After teasing the products at I/O this summer, Google has officially announced the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.

Like last year's Google Pixel 6 family, the Pixel 7 lineup includes an in-house processor called Google Tensor G2 and the Titan M2 chip, the latter aims to protect your personal data, according to Google. Google promises that the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro will include five years of security updates — the same as the Pixel 6 family.

Google also confirmed that the Pixel 7 lineup will include a built-in virtual private network (VPN) service at no additional cost. What's interesting about the free-of-charge VPN is that Google released its own VPN back in 2020, usually costing $9.99 a month, and includes other perks, such as 2TB of cloud storage.

The tech giant notes that the Pixel 7 features up to 72 hours of battery when extreme battery saver mode is enabled, includes a better camera, promises to better nighttime selfies, and capture skin tones more accurately.

The Pixel 7 lineup also includes a Clear Calling feature, which uses machine learning to reduce background noise and allow you to hear your calls more clearly. Alongside the fingerprint reader underneath the display, the Pixel 7's selfie cameras feature a face-recognition system, and there's face unlock now.

The Pixel 7 is available in Snow, Lemongrass, and Obsidian, and the Pixel 7 Pro will be available in Obsidian, Hazel, and Snow. Both phones are available for preorder today and will release next week. The Pixel 7 will retail for $599, while the Pixel 7 Pro will cost $899.

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

After teasing the products at I/O this summer, Google has officially announced the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro.

Like last year's Google Pixel 6 family, the Pixel 7 lineup includes an in-house processor called Google Tensor G2 and the Titan M2 chip, the latter aims to protect your personal data, according to Google. Google promises that the Pixel 7 and 7 Pro will include five years of security updates — the same as the Pixel 6 family.

Google also confirmed that the Pixel 7 lineup will include a built-in virtual private network (VPN) service at no additional cost. What's interesting about the free-of-charge VPN is that Google released its own VPN back in 2020, usually costing $9.99 a month, and includes other perks, such as 2TB of cloud storage.

The tech giant notes that the Pixel 7 features up to 72 hours of battery when extreme battery saver mode is enabled, includes a better camera, promises to better nighttime selfies, and capture skin tones more accurately.

The Pixel 7 lineup also includes a Clear Calling feature, which uses machine learning to reduce background noise and allow you to hear your calls more clearly. Alongside the fingerprint reader underneath the display, the Pixel 7's selfie cameras feature a face-recognition system, and there's face unlock now.

The Pixel 7 is available in Snow, Lemongrass, and Obsidian, and the Pixel 7 Pro will be available in Obsidian, Hazel, and Snow. Both phones are available for preorder today and will release next week. The Pixel 7 will retail for $599, while the Pixel 7 Pro will cost $899.

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

A new Need for Speed will be arriving on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC this December, featuring the return of Criterion as the lead developer for the first time in close to a decade.

Titled Need for Speed Unbound, Criterion's long-awaited return to the racing scene will utilize new-gen consoles and the Frostbite Engine to deliver 4K 60fps visuals in a free-roaming open world called Lakeshore. The physics will run at a high frame-rate as well, offering "more control and nuance to...the physical movement of the cars," creative director Kieran Crimmins says.

A trailer released Thursday offered fans their first look at the newly-revamped art style, which is meant to reflect the franchise's return to its street racing roots as well as the input of rapper A$AP Rocky, who will have his own mode in the new entry. Its emphasis on art and graffiti will extend to the gameplay, with Burst Nitrous boosts rewarded for stylish driving.

"Need for Speed is about trendsetting. Need for Speed is about breaking the mold. Need for Speed is about rebellion. It's at the heart of that street racing fantasy, so we should be exploring new art styles and new visions and new ways the game can look, so that we can not only stand out from everything else, but also deliver innovation where we should be setting trends," Crimmins says.

Criterion returns

In development since at least 2020, Need for Speed Unbound checks off many of the items on fan wishlists from previous years. In addition to putting a firm focus on street racing, Need for Speed Unbound will include an offline single-player mode and cross-play (though not cross-progression). It will continue to put an emphasis on the cars themselves – meaning a cockpit view is out, but hood and bumper cameras are in.

But even if it looks very different from previous entries — and series stalwart Ghost Games is long gone — don't call it a reboot.

"I think Need for Speed Heat was extraordinarily successful for us," Criterion GM Matt Webster says. "So we are following up this game from a really, really successful Need for Speed Heat, and the games continue to reach tens of millions of players. So our view of this is where Need for Speed is going...this is us sort of encapsulating the fantasy and setting it up for a modern audience."

A historic series going back to 1994, Need for Speed Unbound is the first entry to be developed primarily by Criterion since 2013. Known for classic racers like Burnout Paradise and Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit, the Guildford-based studio has lately served as support for releases such as Battlefield and Star Wars Battlefront, with a particular emphasis on vehicle combat.

In the interim, Need for Speed has generally languished in the 70 overall range on Metacritic. Need for Speed Heat was well-received by fans, with our review calling it "easily the most impressive Need for Speed game in many years," but that didn't stop EA from shuttering Ghost Games and handing the keys back to Criterion. Despite that, Webster says the series is in "good health," noting that it's managed to stick around for close to 30 years.

In taking the reins back from Ghost Games, Criterion is keeping the focus squarely on the areas it considers to be the series' strengths, but also expanding and reworking many aspects of the gameplay.

"If I was to boil everything up to what we trying to do here, we are trying to make the player feel like an illicit street racer, and make crazy bets like an illicit street racer, and feel the highs and lows and thrills of what it means to kind of embody that fantasy," Crimmins says.

Place your bets

It’s reflected in Need for Speed Unbound’s single-player, which will feature a “completely new campaign structure.”

“So when you go in a race, there's a buy-in, which basically, you have to be able to play the race and then you can win that back with a reward if you do well or you can lose that money. So you have to make a choice in which race you want to do and what buy-ins you're comfortable with,” Crimmins explains. “Every single race also gives you a little bit of heat. So if you do lots and lots of races in one session, your heat can build up and you'll take a huge gamble on the money that you're carrying around as well. So there's a consequence there.”

It will also include what Criterion describes as an “immersive narrative” in which two friends are torn apart by a robbery at a family auto shop, leaving the player to try and reclaim a priceless car by winning the “ultimate street race.”

“[E]very single one of those characters, we've actually made them full characters this time,” Crimmins says. “They've got little story arcs, they've got personalities, they've got their own car customization and style and you can see them driving around.”

That element extends into side bets, which will allow players to target individual characters. “It's like, ‘I am going to make sure I beat this character and I am going to make sure I beat this character,’ Crimmins says. “It's not as big as the buy-in and the rewards of picking the event, but it is personal.”

Cops, of course, will be omnipresent in Need for Speed Unbound, but Criterion’s approach will be much more “tactical” this time around. Individual vehicles will have their own strengths and weaknesses, which players will be able to exploit during chases.

“You have to pick your strategy for the kind of cop that's coming after you. And if you get really good, you can even get in a full high heat chase. And if you know all the strategies, you can totally still get away with it. But if you don't, or you can't execute the strategies, you will be taken down,” Crimmins says.

Cops have at times presented an interesting problem for the series. They are a necessary part of any Need for Speed game, but they can prove disruptive or intrusive if a player wants to complete a task or simply vibe. Need for Speed Unbound addresses this by giving players the chance to deliberately decide how much cop heat they take on – the mechanic that governs how aggressive the police will be at any given time. Criterion is also including a police scanner and a spotting mechanic, giving players additional options for avoiding police if they so desire.

Multiplayer, meanwhile, has been tuned to be "as low friction as possible." When you go into the multiplayer mode you can drive around the world, meet up with friends, or just mess around. While there, "people will be pinging off race requests and playlist requests and you can seamlessly join any one of those events at any time,” Crimmins says.

The mode includes a banner system that will allow players to show off photos and achievements. Neither Criterion nor EA were ready to discuss whether Need for Speed Unbound would have a battle pass or any other type of monetization; however, EA did confirm that it will feature a series of “free content updates” after launch, including “new features, experiences, content drops, and more.” EA says it will reveal more details on post-launch content “soon.”

One way or another, Need for Speed Unbound will include plenty of ways to make your car your own, including fully customizable characters, body kits, and wraps, as well as tiered vehicles similar to Forza Horizon and tie-ins with “loads of really high-end prestige brands.” Gameplay customization will also include "thousands of thousands" of combinations for car tuning, as well as tiered vehicles similar to Forza Horizon. Crimmins wasn't able to say how many cars will be in the new release, only that it will have “a lot.”

It’s all wrapped in what Crimmins claims is the “deepest driving system and the best handling” that Criterion has ever put in one of its racing games. It’s augmented by a brand-new physics system, which Webster calls a “super sophisticated physical simulation” that’s “comparable to other big driving sims.” The difference, Webster says, is that Need for Speed aims to be as accessible as possible via driver assist mechanics while maintaining a high skill ceiling.

“I think players are really going to feel the difference and be able to – across a broad range of vehicle types – feeling the difference between a nimble, small European car or a big American muscle car or a hyper car...And then when they get into more specifics of adjusting how that car handles by modifying it to suit their preferences. That shows you the level of breadth and depth that we're able to uncover with that tech,” Webster says.

Brand-new style

But the element of Need for Speed Unbound that fans undoubtedly notice first will be its heavily-stylized art, which is a departure from the look and feel of previous entries – and the highly-realistic racing genre in general. A$AP Rocky will play a key role in the look and feel of Need for Speed Unbound, including releasing a brand-new track titled “Sh*ttin Me” that’s featured in the trailer. A$AP Rocky will also appear in-game as a leader in a dedicated mode called Takeover Scene, in which players work together to take over parts of Lakeshore.

According to Crimmins, the style grew out of a conversation about what the series is about – namely, “trendsetting” and “rebellion.” At the same time, Criterion wanted to find a way to provide interesting feedback when a player was driving well.

“Essentially, games are a playground where you do something cool and then you feel good about it, and that felt like something that we could experiment with,” Crimmins says. “But we were also looking at the graffiti at the same time…That would not only deliver something that felt very Need for Speed, very street style, very kind of urban, but also it would relay the mastery of your actions in a way that would be kind of not only beautiful, but also visceral and exciting to do. So that's kind of where we ended up with it, and as soon as we started playing with it, it felt amazing.”

As for how Criterion came to work with A$AP Rocky, Crimmins says that the rapper’s brand fits well with the feeling the studio is trying to convey with Need for Speed Unbound.

“I mean A$AP's kind of a trendsetter in both fashion and music, and he's also a bit of a rebel, and that is kind of part of the Need for Speed vibe,” Crimmins says. “So it totally made sense to put him in the game and have a game mode that represented what he was about and also give a cool event for players to play as well.”

As befits a series that’s all about speed, Need for Speed Unbound is coming in hot. While this entry has been in development for at least three years, there will be less than two months between its reveal and its ultimate release. EA and Criterion currently have no plans for a demo or a closed beta, but fans won’t have to wait long to play the final release in any case.

And for Criterion, this is just the beginning.

“I think broadly we've got big ambitions and plans…with modern games these days, the launch day is just the start, and that's no different for Need for Speed,” Webster says. “I think as a series it's been a little bit underserved when you compare it to other genres or other live series, and we expect to be breathing life into the game over a period of time beyond launch. So that'll be an exciting journey for us too.”

Need for Speed Unbound releases December 2 on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

If you enjoyed the Horizon Forbidden West soundtrack, then you're in for a treat. Forbidden West's OST is getting a collectable vinyl release early next year, with preorders already live at Amazon.

The deluxe comprehensive collection of over 130 tracks will be available from March 24, 2023, and will cost $169.98 if you preorder at Amazon. Preorders are also available at PlayStation Gear, with an exclusive T-shirt included, but it's also currently listed at $179.98 instead.

According to the PlayStation Blog post, the deluxe edition will feature an extensive, 6-disc set "covering the breadth of the musical landscape of the Forbidden West – from the choral serenity of Plainsong to heightened combat against Tiderippers" and more.

But, the collector's edition isn't the only physical release coming for the Horizon Forbidden West, as essential vinyl and CD collections of the soundtrack will also be available by the end of the year. These will each cost $39.98, and are currently only available to preorder at PlayStation Gear.

I've left all the relevant links for preorders just below as well.

Preorder Horizon Forbidden West OST Vinyl and CD

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.

Netflix has released the first trailer for its upcoming animated fantasy series, ONI: Thunder God's Tale, arriving on the streamer on October 21, 2022.

Here's how Netflix describes the ONI: Thunder God's Tale: "In a world filled with the oddball gods and monsters of Japanese mythology, one of the creature's free-spirited daughters, Onari, is determined to follow in the footsteps of the mighty heroes of lore, but her unique powers are yet to be revealed. Does she have what it takes to protect her peaceful village from the encroaching presence of the mysterious “Oni” who threaten the gods?"

IGN can exclusively reveal the teaser trailer for ONI: Thunder God's Tale in the video below or at the top of the page:

The animated series features an impressive ensemble of voice actors, including George Takei, Craig Robinson, Momona Tamada, Brittany Ishibashi, Tantoo Cardinal, and more!

ONI: Thunder God's Tale is being brought to life by Tonko House animation studio, whose previous credits include Horton Hears a Who!, Robots, Monsters University, and the Oscar-nominated short The Dam Keeper.

What did you think of the trailer? Let us know in the comments. And for more on the world of entertainment, be sure to check out our reviews of Hellraiser and Andor episode 5.

David Griffin is the Senior Editor, Features and Content Partnerships for IGN. Say hi on Twitter.

Adult coloring books are still all the rage these days, as it turns out a lot of people are badly in need of some stress relief. Fans of the Critical Role franchise will soon have the opportunity to play in the world of Exandria thanks to Dark Horse's Critical Role: Vox Machina Coloring Book.

As the title suggests, this coloring book features a number of black and white images inspired by the characters and locales of the popular RPG-themed web series. The book is based on the Vox Machina campaign and is the first in a planned series of Critical Role coloring books.

Critical Role: Vox Machina Coloring Book is a 10" x 10" softcover volume featuring 45 illustrations. The artists featured in this volume include CoupleOfKooks, Olivia Sampson, Noah Hayes, Amanda Lien, Aviv Or, Cait May, Kendra Wells and Toby Sharp.

The book is priced at $19.99 and is slated for release on March 28, 2023 in bookstores and March 29 in comic shops. You can preorder Critical Role: Vox Machina Coloring Book now through Amazon and various other retailers.

Critical Role recently made the leap into animation with Prime Video's series The Legend of Vox Machina. IGN reviewer Andrea Towers scored the series premiere a 9, writing, "With stunning animation, sweeping music, and epic storytelling, the three-episode premiere of The Legend of Vox Machina has rolled a natural 20. Whether you’ve been waiting for the world of Critical Role to be brought to life or you’re a new fan who just loves Dungeons & Dragons, it’s an enjoyable adventure right from the start."

If you need to brush up on the franchise, check out IGN's guide to everything you need to know about Critical Role.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

The upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s movie has found a replacement director.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, the upcoming video game adaption has put Emma Tammi at the helm following the exit of Chris Columbus. Blumhouse, who is producing the horror thriller, has already tasked Jim Henson’s Creature Shop with bringing the beloved, yet creepy, animatronic horrors to the big screen.

Blumhouse boss Jason Blum tweeted (below) to add that filming on the movie will begin in February 2023.

#jimhensoncreatureshop is working on our animatronics

Emma Tammi is our director

Filming on #FNAF starts in February 2023. Boom.

— Jason Blum (@jason_blum) October 5, 2022

Tammi is perhaps best known for directing her 2018 feature film debut, The Wind – a supernatural horror set within the 1800s Wild West. She replaces Chris Columbus, who took the job of directing Five Nights at Freddy’s back in 2018 before leaving the project this time last year.

Although producer Jason Blum refused to give a reason for Columbus’ departure, he did reveal that the video game’s creator, Scott Cawthon, had not agreed on a story at the time, following ten scripts being submitted for consideration.

“We've written multiple scripts, and we've got where we're threading a needle, which is doing justice to Five Nights at Freddy's and making Scott [Cawthon] happy,” said Blum. “The only way that we would go about it is giving Scott... I don't want to do something that Scott doesn't like. Let me say that a different way. I don't have the right to do anything Scott doesn't like. Basically, Scott has kind of like the equivalent of ‘final cut’ and it's taken longer than I hoped to get the right story.”

A script had earlier been approved by Blum and Columbus but was tossed out by Cawthon as it didn’t match his vision for the movie.

“It’s been a real challenge for everyone, including myself, to come up with a good screenplay for this,” he explained. “But I’m determined to find the right story. I’m sticking to what I’ve always said, either the right movie gets made or no movie gets made.”

It sounds as though that script has now been found, given filming is set to begin.

Five Nights at Freddy’s was originally released in 2014 and followed a security guard who takes an overnight job at Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza… only to learn that the animatronic animals become hostile at night.

Want to read more about Five Nights at Freddy’s? Check out where it sits among the 12 best horror games on PC and get a glimpse of Five Nights at Freddy’s in VR.

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

CD Projekt Red's next mainline Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, is at least three years away according to studio president and joint CEO Adam Kiciński.

Following the studio's announcement that it plans to release the new Witcher trilogy over six years starting with Polaris, Kiciński was asked during an investors' call when players can expect the next mainline game to be released.

"For Polaris we are preparing technology. This is the first project to be released on the new engine, Unreal Engine 5, [so] there is a need for some extra work making this technology," he said. "For this project, for sure we need some extra effort to deliver."

Kiciński went on to say that the second and third new Witcher trilogy games would go much smoother due to this foundation being created now. He was then asked, as the two "smoother" to develop games will take on average three years each, would it be reasonable to ascertain that the next mainline game is more than three years away, to which Kiciński said yes.

As Polaris was only announced in March, however, three years may still be on the earlier side of this assessment. Senior vice president of business development Michał Nowakowski commented during the same call that, based on past experiences, creating a new game alongside new technology like CD Projekt Red is doing with Polaris usually takes four or five years, though this won't necessarily be the case this time.

CD Projekt Red confirmed ahead of the call that at least five new Witcher games would be released in the coming years, alongside a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel and a game based on the studio's first brand new IP.

Outside of Polaris and its two sequels, CD Projekt Red's The Molasses Flood studio is working on a new Witcher game with multiplayer elements and a currently unconfirmed third developer is creating another "full-fledged Witcher game".

Very little is known about any of the games however, with Polaris being the only one with some context behind it thanks to CD Projekt Red announcing that it had entered pre-production back in May, and that it's being developed using Unreal Engine 5.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

CD Projekt Red's next mainline Witcher game, codenamed Polaris, is at least three years away according to studio president and joint CEO Adam Kiciński.

Following the studio's announcement that it plans to release the new Witcher trilogy over six years starting with Polaris, Kiciński was asked during an investors' call when players can expect the next mainline game to be released.

"For Polaris we are preparing technology. This is the first project to be released on the new engine, Unreal Engine 5, [so] there is a need for some extra work making this technology," he said. "For this project, for sure we need some extra effort to deliver."

Kiciński went on to say that the second and third new Witcher trilogy games would go much smoother due to this foundation being created now. He was then asked, as the two "smoother" to develop games will take on average three years each, would it be reasonable to ascertain that the next mainline game is more than three years away, to which Kiciński said yes.

As Polaris was only announced in March, however, three years may still be on the earlier side of this assessment. Senior vice president of business development Michał Nowakowski commented during the same call that, based on past experiences, creating a new game alongside new technology like CD Projekt Red is doing with Polaris usually takes four or five years, though this won't necessarily be the case this time.

CD Projekt Red confirmed ahead of the call that at least five new Witcher games would be released in the coming years, alongside a Cyberpunk 2077 sequel and a game based on the studio's first brand new IP.

Outside of Polaris and its two sequels, CD Projekt Red's The Molasses Flood studio is working on a new Witcher game with multiplayer elements and a currently unconfirmed third developer is creating another "full-fledged Witcher game".

Very little is known about any of the games however, with Polaris being the only one with some context behind it thanks to CD Projekt Red announcing that it had entered pre-production back in May, and that it's being developed using Unreal Engine 5.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Alec Baldwin’s Rust will resume filming in January 2023 following a settlement with the estate of Halyna Hutchins, the movie's cinematographer who was tragically killed in an on-set shooting incident last year.

As reported by Deadline, Matthew Hutchins, husband of Halyna, said: “We have reached a settlement, subject to court approval, for our wrongful death case against the producers of Rust, including Alec Baldwin and Rust Movie Productions, LLC. As part of that settlement, our case will be dismissed.”

Halyna died on October 21, 2021, while filming Rust as the result of a fatal firearms accident. According to initial reports, a prop firearm was accidentally loaded with live ammunition, resulting in the death of Hutchins after the gun was handed to Baldwin, the film’s star.

With a settlement agreed, Matthew Hutchins will now take on the role of executive producer on the film. “The filming of Rust, which I will now executive produce, will resume with all the original principal players on board in January 2023,” he confirmed.

Following the incident, it was revealed that Baldwin had been in possession of the firearm when it was discharged. Baldwin since claimed he did not pull the trigger. Additionally, reports of previous incidents involving the film’s armorer, Dave Hall, made it difficult to establish exactly who had been at fault on the day.

“I have no interest in engaging in recriminations or attribution of blame (to the producers or Mr. Baldwin),” said Hutchins, “All of us believe Halyna’s death was a terrible accident. I am grateful that the producers and the entertainment community have come together to pay tribute to Halyna’s final work.”

Rust is a western set in 1880s Kansas, telling the story of an outlaw, Harland Rust (Baldwin), who becomes a fugitive along with his thirteen-year-old grandson (Brady Noon) after rescuing him from being hanged after he’s sentenced to death for murder.

“Those of us who were lucky enough to have spent time with Halyna knew her to be exceedingly talented, kind, creative, and a source of incredible positive energy,” said director Joel Souza. “I only wish the world had gotten to know her under different circumstances, as it surely would have through her amazing work. In my own attempts to heal, any decision to return to finish directing the film could only make sense for me if it was done with the involvement of Matt and the Hutchins family. Though certainly bittersweet, I am pleased that together, we will now complete what Halyna and I started. My every effort on this film will be devoted to honoring Halyna’s legacy and making her proud. It is a privilege to see this through on her behalf.”

On Instagram, Alec Baldwin offered his own statement. "We are pleased to announce today the settlement of the civil case filed on behalf of the family of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins," he wrote. "Throughout this difficult process, everyone has maintained the specific desire to do what is best for Halyna’s son. We are grateful to everyone who contributed to the resolution of this tragic and painful situation."

The Hutchins estate originally filed a lawsuit following Halyna’s death, alleging that Baldwin and the film’s producers “did not take action to correct the situation and ensure that basic gun safety rules were followed on October 21, 2021”.

“Had Defendant Baldwin, the Producers, and the Rust Production Companies taken adequate precautions to ensure firearm safety on the set of Rust or if basic firearm safety rules had been followed on the set of Rust on October 21, 2021, Halyna Hutchins would be alive and well, hugging her husband and nine-year old son,” continued the filing (via Variety).

Almost a year after the incident, local law enforcement is yet to bring charges against anyone.

Thumbnail credit: Mark Sagliocco/Getty Images for National Geographic