The Entertainment Software Association has released its “Essential Facts” report about video games in the US for 2021, and the numbers and statistics speak to the continued and growing strength of gaming in America.
The big takeaway from the report is that more people are playing video games than ever before in the US, and people who are playing are doing so more–growth that was fueled in part no doubt by the pandemic.
The Essential Facts report said there are about 227 million people in America who play games, which is about two-thirds of the US population. The study showed that the average gamer is 31 years old and that 80% of people who play games are 18+.
Another finding was that 77% of people play games socially with others online or in person at least once per week, which is up from 65% in 2020. Additionally, 74% of parents said they play games with their children at least once per week (up from 55% in 2020). What’s more, the study found that–as anyone might have guessed–55% of respondents reported playing more games during the pandemic overall. 90% of them said they expect to keep playing games when social distancing rules become relaxed.
The ESA’s Essential Facts report is based on responses from around 4,000 Americans aged 18 and older; the study had a margin of error of 1.55%.
“This year’s report is a snapshot of the American video game playing community following a year of social distancing, just as the country was starting to open again,” ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis said. “Today, nearly 227 million Americans play video games. Players across the country embrace the ability of games to inspire, provide stress relief and mental stimulation or simply bring joy through play.”
You can read more about the ESA’s Essential Facts report on the ESA website.
Hunt: Showdown has no shortage of creepy locations and terrifying beasts, but its new DeSalle map is home to the game’s most fearsome creature yet: a surly green ogre with a very fake Scottish accent. Redditor zzilla8 spotted Shrek’s signature shack in Hunt: Showdown’s new bayou level, roughly in the bottom-left part of the map.
And yes, the toilet that Smash Mouth made famous is also on the property, if you’re brave enough to let the world roll you to that part of the swamp.
In other Shrek-related news that’ll make you feel especially old, the DreamWorks-produced franchise is celebrated the 20th anniversary of when the first film in the series arrived in cinemas, all the way back in April 2001.
A massive success for the animation studio, Shrek created numerous sequels, spin-offs, and animated series over several years. Shrek also made Smash Mouth even more popular with its All Star single, a track that almost never made it into the film according to the band, who also contributed a cover of I’m a Believer for the closing scene.
As for Hunt: Showdown developer CryTek, there’s still so much to do and so much to see as it recently revamped the first Crysis game for PC and more modern console platforms.
Nickelodeon is making a Super Smash Bros.-style fighting game where you can finally settle the age-old question: Who would win a fight… Nigel Thornberry or SpongeBob?
As announced by IGN, Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl is set for release this fall on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch, as well as PS4 and Xbox One. Developers Ludosity and Fair Play Labs are creating the game, which will be published by GameMill Entertainment.
The 14 confirmed characters so far include the aforementioned Nigel Thornberry and SpongeBob, along with Michelangelo and Leonardo from TMNT, and Sandy Cheeks and Patrick Star from SpongeBob. Helga from Hey Arnold, Reptar from Rugrats, and Powdered Toast Man from Ren & Stimpy are also on the roster. Each character has new moves that players can unlock over time. You can see the roster so far below.
All-Star Brawl will have 20 levels inspired by Nick TV shows–Jellyfish Fields and the Technodrome from TMNT are the two confirmed thus far. There is single-player and multiplayer, along with couch co-op and online play for up to four people.
Michelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Nigel Thornberry (The Wild Thornberrys)
Powdered Toast Man (Ren & Stimpy)
SpongeBob SquarePants (SpongeBob SquarePants)
Sandy Cheeks (SpongeBob SquarePants)
Patrick Star (SpongeBob SquarePants)
Oblina (Aaahh!!! Real Monsters)
Lucy Loud (The Loud House)
Lincoln Loud (The Loud House)
Helga (Hey Arnold!)
Reptar (Rugrats)
Zim (Invader Zim)
Danny Phantom (Danny Phantom)
All-Star Brawl is not the first mascot fighting game from a big company not named Nintendo. In 2012, Sony released PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale featuring famous PlayStation characters like Kratos, Nathan Drake, and Sackboy. It never got a sequel.
It’s a big day for Red Dead Online, as the multiplayer game’s big Blood Money update is out now across console and PC. As announced previously, Blood Money is focused on seedy enterprises, as players “experience the darker side of frontier America.”
You will take part in robberies, shakedowns, and other “lawless” activities, and you’ll be rewarded for your dastardly deeds. Here’s everything we know about Red Dead Online: Blood Money.
The Story
Guido Martelli, the underboss to Angelo Bronte, is seeking to improve his standing in Saint Denis and is recruiting soldiers to conduct crimes for him. Players who complete these crimes will earn Capitale, which is described as a “rare black market commodity.”
The crimes are multi-part missions, and the first three will be available at launch, with three more to come later.
You can visit Sean Macguire, Anthony Foreman, Joe, and James Langton to take on these crimes by yourself or with up to six others from the game’s new Free Roam mission menu.
You can take on Martelli’s contracts across Red Dead Online’s five states to collect this Capitale–and often through brutal, unsavory means. For example, you might have to take down other criminals to claim the Capitale, or you might need to raid camps to steal it. You can also find Capitale in chests and homesteads throughout the game.
You can also claim specific contracts that yield bigger stashes of Capitale, and also earn you the respect of Martelli. If you earn enough respect, you might be invited to take on what are known as Opportunities. These are “larger” schemes dreamed up by Martelli in a bid to take down a political foe by stealing jewels.
One of the Opportunities is part of the Jewels of the West series, which is something players have been asking for: the game’s first train robbery mission for its online mode. This is the first of three planned Opportunities for Red Dead Online’s Jewels of the West.
The Opportunities have three difficulty levels–Standard, Hard, and Ruthless–and they can be played alone or with up to three others. You need to have enough Capitale to start an Opportunity, and starting one comes at a cost of Capitale, too. However, the rewards may be plentiful, especially if you play at a higher difficulty.
Rockstar also mentioned that, in addition to the mission-specific contracts, there will be randomly triggered events in Red Dead Online that players may stumble upon to earn more Capitale. What’s more, the developer said a big difference with the Blood Money update is that all missions will be available at the onset (after you’ve met Martelli), and you don’t need to purchase a pre-requisite item to get started.
Also of note, Rockstar will sell an optional Hired Gun Kit that comes with Capitale, ammo, consumables, and a bandana, for players looking to get started more quickly.
The Quick Draw Club
Introduced in Blood Money, the Quick Draw Club is described as a “series of four distinct rapid-fire passes” that sounds like the game’s take on battle passes.
Each Club is themed around criminal activity to match the tone of Blood Money. Each comes with access to 25 ranks of rewards, for a price of 25 gold bars. You can earn all 25 back if they complete all 25 ranks. Everyone who buys all four Quick Draw Club passes will get the Halloween Pass 2 for free when it’s released.
Here is a rundown of the four parts of The Quick Draw Club.
The Quick Draw Club No. 1 (July 13-August 9)
Dutch’s Redcliff Outfit
The Whitchurch Cattleman Revolver Variant
The Rushword Shirt
Up to 25 Gold Bars back
The Quick Draw Club No. 2 (August 10-September 6)
The Rowberrow Outfit
The Haverhill Hat
Cartridge Wraps
Up to 25 Gold Bars back
The Quick Draw Club No. 3 (September 7-October 4)
The Beadnell Sight
The Bagshot Knife
The Layham Jacket
Up to 25 Gold Bars back
The Quick Draw Club No. 3 (October 5-October 27)
The Ibarra Mauser Pistol Variant
The Huntingdock Coat
The Forester Poncho
Up to 25 Gold Bars back
Images
Rockstar shared a series of images from Red Dead Online’s Blood Money update that show off some of the lawlessness you’ll experience in the update, and some of the characters you’ll meet. Check out the images in the gallery below.
Gallery
Kingfish
The Blood Money expansion includes the Grammy-nominated blues artist Christone “Kingfish” Ingram as an NPC in the role of a mysterious guitar player. Eagle-eyed fans might have already caught a glimpse of him in the Blood Money announcement trailer.
More
In addition to Crimes and Opportunities, Red Dead Online: Blood Money adds a series of smaller, welcome quality-of-life improvements to the experience. These include:
A new menu system that lets you choose Free Roam missions and Blood Money missions from the Free Roam Mission Givers tab
A new matchmaking tool called The Nominated Series; this allows players to “nominate” a mode and then jump into a matchmaking hopper with the chosen mode and others selected by other players.
New daily challenges
New awards
Nvidia DLSS support for compatible graphics cards
A new tint for the Torras poncho can be purchased at stores across the game
Skill and satchel pamphlets are available to buy from the Fence.
IGN can exclusively announce Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl, a new fighting game featuring characters from SpongeBob SquarePants, Rugrats, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Ren & Stimpy, and more.
The brawler – which looks to be similar to Super Smash Bros. in style – will come to PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One and Nintendo Switch in Fall 2021. It’s being developed by Ludosity and Fair Play Labs, and published by GameMill Entertainment. Check out a reveal trailer below:
We don’t have a full list of characters just yet, but we know that the game will feature:
Michelangelo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Leonardo (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles)
Nigel Thornberry (The Wild Thornberrys)
Powdered Toast Man (Ren & Stimpy)
SpongeBob SquarePants (SpongeBob SquarePants)
Sandy Cheeks (SpongeBob SquarePants)
Patrick Star (SpongeBob SquarePants)
Oblina (Aaahh!!! Real Monsters)
Lucy Loud (The Loud House)
Lincoln Loud (The Loud House)
Helga (Hey Arnold!)
Reptar (Rugrats)
Zim (Invader Zim)
Danny Phantom (Danny Phantom)
All-Star Brawl will also feature 20 levels based on Nickelodeon shows (including Jellyfish Fields from SpongeBob SquarePants, and the Technodrome from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles), and will include single player and multiplayer modes, with local and online support for up to four players. You’ll also be able to unlock new moves for every fighter, as well as earn bonus content for an in-game gallery.
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].
More than four years after it was originally released on PC, Nier: Automata’s Steam version is finally getting a new update this week that aims to fix its core problems. These issues have previously required a user-made mod to bring the game up to par with the console versions, but that will, hopefully, no longer be the case. An update will address most of these on July 15.
In a post on the game’s official Steam page on July 13, the development team listed the changes coming in the update, which you can read in full at the end of this article. They include new anti-aliasing, borderless video settings, HDR support, 4K textures for the UI, 60fps cutscenes, global illumination, ambient occlusion, and a stabilized frame rate.
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Nier: Automata – Machine Takedown Gameplay
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The PC version wasn’t completely broken before, but frame rate and video issues made it a much less enjoyable game compared to the one on PS4 and Xbox One. And given the focus on story in the Nier games, unstable frame rate or other visual problems during cutscenes or other key moments could lessen their impact.
Nier: Automata was a surprise hit for Square Enix, far outselling the original Nier, which was later upgraded and remastered as Nier: Replicant ver.1.22474487139… earlier this year. That game implemented combat like that of Automata in place of the original game’s stiff, unrefined system, and also added a fifth ending that had to be cut from the game the first time around. It’s available on Xbox One, PS4, and PC.
Additionally, the mobile game Nier: Reincarnation is also on the way. It’s set to release in English for iOS and Android on July 28.
Nier: Automata July 15 PC Update Patch Notes
Changes made
• Borderless Video Settings
Borderless video settings have been implemented.
• Fidelity FX
A Fidelity FX CAS feature has been added.
• HDR
The system will now detect whether HDR has been activated in the Windows display settings, and automatically boot the game in HDR mode if it has.
• Anti-aliasing
Adjustments to the anti-aliasing functionality
• UI textures (4K)
Approximately 270 UI textures for icons, backdrops and UI elements etc. now support 4K resolutions.
• Cut scenes
The bit rate has been improved and all pre-rendered cut scenes adjusted, so they will now play in 60FPS and display in the correct aspect ratio without stretching the picture.
• Global illumination
A new “Global illumination” feature has been implemented. This can be set to three different levels; High, Medium or Low.
• Ambient occlusion/ bloom
The rendering targets for ambient occlusion and bloom effects have been changed to dynamic resolution based on the game’s resolution.
Bug fixes
• It is now possible to switch between recently selected display modes for screenshots, such as between full screen and windowed mode or between borderless and windowed mode, by pushing the Alt + Enter keys together.
• The mouse cursor is no longer displayed when using a game pad controller.
• The frame rate has been stabilized at 60FPS under default settings.
Other stability related fixes have also been implemented.
According to the press release, Tag Heuer’s new premium watch is themed around Nintendo’s iconic mascot, and features a 45mm watch face, a built-in heart rate monitor, compass, accelerometer, water-resistance up to 5ATM, and two straps: one red rubber strap and a black leather strap on red rubber. The watch includes a 430mAh battery, which Tag Heuer claims will deliver a full day of battery life on a single charge.
Tag Heuer’s Mario-themed watch also includes Google’s Wear OS, meaning you can access functions found on other wearables using the operating system, such as Google Assistant.
As you’d expect, this limited edition wearable also includes a Super Mario-themed interface with four new watch faces to select, such as one where Mario becomes invisible or another where Mario is on top of a warp pipe. Tag Heuer confirmed that it will use a “gamification rewards system,” with Mario greeting you each morning you wake up, and various animations playing each time you complete a stage towards a daily step count target.
The Mario-themed smartwatch will be available starting July 15th and will cost $2,150. However, only 2,000 units were created, and depending on your region, you can only purchase them at select Tag Heuer boutiques or on Tag Heuer’s official website.
The Steam Summer Sale ended last week, as did one of its best discounts: Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition for $30 (down from its $50 list price). If you didn’t snag Zero Dawn during Steam’s annual sale, however, you’re in luck, because there’s an even better discount available right now. PC keys store CDKeys currently has Horizon Zero Dawn: Complete Edition Steam keys for just $19.59; that’s the cheapest we’ve ever seen Zero Dawn for PC and a phenomenal price for the bundle that gets you both the base game and expansion. You’ll get the Steam key immediately after purchase, which you can then activate in the Steam launcher to add the game to your library.
