Author: Trafficblast

Xbox boss Phil Spencer says that the Halo Infinite development team is “very committed” to a holiday release date.

Spencer made the comment while guesting on Dropped Frames, discussing how the Halo Infinite team was approaching the last legs of development among other topics. Spencer says that the team is currently narrowing down the release for Halo Infinite, and already has a good idea for a launch window.

“We know kind of our range in the 3-4 week range,” Spencer said. “We don’t have yet the exact day. There’s some other things with some other game timing that we’re trying to look at. We’ll have better clarity over the summer, but this isn’t a months thing this is just down to a few weeks.”

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Microsoft announced in August 2020 that Halo Infinite would be delayed from a holiday 2020 release date to an unspecified 2021 release date, following a mixed reception to Infinite’s first gameplay reveal, and citing COVID-19 as a major issue. Halo series veteran Joseph Staten was later hired to get Infinite “back on track.”

“Instead of picking this date and having to move it by a week, which at this point would feel like a fail — we don’t want to do that — let’s wait until we’re really solid on what the date is,” Spencer continued. “But the team is very committed to holiday, we feel good about that.”

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Spencer also praised Staten and Pierre Hintze, Halo: Master Chief Collection’s head of publishing. Hintze similarly joined the Halo Infinite team alongside Staten to work on its free-to-play multiplayer mode.

“The way Pierre and Joseph are running the team I feel good about the confidence we have in both quality and getting the game done.”

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The video game industry has experienced a growing list of project delays thanks to the logistical and financial impact of COVID-19, in addition to numerous other factors. Even games that experience multiple delays may launch in a less-than-agreeable state, as evidenced by Cyberpunk 2077’s heavily criticized launch. You can read IGN’s reporting on why 2020 and beyond was such a terrible time for game delays.

On the bright side, we recently got our first look at Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/often delayed for IGN.

Perhaps more than any other genre, Massively Multiplayer Online RPGs require an intense time commitment, so these recommendations are for games that grabbed us from the get-go all the way through to the 133rd hour. Here’s our list of the Top 10 MMORPGs.

A quick note: all of these games are still playable, but we tried to balance both how easy they are to recommend in 2021 and their contributions to progressing the genre as a whole.  Let’s get started!

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10. Final Fantasy XI

Final Fantasy 11 came out in 2002, and if you were like us, you snagged the hard drive router combo so you could play it on your PS2. Fast forward to 2021 and there’s still a community dedicated to helping new players experience this amazing Final Fantasy story. Sure, the controls are a bit complicated for modern standards, but just the other day we got Chapter 4 Part 2 of the Voracious Resurgence event! Final Fantasy 11 will always hold a special place in our hearts and if we’re being honest we still sneak on and play every now and then. Protip, hit up one of the free to play double xp weekends to jump into the story asap.

9. DC Universe Online

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Would you rather have the power of flight, or super speed? Why not both? DCUO has been a home for DC and superhero fans and continues going strong 10 years later on 5 different platforms. Now that DCUO is free-to-play and on multiple platforms, it’s now more accessible than ever and still has major content drops like the most recent World of Flashpoint. City of Heroes laid the foundation for superhero MMORPGs but DCUO has such a breadth of existing lore and characters, it was a must recommend for this list. 

8. Tera

In a genre highly dependent on grinding to make the numbers go higher, Tera sets itself apart 

from the rest with an action combat system that still feels good to play today. Its gameplay is highly skill dependent, and the BAMs (Big-Ass Monsters) that roam freely are always tempting 

to sharpen your skill against. It does have issues such as animation-locking during 

combat and a less-than fulfilling endgame, but Tera’s combat is still fun to play if you boot it up right now, and that is a true feat for a free-to-play MMO released a decade ago.

