Category: Games

Persona 5 Strikers is set to release for PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC on February 23. Naturally, anyone lucky enough to have a PS5 can play the PS4 version via backwards compatibility, but it won’t feature any next-gen upgrades. You don’t have to wait to lock in a copy for yourself, because the game is available for preorder at a number of retailers (see it at Amazon).

It’s available in two editions: a standard one and a digital deluxe edition that comes with downloadable extras. Depending on where you get it, you may also get a preorder bonus (see below). And if you’re wondering whether the game is worth playing, be sure to check out IGN’s glowing Persona 5 Strikers review to find out why we called it “essential for fans of the original.”

Preorder Persona 5 Strikers

PS4

• Get it at Amazon – $59.99
• Get it at Best Buy – $59.99
• Get it at GameStop – $59.99
• Get it at PlayStation Store (digital) – $59.99

Nintendo Switch

• Get it at Amazon – $59.99
• Get it at Amazon (digital) – $59.99
• Get it at Best Buy – $59.99
• Get it at GameStop – $59.99
• Get it at Nintendo eShop (digital) – $59.99

PC

• Get it on Steam – $59.99

The standard edition of Persona 5 Strikers comes with the following digital items:

• Soundtrack with over 40 songs
• Digital art book
• Behind-the-scenes video

Persona 5 Strikers Digital Deluxe Edition

• Get it for PS4 – $69.99
• Get it for Nintendo Switch – $69.99
• Get it for PC – $69.99

The digital deluxe edition of Persona 5 Strikers comes with the digital items from the standard edition, as well as four days’ early access (starting February 19), plus the following:

Persona Legacy Background Music

• Music from Persona 1 and Persona 1 PSP remake
• Music from Persona 2 Innocent Sin and Persona 2 Eternal Punishment
• Music from Persona 3 and Persona 3 Portable
• Music from Persona 4 and Persona 4 Golden

All-out Attack Pack

• Boost Skills Pack
• Basic Affinity Skills Pack
• Ally Buff Skills Pack
• Armor Pack
• Persona Points
• Enemy Debuff Skills Pack

Persona 5 Strikers Preorder Bonuses

In addition to the digital bonuses that come with all versions of the game (see above), some retailers are offering exclusive bonuses for placing your preorder with them.

• Best Buy – Steelbook case (Switch version only)
• GameStop – Joker pin

What Is Persona 5 Strikers?

Persona 5 Strikers catches up with the Phantom Thieves as they head out on a summer vacation following the events of Persona 5. As you can imagine, things don’t go quite as expected and they get roped into investigating mysterious cases in cities across Japan.

The combat this time around is Musou-style, which means you take on hordes of enemies in real time. But the turn-based combat of the game’s predecessor isn’t completely gone, as you can pause the action to plot out your next moves. You also get a chance to play as each of the Phantom Thieves as you take on waves of enemies.

Other Preorder Guides

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

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No Man’s Sky has received another update, titled Companions, which lets players adopt and breed alien companions.

The Companions update launches today and will let players “tame, breed, train and even speak to the creatures they encounter.” No Man’s Sky has long been known for the inimitable alien creatures that inhabit the game’s procedural planets, but this update will let players interact with them on a deeper level.

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Explorers can adopt creatures as sidekicks for their interstellar adventures, and the tamed beasts can be trained “to scan for resources, mark out hazards, provide light, hunt dangerous fauna, find settlements, excavate buried treasure or even mine for materials with their own shoulder-mounted mining lasers.” Once a companion is nurtured they will also lay eggs which can be incubated by the player. A new system called the Egg Sequencer will also let players genetically modify their alien eggs to create variant and rare species, which can be sold to other travellers.

“A wide range of customisable accessories and decals” will also be made available so players can create a stylish companion. Hello Games notes that “no two creatures are alike,” and that the personality of the new companions will be defined “by their species and ecosystem.” This will colour their emotional interactions with other players, who may also have a companion. You can also connect your companion to an Exosuit via a neural harness, and their alien thoughts will be “translated and sent directly to your internal communication channels,” allowing players to communicate with their new alien friends.

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Beyond the addition of companions, the update will also “bring significant improvements to load and warp times for PlayStation 4 players.” You can check out full patch notes on the Hello Games website.

Hello Games says that this is the start of the game’s 5th anniversary festivities, but they “have a lot planned” for the rest of 2021. In other Hello Games news, Sean Murray has said that the studio won’t be talking about its new game for a while, but that it’s going to be big.

