Category: Games

Well, folks: pitched my globe-trotting killer robots movie (developed for over a year) to EIGHTEEN places, was told by almost all of them it was one of the best performed pitches they’d seen…

But no one bought it. Grateful to pitch at all, believe me, but… damn. Onward!

— Bryan Cogman (@cogman_bryan) January 27, 2021

Season One of Sea of Thieves has officially begun, and with it comes a new 120Hz Performance mode on Xbox Series X that supports 120 FPS at 1080p.

As detailed in the release notes for this big Season One update, it also notes that some TVs do not support 120Hz and HDR simultaneously, so HDR may need to be disabled from the console settings if players wish to sail the seas with 120 FPS.

Seasons mark a new initiative for Sea of Thieves that will see new content added to the game every three months. In addition, a battle pass system has been implemented that will reward players throughout each Season.

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Each season will have players progress through 100 levels of Pirate Renown, and rewards for both the player’s pirate character and ship can be unlocked. Additionally, those who have reached the title of Pirate Legend will get specialized rewards as part of this new progression system.

An optional, premium tier of the battle pass – titled ‘Plunder Pass’ – will be available and will offer even more unique rewards and exclusive items from the Pirate Emporium.

This 120Hz update is just another improvement to Sea of Thieves following the arrival of the Xbox Series X/S optimizations that arrived in November 2020 and added faster load times and 60 FPS for Xbox Series X/S, and 4K for Xbox Series X.

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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.

Crystal Dynamics has shared a bit of information on its next, currently unannounced Tomb Raider, saying it’s “working to unify” the timelines of Core Design’s original games and its own reboot trilogy that began in 2013.

While the reboot trilogy told the origin story of Lara Croft becoming the Tomb Raider, the original games “featured a seasoned and confident adventurer,” said game director Will Kerslake in a video posted to Twitter. The development team envisions “a future of Tomb Raider unfolding after these established adventures, telling stories that build upon the breadth of both Core Design and Crystal Dynamics’ games, working to unify these timelines.”

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Kerslake noted the difficulty of such a task given the franchise’s 25-year history and asked fans to be patient as the studio works through development. “We don’t have plans for a major game announcement in the near future,” he said.

Lara’s latest adventure, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, was released in 2018. IGN’s Shadow of the Tomb Raider review awarded it a 9/10 and called it a “powerful finale to Lara Croft’s origin trilogy.”

In other franchise news, a Tomb Raider anime series, set after the events of Crystal’s origin trilogy, is in development at Netflix. Tomb Raider’s big-screen sequel, meanwhile, recently landed a new writer-director in Misha Green, showrunner of HBO’s Lovecraft Country.

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Jordan is a freelance writer for IGN.

The ongoing pirate adventure game Sea of Thieves is launching seasons, and the latest update kicks it off. Rare has now shared the full patch notes with an overview of everything it does.

As detailed in the release notes, the launch of season one brings a new progression system with the Plunder Pass, a battle pass-like system that unlocks cosmetic rewards as you gain experience called “Renown” through the season. You can obtain the Plunder Pass for $10, and it will last you through the 3-month season. This season lets you build up your rep with a Merchant Alliance by recovering lost cargo. You can also take part in new limited-time events every month.

One highlight of the update is a new 120fps Performance Mode, available on Xbox Series X for supported TVs and monitors. The notes mention that some TVs don’t support 120Hz alongside HDR, so to get the performance mode you may need to disable HDR in your console settings.

The update also includes some general quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes, which you can see in more detail below. The patch is roughly between 6-9 GB across all platforms.

Sea of Thieves 2.0.21 Patch Notes

Outpost Cosmetics

Dark Adventurers Set

• For Legends looking to flaunt their worth, the Dark Adventurers set has arrived. The Pirate Legend shop now offers the new Dark Adventurers weapons, equipment and instruments, available exclusively to those who have become Legend.

Silent Barnacle Set

• The Outpost shipwrights, along with the clothing, equipment and weapon shops, now offer the Silent Barnacle set for purchase. Players must obtain the Hoarder of Barnacled Gold Commendation to unlock access to this set.

Bedraggled Castaway Bilge Rat Set

• The Outpost clothing shops now stock the Bedraggled Castaway Bilge Rat clothing set, available to purchase for gold.

Legacy Event Cosmetics

• Previous rewards from the 12 Deeds of Giving, Plundered Presents and Grogmanay Events have now been added to the Outpost shops.
• The Eastern Winds equipment, Frostbite Cannons, Order of Souls Bucket, Gold Hoarders Spyglass, Tankard and Speaking Trumpet can now be found in their respective stores, locked behind Commendations.