7. EVE Online

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Eve Online has spawned so many great real-world stories that they could make a Top 10 List

of their own. A game of staggering depth and complexity, Eve Online has fostered a player base since 2003 with its meaningful consequences – you can permanently lose ships worth hundreds or even thousands of dollars – and its freedom for players to do just about anything, like assist in Covid-19 research and organize a stirring tribute for Stephen Hawking. Eve Online has found a way to stick around for almost two decades by being uncompromising in its vision, and that vision is staggering.

6. Star Wars: The Old Republic

Storytelling is vital in RPGs and Bioware tells an excellent one in Star Wars: The Old Republic.  For fans of the classic KOTOR series who may not be well-versed in MMORPGs, SWTOR has been tweaked to be single player friendly as well, and now that the game is free-to-play, anyone can jump in to try the class stories and the first couple of expansions. Major content drops don’t seem to be as often as they used to, but The Old Republic is still worth returning to after all this time.

5. Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars popularized the concept of an MMO with no monthly fees, and continues that business model to this day. It’s also very accessible; while it encourages social interaction and cooperation with others, it can also largely be played solo. Add that to the game’s unique weapon ability system in which different weapons provide different abilities for different classes WHILE in different hands, and ArenaNet’s “Living World” approach to storytelling segments, and you have a recipe for a game that stands the test of time. There’s even a new expansion, End of Dragons, that’s slated for 2021.

4. Elder Scrolls Online

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The Elder Scrolls Online allows you to get lost in a fantasy world where you can control your own story down to the nitty gritty details.  Do you want to summon dark magic as a Breton while you fight, or would you rather be a Wood Elf with the power of nature and a bow for defense? ESO combines gorgeous, diverse landscapes that you can easily travel around, wonderful combat and expansive quest options, all while allowing you to play alongside your pals. With consistent DLC drops and performance updates, ESO continues to improve upon itself and now has never been a better time to hop into the world – especially for those who loved Skyrim and other Elder Scrolls games.

3. Phantasy Star Online 2

While the UI and menu design feels a little dated these days, Phantasy Star Online 2 still feels incredibly fresh to play, thanks to the fast-action anime sci-fi combat, incredible character creation tools, randomly generated fields, excellent electronic soundtrack, and chaotic Urgent Quests. It’s also had over eight years of content updates that all rolled out just this past year with PSO2’s recent western release, and will soon receive a new open world, graphics engine update, systems and more, thanks to a major update with New Genesis. The future is looking very bright for Phantasy Star.

2. World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft changed the entire MMORPG genre after its original launch in 2004, setting itself apart from past games by being more accessible to veterans of the genre and newcomers. With nearly sixteen years worth of patches and eight expansions, WoW is an industry titan. While Shadowlands has experienced a delayed launch on top of the longest duration of a launch patch in the game’s history, there’s no denying that WoW still has years of quests, raids, dungeons and even transmog fashion pieces to collect from previous expansions. With the option to also hop into WoW: Classic and the recently released Burning Crusade Classic servers, there have never been more ways to experience WoW.

1. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

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One of the greatest modern success stories in video game history, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn took a bland, widely panned launch game and completely retooled it to sit atop the throne of MMORPGs. Not only did Square Enix keep the old game going while working on the reboot, it worked the reboot into the game’s storyline, marking it as a calamity that reshaped Eorzea. Final Fantasy XIV has only improved  since release with three current expansions and a fourth on the way, and each one has added classes, dungeons, and raids pulling from both Final Fantasy history and other Square Enix properties such as Nier Automata. Final Fantasy XV may have come and gone, and Final Fantasy XVI is on the way, but A Realm Reborn still shows no signs of slowing down.

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And there you have it! Our picks for the top 10 MMORPGs. Have we missed any? What do you think needs to be reshuffled?  Let us know in the comments below.

Well, looks like we’re getting a demo for NEO: The World Ends With You sometime soon, though Square Enix may not have wanted us to know that bit of info just yet.

