September 2021 will bring with it to Disney+ the premiere of Star Wars: Visions – a collection of animated short films from seven Japanese anime studios that will each offer a different take on that galaxy far, far away.
You can watch the official Star Wars: Visions trailer in the video player below:
Fans of Up will also be happy to know that Dug Days will debut in September and follows the adventures of the film’s lovable dog as he “discovers the dangers of suburbia like puppies, fireworks, and… SQUIRRELS!!” While Dug Days is a series of shorts, Doogie Kamealoha, M.D. is a new show arriving on Disney+ that is inspired by Doogie Howser, M.D. and follows a 16-year-old prodigy who has to juggle between pursuing her medical career and being a teenager.
Billie Eilish’s Happier than Ever: A Love Letter to Los Angeles will arrive on September 3 and is a “cinematic concert experience” that features all of the songs from her Happier than Ever album from the stage of the Hollywood Bowl.
So, who claimed the top spot in the battle for the greatest Walking Dead character ever? Drumroll please…
With a 96.7% win percentage, Daryl Dixon has claimed victory over all other Walking Dead characters by winning 6,657 of his 6,885 battles. Daryl has been with the show since the beginning and has stayed alive (so far!) through all 11 seasons. He has been so popular with fans that he and Carol are even getting their own Walking Dead spinoff series.
Michonne, who is also no longer a regular and may appear in the Rick Grimes film, came in third place with a 93.7% win percentage, and Carol and Morgan rounded out the top 5. Negan, one of The Walking Dead’s most famous villains, took the sixth spot, and Maggie, Glenn, Abraham, and Shane all claimed their places in the top 10.
Taking last place, with a win percentage of only 8.8%, was Sam Anderson – the son of Jessie and Pete who had an unfortunate run-in with walkers in Season 6. Speaking of Pete, he was second-to-last in the voting, followed by Sophia, Jodey, Gregory, Jaqui, Mika, Gage, Gorman, and Nicholas.
IGN readers apparently didn’t love the younger survivors, as they accounted for five of the bottom ten in voting. Gregory was also one of the least favorites, which makes sense as he was not the most beloved leader of the Hilltop.
Are you wondering where your favorite Walking Dead character landed, like maybe Jerry? (He took spot #18!) For all the rankings, you can check out the full list of where all 102 Walking Dead characters who competed in this Face-Off ended up.
For more on The Walking Dead, check out our review of the Season 11 premiere, in which we said that it ‘opened its final season with a lackluster outing featuring mid-card stories and underwhelming cliffhangers.”
Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
The best PlayStation shooters come in all shapes and sizes. Some, like Apex Legends and Overwatch, are multiplayer only frag-fests that are best enjoyed with a group of friends. Others, like Destiny 2, borrow from MMOs to create an ongoing, replayable experience where leveling up is as much a part of the draw as pulling the trigger. And plenty, like Metro Exodus and Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, are interested in telling a gripping story that will keep you invested from beginning to end. No matter what kind of FPS player you are, the best PS4 and PS5 shooters have something to keep you entertained — by yourself or with friends. All of our picks are arranged in alphabetical order and playable on both PS4 and PS5, and some have PS5 enhancements.
For more PlayStation game recommendations, check out our roundups of the best PS4 games and best PS5 games so far. While some of the games listed below have split-screen multiplayer, if you’re looking for more games to play on the couch with friends, take a look at our list of the best split-screen PS4 games.
With 2019’s Apex Legends, Respawn Entertainment brought the flair for movement that defined its Titanfall series to the battle royale genre established by PUBG and Fortnite. With the addition of the kind of hero abilities that make a game like Overwatch tick, a quietly revolutionary ping system that allows players to communicate to their teammates without needing to use a mic, and a roster of firearms that just feel really good to use, you’ve got a battle royale that can hang with the best of them.
Taking place during World War I–a conflict criminally undercovered by video games–Battlefield 1 offers a vignette-style campaign with multiple perspectives on The Great War. In the anthology-style War Stories, players take control of troops from diverse national backgrounds in a wide array of battle situations on land and in the air. Drive a tank, fight on foot, pilot a biplane–Battlefield 1’s multifarious perspectives allow for a campaign of unmatched variety. The multiplayer mode offers the Battlefield series’ usual frantic, large-scale battles (though five years out from launch, you may struggle to find a game). Still, DICE’s military shooter is one of the best in the series, and well-worth playing for its single-player alone.
