Category: Games

Cyberpunk 2077 has gone through a few tumultuous weeks since launch, with current-gen console players decrying the amount of bugs, clipping, frame rate issues, and full-on crashes. Dissatisfied with the gameplay experience, some players asked for refunds. CD Projekt Red–as well as retail and online stores–is responding and making its refund policies known.

CD Projekt Red’s latest statement addresses retail purchases. The company explicitly comments that their intention is for “every owner of a physical copy, or a digital copy bought at retail, who has valid proof of purchase, to receive a refund.” Notably, CD Projekt Red states it will refund players out of its own pocket if necessary. Players have until December 21, 2020 to request refund help from CD Projekt Red.

Retail stores are clarifying and modifying policies around game software returns for Cyberpunk 2077, as well. Best Buy will officially refund Cyberpunk 2077 console edition purchases from now until December 21, 2020, in line with CD Projekt Red’s own deadline. Previously, per its return policy, Best Buy did not refund opened game software. It will return to that policy after December 21.

Returnable Game SKU’s At Best Buy:

• 6255151 – Cyberpunk 2077 PS4
• 6255136 – Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox One
• 6352276 – Cyberpunk 2077 Collector’s Edition PS4
• 6352440 – Cyberpunk 2077 Collector’s Edition Xbox One
• 6414180 – Cyberpunk 2077 Xbox One Digital

In a near unprecedented move, Sony removed Cyberpunk 2077 from its store and will offer refunds to players. Microsoft has not delisted Cyberpunk 2077, but will also offer refunds to any players who want one. Check out our Cyberpunk 2077 refund guide for more information.

Fortnite’s holiday event has frozen some of the battle royale map while giving players new challenges to complete. Operation Snowdown has a number of special rewards you can earn within the next two weeks–here’s a guide on how to handle one of the most challenging ones.

The challenge tasks players with visiting Snowmando Outposts across the Fortnite map. There are five in all. This guide will show you the quickest way to get to them.

Where Are All The Snowmando Outposts?

The Snowmando Outposts are scattered throughout the map. One can be currently found in the new section of the map that’s been snowed in, while the other four are in old locations. All you’ll need to do is land at them for a brief second to complete each section of the quest. Here’s a map with specific locations.

The holiday event also reintroduced the X-4 Stormwing planes to Fortnite, so you can easily land at some of these locations and then fly to the others. The best way to do it is to land at the location below Steamy Stacks, grab a plane, and then fly to the others. Be prepared for a fight because everyone is landing at these locations.

What Do The Snowmando Outposts Look Like?

The Snowmando Outposts are buildings with a red gift wrapping exterior. They’re filled with holiday items like gifts, reindeer, and nutcrackers. You’ll also find loot and chests inside them but those get snatched up quickly. You’ll need to open chests at Snowmando Outposts to complete another quest; you can do that while you’re visiting them for the first time.

What Do You Get For Visiting All Snowmando Outposts?

You’ll unlock the special “Frost in Action” loading screen once you’ve visited all outposts. There are 15 Snowmando quests to complete over the next two weeks. Only a few are unlocked now, but more will unlock over time.

Compared to other subclasses in Destiny 2, Beyond Light’s new Stasis subclass is a different set of powers altogether. Focused on manipulating the battlefield and creating a more defined role for each Guardian class, Stasis can be further customized through the use of Fragments and Aspects. This results in the Solar, Arc, and Void subclasses feeling more antiquated in comparison, but Bungie is examining if it can bring the new customization options to these older classes.

“We only want to have one central system for Supers,” Destiny 2 game director Luke Smith explained to Polygon. The refinement of the Stasis subclass and other possible Darkness powers takes priority for now though, but “on a long enough timeline,” the evolution of the original classes is something that Smith is passionate about looking at in the future.

“I can totally imagine [it] in ‘Luke Fantasyland.’ You know, all the Supers using the same system, that sounds awesome. But also the Supers that we have in the game would be an edited list. It would be something that’s edited toward more identity than what we have today. The classes [Hunter, Warlock, and Titan] are kind of homogenous.”

The endgame would be to create more distinct identities for each Guardian class through the use of Supers, striking a balance that would make each class a valuable part of a team and more vital. The catch here is that to do just that, Bungie would have to look at sacrificing some Supers so that each Guardian archetype could play on equal footing. An example of this would involve keeping a Warlock’s Nova Bomb super but cutting the Nova warp ability from the game since it appears to mostly be used in PvP activities.

According to Smith, that would eventually result in “class jealousy” and prompt players to experiment with other Guardian classes. Smith isn’t certain if such a drastic change will happen, and even if it gets approved it may be years away.

Destiny 2’s latest patch has gone live, restoring the Warlock Exotic armor Vesper of Radius and fixing several other bugs. The annual festive Dawning event is also live, so be sure to check out our guide to Dawning recipes and how to give cookies to Riven.

Like everyone else, we were stuck inside a lot this year, and with streaming further blurring the lines between theatrical movies and television features, I’ve expanded the list to include visual storytelling that I’ve enjoyed this year, regardless of format. pic.twitter.com/a8BS8jDkSs

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) December 18, 2020

Innersloth’s Among Us has launched on Xbox Game Pass for PC and will come to Xbox Game Pass for Console in 2021.

The announcement was revealed in an amended post on the Xbox blog, which reflected the imminent launch of the game on the PC version of the Game Pass service. If you subscribe to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, you’ll be able to access Among Us on PC now and then on console when it launches in 2021.

HEY UH YEAH SO
@XboxGamePassPC – out now!!
Among Us on @Xbox consoles in 2021!!

xbox, we cannot wait for you all to join us as crewmates. you can hold our hand as we go into electrical together.

all info: https://t.co/1fro4e4fb0 https://t.co/fWY7fL9TPx

— Among Us (@AmongUsGame) December 17, 2020

Innersloth followed up with a tweet from the official Among Us account, noting that the game will arrive “on Xbox consoles in 2021”. The wording there suggests it will come to the Xbox One and Xbox Series family of consoles when it launches next year.

In other Among Us news, the game launched on Nintendo Switch earlier this week as part of Nintendo’s Indie World presentation. Players have already found a glitch that lets them access the Airship map early on Nintendo Switch, even though the new location is set to launch at some point in Early 2021.

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Steve Buscemi is bringing together a whole host of his celebrity friends and fellow comedians for a two-hour live fundraising event to raise money for Friends of Firefighters – a charity that was founded following 9/11 to support active and retired FDNY firefighters and their families.

The Fireside Chat with Steve Buscemi will feature several celebrity guests, including Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Judd Apatow, Julie Bowen, Dan Bulla, Tim Herlihy, Kevin James, Tim Meadows, Colin Quinn, Jackie Sandler, Rob Schneider, Kenan Thompson and more for an intimate evening of casual conversation and a celebration of the incredible work of firefighters.

The star-studded charity stream will be raising money through Tiltify, and can be watched live directly on IGN.com and via IGN’s YouTube, IGN’s Facebook, IGN’s Twitter, or IGN’s Twitch platforms on Tuesday, December 22nd at 4 p.m. PT / 7 p.m. ET.

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Audiences will have the opportunity to participate in the event and interact with the celebrity line-up throughout the live stream, where the guests will be discussing their movies and answering some of the donor questions that are submitted. There will also be a few surprises mixed into the two-hour chat, with viewers being given the chance to win various items by donating to the campaign.

This is the second charity stream that Steve Buscemi is participating in this month. The actor (and former firefighter) is also featuring as a guest on The Sopranos’ virtual holiday reunion, together with David Chase, Edie Falco, Michael Imperioli, Robert Iler, Drea de Matteo, Vincent Pastore, Steve Schirripa, and Jamie-Lynn Sigler in support of Friends of Firefighters.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Epic Games has launched its latest seasonal event in Fortnite: Battle Royale, and as you might guess from the name, it’s a winter-themed one. Operation Snowdown brings new activities and free rewards for all players to take part in and earn from now until January 5.

During Operation Snowdown, the NPC Snowmando will offer quests with a variety of new seasonal rewards, such as the Frosty Globes pickaxe, Shield Surprise back bling, and more gliders and wraps, plus another back bling and pickaxe. You can get a peek at some of these in the image below. There are also new and returning skins/outfits to purchase on the Fortnite item shop. Everyone can also now claim the Sing Along emote, which causes you to pull out a book and begin caroling, for free from the item shop–if you purchased it previously, you’ll get your V-Bucks refunded.

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While you’re playing, you’ll also encounter new tools to get the job done. There are custom X-4 Stormwing planes that are wrapped in Christmas lights, special Chiller grenades, Sneaky Snowmandos (which disguise you as a snowman), and “Snowmando-wrapped presents.”

Alongside all of this, there will be a mix of new and returning limited-time modes. Shockwave is a new mode where players try to bump into each other to send enemies flying into the storm, which deals extra damage–it sounds a bit like a sumo-style competition. Pickaxe Frenzy will be available as an LTM, and Air Royale will make a return. These modes will be on a rotation, although the Snowdown Shuffle playlist will allow you to play one of these at random.

It sounds as if you shouldn’t expect any other major Fortnite updates for the remainder of the year, as Epic’s announcement of this event notes that the development team is “tak[ing] off for the holidays.” Earlier this month, Fortnite on PC got a new Performance mode to help it run on lower-end hardware, while PS5 and Xbox Series X players got 120fps support. Epic also launched the new Spy Within mode that is basically Among Us.