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People are not happy about the font used in the Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 3 Pixel Remasters.

A scroll through games Twitter shows folks are discussing the Square Enix’s font choice, and depending on how you look at things, people are rightfully upset. The font used is certainly questionable and there’s no denying that it doesn’t necessarily fit within the art style of these Pixel Remasters.

Some Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster screenshots from 1+2+3

Not sure about that font.. pic.twitter.com/oGVSFl4J5P

— Nibel (@Nibellion) June 30, 2021

It’s quite modern, for starters, and not a font that a pixel art game would have used back when these games were made. Case in point, the original versions of Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 3 used a pixelated font to accompany the pixel art used in the games.

Then there’s the fact that the font is quite small, which doesn’t bode well for the game’s overall accessibility.

ᶦ ʳᵉᵃˡˡʸ ᵈᵒⁿ’ᵗ ˢᵉᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖʳᵒᵇˡᵉᵐ

— Chris Kohler (@kobunheat) June 30, 2021

These three titles are coming to PC and mobile and the font certainly screams “mobile port,” although the “why?” behind the decision to change the font at all remains unanswered and unknown.

To catch people who aren’t familiar with the remasters up to speed, Square Enix announced earlier this month that it would be remastering the first six Final Fantasy games using a pixel art style reminiscent of their original art styles. The reason these remasters even need to exist at all (besides archival purposes) is that previously-released ports of these games — looking at you, Final Fantasy V, and VI, especially — were not held in high regard by fans.

The ports saw the game’s beautiful pixel art smoothed over, giving the beloved characters and settings an almost toy figure-like look. These ports were criticized far and wide — they were literally pulled from Steam today — by people who simply wanted to play these games as they were released.

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The pixel remasters aren’t necessarily one-to-one in terms of pixel art, but they are a significant step up from previous ports.

Then…people saw the font.

To make a long story short, people are not happy with Square Enix’s decision to change the font to what it currently is.

hey @SquareEnix did you know that you can PAY for a really, really, really good font for like only $120 . . . i, uh, i will buy it for you, if you want . . . seriously, my DMs are open pic.twitter.com/zRhT7K2Bfq

— tim rogers (@108) February 27, 2018

It was revealed today that the Pixel Remasters of Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 3 would be released on July 28, 2021, and it seems this small and not-so-desirable-to-some font is what will be used in those July 28 releases.

The Pixel Remasters of 4, 5, and 6, however, do not yet have official release dates — their Steam pages simply say “coming soon” — so perhaps Square Enix could change the font before they release those titles. Only time will tell, but if Square Enix checked Twitter today, the message was probably received.

While waiting for these games to release, check out these screenshots from the first three Pixel Remasters and then read about how two Final Fantasy games were pulled from Steam today.

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Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

The next entry in the Call of Duty series is rumored to be codenamed “Slipstream.” That’s according to @Helba_The_AI, who runs blizztrack.com, a site that tracks updates and uploads to Activision Blizzard’s storefront, Battle.net.

Helba shared on Twitter that there is what appears to be files related to Call of Duty 2021 that have been uploaded to Battle.net, alongside logos with the name “Slipstream.” While Activision Blizzard did confirm that the next Call of Duty is in development with Sledgehammer Games leading, the game has not been officially revealed or given a release date. Sledgehammer assisted with the development of Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War and led development on WWII. The next Call of Duty will also integrate with the Warzone, the free-to-play battle royale.

Helba also tweeted that the next Call of Duty may have an alpha coming soon, based on some text found in Battle.net’s files. Earlier this year it was reported that the next Call of Duty game will be titled Vanguard and would take place during World War II. While the Vanguard title may be the official name of the game, the Slipstream title could possibly be used to secretly test the game or to avoid the official name of the game from being leaked.

It was also reported that the game would be using the IW8 engine, which was used for Modern Warfare and Warzone. Black Ops Cold War used its own engine and Warzone did not swap to the Cold War engine when it released, so Activision Blizzard might be trying to have a more unified Call of Duty experience across all titles moving forward.

