Month: January 2021

Capcom has announced a virtual showcase where the studio will provide a new look at 2021’s Resident Evil Village. The event promises a “guided tour” of the game, including a first look at Village’s gameplay.

Viewers can also expect a new trailer and “lots more” news about the Resident Evil franchise, not just this new game. The event is scheduled for 2 PM PT / 5 PM ET / 10 PM GMT on January 21. It will be hosted by Brittney Brombacher of the What’s Good Games podcast series.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Intel is going through a senior executive shakeup, with former CTO, Pat Gelsinger, returning to the company to take up the position of CEO.

A skilled engineer at heart, Gelsinger spent many years at Intel before rising through the ranks to the position of CTO. He left the company in 2009 and since gone on to serve as CEO for VMWare. His return to Intel comes at a crucial time for the company, as it continues to struggle with the pressure that AMD is mounting on it.

“My experience at Intel has shaped my entire career, and I am forever grateful to this company,” Gelsinger says in a statement. “To come back ‘home’ to Intel in the role of CEO during what is such a critical time for innovation, as we see the digitization of everything accelerating, will be the greatest honor of my career.”

Continue Reading at GameSpot

With the launch of Hitman 3, Google’s Stadia platform is finally getting one of its most interesting features: State Share. As proposed in 2019’s pitch for the service, this allows Stadia players to share their game states with others, letting them to hop into the game and take on a Hitman mission with the same loadout, objectives, and difficulty setting.

Game states created with State Share are playable chunks of Stadia games that you can share just like you might a video or screenshot. It’s essentially like handing your save file over to someone else, but instantly. If the other player has access to that Stadia game, they can essentially click a link and jump into the game at the point the share came from, complete with all the same parameters. In Hitman, that means players can share their particular missions, with their difficulty setting, starting location, disguise, objectives, equipment loadout, and smuggled gear. State Share places players at the beginning of the mission you just ran with the same setup you used.

Sharing a game state from the end of a mission includes your rank on the Hitman leaderboard, so anyone playing with State Share can see how they rank against you. It also includes the new Celebration Tag in Hitman 3 that gives you a rank based on how well you fared. The tags include Amateur, Professional, Silent Assassin, and Professional ICA Shadow Assassin, providing another way to compare yourself to anyone you share your game state with.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Ray Fisher, who played Cyborg in the 2017 DC movie Justice League, has levelled a variety of accusations over his experiences while shooting that film, and the fall-out continues. Following last week’s reports that Fisher had been written out of the upcoming Flash movie, Fisher has confirmed this is the case.

In a statement posted on Twitter, Fisher stated his role in the Flash would have been much more than the reported cameo appearance. “Despite the misconception, Cyborg’s involvement in The Flash was much larger than a cameo,” he said. “And while I do mourn the lost opportunity to bring Victor Stone back to the screen, bringing awareness to the actions of [DC Films boss] Walter Hamada will prove to be a much more important contribution to our world.”

Fisher went on to accuse Hamada of interfering with the investigation into the alleged abusive behavior of Joss Whedon, who directed the extensive Justice League reshoots, and producers Jon Berg and Geoff Johns. Fisher states that Hamada “disparaged Whedon and Berg in an attempt to cover for Johns,” claiming that Hamada was attempting to protect “his friend.”

Continue Reading at GameSpot

A new update for Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 introduces a new slate of playable characters, including Sega mascot Sonic the Hedgehog. It also includes a new Boss Raid mode, which lets you team up with four other players in co-op. A limited-time demo is now available to play on Nintendo Switch.

Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 mashes up the two famous puzzle series, and the new update marks the first of a series of planned post-launch content drops coming to the game. The four new playable characters are Sonic, Lidelle, Ms. Accord, and The Ocean Prince., along with a series of new music tracks including the Sonic the Hedgehog theme.

The Boss Raid mode lets you team up online against a CPU-controlled boss. You can also use couch co-op with the Nintendo Switch local wireless multiplayer. Sega says you’ll need to choose a roster of heroes with complimentary skills, popping Puyos and clearing Tetriminos to deal damage to the boss. Higher difficulties will let you take on more bosses in a row, and the bosses pack unique skills that you’ll need to plan around. Defeating them will earn you Item Cards and experience points, with better rewards coming for higher difficulties.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Bethesda had planned a big event for The Elder Scrolls Online for January 21 where it would announce more details on the new Gates of Oblivion expansion. However, the developer has now delayed the event to the following week to get out of the way of President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration.

In a follow-up tweet, the developer said it’s delaying the announcement event due to the recent US Capitol riots and out of an abundance of caution for what could happen on inauguration day. Joe Biden will be inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States on January 20 during a ceremony in Washington D.C.

