PlayStation has announced a new The Last of Us Part 2 video series, and the first episode is available now. With a little less than a month to go until The Last of Us Part 2 is out in the wild, PlayStation announced this new series in a blog post today, on May 13, with plans for a new episode to be released every Wednesday for the next three weeks. This series will cover different aspects of the game including its story, gameplay and more. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/13/the-last-of-us-part-ii-inside-the-story-video"] "The Last of Us Part II is by far the largest and most ambitious game we've ever made and there will be so much for you to dig into when it arrives on June 19th," Naughty Dog Senior Communications Manager Scott Lowe said in the blog post. "Leading up to the launch, we're releasing a brand new series of videos breaking down key aspects of the game." Lowe said each video will feature interviews with members of the Naughty Dog team to discuss design, technology, and many of the ideas that helped shape the game over its six-year long period of development. The first episode, which is available now, is titled "Inside the Story" and dives into the core themes being explored in the story including a look at Ellie and Joel's life in Jackson County, Wyoming. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=the-last-of-us-part-2-new-screenshots&captions=true"] Each episode will be spoiler-free (although the video's comments and replies on social media are sure to be filled with spoilers so be cautious wading into those), according to Lowe. The first episode dropped dropped today, May 13, and the next episode, "Inside the Gameplay", will drop on May 20. The third episode, "Inside the Details", will be released on May 27 and the final episode of the series, "Inside the World", will be released on June 3. The Last of Us Part 2 will release 16 days later on Friday, June 19. Read about how the game went gold last week and then read about how hackers exploited an older Naughty Dog game to leak The Last of Us Part 2 details. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Wesley LeBlanc is a freelance news writer and guide maker for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @LeBlancWes. 

Today, Epic Games revealed its next-gen game engine, Unreal Engine 5. To showcase the power of its new engine, Epic revealed a brand new, fully playable tech demo that’s running on the PlayStation 5 in real-time. IGN asked what advancements are in the PS5 that allows for Unreal Engine 5 to function at this high of a level on the console. Epic founder and CEO Tim Sweeney explained that it was the system storage advancements Sony hardware architect Mark Cerny revealed earlier this year that makes the next-gen Sony console a powerhouse. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/13/ps5-unreal-engine-5-tech-demo"] “I think, first of all, Sony has a massive, massive increase in graphics performance compared to previous generations. But you know, I guess we get that every generation?” Sweeney joked. “But Sony’s made another breakthrough that in many ways is more fundamental, which is a multi-order magnitude increase in storage bandwidth and reduction in storage latency.” As revealed back in March – in a digital deep dive on the PS5 hosted by Sony architect Mark Cerny – Sony revealed its custom solid-state drive that targets at least 5GB per second in terms of bandwidth. That’s compared to the 50-100 MB/s capable on the current PS4 hard drives. “[The PS5] puts a vast amount of flash memory very, very close to the processor,” says Sweeney. “So much that it really fundamentally changes the trade-offs that games can make and stream in. And that’s absolutely critical to this kind of demo,” Sweeney explained. “This is not just a whole lot of polygons and memory. It’s also a lot of polygons being loaded every frame as you walk around through the environment and this sort of detail you don’t see in the world would absolutely not be possible at any scale without these breakthroughs that Sony’s made.” [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=unreal-engine-5-playstation-5-tech-demo&captions=true"] Sweeney says that Sony’s storage architecture is far ahead of “the best SSD solution you can buy on PC today. And so it’s really exciting to be seeing the console market push forward the high-end PC market in this way.” While Epic wouldn’t comment on any potential performance differences between the PS5 and Xbox Series X, Sweeney confirmed that the features shown today, like real-time global illumination and virtualized geometry, are “going to work on all the next-generation consoles.” For more, check out IGN’s comparison of the PS5 and Xbox Series X. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Epic Games unveiled the Unreal Engine 5 today and showcased it with a real-time PlayStation 5 tech demo called Lumen in the Land of Nanite. While the tech demo is not a real game in development, it is fully playable, Epic confirmed. IGN asked Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri and Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney if the Lumen demo, which is running in real-time on a PlayStation 5 development kit, was real. Libreri said that it is not a real game, but Sweeney interjected with a surprising twist. “It is playing 100% in real-time on the [PlayStation 5] and you do have full control over the character,” Sweeney says after Libreri said the demo was not a real game. It turns out that just means the demo is not a real game in development with plans for release. The demo itself does function. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/13/ps5-unreal-engine-5-tech-demo"] “It’s totally playable,” Libreri confirmed. “In fact, if GDC happened we would have let people play through the thing.” So there you have it, while Epic did not create a whole new game for the PlayStation 5, they did build a working, playable demo running off a PlayStation 5 dev kit. Earlier in the interview, Libreri even told IGN, “I think a lot of people [will ask], ‘Oh is [the demo] real?’ But you know that demo was grabbed from the back of a PlayStation 5 development kit. An HDMI cable went into a disc recorder and played out real-time — no editing, no tricks, that’s what comes off the box.” So while you won’t be able to play Lumens in the Land of Nanite when the PS5 is released, you have a handle of what games look like as they run and play on the next-gen PS5 console. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=unreal-engine-5-playstation-5-tech-demo&captions=true"] Tim Sweeney isn't just interested in the visual fidelity the engine offers either, pointing to how Unreal Engine 5 – in conjunction with next-gen hardware – should allow for brand new kinds of games to emerge. Pointing to how Battle Royale games could only have emerged with current-gen processing and networking power, he explains how this could lead to another step into the unknown: "The technologies that we’re showing today [are] going to enable entirely new types of games that we can’t even envision yet. And that’s the exciting part. We can’t even imagine yet what this is going to enable the industry to do." Check out IGN’s full coverage of the Unreal Engine 5 reveal and Tim Sweeney’s comments on the breakthroughs of the PS5. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

Today, Epic Games revealed the first look at Unreal Engine 5, its next-generation game engine designed with features meant to make game worlds more detailed and dynamic. To show off the power of its new game engine, Epic released a real-time tech demo called, “Lumen in the Land of Nanite” which runs live on the PlayStation 5. Lumen in the Land of Nanite is a fully playable title made up of Unreal Engine 5’s two new tools: Lumens, a dynamic global illumination tool, and Nanite, a virtualized geometry that lets artists import film-quality art and assets into Unreal Engine. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/13/ps5-unreal-engine-5-tech-demo"] The demo shows a woman venturing into a rocky cavern and discovering a hidden temple. The demo makes a particular point to highlight how light and objects react dynamically, and the demo ends with a thrilling flight through a crumbling canyon. All of the assets and visuals in the demo are reacting in real-time, meaning the PlayStation 5 is processing the demo as it happens. “I think a lot of people [will ask], ‘Oh is [the demo] real?’ But you know that demo was grabbed from the back of a PlayStation 5 development kit,” says Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri in an interview with IGN. “An HDMI cable went into a disc recorder and played out real-time — no editing, no tricks, that’s what comes off the box.” Incidentally, Sweeney made clear that the SSD in that devkit is "far ahead" of current high-end PCs. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=unreal-engine-5-playstation-5-tech-demo&captions=true"] Epic Games founder and CEO Tim Sweeney explained Unreal Engine 5 is meant “to do things that are absolutely not possible today.” This means offering new levels of photorealism and visuality but also offer these tools in a way that increases the productivity and efficiency of game developers. “Lumen [and Nanite]... are not just order-of-magnitude leaps in visual quality but they’re also greatly simplifying technologies for the artists who build content,” says Sweeney. The goal, according to Kim Libreri, is to make game worlds as immersive and realistic as modern movies, but where that goal differs from previous game generations is how interactive that realism is. While games this generation and older are detailed and realistic, they’re also static. The Lumens and Nanite demo showcase multiple instances where changes in the environment happen in real-time, and Unreal Engine 5 is capable of rendering these changes immediately. When rocks crumble, it’s not a pre-rendered cutscene but a high-resolution rock asset moving in real-time based on the player’s actions. When a light source changes, it’s not multiple tricks to simulate a flashing light, but real-time processing power at work. “If you notice, most video games today are pretty static environments. You know, things don’t change, there’s not a lot of cause and effect. You’re lucky if you can change the state of a game and come back and it’s actually changed. [Unreal Engine 5] allows everything to be dynamic.” [poilib element="quoteBox" parameters="excerpt=%E2%80%9CAn%20HDMI%20cable%20went%20into%20a%20disc%20recorder%20and%20played%20out%20real-time%20%E2%80%94%20no%20editing%2C%20no%20tricks%2C%20that%E2%80%99s%20what%20comes%20off%20the%20box.%E2%80%9D"]Epic is quick to point out the quality of the assets used for the demo, which they say are film-quality assets as opposed to the ones typically used for video games. While movie-level visuals are often higher-quality, video game assets are lower-resolution and are buoyed by development tricks to make them seem more realistic. “The interesting thing is a lot of times artists are having to make those super high-poly models anyways, they just have to take an extra step and build the low-poly model, put a lot of time and care into that and then bake all the high-quality details into a normal map,” says Epic Games VP of engineering Nick Penwarden. “ Now they don’t have to do the extra work of building that optimized low-poly asset and they get higher quality visuals.” What’s more, Epic says that the level of quality seen in the demo is going to be easier to replicate, especially from smaller developers who previously didn’t have the scale or time to render games at this level. Assets at this kind of level and quality will be available on the Unreal store for other developers to easily use.

"It's really easy. You go to the Quixel asset store, download the rocks and the mountains, and the assets you want, and you just place them in there," says Libreri. "It's actually massively lowering the barrier of entry of how complex it is to make a game level."

Epic Games also announced that it’s waiving royalties on the first $1 million in game revenue starting today, meaning developers using Unreal Engine will keep more of their profits. Epic Online Services is also available to make cross-platform play easier. Fortnite will be released on next-gen consoles at launch and will be migrated to Unreal Engine 5 in mid-2021. Sweeney says Fortnite will likely be the first game running on Unreal Engine 5, but there are plenty of next-gen games currently in development using Unreal Engine 4 and even some first-party games will use Unreal Engine, though Sweeney did not specify whether it’s Unreal Engine 4 or 5. Unreal Engine 5 will be available in preview early 2021, with a full release scheduled for later that year, and will support current- and next-gen consoles, PC, Mac, iOS, and Android. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Kim is a reporter for IGN.

2K has announced Mafia: Trilogy via a new teaser trailer suggesting a return to the beloved series. Watch the first tease below for Mafia: Trilogy, which offers brief teases over dialogue focused on the clear running theme of the franchise — family. [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/13/mafia-trilogy-teaser-trailer"] 2K hasn't offered much detail about Mafia: Trilogy beyond the teaser, which includes both the logos for publisher 2K and Hangar 13 (the studio that previously developed Mafia III). There will be a proper announcement on May 19. Recently, we did learn Mafia II and Mafia III definitive editions have been listed by international games ratings boards. Of course, given its name, this new release will likely offer some compilation of the three main Mafia games, the first of which debuted in 2002. Developed by Illusion Softworks, Mafia received a 9.2 from IGN, which called it a "great game with some minor problems that are easily forgotten once you get into the meat of the game." Mafia 2 came several years later in 2010, and IGN's Mafia 2 review called it "an interesting mobster tale with some great voice acting and cool cutscenes; if you have a 'made man' itch, feel free to scratch it here, but be prepared for a pretty standard third-person shooter in the gameplay department." Mafia III came after a similar gap, debuting in 2016. IGN's Mafia III review said the sequel's "strong characters and confident storytelling kept me engaged, even if the gameplay rarely delivered anything but bog-standard and repetitive open-world action. That’s a bummer, because Lincoln is an incredible protagonist and New Bordeaux is a fantastic setting thematically, and it would’ve been great to see them put to better use." Mafia II and Mafia III both saw several DLC packs released after their respective launches. [poilib element="poll" parameters="id=0cffccfc-8d24-4788-8d89-ca10786c5634"] Since the third game in the series' launch, Hangar 13 saw its number of offices expand, but the studio has remained relatively quiet after its Mafia III development. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Jonathon Dornbush is IGN's Senior News Editor and Host of Podcast Beyond! Talk to him on Twitter @jmdornbush.

Dell has relaunched its biggest Ultrabook after 10 years, the Dell XPS 17. For starters, Dell says it’s offering a 17-inch screen experience in a 15-inch form factor that’s smaller than 48% of 15-inch laptops available today. We’ll believe it when we see it, but the Dell XPS 17 certainly sounds small on paper when it measures just 14.74 x 9.76 x 0.77 inches and weighs 4.65 pounds. This 17-inch laptop's small size comes largely thanks to the tiny bezels on four sides of its 17-inch display. The screen itself is a beauty with a 4K UHD+ resolution of 3,840 x 2,400 pixels. This panel also hits a peak brightness 500-nits, making it Dolby Vision and HDR 400 certified. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=dell-xps-17-2020&captions=true"] You can also expect some mind-blowing audio out of the Dell XPS 17 as it features quad up-firing speakers with Waves NX 3D audio tuned by Jack Joseph Puig. What’s more, you can pack a ton of power into this thing with up to a 10th Generation Intel Core i9-10885H processor and Nvidia RTX 2060 Max-Q graphics. You can also load up to 64GB of memory and 2TB of PCIe SSD storage onto your configuration. Lastly, users can choose between a 56WHr or 97WHr battery, though, Dell has yet to share any battery life figures. The Dell XPS 17 will be available later this summer for a starting price of $1,499. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=dell-xps-15-2020&captions=true"]

Dell XPS 15

While the Dell XPS 17's return will certainly make the bigger splash, let’s not forget about the Dell XPS 15 seeing its first big redesign in five years. The Dell XPS 15 has adopted the 16:10 screen aspect ratio that was introduced with last year’s XPS 13, so you get a little bit more vertical screen real estate. Better yet, this model’s 15-inch screen delivers the same 4K UHD+ (3,840 x 2,400) resolution and HDR 400 certification as seen on the bigger 17-inch Dell XPS. The XPS 15 also features quad up-firing speakers with Waves NX 3D audio. A maxed-out Dell XPS 15 also looks very similar with up to a 10th Generation Intel Core i9-10885H processor, 64GB of memory, and 2TB of PCIe SSD storage. The only difference here is your best graphics option is limited to an Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti, but at least that's a step up from the GTX 1650 you could max out with last year’s model. According to Dell, you can expect a maximum of 25 hours of battery life out of its latest 15-inch machine but that’s likely only when you option on the 86WHr battery over its standard 55WHr battery. The Dell XPS 15 starts at $1,299 and it will be available beginning on May 13. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Kevin Lee is IGN's Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam

When Intel and Nvidia made a joint announcement for new gaming laptop processors and graphics, new hardware from Alienware and Dell was conspicuously absent from the deluge of news. Well, now we’re getting a fresh batch of updates on all of the company’s PC gaming hardware. First up is a refresh of the Alienware m15 R3 and m17 R3, which now feature Intel 10th Generation processors and the latest RTX Super graphics options from Nvidia's Turing-line. All updated R3 revisions start with an Intel Core i5-10300H CPU that can be upgraded to an 8-core Intel Core i9-10980HK. On the graphics-side, these machines start with a Nvidia GTX 1650 Ti and can be configured with up to an Nvidia RTX 2080 Super Max-Q. Additionally, for the first time Alienware is offering users an AMD GPU option in the form of an AMD Radeon RX 5500M. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=alienware-m15-r3&captions=true"] To take advantage of all that added processing and graphical power, Alienware has also added a new 300Hz Full HD panel to its display options along with the usual 144Hz Full HD and 60Hz 4K OLED screen options. Beyond the core specs updates, Alienware m15 and m17s with a 1660 Ti and up will come equipped with 12-phase GPU voltage regulation, which will allow users to overclock their graphics card even further. These machines introduce more copper into the company’s CryoTech cooling system along with larger fans and vapor-chamber cooling for high-end configurations. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=alienware-m17-r3&captions=true"] In terms of RAM, users can now configure their system with up to 64GB of 2933MHz memory or 32GB of dual channel memory that operates at 3,200MHz. Storage-wise, solid-state drive capacity starts at 256GB and goes up to a 4TB RAID 0 configuration. Eagle-eyed readers may have also spotted the new SD card reader. One other external change to the new models is added clear coat that should help reduce stains. The Alienware m15 R3 and Alienware m17 R3 will both be available starting May 21st with starting prices of $1,499 and $1,549, respectively. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=alienware-area-51m-r2&captions=true"]

The big kahuna

Alienware hasn’t forgotten to update its even bigger 17-inch gaming laptop, the Alienware Area-51m R2. This machine features desktop processors and users will have a wide variety of choices from the starting Intel Core i7-10700 and all the way to the new 10-core Intel Core i9-10900K. The graphics options on this model are also a step up thanks to a full-fat Nvidia RTX 2080 Super or the AMD Radeon RX 5700M. Power users will be glad to hear the Area-51m has also received the new 300Hz Full HD screen option, SD Card reader, and the same cooling improvements as its smaller siblings. The Alienware Area-51m R2 will be available a little later starting on June 9th and it comes at a much higher $3,049 starting price. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=dell-g3-15-2020&captions=true"]

Penny pinchers

If you’re looking to game on a budget you’ll be glad to know Dell Gaming has the much more affordable $779 Dell G3 15 and $829 Dell G5 15 gaming laptops on tap. Both machines are 15-inch laptops that come equipped with an 10th Gen Intel Core i5-10300H quad-core processor and Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics, plus 8GB (2,933MHz) RAM and a 128GB SSD. A fully upgraded Dell G3 gaming laptop can come with a 144Hz Full HD screen, 10th Gen Intel Core i7-10750H hexa-core processor, Nvidia RTX 2060 graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 1TB of storage. Fully upgrading the Dell G5 gaming laptop steps you up to a 300Hz Full HD display paired with Nvidia RTX 2070 graphics. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=dell-g5-15-2020&captions=true"] This year, Dell has also introduced a new Dell G5 Special Edition gaming laptop that features all AMD parts. Processor options include the AMD Ryzen 5 4600H, Ryzen 7 4800H, and Ryzen 9 4900H. Meanwhile, for graphics the only available option is an AMD Radeon RX 5600M, but you can pair it with up to 16GB of DDR4 3,200MHz memory and an 1TB SDD. Dell hasn’t announced any pricing or release date information for the Dell G5 SE yet, but all AMD-powered gaming laptops have a track record of being more affordable than their Intel/Nvidia counterparts. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Kevin Lee is IGN's Hardware and Roundups Editor. Follow him on Twitter @baggingspam

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has said that, while things are looking good for games this year, we will see the impact of COVID-19 on the industry in early 2021. This is due to important areas of game production having stopped work entirely during quarantine. In specific, Spencer refers to motion capture and audio recording work, which require staff to go into recording studios. Talking to Business Insider, Spencer said “Mocap is just something that's basically stopped. We're not going into mocap studios.” [ignvideo url="https://www.ign.com/videos/2020/05/01/phil-spencer-no-delay-expected-for-xbox-series-x-but-game-production-is-bigger-unknown-ign-news"] “If you had all your animation captured and you're doing touch up in more individual art production and in areas like textures and other things, you're in a better position,” he explained. “If you're waiting for a lot of either large audio work — when it's with symphonies and other things — or mocap, you're held up right now and you're making progress in areas that you are.” For many games set for release this year, motion capture and audio work will have been carried out before the pandemic. However, for games set for release in early 2021 or beyond, quarantine has meant work on these elements has simply had to be indefinitely postponed. Spencer points to sports games like Madden and FIFA as to where we could see disruption. As these games are released annually, months of lockdown in 2020 could have a big impact on their 2021 release schedules. [widget path="global/article/imagegallery" parameters="albumSlug=9-new-xbox-series-x-images&captions=true"] There is more hope for games that have already completed mo-cap and audio work, though, which includes many games set to be released this year. “Through the summer, early fall? I feel pretty good about those games,” said Spencer. “Games that were targeting a year from now or beyond? There'll be some impact, but they'll be able to react." While the status of games releasing beyond this year is an unknown quantity right now, Spencer is confident that the Xbox Series X will not be delayed, and will release Holiday 2020 as planned. Sony also has similar confidence in its own console, stating that the PS5 is still on track for a Holiday 2020 release. Here's how to help and stay safe during the coronavirus outbreak. [poilib element="accentDivider"] Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer. You can follow him on Twitter.