Category: Games

Quantic Dream’s latest game, Detroit: Become Human, has reached a new sales milestone. The French developer said in a news release that the game passed 5 million sales across all platforms following its release on Steam. The game launched earlier on PC through the Epic Games Store.

Detroit started out as a PS4-exclusive, but Quantic Dream has since ended its publishing agreement with Sony and is now planning to be a multiplatform game developer and “boutique” publisher.

Quantic Dream also announced that Detroit’s Twitch extension, Community Play, was a big success. Nearly 500 streamers used the Twitch overlay to call on their viewers to vote for what decisions should be made in the game. In total, more than 1.5 million votes were cast.

Quantic Dream co-CEO Guillaume de Fondaumiere said in the news release that Detroit has enjoyed an “incredibly positive” response overall, though he cited Asian markets as being of particular importance.

The developer has no officially announced projects for the future just yet, but the company’s next game will be a self-published title for next-gen consoles.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare and the battle royale game Warzone are set to grow again, and in a big way, with the launch of the huge Season 5 update on August 5.

The update will go live by way of a very large patch. If history is any indication, the patch should start to arrive on PS4, Xbox One, and PC at around 11 PM PT on August 4. The patch notes will be released this evening, senior communications manager Ashton Williams said on Twitter.

The Season 5 update adds new multiplayer maps for Modern Warfare, a new Ground War map, and a new Mini Royale mode for Warzone. There is also a new Battle Pass and more Operators, while the Warzone mode is getting refreshed with new areas and a freight train.

For lots more on the Season 5 update, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of everything you need to know. You can also check out the image embedded above to learn more.

The Season 5 update comes at a strong time for Modern Warfare and Warzone. The battle royale game recently crossed 75 million players, while Modern Warfare is enjoying incredibly strong sales of the game and microtransactions, due in part to stay-at-home orders keeping people inside, playing games, and spending money on them.

Even with Modern Warfare and Warzone doing so well right now, Activision will release the next mainline Call of Duty game later this year. It is now confirmed to be a new title from Black Ops creator Treyarch. And while there are no official details on the game yet, it’s rumored to be Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Activision management said on an earnings call today that this new game from Treyarch will connect to Warzone in some capacity.

Wargroove, a turn-based strategy game in the vein of Advance Wars, received free DLC earlier this year–but only on Switch, Xbox One, and PC. The Double Trouble expansion, which added a co-op campaign, was missing from Sony’s system back in February, but now, six months later, that has been rectified.

The Double Trouble update has come to the PS4 version of Wargroove, adding a new, lengthy campaign, three new Commanders, two new units, and several other features to the game. Developer Chucklefish says that the campaign takes about 15 hours to complete, and it supports both couch and online co-op.

The DLC also contains new arcade missions, a volcano map theme, and new music.

Furthermore, the PS4 version now finally has cross-play. This feature was available at launch for the Switch, Xbox One, and PC versions, but PS4 players missed out until now. This means that players diving into the DLC will be able to team up with their friends on other systems.

“We’re very happy to finally complete our vision of one big happy Wargroove community as PS4 Wargroove players can now play with those on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC,” Wargroove lead programmer Rodrigo Braz Monteiro said in a statement. “Thanks for your patience, and hope you’ll have fun!”

Wargroove received an 8/10 in GameSpot’s review, well before the free DLC launched. “Chucklefish could have offered up a prettied-up take on Advance Wars with online multiplayer and called it a day,” wrote reviewer Chris Pereira. “Instead, it’s made meaningful improvements that make this both a satisfying answer to starved Advance Wars fans’ wishes and a genuinely great experience on its own merits.”

This article and video contain very mild, early spoilers for The Last of Us Part II.

The Last of Us Part II is a fairly grim game, but it isn’t all doom and gloom. One early section flashes back to a happier moment in Joel and Ellie’s lives, when Joel gives Ellie an incredible gift: a trip to an abandoned museum, full of dinosaur skeletons. Now, Game Maker’s Toolkit, has dived deep into how that section was made

Evan Hill, a former Naughty Dog level designer who led the creation of the museum (the level is called “The Birthday Gift”), says that he was given a brief two-paragraph summary of the museum’s narrative function from director Neil Druckmann, but was given freedom from there.

The video shows some of the early 3D block mesh designs for this level and others, and Hill talks about the importance of being able to experience the space in 3D before you know if it’s working. He even shows off the very early, very blobby form the first dinosaur statue took in the initial mesh.

