You’ll have to wait until December 17 to watch Season 2 of The Witcher, but Netflix will tide you over until then with The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, which releases on August 23. The anime film introduces Geralt’s mentor and adoptive father, Vesemir, who will be voiced by Theo James (Divergent and Castelvania). Kim Bodnia will also play the character in the live-action show.

While Vesemir is a grey-haired veteran by Geralt’s time, in this film he’s a young and dashing swashbuckler earning his fortune by slaying monsters… But he’s forced to confront his past and a monster that’s preying on a kingdom already dealing with political discord.

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With the first teaser trailer for the anime now out, let’s break it all down to see what adventures await us in this latest installment of The Witcher franchise, which was written by Beau DeMayo and directed by Kwang Il Han of Studio Mir, the animators of The Legend of Korra and Young Justice: Outsiders. 

You can keep scrolling for all the clues, Easter eggs, and references we found, or simply click through the following slideshow:

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Kaer Morhen

The Witchers of the School of the Wolf, including Geralt and Vesemir, train and spend their winters at the mountain fortress of Kaer Morhen. It’s a ruin by the time we see it in The Witcher Season 2, having been destroyed by a mob and a group of mages who considered Witchers to be monsters themselves. Here we see the keep in its former glory, but the ominous voiceover hints at its future fate.

Theo James’ Vesemir and a Witcher Message

Here’s Vesemir perusing the message that’s being read at the beginning of the trailer. A journal entry in The Price of Neutrality module for the original Witcher game notes that “various publications defamatory of Witchers” were responsible for inciting the attack on Kaer Morhen. Presumably this is one of them.

Gold Eyes

A close up on Vesemir shows the gold eyes that mark Witchers who have undergone the Trial of the Grasses, an extremely dangerous and painful alchemical and medical procedure that kills most potential initiates. Those who survive gain the ability to see in the dark along with enhanced senses and reflexes. They also age significantly slower than a normal person. These mutations are one of the main reasons so many people fear Witchers.

Oiled Blade

Witchers can coat their swords with oils to make them more dangerous, often tailoring them to be particularly nasty against specific types of monsters. Presumably a Witcher is coming to this kid’s defense prepared for battle.

Sign of Aard

The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf introduces a few new characters including Deglan (voiced by Graham McTavish of The Hobbit and Castlevania). He’s Vesemir’s mentor who claimed him based on the Law of Surprise. Here he’s using the Sign of Aard to blast a woman. She is likely actually a bruxa, a very powerful vampire with the ability to take on the guise of a dark-haired human. In The Witcher 3 expansion Blood and Wine, the Sign of Aard is the best way to kill bruxa as the telekinetic attack will knock them back and allow you to slay them with a single sword blow.

Obligatory Bathtub Scene

Apparently all Witcher stories need to show their protagonists taking a luxurious bath. We don’t make the rules.

Bloody Medallions

This appears to be an entire bag filled with bloodied Witcher medallions, the necklaces worn by all Witchers that alert them to the presence of monsters or magic nearby. It seems like besides incensing the populous through rhetoric, someone may be actively hunting the monster slayers.

Vesemir With Wanted Sign

A smug looking Vesemir poses with a sign offering a reward for a dark haired witch as people throw money at him, eager to enlist his services. The wanted woman could be the bruxa or a sorceress who’s run afoul of the locals. Either way “fear and ignorance are good business,” Vesemir says with a wink.

Vesemir and Tetra

Tetra (voiced by Lara Pulver of Sherlock and DOTA: Dragon’s Blood) is another new character. She appears to be a skilled archer who teams up with Vesemir. It’s possible she’s the “witch” he was initially after.

Wanted Posters

Geralt often struggles to find paying work, but Vesemir seems to have no such problem. Both monsters and Witchers were more common in the past, but monster populations declined as humans conquered more of the Continent. It seems this area has a werewolf problem and Vesemir is on the case.

Vesemir Fights Ghouls

Ghouls wander in packs eating corpses and living humans or livestock. They can be killed by a silver sword, but fire is one of the most effective ways to dispatch a group of them. Vesemir is looking pretty confident as he takes the monsters down with flame and blade.

Lots of Ghouls

That is a whole bunch of ghouls shambling around. Presumably that’s how the fight starts before Vesemir sets them all on fire.

Drinking a Potion

Beyond the Trial of the Grasses, Witchers also make and drink potions that can further enhance their senses, resistances, and stamina. Vesemir’s chugging one that gives him the same black and veiny eyes that Geralt sports in The Witcher.

Wraith

This appears to be some form of wraith, a ghost entirely motivated by its hatred of the living. Like ghouls, they’re often found around cemeteries, so it’s possible this is part of the same fight scene we saw earlier.

