Since launch, it’s been challenging to find one of Nvidia’s RTX 30 series graphics cards. Worse yet, chances are that if you do manage to find one, its price has been grossly inflated, in part due to the ongoing microprocessor shortage. But if you’ve been patient and fancy on taking a chance, Best Buy might be able to help you tomorrow.
On Tuesday, July 20, Best Buy stores nationwide will be selling new RTX 30 series stock as MSRP, with a system to try and limit scalpers as much as possible. Customers at one of the participating stores will be handed a ticket by a Best Buy employee, guaranteeing your chances to purchase a GPU when doors open at 8 AM. As expected, it seems some eager PC gamers have already started camping out to better their chances.
Participating Best Buy stores
Best Buy doesn’t say which RTX 30 series cards will be on sale, nor does it list manufacturers, never mind how much stock each store will have on offer. That does make this a gamble, and one that might lead to more disappointment if you don’t manage to secure a ticket. But it’s been months since these GPUs hit the market at MSRP at launch, so this is one of those rare chances to take advantage.
If you’re still not sure which RX 30 series will be right for you, you can check out our reviews for the RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3080 Ti, three of the best cards in Nvidia’s lineup for high performance gaming at equally high resolutions. For something more modest (and much cheaper), Nvidia also offers the RTX 3060 for a great time at both 1080p and 1440p. Check out our guide to the best 4K gaming monitors that will help you get the best out of your new GPU purchase, too.
With rumors swirling of a new multiplayer game coming from Ubisoft, codenamed “Battlecat” in early leaks, we finally have the first details of Ubisoft’s next free-to-play multiplayer shooter–Tom Clancy’s XDefiant. Developed by Ubisoft San Francisco, XDefiant is a 6v6 team-focused shooter that’s more in the vein of Overwatch and Call of Duty than the tactical cover-based shootouts from recent Tom Clancy games. While Ubisoft’s slate of games based on that franchise has stuck mostly close to military-realism and gritty storylines, XDefiant is described by Ubisoft as a fast-paced, “punk rock” take on a Tom Clancy game.
Ubisoft has released an announcement video that provides a general overview of Tom Clancy’s XDefiant, which leans heavily into quick, over-the-top skirmishes with other players. In an unusual twist for a Tom Clancy game, it’s also something of a mash-up of Ubisoft’s slate of military action games, incorporating gadgets and other elements from franchises like Splinter Cell, The Division, and Ghost Recon. This shooter will be a new live-service game for Ubisoft, which will see updates and new content over time. The developers have also hinted that XDefiant could go “beyond” the Tom Clancy universe, perhaps even adding factions from other Ubisoft franchises.
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Now Playing: Tom Clancy’s XDEFIANT – Official Reveal Trailer
The announcement video showcased the different available factions in their element, and they definitely use some familiar tricks and tools that players have seen from other titles. To be clear, you’re not playing as established characters from previous Tom Clancy games, but rather fresh operatives who will move up the ranks. With the four playable factions–focusing on the Echelon, Cleaners, Outcasts, and Wolves–you’ll be able to pick a side and expand your character’s abilities and arsenal, which also include team-specific ultimates to let loose during fights. The operatives of the Echelon faction uses the same tactics and skills that the super-spy Sam Fisher had in the Splinter Cell series. The Cleaners and Outcasts also carry over many of the familiar gadgets and skills they used as antagonists in The Division. Finally, the Wolves from Ghost Recon: Breakpoint also make an appearance, and they’re bringing with them their advanced crowd-control weaponry.
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Here’s a quick rundown of what sort of archetypes these factions fall into, and the gadgets they’ll rely on:
Echelon: Support-type, use of stealth camo and alternate vision modes.
Cleaners: Assault-type, access to flamethrowers and makeshift rockets.
Outcasts: Healer-type, use of nanobots and gadgets to revive and restore team health.
Wolves: Tank-type, deployable energy shields and heavy weapons.
The developers stated that Tom Clancy’s XDefiant will also focus heavily on customization, allowing you to deck out weapons and cosmetics as you see fit. PPlayers will be able to get their hands on the game sooner than you might expect: The first playable beta test for the game will go live on August 5, which will be for players who sign up on the official website. If you want to see more gameplay of the new shooter, we have a short clip to share to below.
Essentially, Tom Clancy’s XDefiant is all star game filled with the greatest hits of the Ubisoft X Tom Clancy game universe. It’s not quite a Super Smash Bros. take on Tom Clancy, but it still looks like an interesting and totally ridiculous spin-off–which is always welcome. While the gameplay looks fun, if a bit early, I still feel that I might need more time to wrap my head around the concept of a “punk rock moshpit” version of a Tom Clancy game–two concepts that seem so diametrically opposed to one another in terms of tone and general philosophy. Still, I’m intrigued, and it looks like it could be a quick and satisfying shooter to get into.
