Monthly Archives: September 2021

Tales Of Arise Review — Wake Me Up Inside

As the first major original JRPG on new consoles and the latest installment of a very long-running series, Tales of Arise comes with a lot of expectations attached. Arise sets out to refresh its visual presentation and gameplay to appeal to a new audience, but it also tries its best to retain what has made the Tales series so beloved among its longtime fans: fun characters, fast-paced combat, and an epic sense of scale. While it manages to succeed admirably at most of what it tries to do, a few shortcomings keep it from being the new standard-bearer for RPGs to come.

300 years ago, the planet Dahna was invaded by the people of their neighboring star, Rena, and crumbled beneath the might of the Renans' advanced technology and knowledge. Since their conquest, the Renans have destroyed the once-vibrant Dahnan culture and enslaved the planet's people. One day, a nameless, amnesiac slave known only as Iron Mask finds himself caught up in a supply train hijacking by rebel forces--and discovers that the freight is a Renan woman with a strange curse. As he gets swept up in a Dahnan rebellion, Iron Mask discovers new powers, his true name--Alphen--and a connection to the Renan girl, Shionne. But this tiny slave rebellion grows into something much bigger.

The beginning of Tales of Arise is a marked departure from the chipper banter and adventuring most Tales games lead off with. With heavy topics like slavery and oppression taking center stage in the narrative, the overall tone of Arise's story for the first several hours is quite dour, drilling into you the sheer misery and desperation of the Dahnan people. Fortunately, once your party fills out, the familiar Tales party dynamics come back in full force, with characters' personalities bouncing off each other in numerous entertaining dialogue exchanges. The rapport among your teammates--and watching their interactions change as they go through individual character arcs--is a major draw, and you'll find yourself eager to keep playing just to see the team react to the latest turn of events around the campfire or complain about the latest broken dungeon elevator.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Tales Of Arise Review — Wake Me Up Inside

As the first major original JRPG on new consoles and the latest installment of a very long-running series, Tales of Arise comes with a lot of expectations attached. Arise sets out to refresh its visual presentation and gameplay to appeal to a new audience, but it also tries its best to retain what has made the Tales series so beloved among its longtime fans: fun characters, fast-paced combat, and an epic sense of scale. While it manages to succeed admirably at most of what it tries to do, a few shortcomings keep it from being the new standard-bearer for RPGs to come.

300 years ago, the planet Dahna was invaded by the people of their neighboring star, Rena, and crumbled beneath the might of the Renans' advanced technology and knowledge. Since their conquest, the Renans have destroyed the once-vibrant Dahnan culture and enslaved the planet's people. One day, a nameless, amnesiac slave known only as Iron Mask finds himself caught up in a supply train hijacking by rebel forces--and discovers that the freight is a Renan woman with a strange curse. As he gets swept up in a Dahnan rebellion, Iron Mask discovers new powers, his true name--Alphen--and a connection to the Renan girl, Shionne. But this tiny slave rebellion grows into something much bigger.

The beginning of Tales of Arise is a marked departure from the chipper banter and adventuring most Tales games lead off with. With heavy topics like slavery and oppression taking center stage in the narrative, the overall tone of Arise's story for the first several hours is quite dour, drilling into you the sheer misery and desperation of the Dahnan people. Fortunately, once your party fills out, the familiar Tales party dynamics come back in full force, with characters' personalities bouncing off each other in numerous entertaining dialogue exchanges. The rapport among your teammates--and watching their interactions change as they go through individual character arcs--is a major draw, and you'll find yourself eager to keep playing just to see the team react to the latest turn of events around the campfire or complain about the latest broken dungeon elevator.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

WarioWare: Get It Together Review – A Platform For Change

Wario has transitioned from a platformer antagonist in Super Mario Land 2 to platforming antihero in the Wario Land series to indie game developer in the WarioWare series. In WarioWare: Get It Together, the character comes full circle with a microgame collection that loosely goes back to his platforming roots and brings his own original characters along for the ride. It's a much different WarioWare experience, and the new twist is mostly for the better.