Wolf Sigil

This is the School of the Wolf symbol warping to look more like a wolf’s skull. Considering the name of the film is Nightmare of the Wolf, this could be some sort of prophetic warning of the devastation to come.

Alp

The naked woman here is an alp, a type of vampire similar to a bruxa but less powerful. She’s fighting alongside some form of draconid, reptilian monsters with bat wings that can serve as guard animals. Tetra asks Vesemir if they’re his friends and he blithely responds that the Alp is a “friend of a friend,” which could imply that they’re after his mentor Deglan, or perhaps that they’re minions of the bruxa Vesemir is hunting.

Whatever the situation is here, it’s probably not gonna end too well for those creatures facing off against Vesemir! 

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What other details did you notice in the teaser trailer for The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf? Let us know, and be sure to also check out our breakdown of The Witcher: Season 2 trailer!

Hearthstone is going back to its World of Warcraft roots this year, first in the Horde-aligned Barrens and next in the Alliance-themed expansion, United in Stormwind. The new expansion introduces questlines, multi-step quests that pay off with a big reward. And given that this expansion is Stormwind focused, it only makes sense that the Paladin’s quest is all about marshaling the forces of the light.

The Rise to the Occasion quest rewards you for playing various 1-cost cards. Like all of the quests, the first reward is fairly minor, simply giving you a 1/4 Light’s Justice weapon. As you proceed to stage two, Pave the Way, you’ll earn an upgraded hero power that summons two Silverhand Recruits instead of just one. The final step, Avenge the Fallen, will earn you Lightborn Cariel. After you play this 5-Mana 7/7, you’ll get a dramatic +2/+2 boost to your Silver Hand Recruits for the rest of the game. This could mark the return of “Dude Paladin,” a formerly popular archtype that relies on overwhelming your opponent with tons of powered-up Silver Hand Recruits (aka dudes).

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It’s notable that the quest demands you play three different 1-cost cards in each step, which means you need nine different 1-cost cards in total. You can’t, for example, bounce a Pen Flinger back into your hand to use it in the next quest phase. Still, this questline is relatively easy to complete compared to some others we’ve seen thanks to Paladin’s many 1-cost options. First Day of School is a 1-cost spell that gives you two more 1-cost minions. If you use an Aldor Attendant to make your Libram of Wisdom cost one Mana–a very common early-game Paladin play–that’s two steps in the quest down already.

You may even be able to actually complete the quest by turn five and then play Cariel on-curve, making for a huge tempo play. Once you’ve completed the quest, your 2-Mana Hero Power will be able to generate two 3/3 Silver Hand Recruits in perpetuity.

You can pair this with other Silver Hand synergy cards as well. Lothraxion the Redeemed, a Legendary card from the Barrens expansion, will give those Silver Hand Recruits Divine Shield for the rest of the game. You can also summon the Silver Hand en masse using cards like Day at the Faire and Stand Against Darkness. Dude Paladin saw a brief re-emergence during the Forged in the Barrens meta based on some of these tools, and this new questline could be what it needs to push it to a powerful mainstay.

United in Stormwind launches on August 3. Two preorder bundles are available now–a standard bundle with 60 packs, one random Legendary, and a Lady Katrana card back for $50; and a mega bundle with 80 packs, two random Legendaries, five golden packs, the Lady Katrana Mage hero and card back, and a Ve’nari Battlegrounds Bartender cosmetic for $80.

Take a minute to set up a free 30 day trial, and Amazon’s Prime Gaming service will deploy a copy of Battlefield 1 your way. While that’s going to be a tough deal to top, we think we’ve also gathered an array of must-haves for console folk, too. Quick e.g.: sports fans should pay particular attention to the exclusive kit being offered in Amazon’s FIFA 22 edition on PlayStation and Xbox…

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Following a two-year investigation by the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing, the state has filed a lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for fostering a “frat boy” culture in which female employees are allegedly subjected to unequal pay and sexual harassment.

As reported by Bloomberg, Activision Blizzard is being accused by the state of California of discriminating against female employees at nearly all levels of employment, including in regards to compensation, promotion, assignments, and termination. The state alleges Activision Blizzard’s leadership has failed to address any of these outstanding issues or prevent them from occurring within the workplace. You can read the full details of the lawsuit here.

The suit, filed Tuesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court, says Activision Blizzard — which is made up of about 20 percent women — assigns women, and women of color, to “lower paid and lower opportunity levels” with lower starting pay for similar work as their male counterparts.

