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After various teasers have showcased what Square Enix's brand new series, Forspoken, has in store, the latest trailer confirmed its 2022 release date.

Revealed during The Game Awards, Forspoken will be released on May 24, 2022 for PS5 and PC.

We last learned more about Forspoken at this year's Tokyo Game Show, as the developers dove into the magic and parkour of Forspoken's world. Forspoken was originally announced in 2020 as Project Athia, one of the first games revealed for PS5.

Forspoken is one Square Enix is hoping to make an impression with, its stated goal being to include the highest quality visuals in any open world game to date. Forspoken will also be a PS5 console exclusive for at least 2 years.

Check out everything announced at The Game Awards so far.

Developing...

At The Game Awards, Sega officially revealed the next big Sonic game, Sonic Frontiers, which boasts the series’ first “open-zone-inspired” gameplay.

Sonic Frontiers is being developed by Sega’s Sonic Team Japan and led by producer Sachiko Kawamura and director Morio Kishimoto. Sonic Frontiers promises a new type of Sonic experience where players will be free to explore an open world.

“Sonic Frontiers is a huge leap forward for the franchise, delivering an evolved gameplay experience that can be enjoyed by longtime Sonic fans and action-adventure enthusiasts alike,” says Sonic Team USA creative officer Takashi Iizuka. “[W]e’ve created an all-new style of gameplay experience for Sonic the Hedgehog, where players will be able to explore lush and expansive landscapes with Sonic’s signature speed and abilities.”

Check out the screenshot gallery of some of the open zones below.

Sonic Frontiers is targeting a late 2022 release on both current and next-gen consoles. The main locations are called Starfall Islands, but aside from the new open-ended structure details about Sonic Frontiers are still under wraps.

This isn’t the only Sonic announcement from The Game Awards. The first trailer for Sonic 2 The Movie premiered tonight as well with Tails and Knuckles joining Sonic in his fight against Robotnik.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Studio MDHR has announced that Cuphead: The Delicious Last Course, the expansion DLC for the critically acclaimed Cuphead, will be released on June 30, 2022.

The long-awaited release date was announced at The Game Awards 2021, and accompanied by a new trailer for The Delicious Last Course. On June 30, 2022, the expansion will be made available on all platforms Cuphead is available on; Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam and GOG.

The expansion will feature Ms. Chalice - better known to Cuphead veterans as Legendary Chalice - as a new playable character, who comes with a modified moveset and new abilities. Ms. Chalice can be used not only in the DLC, but also the original Cuphead levels, too.

The DLC’s levels will take you to a previously undiscovered Inkwell Isle, where new weapons and magical charms will help you take on the new bosses and help Chef Saltbaker.

“As with so many of our fellow developers, creating games during these unique times has brought with it a host of challenges, and we’re so grateful to our Cuphead community for their patience and excitement as we’ve pushed to make The Delicious Last Course a true high watermark of the studio’s art, design, and animation,” said Studio MDHR co-director, Chad Moldenhauer.

While The Game Awards 2021 looks forward by featuring some of the biggest announcements and reveals in the world of video games, it is also a time to celebrate the incredible games that this past year so special.

From Game of the Year to Innovation in Accessibility to Best Narrative, there were a ton of categories that highlighted games of all types that all deserve recognition for what they accomplished. However, only one game could win each category, and we've listed all the winners of The Game Awards 2021 below.

In addition to gathering all the winners in this article, we've also rounded up all the biggest news and announcements from The Game Awards 2021, and you can check that out here.

Game of the Year

Recognizing a game that delivers the absolute best experience across all creative and technical fields.

• Deathloop
• It Takes Two - WINNER
• Metroid Dread
• Psychonauts 2
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart
• Resident Evil Village

Best Game Direction

Awarded for outstanding creative vision and innovation in game direction and design.

• Deathloop - WINNER
• It Takes Two
• Returnal
• Psychonauts 2
• Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart

Best Narrative

For outstanding storytelling and narrative development in a game.

PUBG: Battlegrounds will move to a free-to-play structure on PC and consoles from January 12, 2022 – bringing it in line with most of the battle royale games that followed it.

Announced at The Game Awards 2021, from January 12, the game will feature two tiers: a free Basic Account that "offers access to most game features", and Battlegrounds Plus which offers more, including a Ranked mode, for a one-time $12.99 fee. Those who have paid for the game previously will automatically be a part of Battlegrounds Plus.

The full list of Battlegrounds Plus benefits are:

• Bonus 1,300 G-COIN
• Survival Masters XP + 100 percent boost
• Career - Medal tab
• Ranked Mode
• Custom Match functionality
• In-Game items, including the Captain’s Camo set, which includes hat, camo mask and camo gloves

Those upgraded to Plus having bought the game before will also receive a Special Commemorative Pack, incuding the Battle-Hardened costume skin set, the Shackle and Shanks Legacy Pan and the Battle-Hardened Legacy nameplate.

In the weeks leading up to the free-to-play switch, developer Krafton is opening a pre-registration website to try the new version of the game, as well as offering other activities that let you earn free in-game items.

Bokeh, the new studio from Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama, has revealed its first game, entitled Slitterhead.

Shown off at The Game Awards 2021, we got a look at a truly upsetting trailer set in an unspecified Asian location, where various people's heads -- and then their whole bodies -- get real messed up as they transform into loathesome creatures.

You appear to play as someone fighting these skeletal, messed up monsters, though it's hard to tell at this early stage exactly what the plot is beyond "everything is pretty messed up and trying to kill you." Apropos from the creator of Silent Hill.

Toyama set up Bokeh Game Studio after leaving Sony Japan alongside Junya Okura (Gravity Rush) and Kazunobu Sato (The Last Guardian). He went on to announce that the studio's first project would be a horror action-adventure and showed off some suitably grotesque concept art. Toyama will serve as the game's creative director, while Akira Yamaoka will be doing the music.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is coming to PC, via the Epic Games Store.

The news was confirmed at The Game Awards 2021.

It will arrive on PC on December 16, 2021.

Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade was revealed earlier this year and arrived on PS5 in June. In May it was confirmed the game would be exclusive to PS5 for at least six months.

Luke is Games Editor at IGN's Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.

A group of ex-Bioware devs including former GM Aaryn Flynn have announced Nightingale – a shared world survival crafting game with first-person combat and a fantastical Victorian setting.

Developed by Inflexion Games, published by Improbable, and arriving into PC early access next year, Nightingale has players take on the role of a Realmwalker – a character who's been cut off from their home and needs to use portals to make their way back across a number of dangerous areas.

Each realm promsies to be an open world, asking you to scavenge and craft to survive, and even seeing you build "estates, farms, and communities". The game can be played alone or with friends, and features first-person combat featuring guns, melee weapons, and magic – and Inflexion says they're infinitely replayable.

“From the beginning," wrote Flynn in a press release, "we knew we wanted to build an intricate fantasy setting as rich and full of history and life as anything we’ve worked on in the past. The realms of Nightingale are vast and have many secrets to uncover, and we cannot wait for players to start discovering them.”

The game will open closed betas ahead of its early access launch next year, and you can register to take part on the game's website.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

After over a decade, Remedy Entertainment has officially announced a sequel to Alan Wake at The Game Awards 2021.

During the show, Remedy premiered a briefly trailer officially announcing Alan Wake 2. We don't know much about the plot, but apparently the story will "eat you alive."

"We know this is going to be a pretty scary experience," Remedy's Sam Lake said at The Game Awards.

It will be Remedy's first ever survival horror game. The original had survival horror elements, but it was an action game, Lake said. Remedy will be going dark "for a while" and will be back when the studio is ready to show more.

Alan Wake is a critically-acclaimed adventure mystery game starring the eponymous Alan Wake, a writer who visits the small town of Bright Falls, Washington to cure his writer's block. While on the trip, his wife is kidnapped by a mysterious force and he must use the power of light to rescue her.

Remedy combined elements of Stephen King and Twin Peaks to create a memorable adventure, but aside from an arcade-style pseudo-sequel, Alan Wake's American Nightmare, the series became dormant as Remedy began work on games like Quantum Break and Control.

There were also some rights issues when Remedy confirmed in 2018 that Alan Wake requires Microsoft's permission as the publishing rights holder. But in 2019 Remedy confirmed it acquired the full rights to Alan Wake from Microsoft, opening the door for future releases.

Lucasfilm Games has officially revealed a new Star Wars game: Star Wars Eclipse.

Announced at The Game Awards 2021, the first look at Star Wars Eclipse offers little clarity regarding its story but features heavy doses of lightsaber combat and plenty of glimpses of iconic Star Wars aliens and locations. The new official site for the game describes it as a "action-adventure, multiple-character branching narrative game set in the High Republic era of the iconic Star Wars galaxy."

It also notes it is "early in development."

We first heard rumours that Heavy Rain and Detroit developer Quantic Dream was making a Star Wars game back in September, but this is the first official confirmation.

Star Wars Eclipse marks another part of Disney's major expansion into building Star Wars games with multiple developers after recreating the Lucasfilm Games brand.

Luke is Games Editor at IGN's Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.

WB Games and developer Monolith Productions has announced Wonder Woman, a new game from the Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor and Shadow of War games.

No release date has been announced, but WB showcased a first teaser trailer cinematic, revealing its take on the classic DC hero.

This is one of several DC-related games in the works at WB's suite of studios, including Rocksteady's Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, as well as Gotham Knights from WB Montreal. We last saw both games at DC Fandome, where we saw new story teases for Gotham Knights' Court of Owls, as well as a new story trailer for Suicide Squad. Kill the Justice League is also set for a new look at The Game Awards.

While we wait to hear more about Wonder Woman, check out everything announced at The Game Awards so far. And for more on Monolith's past work, be sure to check out IGN's Middle-earth Shadow of War review.

At last, we finally got our first actual look at Senua's Saga: Hellblade 2 today at The Game Awards via its first ever actual gameplay trailer. Before the announcement, we learned the trailer is apparently entirely gameplay, with no pure cinematics involved. Take a look at the 6 minutes of gameplay below.

The trailer shows Senua and a group of allies taking on a Giant with no legs, using its hands to drag its body towards the group. The footage was a great showcase for the game's fire effects, which was very prevalent throughout the gameplay. The footage takes place in a cave area, and out in the open, showing multiple types of environments we can expect in the game.

No release date was given for the game, but Hellblade 2 is set to come to Xbox Series X|S and PC.

Since Microsoft and Ninja Theory announced Hellblade 2 in 2019, we've learned that Hellblade 2 will use Unreal Engine 5, but have unfortunately seen very little of the game itself until now. We got some behind-the-scenes footage back in June of this year without gameplay, but that's about it.

At the opening of The Game Awards this evening, host Geoff Keighley kicked off the show by calling attention to the ongoing problems of abuse and harassment in the games industry.

"We gotta be real, and we can't ignore the headlines that are out there," he said. "Game creators need to be supported by the companies that employ them. I think we all agree with that. So let me just say this before we get to any of the news, announcements, or awards. We should not and will not tolerate any abuse, harassment, and predatory practices by anyone, including our online communities. We all love games, and if we want this industry to keep going, we must build an even brighter and more inclusive future.

"The games we play and the games that we love teach us that we can impact the world around us, and tonight I call on everyone to do their part to build a better, safer video game industry. Speak out online, vote with your time and with your dollars, empower these world builders who are creating the future of all entertainment."

This speech was accompanied by a banner referring viewers to the Games and Online Harassment Hotline, which is a free, text message-based hotline offering support for victims of harassment and abuse either online or within the games industry.

Persona 4 Arena is Ultimax headed to modern consoles. Atlus revealed during The Game Awards that the popular anime fighting game will be released on Xbox Series X|S, PS5, and PC in 2022.

Developed by Arc System Works, Persona 4 Arena Ultimatax is a fighting game spinoff of Persona 4 featuring familiar characters such as Chie, Yukiko and Teddie. It's known for its heavily stylized graphics and fast-paced combat, both of which are typical of Arc System Works.

We praised Persona 4 Arena Ultimax for its accessibility in our original review, writing, "There are plenty of good things to say about Persona 4 Arena Ultimax. It looks and plays great, it’s easy to dive into for beginners, and rewarding to learn for veterans. It’s irresistible sense of style speaks for itself, but given how much I love its predecessor, the biggest compliment I can pay it is that it’s 100% the sequel that Persona 4 Arena deserved."

Mostly, though, it's exciting to have Persona 4 Arena Ultimax on console for that excellent remix of "Reach Out To The Truth."

Persona 4 Arena Ultimax releases on PS4, Steam, and PC on March 17. While you wait, you can play Persona 4 Golden, which is now available on Steam.

We've learned more about Monster Hunter Rise's major Sunbreak expansion, with a brand new hub town, new monster, and new NPC revealed at The Game Awards.

Shown off at The Game Awards 2021, we got a brief look at the new outpost for the expansion, called Elgado, as well as a royal new character with a fancy sword fighting against a new monster, Malzeno.

We also saw three new amiibo that are coming to the expansion: a special Palamute "Canyne Malzeno X," a Palico "Felyne Malzeno X," and Malzeno itself. Each one unlocks a special layered armor when used with Sunbreak.

Sunbreak has been described as a "massive expansion" to the base version of Rise, comparable to the Iceborne addition to Monster hunter World. Arriving in summer 2022, the expansion unlocks late into the original game, and includes a new Elder Dragon, a Master Rank for quests, and more.

A Texas Chainsaw Massacre game is in the works from the folks behind the defunct Friday the 14th video game.

Gun Interactive, creators of Friday the 13th, is partnering with Sumo Nottingham for The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. The developers say this is an asymmetrical multiplayer horror game, meaning it will likely adopt the popular survivors vs. murderer format seen in games like Friday the 13th and Dead by Daylight.

Gun previously developed a similar asymmetrical multiplayer horror game based on Friday the 13th, but a fight over the rights stopped Gun from developing content for the game further. But it appears Gun is back with a new iconic horror franchise.

Asymmetrical horror games are surprisingly common, but that is only a testament to how much people enjoy them. Typically in these games, one player takes the role of the killer and must capture and find the other players who are survivors. The remaining players can work together to try and survive the murderer, or die trying.

Speaking of which, there's also a new Texas Chain Saw Massacre movie in the works at Netflix. Talk about good timing.

Check out IGN's The Game Awards hub page for the latest news and reveals.

A brand new Babylon's Fall trailer just dropped at The Game Awards, showing off more gameplay, more of PlatinumGames' iconic sword-slashy combat, and most importantly, a release date of March 3, 2022.

For most people, that is. If you happen to pre-order the digital deluxe edition, you'll be able to start playing on February 28 -- three days early.

Bizarrely, though, you'll need to be online at all times to play it, as well as have a Square Enix account. IGN has confirmed with Square Enix that an internet connection is required to play the game generally, even if you're just climbing the tower solo.

Babylon's Fall is a combat-focused action title where players control a sentinel, a warrior bonded with special equipment called Gideon Coffins who must ascend and conquer the enemy-filled Tower of Babylon. Players can customize their characters with up to four weapons at once, allowing for different combinations and playstyles, and can either play alone or with up to three friends. New game modes, story, and weapons will be added to Babylon's Fall for free post-launch.

Homeworld 3 will be released during Q4 2022, marking an end to what will be an almost two-decade wait for a new entry in the sci-fi real-time strategy series.

Announced during The Game Awards 2021, Homeworld 3 got a trailer mixing cinematics with in-engine footage, and announcing the game's release for Steam and Epic Games Store. We got a look at how the game will include battles in open space as well as across giant space deralicts called megaliths.

The game has been "developed for powerful modern hardware", and will include new ships, fully simulated ballistics, persistent fleets (with battle damage lingering from mission to mission), and multiple modes, including a campaign, multiplayer, and a "co-op mode with a roguelike twist."

Homeworld 2 arrived in 2003, and the sequel's story takes place generations after that game's events. Homeworld 1 and 2's art director, Rob Cunningham is now CEO of developer Blackbird Interactive, and explained in a press release that this game meets the goals he was aiming to meet almost 20 years ago:

“Homeworld 3 is the realization of the vision of what we set out to create in the Homeworld series, with modern technology allowing us to push beyond our wildest dreams of large-scale dynamic space combat packed with emotional sci-fi storytelling. We could not be more excited to debut the deepest look yet at gameplay with the incredible Homeworld community and the world at The Game Awards. We have got a lot more exciting details to share next year as we prepare for the launch of this massive next chapter.”

If you regularly watch events where games get revealed, you’ve likely seen the adorable isometric action game Tunic at least once, and maybe wondered when you’d finally be able to play it in full. Fortunately, today during The Game Awards Tunic finally got a release date of March 16, 2022.

Tunic was first revealed way back in 2017 and charmed instantly with its little fox protagonist, a distinct top-down Zelda vibe, and apparently quite challenging combat. It’s since appeared at various shows and events since then, and had a demo available earlier this year. Incidentally, it's got another demo across both Xbox and Steam that already was made available on December 7, and is will remain up through December 14.

Why did it take so long for Tunic to get here? Put simply by publisher Finji’s Rebekah Saltsman in an interview with IGN, games are hard to make. It took Tunic years to discover itself, effectively, and for the team to make the most “Tunic-y” decisions possible at each juncture. Level design alone, she says, changed often because so many of the things its developers thought would work ultimately didn’t.

“There was a big level design thing that we were doing, and…we took Andrew [Shouldice, game director] to Disney World,” she said. “Sounds weird, but Disney World has great level design. So, we took him to Disney World in November of 2018. And what's really interesting about Disney World is there are very few places where you walk in a straight line for a really long time. And this was already something everyone was thinking about.

Prior to its recent release of Halo Infinite, Microsoft filed a US trademark application for 'Halo: The Endless'.

As spotted by Aggiornamenti Lumia on Twitter, Microsoft initially filed its application for Halo: The Endless on December 3 before it was then updated on December 7.

HALO: THE ENDLESS - Trademark Detailshttps://t.co/gMuFQPDM9S

— Aggiornamenti Lumia (@ALumia_Italia) December 9, 2021

Currently, very little is known about the trademark. A listing on trademark website Justia merely suggests that the trademark is tied to goods and services in the realm of video game software, which doesn't give much away. Further links within the trademark also appear to suggest ties between Halo: The Endless and other forms of entertainment media such as film, TV, and radio. Despite references to a number of formats within the trademark, this is far from a guarantee that Halo: The Endless will actually ever materialize into a product from within one of those categories.

Halo Infinite's single-player campaign has a bug that is currently affecting players jumping back into their play sessions via Xbox Series X/S' Quick Resume feature. 343 has acknowledged the matter, however, and says that a fix is currently in the works.

As shared in a tweet by 343's community director Brian Jarrard, Halo Infinite currently features a bug that stops multiplayer cosmetics earned in the game's campaign from showing up in your multiplayer inventory. Currently, 343 hasn't specified a time frame for a fix on the issue, though the studio has stated it's something that it is working on.

"When playing Halo Infinite's campaign you will come across armor lockers that contain cosmetics for your MP Spartan," writes Jarrard on Twitter. "If you are offline, or disconnected from services - which can occur after Quick Resume - the cosmetics won’t show up in your MP inventory."

"The team is aware and we will eventually have a retroactive fix (you will get the cosmetics you've earned). For now, I recommend not continuing a Quick Resume session and making sure you’re online before venturing into Zeta Halo."

The team is aware and we will eventually have a retroactive fix (you will get the cosmetics youve earned). For now, I recommend not continuing a Quick Resume session and making sure you’re online before venturing into Zeta Halo. Thank you! (2/2)

We’re all familiar with two-player card games where you summon minions and queue them up before you like some doughty phalanx. But any similarity with a real battle line ends when you make abstract clashes of card against card. The real game is in building your deck, finding combos and managing your hand.

Summoner Wars takes the deck building, the combos, the hand management and adds a simple, massive twist. Instead of a queue, the two of you put your minions on board and fight it out in a real tactical battle. It was revolutionary when it first came out in 2009: now it’s back in a tight new edition.

What’s in the Box

There are two ways you can start out with Summoner Wars: the Master Set and the Starter Set. Both contain dice, a board, and some decks of cards. In the Starter Set, you get two decks and the board is thick paper that you’ll want to weigh down beneath some plexiglass. In the Master Set, you get a sturdy mounted board and six decks. Those six don’t include the two in the Starter Set.

All the art has been redone for this new edition, moving from classical fantasy realism toward a more cartoon style. Whether that you find this a positive change is a matter of individual taste, although the newer art seems better quality and is perhaps better suited to the tone of the game.

The ABK Workers Alliance, a collective of Activision Blizzard and King employees, has initiated strike action against its employer. The group plans to continue its work stoppage until its demands are met. This follows walkouts from other Activision Blizzard groups, including Raven’s QA department.

Announced via a post on Twitter, the group said “Today, the ABK Worker's Alliance announces the initiation of its strike. We encourage our peers in the Game Industry to stand with us in creating lasting change.”

Today, the ABK Worker's Alliance announces the initiation of its strike. We encourage our peers in the Game Industry to stand with us in creating lasting change. For those who wish to join in solidarity, please consider donating to our Strike Fund.https://t.co/IauGyxuLYG

— ABetterABK 💙 ABK Workers Alliance (@ABetterABK) December 9, 2021

In addition, the Tweet also includes a link to a Gofundme page, which allows supporters to provide financial donations to help participating Activision Blizzard and King staff through their work stoppage. “For those who wish to join in solidarity, please consider donating to our Strike Fund,” said the tweet. The fund has a goal of $1 million.

One of Destiny's most recognizable weapons is getting its own real-life Nerf overhaul. That's right, Bungie is partnering up alongside toy-weapon creators Nerf to bring out their own foam-firing Gjallarhorn.

Now listed on the Bungie store, the toy version of the legendary Destiny rocket launcher which will be available to pre-order in late 2022.

The weapon, which is being redesigned with Nerf's iconic orange lick of paint, is being designed at a 1:1 scale of its video game counterpart and will measure more than 4 feet in size. Similar to its appearance in Destiny, the Nerf weaponry will fire its own version of the launcher's Wolfpack rounds in the form of a "first-of-its kind Mega" that will launch three darts at once from inside the shell. The weapon will also feature a breach loading mechanism inspired by the game, as well as an illuminated scope.

When I reviewed Terminator: Resistance back in 2019 I found its hapless waves of tin can kill-bots made for a disappointingly formulaic first-person shooter and yet, somewhat depressingly, probably still the best Terminator game that I’d ever played thanks to its slavishly rendered and movie-accurate post-apocalyptic aesthetic. Annihilation Line, a DLC campaign that sprouts off from the main story’s midpoint, is effectively more of the same. All of the enemies, bog-standard mission objectives, and the curiously Frogger-inspired hacking system are present and accounted for in this mindless trek through another series of crumbling concrete shooting galleries. On the plus side, its relatively brisk four-hour runtime means it’s over twice as fast.

Tagging along with Kyle Reese (sadly not the Michael Biehn version) for a sojourn behind Skynet defenses on a mission to rescue human survivors, Annihilation Line follows the same cadence of the main campaign: hero Jacob Rivers is shuttled from objective-based sandbox mission to linear, action heavy gauntlet run, to dialogue-heavy downtime at the Resistance’s hideout – rinse and repeat. Its short run time leaves no room for the light RPG-inspired moral choices from the main game, but its basic item-crafting and skill upgrade system are brought across unchanged. Your main game progress doesn’t copy over for the latter, but thankfully you’re given a surplus of points upfront to give you the running start that’s needed to tackle Resistance’s beefier late-game enemy types from the outset.

Japan’s Osaka Prefectural Police is using Ace Attorney characters as part of a campaign to tackle marijuana use among children.

In a press release from Capcom, the company revealed that it is working with Osaka police’s juvenile delinquency prevention awareness program to produce 6,000 posters and 4,000 flyers that will feature characters from The Great Ace Attorney Chronicles. The posters feature the classic Ace Attorney “objection!” stance, accompanied by a large “NO!” written in the instantly recognisable font.

According to Capcom, the Osaka Prefectural Police reached out to the company to request use of the Ace Attorney characters as part of their new anti-weed campaign. The police are currently promoting an anti-drug message to children after they witnessed “a conspicuous shift toward younger age groups” among marijuana use cases.

The flyers will be given out alongside individually wrapped face masks at Osaka Prefectural educational institutions, police boxes, and train stations from today, December 9.

While this is the first time Ace Attorney characters have been used as part of a policing project, Capcom has previously worked with law enforcement before, having collaborated with prefectural police in the Kansai region on prevention activities and traffic safety awareness for Tamura Police Station, among other projects.

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

On Monday, December 6, members of the Raven Software QA team announced it will hold a walkout to protest the layoffs of over a dozen QA contractors working on Call of Duty games like Vanguard and Warzone. The walkout has now garnered the support of the wider Activision Blizzard companies with walkouts from ABK employees in Texas, Minnesota, and California joining in.

According to the ABetterABK employee group, quality assurance testers in Texas, Minnesota, and Blizzard’s Irvine headquarters will join Raven Software employees in solidarity. Raven’s QA testers are demanding Activision Blizzard reinstate these contractors and convert them to full-time employees.

Are you having trouble installing the Halo Infinite Campaign? You may have to troubleshoot a bit to get it up and running including resetting your system and installing an update for the Halo Infinite multiplayer first.

As players wake up to get started on the Halo Infinite campaign, some are encountering issues where either the campaign update is downloading slowly, or the Xbox app doesn't seem to recognize the campaign is live yet.

Some players have encountered a pre-order banner when launching the campaign when it should be already available.

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

Attorney Lisa Bloom and Christine, a current Blizzard employee, held a press conference outside of Blizzard headquarters in Irvine, California today to share her story about the “alcohol-soaked culture of sexual harassment” at the company.

Christine appeared in front of a crowd in front of Blizzard’s headquarters today to describe her experience at the company she’s been with for the past four years. Christine spoke about her elation when she was first hired and how it turned to horror as she became subject to repeated sexual advances and comments. She also says a supervisor propositioned her for sex.

After making a complaint, Christine described encountering retaliation from the company including receiving a demotion and denying her full profit-sharing. Christine also described avoiding the company’s social events to avoid being inappropriately touched.

God of War developer Sony Santa Monica has revealed the game's specs ahead of its move to PC while Nvidia has announced that Horizon: Zero Dawn's PC edition is also getting a new feature today.

The PC specs for God of War have been released by Sony Santa Monica prior to the game's Steam launch on January 14, 2022.

As per the specs detailed below, to run the game at its minimum requirements of 720p resolution at 30FPS, players will need to be packing an Nvidia GTX 960 or AMD R9 290X alongside an Intel i5 processor (or equivalent) and 8GB ram. The game itself will require around 70GB of free space which can be installed on a standard hard drive, though it's recommended that players run the game via a solid-state drive (SSD) even at low-performance settings.

Ultra graphics settings will allow players to run the game in 4K at 60 FPS though the hardware needed to do so is significantly higher in spec. In order to run the game in Ultra, PC players will need an Nvidia RTX 3080 (10GB) or AMD RX 6080 XT (16 GB) as well as an i9-9900k (8 core 3.6 GHz) processor (or equivalent) plus 16 GB of ram. To see how your PC will shape up, you can check the full range of the game's specs below.

Xbox has released a Spotify-exclusive narrative podcast called Halo Infinite: Memory Agent - a new story that follows a secret agent from the Office of Naval Intelligence as she attempts to deliver vital information to Master Chief.

While this mission would be dangerous enough if everything was perfect, this agent suffers from a condition that resets her memory every seven hours. Luckily, she won't be alone as she will have the help of an AI companion and "battlefield reports of others who have encountered the legendary hero."

Throughout the six-episode series, she will not only learn more about her past and that of Master Chief, but she will also piece together "just how important her task may be."

Each episode ranges from 8-11 minutes and, although it is only available on Spotify, it can be listened to on the streaming platform even if you don't have an account.

Halo Infinite: Memory Agent follows the excellent two-season Hunt he Truth podcast that led up to the launch of Halo 5: Guardians. That story followed journalist Benjamin Giraud's quest to unravel the mysteries behind Master Chief.

Halo Infinite's open world was reportedly cut down from a scale similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, to what it is today. Apparently, almost two-thirds of the planned game was chosen to be cut in the move.

According to a report on the game's development by Bloomberg, 343 decided to drastically slash the game's open-world map in 2019 as it attempted to stabilize the direction that game was heading.

Reportedly, by the summer of 2019, Halo Infinite had hit a number of issues. As per the report, the studio took the decision to cut almost two-thirds of the entire planned game in an effort to streamline production. As part of this decision, the outlet notes that the game's open world was significantly scaled down from a "Zelda-like experience into something far smaller."

Despite scaling down the game's open-world map, Infinite's problems continued past 2019. In July 2020, the developers showed off a range of gameplay footage for the game, which was met with overwhelming disapproval from the Halo community. Fans mocked the gameplay footage across social media for its poor quality, creating memes out of 'Craig the Brute', and airing their frustrations toward 343.

Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection is slated to release for PS5 on January 28, 2022, with a PC release to follow sometime in 2022. Legacy of Thieves Collection includes remastered versions of the PS4 games Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy. If you already own either of those games, you can upgrade to a digital version of this collection for $10. Let’s dive into the details.

Preorder Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

• Get it at Best Buy - $49.99
• Get it at Walmart - $49.99
• Get it at PlayStation Store (digital) - $49.99

Those who want a physical copy of the game, or a full-priced digital copy, can preorder at the links above.

How to Upgrade to Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection

Let’s say you already own Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (physical or digital), Uncharted: The Lost Legacy (physical or digital), or the Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Digital Bundle. In that case, starting January 28, 2022, you’ll be able to visit the PlayStation Store and pay $10 to get a digital copy of Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection.

As modern tactical military shooters go, World War 3, currently in closed beta, does a fair amount right. It captures fast-paced, tactical combat in contemporary settings well and spices it up a bit with inventive gadgets and a ridiculous amount of customization options. But the work it takes to indulge in all that excess doesn’t feel worth it, and at this stage in development, it’s been rough to even connect to a game long enough to put any in.

World War 3 looks impressive. The small details in places like soldier uniforms really blew my mind. I can’t speak to its accuracy, but the micro-accessories that spot your gear appear exactly like the real-world counterparts to my untrained eyes. Not much about it, be it the gear or the environments, really stands out among contemporary shooters, though. If you've seen it in other modern shooters, you’ll likely see it here too.

Gunplay is largely similar in that aspect, as most weapons feel familiar to today’s simulation standards. Every weapon can be customized with a huge amount of different parts that affect both function and form. Don’t like the iron sights on your SMG? Well, you can choose from over a half dozen others that might fit your fancy, before moving down the line to barrels, grips, magazines, etc. WW3’s vast modding system will surely scratch your tinker’s itch...

Masahiro Sakurai has explained that there are 'no plans' for a sequel to Super Smash Bros. Ultimate right now, and says that "it would be best not to assume that there will always be another one." Even if he did return to the series, the director says a sequel would be unlikely to keep all of the current fighters.

Speaking to IGN in an email interview, the beloved Smash Bros. director touched on the future of the series, and his part in it.

"I can’t really think about future prospects at the moment," he explained when I asked if he planned to direct another Smash Bros. game. "If Nintendo decides they want to make another one and offers me the job, that’s when I’d start thinking about it."

Rockstar has announced that GTA Online will be receiving a story-focused expansion, 'The Contract', featuring GTA V character Franklin, and set years after the events of the game's single-player campaign. Due for release on December 15, the story will focus on Franklin working in his new "celebrity solutions agency", and will feature Dr. Dre, who has composed new music for the game.

Announced on the Rockstar Newswire, the expansion (which, like all GTA Online updates, will be free) introduces F. Clinton and Partner, an agency that offers 'solutions' to the problems of Los Santos' elite. Your GTA Online character will meet Franklin through Lamar Davis, and will be tasked with taking the business to the next level.

As part of that story, GTA 5 radio host (and GTA Online co-writer) DJ Pooh will contact Franklin to mention a potential client - Dr. Dre. Dre has lost his phone, which is full of unreleased new music. You'll be tasked with securing the tracks and returning them to the legendary artist – and you can do this solo, or with a crew.

Rockstar teases that you'll be working with Franklin himself, Chop the Dog, and a hacker called Imani to travel from Franklin's old neighbourhood, to Los Santos parties, to FIB offices to retrieve the tracks. As you can see from the trailer above, it seems we'll meet other famous artists too, given that Anderson .Paak appears – and a guest appearance from Snoop Dogg on the soundtrack could potentially be hinting at another cameo.

343 Industries has revealed that fans won't be able to preload the Halo Infinite's campaign ahead of its release today. While the announcement is likely to disappoint those hoping to delve into the campaign as soon as possible, the studio has stated that players who've already downloaded the game's multiplayer beta will find that their overall download time for the game is significantly reduced.

News of the announcement was shared on Twitter where Halo Support confirmed that players who have pre-installed the beta will have a far shorter wait in order to fully install the game. While the account does note that download sizes may vary depending on the platform players are using, a rough guide can be found in the tweet below.

When the #HaloInfinite Campaign launches tomorrow at 10am PT, players who have downloaded the Multiplayer Beta will have a smaller download size. While download sizes may vary by platform, this guide will give you an idea of what to expect tomorrow. pic.twitter.com/Tg3SzFvlhl

— Halo Support (@HaloSupport) December 8, 2021

As can be seen in the guide, the download size for Halo Infinite is just shy of 50GB when downloading the game from scratch, while it weighs in at around 30GB for those who already have the multiplayer beta installed. The difference here comes from Halo Infinite's multiplayer, which weighs in at 26.53GB for those without the beta and a mere 3.97GB for those with it.

Bungie’s 30th-anniversary celebration is live and, as fans guessed, Halo-themed items are coming to Destiny 2 including weapons based on Halo weapons like the Battle Rifle and Energy Sword.

When Bungie announced its 30th-anniversary celebration, the company revealed it will be celebrating all of its past with items inspired by classic Bungie games like Marathon. But the biggest Bungie series of them all, Halo, was not mentioned. Still, fans expected Bungie would honor this part of the company’s history, and today the company has.

The Halo weapons and cosmetics in Destiny 2 have different names. For example, the magnum is called Forerunner Exotic Sidearm or the BxR-55 Battler in the case of the Battle Rifle. These 7 weapons are available for free to anyone playing Destiny 2.

In a new trailer celebrating the anniversary, there are other Halo-inspired items on display. One such item is a Sparrow designed to resemble a Covenant Ghost. Plus a Ghost shell with a Halo ring around it.

The Halo-themed items join other Bungie cosmetics including a Claymore sword from Myth and a shotgun from Marathon. The 30th Anniversary event will also include a new dungeon, activity, and another chance at unlocking the famed Gjallarhorn rocket launcher.

As part of the start of Fortnite Chapter 3, Epic Games has announced that Fortnite development has shifted to Unreal Engine 5, the latest version of the company's graphic technology.

Last year, after the gorgeous Unreal Engine 5 tech demo, Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney said Fortnite would make the shift to Unreal Engine 5 in mid-2021, adding that the new version is meant “to do things that are absolutely not possible today.”

With the arrival of Chapter 3, @FortniteGame development has flipped to Unreal Engine 5.

We're excited to share this journey with you and are working to make this the best experience possible for the entire Fortnite community.

— Unreal Engine (@UnrealEngine) December 7, 2021

Earlier this year, Unreal Engine 5 was officially released in Early Access, letting game devs test out the new tools and features in the next-gen engine. More Unreal Engine 5 tech demos and projects are already starting to crop up.

This week's episode is all about Halo Infinite (read the spoiler-free review if you haven't already). We can FINALLY talk about it now that the review embargo has lifted. We discuss everything we did and didn't like about Master Chief's glorious return,. but don't worry – this conversation is spoiler-free. We'll do a full Halo Infinite spoilercast on next week's episode.

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our new YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 download of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out our latest IGN Unfiltered interview, where Joseph Staten – one of Halo's original creators and now the head of creative on Halo Infinite – discusses his fascinating career:

Oh, and you can be featured on Unlocked by tweeting us a video Loot Box question! Tweet your question and tag Ryan at @DMC_Ryan!

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.