Category: Games

Persona 5 Strikers, the Dynasty Warriors-style spin-off of the acclaimed JRPG, is launching in the West nearly a full year after the game’s Japanese debut, according to a leaked trailer.

The gameplay trailer, which was posted and quickly taken down by developer Atlus, reveals that the musou action title will launch on February 23. Strikers had already been announced for PS4 and Nintendo Switch, but the trailer also reveals that the game will be coming to Steam at launch, too. Atlus previously launched Persona 4 Golden on Steam earlier this year.

Persona 5 Scramble was released in Japan in early 2020, with the game name tweaked for the Western release. It takes place six months after the events of Persona 5, with the game’s heroes reuniting in Tokyo for summer break before having to take up their identities as the Phantom Thieves once more. The English cast has returned for Strikers, so prepare to be reacquainted with some familiar voices.

Strikers looks to retain the same visual flair as the PlayStation exclusive, which is only one part of a bigger fantastic package. In our 10/10 Persona 5 Royal review, editor Michael Higham wrote, “By refining what was already great and building on its best qualities with a brilliant new story arc, Persona 5 Royal asserts itself as an unforgettable and empowering RPG that should be recognized as one of the best games of our time.”

Though originally scheduled to arrive on December 10, Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War and Call of Duty: Warzone will now get Season One content on December 16. The new season will be the largest free content drop in any Black Ops game, and there will be plenty of new goodies to try out across both titles.

Black Ops Cold War will be getting a ton of new multiplayer content, including new maps, the Gunfight mode from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, and the Fireteam map Raid–it’s based on the Black Ops 2 map of the same name, despite Black Ops Cold War being set several decades before that game.

Zombies mode gets in on the fun, as well, with more modes and challenges, and a seasonal prestige system that is cross-title. This means your progress will likely carry over into the next Call of Duty game.

On the Warzone side, battle royale players get 30 weapons from Black Ops Cold War, including their different Blueprint versions, and a brand-new map and mode. There will also be some sort of new “Gulag experience,” so things could look a little different after you get knocked out of a match.

Beginning December 12 and running until the new season drops, you’ll be able to score double XP and weapon XP in Black Ops Cold War, and you can get two pre-season bundles for free by logging in between December 8 and December 15. They contain things like operator skins, weapons, reticles, and calling cards.

This story contains spoilers through The Mandalorian Season 2, episode 6.

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The Mandalorian may be set in a distant corner of the Star Wars galaxy, but that certainly hasn’t prevented a number of familiar characters from popping up in Season 2. We’ve already encountered Temuera Morrison’s Boba Fett, plus Star Wars TV veteran Bo-Katan Kryze, and Rosario Dawson as Ahsoka Tano in live-action.

Given that The Mandalorian takes place years after the events of the original trilogy, you might be wondering just how old these characters are supposed to be. Should Bo-Katan be thinking about retirement? Is Boba Fett as old as he appears after spending time in the Sarlacc pit? Read on to have all your age-related questions answered.

The Mandalorian’s Time Period

First off, it’s probably worth quickly rehashing how time is measured in the Star Wars universe and where exactly The Mandalorian falls in that timeline. The Battle of Yavin in the original Star Wars is treated as the franchise’s watershed moment. Everything is measured in terms of BBY (Before the Battle of Yavin) and ABY (After the Battle of Yavin).

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The Mandalorian: Season 1 is set in roughly 9 ABY, or about five years after the events of Return of the Jedi. We don’t know exactly how much extra time has elapsed in Season 2, but it doesn’t appear that more than a few months have gone by. Were we to hypothetically see iconic characters like Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in the series, they wouldn’t look much older than their circa-1983 selves. Of course, that’s a big reason why we’ll probably never see these characters on the show, unless Lucasfilm makes the decision to recast those roles.

How Old Is Boba Fett?

Because only there are only about 19 years of time separating the prequel and original trilogies, a lot of Star Wars characters aren’t as old as you probably assume them to be. Case in point: Despite the fact that Sebastian Shaw was in his late 70s when he played the unmasked Darth Vader in Return of the Jedi, the character himself was only 45 when he died. The Dark Side takes a heavy toll on your skin.

Boba Fett is definitely in this camp. He’s only about 41 years old in the era of The Mandalorian. Boba was born in 32 BBY, the same year as the events of The Phantom Menace. Based on what we’ve learned of this period, Boba was created in a lab on Kamino alongside the rest of the initial batch of Clonetroopers. But unlike his “brothers,” Boba ages at a normal rate. So while most of the surviving clones have probably died of old age by the time of The Mandalorian, Boba Fett is only just entering his 40s.

If Boba looks far older than 41, that’s probably thanks to spending some time in the belly of the Sarlacc. His body still carries the burns and scars of that ordeal and probably always will.

How Old Is Bo-Katan Kryze in The Mandalorian?

Bo-Katan’s age is a little harder to pin down, as we don’t know when exactly she was born. In fact, little is known about her early life until she joins Pre Vizsla’s Death Watch faction in 21 BBY, at the height of the Clone Wars. Bo-Katan is an adult and a seasoned combat veteran at this point, so we’d assume she’s at least in her early-to-mid-20s.

Based on that, Bo-Katan is at least in her 50s when she appears in The Mandalorian: Season 2, if not even older. The character doesn’t necessarily look that old, particularly since actress Katee Sackhoff is only 40 herself. Maybe Bo-Katan is actually younger than we realized in her Clone Wars appearances, or maybe Bo-Katan is extra diligent about dyeing her hair to keep that vibrant red sheen.

How Old Is Ahsoka Tano in The Mandalorian?

Fans of The Clone Wars had better get used to the idea of seeing Anakin Skywalker’s former Padawan playing the role of the grizzled, battle-hardened warrior in The Mandalorian. Ahsoka Tano was born in 36 BBY, making her about 14 when she first debuts in The Clone Wars theatrical movie. Applying that math to the time period of The Mandalorian, Ahsoka is 45 years old in her Mandalorian debut.

Given that she’s a Togruta, and the fact that most alien species in the Star Wars universe seem to have longer lifespans than humans, Dawson’s Ahsoka should still be in her physical prime during The Mandalorian. The next question is whether The Mandalorian will connect the dots to Ahsoka’s cameo role in The Rise of Skywalker. Is she truly dead by that point in the timeline, or is she the one living voice among a sea of dead Jedi when we jump ahead a couple of decades?

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How Old Are Ezra Bridger and Grand Admiral Thrawn?

While no other veterans of The Clone Wars or Rebels have yet been announced, it’s not exactly a stretch to assume we’ll see more returning characters besides Bo-Katan and Ahsoka. Here’s a breakdown of where some of those players land in the timeline.

iZombie actor Rahul Kohli has been going out of his way on social media to create the impression he’s been cast as Ezra Bridger, and the fact that Ahsoka namedropped Grand Admiral Thrawn in episode 5 would imply that Ezra may debut in The Mandalorian sooner rather than later. Kohli’s tweets may all be a big joke, but assuming it’s not, he’ll be giving fans a much older and more seasoned version of Ezra than the one seen in Rebels. But it makes sense. The character was born in 19 BBY at the very dawn of the Empire, making him 28 in the era of The Mandalorian.

Both Ezra and Thrawn were last seen being dragged to the far end of the galaxy in the finale of Rebels, but clearly, if Ahsoka is hunting Thrawn (and the Magistrate of Corvus is serving him) Thrawn has survived this long. His age is much harder to place, both because he’s non-human and we don’t know when exactly he was born or how old he is in Rebels. The best evidence we have is the novel Thrawn Ascendancy: Chaos Rising, which takes place mostly during 19 BBY and shows Thrawn’s rise through the ranks of the Chiss military. The character is probably in his mid-to-late 20s at that point, so that could put Thrawn in his 50s during The Mandalorian. Not a bad age for a high-level Imperial officer.

Hera Syndulla is only seven years younger than Ahsoka, having been born in 29 BBY. That would make her about 38 during the time of The Mandalorian. And given that Hera’s ship The Ghost is present during The Battle of Exegol, it’s probably safe to assume she’s still very active during this period.

We’re speculated that another Rebels favorite Sabine Wren will appear in The Mandalorian. Sabine is only two years older than Ezra, making her around 30 in this period.

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Then there’s the question of Captain Rex. Like Boba Fett, Rex was created in 32 BBY, so he would also be around 41 during The Mandalorian. However, Rex is a bit of a strange case. Post-Clone Wars, Rex joins the Rebel Alliance and remains active all throughout the Imperial era despite the prior reveal that clones have artificially accelerated lifespans. Rex has even been retconned into the events of Return of the Jedi, as it turns out he was one of Han Solo’s Rebel troops on Endor. At this point it’s hard to say if he or any other Clonetrooper would still be alive five years later. We may yet learn Rex was somehow able to remove the accelerated aging effect baked into his clone DNA.

For more on The Mandalorian’s recent reveals, learn more about why some Mandalorians can’t remove their helmets and see the essential Clone Wars and Rebels episodes for catching up on Bo-Katan’s story.

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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.

It’s been over a year since I last – and first – played Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, the VR revival of the classic World War II first-person shooter franchise. It’s in very capable hands at Respawn Entertainment, a renowned development studio which includes some members of the original Medal of Honor team from the late ‘90s. I played the first two missions with an Oculus Rift S and largely came to the same conclusion I did in my initial impression: that the supplemental Gallery and its emotionally powerful and historically crucial documentary-style videos with surviving WWII veterans is somewhat at odds with the arcade-y tone and fictional narrative of the video game.

Once you’ve completed the clever preferences configuration disguised as a doctor’s-office visit and run through the firing range to get a feel for how combat works, Medal of Honor’s first mission puts you in the thick of trouble in 1940s Nazi Germany. You’ll mostly do a lot of walking and shooting in the warm-up, which has an interesting feel to it. While the AI isn’t that bright, being able to physically close one of your eyes and look down the iron sights to pick off your targets from medium range is a pretty cool trick that a traditional FPS on a TV screen can’t replicate. You can also use your “teeth” to pull the pin out of a grenade before chucking it by moving your hand up near your mouth. Lighting the fuse on a bundle of dynamite to blow open a safe was another highlight.

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The second mission, though, is where Above and Beyond starts to better find its identity. You begin by mowing down other planes from an airplane gunner chair, then jumping out and drifting down from the sky via parachute and landing in a tree before your CO tosses you a knife (careful!) so you can cut yourself down. Your overarching goal is to pull off a daring moving-train rescue of a Resistance ally who’s been captured by the Nazis. From going undercover to tiptoeing through a literal minefield to gunning down bad guys from the sidecar of a speeding motorcycle, its moments are a lot more memorable than those in the opening mission, in my opinion, and hopefully the subsequent missions build off of that momentum.

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But, as ever, the Gallery is what sticks with me. While Medal of Honor is a video game meant to be fun, I look at the game as a delivery method for the historically significant documentary vignettes that profile a collection of surviving WWII heroes. I unlocked and watched a few of them after completing my two-level preview, and quite simply, these are incredibly powerful human stories. Everyone should see them, and unlocking them all will alone make Above and Beyond worth playing through. To that end, though, I just can’t shake the feeling that the arcade-y nature of the game can’t live up to the emotional power of the veteran videos. That might not be fair to the game, and I certainly wouldn’t want the Gallery to not be there, but the two, for me, just don’t jell well together, tonally.

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It didn’t help the game’s case that I also encountered a LOT of bugs in Above and Beyond both big and small, including two showstoppers. Normally I probably wouldn’t mention them in a preview, as the developers deserve the benefit of the doubt while the game is still technically in development, but when we’re this close to the final release, I feel like it’s appropriate to send up a caution flag. Here’s hoping these problems get smoothed out by the time Medal of Honor ships next week.

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Warner Bros. dropped a nuclear megaton on the entertainment world when it announced its entire slate of 2021 movies will debut on HBO Max the same day they arrive in theaters. As if that wasn’t enough to entice movie lovers to subscribe to the streaming service, right now you can save 20% if you pre-pay for six months. It’s a fantastic deal that will get you access to some blockbuster movies in the coming months, starting with Wonder Woman 1984 on December 25.

Get 20% Off 6 Months of HBO Max

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The deal is available between now and January 15, so grab it by then if you want to save some cash. To get the deal, go here and click the “Get the Deal” button on the banner at the top of the page. After the six months ends, your subscription will auto-renew at $14.99 a month until you cancel.

In the fine print, it says the deal is available to “new and returning customers.” So if you’re already an HBO Max subscriber, it sounds like you can take advantage of the deal by canceling your subscription. Then, after waiting out the remainder of your time, you should be able to get the deal then–as long as that happens before January 15.

Among the movies coming to the service in 2021 are Dune, The Matrix 4, Mortal Kombat, Godzilla vs. Kong, Space Jam: A New Legacy, and the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark.

Each movie will arrive on the service the same day it lands in theaters. The movies will be available on HBO Max for 31 days before leaving the service again.

Warner Bros. 2021 Movie Lineup

• The Little Things – January 29, 2021
• Tom & Jerry – March 5, 2021
• The Many Saints of Newark – March 12, 2021
• Reminiscence – April 16, 2021
• Godzilla vs. Kong – May 21, 2021
• The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It – June 4, 2021
• In The Heights – June 18, 2021
• Space Jam: A New Legacy – July 16, 2021
• The Suicide Squad – August 6, 2021
• Dune – October 1, 2021
• King Richard – November 19, 2021
• Matrix 4 – December 22, 2021
• Cry Macho – TBD
• Malignant – TBD
• Those Who Wish Me Dead – TBD
• Mortal Kombat – TBD
• Judas and the Black Messiah – TBD

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In addition to Warner Bros.’ 2021 movie lineup, HBO Max offers a whole lot of content. It has tons of other films, including every movie on HBO, plus movies from DC, Studio Ghibli, and selections from TCM.

A long and terrific list of TV shows is also available on HBO Max, including HBO shows like Game of Thrones and Westworld, plus Friends, Rick and Morty, Adventure Time, South Park, Doctor Who, and on and on.

In short, you’re getting an absolute mountain of content, including first-run movies, for an extremely reasonable cost, even at the standard price. Knocking 20 percent off if just icing on the cake. Take advantage of the deal by January 15 or you’ll miss out.

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Chris Reed is a commerce editor and bonafide deals expert at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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Sony Interactive Entertainment CEO, Jim Ryan, has insisted that a recent report that suggested PlayStation has “sidelined” Japanese developers and markets is “inaccurate”.

Talking with Edge magazine issue #353, Ryan said: “The Sony stance is that the Japanese market remains incredibly important to us. We have not been as excited about the engagement of the Japanese game development community as we are now for many years.”

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The stance is in opposition to a report from Bloomberg, published in early November. The report stated that PlayStation staff in Japan suggested Sony’s home country had been sidelined in promotional planning for PS5, and that Japanese development support teams had been reduced by as much as a third.

But Ryan’s stance is that PS5 continues to strengthen PlayStation’s relationship with Japan. “In our two launch shows – which featured a reasonable amount of games, but not a huge number of games – there were eight Japanese-developed titles there, many of which are the subject of collaboration and partnership between PlayStation and the Japanese publishing community,” he said.

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Ryan also noted that the PS5 was released in Japan on the same day as it was in the US, unlike the PS4 which was released almost a whole three months after the November 2013 US and EU launch.

“So I read that stuff,” said Ryan, referring to reports like the Bloomberg one, “A lot of that commentary is inaccurate, and Japan – as our second largest market and as Sony’s homeland – continues to be really important to us.”

While Japan continues to be important to Sony, it hasn’t stopped them changing some traditions. The PS5 makes X the default select button in Japan for the first time, where previously it has always been Circle. Several veteran developers from Sony Japan have also left to set up their own studio.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.