Last year's Saints Row received a rough reception, leading developers Volition to become part of Gearbox and to pledge that they were "supporting Saints Row for the long-term."
That pledge bears fruit on May 9th with the release of the Sunshine Springs update, which includes a new district, a combat overhaul, and many quality-of-life improvements.
Norwegian giant Erling Haaland broke the single-season Premier League goal-scoring record earlier this week, scoring his 35th of the campaign—which still has four games left—in a 3-0 win over West Ham. He was interviewed by Sky afterwards, and said something that has been stuck in my head ever since.
Samsung's 980 Pro SSD remains one of the fastest PCIe 4.0 options on the market in terms of both raw numbers and real-world gaming performance, so it's worth knowing that the capacious 2TB size is now available for £122 at TechNextDay when you use code TND-10, knocking £10 off its price to come well under the next-nearest retailer.
The Crucial X8 is one of our favourite portable SSDs, having in its corner a tough and compact design, impressive speeds and very reasonable pricing. That last point is especially true today, as the 1TB model of this external SSD has dropped to £61 - nearly half of its original £116 UK RRP.
The neon-soaked labyrinthine world of Saturnalia is coming to Steam later this year with a bunch of new features, developers Santa Ragione have announced. Saturnalia is an Italian folk horror that was released last year as an Epic Games Store exclusive, and it charmed many white knuckle horror fans. That includes the RPS Hivemind as Saturnalia was one our favourite games of last year.
Xbox boss Phil Spencer has insisted making great games won't help Microsoft catch up to Sony and Nintendo in the console race.
Microsoft's Xbox Series X and S currently lag behind Sony's PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch, with sales struggling.
And after the disastrous launch of Redfall - something Spencer has personally apologised for - Microsoft faces increasingly tough questions over Microsoft's ability to regularly release high quality triple-A games, and the future growth of subscription service Game Pass.
I'm a fan of the Chickering safe house. I'm glad I unlocked it. The fast travel is handy, but also it's just a nice kind of place to hang out. Not sure about the floor-to-ceiling stars-and-stripes on one wall, but the flag got less creepy, at least, once I moved in close and discovered that what I'd taken to be a string of bulletholes across the middle of it actually resolved into a chain of Christmas lights once the textures had loaded in. Elsewhere, big fridges, med kits and ammo, sleeping bags covered with the odd spray of discarded playing cards. Throw in a bean bag and a copy of Rumours and I never want to leave.
But those fridges. That large metal sink. Wait a minute! What did this place used to be?! A doctor's office? A morgue? Actually, the answer lay on a sideboard, below some voguish honeycomb shelving. Cake stands, all of them empty, and cake dishes with those glass covers that make them look like bell jars. This was a cake store! One look at the hand-drawn map on another wall all but confirmed it. I was smack in the middle of what had once been a little shopping district, with stores and a brewery for neighbors on either side. When I walked outside I saw an area where there had once been tables and chairs, perhaps, and a sign still up: the Fruit Fly Smoothie Bar! Mmmm! And also Yuck, obv. Because that's Redfall.
This is just a quick reminder that Sony will be dropping its PlayStation Plus Collection next week. So, this is your last chance to get your hands on some PS4 classics such as Bloodborne, Until Dawn, The Last of Us Remastered and Uncharted 4: A Thief's End before the collection is disbanded for good.
The PlayStation Plus Collection was introduced back in 2020 as a curated selection of great PS4 games that PlayStation 5 owners would be able to download and play on their new generation consoles.
However, on 9th May, the following 19 PS4 games will be removed from PS Plus, as Sony is removing the collection from its service.
Upcoming open-world racer Lego 2K Drive will be kept updated with four season passes over the next year, though you can unlock their rewards without time limits.
Each season pass also has a free and premium track, so you have fresh goals to aim for and cosmetics to unlock whether you pay, or not. And if you start off free, you can always upgrade later to instantly get all premium rewards up to that point.
Season 1 will begin in June, with a second to follow in autumn, a third in winter and a fourth in spring 2024. Each will host 100 levels.
Hello! Welcome back to our regular feature where we write a little bit about some of the games we've found ourselves playing over the last few days. This time: brawling, snapshots, and more snapshots.
If you fancy catching up on some of the older editions of What We've Been Playing, here's our archive.
The Street Fighter 6 demo is in full swing, and while it offers a portion of the game that I, a Street Fighter competitive multiplayer purist, care little for, I couldn't help but dip in to see what Capcom had up its sleeve for newcomers and those interested in the single-player side of things.
Developers Don’t Nod are carrying over their signature melodramatic decisions and super-powered characters with their next game: Harmony: The Fall Of Reverie. The studio behind Life Is Strange and Tell Me Why announced their visual novel earlier this year, but we now have a solid June 8th release date. A playable demo is also available as part of the LudoNarraCon festival on Steam.
Redfall, an open world FPS by the folks over at Arkane, plays like a game that was pulled in so many directions over its development that it exploded into various bits, which were then patchworked together into a live service game that already feels like it's been abandoned. Flashes of Arkane's brilliance make an appearance, but they are a rare find amidst a bland, incoherent world that clearly points to deeper issues in a game that's been drained of its magic.
Epic has announced its next free title: The Sims 4's The Daring Lifestyle Bundle.
This bundle, which includes The Sims 4's Jungle Adventure game pack, Luxury Party stuff pack and the Fashion Street kit, will be free to download from Epic's PC storefront from 11th May. It will remain available for the rest of that week, up until 18th May.
Just as a general FYI, you will need the Sims 4 base game and all relevant updates before you snap up this freebie.
A collector has purchased one of the original Nintendo Gamecube concept consoles from Nintendo's 2000 Space World presentation.
Space World, which ran until 2001, was essentially a precursor to the digital-only Direct showcases, where Nintendo would reveal its new games and hardware. The 2000 show was infamous for revealing both the GameCube and the Game Boy Advance.
Consolevariations' Donny Fillerup was recently alerted to a strange prototype GameCube, Kotaku reported, which turned out to be one of the original machines shown at Space World 2000.
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A new game based on the Shadowman comic series is in development.
Blowfish Studios has confirmed it's working on a new action-horror game called Shadowman: Darque Legacy, along with comic publisher Valiant Entertainment.
It's set for release in 2024 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S and PC (Steam, Epic). Here's a teaser trailer.
Spoiler: this week's game of the week actually came out last week, but we're going to allow it because it's been one of those weeks and besides I have a migraine. Also, a slight warning here: this piece contains an anecdote about a trip to give blood that the squeamish may not enjoy very much.
Interesting week, anyway! Redfall was the big release and I've spent a lot of time playing it and trying to work out why I like it more than other games that don't come with its range of technical and design issues. Deep down, I don't think Redfall is a terribly good game, but it's a charming and interesting one.
More than anything I like Redfall the town, a bit Barefoot Contessa perhaps, but I am a sucker for trees and clapboard houses and a covered bridge. Give me a house in the woods with an unnaturally large conservatory and I am anybody's, even before you use the whole thing for a gunfight. Redfall's an interesting place, and one that I know I will be returning to, despite the odd AI and the bugs and slow-appearing textures and all that jazz. It feels, in a way, both a victim of Game Pass and exactly what Game Pass is for. I suspect it will not be the last game to feel like this.
Dredd and The Boys star Karl Urban is reportedly in-line to play Johnny Cage in Mortal Kombat 2.
According to IGN, the Hollywood movie star is in final negotiations to play the video game movie star in the sequel to 2021's popular Mortal Kombat film.
For me, Urban is an odd pick for Johnny Cage. In the Mortal Kombat games Cage is a clean cut, quick-witted action movie star whose vanity is matched only by his star-studded smile. When I think of Karl Urban, I think of all his gruff, beardy roles, such as Judge Dredd in the wonderful Dredd movie, the superhero hating Billy Butcher, and the hairy rider of Rohan, Éomer in The Lord of the Rings. For Cage, I'm thinking Ryan Gosling's Ken or Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool, without the suit.
Hololive VTuber Laplus (La+) Darkness came down with COVID-19. As a result, she will take a break from streaming in order to recover. There is no news as to when to expect her return.
Aside from the official Hololive Twitter account posting the news, La+ herself made a statement. Via Twitter, she apologized for causing her fans a lot of worry, and said that this is her first time contracting COVID-19. She stated that it is very painful. However, she promised that she will see everyone again and asked her fans to wait until her recovery.
La+ is not the only VTuber on a break. Fulgur Ovid of Nijisanji EN is also on a hiatus for health reasons. However, neither Nijisanji nor Fulgur himself confirmed the reason.
Laplus Darkness, stylized as La+ Darkness, is part of the sixth generation of hololive VTubers. She debuted as part of Secret Society holoX alongside members like Sakamata Chloe and Hakui Koyori. That was in November 2021. She has both a YouTube and Twitch account and, as of the time of writing, she has over 951,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Cardy, Matt, and Jesse have all now finished Jedi: Survivor so decide to tell everyone why it's so good before delving deep into the layers of problems plaguing Redfall, Arkane's new vampire co-op shooter. It's time to plunge back into the MCU as well as thoughts are shared on the aggressively fine Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3.
Has a game ever gotten better after you've finished its main story? Give us your co-op game suggestions and drop us an email: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.
IGN UK Podcast 695: Redfall From Grace
Years after its initial release, you can finally buy Spider-Man Remastered on PS5 all by its lonesome. It’s a bit late, but still arrives just in time for anyone who wants to catch up before Spider-Man 2 arrives later this year.
Pokémon Go finds itself in a new controversy, this time over whether or not is revenue is down. Using data from market research tool AppMagic, Mobilegamer.biz reported that Pokémon Go’s revenue for the month of April was down to $34.7 million, which would be the game’s lowest monthly total since February 2018.…
In both The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, we can have Link cook recipes to make food to heal himself. To help get an idea of what to expect, Nintendo Europe’s Twitter account shared a peek at the Recipe Book present in the game. It offered a clear look at three of the recipes Link can cook and the food he can make from them.
Here’s the official tweet. The three The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom recipes shown all a rather substantial amount of hearts for Link. The Steamed Mushrooms is the most “healthy,” as it restores seven hearts if he cooks two apples, two greens, and a mushroom. Also beneficial is the Meat and Seafood Fry, which will refill six hearts if you cook two fish and a piece of meat, then eat it. Finally, there’s a Pepper Steak that restores five hearts. It appears to need meat, a spicy pepper, an onion, and an acorn. All three recipes also appeared in Breath of the Wild.
Forgotten how to cook your favourite dish? Use the new Recipe Book in The Legend of #Zelda: #TearsOfTheKingdom to see which ingredients you need. pic.twitter.com/GapWX25svQ
— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) May 5, 2023
May 5, 2023 is Children’s Day in Japan, and so Square Enix shared some details on the character design for young Tifa in Final Fantasy VII Remake (FFVII Remake) with us. We can see the concept art and in-game renders of her when she was eight and thirteen years old. At both ages, she wore feminine dresses as opposed to the more sporty wardrobe she has as an adult.
When she was eight years old, Tifa wore a white dress. The dress has pockets, which is designed to make it very convenient for her. She also shows off her fashion sense in wearing socks with her lace-up sandals. At thirteen, she graduated to wearing no socks with her sandals, which now have a higher heel. She also foregoes pockets, though she doesn’t have a bag with her to carry any items. Tifa consistently wore her hair loose when she was young. Since the low ponytail she has as an adult keeps her hair out of her way when fighting, the hairstyle might be due to practical rather than fashion reasons.
https://twitter.com/FFVIIR_CLOUD/status/1654369080823152642
In Japan, Children’s Day is the final day in Golden Week. Originally, it was only a day for boys but the country has since expanded the definition to include girls as well. On Children’s Day, families fly koinobori (carp-shaped windsocks), display miniature Japanese armor and dolls, and eat kawshiwamochi and chimaki.
Ahead of ever Splatfest in Splatoon 3, Nintendo tends to release special art inspired by the event, and The Legend of Zelda one is no exception. The official Twitter account shared art of the three members of Deep Cut fighting it out. As is usual, each one is supporting a side in this Triforce-themed crossover. It serves as both a celebration of the event and a reminder that it is taking place May 5-7, 2023.
As we might expect, this is due to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom launching on the Nintendo Switch in May 2023. Shiver is tied to Team Power, aka Ganondorf. Supporting Frye means you back Team Wisdom and Zelda. Finally, Big Man is the representative for Team Courage and Link.
Only a few hours remain until the Splatoon x The Legend of #Zelda Splatfest begins in #Splatoon3!
Which team are you representing?#TeamPower#TeamWisdom#TeamCourage
HoYoVerse uploaded a video detailing how real-life astronomy plays into the worldbuilding of Honkai: Star Rail. Didier Queloz, who is a Swiss astronomer and physics professor at Cambridge, is the guest. He also won a Nobel Prize of Physics in 2019 when he, along with Michel Mayor, discovered the first extrasolar planet 51 Pegasi b.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-x7vGOdm9M
Queloz stated that he hopes that media can sneak in actual knowledge. This could not only educate its players, but also increase interest in science. In the past, for example, Jurassic Park inspired a paleontology renaissance. Due to the vast number of star systems, he suggests that there is the possibility that planets like the ones in Honkai: Star Rail (and by extension, any piece of sci-fi media) exist in reality.
Earlier this week I announced that RPS Yearly Premium Supporters can claim a game key for the Park Beyond closed beta, running until Friday May 19th. This is your reminder that you can claim them today, from 3pm BST/7am PT - that's in less than an hour's time!
Beleaguered vampire huntin' FPS Redfall has at least one seal of approval, even if our reviewer Ed was left cold. Shortly before release, Valve bestowed it with Verified status for the Steam Deck, a coveted green tick that represents more or less complete compatibility and suitability for the portable PC.
I wouldn’t normally curl an eyebrow at this sort of thing – having more great Steam Deck games is good for PC gaming – but given how all-over-the-shop Redfall’s performance is on desktop PCs, could it really settle in on the less powerful Deck? A few ambulatory vamp slaying jaunts later, I can conclude that it... maaaaaybe can. Sort of.
Just before the doors opened on E3 2016, years before Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was ever dreamt up, I was sitting in a room with a few media types. They were debating at length Nintendo's decision to show up in LA with nothing but The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild.
"It's supreme arrogance, bordering on stupidity," I vividly recall one prominent writer saying. Few disagreed.
This was a different time. Nintendo's Wii U console had been a catastrophic failure and the 3DS was showing its age. The company had announced it was working on a new machine, codenamed NX, but it was nowhere to be seen (it would be revealed four months later).
As the fallout from Redfall's release continues, Xbox boss Phil Spencer has raised eyebrows with his claim that Microsoft expected the game to score much better in critics' reviews.
During a wide-ranging interview with Kinda Funny, Spencer said Xbox had planned for Redfall to land with an average review score "double digits" higher than the one it actually got.
"We do mock reviews for every game we launch, and this is double digits lower than we thought we would be with this game," Spencer said. "That's one of the disappointing things. We would never strive to launch a game that we thought was going to review in the low-60s. It's not part of our goals."
Even though we’re already almost halfway through the year, there are still a ton of cozy games to come in 2023. And while we just told you about a bunch of them, that list was just scratching the surface, and there are so many more excitingly cozy games coming this year that deserve your attention.
I’m a pretty casual Marvel fan who doesn’t read the comics, but I consider the Guardians of the Galaxy to be my favorite heroes in the comic book company’s universe these days. That being said, while I knew Rocket Raccoon’s backstory through the game adaptations, I was wholly unprepared for how brutal it would be in …
When I had an Apple Arcade subscription, I played endless amounts of What the Golf? on my phone. It was such a chaotic, joyful puzzle game that it actually annoyed me that Nathan Grayson robbed me of the opportunity to write about it. So I was excited to demo studio Triband’s next game: A racing game where the “car”…
Redfall is not a good game. I don’t think you need me to pour salt on that wound if you’ve spent significant time with it. But its failure is a disappointing situation for several reasons. Developer Arkane is one of my favorite studios, so it sucks to see it fumble the ball. My admiration for the team made me genuinely excited for Redfall, which I still think is a cool premise on paper, making it a tough pill to swallow in practice. But the most upsetting element is seeing a studio fall short after trying something new and getting criticized for even attempting it.
There are many valid reasons to drive a stake through Redfall’s heart, but the most worrying sentiment I’ve seen is Arkane should have never made it and given us Dishonored 3 or Prey 2 instead. That’s an understandable wish; I love both series and would welcome sequels with open arms. But I’ve always been more excited to see established studios deliver an experience outside of their usual wheelhouse. After all, if a developer can hit home runs within its comfort zone series or genre, what could it achieve by stretching its wings and challenging itself further? I always ponder this question when thinking of my favorite studios, and it never fails to ignite my imagination.
Internet sentiment would suggest fans generally want the same. Sequels, remakes, remasters, and reboots often get blasted for rehashing old ideas instead of fresh IPs or surprises in general. But the minute a new idea fails, we have an understandable tendency to retreat to those safe zones, especially when it comes from a team beloved for doing a particular thing.
A new indie title allows players to make visual novels using characters from other popular indie games. Alternate Universe Playbook features characters from Celeste and CrossCode, among others. Developed by Freebird Games, Alternate Universe Playbook allows players to make their own visual novels using a series of simple tools. The game comes loaded with a bunch of characters from indie games in a range of poses and expressions.
Many of the characters come from other titles developed by Freebird Games, such as Finding Paradise, Impostor Factory and To the Moon. Other indie developers also lent their characters, as the casts of Celeste, CrossCode, A Space for the Unbound and OneShot are also available. In other words, if you’ve ever wanted to see Madeline from Celeste chatting to Niko from OneShot in an active volcano, this game lets you make that happen.
The game’s Steam page promises that more characters from other games will be added with time. They also promise custom tools to add your own assets. Alternate Universe Playbook has been released for free, as Freebird Games hope to build up a creative community. The team is also taking suggestions and feedback via the Steam forums or their Discord.
404 Game Re:Set ran into a real-life 404 error, as Sega announced it is under maintenance to fix a major bug. Producer Gosuke Nakamura apologized for the inconvenience on the official website for the game. The maintenance should last until 5am JST of May 6, 2023. That would be 1pm PT/4pm ET on May 5, 2023.
The bug is affecting the Technical Department Dungeon Drop-up Campaign. Players are receiving an unexpected amount of Segacreds and materials, so Sega shut down the game to undergo emergency maintenance. Though the team has already discovered the root of the bug and fixed it, players have used the surge of Segacreds and materials to enhance their accessories. As a result, it has disrupted the balance and fairness of the game.
In order to fix the issue of game balance, Sega decided that it will roll back the game’s data, using a back-up from 2am JST of May 5, 2023. This means that we will lose any of the progress they made after that date. Sega states that this is to return the game to a state where everyone can enjoy it. It will issue reimbursements for affected players at a later date.
Capcom revealed some behind the scenes details about the Canynes, also known as Palamutes, in Monster Hunter Rise. Designer Moeri Abe was interviewed as part of the company's ongoing Monster Hunter interview series.
In the interview, Abe talked about the initial discussions of designing the Canynes for Monster Hunter Rise. The initial concepts were inspired by falconers and their raptors, with the designs gradually softened to make them more friendly-looking. He also talks about how the ninja concepts of Monster Hunter Rise were incorporated into their designs over time.
There’s also a lot of discussion about how the whole Monster Hunter Rise team got involved in aspects of the Canyne and Palamute design. The team were often contributing to discussions around movement, particularly how their tails and ears wiggled. Many team members were eager to rub the Canynes’ bellies too, which got incorporated into the final game.
In addition to the Canynes themselves, Abe also designed the Palamute armor and supervised the modelling of them. His personal favorites include the Barioth X Set, Almudron X Set and Ludroth X Set.
Abe didn’t just work on the Canynes for Monster Hunter Rise. He also designed the Wirebugs and made concepts for Bishanten, Rakna-Kadaki and Crimson Glow Valstrax.
From May 20, 2023, Beams will release merchandise of the Pokemon TCG and Yu Nagaba collaboration in Japan. Prices will start from 500 JPY (which is around $3.75). As an apparel store, Beams will mostly sell items like T-shirts from the collaboration, though there is also the chance to get a random promotion card with art from Yu Nagaba on it. [Thanks, Game Watch!]
All of the shirts will contain references to the TCG beyond the Eevees that Yu Nagaba drew for this collaboration. For example, the back of one T-shirt contains the back design of a Pokemon TCG card, and the front of it has the Energy card symbols.
Here is a list of the items that’ll be available, along with their prices:
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Fortniters everywhere, rejoice! Playing Fortnite can now put you on the road to the Olympics, so teachers can no longer scold kids for sneaking in a game during class - that’s how you win gold medals now, goddammit. The Olympics have today announced that the money-printing battle royale has joined the line-up for the Olympic Esport Series 2023, taking place in Singapore next month.
Arcadey ice hockey action slams into roguelikelike runs with Tape To Tape, out now in early access. Imagine 'NHL 94 meets Hades' and you have a vague sense. Across a run, you travel a strange land playing hockey matches and earning upgrades to boost your team with better stats and whole new abilities. It's an interesting idea and quite a silly game, with a daft tone and some cheery ultraviolence.
Developers Torpor Games have been teasing something mysterious over the last few months and they’ve finally shed light on their future plans. The acclaimed political RPG Suzerain is getting even deeper thanks to an upcoming paid expansion called Kingdom Of Rizia and a free 2.0 update called Amendment, the developers announced during this week's LudoNarraCon digital fest.