Monthly Archives: February 2022
Call of Duty Devs Admit to Breaking Warzone, Vows to Fix Sequel
Activision confirmed what we’ve known for a while now: Infinity Ward is developing a sequel to Modern Warfare as well as a new Warzone experience. In a call with influencers, Activision confirmed that fixing Warzone is a top priority for the team after taking the blame for ruining it.
“We f**ked stuff up,” Infinity Ward co-studio head Pat Kelly admitted plainly per Charlie Intel. Game director Josh Bridge added that the team is “not happy” with the current state of Warzone and that the studio is “determined to fix the issues with the game.”
Warzone, a free-to-play Call of Duty battle royale was released as part of the rollout for 2019’s Modern Warfare and it became a huge hit.
However, recent updates for Warzone have drawn more criticism than praise after several performance issues and bugs were introduced over time. The rollout of season two for Warzone Pacific has been delayed to add additional fixes before launch.
All of this is to say that Warzone’s stability has declined over time and Infinity Ward is looking to right the ship with its new Warzone experience.
Infinity Ward is leading development on both the new Warzone and mainline Call of Duty game, which is a sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare. A new engine will be used for both titles.
While the future of Call of Duty was put into question after it was announced Microsoft plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, the company announced that Call of Duty will remain multiplatform and available on PlayStation “beyond existing agreements.”
Elsewhere, fans are excited for a sequel to Modern Warfare as the 2019 entry was critically acclaimed upon launch. You can read IGN’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare review here.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Call of Duty Devs Admit to Breaking Warzone, Vows to Fix Sequel
Activision confirmed what we’ve known for a while now: Infinity Ward is developing a sequel to Modern Warfare as well as a new Warzone experience. In a call with influencers, Activision confirmed that fixing Warzone is a top priority for the team after taking the blame for ruining it.
“We f**ked stuff up,” Infinity Ward co-studio head Pat Kelly admitted plainly per Charlie Intel. Game director Josh Bridge added that the team is “not happy” with the current state of Warzone and that the studio is “determined to fix the issues with the game.”
Warzone, a free-to-play Call of Duty battle royale was released as part of the rollout for 2019’s Modern Warfare and it became a huge hit.
However, recent updates for Warzone have drawn more criticism than praise after several performance issues and bugs were introduced over time. The rollout of season two for Warzone Pacific has been delayed to add additional fixes before launch.
All of this is to say that Warzone’s stability has declined over time and Infinity Ward is looking to right the ship with its new Warzone experience.
Infinity Ward is leading development on both the new Warzone and mainline Call of Duty game, which is a sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare. A new engine will be used for both titles.
While the future of Call of Duty was put into question after it was announced Microsoft plans to acquire Activision Blizzard, the company announced that Call of Duty will remain multiplatform and available on PlayStation “beyond existing agreements.”
Elsewhere, fans are excited for a sequel to Modern Warfare as the 2019 entry was critically acclaimed upon launch. You can read IGN’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare review here.
Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.
Ahsoka Series Sets Up Thrawn as the Villain, Ray Stevenson Joins the Cast
The cast of the upcoming Star Wars: Ahsoka continues to take shape. The Hollywood Reporter confirms Grand Admiral Thrawn will be the central villain of the series, and reveals that Thor: The Dark World's Ray Stevenson is joining the cast.
Thrawn was expected to be a core focus of the series, given that The Mandalorian: Season 2 revealed Ahsoka has been hunting her old nemesis on the far fringes of the galaxy. However, THR clarifies that Stevenson won't be playing Thrawn, but another villain with the rank of admiral.
It's unclear if Stevenson's role is an existing character or brand new to the Star Wars franchise. In the Expanded Universe, Thrawn was frequently accompanied by his second-in-command, Gilad Pellaeon. Could Pellaeon be following his commanding officer in making the jump from the EU to Disney's Star Wars canon?
It's still unknown who will be playing the Thrawn role. The character was previously voiced by Sherlock's Lars Mikkelsen in the animated series Star Wars Rebels. THR indicates production on the series will begin in April, so more casting news may well be dropping in the weeks ahead.
In addition to Rosario Dawson reprising the Ahsoka role, the series' cast includes Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker and Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Mandalorian warrior Sabine Wren. Like The Mandalorian, Star Wars: Ahsoka is set roughly five years after Return of the Jedi, so Christensen's Anakin will either be appearing as a Force Ghost or via flashbacks (or both?).
Executive producer Dave Filoni recently revealed he's had the idea for the plot of Star Wars: Ahsoka for "a long time."
