Sega has officially announced the release date for Total War: Warhammer 3, and has also confirmed that the game will be coming to Xbox Game Pass for PC at launch.

In an update to its website, Sega announced that Total War: Warhammer 3 will be released on February 17, 2022, and that it will be coming to Xbox Games Pass subscribers on day one.

CRUSH! STOMP! GORGE! The Great Maw's hungry! 🍖 Get yer appetites ready because the Ogre Kingdoms are 'ere and they're ready to feast.

Join 'em in WARHAMMER III launching on 17/02/22

Any questions? Check out the updated FAQ: https://t.co/AwYP4CTqGl pic.twitter.com/PScp2BYri4

— Total War (@totalwar) November 4, 2021

“It’s fantastic to finally put a release date on our epic third instalment,” said Creative Assembly's Chief Product Officer, Rob Bartholomew in the post. “And, in partnering with Xbox Game Pass, we’re able to bring the ruinous powers of Chaos to as many players as possible. May all serve within their glorious embrace.”

News of the game's official release date comes after Creative Assembly previously told fans that it was delaying the launch of the game from late 2021 to early 2022. As part of its earlier announcement, the studio explained that this would allow the team to accomplish far more with the game prior to launch and avoid a situation where fans received a rushed version of the final product.

Total War: WARHAMMER III will now release in early 2022.

We know this is disappointing, but the extra time means we can accomplish more than we could if we rushed to release this year.

We won’t be staying quiet however, join us tomorrow for the global reveal of Grand Cathay… pic.twitter.com/R4GdObAs9P

— Total War (@totalwar) September 13, 2021

For those not subscribed to Xbox Game Pass but still looking to pick up Total War: Warhammer 3, there are various ways to get your hands on the game. Aside from being able to pre-order it directly from Creative Assembly itself, fans will also be able to pick up a copy of Warhammer 3 at a number of third-party storefronts including Steam, the Microsoft Store, and the Epic Games Store.

As part of the update, Sega also confirmed that the game would launch with an early adopter bonus. The Ogre Kingdoms Race pack will be available to anyone who buys the game in advance or purchases it during its first week after release.

The pack adds the Ogre Kingdoms and their two legendary lords, Greasus Goldtooth & Skrag the Slaughterer, into the grand campaign – enabling players to "lead an army of colossal warriors and primeval monsters in search of plunder, gold, and meat for their insatiable bellies."

While the Ogre Kingdoms early-adopter bonus does come free when purchased from retailers, Xbox Game Pass subscribers won't automatically gain access to the pack at launch. Instead, subscribers to the platform hoping to get their hands on the additional content will need to purchase it separately from the Microsoft Store.

While Total War: Warhammer 3 finally makes the Ogre Kingdoms playable, they're arguably the least exciting of all the factions. The next game in the series adds Grand Cathay to the mix, an empire from Warhammer lore that has never been seen on the table top, never mind in a videogame. Opposing them and the Kislevs will be the forces of Chaos, including those that follow the god of change itself, Tzeentch. You can check them out in the trailer below:

Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

If you’re a reasonably dedicated fan of ARPGs in the vein of Diablo, or you’re into story-driven MMORPGs like Final Fantasy 14 or Elder Scrolls Online, you may have already had your eye on the upcoming western release of Lost Ark, the MMO-slash-ARPG hybrid which (by no coincidence at all) has taken South Korea by storm over the last three years. Good news: we’ve already played our very own Striker — one of 15 playable advanced classes — all the way up to level 20 in Lost Ark’s closed beta. During which we cleared the very first continent, delved into Lost Ark’s epic storyline and several of its dungeons, including the visually gorgeous Morai Ruins, and also got a solid taste of this surprisingly deep character customization system. With all that exposition out of the way, here’s what we learned in Lost Ark’s first 20 levels — and why eager anticipation is building for the upcoming 2022 westernization of this seemingly stellar action-MMORPG hybrid.

Before we dive into anything else, we need to address Lost Ark’s combat straight away: it’s very, very good, combining the best elements of MMOs and ARPGs, and somehow reaching a height that exceeds the best of both genres. Where many other MMORPGs stick to simple tab-targeting combat and repetitive loot treadmills, Lost Ark greatly ups the ante with an action combat system that looks and feels incredibly cool at all levels — at times facing you against tens or potentially hundreds of enemies in a single fight — but it stays balanced, never making you feel totally overwhelmed or, inversely, like you have to turn off your brain for long periods of time to get through it. During the first 20 levels, you don't feel over or underpowered at any point, which was often the case during a complete playthrough of Diablo 3.

Back on topic: Lost Ark’s great combat is due in part to how smooth it all feels when you’re powering your way through each of these meaty opponents in a spectacle of blood and effects, but it’s also due to the sheer number of class skills you can mix and match between, both when assigning up to eight skills on the hotbar itself and when unleashing them in various combos that often elicit a sense of creativity and freshness when executed in different orders or when responding to different enemy types. And it’s flexible — even letting you respec your loadout on the fly, or completely change how each skill behaves.

It’s also fantastic that each advanced class seems to have its own fighting style, special moves, combos, and class dynamics that would potentially make it a vastly different experience to play as a Monk-esque Striker vs, say, a sword and shield-wielding Paladin. We tried both classes and enjoyed the fact that both had their own unique take on Lost Ark’s bombastic combat system, both handling these massive fights with their own signature flair. It’s also fantastic that Lost Ark has a dodge roll button and a full arsenal of special “combat items” like bombs, single-use trinkets, or potions that quickly grant you buffs, and these are all often necessary to use in conjunction in order to push through some of the tougher boss fights — which can be as unrelentingly difficult and mechanically clever as any “Dark Souls”-style boss.

It’s possible to camp specific zones for loot and XP, but it’s never really worth doing so, since the rewards are always so meager. This seems like it’s by design, since Lost Ark did its darndest to keep us moving forward in its storyline, corralling us from one quest to the next as it rewarded us with perfectly adequate XP and loot along with the next cutscene or access to the next zone or dungeon — much like Final Fantasy 14 does, which also similarly encourages you to engage with its storyline, dungeons, and NPCs for their own sake rather than sit and grind the same content over and over. The story itself, despite playing on the overly familiar fantasy RPG notes of “good angels vs evil demons”, seems like it’ll be captivating enough through its likealikableble characters to keep things rolling. Its cinematics and consistent voice acting certainly make this all more engaging than other MMORPG and ARPG campaigns, which share in common the fact that both genres normally force you to grind out each level through combat and fetch quests alone.

Lost Ark’s world and scope already seems so much bigger than what has been experienced so far. There are plenty of systems that were toyed with or witnessed in menus but simply did not get far enough to meaningfully engage with, like the pet system, mounts, and the NPC-focused Rapport system that seemed to even let you potentially romance certain NPCs — or at least become very friendly with them. It sounds like there’s even a point where you get your own ship to sail the seas with, as well as a settlement system that lets you place a stake on your very own land. Whether or not any of that turns out to be any good, there’s still such a sense of wonder surrounding this game that has us greatly excited for its proposed 2022 launch window in the west.

Backbone Labs has announced today that it is launching Backbone+ — a new paid membership that makes one of the best mobile game controllers even better.

Backbone+ overhauls the Backbone app, introducing a ton of new and useful features for the iOS mobile controller as well as a new home screen that helps identify where you can play games, whether it's on Apple Arcade or a cloud gaming service.

Backbone+ also features improved game recording features. Including the ability to record, edit, and share gameplay videos at 1080p resolution at 60FPS so long as your iPhone has iOS 15 installed. Backbone+ also features a Smart Record feature, which allows you to save the last 15 seconds of gameplay — alongside Twitch integration, allowing you to seamlessly set up a livestream when playing your favorite mobile games.

Additionally, highly requested features such as the ability to connect the Backbone One to devices, including an iPad, Mac, or PC, and play games that are available on Amazon Luna, Google Stadia, Nvidia GeForce Now, and Xbox Cloud Gaming. Connecting to non-iPhone devices requires you to directly connect the Backbone One via a USB cable.

The Backbone One was released in October 2020 and quickly became one of the most popular mobile controllers for iPhones. The announcement of Backbone+ comes roughly two months after it was discovered that the controller requires an adapter if you plan to use it with the recently released iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max. You can request at no additional cost or you can print one yourself if you have a 3D printer.

Alongside a ton of new and improved features, Backbone+ will also give subscribers exclusive perks, including free months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and access to new future updates to the service. Backbone+ will cost $4.17 per month, but all new Backbone One owners will automatically receive a free year of service. Those who created a Backbone account before today are guaranteed a lifetime membership to Backbone+.

Taylor is the Associate Tech Editor at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

Thor and What We Do In The Shadows director Taika Waititi has signed up to direct The Incal – an upcoming sci-fi movie based on the best-selling graphic novel by Alejandro Jodorowsky.

According to Deadline, Waititi will also co-write the script with regular collaborators Jemaine Clement and Peter Warren for Humanoids and Primer Entertainment.

“The films and graphic novels of Alejandro Jodorowsky have influenced me and so many others for so long,” said Waititi. “I was stunned to be given the opportunity to bring his iconic characters to life and I am grateful to Alejandro, Fabrice and everyone at Humanoids for trusting me to do so.”

The Incal is described as an epic space opera following the story of scruffy private investigator John Difool, who happens upon an object of great power known as ‘The Incal’. The mysterious artefact is coveted by many across the galaxy, and prompts Difool to embark upon an epic quest to discover the meaning behind The Incal’s power – as well as the meaning of life itself.

“When Humanoids CEO Fabrice Giger introduced me to Taika Waititi’s work, it became obvious to me that he was the one,” said Jodorowsky. “I fully trust Taika’s creativity to give The Incal a stunning take, intimate and at the same time of cosmic proportions.”

Originally published in instalments between 1980 and 1988, The Incal went on to for the foundation of Jodorowsky’s other works, including the spin-off series Metabarons, The Technopriests, and Megalex.

“It began as the adventures of a jackass named John Difool, and then it became something else,” said Humanoids CEO Fabrice Giger. “We called it The Incal — something that has transformed everything it’s ever touched and continues to do so: its creators, the other artists who later became a part of John’s journey, its publisher Humanoids and myself in the process, countless readers, writers and directors around the world, and soon, I believe, the great Taika Waititi himself and everyone who looks to him for inspiration.”

Taika Waititi is also working on a Star Wars movie, with the director recently confirming that the film has a complete story but the script is still in the early stages.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.

After the fatal shooting of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust, actor and producer Dwayne Johnson has pledged to not use real guns on set.

During an interview with Variety, the 49-year-old former wrestler confirmed he will only use prop replica weapons in future.

“I can’t speak for anyone else, but I can tell you, without an absence of clarity here, that any movie that we have moving forward with Seven Bucks Productions — any movie, any television show, or anything we do or produce — we won’t use real guns at all,” he said.

“We’re going to switch over to rubber guns, and we’re going to take care of it in post,” he said. “We’re not going to worry about the dollars; we won’t worry about what it costs.”

Dwayne Johnson’s latest movie, Red Notice, followed strict safety protocols on set. But following the tragic death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins on the set of Rust, Johnson has pledged to ensure the safety of his crews.

“I love the movie business,” he explained. “There are safety protocols and measures that we have always taken in the movie business, and we take very seriously, and these sets are safe sets, and we’re proud of that. But accidents do happen. And when something like this happens of this magnitude, [that is] this heart-breaking, I think the most prudent thing and the smartest thing to do is just pause for a second and really re-examine how you’re going to move forward and how we’re going to work together.”

After handling firearms in Red Notice, Johnson has made the decision to only use rubber replicas on any future shoots – enforcing this rule with any studios he works with.

“Any movie we do that Seven Bucks does with any studio, the rule is we’re not going to use real guns,” he confirmed. “That’s it.”

Dwayne Johnson’s decision to use rubber prop replicas instead of real guns could pave the way for other production companies to follow suit. After all, Johnson himself is a respected action star, carrying weight amongst fellow producers. Seven Bucks Productions is also behind some of the most lucrative movies of the past few years, including Jumanji, Jungle Cruise and Hobbs & Shaw.

“I was heartbroken,” said Johnson about the tragic shooting. “We lost a life. My heart goes out to her family and everybody on set. I’ve known Alec, too, for a very long time.”

A lawyer for armorer Hannah Gutierrez-Reed, who was in charge of firearms on the film Rust, has claimed that the fatal live round could have been placed as an act of sabotage. However, local authorities in Santa Fe are still investigating the incident.

Ryan Leston is an entertainment journalist and film critic for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.