Monthly Archives: May 2022

Thor: Love and Thunder Trailer Features the First Look at Christian Bale’s Gorr the God Butcher

The newest Thor: Love and Thunder trailer has arrived and has finally given us our first look at Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher alongside more footage of Natalie Portman's Mighty Thor and Russell Crowe's Zeus.

The trailer was revealed during the NBA East Finals playoff game between the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, and the trailer begins with Taika Waititi's Korg telling the story of "the space viking, Thor Odinson."

Shortly after, we get a few scenes of Thor and Mighty Thor/Jane Foster together and learn more about how much Thor really missed her. While Foster wonders if it has been three or four years since they've seen each other, Thor quickly responds that it has been "eight years, seven months, and six days... give or take."

We then get our first look at Christian Bale's Gorr the God Butcher and hear his promise that "all gods will die." He also notes that Thor is not like the other gods he has killed, to which Thor responds, "because I have something worth fighting for."

While we saw the back of Russell Crowe's Zeus in the first trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder, we get a quick scene of him at the end where we actually get a full view of him followed by a full naked view of Thor. Yes, you read that right, and those in attendance can't believe what they are seeing either.

Marvel also released a new trailer for Thor: Love and Thunder, and it features all of the main players in this new story, including Thor, Mighty Thor, Valkyrie, Korg, and Gorr the God Butcher.

Thor: Love and Thunder will be released in theaters on July 8, 2022. For more, check out who exactly Gorr the God Buther is, how the movie can reconcile the MCU's most inconsistent character arc, and how Jane Foster becomes the new Thor.

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.

David Cronenberg’s Crimes of the Future Premiere Sparks Walkouts at Cannes

Crimes of the Future is already causing a stir as audience members walk out of the film’s premiere.

At several points during its debut screening at the Cannes Film Festival, scenes of violent, gory body horror proved too much for some viewers. Notably, the majority of walkouts took place within the first five minutes, with others exiting during a particularly grotesque scene involving Léa Seydoux and an open wound.

The star-studded gala event took place on the evening of Monday, May 23 with director David Cronenberg and the film’s cast, including Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart, in attendance. But the walkouts weren’t exactly unexpected.

“There are some very strong scenes,” explained Cronenberg. “I mean, I’m sure that we will have walkouts within the first five minutes of the movie. I’m sure of that. Some people who have seen the film have said that they think the last 20 minutes will be very hard on people, and that there’ll be a lot of walkouts. Some guy said that he almost had a panic attack.”

Crimes of the future stars Viggo Mortensen and Kristen Stewart in the highly anticipated return to sci-fi horror for the 79-year-old filmmaker.

Here’s the official synopsis:

“As the human species adapts to a synthetic environment, the body undergoes new transformations and mutations. Accompanied by his partner, celebrity performance artist Saul Tenser showcases the metamorphosis of his organs. Meanwhile, a mysterious group tries to use Saul's notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution.”

Meanwhile, the mysterious group mentioned above is being tracked by Timlin (Kristen Stewart) – an investigator from the National Organ Registry. The group wishes to use Saul’s notoriety to shed light on the next phase of human evolution… whatever that means.

Crimes of the Future’s first trailer gave us a glimpse of what to expect… but it looks as though Cronenberg’s signature body horror just proved too much for some.

Crimes of the Future stars Viggo Mortensen as Saul Tenser, alongside Léa Seydoux, Kristen Stewart, and Scott Speedman. David Cronenberg directed the film based on his own original script.

The film debuted at the Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2022, before its official release in June.

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

PlayStation Plus Premium Games PC Specs Revealed

Sony has officially revealed the required PC specs for its upcoming PlayStation Plus Premium plan, offering future plan owners a look at how powerful their computers will need to be compatible for streaming games. Luckily, the requirements aren't strict.

In a blog post today, the PlayStation team revealed more details about the three tiers of subscription, which are set to launch on June 13.

While games can run with a 2.0 GHz Intel Core i3, the PlayStation team recommended a faster CPU, such as a 3.5GHz Intel Core i3 or 3.8 GHz AMD A10, for optimal performance. The other specs are relatively low-end as well, with the streaming program only requiring 300 MB of storage and 2 GB of RAM.

Users will also need a DualShock 4 controller to properly play these games.

