Category: Gaming

Mobile Legends: Adventure (MLA) is the sequel to the addictive MOBA, Mobile Legends: Bang Bang (MLBB). Unlike most mobile RPGs, MLA is an idle RPG that doesn’t demand hours of grinding as your heroes are always collecting resources for you, even when you are offline. You can pick it up for just a few fun minutes, and use the options to skip battles or enable auto-battling, to just kick back and watch the action.

Coming in May is New Era, a new annual event that will introduce a ton of updates such as new events, new heroes, and limited-time game modes with plenty of rewards. With this event you can gain a huge amount of rewards that will help you get your pick from over 100 heroes that you need to build your dream team.

1. Golden Wishes will be giving away a High Star-Level Hero

Beginning April 29th, if you complete tasks for 28 days you can permanently unlock a hero of your choice. By completing these tasks you will also be able to rack up thousands of diamonds and lots of upgrade materials. This high Star-Level hero is not only great for veterans looking for a huge power increase, but also for new players wanting to quickly beat the early stages.

2. A Tinted Mirage event will feature the release of the new hero Pharsa

The new Epic Hero, Pharsa, will be free to get during this Tinted Mirage event, and more Epic Pharsa cards and resources will be obtainable if you clear more stages. The new Tinted Mirage also comes with an interesting storyline about Pharsa’s revenge and Selena’s betrayal.

3. Call of the Crows, the new PvE card game mode, will be available for a limited time

MLA’s New Era is also introducing a new PvE card game mode, Call of the Crows. In Call of the Crows, you strategically select Hero Cards to craft a deck and then start a game. You will then tactically drag the cards onto the battlefield to defend the base, known as the Energy Core, and fight the enemies spawning on the right side. If you manage to win all levels you will collect all the extra rewards!

4. Four new hero skins will be available

Mobile Legends: Adventure has over 100 heroes with different skills and animations. During the New Era event, the Skin Store will feature four new hero skins for that limited time, each with diverse backgrounds and unique stories. Make sure to grab them while they’re available!

The 2022 New Era event will be available starting on April 29th and ending on June 2nd. Download Mobile Legends: Adventure for Android and iOS now and get in on this event before it’s too late.

Final Fantasy 16’s producer Naoki Yoshida has said the game is in its final stages of development.

Yoshida confirmed the progress in a pamphlet that accompanied the franchise’s official clothing line, translated by Twitter user @aitaikimochi, saying “We’re in the final stages of development for the numbered game in the series, Final Fantasy XVI.”

Yoshida added that he thinks the game’s story, which is obviously a very different experience from Final Fantasy 14 Online (which he also produces), is a fleshed-out experience that will bring older fans back.

“Unlike an online game that involves many players at the same time, Final Fantasy 16 offers a different experience where it focuses on the individual player and immerses you in the story,” he said per the translation.

“For those who have grown up and realised that reality isn’t kind to you and have drifted away from Final Fantasy, we hope that Final Fantasy 16 will be a game that can bring back anew the passion that you once had with the series.”

Yoshida has been fairly open about the game’s development timeline. He said in July last year that the story and English voice over was almost complete but the game was later delayed as a result of COVID-19.

He also promised that a big reveal would take place in spring this year, meaning it may not be long before fans find out when they can expect to play the game.

Given that Final Fantasy 16’s development is in its final stages, and 2022 marks the franchise’s 35th anniversary, it would certainly make sense for Square Enix to release the first mainline entry since 2016 this year.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

While Star Wars Celebration 2022 is still weeks away, we already know one of the new projects Lucasfilm will be revealing at the convention. Thanks to a now-deleted panel schedule posting, we’ve learned a new animated anthology series called Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi is in the works.

Fans of the classic Legends timeline will probably recognize that particular branding. Tales of the Jedi is a name with deep significance to the Star Wars mythos. The original Dark Horse Comics series was among the first Star Wars stories to flesh out the ancient history of the Jedi Order and their war with the Sith. Will this animated series follow that example? We don’t know much yet, but this is a good opportunity to look back at Tales of the Jedi and how the original comics may inform the newest animated Star Wars series.

These are the topics we cover here:

Tales of the Jedi: The Basics

Star Wars: Tales of the Jedi is a series of comic book story arcs published by Dark Horse between 1993 and 1998. The series was originally conceived by writer Tom Veitch, who is considered to be one of the core architects of the Star Wars Expanded Universe. While Veitch’s first Star Wars project, Dark Empire, was a sequel set six years after the events of Return of the Jedi, Veitch included references to ancient Jedi Knights and Sith Lords in that series. Those references became the foundation on which Tales of the Jedi was built.

Tales of the Jedi is largely set 4000 years before the era of the movies, in a time when the ancient Jedi Order is at war with the Sith (who at that point were depicted as a singular race of Force-sensitive aliens rather than the secretive order they would later become). Later Tales of the Jedi arcs delved even further back in the Star Wars timeline, exploring a period 5000 years before the movies.

Together with co-writer Kevin J. Anderson (who also penned the Jedi Academy Trilogy of novels around the same time), Veitch fleshed out an era of Star Wars history that fans knew almost nothing about at the time. And even though Tales of the Jedi has been rendered non-canon like most of the Expanded Universe, it’s a series that continues to exert a strong influence on contemporary stories.

The Plot of Tales of the Jedi

While Tales of the Jedi is ostensibly an anthology series focused on different characters and conflicts in the Old Republic era, the various stories do connect to form an overarching narrative. The series is largely about the rise and fall of Ulic Qel-Droma, a Jedi Knight from Alderaan who becomes corrupted by the Dark Side. Over the course of the series, Qel-Droma battles the Sith Empire and falls in love with fellow Jedi Nomi Sunrider, only to succumb to the temptation of darkness himself.

Ulic Qel-Droma is the prototypical fallen Jedi Knight.

Qel-Droma’s story is deeply intertwined with that of Exar Kun, another former Jedi who turns to the Dark Side. Kun was originally created by Anderson for the Jedi Academy Trilogy, which reveals that his spirit was tethered to the abandoned temple on Yavin IV that briefly served as the base of the Rebel Alliance. Working together, Anderson and Veitch integrated Kun into the overarching Tales of the Jedi storyline, and the comics showcase the Sith Lord at the height of his power and reveal how he met his eventual end.

Tales of the Jedi proved to be hugely influential for the franchise, establishing key pieces of the Jedi/Sith mythology in a time before the Star Wars prequels began to cover that ground. Among other things, these comics cover pivotal conflicts like the Freedon Nadd Uprising and the Great Hyperspace War and introduce the ancient Sith Empire and the warriors of Mandalore. Above all, Tales of the Jedi proved that even thousands of years before the time of Luke And Anakin Skywalker, some of the galaxy’s most powerful Jedi battled the influence of the Dark Side.

You may be wondering where the Knights of the Old Republic games fit in. The KOTOR name actually originated in the comic, as it’s the subtitle of one of the major Tales of the Jedi story arcs. The games themselves are also essentially direct sequels to the comic. The original Knights of the Old Republic is set roughly 40 years after the conclusion of Tales of the Jedi.

KOTOR builds on the Jedi/Mandalorian conflict introduced in the comic, introducing Sith Lord Darth Revan and their apprentice Darth Malak. Like Exar Kun and Ulic-Qel Droma before them, Revan and Malak were distinguished Jedi Knights who fell to the temptation of the Dark Side. The exact reasons for their shared downfall weren’t revealed until the release of The Old Republic, an MMORPG set several centuries later. In the process, The Old Republic ties back to the Sith Empire mythology introduced in Tales of the Jedi.

Long before Darth Maul, Exar Kun showed the power of a double-bladed lightsaber.

KOTOR puts players in the shoes of an amnesic main character and a ragtag band of Jedi, smugglers, Mandalorians and one extremely cranky droid as they seek to prevent Malak from unleashing one of the galaxy’s deadliest super-weapons. The sequel, set a decade later, shifts focus to a disgraced Jedi known as the Jedi Exile as they battle a triumvirate of upstart Sith Lords.

While the KOTOR games are sequels to Tales of the Jedi, there are some storytelling discrepancies between the two. Tales of the Jedi was released before the Star Wars prequels materialized, whereas KOTOR arrived a year after Episode II hit theaters. When Tales of the Jedi was being published, George Lucas hadn’t established basic details like the idea that “Darth” is an honorific adopted by all Sith Lords, not just Vader. The technology and architecture of KOTOR is also wildly different from Tales of the Jedi. The latter showcases the Star Wars universe in a much more primal and less technologically advanced state, one where the influence of Westerns and samurai movies is even more apparent.

With the announcement of a Tales of the Jedi animated series and the upcoming Knights of the Old Republic remake, it’ll be interesting to see how closely intertwined the two projects are. Will we see a more unified vision for how the Star Wars universe looked 4000 years before the movies?

Tales of the Jedi: The Animated Series

Currently, very little is known about the Tales of the Jedi animated series, and that likely won’t change until the show’s official reveal at Star Wars Celebration 2022 on May 28. For now, only two details have emerged – Tales of the Jedi is an anthology series consisting of short, animated episodes (similar to the anime-styled Star Wars: Visions), and The Clone Wars executive producer Dave Filoni is involved. Presumably, the series will be exclusive to Disney+, but even that detail has yet to be confirmed.

At this point, it’s unclear if Tales of the Jedi is directly inspired by the original comics or simply repurposing the name. It’s possible the series will take place in a similar setting, exploring the Old Republic era and introducing reimagined versions of characters like Ulic Qel-Droma and Nomi Sunrider into the official Disney canon.

Star Wars: Every Jedi and Every Sith Ever

However, it’s also possible the series might cast a wider net. The show might focus on established Jedi like Luke, Rey and Ahsoka Tano as well as older generations of Jedi Knights. It could also explore the High Republic era, a setting that has been a major focus of Lucasfilm’s publishing division in recent years. If so, it would be the second Star Wars series to take place during the High Republic, after Leslye Headland’s Star Wars: The Acolyte.

Be sure to stay tuned to IGN for more on Tales of the Jedi and other big announcements from Star Wars Celebration. Until then, cast your vote in our poll and let us know what era you most want to see in Tales of the Jedi:

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

The Overwatch 2 beta is live, so of course, we’re going to talk about it. To do just that are Cardy, Matt and Alex who delve into just how new it feels. We also have impressions of Switch Sports and Richard Linklater’s latest film, Apollo 10 ½. Then there’s the stuff you care about, such as milk, out of date chocolate, and father and son bonding stories.

Want to get in touch to talk about digging graves? Or maybe about chocolate? Feel free to send us an email at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast #642: Overwatch 2 is a Playable Thing that Exists

Gameplay from Ubisoft’s pirate game Skull & Bones has leaked online, giving us a look at several mechanics, including naval combat and on-foot exploration.

It’s unclear which version of the game this “technical test build” is from, as Skull & Bones received a major reboot before entering an alpha stage in July 2021. Ubisoft invited some players to test an early version last month, however, meaning this leaked gameplay, shared by Wesam_L on reddit, could well be from this Insider Programme.

In this version of the game, Skull & Bones gameplay revolves around a hub area – similar to The Tower from Destiny 2 – that players will frequent in order to craft items, visit shops, take on missions, and so on. The hub, called Sainte-Anne, is “the centre of pirate activity” and thus where players are encouraged to socialise (through emotes) and organise their teams of up to three players.

Players will then head out into the world to complete quests through gameplay similar to what’s been shown before: naval battles that appear slightly more complex than those from Assassin’s Creed.

Most of Skull & Bones appears to revolve around this gameplay loop, though it’s mixed up by different types of battles, including attacks on forts and settlements, NPC ships and player ships, and bigger “world events” such as taking on a merchant and its fleet of escorts.