Moments ago, the Square Enix Twitter account posted a new trailer for the game that seemed mostly normal. However, a splash screen at the very end reads “Play the demo now!” As people began to point out the previously unknown demo on social media, Square Enix quickly deleted the tweet.

The trailer is no longer viewable, either.

NEO: The World Ends with You is getting a demo soon apparently. “Play the demo now” https://t.co/dIfR4vOnIl pic.twitter.com/fnfr1XwVO1

— Wario64 (@Wario64) June 23, 2021

This may be related to the news Tetsuya Nomura was teasing on the official Japanese account for NEO: The World Ends With You, which is supposed to be dropped at 12 pm Japan time on the 24th and 8 pm PT/11 pm ET on the 23rd. Hopefully, it is and the demo drops soon, especially as it’s only a month away from release on July 27th anyway.

A widely available demo would be yet another opportunity to get a closer look at how Square Enix’s fantastical vision of an alternate-reality Shibuya has changed in the 14 years since the last game. The company’s already been fairly forthcoming with information about characters, setting, and other changes, but this would give fans a hands-on look for themselves.

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We got a look at the first two chapters of the game earlier this month and found the sequel to be a compelling refresh of its DS roots.

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Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Whether the recent GameStop stock drama (where shares in the game retailer soared to record highs and made investors millions as a result) has raised your interest in trading, or you simply don’t have time to keep track of the stock market every day, knowledge of the market is arguably the most valuable asset you can have when it comes to smart investing. 

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Episode 2 of Loki ended on a bombshell reveal–the Loki variant that the TVA had been chasing through time and space was, in fact, a woman. This prompted many fans to speculate on the introduction of a popular comics version of the character, known as Lady Loki. However, despite the clear parallels this new Loki had to Lady Loki, some parts of the puzzle seemed to be missing. Her design was specifically very different for one, and for another, she immediately seemed to rail against the comparison to Loki himself when they met.

Of course, we didn’t get much time to examine the possibilities as Episode 2 drew to a close in truly chaotic fashion. But here, in Episode 3, we get to spend some quality time with this new character–and learn that she might not be a version of Lady Loki after all.

Spoilers for Loki Episode 3, “Lamentis,” from here on out.

Around midway through the episode, the variant volunteered an alternative name for herself–Sylvie–after repeatedly rebuffing any comparisons to Loki himself. She never elaborates on the name’s origins (or her own, for that matter) and Loki seems to take it in stride. Fans of Thor comics, however, will undoubtedly recognize the name as a reference to Sylvie Lushton, a side character in Thor comics that ran through the ’00s.

This is where things get a little weird, so bear with us. Prior to this particular story arc in the Thor books, Asgard had been destroyed and relocated to a small town in Oklahoma where the gods were either reincarnated wholesale or began inhabiting newly created bodies. This is actually the point of origin for the most popular incarnation of Lady Loki as well, who was a body created to reincarnate Sif that wound up being taken over by Loki instead.

In the chaos, Loki took the opportunity to do a little experiment of his own. Curious to see what would happen if a mortal began to believe they were an Asgardian, he either found or made Sylvie Lushton, a human girl, and gave her powers (and possibly memories) based on those of another Asgardian–Amora the Enchantress.

In the comics, Amora is a green-clad magic user who is most commonly seen acting as Loki’s on-again-off-again partner in crime. She’s also unique among Thor-adjacent characters in the fact that she’s one of the few Asgardians who isn’t directly based on any version of Norse mythology. She shares some similarities with mythological characters like Freya, but is ultimately just a comic book anti-hero. As such, she’s typically found acting as a sort of “female Loki” already, sharing many of his powers and chaotic ambitions without any of the historical ties.

Things are a little murky here, to be sure. It’s never explicitly clear if Sylvie herself was built from the ground up by Loki or if he really did just happen upon an unsuspecting mortal girl and tamper with her brain. The end result, however, is the same–a girl who was otherwise nobody suddenly had incredibly powerful magical abilities, and, hilariously, a spontaneous “Asgardian accent.”

Sylvie became known as the Enchantress, taking over the title from Amora herself–though it became a name they shared after Amora was eventually reincarnated properly.

This is all a very convoluted way of saying that Sylvie on the show may not actually be a Loki variant at all, but an entirely unique character who has managed to trick her way into being known as a Loki variant. Certainly there would be some benefit to being associated with someone as powerful as Loki, especially if your plans involve galavanting across time and space. This would mean that her cageyness about her past and her clear distaste at being called a Loki by the man himself are at least partially genuine.

However, there’s an equal possibility that the MCU is taking some major liberties with the source material here, something that they tend to do, and blending multiple versions of the story into a new and updated spin. It’s entirely possible that Sylvie is a Loki variant and also the MCU’s answer to Enchantress, or that the name or title Enchantress will simply be a convenient way for the MCU to differentiate between the two incarnations of the same character. This would mean that Amora proper is unlikely to make her way onto the big or small screens–though we should never say never. After all, look at the Mandarin.

It’s unclear whether or not Tom Hiddleston will continue to return to the MCU after Loki wraps, so introducing Sylvie as the de facto “new Loki” without literally making them two different versions of the same character would definitely have some benefits for future storylines.

Loki airs on Disney+ every Wednesday.

While NBC’s American Ninja Warrior has become a part of US culture, its roots are based in Japanese game shows, as it is an adaptation of the competition series Sasuke, which formerly aired on the G4 network. Its journey from a syndicated Japanese show on a video gaming network to capturing the attention and minds of Americans on broadcast network TV isn’t a simple one though.

American Ninja Warrior producer Arthur Smith of A. Smith & Co. has spent much of his time working on unscripted and competition programming in the United States. His first taste of Japanese game shows came from his time working on ABC’s I Survived A Japanese Game Show. The reality game show took unsuspecting Americans and sent them to Japan to compete in various games akin to what game shows air in Japan.

“It was funny because in the first season the competitors had no idea where they were going,” Smith explained to GameSpot. “We pick them up at the airport, and then just went around to the other side of the airport, and then say, ‘Oh, now we’re going to Japan.’ It was a really funny moment, and they were all game.”

Smith explained that I Survived A Japanese Game Show was the first American game show shot entirely in Japan. To keep the aesthetic similar to what you would actually see on a show airing in Japan, Smith said they hired a Japanese art director: “If we bring in an American art director, he would never do the crazy combination of color patterns that they would do.”

The show itself was unique to American audiences, opening a door to a world of game shows that were culturally different. “A lot of the games deal with being silly, being embarrassed, or being bold, being vulnerable in a way, and not taking yourself too seriously,” Smith said.

These concepts are very different from what American audiences typically see in their game shows, which are about personal stories and overcoming the odds to triumph. Additionally, there are many Japanese game shows that are near impossible to win like the events from Unbeatable Banzuke, which aired in America on G4. The other big name G4 game show was Sasuke, which people now know as Ninja Warrior–which saw competitors training their bodies to conquer a near-impossible course. While Ninja Warrior was unlike anything American audiences had ever seen, it resonated with people watching G4.

Former G4 general manager Neal Tiles and Smith knew that Ninja Warrior (Susuke) was the one program doing well on the network at that time, so when G4’s owner Comcast bought NBC, the two went to the network and asked them to put the finale on as an act of synergy. “A lot of people had thought, ‘Hey, it’s a game show coming from the game network,’ but they really missed what the show was about,” explained Smith. “Everyday people do extraordinary things, with great backstories and great athleticism.”

What Smith loved about Susuke was that it was real people competing in something extraordinary. And when it came time to bring the show to television as the revamped American Ninja Warrior, that was something he wanted to highlight. “These courses are impossible, and most people are going to fail,” Smith explained. “We want people to go on that journey. There’s a lot of admiration in the attempt, and you don’t have to complete [the course] to be successful, and you don’t have to complete it to be appreciated.

“In some ways, that was the inspiration of the Japanese show. Sasuke has been around for a long time, and they’ve had thousands [of competitors]. In all the years, they would have like two or three people who completed the course. And it doesn’t matter because we watch it for a different reason. And when there is success, it’s such a huge moment.”

Since American Ninja Warrior debuted in late 2009, it’s seen massive success on NBC. It’s currently in Season 13 and has had numerous spin-offs, including Esquire Network’s Ninja vs. Ninja and two seasons of American Ninja Warrior Junior, which will begin shooting its third season this summer and will air in September on the Peacock streaming service, according to Smith.

In the US, it’s become more than just a game show. The popularity of American Ninja Warrior is parallel with the rise in people doing CrossFit, along with the popularity of parkour. While correlation is not causation, American Ninja Warrior’s obstacle courses are the perfect challenge for those who devote their time to these activities. As Smith put it, “It’s not just a show. It’s a movement.” Ninja Warrior has become a part of American culture, whether it be a Ninja Warrior birthday party or someone building a course in their own backyard.

(Main image: Meagan Martin, photo by Elizabeth Morris)

Scarlett Johansson will produce and star in Disney’s new Tower of Terror movie, according to a report by Collider. Other names attached to the project include writer Josh Cooley–Toy Story 4 director and Inside Out screenwriter–and Jonathan Lia, who will produce alongside Johansson’s production company These Pictures.

No director has been selected yet, though according to Collider’s sources and to no one’s surprise, Disney is hoping for a big name. The plot too is shrouded under mystery, though ostensibly, it will be in some way related to Disney’s eponymous theme park ride.

Tower of Terror is a drop tower ride inspired by the classic anthology TV show The Twilight Zone. The attraction includes a fictional Hollywood Tower Hotel, and visitors get to take a trip to the fictional fifth dimension. Previous film adaptations inspired by the Tower of Terror ride include the 1997 film of the same title directed by D.J. MacHale. In the movie, a journalist is on a mission to find out why a group of people mysteriously disappeared on an elevator during Halloween.

Johansson reprises her role as super spy Natasha Romanoff in the upcoming Black Widow movie. Releasing on July 9, Black Widow will be available simultaneously in theaters and for $30 on Disney’s streaming service, Disney+, as part of Premier Access. The movie will follow Black Widow after the events of Captain America: Civil War and will dig more into the life of Natasha Romanoff before the events of Avengers: Infinity War.

Amazon Prime Day may be over, but we’re not giving up quite yet. There’s still some juicy deals listed on the site for some great tech products. All of the Apple M1 Macs for example are still discounted, and if you already have a PC, we found a great selection of high refresh rate 1080p monitors from Dell, LG and more. On top of those great deals, we couldn’t pass up a chance to highlight the remaining 4K TV deals being offered by LG and Samsung.

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Microsoft and Xbox boss Phil Spencer are confident that Halo Infinite will be launching Holiday 2021 and that the release window is down to “a few weeks.” As shared on ResetEra, In the latest episode of Dropped Frames, Spencer confirmed that both 343 Industries and Microsoft are confident about Halo Infinite releasing Holiday 2021 like it previously announced.

Spencer went on to say that he is confident that the release window will be hit and that they know the three-to-four-week period when the game will release, but they just need to look at when some “other game timing” is going to happen. He said they are looking to provide more clarity as to when Halo Infinite will launch during the summer. Spencer says instead of committing to a date and having to move it by a week later, they are willing to just wait until they know for sure.

Based on Spencer’s comments it seems as though Microsoft is trying to avoid having the Halo Infinite release date overlap with any other big holiday titles releasing in that window. While Microsoft didn’t reveal an exact date Halo Infinite during the Xbox and Bethesda Games Showcase, it did give the first look at Halo Infinite’s multiplayer mode in action.