Motorsport Games has announced NASCAR 21: Ignition will be released on October 28, 2021. NASCAR 21: Ignition is headed to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC via Steam, and Motorsport Games has promised a free upgrade path for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S will follow post-launch.

The studio has released the first trailer for NASCAR 21 alongside the news, giving racing fans a first glimpse at the Unreal Engine-powered 2021 reboot of this stalwart sim series.

Folks who pre-order either the standard or “Champions” edition of NASCAR 21 digitally will get access to the game two days early. Champions Edition purchasers will also unlock 1988 Winston Cup champ and 16-time winner of NASCAR’s Most Popular Driver Award Bill Elliot as a playable racer. The Champions Edition will also include NASCAR 21’s season pass, which will provide access to a further three NASCAR legends down the track.

NASCAR 21 will come with the official drivers, teams, and tracks from the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series. This means it won’t be as broad as NASCAR Heat 5, but Motorsport Games has explained the decision to focus exclusively on the Cup series for the first instalment of this new series meant it could dedicate all its resources to ensuring the core NASCAR experience was “as close to perfect as we could be.”

“We definitely knew that people would be wondering, ‘Hey, you lost trucks, you lost Xfinity, you lost the fantasy dirt series,’” Motorsport Games’ George Holmquist tells IGN. “It’s really difficult to make all of those work correctly.”

“We also know from our player data that most people, probably 90% of our users or even higher, played just Cup, and the second-highest being Xfinity. So starting over we wanted to make sure the core of the game… was perfect, or as close to perfect as we could be. This doesn’t mean you’ll never see the trucks or Xfinity again; it’s just for this new game – the first rendition of it – we wanted to make sure that the core experience, the Cup experience, had a lot of attention to it and we weren’t dividing resources to create the feeder series.

“What we didn't want to have, if you’re a player of Heat, is that they all kind of feel the same; it’s just that they’re a different car model. Arguably the dirt series felt a little different because you’re on a dirt track, but it wasn’t like you were driving a truck versus an Xfinity car versus a Cup car. And they’re actually very, very different.”

Powered by Unreal Engine and rFactor 2’s widely-acclaimed driving physics, NASCAR 21 will feature a full career mode, 40-player online races, and a new paint booth the studio promises will offer “unparalleled levels of customisation to create NASCAR paint schemes.”

“Motorsport Games is thrilled to offer our most true-to-life simulation of NASCAR to date with NASCAR 21: Ignition,” said Motorsport Games CEO Dmitry Kozko. “We’ve designed this game with our fans and players in mind, bringing them features, modes and options they have long clamoured for. NASCAR 21: Ignition captures the atmosphere, pageantry, and fierce competition of the NASCAR Cup Series, while offering authenticity, competition and accessibility through the game’s core foundations.”

Confirmation that Motorsport Games would be releasing the first game in a new NASCAR series later this year arrived last month, shortly before the studio also confirmed it had partnered with IndyCar for a new racing series expected to launch in 2023 (the first standalone IndyCar game since 2004). Motorsport Games is also building a game based on the British Touring Car Championship.

Luke is Games Editor at IGN's Sydney office. You can find him on Twitter every few days @MrLukeReilly.

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

Blizzard has decided to remove TCP/IP support from Diablo II Resurrected, a popular multiplayer feature that allowed players to play with others using a peer-to-peer connection rather than official Blizzard servers.

Blizzard announced its decision in a new FAQ for the Diablo II Resurrected early access beta.

“TCP/IP support will not be available in the upcoming Beta or the final game,” Blizzard stated. “After careful deliberation, we will no longer be supporting this option as we identified potential security risks and are committed to safeguarding the player experience.”

TCP/IP support has also been used to play games over LAN connections, with external services like GameRanger making it possible to play online. This potentially opened the door to cheaters when playing with strangers, but perhaps most importantly, it let players circumvent using Blizzard’s Battle.net service.

Reddit users over on /r/pcgaming were quick to criticize the decision, noting it would have negative implications for the speedrunning community, and would make it impossible to play online with the remastered graphics and features while using smaller mods that don’t have dedicated servers. Most prominently, the decision has been criticized as a move to ensure Blizzard can protect its revenue stream and force players to use Battle.net. The removal of TCP/IP support could also have implications for the future of multiplayer functionality on the remaster if Blizzard ever shuttered the service without implementing a solution.

The Diablo 2 technical alpha held earlier this year also experienced players cracking the game and enabling item duping and playing as locked classes, according to PCGamesN. The possibility of having Diablo II Resurrected’s player economy maliciously altered potentially played a role in Blizzard’s decision to remove TCP/IP support.

This is far from the first time a Blizzard remaster/re-release has encountered fan pushback. When Warcraft III: Reforged launched, it effectively made it impossible to play the original classic, replacing it with a remaster that suffered from technical issues and failed to live up to various promises from Blizzard.

If the lack of TCP/IP support isn’t a dealbreaker for you, you can check out the Diablo II Resurrected public beta dates and see the game in action for yourself.

Activision will also take part in this year’s Gamescom event, which is being held from August 25 to August 27.

Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/necromancer for IGN.

A new audit performed by the Office of the Inspector General has revealed that NASA's planned 2024 Lunar Landing mission is "not feasible" as the organization's next-generation spacesuits will not be ready in time.

NASA has been developing its new spacesuits for 14 years and this new audit has revealed that they won't be ready in time as a result of COVID-19, funding shortfalls, and more. When the spacesuits are ready, NASA will have eclipsed its original $200 million in funding, with total costs reaching a potential $1 billion, as reported by Space.com.

"NASA's current schedule is to produce the first two flight-ready xEMUs by November 2024, but the Agency faces significant challenges in meeting this goal," the audit reads. "This goal includes approximately a 20-month delay in delivery for the planned design, verification, and testing suit, two qualification suits, an ISS Demo suit, and two lunar flight suits."

The audit says these delays can be attributed to "funding shortfalls, COVID-19 impacts, and technical challenges" and that they leave no schedule margin for the two flight-ready xEMU suits. In other words, these delays push the suits out of NASA's time range for its planned 2024 moon landing.

The audit says these suits would not be ready until April 2025 at the earliest.

"We reported in 2017 that despite spending nearly $200 million on extravehicular spacesuit development over the previous 9-year period, the Agency remained years away from having a flight-ready spacesuit to use on exploration missions," the audit reads. "Since our 2017 report, NASA has spent an additional $220 million — for a total of $420 million — on spacesuit development. Going forward, the Agency plans to invest approximately $625.2 million more, bringing the total spent…to over $1 billion through fiscal year 2025."

With all of this in mind, NASA's 2024 Moon Landing mission won't be possible — astronauts can't go to the Moon without proper spacesuits, after all. However, the Office of Inspector General made four recommendations to the Associate Administrator for the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate in lieu of the news:

• Adjusting the schedule as appropriate to reduce development risks;
• Developing an integrated master schedule to incorporate and align the hardware deliveries and training needs of the dependent Programs — Gateway, ISS, and HLS — and the Flight Operations Directorate;
• Ensuring technical requirements for the next-generation suits are solidified before selecting the acquisition strategy to procure suits for the ISS and Artemis programs;
• Developing an acquisition strategy for the next-generation spacesuits that meets the needs of both the ISS and Artemis programs;

As Space.com notes, even if the suits are ready by April 2025, this doesn't necessarily mean the missions can occur immediately. The astronauts would need to undergo new and routine training with the new suits before actually launching into space to use the new suits.

What all of this means is that anyone excited about NASA's visit to the Moon in 2024 will have to hold their excitement for at least a year longer. While waiting to see when NASA actually does make it to the moon, read about how NASA has discovered water on the sunlit surface of the Moon, and then check out this story about how a SpaceX prototype rocket for the Moon and Mars finally made its first successful landing.

Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.

After a unique interim period featuring an array of guest hosts, Jeopardy has officially settled on two permanent hosts. As expected, Mike Richards will be the full-time host from Season 38 onward. He'll be joined by Mayim Bialik, who will host next year's Jeopardy National College Championship.

Bialik is best-known for her role as Amy Farrah Fowler in The Big Bang Theory, where she served as the nerdy ying to Sheldon Cooper's yang, as well as her starring role in Blossom. She will be the first woman to serve as a permanent host in Jeopardy.

I’m hosting @Jeopardy!

And #1 trending on Twitter!? What!?!?! pic.twitter.com/Pncg8cVkUd

— Mayim Bialik (@missmayim) August 11, 2021

Richards, meanwhile, is the show's executive producer. He was previously reported to be negotiations to take over the top role.

Both Richards and Bialik auditioned for the permanent spot during Jeopardy's guest host run. Other guests hosts included Aaron Rodgers, Joe Buck, and LeVar Burton. Burton in particular was widely favored by fans for the final spot, but ultimately missed out.

The announcement concludes the search that began after the death of Alex Trebek in November 2020. Sony executive Ravi Ahuja said in a release that the team "pored over footage from every episode, reviewed research from multiple panels and focus groups, and got valuable input from key partners" in making the final decision.

Jeopardy's 38th season kicks off on September 13.

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN.

The CW’s Powerpuff Girls live-action series has just lost one of its main stars.

Chloe Bennet, who was set to play the grown-up version of Blossom, has departed the series according to Variety. The series, tentatively titled “Powerpuff” was set to follow Bennet’s Blossom and her two sisters as adults who return to crime-fighting after trying to leave their childhood’s behind them.

The report states that Dove Cameron and Yana Perrault are still attached to play Bubbles and Buttercup respectively. Other cast members including Donald Faison as Professor Drake Utonium are currently in talks to remain with the series.

Bennet’s departure is not the first hurdle for the troubled live-action adaptation of the Cartoon Network animated show. Powerpuff previously filmed a pilot with plans to launch the series this fall, but The CW decided to redevelop and reshoot the pilot after it was aired for executives.

CW chairman and CEO Mark Pedowitz reportedly called the pilot “a miss.” Heather Regnier and Diablo Cody are writing the series and CW’s Greg Berlanti is one of the executive producers on the show.

Bennet’s Blossom was said to be a perfectionist whose childhood led to her feeling anxious and reclusive as an adult. There’s no word yet on who will replace Bennet as Blossom for the pilot reshoot.

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

(Photo by Dia Dipasupil/Getty Images)