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Doom is the franchise that introduced the term “deathmatch” into the gaming lexicon, but, as id Software had previously announced, Doom Eternal won’t have a traditional deathmatch mode, instead opting for the more unique Battlemode multiplayer.

“The issue with Doom 2016’s multiplayer was that it was a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and it was all very familiar and it was all packaged together and it was a very comfortable experience that’s easily digested by the consumer,” creative director Hugo Martin told IGN. “And that’s not what they want. They expect an id game to lead and not follow. We definitely followed with that experience. We played it safe; it was somewhat formulaic. And the audience can see through to your design story; they know if that’s what you’re doing, and that’s not what they wanted. We have to always innovate.”

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Enter Battlemode, the new 2v1 mode in which a single Doom Slayer battles two player-controlled demons and their deployed AI minions. “We tried to give players something new to master [with Battlemode],” Martin said. “It’s not just two players running at each other and the player with the best twitch skills wins.”

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While we haven’t played Battlemode yet, we did just play the first three hours of the single-player campaign. Don’t miss our hands-on impressions of that, and stay tuned in February for much more on Doom Eternal, which will be released on March 20 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Google Stadia, with a Nintendo Switch version releasing sometime after that.

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

It’s going to take a lot to top the heavy metal masterpiece that was the single-player campaign of 2016’s Doom, but three hours of hands-on time with its follow-up would suggest that Doom Eternal is rocking the right kind of riffs. Its environments are more open and densely packed with secrets, its enemy types more nuanced in their strengths and weaknesses, and its reworked combat loop is more cerebral but no less adrenaline-charged; consistently taxing your brain while still encouraging you to bang your head.

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The previous Doom established a compelling rhythm to its core combat, masterfully accentuated by its bone-crushing soundtrack, but the mechanics of Doom Eternal’s demon-mulching have been tuned more sharply than the bottom string on returning composer Mick Gordon’s 9-string guitar. As they did in the previous game, the gore-tastic glory kills performed on a staggered enemy grant you health pickups, and chainsaw dismemberment gives you a guaranteed ammo drop – which is far more crucial this time around since you no longer have the safety net provided by the unlimited ammo of the previous game’s pistol. In addition, Doom Eternal gives you a third ability, the flame belch, that sets enemies alight and makes them shed precious shards of armour for a short period of time.

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=A%20ballet%20performed%20with%20bullets%2C%20blood%2C%20and%20blasted%20body%20parts.”]While each and every enemy-filled arena of Doom Eternal still features plenty of pickups littered in its corners, I found I rarely had to stop and scramble for them in the middle of a scrap. That is, as long as I consciously remained in lockstep with the 1-2-3 rhythm of the Doom Slayer’s core abilities in order to top up my health, armour and ammo at any given moment, keeping me in the constant motion of a ballet performed with bullets, blood, and blasted body parts.

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Nailing that basic flow of combat isn’t enough to survive in Doom Eternal, though, since the bulk of its enemy types require a more unique and considered approach than the last game in order to overcome them. Every enemy will eventually capitulate into a mess of viscera if you pump enough rounds into it, but there are now certain shortcuts to success that become paramount when your resources remain so delicately poised in an ongoing balancing act.

The returning Revenant is deadlier than ever thanks to its shoulder-mounted rocket launchers, which can fire off a volley of homing missiles that can only be avoided with the dash button. However, the zoomed-in precision bolt mod for the assault rifle can be used to take out the rocket launchers from afar, reducing the Revenant to melee-only attacks that are less damaging and more comfortably avoided.

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Then there’s the iconic Cacodemon – which is once again a blobby bullet-sponge – but nail a single sticky bomb from the shotgun’s alternate fire into its gaping maw and you can instantly stun it before moving in for the kill. Meanwhile, the new Carcass enemy deploys an energy shield to protect both itself and any other enemies huddled behind them, but concentrated plasma rifle fire can ignite the shield to obliterate the very monsters it had been protecting. It’s these split-seconds of strategy that can tip the scales in your favour and prevent you from becoming overwhelmed, and it helps enormously that weapon and alternate-fire switching occurs, like everything in Doom Eternal, smoothly and at great speed.

