Warning! We’re going to be talking about some late-game developments in The Last of Us Part 2, as well as an element that’s only revealed once you’ve finished the game. Read on at your own risk!
When you finally finish the game and the meaning of the boat becomes clear, something changes. Save a completed game file so you can start a New Game Plus playthrough or use the chapter selection menu, and you’ll find a new image adorning the main menu screen. This one doesn’t show the boat shrouded in fog; instead, it shows the same boat on a brighter beach, with sunlight breaking through stormclouds dissipating in the distance.
IGN Prime has partnered with Nimble Giant Entertainment to bring you early access to Quantum League.
Quantum League is a revolutionary time-paradox shooter, a competitive online FPS. In Quantum League, you battle within a time loop and tactically team up with your past and future selves in mind-blowing 1v1 and 2v2 matches.
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It’s an alternate universe where time travel has changed the face of professional sports as we know it. Quantum League, a heavily weaponized, team-based shooting sport, dominates the globe. As a Quantum athlete, compete in specially designed arenas where agility, speed, and skill are not enough to rise to the top; the ability to tactically play with your past and future selves is also a must.
Click here to redeem your early access key to Quantum League on PC. Keys are available on a first-come-first-serve basis.
Every month, IGN provides members an opportunity to grab great games and goodies picked by the Prime team.
In a recently published interview with Discussing Film, Chad Stahelski–director of the John Wick films–added his voice to those who demand the Academy Awards add a category for stunt work.
“If wardrobe, hair, and makeup, certainly all the creative departments here are considered for Oscars, then yes, it makes perfect sense that the stunt department would be considered for an Oscar,” Stahelski said in the interview, which also touched on productivity during the shut down and whether he wants to work on more superhero films.
Like previous DLC characters, Min Min will come with her own unique stage, Spring Stadium, as well as 18 music tracks taken from Arms, Nintendo’s 2017 stretchy-arm fighting game. Fittingly, Min Min excels at long-range battling, using her retractable arms to attack opponents from a distance, and she can swap between three different Arms on the fly with her down special.
The Last of Us Part 2 takes a lot of design cues and lessons from developer Naughty Dog’s recent games, including its direct predecessor and the Uncharted series. The final result is a linearly focused adventure, but one that often opens up into the studio’s biggest environments and levels. And at one point, it could have been an even greater departure from past games.
Speaking to IGN ahead of The Last of Us Part 2’s release, director Neil Druckmann discussed how early ideas of the game had taken on an open-world design.
Warning: Major spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2 follow. Turn back if you haven’t finished!
“The game initially was this open world thing. And you spent all this time in Jackson,” Druckmann, who also spoke to us about The Last of Us Part 2’s ambitious story, explained.
Jackson, Wyoming is the first major location for the sequel, which spends most of its time in the Pacific Northwest. In Jackson, though, we see where Ellie and Joel have been living in the ensuing years since the end of The Last of Us. There’s a full community here, and in the final release of the sequel, we meet other citizens like Dina, Jesse, Maria, and Seth, while hearing stories about others like Eugene.
The more time players would have spent in Jackson also altered the way Abby, the main second playable protagonist, was introduced.
“Abby joined the community and you were playing as this new character until she betrayed Joel later on,” Druckmann explained. “And it just didn’t work because Joel dying is the inciting incident, and you want to get to the inciting incident as quickly as you can.”
And so Abby’s introduction and quick playable levels comes early on, before Joel’s death sends Ellie on her revenge quest to Seattle.
Druckmann explained how Abby’s role actually shrank from earlier iterations of the sequel’s story, but that ultimately the team settled on a playable portion that felt long enough to convey what was necessary.
“Abby was the concept that made us want to make this game about empathy, interactivity; knowing we could use Joel and Ellie to create that feeling right at the beginning,” he said. “Her role actually kept shrinking and shrinking until we thought this is the right amount for what we need you to feel about Abby.”
Jonathon Dornbush is IGN’s Senior News Editor, Host of Podcast Beyond!, and can’t stop hearing Pearl Jam in his head now. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.
Even with the plethora of phone controllers in the world, gaming on your smartphone can still be a crapshoot. For one thing, most mobile controllers connect over Bluetooth, which introduces a bit of lag. Secondly, all these standalone controllers aren’t particularly portable and often require an extra mount to attach your phone to your gamepad of choice.
Razer has something a little different in mind with its Kishi controller. This little accessory is designed to split apart, wrap itself any Android phone, and connect directly through the USB-C charging port. For $80, it’s the most universally compatible controller we’ve ever used to play mobile games, but the Razer Kishi still has a few kinks to work out.
When you pull the Razer Kishi out of the box it looks just like a pair of Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons attached to a Joy-Con grip. But as we mentioned before, the controller splits apart after you pull at the two tabs on the back of the peripheral.
Once separated, the two halves are connected by an elastic band, which also houses wires to transfer all the inputs from the left-side analog stick and D-pad over to the right-hand portion of the controller that features the face buttons, second analog stick, and the USB-C connector.
On the inside edge of both sides of the controller, you’ll find a pair of rubberized pockets that’ll keep a grip on your phone while tension from the elastic band prevents it from slipping out. There’s also a plastic panel in the center of the elastic band with four nubs that lock the controller together when collapsed. When expanded these nubs serve to gingerly support your phone from the center, but I wish the tips were made of soft rubber to prevent any potential scratches.
One other neat engineering trick is it has a pair of slits to channel the sound from your phone’s bottom-fighting speaker. I wished they would have done something similar for the left side as most front-firing speakers get covered up by the ribbed rubber pocket.
You also get a USB-C charging port pass through, but sadly this controller doesn’t add a headphone jack, so you’ll have to resort to using a pair of Wireless headphones or Bluetooth earbuds.
If you’ve ever used a GameVice controller before, you’ll probably find the Razer Kishi to be very similar. I’m not saying that Razer has ripped off the design – rather it’s because the company teamed up with GameVice to develop the Kishi.
The Razer Kishi can handle even the gargantuan Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra
The Kishi is certified to work with any Razer Phone, Google Pixel 2, Samsung Galaxy 8, Samsung Galaxy Note 8, and any newer phones from either Google or Samsung. Beyond those confirmed devices, I found the Kishi was able to work with a variety of devices including the LG G8X ThinQ, Red Magic 5G, Red Magic 3S, Sony Xperia 1, and OnePlus 8 Pro.
Thanks to that USB-C connection, any phone you plug into this controller will just recognize it. All that’s required of your phone is to have a center-mounted USB-C Port, be smaller than 78.1 x 163.7 x 8.8mm, and run Android 8.0 Oreo or a newer version of the mobile OS. As for iOS devices, Razer plans on releasing an iPhone-compatible version of the Kishi later this summer.
Razer Kishi – Gaming
Once your phone is strapped in between either side of this controller, the whole setup feels surprisingly solid.
The two halves of the Razer Kishi also split along an interesting S-shaped curve and this serves as a natural place for your fingers to grip onto. It’s a good thing you can because the Kishi’s flat, disk-like shape isn’t terribly ergonomic – though it helps with its portability.
Overall the controls here feel mostly fine with the exception of the thumbsticks that could use slightly larger tops. The buttons press consistently and you get a large D-pad that feels just a touch on the mushy side. Meanwhile, the bumpers are great and while you can hear plastic scrape while pulling triggers, there is a nice bit of resistance.
As for gaming, the Razer Kishi is fully compatible with all three major game streaming services currently available including GeForce Now, Microsoft xCloud, and Google Stadia. This is particularly great because having the controller plugged directly into the phone helps remove a few milliseconds of lag I would typically experience with a Bluetooth controller.
When it comes to mobile gaming, the Razer Kishi’s compatibility is surprisingly spotty. Shadowrun Legends, Fortnite, and Asphalt 9: Legends work perfectly with the controller and the experience definitely adds the tactile feel of buttons and triggers I’ve been missing on a touchscreen device.
Oddly, Call of Duty: Mobile and PUBG Mobile, the two other biggest games on smartphones just don’t work with the Kishi. According to Razer, this is because it’s still working on implementing mapping support, wherein you can map your physical buttons to virtual buttons on your screen. Razer hasn’t released a timeline on when the feature will roll out, but I’m hoping it’s soon.
Razer Kishi – Software
The Razer Kishi has a companion app and it’s pretty much just an app launcher. It’s most helpful feature is it can help you discover new games designed to work with the controller. Otherwise, when updates roll out for this peripheral, you’ll be able to download them and install them through the app.