Players will need to prepare beforehand so they have enough resources to keep their ship in good health, and food and drink to keep their crew’s morale up. Not doing so will result in the boat being sunk (players then respawn and can return to collect their cargo) or a mutiny (where the crew takes over the ship and likely just returns the player to an outpost).

Island exploration appears a little less freeform than what players might expect. Instead of being able to stop the ship anywhere, the gameplay showed only specific outposts that the player can dock at and then explore on-foot.

While a narrator in the video states everything in Skull & Bones can be played solo, co-op is also available and missions come with a “recommended number of players”.

The Infamy system is at the centre of progression, with the player starting as an Outcast before rising to Swashbuckler, Cutthroat, and so on. While the gameplay didn’t show all levels of Infamy, there appeared to be around 15 different levels.

Each one unlocks more ship upgrades, recipes to craft, tools, and so on, including “vanity” cosmetics for both the player character and ship. There appear to be dozens, if not hundreds, of different cosmetics available as “it’s also important for you to look the part”.

Skull and Bones E3 2018 Cinematic Trailer Stills

Players will also gain access to bigger and better ships as they level up their Infamy, which will also gradually rise through exploration, battling, treasuring hunting, and more.

Skull & Bones was first revealed five years ago in 2017 but suffered delay after delay and as of July last year had reportedly been in development for eight years.

It does appear to be inching closer to release, though, as Ubisoft is now showing it to at least some members of the public.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

A handful of retro games likely coming in PlayStation Plus’s upcoming Premium tier have seemingly leaked online.

Tekken 2, Worms Armageddon, Worms World Party, and Mr. Driller for the original PlayStation have all appeared on the PSN backend, alongside Ridge Racers 2 for PSP.

Reddit user the_andshrew spotted the hidden games, as reported by Eurogamer, which will likely be part of the most expensive PS Plus tier when the service is refreshed in June.

The Premium tier, which will cost users $119.99 a year, will include 340 retro games from the PS1, PS2, and PSP, plus the ability to stream PS3 games and access to around 400 PS4 and PS5 games that are included in the previous Extra tier.

PlayStation itself has yet to confirm which games are coming to the service, meaning these leaks aren’t official and need to be taken with a pinch of salt, but the games definitely have been added to the PSN backend complete with artwork.

With the refresh due for release as early as May 23 in most of Asia, PlayStation will likely unveil the full list of games soon, especially as they’re already being leaked online.

The service is expected to launch in the U.S. on June 13 and Europe on June 22 after finally being revealed in March following months of reports and speculation around Sony releasing a competitor to Xbox Game Pass.

The services are not the same however, most evident by the fact the new PS Plus will not offer first-party games as part of the service on the day they’re released, but will only add them much later.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

“Actually, we didn’t really do any research in particular. I just wanted to depict what I imagined America would look like if it had been invaded by Japanese culture in the early nineties,” says X.Y. Luo, creative director of Showa American Story. His words will surely come as a surprise to anyone who’s seen the trailer released this January. This game developed by the Chinese studio NEKCOM Games is set in a fictional America decorated with carp streamers and Jizo statues, having become culturally colonized by Japan in the year Showa 66, a parallel 1991 where Japan’s Showa era didn’t end in 1989. The Statue of Liberty is wearing a kimono, while a massive paper lantern with the Japanese character for “gold” written on it hangs from the Golden Gate Bridge. I doubt I was the only one who saw the game’s billboards and flyers oozing with Showa aesthetics and assumed it was made by creators well-versed in Japanese and Showa culture. I’ve lived in Japan for over eighteen years myself, and I was completely fooled. According to Luo, though, not only are there no Japanese people on the development team, they aren’t even trying to create a faithful Showa feel to begin with.

A Chinese take on Showa style

According to Luo, “I used Japanese manga, movies, and the like that were popular in China as my base. I thought it would be more interesting to show people a unique take on Showa style as seen by a Chinese person than it would be if we depicted it faithfully. While I was confident that Chinese users who experienced the same timeframe and creative works as me would understand the charm, I never imagined I’d get this big of a reaction from Japan and the West.”

Born in Wuhan, China in 1983, Luo was drawn to foreign cultures from the time he was a child, where Japanese manga, anime, and TV dramas or American pop songs, cartoons, and movies. He had a particular fondness for Japanese culture. The game’s setting of an America that has been invaded by Japanese culture from that period could be something similar to the world that existed in Luo’s mind as a boy. Showa American Story is like a theme park that combines the Japanese and American cultures that Luo loved as a child, and maybe it was only natural for gamers around the world who’d also come into contact with those same cultures to take note.

“Showa American Story contains a lot of scenes that parody my favorite titles. There are references from series like Dragon Ball, Mobile Suit Gundam, Saint Seiya, Fist of the North Star, Transformers, and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.”

Showa American Story – Concept Art

Luo said Western bands like The Police and Modern Talking inspired him as well. “When I was young, discos where you would dance while listening to Western music were popular in China. I think the game reflects those memories too,” he said.

A road movie-style game where you travel Showa America

Showa America is a mixture of Japanese culture from days past with American culture that would, to us today, seem retro. The game is a sandbox action-adventure title that alternates between exploration and battle. Game director Jensen Fang said that while it places a heavy emphasis on exploration, plenty of work has been put into combat as well, with over 20 types of weapons that can freely be used.

“While the combat is of course solidly made, I think players will spend more time overall on exploration. Aside from main missions and side quest events, you can ignore enemy encounters and run away from them, so players who like exploration can keep on going without anything getting in their way,” Fang said.

I took a look at actual gameplay footage in which the protagonist Choko Chigusa explores “Neo Yokohama,” or Los Angeles, running around its abandoned streets and the “Neo Yokohama Central Park.” Not only did I get to see sights from the trailer like the Neo Yokohama Police Department and a poster of the Statue of Liberty, the footage also included a variety of locations, from a weapons dealer to a car wash. The city is infested with zombies and monsters, with few people in sight. Japanese objects like traditional lanterns and torii gates are all around. As Choko walked the streets, she talked to herself about a variety of topics—in a similar vein to Aloy in Horizon Forbidden West. She reminded the player of her current goal, reacted to what she saw, and worried about the state of her home of Japan. Choko came to America with her younger sister hoping for a better career as a stuntwoman, only for her sister to go missing while Choko was killed by a mysterious agent. Choko is miraculously revived ten years later and finds herself in an America that became filled with zombies and monsters. Her remarks to herself seemed to show not only her strength but also her unease.

Coincidentally, the game’s feature of finding and collecting retro items like Daruma dolls while exploring reminded me of the recently released Ghostwire: Tokyo. There also seems to be a fairly large number of buildings you can enter, so fans of exploration will surely want to search every nook and cranny of the game’s world.

Fang says that the game isn’t one continuous open world, but is instead made up of multiple sandboxes. “I think an easy comparison would be Super Mario Odyssey. There are multiple cities as you go along the highway in America, each of which is its own sandbox. We’re putting work not only into the outside environments, but interiors too. I think players will really get to savor the unique world that is Showa America by exploring it in detail.”

Players travel between sandboxes by way of the aforementioned camper. Pick your next city on a map inside your camper and you’re on your way. Fast travel is also available, but players can choose to actually drive the camper there. It seems that side quests can occur while driving, so many players will feel the need to take the wheel themselves. The world outside the camper changes according to the city you’re currently in—similar to Red Dead Redemption 2—creating a kind of road movie feel where the scenery of your base is new every time you travel. You can customize the inside of the camper with the items you collect while exploring, so you might find yourself feeling like you’re traveling in a vehicle you can really call your own.

A wild and sexy world

While I didn’t get the opportunity to see any scenes of travel in the camper, I was shown Choko traveling on a motorcycle. She can run over zombies at high speed and travel off-road, but it seems that the motorcycle isn’t used for getting around between cities and is only available for traveling within specific areas.