Assembling BioShock, BioShock 2, BioShock Infinite and all of the trilogy’s DLC, BioShock: The Collection offers an inexpensive ticket to some of gaming’s most unforgettable locales. The original BioShock is still, arguably, the best of the bunch. Even 14 years after its initial release, there is still just nothing like Rapture, the 1940s-era city at the bottom of the sea. Solid shooting mechanics, supplemented by elemental powers that react with the environment in interesting ways (try blasting fire on an oil slick, for example) keep the game exciting, and a rogues gallery of big and garish personalities keep the story enjoyable through its famous twist. Released two-and-a-half years later, BioShock 2 feels like a retread in many ways–it was developed by 2K Marin while original dev Irrational worked on Infinite–with the player returning to Rapture, this time as a Big Daddy. What it lacks in novelty, it makes up for in systemic depth, with a wealth of new combat options. And 2013’s BioShock Infinite is the most polarizing of the bunch, taking the player to Columbia, a floating city in the sky. It’s a beautiful setting, where early 20th century architectural grandeur belies a dark and bigoted core. Much has been said about the ways Infinite handles its core themes, but riding around on skyrails and slamming down on unsuspecting enemies below is undeniably still a ton of fun.
Gearbox Software’s long-awaited sequel doesn’t do too much that’s new, but it does plenty that’s better. Changes abound. Some are small: A tweak to the minimap makes it significantly easier to detect changes in elevation; a machine on your spaceship retrieves lost guns that may have slipped through the cracks. Some are big, like the fact that you have a spaceship at all, which you can use to fly among locations. As in previous entries, there are an uncountable number of procedurally generated guns and, by and large, they feel great to use. Environments are varied, allowing players to blast their way through the old familiar Pandora desert, a jungle planet, a mountainous world that takes inspiration from the Himalayas, and a futuristic city in the midst of a hostile corporate takeover. There are worthwhile side quests and tough, creative boss fights to tackle with your friends.
The Call of Duty that started it all. Well, not really it all given that the original release had a “4” in the title. But Modern Warfare is the game that brought Call of Duty into the present, abandoning the beaches of Normandy in favor of modern conflict in a fictionalized approximation of the United States’ own 21st century wars. Missions like “All Ghillied Up” are still a blast to play today, and it’s hard to beat some of the classic multiplayer maps like “Shipment” and “Crash.” And the game has never looked better than in this thorough remastering for modern consoles.
Call of Duty’s second crack at the Battle Royale genre (following 2018’s Blackout, which arrived as a mode bundled in with Call of Duty: Black Ops 4), makes some smart tweaks to the BR formula. For instance, the game introduced “The Gulag,” a prison where downed players are transported for 1-vs-1 gunfight, the winner of which earns a respawn. Innovative mechanics aside, this free-to-play FPS features the tight gunplay, steady progression, and vehicular mayhem that have made Call of Duty multiplayer a popular mainstay for almost 15 years.
Destiny 2 is a pioneering live-service game and an endlessly fun mash-up of first-person shooter gameplay and an MMO-style meta. Whether you’re playing by yourself, tackling a Strike with friends, or going for world’s first in one of the series’ famous (and famously long) Raids, Destiny 2 has something for everyone. Add in Bungie’s flair for lore and some of the best Proper Nouns in the business and you’ve got an evocative world that simply could not feel better to shoot through with a group of friends.
No one expected Doom (2016) to look much like Doom. Doom 3 had borrowed as much from Half-Life as it did from its predecessors and id Software had toiled for years on an unreleased Doom 4 that, reportedly, looked more like Call of Duty than traditional Doom. So, when Doom (2016) arrived and emphasized frantic gameplay, strafe-heavy gunfights, and a story that took itself just seriously enough to work, it was a big surprise, reinvigorating the pioneering shooter series after a 12-year gap. The multiplayer was and remains underwhelming, but the single-player campaign is a hard-charging FPS that keeps the action moving at all times with a health system that requires players to melee-kill demons to heal up, producing a shower of gore and, just as importantly, health regenerating orbs to collect. This was the best kind of reboot; a game that considered the things that made the original games special and recontextualized them in a thoroughly modern game.