While the code name and logo are not confirmed to be real, neither provides much information about the upcoming title. Activision Blizzard will most likely reveal the new title in the coming months, as Black Ops Cold War was revealed in late August last year, before releasing on November 13.

The Last of Us series at HBO has cast Dumbo star Nico Parker to play Joel’s daughter Sarah. Pedro Pascal has already been announced as Joel in the upcoming series.

Deadline reports that Parker is the newest member to be cast in The Last of Us series. She will join Pascal, Bella Ramsey who plays Ellie, and Gabriel Luna who has been cast as Joel’s brother Tommy. Merle Dandridge will reprise her role as Marlene who she voiced in Naughty Dog’s video game.

Parker is a relatively new actor having played Milly Farrier in 2019’s Dumbo directed by Tim Burton. Parker is the daughter of Thandiwe Newton, one of the stars on shows like Westworld also on HBO.

The Last of Us is a critically-acclaimed video game series that is being adapted into a television series for HBO. Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin is working with The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann for the series and will adapt events from the first game.

Druckmann says the series will stay pretty close to the game at places, but other parts may “deviate greatly” because TV is a different medium. One area Druckmann says the series will explore more of is the drama between characters

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The Last of Us is set to begin filming next month, and we’ll wait until the series drops to break down what changed and what hasn’t during the adaptation process. Meanwhile, The Last of Us Part 2 recently celebrated its 1st anniversary, so check out IGN’s Last of Us 2 review and coverage for more.

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Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.

Want to make an exciting new career change or boost your resume with some of the most up-to-date programming skills? Training in the latest web development proficiencies is one of the smartest moves you can make – especially since top developers can make $160k a year.

Plus, now you don’t even need to go to an expensive college to learn the latest development techniques, because today, we’ve found The Modern Web Development & MySQL Programming Bundle on sale for just $19.99 (regular price $1000). With five separate courses included, that works out to less than $4 a course. 

This complete course includes over 47 hours of training in everything you need to really kickstart your career in IT, including PHP, MySQL, GitHub, Heroku, Blazor, .NET, and more. The beauty of this eLearning course, too, is that you can take it at your own pace, to fit your own schedule, from anywhere – so you can easily train for your new career while working your previous one. 

In the 4.6/5 rated course, Modern PHP Web Development with MySQL, GitHub & Heroku, for example, you’ll learn the fundamentals and more advanced specialisms of PHP programming, learning how to create dynamic web pages using PHP and MySQL.

Then, in the 4.5/5 rated, Microsoft SQL Server Development for Everyone, you’ll learn all the base SQL Server training you need to get started in a role as a Database Developer – even if you’re a beginner. 

Each course in this complete bundle is taught by Trevoir Williams, an accomplished software engineer, and lecturer who has spent more than a decade teaching web, software, and database development, and the same amount of time in the real-world IT industry, too. To top his credentials off, Williams has earned an extremely high 4.5/5 instructor rating from his previous students. 

Take the first steps to your exciting new career in IT today with The Modern Web Development & MySQL Programming Bundle, on sale now for $19.99 (regular price $1000). 

How much are you paying each year for your phone contract? If you’d rather not think about it, here’s an uncomfortable fact: the average American pays $114 a month for cell phone service – that’s $1,368 a year. 

Not only is that a wildly huge number, but it’s even wilder when you consider that you don’t have to spend anywhere near that amount – because we’ve found a deal that will save you $1289 off that average cost. Today, you can get a Tello Economy Prepaid 12-Month Plan, which comes with unlimited talk and text, as well as 1GB of LTE Data and a free SIM, for just $79 (regular price $120) – that works out to less than $7 a month. 

Whether you want to cut your ties to expensive contracts, or want an affordable second line to dedicate to business calls, this plan changes what you thought you knew about phone plans. With the pre-paid bundle, you’ll get coast-to-coast wireless coverage on a nationwide 4G/5G LTE network as standard, plus your own free hotspot. 

