October 2022

Bayonetta voice actor Hellena Taylor has shared that she didn't reprise the role for Bayonetta 3 as she was offered only $4,000 to do so. Furthermore, she has asked fans to boycott the game and donate to charity instead.

Taylor took to Twitter to share a few videos of her speaking to a camera and share her side of the story following the announcement that Mass Effect's Jennifer Hale would be replacing her in Bayonetta 3. Taylor has voiced the character since the original game, and couldn't stay silent anymore after how she was treated.

Friends, Worldlings, Bayonutters. Hear ye!#PlatinumGames #Nintendo #Bayonetta #Bayonetta3 #Bayonutters #Boycott #NintendoEurope #NintendoAmerica #NintendoJapan pic.twitter.com/h9lwiX2bBt

For the last nine years or so, Damien Crawford has been making games they don’t think people would want to play.

Crawford is the sole developer and head of Cannibal Interactive. They’ve made over 20 games through the label, most of which have been released primarily on itch.io. They came to game development after several years of struggling to fit into other jobs such as fast food and mundane government work. A relationship falling through and a need to cut loose from parental support eventually pushed them to try something new.

“I thought if I failed the safe path, then what do I want to do? And so I started making games.”

Their first project, Legend of Moros, took two and a half years, and did not do well – not even $100 in release day sales. So, on another contrarian whim, Crawford spent a month making a game they thought no one would want to play; an “atrocious” (their words) RPG where 99 characters band together in a single fight, all piled in on one side against the enemy. In addition to the absurd gameplay, Mighty 99 had a “horrible memory leak issue” that made it impossible to get through three full turns.

But, to Crawford’s astonishment, something fascinating happened.

“It got feedback, most of it negative, but people were playing it. And they were detailed notes sometimes!”

Following a bug found in its Ver1.2.1 update, Nintendo has taken the Nintendo Switch Sports servers offline while it works to fix the problem. This means online play and save data backup are both currently down.

Nintendo shared the update on Twitter, saying this bug has been causing the game to close during the pre-match loading screen for some players.

"A bug has been found in the #NintendoSwitchSports Ver1.2.1 update which causes the software to close during the pre-match loading screen," Nintendo wrote. "This is unfortunately affecting both online and offline play modes. We have therefore temporarily suspended the rollout of this update.

"While we investigate to find a solution, #NintendoSwitchSports servers will be temporarily taken offline and online play will not be available during this time. Save data backup is also temporarily suspended. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience."

There has been no timetable given for a fix, but we will update this story as soon as an update is given.

In our Nintendo Switch Sports review, we said that it "successfully recaptures the party game magic of Wii Sports, but quickly falls victim to a lack of depth that holds it back from achieving greatness."

Overwatch 2 has reached over 25 million players in its first 10 days and it has already achieved a "daily player base spread near-even across EMEA, Asia, and the Americas that’s nearly triple the previous daily player peak from the original Overwatch."

Blizzard announced the news in a press release and it arrives following a rough launch for the free-to-play game. Despite the issues, players have continued to show up in droves.

"The launch of Overwatch 2 has been such an important moment for Blizzard. We’re thrilled to bring new players from around the world into Overwatch’s vibrant universe while welcoming back the existing Blizzard community,” said Mike Ybarra, president of Blizzard Entertainment. “This is only the beginning—there are so many possibilities to explore in the world of Overwatch, and we cannot wait for players to experience everything the team is building for the live game.”

As for that rough launch, Blizzard also detailed a bit about how they will be making it up to players for the issues that have arisen. In addition to gifting all players who log in from October 25 through the end of Season One the "all-new Cursed Captain Reaper Legendary skin and a Health Pack Weapon Charm," Blizzard also confirmed the dates for the upcoming double match XP weekends. They are as follows;

When Gotham Knights arrives on consoles on October 21, it will do so with no performance mode and it will run at only 30 FPS.

As spotted by those like Wario64 on Twitter, the news was shared by Gotham Knights executive producer Fleur "Flaoua" Marty in the game's Discord channel, and she wanted to take the time to address this question for console players.

"I know many of you are wondering about the availability of a performance mode for Gotham Knights on consoles," Marty wrote. "Due to the types of features we have in our game, like providing a fully untethered co-op experience in our highly detailed open-world, it's not as straightforward as lowering the resolution and getting a higher FPS. For this reason, our game does not have a performance/quality toggle option and will run at 30FPS on consoles."

While Gotham Knights' campaign will only support single-player or two-player co-op, a new mode called Heroic Assault will launch for free on November 29, 2022, that will let up to four players team up in arena-based challenges.

WB Games Montréal announced the news on Twitter and on Gotham Knights' FAQ page, saying, "Gotham has thrown down a new gauntlet. Heroic Assault, the free 4-player co-op experience, is coming to #GothamKnights November 29, 2022."

"Heroic Assault is an upcoming gameplay mode that is separate from the main story campaign," Gotham Knights' FAQ reads. "The standalone mode supports up to four players in online co-op and provides a dedicated arena-like environment with specific objectives to complete and enemies to defeat on each floor (30 floors total)."

For those hoping this would also bring four-player co-op to the main story campaign, WB Games Montréal has not said it is planning to bring four-player co-op to anything beyond Heroic Assault. Things can always change, but it doesn't look to be in the cards at the moment.

Gotham Knights will be released on October 21, 2022, and will let players experience a story in single-player or two-player co-op featuring Batgirl, Robin, Nightwing, and Red Hood.

The mason jar of mysteries, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get your some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.

Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.

We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.

Where Is Xûr This Weekend?

Xûr's location today can be found at Watcher's Grave on Nessus on October 14 through October 18. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Watcher's Grave. When you arrive, make for the red moss-covered tree straight ahead. Climb up the roots and you'll find Xûr waiting at the top to sell you exotic items and legendary weapons.

Amplitude Studios has announced that the console ports of Humankind have been delayed indefinitely.

“We have to share some sad news with you today: We and our partner Aspyr Media have run into unexpected challenges in porting Humankind to consoles, and have to delay the release on Playstation 4/5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S until further notice,” Amplitude explained in a statement.

We're sorry to announce that the console version of #HumankindGame needs to be delayed.

We have more info in our blog, so if you have any questions feel free to leave them there👉 https://t.co/mp03w8YRaR pic.twitter.com/ZMD0RqL7mn

— HUMANKIND (@humankindgame) October 13, 2022

The studio continued, “We know this will be frustrating for many of you, but we believe this delay is for the best, as we want to make sure to provide the best possible experience to console players. Unfortunately, we're not in a position to give a timeframe on a new release date right now, but we will update you all as soon as we can. In the meantime, anybody who has pre-purchased on digital storefronts will receive a refund where applicable in line with platform policy.”

The Pokémon Company has just revealed Bellibolt, a chunky electric frog-looking pocket monster, and fans think he's inspired by the original design for Politoed, a creature from the Pokémon Gold and Silver demo.

Various Twitter users spotted Bellibolt's resemblance to the scrapped demo design for Politoed, who was changed to look a little sportier for the final version of Gold and Silver.

Alongside being big green frogs, both Pokémon share the same face design (though the nostrils on Politoed are eyes on Bellibolt; the 'eyes' are actually electricity sacks), the same big circle on their bellies with a smaller yellow circle in the middle, and the same orange knee pads.

Anyone else notice Bellibolt's resemblance to beta Politoed? https://t.co/WZFbI32qJ8 pic.twitter.com/9yjh0AsjU8

— HigherFructose (@hionfructose) October 14, 2022

We'll likely never find out if Bellibolt is actually based on the Pokémon Gold and Silver demo's version of Politoed but there are undeniable similarities.

We do know some things about the new Pokémon though, who was revealed to be gym leader Iono's partner. Bellibolt is the EleFrog Pokémon that uses its elastic body to generate electricity that's stored in its bellybutton and blasted from its fake eyeballs.

Everyone has a lot to say in the comedy-FPS High on Life, the upcoming first-person shooter from Justin Roiland and his Squanch Games development studio. Even the alien enemies you encounter. If you can keep your itchy trigger finger at bay long enough, you'll hear plenty of funny dialogue from your targets.

From Merks that have fleshy armor you can shoot off of their bodies to the scurrying Mytes, the annoying Ants, and the Grunt Cyclops that have one giant eyeball atop their necks that's just dying to be popped off with your bloodthirsty melee weapon, Knifey, High on Life has quite an odd menagerie of aliens to kill. For some new gameplay that shows some of these enemies in action, don't miss our exclusive 12-minute gameplay video from earlier this month. And for something brand-new, take a look at a bunch of these enemies in the concept art gallery below.

High on Life will be released on December 13 for PC and Xbox Series X|S and Xbox One consoles, including day-one availability in Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass. We got our first proper look at gameplay back in August at Gamescom – where it totally blew up. We'll have more exclusive coverage all October long as our IGN First "cover story" on High on Life continues.

Pokémon Sword and Shield will no longer by supported with new content following their final update on November 1.

As reported by Serebii.net, The Pokémon Company is pulling back support for the previous mainline entries as the new Pokémon Scarlet and Violet are due to be released on November 18.

One final Wild Area News event on November 1 - which had previously taken place roughly once a month - will bring new Pokémon to the games that weren't previously available, including Gigantamax Snorlax. This event will continue until the online services for Sword and Shield are shut down completely, but this will likely still be years away.

The Battle Stadium will no longer update with a ranked season on the same day, and the results of the Ranked Battle Season will therefore no longer appear in Pokémon Home. While it's not yet confirmed, The Pokémon Company will likely include results from Scarlet and Violet's ranked seasons here instead.

No further official online competitions will take place either, but friendly competitions can still be hosted. Again, results from competitions will no longer appear in Pokémon Home. Other online functionality such as friendly battles and trading will continue as normal.

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet will take the mantle for most of these competitive events, though it's still unclear if the Wild Area News events will have a direct replacement in the new games.

As far as I’m concerned, the original 2008 Dead Space still looks and plays pretty good today. Its art design alone goes a long way toward keeping it looking fresh amongst 2022’s next-gen dazzlers.

But despite that enduring appeal, Dead Space is yet another classic game getting the full remake treatment, and where developer EA Motive seemingly uncovered the most space for improvement is in the margins and fine details.

No matter how well I think the original holds up, it’s admittedly nothing compared to what EA Motive showed off to the press during our lengthy preview of the upcoming remake.

My time with this preview build reminded me just how gnarly Dead Space was in the first place. While gruesome games were admittedly in their golden era during the mid-2000s (think of how popular Gears of War was back then), Dead Space really tried to outdo the competition. I definitely blocked the Necromorph babies from my memory, but here they are ready to skewer you through the head if you aren’t too careful.

The USG Ishimura where Dead Space is set is reborn, hissing, and more sinister than ever. The Ishimura is hands-down the least welcoming ship in any universe, and being able to see this rust-colored behemoth in even greater detail is breathtaking.

Real golf doesn’t lack thrills – watching a player sink a delicate chip-in generates no shortage of excitement. But in the context of a video game, it needs some extra energy. A pizazz. An added enthusiasm, even if it’s when browsing a menu, just to keep it from becoming something you can sleepwalk through. PGA Tour 2K23 lacks that. It’s silent, it’s calm, it’s bland, it’s so… proper.

PGA Tour 2K23 (and previously, PGA Tour 2K21) was born of HB Studios’ fanatically accurate simulation The Golf Club, and the change in name hasn’t changed much about the underlying philosophy behind it. The actual shot mechanisms, ball physics, and standard frustration when sinking into a bunker retain their dazzling authenticity, and yet, even with a year off between editions to rethink things, HB Studios has produced another plain, stuffy, elitist golf sim with as much personality as a white polo shirt. 2K23 makes minor strides towards loosening up the pomposity, but lands inches from dropping in the cup.

2K brings the points-based FedEx Cup into focus as the central career goal. That’s fine, although the PGA draws more attention for the Masters, US Open, and other high-profile events – the stuff EA licensed in the past for its golf projects. PGA Tour 2K23 doesn’t have those, or their most famous courses, like Augusta National. That means the career mode feels like filler as it works around licensing restrictions and takes us through second-tier courses like the Detroit Golf Club and TPC Southwind. That’s an issue when it’s the primary way to play, and here there aren’t a lot of other options.

Blizzard has announced that Overwatch 2 won't be rebalanced until its Season 2 begins in December as it's currently happy with each hero's power level.

As reported by Eurogamer, a blog post on Blizzard's website shared the developer's thoughts on the current state of the game now that most of its launch issues appear to have settled down.

Outside of a targeted fix for Zarya in Total Mayhem on October 25 and (presumably) the return of Bastion and Torbjörn, who were removed from Overwatch 2 just days after it launched due to serious glitches, Blizzard said it won't implement any changes to its heroes for roughly two months.

"While some heroes are performing better than others, and there are differences across player skill levels, we have been happy to see that no hero’s overall power level is far out of line with our goals," it said in the blog post, as each hero currently has a win rate of between 45% and 55%.

Instead of making incremental tweaks and changes, "our team is planning to make a series of balance changes for Season 2 that are in line with our design goal of ensuring the overall game feels balanced and fair while giving each season a more distinct identity."

Activision is incentivising players to jump into Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's campaign by including significant multiplayer unlocks within the single player.

A Call of Duty blog post outlines the 17 separate rewards that players can earn for completing missions in the campaign, including operators Hutch, Chuy, Reyes, and Nova. Also available are double XP boosts, unique calling cards and emblems, and Captain Price's M4 weapon blueprint.

Activision didn't make clear if these are campaign exclusive items or if they can be unlocked eventually by playing multiplayer. Or, perhaps, through microtransactions.

Hasbro has announced that it is creating a Dungeons and Dragons documentary co-directed by Joe Manganiello and Kyle Newman.

The untitled documentary will be released in 2024 to celebrate D&D' 50th anniversary and pull from more than 400 hours of early, never before seen footage of the game's creation in the early 1970s. Celebrity fans of the game will also feature in interviews.

Manganiello will also produce alongside his brother Nick Manganiello, Anthony Savini, and Cecily Tyler, while Tara Long and Geno McDermott will executive produce with D&D scholars Jon Peterson, Adam F. Goldberg, and co-director Newman.

Joe Manganiello - who's starred in films including Spider-Man and Magic Mike - is the official D&D ambassador and has previously written for the game and starred in Critical Role as a guest character. He's also the dungeon master of a star-studded Hollywood campaign that includes Vince Vaughn, Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, wrestler Paul 'The Big Show' Wight, and Game of Thrones co-creator D.B. Weiss.

"I couldn’t be more proud and excited to get back behind the camera for another documentary, this time with the D&D dream team of Jon, Kyle, and my brother and producing partner Nick," said Joe Manganiello.

"I lived through the rise and fall and rise again of this legacy brand that has not only meant so much to me but has served as the fountainhead of creativity for an entire generation of writers, artists, and creative minds, influencing so much of our culture."

The publisher of Nintendo Switch management simulator Let's Build a Zoo has shared how a strange eShop policy and "Argentina" made its game an accidental hit.

Mike Rose, company director at publisher No More Robots, shared on Twitter (below) that people using an eShop workaround to buy games cheaper by changing their region first looked to be a disaster for Let's Build a Zoo, but quickly became the key to its success.

Rose felt good when the game received lots of preorders, but after he saw they were coming from "Argentina", he grew worried. There were major problems with this, he said.

Let me tell you the story about how a little country called "Argentina" helped us to our biggest Nintendo Switch launch to date

I write "Argentina" in quotation marks because well... it wasn't really Argentina, was it?

Time for another classic Nintendo eShop thread: pic.twitter.com/vsVrJ12R94

— Mike Rose (@RaveofRavendale) October 13, 2022

"They obviously weren't really from Argentina. Clearly people were doing the easy region-swapping thing, setting their eShop region to Argentina to get the cheapest price possible. That 'cheapest price' was roughly $1.50, due to exchange rates."

Imagine if you had to stick your hands into a sink full of dirty, putrid-smelling water to fish around for clues to a mystery. You keep pulling out weirder and more confusing stuff, and you really don't want to go back in again – but what you've found so far makes you extremely curious about what other secrets may be hiding in there. That's the best way I can describe the overall experience of playing Scorn, a first-person puzzle game about exploring the ruins of a dead civilization. With a mesmerizing, biomechanical aesthetic inspired by the likes of H.R. Giger and Harlan Ellison's I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream, it's far more disturbing and unsettling than it is horrifying. But the vibes it creates can be very potent.

The most impressive bone in this mangled skeleton is the macabre art direction, which creates a cohesive world even when each of Scorn's hubs are distinct in their upsetting grandeur. The architecture and weird puzzle contraptions exist in a space that's not so much a fusion of flesh and machine, but more like someone blended the two until you can't quite tell if anything you're looking at is alive or artificial. Soaring, alien spires mimic the shapes of bone and viscera, while foreboding tunnels give you the distinct impression of being swallowed whole.