canyon, you’ll hear plenty of echoes bouncing around the city’s tight roadways.

Volcano

In another first for the Forza Horizon series, this massive mountain is situated right next to the Living Desert. It’s a very high-altitude volcano, so driving to the top is a unique experience that rewards players by seeing way off into the horizon. This is also the only place in the game that you’ll encounter snow, so be sure to pack an extra jacket.

Forza Horizon 5 will be released on November 9, 2021, for Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and PC.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Capcom is distributing a special Palamute to all Monster Hunter Rise players. The critter is named Wanogre, and it’s based on one of the Palamutes used by a member of the Monster Hunter Rise development team.

To add Wanogre to your party, you first need to speak to Senri the Mailman in Kamura Village and receive the Palamute from the Add-on Content option. After that, head to the Buddy Plaza in the eastern portion of the village, speak to Iori the Buddy Handler, and select Hire a Special Buddy to pick Wanogre up.

That isn’t the only new piece of content available now in Monster Hunter Rise. Capcom recently distributed another new Event Quest called An Icy Blade So Bright. This quest can similarly be claimed by speaking to Senri the Mailman and downloading it from the Add-on Content menu, and completing it will net you a stylish pair of shades.

More updates are on the way to Monster Hunter Rise over the next few weeks. According to Capcom’s content roadmap, Rise’s 3.2 update is slated to arrive before the end of this month. That patch will introduce the second Capcom Collab event as well as more DLC. The 3.3 update will follow sometime in August and will add the third Capcom Collab event.

In other Monster Hunter news, the series’ newly released RPG spin-off, Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin, also recently received its first update, which added Rise’s Palamute as a Monstie companion. To celebrate that game’s launch, Capcom is giving away a free item bundle to all players.

The late Robin Williams was originally cast to voice Howard the Duck in Marvel and Lucasfilm’s movie of the same name, but he quit after a week due to voice syncing frustrations.

This news comes by way of The Hollywood Reporter, who learned of this casting revelation in an interview with Chip Zien, the person who was called in to voice Howard after Williams quit. THR also spoke with the actor who played Howard’s love interest in the film, Lea Thompson, about this film and the notoriety it quickly garnered upon release.

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“What I was told was by the third day, Robin said, ‘I can’t do this. It is insane. I can’t get the rhythm of this. I am being confined. I am being handcuffed to match the flapping duck’s bill’,” Zien said. “So, on Memorial Day 1985, I got a call from my agent who said, ‘You have to get right to the airport! Robin Williams just quit and you’re now Howard the Duck. You need to get there tonight. There is a ticket waiting for you at the counter.’ I was incredibly excited.”

Diving further into why Williams quit, it wasn’t necessarily that the role was just voice over — it’s that the scenes featuring Howard had already been shot, meaning that Williams would need to voice the lines in such an exact way that they line up with the footage of the character that had already been shot. This hampered Williams’ famous improvisational style (see: Disney’s Aladdin) and the frustration became enough for the actor that he quit before the first week was done.

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Zien went on to say that he had signed on for a total of three films. He was also set to work as a fill-in host on Entertainment Tonight, become the voice of AT&T, and receive the rights to talking Howard the Duck dolls. It was all overwhelming, he said.

However when Howard the Duck hit 1,554 theaters on August 1, 1986, it took in just $5 million in its first weekend. THR reports that the movie’s reported budget was more than $45 million, including marketing, and when all was said and done, the movie raked in just $16.2 million domestically and $37.9 million worldwide. It was technically Marvel’s first box office bomb.

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Anyone familiar with the character likely knows that Howard the Duck is now officially a part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, having a couple of scenes with actual voice lines by Seth Green (Guardians of the Galaxy 1 and 2) and others where the character makes quick-glance cameos (Avengers: Endgame, for example). THR spoke to Green about Howard the Duck, both as a 1986 movie and as a character that he now officially voices in the MCU.

He said becoming the new Howard the Duck was a months-long process that began with a phone call from Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn. Green voiced the character again in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 and will soon do so again in Disney’s upcoming animated series, What If…?, “which is really cool because it resulted in a scene between T’Challa and Howard,” Green says.

Disney Plus’ What If…? series is the final time the late Chadwick Boseman will play T’Challa and Black Panther.

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For more about Howard the Duck, check out IGN’s review of Marvel’s Howard the Duck #1 comic, written by Zdarsky back in 2015, and then read about a now-canceled Howard the Duck show that was going to release on Hulu. Check out IGN’s list of the new Marvel movies and TV shows coming in 2021 and beyond after that.