Originally a PlayStation exclusive, Horizon Zero Dawn had a rough arrival on PC with performance and graphical issues at launch, but developer Guerrilla has since released several patches for the game, getting it in a much more stable state on PC. The most recent patch, Patch 1.10, is the last one the PC version will receive for some time; it fixed some known crashes and further improved performance.
Horizon Zero Dawn is set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by dinosaur-like machines. It follows a young warrior named Aloy in her search for answers about the past and features a stunning open world to explore. Its expansion, The Frozen Wilds, is excellent and unlocks a brand-new area with even tougher machines to fight. With a sequel, Horizon Forbidden West, on the way for PS4 and PS5 (with Sony targeting a Holiday 2021 release), now’s as good a time as any to dive into Zero Dawn and see what it’s all about.
Space Jam: A New Legacy is the next Warner Bros. movie to be released in theaters and on HBO Max on the same day. The movie is directed by Malcolm D. Lee (Girls Trip) and stars LeBron James alongside Bugs Bunny, Lola Bunny, and the rest of the Looney Tunes crew.
If you’re wondering how to watch Space Jam: A New Legacy or have any other questions about the movie, we have you covered below.
If you want to watch Space Jam: A New Legacy at home, you’ll need the ad-free HBO Max subscription. It costs $14.99 per month, and you can cancel any time. (The original Space Jam movie is also available on the service).
Unlike the Premier Access movies arriving on Disney+ (including Black Widow), Space Jam: A New Legacy doesn’t cost any additional money to watch on HBO Max. It’s included with your subscription, as are the rest of the 2021 Warner Bros. movie lineup. You can see the rest of the year’s theatrical/HBO Max release dates below.
When Does Space Jam: A New Legacy Come Out?
Space Jam: A New Legacy arrives in theaters and on HBO Max on Friday, July 16.
How Long will Space Jam: A New Legacy Be on HBO Max?
Like the rest of the 2021 Warner Bros. theatrical releases, Space Jam: A New Legacy will remain on HBO Max for 30 days. That means you have between July 16 and August 15 to watch it.
A sequel to the 1996 movie starring Michael Jordan and the Looney Tunes crew, Space Jam: A New Legacy takes place in modern times. It kicks off when an artificial intelligence kidnaps the star basketball player LeBron James and his son Dom into a digital metaverse.
To escape, LeBron must help Bugs Bunny and the rest of the Looney Tunes crew defeat a team of the AI’s digitized NBA and WNBA players. It’s the Tune Squad versus the Goon Squad.
Other Theatrical Releases Coming to HBO Max
Space Jam: A New Legacy – July 16, 2021
The Suicide Squad – August 6, 2021
Reminiscence – September 3, 2021
Malignant – September 10, 2021
The Many Saints of Newark – October 1, 2021
Dune – October 22, 2021
King Richard – November 19, 2021
Matrix 4 – December 22, 2021
Here’s the rest of the Warner Bros. movies landing for no additional cost on HBO Max the same day they hit theaters. Quite a few big-name movies are on the list, including The Suicide Squad, Matrix 4, Dune, and the Sopranos prequel The Many Saints of Newark.
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Chris Reed is a commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.
The first clip from The French Dispatch has been released. The cast of the new film from Wes Anderson includes Timothée Chalamet, Frances McDormand, Bill Murray, and Tilda Swinton, and it releases on October 16.
The title of the film refers to an American magazine operating out of a French city during the mid-20th century. In this clip, Chalamet’s student revolutionary Zeffirelli is working on his manifesto in the bath, while trading quips with McDormand’s journalist Lucinda Krementz, who is profiling him. Anderson fans will love the deadpan dialogue and stylish black-and-white photography, and this looks set to be his highest profile movie to date. Check the trailer out below:
As with many Anderson movies, The French Dispatch has an amazing ensemble cast. As well as the actors mentioned above, there are roles for Jeffrey Wright, Adrien Brody, Benicio del Toro, Owen Wilson, Léa Seydoux, Christoph Waltz, Elisabeth Moss, Henry Winkler, Saoirse Ronan, Liev Schreiber, Edward Norton, Willem Dafoe, and Anjelica Huston.
The French Dispatch was originally set for release in July 2020, but like most films last year, it was delayed. The first trailer was released back in February 2020–check it out here.
In a 2019 interview, Anderson provided a few details about the movie’s themes. “The story is not easy to explain,” he said, via The Playlist. “[It’s about an] American journalist based in France [who] creates his magazine. It is more a portrait of this man, of this journalist who fights to write what he wants to write. It’s not a movie about freedom of the press, but when you talk about reporters you also talk about what’s going on in the real world.”
