Saturday, October 31, 2020
Gears of War Mobile Spin-Off Gears Pop! To Shut Down in 2021
Everspace 2 Delayed Because of Cyberpunk 2077's New Release Date
FromSoftware Thanks Fans for Elden Ring Support, But Offers No New Info
"We also greatly appreciate all the enthusiasm and support shown for "ELDEN RING", our next Dark Fantasy Action RPG. We hope you look forward to it," FromSoftware's Tweet read. Even though it offered nothing new, that didn't stop fans from responding in a wonderful way. @_Ju_Ke utilized the famous gif from Titanic to convey how Elden Ring fans have felt waiting for anything related to the game. 
@SnekDe thinks they found a secret meaning in FromSoftware's Tweet. 
@KillLaGrill used a video showing Elden Ring's roller coaster of emotions from seeing a Tweet about the game and then finding out it had nothing new.
@Final_Dino enlisted the help of Despicable Me's Gru to reenact FromSoftware giving its fans a non-update update.Me when Elden Ring gets it's yearly mention pic.twitter.com/7fpWe2bvzn
— ! C U R S E D ! (@KillLaGrill) October 31, 2020
@NAtliszilla combined the Pope holding up something meme and a character from Elden Ring's trailer to show exactly what these fans want. 
@MoAtef09 has politely used an image of Jeremy Renner's Hawkeye to help show the world how hopeless they feel. 
@__pLANK wants to believe in Elden Ring, and some hope has been brought into their life. 
@Sonichimself used a video of Ryan Gosling to let the world know their pain. They also think we may not get any more news until 2021, and unless Elden Ring shows up at The Game Awards, they may be right.
Elden Ring was revealed during Microsoft's Xbox E3 2019 press conference, and we have yet to see more gameplay from the much anticipated game. However, that hasn't stopped the Elden Ring subreddit from becoming one of the wildest places on the internet. Starved for any more official details, these brave souls have taken to creating their own Elden Ring. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/09/elden-ring-official-reveal-trailer-e3-2019"] While fans may have to wait a while to actually play Elden Ring, they will soon be able to play a remaster of FromSoftware's Demon's Souls, as it is a launch title for the PlayStation 5. [poilib element="accentDivider"] 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.so no news until 2021 I presume
Agony. pic.twitter.com/aVw7atoeTF — Calamari Juice (@Sonichimself) October 31, 2020
The Bizarre Story Behind an Iconic Resident Evil Sound Effect
What if I told you that I'd been hearing a single sound, everywhere, for 22 years? I’ve heard it in countless movies, tons of television shows, video games and even pop music. I can almost guarantee that you have too.
It's a short, 3 second sound effect of something that’s really quite inoffensive, but still manages to register with me every time I hear it. It's very simple, and there are a lot of sounds like it, but it cuts through the noise of anything I'm watching or listening to whenever it plays and I've become obsessed with it.
Dale Driver · Resident Evil 2 - Lab Door Sound EffectIt's most often used as the effect of a futuristic lab door opening. I don't know why, but for decades it's been burrowed into my brain. This innocuous noise has been in and around practically everything I enjoy and, every time it plays, it forces two simple questions into my brain: How was it made, and who made it?
It’s been 22 years now, it’s time to get those answers.
It’s hard to pinpoint when I first started noticing this sound effect, but as an educated guess I want to say it was its prominent use in the Jean Claude Van Damme masterpiece, Universal Soldier. As a teenager, I spent a good chunk of my youth watching and re-watching every cheesy 90s sci-fi action movie you can imagine, and Universal Soldier was certainly in rotation. But since then (and especially since starting this journey) I’ve found and documented it all over the place. From the Bond film Tomorrow Never Dies to Scooby Doo. From Tomorrowland to The Venture Bros. From ‘90s children’s TV shows, to a trailer for 2021’s latest looter-shooter, Outriders. The application of this simple sound effect is everywhere, and its endless uses are way beyond what any one person could track (but if you have heard it somewhere please let me know!).
But my journey with this sound actually started quite a bit earlier.
1998. There I was, a fresh faced 15 year old excited about being able to purchase my first ever 15-rated video game myself. It's not that my parents were ever particularly strict about age ratings, but the idea of being able to walk into a store and buy a game about zombies and blood myself was liberating.
During my playthroughs of what I still consider to be an all-time classic, I was constantly aware of how descriptive the use of sound was. Whether it was the shambling groans of the zombies, or the clickety clack of the typewriters, the use of sound in the series as a whole is something that’s stayed with me ever since. Little did I know though that one of the more passive sounds, a simple opening of a laboratory door, would be the one I’m still obsessing about over 20 years later.
So what is it about this sound? Why has it become stuck in my head so firmly? This is an answer I’ve really struggled with because I’ve found it hard to quantify why I find it so satisfying. Perhaps it’s the almighty clunk, or the winding motors that pan left to right, but the more I dissect it, the more I believe it’s this simple sound’s ability to be completely diegetic yet almost otherworldly. I’ve certainly never heard a door like it, but it always feels like it belongs, despite the situation.
Unfortunately, tracking a sound effect’s origin is not that easy. My first hurdle was simple; how do you google a sound? Typing in ‘Lab door’ or ‘sci-fi door’ understandably brings back thousands of results that could take forever to wade through. And it’s not as if there’s a Shazam-type app for sound effects - although I really wish there was. I was off to a bad start, so I decided to pull back and start simpler: asking a friend.
My first port of call was my immediate connections in the IGN UK office, specifically my colleague Jesse, who, like me, is a huge Resident Evil fan. Although also extremely familiar with the sound, knowing how to find it was also a mystery to him. Thankfully, Jesse has a friend called John. John is not only also a huge Resident Evil fan, but has also been involved in the Resident Evil modding scene, specifically working on sound effects and voiceover. As such, he knows more than a little about the original source files. This was my guy to set me on my way, and he kindly agreed to chat to me.
Dale Driver: So we've got a mutual friend in Jesse, and he's mentioned that you've done work with Resident Evil modding in the past, is that right?
John: That's correct. I would do a few little mods here and there, and a few little fan projects, and I'd usually tout myself as the “sound designer”. I say that with air quotes because I'm not a professional by any means. It's just a hobby of mine.
Dale Driver: I've been chasing this sound from Resident Evil 2, of the lab door, now for a long time, and it turns out you can't really Google what the sound effect is. So I was hoping that you might be able to help me out with this?
Being familiar with the original Resident Evil sound files, John knew that a bunch of them could be sourced legally, specifically from a sound repository called Sound Dogs. What the average person might not know is that recycling sound files is and was quite common practice. It turned out Capcom had done a significant amount of this with Resident Evil, thus spending a fraction of the cost of original sound creation on a license instead. It’s something they’re less likely to do these days - preferring to create original sounds in house - but back in 1998, it made all the sense in the world.
With this knowledge (and now a hint of my obsession) John and Jesse began combing through every potentially relevant search term they could imagine, until...
John: ....about 30 or 40 sound effects in I hear the sound. It doesn't take too long. You hear the door open, hear it close and I'm like, ‘That's it. That's the one, it has to be.’
So thanks to John, Jesse and some internet sleuthing I now had a file and a link to a sound library. Logic would suggest the reason I’d heard it in so many places was due to how accessible this library was to sound designers. But in my quest to find its origins, the next question was: how did it get onto this library in the first place? In an attempt to understand this procedure more I got in touch with one of the few sound connections I have in the professional world, someone I knew from my younger days while playing in a band. Chris Mock is a sound designer, who, since the humble beginnings of mixing my audio in local UK music venues, had gone on to do much greater things in the world of live events and television. I was hopeful that not only could Chris give me more insight, but that he might also have some theories on how the sound itself had been made.
After giving Chris a quick rundown of my obsession and all my progress so far, and despite being slightly perplexed by the situation, he kindly agreed to help and we dove straight into discussing sound libraries.
Dale Driver: Are there people out there that specialize in just creating [sound effects] for stock libraries? Or would they create them for a project, and because they're very malleable sound effects, they become part of a stock library?
Chris Mock: Yeah, there are both. I mean, there are people that just record sound effects and put them onto a stock library, whether that's their own website, or they put them on places like Sound Ideas, or Sound Dogs. What [people] might do is start with a sound effect from a stock library and then add things to it in order to make it sound bigger or, you know, more haunting, or more descriptive in a way. You can also manipulate them and - like they do in films - they sometimes [use] stock sound effects, [which is why] there are so many over the years that are familiar. Sound designers even try to slip them into a film on purpose. I'm sure you know which sound effect I'm talking about.
For the uninitiated out there, Chris is referring to perhaps the most popular stock sound effect ever used in film, The Wilhelm Scream, a sound effect popularised by its use in Star Wars, Indiana Jones and pretty much every big budget action film ever since! But that’s a different (and well-documented) story - I'm here to find out about my lab door. So I decided to quiz Chris on what he thought the sound was.
Chris Mock: First thoughts? It's a door from a sci-fi film... or a game. Just one more listen.
A door like that wouldn't exist, they would have had to have created [the noise]. It might be starting with a stock library and ending with one but there's definitely something in the middle that's been added. I'm gonna have a listen again.
After repeated listens it almost felt like Chris had become as enamoured with the sound as I had. Or perhaps he was just really keen to pinpoint the noise for me and make a solid prediction. I like to imagine it’s the former...
Chris Mock: Okay, so I think it's a door, obviously. It’s a door opening and closing. Then it sounds like there's some kind of motor in there. And it could be a drill, could be a belt drive for a car, then slowed down. There's something metallic in there as well, but then that might be the door. Maybe they've added some kind of hit to it as well. I'm gonna listen again.
God it's so intriguing, I really want to know what it is now!
I had a link and a sound library (The Original General Series 6000 - which sounds more like a top-of-the-range toaster than a library of soundscapes) and, suddenly, finding the effect’s origins felt within grasp.
After spending far longer than I’d like scrolling through the track list - despite the titular 6000, the library actually had 7500 sound effects - I eventually found my true love, unimaginatively called ‘SciFiDoor 6039_24_1’. But, despite the minuscule description and a note of duration, I was none the wiser to its source. So, in another moment of need, I reached out directly to Sound Dogs themselves, hoping they’d guide me on journey:
I took a moment to enjoy this small victory: after all, I started with just a sound in my head that I was unable to Google, and now I’d managed to find the creator’s name. The moment passed though, and I was quickly onto the next step of trying to track down Mike McDonough. Fortunately, this time, Google was on my side.
After a quick tap and smash into the search engine, I was spoiled for information about Mike, finding out he was in fact an American who had been consistently working in the industry for over 40 years. But perhaps most notable was his very reputable work in the sound field for the last four decades - including big budget productions like Star Trek: Insurrection and Disney’s The Black Cauldron. I also found a modern video of Mike, introducing The Mike McDonough SFX Collection to potential sound library customers. I now had a name and a face for the man behind the door, but I was still none the wiser on how to get in touch with him.
But it was still there: an itch in my brain I had to scratch. I decided to pick up my trail and stumbled upon an article from a Swiss website called Digitec, where in March of this year, the author Philipp Rüegg had spoken to Mike about one of his signature door sounds being used in a classic video game. No, it wasn’t my Resident Evil lab doors, Philipp had reached out about a signature sound far more documented: The Doom Doors.
Yep, that’s right. Not only had Mike constructed my iconic door sound, but he also created perhaps the most iconic door sound in video game history; a sound so widely recognised on the internet it had even earned its own moniker as The Doom Doors. You can find YouTube video montages of its uses, and it even has a page dedicated to it on TVTropes, a website dedicated to cataloguing TV conventions, and anything used regularly enough to be recognisable.
This article gave me enough information to help me contact Mike, and prepare for our meeting. But while studying the piece, I discovered Philipp’s journey had been eerily similar to mine: Both highlighting stock library sounds that’d been used in a video game, that we’d both heard everywhere we went, both of us motivated by childhood nostalgia and, despite being completely different sounds, both ending up talking to the same man, Mike McDonough.
"Well, my name is Mike McDonough. I'm a sound designer, and I guess we're here to talk about some sounds I made."
At this point, I imagine you’re as keen as I was to find out the history of this infectious sound, but the question I immediately needed an answer to was how he actually made it.
Mike McDonough: Now, I've got to go back in my internal time machine, - which isn't very good anymore - to remember how I made it.
So the initial sort of “click-clack” sound is actually one of the very first CD players. We were excited to get this new technology in the studio. It was a big heavy thing, and the little tray that came out... it was very beefy. It was solid, it was metal, it wasn't plastic and flimsy, and it had this mechanism, a motor sound that went clickety-clack. So I took it in the studio, opened the grand piano and set it on the strings so it would resonate. Then I just got a microphone - Neumann’s 1987, which was my favourite mic back then - and I got it as close as I could to the mechanism and just opened and closed.
An old CD player inside a grand piano was not what I was expecting, but something I did foresee was the sound being multi-layered. It turned out, the CD player was only the first of multiple elements.
Mike McDonough: The studio had an old, old copy machine that was new back then; it was a big giant thing, I think it was made by Xerox and had multiple paper trays. It had this stack on the side with paper in it and when you pushed the button, it made this sound [Mike imitates a whirling electronic noise]. I was like "Wow, that's a great sound!"
And he wasn’t done there.
Mike McDonough: A friend of mine had one of the first hatchbacks, it was a Ford Capri. The hatchback had little hydraulic lifters on it. When you open it, it made this sound [Mike imitates air pressure rising]. So we drove the car onto the stage so it's nice and quiet, and I recorded that sound.
When it came to putting it altogether though, Mike had one final trick.
Mike McDonough: The machine I fed it through had a wonderful little device on it that I used all through the ‘70s and ‘80s to do sound design, pre-digital, it was called a VSO [variable speed oscillator]. The motor on those machines had a certain frequency that they ran at and it had a dial. When you turn the dial down, the motor of the tape machine would run slower. Turn the dial up and it would run faster. And if you put a sound on there and went from slow too fast, the pitch went up or the pitch went down. So I pitched them so the door would sound like it was moving.
I finally had an answer which was both substantially more complex than I imagined and also... slightly disappointing? Not that the ear, imagination and assembly weren’t impressive, but I guess, deep-down, part of me was unrealistically hoping for something beyond traditional means. I still had two other important questions though, when did he create this sound, and most importantly, why?
Mike McDonough: Growing up in Los Angeles I was exposed to a lot of creatives down there and through a chance meeting I got to meet a science fiction author, a fantasy writer named Ray Bradbury. We became sort of friends; he was kind of a mentor of mine. I wanted to take his stories and adapt them into... I guess you could call them radio dramas, just for fun. When I got into university we actually got a grant from National Public Radio to create 13 half hour shows based on Ray Bradbury stories and, suddenly, I had come up with 13 half-hour original radio dramas in stereo with original music and sound design, but I didn't have any sounds really that were professionally recorded at that time. This was in the ‘80s, like ‘83, ‘84.
Dale Driver: Oh that's when I was born!
Mike McDonough: Anybody reading this wasn't born! *laughs*
I had a moment of weakness in the late ‘80s. I’d just got married and I was a college employee and pretty broke, right? Like things are when you first start. So after I did the Ray Bradbury radio series I did a film for Walt Disney called the Black Cauldron, [which was] my very first film as a sound designer. Then, in a moment of weakness and poverty, I sold a bunch of my sounds to a company called Sound Ideas. They dangled a check in front of me and I thought, “Wow, someone actually wants my sounds? They'll give me money for these crazy sounds?” So I sold a batch of them and they became this disc called 6039. And now here we are talking about a sound that I made in the mid ‘80s.
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Mike McDonough and Ray Bradbury - Image via Mike McDonough[/caption]
After selling all his sounds in the late ‘80s, Mike’s library had spread far and wide. Despite not knowing about their usage in Resident Evil and Doom, he was fully aware of their proliferation in all forms of media.
Mike McDonough: For years they've been available to the general public and yeah, I hear them on TV and I hear little snatches of them in all kinds of big-budget films. And now it's kind of like I can't use them. Everybody has access to them and they're no longer my special little sounds that I created. I don't want to use the same old sounds everybody else is using, so I don't use my sounds anymore. *laughs*
There’s something quite melancholic about Mike feeling like he couldn’t use his own creations anymore, but there was also a clear sense of pride about his work still being discussed all these years later. And perhaps more importantly, he clearly appreciated their substantial contribution to the soundscapes of modern media. He’d built his legacy, but he was unfortunately the silent partner.
Despite my fascination behind the sound, Mike was very quick to normalise his work, likening it to the disappointing reality of finding out the secrets behind a magic trick.
Mike McDonough: It's kind of anticlimactic to go into how these things were made, because they’re common sounds; a CD tray and a copy machine. It's like looking behind the curtain, The Wizard of Oz, you know? Look behind the curtain and you see this guy pulling levers and it takes the mystique out of it, you know?
I started this self-given quest specifically looking to get answers about how this lab door sound effect was made, and finding out was ultimately satisfying - but for me, the fascinating and crazy story of the sound’s journey is the one that’ll likely leave the lasting memory.
[poilib element="accentDivider"] Dale Driver is an IGN Senior Video Producer, and he'd like to thank John from 'The Kendo Gun Shop', Chris Mock, Philipp Rüegg, Sound Dogs, Sound Ideas, Eric Sapp for the incredible artwork, and most importantly of all, Mike McDonough. Follow Dale on Twitter.Rainbow Six Siege: Don't Miss the Sugar Fright Event
Friday, October 30, 2020
What's Your Favorite Horror Game of All Time?
Pikmin 3 Deluxe: All Fruit Locations
Pikmin 3 Deluxe: All Fruit Locations
A Few Assassin's Creed Games Aren't Backwards Compatible on PS5
Ubisoft has announced a slew of details regarding which of its games will receive cross-progression, next-gen upgrades, and backwards compatibility on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S.
Like most of these types of announcements, it’s easy to get lost in the weeds on what game gets what feature (especially since messaging regarding cross-gen compatibility has been a confusing mess thus far), but we lay it all out for you below.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/28/8-big-changes-in-assassins-creed-valhalla"]Most notably, Ubisoft is not making some Assassin’s Creed games backwards compatible on PS5. These include Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Trilogy Pack, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles India, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles China, Assassin’s Creed Chronicles Russia, as well as other properties like Risk, Star Trek Bridge Crew, Werewolves Within, Space Junkies.
As for next-gen upgrades of PS4/Xbox One to PS5/Xbox Series X/S, a number of Ubisoft games will receive them at no additional cost to players. But there are some restrictions for players who transition from disc drive to digital-only consoles.
You can only upgrade your game if you’re sticking with either a physical or digital version, meaning you can’t upgrade from a physical version of Watch Dogs to a digital version on a next-gen console or vice versa. You can also only upgrade within the same console family, so Xbox One to Series X or PlayStation 4 to PlayStation 5.
[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/28/watch-dogs-legion-review"]Games receiving free next-gen upgrades include: Watch Dogs: Legion, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Riders Republic, and Rainbow Six Siege (with a next-gen version of Siege to be announced at a later date, and Japanese Siege players will need to pay 100 yen). All these games also have cross-progression.
Games receiving cross-progression across console generations and console families (meaning you can go from Xbox to PlayStation or vice versa) include: Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Immortals Fenyx Rising, Riders Republic, and Hyperscape. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/23/a-look-back-at-sonys-long-complicated-history-with-backward-compatibility"]Games receiving cross-progression across console generations, but requiring you to stay within the same console family include: Watch Dogs Legion and Rainbow Six Siege.
Ubisoft says “most” of its games will receive backward compatibility (excluding the ones we mention in the second paragraph of this article), and some backward compatible games will additionally receive cross-progression between generations within the same console family, including For Honor (with free graphical upgrades), The Division 2, The Crew 2, as well as Just Dance 2021 and the upcoming Prince of Persia: Sands of Time remake.
Cross-generation cross-play will be available for Rainbow Six Siege and For Honor, allowing users to play with friends as long as they’re within the same console family.
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ubisoft-connect-screenshots&captions=true"]Ubisoft closed their post by stating that more “cross-platforms benefits” are coming in the future and that cross-progression is part of their commitment to players.
"Designed for a new gaming era, one where you expect to be able to play, progress and stay in touch with friends anywhere, Ubisoft Connect lays the foundation that will enable Ubisoft’s games and services to live across platforms and make cross-platform features a standard moving forward," Ubisoft's post reads.
Clarity on cross-gen compatibility messaging has eluded the likes of PlayStation and Xbox for some time now. Here’s what you need to know about PS4 to PS5 compatibility and here’s our massive chart laying out every difference between the PS5 and the Xbox Series X. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN, and he's backwards compatible with your heart. Cross-progress with him on Twitter.5 Very Different Reasons Games Were Delayed After Going Gold
CD Projekt Red recently delayed Cyberpunk 2077 for a third time, pushing the highly anticipated RPG from mid-November to December 10. Multiple delays for a game on this scale aren’t entirely unusual, especially in the case of Cyberpunk, which is being developed simultaneously for nine different platforms. What is unusual about this latest delay, however, is the fact that Cyberpunk had already gone gold.
“Going gold” is the industry term for when a release build of a game passes certification and can be printed onto physical discs. It’s often taken as a sign of confidence that a game will no longer be delayed, as it initiates the process of printing, packaging, and shipping copies to retailers. But going gold does not often mean development is complete; developers spend the next month or so making last-minute tweaks and improvements that are added as day one patches. Though historically rare, developers can run into trouble during that window and are forced to make one last delay, or in some cases, pull the plug altogether.
In light of the Cyberpunk news, we’ve compiled a list of five other games that got delayed (or canceled) after going gold. Click through the gallery below or continue scrolling for the full list.
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NBA Elite 11
Long known as NBA Live, EA’s basketball franchise underwent a name change in 2010, in an effort to “leave the past behind” and “usher in the future of basketball video games.” The first (and only) NBA Elite was scheduled to be released on October 5, 2010.
Just a week before launch, with copies already in the hands of press and retailers, it was delayed. A little over a month later, EA announced NBA Elite 11 was canceled. Speaking to IGN, EA’s Andrew Wilson offered a candid explanation for the cancellation: "Ultimately, it was just going to be a bad game."
A limited number of copies made it out into the wild and have become highly sought-after collector’s items — a PS3 copy is currently listed on eBay for $10,000 USD.
A decade later, EA has yet to regain its footing with the series. A revival attempt in 2012 ultimately failed. Its return in 2013 was a critical disaster, earning a 43 on Metacritic. Four more NBA Live games were released between 2014 and 2018, though none measured up, critically or commercially, to 2K’s rival NBA series.
The franchise’s latest planned entry, NBA Live 20, was also canceled. EA said it’s reworking the series for next-gen consoles, but the company has yet to announce concrete plans for its return on Xbox Series X and PS5.
Army of Two
22 days before November 13, 2007, Army of Two's initial release date, EA delayed the co-op shooter to March 6 of the following year.
The company said it needed a bit more time for polish, according to the delay announcement (via Reuters), with then head of EA Games Frank Gibeau adding, “Army of Two has potential to become a lasting EA franchise — so getting the first title right is essential.”
It’s all pretty standard as far as delay announcements go, except for one thing: review copies of Army of Two had already been distributed, indicating the game had gone gold before the delay, as recounted by IGN’s Ryan McCaffrey, who reviewed one of those original copies in 2007.
Army of Two went on to hit that March 6, 2008, release date. It received a 7.9 in IGN’s review.
Propeller Arena
The cancellation of Propeller Arena wasn’t due to quality issues or developmental woes, but rather a case of extraordinary and tragic circumstance.
Propeller Arena was an aerial combat game developed by Sega for the Dreamcast. The game had gone gold ahead of its scheduled September 19, 2001, release date, as evidenced by this tweet from Sega producer Makoto Osaki, which shows a printed copy of Propeller Arena’s final build.
However, a week before it was to be released, the 9/11 terrorist attacks occurred, and Sega delayed Propeller Arena indefinitely.
“Although the game content does not deal with terrorism in any way, it is possible for a determined individual to deliberately play the game in a manner that generates images similar to those we have seen on the news,” read Sega’s statement at the time. “We want to avoid causing any additional grief to those involved in this week's tragedy and feel this is an appropriate action.”
Propeller Arena would never be released, and years later, details about the gameplay shed more light on Sega’s decision. Propeller Arena featured a Manhattan-inspired level called Tower City lined with skyscrapers that players could crash into, causing their planes to explode.
Half-Life for Dreamcast
In early 2000, Valve announced it was bringing the original Half-Life to Sega’s Dreamcast, following the success of its PC debut in 1998. The console version was to be released that summer and feature visual upgrades, as well as an all-new mission “custom created for Dreamcast,” according to the announcement.
Half-Life would miss that initial release window, though it was still expected to be released by the end of 2000, according to publisher Sierra Entertainment (via GameSpot). Multiple delays later, Sierra landed on a new release window of June 2001.
As June approached, rumors of a potential cancellation began circulating. Those fears were temporarily assuaged in May, when IGN received a copy of Half-Life for Dreamcast. This presumably meant the game had gone gold, and it was only a matter of time before it’d be released.
But on June 15, with only a couple weeks remaining in that June window, Half-Life for Dreamcast was officially canceled. A detailed explanation was never given; Sierra only offered this one-sentence statement: “Sierra regrets the cancellation of Half-Life for the Dreamcast due to changing market conditions.”
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Thrill Kill
Thrill Kill, the controversial, adult-only fighting game for PS1, was scheduled to be released in October 1998. Developer Paradox (later known as Midway Los Angeles) had the full support of initial publisher Virgin Interactive, and the four-player fighter was on track to hit its target date — that is until August 1998, when EA acquired a number of Virgin’s studios and assets, including Thrill Kill.
At the time, Thrill Kill was “99% finished,” according to programmer David Ollman (via VG247), but EA couldn’t get past its violence. “Our whole executive team was involved in the decision to cancel the game, and we certainly evaluated it to see if there was something that we could do to make ourselves more comfortable with the content," said EA’s then director of corporate communications Patricia Becker (via ZDNet). "The tone and the tenor of the game are just too violent."
There was still hope for Thrill Kill after the cancellation, as those at Paradox thought EA may sell the rights to another publisher. Several companies, including Eidos Interactive, according to Variety, were interested in acquiring the property, but EA refused to sell.
"We don't feel that the game's content is appropriate regardless of who publishes it,” Becker told IGN. “Game companies have to accept responsibility for any game they publish... It was the tone and tenor of Thrill Kill. When you look at Mortal Kombat, you look at a fighting game, as opposed to a sadistic killing game. Thrill Kill is a killing game. The product did not meet our standards for appropriate content."
Paradox would use the foundation of Thrill Kill to build another fighter, Wu-Tang: Shaolin Style, which is “roughly 70% identical [to Thrill Kill] on a technical level,” according to Ollman.
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Jordan is a freelance writer for IGN.
Metallic Asteroid Between Mars and Jupiter Has an Estimated Worth of $10,000 Quadrillion
A giant metallic asteroid worth approximately $10,000,000,000,000,000,000 -- more than the entire Earth’s economy -- is orbiting around Mars and Jupiter, according to a new report from the Planetary Science Journal via CBS News.
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The massive asteroid 16 Psyche is the subject of a new study by SwRI scientist Tracy Becker, who observed the object at ultraviolet wavelengths.[/caption]
Asteroid 16 Psyche, as it’s known, is thought to possibly be the remnant of a planet core that never properly formed into an actual planet. While most asteroids are made of rock or ice, the incredibly dense Psyche is made mostly of metal, and measures about 140 miles in diameter, making it the size of Massachusetts.
The Planetary Science Journal’s new study has found that Psyche may be composed of iron and nickel, which are typically found in the cores of planets.
“We’ve seen meteorites that are mostly metal, but Psyche could be unique in that it might be an asteroid that is totally made of iron and nickel,” lead study author Dr. Tracy Becker said in a statement. “Earth has a metal core, a mantle and crust. It’s possible that as a Psyche protoplanet was forming, it was struck by another object in our solar system and lost its mantle and crust.”
[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=cosmos-possible-worlds-gallery&captions=true"]NASA plans to launch an unmanned spacecraft in 2022, also named Psyche, on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket to reach the asteroid and study its composition and history. This will make it the first time NASA has ever reached a body composed entirely of metal. The spacecraft will reach Psyche in January 2026.
Back in 2017, researchers also told CBS News that they would not be utilizing the asteroid’s $10,000 quadrillion metallic mass for any business gain.
“What makes Psyche and the other asteroids so interesting is that they're considered to be the building blocks of the solar system," Becker said. "To understand what really makes up a planet and to potentially see the inside of a planet is fascinating. Once we get to Psyche, we're really going to understand if that's the case, even if it doesn't turn out as we expect. Any time there's a surprise, it's always exciting."
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If you like weird and wild science stories, check out IGN's science news hub. A rogue planet floating through the Milky Way was also recently discovered. Scientists have also discovered that the amusingly named "Black Widow Star" is the source of gamma radiation that gives Hulk his superpowers. Also, the Moon is wet. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/reporter/floating mass for IGN. Orbit him on Twitter.Xbox Series X List of Launch Games - Resolutions and Framerates
Raven Co-Founder Talks Soldier of Fortune and its Then-Revolutionary Dismemberment System
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Brian Barnett writes wiki guides, deals posts, features, and much more for IGN. You can get your fix of Brian's antics on Twitter and Instagram (@Ribnax).D&D: Get an Inside Look at Tasha's Cauldron of Everything
New DM Tools
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The introduction to Chapter 4: Dungeon Master's Tools[/caption] "I'm also excited because the book includes things they haven't seen before," he continues. "It includes a bunch of new magic items that I think are gonna knock people's socks off. It includes, you know, new tools for the DM including the puzzles, the magical environments... just all sorts of goodies. Now that people get all of this tied together, I think it's a really strong package of new options that I think will enrich D&D games of all sorts." The DM Tools chapter kicks off with a full-page portrait of the titular witch, Tasha, playing an intense round of Wizard's Chess with the famed wizard Mordenkainen. [caption id="attachment_243229" align="aligncenter" width="720"]
Artist credit: Svetlin Velinov[/caption] "Putting in the wizard's chess in that painting was sort of a little spark of inspiration that occurred when we were writing the art order," says Crawford. "It was largely inspired by a series of old Dragon Magazine covers that features wizard chess, where the pieces on the board come alive and battle each other. So, that painting is actually a homage to a series of old Dragon Magazine covers."
Supernatural Regions
The DM Tools chapter also includes rules and suggestions for what are being called "Supernatural Regions." These otherworldly locations include (among others) haunted realms where restless spirits wander freely, the Lovecraftian nightmare of a world beyond the known sphere of existence, or a delightfully horrifying colony of mimics. [caption id="attachment_243230" align="aligncenter" width="720"]
Concept art for the mysterious Far Realms by artist Titus Lunter.[/caption] "The Far Realm, as the name implies, is this far off dimension that is outside the great wheel of existence," Crawford explains. "It's this mind-bending reality that is not bound by the rules of the rest of the D&D multiverse, and it is that reality that creatures like mind flayers and beholders originally come from. It's one of the reasons why those creatures are so terrifying to pretty much everybody else in the D&D multiverse. And not just humanoids, you know – even dragons are probably like, 'Oh no.' And we have a massive table of different effects that player characters might have to face in a place where that alien dimension has erupted into the material plane." [caption id="attachment_243229" align="aligncenter" width="720"]
Concept art for a haunted realm by artist Marcela Medeiros[/caption] "The Haunted Realm is, in some ways, the classic 'spooky horror area' that a group might wander into; and just as we did with the Far Realm incursion, here we give DMs a set of mechanical options for spooky things a group of heroes might face if they wander into this place that's haunted by the unquiet dead or some other disquieting presence. And for both the Haunted Realm, the Far Realm incursion, as well as the other supernatural regions in the book, each one has a set of triggers that we've provided where, if one of these triggers occurs, then one of these rules options can click into place. Giving the DM essentially a menu of things that can suddenly cause the haunted region or the Far Realm region to suddenly jump into action. And in each case, those triggers are tailored to the particular supernatural regions so that you really get the sense of being in this place, saturated with a particular type of magic or supernatural power. And those triggers are a mix of story events occurring and mechanical things occurring. [caption id="attachment_243229" align="aligncenter" width="720"]
A mimic colony as portrayed by artist Sam Keiser.[/caption] "We love including in most of our books dashes of whimsy, and sometimes the whimsy gets mixed up with the horrifying," Crawford laughs. "And [the mimic colony] is a great example of the whimsical and the horrifying hanging out together. We just thought it would be delightful – slash terrifying – to have this whole region you wander into and have this dawning horrific realization that everything we're looking at is a mimic. And so we provide rules for what happens when you discover you're in a mimic colony. And that even includes providing a set of what are essentially lair actions for the mimic colony itself. We also include in those rules some... subtle enhancements for mimics that are in that colony, like them suddenly gaining the ability to communicate. So you could suddenly discover you're getting telepathic messages from a chair, which could be played very whimsically in a particular campaign, or could be a source of great fear."
The Whole Cauldron
Here you have the entire contents of Tasha's Cauldron of Everything, covering everything from the new character origin options to magic items, puzzles, and the DM tools detailed above. We talked with Mr. Crawford about a great many aspects of the book, so we've included a transcript of our discussion below.
IGN: You and the design team have spoken at length about the new options for players wishing to change the abilities associated with a character's lineage, but it looks like players can also change their character's skills and subclasses? Jeremy Crawford: Changing a skill and changing your subclass are great examples of the fun nuggets we like to include in a book like this that weren't necessarily in Unearthed Arcana, because we always like there to be a few surprises. People saw a version changing skills back in Unearthed Arcana in our Class Feature Variant article where we explored this as an option, customized for each class, but we decided when finishing the book, it was better to just provide a general rule for everybody.
Changing your subclass, though, is truly something people haven't seen. We give you concrete guidance on when is a good time to change your subclass, how you might go about it, some comments for the DM on whether some in-world training should be involved in this transformation of your character. This is the kind of thing many DMs let their players already do with their characters, but what we often find is that some DMs are hesitant to allow this sort of liberty unless we, basically, give "official permission" to do it.
So this is really us telling DMs, "It's okay to let people do this." You know? If they find their subclass just isn't playing the way they'd hoped, or if there's been a major story transformation for their character, changing your subclass is a great way to address those different things... These all go under what I often refer to as the "follow your bliss" umbrella of giving people the permission – and the encouragement – to make tweaks that will enhance their enjoyment of their character and of D&D more broadly.
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Artist: Robin Olausson[/caption]
IGN: So how do you balance that sense of flexibility or experimentation while still writing hard and fast Rules™ for D&D?
JC: So we make things as airtight as possible when you get into, say, a class feature, or a spell – really anything that we expect to go on your character sheet – we design it so that it can be run the way it's written. But the moment we start giving the DM tools, or we're talking to the player directly about the decisions they make about the character, that's where we like to inject these reminders and these encouragements to explore new options, change things, try out homebrew, that kind of thing.
We have this balance that we always maintain between very rigorous, solid design of player-facing game mechanics, while at the same time encouraging playfulness, exploration, modification, when talking to dungeon masters and directly to the player. It's sort of like, when we're in a way, talking to the character, which is, you know, "Here are your class features, here are your spells, here's a feat potentially, that you're going to take," then it's very much, "This must be worded as well as we can, as clearly as we can, be as balanced as well as it can be. This is a rule and it's meant to be played this way." But the moment we turn and look to the player and the DM, the mode shifts to, "All right, these rules are here, you can play them the way they're written, but if you want to explore another direction, if you want to experiment with how this particular class feature functions, go for it." And we hold both of those perspectives in our minds at the same time.
IGN: Regarding subclasses – of the 30 included in Tasha's (not including variant class features or new options for existing subclasses), 22 are making the jump from playtest material to Official Subclass. What determines which subclasses get to formally become part of the D&D pantheon?
JC: When we're first concepting a subclass as a possible addition to the game, we're typically looking at what I refer to as "functional gaps" for a class. And what I mean by that is, we're looking for places where a kind of area of functionality is not currently addressed by another subclass in the game. IGN: Like giving players who typically focus on melee combat a way to try chaos magic with the Barbarian's Path of Wild Magic? JC: Yeah – we also look for story gaps, where there might be an archetype associated with a class that we're not serving particularly well yet. So we think, "Oh, we need to design a new subclass to really dig into this particular archetype." A great example of this would be the [Fighter's] Psi Warrior. Until Tashas, we had not done a fighter powered by psionic energy yet. This is a great example of a story archetype that we wanted to address because it's something that has appeared in D&D before. We then send out our drafts to the community through Unearthed Arcana to get their impressions. We want to find out: "Does this option resonate with you? Does it excite you? Do you notice things in here that you love, and are there some things that you'd love to see improved?" We then take all of that feedback and we analyze it, and we look for ways that we can improve each of the options... We'll then take that and make improvements, but then – in some cases – we'll get feedback on something where the message we're getting is, "People liked this, but they want a lot changed about it." And in cases like that, we'll then sometimes release yet another version of it in Unearthed Arcana. You saw that with the genie, where we had an initial version called The Noble Genie, and then a revised version that we released later in Unearthed Arcana called simply The Genie. And then, after all of those rounds of playtest analysis, game balancing, editing the text, et cetera, then the new subclass – or spell, or Feat, or other new game option – gets to finally come home and be in a book like Tasha's. [caption id="attachment_243230" align="aligncenter" width="720"]
Artists: Brian Valeza & Kieran Yanner[/caption] IGN: Were there any subclasses that didn't make the jump to Official Material in Tasha's? JC: Not many! This past year and a half of Unearthed Arcana generated mostly positive feedback, so there were very few casualties in this design process. One of the ones that comes to mind is the Onomancy Wizard option, the "True Names" wizard. It wasn't a [mechanical] balance reason that caused it not to make it in, it was simply because the community told us, "Eh, we don't need to see any more of this."
Our general goal whenever we're refining anything for the game is – and this is for every class – we want to make new options as easy to use as possible. We want them to be fun and interesting, but not to slow down play too much [...] I think [the Onomancy wizard] was a mix of complexity that wasn't balanced by enough fun, and people have conflicting notions of what true names are and how they should function, not only in D&D, but in a fantasy world in general. So, there was also some static about the very archetype itself.
IGN: I see a lot of cantrips from the Sword Coast Adventurer's Guide in the Spells section. Are those simple reprints or have there been updates made to them?
JC: When we decided to bring in the Bladesinging subclass for the wizard into this book and remove the [Forgotten Realms*]-specific elements of it – which includes removing the requirement that a person be an elf or a half-elf to be a member of that subclass, so we're very officially opening the subclass up to everybody – we decided that if we're going to bring in Bladesinging, then we should bring in the cantrips that we originally designed to go along with that subclass. So that's the main reason those cantrips appear in this book. Then, in the process of bringing them over, we decided to make a few tweaks to those spells so that the wording would better align with our original design intent [...] Any of the changes that people see there really are just bringing those spells into alignment with how we always meant for those spells to function.
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Artist: Andrew Mar[/caption]
IGN: The'res a section of Tasha's dedicated to puzzles in the DM Tools chapter – can you give us a bit more insight into what those might look like?
JC: These puzzles were all designed by Elisa Teague, she is a fabulous puzzle designer [...] and she created puzzles that are meant to be engaging on their own, but also engaging as content that can be put into a D&D campaign. We really were looking for puzzles that are also fully D&D; that a DM could take, drop into a particular adventure, and provide a new play experience. Many campaigns are filled with splendid role-playing, sweeping storytelling, exciting battles, but sometimes DMs are hesitant to add puzzles into that mix. And so we wanted to take some of that intimidation factor away with these puzzles, showing not only can you incorporate these and do so without too much fuss, and also provide suggestions for customizing these puzzles so that you could reuse them, and maybe inspire you to create puzzles of your own.
I won't ruin the solution, but one of the puzzles I really like in the book, it comes with a map of an island, and part of solving the puzzle is figuring out connections between different things you see on that map. I love this one because (A) it's a fun puzzle, but (B) it's a great example of us making a puzzle that is fully D&D, because a DM can also use that island map as the location for an adventure or even a whole mini-campaign. [poilib element="accentDivider"] "For me, the thing I'm most excited about – aside from the things I've already talked about that I'm excited about," laughs Crawford, "is people seeing the complete package. When leading up to a book, it can be fun to zero in on this element or that element, but what people won't get to experience until they have the whole book in their hands is how all these pieces fit together. And that's one of the things that was especially satisfying for me and the rest of the team to craft: looking at how the new class feature options, the new subclasses, the new feats, the new spells, and the new magic items can all be used together, and how the combination of all of these elements will be able to create some radically new D&D experiences. And so again, as, as much as I love each of the individual pieces, in some ways I'm even more thrilled about how all those pieces come together." Tasha's Cauldron of Everything is available in print starting on November 17 in North America and December 1 in Europe and Asia, with digital versions available for pre-order at Roll20 and D&D Beyond. [poilib element="accentDivider"] JR is a Senior Editor at IGN and could literally spend all day talking about D&D - and has! You can follow him for more TRPG and gaming content on Twitter.IGN UK Podcast #563: PS5 Hands-On and Watch Dogs: Legion
Spider-Man: Miles Morales Spider-Verse Costume Revealed
The suit, which is identical to the one worn by Miles in the animated movie, is not just a new skin for the game character; it's actually animated to look like it's at a lower frame-rate to recreate the distinct look of the movie. Alongside that, comic-book sounds appear in the world, just like in the Spider-Verse movie, including a great 'ssspak!' and 'thock' when hitting a goon. If you wanted a faithful recreation of Mile's Spider-Verse moves, it looks like Insomniac Games may well be delivering the goods. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/09/16/spider-man-miles-morales-gameplay-trailer"] Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales is a launch game for PlayStation 5, and will feature new famous villains as well as a new look for Peter Parker. For more, check out our round-up of all the gameplay details. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.Your first look at the unmistakably stylish "Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse" Suit, a launch day bonus for "Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales" on PS4 and PS5: https://t.co/DFVXFslvmK #BeGreater #BeYourself @PlayStation pic.twitter.com/mUlS4WQrwO
— Marvel Entertainment (@Marvel) October 30, 2020