Month: January 2021

Co-developer Treyarch is moving its Call of Duty playlist update notifications for Black Ops Cold War to Thursdays, the studio announced on Twitter. The next one lands on January 7.

The playlist updates for the latest Call of Duty games–particularly Modern Warfare and Warzone–are sent out relatively spontaneously, though they land on various Tuesdays throughout the year. From now on, however, playlist updates will start trickling out on Thursdays. The next update for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War arrives this Thursday and features Raid and Crossroads Strike 24/7, Gunfight Blueprints, and Dirty Bomb Duos.

Treyarch only mentioned Black Ops Cold War. However, it’s likely that this change in when playlist updates are sent out extends to Call of Duty: Warzone as well.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Cyberpunk 2077 is a first person experience… or is it? With Jelle Bakker’s mod you can finally play Cyberpunk 2077 in the third person.

Here’s some major news for those who enjoy salty snacks: Doritos 3D Crunch are now available to preorder on Walmart’s website. You read that right, Doritos has brought back the delightful ’90s snack, and Walmart has put 6oz bags of the things up for preorder. You can secure your very own bag of Doritos 3D Crunch in either Chili Cheese Nacho or Spicy Ranch flavors. Note that these have been extremely popular, so stock might not last long.

Preorder Doritos 3D Crunch

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Walmart says your preordered Doritos will ship on January 26. You’ll also want to keep an eye on the shipping cost before placing your order. Orders over $35 qualify for free shipping, so just stock up 12 bags and you’ll be good to go.

These Doritos actually hit store shelves in late December, so you may be able to find them in stock at brick-and-mortar stores that sell snack foods. But for those who don’t want to venture into stores during a pandemic to check to see if a bag of chips is in stock, ordering them from Walmart is a safer alternative.

PepsiCo says the Doritos 3D Crunch are being released in answer to a wave of online petitions and general social media clamoring. Originally released in 1998, Doritos 3D Crunch made a memorable impression on snack enthusiasts, but the company discontinued them a few years later.

If you have fond memories of crunching on these puffy chips two decades ago, you might find the new release doesn’t quite taste how you remember. While they have the same shape (and, presumably, crunch) this new release comes in two new bold “hot-and-spicy” flavors: Spicy Ranch and Chili Cheese Nacho.

From the official press release: “Doritos 3D Crunch is one of our most anticipated product launches ever. What’s exciting is that we didn’t just bring back the original — we’ve evolved it to reflect the snacking trends of a new generation,” said Rachel Ferdinando, SVP and CMO, Frito-Lay North America. “We’re thrilled to introduce a new version at a time when we all could use a small moment of joy.”

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Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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Director Zack Snyder says he has no plans to make more DC movies after the release of the Snyder Cut of Justice League.

In an interview with Comic Book Debate (via Collider), Snyder commented on the matter of future films, while leaving the door open for the future.

“Look, I never thought I’d be here doing this. I didn’t think I’d be finishing Justice League… The truth is, and it’s been widely reported, and I have no issue, this is an old movie. This is a years-old movie I’m working on. The DC universe has gone and branched off and done its own thing and that’s fine… As far as what I did and as far as what my vision for what I wanted to do with these characters and the journey I wanted them to go on, it’s well known that I planned on more movies — five movies or something — but I’m busy. I’ve got a lot going on. Is it cool that the fans have so much faith in the trajectory? Yes, it’s amazing, and I couldn’t be happier and I’m excited for them to see Justice League so they can really drink the entire elixir of Justice League. But would I continue? I have no plan to. But like I said, I didn’t think I’d be here, so who knows?”

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The long-awaited (and at one time seemingly mythical) Snyder Cut is reportedly due to release in March on HBO Max in four hour-long segments. Snyder says he is including 150 minutes of previously unseen footage, and won’t be using any of director Joss Whedon’s work on the film following Snyder’s original departure.

Snyder certainly isn’t the only one considering his future with DC. Cyborg actor Ray Fisher has said he won’t work with DC Films president Walter Hamada again after Fisher accused Hamada of enabling a toxic work environment under Joss Whedon.

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In the meantime, DC fans have the divisive Wonder Woman 1984 to watch on HBO Max. Thankfully, you can finally tune in on your PS5 and Roku.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/cyborg for IGN.

The recurring Crucible event in Destiny 2, Iron Banner, has returned once again. That makes this another chance for some high-level competition where your Power level matters, but it also makes for an opportunity to continue making progress on Slaying Dragons.

Obtained from Lord Saladin, this season-long quest involves grinding away at various Crucible objectives in Iron Banner matches, so you’re only able to work on it during the weeks where Iron Banner is active. As of the weekly reset on January 5, Iron Banner is available for the second time this season. Read on for a complete look at what to expect from each of the six steps that comprise the Slaying Dragons quest.