As your base of operations, your camper plays an important role in Showa American Story’s gameplay loop. Choko can do many things here, whether that’s eating or training. You use AP (Activity Points) and choose what you want Choko to do. It’s a system reminiscent of the daily life sections of the Persona series, with Choko’s stats increasing depending on your choice of activity, and some activities even taking the form of a minigame. In the footage I saw, Choko sat on a sofa while reading a manga and took a bubble bath. There was special attention paid to sexy animations, such as her adjusting her long legs as she sat or stretching them out while in the bath.

The trailer even contains a very specific pool known to often appear in Japanese adult videos. You might even be able to say that the game is influenced by Japanese pornography.

“Yes, Japanese adult videos are one of my influences,” Luo admitted with a laugh. “That infamous swimming pool is in there because it was the first thing I thought of when I learned the game needed a pool! It is supposed to take place in America, of course, so it’s not exactly the same pool. I hope players enjoy the role it plays in the story.”

With side quests that feature perverts who want a young woman to sit on their face, psychological counselors who talk about pornography in order to calm women down, and adult video directors concerned about their low libido, the game’s sexual content stands out even when reading its press releases. There are a lot of other bizarre characters, like a mad scientist who walks on stilts and wears a propeller, a serial founder of cults who can never make it work, and more.

“The side quests are meant to flesh out the setting of Showa America. They also contain a lot of minigames, not just combat. Their stories are more out there than the main story, so I hope players enjoy our ridiculous ideas,” Luo explained.

Luo says that he and his team took inspiration from the Yakuza series when it comes to side quests. When I asked Luo about any other games that influenced him, he immediately brought up No More Heroes, saying that Goichi Suda is the game creator he respects the most.

The game’s surreal world does indeed bring No More Heroes to mind, and this seems to apply to its elaborately designed boss fights as well. Gameplay footage I saw from around the middle of the game featured a boss fight against “Queen Bee,” an assassin who looks like your average office lady at first glance. Once the fight starts, though, she comes at the player with attacks that are anything but average. Just as she unleashed a yellow beam from her “Queen Bee Stinger” that looked like a giant bazooka, she followed up by scattering “Poison Star” everywhere, a deadly poison that looked like honey. After taking enough damage, she then transformed into something that looked far more like a real queen bee. I’ll avoid any spoilers and leave this second form up to the reader’s imagination, but I promise you that it is ridiculous.

Combat itself seems rather simple, in a good way. Players activate combos by pressing the square and triangle buttons on the DualSense controller, and also have access to a special EX Attack that drains a gauge. Enemies enter a “Break” state after taking enough damage that causes them to stop attacking for a time, giving you an opportunity to focus your attacks on them. Weapon usage is primarily close-up action, but there are longer-range weapons like shotguns, so picking the right weapon for each situation can give you an advantage in battle. That being said, Showa American Story doesn’t want to make things too difficult.

“Having players enjoy the unique setting of Showa America is our top priority, so we’ve made sure that players won’t be unable to progress in the story due to difficulty,” Fang said.

Not only does Choko have her own skill tree, each weapon has one as well. It seems that characters you befriend as you complete quests may also enhance your weapons. The friend system is also reminiscent of the Confidant mechanic from the Persona series, allowing these characters to support the player in many different ways even though they don’t fight alongside you.

Though Showa American Story is full of fascinating features, NEKCOM Games is not that large of a studio. “We had a lot of discussions as a team when this project was first proposed. Development started when we agreed that while a fully open world game would be too much for us, we could probably make it work as a sandbox game,” Luo said, thinking back to the initial stages of development. Still, Showa American Story is NEKCOM Games’ largest-scale game to date by far. “We worked on it for several years using just about all of the resources available to our company, and parts of it are even outsourced,” he explained.

Showa American Story is in development for PS5, PS4, and PC, with other platforms still under consideration.

You’re probably thinking “not another battle royale” and you’d be justified. However, Rocket League‘s new Knockout game mode seems to be for people who hate battle royale games.

Knockout is part of Rocket League’s spring in-game event called Knockout Bash, which goes from April 27 to May 10. This new game mode involves using the driving/soccer skills you’d use in the normal game in an eight player destruction derby-type battle royale.

In addition to the existing movesets, there are three new skills to master: Attack, Block, and Grab. Attack is basically dodging into an opponent to send them flying if placed right. Block is essentially a parry which reflects Attacks back onto the opposing player with proper timing. Grab allows you to, well, grab other players and throw them.

Knockout also adds secondary mechanics which are basically enhanced versions of existing moves such as boosting, jumping, and lock on. For example, you’re able to do a triple jump instead of the normal double jump.

Knockout features three new Arenas specifically for the mode called Calavera, Carbon, and Quadron. The walls of each Arena have been worn away and are perfect for knocking players out of the arenas.

Unlike other battle royale games, Knockout is solo queue only and gives each player three lives. A shrinking, translucent dome called the Safezone surrounds each area, similar to shrinking circles in other battle royale games. If a player goes outside of the Safezone for 10 seconds, they’re automatically KO’d.

If there isn’t a winner after six minutes, there is a Sudden KO where every attack is fully maxed out and those thrown into the Safezone are automatically knocked out. This will likely appeal to those who prefer quicker games. In fact, the shorter time limit and three lives seems tailor made for those who aren’t too keen on battle royale games in general.

Of course, this new Knockout Bash event comes with new in-game collectibles such as Florescent Wheels, Monarch Boost, or a Flutterby Decal. There are also Golden Gift Baskets which are basically loot boxes that contain random items.

If slamming cars into one another isn’t your jam, Infinity Ward revealed the official logo for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the sequel to the 2019 Modern Warfare reboot. This will be the last annual release of Call of Duty as the series moves away from yearly schedules.

David Matthews is a freelance writer specializing in consumer tech and gaming. He also strongly believes that sugar does not go in grits. Follow him on Twitter @shortblktechie

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.

After teasing an announcement late last week, Infinity Ward has revealed the first official logo for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

Modern Warfare 2 is a sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare reboot, rather than a remake of 2009’s original Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. Besides the logo, no new details about the game were revealed.

You can check out the logo for yourself below.

A sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare was officially announced back in February, alongside Warzone 2. Infinity Ward is taking the lead on Modern Warfare 2, but 11 different studios are reportedly working on the game in some capacity. Other reports say the campaign will feature U.S. special forces fighting Colombian drug cartels.

Modern Warfare 2 will seemingly mark the end of Call of Duty’s streak of annual releases. Bloomberg reported that Call of Duty’s planned 2023 release has been pushed back to 2024. This lines up with other rumblings saying Call of Duty devs are eager to move away from the annual release schedule.

Despite Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Modern Warfare 2 isn’t set to be an Xbox exclusive. According to a report from earlier this year, Activision Blizzard has already committed to releasing three more Call of Duty games across multiple platforms, including PlayStation. After that, however, the series could live exclusively on Xbox.

Logan Plant is a freelance writer for IGN. You can find him on Twitter @LoganJPlant.

Veteran developer Yuji Naka hit out at his former publisher, Square Enix, after a court case over his removal as director of Balan Wonderworld concluded.

Naka is best known for his work on Sonic The Hedgehog, Phantasy Star, and Nights into Dreams. In a series of tweets, Naka said that “Square Enix is no good” and that neither they nor co-developer Arzest are “companies that care about games or fans.”

Naka had served as the director of Balan for much of its development but was removed from the post about six months before the game was released. He resigned from Square Enix shortly after Balan was released and filed a lawsuit against the company. He also floated the idea of retiring from the games industry for good.

In his thread, Naka cited two reasons for his last-minute dismissal. First was he voiced concern about promotional work with a Youtuber, who was to perform and release sheet music for a piano arrangement of the game’s music. “I thought it strange that we would only release an arrangement of the game’s music, and furthermore use a ghostwriter to produce that arrangement,” wrote Naka. “I got in trouble for arguing that we release the original score.”

Naka also cited tensions between himself and Arzest surrounding his comments that the game was submitted in an unfinished state, with known issues left unfixed. “I believe that games should be made by working hard until the very end, until it’s a good game that the team thinks their fans enjoy when they buy it,” he wrote.

Balan Wonderworld was announced in 2020 and hyped as the long-awaited reunion of Naka and fellow Sonic creator Naoto Ohshima, who is currently the head of Arzest. It was a critical and commercial failure upon release in March 2021, with our review calling it a “half-baked platformer” that was little more than a “jumble of endearing but incoherent ideas” and let down by “fundamentally bad choices.”

While mostly focusing his ire on Square Enix and Azrest, Naka also thanked those who provided “comments and fantastic illustrations” inspired by the game, and offered his “sincere apologies to those customers who bought the unfinished Balan Wonderworld.”

IGN has reached out to Square Enix for comment and you can read our independent translation of Naka’s Twitter thread below.

I filed a lawsuit against Square Enix after I was removed as director of Balan Wonderworld roughly six months before release. Now that the court case is over and the removal order is no longer in effect, I have some things that I’d like to say.

I think Square Enix is no good: they don’t care about games or fans. According to court documents, I was removed as director from Balan Wonderworld for two reasons. This decision was made by the producer, publicist, sound director, the head of the company board, and the Human Resources department.

One reason is that a pianist Youtuber was going to perform songs from the game and publish the sheet music arrangement as part of the game’s promotion. I thought it strange that we would only release an arrangement of the game’s music, and furthermore use a ghostwriter to produce that arrangement. I got into trouble for arguing that we release the original score.

Another is that, according to court documents, my relationship with Arzest had been damaged because of comments I made about them submitting the game without fixing issues uncovered during development, as well as comments I made with the aim of improving the game itself. The producer, Mr. Fujimoto, told Mr. Oshima about these comments.

Another point: In an email to Mr. Fujimoto, Mr. Oshima wrote “I just gathered the staff and told them about postponing the demo version. I told them, ‘This decision was made by Mr. Fujimoto. Let’s do our best for his sake.’ They clapped and cheered when I told them. This was a little unexpected and I was very moved.

“Recently, staff who’ve been seeming down have been revitalised. Thank you so much. We’ll all do our best.” However, the producer decides the schedule, not me. The producer decided on that tight schedule. Something’s strange about that, right?

I don’t think it’s a good idea to only release arrangements of the game’s music. I think there’s game music that everyone knows and can hum, but I’m not sure that this is what you’d call the game’s ‘true’ music.

I believe that games should be made by working hard until the very end, until it’s a good game that the team thinks their fans enjoy when they buy it. I think it’s strange to remove and totally exclude a director who’s had input on the game, and to do so without discussion because there isn’t time.

By forbidding retweeting, liking, etc. on social media I think Square Enix is doing their fans a disservice. There were so many comments and fantastic illustrations of Balan Wonderworld and I’m really sorry that I couldn’t do anything to recognise them.

For my part, I would like to offer my sincere apologies to those customers who bought the unfinished Balan Wonderworld.

Henceforth I believe I will be able to respond to mentions and tags as an individual.

I think it’s natural to request changes that will make a game better. If you can’t do that, I think it’s fine to at least discuss it, but even that seems impossible. I don’t think this allows us to do a game justice.

Two weeks before the final deadline for Sonic the Hedgehog, we changed the spec such that if Sonic has even a single ring, he can’t die. This famous mechanic came as a result of us working to improve the game up until the last minute, and I think that people are still enjoying this game around the world to this day. #SonicTheHedgehog

I think it’s strange to say that developers can’t work until the last minute to make their game better. I asked my lawyer to help me negotiate the ability to simply make comments on the game until the end of development but this was totally ignored, so I filed a lawsuit.

I think this matter has become so big because of the results and recognition that Balan Wonderworld gained. It is such a shame that a project that I worked on from the beginning has come to this.

Personally, I think it’s a real shame that an unfinished ‘Balan Wonderworld’ has been sent out into the world. I wanted to release it properly, as a carefully-made action game. I don’t think that Square Enix or Arzest are companies that care about games or fans.

Jack Richardson is a Freelance Writer for IGN.