Author: Trafficblast

IGN’s Staff Reviews Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

A whole bunch of IGN’s staff has now seen Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker – some of us more than once – and boy, do we have opinions! In addition to the official IGN review posted a couple of days ago, below you’ll find reactions from 15 of our editors, producers, and hosts, all of which are kept as spoiler-free as possible (though things that’ve been revealed in trailers are discussed). We’ve even included each individual’s rating for Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: The Last Jedi to give you a complete picture of where everybody’s coming from. On that note, we’re trying something a little new with these unofficial staff ratings – while we’re using the IGN review scale, we’re using the word that corresponds to the number rather than the number itself.

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Holiday Deals: 40% Off Game of Thrones, Starbucks Gift Card with Free Amazon Credit

There are only 6 days left until Christmas. There are still plenty of great deals available, but if you want your delivery to arrive by Christmas your window is getting very small. Today’s spotlight deal is an outstanding price on the gorgeous Game of Thrones Collector’s Edition Blu-ray Box Set and a sweet deal on a digital Starbucks Gift Card, both of which will arrive well before Christmas.

Huge Price Drop on Game of Thrones: The Complete Seasons 1-8 Collectors Edition Blu-ray, Now 40% Off

gameofthronesAmazon just dropped the price of this amazing box set by another $50 to $197.99. It’s currently $330 at the Warner Bros official store, so you’re now saving 40% off. This set was released earlier in December and is ready to ship out immediately. The collector’s edition is packaged in a wooden shadow box case with gorgeous multi-layered panel designs. Each season is represented by a different layer, showcasing iconic characters and memorable moments from the show, all clambering toward the Iron Throne. The set also contains a “Hand of the King” pin clasp, which holds all nine custom plated disc sleeves, as well as 15 hours of bonus content and never-before-seen footage.

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Creative Freedom With Microsoft Is “Not As Hard As People Think,” Says We Happy Few Devs

Compulsion Games isn’t worried about losing creative freedom under Microsoft’s banner as part of Xbox Game Studios. The development team behind We Happy Few actually asserts that the Microsoft acquisition has afforded them the chance to more easily focus on the studio’s future.

“That’s actually removed a lot of the focus from finding where we’re going to find the next paycheck to actually concentrating on what is it that we need to make great games,” founder and creative director Guillaume Provost said in The Cost of Joy, a documentary recounting the history of Compulsion Games. “I can be more forward-looking to what we actually need in order to actually succeed. And [there’s] a huge difference from having a big backer like Microsoft that’s allowing us our creative space and our creative freedom, from being an independent developer that’s starving all the time and looking for money. Build the team not just for the next game, but for the next series of games.”

“Trying to maintain creativity inside an organization like Microsoft is not as hard as people think it is,” producer Sam Abbott said. “It’s really just about having a leadership group inside Microsoft that understands the value of creativity and creative games.” Community developer Naila Hadjas added, “We have been told to keep making really weird, just different things. So, on the creative standpoint, it’s just been all positive.”

Microsoft’s decision to acquire Compulsion Games as a first-party studio was one the We Happy Few developers did not anticipate. “I don’t think that ever crossed our mind,” Abbot said. “We’re spending a lot of time figuring out, do we think that we can raise the standards of quality of the games we’re building–can we become a real first-party studio?” Hadjas thinks they are up to the task, citing the team’s history with Gearbox as an example of Compulsion Games efficiently working with a larger studio. “Working with Gearbox prepared us to work with Microsoft in a lot of ways because we let them into our world and we learned to be very concise and precise with our feedback back and forth,” she said.

With the recent release of the We All Fall Down expansion, Compulsion Games has officially wrapped up We Happy Few. The game launched to mixed reviews–including ours here on GameSpot, where Alessandro Barbosa wrote, “[We Happy Few’s] entire gameplay loop is underpinned by boring quests and long stretches of inaction. And even when it forces you to interact with its world beyond just walking to waypoints, combat, stealth, and otherwise fascinating societies fail to impose the right balance of challenge and tension.”

Despite the rough start, Compulsion Games’ continued support for We Happy Few is commendable, and the bug fixes, updates, and DLC expansions have created a much better, more cohesive experience overall. With the game now complete, Compulsion Games is probably hard at work on an upcoming Xbox first-party title–which, based on the timing, is likely to release for Microsoft’s next-gen console, Xbox Series X, which is scheduled to launch during the holiday season in 2020.

Now Playing: We Happy Few – First 14 Minutes Gameplay

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Jackass Will Return to the Big Screen in 2021

Paramount has announced a fourth Jackass movie will arrive in cinemas on March 5, 2021, according to Deadline.

A controversial but influential icon of early 2000s reality TV, Jackass was created by Johnny Knoxville, Spike Jonze, and Jeff Tremaine. Jackass began life as an MTV series which ran from 2000 to 2002 before migrating to the big screen for 2002’s Jackass: The Movie. It was followed by two sequels, Jackass Number Two (2006) and Jackass 3D (2010), as well as some direct-to-DVD specials pieced together from unused movie footage and the 2013 Oscar-nominated spin-off Jackass Presents: Bad Grandpa.

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Our Xbox Game of the Decade Picks

On our final episode of the year and of the decade we look back on our favorite Xbox games of the decade, including both first-party exclusives and memorable third-party offerings. Plus: a recap of the rest of the non-Xbox Series X elements of last week’s Game Awards and more!

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, or grab an MP3 download of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered from our new barcade set, featuring an interview with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order director Stig Asmussen. It’s an open bar; come and join us!

We’re taking some time off from Unlocked for the holidays, but we’ll be back with new episodes in 2020 starting on Tuesday, January 7!

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Hold Off on the Large Soda. Here’s How Long Rise of Skywalker Is

Like the many Star Wars movies before it, The Rise of Skywalker has a lengthy runtime. It’s not as lengthy as the three-hour-long Avengers: Endgame or The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, but you still might want to hold off on the extra-large drink if you plan on sitting through the entire movie without any interruptions.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is filled with plenty of action, plot twists, and moments you don’t want to miss. It’s the kind of movie where you could potentially miss out on something important if you leave the theater for even a few minutes, so make sure to head to the bathroom before you sit down to watch it.

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Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker – Who Were All Those Jedi Voices?

Note: This story includes spoilers for the end of Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. Read on at your own risk!

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker finally brings the nine-movie Skywalker Saga to a conclusion, finishing the story of the Jedi Order’s war with the dark Sith. It’s a conflict that has ravaged the galaxy through wars between the Separatists and the Galactic Republic in the prequel movies, the Rebellion and the Galactic Empire in the original trilogy, and the Resistance and the First Order in the sequel trilogy. Though both the Jedi and the Sith have nearly been destroyed, as we saw in The Last Jedi, there are still two warriors for each faction battling for the fate of the galaxy far, far away in The Rise of Skywalker: Rey on the light side, and Kylo Ren on the dark.

During the final conflict of the film, Rey, as the last Jedi, finds herself facing down the might of the Sith once and for all. And though it looks like she’s not up to the task, at the last second, she’s infused with the power of all the Jedi who have come before her. In a poignant moment, the voices of the Jedi of the past ring out in Rey’s mind, granting her the strength and confidence to stand for the Light side.

If you listen close, you might recognize a few of those voices–and there might be plenty you don’t recognize, especially because they come pretty quickly. So who are all the Jedi of the past standing with Rey? Check out the complete list below.

And if you’re looking for more references and callbacks to past Star Wars material, check out our giant list of Rise of Skywalker Easter eggs.

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker Ending Explained

At long last, the Skywalker Saga has reached its conclusion–for now, at least. Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in theaters and fans are getting the opportunity to see how director JJ Abrams wrapped up a long-running story that was first started by George Lucas 42 years ago. In GameSpot’s review of The Rise of Skywalker, Michael Rougeau wrote of the movie, “It should never be so clear to audiences that something in the filmmaking process has gone so terribly wrong–that the people who made the first film in a trilogy apparently didn’t bother to sketch out a plan for the second and third, and that the movies’ directors had visions for the series’ future that were so fundamentally at odds.”

But how does it end? With so much at stake–and so many characters to wrap up–The Rise of Skywalker had a lot of ground to cover. Warning: The following contains major spoilers for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. If you haven’t seen the movie and don’t want any twists, turns, or surprises spoiled for you, do the smart thing and look away now. This is not the story you’re looking for.

If you want to know how each major character in the film ended their individual stories in The Rise of Skywalker, we have you covered. As for the ending of the film itself, there’s quite a bit to unpack. The broad strokes are that the First Order and the Sith were ultimately defeated by Rey, who was revealed to be the granddaughter of Emperor Palpatine.

In a final showdown in the Sith temple on the planet Exegol, Rey used both Luke’s lightsaber (his first, which originally belonged to Anakin), as well as Leia’s–because it was revealed she also trained to be a Jedi–to deflect Palpatine’s Force lightning, shooting it right back at him. In destroying him, though, she sacrificed her own life energy and died.

That didn’t last for long, naturally. After shedding his Kylo Ren moniker and the dark side of the Force, Ben Solo came to her aid and used their connection through the Force–which this movie decided is called a “Force dyad”–to give his life energy to her. She woke up long enough to kiss him, before he keeled over and died.

Thus ended the battle of the Jedi and the Sith until the next time a movie about Jedi fighting Sith is released. The Rise of Skywalker didn’t end there, though. Following the death of Palpatine and the destruction of the Sith temple, Poe Dameron commanded the resistance and its allies in eliminating the armada of star destroyers the Emperor had created, bringing an end to the First Order once and for all.

After the Battle of Exegol, the resistance celebrated in their forest camp, as everyone realized they’d somehow actually won the war. This is the last time we see most of the franchise’s major characters. It’s Rey alone who figures into the final scene of the film.

Some time after the battle and celebration, she found herself at the moisture farm Luke Skywalker grew up at on Tatooine. There, in the sand, she buried the lightsabers of Luke and Leia–her mentors–putting their spirits to rest. She also revealed a lightsaber of her own, powered by a yellow Kyber crystal. It’s clear that Rey is not giving up on the way of the Jedi.

At that point, a woman passed by, asking who she was. Rey offered a simple response as the final two words of the Skywalker Saga. “Rey Skywalker,” she told the stranger.

With that moment, Skywalker has officially risen. While Rey’s bloodline may have a strong connection to the dark side of the Force, she chooses to align herself with those who taught her about the Force in the first place–the Skywalker twins.

Now that you’ve been able to watch Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, don’t forget to check out our massive compilation of Easter eggs from the film, as well as a look at the latest episode of The Mandalorian–the live-action Star Wars TV show on Disney+.

Now Playing: Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker – Official Final Trailer

Nintendo 2019 Year in Review – NVC 488

Welcome to Nintendo Voice Chat! First, in the news, the panel talks about Nintendo’s announcements at The Game Awards, including Bravely Default 2, more Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 DLC details, and a new trailer for No More Heroes 3. Then, as 2019 comes to a close, the NVC crew is here to recap the year. Join them as they discuss the biggest releases, announcements, delays, and surprises from Nintendo’s last twelve months. Finally, they answer your 2019-related listener questions on Question Block.

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