Popular Disney World ride Splash Mountain—based on animated scenes from the controversial 1960s Disney film, Song of the South—has shut down. A lot of people loved the ride, which dated back to 1992, so it makes sense that yesterday, Disney adults and superfans alike crowded the park all in an effort to ride Splash…
The Last of Us’ TV adaptation is a rare bird in terms of staying true to its source material—particularly when it comes to video games. But even a show that aims to be as authentic as HBO’s treatment of the hit PlayStation series needs to make a few changes to adapt to a different form of storytelling. After the…
Late last week, Square Enix announced that its beleaguered 2020 live-service game, Marvel’s Avengers, will no longer receive new content or major updates after March 31. And all official support for the game will end on September 30, 2023, with digital sales ending on that date too. While you’ll still be able to play…
Quordle is one of the more popular and difficult Wordle clones out there. Instead of solving just one linguistic brain teaser a day, you have to solve four puzzles simultaneously. And now it’s owned by Merriam-Webster, a dictionary company that appears to increasingly be pivoting from definitions to online games.
I’ve spent about a dozen hours playing games with the new DualSense Edge. At first, all the modular PlayStation 5 controller’s new bells and whistles feel extremely superfluous to me. I‘ve been playing video games on standard controllers all my life without issue, and even the settings the controller has doesn’t feel…
An original, sealed copy of Pokémon Yellow, reportedly worth nearly $4,000, was ruined by U.S. Customs and Border Protection after its seal was not only cracked but its case broken and the front of the box sliced clean off in a wanton display of aggression against collectibles, the owner claims. That owner, who goes…
Everything about the leadup to the release of Forspoken, Square Enix’s big new open-world action RPG, has been a lowkey mess. But you wouldn’t know that from the launch trailer which stays upbeat on the modern-day magical adventure by taking a bunch of words out of context and spinning them into deceitful accolades.
The following contains spoilers for the first two episodes of HBO’s The Last of Us series.
“You get her there. You keep her alive. And you set everything right. All the shit we did. Please say yes, Joel. Please.”
The Transportation Security Administration’s No-Fly List is one of the most important ledgers in the United States, containing as it does the names of people who are perceived to be of such a threat to national security that they’re not allowed on airplanes. You’d have been forgiven then for thinking that list was a…
This may come as a surprise to the players who abandoned the game long ago and assumed this time had come already, but Crystal Dynamics and publishers Square Enix have announced the impending end of online support for Marvel’s Avengers.
When Microsoft—a company that made “$198 billion in revenue and $83 billion in operating income” in 2022—made the decision to axe 10,000 workers last week, a number of those came from their video game operations, particularly 343 Industries, the overseers of the Halo series.
The FFXIV 2018 snow sculpture that featured characters from the Heavensward expansion has appeared in Japanese textbooks. It features a photograph of the artwork, which was installed in Sapporo, Japan. One of the most notable things about the sculpture itself was the light show that would appear semi-regularly. Projections of Nidhogg, Estinien, and the Mother Crystal would be overlayed on top of it. Music from Final Fantasy XIV and its Heavensward expansion would also play. [Thanks, aitaikimochi!]
Impress Watch, the YouTube channel for Japanese games outlet Game Watch, uploaded a video of the sculpture. You can take a look at the FFXIV 2018 Heavensward snow sculpture and watch the display in full, below.
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c4JLayVicHw&ab_channel=ImpressWatch[/embed]
The second Final Fantasy XIV expansion, Heavensward, released to critical acclaim. Following its success, Square Enix offered a free trial to players, which allowed for those participating to play through the expansion. While there are some limitations to the expansion, such as the inability to join Free Companies or use the marketboard, players can reach up to level 60 on all available Job Classes. Occasionally, Square Enix will also have free login campaigns for players whose subs have lapsed.
There are few studios out there on top of their respective games like Mimimi are. From Shadow Tactics to Desperadoes 3, they’ve proven themselves the master of the modern stealth tactics game, and in 2023 they’re back with an all-new game, this time about pirates.
Free-to-play online MMO looter shooter Destiny 2, released in 2017, is one of my favorite video games. I play it all the time. I have multiple characters. I own all the recent seasons. It’s fantastic. But I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t concerned for the game’s future, as with each passing season, it seems to become…
Forspoken, the newest action-adventure romp from developer Luminous Productions, caught flack online after failing to fully list its localization and quality assurance teams.
A story ran on Bloomberg earlier today with the headline “Blizzard Manager Departs In Protest of Employee Ranking System”. It sounds very businessy, maybe something that would land on the Linkedin news feed of a HR manager, but the stuff it’s describing is important because it sounds absolutely dystopian.
Roiland no longer involved in Rick and Morty after domestic abuse charges come to light
The Rick and Morty, High on Life creator was arrested and charged in 2020, but the case remained quiet until 2022
Alexander Skarsgård and Mia Goth lead Brandon Cronenberg’s debaucherous horror drama
Between hunting for weapons, fighting bosses, and completing Hyrule's many side quests, gamers who choose to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its entirety can spend upward of 50-100 hours preparing for its final boss. Of course, some players choose to abandon the game's guidance and instead speedrun beating the final boss without preparation, and that's exactly what Twitch streamer Player5 did — 50 times in one day.
On January 15, Player5 managed to beat Breath of the Wild 50 times in just under 23 hours. The full stream is replayable on his Twitch channel, where they also claimed the current Any% world record for Breath of the Wild speedruns.
"I decided to do it early January, although a friend of mine TheRealNoman had the idea probably ~1 year ago," Player5 told IGN. "I also had seen Simply run SM64 1200 star (10 120 star speedruns in a row) pretty recently, so I figured it would be a fun challenge."
I just beat BotW 50 times in 24 hours 😪 Thanks everyone who stopped by and kept me awake for this! pic.twitter.com/YBZXnQBez0
Since Warhammer 40,000: Darktide's launch in November, players have issued complaints about its incomplete gameplay mechanics and unstable framerate, with just 35% of its 8,510 recent Steam reviews currently being positive. Now, Fatshark, the team behind the co-op shooter, is shifting its focus to address these complaints.
Today, Fatshark CEO Martin Wahlund addressed the game's launch and outlined the team's plan moving forward with an open letter published on the @Darktide40K Twitter account.
When creating Warhammer 40K: Darktide, according to the open letter, the team wanted to "create a highly engaging and stable game with a level of depth that keeps you playing for weeks, not hours."
"We fell short of meeting those expectations," Wahlund acknowledged.
He then moved to announce a new focus on addressing feedback, which will include "a complete crafting system, a more rewarding progression loop," and improved "game stability and performance optimization."
After a few years of proud gaming revenue rises thanks to Xbox Series X and S sales, Microsoft's gaming segment finally seems to be slowing down a bit. And while a dip is expected, the lack of major first-party game releases isn't exactly helping things.
The company posted its Q2 earnings today, and for the first time in a while, Xbox posted a year-over-year drop. Gaming revenue was down 13% year-over-year, and hardware revenue specifically was down the same. Xbox content and services revenue overall was down 12%, with Microsoft attributing the dip to a few factors: decreased spending on first-party content, lower monetization in third-party content, and a strong prior year comparable.
What this essentially means is that Xbox didn't have as strong a first-party line-up to spend on this past holiday, but also, 2021 was always going to be tough to beat. In software, Xbox had Halo Infinite, and in hardware, the Series X and S were sailing on high demand combined with increased supply as supply chain restrictions began to lighten up.
So while Xbox's dip is a shift from recent patterns, it's a predictable and relatively small one, putting Microsoft's gaming division at roughly the same revenue levels it was seeing in 2020-2021. And Game Pass subscriptions, Xbox says, are continuing to grow.
We end January’s IGN First coverage of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty by going back to the very beginning: Let’s have a look at the game’s opening cutscene. Watch it above.
In the clip, we hear a man talking about an elixir sought by the sovereigns of ancient China. This elixir could grant immortality, but its power was overwhelmingly dangerous, and the elixir became the cause of conflicts and political machinations throughout the years.
While China’s ancient leaders are known to have actually been in search of such an elixir of life, it appears that in Team Ninja’s newest action game the elixir is real.
French games publisher Nacon, which is co-publishing Daedalic Entertainment's upcoming action-adventure game The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, recently released an earnings report that detailed yet another delay for the Tolkein-inspired adventure.
The report lists Gollum as one of their titles that will be released in "the first half of the FY 2023-2024," which due to Nacon's offset fiscal calendar, places that window between April and September of this year.
Previously, Daedalic Entertainment delayed the title from its initial 2021 window to 2022, then delayed it again "by a few months," offering no specific release date at that time, but not so far off as this new timeframe places it.
An important message. pic.twitter.com/s2UvhPfILF
Heat: Pedal to the Metal is something extraordinary -- it’s a table-top racing game with an actual sense of breakneck speed. The designers achieve this both through the brilliant deck-building mechanics, and also with clever mechanisms that accelerate the actual process of play. In fact, Heat might be the best racing board game ever designed, surpassing recent standouts and seasoned classics alike.
The setting here is 1960s Grand Prix, and the core of the design is clever hand management. Each player secretly chooses a subset of their hand to play for movement each round. The number of cards you play is limited by your current gear. So, if you’re in second gear you play two cards, third you play three, and so on. Add up the value of the cards, and that’s the number of spaces you scoot your little car down the track. Want to move farther? Then shift into a higher gear so you can play more cards and tear up the road.
Corners gum it all up and function as speed bumps. They force you to slow your velocity and downshift. Each corner presents a number which is the maximum speed you may cross it without penalty, speed being the total number of spaces you are moving that turn.
Informa Tech has revealed the nominations for the 25th annual Games Festival Nominations, with Tunic and Betrayal At Club Low leading the way with three nominations each.
Both games were among the nominees for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, with the final awards being announced during the Game Developers Conference which takes place from March 20 to 24.
Six games in total were nominated for the Grand Prize, with Tunic and Betrayal at Club Low joined by The Case of the Golden Idol, Immortality, Neon White, and Not for Broadcast. Tinykin, Terra Nil, RPG Time: The Legend of Wright, Roadwarden, Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and Citizen Sleeper also receive honourable mentions.
Best Student Game
Excellence in Audio
Excellence in Design
Excellence in Narrative
Discussion of Hogwarts Legacy has been banned from popular forum website ResetEra due to the controversy surrounding Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.
As reported by PC Gamer, ResetEra general manager B-Dubs has released a statement from the moderation team that bans all mention of the Harry Potter-universe video game on their platform.
ResetEra had previously banned any promotional posts around the game - things like new trailers and announcements - but has now extended this to include any discussion.
"The mod team has decided to expand our prior ban on promotion for the Hogwarts game to include the game itself," the statement read. "There will be no [off topic chat] and no discussion of this game."
Rowling has been criticised for sharing transphobic views on social media, supporting anti-trans researcher Maya Forstater, writing an essay that included harmful statements and unsubstantiated claims about trans people (that were later debunked by experts), and more.
"After continued internal discussion, we began to start outlining the issues put forth by Rowling and the game in question and each time, and as we discussed it all, we kept coming back to the simple fact that Rowling is not only a bigot but is actively pushing, in her position as a wealthy and famous individual, for legislation that will hurt trans people," the statement said.
I didn’t know that I wanted to be a katana-wielding police officer in a cyberpunk version of Hong Kong who fights a giant spider tank and then eats five bowls of ramen, but that’s what I got with upcoming slasher/shooter Wanted: Dead, and I haven’t been able to put it down. Everything from its bizarre story and tone to its challenging and chaotic combat reminds me of the PS2/OG Xbox era of games from my youth, where experimentation and style was prioritized over polish. And there’s something awesome about that approach that’s captured my attention and kept me smiling ear to ear after over 15 hours with it.
One of the main ways in which Wanted: Dead nails its old school feel is in the high level of difficulty of its fantastic combat. While slashing and shooting my way through armies of enemies, death loomed constantly, as even one mistake could mean instant death for my ninja cop. Even with a squad of up to three NPCs accompanying me, I was usually outnumbered at least ten to one, as enemies shot at me from afar while their friends smacked me with melee weapons in a ruthless attempt to overwhelm me. I was forced to master the timing of my parries, dodges, and counterattacks, and to keep moving in order to avoid my immediate demise. Upgrading my skill tree along the way made things easier, thankfully, as improving my mobility options with the dodgeroll or the sliding blow made me much harder to hit, but even with two skill trees almost completely upgraded it was no walk in the park. Still, it was all worth the trouble when I finally beat a section, triggering numerous kill animations along the way that can only be described as delightfully badass.
Mimimi Games, the developer behind 2020's great strategy game Desperados 3, has revealed its latest project. It's called Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, and the team at Mimimi describes it as a "stealth strategy" game.
In Shadow Gambit, you'll "join a ghost ship with a living soul and assemble a cursed pirate crew. Embrace supernatural powers to defy the menacing army of the Inquisition, who stands between you and the mysterious treasure of the legendary Captain Mordechai." Your own ship is the Red Marley, described as a "ghost ship with a living soul." From it you can take on individual character missions to learn more about your crew, plan your next adventure, or just hang out with your crew.
You'll also have the ability to pause time to plan moves as well as to go back to the spot you paused in order to try another tactic if you fail. Overall, think "Desperados 3 meets Pirates of the Caribbean."
Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Take a look at the announcement trailer at the top of the page and the first gameplay trailer below.
Peter Jackson's The Lord of the Rings trilogy is finally coming back to Netflix in the U.S. on February 1.
As reported by GameSpot, Netflix announced the return of all three films on Twitter (below), meaning The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, and The Return of the King will once again be available to watch.
Somewhat oddly, this will also be the first time all three films have appeared on the streaming service at the same time. The Fellowship of the Ring was available for two brief stints in 2018 before being removed in January 2019, and its sequels appeared from September 2019 to March 2020, but none of the films have been available since.
“Even the smallest person can change the course of the future.”
— Netflix (@netflix) January 23, 2023
Peter Jackson's incredible The Lord of the Rings trilogy comes to Netflix US on February 1! pic.twitter.com/6hlwumO9NU
Though what's considered by many to be the best fantasy film trilogy of all time doesn't need much help, The Lord of the Rings was making headlines again last year thanks to Amazon's The Rings of Power series.
Rockstar says it's preparing a title update for Grand Theft Auto Online in response to an exploit that is effectively locking some players out of the popular multiplayer game.
First spotted late last week, the remote code execution exploit [RCE] allows cheaters to effectively corrupt accounts from afar. Players affected by the exploit will finding themselves permanently trapped in Grand Theft Auto's loading screen.
#GTAOnline PC High Alert⚠️
— Tez2 (@TezFunz2) January 20, 2023
New extreme exploits have appeared allowing cheaters to remotely add/remove/modify your stats and permanently corrupt your account aka ban/delete.
Avoid playing without a firewall rule or playing at all!🚨
Thanks to @HarryGotTaken for notifying. pic.twitter.com/tyh4tCInML
RCEs have been an ongoing concern in several multiplayer games, most notably Dark Souls, which saw its PvP servers shut down for months due to the issue. While a firewall rule can help, fans are currently being encouraged to take a break since RCE expoits can be quite dangerous, allowing hackers to do significant damage to a player's PC from afar.
There are suddenly a lot of very good games to play. To talk about them, Cardy, Emma, and Mat have convened in a post-lunch haze to discuss Fire Emblem Engage, Persona 3, Hi-Fi Rush, and The Case of the Golden Idol. Emma has also had the chance to go hands-on with the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy and Cardy tells you why you should go and watch The Fabelmans.
Got a game for us to play or just want to tell us the weirdest thing you've eaten for breakfast? Why not email us: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
