IGN

One of the fundamental parts of your Minecraft experience is building your forever home. You might be focused on the basics, such as building cute houses (we see you, cottagecore), and simplicity may be key for you. On the other hand, you could be the type to continually expand and use your home as a canvas to display the extent of your travels. Either way, if and when you're stumped for ideas on how to add a flourish to the bland and stereotypical wooden four walls approach, you can start here from our list of 10 favorite Minecraft House builds.

If you're just starting out, here are three simple starter house bases to consider:

(Video via MrMirror)

Below you'll find some of our top Minecraft house ideas; from simple and cute builds, to elaborate castles, it's time to make your next house epic; whatever that means for you.

1. Farmstead

A natural progression for many people due to the importance of farming as you get further into your game, a farmstead is a wonderful way to naturally expand your home. From building enclosures and stables for your animals, to extravagant waterways that flow through portions of your house on the way to moisturize your crops, you can get really creative whilst remaining functional here.

It was a momentous weekend for Pokemon TCG player Piper Lepine, and fans of the Fire-Type Kanto starter, as the player from Minnesota won the Baltimore Pokemon TCG Masters Division Regional Championship with a deck featuring the fan-favorite Charizard. And this wasn’t just any Charizard. It was the new Radiant Charizard from the Pokemon GO set sporting artwork of the fire lizard in its shiny form.

The biggest barrier to board gaming fun is often getting a group to learn a new game in the first place. As such, games that are based on well-worn classics often find a much smoother path to the table -- and even more so if both the classic and derivative are fast to learn and play. Perennial classic Yahtzee got ignored in this regard for years, but now it’s spawned a whole genre of more strategic and engaging titles known as “roll and write” games. Roll the dice, hope for the best and when they land, use the results to build up a pattern of points on your scoresheet.

Modern versions have amped this formula up to the max and have sheets that range from building maps, to tracking a pinball around a table, to mimicking a fast-paced martial arts fight. With a variety of themes and depths to choose from, and most of them being cheap, easy to learn, and playing well as solo board games, there’s never been a better time to join in the roll and write craze.

Tactics games have been enjoying a little bit of a renaissance of late. Square Enix alone has released several of them this year, including Triangle Strategy, Front Mission, and The DioField Chronicle. But the oldest and most important of them is Tactics Ogre – the strategy game that led directly to Final Fantasy Tactics along with a host of imitators.

Currently in the midst of its second major update in 10 years, Tactics Ogre Reborn will heavily rebalance the series’ classic gameplay while adding full voice-acting and several quality-of-life improvements. Its development team includes veterans like producer Hiroaki Kato, whose history with the series stretches all the way back to the days of the Super Nintendo. Renowned for its dense story and strategy, it’s clear that Tactics Ogre is special to this Yasumi Matsuno-led team, which is a big reason it’s being remade once again for modern consoles.

During Tokyo Game Show, Kato sat down with IGN for a wide-ranging discussion in which he talked about his time with the series and the return of tactics games. He also talked about Tactics Ogre’s inevitable comparisons to Triangle Strategy, why it’s not being made in the famous “HD-2D” style, and more. The full interview can be found below.

Return to Monkey Island is the adventure game equivalent of Spider-Man: No Way Home. No, wait, don’t go! Hear me out: most would agree that No Way Home is an excellent, very fun movie – even for a kid who’s never seen the Tobey Maguire or Andrew Garfield Spider-Man films. But if you have made those movie memories with the Peter Parkers of the past, then No Way Home taps into something more: nostalgia, even eliciting genuine emotion at various points.

Return to Monkey Island, which very notably puts series creator Ron Gilbert back in the franchise’s director’s chair for the first time in 30 years, is a similar ride. It's a funny, beautiful, polished, and well-paced story packed with plenty of puzzles that are both hilarious and challenging for anybody who appreciates a good adventure game. And Return wisely offers "Guybrush's Scrapbook" in the main menu, as a fun, visual way to recap the previous Monkey Island games that's narrated by Guybrush. But for those like me, for whom the earliest Monkey Island games were a formative part of our gaming youth, this reunion with wannabe pirate Guybrush Threepwood feels like coming home. To this end, I loved the not-so-hidden Trivia Cards scattered around many scenes, testing your knowledge of the franchise.

One of the nicest features of the annual Tokyo Game Show is the co-mingling of blockbuster AAA video game franchises and small projects made by small teams or even solitary individuals. For years, TGS has dedicated floor space to universities, pavilions from nations around the world, and independent developers of all sizes.

With the show returning to an in-person event in 2022, getting a chance to see these up-and-coming titles and meet the people behind them was one of the things I enjoyed most about returning to TGS. Here are my favorite finds:

Shambles

Most mobile games in my experience aim towards the lighter side of the medium, featuring bright colors, chipper music, and offer players a breezy means to pass the time while waiting for the bus. Shambles delivers the exact opposite of that across the board, offering gloomy shades of gray and brown, muted tunes, and a demanding combination of story-based decision making and deck-building combat.