If you've played any prior WarioWare games, you have a basic idea of what to expect in Get it Together. Wario and his cadre of weirdos have created a series of "microgames" that only last a handful of seconds. You'll find yourself plopped onto a game screen with an instruction consisting of no more than a few words, meaning you have to figure out the goal and execute the right action with quick-thinking and sharp reaction times. These microgames are then thrown into a blender, demanding quick responses one after another in a gauntlet of zany action. It's a formula that has been fun since Mega Microgames on the Game Boy Advance, and it still works exceptionally well--and maybe even better--with this new take on the concept.

The twist in Get It Together is that all of the microgames involve some degree of character platforming. While previous WarioWare games might have simply had you press the A button at the right moment to manipulate an on-screen device, in Get It Together you'll always be controlling a character. Characters include Wario, complete with his Wario Land-style shoulder slam, along with all of the WarioWare-specific characters who have been introduced throughout the series' history. As a story device, they've all been sucked into their own video game which is being plagued by bugs.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

WarioWare: Get It Together Review – A Platform For Change

Wario has transitioned from a platformer antagonist in Super Mario Land 2 to platforming antihero in the Wario Land series to indie game developer in the WarioWare series. In WarioWare: Get It Together, the character comes full circle with a microgame collection that loosely goes back to his platforming roots and brings his own original characters along for the ride. It's a much different WarioWare experience, and the new twist is mostly for the better.

If you've played any prior WarioWare games, you have a basic idea of what to expect in Get it Together. Wario and his cadre of weirdos have created a series of "microgames" that only last a handful of seconds. You'll find yourself plopped onto a game screen with an instruction consisting of no more than a few words, meaning you have to figure out the goal and execute the right action with quick-thinking and sharp reaction times. These microgames are then thrown into a blender, demanding quick responses one after another in a gauntlet of zany action. It's a formula that has been fun since Mega Microgames on the Game Boy Advance, and it still works exceptionally well--and maybe even better--with this new take on the concept.

The twist in Get It Together is that all of the microgames involve some degree of character platforming. While previous WarioWare games might have simply had you press the A button at the right moment to manipulate an on-screen device, in Get It Together you'll always be controlling a character. Characters include Wario, complete with his Wario Land-style shoulder slam, along with all of the WarioWare-specific characters who have been introduced throughout the series' history. As a story device, they've all been sucked into their own video game which is being plagued by bugs.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Newly Discovered Zelda: Breath of the Wild Glitch Could Change the Speedrunning Game

A newly discovered glitch in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild gives a one-finger salute to gravity, opening up fresh possibilities for speedrunners to beat the game as quickly as possible.

As reported by Kotaku, speedrunner LegendofLinkk recently shared a new glitch on Twitter that allows Link to fly around the map as they please – and explained how to achieve it with relative ease:

Previous means of getting around the map in the air have been affected by both gravity and stamina bars, whereas this new glitch allows players to remain at a consistent height as they travel freely above Breath of the Wild's open-world landscape.

The glitch is new enough not to have a formal concensus around its name – although some have taken to calling it bow lift smuggle sliding (BLS Sliding) – but it's already being widely hailed as a game-changer for speedrunning in the game. YouTuber and speedrunner JoeDun, who managed to complete a 100% no damage run of the game earlier this year, made a video on the new BLS Sliding tactic, saying it "might be the start of something amazing" for the speedrunning community.

JoeDun spoke further in the video about how the changes could affect different areas of speedrunning within the game. "What does this mean for Breath of the Wild speedrunning?" he says. "Well, a lot [...] my favorite category 100% might actually be changing a lot just due to this trick alone. Since you can basically use anything you can pick up to start this trick, things like the letter quest and Ruta will be super easy and fast". JoeDun went on to speak about a number of other popular speedrunning categories that could be opened up to new possibilities following the discovery of the glitch.

Twitter user @RicitosDeCaoba further suggested that BLS Sliding could even bring about its own speedrunning category in the game as it's used by more and more players, suggesting that this would be similar to "no limit" runs attempted by players in the game.

How truly useful the new glitch is will likely be found out over the coming weeks, as speedrunners across the community look to integrate it into their runs. For now, it seems that members of the community are getting to grips with the new skill and enjoying exploiting it for every grain of time it saves.

For more on Breath of the Wild, you can check out our dedicated page for the game where you'll be able to find a range of the latest news and clips surrounding the title and catch up with the story so far.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

WWE’s New Day Must Escape The Undertaker In Netflix’s Interactive Halloween Special

Escape The Undertaker, an interactive Halloween special starring WWE's New Day and The Undertaker, is coming to Netflix on October 5.

According to Netflix, viewers will get to decide the fate of New Day's Big E, Xavier Woods, and Kofi Kingston as they attempt to survive the wrath of The Undertaker at his mansion, which has been transformed into an extreme haunted house, "packed to the brim with supernatural challenges" to usher in the spooky season.

The special promises to deliver some trick or treats... or should we say beats, just in time for Halloween. Netflix released some first-look images for Escape The Undertaker, which continues the streaming service's ongoing partnership with WWE. Check out the photos below for an early look at Taker's capers:

The Undertaker, aka Mark Calaway, officially announced his retirement from WWE last year. "For 30 long years, I've made that slow walk to this ring and have laid people to rest time and time again," he told spectators at the WWE Survivor Series. "And now my time has come. My time has come to let The Undertaker rest in peace."

Though he isn't stepping back into the ring, The Deadman is rising from his grave once more for Netflix's Halloween special. The WWE legend wrote an ominous note to his fans on Twitter to tease his starring role in the project. "Be careful whose door you knock on… never know who is on the other side!" Taker warned.

Escape The Undertaker will be released on Netflix on October 5 as part of this year's Netflix and Chills lineup, which features a skele-ton of hair-raising, door-locking, keep-the-lights-on treats for streamers this coming season. Other notable additions include the forthcoming final season of Lucifer, the second season of Locke & Key, and Mike Flanagan's Midnight Mass.

Adele Ankers is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow her on Twitter.

Forza Horizon 5 Reveals a Huge Car List, and It’s Not Even Complete

With Forza Horizon 5 just around the corner, Xbox Game Studios and Playground Games have revealed a huge list of cars that players will be able to choose from when setting out across the game's vast and diverse Mexican landscape. Despite the list already containing several hundred cars, the developer has confirmed that there's still more to come.

Forza Motorsport's official website currently lists 426 different vehicles to drive. Playground announced a number of debutants on the list as well as confirming that more cars would be added in due course. The post reads, "stay tuned, because this isn’t the final list for launch date. We’ll be expanding it with even more cars and manufacturers in the weeks leading up to Nov. 9, so be sure to check back regularly for all the latest updates."

As mentioned, a number of cars will make their Forza debut in the upcoming installment of the series. From the behemoth that is the 2020 Ford Super Duty F-450 DRW Premium to the beautiful 1991 Jaguar Sport XJR-15, the Forza team says that its new additions "are the most diverse they've ever been in Forza history."

From Mercs to McLarens and Audis to Aston Martins, Forza Horizon 5 doesn't appear to have spared any expense with its selection of included makes and models. As well as the developer's promise to announce further content in the lead-up to launch, Playground Games has also said that it will be bringing back its Festival Playlist for Forza Horizon 5, meaning that a number of new-to-franchise cars and fan favorites will make their way into the game in the months after its release. You know, if the hundreds of cars available at launch just aren't quite enough.

Forza Horizon 5 looks to be another step up from the fourth iteration of the franchise. Not only does the game begin by literally dropping you into a volcano (and that's just one part of the game's hugely diverse map), it also features a new events lab mode that gives players many of the tools the team at Playground Games had when designing in-game levels.

