Epic has revealed Fortnite Wild Weeks, new in-game events that will cycle in and out every seven days for the next several weeks of Season 6. The first Wild Week kicks off today and emphasizes fighting with fire. If you’re already hard at work on the Fortnite Week 8 challenges then you already know this week’s Legendary Quest trades XP for structures lit ablaze, and Epic says that’s no coincidence.
Also joining the fiery fray is the Flare Gun, which makes its return for one week only. The Flare Gun debuted in Chapter 2 Season 3 but has been vaulted since the Marvel-centric Season 4. When fired toward the sky, the Flare Gun will briefly reveal all nearby enemies, but if fired horizontally at structures or opponents, the Flare Gun will quickly engulf the area in fire.
Like the Primal Flame Bow, it’s especially useful in clearing out wooden structures, be they player-built or pre-standing buildings. Fireflies and flame bows will also be in greater supply around the island, proving Epic really wants things to heat up as we play through the final few weeks of Season 6. Fire will even spread farther and deal more damage per second for this limited-time event.
Some people just want to watch the world burn.
Three additional Wild Weeks are planned for May 13, May 20, and June 3 respectively, though Epic is keeping the themes of those weeks secret for now. With other specialty bows such as the explosive bow, shockwave bow, and stink bow, these may be good guesses for those planning ahead.
It’s a big day for Metro Exodus, as Deep Silver and 4A Games have released the game’s Enhanced Edition today, May 6, on PC, and announced details on a free upgrade for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X.
The Enhanced Edition is described as a “radical update” that makes Metro Exodus look better with ray-tracing support for those who strong enough rigs. PC players also get better frame rates and improve resolution.
Deep Silver went on to say that the Enhanced Edition makes every light source “fully ray-traced,” also noting that the upgrade is so extensive that it requires a ray-tracing capable GPU as its minimum spec. “[It] will be delivered as a separate product–it is not a simple ‘patch’ to the base game–instead it will be offered as an extra entitlement to all existing Metro Exodus PC players,” Deep Silver said.
Everyone on PC who already owns Metro Exodus gets the Enhanced Edition for free across Steam, Good Old Games, the Microsoft Store, and the Epic Games Store.
The other big announcement is that the Metro Exodus next-gen upgrade for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S will be available starting June 18, free for existing owners. This comes as part of the Complete Edition, which boasts 4K/60fps gameplay with ray-tracing available for lighting on PS5 and Xbox Series X (but not Series S). The upgrades apply to the base game and its expansions. Players can also expect better load times and more.
“The next-gen consoles will benefit from dramatically reduced loading times thanks to the use of their SSD storage optimizations, 4K texture packs, and a range of platform-specific features including spatial audio and controller latency improvements on Xbox, and support for the haptic features of the PlayStation 5 DualSense controller,” Deep Silver said.
For people who didn’t already buy Metro Exodus on PS4 or Xbox One, they can buy the Complete Edition, which includes the base game and its two expansions, The Two Colonels and Sam’s Story.
“At first glance, Metro Exodus gives you that wide-open, free, and dangerous world unbound by tunnels, though the scope of its tale focuses on what drives you personally and the lengths you’re willing to go to protect what matters most,” Michael Higham wrote in GameSpot’s original Metro Exodus review. “The open sandboxes may not be strongest addition, but the game still embraces the sense of vulnerability and post-apocalyptic terror alongside impactful weapons used in refined combat and stealth scenarios. You may miss the mystery and intrigue of the previous games, but Exodus puts together a charismatic crew of friends and family that you’ll want to follow to the ends of the earth.”
Some video game franchises seem destined for the mobile gaming scene, their format ideally suited for touchscreen controls or quick on-the-go gaming sessions. Bandai Namco’s drum-pounding rhythm game Taiko no Tatsujin is the latest established franchise to make the jump to mobile, and it’s a match made in heaven. Bright, colorful, and full of charm, Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat will have you smiling from ear to ear as you tap tap tap away to its catchy soundtrack. It’s just a shame that fun has such a short shelf life.
Pop Tap Beat follows the standard rhythm genre format: notes travel from one side of the screen to the other (in this case right to left), and you tap the screen when each one reaches a circle to score points. The closer to the circle the note is when you tap, the more in rhythm with the song you are and the more points you score. It’s a simple system that’s easy to understand and pick up even if this is your first time playing a rhythm game, making for a short learning curve and a longer focus on fun.
