GameMill Entertainment and Hasbro have revealed that a first-person shooter game based on the famous Nerf gun toy line is coming to consoles this fall.
Nerf: Legends is a sci-fi shooter that includes single-player and multiplayer modes. You’ll be facing off against evil robots in the campaign, while the PvP multiplayer supports up to eight players between free-for-all or 4v4 team matches. Cross-play is also enabled between all of the supported platforms.
There are plenty of different weapons to equip, as 15 authentic Nerf Blasters have been implemented into the game from the toy line’s Mega, Ultra, and Elite sets. They include blasters such as The Judge, Elite 2.0 Shockwave, and Mega Centurion. Additionally, both your player character and blaster are customizable.
Different types of power-ups are present to add variety to the gameplay as well. The shots from the guns can be augmented with magnetic pull darts, push darts, seeker darts, and slow darts. As you can tell by the use of darts rather than bullets, Nerf: Legends is billed as a family-friendly alternative to other more visceral multiplayer shooters like Battlefield or Call of Duty.
Nerf: Legends is set to launch in October for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S.
The Call of Duty League announced today that it will require attendees to show proof of COVID-19 vaccination at its upcoming 2021 Championship Weekend in Los Angeles, California. This marks the first major esports organization to require proof of vaccination in the wake of rising COVID-19 cases in the United States.
“Our top priority is the health and safety of our fans, staff, and players. With the rising rate of COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles County, we are enhancing our safety measures for the Call of Duty League Championship Weekend,” the COD League Twitter said. “Effective immediately, all attendees will be required to show proof of vaccination or, if not fully vaccinated, a negative PCR or antigen test received within 72 hours of the day of your attendance. All attendees must wear a mask during the event, regardless of vaccination status.”
“Finally, please take note that there is an inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 in any public place where people are present,” COD League’s blog adds. “This risk exists despite the health and safety measures that Call of Duty League is instituting to help protect fans, players, staff, and others who attend the event.”
The Call of Duty League 2021 Championship Weekend is scheduled for August 19 – 22 at Los Angeles’ Galen Center.
The COD League last held its stage 5 major (the last round of matches before championship weekend) in-person at its Dallas, Texas venue in late July. Videos of the event show a fairly normal event with competitors playing on a stage before a large, dense audience. Many people in the audience can be seen wearing masks, but just as many can be seen wearing them inappropriately around their chins or not at all. Social distancing measures also appeared to not be enforced, with audience members tightly packed together. Competitors also did not wear masks. Previous stages of the season were held remotely.
IGN reached out to the Call of Duty League to inquire why it waited until Championship Weekend to institute a vaccination requirement. A public relations representative pointed us towards the Call of Duty League’s blog announcing the requirement, but did not provide further comment at publishing time.
Halo might not have invented teabagging, or the act of crouching over your virtual enemy after killing them, but it certainly popularized it. But according to 343 Industries, Halo Infinite’s powerful bots won’t gloat by teabagging you during the test flights.
Eurogamer reached out to 343 to find out more about Halo Infinite’s bots, which players faced when 343 hosted its first Halo Infinite test flight. These bots were skilled and tough and could kill players pretty easily. But they’d never brag about it.
So to start, no, the bots will no teabag players in Halo Infinite. In a longer response to Eurogamer, 343 says it’s because the bots are there to help players even while killing them.
“Bots are primarily a part of Halo Infinite to help players learn and experiment with the multiplayer experience. We want players to feel comfortable making mistakes against bots because making mistakes means you’re improving and working on skills you haven’t mastered yet.”
“We never want to punish learning, especially not by having bots engage in behaviors that a player could feel is exclusionary.”
However, there were reports from the test flight that a bot teabagged a player after killing them. 343 says this was bugged and actually trying to jump on the edge of a ramp.
So follow the bot’s lead and be a gracious winner when Halo Infinite finally launches. While there’s no release date yet, Xbox boss Phil Spencer is confident the team will hit the holiday launch window and is currently narrowing down a specific release date.
The time to play Back 4 Blood‘s open beta has arrived. If you were fortunate enough to play the closed beta, this is your next chance to spend more time with the game. For those coming in fresh, we’ve compiled some essential tips to help you better tackle the content found within Back 4 Blood’s beta.
While it’s not the biggest deal on the lower Survivor difficulty, there are several reasons why it’s beneficial to talk with your team and coordinate weapon loadouts. You can have teammates fill particular roles, such as a long-range sniper for picking off certain enemy types, an up-close shotgunner to protect the team, or an LMG user in charge of crowd control, to name a few. Ammo also becomes a concern as the difficulty increases, and picking different weapon types keeps players from having to worry about taking ammo away from teammates who might need it. Speaking of ammo, you can hold or drop ammo types you aren’t using for your teammates when they need it. Consider your teammates your very own ammo pouch!
Be Mindful of Ammo Types
Just as you should coordinate what weapons you and other teammates are using, you should be mindful of what two weapons you’re carrying yourself. At a basic level, you likely want to ensure you’ve got your bases covered and can deal with enemies both near and far, but the type of ammo your weapons use should also be accounted for. You don’t want to end up with two weapons that use the same ammo, since you’ll find yourself running out twice as quickly as you otherwise would. Even if you don’t care for melee weapons, you may be better off with one as your secondary as opposed to two weapons that use the same ammo type–that way, you’ll at least have some way to fend off the hordes if you run out of that ammo.
Stick Together
Sticking together is a good strategy in almost any co-op game, but as Left 4 Dead players can attest, it’s imperative in a game like this. Certain enemies can trap players, requiring them to be saved by a teammate. You can also revive a teammate who’s been knocked down, but you’ll need to be nearby to do so. Ensuring you don’t need to scramble to find a path to your teammate (while fighting your way there) will help your team get back to full strength quickly. That’s critical, as it’s easy for a shorthanded squad to get overwhelmed while trying to rescue someone and keep the enemies at bay with fewer guns.
Don’t Be Shy About Meleeing, Even If You’re Reloading
An in-game tooltip will alert you to this, but if you’re a veteran of this type of zombie shooter, there’s a certain behavior you may need to break. Even if you’re reloading, you’re still free to use the melee/bash ability to deal with any enemies who are right on top of you. You might be desperate to get your gun reloaded so you can handle them more permanently, but the melee won’t actually interrupt your ongoing reload, so ditch any hesitation you have about using it while trying to get your gun ready. You’ll still want to begin firing your weapon again as soon as you can, but when times are desperate, that melee can spare you from taking some unnecessary damage and/or give you the room to escape to a safer location.
Make Sure One Player Always Has a Tool Kit
Tool Kits are handy items that allow you to unlock special doors and crates. These doors are always worth opening, as they typically contain several piles of copper, better-than-average weapon drops, and Health Stations. You can also use tool kits to open locked minigun crates, which can be incredibly useful in sections where you need to hold off a hoard. Tool Kits are found in the world but are always available to purchase at the start of each act. You should always have at least one Tool Kit in your party at all times, so take a moment to coordinate with your team before leaving the safe room.
Sharing Is Caring: Redistribute Copper As Needed
If you have extra copper, coordinate with your team and drop your extra currency for teammates in need. This practice helps ensure your whole team is stocked on grenades, heals, and other items you can buy from the Safe House shop. And that’s especially important if there is a good but expensive team upgrade in the shop or if you need to get everyone a turn at a Health Station once the free charge has been used.
Use That Ping System!
While playing with a group of friends over voice chat would be the ideal Back 4 Blood experience, sometimes you have to play with randos online. This is where the game’s excellent ping system comes into play. Pointing out special Ridden, ammo, crates, or whatever is as simple as the press of a button and a valuable tool, as a major component of the game is taking the time to search every nook and cranny for valuable resources. Be a good teammate, press that ping all the time, and let your teammates know when useful items are around to be picked up.
