IGN

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for the ending of Assassin's Creed Mirage.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage takes us all the way back to 9th century Baghdad to live the origin story of Basim. We first met Basim in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Mirage connects back to that game in a couple of important ways. To explore how those connections are forged, as well as answer any lingering questions, we’re going to fully break down the ending of Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Full spoilers are ahead, so leap away now if you haven’t finished the game or don’t want to know.

The Head of the Snake

Basim’s quest to cut off the head of the snake brings him to the Palace of the Green Dome. Here he comes face to face with Al-Bahamut, the leader of the Order in Baghdad. They are revealed to be Qabiha, the concubine of the Caliph who was killed by Nehal during the prologue. But it turns out that Qabiha has been hunting for Basim as much as he has been hunting her.

Qabiha’s son, Abu ‘Abdallah, saw the ancient disc activate when young Basim touched it in the palace. He told his mother what he saw, and so for years Qabiha has known that Basim is connected to the Isu; an ancient civilisation that ruled the world before the era of humanity. And so she attempts to coerce him, promising that he will learn everything of who he is in a secret chamber beneath the Hidden Ones’ temple of Alamut. But before she can say anymore, Roshan assassinates her. The master assassin warns Basim that if he goes looking for answers she will kill him.

Maybe you just scored a killer Nintendo Switch deal and are looking for a few accessories to make the most of your Nintendo Switch. Well, we’ve got you covered. Jump to detailed looks at our picks for the best Switch accessories, or just check the list below:

TL;DR – These are the Best Nintendo Switch Accessories:

• Nintendo Switch Pro Controller
• amFilm Tempered Glass Screen Protector
• RDS Carry Case
• SanDisk 128GB Ultra
• CRKD Nitro Deck
• Satisfye ZenGrip Pro Gen 3 OLED
• Hori Split Pad Pro
• HyperDrive 60W Switch Dock
• Nintendo Joy-Con Wheel
• 8BitDo Arcade Stick
• Instax Mini Link
• HyperX ChargePlay Quad 2
• mClassic

Pokémon Red is about to take center stage in the upcoming Pokémon live-action series.

A new trailer for the upcoming show, called PokeTsume, has debuted online, revealing that it’s actually all about how the classic Pokémon game affects one of its players.

LEGO is officially collaborating with Nintendo to release a range of Animal Crossing products.

The long-rumoured partnership was finally confirmed on Nintendo's Twitter account (below), with a short trailer showcasing a few of Animal Crossing's residents in LEGO form.

Welcome to…LEGO Animal Crossing!#AnimalCrossing #LEGO #Nintendo pic.twitter.com/un3R7QwlRC

— Nintendo of Europe (@NintendoEurope) October 5, 2023

No details on the type of products or a release date were shared, though leaks in August suggested five full sets were on the way in March 2024. These details are not official, however, so should be taken with a grain of salt.

As reported by VGC, the five sets will range in price from $14.99 to $74.99. No names or contents of the sets were shared, just their set numbers and prices. Set 77046 will reportedly have 170 pieces for $14.99, set 77047 will have 164 pieces at $19.99, set 77048 will have 233 pieces at $29.99, set 77049 will have 389 pieces at $39.99, and set 77050 will have 535 pieces at $74.99.

The story of Star Wars may take place a long time ago, but IGN can exclusively reveal the upcoming Star Wars: Unlimited trading card game from Fantasy Flight Games and Asmodee will release at retailers and hobby stores in the near future: March 8, 2024.

Check out the release date announcement trailer below:

Unlimited sees players choosing an iconic Star Wars character as their leader and piloting a 50-card deck full of heroes, villains, bounty hunters, droids, weapons, and ships. Leader characters, such as Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader, make a dramatic entrance in the middle of the game to help turn the tide in your favor. Gameplay takes place across two battlefields, one on the ground for characters and the other in space for ships. Victory goes to the first player to deal 30 damage to the opponent’s base, which are familiar locations such as Cloud City and Jedha. Cards pull from everything from Star Wars movies and TV to comics and video games.

Lead game designer Danny Schaefer told IGN that they took inspiration from a wide variety of games when crafting Unlimited’s mechanics, including industry titans Magic: The Gathering and the Pokémon Trading Card Game, digital card games like Hearthstone and Runeterra, and of course FFG’s own games such as Netrunner and Legend of the Five Rings.

“Our philosophy as we were designing was to look at all those different card games, competitive card games that we've played, and strip out the parts that feel the least fun and focus on the parts that are the most fun,” Schaefer said.

This week Rockstar quietly patched its Red Dead Redemption port to add a 60 frames per second toggle to the game on PlayStation 5 via backwards compatibility. Now, for the first time, Rockstar’s 2010 open-world western is officially playable at 60fps. But players on other platforms were left wondering: when’s our turn?

Currently, the PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch port of Red Dead Redemption remains at 30fps on those platforms. Xbox owners, however, never got a port in the first place.

Rockstar failed to port Red Dead Redemption to Xbox, pointing to backwards compatibility with the Xbox 360 original. While that version does run at 4K resolution on Xbox Series X and S, it’s still limited to 30fps.

Some Xbox owners are now wondering if Microsoft will use its seemingly abandoned FPS Boost to drag Red Dead Redemption up to 60fps, but that appears unlikely. Will Rockstar release an Xbox One port of Red Dead Redemption? That also appears unlikely two months after the August launch of the PS4 and Nintendo Switch port. With no Xbox One version in sight, no 60fps patch is possible.

“Where's ours, Rockstar?” asked redditor SidFarkus47. “If it's not possible from the 360 version, then where's our port?”

“Damn, this actually sucks,” added ninereins48. “Hoping that the 360 version gets FPS Boosted, and if they can’t, they really need to release the port for Xbox consoles. I would gladly buy this game again for 60fps alone.”

Magic: The Gathering is showing some affection for Doctor Who, and the fresh sets are bound to captivate fans, particularly with the British show's imminent 60th-anniversary celebration in November. We've previously unveiled 14 Doctor Who cards that will soon join the Magic: The Gathering lineup, including the intriguing Weeping Angel-inspired cards "Blink" and the fittingly named "Don't Blink."

Now, we're excited to introduce two additional previews from the upcoming sets: "The Flood of Mars" and the "Sontaran General." For those eager to get their hands on these Doctor Who cards, you can now pre-order them on Amazon (or Amazon UK), with the sets shipping from October 13.

The "Flood of Mars" card draws its inspiration from the 2009 "Waters of Mars" episode of Doctor Who. This thrilling adventure features the Tenth Doctor, portrayed by David Tennant, who lands on a Mars base in the year 2059. Here, he confronts a menacing water-based infection that transforms humans into aggressive monsters.

Forza Motorsport is now available to those who bought the Premium Edition, and some players are noticing a display bug that makes gameplay look washed out on Xbox. Thankfully, developer Turn 10 Studios has shared how to fix it.

Players experiencing the issue should first set the video option they prefer, then quit Forza Motorsport completely from the Xbox dashboard. Players can then restart the game and, as long as they don't go into the display settings again, the washed out gameplay should be fixed.

When tested by IGN, some issues remained even when completing these steps. But restarting the Xbox console altogether solved the remaining graphical bugs.

Having provided the solution, Turn 10 made clear it is aware of the problem but told IGN it would be addressed in the next update, though didn't say when this would be. "We have already checked in a fix for this and it’ll be in the next update," it said.

Forza Motorsport launches proper October 10 but is available today, October 5, for those who bought the more expensive Premium Edition. Those with Game Pass can play it for no additional cost on launch day, or buy the Premium Edition upgrade to play early.

Those looking to do so should be aware of its hefty file size, though at 100GB, it's not much bigger than other recent AAA releases.

UPDATE: Blizzard has resolved the issues with Battle.net, leaving customers free to play the company's games again.

[#Bnet] The login issues have been resolved. Thanks for your patience and sorry for any inconvenience.

— Blizzard CS EU (@BlizzardCSEU_EN) October 5, 2023

ORIGINAL STORY: Blizzard has apologised to its players after Battle.net suffered login issues.

An issue affecting the company’s authentication services caused slow or failed login attempts. At the time of this article’s publication, Battle.net was down.

Blizzard said it was investigating the cause. “We apologise once again for the inconvenience caused by today's outages, we're working to resolve this ASAP,” reads the latest tweet from Blizzard’s customer service page.

[#Bnet] We apologise once again for the inconvenience caused by today's outages, we're working to resolve this ASAP.

Cyberpunk 2077's first post-Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty update, Patch 2.01, will be available today, October 5, and CD Projekt Red has shared the full notes.

Confirmed in a tweet from global community director Marcin Momot (below), patch 2.01 is "currently being rolled out on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S".

Momot thanked users for reporting the various issues addressed in the patch, which is set to tackle the biggest problems with Phantom Liberty including corrupted save data on PS5 and performance issues in the expansion's Dogtown area.

The full patch notes, available below, were shared on CD Projekt Red's website, which outlines more changes than the developer had previously disclosed. Several Phantom Liberty quest bugs have been fixed in the update, and CD Projekt Red has also promised general "performance improvements for both PC and consoles".

Players can also now switch to arm cyberware while cycling through weapons as before, won't find obsolete mods in their inventory, and the haunted Night City Police Department car that previously roamed the streets has been removed.

There might be a PS5 'Slim' on the way, according to recent reports and rumours, but for now we're still seeing some exemplary deals on the highly sought-after base console. The latest discount comes in the form of a bundle with EA Sports FC 24, dropping to just £409.99 at select retailers in the UK. This isn't as good as the £400 offer we saw a couple of months back, but considering it includes a brand new game and is well below the asking price of £540, you're still bagging an incredible discount this time around.

For clarity, PS5 disc console RRP is £479.99, while EA Sports FC 24 retails for £69.99, so if you're still lacking a PS5 and want to play the next in line to the 'FIFA' series (remember it's changed name now), then you're in luck with this deal. Even if you're not keen on the football, this is still £60 off the console and includes a free game that you could always sell on for even more money saved.