Gameplay Improvements

Arena Communication

• To create a more welcoming experience when joining The Arena, changes have been made to how crews can communicate in this mode – find out more in this developer Forum post.
• In the Arena tavern and during active Arena gameplay, cross-crew voice chat and cross-crew text chat are now restricted, leaving non-verbal as the only cross-crew communication option.
• Players can continue to communicate within their own crew using all available communication options.

Recommended Crew Size

• When browsing the Ship Selection Screen, each ship now indicates the crew size recommended to operate the vessel.

Updates

120Hz Performance Mode

• On the Xbox Series X console, a performance mode is available supporting 120Hz at 1080p. Some TVs do not support 120Hz and HDR simultaneously, so HDR may need to be disabled from the Console Settings.

Larinna’s Black Market

• The Black Market ‘Goodies for Gold’ tab has been removed and the Ritual Skull Stash Voyage moved to the Doubloon store.

Fixed Issues

Gameplay

• Reduced the frequency of players encountering an extended black screen or becoming stuck when using a mermaid or returning from the Ferry of the Damned.
• Skeleton ships should now take hull damage when on fire.
• When performing consecutive heavy cutlass strikes, the lunge animation should now show correctly when blocking between each strike.
• Opening or closing a Collector’s Chest held by another player should now correctly show as opened or closed for the player holding it.
• Items inside a Collector’s Chest should now only be retrievable when the chest is open.
• Washed-up items should no longer appear to hover above ground when leaving the area and coming back.
• The Frozen Horizon and Nightshine Parrot Wheels have been modified to make it more obvious when the ship is sailing straight.
• The Sailor Cannon Flare now has the correct name and description.

Pirate Emporium

• The Soulflame Ship Bundle now uses the correct local currency pricing.

Mysterious Notes

• Notes should now read correctly, even when shown to others.
• Stowing a Mysterious Note and re-equipping it from the radial should result in it being wielded as expected.

Tall Tales

• Vault Totems acquired during a Tall Tale can no longer be sold to representatives of the Gold Hoarders or Reaper’s Bones.
• ‘Shores of Gold’ – While exploring the Shores of Gold, if another crew starts the Tall Tale the medallions should no longer appear in the air within the Vault.

Localisation

• To improve readability, the font size in Korean and Chinese languages has been increased in a range of areas along with additional punctuation.

Environment

• During the Fort of the Damned encounter, a number of areas where Graymarrow could become stuck on the surrounding environment have been improved.
• Players should no longer get stuck on a broken staircase after exiting the Gold Hoarder Throne Room.
• Players should no longer be able to fall or see through the environment on Shark Bait Cove.
• Players should no longer get stuck and teleported when attempting to ascend the stairs in a tavern.
• Players should no longer be able to swim under the map on Plunder Outpost.

Visual and Audio

• Sound should no longer become distorted and increase in volume when a player surfaces from water or is briefly submerged by a wave.
• During a Ghost Ship encounter, Captain Ghost Ships should now use portals to spawn and teleport.
• The sails equipped on Skeleton and Ghost Ships now consistently appear in high quality.
• The Castaway Bilge Rat Eyepatch icon has been updated.
• The Confusion and Face, Meet Palm emotes should now have appropriate iconography.
• Having multiple Riddle Quests for one island should no longer cause music to trigger multiple times.
• Approaching a lit beacon with an unraised lit lantern should no longer show an empty tooltip.
• Island banners should now have appropriate iconography in The Ancient Isles and The Shores of Plenty.
• Buying items, Voyages and Titles should no longer cause a black grid to flash up on the screen.

Performance and Stability

• When trying to join a crew that has disbanded, players should now receive an appropriate error message.
• While Sea of Thieves is suspended, joining a game should no longer cause instability.
• Further improvements made to server performance, reducing latency during gameplay.
• Improvements made to server stability, reducing disconnections during gameplay.

Known Issues

Ranged and Melee Weapon Hit Detection

• In areas of intense action, players may find themselves firing shots or landing strikes that do not cause damage to their targets. While improvements continue to be delivered during our content updates, this continues to be a key priority for the team.

Players Impacted Following Server Migration

• We are currently tracking a number of player-impacting issues which can occur following a server migration. These include crews migrating near Outposts finding themselves moved to a location where another ship is already present, and issues with ship interaction points following a migration.

Stuck UI Menus

• When interacting with a barrel and moving quickly through its inventory, players may find that the barrel’s state is not updated as items are removed. Players can also experience Game Options becoming stuck on screen when exiting a barrel in this state.

To learn more about known issues in Sea of Thieves currently being tracked and their status, head over to our Known Issues support site article.

Download and Installation

Download size:

• Xbox Series X: 8.82 GB
• Xbox Series S: 6.01 GB
• Xbox One X: 8.82 GB
• Xbox One: 6.01 GB
• Windows 10: 8.56 GB
• Steam: 6.65 GB

Returnal, the PlayStation 5 exclusive from Housemarque, has been delayed from March 19, 2021 to April 30, 2021.

Announced by PlayStation, SIE and Housemarque have chosen to move the release date “in order to give the team extra time to continue to polish the game to the level of quality players expect from Housemarque.”

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Returnal was announced at the PS5 reveal event and is the next title from the developer of such games as Resogun and Super Stardust HD.

This new game is a roguelike third-person shooter that sees you play as Astra space scout Selene as she is stuck in a constant loop of resurrection.

Housemarque has also noted that Returnal will offer fast load times, and haptic feedback that will let players “feel the natural ambience of this alien planet as the controller mimics its environmental effects.”

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Returnal also follows Housemarques comments that it was moving away from developing arcade-style games – like Resogun and Nex Machina – after poor sales. It looks like Returnal will still have the feel of many of Housemarque’s previous games, but this marks a new direction for the studio.

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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.

With production well underway on the first season of The Sandman, Netflix has finally revealed the main cast of the DC adaptation. Tom Sturridge (Velvet Buzzsaw) stars in the series as Dream (aka Morpheus), ruler of the ethereal realm known as The Dreaming.

The cast also includes two Game of Thrones veterans, with Gwendoline Christie playing Lucifer Morningstar and Charles Dance playing occultist Roderick Burgess. Narcos star Boyd Holbrook will play The Corinthian, a rogue nightmare-turned-serial killer created by Morpheus.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for a look at all the cast members revealed so far and how they compare to their comic book counterparts:

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We assume more casting announcements will follow in the coming weeks, as Netflix has yet to reveal other major roles like Dream’s sister Death. The streamer also has yet to reveal a release date for the 10-episode first season.

The Sandman is an adaptation of the DC horror/fantasy comic created by Neil Gaiman, Mike Dringenberg and Sam Keith. Gaiman is executive producing the series along with Allan Heinberg and David Goyer. Heinberg is also serving as showrunner. Prior to Netflix greenlighting the series, The Sandman spent years in development hell, including a phase where Joseph Gordon-Levitt was attached to produce and star in a movie adaptation.

“For the last thirty-three years, the Sandman characters have breathed and walked around and talked in my head,” said Gaiman in a statement. “I’m unbelievably happy that now, finally, they get to step out of my head and into reality. I can’t wait until the people out there get to see what we’ve been seeing as Dream and the rest of them take flesh, and the flesh belongs to some of the finest actors out there. This is astonishing, and I’m so grateful to the actors and to all of The Sandman collaborators — Netflix, Warner Bros., DC, to Allan Heinberg and David Goyer, and the legions of crafters and geniuses on the show — for making the wildest of all my dreams into reality.”

According to Gaiman, the Netflix series will make significant changes to the source material, including updating the present-day setting for the 21st Century rather than 1989, when the comic originally debuted.

Interestingly, The Sandman will mark the first time the DC Comics incarnation of Lucifer Morningstar has been played by a woman. That character was previously played by Peter Stormare in 2005’s Constantine, Tom Ellis in the Lucifer TV series and Michael Sheen in Audible’s audio drama adaptation of The Sandman. Though generally portrayed as male in the comics, The Sandman’s Lucifer is an androgynous figure whom Gaiman confirmed was modeled closely on a young David Bowie. Unfortunately, despite the Lucifer series moving from Fox to Netflix, Christie’s casting would seem to eliminate any possibility of the two shows coexisting in the same universe.

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Are you happy with these casting choices? Let us know in the comments below.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

The sci-fi game Journey to the Savage Planet from former Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry boss Alex Hutchinson and Typhoon Studios is now available to buy on Steam. The game originally launched a year ago this week as an exclusive for the Epic Games Store, but now it’s out on Valve’s platform following the end of the exclusivity deal with Epic.

Additionally, the game is marked down by 40% through February 15, while you can save even more if you buy the base game and the Hot Garbage DLC bundle. The game has a landing page on Steam but it doesn’t appear to have gone live just yet for sale–that should happen soon.

A first-person adventure game with a comedic bent, Journey to the Savage Planet takes players to an alien world where they must explore and learn about the flora and fauna. The game is playable solo or with two-player online co-op.

Journey to the Savage planet scored a 7/10 in GameSpot’s review back in January 2020. “Journey to the Savage Planet borrows plenty of familiar elements from other games,” reviewer Richard Wakeling wrote, “yet it does so in a carefree way that sets it apart from other sci-fi exploration games, settling on a relaxing playstyle that’s informed by its single, vivid planet and tightly focused design.”

The game’s developer, Typhoon Studios, was sold to Google at the end of 2019. The company is now developing games for Google Stadia.