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

Madden 22 ratings season is officially underway, with the Green Bay Packers’ Davante Adams revealed as its one and only 99 overall wide receiver — at least for now.

Adams returns to the 99 Club after another strong season that saw him reel in 115 receptions for 1374 yards and an NFL-high 18 touchdowns. His stats were enough to earn him a near-unanimous first team All-Pro selection, receiving 49 out of a possible 50 votes.

Another #99Club for @tae15adams 👏 @Packers | #Madden22 pic.twitter.com/EBDCu9EF3C

— Madden NFL 22 (@EAMaddenNFL) July 26, 2021

This is not Adams’ first stint in the 99 Club. After starting at 94 overall in Madden 21, Adams steadily climbed in the ratings, finally reaching 99 overall in December. He’s joined at the top of this year’s list by DeAndre Hopkins (98 overall), Tyreek Hill (98 overall), Stefon Diggs (97 overall), and Julio Jones, who rounds out the top five at 95 overall.

Madden 22’s ratings announcements officially commenced Sunday with various rookie reveals. New England Patriots quarterback Mac Jones was among those who received their ratings, learning that he would start at 71 overall. ESPN’s reveals will continue through the end of the month.

Over the past few years, Madden’s ratings reveals have become a kind of unofficial holiday as EA has sought to leverage interest around the numbers by partnering with ESPN and partaking in various social media promotions. They serve as one measuring stick for how various players compare with one another, and offer a glimpse of how EA thinks their real-life teams might perform. Naturally, they spark plenty of debate among fans, who argue vigorously over whether a given player is overrated or underrated.

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In the meantime, despite Adams’ well-deserved accolades, trouble may brewing for the Packers. Last week, Adams and Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers shared the same image of Michael Jordan and Scotty Pippen doing a fist-bump to their Instagram feeds. This was on top of news that Adams had broken off long-term extension talks with Green Bay.

All of this suggests that this might be Adams’ last year in Wisconsin. And you know what? As a supporter of their rivals, the Minnesota Vikings, I couldn’t be happier.

Madden 22 is set to release on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Stadia, and Xbox One on August 20. You can read our preview detailing 10 of its most important improvements right here.

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Image source: Getty Images Sport [Dylan Buell / Contributor]

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN. She’s still waiting to see the Vikings in a Super Bowl.

Pierre-Loup Griffais, a designer working on the upcoming Steam Deck, has clarified his previous comments surrounding a ’30 FPS target’ for games running on the console.

In an interview with IGN, Griffais had previously said, “So far we’re looking pretty good, I think – everything that’s been coming out this year has been running without issues, that we’ve tried. I think this is largely a factor of industry trends. If people are still valuing high framerates and high resolutions on different platforms, I think that content will scale down to our 800p, 30hz target really well.”

The idea of a target of 30hz (another term for frames-per-second, in this context) had led to some members of the community feeling anxious about the hardware’s capabilities, assuming that Valve was pushing for games to run simply at 30FPS and no higher. However, in a recent tweet (below), Griffais reassured the community that the ’30 FPS target’ for the handheld console refers to “the floor of what we consider playable in our performance testing.”

The “30 FPS target” refers to the floor of what we consider playable in our performance testing; games we’ve tested and shown have consistently met and exceeded that bar so far. There will also be an optional built-in FPS limiter to fine-tune perf vs. battery life.

— Pierre-Loup Griffais (@Plagman2) July 25, 2021

Griffais further reassured fans in the tweet, stating that, “games we’ve tested and shown have consistently met and exceeded that bar so far.” He added that there will also be “an optional built-in FPS limiter to fine-tune perf vs. battery life.” This feature will seemingly be useful for players who are hoping to get the most out of their console’s battery life in a single charge whilst also offering a better experience, performance-wise to those with an accessible charge point during play time.

Valve has said that the console’s fully-charged battery will have a life span of around 2-8 hours and that players can expect to play 4 hours of Portal 2 running at a resolution of 720p at 60FPS before needing to recharge their handheld. However, with the large span of games available on the console, this could vary vastly from game to game. IGN recently reported on the Steam Deck’s full range of specifications including battery, operating system and how it compares against the Nintendo Switch.

