Author: Trafficblast

Masahiro Sakurai, the director of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, agrees with fans that there are too many Fire Emblem and sword-based characters in the game.

As posted by Ryokutya2089, a column in Japanese magazine Famitsu saw Sakurai discuss the current situation with Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s character roster. “I know it as well. There are too many Fire Emblem characters,” he said. “And too many swordsmen. But when something’s decided, I move ahead with it.”

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He also explained that the choice is out of his hands when it comes to new characters. “New fighters aren’t decided by my preference, but are put forward by Nintendo,” he said.

While Sakurai recognises the large number of sword fighters in Ultimate, he hopes they all offer something individual. “Because there are too many swordsmen, we designed tactics only for that fighter.” he said, explaining that incorporating the heritage of fighters through three weapon choices is an example of this.

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At the end of January Nintendo announced that Fire Emblem: Three Houses protagonist Byleth was being added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the character was met with a less-than-happy response from the fan base. While the fighter is an easy pick-up-and-play character worth checking out, it’s easy to see why Sakurai has felt it important to discuss the situation with fans in his Famitsu column.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Pokemon Sword and Shield players will soon have their first chance to catch a brand-new Gigantamax Pokemon. The Pokemon Company has officially revealed Gigantamax Toxtricity, which is making its debut in the titles later this week.

Starting February 6, you’ll have a chance to encounter Gigantamax Toxtricity in Max Raid Battles in both Sword and Shield versions. Toxtricity will be in its Amped Form in Sword, while Shield players will encounter its Low Key Form. You’ll be able to find Gigantamax Toxtricity in Max Raids until March 8.

In the meantime, a few other Max Raid events are underway in Sword and Shield. Until February 6, Sword players have a greater chance of encountering Gigantamax Coalossal and Flapple in Max Raids, while Shield players are more likely to find Gigantamax Lapras and Appletun.

Milcery with the Gigantamax factor is also appearing in Max Raids until February 16. When you defeat or capture one, you can earn two new kinds of Sweets, which can be used to evolve it into new flavors of Alcremie.

On top of that, The Pokemon Company is also offering another pair of freebies for Sword and Shield. First, you can claim 10 Heal Balls via the Mystery Gift code G1GAGRANF1NALE. To commemorate the start of the games’ third Ranked Battle season, the company is also giving away another 20 free Battle Points via the code SUPEREFF1CACE. You can see all the other free Pokemon Sword and Shield gifts available right now in our roundup.

This month is shaping up to be a big one for Pokemon. The Pokemon Company will pull back the curtain on a new Mythical Pokemon for Sword and Shield on Pokemon Day, February 27. This month will also see the launch of Pokemon Home, a new cloud service that allows players to store and move their Pokemon between games. The service will be available in free and paid tiers.

Persona 5 Scramble: The Phantom Strikers is launching very soon in Japan, and its impending release means you can try out a demo of the Musou-style spin-off. That is, if you’re willing and able to jump through a few extra hoops to rouse your Phantom army.

The demo is only available on the Japanese eshop, which means that to access it you’ll need to have a Japanese account. The Nintendo Switch isn’t region-locked, so it’s simple enough to set up a Japanese account on your own Switch. You’ll just need an email that’s distinct from the one linked to your standard US account. With that account in tow, just navigate your way into the eshop and look for the Persona 5 Scramble imagery.

Keep in mind that this isn’t a standard Persona game. Instead, it’s an action game akin to the Dynasty Warriors franchise. Atlus partnered with Koei Tecmo and Omega Force for development, making it a unique mash-up. The trailers we’ve seen have shown sprawling battles like Dynasty Warriors, but in the visual style of the Persona series.

No western release date has been announced for Persona 5 Scramble. If you’re itching for more Persona, though, Persona 5 Royal is coming on March 31. Check out our P5R pre-order guide for more details.

Epic Games is inviting you and your favorite Fortnite squad mate into its latest limited-time event, celebrating teamwork and betrayals with a new match type and cosmetic rewards.

Love and War, which runs until February 17 and is included in today’s update, is highlighted by a new Search and Destroy match type. Two teams of six players will take turns both attacking and defending an area of the map over a maximum of 11 rounds, with the team that reaches six wins taking victory.

Gold is earned between rounds for enemy kills and completed objectives, and used to purchase weapons, shields, and building materials. If you’re ever played Counter-Strike, you’ll know what to expect here.

Playing matches of this new mode will progress specific Love and War challenges, which will unlock new cosmetic items during the duration of the event. These include new a new pickaxe, emotes, and more, along with new purchasable skins from Fortnite’s Item Shop.

Love and War is extending this season of Fortnite after Season 2 was recently pushed back to February 20.

Every time we see the BioShock-ish Atomic Heart, it looks weirder. In a good way! Get your latest look at a montage of strangeness in the new one-minute-long video above from the upcoming first-person shooter being made by developer Mundfish.

If you’re curious exactly what Atomic Heart is, don’t worry: we were too. For more, check out ten minutes of gameplay from just over a year ago and the next-most recent teaser video from September.

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Atomic Heart has no announced release date, but we’re hoping to see it sometime this year.

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

GeForce Now is now live and available for everyone. You can try it for free with limited access to the service, or start a Founders membership to get special perks. For a limited time, Founders get the first 90 days for free, and lock in the special introductory price of $4.99 per month for 12 months. It’s a great deal, but it won’t be around forever. Check it out here.

Try GeForce Now

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What is GeForce Now?

GeForce Now is a lot like Google Stadia, except you don’t have to re-buy all the games you want to play. Basically, it lets you stream the PC games you already own to other devices. That means you can play games like Destiny 2, Cuphead, Fortnite, and many more on an Android phone or an old Mac that wouldn’t be able to run the games on their own. All you need is an internet connection that delivers at least 15 MBbs (though higher is better), and you’re good to go.

The catch is that not every game is supported. Over 400 games are available on the service, but that might not cover every title in your Steam library. Check out our GeForce Now review-in-progress to see our experience with the service.

GeForce Now Compatible Devices

At the moment, compatible devices include PC, Mac, Shield TV, and Android mobile devices. More devices may be added in the future.

GeForce Now Founder Membership Benefits

When it comes to signing up for GeForce Now, you have two options. There’s a free tier, which gets you “standard access” and limits your play time to one-hour sessions. That basically means you might have to wait longer to play a game and you can’t play it as long.

If you start a Founder membership, you’ll get “priority access” to servers (essentially ditching the line in front of the free crowd) and you can play for up to six hours before having to queue up again. There’s no limit to how many sessions you can play in a day.

All in all, GeForce Now seems like a pretty solid game streaming service, and one that will likely improve in the future. It’s particularly great for anyone whose gaming PC is getting up there in age and doesn’t want to shell out the cash for a new one. It’s a cheap way to keep playing your games, and it gives you more options for which devices you can play them on. What’s not to love?

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Chris Reed is IGN’s shopping and commerce editor. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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You probably know who Grammy award-winning singer Billie Eilish is. But do you know who her mom is and, more importantly, did you know that she’s been in a number of video games?

This was brought to light after a tweet from Guild Wars 2 composer Maclaine Diemer went viral that mentioned Billie Eilish’s mom, whose name is Maggie Baird, plays Samara in Mass Effect 2 and 3.

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Samara is the blue-skinned Asari Justicar who you can have as a squadmate and also romance so long as you veer on the paragon side of morality. So that might mean you romanced Billie Eilish’s mom in Mass Effect.

Baird is primarily an actor for film and television, having appeared in the likes of The X-Files, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Bones, and Eragon. She also wrote, co-produced, and made the soundtrack for the 2013 film Life Inside Out.

But Baird has also been a voice actor for games since at least 1999 when she played a role in the hybrid tank/FPS game Battlezone II: Combat Commander. Since then, she’s played Anezka in Vampire: The Masquerade – Redemption, Amni Rhyza in Rogue Squadron, and been a voice in EverQuest II.

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She then went on to give her voice to a Stilwater Resident in Saints Row, and was various characters in Saints Row 2. Other than playing Samara in Mass Effect 2 and Mass Effect 3, she also did additional voices for Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII.

It was recently announced that Billie Eilish will perform the title song for No Time to Die. That makes her the youngest artist in history to write and record a Bond song.

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Chris Priestman is a freelancer who writes news for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Apple products are generally very price drop resistant throughout most of the year, but you can still find deals on specific items with some elbow grease. Better yet, let us do the work for you and we’ll list all the deals we found, right here. Right now, the only deals to be had are a couple of sweet deals on the second-to-latest generation of iPad Pro tablets. These are cheaper than the prices you’ll find at the Apple Store Outlet.

