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Mafia: Definitive Edition, the remake of the 2002 game that follows the rise and fall of mobster Tommy Angelo in the 1930s, is taking lessons from its two sequels and implementing some of their best aspects.

Speaking to USgamer, Mafia: Definitive Edition developer Hanger 13’s president and chief creative office Haden Blackman described how it’s updating so many parts of Mafia, from gameplay improvements to expanding out story bits, like with Tommy’s girlfriend Sarah.

“For example, Sarah, the love interest in the original, she doesn’t get very much screen time, but she’s the heart of why Tommy Angelo is doing what he’s doing,” says Blackman. “At the beginning of the game you learn that he’s trying to arrange a way out of the life and he’s doing it all for his family, so we wanted to make sure that as a player you knew what it was that he was trying to protect. We wanted to make sure that Sarah got more screen time; she’s in the game more, has an understandable kind of role in the lowercase family and uppercase Family.”

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Another focus in this remake is addressing the “valid criticisms” in regards to the repetitive nature of Mafia 3’s side missions. The team wants to add new, meaningful missions without that repetition. Blackman even stated that “almost all of our emphasis was on the missions for Mafia: Definitive Edition.”

Mafia: Definitive Edition will also give players a wide range of options. A big part of the original game was following traffic laws and being extra cautious around police, as Tommy is more of an everyday citizen than a hardened criminal. In this upcoming version, there are settings for police presence and how strict they are to players who break these laws, like riding through a red light. The original settings can be preserved, but this sliders are put in place to give players more choice in how they want to experience this story.

Gunplay will also a big change from the original, as it pulls a lot from Mafia 3 and its more cover-based gunplay mechanics. Whereas Clay was a former soldier and Tommy was just a cab driver, Hanger 13 wanted that difference to be felt in the gameplay. Combat is a “little bit more lethal” for Tommy and “every bullet matters.”

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Mafia: Definitive Edition will be released on August 28, 2020, on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Steam. Mafia II: Definitive Edition and Mafia III: Definitive Edition are available now, and players who purchase the Mafia: Trilogy will get all three games, and the first Mafia will unlock when it is released.

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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.

Nintendo has announced a new Maximus Cup event for Tetris 99. The competition takes place next weekend and gives you a chance to earn another crossover theme, this one based on the recently launched Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition.

Like most other Maximus Cups, next week’s event is a point-based competition. You’ll earn a different number of points depending on how well you place during a match; if you can amass at least 100 points before the Maximus Cup ends, you’ll unlock a Xenoblade Chronicles theme for Tetris 99. You can get a glimpse of the new theme below.

The Xenoblade Chronicles Maximus Cup kicks off at 12 AM PT / 3 AM ET on July 3 and runs until 11:59 PM PT on July 6. You’ll need to have a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to participate. Memberships cost $4 USD for one month, $8 USD for three months, and $20 USD for one year. Nintendo also offers a $35 USD annual Family Plan that covers up to eight Nintendo Accounts.

If you do already have a subscription, you can download and play Tetris 99 online for free. The game also offers a $10 USD “Big Block” DLC that adds a handful of offline modes, including Marathon and a Local Arena that supports up to eight players.

Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition launched on Switch last month. The game is a remastered version of the classic Wii RPG and features touched up visuals, improved UI, and a new epilogue story called Future Connected. You can read more in our Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition review.

GameSpot has officially kicked off Play For All–a celebration of all things gaming. Join us as we bring you the summer’s hottest news, previews, interviews, features, and videos, as well as raise money for COVID-19 relief efforts and Black Lives Matter with the help of our friends from around the gaming world. Check out the Play For All schedule for more.

Hot on the heels of announcing Fortnite‘s next concert-style event, Epic Games is preparing for something else that strays outside the confines of what you’d expect from a battle royale game–or any game, really. This Friday, June 26, you’ll be able to jump into the game to watch a full Christopher Nolan movie as part of Fortnite Movie Nite.

As with many of Fortnite’s entertainment-centric events, this will take place in Fortnite: Party Royale, the special playlist where combat is disabled. Depending on where you live, you’ll see one of three different Nolan films: Inception, Batman Begins, or The Prestige. Those in the United States will be able to see Inception at three different times over the course of the day: 8 AM ET, 8 PM, and 11:55 PM. Those in the UK get a single showing of The Prestige at 5 PM BST. Australia doesn’t currently have any showings scheduled.

These will be the full-length version of the movies. Fortnite recently had a Nolan tie-in when it premiered a new trailer for his upcoming movie, Tenet, and at the time it was announced that full screenings for older movies of his would be held in the game. Epic has enjoyed a great deal of success with these forays outside of typical gameplay–the Travis Scott event attracted 12.3 million concurrent players at one point, setting a new record for the game.

Watching a movie inside of the game seems like a much different sort of thing, both due to the length and nature in which you’d be watching–not to mention the prospect of watching it on your phone. If nothing else, we know how David Lynch would feel about that.

Fortnite Movie Nite Schedule

United States

• Inception — 5 AM PT / 8 AM ET
• Inception — 5 PM PT / 8 PM ET
• Inception — 8:55 PM PT / 11:55 PM ET

United Kingdom

• The Prestige — 5 PM BST

Night City Wire, June 25’s Cyberpunk 2077 broadcast, will include a new trailer, new gameplay footage, and a developer walkthrough of a new feature, braindance. Developer CD Projekt Red has also implied that there will be more Night City Wire episodes in future.

The developer broke down the upcoming showcase on Twitter, which will be aired at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 5pm UK tomorrow, June 25 (that’s June 26 at 2am AEST).

Join us tomorrow, June 25 at 6PM CEST, at https://t.co/cBU8yS6pfc for the first, 25 minute episode of #NightCityWire, where we are going to show you a brand new trailer, present fresh gameplay footage and chat with the devs in detail about one of the game features, braindance. pic.twitter.com/2RReyCMkce

— Cyberpunk 2077 (@CyberpunkGame) June 24, 2020

Night City Wire is a part of IGN’s Summer of Gaming, and you can watch it live with us tomorrow, along with full pre- and post-show discussions.

We’ll also have a full hands-on preview with the game going live directly after the show, as announced when Cyberpunk 2077 was delayed to November 17 to allow for more bugfixing and game balance work.

If that’s not enough new Cyberpunk for you, you can check out the upcoming new tie-in comic book series, Trauma Team.

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The delay will likely place Cyberpunk 2077 near the launch of Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5. Even though CD Projekt Red has confirmed owners of the Xbox One and PS4 versions will be freely upgraded to ‘robust’ next-gen editions, it has not committed to when these new versions will be available.

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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].

Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga debuts on Netflix on June 26.

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There are a fair few things that we Brits are particularly protective of; the correct way to brew a cup of tea, obviously, ranks highly as does our staunch belief that UK comedy series will always be superior to the American equivalents. Then there’s the Eurovision Song Contest which has served as a shining beacon of collective fun and self-deprecating pride in the UK ever since the annual music event began in 1956. So one could hardly embark on a viewing of Will Ferrell’s latest comedic offering, centered on an Icelandic musical duo’s journey through the competition, without some underlying feeling of skepticism.

For not only has Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga been written, directed and produced by a team of Americans, whose country has had no vested interest in the singing event in its 64-year-history, but the last time Ferrell dived into British popular culture it resulted in the critically-panned Holmes & Watson. The 2018 film wasn’t screened to critics before its release but after, its Rotten Tomatoes score sank to 10% courtesy of damning reviews, including ours at IGN, which described the film as “a collection of limp comic set pieces and repeated riffs on the same three gags.”

Fortunately, the Eurovision Song Contest has less in common with that insult to the memory of Arthur Conan Doyle and more with the likes of Blades of Glory and Talledega Nights. The Netflix film centers on Icelandic singers Lars Erickssong (Ferrell) and Sigrit Ericksdottir (Rachel McAdams ) who grew up together in their remote fishing village and have been dreaming of competing in the annual event ever since they saw ABBA singing their way to victory with “Waterloo” in 1974. Several strokes of luck, or maybe elves (Icelanders are big believers in them), means their act Fire Saga is selected to represent Iceland, and so this Ferrel film once again follows the exploits of an oddball couple navigating a niche competitive arena.

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The pair’s Nordic impressions are pretty impressive and Ferrell still has that singular ability to catch you off guard with seemingly ad-libbed one-liners and silly instances of physical humor. Even Lars’ rotating wardrobe – sourced, one assumes, from Instagram #OOTD hashtags – raises a smile but these moments are far too rare and padded out with lackluster cliches and obvious jokes.

McAdams offers earnest support as Sigrit, who is hoping to make sweet love as well as music with her singing partner, but whose affections have thus far gone unrequited. It’s a shame she’s never really given the chance to be as comical as Ferrell so her best moments are limited to when she’s singing but even the actress can’t take full credit for that – Swedish singer and former Junior Eurovision contestant Molly Sandén provided Sigrit’s belter of a singing voice.

It’s heartening that Ferrell, who co-wrote the script, has a clear affection for the competition. He might be an American but thanks to his Swedish wife he’s been watching the show for over 20 years. The film refuses to mock the Song Contest, instead, it affectionately teases the idiosyncrasies that make Eurovision such a campy, poptastic affair while celebrating the vibrant musicality that is delivered annually by the 50+ countries who compete. There are more than a few parody bops that deserve repeat listening after the credits roll, “Double Trouble” and “Volcano Man,” in particular. There’s also a lovely sing-off scene featuring several past Eurovision winners belting out a medley of pop classics as they dance around a Scottish stately home that Outlander fans might recognize underneath the garish decorations and well-endowed statues. The film even got the UK’s Eurovision host Graham Norton to play himself and deliver commentary during several scenes, though he’s far less cutting than usual.

More ardent fans might find themselves pulling an Alan Partridge by screaming at the TV, “stop getting Eurovision wrong!” every so often. In one scene, Alexander jokes that everyone hates the UK because they get “nil points” each year, which is fair, but as the event is being hosted in Scotland that would mean the UK are the reigning champs. This nonsensical error is furthered when the ceremony is hosted by a pair of non-Brits, which seems like an odd thing to get wrong given how much effort went into making this movie authentic in other places.

It’s admirable that the film doesn’t shy away from the recent Eurovision controversy involving Russia’s homophobia and clearly the film champions the competition’s campaign for inclusivity by delivering several LGBTQI cameos. But that message is somewhat dampened by the fact that nearly every speaking character is white while people of color serve primarily as window dressing.

Adding these things up, Eurovision Song Contest becomes a film of inconsistencies. It doesn’t quite capture the magic of Will Ferrell’s early buddy comedies but still delivers enough heart and merriment to earn at least six points from the viewing public.

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Nintendo Switch hardware is all but impossible to find in stock these days. But if you’re lucky enough have one already, you’d probably like to play some games. Amazon has two deals going right now that can save you a lot of money on digital downloads. The first deal brings several microSD cards down to their lowest prices ever on Amazon. The other saves you 15% off Nintendo eShop credit if you use an Amazon Visa or Amazon Store card. Here are the details.

MicroSD Card Deals

App users: Don’t see the deals below? Click here.

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If you download Switch games at all, additional storage is pretty much required. The Switch only comes with 32GB of onboard storage, and some of that is dedicated to the OS. That leaves you with a paltry few gigabytes to download games from the eShop. Some third-party Switch games take up more storage than comes on a Switch from the start. It’s kind of ridiculous.

Thankfully, adding storage is cheaper than ever. The prices of microSD cards has been on a downward trend since the Switch launched, and these three cards in particular are currently on sale for their lowest prices ever.

Nintendo eShop Credit: Get 15% Back (Amazon Card Required)

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Now that you have storage, you’ll probably want some games to fill it up with. If you have an Amazon Prime Rewards Visa Card or an Amazon Prime Store Card, you’ll get 15% back if you buy Nintendo eShop credit between now and July 5.

If you don’t have one of those cards and you do a lot of shopping at Amazon, I’d highly recommend considering one. If you’re a Prime member, they both give you 5% cash back on all Amazon purchases, which can add up to big savings over time. The Visa also has decent cash back rates at restaurants, gas stations, and drugstores (2%).

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This deal ends July 5, so if you have a card and use the eShop, stocking up on credit is a no-brainer. My favorite way to spend discounted eShop credit is to buy games when they go on sale. That gets you 15% off the already-discounted price, creating a double discount.

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Chris Reed is IGN’s shopping and commerce editor. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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According to EA CEO Andrew Wilson, Apex Legends is scheduled to soft launch on mobile devices by the end of 2020.

As recorded by @ApexLatest on Twitter, Wilson was speaking about mobile business growth on an EA Fireside Chat on June 22, 2020, and said “we have PvZ3 in soft launch, we’ve talked about having Apex Legends in soft launch by the end of this year. You’ve heard me talk about 6 or 7 other games in various stages of incubation or production or in finaling phase. We feel very good about our mobile business.”

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If Apex Legends does indeed soft launch on mobile, which would most likely be a Beta of sorts, it will be the third storefront that Apex Legends arrives on in 2020 alongside Nintendo Switch and Steam.

Apex Legends will be released on Switch and Steam this Fall, and cross-play between those platforms and all other current versions of Apex Legends will also be enabled. There is no word if cross-play will be available in the mobile version of Apex Legends.

During EA Play Live, Apex Legends’ Lost Treasures limited time event was revealed and brings with it the return of the Armed and Dangerous mode and a new storyline involving Crypto. The Lost Treasures event began yesterday, June 23.

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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.