It looks as though Stranger Things Season 4 is about to get serious. A new poster teasing Season 4 Part Two depicts Eleven squaring up to the villainous Vecna – a showdown that’s been a long time coming.

The scarred face of Stranger Things Season 4’s big bad is lit by the unmistakable hue of the Upside Down… so, does that mean Eleven will be heading into the unknown for a face-off against her own literal and personal demon?

Friday. Friday. Friday. Friday. #StrangerThings4 pic.twitter.com/NvlA1qBiQs

— Netflix (@netflix) June 27, 2022

Spoiler Alert: Stranger Things spoilers follow here

Obviously, Vecna is no joke. We’ve already seen him in action, taking both Chrissy Cunningham and Fred Benson into the Upside Down, not to mention, trying to get his hands on poor Max.

Thankfully, Mike, Will, and the gang figured out a way to pull her back – using music to anchor her in reality and open up a way back to the Rightside Up. But will the same work for Eleven? I can’t help thinking now is the time for Mike to get working on a mix tape...

Either way, Stranger Things Season 4 is definitely going in a much darker direction. The Duffer Brothers even teased a much “darker” finale:

“I don’t really want to say, but I would be concerned about the characters going into Volume 2, for sure,” said Ross Duffer. “I hope that that is sort of the sense, because it is a darker season and the kids are no longer kids. And there’s sort of an ominous feeling that things might not go well. Now, whether they do or not, you’ll have to watch.”

Whether or not that means Eleven isn’t exactly safe remains to be seen.

But it looks as though she’s going to face her biggest challenge yet when it comes to fighting Vecna.

Read more about Stranger Things Season 4 with our guide to everything we know about Vecna, not to mention our biggest questions going into the season finale.

Stranger Things stars Milly Bobby Brown, David Harbour, Winona Ryder, Finn Wolfhard, Noah Schnapp, Gaten Matarazzo, Caleb McLaughlin, Sadie Sink, Joe Keery, Natalia Dyer, Maya Hawke, Joseph Quinn, and Jamie Campbell Bower.

The Duffer Brothers created the series, producing Season 4 alongside Shawn Levy, Dan Cohen, Iain Paterson, and Curtis Gwinn.

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

Persona 5 Royal on PlayStation 5, Xbox, and PC will come with all 45 DLC packs at launch that have been released for the PS4 version. As reported by Persona Channel, players will have instant access to a ton of different costume packs and other, smaller pieces of DLC when the game is released again on October 21.

The costumes are mostly tied to other Persona games (or games from the Shin Megami series, from which Persona is a spin-off), with players able to don the clothes of previous protagonists and so on.

Some of the DLC is a little heftier though, such as the Royal Challenge Battle Extra Set, which provides some additional items and another which includes a fully-fledged additional Persona called Raoul. A full list of the DLC packs is available below.

Otherwise, players can dress up with costume packs including the Persona 4 Costume Set, the Royal Maid & Butler Costume Set, Dancing Star Night Featherman Costume, and more.

Persona 5 Royal - which is an expanded version of the normal Persona 5 that includes improved mechanics and extra story chapters - was announced for PS5, Xbox and PC earlier in June alongside previous games in the franchise.

While Persona 4 Golden was released for PC in 2020, it was previously only available on PlayStation Vita but will soon be available on PS4 and PC. Likewise, Persona 3 Portable is also seeing a relaunch following more than a decade of PSP exclusivity.

IGN has been a huge fan of the franchise that appears to get better with each release. We said Persona 3 Portable was great in our 8/10 review and Persona 4 Golden was amazing in our 9/10 review.

Finally, in our 10/10 review, IGN said: "Persona 5 Royal takes an all-time great JRPG and makes it even greater. Going above and beyond a re-release or a remaster, almost everything has been expanded and improved with an entire game’s worth of new content and improvements."

Every Persona 5 Royal DLC Pack:

The full list of DLC is as follows:

• Persona 4 Costume & BGM Special Set
• Persona 3 Costume & BGM Special Set
• Persona 2 Costume & BGM Special Set
• Persona Costume & BGM Special Set
• Shin Megami Tensei if. .. .. Costume & BGM Special Set
• Persona 4 Dancing All Night Costume & BGM Special Set
• Persona 4 The Ultimax Costume & BGM Special Set
• Shin Megami Tensei IV Costume & BGM Special Set
• Catherine Costume & BGM Special Set
• Orpheus & Orpheus / Thief God Set
• Izanagi & Izanagi / Thief God Set
• Thanatos & Thanatos / Thief God Set
• Magatsu Izanagi & Magatsu Izanagi / Thief God Set
• Kaguya & Kaguya / Thief God Set
• Ariadne & Ariadne / Thief God Set
• Asterios & Asterios / Thief God Set
• Tsukiyomi & Tsukiyomi / Thief God Set
• Messiah & Messiah / Thief God Set
• Persona 5 The Royal Recovery Item Set
• Persona 5 The Royal Skill Card Set
• Persona 5 The Royal Plain Clothes / Uniform Costume Set
• Persona 5 The Royal Phantom Thief Marked Morgana Car Sticker
• Persona 5 The Royal Swimsuit Costume Set
• Persona 5 The Royal Persona 20th Anniversary Morgana Car Sticker with Anniversary Logo
• Persona 5 The Royal Maid & Butler Costume Set
• Persona 5 The Royal Christmas Costume Set
• Persona 5 Dancing Star Night Costume & BGM Special Set
• Persona 5 The Royal Belbedroom Costume & BGM Special Set
• Persona 5 Dancing Star Night Featherman Costume & BGM Special Set
• Shin Megami Tensei DEEP STRANGE JOURNEY Costume & BGM Special Set
• Persona 5 The Royal Jersey Costume Set
• Izanagi Ogami & Izanagi Ogami / Thief God Set
• Orpheus & Orpheus / Thief God (f) Set
• Athena & Athena / Thief God Set
• Persona 5 The Royal Exploration Assistance Pack
• Persona 5 The Royal Battle Help Pack
• Persona 5 The Royal Kasumi Yoshizawa Costume Numbering Package
• Persona 5 The Royal Kasumi Yoshizawa Costume MEGAMI Package
• Persona 5 The Royal Kasumi Yoshizawa Costume Extra Package 1
• Persona 5 The Royal Kasumi Yoshizawa Costume Extra Package 2
• Persona Raoul
• Persona 5 The Royal Challenge Battle Extra Set
• Persona Q2 New Cinema Labyrinth Costume & BGM Special Set
• Persona 5 The Royal Challenge Battle Best Customer FULLMOON
• Persona 5 The Royal Challenge Battle Best Customer FOGGYDAY

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

OpenAI, the artificial intelligence research organization founded by Elon Musk, has trained an AI to play Minecraft almost as well as humans. It only took about 70,000 hours of binging YouTube videos.

A blog post detailing the feat reveals that researchers used a technique called "Video PreTraining (VPT)" to train a neural network on how to play Minecraft. This involved gathering 2,000 hours of sample dataset from actual humans playing Minecraft to include not just the raw video, but also exact keypresses and mouse movements.

From there, the researchers trained an inverse dynamics model (IDM) to predict the future action being taken at each step in the videos. Finally, the "trained" IDM was shown 70,000 hours of Minecraft YouTube videos. Afterwards, the model was able to copy the behaviors from the videos including chopping down trees to collect logs and turning the logs into an actual crafting table.

That's not all the AI model was capable of doing. It could also perform other complex activities such as swimming, hunting, and eating. The AI could even do "pillar jumping" which involves keeping yourself in the air by repeatedly jumping and placing a block underneath yourself.

The researchers were able to create a "foundation model" based on the data given to the AI and from there fine-tune behaviors or learn new one. The AI was noted to be able to perform early game skills such as building wooden and stone tools, raiding chests, and even build shelters.

The more hours of data that are fed into the foundation model, the more able the AI was. The researchers even used "reinforcement learning" to "reward" the AI for performing especially hard challenges. The reward system was used so effectively, the model was able to successfully craft a diamond pickaxe, a task that requires a long sequence of tasks.

This is a fascinating application of machine learning and shows how gaming can be used to train computers. Perhaps the AI model used may even be incorporated into games themselves to provide a more natural challenge akin to playing against human opponents.

The AI could also improve upon the annoying boss battles in the new Outriders Worldslayer campaign. In many ways, the new expansion for Outriders is just what fans want, but also keeps some of the less well-received aspects of the original game.

David Matthews is a freelance writer specializing in consumer tech and gaming. He also strongly believes that sugar does not go in grits. Follow him on Twitter @packetstealer

Valve announced that it will be shipping out more Steam Deck handheld devices in Q3 as the company’s production has increased.

“Hello! Some great news on the production front. We just sent the last batch of Q2 emails, and we’ll start sending Q3 reservation emails on the 30th,” Valve explains in a tweet. “Production has picked up, and after today we'll be shipping more than double the number of Steam Decks every week!”

Valve UX designer Lawrence Yang also clarified that Valve was sending out a certain number of Steam Deck units per week in the past. However, starting this week, Valve will start shipping twice that amount.

Hello! Some great news on the production front. We just sent the last batch of Q2 emails, and we’ll start sending Q3 reservation emails on the 30th.
Production has picked up, and after today we'll be shipping more than double the number of Steam Decks every week! pic.twitter.com/kAHE0zRrV7

— Steam Deck (@OnDeck) June 27, 2022

As Steam Deck orders have slowly been being fulfilled by Valve, the company sent out several software updates for it, including adding a lock screen and window switching capabilities. Valve has also delayed the Steam Deck’s docking station accessory but fortunately, this didn’t impact the manufacturing schedule of the device itself.

In our Steam Deck review, we said, “When the Steam Deck is living up to its promises, it's absolutely incredible. Playing GTA 5, God of War, and other modern games on the go is an absolute joy, and the hardware and controls feel good to hold even though it’s a big chubby boy of a handheld.”

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @yinyangfooey

Nearly 15 years after first acquiring the rights to the elusive Miracleman/Marvelman franchise, Marvel Comics is finally poised to continue one of the great, unfinished superhero sagas.

Beginning in October 2022, Marvel will kick off a new limited series called Miracleman by Gaiman & Buckingham: The Silver Age. This series will collect the entire storyline from writer Neil Gaiman (The Sandman) and artist Mark Buckingham (Fables), only two issues of which were ever completed and released before original publisher Eclipse fell into bankruptcy in 1994.

"We're back! And after thirty years away it is both thrilling and terrifying,” Buckingham said in Marvel's press release. “Neil and I have had these stories in our heads since 1989 so it is amazing to finally be on the verge of sharing them with our readers.

Buckingham continued, "I have pushed myself to my limit to craft something special for these issues. Cinematic in approach, clean and elegant, drawing on the best of my own style but also paying homage to the exceptional talents of all who came before us, whose unique visions have shaped this ground-breaking series over forty years, and the 1950's Marvelman foundations on which it was built.”

Marvel will also release a standalone issue called Miracleman #0, featuring several new, short stories from creators like Jason Aaron, Mike Carey, Ty Templeton and Ryan Stegman. Issue #0 will also feature a new Silver Age prelude story from Gaiman and Buckingham.

Miracleman is a dark, mature readers-focused reboot of creator Mick Anglo's 1950's-era Marvelman comics. The series was originally spearheaded by a young Alan Moore, who wrote the first 16 issues before Gaiman and Buckingham took over with Miracleman #17. The new creative team completed the first of three planned story arcs, called "The Golden Age," with "The Silver Age" and "The Dark Age" stuck in limbo ever since Eclipse's bankruptcy.

Following a prolonged legal battle, Marvel finally purchased the Marvelman franchise in 2009, promising both reprints of existing material and brand new stories. However, there's been very little new Marvelman content in the years since. Marvel has mainly focused on reprinting the early Silver Age Marvelman stories and Moore's work, while occasionally teasing the prospect of Marvelman joining the Marvel Universe.

Marvel did eventually release Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham: The Golden Age, and got as far as soliciting Miracleman by Gaiman and Buckingham: The Silver Age back in 2016. However, the series was quietly canceled, and Buckingham later revealed he's been redrawing his earlier work in addition to the issues that were never completed in the '90s.

Do you think 2022 will be the year Miracleman fans finally get to read the story they've been waiting decades to see? Let us know in the comments. And be sure to check out IGN's review of Miracleman #1 and read up on the Marvel Comics mysteries that took years to be resolved.

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

Twitch user Ibai Llanos has broken the streaming platform's record for the most concurrent viewers.

Llanos, who streamed the official live coverage of an online content creator-based boxing event, blew past the previous record of 2.4 million concurrents and set the new milestone of 3.3 million.

Twitch celebrated the record in a tweet (below), congratulating Llanos for the Barcelona-based La Velada del Año II event, which translates to The Evening of the Year. The event included five boxing matches between YouTuber Spursito, streamer AriGameplays, singer David Bustamante, and seven other content creators.

HISTORIA

Congrats to @IbaiLlanos on setting a new Twitch record with a peak of over 3.3M concurrent views during today’s boxing and entertainment event, La Velada del Año II. pic.twitter.com/5WUKrz0FkF

— Twitch (@Twitch) June 25, 2022

Llanos commented on the stream's success in his own series of tweets, saying it wasn't just a win for himself but for the entire Spanish and Latin American community. "Thanks to all the creators and artists for coming and making history," he added.

The previous record of 2.4 million concurrent users was set by Fortnite streamer TheGrefg last year during his skin collaboration reveal with the popular Battle Royale. David “TheGrefg” Martinez took the record from Tyler Blevins, better known as Ninja, who logged 635,000 concurrent viewers in 2018.

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

Christian Bale has revealed that he would only return to play Batman if Christopher Nolan asked him to reprise the role.

The actor may have hung up his cape and cowl when the Dark Knight trilogy wrapped, but he hasn't completely closed the door on the idea of suiting up as Batman again. During an interview with ComicBook.com, Bale admitted that he would consider returning to play the Caped Crusader on one condition: Christopher Nolan must be in the director's chair.

Despite his willingness to reteam with the Dark Knight trilogy director, Bale confirmed that Nolan nor anyone else had ever approached him about reprising his DC role. "Nobody, nobody reaches out to me or they keep me like a mushroom, keep me in the dark and feed me s***," Bale told the outlet.

"For me, that would be a matter of Chris Nolan, if he ever decided to do it again and if he chose to come my way again, then yeah, I would consider it because that was always our pact between each other is we would just stick to it," he then added. "We said we would only ever make three. And then I said to myself, and I'd only ever make it with Chris."

Bale portrayed Bruce Wayne/Batman in Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, and The Dark Knight Rises, which capped off the trilogy in 2012. Warner Bros. later pitched a fourth Batman movie to Bale, but he decided to turn it down out of respect for Nolan who had always envisioned his story as a three-film series and nothing more.

Bale is, however, pressing forward with comic book movies as he will soon be making his MCU debut as Gorr the God Butcher in Thor: Love and Thunder, which opens in theaters on July 8. Actor Chris Hemsworth has already gushed over Bale's performance in the movie, and director Taika Waititi has claimed that he's probably the MCU's best villain yet.

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

Tencent Games has announced Code: To Jin Yong, an open-world martial arts game set in ancient China.

Code: To Jin Yong is being developed in Unreal Engine 5 by Lightspeed Studios (PUBG Mobile and Apex Legends Mobile), the first AAA game from the studio. It will be based on the novels of legendary Chinese writer Jin Yong.

A two-minute trailer was released during Tencent's 2022 game conference (below) which shows off a fast-paced and frantic sword fight between two characters.

The combat will also feature magic of some sort, with what appears to be the protagonist wielding wind and his opponent (literally) throwing hands.

Tencent promised that Code: To Jin Yong will be a tribute to the late author, bringing to life his wuxia (martial art fiction set in ancient China) novels that are incredibly popular and have already spawned a myriad of film, TV, and game adaptations.

This will be the first modern game set in Jin Yong's universe, however, and seemingly the first to be targeted at an English-speaking audience. No indication of a release window was given by Tencent, though the trailer makes clear that this footage isn't final, and the game's platforms are also currently unclear.

The Shenzhen, China-based publisher has been pushing further and further into the games industry in recent years, acquiring developers including Riot Games and Turtle Rock Studios.

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

Ninja Warrior's signature obstacle course is being tested for possible inclusion in the Los Angeles 2028 Olympic Games.

According to Deadline, Olympic athletes may soon be facing a new kind of challenge, as obstacle sports are being considered for the Modern Pentathlon. The tournament currently consists of five disciplines: fencing, swimming, laser pistol shooting, running, and equestrian show jumping, but organizers are looking to potentially replace the riding discipline.

Format owner Tokyo Broadcasting System Television (TBS) is said to be collaborating with several partners to trial the "ninja competition" that was made popular by Sasuke aka Ninja Warrior. The first test competition will be held in Ankara, Turkey on June 27, with another scheduled to take place the day after, following the 2022 Pentathlon World Cup Final.

"Sasuke/Ninja Warrior, which continues to win fans around the world, represents the culmination of TBS's long history of content development," said Miho Takashima, who manages the format globally. "We look forward to working with the UIPM [Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne] and FISO [Fédération Internationale de Sports d’Obstacles] to further expand the possibilities of obstacle racing."

Ninja Warrior started off as a Japanese sports entertainment reality TV show called Sasuke in 1997, which saw 100 competitors participating in a four-stage obstacle course. The series then expanded globally, spawning local versions in at least 18 other countries, including the United States, which adopted the format for the launch of American Ninja Warrior in 2009.

A sports video game based on the series, titled American Ninja Warrior Challenge, was released in 2009 for PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. The people that accepted the challenge and picked up the game had to compete across a series of daunting obstacle courses from the hit show to achieve Total Victory and earn American Ninja Warrior status.

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

Thumbnail image credit: TBS.

It's been long-rumored that Apple is working on a headset capable of offering augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality content (VR). A new report now suggests that the head-mounted display features the powerful new M2 chip and 16GB of RAM.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman reports that the latest version of this headset is running with the M2 system on a chip and includes 16GB of RAM. This deviates from previous reports, which included a prediction from supply chain analyst Ming-Chi Kuo that the headset would include a chip with the same computing power found in the M1 chip.

Gurman's latest reporting, like the report from The Information last month, suggests that the device will be a standalone headset, like the Meta Quest 2. The Information also noted in the same report that the device would have a multi-chip setup. However, in his new report, Gurman does not go into further detail on the mixed reality headset beyond what the current incarnation has CPU and RAM-wise.

Apple announced the M2 chip during its WWDC keynote earlier this month. Currently, only one device on the market features the latest Apple silicon — the 13-inch MacBook Pro. However, a 2022 model refresh of the MacBook Air was also announced at WWDC and is slated for release sometime next month.

Information on the mixed reality headset has trickled in throughout 2022; this includes Gurman reporting in May that Apple's board of directors had the opportunity to try out the headset. Additionally, "RealityOS," the operating system likely to be used on the headset, has appeared in a trademark application filed by the iPhone maker. At the same time, "RealityOS" has also appeared in Apple's code.

Although Apple has not formally announced the product, CEO Tim Cook last week all but confirmed the headset's existence during a recent interview with China Daily. Reports suggest that Apple may launch the headset as early as January 2023.

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