This 2020 sequel is a less focused game than Doom (2016) but a magnificent ballet of bloodshed, nonetheless. Doom Eternal serves up more of what made the 2016 reboot sing. And, with the addition of new abilities like the Flame Belch and Ice Bomb, Eternal injected fresh dynamism into an already brilliant combat system. Incredibly detailed degradation on enemies–the demons’ flesh sloughs off as they take damage–offer at-a-glance updates on your combat progress that fits in brilliantly with the game’s hellfire, brimstone, and blood aesthetic. Outside of firefights, Eternal is slightly more of a mixed bag. The lore is too self-serious and the platforming can be confusing, bu trustrations aside, most of the time, when you’re in a fight, Doom Eternal plays unlike anything else on the market.
Don’t come to Bethesda’s 2015 RPG looking for great shooting. Though Fallout 4 controls better than previous games, with an improved take on the slow-motion V.A.T.S. system, blasting enemies still isn’t the star of the show. Instead, Fallout 4 is a lengthy and expansive role-playing game that serves up plenty of interesting quests in the wastelands surrounding Boston, multiple factions to side with or against, a massive world to explore, and a story that reacts to your choices. Role-playing isn’t as nuanced as in previous games, and companions don’t have much to say, but the downgrades to these RPG mainstays have been made in favor of deeper simulational elements. Plus, if you want to take a walk on the creative side, Fallout 4 has extensive base-building mechanics, which you can use to build impressive hideouts.
If you’ve played Far Cry 3 or 4, you likely know basically what to expect from Far Cry 5, but it’s a thoroughly entertaining romp in the Montana wilderness nonetheless. Players take on the role of a junior deputy sheriff attempting to take down cult leader Joseph Seed and his followers– the Project at Eden’s Gate–who have conquered a large swath of Big Sky Country. As in previous Far Cry games, expect to take out outposts, either with stealth or sheer force, and be monologued at by a charismatic villain. But, if you’re down for the formula, Far Cry 5 is a great time in single-player and co-op, with a gorgeous recreation of the American Rocky Mountains and Great Plains, with plenty of dangerous fauna to contend with. Plus, if you like this one, sequel Far Cry: New Dawn kept the map, but gave it a post-apocalyptic coat of paint.
The third and final game in 4A’s Metro trilogy, Exodus eschews tight, linear levels for a pseudo open-world as protagonist Artyom and his fellow survivors exit the underground in favor of a speeding train across the frozen Soviet landscape. Based on Dmitry Glukhovsky’s novel Metro 2035 (and heavily inspired by Stalker), Metro Exodus is a rare modern shooter in the Half-Life 2 mode, heavy on set-piece fights and storytelling in a gorgeous world.
What can you say about Overwatch that hasn’t already been said? Blizzard’s hero shooter was the defining FPS for much of the previous generation, with a diverse and massive roster of aesthetically and mechanically distinct playable characters, flashy abilities, memorable maps, and fun and frequent seasonal events. Not too good at the “shooting” part of first-person shooters? In Overwatch, that’s okay; healers are a vital part of any team’s composition. Single-player fans should know: Overwatch is a multiplayer only game.
Prey, Arkane Austin’s 2017 immersive sim, isn’t as propulsive, violent, or kinetic as other entries on this list. In fact, you can sneak through much of this sci-fi game without firing a bullet. The draw, instead, is the setting: the gorgeously realized space station, Talos I, an Art Deco monument to an alternative history take on the space race. It has been overrun by Typhons, inky black aliens that range from the massive, tentacled Nightmare to the tiny shapeshifting Mimics. Arkane’s games, like its Dishonored series, are known for their play-your-way approach to level design and their suites of gameplay abilities that allow for different styles. Prey is a towering example, with powers–like the ability to transform into and play as objects in the environment–that instantly get the mind racing with possibility. There’s also a well-liked 2018 expansion, Mooncrash, that transplants the core gameplay into a roguelike structure.
Co-developed by id Software and Avalanche Studios Group, Rage 2 has the tight gunplay you expect from the creators of Doom and Wolfenstein, in a post-apocalyptic desert world. The open world isn’t as exciting as you might expect from Avalanche— it feels like it mostly just exists as decent scenery to drive through on your way to the next objective—but the fights are hectic, gory fun, and the tone is quite a bit less serious than the previous, underwhelming Rage.
A brilliant tactical shooter, with almost too many Operators to count, Rainbow Six Siege is one of the best FPS games available today. In this stellar shooter, the actual shooting feels great and responsive, but planning and teamwork are just as important. Rainbow Six Siege has only gotten better since launching way back in 2015, adding new maps and Operators to the fray that help make it an engrossing tactical experience even after you’ve sunk hundreds of hours into the game. If you’re a fan of tactical shooters that require excellent teamwork, Rainbow Six Siege is hard to beat.
Superhot has a simple premise–as the game explains it: time only moves when you move But Superhot Team’s inventive debut gets big bang for its buck by committing wholeheartedly to that concept. More puzzle game than traditional FPS, Superhot asks players to think carefully about every move they make and every bullet they fire. It’s innovative, meta, and has spawned two pseudo-sequels: Superhot VR and Superhot: Mind, Control, Delete.
The best first-person shooter campaign since Half-Life 2? It depends on who you ask. But Respawn Entertainment’s briskly paced sci-fi FPS undeniably has some of the best moment-to-moment gameplay of any title on this list. Sprint, slide, double jump, shoot, sprint, and shoot some more as you blast through some of the best levels of the last generation. The time-bending “Effect and Cause” and the world-shifting “Into the Abyss,” which has you platforming your way through a factory where houses are prefabricated as they’re built up around you, are worth the cost of admission alone. Add in a suite of multiplayer modes that, even almost five years out, still receive periodic boosts from Apex Legends’ popularity, and you have a full package that few first-person shooters can rival.
The first game in the long-running Wolfenstein series to be developed by MachineGames is a stellar reinvention of the classic FPS franchise, with great shooting, strong stealth, and a compelling alternative history story with its fair share of indiscriminate Nazi-slaughter, yes, and also touching romance between hero B.J. Blazkowicz and his lover Anya Oliwa. The 2014 game looks slightly dated at this point, but the action and storytelling are still a major success.
MachineGames’ second Wolfenstein game is a Nazi-killing extravaganza that pays equal attention to rip-roaring action and nuanced, ensemble storytelling. B.J. Blazkowicz and co. spend the time between missions on a stolen Nazi sub that works well as a space to relax and chat with teammates between missions. There’s even an arcade machine where you can play an altered version of Wolfenstein 3D. The story moments land, the dialogue is strong, and the gunplay is as good as ever. We especially love how The New Colossus handles progression: As you use a skill, the game presents new challenges to accomplish which you can complete to up that stat. It’s a smart and organic way to reward each distinct playstyle. Overall, The New Colossus is a great story-focused FPS with enough hyperviolence and over-the-top story beats to make Quentin Tarantino blush (and then applaud).
Call of Duty: Vanguard was revealed just last week, but that was largely focused on the campaign. Details on the multiplayer are set to be revealed soon, and that will be followed by a beta test which is separate from the upcoming alpha test.
Following the Vanguard alpha that is exclusive to PS4 and PS5 players, Activision will reveal Vanguard’s multiplayer as part of an event on September 7. Details on that weren’t shared, but we’ll presumably get a more in-depth look at the competitive side of the game then.
Immediately after that, running from September 10-13 will be a PlayStation-exclusive beta test. You’ll need to preorder Vanguard in order to get access to that test. On September 16-17, a second beta test will be held, and this will be open to all PlayStation owners, as well as those on Xbox and PC who preorder the game. Finally, from September 18-20, an open beta will be held on all platforms, ensuring everyone gets a chance to try the game without preordering.
It’s unclear if there will be any rewards available for participating in the beta. However, playing the alpha this weekend will reward you with a unique calling card and banner for Vanguard when it launches, as well as inCall of Duty: Warzoneonce it gets Vanguard content integrated into it later this year.
Vanguard’s recent reveal comes amidst the ongoing lawsuit against Activision Blizzard, which makes allegations involving sexual harassment and discrimination at the publisher.
The hugely popular comedy-drama Succession returns in October. HBO confirmed on Twitter that Succession Season 3 will debut the month after next.
