IGN

Animal Crossing Devs Are Loving the Doom Crossovers

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Animal Crossing and Doom Eternal fans, your awesome collaborative fanart has been seen and is greatly appreciated by Animal Crossing: New Horizons' director, Aya Kyogoku, and producer, Hisashi Nogami. In an interview with IGN, the two briefly lauded the unity that's grown between the two fanbases leading up to both games' March 20 release. "I definitely do notice and have noticed that there’s a lot of Doom and Animal Crossing collaboration art and illustrations that are being posted, and as I look through them I’m in awe of how much creativity our fans have," Kyogoku said. If you haven't seen much from this crossover, fans have often been depicting Doomguy interacting with Isabelle in sweet ways, like teaching her how to slay demons. It's glorious. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/29/march-2020s-biggest-game-releases"] "I think because there is a common denominator of this type of communication happening between Doom and Animal Crossing fans, and also the fact that Animal Crossing is a communication game, we’re very thankful and very thrilled to see all this," Kyogoku said. "We’re so excited at the same time to see how the two [fandoms] are coming together to celebrate this day." The major link between these two games is their release date and the support of their fandom, and Nogami is celebrating the crossover in a broader sense of what it means for games. "So Animal Crossing and Doom — obviously the game genres are completely different. We definitely do have something in common, and that is that they’re both video games, and come from that same subculture so to speak. It’s so great to see that these two different [fandoms] are coming together and hyping up the gaming [community] and gaming culture itself.
Author
Miranda Sanchez

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Doom Eternal Does Not Have Deathmatch Because the Mode Is ‘Eons Old’

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Doom Eternal does not feature a classic-style Deathmatch multiplayer mode because the idea of it is “eons old”, according to Bethesda Senior VP of Comms Pete Hines. Talking to Shack News, Hines said that he didn’t feel as if Doom Eternal was missing out on anything by not including deathmatch. “That mode is eons old,” he said. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/12/doom-eternal-12-minutes-of-battlemode-2v1-multiplayer-gameplay-ign-first"] The decision to leave the classic Doom feature behind came after reflecting on how distant Doom 2016’s multiplayer felt from the core experience. “Whether you're playing by yourself or with others, we want it to feel like you're all playing the same game,” Hines explained. “That's as opposed to, ‘I'm a badass demon slayer in single-player, but when I go over to multiplayer, there are no demons, and it's just Deathmatch.’ I don't know what that has to do with [Doom] other than that, well, a couple of decades ago we had that, so we should just have that again.” Id Software’s refusal to include deathmatch just because it has been long associated with the Doom name has resulted in a new asynchronous multiplayer game called Battlemode, which goes live with Doom Eternal’s campaign when it launches.
Author
Matt Purslow

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Why Animal Crossing: New Horizons Doesn't Have Cloud Save Support

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is on the way, but you won't be able to use cloud saves to protect your deserted island's progress. IGN spoke with Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ director, Aya Kyogoku, and producer, Hisashi Nogami, to clarify why this feature isn't compatible with their vision for the game, and the alternatives they're looking at to protect player's data. The answer came down to one thing: they want to prevent cheating. Nogami said that Animal Crossing: New Horizons is an online game that allows players anywhere to connect, and cheating is a huge concern in online games. Kyogoku added on that players could unfairly take advantage of the in-game economy if certain things like cloud saves are used improperly. Nogami explained that Nintendo Switch's cloud save service functions similarly to "SD data saves", and allows users to write their data on allotted network storage. Then, you can progress through your game and eventually roll back your data to the cloud save if you wanted and effectively cheat the game. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/10-cute-animal-crossing-new-horizons-multiplayer-and-museum-features"] But how does this differ from time-traveling, another way to cheat the system to visit holidays and quickly earn bells? Nogami clarified that, yes, while some players choose to manipulate their system's clock to skip around in Animal Crossing, it doesn't have the same impact as manipulating save data. The Animal Crossing team found that with cloud saves, users could potentially cheat by multiplying or increasing the number of a specific item. "It messes with the economy of Animal Crossing by getting the items or bells as much as they want. Trying to acquire items or money is something we do in real life too, and we also want the users to understand that there is hard work involved with doing these types of things just like real life,” Kyogoku said.
Author
Miranda Sanchez

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PS5 News: Everything We've Learned From Sony's Deep Dive Reveal

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
PlayStation 5 is a getting a system architecture 'deep dive' today, hosted by Sony designer Mark Cerny - and we'll be streaming it, watching it and updating you live right here. The PS5 'deep dive' is ongoing. We'll have it streaming here on IGN (both below, and live on our homepage), and it's also on the PlayStation Blog, or on YouTube. Read on for all the updates we learn from the event. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/18/ps5-deep-dive-reveal"]