For more on Forza Horizon 5, make sure to check out this piece where we sat down with the team at Playground Games to ask about their partnership with Mercedes, how they are pushing the game's engine further than ever and what additions they'll be adding to the series. Forza Horizon 5 will launch for PC, Xbox Series X|S, and Xbox One on November 9.

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

See a Brand New Mythic Rare MTG Card From Innistrad: Midnight Hunt

The newest Magic: The Gathering set Innistrad: Midnight Hunt will be upon us soon, and it sees the massively successful trading card game return to a world of gothic horror. Werewolves, zombies, vampires and spirits await in Innistrad, a plane first introduced 11 years ago and that remains popular today.

One of the most exciting additions will be the 19 new double-faced werewolf cards. Long term players will be familiar with the mechanic of transforming from a human form on one side to a werewolf on the other, but the new global day-night cycle offers a significant twist, meaning that a card can enter play as a werewolf if it’s nighttime. Be sure to check out IGN’s existing coverage of the new day-night cycle as well as new mechanics like Disturb, Decayed and Coven.

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt also sees the return of a mechanic from the original Innistrad set – flashback. This lets players cast spells from their graveyard, effectively allowing them to double dip. What kinds of cards will have flashback? I’m glad you asked. IGN has a mythic rare Legendary creature to reveal today that showcases the keyword. Introducing Lier, Disciple of the Drowned:

Lier looks quite powerful, but what kinds of decks would it be run in? “Lier is most likely to see play in a deck that has a mixture of card drawing and removal,” says Mike Turian, Product Architect. “At five mana, you will need to keep the board clear of threats and your life total up. You can do both with instants and sorceries. This will give you plenty of fodder for when you reuse Lier and take control of the game.

“Lier could also be powerful in a combo deck that generates lots of additional mana by casting mana-boosting cards a second time. Getting to cast instants and sorceries—ones that were only intended to be cast once—a second time is quite powerful. We have seen older cards, such as Yawgmoth’s Will and Snapcaster Mage, give the ability to cast cards from the graveyard so Lier could offer that same potential in a deck.

“Finally, Lier is a Legendary creature so that means he can be used to lead your Commander deck. Put Lier in a mono-blue deck filled with card drawing, bounce, and removal and you will be the bane of all of your friends as you have at least twice as good of a time playing as they do!”

Lier is a powerful high priest of a cult that worships an ancient god of sea and storms...

The two pieces of art are also incredibly intense, so who is this character? “Lier is a powerful high priest of a cult that worships an ancient god of sea and storms,” Meris Mullaley - Narrative Design Manager, Worldbuilding Team tells me. “He preaches that because the surface is covered with horrors and monsters it is a sign humans shouldn’t live there. One day his sea god will return, overtake the surface, and welcome all to a paradise below the waves.

“Lier’s beliefs are one way in which humans have found ways to cope with the danger and horrors of living on Innistrad.”

“The look for Lier was really fun to play with,” Senior Art Director Taylor Ingvarsson enthuses in response to my question about Lier’s visual design(s). “Originating down in the coastal province of Naphalia, the denizens of this provence are usually covered in heavy water-resistant clothing to protect themselves from the elements. We wanted to push the idea of Lier’s zealotry to his ‘god of sea and storms’ by removing this protective clothing and allowing him to look confident and powerful in the midst of this dangerous coastal storm.

“For the visual motifs on Lier, we really pushed for a meld between Naphalia’s design language and that of the Stromkirk vampires of which their progenitor, Runo Stromkirk worships the same god of the sea and storms. You can note Naphalia’s inspiration by the fishing hooks, heavy leather gloves, and thick layers of clothing. While the Stromkirk vampires inspiration utilizes twisting heavy knots of nautical rope, the hooked shapes on his tabard akin to crashing waves, and strips of cloth that when whipping in the wind are akin to tentacles of great sea monsters. Lier’s zealotry is further exemplified by incorporating sea creatures into his staff and there is a massive crab over the shoulders giving him a creepy, yet elevated silhouette.

“I also have to say that I could not have been happier than to work with Ekaterina Burmak on this character. She really knocked this image out of the park and realized an awesome character for us.”

We’re Going on a Midnight Hunt

Innistrad is a rich world for Wizards to tap back into. Given it’s been five years since the last full card set based in Innistrad, I asked Meris Mullaley to set the scene for me. “Werewolves, zombies, vampires, and ghosts rule the night,” Mullaley says of the Gothic horror fantasy setting, “and the delicious (but resilient) humans do their best to survive. On Innistrad you might find yourself in the misty woods, a forbidding manor, or a haunted cemetery. It is a place that gives you a chill and crawling sensation under your skin and you are constantly watching the shadows.”

Midnight Hunt takes place on the eve of the Harvesttide Festival; a time when things have been thrown out of balance. “As we come back to Innistrad,” explains Product Architect Mike Turian, “the night is growing longer while daytime is shrinking. From a card design standpoint, this is captured with the creation of the Daybound/Nightbound mechanic on werewolves. Typically the Nightbound side of the card is more powerful, and with this new mechanic, once it is nighttime Werewolves will enter the battlefield on their back Nightbound side. So instead of having to transform them each individually, they now sync up with the current status of Day or Night.

For Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, the setting was decided on before we created the gameplay concepts.

“For Innistrad: Midnight Hunt,“ Turian continues, “the setting was decided on before we created the gameplay concepts. Innistrad always wants to tap into the gothic horror feel and that leads to loads of top down cards designed from thinking about how to capture that gothic horror setting. We create both the cards and the mechanics by asking ourselves what it is like to be a human that returns to the world as a spirit, or as a werewolf that desires nightfall.”

The return of flashback very much fits into this design approach. “Innistrad… has always looked to the graveyard as one of the ways to capture that feel from a gameplay perspective,” says Mike Turian. “Often that is with creatures that rise from the graveyard, however flashback allows spells to come back for a second time. Everyone loves casting their favorite spells twice and we saw how popular that was with cards like Snapcaster Mage from the original Innistrad set. In addition to connecting back to earlier sets, flashback adds a lot of fun to gameplay. Often as the game goes on, it’s nice to have a reserve of spells that you can tap into again. So flashback helps connect both to the flavor of Innistrad and the great gameplay that Magic: The Gathering offers.”

Given the emphasis on setting and story informing the gameplay, does Midnight Hunt tie into players’ last visit to this plane? “The last time we were on Innistrad,” explains Mullaley, “the Eldrazi were creating nightmares out of the standard Innistrad horrors. At the end of that story, Emrakul was trapped in the moon. The Travails – what residents call the situation with the Eldrazi – left an impact on the plane that you can see snippets of in the cardset and the web fiction. The situation with the day/night imbalance very likely has to do with its Eldrazi prisoner. However, in this return to Innistrad we wanted to focus on the original Gothic horror themes of the setting. So the mechanics, the story, and the cardset focus on werewolves, witches, and vampires.”

Gothic Delights

The art direction really delivers on those Gothic horror themes. I asked how the approach to card art differed for this set versus others. “In practice, none of our cardsets are singular in their emotional tone,” says Meris Mullaley. “They do each have their unique traits and Innistrad is primarily dark horror: Really foreboding, ominous and creepy. Knowing that we were going to be on Innistrad for two sets, we wanted to make sure that the hope and whimsy themes that have always been a small part of Innistrad had a larger footprint.

“Also, when your plane is experiencing environmental changes—for example, the day/night imbalance and the frost covering everything—the art team does extra work to keep those elements consistently represented across the whole cardset as best as we can.”

“Innistrad is always a fun challenge,” adds Senior Art Director, Taylor Ingvarsson. “It is really easy to crank the horror up to high and make humans feel too scared or only like prey on the plane. What I love about this plane so much is that even though Humans are on the back foot from monsters we always push for ensuring that every character has a sense of agency and the ability to always look cool. It doesn’t matter if you are a simple farmer getting in a hard day’s work or if you’re the most battle-hardened Cathar. You will always get an opportunity in Innistrad to look awesome fighting off nasty beasties.”