Beware of Trauma Damage
Whenever you’re downed or take a substantial amount of damage, your maximum health starts to decrease; this is what’s known as Trauma Damage. If you’re not careful, Trauma Damage can sneak up on you and put you in situations where you will have to waste whole medkits on small amounts of recoverable life. Health Stations and some Safe Houses are your primary sources for regaining maximum health, but this can be expensive–after you use a Health Station’s free charge, additional charges cost 400 copper each. So try to be mindful of how much damage you’re letting yourself take, as taking too much means you’ll need to pay some hefty prices simply to survive.
And Friendly Fire, Too
Friendly fire can be devastating, especially if you’re hanging on by a thread with just a few points of life. If you’re often in the front of the group, make a habit of crouching; this will help prevent your teammates from accidentally shooting you in the back. Next, if you’re strafing or evading, try to keep track of where your teammates are so you don’t dodge right into their gunfire. Lastly, gas cans and Molotovs create a much wider spread of fire when they explode han you might expect, so be careful of setting them off near your team or in a small area.
Fine Tune Your Deck Order
In Fort Hope, you can set your deck order. This means you can have your preferred cards in the first round, allowing you to create combinations that give you a serious advantage. For instance, cards like Combat Knife are really useful in the early rounds, since it turns your melee into a one-shot stab against any common enemy–even those powered up by Ridden cards. Pairing that card type with others that grant health per melee can be vital for scraping some health back when you’re running low. Just try to avoid taking hits with the Ridden when doing this, or it’ll ultimately be for nothing. Regardless, be mindful of your card combinations and how they can serve the necessity of your current build.
Democrats are calling for new laws which will keep loot boxes away from children, citing new rules being placed in the United Kingdom this September.
The Verge reports that Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL), and Rep. Lori Trahan (D-MA) wrote a letter to bring the UK’s Age Appropriate Design Code to the United States. The letter addressed 12 mainstream game companies such as Activision Blizzard, Disney, Sony, Microsoft, and Epic Games.
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The US Congress claims in the letter that loot boxes are “encouraging purchase before a child knows what the “bundle” contains–akin to gambling.” Unlike micro-transactions, players are unaware of the contents inside the loot box until they purchase it. It usually takes at least a couple of purchases to get what you want. Some games let players preview possible rewards inside the loot boxes. The Congress members believe that games need stricter rules beyond the Entertainment Software Rating Board’s (ESRB) regulations.
Although the UK looked into the addictive aspect of loot boxes in 2019 and 2020 and has since enacted changes in the Pan European Game Information (PEGI) guidelines, it’s not part of the AADC. It resulted in ESRB changing its guidelines as well, but some members of Congress feel like it was not enough.
Democrats are citing the AADC for something it never refers to. The AADC “is a set of 15 flexible standards–they do not ban or specifically prescribe–that provides built-in protection to allow children to explore, learn, and play online by ensuring that the best interests of the child,” according to the AADC page. It doesn’t target loot boxes or microtransactions.
The AADC pushes for social media sites and popular games such as Roblox and Minecraft to prevent questionable practices for children until the age of 18. It would provide increased privacy settings and prevent unhealthy usage of a service.
However, the US already has the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act to protect the privacy of young children, so citing the AADC could be seen as another excuse to attempt a loot box ban. It’s a conversation in Congress that occurs seemingly every year, and earlier in 2021, lawmakers in Chicago wanted to ban games such as Grand Theft Auto 5 due to an increase in carjackings. This new letter also states “exposure to violent content” as another concern for young gamers.
HBO Max has released a clip from Season 3 of Titans, featuring Jason Todd (Curran Walters) and Bruce Wayne (Iain Glen) debating whether or not they should go after the Joker.
The first three episodes of Titans Season 3 will debut on Thursday, August 12, with subsequent episodes launching weekly every Thursday through October 21 on HBO Max.
IGN can exclusively reveal this exciting clip from Titans Season 3, courtesy of Warner Bros. Television, in the video below or at the top of the page:
“Titans follows young heroes from across the DC Universe as they come of age and find where they belong. In Season 3, circumstances draw our heroes to Gotham City, where they will reunite with old friends and face new threats,” according to a synopsis from HBO Max.
What did you think of the clip? Let us know in the comments. Be sure to check out the first three episodes of Titans Season 3 when it debuts on HBO Max on Thursday, August 12.
David Griffin is the TV Streaming Editor for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.
Sources have confirmed that Lucasfilm is looking for an actress to play a live-action version of Star Wars Rebels’ Sabine Wren in the upcoming Star Wars: Ahsoka series.
As reported by Slashfilm,The Hollywood Reporter published an article about Marvel’s What If…? series and they were discussing animated characters who have made the jump to live-action when they threw in a line that, “[Roasrio] Dawson is leading a live-action Ahsoka spinoff for Disney+, with sources saying Lucasfilm is looking for an actress to star opposite Dawson as Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren.”
For those unfamiliar, Sabine Wren is a human female Mandalorian warrior who was one of the main characters of Star Wars Rebels. Without spoiling too much, the end of Rebels saw Ahsoka and Sabine together, which would make her addition to this new series make total sense.
Rosario Dawson first appeared in the 13th episode of The Mandalorian, and she will once again become Ahsoka for this new show on Disney+, perhaps with a few friends as well.
Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
Reports claiming the Overwatch League esports tournament will go on a “year-long hiatus” are untrue according to OWL vice president Jon Spector.
Esports site GGRecon published a story citing sources who claimed that the Overwatch League, Activision Blizzard’s Overwatch esports league, will take a full year off for its 2022 season.
The reasoning for the delay was claimed to have had something to do with Overwatch 2. But Spector’s tweet, which was sent to IGN when asked for comment, debunks this. So while the dates for the 2022 season haven’t been announced a year-long delay is not in the cards.
It’s really not practical to respond to every rumor about our future plans, but in this case this story is inaccurate. We have not set nor communicated dates about our 2022 season yet but do not plan to take a ‘year-long hiatus’ in any scenario we are considering currently. https://t.co/hDJwN2szb5
Overwatch League was heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Right before the pandemic, OWL was getting ready to finally pilot its home-and-away format but these plans were scuttled due to restrictions on travel and indoor gatherings. Instead, OWL resorted to a remote virtual setup with matches between teams taking place entirely online.
There’s also the matter of the ongoing Activision Blizzard lawsuit which casts a shadow over the entire company. IGN continues to follow the story closely.
For now, Overwatch League plans to resume in-person events starting in September. Overwatch teams in regions like China also resumed limited in-person events.
Vaccination efforts are ongoing and a new Delta variant is on the rise, so the Overwatch League will likely monitor these changes in real-time before the planned return to live events later this year.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Deck Nine announced today on Twitter that the official release date for Life is Strange: Remastered Collection has been delayed and will now release sometime next year.
In the tweet, Deck Nine explains that due to the ongoing challenges of the pandemic, they have decided to “alleviate any additional pressure” on the team and have decided to push back Life is Strange: Remastered Collection into 2022.
Originally, Life is Strange: Remastered Collection was supposed to launch on September 30 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, and Stadia with a Nintendo Switch port coming at a later date.
Deck Nine still confirmed that the next installment in the series, Life is Strange: True Colors, will still release on September 10 on all the platforms previously announced, and that a new trailer will release tomorrow.
Additionally, the game’s post-launch content titled Wavelengths will release on September 30 as both a standalone release and as part of the Ultimate Edition for Life is Strange: True Colors. Life is Strange: Wavelengths DLC is set one year before the events of Life is Strange: True Colors and focuses on Steph Gingrich, a supporting character in the base game.
Life is Strange: Remastered Collection is a compilation of the original Life is Strange and its prequel, Life is Strange: Before the Storm. The game will feature improved animations with facial mo-cap performances, in addition to other graphical and visual enhancements.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
