Author: Trafficblast

Apple is gearing up to release a brand-new 2021 model of its Apple TV 4K streaming box. This refreshed hardware has an improved Siri Remote and comes packing a powerful new chip to ensure your 4K video and games look super smooth. It’s set to launch on May 24, but you can place your preorder now at a number of retailers. It’s available in a 32GB model and a 64GB model.

In addition, you can pick up a new version of the Apple TV HD. It streams video in 1080p and includes the new Siri Remote. It’s out the same day and is also up for preorder. Finally, if you don’t want to upgrade your Apple TV but are eyeing the new remote, you can buy that separately.

Preorder 2021 Apple TV 4K, HD, or Siri Remote

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The 2021 Apple TV 4K replaces the previous Apple TV 4K, which arrived back in 2017. The new one features the A12 Bionic chip, which allows for higher frame rates while playing 4K HDR content, as well as better graphics when playing video games. Another new selling point is the redesigned Siri remote (which is also available to preorder separately, if you’re fine with your current Apple TV).

Lots of people were baffled by the remote that came packaged with the previous Apple TV. It had a number of issues. For starters, it was symmetrical, which looked nice, but made it difficult to tell if you were holding it the right way without looking at it.

The new one is easier to tell if you’re holding it correctly just by touch. It also includes a touch-enabled clickpad that makes it easy to navigate the menu just by swiping. It also makes it easy to fast forward and rewind while streaming video, something that has always been kind of a pain. There’s also a dedicated Siri button on the side of the remote that lets you search for content using your voice.

As for the Apple TV box itself, it features 4K HDR streaming, with Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. The A12 Bionic chip lets it play back HDR content at twice the frame rate of the previous model.

A new feature this time around lets you calibrate the color settings on your Apple TV using an iPhone. All you have to do to calibrate your settings is point your iPhone’s light sensor at the TV screen, and the Apple TV handles the rest.

For those who don’t need a 4K streaming box, you can also preorder a new model of the Apple TV HD. It’s powered by the A8 chip, so it can only stream up to 1080p. But it includes the new Siri Remote and is great for anyone not looking to upgrade their TV to 4K anytime soon.

Apple TV 4K (2021 Model)

32GB Model

• Get it at Amazon – $179
• Get it at Best Buy – $179.99
• Get it at Walmart – $179
• Get it at Apple Store – $179

64GB Model

• Get it at Amazon – $199
• Get it at Best Buy – $199.99
• Get it at Walmart – $199
• Get it at Apple Store – $199

The 2021 Apple TV 4K is ideal for anyone with a 4K TV, or planning to get one soon.

Apple TV HD (2021 Model)

• Get it at Amazon – $149
• Get it at Best Buy – $149.99
• Get it at Walmart – $149
• Get it at Apple Store – $149

If you’re not planning to get a 4K TV anytime soon, you can use the 2021 Apple TV HD on your 1080p television.

Siri Remote (2021 Model)

• See it at Amazon – (Not yet available)
• See it at Best Buy – (Not yet available)
• Get it at Apple Store – $59

The Siri Remote is compatible with Apple TV HD, Apple TV 4K (first generation), and Apple TV 4K (second generation).

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Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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A brand new set of Game Pass titles have just been announced for the second half of May. This includes Knockout City coming to Game Pass and EA Play day one of release, alongside other games rolling out from May 18, such as Snowpiecer, Conan Exiles, The Wild at Heart, and quite a few more as well. This follows up from the strong start to the month, where we saw the likes of Dragon Quest Builders 2, Red Dead Online, Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD, and others join the service.

The only bad news when it comes to Game Pass is on the deals front, as Microsoft has officially closed the extremely popular EA Play loophole. This allowed users to pay $30 and extend their Game Pass Ultimate membership by four months. This is no longer the case, but we’ll keep an eye out for any other top Game Pass discounts in the future.

Coming to Game Pass May 2021

• Peggle 2 (Cloud) EA Play – May 20
• Plants vs. Zombies: Battle for Neighborville (Cloud) EA Play – May 20
• Secret Neighbor (PC) ID@Xbox – May 20
• The Wild at Heart (Console and PC) ID@Xbox – May 20
• The Catch: Carp & Coarse Fishing (Cloud, Console, and PC) – May 21
• Knockout City (Console and PC) EA Play – May 21
• Maneater (Cloud, Console, and PC) ID@Xbox – May 25
• Conan Exiles (Cloud and Console) ID@Xbox – May 27 – Optimized for Series X|S on May 27
• Fuzion Frenzy (Cloud) – May 27
• Joy Ride Turbo (Cloud) – May 27
• MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries (Console) ID@Xbox – May 27
• Slime Rancher (PC) ID@Xbox – May 27
• Solasta: Crown of the Magister (PC) ID@Xbox – May 27
• SpellForce 3: Soul Harvest (PC) – May 27

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Dragon Quest Builders 2 is another headliner this month, and if you’re thinking it’s just Minecraft with a Dragon Quest skin, that’s a massive oversimplification. It’s an extremely charming world-building game with more than a passing resemblance to Minecraft, sure, but it differentiates itself, and sticks to the source material, expertly. You can start playing it right now and it will be available for the foreseeable future, if you don’t want to dive right in.

Already Live on Xbox Game Pass in May 2021

• SnowPiecer (Live Now)
• Dragon Quest Builders 2 (Live Now)
• FIFA 21 (Live Now)
• Outlast 2 (Live Now)
• Steep (Live Now)
• Final Fantasy X/X-2 HD Remaster (Live Now)
• Just Cause 4: Reloaded (Live Now)
• Psychonauts (Live Now)
• Red Dead Online (Live Now)

Red Dead Online is another notable addition to Game Pass, and as a (lapsed) PC player, I might have to put the posse back together. Red Dead Online continues Rockstar’s excellent track record with online gaming and is on-par with GTA Online as far as varied missions, continued support, and level of bonkers stuff that can happen in-game. I highly recommend checking it out if you’re an Xbox Game Pass subscriber.

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Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. Send him awesome gaming screenshots @robertliam21 on Twitter.

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GTA 5 and GTA Online will receive PS5 and Xbox Series X/S versions on November 11 – and Rockstar has promised ‘surprises’ related to the upcoming 20th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 3.

Announced in a press release, the new-generation upgrades of both Grand Theft Auto 5 and GTA Online will be “expanded and enhanced”, and come with as-yet-unannounced new features. Updates added to GTA Online this summer will also “include special benefits for players to take advantage of in these expanded and enhanced versions when they drop.”

More intriguingly, Rockstar is also promising “surprises” related to the 20th anniversary of the release of GTA 3 – including some related to GTA Online. It’s not clear just yet what that will entail. GTA 3 was first released on October 22, 2001, so it shouldn’t be all too long before Rockstar begins announcing what those surprises could be.

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GTA Online will be released as a standalone game on both PS5 and Xbox Series consoles – and for three months after release, it’ll be totally free to PS5 owners. No pricing has been revealed for the Xbox version at launch. PlayStation Plus subscribers can claim $1 million of in-game currency every month until the updated version launches.

GTA Online was announced for PS5 and Xbox Series consoles last year, with exclusive content announced for new-gen versions and PC. Recently, Rockstar implemented a fan fix to improve loading times in GTA Online – and taht should only be faster on new hardware.

Of course, the big question for most is, “but what about GTA 6?” While we know GTA 6 is in development, Rockstar has never formally commented on when it might arrive. That hasn’t stopped fans looking for clues in GTA Online, however.

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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].

Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto III celebrates its 20th anniversary this year, and the studio is planning to mark the occasion with some “fun surprises.” In a blog post, the developer said some of the surprises will be included in GTA Online, but there is no word yet on any other ways the studio might celebrate the anniversary.

Here is the official word: “In honor of the upcoming 20th anniversary of the genre defining Grand Theft Auto III, we’ll have even more fun surprises to share–including some specifically for GTA Online players.”

That’s all Rockstar had to say, and this message itself was tucked away inside a blog post concerning updates for GTA and Red Dead Online and the PS5/Xbox Series X|S editions of Grand Theft Auto V. So it’s not exactly like Rockstar is making a big deal out of the GTA III tease. That said, this tease comes not long after Rockstar parent company Take-Two shut down a GTA III fan remake, leading some to believe that Rockstar itself was developing one. That’s just unconfirmed scuttlebutt for now, however.

GTA III was a celebrated, highly influential entry in the series. Most notably, it was the first entry in the series to move away from a top-down perspective and embrace a 3D open-world structure. It was originally released on PS2 before coming to PC and the OG Xbox.

A 10-year anniversary edition of the game was released in 2011 for mobile devices.

In other GTA news, Rockstar just announced that Grand Theft Auto V is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S in November alongside the standalone GTA Online game. Rockstar also outlined its plans for major updates to GTA Online this summer.

Fortnite Season 6 Week 10 challenges are nearly here. They’re scheduled to go live at 7 AM PT / 10 AM ET on Thursday, May 20. As always, Fortnite players will be able to unlock hundreds of thousands of seasonal XP to move up more tiers in their Fortnite Season 6 Battle Pass by completing these weekly challenges. If you want to get the drop on this week’s challenges, we’ve got the full list here courtesy of a leak. Here’s what you’ll need to do to complete the Fortnite Season 6 Week 10 challenges.

Fortnite Season 6 Week 10 challenges

Epic Quests

• Eliminate a player while swimming (1) – 24,000 XP
• Deal damage to players within 30 seconds of landing from Battle Bus (150) – 24,000 XP
• Pickaxe elimination (1) – 24,000 XP
• Build sandcastles (3) – 24,000 XP
• Deal damage to descending Supply Drops (100) – 24,000 XP
• Destroy opponent structure while driving a modded vehicle (1) – 24,000 XP
• Destroy sandcastles (3) – 24,000 XP

Legendary Quests

• Time airborne using Hop Floppers and Shockwave Grenades (100) – 35,000 XP
• Time airborne using Hop Floppers and Shockwave Grenades (200) – 24,000 XP
• Time airborne using Hop Floppers and Shockwave Grenades (300) – 24,000 XP
• Time airborne using Hop Floppers and Shockwave Grenades (400) – 24,000 XP
• Time airborne using Hop Floppers and Shockwave Grenades (500) – 24,000 XP

It’s a fairly routine list this time, though Epic still has a few tricks up its sleeve. Eliminating a player while swimming is straighforward, and perhaps best done at Sweaty Sands when it’s a hot drop so many players will be there. A Pickaxe elimination can be trickier, but in Duos or Squads, it may be easier as there you can down someone, then switch to your axe to finish them off.

Supply Drops are much more common in Team Rumble, so head into that mode and wait until players are mostly concentrated around a smaller circle a few minutes into the round. That’s when Supply Drops really start to rain down frequently. A modded vehicle is any vehicle with Chonker’s Off-Road Tires built onto it. You can find tires at every gas station and most garages. Otherwise, you have a chance to find them in destroyed tire piles found all over the map. It’s sort of like opening a chest in that way. Sometimes you’ll get what you’re looking for.

As for building and destroying sandcastles, these aren’t yet on the map but will appear as soon as the Week 10 challenges are live in-game. Once they do, we’ll have a complete guide showing you how to do this. It’s arguably the only really confusing one at a glance.

The Legendary Quest likely speaks to the next theme of Fortnite Wild Weeks, which recently focused on more fire items around the map and, more recently, a buff to fishing during the ongoing Week 9 challenges. This week’s Legendary asks you to accumulate air time using Shockwave Grenades and Hop Flopper fish. It’s likely both of these items will be in much greater abundance once Wild Weeks 3 goes live on Thursday, which spells a floaty week ahead for Fortnite players.

We should be getting more DC Comics heroes in the store this week, but in the meantime, you can check out the latest Teen Titan to arrive, Beast Boy.

Grand Theft Auto V continues to expand, as the massively popular and hugely successful open-world game is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 11. Rockstar also announced that the standalone edition of GTA Online for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will release that day as well, and PlayStation users are getting a special bonus.

As announced previously, the standalone edition of GTA Online is free on PS5 for its first three months, ending in February 2022. PlayStation Plus users on PS4 have been getting a special treat already, as they can claim GTA $1,000,000 every month until GTA Online comes to PS5.

The new versions of GTA V and GTA Online for next-gen have “new features and more,” but Rockstar has yet to fully detail how the games take advantage of the next-gen hardware.

Previously, Rockstar spoke at a high level about what the new editions of GTA V will deliver thanks to the horsepower of the new machines.

“The new generation versions of GTAV will feature a range of technical improvements, visual upgrades and performance enhancements to take full advantage of the latest hardware, making the game more beautiful and more responsive than ever,” Rockstar said.

Rockstar also teased that the summer updates coming to GTA Online will have “special benefits” for players “to take advantage of in these expanded and enhanced versions when they drop.”

On top of that, Rockstar is celebrating the 20th anniversary of GTA III with “even more fun surprises,” some of which will be specifically for GTA Online. There have been rumors of a GTA III remaster or remake, but it’s too soon to say if that will happen.

Rockstar made these announcements on the same day that parent company Take-Two Interactive is scheduled to report earnings, so keep checking back with GameSpot for more.

GTA V has already sold 140 million copies since the game originally debuted for Xbox 360/PS3 back in 2013. The game grew over time by releasing on PC, Xbox One, and PS4, and now it’s coming to yet another set of consoles that should trigger even more sales.

In other news, Rockstar has teased some kind of 20th anniversary celebration event for GTA III.

Rockstar Games has revealed more details on the updates coming to GTA Online and Red Dead Online this summer–and they sound extensive. Rockstar ran through all the details in a news release, and we’re rounding up the key takeaways here.

GTA Online

A new update for GTA Online is all about celebrating car culture. There will be “new opportunities for fans of performance and customization upgrades to get together with like-minded gearheads to test and show off their rides free from interference from authorities and other troublemakers.”

This update will also include a “new underground car meet” and more, including some unscrupulous activities. Rockstar says, “demand for stolen vehicles has never been higher.”

It sounds like the update will have new challenges related to boosting cars, while there will be more race types, and even extensive robbery missions. Here’s the description:

“Expect high stakes and high action as crews hit the streets to get hold of the latest vehicles on the hot list, challenge each other in new race types, or take part in a series of multi-part robbery missions, where a precisely modified getaway vehicle will be your best weapon–all later this summer,” Rockstar said.

There are also eight new Stunt Races coming to GTA Online’s Stunt Series beginning May 27. “These new tracks will introduce an array of white-knuckle thrills for stunt racers in an assortment of vehicle classes,” Rockstar said.

The Deadline mode will add seven new areas at some point later, while the Survival mode will be updated to include new locations in Los Santos and Blaine County.

Red Dead Online

For Red Dead Online, there are eight new races coming to the game next week. These will be spread across “iconic” locations from five states in the game, including Gaptooth Breach, Annesburg, and Lagras. The new races include Standard and Open races.

Additionally, there are new Target and Open Target races coming to the game that challenge players to shoot out targets with your bow and arrow while riding a horse. All the new races come to Red Dead Online beginning May 25.

Outside of these new features, the new summer update for Red Dead Online will introduce new missions focused on the “criminal underworld.”

“Down in Saint Denis, Angelo Bronte’s trusted lieutenant, Guido Martelli is working to create his own criminal network, so whether it’s intimidation, unsavory crimes, or larger, high-stakes robberies–riders best be willing to do whatever it takes to earn their blood money,” Rockstar said.

In other Rockstar news, the developer just announced that Grand Theft Auto V is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S on November 11. That’s the day that GTA Online’s new standalone edition will release as well.

In other news, Rockstar has teased some kind of 20th anniversary celebration event for GTA III.