Last week, there was wide speculation that Valve might be intending to ban games that use AI-generated content, following a post on Reddit that suggested the practice was not being allowed. However, this seems not to be the case—at least, it’s nowhere near that simple—following a statement given to Polygon from Valve…
America is complicated, to put it mildly. Writers, filmmakers, songwriters, and other artists have been grappling with the complexities of this multifaceted nation for as long as it has existed. And in recent decades, games, too, have begun engaging with what America stands for, what it strives to be, and what it…
The latest Flashback 2 trailer literally flashes back to 1992’s Flashback. Yesterday, the action-platformer sequel dropped a trailer showing off a lush jungle level that's strikingly similar to the original game’s opening environment, but this time things have been high-qualified with pretty sun rays, explosions, and dodge rolls aplenty. Get some deja vu below.
Grid-based strategy spin-off Persona 5 Tactica's latest trailer introduces a new member to The Phantom Thieves: Erina. Or maybe she’s just a temporary friend. Atlus describe her as a “mysterious revolutionary with a strong sense of justice,” although it’s not yet clear what we’re revolting against, aside from vaguely-French demons. Check out the new gameplay trailer.
Until recently, Gylt (look, stay with it) was confined to Google's cloud gaming platform Stadia, but Stadia doesn't exist any more, so this third-person stealth adventure is being unleashed on Steam. You play as Sally, a young girl whose even younger cousin Emily has gone missing. One autumnal evening, Sally gets lost and tries to take the old mining cable car back home - only to discover herself in a weird mirror version of her home town, derelict and abandoned save for shadowy monsters, the likes of which you'd find as models in Forbidden Planet in a cabinet labelled "From The Mind Of Tim Burton". Sally has few defences save creeping around and shining a powerful torch at the monsters, who don't like strong li- hey, now my title makes sense!
Mac gaming has always been a bit of a punchline, despite Apple's best efforts. The fundamental problem is that it takes substantial development resources to bring games over to the platform, which occupies a small fraction of the computing market. Every year a few high-profile games are trickled out, while most other titles skip macOS entirely - but that might be changing.
Apple recently released a tool called the Game Porting Toolkit (GPT), which simulates a Windows environment and translates DirectX API calls to Apple's own Metal API, all the while translating x86 instructions to Apple Silicon's ARM instruction set. It's effectively a translation layer, like Valve's Proton on Steam Deck, with the same capability to run high-end games at playable frame-rates. But how good is GPT - and are we really on the verge of a Mac gaming revolution?
Actually getting the Game Porting Toolkit set up on a modern Mac computer is a fairly simple process - just upgrade to macOS 14 Sonoma and download Whisky, which is a graphical interface by developer Isaac Marovitz for the Game Porting Toolkit. From there, download the disk image file for the Game Porting Toolkit, boot Whisky and drop it in.
As Terraria’s next major patch approaches, developer Re-Logic has revealed it’s “hard to move on” and start a new project owing to the success and demand generated by the 2011 cult game.
"After 12 years the game still sells like hot cakes," said Re-Logic head Andrew Spinks in a Twitter post from his now deactivated account, as reported by PC Gamer. "There is so much demand it makes it hard to move on."
Since its release in May 2011, Terraria has graced every active gaming platform under the sun, ranging from the PC and Nintendo Switch to the PlayStation Vita, smartphones, and even Google Stadia, following a fraught development process.
During its 12-year lifespan Terraria has expanded significantly in scope, thanks to a slew of patches and free content updates. It is now one of the best-selling games of all time, with over 44 million copies sold as of May 2022. It is also one of the most-played games in Steam history, boasting a concurrent player peak of almost 490,000 in May 2020, with a current all-time approval rating of 97 percent.
Amazon Prime Day is right around the corner on July 11-12, but we've already started to get a few extra deals before the big event next week. These will likely be locked up and dressed as Prime Day offers next week, but for now you're able to get these deals without having a Prime account.
This will change soon so you better lock up this Elden Ring discount ASAP. It's down to just £35 on Xbox, and £36 on PS5 at Amazon for a limited time only. That's up to £25 off the RRP of £59.99, and the best deal we've ever seen on the 2022 Game of the Year.
Other great deals you might want to consider right now include Xbox Seagate Expansion Card for its all-time low price of £139, Star Wars Jedi Survivor for just £48, and Xbox Series S consoles for less than £150.
There's also one of our favourite deals of the year: 3-months of Audible for free if you're a Prime Member. This is an awesome deal saving you £23.97 in total and grants you access to three audiobook tokens, and the entire Audible podcast library as well.