“Given recent events, we are opting to play it safe. We have players all over the world, but the majority of our employees live and work near the capital,” the developer said.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

In times of stress, video games have proven to be a healthy distraction. One game that may be especially cathartic is developer Hyper Three Studio’s Tiny Lands, which has a simple setup. Presented with a series of 3D environments, players will need to find five differences in each digital diorama. The low-poly isometric puzzle game also features a soothing soundtrack from composer BigRicePiano, and there’s no time limit to worry about as you explore each of the diverse environments on offer.

Tiny Lands even features various elements such as fire, rain, thunder, snow, and wind in each diorama, and you’ll be able to rotate the levels and zoom in on them to find the small differences between each model. You can see the relaxing game in its official trailer below:

Tiny Lands will be out on Steam on January 22, with a 10% discount on its regular price of $7. A Nintendo Switch version will also be released at a later date.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Samsung announced three new smartphones: the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21+, and Galaxy S21 Ultra.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is the company’s newest flagship Android phone, with a 6.8-inch display featuring a Quad HD+ resolution (3,200 x 1,440) and a refresh rate of 120Hz. While in years past you had to choose between either resolution or refresh rate, you can finally have both across the entire Galaxy S21 line.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=samsung-galaxy-s21-ultra&captions=true”]

That said, this XL-sized handset automatically adjusts its frame rate between 10Hz and 120Hz depending on the type of content you’re viewing. The Galaxy S21 Ultra for example will display at 120Hz for gaming, 60Hz for video, and dip as low as 10Hz while viewing static content like books.

The Galaxy S21 Ultra also features a much brighter screen, with a peak brightness of 1,500-nits while also delivering 50% better contrast and a new Eye Comfort Shield feature to reduce eye fatigue.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 line is finally able to push high-resolution and refresh rate at the same time thanks to the new Snapdragon 888 processor. This particular handset is fitted with a 5,000mAh battery, as well as at least 12GB RAM and 128GB storage. Users can bump up the specs to 16GB of RAM, plus 256GB or 512GB of internal storage.

Around the back, Samsung has completely redesigned the Galaxy S21 line with a slimmer camera bump that more seamlessly blends in with the phone’s metal frame.

The number of cameras has increased up to four now, one more than last year. The main camera features a 108MP pro sensor with phase-detect autofocus. It captures extremely high-resolution images with 12bit HDR photos that offer 64 times more rich color data.

What’s more, you also get dual (yes, that’s right) 10MP telephoto cameras. Both of the telephoto cameras feature dual-pixel autofocus and are optically image-stabilized, but one offers a zoom of 3x while the other is 10x. Combined they power the Galaxy S21 Ultra’s 100x Space Zoom feature.

Lastly, there’s a 12MP ultrawide camera with a 120-degree field of view and dual-pixel autofocus as well. All four cameras are capable of capturing 4K 60fps footage, and users can even switch between all the different lenses while recording. The new 8K Snap also allows users to quickly shoot 8K stills and video with their phones.

S-Pen fans will be glad to know it’s finally coming to the Galaxy S21 Ultra, though there’s no internal space to hold the stylus. Instead, you’ll have to buy a special case with a stylus caddy that bumps out the left side of the phone by about a centimeter.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra is available for preorder now for $1,199 and releases on January 29th. Those that preorder between now and January 28th will also get a $200 Samsung Credit and a free Galaxy SmartTag – Samsung’s Bluetooth locator accessory.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=samsung-galaxy-s21&captions=true”]

Samsung Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21+

Moving onto Samsung’s more affordable smartphones, the Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21+ offer up a slightly smaller screen experience with 6.2 and 6.7 inch devices, respectively.

Both phones also only feature a Full HD+ resolution (2,400 x 1,080), but you still get a 120Hz experience and the screens are HDR10+ certified too.

As for internal hardware, the two handsets are still powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 888 chipset with 8GB of RAM, plus either 128GB or 256GB of storage. The Galaxy S21 features a 4,000mAh battery while the Galaxy S21+ has slightly more capacity at 4,800mAh.

[widget path=”global/article/imagegallery” parameters=”albumSlug=samsung-galaxy-s21-plus&captions=true”]

The Galaxy S21 and Galaxy S21+ also have one fewer camera than their Ultra brethren and the arrangement is different too. They both have 12MP wide-angle and ultrawide cameras. The 64MP telephoto camera, meanwhile, features phase-detect AF and a 3x OIS optic for 30x Space Zoom.

Pricing for the Galaxy S21 starts at $799 and the Galaxy S21+ starts at $999, both phones are available for preorder now and will arrive on January 29th. Preorders made between now and January 28th come with a $100 Samsung Credit for the Galaxy S21 or a $150 Samsung Credit for the Galaxy S21+, as well as a Galaxy SmartTag.

[poilib element=”accentDivider”]

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com

Kevin Lee is IGN’s Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam