Microsoft’s Forza Horizon series released new entries every two years since the start of the franchise in 2012 until this year’s Forza Horizon 5, which is coming three years after 2018’s Forza Horizon 4. Playground Games creative director Mike Brown explained recently that the extra year of development allowed the team to make “bigger investments” that contribute to help make Forza Horizon 5 a better sim and also a more accessible game for newcomers.
“The fact that we took three years rather than two, our usual two-year cycle, has allowed us to make some bigger investments than we otherwise normally would have been able to,” Brown said.
These investments include updates to Forza Horizon 5’s suspension and braking systems, which might not sound like very significant areas of focus, but Brown explained the ways in which suspension and braking can actually have a meaningful impact.
“We’ve completely rebuilt the way suspension works, which perhaps sounds like a small thing, but suspension is one of the main ways your wheels and the body of the car interact with the road surface,” Brown said. “So by working on our simulation to make the suspension behave in a much more authentic way, you might think it would make the game more challenging, but it’s actually the opposite that is true. Because the springs on the car now behave much more like they would on a real car, the cars are now able to react to the terrain in a much more authentic way which actually, whilst improving the simulation, also improves the accessibility, which is a great result.”
For braking, Brown said brakes will now more realistically grab the discs to provide a more authentic representation of braking. No longer will brakes lock up as frequently as they might have in past games, Brown said.
“Another area where we’ve been able to improve the physical model so when you’re really slamming on the brakes at high speed, the pads will grab the disc in a more gradual way, allowing the brakes to come on in a more realistic and authentic way to more gradually grab the disc and stops the brakes from locking up as they easily could have in previous games,” he said. “Again, that’s an area that improves the simulation, that is more accurate to real life, but it also makes the cars a little bit more accessible as well. A great improvement.”
Also during the interview, Brown discussed working with the Xbox Series X and S consoles, which he characterized as being “absolutely fantastic.” The raw horsepower of those machines gives the team at Playground more opportunities to hone in on specific details to help make the game more realistic.
“The experience working on the Xbox Series X and S, as a creative, it’s been absolutely fantastic. We’ve been able to achieve so much more with the way we build the world, the way we’re able to add in all those little details and just make everything look and feel so real,” Brown said.
“Almost all of our technology is built in partnership with Turn 10. They’re always pushing things forward. We’re always pushing things forward. Looking at ways that that technology can benefit both of our games. So yes, we are sharing technology with Turn 10. That is always true,” Brown said.
Forza Horizon 5 is set in Mexico, and Brown said the team at Playground has gone to great lengths to represent the country faithfully and with respect. The team visited Mexico years ago, before the pandemic, to conduct local research. Not only that, but the team made contacts in the country and this allowed them to gather more resources and assets from the country without having to get on a plane and fly there.
“We were really lucky in that as well that we were able to make a lot of contacts in Mexico in those trips so even if members of our team weren’t able to travel back there, we have people on the ground who were photographers and tour guides that we could contact and say, ‘Hey we’d really like to get more reference on [thing]’ and then they could go get that photographs or videos that we needed,” Brown said. “We had an audio team out there quite recently as well capturing ambient audio so each area of the map, each biome, has its own ambient audio suite which tries to recreate the feel of being in those places.”
Brown also pointed out how Playground is hoping to avoid Forza Horizon 5 playing on Mexican stereotypes.
“We’ve worked with a Mexican script writer and cultural consultant to ensure that we’re not playing off any Mexican stereotypes. We want this to be a game that when a Mexican plays it, they feel like it’s been made with care and love and I really feel like we’ve taken this very seriously,” Brown said. “And really wanted it to not feel like it was playing on those stereotypes. And instead feel like it was real and authentic and full of love.”
Forza Horizon 5, which features the AMG-1 Mercedes hypercar and the 2021 Ford Bronco Badlands on its cover, launches November 9 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. A brand-new extended gameplay trailer for Horizon 5 was released during the Xbox Gamescom briefing today, August 24, which covers the earliest section of the game. Check it out above.
Head into Fortnite any day of the week and in its real-money virtual store, the Item Shop, you’ll find a handful of character outfits, or “skins,” on offer for a limited time. Superheroes like Wonder Woman and Captain Marvel, athletes like LeBron James and Harry Kane, streamers like Ninja and Loserfruit, and so many more return every few weeks or months and are routinely spotted in any pre-match lobby performing TikTok dances, lighting the Bat-Signal, and singing the internet’s unofficial anthem, Rick Astley’s “Never Gonna Give You Up.”
The initiative to bridge the gap between Fortnite and, well, everything has been growing quickly over the last year. Among the dozens of Marvel, DC, and Star Wars heroes, Grammy-winning musicians, and otherworldly gaming icons like Master Chief and Kratos, some Fortnite players have been talented enough to earn a spot on the digital shelf not through their likeness, but through their artwork. Fan-made skins have been in the game since its early days, and today some of the game’s most beloved and oft-seen characters came from the minds of regular players.
How does one go from sharing fan art online to having their character concepts being made a reality in one of the planet’s biggest properties? I spoke to several creators to figure that out, and they all unknowingly echoed a similar sentiment: Epic is paying close attention.
SweetRabbitFN‘s initial concept of the skin today known as Brite Bomber received nearly 600 upvotes and dozens of comments, many of them promising to purchase his skin concept if it appeared in-game, in the game’s official subreddit last year, and it didn’t take long for Epic to reach out. “I got contacted two days [after posting the concept in 2020] and I literally jumped out of my bed when I saw the notification,” he told me. “At first, I thought it was fake, but when I checked the account, it was actually the legit Fortnite Reddit account that they use to communicate about updates and stuff.”
SweetRabbitFN noted that his original concept centered around a new original character clad in merchandise belonging to the popular Bomber character, who has to date appeared in many variations, or “snapshots” as they’re called in-universe, including the Beach Bomber, Dark Bomber, and Bubble Bomber.
After Epic bought the concept from him, the company would go on to turn her into Brite Bomber, who sports the classic Ramirez face and body model in a new Bomber variant style reminiscent of the several other Bomber characters Epic made in-house. “Honestly, I love the changes they did,” he assured me, admitting he didn’t know of the reimagining before he saw it in-game. Six months after Epic reached out, Brite Bomber made her debut in the Item Shop earlier this year.
Epic slid into SweetRabbitFN’s DMs just two days after his Brite Bomber concept appeared on Reddit.
SweetRabbitFN couldn’t divulge the terms of their agreement, but whatever the contract stated when signed many months ago, it’s not a deal that has left him jaded. “Epic is the best,” he said. “No other game company that I can think of has featured so many fan-made skins in-game.” How responsive is the company? I asked. “Very helpful and quick with responses.”
Though SweetRabbitFN’s deal comes more recently, these deals with fan artists seemed to begin in 2018. That was a pivotal year for Fortnite. It included the first major event for the game when Marvel’s Thanos appeared on the island, launching the game into its own stratosphere in terms of crossover potential which today has exploded exponentially. It was also the year that Epic Games was sued by Backpack Kid, an amateur rapper who claimed Epic stole his dance move, The Floss, and sold it as an emote without brokering any sort of deal with the artist. Later, Fresh Prince star Alfonso Ribeiro sued as well, when he saw Epic selling his famous Carlton dance in the game.
This led to Epic removing both dances from the game entirely. Today, when the company wants to include a dance move made famous online–usually on TikTok–the details of the in-game emotes mention their original creators by name, suggesting that these dancers, like concept artists, are now being negotiated with. It’s a practice that seems to be improving with time, but even today Epic still receives fair criticism from others, such as Innersloth, who feel the game’s recent Impostor mode crosses the line between inspiration into duplication.
For concept artist Nollobandz, it was most recently his original character Ava who was bought and reimagined by Epic as part of the Fortnite Crew Pack for July 2021. Players who subscribe to Fortnite Crew unlock one exclusive character every month, alongside additional cosmetics, a stipend of V-Bucks, and more. Ava, or Summer Skye as she was eventually named in-game, is the first Fortnite Crew Pack to come from the mind of a fan. Like SweetRabbitFN, Nollobandz praised Epic for the company’s responsiveness. “The way Epic connects with the creative community is awesome,” he said. “I’ve never seen another company or game really allow their players to get their ideas into the game like this.”
Nollobandz has seen several of his original concepts make it into the game since Epic first reached out in 2018. Included along with Summer Skye and Dark Rex are Eco, a walking monument to the Chapter 1 map, and Lyra, inspired heavily by the mythological Medusa. Three of those skins have debuted this year, and today Nollobandz says Epic is just a DM away. “I might pitch an idea every once in a while, ask a question, or they reach out to me,” he told me. “It’s definitely not an every day (or even every week) kind of thing, but the door for communication is still open and I am very grateful for that.”
Nollobandz’s Eco is a head-to-toe monument to the original Fortnite map.
While Nollobandz echoed SweetRabbitFN’s praise for Epic, he also reiterated that once an artist signs their concept over to Epic, they can lose sight of when or how it will appear. Creators are told when their concepts will debut and asked to stay tight-lipped until then, but after that initial run, even the artists don’t know when they’ll be back in the Item Shop.
This can complicate things for artists because they, like other content creators in the Fortnite world, are often given Creator Codes, which allows them a portion of the earnings Epic makes when players buy cosmetic items using their codes. Naturally, many players elect to use the code belonging to an artist when buying that artist’s creation, but artists can’t easily promote that buying behavior when they don’t know when their own skins may return.
Artists also sell their concepts as-is, but Epic reserves the right to alter them as it sees fit, which is how an original character like Ava is eventually sold as Summer Skye, a variant of an already existing character from a 2020 battle pass. It seems even with Fortnite’s open-door policy, which basically allows for anyone from any property to appear on the island and be given the narrative cover of a sci-fi multiverse, the company still has some preferences for when to introduce wholly new characters and when to give someone like the ubiquitous Jonesy or Ramirez a new outfit.
For what it’s worth, Nollobandz didn’t seem upset about any of this, saying, “If you make concept art, especially for the biggest game on the planet, you have to be open to the idea that some things will change and not every little detail will make it through.” Still, it seems to me like one area where Epic can be even more forthcoming with its fan art community.
While some fan-made characters appear in the Item Shop and others in the Fortnite Crew, perhaps the greatest honor is to have your custom skin appear in a seasonal battle pass, and for RexSadio, that’s what happened last summer. The charmingly strange body-building cat Meowscles is an original concept from RexSadio, but new players today would find his face plastered on billboards across the island, on the bathing suits of other characters, and more. Like Tomatohead and Aura before him, it feels like he’s always been a part of Fortnite, despite coming from someone outside of Epic.
As with the others, Epic first reached out to RexSadio via Reddit. “I was in Hawaii for vacation at the time and as I was lying down on the sofa trying to cool myself down with an electric fan,” he told me. “I noticed a message request on my Reddit account from an Epic Games employee. I remember having mixed feelings about this because we were only in Season 3 at the time and I had never heard of or seen a concept being added into the game before. So I decided to inspect the employee’s Reddit account and I was surprised. The employee was legit!” He added that he tried to contain himself when he replied in order to “act cool and professional.”
RexSadio’s first skins to make it into Fortnite were Scoundrel and Jailbird, a pair of common crooks who were among the earliest fan-made skins to come to Fortnite in 2018. It was the fall of 2019, about a year and a half after RexSadio’s debut, when Epic reached out once more regarding his “Buff Cat” concept, “and four months later [Meowscles] was announced as one of the agents for the [spy-themed] battle pass!” he exclaimed. Meowscles has since been reimagined by Epic in a Golden Age cartoon style, Toon Meowscles, while RexSadio works on a follow-up of his own, “Pawlice,” a critter working in law enforcement who is on a mission to hunt down Jailbird and Scoundrel.
Meowscles, shown here with his son Kit, is among the most integrated fan-made skins in Fortnite history.
Like the others, RexSadio had no complaints about Epic’s process when working with previously amateur artists. “They have given so many creative artists out there amazing opportunities [and they] are super responsive and helpful when it comes to collaborating,” he told me.
Though I was able to confirm that Epic pays for artist concepts, those I spoke to remained tight-lipped about just how much they receive. Details such as whether they get residual payments with successive Item Shop appearances, and whether Epic pays a flat fee or perhaps more for a concept it knows will be featured more prominently remain mysteries. I dwell on these questions because of the leaked document that revealed the pay disparity Epic would pay publishers for their games to appear as free games in the Epic Games Store.
All of this fan involvement came to a head just this summer when Epic announced the Concept Royale contest, which invited fans to submit their character concepts to be used in this holiday season’s in-game event. The related hashtag indicates that Epic is looking beyond Reddit for its fan-made skins these days. Hundreds, if not thousands, of players submitted their creations over the last several weeks. Epic just revealed the winners last week, and for once did reveal a sum of $2,500 in prize money for the winners. However, we can reasonably assume that these skins operate on a different pay scale since they’ll be unlocked for free when players take on the wintry challenges later this year, as opposed to most other fan concepts which are sold for real money with each Item Shop appearance.
Congratulations to @lbdart_ and @AltaCalls, our Concept Royale winners 🎉 We can’t wait to see their concepts turned into in-game Outfits this Winter. And a big thank you to everyone who shared their chilly creations with us. We are always in awe of your creativity 😍 pic.twitter.com/QVTCh2WvRw
Like the others, the Concept Royale winners lbdart_ and AltaCalls had only glee to share regarding their concepts being selected as the winners. “I really do feel so honored that the Fortnite team chose my concept over so many other amazing concepts created by incredibly talented artists,” said AltaCalls, who said his Forager concept is among the most challenging he’s ever designed. lbdart_, or Ladiale, meanwhile, said she “cried and screamed with emotion when I got told I was chosen as a winner since this is my first concept ever. It’s a dream I never thought I could accomplish.”
In each of these five cases, among others I learned of, the story was always told the same: an artist would share their concept art online, Epic would rather promptly reach out and work out an agreement which at least sometimes involved an NDA and always involved a paid deal of an undisclosed amount in exchange for the character concept, all before Epic would debut the fan creation in the game, typically within a few months.
Some artists would submit several concepts before Epic reached out for their first commission, while others have already seen several come to the game. Many other artists have yet to hear from the company at all, of course, but in a community this large with plans that seem to include world domination of a sort, it’s notable that anyone at Epic is even following along.
It gives me a sense, as an outsider watching it all, that no talented artist is wasting their time. Whereas with most other game communities, exceptional fan art can earn you a retweet and some praise at most, Fortnite’s flexible story universe and Epic’s eagle-eyed social team can combine to turn any artist’s concept into the next Fortnite star–though just how much that earns its creator remains an open question.
While some classes in Aliens: Fireteam Elite are geared for a gung-ho approach to taking on the Xenomorph hordes, the Technician is a soldier with a skillset that keeps cannon fodder at bay so that their teammates can focus on bigger threats. Equipped with the ability to turn any area into a secure point with their turret and able to hinder any enemy advance, Technicians bring crowd control to a fight and pairs well with other classes such as the Demolisher or Gunner. Here’s a look at how best to use the Technician when you’re deep in enemy territory.
Like several other classes, Technicians have access to pistols and close-quarter weapons. When you start out with this class, the default guns will be a Magnum pistol and a shotgun, although you’re able to swap these out for more automatic options like submachine-guns,
Abilities
Charged coils
Turret
The Technician’s Charged Coils are a handy method for slowing down enemies and can be thrown directly into them or placed as a trap on surfaces. When dealing with armored opponents like Xenomorph Warriors or Praetorians, this ability comes in especially handy for staying out of harm’s way while the rest of your team can destroy its thick armor. As for the turret, it’s a handy tool for drawing enemy aggression away from you and it has several upgrades that allow it to fire further, faster, and harder. Or you can just swap it out for a flamethrower turret, which will apply a burn effect on anything that isn’t melted by its initial attack.
Unique ability – Cross-platform synergy
Allies standing near your turret take 10% less damage. When you stand near your turret, it regenerates 5% of its health every second.
Core perks
Technician Handgun Training – Handgun accuracy and weak-point damage increased by 15%.
Technician CQW Training – Accuracy and reload speed of CQWs increased by 15%.
Resonating Impact – Turret gains a 10% chance to cause stumble effect, stumbled enemies take 10% more damage for six seconds.
Scalable Machine Learning – Turret gains 10% reload speed and stability when an enemy is killed, stacks up to five times.
Incinerator turret – More durable flamethrower turret replaces regular version.
Heavy turret – Replaces regular turret with version that deals massive damage but has a decreased rate of fire.
Compatibility Matrix – Deal 10% more damage when this ability is active, stacks up to three times.
Agile practices – Increase move and reload speed by 10% for eight seconds, does not stack.
Collaborative analytics – Cross-platform synergy also increases ally accuracy and recharge speeds by 10%.
Dynamic delivery systems – Turret fires 10% faster and does 25% more damage to armor.
Technician CQW expertise – Magazine capacity and ADS movement speed of CQWs increased by 15%.
Technician handgun expertise – Handgun fire rate and reload speed increased by 15%.
Modular integration – Each stack of Scalable machine learning increases accuracy and fire rate by 5%.
Deep Leverage – Any target affected by Resonating Impact from you or your turret has a 15% chance to be knocked down, tis can only be applied once every 10 seconds.
Technician handgun mastery – Increase range and aim assist of handguns by 15%.
Technician CQW mastery – Increase fire rate and stability of CQWs by 15%.
Real-time resource reclamation – When a turret is destroyed, it explodes and deals damage. Base recharge time of turret reduced by five seconds.
Hyperlocal logistics – Turret health regeneration rate increased when you are near it, fire rate increased by 10%.
Strategy
The Technician’s core strategy should be focused on getting a turret up and using it as a focal point for your team. As it’ll be a prime target for enemies, that gives the Technician plenty of opportunities to throw in a few Charged Coils to slow down the quicker Xenomorph runners and pick them off before they get too close, as the class synergizes well with close to medium-range weapons. While the Demolisher and Gunner excel as damage-dealers, Technician’s are more reliant on the tools at their disposal to survive ambushes and once the turret has been sufficiently upgraded, it’s essentially a fourth member in a fireteam that plays extremely well with the Medic’s healing pod and the Recon loadout’s pod that supplies a steady stream of ammo.
Its variants may be more situational, but in the right conditions, they excel at clearing the field. For example, the slow-firing Heavy turret may not be great against a regular swarm of Xenomorphs but it can wipe out entire squads of Synthetics when deployed correctly and with a high-ground advantage. As for the Flamethrower turret, it works brilliantly in corridors with chokepoints, unleashing fiery death on anything caught in its path.
Overall, the Technician functions well as back-up to heavy-hitters in your squad, providing covering fire, buffs, and traps that can whittle enemy forces down with precision.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite is out now on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S and PC. For more on the game, you can check out our review and our other guides that’ll get you prepped for the fight ahead.
Forza Horizon games always begin with a showcase introduction, and the fifth installment goes wilder than ever before, with the game literally dropping you into a volcano.
Shown off during the Gamescom Xbox Stream, the game’s introduction begins with a 2020 Ford Bronco Badlands reversing out of a plane and parachuting into the game’s Gran Caldera volcano during winter, seeing snow and lava meat in columns of steam. It’s a confident opening, to say the least.
But it’s only a quarter of the introduction – the intro includes three other cars airdropping into the new Mexican map, from the countryside in a dust storm, to a flamingo-filled jungle, to a coastal road that leads you directly into the game’s central festival site.
Forza Horizon’s introduction events have gained interest throughout the series, and this is the most out-of-the-ordinary yet, acting as a showcase for the Xbox Series X’s power, and the game’s variety of locations at the same time. Two of the cars involved, the Mercedes-AMG ONE and the Ford Bronco Badlands, are Forza Horizon 5’s cover vehicles, too.
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].
Microsoft has announced the Forza Horizon 5 Limited Edition Xbox Controller. Revealed as part of the Xbox Gamescom showcase, the new limited edition controller has a bright, funky scheme to match the vibe of Forza Horizon 5.
The translucent yellow front panel is splattered with a vibrant spray paint-like design. Blue and pink accent colours are used on the face buttons, analogue sticks, and main triggers, while the back and bumper buttons are a white to offset the brightness of the front. Black grips should help keep it in your hands while you fight the wheel.
Sea of Thieves’ latest collaboration is an unexpected one. During Xbox’s Gamescom 2021 presentation, Rare announced a special event featuring, of all things, Borderlands.
The event’s centerpiece is a special “Mayhem” ship inspired by Borderlands. Basically, it’s a pirate ship cast in Borderlands’ rusty red and yellow, with the familiar logo on the sails.
It’s not the most obvious collaboration given that Borderlands’ brand of post-apocalyptic sci-fi is the diametric opposite of Sea of Thieves’ pirate fantasy. But they have a similar sense of humor, so the two might not be as far removed as one might suppose.
In any event, Sea of Thieves has found plenty of success with its collaborations of late, particularly its Pirates of Caribbean event featuring Jack Sparrow (but not Johnny Depp). We’ll see if it can replicate that success with the Mayhem event, which runs from August 24 to September 7.
This announcement is part of our coverage of Gamescom 2021. For lots more news, check out our Gamescom 2021 hub, which will be continually updated throughout the show.
A PlayStation Store listing for Destiny 2‘s new Witch Queen expansion has seemingly spoiled Bungie’s big surprise announcements today ahead of the big Witch Queen showcase event. A listing for the expansion was published on the Australian PlayStation Store, and it reveals the release date, new gameplay information, and pre-order bonuses, among other things.
TrueTrophies viewed the listing and has all the details. The release date is going to be February 22, 2022, or 2/22/22, according to the leak. The date shown on the listing is actually February 23, which some remarked was odd because that’s a Wednesday when Destiny 2 updates normally drop on Tuesdays. But this is could be due to the fact that it’s an Australian listing.
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The listing also reveals Witch Queen’s setting–Savathûn’s Throne World. The page also mentions how the expansion will take players into “Savathûn’sThrone World to uncover the mystery of how she and her Lucent Hive stole the Light.”
A new weapon type, the Glaive, is also coming to Destiny 2 in Witch Queen, apparently. This weapon is capable of delivering “powerful melee combos, projectile attacks, and a deployable energy shield.” A new weapon crafting system is coming, too, according to the leak. As for the pre-order bonuses, these apparently include the Throne World Exotic Ghost Shell, Enigma Exotic emote, and a new emblem. The leak is based on the Witch Queen’s Deluxe Edition, so keep that in mind.
Spider-Man actor Tom Holland has reacted to the release of Spider-Man: No Way Home’s first trailer, saying he’s overwhelmed by the love and support and teasing that what we’ve seen so far is “just the tip of the iceberg.”
Posting to his Instagram story from an airport, Holland said that since he’s been flying for the past 10 hours, he had his brother Harry post the trailer to his account. After stepping off the plane, his phone was buzzing.
“I turned my phone on and my phone has gone mental. The love and support you guys have shown the film is so exciting,” he said. “Honestly that is just the tip of the iceberg. You have no idea what else is to come. I am so excited to share more with you guys.”
“It feels so good to be back with Spider-Man, to be showing you trailers, to be having films coming out.”
The No Way Home trailer, which leaked before it was officially released, showed Holland’s Spider-Man teaming up with Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch). After the events of Spider-Man: Far From Home, everyone knows Spider-Man’s true identity, and this is causing issues for Peter Parker. So he asks Strange to cast a spell that makes everyone forget that Mysterio revealed his identity to the world.
For some reason, Strange complies, and the world descends into madness. Alfred Molina’s Doc-Ock shows up at the end of the trailer, which suggests a multiverse because the character died in Spider-Man 2 and is now back…somehow.
Microsoft has shared more details on the next Halo Infinite beta test, and it’ll be bigger than the first one, it seems. As part of the Halo Infinite August Development Update video, 343 live producer Sam Hanshaw confirmed that the game’s next beta test, or “flight,” will include Big Team Battle and 4v4 PvP. This is a big change from the game’s first test, which was mostly limited to matches against bots.
The next Halo Infinite test will have the same content as the first beta, which includes bots and the weapon drills tutorial system, as well as Big Team battle and 4v4 Slayer. At least this is the current plan; everything is subject to change. What’s more, if you didn’t get into the first test, your odds might be better the second time around, as Hanshaw confirmed even more invitations are going out this time.
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“Another big scale flight like this, with even more people invited. We’re going to include the same content we had this time–the bots, and the weapon drills–but we’re also targeting a full release of 4v4 PvP action and we want to go even bigger and have Big Team Battle,” Hanshaw said. “So, those are our targets for the next flight to come.”
Hanshaw also confirmed in the video that Halo Infinite will get beta tests for new features after the game is officially released. This will seemingly be similar to how Halo: The Master Chief Collection invites Halo Insiders to test new features and content before they launch for everyone.
In other news, 343 has announced that Halo Infinite will not have Forge or campaign co-op at launch. “Yes, some of the things we won’t be able to do for launch, but that’s part of being a service,” Microsoft’s Joseph Staten said. “And the good news is we have a year-long, post-launch content and feature roadmap already worked out. You know, we’re already working on those things now. So yeah, some things won’t land in a launch timeframe, but some things will just roll out over time. That’s part of this Halo Infinite journey that we’re kicking off together with fans.”
Halo Infinite will launch this holiday season for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Whenever the game does launch, multiplayer will be free and it’ll be available on Xbox Game Pass.
More Xbox news is on tap for today August 24, as Microsoft’s Gamescom briefing is scheduled to begin at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET. Keep checking back with GameSpot for all the big news.
Following a leak, the official teaser trailer for Spider-Man: No Way Home is here and the internet has gone into overdrive. Fans across social media have been eagerly breaking down the trailer ever since it arrived, and this has led to some members of the community debating the appearance of one particular moment, and which classic Spidey villain might be making an appearance.
This is your friendly neighborhood spoiler warning. If you want to know nothing about Spider-Man: No Way Home, turn back now.
The first look at Spider-Man: No Way Home teases multiple bad guys across its relatively short duration. MCU fans were quick to acknowledge confirmation of Alfred Molina’s Doctor Octopus in the film and also point out homages to Willem Dafoe’s Green Goblin and Jamie Foxx’s Electro. But one smaller moment has fans arguing about whether we could be seeing The Lizard or, more unexpectedly, Venom making an appearance.
A blink-and-you’ll-miss-it section of the trailer sparked the debate. At around the 2:27 mark, the trailer shows a short shot of a still-to-be-revealed villain seemingly crashing into a Doctor Strange-conjured shield behind Peter Parker. Many immediately took the shadowy, hulking figure to signal the return of The Lizard from 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man.
The inclusion of The Lizard would make sense based upon what we know about the film’s villains so far. A number of short sections of the trailer suggest that a lineup of villains including Doctor Octopus, Green Goblin, Electro, and the Sandman could be returning from across Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man movies. With Curt Connor’s Lizard featuring in 2012’s The Amazing Spider-Man, and the creature in the trailer letting out a low, rumbling roar, this would make for a sensible cameo in the trailer.
As with anything on the internet though, some people disagree, pointing out that the dark figure could instead be Spider-Man’s symbiote nemesis, Venom. Eddie Brock was previously a part of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 back in 2007. The Marvel villain has since seen his own entirely separate franchise of films which star Tom Hardy as Brock, but have never crossed over with Tom Holland’s take on Spider-Man.
Sony has previously indicated that there is “actually a plan” to connect Sony’s Spider-Man Universe to the MCU, a statement that will only fuel the rumors that the dark figure could instead be Venom. A number of fans across social media believe that the character is Venom, with many pointing to what looks like a frame that could show Venom’s eye markings.
However, fans likely won’t find out whether the cameo in the trailer is Venom or Lizard until closer to the film’s release in December this year. For more on the Spider-Man: No Way Home, why not check out this article where we break down the film’s trailer further.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN currently watching the Spider-Man No Way Home trailer on repeat. You can follow him on Twitter.
