• Vin Diesel Walked Paul Walker’s Daughter Meadow Down the Aisle at Her Wedding

    Meadow Walker, the daughter of the late Paul Walker from the Fast & Furious franchise, revealed that her father's co-star and friend Vin Diesel walked her down the aisle during her wedding to Louis Thornton-Allan.

    Walker shared the news and beautiful images of her wedding on Instagram, showing both her walking down the aisle with Diesel and her walking away from the altar with Thornton-Allan after they were officially married.

    Meadow, who is a model, spoke to Vogue about her marriage to Thornton-Allan, and discussed how they were seperated during quarantine during the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, they were quickly brought back together.

    “It was the longest we had spent apart since being together, and I missed him so much,” she remembers. “He flew to London to surprise me, and we quarantined together. After spending more time with his family in England, he couldn’t wait for the ring we had been thinking of designing and proposed with a ring I had been given on set that day. It was so sentimental and sweet. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way.”

    They chose to get married in the Dominican Republic alongside "an intimate group of family and friends." The pandemic definitely changed their plans and caused many to miss the ceremony, but they made the best of it.

    Paul Walker passed away at the age of 40 after a car accident that also took the life of his friend Roger Rodas. His final film appearance was in Furious 7 as Brian O'Conner, a character he had been playing since 2001's The Fast and the Furious.

    Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to [email protected].

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

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    Fortnite Adds Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine In New Resident Evil Collab

    Fortnite's spooky month of crossovers continues with a new collaboration with Capcom and Resident Evil. Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine are the latest horror icons to drop on the Island and face The Sidways' Cube Monsters.

    The S.T.A.R.S. Team Set includes Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine with their S.T.A.R.S. uniform. Chris also comes with his Hound Wolf Squad outfit from Resident Evil Village as an alt, and Jill will be able to don her look from Resident Evil 3 Remake.

    In addition to the character skins, the set includes the Green Herb Back Bling (with Red Herb and Blue Herb alt styles), a typewriter Saving Keystrokes Back Bling, the Hod Dogger Pickaxe, and Stun Rod Pickaxe. There is also the Brolly Stroll Emote complete with an umbrella.

    The Chris, Jill, Herb Back Bling, and Typewriter Back Bling will be available in a bundle with the option to purchase the two Pickaxes and emote in the S.T.A.R.S. Team Gear Bundle.

    As October continues, Epic Games has been adding horror-themed collaborations to Fortnite. The month kicked off with a collaboration featuring classic monsters from Universal Pictures' horror library. Fortnite also added Rick Grimes from The Walking Dead.

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

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    Daily Deals: Check Out These Early Black Friday Discounts

    Nearly a month away still, but the Black Friday influence is starting to creep into stores all over the globe. Tons of deals are starting to go live far ahead of the actual holiday weekend next month. Tons of great 4K TVs, NVMe storage and more are listed down the page, while a healthy mix of other deals make up the rest of todays offerings. Prepare your wallets, as it looks like we'll be in for a long season of savings!

    Daily Deals for October 23rd, 2021

    Early Black Friday Deals

    Dell S2721DGF 27" 2560×1440 1ms 165Hz G-SYNC IPS Gaming Monitor

    This is one of the best gaming monitors you can buy for under $500. It's also a full $40 than the previous price low. The 27" Dell S2721DGF monitor boasts an excellent IPS panel with wide viewing angles and 98% DCI-P3 color coverage. This is a tried-and-true gaming monitor featuring a blazing fast 1ms response time and up to 165Hz refresh rate through the DisplayPort. It's also officially G-SYNC and AMD FreeSync Premium Pro compatible.

    The WD Black SN850 M.2 1TB SSD Without Heatsink Is $85 Cheaper Than the Same Model With Heatsink

    The WD SN850 is currently the most popular (and probably the best) SSD to get for your PS5 storage upgrade. It's blazing fast drive with transfer speeds rated at up to 7,000 MB/s and a PCIe Gen4 interface. It's also confirmed by Western Digital themselves to be compatible with the PS5. Save $70 and get the model without heatsink, then buy a cheap PS5 compatible heatsink on Amazon and put it on yourself (it's super easy).

    2021 Hisense U8G 65" 4K Android TV

    Thie Hisense U8G is a fantastic TV at a budget price. It's one of the highest end TVs that Hisense sells and its picture quality competes with the top-end LED LCD TV models from Samsung, LG, and Sony. The U8G is the 2021 model that replaces the 2020 U9G. It does a great job at displaying HDR content thanks to its high peak brightness and excellent black levels. It also makes a good gaming TV since it has a fast response time. Don't be fooled into thinking this is a bad TV because of the brand; it's one of the best 65" TVs you'll find for $1K.