If you regularly make international calls for work or to stay connected with friends and family, perhaps the best part of this package is that minutes and text messages to more than 60 countries around the world are included in all plans at exactly the same rate as domestic calls – and with this bundle, they’re unlimited.

Not only that but giving yourself freedom from being tied into expensive and complicated cell phone contracts is simply game-changing. Because you’ll pay for this upfront, you can stay with the service for as long or as short as you’d like, as well as zero activation or early termination fees. 

Tello comes super highly rated from its users, too, with an impressive 4.6/5 stars on Trustpilot, with customers loving its reach of service, affordability, and simplicity when it comes to setting up and using right away. As one customer-reviewed, “Porting in my number was easy and extremely fast.” 

Get freedom from phone contracts today with a Tello Economy Prepaid 12-Month Plan: Unlimited Talk/Text + 1GB LTE Data + Free SIM, on sale now for $79 – that’s 34% off the regular price of $120. 

Deadline is reporting that Nico Parker (Disney’s Dumbo) has been cast as Sarah Miller, Joel Miller’s (Pedro Pascal) daughter in the live-action adaptation of The Last of Us. She joins Pascal, Gabriel Luna, Merle Dandridge, and Bella Ramsey for the HBO TV series. Dandridge is the only cast member thus far to reprise their role from the game.

The series will be based on the critically-acclaimed video game series of the same name that’s about a super virus that destroys civilization with Ramsey’s Ellie is the only one that can save it. Parker’s character has a relatively minor role in the game, but also the first character you play in it and sets the chain of events in motion for Joel and his brother Tommy’s path.

Though the first game centers on Joel’s point of view, with small bits for Ellie to play, the second game which came out in the summer of 2020, concentrated more on Ellie and her growing up in this bizarre new world. It received tremendous acclaim and even Game of the Year. Even here at Gamespot, we gave it an 8/10.

Kantemir Balagov (Closeness) is directing the pilot episode of the series and it will be a co-production with Sony Pictures Television. It will be principally produced by Chernobyl’s Craig Mazin and Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann for HBO’s streaming service.

Amazon’s series adapting the classic Geena Davis and Tom Hanks comedy A League of Their Own has cast Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation) in its version of the Jimmy Dugan role. The casting news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.

This new adaptation will be an hourlong, live-action series that will not 1:1 revisit the 1992 film. For example, Offerman–arguably pretty much everyone’s favorite deadpan comic actor–will play Casey “Dove” Porter, the coach of the team at the center of the show. Dove was “thought to be the next Major League Baseball star, but blew his arm out after three years.” Similar to the movie, which saw Hanks play a similarly fated Jimmy Dugan, Dove aims to make his comeback by coaching the all-female Rockford Peaches into winning the championship banner.

The series will star Abbi Jacobson (Broad City)–who co-created and will executive produce alongside Will Graham–Chanté Adams (Roxanne Roxanne), D’Arcy Carden (The Good Place), Gbemisola Ikumelo (Brain in Gear), Kelly McCormack (Letterkenny), Roberta Colindrez (Birdman), and Priscilla Delgado (Julieta). This new version promises to bring the familiar story to a new generation “with new characters and their own fresh, modern vision on a timeless story of big dreams, friendship, love, and, of course, baseball,” according to co-head of TV for Amazon Studios Vernon Sanders.

Offerman was also recently cast in Hulu’s upcoming series about the infamous Pamela Anderson/Tommy Lee sex tape.

Battlefield 2042 will feature some impressive tech, particularly to up the player count to 128. However, it seems the upcoming military first-person shooter may not have ray tracing support when it drops on PC this October.

In a press release, Nvidia announced that Battlefield 2042 will take advantage of the card manufacturer’s DLSS and Reflex features found in its GeForce 20- and 30-series GPUs. Nvidia didn’t mention ray tracing here.

In fact, Nvidia only mentions ray tracing when calling out Doom Eternal, which just received DLSS and ray tracing support via a new patch. We’ve reached out to EA for comment and will update this post if we hear back.

DLSS (deep learning super sampling) is a rendering technique used to improve performance without a significant reduction to image quality. It’s a feature that’s only available on Nvidia GPUs like the 30-series cards, which are still incredibly difficult to find and/or extremely expensive to purchase.

EA and developer DICE recently announced that Xbox is the “official console” of Battlefield 2042, though neither clarified what this means. EA will host its annual EA Play Live presentation on July 22, where we should get more information about the game, including a look at a new game mode.

Battlefield 2042 launches on October 22 for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S. Be sure to check out our Battlefield 2042 preorder guide to learn about the various bonuses and editions available.

Microsoft has released the latest Xbox system update to select members of its Xbox Insider program. The update doesn’t make any significant changes but does fix a number of issues and updates the list of known issues.

The Xbox system update will be available for members of the Xbox Insiders program in the Alpha Ring today, fixing a number of small issues. The update fixes an issue where the Netflix app wouldn’t launch for some users, some games wouldn’t launch even after being reinstalled, and an issue where some consoles couldn’t connect to the network.

Xbox also recently announced that the Xbox Cloud Streaming service is now available to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members in more regions across iOS devices, Windows 10 PCs, MacOS, and Android devices. The service is also now being powered by Xbox Series X technology, allowing for faster loading and higher quality game streaming.

You can read the full Xbox update patch notes here or below:

System Update Details:

• OS version released: XB_FLT_2108CO22000.1595.210628-2200
• Available: 2 p.m. PT – June 30, 2021
• Mandatory: 3 a.m. PT – July 1, 2021

Fixes Implemented

Thanks to the hard work of Xbox engineers, we are happy to announce the following fixes have been implemented for this build:

Apps

• Fixed an issue where the Netflix app was failing to launch for some users.

Installation

• Fixed an issue where some titles would fail to launch even after being re-installed.

Networking

• Fixes to address some consoles not being able to connect to the network after a recent update.

System

• Fixed an issue where some consoles would reboot when powered on from standby.
• Various updates to properly reflect local languages across the console.
  • Note: Users participating in Preview may see “odd” text across the console, for more information go here.

Known Issues

We understand some issues have been listed in previous Xbox Insider Release Notes. These items aren’t being ignored, but it will take Xbox engineers more time to find a solution.

We’re still tracking these known issues:

Audio

• Some users have reported that they are not hearing any audio with Dolby Atmos enabled.

Dolby Vision for Gaming

• Some TVs do not support Dolby Vision at 120 Hz currently and will fall back to either 60 Hz or HDR. We are working closely with TV manufactures to update firmware support for Dolby Vision capabilities. Go to Settings>General>TV & Display Options>4K TV details and look for “Your TV setup supports Dolby Vision”.
• Users may notice that some titles such as Mass Effect: Legendary Edition might stop supporting Dolby Vision for Gaming after the initial release. This is expected while the feature is in Preview.
• Some users have reported Dolby Vision for gaming not performing as expected.
  • Note: If you encounter an issue, please make sure to check the following:
    • Ensure the TV has the latest firmware
    • Use the Xbox-provided HDMI cable that was included with the console
    • Connect the TV directly to the Xbox and try to see if the problem still persists (i.e. remove any AVRs, Soundbars, HDMI boxes, etc.)

Edge (New)

• The new version of the browser is not available for Alpha users at this time. When the browser does become available for Preview to Alpha we will be sure to let users know.

Games

• We’ve received reports that controller input is not working when a game is launched.
  • Workaround: Reboot the console and relaunch the game.

Guide

• We are investigating reports of the audio mixer being unable to adjust chat/game audio levels.

HDMI-CEC

• We’ve received some reports that HDMI-CEC is not working correctly.
  • Note: Ensure that your TV supports HDMI-CEC and is also enabled before filing feedback.

Home

• Some users have reported that the icon for a disc-based title is not appearing on the dashboard.

My Games & Apps

• Titles in collection may incorrectly appear with a “trial” tag.

TV/Display

• Some users may power on their console from standby after last using some media applications and their TV will not display a signal.
  • Workaround: Perform a hard reboot (hold the power button for 5-10 seconds) on the console.