It's been just days since NASA's latest Mars rover, Perseverance, landed on the Red Planet and now we know what it both sounds and looks like up there. Surprisingly, it doesn't sound like the intense metal of Mick Gordon's Doom soundtrack nor does it look the demon-filled hellscapes of the game either. That's because it actually just sounds like wind blowing by and looks like red-dirt hills and craters. Perseverance touched down last Friday and NASA has released nearly four minutes of footage from the rover's landing, including its first views of the Red Planet. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/23/nasas-perseverance-rover-touchdown-on-mars"] NASA has also released a ton of images from Perseverance and they range from bright red photos of the planet beneath the rover to images of pieces of the rover itself. You can check out a selection of those below. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=sights-and-sounds-of-mars-from-nasas-perseverance-rover&captions=true"] Perseverance is the first NASA Mars rover ever to be equipped with a microphone, which is why we're able to listen to the sounds of Mars now. It mostly picked up the sounds of itself moving around on the planet though. "This set of sounds from the surface of Mars were recorded by the microphone on the side of NASA's Perseverance Rover on Feb. 20, 2021," a post from NASA reads. "In the first set, sounds from the rover itself dominate. In the second set, the sound was filtered to make sounds from Mars more audible. You can hear a little wind in the second set." You can listen to the two clips of audio via NASA's post. As you'll hear, the original audio sounds mostly like a high-pitched buzz with just a touch of wind. NASA cleaned up the original audio to filter out the noise Perseverance is making, which is the high-pitched buzz, and it just sounds like wind blowing by the microphone. [caption id="attachment_2476886" align="alignnone" width="720"] An artist rendition of Perseverance on Mars, Photo Credit: NASA[/caption] Perseverance successfully landed on Mars last Friday and its mission is to seek signs of habitable conditions for life on Mars and to search for signs of past microbial life as well. It's not only equipped with a microphone to let NASA and the world know what it sounds like on Mars, but it's also equipped with a special drill that will collect core sample of rocks and soil on the Red Planet that will eventually be brought back to Earth in a future mission. Check out this story about Perseverance's landing last week, including a full timeline of how the mission went, and then read about how dust storms on Mars glow purple with electrical sparks. You may also want to check out this story about how researching are trying to turn the Red Planet green after that. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

With iconic DJ duo Daft Punk having announced their break up, plenty of fans are asking what could have been. One such fan is Q Entertainment producer James Mielke, who took to Twitter to reflect on how the team almost got to make a Lumines music game with Daft Punk.

Originally pitched as “Daft Punk Lumines,” Mielke and Q Entertainment had managed to get the project greenlit by Ubisoft in 2010. By this time, Daft Punk had already become a household name in electronic music circles – and would only grow bigger with the release of the Tron Legacy soundtrack and Random Access Memories album.

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Mielke originally wrote about the project’s genesis in a 2012 Gamasutra blog post, describing how his journey to reboot the Lumines franchise (originally a PSP launch title) brought him into contact with Daft Punk.

“What I wanted to do was put the player in the cockpit of Daft Punk's pyramid-shaped DJ booth that they tour with, and – as Daft Punk – rock the crowd by performing big combos in Lumines,” Mielke wrote. “Everything in the game was going to be Daft Punkified, from the HUD, to the soundtrack, to the bassy aural ambience found on their 2007 Alive live album, to the special effects, real-time lighting, bouncing 3D crowd, etc.”

Despite having already met Q Entertainment creative director Tetsuya Mizuguchi (and being fans of Mizuguchi’s work on Rez), a few roadblocks kept Daft Punk from being able to commit to the project. According to Mielke, the DJs didn’t want to use old music, had just wrapped up production on Tron Legacy, and were beginning work on Random Access Memories in between Adidas and Star Wars collaborations. This forced Q Entertainment to move on in a different direction with what eventually became Lumines Electronic Symphony.

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"[Daft Punk] were big fans of Rez, so that basically gave us an "in" to talk to them," Mielkes told IGN. "Ubisoft was very active in engaging them, too, and the conversation was definitely friendly. Their manager at Daft Arts, Paul, informed us that while they were big fans of Mizuguchi-san's work, that they didn't want to do just any nostalgia trip. Of course had they wanted to, they surely could have done so by that point."

"But having met Mizuguchi-san, they were very open to a collaboration provided the timing worked for them and if the concept defied expectations. Unfortunately Q Entertainment didn't live long enough to see that to fruition. I'm glad to have even just had a conversation with them about a collaboration, though, even if it was by proxy. I could appreciate that then, and even moreso now. When you're as in demand as Daft Punk, why do just anything when you can do the most amazing things instead? If I had known this ahead of time, I would have designed something a lot crazier.

"I'm hopeful that they'll eventually reunite. I can already imagine how cool the teaser video would be. But thinking about how uncompromising they were in their career, I wouldn't be surprised if they disappear much like the old rave group The KLF once did."

For Mielke, Daft Punk's impact on music and culture goes way, way beyond simply making some bangin' tracks. "Maybe they were chipping away at stuff and just decided it wasn't interesting anymore," Mielkes said. "Deadmau5, Marshmello, even Squarepusher are all rocking helmets these days. When everyone starts doing what you've been doing for decades, maybe it just wasn't cool anymore, and if anything, Daft Punk were always cool." Despite the distinct lack of Daft Punk tracks, IGN gave Lumines Electronic Symphony a nine out of 10, calling it fun and addictive. Daft Punk didn't totally miss the video game train, though. The duo provided 11 original mixes of their catalog for 2009's DJ Hero. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2009/09/15/dj-hero-xbox-360-trailer-daft-punk-trailer"]

Oh, well. At least we’ll always have Derezzed.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/human after all for IGN.

The Legend of Zelda celebrated its 35th anniversary on February 21, 2021, and many from across the world shared incredible and heartwarming memories of this beloved franchise. However, Nintendo itself was surprisingly quiet about Link's latest birthday. The Legend of Zelda released on the NES in Japan on February 21, 1986, and it began a series that many regard as one of the best in all of video games. As its 35th anniversary drew closer, many expected a big celebration for The Legend of Zelda in the same way that Nintendo celebrated Super Mario Bros. 35th anniversary. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/17/the-legend-of-zelda-skyward-sword-hd-nintendo-switch-announcement-trailer"] Last Wednesday, for the first time since September 4, 2019, we were treated to a proper Nintendo Direct. Many hoped and dreamed, especially with it occurring just four days before Zelda's 35th anniversary, that we would hear of Nintendo's plans to celebrate those who call Hyrule home. While we did get the exciting reveal that The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD and themed Joy-Con will be released on the Switch on July 16, the only other big Zelda news we received was that an update for Breath of the Wild 2 will hopefully arrive later this year and that Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity will be getting an expansion pass. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-zelda-review-score&captions=true"] Nintendo's social feeds made no mention of The Legend of Zelda's 35th anniversary on Sunday, February 21, though that's not particularly unusual for the company. For context, while Nintendo also did not celebrate Metroid's 30th Anniversary on Twitter in 2016, it did celebrate Super Mario Bros. 35th anniversary on Twitter on the actual date. However, this didn't stop so many, including those from IGN (and me!), from sharing wonderful memories of how much Link, Zelda, and Hyrule mean to them.

Happy 35th, The Legend of Zelda, my favorite game series of all time! This overture was performed at E3 2011 for the 25th anniversary. It speaks volumes that the best game in the series hadn't even been dreamed up back then. Can't wait to see what's next! https://t.co/7ndZ2xbqp3

— Peer Schneider (@PeerIGN) February 21, 2021

Happy #Zelda35th! Let’s remember how happy we were when this Breath of the Wild trailer dropped and we realized the game was coming out in 2 months pic.twitter.com/q724MkaZsm

— Gene Park (@GenePark) February 21, 2021

Now, it's very important to remember that we are still in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic and that plans have obviously been impacted by it. Another important thing/date to consider is March 31, 2021. This appears to be the date that the Super Mario Bros. 35th anniversary celebration will come to a close. This will also be the time that Super Mario 3D All-Stars will seemingly be removed from the Nintendo eShop and when Super Mario Bros. 35 becomes unplayable. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/03/02/the-legend-of-zelda-breath-of-the-wild-review"] It may very well be that Nintendo is waiting for Mario's party to end before jumping into one for The Legend of Zelda. That being said, it should also be mentioned that 2021 is the 35th anniversary of Metroid and the already teased 25th anniversary of Pokemon, which falls on February 27, 2021. Will we get a themed Nintendo Direct to celebrate Pokemon this week? Will we hear more of the much-anticipated Metroid Prime 4 this year? Only time will tell. If we look at Nintendo's past, it hasn't always celebrated a franchise's anniversary on the exact date. For example, The Legend of Zelda's 30th anniversary wasn't fully unveiled until around September 2016, when it was revealed that special Zelda amiibo were on the way and that Skyward Sword was available on the Wii U eShop. While we may yet not know Nintendo's full plans, or whether we've seen them already, The Legend of Zelda is obviously very important to them and remains so, given the anticipation for Breath of the Wild's sequel. But for now, everyone is celebrating The Legend of Zelda's meaningful anniversary, and we hope to celebrate 35 more years and beyond. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/11/zelda-breath-of-the-wild-sequel-reveal-trailer"] [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.