    The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Expansion Bundle

    You can pick up a copy of the incredible The Legend of Zelda: BotW game and the expansion pack, which includes both released DLC packs, for $12 less than the MSRP of the game alone. BotW received the rare 10/10 "Masterpiece" rating at IGN. It's easily one of the best games for the Nintendo Switch and is an absolute must-buy.

    2021 Samsung TU6985 70" 4K Tizen TV

    A 70" Samsung 4K TV for $600 sounds too good to be true, right? Not on Black Friday. The Samsung TU69855 4K TV boasts good image quality in a huge screen, especially at such a low price point. It's also equipped with Samsung's Tizen smart interface, which offers a very intuitive and aesthetically pleasing UI.

    Xbox Elite Series 2 Wireless Controller

    This is the controller to get if you want the most precise and customizable Xbox controller on the market. This professional-grade controller features adjustable tension thumbsticks, shorter hair trigger locks, wraparound textured grips, interchangeable thumbsticks and paddle shapes, custom profiles saved on your controller itself, and included USB Type C cable with charging dock. It boasts up to 40 hours of battery life and is compatible with the Xbox Series S|X, Xbox One, and PC.

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    Lone Echo 2 Review

    I’m a service robot drifting through an abandoned space station. My superior is chattering in my ear trying to set up the stakes of the story, but I’m too busy to listen because I’m playing with a toothbrush. After batting it around in zero-gravity like an impatient cat, I use my finger to prod the button in the centre and – to my delight – my palm starts buzzing like a fridge. Moments like this speak to the strengths and weaknesses of Lone Echo 2: Ready at Dawn’s latest is a stunning virtual reality game with an incredible level of detail, but there’s very little substance to either the gameplay or the story.

    This is the sequel to 2017’s Lone Echo, a VR adventure about the relationship between Captain Olivia Rhodes and her charming robot butler, Jack. Its stunning space station vistas and level design made it an easy hit around the dawn of the Oculus Rift, but its most enduring feature is its zero-G movement, which is retained carefully in the sequel. As Jack, you must use your controllers to physically grab things around you and push yourself around, using momentum in a satisfying way to arc your body past hazards and slip through gaps to solve puzzles.

    With nearly every object in Lone Echo 2 available for you to grab onto, it quickly summons a strong sense of immersion. Wrist-mounted thrusters let you make deft touches to get your balance, slip around corners, and hover in place to listen to monologues. And once Lone Echo 2 opens up and you get your space legs (VR tolerance permitting), you’ll very likely soon find yourself drifting around the stratosphere with grace. The rings of Saturn shall act as a gorgeous backdrop to your awesome acrobatics.

    Pretty much everything that surrounds that basic sensation of weightless movement is a letdown.

    Lone Echo 2 feels fantastic to control and is very comfortable to play both standing and seated, but up to this point, I’ve described one mechanic in an eight-hour story-driven VR experience. Unfortunately, pretty much everything that surrounds that basic sensation of weightless movement is a letdown. The story is particularly bleak, concerning an evolving infection and a space station lost in time. While I was convinced for a good while that it was setting one up, it turns out there is no real antagonist beyond the dreaded Biomass that infects most of Lone Echo 2’s explorable spaces; if you get caught up in it, it’s a gloopy death sentence. The Biomass’s offspring, the dreaded Ticks, are Lone Echo 2’s only enemies — annoying, squishy balls that stick to Jack and sap his robo-life force if he gets too close.

    Most of the puzzles involve redirecting said Ticks towards non-organic power sources (and eventually blasting them to smithereens) to clear out infected areas and access new information to help find a cure. The solutions are creative… until they become repetitive. My favourite involved controlling a crane’s limbs with my fingers and using momentum to push it across gaps and mop the little dudes up. Eventually, you’ll have to freeze sensors and coat items to get through sticky Biomass webs that gate important areas.

    Puzzle solutions are creative… until they become repetitive.

    Later, you’ll blast through irradiated wind and depart from the format to quickly pad your way around rogue ships to disable them before they take off, which is as exhilarating as Lone Echo 2 gets. It’s more exciting than even its ending, which starts strong but descends into a sluggish crawl towards a giant Tick spawner.

    Most areas in Lone Echo 2 feature a sequence where you’ll scan multiple data points to unlock a new mandatory tool. You’ll eventually have to combine these devices (such as your laser cutter and your object-yanking beam) to complete more complex tasks. This can be a lot of fun when leveraging the excellent movement, like when you’re asked to dash between objects in a belt of debris and activate pockets of safety with your data laser. My only issue with the control scheme is that when you have more than two tools, swapping between them via the confusing symbols on your wrist feels inaccurate and can get you killed when the Ticks are swarming.

