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This review contains spoilers for The Good Place series finale, titled “Whenever You’re Ready.”

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Few sitcoms — or television shows in general, really — have ever aimed quite as high as NBC’s The Good Place. Attempting to pin down a theory of morality that can fully govern and give meaning to human existence in only 52 episodes is a Herculean (or perhaps more aptly, Aristotelian) task. It’s one that The Good Place handled with as much aplomb as humanly possible, but in its final hour the focus is no longer on ethical quandaries or saving humanity. Rather, the finale is a long-due bout of catharsis, focusing solely on the ending of Jason, Tahani, Chidi, Janet, Michael, and Eleanor’s lives in the afterlife.

At its most clinical level, The Good Place’s fourth season was about building a better afterlife. Seasons 1 and 2 were focused on unraveling the mysteries of the intricate system; Season 3 was devoted to picking apart its shortcomings. Smart writing and brilliant performances from the main cast ensured that the series never faltered despite the fact that it was never going to top that absolute zinger of a Season 1 finale.

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“Whenever You’re Ready” packs an emotional punch early on as Jason (who is happily coupled with Janet and enjoying not-living in a Stupid Nick’s Wing Dump) reaches a symbolic end point by playing the perfect game of Madden with his father. It’s fitting that Jason is the first to feel ready to pass on given that his worldly concerns have always been the simplest. That doesn’t mean that they’re any less important, however, and appearances from Jason’s dad, Pillboi, and Jason’s dance crew set the cathartic tone for the rest of the episode.

The finale also does its due diligence calling back to previous characters and gags like the prophetic Doug Fawcett or the magic panda, an easter egg spawned from Jason’s Season 2 escape plan to “Catch that magic panda, use her powers!” However, the episode isn’t bogged down by quippy callbacks or guest appearances from stars like Nick Offerman or Mary Steenburgen, keeping the focus squarely on giving the main cast time to pass on.

“Whenever You’re Ready” eschews the particulars in favor of heady emotional resolutions and quiet moments between friends. In a way, it doesn’t quite feel like a classic Good Place episode: there are no life- or death-threatening stakes at place, no existential questions to be answered, and no crucial wrongs to be righted. In fact, it feels almost a bit too idyllic and tonally out of step with the season as a whole, which lingered a bit too much on new characters and dilemmas rather than honing in on relationships between the central cast. That being said, the finale course corrects a bit by focusing in on Team Cockroach (or if you prefer, the Soul Squad) itself. A 90-minute goodbye is what these characters have earned.

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Tahani finds peace after reconciling with her sister-cum-archnemesis-cum-best friend Kamilah and their parents. She also masters nearly every talent known to man, choosing to take on the ultimate duty as an Architect rather than leaving. Chidi learns how to be confident in his decisions, making the ultimate choice to pass on. Michael finally gets to defer control, giving up his demon nature to live, and be judged, as a human on Earth. Jason spends a not-insignificant number of Jeremy Bearimys meditating in the forest before passing, harkening back to his early days as Jianyu the monk.

Eleanor, however, is the most heart-wrenching case. Defined by her selfishness throughout the show, her ultimate resolution is arguably the most admirable. By the time the finale hits, she’s gotten everything that she ever wanted: friends who genuinely care about her, faith from those who believe in her, an unconditional soulmate, a renewed relationship with her mother, and a margarita whenever the situation calls for one. In order to feel at peace, she has to give it all up after helping those she cares about reach self-actualization.

Just as Eleanor learns how to properly move on, we have to do the same. While fans of the series, myself included, would likely watch infinite seasons of The Good Place until our own day of judgment, the finale is ultimately so strong because it abides by its own message: in order for anything to have potent meaning, it must come to an end. Last summer, showrunner Michael Schur posted a note on the show’s official Twitter account informing fans that Season 4 would be the last, something that he decided after the series was renewed for a second season. The finale ultimately feels so satisfying because The Good Place has said everything that it needed to say. Rather than prolonging the inevitable with season after season or less potent material, it leaves us with one final note: “Take it sleazy.”

