Naughty Dog has developed tech to allow for micro-details on The Last of Us Part II's characters - from veins popping in anger, to how red their eyes get. Detailed in the latest of Sony's 'Inside' mini-documentaries about the game (which you can watch in full below), Neil Druckmann highlighted the studio's "insane attention to detail". That comes into particular focus when discussing the technology developed to make its characters feel more human at the smallest levels. Druckmann explains: "Now we can make veins pop on their forehead if they're really angry. Or likewise we can redden their skin - could be based on emotion, or could be based on what's happening to them physically. How red their eyes get is controllable, how tears flow off their eyes and their face is all-new tech that we've developed for this game." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/28/the-last-of-us-part-2-inside-the-details-video"] We've previously learned that enemies are intended to feel as realistic as the game's heroes, and the video shows off how they talk to one another, scream when they see a friend die, and say each other's names. Even the non-human elements have had this kind of micro-level work put in. Naughty Dog researched the kinds of foliage and architecture that would realistically appear in the various parts of the US Ellie will visit on her journey. The team even walked the route Ellie takes through Seattle to make sure it was replicated as faithfully as possible in the final game. We saw a lot more of the game yesterday in Sony's State of Play broadcast about Naughty Dog's latest - and we documented everything new we learned. The Last of Us Part 2 will be released for the PlayStation 4 on June 19. IGN's Last of Us 2 review will go live on Friday, June 12, 12:01 AM PT. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-ign-naughty-dog-game-review&captions=true"] [poilib element="accentDivider"] Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter.

ILMxLAB, the studio behind Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series, has announced its next VR adventure in Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge. More details were given on StarWars.com, including that this new experience will arrive later in 2020, is built in collaboration with Oculus Studios, and connects to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort. The official logo and concept art by Chris Voy were revealed, and can be seen below; Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge takes place between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker and is set on the outskirts of Batuu's Black Spire Outpost of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. It will tell an original story and features both new and iconic Star Wars characters and "multiple style of gameplay and difficulty settings to accommodate a wide variety of players."

“We are so excited for fans to step into Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge later this year,” said Vicki Dobbs Beck, ILMxLAB executive-in-charge. “This action-packed adventure not only speaks to the promise of connected and complementary experiences by extending the lore around Black Spire Outpost, it represents another meaningful step in ILMxLAB’s quest to transition  from storytelling — one-way communication — to storyLIVING, where you’re inside a world making consequential choices that drive your experience forward.”

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=star-wars-rise-of-the-resistance-full-disney-world-queue-photo-tour&captions=true"] No platforms were given, but its safe to assume it will at least come to both the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift, considering its built in collaboration with Oculus Studios and Vader Immortal also appeared on those devices. Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series, which is headed to PSVR this summer, was released last year and allowed you to come face-to-face with Darth Vader and use a combination of a lightsaber and force powers to make it through a new Star Wars Story. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/25/vader-immortal-a-star-wars-vr-series-episode-iii-official-trailer"] We reviewed Episode 1 and Episode 3 of the three-part series and thought it did "a fine job of letting you bask in Star Wars surroundings and the impressive presence of Darth Vader himself," even though it did end with a "dull thud." [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 who can't wait and is so excited he just can't hide it. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

ILMxLAB, the studio behind Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series, has announced its next VR adventure in Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge. More details were given on StarWars.com, including that this new experience will arrive later in 2020, is built in collaboration with Oculus Studios, and connects to Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge in both Disneyland Resort and Walt Disney World Resort. The official logo and concept art by Chris Voy were revealed, and can be seen below; Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy's Edge takes place between The Last Jedi and The Rise of Skywalker and is set on the outskirts of Batuu's Black Spire Outpost of Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge. It will tell an original story and features both new and iconic Star Wars characters and "multiple style of gameplay and difficulty settings to accommodate a wide variety of players."

“We are so excited for fans to step into Star Wars: Tales from the Galaxy’s Edge later this year,” said Vicki Dobbs Beck, ILMxLAB executive-in-charge. “This action-packed adventure not only speaks to the promise of connected and complementary experiences by extending the lore around Black Spire Outpost, it represents another meaningful step in ILMxLAB’s quest to transition  from storytelling — one-way communication — to storyLIVING, where you’re inside a world making consequential choices that drive your experience forward.”

[widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=star-wars-rise-of-the-resistance-full-disney-world-queue-photo-tour&captions=true"] No platforms were given, but its safe to assume it will at least come to both the Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift, considering its built in collaboration with Oculus Studios and Vader Immortal also appeared on those devices. Vader Immortal: A Star Wars VR Series, which is headed to PSVR this summer, was released last year and allowed you to come face-to-face with Darth Vader and use a combination of a lightsaber and force powers to make it through a new Star Wars Story. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/11/25/vader-immortal-a-star-wars-vr-series-episode-iii-official-trailer"] We reviewed Episode 1 and Episode 3 of the three-part series and thought it did "a fine job of letting you bask in Star Wars surroundings and the impressive presence of Darth Vader himself," even though it did end with a "dull thud." [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 who can't wait and is so excited he just can't hide it. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Microsoft is doubling down on a known strength by confirming that the Xbox Series X will launch with "thousands" of games, leveraging its years-long backward-compatibility efforts, in comparison to Sony's mixed messaging on PlayStation 5's backwards-compatibility capabilities. "With more than 100,000 hours of play testing already completed, thousands of games are already playable on Xbox Series X today, from the biggest blockbusters to cult classics and fan favorites," Xbox Series X Director of Program Management Jason Ronald wrote in a new blog on Xbox Wire. "Many of us in Team Xbox play on the Xbox Series X daily as our primary console and switching between generations is seamless. By the time we launch this holiday, the team will have spent well over 200,000 hours ensuring your game library is ready for you to jump in immediately." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-xbox-series-x-games&captions=true"] Ronald also spoke with IGN, and when asked if "thousands" meant that the goal was every single Xbox One game – in addition the hundreds of Xbox 360 and original Xbox games already compatible with Xbox One that will also play on Xbox Series X – Ronald said, "The goal is definitely the thousands of titles that run on Xbox One today. If the game runs on Xbox One, it is our goal to get that to run on Series X. There might be some one-off exceptions here or there," he added, noting that "licensing or a technical issue[s]" should be the only possible roadblocks. For instance, in the former case, a game with licensed music whose contract with the publisher has expired. Even better, Ronald says that Xbox One, Xbox 360, and original Xbox games will run better on Series X than they originally did. "All titles run at the peak performance that they were originally designed for, many times even higher performance than the games saw on their original launch platform, resulting in higher and more steady framerates and rendering at their maximum resolution and visual quality," Ronald said on Xbox Wire. "Backwards compatible titles also see significant reductions in in-game load times from the massive leap in performance from our custom NVME SSD which powers the Xbox Velocity Architecture." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/07/the-technology-behind-xbox-series-x"] When pressed for specific examples, Ronald said, “All of them are seeing a lot of benefits in certain areas.” As an example, he noted “titles that use dynamic resolution scaling – now it’s a rock-solid 4K or whatever its originally designed resolution was." HDR is among the new technologies being seamlessly retrofitted into older Xbox games. "Geometry Wars is one that I really enjoy. To actually see that in HDR..." he tailed off, also mentioning Boom Boom Rocket alongside the two games that have already had their post-generational HDR added, Halo 5: Guardians and Fuzion Frenzy. Higher framerates are also in the mix: "The compatibility team has invented brand new techniques that enable even more titles to run at higher resolutions and image quality while still respecting the artistic intent and vision of the original creators," Ronald said in his blog. "We are also creating whole new classes of innovations including the ability to double the frame rate of a select set of titles from 30 fps to 60 fps or 60 fps to 120 fps." We asked about any specific 120fps examples, if you've got the TV for it, and Ronald noted that they do exist, but they can't confirm any quite yet. "In a lot of cases we have so much processing power in the Xbox Series X [that] what used to take a set number of milliseconds in prior generation consoles, it just runs through that computation so fast that the GPU is just sitting there waiting to do work." He continued: "But part of the challenge is that some titles actually base their physics or animation on [the framerate], so we're still figuring out what titles we can actually do this with without violating the original intent of the title. We definitely have some titles we've seen go from 30 to 60 and there's a handful of titles we've seen go from 60 to 120, but we're still in the process of validating the game end-to-end." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=xbox-series-x-controller-6-new-images&captions=true"] For more, check out the full Xbox Wire blog, and stay tuned to IGN for plenty more Xbox Series X coverage, including the monthly Xbox 20/20 events that debuted last month. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

