Halo Infinite will be released on December 8, but in the meantime, IGN has exclusive coverage of Master Chief’s spiritual reboot all month long as part of our editorial IGN First “cover story” initiative. That means we’ll be dropping exclusive content throughout the month of November (and yes, we’ve played the campaign – the first four hours of it), starting with today’s reveal of a brand-new Arena multiplayer map called ‘Streets’.

As you can see in the video above with me and lead multiplayer level designer Cayle George, Streets is a small, asymmetrical battleground set in New Mombasa at night. This immediately sets it apart, visually speaking, from the other Halo Infinite multiplayer maps we’ve seen in the test flights thus far. It’s got numerous subtle artistic touches, such as the “Holodog” advertisement, the retro-style Halo Infinite arcade cabinet that plays a MIDI version of the Halo theme, the skyline you can see in the background from certain vantage points on the map, and the glass railings that you can just smash right through. It’s a very fast map with short sightlines, and I really enjoyed it.

We did the above walkthrough video before we actually played the map competitively; we wanted to capture our actual first impressions of it when walking through it with George. Hilariously, after he politely ribbed me for bringing up CTF on this asymmetrical map, the very first gametype that came up in 343’s internal custom-games test hopper when we sat down to play it was…you guessed it, Capture the Flag. And it was really fun! So it certainly can be done, just don’t expect to see it in ranked playlists.

As to other multiplayer tidbits, we sat down with the 343 multiplayer team for over an hour. Among other things, we asked about whether or not we should expect any remakes of classic maps, as has become Halo tradition. “That question is something we actively talk about quite a bit,” said lead multiplayer designer Andrew Witts. “I think that what we've done with [the Big Team Battle map] Fragmentation is something we want; we want things to feel new, but we want things to be a bit reminiscent without giving you the exact same layout or the same layout with slight differences, because we're a different game with different needs.” He cites Valhalla and its remake Ragnarok as influences for Fragmentation. “There are some maps that have been coming out in almost every single iteration of Halo. So I wouldn't say we would never do a remake, but again, we're doing a spiritual reboot, so we look at how we kind of put our own twist on it, but still make it feel like a little bit of a nostalgia trip when you kind of run through them.” George added, “We’ve tried the one-to-one ports. They don’t work well.”

Later in our discussion, we also learned that there are at least two more BTB maps that we haven’t seen yet, called ‘Deadlock’ and ‘High Power’, respectively. Multiplayer creative director Tom French described Deadlock as “very dramatic,” saying it feels very “classic Halo.” It has a “very different mood” than the rest of the maps, he told us. High Power, meanwhile, started out as a “test gym” for BTB. And, 343 says, “Test gyms never ship. At all.” But they told a story about doing a BTB playtest on the-map-that-would-eventually-be-known-as-High-Power, and the hooting and hollering was so loud from developers and testers having so much fun that they all looked at each other and asked, “Oh, is this a [real] map?”

We’ll have much more Halo Infinite as November rolls on, including a look at what awaits in Season 1 of the Battle Pass, an IGN Unfiltered conversation with Halo Infinite head of creative and longtime Bungie veteran Joseph Staten, our hands-on impressions from the first few hours of the campaign, and more – starting with raw, full-match gameplay of 'Streets' this Wednesday!

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

The Weird West is a brutal place to live. The prairie boomtowns are overrun with bloodthirsty outlaws, the vengeful undead are climbing out of their graves, and scheming witches are brewing dark magic on the outskirts of society. A heavy, dirgeful soundtrack follows the player everywhere as they cash in bounties, stave off the carnivorous wildlife, and stay one step ahead of everyone who wants to see them dead. In Wolfeye Studios' debut game, everyone is a suspect and nobody should be trusted; good thing you always have your trusty revolver.

Wolfeye Studios is composed of former Arkane veterans, and unsurprisingly, Weird West is steeped in that ill-defined "immersive sim" subgenre emblematized by games like Dishonored and Prey. This is a top-down action-RPG with a huge swathe of incisive, interlocking systems — all working in unison to submerge the player in this perverse interpretation of the American frontier. Weird West has multiple protagonists, but I spent my time with the game under the guise of an amnesiac bounty hunter tracking down her missing husband. You navigate to each encounter by moving from point to point on an all-encompassing map of the backcountry. As players carve through the main quest, they'll stumble into side quests, random encounters, and the occasional mysterious locale off the beaten track. My favorite of those was a band of mysterious cultists guarding a stone temple that seemed to hold some ancient, terrible secrets. It's exactly what you want out of a single-player adventure set in a beguiling, eldritch universe; the feeling that there's always another macabre layer of intrigue left to find.

The combat in Weird West is expressive, modular, and christened by the aforementioned Arkane tradition. I had plenty of fun pumping out lead in vintage, John Wayne-style shootouts; the game lets you swap out your entire arsenal on the fly, and packs an awesome bullet time feature that adds an extra bit of cinematic oomph to your coup de gras. But Wolfeye is clearly encouraging players to be more cerebral in their approach. Case in point: in one bandit stronghold I found a well that could be explored with the rope that happened to be sitting in my inventory. My character plunged into the depths, discovering some vital intel, good loot, and a perfect flanking position on my enemies. The alternative tactical pathways in Weird West aren't always that comprehensive — sometimes we're just detonating an oil barrel next to a target — but the game is at its best when it engages our Dungeons & Dragons logic. It took me forever to realize that you could drink water from the cacti out in the desert, restoring a small touch of health. I can't wait to learn about everything else I've been overlooking.

Weird West doesn't overburden the player with a progression system. You won't spend hours staring at a character sheet redepositing talent points. Instead, I found troves of purple "Nimp Relics" on my journey, stashed away like Zelda chests, which could be spent to unlock a variety of special powers. Within a few hours of play, my bounty hunter could lay down shrapnel mines, fasten a silencer to her rifle, and chuck the bottles and crates she found lingering around the arenas at a terminal velocity. You also uncover the occasional Golden Ace of Spades that are cashed into a perk system for some more conventional bonuses — faster reload speeds, more max health, and so on. It's possible to minmax out an impeccable build in Weird West, but thankfully, nobody will have to calculate any percentages.

Frankly, the only notable concern I have about Weird West is its optimization before its January 11 release date. The gunplay is visceral, but the controls could be a little tighter. A number of my firefights devolved into both sides circle-strafing around each other, waiting for someone's health to drop to zero, which doesn't encapsulate the high-minded tactical flair that Wolfeye is going for. I also experienced one hard-crash to desktop, and a hilarious bug in which a cowboy devolved into a horrible polygonal monstrosity after I knocked him out. Those issues will likely be ironed out when Weird West is in the public's hands, and if Wolfeye pulls it off, players might finally have the occult, grimdark western we've all been waiting for.

Riot is celebrating the upcoming premiere of its League of Legends animated series Arcane with a full month of celebration across all of its biggest games. Called RiotX Arcane, this month-long celebration will be a mix of in-person and digital events coinciding with the premiere of the animated series on Netflix.

RiotX Arcane begins on November 6 at the League of Legends World Championship. Following the championships, Riot will host a red carpet event to time with the premiere of Arcane on Netflix. Streamers will be able to co-stream the first episode on Twitch without risk of DMCA takedown.

Arcane will be released in three parts throughout November and every Riot game will add some kind of Arcane-themed tie-in as new episodes premiere. Check out the list of in-game promotions below.

• League of Legends will release free Arcane skins inspired by the show, a variety of thematic updates to Summoner’s Rift, and Preseason 2022 updates.
  • Free Arcane-inspired skins for Jayce, Vi, Caitlyn, and Jinx.
  • New elemental drakes, items, and runes.
  • Caitlyn Art & Sustainability Update
  • Map accents on Summoner’s Rift
• League of Legends: Wild Rift will add an Arcane Experience in-game event, add Arcane Jinx and Vi skins, add Jayce and Caitlyn as Champions, and feature a Jinx vs Vi-themed week.
• Legends of Runeterra will add a new permanent PvE Mode called The Path of Champions, add Jayce as a new Champion, add Thematic support cards from Piltover and Zaun, and add a new Mega Event Pass.
• Teamfight Tactics will release the Gizmos & Gadgets set, add Arcane-themed Tacticians including Chibi Champions, and add a new Double Up mode to play with friends.
• Valorant, despite not taking place in the same universe as League of Legends will add a free RiotX Arcane Pass, offer free in-game collectible items, in-game Arcane Collector’s set, and release the new Agent, Chamber.

Players can check out the World of RiotX Arcane event hub page to keep track of all the new developments appearing in the various Riot games as well as in the Arcane series itself. The hub will feature rewards players can redeem starting on November 7.

Riot Games is expanding its reach into entertainment starting with Arcane and hiring an ex-Netflix executive to develop original films and TV shows.

Matt T.M. Kim is IGN's News Editor. You can reach him @lawoftd.

Spoilers follow for Y: The Last Man's finale, "Victoria," which lands Nov. 1 on FX on Hulu.

Y: The Last Man wrapped up its first season — and series, if the show doesn't find a new home — with (more) welcome chaos, a handful of satisfying moments, and a notable flashback string involving Hero being an utter s*** to her family. Considering all the violence last week, the aftermath of the D.C. storyline could have used a few more minutes, besides Kimberly's sex dream about Yorick and Jennifer getting nabbed, but the need to keep things lean is also understandable.

It was immensely pleasing to watch the Amazons mosey into Marrisville completely unaware they were riding into a lioness' den, filled with hardened convicts who were more than prepared for invaders. With the assumption the town was filled with "soccer moms," Roxanne led her cult into a bullet storm and the mistake would ultimately cost her her life.

Nora's arc throughout this season has been one of the more fascinating to watch. Of all the characters, she best represents the balance between loving men in her life and also having had her life rudely dictated by men. Now, she's in pure survival mode, but from a much wiser and more practical standpoint than Roxanne, who was revealed to be as petulant and power hungry as the men she despised. And — yup! — it was cool to have her hear that right before Nora unceremoniously shot her down her in front of everyone. Now it's Nora and Hero, believing Jennifer (and the government) to be dead, leading the Amazons under a new, less-draconian directive. All in all, it was a good outcome for this part of the story.

Hero and Nora also know that Yorick's alive. How this knowledge would have figured into their future stories is unknown, but having Hero actually see Yorick alive, and briefly reconcile, was a much-needed beat. The flashback dinner scene worked nicely to remind us that there was once a family unit here — a dysfunctional one, sure, but a family nonetheless. Keeping major characters separated for this long was frustrating, but that's par for the course with sprawling apocalypse epics. It doesn't excuse laggy episodes, but it does help build to big moments like this.

It's easy to harshly judge Hero for her choices — from the adultery to the accidental murder to the brainwashing, to (now) her behavior in the flashback — but Nora had a much better spin on Hero's contrarian nature. She likened Hero to herself, as a woman who buckled under the pressure to be perfect in a man's world. Hero hadn't been able to maintain the façade, though. While Nora pushed through it all, Hero buckled under the expectations and it sent her down a different, somewhat destructive path.

Sonia getting taken out quickly didn't quite have the bite the show was aiming for, since she seemed like a doomed character from the start (especially now that Yorick is headed to Beth), but the time these past few episodes have taken to strengthen the bond between 355, Yorick, and Allison really helped mold them into a trio you care about. We may never see these three again so it's nice to know they're at a good place now as they head into the mysterious maw of the Culper Ring.

Yorick's breakdown was long overdue. It was needed, but maybe sooner than the finale would have been better. That's not to say it didn't help punctuate this episode, but it was such a boon for his character that now one can only lament we didn't see this side of him at the halfway point. Yorick's casualness and reluctance to absorb the seriousness of everything, while most of the entire world was in despair, was never a good look. And the fact that he broke down only after losing someone he cared about also doesn't sit that well. But it still felt like a huge exhale watching him cry and crumble under the weight of being the last man on Earth.

Janina Gavanker, the actor who starred in Star Wars Battlefront 2 as main character Iden Versio, has announced that she is part of the upcoming Marvel game from Skydance New Media and Amy Hennig.

Gavankar shared the news on Twitter, saying, "I can FINALLY TELL YOU THIS! THIS is what I've been so lucky to be a part of. @Skydance + @amy_hennig x @Marvel = #SkydanceNewMedia."

This AAA, story-driven project that Skydance Media and Amy Hennig revealed in 2019 was confirmed to be a Marvel game just last week. While not much is known as to which characters it will focus on, we do know that it is being marketed as a "narrative-driven, blockbuster action-adventure game" and will feature a "completely original story and take on the Marvel Universe."

“I can’t imagine a better partner than Marvel for our first game,” said Hennig. “The Marvel Universe epitomizes all the action, mystery and thrills of the pulp adventure genre that I adore and lends itself perfectly to an interactive experience. It’s an honor to be able to tell an original story with all the humanity, complexity, and humor that makes Marvel characters so enduring and to enable our players to embody these heroes that they love.”

As for Gavanker, she has yet to reveal any details of the role she will be playing, but she is no stranger to the video game world. Besides Star Wars Battlefront 2, she also starred in Far Cry 4 as Amita and Horizon Zero Dawn as Tatai and will lend her voice to Tanta Sila in Forspoken.

Gavanker is a star in not only the video game world, but also in TV and film. Her many credits include Grey's Anatomy, The L Word, The Gates, Arrow, True Blood, The Vampire Diaries, The Mysteries of Laura, Blindspotting, and The Morning Show. She is also set to appear in the Borderlands film as Knoxx.

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Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.