Bungie is currently advertising for a new position is an “Incubation Art Director,” one who would oversee art direction on a new IP. The job description outlines a game that sounds very different from previous Bungie titles, like Destiny 2 and Halo.

“Are you on a mission to create games that bond players together into deeply invested communities?,” the description opens. So far, so Destiny, but things change in the next lines. “Would you like to work on something comedic with lighthearted and whimsical characters?” Bungie’s games haven’t, historically, been particularly funny or whimsical.

“As the Incubation Art Director, you will define the look of a new Bungie IP and work on all aspects of art to guide a prototype on the path to production,” the description continues. “Most importantly, you will work with a fun, dedicated, and passionate cross-discipline team devoted to making a new franchise at Bungie.”

A year ago, Bungie split from publisher Activision, and has more control over its own future, and what it will develop, than it has since before the release of the original Halo in 2001. This job is asking for a candidate with serious credentials, too– they must have “At least 5 years of game art production experience, including experience in an art leadership role,” as well as a “Proven track record of delivering clear and consistent visual feedback that elevates other artists’ work.”

It’s not too much of a surprise to see Bungie expanding beyond Destiny–back in June 2018, a partnership with Chinese company NetEase saw Bungie being given $100 million to develop a non-Destiny game.

Around the time of the Activision split, analysts predicted that Destiny 3 would come in 2020. Bungie has not clarified whether they will continue to expand Destiny 2 or if they’re working on a third game in the series yet.

With its latest patch for Destiny 2, Update 2.7.1, Bungie accidentally created more problems than it solved. The patch added a bug to the game that caused players to lose some of their upgrade materials and currencies–a big problem, especially because the issue cost players their Bright Dust, a currency they can earn in-game to buy premium items from Destiny 2’s microtransaction store, Eververse.

In response, Bungie took down its Destiny 2 servers for most of the day on Tuesday after the patch was released, and rolled back the game to before Update 2.7.1 was implemented. The developer detailed the rollback on its This Week At Bungie blog, where it explained that this is the first time it has ever had to roll the game back to an earlier state.

“Earlier this week, when we deployed 2.7.1, we discovered an issue causing players to lose various currencies. Our team immediately took action and brought the game down for maintenance while we worked to discover the source of the issue. We did this to minimize any further impact to players. We ended up doing the first-ever character rollback in Destiny’s history to ensure that no one lost any of their hard-earned materials. We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused by the unexpected maintenance and appreciated everyone’s patience while we worked to get the game back online.”

“Fix the timeline” is, of course, a joke about Destiny 2’s current content season, the Season of Dawn, which is all about using time travel to undo events and save the legendary Guardian Saint-14 from death. The rollback undid the bug and restored everyone’s materials and currencies, and Destiny 2 is functioning normally now. But the rollback means we’ll have to wait for a later patch that fixes some of the issues in 2.7.1, including some exploits for the Wormgod’s Caress and Winter’s Guile Exotics, which Bungie has disabled in the meantime.

The weekly update on Tuesday, February 4 will introduce the Season of Dawn’s next piece of content, the Empyrean Foundation. Data-mining suggests it’ll be the first stage in returning the Trials of Osiris to Destiny for the first time since 2018 (back when a similar version was known as the Trials of the Nine). In the meantime, use our Bastion guide to get Destiny 2’s latest Exotic, and check out our Corridors of Time guide to find out what you missed with the game’s recent puzzle–which required a big swathe of the community to solved and might have changed how Destiny 2 tells its story.

Respawn’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is already a hit, but EA now says the single-player Star Wars adventure is on track to hit 10 million unit sales.

During EA’s Q3 2020 financial call with investors, EA revealed that “Sales of Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order significantly beat our expectations.” CFO Blake Jorgensen says that EA originally predicted Jedi: Fallen Order to sell between 6-8 million units for the fiscal year, but Star Wars already “hit the high end of that in the third quarter.”

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EA now says that it anticipates Jedi: Fallen Order to sell “around 10 million units in the fiscal year, a very strong result for a single-player action game.”

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order is a single-player game developed by Respawn Entertainment. The game follows Jedi-in-hiding Cal Kestis as he battles the Empire while rediscovering his Jedi training following their extermination from Order 66.

Not only is Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order critically-acclaimed, but according to EA, the game is selling well above sales expectations. According to the NPD Group, Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order was December 2019’s best-selling game and the sixth best-selling game of 2019 after only just two months.

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Elsewhere in the call, EA shared a few details about next-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X. According to EA, the next-gen consoles will be ‘substantially greater’ than current-gen hardware which will lead to innovations in both games and genres.

Read IGN’s Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order wiki here for walkthroughs, tips, and more.

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Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN. You can reach him on Twitter.

The real-time strategy action hybrid original Xbox game Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders is coming to PC soon.

According to an official press release from developer Blueside, the classic will launch on Steam sometime during Q1 of 2020. The announcement follows the launch of Kingdom Under Fire 2, which was released on Steam late last year after coming out on PlayStation 4 in 2013.

Coming to PC in early 2020 will put this version of Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders just shy of 16 years behind the original release on Xbox, which came out on October 12, 2004.

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This new version boasts the same real-time strategy elements as the first entry in the series, and will allow players to craft their troops to specific roles as well as level them up and upgrade the equipment and weaponry. Players will also still be able to use heroes during specifically controlled moments and make use of the four different nations to explore the full plot of the game.

While the action is said to be unchanged and authentic in this port, keyboard and mouse support has been added to the gamepad controls of the original as well as HD graphics.

In news of other titles coming to PC, reports are strongly suggesting we’ll see PS4 exclusive Horizon Zero Dawn get a PC port at some point.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]Hope Corrigan is an Australian freelance writer for IGN. You can follow her on Twitter and Instagram.

EA has shared its thoughts on the next-gen consoles like PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X, and the company said that what it’s capable of on those platforms will “blow people’s minds.”

During an investor call for EA’s Fiscal 2020 Q3, EA’s leadership team was asked about their plans for next-gen consoles. While EA declined to share any specific details like game titles or announcements, EA appears bullish on the generational leap that will come with the next wave of hardware.

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“The power of the new consoles is gonna be substantially greater than existing consoles,” said EA CFO Blake Jorgensen during the call. “We can do a lot more [with PS5 and Xbox Series X]. Things we’re doing will blow people’s minds.”

Jorgensen also said there’s going to be so much “innovation” not just from EA but from the whole industry. Not only with more sophisticated games but even the creation of new genres.

While EA declined to share what kinds of games or experiences it’s developing for next-gen consoles, the quote seems to indicate that the technology leap between current-gen consoles like PlayStation 4 and Xbox One to next-gen is greater than previously anticipated.

There are already some rumors about what kind of tech will be in the PS5 and Xbox Series X, but neither Sony nor Microsoft have confirmed specs. During a recent GDC survey, over 10 percent of developers said that their next projects are slated for next-gen consoles.

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In other EA news from today’s investor call, EA announced that Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has greatly exceeded sales expectations. The company raised forecasts and now expects Jedi: Fallen Order to sell 10 million units, 2 million more than its previous expectation of 8 million.

Check out our Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order guide for walkthroughs, tips, and more.

Welcome to Nintendo Voice Chat! Pricing details for Pokemon Home have finally been revealed, and the NVC crew is here to discuss if the service is worth the cost. Plus, hear about Byleth officially joining the fray in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, the latest on Nintendo’s mobile revenue, and more. Lastly, it’s time to tackle your questions on another installment of Question Block.

Timecodes!

• 00:00:00 Welcome!
• 00:00:39 Quick news time!
• 00:10:27 Is Pokemon Home worth it?
• 00:21:50 Byleth joins Smash!
• 00:30:25 Games out this week
• 00:44:29 What we’re playing
• 00:53:20 Question Block
• 01:04:04 Wrap up!

NVC is available on your preferred platform!

• YouTube
• Spotify
• Apple iTunes
• Stitcher
• Podbay
• PlayerFM
• Podbean

You can also Download NVC 492 Directly Here

You can listen to NVC on your preferred platform every Thursday at 3pm PT/6pm ET. Have a question for Question Block? Write to us at [email protected] and we may pick your question! Also, make sure to join the Nintendo Voice Chat Podcast Forums on Facebook. We’re all pretty active there and often pull Question Block questions and comments straight from the community.

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Logan Plant is the Production Assistant for NVC. You can find him on Twitter at @LoganJPlant.

If everything goes as planned, 2020 will conclude with two brand new next generation video game consoles launching all over the world alongside a slew of brand new launch games to hopefully make their steep price tags worth it.

The games available the first day a new console arrives usually run the gamut from slightly upgraded cross-generation ports to gorgeous but hollow racing game eye candy. But occasionally, a launch game comes along that is so exceptional and essential that it defines that console’s lifecycle and revolutionizes the video game medium as we know it. Here are the top 10 best console launch games of all time.

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Click through the gallery above or scroll down for the full list!

10. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon (Game Boy Advance)

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Amidst colorful racing games and ancient platformer ports, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon was by far the deepest and most feature-rich Game Boy Advance launch game. Circle of the Moon took everything that made the franchise special up until that point and built upon it – that is, assuming you could actually see it. The GBA launched without a backlit screen, making Castlevania’s dark and moody graphics a bit hard to make out unless you were sitting directly under a lamp. But once you got cozy under the spotlight, it’s sprawling castle, giant boss fights and dual set-up system made it an epic title to launch an epic handheld console.

– Daniel Ervin, Producer

9. Soulcalibur (Dreamcast)

Soulcalibur was a fantastic game all on its own, but it was especially significant as a Dreamcast launch game because it was one of the first examples of a popular arcade game actually being better on a home console. The Dreamcast version of Soulcalibur looked dramatically better than its arcade counterpart, and also came with a host of modes and features that simply weren’t in the arcade version.

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Beyond all of that though, Soulcalibur gifted the Dreamcast with one of the best fighting games of its time at launch, and its success paved the way for other amazing arcade fighting game ports like Marvel vs Capcom 2, Capcom vs SNK, and many more

 – Mitchell Saltzman, Editorial Producer

8. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Nintendo Wii)

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Following bright, colorful games like The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and its many spinoffs, fans were wondering when Nintendo would go dark again for its marquis adventure series. T he company responded with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, a Zelda game that begins with a literal royal coup. While Twilight Princess’ waggle controls on Wii occasionally frustrated, the game will be remembered as an achievement full of dark atmosphere, beautiful visuals, and ambitious storytelling that dared to imagine a Hyrule that was as grand as it was terrifying.

– Matt Kim, Reporter

7. Wii Sports (Nintendo Wii)

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On launch day, every single Nintendo Wii was bundled with a copy of Wii Sports, meaning even if you didn’t care about real sports, it was a no-brainer to at least give Wii Sports and your brand new Wiimote a spin, a shake, a waggle, and potentially even an accidental toss through your television. Video games are usually designed for hardcore gamers to conquer in isolation but Wii Sports was designed to play at parties with friends and family members, causing millions of people – even those who had never played a game before – to join the fun and celebrate the game’s eccentric take on motion controlled sports. Making the experience even better was the addition of Nintendo Mii’s, allowing players to recreate themselves or famous pop culture figures and then sending them off to dominate the tennis court and bowling alleys.

– Brian Altano, Host & Producer

6. Tetris (Game Boy)

Tetris had been around since before the Game Boy launched, but it was the pairing of Nintendo’s handheld wonder with the Soviet-made block puzzle game that catapulted both into mainstream popular culture. The game’s simple graphics and easy-to-learn-hard-to-master game mechanics were perfect for the Game Boy, its limited hardware, and its washed-out green dot-matrix screen.

