Author: Trafficblast

Cyberpunk 2077: CD Projekt Red Says There’s No Beta Following Email Scam Attempts

CD Projekt Red has made clear that it has no plans for a Cyberpunk 2077 beta, after scam emails appeared to offer recipients the chance to join one.

On Twitter, the Cyberpunk 2077 account made clear that recent emails promising beta access were not legitimate. The developer also made clear that any official communication to fans or content creators would come from a CDProjektRed.com address, never from a third-party.

It’s not clear what the scammers were hoping to gain from unuspecting Cyberpunk fans, but it seems likely that it would have asked for login details for gaming accounts. It goes without saying that you should be vigilant for anyone trying the same in your email inbox.

When asked if there were official plans for a Cyberpunk 2077 beta, the account replied: “We do not have plans for that. Sorry!”

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We shouldn’t have to wait too long for more Cyberpunk information, even if we aren’t getting a hands-on for ourselves – at the end of June, it was said that we’d be getting a second episode of Night City Wire (the game’s digital news broadcast) in “just a few weeks”.

Some of our number were lucky enough to play 4 hours of Cyberpunk 2077, and we offered rundowns of both what the prologue holds for us, and what secrets the open world of Night City holds in its darker corners.

Cyberpunk 2077 will be released for Xbox One, PS4 and PC on November 19 (following a delay), and will get a “robust” next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X in 2021.

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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].

Pixar Releases Early Details On New Film Luca

Pixar has released new details about its next original movie, Luca, which is scheduled to hit theaters on June 18, 2021. The movie’s director, Enrico Casarosa (Incredibles 2, Up) issued a joint statement through Disney about the film after word leaked online that the company filed a trademark application for the title.

“This is a deeply personal story for me, not only because it’s set on the Italian Riviera where I grew up, but because at the core of this film is a celebration of friendship. Childhood friendships often set the course of who we want to become and it is those bonds that are at the heart of our story in Luca,” Casarosa said in the statement. “So in addition to the beauty and charm of the Italian seaside, our film will feature an unforgettable summer adventure that will fundamentally change Luca.”

Further details about Luca, aside from the fact that it’s being produced by Andrea Warren, are still scarce.

Earlier this year, Pixar released Onward, the studio’s 22nd film. Another Pixar movie, Soul, co-written by Tina Fey, Kemp Powers, Mike Jones, and Pete Docter, was due out earlier this year in June but was postponed to November 20 because of theater closures caused by the coronavirus pandemic.

For more, check out GameSpot’s guide to the biggest upcoming movies of 2020 and beyond.

Now Playing: Disney Pixar’s Onward – Official Trailer

Funny Creek: Exclusive Preview of New ComiXology Originals Series

While Scott Snyder and Rafael Albuquerque are preparing to wrap up their long-running American Vampire series, that’s not the only new project Albuquerque has in store this year. IGN can exclusively debut Albuquerque’s newest project, a ComiXology Originals series called Funny Creek.

Albuquerque is co-writing the five-issue limited series with Rafael Scavone (Hit-Girl in Rome), while Eduardo Medeiros (Gotham Academy) is drawing the book. The creative team also includes colorist Priscilla Tramontano, letterer Bernardo Brice and editor Bis Stringer Horne.

Funny Creek is set in 1985 and revolves around two friends named Lilly and Andy, who bond over a shared love of the titular Wild West-themed TV show. Following a terrible tragedy, Lilly becomes trapped within the world of Funny Creek and is forced to battle a villain named Cold Joe. The series aims to explore the loss of childhood innocence and the way in which society has grown increasingly accepting of violence.

Check out an exclusive preview of Funny Creek #1 in the slideshow gallery below:

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“Funny Creek is a very dear project that we’ve been planning for years with Eduardo Medeiros, our longtime friend and partner in the Stout Club,” said Albuquerque and Scavone in a statement. “In many ways, it’s a story about friendship. It’s also a story about growing up in a culture that idolizes violence, a place we all have been as children. It’s a very special project for the three of us, a story we believe needs to be told. So, it’s a pleasure to have it as our debut title on comiXology and Kindle across the globe.”

“We’ve wanted to collaborate in a new project for a long time and finally decided on a book aimed for young readers, which is not our comfort zone at all,” continued Albuquerque. “While brainstorming ideas, heavy subjects kept coming to our minds, and we decided that we should not avoid, but embrace them—figuring out how an 8-year old kid would deal with things like loss, guilt and grief. That was the path where we found something unique and interesting for both young and mature audiences.”

Funny Creek #1 will debut on ComiXology and Amazon on Tuesday, August 4, with new issues premiering weekly. The series will be offered in both English and Portuguese. Funny Creek is free to read for subscribers of ComiXology Unlimited, Kindle Unlimited and Amazon Prime and will also be available for purchase.

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Check out IGN’s review of ComiXology Unlimited if you’re wondering whether it’s worth subscribing to the service. And after that, find out the 25 best comics worth binging on the service.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Disney Pixar Announces New Animated Film Luca

Disney and Pixar have announced a new original animated film called “Luca,” which will open in theaters next summer.

As the official Twitter announcement reveals, the film will tell the story of “a boy named Luca as he experiences an unforgettable summer in a seaside town on the Italian Riviera.” Variety reports that Luca is set to leap into theaters on June 18, 2021.

The coming-of-age film is set to be directed by Enrico Casarosa, who previously directed the 2011 Pixar short La Luna about a young boy who helps his father and grandfather harvest stars from the moon. Andrea Warren will serve as a producer on the upcoming feature-length film, which will celebrate the bond that is formed between Luca and his newfound best friend one summer, until their adventures are threatened by Luca’s dark secret: he is a sea monster from another world below the water’s surface.

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“This is a deeply personal story for me, not only because it’s set on the Italian Riviera where I grew up, but because at the core of this film is a celebration of friendship. Childhood friendships often set the course of who we want to become and it is those bonds that are at the heart of our story in Luca,” Casarosa said in a statement. “So in addition to the beauty and charm of the Italian seaside, our film will feature an unforgettable summer adventure that will fundamentally change Luca.”

Luca joins a long line-up of animated movies currently in the works at Disney. Pixar’s Soul was originally scheduled to hit theatres this summer, but it was pushed back from its original June 19, 2020 date to November 20, 2020 following the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak. This shift in the theatrical release schedule prompted Disney to postpone the release of Raya and the Last Dragon from November 25, 2020 to March 12, 2021.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Let Its Stars Pretend They Were Superman

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater made its PlayStation debut more than 20 years ago, and for skateboarding legends such as Rodney Mullen and Chad Muska, they can still recall just how influential the Neversoft game series was on their careers at the time.

“They had to put me on top of a van because it was so intense,” Rodney Mullen said to The Verge about the fan response that he received after appearing in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. “It was a sea of people — around me. And although I had a strong name from all of those years prior, this was unlike anything I had ever seen. That was my first taste of it, and it just went on. I could not believe the exposure the game gave to me.”

Mullen wasn’t the only skateboarder whose profile received a massive boost after appearing in one of the first two games, as icons of the era such as Chad Muska and Bucky Lasek also commented on how their lives changed after the original game became a pop culture phenomenon.

“I just remember initially it sounding surreal to me, especially then, that skateboarding was going to be in a video game that would be available on consoles across the world,” said Muska.

“I can’t say I imagined it blowing up as big as it did,” Lasek added. “But I could definitely see that we were on to something. Overnight, it was a household name. I was a household name. And everybody else in that game became household names because of that.”

Mullen, Muska and Lasek will be just some of the skateboarding superstars who’ll be shredding up a storm when Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 launches on September 4 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Not just a faithful remaster of the original two games, Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 includes its original soundtracks, which is further enhanced by 37 new songs that feature rap, punk rock and ska heavyweights.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater wasn’t Mullen’s only starring role in a video game, as he also appeared in Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon: Breakpoint as tech entrepreneur Jace Skell.

If you feel like popping a 1080 Nostalgia heelflip, you can listen to these tracks on Spotify right now.

Now Playing: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 – Official Reveal Trailer

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The Epic Games Store Introduces Its First Achievements

Slowly but surely, the Epic Games Store is attaining feature parity with its direct competitors. Achievement support is on the way next, and an early form of the feature has already been implemented in one game.

There is now a notification and pop-out menu that appears when you unlock achievements in Ark: Survival Evolved. Epic says this is an early version of the feature that will change and evolve over time before eventually making its way into other games. For now, achievements will be tracked in the background while Epic fine-tunes the interface.

The fledgeling storefront has introduced a number of new features this year, such as wishlists, download throttling, self-service refunds, and support for more currencies. Mod support, gifting, and additional social features top the list of upcoming additions.

Back in June, Epic announced that the store had hit a peak of 61 million monthly users. This followed a promotion where several major games were given to users for free, including Grand Theft Auto V, Civilization VI, and Borderlands: The Handsome Collection. Of course, the Epic Games Store is also the only way to play the immensely popular Fortnite on PC, which saw over 12 million concurrent logins across all devices for its “The Device” event. The store is continuing to give away free games every week, too.

Now Playing: Top New Video Games Out On Switch, PS4, Xbox One, And PC This Week — July 26 – August 1, 2020

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Steam Adds Another Restriction To Prevent The Use Of VPNs For Cheaper Games

Steam has put another restriction in place to prevent users from continuing to take advantage of the platform’s regional pricing system. Typically, games are cheaper in countries with lower incomes, leading to some users utilising VPNs in order to hide their actual location and purchase games at a significant discount.

Steam already has multiple restrictions in place to stop this exploit, but now the company has introduced another process with the aim of further deterring those looking to cheat the system. As SteamDB notes, you now need to complete a purchase with a payment method from the country you claim to be located in before Steam will approve a change to your store region. So if you want to purchase a game from Malaysia, for example, you’ll first need a Malaysian credit card.

“If you have moved to a new country, or are living abroad for an extended period of time, you can update your Steam country setting when you complete your first purchase using a payment method from that country,” Steam’s updated policy explains. “If your location differs from your current Steam account store country setting you’ll have an option to change your store region while you view your cart or as you complete your purchase.”

Earlier this month, Horizon Zero Dawn‘s Steam price saw a sudden increase in regions outside of the US. While neither Valve nor Sony has commented on the reasons behind the spike, many have speculated that a number of Steam users took advantage of VPNs to purchase the upcoming game in other regions at a lower price point, negatively impacting the people who legitimately live in those countries.

Now Playing: Horizon: Zero Dawn Video Review

Samurai Shodown Is Getting A New Free DLC Character From A Chinese Mobile Game

Samurai Shodown is getting a new character on August 5, and they’ll be completely free. The new fighter is Gongsun Li, a character from the Tencent game Honor of Kings, and they look pretty powerful.

If you’ve never heard of Honor of Kings, there’s a good reason for that–the game has never been released outside of China, where it’s massively popular. It’s an interesting choice for a free character, and Gongsun Li will be available worldwide.

It’s not quite Banjo-Kazooie in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, but hey, it’s free–and she looks like a great character in the video below, with a varied, interesting moveset.

You’ll be able to fight as Gongsun Li in the Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC versions of the game. It seems like she’ll be available for free indefinitely, too.

The last crossover character to join the game was For Honor‘s Warden–but you had to pay $6 to get the character, or buy Season Pass 2.

Following the success of the Samurai Shodown reboot, the game’s director would like to reboot more SNK franchises.

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Ghostwire: Tokyo Director Talks About The New PS5 Features

One of Bethesda’s upcoming games is the PlayStation 5 game Ghostwire: Tokyo from developer Tango Gameworks. Game director Kenji Kimura recently spoke about some of the game’s PlayStation 5-exclusive features such as its use of the DualSense controller, 3D audio, and more.

Kimura told IGN that it’s difficult to explain why Ghostwire’s use of the DualSense controller is so special without giving people the opportunity to try it for themselves. Kimura hopes that might be possible before launch, but the best he can do that is tell you why it’s going to be great.

“You need to experience it directly because this is very difficult to explain both verbally and in text, but the DualSense haptics and adaptive triggers felt so good that it made us, the developers, say, ‘Woah!’ because they allowed for us to feel and experience the various actions and attacks like never before,” Kimura said.

Regarding Ghostwire’s use of 3D audio, Kimura said sound is a very important element of setting the mood and the scene, and 3D audio helps with this.

“To feel like you’re actually there, to feel the objects and beings that are actually there, sound is extremely important,” Kimura said. “You’ll be able to feel like you are there and ‘feel’ the things that are there with 3D audio.”

Kimura went on to say that the overall power of the PS5 has allowed the studio to make a more realistic-looking Tokyo.

“There was some risk that making a unique, original version of Tokyo may make the city feel weird–or just strange–but with the power of the PlayStation 5, we were able to create our vision: an original version of Tokyo that you can realistically feel and be immersed in,” Kimura said.

Ghostwire is action-adventure game taking place in Tokyo that incorporates horror elements, but won’t be a survival horror game like Tango’s previous game, The Evil Within. In the reveal trailer, citizens disappear as a spooky atmosphere envelops the city before supernatural entities start to surface. From what we gathered, you’ll be investigating the nature of the disappearances and come in contact with many spirits, some peaceful and some dangerous. You can watch the latest trailer above.

Now Playing: GhostWire: Tokyo Gameplay Trailer | Sony PS5 Reveal Event

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The 2020 Emmy Awards Will Be A Virtual Ceremony, And Here’s What They’re Planning

The 2020 Emmy nominees have been announced, with Watchmen emerging as the frontrunner and Netflix chalking up the most nominations, but 2020 is not an ordinary year, and the ceremony will not be ordinary either. With much of the US still in lockdown amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 Emmy ceremony will be a digital event, with no big gathering.

Variety has gotten hold of a letter sent out to the acting nominees, and it details how the digital ceremony will happen this year. The letter, which is co-signed by host Jimmy Kimmel and several producers, outlines what is expected from nominees on the night, and how they’ll be working to ensure that the September 20 ceremony is still worthwhile.

“As you’ve probably guessed, we’re not going to be asking you to come to the Microsoft Theatre in downtown LA,” the letter reads. “This year, it’s still going to be TV industry’s biggest night out… but we’ll come to you!”

The producers behind this year’s ceremony are “assembling a top notch team of technicians, producers, and writers” to ensure that nominees can be filmed accepting their awards, and that they look the part. “We’re going to make you look fabulous–we’re exploring the cutting edge of technology to allow to use good cameras and lighting and look forward to working with you to produce your unique ‘on screen’ moments,” he says.

There will be no enforced dress theme for this ceremony, so expect at least one winner in sweatpants. “If you want to be in formal wear, we’d love that, but equally if you’re in the UK and it’s 3 AM, perhaps you want to be in designer pajamas and record from your bed,” the letter reads.

Back in February, the Oscars were held live, and Bong Joon-ho’s Parasite made history–and helped make the ceremony one of the best ever–by winning big. We might not get another ceremony like that for a while, so let’s take a moment to rewatch Joon-ho’s extraordinarily moving acceptance speech when he won Best Director.