Category: Games

DC is currently in the midst of Dark Nights: Death Metal, a massive crossover that serves as the climax of writer Scott Snyder’s work on both Batman and Justice League. But even though DC has billed this story as its first “Anti-Crisis,” fans shouldn’t expect Death Metal to rewrite the history or continuity of the DC Universe in the same way past Crisis stories have.

That was the big takeaway from DC’s “In Conversation With Scott Snyder and James Tynion IV” panel at NYCC 2020. As the two friends and creators reflected on their respective DC careers, Snyder made it clear that one of the central themes of Death Metal is Wonder Woman’s realization that the past matters and shouldn’t be ignored or overwritten. That’s the crux of the crossover’s tagline “It all matters.” That theme is at the heart of Death Metal #4 (due out on Wednesday, October 14), as Diana leads her friends on a quest to revisit the events of 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths, 2005’s Infinite Crisis and 2008’s Final Crisis and gather the Crisis energy needed to repair the DC multiverse.

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Snyder said, “What Wonder Woman really comes to realize… going through this battle and seeing these horrible Crises where the villains have won and seeing what they might become, is that at the end of the day they have to reckon with the whole history of the DCU. Every story they’ve been through has happened, and the only way to move forward is to not only accept that, but have that as their arsenal to fight with. What that means is that, on the other side of that battle, I’m not going to take that power to erase my enemies or erase what I don’t want you to look at and start over in a brand new way that makes me comfortable. Instead, what I’m going to do is say that everything happened and everything’s true, and what I need to do going forward is accept all of that, even if you as a reader or as a person of Earth within the story looking up to the heroes reject me and find new heroes. That, to me, is a love letter to all of DC Comics.”

Snyder continued, “All of these great stories that you’ve grown up with, whether you love them or hate them – they all matter. They all happened, They’re all real. They’re all part of this epic, generational story. And at the end, what we do is say is all of it was material, all of it was consequential. And now, whatever DC is going to be going forward, both narratively within the story and characters, and as a company, because there have been a lot of changes as well – we’re excited for that, and we welcome it with open arms, and we hope that it’s going to be even better than what it was before. You can only move forward with that kind of faith if you’re a comic fan and you look up to superheroes.

While it remains to be seen how DC will change course in 2021 in the wake of widespread layoffs and an editorial regime change, it’s clear the company isn’t using Death Metal as a foundation for another New 52-style reboot. Snyder’s comments mesh with Jim Lee’s recent confirmation that DC’s long-rumored 5G reboot is officially dead. DC won’t be overhauling its 80-year history or attempting another New 52-style reboot. But that doesn’t necessarily mean big changes aren’t coming in early 2021. We have some ideas for how DC could transform itself in the months to come.

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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.

Nintendo is offering another Super Smash Bros. Ultimate freebie for Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. Right now, members can claim the Vault Shopper Set 2 bundle, which comes with 3,000 Gold and five tickets. The latter can be wagered during Classic Mode for additional rewards.

To claim the Vault Shopper Set 2 pack, you’ll need to open the Switch eShop and select the “Nintendo Switch Online” option from the left sidebar. After you’ve done that, you’ll find the pack listed among the other free offers near the top of the page. Click on the pack and select Download to claim it.

Like previous Smash Bros. freebies, the Vault Shopper Set 2 is only available to those who have an active paid Switch Online membership; you can’t claim the pack during a free trial to the service. You can learn more about subscription costs and benefits in our Nintendo Switch Online guide.

The next DLC character for Smash Bros. Ultimate is Steve from Minecraft. The blocky fighter arrives alongside the game’s 9.0 update on October 13. Like previous DLC characters, Steve brings his own new Minecraft-inspired stage, as well as new music tracks and additional Spirits to unlock in the game’s Spirit Board mode.

Steve is the second DLC character to arrive as part of Smash Bros. Ultimate’s Fighters Pass Vol. 2, following Min Min from Arms. Four more DLC fighters are still on the horizon, but Nintendo hasn’t teased who those will be. The Fighters Pass Vol. 2 costs $30 USD. Each character pack can also be purchased individually for $6 USD.

Many questions about how the PlayStation 5 actually works remain unanswered as we quickly approach its November 12 launch date, but Sony has recently detailed the way PS4 backwards compatible games will take advantage of the next-gen console’s hardware via Game Boost.

As its name suggests, Game Boost provides benefits for supported PS4 games, including improved frame rates, higher-resolution visuals, and faster load times. Though Sony has not laid out all of the titles that will support this performance increase, some developers are revealing the games that will take advantage of Game Boost. We’ve rounded up the list of games that use Game Boost, and will continue to update this list as news rolls in.

Ghost of Tsushima

Developer Sucker Punch Productions took to Twitter to confirm that not only is its open-world samurai-RPG Ghost of Tsushima playable day one on PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility, the game will also get a frame rate increase thanks to Game Boost. Specifically, Ghost of Tsushima will get a 60 FPS option as well as further decreased load times.

While 99 percent of the over 4,000 PS4 titles will be playable on PS5, the company said a handful of current-gen games–including Afro Samurai 2: Revenge of Kuma Volume One and Hitman Go: Definitive Edition–won’t work on the next-gen console. If other games end up on this list, they will be marked with a “Playable On: PS4 Only” marker on the PlayStation Store. Sony also detailed how players can upgrade their PS4 games to PS5.

The PlayStation 5 launches on November 12 in most regions and November 19 worldwide. Two editions are available for $400 and $500, so check out our PlayStation 5 preorder guide to learn about which console is right for you and your at-home setup.

Legendary Batman voice actor Kevin Conroy breaks down how he found the right voice for the 80-year-old version of Bruce Wayne he portrayed in Batman Beyond, which originally aired from 1999-2001.

During the Batman Beyond panel at NYCC 2020, Conroy was joined by co-star Will Friedle (voice of Terry McGinnis) and iconic voice director Andrea Romano (Avatar: The Last Airbender, Batman: The Animated Series).

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“They actually had me read for the role because Bruce Wayne at that point he’s 80 and he physically can’t do it anymore and that’s the whole genesis of the show, the whole reason it exists, is because [Bruce] needs a new recruit to do the stuff that the can’t do,” Conroy explained. “That first episode, when he goes to shoot a gun and that moment when he realized that he’s crossing that line, that he’s relying on a gun because he’s own physical strength isn’t enough anymore. So this [version of Bruce] had to be in his eighties. I was 45 [at the time], so it was a jump, so they had me audition. It wasn’t so much the register of the voice because they very much went into that Batman range for my voice. But for me, it was more about the weight of life. It wasn’t just the depth of the voice, it was the pace of the character.”

Ramona went into even more detail about how Conroy would change his physical posture while he was in the recording booth to find the proper cadence for the elderly Bruce Wayne.

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“You would physically sit at the microphone differently when you were voicing older Bruce Wayne,” Romano informed Conroy. “Because it actually helps to make Bruce Wayne’s voice older if you hunch over a little bit, so he doesn’t have that nice diaphragm strength, you know? You want him to be weaker. As much as your ability to manipulate your voice, it was really a lot about the acting. What is it like to be eighty, and to realize that [Bruce] can no longer do this? So there was a bitterness that Bruce Wayne had about that too, he was not pleased about the fact that he could no longer do it anymore.”

For more Batman Beyond, watch Kevin Conroy and Will Friedle swap lines and see how awesome the Batman Beyond Blu-ray remaster look compared to the original.

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David Griffin still watches DuckTales in his pajamas with a cereal bowl in hand. He’s also the TV Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

Nintendo has rolled out a new update for Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This patch is another fairly minor one, primarily addressing a small handful of issues that have cropped up in the game following its big 1.5 update late last month.

According to the patch notes on Nintendo’s support website, New Horizons’ 1.5.1 update resolves a couple of bugs, including one where Nook Miles keywords would not appear in the passport list, and another that caused villagers to talk about pumpkins when they were given a bamboo shoot. You can read the full patch notes below.

The aforementioned 1.5 update released on September 29 and introduced an assortment of fall-themed content to the game, including the Halloween event, pumpkins, and spooky DIY recipes. Another big New Horizons update is coming in late November, and it appears that one will add the game’s Thanksgiving and Christmas events.

That’s not all that’s coming next month; Nintendo also announced that the Animal Crossing Amiibo cards are returning to stores this November. Each pack will cost $6 USD and includes six cards, which you can scan to invite villagers to live on your island or take photos of them in the game’s Photopia mode. The long sold-out Animal Crossing-edition Switch console is also starting to return to select stores.

In the meantime, a variety of new October bugs, fish, and sea creatures are appearing in the game right now. The Fishing Tourney is happening this weekend for both Northern and Southern Hemisphere players. The event takes place on Saturday, October 10, giving you another chance to earn exclusive fish-themed furniture and other items.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons Version 1.5.1 Patch Notes

General updates

The following issues occurring in Ver. 1.5.0 have been fixed:

• Fixed an issue where some title keywords obtained via Nook Miles would not appear within the Passport.
• Fixed an issue where certain messages would display in English for users playing in French, Spanish, German, Italian, Dutch, or Russian.
• Fixed an issue where animal residents would talk about pumpkins when given a bamboo shoot.
• Fixed an issue where it was no longer possible to jump over a river based on the location of certain furniture.

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Dell has made the RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 upgrade option available to the base Alienware Aurora gaming desktop. You can get an RTX 3080 gaming PC with minimal RAM and storage specs for as low as $1899 and then upgrade the RAM and SSD on your own. Chances are that you’ll be paying less for better quality components, and you won’t void your warranty.

Deals for October 9

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Video Game Deals

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Early Amazon Prime Day Deals

For more details, check our What to Expect for Amazon Prime Day 2020 article.

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Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out his latest Daily Deals Article and subscribe to his IGN Deals Newsletter.

Phasmophobia arrived on Steam Early Access just four weeks ago, and has already hit the heights of the most-played games on Steam, and the top 5 most-streamed games on Twitch in the last week.

A co-op ghost hunting game (playable across VR and non-VR) that mixes puzzle solving and jump scares, Phasmophobia’s picked up huge traction among streamers and YouTubers, and flown up Steam’s most-played charts in the last week.

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At time of writing, according to Steam Charts, the game hit an all-time peak of concurrent players on October 8, with 70,195. That record has been broken every day for the last week, a trend we can expect to see continue across the weekend.

That success is likely connected to the game’s increasing popularity on Twitch. According to Twitch Tracker, Phasmophobia has been the 5th most-streamed game in the last week, beating out Fortnite, FIFA 21 and Counter-Strike on the way.

Phasmophobia has you exploring haunted locations, using a variety of ghost hunting equipment – both folkloric and technological – to identify types of ghosts, before escaping without being killed. It heavily uses voice chat, both to stay in contact with teammates and to contact the procedurally generated spirits themselves.

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Currently in Early Access, the game’s selling at £11 / $14 USD, and is currently planned for full release in 2021.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].