The Last of Us on HBO will directly lift dialogue from the original game, says executive producer Neil Druckmann, but will see some episodes “deviate greatly” from the events we’ve played previously. The Last of Us is the first of several planned PlayStation adaptations into film and television, and with both Ellie and Joel’s roles cast, one of the biggest questions remains how closely will the HBO series adhere to the original’s story. Speaking to IGN during SXSW 2021, The Last of Us game director and show executive producer Neil Druckmann, spoke about his and showrunner Craig Mazin’s approach to adapting the acclaimed original game. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/20/the-last-of-us-hbo-series-will-cover-the-first-game"] “We talked at length [that season 1 of the show is going to be [the first game],” Druckmann explained, noting that for him and Mazin, “the philosophical underpinnings of the story” were the essential thing to get right about the adaptation. “As far as the superficial things, like should [a character] wear the same plaid shirt or the same red shirt? They might or might not appear in it, that’s way less important to us than getting the core of who these people are and the core of their journey.” And while Druckmann could not, of course, reveal too much about the team’s exact plans for how the series will play out in comparison to the game, he did explain that viewers will certainly recognize some dialogue - and be surprised by large parts of episodes. “Things sometimes stay pretty close. It’s funny to see my dialogue there from the games in HBO scripts. And sometimes they deviate greatly to much better effect because we are dealing with a different medium,” he said. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=playstation-major-franchise-output&captions=true"] “For example, in the game, there’s so much action you have to have to train the player about mechanics. You have to have more violence and more spectacle to some degree than you would need on a TV show because you don’t need to train people on how to use a gun. So that’s something that’s been really different, and HBO’s been great in pushing us to move away from hardcore action and focus more on the drama of the character. Some of my favorite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can’t wait for people to see them.” But beyond that, Druckmann didn’t want to spoil the experience of what’s to come, only to say that he “can’t wait for people to see what we saw in the people we’ve brought together,” referring to Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. But he did recently get to see one of the game’s main threats come to life. “I just saw the first prosthetic test for the Clicker and it’s awesome. It’s so rad to see this thing come to physical life,” he said. While we await a first look at the upcoming HBO adaptation, be sure to read up on Sony’s ambitious plans for non-gaming PlayStation projects, and check out IGN’s weekly PlayStation show Podcast Beyond! for more on everything in the world of PlayStation. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

The Last of Us on HBO will directly lift dialogue from the original game, says executive producer Neil Druckmann, but will see some episodes “deviate greatly” from the events we’ve played previously. The Last of Us is the first of several planned PlayStation adaptations into film and television, and with both Ellie and Joel’s roles cast, one of the biggest questions remains how closely will the HBO series adhere to the original’s story. Speaking to IGN during SXSW 2021, The Last of Us game director and show executive producer Neil Druckmann, spoke about his and showrunner Craig Mazin’s approach to adapting the acclaimed original game. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/20/the-last-of-us-hbo-series-will-cover-the-first-game"] “We talked at length [that season 1 of the show is going to be [the first game],” Druckmann explained, noting that for him and Mazin, “the philosophical underpinnings of the story” were the essential thing to get right about the adaptation. “As far as the superficial things, like should [a character] wear the same plaid shirt or the same red shirt? They might or might not appear in it, that’s way less important to us than getting the core of who these people are and the core of their journey.” And while Druckmann could not, of course, reveal too much about the team’s exact plans for how the series will play out in comparison to the game, he did explain that viewers will certainly recognize some dialogue - and be surprised by large parts of episodes. “Things sometimes stay pretty close. It’s funny to see my dialogue there from the games in HBO scripts. And sometimes they deviate greatly to much better effect because we are dealing with a different medium,” he said. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=playstation-major-franchise-output&captions=true"] “For example, in the game, there’s so much action you have to have to train the player about mechanics. You have to have more violence and more spectacle to some degree than you would need on a TV show because you don’t need to train people on how to use a gun. So that’s something that’s been really different, and HBO’s been great in pushing us to move away from hardcore action and focus more on the drama of the character. Some of my favorite episodes so far have deviated greatly from the story, and I can’t wait for people to see them.” But beyond that, Druckmann didn’t want to spoil the experience of what’s to come, only to say that he “can’t wait for people to see what we saw in the people we’ve brought together,” referring to Pedro Pascal as Joel and Bella Ramsey as Ellie. But he did recently get to see one of the game’s main threats come to life. “I just saw the first prosthetic test for the Clicker and it’s awesome. It’s so rad to see this thing come to physical life,” he said. While we await a first look at the upcoming HBO adaptation, be sure to read up on Sony’s ambitious plans for non-gaming PlayStation projects, and check out IGN’s weekly PlayStation show Podcast Beyond! for more on everything in the world of PlayStation. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor, host of Podcast Beyond!, and PlayStation lead. Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Iron Gate has teased Valheim's Hearth and Home update with a new image alongside announcing that its Norse survival game has officially passed six million units sold. Now that things are "calming down since launch," Iron Gate is able to spend more time focusing on Hearth and Home. While not much is known about this new update, Valheim's lead artist did share a small sneak peak, which you can see below; Hearth and Home is said to "focus on the house building aspect of the game" and will provide "more building pieces and stuff to do in and around the house." This is one of the many planned updates that Iron Gate has planned for Valheim's 2021. Speaking of sales, Valheim has reached this impressive six million milestone in just a little over six weeks since its launch. Although it is already a huge success, the game is still in Early Access and the team is hard at work at fixing high priority bugs and many of the problems that have been reported, including networking issues and balance tweaks to "our most evil bug, the Deathsquito!" [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/17/valheim-early-access-review"] For more on Valheim, check out how a 5-person team created this incredibly popular game and our full wiki guide that will help you understand how to become a true hero in Valheim. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Iron Gate has teased Valheim's Hearth and Home update with a new image alongside announcing that its Norse survival game has officially passed six million units sold. Now that things are "calming down since launch," Iron Gate is able to spend more time focusing on Hearth and Home. While not much is known about this new update, Valheim's lead artist did share a small sneak peak, which you can see below; Hearth and Home is said to "focus on the house building aspect of the game" and will provide "more building pieces and stuff to do in and around the house." This is one of the many planned updates that Iron Gate has planned for Valheim's 2021. Speaking of sales, Valheim has reached this impressive six million milestone in just a little over six weeks since its launch. Although it is already a huge success, the game is still in Early Access and the team is hard at work at fixing high priority bugs and many of the problems that have been reported, including networking issues and balance tweaks to "our most evil bug, the Deathsquito!" [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/17/valheim-early-access-review"] For more on Valheim, check out how a 5-person team created this incredibly popular game and our full wiki guide that will help you understand how to become a true hero in Valheim. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla's first expansion - Wrath of the Druids - will be released on April 29, 2021 and will send Eivor "through the haunted beauty of Ireland as you gain the favor of Gaelic kings and confront the druidic cult, the Children of Danu." This expansion is part of Valhalla's post-launch support, which was revealed prior to the game's launch in 2020. Following Wrath of the Druids in Summer 2021, the Siege of Paris will let players relive the "most ambitious battle in Viking history" as they infiltrate the fortified city of Paris. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/19/assassins-creed-valhalla-ostara-season-free-update-trailer"] Wrath of the Druids release date was revealed with details of Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Ostara Season that began with the Ostara Festival on March 18. This festival will run through April 8 and allows players to "experience a wholesome time hunting eggs, or share in the festivities with archery, drinking, and brawling." When night falls, Eivor must protect the Raven Clan from spirits who are running wild through the forest and causing chaos. Ubisoft is also gifting players a Godly Reward, which is an outfit inspired by Assassin's Creed's Altair. Furthermore, the Yule Gear Set and cosmetics will be given for free alongside 300 opals. All players need to do to claim these gifts is go to the Animus store. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=assassins-creed-valhalla-ostara-season-screenshots&captions=true"] Transmogrification has also been added to AC: Valhalla and will allow players to change the appearance of Eivor's gear with visual customization. If you like the way a piece of gear looks, you can modify another piece of gear in the same category to look like it for 50 silver at the Blacksmith. This is useful if you love how something looks but find better gear in the wild. Three new skills have also been added, and they are as follows;

• Fearless Leaper - This skill thrusts Eivor upwards before landing a mastered falling attack atop enemies
• Raven's Loot and Loot Food - Increase Eivor's efficiency when at range of on the prowl, giving you more time to stay on the move

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/20/assassins-creed-valhalla-official-post-launch-trailer"] It's also important to note that Ubisoft has had to deploy a server-side hotfix to address a rise in game crashing near Ravensthorpe. To ensure stability, Settlement decorations will be temporarily removed and Ostara Festival quests involving decorations will not be completable. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Assassin's Creed Valhalla's first expansion - Wrath of the Druids - will be released on April 29, 2021 and will send Eivor "through the haunted beauty of Ireland as you gain the favor of Gaelic kings and confront the druidic cult, the Children of Danu." This expansion is part of Valhalla's post-launch support, which was revealed prior to the game's launch in 2020. Following Wrath of the Druids in Summer 2021, the Siege of Paris will let players relive the "most ambitious battle in Viking history" as they infiltrate the fortified city of Paris. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/03/19/assassins-creed-valhalla-ostara-season-free-update-trailer"] Wrath of the Druids release date was revealed with details of Assassin's Creed Valhalla's Ostara Season that began with the Ostara Festival on March 18. This festival will run through April 8 and allows players to "experience a wholesome time hunting eggs, or share in the festivities with archery, drinking, and brawling." When night falls, Eivor must protect the Raven Clan from spirits who are running wild through the forest and causing chaos. Ubisoft is also gifting players a Godly Reward, which is an outfit inspired by Assassin's Creed's Altair. Furthermore, the Yule Gear Set and cosmetics will be given for free alongside 300 opals. All players need to do to claim these gifts is go to the Animus store. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=assassins-creed-valhalla-ostara-season-screenshots&captions=true"] Transmogrification has also been added to AC: Valhalla and will allow players to change the appearance of Eivor's gear with visual customization. If you like the way a piece of gear looks, you can modify another piece of gear in the same category to look like it for 50 silver at the Blacksmith. This is useful if you love how something looks but find better gear in the wild. Three new skills have also been added, and they are as follows;

• Fearless Leaper - This skill thrusts Eivor upwards before landing a mastered falling attack atop enemies
• Raven's Loot and Loot Food - Increase Eivor's efficiency when at range of on the prowl, giving you more time to stay on the move

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/10/20/assassins-creed-valhalla-official-post-launch-trailer"] It's also important to note that Ubisoft has had to deploy a server-side hotfix to address a rise in game crashing near Ravensthorpe. To ensure stability, Settlement decorations will be temporarily removed and Ostara Festival quests involving decorations will not be completable. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Fall Guys Season 4 is introducing Squads mode, a new way of playing the game with a 4-player team who win (and probably more often lose) together. Initially available for two weeks to judge player reaction, Squads mode will bring together 15 teams (which can be put together manually, or matchmade), and will include almost all of the game's existing events - although they'll be scored differently to their normal versions.

"The crucial difference between Squads Mode and normal Fall Guys," explains lead game designer Joe Walsh, "is that being eliminated does not completely eliminate you from the game. You only get eliminated if your entire Squad perform poorly on any given Round. We've all been in that situation where our teammate gets eliminated in the first Round and they have to sit there and watch you compete. And there's this pressure to be like 'Well, maybe we should all just back out and go to the main menu and have another go.' This allows you to basically all perform as a team."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/fall-guys-season-4-official-trailer"]

Squads mode will institute a scoring system for most of the game's rounds. In Race rounds, players will be scored depending on what position they cross the finish line in, with the lowest-scoring teams overall eliminated after all players have finished. Survival rounds will award players a point for every second they survive, again eliminating the lowest scoring teams.

Fall Guys' developers are very excited about how this might change the strategies for playing some rounds. Walsh gives us an example: "If one of your players on your Squad manages to screw up on Perfect Match and it's the first person to fall off, you essentially know that if you guys don't get some other people eliminated, you are going to get eliminated, because you are now hamstrung for the rest of the Round. So it's really interesting because then your team kind of has to go on the offensive and try and eliminate other people. Because if you can push two players of another Squad off the side, suddenly you guys are going to be earning more points. So it's going to be really interesting to see how that develops over time."

Perhaps most interesting will be Final Rounds – these will still give the victory to the last player standing, or the first to cross a line, but that victory now goes to a whole team. That obviously incentivises teams to work together to get one player to the end of the round: "So," says Walsh with a grin, "if there's three of you left versus two other players, and you've got strong presence in Hex-a-gone, it might be worth two of you just going out there to sabotage, basically throwing yourself off and grabbing other people to their doom."

The team element also means that some normal Fall Guys rounds have been converted into tense Final Rounds. Fall Ball, for example, now pits two teams against one another in an oversized football match final. "Season 4 is actually going to have three times as many Final Rounds as any other mode," says Walsh, "which is going to be really, really fun. And I'm really excited to have four vs. four Fall Ball decide the winner of a show. I think it will be a really, really interesting thing to do. It's something we've always wanted to do." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/fall-guys-ultimate-knockout-nintendo-switch-trailer"] The mode changes the complexion of Fall Guys, but it shouldn't change its economy too much. When we spoke, Mediatonic didn't have a final decision on how the mode would reward winners but, given that its theoretically easier to win the game, Walsh says the rewards should be "slightly less" than the main game - presumably using the new Crown Shards system. One thing that will definitively be easier however, is Fall Guys' notoriously most difficult achievement and trophy. 'Infallible' asks you to win five entire episodes of Fall Guys in a row. And yes, Squads wins will count towards that – "In theory, we've made it four times as easy for people to achieve that trophy," says Walsh. "I said in an interview six months ago, I was like 'We're going to make it easier over time, for players to get that trophy.' And this is the future I was talking about. So we're finally there." Fall Guys Season 4 has a science fiction theme and begins on Monday, March 22. it will also be bringing Among Us costumes with mysterious, unique features. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Fall Guys Season 4 is introducing Squads mode, a new way of playing the game with a 4-player team who win (and probably more often lose) together. Initially available for two weeks to judge player reaction, Squads mode will bring together 15 teams (which can be put together manually, or matchmade), and will include almost all of the game's existing events - although they'll be scored differently to their normal versions.

"The crucial difference between Squads Mode and normal Fall Guys," explains lead game designer Joe Walsh, "is that being eliminated does not completely eliminate you from the game. You only get eliminated if your entire Squad perform poorly on any given Round. We've all been in that situation where our teammate gets eliminated in the first Round and they have to sit there and watch you compete. And there's this pressure to be like 'Well, maybe we should all just back out and go to the main menu and have another go.' This allows you to basically all perform as a team."

[ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/fall-guys-season-4-official-trailer"]

Squads mode will institute a scoring system for most of the game's rounds. In Race rounds, players will be scored depending on what position they cross the finish line in, with the lowest-scoring teams overall eliminated after all players have finished. Survival rounds will award players a point for every second they survive, again eliminating the lowest scoring teams.

Fall Guys' developers are very excited about how this might change the strategies for playing some rounds. Walsh gives us an example: "If one of your players on your Squad manages to screw up on Perfect Match and it's the first person to fall off, you essentially know that if you guys don't get some other people eliminated, you are going to get eliminated, because you are now hamstrung for the rest of the Round. So it's really interesting because then your team kind of has to go on the offensive and try and eliminate other people. Because if you can push two players of another Squad off the side, suddenly you guys are going to be earning more points. So it's going to be really interesting to see how that develops over time."

Perhaps most interesting will be Final Rounds – these will still give the victory to the last player standing, or the first to cross a line, but that victory now goes to a whole team. That obviously incentivises teams to work together to get one player to the end of the round: "So," says Walsh with a grin, "if there's three of you left versus two other players, and you've got strong presence in Hex-a-gone, it might be worth two of you just going out there to sabotage, basically throwing yourself off and grabbing other people to their doom."

The team element also means that some normal Fall Guys rounds have been converted into tense Final Rounds. Fall Ball, for example, now pits two teams against one another in an oversized football match final. "Season 4 is actually going to have three times as many Final Rounds as any other mode," says Walsh, "which is going to be really, really fun. And I'm really excited to have four vs. four Fall Ball decide the winner of a show. I think it will be a really, really interesting thing to do. It's something we've always wanted to do." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/fall-guys-ultimate-knockout-nintendo-switch-trailer"] The mode changes the complexion of Fall Guys, but it shouldn't change its economy too much. When we spoke, Mediatonic didn't have a final decision on how the mode would reward winners but, given that its theoretically easier to win the game, Walsh says the rewards should be "slightly less" than the main game - presumably using the new Crown Shards system. One thing that will definitively be easier however, is Fall Guys' notoriously most difficult achievement and trophy. 'Infallible' asks you to win five entire episodes of Fall Guys in a row. And yes, Squads wins will count towards that – "In theory, we've made it four times as easy for people to achieve that trophy," says Walsh. "I said in an interview six months ago, I was like 'We're going to make it easier over time, for players to get that trophy.' And this is the future I was talking about. So we're finally there." Fall Guys Season 4 has a science fiction theme and begins on Monday, March 22. it will also be bringing Among Us costumes with mysterious, unique features. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Devotion developer Red Candle Games is teasing its next project, and it appears to be a non-horror, stylish 2D action title. Red Candle Games shared a short video of its new project on Twitter, and it doesn't seem to be a horror game like the studio's previous games, Devotion and Detention.

Work in progress pic.twitter.com/yPiNIWEOv6

— redcandlegames (@redcandlegames) March 19, 2021

Devotion was in the news recently as it was finally made available after being delisted for more than two years following the controversy that occurred when users found an in-game Winnie the Pooh meme mocking Chinese President Xi Jinping. In 2020, Devotion was set to return via CD Projekt's GOG distribution platform, but GOG posted a message later that day saying, "after receiving many messages from gamers, we have decided not to list the game in our store." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/02/26/devotion-review"] Red Candle Games took matters into its own hands and created its very own Red Candle e-shop to sell its games in hopes to "provide a direct and simple purchasing channel for players who're interested in our games." For more, check out our review of Devotion, in which we said, "From start to finish, Devotion is an excellent psychological horror game full of surreal imagery, creepy dolls, and wonderful environmental storytelling." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Devotion developer Red Candle Games is teasing its next project, and it appears to be a non-horror, stylish 2D action title. Red Candle Games shared a short video of its new project on Twitter, and it doesn't seem to be a horror game like the studio's previous games, Devotion and Detention.

Work in progress pic.twitter.com/yPiNIWEOv6

— redcandlegames (@redcandlegames) March 19, 2021

Devotion was in the news recently as it was finally made available after being delisted for more than two years following the controversy that occurred when users found an in-game Winnie the Pooh meme mocking Chinese President Xi Jinping. In 2020, Devotion was set to return via CD Projekt's GOG distribution platform, but GOG posted a message later that day saying, "after receiving many messages from gamers, we have decided not to list the game in our store." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/02/26/devotion-review"] Red Candle Games took matters into its own hands and created its very own Red Candle e-shop to sell its games in hopes to "provide a direct and simple purchasing channel for players who're interested in our games." For more, check out our review of Devotion, in which we said, "From start to finish, Devotion is an excellent psychological horror game full of surreal imagery, creepy dolls, and wonderful environmental storytelling." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com. Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.