The specific premiere date has yet to be revealed–in fact, the tweet from the official Succession account contained nothing more than the word “October” and an image of Logan Roy, the fearsome Roy family patriarch and founder of Waystar RoyCo, played by Brian Cox. But it’s exciting news for fans nevertheless–check the tweet out below:
The hugely entertaining first trailer for Succession Season 3 was released in July. All the main cast are set to return, including Jeremy Strong as Kendall, Kieran Culkin as Roman, Sarah Snook as Siobhan, Matthew Macfadyen as Tom, Hiam Abbass as Marcia, Nicholas Braun as Greg, and Alan Ruck as Connor. New cast members for this season include Alexander Skarsgård (Godzilla vs. Kong), Adrien Brody (Peaky Blinders), and Hope Davis (Captain America: Civil War).
Season 2 aired in 2019 and subsequently won seven Emmys, including Outstanding Drama Series and Outstanding Lead Actor In a Drama Series for Cox. Production on Season 3 was set to begin in April last year but was delayed due to the pandemic. The show was created by British comedy writer Jesse Armstrong (In the Loop, Peep Show).
Free Guy has held onto the top slot in the US box office charts. The Ryan Reynolds-starring Disney movie made $18.8 million in its second weekend on release.
As Box Office Mojo notes, the movie only dropped 33.8% from its opening weekend $28.4 million gross, a far less dramatic second weekend fall than other recent Disney releases such as Black Widow and Jungle Cruise. Unlike those movies, Free Guy isn’t also available as a Premium Access title on Disney+, meaning that a theater visit is the only way to see it right now. Free Guy’s US gross stands at $58.8 million, bringing its worldwide total to $111.9 million.
The week’s highest new entry was Paw Patrol: The Movie, at No. 2. The big-screen version of Nickelodeon’s popular animated kids show made $13 million in its first three days. This number was particularly impressive given the movie is also available to Paramount+ subscribers for no extra cost.
There were three other new entries in the box office Top 10, but none of them faired that well. The action movie The Protégé, starring Maggie Q and Michael Keaton, made $2.9 million in its first three days to enter the chart at No. 7. The horror movie The Night House is at No. 8 with a $2.8 million opening gross, while the sci-fi thriller Reminiscence made $2.0 to claim ninth place. The latter was also released simultaneously on HBO Max.
The rest of the chart includes titles that have been on release for several weeks, namely Jungle Cruise, The Suicide Squad, and Black Widow, plus Don’t Breathe 2 and Respect, which entered the chart last week.
Marvel has tapped Yassir Lester to serve as head writer on Armor Wars, the Disney+ series that will star Don Cheadle.
Variety reports that Marvel’s upcoming Armor Wars series has landed comedian-turned-actor and screenwriter Yassir Lester as its head writer. Lester recently worked with Cheadle on the Showtime comedy series Black Monday, for which Lester serves as a writer and co-executive producer, as well as starring on the show.
Lester’s other notable writing credits include HBO’s Girls and The Carmichael Show on NBC, together with the comedic late-night talk show Earth to Ned, which premiered on Disney+ last year. As an actor, he is probably best known for portraying Chris in Fox’s Making History, as well as voicing a character called Yangzi in the Fox animated series Duncanville.
Taking to the writer’s room on Armor Wars, which is based on the classic Marvel comic series of the same name, Lester will be tasked with crafting a plot that revolves around Cheadle’s James “Rhodey” Rhodes a.k.a. War Machine, who will be forced to confront what happens when Tony Stark’s advanced technology falls into the wrong hands.
Armor Wars is just one of two MCU series planned to spotlight Tony Stark’s legacy, with the other being Ironheart, also for Disney Plus. That series will follow the story of Dominique Thorne’s Riri Williams, a genius inventor who just so happens to be “the creator of the most advanced suit of armor since Iron Man.”
Cheadle recently reprised his MCU role for a brief cameo in Marvel’s The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. The actor picked up an Emmy nomination for his fleeting appearance, which saw him having a pivotal conversation with show star Anthony Mackie, who plays Sam Wilson in the MCU, about the decision he faced over taking up the Captain America mantle.
Our Spidey senses are tingling, and yours should be too as leaked footage of the Spider-Man: No Way Home Trailer has seemingly made it online.
A low-resolution clip of what appears to contain major spoilers for the Spider-Man No Way Home trailer is believed to have made its way onto social media. Whilst Sony has been quick to quash leaks, it hasn’t stopped those who watched the clip from posting spoilers online.
The film itself, alongside a number of actors rumored to be appearing in Spider-Man: No Way Home, has since been trending on Twitter, meaning that it might be worth setting up some of the advanced muting options that the platform has to offer or staying away entirely until the storm passes.
As per a lot of leaked content, the quality of the footage is rumored to be dreadful. For the safety of your own eyes, we’d recommend waiting for the actual trailer to be released. On Twitter, Managing Director of Decider, Alex Zalben, kindly summed up what most Marvel fans thought about the supposed spoiler.
If the phone is being held in the wrong orientation for the aspect ratio, that’s just a nice bonus.
Speculation surrounding the trailer’s release date has been circulating on social media for months. The Spider-Man: No Way Home Twitter account tried to lighten fans’ expectations when rumours that the trailer would be releasing surfaced back in June. While theories have circulated about the film’s cast and plot over the past few months, No Way Home’s official social media channels have kept quiet.
— Spider-Man: No Way Home (@SpiderManMovie) June 9, 2021
Despite there being no official release date for the trailer, Marvel star, Tom Holland recently posted a cryptic story update on his Instagram account. The post reads, “You ain’t ready!”, which could link to a number of things non-Spidey related, the timing of the post is certainly convenient. With the rumor mill currently hoovering up content across the web (if you’ll pardon my pun), fans of the franchise across the world will be hoping that Holland’s message hints at an official trailer arriving in the not too distant future.
For more Spidey-related news, you can swing by this article detailing Tom Holland’s desire to play Spider-Man years before appearing in the MCU. Alternatively, to tide you over until the official No Way Home trailer releases, why not check out the latest clip for Marvel’s upcoming movie, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings below.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
In the first real skirmish in Aliens: Fireteam Elite, you encounter more of the series’ iconic Xenomorphs than in all of the films combined. This third-person shooter trades the slow tension of escaping one extraterrestrial predator for the chaos of trying to survive waves of hundreds at a time, instilling a different type of dread that the franchise has rarely balanced successfully. While not without its issues, Aliens: Fireteam Elite is a strong step towards realizing the potential in that approach, with a surprisingly deep progression system, consistently entertaining firefights, and engrossing presentation that keeps the action gripping throughout.
Akin to squad-based shooters such as Left 4 Dead, Aliens: Fireteam Elite plays out over a series of acts which are part of larger chapters, and each one features new enemies and set pieces for your team of three colonial marines to tackle headfirst. The story leans heavily into iconography and tropes from classic Alien films, but its narrative is also influenced by modern entries such as Prometheus, directly referencing events from the divisive project. It doesn’t add much to the overall lore of the series in its trajectory, nor does it potentially set up anything meaningful, but it is a nice touch for each chapter to feel like it has a significant place within the universe.
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The third-person action is the foundation on which everything is built, though, and it’s a strong one at that. Aliens: Fireteam Elite pulls generously from the pool of weapons available to Colonial Marines, with the recognizable pulse rifle just being the tip of the iceberg in terms of enjoyable weaponry you’ll be able to wield. There are notable inclusions in every tier of weapon type, with powerful flamethrowers and enemy-seeking smart guns being desirable heavy weapons and a burst-shot hand cannon or sawn-off shotgun being notable in the sidearm category.
Each weapon can be customized with three attachments, too, letting you enhance their effectiveness against stronger enemies while also imbuing them with unique abilities. One of my favorites would restore ammo straight into my magazine on successful precision kills, not only giving me some relief from the often-strict ammunition limits, but also letting me go on absolute rampages when my aim was on point. Attachments also contribute to your overall combat rating–a numerical value used to determine your offensive ability like those used in games such as Destiny–incentivizing you to routinely consult the merchant in the game’s hub world and seek out hidden caches in each act to unlock more.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite features five classes for you to choose from (four initially, with the final one unlocking once you’ve finished the game once), each of whom has their own active and passive abilities as well as loadout options. The standard Gunner class, for example, has access to one rifle slot and one CQC slot, letting you take a pulse rifle and shotgun into battle. The Tactician, on the other hand, can only use a smaller sidearm and CQC weapon, but has access to a deployable turret and shock grenade that is extremely effective at crowd control.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite adds a variety of different Xenomorphs variants, such as the Burster-type that explodes when it gets close enough to your squad.
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You customize each class further using a perk system, with numerous modifiers unlocked as you level up its respective class. Unlike other conventional systems like this, Fireteam Elite seems to take inspiration from the inventory system from Resident Evil 4. You have a grid with a limited number of spaces where you can place new modifiers and perks, each of which has a distinct shape and size. Some modifiers need to be placed on particular sides of the grid in order to affect one of your active abilities, leading to further complexity when attempting to maximize the space you have effectively. It’s a little strange at first, and compounded by the absence of a tutorial that breaks down some of the system’s nuances. But once you’ve unlocked a reasonable amount of space, it is a crucial component of your overall progression, unlocking abilities and combinations that will be vital to success on higher difficulties.
The sheer number of perks available helps this too, letting you completely redefine how a particular class works in between runs. This becomes crucial with higher difficulties, where your class benefits from a perk loadout that suits the types of enemies you’re going to face. For example, Xenomorphs are weakest against fire, which makes the Tactician’s turret more effective when equipped with its short-range flamethrower variation. On the other hand, the slower-firing but higher calibre rounds of its other variation make it more effective against slower-moving synthetics, forcing you to think carefully about your loadout choices on every run. Each of the classes can be altered in similar ways, redefining their active abilities with appropriate pros and cons to give them more depth than their standard archetypes suggest initially. This makes spending time with each individual class rewarding as you start tinkering them to be both fun to play and effective as part of your team.
The ways in which your chosen weapons, selected classes, and equipped attachments affect gameplay is directly influenced by which enemies you’re matched up with, and Aliens: Fireteam Elite has a deep pool of aliens and androids that it pulls from. Some are immediately familiar in terms of the archetypes they populate–the Prowler hides on ceilings and pins you down, while the Burster explodes into a puddle of acid blood when killed–but there are numerous others that all introduce new combat wrinkles to consider. The Drone (the same type of Xenomorph from both the original film and Alien: Isolation) emerges from vents and crawl spaces to do some quick damage before disappearing again, making it a consistent threat unless you manage to kill it before it retreats and gets ready for another surprise attack. Heavily-armored synthetics will force you to engage with cover mechanics and chest-high walls in a way that fast-rushing Xenomorphs don’t, challenging you to break from your established muscle memory. Aliens: Fireteam Elite uses enemy sizes and skill sets to constantly keep you adapting to their respective threats, never letting you get comfortable by ensuring you can be attacked from the ceilings, small crawl spaces, or directly ahead in equal measure.
Aliens: Fireteam Elite features many deep cuts to films and novels from the Alien franchise, including references to the events in the 2012 film Prometheus.
Also available for purchase are consumables that can be used once during any run, which include sentries with limited ammunition, an assortment of elemental mines, and useful recon drones that buff damage inflicted on enemies they mark. Perhaps one of the most useful consumables are challenge cards, which can be activated before a run to change up how it plays out. These can make things easier, like giving you double the health or more ammunition, but the most interesting ones are those that change the ruleset and increase the probability of failure in return for drastic money and experience boosts. Some memorable ones included a card that constantly introduced a Drone into the mix, meaning my team was always hunted by a strong and deadly foe at the worst possible times. Another turned all regular enemies into exploding variants, while another reduced regular damage by a third but tripled weak point damage. Each of these changes the way you approach a particular act and shakes up the gameplay in fun and tangible ways, making otherwise routine motions through a level feel fresh again.
This is particularly welcome in the face of the objectives in each level boiling down to the same structure, which does become stale rather quickly. Each stage is a linear path from one big ambush section to the next, peppering the route with some exciting engagements against pockets of enemies. But the indicators of your progression through a stage never really change; once you reach an area with an ammo box and some spare health packs you know you’re about to dig in deep and defend your position for a bit, with each level usually containing two or three of these sections throughout. This further dilutes the Horde mode that is only unlocked once you’ve finished the story campaign, given that it’s just a distillation of the same objective you’ve already been repeating to get there. There are sparse exceptions to this rule, especially the final climatic escape, which dials up the Alien horror as far as it goes in-game, but if you aren’t playing around with challenge cards or plunging into harder difficulties, the level design of each stage doesn’t do enough to keep things that exciting.
While it may lack in mission design, each act does deliver in terms of its outstanding visual presentation. Each takes place in a new area, which slowly evolves over time as you make your way through it. The game is steeped in familiar iconography and eye-catching details, from the grossly wet hallways of a Xenomorph hive to the dirty but opulent control rooms of an Engineer station. Lighting does a great job of highlighting the attention to authenticity in these areas, while also creating numerous pockets of darkness for threats to hide in, making tracking incoming Xenomorphs suitably tense. Weapons also stand out in terms of how they brighten up each scene with their deadly ordinance, with the searing flames of the flamethrower being a particularly good example of this. The blinding heat of the devastating weapon is a sight to behold, accompanied by the satisfying screeches of the enemies burning to a crisp in its wake. It’s all so faithful to some of the franchise’s most memorable film setpieces, grounding the action within the franchise even if its pace couldn’t be further from it.
To spice up missions, you can select special challenge cards that adds interesting modifiers and bonuses, some of which make the Xenomorphs an even greater threat.
Gallery
Playing alone sadly does a disservice to the entire experience, while also diminishing many of the strategic and dynamic elements of Fireteam Elite. With other players, you’re consistently making calls and pinging dangerous enemies, while also composing your team carefully for the challenge ahead. Alone, you’re just playing with two AI bots, who are competent at best when it comes to aiding you. They’re generally good at reviving you should you go down or drawing some attention from the hordes of Xenomorphs, but they don’t have the ability to intelligently synergize with your chosen class’s abilities when it matters, which makes higher difficulties almost impossible. Aliens: Fireteam Elite acknowledges this when choosing anything above its regularly difficult, recommending player-controlled teammates over the bots, which severely limits replayability if you’re wanting to go at it solo.
Despite what its reduced price might suggest, there’s a lot here to keep you entertained for numerous hours, especially once you’ve managed your first run through all four acts and start tackling them again with higher difficulty settings in the pursuit of consistently better gear. There’s so much satisfaction in customizing and managing a handful of classes with enough depth to transform them into the Colonial Marine you need at a given time, along with a plethora of great weapons to make the moment-to-moment action engaging from the first time you pull the trigger. What it lacks in dread it makes up for in pure white-knuckle action, making Aliens: Fireteam Elite a great place to engage with this iconic sci-fi franchise again.
Developer Bungie will be hosting a special live stream for Destiny 2 on August 24. As for what fans can expect, Bungie revealed that the game’s upcoming expansion The Witch Queen will be in the spotlight with a first look debuting this week.
Destiny 2 Stream Start Time
Bungie’s Witch Queen reveal stream will go live on Tuesday, August 24, at 9 AM PT / 12 PM ET, with a preshow beginning an hour earlier. Other than that, Bungie has kept quiet on any other details for the expansion save for a new short video that hints at the game continuing to delve into morally grey areas. “Truth…is a funny thing,” a shadowy figure, who is likely the Hive god Savathun, says in a brief tease of tomorrow’s latest trailer.
9 AM PT
12 PM ET
5 PM BST
2 AM AET (August 25)
How To Watch The Destiny 2 Witch Queen Stream
As usual, Bungie’s stream can be watched on its official Twitch channel, while the studio’s YouTube channel will likely host the reveal trailer and its signature vidocs after the event has concluded. We’ll also be streaming it here on GameSpot, so check back closer to the start time to tune in.
What To Expect
While Destiny 2 expansions usually arrived in September, Bungie changed its strategy last year with the launch of Beyond Light. Arriving in November during the launch of the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles, the series continued to build on a new seasonal model that allowed the story of the franchise to approach unexpected topics regarding Guardians, the nature of their struggle against the Darkness, and the forging of unlikely alliances.
If this week’s stream sticks to the script of previous Destiny expansion reveals, there’s a good chance that players will see not only the new threat on the horizon, a new location to explore, and a possible look at the next Darkness-powered subclass, but also an update on which content is either being retrieved from the Destiny Vault or placed inside of it so that the game’s overall size can remain manageable.
The Witch Queen expansion won’t be out this year, as Bungie has instead scheduled the new content to arrive in early 2022.
Until the expansion launches, players will be exploring Destiny through its latest seasonal event, the Season of the Lost. Awoken queen Mara Sov is already confirmed to be making her long-awaited return to the game after spending the last few years working in the shadows and manipulating Guardians before the arrival of Savathun.
Season of the Lost will begin at 10 AM PT on August 24, after The Witch Queen showcase concludes.