Completing each one will earn you an additional piece of Season 12’s Iron Banner armor–updated versions of the Iron Will set capable of using new mods. Certain objectives are also retroactive, allowing you to make progress on subsequent steps even before you reach them.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

The newest Operator for Call of Duty: Warzone and Black Ops Cold War has arrived, and he brings a hammer. The new Operator, Wyatt “Bulldozer” Jomes, is an American Marine who was born in 1955. He’s aligned with the NATO faction and his blood type is O+, in case you were wondering.

You can purchase Bulldozer through an eight-item bundle that also includes various items and extras, the most notable of which is a giant sledgehammer. The “Heavy Handed” legendary blueprint is the combat sledgehammer that features a rubber grip and the words “knock knock” written on sides of the business end of the hammer itself.

As you might have guessed, the hammer is the centerpiece of Bulldozer’s finishing move, which is called “Hammer Uppercut.” You can see it in action through the video below.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

You could make a convincing case that the Nintendo Switch is the best console on the market. It might not have the computing power of the competition, but it makes up for it with the quality of the games and the convenience of its handheld/docked nature. If you’re looking for Switch deals at Best Buy, you’ve come to the right place. Below, we’re tracking all the biggest discounts on Switch games, consoles, accessories, and more.

For a broader view of the Switch deals available, check out our best Switch deals mega-post, which has discounts from all retailers.

Switch Game Deals at Best Buy

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Best Buy is one of the best retailers for finding discounts on Nintendo Switch games. But as with all things Nintendo, it’s important to keep in mind that first-party games only go on sale occasionally. Most of the time, you’ll have to pay $59.99 even for first-party games that are several years old. It’s bizarre, and it’s frustrating to deal-hunters, but it’s just the way it is with Nintendo.

That said, third-party Switch games go on sale often, and Best Buy offers a new batch of deals each week starting on Sunday. So if you’re looking for a discounted Switch game, this is a great place to start.

Switch Console Deals at Best Buy

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Just like Nintendo’s first-party games, Switch hardware rarely goes on sale. Actually, it almost never goes on sale anywhere. The best deal you’re likely to find is during special sale periods like Black Friday and… well, that’s about it.

Each Black Friday, Nintendo has been releasing a special Switch console bundle for the standard price of a Switch. During Black Friday 2020, for instance, Nintendo released a bundle that included a Switch console, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and three months of Nintendo Switch Online, all for $299.99. So while you still had to part with $300, you essentially got a game and online access for free. So if you can wait for Black Friday to buy a Switch, that’s probably the thing to do–though, we should also note those bundles sold out pretty quickly.

With all that in mind, if Best Buy is offering any discounts on Switch hardware, this is where you’ll find it.

Switch Accessory Deals at Best Buy

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What good is a game console without some accessories? Okay, you can totally enjoy a Nintendo Switch right out of the box, but accessories can make your experience better or offer you new ways to play.

When it comes to accessories, we’re talking about things like extra Joy-Cons, the Pro Controller, charging stands, carrying cases, and more. As for Switch accessory deals, you can often find Joy-Cons available for $69, which, believe it or not, is a $10 discount off the MSRP. Similarly, the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller retails for $69, but you can often find it on sale for $59.

Regardless, if Best Buy is running a notable discount on a Switch accessory you might want to buy, you’ll find it here.

Switch Storage Deals at Best Buy

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Here’s an unfortunate fact anyone who enjoys buying digital Switch games is sure to learn before long: the Switch runs out of storage fast. It only comes with 32GB of onboard storage out of the box, and that can fill up fast, especially if you buy bigger third-party titles, some of which are too big to even fit on a Switch that doesn’t have extra storage.

Thankfully, it’s easy to expand your Switch’s storage by popping in a microSD card. Those teeny-tiny cards are also increasingly cheap as time goes on. While the high-capacity microSD cards can cost upward of $100, you can generally find 128GB and 256GB cards for much cheaper. See above for any Switch storage deals at Best Buy.

Switch Subscription Deals at Best Buy

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Nintendo Switch Online is a subscription service that’s required to go online with most Switch games. It’s quite a bit cheaper than the equivalent service on PlayStation and Xbox, but it’s also fairly limited compared to those consoles’ offerings.

That said, in addition to online access, NSO subscriptions let you save your data to the cloud, which comes in handy if something happens to your Switch. It also gets you access to over 70 NES and SNES games, including tons of bonafide classics like Super Mario Bros. 3, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Donkey Kong Country, and a whole lot more. This may appeal more to older gamers, but it also offers enterprising youngsters a chance to find out where their favorite series came from as well.

Best Buy’s Free Shipping Threshold

Best Buy offers free shipping on qualifying purchases of $35 and up. Note that not all items count as “qualifying purchases,” and that the total must be at least $35 after coupons and before taxes. The website mentions some items that don’t qualify toward the total, including “digital downloads, e-gift cards, special orders, scheduled delivery items, and items canceled or removed from the order.”

What Is My Best Buy?

My Best Buy is a membership program that’s free to join and offers a handful of benefits to frequent shoppers. You can sign up here.

What kind of benefits are we talking? You get reward points for every dollar you spend at the big blue retailer “on eligible purchases.” You also get early access to some of the sales, as well as exclusive deals that are only available to My Best Buy members.

If you spend enough money in a given year, you’ll be automatically upgraded to My Best Buy Elite ($1,500) or My Best Buy Elite Plus ($3,500). These tiers offer additional benefits, like more points per dollar spent, access to a special customer service line, and a longer window for returns and exchanges.

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Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert at IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

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Dark Nights: Death Metal #7 is now in stores, capping off a long, sprawling superhero epic that unfolded for much of 2020. But even as this issue caps off the Death Metal saga, it also lays the foundation for everything DC is doing in 2021 and beyond.

If you’re not sure what the finale of Death Metal means for the DCU or how DC continuity has been affected, worry not. We’re here to break down all the big twists in this issue and how Death Metal is lighting the way for Future State and what comes next.

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for Dark Nights: Death Metal #7!

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The DC Multiverse Reborn

The DC multiverse is a complicated and often downright confusing concept. In the old days, there were an infinite number of alternate worlds featuring their own incarnations of our favorite heroes. 1985’s Crisis on Infinite Earths consolidated everything into one Earth, while subsequent stories established a more limited multiverse of 52 worlds. And that’s not even getting into concepts like Hypertime, the Dark Multiverse and the DC Metaverse introduced in Doomsday Clock. What makes Death Metal different from past crossovers like Crisis is that it doesn’t seek to streamline or simplify DC cosmology. Rather, it celebrates this vast, complex history and the idea that “it all matters.”

The final issue of Death Metal chronicles a titanic battle between Wonder Woman and the Batman Who Laughs, both of whom have been amplified with godlike powers and cosmic awareness. The Batman Who Laughs wants to destroy the multiverse and the beings who created it, and he tries to bribe Diana with the promise of a single, idyllic world where she and her friends can live in peace. But ever the selfless heroine, Wonder Woman saves the multiverse and its creators, even at the cost of her own world. Moved by this act of selflessness, one of these higher-dimensional beings communicates with Diana and offers to restore the multiverse as it once was. Not one Earth or 52 Earths, but a limitless number of Earths.

Not only is the DC multiverse back, but it’s officially part of a DC Omniverse. The Omniverse is formed from multiple multiverses. Basically, picture DC’s comic book multiverse existing in a cosmic superstructure alongside another multiverse comprised of DC’s many animated movies and TV series and a third multiverse formed from the various live-action DC universes. Every DC story ever told matters, and they all have a place as part of a larger, never-ending tapestry.

There is one notable change to the structure of DC’s multiverse. Where Earth-0 used to be the center of the multiverse, now there are two opposing poles that form the backbone of the multiverse. Earth-0 is one of those poles, while the other is a mysterious new planet dubbed Elseworld. “Elseworlds” is the branding DC once used for its various alternate universe stories like Gotham by Gaslight and Batman: Red Rain, so that probably gives us some indication of what to expect from this planet.

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The New (Old) DC Timeline

When the dust of Death Metal settles, life on Earth-0 is more or less getting back to normal. Wonder Woman herself is missing (more on that later), but the rest of the Justice League are embracing a newfound sense of hope that comes from saving all of existence. While DC’s heroes and villains seem to remember the events of Death Metal, reality is restored to how it was before Perpetua and the Batman Who Laughs attempted to rewrite existence. Characters who died during the course of Death Metal are restored to life (including Batman, who had become an undead Black Lantern).

Issue #7 even teases other long-dead characters have been restored to life, though it remains to be seen which ones have been given a new lease on life. Alfred Pennyworth seems a likely candidate, as we already saw Batman raise him from the dead with his Black Lantern ring.

More important than any resurrections, though, is the fact that the inhabitants of the DCU now remember everything that ever happened in the DC timeline. The Justice Society of America has been reestablished as the world’s first superhero team. Our heroes remember the world as it existed before the first Crisis, how it changed after the Crisis, how it changed again during the New 52, and so on. As reality sorts itself out, our heroes are even catching glimpses of possible alternate futures and pasts, which is where the Future State crossover comes in. Not only has the DC multiverse been restored; now Hypertime (basically a multiverse of alternate timelines as opposed to a multiverse of alternate universes) is back in play.

Once again, the theme of everything mattering is at the heart of Death Metal. DC no longer seems overly concerned about wrangling its vast comic book history into a coherent, streamlined narrative. Heading into 2021, the publisher is instead celebrating that giant tapestry and encouraging fans to embrace what appeals to them. In that sense, the DC Comics line isn’t so different from WarnerMedia’s live-action DC multiverse.

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What Happened to Wonder Woman and the Batman Who Laughs?

The fate of Wonder Woman is easily one of the most pressing questions coming out of Death Metal. Her whereabouts are unknown by the end of the series, though Superman and his friends seem aware that Diana saved the multiverse and has now embraced a larger destiny. Wherever Diana has gone, she appears to have been tasked by the higher-dimensional creators of the DC Omniverse with protecting this new reality.

It’s not clear when we’ll find out where Diana has gone or what exactly her role is now, but we can definitely say she’s not dead. An older Diana is the main protagonist of Future State: Immortal Wonder Woman, so we know at some point in the future she emerges from hiding. DC will also continue publishing a monthly Wonder Woman comic after Future State, though it’s unclear if that book will take place prior to the events of Death Metal or pivot to focus on another character like Donna Troy or Yara Flor. Meanwhile, Brian Michael Bendis and David Marquez’s Justice League series will feature Queen Hippolyta taking over for her daughter as the League’s resident Amazonian warrior.

What about the Batman Who Laughs? As far as we can tell, this villain was destroyed in his final battle with Wonder Woman – the ultimate triumph of Justice over Doom and Anti-Crisis over Crisis. But between the fact that the Batman Who Laughs had become a fourth-dimensional being and that reality has been more or less reset to its pre-Death Metal state, it’s not much of a stretch to imagine this twisted version of Bruce Wayne cheating death once again. He’s a popular character, and DC may want to keep him in the rotation as a recurring Batman or Justice League antagonist.

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What Is the Totality?

Both Death Metal and the Justice League series that preceded it have dealt heavily with the Totality, a cosmic energy source that contains all knowledge and was used to forge the multiverse itself. The reborn multiverse is no longer surrounded by the Source Wall that used to seal off reality from threats beyond. Now, the Totality itself has formed a shield-like fortress to help guard humanity from the even greater threats to come. As Wall West discovers, that fortress exists at a much higher vibrational frequency, making it invisible to all but a select few heroes and villains.

This tease seems to be setup for a new series featuring Wally joining forces with various other heroes and villains to help defend the multiverse from dire threats. The team lineup is a mix of brilliant scientists like Mister Terrific and Lex Luthor and immortals like Vandal Savage and Hawkgirl who have centuries of experience in confronting the weird and unnatural. As a speedster who briefly wielded the powers of Doctor Manhattan and Metron, Wally is a natural fit for that team.

For more on DC in 2021, find out why Joker is getting his first solo comic in decades and which superstar creative team is taking over Nightwing.

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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.

The latest event in Apex Legends, Fight Night, is now live. The new limited-time event adds a Pathfinder-themed town takeover to Olympus, a brand-new mode, over two dozen legendary and epic cosmetics, and makes several quality of life adjustments to the in-match meta. Of note, there’s a particularly interesting adjustment to how ring closure works.

In order to address the chaotic nature of the last few fights in a match, developer Respawn is tweaking how the ring closes for rounds five and six. Ring 5 is now a bit bigger, expanded from a 1500 unit radius to a 2000 unit radius, though it still closes at the same rate. And Ring 6 is now the final ring of every match, closing over the course of 100 seconds.

This change completely removes Rings 7 and 8, which were traditionally only seen in a handful of matches anyway because most squads were killed off and a winner decided by Rings 5 or 6. But when multiple teams did manage to survive that long, those final rings were always a cluster of character abilities and shotgun/submachine gun fire–any squad with a surviving Caustic and his ultimate ability at the ready was practically guaranteed to take the win.

Continue Reading at GameSpot

Star Wars is opening a new era for storytelling with the arrival of the “High Republic” series, a trans-media setting that will span new books, graphic novels, and a Disney+ series. Here’s everything you need to know about this new Star Wars setting.

What is the “High Republic” era?

The High Republic era is a golden age in the Star Wars universe, described as a time of peace and prosperity set roughly 200 years before Star Wars: The Phantom Menace. It’s said to be an “era of ambition, of culture, of inclusion, of Great Works.”

While many familiar Star Wars tropes are present in the High Republic era, they’re slightly different than you may recognize. As opposed to the prequel era, when the Republic had grown corrupt and paralyzed by bureaucracy, the High Republic is led by a well-respected and benevolent chancellor and the public feels that their voices are heard. The Jedi Order is less dogmatic and stilted, and Jedi Knights are seen as honorable peacekeepers. Even the sci-fi technology, like starfighters and transport vessels, are described as clean and sleek–a far cry from the dingy, broken-down aesthetic of many later movies.

Continue Reading at GameSpot