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Riders Republic Seems To Fulfill The Extreme Sports Fantasy

Developer Ubisoft Annecy markets Riders Republic as an extreme sports fantasy, and that’s the impression I got after spending about four hours hands-on with the game on Xbox Series X as part of a Ubisoft preview event. Developed by the team that made Steep, Riders Republic looks to be bigger and better than that game–it’s far more extreme and outlandish, but in a good way–and I hope the full game delivers an experience that both captures the excitement and delivers on the ambitious vision of what I played in the early build.

What Is Riders Republic All About?

The first thing to know about Riders Republic is what type of game it is, and that’s an open-world extreme sports game that lets you ski, snowboard, downhill mountain bike, and fly through the air in a wingsuit or fan-powered glider. Set in a massive world with interconnected biomes of real places like Yosemite, Grand Tetons, and Bryce Canyon, Riders Republic offers snowy mountains, steep cliffs, and stunning vistas of forests, letting you live out your extreme sports fantasy from the comfort and safety of your couch.

The Controls

I wanted to love Steep, but it never completely resonated with me in the way that Riders Republic already has after playing just four hours. The controls feel better–they’re more natural and intuitive, and not to mention Riders Republic gives you multiple options (Racer and Trickster) for how difficult you want the experience to be. In Racer, the controls are more forgiving, and it’s a nice way to start the experience and feel the rush of landing epic tricks on the slopes. The Trickster control setup affords you more in-depth control, increasing the overall difficulty but allowing you to better focus on getting the timing and spin calculations right to land a trick.

There are also Manual and Auto landing options. In Manual, you are responsible for landing a trick successfully, while Auto makes it so you can’t get the rotation wrong on landing. I vividly remember stumbling often and terribly in Steep because of its dense and difficult controls. But Riders Republic builds on the foundation of Steep and gives you an easier onboarding process while also offering depth for those who want it. Manual mode gives you bonuses for the precise way in which you land, while Auto doesn’t. After just a few hours with Riders Republic, I enjoyed Auto as a means to get started and get my bearings, but Manual felt far more rewarding and meaningful as a control setup because I knew the successes (and failures!) were my doing and my alone.

Gallery

Another notable element of Riders Republic compared to Steep and other action sports games is that Riders Republic’s camera is seemingly always where it needs to be. Rarely in my time did it let me down or obscure some part of what I needed to see. I did encounter a few bugs and oddities, but the version of the game I played was unfinished. Beyond being functionally very good, the way in which the camera tracks your player gives the game a cinematic quality that successfully captures the rush and intensity of being on the slopes or barreling through the forest on a downhill mountain bike. The camera also lets you play in first-person, which makes the experience even more intense. I enjoyed playing this way for short periods of time, but found myself getting overwhelmed by the increased sense of speed and immediacy that a first-person camera presents. I enjoyed the third-person camera more because it helped me feel more in control, and it allowed me to take in the lovely landscapes surrounding me. Also of note, Riders Republic has a “rewind” button so when you screw up–and you likely will–you can quickly and easily jump back to a previous point and try again. And generally, the game is pretty forgiving when you crash on any given course during any sporting event, respawning you back on the track and in position to get back into the race or event with limited impact.

The controls aren’t perfect, though. Successfully grinding rails on a snowboard was frustrating at times and it often felt like I was floating over the rails instead of actually on them. The wingsuit sections have a lot of promise, letting you basically become Falcon from the MCU, but similar to flying mechanics of that nature in other games, you will probably love or hate these sections. In particular, wingsuits can be challenging to get going again after a crash–you can either rewind to a previous section of the course or choose to perform a vertical restart which thrusts you back into the air. Both felt disorienting to me, and the wingsuit sections were my least favorite of the extreme sports. With more time with the game, however, my opinion might change as I could better familiarize myself with the controls. On a more positive note, I enjoyed mountain biking–it was my favorite activity, both as a sport and in terms of the controls. It’s also worth noting that, while there are some shared similarities between control setups for each of the individual sports, each has its own distinct feel and control setup that you’ll need to hone for the best results. Taking tight corners with a power slide, in particular, was extremely satisfying and the sheer volume and variety of tricks and spins–and how flashy they look–stole the show for me.