Read below for the full list of PC specs requirements and suggestions for PlayStation Plus Premium Games.

PlayStation Plus Premium Games streaming PC spec requirements

Operating System

Minimum: Windows 7 (SP 1), 8.1, or 10

Recommended: Windows 7 (SP 1), 8.1, or 10

CPU

Minimum: Core i3 2.0 GHz

Recommended: 3.5 GHz Intel Core i3 or 3.8 GHz AMD A10 or faster

RAM

Minimum: 2 GB

Recommended: 2 GB or more

Storage Space

Minimum: 300 MB of available storage

Recommended: 300 MB or more of available storage

Other Specs

Sound card and USB port

PlayStation’s new subscription plan is set to launch on June 13 — and the new tiered plan will give players who currently have a PS Now or PS Plus subscription an upgrade to Premium. Premium subscribers will also have access to game demos, which are now required from developers making games that cost $34 or higher.

Amelia Zollner is a Freelance Writer for IGN.

iFixit Begins Selling Replacement Parts for Steam Deck and Valve Index

After prematurely sharing which replacement parts it would be selling a few days ago, iFixit has officially listed replacement parts for the Steam Deck and the Valve Index.

Unfortunately, according to the website, most of the replacement parts listed are currently "out of stock," such as screen replacements and thumbsticks. However, some parts, such as the bumper and trigger buttons, are still available to purchase.

While those looking to replace the battery, iFixit currently does not have a listing for it, though CEO Kyle Wiens told The Verge that it is "working on a solution" to replace your Steam Deck's battery. During iFixit's official teardown of the Steam Deck in February, the company noted that replacing the battery was difficult.

Here is a full list of the parts that iFixit is selling for the Steam Deck and how much each part costs:

  • Steam Deck Fan / Part Only - $24.99
  • Steam Deck Fan / Fix Kit - $29.99
  • Steam Deck (512GB) Screen / Part Only - $94.99
  • Steam Deck (512GB) Screen / Fix Kit - $99.99
  • Steam Deck (64GB or 256GB) Screen / Part Only - $64.99
  • Steam Deck (64GB or 256GB) Screen / Fix Kit - $69.99
  • Steam Deck RIght Thumbstick / Part Kit - $19.99
  • Steam Deck Right Thumbstick / Fix Kit - $24.99
  • Steam Deck Left Thumbstick / Part Only - $19.99
  • Steam Deck Left Thumbstick / Fix Kit - $24.99
  • Steam Deck Action Button Rubber Membrane - $4.99
  • Steam Deck D-Pad Rubber Membrane - $4.99
  • Steam Deck Steam Button Rubber Membrane - $4.99
  • Steam Deck Speakers - $24.99
  • Steam Deck Left Trigger Button Assembly - $7.99
  • Steam Deck Right Trigger Button Assembly - $7.99
  • Steam Deck Left Bumper Button Assembly - $6.99
  • Steam Deck Right Bumper Button Assembly - $6.99
  • Steam Deck Back Plate - $24.99
  • Steam Deck Front Plate -$24.99
  • Steam Deck Motherboard - $349.99
  • Steam Deck Right Daughter Board - $29.99
  • Steam Deck Left Daughter Board - $29.99
  • Steam Deck Battery Adhesive - $4.99
  • Steam Deck Screen Adhesive - $4.99
  • Steam Deck AC Adapter (US) - $24.99
  • Steam Deck AC Adapter (EU) - $24.99
  • Steam Deck AC Adapter (UK) - $24.99

Check out Valve's official teardown for more information on the parts that power the Steam Deck. If you are curious about our thoughts on the Steam Deck, be sure to check out our review and our article, where we point out all the good and bad things we've discovered in Valve's portable gaming PC.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Raven Software QA Workers Officially Vote to Unionize

A group of quality assurance employees at Raven Software have officially voted in favor of unionization with the National Labor Relations Board, with a final vote total of 19 for and three against.

The vote count was announced today over an official webcast meeting. Approximately 28 employees were considered eligible to vote, 24 votes were submitted, and two of the votes were challenged and rendered invalid. The remaining group voted to legally form the Game Workers Alliance, making it the first North American video game union at a AAA gaming company. Indie studio Vodeo Games unionized late last year.

This move legally allows members of Game Workers Alliance to bargain with Activision Blizzard management over their employment contract, a process we are likely to see unfold in the coming weeks and months. But at the moment, it seems unlikely that the publisher will make this process easy. The company has reportedly been actively discouraging Raven Software employees from voting in favor of the union both through town halls and official emails, and a Bloomberg report from earlier today indicates that the NLRB is readying an official complaint suggesting their threats were illegal union-busting.

Raven QA's road to unionization has in the news since December of last year, when Activision Blizzard laid off 'at least a dozen' Raven Software quality assurance contractors amid a studio restructuring. Remaining members of the QA team subsequently held a walkout to protest the sudden layoffs, gaining the support of a number of other Activision Blizzard employees across multiple studios.

The QA team maintained a strike for several weeks, demanding full-time positions for members of the Raven QA department, including those who were let go. However, it clarified that In late January, a group of QA employees announced it would unionize with the Communication Workers of America (CWA). This was immediately followed by Activision Blizzard splitting 23 of its QA testers across various departments across the studio in a move that the CWA suggested was an attempt to dilute the group of potential unionizers. It also converted over 1,000 Activision Blizzard contractors to full-time employees, including pay raises and benefits, but clarified that unionizing workers would not be included in this group. Two days later, Activison Blizzard said it would not voluntarily recognize the union, forcing a vote. The vote took place by mail over the last several weeks, with the final count occurring today.

In January, Microsoft announced it would acquire Activision Blizzard, though Microsoft has since said it "will not stand in the way" of a potential Activision Blizzard union. And as all this is happening, Activision Blizzard remains entangled in a series of lawsuits and exposes accusing it of harassment and unfair treatment of women employees, as well as heightened legal scrutiny from a number of other directions including the SEC and various New York City funds.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

I, The Inquisitor Officially Announced

Developer The Dust has announced I, The Inquisitor, a story-based action-adventure based on the popular books by Jacek Piekara in which, in an alternate history, Jesus of Nazareth responds to his crucifixion with anger and rage rather than forgiveness and compassion. And in the centuries that follow His band of Inquisitors serve as violent enforcers of Biblical law. You play as Mordimer Madderdin in the 1500's, and it will be up to you to show mercy to sinners or to punish them.

I, The Inquisitor promises to let you decide the fates of those you encounter in the non-linear story missions. The Dust says you will "solve the various cases and crimes of those who have transgressed against the faith, all while uncovering the truth of a darker evil from another realm that is trying to enter the world of the living."

Expect a full sword-based combat system for when words just won't do, but also a detective game-like interrogation option for times when they will.

I, The Inquisitor is in development for PC (Steam), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. You can wishlist it on Steam.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part 1 Officially Gets a First Trailer

After a leak last week, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One has now officially received its first trailer.

Revealed ahead of the release of fellow Tom Cruise action movie, Top Gun: Maverick, the trailer includes horse chases, train fights, and Ethan Hunt jumping a motorbike off of a cliff (apparently Cruise's most dangerous stunt to date).

The movie will also link back to the original Mission: Impossible film, and (along with the upcoming Part Two) has reportedly been described as the "culmination" of the series.

Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One is heading to theaters on July 14, 2023 after it was recently delayed from its earlier September 2022 release date. Part Two will debut just a year later, on June 28, 2024.

Warhammer Video Games are Getting a Summer Showcase in June

Games Workshop has announced its Warhammer Skulls summer showcase will return next week.

A week-long celebration of Warhammer video games begins on June 1, kicked off with the showcase that promises world premieres, new trailers, sneak peeks, and more.

The event will be streamed on Twitch from 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm BST and Games Workshop has already confirmed updates on Warhammer 40K games Darktide, Space Marine 2, and Battlesector, alongside Total War: Warhammer III and Warhammer Vermintide.

The week-long celebration, which ends on June 8, will also include "offers on some of [fans'] favourite games as well as new content, DLCs, and free updates across multiple platforms."

Darktide and Space Marine 2 are both upcoming titles with the former due to be released on September 13 this year. Space Marine 2, on the other hand, was only revealed in December last year and is currently lacking any sort of release window, meaning fans may find out when they can play the game during the showcase.

The latest Warhammer 40K game, Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters, was released on May 10. In our 8/10 review, IGN said: "Warhammer 40K: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters is an excellent XCOM-like and one of the best 40K games since Dawn of War II."

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

Deus Ex Studio Worked on a ‘Really Cool’ Cancelled Version of Final Fantasy 15

Deus Ex: Human Revolution developer Eidos Montréal worked on a cancelled version of Final Fantasy 15 before Square Enix returned development to its Japanese studios.

Jonathan Jacque-Belletête, an ex-art director for Eidos Montréal, told TrueAchievements that his studio once worked on a "really, really cool" version of the game.

"[Eidos Montréal] brought back Deus Ex. I was the art director on that, Deus Ex: Human Revolution," Jacque-Belletête said. "Then the executive art director on Mankind Divided, then we tried to do Final Fantasy 15.

"Then they decided to bring it back to Japan, which I think was a big mistake," he continued. "But it's still the truth. Ours was really, really cool."

It's unclear from Jacque-Belletête's comments when or how long Eidos Montréal worked on the game or if it reached any significant stages of development. However, in 2018, YouTuber Super Bunnyhop reported on the existence of the project, saying that it was a "space opera RPG" with "western appeal", but wasn't much more fully-fledged as a project than a plan for game design and early art.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was released in 2011 while Mankind Divided didn't launch until 2016, the same year that Final Fantasy 15 was released. As Jacque-Belletête said he worked on Final Fantasy after these two projects, it was likely just a very early conceptual stage that followed Mankind Divided's.

Final Fantasy 15 had an infamously turbulent development period, originally being designed as a spin-off game for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 before being rebranded and redesigned for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

Development is thought to have restarted completely on what became Final Fantasy 15 in 2012, but it's unclear if Eidos Montréal worked on the game before or after this point. Regardless, it was later returned to Square Enix's Japanese studios.

Square Enix recently sold Eidos Montréal alongside Crystal Dynamics and Square Enix Montréal to Embracer Group for $300 million, which included the Deus Ex and Tomb Raider IPs.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: "Final Fantasy XV takes some risks that don't always pay off, but the strong quartet of heroes give it tons of heart."

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

Top Gun: Maverick – One Shot Could Only Be Filmed Once Because the Set Blew Away

Top Gun: Maverick director Joe Kosinski has spoken about the movie's astonishing practical effects, and how one shot could only be filmed a single time... because it destroyed the set.

During an interview with IGN's Simon Cardy, Kosinski and star Miles Teller explained how Top Gun: Maverick's breathtaking aerial sequences were achieved using unprecedented practical effects. Kosinski admitted they had to ride into the danger zone to execute some of the incredible flying scenes, noting that one shot even blew away the set, inadvertently leaving them with a single take to use.

"The scene where [stealth plane] Darkstar flies over Ed Harris, it destroyed the set," Kosinski said, highlighting a single shot that can be seen in the gif below. "You watch it rip the roof off the guard shack. That was not planned. That was a one-take thing where we destroyed the set and that's the only shot we got and that's in the movie."

It's perhaps no surprise that the fictional Darkstar caused so much damage – the plane's design was so realistic that China may have moved a satellite to keep tabs on it.

Kosinski chose to use practical effects as opposed to CG for this movie because he wanted to capture the feeling of being a Top Gun pilot by "shooting it for real." However, it required a lot of time and dedication from the cast and crew – star Tom Cruise created a rigorous, Navy-approved boot camp to prepare his co-stars before the cameras started rolling.

You can read much more about the huge amount of work that went into the movie's practical effects in our full interview article, or by watching the video version below:

Kosinski previously revealed that he shot over 800 hours of footage for the movie, and there's no doubt that the unprecedented extent that Kosinski and the team went to in order to film Maverick in the most realistic way possible leads to quite the cinematic experience — one that Cruise was determined to see play out on the big screen rather than streaming services.

Top Gun: Maverick will be released worldwide on May 27. This decades-later sequel to Tony Scott's Top Gun features Tom Cruise's return as Captain Pete "Maverick" Mitchell alongside Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Miles Teller, Monica Barbaro, Jon Hamm, Glen Powell, Ed Harris, Danny Ramirez, Manny Jacinto, and Greg Tarzan Davis.

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