Monthly Archives: March 2022

Witcher 4: Fans Debate Whether Ciri Will Be the Main Character

CD Projekt Red's announcement of The Witcher 4 (for lack of an official name) has sent fans into a frenzy as they try to decipher the studio's teaser image.

While it doesn't show much, the art features a Witcher medallion partly submerged in snow, which some fans believe is linked to a major character from the last game, Ciri.

This rest of this article features major spoilers from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt.

CD Projekt Red has previously announced that previous protagonist, Geralt's journey has concluded, and The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt's canon ending certainly alludes to a Ciri spin-off. For those unfamiliar, the game ends with Geralt giving Ciri a new sword as she begins her own journey as a Witcher.

Ciri also wears a Cat School medallion, something not discussed in the games but is instead taken straight from Andrzej Sapkowski's original book series – and some fans believe the revealed medallion represents a cat.

That being said, The Witcher series already has a cat medallion, and it doesn't really look like the new Witcher 4 tease. In fact, none of the current in-game Witcher medallions match the new art:

CD Projekt Red could have created a brand new Witcher school – just as they did with The Witcher 2's Letho, who's part of the Viper School. The game trilogy, while based on The Witcher books and largely loyal to its canon, tells entirely fresh stories taking place after the events of Sapkowski's work, meaning these kinds of inventions fit into the world quite neatly.

It's also entirely possible that the developer has just redesigned the medal. Geralt's medallion looks different in the books compared to the Netflix show, for example, and even has a slightly different design from the first Witcher game to Wild Hunt.

While the Netflix show is a completely different canon to that of the books or the games, the teased image actually looks most like Vesemir's symbol from The Witcher anime film: Nightmare of the Wolf.

Vesemir – Geralt's Witcher mentor – received a Netflix standalone, the title screen of of which shows a decayed version of a wolf medallion that looks somewhat like the one teased by CD Projekt Red.

Given that Vesemir dies in the course of The Witcher 3, a new game about him would need to be set a long time before the events of the current trilogy, but several teases of Vesemir's past exist in the books and games already. That includes a major but rarely discussed event known as the Sacking of Kaer Morhen that could make for a dramatic central plot point.

These are all just fan theories, of course, and CD Projekt Red likely won't reveal more information for a long while. The developer announced the game on March 21, just a few hours after a fan potentially found The Witcher 3's final secret, and didn't say much else except that the game will run in Unreal Engine 5.

CD Projekt Red last released a mainline Witcher game with Wild Hunt's release in 2015, but has since released Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher Tales: Thronebreaker, and Gwent. IGN recently gave The Witcher 3 a top spot on our best open world games of all time and in our 9/10 review said "massive in size and meticulously detailed, The Witcher 3 ends Geralt's story on a high note."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, a 4v1 Asymmetrical Multiplayer Game, Announced

Friday the 13th and Predator: Hunting Grounds developer IllFonic has revealed Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, a new 4v1 asymmetrical multiplayer game that is set to be released on PC, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, and Xbox One in Q4 2022.

In Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, you will have the chance to "put on a Proton Pack, grab a Ghost Trap, and monitor the trusty PKE Meter as a Ghostbuster in a team of four brave souls pursuing ghastly ghosts terrorizing public locations."

Watch the official trailer below:

Your mission as a Ghostbuster is simple - find the ghost, blast them with streams from the Particle Thrower, tether them in place, and then shut them in the trap when the timing is right. The ghost, on the other hand, will have to use their abilities to fly and teleport between rifts, possess objects to hide in plain sight, and use the power of slime and summoning ghoulish minions to win the day. And yes, you will get to play as a Slimer ghost.

Before the match, players will be able to hang out in the Firehouse from the films and customize both their Ghostbuster and Ghost, upgrade their equipment and abilities, and even practice their skills with the Particle Thrower.

Furthermore, players will also be able to talk to Winston Zeddemore, once again voiced by Ernie Hudson, to acquire missions, or to Dan Aykroyd's Ray Stantz at Ray's Occult Books to learn some "busting wisdom."

While the game does support solo play offline with or without AI, cross-platform multiplayer will ensure Ghostbusters and ghosts will be able to play together regardless of which platform they choose.

"Ghostbusters is one of the most beloved IPs in the world, so we are pulling out all the stops to make something special and accessible to this diverse fanbase,” said Charles Brungardt, CEO, IllFonic. “If you’re someone who loves the movies or asymmetrical multiplayer games, this was made for you.”

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed was casually revealed by IllFonic studio co-founder Raphael Saadiq in October 2021 on a podcast when he confirmed the studio was working on a game in the beloved franchise.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Ben Stiller in Talks to Star as Jack Torrance in a Stage Adaptation of The Shining

Ben Stiller is currently in talks to play Jack Torrance in Ivo van Hove's stage adaptation of Stephen King's horror classic The Shining.

Variety has confirmed reports of Stiller's potential involvement in The Shining theater production, reiterating that the actor is in early talks to star in the lead role of Jack Torrance, a struggling writer and recovering alcoholic who is hired as an off-season caretaker for the historic Overlook Hotel, where supernatural forces start to influence his sanity.

The Shining theater production is expected to adhere more closely to King's original 1977 novel than Stanley Kubrick's seminal 1980 film adaptation, which famously starred Jack Nicholson in the lead role alongside Shelley Duvall and Danny Lloyd. Additional casting for the stage show has yet to be announced, though rehearsals are set to begin this fall.

Renowned theater director Ivo van Hove, who recently revived West Side Story for the stage, is reportedly leading the creative team on the production. He will be joined by Tony winner Simon Stephens, who is penning the adaptation, and producers Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender following their collaboration on Harry Potter and the Cursed Child.

The team behind the production are planning to bring the show to London's West End by January 2023, where it will debut before hopefully making a move to Broadway in the future. Stiller has yet to close a deal and agree to these plans, bearing in mind his own schedule. Most recently, he stepped behind the camera to helm Apple TV+'s Severance.

However, Stiller has taken to the stage before. He starred in the 2011 Broadway revival of John Guare's House of Blue Leaves with Edie Falco and Jennifer Jason Leigh, having previously played a supporting role in the original 1986 Broadway production of the play, which garnered four Tony Awards, including Best Direction for Jerry Zaks.

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

Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone – Season Two Reloaded Revealed

Major changes are coming to Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone this week in the Season Two Reloaded update.

A new 12v12 mode is coming to Vanguard, while Warzone's Rebirth Island is getting its biggest update since launch, as revealed in a blog post on the Call of Duty website. The update is coming to Vanguard on March 22 and Warzone on March 23.

The 24-player Vanguard mode adds a large map set in the Alps, where players will fight to cross snowy terrain on foot or in new vehicles (a motorbike, squad vehicle, and tank) as they aim to capture each base and win the game.

Vanguard is also receiving a refreshed ranked system in Season Two Reloaded, where the best 250 players in the world will enter their own skill division above Challenger. New ranked rewards, including weapon camos, charms, and sprays will be rewarded at the end of each season.

In Warzone, several points of interest are being altered on Rebirth Island including Stronghold, and a brand new one called Dock is also being added.

Three modes are also being revamped that will be featured in a weekly Rebirth playlist. Resurgence is receiving a solo mode where the Rebirth meter is already activated, meaning players will start with an extra life.

Payload is also back as a 12 versus 12 player experience, allowing up to three full squads to steer their truck through the map. The final new mode is Blood Money, a variant of Plunder where players are guaranteed a significant amount of cash even if the defeated operator doesn't have any.

A number of new weapons, camos, and skins will also be available when Season Two Reloaded begins, including a Snoop Dogg operator.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer who occasionally remembers to tweet @thelastdinsdale.

Christina Ricci Is Returning to the Addams Family in Netflix’s Wednesday, but Not as Wednesday

It’s official – Christina Ricci is back in the Addams Family… but not in her iconic role.

According to Variety, the 42-year-old actress, who previously starred as Wednesday Addams in the hit family films, is joining the cast of Netflix’s Wednesday.

Directed by Tim Burton, Wednesday is a coming-of-age series about Wednesday Addams as she heads off to become a student at Nevermore Academy where she will take on monsters, learn to use her psychic powers, and solve a mystery involving her very own parents.

The live-action show stars Jenna Ortega as Wednesday Addams, with Catherine Zeta-Jones as Morticia and Luiz Guzman as Gomez.