The gameplay loop offers incremental increases in challenge with each subsequent difficulty level, offering an experience that’s challenging without ever feeling impossible. Notes come in two colors: red, which signals tapping the drum, and blue, which signals tapping around the edge of it. Higher difficulties will split the drum in half, meaning you not only have to pay attention to the color of each note but also keep in mind which side of the screen needs to be tapped. Pop Tap Beat mixes things up further with special notes, alleviating any monotony. These special notes include drum rolls with continuous tapping, golden drums for furious tapping, and balloon notes for a different kind of furious tapping.
Touching the drum in time with the notes feels natural, as if you’re playing the drum yourself. Silly animations of dogs dancing and colorful fireworks accompanying certain notes liven up performances so you’re not just seeing alternating red and blue notes and moving your fingers in time to the rhythm for every song. It put a smile on my face. Completing longer sequences, especially if you achieve full song combos, feels rewarding with so much colorful on-screen feedback celebrating the achievement. Unfortunately, full combos can sometimes be frustratingly messed up thanks to inaccurate tap controls. The game does not accurately respond to every note, sometimes registering notes early, late, or not at all. It’s a rare occurrence, but a frustrating one when it does happen. Imagine conquering every note of a song as fast as Gimme Chocolate by Babymetal, only to lose the combo on the final note through no fault of your own. Your phone might end up in the next room.
The song list mixes classical music, Japanese pop songs, original Taiko no Tatsujin pieces from across the series, and even some anime soundtrack classics. Some additions are admittedly weird–why does The Alphabet Song need to be a part of this game again?–but others like the aforementioned Gimme Chocolate or Tekken 7’s Heat Haze Shadow 2 are absolute bangers. Oh, and A Cruel Angel’s Thesis from Neon Genesis Evangelion is here in case you want to feel sad while you tap along on your mobile device-turned-taiko drum.
These songs create a nice variety of tracks for anyone to enjoy, though admittedly it’s not as robust as it could be. Only 31 songs are included in the game and they’re all available from the beginning. There are no unlockables and no DLC song packs available (as of this writing), which is a bummer. I want to keep playing Pop Tap Beat, but with such a limited number of songs available, the game loses its luster fast. As much as I absolutely love the song, I can only play Cha La Head Cha La from Dragon Ball Z so many times before getting bored.
Longevity is the biggest obstacle facing Pop Tap Beat. Going online to challenge random players extends the playtime a bit, but it doesn’t change the core problem of the song list being too short. Connecting to other players, however, takes a long time. Minutes can go by before a match is finally found, but once matched it’s a clean experience, with no hiccups in notes registering or lag in notes coming down the path.
Points are earned after each song, which eventually unlock “Treasure Boxes,” but the only prizes found in those boxes are costumes for my little taiko avatar or other ancillary additions. There’s nothing wrong with these prizes–my drum looks like a cute little peacock and I would die for it–but they’re window dressing at best. They don’t add substance to the game, only style, and again because of the short song list, eventually you’ll be playing the same songs over and over again to unlock everything. After a while, that gets tiresome.
The colorful whimsy of dancing animals that plays out on-screen during a song is delightful, but there’s only so much a playlist that small can do
Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat is a solid offering for Apple Arcade, though you won’t be playing it for a terribly long time. Tapping to the beat of the 30+ songs on the playlist is fun, the colorful whimsy of dancing animals that plays out on-screen during a song is delightful, but there’s only so much a playlist that small can do, and so you may find yourself lacking a reason to stick around. It’s fun while it lasts, but Taiko no Tatsujin Pop Tap Beat only marches to the beat of its own drum for so long.
The 2021 Tribeca Festival has announced the Tribeca Games Official Selection; a line-up of eight games joining the festival. This will be the first time multiple video games will be up for consideration for an award at Tribeca in a film festival format.
The official 2021 Tribeca Festival games selection, competing for the inaugural Tribeca Games Award, are:
Harold Halibut (Slow Bros.)
Kena: Bridge of Spirits (Ember Lab)
Lost in Random (Zoink Games / Electronic Arts)
NORCO (Geography of Robots / Raw Fury)
Sable (Shedworks / Raw Fury)
Signalis (rose-engine / Humble Games)
The Big Con (Mighty Yell)
Twelve Minutes (Luis Antonio / Annapurna Interactive)
The Tribeca Games Award “honors an unreleased game for its potential for excellence in art and storytelling through design, artistic mastery and highly immersive worlds.”
While this is a “first-of-its-kind” opportunity for multiple games, Tribeca has been featuring games as part of the festival for ten years. In 2011, L.A. Noire became the first video game ever to be honored as an Official Selection at Tribeca. In celebration of Rockstar starting Tribeca’s interest in games, a live outdoor performance from Red Dead Redemption 2 Original Soundtrack producer, Daniel Lanois, and his band will be held at the 2021 festival.
While the Red Dead Redemption 2 concert will be an in-person event, those interested can get involved from home with the Tribeca At Home virtual offerings, which will provide hands-on digital demos. Sessions can be reserved from May 24 at the Tribeca website. Additionally, an exclusive gameplay showcase of the selection, called Tribeca Games Spotlight, will be part of the free Summer Game Fest, starting June 2021.
For summer games on IGN, be sure to join in our Summer of Gaming, which returns with E3 2021 and plenty more besides.
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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer.
Being stalked and pursued is a trope that’s deeply rooted into the survival horror genre, and has been since the first Clock Tower in 1995. But it wasn’t until Resident Evil 3: Nemesis that it became a staple in the long running franchise. Since Nemesis’ debut in 3, players have been chased and terrorized by likes of Mr. X in the RE2 Remake, RE7’s Jack Baker, RE6’s Ustanak, and now the ever-adored Lady Dimitrescu in Resident Evil Village–and they’re all equally very stressful and horrifying.
Kurt Indovina gets scared very, very easily. Yet, in spite of his trembling fear of being chased, he considers survival horror his favorite genre. And with Resident Evil Village here, a game he’s very eager to play, he’s left trying to understand why he enjoys these games so much, despite his near incapability of being able to handle them. In an effort to try and understand why people, like himself, enjoy being scared and chased, he turned to clinical psychologist Dr. Ken Carter, author of the novel Buzz!: Inside the Minds of Thrill-Seekers, Daredevils, and Adrenaline Junkies.
In the above video, Dr. Ken Carter helps Kurt understand the many theories as to why people enjoy the thrill of the scare. From Freudien ideology to science, there are many reasons to explain why people enjoy being scared despite the stress it causes. Some believe it’s just the adrenaline, but according to Dr. Carter, it’s a little more complicated than that.
Hopefully you’ll leave watching this video having a better understanding behind the science as to why you may love the thrill of being scared too, or maybe why you don’t like horror games at all!
Rocket League–the original game–could be coming to mobile devices. Psyonix announced Rocket League Sideswipe as an iOS and Android exclusive spin-off game back in March, but it appears that separately from this, the main game could be coming to mobile, too.
A presentation obtained by The Verge (via 9to5Google) shows the apparent plans for Epic Games’ studios in 2021. It looks to be a little outdated, as it still refers to Rocket League Sideswipe with a temporary name, but the presentation also makes mention of something called Rocket League “Next.” This will be the next-generation client for the game, and according to the presentation, will feature cross-play and cross-progression for PC, console, and mobile. A mobile beta is listed for Q2 2021, though that could have changed since the presentation was made.
The game will be completely separate from Rocket League Sideswipe, though that game will feature friends list integration and some sort of cross-game incentive. Sideswipe’s tentative iOS Testflight release window is Summer 2021.
Rocket League went free-to-play last summer, making a mobile version of the main game a bit more realistic. Because Sideswipe has controller support listed on its slide in the presentation, it’s fairly likely that the main game will, as well. Its gameplay requires carefully-placed shots, which will be pretty difficult using touch controls.
Rocket League gets NASCAR DLC in the game today. The Nascar Fan Pack includes multiple new vehicles, including a Ford Mustang, Toyota Camry, and Chevrolet Camaro designed to look like stock cars you’d race and turn to the left.
We’ve seen some pretty great discounts on Nintendo Switch exclusives this week, but GameStop’s deal of the day offers a stellar discount on one of the best Nintendo Switch games: Super Mario Odyssey. The brilliant 3D platformer is on sale for just $30 today only at GameStop. This is a price we very rarely see, even during the holidays. As such, it’s possible Super Mario Odyssey will sell out before the deal expires tonight.
Odyssey is one of the most inventive Mario games in franchise history thanks to its level of freedom and expanded bag of platforming tricks for the plumber to employ. The lavish open-world kingdoms are littered with great platforming sequences, clever puzzles, and a bevy of secrets. Though primarily thought of as a solo experience, Super Mario Odyssey also has a fun co-op mode where one player controls Mario’s sentient hat Cappy. It earned a rare 10/10 in our Super Mario Odyssey review.
Deals on first-party accessories are few and far between now that we’re in a new console generation, but Xbox Series X and Series S owners can take advantage of a rare deal over at Newegg today. Through the rest of the day, you can pick up an extra Xbox Wireless Controller for $53, down from its $60 list price, with promo code 93XQY47 at checkout. This “Shell Shocker” deal is only available for the Carbon Black shade.
This is the new Xbox Wireless Controller that released alongside the Xbox Series X|S, but thanks to Microsoft’s backwards compatibility, it’ll work great with Xbox One as well. So even if you haven’t upgraded to the newer consoles, you can snag this controller to take advantage of its improved features, knowing it’ll work with your next console when you do upgrade. The new Xbox Wireless Controller features textured hand grips and triggers, a clickier, circle-shaped D-pad, and, of course, a new Share button that makes taking screenshots and recording video easier than ever.
If you’re interested in picking up an extra Xbox gamepad but want to consider third-party options, see our full guide to the best Xbox Series X controllers for 2021–there are some fantastic alternatives at a wide range of pricing. Newegg’s Xbox Wireless Controller deal only lasts through today, but it’s part of a larger tech sale going on right now that has steep discounts on graphics cards, RAM, SSDs, monitors, and more. If you’re a PC gamer as well, it’s worth checking out.
Sony is facing a lawsuit that claims it is operating an unlawful monopoly by restricting purchases of PlayStation games to the PlayStation Store.
As detailed by a Bloomberg report, the class-action lawsuit, filed by consumers, notes that by restricting digital purchases to the official PlayStation Store, Sony Interactive Entertainment are able to charge up to 175% higher than physical games sold by retailers both online and in-store. With modern games like Returnal commanding $70, you can see why people are trying to find the best deals on their games. Those who want to remain digital, however, are restricted to what Sony charges on the PlayStation Store.
“Sony’s monopoly allows it to charge supracompetitive prices for digital PlayStation games, which are significantly higher than their physical counterparts sold in a competitive retail market, and significantly higher than they would be in a competitive retail market for digital games,” explains the lawsuit.
While Sony brought an end to digital download codes being sold by other retailers, those companies are allowed to sell PSN credit. However, this still requires a user to pay Sony’s asking price for a game, rather than being able to pay the often cheaper prices retailers offer for disc-based versions of the same game.
This week’s GTA Online update pays tribute to the military-industrial war machine, with events and discounted vehicles all themed around mobile army action. All this and more was detailed in a new Rockstar blog post, which you can read the highlights of below.
Double Rewards On Mobile Operations Missions
Players who own a Mobile Operations Center can launch new missions that will reward them with double the usual cash and reputation points until May 12. As an added bonus, any completed Mobile Operations mission also tops up in-game bank accounts with an extra GTA $100,000, research speeds on cutting-edge technology such as ballistic equipment has been tripled, and supplies have been discounted by 50%.
Triple Rewards On Motor Wars
GTA’s Adversary Mode features teams parachuting into a post-apocalyptic warzone and armed with nothing but a pistol, and will continue to offer triple rewards for the rest of the month.
Discounts
Bunker Supplies – 50% discount
Mk II Weapon Upgrades – 50% discount
Mobile Operations Center – 40% discount
MOC upgrades, modifications, and weapons – 40% discount
Vehicle Workshops – 40% discount
Karin Technical custom – 40% discount
JoBuilt Hauler custom – 40% discount
JoBuilt Phantom custom – 40% discount
Brute Stockade – 40% discount
DeClasse Weaponized Tampa – 40% discount
HVY Nightshark – 40% discount
Unlockable Offers This Week
Playing GTA Online this week will unlock a cheeky Invade and Persuade Suck tee. Players who are Rank 100 and above will receive the rare pink and green camo livery for the HVY Nightshark, which can be redeemed by logging in again from May 17.
On The Podium This Week: The Vapid Winky
Pay a visit to the lobby of The Diamond Casino & Resort this week, spin the wheel and the versatile military vehicle known as the Vapid Winky could be yours.
Prime Gaming Bonuses And Benefits
Prime Gaming members who connect their Rockstar Games Social Club account will receive The Kosatka submarine’s Sonar Station for free, $200,000 in GTA cash, 70% off the Dewbauchee JB 700W and Brute Armored Boxville RV, plus a 35% off the price of a Weaponized Dinghy.
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