We gave Metroid Prime Remastered a resounding 10/10 masterpiece rating in our review, and the game deserves all the plaudits. It's a wonderful remaster for Nintendo Switch, and well worth picking up if you're a big fan of the Metroid series. Not only that, but the game has gotten an impressive price drop in the UK recently, coming down to just £21.99 at several retailers.
It's not like the game cost a ton at RRP either (£34.99), as Nintendo was seemingly quite sensible with its chosen price for the remaster. That being said, at £22, this is an absolute steal and a must-buy for Switch owners.
Another great Switch deal to consider right now is the Switch Online and its Expansion Pack. For just £26.85 (see here), you can get a whole 12 months of the online membership plus its Expansion Pack as well. That's 33% off the original list price of £39.99 you'll find elsewhere, and the perfect deal for avid Switch gamers.
More Great Deals in the UK
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
The rise and rise of 2022's PowerWash Simulator is everything that’s right with video games. It’s a game about washing the dirt off stuff, delivered with absolute sincerity, and extremely well made. It got me through a horrible bout of Covid, as I meticulously scrubbed every fleck of dirt from adventure playgrounds…
“Listen to my story. This may be our last chance.” With those immortal words uttered by Tidus in the opening moments of 2001’s Final Fantasy X, my life changed forever. But it wasn’t just Tidus’ story that grabbed me. It was everything surrounding it – the cast of characters, the world, the conflicts, the power dynamics, the politics, and the relationships. All these elements gelled to create a potent recipe for an adventure I’ll vividly remember for the rest of my life. Read more...
During his childhood, Sam Barlow experienced a traumatic event: Being chased by monkeys around a swimming pool. He was around age 5, living in Tanzania in East Africa. His parents did nothing, he says. They just laughed.
Decades later, he found himself trying to re- create the experience in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories.
Nowadays, Barlow is known for making Her Story and founding the studio Half Mermaid, developer of Telling Lies and Immortality. In 2009, however, he was working at Climax Studios on Silent Hill and became obsessed with making characters slightly hairy and having them run on all fours. Simultaneously, he had the teamʼs level designers build a segment where youʼd run through a swimming pool. Read more...
Thrilling as it may be to swing a lightsaber or shoot a headcrab in stereoscopic 3D, the VR experiences I crave most are those which use the tech to fold my brain into entirely new shapes. 2019's A Fisherman's Tale was one of those. An unassuming first-person puzzler about a puppet fisherman living in a lighthouse, it dazzled with its incredible deployment of VR's unique sense of perspective and scale. It's the kind of game that, if it featured a psychotic AI and some cake memes instead of a beard in a yellow anorak, would have been heralded as a revolution in play.
It would have been easy to follow-up A Fisherman's Tale in the same way, make a bigger game with a few new gimmicks and a comedy lobster voiced by Stephen Merchant. But that isn't what developer InnerspaceVR has done. Instead, Another Fisherman's Tale bends your neural pathways in entirely new forms, offering a completely different kind of puzzling. The results are equally innovative and almost as interactively satisfying - although a lack of refinement in the latter category is a deflating puncture in the game's dinghy.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s modding scene had already flipped the wild west on its head with mods that turned Arthur Morgan into a firebender or a plain old sheep. That’s all well and good, but Read Dead 2 is a game about some gruff dude simply trying to get on with his life. That’s why I’m intrigued by the recent Jobs mods that turn the game into a mundane work search, just as Rockstar intended.
The Steam Deck is on sale at the moment, so it’s fortuitous that the there are some good Amazon Prime Day deals on Steam Deck accessories going as well. In fact, Valve’s sale on its handheld gaming PC ends on July 13th – just one day after Prime Day, which runs across July 11th and 12th. It’s like fate, if fate didn’t have anything better to do than ordain savings on PC gaming hardware.
Flock is the next game from the makers of Wilmot's Warehouse, Hohokum and I Am Dead, but ever since it was announced last year, I've been wondering about exactly what kind of game it is. The first trailer revealed lots of strange, whimsical environments, equally whimsical-looking beasties and a little person flying around on the back of a giant bird herding them around in delightful swoops and swirls. We also saw some sheep grazing in a meadow before they, too, started to fly alongside your wilder, more abstract animal pals. But the question of what you do in Flock remained unanswered - until last week, when developers Hollow Ponds showed us a little bit more of their creature collecting game during the Annapurna Interactive Showcase stream.
There, they revealed that we'll need to collect and charm these creatures to get them to join our respective flocks, and that we'll be able to do so in co-op with a pal. It looks intensely charming, but it still left me with lots of unanswered questions. So I spoke to devs Ricky Haggett and Richard Hogg to find out more. Naturally, there are some things they're not ready to reveal about Flock just yet, but they did tell me that you'll start on top of a mountain and will be wending your way down it with your flock of sheep.
Today brings an updated content roadmap for the brilliant PowerWash Simulator, whose breakout success has given the game an ongoing lease of life.
Last week saw the launch of its Spongebob Squarepants paid DLC, following the free addition of new levels themed around Final Fantasy and Tomb Raider.
Now, we know that the previously-announced Warhammer 40,000 paid DLC will arrive in Q4 this year.
When you head into a life and farming sim like Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life, you might wonder if some of the bachelorettes or bachelors are better or worse marriage candidates than others. Here’s the good news about this installment… there are a lot of great people here! Many of these characters are lovable! Which is great for a newcomer looking for someone to (virtually) date and marry. Still, let’s briefly go over some of them.
[caption id="attachment_970954" align="alignnone" width="1200"]
Screenshot by Siliconera[/caption]
Almost every bachelor and bachelorette in Story of Seasons: A Wonderful Life is a wonderful love interest you won’t regret marrying. Cecilia adores you, so much so that she’ll likely be at four hearts by the end of spring without getting any gifts. (It happened for me!) Gordy is shy, and it’s great to watch him gradually open up to you. Gustafa is friendly and constantly singing. Lumina feels so innocent and open to nature. Matthew’s going through some stuff, but eventually can trust you with his concerns. Molly is so charming and friendly, and it really feels like you can be her chance at love.
A former F-Zero developer believes Nintendo's long-dormant racing franchise has remained that way due to the success of Mario Kart.
Speaking to VGC, F-Zero artist and the designer behind Captain Falcon, Takaya Imamura, implied the game wouldn't be worth the risk when Mario Kart is already incredibly successful (having sold nearly 50 million copies for Nintendo Switch as of November 2022).
Imamura was asked why Nintendo games such as Star Fox get more attention than F-Zero. "I think it’s because Mario Kart is Nintendo’s most popular racing game, and a new F-Zero would cost a fortune," he said. "My impression is that [Nintendo executive Shigeru Miyamoto] is very affectionate about Star Fox."
The original F-Zero launched way back in 1990 and was followed up with a handful of games, the final one being F-Zero Climax in 2004. That marks almost two decades since fans last saw a new entry, despite Nintendo showing love to other older franchises with remakes like Super Mario RPG or sequels such as Luigi's Mansion 3.
Nintendo hasn't completely forgotten about F-Zero, of course, ironically making Mario Kart 8 DLC based on the classic racer, and last year released N64 game F-Zero X on the Nintendo Switch Online library.
A former Banjo-Kazooie developer has said another game in the series is unlikely because there probably aren't enough people who want to play it.
Speaking to VGC, Banjo-Kazooie composer Grant Kirkhope gave the impression he thinks the game is part of a bygone era, both in terms of the development team and player-base.
"I feel like you’d have to get a team with the humour that we had back then and that’s hard to replicate," he said. "I think Rare would be open to somebody if they found the right team, but I don’t feel like that team exists. Also, I’m not convinced the audience is there either."
Many players had called for a new game, or at least a remake of the originals, during somewhat of a mascot platformer renaissance that occured in the late 2010s when the likes of both Spyro and Crash Bandicoot received remasters.
Several developers behind the original Banjo-Kazooie even got together to make a spiritual successor in Yooka-Laylee, but the excitement around this style of game has seemingly since died down.
In IGN's 9/10 review of the original Banjo-Kazooie from 1998, we said: "This is the best 3D platformer [we] have ever played, and a more than worthy successor to Super Mario 64."
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.
Microsoft believes Sony will release a PlayStation 5 Slim later this year priced $399.99, according to a court document.
The document was released as part of the Federal Trade Commission vs Microsoft trial to determine the fate of a proposed preliminary injunction against the $69 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard.
In a paragraph on price, Microsoft attempts to convince Judge Jacqueline Scott Corley the Nintendo Switch should be considered in the same market as the Xbox Series consoles and the PlayStation 5, an argument it believes boosts the image of Xbox as losing the console war in third place.
It’s the final sentence in this paragraph that’s sure to ruffle Sony boss Jim Ryan’s feathers, as it not only outs the long-rumoured existence of a PlayStation 5 Slim, but its price too. IGN has asked Sony for comment.
“PlayStation likewise sells a less expensive Digital Edition for $399.99, and is expected to release a PlayStation 5 Slim later this year at the same reduced price point,” reads the document.
The bombshells continue, with Microsoft saying further down “Sony is also anticipated to release a handheld version of PlayStation 5 later this year for under $300”. This is in relation to Sony’s announced Project Q, a handheld game streaming device that wirelessly connects to the PS5. Sony has yet to announce a release date or price.
Long-time Yakuza protagonist Kazuma Kiryu will have a new English voice actor starting in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and fans are unsure about it.
As reported by The Gamer, YouTuber Yong Yea is replacing Darryl Kurylo and gave fans a preview of the new voice at Anime Expo 2023's Dragons of Japan panel.
"That little monologue he did was painful," said a Reddit user in response. "And the yell at the end was very much not Kiryu." Others were less critical of the performance, though still didn't think it was a good fit. "Yong Yea's voice isn't horrible but it sounds like a 20 year old, not a 50 year old," said one.
Here's a clean version of the Kiryu voice & dialogue from Anime Expo in more ideal conditions. This is NOT an official recording, line, or direction from the game, it's a quick off the cuff recording from my home booth. Wait for the final game to see how it all comes together. 🫶 https://t.co/R7j23sQUhE pic.twitter.com/HtO8JOoXdU
— Yong Yea 🐉 Eng Voice of Kiryu (@YongYea) July 3, 2023
The YouTuber posted on Twitter to defend himself though, and released a better quality but still not professional version of the audio clip.
As part of its ongoing legal battle with Epic Games, Apple has submitted a filing requesting the Supreme Court overthrows a 2021 ruling made by the US district court of California, which upheld a complaint against Apple's anti-steering practices.
Epic launched its lawsuit against Apple in August 2020, following the iPhone maker's decision to revoke Epic's Fortnite developer account, preventing the battle royale game from being distributed on its devices. Apple made the move after Epic deliberately circumvented contractually mandated App Store payment mechanisms within its Fortnite iOS app, which would have allowed it to avoid Apple's 30 percent platform fees.
As that case reached its conclusion, California's Judge Yvonne Gonzalez-Rogers ruled against Epic in all but one of its 10 claims. However, the one ruling made in Epic's favour - that Apple cannot block developers from linking out to alternative payment methods from within their apps (a practice known as "anti-steering") - has remained a sticking point for the company.
The amount of exposition and explanation you get in a manga when a story begins varies from mangaka to mangaka. Especially with a magical girl manga, as you might now right away how a character got their powers or it could remain something of a secret for quite a few chapters or volumes. Magical Girl Incident, a Zero Akabane series localized by Yen Press, is going with the latter approach. Everything’s left as a mystery from the start, which means the reader ends up as clueless about what’s going on as protagonist Hiromi Sakura. However, at the same time, I find it really suits the situation.
Magical Girl Incident begins with the absolutely ordinary Hiromi. He always wanted to be a hero of sorts and help people. However, instead he ended up a “corporate drone” salaryman. He works an ordinary job alongside his friend Yuzuru Saotome, dealing with an insensitive, ignorant boss, attempts pushed overtime, and all sorts of corporate nonsense. After saving a child from getting hit by a truck when retrieving a ball from the street, he later finds he can’t stand back and just watch as that same kid is about to be attacked by a supernatural monster. He steps in and is seemingly fatally injured.
Years ago, Disney reshaped its approach to gaming. Recognizing the potential to connect its global audience to the world’s most financially successful entertainment industry, it hired former PlayStation portfolio boss John Drake to lead its games licensing division after years of exclusive Star Wars contracts with EA, movie tie-ins, and mobile releases. Read more...
It’d be fairly weird if Sony didn’t announce a PlayStation 5 Slim in the coming months. The console will be three years old by then, and that’s generally the pattern. But it’d definitely be very weird if instead, Microsoft were the company to reveal it. Which might be what just happened.
In a court filing submitted as part of its legal battle with the US Federal Trade Commission over its proposed Activision Blizzard aquisition, Microsoft has claimed Sony is "expected to release" both a PlayStation 5 Slim and a "handheld version of the PS5" before the end of this year.
Both machines were referenced during a paragraph (as spotted by IGN) intended to demonstrate that Nintendo's Switch should not - as the FTC is arguing - be considered in a separate market to Xbox and PlayStation based on price. It's a point Microsoft is determined to prove so it can more effectively assert its stated position as the underdog in the console market.
As part of its argument, Microsoft notes the Xbox Series S is $50 cheaper than Switch's OLED model in the US, with the $399.99 PS5 Digital Edition being just $50 more. It's here the company first makes reference to an unannounced Sony machine, claiming the latter is "expected to release a PlayStation 5 Slim later this year at the same reduced price point."
Hello! It’s Indie Penance Day once again! The day that all Americans put aside their differences and unite in celebration of the joy of independent games development. Ever since the founding fathers played their first game of World Of Goo, the celebration has been observed by every American by law. Our legally…
Anime Expo 2023, the self-proclaimed largest anime convention in the U.S., is coming to a close today. While some in attendance will have cherished witnessing panels where they got to meet their favorite voice actors, purchase craftwork from their favorite artist, or witness the world premiere episodes of their…
Studio Wildcard's less-than-elegant rollout of Ark: Survival Ascended, a full-price remaster of its 2015 dinosaur survival game Ark: Survival Evolved, continues with the news of a delay from August to October this year, and word it'll now launch without its first bit of remastered DLC.
Ark: Survival Ascended has already had a bumpy start to life; the remaster first surfaced when Studio Wildcard announced it'd be taking Ark: Survival Evolved's official servers offline later this year, and that the only way to continue using official servers would be to purchase its new Unreal Engine 5 remaster - exclusively available as part of a bundle with the now-delayed Ark 2. Following an outcry from players, Studio Wildcard eventually announced it would scrap the bundle, instead replacing it with a standalone version of Ark: Survival Ascended that was - amazingly - exactly the same price, despite featuring one less game.
It's in this context that Studio Wildcard has now announced a delay for Ascended, saying it has "found it challenging working with Unreal Engine 5.2".
Asymmetric horror multiplayer game Friday The 13th will be removed from sale at the end of the year due to an expiring license. Later this week, however, an update will boost all players to max level and unlock a bunch of normally gated content for everyone so as to "reduce the dependence on database servers."
Persona 3 Reload intends to be the classic, 2006 JRPG "faithfully remade with cutting-edge graphics, modernized quality-of-life features, and signature stylish UI." It was announced - or rather, leaked - just before not-E3 last month, but now there's a new trailer that shows the game's combat for the first time.
SteelSeries' Arctis Nova lineup are some of the most comfortable and best-designed gaming headsets I've ever used. (In fact, I just spent the last few days finding the perfect aftermarket cushions for my Arctis Nova Pro Wireless just to give it a unique look.)
Therefore, I thought I'd let you know about a great price for the entry-level Arctis Nova 3, a wired version of the headset that offers the same comfortable design at a lower weight and with support for a wide range of USB devices from PC and Steam Deck (via USB-A or USB-C) to PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and more.
It's currently on sale for $70 at Amazon US, a tidy 30% discount from its original US MSRP of $100 as part of an early Prime Day deal.
PowerWash Simulator's Spongebob DLC came out last week, letting you scrub a pineapple under the sea. Now developers Futurlab have announced the paid update they'll release near the end of the year, and it's a crossover with Warhammer 40,000.
The HyperX Alloy Origins is a solid keyboard with a minimalist aesthetic, red mechanical switches and all of the features you'd expect from a mid-range gaming board. It normally retails for around $90, but today you can pick one up brand new for just $32 from GameStop, making it one heck of a bargain.
While Microsoft’s FTC case has let the world catch a glimpse behind the scenes at a modern platform holder’s emails, at the same time an enormous treasure trove of old Sega documents from the ‘90s have leaked, and they go a long way to explaining...well, why Sega isn’t a platform holder anymore.
Pale Court is an ambitious mod for Hollow Knight that adds five new boss fights, as well as new art, music, dialogue, voice acting and more. If you're one of the bajillion people who yell "where's Hollow Knight: Silksong" during every video game livestream, maybe it'll tide you over. There's a trailer and download instructions below.
The “deleting shows and movies just to save some tax money” trend that is rippling through major streaming networks has seemingly hit a new, farcical low with the removal of the film Crater from Disney Plus. Crater was released on May 12, 2023.
Five of the Best is a weekly series for supporters of Eurogamer, and there's currently a free trial running! It's a series that higlights some of the overlooked features in games. It's also a series where you have your say, so don't be shy, use the comments below to join in!
Oh and you can find our entire Five of the Best archive elsewhere on the site.
Loading bars! This is another topic I can't believe we haven't had before. And do you know what my overriding thought was when it flashed up in my head? 'I wonder how accurate they are.' Well, reader, it turns out I am not the only person to have had this thought. And there's an answer. But it's a shocking answer. You see, not only are loading bars regularly inaccurate, they are, in some cases, completely made-up!
