Category: Games

Call of Duty Mobile has added a new Undead Siege Zombies mode with the start of Season 6: The Heat. This limited-time mode brings the return of the iconic zombie-slaying characters of Richtofen, Dempsey, Nikolai, and Takeo. Undead Siege can be a bit of a challenge, especially if you’re trying to attempt the mode with random teammates, so we have included some tips to help you survive.

Undead Siege isn’t the typical round-based Zombies map you’d expect with these fan-favorite Black Ops Zombies characters. It’s not quite as complex and lengthy as Cold War’s Outbreak, but it is more of an objective-based defend mode. In this mobile Zombies mode, you must survive either three or five nights of the undead, with the nights required to survive depending on the difficulty selected.

There is a short tutorial you must complete before getting to select your difficulty, and that will give you the basics of how you’ll spend your days and nights. Then you’ll have the choice of a casual mode that requires you to survive three nights, or you can challenge yourself to five nights for better rewards.

Undead Siege’s daytime is used for gathering supplies and building defenses for the nighttime fights. Daytime lasts for around two minutes of in-game time, and then you must return to Richtofen’s Control Center at night to protect it from a zombie attack. And then, surviving the night means using the weapons and resources collected during the day to set up defense turrets and mow down hordes of undead. You must protect the Control Center from hordes each night to advance, and each successive night gets more difficult to defend.

Here are some tips to help you win a match of Undead Siege:

Time Management:

It’s important to spend your daytime wisely. Make sure you’re collecting supply drops and looting as many resources as you can before nightfall. You want to make use of the vehicles around you, because traversing the map on foot will take most of your precious daylight.

Communication:

If you’re playing with friends, you definitely want to have communication. Nighttime in Undead Siege is all about defending Richtofen’s Control Center at one set location, so you can get easily overwhelmed if you’re not communicating. I tried a few times with random players, but no one was using the chat feature.

Level Up Talents:

Leveling up your talents is important. In Undead Siege you can have “talents” you can upgrade, which are things like sentry guns, health buffs, and tools. I definitely recommend focusing on your sentry gun upgrades. The sentry gun isn’t a great killstreak in Cold War’s Zombies, but it’s a necessity in Call of Duty: Mobile. It’s a bit of a grind to level up and upgrade talents, so you might want to play the casual mode a few times to level up and get the upgrades for the turret armor and weapon upgrade talents.

Take Out Those Elites:

Protecting the Control Center can get tough, especially with armored enemies like the Wardens, who are heavy-hitting elite enemies who can deal damage to your base. You always want to keep an eye on your base while fighting off the horde, as the base will need to be repaired with the wrench tool if it takes too much damage. So, you’ll want to take out these armored enemies fast. I recommend scavenging the cluster grenades for use on the Wardens. Surprisingly, the wrench repair tool also works well for a melee weapon the Wardens. The wrench is a two-hit melee kill, whereas Wardens are absolute bullet sponges against your guns and turrets.

Good Turret Placement:

Nights get harder as you progress, so I also recommend moving your turrets closer to the Control Center after night two. You’re going to get way more zombies pushing into the area, and the turrets will be more beneficial if kept back a bit.

These tips should help you find success whether playing with friends or randoms. Grinding out games of Undead Siege will reward you with cosmetics like weapon blueprints and a Zombified Tank Dempsey operator skin. Call of Duty Mobile also teased an Undead Siege-themed event coming later in the season to offer more rewards, including a Zombified Edward Richtofen operator skin.

This new mobile content arrives in the game as Activision Blizzard is facing multiple lawsuits concerning alleged sexual harassment and a “frat boy” culture.

Apex Legends Emergence just rolled out in early August, but there are still many surprises to come from Season 10 of the battle royale game. A lead writer at Respawn, Amanda Doiron, recently stated that Apex’s in-game comics will be put on-hold for the time being while the studio focuses on varying up its storytelling techniques.

Another lead writer, Manny Hagopian, tweeted a list of different ways that Respawn has presented the lore of Apex over the game’s existence, including through unique dialogue, narrative Stories from the Outlands videos, and the Broken Ghost quest from Season 5. This would seem to indicate that the studio plans to incorporate experimental methods of storytelling that we haven’t seen before in Apex Legends in Season 10.