What You Can Do In Riders Republic

Riders Republic is a lot of different experiences mixed into one package. There are career options for the various sports, letting you participate in races and other challenges, and each of these careers can be completed with up to five others in co-op or by yourself. You’ll unlock new events and earn more experience and cosmetic rewards over time. There are also various PvP challenges where you compete against other human characters, both in live matches and against their ghosts. And there is also the open world to explore at your leisure, with dozens of locations and landmarks to discover. To get around the snowy sections in particular, there is a snowmobile you can access from the d-pad. The social hub, Riders Ridge, is a shared community space where players can walk up to people, inspect their gear and stats, and access various other elements of the game like its PvP modes, trick tutorials, in-game shop, and custom content made by other players.

My favorite part of the Riders Republic preview and its PvP offerings was Mass Races. These are gigantic events where 50+ players take part in a multi-sport series across three races (though, important to note: Ubisoft has already confirmed the Xbox One/PS4 versions of Riders Republic will feature smaller competitions in comparison to current-gen consoles, dropping down to a cap of around 20 players). The player with the highest score, based on their performance in each of the three races, wins. In some of the Mass Races I played, which were populated by other human characters (on pre-release servers, it should be noted), the action was chaotic but in the best way. The starting line of a race is hectic–in one race, 64 players took off at the same time–and thankfully, collisions are turned off for the first few seconds to avoid a massive, frustrating pileup. The courses themselves are sprawling–clearly designed to accommodate such a big player count–and varied in their environments. You need to dodge and weave between trees, rocks, and other obstacles–including fantastical projections not unlike what you might see in a GTA Online race–in addition to racing skilfully to stay ahead of your opponents. And when collision is turned back on, a further element of strategy comes into play as you must deftly navigate around your opponents and pass when the time is right.

These Mass Races start you on one type of sport, like a bike, and then transition to snowboarding, skiing, and flying from there out (though not always in that order), with the aim of rewarding the player with the most skills across multiple sports. The environments transition, too, to accommodate whatever sport you’re participating in at the time. For example, the game might transition from skiing to wingsuit, thrusting you from snowy slopes into the air above towering alpines. The transition sequences and animations from sport to sport felt somewhat jarring and unnatural, with the game stuttering for a short bit as it unfolded. These races also include special abilities like rockets on your skis and even some vehicles that aren’t part of the rest of the game. This makes them stand out from the rest of Riders Republic, and I hope more and different types of these can be added after launch. These Mass Races start every hour as a live service mode that you can opt into from the Riders Ridge social hub.

The Tricks Battle mode also stood out to me. In this mode, teams of six players enter a fantastical arena (the one I played featured a giant shark and tentacle-type rails to grind). The goal is to get the highest possible team trick score. Your team is assigned a color and, similar to Splatoon, getting the highest score in a particular district of the map will change the color to that of your team. You must constantly be on guard and defend the sections you’ve claimed while simultaneously going after others to get the highest score. Despite only just learning the ropes of tricks and still struggling to string combos together as proficiently as I might have wanted, I had a lot of fun in this mode. And because it requires advanced trick skills to win, it encourages you to dig into the tutorials and just hit the courses on your own time to practice your skills.

Shredding The Gnar With Style

Riders Republic has extensive character customisation and cosmetic items to purchase with currency that you can unlock through gameplay or with real money. A spokesperson for Ubisoft said Riders will only offer cosmetic items for purchase, never anything that can actually impact gameplay. On the cosmetic side, even after playing just a few hours, the game was already populated with players wearing giraffe costumes and driving vehicles like an ice cream truck, and I appreciated the lighthearted nature and tone of the game in general. You will hear “gnarly” and “bro” and “stoked” many times, in a bid to capture the vibe of the community it’s based on (for the most part). And the game also features famous extreme sports and outdoors branding like Red Bull, Clif Bar, and Oakley. This lighter tone is represented nicely in the Shack Daddy series, which is a collection of events with wacky and wonderful modifiers. In the one I played in the preview, everyone was dressed in red form-fitting bodysuits not unlike Ned Flanders in The Simpsons, and your character has wood panels for skis and tree branches for poles. There will be more than a dozen of these Shack Daddy events in Riders Republic at launch, and I’m excited to see how zany things get.