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Actor Daniel Radcliffe has jokingly (??) spoken about joining the Fast & Furious franchise, or one like it, in the future–but not in a driving role. Speaking on Conan O’Brien’s podcast, Radcliffe said he would love to be in a big action movie like Fast & Furious, but he doesn’t want to drive a car. Instead, he’d prefer to play the role of the “admin guy” who hangs back and supports the main squad with whatever mundane things they need to get the job done.
“I would love to be in a movie like that but in the instance of [Fast & Furious], if I could have a non-driving part, that would be great,” he said. “Driving on camera is maybe the part of my job that I hate the most. I barely drive in real life. I have a license. But I really am not good at it and don’t really do it. So trying to hit a mark, in a car, is my most hated part of it. I could do some of the admin. I’m sure they must need a lot of that. There must be an administration guy there. Someone has to look after these guys.”
O’Brien brought up a fictional scenario where the main cast of Fast & Furious are trying to solve an embezzlement case and, inexplicably, they do so by assembling seven cars to track down the bad guys. O’Brien joked that any problem in the Fast & Furious series can seemingly be solved by getting people together in seven cars to save the day.
In this scenario, Radcliffe offered that his admin guy character could be well-suited to be the voice of reason. “That’s when my guy would come in–the admin guy–when they have that embezzlement case, they’d be planning for seven cars, and I’d be going, ‘Guys, this is all unnecessary. This is exactly what I do,'” he said. “Hey, if the producers of the franchise are interested I could get into it.”
This came up after O’Brien asked Radcliffe if he had any “big swing” ambitions to flex a different part of his Hollywood muscle, with the host suggesting people might like to see Radcliffe take on a totally different role than he’s known for like a disaster movie or a big action flick. He said he would consider doing a disaster movie if the script was good enough. But Radcliffe is more interested in turning his attention to writing and directing, which he hopes to do soon.
“In terms of an actual thing I would consider a big swing that I know I do want to do, I want to write and direct. That feels way riskier because there is no evidence that I’ll be good in that, other than just the feeling of, ‘I’ve been here a while, I feel like I should be.’
Radcliffe currently stars alongside Steve Buscemi on Miracle Workers for TBS. Check out a trailer for the new Oregon Trail season above.
Space Jam: A New Legacy has topped this week’s US box office chart with an impressive $31.7 million opening gross. Warner’s follow-up to its 1996 favorite Space Jam knocked Marvel’s Black Widow from the top slot and far exceeded its $20 million prediction.
The Space Jam sequel’s performance is particularly impressive because the movie is also available on HBO Max for all subscribers. Black Widow is also available on streaming, but as a Disney+ Premium Access title for an addition $30 on top of the regular Disney+ subscription price.
Black Widow made $26.3 million in its second weekend on release, which was a -67.3% drop from the opening weekend, in which it set a pandemic-era record of $80 million. Worldwide, the movie has made $232 million, but as Box Office Mojo notes, it is yet to open in China, which is a key market for all big budget blockbusters.
The week’s second highest new entry was the horror sequel Escape Room: Tournament of Champions, which made $8.8 million in its first three days to enter the chart at No.3. While this is less than the first Escape Room’s $18.2 million debut in 2018, it’s a solid result given the new movie’s modest $15 million production budget.
There were two other new entries in the Top 10–the controversial documentary Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain and the acclaimed indie drama Pig, which has given star Nicolas Cage some of his best reviews in years. The rest of chart featured titles that have been on release for several weeks, including F9, The Boss Baby: Family Business, and The Forever Purge.
Top 10 Films in the US for the weekend of July 16 – July 18 (via Box Office Mojo):
Space Jam: A New Legacy $31.6 million
Black Widow $26.2 million
Escape Room: Tournament of Champions $8.8 million
F9: The Fast Saga $7.6 million
The Boss Baby: Family Business $4.7 million
The Forever Purge $4.1 million
A Quiet Place Part II $2.3 million
Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain $1.9 million
Activision continues to stamp out cheaters from Call of Duty: Warzone. Developer Raven Software announced recently that it conducted two bans in Warzone in the past week, totaling more than 50,000 accounts in total.
“Targeting repeat offenders, and much more,” Raven said of its latest ban waves. The developer also noted that it had “been a while” since the latest ban wave, so it’s been a long time coming.
Has been a while since our last anti-cheat update!
Two #Warzone ban waves this week. Over 50,000 accounts banned combined. 🚫
While cheating in a game at the scale of Warzone will always be present at some level, just by virtue of its size and complexity, Activision has said that it is working to better mitigate the problem. Some solutions include issuing daily bans and even rolling out hardware bans for serial offenders (as many exploiters will generate huge numbers of fake accounts on a single console to continue cheating).
Tencent, the internet behemoth from China, is looking to acquire yet another game development studio. The company has revealed a proposal to purchase the British game studio Sumo Digital in a $1.27 billion deal, Tencent announced on Monday, as reported by Reuters.
Sumo is a huge studio/publisher founded in 2003. It now has 10+ international studios and hundreds of developers. The company most recently released Hood: Outlaws & Legends earlier this year. The company is also known for its work on Crackdown 3, Sackboy: A Big Adventure, and more.
Tencent clearly sees a lot of appeal in Sumo, as the company is a paying a 43% premium on Sumo’s latest stock price.
“Tencent is acquiring Sumo Digital for its breadth of experience developing and operating AAA games and live service games, the majority of which are developed for clients such as Sony, Microsoft, Sega and others,” Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad told VGC about the proposed deal.
Importantly, Tencent’s deal to buy Sumo is only a proposal right now–the deal is not done.
“The Board of Sumo firmly believes the business will benefit from Tencent’s broad video gaming eco-system, proven industry expertise and its strategic resources,” Sumo chairman Ian Livingstone said to Reuters.
Tencent owns League of Legends studio Riot Games, Clash of Clans developer Supercell, and Path of Exile company Grinding Gear. Tencent also has minority investments in a huge group of game studios, including Epic Games, Ubisoft, Activision Blizzard, Platinum Games, and many more.
EA has announced that its next Skate game won’t be shown off at its EA Play event on July 22. In a tweet posted by Full Circle, the developers explained that it’s still too soon to show off the game.
“It’s still early and we are committed to doing this thing right which means it’s gonna take some time,” the team at Full Circle explained.
It’s not all bad news though, as Full Circle added that it’ll have a “little something” to show off on July 19. The latest Skate game was first announced at last year’s EA Play, but other than the company remained tight-lipped on the project. Behind the scenes, Full Circle was officially formed in January this year and its staff includes Skate series veterans Deran Chung and Cuz Parry.
Skate 4–or whatever it is that EA eventually ends up calling the game–won’t be the only title missing from the EA Play line-up, as Mass Effect, Dragon Age, and Star Wars won’t be present either.
Starz has released the official extended trailer and key art for its original independent professional wrestling drama series Heels ahead of its August 15 premiere date.
In addition to the trailer and key art, Starz also announced that Heels will be part of Comic-Con@Home 2021 on Friday, July 23 at 10am PT/1pm ET/6pm BST with a panel featuring Heels’ writer and creator Michael Waldron (Loki, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness), showrunner Mike O’Malley (Shameless, Survivor’s Remorse), and the cast. The panel will feature, among other things, a never-before-seen sneak peek at the show.
Heels stars Arrow’s Stephen Amell, The Hunger Games and Vikings’ Alexander Ludwig, and tells the story of “the men and women who chase their dreams in the world of small town pro wrestling.”
“Set in a close-knit Georgia community, [Heels] follows a family-owned wrestling promotion as two brothers and rivals war over their late father’s legacy,” Heels’ official description reads. “In the ring, somebody must play the good guy and somebody must play their nemesis, the heel. But in the real world, those characters can be hard to live up to — or hard to leave behind.”
Amell plays Jack Spade while Ludwig plays his younger brother, Ace. Alison Luff also stars in Heels as Staci Spade, “Jack’s wife who learns that she has to contend with the emotional stakes her in-laws have invested in their wrestling goals and the demands it puts on her family.”
Get Smart and Tommy Boy’s Peter Segal is also serving as executive producer on Heels and will be directing seveal episodes of the new series.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
At E3 2002, Nintendo began promoting its new e-Reader platform for Game Boy Advance by giving attendees cards featuring some of Nintendo’s favorite characters, each of which had a chance to win the lucky guest a prize. All of these were thought to be lost or destroyed, but one “first place” Kirby card has allegedly reappeared and is now for sale on eBay.
As reported by Kotaku, the eBay listing is currently sitting at $6,500 with 25 bids, and the seller notes that the First Place card would win the guest a Limited Edition Gold Game Boy Advance Pokemon/NYC Store Limited Edition handheld. All the winning cards were destroyed by Nintendo to prevent additional redemptions, but this card was never redeemed, therefore it was not destroyed.
The seller AndersonCentral has been an eBay member since 2005 and has 100% positive feedback. They also uploaded a video of the card being swiped on a Game Boy Advance with an e-Reader to prove its authenticity, and you can view that here.
According to a story from 2007, most of these promotional cards would result in a “no prize” result, while 100 would earn a “second prize” result and 10 would secure a “first place” result.
It’s important to note that this card hasn’t been independently verified or had its condition graded, but the seller has provided a good case for its authenticity.