While it’s not clear what these methods might look like–by their very nature–we did get a look at new Legend Seer in a Story from the Outlands that was uploaded two weeks ago. For now, however, fans are still dealing with the raft of changes that Emergence brought to the game, which included the new Rampage LMG, the Ranked Arenas mode, and several major buffs and debuffs to popular Legends like Caustic and Horizon. If you’re playing on Xbox, Apex’s Season 10 update is pretty massive at 60 GB, so make sure you have enough space for it.

Battlefield 2042’s first technical test will begin next week, with email invites detailing how to join the playtest going out now for select players. The test will run August 12-16, and will span specific three-hour windows each day.

The test is under a non-disclosure agreement, unlike Halo Infinite’s recent technical preview, so don’t expect streamers to be broadcasting this one. Players who signed up for an EA Playtesting profile have a chance to join the test, but EA has previously stressed that signing up doesn’t guarantee access tech test access and that only a small number of participants will be invited. The test is only for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S.

“This Technical Playtest will be focused on gathering intel on our core gameplay loop, technical performance, and stability,” the email invites read. “This will all be done in a closed environment and under a strict NDA – you don’t want to miss out!”

Data from the test will be used to help the DICE development team launch the game “as smoothly as possible,” the email continues.

A technical test for the game was originally scheduled for July, before being pushed back to later this summer to accommodate the desire to test cross-play functionality between Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC. It’s unclear if next week’s technical test will support cross-play or if that will be coming in a later technical test.

Battlefield 2042 recently revealed its “Portal” mode during EA Play, which will see maps, soldiers, weapons, and vehicles from previous Battlefield installments like Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Battlefield 3, along with custom game-modes, interact with elements from Battlefield 2042.

An open beta for Battlefield 2042 is coming in September prior to the game’s October 22 launch. Players who preorder the game will get early access to the open beta.

Activision announced Call of Duty’s Season 5 will begin on August 12, and a new cinematic trailer has been released to further showcase Stitch’s plans in Black Ops Cold War and Warzone‘s ongoing storyline.

This new trailer sets the placement for what is likely the next Black Ops Cold War multiplayer map, as the location is revealed as the Echelon NATO Listening Station in Teufelsberg, Germany.

Stitch’s plan looks to be complete, and there’s definitely a lot more action in today’s trailer than the previous teaser clip from last week. This cinematic shows the new female operator teased in today’s Season 5 date announcement, as she types in the code needed to start up the broadcast from the listening station.

The cinematic also reveals Woods is teamed up with a brand-new male operator in night vision goggles as they proceed to infiltrate the listening station. Unfortunately for Woods, the broadcast starts and activates Stitch’s sleeper agents, which include members of his infiltration team. Woods and the new operator barely escape the fight.

It’s uncertain how much chaos Stitch is set to cause with his sleeper agents, but we should know more as we get closer to the August 12 launch date. It’s very likely the new female working for Stitch and Wood’s masked companion will be two of the operators who arrive with this new season.

Night of the Animated Dead is an animated reimagining of George Romero’s 1968 classic, Night of the Living Dead, and it will be released digitally next month.

More specifically, Night of the Animated Dead will be released digitally on September 21 and then on physical media starting on October 5. The movie will be released in a Blu-ray combo pack and as a DVD.

Alongside news of these release dates, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment also revealed the cast of the movie and the film’s box art.

“Night of the Living Animated Dead features the voice talents of Josh Duhamel (Jupiter’s Legacy, Transformers), as Harry Cooper, Dulé Hill (The West Wing, Psych), as Ben, Katharine Isabelle (Ginger Snaps) as Barbara, James Roday Rodriguez (A Million Little Things, Psych) as Tom, Katee Sackhoff (The Mandalorian, Battlestar Galactica) as Judy, Will Sasso (MadTV) as Sheriff McClelland, Jimmi Simpson (Westworld) as Johnny and Nancy Travis (Last Man Standing) as Helen Cooper,” a press release reads.

Warner Bros. describes Night of the Animated Dead as an “unprecedented presentation” and a “new, star-studded animated recreation” of the original Night of the Living Dead. The Blu-ray combo pack will be sold for $19.99 in the U.S. while the DVD version will be sold for $14.99, with preorders beginning on August 10.

“In Night of the Animated Dead, siblings Barbara and Johnny visit their father’s grave in a remote cemetery in Pennsylvania when they are suddenly set upon by zombies,” according to the press release. “Barbara flees and takes refuge in an abandoned farmhouse along with stranded motorist Ben and four local survivors found hiding in the cellar.”

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/08/06/it-a-quiet-place-childs-play-8-horror-movies-that-should-be-video-games”]

Together, this group must fight to stay alive while confronting their own fears and prejudices, much as they did in the original 1968 movie. Beyond the actual full-length feature film, Night of the Animated Dead will feature never-before-seen exclusive animated scenes not found in the original live-action film, according to Warner Bros, as well as the Making of the Animated Dead special feature.

Richard Potter, Thomas DeFeo, and Jamie Elliott are the executive producers for the movie with Ralph E. Portillo, Robert Feldman, Michael J. Luisi, and Kevin Kasha serving as the producers. Night of the Animated Dead was animated by Demente Animation Studio and directed by Jason Axinn.

For more about the movie, read about how Night of the Animated Dead will reimagine Romero’s horror classic and then read about how Romero is developing Twilight of the Dead. Check out IGN’s list of the 25 best horror movies to see where Night of the Living Dead lands in the ranking after that.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

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

Ahead of its next major eFootball announcement, Konami has released some further details surrounding the game – including confirmation that the game will launch without microtransactions in Autumn, but that it will be similar to a demo in scope.

The information came to fans directly from the official eFootball Twitter account which shared a thread of answers to a range of common questions that had arisen over the game.

Surrounding the game’s “free-to-play” nature Konami said “During ‘Early Autumn’, eFootball will have no micro-transactions – so everything will be free-to-play at launch. We will then add more content during ‘Autumn’.” Whilst details around the Autumn follow-up content are yet to be confirmed, it sounds as if this could be the point at which Konami will introduce a form of microtransaction system to the game.

Q: What exactly will be free-to-play at launch?

A: During “Early Autumn”, eFootball™ will have no micro-transactions – so everything will be free-to-play at launch. We will then add more content during “Autumn”. Exact content details to follow.

— eFootball (@play_eFootball) August 2, 2021

However, the scope of that launch version seems fairly slim, and one of the questions answered was whether the game would be “basically a demo” at that point. “In many ways, yes,” was the answer. “We want people to get hands-on with eFootball as soon as possible, so we will launch with a limited number of teams and modes.” Konami has said that it will share more details about this in the near future. 

Elsewhere in the thread, Konami spoke about the game’s integration on both console and mobile and how this would affect user experience. The company reassured fans in the thread, explaining that eFootball has been developed for “consoles first” but that will be a platform for “everyone to enjoy” with the game taking “full advantage of the hardware capabilities of each supported device”. Whilst the game will include “multiple features for matchmaking based on location and platform,” Konami has said that PC and next-generation console players paired up against mobile users should not see a downgrade in their graphics during gameplay.

Q: Will next-gen graphics be downgraded to play against mobile users?

A: We will make graphical adjustments to the mobile version but the next-generation graphics on consoles and PC will not be downgraded.

— eFootball (@play_eFootball) August 2, 2021

Konami announced late last month that it had officially renamed its titular Pro Evolution Soccer series, eFootball. The game will be digital-only and free-to-play when it releases for PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC this Autumn – with iOS and Android versions to follow. All versions of the game will receive cross-play features by winter, although it is important to note that mobile players will need to use a controller when playing against console and PC players.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”slug=efootball-images&captions=true”]

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter where he is often seen supporting the northern powerhouse known as Merseyside Red.

Marvel’s upcoming show What If…? is officially made up of canon MCU stories, thanks to the newly-minted multiverse.

Speaking to IGN, What If…? head writer AC Bradley made it very clear that, despite its animated style and anthology premise, everything in the show is being considered as canon. “The events of What If…? are canon. It’s part of the MCU multiverse. The multiverse is here. It is real, and it is absolutely fantastic, people.”

Kate Herron, director of Marvel’s Loki, previously confirmed that her show had ushered in a Marvel Cinematic Multiverse. While we all but knew that the likes of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: No Way Home would embrace that development, it remained unclear whether What If…? would be considered part of the MCU (or MCM, I guess) in the same way.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/07/29/marvel-studios-what-if-changed-trailer”]

The original What If…? comics saw Uatu the Watcher introducing alternate realities branching off from the established Marvel comic timeline. It seems likely that the What If…? show – which has its own Uatu in the form of Jeffrey Wright – will use the same framing device.