Shambles, as the name suggests, is a post-apocalyptic tale set 500 years after war devastated human society. Players build a character, RPG-style, assigning stat points to determine their abilities, navigating a complex skill tree as they level up, and equipping weapons, armor, and items to build their strength. As they scroll through the story, which is largely text-based with limited animations, players make choices regarding their next move. Should you search that dead body, or leave it be? Is it safe to approach that stranger, or should you hide?

Grand Theft Auto developer Rockstar Games has confirmed that the GTA 6 leaks that appeared online yesterday, September 18, are real, but development will not be affected as a result.

Rockstar published a statement to Twitter (below), saying the "early development footage" was illegally taken from its systems following a network intrusion and its disappointed to have its new game shared for the first time this way.

A Message from Rockstar Games pic.twitter.com/T4Wztu8RW8

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 19, 2022

"We recently suffered a network intrusion in which an unauthorised third party illegally accessed and downloaded confidential information from our systems, including early development footage for the next Grand Theft Auto," the statement reads.

"We are extremely disappointed to have any details of our next game shared with you all in this way. Our work on the next Grand Theft Auto game will continue as planned and we remain as committed as ever to delivering an experience to you, our players, that truly exceeds your expectations.

"We will update everyone again soon and, of course, will properly introduce you to this next game when it is ready. We want to thank everyone for their ongoing support through this situation."

Grand Theft Auto 6 isn't the only highly anticipated game to leak in the last few days as footage from an early version of Diablo 4 has now appeared online.

As reported by PC Gamer, Reddit user iV1rus0 spotted two videos uploaded anonymously to a file sharing website, one containing five minutes of Diablo 4 footage and the other 38 minutes.

It's unclear at what stage of development the footage is from, but given that several models within the game world are untextured, it is clearly far from a finished product.

A lot of the game does appear to be functional, however, and the videos show what appears to be a Barbarian character exploring the world and battling enemies. Blizzard hasn't yet released a statement regarding the leak but IGN has reached out to the developer for comment.

Diablo 4 is expected to be released in 2023 and Blizzard has been fairly vocal about its development progress, releasing quarterly updates on what players can expect from the action RPG. While it will only include five classes at launch, the developer has already confirmed that Diablo 4 will receive years of DLC.

I knew it was a stunt as soon as I saw it, and yet it worked perfectly on me — Lady Dimitrescu in her eight-foot VR glory, towering over me as her vampiric daughters danced nearby.

It’s the logical conclusion for Resident Evil Village’s legacy, which found fame in part because of its “very tall vampire lady,” and an amusing start to the life cycle of the PlayStation VR 2. What better way to promote your high-end VR device than to put players face-to-face with Lady D herself?

The demo was part of Capcom’s Tokyo Game Show 2022 event — the same one that was shown as part of Sony’s PSVR 2. It dwells at length on the game’s setting, which in so many ways resembles a deadly amusement park ride with its traps and slides.

But Lady Dimitrescu is the star.

She first leers down at you, taking a sip of your blood as she does, then hangs you on a pair of meat hooks for an extra disgusting VR sequence. All the while she’s basically right in your face, constantly impressing upon you that she is indeed very, very tall. Humongous, even.

It’s made extra impressive by the PSVR’s 4K OLED screens, which are among the cleanest you’ll find on any VR headset. IGN Tech Editor Bo Moore recently took a deep dive into the PSVR 2, and it’s well worth a read for anyone who wants to know the finer points of the platform’s technology. Suffice it to say that the PSVR 2 is a real accomplishment on console and Resident Evil Village looks amazing on it…

To a point.

Elden Ring is getting a board game adaptation, thanks to a collaboration between Bandai Namco and Steamforged Games. Bandai Namco, the publisher of Elden Ring, and board game developer Steamforged previously worked together on a Dark Souls board game, and Steamforged has also created adaptations of Horizon, Resident Evil, Monster Hunter, and more.

According to Steamforged, the board game's Kickstarter campaign will launch very soon. We don't know quite yet exactly how the board game will play, but it will support between 1 and 4 Tarnished players visiting iconic locations of Elden Ring's giant world, The Lands Between.

Players will also face off against enemies and bosses from the game, with "dice-free combat, requiring players to strategise and adapt their plans during each encounter". The announcement said players will have to deal with foes including a "lowly Godrick Soldier or the Grafted King himself."

Back in 2018, Steamforged Games' Dark Souls board game reached its Kickstarter funding goal in just three minutes. We'll have to wait and see if Elden Ring can break that record, given how ridiculously fast the game itself has sold this year.

It's a great day for Pokéfans and an interesting time for wallets. Yes, the much coveted Nintendo Switch OLED, Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Edition preorders are now live in Australia. Anybody who knows Quick Attack can preorder the Limited Edition console for $549 at Amazon right now. It releases on November 4, 14-days before Scarlet and Violet land.

This fandangle OLED offering has striking art inspired by the upcoming Pokémon Scarlet and Pokémon Violet games. More specifically, the legendary Pokémon Koraidon and Miraidon are elegantly plastered across the system dock. Availability wise, this Pokémon-themed Switch will likely catch the eye of Team Rocket-esque scalpers, so savvy trainers ought to slap some cash down sooner rather than later.

Nintendo Switch OLED Pokémon Scarlet & Violet Edition - Preorders Now Live

Pokémon-themed Nintendo Switch OLED Out of Stock in the US

Interesting info from across the pond: gamers looking to preorder the Scarlet & Violet Switch OLED in the US are out of luck. It's currently goneski at the time of writing. Stock levels seem to be holding for now, down under.

Resident Evil Village's story DLC arrives on October 28, and we're now learning that Shadows of Rose's roughly four-hours of content will wrap up the Winters family's major role in the Resident Evil series.

Spoiler Warning: This story contains spoilers for Resident Evil Village.

Speaking to IGN Japan at Tokyo Game Show, Director Kento Kinoshita said Capcom is "creating the Shadows of Rose story to conclude the Winters family saga." This means that wherever Resident Evil goes for the next main entry will likely introduce a new set of faces, or return to characters we haven't seen in some time.

As for what fans can expect from future RE entries, Producer Masachika Kawata just laughed after saying they could "absolutely not" share any of their future plans.

The Winters family consists of Ethan Winters, who is the primary protaganist of Resident Evil VII and Village, as well as his wife, Mia, and their daughter, Rose. In Resident Evil Village's post-credits scene, we see that Rose is now a teenager, and is working with Chris Redfield. There was also a tease that Ethan is still alive at the end of the game, so it seems the upcoming DLC will provide answers on that front as well.

The search has ended: After a year-long process, Konami announced the grand prize winner of an open call for indie developers to revive older series from the company's back catalog. At Tokyo Game Show, we learned first place will go to Takumi Naramura, director of La Mulana and La Mulana 2, as he plans to remake Konami's The Maze of Galious.

Originally released as a sequel to Knightmare for the MSX computer platform in Japan in 1987, Konami brought The Maze of Galious to the Famicom later that same year. The side-scrolling platform RPG featured two heroes with their own unique skills, Popolon and Aphrodite, trying to fight their way out of a castle filled with monsters.

The Maze of Galious could be described in modern terms as a Metroidvania, since the player explores a series of interconnected rooms, gains experience points for defeating enemies, and searches for power-ups and keys. The MSX version made it to Europe, but the Famicom version was never localized for the NES.

Yakuza is a name that has become well-known in western territories like the U.S., but in Japan it has traditionally been titled Ryu Ga Gotoku, which roughly translates to “Like a Dragon.” Now, with the announcement of three new Like a Dragon games, it appears that the Yakuza name is being retired for good.

In a recent roundtable interview attended by IGN, RGG Studio boss Masayoshi Yokoyama discussed the move away from the Yakuza moniker, explaining that the move was essentially trialed with Yakuza: Like a Dragon.

“In [Yakuza 7], it was Yakuza: Like A Dragon, and so we figured if we release this game suddenly out of nowhere with no Yakuza in it, people would be like, ‘What's this game? What's going on with this?’... The response to the Like A Dragon name seemed pretty good, so it gave us the confidence to take out “Yakuza” and just go straight on with Like A Dragon,” Yokoyama said.

Asked if there was a thematic reason behind the change, Yokoyama replied that the name doesn’t really make sense with games like Ishin, which is set in the 19th century.

“[S]tory-wise too, we are talking about criminal underworld, but we're not talking about Yakuza, really,” Yokoyama said. “So it just makes sense for us not to include them in the name. If we carry through the accent, we'd be Yakuza: Ishin! It's not Yakuza: Ishin! That's not what it's about. So Like A Dragon: Ishin! makes more sense.”

The Yakuza name is a holdover from when the PS2 version of the series first arrived in the U.S. Billed as “GTA in Japan,” it was initially a flop, but later found popularity thanks to Yakuza 0. To many fans, the Yakuza name had long ceased to be relevant, but it was entrenched enough that it managed to stick around.

Grand Theft Auto 6 may have leaked, after dozens of videos of what purports to be in-development footage appeared online.

A user going by teapotuberhacker posted a zip file to GTAForums, saying "Here are 90 footage/clips from GTA 6. Its possible i could leak more data soon, GTA 5 and 6 source code and assets, GTA 6 testing build. [sp]"

The clips subsequently made their way onto YouTube and Twitter, and show robberies, gunplay, fully voiced conversations, and more. What appear to be debug elements (closely resembling similar tools from Red Dead Redemption 2's development) also appear onscreen. If legitimate, the videos appear to confirm previous rumors about the game including male and female protagonists, and a Vice City setting.

The source of the videos is currently unconfirmed, but may well have been the result of a hack. Teapotuberhacker claims they were downloaded directly from Rockstar's internal Slack groups. We will not be linking to the videos in this article.

As you'd expect, the videos have kicked off a fierce debate around their authenticity. Some have questioned the assets in use (pointing to reuse of GTA 5 elements), while others have pointed to the voiced dialogue and debug elements as proof that this is legitimate.

Developer Rockstar and publisher Take-Two have yet to respond to the apparent leak, but it will be fascinating to see if takedowns begin. We have contacted Rockstar for comment.

Hearthstone game director August Dean Ayala has left Blizzard after 11 years with the company.

Announcing the news on Twitter (below), Ayala revealed that August 16 was his final day with the company but didn't say what his next endeavour would be. His Twitter profile now jokingly reads "unemployed".

"After 11 years, I am leaving Blizzard," Ayala said in the post. "Hearthstone is an incredible game. To have played even a small part in its creation is an honour I'll never forget. Thank you to all the players, and a special thank you to my fellow game creators. I am proud of all we built together."

After 11 years, I am leaving Blizzard.
Hearthstone is an incredible game. To have played even a small part in its creation is an honor I'll never forget. Thank you to all the players, and a special thank you to my fellow game creators. I am proud of all we built together. pic.twitter.com/zhc0PBuOke

— August Dean Ayala 💙 (@IksarHS) September 16, 2022

Ayala went on to thank myriad team members, past and present, alongside the Hearthstone community and friends he's made over the 11 year stint with Blizzard.

He joined the company as a quality assurance analyst back in 2011 before moving on to a game designer role with Hearthstone in 2014. Within two years Ayala had become the lead game designer and in February this year became game director.

Bloodborne may already be considered one of the most stunning games of the last ten years but one fan has taken it upon themselves to recreate that beauty within Minecraft.

As reported by PC Gamer, YouTube and Reddit user Potomy has been making their way through the streets of Yharnam by creating the likes of the Astral Clocktower, Iosefka's Clinic, and other iconic locations from the game.

Potomy has also uploaded timelapse videos of the aforementioned buildings, showing off the creation of the immense structures from start to finish. The Astral Clocktower took five to six hours to create while Iosefka's Clinic took four to five.

Potomy has also been creating more of the standard (though still very impressive) gothic buildings from Bloodborne too, and plans to eventually put them all together to fully recreate all of Yharnam.

For those looking to experience the recreation through more than photos, Potomy has also said they'll be releasing the world map once the project is complete. While there's no timescale for when that might be, progress can be followed on the aforementioned Reddit and YouTube accounts alongside Potomy's Twitter.

Xbox boss Phil Spencer and corporate vice president Sarah Bond have said the future of gaming is all about accessibility and breaking down barriers of restriction.

Speaking to IGN Japan during Tokyo Game Show, Bond and Spencer answered a fan's question about what Xbox's expectations and hopes for the future of video games are.

"We know that three billion people play games, but they can't all play together today, right?," Bond said. "There's all these barriers between the platforms for various reasons and a lot of what we do at Xbox is we want to take those away.

"We want everyone to be able to play together globally regardless of what kind of hardware they're on and be able to communicate and do those things together with instant translation, take down all of these barriers, no matter your ability."

This is evidenced by Xbox's investment in the adaptive controller, Bond said, something that she thinks will spark a lot of positivity within gaming. "It isn't something only for one group of people somewhere or someplace," she said.

"Your best friend can live on the other side of the world, you would have no idea what they look like or what language that they speak, and that is going to unlock amazing experiences for you and relationships you otherwise would have never had."

This is something that Spencer attested to as well, commenting alongside Bond that the potential of removing these barriers can even go beyond gaming.

Phil Spencer has reiterated that Microsoft has no plans to increase the price of the Xbox Series X or S following Sony recently raising the PlayStation 5's price in some territories.

Speaking to CNBC's Squawk Asia (below), the Xbox boss made clear that the Xbox Series X and S will remain at $499 and $299 respectively.

"We're always evaluating our business going forward so I don't think we can ever say on anything that we'll never do something," Spencer said. "But when we look at our consoles today, we think value's incredibly important.

$MSFT's @XboxP3 talks #Tencent, #JRPG's, and @discord - and explains why it's not time to follow $SONY's hike in prices. #Xbox #PlayStation pic.twitter.com/BCIY0wE8Gt

While there are several popular multiplayer archetypes in 2022, one that is notably missing is Spies versus Mercenaries. The game type was originally introduced in Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow and became a huge hit among fans – as well as a big part of Splinter Cell’s identity moving forward. But with Splinter Cell seeing no new releases in nearly a decade, Spies vs. Mercs has been all but forgotten..

