Category: Games

The fantasy survival game Valheim is available in Early Access on Steam right now, and less than two weeks after it became available, the game is already soaring up the Steam charts. As of right now, it has more than 300,000 concurrent players and is beating out the likes of Rust, PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, and Grand Theft Auto V.

In fact, only two games–Steam staples Dota 2 and Counter-Strike: Global Offensive–have more concurrent players on the service. Valheim isn’t coming close to hitting those numbers, but getting this many concurrent players on a brand-new game that isn’t free-to-play is extremely impressive.

A few days earlier, Valheim had already managed to sell one million copies on Steam. That was after just a week, and the game’s cooperative focus and excellent user-reviews likely contributed to its massive early success. Of more than 32,000 reviews listed on Steam, 96% are positive.

There will be several updates coming in 2021 to make the game better, with apparent updates to home customization and boats and sailing among those planned. As of now, the game is only available on PC, though it could possibly come to other platforms.

If you’re struggling early on trying to survive in Valheim, we’ve rounded up some Valheim beginner tips that should help you out. These include the tips you need to build, repair, improve your skills, and acquire more resources.

Valheim developer Iron Gate is advising all players to back up their world and characters, as the “evil world-destroyer bug is still roaming free.”

Iron Gate’s CEO Richard Svensson took to Twitter to share the warning, and let Valheim players know that the developer has yet to reproduce the bug even once, meaning it is still impacting certain players.

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Svensson notes that it “seems to occur more often if you exit the game by ALT+F4, so try to use menu->exit instead.”

He also notes that, if PC Valheim players weren’t aware, worlds and characters are saved in C:UsersUsernameAppDataLocalLowIronGateValheim.

Valheim has been a huge success for Iron Gate, despite being in Early Access, and it sold over one million copies in just 8 days. As of this writing, Valheim is the third-most played game on Steam with a current player count of 297,783. Valheim peaked at 346,170 today, February 14, as well.

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If you are new to the world of Valheim, be sure to check out our 11 tips to get you started and five things you need to know about the survival game taking the world by storm.

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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.

The official trailer for Zack Snyder’s Justice League has been released and gives a glimpse of the film headed to HBO Max on March 18, 2021.

Zack Snyder had been teasing the new trailer all week, and even revealed footage of both Black Suit Superman and Darkseid.

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We also get another glimpse of Jared Leto’s new look as Joker for Zack Snyder’s Justice League. While we only got black and white images of Leto’s Joker earlier in the week, we get a tease of him talking to Ben Affleck’s Batman (Knightmare Batman!) in this trailer.

This re-cut film of 2017’s Justice League will feature around 150 minutes of unseen footage and “about four minutes of five minutes of additional photography.”

Furthermore, Zack Snyder’s Justice League will be rated R, which is a jump from the original’s PG-13 rating.

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While it was once thought that Zack Snyder’s Justice League would be released as a four-part miniseries, this new cut will actually be released as a four-hour movie on HBO Max.

Zack Snyder was directing the original Justice League until he had to leave the project due to a family tragedy, and Joss Whedon stepped in to finish the film. The film was significantly changed and many called for the release of the “Snyder Cut.” That dream is now close to being a reality.

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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.

Grezzo, the Japanese game development studio known for such games as the Switch remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening and the 3DS versions of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, is hiring for a new “medieval” and “stylish” project.

As spotted by Nintendo Everything and verified by IGN Japan, there are currently three job openings – one programmer and two designers – and they tease that Grezzo is looking to develop a game that won’t necessarily be photorealistic, but aims to have a stylish take on reality.

Besides the previously mentioned Zelda games, Grezzo also worked on The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Anniversary Edition, The Legend of Zelda: Tri Force Heroes, StreetPass Garden, the 3DS version of Luigi’s Mansion, and much more.

The studio has also developed two games – Arc of Alchemist and The Alliance Alive HD Remastered – that weren’t exclusive to a Nintendo platform and also appeared on PS4.

In 2017, Grezzo released an original IP known as Ever Oasis. In our review, we said “Ever Oasis combines town building and RPG adventuring to make almost every aspect enjoyable.”

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The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake was released in 2019, and in our review, we said “Updating the look but never losing the feel of the original, Link’s Awakening is a masterclass in remaking a classic.”

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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.

Treyarch has released the latest update for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and it affects several different game modes, including standard competitive multiplayer, Zombies, and League Play. If you were participating in League Play this weekend, you may need to think of a new strategy to replace your trusty RC-XD scorestreak.

The RC-XD is restricted in League Play, meaning you’ll want to come up with a new low-level alternative before you’re caught off-guard by this change. Additionally, friendly fire has been changed slightly, converting to ricochet damage after the second team-kill and returning damage toward the attacker. Should you get two more team-kills, you will be kicked from the match.

Other changes include fixing an issue on the Express map that would let you capture a Hardpoint zone without actually being inside it, and tweaking some UI problems. In Zombies, you also shouldn’t be teleported out of the map when others use it in the Village area, nor will you be able to stand on the crafting table. Check out the full patch notes from Treyarch below and make sure you don’t miss out on the Double Weapon XP weekend currently running.

Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War Patch Notes (February 13)

Global

• Addressed an issue with League Play button showing up in Combat Record in Barracks.
• Addressed an issue where all non-Master Calling Cards were displaying negative values in challenges menus.

Multiplayer

• Addressed issue on Express where it was possible to capture Hardpoint outside of zone.

League Play

• Friendly fire will now convert to ricochet damage on attacker after second team-kill and players will be kicked after two additional team-kills.
  
• Added “Results Processing” display.
• Improved visuals on “Processing Ladder Result” display.
• Addressed issue that could incorrectly display details from previous League Play event.
• Address issue where players could not scroll up and down League Ladder.

Zombies

• Addressed issue that could cause players to be teleported out of map when others used teleporter in Village area.
• Closed exploit allowing the player to stand on crafting table.
• Addressed issue where upgrade icon was grayed out when player had enough to upgrade at the Arsenal.
• Added “Seasons” icon for “Firebase Z” challenges in the challenges menu.

The Division 2 released back in 2019 and despite improving nearly everything compared to the first game, including combat, mission structure, and progression, the game underperformed for Ubisoft. However, dedicated players have continued supporting it, and this support has convinced Ubisoft to continue developing new content for 2021.

In a post on the game’s official Twitter account, Ubisoft said it had reversed course after previously planning to not develop any more major updates for The Division 2.

“Some of you had noticed that Title Update 12 was originally meant to be the last major Title Update for The Division 2, but thanks to your continued support, we are now in the early stages of development for fresh content to release later in 2021,” the post said. “While it is still too early to go into more details today, you won’t have to wait too long, as we will share more as soon as we can.”

The Division 2 certainly had less extensive work needed to improve it post-launch than another open-world shooter from Ubisoft: Ghost Recon Breakpoint. Buggy and with role-playing elements included that didn’t fit the franchise, it got a critical thrashing and poor sales that led to Ubisoft offering a mode called “The Ghost Experience” with more traditional shooter gameplay.

The Division 2 isn’t the only project developer Ubisoft Massive is working on, either. The studio is also creating an open-world Star Wars game, as well as a project based on James Cameron’s Avatar.