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Like the Assassin’s Creed games that came before it, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla is getting a heap of post-launch DLC, some of which is free, and other parts are included with a $40 season pass.

The season pass includes two major expansions, as well as a special quest themed around Beowulf. The Legend of Beowulf quest focuses on the hero Beowulf, leading up to players uncovering the “monstrous truth” behind the character. This quest will be available on launch day for season pass owners, but Ubisoft did not say when or if the quest will be made available to everyone else.

DLC 1: Wrath of the Druids

The first of the expansions is titled Wrath of the Druids, and it’s scheduled for release in Spring 2021. “In this new adventure, players will journey to Ireland and unravel the mysteries of an ancient and mysterious druidic cult, tracking and discovering their members,” reads a line from the description. “Diving into Gaelic myths and folklores, they’ll need to fight their way through haunted forests and dazzling landscapes while gaining influence among Gaelic kings.”

DLC 2: The Siege of Paris

The second expansion is called The Siege of Paris, and it’s due out in Summer 2021. This expansion lets players experience the historical viking battle, featuring “key historical figures” from the event. “During this key moment in history, players will infiltrate the fortified city of Paris and the River Seine under a prolonged siege, uncover enemy secrets, and form strategic alliances to safeguard their clan’s future,” reads a line from the official description.

Seasonal Content

In addition to this paid content, everyone is getting free seasonal DLC that comes in the form of “new narrative content” and in-game events. The seasons will last for three months, and each will include a lot of new content. December 2020’s Season 1, for example, includes a new settlement area, the Yule festival event, a new River Raids mode, and new skills and abilities.

Valhalla Season 1 Content:

• A new settlement area, allowing players to continue to grow and evolve their settlement.
• A traditional Viking Festival: the Yule Festival, for players to experience in their settlement.
• A new game mode: the River Raids. Building on Valhalla’s core raiding mechanic the mode will deliver a dynamic, challenging and highly replayable raid experience.
• The addition of the Ranks for Jomsviking: in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla players can not only create their lieutenant to be part of their raiding crew, but also recruit some from their friends and the community. In Season 1, players will see an update to the Jomsviking feature which will allow their Jomsviking to earn XP and rank up – the higher will be the rank of the lieutenant, the more silver players will earn when recruited by other players.
• Finally, as for each season, Season 1 will also come with new player skills and abilities, weapons and gear, and cosmetic items for the settlement, longship, horse and raven.

Season 2 is slated to begin in March, and it will add a new game mode to be named later, a new Jomsviking refresh, more festivals, and additional gear and cosmetic items to collect. There will be at least two more seasons, Season 3 and 4, though no details about them have been announced yet. You can see a rundown of the Season 1 content below, as written by Ubisoft.

In a press release, Ubisoft said there will be even more content beyond all of this. “There will be more to come as the Assassin’s Creed Valhalla development team is committed to support the game and continued improvement of the core experience with additional content, yet to be revealed,” the company said.

Assassin’s Creed Valhalla releases on November 10 for Xbox Series X/Series S, Xbox One, PS4, and on PC through the Epic Games Store and Ubisoft’s own PC store, but not Steam. The game will also be available on PS5 when the console releases starting November 12, as well as Amazon Luna when it’s released.

On November 10, Borderlands 3 will see the beginning of its Year 2 content with the Designer’s Cut update. In addition to the new Arms Race mode, another big highlight from this new content drop are the new skill trees for each of the vault hunters, allowing them to use additional action skills and buffs to alter their playstyles even more.

GameSpot had the chance to get some early hands-on time with the Designer’s Cut, and we spent some time experimenting with the new builds for the vault hunters. Throughout this week, we’ll be sharing details and gameplay showcasing the new skills vault hunters can utilize in combat. Starting off with Amara and Fl4k, we have new gameplay and a more detailed breakdown of their new skills below.

We’ve spent some time playing both characters and fleshed out their respective skill trees, so here’s a quick rundown of some of their new abilities and how they can alter Amara and Fl4k.

Amara’s 4th Skill Tree: Enlightened Force

Amara’s New Abilities

New Action-Skill:

Phaseflare — Creates an orb of elemental energy that deals elemental damage to nearby enemies.

Noteworthy skills

• Glow Up: Instead of Splash Damage to enemies, Amara’s orb grants nearby allies health regeneration.
• Shooting Star: Amara’s orb of elemental energy can fire smaller orbs of elemental energy at the last enemy that attacked the player.
• Light Fantastic: When Amara attacks an enemy, the orb will travel to that enemy and deal damage to them.

Amara’s skills rely upon her complex Siren powers, and her new abilities utilize powers from the Enlightened Force skill tree. This new tree opens up access to the new Phaseflare action skill, which allows the Siren to summon a massive orb of elemental energy that can deal damage to surrounding enemies, and it can even be used as a large wrecking ball against foes. If you happen to strike the orb with your melee attacks, you can send it flying towards nearby enemies, which can potentially amplify the damage of the Phaseflare skill. Depending on your build, Phaseflare can also send out mini-projectiles and even heal nearby allies.

Fl4k’s 4th Skill Tree: Trapper

Fl4k’s New Abilities

New Action-Skill:

Gravity Snare — Fl4k tosses out a trap that knocks up and temporarily stuns nearby enemies.

New Pet: Ion Loader — Fl4k is joined by a loyal Mini Ion Loader bot companion, armed with a shock sniper rifle and homing shock orb that can trigger a shock nova.

Noteworthy skills

• Forage: Whenever an enemy trapped by Fl4k is knocked into the air, they drop ammo, health boosters, and shield boosters.
• Wide Net: Fl4k’s trap gains increased duration and increased radius.
• Trap Card: If Fl4K would go into Fight For Your Life while their trap is readied, they automatically throw a trap at the enemy that downed them.
• Blind with Anger: Fl4k’s trap no longer knocks up or stuns enemies. Instead, the trap confuses nearby enemies, causing them to attack their allies for a short time.

Fl4k is a hunter, and their new abilities focus more on wrangling crowds of enemies and relying on a new pet–an upgraded Hyperion bot that has a unique arsenal of guns of its own. In the new Trapper skill tree, Fl4k’s skills can be modified to focus more on containing and neutralizing crowds of enemies. The latest action skill that Fl4k can use is called the Gravity Snare, an anti-gravity trap that stuns and immobilizes enemies that get caught within its reach. Playing into their hunter background, the Gravity Snare is a great skill to temporarily control the field and take down some of the pesky foes, opening them up to attacks. Depending on how you flesh out Fl4k’s skill tree, you can also upgrade your trap to have a greater reach and also give your pet and bodyguard more defensive and offensive skills of their own.

For more on the new content coming to Borderlands 3, be sure to check back with GameSpot on Thursday, October 22 at 9AM PST to see Zane and Moze’s new skill-trees and abilities. Later on in the month, there will also be more to share about the upcoming Arms Race mode as well.

Google has announced that all Stadia users will get access to a handful of demos over the course of this week, including Ubisoft’s upcoming action-adventure game Immortals: Fenyx Rising.

Over the next three days–October 20, 21, and 22–Google will update the list of available demos Stadia players can check out. The demos themselves will be live for one full week.

The demos Stadia players can check out include Humankind, Immortals: Fenyx Rising, and Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle. Mega Tunnel Battle’s demo is available to play now, while Humankind goes live on October 21 and Immortals: Fenyx Rising drops on October 22. Immortals: Fenyx Rising, previously called Gods and Monsters, is an open-world action-adventure game set against the backdrop of Greek mythology. It, along with Genshin Impact, have garnered a lot of comparisons to Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.

The headlining game of the list–besides Immortals: Fenyx Rising–is Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle. A Google Stadia exclusive, Mega Tunnel Battle takes Pac-Man and combines it with the trappings of Tetris 99 to create a 64-player battle royale experience. You’ll need to use your wits, and Mega Tunnel Battles newer power-ups, to become the last Pac-Man standing. Bandai Namco celebrated Pac-Man’s 40th anniversary this year with new arcade cabinets.

Google notes that a Stadia Pro subscription is not necessary to play these demos, nor is a purchase of any kind. These demos are completely free for all Stadia players.

The company also confirmed release dates for two games coming to Stadia: Pac-Man Mega Tunnel Battle launches on November 17 and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order drops on November 24.

In other Google Stadia news, the company announced that the hotly anticipated Cyberpunk 2077 comes out on the same day as all other platforms. CD Projekt Red’s action-RPG went gold earlier this month, meaning it’s primed and ready for its November 19 release date.

On November 17, Halo: The Master Chief Collection will become fully optimized on Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, and will feature 120FPS in Campaign and Multiplayer, Split-screen improvements, up to 4K on Series X, and more.

Announced by Xbox on Twitter, this update will be available for free to existing owners or those who are subscribed to Xbox Game Pass.

Aaron Greenberg, GM of Xbox Games Marketing at Microsoft, has also confirmed that Halo: The Master Chief Collection will also support “cross-gen play & adjustable FOV.”

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These updates are another part of Halo: The Master Chief Collection’s future that will also include crossplay between Xbox One and PC, a custom game browser, PC fileshare, per game graphics and audio options, mouse and keyboard support on Xbox One, and more.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection was released in 2014, and while it had a few issues at launch, it has been continuously supported and improved. In our re-review in 2019, we said, “overcoming its deserved reputation after a notorious launch, today the Halo Master Chief Collection is a polished, super-deluxe package of content that successfully links three generations of amazing Halo games together in a way that feels like it was made by and for people who care deeply about this legendary shooter franchise.”

So, while Halo Infinite may have been delayed to 2021, Halo fans will still be able to have a next-gen experience with Master Chief until we are all able to go on his next adventure, which will also feature 120FPS in its free-to-play multiplayer.

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Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

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

Like many games with an online component, Red Dead Redemption 2 is also preparing to celebrate Halloween. After a new October event that appears to be taking some inspiration from Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare was leaked earlier in the year, developer Rockstar Games has confirmed the existence of the Halloween Pass for Red Dead Online.

It’ll cost players 15 gold bars to purchase, or if you haven’t been saving your gold while exploring the old frontier, you can also pay $10 USD for 25 pieces of the in-game currency.

The Halloween Pass has 20 levels of rewards that can be unlocked through experience points gains, and each earned rank will give players items such as the skeletal Zavala machete, painted ram horse masks, and mystical variations of full weapons.

Once you reach level 20, you’ll also be able to renovate your moonshine bar with more gothic décor, provided that you have already purchased and unlocked the Moonshiner role. Here’s the full list of what you can unlock starting from level one on the Halloween Pass:

Gallery

• Hand wraps – Hand wraps of bound black satin
• Hardy Tonic – Temporarily disables damaging weather effects for 30 minutes
• Wood Cabin photo studio backdrop
• Scared reaction and RDO $100 reward
• Ace of Spades – A graphic flag for your camp
• Select Naturalist Role Items
• Wheatfield photo studio backdrop
• Post-apocalyptic camera filter
• Frighten reaction
• 5 Blending tonics and Flayed Bison mask for your horse
• Abandoned House photo studio backdrop
• Reaper variant for Rolling Block rifle
• Select Naturalist Role Items
• Spooky reaction
• Skull and Daggers – A graphic flag for your camp
• Predator camera filter
• Gallows Blindfold
• Cemetery photo studio backdrop
• Painted Ram mask for your horse and The Ripper reaction
• Zavala machete and Gothic bar decor

You’ll be able to earn all of those rewards from now until November 16, with items such as the Phantom Buck Horse Mask and the Noir Advanced Camera filter being free as part of a membership to the Wheeler, Rawson & Co. Club in Red Dead Online. Rockstar Games also increased its workforce numbers last week, acquiring Crackdown 2 developer Ruffian Games and rebranding the Scottish studio to Rockstar Dundee.

Dexter showrunner Clyde Phillips has confirmed that the upcoming revival will not rewrite the events of Season 8, but it will basically “start from scratch.”

Speaking on The Hollywood Reporter’s TV’s Top 5 podcast, Phillips, who was the showrunner on the first four seasons of the original series, and will be returning as the showrunner on the new limited series, said that the revival is being positioned as a “second finale” for the show after fans were left disappointed by the many failings of Season 8.

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“We basically do get to start from scratch,” Phillips said. “We want this to not be Dexter Season 9. Ten years, or however many years, have passed by the time this will air, and the show will reflect that time passage. In so far as the ending of the show, this will have no resemblance to how the original finale was. It’s a great opportunity to write a second finale for our show, and Showtime was very gracious about that.”

Dexter’s final season was widely criticised for having an ending that didn’t satisfy the show’s loyal fanbase. The last episode, titled Remember the Monsters?, saw Michael C. Hall’s serial killer starting over as a lumberjack in the solitude of the Pacific Northwest. Many fans felt that this move was out of character, including the lead actor who said that he would’ve rather have seen Dexter die in the end.

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“I believe that [Michael C. Hall] was not completely satisfied with it, and this is an opportunity to make that right, but that’s not why we’re doing it,” Phillips explained, referencing Hall’s distaste for the show’s ending. “We’re doing this because there is such a hunger for Dexter out there. We’re not undoing anything. We’re not doing movie-magic. We’re not going to betray the audience and say, ‘Whoops, that was all a dream.'”

He underscored his approach to the limited series, saying, “what happened in the first eight years happened in the first eight years.”

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While plot specifics are being kept firmly under (plastic) wraps right now, Gary Levine, Showtime’s President of Entertainment, made a statement in a press release for the upcoming 10-episode revival, in which he praised Phillips and Hall for finding a creative take that is “truly worthy of the brilliant, original series.” Intrigued? Read our thoughts on how the revival could redeem the show’s disappointing ending.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

If you’re in the mood for some Halloween-appropriate reading material, Image Comics has a new graphic novel that might just fit the bill. The minds behind Grafity’s Wall – writer Ram V and artist Anand RK – have reunited for Blue in Green, a moody comic that combines elements of horror and jazz music.

Check out the slideshow gallery below for a preview of Blue in Green, including several never-before-seen interior pages:

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Here’s Image’s official description of the book:

The dark and haunting portrayal of a young musician’s pursuit of creative genius—the monstrous nature of which threatens to consume him as it did his predecessor half a century ago. From creators RAM V (Grafity’s Wall, These Savage Shores) and ANAND RK (Grafity’s Wall), BLUE IN GREEN is an exploration of ambitions, expectations, and the horrific depths of their spiraling pursuit.

“Blue In Green is the product of an attempt at doing what all the great Jazz tunes do—capturing a mood, trapping the complexities of that mood in the form and the aesthetics of the medium,” V told IGN. “When Anand and I first discussed making this book, I talked about my years in Philadelphia spent visiting old Jazz houses and my fascination with the black and white photographs hung on the wall. I think we’ve managed to capture that feeling while setting a truly haunting tale of obsession and ambition within it. Lovers of horror, drama and moody jazz will all enjoy this book that captures and hopefully pushes those things in interesting directions!”

Blue in Green will release on Wednesday, October 21.

You can also look forward to more new work from Ram V in DC’s upcoming Future State crossover, which temporarily shifts the entire DC line ten years into the future. V is writing both the Justice League Dark storyline in Future State: Justice League and the miniseries Future State: Swamp Thing.

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In other recent comic book news, we learned how exactly Star Wars: Darth Vader connects to The Rise of Skywalker and the identity of Spider-Man’s twisted nemesis Kindred.

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

Astro seems to have a habit of continuing product lines by releasing the same gaming headset year after year with the occasional minor update. The company has done that again with the Astro A20 Gen 2, which will look incredibly familiar to anyone who has the original A20 headset. The difference now is that this wireless gaming headset includes support for the PS5 or Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S depending on which USB dongle you pair it with – getting a second dongle costs $19.

At $119 (or effectively $140 for dual-console support), it still falls close to budget territory for a wireless gaming headset, and it has a headstart on next-gen console support, but let’s see if that really makes it worthwhile.

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Astro A20 Gen 2 – Design and Features

Like I mentioned, the Astro A20 Gen 2 doesn’t have a lot new going on style-wise. That said, it’s still a highly stylized headset, for better or worse. It has a boxy frame and a subtly curved headband. Much of the aesthetic is centered around hard angles and a tri-tone color palette, and it definitely borrows some ideas from the A20’s big brothers, the Astro A50 and Astro A40 TR, but feels like the edgier younger sibling.

The design unfortunately feels much cheaper. All the metal touches found in the A40 and A50 headsets are missing from this headset. It’s a very plastic affair, and it feels more like the sub-$100 headsets I’ve tried that take aspects of a brand’s more premium line and boil them down into something that’s affordable but still effective, like the SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless. Fortunately, the Astro A20 Gen 2 does seem well-built, as it doesn’t creak a bunch when I twist and flex it.

That said, flexibility isn’t the strong suit of the Astro A20 Gen 2. There’s about an inch of adjustment to the sliders on each side, letting the headset fit large and small heads. Though for smaller users, the top end of the yolks will actually stick up like little horns. Height adjustment is about all the Astro A20 Gen 2 headset offers though. The earcups’ angle adjusts a little, but there’s no rotation to speak of.

The comfort situation doesn’t improve much when it comes to the cushioning either. The earcups have padding that doesn’t feel as dense as I’d expect at this price point. The headband is worse. The headband cushion has a rubberized surface, and because the headband is nearly flat (except for an odd angular cutout), it creates a pressure hotspot. I’ve got a shaved head, and that really lets those pressure points stand out. At 318 grams, the headset is also on the heavier side.

In terms of features, the Astro A20 Gen 2 offers a flip-to-mute microphone that has a decent level of flexibility, a USB-C charging port, three EQ presets, and an on-ear volume dial. The memory stick-sized wireless dongle offers support for gaming PCs and a select console, and it has a button for switching between the two. Getting a second dongle allows the Astro A20 Gen 2 to pair with both a PS5 and an Xbox Series X or Series S.

Astro A20 Gen 2 – Software

Many of Astro’s devices use the Astro Command Center. The software allowed adjustments to the EQ presets on the previous A20, but the current software at the time of testing failed to recognize my A20 Gen 2 review unit. That may change in the future.

Astro A20 Gen 2 – Gaming and Performance

Gaming lets the Astro A20 Gen 2 regain a bit of ground. With line-of-sight and a short range, the wireless connection is stable and latency-free. Astro claims a 15-meter range. I was able to go about 20-25 feet away with some walls in the way before the signal cut out. That said, when I put the dongle at the back of my computer, the range fell closer to 15 feet.

I did find the headset living up to Astro’s claim of a 15+ hour battery life. When the battery gets low, the headset makes it pretty annoying to keep using though. It begins to play a bassy SOS in morse code on a very short interval. Fortunately, the headset still works while it’s charging.

I tested the A20 Gen 2 headset on PC, and throughout hours of Overwatch and way too many hours of Genshin Impact, the sound was respectable. Even with the bass-heavy EQ settings, the audio mix remained clean enough to hear all the audio cues I needed. I wasn’t getting caught off guard because I missed a Reaper’s footsteps nor did those footsteps overpower communications with my teammates. In Genshin Impact, the audio quality held up, letting the impact of my characters abilities ring through right alongside the musical score.

I also like to give headsets a nice musical challenge to really test the mix. The A20 Gen 2 headset manages some serious oomph with the bass. The slippery bass lines in of Montreal’s Skeletal Lamping rumble with full force, but they don’t muddy up anything like the faint sleigh bells or trebly keys in Wicked Wisdom.

The headset is missing any sort of digital surround sound on PC and Xbox, something often found at this price point. It will feature surround sound enhancements with PS5, but I haven’t been able to test this.

Unlike the sound output, the sound input isn’t quite so impressive. My Discord pals never complained, as the mic does an acceptable job keeping down unwanted background noise, but my voice comes through a bit thin even with the mic positioned as close as possible to my mouth. It certainly feels like a step down from the likes of a SteelSeries ClearCast microphone or the mic on the Sennheiser GSP 370

The discomfort over long play sessions gets to be pronounced though. Astro may get an edge because it’s early to the game with a next-gen-ready headset, but many more will be coming. If the next-gen support isn’t a worry, the PDP LVL 50 offers better value and the SteelSeries Arctis 1 Wireless outperforms it and costs less. And, when it comes to next-gen support, SteelSeries has the Arctis 7X/P which costs just a touch more but wins out, especially when considering the 7X will support both consoles, something that requires an extra $20 purchase for the Astro headset.

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Astro A20 Gen – Purchasing guide

The Astro A20 Gen 2 is available from Amazon and Astro for $119.99, and an additional wireless transmitter is available for $19.99.

PT will not be available to redownload on PS5, but Konami isn’t ruling out that it will be playable on the next-gen console through other means.

Speaking to GamesRadar, Konami confirmed that those who own PT on PS4 will not be able to directly redownload the game on PS5, as it no longer exists on the PS Store. PT, an influential horror demo designed as a teaser for the cancelled Silent Hills, was removed from the Store in 2015 after director Hideo Kojima left Konami.

However, redownloading PS4 games on PS5 is only one method of transferring current-gen games to next-gen, with local wi-fi transfer and external storage both confirmed as means to move compatible games across generations. That leaves open the possibility that PT could still be playable (and preserved on a new generation of consoles), and it’s a possibility Konami won’t rule out right now.

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Contacted for clarification by IGN, Konami explained that it can’t currently confirm or deny whether the other methods will result in the game being playable. Theoretically, a straight data transfer should work, but it’s currently unclear whether the game would play as intended on the new hardware.

That said, Sony has not included PT on the short list of games that definitively won’t be backwards compatible on PS5. We’ve contacted Sony for comment on that, and whether PT could work using data transfer methods.

It’s yet another step in the messy timeline of PT and Silent Hills – a timeline that’s helped turn the game into a modern gaming urban legend.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].