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Non-player characters, especially in first-person games, can often be more interesting than the protagonist, and certain games thrive because of the big cast of colorful companions you meet along the way. Xbox and 20th Century Studios are recognizing those characters–sort of–with the first Xbox Game Pass Non-Player Character Awards, hosted by Ryan Reynolds, who also just happens to be nominated. That seems fair.

Ryan Reynolds won’t actually get to decide who wins the award, however–that comes down to the fans. Alongside Reynold’s character Guy in Free Guy, the other nominees are Samuel Hayden from the two recent Doom games, Parvati Holcomb from The Outer Worlds, and Chief Trader Mollie from Sea of Thieves. Yes, all of those games are from Xbox first-party studios, so we are calling shenanigans.

Oddly, some major Xbox characters aren’t included in the poll, like Cortana from Halo, Captain Keyes from Halo, Sergeant Avery Johnson from Halo, 343 Guilty Spark from Halo, Dr. Halsey from Halo, or Thomas Lasky from Halo.

You have until August 3 to cast your vote, and we’ll presumably hear Ryan Reynolds reveal that he won the contest after that point. Free Guy will then release in theaters on August 13 (yes, the movie isn’t even out yet) after a long delay caused by the COVID pandemic. In the film, Reynolds’ character Guy realizes he’s an NPC in a video game similar to Grand Theft Auto, and he decides to no longer stay passive. Thor Ragnarok director Taika Waititi, Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer, and Get Out star Lil Rel Howery are also in the film.

In perhaps one of the more surreal marketing collaborations of the day, Krispy Kreme has announced that it will be selling a line of limited-edition Xbox doughnuts in the UK.

Krispy Kreme shared the news in a tweet where it welcomed fans to “The next generation,” before introducing fans to their new Nexus Level Doughnut, which will be coming to UK stores soon. You can check out a trailer – which parodies Xbox’s own hardware reveals – in the tweet below:

Welcome to the next generation

Introducing… The Nexus Level Doughnut

Coming Soon 👀https://t.co/UVteHkCnjT@xboxuk #KrispyKremeXbox pic.twitter.com/Xf3hRuKybw

— Krispy Kreme UK (@krispykremeUK) July 28, 2021

The limited line of cream-filled Xbox branded treats will be available for purchase between August 2 and August 22 across its UK vendors. Fans who pick up the promotional dozen in-store or by click and collect will be able to enter into a prize draw to win 1 of 120 Xbox Series S consoles. Upon first entry to the competition, those taking part will also receive one month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (subject to sign-up requirements).

Arguably, this isn’t the most surprising news to link the worlds of food and games in 2021. Earlier this year, IGN reported on the news that McDonald restaurants were being “strongly encouraged,” to limit the number of Happy Meals they sold to customers across its US stores. This came after reports surfaced that scalpers were profiting from the Pokemon 25th Anniversary limited-edition trading card packs that were being given out with the company’s famous Happy Meals.

For all your future Xbox related news – snack-based or otherwise – make sure to check out the IGN official Xbox page where you can also find the latest reviews, guides, and walkthroughs. I bet one of these would go really nicely with an Xbox Series X mini-fridge, too.

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Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Mortal Shell’s next update will be its biggest one to date, as The Virtuous Cycle expansion will add a roguelike element to the game when it launches on August 18. Players will have to adjust their tactics to deal with enemy positions and cycles being reset whenever they die, but a collection of pillars scattered across the land of Fallgrim will allow for more than 100 new abilities to be discovered and combined.

These pillars can unlock anything from exotic weapon enhancements to entirely new combat maneuvers, which developer Cold Symmetry says will have the potential to break the mode if certain abilities are correctly discovered and fused together. In addition to that Mortal Shell‘s fifth Shell will be the elusive teacher Hadern, who has a unique skill-tree that includes dagger mastery and the ability to soak up punishment.

The Axatana–one of the fabled legendary weapons of Mortal Shell–has also been added and can transform between dual katanas and a supreme heavy axe form that each have their own movesets.

“Designing and developing The Virtuous Cycle DLC has been a blast,” technical designer Francesco Zacchini explained in a statement. “We have crammed in over 100 new abilities alongside new lore, the transforming Axatana weapon, and Hadern as a playable shell. I can’t wait to see all the ways players are going to break the roguelike mode that we created. I think they’re going to have a lot of fun with that.”

The Virtuous Cycle will cost $8 when it launches, and will be available on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC versions of the game. Mortal Shell has steadily added new content since it launched a year ago, as well as a new-gen upgrade that added 4K resolution and 60fps gameplay.

In our Mortal Shell review, critic Phil Hornshaw wrote, “Mortal Shell makes for a strong introduction to Souls-likes, a demonstration for new players of what so many have found so interesting about From Software’s games and those like them.”

Back 4 Blood, the co-op first-person shooter from the creators of the Left 4 Dead franchise, will launch its open beta next month with a range of features including the game’s all-new PvP mode, Swarm.

The open beta will begin with early access from August 5 to August 9. During this time, fans who have pre-ordered the game will make up the majority of its player count, however, players can also register their interest on the official Back 4 Blood site for a chance to receive one of a smaller number of additional beta access codes during this time. Following this, the Open Beta will then continue from August 12 to August 16 where it will be available for all players.

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As for what’s actually in the Back 4 Blood Open Beta, Warner Bros. Games and Turtle Rock Studios have confirmed that it will feature the following content:

Back 4 Blood Open Beta Content

• Two maps for the Swarm PvP mode
• Two co-op maps to fight off Ridden with your friends 
• Play as Mom for the first time, as well as other Cleaners: Evangelo, Holly, Walker, and Hoffman
• Play as six different Ridden variants in Swarm, including the Bruiser, Retch, Hocker, Exploder, Crusher, and Stinger
• Various weapons to check out, cards to build decks, and Ridden to slay
• Explore the Fort Hope communal hub
• Cross-play and cross-gen support

In an interview with IGN last month, Matt O’ Driscoll, Lead Producer at Turtle Rock Studios, broke down the game’s new “Swarm” mode and how players would interact as they face off as cleaners (humans) and ridden (Back 4 Blood’s take on zombies) when the open beta launches. In the interview, O’ Driscoll said that players will “team up with three of your friends and go into PvP, or Swarm mode as we call it.”

Once in the mode, each team will either be “a set of cleaners or a set of ridden” where they will take each other on head to head across three rounds. “It’s really who can survive longest as the cleaner over three rounds becomes the winner.” said O’ Driscoll before explaining how the new mode earned its name.

“The reason we call it Swarm mode is because after each round, there’s like a ring of deadly infected insects that are around the map. Each round insects come in closer and closer and closer to the map [which] gets a lot tighter [and] a lot more intense as the rounds go on.” said O’ Driscoll. With the option to play two separate Swarm maps during the Back 4 Blood open beta, players should be able to get a good sense of what the new mode is all about.

The open beta will be playable on Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One Consoles, PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, and PC. If you’re looking forward to the Back 4 Blood Open Beta, then why not find out more about the game’s impressive PC exclusive features or take a look at the Official Back 4 Blood trailer.

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Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Nier Reincarnation – the first mobile title in what has become one of Square Enix’s most successful series – will finally release in the West today. However, according to producer Yosuke Saito, the Japanese publisher does not expect huge numbers for the Western release.

“To be honest, we don’t expect too much from the mobile game market in the West. We just hope that for those who are interested in this game, it will function as a great opportunity to get familiar with Nier,” Saito told IGN.

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According to Saito, Nier Reincarnation was developed with the same mindset as a console title, and he has confidence that the series’ appeal will become clear to those who decide to give it a try. Director Daichi Matsukawa said that he believes games developed for smartphone devices are not always fully understood in the West.

“In order to get Western players to accept [mobile games], I think it is important that we develop games of the same quality as console games, while at the same time utilizing the strength of mobile games by implementing frequent updates. This is not just a Nier title that can be casually played, but one that will keep evolving day by day,” Matsukawa said.

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That being said, when asked how various Nier worlds are linked together for this title, series creator Yoko Taro answered by saying: “It is linked so that Square Enix can make money through gacha,” referring to a microtransaction mechanic popular in Japanese mobile games.

While of course Yoko’s comment can be taken as a joke (as many of his comments are), the game does indeed come with a gacha mechanic. However, in previous interviews Nier’s creator has mentioned that he believes the game is so well made that players won’t realize it’s a mobile game.

It won’t take long until we can see for ourselves whether Nier Reincarnation is truly a title of console quality or not, as it will be available on iOS and Android starting later today.

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Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan. His favorite mobile games are Florence and Fantasian.

WolfEye Studios know what it takes to breathe life into a strange, vivid universe. The team, which is composed of former Arkane veterans, previously constructed the clockwork dystopia of Dishonored’s Dunwall, and the austere, abandoned space station in 2017’s Prey. But now, as an independent developer, they’ve ditched the first-person perspective and triple-A budget for a brand new setting and vibe — the blackened folklore of the American frontier, presented isometrically, in an immediately seductive ink-splotched comic style. It’s called Weird West, and even in a new genre and under a different studio banner, it’s clear that those Arkane-hewn instincts still course through WolfEye’s veins.

Weird West is a top-down action RPG with a strong emphasis on personal autonomy. You’ll take control of five different characters — each with their own vignettes — in an overarching campaign that WolfEye described to me as “80 percent authored, 20 percent procedural”. Effectively that means the core touchstone levels will always be in place, with a few interstitial procedural challenges popping up during the journey. This is a shooter above anything else; your cowboy wanders through dusty towns and ghostly saloons brandishing a bevy of 19th century firearms — quick-drawing on any thugs, outlaws, or zombies who may be in the way. But like in Dishonored and Prey, WolfEye is allergic to beige, static corridors. This game packs its maps with all sorts of alternative paths and exploration rewards. Do you want to blast your way through a heavily guarded outpost? Or would you rather save the ammo, and sneak around back to uncover a well-hidden shortcut to the inner sanctum lying at the bottom of a well?

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This is all possible because Weird West relies on a tight, simulation-like system of interactivity. There is very little set dressing here — all of the doodads lying around a map can be effortlessly weaved into the player’s strategy. During my preview, I watched as an outnumbered character chucked out a box of cartridges from their inventory before taking aim at it with a pistol. The box ignited, sending stray bullets all over the battlefield, immediately evening the odds. It’s clear that Weird West intends to reward that kind of thinking. Armed with a bow? Put an arrow on a roiling brazier to ignite it for extra damage. A straggling bounty hunter in your way? Snuff out the lights and put them in a chokehold. This is a game of status effects and tooltips; as you mosey through the wilderness, you’ll watch as the whole world lights up with ingredients, weaponry, or outright junk that you can add to your knapsack. Hey, you never know when it might come in handy!

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There’s a whole lot of loot to be found in these frontier catacombs — players will be cooking meals, swigging back tonics, and equipping color-coded armor throughout their quests. There’s also a bevy of character-specific abilities to unlock, as well as neutral, cross-campaign perks, which further accentuates the exact sort of cowboy you’d like to be. But Weird West makes an effort to resist the rigidness of RPG combat. Yes, this is a game full of damage integers, but it’s also a game where you can slow down time after jumping off a cliff to line up a shot.

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All of this is wrapped up in an indelible setting. Weird West leans into a dark, mystic slice of Americana — think Garth Ennis’ Preacher comics, or Red Dead Redemption II at its spookiest. Yes, there is a John Wayne veneer over the proceedings, but there also appears to be eldritch cultists and ravenous specters afoot. I mean, one of the playable characters is a man with a pig’s head. It’s as if all of the mysteries and tall tales of the untamed prairies suddenly came to life.

The longer I watched Weird West in action, the more it brought to mind the wonderfully eccentric Divinity: Original Sin franchise. These are two very different games — Weird West plays in real time, for one — but both wish to emphasize the player’s profound impact on the surrounding environment. WolfEye told me that when it’s raining in their game, you can watch as empty barrels slowly fill up with water. A minor detail, probably, but still emblematic of the experience the studio wants to create. This west needs saving, and we’re going to use everything in our arsenal to see it through.

The Lord of the Rings films are filled with incredible characters, but few can bring smiles to the faces of millions around the world like Dominic Monaghan’s Meriadoc “Merry” Brandybuck and Billy Boyd’s Peregrin “Pippin” Took. Despite it being over 17 years since The Return of the King premiered in theaters, these two have kept very close and have decided now is the perfect time to give back to The Lord of the Rings community by starting their very own podcast, The Friendship Onion.

IGN was able to sit down with the pair to discuss this podcast adventure – which just reached its 11th episode – and they also shared some of their favorite moments from filming The Lord of the Rings Trilogy.

Regarding undertaking this podcast journey, it turns out they had been talking about starting a project together since The Lord of the Rings wrapped.

“Well, it came from Dom,” Boyd said. “Dom became a fan of podcasts quite early. Since Lord of the Rings, me and Dom have been talking about doing a project together. We’ve done a few little things together. He was like, ‘Podcasts! That’s the way forward. We can change things on a weekly basis and invent little things and tell stories.’ Basically, what we do when we meet up anyway.”

The podcast itself is filled with interviews from the cast and crew of The Lord of the Rings (like Elijah Wood) and stories from two of the hobbits who were actually there. One of the tales has to do with The Grey Havens scene at the end of The Return of the King, which Monaghan says was the most difficult scene for him to film.

“Well, we had to do it three times! If you were to ask all four of us, ‘Pick a scene you can guarantee you only have to do once and not go back to,’ we probably would have said Grey Havens, just cause we were all there weeping like children,” Monaghan explained. “So, doing it three times, I definitely think that the third version that I did, the one that’s in the film, is probably not quite as hysterical in terms of the state that I’m in as the first one, or possibly even the second one. So, that was tough.

“And then, you know, Hobbits are so in touch with the vulnerability of their emotions. It’s not like a human stood there watching a friend leave, where maybe they shed a tear and feel sad. Director Pete[r Jackson] wanted us to kind of be in a mess. It was challenging to do. You don’t often get asked to do that as actors and all four of you are standing there very vulnerable doing it three times. It’s pretty costing.”

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Billy places the blame on Sean Astin, the actor who played Samwise Gamgee – and who accidentally forgot to put on his vest after lunch, therefore ruining continuity.

“And for those of you who don’t know why we did it three times… Sean Astin was wearing the wrong costume! After lunch, he took off his vest to eat lunch. When he came back he forgot to put the vest on, so for continuity, it was ruined,” Boyd said. “We came back another day and filmed it again, and the film got destroyed in the factory where it gets processed. So we had to then do it again another day! That’s why we had to do it three times.”

Then there are the moments in The Lord of the Rings trilogy that may have not happened at all. One famous story from the set of the films is related to the song Pippin sings to Denethor in The Return of the King called “The Edge of Night.” That song came to be partly because Boyd was singing Tom Jones’ “Delilah” at karaoke one night and co-writer Philippa Boyens was so surprised by his voice that she felt she had to find a singing part for him in the film.

Monaghan also recalled a memorable story from the filming of the Hobbits and Boromir play-fighting after they leave Rivendell in The Fellowship of the Ring.

“I seem to remember the little play-fighting that took place between myself, Billy and Sean Bean was kind of thought up on the spot, based around the fact that we were always kind of having fun with other castmates and we were always practicing our sword fighting skills,” Monaghan recalled. “So, you would see the four hobbits as the same size, kind of picking up their skill games.

