Catch These December Animal Crossing Bugs, Fish, and Sea Creatures

Here are the new December bugs, fish, and sea creatures.

RDO: Claim the Prestigious Bounty Hunter License and Hunt a New Legendary Bounty This Week

This week in Red Dead Online, claim the new Prestigious Bounty Hunter license, hunt a brand new Legendary Bounty, and much more.

Twin Mirror Review

After waking up in a hotel room early on in Twin Mirror, your shirt covered in blood and the memories of the previous night’s events shrouded in fog, developer Dontnod’s latest adventure initially seems less like a whodunnit and more like a you done it. Unfortunately, that’s about as suspenseful things ever get. While there’s no shortage of intrigue at its outset, Twin Mirror’s lean running time leaves little room to flesh out all the characters in its small town setting or introduce any form of misdirection to its mystery, robbing the reveals in its closing chapters of any real weight or surprise as a result.

You play Sam Higgs, an investigative journalist who returns to the West Virginian town of Basswood after a two-year absence when his friend Nick is killed in a tragic car crash. There’s an immediate sense of hostility toward you from the townsfolk, many of whom place the blame of Basswood’s flagging local economy upon an article Sam wrote exposing the shady standards of the local coal mining industry. This tension is further amplified by Sam’s fragile mental state, personified by an imaginary twin who serves as either the angel or the devil on his shoulder, steering him one way or another at the critical junctions that shape Twin Mirror’s branching six-hour story in typical Dontnod style. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/12/01/the-first-11-minutes-of-twin-mirror"]

I found the escalating friction between Sam and his hallucinated other half to be far more interesting than any of the other character interactions in Twin Mirror. So much of the supporting cast is painted in the broadest of strokes and you’re only afforded small windows of opportunity to get to know them. It also doesn’t help that both the acting and motion capture seem noticeably stiff in this post-The Last of Us Part 2 era, or that there’s often no tonal consistency between individual conversations. At one point I managed to annoy a local coffee shop owner by cutting her off in the middle of a conversation, and when I opened a new dialogue with her immediately afterwards she acted as though we hadn’t spoken in years, which shattered the moment-to-moment illusion that my inputs were having much of an effect on my surroundings.

Mind Over Matter

Speaking of shattered illusions, at times Sam will retreat from reality into his “mind palace,” a dreamlike realm where shimmering crystalline shards arrange themselves into fragments of Sam’s memory. At first these sections seem like a safe haven, but as Sam’s anxiety intensifies over the course of his investigation they soon transform into nightmarish voids. These sections are constructed with clumsy chase sequences and overly simplistic environmental puzzles, but their atmosphere at least introduces a welcome jolt of trepidation to Twin Mirror’s otherwise fairly sedate mood. I felt a greater pull to explore in this otherworldly expanse than I did poking around the sleepy town of Basswood, so I was disappointed that I was so rarely given the chance.

Sam’s mind palace can also be used as a tool on the handful of occasions you need to reconstruct the sequence of events at a crime scene. At the site of Nick’s car accident, for example, you’re able to adjust a set of variables like whether Nick was drunk or sober, and whether he swerved to miss an animal or a fallen tree, and then watch how each permutation plays out. Although there’s always a variety of conclusions to arrive at, only one of them is ever the correct one that will advance the story, meaning that these crime scene recreations are less about drawing your own conclusion as they are arbitrarily swapping around their individual components until you get it right.

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While I was disappointed at the lack of any real deduction required, at least I felt some agency during these reconstructive sequences. The same can’t really be said for Twin Mirror’s evidence gathering, which for the most part amounts to shuffling around a given location, pixel-hunting for any white button prompts that indicate interactivity, and gradually ticking them all off before you can trigger the crime scene reconstruction. While there are a couple of exceptions that require at least half a moment of contemplation – scouring an office for the combination to a safe, for example – these investigations for the most part just involve clicking on everything you come across while Sam mumbles observations with all the wit and insight of a teenager’s tweets.

Pac-Man Fever

Possibly the only major surprise I uncovered in Twin Mirror is its apparent reverence for Pac-Man. The classic arcade pellet-chomper from the ‘80s is everywhere you look in the opening hours. There’s a Pac-Man arcade machine in Sam’s mind palace, there’s a Pac-Man arcade machine in cherished photos, there’s the Pac-Man character recreated by post-it notes on the wall of the local newspaper office and, I’m happy to report, there’s a fully playable Pac-Man arcade machine in the local pub.

Oddly enough, there are also clear parallels to be made between Pac-Man and Sam. Sam spends a lot of his time wandering around in all directions looking for white dots, a lot like Pac-Man. Sam depends on pills in order to help him confront the ghosts of his past, a lot like Pac-Man. If Sam tries to leave the confines of an investigation area he immediately returns to the same area, a lot like Pac-Man. And if you feel like I’m reaching too much with this analogy, consider this: in an early flashback Sam’s friend Nick straight up tells Sam that he's “a lot like Pac-Man.”

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I don’t know how much of Pac-Man’s pizza-shaped presence is by design or purely coincidental, but what I do know is that I spent far more time puzzling over why the developers seemingly drew so much inspiration from a forty-year-old arcade icon when crafting their modern story-driven psychological thriller than I spent analysing the actual plot. That may have been because Twin Mirror’s central murder mystery is exceedingly straightforward, low on surprises and staggeringly small in scope. I played through the story twice, making different decisions each time, and although the second ending revealed slightly more than the first, both arrived at unfulfilling and entirely predictable conclusions that didn’t even come close to blowing the doors off my mind palace.

Apparently Twin Mirror was originally conceived as a three-part episodic series before such plans were scrapped in favour of producing a single standalone story, but what’s actually here ultimately feels like a season of television that jumps from the third episode straight to the season finale. It just doesn’t allow enough time to build any story momentum, develop its characters enough, or ratchet up the suspense.

King of Seas: 15-Minute Developer Gameplay Walkthrough

King of Seas is an intriguing new pirate-tastic action-RPG set on the high seas. It's due out in early 2021 for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch. Take a look at the video above to get a great idea of what King of Seas is all about from game designer Luca Cafasso as he walks you through about 15 minutes of higher level gameplay from the game. The world needs more good pirate games, and hopefully this will be one of them! King of Seas kicks off our December IGN First month of coverage on some fantastic "Games to Watch in 2021." While we certainly won't be spotlighting all of them (there are only 31 days in the month after all), we'll be bringing you exclusive new looks at a number of big games you'll be playing next year throughout the month of December. We've done this in years past and had a lot of fun with it, so we're doing it again! [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=king-of-seas-screenshots&captions=true"] And if you're shopping for the best deals this holiday season, don't miss the IGN Deals team's ongoing coverage of the very best holiday gifts to shop for! [poilib element="accentDivider"] Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.  

Sony Made PS5 Activity Cards as a Response to Single Player Problems

The Activity Cards that appear as part of the PS5 user interface were created by Sony in response to player complaints about single player gaming. A new report from Vice details an internal Sony document that the company used to explain its new Activities and game help systems. The documents reportedly begins with Sony explaining that “single player is thriving” and that PlayStation owners regularly spend more time playing offline games than online ones. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/15/first-look-at-the-ps5-ui"] To ensure offline games were better catered to, Sony had gathered some criticism of single player gaming which needed to be addressed on PS5. The problems included players saying they “don't play unless I have 2+ free hours” because of being unsure of how long a game may ask of them, that they “Forgot what I was doing in this game last time”, and that it “Takes a lot of time to scan through long help videos when stuck”. Players were also concerned about using social tools because of game spoilers. In response, the document presents the PS5 Activity Cards. As you may know, Activities provide on-screen card prompts for different aspects of a game, often along with an estimated time for completion. When playing Spider-Man: Miles Morales, for example, you can see that a side quest will take five minutes, or a main quest that will need 45 minutes. These cards will then take you directly to those activities. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=what-works-and-what-doesnt-about-the-ps5&captions=true"] In addition, Cards can be used to provide game help, and the PS5 features more tools to keep spoiler content under wraps so as not to ruin other players’ experiences. For more on the PS5's unique features, check out our pages on PS5's Game Switcher, our hidden feature guide, and our comprehensive PS5 wiki guide. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. 

Xbox Operating Sytem Update Lets Players Preload Game Pass Games

A substantial operating system update has landed on the Xbox Series X and S and the Xbox One family of systems, providing users with custom dynamic backgrounds and the ability to preload Xbox Game Pass games. You can see the full update notes on the Xbox Wire website, which digs into the ins and outs of the first major update for Xbox Series X|S. [caption id="attachment_244644" align="aligncenter" width="720"] The six new dynamic themes available with the new Xbox OS update.[/caption] Preloading for Game Pass means that if you're anticipating a game that is launching on Game Pass in the future, you can choose to download it ahead of time so there are no bumps in the road on launch day. In addition, akin to Netflix, the Xbox Game Pass app on console or mobile now has a 'Coming Soon' section that will tell you what games are arriving in the near future. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/05/xbox-series-x-review"] Alongside the Game Pass preloads are six new dynamic backgrounds, which each pay homage to previous Xbox consoles, including one with concentric circles that harkens back to the days of the Xbox 360. The update also adds special filters for your game library that allow you to sort by games optimised for the Xbox Series X and S. There is also now a new UI tag that lets you know when a game is utilising Auto HDR, which displays when you open the Guide menu. You'll also be able to check your achievements in the Game Activity tab, accessed by pressing the Xbox button. In other Xbox news, Microsoft is working to figure out why PS5 is outperforming the Series X in certain games. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Treyarch Boosts Weapon XP in Call of Duty Black Ops Cold War Following Player Complaints

The latest patch for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War has boosted Weapon XP earn rates across Multiplayer and Zombies, following player complaints about slow progression. The change was revealed as part of Treyarch's latest patch notes, which detail the changes to Weapon XP as well as a few other bug fixes across Zombies and the new Nuketown '84 map. "Coming out of last week’s 2XP + 2WXP event, we’ve made some additional tuning changes to global Weapon XP earn rates across the board," the notes read. "Starting today, you’ll now level up your weapons and unlock more attachments faster than the previous standard rate in both MP and Zombies." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/11/17/call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-multiplayer-review"] The article notes that there was an issue, specifically in the Die Maschine Zombies mode, that was "causing lower-than-targeted Weapon XP earn rates in solo matches and in later rounds." Treyarch has a few "2WXP events" planned for December to make up for it. The patch has also fixed an "out-of-bounds gap" in the new Nuketown 84 map. Here's how to complete the Nuketown Easter Egg in Black Ops Cold War, if you're still searching for the solution. Previously, the pace at which your weapons would upgrade in Cold War was slow, especially by comparison to previous games. Last week, players took to Reddit to note the disappointing EXP Rates in-game, especially in Zombies. Throughout the month of November, players like Reddit user Evchev have reported getting more than 1000 eliminations with a weapon without reaching the final rung of Weapon XP progression.  Hopefully, these issues will now be fixed with the latest patch, and players can make up for the time lost with Treyarch's upcoming Double XP events. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.