It leaves open the tantalising question of whether the animated characters in What If…? could ever become live-action versions in future MCU projects. With the likes of Peggy Carter as Captain Britain and Gamora in Thanos’ armour, there are some potential fan-favourites in the offing, although Marvel’s understandably not talking about anything that far in advance right now.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=marvel-cinematic-universe-every-upcoming-movie-and-tv-show&captions=true”]

There’s one MCU connection that Bradley was less forthright on, however; whether Wright’s Uatu is one of the Watchers we previously saw at the end of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2. As we learned, Bradley accidentally pitched some of the plot of Guardians 3 while coming up with What If…? storylines, and the writer clearly doesn’t want to step on the toes of any other MCU projects.

We also spoke to Bradley and director Bryan Andrews about Chadwick Boseman’s final performance as T’Challa, who becomes an alternate Star-Lord in the course of What If…? This take on T’Challa is lighter, funnier, and fliertier than the Black Panther we know.

What If…? premieres on August 11, exclusively on Disney Plus. It will see the return of multiple MCU actors, who’ll reprise their roles in animated form. That includes Hayley Atwell (Agent Peggy Carter), Sebastian Stan (Bucky Barnes), Chris Hemsworth (Thor), Jeff Goldblum (Grandmaster), Tom Hiddleston (Loki), Natalie Portman (Jane Foster), Paul Rudd (Ant-Man), Josh Brolin (Thanos), Samuel L. Jackson (Nick Fury), Mark Ruffalo (The Hulk), Robert Downey Jr. as Tony Stark, and the late Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

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].

Xolo Maridueña, perhaps best known for his portrayal of Miguel Diaz in Netflix’s Cobra Kai, is in talks to play the lead role in DC’s Blue Beetle for HBO Max and Warner Bros.

Per Hollywood Reporter, Maridueña is apparently in negotiations for the role, which would see him star in DC’s first film with a Latino superhero at its helm. Earlier this year, IGN reported that Charm City Kings director Angel Manuel Soto is set to direct the film, which will focus on Mexican-American teen Jaime Reyes, DC’s third character to take the Blue Beetle name after Dan Garret and Ted Kord. Gareth Dunnet-Alcocer will be writing the script, with Zev Forman on as an executive producer for Warner Bros.

Reyes’ time as the Blue Beetle began in 2006. His origin story begins as a high school student in El Paso, Texas. Unlike his former Blue Beetle counterparts, Reyes discovers the mysterious blue beetle scarab (Khaji Da) in a disused lot before taking it home. The scarab later grafts its self to Reyes’ spine which gives him a powerful battle suit, an energy cannon, and the ability to travel in space, among a range of other abilities. Reyes is later discovered by another DC hero, Booster Gold, who introduces him to the Justice League.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/11/29/blue-beetle-movie-currently-in-development”]

Blue Beetle was originally reported to be in the works in 2018. IGN reported in June that Warner Bros. and DC Films are reportedly planning to send Blue Beetle straight to streaming rather than giving the DCEU movie a theatrical release. Elsewhere, the Blue Beetle is also set to appear in a separate animated film debuting in 2022. The short film is one of four being created by DC and will be produced by Rick Morales, who is previously known for working on Mortal Kombat: Scorpion’s Revenge.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter where he is currently deciding which superpowers he would choose given the chance.

The intriguing art-style and combat of Boomerang X is what drew me in, but the boomerang itself is what hooked me. The four-sided weapon wielded by your unnamed hero gave me serious Krull vibes, a terrible 1980s fantasy movie I loved dearly in which the main character wields a five-sided version called the Glaive.

As a kid, it captured my imagination – and while that movie doesn’t hold up nearly as well as I wanted it to, the basic premise of flinging a bladed weapon at fantastical baddies is something Boomerang X has finally arced back around to deliver to me. I’m grateful my love of a bad ’80s movie pushed me to give Boomerang X a try, because this stylish twist on a retro FPS is great even without the niche nostalgia trip.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/25/boomerang-x-announcement-trailer”]

There’s little in the way of story here: you’re sailing along in a wooden boat only to be shipwrecked on a mysterious island, and the only path off the beach is into a cave where you find your magical boomerang weapon. Along the way, Boomerang X tells you the rest of what you need to know mostly through its environments.

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=I%26%2339%3Bm%20grateful%20my%20love%20of%20a%20bad%20%26%2339%3B80s%20movie%20pushed%20me%20to%20give%20Boomerang%20X%20a%20try.”]

You’ll pass through a ruined village, and if you look into the right houses you can spot the remains of the island’s original inhabitants. There are a few friendly creatures who offer context for the current state of the island through text dialogue, as well as explaining a little of the history of your boomerang. But for the most part it’s very “show, don’t tell,” and that compliments the mysterious attitude of Boomerang X perfectly.

Boomerang X’s cell-shaded graphics work with that attitude excellently as well. I played on Nintendo Switch and didn’t notice any major framerate dips, even when the arenas were overrun with enemies. It’s also available on PC, and I have to imagine playing with a mouse and keyboard is the superior way to play (because it always is for FPS games) but with the Pro Controller and a smart auto-aim system, I still had a great time.

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Boomerang%20X%20tells%20you%20a%20lot%20of%20what%20you%20need%20to%20know%20mostly%20through%20its%20environments.”]

Once you get past the brief intro,  it’s game on. You’re immediately thrown into a battle with mysterious beasts, their only defining features being their dark shadowy shapes and the occasional colored weak points. They remind me very much of the Shadow Beasts in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and that’s not the only Nintendo vibe Boomerang X throws off (but more on that later). Some creatures resemble horrible bloated spiders, while others look like nightmare squid who’ve learned to free themselves from the shackles of their oceanfaring lives. 

[poilib element=”poll” parameters=”id=89d7ce8d-4856-4138-9b17-e116af58a944″]

As you move through the world of Boomerang X you’ll discover more kinds of enemies, each with different attacks and powers. Some of them, like the aforementioned spiders, are as simple to kill as aiming your boomerang and letting it fly. Others, like the strange summoning demons a little later on, can only be destroyed with a well-aimed shot at their crystalline weak points. I enjoyed the variety of enemies, and how each new area seemed to bring with it a new challenging foe. Figuring out the best course of attack for some of the tougher creatures added a nice strategic element to Boomerang X beyond just having well-placed throws.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/07/08/boomerang-x-launch-trailer”]

In addition to discovering new, tougher enemies as you progress deeper into the mysterious island, you also unlock more powers for your boomerang. At first, you merely toss the boomerang and it does what you’d expect it to do: hits things then comes back. As you go further, you’ll learn how to instantly recall the boomerang or charge it for longer throws, and soon after that you start unlocking its true potential as a weapon.

That includes more powerful effects like slowing time, using it as a grappling hook, and even stronger  attacks. Its power scales up perfectly, and I definitely needed to master almost every different type of attack and unique power to win some of the later, tougher battles. Fights are also incredibly enjoyable because they require constant motion, and the clever powers of your boomerang make it possible to move around the battlefield quickly and smoothly. 

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=Boomerang%20X%20gave%20me%20a%20serious%20Metroid%20Prime%20feeling…”]

Remember how I said it gives off serious Nintendo vibes? The Twilight Princess comparison is apparent from the very first enemy you face, but Boomerang X also gave me a serious Metroid Prime feeling, and that’s a great feeling for a game to give. You start off with nothing, very little in the way of story or context, and become more powerful and learn about your environment as you progress.

It’s not actually a Metroidvania though, as Boomerang X is completely linear and missing their crucial exploration element. There are no branching pathways, no backtracking, no doors or portals you need to return to once you unlock the proper boomerang power. You simply go into one arena, defeat the enemy waves, and move onto the next. Yes, you gain new powers and increase your shield several times over during the course of Boomerang X, but there’s no wandering here. 

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/06/17/boomerang-x-release-date-trailer”]

I still had a lot of fun within its rigid structure, but I would have loved to be able to explore this tiny island world for myself. That’s especially true because Boomerang X is  a pretty short game. I was able to beat it in around three hours, and that was a fairly leisurely pace. After beating it, a New Game+ is unlocked (and I immediately started playing through it again), but I was enjoying Boomerang X so much that I was left wanting more than to replay it with my powers intact.