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Nintendo wisely bundled Tetris with their handheld during the U.S. launch, and before they knew it, they had sold 40,000 Game Boy units in the first day alone, with that version of Tetris going on to sell 35 million copies. The world was and in many ways still is addicted to Tetris and the Game Boy let them take that addiction with them everywhere.

– Jobert Atienza, Producer

5. Super Mario World (Super Nintendo)

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Super Mario World was a revelation when it launched alongside Super Nintendo in the early ’90s. It was bigger, more colorful, and packed with more secrets and branching paths than any Super Mario game that came before it. Super Mario World’s dozens and dozens of levels were spacious and often incorporated verticality – a necessity to find the games numerous hidden exits and secret stages. And thanks to the Super Nintendo’s Mode 7 capability, Bowser could spin, scale, and appear like he was flying right toward the screen. Super Mario World helped pave the way for the complex, larger-scale games that would start to become commonplace that console generation and set off the 16-bit era with one of the greatest games ever made.

– Chris Reed, Commerce Editor

4. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Nintendo Switch)

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The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an interesting launch game because it also doubled as the swan song to Nintendo’s previous console, the Wii U. Nonetheless, when Breath of the Wild launched on Switch it instantly became one of the deepest and engrossing launch games ever made, giving players a massive, sprawling open world to explore and conquer in a seemingly infinite number of ways. Even more impressive is that it doubled as a portable game, meaning day one Switch owners could sink hundreds of hours of adventuring into this gigantic open-world game anywhere they traveled. Oh, and it also managed to successfully overhaul and evolve a franchise that had been going since the 1980’s which is no small feat despite the small screen.

– Brian Altano, Host & Producer

3. Super Mario 64 (Nintendo 64)

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For a long time, Super Mario 64 was the benchmark to which every 3D platformer was compared to. Mario’s venture into the third dimension was well met, and proved that the fun and aesthetic of classic 2D game franchises could not only be recaptured in 3D, but in Super Mario 64’s case, set the standard for how 3D platforming games would be like for decades. Many people still remember where every single one of its 120 stars are located and sometimes it feels like the entire N64 controller was designed around this game. Super Mario 64 was the reason to own a Nintendo 64 on day one.

– Mark Medina, Features Producer

2. Halo: Combat Evolved (Xbox)

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How important – and how good – was Halo 1 as the original Xbox’s premier launch title? For starters, there’s a strong argument to be made that the Xbox would not have survived without it. The rest of the Xbox launch lineup wasn’t anything to write home about, and in fact the console’s entire first year until Fall of 2002 – when Xbox Live launched and games like Splinter Cell began rolling in – was pretty barren. As to its quality, it defined “killer app” in that people bought the console specifically for it. Oh, and it also perfected and normalized first-person shooters on consoles in a way that Goldeneye and Perfect Dark never quite could.

– Ryan McCaffrey, Executive Editor

1. Super Mario Bros. (Nintendo Entertainment System)

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Outside of being vibrant, challenging, and just plain fun, Super Mario Bros. for the Nintendo Entertainment System can be defined in one word: iconic. Not only did Super Mario Bros. set the stage for the NES as a console, resurrecting console gaming after the tragic video game crash of 1983 – it also instantly established Super Mario as one of the most recognizable characters in all of pop culture. Super Mario Bros. embodied what became part of Nintendo’s core philosophy as a game company – to create products that are fun to play for novices as well as difficult to master for pros. From children to aging casual gamers to hardcore speedrunners, Super Mario Bros. is still celebrated and played today, and thanks to tight platforming physics, great level design, and instantly recognizable music, the game will forever be synonymous as the medium of video games as we know it.

– Brian Altano, Host & Producer

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So there you have it! As you can see, Nintendo dominates this list quite a bit, but it doesn’t hurt that they’ve launched more video game consoles and handhelds than their two closest competitors combined. Meanwhile it looks like Sony tends to save their biggest first-party guns for a bit later in their respective console’s life. But hey, this is just our list! What is your favorite video game console launch game of all time? What’s the game you couldn’t stop playing on day one and beyond? Let us know in the comments below!