Major conferences like E3 have been canceled or postponed, things are getting delayed, and offices worldwide are asking employees to work from home. Now with the rise in shelter-in-place orders and many parts of the United States closing down “non-essential” businesses like restaurants, clubs, and other social venues, there are even more people stuck at home without a clear indication of how long this will all last.
Screenshot from Kind Words (lo fi chill beats to write to), available on Steam and itch.io.
While those lucky enough to be able to telecommute might be able to keep busy most of the day, people currently out of work, stuck homeschooling or being homeschooled, or self-isolating for health reasons now suddenly have a lot of time to occupy. Escapism isn’t always the best medicine, but it can be a temporary relief from the uncertainty of our current situation.
Below we’ve rounded up some of our favorite movies, shows, and games to keep you entertained while practicing social distancing or self-quarantining. We hope they serve as a much-needed distraction and bring you some joy during all of this. Stay safe!
The Best Games To Play While You’re Stuck At Home
Sometimes the best thing to do when you’re stressed is unwind with a great game. Our best games to play while stuck inside list includes some of our favorite relaxing RPGs like Stardew Valley and Dragon Quest, meditative puzzlers like Tetris Effect, and more.
All The Free Games You Can Claim Right Now
There are tons of great games available to claim for free right now across multiple platforms, including PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. Mobile games are great for passing the time too. Here are all the games you can claim for free right now.
The Best Games To Play With Friends Online
Sometimes the game matters less than the people you’re playing with. If you’re looking for a way to chill out with friends even while you’re stuck at home, check out one of our favorite games to play with friends online.
The Best Blu-Ray Deals
Delivery workers are still out there bringing the rest of us food, groceries, medicine, and (right or wrong) non-essential garbage to keep us busy. If you’re stocking up on important stuff (but a normal amount, please), why not throw something nice in to keep you busy? Amazon and Best Buy currently have a ton of really good deals on Blu-rays: movie collections for major franchises like Jurassic Park and Fast & Furious, popular TV shows like Chernobyl and Rick & Morty, and more.
Watch Netflix With Your Friends
Sometimes it isn’t about having a particular movie in mind, but just being able to spend time with your friends when many cities are ordering social distancing measures for public health reasons. A new Google Chrome extension called Netflix Party lets you sync movies up with your friends and adds a chat box on the side.
Catch A Movie In Theaters… At Home
Universal will be putting some of its theatrical releases up for on-demand viewing in the comfort of your home, as soon as Friday, March 20. That means you’ll be able to watch new theatrical releases at home.
Movies To Fight Cabin Fever
This assortment of cabin fever-fighting films are hand-picked by our editors and are sure to bring some much-needed lighthearted energy into your home. They include nostalgic classics and a more modern one, but all are perfect for a cozy rewatch.
The question at the top of nearly every prospective Temtem player’s mind is, of course, “Is this just a Pokémon MMO?” After spending more than 30 hours roaming this monster-filled archipelago, my answer is “no.” While it clearly borrows quite a bit from Pokémon, Temtem improves upon the creature collecting formula and builds a unique world that makes it an awesome adventure in its own right.
Don’t get me wrong: Temtem draws so much inspiration from Pokémon that it’s impossible not to notice similarities even if you only have a passing familiarity with the creature-collecting genre, and at times that can make it feel like a knockoff. You spend most of your time taming cartoonish animal-inspired monsters and leveling them up through battle which causes them to evolve into new, more powerful Temtem (which are, of course, what these monsters are called). Along the way you work with a professor who gives you your first monster friend, fight against an evil organization that wants to exploit Temtem, and there’s even a dopey rival who always seems to show up at the worst time to challenge you to a battle. Practically every trope and basic building block you know from Pokémon is accounted for in Temtem and for those looking to dismiss it as a shameless ripoff there’s quite a bit of copycatting to point to.
But Temtem sets itself apart and is immediately enticing in its own right through all the ways it drastically improves upon things that have bothered me about Pokémon for since I became a fan of in 1998. Sick of having to delete old moves to make way for new ones? While Temtem honors the tradition of only allowing you to equip four at a time, it lets you slot any abilities your Temtem has learned whenever you want so your Temtem have more flexibility from battle-to-battle. Wish Pokémon had more to do aside from the main campaign? Temtem has a robust library of sidequests. It’s clear that developer Crema thought long and hard about what its team’s dream version of Pokémon would look like and set out to create it – and so far it’s paying off.
One of Temtem’s best original ideas is the stamina meter. Instead of a finite number of times each ability can be used before having to heal your squad, Temtem introduces a stat which decreases as abilities are used and increases in between rounds or when Temtem use their turn to rest. More powerful moves require more stamina, which adds some strategy into which abilities you use and when. If you run out of stamina, any further attacks you make eat into your Temtem’s health bar and disable them for one turn until they’ve had a chance to rest. Running out of stamina can be irritating at times and means that you likely won’t get to use your most powerful attacks far less often than a Pokemon player normally would, but the tradeoff is a system that feels better balanced and isn’t just a matter of using your best attacks to knock out the opposing team with a single move. And all Temtem refill their stamina meters at the end of each combat encounter, meaning you never have to turn back and heal up to keep using your favorite attacks.
The way stamina plays into combat can be hard to wrap your head around at first, but it’s absolutely awesome once mastered and can turn the tables if used well. Late in my playthrough, I challenged a stranger to a multiplayer match and found, to my surprise, they had a much stronger team. He hit me with his best attacks right away and did some serious damage, but as the match drew on, his Temtem became exhausted. They took damage from over-extending themselves and had to rest while I pressed my attack. Finally, I was able to win the match by the slimmest of margins. I felt like Muhammad Ali doing the rope-a-dope until my opponent wore himself out, then striking back at the perfect moment. That’s a level of strategy and depth that I’ve simply never experienced in all my years of trying to be the very best that no one ever was.
All combat in Temtem is 2v2 (unless one or both trainers have only one playable Temtem), which speeds up combat and allows for different Temtem duos to synergize with one another for maximum devastation. For example, a crystal-type Temtem using the Crystal Dust attack will deal additional damage and act sooner when fighting with a wind-type Temtem at their side. Sometimes synergy modifiers completely change the nature of the move, like by poisoning the enemy in addition to the standard effects of the attack. Having two Temtem on the battlefield for every match also improves the usefulness of moves that affect everyone on the battlefield – a feature that’s sparsely used in the series that inspired it. And because you can do damage with one of your fighters and use the other for buffs or debuffs, I foundmyself making use of non-damage-dealing abilities far more often than I do in Pokemon. Abilities that restore stamina, for example, are particularly useful because they can keep the powerful attacks coming for longer.
Beyond those mechanical changes, probably the biggest way in which Temtem differs from its inspiration is in the fact that it’s 100% online. That’s awesome in all the ways you’d hope…and less awesome in all the ways you’d fear. It’s great that you can see other players and their Temtem running around the map and interact with them in a number or ways, including challenging them to a battle, trading Temtem and items, or asking them to join you in co-op. Battling and trading are exactly what you’d expect, but co-op in particular is an awesome addition worthy of high praise. By teaming up with a fellow trainer, you’re free to travel together, complete missions and, of course, battle. Since all combat is 2v2, adventuring with a friend feels like something Temtem was built for rather than a tacked-on feature.
On the other hand, with an online ecosystem – particularly one that’s still in early access and will be for the foreseeable future – comes disconnects, service outages, choppy performance when the connection dips, and more. It’s nothing rampant or experience-ruining, but it’s undoubtedly there and players who demand the stability of a largely offline experience to the social benefits of an MMO aren’t going to be happy about it. Still, the fact that it’s online makes the world of Temtem feel alive and populated with tons of trainers sporting badass creatures you didn’t know even existed, and that’s well worth the trade-off.
Another side effect of the MMO model is that losing battles becomes canon, given that there’s no way to quit and reload to erase a failure. As much as it pains me to admit, I didn’t win every match that I fought and some of those losses impacted the story. While it hurts my perfectionist heart to lose a match and have to live with it, it’s really interesting to suffer a defeat at the hands of one of the story’s villains and have them smugly walk away, leaving me with a bitter, unfamiliar taste in my mouth.
The world of Temtem is expertly built and filled with entertaining characters, even when the campaign’s story proves somewhat generic and uninteresting. Set in the floating islands known as the Airborne Archipelago, you’ll encounter a wide variety of unique areas, from volcanic craters to poisonous, lawless wildernesses. Each one is filled with interesting characters that often pull you into cheeky banter before offering a sidequest or challenging you to a Temtem duel. Absolutely everyone has something to say and pre-combat conversation can go on for quite a while in many cases – some of those include multiple dialogue options, though you can usually select one that jumps straight to the fight if you’re not there to chat. Characters are so well-written that I rarely noticed their often low-detail character models and faces, which stand out when compared to the elaborate Temtem themselves. From an enigmatic and silly detective to a smug and sinister countess, characters are wacky, memorable, and make goofy sounds in lieu of spoken dialogue.
With such a strong cast of characters, it’s frankly bizarre that the story (so far) seems not to go anywhere. While there are strong sections, like when you get stranded in the wilderness and have to fight for survival, or escape prison and have to make do with a whole new set of Temtem after being separated from your own, each section feels very much like a self-contained story with no real repercussions or larger direction. And because Temtem is a work-in-progress, the story actually…doesn’t have an ending just yet. Partway through your journey you find someone blocking your path and a message pops up to tell you that more is coming soon, and that’s that. It’s to be expected in this circumstance, but I couldn’t help being a little disappointed.
That’s not the only reminder that Temtem isn’t complete. You’ll note that some Temtem simply can’t be acquired, find doors all over the place that have “WIP” (work in-progress) signs on them, and hit an arbitrary level cap of 48 late in your adventuring.
Another thing I hope Crema works on during early access is that while the Airborne Archipelago is a lot of fun to explore, the creatures you encounter are often less exciting. Simply put, there just aren’t enough Temtem out there, which is one of the ways in which Pokémon’s decades of creatures give it an incredible advantage. Even if the Temtem are well-designed (and most are), you can only see the same handful of creatures pop up in the wild so many times before you’re bored to tears. Worse, each area only has a handful of unique Temtem, which makes battling through the wilds a bit of a slog. It’s only marginally better in duels, where the most powerful Temtem tend to show up quite a bit.
Sony has finally given us a deep dive into the specs of its upcoming PlayStation 5, and while the talk was mostly aimed at developers with super in-depth explanations around SSD, GPU, and audio design, gamers are already abuzz with speculations about how performance between the PlayStation 5 and Xbox’s Series X consoles might compare.
In particular, everyone’s wondering about that teraflop number: at 10.28 teraflops, is the PS5 going to be a noticeable downgrade from the Xbox Series X’s 12 teraflops? Let’s break it down.
FLOPs stands for floating point operations per second, and it’s a basic measure of the GPUs ability to perform the types of calculations it needs when rendering a scene. Computers today are powerful enough that we measure this ability in teraflops, or trillions of FLOPS. But teraflops aren’t the end-all-be-all of performance. A teraflop from one graphics chip isn’t always comparable to a teraflop from another—AMD’s RDNA GPUs, for example, produces better performance per teraflop than its previous GCN-based GPUs. The same goes for comparing NVIDIA to AMD. So you can’t really compare the performance of two chips based on that single number alone.
If the two GPUs come from the same family—like the PS5 and Xbox Series X’s do, as both are based on AMD’s RDNA 2 architecture—things are slightly more apples to apples, but it’s still not the only indicator of performance. Let’s look at how that teraflop value is calculated: Each GPU has a certain number of compute units (CUs) and a clock speed. When you put those together, you can generate a single number—in teraflops—that makes it a little easier to compare performance, however imperfectly.
So, for the PlayStation 5, that calculation looks like:
36 CUs x 64 shaders per CU x 2.23 GHz x 2 instructions per clock = 10,275 gigaflops, or 10.28 teraflops (when rounded).
The Xbox Series X has a lower clock speed, but more compute units, leading to a higher number of teraflops:
52 CUs x 64 shaders per CU x 1.825 GHz x 2 instructions per clock = 12,147 gigaflops, or 12.1 teraflops (when rounded).
So for that specific measure of computational power, the Xbox Series X comes out ahead by about 18%. But as Cerny said in his talk, teraflops only measures one aspect of a GPU’s performance. The clock speed affects many other parts of the GPU, and he argues that a faster clock speed provides more advantages across the board than a lower clock speed with more compute units (and thus teraflops). We’ll have to hold judgment until we see both consoles in the silicon-flesh.
After all, we also have to take into account the fact that we don’t know how Microsoft’s performance-balancing features like variable-rate shading will compare to what Sony is offering. Measuring teraflops alone also ignores how the PS5 will downclock its hardware in certain situations, how the two consoles’ SSDs compare, whether the GPU is bottlenecked in a given scene, or how any other components may influence performance.
So don’t get too tied up in the teraflops number just yet. The PS5 may very well be less powerful than the Xbox Series X, but this doesn’t mean it’s going to be exactly 18% slower when playing actual games—we need to wait for benchmarks until we can truly see how the two consoles stack up. Not to mention how exclusive games, form factor, or price may tip the scales of the overall picture.
Another week, another new selection of designs now part of the IGN Store. We just added over 400 Star Wars: The Clone Wars t-shirts and pullovers, expanding on our already massive selection of officially licensed Star Wars designs.
That’s just a tiny fraction of the available designs for you to check out.
On top of the new Star Wars: The Clone Wars designs, we have a massive collection of Marvel shirts and pullovers from X-Men, Avengers, and tons more, as well as designs from some of the biggest Nintendo properties around, all officially licensed, and all waiting for you. Metroid, Mario Kart, Splatoon, even newcomers like Luigi’s Mansion 3 and Animal Crossing: New Horizons are part of the IGN Store.
Be sure to check back each week as we add even more designs, and follow the IGN Store on Twitter for announcements and special savings.
The Xbox Series X was listed for a Thanksgiving 2020 release date, but Microsoft tells IGN that the system is still on track for Holiday 2020.
An update to the official Xbox Series X website for the UK, India, and Australia listed that the Series X was now coming out in Thanksgiving 2020, up from its holiday 2020 release window.
Microsoft has issued a slight denial and reaffirmed the holiday release window.
“Xbox Series X will be available Holiday 2020 alongside Halo Infinite,” said a Microsoft representative to IGN when we reached out for a statement.
Geoff Keighley also tweeted that, according to his sources, the Xbox Series X release date is unchanged and that there will be no announcement today about the release date.
UPDATE: Sources tell me the Xbox Series X release date is unchanged and still “Holiday 2020.” There is no announcement today about a release date.
An additional statement from another Microsoft spokesperson further clarified that “An Xbox product page in some regions inaccurately listed the launch date for the Xbox Series X as Thanksgiving 2020. We are committed to launching Holiday 2020.”
A Thanksgiving release date is much more specific than Holiday 2020, but it sounds like Xbox is not yet willing to narrow that release window and lock down the Series X release date.
Microsoft did reveal the full Xbox Series X specs earlier this week, which was later followed by Sony revealing the PS5 specs. While we’re starting to learn more and more about the next-gen consoles, a release date for both the Series X and PS5 remains unannounced.
If you’re looking for something to do while you’re holed up in your home practicing social distancing, head over to Steam right now for the Spring Game Festival. There are currently over 40 playable indie game demos that were to be featured at the 2020 Game Developers Conference, which was previously postponed due to the ongoing coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
This is the second Game Festival featured on Steam, with the previous one taking place during last year’s Game Awards. The titles included this time around would have been featured at the Indie MEGABOOTH, Day of the Devs, and The MIX during this year’s GDC, which is now being hosted virtually.
Some of these titles are available to purchase immediately, while others won’t be out until a later date. So, if there’s something you enjoy, make sure to add it to your Steam wishlist! The Spring Game Festival is available for a limited time from March 18th at 10 AM PST to March 23rd at 10 AM PST.
Matthew Adler is a News and Features writer for IGN who is furiously trying to get through his backlog of games and movies while he’s stuck at home. You can keep him company on Twitter or watch him stream on Twitch.
Square Enix has announced that while the launch of Final Fantasy 7 Remake is still set for April 10, those expecting physical copies of the game might not receive the game on the day of release.
Announced on March 18 on Twitter, Square Enix said that due to the COVID-19 outbreak, physical copies of the game might not arrive on time.
“Due to the extraordinary circumstances the world is facing with the COVID-19 pandemic, we want to update you on how this will impact the forthcoming release of Final Fantasy VII Remake,” the tweet reads. “The worldwide release of Final Fantasy VII Remake on April 10 will go ahead. However, with the foreseeable changes in the distribution and retail landscape which caries across countries, it is increasingly likely that some of you will not get hold of your copy of the game on the release date.”
Square Enix said it is monitoring the situation on a daily basis and working with its partners and retailers to do everything it can to ensure as many as possible can play the game on April 10. You can check out the company’s full announcement in the tweets below.
“Some of our customers may have received a message that states the release date has changed on Final Fantasy VII Remake. The release date is still slated for April 10, 2020.”
While that is true, it seems Square Enix is warning some customers that they might not be playing the game on its actual release date if they opt for a physical copy.
During The Road to PS5 livestream, PlayStation 5 lead system architect Mark Cerny discussed the specs for Sony’s next-gen console, including backwards compatibility and SSD load times. When it comes to audio, the PS5 will utilize 3D audio technology, allowing you to better determine an in-game item or enemy’s location in relevance to you based on the sound that it makes. So, like if a monster is sneaking up on you from behind, you’ll have a better idea as to it’s specific location as opposed to the general direction.
When it comes to audio on PS5, Sony has three goals. “The first goal was great audio for everyone–not just for VR users or sound bar owners or headphone users,” Cerny said. “That meant audio had to be part of the console, it couldn’t be a peripheral. The second goal was to support hundreds of sound sources. We didn’t want developers to have to pick and choose what sounds would get 3D effects and which wouldn’t. We wanted every sound in the game to have dimensionality.”
The third goal is more deeply tied to immersion, and it’s the one that’s going to help make it a little easier to play survival horror games, battle royale games, and other types of games that are heavily dependent on locating a target through sound. “We wanted to really take on the challenges of presence and locality,” Cerny said. “Now, when we say presence, we mean the feeling that you’re actually there–you’ve entered the Matrix. It’s not of course, something we thought we could perfectly achieve. The idea was that if we stopped using just a rain sound, and instead used lots of 3D audio sources for raindrops hitting the ground and all sorts of locations around you, then at some point your brain would take a leap and you’d begin to have this feeling–this feeling of real presence inside the virtual world of the game.”
He continued: “The concept of locality is simpler: it’s just your sense of where the audio is coming from–to the right of you, behind you, above you. This can immerse you further in the game and it can also directly enhance the gameplay. To use Dead Space as an example–I know, old school–you’re fighting enemies in fairly dark, spooky locations. Back in the day, if you played the game using the TV speakers, you could tell that there was one last enemy growling and hunting you down, but it was difficult to tell quite where that enemy was. With headphones, you could tell that the enemy was somewhere on the right, which let you deduce, if you couldn’t see it, that it must be somewhere behind and to your right. But with 3D audio–with good locality–the idea is, you know the enemy is precisely there.”
Of course, just because 3D audio is going to make a survival horror game easier to play, it doesn’t mean the game will be any less scary. In fact, the idea that I’ll more precisely know just how close a necromorph is to stabbing me in the back is a tad bone-chilling. Perhaps a bit of ignorance is bliss.
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If it was up to Steven Spielberg, we’d be seeing Vin Diesel receive the director credit for movies more often (via SlashFilm).
Yes, that Steven Spielberg, the famous filmmaker known for Jurassic Park, E.T., Jaws, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and Indiana Jones. He apparently told Vin Diesel, the director behind 1995’s Multi-Facial, 1997’s Strays, and the 2009 Los Bandoleros short film based on the Fast and Furious movie universe, that he needs to direct more movies.
“Speaking of Steven Spielberg, I saw him recently and he said to me, ‘When I wrote the role for you in Saving Private Ryan, I was obviously employing the actor, but I was also secretly championing the director in you, and you have not directed enough’,” Diesel told The National.
“That is a crime of cinema and you must get back in the directing chair,” Spielberg also told Diesel, to which he responded, “I haven’t directed enough.”
Update: A Microsoft spokesperson tells GameSpot that the official website listing an Xbox Series X release date was a mistake. Larry “Major Nelson” Hryb shared an identical message on Twitter, saying, “An Xbox product page in some regions inaccurately listed the launch date for Xbox Series X as Thanksgiving 2020. We are committed to launching Holiday 2020.” The original story follows.
An Xbox product page in some regions inaccurately listed the launch date for Xbox Series X as Thanksgiving 2020. We are committed to launching Holiday 2020
Xbox Series X was previously announced to be launching during the Holiday 2020 period, but now we have what appears to be a more precise date: Thanksgiving 2020, which falls on November 26.
That’s according to a minor detail updated on a regional Xbox website; as of this moment, the US version still reads “Holiday 2020.” Microsoft is set to host an Xbox Series X-focused stream as part of its digital GDC replacement event today, so it’s possible more will be shared there. This news comes on the heels of Sony’s tech-centric PS5 specs stream earlier today.
Xbox Series X release date (now deemed “inaccurate”)
We’re in the process of confirming the news with Microsoft and will report back with any additional information we receive. So far, no proper official announcement has been made.