Microsoft is doubling down on a known strength by confirming that the Xbox Series X will launch with "thousands" of games, leveraging its years-long backward-compatibility efforts, in comparison to Sony's mixed messaging on PlayStation 5's backwards-compatibility capabilities. "With more than 100,000 hours of play testing already completed, thousands of games are already playable on Xbox Series X today, from the biggest blockbusters to cult classics and fan favorites," Xbox Series X Director of Program Management Jason Ronald wrote in a new blog on Xbox Wire. "Many of us in Team Xbox play on the Xbox Series X daily as our primary console and switching between generations is seamless. By the time we launch this holiday, the team will have spent well over 200,000 hours ensuring your game library is ready for you to jump in immediately." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=confirmed-xbox-series-x-games&captions=true"] Ronald also spoke with IGN, and when asked if "thousands" meant that the goal was every single Xbox One game – in addition the hundreds of Xbox 360 and original Xbox games already compatible with Xbox One that will also play on Xbox Series X – Ronald said, "The goal is definitely the thousands of titles that run on Xbox One today. If the game runs on Xbox One, it is our goal to get that to run on Series X. There might be some one-off exceptions here or there," he added, noting that "licensing or a technical issue[s]" should be the only possible roadblocks. For instance, in the former case, a game with licensed music whose contract with the publisher has expired. Even better, Ronald says that Xbox One, Xbox 360, and original Xbox games will run better on Series X than they originally did. "All titles run at the peak performance that they were originally designed for, many times even higher performance than the games saw on their original launch platform, resulting in higher and more steady framerates and rendering at their maximum resolution and visual quality," Ronald said on Xbox Wire. "Backwards compatible titles also see significant reductions in in-game load times from the massive leap in performance from our custom NVME SSD which powers the Xbox Velocity Architecture." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/04/07/the-technology-behind-xbox-series-x"] When pressed for specific examples, Ronald said, “All of them are seeing a lot of benefits in certain areas.” As an example, he noted “titles that use dynamic resolution scaling – now it’s a rock-solid 4K or whatever its originally designed resolution was." HDR is among the new technologies being seamlessly retrofitted into older Xbox games. "Geometry Wars is one that I really enjoy. To actually see that in HDR..." he tailed off, also mentioning Boom Boom Rocket alongside the two games that have already had their post-generational HDR added, Halo 5: Guardians and Fuzion Frenzy. Higher framerates are also in the mix: "The compatibility team has invented brand new techniques that enable even more titles to run at higher resolutions and image quality while still respecting the artistic intent and vision of the original creators," Ronald said in his blog. "We are also creating whole new classes of innovations including the ability to double the frame rate of a select set of titles from 30 fps to 60 fps or 60 fps to 120 fps." We asked about any specific 120fps examples, if you've got the TV for it, and Ronald noted that they do exist, but they can't confirm any quite yet. "In a lot of cases we have so much processing power in the Xbox Series X [that] what used to take a set number of milliseconds in prior generation consoles, it just runs through that computation so fast that the GPU is just sitting there waiting to do work." He continued: "But part of the challenge is that some titles actually base their physics or animation on [the framerate], so we're still figuring out what titles we can actually do this with without violating the original intent of the title. We definitely have some titles we've seen go from 30 to 60 and there's a handful of titles we've seen go from 60 to 120, but we're still in the process of validating the game end-to-end." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=xbox-series-x-controller-6-new-images&captions=true"] For more, check out the full Xbox Wire blog, and stay tuned to IGN for plenty more Xbox Series X coverage, including the monthly Xbox 20/20 events that debuted last month. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s Executive Editor of Previews. Follow him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan, catch him on Unlocked, and drop-ship him Taylor Ham sandwiches from New Jersey whenever possible.

