Monthly Archives: December 2020
Naughty Dog Veteran Joins Zenimax Online To Work On ‘New, Unannnounced AAA IP’
An ex-Naughty Dog game designer has joined Zenimax Online to work on a "new, unannounced AAA IP."
Quentin Cobb previously worked on both The Last of Us and Uncharted 4 as a game designer before joining Zenimax. The unannounced AAA IP mentioned by Cobb in his tweet is yet to be revealed but as well as Cobb, the project has already pulled in veterans of games such as Destiny, Red Dead Redemption, Shadow of Mordor, XCOM and Battlefield.
Cobb explains that he and the teams have "formed the basis of a new satellite studio for Zenimax Online here in San Diego". He gives nothing away about the game, but does say that it's "easily the most excited I've ever been to work on a project since I joined the industry back in 2009". We'll be sure to provide any more news about this mysterious game as we hear about it. Zenimax Online is known for The Elder Scrolls Online, and previously contributed to Fallout 76 and the cancelled Commander Keen mobile game. Of course, the studio was folded into Microsoft in September of this year as part of a $7.5 billion acquisition of its parent company, Zenimax Media. In other Naughty Dog-related news, Creative Director Neil Druckmann was recently promoted, becoming co-president of the development studio. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/06/05/the-elder-scrolls-online-greymoor-review"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.I am happy to announce that I've joined @ZeniMax_Online as a Sr. Designer working with my good friend Ben Jones (@Bagelbeard) on a new, unannounced AAA IP! I’m thrilled this is finally happening and wanted to share a few details.1/4 pic.twitter.com/YBU9YvCenM
— Quentin Cobb (@QTrainCobb) December 7, 2020
Humble Choice for December Includes a Month of EA Play Pro
Humble Bundle has teamed up with EA to distribute access to EA Play Pro as part of December's $14.99/ £11.24 Humble Choice Premium deal.
As well as a lineup of games, those who sign up for the service before December 11 will get access to a month of EA Play Pro, which is essentially EA's version of Xbox Game Pass. You get access to all of the publisher's games when they drop, as well as a back catalogue of games that includes titles like Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order and FIFA 20.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/15/star-wars-jedi-fallen-order-review"]
The full Humble Choice lineup for December is below, and includes Overcooked 2, Children of Morta, Frog Detective 1 + 2 and many more. If you do subscribe you'll get a voucher to claim a month of EA Play Pro on the Humble Store.
- Overcooked! 2 + Too Many Cooks + Surf 'n' Turf Pack
- Children of Morta
- One Step from Eden
- The Beast Inside
- Indivisible
- Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection + The Arges Adventure
- Frog Detective 1 + 2
- Still There
- Struggling
- Tabletop Playground
- Shining Resonance Refrain
- Path of Giants
Project Athia Will Be a PS5 Console Exclusive for at Least 2 Years
The mysterious Square Enix game Project Athia will be a PS5 console exclusive for at least two years, a new trailer has revealed.
A 'New and Upcoming Games' trailer was posted to the official PlayStation YouTube account, which shows footage from PS5's 2021 lineup, including games like Deathloop, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Horizon: Forbidden West. Project Athia appears briefly, and a tag underneath the footage gives us some more details about the game's Sony exclusivity deal.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/07/playstation-5-new-and-upcoming-games-trailer"]
Project Athia will also be available on PC, but it won't be available on other consoles like the Xbox family of devices for "at least 24 months after release date." This means intrigued Xbox fans will have to wait for at least two years to play the game outside of the PlayStation 5 or PC ecosystem.
Back in September, Project Athia developer Luminous Productions gave a showcase of the tech powering the game, known as the Luminous Engine. You can check out the 'World Editor' video here, which provides a glimpse at some lush procedural environments. Beyond that, we know very little about the game, aside from the fact that it is being written by Rogue One's Gary Whitta and "a crack team of A-list writers."
In less welcome PlayStation 5 news, UK gangs have been stealing PS5s from the back of delivery trucks while they're driving.
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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
Project Athia Will Be a PS5 Console Exclusive for at Least 2 Years
The mysterious Square Enix game Project Athia will be a PS5 console exclusive for at least two years, a new trailer has revealed.
A 'New and Upcoming Games' trailer was posted to the official PlayStation YouTube account, which shows footage from PS5's 2021 lineup, including games like Deathloop, Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, and Horizon: Forbidden West. Project Athia appears briefly, and a tag underneath the footage gives us some more details about the game's Sony exclusivity deal.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/07/playstation-5-new-and-upcoming-games-trailer"]
Project Athia will also be available on PC, but it won't be available on other consoles like the Xbox family of devices for "at least 24 months after release date." This means intrigued Xbox fans will have to wait for at least two years to play the game outside of the PlayStation 5 or PC ecosystem.
