IGN

It’s hard to explain a vampire-themed online base-building competitive open world survival action RPG. That’s why, for V Rising developer Stunlock Studios, the priority was to let people play as soon as possible.

Since launching through Steam Early Access on May 17, in a notably complete state, V Rising has grown in popularity day after day. It hit close to 50,000 players within a few hours of being released, and as of May 23, has a 24-hour peak of more than 150,000. For context, more people have played V Rising today than the Steam versions of Grand Theft Auto V or Elden Ring.

“I absolutely did not expect this many people”, said Stunlock’s community manager Jeremy Fielding just as V Rising hit 80,000 players and sold 500,000 copies overall. “I don’t think anybody expected it to be quite this big.”

V Rising begins with the player, as a fully customisable vampire, waking up after a century-spanning sleep, very weak and in need of blood. But what begins as a survival action game in the vein of Diablo soon turns into a fully open world adventure with base-building, not to mention co-op and versus multiplayer. As a result, it's a sprawling, multi-genre beast that takes in huge swathes of the modern MMO landscape and repurposes them.

Stunlock has been working on V Rising for around three years but only revealed it in May 2021 – and not many people seemed to pay attention. “It’s been a slow ramp-up”, laughed Fielding. “A very small company with a brand new IP? It took a lot of people a long time to start to take notice.”

Developer The Dust has announced I, The Inquisitor, a story-based action-adventure based on the popular books by Jacek Piekara in which, in an alternate history, Jesus of Nazareth responds to his crucifixion with anger and rage rather than forgiveness and compassion. And in the centuries that follow His band of Inquisitors serve as violent enforcers of Biblical law. You play as Mordimer Madderdin in the 1500's, and it will be up to you to show mercy to sinners or to punish them.

I, The Inquisitor promises to let you decide the fates of those you encounter in the non-linear story missions. The Dust says you will "solve the various cases and crimes of those who have transgressed against the faith, all while uncovering the truth of a darker evil from another realm that is trying to enter the world of the living."

Expect a full sword-based combat system for when words just won't do, but also a detective game-like interrogation option for times when they will.

I, The Inquisitor is in development for PC (Steam), PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. You can wishlist it on Steam.

Games Workshop has announced its Warhammer Skulls summer showcase will return next week.

A week-long celebration of Warhammer video games begins on June 1, kicked off with the showcase that promises world premieres, new trailers, sneak peeks, and more.

The event will be streamed on Twitch from 10am PST / 1pm EST / 6pm BST and Games Workshop has already confirmed updates on Warhammer 40K games Darktide, Space Marine 2, and Battlesector, alongside Total War: Warhammer III and Warhammer Vermintide.

The week-long celebration, which ends on June 8, will also include "offers on some of [fans'] favourite games as well as new content, DLCs, and free updates across multiple platforms."

Darktide and Space Marine 2 are both upcoming titles with the former due to be released on September 13 this year. Space Marine 2, on the other hand, was only revealed in December last year and is currently lacking any sort of release window, meaning fans may find out when they can play the game during the showcase.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution developer Eidos Montréal worked on a cancelled version of Final Fantasy 15 before Square Enix returned development to its Japanese studios.

Jonathan Jacque-Belletête, an ex-art director for Eidos Montréal, told TrueAchievements that his studio once worked on a "really, really cool" version of the game.

"[Eidos Montréal] brought back Deus Ex. I was the art director on that, Deus Ex: Human Revolution," Jacque-Belletête said. "Then the executive art director on Mankind Divided, then we tried to do Final Fantasy 15.

"Then they decided to bring it back to Japan, which I think was a big mistake," he continued. "But it's still the truth. Ours was really, really cool."

It's unclear from Jacque-Belletête's comments when or how long Eidos Montréal worked on the game or if it reached any significant stages of development. However, in 2018, YouTuber Super Bunnyhop reported on the existence of the project, saying that it was a "space opera RPG" with "western appeal", but wasn't much more fully-fledged as a project than a plan for game design and early art.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution was released in 2011 while Mankind Divided didn't launch until 2016, the same year that Final Fantasy 15 was released. As Jacque-Belletête said he worked on Final Fantasy after these two projects, it was likely just a very early conceptual stage that followed Mankind Divided's.

The Final Fantasy 9 animated series will be revealed at the Las Vegas Licensing Expo this week.

Bruno Danzel d’Aumont, the vice president of international licensing and marketing at Cyber Group Studios - the animation studio that's developing the series with Square Enix - revealed to Animation Magazine that the Final Fantasy series would be one of four new shows revealed at the event.

The Licensing Expo takes place from May 24 to May 26, at which point the Final Fantasy series will seemingly have been in production for a few months, as work was expected to begin in late 2021 or early 2022. The Final Fantasy 9 series was revealed in June last year with an episode count and length still unconfirmed by either Cyber Group Studios or Square Enix.

"[The Expo] will be a great opportunity to share our upcoming plans with our licensees, agents, and new partners," d’Aumont said. "Additionally, our most recently developed shows — Digital Girl, The McFire Family, Press Start! and Final Fantasy IX — will be presented for the first time.

"These four new series have a strong licensing appeal for different age targets," he added.

Editor's Note: The war in Ukraine is an ongoing, painful and emotive topic. IGN urges community members to be respectful when engaging in conversation around this subject and does not endorse harassment of any kind.

Kyiv-based GSC Game World has seemingly confirmed it has resumed development on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl following a pause that was due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

As reported by PC Gamer, GRY-Online shared the news of the update in Polish, saying a message was delivered in Discord by GSC Game World community representative Mol1t that said development on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 "continues" and "the work is in progress."

GSC said that development on S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 would be paused earlier this year due to the invasion and that work on the game would continue after Ukraine's victory over Russia in the ongoing war. The team also explained on its YouTube channel titled "Lights! Camera! War..." how their lives have changed since the invasion began.

Battle for Baldur’s Gate sees Magic: The Gathering once again crossing over with Dungeons & Dragons (D&D), only this time, in the Commander Legends format. What is Commander Legends? Well, it first debuted in 2020, and combines the hugely popular Commander format with Draft. This means players take it in turns picking from a limited pool of cards to build the best deck they can. Unlike regular Commander, however, decks can contain multiple copies of a single card and are comprised of 60 cards instead of 100, and unlike Draft, synergies are easier to create, as players pick two cards at a time.

The last D&D set, Adventures in the Forgotten Realms (AFR), featured a host of classic D&D settings, characters and gameplay elements, and so too will Battle for Baldur’s Gate. Backgrounds, for instance, are a new type of enchantment, and will help represent your commander’s story so far and give them a bonus. Initiative, meanwhile, is a new keyword ability that ties into Undercity - a new dungeon card - as well as improving certain cards in the set if you have the initiative. Characters like Tasha the Witch, Elminster, and iconic duo Minsc and Boo are also featured. You can read about all the new mechanics here.

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis -- are discussing the best games coming to All-New PlayStation Plus, their favorite PS4 games, video pinball games, Nintendo's Play Choice 10 cabinets, 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

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Stitcher

Find previous episodes here!

King Arthur is dead and you, Mordred, died killing him. Now Arthur has cursed the afterlife. In order to bring peace to the island of Avalon, you must do what you do best: Kill Arthur – or rather, the variety of vile villains his soul has been twisted into. For those who were fans of Neocore Games' previous turn-based dark fantasy, King Arthur: A Role-Playing Wargame, the idea behind King Arthur: Knight’s Tale is very welcome indeed. Don't expect a retelling of the classical romances like Malory or cinematic depictions, but do expect your favorite Arthurian characters to appear in some twisted afterlife form, and for them to take part in battles between a handful of powerful knights and hordes of enemies using a rich combat system. It's a heck of a lot of game for what it is – a sprawling adventure that's perhaps too repetitive for its own good.

It's some 120 GB installed – a giant, unoptimized game that's charming despite, or perhaps because of, its rough edges. Within that it packs everything I expect out of the setting: rescuing fair maidens, slaying dragons, fighting giants – it's all here, all with a grimdark twist, spread across a strategy RPG that can easily eat up 70 to 100 hours of your time as you align with the forces present in Avalon: The Old Gods, Christianity, Righteousness, and Tyranny. Favorites like Tristan and Isolde show up, but Tristan is a rotting zombie now; Percival is here, but the Holy Grail quest can now never be fulfilled; and Gawain's out trying to do some faerie genocide.

The cloaky lad, 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 May 20 through May 24. 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.

NetEase Games, one of the biggest video game developers and publishers in the world, is back with another NetEase Connect showcase to share not only updates on existing and upcoming games, but also to unveil brand-new, never-before-seen games. From Harry Potter: Magic Awakened to NARAKA: BLADEPOINT to The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War to Once Be Human, there were a wide variety of games on display this year that are worth a look.

IGN Japan was on hand to get the drop on every NetEase Games’ title discussed in NetEase Connect 2022, and we’ve gathered each and every one below for you to ensure you don’t miss a thing.

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened

Harry Potter: Magic Awakened is an upcoming immersive collectible card role-playing game that is set in the magical world of Harry Potter and will arrive on PC and mobile in 2022. Players will become a young witch or wizard who was just accepted to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, and the journey will begin by customizing your character, purchasing school supplies at Diagon Alley, getting sorted into a house by the Sorting Hat, and competing in the Dueling Club.

As players embark on riveting new stories, they will meet familiar faces from the original Harry Potter series, learn spells and charms, master challenging trials, and duel other players. Harry Potter: Magic Awakened will also feature cross-platform play support and will soon be headed to more global markets after taking the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan regions by magical storm with over 50 million downloads.

NARAKA: BLADEPOINT

After joining forces nearly 15 years ago, Activision-Blizzard has remained one of the biggest and most successful names in video games. In addition to housing legendary PC franchises like Warcraft and Diablo, Activision-Blizzard is home to Call of Duty, one of the most successful and culturally relevant video game franchises of the 2000s.

As of late, the mega-publisher has narrowed its focus onto its biggest franchises — CoD, Warcraft, Diablo, and Overwatch — though it also owns classic series like Starcraft, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, Tony Hawk, and Guitar Hero — franchises that may see new life under Microsoft’s ownership.

For now, however, we’re focusing on the games we know are currently in development at Activision Blizzard. For this list we’ve compiled PC and/or console games (and their major expansions) only; mobile games are not currently included, and we're not referencing any rumored projects.

Activision Blizzard is currently facing serious ongoing allegations of harassment and mistreatment of marginalized workers. To learn more, please visit our timeline as well as our in-depth report on the subject.

More on games in development:

A Pokémon Red and Blue fan reimagining has placed the games' classic artwork into a modern remake that will sadly never come to exist.

The @pokeyugami Twitter account, which describes itself as a group "creating fan art with the theme of Pokémon in [a] space-time different from ours," posted a short clip of protagonist Red walking through Viridian forest from the original games.

Instead of being top-down 2D, however, or in a modern 3D style like the remakes, Pokémon Let's Go Pikachu and Eevee, this style blends new and old with a painted-style artwork over 3D models.

これは時空の歪みによって生まれた、懐かしくも新しい『ポケットモンスター 初代』！
(トキワの森編)#pokemon pic.twitter.com/Mm7bF4M80F

— ポケモン時空の歪み研究員 (@pokeyugami) May 20, 2022

A handful of Pokémon can be seen in the video including Caterpie, Weedle, and, of course, Pikachu (who's eating an Oran berry), all lore accurate to the Viridian Forest area. A Pokéball can also be spotted in the background before Red gets locks eyes with a Youngster trainer.

The clip is just a fan project and not tied to Nintendo or The Pokémon Company in any way, so we'll never actually see a Pokémon game look this way, unless the off chance the companies themselves are inspired by the fan art.

Fan casting for MultiVersus has gotten pretty wild after the Internet realised HBO characters could make it into the game. Now everyone from Tony Soprano to John Oliver are being suggested as playable fighters in the surprisingly impressive WB Smash Bros-alike.

Twitter users were surprised by the inclusion of Arya Stark, a character who comes from arguably very different source material than the rest of the cast, which is primarily drawn from the history of Warner Bros. cartoons and DC comics.

If Arya Stark, a character in a famously violent and sexually explicit TV show is absolutely fine to appear in this game, what character from the Warner Bros. and HBO back-catalogue would be off the table? People have since been sharing their ideal surprise appearances from HBO classics. Honestly, we’d love to see most of them.

Tony Soprano for #MultiVersus @multiversus @wbgames make it happen. pic.twitter.com/wOGZMU9C6n

Dale is starring in his very own film this week, so it was only fair he joined both Cardy and Joe to talk all about Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers. There’s also an update on how the upcoming Saints Row reboot is looking as well as more Top Gun: Maverick chat as it’s so good it would be rude not to. Joe then unpacks his mixed thoughts about Tunic, before another cracking edition of the Endless Search is played.

Want to get in touch to talk about digging graves? Or maybe Elden Ring? Feel free to send us an email at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast #645: Chip 'n Dale 'n Cardy 'n Joe

• IGN UK Podcast #644: Top Gun: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters
• IGN UK Podcast #643: Doctor Strange in the Desperate Search for Seal Meat
• IGN UK Podcast #642: Overwatch 2 is a Playable Thing that Exists
• IGN UK Podcast #641: Grave Digger 4000
• IGN UK Podcast #640: The 2013 Build-a-Game Workshop

Update: 23/05/22: Hideo Kojima has playfully responded to Norman Reedus seemingly leaking the existence of Death Stranding 2.

In a tweet (below), Kojima took on the role of an angry parent, saying "go to your private room, my friend," with "private room" referring to the rest area from Death Stranding. It all appears to be in good fun, with Koijma adding thumbs up and love eyes emojis alongside a handful of images of the pair, including a somewhat threatening one of himself holding the infamous bat from The Walking Dead (the show that made Reedus famous).

Kojima hasn't yet acknowledged the apparent new game himself, but it feels increasingly certain to happen at some point.

“Go to your private room,my friend“👍😍 pic.twitter.com/jBTDqhQSLI

— 小島秀夫 (@Kojima_Hideo) May 21, 2022

Hideo Kojima is working on a sequel to Death Stranding, according to lead actor Norman Reedus.

Embracer Group - the owner of Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, and other IPs bought from Square Enix in early May - sees "great potential" in making sequels, remakes, remasters, and spin-offs of these franchises.

Revealed in the colossal holding company's latest financial results, Embracer said it had "further strengthened [its] development capabilities and IP-portfolio" by purchasing Crystal Dynamics, Eidos Montreal, and Square Enix Montreal which included "Tomb Raider, Deus Ex, Thief, and Legacy of Kain and other IPs."

In addition to the sequels, remakes, remasters, and spin-offs, Embracer also sees potential in "transmedia projects" across the group, later referring to similar initiatives from company's such as Netflix and Amazon.

Embracer Group also owns Dark Horse Comics and board game company Asmodee, which "will also enable the use of gaming IPs across yet another media".

Alongside the four previously-Square Enix games mentioned above, the Embracer deal also included more than 50 back-catalogue games developed by the three studios.

Blizzard has nerfed Hearthstone's infamous Drek'Thar card – which it was selling for $25 – and has offered refunds to the players who already bought it.

The Diamond Drek'Thar, a premium version that could only be bought by paying $25 (or 3,000 in-game gold), was released in early April to significant player outcry due to its high price tag. In Hearthstone's latest patch (as reported by PC Gamer), Blizzard significantly weakened all versions of the card, which would obviously have left paying players unhappy.

Seemingly anticipating further backlash, Blizzard is automatically giving 3,000 gold to players who already bought Drek'Thar, and are even letting them keep the card (though it likely won't be viable in competitive play now anyway). Players who bought Drek'Thar using real money won't see that refunded, however, as they too will just be given the 3,000 gold equivalent.

Diamond Drek'thar should summon 10-drops because it sure as hell costs more than every single minion in my deck. pic.twitter.com/CwX7KvhRHu

Update: Both Assassin's Creed Origins and For Honor: Marching Fire Edition will arrive on Xbox Game Pass in June. This has been confirmed in the Xbox Game Pass app in the 'coming soon' section on consoles, showing the release date for Assassin's Creed Origins is June 7, while For Honor: Marching Fire Edition will arrive on June 1. The original story continues below.

Alongside the reveal of the second wave of Xbox Game Pass entries in April, Xbox has also announced that Assassin's Creed Origins and For Honor: Marching Fire Edition will be coming to Game Pass in the near future.

According to an Xbox Wire blog post, both games will be coming to Game Pass within the next two months. 2017's Assassin's Creed Origins will be the first Assassin's Creed entry to join the game subscription service.

For Honor Marching Fire Edition will also hit PC Game Pass via Ubisoft Connect. For Honor's base game is already available on Game Pass, so the Marching Fire Edition will therefore become a free upgrade option for those using Game Pass on your console or via the cloud.

Someone has already remade the absurdly realistic Unreal Engine 5 train station demo inside PlayStation's Dreams.

Martin Nebelong, an artist working for Dreams developer Media Molecule, recreated Lorenzo Draco's demo - intended to show off the never-before-seen power of Unreal Engine 5 - without touching the software at all.

He shared his creation in a tweet (below), showing the process of putting the level together with a timelapse, adding that he did it all using the PlayStation Move controllers.

Here's a timelapse of making the train station scene in Dreams on my PS5. No mouse, no keyboard. Just waving my arms in the air with two glowing wands :D

Big props to Lorenzo Draco for the inspiration.#madeindreams #ue5 pic.twitter.com/yJbQx2GHP2

— Martin Nebelong (@MartinNebelong) May 18, 2022

The result is impressive thanks to the meticulous detail Nebelong includes, as the video shows him crafting the perfect length of girders, slabs of concrete, and so on.

The Dreams creation even comes with the spooky moment from the Unreal Engine 5 demo, when all the light disappears and the once-peaceful Japanese train station becomes an almost horror-esque experience.

The Pokémon GO trading card set is adding an amazing transforming Ditto mechanic straight from the game.

When opening a pack of the new Pokémon GO cards, players should be on the lookout for a special Ditto symbol in the bottom left that can be found on basic Pokémon such as Bidoof.

As shown in an official Pokémon TCG Instagram post (below), the unassuming Bidoof card (and presumably a handful of other Pokémon) will actually turn out to be a sticker, and can actually be peeled away to reveal a Ditto card behind it.

In Pokémon GO itself, Ditto also hides in plain sight behind a rotating cast of Pokémon including Bidoof, Pidgey, Ekans, and so on, and only once you catch one does "Oh?" appear on the screen – before revealing that you actually just caught a Ditto.

Pretty impressively, the Pokémon TCG has managed to recreate this perfectly in the new set of cards, as the Bidoof used as an example is just a common card from the set that can be encountered normally.

The Pokémon GO set was announced for the trading card game in March but fans eager to get their hands on a special Ditto will have to wait a little longer, as it doesn't release until July 1.

As far as the movies go, The Evil Dead series has a track record of being way better than it has any right to be, low-budget warts and all – and Evil Dead: The Game now finds itself squarely in that same boat. While it’s filled with things that irritate me, like slight inclines that my wimpy survivor was helpless to scale, finicky command prompts, and more, it also overwhelmingly succeeds at being a balanced, compelling battle of wits and reflexes that has kept my attention after more than 20 hours – and that’s no small task. Aside from the clunkiness, playing as a survivor absolutely nails the horror movie feel of working with a group to overcome an overwhelming evil threat, while playing as the menacing demon is a diabolically fun misadventure that fulfills the villainous mastermind fantasy.

Yes, Evil Dead: The Game is an asymmetrical multiplayer game in the same vein of the likes of Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th, but here it’s presented with a goofy, Bruce Campbell-smothered flair that’s every bit as weird and campy as the cult-classic movies. Mechanically, there’s not much original about it: each match, four playable survivors work as a team to avoid being maimed long enough to perform a ritual that banishes all evil from the land, all while enduring the true horror that is the map’s geometry. At the same time, one evil player does everything they can to kill the survivors using an army of undead soldiers and a bag of dastardly tricks so wickedly satisfying it’s hard to feel bad for the poor souls succumbing to your terrible power. That game of cat and mouse is an absolute blast no matter what side you’re on, even when its rough edges make me scream louder than any jump scare.

Bend Studio has revealed that PlayStation Trophy support will be added to Syphon Filter when the all-new PlayStation Plus subscription launches.

"Agency intel reports that Syphon Filter will include Trophies when it arrives on the all-new PlayStation Plus," Bend Studio Tweeted out, with a video of a Trophy unlocking along with the familiar audio. It seems like one of the Trophies will be called "An Explosive Start" and it appears to be a Silver level trophy.

Incoming From Bend Studio:

Agency intel reports that Syphon Filter will include Trophies when it arrives on the all-new PlayStation Plus. pic.twitter.com/YVdMixZxBR

— Bend Studio is Hiring! (@BendStudio) May 19, 2022

It's unclear right now whether this means that every original PlayStation title in the Premium tier will receive Trophy support or it will be on a case-by-case basis. Bend Studio is a first-party PlayStation developer, so Sony certainly has more say on what to do with its own games.

There are third-party original PlayStation games on the service such as Tekken 2 and Mr. Driller, and whether they get Trophy support as well is up in the air.

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for Halo: Season 1! If you haven't already, be sure to check out IGN's review of the Halo: Season 1 finale.

Halo has ended its nine-episode first season on Paramount+, but this story is only just beginning. The streamer already confirmed Halo: Season 2 before the series even premiered. And based on the events of the finale, we definitely have an idea of where the series is headed.

Keep reading for a full breakdown of Season 1's dramatic ending and how the show is building on the foundation of the games. IGN also spoke to executive producer Kiki Wolfkill, who serves as the Head of Transmedia at Halo developer 343 Industries, to learn more about why the show is making some significant changes to the traditional Halo mythology.

Is Master Chief Actually Dead?

The Season 1 finale showcases Master Chief's most dangerous mission to date, as he leads Silver Team into the heart of Covenant territory to steal back the two Forerunner artifacts that contain a map to the elusive Halo station. Surprisingly, all members of Silver Team survive what seemed to be a suicide mission, though Master Chief's fate is certainly left ambiguous as the episode ends.

On this week’s episode of IGN’s PlayStation podcast, Podcast Beyond!, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Jada Griffin, Brain Altano, and Max Scoville to cover all the latest and greatest in the world of PlayStation. And this week, they’re jumping into the newly revealed new PlayStation Plus games lineup, or at least, the partial PS Plus games lineup Sony revealed ahead of the subscription service’s revamped launch in the coming weeks.

Second Dinner, the independent studio founded by former Hearthstone director Ben Brode, is finally unveiling the mysterious Marvel project it’s been working on for the last few years. It’s called Marvel Snap, and it’s a free-to-play collectible card game and battler published by ByteDance gaming arm Nuverse.

Marvel Snap clearly wears its Hearthstone DNA on its sleeve, right down to the booming voice of Brode showing off mechanics in the official reveal. Its main draw is the brevity of the matches, with the average Marvel Snap game ideally only lasting around three minutes. It accomplishes this by eliminating back-and-forth turns and allowing players to play simultaneously, layering turns on top of one another. It also limits both players to a 12-card deck in a given game.

Games take place across three randomized locations — out of a possible 50 — that can impact strategy. It’s tough to tell from the reveal exactly how gameplay flows or works, but one element described in the reveal is the battle over “cosmic cubes,” where players fight to be the one with the most cubes at the end of the match. Connected to that is the ability to “snap” an opponent to double the cubes at stake.

Many games have tried to provide a legit alternative to Super Smash Brothers, but none have been able to come close to Smash’s level of mainstream popularity or broad mass appeal. Enter MultiVersus: A free-to-play crossover platform fighter that brings together the worlds of WB-owned properties like Looney Tunes, the DC Universe, Scooby-Doo, and Game of Thrones, just to name a few. That alone is enough to grab my attention, but the big question is whether MultiVersus will be able to hold its own with its core gameplay, progression mechanics, and free-to-play monetization plans.

After spending more than 12 hours with an alpha build, consider my attention firmly held. MultiVersus is a blast, with several unique spins on tried and true platform fighting mechanics, a smart focus on 2v2 combat, and an absolutely wild roster full of beloved characters that are all brought to life by their actual voice actors. It all adds up to a game that, upon first impression, seems primed to become the next big thing in free-to-play gaming, and could potentially be a blueprint for future fighting games to follow.

On the surface level, MultiVersus is quite a bit like Smash Bros. There are damage percentages, simple one-button-and-a-direction inputs for moves, and even Shaggy has a Captain Falcon-style knee of justice move. But there are a number of key differences in MultiVersus that make it play very differently. For one, there’s no blocking. You can only spot dodge, roll, or air dodge to avoid attacks, and the more you do so in quick succession, the less invulnerability you have during them. For two, every character is able to use a double jump, two air dodges, and two special moves in the air before they hit the ground.

God of War Ragnarok will include more than 60 accessibility features when it arrives on PlayStation 4 and 5 later this year.

The list of features was revealed in a PlayStation Blog post which said developer Sony Santa Monica has combined the options available in the original God of War (2018) with those in the PC version, and added some brand new ones too.

The new features added include full controller customisation, with players able to choose from several preset layouts or map their controller themselves to a layout that works best for them.

Complex actions will also come with a preset list of alternative options, and for actions that require more than one button, several shortcuts can be assigned instead including Touch Pad swipes.

For traversing in Ragnarok, players can choose to enable features such as automatic sprinting that require less button inputs altogether, and other actions including jumping gaps, vaulting, and so on can be automated too.

A Navigation Assist button has also been added that switches the player's view towards the next story objective, and audio cues can be used to reveal interactive objects while exploring and even in combat such as for weapon swap cues.

There's an incredible spring discount on LG OLED C1 4K TVs right now at Amazon, with up to £800 off the perfect 4K TV sets for a limited time. It's now down to just £899, the absolute best price I've ever seen on the TV. It's still IGN's top pick for the best 4K TV for gaming as well, so for what you're getting this is an absolute steal.

LG OLED C1s include HDMI 2.1, with 120Hz, and Dolby Vision IQ and Dolby Atmos, making it a perfect TV to use with your brand new PS5 or Xbox Series X. You can also get the perfect PS5 SSD for just £132 right now, which is one of the best prices we've seen on the WD Black 1TB in the UK.

TL;DR - Our Favourite UK Deals Right Now

Perfect for PS5: LG OLED C1 Lowest Price Ever

Incredible PS5 SSD Deal: WD Black 1TB for £132

If you're getting a PS5, you'll absolutely want to upgrade the memory capabilities. IGN's favourite PS5 SSD is currently down to just £131.99 (including heatsink), or the 2TB version has dropped to £250 instead.

Samsung Original 25W USB-C Wall Plug Charger

CD Projekt Red has announced that the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt are planned to release at the end of this year.

Let's make this 7th anniversary even better, shall we?

We're delighted to share that the Next Gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is planned to release in Q4 2022.

See you on the Path, witchers! pic.twitter.com/2wQbxMP4zh

— The Witcher (@witchergame) May 19, 2022

In a Twitter post celebrating the 7th anniversary of The Witcher 3, the official Witcher account said "We're delighted to share that the Next Gen version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is planned to release in Q4 2022."

Last month CDPR had to assure fans that the next-gen version of The Witcher 3 was "not in development hell" after the developer delayed the upgraded version of the celebrated RPG indefinitely.

The first official PS5 bundle has been released by Sony, and it will include Horizon Forbidden West. The bundle has already been spotted in various UK retailers, and now has a US listing on the PS Direct store.

The bundle costs £500 in the UK, which represents a £20 saving compared to buying both the console (£450) and Horizon Forbidden West (£70) at the recommended retail price.

Although a price has not been revealed for PS Direct and US retailers just yet, it's likely a similar saving will be introduced, so the bundle will probably cost somewhere around $550.

It's not available to purchase just yet in the US, but you can still currently register for an opportunity to purchase a PS5 from PS Direct.

While bundle deals have been fairly common since the PlayStation 5's launch at the end of 2020, this is the first bundle deal that combines the game into official packaging.

Horizon Forbidden West was released earlier this year to critical acclaim, although it can be argued it was somewhat overshadowed by Elden Ring's success a week after Horizon's launch.

This isn't the only news regarding PS5 stock, as Walmart has also confirmed it will have another PS5 stock drop event at the beginning of June.

Gearbox currently has nine AAA games in development as it continues to grow alongside its colossal owner Embracer Group.

The Borderlands creator has both developing and publishing wings, and while it's unclear where these nine games in development fall, it's certainly a lot more than the company has announced previously.

Gearbox's owner Embracer - who recently purchased three studio's from Square Enix along with the Tomb Raider and Deus Ex IPs - revealed the number during its latest financial results.

"Gearbox continues to scale the organization to deliver on its ambitious growth plan, and there are currently nine AAA games under development," it said.

We currently know of five games being published by Gearbox - Homeworld 3, Hyper Light Breaker, Relic Hunters Legends, Have a Nice Death, and Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Case of One Victoria Bloom - but despite the "AAA" term being slightly subjective, most people likely wouldn't refer to the latter two or three of these as AAA games.

After months of closed beta testing, Fortnite has officially exited beta testing on GeForce Now. This means all members of Nvidia's cloud gaming service can now stream the popular free-to-play Battle Royale on iOS and Android devices, previously it was available on PC via the native GeForce Now app.

Those interested in playing Fortnite on the service will need to sign up for a GeForce Now membership, which has three membership tiers to choose from: Free, Priority, and RTX 3080. Important to note that the Free tier for GeForce Now only allows a 1-hour session of play.

In comparison, Microsoft, which announced earlier in the month that Fortnite is available on Xbox Cloud Gaming, allows you to play as much as you'd like, and you don't even need to subscribe to the service. However, Android users opting to play via Xbox Cloud Gaming can only stream Fortnite through a web browser, rather than a dedicated app. GeForce Now subscribers with an Android device, on the other hand, can play Fortnite on the GeForce Now Android app.

eFootball's next update will be available on June 2 with an official mobile version launching the same day.

Announced on Konami's Twitter (below), version 1.1.0 will be the first update released for eFootball since its official launch in April.

Though Konami is still being vague on what's included, it did say the update will improve the win/loss decision-making in online matches, enhance server capacity, and set the foundations for compatibility between the console and new mobile versions of eFootball, among other things to be announced later.

About version 1.1.0 update for @play_eFootball pic.twitter.com/vvJT5iaNe4

— KONAMI UK (@KONAMIUK) May 19, 2022

The mobile game will be a re-launched version of eFootball PES 2021, now fitted with the full eFootball branding and compatibility with the new game.

Konami again said more details would follow soon, including which features and players will carry over from last year's game to the new version, and did make clear that support on some devices would be cancelled "due to changes in the required operating environment".

Ubisoft's Roller Champions is finally being released next week on May 25, almost three years after its initial reveal at E3 2019.

The free to play, fast-paced roller derby game (with splashes of Rocket League and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater) was due to be released in early 2020 but suffered several delays, with the most recent being in February 2022.

But following several rounds of alpha and beta testing, as Ubisoft likes to do with its multiplayer games, Roller Champions is finally ready to launch next week for PlayStation, Xbox, and PC.

Switch users will have to wait a little longer, however, as the game still has no release date on Nintendo's platform, alongside the Epic Games Store, Stadia, and Amazon Luna versions.

Roller Champions sees players battle in teams of three to race around roller derby tracks while in possession of a ball, with a successful score at the end of each lap granting a point. Whichever team is first to five points, or has the most points at the end of the match, wins.

Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is getting some visual enhancements as well as some additional content thanks to a new patch. The patch finally fixes the bug that made the game run slowly on PC if your characters had hair, reducing the frame rate for some players.

It also includes quality of life improvements including adjustments to the game’s use of anti-aliasing as well as higher inventory limits for certain crafting items. Final Fantasy Origin is a game full of loot and things to pickup, so it is a welcome addition.

In terms of content, it adds a Battle Simulator side mission that allows players “to try out jobs, equipment, and abilities” With the 28 jobs available in the game, the Battle Simulator sounds like a great way to test out new builds and playstyles.

If you’ve been hesitant to pick it up, there is now an up to 25% off discount for the game across all platforms. You can snag all the chaos of Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin on sale in both PlayStation and Epic Games Store until May 25. It is discounted on Xbox until May 26 at 3AM PST.

EA announced that it would be removing Battlefield 2042's 128 Breakthrough multiplayer mode on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC and will stick with the 64 player count version. The change will be reflected in Update 4.1 when it releases on May 19.

"When reviewing the available experiences in All-Out Warfare, we felt that the 128 player modes are better suited for Conquest where gameplay spaces are larger, and where you have a more natural fit for sandbox gameplay," said EA on its website.

EA notes that the player count was reduced as it felt like each individual player's contributions were reduced due to the sheer intensity and chaos during combat that come with having 128 players on one map.

Update 4.1 for #Battlefield2042 goes live across all platforms tomorrow (19/5) at 08:00 UTC ✅

It's a zero-downtime update so you'll be good to jump in and play once you have it downloaded 🎮

Update Notes: https://t.co/t75GIOLdTS pic.twitter.com/95Dore6tEG

God of War’s debut on PC in January 2022 ushered in a whole new way to play the game thanks to the addition of mods. But thanks to a mod by OmegaFactory, God of War replaces its father-son duo with another iconic pair from The Simpsons.

While many mods just replace characters with the likeness of another, this Simpsons mod takes it a step further. It features new dialogue and some great voiceover work that takes the original game’s mood from dark and sometimes somber to knee-slapping hilarious.

The mod also replaces The Stranger with everyone’s favorite Hi-Diddly-Ho Neighborino, Ned Flanders.

God of War Simpsons mod is now available 🫣🔥 #PlayStation

Video: https://t.co/oomTeCWb4R pic.twitter.com/poAXNi1nv0

— Hunter 🎮 (@NextGenPlayer) May 15, 2022

If you’ve ever wanted to see Ned Flanders leap through the air to dodge a swing from Homer’s Wonder Bat, this mod will give you that and a whole lot more. It also comes complete with taunts from Ned to “repent your sins” as Homer tells him to “go back to church, loser.”

Be sure to check out the mod in action on ToastedShoe’s YouTube.

IGN and Rogue Games teamed up to produce the first-ever Rogue Jam that not only offered publishing deals to indie developers, but also $800,000 in total prize money that will be used to help bring these games to life. Now, the winners have been revealed.

Throughout five episodes over the past few weeks, a team of judges that includes IGN EVP and CCO Peer Schneider and former Nintendo of America president Reggie Fils-Aimé has selected the top games in five categories - Huge Potential Winner, Eye-Poppingly Beautiful, WTF?, Overall Winner, and Audience Choice.

If you'd like to watch all the episodes before seeing all the winners, be sure to check out each one below before checking out more details of the victorious games and a video preview of each one.

Warning: Spoilers Ahead for Rogue Jam!

Here's some good news for all the Magic: The Gathering players out there -- a bunch of upcoming cards are up for preorder on Amazon. We’ve got Dominaria United, Double Masters 2022, a new Universes Beyond Warhammer 40K crossover, and more. There’s a lot heading our way this year, so take a look at what’s available.

MTG: Double Masters 2022

On July 8, Double Masters 2022 arrives. It includes popular (and powerful) cards from previous sets, some of which will sport new artwork. These may be pricy, but every Draft Booster includes two rare and/or mythic rare cards, as well as two foil cards. These are also available at Best Buy.

Magic: The Gathering Dominaria United Cards

Dominaria United releases September 9. It represents the beginning of a major story arc that’s planned to comprise four sets. Details about the plot are hazy for now, but you can expect to hear more in August.

This set includes Draft, Set, and Collector boosters, as well as Jumpstart boosters, which replace Theme boosters. Basically, each Jumpstart booster is based on a theme, and if you combine two of these packs together, you’ll have everything you need to play.