Lost Judgment Has A Playable Sega Master System

If you’ve been looking to play one of Sega’s more classic games without having to shell out cash for a retro console, the good news is that you can return to 1988 in Lost Judgment. New footage from the game has revealed that a playable Sega Master System is in protagonist Takayuki Yagami’s pinball office.

You can see the retro games played, at around the four-minute mark in the video below:

It’s not clear how many games will be playable on it, but at least two of them were shown off: 1986’s Alex Kidd in Miracle World and 1988’s Penguin Land. The first Judgment game had a pinball machine in Yagami’s office, which was then replaced by an OutRun arcade machine in the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game. Yagami clearly has a mercurial taste in gaming hardware.

Judgment isn’t the only Sega title to have a game within a game, as the main series of Yakuza games from developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio featured playable versions of Virtua Fighter 2, Super Hang-On, and Space Harrier in the arcades of those games, a nod to Sega’s gaming legacy.

Billed as a legal suspense game, Lost Judgment retains the street-brawling action of the first game, a system which, for the main Yakuza games, has now been replaced by the turn-based RPG system used in last year’s Yakuza: Like a Dragon. The Kamurocho district will once again be a new hub to explore, with Yagami even venturing to Yokohama, a seaside location that has appeared in several Yakuza games.

Lost Judgment will release worldwide on September 24, 2021 for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One.

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out

Fortnite Thanos Cup Brings Back The Marvel Villain

When Thanos came to Fortnite in 2018, it became the first major crossover event of the game’s now storied history in that regard. Whether players missed him before or just hoped he’d return someday, Thanos is coming back to Fortnite for the first-ever Thanos Cup, where top qualifiers will have a chance to unlock the Thanos skin in Fortnite for free and ahead of his Item Shop debut.

Thanos will hit the Item Shop next week on June 26 at 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET. He’ll come bundled with the Infinity Gauntlet Back Bling including all six Infinity Stones properly placed and ready to wipe out half of the island–okay, that part’s on you, actually. It seems entirely likely that Epic will once again sell the Snap Emote too, so players can complete the look.

Maybe Thanos will someday be available for half off.
Maybe Thanos will someday be available for half off.

Fortnite Thanos Cup

Before his Item Shop release, Thanos can be won in the Thanos Cup. In the game’s Competitive tab on June 21, players will find the Thanos Cup, an open tournament for all Fortnite players willing to vie for The Mad Titan’s new cosmetics. In Duos mode and across up to 10 matches during the tournament’s three-hour time limit, players will need to survive the Storm, outlast and eliminate other opponents, and score cumulative points, following a similar scoring system to other Fortnite Cups of this nature, whereby players get more points the longer they survive and for every elimination they record.

String together a series of 10 highly competitive rounds of battle royale and players may find themselves as the scoring leaders in their region, giving them access to Thanos and his Back Bling days before the rest of the world can get their hands on him. All participants in the Thanos Cup who tally at least eight total points will unlock the “Thanos Watches!” Spray too, so there’s reason to jump in even if you don’t expect your skills to carry you to victory.

As always with Fortnite Cups, players must have enabled two-factor authorization on their Epic Games accounts and be at least level 30 on their lifetime Epic account. You can find the full rules on the developer’s website.

We’ve got more on Fortnite, like the full run of guides on the Week 2 challenges, Week 2 Alien Artifacts, and a complete look at the Season 7 Battle Pass, including a superpowered alien from another comic legend, Superman.

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Listing Spotted On Epic Games Store Database

Final Fantasy VII Remake and a remaster of Alan Wake could be coming to the Epic Games Store, as site tracker EpicData tracker spotted listings for the games on the Epic Games Store database.

For Final Fantasy VII Remake, it was found on the database listed under the codename “Pineapple” in the cloud saves sub-folder. Originally a PlayStation-only game, Final Fantasy VII Remake‘s 12-month exclusivity period ended in April this year, although publisher Square Enix made no mention of what was next for the game.

Now Playing: Final Fantasy VII Remake Intermission Video Review

What was mentioned was that the new Intergrade content from the PlayStation 5 upgrade for Final Fantasy VII would remain a timed exclusive, but it’s worth noting that Square Enix’s relationship with Epic Games saw the Kingdom Hearts series made available on PC for the first time as an Epic Games Store exclusive back in March.

Alan Wake’s data was discovered in an item codenamed “Heron”, with a cloud save folder path reading “{UserDir}/Remedy/AlanWakeRemastered/.”

The folder itself is owned by Alan Wake developer Remedy Entertainment, who signed publishing agreements with Epic Games back in March 2020 for a AAA multi-platform game and a “smaller-scale” game.

