Gotham Knights might be an action-RPG, but it won’t follow the genre convention of having your characters start as weaklings. Instead, Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood will all be the powerful Batman acolytes you’d expect at the start of the game – and find their own unique ways to become stronger over the course of the game.

All four characters begin more or less fully adept at what the development team informally calls ‘Batman stuff’, with unique skill trees allowing them to blossom into different kinds of vigilantes as you progress. Speaking to us as part of our month of IGN First coverage on Gotham Knights, creative director Patrick Redding explained the thought process:

“It was very important for us that these heroes, our Knights are... They're already awesome at the start of the game. It's not a function of them being ineffective as crime fighters, quite the opposite. They are all effectively graduates of the Batman School of Crime Fighting.

"So when they start, they are at their most similar, in the sense that they have a lot of these basic tools of combat and stealth, and moving around in the world and using their grapple. And then it's really over the course of the game that they fully diverge into their own flavor of what a Dark Knight of Gotham City should be.”

You can see how that manifests in our footage of the first 16 minutes of Gotham Knights, in which Batgirl is already moving and fighting like Batman while looking into a mystery at Gotham University – and easily taking down goons from Gotham’s Freaks gang while doing so.

“We didn't want to do a dungeon crawler RPG where we send you into the forest to kill six slugs and return with your stick,” explains game director Geoff Ellenor. “These are ultimately very interesting people who have been trained by Batman and by others. They're very intelligent. They're very capable. But they still have this challenge of rising to the level of, ‘what does it take to protect Gotham City now that Batman is gone?’ There is an RPG progression, but they're not starting from zero by any stretch. They're already pretty rocking by the time you take the controller.”

This isn’t to say the game will be unchallenging, however – but it’s about managing the balance of who these superheroes should find it easy to take down, versus bigger threats:

“We don't want you to have that moment where one bad guy in an alley with a baseball bat is going to give you a hard time,” Ellenor continues. “That said, there are some mini-bosses in the game that are decently strong, and you have to pay attention a little bit in the beginning.”

Gotham Knights will be released for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PS5 on October 25. Before that, however, we’ll have the whole of August to show you new gameplay, in-depth information, and more as part of IGN First.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Gotham Knights might be an action-RPG, but it won’t follow the genre convention of having your characters start as weaklings. Instead, Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood will all be the powerful Batman acolytes you’d expect at the start of the game – and find their own unique ways to become stronger over the course of the game.

All four characters begin more or less fully adept at what the development team informally calls ‘Batman stuff’, with unique skill trees allowing them to blossom into different kinds of vigilantes as you progress. Speaking to us as part of our month of IGN First coverage on Gotham Knights, creative director Patrick Redding explained the thought process:

“It was very important for us that these heroes, our Knights are... They're already awesome at the start of the game. It's not a function of them being ineffective as crime fighters, quite the opposite. They are all effectively graduates of the Batman School of Crime Fighting.

"So when they start, they are at their most similar, in the sense that they have a lot of these basic tools of combat and stealth, and moving around in the world and using their grapple. And then it's really over the course of the game that they fully diverge into their own flavor of what a Dark Knight of Gotham City should be.”

You can see how that manifests in our footage of the first 16 minutes of Gotham Knights, in which Batgirl is already moving and fighting like Batman while looking into a mystery at Gotham University – and easily taking down goons from Gotham’s Freaks gang while doing so.

“We didn't want to do a dungeon crawler RPG where we send you into the forest to kill six slugs and return with your stick,” explains game director Geoff Ellenor. “These are ultimately very interesting people who have been trained by Batman and by others. They're very intelligent. They're very capable. But they still have this challenge of rising to the level of, ‘what does it take to protect Gotham City now that Batman is gone?’ There is an RPG progression, but they're not starting from zero by any stretch. They're already pretty rocking by the time you take the controller.”

This isn’t to say the game will be unchallenging, however – but it’s about managing the balance of who these superheroes should find it easy to take down, versus bigger threats:

“We don't want you to have that moment where one bad guy in an alley with a baseball bat is going to give you a hard time,” Ellenor continues. “That said, there are some mini-bosses in the game that are decently strong, and you have to pay attention a little bit in the beginning.”

Gotham Knights will be released for PC, Xbox Series X/S and PS5 on October 25. Before that, however, we’ll have the whole of August to show you new gameplay, in-depth information, and more as part of IGN First.

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Tony Hawk has once again proved why he is just a wonderful human being as he recently jumped on stage with a Tony Hawk cover band called The 900 in the UK to sing a couple of songs for a very surprised crowd.

Hawk took to Twitter to share a video of him and The 900 singing Agent Orange's Bloodstains, which appeared in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 4, at Signature Brew Haggerston. Hawk also said that Bloodstains was a huge inspiration for him in helping shape the soundtracks for his games.

My / our rendition of Agent Orange’s Bloodstains from last night’s show at @SignatureBrewE8. This was one of the first punk songs I heard as a kid and it was a catalyst for shaping the soundtracks to THPS games. Thanks to @The900Banduk for summoning me to the stage! ➡️⬇️⭕️ pic.twitter.com/wR49DWUx0z

— Tony Hawk (@tonyhawk) July 31, 2022

"My / our rendition of Agent Orange's Bloodstains from last night's show at @SignatureBrewE8," Hawk wrote. "This was one of the first punk songs I heard as a kid and it was a catalyst for shaping the soundtracks to THPS games. Thanks to @The900Banduk for summoning me to the stage!"

Hawk and The 900 also sang Goldfinger's Superman, which appeared in in the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater and again in both Tony Hawk's Pro Skater HD and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2.

So I went to see a Tony Hawk cover band in a small bar in East London and @tonyhawk showed up and sang some songs. WHAT THE ACTUAL HELL. @SignatureBrewE8 pic.twitter.com/xxPSQro2Pt

— Isabel Davies (@IsabelDavies_) July 30, 2022

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 is the latest entry in the long-running and beloved skateboarding franchise and, in our review, we said that it "is such a tremendous turnaround from 2015’s disastrously dismal Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 that it’s difficult to believe they share even a shred of DNA. The accessible yet tricky skating is earnest and old-school fun, the wonderful looking levels are lovingly designed odes to the past, and the music is like the hearty embrace of an old childhood buddy."

For more on Tony Hawk, check out our look at how Tony Hawk's Pro Skater made games cool for '90s kids, the making of THPS' soundtrack, and our interview of Tony Hawk him about going from a skateboarding superstar to a video game icon.

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.

Pat Carroll, the Emmy and Grammy Award-winning voice behind The Little Mermaid's Ursula and an entertainer whose career lasted over 70 years, has died at the age of 95.

As reported by Variety, Carroll's death was confirmed by her representative, Derek Maki, and he shared that Carroll "died with her best friend by her side" in Cape Cod, Massachusetts while recovering from pneumonia.

Carroll was born on May 5, 1927, in Shreveport, Louisiana, and her family moved to Los Angeles when she was five. Before becoming an actor and securing her first role in 1947 in the film Hometown Girl, she enlisted in the U.S. Army during World War II.

After Hometown Girl, she would appear on many variety shows and would win an Emmy Award in 1956 for her work on Sid Caesar's House. She could also be seen in Make Room for Daddy, The Jimmy Durante Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Too Close for Comfort, and She's the Sherriff.

Carroll also popped up on some of the most iconic TV shows of all time, including The Mary Tyler Moore Show, Laverene & Shirley, The Love Boat, Designing Women, and ER alongside a handful of game shows.

She would win a Grammy in 1980 for best spoken word (documentary or drama) for her performance as Gertrude Stein in her one-woman theater show.

1989's The Little Mermaid would prove to be one of her best roles and she helped make Ursula one of the most beloved villains in Disney's long history. Carroll would continue to lend her voice to Ursula in the following years, including for video games like Kingdom Hearts, Disney theme park attractions, and the 1993 Little Mermaid CBS series.

Carroll is survived by her daughters, Kerry Karsian and Tara Karasian, and her granddaughter, Evan Karsian-McCormick.

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.

Nichelle Nichols, the Star Trek legend who played Nyota Uhura on Star Trek: The Original Series, has died at the age of 89.

Nichols son, Kyle Johnson, shared the news on his mother's official Instagram account, saying that he regrets to inform us that "a great light in the firmament no longer shines for us as it has for so many years."

"Last night, my mother, Nichelle Nichols, succumbed to natural causes and passed away," Kyle Johnson wrote. "Her light however, like the ancient galaxies now being seen for the first time, will remain for us and future generations to enjoy, learn from, and draw inspiration. Her's was a life well lived and as such a model for us all.

"I, and the rest of our family, would appreciate your patience and forbearance as we grieve her loss until we can recover sufficiently to speak further. Her services will be for family members and the closest of her friends and we request that her and our privacy be respected."

Nichols was born in Robbins, Illinois in 1932 and was one of six children. She would grow up in Chicago and would make her first big appearance as an actor in the musical Kicks and Co. in 1961. She would act in other roles following that one, including as a guest star in Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry's first series The Lieutenant, but Star Trek was where she made her historic mark.

Her legendary run as Nyota Uhura in Star Trek: The Original Series can't be justly put into words. She was one of the first black women to be featured in a major television series and would pave the way for so many others that followed her.

However, Nichols almost left Star Trek after only a year on the series, but Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., a huge fan of Star Trek, changed her mind and said she "could not give up" because she was making such a difference for black children and young women around the world.

Nichols is also part of what is cited as the first interracial kiss on scripted U.S. television when she kissed William Shatner's Captain James T. Kirk on the Star Trek episode "Plato's Stepchildren."

Following the cancellation of Star Trek: The Original Series in 1969, Nichols would continue on as Uhura in Star Trek: The Animated Series and six Star Trek films.

After Nichols stopped playing her, the role of Nyota Uhura lived on with Zoe Saldana playing her in the Kelvin timeline films and Celia Rose Gooding becoming a younger version of her in Star Trek: Strange New Worlds.

Besides Star Trek, Nichols recieved her first Daytime Emmy nomination for her work on The Young and the Restless and also appeared in an episode of Futurama, Gargoyles, Batman: The Animated Series, Snow Dogs, Heroes, The Blacks, and more.

She also worked closely with NASA to help recruit minorities and females to the agency.

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

DC League of Super-Pets has soared to a domestic weekend box office victory over Jordan Peele's Nope by earning $23 million in ticket sales.

As reported by Variety, DC League of Super-Pets, which stars Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson as Superman's dog Krypto who works with Kevin Hart's Ace and other pets to rescupe superheroes that were captured by Lex Luthor, brought in another $18.4 million internationally on its way to a global tally of $41.4 million.

The animated adventure still has a ways to go to recoup its $90 million price tag and places in line behind the openings of other animated titles like Lightyear's $51 million and Minions: The Rise of Gru's $107 million. It did, however, perform on a similar level to The Bad Guys' $23.9 million, Sing 2's $22.3 million, and Encanto's $27 million.

In our DC League of Super-Pets review, we said that it "may have thoughtful filmmaking on its side, but what it doesn’t have is a voice cast that can lend life and personality to its characters. The superpowered pets end up with the short end of the stick; neither are their stories as rich as the movie hopes, nor are they ever truly funny beyond a few fleeting comic references."

Nope, in its second weekend in theaters, saw a 58% decline from its opening weekend by bringing in $18.5 million. Nope has earned $80.5 million at the domestic box office and has yet to open internationally.

Thor: Love and Thunder placed third with $13.1 million in its fourth weekend and helped push the latest MCU film to $300 million in North America and $662 million globally.

Minions: The Rise of Gru took fourth place by racking up $10.8 million. In its fifth weekend, the latest Minions movie has earned $320 million domestically and $710 million worldwide.

Rounding out the top five was Top Gun: Maverick with $8.2 million in its 10th weekend in theaters. The high-flying adventure continues to dominate the box office and has brought in over $650 million domestically and $1.3 billion globally.

Elsewhere in box office news, Everything Everywhere All At Once has officially crossed $100 million worldwide and marks the first time an A24 film has reached that milestone.

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.

Halo Infinite's much-anticipated Forge Mode has yet to be released, but that hasn't stopped @DeathTempler from recreating P.T.'s terrifying hallway in an early version of it.

As reported by PC Gamer, certain players like Death Templer have found a way to access an unfinished version of Halo Infinite's Forge Mode in the latest co-op campaign test flight and it has given these creators some powerful tools to create some impressive pieces of work.

You can watch a walkthrough of P.T.'s hallway in Halo Infinite's Forge Mode by clicking here, and you can see that the newest iteration of Forge allows for much more customization, better lighting options, more varied sound effects, and more.

This is only the beginning for Death Templer's mission to recreate P.T., as he has a goal to "make PT so well in Forge one day, it prompts a cease and desist from Konami."

PC Gamer notes that players should avoid trying to access Forge mode and wait for the Open Beta in September as the process requires third-party tools that very well may get you banned by 343 Industries. The ban hammer has yet to be swung by the Halo developer, but it may just be a matter of time now.

Forge Mode is one part of the 2022 roadmap for Halo Infinite alongside campaign mission replay, campaign network co-op, season 3, new narrative events, campaign splitscreen co-op, and more.

P.T., which was a demo for the canceled Silent Hills game from Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, was set to star Norman Reedus and be the next step forward for the Silent Hill franchise. Unfortunately, Silent Hills was canceled by Konami and P.T. was removed from the PlayStation store for good.

The rumor mill for a new entry in the Silent Hill series has been pretty busy in recent months, and May 2022 saw an image of a potential new game leak and then get swiftly deleted.

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.

Halo Infinite's much-anticipated Forge Mode has yet to be released, but that hasn't stopped @DeathTempler from recreating P.T.'s terrifying hallway in an early version of it.

As reported by PC Gamer, certain players like Death Templer have found a way to access an unfinished version of Halo Infinite's Forge Mode in the latest co-op campaign test flight and it has given these creators some powerful tools to create some impressive pieces of work.

You can watch a walkthrough of P.T.'s hallway in Halo Infinite's Forge Mode by clicking here, and you can see that the newest iteration of Forge allows for much more customization, better lighting options, more varied sound effects, and more.

This is only the beginning for Death Templer's mission to recreate P.T., as he has a goal to "make PT so well in Forge one day, it prompts a cease and desist from Konami."

PC Gamer notes that players should avoid trying to access Forge mode and wait for the Open Beta in September as the process requires third-party tools that very well may get you banned by 343 Industries. The ban hammer has yet to be swung by the Halo developer, but it may just be a matter of time now.

Forge Mode is one part of the 2022 roadmap for Halo Infinite alongside campaign mission replay, campaign network co-op, season 3, new narrative events, campaign splitscreen co-op, and more.

P.T., which was a demo for the canceled Silent Hills game from Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, was set to star Norman Reedus and be the next step forward for the Silent Hill franchise. Unfortunately, Silent Hills was canceled by Konami and P.T. was removed from the PlayStation store for good.

The rumor mill for a new entry in the Silent Hill series has been pretty busy in recent months, and May 2022 saw an image of a potential new game leak and then get swiftly deleted.

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.

The $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act has been passed by Congress and very well may be a big step towards resolving the semiconductor crisis holding back next-gen consoles and other devices.

As reported by The Verge, the CHIPS and Science Act passed in a 243-187 vote on Thursday, July 28, and it includes $52 billion in subsidies to "encourage chip manufacturers to build out semiconductor fabrication plants, or 'fabs,' in the U.S."

The House and Senate had been debating this issue for months, and its passing is great news for companies like Intel who recently delayed its groundbreaking ceremony for its $20 billion chip-making facilities in Ohio because of a lack of government funding.

"I congratulate Congress on voting to approve funding for the CHIPS Act," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said. "This is a critical step to support the entire U.S. semiconductor industry and to help ensure continued American leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and R&D. Congress has done its part, and now we are going to do ours. I'm excited to put shovels in the ground as Intel moves full speed ahead to start building in Ohio."

Chip shortages have been a huge issue since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and it has impacted the availability of next-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X, new desktop GPUs, and more.

The CHIPS and Science Act also provides the "Commerce Departement with $10 billion to award states and localities grants to build out 'regional technology hubs' across the country." The National Science Foundation will also receive billions in funding to help with semiconductor manufacturing research and workforce development programs.

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.

The $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act has been passed by Congress and very well may be a big step towards resolving the semiconductor crisis holding back next-gen consoles and other devices.

As reported by The Verge, the CHIPS and Science Act passed in a 243-187 vote on Thursday, July 28, and it includes $52 billion in subsidies to "encourage chip manufacturers to build out semiconductor fabrication plants, or 'fabs,' in the U.S."

The House and Senate had been debating this issue for months, and its passing is great news for companies like Intel who recently delayed its groundbreaking ceremony for its $20 billion chip-making facilities in Ohio because of a lack of government funding.

"I congratulate Congress on voting to approve funding for the CHIPS Act," Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger said. "This is a critical step to support the entire U.S. semiconductor industry and to help ensure continued American leadership in semiconductor manufacturing and R&D. Congress has done its part, and now we are going to do ours. I'm excited to put shovels in the ground as Intel moves full speed ahead to start building in Ohio."

Chip shortages have been a huge issue since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and it has impacted the availability of next-gen consoles like the PS5 and Xbox Series X, new desktop GPUs, and more.

The CHIPS and Science Act also provides the "Commerce Departement with $10 billion to award states and localities grants to build out 'regional technology hubs' across the country." The National Science Foundation will also receive billions in funding to help with semiconductor manufacturing research and workforce development programs.

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.