Month: July 2020

Halo Infinite is shaping up to be one of the most ambitious and graphically impressive games in the series. And if you want an insider look at the characters, worlds and technology of the game, Dark Horse Comics has you covered with The Art of Halo Infinite.

IGN can exclusively debut the cover to The Art of Halo Infinite, created by the game’s art director Sparth. Check it out below:

Here’s Dark Horse’s official description for The Art of Halo Infinite:

The legendary super soldier returns in Halo Infinite. 343 Industries and Microsoft are building the biggest and most visually spectacular Halo yet. Halo Infinite debuts on the Xbox family of consoles, including Xbox Series X, Microsoft’s latest and most powerful game console. To take full advantage of its prodigious graphical prowess, 343 Industries built an all-new, next-generation game engine, giving their world-class artists the tools and technology to realize the worlds, war, and wonder of the Halo universe in unprecedented style and fidelity. 343 Industries have given Dark Horse access to the art and artists who’ve brought Halo Infinite to vibrant, vivid life. It’s all here in unparalleled detail, the heroes you’ve grown to love–the Master Chief, the brave soldiers of the UNSC, as well as the weapons, vehicles, villains and vistas–and of course, the eponymous and magnificent environments of Halo itself.

The Art of Halo Infinite is priced at $39.99 and is currently scheduled for release on December 29, 2020. You can pre-order the book on Amazon.

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We recently got a closer look at Halo Infinite at the Xbox Games Showcase. Find out more about the new story and villain details revealed, as why 343 Industries says there won’t be a Halo Infinite 2.

IGN’s Brian Altano and Max Scoville recently unboxed another art book from Dark Horse during Comic-Con@Home. Check out the video below to see what you get with the deluxe edition of The World of Cyberpunk 2077:

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Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on Twitter.

CrossCode recently released on Nintendo Switch, PS4, and Xbox One, and Xbox players were able to pick the game up on Xbox Game Pass. As it turns out, this last option has been by far the most popular one for new players.

Talking to the video podcast Duel Screens, CrossCode designer and programmer Felix Klein explained that the game has surprised them with its performance on Xbox Game Pass. He says that when the PC version was available on Game Pass for Windows 10, not many people played it–but now that it’s on console, that has changed.

“We’re actually pretty surprised at how many people play that way,” Klein says, just past the 43 minute mark in the video below. Asked if he can elaborate, he says that it’s comfortably outpacing the other systems. “Right at this moment, there’s more people playing on Game Pass than Switch and PS4 combined. That’s something I did not see coming.”

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Halo Infinite will have smarter AI enemies that take advantage of the environment around them to attack you in new ways, including by picking up fellow enemies and throwing them at you. Jerry Hook, the head of design at 343 Industries, confirmed that Brutes can pick up Grunts and throw them at you–which is new for the Halo series.

“The biggest thing you get with the Brutes that you don’t generally see is that they pick up Grunts and throw them at the player. Could an Elite do that? No! A Brute could definitely do that,” Hook said during a group interview attended by VideoGamesChronicle.

Later in the interview, Hook said that “the Grunt toss” is just one element of how 343 has programmed the AI to be more strategic in how they will come after you.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

While film industries around the world are trying to get production back up and running, studios are eyeing off New Zealand as a country that has functionally eliminated the virus. Seven international productions, including James Cameron’s Avatar sequels and the Lord of the Rings TV show have been granted clearance to fly cast and crew in for production.

Lord of the Rings fansite TheOneRing.net posted an SDCC weekend update on Amazon’s Lord Of The Rings adaptation, saying the show was scaling up production in NZ, and is now actively filming for the show.

While we’re not sure what the source for this information is, a number of different sources hint at a large production in the works. J.A. Bayona, who has been tapped to direct the first two episodes of the show, posted on Instagram about cinematographer Oscar Faura in early July, saying that the two were currently filming Lord Of The Rings together.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

One of the new pieces of equipment in Halo Infinite is the grappling hook, which players can use for a variety of purposes. It can be used to swing to new locations or to grab items and throw them at enemies. The grappling hook can also be used to perform an attack.

343 Industries head of design, Jerry Hook, recently expanded on the grappling hook in an interview, saying you shouldn’t expect to use it to swing like Spider-Man wherever you want.

“I want to make sure our fans understand this–Master Chief is not Spider-Man. That is not at all what the Grappleshot does,” Hook said.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Gameplay from FIFA 21 appears to have leaked onto Twitter, teasing some new features and an updated UI.

A ‘FIFA 21 Beta’ Twitter account surfaced yesterday, posting a variety of clips and screenshots from the game to the platform. A ‘FIFA EA Play’ watermark appears to move around the screen during the footage, suggesting these clips may have leaked from a preview event linked to EA’s most recent showcase.

pic.twitter.com/DF2LnBguKv

— تسريبات FIFA21 (@FIFA21Betaa) July 25, 2020

The footage shows off an updated, purple-hued UI for this year’s instalment, which is comparable to the colours used in the official FIFA 21 Twitter branding.

pic.twitter.com/pseB3HJvH8

— تسريبات FIFA21 (@FIFA21Betaa) July 25, 2020

It also appears that there have been changes made to the advantage system (as can be seen in the image above), and the account shows a series of what appear to be updated player faces for Liverpool, Manchester City and Real Madrid players. Other tweets show gameplay, which looks expectedly similar to last year’s edition, and lists of celebrations.

The leaks appear to stem from a “FIFA Producer Tour” build of the game, and the title screen notes that this is a pre-release build of the game, rather than a leaked demo. It’s unclear from the footage whether this is a current-gen or next-gen version of the game, although it looks strikingly similar to FIFA 20.

pic.twitter.com/Uyjary3IKY

— تسريبات FIFA21 (@FIFA21Betaa) July 25, 2020

In other FIFA 21 news, we recently got a glimpse into how the game will make anticipated changes to its Career Mode for this year’s instalment.

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