There’s a wide range of design philosophy points discussed here, as Hill digs into how Naughty Dog uses level design for pathfinding, and how geometry is used for cool camera reveal moments. He also says that levels are generally built before the dialog is fully scripted, so the writers and actors are able to frame their reactions to spaces only once those spaces have been built. The writing is often based on the level design, not the other way around.

You can watch the video below.

Hill also explains the decision to let you skip certain parts of this level, and the possibility that players will miss out on certain parts. “It’s okay if there isn’t this perfect singular experience of this level,” he says, as it’s important that players feel that they are driving the action. “If you forced everyone to do everything, for some players it would drag,” he explains.

Hill says that this section almost ended with the discovery of the lunar landing module, but it continued to grow and become more important as development continued.

All up, the level–which contains three distinct “acts” within its short running time–took “two solid years” to fully build, Hill says. He believes that you only reach this level of quality through extreme iteration, which happened here too. “There are some sequences in this game that were redone, like, 25 times,” he says.

There are numerous parts of the game that changed a lot during development–in fact, The Last of Us Part II almost had a much darker ending. A spin-off show is coming to HBO, courteosy of Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin, and it will expand on the world established in the games.

Has any pop culture franchise been through more permutations and reboots than Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles? It doesn’t help that so many of these projects are named simply “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” “TMNT” or some other variation thereof.

With Turtle Mania as strong as it’s ever been, and with even more Turtle adventures in the works across various media, we figured now is a great time to break down the history of the franchise. Read on to learn about all the many incarnations of TMNT across movies, TV and video games (but note that for the sake of simplicity we’re ignoring the various handheld and mobile games).

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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Original Animated Series

The year 1987 is when Turtle Mania really began to take hold, as that was when the original animated series and the action figure line both debuted. The animated series helped shape public perception of the franchise for years to come, from the iconic theme song to a decidedly more kid-friendly tone than the comic book source material. The series also had much more staying power than most, lasting a full 10 seasons until it finally wrapped in 1996.

The NES Game

The TMNT franchise’s first foray into video games is also the most divisive. The original NES game boasts a unique, fairly open-ended structure and allows players to choose which of the four Turtles to control. However, the game is also well known for its level of difficulty, with many gamers having nightmares of the infamous underwater level for years to come after playing.

The Live-Action Movie

The franchise made its theatrical debut with the 1990 live-action Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. That film is notable for both its darker, more comic-accurate tone and the animatronic rubber Turtle suits designed by Jim Henson’s Creature Shop. As further proof of Turtle Mania’s power, the movie actually became the highest-grossing independent film in history (at least until The Blair Witch Project came along).

The Arcade Game

The Turtles migrated to arcades in 1990, spawning what is arguably still the most popular game in the history of the franchise. This Konami-produced brawler replicated a successful quarter-munching formula. The game was later ported to the NES and rebranded Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Arcade Game. Although the NES version suffered a major graphical downgrade, it boasts an additional level not found in the original.

Fall of the Foot Clan

Even the Game Boy got in on the TMNT fun thanks to this 1990 action game, which is based on the animated series. Fall of the Foot Clan spawned two Game Boy-exclusive sequels, 1991’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: Back from the Sewers and 1993’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III: Radical Rescue.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze

As popular as the 1990 movie was, the backlash over the dark tone resulted in this campier and less violent sequel. The Secret of the Ooze is also notable for adding a number of new characters to the franchise, including the heroic pizza delivery boy Keno and Bebop and Rocksteady fill-ins Tokka and Rahzar. Also, there was that whole “Ninja Rap” thing.

Turtles in Time

Konami followed up the 1990 arcade game with an equally popular sequel. Turtles in Time is not only a major graphical leap over its predecessor, its plot sees the Turtles battling their way through time, from the prehistoric to a futuristic New York. The game was later ported to the Super NES, with several new bosses and levels thrown in for good measure.

The Manhattan Project

Because the NES was woefully ill-equipped to handle a port of Turtles in Time, it instead played host to a different follow-up to TMNT II: The Arcade Game. The Manhattan Project features similar graphics and gameplay, though the Turtles each gained their own special move.

Manhattan Missions

Not to be confused with The Manhattan Project, TMNT: The Manhattan Missions is a PC-exclusive action game modeled after the Prince of Persia series.