And lastly, what inspired the incredible showcase art? “Innistrad has been built around gothic horror themes from the beginning,” Mullaley explains, “and our showcase cards provide a way for us to express the worldbuilding themes in new ways. For Innistrad: Midnight Hunt, we regularly talked about the influence of gothic horror monster movies, and we took that inspiration a step farther to feature many legendary creatures with alternate art that alluded to the classic black & white monster movies.”

The introduction of Innistrad: Midnight Hunt will see a new Standard meta for Magic: The Gathering, with a number of old sets dropping out of the format. And Innistrad itself will certainly make its presence felt one way or another this year, with the vampire-themed Crimson Vow set coming two months after Midnight Hunt.

Innistrad: Midnight Hunt will be out on MTG Arena on September 17 and for tabletop on September 24. Physical cards will be available in Draft Boosters, Set Boosters and Collector Boosters, as well as in Commander Deck bundles. You can find out more about on the official Midnight Hunt site.

Cam Shea has worked at IGN since the before times, and has played more Breath of the Wild than just about any other game. He's barely on Twitter.

The Hero From the Unreal Engine 5 Tech Demo, Windwalker Echo, Is Coming to Fortnite

Epic Games has been showcasing the upcoming Unreal Engine 5 with a series of impressive tech demos, and now the protagonist from those demos is coming to Fortnite. Also, she’s apparently named Windwalker Echo.

Windwalker Echo is the formerly unnamed character that has starred in Epic’s various Unreal Engine 5 tech demos. This includes the Lumen in the Land of Nanite tech video that showed off the lighting and geometry tool as well as the Valley of the Ancient tech demo.

Both Lumen in the Land of Nanite and Valley of the Ancient are playable tech demos even though there’s no plan to create a game starring Windwalker Echo. But she will at least be playable in Fortnite starting tonight.

Unreal Engine also partnered with animation team Mold3D Studio on a new animation sample called "Slay" that shows Windwalker Echo in action. Check it out below.

Unreal Engine 5 is currently available in Early Access and developers with an Unreal license are free to test and experiment. Meanwhile, other studios are already lining up to build their next game in Unreal Engine 5 including Gears studio The Coalition, and potentially BioWare for the next Mass Effect game based on recent job listings.

Fortnite is set to end its current Chapter 2 Season 7 event with a big finale called Operation: Sky Fire. A one-time-only event set for September 12 at 1 pm PT/4 pm ET that will finish the fight against the alien invasion.

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

Billionaire Wants to Build a Real-Life Rapture in the Desert

Billionaire and former Walmart executive Marc Lore has shared his vision for a new city in America, that will cost $400 billion to build.

CNN reports that the new city, called Telosa, is being designed to be a sustainable metropolis located in a desert somewhere in the U.S. Right now, city planners are considering Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Arizona, and Texas.

The city's layout is intended to allow residents to get to work, school, or anything else they may need within 15 minutes. The goal is for Telosa to be eco-friendly, with sustainable energy and water. At the center of it all is the Equitism Tower, a skyscraper designed to be, "a beacon for the city."

The plan says the city will eventually grow to 150,000 acres, supporting 5 million people. That stage, however, is at least 40 years away. The first phase would apparently take 10-20 years to achieve, and will support 1 million people in the city.

The city may evoke memories of BioShock's Rapture, the large, underwater utopia designed to help society flourish. However, the proponents of Telosa say their goal isn't to create a utopia, but rather to stay focused on what is possible.

Speaking of Rapture, the upcoming BioShock 4 seemingly won't take place in either Rapture or BioShock Infinite's Columbia, according to job listings for the game. If Telosa makes you want to dive back into the world of Rapture, you can follow IGN's BioShock walkthrough every step of the way.

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