Epic Games announced that any player who purchased its loot box (Loot Llamas in-game) in its PvE Fortnite: Save the World mode will receive 1,000 V-Bucks for free pending the approval of a class action settlement later this week. Before Fortnite took over the world with its free-to-play battle royale mode, Fortnite was a PvE multiplayer game later renamed Fortnite: Save the World. While Fortnite Battle Royale never added random loot boxes, opting instead for a battle pass system, Save the World sold optional Loot Llama blind boxes until 2019 when the system was phased out of the mode. But in response to a pending class action settlement, Epic announced that anyone who ever purchased a Loot Llama will receive 1,000 V-Bucks, worth around $8. As reported by The Verge, Epic says the V-Bucks should be automatically added to the accounts of applicable players in the coming days. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/19/fortnite-ryu-and-chun-li-trailer"] Although the settlement only applies to players located in the United States, Epic Games says it’s extending the 1,000 V-Bucks offer to players worldwide. So anyone who played Save the World and bought a loot box should see the V-Bucks in their account in the next few days. Rocket League players will also see 1,000 in-game credits sent to their accounts as part of the settlement. Epic Games acquired Rocket League developer Psyonix in 2019 and the studio was similarly dinged for loot boxes. Loot Boxes have come under fire in the past couple of years, particularly in Europe where individual legislatures investigated and sometimes banned the system. In recent years live-service games have transitioned to adopting battle pass systems that offer specific rewards in exchange for completing specific challenges or progressing to a specified level. Loot Boxes have been classified as gambling mechanics in some countries, and you can read about how these mechanics have impacted the lives of real people. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is News Editor at IGN.

If you missed out on pre-ordering Analogue’s Pocket gaming handheld, good news: Additional pre-orders are coming, and Analogue says it’s implementing bot and scalper protections to help ward off resellers.

In a new post, Analogue laid out their plans for 2021 pre-orders.

Analogue says they’re implementing “robust” bot protection, and all orders placed using bots will be cancelled and inventory will be reallocated to real customers. For human scalpers, Analogue says they’ll be working with eBay to monitor for accounts selling access to a pre-order, which is against eBay’s terms of service, and cancel them.

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“The current global state of affairs has resulted in consequences that have affected the worldwide supply chain and this has temporarily slowed our ability to keep many of our products in stock (Super Nt, Mega Sg) and reduced production capacity for Pocket,” Analogue stated. “We are aware that many users are frustrated that Pocket pre-orders sold out quickly and both Super Nt and Mega Sg are currently unavailable.”

Analogue says it’s also taking measures to avoid experiencing shipping calculator errors, which delayed some shipments and prevented some people from completing orders.

You can sign up for pre-order notifications on Analogue’s site.

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The Analogue Pocket is effectively a modern reimagining of the Nintendo Game Boy. Featuring a sleek, minimalist design (like a Game Boy as envisioned by a PS4 designer), the Pocket is compatible with 2,780 Game Boy, Game Boy Color, and Game Boy Advance cartridges. It also works with cartridge adaptors for Game Gear, Neo Geo Pocket, Atari Lynx, and others. Though it has 10 times the resolution of a Game Boy screen, the Pocket can also utilize an “Original Display Mode” to replicate the original game’s look. As if that weren’t enough, the Pocket also features its own music creation and game design software. You can read our full preview here.

The first wave of Analogue Pocket handhelds is due to start shipping in May 2021.

[poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/game boy for IGN.

Zack Snyder takes risks with what’s expected of a DC superhero story. His Superman famously killed in 2013’s Man of Steel. But one idea that never made it was an idea to romantically pair up Bruce Wayne and Lois Lane. In a new profile on Zack Snyder, Vanity Fair goes in-depth on the timeline leading up to the release of Zack Snyder’s Justice League on HBO Max. Including new details during the development of the Justice League in 2017 where Snyder apparently pitched an idea to romantically link Batman and Lois Lane. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2021/02/14/zack-snyders-justice-league-official-trailer"] “The intention was that Bruce fell in love with Lois and then realized that the only way to save the world was to bring Superman back to life,” says Snyder. This of course would lead to some internal conflict because Lois’s ex in the movies and historically, the comics, is Superman. “We had this beautiful speech where [Bruce] said to Alfred: ‘I never had a life outside the cave. I never imagined a world for me beyond this. But this woman makes me think that if I can get this group of gods together, then my job is done. I can quit. I can stop.’” This idea was ultimately axed by Warner Bros, who by all accounts were open to Snyder’s ideas for the DC universe. Even after WB appointed DC Entertainment creative chief Geoff Johns and WB co-production head Jon Berg as on-set overseers for Justice League, Snyder says “It didn’t bother me too much because they weren’t that threatening[,]” outside of injecting small amounts of humor into the film. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/08/22/justice-league-the-snyder-cut-trailer"] However, this relationship changed soon once Joss Whedon was brought on board to do rewrites. According to the report, Johns recruited Whedon for rewrites on the Justice League script before WB eventually gave the Avengers director more and more control over the project. Snyder, still recovering from the death of his daughter Autumn, quit the project shortly after. The officially titled Zack Snyder’s Justice League will however see the light of day in March through HBO Max. The Vanity Fair profile shared more details about the project’s rebirth, and check out IGN Fan Fest where we’ll interview Zack Snyder ourselves about the new Justice League. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt T.M. Kim is a News Editor for IGN.

Starting on March 5, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has given permission to New York City movie theaters to reopen with limited capacity, Variety reports. Theaters will be allowed to operate at 25% capacity, with no more than 50 people. COVID-19 safety measures including masks and social distancing will also be required. Movie theaters outside of New York City were allowed to reopen in October last year with the same restrictions. Sports arenas have also previously been given permission to reopen with limited capacity starting Tuesday. The decision to reopen movie theaters will almost certainly draw a mixture of sharp criticism and relief. With the United State's COVID-19 death toll recently eclipsing 500,000, vaccination efforts in New York state have also experienced slowdowns due to harsh weather conditions. New York City had fewer than 1,000 first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine on-hand Saturday, according to ABC 7 New York. New York City currently has approximately 110,000 of the second vaccine doses, but state and federal officials remain hesitant to crack into the supply. That said, the number of COVID-19 cases has reached below 3% for the first time since November. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-delayed-movie-due-to-coronavirus-so-far&captions=true"] While movie theater companies and film studios will be glad to hear of the reopening measures, it remains to be seen if enough customers will visit to sustain the business. Movie studios have delayed the likes of Fast and the Furious 9, James Bond: No Time to Die, and Black Widow, but at 25% capacity, it's unlikely that NYC movie theaters will make a big enough box office splash to merit a studio releasing a big budget film. Big movie theater chains will no doubt take any opportunity to stem losses, though. AMC reported a 90.9% drop in revenue in its fiscal third quarter, going from more than $1 billion revenue in 2019 to a (relatively) meager $119.5 million in November 2020. AMC Theaters CEO Adam Aron has also been harshly critical of HBO opting to release Wonder Woman 1984 on HBO Max during the pandemic, saying it sacrifices profitability to subsidize the streaming platform. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer for IGN.

The world of Toronto esports is getting a big makeover. A new $500 million entertainment venue, with seating for up to 7,000 fans, is currently being planned for a 2025 opening.

OverActive Media, owners of the Overwatch League’s Toronto Defiant and Call of Duty League’s Toronto Ultra, announced plans for the new venue on Monday. The currently unnamed venue, which will be located on a four-acre plot north of Lakeshore Blvd in Toronto’s 192-acre Exhibition Place grounds, will be the first sports or entertainment venue built in the city since the construction of BMO Field in 2007.

Check out the arena's concept art, which shows off how it will look from both the outside and inside.

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OverActive Media says the facility plans to host more than 200 events each year, mostly entertainment and music bookings, while also facilitating conventions, corporate events, awards shows, and esports competitions. The venue will serve as the home of both Toronto Defiant and Toronto Ultra, but OverActive hopes it will draw in other esports organizations and teams as well.

"It has always been our intention to develop a venue and hosting strategy and to build a facility that could not only serve as an iconic home for our two franchises, but ultimately emerge as a global hub for major international esport events,” OverActive president and CEO Chris Overholt said in a statement. “We are already in active discussions to attract some of the biggest esport events in the world.”

The venue is being designed by Populous, a design firm responsible for work on events such as the London Olympics, the Super Bowl, and Yankee Stadium.

The plan for the venue is still in early stages, however. Toronto’s City Council and Exhibition Place board of governors have yet to give final approval on the proposal.

“We are in the final stages of putting our business terms together with city officials and we are optimistic that we can soon wrap up our discussions to everyone’s satisfaction,” an OverActive spokesman told the Toronto Star. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joseph Knoop is a writer/producer/Mercy main for IGN.

Sony is officially moving forward on a live-action Twisted Metal TV series at last, with the producer of Cobra Kai and the writers of Deadpool on board. A report today from Variety states that the coming action-comedy series will be based on an original story in the Twisted Metal universe from writers Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who previously worked on both Deadpool movies, as well as Zombieland. The series will be led by executive producer Michael Jonathan Smith, who also produced and wrote for Cobra Kai. Other production names on board include Will Arnett, Marc Forman, and Peter Principato, as well as both Reese and Wernick. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/05/21/twisted-metal-tv-series-in-development-ign-daily-fix"] Twisted Metal first came out in 1995, and has had a number of sequels follow, with the most recent being Twisted Metal: Black (which originally came out in 2001) launching on the PS4 in 2015 through PSN. The games are focused around demolition derby, with each following a different storyline that somehow revolves around "Twisted Metal," a derby event taking place once a year that grants its winner one wish of their choice. The live-action TV series is reported to center around an as-yet-unnamed protagonist trying to complete a delivery in a post-apocalyptic world, in exchange for a promise of a better life. Not much else is known, though it is said that the clown character Sweet Tooth -- a recurring antagonistic clown who drives an ice cream truck -- will make an appearance. Twisted Metal was first publicly posited as a TV series by Sony in 2019, and this is the first we've heard about it since. A Twisted Metal movie was previously announced back in 2012 but never came to fruition. And unfortunately for anyone who hoped this might spark interest in a new Twisted Metal game, there hasn't been any news to that effect in years, and the series' creator David Jaffe unfortunately shut down his development studio back in 2018 following a cancelled project. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Like something out of a Mad Max movie, a new study shows that dust storms on Mars might glow with tiny sparks. A new abstract published by a group of scientists that simulated the low-pressure atmosphere of Mars reveals that the electrical discharge, or static shock, we're familiar with here on Earth might happen on Mars, as reported by Inside Science. Furthermore, it might happen within the massive dust storms that occur on the Red Planet, which means the dust clouds roaming the planet's hills and craters could glow with tiny sparks of electricity. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=cosmos-possible-worlds-gallery&captions=true"] Static shock is scientifically known as a phenomenon called triboelectrification, which is essentially a buildup of electricity between two surfaces touching each other. It's what happens when you drag your feet across a carpet and then touch a metal doorknob or your friend's arm. Before this abstract, there wasn't evidence that triboelectrication occurred on Mars. The team of scientists behind the abstract recreated Mars' atmosphere by stirring up small pieces of volcanic basalt, which are similar to the type of rocks detected on Mars, inside low-pressure containers, according to Inside Science. They then used jets of carbon dioxide gas to stir up the particles inside the containers in such a way that kept the dust inside away from the container's walls. On Mars, those walls don't exist so if the sparks appear as a result of the collision between that dust and the walls, it wouldn't count as a direct simulation of what occurs on Mars. To the surprise of the team, sparks began to fly and scientist Méndez Harper believes this implies that dust storms on Mars "[crackle] with electricity." Harper states in the abstract that because of Mars' lower pressure compared to Earth, sparks discharge easier on the Red Planet, which means the long streaks of lightning we're used to likely don't occur there. Instead, that electrical discharge translates into dust storms that flash with tiny sparks that cause the dust clouds to glow purple. [caption id="attachment_2476886" align="alignnone" width="720"] An artist rendition of Perseverance on Mars, Image Credit: NASA[/caption] Harper says this phenomenon is called a "corona glow" and that NASA might get a glimpse of that courtesy of its Perseverance rover that landed on Mars last week. "You could imagine that as [the small helicopter that flew Perseverance to Mars called Ingenuity] takes off, it might churn up a bunch of dust," Harper said. "I look forward to watching that." For more news on Mars, read about how researchers are trying to turn the Red Planet green and check out this story about how researchers may have new ideas about the formation of Mars. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes.