Author: Trafficblast

Sam and Max are returning in the newly revealed Sam & Max – This Time It’s Virtual, a new VR adventure that is also the official 20th video game for the pair.

Set to be released in 2021, the VR adventure sees Sam and Max, the Freelance Police, on a VR adventure that needs the player’s help in an effort to stop the evil plaguing the world. And that evil may include some giant monsters. Check out the full reveal trailer below:

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The first new Sam & Max game in over a decade, this game will see players recruited by the titular heroes and trained to become part of the Freelance Police. Sam & Max creator Steve Purcell is onboard to consult on game design, art and story, and David Nowlin and Dave Boat return to voice the heroes.

Past Sam and Max adventures include Sam & Max: The Devil’s Playhouse and other episodic adventures developed by Telltale Games.

There’s much, much more to come from Gamescom 2020 on IGN – check out our full Gamescom schedule to find out what else is on the way.

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Two professional Counter-Strike teams have postponed their upcoming match to support protests against systemic racism. Team Liquid and Chaos FC both announced that they would not be competing in August 27’s ESL One Cologne 2020 match.

“We are mad, we are exhausted,” Chaos FC said in a tweet. “We know that gaming is part of the problem. We are not competing[…]in order to do our part to move the light where it belongs.”

Chaos FC was the first to decide not to play; Team Liquid followed shortly after. “We support their decision and stand with Chaos,” Team Liquid tweeted.

The move follows teams in both the NBA and MLB as they refused to play after Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, was shot seven times in the back by the police officers in Kenosha, Wisconsin while trying to break up an argument between two other people. Protests have broken out in the city over the past three days since the shooting. Protests have also started in other cities throughout the country, including Los Angeles, against police brutality and systemic racism.

NBA 2K development studio 2K Games said that it supports the actions taken by NBA players, adding that the studio “stand[s] against racial injustice and the continued violence against the Black community.”

During Gamescom Opening Night Live 2020, EA revealed a new single-player gameplay trailer for Star Wars Squadrons. You can watch the trailer below.

After a brief Rebel propaganda film, we got a firsthand look at an Imperial mission. The cockpit view of the TIE Fighter was brief, but it showed some dogfighting action, followed by quick cuts of other spacecraft views on a variety of missions. You can play any of the missions in VR as well.

Star Wars Squardons is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, through backwards compatibility rather than next-gen upgrades. However, it will be priced at the budget-conscious $40 instead of $60 or even $70. Creative director Ian Frazier said the price point is meant to be inviting given its narrow focus on dogfighting combat.

Star Wars Squadrons is coming on October 2 to PS4, Xbox One, and PC. It will be available with VR support on PC and PS4. A handful of pre-order bonuses are available, including some special flight suits and starfighter skins. Check out GameSpot’s Star Wars Squadrons pre-order guide for more details.

Insomniac Games unveiled more of Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart, the first PS5 adventure for the long-running PlayStation franchise during Gamescom 2020, and is confirmed to be a “launch window” game.

Following up from the PS5 reveal showcase in which we saw a tease of Rift Apart’s rift-jumping gameplay, Gamescom‘s Opening Night Live featured an extended, uncut look at the gameplay from the anticipated new entry.

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The demo featured a look at classic Ratchet and Clank third-person combat, but quickly revealed the introduction of its titular rift shifting gameplay after a brief showdown with Dr. Nefarious. In the demo, Ratchet could pull at tears in the fabric of reality and manipulate the environment around him, jumping through space without loads throughout the level.

The demo, which was billed as uncut gameplay running on PS5, also featured a larger rift jump on the same planet, as shown in the previous Rahcte and Clank PS5 reveal, before Ratchet and Clank were then thrown through several different rifts into varied locations. The footage was previously shown in the game’s reveal, though this demo reveals the fluidity with which these rifts can occur within gameplay.

The demo ended with the same tease as before — Clank being thrown through a dimensional rift on his own, only to awaken and met a female Lombax.

Opening Night Live’s Geoff Keighley spoke to Insomniac following the game. Marcus Smith from Insomniac spoke to the PS5’s both raw horsepower and SSD allowing the developers to fling the characters from one level to the next with speeds previously not possible.

