October 2025

Executor Remembrance quest walkthrough in Elden Ring Nightreign

3 months 3 weeks ago

Executor’s Remembrance quests in Elden Ring Nightreign shine a light on one of the game’s more mysterious characters. On top of providing you with great relics, these quests offer more context to Executor, the other Nightfarers, and Limveld as a whole. Completing the Executor Remembrance quest consists of gardening and self-reflection (only partly joking), but luckily, does not require beating the final Nightlord.

Here’s our Executor Remembrance quest walkthrough for Elden Ring Nightreign, explaining how to start Executor’s Remembrance quest and how to complete each task along the way.

Author
Jazz Stewart

Tags

All amiibo rewards and unlocks in Donkey Kong Bananza

3 months 3 weeks ago

In Donkey Kong Bananza, you can scan amiibo to add an extra flavor to DK and Pauline’s journey into the underground. The game supports new Donkey Kong and older amiibo figures that, once scanned, give you special clothes and powered-up objects to help you smash through the terrain.

Below we list what the amiibos do in Donkey Kong Bananza and how to use them, plus explain how to get the Diva Dress for Pauline.


Donkey Kong Bananza amiibo rewards and unlock list

Scanning different amiibo earn you slightly different rewards.

These Donkey Kong-related amiibo will give you four golden KONG tiles per scan, which function as explosive structures to help you clear out a path:

  • Donkey Kong and Pauline
  • Donkey Kong (Super Mario)
  • Diddy Kong (Super Mario)
  • Donkey Kong (Super Smash Bros.)
  • Diddy Kong (Super Smash Bros.)
  • King K. Rool (Super Smash Bros.)

Notably, the Donkey Kong and Pauline amiibo will give you the Diva Dress, an outfit for Pauline that increases the drop rate of music discs. (See below for more on that, since it’s not just a reward for scanning the amiibo the same way these tiles are.)

Author
Paulo Kawanishi

Tags

Donkey Kong Bananza fans are spending hours destroying everything

3 months 3 weeks ago

Many players will likely spend a good deal of Donkey Kong Bananza’s opening testing just how far the Switch 2 game will let them go. Much of Bananza is made up of destructible voxels, and DK can crumble this merry world with the abandon of a toddler playing with its food. Eventually, though, most of us will get back to the objective: there are bananas to find, fossils to collect, and challenges to beat. Then there are the players who are barely progressing at all, because they’re spending all their time clearing out levels in full.

Author
Patricia Hernandez

Tags

How many layers are in Donkey Kong Bananza?

3 months 3 weeks ago
Donkey Kong transformed in Kong Bananza form in Donkey Kong Bananza

How many layers are in Donkey Kong Bananza is a slightly more complex subject than you might initially think. Every layer is structured differently, some with multiple sublayers, and all with varying numbers of Banandium Gems to grab. The way Bananza is structured means that you’re free to tackle it all at your own pace, though, and can (usually) hop back to an earlier layer to grab collectibles you might’ve missed the first time.

Below, we list how many layers are in Donkey Kong Bananza, including how many additional sublayers each main level has.

How many layers are in Donkey Kong Bananza?

A giant eel who takes you to different layers in Donkey Kong Bananza

Donkey Kong Bananza has 17 layers in total. However, they vary in size and complexity, and how long it takes to get through them depends on your playstyle.

Author
Josh Broadwell

Tags

The Coldplay ‘kiss cam’ cheating scandal is now a video game

3 months 3 weeks ago

It was only a matter of time, wasn’t it? Over the last couple of days, the internet has swarmed around a mortifying moment during a Coldplay concert when the event crew zoomed in on the audience the hopes of finding a cute couple that could inspire cheers from the crowd. Instead, the camera caught what appeared to be an illicit moment between two executives who immediately turned away from the spotlight in embarrassment. The apparent scandal, which is all over the web, has now been transformed into a video game where the entire point is to find the couple in the crowd.

Created by Jonathan Mann, known for his long-running “song a day” series, Coldplay Canoodlers is a short, if not inspired, take on the viral kiss-cam moment. Players move their mouse around the pixel art crowd, where the game will randomly place the couple. Every time you pinpoint the couple, the actual footage of the viral moment will play and your score goes up. The game then resets and the couple will regenerate somewhere else for you to find. It’s like if Where’s Waldo? was made by tabloids.

Author
Patricia Hernandez

Tags

A decade after launch, I finally figured out how to make The Sims 4 fun

3 months 3 weeks ago

The Sims 4s latest expansion pack, Enchanted By Nature, launched earlier this month, adding fairy-Sims, magical ailments, and charming new clothing and furniture items to the game. As a lifelong fan of The Sims franchise, I decided to dive back into the game after a few months of not touching it, fully prepared to be disappointed.

Most veteran players of The Sims 4 can probably understand my trepidation. The Sims franchise recently celebrated its 25-year anniversary, and the last 10 years have been focused on The Sims 4, which was released in 2014 with barely any content at all. The game launched without franchise staples like pools or color customization options, and even toddlers were missing — your little bundle of Sim-joy would simply morph into a school-aged child upon aging up. EA remedied this by adding content to the game over the next decade via free base game updates and new DLC in the form of expansion packs, game packs, stuff packs, and kits. As cool as many of these additions were in theory, many of them were disappointing in practice, usually due to bugs and underwhelming content. 

For a good chunk of its existence, The Sims 4‘s gameplay loop has looked something like this:

Author
Claire Lewis

Tags

Superman’s Lex Luthor scheme feels like a callback to his greatest Justice League Unlimited moment

3 months 3 weeks ago

James Gunn’s Superman nails a lot of elements — its earnest take on the Man of Steel, a scene-stealing Jimmy Olsen as an unexpected heartthrob, and a fiercely driven Lois Lane. But just as worthy of praise is Nicholas Hoult’s Lex Luthor, who captures the character’s signature pettiness with pitch-perfect precision.

Luthor sees himself as the smartest person in the DC universe, and in Superman, he might also be the richest. But he’s also extremely insecure and petty, especially when it comes to Superman. Gunn leans heavily into those elements with his Luthor, paralleling one of the character’s most notorious reveals from Bruce Timm’s 2004 animated series Justice League Unlimited.

[Ed. note: Spoilers ahead for Luthor’s plots in Superman and Justice League Unlimited.]

Author
Isaac Rouse

Tags

Dropout’s Gastronauts season 2 trailer sold me on picking up the show

3 months 3 weeks ago

While I spend more time than I’d like to admit watching Dropout’s stable of excellent, improv-heavy comedy shows, last year’s Gastronauts is one of the few Dropout programs I haven’t yet checked out. After the new trailer for Gastronauts season 2 made my gut bust with laughter (and rumble with hunger), I think that’s going to change when it returns next month.

Hosted by Jordan Myrick, Gastronauts is a comedic cooking show where Dropout alumni judge dishes made by top-tier chefs. They aren’t fancy dishes you’d expect from a Top Chef challenge or everyday meals you make at home. Instead, Gastronauts chefs concoct whatever the show’s judges ask for, like a “meal of crumbs served in a man’s beard” at Emily Axford’s request or Katie Marovitch’s “the blandest meal you can imagine,” as revealed by the season two trailer.

Author
Austin Manchester

Tags

Star Wars: The Bad Batch returns with a novel – and you can read an excerpt

3 months 3 weeks ago

Dave Filoni’s Disney Plus series Star Wars: The Bad Batch followed a group of clone troopers enhanced with specialized genetic mutations as they resist their orders to kill the Jedi and flee the army. At first they try to just lay low and get by doing mercenary work, but The Bad Batch winds up getting drawn into the fight against the new Galactic Empire with the help of a mix of new friends and major characters from Star Wars: The Clones Wars.

Author
Samantha Nelson

Tags

All Nostalgia Country Banandium Gems in Donkey Kong Bananza

3 months 3 weeks ago

Nostalgia Country is an Ancient Ruin in Donkey Kong Bananza that takes you back to the world of Donkey Kong Country.

This Ancient Ruin switches your perspective from a 3D world to a sidescrolling platformer, but as it’s still Donkey Kong Bananza, there are three Banandium Gems for you to collect. One of the Banandium Gems is particularly difficult to find, but luckily it can be found as soon as you walk in.

Here’s where to find all of the Banandium Gems in the Nostalgia Country Ancient Ruin in Donkey Kong Bananza as well as where the Ancient Ruin is located.


Nostalgia Country Ancient Ruin location in Donkey Kong Bananza

The Nostalgia Country Ancient Ruin will be found naturally as you progress through the story in the Hilltop Layer. After you pay to clear the debris, the hole will open up and you’ll find the Ancient Ruin at the bottom.

Author
Johnny Yu

Tags

Sales of PS5 Exclusive Ghost of Yotei In-Line With Ghost of Tsushima in Europe, New Data Reveals

3 weeks 4 days ago

Ghost of Yotei sales are in-line with Ghost of Tsushima’s in Europe, new data shows.

As reported by The Game Business, Ghost of Yotei debuted at No.2 in the GSD European charts behind EA’s FC 26.

Sony has yet to announce a sales figure for Ghost of Yotei, which launched exclusively on PlayStation 5 on October 2, 2025. But we now know that in Europe it’s doing about as well as its predecessor, which launched in 2020 exclusively on PlayStation 4. That is, for its first few days on sale, as the GSD European chart runs to October 5.

There are a number of things worth noting here. Not only did Ghost of Tsushima launch on a console with a bigger install base at that point than PS5 has now, it launched during the pandemic, which saw record video game sales and player numbers as people were forced to stay at home during lockdowns.

The Game Business noted that Ghost of Yotei is the biggest first-party PlayStation launch since Spider-Man 2 in October 2023. Helldivers 2, which launched February 2024, remains the fastest selling PlayStation Studios game of all time, with an incredible 12 million sold in 12 weeks. The question is whether Ghost of Yotei will end up meeting Sony's sales expectations over time; Ghost of Tsushima ended up a hugely successful release, with over 13 million sold as of September 2024.

Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

Tags

Rockstar Games, Red Dead Redemption 2 Fans Pay Tribute to D'Angelo, Who Has Died Aged 51

3 weeks 4 days ago

Fans across the world are paying tribute to "titan of soul" D'Angelo, who died yesterday aged 51 after an undisclosed battle with cancer.

D'Angelo was behind the hugely popular Red Dead Redemption 2 track, Unshaken, and fans of the game as well as developer Rockstar paid tribute following the news.

In a statement posted to social media, Rockstar Games called D'Angelo a "true titan of soul," writing: "We are eternally grateful for his track Unshaken which will forever be an enduring part of the legacy of Red Dead Redemption 2."

The Grammy-award winning musician released three albums over his career. 2014's Black Messiah was his last album, which makes the iconic track included on 2018 Red Dead Redemption 2's soundtrack one of his final pieces. The entire track can be heard in the mission Dear Uncle Tacitus, in an impactful segment when you're riding a horse back to camp. It boasts over 55 million streams on Spotify alone.

Photo%20by%20Frans%20Schellekens%2FRedferns.

D'Angelo was a huge fan of video games and would visit Rockstar during Red Dead Redemption 2's development after reportedly reaching out to Ivan Pavlovich, director of music and audio at the studio, through an intermediary, to "just play the game."

Author
Vikki Blake

Tags

Battlefield 6 'Ladder Launching' Will Get Patched, but That Hasn't Stopped Players From Having Fun While It Lasts

3 weeks 4 days ago

Battlefield 6 players haven’t decided what their favorite weapons are yet, but they’ve already fallen in love with a new movement tech called “ladder launching.”

To catch you up to speed, the ladder is a gadget available to use with the Assault class in Battlefield Studios and EA’s latest Battlefield game. It’s a traversal tool that can be used to reach high-up places, opening up opportunities to gain new vantage points or even sneak up on unsuspecting enemies. The thing is that now, just days after Battlefield 6 launched for PC and consoles, the ladder is also being used for much, much more.

*/ /*-->*/

If you’ve even accidentally whipped out the ladder while playing Battlefield 6 multiplayer, you might have noticed that actually mounting it can be a hassle. The bottom of the gadget bumps players around if placed at a certain angle, triggering moments that balance frustration with slapstick humor.

Author
Michael Cripe

Tags

Battlefield 6 Multiplayer Review

3 weeks 5 days ago

Editor's note: This review covers the multiplayer only - you can find our Battlefield 6 single-player campaign review here.

Battlefield 6’s multiplayer action is all about layers. You have an infantry layer, where teams exchange gunfire on foot; there’s the land vehicle layer, where tanks and armored cars reshape the front lines with powerful weapons capable of decimating infantry and bringing entire buildings to the ground; and then there’s sky layer, where a small number of flyers hold dominion over the air, with the potential to flatten ground forces outright. What’s impressive is not only that each layer is so different, but also so well constructed, and somehow they all fit together seamlessly. A few of the maps have a bad habit of becoming sniper-infested hellscapes, and it takes a little too long to unlock the better equipment that makes your loadouts really interesting, but those are minor gripes with what is otherwise one of the best multiplayer shooters of the year.

Most of the fighting happens between general infantry, and great moment-to-moment gunplay is the anchor of the whole experience. Weapons look and sound awesome, especially if you have headphones or a good sound system to pick up the deep booms and subtle details like bullet casings falling to the ground. Guns are accurate, but account for bullet travel and drop just enough to reward skillful shooting – though the modest recoil and bullet spread in most weapons also means you don’t need to be a hardcore shooter veteran to be able to land shots.

Author
Tom Marks

Tags

Deals for Today: TCGPlayer Is Destroying Amazon in Pokémon TCG Sealed Product Bargains

3 weeks 5 days ago

It's time for my weekly Pokémon TCG sealed product price watch. Suprise suprise, the secondary market in TCGPlayer is giving big box retailers like Amazon a run for their money. Let's just keep in mind that TCGPlayer is a marketplace, so this is small to medium sellers undercutting billion and trillion dollar companies here.

TL;DR: Deals for Today

I'll give it to Amazon, some in-demand products are cheaper on there today too, we're talking Mega Evolution sealed product, Black Bolt and even a premium collection ex box. Don't forget that Pokémon Legends: Z-A drops on Thursday too, and I've got all the preorder links you'll need above and below. There's a song in that somewhere? Let's get into it:

Author
Christian Wait

Tags

'If We Were Good at Juggling Four Projects, Yeah, We'd Have a Remaster' — Ghost of Yotei Dev Sucker Punch Says It Will Remain a Single-Project Studio

3 weeks 5 days ago

What next for Sucker Punch now Ghost of Yotei is out the door? The Sony-owned studio has yet to say, but based on comments from the boss of the company, it will remain a single-project studio.

In an interview with VGC, Sucker Punch co-founder and studio head, Brian Fleming, said the studio will decide its next project once the multiplayer add-on Ghost of Yotei: Legends comes out in 2026. But, he suggested, don’t expect a flurry of games from the relatively lean developer — it’s one project at a time.

“The truth is that whatever we do next, whether it’s continuing Ghost or going back to Sly, the decision is really more limited by, again, our cherishing of focus and time to iterate, which means that we really can only do one thing at a time,” he said.

“If we were good at juggling four projects, yeah, we’d have a remaster, and let’s go do one of those, and one of those, and do some fan request, that would be really popular… But we only get to do one thing.

“So it kind of has to be your best idea, right? And that’s really clarifying. It’s not like there aren’t 15 good ideas. But you only get to do one. And by the way, you only get to do one about every five years. So that choice is really important. I mean, that is choosing your college and your major every five years.”

Author
Wesley Yin-Poole

Tags

Assassin's Creed Franchise Boss Departs Ubisoft

3 weeks 5 days ago

Assassin's Creed franchise boss Marc-Alexis Côté has departed Ubisoft after a career spanning more than 20 years, IGN understands.

The news comes just two weeks after Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft's biggest brand, became operated by Vantage Studios, the separate business entity formed by Ubisoft with a 25% stake from Chinese giant Tencent that will also now oversee all future Far Cry and Rainbow Six games.

Ubisoft staff were informed of the news this afternoon via an internal email which discussed the need for Vantage Studios' leadership team to be "aligned" with its core goals. IGN understands that Côté was offered a role as part of Vantage Studios' leadership, but declined.

In an internal note to Ubisoft staff obtained by IGN, Vantage Studios co-CEO Christophe Derennes said he was "disappointed" by Côté's decision, and that the former leader "had his own expectations and priorities related to Vantage Studios’ creation and future."

"Following the organizational restructuring announced in March 2025, Marc-Alexis Côté has chosen to pursue a new path elsewhere outside of Ubisoft," a Ubisoft spokesperson told IGN today. "While we are saddened to see him go, we’re confident that our talented teams will carry forward the strong foundation he helped build.

Author
Tom Phillips

Tags

Battlefield 6 XP Farming via Portal Lobbies Explodes as Players Complain of Sluggish Progression System

3 weeks 5 days ago

It took less than one week for Battlefield 6 players to start making Portal lobbies for XP farming – and some believe EA has already caught on.

Fans were quick to call out the progression system in last week’s new FPS entry as a bit of a slog. Although most are walking away from each multiplayer match happy with the package Battlefield Studios has crafted, even some of the most enthusiastic fans believe leveling up takes too long, with an unrewarding weapon unlock system and arduous challenges dampening the experience even further.

“Do they really think players have that much time and energy to grind endlessly just to get the rewards we’re supposed to earn naturally?” one player asked in a Reddit post. “It’s exhausting.”

Author
Michael Cripe

Tags

We Finally Know When Pokémon Legends: Z-A Takes Place in the Pokémon Timeline

3 weeks 5 days ago

When Pokémon Legends: Z-A was first revealed, we all immediately got to work speculating on when it would take place in the Pokémon timeline. Not where, we knew that: it takes place entirely in Lumiose City from Pokémon X and Y's Kalos region. But given that Legends: Arceus was a time-traveling narrative going back hundreds of years into Sinnoh's past, we had every expectation based on trailers that Z-A would be many, many years in Lumiose City's future.

We were incorrect! We now know exactly when it takes place, and it's not nearly as big a leap as you'd think.

We've been playing Pokémon Legends: Z-A for review and the embargo has now lifted. So we can confirm, from first-hand experience talking to multiple characters (most of which we unfortunately can't directly cite or show due to the ongoing embargo restrictions), that Z-A takes place just five years after the events of X and Y. It's not a time traveling narrative, it's a direct sequel that offers a follow-up to many of the characters and situations introduced in X and Y.

For instance, we already know that you get to hang out with AZ, a 3,000-year-old man who plays a pivotal role in X and Y. We also know that Mable, a former member of Team Flare, takes on the role of Pokémon professor in this game and sends you out to catch Pokémon with various challenges. Other characters you'll remember from X and Y show up as well, some of them dramatically changed, but we can't and won't spoil them just yet.

Author
Rebekah Valentine

Tags

Pokémon Legends: Z-A Review in Progress

3 weeks 5 days ago

Review codes for Pokémon Legends: Z-A were only sent out less than a week ago, but I’ve already put in around 24 hours or so in the last five days. Across that time I’ve been catching every new species of Pokémon I find, doing every side quest that pops up, and stopping every so often to completely change my outfit. I’ve currently got a full team all in the level 50s, and I can’t wait to stop writing this review-in-progress to go play more. It’s real good so far!

Ah, feels nice to say that after, uh… this.

There are a few reasons why I don’t feel comfortable scoring Z-A right now. Apart from simply not having beaten it yet, the embargo we’re publishing this under is pretty strict about what we can and can’t say or show. We always try to avoid spoilers (and recent leaks mean plenty are already in the wild), but here we can’t even talk about basic plot details that happen literally in the first 10 minutes. We can’t mention loads of the specific Pokémon in Z-A, despite the fact that any number of them might casually roam across our footage at any time. We can’t even show you the map of Lumiose City, where everything in Z-A takes place. It’s difficult to say exactly how close to the credits 24 hours puts me, but I’ll likely be back with my final, scored review shortly after launch.

Author
IGN BRANDED

Tags