Netflix’s New Early Cobra Kai Release Date Is Your Gift From The Streaming Service

If you’ve been waiting for the sweet embrace of a new season of Cobra Kai, and you’re counting down the days until January 8, 2021, then stop counting because that’s no longer the release date for the new season. Netflix has announced Season 3 of Cobra Kai will land on January 1, 2021. To celebrate the release, Netflix has a new video featuring Johnny Lawrence using a computer.

That’s right, you’ll be able to strike hard, strike fast with no mercy as you click “play” as hard as possible on your controller–possibly breaking it. Earlier this month, the first trailer arrived for the new season–which had its first two season premieres on YouTube Premium before moving to Netflix earlier this year. The end of Season 2 left one person in the hospital and a local high school torn apart–literally–as a karate riot saw students from Daniel LaRusso and Johnny Lawrence’s dojos at each other’s throats.

In addition to the earlier release date, Netflix has announced that the cast of Cobra Kai will join The Netflix Afterparty on January 2, to discuss the third season with hosts David Spade, Fortune Feimster, and London Hughes.

As for the upcoming episodes of Cobra Kai, Season 3 will incorporate some familiar elements to those who love the original film franchise as Daniel will head back to Japan. The series takes place 30 years after The Karate Kid as LaRusso and Lawrence are adults and they have crossed paths once again, eventually leading to both of them opening their own karate dojos.

The series stars Ralph Macchio (LaRusso), William Zabka (Lawrence), Courtney Henggeler (Amanda LaRusso), Xolo Maridueña (Miguel Diaz), Tanner Buchanan (Robby Keene), Mary Mouser (Samantha LaRusso), Jacob Bertrand (Hawk), Gianni Decenzo (Demetri), Martin Kove (John Kreese), and Peyton List (Tory).

Elden Ring, Metal Gear Remake, And Final Fantasy 16: Our Hopes For 2021

It’s the final episode of Generation Next. And while most of GameSpot is looking back at the year that was in regards to the Best Games of 2020, the Generation Next crew are taking this week to look forward to 2021.

2021 is full of possibility. Both Xbox Series X|S and PS5 will have been out in the wild for a few months by the time it kicks off, so we’re sure to start seeing more and more announcements for games exclusively releasing for the new console generation. Lucy, Tamoor, and Jordan are already looking forward to the year, especially for the release of the sequel to 2018’s God of War as well as the possibility of hearing about more Elden Ring and Hollow Knight: Silksong.

But let’s dream big, yeah? It worked for Tamoor in his prediction that Demon’s Souls would launch alongside PS5. The trio talk through their “it probably won’t happen but like, what if it did” predictions for 2021, including Anthem 2.0 being surprisingly good and Bluepoint releasing a remake of the original Metal Gear Solid.

And with that, Generation Next–GameSpot’s weekly show dedicated to discussing everything and anything about Xbox Series X|S and PS5–comes to a close. Y’all have been a great audience, and we’ll see you in the new year with more original content. Generation Next may not return, but that doesn’t preclude the possibility of something else taking its place. Stay tuned!

Calico Review

I was quite a young girl when I first got interested in video games. It was something of an awkward transition. At the time, games were largely considered “boy toys,” so moving from typical “girly” things like princess dolls and My Little Ponies into gaming was jarring at times, especially since not a lot of games catered to the cute, colorful things I’d been enjoying at playtime to that point. Sure, I loved the fantasy worlds of Mario and Sonic, but I also wished there was a fun gaming playspace for me that echoed the fluffy-cats-and-rainbow-unicorns aesthetic of my Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers.

Had my third-grade self seen Calico, an open-world animal cafe and social interaction game, she would have lost her mind. Calico embraces an aesthetic and theme that is shamelessly, unabashedly girly in the best ways–a world of happy magical girls living in pastel-colored lands with fluffy, cotton-candy trees where all kinds of lovable animals roam freely. But while Calico’s concept and visuals are a delight, the simplistic, bug-ridden gameplay dragged me kicking and screaming out of the childhood fantasy world I so wanted to exist in.

Calico is very cute (screenshots captured on PC).
Calico is very cute (screenshots captured on PC).

Calico starts off with your created player character inheriting a cat cafe in a faraway world where magic is very real and a part of everyday living. Your job is to fill your little cafe with animals, decorations, and cute kitty-themed pastries while exploring the world and helping your new friends with various errands. It’s a very laid-back, play-as-you-please experience in the vein of other life-sim games, but with an air of play and fairy magic baked in: You can buy potions with funny effects to use on yourself and your animal friends, like shrinking down to mini-size to cook, zooming around while riding on giant red pandas and bunnies, decorating your house with clouds, flowers, and cat paws, and collecting basically any animal in the game (that isn’t already someone else’s pet) to be a part of your cafe or your traveling posse.

You’ll meet plenty of new faces as the game progresses, including potion-making witches, nature-loving flower friends, and even a few furry human/animal hybrid folk. Many of them will ask you for help with various minor problems, like rounding up animals or baking a specific treat to give to a pal, and will reward you with money, fashion, furniture, and recipes for the cafe. You won’t find anything in the way of conflict or combat here–the worst that happens is some characters feel awkward talking to each other and need you as a go-between. At certain points, you’ll need to open up a new section of the world, which involves completing a specific quest chain, in order to progress further.

It’s a very basic gameplay loop, but also Calico’s biggest problem: It’s very simplistic. If you’re expecting even a basic cafe-running simulation, you’ll be sorely disappointed, as there’s very little you actually do with the cafe besides set up furniture and sometimes bake things. You mostly run errands and finish simple quests until the ability to unlock the next area opens up, then repeat the process. There’s a decent amount you can do outside of this–there are lots of toys you can use to play with animals, fashion items to collect and wear, and creatures to find and archive in your notebook–but it starts to wear thin fairly quickly, especially because rewards feel so sparse. There aren’t many surprises; you won’t be given spontaneous gifts or hear random weird conversations like in Animal Crossing, and there’s rarely incentive to improve the cafe or run it well beyond the occasional request from a friend for a specific animal or decoration.

An interior in Calico.
An interior in Calico.

Calico is also plagued with numerous bugs. While things like clipping and funny movement of characters or animal friends are forgivable, Calico has a fair few disruptive bugs that can ruin the game flow and, at worst, require a restart. During play, I’ve found myself getting trapped inside objects, starting conversations with characters that end abruptly for no apparent reason, and even get tasked with questlines that I shouldn’t be able to because the area in question isn’t open yet. It’s also worth noting that the Switch version runs quite poorly in comparison to the PC version: I played both, and eventually had to move to PC because the choppy frame rate and visual hiccups in the Switch version became a literal headache.

My eight-year-old self would have absolutely loved Calico to bits, I’m sure. Unfortunately, I am no longer a wide-eyed, curious 8-year-old girl–I’m a game reviewer whose tolerance for bugs and simplistic gameplay has worn thin over the decades. As much as I wish I could view Calico through the eyes of an imaginative youngster, I can’t. Perhaps if you are better at embracing your childlike fantasies, you may be able to overlook Calico’s many flaws and appreciate its imaginative, fairy-dust-sprinkled charm, but I feel that the magic will wear thin quite quickly.

Wonder Woman: Patty Jenkins Reveals That WB Made Her Change the Movie’s Ending

Patty Jenkins, the director of both Wonder Woman and Wonder Woman 1984, has revealed that Warner Bros. made her change the ending of the original film.

IGN’s Joshua Yehl spoke to Jenkins during Wonder Woman 1984’s press tour and asked her if the decision to make this new film’s finale more “personal and intimate” as opposed to the original’s “epic battle with lots of visual effects” was a conscious choice.

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“The original end of the first movie was also smaller but the studio made me change it at the last minute,” Jenkins explained. “And so, that’s always been a little bit of a bummer that that’s the one thing people talk about because I agreed, and I told the studio we didn’t have time to do it, but it was what it was and I ended up loving it, but that was not the original ending of the movie.