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Game Director Mike Daly spoke to the rifts players will be able to find. Players can use Ratchet’s rift tether to hook onto these rifts and use them for both traversal and combat needs.

Insomniac confirms there will be no loads throughout the game, and also spoke more to Rift Apart’s use of the DualSense. Specifically, the team intends to use the haptics in the controller for Ratchet’s arsenal. Players can feel the energy on the pulse bomb weapon fade away as Ratchet throws it.

Canonically, Rift Apart is an extension of Ratchet and Clank: Into the Nexus, but Marcus Smith said newcomers can jump in for a “standalone adventure” and not feel lost.

Sony first unveiled Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart during June’s PS5 showcase, revealing how the upcoming adventure takes advantage of the PS5’s unique SSD. It’s one of two PS5 exclusives on the way from recently acquired first-party studio Insomniac Games, the other being the PS5 launch exclusive Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales.

We don’t know much else about the upcoming next entry in the series just yet, but following its reveal, Insomniac did confirm that the mysterious new Lombax character will be playable.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has finally been announced, and Activision is wasting no time in ramping up the promotion for the upcoming game. The company has announced that it will be giving out goodies to fans who check out the Call of Duty League Championship this weekend, including Black Ops Cold War beta codes.

According to the announcement, you can earn rewards like in-game Calling Cards featuring the four championship teams starting on Saturday, August 29. Those include the teams from Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, and London. Then on Sunday, August 30 you can also earn a free Knife blueprint emblazoned with the CoD League. But the big prize is reserved for Sunday: 10,000 beta codes for Black Ops Cold War.

The beta codes will be distributed randomly, so unlike some of the other rewards you aren’t guaranteed to get a spot. But it’s a better chance than if you don’t watch it. To participate, make sure you link your account so you’re eligible for the in-game rewards. You can watch the competition at CallofDutyLeague.com.

If you want a guaranteed spot in the beta, on the other hand, you can just pre-order a digital copy of the game. And if you want to play it first, make sure you get the PS4 version, because it’s coming there at least five days before other platforms. The company has not announced when the beta will go live on any platforms. For more details, check out everything we know about Black Ops Cold War.

The fantastical third-person battle royale Spellbreak now has a release date. Confirmed during the Gamescom Opening Night Live presentation, the game is coming on September 3 and will be free to play.

Spellbreak is an RPG-like battle royale that has you controlling one of six different classes of battlemages as you fight to come out on top. You can watch the launch trailer below. For more our thoughts on how the game plays, read our Spellbreak preview.

Spellbreak is coming to PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. But if you’re playing on PC, the game is only available on the Epic Games Store.

League of Legends virtual K-pop group K/DA has just released their newest song, The Baddest.

K/DA is comprised of League of Legends characters Ahri, Evelynn, Akali, and Kai’Sa. Soyeon and Miyeon of (G)I-dle return to voice Akali and Ahri, respectively, while Bea Miller and Wolftyla lend their voices to Evelynn and Kai’Sa. You can watch the full music video below.

Call it a flex. K/DA “THE BADDEST” ft. @G_I_DLE, @beamiller, and @wolftyla.

YouTube: https://t.co/fw75CgZg7W
Apple Music:https://t.co/s8QhgdTUgC
Spotify: https://t.co/Ldgxq1FAtG#KDA #THEBADDEST #AHRI #EVELYNN #KAISA #AKALI #THEBADDEST pic.twitter.com/WVyGrISIGU

— K/DA (@KDA_MUSIC) August 27, 2020

K/DA made their augmented reality debut at 2018’s League of Legends World Championship with the song Pop/Stars. In that song, which has over 365 million views on YouTube, American artists Madison Beer and Jaira Burns voiced Evelynn and Kai’Sa, respectively.

The Baddest is a pre-release single, as K/DA will “return this year with a long-awaited EP – coming soon.”

The YouTube video of The Baddest features the lyrics to the song, and you can learn more about the people behind the virtual group known as K/DA.

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“Artists featured in THE BADDEST and the rest of the songs on the upcoming EP will be collaborators, allowing K/DA to welcome a much larger roster of amazingly talented musicians to join them in their comeback,” Riot Games stated in a press release. “More details on the feature artist roster will be revealed on K/DA’s social media accounts in the near future.”

This would make it sound like these different artists may be voicing the members of K/DA, especially around the world. Additionally, the four members are wearing different outfits, but it is yet unknown if they will make their way to League of Legends.

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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.

Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart was a showpiece game for the PlayStation 5 debut, with a dimension-hopping mechanic that accents how the SSD can be used to impact the game experience. We got a new look at the upcoming game during Gamescom Opening Night Live.

The gameplay demo was an extended version of the one featured during the PS5 reveal event earlier this year. Early on in the footage, Ratchet inadvertently shoots Dr. Nefarious’s Dimensionator, causing dimensional rifts to appear everywhere. We then see Ratchet using his new Rift Tether to grapple glowing yellow rifts and pull himself into them, reaching new platforms. You can watch the trailer below.

Following the demo, Gamescom ONL host Geoff Keighley spoke with Insomniac’s Mike Daly and Marcus Smith, who shed a bit more light on the upcoming game. According to Insomniac, the PS5’s horsepower allows the team to fill the game world with density and life. Players also won’t experience any load screens at all during the game.

In terms of story, Insomniac says Rift Apart is an “extension” of Ratchet & Clank: Into the Nexus, although the game also serves as a standalone adventure, so you don’t need to have played any previous entries to enjoy it. That said, Insomniac teases that there will be returning characters and other nods to previous games that longtime fans will appreciate.

Just like the debut trailer, the Rift Apart gameplay demo ended with another look at a mysterious new female lombax. Insomniac didn’t share any further details about her, but the studio reconfirmed that she’ll be playable in the game. Rift Apart has also been used as an example of how developers are using the unique qualities of the PS5 DualSense controller. One weapon, the Enforcer, will deliver a bigger blast if you push past the resistance from the adaptive triggers.

Ratchet & Clank does not have a release date, but Insomniac confirmed that the game will arrive within PS5’s launch window. Sony hasn’t revealed a release date or price for the system, but that should be coming sometime soon. The company recently opened pre-registration for the next-gen console.

While Destiny 2‘s Beyond Light expansion is going to shake up the game world–a bunch of removing some planetary destinations are being removed as new ones cycle in–arguably the biggest change is the new Stasis ability, which is going to make big alterations to the way you actually play the game. We got another big look at the Stasis powers and their related Supers during Gamescom’s Opening Night Live show, which give a sense of how you’ll freeze and shatter enemies.

The new trailer shown at Gamescom gave us a little more detail about the three new subclasses Stasis will bring to the game, and a look at some of the stuff you can do with them. Bungie added slightly more detail to its website as well. The powers you’ll wield include Stasis Field, Freeze, and Shatter, and it seems like each subclass will have some or all of those abilities. For Warlocks, there’s the Shadebinder, which we saw firing bolts of ice at enemies to deal damage, in line with the Shatter power. Hunters get the Revenant class, which seems geared toward Stasis Fields that slow enemies. Finally, there’s the Behemoth for Titans, which seems to be all about the Freeze ability, sending ice ripping through the ground to solidify enemies and then using Titans’ big melee hits to crush their icy forms. We also got the sense that you’ll use Stasis crystals to instantly create defensive structures like walls, which can help you close the gap on enemies to deal punishing blows.

The Stasis abilities are a big wrinkle in Beyond Light, and not just because they give you new options for killing your various foes around the solar system in exceedingly cool ways. Stasis is the power of the Darkness, the nebulous big bad enemies that Destiny Guardians have been worrying about since the original game’s first day. In the current season of Destiny 2, the Darkness has finally arrived, but it’s not attacking–it’s handing out gifts. Stasis seems to be one of those gifts, and its appearance should have a big impact on the story.

There are still a whole lot of Beyond Light details that Bungie is still holding back. According to the developer’s website, more info for each class is on its way: the Warlock Shadebinder class info will show up on September 1, the Titan Behemoth info is set for September 3, and details on the Hunter Revenant get released on September 8. There’s likely to be even more deep dives on Beyond Light over the next month ahead of the expansion’s release on November 10.