Alan Wake has remained largely untouched since it first released on Xbox in 2010, but the game’s protagonist did make the leap to more modern systems in Control’s AWE DLC in 2020, which hinted at the embattled author’s battle being far from over.

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out

Lost Judgment Will Include a Fully Playable Sega Master System In-Game

New footage of Lost Judgment has revealed that the game includes a fully playable Sega Master System. Replacing the pinball machine in detective Takayuki Yagami’s office, the playable console continues the series’ celebration of classic Sega games, and strong variety of minigames.

The footage, released on the RGG YouTube channel (and pointed out by VGC), shows off some new gameplay from Lost Judgment, and for the first time, reveals an in-game playable Sega Master System. It’s not yet clear exactly how many games will be playable on the system, but the footage does confirm Alex Kidd in Miracle World and Penguin Land will be playable.

Many classic Sega games have featured as playable mini-games found in the Yakuza and Judgment series’ virtual arcades; including Virtua Fighter 2, Super Hang-On and Space Harrier, but this marks the first time an actual console will be playable within one of these games.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/05/07/lost-judgment-release-date-trailer”]

The reveal trailer previously released for the game shows a significantly darker game than previous iterations, so it’s good to know that the random and wacky minigames that make the Yakuza and Judgment games so fun will remain. The sandbox gameplay of the series will be returning as well, with players able to explore across both Yokohama and Kamurocho.

Lost Judgment launches September 24 for PS4, PS5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S, and picks up the story of private detective and ex-lawyer Yagami as he hunts down a new criminal across Kamurocho and Yokohama. In case you hadn’t heard, the Judgment series will replace Yakuza as Sega’s beat-em-up action game series, with Yakuza transitioned to being turn-based in its latest iteration, Yakuza: Like A Dragon. Lost Judgment will also be the first game in the series to receive a worldwide release.

For more about Lost Judgment, check out an interview with the developers at RGG Studio where they discuss how the series is charting a new future with these popular Sega franchises, and watch the reveal trailer for Lost Judgment here. If you need to catch up on the series, a next-gen version of Judgment is available now.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Liam Wiseman is a Freelance News Writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @liamthewiseman

Roku Says A Lot Of People Watched Its Rebranded Quibi Shows

Roku claims that record numbers of viewers have watched the shows it picked up from failed short-form streaming platform Quibi. The first batch of shows, rebranded as Roku Originals, were released last month.

As reported by Variety, Roku states that more active accounts have streamed a Quibi show in the first two week of release than Quibi itself managed in its entire lifetime. Like all streaming services, Roku hasn’t actually released any hard numbers, but given Quibi’s dismal subscription numbers caused the service to close within nine months, it seems likely. Roku Channel is available with ads for free to anyone with a Roku device, whereas Quibi cost $5 for the ad-supported version.

Nevertheless, Roku is clearly happy with the result, having already greenlit a second season of one of its Quibi pickups, the Kevin Hart action-comedy Die Hart. The company states that the series scored its most watched first weekend of any show.

Roku bought around 75 shows from Quibi earlier this year, including several that hadn’t been released when Quibi shut down in late 2020.

Quibi launched in April last year and was initially hailed by co-founder Jeffrey Katzenberg as a revolutionary new combatant in the streaming wars, with its emphasis on short-form content specifically geared for mobile devices. However, he was forced to shut down the business due to flagging viewer numbers and disappointing download numbers.

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out

Is Abandoned a Kojima or Silent Hill Game? The Internet’s New Favourite Mystery Explained

Something very strange is going on with Abandoned right now. The PS5 exclusive is the subject of a rumour mill that’s pointed to it being a Hideo Kojima game, a Silent Hill game, or perhaps even both – all while the game’s developers repeatedly insist it isn’t any of those things.

So what is Abandoned, why have the rumours started, and when will we find out more? I’ve rounded up everything we know below:

The Announcement

Back in early April, Sony revealed a PS5-exclusive game called Abandoned, from developer Blue Box Game Studios. A short teaser trailer provided a glimpse at the eerie game, which is billed as a first-person cinematic horror survival shooter. Thanks to its content and the fact that the studio was relatively unknown beforehand, comparisons to games like Silent Hill and Hideo Kojima’s P.T. were drawn almost immediately. Famously, Hideo Kojima used Joakim Mogren (Joakim being an anagram for Kojima) and ‘Moby Dick Game Studios’ to reveal ‘The Phantom Pain’ in 2012, before we knew it was Metal Gear Solid 5.