The Hyperstone Heist

While Sega Genesis owners didn’t get a true port of Turtles in Time, they did get this very similar arcade brawler. TMNT: The Hyperstone Heist reuses many assets from Turtles in Time, but features a different storyline and unique characters like Shredder’s top henchman, Tatsu.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III

The live-action series culminated with this sequel, which thrust the Turtles back in time to feudal Japan. While moderately successful, the diminished box office numbers and withering critical reception ensured this would be the last live-action TMNT movie for more than 20 years.

Tournament Fighters

With Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat all the rage in 1993, the Turtles got in on that action with a tournament fighting game of their own. The game was released on the NES, Super NES and Sega Genesis, with each varying wildly in gameplay, character roster and quality.

Mutant Turtles: Choujin Densetsu-hen

This two-part Japanese OVA is more or less a spinoff of the 1987 animated series, featuring most of the same Japanese dub voice actors. The title translates to “Superman Legend,” and the first episode features the Turtles becoming sentai heroes who merge to form the powerful Turtle Saint.

The Next Mutation

Though TMNT III basically killed the live-action franchise’s future prospects, that didn’t stop Saban Entertainment from trying to tap into waning Turtle Mania for a Power Rangers-inspired series. TMNT: The Next Mutation debuted in 1997 and lasted only one season. The series is a loose continuation of the movie trilogy and is mostly remembered for introducing a fifth, female Turtle named Venus De Milo. The Turtles also crossed over with the Power Rangers themselves in an episode of Power Rangers in Space.

The 2003 Animated Series

After going dormant in the late ’90s and early ’00s, the Turtles got a second wind thanks to a new animated series in 2003, produced by 4Kids and Mirage Studios. This series is relatively darker and more violent compared to its predecessor. That, along with a more narrative-driven approach, helped win over many fans. The series even crossed over with the original cartoon in the 2009 finale special Turtles Forever.

The 2003 Games

The advent of the new animated series led to two different video games being released in 2003, one developed for the Playstation 2, Xbox, Gamecube and PC and the other for Game Boy Advance. The former is specially based on the 2003 animated series and later spawned several sequels – 2004’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2: Battle Nexus and 2005’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 3: Mutant Nightmare and TMNT: Mutant Melee.

TMNT: The CG Movie

The franchise finally returned to theaters in 2007 in the form of TMNT, a CG-animated movie that also acts as a sequel to the live-action series. This sequel sees the four estranged Turtles struggling to come together again and battle the Foot Clan’s new leader, Karai.

The 2007 Game

The franchise’s video game rights passed from Konami to Ubisoft just in time for the 2007 movie, and Ubisoft released a tie-in game on pretty much every console imaginable. Funnily enough, though, the Game Boy Advance game is the most well-regarded of the bunch, thanks to its arcade-inspired gameplay.

Turtles in Time Re-Shelled

Ubisoft released a new version of the classic Turtles in Time game in 2009 for both Xbox Live and the Playstation Network. Turtles in Time Re-Shelled recreates the levels of the arcade version with updated 3D graphics. Unfortunately, once Ubisoft’s licensing arrangement with Konami expired, the game vanished from both storefronts.

TMNT: Smash-Up

Developed by veterans of the Super Smash Bros. and Dead or Alive series, TMNT: Smash-Up is a PS2 and Wii fighting game that applies the Smash Bros. formula to the TMNT-verse.

Arcade Attack

Ubisoft’s final TMNT game turned out to be this Nintendo DS-exclusive action game released in 2009.

The 2012 Animated Series

After acquiring full rights to the TMNT franchise in 2009, Viacom wasted little time in commissioning a new animated series that debuted on Nickelodeon in 2012. This series broke new ground as the first CG-animated TMNT show, and was generally well-received by fans.

The 2013 Games

The TMNT video game rights shifted to Activision, leading to a pair of 2013 games inspired by the new animated series. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows was released on Xbox Live Arcade, Windows and PSN, while another game simply titled Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles was released on Xbox 360, Wii and Nintendo DS.

The Movie Reboot

21 years after TMNT III, the franchise finally returned to the big screen for a new live-action movie produced by Michael Bay. Unlike the previous live-action series, this reboot features CG-animated versions of the Turtles rather than actors in rubber suits. Despite generally negative reviews, this movie managed to become the franchise’s highest-grossing theatrical release.

The 2014 Games

Several new TMNT games were released in 2014 to capitalize on the new movie, though only the Nintendo 3DS/mobile game was actually based on the movie. Other 2014 releases included the Kinect-fueled minigame collection TMNT: Training Lair and WayForward’s TMNT: Danger of the Ooze, a tie-in to the CG-animated series.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows

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The 2014 movie reboot was followed by a 2016 sequel called Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows. This sequel adds fan-favorite characters like Casey Jones (Arrow’s Stephen Amell) and finally gives Bebop and Rocksteady their live-action debuts. However, the sequel failed to replicate the box office success of the original, leading Paramount to cancel plans for a third film.

Mutants in Manhattan

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Activision’s final bow with the franchise came in the form of 2016’s TMNT: Mutants in Manhattan, a cel-shaded action game developed by PlatinumGames. While fans had high expectations given the developer’s pedigree, the game debuted to middling reviews and disappeared from digital storefronts surprisingly quickly.

Injustice 2

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While TMNT: Smash-Up remains the last dedicated TMNT fighting game, the Turtles did make a guest appearance in the form of DLC for 2017’s Injustice 2. The game even includes an in-story explanation for how the four brothers are able to go toe-to-toe with Superman.

Rise of the TMNT

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Each new TMNT cartoon seems to arrive quicker than the last. Nickelodeon followed up the successful 2012 series with Rise of the TMNT. Though this series returns to a 2D style of animation, its wildly different approach to the main character designs certainly turned heads. To date, Nickelodeon has aired two seasons of the series.

Nickelodeon Kart Racers

Surprisingly, there’s never been a TMNT kart racing game, but the Turtles do show up as playable characters in this 2018 game for the PS4, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch.

Batman vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

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DC Comics and IDW Publishing crafted an epic pop culture crossover in 2015’s Batman/Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and that comic inspired this 2019 direct-to-video animated movie. The film pairs the Bat-family with the Turtles as they confront the combined threat of Shredder and Ra’s al Ghul. The comic spawned two sequels, but it remains to be seen if either will be adapted for animation.

The Netflix Movie

The next TMNT movie won’t be appearing in theaters, but will instead be exclusive to Netflix. Seth Rogen, Evan Goldberg and James Weaver’s production company Point Grey Pictures is collaborating with Nickelodeon and Paramount for the new feature-length animated movie. This animated TMNT movie reboot will be directed by Jeff Rowe (Gravity Falls, Connected, Disenchantment) and written by Brendan O’Brian (Neighbors, Sorority Rising, Mike and Dave Need Wedding Dates).

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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.

While we know next to nothing about this year’s Call of Duty, publisher Activision said co-developers Raven Software and Treyarch will show off the game “fairly soon.”

This news came during a recent Activision Blizzard earnings call, where Activision president Rob Kostich said Warzone helped the Call of Duty teams rethink how content is revealed while also confirming that Call of Duty 2020 news is on the way.

“It’s Warzone, I think, that’s caused us to rethink how, when, and even where we reveal our upcoming title,” Kostich said. “So we can’t wait to share it with the community, and we think it’s gonna be very different and more engaging than anything we’ve ever done before.

“Now, as you heard on the call before, Treyarch and Raven are coming up with the next premium game, and [we’re] obviously very excited about what they’re working on, and we do think fans are gonna absolutely love it. The game looks incredible right now and internally people are having a ton of fun playing across its campaign mode as well as the online modes that the developers are very well known for. And so, all I can say in terms of timing is I suspect you’ll be hearing more about this fairly soon.”

Following news of Warzone including future Call of Duty content, Kostich said this year’s Call of Duty will be closely connected to Warzone in the same way Modern Warfare is.

“Now, on your question of how we’re going to integrate the title with Warzone, I think that’s a good one, it’s an important one, and what you should expect is that [there will be] very tight integration between the two. Modern Warfare and Warzone are obviously very tightly connected, and I think that’s really important to the player base. We plan to do the same with all our upcoming titles as well, our premium titles, to ensure that we can reward all of our players and give them fresh new experiences, regardless of whether they choose to just play in Warzone or also play in the premium game as well, so the connection will absolutely be there.”

Treyarch subsequently tweeted confirmation that it is “looking forward” to talking about what the team’s working on with Raven. It’s worth noting Treyarch is responsible for the Black Ops series, with both studios collaborating on 2018’s Call of Duty: Black Ops 4.

This year’s Call of Duty is rumored to be a Black Ops entry set in the Cold War. While information about the title remains scarce, a recent Microsoft Store listing sparked further rumors of some kind of reveal.