“This time around, you know what I loved about it? I love that it has both at the end. We had visual effects… a big battle, which I just dug into and had such a blast executing, which I felt so satisfied with. But ultimately the end of the movie is much more pared down. That was really, really fun. No spoilers, there’s all kinds of stuff going on, but, yeah, it was really fun to shape it differently.”

Wonder Woman 1984 will be released on December 25 in theaters and on HBO Max and is the first of Warner Bros. films for the next year that will release day-and-date in theaters and on the streaming service.

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In our Wonder Woman 1984 review, we said it “is a film with a heart full of hope and love; a nostalgic look back to a beloved time that provides escapism from an exceptionally difficult year.”

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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.

10 Biggest Game Installs Of All Time

t’s pretty amazing how fast you can fill up a PC, PS5, or Xbox Series X/S hard drive. Video game install sizes can often weigh in at or above 100 GB. Sony and Microsoft’s next-gen consoles have less than 1 TB of usable space, which can fill up quickly. Players may need to invest in external hard drives for their PC or purchase a custom NVMe SSD for their Xbox if they want to keep games installed and updated; PS5 doesn’t currently support storing or playing PS5 games from an external drive.

Some of the largest game installs on this list are popular titles like Rainbow Six Siege, Call Of Duty, and Halo: The Master Chief Collection. This list includes full games with their DLC, expansion, and in some cases high-resolution texture packs installed.

GameSpot has an extensive list of storage options so head on over to our Xbox Series X: Best Solution For Storage Expansion (SSD, Expansion Card, Or Hard Drive) article to read more.

Witcher’s Season 2 Script Preview Promises A Bloody Beginning

Many of the stories featuring Geralt of Rivia are, at their core, mystery stories with a medieval fantasy twist. The first season of the show operated primarily on a mixed-timelines premise that was confusing at times and definitely didn’t work for everyone, but season 2 seems to be digging into that mystery premise based on a page of the first episode’s script posted by Netflix to Twitter this week.

The story starts with a merchant and his family traveling alone by carriage, finding themselves looking for lodgings in an empty town. The merchant turns his back for a second and then back around to find his wife missing, his daughter covered in blood.

Geralt narrates over it. “You dogged my every footstep. But struck down others I passed on my way. Why?” he begins. “I was meant to end up alone, wasn’t I? So I would finally begin to be afraid?”

It’s a dark place to start for an already dark show, and fans of the books might recognize this as hinting at the short story “A Grain of Truth.” The story is a clever one, so we won’t spoil it here.

This post is just the latest in a string of posts Netflix is hashtagging #Witchmas. The streaming service dropped a first look at the logo for the upcoming Witcher animated series, some set photos from season 2, and a new episode of the Witcher’s Bestiary web series.

The Witcher Season 2 is currently in production. Production has stalled a couple times due to interrupts pandemic-related and otherwise. Netflix has not yet set a premiere date for the show aside from saying its coming in 2021. The pandemic has almost certainly made that date even harder to nail down.

The Witcher, based on the same characters and novels as the game from CD Projekt Red, stars Henry Cavill as the titular Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, with Freya Allan as Ciri and Anya Chalotra as Yennefer. Season 2 is set to add Kim Bodina (Killing Eve) as Geralt’s mentor, Vesemir and Game of Thrones’ Kristofer Hivju as Nivellen, among others.

New Cyberpunk 2077 Patch Fixes Save Data Corruption Glitch

CD Projekt Red has released another hotfix patch for Cyberpunk 2077–it closely follows on the heels of Patch 1.05, which addressed numerous glitches that occur in the opening hours of the main campaign. This new hotfix, Patch 1.06, doesn’t fix as much, but it addresses the noteworthy save file corruption glitch.

Patch 1.06 fixes the glitch that caused your save file to become corrupted if it exceeded a certain limit–something that could be done if you were holding onto too many items in your inventory. The patch is live across Xbox One, PS4, and PC.

Unfortunately, the patch cannot recover what has been lost. If you’ve already fallen victim to the save file glitch, your save will still be corrupted. Patch 1.06 simply prevents the bug from ever occurring again. You can see the full breakdown of what Patch 1.06 does in the full patch notes, which are listed below.

Cyberpunk 2077 Hotfix 1.06 Patch Notes

Quests

  • Dum Dum will no longer go missing from Totentanz entrance during Second Conflict.

Console-specific

  • Improved memory management and stability, resulting in fewer crashes.

PC-specific

  • Removed the 8 MB save file size limit. Note: this won’t fix save files corrupted before the update.

Now Playing: Cyberpunk 2077 – Best Bugs And Glitches

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Video Game Release Dates Of 2021: PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC

12 Minutes Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Apex Legends Switch Aragami 2 PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Axiom Verge 2 Switch Braid: Anniversary Edition PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC Chivalry 2 PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Chorus PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Stadia Clockwork Aquario PS4, Switch Control: Ultimate Edition PS5, Xbox Series X|S Cris Tales PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC, Stadia CrossfireX Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One Cyberpunk 2077 PS5, Xbox Series X|S The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes PS5, PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Digimon Survive PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC Dirt 5 Stadia Disco Elysium: The Final Cut Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch Disgaea 6: Defiance of Destiny Switch Doctor Who: The Edge of Reality PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC Dynasty Warriors 9: Empires PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC Elden Ring PS4, Xbox One, PC Evil Dead: The Game PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC Evil Genius 2: World Domination PC Far Cry 6 PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, Stadia Five Nights at Freddy’s: Security Breach PS5, PS4, PC Ghostrunner PS5, Xbox Series X|S Ghostwire: Tokyo PS5, Xbox Series X|S New God of War Sequel PS5 Gotham Knights PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Goodbye Volcano High PS5, PS4, PC The Good Life PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC Grand Theft Auto V PS5, Xbox Series X|S Gran Turismo 7 PS5 Griftlands PC, Switch The Gunk Xbox Series X|S, PC Halo Infinite Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Hogwarts Legacy PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Horizon Forbidden West PS5, PS4 Jett: The Far Shore PS5, PS4, PC Kena: Bridge of Spirits PS5, PS4, PC Little Nightmares 2 PS5, Xbox Series X|S The Lord of the Rings: Gollum PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Switch, PC Marvel’s Avengers PS5, Xbox Series X|S Mass Effect: Legendary Edition PS4, Xbox One, PC MechWarrior 5: Mercenaries Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One Metro Exodus PS5, Xbox Series X|S Microsoft Flight Simulator Xbox Series X|S Monster Hunter Stories 2: Wings of Ruin Switch NEO: The World Ends with You PS4, Switch No More Heroes III Switch Oddworld: Soulstorm PS5, PS4, PC Overwatch 2 PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC Psychonauts 2 PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 PC Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart PS5 Resident Evil Village PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC Ruined King: A League of Legends Story PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Sable Xbox Series X|S, PC SaGa Frontier Remastered PS4, Switch, PC Sam & Max: This Time It’s Virtual PC Serious Sam 4 PS4, Xbox One Scarlet Nexus PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Shadow Man Remastered PS4, Xbox One, Switch, PC Shadow Warrior 3 PC Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster PS4, Switch Shin Megami Tensei V Switch Skatebird Xbox One, Switch, PC Solar Ash PS5 Spelunky Switch Spelunky 2 Switch S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 Xbox Series X|S, PC Stray PS5, PC Temtem PS5, Xbox Series X|S, Switch Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Quarantine PS4, Xbox One, PC Unknown 9: Awakening PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PC Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines 2 PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC Warhammer 40,000: Darktide Xbox Series X|S, PC The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt Complete Edition PS5, Xbox Series X|S Windjammers 2 Switch, PC, Stadia Wonder Boy: Asha in Monster World PS4, Switch, PC