Knowing the auteur’s history of ruses and subversive marketing campaigns, fans started to surmise that Abandoned might be a secret Hideo Kojima game, and perhaps even the next Silent Hill. As the rumour mill started to turn and fans dug into the lacking social media presence of Blue Box, the studio issued an official response to the rumours on its website.

“We have no association with Hideo Kojima nor do we claim to have any association nor was it our intention to claim such a statement,” the statement reads. “We are a small group of developers working on a passionate title we wanted to work on for a long time.” So there we go, Abandoned is not a Hideo Kojima game.

I even spoke to Game Director Hasan Kahraman at the time to confirm it. “At first I was receiving messages from people telling me that they’ve been watching me and that I (As Kojima) used some marketing tricks to promote his next game,” Kahraman told me. “All I wanted to do is to tease our game. Regarding our social media presence, we’re a small team and not a big AAA studio, it’s already hard work to work on a highly polished game for PS5 so we really can’t spare the time to work on our social media presence full-time (while it is important).”

The Rabbit Hole

So why are we still talking about Abandoned as the next Silent Hill / Kojima project? Well, the game is going to be formally revealed on June 22 as part of a special app you can download on your PS5, which will feature a series of “Realtime Trailers” from the game to demonstrate gameplay.

In the run-up to Abandoned’s gameplay reveal, the developers have sent out some curious tweets that have sent Silent Hill and Kojima fans down a rabbit hole. On June 15, Blue Box tweeted this: “Guess the name: Abandoned = (First letter S, Last letter L). Reveal closing in…” This led many fans to believe Abandoned’s official title is Silent Hill, but Blue Box then followed up with another apology. “We wanted to set things straight. We have no relations with Konami. Silent Hill is owned by Konami. We do not have any relations with Hideo Kojima. It was never our intention to tease the name as Silent Hill. We sincerely apologize for this.”

So again, there’s Blue Box saying that Abandoned is neither a Silent Hill or Hideo Kojima game. But that hasn’t stopped the rumour mill. Fans have unearthed a mountain of potential clues, which you can find compiled on TheBlueBoxConspiracy subreddit.

There are some coincidental ties between Blue Box and Kojima. To start, the names of those apparently involved. Hasan Kahraman has the same initials as Hideo Kojima, and if you translate Hideo from Japanese to Turkish using Google, you get Kahraman. Some have speculated that BBGameStudios could also be a reference to the Bridge Babies (or BBs), from Kojima’s Death Stranding.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/04/07/abandoned-announcement-teaser-trailer”]

With the fervour increasing, fans have found more and more potential connections – although how many of them are more than mere coincidence is still to be discovered. In recent days, fans have pointed out that Kojima has put out pictures on Instagram of him holding a Blue Box, and a tweet that contained the words Silent and Hills. Blue Box Game Studio’s YouTube account banner is a set of hills. In the Abandoned trailer, the trees cover the letters P and T at the 0:49 mark. The list goes on.

Previous mobile games from Blue Box Game Studios feature a handprint (which looks very similar to the one from Death Stranding) as a logo. In the Death Stranding Director’s Cut trailer, Sam’s backpack features the Netherlands flag, and Blue Box is based in The Netherlands. Kojima Productions has also recently opened a subsidiary called Kojima Productions Amsterdam.

An old Blue Box Game Studios Kickstarter has also been found, where funding was cancelled after a private investor got involved. A Dutch interview with Kahraman was translated and posted to the Blue Box subreddit where Kahraman seemingly says “We’ve been working with Sony since 2015. What happened now and how it happened that this game became a PS5 exclusive, I can’t reveal as of yet”.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”slug=abandoned-screenshots-of-the-ps5-exclusive&captions=true”]

The Other Side

But let’s calm down and take our tinfoil hats off for a moment. The studio only follows six people on Twitter, and that list includes myself and Geoff Keighley. Keighley has spoken on Twitter about how he is talking to Hasan about helping to reveal the game over the summer. Keighley then posted on ResetEra: “Just to set expectations, I honestly don’t think this is what you guys think it is,” before saying that Hasan was going to send him an email with some images he can post.

Naturally, I’ve also had quite a few DMs from fans who want me to unravel the mystery and confirm whether this is a Kojima game or not. I can’t confirm that just yet, but I am in touch with Kahraman at the moment, via email. At the very least, I can confirm they are a real studio based in The Netherlands. You can see some more of the transcript from our April interview on ResetEra. We’re trying to set up a call at the moment to really get to the bottom of this, and I hope we’ll be able to share more information soon, perhaps as a follow-up interview to the one conducted in April.

Whether Abandoned ends up being a secret Kojima/Silent Hill project or not, mysteries like this one are always exciting to follow and get involved with, and I’ll be keeping my eye on Abandoned whatever happens. The fact it has gathered this kind of response from the gaming community is exciting, so roll on June 22, and the official gameplay reveal.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

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

A Dad Got Mark Wahlberg, Randall Park, JK Simmons, And More Celebrities To Film Daughter’s Graduation Video

TikTok user Faith Isabelle went viral earlier this week when she shared a graduation video her dad made for her that starred the likes of Mark Wahlberg, Randall Park, Jensen Ackles, and even Jonathan Groff in his rendition of Hamilton’s King George III. The TikToker said that her dad isn’t a well-connected movie producer and that he didn’t use a service like Cameo, instead achieving the feat through a combination of good strategy and hard work.

The TikTok video, as picked up by Entertainment Weekly, shares snippets of 14 different congratulatory videos, with Faith saying that some of the original clips run for over a minute. The celebrity cameos include Randall Park, Mark Wahlberg, Kat Dennings, Joshua Bassett, Gaten Matarazzo, J.K. Simmons, Jonathan Groff, Bob Saget, Sir Ben Kingsley, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, and more.

Curiously, Lori Loughlin also makes an appearance in the video, with commenters remarking on the irony of Loughlin’s high school graduation well-wishes after the actress served time for her role in a college admissions fraud scheme.

Follow-up videos from Faith clarify that her father, who put the whole surprise together, is not particularly well-connected, though she did add that he was on TV once as a Wipeout contestant. The dad, who works as an “IT guy for the Marines” explained his strategy for getting the videos, saying that he sent out lots of emails to publicists and the like on Thursdays–explaining that Thursday is the best day to get a response.

As well as the clips in the original video, Faith also got a late-arriving video from Garth Brooks, a hand-written note from Lin-Manuel Miranda, and autographs from Robert Downey Jr, Daniel Radcliffe, and Mike Rowe.

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out

Daily Deals: New 2021 LG C1 Series OLED 4K TVs on Sale Ahead of Amazon Prime Day

LG has somehow done it again; the new 2021 C1-series and G1-series OLED TVs look even better than last year’s CX and GX models. These are considered by many to be the best TVs on the market. Unlike Sony and Vizio, LG now has several generations of updates under its belt, and its well-oiled OLED lineup overcomes pretty much all of the OLED pitfalls while incrementally improving image quality each year.

The LG C1-series OLED TVs feature an improved A9 Gen 4 processor that boasts slightly better image quality, better 4K scaling, and improved audio handling as well as an upgrade to its smart TV interface (webOS). The G1-series OLED TV features the all new LG OLED Evo panel, which offers a brighter and more vibrant image. This is currently the only way to score the new Evo panel, which boasts the best image quality from an TV right now, hands down.

New 2021 LG C1 4K OLED TVs with Bonus Gift Card

Amazon is offering some sizeable discounts on the newest 2021 LG C1 OLED TVs ahead of Prime Day. Save $200 off the 55″ and 65″ models, $300 off the 77″ model, and $100 off the 48″ model, which doubles up as one of the best computer gaming monitors out there.

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=lg-c1-oled-tv”]

New 2021 LG G1 4K OLED TVs

The LG G1 series “Gallery” OLED TVs have also been discounted for the first time ever. These are bar-none the best TVs out right now thanks to the new LG OLED Evo panel. They’ve been pretty hard to find consistently in stock, but currently both Amazon and Best Buy are offering $200 off the 55″ and 65″ models (the 77″ model is still out of stock).

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=lg-g1-oled-tv”]

Play Every Xbox Exclusive Game at E3 with Game Pass Ultimate

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=best-buy-xbox-game-pass”]

The sheer amount of value you get with Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is impressive. This membership gives you both Xbox Live Gold, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Game Pass for PC. Xbox Live Gold is required for online gaming. Xbox Game Pass gives you access to a huge library of games that is free as long as you maintain your membership. The list includes AAA games that you can play as early as launch day. These include MLB The Show 21, FIFA 21, The Medium, and every Bethesda game ever. If you’ve also got a great gaming PC, Xbox Game Pass for PC offers stellar games like Crusader Kings 3, Forza Horizon 4, Nier Automata, and more. If you watched the Xbox/Bethesda E3 2021 presentation, you’ll notice that the vast majority of upcoming Xbox exclusive titles will also be on Xbox Game Pass. Additional perks include exclusive discounts at the Microsoft Store and a free 30-day Disney+ trial.

48″ 2020 LG CX 4K OLED Smart TV for $1249.99

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=lg-cx-oled-quick-deal”]

After 8 months of using the LG CX 48″ OLED TV as my primary gaming monitor, I still firmly believe that this (along with the newer C1 model below) is the best gaming monitor you can buy right now, especially if you have an RTX 30 series video card. Both the CX OLED and RTX 30 series cards support HDMI 2.1, so you can output 4K at 120Hz. The LG CX also supports 4:4:4 chroma at 4K and G-SYNC technology. The OLED panel blows away any IPS, VA, or TN monitor in terms of black levels and color rendition, sub-1ms response times, and plenty of brightness for true HDR. There really isn’t any disadvantage of OLED TVs in terms of pure image quality.

One disadvantage of OLEDs is a higher chance of burn-in with static images; that said, LG OLED TVs have been out for 9 years now and there are many built-in features that are designed to prevent this. There are plenty of good recent tests that show that burn-in is a negligible issue with regular use. I’ve used my monitor for at least 12 hours per day for 6 months (that’s at least 2,000 hours) and I have yet to notice any burn-in problems. I haven’t heard of many first-hand reports of other PC gamers who’ve experienced this problem, either.

The Lord of the Rings Extended & Theatrical 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=daily-deals-june-15-2021″]

This long-awaited Lord of the Rings 4K box set came out in December of 2020 at a hefty $99.99. It subsequently dropped to $89.99 in a relatively short amount of time and stayed at that price until this month. Last week, the price dropped once again to $70 and I thought that was a pretty solid deal. Today, though, it finally reaches that sweet spot of $59.99. This is probably an early Amazon Prime Day deal but you best jump on it now since the best Prime Day deals don’t last. This set includes 4K Ultra HD and digital versions of the LotR trilogy, including both theatrical and extended editions.

More LG CX-Series OLED TVs on Sale

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=lg-cx-4k-tv-oled-deals”]

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out the IGN Deals articles and subscribe to the IGN Deals Twitter page.

IGN UK Podcast #597: The Big E3 2021 Special

Nothing can stop the summer of fun as Cardy, Joe and Dale are here to talk about all the games that caught their eye from E3. There’s loads of astronauts, some rats, burger talk and Willem Dafoe. All the classics.

We’ve got Nintendo, Xbox, Bethesda, Ubisoft and Square to cover so no time for an Endless Search again (sorry), but there is of course always time for your feedback.

Remember, if you want to get in touch with the podcast, please do: [email protected].

IGN UK Podcast #597: The Big E3 2021 Special

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=ign-uk-podcast-episode-500-photos&captions=true”]

Trials of Osiris Rewards This Week In Destiny 2 (June 18-22)

We’re on the verge of Grandmaster Nightfall Strikes launching in Destiny 2, and with them, new Adept weapon rewards players can earn. But Grandmasters aren’t the only places you can get Adept weapons–the Trials of Osiris are back, and they carry some of the best weapon rewards in the game. The Trials kick off each Friday, and once they’re underway, we’ll update this post with a rundown of what you can win for participating and which map you’ll face for the competition.

Each week, the Trials of Osiris map and rewards are randomized when the event launches with Destiny 2’s daily reset at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET on Friday.

The Trials of Osiris offers some of the toughest PvP challenges in Destiny 2. It runs from Friday to Tuesday, and the goal in each competition is to assemble your team of three–there’s no matchmaking in the mode–and win as many matches as possible before you suffer three total losses. Once you’ve got three L’s to your name, you’re forced to reset your Trials run, or Passage, and try again. You’ll earn loot at certain points as you rack up victories, so minimizing your losses is key to grabbing new gear. But the best rewards in the event come when you go on a winning streak of seven matches in a row–a “Flawless” run.

While the goal in Trials is to hit that flawless run, the reality is that Trials is very tough, and most players may never achieve a flawless run. But the event isn’t just for the very best players in the game. You can still earn Trials rewards, some of the best weapons available, just by playing matches, win or lose. The End Game bounty from Saint-14 awards each week’s three-win reward just for participating.

If you can manage to go Flawless, you’ll visit the Lighthouse and earn exclusive rewards. Opening the chest in the Lighthouse now gets you an “Adept” weapon, which has extra stat boosts you can’t get almost anywhere else. Visit Saint-14 to pick up a Trials Passage and bounties to get started, but remember that you have to spend any Trials tokens you earn for wins with Saint-14 before the weekly reset on Tuesday, June 22. These tokens expire at the end of the weekend you earned them, so get your rewards while you can.

Watch live streams, videos, and more from GameSpot’s summer event. Check it out