Few video game characters are as iconic as Sonic the Hedgehog. The speedy little blue blur has been around for over three decades, touching every corner of pop culture along the way, from games, to comics, to TV, to blockbuster movies. But we’re here specifically to celebrate the mainline Sonic game series and pick the best of them. Before we start, let’s quickly touch upon our criteria. We tried to rank these games based on a combination of historical significance, innovation, and how well these games stand the test of time. Some games, like Sonic Adventure 1 and the original Sonic the Hedgehog, for instance, are obviously super important to the Sonic series and set the foundation for both 2D and 3D Sonic games to follow, but we felt like they both didn’t quite hold up as well as their sequels when judged by a modern standard, which was why they just missed this list. The 10 games on this list are the ones we feel are the best examples of both classic and modern Sonic style. So w...
Baldur's Gate 3 is a game full of intricate detail. With so many dialogue options, characters, classes, and quests, everyone's experience is a little bit different. Discoveries are around every corner, and the only thing seemingly separating you from success or tragedy is a dice roll. That being said, it's a lot easier to somewhat plot your destiny when you know where you're going. IGN's Baldur's Gate 3 interactive map can help guide you on your quest through Act 1, 2 and 3. See the full Baldur's Gate 3 Map for all locations We have the most updated Baldur's Gate 3 map with the location of every item, chest, enemies, NPC, and more throughout the prologue, Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. You can also check out our Baldur's Gate 3 walktrough for quests guides and details. Baldur's Gate 3 Interactive Map Currently, our Baldur's Gate 3 map features locations for the Prologue, Act 1, Act 2, and Act 3. This include a Nautiloid map, a map of t...
Nintendo has promised to fix a game-breaking issue in Paper Mario: The Origami King that can keep players from progressing through the story. Light location spoilers for Paper Mario: The Origami King follow. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/14/paper-mario-the-origami-king-announcement-trailer"] On Mario and Olivia's journey to the last streamer in The Origami King, players have to collect four stamps for their Spring of Rainbows VIP card in the Shangri-Spa area. After you collect all four stamps from four different hot springs, you gain access to a secret fifth hot spring. However, once you enter the fifth hot spring, the Spring of Rainbows, you lose your VIP pass. And, the other four hot springs will not give Mario a second stamp, meaning it's impossible to regain the VIP pass after you've already used it. If you try to re-enter the Spring of Rainbows, Mario will once again be asked to show his VIP pass. So, if you leave the Spring of Rainbows b...
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War – Campaign Review
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[Editor’s Note: This review zeroes in exclusively on the single-player campaign for Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War. Look for our multiplayer and zombies reviews in the next few days.] For a series known for virtually non-stop shooting, it’s surprising how much time you spend in Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War’s single-player campaign with your weapons holstered. Certainly more than any other game in the franchise’s 17-year history. But whether it’s walking around your safehouse and getting to know your covert ops crew or sneaking around KGB headquarters as a Russian double agent trying to figure out a way to smuggle your American friends into the ultra-secure building, the latest COD puts that quiet time to good use. Sure, it’s got plenty of loud parts too – there are high-speed shootouts, rooftop chases, and assassination missions – you know, the usual stuff. But this time around, it reaches its peak without any weapons drawn. Black Ops Cold War really sells its, um, black ops Cold War setting well. You’ll see ‘80s fashion, plenty of CRT TVs, and a whole lot of smoking indoors. It’s authentic! Even better, I love how your choices from when you fill out your character’s psych profile actually affect gameplay. Your codename is always “Bell,” but you can choose your own background and personality traits – and that last one manifests as multiplayer-style perks, such as faster reloading speeds or increased bullet damage dealt. You can even pick your own name… unless you’re me, for some reason? [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=ranking-every-call-of-duty-single-player-campaign&captions=true"] Black Ops veterans will be greeted by some familiar faces: Woods and Mason return from Black Ops 1, though I was a little disappointed that neither has a ton to do in the story other than be your sidekick. It is some good nostalgia to step back into the boots of Mason at various times, though. There are also a couple of new faces, but the bulk of the co-star screen time goes to Russell Adler, a living-legend CIA veteran slash dead-ringer for Robert Redford who’s recruited you to help stop Perseus, a generically nefarious and shadowy evil man whose actions tend to topple governments… or worse. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=I%20love%20how%20your%20choices%20from%20when%20you%20fill%20out%20your%20character%E2%80%99s%20psych%20profile%20actually%20affect%20gameplay."] You really get to know your team through the safehouse sequences between missions. Here you can review evidence, chip away at secret codes, and chat with your fellow spies via dialogue-tree conversations. I very much enjoyed this aspect of the campaign, even if none of those conversations seem to factor into the endgame in the way that other choices do. Meanwhile, combat is your standard Call of Duty stop-and-pop shooting gallery, with the same basic-at-best AI the series has always had. There is precisely one “special” kind of enemy: an armored goon who’s just a bullet sponge. Gadgets are strangely almost nonexistent this time around, with one brief R/C bomb car sequence in the first mission and that’s it. Weapons are nothing you haven’t seen in COD before.
[poilib element="poll" parameters="id=b5e3eab9-3d9a-4995-a7c9-4374ca53ef95"] That said, I was impressed at the ways in which Cold War admirably tries to carve out some new space in the Black Ops universe with some new mechanics. It succeeds in some ways, such as making collectables relevant to gameplay by using them as in-universe evidence to set up other missions, thus giving you organic motivation to either find those hidden items as you go or replay the missions they’re hidden in before advancing. Classic spy tricks like photography and lockpicking factor into gameplay too. Even better, you’ll actually need to examine some of the evidence to solve little puzzles before taking certain missions, adding some light adventure game-style work to this traditionally trigger-happy series. Perhaps more notably, though, there are a couple of moments in this campaign that have franchise-altering implications. No spoilers, but I’m majorly curious if and how those will be followed up on in all future Call of Duty games. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-call-of-duty-review&captions=true"] The biggest miss is in how Black Ops Cold War as a whole tries to be as twisty with its plot as Black Ops 1 was... and it just doesn’t quite get there. I applaud it offering multiple endings, though. I was both pleasantly surprised and horrified when I chose a bleak ending to see just how far Black Ops Cold War would or wouldn’t go, and...well, let’s just say it got really dark. It was much more interesting than the good-guy ending I tried afterwards, and I’m now eager to go back and see some of the other choices. [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=Black%20Ops%20Cold%20War%E2%80%99s%20best%20mission%20involves%20almost%20no%20guns%20at%20all."] Furthermore, while it’s fun to dangle a bad guy over the edge of a rooftop while you interrogate him, like in the opening scene of Tim Burton’s Batman, Black Ops Cold War’s best mission involves almost no guns at all. Instead, it’s an undercover romp through an enemy-infested government building. If that sounds familiar, it’s because something very much like it was the highlight of Call of Duty: World War II back in 2017. Yes, there are plenty of KGB goons to stealthily choke out and hide in lockers, Hitman-style, but more fun is deciding how you want to achieve your objective without firing a shot. You can beeline through this or really take your time skulking around to explore every option. I recommend the latter. Finally, a word about Black Ops Cold War's graphics: while I wasn't able to get a look at the Xbox Series X or PS5 version in time for this review, it is really impressive on mid/high-end PC. Environments and faces in particular look excellent. Technically speaking, it's an incremental step forward from last year's gorgeous Modern Warfare reboot. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=call-of-duty-black-ops-cold-war-launch-screenshots&captions=true"]
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