Month: November 2019

Star Wars: Jedi Fallen Order, the new, single-player melee action game from the makers of Titanfall and Apex Legends, is almost here. The game officially launches on Friday, November 15, but copies of the game have begun to appear in the wild already.

There are reports on Reddit and elsewhere of people getting their hands on the much-anticipated Star Wars game ahead of time. Players who are keen to avoid spoilers are advised to be extra careful on social media, as information about the story could emerge.

Jedi Fallen Order takes place five years after Revenge of the Sith. The story, which is canon, follows a Jedi Padawan named Cal Kestis (played by Gotham’s Joker, Cameron Monaghan) who is trying to outrun Empire forces trying to eliminate all Jedis. The main enemy is Darth Vader’s trainee, the Second Sister, who is chasing Cal across the solar system.

Unlike other EA-published games, Jedi Fallen Order is not available early for EA Access subscribers. That’s a bummer, as playing upcoming EA games early is in part what makes the subscription service so attractive. However, EA/Origin Access subscribers are getting free bonus content for Jedi Fallen Order.

Early copies of Jedi Fallen Order emerging in the wild have appeared just as pre-loading for the game has begun. Respawn announced on Twitter that people who pre-ordered a digital copy of the game can start pre-loading now on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. The file size relatively small compared to other big AAA games, weighing in at around 37 GB (on Xbox One, at least).

As for when you can actually start playing Jedi Fallen Order, the game will reportedly unlock at midnight local time.

Jedi Fallen Order is expected to be a massive success commercially, as EA is expecting the game to sell as many as 8 million copies at launch. The NPD expects it to be among the best-selling games of 2019 in the US.

In other news, Mad TV actress Debra Wilson appears in Jedi Fallen Order as a Jedi named Cere Junda. She spoke to The Hollywood Reporter about the significance of her character and why she’s excited to be in the game.

“I believe I’m the first black female Jedi as far as video games are concerned,” Wilson said. “To be a part of the Star Wars universe in this regard is amazing. Growing up with Star Wars from a very early age–well not that early because I’m a little older–it had a very powerful impact on me.”

(Presented by PlayStation) We’re poised for adventure with AnneMunition as she teams up with Persia for some Uncharted 4 using PlayStation Now!

This article contains light spoilers for The Mandalorian episode 1! To find out when the rest of The Mandalorian’s episodes will come out, check out our release date schedule.

Ever since Disney first announced its first live-action Star Wars series The Mandalorian, fans have wondered whether Boba Fett might appear. Plenty of fans have even speculated that Boba Fett is The Mandalorian, given the fact that we don’t even know the real name of the titular gunfighter (or at least we didn’t, until Pedro Pascal apparently revealed The Mandalorian’s name in an interview). But now, an Easter egg found in episode 1 of The Mandalorian suggests that Boba Fett may have already made a cameo.

Continue reading…

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order officially launches this Friday, November 15, and you’ll be able to read/watch our review at 9pm Pacific time on Thursday, November 14. In other words, tomorrow night US time!

According to EA’s Origin storefront, that’s actually the exact time Fallen Order will also be unlocking digitally. Unfortunately, we can’t say anything else about the game just yet, but you can bet we’ll have plenty of coverage for you to peruse alongside our review. So come back Thursday evening to see what we think of Respawn’s take on a single-player Star Wars campaign.

Until then, flip through the gallery below to see every review of a Star Wars game IGN has ever done:

Continue reading…

Google Stadia is a week away from launch, and today Google held an impromptu Reddit AMA to answer some last-minute questions. Unfortunately, Google also took this time to reveal which features won’t be available on Stadia at launch.

Google Stadia director of product Andrey Doronichev and publisher experience lead Beri Lee hosted the Reddit AMA on the official r/Stadia subreddit where they answered questions from awaiting Stadia users.