The documents also accuse Activision Blizzard of fostering a “pervasive ‘frat boy’ workplace culture in the office. Male employees are said to drink “copious amounts of alcohol” as they make their way through cubicles and “often engage in inappropriate behavior toward female employees.”

Male employees are said to come to work hungover, play video games during work “while delegating their responsibilities to female employees, engage in banter about their sexual encounters, talk openly about female bodies, and joke about rape.”

The lawsuit also cites one particular incident where a female employee, who was already subjected to intense sexual harassment at the company, committed suicide during a work trip with a male supervisor who allegedly brought inappropriate, sexual items with him on the trip.

The lawsuit is asking for an injunction that will force Activision Blizzard to comply with workplace protections, as well as deliver unpaid wages, pay adjustments, back pay, and lost wages and benefits for female employees.

An Activision Blizzard spokesperson sent the following statement in response to the allegations:

We value diversity and strive to foster a workplace that offers inclusivity for everyone. There is no place in our company or industry, or any industry, for sexual misconduct or harassment of any kind. We take every allegation seriously and investigate all claims. In cases related to misconduct, action was taken to address the issue. 

The DFEH includes distorted, and in many cases false, descriptions of Blizzard’s past. We have been extremely cooperative with the DFEH throughout their investigation, including providing them with extensive data and ample documentation, but they refused to inform us what issues they perceived.  They were required by law to adequately investigate and to have good faith discussions with us to better understand and to resolve any claims or concerns before going to litigation, but they failed to do so.  Instead, they rushed to file an inaccurate complaint, as we will demonstrate in court. We are sickened by the reprehensible conduct of the DFEH to drag into the complaint the tragic suicide of an employee whose passing has no bearing whatsoever on this case and with no regard for her grieving family.  While we find this behavior to be disgraceful and unprofessional, it is unfortunately an example of how they have conducted themselves throughout the course of their investigation. It is this type of irresponsible behavior from unaccountable State bureaucrats that are driving many of the State’s best businesses out of California. 

The picture the DFEH paints is not the Blizzard workplace of today. Over the past several years and continuing since the initial investigation started, we’ve made significant changes to address company culture and reflect more diversity within our leadership teams. We’ve updated our Code of Conduct to emphasize a strict non-retaliation focus, amplified internal programs and channels for employees to report violations, including the “ASK List” with a confidential integrity hotline, and introduced an Employee Relations team dedicated to investigating employee concerns. We have strengthened our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion and combined our Employee Networks at a global level, to provide additional support. Employees must also undergo regular anti-harassment training and have done so for many years. 

We put tremendous effort in creating fair and rewarding compensation packages and policies that reflect our culture and business, and we strive to pay all employees fairly for equal or substantially similar work. We take a variety of proactive steps to ensure that pay is driven by non-discriminatory factors. For example, we reward and compensate employees based on their performance, and we conduct extensive anti-discrimination trainings including for those who are part of the compensation process. 

We are confident in our ability to demonstrate our practices as an equal opportunity employer that fosters a supportive, diverse, and inclusive workplace for our people, and we are committed to continuing this effort in the years to come. It is a shame that the DFEH did not want to engage with us on what they thought they were seeing in their investigation.

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Matt Kim is a News Editor at IGN.

Call of Duty’s Season 4 Reloaded arrived with one of the biggest weapon balancing passes we’ve seen for Warzone, which Raven Software made with the overall goal of increasing the average time-to-kill and making more weapons viable.

Some of Warzone‘s nerfs to popular weapons such as the FARA 83 assault rifle and the Bullfrog submachine gun still leave them as solid choices, but this mid-season update definitely evens the playing field for those wanting to branch out with other guns like the QBZ-83 assault rifle or Bruen Mk9 light machine gun.

Here are some recommended gun setups to try in your next match of Warzone.

Best QBZ-83 Loadout

Warzone’s Season 4 Reloaded update added a nice damage buff to Cold War’s QBZ-83 assault rifle, making it a strong choice for anyone looking to try something other than the recently popular Krig-6 or FARA 83.

Recommended QBZ-83 Attachments

• Muzzle: Agency suppressor
• Barrel: 15.5″ Task Force
• Underbarrel: Field Agent Grip
• Ammunition: STANAG 60 Rnd Drum
• Optic: Axial Arms 3x

Best Krig-6 Loadout

Cold War’s Krig-6 still serves as a standout choice for assault rifles in Warzone. This is a really popular choice for being an easy-to-handle assault rifle, and with the attachments recommended below, you can get very little recoil and beef up your ammo count.

Recommended Krig-6 Attachments

• Muzzle: Agency Suppressor
• Barrel: 19.7″ Ranger
• Underbarrel: Field Agent Grip
• Ammunition: STANAG 60 Rnd
• Optic: Axial Arms 3x

Best CR58 Loadout

Even after the recent nerf, Cold War’s CR58 assault rifle is still quite the contender as a long-range weapon for Warzone’s Season 4 Reloaded. This is a heavy-hitting assault rifle that will pair nicely with something like the Ak-74u submachine gun.

Recommended CR58 Attachments

• Muzzle: Agency suppressor
• Barrel: 18.5″ Task Force
• Underbarrel: Field Agent Grip
• Ammunition: STANAG 55 Rnd
• Optic: Axial Arms 3x or personal preference

Best Bruen Mk9 Loadout

Season 4’s recently added MG82 light machine gun didn’t stand the test of time. The gun was only viable while “broken” in Warzone with very little recoil. Now that Raven Software nerfed the newest light machine gun, many players are turning to an old favorite, Modern Warfare’s Bruen Mk9. With attachments like the Tac Laser, you can rock this light machine gun in Warzone with very little penalty to your aim-down-sight speed. It’s also a very accurate option in the light machine gun class.

Recommended Bruen Mk9 Attachments

• Muzzle: Monolithic Suppressor
• Barrel: XRK Summit 26.8″
• Laser: Tac Laser
• Underbarrel: Commando Foregrip
• Optic: VLK 3x Optic

Best OTs 9 Loadout

Cold War’s brand-new OTs 9 submachine gun is quickly gaining popularity in Warzone. While it definitely has worse range than the other Cold War submachine guns, its low recoil and solid handling make it powerful for close-range gunfights. You just need to unlock the right attachments before adding this gun to one of your Loadouts. You shouldn’t really need a grip or underbarrel attachment since this submachine gun shoots pretty accurately, but you’ll want to equip something like the Spetsnaz 40 Rnd to bump up your ammo count.

Recommended OTs 9 Attachments

• Muzzle: GRU Suppressor
• Barrel: 8.1″ Task Force
• Laser: Tiger Team Spotlight
• Stock: KGB Skeletal Stock
• Ammo: Spetsnaz 40 Rnd

Best Ak-74u Loadout

Cold War’s Ak-74u submachine gun received an increase to bullet velocity and the upper torso multiplier in Warzone’s Season 4 Reloaded, making it a viable option to pair with your favorite long-range weapon.

Recommended Ak-74u Attachments

• Muzzle: GRU Suppressor
• Barrel: 10.3″ Task Force
• Laser: Tiger Team Spotlight
• Stock: KGB Skeletal Stock
• Ammo: Spetsnaz 50 Rnd Drum

Best Swiss K-31 Loadout

Cold War’s Swiss K-31 sniper received improvements to its aiming stability and ADS speed in Season 3, and it continues to gain traction in Season 4 as a popular choice over Modern Warfare’s Kar98k.

Recommended Swiss K-31 attachments

• Muzzle: GRU Suppressor
• Barrel: 24.9″ Combat Recon
• Laser: SWAT Laser Sight
• Underbarrel: Bruiser Grip
• Rear Grip: Serpent Grip

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Epic Games is teasing a collaboration with the iconic car company Ferrari. The official Fortnite Twitter account posted a cryptic image of the Ferrari logo on a car with Fortnite tires. In the reflection on the car you can see the Fortnite battle bus.

It’s not exactly clear what this is teasing, but Ferrari’s own social media account made the announcement. The Italian car company’s 296 GTB will be coming to Fortnite tomorrow, July 22. That’s all there is to go on at the moment, so there is no word yet on if it’s drivable in the battle royale game, but keep checking back with GameSpot for the latest.

Fortnite added its first drivable cars in 2020, but Ferrari appears to be the first real-world car company that’s set to appear. Again, we don’t know if the new 296 GTB is drivable in Fortnite yet, but it seems that could be the case given the wording of Ferrari’s tweet.

The Ferrari 296 GTB is Ferrari’s latest supercar. It features 830 horsepower and a very slick-looking design. It can go from 0-60mph in 2.9 seconds and achieve a maximum speed of 205mph.

If you want more Fortnite, it’s a busy week for the game thanks to the new Bugha skin and cash-prize tournament, the Week 7 Alien Artifacts, and the 17.20 patch notes.

Minor spoilers follow for select scenes from Dune.

IGN was among the media outlets invited to screen advance footage from Dune in IMAX this week, including the movie’s opening 10 minutes and the new trailer, which debuts Thursday. What was shown truly showcased the film as a treat for the eyes and ears. It’s as stunning-looking as you would expect from Denis Villeneuve, the visionary director of Blade Runner: 2049 and Arrival, but the sound design and musical score (by Hans Zimmer) were just as singular and gripping as the direction, cinematography, art design, costumes, and special effects. While we only saw a sliver of the final film, the footage shown certainly left this writer even more excited for this highly anticipated screen adaptation of the seminal Frank Herbert novel. 

Dune begins with narration from Arrakis native Chani (played by Zendaya) speaking about her homeworld and their alien overlords — the House Harkonnen — who have brutally oppressed them in order to extract their planet’s most valuable natural resource: the spice melange. Her narration plays over an attack by the native Fremen, including Chani, on the spice harvesters. The brutal environment of the desert planet Arrakis is evident as wind and sand pummel the Harkonnen troops and their giant spice harvester. But nearly as swift and brutal as the elements is the ambush by the Fremen upon these interlopers. Chani recalls how the Emperor eventually recalled the Harkonnens from Arrakis but now the Fremen are left to wonder who their next oppressor will be. 

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We cut to the planet Caladan, homeworld of House Atreides, where we are introduced to young Paul Atreides (Timothee Chalamet), the heir and only son of Duke Leto (Oscar Isaac). Paul dreams of someone he’s never met on a planet he has not yet visited: Chani of Arrakis. Awakened by what we learn is a recurring dream at this point, a weary Paul has breakfast with his mother, the imperial consort Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson). She’s a member of the Bene Gesserit order who tests Paul’s telepathic abilities by having him use “the voice” to command her to pass him his drink. It’s our first but small introduction to Paul and his mother’s powers that will gain greater significance later in the story. 

During this sequence on Caladan, we also see that items have been packed in crates for shipping and we learn the Spacing Guild is on their way for the ceremonial handover of power from House Harkonnen to House Atreides. The opening ten minutes conclude with the Guild arriving in full pomp and circumstance as Duke Leto — flanked by Paul, Lady Jessica, and their chief officer Gurney Haleck (Josh Brolin) — formally accepts the charge given him by the Emperor and the Guild to assume oversight of Arrakis and its spice production. 

The film’s costume design is immediately apparent in these opening 10 minutes — from the spice harvesters’ oppressive gear to the regal militarism of the Atreides to the survivalist stillsuits of the Fremen and the exotic, quasi-ancient garments worn by the Guild. Then there’s the oppressor chic of the darkly clad Harkonnens and the austere vestments of the Bene Gesserit.

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The amalgam of influences on Dune the book is well documented and the looks on display in this film adaptation are suitably diverse and powerful. Although set in the year 10,191, Dune depicts a fusion of futurism and feudalism. The Guild and House Atreides may use giant spaceships for transport but the ceremonial handover event is marked by such medieval elements as reading from a paper scroll and Leto signing off with the wax seal of his aristocratic house.

In a video introduction, Denis Villeneuve presented another scene from Dune, this one taking place a bit later after the Atreides have arrived on Arrakis to assume control. In this action-packed sequence, Duke Leto, Paul, Gurney, and imperial planetologist/ecologist Dr. Liet-Kynes (Sharon Duncan-Brewster) fly over the dunes of Arrakis in an Ornithopter to observe one of the Atreides spice harvesters in action. However, they then spot a massive sandworm — one of the monstrous creatures inhabiting the dunes of Arrakis — quickly burrowing its way under the sand on its way to attack the spice harvester vessel. 

When a ship-to-ship airlift recovery fails, Leto risks all to lead a rescue operation of the harvester crew, abandoning the spice in favor of saving lives. But it’s during this sequence where Paul has his first true psychological and spiritual connection to the planet Arrakis and its spice. It’s an overwhelming, almost narcotic moment for Paul where he is overwhelmed by a strangely emotional and psychological oneness with the desert. If not for the arrival of Gurney then Paul might have perished. The two barely make it back to the ship in time before the sandworm devours the giant spice harvester vehicle whole.

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In a separate video, Villeneuve chatted with composer Hans Zimmer about creating the unique musical score for Dune. Zimmer turns out to be as much of a die-hard fan of Frank Herbert’s Dune as the director. Zimmer observed how he was always irritated when alien civilizations in science fiction films were scored using traditional earthly musical instruments so he had new musical instruments invented just for this film! Based on the footage screened, Zimmer’s score is both otherworldly and ancient, brutish yet haunting.

Between the new trailer and all the additional footage screened at the IMAX press event, Denis Villeneuve’s Dune feels both operatic and intimate, a cutting-edge science fiction film that also hearkens back to the epic period spectacles of the Golden Age of Hollywood. Here’s hoping the final film lives up to the promise of this exciting early presentation.

Dune opens in US and UK theaters and on HBO Max on October 22 and in Australia on October 21.