New Destiny 2 Iron Banner Armor And Weapons Coming In Season 15

Bungie will introduce a brand-new set of Iron Banner armor and weapons in the upcoming Season 15, as announced in the This Week At Bungie post. Bungie only shared a preview of the shiny, horn-decorated armor, which is known as the Iron Forerunner set, and the two new guns.

Iron Banner's Season 15 Iron Forerunner armor
Iron Banner’s Season 15 Iron Forerunner armor

The Iron Forerunner set will include a new intrinsic perk called Iron Lord’s Pride, which gives players an increased chance of getting Enhancement Prism drops after every Iron Banner match. Players won’t need to wear the entire set to activate this perk, but they can increase their chances even more by wearing multiple armor pieces. Keep in mind that this perk maxes out at four armor pieces.

All-new weapons called Forge’s Pledge Pulse Rifle and Peacebond Sidearm will arrive in Season 15’s Iron Banner. Players can acquire the new weapons from Lord Saladin’s vendor packages, Iron Banner bounties, match rewards, and the season’s Iron Banner quest.

Iron Banner's Season 15 weapons: Forge’s Pledge Pulse Rifle and Peacebond Sidearm
Iron Banner’s Season 15 weapons: Forge’s Pledge Pulse Rifle and Peacebond Sidearm

During Season of the Chosen, Bungie brought back the Iron Truage set, which was a set originally from the Destiny 2 Year 1 Iron Banner. It was the same reward for the Season of the Splicer as well. However, Season of the Splicer introduced weapons Riiswalker Shotgun and Archon’s Thunder Machine Gun.

Bungie has not yet announced the date of the next Iron Banner, but the as-yet-untitled Season 15 launches on August 24.

The TWAB also discussed rebalancing Exotic armor in Season 15. Additionally, Season of the Splicer had its epilogue Override activity this week, which included a familiar character.

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QuakeCon 2021 Schedule: How To Watch This Year’s All-Virtual Event

Bethesda’s annual QuakeCon celebration is all-virtual again in 2021, with three days of panels, announcements, streams, and giveaways planned from August 19-21.

Unlike past years where QuakeCon was light on anything actually involving Quake, this year marks the franchise’s 25th anniversary. Bethesda will begin the virtual show by celebrating the occasion with a panel featuring developers from id Software and MachineGames. Other key developer-led panels include a deep dive into the upcoming Deathloop from Arkane, as well as more details about Fallout 76’s custom worlds feature set to debut later this year. The entire event will be streamed via Bethesda’s official Twitch channel.

QuakeCon 2021 viewers will be able to participate in the event’s charity initiatives by donating to organizations like The Trevor Project, UNICEF, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund directly through the official QuakeCon stream. Pet-themed Doom and Deathloop t-shirts are also being sold, with proceeds benefiting Dallas Pets Alive! and FOUR PAWS, a global animal welfare organization.

Most of the developer panels are on August 19, with other content, including a “WeRateDogs” segment with Bethesda senior vice president of global marketing and communications Pete Hines, a musical performance by Trivium, and Elder Scrolls Online dungeon speedruns, happening on the following days. Below is the full QuakeCon 2021 schedule. All times are Eastern Daylight Time.

QuakeCon 2021 Schedule

Thursday, August 19

  • 2:00 PM EDT Welcome Ceremony
  • 2:05 PM Celebrating 25 Years of Quake with id Software and MachineGames
  • 2:30 PM Deep Dive into Deathloop with Arkane Lyon
  • 3:00 PM Fallout 76: Making Appalachia Your Own With Fallout Worlds
  • 3:30 PM Inside the Award-Winning The Elder Scrolls Online with ZeniMax Online Studios
  • 4:00 PM Reliving the Opening of Skyrim with the Creators from BGS
  • 4:30 PM Doom Eternal Studio Update with Marty and Hugo
  • 11:00 PM Fallout 76 – End-Game Guide
  • 12:30 AM Fallout 76 – Playing with UFC Middleweight Rob Whittaker

Friday, August 20

  • 9:30 AM Fallout 76 – UK Stream Team Build-a-thon
  • 10:30 AM Let’s talk Quake
  • 2:00 PM Deathloop Meet its Makers
  • 3:30 PM WeRateDogs and Pete Hines Dog Chat
  • 4:00 Code Orange vs Quake
  • 5:00 PM Alienware – Fundraising and Raising Heck
  • 6:30 PM The Elder Scrolls Online – Dungeon Speed Run Competition
  • 8:00 PM Exclusive Musical Performance by Trivium
  • 9:00 PM Skyrim 10th Anniversary – Interactive Fun Run with Gus Johnson
  • 11:00 PM Alkapone and Pipepunk Git Gud at Quake Champions
  • 12:30 AM The Elder Scrolls Online – Mates of Oblivion Dungeon Runs
  • 1:30 AM The Elder Scrolls Online – MissMollyMakes An Epic Banquet

Saturday, August 21

  • 9:30 AM Doom Eternal – ‘Prayer vs Slayer’
  • 10:30 AM The Elder Scrolls Online – Through Flames of Ambition with the UK Stream Team
  • 2:00 PM Doom Eternal – Battlemode Community Bonanza!
  • 3:30 PM Fallout 76 – C.A.M.P. Love It or Nuke It
  • 4:30 PM Quake World Championship Grand Finals
  • 6:30 PM The Elder Scrolls Online – Live Art Creation

QuakeCon 2021 Free In-Game Items

Bethesda will be giving away free in-game items like a QuakeCon Doom Eternal skin, icon, and player badge to all players who log in from August 19 through September 2. Those who have their Elder Scrolls Online and Twitch accounts linked, and watch at least 15 minutes of any Elder Scrolls Online related stream during the event, will receive a Twitch Drop containing one Ouroboros Crown Crate and one Flame Atronach Pack Wolf pet. Logging in to Quake Champions before August 23 will score players an exclusive QuakeCon 2021 gauntlet skin, player icon, and nameplate.

