Month: February 2020

Along with their announcement that they’re releasing a new Call of Duty this new Call of Duty this year, Activision has revealed the roadmap for Season 2 of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare’s multiplayer, and it includes an old favorite: Rust. Known as one of the smallest maps in the entire Call of Duty franchise, Rust has divided fans since it first debuted back in 2009’s Modern Warfare 2.

Like the infamous Shipment from Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, the compact size of the map means that you’re likely to spawn in the crosshairs of one of your opponents, making for very quick matches. The map is also known for encouraging tactics that some players dislike, like camping and grenade spamming. Still, if you like quick and dirty close-quarters-combat, Rust is the map for you.

Rust will be available at the launch of Season 2 on February 11, and it’s free to those who already own Modern Warfare. It also includes new maps and a Battle Pass. Not everything will be available on day one, but there is plenty of content hitting on Tuesday.

When Sony purchased Spider-Man developer Insomniac Games, it seemed like a natural fit for a studio that had long worked closely with PlayStation on exclusives. Recent financial disclosures show just how much Sony paid for the developer.

Niko Partners analyst Daniel Ahmad noted on Twitter that according to recent SEC filings, Sony paid roughly $229 million, mostly in cash, when the deal closed in November. The sale was first announced in August.

Spider-Man was a huge success for both Insomniac and Sony, breaking first-party sales records that had been set by God of War. The relationship seemed mutual, as Sony games chairman Shawn Layden said the studio was a perfect fit, and Insomniac called it a “homecoming.”

Insomniac had worked mostly on PlayStation exclusives since its founding in 1994, and was known for mascot-driven platformers like Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet & Clank. Though it worked on a handful of iOS and multiplatform games, and the Xbox One exclusive Sunset Overdrive, Spider-Man was a return to PlayStation exclusivity, as Sony owns the game rights to the character.

The iconic character design with a white spider logo has become referenced in other fiction as part of the multi-verse, and even immortalized with collectibles. Sony has also regularly used the game to illustrate the faster load times on the upcoming PS5. For more details, read our feature on how Marvel’s Spider-Man came together.

There’s a buy two, get one free sale at Target this week, which means there’s also a buy two, get one free sale at Amazon. Amazon always matches Target’s sales nowadays, and this particular B2G1 free promotion is a mix-and-match sale across games, movies, board games, and books.

Starting with games, Amazon’s sale includes a nice selection of some of the most popular games of 2019, including Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice ($45), Death Stranding ($49.30), and Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order ($50). Interestingly, Death Stranding’s $200 collector’s edition is featured in the sale, but you’d have to find some expensive products to pair it with to make the deal worthwhile.

Amazon’s selection of games is far more limited than Target’s, but this fact is slightly deceiving. Some of the games in Target’s sale, such as Borderlands 3 and NBA 2K20, aren’t featured in Amazon’s sale. But Target has those games and others listed for their full $60 price, while Amazon has them for 50% off or more. Essentially, before you shop Target’s sale, make sure you can’t find what you want for less at Amazon.

The movie deals are even better. The recently-released Doctor Sleep, one of my favorite movies of 2019, and Oscar winner Joker are up for grabs on Blu-ray–Joker is even discounted to $15, too. The biggest movie of last year, Avengers: Endgame, is also featured in the promotion. Anime fans can grab Studio Ghibli films like Spirited Away and Princess Mononoke as well as The Legend of Korra: Complete Series. If you liked Parasite, you should check out Snowpiercer, one of director Bong Joon-ho’s earlier movies, which is also discounted to the incredibly low price of $6.46.

A bunch of great graphic novels and art books are included as well. Alan Moore’s seminal graphic novel Watchmen is joined by other classics like The Dark Knight Returns Slipcase Set and The Complete Maus. Three of the wonderful Zelda art books–Hyrule Historia, The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia, and Breath of the Wild: Creating a Champion–are available, too.

Additionally, a handful of great board and card games like Cards Against Humanity, Ticket to Ride, and Disney’s wonderful 2018 game Villainous are featured.

As it’s a mix-and-match sale, you can pick three items across any category and get the cheapest item free. You can browse the full B2G1 free sale at Amazon and check out our favorite deals below. Amazon doesn’t list an end date for the sale, but expect it to run until Target’s sale ends on February 15. Keep in mind the following prices may differ from what’s indicated below due to how often pricing fluctuates at Amazon.

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Video games

• Blood & Truth VR — $28.82 ($40) | PSVR
• Death Stranding — $49.30 ($60) | PS4
• Death Stranding Collector’s Edition — $187.22 ($200) | PS4
• Dragon Quest Builders 2 — $26 ($40) | PS4, Xbox One
• Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice — $23.97 ($30) | Xbox One
• Indivisible — $29 ($40) | PS4
• MediEvil — $26.90 ($30) | PS4
• Metro Exodus — $24.85 ($40) | Xbox One
• Ni no Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch Remastered — $39.77 ($50) | PS4
• Rage 2 — $50 ($60) | PS4, Xbox One
• Sea of Thieves — $39 ($50) | Xbox One
• Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice — $45 ($60) | PS4
• Slay the Spire — $26.49 ($30) | Switch
• Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order — $50 ($60) | PS4, Xbox One

Blu-rays and DVDs

• Avatar: The Last Airbender: The Complete Series (DVD) — $25
• Avengers: Endgame — $19.89
• Avengers: Infinity War — $20
• Batman Beyond: The Complete Series — $54.36 ($70)
• The Dark Knight Trilogy — $17 ($30)
• Doctor Sleep — $19.96
• Dragon Ball Super: Broly: The Movie — $18 ($35)
• The Fate of the Furious — $10
• Glass — $10 ($20)
• Harry Potter: The Complete 8-Film Collection — $50 ($100)
• Joker — $15 ($25)
• Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom — $10
• The Legend of Korra: The Complete Series — $33
• Mad Max: Fury Road — $5 ($10)
• Mission Impossible – 6 Movie Collection — $35 ($60)
• The Office: The Complete Series (DVD) — $50 ($80)
• The Peanut Butter Falcon — $16.61 ($25)
• Princess Mononoke — $15
• Rogue One: A Star Wars Story — $22.90 ($35)
• Snowpiercer — $6.46 ($18)
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse — $15
• Spirited Away — $15

Graphic novels and art books

• Batman: Damned — $19.49 ($30)
• The Batman Who Laughs — $22.73 ($30)
• The Complete Calvin and Hobbes — $69 ($125)
• The Complete Maus — $18.89 ($35)
• The Dark Knight Returns Slipcase Set — $35.50 ($50)
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild: Creating a Champion — $26.97
• The Legend of Zelda Encyclopedia — $21.52 ($40)
• The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia — $21.10 ($40)
• Marvel Encyclopedia — $22 ($40)
• Persepolis: The Story of a Childhood — $7.49 ($16)
• Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – The Art of the Movie — $25.32 ($40)
• The Walking Dead Compendium Volume 4 — $39.10 ($60)
• Watchmen — $15 ($25)
• The World of the Witcher — $29 ($40)

Board and card games

• Cards Against Humanity — $25
• Codenames — $17.86 ($20)
• Disney Villainous — $35 ($40)
• Monopoly: Star Wars Complete Saga Edition — $22 ($30)
• One Night Ultimate Werewolf — $25
• Terraforming Mars — $43 ($70)
• Ticket to Ride — $45 ($50)

Netflix has renewed Sex Education for a third season.

The British comedy drama, starring Gillian Anderson, Asa Butterfield, Emma Mackey, and Ncuti Gatwa, deals with the intertwined lives of several high school students. The first season saw Butterfield’s character, Otis, sneakily set up a sex clinic at school, providing advice he learns via his mother (Anderson) who works as a sex therapist. Season 2 evolved the show into a more character-led story, largely abandoning the ‘case of the week’ style. Season 3 looks likely to continue that trend.

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Netflix’s short renewal announcement states that the season goes into production this year. No release date has been set, but both season 1 and 2 aired in January in 2019 and 2020 respectively.

Our review of Sex Education Season 2 said the show “stands tall with bright characters, fun performances, and an unequaled candidness about sex.” Naturally, we’re more than happy to see a third season.

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Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter. 

WWE has confirmed that WrestleMania 37 will be hosted at the SoFi Stadium, Los Angeles in March 2021.

In an official announcement on Monday, the WWE network revealed that the major sports-entertainment event would be heading to Inglewood, California on Sunday, March 28, 2021.

Lights.
Camera.
ACTION! #WrestleMania 37 is going Hollywood! See you next year, @SoFiStadium. https://t.co/65Lt2PZoiu

— WWE WrestleMania (@WrestleMania) February 10, 2020

“On behalf of everyone at WWE, we are excited to bring WrestleMania back to Los Angeles,” said Vince McMahon, WWE Chairman & CEO. “WrestleMania will set the bar for future sports and entertainment events held at SoFi Stadium as we add this facility to the list of iconic venues that have hosted our pop-culture extravaganza.”

In addition to WrestleMania 37, the weeklong celebration will include Friday Night SmackDown, NXT TakeOver and Monday Night Raw at Staples Center, WrestleMania Axxess, as well as the annual WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony.

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Scheduled to open in July 2020, the state-of-the-art SoFi Stadium will also host the Los Angeles Rams and Los Angeles Chargers for the 2020 NFL season, the Super Bowl LVI in February 2022 and the College Football Playoff National Championship in January 2023.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

A grieving mother was recently given the chance be reunited with a recreation of her deceased daughter in virtual reality. Jang Ji-sung’s daughter Nayeon died in 2016 from an incurable disease at the age of seven.

The video (uploaded by MBC Documentary) of Ji-sun interacting with her deceased daughter was aired as part of a South Korean documentary on February 6. The team behind the documentary spent eight months creating the VR recreation of Nayeon, reports PC Gamer.

With a headset and pair of haptic gloves, Ji-sung was able to virtually play with a rendering of her daughter, and could even hear an approximation of her actual voice.

In the documentary clip linked above, viewer’s were able to witness the emotional moment when Ji-sung was reunited with her virtually rendered daughter. The clip is around ten-minutes long, with the majority of it showing Ji-sung having a picnic in the park with Nayeon.

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An emotional family watched on as the grieving mother spoke and played with Nayeon’s VR recreation. Due to the nature of the topic, the video is difficult to watch — so please take that into consideration before viewing.

Interacting with deceased loved ones is something that has yet to be fully explored yet by VR technology. Despite some concerns that it could negatively affect the grieving process, there are a handful of companies that are currently exploring VR capabilities in this area.

VR technology has come a long way over the past few years, with developers being able to use it to offer experience’s that other forms of media cannot. However, VR is still struggling to take off, indicated by Sony’s recent closure of its first-party VR studio, which never released a game.

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Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.