IGN

The Killing Tree is now available on digital and DVD.

"Christmas Horror" is one of the most bottom-weighted horror subgenres, packed with holiday title puns that deliver not an ounce of holly-jolly terror. Rhys Frake-Waterfield's The Killing Tree sounds like another no-budget X-Mas imposter, but consider this an early stocking stuffer. At roughly 70 minutes, with an absurd dedication to concept and extreme midnighter vibes? The Killing Tree unleashes a murderous Christmas tree on seasonal partygoers caught in an insane-to-describe ritual meant to raise a slasher from the dead.

Sarah Alexandra Marks stars as Faith, a solo Christmas hostess left alone in her family's massive estate one year after a murderer slayed her parents. Frake-Waterfield and co-writer Craig McLearie draw inspiration from Child's Play and Christmas Horror favorite Jack Frost as the soul of maniac Clayton Slayter (Marcus Massey) is summoned through black magic into the vessel of a Christmas tree – and not just any enraged Evergreen, either. Slayter's branchy form can seemingly fluctuate in size, stretches piny-spiky appendages like tentacles, and moves with human strides (comical shuffling). Translation? Some actor in a tree suit "stealthily" stomps around a drunken holiday party scenario and carries out an oddball massacre because no one here is fooling anyone about low-budget-but-fun intentions.

Resident Evil's survival horror and Ghost of Tsushima's open world action couldn't seem further apart on paper, but the worldwide appeal of both games makes them weirdly similar according to a former Capcom producer.

Speaking to IGN, Hiroyuki Kobayashi said the U.S.-based Sucker Punch's creation of a globally appealing Japanese game like Ghost of Tsushima is very similar to how he and his colleagues at Capcom created the very American seeming Resident Evil franchise.

"As a game about Japan made by non-Japanese developers, Ghost of Tsushima kind of reminded me how we [at Capcom] as Japanese developers made a horror game set in the United States with Resident Evil back in the day," he said. "At the time, it might have been surprising for people that it was made by Japanese developers."

Creating an authentic experience from a culture outside your own isn't an easy task, however, but Kobayashi said the effort can lead to great success. "I think this shows that no matter what country or culture you make your game about, as long as you seriously study the topic and put your heart into it there’s always a chance," he said.

The number of PlayStation Plus subscribers has fallen by almost two million since Sony launched its revamped subscription service in June.

According to the company’s latest financial report, Sony’s multi-tiered PlayStation Plus subscription service has dropped from 47.3 million at the end of June to 45.4 million in the three months leading up to September 30 - a decrease of 4%.

Sony highlighted that the ratio of gamers subscribed to the service is significantly higher on the PS5 than it is for the previous generation PS4 console. In response, Sony leadership plans to accelerate the adoption of PS5 hardware to “recover this user engagement going forward”.

The number of active users on the PlayStation Network also dropped by one million in the latest quarter to 102 million players.

Though its numbers dropped on the digital side, Sony still had a strong showing when it comes to PlayStation 5 hardware. The company announced it has now sold more than 25 million units, and was able to produce roughly 6.5 million new PS5s in the three months leading up to September 30

Cardy, Matt, and Joe finally found time to record the Elden Ring podcast they promised over half a year ago. The first chunk is spoiler-free before we delve right into what makes it such a special game.

If you're into it, get tickets for our live show in London on December 2nd here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ign-uks-the-podcast-before-christmas-tickets-445286492887

Got a game for us to play or some feedback you'd like read out on the show? Why not email us: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast: The Elden Ring Special (Finally)

• IGN UK Podcast #668: Goodbye Beef Boy Joe
• IGN UK Podcast #667: God of War Ragnarok Early Impressions
• IGN UK Podcast #666: Our Hidden Horror Picks
• IGN UK Podcast #665: Building Our Dream Video Game Adaptation Streaming Services
• IGN UK Podcast #664: Our Favourite First-Person Shooters

Through its (near-)consistent excellence, innovation, and longevity, Resident Evil games has earned its crown as the king of survival of horror. Capcom debuted its world of mutants and mercenaries in 1996 and has since grown Resident Evil into a multimedia franchise that spans over two dozen console games, six films, two recent Netflix series, novels, comics, and even stage plays.

It can be an exciting franchise to explore given the amount of content it houses, though for the same reason, it can be an equally daunting series to approach. This article focuses exclusively on video games and cuts out the convolution by presenting two ways to play only the most narratively significant and accessible Resident Evil games in order.

Jump to:

• How to play in chronological order
• How to play by release order

How Many Resident Evil Games Are There?

There are 10 core Resident Evil games: RE 0-7, Village, and Code: Veronica. However, the total number of Resident Evil console games — including spinoffs and remakes — sits around 30. That number rises near 60 when accounting for mobile and pachinko games.

How to Play the Resident Evil Games in Chronological Order

For this list, we’re focusing on 12 Resident Evil games: all 10 core entries and the two Revelations spinoffs. While many others are considered canon, this is not an exhaustive chronology, but rather an approachable guide to entering and enjoying the world of Resident Evil video games.

Following Yakuza series creator Toshihiro Nagoshi and No More Heroes creator Goichi Suda, popularly known as "Suda51," Capcom veteran Hiroyuki Kobayashi announced his move to NetEase Games back in August this year. Today, NetEase revealed Kobayashi's new studio as GPTRACK50, located in Osaka. At Capcom, Kobayashi worked as the producer on the Resident Evil series as well as Devil May Cry.

“I was at Capcom for 27 years. During my time, the company became a lot bigger and a lot of new staff came in,” Kobayashi told IGN in an exclusive interview.

“I worked on a wide array of titles at Capcom, but I wanted a new challenge,” he explained. “Of course, it’s not like Capcom didn’t allow me to try out new things, but now that the company is a lot bigger, things are different from the way they were when I joined the company as a freshman back in 1995. Everything now needs to be approved and things just take more time to get greenlit. I’m the kind of creator that wants to be able to deliver a new experience while it still feels fresh, and I had been thinking of creating my own studio to make that possible.”

Kobayashi had heard that major Chinese publisher and developer NetEase Games gives its studios a lot of creative freedom. After joining the company, he feels relieved to have the liberty to be able to pursue his ideas without having to take too much time to explain himself.

The claustrophobic press of frenzied melee, whistling of missiles, and thunderous charge of cavalry are often represented in games, but rarely so personally as in the Mount & Blade series. It’s not often I get the feeling I’m experiencing what must’ve been the needs of a commander at eye-level on the field trying to maneuver his forces, or being forced to desperately scramble among bodies for a quiver of arrows or fresh shield. This is the appeal of Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord, and it outweighs all of the holes, bugs, and underwhelming strategy and roleplaying mechanics you have to wade through to get here. When you reach the battlefield, this low-fantasy medieval simulation is unmatched.

Bannerlord drops you into the shoes of a capable, temporarily impoverished wannabe in a sandbox world based on late antiquity, complete with a fragmenting Roman Empire stand-in. It's an engaging scenario for its variety of combatants, mercenary bands, and warring societies, each with a unique historically-based way of fighting. In contrast, Bannerlord's main story is very thin, but revolves around finding the remnants of an ancient and symbolic banner – then deciding whether to use it to finish off the empire or take the banner to reunite its fragmented territories.

Xbox’s Phil Spencer has said that that should Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision Blizzard go through, the company will continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation as long as there are PlayStation consoles out to ship to.

On the Same Brain YouTube channel, Spencer said (starting at 28:40), “We're not taking Call of Duty from PlayStation. That's not our intent. Our intent is not to do that and as long as there's a PlayStation out there to ship to, our intent is that we'll continue to ship Call of Duty on PlayStation. Similar to what we've done with Minecraft since we owned that.”

Congratulations to @InfinityWard and @Activision on the biggest PlayStation Store launch EVER for a Call of Duty game (including preorders and day one sales).

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II is now available for PS4 and PS5! pic.twitter.com/CU9GG853DI

Sony Pictures VR officially announced the official title and release window for its upcoming Ghostbusters VR game.

Ghostbusters: Rise of the Ghost Lord is slated to launch in 2023 for the Meta Quest 2 and PlayStation VR2. The game was initially announced back in April during Meta's Gaming Showcase as a surprise announcement to wrap up the show.

Set in San Francisco, players run their own ghost-busting business. As noted in the press release, players will have the chance to play solo or with up to three friends as they try and "stop the powerful Ghost Lord and his band of malevolent ghosts from causing chaos" through San Francisco.

Ikea has sent a cease and desist letter to the developer of The Store is Closed, an indie survival game about spending the night in a furniture store.

As reported by Kotaku, lawyers representing Ikea have accused solo developer Jacob Shaw of committing trademark infringement and have given him ten days to change parts of his game that allegedly represent Ikea branding.

This includes a blue and yellow sign, a Scandinavian name (STYR), yellow vertical striped shirts, a grey path on the floor, and some furniture. "All the foregoing immediately suggest that the game takes place in an Ikea store", the lawyers' letter said.

No reference to Ikea exists on The Store is Closed's Steam or Kickstarter pages, however, and Shaw maintains that he wasn't inspired by Ikea for the game's furniture as he bought a generic furniture asset pack that can be used in any game. The Ikea lawyers also cite press outlets and online commentators for drawing a comparison between his game and Ikea.

The letter continued: The "unauthorized use of the IKEA indicia constitutes unfair competition and false advertising under Sections 43(a) of the U.S. Trademark Act, 15 U.S. C § 1125(a), and state unfair competition and false advertising laws.

Halloween has officially arrived and we are here to help celebrate by presenting you with the winners of our best horror video game face-off. Not only do you now have an idea of what terrifying games you need to play for the first time or hundredth during this spooky season, but we also now know which horror game IGN's audience believes is the best of the best.

So, after 1.2 million battles with matchups like Resident Evil 4 vs. Dead Space and Silent Hill vs. P.T., which game earned the right to be called the greatest horror game of all time? Bloody drumroll please...

Pyramid Head fans, rejoice! Silent Hill 2 has won our horror game face-off with a commanding win percentage of 88.5%. The game from 2001 that is officially getting a remake from The Medium's Bloober Team won 19,747 of its 22,308 duels, indicating that the idea of a remake was probably a great decision.

Speaking of remakes, Resident Evil 2 Remake came in second place with a win percentage of 83.8% and narrowly surpassed Resident Evil 7: Biohazard's 83.2% win percentage. We chose Resident Evil 2 Remake as our second-favorite Resident Evil game of all time recently, and it beat every game aside from Resident Evil 4, another game getting a remake.

Marvel has entered an agreement with FIFA and Battlefield publisher EA to make at least three action adventure video games based on the Marvel comics.

As reported by Bloomberg, this deal will begin with the previously announced Iron Man game from EA Motive, with all three games coming to consoles and PC. Though details about what's coming after Iron Man are still thin, each game will feature its own original story set in the Marvel universe.

Perhaps known more for its sports or traditional shooter games, EA is looking to increase its offerings with the Marvel deal. "We have an intentional, deliberate strategy to have a balanced portfolio," said chief operating officer Laura Miele. "There will be Marvel fans who don’t play other EA games."

It's unclear if the second and third game will be centred on different Marvel characters like The Hulk or Thor or if they'll be follow-ups to the Iron Man game, similar to what Insomniac did with Spider-Man, its spin-off Miles Morales, and upcoming sequel.

Nothing about a release schedule or single versus multiplayer focus was mentioned either, though we do know that EA Motive's Iron Man is a "single player, action-adventure game".

The real world Amsterdam hotel featured in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 is not happy with its "unwanted involvement" in the first person shooter from Activision Blizzard.

As reported by de Volkskrant (and translated by PC Gamer), the manager of the Conservatorium Hotel in Amsterdam said the business is currently considering how to deal with its near-exact recreation in Modern Warfare 2's Tradecraft level and Breenbergh Hotel multiplayer map.

"We have taken note of the fact that the Conservatorium Hotel is undesirably the scene of the new Call of Duty," said manager Roy Tomassen. "More generally, we don't support games that seem to encourage the use of violence. The game in no way reflects our core values ​​and we regret our apparent and unwanted involvement."

The hotel is still considering what steps to take next but gave no indication as to its plans, whether it be legal action, something else, or nothing at all. IGN has reached out to Activision Blizzard for comment.

The Conservatorium Hotel (called the Breenbergh Hotel in-game) is one part of a much larger Amsterdam level that recreates several streets and locations from the real city, though it is obviously the sole focus of the multiplayer map of the same name.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer has admitted it's been too long since a major first party exclusive game landed on the Xbox Series X and S.

Speaking to Same Brain on YouTube, Spencer said he understands why players are frustrated at the lack of major Xbox-only games - with last year's Halo Infinite arguably being the most recent - but noted that 2023 is set to be a big year for the company.

"One thing we've definitely heard loud and clear is that it's been too long since we've shipped what people would say is a big first party game," Spencer said. "We could have our excuses on Covid and other things, but in the end I know people invest in our platform and they want to have great games."

He continued: "We're excited about 2023. We've talked about games that are coming, and those games are tracking well. Getting our first real Xbox first party games out of Bethesda, having them ship Redfall and Starfield, will be a lot of fun."

Forza Motorsport 8 is also expected to be released in spring 2023, adding to Xbox's line-up for the year and returning to the simulator-based series for the first time since 2017.

NASCAR driver Ross Chastain has credited a childhood video game habit for his bold last-corner move at Martinsville Speedway today, which saw him catapult from 10th to fifth in the final seconds of the race by riding the wall at high speed.

The move secured Chastain a spot in next weekend’s 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4, the first appearance in the series finale for his team Trackhouse Racing. Chastain also broke the stock car track record at Martinsville Speedway.

ABSOLUTELY WILD!

BELL WINS! CHASTAIN WITH AN INCREDIBLE MOVE! #NASCARPlayoffs pic.twitter.com/aFW9YP6PUZ

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) October 30, 2022

“I played a lot of NASCAR 2005 on the GameCube with [younger brother] Chad growing up, and you could get away with it,” explained Chastain in a post-race interview. “And I never knew if it would actually work; I mean, I did that when I was eight years old.”

“I just made the choice; I grabbed fifth gear down the back and full committed.”

Riding walls at high speed has long been a common cheat in the low-stakes world of racing games to slingshot around corners and blaze past opponents, but Chastain has proven it can also work in the real world. That is, it can work once, at least.

One part small-scale, isometric sword-and-shield skirmishing and one part continent-spanning treasure hunt for a powerful religious artefact, The Valiant is a medieval squad-based RTS that’s as much clicking as it is conquering. If you microwaved your copies Kingdom of Heaven and Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade and made a scented candle out of the molten goop you might get a whiff of what developer Kite Games is going for here. However, while the result is a competent strategy game overall, it’s also a bit repetitive and shallow – and subsequently not quite as fun as that previous fusion sounds.

An adequate way to quickly describe The Valiant might be as a 13th century Company of Heroes. A more accurate parallel, however, might be 2018’s Ancestor’s Legacy thanks to its broadly comparable Middle Ages setting and its very similar range of unit types. They differ considerably in terms of story, though; while Ancestor’s Legacy is more overtly inspired by historical events (albeit loosely), The Valiant is a the tale of a retired crusader knight, Theoderich von Akenburg, and his search for an ancient and dangerously powerful relic – which he’s racing against an equally dangerous Templar of doom to recover. Joining Theoderich along the way is a brave band of medieval expendables, plucked from several corners of the post-classical world.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2's hardcore playlist, which is now called Tier 1, will not arrive until the start of the game's first season on November 16, 2022.

As detailed on an official Call of Duty blogpost, the Tier 1 playlists offer a "more challenging experience compared to traditional Multiplayer. Operators have less health and limited HUD elements, and friendly fire is on. These elements are consistent in all game modes that support the Tier 1 variant."

The Tier 1 playlist isn't the only thing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 owners will have to wait for, as the game's Battle Pass will also go live on the first day of Season 01 alongside the long-awaited arrival of Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0.

Speaking of Call of Duty: Warzone 2.0, which will be free-to-play and will include the traditional battle royale gameplay with a new twist, the game will also include a new "extraction mode" called DMZ that appears to be similar to titles like Escape from Tarkov.

Warzone 2.0 is a "fully revamped experience" and will take place in the desert of Al Mazrah, a fictional region of Western Asia. Players will contend with A.I. as well as real players if they want to be the last ones standing. There will also be a new "Multi-Circle closure," water combat, a new gulag, and more.

The seemingly unthinkable has happened: An Elden Ring player has defeated every single boss without taking a single hit. The accomplishment was achieved by Twitch streamer and Elden Ring challenge runner GinoMachino.

We did it. World’s First Elden Ring All Bosses No Hit Run has been completed.

Thanks to everyone who was there for it including the legendary no hit runners @OtzdarvaYT and @OGSquilla

What a moment. https://t.co/WiLQWu1SW8 pic.twitter.com/t5XAFDGoT7

— GinoMachino (@GinoMachino) October 26, 2022

There are 165 bosses in FromSoftware's Elden Ring, ranging from some of the easier bosses in Limgrave, to the infamously difficult ones, like Malenia. GinoMachino took two months to plan out the route for the no-hit run, before finally completing the challenge on October 25. It's worth pointing out that this is a true no-hit run, meaning if GinoMachino got even a single scratch from any boss, he had to start the entire game over from the start.

After Fortnite's success eclipsed Paragon, Epic shut down the MOBA's servers just two years after the game's beta release. Now, thanks to free assets from the game on the Unreal Marketplace and a trademark agreement with Epic, Paragon is making a return four years later, albeit under a new title and new ownership.

As pointed out by PC Gamer, Paragon: The Overprime is a Paragon rework that's being developed by the South Korean studio Netmarble. The free-to-play title is currently in open beta until November 21. It's headed to Steam and the Epic Games Store in the near future, but it's unclear when the full game will release.

According to Paragon: The Overprime's Epic Games Store page, when released, it will function as a live service game, with new heroes being added over time.

"We invite you to Prime where the space opera of a symphony of heroes echoes across the universe," the game's tagline reads.

Epic released $12 million of Paragon assets for free on the Unreal Marketplace when Paragon's servers closed. A few other games have utilized its assets since their release in 2018, though this marks the first time Epic has granted a studio permission to adopt Paragon's branding.

Microsoft has announced the Xbox Games with Gold lineup for November 2022, including Roman Empire RTS Praetorians - HD Remaster and co-op twin-stick shooter Dead End Job.

According to Xbox Wire, the library update begins with Praetorians on November 1 (available until November 30). Dead End Job follows up later in the month on November 16 (available until December 15), while the October Games With Gold offering Bomber Crew is free until November 15.

On Xbox One and Xbox Series X|S, Praetorians gets an HD makeover for the 2003 strategy game. In a bid to become emperor, you’ll navigate the Roman Empire’s political intrigue through reworked console controls and high-definition visuals. The remaster includes more than 20 campaign missions, plus online multiplayer with up to eight players.

The colorful, playful ghost-blasting of Dead End Job offers another co-op game for the service, and still includes the option to go at it alone. Inspired by the whimsy of 90’s cartoons, paranormal pest buster Hector Plasm will rid offices, restaurants, and more of otherworldly critters with his trusty plasma blaster and vacuum pack.

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

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

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

Where Is Xûr This Weekend?

Xûr's location today can be found at Watcher's Grave on Nessus on October 28 through November 1. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Watcher's Grave. When you arrive, make for the red moss-covered tree straight ahead. Climb up the roots and you'll find Xûr waiting at the top to sell you exotic items and legendary weapons.

Overwatch 2’s monetization has been a point of contention since the game’s shift to free-to-play has made cosmetics that were once free through the original game’s loot boxes fairly expensive. It turns out one of the in-game items is also for sale in Blizzard’s online store and costs more in Overwatch 2 than it does in real life.

As VG24/7 and users on Reddit have pointed out, Overwatch 2 has a cosmetic weapon charm featuring Pachimari, an in-universe mascot character, that costs 700 coins in the game’s currency, which roughly equates to $7 USD. Meanwhile, a real keychain with the same design costs $5 on Blizzard’s Gear Store.

Notably, the 700 coins you would need to buy the Pachimari charm in Overwatch 2 are difficult to come by without paying for one of the preset currency bundles, and the cheapest one that would get you 700 coins is the $10 transaction that gives you 1000 coins.

Those playing the latest Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 on Xbox and PC have realized that they can’t disable crossplay with other platforms. However, PlayStation players do have this option.

PC lacks the function entirely, while the only way for Xbox players to disable crossplay right now is to do so on the console itself. While this guarantees that you’ll only be playing with other Xbox players, it will apply to all games, not just Modern Warfare 2.

PlayStation 4 and 5 players are simply able to toggle whether they’d like to crossplay with other platforms or not. Unfortunately, Xbox and PC players are stuck with each other until Activision Blizzard puts out an update to enable this function for them.

Whether the developer chooses to is another matter, as this isn't a totally new issue: even Call of Duty: Warzone functions similarly on Xbox. While the crossplay toggle is there for the platform, the game pops up a notice requiring the player to enable crossplay as soon as they queue up for a playlist, effectively rendering the toggle useless. On PlayStation, players can just bypass the notice and queue up for a match.

In IGN's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer review in progress, we said, "In spite of the fact Modern Warfare II feels almost overwhelmingly familiar, I'm having a good time playing it, and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we see some meaty, meaningful additions to shake things up a bit."

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Where Is Xûr This Weekend?

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

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

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

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

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

— HUMANKIND (@humankindgame) October 13, 2022

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

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

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

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

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

— HigherFructose (@hionfructose) October 14, 2022

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

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

Update 10/14/2022: A Space for the Unbound has found a new publisher for its console versions after developers Toge Productions and Mojiken Studio accused previous publisher PQube of manipulative behaviour and terminated their contract.

The two developers alongside PQube and new publisher Chorus Worldwide released a statement on Twitter (below) announcing that A Space for the Unbound's console release is back on track and that a specific date would be revealed soon.

The four parties reached an agreement regarding the handing over of rights, and "whilst there have been commercial differences in respect of some of the terms", the statement confirmed that all grant funding (that caused the initial dispute) had been handed over to Toge Productions and that PQube had been fully supportive in the transition.

pic.twitter.com/ty9xWJBZd7

— A Space for the Unbound 💫 (@ASFTUgame) October 14, 2022

Original Story: Upcoming slice-of-life game A Space for the Unbound has been delayed indefinitely as its developers Toge Productions and Mojiken Studio have terminated their agreement with publisher PQube following a funding dispute.

The Indonesian-based developers released a statement on August 24 claiming they had been exploited and manipulated by PQube, who allegedly withheld a third-party diversity grant awarded to the studios and used it as leverage to increase its revenue share.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Update 10/14/2022: Activision has clarified that the controversial Overwatch 2 phone policy that was also thought to be in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 will only affect some PC players.

As reported by PC Gamer, an anti-cheat blog post on Call of Duty's website made clear that only those on PC will need to register a phone number before playing Modern Warfare 2. Existing Call of Duty: Warzone players who've previously verified their accounts will not need to provide any further details, however.

"The SMS policy for Modern Warfare II and Warzone 2.0 on Battle.net is the same as the requirement for Call of Duty: Warzone on PC, which was implemented in May 2020. A mobile phone number must be linked to your Steam Account to play Modern Warfare II on that platform," the post said.

Original Story: The controversial Overwatch 2 feature that required players to connect a phone number to their account before playing is also coming to Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

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

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

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