Month: January 2020

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A brand-new trailer for the seventh and final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars has been released and, while it gave us another glimpse at some of our favorite characters (Ahsoka!) from the show that hasn’t aired since 2014, it also appears to show a young Kanan Jarrus from Star Wars Rebels.

Spotted by those like @ThomasLHarper on Twitter around the 25-second mark, viewers can catch a glimpse of a young Padawan standing next to Jedi Master Depa Billaba.

As was revealed in Star Wars Rebels and expanded upon in works like the comic series Star Wars: Kanan – The Last Padawan, that boy was named Caleb Dume and would grow up to take the name Kanan Jarrus following the tragic events of Order 66.

During Order 66 on the planet Kaller, Master Billaba sacrificed herself to save Dume and he ended up meeting a smuggler named Janus Kasmir. He was forced to hide that he was a Jedi and had to learn to live as a fugitive to survive in a world where Jedi were being openly hunted.

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Dume went so far as to abandon his name and past, and thus became Kanan Jarrus. While he was lost in his purpose for a while, he eventually ran into a Twi’lek female named Hera Syndulla and the rest, they say, is on Disney+. Seriously, go watch Star Wars Rebels.

While we don’t know if we will see or learn more about Caleb Dume besides this one cameo, it is pretty clear that this final season will venture into the timeline of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith. What’s even more, it appears we will see scenes from Episode III played out in animation form, as you can see below from @ImmortalSoldier.

I don’t think I’m ready to go relive it all again#StarWars #TheCloneWars #CloneWars pic.twitter.com/E8JPlrbmE6

— Chris (@ImmortaISoldier) January 22, 2020

There are other small Easter Eggs in this trailer that hint at the ROTS timeline, including the shot of Anakin and a seemingly-pregnant Padme holding virtual hands by @Sithreeepio. We know Anakin didn’t find out she was pregnant until the third film, so this would indicate the timelines will be crossing.

This also backs up previous statements by both Dave Filoni and Pablo Hidalgo in 2015 who had hinted that, before its cancellation, there were plans for Star Wars: The Clone Wars’ final episodes to have taken place after Revenge of the Sith.

It won’t be long until we all find out the truth when we return to our favorite galaxy far, far away for Star Wars: The Clone Wars final twelve episodes on February 21, 2020.

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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 who can’t wait and is so excited he just can’t hide it. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II is one of the three upcoming projects coming from Ninja Theory designed under the developer’s mission to craft life-changing art with game-changing tech–the third of which, Project: Mara, was just announced. In a YouTube dev diary, Ninja Theory revealed what type of story Hellblade II will tell.

“While Hellblade gave us a very personal insight into psychosis, this sequel builds on that to show how madness and suffering shapes myths, gods, and religion,” Ninja Theory co-founder Tameem Antoniades said. “Our goal is to make an experience comparable to the epic myths and sagas of old.”

Antoniades continued: “The team will be about twice the size of Hellblade’s team–still very small by triple-A standards, but it aims to prove that small teams can achieve great things using procedural technologies and smart tools.” Earlier in the dev diary, Ninja Theory commercial director Dom Matthews said that the team behind the original Hellblade was composed of 20 people, so we can infer about 40 people are on the team working on Hellblade II.

Hellblade II was announced alongside the reveal of Xbox Series X, Microsoft’s next-gen console. The first game, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, launched as a limited-time PS4 console exclusive in 2017, before releasing on Xbox One in 2018 and Nintendo Switch in 2019. The game is currently included in Xbox Game Pass.

In GameSpot’s Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice review, Alessandro Fillari wrote, “Hellblade’s most notable achievement is the handling of an incredibly sensitive subject matter within an engaging and well-crafted action/adventure game. At its heart, the story is about Senua’s struggle to come to terms with her illness. In the process, she learns to find the strength within herself to endure and to make peace with her past. And in a profound and physical way, we go through those same struggles with her, and come away with a better understanding of a piece of something that many people in the world struggle with.”

In case a goat or goose wasn’t enough for your gaming simulation needs, a brand-new game has debuted in early access on Steam in the same wheelhouse as Goat Simulator and Untitled Goose Game. Deeeer Simulator lets you embody a deer capable of some wacky and ridiculous feats, and it’s available now for PC.

Deeeer Simulator is a “slow-life town destruction game” in which you wreak havoc as a deer. The deer can latch onto surfaces and swing around with its stretchy neck, sprint on its hindlegs and ride horses like a human, and even combine with various other animals to create a Megazord-like deer. It’s all pretty comical.

The game shares a lot of DNA with Goat Simulator–particularly its goofy physics-based gameplay. Not only can the deer use cows as jetpacks and terrorize the cityscape on a dragon, but it can also swap out its antlers for dual pistols a la Lara Croft. And these pistols, of course, completely obliterate trees.

You can check out more than an hour of gameplay above. And, in case you’re wondering if your machine can handle it, we’ve embedded Deeeer Simulator’s minimum PC requirements below.

Deeeer Simulator’s PC requirements

• OS: Windows 7 or Newer
• Processor: Core i3-3120M
• Memory: 2 MB RAM
• Graphics: intel graphics 4000
• DirectX: Version 9.0
• Storage: 1 GB available space

Deeer Simulator is currently 10% off, slashing its price to $11.69 USD until January 27. Once the game leaves early access in 2021, however, the price will increase as “more content [becomes available] in the future.” A console port has not been announced.

After making a killing (Get it?) at the box office earning a Best Original Screenplay nomination at the Academy Awards, Knives Out is heading to home release to let you solve the murder mystery in the comfort of your very own living room. The movie from director Rian Johnson is heading to digital release on February 7, with Blu-Ray, 4K Ultra HD, and DVD releases following on February 25.

The whodunnit thriller stars Jamie Lee Curtis, Chris Evans, Daniel Craig, Ana de Armas, and so many more in a story about an eccentric family trying to figure out who killed off their patriarch. In his Knives Out review, GameSpot’s Rafael Motamayor wrote of the film, “when it comes to making a movie that’s entertaining, thoughtful, sharply written, and undeniably creative, Rian Johnson is guilty as charged.”

Now you’ll be able to experience the mystery yourself, as well as a host of special features. From deleted scenes to audio commentaries, Johnson and the Knives Out team have packed the release with all kinds of bonus content to make it worthwhile. You can take a look at the list of features below.

Special features:

• Audio Commentary by Writer-Director Rian Johnson, Director of Photography Steve Yedlin, and Actor Noah SeganIn-Theatre Commentary by Rian Johnson
• Deleted Scene: “Bicycling Accident” (with Optional Audio Commentary by Rian Johnson)
• Deleted Scene: “Don’t Do Anything Rash” (with Optional Audio Commentary by Rian Johnson)
• “Making a Murder” Eight-Part Documentary
• “Rian Johnson: Planning the Perfect Murder” Featurette
• Writer-Director and Cast Q&A
• Marketing Gallery
• “Meet the Thrombeys” Viral Ads

Knives Out hits digital release on February 6. Blu-ray, 4K Ultra HD, and DVD arrive on February 25.

Disclosure: ViacomCBS is GameSpot’s parent company.

Lunar New Year kicks off this week, and to celebrate, a ton of games retailers are offering huge sales. So far, we’ve seen an impressive offering of deals from stores like Fanatical and Xbox Live, but there’s a new sale live now at Ubisoft you won’t want to miss if you’re a fan of The Division, Assassin’s Creed, or other popular Ubisoft franchises. The highlight of the sale is an incredible discount on The Division 2, but it’s only available for a very short time. Keep in mind any games purchased directly from Ubisoft will be playable through the publisher’s own launcher, Uplay.

The Division 2 released a little less than a year ago, but if you’re a PC gamer who never picked it up, now’s the time to do so. For today only, you can snag The Division 2 standard edition for just 9 bucks as part of a Lunar New Year flash sale. The premium editions are discounted as well, with the Gold Edition selling for just $15 and Ultimate Edition selling for $18. Each of those premium editions includes the Year 1 Pass and bonus content, so you might want to go ahead and upgrade since it’s that cheap. The Year 1 Pass is also on sale for just $10 (down from $40) if you’d rather snag that separately.

The fantastic shooter earned a 9/10 in GameSpot’s The Division 2 review. “The range of enemy types continues to keep combat encounters challenging, the equipment I earn and pick up continues to feel different, valuable, and asks me to consider new ways of play,” wrote Edmond Tran. “The ravaged environments continue to intrigue, and sometimes they’re so stunning I find myself needing to take screenshots before I move on. It might not have much to say, but The Division 2 is a perpetual cycle of tension, relief, and reward that’s difficult to stay away from.”

If you already own The Division 2 or just aren’t interested, more flash deals will be kicking off as Ubisoft’s sale continues. The next flash deal will be revealed on January 23 and available for 24 hours.

In the meantime, there are plenty of other games discounted for the next week. The Lunar New Year sale features big discounts on Rainbow Six Siege ($6), Assassin’s Creed Odyssey ($24), Ghost Recon Breakpoint ($24), and Far Cry 5 ($15). The sale also includes apparel and collectibles for up to 67% off. You can see our picks for the best game deals below, or check out everything on offer directly at Ubisoft. The Lunar New Year deals will be available until January 30.

Best game deals at Ubisoft

• Anno 1800 — $33 ($60)
• Assassin’s Creed IV: Black Flag — $6.80 ($20)
• Assassin’s Creed Odyssey — $24 ($60)
• Assassin’s Creed Origins — $15 ($60)
• Child of Light — $5.10 ($15)
• The Crew 2 — $15 ($60)
• The Division 2 — $9 ($60) | FLASH DEAL
• The Division 2 Year 1 Pass — $10 ($40) | FLASH DEAL
• Far Cry 5 — $15 ($60)
• Far Cry New Dawn — $16 ($40)
• Ghost Recon Breakpoint — $24 ($60)
• Rainbow Six Siege — $8 ($20)
• South Park: The Stick of Truth — $7.50 ($30)
• Splinter Cell — $3.40 ($10)
• Steep — $7.50 ($30)
• Watch Dogs — $7.50 ($30)
• Watch Dogs 2 — $12.50 ($50)

Disney+ continues to deliver new original content on a weekly basis, from new episodes of The Mandalorian and The Clone Wars to short films featuring characters from the world of Toy Story. And the streaming service has revealed an upcoming short about what happened to Bo Peep prior to the events of Toy Story 4.

Titled Lamp Life, the original short will come to Disney+ on January 31, as Peep tells Woody the tale of how she ended up in the small town with the infamous antique store. Check out the trailer for the short below.

This isn’t the first Toy Story short film on Disney+. The streaming service’s original series Forky Asks A Question features the titular character, voiced by Tony Hale, asking other characters from the Toy Story universe questions about life, food, and emotions. Of course, all of these episodes get sidetracked when Forky can’t comprehend the answers he’s been given.

Additionally, there are other Toy Story shorts on the service as well, called Toy Story Toons. These were shown during theatrical releases of Disney movies, then later aired on the Disney channel.

For more on Disney+, check out everything coming to the service this January.

On Reddit, Valve held an AMA for Half-Life: Alyx, the upcoming VR pre-sequel for the Half-Life series. During the AMA, Valve revealed that Alyx is technically already finished with the team adding some last bits of polish ahead of the game’s March 2020 release.

“With the exception of some tweaks to the absolute final scene, the game is done,” Valve wrote. “Lots of us at Valve, as well as playtesters, have played through the entire game multiple times. Right now we’re primarily polishing and fixing bugs, which is where we’d hope to be at this point in the development cycle. We’re confident we’ll hit our intended release.”

Valve added that currently there are around 80 people working on Alyx, making it the largest team that the company has ever had working on a single game.

Valve also addressed several questions about the gameplay in Alyx. “Some creatures respond to audio more than others,” the company wrote. “We don’t want to spoil anything, but there’s an example of this we’re particularly excited about.” Valve added that a limb dismemberment feature would heavily factor into one specific combat scenario as well.

Co-writer Erik Wolpaw also talked about whether Alyx (the character) would speak in Alyx (the game) or continue the Half-Life series trend of being a silent hero. “I personally prefer writing games where the viewpoint character speaks,” Wolpaw wrote. “We made the silence of the protagonist into a joke in the Portals, but you only get to pull that gag once. I had a lot [of] fun writing for the [Left 4 Dead games] where the characters were all little chatterboxes, so if I had my way we wouldn’t do any more silent protagonists. That said…I don’t get my way as often as I deserve so who knows what’s going to happen.”

Ahead of Half-Life: Alyx’s release, every previous Half-Life game is free on Steam. Additionally, you will get Half-Life: Alyx for free if you own a Valve Index VR headset prior to March 30–whether you already have it or choose to buy one before the end of March.