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The Steam Deck is set to launch in late 2021. You can check out much more information on the Steam Deck with us, including why Valve says it never really compared its handheld to the Nintendo Switch, how SteamOS bridges the gap between console and PC, and how the console’s SSD is (technically) user-upgradeable.

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Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Apex Legends Emergence is right around the corner. Season 10 of Respawn’s battle royale introduces Seer as a new playable legend, makes substantial changes to World’s Edge, and implements major balancing changes to several weapons and characters. Caustic mains, rejoice! Emergence gives y’all a nice buff.

Below, we go over everything we currently know about Apex Legends Emergence. That includes the lore and abilities for Seer, the three maps coming to Arenas, the new Rampage LMG, and the return of Disruptor Ammo. That’s right–the bane of Season 2 has finally returned. All that and more is detailed below.

Start Date

Apex Legends Emergence is scheduled to begin August 3, following the conclusion of the limited-time Thrillseekers event.

Patch Notes

Respawn has not yet released the patch notes for the Emergence update. If the studio sticks to the pattern of past seasons though, we can expect to get them the day before the new season starts–in this case, August 2.

New Legend: Seer

Season 10 introduces Apex Legends’ 18th playable character, Obi aka “Seer.” Seer is a recon character; his ability kit makes him more of a tracker like Bloodhound than the more scout-like Pathfinder, Crypto, and Valkyrie. He is geared towards hunting down enemy squads in close quarters.

Seer’s Abilities

• Passive Ability: Heartseeker – While aiming down sights, Seer can hear the heartbeat of nearby legends, helping him discover their location.
• Tactical Ability: Focus of Attention – Seer releases several minidrones and after a delay they mark all enemies in front of him, interrupting their use of healing items/revives and revealing their locations and health to Seer and his allies for eight seconds.
• Ultimate Ability: Exhibit – Seer throws out his heart chamber, which releases hundreds of mini drones that form a sphere. Enemies that move quickly or fire their weapons in the sphere are marked, revealing their location and footsteps to Seer and his allies. Enemies can destroy the heart chamber by shooting and destroying it, in a similar manner to stopping Crypto and Horizon’s ultimate abilities.

In terms of lore, Seer has a complicated history, one informed by an old folktale called “The Moth and the Flame.” Chapter 1 of the story details that a king and queen locked their daughter who was blind away in her room to protect her from the world, but when a man’s beautiful singing voice caught her attention, she fell in love with him. He, in turn, fell in love with her. Out of fear that the couple’s love would endanger their daughter, the king and queen jailed the man.

Chapter 2 then details how the princess would bring a candle to her window to signal her lover to come to her, but when he didn’t, she began to cry. Her candle attracted a moth, who flew into the fire, but he was saved when the princess’ tears extinguished the flame. The moth promised to help the princess find her love, but only under the condition that he could be reborn as her child to escape his curse of blindly following the light. The princess agreed.

Finally, in Chapter 3, the king and queen burned the young man at the stake to ensure their daughter would simply return to the safety of her room. The fire, however, attracted the attention of the moth, who blindly flew into the fire, leading the blind princess into the fire too. As time went on, this folktale would continue to be told, evolving into a prophecy that one day the cursed moth would be reborn as a human child, one who will blindly lead humanity to destruction.

As Seer was born with glowing eyes and to a mother with a moth tattoo and on a day when a fiery meteor destroyed his planet’s moon, those around him in his community believed him to be this foretold cursed child. He was shunned, but his father taught him about how to command minidrones and his mother gifted him with dance and an appreciation for art. Seer took their lessons and developed a mesmerizingly elegant but brutal fighting style that combined the two, earning him nine years of accolades in the underground arenas. His fame got him a place in the Apex Games.

Legend Changes: Buffs And Nerfs

Emergence introduces a number of buffs and nerfs to existing legends. Respawn is implementing buffs for Caustic, Horizon, and Fuse, and a nerf for Revenant.

Battle Royale Map Changes: World’s Edge Decimated

Hammond’s continued efforts to mine Talos for its natural resources will decimate World’s Edge at the start of Emergence. The lava crack caused by the Harvester lengthens, and the destruction extends to touch both the southern and northern parts of the map.

Sorting Factory is completely destroyed, falling into a sinkhole. The landmark will be replaced by a new point-of-interest (POI), Lava Syphon. The destruction causes a landslide to the nearby mountains, burying Train Yard in debris and transforming it into a new POI called Landslide.