PS5's SSD Features

Sony's Mark Cerny discussed, during the PS5 reveal event, one of the paramount efforts Sony is making with the PS5 — listening to developers to ensure the learning period of getting up to speed on the PS5 would be quick for developers. Sony is estimating it will take under a month for most developers to get a handle of the PS5's tech, which is even lower than the company's estimated month to two months on the PS4. The SSD, the custom-built solid state drive, is also key to what Sony is endeavoring to do to help developers. Cerny explained that, rather than the PS4's HDD bandwidth of 50-100 MB/s, the target speed of the PS5 is 5GB/s at least. And the hope is that load times, as opposed to 1GB in 20 seconds on the PS4, can become 0.27 seconds for 2GB on the PS5. ETZ2_4vXgAA3hRk Cerny also explained that the SSD isn't just about improving loading times for the player, but also to benefit game design.
Author
Jonathon Dornbush

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Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Members Will Now Get Free DLC and More

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Xbox Game Pass Ultimate members will now get regular Perks, including DLC, in-game content and more, included as part of the membership subscription. As of today, March 18, Ultimate members can redeem the following four perks:  
  • Phantasy Star Online 2: "Enter the world of one of Japan’s biggest online RPGs with a special content bundle, which includes unique emotes, in-game cosmetics including an Xbox jacket, a gold ticket Mission Pass and in-game currency with a Meseta Crystal. Available to members in the US and Canada only."
  • World of Tanks: Mercenaries: "A global multiplayer free-to-play game dedicated to tank warfare in the mid-20th century. Start your journey with three powerful tanks and more!"
  • Sea of Thieves: "The essential pirate experience, from sailing and fighting to exploring and looting – everything you need to live the pirate life and become a legend in your own right. With Perks, you get a free Ori-inspired Ancestral Sails, Figurehead, Hull, and Flag to adorn your ship."
  • Smite: "Become divine in the #1 MOBA on Xbox, with a bundle that unlocks five Gods, special character skins and voice packs so you can ride into the battle of the Gods in style. With Smite, join a community of 30 million players and defend your portal in showdowns in the Collesium."
  New perks will be added alongside additions to the Game Pass catalog.
Author
Joe Skrebels

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PS5 Not Yet Delayed By Coronavirus, Says PlayStation PR Agency

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Sony's Benelux PR Agency, BAAS, has said that the PlayStation 5 launch is not yet delayed by the COVID-19 (novel coronavirus) outbreak. Speaking to LetsGoDigital, the Amsterdam PR agency - which represents PlayStation across the Benelux region - reportedly said the PS5 launch is still on target for its unspecified holiday release date. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/17/ps5-news-coming-tomorrow-march-18-ign-now"] Some have been clear to point out the "yet" in that wording - implying those discussions could be taking place - but it's not clear if the statement reported by LetsGoDigital is exactly what was written by a BAAS spokesperson, or if it's been paraphrased. Sony has not yet responded to IGN at time of writing. Whatever release PS5 ends up getting, we know that we're getting new information today, with system architect Mark Cerny presenting a 'deep dive' on the console at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 4pm UK (that's 3am AEDT on March 19), on the PlayStation Blog. [poilib element="accentDivider"]
Author
Joe Skrebels

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Tales From the Borderlands Redux Leak Seems to Tease Sequel

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Two short video clips of what is reportedly a trailer for a Tales From The Borderlands re-release with added content has been posted online. The videos also tease a sequel to the Telltale episodic adventure series. First surfacing on Reddit, the two clips are videos of a trailer playing on a monitor. The clips fit together to make the whole trailer (both are under a minute as they are hosted on Imgur, which only allows videos of up to 60 seconds), which reveals a game called Tales From The Borderlands Redux. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2015/10/20/tales-from-the-borderlands-episode-5-the-vault-of-the-traveler-review"] If real, Redux will apparently include developer commentary for each episode, codex entries, new concept art, unused content from the original release, and a new “mini” episode. The trailer does say how many minutes of extra gameplay this episode will provide, but the framing of the shot cuts the digits out of frame. The trailer concludes on a 2020 date, which then flickers into a single digit - 2 - which could be seen as a teaser for a sequel or second season of Tales From The Borderlands. The studio logos at the start of the trailer include Telltale, 2K, Gearbox and, most interestingly, Adhoc Studio, a developer set up by ex-Telltale Games staff after the company originally shut down. Adhoc previously hinted that it would be working on a live-action project akin to Black Mirror’s Bandersnatch interactive episode, but if this leak proves true it also looks like it has been working with new Telltale to create Redux.
Author
Matt Purslow

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Xbox Series X’s Full Specs Have Us HYPED

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Microsoft has revealed the full tech specs for Xbox Series X and we are pumped. We discuss the ingredients of the next-gen Xbox that have us the most hyped for the new console, from Xbox Velocity Architecture to raytracing. P.S. Please bear with us on our first-ever remote-location episode! Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, or grab an MP3 download of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out the latest episode of IGN Unfiltered, featuring an interview with DOOM Eternal director Hugo Martin and executive producer Marty Stratton: [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/19/dooms-long-road-back-to-greatness-with-doom-eternal-director-hugo-martin-and-marty-stratton-ign-unfiltered-48"] It's already an incredibly fun year of Xbox coverage, and the best is yet to come. Join us! [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.
Author
Ryan McCaffrey

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Call of Duty: Warzone Adds Solos Mode

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Call of Duty: Warzone's newest mode adds solos play for everyone looking to get a little alone time in the new battle royale. Developer Infinity Ward announced the solos mode becoming available in its latest blog post detailing how the new mode will work. The same amount of 150 players, including you, will drop in with only a few minor changes. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/11/call-of-duty-warzone-isnt-just-a-battle-royal"] "Solos is an option for players who are true mercenaries and only want to carry themselves across Verdansk. Only lone wolves need apply; Solo games are the quintessential experience for the player who want the ultimate challenge – all or nothing," the blog post reads. Players that are already familiar with how Warzone works won't be taken too much by surprise. The only major changes include playing alone and not having teammates to revive you using buy stations. Despite teammates no longer being able to revive you, the Gulag and self-revive kits are still available in solos for getting back into the fight. The contracts system is still in place as well for helping players rack up cash. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ranking-every-call-of-duty-single-player-campaign&captions=true"] Call of Duty: Warzone surpassed six million players within its first 24 hours, and has since surpassed over 15 million players.
Author
Jeffrey Lerman

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Pokemon Go Players Feel the Impact of Coronavirus in Real-Time

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
In 2016 it was easy to tell who was playing Pokemon Go. In larger cities, you could see groups of players huddled in a spot looking down at their phones. These days, you might think that the increasing rarity of these groups might imply a decreasing interest in Pokemon Go. But chances are you’re not seeing large groups a lot these days anyway. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/02/15/official-pokemon-go-johto-region-pokemon-trailer"] Pokemon Go is as successful as ever, and by some metrics, even more successful. In 2019, Niantic reported the strongest year ever for the AR mobile game, reporting $894 million in revenue, up over its debut year in 2016. In 2018 Pokemon Go had over 140 million monthly active users meaning there are still millions of players around the world walking around and spinning PokeStops or taking on gyms and raids. The United States remains Pokemon Go's most successful market, followed by Japan and Germany. In the past weeks, countries outside of China, like South Korea, and Italy have come to terms with a breakout of COVID-19, better known as the novel coronavirus. The World Health Organization has classified the outbreak as a pandemic and states and cities are beginning to shut down large gatherings and encouraging those who can to self-isolate themselves at home. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=If%20you%20don%E2%80%99t%20have%20that%20form%20you%20can%20get%20a%20206%E2%82%AC%20fine%20or%206%20months%20in%20jail."]At the moment of writing, cities in the USA were following the lead of many in Europe with mandatory lockdowns.
Author
Matt Kim

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Doom Eternal's Deadliest Weapon Is Speed

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Doom Eternal undoubtedly has some of the best guns in games. The Super Shotgun is a buckshot icon, where each pull of the trigger instantly tears Hell’s denizens to shreds. The BFG’s freakish green projectile erases any creature that its alien-like tendrils caress. But all of Doom Eternal’s many guns are useless unless combined with the Doom Slayer’s most potent weapon: speed. Id Software’s Doom games have never been about staying still, but Doom Eternal feels speedier than any of the entries that came before it. The Slayer has an athletic toolkit dedicated to movement; he is able to dash twice over short distances in quick succession, as well as double-jump to boost to new heights and leap clean over foes. But Eternal’s speed comes not out of opportunity, but necessity: stop moving and you’ll stop breathing. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/17/doom-eternal-single-player-review"] Environments continually populate with “mortally challenged” enemies, spawning in via eruptions of flaming energy. Thanks to the multi-tiered nature of the level design - Earth is decorated with both tall gothic architecture and deep chasms torn by Hell’s invasion - foes can arrive not just in front or behind you, but above or below, too. You’re surrounded on all sides, and that’s the first thing that puts you in your running shoes. But where to run to? That’s the ever-present question, because Doom Eternal wants you to run both at and away from its foes. Each one - from lowly zombies to battle axe-wielding Marauders - hit far harder than you’d expect.
Author
Matt Purslow

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No Man's Sky Studio's The Last Campfire Out This Summer

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
The Last Campfire, the new project from Hello Games, developer of No Man's Sky, will be released for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC this summer. That news comes alongside a very pretty new trailer, which you can watch below. The game sees you play as Ember, trying to adventure your way out of a puzzling world. The story will centre around "rekindling hope in an otherwise hopeless world". [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/17/the-last-campfire-official-trailer"] Designed under the label of a "Hello Games Short", the game is made at a smaller scale and by a smaller team than No Man's Sky - however, the warm reaction to its reveal at the 2018 Game Awards has apparently led to an increase in ambition for the team. In an email to IGN, Hello Games head of publishing Tim Woodley said: "The project came about through our desire to have an outlet in the studio which harked back to a time before No Man’s Sky - back when Hello Games was four people in a room working on Joe Danger, incubating a new idea and watching it and the team grow and develop. We're excited about The Last Campfire, but also what this team does in future." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-last-campfire-5-screenshots&captions=true"] Work on No Man's Sky has continued alongside development of The Last Campfire, and it shows little sign of slowing down.
Author
Joe Skrebels

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Vote For Your Favorite Resident Evil Boss

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
With the Resident Evil 3 remake just around the corner, it's hard not to think back on all the great monsters the series has thrown at us over the years. We recently shared our picks for the best RE bosses, but we want to know what you think! We've put together a batch of Resident Evil's 25 gnarliest boss monsters - let us know which one you think would reign supreme! REboss-FaceOff Voting will officially close on March 20 and we will reveal your picks for the best Resident Evil bosses on March 23. Vote now through the Face-Off above, or scroll down for more information on how our Face-Offs work.

What is a Face-Off?

Like the name suggests, a Face-Off pits two boss monsters against one another and you decide which one is the superior of the two. In this case, you are voting to determine which is the better boss in the Resident Evil series. It's possible to see certain bosses multiple times, so you can keep voting for your favorites to ensure they get ranked higher than the rest. They get randomly paired up, and we count each time one gets named a winner. Here's an example of a crowdsourced list we made of the best Pokemon missing from Sword and Shield.

How do you determine a winner?

When voting ends Friday March 20, we tally up the total number of "wins" and "losses" each boss has, and create a new ranked list based on your choices. The monster that won the most matchups will be crowned the "winner," and in the event of a tied number of "wins," the boss with the lease "losses" will take the top spot.
Author
Jon Ryan

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Hearthstone Reveals a New Class AND a Huge Change That Will Make it More Affordable

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Blizzard has just announced a new class as part of the biggest set of new features and updates to ever come to Hearthstone. The upcoming "Year of the Phoenix" is going to be so packed that I’m resorting to bullet points so you can see the key pieces of information at a glance, before we get stuck into the details.

Hearthstone Year of the Phoenix updates:

  • Demon Hunter, a tenth class, is being added to Hearthstone, with Illidan Stormrage as its main hero
  • A “no duplicates” rule is being implemented across ALL card rarities when opening packs
  • Priest is getting a rework this month, with six Basic and Classic cards being replaced and changes being made to other key cards
  • Five neutral cards from the classic set will be going to the Hall of Fame, including icons like Mountain Giant and Leeroy Jenkins
  • The ranked ladder is being overhauled at the start of April, with better matchmaking and a more meaningful progression system
  • New players and those coming back to Hearthstone after more than four months away will be given a free competitive deck in the class of their choice
  • The next expansion is called Ashes of Outland, introduces Dormant as a keyword and is heavily World of Warcraft themed.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/17/hearthstone-demon-hunter-cinematic-trailer"] Now let’s dig into this.

Introducing the Demon Hunter

For the first time in Hearthstone’s history, a new class is being added to the game – Demon Hunter. Led by Illidan, Demon Hunters are proactive and agile, with many ways to use their hero to attack and take advantage of attack synergies. It makes sense, then, that the class is the first to have a one mana hero power: “Demon Claws” which gives it +1 attack this turn. As you can imagine, this can be weaved in easily throughout play, giving Demon Hunters a whole lot of versatility in how and when they attack.
Author
Cam Shea

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22 Games Featured in March 17's Nintendo Indie World Showcase

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Nintendo held another Indie World Showcase to give fans around the world a glimpse at what independent games they will be playing on Nintendo Switch in the near future. Here is every game featured in March 17's Nintendo Indie World Showcase: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=22-games-featured-in-march-17s-nintendo-indie-world-showcase&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"]

Blue Fire

Nintendo Switch - Indie World Showcase 3.17.2020 30-51 screenshotFrom Graffiti Games and Argentina-based Robi Studios, embark on a journey through a long-forgotten land. Blue Fire features 3D platforming challenges in a strange place called the void. It will launch first on Nintendo Switch in Summer 2020.

Baldo

Nintendo Switch - Indie World Showcase 3.17.2020 32-25 screenshotFrom Naps Team in Messina, Italy, Baldo looks to take inspiration from action-adventure RPGs and Japanese Anime. It takes place in a magical world with dungeons and puzzles to solve.
Author
Adam Bankhurst

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Preorder Doom Eternal for $49.94 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Doom Eternal is set to launch for PS4, Xbox One, and PC on March 20; the Nintendo Switch version will arrive sometime later. A sequel to Doom (2016), Doom Eternal will equip the Doom Slayer with new demon-killing weapons and abilities, including a meat hook that lets you fling yourself through the environment. You'll also get access to a shoulder-mounted cannon, flame thrower, and retractible blade. Check out our Doom Eternal single-player review for more information. If you're ready to preorder Doom Eternal, you might want to know what's in it for you.
Author
Chris Reed

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Tom Nook's at It Again: Animal Crossing Water Bottle Pre-Order Price Is Over $13,000

