Month: January 2021

Actor Ned Luke, who plays Michael in Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto V, has left the hospital after he contracted COVID-19 and came down with pneumonia.

Posting on Twitter, Luke shared a video of himself walking out of the Georgia hospital where he was staying as he was being treated for the virus. If the video looks familiar, that’s because Luke is basically reenacting the respawn scene from GTA 5 when Michael leaves the hospital.

“Thanks so much for all the support and love,” Luke said. “Ya’ll really helped pulled me thru.”

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Fans of the Hitman franchise were ready to shave their heads and don the suit of their favorite genetically-engineered assassin for the release of Hitman 3 today, but they’ve run into a nasty snag. The site that developer IO Interactive set up to allow players to carry over their progress from the previous games in the World of Assassination trilogy isn’t working, and that’s leading some fans to declare their frustration on social media.

While it might seem like a matter of simple patience, it’s actually a lot more unfortunate than it sounds. Since the site overwrites your Hitman 3 save as part of the transfer process, players are essentially having to choose between forgoing transferring their progress from previous games or sacrificing any they make in Hitman 3 when the carry over site begins working again. That means some fans might make the decision to treat launch day as a trial run for the game, since they know that any progress they make will soon be nuked.

Hitman 3’s launch was previously overshadowed by a minor controversy when IO Interactive announced that PC players wouldn’t be able to play the levels from Hitman 1 and 2 within Hitman 3 without paying an additional fee. Console players were exempt from this fee. However, IO quickly backtracked, saying that PC players will be able to access the levels for free, although they’re still working on the specifics.

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Two more Legendary Pokemon have returned to Pokemon Go for a limited time. To coincide with the game’s Hoenn Celebration event, both Groudon and Kyogre are back in five-star Raids from January 19-26, giving you another chance to capture them (and their Shiny forms). If you’re looking to add the Legendaries to your collection, we’ve rounded up some tips to help you beat and catch Kyogre below.

Kyogre Raid Schedule

Like Groudon, Kyogre will appear in Gyms as a five-star Raid boss until 10 AM local time on January 26. Legendary Raids don’t follow a set schedule and will occur periodically throughout the week, but you’ll receive a notification within the game when a Raid is about to begin at a Gym in your vicinity.

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Pokemon Go has brought two more Legendary Pokemon back for a limited time. As part of the game’s Hoenn Celebration event, both Groudon and Kyogre are returning to five-star Raids from January 19-26, and you’ll have a chance to capture their Shiny forms. If you’re interested in adding the Legendaries to your collection, we’ve rounded up some tips to help you beat and catch Groudon below.

Groudon Raid Schedule

Groudon will appear as a five-star Raid boss starting 10 AM local time on January 19, and it’ll remain in the game until the same time on January 26. Since Legendary Raids don’t follow a set schedule, they’ll be occurring periodically throughout the week, but you’ll receive a notification within the game when a Raid is about to begin at a nearby Gym.

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Among Us developer Innersloth has released a development log, promising a 2021 content roadmap and explaining why updates to the game have taken longer than might have been expected.

As noted on the Innersloth blog, the enormous, and sudden success of Among Us led to major changes for the game – not least cancelling a sequel in favour of updates for the original. Less visibly, the popularity of the game led to a lot of change behind the scenes, and Innersloth has been  setting up a means to work on the game and its updates in a more sustainable fashion as a result: “We had to spend 2 months just restructuring, figuring out new processes, and getting external partners to help us manage on board,” the blog reads.

“If we wanted this to work long term and hire up, we needed to streamline things. It’s all behind the scenes work, and while it meant time away from the game, it’ll make it easier for current and future us to develop the game better,” Innersloth adds. “We want to do more for you to show you how grateful we are, but without sacrificing on the quality and values we had before this blew up.” Clearly, the small team is heads down right now working on new content for the game and ensuring it is ported to new platforms in the near future.

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As for what’s coming now that a lot of that work is done, Innersloth says it will soon release a 2021 roadmap. The developer notes it had hoped to launch the planned ‘Accounts’ system for the game earlier, but that a first update focusing on moderation is coming ASAP, which will build a foundation for that update. Ultimately, Innersloth wanted to “make sure it isn’t half-baked before implementing. (Trust me – you do not want a bad reporting system with no accountability behind it.)”

As revealed during The Game Awards 2020, a new Airship map is coming to Among Us in early 2021, and the game will also be launching on Xbox consoles this year. In other Among Us news, the game recently made it into Google’s top trending searches of 2020.

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

A development build of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time has been discovered and it reveals an in-progress look at Kakariko Village, an early archery test, and that Link could have turned into Navi via the Soul Medallion.

As reported by Eurogamer, this demo, which was shown off at Spaceworld ’97, was found on an old N64 development cartridge that was used to hold F-Zero X. Once further inspected, the Zelda demo build was found, and although it was partly saved-over, there was still plenty to see.

Shared by Forest of Illusion on Twitter, one of the most surprising reveals was Link being able to turn into Navi via the Soul Medallion. As you can see in the images below from @MrCheeze and @Zeru64, he would have been able to fly around the map and would still have his Master Sword and Hylian Shield;

Other medallions would have let him cast and dispel fire at will, warp when in danger, and more.

We also get a glimpse of a different looking Hyrule from @MrTalida:

A more basic and less developed Kakariko Village from @shanebattye:

An archery test where you are also riding Epona from @MrTalida and @xdanieldzd:

Here, we get a glimpse of what could have been Link’s Pegasus Boots from @zel640, which appear to have made the final game as the slightly tweaked Hover Boots:

Some of the translated text also hints that the story of Ocarina of Time originally played out a bit differently. One says that the Deku Tree was set to be a prison for fairies where Link would have to go free Navi.

For more on The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, check out our original review, a modder’s new adventure created in the Ocarina of Time engine, and other Ocarina of Time discoveries from the Nintendo Gigaleak – which is different from this.

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

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Activision Blizzard, like many other gaming publishers, is riding high right now thanks in part to the COVID-19 pandemic that’s keeping people at home playing more games and spending more on them. As The Wall Street Journal noticed, the company’s share price recently exceeded more than $95 per share, which is the highest value for the firm since 1984.

MKM Partners, a research firm, recently raised its revenue and earnings-per-share guidance for Activision Blizzard. The firm also raised its price target up to $105 per share.

One of Activision Blizzard’s biggest success stories in 2020 was the free-to-play battle royale game Call of Duty: Warzone, which has generated many millions of dollars from microtransactions. The newest Call of Duty game, Black Ops Cold War, also had a strong year in 2020, as the game was the overall top-selling title of the year in the US.

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Jurassic World: Dominion director Colin Trevorrow has revealed that the upcoming movie will conclude the story of all six Jurassic movies, not just the sequel trilogy.

During an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Trevorrow spoke about how Dominion will sink its teeth (and plenty of them) into the larger story of the franchise, which started with Jurassic Park back in 1993. He referred to the next installment as “a celebration of the whole franchise” as it apparently aims to tie together and draw the entire movie series to a close.

“To me, [Dominion] is a culmination of one story that’s been told,” Trevorrow explained. “When you got to the end of the Jurassic Park trilogy, it may not have been as clear in what the complete story of those three movies was because they were a bit more episodic in the way that they were approached. But this trilogy is not that way. It’s very much a serialized story.

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“What was important for me was, when you watch Dominion, you really feel like you are learning how much of a story that first set of movies was and how everything that happened in those movies actually informs what ultimately is able to happen in this. If kids who are born today are going to be presented with six Jurassic Park movies — you hope the parents will buy them the box set — you hope they are going to get to feel like they watch one long story.”

Trevorrow also discussed how Netflix’s Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous fits into the dino-sized franchise. He shared his hopes for the series eventually standing as its own complete saga, telling its own story while still maintaining connections with its big-screen counterparts, including Dominion, the third film in the Jurassic World series, and the sixth Jurassic Park film overall.

“It’s important to me, out of respect for the writers who are continuing to expand and create, to recognize [Camp Cretaceous] as clearly its own story and its own show,” he said. “But this season — and if we’re granted further opportunities to tell the story that we have [in season 3] — will keep weaving in to the larger story and really inform some things, even in Dominion that will connect to discoveries made that I’m really excited about.”

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The second season of Camp Cretaceous will release on Netflix on January 22, so you might want to put on your archeological hats and start digging for clues about Jurassic World: Dominion. The Jurassic World threequel officially wrapped production last November after originally beginning pre-production 18 months ago, and is scheduled to be released in theaters on June 10, 2022.

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Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

While the next gen Assassin’s Creed: Valhalla recently launched on multiple platforms, fans of the series may be thirsty for some new content while waiting for another new game. Ubisoft is producing some more Assassin’s Creed stories, but in manga form, as the production company has partnered with Viz Media to create Assassin’s Creed: Blade of the Shao Jun.

Hitting stores on February 16, Blade of Shao Jun spins out of Assassin’s Creed Chronicles: China, extending the game’s story. Creator Minoji Kurata takes readers back to the Great Ming Empire where Emperor Jiajing created a period of turmoil thanks to a political purge. The Brotherhood only has one assassin still around, Shao Jun. Check out some of the interior pages from the book below.

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“The story reveals details of Shao Jun’s present-day descendant, LisaHuang, a research subject testing a machine called the Animus,” reads the official synopsis for the manga. The Animus allows Lisa to relive Shao Jun’s memories through powerful simulations; thinking this is behavioral therapy, Lisa is unaware that Dr. Kagami is using her and Shao Jun’s memories to discover the location of the mysterious box treasure. The fate of the mysterious box is now in the hands of both the past and present!”

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Actress Liv Tyler has revealed she contracted COVID-19 recently and is speaking out to share her experience with the virus now that she is recovered.

Posting on Instagram, the Lord of the Rings star said she is normally a private and shy person but felt compelled to share her story to help drive awareness of the virus to help people to understand they are not alone.

Tyler tested positive for the virus on New Year’s Eve. “Sh**, I had made it all the way through 2020 keeping myself and my family safe. Doing everything I could to protect my wolf pack and follow the rules to protect others,” she said. “Suddenly on the morn of the last day of 2020… boom it took me down. It comes on fast, like a locomotive. Owchie.”

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