Category: Games

Niantic is partnering with Verizon and other companies for a Special Weekend event in Pokemon Go. The event runs from May 29-30 and features special Pokemon spawns, exclusive Research tasks, and other perks for ticket holders, with some bonuses available for non-ticket holders as well.

The partner companies for this event include Verizon (the US), 7-11 (Mexico), and Yoshinoya (Japan). You’ll be able to obtain a ticket for the event through your region’s respective partner and redeem that on Niantic’s website to participate. Those who do have a ticket will get access to special Pokemon spawns and other exclusive bonuses.

Special Weekend Ticketed Features

Players who have a ticket for the Special Weekend event will be able to encounter Clefairy, Jigglypuff, Eevee, Marill, Sableye, Stunky, Spritzee, and Swirlix more frequently in the wild from 11 AM to 5 PM local time on May 29. Shiny Eevee will also be appearing more frequently for ticket holders, and the following Unown letters will be available in different regions when you use an Incense:

• Unown V – the US
• Unown S – Mexico
• Unown Y – Japan

A few other bonuses will be available on top of that throughout the entire event. First, there will be exclusive Timed Research tasks. Clearing these will lead to encounters with Eevee, Spritzee, Swirlix, and Deino, as well as rewards like a Lucky Egg, Star Piece, and an Incense. You’ll also be more likely to receive a Lucky Pokemon in a trade, and you’ll earn twice the usual amount of XP for catching Pokemon. Finally, you’ll receive an exclusive medal for redeeming an event ticket.

Non-Ticketed Features

Even if you don’t have a ticket for the Special Weekend event, you’ll be able to take advantage of a few bonuses from May 28-31. First, Niantic is doubling the number of gifts you can open each day. On top of that, the studio is increasing trading distance to 40 km, allowing you to trade Pokemon with other players from further away than usual. You can read more details about the event on the official Pokemon Go blog.

In the meantime, Pokemon Go’s Luminous Legends Y event is underway. As part of the event, the Legendary Pokemon Yveltal is appearing in five-star Raids. Pokemon Go’s June Community Day is also around the corner. That event takes place on Sunday, June 6, and features the Dragon Pokemon Gible.

A Highlander remake is in the works at Lionsgate starring Henry Cavill and John Wick director, Chad Stahelski, set to direct the film.

This news comes by way of Cavill himself who confirmed the news today on Instagram with a photo of a Deadline story about the news. According to Deadline’s report, the film will be a reboot of the popular 1980s fantasy action adventure movie of the same name.

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“Very exciting news today,” Cavill’s Instagram post reads. “I’ve been a fan of Highlander since I was a lad. From the movies in all of their 80s, Queen slathered glory to the TV show with an actor who looked remarkably like one of my brothers. Being not shy with swords, and having a director as talented as Chad Stahelski at the helm, this is an opportunity like no other.”

Cavill said he and the team are working to make this movie an “adventure I (and hopefully all of you) shall never forget.” His Instagram post also features a photo of what appears to be a knife, some history books, and more. Cavill said this project has prompted him to dip into his own Scottish heritage, which also doubles as research for the movie.

The original Highlander movie was released in 1986 and starred Clancy Brown, Sean Connery, and Christopher Lambert as immortal warriors that hunt each other, as noted by Deadline. The original film received four movie sequels and three television series. As for what to expect of this Cavill-led reboot’s plot, not much is known.

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For what it’s worth, Cavill is no stranger to fantasy action-adventure as he was the lead in Netflix’s Witcher series. You can read our thoughts on his performance in the show in IGN’s Season 1 review of Netflix’s The Witcher. While waiting for this Highlander reboot, check out this video of Cavill building a PC from scratch and then read IGN’s list of the 10 best ’80s action movies.

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

All weekend long, publisher Paradox Interactive is hosting a huge sale on Steam in conjunction with its PDXCon Remixed digital convention. The Steam Paradox Interactive Sale, which runs until May 24, includes discounts on PC games like Crusader Kings III and Empire of Sin. On top of all the game deals, three titles are free to play for the next few days: Cities: Skylines, Stellaris, and Surviving Mars.

Both Cities: Skylines and Stellaris serve as pillars in the 4X genre, helping players get acclimated to the genre’s rather slow output. Not quite a 4X game, Surviving Mars features many of the same city buildings elements players can expect from other Paradox-published strategy RPGs. All three games can be downloaded and played with no strings attached until May 24. If you end up enjoying them and want to keep playing, you can buy either of these Paradox-published titles at up to 80% off

The sale also slashes prices for other titles from the publisher’s catalog. This includes strategy RPGs Crusader Kings III at 20% off, Empire of Sin at 50% off, and Surviving the Aftermath at 25% off.

Furthermore, the Paradox sale discounts various Paradox-related DLC for games like Europa Universalis IV, Hearts of Iron IV, Prison Architect, and others.

The Paradox Publisher Sale comes in the wake of the announcement of its long-awaited grand strategy game Victoria 3. The last entry in the franchise came out a decade ago, only further fueling the anticipation for Victoria 3.

Earlier this week, The Last of Us 2 received a free PS5 performance patch which allows owners of the next-gen console to run the game at 60 frames per second. Alongside a new PS5 patch, the game’s co-director also confirmed that players might notice a change in the haptics when playing the game with a DualSense controller.

Kurt Margenau explained in a Twitter thread today, detailing the new changes made to the DualSense following a software update released in April. Margenau explains that he gave feedback to the DualSense team to help “improve timing, intensity, and ‘texture'” of haptics” when using the controller to play backward compatible titles to help provide a more authentic feel showcased in its predecessor, the DualShock 4.

The DualShock 4 includes two different-sized rotating weights, whereas the DualSense includes two weights that can move forward and backward. Margenau explains how the DualSense is “almost like a speaker,” as it can produce frequency and amplitude at an “extremely high fidelity and low latency.”

As many of you are jumping back into TLOU2 on PS5, you may notice the haptics feel better. This is actually thanks to a firmware update to the DualSense controller back in April. THREAD: pic.twitter.com/zle0XQwDw6

— Kurt Margenau (@kurtmargenau) May 21, 2021

So, the DualSense firmware would have to allow the controller to receive “old signals,” that would spin up the motor to produce a higher latency and, in turn, emulate the feeling in a new controller by using a completely different mechanical method, such as the “rumbly feeling” that comes with a rotating motor, according to Margenau.

Essentially, all this means is that all the work done to improve the DualSense’s haptics in The Last of Us Part II was done solely from inside the controller without Naughty Dog having to alter the game code.

The new firmware update expands on the features already supported in The Last of Us Part II. As GamesRadar reported in November, the game supported the DualSense’s flagship feature, noting that the game’s combat allows PS5 owners to “feel the tension” when using the controller’s adaptive triggers, such as firing a gun.

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

When Apple Arcade launched in September 2019 with a suite of games, many players praised Grindstone in particular. This week the cartoony puzzle game finally launched released on PC.

Grindstone is, for now, an Epic Games Store exclusive. While it’ll normally cost $20, it’s currently on a launch discount and is listed for $15. In addition, as a part of Epic’s Mega Sale, you can grab a $10 credit for use on a single title, which would bring Grindstone’s price down to $5.

Developed by Capy, who also made Below and Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery, Grindstone tasks players with navigating a character through maze-like levels arranged on grids. Players must hack through chains of same-colored enemies and avoid traps.

In addition to being available on Apple Arcade and PC, it’s also on Switch. Capy has consistently released significant updates for the game that add new levels and challenges. The latest update, called Fortune Grind, introduces a wheel of fortune to the Daily Grind mode that adds modifiers to each run. The Epic Store version is up-to-date with the other versions and includes Fortune Grind.

Halo 3’s latest new map, called Edge, has now been added to the Master Chief Collection, although it’s currently only available to participants in the game’s testing program. Edge follows the addition of Waterfall last month, which was the first new map for Halo 3 in almost 12 years.

Developer 343 Industries posted on Twitter that if you’re a member of the Halo Insider Program, the Season 7 test flight is now live and enables you to try out Edge. It’ll be playable in Social Matchmaking in the Master Chief Collection. In addition, this test flight also includes a handful of visual improvements for Halo: Combat Evolved.

Waterfall and Edge technically aren’t brand new–they’re actually remakes of maps that originally appeared in Halo: Online, the short-lived title that was only available in Russia. The story behind Halo: Online is somewhat strange; it was created by Saber Interactive, which led development on the Halo: Combat Evolved remake (and which was recently acquired by the Embracer Group). It only lasted about a year before being canceled, but a thriving fan community managed to resurrect it for a while through mods.

The decision by 343 Industries to bring these maps back is part of a broader effort to keep the Master Chief Collection fresh and to give players new content to look forward to. The studio also teased that additional maps may be added in the future–check out GameSpot’s interview with 343 Industries for much more.

In addition to Edge and the Halo: CE visual upgrades, Season 7 also includes new skins for Elites and Energy Swords in Halo 3.

The announcement that Bungie was bringing back Destiny‘s first raid, the Vault of Glass, in Destiny 2 immediately brought to mind another throwback from the game’s past: Vex Mythoclast. The Destiny 1 gun was accessible through the Vault in its original form, and was one of the coolest weapons in that game. There’s good news coming with the reopening of the Vault when it launches on May 22: Vex Mythoclast is coming with it.

Though we don’t know too many official details of what to expect with Bungie’s revamped take on the Vault of Glass–it will be different, in some ways at least, from the D1 version–dataminers and hints in Destiny 2 have given clues as to what players might get out of it. The details about Vex Mythoclast have been mined and are currently available on sites like the eminently helpful light.gg, which suggests that it’ll be the raid Exotic available if you complete the Vault.

If you’re not familiar, Vex Mythoclast is a powerful Solar fusion rifle, but one that uses Primary ammo. That means it’s a lot easier to keep Mythoclast loaded and firing. The Destiny 2 version has two firing modes. The standard mode sounds like it will work as a mix between a standard scout rifle and a linear fusion rifle, shooting straight laser bursts with each trigger pull. The alternate fire mode will be available after you build up “Overcharge” by killing enemies, which will then allow you to charge up a powerful linear fusion rifle shot. According to the light.gg rundown, Mythoclast also packs ludicrous aim assistance–that little bit of special sauce that makes some guns more adept at hitting headshots than others.

In the past, Mythoclast was only available if you completed the hard mode version of the Vault of Glass. In Destiny 2, there are two possibilities for how you’ll come by Vex Mythoclast: either through an Exotic quest, as in the Garden of Salvation, or from random drops, as in the Deep Stone Crypt. In Garden, you can get the Divinity trace rifle only if you and your squad complete a bunch of steps, both outside and inside the raid. The result is that Divinity is a guaranteed drop so long as you solve the puzzles scattered through the raid along the way. With Deep Stone Crypt, the Eyes of Tomorrow rocket launcher is only attainable if it randomly drops for you after completing the raid’s final encounter. The chances are low, but they grow with each subsequent completion of the raid. Hazarding a guess, it seems a lot more likely that Vex Mythoclast will come from a random drop than from completing a Garden-like set of puzzles.

Early looks at the Vault through datamining reveal a few other choice items that seem to be coming from the raid. One is an Exotic catalyst for Vex Mythoclast, which will amp its stats and may even give it an additional high-level perk. You’ll also find a few other Destiny 1 favorites, like the sniper rifle Praedyth’s Revenge, the hand cannon Fatebringer, the scout rifle Vision of Confluence, the shotgun Found Verdict, the rocket launcher Hezen Vengeance, and the machine gun Corrective Measure.

The Vault of Glass goes live at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET on Saturday, May 22. Stay tuned for more coverage and guides for handling the raid once we’re able to dive in and take down Atheon ourselves.

Godzilla and King Kong are not finished with PUBG Mobile yet, as PUBG developer Krafton Inc has teased a Titans: Last Stand event coming May 25.

The 20-second teaser trailer shows Godzilla and Kong facing off, with Mechagodzilla appearing to fight them both. The event will “introduce players to a never before seen chapter of the Godzilla vs. Kong story that can only be experienced in-game as part of the Version 1.4 update” according to the official press release, and it will run until the end of the PUBG Mobile/Godzilla vs Kong crossover event on June 8.

No details have emerged on whether or not players will have an influence on the coming kaiju battle. However, there are a few brief snippets of a player shooting a minigun from a helicopter in the trailer, implying the event will be interactive to a degree.

PUBG Mobile’s partnership with Godzilla vs Kong began in early May 2021, with the Version 1.4 update adding the two giants–along with Mechagodzilla–to the battle royale. The monsters would appear at random times and destroy parts of the environment, giving players in the area access to extra loot and monstrous NPCs. The event coincides with the release of Legendary Pictures’ Godzilla vs Kong in theaters and on HBO Max.