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After the first two weeks off in the Season of the Lost, the Trials of Osiris kicks off again this weekend in Destiny 2. This isn’t the Trials you’re used to, however–developer Bungie has made significant changes to the toughest competitive challenge in its game, making it more approachable for a wider swathe of players and eliminating some of the most irritating things about the high-level battle.

Bungie reminded players of the new Trials changes with its This Week at Bungie blog post, although it had previously detailed the adjustments at the start of the season. Essentially, the changes take away some of the things that would often turn players away from the Trials. The mode now tracks your progress differently, allowing you to earn the special, high-quality weapons and armor that are only available during the weekend mode a lot more easily. Its highest rewards, which require you to go “flawless” on a Trials run, remain, but roadblocks that made Trials seem insurmountable to some players in the past are now gone.

If you’re unfamiliar, the Trials of Osiris is a competitive mode that takes Power levels into account and that’s only available in Destiny 2 on weekends, running from the daily reset at 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET on Friday to the weekly reset at the same time on the following Tuesday. You join a fireteam of three as you fight against other teams in Elimination rounds, with the goal of winning seven such matches in a row–what’s known as “going flawless.” Win all seven matches with no losses, and you would get access to a special social space called the Lighthouse, where you’d receive high-caliber weapons that weren’t available anywhere else in the game.

The new changes to Trials maintain the flawless requirement but do away with a lot of other stumbling blocks for the majority of players. First, your Trials Card, the item you buy that lets you participate in the event, no longer tracks losses. Previously, if you lost three matches, your card would need to be reset before you could continue to play. With rewards dished out at three, five, and seven total wins, it meant that most people never got most of a weekend’s Trials rewards, even without taking a flawless run into account.

Next, Bungie is instituting a matchmaking system in Trials, so you no longer need to find two friends to join your team. There’s even a new “freelance” mode that lets you hop into Trials matches solo, teaming up with whoever else is searching.

Finally, the way Trials rewards are dished out has also changed. Wins for earning various Trials guns and armor are no longer decided by how many matches you win, but how many rounds you win. That means that even if you’re losing overall, you can still make progress toward taking home Trials gear. You can also visit Saint-14, the Trials of Osiris vendor, to spend Tokens earned during the event. Bungie has adjusted Saint’s inventory so that you can now work to earn specific gear, rather than spending your Tokens to pull from an overall loot pool.

All those changes mean that, if you haven’t been playing in the Trials of Osiris up to now, you really should start (although one thing to note: You’ll now need to own the Beyond Light expansion to access the mode). It has some absolutely phenomenal guns, including weapons that dominate in the Crucible, such as the Igneous Hammer hand cannon or the Shayura’s Wrath submachine gun. This season is also introducing a new Trials gun, called Reed’s Regret. It’s a linear fusion rifle that sounds like it can roll some perks that will make it an interesting gun in either PvP or PvE scenarios. Fusion rifles of all sorts have seen a big boost this season thanks to mods on the Seasonal Artifact, so this is a gun worth grabbing.

Even if you’re a player who’s convinced you’ll never go flawless, these changes (along with Bungie’s new push with anti-cheat measures) mean the Trials of Osiris is a mode that’s now more inviting for everyone, not just Destiny 2’s top-tier PvP players. After years of feeling like Trials was a segment of Destiny 2 where only the elite should bother even showing up, this sounds like a great new approach to the mode.

SPOILER WARNING: Be careful! No More Heroes 3 is a game filled with surprises, and sometimes boss fights don’t always go as expected. In other words, we recommend not reading the boss strategy until you’ve actually started fighting the boss to avoid spoiling some of the game’s best moments!

You’ve fought long and hard to reach the end, and now, it’s time for the final showdown of No More Heroes 3. And, seeing how this is a Switch game, there’s only one real way to settle one-on-one disputes: with “sumo.” One-stock, Travis-and-Damon only, Final Destination! For more guides, be sure to check out our No More Heroes 3 beginner’s tips.

How to Defeat Damon

Now that you no longer have three dimensions to work in, you’ll need to change up your strategy a bit. All you need to do to win is to max out Damon’s damage (don’t worry about launching him), but that can be a bit tricky, as he hits pretty hard! Dodging is not as effective as blocking on the 2D plane, so if you’ve become used to dodging most attacks, you’ll want to keep that in mind.

Aside from typical melee (ha!) slashes, Damon also attacks with a damaging rolling dash, a volley of spike projectiles from the air, a ground-pound, and a short-range burst of spikes from his body. You can block all of these, but if you can move or jump out of the way, that’s even better.

When Damon’s damage starts climbing dangerously high, he’ll gain a new technique where he will float into the sky and summon long spikes down to impale Travis. You have a brief window where you can judge where the spikes are going to pierce, so move out of the way to avoid taking damage.

Remember that you still have your Death Glove skills at hand, and can use them to set up a counterattack. Damon can be staggered, stunned, and comboed like every other normal-sized foe, so work to catch him in a string and rack up some tremendous damage! You can also Perfect Dodge, though it’s much harder to do. After you send Damon flying, you can rest easy, knowing that you’ve finally completed the main game of No More Heroes III!

September has officially become IGN’s Best Video Game of All Time Bracket Month, and that means we need YOU to help us decide which of the 64 games selected by IGN staff really are the very best.

Throughout the month, we’re tallying our followers’ votes across IGN.com (On the bottom of this page!), and IGN’s YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram accounts to determine which game is the actual best and is capable of beating all others in a March Madness-style bracket tournament. We’ve sorted these 64 games into four randomly selected groups, and we’ve then ranked those games in the groups by what we believe are the best of the best.

We’ve included games from all systems and generations, and we really wanted to try to pick many of the most beloved games from all different types of genres. While voting officially begins tomorrow, September 10, you can get a headstart by voting in all of the first round’s 32 matchups on the bottom of this page. The polls will close at the end of the day on September 11, and voting for the second round, which will see the 32 games with the top vote counts moving forward, will begin on Tuesday, September 14. The full schedule is as follows;

• Friday, September 10 – Round of 64 Voting Begins
• Tuesday, September 14 – Round of 32 Voting Begins
• Thursday, September 16 – Round of 16 Voting Begins
• Monday, September 20 – Round of 8 Voting Begins
• Thursday, September 23 – Round of 4 Voting Begins
• Monday, September 27 – Round of 2 Voting Begins
• Wednesday, September 29 – Winner Declared!

Now onto the first round. We’ve decided to call the groups by their #1 seed, so we will begin on the top left of the bracket with The Red Dead Redemption Group. While Rockstar’s legendary western took the top spot, there are some big challengers it will have to beat to make it to the next round. Not only will it have to secure victory over the likes of Journey, Chrono Trigger, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, but it will have to contend with the ever-growing popularity of Fortnite.

Oh, did we forget to mention it also has to beat World of Warcraft, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the multiplayer classic title Goldeneye 007 for Nintendo 64? That’s a tough one.

The bottom left of the bracket is The Portal 2 Bracket, and it also includes some timeless classics like 2018’s God of War, The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim – aka the game that has been on everything including Amazon Alexa.

Sid Meier’s Civilization IV, which is perhaps the most iconic “one… more… turn…” game, also stands tall in this round alongside BioShock, The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Inside, and Minecraft – the game that has sold over 200 million copies worldwide.

The top right of the bracket is The Super Mario World Bracket and that classic SNES title made it to the top of IGN’s Top 100 games of all time list and starts off on top of this bracket in this tournament. There are some other big Nintendo games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Pokemon Yellow, and Super Mario 64, so it does have its work cut out for it.

It will also have to compete with the likes of The Last of Us, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater, Halo 2, and Grand Theft Auto V – which itself has sold over 150 million copies worldwide.

Lastly, we have The Super Metroid Bracket, which is another legendary game from Nintendo taking one of the top spots of this list. Not only will it have to potentially face off against other Metroidvanias like Metroid Prime and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, but it won’t be able to take the crown if it can’t beat The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Final Fantasy 7, Bloodborne, Super Mario Bros. 3, and Tetris.

Remember, you only have until September 11 to cast your votes below or on IGN’s YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram accounts for this first round, so be sure to choose carefully and let us know which game you think will claim the ultimate prize and why you chose the games you chose in the comments below!

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

We’re getting closer and closer to the return of Dexter, and a brand new trailer has confirmed the return of two major characters who should be familiar to fans of the show.

For those who want to be surprised, we advise you to watch the trailer first, which once again establishes that Dexter is in a remote and snowy town where some murdering is going on. The suggestion is that Dexter hasn’t changed all that much since his monstrous heyday, but then again, Dexter does say he’s an “evolving monster.” (Cue Pokemon theme).

Old habits die hard… or do they? #Dexter pic.twitter.com/2hW40ORzuo

— Dexter on Showtime (@SHO_Dexter) September 9, 2021

The two characters revealed in the trailer are Deb Morgan, who is played by Jennifer Carpenter, and Dexter’s now teenage son Harrison. Deb Morgan, of course, was a major character in the original series — an officer in Miami’s homicide department as well as Dexter’s adoptive sister. It seems that Dexter has a lot of family issues to work out in the new series.

The two characters shown in the new trailer will be joined by other familiar faces from the show, including John Lithgow, who played one of its most iconic villains. The new miniseries will pick up where the original left off, taking place 10 years after the original.

The original Dexter is fondly remembered, even if most seem to agree that the show’s quality declined over time. Series star Michael C. Hall has previously said that he’s ready to return to the series after the “unsatisfying finale,” and there’s plenty of hope that the new miniseries will set things right for fans.

Dexter: New Blood will debut on Showtime on November 7.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.

Christopher Nolan is eyeing his next movie which will again be set in World War 2. This time, it’s a biopic about the father of the atom bomb J. Robert Oppenheimer. And Nolan is supposedly looking to work with a studio that isn’t Warner Bros.

According to Deadline, Nolan is going to follow up his high-concept thriller Tenet with another historical picture about World War 2. This film will follow Oppenheimer and his role in developing the atomic bomb.

Also according to the report, Nolan is shopping the screenplay to several major studios. It appears Nolan is making good on his promise to not work with Warner Bros. after the latter announced it would begin releasing movies day-and-date on theaters and HBO Max. This move was deeply unpopular with directors like Nolan, James Gunn, Denis Villeneuve, and Patty Jenkins.

Warner Bros opted to release Tenet exclusively in theaters during the COVID-19 pandemic to sluggish box office returns. Keep in mind Tenet was released before vaccines became readily available.

Oppenheimer was an American physicist who was crucial to the United States Manhattan Project, a top-secret operation tasked with developing the first nuclear weapons. Oppenheimer was there during the Trinity test in New Mexico, the site of the first successful atom bomb detonation in 1945.

Following the detonations of the bombs in Nagasaki and Hiroshima in Japan, Oppenheimer publicly opposed the proliferation of nuclear weapons as part of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission.

Deadline doesn’t have details on casting, though claims Nolan is reaching out to frequent collaborator Cillian Murphy who has appeared in several of Nolan’s movies.

Nolan’s last historical movie about World War 2 was 2017’s Dunkirk, which was about rescuing stranded Allied soldiers trapped in France. While not a sci-fi film, Nolan employed multiple timelines to heighten the drama.

IGN’s Dunkirk review praised the movie calling it a “monumental, unconventional, and frequently stunning war movie.”

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Welcoooome to Nintendo Voice Chat! A brand new WarioWare hits store shelves this week, and Casey DeFreitas is joined by Tom Marks, Taylor Lyles, and Rebekah Valentine to talk all about Wario’s latest wacky game. Plus, hear about IGN’s reviews for Life Is Strange: True Colors and Baldo: The Guardian Owls. And, a new interview is shedding light on Nintendo’s involvement with Retro Studios during the development of Metroid Prime. All that and more, this week on NVC!

Check out the full interview from Kiwi Talkz for even more tidbits about Metroid Prime and Retro Studios.

NVC is available on your preferred platforms!

• Spotify
• Apple iTunes
• Stitcher
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• PlayerFM
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You can also Download NVC 577 Directly Here

You can listen to NVC on your preferred platform every Thursday at 3pm PT/6pm ET. Have a question for Question Block? Write to us at [email protected] and we may pick your question! Also, make sure to join the Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast Forums on Facebook. We’re all pretty active there and often pull Question Block questions and comments straight from the community.

Logan Plant is the Production Assistant for NVC. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

We finally got our first look at the upcoming sequel to 2018’s God of War, officially titled God of War: Ragnarok, during Sony’s PlayStation Showcase. Those with a keen eye may have spotted a familiar character teased in the trailer wielding a mighty hammer.

It was confirmed shortly after the showcase that it was, in fact, Thor who could be seen for a brief moment in the trailer. Now, we’ve gotten a full-body reveal of the Norse God himself and he looks very different than many of us are used to.

Warning: Spoilers ahead for God of War (2018).

Those who completed 2018’s God of War may remember the Thor teaser for achieving the true ending as it’s the same shot used in the trailer, implying that Kratos may be going head-to-head against the God of Thunder in the upcoming sequel.

Revealed by Sony Santa Monica Art Director Raf Grassetti on Twitter, this version of Thor more closely resembles that of Norse mythology and folklore as he’s depicted with long red hair and a red beard.

My boy! pic.twitter.com/5hPocTewBJ

— Raf Grassetti (@rafagrassetti) September 9, 2021

In a developer interview following the PlayStation Showcase, Sony Santa Monica’s Eric Williams, Director of the upcoming God of War: Ragnarok, revealed the character teaser and voice from the gameplay trailer was Thor. He is voiced by Ryan Hurst who is known for his work as Opie Winston in Sons of Anarchy.

Williams also mentioned that “[Opie’s] take on Thor and [Sony Santa Monica’s] take visually on Thor are very different from the hunky Australian you might know,” implying that this version of Thor would not share many similarities with Chris Hemsworth’s portrayal in the MCU films. Although, Bro Thor would like to have a word.

Williams describes his Thor as a “big, burly, hedonistic man-child” who is a “little off-kilter than the Thor people know right now.” Not much else is known of the Son of Odin, aside from his ravenous killing of Giants and his stalemate against the World Serpent, but it’s clear he’s come for revenge and will likely play a large role in Ragnarok.

No official release date has been given, but God of War: Ragnarok is currently slated for a 2022 release date.

If you missed today’s big reveals, check out our full breakdown of everything announced during Sony’s September PlayStation Showcase for information on the next Spider-Man sequel, as well as some more surprises.

Matthew Adler is a Commerce, Features, News, Previews, Reviews, and Wikis writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @MatthewAdler and watch him stream on Twitch.

As a part of the news that Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic is getting a much-desired remake, we also learned that voice actor Jennifer Hale will be reprising her role as Bastila Shan.

“I can confirm that that is Jennifer Hale,” said Ryan Treadwell, lead producer at developer Aspyr, in a blog post today. “We all think the world of Jennifer. She is an amazing talent and immediately slipped back into the role of Bastila when she came to help us with the teaser trailer,”

In Knights of the Old Republic, Bastila is a member of the Jedi Order with a Force power known as “battle meditation,” which lets her boost the morale of her friends while dismaying her foes.

She plays a critical role in the game, with her rescue from Taris being a key plot point early in the game and her connection to the Jedi Council opening doors for the protagonist later on. She’s also a potential (and, in Star Wars lore, canon) romance option for the protagonist.

Hale, meanwhile, has been quite busy since she last stepped into Bastila’s shoes. In games, she is perhaps best known as one of the voices of Commander Shepard in the Mass Effect original trilogy, and her more recent roles include Rivet in Ratchet & Clank: A Rift Apart, Ashe in Overwatch, and Kronika in Mortal Kombat 11.

She’s also not the only returning voice actor from the original game. “I do think that you’re going to see some other familiar voices return, but that’s probably as deep as we’re gonna go on that one right now,” added Treadwell in the same blog post.

And it isn’t just voice actors who are returning. Treadwell also noted that many former BioWare developers who worked on KOTOR are now working on its remake, as well as developers from games like Demon’s Souls Remake, Ghost of Tsushima, and Dragon Age: Inquisition.

Aspyr’s remake of Knights of the Old Republic was announced as part of today’s PlayStation Showcase and is headed to PS5 as a console exclusive at launch alongside a PC release, though no specific date or window has been given yet. The game is being rebuilt “from the ground up.”

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.