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Ahsoka Series Sets Up Thrawn as the Villain, Ray Stevenson Joins the Cast
The cast of the upcoming Star Wars: Ahsoka continues to take shape. The Hollywood Reporter confirms Grand Admiral Thrawn will be the central villain of the series, and reveals that Thor: The Dark World's Ray Stevenson is joining the cast.
Thrawn was expected to be a core focus of the series, given that The Mandalorian: Season 2 revealed Ahsoka has been hunting her old nemesis on the far fringes of the galaxy. However, THR clarifies that Stevenson won't be playing Thrawn, but another villain with the rank of admiral.
It's unclear if Stevenson's role is an existing character or brand new to the Star Wars franchise. In the Expanded Universe, Thrawn was frequently accompanied by his second-in-command, Gilad Pellaeon. Could Pellaeon be following his commanding officer in making the jump from the EU to Disney's Star Wars canon?
It's still unknown who will be playing the Thrawn role. The character was previously voiced by Sherlock's Lars Mikkelsen in the animated series Star Wars Rebels. THR indicates production on the series will begin in April, so more casting news may well be dropping in the weeks ahead.
In addition to Rosario Dawson reprising the Ahsoka role, the series' cast includes Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker and Natasha Liu Bordizzo as Mandolorian warrior Sabine Wren. Like The Mandalorian, Star Wars: Ahsoka is set roughly five years after Return of the Jedi, so Christensen's Anakin will either be appearing as a Force Ghost or via flashbacks (or both?).
Executive producer Dave Filoni recently revealed he's had the idea for the plot of Star Wars: Ahsoka for "a long time."
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.
Elden Ring’s Minimum PC Requirements Are Interesting to Say the Least
Earlier today, Elden Ring's Steam page was updated to include the minimum system requirements needed to run the PC version.
As the the bare minimum needed for a gaming PC to run FromSoftware's highly-anticipated action RPG, the specs raised some eyebrows due to their heft requirements: an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X for the CPU, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580 as the graphics card.
More surprising was the fact the minimum PC requirement asked for 12GB of RAM. While 12GB of RAM is not out of the realm of possibility for the majority of PC gamers, many systems still roll with about 8GB of RAM. By comparison, Dying Light 2 — which was released earlier this month — only requires 8 GB of RAM.
Elden Ring's minimum PC requirements are also far more demanding than previous FromSoftware titles. Including 2019's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which lists an Intel Core i3-2100 or AMD FX-6300 for the CPU, 4GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 or AMD Radeon HD 7950 as some of the minimum specs needed to run the game.
Elden Ring's minimum PC system requirements have since been removed from the game's Steam page at the time of writing. IGN has reached out to Bandai Namco for comment.
With Elden Ring out in two weeks, Bandai Namco should hopefully be sharing the full list of system requirements needed to run the PC version soon.
For more on Elden Ring, check out our final preview ahead of the game's February 25 release date.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Elden Ring’s Minimum PC Requirements Are Interesting to Say the Least
Earlier today, Elden Ring's Steam page was updated to include the minimum system requirements needed to run the PC version.
As the the bare minimum needed for a gaming PC to run FromSoftware's highly-anticipated action RPG, the specs raised some eyebrows due to their heft requirements: an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X for the CPU, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580 as the graphics card.
More surprising was the fact the minimum PC requirement asked for 12GB of RAM. While 12GB of RAM is not out of the realm of possibility for the majority of PC gamers, many systems still roll with about 8GB of RAM. By comparison, Dying Light 2 — which was released earlier this month — only requires 8 GB of RAM.
Elden Ring's minimum PC requirements are also far more demanding than previous FromSoftware titles. Including 2019's Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, which lists an Intel Core i3-2100 or AMD FX-6300 for the CPU, 4GB of RAM, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 760 or AMD Radeon HD 7950 as some of the minimum specs needed to run the game.
Elden Ring's minimum PC system requirements have since been removed from the game's Steam page at the time of writing. IGN has reached out to Bandai Namco for comment.
With Elden Ring out in two weeks, Bandai Namco should hopefully be sharing the full list of system requirements needed to run the PC version soon.
For more on Elden Ring, check out our final preview ahead of the game's February 25 release date.
Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Subnautica Developer’s Next Project Will Be a Turn-Based Strategy Game Called ‘Project M’
Subnautica's developers have announced their next game, and it won't be an immersive survival sim. Codenamed Project M, the new game will be a turn-based strategy game set in a sci-fi world, according to the Krafton earnings release. It is set to release in early access in 2022, alongside Callisto Protocol — a survival horror game from Striking Distance Studios.
In the same announcement, Krafton also announced a new program called "The Potential" intended to "actively push into new businesses such as deep learning, Web 3.0, NFT, VR, and others."