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

Marvel’s Eternals star Kumail Nanjiani has revealed how director Chloe Zhao carefully selected the cast for the upcoming cosmic superhero movie.

Nanjiani was interviewed by Vulture as part of a profile piece on The Rider and Nomadland director, and the ex-Silicon Valley actor explained that Zhao made her choices based on how each star’s personality fitted into their Eternals counterpart. Nanjiani, who will portray Kingo in the superhero flick, described why he was surprised by a particular answer that Zhao gave him during a meeting about his character, and how that extended to the movie’s whole cast.

“I was like ‘Okay, so how do you want to see Kingo?'” Nanjiani said. “She was like ‘He’s you. I picked you because I wanted him to be you.’ That’s how she picked the entire cast. She wanted everybody to put pieces of themselves into each character.”

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The Eternals’ ensemble is the most diverse cast seen in a Marvel movie to date, and Nanjiani puts that down to the commitment shown by Zhao – who is also the first Asian woman to direct an MCU movie – to represent different ethnicities and cultures in a superhero flick. Recalling a shot of the cast, Nanjiani admitted that he got emotional over the image. He said: “You never see a movie with a cast that looks like the world this much, let alone big superheroes in a Marvel movie.”

Nanjiani is the latest member of the Eternals team to heap praise on Zhao over her vision of the film. Fellow Eternals star Salma Hayek recently described the film as possessing “a completely different DNA” to previous MCU movies due to the way it was shot, while Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige revealed that Zhao’s Eternals pitch was the “best he’d ever heard“.

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In other Marvel news, Falcon and the Winter Soldier actress Emily VanCamp revealed how the upcoming Disney+ show compares to WandaVision’s trippiness, while Assembled – a new Disney+ documentary series – will provide a behind-the-scenes look at Marvel’s 2021 TV series.

Thumbnail photo by Jesse Grant/Getty Images

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Tom Power is a UK-based freelance writer who cannot wait for Marvel’s Eternals. Follow him on Twitter.

The landmark Microsoft-Bethesda acquisition was reportedly a factor in Google’s decision to close its Stadia game development studios.

A report from Kotaku says that Google Stadia General Manager Phil Harrison brought it up as a factor during a Q&A with staff following Google’s decision to shut down its two internal game studios in Los Angeles and Montreal in early February.

According to Kotaku’s sources, Harrison “pointed specifically to Microsoft’s buying spree and planned acquisition of Bethesda Software later this year as one of the factors that had made Google decide to close the book on original game development.” Microsoft announced its plans to acquire Zenimax Media and Bethesda Softworks in September 2020, bringing blockbuster franchises such as The Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Doom under its wing. It’s not entirely clear what the connection between the acquisition and Stadia’s decision is, although it could be seen as an inability to compete in the market.

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Harrison reportedly mentioned the COVID-19 pandemic and “the rising costs of game development” as other factors in the decision. Kotaku’s report notes that the studio’s game developers were shocked by the decision to close the studios, as just weeks before they had been praised by Harrison via email for the “great progress” made by the teams. Kotaku’s sources say this was “emblematic” of the reported mismanagement at Stadia’s studios prior to their closure.

Despite the first-party studio closures, Google recently announced that more than 100 third-party games would be added to its streaming service by the end of 2021.

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

Warner Bros. has released a series of motion posters for the upcoming Mortal Kombat movie, featuring Mileena, Kung Lao, and many, many more.

The short videos, released on Twitter, offered fans a closer look at who’s playing who in the latest adaptation of the blockbuster video game series, which is scheduled to cannonball onto HBO Max and into theaters on April 16, 2021. The posters were unveiled alongside the announcement of the new trailer arriving on Thursday, February 18. Check out the screenshots of the posters in our gallery:

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The posters showcase the movie’s cast of ferocious fighters, including Joe Taslim’s Sub-Zero, Josh Lawson’s Kano, Sisi Stringer’s Mileena, Max Huang’s Kung Lao, Chin Han’s Shang Tsung, Jessica McNamee’s Sonya Blade, Ludi Lin’s Liu Kang, Tadanobu Asano’s Raiden, Mehcad Brooks’ Jax Briggs, and Lewis Tan’s Cole Young — an all-new character, described as a “washed-up MMA fighter” who bears a mysterious birthmark in the shape of the Mortal Kombat symbol on his chest.

Together with Sonya Blade, his journey will lead him to the temple of a thunderous Elder God known as Lord Raiden, where he will come into contact with a group of highly-skilled fighters, resulting in plenty of fights and (for the first time) “crazy fatalities,” which means the R-rated movie will likely feature several of the classic violent finisher moves.

“There are some crazy fatalities,” revealed Tan, who performed his own stunts on set. “We’ve picked a couple of iconic ones. There’s a lot of really cool signature moves that you’ll see, a lot of Easter eggs that we snuck into the film, but there are some really badass fatalities that I can’t wait to see on the big screen. They’re brutal, man. They, they don’t hold back.”

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Warner Bros. is expected to release the new James Wan-produced live-action adaptation of Mortal Kombat to theaters and HBO Max simultaneously. The movie’s distribution plan was reconsidered due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has impacted several studios and their respective release calendars over the past year.

For more Mortal Kombat action, check out our deep-dive into the history of its bizarre movie and TV adaptations and read more about how the upcoming movie will be grounded in realism.

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

After the news broke that Mandalorian and Game of Thrones star Pedro Pascal has been cast as Joel in HBO’s TV adaptation of The Last Of Us, fans have already begun to imagine what his take on the character might look like. One fan artist has gone beyond simple Photoshop mockups, with a lovingly rendered take on Pascal with Joel’s beard and scruffy style.

After being posted to Reddit by artist Andrea C. White, the painting was soon shared on Twitter by Naughty Dog’s Neil Druckmann, who is also serving as a writer on the HBO series.

Another artwork being shared around by fans is by artist Taryn Platt, who envisioned Pascal as Joel along with his co-star Bella Ramsey as Ellie. The two are both Game of Thrones alumni, with Ramsey stealing the spotlight in later seasons as the fierce young noblewoman Lyanna Mormont.

Both pieces of fanart show interpretations of the characters that are closely aligned with their video game equivalents but it’s likely that, as with Netflix’s Witcher series, the live-action adaptation will put its own spin on both the characters and the story.

Executive producer Craig Mazin has said that the TV show will feature both characters and events not depicted in the games, but has assured fans that with Druckmann on board, the TV show will be intended to expand on TLOU’s world, not rewrite it.

The Mortal Kombat movie is getting a new trailer this Thursday, February 18.

The trailer announcement was made alongside a short video of Joe Taslim as Sub-Zero. Taslim is a renowned martial artist and appeared in such films as The Raid, Fast & Furious 6, and The Night Comes for Us.

Joe Taslim is Sub-Zero. #MortalKombatMovie trailer Thursday. pic.twitter.com/63Rv7Kwahs

— Mortal Kombat Movie (@MKMovie) February 17, 2021

The Mortal Kombat movie will arrive on HBO Max and in theaters on April 16, 2021, and we recently got a closer look at the film that will also star Mehcad Brooks as Jackson “Jax” Briggs, Chin Han as Shang Tsung, Hiroyuki Sanada as Scorpion, Tadanobu Asano as Raiden, Ludi Lin as Liu Kang, Sisi Stringer as Mileena, Josh Lawson as Kano, Jessica McNamee as Sonya Blade, Max Huang as Lung Lao Max, and Lewis Tan as an all-new character named Cole Young.

This film is a reboot and will see Young, who is a “washed-up MMA fighter” and bears a birthmark in the shape of the Mortal Kombat symbol on his chest, meet up with Sonya Blade. She then leads him to the temple of Lord Raiden where he comes into contact with a group of highly-skilled fighters.

“When we first meet Cole, he’s in a really bad spot,” Tan said. “He’s down on his luck. He’s kind of a washed-up MMA fighter who used to be a champion, who used to believe in himself, who used to have a lot of hope in his career. And it’s all gone down the drain. It’s a very interesting place for a hero to start, and I think that, along the journey of Mortal Kombat and Cole discovering where he comes from, you’re introduced to all these other iconic characters and elements that everybody loves so dearly.”

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There will also be some “crazy fatalities” in the film that will make fans of the franchise very happy.

“There are some crazy fatalities,” added Tan, who performed his own stunts on set. “We’ve picked a couple of iconic ones. There’s a lot of really cool signature moves that you’ll see, a lot of Easter eggs that we snuck into the film, but there are some really badass fatalities that I can’t wait to see on the big screen. They’re brutal, man. They, they don’t hold back.”

For more on the Mortal Kombat movie, which finished filming back in 2019, check out the history of its bizarre movie and TV adaptations and read more about how the upcoming movie will be grounded in realism.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.