$300 Off Newest Apple MacBook Pro 16″

Discounts on the latest model Apple MacBooks are few and far between, but right now both the i7 and the super powered i9 model are $300 off.These 2019 models feature a gorgeous 16″ Retina Display with True Tone technology, the handy Touch Bar and Touch ID, 9th generation Intel Core i7 and i9 processors, powerful AMD Radeon Pro graphics, 16GB of memory, and 512GB to 1TB of SSD storage.

• Get the Intel Core i7 model on Amazon for $2099
• Get the Intel Core i9 model for $2499

Up to $100 Off the Latest Apple iPad

Both 32GB and 128GB WiFi models of the newest generation Apple iPad are back down to Black Friday pricing. The latest generation iPad boasts a gorgeous 10.2″ Retina display, the powerful A10 processor, support for the Apple Pencil and Smart Keyboard, and up to 10 hours of battery life on a single charge.

• Get the 32GB WiFi model on Amazon for $249
• Get the 128GB WiFi model for $329

$45 Off Apple Watch Series 5

If you want the latest and inarguably the greatest smart watch out there, the new Series 5 has a sweet $45 discount on the 40mm and 44mm GPS only at Amazon. The headline upgrade of the Apple Watch Series 5 is its always-on display, which means you don’t need to tilt your wrist to check the time. It also has a built-in compass and comes in a number of finishes.

• Get the 40mm model on Amazon for $354.99
• Get the 44mm model on Amazon for $384.99

$15 Off Apple AirPods Pro, Now $234.99

The price of the AirPods Pro is back down to what we saw on Black Friday. These are truly wireless AirPods with built-in active noise cancellation and despite that that they actually have longer play time on a single charge than the vanilla AirPods. Other features include three sets of silicone tips for customized fit, a sweat and water resistant outer shell, and a wireless charging case that can provide an additional 24 hours of battery life.

• Get it on Amazon for $234.99

Get a Free Apple iPhone XS When You Switch to AT&T Wireless (No Trade in Required)

Score a free Apple iPhone XS simply by signing up for an eligible AT&T Wireless plan or adding a new line to an existing plan. The best thing is that there is no trade-in required.

• Check this deal out at AT&T Wireless

Get Up to $700 Off an Apple iPhone When You Swap Over to Verizon Wireless With Trade-In

Switch over to a Verizon Unlimited plan and get a $200 Prepaid Mastercard. Trade in an eligible phone and get another $350-$500 depending on your phone. For a limited time, you’ll also get get 1 year of Disney+ subscription for free with an Unlimited plan.

• Check out this deal at Verizon Wireless

Apple Outlet Store – Up to 20% off Fully Warrantied Apple Products

If you insist on buy directly from Apple, you should always turn your attention to the Apple Outlet Store first. The items sold here are either refurbished or previous year models that have been discounted between 10%-20%. They are generally priced lower than what you’d find even at the Apple Education Store. You also get a full 1-year Apple warranty just like buying new, and the item is even eligible for AppleCare extended warranty. The only caveat? Your item will ship in a brown box instead of the pretty retail packaging. Apple’s refurbishing process is very strict and the item you will receive will always be in brand spanking new condition, so you’ve really you’ve got nothing to lose.

• Check out the Apple Store Outlet

More Apple Deals

• Buy $100 Apple App Store & iTunes Gift Card, Get $10 Best Buy Gift Card

Expired Deals

$100 Off the Latest Apple iPad Air

This deal just came in. Save $100 off the latest Apple iPad Air, which was released in 2019. The iPad Air is superior to the iPad 10.2″ in two ways. First, the iPad Air has a slightly larger 10.5″ display that boasts an anti-reflective coating, P3 wide colour reproduction, and True Tone technology, all of which the iPad lacks. Second, the iPad Air comes equipped with the powerful A12 processor (similar to the A12X on the iPad Pro) vs the A10 on the iPad. This is the iPad to go for if you want power but don’t want to pay the iPad Pro price.

• Get it on Amazon for $399.99

Newest Apple AirPods 2 Wireless Earphones for $129

The AirPods have dropped 20% off down to $129, which is the lowest price that we saw on Black Friday. These are truly wireless earphones with no cord connecting the two ear pieces. It also includes a charging case.

• Get it on Amazon for $128.99

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Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out his latest Daily Deals Article, follow him at IGN Deals on Twitter and Facebook, and subscribe to his IGN Deals Newsletter.