Category: Games

Marvel chief Kevin Feige shared a bit more info about the appearance of Abomination in Shang-Chi: Legend of the 10 Rings in a new interview with Rotten Tomatoes, confirming that the Phase 1 Marvel Cinematic Universe villain would be brawling with Wong, the sorcerer from Dr. Strange.

“Yes, we just recently released the final trailer for Shang-Chi,” Feige said. “Some fans said, ‘This looks like a character they hadn’t seen in many years named The Abomination, fighting a character that looks like Wong.’ And I can say that the reason it looks like that is because that is Abomination fighting Wong.”

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Feige talked about how much he enjoyed bringing back Abomination, an obscure villain from 2008’s The Incredible Hulk — part of the initial group of films that set the foundation for the MCU. “[It’s] a fun thing to have a character that we haven’t had on screen in over a decade show up again in the MCU. And to see fans on that little tag of the trailer recognize that and embrace that is great fun.”

In MCU lore, Abomination is a mutated Captain Emil Blonsky, a former special-ops commander who has been injected with a variant of the Super Soldier Serum. Blonsky eventually receives a transfusion of Hulk’s blood, thus transforming into Abomination and proceeding to rampage through New York City. Only hints of the villain’s eventual fate have been revealed since.

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Phase 1 of the MCU seems to be on Feige’s mind a lot these days, though. In the same interview, he talked about bringing the story back to the original Iron Man, which introduced the original Ten Rings organization. He also discussed one of the most infamous twists in MCU history: the reveal that Iron Man 3’s Mandarin was actually Trevor Slattery.

“And going back to Iron Man: We’ve been talking about that when we do bring this character to the screen, [we] only wanted to do it when we felt we could do it supreme justice and really showcase the complexity of this character, which frankly we couldn’t do in an Iron Man movie because an Iron Man movie is about Iron Man; an Iron Man movie is about Tony Stark,” Feige said. “So [Iron Man 3 director] Shane Black, in his film and his script that he co-wrote, came up with this fun twist that we love to this day, and it turned out to be Trevor Slattery. Just because that version wasn’t real didn’t mean there’s not a leader of the Ten Rings organization, and that is who we meet for the first time in Shang-Chi.”

In any case, Abomination is apparently back, and he’s fighting Wong in a cage match. Why? We’ll just have to find out September 3, when Shang-Chi arrives in theaters.

While you wait, check out our background info on Shang-Chi. You can read our explanation of whether the rings are actually magical, as well as our look at the full cast.

After many delays, July 2021 will see the long-awaited arrival of Marvel’s Black Widow on Disney+. While it will also be available in theaters, those who wish to watch it at home can purchase Premiere Access to watch it when it is released on July 9. Jungle Cruise is a another big movie arriving on Disney+ and theaters this month, and will also be available to all subscribers who purchase Premier Access.

You can watch the official Marvel’s Black Widow trailer in the video below:

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On the TV front, Pixar’s Monsters At Work, Turner & Hooch, and Chip ‘N’ Dale: Park Life will all have their series premiere’s in July. Marvel’s Loki will also be coming to an end this month, but fans will be able to get a behind-the-scenes look at its development with Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Loki.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for a spotlight of some of the most notable July 2021 Disney+ releases, followed by the full list:

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Friday, July 2

• Breaking Bobby Bones (S1)
• Disney Junior Mickey Mouse -Mixed-Up Adventures (S1)
• Disney Raven’s Home (S4)
• Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (S3) – Ep. Lush And Wild Puerto Rico
• The Sandlot
• The Sandlot 2
• High School Musical: The Musical: The Series – Episode 208 “Most Likely To”
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Episode 110 “Common Ground”
• The Mysterious Benedict Society – Episode 102

Wednesday, July 7

• Monsters at Work – Series Premiere
• Loki – Episode 105
• Marvel Studios Legends – Black Widow

Friday, July 9

• Black Widow (Premier Access)
• Disney Junior Minnie’s Bow-Toons: Party Palace Pals (S1)
• Flicka
• Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (S3) – Ep. The Great Smoky Mountains
• Miraculous World: Shanghai, The Legend Of Ladydragon
• Orca Vs. Great White (AKA: Killer Whale Vs. Shark)
• Rogue Shark (AKA: Rogue Jaws)
• Shark Beach With Chris Hemsworth
• When Sharks Attack (S7)
• World’s Biggest Bullshark
• High School Musical: The Musical: The Series – Episode 209 “Spring Break”
• The Mysterious Benedict Society – Episode 103
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Episode 111 “Devil’s Deal”

Wednesday, July 14

• Loki – Episode 106 (Series Finale)
• Monsters At Work – Episode 102 “Meet Mift”

Friday, July 16

• The Croc That Ate Jaws
• Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (S3) – Ep. Incredible Iceland
• Meet Spidey And His Amazing Friends (Shorts) (S1)
• Shark Attack Files (S1)
• Shark Attack: The Paige Winter Story
• Shark Gangs
• We Bought A Zoo
• When Sharks Attack (S7)
• World’s Deadliest Sharks
• High School Musical: The Musical: The Series – Episode 210 “The Transformation”
• The Mysterious Benedict Society – Episode 104
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Episode 112 “Rescue On Ryloth”

Wednesday, July 21

• Turner & Hooch – Episode 101 “Forever And A Dog” (Series Premiere)
• Behind The Attraction (All Episodes Streaming)
• Marvel Studios Assembled: The Making of Loki
• Monsters At Work – Episode 103 “The Damaged Room”

Friday, July 23

• Disney Junior Mickey Mouse Funhouse – (S1) Ep. Mickey The Brave!
• Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (S3) – Ep. Holy Mole Mexico
• Ice Age: The Meltdown
• Shark Attack Files (S1)
• Walking With Dinosaurs (2013)
• Playing With Sharks
• Stuntman
• High School Musical: The Musical: The Series – Episode 211 “Showtime”
• The Mysterious Benedict Society – Episode 105
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Episode 113 “Infested”

Wednesday, July 28

• Turning The Tables With Robin Roberts (All Episodes Streaming)
• Chip ‘N’ Dales: Park Life – Episode 101 “Thou Shalt Nut Steal / The Baby Whisperer / It Takes Two To Tangle” (Series Premiere)
• The Wonderful World of Mickey Mouse (Batch 2 Premiere)
• Monsters At Work – Episode 104 “The Big Wazowskis”
• Turner & Hooch – Episode 102 “A Good Day To Dog Hard”

Friday, July 30

• Disney Junior T.O.T.S. (S2)
• Disney Sydney To The Max (S3)
• Garfield
• Gordon Ramsay: Uncharted (S3) – Ep. Michigan’s Yooper Cuisine
• Built For Mars: The Perseverance Rover
• Jungle Cruise (Premier Access)
• High School Musical: The Musical: The Series – Episode 212 “Second Chances”
• The Mysterious Benedict Society – Episode 106
• Star Wars: The Bad Batch – Episode 114 “War Mantle”

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Doom Eternal’s next-generation patch is finally out for Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC, bringing enhanced performance and ray tracing to the high-octane, demon-slaying shooter. The free update will give you three new gameplay modes on consoles, while players on PC can make use of certain features based on their hardware.

On the latest consoles, Doom Eternal can now be played with Balanced, Ray Tracing, and Performance presets. Balanced, despite its name, prioritizes visual fidelity, offering the highest dynamic resolution possible while still sustaining 60fps. Ray Tracing reduces the resolution but offers fully ray-traced reflections, which adds a new visual flair to the action. Performance reduces resolution even more for the game to reach 120fps.

All three modes are available for Xbox Series X and PS5, while only Balanced and Performance will be offered on Xbox Series S. Additionally, only Xbox consoles will feature Variable Rate Shading and Variable Refresh Rate support. Here’s the specifics for each platform:

Xbox Series X

• Ray Tracing Mode running at 1800p/60fps
• Performance Mode running at 1800p/120fps
• Balanced Mode running at 4K/60fps

Xbox Series S

• Performance Mode running at 1080p/120fps
• Balanced Mode running at 1440p/60fps

PlayStation 5

• Ray Tracing Mode running at 1800p/60fps
• Performance Mode running at 1584p/120fps
• Balanced Mode running at 4K/60fps

On PC, Doom Eternal will also be updated to include ray tracing support for compatible GPUs. If you own an Nvidia GPU, you’ll also be able to take advantage of new DLSS support, letting you reduce the internal resolution for big performance gains.

The Doom Eternal update is free to all owners of the game on the respective platforms and is out now.

The Liam Neeson movie Unknown is being developed into a TV show by TNT. As reported by Deadline, the series will be a sequel to the 2011 thriller.

The Unknown TV show will be directed by Jaume Collet-Serra, who helmed the movie, with Neeson executive producing. The series will be written by Sean Finegan, who also wrote the Ethan Hawke-starring thriller Getaway. According to Deadline, the show will “pick up after the events of the film and follow a new lead character that is thrust into a mind-bending adventure full of twists and turns.”

Unknown starred Neeson as a man who wakes up after a coma to discover that another man has stolen his identity and no one he previously knew seems to recognise him. It was the first movie collaboration between Collet-Serra and Neeson, and was followed by Non-Stop, Run All Night, and The Commuter.

Collet-Serra’s next movie will be Jungle Cruise, which hits theaters and Disney+ next month, having been delayed from last year. That’ll be followed by the DC movie Black Adam, which reunites Collet-Serra with his Jungle Cruise star Dwayne Johnson and is currently in production ahead of a July 2022 release.

Neeson is set to star in the action movie Memory, from Casino Royale director Martin Campbell. The film also stars Guy Pierce and Monica Belluci and was shot earlier this year.

Developer id Software seemingly has a new project in the works, as the Australian Classification Board has listed an M rating for some kind of “multi-platform computer game” to be published by ZeniMax Europe.

The listing was published on June 28 and has been rated M for “violence” and “online interactivity,” suggesting it might be a gory multiplayer title. There are also mild instances of some mature “themes” and “language.” While the project is categorized as a “multi-platform computer game,” no other details are known. However, the listing states the version of the project is “original.”

This is the second time the Australian Classification Board has listed an id Software game prior to its eventual announcement and release. Earlier this year, the ACB posted an M rating for “Project 2021A,” which wound up becoming the PlayStation VR version of Doom 3 that launched in March 2021. It’s worth noting that an M rating in Australia is much milder than the same rating in the US.

In other Doom news, id Software dropped a new Doom Eternal patch for next-gen consoles and PC that implements a smorgasbord of performance enhancements. This includes things like ray tracing and 120fps modes.

For those of you in California who’ve been want to pick up an Alienware RTX 30 series gaming PC, now’s your chance. Dell now offers a model that complies with the new California Energy Commission regulations and ships to California. In other deal news, save 43% off the Klipsch Promedia Computer Speakers, 15% off an Uber Eats gift card, 50% off 3 months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, and 15% off the recently released Mario Golf Super Rush for Switch.

Alienware Aurora R12 PCs Shippable to CA Again

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Up until recently, the new 2021 Alienware Aurora R12 gaming desktop computers could not be shipped to California due to newly implemented energy regulations that placed a stricter threshold for power savings during sleep mode. Unfortunately the new Alienware R12 computers, which are equipped with 11th generation Intel processors and RTX 30 series graphics cards, did not fit the criteria. Now, however, Dell has finally remedied the situation by re-releasing a Alienware Aurora R12 desktop PC that complies with the new California Energy Commission regulations and you can order it on-site.

Bowflex SelectTech 552 Adjustable Dumbbells (Pair)

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If there’s any one piece of exercise equipment you should decide on, free weights would be a very good investment. These super popular dumbbells are currently $399.99 at both Amazon and Bowflex direct, but you can get it for 10% off at Walmart. Because the SelectTech dumbbells are adjustable, you don’t need a rack of individual weights lying around. Each dumbbell can be adjusted from 2.5 pounds all the way to 52.5 pounds.

Klipsch Promedia 2.1ch Computer Speakers

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The Klipsch Promedia 2.1 speakers have been around for over 2 decades, but it’s still considered one of the best computer speakers under $200. It’s normally listed for $139.99, but today Walmart has it for only $79.99, a 43% savings. This THX-certified speaker set includes two satellite speakers with 3/4″ soft dome tweeter with 3” midrange drivers and a 6.5″ 200W powered subwoofer for some intense bass.

50% Off Xbox Game Pass Ultimate

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The sheer amount of value you get with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is impressive. This membership gives you both Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass for PC. Xbox Live Gold is required for online gaming. Xbox Game Pass gives you access to a huge library of games that is free as long as you maintain your membership. The list includes AAA games that you can play as early as launch day. These include MLB The Show 21, FIFA 21, The Medium, and every Bethesda game ever. If you’ve also got a great gaming PC, Xbox Game Pass for PC offers games like Crusader Kings 3, Forza Horizon 4, Nier Automata, and more.

15% Off Uber Eats Gift Card Orders of $25 and Up

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COVID rates are significantly decreasing and people are starting to be able to eat out at restaurants, but being overcautious isn’t a bad thing. If you’re still confining yourself to your home and ordering in, you might want to take advantage of this deal. Simply buy an Uber Eats Gift Card valued at $25 or more and get 15% off when you apply coupon code “EATS“.

Mario Golf: Super Rush for Switch

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The new Mario Golf game was released just last week and today you can save 15% off. This is yet another great family friendly game from Nintendo. Choose from a roster of 16 characters and 6 different courses. Play locally or online against up to 3 other opponents. There’s even a story mode for those who want some kind of golf-driven adventure.

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Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out the IGN Deals articles and subscribe to the IGN Deals Twitter page.

Fortnite Week 4 will have demand you place missing person signs in Weeping Woods and Misty Meadows, but as is often the case, the island houses more of these collectibles than you’ll need in order to complete the Legendary Quest and earn 30,000 XP. if you’re looking for missing person sign locations, this guide will show you all eight spots to check. If you do it well enough, you’ll only need to visit one spot though.

Place Missing Person Signs In Weeping Woods

The challenge only requires you to find four of the eight total missing person sign locations, and with four n Weeping Woods, you could complete the whole challenge without leaving the campground. Look to place missing person signs in the following locations:

• On the outside back wall of the north lodge
• On the front door of the east lodge
• On the back door of the east lodge
• Next to the small snack shack by the river

Place Missing Person Signs In Misty Meadows

If instead your Battle Bus trajectory or other travels bring you to Misty Meadows, you can complete the challenge there instead, again finding four of the eight available missing person signs. Here’s where to look for them inside Misty Meadows:

• At the westside bus stop
• Against a white outdoor wall behind the Reboot Van
• Inside the deli across the bridge (look for the neon pig sign)
• Right across the street in front of the blue building with the red shutters

In the Fortnite story, the missing person signs are being placed to help locate Farmer Steel. He was last seen in Season 6 decrying the aliens’ destruction of his crops. It’s believed he may have been abducted for being such a vocal critic. However, given the mysterious and seemingly antagonistic nature of the Imagined Order, we can’t quite rule out the idea that Doctor Slone and the IO are leading some sort of false-flag operation. Time will tell, but not before more strange happenings come to the island, no doubt.

The story is taking center stage in Fortnite Season 7 and we’re loving it. If the story isn’t for you, we expect the Week 4 challenges and Week 4 Alien Artifacts are more your style.

Control, Remedy’s 2019 third-person shooter set in a trippy government facility, is getting a multiplayer spinoff game, Remedy announced Tuesday.

The spinoff, codenamed “Condor” will be a 4-player co-op “players vs. environment” game. Furthermore, it will be developed using Remedy’s proprietary Northlight engine, which Remedy used to develop Control.

In a press release, Remedy says it has agreed to co-publish and develop Condor with 505 Games, who previously worked with Remedy to publish Control in 2019. 505 Games has also published recent games like Ghostrunner, Death Stranding’s PC port, and Journey to the Savage Planet.

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Remedy also states that Condor’s initial development budget is 25 million euros, which will be split between Remedy and 505 Games. This puts it at approximately the same (or slightly less than) the reported budget of Control, which Remedy CEO Tero Virtala told GamesIndustry.biz was set at “less than 30 million euros.”

Finally, Remedy and 505 snuck in that they’ve also made high-level plans for a new bigger budget game set in the Control universe. This means Remedy is currently working on six games, including two set in the Control/Alan Wake universe and an unrevealed free-to-play co-op game called Vanguard.

In a separate blog post, Control game director Mikael Kasurinen says that Control is “first and foremost a world” with many different stories to tell. And while Remedy is known primarily as a single-player game developer, Remedy’s team has a long history of playing and loving multiplayer games and is confident they can translate that love into a proper experience.

“We get there is going to be skepticism about multiplayer. But I believe we can create shared experiences without compromising the unique DNA of who we are, or the stories we want to tell. Yes, we need to re-think our angles, our techniques, our mindset, but we see it as an exciting challenge: What would a Remedy multiplayer game look like?”

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It’s been a big couple of years for Remedy, who had their most financially successful year in 2020, despite not releasing a single game. The company has also expanded to more than 280 employees.

IGN gave Control our Game of the Year award for 2019, calling it “bombastic, bizarre, and beautiful.”

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/OOP for IGN.

Ever since the original Final Fantasy debuted in Japan on the NES on December 18, 1987, the series has become one of the most popular franchises in all of pop culture. Of course, a big part of the appeal of these JRPGs is the characters who make up your party and bring so much life to your journey. In honor of all these heroes, we thought we’d ask you to help decide which Final Fantasy party member is the best.

Is Cloud your favorite? How about Terra or Balthier? We’ve selected 95 permanent party members from the mainline entries (This means no Sephiroth or Beatrix as they were temporary party members!) and some extras from sequels/spin-offs to “Face-Off” against each other two at a time. Will you choose Tifa over Cecil? Or Noctis over Vivi? The choice is yours…

Click here to start voting in the Final Fantasy Party Member Face-Off!

What is a Face-Off?

Like the name suggests, a Face-Off pits two things against one another and you decide which one is the superior of the two. In this case, you are voting to determine who the best Final Fantasy party member is. It’s possible to see certain characters multiple times so you can keep voting for your favorites to ensure they get ranked higher than the rest. IGN’s resident team of Final Fantasy experts pre-selected 95 amazing party members for you to choose from the original Final Fantasy through Final Fantasy XV, with a few popular extras thrown in. These get randomly paired up and each time you pick a winner, it’s tracked.

How do you determine a winner?

When voting ends on July 6, we tally up the total number of “wins” and “losses” each Final Fantasy character has, and create a ranked list based on your choices that will go live on July 7. The character that won the most matchups will be crowned the “winner,” and in the event of a tied number of “wins,” the party member with the least “losses” will take the top spot. If you continue to keep voting for your favorite character, they’ll have a better chance of ranking high on the list. You can vote as many times as you want until the Face-Off closes.

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How do I know when I’ve clicked through everything?

It’s difficult to know when you’ve seen every Final Fantasy character included because they are matched randomly and there are so many possible match-ups. Playing until you vote for all your favorite party members or ensuring that certain characters don’t get in the winner’s circle are different options you can take with a Face-Off. By deciding the winner throughout all these matchups, you’re ensuring that your picks for the best Final Fantasy playable character will have a fighting chance to reach the top of the list.

Which Final Fantasy party members have you included?

The list of Final Fantasy party members has been decided by IGN staff, with characters from the original Final Fantasy through Final Fantasy XV included. We’ve also included a few characters from sequels and spin-offs, like Final Fantasy IV: The After Years, Final Fantasy XIII-2 and Crisis Core -Final Fantasy-, as many of these characters are important to those overall stories as well. We’ve decided to limit the face-off to permanent party members from primarily main series entries and their sequels/spin-offs, instead of all playable characters, as that would introduce some fan-favorite villains that temporarily joined certain parties and may skew results (Sephiroth!).

Also, we LOVE Final Fantasy XI and XIV as much as you, but we decided to include only the main series games that let you have a playable party, even though those MMOs have some incredible characters. Who knows, maybe they will show up in a future Face-Off?

Click here to start voting in the Final Fantasy Party Member Face-Off!

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For more on Final Fantasy, check out our review of the Yuffie-centric Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade – EPISODE INTERmission and details on the world, heroes, and story of Final Fantasy 16.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

The online action RPG Magic: Legends will be shut down on October 31, 2021, all before it had the chance to leave Open Beta.

Magic: Legends executive producer Steve Ricossa announced the news in a blog, saying that despite Magic: Legends missing the mark, he and the team are still proud of what they achieved.

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“It is with heavy hearts that we announce Magic: Legends will be shutting down on October 31, 2021,” Ricossa said. “All players who spent money in-game across Arc and the Epic Games Store during the Open Beta will be refunded their full purchase amounts. Servers will remain open for play until closing day, however we will be closing the Zen Shop effective immediately. Later this week, all items will instead be purchasable using Aether, our free in-game currency.”

Alongside thanking all the players who enjoyed Magic: Legends during its Alpha and Beta testing phases, Ricossa reassured fans that the team “learned several valuable lessons along the way, and we will use them to improve Cryptic’s future development efforts.”

The team also included an FAQ for those who still wish to play until October, which confirms that players will still be able to access Magic: Legends from the Epic Games Store and will be able to play until 11:59pm PT on October 31.

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It was also revealed that Magic: Legends will not makes its way to consoles or Steam, but all content in the game, aside those from the Zen Store, will be available until the game is shut down. However, the team will be pushing a game build out later this week that will make all ZEN Store items purchasable with free in-game currency.

In our review of Magic: Legends Open Beta, which launched in March 2021, we said that “A creative deck-building system elevates Magic: Legends above just another Diablo-style action RPG, but the performance issues, massive grind, and cash shop are the main problems preventing it from catching on.”

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.