“I think the idea with Pete was, he had said, ‘Now that you’re with these human warriors, maybe they noticed that and they are giving a little extra amount of classes. And, maybe, as being hobbits, you can be a little cheeky with Sean Bean, with Boromir, and it can show a little bonding experience.’ So, you know, do a little three stooges thing – whack him over the head and jump on top of him. I seem to remember that being relatively semi-improvised on the day.’”

Boyd jumped in and said he was upset while shooting that scene because, despite him previously fencing in competitions, he had to act like he wasn’t good at sword fighting.

“Yeah, you’re right! And I hated that we weren’t supposed to be good at swords,” Boyd said. “I used to fence in competitions. So I know how to use a sword. And then we got to work with Bob Anderson, who is probably the greatest sword master ever in movies. He taught Errol Flynn and Darth Vader. I loved being with Bob Anderson, and he said, ‘Remember, you’re not supposed to be good with a sword.’ So, I had to stop [acting like I knew] what to do with a sword. It was awful!”

Then there was the time Peter Jackson was being pressured from above to have one of the four Hobbits die in the film, even though they survived in the books. Luckily, Jackson didn’t succumb to the demands of the producers, but Monaghan had some thoughts on who the unlucky Hobbit could have been if this darker path was taken.

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“It’s a good job that didn’t happen, because it would have been me,” he laughed. “It definitely would have. There’s no way they are killing Frodo and Sam, and the only ones that would be left would be Merry and Pippin. They wouldn’t kill Pippin because Pippin has a really strong story with Gandalf. It would have definitely been me. I think Pete quite rightly was like, ‘This is a luminary piece of written work, and we need to stick close to the text.’ So, he stuck by his guns. Yeah, I’m thankful that didn’t happen.”

It turns out the cast made some home videos while filming the trilogy. When asked if these would be part of certain episodes of the podcast, Monaghan said that there may be some footage in there that isn’t suitable for the public…

“I think I have four or five tapes that are labeled ‘New Zealand,'” Monaghan said. “I’ve not looked at them for a long time. I’m sure [we could include it in the podcast] if we told the production company that myself, Billy, Sean, Elijah, maybe Orlando and Viggo, would all pull together stuff and they could have a look at it. But, I think there is probably some slightly nefarious stuff that maybe you don’t want to put into a documentary… like naked Hobbits!”

When not podcasting, the pair have taken up League of Legends during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I have to say, for it to be a free game… free-to-download… free-to-play… the amount of hours of enjoyment we’ve got out of it is incredible,” said Monaghan. “And it’s an incredibly difficult game…”

“Not for me,” Boyd jumped in to say. “I am probably one of the world’s great Dr. Mundos!”

“He’s a fantastic Dr. Mundo,” Monaghan agreed. “It’s just so much fun. Not only are you doing your little tasks that you’re supposed to do as your characters… as your champions, but you’re also able to enjoy the triumphs of your teammates or some of the ridiculous failures of your teammates. We’ve laughed, we’ve joked, we’ve had fun. I think I’ll continue to play. I think I’ve now reached a ceiling, Billy hasn’t, but I’ve now reached a ceiling where I know I won’t get better. I’ll remain this average level. For Billy, the sky is the limit.”

Just like Boyd’s League of Legends skills, so is the potential of The Friendship Onion, which most recently had creative director and head of Weta Workshop Sir Richard Taylor on.

Oh, and if you are new to the show and want to start at the beginning, you’ll also get a chance to hear how the pair react to trying their first Twinkie. Priceless.

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The Friendship Onion is available on podcast services around the world like Apple Podcasts and Spotify, as well as on YouTube.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

JUST IN: #F9 will become available to watch at home on-demand beginning this Friday on digital platforms like Vudu. Here is Vin Diesel talking about meeting Paul Walker on the first #FastAndFurious film, which also just celebrated its 20th anniversary.pic.twitter.com/gPYJVnP6Ut

— Erik Davis (@ErikDavis) July 27, 2021