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The new traversal mechanics are similarly effortless. Doom Eternal features the kinds of climbable walls typically found in third-person adventure games like Uncharted and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, which can be scaled in order to discover secrets off the main path. Such sections soon develop into full-on environmental puzzles, involving a combination of wall climbs, monkey bar swings, double-jumps and aerial dashes that demand a Mirror’s Edge-like level of timing and finesse, adding an extra dimension to level progression and exploration outside of the ongoing parade of ultra violence.

Beyond collectibles like character toys and soundtrack vinyls to seek out, Doom Eternal’s levels also harbour secret challenges and Slayer Gates to discover, suggesting that each area of the game will reward repeat visits as opposed to the more linear deathmarch of its predecessor. In between each level you return aboard the Fortress of Doom, which remains suspended in orbit above the Earth. This space vessel feels enormous, and you can unlock new sections of it as you progress through the game by finding sentinel batteries hidden in the levels. The first of these opens up a demon prison in the bowels of the ship dubbed the ‘Ripatorium’ where you can hone your combat skills against waves of its snarling inmates – minus the risk of losing ammo or extra lives.

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In addition to honing your skills, you can also upgrade them. In fact, there are numerous tools and abilities to tinker with in Doom Eternal, with separate progression unlocks for weapon-specific mods, upgrades to your Praetor suit, runes to enhance your movement and glory kills, and sentinel crystals to increase the limits of your health, armour and ammo, and trigger buffs for your flame belch and blood punch abilities. It’s a lot, certainly more than what was on offer in 2016’s Doom, and I’ll admit to feeling slightly paralysed by choice during my hands on – a bit like trying to decide what to watch in my Netflix queue – however this may have been purely down to the time pressure and my keenness to see as much of the game as I could within the time limit of my demo.

[poilib element=”quoteBox” parameters=”excerpt=There%20are%20numerous%20tools%20and%20abilities%20to%20tinker%20with%20in%20Doom%20Eternal.”]At any rate, it’s clear that Doom Eternal is a game designed to consistently keep you on the edge of your seat – much more so than last time around. And it does so through its thrilling and rewarding combat, its skill-testing traversal, and its ability to surprise, such as the moment late in my hands-on where I was able to establish a neural connection with a Revenant drone and use it to zip around the air above a field of enemies and annihilate them with a barrage of rockets. Will we be able to take control of other demonic breeds in the final game, such as the spider-like Arachnotron or the flamethrower-toting Mancubus? Hope springs Eternal.

For more on Doom Eternal, check out the latest gameplay trailer and our breakdown of the story so far.

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Tristan Ogilvie is a video producer at IGN’s Sydney office. Unlike Mick Gordon, Tristan barely manages to cope with six strings. You can find him on Twitter.

Doom has a reputation of being the ‘turn off your brain’ shooter; when the metal tunes kick in, you hold down the trigger until the walls are coated in viscera and the door at the end of the corridor unlocks. Fire and forget, that’s the name of the game. That image isn’t entirely true of the series – there’s more logic to those shootouts than the surface would suggest – but even producer Marty Stratton explained that “Doom is junk food” at a recent hands-on event.

Doom Eternal is ripping apart that reputation. The fundamentals are all there – gore, chainsaws, shotguns that split hellspawn in two – but this sequel is much smarter than its 2016 predecessor. Stratton describes the new game as “junk food with nutritional content”. And boy, do I feel full of nutrients. Tasty, blood-soaked nutrients.

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There is a lot to unpack in Eternal’s combat loop, but it all comes back to one thing: beautifully grim demon destruction. Foes don’t just burst with the killing blow; they are gradually torn apart with each bullet and bomb. Flappy bits of cheek dangle from the side of bruised Cacodemons, chunks of brain fall away to expose the skeletons of Arachnotrons, and and the skin of a Hell Knight is gradually flayed to reveal its ripped muscles over the course of an extended encounter.

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This, naturally, provides some incredibly gross feedback that makes every weapon in the Doom Slayer’s arsenal a delight to play with. But the gore system is more intelligent than that: it acts as a diegetic health bar for each foe. Each of Doom Eternal’s combat encounters pits you against dozens of demons, and requires you to be perpetually mobile. This means that you may fire a few rounds into a foe but be unable to score the killing blow before having to leap across the arena to a safer spot. When your lap of the area brings you face-to-face with that enemy again, it’s immediately obvious which one has already taken damage and which ones are fresh due to the bullet-riddled flesh and liberal blood-spatter.

Against Doom Eternal’s largest enemies, this gore feedback is a godsend. As battles heat up, Hell starts to throw multiple big boys at you, such as the grotesquely obese Mancubus and the lanky Revenants. Being able to take a look at two Mancubi and immediately work out which is the bigger threat is fantastic. The one with broken guns and seven torso wounds can be easily finished with a shotgun blast or two, but if they’re already weak and without guns it may be worth focusing on the healthier threat.

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This all ties into Doom Eternal’s approach to tension, which ebbs and flows with every passing second. The number of demons crowding your screen is a factor here, but developer id Software mostly ratchets tension through the use of…. resource management. Yeah, I never expected to say that in an article about Doom.

The Doom Slayer is kept alive through three resources, as he has since time immemorial (AKA 1993): health, armour, and ammunition. Doom Eternal makes sure you barely have any of it. But, unlike a survival horror in which you’ll only find half a packet of bullets each mission, Doom Eternal is constantly giving you health and ammo. It just so rapidly forces you to spend it that you’re always on the knife edge between life and death, and full and empty magazines.

This balance is achieved by Doom Eternal’s elegant combat loop, which refines and builds upon foundations laid by Doom 2016. Glory kills – in which you deal a killing blow by literally tearing demons apart with your bare fists – reward you with health. The bigger the demon, the better the drop. Setting foes on fire with your shoulder-mounted Flame Belch cannon provides you with a scattering of armour fragments to collect. And chainsawing enemies into tiny pieces results in an explosion of ammunition drops that can immediately get you back in the fight.

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These three actions combine and flow to give Doom Eternal a more distinct rhythm to its combat than any previous game in the series. With one eye on all your resource meters, you’ll be finishing off enemies with the very specific kind of kill required to keep you battle ready. The game is even smart enough to automatically pull out the chainsaw the moment you fire your last bullet, which allows you to quickly eviscerate the closest enemy and refill your pockets with buckshot.

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There is a lot going on in Doom Eternal’s wider systems. Runes allow you to augment your combat style, providing small enhancements like slow-motion air dives or a longer range on your Glory Kills. Substantially improved traversal mechanics mean that platforming becomes integral to combat; you’ll quickly find yourself chaining together monkey bar swings and rocket salvos. But while all these elements bring well thought-out additions, they only work because the very fundamentals of Doom Eternal’s combat is so excellent.

Marty Stratton says that Doom Eternal is junk food with nutritional value, but I think he’s underselling it. Doom Eternal is a delicately balanced gastronomic experience, but it tastes like the best, greasiest burger you ever ate.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

Hopefully comic readers had the chance to whittle down the reading pile over the holiday break. A new year has arrived, and that means a whole new wave of great comic books is on the way. This year, you can look forward to two different, epic confrontations between Batman and Joker, a new cosmic crossover event from Marvel and a new creator-owned series from superstars Robert Kirkman and Chris Samnee.

To help you make sense of what to follow in 2020, we’ve put together a list of 20 new projects that should be on your radar. This list includes ongoing series, miniseries and graphic novels. Check out our slideshow below or scroll down to see what comics are hot in 2020.

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Outlawed

Marvel’s first major crossover event of 2020 is little different from the norm. Outlawed is less a specific story than it is the start of a dark new status quo for Marvel’s teen heroes. Echoing 2006’s Civil War, the conflict begins as new legislation is passed outlawing underage superheroes. That impacts everyone from Ms. Marvel to the Miles Morales Spider-Man to the New Warriors. After the opening story in March’s Outlawed #1, Marvel will launch three new books aimed at exploring the fallout of this new law – Ryan North and Nico Leon’s Power Pack, Daniel Kibblesmith and Luciano Vecchio’s New Warriors and a relaunch of Champions from Eve L. Ewing and Simone Di Meo.