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Update: And like that, the listing is no longer available. Most likely, someone realised something had gone very, very wrong and removed the listing. But there is the outside possibility that someone paid over $13,000 for the only Animal Crossing water bottle. If you are that person, please let us know. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Bells just aren't enough for our supposed friend Tom Nook. He's after our dollars now, and an Animal Crossing-themed water bottle is up for pre-order with a price tag of over $13,000. Not $13. Not $130 dollars. Not even $1300, but legitimately $13,000. You can check out the continually on-the-rise pre-order price on Amazon. The bottle is currently selling for $13,228. You can check out the bottle below, which went up for pre-order with a price of $19.99 before soaring into the thousands.
Author
Wesley LeBlanc

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Nintendo's Online Services Are Down

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Nintendo’s online services such as the Switch eShop and multiplayer networks are temporarily down. Downdetector shows that the Nintendo Network is experiencing problems, and that there are ‘possible problems’ with both Nintendo Switch Online and Nintendo eShop. IGN’s own testing has revealed that it’s currently not possible to access the eShop. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/09/13/nintendo-switch-online-features-trailer"] The Nintendo of America online service status page also notes problems on all network services across Switch, Wii U, 3DS, and web portals. Similar information has also been posted on Nintendo’s Japanese-language Twitter feed, explaining that network services have failed. Recovery work is apparently ongoing. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=igns-top-25-nintendo-switch-games&captions=true"] This outage follows quickly after Microsoft’s Xbox Live system went down for an evening on March 15. It also comes ahead of Nintendo's release of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Hopefully the service will resume normal operation by the time the game launches. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 
Author
Matt Purslow

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Doom Eternal Single-Player Campaign Review

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
[Heads up: this review is exclusively focused on Doom Eternal’s single-player campaign. The multiplayer mode, Battlemode, won’t be available until launch on March 20, so we’ll review it separately and then issue our final Doom Eternal score ASAP after that.] I knew Doom Eternal had proven its point when I started taking down Marauders without breaking a sweat, really. These terrifying, devil-horned axe-wielders had been life-threatening challenges when they were first introduced midway through the game, but a while later I delighted in turning the tables on them thanks to some powerful and hard-earned upgrades. Doom Eternal not only retains the wild, high-speed, to-the-brink-of-death-and-back-again ebb and flow of combat that its 2016 predecessor excelled at, it tweaks the formula to introduce more strategy, replayability, and ultimately, satisfaction to this 15+ hour first-person shooter campaign.

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/02/03/the-first-10-minutes-of-doom-eternal-gameplay-4k60fps-ign-first"]

[poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=You%20need%20to%20start%20to%20read%20the%20defense%20like%20a%20quarterback%20at%20the%20line%20of%20scrimmage."] Some great games are clever exercises in thoughtful design while others are dumb fun, but Doom Eternal is the best of both. Yes, blasting and ripping demons literally in half with your bare hands is a gleefully, gloriously stupid power fantasy, and Doom Eternal teaches you how to do it better, faster, and in multiple ways as you go. It makes you a smart Slayer. Before long, you’ll be thrown into the meat grinder with dozens of Hell’s denizens at once, including resurrected Doom 2 favorites not seen in the 2016 reboot. Old folks like me remember the Pain Elemental, a semi-dangerous, Lost Soul-spewing cousin of the Cacodemon, and the demon-buffing, pyromaniacal Archvile, which, as in 1994, is one of the biggest threats you have to beat down.
Author
Ryan McCaffrey

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PS5 News Coming Tomorrow

4 years 1 month ago
Link
IGN
PlayStation 5 system architect Mark Cerny will reveal a "deep dive" into the PS5 tomorrow, March 18, at 9am Pacific / 12pm Eastern / 4pm UK (that's 3am AEDT on March 19). Announced on Twitter, it looks as though the news will come in the form of a video or livestream, released on the PlayStation blog.
Author
Joe Skrebels

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Animal Crossing-Loving Grandma Seems to Be a New Horizons Character Now

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
It appears that a new villager in Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been named after a real-life grandmother who became famous after her grandson made a video showing off her 3,500+ hour Animal Crossing: New Leaf save game.
Author
Matt Purslow

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Fast & Furious Crossroads Launch 'Uncertain' in Wake of F9 Film Delay

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Slightly Mad Studios’ Fast & Furious Crossroads may not launch in May 2020 as originally planned, Codemasters has revealed in a note to investors, via GamesRadar. Citing the fact that Universal Pictures has delayed the release of F9 until April 2021 (11 months later than originally scheduled), Codemasters has admitted “[t]iming for the launch of [Fast & Furious Crossroads] is now uncertain.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/13/fast-furious-crossroads-reveal-trailer"] “Bandai Namco Entertainment Europe is working closely with our partners at Universal Games and Digital Platforms regarding the F9 film’s newly announced theatrical release date of April 2021,” continues the Codemasters statement. “While not directly tied to the film, news and updates pertaining to the Fast & Furious Crossroads game will be shared once they become available.” “The development team at Slightly Mad Studios and Codemasters will continue to finalise the Game as planned.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=screens-fast-and-furious-crossroads&captions=true"] Fast & Furious Crossroads was announced during The Game Awards in December 2019 by franchise stars Vin Diesel and Michelle Rodriguez, who will also be playing their Fast characters Dom and Letty in the game itself.
Author
Luke Reilly

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Xbox Series X Will Use Proprietary SSD Expandable Storage Cards, but Only for Next-Gen Games

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
During today’s big Xbox Series X spec reveal, Microsoft confirmed that the mystery slot in the back of the upcoming console will be used to house a proprietary NVMe SSD card designed to increase the internal storage, which is currently 1TB by default. However, you’ll still be able to use USB 3.1 and external HDD for last-gen games. As detailed in a Digital Foundry report on the Xbox Series X, the next-gen console utilizes “Velocity Architecture” that turns games storage into additional memory. While internal storage for the Xbox Series X will be set at 1TB, Microsoft is offering a custom solution.

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=developers-share-what-most-excites-them-about-next-gen-tech&captions=true"]

Author
Matt Kim

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Xbox Series X: Our Best Guess On Pricing Based On Fully Revealed Specs

4 years 1 month ago
Link
IGN

Hype for Microsoft’s latest console has been building for months, but the company has finally dropped the full Xbox Series X specs, giving us something to drool over during our COVID quarantine. This machine is surprisingly powerful, which points to a rather expensive console, as we originally predicted earlier this year. Let’s build an imaginary gaming PC with the components Microsoft has announced and break down what the Xbox Series X price might be.

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Processor and Graphics

The Xbox Series X, like other consoles, is using a CPU with an onboard graphics chip. But as of right now, there is no processor in the desktop market that even comes close to what Microsoft is promising for the Series X — AMD’s most powerful APU is the Ryzen 5 3400G, which is only four cores with 1400 MHz of graphics horsepower. So we need to split this up.

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Whitson Gordon

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Cyberpunk 2077 Still on Track for September Release Date

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
CD Projekt Red has implemented a work from home policy to adapt to the ongoing COVID-19 outbreak. However, the company has assured fans that Cyberpunk 2077 is still on track to be released in September. In a Tweet published on the company’s official social media account CD Projekt Red wrote, “Over the past week, we have been adapting to the situation and gradually rolling out preventative measures across our entire organization.
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Matt Kim

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Check Out Brand New Characters and Areas

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Square Enix has revealed some more screenshots from Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and they offer us first looks at some brand new characters and locations that were not seen in the original game. There are four new characters revealed in Square’s latest drop. The first is Andrea Rhodea, the owner of the Honeybee Inn. It is he who approves women for auditions with Don Corneo, the rather gross guy who is looking for a ‘bride’ each evening in the Wall Market area of Midgar’s Sector 6. Also with similar power to approve women is Madam M, who runs Wall Market’s hand-massage parlour, and Chocobo Sam, who is - as his name suggests - a Chocobo handler. As well as helping Corneo, he also runs a service called Sam’s Delivery. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=final-fantasy-7-remake-29-new-wall-market-screenshots&captions=true"] Don Corneo definitely seems to have extended his network for Remake, as alongside these two he’s also working with a young man called Leslie Kyle, who Square describes as Don’s lackey. Corneo’s Lackey is an enemy type from the original game, and so Kyle’s position is likely a reference to that. There’s no sighting of Scotch and Kotch, Don’s original henchmen, though. The screenshots show off a glowed-up Wall Market, but also reveals the Corneo Colosseum, a fighting arena where players can battle enemies to receive rewards. This sounds and looks a lot like the Battle Square from the original game’s Gold Saucer. As we won’t get to visit the Gold Saucer in the chapters covered by Remake, it makes sense why it would be added to Wall Market. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/16/inside-final-fantasy-7-remake-part-1-english-subs"] There’s also confirmation that the Beginner’s Hall from Sector 7 is back, and that it features both the ground floor weapons shop and the second floor neighborhood watch room. Not spotted in any of the screens is the many flexing dudes, though, which is a bit of a shame.
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Matt Purslow

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Japanese School Cancels Graduation, Students Hold It Inside Minecraft Instead

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Japanese students are using Minecraft to enjoy their school graduation virtually, in spite of a coronavirus lockdown. Japanese schools have been closed for over two weeks due to COVID-19 and, with the Japanese school year ending in March, it's meant many students won't have their graduation ceremonies, according to SoraNews24. However, graduates from one elementary school found they could use Minecraft to create their own ceremony. Without any school or parental oversight, kids designed their own assembly hall, and gathered on a server to play out their graduation online. SoraNews24 translated the following tweets as: "They spent all day online together playing games and laughing. I’m glad they all had fun," and "The assembly hall is also really well made."
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Jeffrey Lerman

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Xbox Series X Controller Has a New D-Pad and Should Be Easier to Hold

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
The Xbox Series X controller looks very similar to its predecessor, but has a few key changes, including new buttons, ergonomic changes for those with smaller hands, and better compatibility with non-Xbox devices. In an interview on Xbox Newswire, senior designer Ryan Whitaker went through some of the differences on the very familiar controller. That similarity is key - people are very used to the Xbox controller design, so changes were meant to be evolutionary, rather than wholesale. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=xbox-series-x-controller-6-new-images&captions=true"] The biggest difference is in how the controller will now be easier to hold for those with smaller hands. While not immediately noticeably smaller, the team has achieved that effect by "rounding the bumpers, slightly reducing and rounding parts around the triggers, and carefully sculpting the grips." Bumpers and triggers now also have a "tactile dot" pattern not found on standard Xbox One controllers. The new D-pad is designed as a hybrid between the two swappable designs on the Xbox Elite controller. It has a slightly deeper lowest point, allowing the thumb to sit more comfortably inside, and will apparenly allow for easy pressing of up, down, left, right, while also making it easier to perform sweeps or diagonals. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/16/xbox-series-x-quick-resume-tech-demo"] As previously seen, the controller now has a Share button between and below the View and Menu buttons. It's not clear exactly how it will work in practice, but Whitaker explains that it's designed to allow screenshots or video to be recorded without the need for onscreen menus. The controller will now remember multiple Bluetooth devices to allow for faster connections, and includes Bluetooth Low Energy that should make pairing more simple.
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Joe Skrebels

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Resident Evil 3 Demo Arriving This Week

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Capcom has announced that the Resident Evil 3 Demo will be released on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC on March 19, and that the Open Beta for Resident Evil Resistance will begin on March 27. More details were revealed on a blogpost on Capcom Unity, and it appears to not have any restrictions like Resident Evil 2's 1-Shot Demo that gave players one chance and 30 minutes to try out its remake of the 1998 classic. The Resident Evil 3 demo will begin on March 19 at 12am ET on Xbox One and 1pm ET on PlayStation 4 and PC (Steam). The Resident Evil Resistance Open beta will start March 27 at 3am ET on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and 1pm ET on PC (Steam). The Open Beta will end on April 3. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/16/resident-evil-3-demo-and-resistance-open-beta-trailer"] The demo will be a "slice of the full game" that will have players attempting to escape Raccoon City as Jill Valentine. Capcom also warns that even though Resident Evil 3 has a bit more of a focus on action when compared to Resident Evil 2, make sure to "conserve your ammo and items if you want to stand a chance of surviving." In our hands-on time with Resident Evil 3, which will be released on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC on April 3, we said that "not only does Resident Evil 3 feel as fresh and clever as its predecessor, it adds enough to potentially exceed it." The Open Beta of Resident Evil Resistance will allow players to try out the asymmetrical co-op take on the horror franchise.
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Adam Bankhurst

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Animal Crossing: New Horizons Review

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
There are so many different types of Animal Crossing players, and yet Animal Crossing: New Horizons manages to improve upon the virtual lives of each player type that I can think of. For The Collector, there's a near-bottomless bounty of bugs, fish, and furniture to gather; for The Designer, there are new tools and few limits to what you can craft and customize. But it’s the The Artists, The Decorators, and The Dreamers who should be most excited: There's an entire island to jazz up, expanding the customizable area far beyond the walls of your house, which is all that previous Animal Crossing games allowed them to tinker with. Throw a swimming pool on the beach; add a giant kaiju statue to your garden; even literally move mountains. You can customize so much in New Horizons that it has me just as excited to see what people create as recent, lauded craft-'em-ups like Super Mario Maker 2 or Dreams.

Slow(er) Start

In order to deliver a blank slate for you to customize the crap out of, Nintendo made some questionable calls that lead to a very slow start to Animal Crossing: New Horizons. Yes, Animal Crossing always starts out slow. But New Horizons is even slower: At the outset, two brave villagers and a very industrious raccoon family are the island's only residents. Cut off from any mainland, it's just you, trees, water, rocks, and slow accumulation of buildings and animal villagers over the course of several (real time) days. It's a different vibe than moving to a new town already full of bustling shops and animals going about their lives, and while building a town from scratch offers a lot of customization, it takes too long to get to the good stuff.
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Samuel Claiborn

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Nintendo Has Announced an Indie World Showcase for Tomorrow, March 17

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Nintendo has announced that it will present a brand-new Indie World Showcase livestream tomorrow, March 17, at 10am PT/1pm ET/5pm GMT. Announced by Nintendo on Twitter, this newest Indie World Showcase will feature "roughly 20 minutes of info on indie games coming to #NintendoSwitch!" Indie Showcase This will be the first Indie World Showcase since December 2019's that featured such titles as Sports Story, Axiom Verge 2, Streets of Rage 4, and many more. This newest showcase will give fans a another look behind the curtain that is Nintendo Switch's future, as there aren't too many confirmed titles past Animal Crossing: New Horizons, which will be released this Friday, March 20. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/17/the-biggest-nintendo-games-coming-in-2020"] Despite the lack of knowledge on future titles, Nintendo Switch is still performing very well, and was the best-selling console in February 2020. Earlier this year, Nintendo revealed that it had sold over 50 million Nintendo Switch systems, and that Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was the best-selling game on the console with over 22.96 million units sold. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" pa
Author
Adam Bankhurst

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Xbox Series X Size Revealed (With a Banana and Fridge for Scale)

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Microsoft has revealed the size of the Xbox Series X, and Xbox and The Test Driver and This Is Guy's Austin Evans have shared a photo of a fridge and a banana for scale, respectively. The Xbox Series X's size, which is 151mm x 151mm x 301mm (5.94in x 5.94in x 11.85in), was revealed alongside a ton of new details on Microsoft's next-gen console, including its full specs. For comparison, the Xbox One X is 299.7mm x 238.7mm x 60.9mm (11.8in x 9.4in x 2.4in) Perhaps in a nod to a previous tweet by Daniel Ahmad, senior analyst at Niko Partners, Xbox gave its fans a look at how the Xbox Series X compares to one of the kitchen's marquee appliances - the fridge. FridgeHowever, that's not all, as Austin Evans, who was one of the first people outside of Xbox to get hands-on with the Xbox Series X, shared with the world how the new system compares to the potassium-filled banana. BananaThe Xbox Series X will include 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.8GHz, 12 teraflops, 16GB GDDR6 RAM, 1TB of internal storage with the option for expandable storage through a 1TB Expansion Card, and much more. The Xbox Series
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Adam Bankhurst

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Gears 5 Will Provide a Next-Gen Xbox Series X Upgrade for Free

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
Gears 5 is getting a next-gen upgrade for Xbox Series X, and it will be available free to existing owners via the new Smart Delivery system when the new console launches later this year. Talking to Digital Foundary, Coalition tech director Mike Raynor said an "optimised" version of Gears 5 will be "available at launch on Xbox Series X." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/09/13/gears-5-final-review"] He adds "The title will support Smart Delivery, so if you already have the title in whatever form you'll be able to get it on Series X for free." The Coalition currently has a working next-gen version of Gears 5 that it produced in two weeks. Working with Epic Games, the studio has upped all of the quality presets of the console version to be equivalent to the PC's 'ultra' settings. The team has also added improved contact shadows and software-based ray tracing, as well as improving the frame rate of the cutscenes (up to 60fps from the Xbox One's 30fps). This has all been achieved in a fortnight, and reportedly runs akin to a PC with an expensive Nvidia RTX 2080 graphics card, despite being currently optimised. The great news about all this is that the improved version of Gears 5 will be available free thanks to Smart Delivery. This new system from Microsoft means any Smart Delivery supported game in your library from current-gen will be automatically available in its next-gen version for free when playing on an Xbox Series X.
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Matt Purslow

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Xbox Series X: Full Specs Released

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
The full specs list for Xbox Series X has been released. The specs were revealed in an Xbox blog post, and you can see the full list below. Those specs also confirm what the Series X's mystery port is for - as Digital Foundry reports, Microsoft and Seagate have made a proprietary external 1TB SSD that can be plugged into the console for extra storage. Essentially, it's a giant memory card. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/16/xbox-series-x-loading-times-tech-demo"]
  • CPU: 8x Zen 2 Cores at 3.8GHz (3.6GHz with SMT)
  • GPU: 12 TFLOPs, 52 CUs at 1.825GHz, Custom RDNA 2
  • Die Size: 360.45mm2
  • Process: TSMC 7nm Enhanced
  • Memory: 16GB GDDR6
  • Memory Bandwidth: 10GB at 560GB/s, 6GB at 336GB/s
  • Internal Storage: 1TB Custom NVMe SSD
  • I/O Throughput: 2.4GB/s (Raw), 4.8GB/s (Compressed)
  • Expandable Storage: 1TB Expansion Card
  • External Storage: USB 3.2 HDD Support
  • Optical Drive: 4K UHD Blu-ray Drive
  • Performance Target: 4K at 60fps - up to 120fps
Digital Foundry's testing includes some impressive reading. The Series X processor, for instance, is powerful enough to run four Xbox One S game sessions simultaneously.
Author
Joe Skrebels

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Final Fantasy 7 Remake Will Include Whole New Areas, Not Just Expanded Ones

4 years 1 month ago
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IGN
It's clear that Final Fantasy 7 Remake will expand the scope of the original game's Midgar section, but its developers have now confirmed that this will extend to adding entirely new areas to explore, alongside the familiar ones it's revisiting. In the first of a series of miniature documentaries about the game's development (which you can watch below), director Tetsuya Nomura explained that, upon watching playthroughs of the original game, he felt there was "more we could do" to take players across and around Midgar. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/16/inside-final-fantasy-7-remake-part-1-english-subs"] Specifically, Nomura talks about the upper city of Midgar (a city built across two layers, with slums at ground level, and an entire suspended city for more privileged citizens above them). "You travel through the slums [in the original game] quite a lot," explains Nomura, "but it didn’t really feel like we used the upper city all that much, and I thought we should have done that. Of course, you do go back to Midgar later and see some different scenes there, but I felt it would be nice if we could see more of the upper layer in the earlier part of the story." It seems, then, that we'll be seeing entirely new parts of Midgar in the course of the remake: "I thought it would be good to open up some of the locations, so players could explore more of those places that they wanted to see when they played the original", Nomura continues.
Author
Joe Skrebels

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