Valorant 0.49 Update Adds Observer Mode, UI and HUD Changes

See what other changes were made to Valorant with the 0.49 patch notes.

Watch Dogs: Legion - Release Date, Gameplay, and More

This article will serve as a news hub that will be updated as more Watch Dogs: Legion news comes out. Watch Dogs: Legion is the third and upcoming entry to Ubisoft's hacking-filled series. Set in the near future in a fictional version of London where the UK has withdrawn from the EU, the authoritarian government is now using ctOS and a private security company to spy on its citizens and violently enforce the law. Players are tasked with recruiting DedSec members to form a resistance against the corrupt regime using a new mechanic introduced in Watch Dogs: Legion that allows players to assume control and play as anyone in the game. Watch Dogs: Legion is an ambitious game, to say the least, so we've put together everything we know so far, including more about the gameplay.

Release Date

Initially announced for a March 2020 launch at E3 2019, the Watch Dogs: Legion release date has been pushed back to late 2020 to early 2021. Ubisoft co-founder Yves Guillemot told investors the Watch Dogs: Legion delay allows the teams "more development time to ensure that their respective innovations are perfectly implemented so as to deliver optimal experiences for players." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=watch-dogs-legion-e3-2019-reveal&captions=true"] Ubisoft announced it has plans to release five AAA games in 2020-21, three of which are coming by the end of 2020. However, at the time of writing Ubisoft hasn't announced which games it plans to release in this timeframe. Additionally, it has been confirmed by Ubisoft that Watch Dogs: Legion will be a cross-generation game, meaning it'll be released on the Xbox Series X, PS5, Xbox One, and PS4.

Gameplay

Watch Dogs: Legion is an open world action-adventure game that takes place in a fictional post-Brexit version of London. The city has been taken over by a private security group called Albion, who have used the Blume Corporation's central operating system, or ctOS, to turn London into a surveillance state. It'll be up to you to recruit a group of hackers to join DedSec and regain control of the city. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/10/watch-dogs-legion-preview"] IGN's Matt Purslow visited Ubisoft Toronto to meet with the team behind Legion and watch the game being played for 45 minutes. In his preview, he said, "At first glance, Legion is what you'd expect from the third game in the Watch Dogs series; there's an open-world where you can drive cars, hack CCTV cameras, and play havoc with people's lives and smartphones. But there's so much more to Watch Dogs: Legion. Underpinning the entire game is an interconnected network of systems that allow for an astonishing set of possibilities." One unique feature about Watch Dogs: Legion is that there isn't a main character per se. Players will be able to play as any character they want and work to recruit that character to join DedSec. Each random character will have a unique set of skills and their own backstory that will play into how they contribute to the resistance. Any decision you make can impact a character's support of DedSec. For example, if you complete missions to help that character, they are more likely to join the resistance. Alternatively, if a member of DedSec accidentally (or purposely) kills a character's family member, they are more likely to oppose the hacktivist group. Watch Dogs: Legion will have both a single-player mode and an online co-op mode where players can play online with up to three friends to "take on entirely new co-op missions and challenging end-game content." For more on Legion's focus on personal privacy, take a look at our feature on how social media has shaped the Watch Dogs series. Additionally, make sure to check out the full list of traits and perks available to recruitable Operatives in the game. Oh, and unlike Watch Dogs 2, Legion will not actually have any dogs.

Editions

There are currently four different Watch Dogs: Legion editions available for preorder — the Standard Edition, Gold Steelbook Edition, Ultimate Edition, Collector's Edition. The Standard Edition is available for $60 and includes the base game and the Golden King Pack, which is a set of three skins. On the other hand, the Gold Steel Book Edition will cost $109 and comes with a steelbook case, the Golden King Pack, a season pass, and three days of early access before launch. Players can also preorder the Ultimate Edition which comes with everything the Gold Steelbook edition has, plus an Urban Jungle Pack and four weeks of VIP Status. The Watch Dogs: Legion Collector's Edition can be purchased for $189 and includes everything from the other editions, plus an in-game mask and some cool physical items like an exclusive steelbook, a double-sided propaganda poster, a mask, stickers, and a special Collector's Edition box. Check out our Watch Dogs: Legion preorder guide for more on the different editions and where you can get them. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Andrew Smith is a freelance contributor with IGN. Follow him on Twitter @_andrewtsmith.

How the Coronavirus Pandemic Has Affected Game Developers

2020 was shaping up to be a big year for the games industry. A new console generation and some of the most anticipated, heavy-hitting games in years ensured there was plenty to look forward to.

COVID-19 has changed that. Like so many businesses, the games industry hasn’t been immune to this unprecedented event, and conferences, games, and consoles have all been affected.

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Developing From Home

For game developers, COVID-19 has created numerous issues. Countrywide lockdowns and social distancing measures have stopped companies from operating normally,  fuelling discussions about how the industry functions now and in a post-COVID-19 world. These range from big, obvious questions, like what the future of big industry events like E3 may look like, to less public-facing issues like including how to protect the health of game developers. Like many of us, though, the biggest change has been working from home. For every dev used to office life, the first step was establishing  ‘business-as-usual’ from home; a particularly pertinent measure considering there is no timeline for the pandemic.

Developers at Riot, for example, had to launch the beta of their upcoming FTP FPS Valorant completely remotely, and finding a way to do that smoothly, as if they had all been in the office with systems running normally, required some changes. “Interestingly, the complexities we’re running into are the things we’ve normally taken for granted,” she continued. “For example, designers are used to huddling around a workspace -- after a playtest -- to give feedback and think about how they want to tweak things. On any given day, I see artists at each other’s desks providing feedback. That’s had to change. There are challenges, but the Valorant team feels supported -- especially by Riot’s IT and security teams -- to get things resolved as quickly and efficiently as possible.”

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In addition to the pre-launch development, the launch rollout of Valorant was also affected by self-quarantine. “We had live events planned for several influencers to start onboarding in advance of the beta,” Anna Donlon, Valorant executive producer, said. “We completely changed our approach and made them virtual instead of in-person. We’re also dependent on many teams and partners to help us launch Valorant."

Bungie -- whose main headquarters are located in Seattle, one the first US cities hit by COVID-19 -- took steps to implement working from home strategies before many others in early February, such as supplying employees with developer-grade laptops, and play-testing using Google Stadia, to reduce some of the obvious headaches.

“Getting playtests at scale is a hard thing to do – a lot of bandwidth involved – so [Stadia] has been collaborating with us to set that up and that looks like it’s going to be a really amazing solution for us,” explained Bungie chief operating officer Patrick O’Kelley. “It’s not something we necessarily thought about initially but it looks like it’s going to be a great way for us to keep getting regular playtests and do it pretty easily.”

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/24/ps5s-unconfirmed-new-tech-next-gen-console-watch"]

Like Riot and Bungie, Finnish studio Remedy (Control, Alan Wake), which employs 260 people from 25 countries, began remote working preparations in February. To recreate work environments at home Remedy has shipped its workers’ office chairs to employees, alongside other equipment to make the transition easier. But bandwidth and latency issues have become increasingly disruptive as internet providers struggle with more companies working remotely. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Bandwidth%20and%20latency%20issues%20have%20become%20increasingly%20disruptive%20as%20internet%20providers%20struggle%20with%20more%20companies%20working%20remotely."]

“When you go to a situation where 85% of your company is working remotely, that’s a very different thing,” Remedy’s Communications Director Thomas Puha said. “Remote desktopping to your work PC at the office, for example, works amazingly well, but it isn't perfect. If your work PC is at home, you have nothing to remote desktop to at the office. You lose access to some network drives, and it's on that PC that you deploy builds to consoles, too. Since game sizes are huge these days, transferring 30-60 gigabytes to test a build over an internal network is no problem. Downloading that outside of the office, however, that is a problem.”

The struggle for some studio employees to effectively communicate while working remotely has compounded technical issues even further. “We can't play-test very well due to desktop streaming,” said one anonymous worker in the AAA development space. “Design discussions have taken a huge blow too. Everyone is in meetings all the time, so I can't just go and find the right people to communicate with.”

For smaller development companies, like Frictional Games (SOMA, Amnesia: The Dark Descent), the switch has been more straightforward. “Remote working was always an option, and how most [employees]  do work, at Frictional,” Frictional CEO Thomas Grip explained. “We have less than ten people using the office and most are not there every day. People miss the social contact and being able to talk face-to-face but, in terms of how people do their work or how the projects are run, there is no change.”

Combating COVID-19’s Hidden Health Challenges

Employee welfare has become an increasingly important discussion in the industry recently after reports of crunch from developers across multiple studios have been made public. In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, these conversations about physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing have evolved.

“The biggest potential issues are if a lot of people at the company get ill or if any essential partners have issues doing their work,” Grip said. “These are things we can and are doing, preventive work for. We’re making sure everybody knows what safety measures to take to stay healthy, are hiring extra people, and are already talking to partners about potential workarounds.”

Remote working, coupled with school closures, means that workers with children have to juggle homeschooling with their jobs. For others, social distancing measures bring on feelings of isolation and loneliness, particularly for those who live alone. A review conducted by the medical journal The Lancet, which looked at the impact of social distancing on mental health, suggested that lengthy quarantine periods could lead to long-term negative psychological effects.

Mental health gaming charities have noticed a rise in visitor numbers since the pandemic began. Australian non-profit organization CheckPoint saw a 128% increase in website views between February 24 and April 13, and received numerous messages from studio HR departments requesting support for their workers as they transitioned to remote working.

“We’ve been working hard on creating mental health resources, which are specific to this COVID-19 lockdown period, on topics like how to prioritize self-care and wellbeing when you’re self-isolating and working from home,” CheckPoint Charity Manager Sarah Crowe said. “We’ve also noticed a lot of people have been utilizing our global mental health resources page, and our social media engagement has been rising as well.”

COVID-19’S various stressors can manifest themselves as physical ailments too. “Missing non-virtual human contact, everyday stress, the uncertainty of the future, and having my family and friends in Italy has caused headaches and stiff neck,” Feral Interactive developer Seb Cossu revealed. “My grandma and I had planned to spend our 30th and 90th birthdays together but, with the pandemic, we won't have the chance.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=COVID-19%E2%80%99S%20various%20stressors%20can%20manifest%20themselves%20as%20physical%20ailments%20too."]

 Prioritizing employee mental wellbeing, then, is at the forefront of many developers’ ongoing lockdown plans. Ubisoft, which employs almost 16,000 people, has allowed some workers to return home to work remotely and be closer to friends and family. For employees who can’t travel home, studios have implemented strategies to provide additional help. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/27/ps5-xbox-series-x-no-delay-concerns-yet-next-gen-console-watch"]

Remedy has built an internal support infrastructure in attempts to support the mental wellbeing of its employees.  “We have a lot of people who moved to Finland and don’t necessarily have a support network like most of us who lived here all of our lives,” Puha said. “So we definitely want to make sure everybody knows we’re here for them.”

That support infrastructure extends to every Remedy worker. Daily Slack updates let employees know what the company’s COVID-19 “task force” -- a division composed of IT, Human Resources, and Internal Communications departments that deals with remote working issues -- is dealing with. A hotline, opened through Remedy’s healthcare provider, allows workers to chat about any problems they’re facing. Other Slack channels, where employees can share images of meals and pets, or share tips about staying physically and mentally healthy, have been set up as well.

A healthy and happy workforce is also pivotal to Riot’s remote working strategy. “Rioters and their families are my foremost concern,” Donlon said. “I want the team healthy, both physically and mentally. Some of us have kids who we are now homeschooling, or high-risk loved ones that we need to provide care for, and then there’s the stress of the whole thing. We will be here to support them the whole way.”

Charities like CheckPoint are on hand to provide additional help 24/7. COVID-19 relevant mental health resources, alongside a list of global emergency hotlines, are available online for anyone who is struggling to cope.

“Knowing first and foremost that it’s okay that things feel different is crucial here,” Crowe said. “It’s really important to prioritize your mental health in general, just like your physical health, and note that you don’t need to be sick to be eligible for professional support. For a lot of people, the act of going to work can be a real highlight, and it’s important to remember that not all work interactions have to be work-related. If you need immediate mental health support, please contact a medical professional -- there’s no stigma in looking after your wellbeing.”

It’s unclear how game development will change post-pandemic, but it is clear things will change. Remote working may become more prevalent, now that it’s proven to work. Game release delays, or an end to public release date announcements, might be more common as stressful crunch periods become a relic of the past. Whenever the global climate returns to some semblance of normality, it’s hoped that everyone -- the games industry included -- can learn from this unprecedented crisis. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=It%E2%80%99s%20unclear%20how%20game%20development%20will%20change%20post-pandemic%2C%20but%20it%20is%20clear%20things%20will%20change."]

“I think the world at large, governments and really all of us people should learn from this,” Puha said. “Once this is over and we go back to working in our office, we will be better prepared to fully work from home if we need to. But the plan is to be back in the office, whenever that will be.”

Check out IGN’s safety guide for COVID-19 here. For a list of global mental health resources, you can visit Checkpoint's website.  [poilib element="accentDivider"] Tom Power is a UK-based freelance journalist and lifelong gamer. Follow him on Twitter for the occasional nugget of wisdom between GIFs and terrible hot takes.

Red Dead Online: Get Bonus Role XP for Collectors and Bounty Hunters

This week in RDO, score extra Role XP for both Bounty Hunters and Collectors, take advantage of limited-time deals, and much more.

V-Rally 4 and Warhammer 40k: Inquisitor – Martyr Lead May's Games with Gold

Xbox has announced that V-Rally 4, Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr, Sensible World of Soccer, and Overlord II will be May 2020's Games with Gold. Xbox Live Gold members will have exclusive access to these games, although the availability of each title varies throughout the month. V-Rally 4 will be available from May 1 - May 31 on Xbox One, Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr from May 16 - June 15 on Xbox One, Sensible World of Soccer from May 1 - May 15 on Xbox One and Xbox 360, and Overlord II from May 16 - 31 on Xbox One and Xbox 360. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/28/xbox-may-2020-games-with-gold-trailer"] V-Rally 4 was released in 2018 and features over 50 famous and customizable vehicles that allow players to take on the "challenges of rallycross, drifts, buggies, and hill climbs." This title was the first V-Rally game since PlayStation 2's V-Rally 3 in 2002. Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr stars the Imperium's most powerful agent and has you imposing the Emperor's will across the Warhammer universe. It features Diablo-like combat and supports up to four players. In our review, we said "Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr gets a lot of things right, but drops the ball where it matters most for an action RPG." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/06/19/warhammer-40k-inquisitor-martyr-review"] Sensible World of Soccer was released in 2007 and features a "massive lineup of football clubs from around the world" and is a "classic reborn" of the 1994 title of the same name. In our review, we said "there’'s a reason Sensible World of Soccer is considered a sports classic. Unlike most sports games that feel dated and tired years later, this one holds up quite well. It’s simple and fast, removing two of the hurdles many people find with the sport of soccer." Overlord II was released in 2009 and puts you in the shoes of the evil villain. You get to control a Minion army in their battle against the Glorious Empire. In our review, we said "Overlord II is a sequel that is neither bigger nor better than its predecessor. The size and scope have been dialed back to something that is more akin to a straight action game. And since none of the frustrating elements of the first have been fixed -- namely the camera, control, and save structure -- this game just isn't much fun." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2018/09/06/v-rally-4-launch-trailer"] We still have a few days until May's Games with Gold become available, so be sure to jump on April's, which include Project CARS 2, the Knights of Pen and Paper Bundle and Toybox Turbos. [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.

10 Tips for Getting Started in Gears Tactics

Use these tips on your hunt for a Locust mastermind.

Battlefield Game Coming in 2021, Star Wars: Battlefront 2 Updates to Stop

DICE has announced that the Battle on Scarif update will arrive tomorrow, April 29, and will be the last regular content update for the game. EA also confirms that DICE will release a new Battlefield game in 2021. In a blog post, DICE creative director Dennis Brännvall explains that the game's 26th free content update will arrive tomorrow, and will be its final one. However, general support for the game will be ongoing: "Servers, in-game challenges, recurring events such as Double XP [...] and game support will carry this broad and rich Star Wars gaming experience into the future." It follows news that the June content update for Battlefield 5 will also be that game's last - in a statement to IGN, an EA spokesperson made clear that DICE will still be supporting both games: "The team at DICE is working on the standalone Battlefield V update releasing this summer, and continuing their work on delivering Community Games. While the studio’s vision for Star Wars Battlefront II is now complete with this week’s The Battle on Scarif Update, the servers, in-game challenges, recurring events and game support will continue as the game lives on with players and the community. We’re looking forward to hearing players’ stories for both games, for years to come." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-star-wars-game-review&captions=true"] The statement closes by all but confirming that, after taking a year off from the franchise, it seems we'll be getting a new DICE Battlefield game next year: "Longer term, the studio is focused on the future of Battlefield that we’ll be bringing to players in 2021." It's not clear at this point if Battlefield 5 or Battlefront 2 will join the other EA games that have been made available on Steam. The Battle on Scarif update will not only add the tropical planet location from Rogue One to multiple modes, but will add new hero and villain looks primarily based on The Rise of Skywalker - Rey with a yellow lightsaber, Kylo Ren with his reforged mask, and a new version of Emperor Palpatine. Reaching 5,000 kills with Darth Maul will add his Old Master appearance (complete with mechanical legs), and "uncovering the mystery on Takodana" will earn you Rey's hooded look. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/12/17/star-wars-battlefront-2-review-2019"] The Age of Rebellion will also be made available in Supremacy and Instant Action, with battles on Hoth, Tatooine, Yavin 4, Death Star and Scarif. Battles in the Age of Rebellion Supremacy will take place purely in the ground phase, but you will be able to pilot starfighters in a selection of locations. Offline solo players will also gain access to the game's co-op modes, working with and against AI in all co-op locations. This will be an option in the Instant Action menu. After a difficult start to life, we re-reviewed Battlefront 2 last year, calling it "a great package now that serves as one of the best and most thrilling ways to have an authentic Star Wars gaming experience." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter.