Announced on N7 Day alongside the news that the long-awaited Mass Effect: Legendary Edition will arrive in 2021, this new game will feature a “veteran team” from BioWare and will be the “next chapter of the Mass Effect universe.”
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Electronic Arts and BioWare have officially confirmed a Mass Effect trilogy release–called Mass Effect: Legendary Edition–for consoles and PC. The announcement was made as part of its N7 Day celebration, and it comes after months of reports and rumors about the collection.
The collection bundles together Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3, which originally released between 2007 and 2012. The original Mass Effect released as an Xbox 360 exclusive before eventually coming to PlayStation 3 several years later. BioWare’s games have been multiplatform releases since then.
The new versions will not be full remakes, but BioWare intends to improve them so players can experience them in their “best possible form[s],” according to the official announcement. That means better resolutions and frame rates, and all single-player DLC and promotional items will also be included. Elements such as textures, shaders, character models, and effects will all be improved for the Legendary Edition.
The game missing from this collection is Mass Effect: Andromeda, which launched in 2017. It wasn’t nearly as well-received as its predecessors, and the Mass Effect series went on hiatus after it launched, with the BioWare Montreal team assisting on other projects.
Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is due to release in Spring 2021 for Xbox One, PS4, and PC, and it will be playable on Xbox Series X and PS5. There will be enhancements on the newer consoles, as well, but more information will not be available until 2021.
Along with continued overhauls to Anthem, BioWare is also creating the next Dragon Age game. It doesn’t yet have a name or release date, and we’ve only briefly seen some artwork, so it could still be years away from release.
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Many of us assumed that BioWare was going to announce a Mass Effect trilogy collection during N7 Day today, but we didn’t expect this other piece of news: A new Mass Effect game is in development.
Details on the project are extremely scarce, but BioWare is working on the “next chapter of the Mass Effect universe” and it will feature a “veteran team” from the company. It’s unclear who will be involved in the project, as original creative director Casey Hudson now leads the entire studio. Mass Effect: Andromeda creative director Mac Walters appears to still be with the company and served as a writer on the original games as well as Jade Empire.
Andromeda wasn’t as well-received as the earlier games, with criticism directed at its story, character animations, and quest design. In GameSpot’s Mass Effect: Andromeda review, critic Scott Butterworth also found technical issues and disliked the characters.
As the studio is still in the very early stages of the next Mass Effect game, it’s unlikely we’ll see too much from it for a long time–possibly years. In the meantime, Mass Effect: Legendary Edition is set to release in Spring 2021 on Xbox One, PS4, and PC, with enhancements available on Xbox Series X and PS5. It will feature improvements to things like character models, textures, and shaders, but will not drastically change the experience compared to the original trilogy.
Announced on N7 Day, a day where BioWare and all its fans celebrate all things Mass Effect, this remastered version of Mass Effect, Mass Effect 2, and Mass Effect 3 will be together in one collection.
Your choices. Your squad. Your Shepard. Relive the legend in a remastered edition of the highly acclaimed trilogy. Mass Effect Legendary Edition arrives Spring 2021.https://t.co/jLUj8FUGaI pic.twitter.com/vxTKyq4LQ1
— BioWare (@bioware) November 7, 2020
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The tale of Guts, Griffith, and Casca has now been told for over 30 years, with Kentaro Miura’s Berserk manga beginning in 1989. Since then, his ongoing masterpiece has seen several adaptations, including multiple video games and anime.
In this episode of Anime vs. Manga, Dave looks at the Berserk 1997 anime and 2012’s The Golden Age Arc films to find what these adaptations have in common with the manga, and the major differences.
It being reported that The Walking Dead has cast the role of Negan’s late wife, Lucille. Yes, that Lucille. The one Negan named his famous barbed-wire baseball bat after.
But that’s not the only fun element of this particular casting. Per ComicBook.com, Jeffrey Dean Morgan’s real life wife, actress Hilarie Burton, will be playing Lucille. The two of them host AMC’s Friday Night in With the Morgans, based out of their upstate New York farm, which began during quarantine back in April.
Been pretty hard to keep this a secret.
But I love working with @JDMorgan . I love watching him become #Negan and take on that swagger. And I love the @TheWalkingDead family. They’ve been a part of our family for ages and I’m so grateful for their kindness. Xoxo #hereslucille https://t.co/9tRh7NB8WY— Hilarie Burton Morgan (@HilarieBurton) November 3, 2020
This also means…fans are finally getting a Negan flashback!
Though, at this point, we don’t know it’ll be an entire episode focused on Negan’s past or if Lucille will just be in a handful of flashbacks. We do know, however, that Burton’s Lucille will featured in one of the extra six Season 10 episodes AMC ordered for early 2021.
Little is known about Lucille on the show except that, prior to the zompocalpyse, she was dying from cancer and that she actually passed away from the disease and not due to the undead outbreak.
Burton, a former MTV TRL host, is known for One Tree Hill and, more recently, Fox’s Lethal Weapon and NBC’s Council of Dads.
Back in September, AMC announced that The Walking Dead is ending after Season 11 and that Season 11 will consist of 24 episodes (which will air over the course of two years, concluding in 2022).
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Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN and a member of the Television Critics Association. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and Facebook at Facebook.com/MattBFowler.
Demon’s Souls is one of the most exciting PS5 exclusives releasing this year, with Bluepoint Games fully remaking From Software’s 2009 masterpiece to take advantage of the new hardware. In a new 12-minute gameplay walkthrough, creative director Gavin Moore showed off offline gameplay, as well as the HUD that was disabled during previous gameplay demonstrations.
After showing off the robust new character creator, Moore shows off the Nexus area, a hub comparable to the Hunter’s Dream from Bloodborne or the Firelink Shrine in Dark Souls 3. From here, you can use the game’s five Archstones to travel to the game’s various regions–there isn’t a sixth one, as the unfinished content from the original game wasn’t completed for the remake.
The loading times for traveling to the first Archstone’s area–the Gates of Boletaria–are nearly non-existent. After a short cinematic featuring a dragon, the gameplay begins, and it’s nothing short of stunning.
Dodging and attacking are both silky-smooth, with the same rhythm of whittling down enemies’ health bars and looking for opportunities to deliver backstab attacks as in the original game. In fact, the game still uses the original PS3 version’s code for combat timing to ensure it feels perfect for veterans. If it isn’t broke, don’t fix it, after all.
For higher frame rates, you can play the game in Performance Mode, which runs at 60 frames per second and uses a dynamic 4K resolution. In Cinematic Mode, the game runs in 30 frames per second but runs at a native 4K resolution.
Near the end of the gameplay walkthrough, we see a boss fight against the Dirty Colossus, which is a grotesque and toxic foe that will punish you if you get too close. Fire can help make things easier, and the entire creature is set ablaze when attacked with a flaming sword. In classic Souls demonstration fashion, it isn’t enough, and the player is killed.
Demon’s Souls releases exclusively for PS5 on November 12. Check out our full PS5 review to learn more about the system itself. Our Demon’s Souls preorder guide can also help you score the game on time.
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As revealed on PlayStation.Blog, this new deep dive into PS5 launch title Demon’s Souls is presented by creative director Gavin Moore, and it focuses on the offline experience of this remake of the 2009 PS3 classic.
Settle in for 12 minutes of new Demon’s Souls footage in this special State of Play presentation: https://t.co/RISnoWg3Mr pic.twitter.com/KhmpS6tubJ
— PlayStation (@PlayStation) November 7, 2020
It gives an overview of many details we’ve previously learned, like the expanded Character Creator, but also details many of the improvements PS5 owners will be able to experience on November 12, 2020.
This gameplay walkthrough shows players the Nexus – Demon’s Souls main hub – and how quick the load times are getting players into a level. Moore also discusses how players can choose to play Demon’s Souls in Performance Mode, which runs at 60FPS with Dynamic 4K, or in Cinematic Mode, which runs the game at a more “cinematic 4K” at 30 FPS.
The team at Bluepoint Games also added “thousands” of new sound effects for Tempest 3D audio that will immerse owners of headsets like Sony’s Pulse 3D Wireless headset like never before.
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The DualSense will also make combat feel “grittier and darker,” and will have players feeling “steel clash against steel” or the “crackle of a fireball” before it’s cast against an enemy.
It was also discussed how the score of the original was rearranged by a 120-piece orchestra at AIR Studios in London, how all the original code was used to preserve the feel of the original while new animations will add flourish, and much more.
We also got a first look at the Dirty Colossus boss, and it gives adventures a look at another one of the horrors they must face if they undertake this challenging journey.
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For more on Demon’s Souls, check out IGN’s PS5 review and read on about how it will feature over 180 guide videos in PS5’s UI to help players and how Bluepoint is remaking this classic game.
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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.
Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales returns players to the New York City of its predecessor. But the political climate in the real world has changed significantly since Marvel’s Spider-Man came out in 2018, with months of protests against police brutality taking place in cities across the country following the death of George Floyd in May. Insomniac Games’ new title takes current events into account in an unambiguous way, paying tribute to the Black Lives Matter movement with a massive in-game mural that unlocks after you complete a line of sidequests.
As Games Radar reports, you’ll find the mural upon completion of a series of sidequests in which Spider-Man helps out various people in New York, and specifically in his home neighborhood of Harlem. When you knock out all the quests, you receive the Uptown Pride suit, which is black and yellow–the colors associated with Black Lives Matter. The cutscene awarding you the suit takes place in front of a mural featuring the slogan.
Miles is a half-Black, half-Puerto Rican teenager, and his experience is a major part of his character, both in the game and the comics that inspired it. Still, it’s notable for a big-name game to take such a prominent stance, especially since game developers and publishers are notorious for backing away from politics–even when their games seem to pretty clear in their messages. The BLM tribute in Miles Morales also comes after Insomniac was criticized in 2018 for making Peter Parker’s Spider-Man work so closely with the New York Police Department, especially after other nationwide protests against police brutality.
GameSpot’s Jordan Ramée wrote in his Spider-Man: Miles Morales review that Miles Morales stumbles in pacing and in differentiating itself from its predecessor, but it’s still a superhero journey worth taking, specifically because of its focus on Miles’s identity and experience.
“It’s a bit of a bummer to see Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales trip up at certain points, but thankfully, that doesn’t happen often,” he wrote. “The game wastes little time jumping you into Miles’ story and rarely lets up on the brakes, packing the young wall crawler’s first solo outing with more super powers and radio chatter than the game needs. And yet, despite its frantic pace, Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a compelling open-world action game that helps highlight why Miles is so special: his culture. It’s Miles’ unique differences and earnest attempts at figuring out how to protect his community that make him into such a wonderful hero, not the mask he wears and superpowers he wields.”
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