There is still so much more I want to see and learn about Riders Republic, including its “Zen” mode that I could see on the menu screen but wasn’t playable. I am also curious as to how a big, living, and breathing sports MMO like this will hold up when it’s put to its paces with a bigger player population. There is also the matter of how good a job Ubisoft does of supporting the game with more and more races to take part in, and how much the community comes up with in terms of user-generated content. Overall, I was extremely impressed with what I saw and played in my four hours with Riders Republic. The sheer variety of activities and compelling content makes Riders Republic something like the extreme sports game I dreamed of as a kid. Here’s to hoping the full game can deliver on its ambitious goals and give players a living world worth returning to.

Riders Republic launches on October 28 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Stadia, and Luna.

Mad God Review

Mad God was reviewed out of the Fantasia International Film Festival.

You may not know the name Phil Tippett, but you definitely know his work. He’s an acclaimed creature designer, who has built the incredible critters found in films like Piranha, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, RoboCop, and Jurassic Park. When Hollywood moved away from practical effects to computer graphics, Tippett adapted, but his heart has always belonged to stop-motion animation. So, for the last 30 years, this Oscar-winning visual effects artist has worked on a passion project, which fans can finally see on the festival circuit. But be warned: Tippett’s Mad God is darker, stranger, and much more of a mindf*ck that you could possibly dream. While impressive in its decadence, all that style might leave you craving more substance.

Written and directed by Tippett, Mad God is a furious rebellion against the Hollywood films that built his reputation. Blending stop-motion animation and sprinklings of live-action performances, he has created an experimental film that has no dialogue, no named characters, and no real plot to speak of. So, his directorial feature debut is not a narrative movie but a tour through the darkest corners of his imagination.

Our guide on this journey is a mysterious figure, whose countenance is hidden behind a gasmask. No facial expression will give away his emotions at any point. However, his wardrobe, a cyberpunk mélange of metal, rubber, and leather that covers him head to toe, warns us that the world around him is toxic. Descending in a rusted diving bell, he plunges deeper and deeper into a hellscape bursting with depravity, violence, monsters, and muck. Incongruent with the unnamed hero’s heavy protective gear is his tightly clutched briefcase, which suggests he is a man on a mission. Frustratingly, this mission goes from unclear to utterly unimportant in the blink of an eye. From there, Mad God shuttles haphazardly through a kingdom of horrors.

A barrage of vignettes presents brief but brutal glances into a world that is narratively devoid, yet lush in details. Scenes of domestic slaughter are played out in shadow puppetry. A merciless food chain is unfurled with creatures, who look like they’ve escaped from totally different genre films, only to become meat. Monsters are bedecked with pulsing boils, pendulous breasts, and spurting buttholes. Altogether, this wretched world seems populated by every bizarre sketch Tippett ever saw rejected by a studio exec or deemed too shocking for mainstream movie audiences.

Mad God provides a feast for the eyes, but a putrid one. Surfaces glisten with slime. Creatures are spiky with hair, wiry and unwashed. Blood and gore hit not in sprays, but in gloppy explosions. This grungy world is so layered with texture that it feels like you could reach out and run your fingers through it. Though with such a dedicatedly grimy and unwelcoming production design (also by Tippett), who would want to?

Though willfully disgusting, the animation within this is an astonishing celebration of stop-motion. Tippett and his team have expertly executed the physicality of these critters. Whether they lumber, scurry, or slither, each has a sense of weight to their motions that makes even the most surreal beast feel real onscreen. So much so, that when live human actors begin to creep into the mix, you might well do a double-take to check if they’re a person or a puppet.

Mad God provides a feast for the eyes, but a putrid one.

Bolstering this revolting visual smorgasbord is an unnerving sound design. No characters speak in the traditional sense. Plenty will wail, gasp, gurgle, or coo. Much of the soundscape is guttural or feral. Yet the recurring babble and squeal of a human baby might be the most haunting sound, considering its hellish context. Meanwhile, the swollen score feels plucked from an ‘80s horror movie, where choral voices sing spookily while a piano and percussion clatter into ominous cacophony. All this culminates into a suitable soundtrack for nightmare fuel.