We’ve often felt Marvel made a mistake in not exploring the long-term effects of Civil War and the Superhuman Registration Act, but hopefully Outlawed and the new books that spring out of this issue will be able to pick up where that crossover left off.

Batman vs. Joker

Joker is and always will be Batman’s greatest nemesis, and two of the biggest comic book storylines of 2020 directly revolve around their rivalry. First, new Batman writer James Tynion IV is laying the groundwork for Joker War, a story that could serve as the final showdown between Batman and Joker. Joker knows Batman’s secret identity, and he seems intent on finally using that knowledge to make his archenemy’s life a living hell. With the series rapidly moving toward the issue #100 mark, we have to assume Tynion has something huge in store for the summer.

As if that weren’t enough, 2020 looks to be the year we finally get Geoff Johns and Jason Fabok’s Three Jokers miniseries. Way back in 2016’s Justice League #50, Batman learned the horrible truth – there are actually three Jokers who have tormented Gotham City over the years. Presented as a three-issue Black Label book, Three Jokers will pit Batman, Batgirl and Red Hood against these three killer clowns and perhaps reveal more than we ever bargained about Joker’s true background in the process. DC hasn’t solicited the first issue yet, but Fabok recently revealed he’s hard at work on the third and final chapter, so we’re hopeful it won’t be much longer.

The Fire Never Goes Out: A Memoir In Pictures

These days, Noelle Stevenson may be best known as the creator of and showrunner for Netflix’s She-Ra and the Princesses of Power, but we’ve been big fans of her work dating back to comics like Nimona and Lumberjanes. This graphic novel serves as a personal memoir of Stevenson’s career so far, through both essays and short, autobiographical comics. It’s a welcome look into the life of one of the comic book industry’s biggest rising stars.

More X-Men Books

Writer Jonathan Hickman truly reinvigorated the X-Men line last year with House of X and Powers of X. The entire franchise has been benefiting from Hickman’s ambitious vision, and Marvel is only going to keep adding more new books to the lineup in 2020. That includes the first ongoing, monthly Wolverine comic since Logan’s death in 2014, courtesy of Benjamin Percy, Adam Kubert and Viktor Bogdonavic. Other noteworthy new additions include the Franklin Richards-centric crossover comic X-Men + Fantastic Four from Chip Zdarsky and Terry Dodson and a brand new take on X-Factor from Leah Williams and David Baldeón. Even Hickman himself is taking on a second book, as he teams with artists like Russell Dauterman and Ben Oliver for Giant-Size X-Men, a series of oversized, character-driven one-shots.

And that’s just in the first few months of 2020. Hickman has made it clear the current X-Men lineup is geared toward exploring the new status quo established in House of X and Powers of X. Sooner or later, these books will build to the next major phase in his multi-year plan for the X-Men. That means we can probably expect some sort of X-Men crossover event later in the year, one which will dramatically change the game for the resurgent mutant race.

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Saga’s Return

Brian K. Vaughan and Fiona Staples’ Saga is widely regarded as one of the best ongoing series on the stands. Unfortunately, the series went on extended hiatus when it reached its midway point in July 2018. The idea was to give the creators a break and allow them to stockpile new issues before returning in 2019. But 2019 has come and gone and Saga has yet to make its comeback. While nothing has been officially announced, we have to assume 2020 will instead be the year we finally get our fix.

Strange Adventures

Writer Tom King recently ended his long Batman run, and he has several new projects in the works for DC this year (in addition to co-writing the New Gods movie with Ava DuVernay). One of those will be of particular interest to fans of King and Mitch Gerads’ Mister Miracle maxiseries. Strange Adventures looks to do for cosmic hero Adam Strange what Mister Miracle did for Scott Free by telling an introspective, psychological story about a man literally torn between two worlds. This time, Gerads is joined by Evan “Doc” Shaner on art, with the book seeking to draw a stark visual contrast between Adam Strange’s Silver Age roots and the bleak conflict he now finds himself trapped in.

Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio

Derf Backderf combined journalism and personal memoir in a unique way for his 2012 graphic novel My Friend Dahmer, which detailed his childhood friendship with the boy who would become an infamous serial murderer. Kent State: Four Dead in Ohio is in much the same vein. This book chronicles the events leading up to the Kent State shootings of 1970, drawing both from Backderf’s personal experiences and extensive interviews with other witnesses. The end result looks to be a compelling account of a very dark event in American history.

Guardians of the Galaxy Relaunch

As sorry as we are to see writer Donny Cates end his Guardians of the Galaxy run after one year, we can’t complain about Marvel’s choice of replacement. Al Ewing and Juann Cabal are at the helm of Marvel’s latest Guardians relaunch. Not only will the new series feature a very Dan Abnett/Andy Lanning-inspired lineup of heroes, it’s pitting the Guardians against the Greek Gods. With all that Ewing has done to revitalize an iconic hero in Immortal Hulk (our pick for best comic book series of 2019), we can’t wait to see what he has planned for Star-Lord and the gang.

The Return of the JSA

Most DC fans suspected Doomsday Clock would end with the classic Justice Society of America being brought back into play, and issue #12 didn’t disappoint. These Golden Age heroes have been restored to life thanks to Doctor Manhattan and Superman, and we can only assume they’ll have a big part to play in the future of the DCU. Ideally, we’re hoping DC will announce a new JSA ongoing series soon, especially with the upcoming Stargirl TV series shining an even bigger light on this team.

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Fire Power

2019 was the year The Walking Dead ended (a twist no one knew was coming). Naturally, creator Robert Kirkman has new irons in the fire, and none are more promising than Fire Power, Kirkman’s first collaboration with Daredevil and Black Widow artist Chris Samnee. Fire Power is a martial arts series about a man searching for his birth parents in China and learning to harness the supernatural power within. And given that Samnee is one of the best visual storytellers in the business, we’re expecting those action scenes to really pop.

Zombie Army 4: Dead War is a four-player PvE spinoff of Sniper Elite 4 that has you and your friends teaming up to take down undead Axis hordes. It’s a goofy spinoff premise in the best of ways, and that self-awareness extends to the contents of its $99.99 Collector’s Edition.

The Zombie Army 4: Dead War Collector’s Edition includes a steelbook case for your game disc (which, yes, is also included), a 60-page art book, a download token for the game’s soundtrack, a download code for the Undead Airman Character Pack, and the coup de grace, a 12-inch-long zombie shark statue, complete with a stand. Take a look at our unboxing of the whole thing in the video above.

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Zombie Army 4: Dead War will be released on February 4 for PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

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Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

If you got yourself one of those tax refund advances, or you’re anticipating a nice refund, today’s a great day to blow through your unexpected windfall by picking up a gaming laptop on sale.

Save $550 on EVOO Gaming 144Hz Laptop with PUBG Free

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• EVOO Gaming 144Hz Laptop for $849 – See it at Walmart

I have a reputation among people I know as a “computer guy,” so someone is always asking me “what’s a good laptop for gaming?” I try to tell them “get a desktop gaming PC,” but they never listen. I’m not going to try and dissuade anyone, including you, from going with a laptop over a desktop. 

For the price, I would definitely recommend picking this one up if you’re looking for a portable gaming rig. The 144Hz display is almost reason enough, but throw in an Intel i7-9750H processor and Nvidia GTX 1660Ti for graphics, and the price looks better still. Add in a free copy of PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (my most-played PC game… probably ever), and it’s a lock.

Here are the full specs for the EVOO Gaming 144Hz Laptop:

• Processor: 9th Gen Intel i7-9750H
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If that deal doesn’t excite you, Amazon has MSI laptops on sale as part of its Deal of the Day program.

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Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Black Lightning Season 3, episode 10. We’re checking in with all the Arrowverse shows this week to see how they’re moving forward from the events of the Crisis on Infinite Earths crossover, so check out our reviews of Supergirl and Batwoman, and keep an eye out for our reviews of Legends of Tomorrow and Arrow on Tuesday.

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When Black Lightning was first announced, the creators touted the show as being an exception amongst the CW’s superhero pantheon — planned as the show to take place in isolation from the larger Arrowverse. After two-and-a-half seasons as the last bastion of standalone superhero storytelling on The CW, the show finally cracked for Crisis on Infinite Earths, where it was acknowledged as another facet of the multiverse and promptly integrated into Earth-Prime to facilitate future team-ups. But in the first post-Crisis episode, the crossover’s conclusion seems to have impacted Black Lightning very little other than making Jefferson appear a smidge crazy.

The episode opens with a post-crisis Jefferson excitedly explaining the multiverse and exclaiming that Superman exists to an incredulous Gambi. Jennifer is revealed to have been affected by Crisis as well; she apparently spent the event holed up in a white room, separated from the main dimension.

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Throughout the episode, Jefferson attempts to explain the events of the crossover to other characters, but he’s often brushed off. Watching him slowly lose his initial eagerness to tell the story throughout the episode is quite fun, but only serves to further deflate the value of Crisis to Black Lightning as a whole.

According to Gambi, he didn’t even notice Jefferson and Jennifer’s absence. Although one point of validation occurs early in the episode when Gambi detects antimatter waves on both Jefferson and Jennifer, giving some confirmation they’ve been involved with Crisis.

Rather than having world-shattering effects on the Black Lightning-verse, Crisis seems to have been used to accelerate already present character arcs. Lynn’s addiction to her metahuman drug wholly ramps up this episode. At one point in the episode, Jefferson flushes the drug down the toilet, only for Lynn to respond by attempting to retrieve it. Jefferson shames her for this, to which she retorts that her addiction to the drug is analogous to how Jefferson feels about his heroic work. Frustratingly, this line falls on deaf ears and isn’t brought up in any other part of the episode. It’ll be a waste if this comparison isn’t revisited later.

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The line does assist one interesting theme in the episode: Jefferson’s difficulty in separating his family persona from his superheroic one. While Anissa’s prominence as a leader for those standing against the A.S.A grows, Jefferson expresses his concern for her. She rebuffs his concern, citing it as coming from her father and not his superhero persona. Distinguishing Black Lightning from Jefferson is a very intriguing route that I hope the writers continue working on with stronger story beats in the back half of the season.

Other than that singular line, Anissa’s role in this episode feels quite bland. She performs some amazing stunts, liberates a handful of people captured by the A.S.A, and that’s it, leaving her more of a visual spectacle than an active character this week. Her sister isn’t much better. Jennifer’s “story” is doubling down on her hatred for Odell and promising that she’ll kill him in the near future. At least the A.S.A seems to be ramping up their scary corporation factor by introducing mind-controlling chips, which seem to even scare other A.S.A officers. Perhaps there will be a rebellion that stems from inside the A.S.A?

The most compelling storyline this week comes from Gambi and his new technomancy-capable ward, T.C.. Yet again, Gambi takes in a wayward soul, helping them re-establish themselves, and it’s very sweet to watch. Seeing the two of them bond is delightful, since they have incredible chemistry. (I couldn’t get enough of T.C. ’s confusion as to what an “Italian Hogie” meant in food lingo contrasted by Gambi’s forever avuncular presence.)

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Ultimately, Gambi’s plot also seems to be the storyline that utilizes Crisis the most – or at least gives us the first glimpse of how Black Lightning will utilize the Crisis reset. Using his technomancy, T.C. helps Gambi uncover who put a hit on him. It’s none other than the formerly deceased Season 1 villain, Lady Eve. If the reset means a slew of dead characters will be returning, the six episodes left in the season will be an interesting affair. All bets are off. After the Crisis, we haven’t the slightest grasp on what’s been reset and what’s stayed the same.