Category: Games

Following rumors last week that the Oculus Quest 2 would receive a new storage model configuration, Facebook has announced today that the base model of its flagship VR headset will receive a storage bump.

As noted in the blog post, beginning August 24, all Quest 2 VR headsets will come at a minimum storage configuration of 128GB, replacing the previous model which included 64GB of storage inside the head-mounted display. Facebook also confirmed that the Quest 2’s base model will remain at the $299 price while the 256GB model will continue to retail for $399.

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Facebook also confirmed that beginning on August 24, all newly created Quest 2 headsets will also include a new silicone face mask. The company decided to replace the face masks on the VR headset following a recall announcement after some Quest 2 owners reported skin irritation from their headsets.

“As more people got into VR with Quest 2, we started receiving reports that a very small percentage of Quest 2 customers experienced some skin irritation after using the removable foam facial interface that comes with Quest 2 and is also sold separately, including as a part of the Fit Pack,” Facebook Reality Labs head Andrew Bosworth said in the recent blog post. “While the rate of reports is small and the majority of reported cases are minor, we’re committed to ensuring our products are safe and comfortable for everyone who uses them.”
As part of the voluntary recall announcement, Facebook confirmed that current Quest 2 and Fit Pack owners can receive a free silicone cover that will fit over the Quest 2’s facial interface after you remove the current foam mask. You can request a new silicone face cover by heading to its official website.

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

Jungle Cruise premieres in theaters and on Disney+ Premier Access on Friday, July 30.

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Jungle Cruise is one heck of a summertime ride, thanks in large part to the delightfully memorable duo at its center. Co-stars Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt anchor the rollicking adventure with superb on-screen chemistry and together, they help this ramshackle trek into the Amazon soar.

Jungle Cruise — the first Disney theme park attraction to get the big picture action/adventure treatment since Pirates of the Caribbean — may get bogged down a tiny bit during its climax, doubling down on CGI action until the film starts to lose some of its life and charm, but that’s a small quibble in the grand scheme of this fun and refreshing caper. Johnson and Blunt are tremendous together, capable of bickering and butting heads while still being believably tethered and emotionally connected to one another.

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The film didn’t need the gentle romance presented here, but director Jaume Collet-Serra makes it work, and both Johnson and Blunt earn each stolen glance. Johnson also, when he wants to, has a way of being so charismatic that you forget he’s an insanely proportioned individual. Sure, the script will occasionally remind you of this, but his character, the lightly scheming river skipper Frank, is winningly charming, even when he’s trying to pull a clever con.

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Blunt, too, looks to be enjoying herself immensely here. As the heroic and headstrong botanist Dr. Lily Houghton, she embodies the craftiness and scholarliness of an Indiana Jones, sometimes getting by on her wits and sometimes scraping by on pure luck. There’s a bouncy, cartoonish element to the action, harkening back to old matinee serials of the 1930s and, in turn, the aforementioned Indiana Jones (referring to the more comedic action in Last Crusade and not the grimmer fare of the first two films). It’s a mix of roughhousing and slapstick that never feels as false or phony as it should, and James Newton Howard’s winning score presents it all with a punchy playfulness.

Fans of the actual Jungle Cruise (which is now in the midst of a remake/remodel) will spot a bunch of sweet and goofy Easter eggs, the first and foremost being Frank’s penchant for puns. And Johnson makes that work too, bless him. Once Lily and her posh brother McGregor (a very funny Jack Whitehall) find Frank, and we briefly encounter a loud and sunburned Paul Giamatti, the movie sets sail for forbidden corners of the Amazon. Over the course of their journey, we find that this big-budget studio release has a sneaky, surprising spark to it and an abundance of heart.

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The film’s villains are the unique tag team of a quirky German aristocrat played by Jesse Plemons and undead conquistador played by Édgar Ramírez (part of the CGI pile-on elements). Plemons is truly bizarre and, in any other scenario, would be a scene-stealer, but the story’s guiding light, and most enjoyable players, are Johnson, Blunt and Whitehall. The film is at its strongest whenever the Houghtons are there, Frank is there, or they’re all three together.

Jungle Cruise runs about two hours and, sure, with that comes a few dips here and there. The backstory/mythology surrounding the jungle and the conquistadors (i.e. why Ramirez is a barely present snake man) feels a bit dry, but the script is witty in ways that help squeak us through the set pieces. Clever dialogue pops in to punctuate just about everything, making for a movie that breezes by, distracting and diverting in all the best escapist ways.

In perhaps the most bizarre twist to come from M. Night Shyamalan, Fortnite players can now try to escape from the setting of the horror director’s latest movie, Old.

While it’s not clear what mechanics will be in play on the map (like an ever-aging Jonesy), players will have to escape the idyllic beach. According to a post from Epic on the custom map, players will have to find resources, craft tools, and beat the clock to escape. The map can either be played solo or with six other players.

The Old-inspired map in Fortnite can only be played in the game’s Creative mode. To access it, simply start the game up and select the “Creative” option in the game selection menu. After that, press the big “Play” button and select “Island Code.” From there, all you have to do is enter the following code into the menu: 0761-4089-5654.

Alternatively, you can load up the Old map in-game via the Welcome Hub. Once you’re there, simply approach a featured island and enter the same code found above.

Old was originally revealed during last year’s Super Bowl with the premise of a family arriving on a beach where time passes at an increased rate. If you’re wondering whether or not the movie is worth watching now that it’s released, you can read our Old review, where GameSpot writer Michael Rogeau calls the movie “an effective thriller that fully delivers on its premise.”

On the other hand, if you’re eager to find out what the classic M. Night Shyamalan twist is this time around, we have a full breakdown of the movie.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife is set to arrive in theaters on November 11, 2021, and looks to continue the story of the franchise as it picks up years later after the events of 1989’s Ghostbusters 2. While there will be new characters in the film, it will also see the return of much of the original cast.

Set in the small town of Summerville, Ghostbusters: Afterlife tells the story of Carrie Coon’s Callie, a single mom who left Chicago with her two children after hearing of her long-estranged father’s passing — a father she never even knew. When the three settle in, they find out they are now connected to a team of paranormal investigators named the Ghostbusters and that their father/grandfather may have been one of its key members.

In celebration of the film’s second official trailer, which you can see below, we’ve compiled a comprehensive rundown of who’s appearing in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Be sure to keep coming back as we’ll be regularly updating this article as we learn more about the cast of characters who ain’t afraid of no ghosts.

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Bill Murray

Bill Murray is officially returning as Dr. Peter Venkman in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and we get the briefest of teases of his character in the latest trailer. Murray is one of the original cast members of 1984’s Ghostbusters and he is joined by many of his old co-stars in this new film. Murray has known Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s director Jason Reitman since he was a child and praised the script of this latest entry.

“The script is good. It’s got lots of emotion in it. It’s got lots of family in it, with through lines that are really interesting,” Murray said. “It’s gonna work.”

Murray also shared how uncomfortable it actually is to be a real-life Ghostbuster, as the equipment is much heavier than you’d think.

“When you put that gear on, it’s so uncomfortable. It’s so heavy, just to stand there with that weight on your back, tilting your spine,” Murray said while reportedly rolling his eyes. “And we wore them for a long time.”

Dan Aykroyd

Dan Aykroyd, Dr. Raymond Stantz himself, is also returning for Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and much like Bill Murray, really loved the film’s new script.

“Jason Reitman wrote a beautiful, heartfelt script that takes the real DNA from the first two movies and transfers that directly to the third, the next generation,” Aykroyd said. “It hands the legacy off to a new generation of stars, and players, and actors, and character.”

Aykroyd also shared that the film is going to be a bit scary, a bit thought-provoking, and a bit heartfelt. Furthermore, he promises that Ghostbusters: Afterlife will “recognize” the late Harold Ramis — the actor who played Dr. Egon Spengler — in “some way.”

Ernie Hudson

Ernie Hudson will be returning as Dr. Winston Zeddemore in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. He was the fourth member of the Ghostbusters team, joining after he saw a job advertisement in the wanted ads. He is one of the most spiritual and religious of the Ghostbusters and is an expert in Egyptian history.

Since Ghostbusters, Hudson has appeared in such films and shows at Oz as Warden Leo Glynn, L.C. Duncan in The Family Business, and Albrecht in The Crow.

Sigourney Weaver

Sigourney Weaver, who played Dana Barrett in the first two Ghostbusters films, will be reprising her role in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Director Jason Reitman confirmed this was the next chapter in the original franchise and not a reboot, which paves the way for us to revisit some of our favorite characters years later.

While we don’t know much about where her character is in this new movie, she did confirm that “it’s going to be crazy working with the guys again!”

Weaver, who played Ripley in the Alien franchise prior to Ghostbusters, has had a prolific career since the original films and has starred as Dr. Grace Augustine in Avatar, Gwen DeMarco in Galaxy Quest, and much more. She also won Golden Globes for her work in Gorillas in the Mist and Working Girl.

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Annie Potts

Annie Potts’ Janine Melnitz is another original Ghostbusters character who will be making a new appearance in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, giving a touchstone for fans of the ’80s film while bringing the franchise to the modern day.

Potts continued her acting career following the original films and can currently be seen as Connie ‘Meemaw’ Tucker in Young Sheldon. She also lent her voice to the Toy Story films as Bo Peep and was nominated for a Golden Globe for her work in Corvette Summer.

Carrie Coon

Carrie Coon will be playing a brand new character named Callie in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and is the single mother of Finn Wolfhard’s Trevor and Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe. She inherits a farm from a father she didn’t know, who we now know is the late Dr. Egon Spengler.

Carrie Coon began her career in theater and was nominated for a Tony Award for her work in Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? She then had her breakout roles in film in Gone Girl and on TV in the Leftovers as Nora Durst and as Gloria Burgle in Fargo’s third season. She also played Proxima Midnight in Avengers: Infinity War.

Paul Rudd

Speaking of Marvel, Ant-Man’s Paul Rudd is also part of Ghostbusters: Afterlife’s cast as a teacher named Mr. Grooberson. Director Jason Reitman said he’s been wanting to work with Paul Rudd since his short film Gulp opened for Wet Hot American Summer at Sundance 2001.

While Rudd has starred in the MCU as Ant-Man, he’s also been the star of such other films as Clueless, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, The 40-Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up, and much more.

Mckenna Grace

Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe is the daughter of Carrie Coon’s Callie and is the granddaughter of Dr. Egon Spengler. Grace has been acting since the age of six, and has already had roles in Captain Marvel as the younger version of the titular character, the younger version of Sabrina Spellman in Netflix’s Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, and earned a nomination for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Drama Series for her role as Esther Keyes in Hulu’s The Handmaid’s Tale.

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Finn Wolfhard

Stranger Things’ Finn Wolfhard is set to play Trevor in Ghostbusters: Afterlife and is the son of Carrie Coon’s Callie and brother of Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe. Wolfhard is no stranger to playing characters in terrifying situations, as he also played Richie Tozier in both It and It Chapter Two.

Logan Kim

Logan Kim is playing the role of Podcast in Ghostbusters: Afterlife, and he is considered to be “the truest believer in the film and the heart of the movie.” He is also a classmate of Mckenna Grace’s Phoebe.

Logan Kim is a relatively new actor, and his only other credits on IMDB are for The Grandson in Home Movie: The Princess Bride.

Celeste O’Connor

Celeste O’Connor is playing Lucky, a classmate of Finn Wolfhard’s character Trevor. She appears to be an employee of Spinners Roller Hop, as revealed by an image from the film.

O’Connor played Nyla Chones in Freaky, Paloma in Selah and the Spades, Teen Abbie in Irreplaceable You, and Amy in Wetlands.

Oliver Cooper

Oliver Cooper is playing Elton in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. While we don’t know much about his character, there are those who believes he bears a striking resemblance to Harold Ramis and his character Dr. Egon Spengler.

Oliver Cooper starred as Costa in 2012’s Project X and made appearances on such TV series as Californication, Red Oaks, Valley of the Boom, and The Coop.

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Bokeem Woodbine

Sheriff Domingo in Ghostbusters: Afterlife is played by Bokeem Woodbine. Besides his name revealing that he is a sheriff, we don’t know much about his character.

We do know that Woodbine played Mike Milligan in Fargo’s fourth season, Uncle Earl in Queen & Slim, Herman Schultz/Shocker in Spider-Man: Homecoming, and that he will be playing a character named Soren-066 in the upcoming Halo series.

Marlon Kazadi

Marlon Kizadi is playing a character by the name of Thickneck in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. Kizadi has made guest appearances as Malcolm on Riverdale, as Omar in Child’s Play, and as Taylor in Chained.

Tracy Letts

Tracy Letts, who is the husband of Carrie Coon, is playing Jack in Ghostbusters: Afterlife. The Lady Bird actor and playwright actually secured the role when director Jason Reitman was looking for someone to fill in a smaller role for the film.

“My wife Carrie is in… the new ‘Ghostbusters’ movie coming out in the summer, and we were there in Calgary while she was shooting it, and a role became available, and so I was able to jump in and play a small part in it myself,” he said.

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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.

Welcome to the Reapers’ Game, Players! Neo: The World Ends With You is out now, and we’re here to give you some advice to help get your adventure off on the right foot. Whether you’re a complete newcomer to the Shibuya Underground or an older fan who may have forgotten a thing or two with time, our starter guide should help you keep in step with the beat of Neo: TWEWY’s unique gameplay.

Keep Pushing Buttons

Neo: TWEWY has an action-based battle system, but what’s unique is that you can control all of the characters at once by pressing their assigned attack buttons. The best way to fight is by using lots of button presses in tandem to lock down enemies and score combos. For example, with a PS4 controller, if you have a mash attack set to square, a charge attack set to L1, and a hold attack set to R2, you can be pressing all of those buttons at the same time: hold R2 to launch a sustained attack to keep an enemy stunned while charging on L1 and rapid-pressing square, then release L1 to finish off your team attack with a charged strike once the other attacks run their course.

After you charge your Groove meter and execute a special attack, don’t let up on the normal button-press strikes while the big attack is going down! You can still get in additional hits while the special is playing out. Use this opportunity to maximize damage and even get some of your Groove back!

Set Up Your Pin Loadout For Optimal Beatdrops

There are lots of pins to collect in Neo: TWEWY, each with different inputs and effects. Pins with high attack power and pins that confer bad status effects onto enemies are nice, but the most valuable aspect of a pin is how well it functions to build up your team’s Groove. When Groove is at a peak, you can unleash your team’s most powerful attacks.

When attacking with a pin, there will be a point where you can “drop the beat” by switching your attacking character, which raises your team’s Groove and, eventually, enables superpowered strikes. The beatdrop trigger varies from pin to pin, but it usually happens when an enemy is launched, slammed to the ground, stunned, pushed back, or hit by several attacks in a row.

Some enemies, usually larger/heavier foes, are harder to stagger or juggle, making beatdrop opportunities rarer. In these cases, focus more on small foes to build Groove, then switch to the big target.

Some pins are easier to get beatdrop gains off of than others, particularly those with many shoulder button input multi-hit attacks. Certain pin combos are great for raising Groove quickly, too. Experimentation and finding out what kind of pins you like to use is key–if you don’t like using a certain pin type or if you have trouble dropping beats, you should consider switching to another pin, even if it has lower attack power. You’re not obligated to use or master every pin, after all… unless you really want all of those Achievements.

Get Rich Quick By Lowering Your Level

There’s good money to be made selling duplicate pins you don’t plan on leveling. But fighting Noise over and over to get pins can be pretty tedious. Fortunately, there’s a way to get lots of pins to pawn very quickly–but it does involve risk.

By pressing pause, you’ll enter a menu where you can adjust difficulty and your team’s level. By lowering your level, you’ll decrease your team’s max HP–but your base drop rate will multiply by quite a bit, meaning you’ll get more pins as a reward. Important to note: Difficulty doesn’t affect drop rate, but does affect the types of pins that drop.

Another way to increase pin drops is by chaining together encounters. Run around and attract a bunch of Noise to you, then start a fight when you see the chain number indicator. (Be careful, if you go too long without bringing another enemy into the chain, the battle will auto-start.) You will then fight a string of encounters, with your team HP carrying over from one fight to the next and each battle getting a bit tougher. If you survive this gauntlet, you’ll be rewarded with a massive pile of pins to collect. Learning to chain and fight well without losing much HP will make you lots of yen very quickly!

Keep On Shoppin’

A few days into the game, you’ll be able to start shopping for pins, books, music, and clothes. Clothes shopping is particularly important, as your gear provides both stat increases and extra abilities if your Style stat is high enough. But don’t leave that shirt on the shelf if you can’t use its extra ability early on! If the clothes give you a good overall stat boost, they’re still worth buying.

In fact, you should be doing lots of shopping in general, even if you don’t really need the items. Spending at stores raises your VIP levels, unlocking new items to buy and adding the shopkeepers to your social network web (more on that later). You’ll also build a big wardrobe for later on in the game when you can fully take advantage of unlocked clothing skills. So don’t be thrifty–spend away!

Manage Your Munchies

Eating is crucial to improving your stats. Besides upping your HP, attack, and defense, food is also the only way you can raise the crucial Style stat. But there are a few things to know before stuffing everyone’s face.

When you eat, your party’s fullness (the battery icon) will increase. You can bring it down by fighting Noise battles. As long as it’s not flashing red (solid red is OK), you can eat again. However, if you overeat and bring your fullness over 100%, you won’t be able to eat again until fullness drops all the way down to zero. Keep your meter in the white, and grab food when it’s almost empty.

Also, when choosing food, keep an eye on each character’s reactions. Characters have three reactions when ordering: neutral/satisfied, excited, and displeased. These reactions tell you the odds of getting a Tasty Bonus for that character, which can increase a random stat by a significant amount and even confer a drop bonus. The more excited the character looks, the better the bonus odds.

If the character looks unhappy with the choice, you should probably pick a different item. The extra stats conferred by getting a Tasty Bonus are so significant that you should be trying for it at all times–don’t waste money and fullness on food that characters don’t like.

Networking Is Key

You’ll eventually open up the Social Network function a little ways into the game. This allows you to spend Friend Points to unlock various abilities and items once you’ve gotten to know a particular denizen of Shibuya. Several of these abilities are extremely valuable, such as being able to equip the mighty Uber pins. Since some connections require other connections to be completed first, you will want to open up your network as wide as possible.

Not everyone will waltz on into your network through the story, however–sometimes you’ll need to seek them out. Look on the Main Menu status screen to see if there are any sidequests in Rindo’s thought ring–if you see “Someone could use our help in this location,” that means there’s a Social Network sidequest to complete on that day.

When you get to the designated area, look for someone with this icon above their head to start the sidequest. Upon completion, they’ll join your Social Network. You can also add folks to your network from dining and shopping, but many of the best benefits come from sidequests, so they are well worth your time.

A Bloodborne modder has restored one of the game’s most famous mysteries: a locked door in Cathedral Ward that is marked “closed” in the final game. Bloodborne hackers have known for a long time that this door was intended to link the Cleric Beast boss area to the Cathedral Ward area just before Vicar Amelia, but it was cut from the final game due to technical issues.

Now, a Bloodborne modder who goes by Garden of Eyes has restored the door to working condition. While it might seem like a small change, it actually required a lot of work on the modder’s part.

“I used some of the leftover assets to restore the shortcut door in the retail version of the game, which required modifying collisions, map files, and scripts to ensure that the regions loaded properly,” the modder told Eurogamer. “I also considered what would happen if the Cleric Beast had not yet been slain, so I included a fog wall to prevent game-breaking problems.”

Prolific Souls modder Lance McDonald said in response to the news that the shortcut was probably removed because of loading times. According to McDonald, the original intention of the shortcut was to surprise players who beat Father Gascoigne without discovering the Cleric Beast. Players would walk through the door and find themselves ambushed by the monstrous boss, and the fog wall would prevent them from doubling back. In the final game, the door is a static asset, though it’s fairly obvious that it was once intended as an interactable object.

Despite its status as one of the most beloved games of last generation, Bloodborne is still not playable at 60 fps on an unmodified PS4. However, McDonald has released a 60fps hack for the game, which is only playable on modified PS4s. Another developer is making a PS1 “demake” of the game, and it’s quite far along now.