Developer Symbiosis is planning to change that with Spectre, a new title that takes its inspiration directly from the classic multiplayer mode. The build I played definitely felt like an ever-growing work in progress, but I saw a lot of potential for those who have been waiting to scratch that itch. With a variety of gadgets in your arsenal as well as several different options to approach your objective, I believe that Spectre could finally give us what Ubisoft won’t.

Spectre, if you’re not familiar with Spies vs. Mercs, is a team-based objective multiplayer game where each side has a different goal. Spectres, which are played from a third-person perspective, are stealth operatives whose objective is to hack all the terminals on the map. Reapers, on the other hand, are played from a first-person perspective with one simple goal; kill the Spectres.

Ashfall is an upcoming adventure shooter MMORPG that is not only set to give players a chance to save humanity in a post-apocalyptic world that honors Eastern cultures in its design, but one that will also feature music by Academy Award-winner Hans Zimmer, Steve Mazzaro, and Inon Zur of Fallout fame.

IGN recently partnered with Ashfall developer Legendary Star Studio for an Ashfall gameplay showcase that featured an extended look at the game in action, interviews with those responsible for creating it, and much more. You can watch the entire Ashfall showcase below and then read the rest of the article to learn everything you need to know about the upcoming game.

Ashfall Gameplay World Premiere Livestream

What is Ashfall?

Ashfall, as previously mentioned, is an adventure shooter MMORPG that is set in a post-apocalyptic world that saw an artificial intelligence uprising push humans to the brink of extinction following a nuclear war. The few remaining survivors were forced underground to live in Vaults for many years, but the time has finally come for you and your friends to adventure back out into the world in hopes to save humanity.

“The setting of Ashfall focuses on rebuilding,” Ashfall designer Jesse said. “It takes place in a future world where artificial intelligence launches an uprising and wages a war against humans. After the nuclear apocalypse, there is nothing other than ruins left in the world and you have to leave your vault to search for the legendary key known as the Core of Creation to save everything.”

While Ashfall is going to eventually come to consoles, the MMO is set to be released first in 2023 on PC, iOS, and Android.

In the latest update of our Top N64 Games list, originally written more than 21 years ago, we continue to celebrate the N64 games that have left the biggest mark not just on our lives, but on the industry as a whole.

As always with any kind of list like this, it’s important to establish our criteria to explain as best as we can why some games made the list and others didn’t. First, while we didn't have a hard rule on only including games that were exclusive to the Nintendo 64, we also didn’t want to include games that are just simply better on other platforms of that era, like Resident Evil 2 and Rayman 2.

Second, we tried to consider a number of factors, including historical significance, how good it looked and played at the time, in addition to how well it holds up today, y’know, just in case you’re still able to dig your old N64 out of the closet. The games toward the top of this list are the ones that we feel have the best combination of those three criteria, while the ones towards the bottom, or the ones that didn't make the cut, might be strong in one of those aspects, but lacking in the others. Honorable mentions include Conker's Bad Fur Day, Mario Party 2, Excitebike 64, Pilotwings 64, Rocket: Robot on Wheels, Mario Tennis, Turok, Wrestlemania, No Mercy, BattleTanx, Episode I: Racer, Snowboard Kids, Mischief Makers, ISS98, and many, many more. There are just too many greats to fit into a list of 25.

Finally, one last note, because our staff is mostly made up of people who played Nintendo 64 games released only in North America, we decided to keep this list import free.

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Sam Claiborn, Justin Davis, and Colin Stevens -- are discussing The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Octopath Traveler 2, Fire Emblem Engage, God of War Ragnarok, Stellar Blade, Rise of the Ronin, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.

Watch the video above or hit the link below to your favorite podcast service.

Listen on:

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Spotify

Stitcher

Find previous episodes here!

Sony has officially confirmed that PSVR2 will not be able to play games originally made for the original PlayStation VR.

In the latest episode of the Official PlayStation Podcast, at around the 29:10 mark, SVP of Platform Experience, Hideaki Nishino, confirms that the PSVR2 will not have backwards compatibility with original PSVR games. "PSVR games are not compatible with PSVR2 because PSVR2's designed to deliver a truly next-generation VR experience," Nishino said before explaining some of the noteworthy features exclusive to PSVR2, such as the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers found on the Sense Controllers.

"This means developing games for PSVR2 requires a whole different approach than the original PSVR," Nishino continued.

The news seems surprising but not entirely, as Sony created an adapter that allows you to play original PSVR games on the PlayStation 5. On top of that, last month, Sony Interactive Entertainment's Yasuo Takahashi and Kenjo Akiyama spoke about the PSVR2's hardware and specs, noting that the broad strokes should make it easier to port games onto PSVR2 from other VR headsets (e.g., original PSVR and Valve Index).

The objectively sexiest creature alive, 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 September 16 through September 20. 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.

