Immortals Of Aveum never looked like it was going to be successful, and it wasn’t. I root for it, however. In an industry where big budget blockbusters are most often sequels, or boringly safe, Aveum feels comparatively bold just by being a self-evidentaly daft first-person mashup of Call Of Duty and Doctor Strange magic powers.
Now it has a demo, so you can try it for free.
The Amazon Black Friday Sale has officially started, and currently the best deal on a PS5-compatible solid state drive is this Crucial P5 Plus 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive for only $94.99. Not only is the Crucial P5 Plus fast enough to exceed the specs of the PS5’s stock internal SSD, it also has a preinstalled heatsink that’s slim enough to fit and does a fine job of keeping things cool.
The Crucial P5 Plus meets all the requirements for your PS5 SSD upgrade. It supports transfer speeds of up to 6,660MB/s which is well above the 5,500MB/s minimum threshold. Yes there are faster SSDs out there, but if your intention is to put this in your PS5, then that extra speed is worthless because you’re bottlenecked by the original PS5 SSD. The integrated heatsink is robust and entirely made of aluminum for effective heat dissipation. It’s also slim enough to fit in the PS5 bay with the cover on. If you’re worried about opening up your PS5 case, don’t worry it’s very easy. Crucial has an official YouTube PS5 SSD install guide.
Looking for more Black Friday deals like this? Check out our guide to PS5 Black Friday deals for 2023.
Believe it or not, Black Friday deals are already in full swing at several of the big retailers. If video game Black Friday deals are what you’re after, you’ve come to the right place. While we’ve already broken them out by platform in other articles, you can find all of the deals gathered together below. That might be handy if you own multiple a PS5 and a Nintendo Switch, for instance.
Shortcuts
There are plenty of PS5 Black Friday deals available at all the major retailers.
This is the new slim PS5 model, and it comes with a free game, either Spider-Man 2 or Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3.
If you’re in the Mario camp, you’ll probably want to know what Nintendo Switch Black Friday deals are available. Quite a few, as it turns out.
Amazon
Best Buy
These are some of the best deals we’ve ever seen on Xbox Series X and Series S.
You won’t find better prices on Xbox controllers any other time of the year. If you want another player or two to join you for local co-op or competition, this is the time to stock up.
Amazon
Best Buy
Whether you have a Series X or Series S (or are in the market for one), you can find some terrific Xbox Black Friday deals at various retailers.
It seems that each year, Amazon’s Black Friday sale has begun going. Best Buy’s Black Friday sale is basically in full force. Walmart’s Black Friday sale will begin soon.
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Threads.
We asked Ridley Scott to pick one favorite shot from each of his movies, as well as one from any other film. The director of Alien, Blade Runner, Gladiator, Napoleon, and many, many others breaks down each shot for us and explains what makes each so special to him.
“I like the shots prowling around the corridors. I was the operator, so we designed the set just wide enough to get a dolly down or it was all handheld. We built the lights into the set, so the side lights would be attached to a board on the side of the set where you can actually dim them, lower them, and bring in light.
So, in a funny kind of way, that was a fairly new way of doing it. But we built the lights into the set and because I knew everything was going to be more or less handheld, that was the shot. So moving along there through then seeing the corridor, seeing the empty ship was kind of beautiful. It’s a haunted house. Alien, to me, was kind of really a B-movie, done in an A-plus way.”
“The opening shot. That’s the stunner and that is almost entirely Doug Trumbull and his team. I’d drawn the impossible, a dilapidated city and a ruined future. That’s what we’re doing, because of where we’d been heading for a while now. I think we’re trying to do a U-turn, I hope we’re not too late.
And so from that, the set itself was no bigger than this room. All those effects were done 65 mm on tracks. There are 17 passes on one negative. So, you’re tracking one, come back, track it again, and you’re exposing different parts of your negative. It’s a remarkable piece because it’s not digital, there’s no digital work there at all. It’s 17 passes on a negative.”
“The hand on wheat. The hand was on the last day print of photography in Tuscany, and I’d finished the movie and I’d gone to Tuscany to do heaven. I couldn’t possibly have dry ice with people walking in 48 frames a second, right? Can’t do that.
But what we found was a wheat field. I thought, “Wow, that’s interesting” Not vines, wheat. And in the wheat is this man wading through this high corn to meet his wife and child down the slope, way down the hill. And so, we followed him. As he was standing there, he was smoking in the corn. I said, “Stop smoking. It’s 40 degrees. Are you kidding me?!” As he walked out, he did this with his hand (gestures hand brushing the top of the wheat). I said, “Stop.”
So you’ve always got to keep your eyes open for a shot. We got the steady cam and followed the hand. That became the opening shot of the movie. So, in a funny kind of way, it becomes a symbol, a metaphor for immortality, going to heaven.”
“The four helicopters coming in over the city and landing in the high street. That’s all one shot. That’s real and it’s the first time I used 11 cameras. That’s with a guy called Slavimir Izak, and he said, “I hate the sunshine and I only work with one camera.” He ended up working in Morocco with 11 cameras. I think he enjoyed it.
I work with great cameramen. You need them. I’m very visual and I can operate as a good operator. That helps me frame things in multi-camera situations. I know what I want, but you still need the cameraman to actually be able to cope with who has what stop and how it’s going to be.”
Was it hard to make a helicopter war action film and not have Apocalypse Now in the back of your mind?
“No, I never thought about that, but that was a great shot. The music was fantastic, but the shot was good too.”
“Funny thing, I liked the scene coming out of his house, looking across the buildings to him going through to break the ice to wash. I’d just thought that looked so real and so medieval. I love that, yeah. The Forge, we built the village and forge, but the castle in the background was real. We went in there for the dining room scene in the long version. We just went in there, lit the fire, and did the scene. I’ve got a good eye. I’m born with a good eye.”
“The 360 track around our man sitting there, contemplating his death. He’s sitting in a spacesuit and we just do a full walk around him showing the impossibility of where he is. He ain’t going to get out.”
As a rule, do you prefer working with physical sets and natural conditions rather than CGI?
“No, I use CGI as a tool. It’s a tool. I mean, of course, sometimes doing the big battle scenes, if I’ve got 400 extras in a row like this, I’m shooting along them. It’s very easy. 400 is a lot of people, like, 200 meters. Add another 20,000 troops digitally. So you need that. Same with the horses.”
“There are many, actually. The best shot is the very high wide shot looking from the forest across the lake and you have the small figure of Napoleon and his officers all standing, waiting there. That’s pretty impressive. You get the scale of the lake. The lake is an airfield just outside of London. The forest is somewhere else near Gatwick Airport.”
Am I right in thinking that’s the same location as the opening of Gladiator?
“It is indeed. It’s where Marcus Aurelius sat on his horse. We found a forest for Gladiator and the guy said you can do what you want. You can burn it and rip it down. He says, “Because these trees haven’t grown the way we want them, the soil is too sandy, so do what you want.” And so we went in and we did the battle scene. It suddenly became the most valuable location near London. So it is been used again, and again, and again.”
“The Searchers. John Wayne walking through the door in silhouette out onto the desert. I think the film is still the best Western ever made. The thing that The Searchers got right was the space and time. The time it takes to ride the landscape. The time it takes to go somewhere. Where he says, “We’re going off.” And he says, “I’ll see you in a year,” and you are all on horseback. I mean, it’s such a different universe. It’s almost like science fiction.”
Simon Cardy also thinks the opening shot of Blade Runner is a stunner. Follow him on Twitter at @CardySimon.
For the first time since its 2017 debut, the consistently well-selling Mario Kart 8 Deluxe is no longer one of the top 20 best selling games in the United States for a given month.
Okay, that’s a bit of a word salad – but it’s a notable dethroning. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe first released in April of 2017, when it naturally topped The NPD Group’s (now Circana’s) list of the best-selling games in the US for that month. Ever since that month, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has appeared in the top 20 best selling games in the US, which Circana tracks by dollar sales.
But as GamesIndustry.biz noticed today, for the month of October, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe was gone. Its reign in the top 20 lasted a whopping 78 consecutive months, which feels like it must be some kind of record. We reached out to Circana for comment, and analyst Mat Piscatella confirmed GamesIndustry’s discovery. While he couldn’t confirm it was an all-time record for longest consecutive run in the top 20 (he’d have to look all the way back to 1995 to be absolutely sure), Piscatella said “technically it likely is”. But he also noted that if Grand Theft Auto 5 sales were still included in the chart “it may be a different story.” Take-Two stopped reporting digital sales to the NPD group in 2020, causing GTA 5 and multiple annual sports franchises to disappear from its charts.
It’s possible, even likely, that Mario Kart makes a return to the top in a later month. Its departure in October was likely impacted by the sheer number of brand new releases cracking the top 20 that month, including Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 (#1), Super Mario Bros. Wonder (#2), Assassin’s Creed: Mirage (#3), UFC 5 (#7), NHL 24 (#8), Sonic Superstars (#9), Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 (#12), Forza Motorsport (#17), and Lords of the Fallen (#20). That’s a lot of debut games to beat for a six-year-old game, nevermind that it’s also competing against other recent releases that are still selling well like Madden, Hogwarts Legacy, and Starfield. Given that Mario Kart 8 wasn’t just in the top 20, but actually in the top 10 as recently as August, it’s not shocking that it took an overwhelming month of new releases to push it down the roster.
What’s worth noting too is that it’s entirely possible Mario Kart 8 technically is still in the top 20. Just. Secretly. Nintendo does not report digital sales to Circana, meaning that Mario Kart 8 has stayed in the top 20 for six years on sheer strength of physical sales alone. That will shock no one who has observed the Switch bundle Nintendo loves to offer up for Black Friday year after year, but it’s still an incredible feat. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe also remains Nintendo’s best-selling Nintendo Switch title at 57 million units sold life to date, and the second-best selling Nintendo game ever just after Wii Sports (82.9 million units).
Whatever the case, it seems likely we’ll see Mario Kart 8 Deluxe bounce back into the top 20 again soon. And with Wave 6 of the DLC out earlier this month and another Black Friday sale imminent, Mario Kart 8 isn’t going anywhere…at least not until Nintendo commits to the mythical Mario Kart 9.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Gotta snag em’ all.
Soapbox features enable our individual writers and contributors to voice their opinions on hot topics and random stuff they’ve been chewing over. Today, ahead of its 20th anniversary on 21st November, Nathanial looks back on a Pokémon region that’s been pretty much ignored for two decades…
A common mislabelling seen online is Pokémon X and Y as the first fully 3D Pokémon RPGs. Of course, those in the Poké-community know better: it is 2003’s Pokémon Colosseum for GameCube that holds this distinction.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
We detect… lots of games.
Well folks, it’s the weekend once again, so it’s time to kick back, relax, and enjoy some games.
As per the norm, however, let’s just take a look back on what’s been going on this week, shall we? First up, Nintendo has launched its much-anticipated Black Friday sale in Europe, and we’ve highlighted a whole bunch of games that we’ve previously awarded a score of 9/10 for your convenience.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
As part of Microsoft’s new Black Friday sale, Xbox Series X consoles have received a reasonable $50 discount. But, if you’re a Best Buy Plus/Total member, you can currently save even more on the powerful gaming console — and even get a $50 Best Buy Gift Card alongside. At $399.99, this is probably the best Xbox Series X deal available at the moment, albeit with the membership caveat.
Yes, we can hear your excitement already drifting away, but this is a very good deal for anyone who already has a Best Buy Plus/Total Tech membership, and a reasonably good deal for everyone else checking out the Black Friday sale. For those without a Best Buy membership, the console is $449.99 but still includes the $50 Best Buy gift card. You’ll need to have a free account with the retailer, but that’s the only catch for securing the standard deal.
Here us out on this one, however, as if you do decide you opt for the $449.99 deal, in all honestly you might as well sign up for Best Buy Plus at $49.99/year, buy the console at $399.99, and then you’re set with Best Buy membership for the next 12-months and a $50 gift card to boot. This includes a whole range of benefits that you’re basically getting for free in the specific circumstance that you originally decided to buy the offer at $450.
If these offers didn’t scratch the itch, then check out everything we’ve found here as well. We’re not done yet either, as there’s more deals on the way. Microsoft has also announced we are getting more $50 off deals for Xbox Series X and Series S bundles before Black Friday proper on November 24. This will feature the Xbox Series S Starter Bundle for just $249.99, which also includes 3-months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for free alongside, which can be considered another $50 in savings as well. If you’re interested, Xbox controllers are down to $39.99 in the Black Friday sale as well.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
As previously reported, Xbox’s Black Friday deals are now in full swing, and there’s plenty to check out. Plus rival console PlayStation’s Black Friday deals starting as well, so there’s never been a better time to be a gamer looking for a deal. Black Friday 2023 sales are very much live right now, with up to $30 off Xbox Controllers, some of the best Xbox Series X bundle deals we’ve ever seen, and the standalone console for just $449 ($50 off) if that’s more your speed. If it’s Xbox deals you’re after, you can already save some serious cash, check out all the deals below.
TL:DR – Best Xbox Black Friday Deals
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If you’re in the market for a new Xbox Series, you can save a bundle on new console… bundles… at Walmart. Check out what’s available above and grab whichever one strikes your fancy. In other Xbox Series X deal news, if you’re a Best Buy Plus/ Tech Total member you can currently also get a Series X for $399.99 + a Best Buy $50 Gift Card, and for everyone else its $449 buts that still a great deal.
We’re not done yet either, as Microsoft has also announced we are getting more $50 off deals for Xbox Series X and Series S bundles before Black Friday proper on November 24. This will feature the Xbox Series S Starter Bundle for just $249.99, which also includes 3-months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for free alongside, which is another $45 in savings as well.
While we originally thought Xbox controllers would only be getting a small $10 discount at most retailers, the deal is actually a lot better than that and well worth considering if you’ve been after an additional gamepad. The cheapest controller you can get right now is for $39.99 at Best Buy (see here), and its the Stellar Shift Special Edition with an MSRP of $69.99.
This will likely sell out as its such a good deal, so let’s get into what else is available in the deal as well. By the looks of things, most other controllers have dropped to at least $44.99, which is a decent $20 off the standard Xbox controller and a reasonable deal for Black Friday. Plus, this includes some of the newer color variations as well like the Astral Purple design. We’ll leave all the links you need just below.
Games are huge these days, so if you’re running low on storage on your Xbox Series X or S, you’re far from alone. Amazon is offering the WD Black C50 1TB Expansion Card for Xbox Series consoles at just $124.99. This marks a 17% off price reduction from its original $150 MSRP, making it the best deal we’ve encountered for a 1TB storage add-on for Xbox. It’s also currently $25 cheaper than the Seagate 1TB Expansion Card.
Xbox expansion cards are essentially NVME SSDs encased in a specialized Xbox-compatible shell. Unlike the more complex PS5 SSD installation process, which involves opening up the PS5 to access the SSD slot, the Seagate expansion card simply plugs into its dedicated port on the back of the Xbox. With this deal, you can add 1TB of storage that acts just like regular internal storage, for cheaper than normal.
Amazon’s Black Friday sale is ramping up, but we’re not seeing tons of Xbox games on sale yet. We’ll keep updating the above below as new deals come online.
Best Buy has kicked off its official Black Friday sale, and as luck would have it, lots of Xbox games are on sale. See all the top deals just here.
Microsoft’s official Xbox Black Friday sale has also gone live, dropping prices on tons of digital games.
We all heard about the Xbox Game Pass price hike that Microsoft implemented recently. A month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate now costs $16.99, a hefty fee. But, if you weren’t aware, you can actually still circumvent this change by buying Game Pass codes from retailers like Amazon who haven’t yet increased their prices to reflect the change. Paying $44.99 isn’t a huge discount versus the $50.97 Microsoft charges, but it’s not nothing. Also, it’s very possible the price drops lower at some point during Black Friday.
Starting November 17:
Starting November 18:
Starting November 23:
When it comes to hunting for Xbox deals on Black Friday, you have a multitude of options. Retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and similar stores are sure to offer enticing discounts on Xbox games and accessories. If you prefer digital titles, the Xbox Store will have its share of deals too. Look out for upcoming sales from Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon to score the best deals.
Here’s a guide on where to buy Xbox Series X and S consoles.
Before you dive into the Black Friday shopping frenzy, keep these Black Friday shopping tips in mind:
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
That sounds familiar…
In Valve’s new documentary celebrating the 25th anniversary of the Half-Life series, the company’s founder Gabe Newell has shared his own thoughts about the differences between a delayed game and a rushed release.
He summed it up as “late is just for a little while, suck is forever” when touching on the challenges Valve faced in the lead-up to the release of Half-Life, which ultimately led to the game’s release being pushed back a year.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