Back in September, Project Athia developer Luminous Productions gave a showcase of the tech powering the game, known as the Luminous Engine. You can check out the 'World Editor' video here, which provides a glimpse at some lush procedural environments. Beyond that, we know very little about the game, aside from the fact that it is being written by Rogue One's Gary Whitta and "a crack team of A-list writers."
In less welcome PlayStation 5 news, UK gangs have been stealing PS5s from the back of delivery trucks while they're driving.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.
Call of Duty: Warzone’s Rebirth Island Confirmed
Call of Duty: Warzone's new map is Rebirth Island, which seems to be a remake of CoD: Blackout's Alcatraz map.
Call of Duty: Warzone’s Rebirth Island Confirmed
Call of Duty: Warzone's new map is Rebirth Island, which seems to be a remake of CoD: Blackout's Alcatraz map.
Cyberpunk 2077 Day 1 Patch Will Make it a ‘Different Game’ on Console
Amid widespread reports of bugs, a CD Projekt Red employee has said that Cyberpunk 2077 will be a "different game" with an upcoming console update. CD Projekt has also confirmed that the PC version's Day 0 patch includes "some but not all" of the launch version's fixes.
Answering fan questions on Twitter after many reviews - IGNs included - pointed out that the game suffered from numerous distracting bugs, CDPR's Fabian Döhla explained that "a bunch of issues reviewers encountered (and reported) have been fixed already, some more are part of the update."
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=cyberpunk-2077-examples-of-visual-bugs&captions=true"]
Asked if the Xbox One X version of the game will benefit from an update, Döhla replied, "It is a different game with console update, yes."
IGN reviewed the game on PC, with a substantial Day 0 patch installed, but still encountered a varriety of bugs. In a statement to PC Gamer, a CDPR spokesperson explained that that update contained, "some but not all of the patch and fixes people will experience when the game launches." This tallies with earlier tweets from Döhla, which seemed to confirm that the game would receive a further launch patch.
Bugs in Cyberpunk have become a major topic of discussion after the game's first wave of reviews. IGN's Tom Marks explained that the "amount of bugs I’ve experienced really does need to be mentioned. I’ve only been able to play Cyberpunk 2077 on a PC with a GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, and as of writing this I have yet to lay hands on either the PlayStation or Xbox versions, but the issues I’ve encountered were extremely frequent and distracting."
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/07/cyberpunk-2077-review"]
With bugs marking one of the few complaints we had for Cyberpunk 2077 on PC, it's encouraging news – although make sure to check back with us after launch on December 10 for the rundown on what's actually changed.
For (much) more on Cyberpunk, make sure to check out our 9/10 Cyberpunk 2077 review, bookmark our Cyberpunk wiki guide, and check out exactly when your region will get access on release day.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
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.
Cyberpunk 2077 Day 1 Patch Will Make it a ‘Different Game’ on Console
Amid widespread reports of bugs, a CD Projekt Red employee has said that Cyberpunk 2077 will be a "different game" with an upcoming console update. CD Projekt has also confirmed that the PC version's Day 0 patch includes "some but not all" of the launch version's fixes.
Answering fan questions on Twitter after many reviews - IGNs included - pointed out that the game suffered from numerous distracting bugs, CDPR's Fabian Döhla explained that "a bunch of issues reviewers encountered (and reported) have been fixed already, some more are part of the update."
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=cyberpunk-2077-examples-of-visual-bugs&captions=true"]
Asked if the Xbox One X version of the game will benefit from an update, Döhla replied, "It is a different game with console update, yes."
IGN reviewed the game on PC, with a substantial Day 0 patch installed, but still encountered a varriety of bugs. In a statement to PC Gamer, a CDPR spokesperson explained that that update contained, "some but not all of the patch and fixes people will experience when the game launches." This tallies with earlier tweets from Döhla, which seemed to confirm that the game would receive a further launch patch.
Bugs in Cyberpunk have become a major topic of discussion after the game's first wave of reviews. IGN's Tom Marks explained that the "amount of bugs I’ve experienced really does need to be mentioned. I’ve only been able to play Cyberpunk 2077 on a PC with a GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, and as of writing this I have yet to lay hands on either the PlayStation or Xbox versions, but the issues I’ve encountered were extremely frequent and distracting."
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/07/cyberpunk-2077-review"]
With bugs marking one of the few complaints we had for Cyberpunk 2077 on PC, it's encouraging news – although make sure to check back with us after launch on December 10 for the rundown on what's actually changed.
For (much) more on Cyberpunk, make sure to check out our 9/10 Cyberpunk 2077 review, bookmark our Cyberpunk wiki guide, and check out exactly when your region will get access on release day.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
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.
‘Galactic Federation’ of Aliens Are Said to Be in Contact With US and Israel
According to former Israel space security chief Haim Eshed, the United States and Israeli governments have been and are in contact with a "Galactic Federation" of aliens.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post, Eshed told daily Israeli newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, that Israel and the US have been in contact with aliens and that these aliens exist as part of a "Galactic Federation." Eshed, who served as the chief of Israel's space security program for nearly 30 years and is now a professor, said the aliens and the US have made agreements based on researching and understanding "the fabric of the universe."
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2013/05/08/ranking-the-star-trek-movies"]
These agreements include a shared, secret underground base on Mars, where US and alien representatives meet. Eshed said President Donald Trump was "on the verge" of revealing the existence of this galactic federation, but that the aliens stopped him from doing so as they believe revealing their existence would have caused mass hysteria.
Despite what the federation reportedly believes, Eshed said he's decided to reveal this information now due to how well-respected he is in academia and how much the academic landscape has changed.
"If I had come up with what I'm saying five years ago, I would have been hospitalized," Eshed said. "Today, they're already talking different. I have nothing to lose. I've received my degrees and awards. I am respected in universities abroad, where the trend is also changing."
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-sci-fi-movies&captions=true"]
The Jerusalem Post reports that more information about this revelation can be found in Eshed's newest book, The Universe Beyond the Horizon — conversations with Professor Haim Eshed, where the professor explains that aliens have prevented nuclear apocalypses and more.
It's unclear if Eshed has any evidence supporting his claims — perhaps that can be found in his book — but somebody should probably give someone who has experience with galactic federations, like Captain James Kirk, a call...just in case.
For more science, read about the recent detection of possible signs of life on Venus that date back to the 1970s and then read about the discovery of 139 new minor planets discovered at the edge of our solar system. Check out IGN's list of the 25 best sci-fi movies after that.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes where he'll likely grow more and more existential now that he knows a galactic federation of aliens is out there in space.
‘Galactic Federation’ of Aliens Are Said to Be in Contact With US and Israel
According to former Israel space security chief Haim Eshed, the United States and Israeli governments have been and are in contact with a "Galactic Federation" of aliens.
As reported by The Jerusalem Post, Eshed told daily Israeli newspaper, Yediot Aharonot, that Israel and the US have been in contact with aliens and that these aliens exist as part of a "Galactic Federation." Eshed, who served as the chief of Israel's space security program for nearly 30 years and is now a professor, said the aliens and the US have made agreements based on researching and understanding "the fabric of the universe."
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2013/05/08/ranking-the-star-trek-movies"]
These agreements include a shared, secret underground base on Mars, where US and alien representatives meet. Eshed said President Donald Trump was "on the verge" of revealing the existence of this galactic federation, but that the aliens stopped him from doing so as they believe revealing their existence would have caused mass hysteria.
Despite what the federation reportedly believes, Eshed said he's decided to reveal this information now due to how well-respected he is in academia and how much the academic landscape has changed.
"If I had come up with what I'm saying five years ago, I would have been hospitalized," Eshed said. "Today, they're already talking different. I have nothing to lose. I've received my degrees and awards. I am respected in universities abroad, where the trend is also changing."
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-25-best-sci-fi-movies&captions=true"]
The Jerusalem Post reports that more information about this revelation can be found in Eshed's newest book, The Universe Beyond the Horizon — conversations with Professor Haim Eshed, where the professor explains that aliens have prevented nuclear apocalypses and more.
It's unclear if Eshed has any evidence supporting his claims — perhaps that can be found in his book — but somebody should probably give someone who has experience with galactic federations, like Captain James Kirk, a call...just in case.
For more science, read about the recent detection of possible signs of life on Venus that date back to the 1970s and then read about the discovery of 139 new minor planets discovered at the edge of our solar system. Check out IGN's list of the 25 best sci-fi movies after that.
[poilib element="accentDivider"]
Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes where he'll likely grow more and more existential now that he knows a galactic federation of aliens is out there in space.