Most of the changes can be seen in the north. Refinery will be completely wiped out, replaced by Climatizer, a significantly larger POI. Nearby, a new lava crack has opened up–though it won’t provide a heated updraft like the one that cuts through the middle of World’s Edge. Though it’s not a POI, a new giant dam will be constructed between Climatizer and Epicenter to prevent the lava from spilling into the rest of World’s Edge.

At both Climatizer and Lava Syphon, moving gondolas will be added to the map, providing movable cover for squads in a similar capacity to the train that once moved throughout World’s Edge in Seasons 3-5.

Arenas Map Changes: Hillside, Dome, Oasis

During Season 10, the Arenas maps based on existing Kings Canyon, World’s Edge, and Olympus landmarks are being rotated out. So no more playing Arenas on Artillery, Thermal Station, and Gardens.

In their place, three new landmark-based Arenas maps are rotating in: Kings Canyon’s Hillside, World’s Edge’s Dome, and Olympus’ Oasis. These three maps will exist in the Arenas playlist rotation alongside Phase Runner, Party Crasher, and Overflow.

New Weapon: Rampage LMG

Emergence adds the Rampage to ground loot, a brand-new heavy-ammo LMG. The Rampage sets itself apart from the other LMGs by being a slower but more powerful variation of the Spitfire, making it an ideal mid-range weapon. Similar to weapons like the 30-30 Repeater and Bocek Compound Bow, the Rampage doesn’t fire fast enough to be much of a threat at close-range.

Similar to the Sentinel sniper rifle, the Rampage can be charged. But instead of using shield cells, the Rampage takes thermite grenades. Once charged, the Rampage fires much more quickly, making it a decent close-range threat. When charged, the Rampage can also easily destroy doors, similar to grenades.

New Playlist: Ranked Arenas

Ranked Arenas is coming to Apex Legends in Season 10. Similar to Ranked Trios and Trios, Ranked Arenas and Arenas will exist as wholly separate playlists. When Season 10 starts, you’ll have to play 10 Ranked Arenas matches to figure out where you’ll be placed.

Unlike Ranked Trios, there is no entry penalty to Ranked Arenas at the higher ranks. You don’t earn points based on how many kills and assists you get either. You simply gain points for winning and lose points for losing. Your Arenas rank will exist separately to your battle royale rank.

Battle Pass Rewards

Like previous seasons, Emergence adds a new battle pass that includes over 100 cosmetic rewards, including two legendary character skins and two legendary reactive weapon skins. This time around, Valkyrie and Horizon are getting the new legendary character skins, and the Volt SMG is getting the legendary reactive weapon skins.

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The closed beta for Amazon’s New World is currently experiencing a rather successful stint on Steam, passing 200,000 concurrent players last weekend.

The MMORPG closed beta began on July 20 and has seemingly been popular with users on the platform. According to reports from SteamDB, New World has seen daily highs of around 180,000 concurrent players. The closed beta peaked on July 25 where the game amassed an impressive 200,856 concurrent players.

At the time of writing, the New World Closed Beta currently ranks sixth in SteamDB’s list of Most Played Games. This places New World higher than many other popular online multiplayer games including Rust, Team Fortress 2, and Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege. In addition, the New World Closed Beta is currently ranked at number one on SteamDB’s Top Trending games list.

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It will be heartening new for Amazon Games, which has struggled to make an impact with its first games. a Grand Tour game was removed from sale, multiple projects have been cancelled, and reports have emerged of struggles with both management and the in-house game engine.

Crucible, a free-to-play multiplayer third-person shooter, was released by Amazon’s Relentless Studios in May 2020. The title saw an all-time high of 25,145 concurrent players before Amazon Games shut down servers in November 2020. Amazon Games said that the development team was “moving on to work on New World and other Amazon Games projects.”

Last week, there was worry amongst some players looking to access the closed beta amid reports that the New World closed beta was allegedly bricking Nvidia RTX 3090 graphics cards for those trying to access the game. Amazon Games responded to the allegations in a tweet:

Please read this message regarding recent concerns with graphics cards hardware. pic.twitter.com/L1gNeBBPQS

— New World (@playnewworld) July 21, 2021

Following this, EVGA also confirmed that it would replace all of the RTX 3090 cards that had seemingly been bricked by the New World closed beta.

Players hoping to gain access to the New World closed beta have a few options. Those interested can either sign up via the New World website for a chance to gain access, or pre-order the full game from Amazon or Steam. The New World closed beta will run until August 2, and the full game is set to release on August 31.

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Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.