Month: June 2021

Though Prime Day just ended, the deals aren’t slowing down as we head into July, and as the US prepares for the Fourth of July holiday weekend, retailers are kicking their annual Fourth of July sales into high gear. Whether you’re planning for some outdoor fun or escaping the heat indoors, there are plenty of Fourth of July sales to take advantage of, from deals on tech and PC gear to furniture, mattresses, and even meal kits. The Fourth of July deals bonanza includes sales from major retailers like Best Buy and Walmart along with an eclectic mix of other stores, like eBay, Wayfair, and Newegg. For those shopping for Fourth of July laptop or computer deals, tech brands like HP and Lenovo are offering sales of their own, so it’s worth shopping all the July 4th deals while you can. Most sales run through this weekend and end on Monday. Here’s a quick look at some of the best Fourth of July deals and sales we’re seeing this year.

Fourth of July sales 2021

• Best Buy: Though its Fourth of July sale should kick off in full later this week, Best Buy is already discounting a range of appliances, from refrigerators to microwaves and more.
• Walmart: Walmart’s Fourth of July sale has an eclectic range of products, including deals on 4K TVs, smartwatches, Apple AirPods, and Chromebooks.
• eBay: The resale site is going all out with steep discounts on tech from Bose, Lenovo, Sony, LG, and more.
• Newegg: The PC parts retailer has its semi-annual clearance sale running during Fourth of July weekend.
• HP: The computer brand is slashing up to 58% off desktop PCs, monitors, laptops, and other peripherals.
• Lenovo: “Black Friday in July” is the theme of Lenovo’s holiday sale, with up to 62% off laptops for work and gaming, mice, and more.
• HyperX: Through July 4, HyperX gaming accessories, including keyboards and headsets, are on sale for up to 50% off.
• Casetify: From July 2-6, snag a new, customized iPhone case for 15% off with code 4JULY21.
• Whirlwind FX: From July 2-5, get an extra 20% off immersive RGB gaming keyboards and other PC peripherals with code FIREWORKS.
• Casper: Fourth of July mattress sales are a big thing. Right now, you can get up to 30% off mattress bundles; 15% off mattresses, pillows, and sheets; and 10% off everything else at Casper.
• Wayfair: The home and furniture store has a ton of items on deep discount. If you’re in the need for a new couch, TV stand, or any other furniture, check it out.
• Home Chef: If you’re not a big cook, meal kits making eating well a little easier. Until July 9, get $25 off your first four Home Chef boxes ($100 savings) with code FOURTH100.
• Home Depot: For all things home improvement, Home Depot has a massive Fourth of July sale on grills, tools, and more.
• Overstock: Furniture, mattresses, lamps, rugs–you name it, it’s on sale at Overstock for the Fourth of July.

Best Fourth of July game deals

Some of Prime Day’s best game deals are actually hanging around as we head into Fourth of July weekend, including the steepest discounts yet on next-gen titles like Demon’s Souls. Check out some of the best games on sale for PlayStation, Switch, and Xbox below. PC players should check out the Steam Summer Sale before it ends July 8, including the best Steam Summer Sale deals and cheap Steam games under $10.

• Assassin’s Creed Valhalla (PS5) — $30 ($60)
• Biomutant (PS4, Xbox) — $50 ($60)
• Death Stranding (PS4) — $20 ($40)
• Demon’s Souls (PS5) — $50 ($70)
• Ghost of Tsushima (PS4) — $40 ($60)
• Immortals Fenyx Rising (Switch, PS5, PS4, Xbox) — $25 ($60)
• It Takes Two (PS4, Xbox) — $30 ($40)
• Judgment (PS4) — $22 ($60)
• The Last of Us Part II (PS4) — $29 ($40)
• Little Nightmares II (PS4) — $25 ($30)
• Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (Switch) — $20 ($60)
• Monster Hunter Rise (Switch) — $50 ($60)
• Mortal Kombat 11: Ultimate Edition (PS5, Xbox) — $40 ($50)
• The Nioh Collection (PS5) — $50 ($70)
• Outriders – Day One Edition (PS4) — $40 ($60)
• Resident Evil Village (PS5, PS4, Xbox) — $50 ($60)
• Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS4) — $40 ($60)
• Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne HD Remaster (Switch, PS4) — $40 ($50)
• Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury (Switch) — $50 ($60)
• Watch Dogs Legion (PS5, PS4, Xbox) — $20 ($60)
• XCOM 2 Collection (Switch) — $15 ($50)
• Xenoblade Chronicles: Definitive Edition (Switch) — $38 ($60)

Best Fourth of July tech deals

If you’re looking for a new laptop or TV, there are plenty of great deals to choose from during Fourth of July sales. HP and Lenovo are both hosting sales featuring some solid laptops. You can save close to $500 on the Lenovo Yoga Y540 gaming laptop or $200 on the Lenovo Legion 5 gaming laptop. HP’s popular Pavilion line starts at $550 during the sale, and you can also save $100 on the HP Omen 27-inch gaming monitor. Walmart has a nice deal on a 65-inch LG 4K smart TV, dropping the price to only $697. Meanwhile, Best Buy has deals on Fire TVs, including a 50-inch Toshiba model that comes with a free Echo Dot. Check out the best tech deals for Fourth of July below. We’ll be adding additional deals to this list as more sales go live.

John Cena is using his pull as co-host of TBS game show Wipeout to have the cast and writer-director of The Suicide Squad appear on the obstacle-course series compete on August 1. Or, as writer-director James Gunn jokes about his upcoming Wipeout appearance in a newly released promo, “Well, John, we need that [Peacemaker] uniform back before you get slime on it or whatever it is you guys do here.”

For fans who have been psyched about the upcoming film adaptation of DC’s Suicide Squad hitting theaters and HBO Max on August 6, this surprise appearance will just be a nice splash of light-hearted fun a few days before. Of course, once The Suicide Squad is out, we can all go back to looking forward to Gunn’s work on a Peacemaker spin-off from that movie (expected on HBO Max in January 2022), Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (releasing May 2023), and a Guardians Holiday Special (landing on Disney+ in late 2022).

Wipeout was a hit game show that originally aired on ABC from 2008 to 2014, with its claim to fame being that it put contestants through the “world’s largest” obstacle course. Recently rebooted back in April of this year, the show was quickly renewed for Season 2 in May. Cena co-hosts the series with Nicole Byer (Netflix’s Nailed It!) and model Camille Kostek.

Cena, when he isn’t busy hosting Wipeout or acting in TV and movies, has recently announced he’ll be returning to the WWE for more matches at some point, pending a cooperative schedule.

The next Marvel movie is Black Widow, and it’s coming soon to theaters and Disney+ with Premier Access. The movie stars Scarlett Johansson as Natasha Romanoff, who’s also the Avenger known as Black Widow. The movie itself plays out like an espionage thriller, sort of like a James Bond movie.

If you want to watch Black Widow, you have two options. You can see it in the theater, or you can watch it at home via Premier Access on Disney+.

When Does Black Widow Come Out?

Black Widow releases on July 9 in theaters and on Disney+ with Premier Access.

How to Watch Black Widow

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To watch Black Widow on Disney+, you’ll first need a subscription to the streaming service. You can sign up for a one-month membership for $7.99, or you can get a bundle that includes Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ for $13.99 per month.

Once you subscribe to Disney Plus, you also need to sign up for Premier Access to view Black Widow once it arrives. Premier Access costs $29.99, and you can preorder it here. You’ll have access to the movie for as long as you have Disney+.

Black Widow will support UHD, HDR, and Dolby Audio on Disney+.

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What Time Does Black Widow Come Out on Disney Plus?

If you plan to watch Black Widow on Disney+, you can watch it July 9 at 12:01am PT / 3:01am ET.

When Does Black Widow Hit Disney+ Without Premier Access?

If you don’t want to shell out $29.99 for Premier Access, you can just wait. All Disney+ members will be able to stream Black Widow at no additional cost starting October 6, 2021.

What Is Black Widow?

Black Widow is the latest addition to the MCU, though it takes place between the events of Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War. Once again, Scarlett Johansson takes on the role of Natasha Romanoff, also known as Black Widow, a former Russian assassin with a mysterious past. 

This movie delves into Black Widow’s origin story and lets her confront her past by heading back to where she was forced to become an assassin. You can check out IGN’s Black Widow review for more details.

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What Is Black Widow Rated?

Black Widow is rated PG-13 by the MPAA.

In unexpected esports competition news: The first Uno Championship Series is happening, and you can participate. Part of the card game’s 50th anniversary celebration, the Uno Championship Series Invitational will be held in-person in Las Vegas on November 11, 2021 and offers a grand prize of $50K.

Select players of the Uno mobile tournament in the Uno app will be invited to attend the Las Vegas event. It’s currently unknown how Mattel will pick players from the mobile tournament pool, but ranking may be a big consideration.

In addition to the mobile tournament, players will also have the chance to attend local in-person tournaments. Prizes are currently unknown, but local competitions will likely be another path for ambitious Uno players to map their path to the Invitational.

Mattel will also randomly select 10 Uno players to attend the Invitational through a 50th anniversary sweepstakes. Players can enter starting August 1.

The esports boom continues to grow in the US, so it’s not very surprising–but still a little unexpected–that Mattel decided to push its classic card game into the esports arena. It’s certainly distinct from the usual esports suspects like first-person tactical shooters CS:GO and CoD.

People are not happy about the font used in the Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 3 Pixel Remasters.

A scroll through games Twitter shows folks are discussing the Square Enix’s font choice, and depending on how you look at things, people are rightfully upset. The font used is certainly questionable and there’s no denying that it doesn’t necessarily fit within the art style of these Pixel Remasters.

Some Final Fantasy Pixel Remaster screenshots from 1+2+3

Not sure about that font.. pic.twitter.com/oGVSFl4J5P

— Nibel (@Nibellion) June 30, 2021

It’s quite modern, for starters, and not a font that a pixel art game would have used back when these games were made. Case in point, the original versions of Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 3 used a pixelated font to accompany the pixel art used in the games.

Then there’s the fact that the font is quite small, which doesn’t bode well for the game’s overall accessibility.

ᶦ ʳᵉᵃˡˡʸ ᵈᵒⁿ’ᵗ ˢᵉᵉ ᵗʰᵉ ᵖʳᵒᵇˡᵉᵐ

— Chris Kohler (@kobunheat) June 30, 2021

These three titles are coming to PC and mobile and the font certainly screams “mobile port,” although the “why?” behind the decision to change the font at all remains unanswered and unknown.

To catch people who aren’t familiar with the remasters up to speed, Square Enix announced earlier this month that it would be remastering the first six Final Fantasy games using a pixel art style reminiscent of their original art styles. The reason these remasters even need to exist at all (besides archival purposes) is that previously-released ports of these games — looking at you, Final Fantasy V, and VI, especially — were not held in high regard by fans.

The ports saw the game’s beautiful pixel art smoothed over, giving the beloved characters and settings an almost toy figure-like look. These ports were criticized far and wide — they were literally pulled from Steam today — by people who simply wanted to play these games as they were released.

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The pixel remasters aren’t necessarily one-to-one in terms of pixel art, but they are a significant step up from previous ports.

Then…people saw the font.

To make a long story short, people are not happy with Square Enix’s decision to change the font to what it currently is.

hey @SquareEnix did you know that you can PAY for a really, really, really good font for like only $120 . . . i, uh, i will buy it for you, if you want . . . seriously, my DMs are open pic.twitter.com/zRhT7K2Bfq

— tim rogers (@108) February 27, 2018

It was revealed today that the Pixel Remasters of Final Fantasy 1, 2, and 3 would be released on July 28, 2021, and it seems this small and not-so-desirable-to-some font is what will be used in those July 28 releases.

The Pixel Remasters of 4, 5, and 6, however, do not yet have official release dates — their Steam pages simply say “coming soon” — so perhaps Square Enix could change the font before they release those titles. Only time will tell, but if Square Enix checked Twitter today, the message was probably received.

While waiting for these games to release, check out these screenshots from the first three Pixel Remasters and then read about how two Final Fantasy games were pulled from Steam today.

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

The next entry in the Call of Duty series is rumored to be codenamed “Slipstream.” That’s according to @Helba_The_AI, who runs blizztrack.com, a site that tracks updates and uploads to Activision Blizzard’s storefront, Battle.net.

Helba shared on Twitter that there is what appears to be files related to Call of Duty 2021 that have been uploaded to Battle.net, alongside logos with the name “Slipstream.” While Activision Blizzard did confirm that the next Call of Duty is in development with Sledgehammer Games leading, the game has not been officially revealed or given a release date. Sledgehammer assisted with the development of Modern Warfare and Black Ops Cold War and led development on WWII. The next Call of Duty will also integrate with the Warzone, the free-to-play battle royale.

Helba also tweeted that the next Call of Duty may have an alpha coming soon, based on some text found in Battle.net’s files. Earlier this year it was reported that the next Call of Duty game will be titled Vanguard and would take place during World War II. While the Vanguard title may be the official name of the game, the Slipstream title could possibly be used to secretly test the game or to avoid the official name of the game from being leaked.

It was also reported that the game would be using the IW8 engine, which was used for Modern Warfare and Warzone. Black Ops Cold War used its own engine and Warzone did not swap to the Cold War engine when it released, so Activision Blizzard might be trying to have a more unified Call of Duty experience across all titles moving forward.

While the code name and logo are not confirmed to be real, neither provides much information about the upcoming title. Activision Blizzard will most likely reveal the new title in the coming months, as Black Ops Cold War was revealed in late August last year, before releasing on November 13.

The Last of Us series at HBO has cast Dumbo star Nico Parker to play Joel’s daughter Sarah. Pedro Pascal has already been announced as Joel in the upcoming series.