A PC demo for the upcoming Destroy All Humans! remake has launched on GOG. The demo, which is 8 GB in size, offers the first mission of the game as well as a bonus challenge mission. This build was previously demoed at trade shows in 2019 and sees Crypto decimate a local farmstead with his trusty Zap-O-Matic. It's a great initiative if you want to check out the game ahead of its launch on July 28th. The demo has an expected playtime of 20-30 minutes and includes many of the classic powers debuted in the 2005 original, including Psychokinesis (so you can hurl cows through the air) and the devastating Death Ray attached to Crypto's flying saucer. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/21/destroy-all-humans-remake-preview"] The original Xbox version of Destroy All Humans! is one of June 2020's Games with Gold, so if you're keen and can't wait until July, you can redeem it and play around in the original if you have an Xbox Live Gold subscription. If you're a series megafan, the collector's edition of Destroy All Humans! 2020 ships with a number of absurd items, including a Crypto backpack, a stress toy and a series of lithographs. For more on the Destroy All Humans! remake, check out our preview of the game from PAX East this year. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

A PC demo for the upcoming Destroy All Humans! remake has launched on GOG. The demo, which is 8 GB in size, offers the first mission of the game as well as a bonus challenge mission. This build was previously demoed at trade shows in 2019 and sees Crypto decimate a local farmstead with his trusty Zap-O-Matic. It's a great initiative if you want to check out the game ahead of its launch on July 28th. The demo has an expected playtime of 20-30 minutes and includes many of the classic powers debuted in the 2005 original, including Psychokinesis (so you can hurl cows through the air) and the devastating Death Ray attached to Crypto's flying saucer. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2019/06/21/destroy-all-humans-remake-preview"] The original Xbox version of Destroy All Humans! is one of June 2020's Games with Gold, so if you're keen and can't wait until July, you can redeem it and play around in the original if you have an Xbox Live Gold subscription. If you're a series megafan, the collector's edition of Destroy All Humans! 2020 ships with a number of absurd items, including a Crypto backpack, a stress toy and a series of lithographs. For more on the Destroy All Humans! remake, check out our preview of the game from PAX East this year. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.

Logan director James Mangold has shared the original test footage of the opening scene from the final Hugh Jackman Wolverine movie. During ComicBook.com's recent Quarantine Watch Party, Mangold tweeted the previsualization version of the opening sequence from the 2017 movie, showing Logan getting into a violent altercation with a gang who leave him on the floor, before he rises to his feet, extends his claws and rips them to shreds.

And here is the video viz for the opening scene that Garret Warren (stunts / 2U) & his team & myself put together in prep. #Logan #QuarantineWatchParty @ComicBook

I had to repost, the previous post had the wrong viz! pic.twitter.com/w2At0wteY9 — Mangold (@mang0ld) May 27, 2020

As it turns out, this raw footage is not too dissimilar from the final cut of the scene, though it's widely known that Logan nearly had an entirely different opening sequence, as Mangold previously told IGN that he originally intended the slaughter of the X-Men to be shown on the big screen in the first few minutes of the movie. "I literally had written an opening which started with that sequence," said Mangold. "And so it was quite literal, who was dead. But the reason we didn't do it wasn't to spare other films, it was that it redefined the movie. It made the movie about the X-Men, instead of being about Logan and Charles. And irrevocably, when you read the script opening that way, it became about this other tragedy, as opposed to that tragedy being something hovering like a shadow in the background for these characters." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/02/28/wolverines-x-men-movie-timeline-in-chronological-order"] While the test footage shows that the crew stuck closely to their original vision in pre-production, they deviated away from the colourful comic costumes in the wardrobe department. During the Watch Party, Mangold elaborated on why it wouldn't have made sense for Wolverine to emerge wearing the faithful yellow and brown suit.

Sorry. He never put it on. We never even made a version of the outfit. Everything about his character as I understand it, would keep him from donning a self promoting "uniform". I'm sure the next incarnation of the Wolverine will go there. https://t.co/FU7FrYQS6S

— Mangold (@mang0ld) May 28, 2020

"He never put it on," Mangold tweeted in response to a question about whether Jackman ever donned the classic superhero mask. "We never even made a version of the outfit. Everything about his character as I understand it, would keep him from donning a self promoting "uniform". I'm sure the next incarnation of the Wolverine will go there." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-x-men-movie-rotten-tomatoes-score&captions=true"] One thing is for sure, Jackman has put the character of Wolverine behind him. He recently revealed that he is at peace with the idea of Wolverine being rebooted with another actor playing the iconic X-Man in the future, though he does wish the X-Men had joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe back when he was still in the role. For now, the X-Men's debut in the MCU appears to be some years away while the studio continues to work on their Phase 4 slate. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

Logan director James Mangold has shared the original test footage of the opening scene from the final Hugh Jackman Wolverine movie. During ComicBook.com's recent Quarantine Watch Party, Mangold tweeted the previsualization version of the opening sequence from the 2017 movie, showing Logan getting into a violent altercation with a gang who leave him on the floor, before he rises to his feet, extends his claws and rips them to shreds.

And here is the video viz for the opening scene that Garret Warren (stunts / 2U) & his team & myself put together in prep. #Logan #QuarantineWatchParty @ComicBook

I had to repost, the previous post had the wrong viz! pic.twitter.com/w2At0wteY9 — Mangold (@mang0ld) May 27, 2020

As it turns out, this raw footage is not too dissimilar from the final cut of the scene, though it's widely known that Logan nearly had an entirely different opening sequence, as Mangold previously told IGN that he originally intended the slaughter of the X-Men to be shown on the big screen in the first few minutes of the movie. "I literally had written an opening which started with that sequence," said Mangold. "And so it was quite literal, who was dead. But the reason we didn't do it wasn't to spare other films, it was that it redefined the movie. It made the movie about the X-Men, instead of being about Logan and Charles. And irrevocably, when you read the script opening that way, it became about this other tragedy, as opposed to that tragedy being something hovering like a shadow in the background for these characters." [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2017/02/28/wolverines-x-men-movie-timeline-in-chronological-order"] While the test footage shows that the crew stuck closely to their original vision in pre-production, they deviated away from the colourful comic costumes in the wardrobe department. During the Watch Party, Mangold elaborated on why it wouldn't have made sense for Wolverine to emerge wearing the faithful yellow and brown suit.

Sorry. He never put it on. We never even made a version of the outfit. Everything about his character as I understand it, would keep him from donning a self promoting "uniform". I'm sure the next incarnation of the Wolverine will go there. https://t.co/FU7FrYQS6S

— Mangold (@mang0ld) May 28, 2020

"He never put it on," Mangold tweeted in response to a question about whether Jackman ever donned the classic superhero mask. "We never even made a version of the outfit. Everything about his character as I understand it, would keep him from donning a self promoting "uniform". I'm sure the next incarnation of the Wolverine will go there." [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=every-x-men-movie-rotten-tomatoes-score&captions=true"] One thing is for sure, Jackman has put the character of Wolverine behind him. He recently revealed that he is at peace with the idea of Wolverine being rebooted with another actor playing the iconic X-Man in the future, though he does wish the X-Men had joined the Marvel Cinematic Universe back when he was still in the role. For now, the X-Men's debut in the MCU appears to be some years away while the studio continues to work on their Phase 4 slate. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Adele Ankers is a Freelance Entertainment Journalist. You can reach her on Twitter.

An update for Valve's Half-Life: Alyx has launched today, bringing some seriously impressive liquid physics to the game. Update 1.4 for Half-Life: Alyx was revealed via the game's Steam community page, with the full patch notes available to read here. In-game bottles will now "appear to have liquid inside them." There's a gif at the bottom of the blog post which shows wine sloshing around inside of a bottle when shaken. It's kind of amazing. We can seemingly credit this work to Valve visual effects developer Matthew Wilde, who said on Twitter, "this booze shader has been my lock-down hobby". He showed off more of his work, too, which you can see in the tweet below:

Spent a good chunk of lock-down doing this important work. Boozy liquid shader, now available in the latest update for Half-Life: Alyx pic.twitter.com/Iw9h98pmEg

— Matthew Wilde (@skilful) May 28, 2020

It's a cool and meaningful detail that adds another layer of realism to one of VR's most impressive outings. There are a lot of bottles in the game, with some achievements even asking you to carry bottles of Vodka through entire maps to satisfy one of the game's NPCs. As well as the liquid physics, update 1.4 fixes a number of bugs and adds functionality to the game's recently launched Workshop Tools. Extra features include a Postprocessing Editor and a series of example maps. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/03/23/half-life-alyx-review"] Players have already been modding the game prior to the opening of the Half-Life: Alyx Workshop on May 15, which has resulted in some ridiculous memes involving the TV screens in the game's opening scene. If you're still deciding whether to pick up a VR headset for Half-Life: Alyx, check out our review of the game, which we thought "set a new bar for VR." [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jordan Oloman is a freelance writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter.