IGN.com - Daily Fix (Video)

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, Riot Games, the company behind such games as League of Legends and Valorant, will pay out a total of $100 million - including an $80 million settlement, plus an additional $20 million in fees and expenses - after reaching a global settlement agreement with the California Department of Fair Employment and Housing (DFEH), California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE), and several private Plaintiffs to resolve its gender discrimination lawsuit from 2018. As per the agreement, Riot will pay $80 million to all current and former full-time employees and temporary agency contractors in California who identify as women and worked at the company from November 2014 to the present day. The other $20 million will go towards "attorneys' fees and miscellaneous expenses." Remedy Entertainment, the company behind Control and Alan Wake, has signed a global development, license, and distribution agreement with Tencent for a new co-operative multiplayer game that is currently codenamed Vanguard. Announced by Remedy, Vanguard - which should obviously not be confused for Call of Duty: Vanguard - will be a "free-to-play, co-operative PvE shooter that combines Remedy's narrative expertise and action gameplay into an immersive multiplayer experience." The LEGO Group has not only officially unveiled the LEGO Ideas Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone Set, but it has also announced that it will be available for purchase on January 1, 2022, for $69.99 USD. Green Hill Zone, which has become one of the most iconic levels in gaming since its debut in the original Sonic the Hedgehog in 1991 for SEGA Genesis, is getting the LEGO treatment thanks to the 24-year-old Viv Grannell. Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, BuzzFeed data scientist Max Woolf forced a bot to look at every Pokémon ever created - then told it to generate its own. The results are both adorably cute and absolutely terrifying. Could these potentially become actual Pokémon or a creepypasta? Square Enix has confirmed that, due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Final Fantasy 16's development has been delayed by "almost a half year" and the next big reveal will not take place until Spring 2022. Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida shared the news on Twitter and took the time to apologize that he and the team would not be able to keep their promise to show more of the much-anticipated next entry in the Final Fantasy series in 2021. PUBG: Battlegrounds, the game that kicked off the rise of the battle royale genre, is officially going free-to-play on January 12, 2022. This means that anyone who has ever wanted to shout out, "Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner," can now do so without so much as pulling out their wallet. This is obviously a big change for PUBG, and we're here to break down what exactly this means for new and existing players. Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, Meowster Chief is officially in Halo Infinite! IGN spoke with Rebekah Saltsman at Finji, the publishers behind Chicory: A Colorful Tale and Tunic, on Indie Game becoming absurdly expensive to make. IGN exclusive reveal of Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Forgotten Myths, Dark Horse's latest comic book spinoff, is a follow-up to Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Song of Glory, a book which acted as a direct prequel to the main game. This story, however, is specifically a prequel to the upcoming DLC expansion Assassin's Creed Valhalla: Dawn of Ragnarok, which thrusts main protagonist Eivor into the mythological realm of Svartalfheim to live out the exploits of the Norse gods. In short, this isn't your typical Assassin's Creed adventure. Ghost of Christmas Present Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, According to a new report from Axios, Ubisoft has seen "massive departures" over the past 18 months, including both lower and mid-level employees as well as big names. Five of the top 25 credited people who worked on Far Cry 6 are gone, as well as 12 of the top 50 credited names from Assassin's Creed: Valhalla. Two current employees said that these departures are slowing or stalling projects. The departures are especially significant at Ubisoft's Canadian studios in Montreal and Toronto, with LinkedIn showing the two studios are down at least 60 total people in six months. Halo Infinite Winter Contingency Event starts today! Earn awesome themed skins, attachments, nameplates, and more! Nintendo is expecting servers to be overloaded over Christmas Weekend so here's a lovely PSA from Santa Narz on what to do to prepare. Santa Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, While many were very excited when Final Fantasy 7 Remake finally arrived on PC after a year and a half from its original release date, it was quickly discovered that this port has some major problems that will hopefully be addressed in a future patch. As reported by PC Gamer, Final Fantasy 7 Remake's Graphics Settings list on PC is surprisingly bare and offers "no variable framerate option, no way to tweak anti-aliasing, toggle VSync, or control effects like motion blur." There is also no way to control resolution scaling to help balance image quality and performance. Speaking of performance, there have also been reports of framerate drops and instability when simply moving the camera. Those who redeemed Final Fantasy VII Remake on PlayStation Plus back in March 2021 will finally be able to upgrade to the PS5 version of the game at no extra cost on Wednesday, December 22. Square Enix revealed the news on Twitter while also sharing that Final Fantasy VII Remake's Episode Intermission starring Yuffie Kisaragi will also be 25% off on the same day for a limited time. Supergiant Games' Hades has made history as it has officially become the first video game to win a Hugo Award. The Hugo Awards were first presented in 1953 and honor the best works in science fiction and fantasy. Up until 2021, video games and their stories have not been under consideration, but that has now changed. A new Doom mod by Ultra.Boi on ModDB allows you to play Doom with hellish creatures swapped for NFTs from the Bored Ape Yacht Club collection. Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, A little under an hour after posting and deleting a tweet justifying the decision to incorporate NFT technology into the upcoming STALKER 2, GSC Game World has published a follow-up statement announcing it is backing away from the use of NFTs.GSC was making a number of NFTs for STALKER 2, but one particular draw was a token that will let the owner become an in-game NPC, provided they can get to GSC's studio in Ukraine after successfully bidding on the NFT. An auction was to take place in January 2022, with the winning bidder receiving the prize of becoming what GSC refers to as the first "metahuman" in a game. As of now, GSC has made a decision to cancel anything NFT-related. Tencent has announced today that it has acquired California-based developer Turtle Rock Studios, the developer of Back 4 Blood and the Left 4 Dead series. A press release sent out today notes that Turtle Rock will become part of Tencent, though the studio will retain its independent operations in California, with the existing team continuing to run all studio operations. IGN announces their Game of the Year title as well as IGN's People's Choice Award for Game of The Year, Console Exclusive of the Year, Movie of Year, and TV Series of the Year! Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has reportedly reached a settlement with a number of unhappy investors who had issued complaints after the game's disastrous launch last year. Earlier this year, it was reported that the developer was facing four lawsuits from investors following the turbulent launch of Cyberpunk 2077. As reported by The Verge, CD Projekt Red has now moved to settle the lawsuits, which have rolled into one larger suit, and in doing so appears set to pay out around $1.85 million dollars to resolve the issue. Square Enix has had to temporarily suspend sales of Final Fantasy XIV because of the tremendous success of its latest expansion, Endwalker. Writing on the Final Fantasy XIV website, producer and director Naoki Yoshida explained that the sheer amount of people playing Endwalker has far exceeded Square's server capacity. In order to try and alleviate the long wait times for players logging in, the company has decided to stop selling Final Fantasy XIV to new players to temporarily stem the tide of incoming server traffic. Warner Bros. Pictures has partnered with NVidia to give away three officially licensed-Matrix-themed-modded PCs in celebration of the launch of The Matrix Resurrections! Enter to win one of three custom officially licensed Matrix-themed PCs. These are one of a kind builds with the latest GeForce RTX GPUs and are all fully water-cooled. Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, Ubisoft has announced that it has greenlit the development of a remake of its stealth classic, Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell. Announced on Ubisoft's website, the remake will be developed by lead studio Ubisoft Toronto, the developers of Splinter Cell: Blacklist. It will be built from the ground up using the Snowdrop engine, which is the tech being used for The Division games, the upcoming Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora game, and Ubisoft's as-yet-untitled Star Wars game. STALKER 2: Heart of Chernobyl developer GSC Game World has announced that its upcoming sequel will be supported by a range of linked NFTs when it launches in 2022. While details surrounding the majority of these have yet to be shared yet, the studio has revealed information about one specific NFT which will come will allow the owner to become the "first-ever metahuman", AKA an NPC in the game. GSC Game World has announced the STALKER Metaverse will use blockchain technology to let the community own a piece of STALKER 2. Guy Beahm, known online as Dr Disrespect, is launching a new AAA studio called Midnight Society. Working alongside former Call of Duty and Halo developers, the new studio is taking a "community approach to game development" that plans to involve players and influencers at all stages of development. In a press release, we learned that Beahm co-founded the studio with industry veterans Robert "fourzerotwo" Bowling and Quinn DelHoyo, along with support from esports entrepreneur Sumit Gupta. The studio is still starting up, as they are currently hiring for many positions. Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, A number of Halo Infinite players have reported coming across a save-wiping glitch in the game, affecting both single-player and multiplayer gameplay. As reported by players on resetEra and Halo Waypoint (and spotted by VG247), Halo Infinite appears to contain a bug that is causing players to load into the game from a third-person perspective before breaking their save files completely. The issue itself is reportedly affecting both Xbox and PC payers and seems to be caused by a login-related bug. resetEra user 99humanity reports that after launching the game they would load into the campaign in third-person mode with Master Chief clipping through the floor. When attempting to head back to the menu and relaunch their progress, the user notes that their save file would fail to load and display as if they'd completed 0% of the campaign. Grunts get some quirky lore and personalities in Halo Infinite and we have a montage of some of our favorites. Nintendo is hosting a new Indie World Showcase happening tomorrow Dec 15th at 9:00 am PT / 12:00pm ET. Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, Sony has announced a range of PS5 console covers in five different colors. These covers replace the white face plates on the current PlayStation 5 console, allowing you to reshade your console in Midnight Black, Cosmic Red, Nova Pink, Galactic Purple, and Starlight Blue. Additionally, Nova Pink, Starlight Blue, and Galactic Purple DualSense controllers will be released in January 2022. These will join the already released Cosmic Red and Midnight Black controllers. The covers will be available in the following regions: USA, Canada, UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, Korea, and the Philippines. The release of Sony's new faceplates comes in the wake of Dbrand, a Canadian peripherals company, who were forced to pull its range of PS5 faceplates from their store after daring Sony to sue them for making near identical faceplates. Just a few days later Dbrand has released its own original design range of faceplates for the console with a simple retort to Sony, "Darkplates are back, checkmate lawyers." Keanu Reeves has said that he thinks "it's nice" that people attempted to mod Cyberpunk 2077 so that they could sleep with his character. During an interview with The Verge for The Matrix Resurrections, the actor was asked about his experiences with Cyberpunk 2077. While Reeves admitted that he hasn't played the game in which he stars as Johnny Silverhand, he seemed genuinely happy to learn that players had tried to mod the game in order to get down and dirty with his character. IGN is partnering with Warner Bros. for a special The Matrix Resurrections livestream Dec 18th at 5:30pm PT! Watch special interviews with the cast of the movie and check out exclusive clips from the movie. Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

Today on IGN The Fix: Games, If you blinked, you may have missed Microsoft's unique way of announcing a slew of PC Game Pass titles during The Game Awards. In a trailer featuring Lil Dicky and GaTa, a list of titles coming to Game Pass was revealed and it included some heavy hitters. Among the games coming to the beloved Xbox service are Atomic Hearts, Starfield, Sniper Elite 5, and more. The Game Awards 2021 have finally arrived, and it not only celebrated the greatest games of the past year, but it also shared a glimpse of the future with world premiere announcements and updates on not only some of the most anticipated titles headed to PS5, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, PC, and beyond, but also TV shows and movies based on games. From The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience to Star Wars: Eclipse to a new Wonder Woman game to Alan Wake 2 and so much more, fans of video games were treated to three hours of reveals that hopefully had something for everyone. It's all brought to you by Lineage2M!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, The ABK Workers Alliance, a collective of Activision Blizzard and King employees, has initiated strike action against its employer. The group plans to continue its work stoppage until its demands are met. This follows walkouts from other Activision Blizzard groups, including Raven's QA department. Announced via a post on Twitter, the group said "Today, the ABK Worker's Alliance announces the initiation of its strike. We encourage our peers in the Game Industry to stand with us in creating lasting change." One of Destiny's most recognizable weapons is getting its own real-life Nerf overhaul. That's right, Bungie is partnering up alongside toy-weapon creators Nerf to bring out their own foam-firing Gjallarhorn. Now listed on the Bungie store, the toy version of the legendary Destiny rocket launcher which will be available to pre-order in late 2022. A look at boss monsters in the world of Aden presented by Lineage2M! Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, Rockstar has announced that GTA Online will be receiving a story-focused expansion, 'The Contract', featuring GTA V character Franklin, set years after the events of the game's single-player campaign. Due for release on December 15, the story will focus on Franklin working in his new "celebrity solutions agency", and will feature Dr. Dre, who has composed new music for the game. Halo Infinite's open world was reportedly cut down from a scale similar to that of The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, to what it is today. Apparently, almost two-thirds of the planned game was chosen to be cut in the move. According to a report on the game's development by Bloomberg, 343 decided to drastically slash the game's open-world map in 2019 as it attempted to stabilize the direction that game was heading. A look at adventuring in the world of Aden presented by Lineage2M! Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, Sony has announced that Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection will launch for PlayStation 5 on January 28, 2022, and at a later date for PC on both Steam and Epic Games Store. The collection will include Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and Uncharted: Lost Legacy. In a move breaking with longstanding series tradition, Halo Infinite's campaign won't let you replay its story missions - meaning that the only way to do so would be to access them again through a different save file. In a statement issued by Microsoft to Polygon, the company confirmed that story missions in the game can't be replayed once completed. The change comes in stark contrast to previous Halo games, which have traditionally allowed players to replay missions through a dedicated menu system. A look at adventuring in the world of Aden presented by Lineage2M! Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!

On today's IGN The Fix: Games, December is shaping up to be another incredible month for Xbox Game Pass subscribers, and is even still running on steam from November's incredible lineup of Game Pass games like Forza Horizon 5, It Takes Two, and GTA San Andreas. But now, this is the big one. Halo Infinite will launch on December 8, and will be available day one of release on Xbox Game Pass for PC, consoles, and cloud users. However, that's not all for this month, you can also expect Among Us coming to consoles on December 14, alongside Final Fantasy XIII-2, now available for console and PC users, alongside plenty of other games. Following news over the weekend that Activision Blizzard laid off "at least a dozen" quality assurance contractors at Raven Studios, members of the team still with the company have announced plans to walk out and demand that the laid-off employees return and are offered full-time positions. Members of Raven Software's QA team - who work on ensuring the quality of Call of Duty: Warzone, one of Activision Blizzard's biggest hits and financial successes - issued a statement announcing the intent to walk out and context behind the layoffs. A look at the world of Aden presented by Lineage2M. Narz has all that in your Daily Fix!