Month: April 2020

Ubisoft has kicked off a stream that will reveal the setting of the next Assassin’s Creed game. Interestingly, the setting will be revealed via a unique piece of artwork produced by BossLogic, an acclaimed artist known for his awesome Street Fighter pieces and, more recently, his collaborations with Marvel and DC.

BossLogic will be streaming his progress and, by the end of the showcase, we’ll know where the new Assassin’s Creed will take place. Those who watch the official stream on Twitch have a chance to earn a drop for a future Assassin’s Creed skin. However, the event can also be seen on Mixer, YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook.

We’re currently a few hours into the stream and the setting hasn’t been fully revealed, but the artwork shows a few notable points. On one side of a silhouetted figure is an icy sea and some ships, while on the other is a land-based battle scene with a castle in the background. This may be indicating the rumored Viking setting, but we’ll have to wait for the stream to finish to know for sure.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Most games and movies get grenades wrong. Whether it’s tactically cooking a frag in Call of Duty, throwing grenades back in Battlefield, or the huge fireballs we see in blockbusters like Commando, games and movies have totally exaggerated the humble hand grenade.

The setting for the next Assassin’s Creed game – rumoured to be set in the Viking era – will be revealed in a stream today.

Ubisoft has kicked off a stream hosted by digital artist Bosslogic, who’ll create a “unique art piece” that will reveal the setting. We’ll be updating this post as the day goes on, noting anything we learn from the art below.

You can watch the stream on Twitter, Mixer, YouTube and Facebook and Twitch.

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Update 1 – 6am PT: The image is now clearly in two halves, showing a frozen-looking shore on the left, and a more vibrant countryside on the right. That could signify the Vikings’ raiding journeys from Scandinavia to warmer countries in the south.

The first major addition to the image is a large stone castle, which would seem to lend some credence to the idea of an Assassin’s Creed game set in the Middle Ages – although stone castles first emerged in Europe towards the very end of the Viking Age, around 1,000 CE.

Update 2 – 7.50 PT: The left side of the image now features a couple of boats that look very much like Viking longships, while the right side features a battle between two differently armoured sides. A Viking game feels more and more likely.

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The next Assassin’s Creed game is widely rumoured to centre around Vikings, so we could potentially see a Middle Ages setting emerge over the course of the stream – the Viking Age is a time period lasting from 800 CE to 1066 CE. Rumours have suggested that the game is subtitled (or code named) Kingdom or Ragnarok.

The Division 2 may have already teased that setting, given it included Assassin’s Creed’s Apple of Eden artifact placed suspiciously close to the word ‘Valhalla’.

If that does turn out to be the case we’d be in favour of that move, as we think a Viking-based game could bring the franchise full circle.

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Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News, and he wants to go to Jorvik Viking Centre as research. Follow him on Twitter.

A new Fortnite datamine has unearthed a new map and what appears to be a Limited Time Mode in which players simply hang out and don’t fight each other.

Leaked “Papaya” Map!

(via @VastBlastt & @FNBRHQ) pic.twitter.com/DmKxeK0XUj

— ShiinaBR – Fortnite Leaks (@ShiinaBR) April 29, 2020

Prolific Fortnite leaker Twitter account ShiinbaBR has posted several Tweets, one of which includes a look at a new map called Papaya, as well as a series of 9 communication emotes that are reportedly designed for the new map. Those emotes include the likes of nodding and shaking your head, waving, sitting, cheering, and waving a phone – all very much non-combat gestures.

ShiinbaBR also posted descriptions of two new Limited Time Modes. Party Royale allows players to “hang out with friends, play games, perfect your skydive and more” and asks you to leave your “weapons and mats behind”. Operation Payload is an escort mode with push/stop mechanics, where players can switch roles and choose “tech” each round.

The Papaya map image features a variety of location icons that all suggest non-violent activities, such as races, skydiving, soccer, and boating, which may mean these are the things available to do in Party Royale mode. It’s unclear if Operation Payload is a non-violent mode or not, but the description suggests it could favour tech over weapons.

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Fortnite’s update 12.50 goes live today, April 29, and so it should not be long before we see these elements materialise (provided ShiinbaBR remains as accurate as they have been).

For more from Fortnite, check out its latest event which featured a Travis Scott concert attended by 12.3 million players, and when you can expect Fortnite Chapter 2 – Season 3 to begin.

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

The PC demo for Trials of Mana has been pulled from Steam after an exploit was found that let players access the full game from within.

The news was revealed in an announcement post on the Trials of Mana Steam Community page, where the developers didn’t address the specifics of the exploit, citing “unforeseen circumstances” as the reason behind taking the demo down. In the comments below, many users are pointing out that hackers were able to bypass the restrictions of the demo to play the full game. There is no mention of a revised release date for the demo, but the developers made note that they “hope to have it back up again very soon.”

Player progression within the now-pulled demo will be carried over into the new revision, so you can get back to where you left off once Square Enix fixes the exploit. If you own a PS4 or Nintendo Switch, you could play the demo on those platforms instead for the time being.

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It’s important to note that the game is already available on PC, PS4 and Nintendo Switch – it launched on April 24th, last week, and this exploit was caught after the game’s release.

It’s not clear at time of writing how players were using the demo version to play the full game, but many comments make mention of Denuvo anti-tamper, a DRM (digital rights management) solution.

This isn’t the first instance of a demo being taken down due to an exploit leading players to the full game – back in 2018, Sega was forced to spike the demo for Yakuza 6: The Song of Life from the US PlayStation Store after users were exploiting it to access the full game. For more on Trials of Mana, check out our review, which we called “a great remake of a 16-bit classic.”

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Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.