    Having a tool mounted on your wrist also gets in the way of Jack’s fingers, so it’s sometimes hard to see what dialogue options or interface elements you’re picking. I was playing on PC and Oculus Quest 2 via Air Link, and its peripherals handled the rest of Lone Echo 2’s quirks in style, but I was begging for the advanced finger tracking of Valve’s Index controllers in these few instances. Alas, Lone Echo 2 is locked to the Oculus platform (and not currently available natively on Quest 2). Maybe it will come to other headsets later down the line, but considering that Oculus is already phasing out the PC-based Rift platform in favor of the standalone Quest 2, sticking to platform exclusivity for this game seems particularly exclusionary.

    Perhaps Lone Echo 2’s greatest sin in the VR puzzle department is how it can strip you of any intuition and force you to pick all the wrong answers until you get the right one. Chase that with a load of matter-of-fact dialogue from a robot companion, and it’s hard not to feel like your time is being disrespected. Interacting with ship systems often feels like following an instruction manual, and the formula can start to grate.

    Well-delivered back and forths between Olivia and Jack help to soften the blow of an adventure without an interesting story.

    Well-delivered back and forths between Olivia (Alice Coulthard) and Jack (Troy Baker) help to soften the blow of an adventure without an interesting story, but even their established relationship isn’t convincing enough to save Lone Echo 2’s story from feeling dull. It’s clear they care deeply for each other, but it sorely lacks tension and development beyond one or two perilous scenes. Jack’s agreeable nature just slots in too nicely with Liv’s bone-dry wit. The major emotional moments feel unearned as a result, and I was left wondering if they really do need each other, in the end.

    Lone Echo 2’s story is at its best when you’re in front of an impassioned Olivia or Dr. Harlan, a new character played by Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, especially when they’re in an action sequence. However, most of the time you’ll be studying their meticulous emotions while waiting for a conversation to finish, or listening to them from afar over comms.

    Yes, there’s an agonising amount of sitting and waiting around for things to happen in Lone Echo 2, which feels like a waste when the characters are so lifelike. At one point you’re literally strapped into a harness for centuries – and trust me, it feels like it.

    The good news is that if you didn’t play the original, Lone Echo 2 plays catchup with a neat recap and plenty of callbacks to the main events of Lone Echo, should you need them. There’s more than enough exposition here to ensure you understand what’s going on in the sequel, too. It all makes sense, but the story is delivered at a snail’s pace, without any meaningful twists to shock you out of your boredom. You’ll go from place to place, pulling plenty of levers while getting a crash course in space station jargon, from conduits to overwrite slots and counter-pulse blast waves.

    Lone Echo 2’s major redeeming factor is how good it looks. I first played Lone Echo 2 with an Oculus Link cable tied to my RTX 3080 / Ryzen 5 3600 rig, and it ran comfortably with all settings at max. Eventually, I swapped to Air Link, which lets you play PC VR games wirelessly on your Oculus Quest 2 by connecting to the host PC, as long as you have a good WiFi connection. Even when I was streaming it untethered, Lone Echo 2 felt fluid and looked incredible up close, and this was my preferred way to play.

    From the scratch marks on steel doors to the remarkable skin detailing on a character’s face, Lone Echo 2 is a gawp-worthy experience. Suppose this is your first dance with VR, and you’re looking for a spectacle? In that case, Lone Echo 2 may delight you with its detail, animations, and effects, even if the environmental variety is lacking. But as a seasoned VR user, I appreciated the graphics but was yearning for something with more mechanical and storytelling nuance.

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    Hasbro Announces First G.I. Joe HasLab Project With the Return of the Skystriker XP-14F

    Hasbro is bringing back the Skystriker XP-14F fighter jet, and its asking for fans to help by way of its own HasLab crowdfunding platform.

    Unlike some of the retro lines Hasbro offers, the Skystriker is not a 1:1 reproduction using the original dies and molds, but instead will offer "the most precise detail and design" to update it for modern collectors. Take a look at the gallery of images below to see what features a successfully funded Skystriker jet will offer.

    Hasbro has three different funding tiers set up, each offering added rewards beyond the initial funding. At 10,000 backers, Habsro will bring the Skystriker to production. Hasbro promises "sculptural integrity … miles ahead" of previous versions. The joystick in the cockpit is moveable, for one.

    The Skystriker Tier 1, requiring 13,000 backers, adds a Scarlett O-Ring figure, and 16,000 backers unlocks Rip Cord "in Night Force colors." Hitting 18,000 will add two Pit Crew figures. These figures, if reached, are in addition to the Ace and Wayne Ruthel figures included with the Skystriker.

    There are tons more accessories included with the jet, which can be seen at the HasLab official website.

    The Skystriker was easily one of the coolest of the classic Joe vehicles from the 1980s. Heavily inspired by the real-world F-14 Tomcat, the Skystriker's coolness factor was helped along by that other piece of 1980s pop-culture jet fighter excellence, Top Gun.

    Of course, the XP-14F looks best when parked on the deck of the legendary USS Flagg, so if Hasbro is reading this, please make that the next Joe-inspired HasLab project.

    Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. You can find him hosting the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast.

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