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Up until now, the only Monster Hunter Rise collectibles you could get your hands on have been the three Amiibo figures that released alongside the game, but that’s going to change over the next few months. Capcom is releasing a slew of adorable Monster Hunter plush toys this year. The plushies retail for $35 each and are available for preorder now on Amazon.

There will be 10 plushies in total, each a chibi version of a creature you encounter in the game. In addition to the Cohoot and Spiribird, there are plushies of some of the new monsters that Rise introduced to the series, including the Almudron, Bishaten, Goss Harag, and our personal favorite, the Tetranadon. You can take a look at all of the plushies below.

According to Amazon, the Monster Hunter Rise plushies are slated to release in batches over the next few months, so they won’t all be available at once. Each one also measures about 7.8 inches long, making them the perfect cuddly size. The aforementioned Monster Hunter Rise Amiibo, meanwhile, are sold exclusively at GameStop stores in the US and unlock special layered armor sets when scanned in the Switch games, although at the time of writing, they are sold out.

These aren’t the only new pieces of Monster Hunter merchandise on the horizon. A Kickstarter campaign for a Monster Hunter World board game is now underway. The campaign has already surpassed its crowdfunding goal, and the game is estimated to launch in September 2022.

The battle royale genre is evolving at a fast pace, with games like Fall Guys, Tetris 99, and Spellbreak proving that you don’t need guns to pull off the “Last One Standing” concept in a giant multiplayer game. Naraka: Bladepoint, from Chinese studio 24 Entertainment, is the latest large-scale multiplayer game to try and make its mark on the battle royale genre, with the hook being literal grappling hooks and an incredibly deep melee combat system that makes it feel almost like a battle royale version of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. After playing two full matches and getting a crash course on the combat system, the results so far are extremely promising.

Let’s start with the familiar: Like just about any traditional battle royale, in Naraka every match begins with you and your squad dropping into a map of up to 60 other players and scrounging for loot of increasing tiers in order to prepare for the inevitable clashes with other players. There are encroaching bubbles at given intervals that constrict the playing field; you can find weapons, armor, consumables, and more specialized pickups called Souljades that provide you with passive bonuses (including rare, game changing weapon specific ones that grant you powerful special moves) , and you fight until there’s only one team left standing at the end.

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While there are ranged weapons such as bows, rifles, canons, and repeating crossbows, most fights in Naraka were decided in the melee range, and this is where the game truly shines. Naraka’s melee combat system is fairly simple, but loaded with the kind of mind games that you’d expect from a fighting game.

It runs on a rock, paper, scissors kind of philosophy where there are regular attacks, which cannot be blocked or countered; charge attacks, which absorb and power through regular attacks; and counters, which when timed properly can deflect charged attacks and even disarm the attacker. But, as mentioned before, they are beaten by regular attacks. Smartly, the last hit of any regular attack combo is always a counterable charge attack, so an experienced player who recognizes that a person is just mashing the attack button can time a counter on that last hit and punish foes who get too predictable.

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On the other end of that, though, if I know they’re looking for a counter, I can press the crouch button in the middle of my combo string to start it all over from the beginning and punish the anticipated counter with regular attacks. Add on top of that unique hero abilities and powerful ultimates, the ability to disengage and re-engage with a grappling hook, and three melee weapon types each with their own combos and special attacks, and it’s easy to see that there is a ton of depth to Naraka’s melee fighting system. It all adds up to a style of combat that encourages creative thinking and outplaying your opponent, even if you’re underequipped, which are the hallmarks of any good battle royale.

Naraka has a unique approach to death as well. Up until the point when the second bubble starts shrinking the field, you get one resurrection. When you die, if your teammates are unable to revive you, you turn into a spirit and must run to a Soul Altar, where you can revive with some common equipment to get you back in the game. It’s a really elegant solution to a common problem in battle royales, where you die early on and never get a chance to see the late game.

The crucial piece of a melee-centric battle royale is traversal, which is something that Naraka seems to have a pretty good handle on. One of the items you can find as you’re looting up are grapple spools, which can be used to zip to any point (or any player). It feels very similar to Just Cause’s grappling hook, with the exception of the fact that its tracking is almost non-existent when it comes to latching on to another player, so you won’t be able to just immediately home in on your opponent if they’re dashing away at full speed, which is probably for the best.

Outside of the actual game are the usual suite of customization items, from skins to gestures, accessories, and so on But perhaps the most interesting aspect of Naraka’s character customization suite is the fact that you can completely change the face of your character. There’s an absurdly in-depth face creation tool that feels unprecedented within the genre, and has already resulted in some players creating characters like Yoda and Neytiri from James Cameron’s Avatar.

In addition to playing two Battle Royale matches, and being absolutely carried to second and third place finishes, I also got to check out a fun Deathmatch mode that removed all loot and let players just go at it. It was… absolute chaos, but it seems like a great way to get your feet wet with Naraka’s combat in a less stressful and less high-stakes environment, which is something that I think all battle royales should find a way to incorporate.

Overall, I went into my playtest of Naraka: Bladepoint not really knowing what to expect, and walked out extremely impressed by what I played. Battle royales are a bit outside of my typical wheelhouse, but by merging the “Last Man Standing” concept with elements of fighting and action games, Naraka might be the first traditional battle royale that I really sink my teeth into.

Naraka: Bladepoint opens up its Forerunner beta on April 23 for PC and is currently scheduled for a Summer 2021 release.

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Mitchell Saltzman is an editorial producer at IGN. You can find him on Twitter @JurassicRabbit.

 

On this week’s episode of IGN’s PlayStation show, Podcast Beyond!, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Brian Altano and Max Scoville to discuss all the latest PlayStation news.

The crew jumps into PlayStation’s surprising, big store reversal and the decision to keep the PS3 and PS Vita PlayStation Stores alive for now. We discuss the implications of the decision, why we’re still apprehensive, and what we hope to see from Sony later on. Then, Jonathon offers his preview impressions of Returnal after going hands-on with the PS5 exclusive. He breaks down some of the gameplay, the atmosphere, and how it uses the DualSense and 3D audio so well.

The cast also touches on ProbablyMonsters’ Firewalk Studios and their new partnership with PlayStation to publish an exclusive multiplayer game, what else we’ve been playing, and much more.

Watch the new episode above!

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Podcast Beyond! is live every Wednesday. For more on PS5, check out our PS5 console review and our PS5 wiki guide for tips on how to best use your system. And for more Beyond, be sure to watch the first episode of our Bloodborne let’s play!

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Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Developer Raven Software has confirmed that a PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S version of Call of Duty: Warzone is in the works, according to CharlieIntel.

A release date for this enhanced version of the battle royale was not announced. Creative director Amos Hodge said a “dedicated technology team” within Raven is working to upgrade Warzone’s engine and technology. This will give the game access to both consoles’ more advanced hardware to achieve features like 120Hz support, faster load times, and other SSD enhancements. It also supports the DualSense’s adaptive triggers and haptics.

In addition to the aforementioned improvements, Raven said it’s looking into including an FOV slider on consoles, which would give players wider viewing angles.

In other Warzone news, Season 3 is now live in both the battle royale and Black Ops Cold War. It’s a massive update for the two Call of Duty games, but it makes some especially substantial changes to Warzone. Raven has officially nuked Verdansk.

The original map has been replaced by Verdansk 84, an ’80s-themed version with several new locations. It also lightens Warzone’s vibe a little by bringing spring to the fore. This altered map is likely to carry Warzone for the foreseeable future.

Co-developer Infinity Ward confirmed there’s “several years” worth of plans for Warzone, going all the way up to at least Season 6.

We’re plumbing the new map and detailing all the changes, so check out our live coverage as we drop onto Verdansk ’84.

Destiny 2‘s upcoming transmogrification system will have elements you can earn for free or pay for with premium currency, but limitations on what you can get in-game already have some players upset. As a few have already pointed out on Twitter and Reddit, the limitations on currency you can earn in-game for free means that converting your stock of armor into “ornaments” that can be applied to other armor–Bungie’s new transmogrification system–will take years.

The details were included in the latest This Week at Bungie blog post, which filled in gaps on the transmogrification system that Bungie has been talking about for a while now. The system allows you to convert any piece of armor you have into a “universal ornament,” which you can then equip to other armor to change its appearance. Essentially, if you like the look of one armor piece but not its stats, you can change it into a cosmetic ornament. Other MMOs have similar systems and allow players a greater degree of customization for their appearances, and Destiny 2 fans have been excited to see transmog come to the game.

How Transmog Will Work

What’s creating controversy is how the system will work. Bungie is instituting some new currencies for the transmogrification system: Synthstrands, Synthcords, and Synthweaves. You’ll earn Synthstrands from playing the game and killing enemies, and when you have enough, you can purchase special bounties from Ada-1 in the Tower. Complete those bounties by playing different activities to earn Synthcords. You can then convert Synthcords into Synthweaves at a new kiosk, the Loom, in the Tower. Spending a Synthweave allows you to change an individual piece of armor into an ornament. If you want to convert an entire armor set, you’ll need five total Synthweaves.

The rub, however, is that you can only earn 10 Synthweaves per season.

Destiny 2 players quickly did some back-of-the-napkin math on these numbers and found the results pretty frustrating. Looking in my own Collections tab, I counted roughly 400 pieces of Hunter armor that I could convert into ornaments. (There are more items in the tab, but some are already ornaments, some fall into a gray area of repeats because of the development of later seasons, some are the repeated pieces of Outlawed, Illicit, and Notorious Reckoning armor from the Season of the Drifter, and so on. The actual number looks to be about 456, but we’ll keep it conservative and simpler at 400). With the opportunity to convert only 10 items per season, it’d take 40 seasons just to convert all my Hunter armor for full customization. Seasons typically last 10 weeks, so if we assume that number going forward, that’s 400 weeks–or about seven and a half years, for just one character’s gear.

So even at our conservative estimate, it’s going to be a long time before you can make all of a single character’s armor available for customization through transmogrification. This math also doesn’t take into account armor that’s added over time for new activities. Lately, we’ve seen a new set of armor added with each season, plus other sets for things like raid rewards, the Trials of Osiris, and more. So with each new season, the total of armor pieces will only go up.

The Cost Of Fashion

While you can only earn 10 Synthweaves per season by playing, you can also purchase additional ones through the Eververse Store, Destiny 2’s premium currency shop. You can buy a “Synthweave Template,” which sounds like a single Synthweave use, for 300 Silver. You get a discount for buying in bulk: five Synthweave Templates will run you 1000 Silver.

For reference, 100 Silver is about equivalent to a dollar. like most premium currencies for in-game transactions, though, you get a discount for buying more of it at once, so while buying 500 Silver costs $5, spending $50 will actually get you 6,000 Silver.

To keep it simple again, assuming 400 items for a single character, buying five Synthweave Templates at a time, you’ll need 80 purchases of 1,000 Silver each. If you buy 80,000 Silver in the most cost-effective, $50 bundles, you’ll still need about $667 to convert all of one character’s gear. The numbers are higher if you buy Silver at cheaper rates or buy one-off Synthweaves. If you had two characters and wanted to convert all their gear, it’d cost you $1334; for three characters, it’s $2001.

It should be noted that these are extreme scenarios. It’s unlikely anybody will want to convert every piece of armor they own on one character, let alone three, for the transmogrification system. But the gates on the system do feel pretty arbitrary, especially in allowing players to convert armor with earned in-game currency. Again, for context, 10 Synthweaves per season means you can only convert two full sets of armor per season, and it’s worth remembering that each season lately has brought one full set of armor with it. If you burn your Synthweaves on the new stuff each season, you’re down to only five, or one full set of armor, to apply to your backlog.

The blog post included some additional caveats and more information about Destiny 2’s new transmog and customization systems. First, the new season that starts on May 11 will give players the opportunity to earn 20 Synthweaves, instead of the usual 10, as part of the introduction of the new system.

A New Appearance Interface

Bungie also showed off its new character customization interface, which will allow players to add colored shaders to any piece of armor, or to all pieces they’re wearing at the same time. As detailed before, shaders will no longer be consumable, nor will they take up inventory space, so you’ll have access to all of the ones you own at once from the customization screen.

The change in the shader system is also coming with a bump in the cost to acquire new ones. Shaders currently available in the Eververse Store cost 40 Bright Dust, which is a premium currency you can earn by playing in Destiny 2. Starting next season, that price is going up to 300 Bright Dust. So expect to think carefully about shaders before you snag them–it’s a price hike players are already complaining about.

While transmog has been a long time coming for Destiny 2, the details of the system seem to have disappointed a lot of players who expected to gain a lot more options for customizing the looks of their Guardians. This isn’t the first time Bungie has made a decision for Destiny 2 that it later reversed because it was unpopular, though. Just recently, Bungie rolled back its “gunsetting” change, which rendered weapons obsolete after a certain amount of time had passed, because of player complaints. So while the current approach to the transmog system will be in place when the new Destiny 2 season starts on May 11, like many things in Destiny 2, it seems likely to change based on player feedback and Bungie’s experience with the game. Only time will tell.

Call Of Duty Warzone is finally nuking the old Modern Warfare map and replacing it with a 1980s Cold War-themed Verdansk. Here are all the changes coming, including new and redone locations, new weapons, and how the limited-time event will play out with zombies, Plague Zones, and more than one nuclear weapon.

By Aaron Sampson and Richie B on April 22, 2021 at 12:15PM PDT

Call Of Duty: Warzone has had the same map for over a year now, and Operation Rapid Sunder is changing that, starting with a four-part event that ends with Modern Warfare’s battle royale map being nuked forever and replaced with Verdansk 84. This nuke event has been teased for a number of seasons, with players finding bunkers and nuclear weapons on the map followed by a zombie invasion.

The four parts of the current event are Escalation Protocol, where zombies travel across the map, eventually leaving corruption zones in their wake. Phase two is the Destruction Of Verdsansk, where players race against a countdown clock while the Corruption Zones expand in a last-ditch effort to save Verdansk, which does not go well. Phase three sees players taken to Rebirth Island on a night map and tasked with unraveling the mystery of what just happened on Verdansk and will end with yet another nuke being launched. The final and fourth phase will transport players back in time to Verdansk in the 1980s.

The new Warzone map will have a number of environmental and location changes. The map is based on locations from Black Ops Cold War and has seven new locations and five revamped areas. The spring environment is greener with thicker forests. Urban areas sport 80’s colors and less dense cities. In a final but sad note, the Modern Warfare battle-royale map is gone forever, thanks for the memories.