Month: March 2021

After being announced in the patch notes for Call Of Duty: Black Ops Cold War‘s zombie-heavy Season 2, Treyarch has announced that Dead Ops Arcade: First Person will be arriving for Black Ops Cold War on March 4. While previous versions of Dead Ops Arcade allowed players to briefly enter first person via a power-up, this is the first time the arcade mode is entirely playable in first person.

While the first-person mode looks to be mostly the same as the classic Dead Ops Arcade 3 experience, it adds a few special abilities not available in the top-down view. When the new mode launches you’ll be able to sprint, jump, slide, and swim, making DOA: First Person a true hybrid game mode.

While the Dead Ops Arcade mode has long been a fan favorite, some players have warned that the arcade mode–and its first person variant–don’t award EXP for play, meaning any hours spent playing DOA won’t count towards game progression.

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Last year Los Angeles’ Anime Expo was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with the organizers shifting focus to a 2021 event. The Society for the Promotion of Japanese Animation’s Ray Chiang has now announced that the event will not go ahead in LA this year either, with the organization planning another “Anime Expo Lite” online event instead, as reported by Anime News Network.

“With the continued uncertainties surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic, it is apparent that we will not be able to safely hold a physical show this July for Anime Expo 2021,” the statement by Chiang reads. “Anime Expo Lite will return on July 4th weekend! While we know that nothing can ever fully replicate the magic of in-person events, we recognize that online communities have long been an integral part of Anime Expo’s culture. Anime Expo has been streamed since 2017 and will continue to be part of the experience.”

2021 marks the 30th anniversary of the USA’s largest anime convention, and while there won’t be a physical event to mark the occasion, the SPJA has invited Anime Expo’s fans and past attendees to continue to use the hashtag #AnimeExpo30th to celebrate their memories of the convention throughout the year.

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Upon completing Outriders‘ prologue, you’ll be able to pick one of four classes. You need to choose carefully–your class is permanent (though you can adjust your character’s appearance whenever you want upon entering Outriders’ first hub area). In the following guide, we break down the benefits and drawbacks of the Devastator, Trickster, Pyromancer, and Technomancer so you can more easily decide which is right for you.

During the Outriders demo, you will be able to unlock the first four abilities of each class, giving you a pretty good idea of how they all play. While all four classes are geared towards fighting out in the open, they differ primarily in playstyle and methods. But each class isn’t entirely a cut-and-dried role; each possesses specializations that allow you to twist them into fulfilling specific squad-based roles.

Devastator – Tank Class

The Devastator commands gravity, ripping apart the earth around them both as a means of protection and offense. This class excels in the heat of battle and its abilities allow it to take quite a bit of punishment before going down, possessing a 15% boost to maximum health and 30% increase to armor. If you typically play as the tank role in your group of friends, the Devastator is for you.

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A new high-resolution texture pack is coming for Warzone and Modern Warfare players on PS4 Pro, PS5, and Xbox Series X. The texture pack is the third to be made available, and players will receive an automatic prompt asking if they want to download it after the next update.

As reported by VG247, the pack is 8.4GB on PlayStation consoles, and while the size on Xbox Series X hasn’t been reported yet, it’s likely to be similar. With the file size of Warzone and Modern Warfare already incredibly large, players should make sure they have the space to spare before downloading.

File sizes on the recent Call Of Duty games have expanded so much that Activision recently had to warn players that Modern Warfare, Warzone, and Black Ops Cold War would no longer fit all together on a 500GB PS4 with all extra content installed.

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The live-action Pinocchio remake for Disney+ continues to fill out its cast.

Cynthia Erivo will play the role of the Blue Fairy for the film, per The Wrap. Joseph Gordon-Levitt was also announced as the voice of Jiminy Cricket, Pinocchio’s wisecracking companion. Other casting news includes Keegan Michael-Key as Honest John, the swindling fox antagonist, and Lorraine Bracco as Sofia the Seagull, a new character that did not appear in Disney’s 1940 original animated film.

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They join a cast led by Tom Hanks as Gepetto and Luke Evans as The Coachman. Benjamin Evan Ainsworth will voice Pinocchio.

Director Robert Zemeckis, who worked with Hanks on films like Forrest Gump and Cast Away, is helming the project. Production is set to begin this month and the film will debut on Disney Plus. No release date has been announced yet.

Gordon-Levitt is known for his roles in The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Looper. Last year, he starred in The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Project Power. Erivo starred in Bad Times at the El Royale and Widows. More recently, she was nominated for an Oscar for her performance in 2019’s Harriet.

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Pinocchio is just one of several live-action remakes that Disney is planning for both theatrical and streaming releases. Emma Stone stars in Cruella, an origin story for the 101 Dalmations villain, which is set to hit theaters on May 28. Other upcoming projects include a follow-up to The Lion King directed by Barry Jenkins and a Beauty and the Beast prequel series. Disney unveiled many live-action reimaginings during the company’s Investor Day last December.

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J. Kim Murphy is a freelance entertainment writer.

(Photo by Rich Fury/Getty Images)

Nintendo is allegedly set to reveal a new model of the Nintendo Switch with a bigger Samsung OLED display later this year that will be able to output 4K ultra-high definition graphics when in docked mode.

As reported by Bloomberg, Nintendo is planning to unveil this new model in hopes that the “larger touchscreen can prop up demand in time for the holidays.”

Samsung Display Co. will start mass production of 7-inch, 720p-resolution OLED panels as early as June 2021 with an “initial monthly target of under a million units.” These displays would then be sent to assemblers in July.

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For reference, the current Nintendo Switch model features a 6.2-inch, 720p-resolution screen. This new screen would look as if you extended the current Switch’s screen that replaced most of the black bezel around it.

“The OLED panel will consume less battery, offer higher contrast and possibly faster response time when compared to the Switch’s current liquid-crystal display,” said Yoshio Tamura, co-founder of display consultancy DSCC.

The report also claims that Nintendo has decided to go with rigid OLED panels for this new model, a “cheaper but less flexible alternative to the type commonly used for high-end smartphones.”

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This deal will benefit Samsung Display as the market prices for the rigid OLED panels were falling due to excess supply. This will also hopefully benefit Nintendo as this partnership will help them in a time where semiconductor shortages are causing delayed for PS5s, Xbox Series X consoles, and graphics cards.

This rumored “Switch Pro,” as some have called it, has been in high demand from fans for some time. Nintendo has been tight-lipped about any new model, and Nintendo President Shuntaro Furukawa recently said they will not be announcing a new model “anytime soon.”

IGN asked several industry analysts about their predictions on when and if we’d see a new Switch in 2021 or beyond, and the responses are range from no Switch pro this year to one possible coming before the year ends.

Many also believe that Nintendo has no reason to rush out a Switch Pro as the console is still selling incredibly well. Its lifetime sales recently passed 79.87 million – which passes the Nintendo 3DS – and its been the best-selling console for nearly two years.

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Nintendo recently held its first Nintendo Direct since September 4, 2019, and it showcased some of the biggest games coming to the Switch in 2021 and beyond. It appears they just may have some other secrets up their sleeves.

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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.

Guilty Gear Strive developer Arc System Works has announced plans to delay the launch of the next game in the series to June 11, 2021. This was announced shortly after the completion of the playable beta on PlayStation consoles, which allowed players to face off in multiplayer matches with a select number of playable fighters.

This is the second time that Guilty Gear Strive has been delayed. Originally planned for a late 2020 release, the developers delayed the game to April 9, 2021 in light of the added challenge of game development during the COVID-19 pandemic. In the developer’s statement, it was made clear that more work was needed in order to get the game to where it needed to be for its full launch.

“Since we have received valuable feedback after the recent Open Beta Test, we would like to make the most of this opportunity to provide the best game possible,” says the statement. “We need extra time to polish some aspects of the game, such as the online lobbies and the server’s stability.”

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Guilty Gear Strive has been delayed until June 11, pushing it two months further back from its previous April 9 date.

ArcSystemWorks made the announcement Wednesday evening, citing feedback from the fighting game’s recent open beta test. ArcSystemWorks says they will use the extra two months to focus on improving online lobbies and server stability.

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“We believe it best to use the extra time to improve the game’s quality and provide a better experience to all our players. Thank you for your patience and understanding,” ArcSystemWorks said.

Guilty Gear Strive, ArcSystem’s eagerly anticipated next installment in the popular anime-style fighting game series, has already received a relatively positive reception from the fighting game community. FGC members like Justin Wong and Jiyuna have praised the open beta’s netcode, saying it’s allowed for matches with international opponents with little to no lag.

One of the more common criticisms out of Strive’s beta was the game’s lobby system, a confusing social space wherein players must first find other players, whip out a sword signaling their willingness to fight, and then essentially hope the other player doesn’t back out. In short, many players saw it as more obtuse than even what’s come before in previous ArcSystems games, like Dragon Ball FighterZ.

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Guilty Gear Strive was also previously impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, pushing it out of a 2020 release date. If you’re eager for more 2D/3D fighting goodness, here’s 25 minutes of high-level gameplay from the Strive beta.

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Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and his heart is still blazing.

Nintendo will reportedly reveal a new version of its Switch that features a bigger OLED display created by Samsung and will output at 4K when docked and connected to a TV. The model, according to Bloomberg, will be unveiled this year and Samsung will begin mass production of the new seven-inch screen “as early as June.”

The OLED display panel will output at 720p resolution, according to Bloomberg, which cites people familiar with plans. Nintendo is said to be working to maintain interest around the Switch, as well as continue to sell software competitively against Xbox and PlayStation.

Reports of a more powerful version of the Switch have been floating around for some time now. In January a dataminer noted that a firmware update issued by Nintendo references an upgraded Switch console codenamed Aula. This ugpraded model allegedly uses the Mariko (Tegra X1+) SoC chip that was implemented with the Switch Lite and updated 2019 regular model Switches. Additionally, the firmware mentioned support for a Realtek chip, which has been advertised as a “4K UHD multimedia SoC.”

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