Continue reading…

Servant, a new TV series executive produced by M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense, Glass), will premiere on November 28, exclusive to Apple TV+. Apple’s new streaming service hasn’t gotten off to the most exciting start, but Servant looks interesting, to say the least. The first trailer introduced us to the overarching plot of the series–an in-denial mother hires a nanny to look after the hyper-realistic doll that has replaced her deceased infant son, and it soon becomes clear that something is off about said nanny.

This new trailer, titled “Jericho” (the name of the doll), focuses in on the doll’s creation, as the baby is sculpted, with the artist threading in hairs and choosing eyeballs for the infantile facsimile. It’s a riff on Pinocchio, albeit a horrifying one. You can watch it below, and then start debating with yourself whether or not the doll is meant to seem alive or not in the shot of its mother picking it up.

The series will run for ten episodes, and features Lauren Ambrose, Nell Tiger Free, Rupert Grint, and Toby Kebbell. The pilot is directed by M. Night Shyamalan, and the show is created by Tony Basgallop. It’s quite different from anything you’re likely to see on the more family-friendly Disney +, which also just recently launched.

Rockstar has apologised for issues that have impacted some players in the wake of Red Dead Redemption 2’s launch, and has also released a new update featuring several fixes.

“Over the past week, we have been working as quickly as possible to address issues that have impacted the launch of the PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2,” the publisher said in a statement published via the Rockstar Newswire. “As a result, we have already identified and resolved a number of these issues by deploying fixes to the Rockstar Games Launcher and some to the game itself.”

“However, we are aware that a small number of Red Dead Redemption 2 PC players are still experiencing some ongoing problems with the game stuttering. We believe this is due to unforeseen issues related to specific combinations of Nvidia graphics drivers, Nvidia GPU cards, and certain CPUs.

Continue reading…

South Park kicked off the second half of Season 23 tonight by finally shifting focus back to Stan, Kyle, Cartman and the gang. As PC Principal faced the threat of an even stronger woman, the boys found their board gamers club invaded by girls.

We’ll have our review of “Board Girls” up a bit later tonight. Until then, let us know what you thought of the new episode in the comments below.

The new Disney+ streaming service has removed the infamous The Simpsons’ episode featuring Michael Jackson as a character.

Spotted by The Hollywood Reporter, the episode titled ‘Stark Raving Dad’ isn’t available on Disney Plus’ compilation of Simpsons’ episodes.

Continue reading…

Shenmue III has been a long time coming, but soon fans will finally be able to continue Ryo Hazuki’s adventure. It’s been over 18 years since Shenmue II’s September 6, 2001 launch on the Dreamcast, and after the console’s death and the commercial failure of the first two games, a third seemed unlikely. But now, Shenmue is finally coming back.

Shenmue III will release on PlayStation 4 and PC on November 19, which, as this new launch trailer (entitled “The Story Goes On”) reminds us, is a bit of a miracle. “18 years ago the clock stopped,” an opening text reads. “Time vanished into an unfathomable future. But passions never waver. A moment in motion, a story renewed.”

The trailer features Ryo and Ling Shenhua, as well as series antagonist Lan Di, who was responsible for the death of Ryo’s father in the original game. It shows many of the elements fans are nostalgic for–including some fairly wooden voice acting–and hints at elements of the Shenmue plot that are being carried over into this third entry in the series.

The initial Kickstarter for the project opened on June 15, 2015; now, over four years later, the game (which broke Kickstarter records) is finally complete. Director Keiji Okayasu returned for the project, and while there has been some controversy over the game’s Epic Games Store exclusivity, fans have been eagerly anticipating this release. Last year, a Shenmue I & II HD Collection was released, marking the first time the original game had ever been made available on a system other than the Dreamcast; unfortunately, a planned full Shenmue remake never happened. From the beginning, Shenmue was envisioned as a multi-part epic, and Shenmue III is not planned as a conclusion to the series–if it does well, we could see a Shenmue IV.

If you’re excited for Shenmue III, be sure to check out our hands-on report and interview with series director Yu Suzuki.