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GTA 3, San Andreas, And Vice City Remasters Are Reportedly Coming This Year

Following numerous rumors, a report has verified that Rockstar is working on remasters for three of the most revered Grand Theft Auto games in the series. Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City remasters are all said to be in development for multiple platforms, from current-generation consoles to mobile devices.

Kotaku reports to have spoken to three sources involved with the project, each of whom says that this has been in the works at Rockstar for some time. At one point it was planned for the remaster collection to be offered to players who purchased the upcoming remaster for Grand Theft Auto V on Xbox Series X and PS5, but say that plans have since shifted to a standalone collection release. These remasters were also reportedly meant to come out earlier this year, but the COVID-19 pandemic delayed development.

Now Playing: The Evolution of Grand Theft Auto

The report states that the remasters will likely be bundled into a collection and sold digitally on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia, and mobile. Some versions will be out this year while others, such as PC and mobile, might not be ready until 2022. The games are being remastered in the Unreal Engine, but care is apparently being taken to not stray from the overall look and feel of the PS2-era open-world games. The UI is being sharpened up for higher resolution displays, but the style will not be changing, according to the report.

Perhaps even more interestingly, the report states that Rockstar does have plans to pursue other remasters of its properties based on the sales of this collection. Kotaku writes that Rockstar is actively looking at a Red Dead Redemption remaster should it be satisfied with the performance of these three titles, although there’s no indication as to when that might be decided on.

The remasters are being handled by Rockstar Dundee, formerly known as Ruffian Games. The studio is familiar with open-world games, having developed Crackdown 2 and helped development on Crackdown 3. The report states that the newest Rockstar studio is also helping on development for Grand Theft Auto V for current-generation consoles.

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This Beginner-Friendly Java Programming Course Is on Sale for Only $20

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Elijah Wood Tells The Story Of His Boisterous Fart On The Set Of Lord Of The Rings

During an episode of Hot Ones, Lord of the Rings star Elijah Wood shared a story of his first day of filming The Fellowship of the Ring. However, this first day was more memorable than most as he was a little flatulent on set.

While being interviewed for the spicy wing series, Wood recounts his memorable day. “It was the first day of filming, day one. The scene is, we are rolling down the hill after Merry and Pippin run into us, running away from farmer Maggot’s field, having stolen a bunch of vegetables. They bang into us. We roll down the hill. So it’s picking up that moment of falling down the hill and falling on top of each other in a very comedic way.

“And I think it was like, take two. And I had a–what is that a concussion fart?–a fart that is brought on by pressure, and yeah, I literally fell, [fart noise] and everybody burst out laughing. It’s very funny. It’s a hell of a way to start filming Lord of the Rings.”

The hobbits of the film have been talking a lot about their adventures in Middle-Earth. Billy Boyd–who played Pippin–recently revealed that the movie almost had a comedic nude scene in it. Additionally, Dominic Monaghan discussed his most difficult scene to film for the movies, which was the Gray Havens scene at the end of Return of the King, as it was emotionally-charged.

Amazon’s Lord of the Rings TV series is in production currently, and the show recently filled out its cast. Season 1 of the show reportedly cost Amazon over $450 million, but Amazon Studios boss Jennifer Salke said they’re spending the money on a “full season of a huge world-building show.”

Report: Grand Theft Auto Remastered Trilogy Is In the Works, Including for Switch

A new report claims that a Grand Theft Auto remastered trilogy is on the way for multple platforms, including the Nintendo Switch, and it’s reportedly due out this Fall.

This news comes by way of Kotaku, which reports that it has learned from sources that Rockstar Games is remastering GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas, and that each game will be remastered in Unreal Engine. They will feature a mix of “new and old graphics,” the report reads.

According to the report, Rockstar’s Scottish branch, Rockstar Dundee, is leading the project and also working with the wider Rockstar company to develop the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S ports of GTA 5 scheduled for later this year.

Rumors of such a remastered trilogy have been around for years, and they gained even more traction when Rockstar began using DMCA takedowns to remove fan remasters .

One of Kotaku’s sources told the publication that they saw footage of the remasters running and that the graphics reminded them of a heavily-modded version of a classic GTA game. The UI is being remastered for each game too, although the classic style and design of each will remain the same. According to Kotaku, these titles are hoping to “stay true to the PS2-era GTA games as much as possible.”

Elsewhere in the report, Kotaku says these remasters were originally going to come packaged with the next-gen ports of GTA 5 and GTA Online as a bonus, but plans changed and the trilogy was converted into its own standalone package, set to be released earlier this year. Now, the remastered trilogy is due out this Fall, “around late October or early November,” according to Kotaku. The trilogy will be released on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, PS5, PC, Stadia, mobile devices, and on Switch.

However, Kotaku’s report states the console ports are being prioritized and that the PC and mobile ports could be released next year as a result.

While waiting to learn more about this remastered trilogy, check out this story about how a reverse-engineered GTA 3 and Vice City fan project was taken down earlier this year and then read about how a new Grand Theft Auto game is reportedly in development. Check out our thoughts on the entire series by viewing every IGN Rockstar game review ever.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. He’s never played a GTA game in his life because growing up, his mom read the ratings on the box. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.