More PS5 Deals on Prime Day 2

With Prime Day 2 right around the corner on October 10-11, we're highly recommending that if you're picking up this console deal, then wait a little longer before buying anything else to go with your new PS5.

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 gameplay has hit the internet just days before the beta is set for launch.

Activision is currently working to pull the leaked footage from the internet, but it faces an uphill battle as fans share clips across social media and forums.

A Twitter account called @uwuleaker99 popped up overnight and published gameplay footage that Activision pulled soon after. “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner,” reads a message currently displayed on the tweet, which has at the time of publication one million views.

Gameplay is currently still up on YouTube, where a channel called oG JIMMY has posted a handful of videos showing leaked footage of action on multiplayer maps set to appear in the beta. One video shows gameplay on Modern Warfare 3’s version of fan-favourite map, Rust, complete with a game-ending nuke (called Mass Guided Bombs here). Yes, this means fans already know what Modern Warfare 3’s nuke looks like over a month before the official release date.

First we give our initial impressions of Forza Motorsport and Assassin's Creed Mirage now that the review embargoes on them have lifted, and then we spend the bulk of the episode giving our top-5 rankings of Xbox's internal game studios (including Bethesda/Zenimax) while also contemplating Phil Spencer's Xbox legacy to date as PlayStation boss Jim Ryan finalizes his ahead of his retirement.

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out my recent Alan Wake 2 preview!

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

While Lies of P might be a far cry from the wholesome tale of the puppet Pinocchio that you know, this grimdark soulslike has more than a few sly references to the classic fairytale up its sleeves. Some easter eggs are more obvious — the cricket-like Gemini or azure-haired Sophia, for example — but what do you really think of when you think of Pinocchio?

That's right, Pinocchio's telltale nose - which in the original story would grow more every time he lied - can be found in Lies of P. In fact, Pinocchio's "nose" is a powerful weapon called the Golden Lie. How can you get your hands on this secret weapon? By lying, of course. Here's how you can unlock the Golden Lie weapon for yourself.

Puppets Cannot Tell a Lie

Your first step towards acquiring the rare Golden Lie weapon starts on the steps of Hotel Krat, when the voice beyond the door asks you... are you a human, or a puppet? This is the first of many questions you are asked in Lies of P in which you must decide to either tell the truth or tell a lie.

Marvel's Spider-Man 2 features a wealth of unlockable costumes for both Peter Parker and Miles Morales. Marvel Comics is giving us a better look at some of the new designs being added to the sequel through a series of upcoming variant covers.

These Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Variant Covers will appear as variants for series like The Amazing Spider-Man, Venom and Miles Morales: Spider-Man. Each of the ten covers will showcase one of the game's new costume designs. Check out all ten in the slideshow gallery below:

Here's the full list of suits included in these covers, along with their original designers:

Miles Morales Suits

• EnC0ded Suit design by Kris Anka (Superior Spider-Man #2)
• Biomechanical Suit design by Jerad Marantz (Miles Morales: Spider-Man #12)
• Tokusatsu Suit design by Julia Blattman (Venom #28)
• Agimat Suit design by Anthony Francisco (Miles Morales: Spider-Man #13)
• Red Spectre Suit design by Sweeney Boo (The Amazing Spider-Man: Gang War - First Strike #1)

Peter Parker Suits

• Aurantia Suit design by Raf Grassetti (Superior Spider-Man #1)
• Apunkalyptic Suit design by Jerad Marantz (The Amazing Spider-Man #37)
• Tactical Suit design by Joel Mandish (The Amazing Spider-Man #39)
• Stone Monkey design by Victoria Ying (The Amazing Spider-Man #38)
• 25th Century Suit design by Anthony Francisco (The Amazing Spider-Man #40)

Look for these covers to appear across the Spider-Man comic book franchise in November and December 2023.

If you want to get in on the beginning of Silent Hill: Ascension, you might want to clear your Halloween plans.

A Google Play listing for Ascension, a new interactive streaming series, has it premiering on Oct. 31 at 6 p.m. PDT/9 p.m. EST. It’s available for pre-register now.

When reached by IGN, Genvid Entertainment, which is producing the series, could not officially confirm, but said that more information would be coming soon.

Announced back in October 2022, Silent Hill: Ascension is a choose-your-own-adventure mini-series where the stream’s chat will collectively come to decisions that “impact the canon of Silent Hill,” today’s listing says. It will feature daily live story scenes that will change based on the audience’s decisions, and the listing notes that you’ll be able to catch up on-demand on each installment.

The whole project has been pretty mysterious thus far, with Genvid CEO Jacob Navok shedding a bit more light on it in a recent interview with Polygon. At the time, he said that, while comparisons have been made to Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, Genvid’s streaming series are basically “crowd-control decision making.”

In an extended livestream today, Blizzard revealed a whole lot more details for Season 2 of Diablo 4, called Season of the Blood, and major reworks to progression and the endgame player experience.

Season of the Blood will focus on vampires, who become the latest major scourge of Sanctuary in the wake of Lilith's actions in the vanilla Diable 4 campaign. The player is infected with vampirism and gains evil powers to weild against this classic foe, giving plenty of excuses for new, deadly powers for players to add to their seasonal ARPG arsenal. Blizzard will also introduce a new NPC, Erys, a crossbow-weilding vampire hunter who will become the player's bestie for the next few months.

But beyond the details about the upcoming season, Blizzard also spent a lot of time detailing big changes coming to the game that specifically target the endgame experience, which has become a sore spot for many players after a series of debuffs and widely criticized changes to the meta put a damper on the live-service game despite an extremely strong launch.

The biggest of those changes are improved XP gains after level 50, which will supposedly make the endgame grind to level 100 "40% faster".

In a lengthy interview with IGN, game directors Joe Shely and Joseph Piepiora discussed a wide range of topics, from endgame content to the Steam release, their learning from the launch of Diablo 4 to microtransactions.

Blizzard has unveiled all the much-needed changes coming to Diablo 4 on October 17 with the release of Season 2, dubbed Season of Blood, and patch 1.2.0 in a developer update livestream.

The patch makes a long list of crucial quality-of-life updates, adds more endgame activities, and significantly increases experience gains to make the grind to level 100 much quicker. Elsewhere, patch 1.2.0 lets players specifically target uniques and the incredibly rare uber unique items, which have been a hot topic among players since Diablo 4 came out in June.

Check out the list below to find out all the changes coming to Diablo 4 with Patch 1.2.0 and Season 2.

Five new endgame bosses

Diablo 4 is set to launch on Steam four months after the PC version released exclusively on Blizzard’s Battle.net.

The action role-playing game launches on Steam October 17. Those who play Diablo 4 for the first time via Steam need to first buy the game on Valve’s platform, then connect it to a Battle.net account. This is required of all Blizzard games to enable cross-platform play, the company said. Steam players do get access to Steam achievements, their Steam friends list, and the option to invite those friends to play in-game.

Diablo 4 is the second Blizzard game to hit Steam after hero shooter Overwatch 2 launched on the platform in August. Blizzard will be hoping for a better reception from fans this time around. Overwatch 2’s Steam launch was met with a backlash from players, and became the worst-reviewed Steam game ever.

After years of dogged commitment to its own PC launcher, Blizzard finally caved by releasing Overwatch 2 on Steam with the promise of more games to come. Blizzard has insisted its decision to release select games on Steam was driven by a desire to "break down the barriers" between gaming communities.

October, the spookiest month of the year, is officially upon us, if you're looking for a new horror game to celebrate the occasion, the indie horror title Stray Souls is launching later this month.

In a new post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), indie developer Jukai Studio announced its debut project will be released on Oct. 25, 2023 — five days before Halloween, as the studio previously said it was coming out around the holiday. The game will be available on PC, in addition to PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.

Powered by Unreal Engine 5, Stray Souls has players controlling Daniel, a teenage boy who recently inherited his grandma's home completely debt-free. Despite the lack of a mortgage, Daniel's new abode becomes a nightmare-fueled house of horror.

The game's publisher, Versus Evil, notes on its website that Stray Souls' gameplay is inspired "by classic horror combat with soulslike precision," touting the gameplay adds a fresh perspective into the modern-day action horror subgenre.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, FIFA fans - no, not Christmas (put those darn decorations away). It’s once again time to see if the Nintendo Switch version of EA’s premiere soccer series is still a complete mess. The good news is that, alongside a name change to EA Sports FC 24, we’ve finally gotten past the point where this port is simply a copy of the previous year with “the same gameplay innovation from [insert previous year] without any new development or significant enhancements,” like it was last year, and the year before that… and the year before that (and the year before that). The bad news is that it is still dreadfully out of date.

The long overdue switch to the Frostbite engine is a considerable step up from the previous Legacy engine, as the visuals look a bit more detailed and the gameplay feels better than FIFA 23 Legacy Edition, but the leap isn’t massive. EA Sports FC 24 has essentially gone from having PS2-era graphics and framerate to that of the PS3 – while the difference between those two was impressive in 2006, unfortunately for Switch owners, it is currently 2023. The 30 frames-per-second action feels painfully slow, especially compared to the HyperMotion technology used on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC versions.

Standalone Expansions, half-sequels, glorified DLC… whatever you want to call it, I’m a fan of these kinds of not-quite-full game, not-quite-DLC experiences. And with AAA game development now expected to take longer than ever, these half-sequels might be a way to address a potential new release shortage. So far nobody has done them better than PlayStation.

Looking back, it shouldn’t be surprising that these standalone expansions rank as some of my favorite games in the past decade. Uncharted Lost Legacy is one of my two favorite Uncharted games in the series, alongside Uncharted 2, and Miles Morales’ big advantage over Spider-Man was telling a story I had rarely heard before. Consider this: I’ve watched three different Peter Parker movies and watched him star in countless cartoons, but I never read an Ultimate Spider-Man comic in my life. It was new and fresh, but with all of the things from Marvel’s Spider-Man that I already loved.

It’s not just PlayStation either. FromSoftware has never released a DLC I wouldn’t consider among my favorite games of all time, from Dark Souls’ Artorias of the Abyss to the all-time hall-of-famer, Bloodborne: The Old Hunters.

IO Interactive and Feral Interactive have announced Hitman: Blood Money Reprisal for Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. It’s a new version of 2006’s Hitman: Blood Money and it’ll arrive this fall for mobile devices, with the Switch version coming in winter.

This version of Blood Money has new features such as an Instinct Mode, minimap, and gameplay improvements from later games in the franchise. Instinct Mode was introduced in 2012’s Hitman: Absolution and let Agent 47 predict enemy and civilian movements, while the new minimap will stay on players’ screens during gameplay.

Blood Money Reprisal has 12 missions with a variety of different settings. Agent 47 will travel to places such as Paris and New Orleans as he executes his targets. Each mission has a sandbox for players to experiment how to achieve their objectives.

IO Interactive announced this game along with the studio's 25th anniversary. It plans to celebrate by launching a series of events for Hitman: World of Assassination and bringing back previous Elusive Targets such as Bady Boy and The Food Critic.

Hitman: Blood Money was first released in May 2006 for PC, PlayStation 2, the original Xbox, and Xbox 360. An HD port was released in 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 as part of the Hitman HD Trilogy. Then in 2019, a 4K port launched for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One as part of the Hitman HD Enhanced Collection.

As May 10 rolled around and The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was released into the world, it wasn't its titular character or Link or Ganondorf that captured the attention of fans, but instead the sad Zelda guy who starred in its latest trailer. Now, we finally have an update.

Opening on a bus in a dreary Australian landscape instead of in the bright fields of Hyrule, the trailer showed someone who looked just a little bit defeated by the life of an office job worker. Things were made a little bit brighter, however, by Tears of the Kingdom, with the trailer unfolding to show sad Zelda guy getting just a little bit happier as he explored the open world.

Five months on and, suffering the plight of most grown up gamers who work full time, sad Zelda guy is still chipping his way through Tears of the Kingdom. Fans will be glad to know that, in Nintendo's latest trailer for the game, he looks to be doing just fine.

Doing his best to sell copies of Tears of the Kingdom both in our universe and his, sad Zelda guy is even getting his wife involved. Struggling to get to grips with the game's basic mechanics (even after, again, five months), sad Zelda guy's ineptitude distracts his poor wife who's trying to enjoy a book on the sofa next to him.

After pointing out the obvious solution to the Shrine's puzzle, and seemingly sick of him hogging the TV, sad Zelda guy's wife buys her own Switch. Showing off her wild skills that already surpass sad Zelda guy's, the two have a laugh on the couch and live happily ever after.

Sony is releasing a new set of metallic colors for the DualSense controllers and PS5 console covers. It’s called the Deep Earth Collection, and it’s available to preorder now. The set consists of controllers and console covers (for both the disc and digital models) in volcanic red, cobalt blue, and sterling silver. All of the items are set to release starting November 3. Let’s take a look.

Deep Earth Collection PS5 Controllers

The controllers look pretty great, with bold red and blue colors, and a great looking (if less attention-grabbing) silver. Feature-wise, they’re no different from the standard PS5 DualSense controller, but if it isn’t broke, Sony doesn’t really need to fix it.

For some reason, the Volcanic Red and Cobalt Blue colorways will be available on November 3, but you’ll have to wait until January 26 for the Sterling Silver one to ship.

Deep Earth Collection PS5 Console Covers

The console covers are only available at the PlayStation Direct store, at least at the time of this writing. The covers match the DualSense colors exactly, so you can pick up a set in the same color as the controller you get, or you can mix and match to suit your taste. They all look pretty great, if you ask me. PS Direct also has the controllers, so you can buy them both in one place if you like.

The release dates for the various console covers are the same as the controllers: red and blue arrive November 3, while the silver one is out January 26. Silver just takes longer, I suppose.

Hero shooter Gigantic may have shut down five years ago but Gearbox Software is bringing it back for one weekend only in a limited time throwback event.

A Reddit post from TemptedTemplar shared an email asking players to the event, while the game's subreddit is also full of others who received the invite. "You're invited to play Gigantic (again) during our limited time throwback event," read the email, sent to Reddit user HeirOfRhoads.

The event will take place from October 5 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 8pm UK to October 6 at 9pm Pacific / 12midnight Eastern, so October 7 at 5am UK. It's unclear if players other than those who received the email will be able to play.

Players will even get to enjoy "never before seen features" according to the email, including a Rush mode, new loadout system, and "revamped content". The classic Gigantic gameplay and features will be present too, of course, bringing back the team-­based competitive action in teams of five heroes.

Gigantic shut down all the way back in July 2018, a few months after developer Motiga was shut down in November 2017. "The current state of the game has restricted options for further progress and relevant content updates, and delivering basic features while also fixing long-standing issues was more complicated than expected," the closure announcement read.

Ubisoft’s Assassin’s Creed franchise has covered a lot of ground in its 16 years. The Assassin-Templar conflict has taken players across five continents, from Ancient Greece to Victorian London, spanning 2,300 years of history over the course of 13 mainline games.

With new AC games still on the horizon, and Assassin's Creed Mirage nearly here, we’ve put together this chronology of the Assassin’s Creed timeline so far. This chronology only includes mainline Assassin’s Creed games; spinoff games aren’t included on this list given their lack of importance to the ongoing Assassin’s Creed narrative.

Jump to:

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

How Many Assassin's Creed Games Are There?

There are currently 13 Assasin's Creed games in the main series and 17 additinoal spinoff games. Outside of video games, there is also an Assassin's Creed board game and an Assassin's Creed TV series coming to Netflix at some point.

The PlayStation 5 has its first two-disc video game three years after the console launched: Horizon: Forbidden West Complete Edition.

The Complete Edition includes the Horizon: Forbidden West base game and Horizon: Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC, and costs $69.99 / €59.99 / ¥7,980 on PS5. Here’s the complete list of contents for Horizon: Forbidden West: Complete Edition on PS5:

• Horizon: Forbidden West for PS5
• Burning Shores DLC for PS5
• Digital soundtrack
• Digital art book
• Horizon Zero Dawn Vol. 1: The Sunhawk digital comic book
• In-game items:
  • Extras in Photo Mode (special pose and face paint)
• In-game items unlocked via story progression:
  • Carja Behemoth Elite outfit ·Carja Behemoth Short Bow
  • Nora Thunder Elite outfit
  • Nora Thunder Sling
  • Apex Clawstrider Machine Strike piece
  • Resources pack

The storage capacity of Ultra HD Blu-ray discs is up to 100GB. Horizon: Forbidden West Complete Edition weighs in at a maximum of 121GB, according to the game box revealed by the Does it play? Twitter account. (People are already having fun with the PS5 two-disc symbol, which looks like it's already seen too much.)

When you see it...#HorizonForbiddenWest https://t.co/ktGlqX6Nyb pic.twitter.com/3jKwJMMLtb

When Detective Pikachu hit the 3DS in 2016, we’d never seen anything quite like it in the vast collection of Pokemon games. Its casual whodunit story was an easy solve, but it was cute, colorful, and most importantly, different. And yet, now that Detective Pikachu and his tiny herringbone hat have returned, it doesn’t feel as exciting as its predecessor. In fact, there’s a lot about the mystery solving that’s arguably a step backwards. It’s somehow easier than the first one, which makes a lot of the moment-to-moment play feel long-winded and a bit frustrating, especially if you’re more than 10 years old. It’s still a pleasing, colorful, sweet adventure, and the story comes to a mostly satisfying conclusion of the Detective Pikachu saga, but its greatest mystery is what went on behind the scenes that resulted in some of these baffling decisions in the story and mechanics.

Since it’s been a good while, it was wise for this sequel to be written so that you didn’t need to play the first Detective Pikachu (or seen the movie, for that matter) to hop into Returns – Pikachu recaps the first game in the very beginning with his trusty cup of coffee by his side. The world is still feeling the effects of the events from the first game, where Tim Goodman and the titular detective helped stop the spread of R, a drug that caused Pokemon to go berserk. However, things seem to be ramping up again in Ryme City, where Pokemon are once again acting strangely and a mystery is brewing in the background as you solve other cases. Plus, there’s the matter of figuring out what happened to Tim’s father and Pikachu’s partner, Harry.

You’re reading the final chapter of my eight-day travelog recounting my unbelievable trip to Japan to cover the 2023 Pokémon World Championships.

If you already haven't, be sure to check out the other chapters:

• Day 1: The Birthplace of Pokémon
• Day 2: Pokémon Sweets and Unbearable Heat
• Day 3: Creature Feature
• Day 4: Psyduck Fan, Unleashed
• Day 5: Starting Worlds Off With a Bang
• Day 6: The Competition (and the Weather) Heats Up
• Day 7: Battle Aboard the S.S. Anne

Day 8 - Last Day in Japan

8:36 am - Pokémon Worlds is over and now it’s time to fly home. When I use the elevator down to the hotel lobby I’m surprised and delighted that pushing the close button actually closes the door. Will the wonders of Japan never end?

8:40 am - I hit up the breakfast buffet and have my final piece of early morning lasagna. I already know I’m going to miss it when I wake up tomorrow and three steaming layers of pasta, tomato sauce, and meat aren’t there to greet me.

The video game industry’s love affair with science fiction is as old as the medium itself, so it’s no minor statement when I say that 11 Bit Studios’ The Alters is perhaps the weirdest sci-fi game I’ve ever seen. This bizarre survival game is packed with weighty building mechanics and social links, and every time I thought the 40-minute demo couldn’t get any wilder, it defied my expectations by throwing yet another curveball. Whether it’s the planet’s rising sun that threatens to burn you into oblivion or the giant wheel-shaped base that serves as your home, the Rapidium miracle element that’s Earth’s only chance at survival or the alternate reality clones of the protagonist that serve as your companions, The Alters is perhaps the most high-concept science fiction game of all time – and maybe that’s not such a bad thing. I quite enjoy weird science fiction stories myself, and there’s something about The Alters’ extreme weirdness that gives it a neat dreamlike quality that’s unlike anything I’ve seen before. That’s definitely something to get excited about.

In the Alters, you play one version of Jan Dolski, a space-faring captain on an expedition to a remote world that’s gone horribly wrong, seeing you stranded on a planet with a slowly rising sun that will kill you if you let it. While waiting for help to arrive, you’ll need to pilot your mobile command base across the surface of a hostile world, and that can’t happen on your own. To assist you, you’ll need to gather resources to build alternative versions of yourself called Alters, who are pulled from the multiverse where Jan made different life choices and became a different person. This way, you can find a version of yourself who became a miner to help with gathering raw materials and another version who became a scientist to assist with research and development of new technologies.

The Noble Collection releases collectibles and jewelry based on some of the biggest franchises in the world, including The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Trek and DC. Now they're adding a massive gaming franchise to that lineup - Minecraft.

IGN can exclusively reveal a new collection dubbed Minecraft x The Noble Collection. This new line features a variety of life-size prop replicas and other collectibles inspired by the game and its distinctively blocky aesthetic. Head to the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at all of the debut pieces in this collection:

The Minecraft x The Noble Collection line consists of six items so far, five life-size prop replicas and one chess set featuring characters and creatures from the game. The life-size props feature light-up LED effects and are designed to mimic the textures of the game. The full lineup includes:

• Diamond Sword Collector Replica (MSRP: $69.99)
• Chess Set (MSRP: $59.99)
• Torch Collector Replica (MSRP: $39.99)
• Redstone Ore (MSRP: $34.99)
• Diamond Ore (MSRP: $34.99)
• Illuminating Potion Bottle (MSRP: $39.99)

"We have extensive experience developing Collectibles and Toyllectibles based on characters, creatures and on-screen props that don’t truly exist in the real world," The Noble Collection's SVP Julian Montoya tells IGN. "We pride ourselves for taking the time to understand the properties and intricacies that audiences value to create finely crafted treasures, which offer fans the real-life experiences they crave from the properties they love. It is important to us that our products do justice to those characters, creatures, props and iconic scenes."

Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a stealth-action adventure that draws inspiration from the series' earlier years before it leaped into the open world of massive, hundred-hour action-RPGs with Odyssey and Valhalla.

Ahead of its early October release date, we’ve compiled this comprehensive overview of everything we know about Assassin’s Creed Mirage, including the latest information on platforms, price, gameplay, story, map size, game length, DLC, and more. Read our full review of Assassin's Creed Mirage for more details.

Assassin’s Creed Mirage Release Date, Price, Platforms

Assassin’s Creed Mirage will be released on October 5 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Below are the global launch times for Mirage, as listed by Ubisoft:

Los Angeles:

• PC: Oct. 4, 10 p.m. PDT
• Consoles: Oct. 5, 12 a.m. PDT

Montreal:

• PC: Oct. 5, 1 a.m. EDT
• Consoles: Oct. 5, 12 a.m. EDT

London:

• PC: Oct. 5, 12 a.m. BST
• Consoles: Oct. 5, 12 a.m. BST

Stockholm:

• PC: Oct. 5, 1 a.m. CEST
• Consoles: Oct. 5, 12 a.m. CEST

Kyiv:

• PC: Oct. 5, 2 a.m. EEST
• Consoles: Oct. 5, 12 a.m. EEST

Mexico City:

• PC: Oct. 4, 12 a.m. CST
• Consoles: Oct. 5, 12 a.m. CST

Sao Paulo:

Red Dead Redemption now has an option to play at 60 frames per second after the surprise drop of an update.

Patch 1.03, which weighs in at just a few hundred MB, adds a 60fps toggle to Red Dead Redemption on PlayStation 5. The port launched on PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch in August, and is available to play on PS5 via backwards compatibility. At launch, Red Dead Redemption ran at 30fps only across PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch, disappointing many fans of the 2010 epic. Physical copies of the game on PS4 are currently available to preorder for $49.99 (releasing October 13).

Here are the Red Dead Redemption update 1.03 patch notes (PS5):

• Added an option to enable 60fps when played on PS5 via backward compatibility
• Added an option to enable subtitles upon first booting the game
• General bug fixes and improvements

Fans are now welcoming this new update following the backlash the Red Dead Redemption port received upon launch. Fans complained about the barebones improvements to the game’s performance as well as its $50 price point, especially considering the port does not include multiplayer or a PC release. Plus, Red Dead Redemption is already playable on the Xbox Series X in 4K and, thanks to Xbox Series X and S backwards compatibility, has been accessible on Microsoft platforms for years.

It’s well documented that Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a considerably smaller adventure compared to the previous 3 entries in the series, but just how long is it? Here we’ll let you know exactly how many hours it took different members of the IGN team to finish the story, and what they prioritised doing with their time.

How long is Assassin's Creed Mirage?

• Our fastest player finished it in 10 hours.
• Our “slowest” player played for almost 17 hours before credits rolled.

Everyone plays games differently, so read on for more details about how everyone played, how long it took to reach the credits, and how much extra time players spent exploring the world. Once you've finished the game yourself, be sure to submit your times on How Long To Beat and see how your time compares!

Dale Driver - Executive Producer of Video

I feel like I took my time with the main story of Assassin’s Creed Mirage, clocking in 15 hours and 49 minutes before the credits rolled. Although I left a large amount of the side content to explore, I did make sure to try out enough of it so I felt like I got the full experience of everything the game had to offer.

During the same year the first iPhone was released and Prince played Purple Rain at a halftime show where it literally rained, another bit of culture was changed forever: the first Assassin’s Creed was released to mixed reviews. Not everyone loved Ubisoft’s approach to stealth and action, but it was widely agreed that this game was on to something. In the 15-plus years since, its many sequels traded stealth for something far bigger and flashier, but lost sight of the very spirit of how it began. Assassin’s Creed Mirage takes a lot of important, imperfect steps to get back to its roots, and though that means as it does no particular thing that hasn’t been done before, the focus and commitment to briskly paced missions and stealth-heavy exploration scratches an itch that the RPG-based entries couldn’t reach. It might not be the most ambitious of games, but it does restore hope that there’s still room for a version of Assassin’s Creed that we haven't seen in almost a decade.

Activision has confirmed the global release times for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 beta on PC and console.

Modern Warfare 3’s release date is set for November 10, 2023 on PC via Battle.net and Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S. But Activision has a beta planned for the multiplayer portion of the game that will let fans get their hands on Sledgehammer's shooter from October 6.

We now have exact timings for the staggered release of this beta, which includes early access for those who pre-order on PlayStation before being available to all.

Here’s the list of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 release times worldwide:

• Early Access PlayStation (pre-order): Oct 6 at 6pm BST / 10am PT / 1pm ET until Oct 8 at 6 pm BST / 10am PT / 1pm ET
• Open to all PlayStation players: Oct 8 at 6pm BST / 10am PT / 1pm ET until Oct 10 at 6pm BST / 10am PT / 1pm ET
• Early Access PC / Xbox (pre-order), open for PlayStation players: Oct 12 at 6pm BST / 10am PT / 1pm ET until Oct 14 at 6pm BST / 10am PT / 1pm ET
• Open to all players: Oct 14 at 6pm BST / 10am PT / 1pm ET until Oct 16 at 6pm BST / 10am PT / 1pm ET

IGN has a helpful guide on how to access the Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 beta, if you fancy getting in on the action.

Warcraft Rumble, previously Warcraft Arclight Rumble, will arrive alongside BlizzCon itself on November 3, developer Blizzard Entertainment has announced.

Revealed in a tweet (below), Blizzard shared what players can look forward to when the fast-paced mobile strategy game launches with a new trailer.

Players can collect more than 65 miniatures, challenge iconic Warcraft characters, and develop an army of their own at launch. Alongside a single-player campaign, players can also go head to head in PvP battles and more.

The Countdown Starts Now! #WarcraftRumble launches on November 3rd:

🔹Collect 65+ Minis
🔹Challenge Iconic Warcraft Characters
🔹Level Up Your Army

Pre-Register: https://t.co/wTrvaeEosH pic.twitter.com/6FeUy7WDxZ

— Warcraft Rumble (@WarcraftRumble) October 3, 2023

Warcraft Rumble will likely be a hit at BlizzCon 2023, with the event for all things Blizzard taking place in person for the first time in four years starting launch day on November 3 to November 4.

Nintendo is shutting down online servers for 3DS and Wii U games in early April 2024, with the exception of Pokémon Bank.

The announcement came in a tweet (below) and in an update on Nintendo's support website, where the publisher thanked players for using its hardware but confirmed the shutdown is just six months away. A specific shutdown date will be announced later.

"In early April 2024, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software," the post said. "This also includes online co-operative play, internet rankings, and data distribution."

As of early April 2024, online play and other functionality that uses online communication will end service for Nintendo 3DS and Wii U software. Thank you very much for your continued support of our products.

Find out more: https://t.co/nOyzBImHCE

— Nintendo of America (@NintendoAmerica) October 4, 2023

Though Nintendo said plans are subject to change and could potentially arrive sooner than announced, the one exception to the rule is Pokémon Bank, which will remain online but "may also end at some point in the future".

Sitting on the grid in my 2017 Holden V8 Supercar, surrounded by Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Audi R8s, I have to concede I’m feeling a little underqualified. Forza Motorsport’s online multiplayer spec racing should technically place all these cars on a level field, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve brought a cricket bat to a swordfight here. Several mediocre laps later and neither myself or my Vegemite-eating VF Commodore have troubled the timesheets much, finishing mid-pack one spot below where I started – but I’m sweating, and I’m smiling. The 2023 version of Forza Motorsport is brimming with new features across the board, from its muscular new multiplayer to its much-improved handling. All except for its upgrades, that is. They’ve been downgraded. Confused? Me too.

Forza Motorsport is, by a significant margin, the best feeling game in the Motorsport franchise to date. It isn’t necessarily a total reinvention of the Forza formula, and it still has that familiar level of forgiveness baked into it when you’re at and just beyond the limits of control. This is a series that has always been about letting us have the confidence to grab a car by the scruff of its neck and step the rear end out with a boot-full of throttle without constantly over-rotating, and that’s absolutely still the case here. The improvements before we break traction, however, are marked.