Category: Games

A new Fortnite patch is just around the corner, and it’s bringing a new gun to the island with some very special features. The Fortnite Prop-ifier, or “Prop Gun” as it was referred to in a leak, will start to appear in Fortnite from August 10. Here’s what you need to know about the brand-new Prop-ifier.

Fortnite Prop-ifier

The Fortnite Prop-ifier is a new gun used for covert play. While it doesn’t offer players any offensive abilities, when used smartly, it can be a devastating tool for late-game loopers. The Prop-ifier runs on a cooldown and allows its wielder to morph into an inanimate object. You may have seen such gameplay already from when some NPCs would sell prop disguises.

As of today, no NPCs have that feature on offer anymore, so you’ll need to find the Prop-ifier if you want to blend into the landscape as a nondescript mailbox, Slurp Barrel, or more. The Prop-ifier will be sold by any NPCs who are aliens disguised as humans. That means this gun’s location changes with each match because so too do the identities of aliens in disguise.

You can tell when you’ve come upon such an alien because their dialogue will include them doing a poor impersonation of a human, saying things like “hello, fellow human.” They’ll also only offer a Kymera Ray Gun, the Prop-ifier, and a dialogue tree which, when selected, will eventually turn the NPC hostile against you–so don’t choose that option if you plan to buy a gun from the NPC.

It seems the Prop-ifier won’t be found in chests, but if we find evidence to the contrary, we’ll update this guide. If you find yourself using the prop disguise, note that every 30 seconds while you’re hidden, nearby enemies will be pinged and made aware of your close proximity. They won’t see exactly where you are, but they’ll have a vague idea, so watch out and blend in–mailboxes don’t belong inside restaurants, after all.

The Prop-ifier will cost 600 gold bars per purchase, but if you’re completing NPC gold bar quests, opening chests, and smashing sofas and beds, you should make at least that much in every round or two, keeping your balance well above zero. Make sure to use our NPC location guide to keep track of where everyone is across the island these days.

We’ll be sure to cover the full Fortnite 17.31 patch notes as they’re revealed tomorrow. In the meantime, catch up with the Rift Tour replay, or chase the Week 10 Alien Artifacts beginning this Thursday.

Illumination’s upcoming Super Mario Bros. movie is bringing back one of the Mushroom Kingdom’s most obscure characters: Foreman Spike from 1995’s NES and arcade game Wrecking Crew.

First reported by VGC, comedian Sebastian Maniscalco appeared on fellow comedian Bert Kreischer’s podcast (yes, of the shirtless stand-up fame) and claimed he was voicing Mario’s little-known boss in Illumination’s CG film.

“I’m in the movie Super Mario Bros., an animated movie,” Maniscalco said. “I’m playing Spike, their boss.”

Spike first appeared as the foreman of Mario in 1985’s Wrecking Crew, serving as an antagonist of sorts to the lowly plumber, as pointed out by Twitter user @eponge2L.

Foreman Spike from Wrecking Crew will be in the Super Mario Bros. Movie from Illumination!

(Source; https://t.co/sudEYW89DZ, 1:35:13 mark)#SuperMario pic.twitter.com/XGDDBc3UbY

— Bob L’éponge (@Eponge2L) August 7, 2021

Spike also appeared in the 1988 Japan-only sequel Wrecking Crew ‘98 for the Super Famicom.

Maniscalco has worked as a stand-up comedian since 1998, releasing five comedy specials throughout the years. He’s more recently transitioned to sizeable acting roles, including Italian mobster “Crazy” Joe Gallo in Martin Scorcese’s The Irishman and a supporting role in Green Book.

If Maniscalco’s comment is true, it’s the first bit of casting info for Illumination’s take on the Mushroom Kingdom. Further details are still scarce, even with the film being revealed in early 2018. All we know thus far is that Nintendo and Illumination are targeting a 2022 release date, though it’s possible the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted expectations. Universal and Nintendo are co-producing the project, with Universal being responsible for the film’s distribution.

Mario creator Shigeru Miyamoto commented back in early 2020 on why now was a good time for another Mario film.

More recently, Nintendo has added Illumination CEO Chris Meledandri to its board of directors in order to help with future Nintendo films.

Illumination is the studio behind CG films like Despicable Me, The Life of Pets, and 2018’s The Grinch.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/despicable person for IGN.

According to Fanbyte, a third mainline entry in the Xenoblade Chronicles series is reportedly currently in development and is nearing completion. Back in June, Jenna Coleman, who voices Melia Antiqua in the series, recalled her time working on Xenoblade Chronicles in a video chat with a smaller gaming YouTube channel called Din’s Meteorite.

“It was a long time ago, I did it pre-Doctor Who days and when they did the second one, they asked me to come back,” she explains. “And I think they’re going to do another. Common knowledge? Don’t know. Yeah, I think they’re going to do another. Not sure if I’m allowed to say that.”

Fanbyte’s sources say that the third mainline game is a sequel to Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and takes place much farther in the future. Melia would be a returning character in the game, as she is of the High Entia race which ages far slower, and as a result, she has outlived her human companions. Furthermore, Coleman would be aware of a third game if she was already asked to reprise her role.

The game was also reportedly supposed to be revealed earlier this year, but development during the pandemic has been difficult. However, it may still be revealed before the end of this year. Optimization for the game on Nintendo Switch has reportedly been hard as well. In particular, the game is trying to incorporate more character models on screen than previous titles in the series, which includes both playable party members and enemies.

Additionally, YouTuber Direct-Feed Games has corroborated the report, saying that Monolith Soft and Nintendo originally planned to reveal the game several months ago. The game is also aiming to push the Nintendo Switch’s hardware to its limits. While plans change, it seems likely that the game will launch during the first half of 2022, but nothing has officially been announced yet.

2017’s Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is the best-selling game in the franchise so far. Pyra and Mythra from the game were added to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s playable roster earlier this year too. Melia was one of the main characters in Future Connected, a brand-new epilogue in Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition that Monolith Soft head Tetsuya Takahashi had teased was “linked to the future” of the Xenoblade series.

Cross-progression in Apex Legends is a “gnarly as hell” problem for Respawn that won’t be solved until 2022 at the earliest.

This is according to Respawn director of communications Ryan Rigney, who spent some time in a Reddit AMA thread last week answering questions directly from players. Rigney explained that cross-progression is “a mess” of challenges, but that the team is committed to making it happen.

“Cross-progression is gnarly as hell in terms of being a problem to solve,” Rigney said. “It’s not only that you have to solve the technical challenge of merging existing accounts, but there are also legal and contractual issues to navigate with purchasing on other platforms.”

Rigney said that different regions have different laws that Respawn has to navigate and that cross-progression is a mess as a result.

Cross-progression would be especially useful in a game like Apex Legends due to its availability on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch. Cross-progression would allow players to play on PC, and then pick up with the same account on Switch while laying in bed, or on a PS4 in a different room. Add in that Apex Legends has well over 25 million players, and that the game has been so popular that EA is doubling down on live-service games, and it’s easy to see why cross-progression would be a big deal for the battle royale.

Elsewhere in the AMA, Rigney said that the team is very excited about a next-gen update for Apex Legends.

“Oh man, I WISH I had an update to share but we can’t say anything definitive at the moment — so can’t spoil anything here,” he said. “Trust us though, it’s in the works and we’re excited about it too.”

It would seem that big news about Apex Legends, be it a next-gen update or cross-progression, is due for 2022 at the earliest. Only time will tell, though.

While waiting to hear more, read about how Respawn has seemingly been working on its next-gen release of Apex Legends for over a year if a job listing from April 2020 is anything to go b. You can also read about how EA is handling all of its PS5 and Xbox Series X upgrade plans. Check out this Apex Legends Season 10 explainer after that, and then read about how EA is doubling down on live-service games as full game sales drop.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

Madden NFL 22 is launching soon, and alongside it EA is holding another edition of its Madden Championship Series. It is open to anyone, and this year it has a total prize pool of $1.65 million.

The championship series is actually a series of Madden tournaments, with the first beginning on August 21. From there, the Thanksgiving tournament starts in September and extends through November. The third, Wild Card round begins in October and goes through January, and the series wraps up with the Madden Bowl from January through February.

Doing well in the first three tournaments nets you points in addition to giving you a chance to win some preliminary money. The top 12 players from across the three tournaments on both PlayStation and Xbox qualify for playing in the Madden Bowl, which has a grand prize of $250,000. Registration for the ladder stage of the first tournament is open from now until August 21.

Madden NFL 22, meanwhile, will be released on August 22, and EA is working on a number of tweaks that it claims will significantly change the gameplay. These include a momentum meter that will react based on how you play; momentum can unlock buffs or debuffs, including home field-specific perks. EA is also continuing to invest in using real-world statistics from the NFL season in improving player behavior, and it has overhauled the game’s AI to be more realistic.

Back 4 Blood is a spiritual successor to the co-op zombie mayhem of the Left 4 Dead series. With such an emphasis on shooting your way through zombie hordes with your mates, you may wonder how easy it will be to actually play with those friends who didn’t happen to adopt your own platform of choice. It’s releasing across PC, PlayStation, and Xbox consoles, with the open beta set to begin soon.

Does Back 4 Blood Support Cross-Play?

In short, yes. A Back 4 Blood beta FAQ from WB Games confirms that the Back 4 Blood open beta features cross-play support, and players in the closed beta have already been linking up with their friends to play it across platforms. As such, you can expect the feature to also be available at the game’s launch in October.

What About Cross-Progression?

Cross-play is useful if you’re playing on one platform and need to connect with friends across another platform. But what if you own multiple platforms and want to be able to seamlessly hop between them? First: congratulations, moneybags. Second, sorry, there is no announced cross-progression and no indication from the beta that it will be the case.

The game does prompt you to create a username, but there’s currently no way to login with that same username on another platform. That means there’s effectively no way to carry your progress from one platform to another. The good news is that there isn’t much progress to be transferred anyway, at least for the time being. The only pain point will be your customized card decks, which you’ll have to rebuild if you hop onto a new platform.

Still, the existence of a login system suggests that Turtle Rock could have the back-end ready for implementation at launch, or sometime after. The company has not announced plans for other progression systems or a battle pass.

Ready for Launch

Back 4 Blood’s open beta runs from August 12-16 on PC, PlayStation, and Xbox platforms. The game is set to release on October 12, and will be included in Xbox Game Pass. The closed beta has already been big on Steam and Twitch, so read up on how to play the Back 4 Blood open beta. Check out our Back 4 Blood preorder guide for more details.

That whole Drax,Thanos history seemed to get swept under the rug. Always wondered why but every reason I could come up with just makes me shake my fucking head. It is what it is. 🤷🏻‍♂️ https://t.co/AXlFcKYq5E

— Vaxxed AF! #TeamPfizer Poor Kid Chasing Dreams. (@DaveBautista) August 9, 2021

Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game launched on Kickstarter on August 3 and has since become the highest earning tabletop RPG to launch on the platform after just a few days of being on the site.

The officially licensed tabletop RPG by Magpie Games, which is set in the world of Avatar: The Last Airbender and The Legend of Korra, went live on Kickstarter with a crowdfunding target of $50,000 on August 3. The game smashed through its initial target in just 16 minutes before raising over $1,000,000 in just its first day on the website.

Things have barely slowed down since – the tabletop RPG has now raised over $4,000,000, eclipsing the previously held Kickstarter record for a crowdfunded TTRPG by some margin. Matt Colville’s Strongholds and Followers, an unofficial Dungeons & Dragons crowdfunded campaign, previously held the record for the highest crowded funded TTRPGwhen it raised $2.1 million in 30 days in 2018. Not only has Avatar Legends blown the previous record out of the water by comparison, it still has 24 days left of its campaign.

As previously reported by IGN, fans of the Avatar-based RPG have worked their way through a number of different stretch goals since fully funding the core game. Included within the game’s surpassed stretch goals are a range of additional NPCs, a velvet dice bag, various physical playbooks, and more. Magpie Games added additional funding updates as recently as August 8 (from time of writing) and so it remains to be seen whether the company has an upper limit for stretch goals and, if so, what that limit is.

For those of you who haven’t kept up to date with the story so far, you can find out more about the premise of Avatar Legends, as well as the basic principles behind the tabletop game’s mechanics in our original article. Avatar Legends: The Roleplaying Game will remain on Kickstarter until September 3.

For more on Avatar: The Last Airbender, why not check this article about the Avatar and Spongebob podcasts announced by Nickelodeon in May and later released in June. Alternatively, you can read this article detailing how Nickelodeon has started to lay the groundwork for an “Avatar Airbender universe” that will feature multiple series and movies.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Xbox and Sega have announced a new grand strategy, as Amplitude Studios’ upcoming PC-exclusive strategy game Humankind has been confirmed for Xbox Game Pass on August 17, the day it launches.

The announcement was made on Xbox Wire, confirming that the game will be coming to Xbox Game Pass on PC only. There has been no word on whether or not the game will come to consoles, either standalone or as part of Xbox Game Pass.

“Humankind is a convergence of culture, history, and values that allows you to create a civilization that is as unique as you are,” the official blog post writes. “You’ll be re-writing the entire narrative of human history (…no pressure) from its humble beginnings in the Neolithic Era, as you set out to leave the biggest mark on the world.”

Humankind tasks players with building their own unique civilizations using moral choices and real-world cultures to pull from, in the hopes of gaining enough “fame” to win the game. Humankind was delayed earlier this year from April 22 to August 17, though last month Sega and Amplitude did offer a closed beta.

For more, check out the full list of everything offered on Xbox Game Pass right now, as well as everything you need to know about the Xbox Game Pass service.

The products discussed here were independently chosen by our editors. GameSpot may get a share of the revenue if you buy anything featured on our site.