James Gunn's The Suicide Squad is getting a TV spinoff, with John Cena's character Peacemaker starring in his own HBO Max series. Cena will reprise his role for the show, which has been given a straight-to-series order by HBO Max. Gunn is writing the series and directing several episodes. Gunn confirmed the Peacemaker series news on Twitter and revealed he'll be executive producing the series alongside The Suicide Squad producer Peter Safran. Cena will also co-executive produce. Peacemaker will be produced by Gunn’s Troll Court Entertainment and The Safran Company in association with Warner Bros. Television. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-suicide-squad-2021-74-new-images&captions=true"] HBO Max also sent out this comic book-style teaser image for the series, which should give you some idea of the irreverent tone Gunn and company are going for: Cena's The Suicide Squad character was revealed along with the rest of the cast at DC Fandome in August. Peacemaker is a militant pacifist, one so devoted to the idea of peace he'll kill any man, woman, or child in order to obtain it. In other words, he's not the brightest bulb in the DC Universe. “Peacemaker is an opportunity to delve into current world issues through the lens of this superhero/supervillain/and world’s biggest douchebag," said Gunn in a press release. "I’m excited to expand The Suicide Squad and bring this character from the DC film universe to the full breadth of a series. And of course, to be able to work again with John, Peter, and my friends at Warner Bros. is the icing on the cake.” “I have said before that it has been a tremendous honor and an incredible opportunity to be part of The Suicide Squad and to work with James on what is going to be a fantastic movie," said Cena. "I am unbelievably excited to have the chance to team up with him again for Peacemaker. We can’t wait for fans to see this.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/22/the-suicide-squad-official-cast-reveal"] This news comes a few months after HBO Max announced a Gotham PD prequel series connected to Matt Reeves' The Batman. Gotham PD will take place a year before the events of that movie and shed more light on the vast criminal conspiracy linking many powerful Gothamites. These two announcements certainly seem to suggest a larger trend at WarnerMedia. Will other DC movies like The Flash also receive companion series on HBO Max? Does this imply that upcoming HBO Max series like JJ Abrams' Justice League Dark and Greg Berlanti's Green Lantern Corps will be tied to the DCEU? Time will tell. The Suicide Squad is currently scheduled for release on August 6, 2021. [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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 closest asteroid to pass by Earth in a year is set to fly by on Thursday – but don't worry, it will safely pass us. This asteroid, which is roughly the size of a school bus at 15 to 30 feet wide, according to a report from the Nasa Jet Propulsion Laboratory at the California Institute of Technology, will make its closest approach to our planet on September 24, but fear not – Earth is in the clear. This is because when the asteroid flies by, it will still be roughly 22,000 miles away. The asteroid might, however, break apart while passing through the atmosphere, at which point, it could become a bright meteor known as a fireball. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=cosmos-possible-worlds-gallery&captions=true"] "There are a large number of tiny asteroids like this one, and several of them approach our planet as close as this several times every year," director of the institute's Center of Near-Earth Object Studies Paul Chodas said. "In fact, asteroids of this size impact our atmosphere at an average of about once every year or two." This asteroid, which has since been named 2020 SW, was spotted by scientists at the Catalina Sky Survey in Arizona on September 18. At that time, its trajectory wasn't known, but further studies allowed the scientists at the Catalina Sky Survey to determine its orbital trajectory, which is when danger to Earth was ruled out. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/04/10/scientists-have-revealed-the-first-photo-of-a-black-hole"] The closest approach will happen at 4:12 a.m. PDT / 7:12 a.m. EDT / 12:12 p.m. BST on September 24 over the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The asteroid won't return to near Earth until 2041 after it makes a full journey around the sun. It's expected to not come nearly as close to Earth as it'll be on Thursday, when it returns in the future. For some additional science news, be sure to read about the possible signs of life detected on Venus and then read about how scientists detected extragalactic radio signals back in February. You can also check out this story about how some scientists have claimed evidence of a parallel universe where time runs backward. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

Following some hands-on time with non-functioning display Xbox Series X and Series S consoles in which we compared them to every other console we could find (see the gallery below), Microsoft has sent us a real Xbox Series X along with a Series X controller. This is a near-final preview unit, but it works. We'll have a lot more coverage for you in the coming days and weeks, but in the meantime you can get a first look at the real thing in the video above. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=xbox-series-s-and-series-x-comparison-photos&captions=true"] If you haven't been able to get an Xbox Series X (or S) preorder yet, don't give up and keep trying! Here's a list of retailers to check, all in one handy location. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Ahead of its PulseCon fan event this weekend, Hasbro unveiled 4 figures in Wave 1 of its Transformers: Generations War for Cybertron: Kingdom line. Basically, if you grew up a fan of Transformers: Beast Wars, you're about to get your nostalgia wishes for new figures granted. Hasbro revealed Rattrap, Cheetor, Cyclonus and T-Rex Megatron. Check out the first wave in the gallery below: [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=transformers-generations-war-for-cybertron-kingdom&captions=true"] War for Cybertron: Kingdom is the third and final chapter in the War for Cybertron trilogy, more details of which will be revealed this weekend during Hasbro PulseCon beginning at 10 AM ET and streaming live on YouTube. The figures themselves are scheduled to release January 1, 2021. However, they'll be available for preorder beginning September 26 at Hasbro Pulse and "most major toy retailers." The first 6 episodes of the Transformers: War for Cybertron series hit Netflix at the end of July after a COVID-19 related delay, and it's great. In our Transformers: War for Cybertron review, we called it "an action packed and insightful adventure." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. Find him on Instagram at sethgmacy.

Larian has had to postpone the launch of the Baldur's Gate 3 early access build by six days in order to allow further testing and translation work. The new release date is now October 6, which the studio is - in a change from earlier dates - adamant that it will hit. In a statement on Twitter, Larian explained that the live development of Baldur's Gate 3 has meant that just under a week of extra preparations need to be made in order for this early access build to be ready for players. "We're nearly there but we had a few unexpected delays, and we still have some stability issues we're sifting through," says the statement.

We have bad news, and good news. But first, the bad news! We're delaying to October 6, by a week. We'll be back later today with the romance & companionship update to pick you all up again. pic.twitter.com/j2NOEk4jAi

— Baldur's Late (@larianstudios) September 23, 2020

Because of those unexpected delays, the game has been sent for translation later than expected. Larian wishes the localisation to be strong enough for "international fans to have a good time", and so extra time is needed to get that work done, too. The game also has to pass the World Tester, which Larian describes as a "sort of AI super-gamer that plays through the game at incredible speed, stress testing everything and pushing it to its limits". While there's still work to do, Larain has - for the first time in regards to a date for Baldur's Gate 3 - set the release in stone. "Early Access is going to launch on October 6th on Stadia, Steam, and GOG. It is. It really is," the statement reads. No 'maybe' in sight. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/18/baldurs-gate-3-intellect-devourer-gameplay-clip"] In addition, Larian has also published the minimum and recommended PC system requirements for Baldur's Gate 3. The developer notes that the requirements may decrease over the early access period as performance is improved. Minimum:

• Processor: Intel i5-4690 / AMD FX 4350
• Memory: 8 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GTX 780 / AMD Radeon R9 280X
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 70 GB available space

Recommended:

• Processor: Intel i7 4770k / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X
• Memory: 16 GB RAM
• Graphics: Nvidia GTX 1060 6GB / AMD RX580
• DirectX: Version 11
• Storage: 70 GB available space

For more, check out our recent interview with the game's senior writer about how Baldur's Gate 3 is honoring and evolving the classic series, and several things we've learned from one of the recent gameplay reveals. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writers.

Black Mirror alum Toby Haynes has been recruited to direct the first three episodes of the Star Wars: Rogue One prequel series focused on Cassian Andor after Tony Gilroy stepped down from the role. According to Deadline, Gilroy decided to relinquish his directorial duties to Haynes after considering the complications that he would face travelling between New York and the U.K. during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. With the series set to be shot in the U.K., Haynes stepped in to helm the opening episodes of the Disney+ series while Gilroy remains on board as showrunner and executive producer. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/12/the-history-of-star-wars-on-tv-from-the-holiday-special-to-disney-plus"] Haynes is a prominent British TV director who is well known for helming the Emmy-winning episode "USS Callister" from Season 4 of Black Mirror, together with his notable work on episodes of Doctor Who and Sherlock. The report notes that Haynes featured high up on the shortlist of directors to helm future episodes of Disney's upcoming Cassian Andor series, so he was quickly drafted in as the replacement. As of right now, little else is known about the Cassian Andor series, including the official title or a firm premiere release date. However, we do know that Diego Luna will reprise his titular role, along with Alan Tudyk as the voice of sardonic assassin droid K-2SO. VFX supervisor Neal Scanlan has also hinted that the series might re-purpose unused characters/creatures from past Star Wars projects. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=rogue-one-17-cool-star-wars-details-revealed-by-the-writers&captions=true"] The series is confirmed to take place five years before the events of Rogue One and explore Cassian's role in the growing Rebel Alliance. It joins a growing list of Star Wars content at Disney, including the upcoming second season of The Mandalorian, an Obi-Wan Kenobi spinoff series, starring Ewan McGregor, and a LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

The Game Awards are set to return this year on December 10. Because of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, there will not be a live audience this year, but host Geoff Keighley announced that this year’s awards show will be hosted from three international locations: Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo. The Game Awards will be hosted live on Thursday, December 10, 2020, as a digital livestream. The annual awards show hosted and founded by Geoff Keighley honors some of the best games of the year and are also where games receive new trailers or premieres. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-xbox-series-x-games&captions=true"] In past years, The Game Awards were hosted live in Los Angeles in front of an audience. However, the coronavirus pandemic has caused The Game Awards to take a different approach this year. Instead, the show will air live from studio locations in Los Angeles, London, and Tokyo. The Game Awards are still promising awards presentations, musical performances, and new game announcements. Speaking with IGN, however, Keighley says “It’s too early to talk about world premieres for the show this year, but we’re in discussions now with all the publishers and developers of this year’s lineup,” Keighley says. “We’re looking forward to a big night of announcements and surprises for the fans.” Regarding the new three host city structure, Keighley says The Game Awards hopes to make the three locations feel connected. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-playstation-5-games&captions=true"] “The biggest challenge is coordinating three different hub cities versus just one,” Keighley explained. “Our goal is to make everything feel interconnected and unite the world around video games. It’s challenging but also exciting to bring the show to more cities. I’ve long had the dream of hosting The Game Awards in other locations.” Check out The Games Awards on December 10 and IGN which will cover the show and all the updates live. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Hello Games has revealed its latest free update for No Man's Sky: Origins. The update will effectively rewrite the entire game universe to add more variation, new planets, and much more - without altering user generated content. Origins brings the game to its 3.0 version, and it's out today. Announced on the No Man's Sky website (where you can see the full, enormous list of changes), Origins is 2020's biggest update so far, and aims to offer a "stranger, richer and more varied universe, with deeper planetary diversity, dramatic new terrain, a host of new creatures, new weather conditions, colossal buildings, and much more." Among its many additions, the update adds brand new planets (with more dramatic scenery than previously possible, including active volcanoes), rare systems with multiple stars, a new UI, brand new fauna types and updated behaviours for them, dramatic weather systems (including lightning, fire and gravity storms), planetary NPC encounters, rare planets with entirely synthetic life, and more. On top of all that, giant sand worms have finally become a part of the game, after being teased in No Man's Sky's first ever trailer. For those worried about their creations, these changes won't touch or harm user-created structures, meaning the worlds around you might change, but your part in them will remain as you left it pre-update. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/23/sean-murray-explains-no-mans-sky-origins"] Speaking to IGN, creator Sean Murray explained the meaning behind the update's title, saying: "Origins is, yes, it's another update, but it's kind of a new start for us in some ways. And we wanted to get that across, that this isn't an end. It isn't just, 'here is an update with some more content in'. It's something quite fundamental for us, and that is that we're adding more diversity, more variation to that universe, which is something that we haven't really done that much. But also, we're adding literal new planets. We're going to birth them into the universe, which is quite a cool thing for us. "It's taken us a while to figure out how best to do it and how to make it work. But we have this really nice problem, which is we have this universe that the community owns, right? They've built bases on it. They've built communities. They've gone off and had adventures, made discoveries. And then, we come along and we say, 'We want to make new planets, new worlds.' We want to freshen all of this up, and so we were trying to find ways to do that without destroying what's gone before. And so that's been one of the ways that we've done it, is to just actually make the universe more dense, introduced new worlds, literal new worlds to go off and explore – and that's the origin." There won't be a given in-game reason for this to have happened, with Murray explaining: "So we talked about lore reasons. But, I don't know, it's been done before, that 'cataclysm update'. And then, every NPC you talk to keeps mentioning the cataclysm. I don't know. Personally, it doesn't appeal to me. Because we know what's happened, and it's really strange to me for every NPC to suddenly start talking about DLC." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/23/no-mans-sky-origins-official-trailer"] Unlike other recent updates, Origins aims primarily to improve what already exists in No Man's Sky's universe, rather than slot new features in around it, something Murray says was a goal because the team now had a sense of the existing game's limits. "We have this universe that we built four years ago, and we released it. And we said that thing of, 'Even we don't know what's out there.' [...] People could go out and have this experience and send screenshots, and we would say, 'Oh, I didn't know it could do that.' Or, 'I haven't seen that before.' And then, actually, that hasn't been true for the last four years for us [...] For us to have that moment that I was talking about again, of what we had four years ago, where I will be looking at screenshots for the first time in four years being like, 'Oh, I didn't know that was possible.' That's the feeling that we want to get back." This doesn't mark the end of 2020's additions to No Man's Sky, either, with Murray confirming that – although this has already been the game's busiest year for updates – there's more coming this year. "We're all locked in our houses now," he laughs. "What else can we do?" [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=no-mans-sky-origins-update-screenshots&captions=true"] I ask if any of those updates might involve a next-gen version of the game, but that's one subject Murray won't be drawn on, saying there's nothing to announce about that: "Next-gen is something we've been lucky enough to be included in, and have kits and all of that, from the very early days. It's something I'm super excited about, but I have to say that annoying thing of, 'We don't have any announcements at the moment'. We have a big project planned in the future, and that's part of the reason that we're excited about next gen, and we'll see if we'll have any announcement for No Man's Sky in the future." That "big project" is the huge, ambitious new game Murray mentioned earlier this month. During our talk, he made clear that he's currently working across both games, but won't be offering specifics about the new project because the team has "learned our lesson" after discussing No Man's Sky too early in its development last time around. [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.

Sean Murray is working on Hello Games' next major game, which he's hoping will be even larger than his last creation, No Man's Sky. Exactly what that means is not yet clear, and will likely remain so for some time, because Murray says Hello Games "learned our lesson" after opening up too early about No Man's Sky. We first learned about the "huge, ambitious" new game earlier this month. Speaking to IGN ahead of the release of the No Man's Sky: Origins update, Murray confirmed that he is currently working on both No Man's Sky and the new game – but Hello Games isn't discussing specifics about the new project right now. "I mean, look, we have learned our lesson. We don't want to start talking about anything too early", explains Murray, referencing No Man's Sky's extremely open (and occasionally controversial) pre-release. "The only reason we talked at all about it was because we released our most recent game, Last Campfire, which was the first thing to come out since No Man's Sky. It's done by a separate team that we supported within the studio. But when we talk to press about it, a lot of them came at it from the angle of, 'Oh, well you did Joe Danger before. You've done No Man's Sky, and I guess you're doing Joe Danger-size games again.' [...] We didn't want people to have that impression, because it's not exactly true." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/23/sean-murray-explains-no-mans-sky-origins"] Murray makes clear that the new game is aiming to be an even larger project than No Man's Sky: "I would hope that there's a line between Joe Danger to No Man's Sky. And then hopefully, we continue up on that line. Personally, I came away from No Man's Sky with a lot of hunger going forward for things that we have yet to do and things that we've yet to prove. So this project will be a big focus for me and the guys." It's worth noting that size, in this case, does not necessarily mean the scope of the game's world – No Man's Sky's universe is made up of billions of planets, which may just be a difficult marker to beat in literal terms. Instead, Murray is likely referring to the complexity and depth the next game can offer – although what that specifically means remains unknown. He does, however, mention that Hello has next-gen devkits right now, and mentions that the part of the reason the team is excited for new consoles is because of this project. Closing the discussion, Murray reiterates that Hello Games is a developer more interested in major new projects than smaller experiments after No Man's Sky: "As a studio, we definitely are very focused on doing new, big, ambitious things." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=no-mans-sky-origins-update-screenshots&captions=true"]

As for right now, Murray's been concentrating on No Man's Sky: Origins, the game's 3.0 update that adds a huge amount of variety to the game's existing universe, including new terrain, weather effects and more. It also adds giant sand worms for the first time, which is just amazing.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.

In 2013, the first trailer for No Man's Sky showed off a lot of things people got very excited for. Some of those things were in the base game, others were added later. But one feature shown in that trailer never materialised in the release version of the game – gigantic sand worm/snake creatures that burrowed into the ground. That wait is now over. In 2020, No Man's Sky finally adds giant sand worms, and we got creator Sean Murray to tell us why they didn't make it into the game, and why they're being added now. In an interview ahead of the release of the new Origins update – the trailer for which includes a grand entrance for the game's new creature type – Murray explained that there was a very simple reason for why giant sand worms had never made it into the game until now: "This is a very boring story when people asked me about it. They weren't that fun. "It sounds fun, right? Fundamentally, it works really well in a trailer, and it's a cool thing, and it's cool when you see it, but if you play the game for a hundred hours and you've got your save that you really care about, it's really annoying to be randomly killed by a sand worm that just appears, right? I mean the people who hunt for Spice in Dune or whatever, they know this pain. Lots of random death in that world. So we sidelined those. They were just never fun enough." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/23/no-mans-sky-origins-official-trailer"] Among a myriad of other updates and changes that needed to be made, giant sand worms weren't quite the priority for the Hello Games team – but Origins' focus on adding depth and variety to the game's existing galaxy offered a new opportunity to make them a priority. Murray explains how they solved the slimy problem of making giant worms fun: "I think now – and it is something that we revisited a couple of times – we found a way to make them play well with the game, to signpost themselves well, and to fit the environment around them so that it feels, hopefully, fun and in keeping with the rest of the game. Some of these things just take time for them to bubble up to be the priority." Murray's clearly very pleased to finally be able to cross off that player request after almost 7 years: "Each time we do an update, there's one of these major things that we get to cross the check box off. I don't think we're quite done yet, but we go up to the board, and we X another one out." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2013/12/09/no-mans-sky-announcement-trailer"] The key, it seems, is balance, with the dev team making changes they think need to be made alongside adding features the audience is asking for: "We often have key things that we're doing that we know no one is asking for, but we feel are fundamentally important for the game", explains Murray. "So this time round, we've revisited the UI and changed it visually and also tightened it up to make it flow nicer. People weren't generally asking for that, but I think it has a real impact on the game and fundamentally just helps how the game plays. You spend a lot of time in and out of the UI. So for me, that adds a lot of freshness, but there's stuff like that. "There is also stuff that it is really fun to work on when you know the community are going to love it. Sand worms are one of those. Hopefully, people are going to play and really enjoy them [...] It is a big motivating factor for us. It's really nice to be working on something and thinking, this is going to really please some people." I know I'm pleased, for one. Giant Sand Worms are just one of many, many changes brought to No Man's Sky in the Origins update, which ups the variety on show on planets, adding new terrain types, weather effects, and even spawning entirely new worlds to discover and explore. The free update is out today. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=no-mans-sky-origins-update-screenshots&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.