The repulsiveness of Mad God is intended. In an interview with Variety, Tippett bragged about walkouts at a preview screening, where viewers complained the film had given them “an anxiety attack.” But what is the message of his masterwork? I’m not convinced he has one. Mad God isn’t interested in coherence as much as it is experience. What you take away from this bog of carnage and creation is up to you. Tippett seems content to spill his subconscious onto the screen and call it a day. Though, for what it’s worth, he advised in the same interview that certain substances might be an aid in getting on his wavelength: “I would recommend either taking a gummy, smoking some marijuana, drinking a bottle of wine, or bringing a vomit bag to watch it.”

Full Disclosure: I did not take this advice and kind of wish I had. Though technically remarkable, Mad God left me emotionally cold. Sure, it’s eye-poppingly gross and garish. But without a story to follow or even faces to connect to, I found myself lost in the muck and hankering for a sensation beyond nausea and confusion.

Riders Republic Hands-On: Action Sports Goes Massive

I don’t think I’d be exaggerating at all to call Riders Republic the biggest action sports game I’ve ever seen – both in terms of the map size and the number of activities available. The seamless open world mashes together seven National Parks from the Western United States, from Wyoming’s snowy Grand Teton peaks to Utah’s rugged Bryce Canyon to California’s picturesque Yosemite Valley. Each one is modeled from satellite data, with some liberties taken near the edges to help them fit together.

Across this expanse of wilderness, you can unlock several different sports including mountain biking, skiing, snowboarding, and something called a rocket wingsuit that looks way too dangerous to be real and basically lets you fly around like Iron Man. These are further broken into multiple career tracks for each sport, with one focused on racing and another focused on chaining together tricks to win maximum style points. Along the way, there are some extra surprises like rocket skis and what was basically a speeder bike from Star Wars that you’ll be able to use in specific, special events. Certain races even have you transitioning between multiple sports within the same course.

Yet, the biggest thing setting Riders Republic apart from its predecessor, Steep, is its massively multiplayer elements. Zooming out, I could see hundreds of little icons representing other players shredding, swooping, and tearing their way across the map. Now, not all of these are actual people. But basically every rider you see is a recording of another player’s run, including the ones you’ll compete against in solo events. The AI can kick in for specific things, like if you ram someone’s ghost off-course and make them have to modify their route from the original recording. But for the most part, you’ll always be riding against a time set by someone who ran this track before you. And other players will be riding against yours.

Radically Multiplayer

That doesn’t mean you won’t be in the same world with others who are currently logged in, though. Riders Republic’s seamless matchmaking will try to put you into the same instance of the open world when you’re in the same general area as another genuine human. And there are scheduled mega races every 15 minutes that anyone who’s around can queue for in which you’ll be going up against all live opponents. There’s also live matchmaking for the various PvP events, which are another interesting new twist on the genre.

Aside from familiar races and trick scoring competitions, there’s a novel team vs team mode in which doing tricks on specific obstacles will claim them for your team, sort of like a combination of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater and Splatoon. Claiming an entire “district” of the map will give your team a five-times score multiplier in that district. But you also need to send riders out to make sure the other team can’t claim any districts of their own, or your score multiplier won’t mean much. You also get point multipliers for staying close to your teammates, adding another element of coordination. This is a really interesting way to do multiplayer in a sports game, and I look forward to trying it out more.

There is no way to turn real-world money into a competitive edge.

Exploring also pays in Riders Republic, as the gargantuan map is filled with points of interest that can unlock secret cosmetic items and other cool, little bonuses. One of the Easter eggs I found replaced my skis with street signs and my poles with tree branches. I was able to keep these and use them in any future skiing events forever. You can also buy cosmetic items in the in-game shop, but stat-affecting gear like better boards and bikes can only be earned by levelling up. There is no way to turn real-world money into a competitive edge.

Wipeout

The controls definitely lean more toward the arcadey side. While I was impressed by how grippy and gritty the mountain bikes could feel on some of the downhill courses, it’s fully possible to summon momentum out of the Dark Dimension or something and execute a triple backflip off of a relatively small ramp. There are definitely some janky physics involved with certain obstacles like boulders and rivers as well. Of course, the beta we played was still a work in progress.

This is all tied together by a loose storyline about earning a name for yourself in a campy, over-exaggerated version of American extreme sports culture. It’s charming and genuinely funny at times, but way over-done and eye-roll-inducing at others, like a goofy uncle who’s always cracking jokes. It’s not exactly my vibe, but it didn’t hurt my ability to find some clean lines down a massive mountainside and have a great time doing it.

Fortnite Galaxy Cup 2.0 Brings Back The Mobile-Exclusive Tournament

Though Fortnite on mobile is a tricky situation for many players right now, the game is still playable on many Android devices. Epic is gearing up for another mobile-exclusive tournament on the platform, the Galaxy Cup 2.0. Here’s what you need to know about the cosmetics you could earn totally for free.

Fortnite Galaxy Cup 2.0

The Fortnite Galaxy Cup returns to Android devices where Fortnite is currently supported. if you’re not sure if your device is included given the currently hectic situation that Fortnite is in on mobile, you can check compatibility here. The Galaxy Cup 2.0 will unfold on August 29 and will be played in solo queues.

The Cup will also take place within a limited-time mode (LTM), not the usual battle royale mode. The Arsenal LTM was selected “due to its tight match length and popularity in the mobile community,” said Epic. The mode plays a bit like the Call of Duty Gun Game, whereby players are given lesser weapons with each successive elimination, meaning winners will likely be crowned with underpowered common weapons.

For the Galaxy Cup 2.0, a Victory Royale rewards you seven points and each elimination rewards you one point. You also get a point for playing in each match.

The top scorers according to different standings in each region will earn themselves the Galaxy Grappler skin, Hands of the Galaxy back bling, and Vortextual wrap, while anyone who notches at least 20 points total during the Cup will earn the Lllamalaxy spray.

The Galaxy Cup 2.0 will reward more players than usual.

Each region will award several winners, sometimes even more than 20,000 depending on where you may be competing, so your chances of winning the cosmetics are much higher than it is in something like the J Balvin Cup, for example. You can find the full scoring breakdown on the Fortnite website.

Players will have three hours to complete up to 25 matches and their final score will be stacked up against others in their region. If you don’t want to compete, or if you fall shy of the cosmetic cutoff, you’ll be able to buy the full range of cosmetics in the Item Shop at a later date, though Epic didn’t say when.

If you’d rather just play for XP, now’s your chance to jump on the new Week 12 challenges. If you’ve been following every week, this is the first week you’ll be eligible to earn the final Superman cosmetics.

GameSpot may get a commission from retail offers.

Ubisoft Announces Plans To Make A Theme Park, Despite Initial Plans Stalling Out

Despite initially stalling out on plans to make Ubisoft-branded theme parks years ago, the Assassin’s Creed publisher hasn’t given up on this. In fact, the Paris-based company this week announced a partnership with Storyland Studios to create a pitch for a “full-scale Ubisoft theme park.”

The news comes by way of Theme Park Insider. Storyland Studios boss Ben Thompson said Ubisoft’s franchises are “iconic and globally recognizable,” making them a good match for a park.

“The settings within Ubisoft’s game worlds are a perfect tapestry for physical world creation–whether historic, real life, city-based, under the ocean, or on a different planet,” Thompson said. “For an experience designer like Storyland, it’s an incredibly exciting sandbox to play in. We’re thrilled to have been entrusted with this opportunity.”

Storyland is a design company that counts Universal Studios and Legoland as some of its clients, so the company is indeed a force inside the theme park industry.

Ubisoft’s Mathilde Bresson said, “Video games and themed parks have a lot more in common than we think. We are excited to join forces with Storyland to continue exploring the potential for synergies and design immersive, innovative and unforgettable experiences based on our catalog of worlds.”

According to the report, the concepts that Storyland is coming up with for Ubisoft will be “primarily indoor” attractions and could be applied to multiple parks around the globe. The first of these concepts will be unveiled at the IAAPA Expo this November.

In 2015, Ubisoft announced that it would create a “next-generation” theme park in Malaysia featuring the company’s brands. This never happened, and a spokesperson for Ubisoft told reporter Stephen Totilo that “theme parks are complex projects… [not all] get fully realized.” The spokesperson said Ubisoft amassed a “wealth of knowledge and experience” from its stalled park in Malaysia that it will apply to its new deal with Storyland. GameSpot has followed up with Ubisoft in an attempt to get more insight on the company’s plans to get into the theme park business.

While Ubisoft’s theme park might still be some time off, Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Japan opened earlier this year, and similar parks in Orlando and Hollywood are currently being constructed.

Best Buy Is Selling RTX 30 Graphics Cards at Select Stores Tomorrow

Nvidia’s RTX 30 series debuted nearly a year ago. Yet, due to a number of circumstances – most notably a chip shortage – it has been increasingly difficult to buy Nvidia’s newest graphics cards. If you are still looking to purchase a GPU in the RTX 30 series, Best Buy will once again sell these GPUs in-stores tomorrow.

Best Buy did not disclose which RTX 30 cards will be resupplied. Currently, seven graphics cards make up the RTX 30 series, from the RTX 3060 to the RTX 3090.

More than 80 Best Buy locations across 45 states (plus Puerto Rico) will have “will have limited quantities available.” According to Best Buy, each participating store will enforce a one per customer limit to ensure as many people can purchase a GPU as possible.

To ensure that the one per custom limit is enforced, beginning at 7:30am local time, participating Best Buy locations will hand out tickets to those waiting in line. Obtaining a ticket guarantees that you will be able to purchase an RTX 30 graphics card inside the store beginning at 8 am local time.

This is the third time Best Buy has sold Nvidia’s highly desirable graphics cards. The first one happened in June, when the company sold the RTX 3080 Ti Founder’s Edition in-stores only. The second restock was last month, with more than 100 Best Buy participating locations selling limited quantities of the RTX 30 series.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Mountain Dew Reveals New Flamin’ Hot Flavor

The process of scientific discovery rewards the bold, those who aren’t afraid to ask questions and challenge the status quo. Mountain Dew, long known for its rigorous scientific breakthroughs in flavor technology, has now broken through a barrier once thought impossible by the prevailing attitudes of modern flavor physicists and is introducing a new Flamin’ Hot Mountain Dew flavor exclusively through the Mountain Dew online store.

The marriage of the two PepsiCo products Mountain Dew and Cheetos doesn’t seem like it should work, but I for one have great faith in Mountain Dew’s ability to pull this one off. Promising a combination of “sweet, citrus DEW with a new spicy goodness,” it’s the Mountain Dew flavor no one asked for but they did it anyway, and history will remember them for it. Fondly.

On top of introducing the new flavor, Mountain Dew and Broken Promises are collaborating on an apparel drop to memorialize this momentous flavor occasion (flavccasion). The presale will be available “exclusively to subscribers on the Broken Promises’ app on Friday, September 3 at 11 pm EST,” and if you’re not a subscriber you can access the line at the Broken Promises website beginning September 4 at 11 am ET.

As someone who unironically loves Mountain Dew, I’m anxious to try this new flavor. I don’t let my enthusiasm for the brand cloud my judgement, either. While I loved the new Baja Punch, putting it at or near the top of my own personal rankings, I thought the Baja Flash tasted like carbonated sun-tan lotion.

Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend.

Archer Season 12 Premiere Review – “Identity Crisis” and “Lowjacked”

Archer Season 12 premieres Wednesday, Aug. 25 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on FXX and is available the next day on FX on Hulu.

In Archer’s Season 12 premiere, “Identity Crisis,” a pair of overly perky marketers inform the main cast of dysfunctional spies that they’re dinosaurs who need to reinvent themselves. That’s a pretty meta jab, considering that the series has lasted so long in no small part by consistently transforming, spending seasons jumping between genres. But like their perpetually contrary characters, the show’s writers are rejecting that message and instead delivering a fantastic start to a season that gets back to the series’ roots.

Archer began as a sort of fusion between James Bond and The Office set at the International Secret Intelligence Service or ISIS. When the rise of the Islamic State made the fictional spy agency’s name have a very different impact, the show began changing things up, transporting its characters into riffs on Miami Vice and Sunset Boulevard before going even further afield for a set of seasons taking place in the comatose mind of the series’ namesake superspy Sterling Archer (H. Jon Benjamin).

While those romps, through pulp and space opera, provided a novel way to let the cast effectively explore other characters while still maintaining key components of their chaotic dynamic, they felt like diversions from the main story. Season 11 finally saw Sterling awaken from the coma and throw a wrench into the lives his family and coworkers had built without him, culminating in a fantastic finale where he proved that, for all his flaws, he’s worth keeping around by saving the world from a tech bro planning on profiting off of flooding the world.

Yet the luster from that moment of glory has already faded by the time “Identity Crisis” begins. The Cloudbeam marketing team Alton (Harvey Guillén of What We Do in the Shadows) and Kaya (Insecure’s Natasha Rothwell) claim they could have gotten Archer the adulation he deserves, but instead the U.S. government covered up the incident and his agency can barely keep the lights on. Cloudbeam blames tough competition from the new spy conglomerate International Intelligence Agency, but as usual Archer’s inept coworkers are at least equally to blame. No one’s called them with a job since psychotic office assistant Cheryl/Carol Tunt (Judy Greer) smashed the phone and didn’t tell anyone.

The crew of Archer is normally entirely unsympathetic, so there’s a lot to gain from painting them as the underdogs. Sterling himself has had to learn some small modicum of humility after emerging from his coma at less-than-full strength. No longer the world’s greatest spy, he’s had to rely more on his coworkers, particularly his hyper-competent ex-girlfriend Lana Kane (Aisha Tyler), who’s perpetually exasperated by Archer’s antics. Of course, given the mercenary nature of the Archer crew, she and fellow spy Ray Gillette (series creator Adam Reed) quickly start talking about how they can join IIA themselves. IIA head Fabian Kingsworth (Kayvan Novak of What We Do in the Shadows) is effectively Sterling in his prime, relentlessly mocking the gentleman spy he once admired and providing a perfect foil for not just Sterling but the entire crew.

“Identity Crisis” sees the team trying to beat IIA to the reward for rescuing a kidnapped scientist while “Lowjacked,” the second part of the two-episode premiere, follows a team-building exercise that goes awry thanks to some ecoterrorists who are just as inept as Archer’s crew. Both establish the bumbling dynamic of Season 12, where some members of the crew try to be responsible and earn the money and prestige needed to keep their business going, while others just slack off. It’s the sort of farce that’s always worked well for the show, which is driven as much by sexual innuendo (or “phrasing” as Archer calls it) and ridiculous subplots involving cloning and country music, as whatever’s happening in the main plot.

Getting back to the basics of modern spycraft has allowed Archer to drop the gimmicks, fun as they may have been, and reconnect with what has always made the show great — its sharp writing and incredibly talented voice cast. Benjamin perpetually shines as he laughs at his relative luck and the misfortune of his most hated coworker, the bureaucratic Cyril Figgis (Chris Parnell) who gets beat up while Archer plays with dogs in “Lowjacked.” Cheryl and HR director-turned-field agent Pam Poovey (Amber Nash) are constantly engaged in misadventures, whether it’s taking their own terrible crack at developing a marketing strategy or opting out of helping with a mission so they can enjoy hibachi. When a nervous chef tries to remind them that there’s still a hostage crisis happening downstairs, Cheryl’s main concern, naturally, is if that will affect the grill.

Season 12 also marks Jessica Walter’s final role, as the actress who played Malory Archer, Sterling’s overly sexual alcoholic mother and boss, died in March. It’s a worthy capstone to her exceptional career as she plays the human manifestation of side-eye, perpetually judging her employees between sips of whatever drink she can get her hands on. The show’s limited animation style does an excellent job conveying facial expressions, and, in particular, it masterfully shows the bemused contempt Walter previously brought to the role of Arrested Development’s Lucile Bluth.

It’s a worthy capstone to Jessica Walter’s exceptional career.

Malory has always kept her misfit employees together, and Walter’s death throws the entire future of the show into question. But in this one last eight-episode season with the full original cast, Archer’s fundamentals are as strong as ever. If this winds up being the series’ final season, then it’s particularly fitting that it feels so much like a return to where it began.

Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller Is on Sale

Whether you’ve been lucky enough to snag an Xbox Series X|S or not, you may want to check out this deal. The Microsoft Store has the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller on sale for $16 off. The controller works great on on Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and Series S.

Granted, a $16 discount doesn’t soften the financial blow of such a pricy piece of hardware all that much, but it’s better than nothing. And by nearly all accounts, the Elite Series 2 controller is worth the price even without a discount.

Save $20 on Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller

What makes this controller so elite? Basically, it’s a bunch of small touches that give it a premium feel, plus opportunities for fine-tuning the controller to your preferences. For starters, it has a wrap-around rubberized grip that makes it easier and more comfortable to hold than pretty much any other controller on the market. The battery lasts for up to 40 hours of gameplay on a single charge, and it comes with a carrying case, a charging dock, and a USB-C cable.

It’s highly customizable, much more so than a standard Xbox One or Series X controller. You can adjust the tension of the analog sticks to your preference, which can help improve your aiming and optimize camera control. It also offers hair-trigger locks, which can give you a real edge when you’re playing competitive shooters. You’ll be able to get the shot off a fraction of a second faster.

You can also swap out a number of the controller’s components. It comes with a set of six thumbsticks that let you choose between classic, tall, and wide-dome designs, each of which offers unique benefits for certain types of players. You can choose between a standard plus-shaped D-pad or the faceted one Microsoft is using on Series X|S controllers. Finally, you get four removable paddles that go on the back of the controller and can be mapped to any button for easy access.

The Xbox Elite Series 2 controller isn’t for everyone. But if you’re trying to maximize your competitive edge, it gives you lots of customizable ways to do so.

Other Xbox Series X and Series S Accessories

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

Forza Horizon 5 Dev Says The Game Looks Great On Every Platform, Discusses Impact Of COVID

Forza Horizon 5 will look and perform best on the latest Xbox console or a high-end PC, but no matter what platform you’re playing on, you should have a good experience. That’s according to Playground Games creative director Mike Brown, who recently spoke about the differences between the various editions of Forza Horizon 5. Brown also touched on how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted the development of the racing game.

“There are so many slight differences between the platforms, I think I would struggle to give you a fully accurate answer. The main improvements are through the power we have available thanks to the Xbox Series X and S … is just the phenomenal detail we’re able to pack into every scene,” he said during a recent event attended by GameSpot. “The quality of the assets is improved. The quality of the lighting is improved. The quality of the shadows is improved.”

In the Forzavista mode specifically, which allows players to examine their cars up close, Forza Horizon 5 supports ray-tracing for a further visual jump. “Everything is rendered with unparalleled realism,” Brown said.

The main difference between the Series X and Series S editions of Forza Horizon 5 will be its capability to output in 4K on the higher-end model and 1080p for the Series S.

“Other than that, it should be more or less the same. The visual fidelity should be the same. You’ll still get ray-tracing in Forzavista. Everything else should look as detailed and as glossy as it does on the Series X,” Brown said.

Moving further down the spectrum of Xbox consoles, Brown said he didn’t have information readily available regarding the specific graphics and performance statistics for older Xbox hardware. But overall, Brown said he feels confident that players will enjoy the game and its visuals no matter what platform they’re on.

“I will just say, whichever platform you’re playing on–whether it’s a base Xbox One, the Xbox One X, or a high-spec PC–you will have a really great experience in the game. It looks great on every platform,” he said.

Also during the interview, Brown discussed the impact of COVID-19 on Forza Horizon 5’s development. Thanks in part to the game’s three-year development cycle (as opposed to the normal two-year schedule), the team was able to send researchers to Mexico to capture and compile a database of assets to use as models for the game prior to the pandemic. But when the pandemic hit, the UK-based Playground Games shifted to work-from-home and Brown said the team was able to quickly and successfully pivot to this new environment.

“Obviously COVID-19 affected everybody. It affected everyone and everyone’s lives, and I don’t want to sit here and pretend that video games was the hardest thing to do during a pandemic,” Brown said. “We’re a team of problem solvers and we reacted really quickly. The team did a good job of getting everyone set up to work from home pretty much as soon as the pandemic hit. And anytime we ran into any production problems, we just instantly worked to try and solve them. The team did a really great job. It wasn’t something we planned for at the start. Equally, I don’t think it was something that massively derailed us or anything. COVID affected everyone’s lives in a ton of ways. I don’t think us transitioning to work from home was the worst of them.”

Forza Horizon 5 launches on November 9 for Xbox and PC, and it’s included with Xbox Game Pass. About a month after that, Microsoft will launch another big exclusive, Halo Infinite, on December 8, according to a recent leak.

For more on Forza Horizon 5, check out this piece, How Forza Horizon 5’s Extra Year Of Development Helped Make It A Better, More Accessible Game. Microsoft also recently announced a special-edition Forza Horizon 5 Xbox controller.