Deadline reports that Parker is the newest member to be cast in The Last of Us series. She will join Pascal, Bella Ramsey who plays Ellie, and Gabriel Luna who has been cast as Joel’s brother Tommy. Merle Dandridge will reprise her role as Marlene who she voiced in Naughty Dog’s video game.

Parker is a relatively new actor having played Milly Farrier in 2019’s Dumbo directed by Tim Burton. Parker is the daughter of Thandiwe Newton, one of the stars on shows like Westworld also on HBO.

The Last of Us is a critically-acclaimed video game series that is being adapted into a television series for HBO. Chernobyl creator Craig Mazin is working with The Last of Us creator Neil Druckmann for the series and will adapt events from the first game.

Druckmann says the series will stay pretty close to the game at places, but other parts may “deviate greatly” because TV is a different medium. One area Druckmann says the series will explore more of is the drama between characters

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The Last of Us is set to begin filming next month, and we’ll wait until the series drops to break down what changed and what hasn’t during the adaptation process. Meanwhile, The Last of Us Part 2 recently celebrated its 1st anniversary, so check out IGN’s Last of Us 2 review and coverage for more.

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Matt T.M. Kim is IGN’s News Editor.

Want to make an exciting new career change or boost your resume with some of the most up-to-date programming skills? Training in the latest web development proficiencies is one of the smartest moves you can make – especially since top developers can make $160k a year.

Plus, now you don’t even need to go to an expensive college to learn the latest development techniques, because today, we’ve found The Modern Web Development & MySQL Programming Bundle on sale for just $19.99 (regular price $1000). With five separate courses included, that works out to less than $4 a course. 

This complete course includes over 47 hours of training in everything you need to really kickstart your career in IT, including PHP, MySQL, GitHub, Heroku, Blazor, .NET, and more. The beauty of this eLearning course, too, is that you can take it at your own pace, to fit your own schedule, from anywhere – so you can easily train for your new career while working your previous one. 

In the 4.6/5 rated course, Modern PHP Web Development with MySQL, GitHub & Heroku, for example, you’ll learn the fundamentals and more advanced specialisms of PHP programming, learning how to create dynamic web pages using PHP and MySQL.

Then, in the 4.5/5 rated, Microsoft SQL Server Development for Everyone, you’ll learn all the base SQL Server training you need to get started in a role as a Database Developer – even if you’re a beginner. 

Each course in this complete bundle is taught by Trevoir Williams, an accomplished software engineer, and lecturer who has spent more than a decade teaching web, software, and database development, and the same amount of time in the real-world IT industry, too. To top his credentials off, Williams has earned an extremely high 4.5/5 instructor rating from his previous students. 

Take the first steps to your exciting new career in IT today with The Modern Web Development & MySQL Programming Bundle, on sale now for $19.99 (regular price $1000). 

How much are you paying each year for your phone contract? If you’d rather not think about it, here’s an uncomfortable fact: the average American pays $114 a month for cell phone service – that’s $1,368 a year. 

Not only is that a wildly huge number, but it’s even wilder when you consider that you don’t have to spend anywhere near that amount – because we’ve found a deal that will save you $1289 off that average cost. Today, you can get a Tello Economy Prepaid 12-Month Plan, which comes with unlimited talk and text, as well as 1GB of LTE Data and a free SIM, for just $79 (regular price $120) – that works out to less than $7 a month. 

Whether you want to cut your ties to expensive contracts, or want an affordable second line to dedicate to business calls, this plan changes what you thought you knew about phone plans. With the pre-paid bundle, you’ll get coast-to-coast wireless coverage on a nationwide 4G/5G LTE network as standard, plus your own free hotspot. 

If you regularly make international calls for work or to stay connected with friends and family, perhaps the best part of this package is that minutes and text messages to more than 60 countries around the world are included in all plans at exactly the same rate as domestic calls – and with this bundle, they’re unlimited.

Not only that but giving yourself freedom from being tied into expensive and complicated cell phone contracts is simply game-changing. Because you’ll pay for this upfront, you can stay with the service for as long or as short as you’d like, as well as zero activation or early termination fees. 

Tello comes super highly rated from its users, too, with an impressive 4.6/5 stars on Trustpilot, with customers loving its reach of service, affordability, and simplicity when it comes to setting up and using right away. As one customer-reviewed, “Porting in my number was easy and extremely fast.” 

Get freedom from phone contracts today with a Tello Economy Prepaid 12-Month Plan: Unlimited Talk/Text + 1GB LTE Data + Free SIM, on sale now for $79 – that’s 34% off the regular price of $120.