Unknown Worlds was picked up by Krafton late last year, with the publisher saying it would continue to function as an independent studio as it worked on both what we now know as Project M as well as updates for Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero.
In our review of Subnautica back in 2018, we found it to be a "template for what open-world survival games should strive to be." We similarly loved Subnautica: Below Zero in our review last year of the frosty follow-up.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
Subnautica Developer’s Next Project Will Be a Turn-Based Strategy Game Called ‘Project M’
Subnautica's developers have announced their next game, and it won't be an immersive survival sim. Codenamed Project M, the new game will be a turn-based strategy game set in a sci-fi world, according to the Krafton earnings release. It is set to release in early access in 2022, alongside Callisto Protocol — a survival horror game from Striking Distance Studios.
In the same announcement, Krafton also announced a new program called "The Potential" intended to "actively push into new businesses such as deep learning, Web 3.0, NFT, VR, and others."
Unknown Worlds was picked up by Krafton late last year, with the publisher saying it would continue to function as an independent studio as it worked on both what we now know as Project M as well as updates for Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero.
In our review of Subnautica back in 2018, we found it to be a "template for what open-world survival games should strive to be." We similarly loved Subnautica: Below Zero in our review last year of the frosty follow-up.
Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.
Moon Knight: Here’s Our Best Look Yet At Oscar Isaac In Costume
Empire Magazine's new issue gives us our best look yet at Oscar Isaac's Moon Knight, the latest Marvel hero to receive their own Disney Plus Series.
Embrace the chaos. #MoonKnight is here to shake up the MCU, and he’s on the cover of Empire's new issue – with brand new Oscar Isaac and Kevin Feige interviews, world-exclusive new images, and much more. On sale Thurs 17 Feb.
— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) February 11, 2022
READ MORE: https://t.co/E5s7iXmvzU pic.twitter.com/CRLgroXTpZ
For those living under a rock, Oscar Isaac plays the titular Moon Knight, a mercenary with a dissociative identity disorder, who is drawn into a mystery involving ancient gods. That said, you can expect the MCU's Moon Knight to be very different from the comics.
Empire's cover also shows Moon Knight wielding his Crescent Darts, a set of moon-shaped blades that function similarly to shuriken.
Empire is also releasing a special edition cover showing off a different angle of Moon Knight and the Egyptian god Khonshu, who bestows Moon Knight with his powers.
This month's subscriber cover features a spectral evocation of #MoonKnight and Ancient Egyptian god Khonshu. Illustrated exclusively for Empire by legendary comic book artist @sinKEVitch.
— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) February 11, 2022
READ MORE: https://t.co/E5s7iXmvzU pic.twitter.com/Y51hlOpUhd
Of course, Moon Knight isn't a one-man show. Isaac stars alongside Ethan Hawke, playing the villainous scientist Arthur Harrow. You can check out the rest of the Moon Knight cast here. Moon Knight is out on Disney Plus on March 30.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.
Moon Knight: Here’s Our Best Look Yet At Oscar Isaac In Costume
Empire Magazine's new issue gives us our best look yet at Oscar Isaac's Moon Knight, the latest Marvel hero to receive their own Disney Plus Series.
Embrace the chaos. #MoonKnight is here to shake up the MCU, and he’s on the cover of Empire's new issue – with brand new Oscar Isaac and Kevin Feige interviews, world-exclusive new images, and much more. On sale Thurs 17 Feb.
— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) February 11, 2022
READ MORE: https://t.co/E5s7iXmvzU pic.twitter.com/CRLgroXTpZ
For those living under a rock, Oscar Isaac plays the titular Moon Knight, a mercenary with a dissociative identity disorder, who is drawn into a mystery involving ancient gods. That said, you can expect the MCU's Moon Knight to be very different from the comics.
Empire's cover also shows Moon Knight wielding his Crescent Darts, a set of moon-shaped blades that function similarly to shuriken.
Empire is also releasing a special edition cover showing off a different angle of Moon Knight and the Egyptian god Khonshu, who bestows Moon Knight with his powers.
This month's subscriber cover features a spectral evocation of #MoonKnight and Ancient Egyptian god Khonshu. Illustrated exclusively for Empire by legendary comic book artist @sinKEVitch.
— Empire Magazine (@empiremagazine) February 11, 2022
READ MORE: https://t.co/E5s7iXmvzU pic.twitter.com/Y51hlOpUhd
Of course, Moon Knight isn't a one-man show. Isaac stars alongside Ethan Hawke, playing the villainous scientist Arthur Harrow. You can check out the rest of the Moon Knight cast here. Moon Knight is out on Disney Plus on March 30.
Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.