Ricci has now joined the cast in a mystery role.

However, while details of her role are being kept firmly under wraps, it’s understood that she won’t be playing an older version of Wednesday on the upcoming show.

Wednesday is described as a sleuthing, supernatural mystery with the titular character uncovering a 25-year-old mystery involving her parents. The eight-episode series also has Wednesday save the local town from a monstrous threat while juggling new friendships as she tries to fit in at her new school.

The Addams Family was originally conceived by cartoonist Charles Addams in 1938 and became hugely popular in the ‘90s due to the release of The Addams Family and Addams Family Values. Both films starred Christina Ricci as Wednesday Addams, with Raul Julia as Gomez, Anjelica Huston as Morticia, and Christopher Lloyd as Uncle Fester.

Jenna Ortega stars as Wednesday Addams alongside Catherine Zeta-Jones and Luis Guzman. They’re joined by Hunter Doohan, Georgie Farmer, Moosa Mostafa, Emma Myers, Naomi J. Ogawa, Joy Sunday, Percy Hynes White, Thora Birch, Riki Lindholme, and Jamie McShane.

Tim Burton will direct the series, which was created by Al Gough and Miles Millar.

Wednesday will debut on Netflix sometime in 2022.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

The Suicide Squad’s Daniela Melchior Is In Talks to Join Fast and Furious 10

The Suicide Squad star Daniela Melchior may join Fast & Furious 10.

According to The Wrap, the 25-year-old Portuguese actress is in talks for the upcoming Fast and Furious sequel.

She recently starred in her breakout role in The Suicide Squad as The Ratcatcher – a DC antihero who communicates with an army of rats under her control. It’s currently unknown which role she will take in Fast & Furious 10.

Alongside Melchior, Jason Momoa has joined the cast and is said to be the film’s villain.

“I'm gonna go do 'Fast 10,' that's gonna be fun... it's fun,” he said. “I get to play the bad guy, which I haven't gotten to do for a while. Now, I get to be the bad boy. A very flamboyant bad boy.”

Details about the film’s plot are currently under wraps. However, Vin Diesel will be returning in Fast & Furious 10 alongside Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, and Sung Kang.

Unfortunately, it looks as though one name who won’t be joining Fast & Furious 10 is Dwayne Johnson, who declined Vin Diesel’s invitation for the upcoming sequel.

Although details are scarce, it looks as though Fast & Furious 10 could end up being a two-parter, with Vin Diesel teasing both “Fast & Furious 10 parts one and two”. It’s unknown how that will work, but it’s also been said that the franchise could come to an end with its tenth installment.

Whether or not that happens remains to be seen.

In the meantime, we’ll be eagerly awaiting details of the upcoming sequel and Daniela Melchior’s role within it.

Vin Diesel stars as Dom Torreto alongside Michelle Rodriguez, Tyrese Gibson, Ludacris, Sung Kang, Jason Momoa, and Daniela Melchior.

Justin Lin will direct the film, with both Diesel and Lin on board as producers.

Fast & Furious 10 will debut in theaters on May 19, 2023.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

Casey Hudson’s Humanoid Studios Is Working on an ‘All-New Science-Fiction Universe’

Casey Hudson, the co-creator and director of the Mass Effect Trilogy, looks to once again be returning to space as his new studio Humanoid Studios has confirmed it is working on an "all-new science-fiction universe."

The news comes via Humanoid Studios' updated website, where it states that "our current project is a multi-platform AAA game, focusing on character-driven narrative in an all-new science-fiction universe."

While that alone may not 100% mean the game is set in space, the website features four pieces of content art (which you can see below) that teases an adventure that looks to very much take place among the stars.

The images show a massive skull of... something being approached by people in spacesuits, a beautiful mountainous region with spacecraft flying by, a bar that overlooks a moon, and two more people in spacesuits loading up containers of some sort.

"By combining excellence in the arts with innovative technologies, videogames have the extraordinary power to transport you to new worlds of adventure," Hudson wrote for the website. "That's what first inspired me to make games, and it's at the heart of what we do at Humanoid Studios."

The website also puts front and center that it believes "people do their best creative work when they feel safe and supported."

"We believe in the power of small, agile teams, and a flat organizational structure, where everyone is empowered to make decisions and help drive the project vision," The 'Our Team' section reads. "We hire great people, empower them with the best tools and a supportive environment, and provide them the creative freedom to explore their fullest potential."

Humanoid Studios was announced by Hudson in June 2021 and it is a Canadian company with offices in B.C. and Alberta. It also offers "a flexible work environment combining from-home, in-office, and remote work so that developers can work where they feel happiest."

For more, read about Hudson's departure from BioWare and check out the newest poster that teases a bit more about the upcoming Mass Effect game.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Nintendo Switch Update Finally Allows Users to Create Folders of Games Called Groups

After five years, the Nintendo Switch finally allows users to create folders of games called groups.

This new feature was added in Nintendo Switch's Version 14.0.0 update alongside improvements to Bluetooth audio volume and lets users create up to 100 groups with a max of 200 games per group.

To create a group, you first need to scroll all the way to the right and select All Software. Once there, you will press the L Button to view games by groups. The first time you do this you will be prompted with a pop-up that will let you create your first one. Every time after, you will see your groups displayed

You can name a group, rearrange the titles in it, and sort where it sits in your list of groups. Unfortunately, these groups can only be seen once you head to All Software and can't be put on the homepage.

As for the Bluetooth Audio settings, this new update allows for the volume of Bluetooth audio devices to be adjusted by either the Switch or the control buttons on the device itself. The volume displayed on the console will reflect the proper volume even when changing it on the device, and the maximum volume for some Bluetooth audio devices has been increased.

For more, check out the latest update to the Nintendo Switch Online mobile app that lets you see which friends are online, what else you can expect from Nintendo in 2022, and our list of the best 25 Switch games.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Sarah Michelle Gellar Says She Would ‘Vote Zendaya’ to Star in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reboot

Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar has said she would "vote Zandaya" to be the one to star in a potential reboot of the series.

As reported by Bloody Disgusting, Gellar told Evan Ross Katz, the author of a new book called Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts, that she would "vote Zendaya" to star in a reboot of the series that aired from 1997-2003.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Buffy, and Gellar thought it'd be the perfect time to share who she believes would be a dream casting for the role.

The book also looks to celebrate this milestone and was released last week. The official synopsis says that "Evan Ross Katz explores the show’s cultural relevance through a book that is part oral history, part celebration, and part memoir of a personal fandom that has universal resonance still, decades later.”

Zendaya is coming off some major roles in Spider-Man: No Way Home as MJ, Euphoria as its star Rue Bennett, and Dune as Chani.

While there has been no official annoucement of a Buffy reboot, there have been discussions about it at Fox and beyond. In 2018, it said that the studio was open to a reboot when creator Joss Whedon was ready to give it the green light.

Since then, abuse and unprofessional behavior allegations have come out against Whedon, and two sources claim that Gellar herself had a strained relationship with him and did not want his name to be spoken around her.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Sarah Michelle Gellar Says She Would ‘Vote Zendaya’ to Star in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer Reboot

Buffy the Vampire Slayer star Sarah Michelle Gellar has said she would "vote Zandaya" to be the one to star in a potential reboot of the series.

As reported by Bloody Disgusting, Gellar told Evan Ross Katz, the author of a new book called Into Every Generation a Slayer Is Born: How Buffy Staked Our Hearts, that she would "vote Zendaya" to star in a reboot of the series that aired from 1997-2003.

This year marks the 25th anniversary of Buffy, and Gellar thought it'd be the perfect time to share who she believes would be a dream casting for the role.

The book also looks to celebrate this milestone and was released last week. The official synopsis says that "Evan Ross Katz explores the show’s cultural relevance through a book that is part oral history, part celebration, and part memoir of a personal fandom that has universal resonance still, decades later.”

Zendaya is coming off some major roles in Spider-Man: No Way Home as MJ, Euphoria as its star Rue Bennett, and Dune as Chani.

While there has been no official annoucement of a Buffy reboot, there have been discussions about it at Fox and beyond. In 2018, it said that the studio was open to a reboot when creator Joss Whedon was ready to give it the green light.

Since then, abuse and unprofessional behavior allegations have come out against Whedon, and two sources claim that Gellar herself had a strained relationship with him and did not want his name to be spoken around her.

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.