Month: September 2020

Capcom showed off an extended gameplay demo for Monster Hunter Rise at Tokyo Game Show, expanding on the Switch game’s new abilities, combat, dog companions and more.

Gameplay showed a Dual Blade-using player taking on a two-star quest to slay a Tetranadon, the platypus-like new beast introduced in the game’s announcement. After fighting it for some time, we also saw an Arzuros enter the fray, showing how the game’s open areas allow for unexpected extra monsters to interrupt your quest, and perhaps even cause fights between monsters.

We also saw a non-boss creature based on Japanese tanuki, described as something like a mascot character. Like Monster Hunter World, the open areas also include endemic insect life, which can offer health boosts and buffs along the way to your prey.

We got a good look at the game’s new free-form movement, using a combination of jumps and the new Wirebug ability to climb buildings and even mountains. The Wirebug can be used twice in succession before needing a cooldown, although wild Wirebugs can be collected to extend the number of uses you have in the current quest. The new potential for exploration means Capcom has hidden gathering points and other areas of interest among the maps.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=%5Bwidget%20path%3D%22global%2Farticle%2Fimagegallery%22%20parameters%3D%22albumSlug%3Dmonster-hunter-rise-screenshots%26captions%3Dtrue%22%5D&captions=true”]

In combat, the Wirebug can be used as a means of adding mobility, but it can also be used specifically as a counter-attack ability. It’s designed as a way to simultaneously offer new attacks and evasion opportunities.

We also saw the player riding the new Palamute companion – you can either jump onto its back, or hold the A button to climb on. They can also be asked to sit or shake hands. Like the player character, Palamutes can jump and climb, increasing your potential for exploration. They come with a health bar, but can never die in combat, similarly to the previous games’ Palicoes. While riding a Palamute, players can use items without stopping or having to use stamina.

Producer Ryozo Tsujimoto explained that these new features are additions to the existing Monster Hunter formula, rather than a new structure for the game – and made clear that experienced players will be able to approach combat exactly as they’d expect to in previous games and still be able to succeed. The additions are designed to accentuate classic Monster Hunter play, not replace it.

Monster Hunter Rise will be released for Nintendo Switch on March 26, 2021.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Joe Skrebels is IGN’s Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

During TGS 2020, Koei Tecmo showed off the first gameplay of Link and Impa in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity along with the first look of the baby Guardian seen in promotional art.

Following Rayman creator Michel Ancel’s abrupt resignation from Ubisoft earlier this month, the company has confirmed that he is under investigation regarding allegations of a toxic and hostile work environment.

“[Ubisoft CEO] Yves Guillemot committed back in July that any allegation will be investigated and no one will be outside of that process — and this would include Michel Ancel,” Ubisoft told GameSpot. “And as Michel confirmed to the journalist at Liberation, he is under investigation. The investigation is still ongoing and we have nothing further to share as we respect the confidentiality of this investigation.”

Ancel was informed of the investigation in August and has not been in contact with Guillemot since then.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Newegg has the cheapest price we’ve seen so far for an RTX 3090 prebuilt gaming desktop PC. The RTX 3090 alone costs $1500 and it was sold out seconds after it became available. Dell is offering RTX 3080 and RTX 3090 configs as well. The RTX 3080 video card is the one to get for high-powered gamers and the RTX 3090 hits the sweet spot for creative professionals. In other deal news, you can save nearly 50% off Alienware’s flagship Area-51m desktop replacement laptop, the Nintendo Switch Animal Crossing Edition is back in stock, and the new Apple iPad that came out just last week is already discounted.

Deals for September 25

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=daily-deals-september-25-2020″]

More Video Game Deals

[poilib element=”commerceDeal” parameters=”slug=daily-deals-games-roundup”]

______________________________
Eric Song is IGN’s deal curator and spends roughly 1/4 of his income on stuff he posts. Check out his latest Daily Deals Article and subscribe to his IGN Deals Newsletter.

During a Cyberpunk 2077 livestream at Tokyo Game Show 2020, Hiroshi Sakakibara, Environment City Coordinator at CD Projekt Red, shed some light on the design behind the game’s principal location, Night City.

Sakakibara is responsible for the visual appearance of Night City as part of the Environment Art team at CDPR, which he said is a somewhat large team of dozens of people that builds the game equivalent of what would be sets and props in a movie. The team is subdivided into three smaller groups – the quest location team which is in charge of creating locations for quests together with the game designers, a team that creates smaller scale items, like furniture and garbage cans, that dot the environments, and the city team led by Sakakibara, which brings Night City to life by designing the streets, buildings and more that you will see in this vibrant city.

When asked for his favorite spot in Night City, Sakakibara said that while just picking one location is difficult, his favorite area would have to be Japantown, an area that can be reached by crossing the canal from Retro China, the area in which protagonist V resides. “Japantown is a vibrant downtown area with many towering buildings, and while walking through the narrow alleys in the area these skyscrapers make it feel like you are walking through a futuristic valley,” he said.

[ignvideo url=”https://www.ign.com/videos/cyberpunk-2077-night-city-wire-episode-3″]

According to Sakakibara, entering one of the skyscrapers in the area and then randomly getting off the elevator halfway, and walking the stairs from there is a truly dynamic experience. “You will see details like terrace seating, kiosks and other shops, people hanging out their clothes, somebody sitting at a balcony, a drone carrying goods and more.” Sakakibara said that looking down at the streets or up at the little bit of sky you can see between the skyscrapers is an enthralling experience which will make players realize that they have truly come to a cyberpunk mega city.

But what is it that makes cyberpunk such a unique genre? Sakakibara said that Cyberpunk 2077’s director Adam Badowski repeatedly reminded the team that “an environment filled with things that look futuristic is not cyberpunk, but simply science fiction”. What makes the cyberpunk style special is how it combines retro and futuristic aspects.

“For example, you could have a run down building with an old wooden door, but an LED light might be attached to that door, which could be a part of a high-tech security system,” he said. “Or maybe an old-fashioned diner could have a modern device that allows its customers to make orders.” According to Sakakibara, the team has mixed futuristic elements together with more familiar aspects in order to create an atmosphere that could only be described as cyberpunk.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=cyberpunk-2077-25-new-night-city-images&captions=true”]

As for inspiration sources, Sakakibara mentioned that since Night City is located in California, the team looked at cities in California, especially their suburbs. Blade Runner, which Sakakibara called “the bible of all cyberpunk”, has been another obvious source of inspiration, while he mentioned the team has also learned from Japanese anime and manga in the genre, such as Akira and the Ghost in the Shell series. Regarding Night City’s buildings, Brutalist architecture, an architectural style that uses bricks and concrete which emerged in the 1950s, has played an important role in creating Night City as well. The rough and violent style of Brutalist architecture was something that the team saw as a good match with Night City’s suppressed nature, since the city is ruled by a mega corporation.

Sakakibara said that “all the artists have put their everything into each single street and building you can see in Night City, so I hope you will enjoy exploring everything the city has to offer”.

We don’t have much longer to wait – Cyberpunk 2077 releases on November 19 2019 for consoles and PC.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Esra Krabbe is an editor at IGN Japan. Follow him on Twitter here.

Here are all the comics references and other hidden Easter eggs that we were able to find in “The Bloody Doors Off”.

It’s time to see how Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s larger 12 v 12 game mode Combined Arms stacks up against Modern Warfare’s 32 v 32 Ground War.