We could still be a ways off from finding out when Hollow Knight: Silksong will finally be in our hands, but the upcoming sequel nevertheless continues to expand its platform presence. In addition to releasing on Nintendo Switch, Xbox consoles, and PC, it will now also be coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.

The news comes from the official PlayStation Twitter account, which kept things pretty simple by telling us all to "sharpen our needles" in preparation for the game.

Sharpen your needles – confirming Hollow Knight: Silksong is coming to PS5 and PS4 pic.twitter.com/poIclQDfvr

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) September 16, 2022

Of course, not much fanfare is needed when you're announcing something about Team Cherry's highly anticipated followup to the award-winning Hollow Knight. Hype for Silksong has been unreal since it was initially announced during E3 2019, though fresh info about the game has trickled in quite slowly since.

The metroidvania sequel casts players as Hornet, who wields a sharp needle as a weapon and must explore the mysterious world of Pharloom to find out why she was brought there. Though the game looks to be maintaining the same general design of the original, it's expected to place more emphasis on speed and verticality thanks to Hornet's expanded moveset.

Splatoon 3 had a massive launch in Japan, selling 3.45 million units over the first three days. While we don't have worldwide numbers, it's got quite a gap to fill before hitting Mario Kart 8's 50+ million lifetime sales. But Splatoon's popularity is in no small part due to its quality -- IGN gave it an 8. Quite a few of us on staff have picked it up and have been inking the competition daily.

Though it's one of Nintendo's newest franchises, it has been quickly swimming its way into the hearts of their fans. But some might argue that it still has a way to go before reaching the popularity level of the Mario Kart or Super Smash Bros franchises. Splatoon has also carved a space for itself in the competitive scene that Nintendo supports -- So do you think Splatoon has become Nintendo's best multiplayer franchise?

Have you dived into Splatoon 3 yet? How do you feel about its current offerings for maps, gear, weapons, etc.? Is Splatoon 3 a big enough update from Splatoon 2 to justify the sequel for you? How do you think it compares to Nintendo's other multiplayer franchises? If you're not a fan, what would the next Splatoon game have to do to win you over? Let us know in the comments.

Suikoden fans never thought they would see the day their beloved RPG returned to modern consoles, but a new day may be dawning for Konami’s previously lost series.

Earlier today, Konami confirmed that Suikoden I & II HD Remaster is coming to Xbox One, PS4, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Spearheaded by long-time Konami developers like Yasuo Daikai and Takahiro Sakiyama, the latter of whom directed Suikoden 5, it features some significant enhancements, including auto-save functionality, a fast-forward command, and widescreen support.

Speaking with IGN at TGS 2022, the pair took some time to answer some pressing questions about the new update, beginning with whether it would receive a new script. The original game’s localization was famously flawed, filled with translation errors, questionable word choices, and garbled sentences. It also lacked the nuance of the original writing, which Daikai says is owed to the original’s limited text box.

“Initially, for the original games, the size of the dialogue box was quite small and there wasn’t a lot that we could fit in there. Japanese is a language that can say a lot in a very short amount of space, but for English and other languages, you need a lot of space to say the same thing usually. So in this game we have expanded the size of those dialogue boxes, and that has let us retool and work on the localization to get us more in tune with the Japanese script," Daikai explains.

The trading card game (TCG) scene is about to get a familiar face, or maybe a lot of familiar faces given how popular Disney’s movies are.

At D23, board game company Ravensburger and Disney officially unveiled Lorcana, a new Disney trading card game featuring many of the company’s iconic characters ranging from Mickey Mouse to Elsa from Frozen.

For years the trading card game scene has been dominated by the likes of Magic: The Gathering and Pokemon. But will the combination of Disney characters with the game design know-how of Ravensburger be enough to break into such a competitive field?

IGN spoke with Lorcana co-designer and brand manager Ryan Miller, a veteran card game designer, on how Lorcana came to be and what to expect from a competitive Disney TCG.

“Our work on the Villainous line of games has helped us forge a great relationship with Disney, as well as with Disney fans,” Miller says about the company’s other collaboration with Disney. “The love and attention to detail we put into those games has shown the fandom that we truly understand and revere those characters.”

Ravensburger was able to leverage its existing relationship with Disney, having already designed a series of popular board games focused on the villains of the Disney universe. But a TCG is a different story altogether.

Street Fighter 6 has revealed its full, 18-strong launch roster.

The full roster includes a mixture of new and returning characters:

• Ryu
• Ken
• Zangief
• Dhalsim
• E. Honda
• Blanka
• Guile
• Chun-Li
• Cammy
• Juri
• Luke
• Dee Jay
• Kimberly
• Jamie
• Manon
• Marisa
• Lily
• JP

Of course that list doesn't include the fighter your create yourself in World Tour mode. Character customization will include a huge number of options, and will set you heading around the game's Metro City, fighting major characters and learning their Master Actions when you beat them.

Street Fighter 6 will get a closed beta between October 7-10 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC via Steam. You can sign up via the Street Fighter 6's official website. We went hands-on with the game this week, saying it "left me feeling energized by the intricate systems they’ve built for this new iteration, absolutely gobsmacked by its beautiful presentation, and champing at the bit to play more."

Joe Skrebels is IGN's Executive Editor of News. Follow him on Twitter. Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

The year is 1867, and a lone warrior wielding a katana wanders a dusty Japanese town packed with merchants, bandits, and the odd pet. The warrior, a grim-faced Shinsengumi soldier named Ryouma Sakamoto encounters a group villagers dancing, and after a brief kerfuffle… joins them.

This is the kind of scene that fans have come to expect from the Yakuza series, which was recently renamed Like a Dragon to fit the Japanese series. The key difference is that it’s set in the Bakumatsu Period rather than under the neon lights of Kamurocho, trading suits for kimons and automatic weapons for katanas (though the hero, who is Kazuma Kiryu in all but name, has a revolver). But despite the samurai setting, it remains very much the same in spirit.

That means a decent amount of the game is spent wandering through alleys, playing various mini-games, and generally looking for trouble. There are no Club Sega arcades in 19th century Japan — or in modern Japan for that matter, what with Sega’s recent departure from the arcade business — but you can play shogi and poker. In the course of my 40 minutes or so with Ishin, I visited a geisha, tried my hand at fishing, and spotted a chicken racing game (though that last one was sadly locked out).

Nioh developer Team Ninja has released a demo for its upcoming Soulslike Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty, letting players on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series try the new game early.

Pubkisher Koei Tecmo announced the news during Tokyo Game Show, and industry insider Nibel (below) confirmed that the demo is available to download across the world now.

While the full game will also be available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, the demo is restricted to just the two next-generation consoles.

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty will receive a demo today #TGS2022 pic.twitter.com/V0evH9oeiK

— Nibel (@Nibellion) September 16, 2022

Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty is set in a darker version of China's Three Kingdom period and is promised to be just as challenging as other Souls game and, specifically, Team Ninja's two Nioh games. Producer Fumihiko Yasuda previously told IGN that "Wo Long is more massive in scale compared to our previous games set in Japan, which allowed us to show a more severe and dark world.

"The same can be said for the difficulty. There’s no doubt this will be an extremely challenging and demanding game, but we’ve come up with new ways to approach that difficulty."

Genshin Impact is officially becoming an anime as developer HoYoverse has announced a new collaboration with animation studio Ufotable.

Announced during the game's Version 3.1 Special Programme, a three-minute concept trailer (that was later shared on the official Genshin Impact Twitter, below) showed off the art style and feel of what the anime will eventually be.

Given that this is just a concept trailer, it will likely be some time before the final episodes are released, and HoYoverse have branded this as a "long-term project".

Genshin Impact Long-Term Project Launch: Concept Trailer | Genshin Impact

Let's step into this vast magical world of adventure together!
The long-term collaboration project between Genshin Impact and ufotable has begun.

Watch Now >>>https://t.co/D6J4gP2jKb#GenshinImpact

— Genshin Impact (@GenshinImpact) September 16, 2022

The video does give us a brief teaser, however. "Let's step into this vast magical world of adventure together," its description reads. "The long-term collaboration project between Genshin Impact and ufotable has begun."

For those unfamilar, Genshin Impact is one of the biggest games that released in 2020. Inspired by anime from the start, the action RPG has players travel throughout an open world in search of the Archons of the seven elements.

Some Sonic Frontiers bosses will seemingly be impossible to defeat before the player unlocks the ability to turn into Super Sonic.

Super Sonic – a more powerful, yellow form of Sonic first introduced in Sonic the Hedgehog 2 – was announced for Sonic Frontiers this week. It seems the form will be a key part of beating the game. Speaking to IGN Japan, Sonic Frontiers director Morio Kishimoto said players will encounter a handful of bosses in the open-zone game that "blue Sonic can't even scratch" before the power-up is unlocked.

"Normally in Sonic games you'll encounter a boss and you'll fight them as regular, blue Sonic. In Sonic Frontiers, there will be bosses that blue Sonic can't even scratch," Kishimoto said. "But if he collects and uses all seven Chaos Emeralds, he can become Super Sonic and then battle those bosses. Becoming Super Sonic will be the only way to fight them."

This mechanic was shown off in the game's new trailer that debuted at Tokyo Game Show (above), where Sonic in his regular form tries and fails to take on a gigantic enemy. He then turns into Super Sonic and returns, and Sega tells us that this mode features a completely different moveset for players to use.

Kishimito also suggested that a lot of these bosses will be of a much higher difficulty level to what players are used to. "Up until now, in Sonic games, Super Sonic would only appear against the last boss. Imagine if the first boss in Sonic Frontiers is as strong as those bosses," the director said.

There's an amazing discount on Pulse 3D Headsets for PS5 at Amazon right now, with the standard version down to just £69.95, which is over £20 off the original list price. You can also pick up the midnight black version for a little more, at £74.95, which is £15 off the list price.

Other deals to check out today include the 2 for £20 on Switch games deal at Amazon. There aren't loads to choose from, but a few select gems could still catch your interest. You can also get 72 cans of fizzy drinks for £20 right now (3x 24 packs), including Diet Pepsi, IRN BRU, and 7UP. Not only that, but the Modern Warfare 2 beta kicks off this evening, so lock in your preorder to get your beta code right away on PlayStation (Xbox codes will be sent out next week).

PlayStation 5 Pulse 3D Headset Down to £69.95 (was £89.99)

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Cardy, Joe, and Matt are here to pick out all of the games, movies and TV show news that caught their eye from all of the streams and events that happened over the past week. PlayStation’s State of Play, a Nintendo Direct, Ubisoft Forward, D23, and TGS. That’s just too much innit.

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 #662: So Many Streams

Time Stamps:

01:21 - State of Play

17:17 - Nintendo Direct

28:51 - Ubisoft Forward

42:07 - Disney Time

59:52 - Feedback

1:10:45 - Burgers

• IGN UK Podcast #661: House of the Rings of Power
• IGN UK Podcast #660: Bat Family Ties
• IGN UK Podcast #659: Live from a Cologne Roof at Midnight
• IGN UK Podcast #658: Better Call She-Hulk
• IGN UK Podcast #657: Enter Sandman (and The Predator)

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora has already impressed filmmaker James Cameron.

During an interview with IGN, the Avatar director explained that he’s "very excited" by Frontier of Pandora and how it fits into the Avatar universe.

“We’re very excited about what Ubisoft is doing with their game authoring,” he said. “I don’t tell them what to do — they know their world, their business, their market. We just keep a close eye that they don’t do anything that’s not canonical in terms of Na’vi culture and what the RDA is doing on Pandora and all that sort of thing.”

Cameron’s plan is to create a persistent Avatar universe, and the game fits perfectly into that idea:

“Ubisoft on their side are likely to push back a little bit and I haven’t drilled down on exactly what the deal is with that but what we’re looking for now is to create a persistent, visitable world with a cadence of sequels,” he explained. “If we’re successful we’ll go ahead and we’ll have a movie every two years or so for quite a while. And we’ve got the [World of Pandora] in Florida — and who knows that might wind up at other theme parks in the Disney regime as well.”

Suikoden 1 and 2, the beloved Konami RPGs, will return as HD remasters for PlayStation, Xbox, Steam and Switch in 2023.

Announced at Tokyo Game Show 2022, the two games will be part of a single collection titled (deep breath) Suikoden I&II HD Remaster Gate Rune and Dunan Unification Wars. The collection definitely appears to sit somewhere between a remaster and a remake, with major improvements made to looks, new character drawings included, and game improvements such as auto-battling and more.

You can check out an exclusive clip of the Neclord boss battle from the Suikoden 2 remaster below:

According to Konami, these are the headline changes in the collection:

As what I’d consider the gold standard in fighting games, Street Fighter is never shy about reinventing itself, and with upcoming Street Fighter 6, Capcom is poised to do so once again. By combining many elements tried out in previous iterations, like Parry from Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike, Focus Attacks from Street Fighter IV, and V-Skills from Street Fighter V, this fresh take on the popular brawler places the Drive System front-and-center to fantastic effect. Managing the Drive Gauge’s energy bar and making deadly use of all the powerful stunts it afforded me became as important to success as monitoring my health bar. That game of calculated risks and timely reversals stuck out as a killer feature that I could see myself losing countless hours trying to master.

At the heart of Street Fighter 6’s intricate game of blitzkrieg chess is the aforementioned Drive System, which let me use powerful moves by expending energy in a finite bar called the Drive Gauge. With the right commands I could use this resource to absorb an opponent’s attack and smack them against the sides of the screen, parry my opponent to stop their assault in its tracks and launch a counterattack of my own, perform an extremely deadly Overdrive Art (which essentially replaces EX Special Moves from previous games), and more.

On October 7, two geek culture titans - Magic: The Gathering and Warhammer 40,000 - are coming together in a hugely exciting collaboration. It will see the characters, lore and world of Games Workshop's epic Warhammer 40,000 universe appearing in the form of playable cards that utilise Magic: The Gathering's gameplay architecture. A part of the "Universes Beyond" initiative, it's a brilliant idea to bring gritty sci-fi into Magic's normally more fantasy-oriented foundation, and to do so with a property as renowned for its incredible art as Magic itself.

The crossover will be released in the form of four Commander decks, each led by a character capable of martialling the factions under their control.