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You’re reading the fifth 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

6:00 am - It’s a good thing I got some extra sleep last night because my alarm was set extra early so we could get good seats for the opening ceremony.

7:00 am - Lasagna for breakfast.

[Editor’s Note: I’m as weirded out by this as you all are. A quick Google search has, frustratingly, given me no further insight as to why regular lasagna would be available at a breakfast buffet.]

Whether you have the Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S, you're going to want the best Xbox gaming headset, and the Xbox Wireless Headset is at the top of our list for a reason. However, if for whatever reason that headset doesn't strike your fancy, there are so many out on the market that no matter what your needs, we'll help you find the perfect gaming headset.

13 (real-world and in-game) years have passed since we left Alan Wake in the Dark Place. The 2010 action game/psychological thriller gained a cult following thanks to a compelling narrative that blends Stephen King-esque psychological mystery with the quirky charm and evocative surrealism of Twin Peaks. In the decade-plus since, Remedy has grown to become one of the industry’s premier development studios, and now it’s writing an all-new chapter with its first survival-horror game, Alan Wake 2.

Ahead of the sequel’s upcoming release, we’ve compiled this comprehensive overview of everything we know about Alan Wake 2, including a release date, platforms, price, gameplay updates, story details, and more.

Jump to:

• Release Date
• Storyline
• Gameplay
• Expansions
• Preorders

Alan Wake 2 Release Date, Platforms, Price

Alan Wake 2 will be released on October 27 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (via Epic Games Store). The survival-horror game will cost $60 USD on console and $50 on PC.

Alan Wake 2 will only be released digitally.

Alan Wake 2 Trailer

The latest Alan Wake 2 trailer, titled The Dark Place, was released at gamescom in August. Check out the hybrid live action-gameplay video below:

There’s a moment at the very beginning of El Paso, Elsewhere, where the protagonist James Savage leans over the hood of a car pulled over in the middle of nowhere and makes a plea directly to the player. “I need you to believe…that I’m going to get back into this car, on the count of three, and stop my ex before she destroys us all. I need to know that you believe, so I can too.” He slowly counts to three, and in a blink, he’s in the El Paso hotel where she lies in wait. “Well,” he says, as if pleasantly surprised. “Here’s to believing.”

The parallels between this specific moment of James’ opening monologue and the story told to me by Strange Scaffold studio head Xalavier Nelson Jr. of the game’s development aren’t lost on me. He’s worked on over 80 projects in the past eight years, he tells me over a video call, across video games, comics, and tabletop, AAA and indie, licensed and original IP. His studio, Strange Scaffold, was founded out of a “deep passion for advocating to make games better, faster, cheaper, and healthier because our players deserve it.” As he speaks to me, Nelson walks Aristotelian laps around the brightly-painted living room, kitchen, and hallway of his house. Occasionally, he sprints to the PC to check a fact, then resumes his peripateticism.

You’re reading the fourth 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

7:45 am - I wake up actually feeling rested for the first time since we got to Japan. The first stop of the day is to Pokémon Center Shibuya, and then we’ll be set free to explore the area, shop, and eat, so I figure I should have a light breakfast. I go to the buffet and grab a Malasada donut, Spanish omelet, croissant, orange slices, berry pastry, chocolate pastry, coffee, orange juice, thin pancakes with berries, and a piping-hot slice of lasagna.

8:25 am - We pile onto the bus and start our journey to Shibuya. It strikes me how this is our fourth day here and the World Championships haven’t even started, yet we’ve seen and done an astounding amount of stuff. We’re getting the full experience, indeed. This feeling continued to strike me for the next two hours.

After a surprise announcement earlier this year, Valve surprised players once again by suddenly releasing Counter-Strike 2 as an update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive on Wednesday after a long beta period. Along with several new gameplay aspects, Counter-Strike 2 brings a few major changes, like weapon refunds and overhauled graphics, to the model that helped its predecessor become one of the most-played Steam games of all time.

Unfortunately for quite a few players, though, the original Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was completely replaced by Counter-Strike 2 (aside from being playable as an offline "demo"), which seems to be missing quite a few beloved features from the original game. Now, players caught off guard are taking to Reddit and X/Twitter to share their concerns about the game’s current state.

Almost seven years after the release of Skyrim, Elder Scrolls fans were treated to a glimpse of the future back at E3 2018, with Bethesda Game Studios confirming it was officially working on The Elder Scrolls 6. The newest entry in the iconic RPG series was unveiled with a cryptic teaser following the official announcement of Starfield, but since then, we’ve not seen any additional trailers or footage.

However, Bethesda hasn’t been entirely silent on it. Whether it's discussing the game’s current stage of development or the potential platforms it’ll release on, the studio has offered several updates on The Elder Scrolls 6. Below, we’ve compiled all the information we currently have about the upcoming sequel, so grab yourself a sweet roll and get ready to recap everything we currently know about Bethesda’s next adventure through the vast realms of Tamriel.

Jump to:

Spoiler Warning: The following article features minor spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty's fourth main mission: Lucretia My Reflection.

Cyberpunk 2077 players have found a super sneaky reference to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt hidden by CD Projekt inside the Phantom Liberty expansion.

As recorded in IGN's Cyberpunk 2077 Easter Eggs and References Guide, players will encounter a wall-mounted phone in Phantom Liberty's Lucretia My Reflection mission. While this is a one-off encounter where players contact Idris Elba's Solomon Reed for the first time, going back to it and dialling a bunch of different phone numbers will net some interesting results.

Thanks to Cyberpunk 2077 being open-world, players can simply head back to the phone inside Capitan Caliente whenever they like to encounter the Witcher reference. By dialling one of the numbers scribbled on a post-it note nearby, 5745552377, the player will be treated to The Witcher 3's main theme.

Keanu Reeves' Johnny Silverhand smiles and gives a thumbs up at the successful hit, as a crackly version of the song The Trail plays over the phone. You can check out some other fun references found with Capitan Caliente's phone in the video above.

The talking stack of pancakes, Xur, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get you 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 Located Today?

Xûr's location can be found at Winding Cove in the EDZ on September 29 through October 2. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Winding Cove. When you arrive, make for the rock cliffs at the far end of the cove and look for a cave winding up to a platform next to some Fallen. There you'll find the retail monster who inspires us all.

It has been 13 years since the original Alan Wake was released as an Xbox 360 exclusive. That's a long time, and if you've not played since then (or even played Alan Wake at all!) then you may want a recap of the story to help prepare you for Alan Wake 2. You could read a plot synopsis, or you could join us for the finale of this month's IGN First, in which the game's writer himself - Sam Lake - tells us the entire Alan Wake story so far.

In today's video, Sam will cover the events of Alan Wake and its two DLC episodes; the standalone expansion Alan Wake's American Nightmare; and AWE, the Alan Wake crossover expansion for Control. With these games covered, you'll be more than caught up on the events of Bright Falls and the Cauldron Lake incident.

If you’ve never encountered Alan Wake before but you think the sequel looks interesting, let IGN be your introduction to the haunted world of Bright Falls before you watch Sam Lake tell the bigger picture. Alan Wake is a crime fiction author who heads to the small town of Bright Falls, Washington on vacation with his wife, in hope that time away will cure him of his writer’s block. This idyllic cabin getaway soon turns sour, though, as Alan has nightmares of shadowy figures who try to kill him. Soon nightmares become reality as Alan's wife goes missing overnight. Not only that, but the figures from Alan's dreams begin to stalk him in the woods. As he tries to work out what is going on, Alan keeps finding pages of a new, twisted novel that he has no memory of writing... and it seems to know exactly what is happening to him.

The massive Pokémon Trading Card Game Classic Collection is officially up for preorder (see at Walmart). This collection is set to release on November 17, though Walmart has it listed for December 23 at the moment, and will set you back $400. It’s an investment that’s great for fans looking to get their hands on some classic cards in a sleek case, and it includes a wide variety of cards as well. The full collection includes three 60-card decks, a two-player game board, and so much more for Pokémon fans to enjoy. Click the link below to pick up yours.

Preorder The Pokémon Trading Card Game Classic Collection

Per Pokémon’s official website, the full Pokémon Trading Card Game Classic Collection includes:

• A game board that folds up to store all the items included in Pokémon Trading Card Game Classic.
• A toolbox for storing stackable damage counters, Poison and Burn markers, and metal orbs.
• Three Pokémon TCG decks featuring Venusaur, Charizard, and Blastoise, as well as newly printed cards to go along with the classics.
• Three deck boxes featuring Energy symbols matching the included Pokémon TCG decks.

These decks, and the collection in general, are great for some competitions between friends and family, especially if you want to show off classic characters you know and love. Its sleek case will keep all of your new cards and items safe as well.

F-Zero 99 is pretty great, and continues Nintendo's Nintendo Switch Online streak of fun, inventive, and most of all excellent "battle royale" games. So far we've had Tetris 99, Super Mario 35, Pac-Man 99, and now F-Zero 99. All of these entries have taken classic games we know and love and remixed them to create insanely fun spins on the originals, bringing competition to the forefront like never before.

So that got us thinking: what other Nintendo properties could the Big N be revisiting for the "99" treatment? It doesn't even need to be a Nintendo property (as is the case with Pac-Man 99), but by and large we stuck with first-party Nintendo games for our pitches.

To hear us go over some of them in real time, make sure you check out the latest episode of NVC, but in the meantime, check them out below:

Nintendo-99 Game Pitches

Starfox 99 and Zelda 99

Jada Griffin

Starfox 99 is a battle royale that pits you against 98 or 99 other Arwing pilots for space supremacy. Taking down other users will drop items like upgrades for your lasers, bombs, and health rings to collect. It will follow the typical BR format, but to up the pace, instead of small ticks of damage, it will be waves of explosions that deal massive damage or eliminate anyone caught outside the arena. The battles will occur in various locations, such as Asteroid fields in space and on planets like Corneria or Venom. Winning matches will earn you various medals to decorate your Arwing with and if you won your previous match, you also get to fly in a gold-colored Arwing to show off your victory.

Gran Turismo Sport owners better rev up those engines as developer Polyphony Digital announced today that online services for its 2017 racing sim will shut down early next year.

In a new blog post on the official Gran Turismo website, Polyphony revealed that online services for Gran Turismo Sport will shut down on January 31, 2024. After that date, Gran Turismo Sport players will no longer have access to online services, including Open Lobby, Garage Car Liveries, and Sport Mode, so if you have any trophies that require online play you have yet to unlock, the clock is ticking. Offline modes, such as splitscreen multiplayer, the main single-player campaign, World Circuits, and time trials will still be accessible.

Prior to online services shutting down, the over 200 in-game vehicles you can buy via the PlayStation Store will no longer be available for sale starting on December 1 of this year. And any add-ons purchased prior to December 1 can still be used in-game.

Developer Fool's Theory is cooking up a very different role-playing game with The Thaumaturge. It blends a dark fantasy storyline about fighting hooligans and actual demons in early 20th-century Poland with a detective-style plot of uncovering people's dark secrets to free them from their curses. It presents a morally ambiguous and surprisingly humorous journey to undertake, and it has all the makings for one of the strangest, yet most intriguing takes on a Western role-playing game I've seen in some time.

I got extended hands-on time with an extensive questline from the early hours of The Thaumaturge, showcasing its absurdist take on a historical-inspired RPG where you quite literally have to face your demons.

Set in 1905 Poland, you play as the cunning and enigmatic Wiktor Szulski, the titular Thaumaturge who can commune and command spirits known as Salutors. These horrifying apparitions can possess humans and torment their lives, and only Wiktor can track them down. Haunted by one such Salutor named Upyr, Wiktor forms a bond with it and embarks on a quest to find other demons and sever the connections to their unsuspecting hosts, all while forging connections with his closest confidants in early 1900s Poland.

After playing more than a hundred hours of Larian Studio's Baldur's Gate 3, we finally captured what we believe to be every major romance scene with every origin character and beyond.

All BG3 NSFW Romance Scenes

All BG3 Safe-for-Work Romance Scenes

Compilations of both the spicy NSFW versions and the (mildly) safe-for-work versions are just above, but you can always find all of the scenes for a specific origin character in our Baldur's Gate 3 romance guides:

• Shadowheart Romance Guide
• Karlach Romance Guide
• Halsin Romance Guide
• Wyll Romance Guide
• Lae'zel Romance Guide
• Gale Romance Guide
• Astarion Romance Guide

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Warzone are getting a raft of licensed bundles over the course of Season 6, and now the update is out in the wild, players have dug up gameplay clips showing off how they look.

Courtesy of Twitter user @BoomstickButch, we have an early look at gameplay showing off various operators and weapons. The highlight here has to be the Doom Tracer Pack, due October 9. This adds the Super Shotgun from id Software’s famous series to Call of Duty as well as its chainsaw. Both weapons are reminiscent of classic pixel Doom graphics and get bloodier as you get more eliminations. Here’s how they look:

Better video of the doom shotgun in action.
Note: it has no inspect animation pic.twitter.com/cIhoFcY0zW

— Boomstick Butcher (@BoomstickButch) September 28, 2023

Doom bundle pic.twitter.com/VGScHhfRIP

— Boomstick Butcher (@BoomstickButch) September 27, 2023

Elsewhere, we have a first look at the Lilith and Inarius operators, parachuted into Call of Duty from Blizzard’s Diablo 4. The Lilith operator bundle, due out October 15, includes the Daughter of Hatred Finishing Move. The Inarius operator bundle, out October 26, has the Inarius Impaling Finishing Move.

Cyberpunk 2077 may have just received Update 2.0 and its Phantom Liberty expansion but developer CD Projekt has promised Patch 2.01 is "coming soon" with performance improvements in Dogtown and a fix for corrupted save data on PlayStation 5.

Announced on Cyberpunk 2077's support website, Patch 2.01 doesn't include a ton of additions to the game-changing 2.0 update but does look to address its two biggest issues: slowdown in Phantom Liberty's new area and some PS5 users finding their previous game saves busted.

The full patch notes can be viewed below, but CD Projekt said "these are just the highlights", implying other bugs will be addressed in the update too.

"[We] addressed the issue of corrupted saves on PlayStation by increasing the maximum save file size limit," CD Projekt said in the post. It does note, however: "This won't fix the saves corrupted before the update. If you're experiencing the issue, keep a working save (for example, resave it as manual save) until 2.01 arrives."

As for the issues in Dogtown, with some users experiencing occasional slowdown and pop-ins, which thankfully come as small complaints compared to the original launch of Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt said it has made "performance improvements for both PC and consoles, especially in the Dogtown area".

You’re reading the third 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

7:15 am - A complimentary breakfast buffet comes with our stay at the hotel, and I help myself to a Spanish omelet with ratatouille, a croissant, and a cup of coffee. At the end of the buffet line, I notice there’s a big pan of lasagna. I’m a bit mystified and decide to take a closer look to see if it’s some sort of breakfast lasagna, perhaps with eggs or bacon, but nope, it’s just normal lasagna. Do they eat lasagna for breakfast in Japan? The Kahala is a Hawaiian-themed hotel, so could this be a Hawaiian thing? I debate this with the rest of the media group and we’re unable to come up with an answer. I decide to try some and it’s a bit heavy for seven in the morning but it’s also super tasty.

8:00 am - We walk over to the convention center and we’re given early access to shop in the Worlds Pokémon Center. Normally, there’s a huge line that takes an eternity to get through, and by the time you get in, half of the exclusive merch is gone, so this is an incredible privilege.

Dale and Jesse are here, so you know what means; more Resident Evil chat! The boys and Matt P have played the Ada Wong DLC, Separate Ways for Resident Evil 4 and have tons of thoughts. We also chat about Mortal Kombat 1's story mode, Netflix's latest Korean game show, The Devil's Plan and we dive into all your feedback about the theme for The Endless Search in what we've dubbed THE GREAT DEBATE.

Have any thoughts about The Endless Search theme dude, got any good demo disc stories? Get in touch at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com

IGN UK Podcast 716: Hate the Endless Search Theme? Let's Go Our Separate Ways

• IGN UK Podcast 715: Idris Elba's Sausage Sandwich
• IGN UK Podcast 714: Daddy's Back
• IGN UK Podcast 713: Starfield - Bethesda Strikes Back
• IGN UK Podcast 712: Starfield - The Good, The Bad, and The Inventory
• IGN UK Podcast 711: The Best of gamescom 2023

UPDATE, Sept. 29, 11:50 a.m. PT: After spoilers started to trickle out, Insomniac Games themselves issues their own warning, writing on X/Twitter, "we worked hard to craft a story PACKED with surprises, so tread carefully and be mindful of posting spoilers."

Hey Web-Heads! As we approach launch, #SpiderMan2PS5 spoilers may start to appear online...

We worked hard to craft a story PACKED with surprises, so tread carefully and be mindful of posting spoilers. Let's #BeGreaterTogether: please keep the adventure fresh for everyone! 🤫 pic.twitter.com/sYffnzl0J3

— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) September 29, 2023

PREVIOUS STORY: With Insomniac’s hotly anticipated PlayStation 5 exclusive Spider-Man 2 just weeks away, it may be time to batten down the hatches as spoilers are beginning to hit the internet.

The first batch of potential spoiler territory comes from TrueTrophies, which lists all the trophies available in the game. IGN will not post Spider-Man 2 spoilers here, but be warned: the trophies suggest light spoilers for characters and potential plot points and gameplay activities.

Mortal Kombat 1 development chief Ed Boon is up to his old tricks again, teasing fans about potential upcoming DLC characters.

Boon tweeted an image showing a number of famous horror villains, including Freddy Krueger, Jason Voorhees, and Leatherface, all of whom have green ticks because they have appeared as a guest character in Mortal Kombat in the past.

It’s the villains who have a green question mark plonked on top who we’re most interested in, however. Michael Myers, Pinhead, Chucky, Jigsaw, and Ghostface are all teased here by Boon, and the Mortal Kombat community is responding as you’d expect.

🐉🤔 pic.twitter.com/nCtuSz4VSY

— Ed Boon (@noobde) September 28, 2023

Earlier this month, dataminers dug into Mortal Kombat 1 and found evidence pointing to potential unannounced DLC characters. While NetherRealm has already announced the characters set to appear in Kombat Pack 1 (check out IGN's Mortal Kombat 1 character guide for more), based on unearthed voice lines Kombat Pack 2 may include Jade, Cassie Cage, Kung Jin, Noob Saibot, Cyrax, and Ghostface from the Scream films. There’s even a suggestion the T-1000 from Terminator and Conan the Barbarian will appear in Mortal Kombat 1 at some point. Boon’s image shows Ghostface with a question mark, which tallies with the datamine.

Cyberpunk 2077 director Gabe Amatangelo has revealed how to become what he believes is one of the most fun archetypes in Phantom Liberty: "a warlock netrunner."

Speaking to PC Gamer, Amatangelo said the combination of the monowire cyberware and quickhacking multiple enemies can essentially inflict a never-ending cycle of chaos if done well enough.

"There [are so many fun builds], but I'd say the netrunner, spreading hacks with the monowire from the Relic Tree," Amatangelo said when asked which build he recommended players try. "That one's so much fun, especially if you are able to work in the combos and the rhythm for refunding your memory and your cooldowns. When you do it in concert with the monowire, you get the bonuses from the spreads."

Players can quickhack enemies in Cyberpunk 2077 to cause all sorts of problems, from short circuits to malware infections and more, but doing so costs the player RAM or memory that needs to replenish. Amatangelo's warlock netrunner essentially overcomes that problem, however, by using a combination of skills to replenish that memory very quickly.

"Basically, the bonuses you get from combos happening, you set a debuff hack on one person, you spread it to a few, and then you do a follow-up hack on all of them — you get the bonuses and memory refunds from all of them," he continued.

Mojang has ended development on Minecraft Dungeons three years after launch and after hitting an impressive 25 million players.

Minecraft Dungeons is a dungeon crawler spin-off that launched for Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PC, and Xbox One in May 2020, and for Xbox Series X and S in February 2021. IGN’s Minecraft Dungeons review returned a 7/10. “Simple and fun to play, Minecraft Dungeons is a good entry-level dungeon crawler, but it doesn't dig too deep,” we said.

In a note to players, Mojang said Minecraft Dungeons “exceeded our wildest dreams”, but “every journey has an end”. Update 1.17, released November 2022, goes down as Minecraft Dungeons’ last, and now Mojang has moved on to new projects “that continue to explore experiences in the Minecraft universe”.

This means there are no new features or content updates planned for Minecraft Dungeons. “We do intend to continue bringing new experiences to the Minecraft universe and give our team the freedom to keep exploring the types of games they're passionate about — just as they did with Dungeons!” Mojang continued.

Despite this, Minecraft Dungeons remains online and playable. “There are still plenty of adventures to be had together with your friends; dungeons to spelunk, ancient hunts to conquer, and toppling a Tower whose layout will continue to rotate,” Mojang said.

UPDATE: Sony has issued a statement in response to the removal of Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake trailers and tweets, insisting it has to do with music licensing.

“As part of normal business, we delist assets with licensed music when the licenses expire," a Sony spokesperson told IGN.

ORIGINAL STORY: There is renewed concern for the status of the troubled Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic remake after fans spotted trailers and other promotional material was pulled from the internet.

X user @Crusader3456 flagged that the 2021 Playstation Showcase trailer for the KOTOR remake was set to private, and posts published by Sony on official social media channels were pulled.

Playstation has officially hidden the 2021 reveal trailer for Star War: Knights of the Old Republic on YouTube. You can see the Trailer is clearly in the full 2021 Showcase Playstation Showcase but the individual Trailer has been hidden.https://t.co/2WPn4ib2C8

— Crusader II Elessar (@Crusader3456) September 28, 2023

Using the Wayback Machine, you can see the tweet did exist. last snapshot taken was in 2022. https://t.co/QuZ0Zavuch

Xbox controllers have once again gone back on sale in the UK, this time dropping to just £39.99 at most retailers. The sale comes only weeks before we see Amazon's Prime Day 2 (Prime Big Deal Days, October Prime Day) return on October 10-11.

Black Friday season will also soon be upon us, and we're also expecting to see similar discounts on Xbox controllers, games, and other accessories over the next couple of months. But, if you want to get in on the sales early (just in case we see your favourite colour sells out), then the deal is available here for all to check out.

What to Expect from Prime Day 2 and Black Friday?

Gaming console deals are usually some of the hottest sales of Black Friday, but you can also usually get some pretty great discounts on video games and accessories as well. These price cuts usually come in the form of popular games dropping under £30 or a BOGO sale.

The sales usually exclude the best new games of the year, but if you don't mind browsing top games of the past 5 years then you can usually find a really good deal. Some of the best Nintendo Switch games dropped under £30 last year, for example.

UPSpec Gaming has announced that its xScreen for Xbox Series S is now an official 'Designed for Xbox' licensed product. This means it has undergone rigorous testing and validation by the Xbox Quality Assurance (QA) team, providing additional reassurance to potential buyers of the portable screen.

We gave the xScreen a 7/10 in our review, stating: "UPspec’s xScreen is a fantastic portable monitor that makes the most compact ninth-generation console to date a lot more portable-friendly. Requiring just a single cable to power both the display and monitor, the xScreen is a good accessory for Series S owners who want to make their console portable or just be able to play when all the other screens in your household are occupied."

While the original price tag of $250 may still be seen as premium more than a year later, it's worth noting that the xScreen is presently available at a discounted rate of $209.99 on Amazon for those who are interested in acquiring this fully licensed portable screen.

The xScreen boasts an 11.6-inch 1080p foldable IPS display, available in a single white color variant. Its design is sleek and minimalist, featuring a foldable hinge that provides a laptop-like experience when connected to the Series S console. To connect the xScreen to the Xbox Series S, you'll need an HDMI cable and one of the USB-A ports located on the back of the console.

Just because I know that headline will have some of you primed to start typing in the Comments section, know that this column isn’t about Xbox exclusives. Those, as we all know by now, are still dripping out of the Xbox Game Studios spigot rather than flowing. But the back-pressure is rising, and I’m sure I’ll write more about what’s next in a future column. For today, I want to focus simply on games being released for the Xbox Series X and S right now, this Fall, whether they’re exclusive or not. Most of them aren’t, certainly, but it doesn’t make the following statement any less true: we are in the single biggest 90-day stretch of game releases since Xbox 360’s historic Fall 2007.

That legendary run, culminating in the second anniversary of the Xbox 360 on November 22, included an insane smorgasbord of games that were exclusives: Halo 3, BioShock, Mass Effect, The Orange Box, and Project Gotham Racing 4. Throw in the multiplatform releases of Rock Band, Assassin’s Creed, and Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and, quite honestly, I’m not sure if we’ll ever top that. But Fall 2023, aka Right Now, is sure doing its damndest to try! Take a look at what’s come out recently and what’s still on the way in the next couple of months:

Pretty much out of nowhere, a new Elder Scrolls mobile game just dropped, and it’s basically Fallout Shelter, Skyrim-style.

The Elder Scrolls: Castles appeared with little fanfare on Google Play today. It’s listed as early access on the Google Play page, but it’s currently free to download and play on Android devices. Per the Google Play listing, Castles is “a new mobile game that puts you in control of your very own castle and dynasty. Oversee your subjects as the years come and go, families grow, and new rulers take the throne.”

Each day in real life spans an entire year in The Elder Scrolls: Castles, the listing says, and over the time, players train subjects, “name heirs, and maintain order to help your kingdom flourish.” The Elders Scrolls: Castles will also have quests that include “classic Elder Scrolls foes to collect valuable items and keep your kingdom growing.” You can see more in the slideshow below.

As mentioned, it all sounds very similar to Fallout Shelter, another Bethesda construction and time management sim initially released for iOS in 2015 that had players overseeing a Vault and the Dwellers in it. Fallout Shelter found enough success to be brought to Android later in 2015, then PC in 2016, Xbox One in 2017, and Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 in 2018.

Earlier today, Sony announced a handful of games on the way to the PlayStation VR2.

Posting these announcements on both the PlayStation Blog and the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Sony shared new details on six games that will be playable on its headset. With release dates varying from next month to next year, here's a roundup of the six VR games Sony highlighted that are coming to PS VR2 soon.

Among Us

PlayStation's first announcement was that Among US VR will arrive on PS VR2. Though no release date was announced, the news is great for PS VR2 fans, as it was released on Meta Quest and Steam VR headsets nearly a year ago; it seemed only a matter of time before Schell Games released a PS VR port.

Journey to Foundation

Inspired by the Foundation novel series by the late American author Isaac Asimov, Journey to Foundation is an upcoming VR sci-fi RPG where players will explore uncharted regions of outer space. Players assume the role of an agent for a shadowy organization and become involved in a battle for "control of all humanity."

The game was actually revealed in February, but today's announcement revealed that Journey to Foundation arrives on PS VR2 (plus Meta Quest) on Oct. 26.

If you, like me, are a fan of Avatar: The Last Airbender, the promise of playing through its fantastic story yourself is an enticing concept that, shockingly, has yet to be truly delivered on in the 18 years since the animated show premiered on Nickelodeon. Avatar: The Last Airbender - Quest for Balance set out to change that: finally you and a co-op partner will be able to relive iconic Avatar moments, like that time Aang had to save a village from an angry monster by solving a sliding block puzzle, or that other time he had to enter the Spirit World to… solve a sliding block puzzle. Quest for Balance is easily the worst adaptation of the series since M. Night Shyamalan’s abysmal live-action movie. It picks baffling moments from the story to highlight, fills them with awful combat and bottom-of-the-barrel quests, and tops itself off with a healthy coating of jank that leaves fans still waiting for a decent Avatar game to emerge from the ice.

Quest for Balance splits Avatar’s three-season tale into 18 chapters, each loosely retelling an episode or portion of the cartoon. The word “loosely” is doing a lot of heavy lifting there, too, as the events of each chapter frequently focus on the most mundane parts of Aang’s incredibly rich adventure while breezing over many of the exciting bits in text transitions between scenes or 2D animatics that separate levels. For example, the first level has Katara and Aang exploring the rather ugly wreckage of a Fire Nation ship where nothing of note happens until a text box at the end of the stage explains that they set off a trap, saw the Fire Nation attacking Katara’s home, and had to rush back… by doing an incredibly bland Temple Run knockoff where you collect coins while sliding on an otter penguin.

PlayStation has detailed the wealth of accessibility features coming to Marvel's Spider-Man 2 at launch on October 20.

Revealed on the PlayStation Blog, Insomniac Games' advanced senior UX researcher Michele Zorrilla outlined the new and returning features intended to let as many people as possible play the game. Accessibility design researcher Sam Schaffel also took to the PlayStation Blog to explain how the PlayStation Access controller can be used effectively with Spider-Man 2.

Alongside the previously revealed ability to slow down gameplay, Insomniac has also added shortcuts that allow players to assign a variety of options to the Left or Right D-pad buttons.

Level modifiers take difficulty options one step further, letting players individually customise each gameplay element such as enemy health, enemy damage, stealth awareness, puzzle complexity, parry timing, and more.

Other gameplay assists look to make other parts of Spider-Man 2 more accessible, such as the chase assist which returns to reduce the speed of targets and increase how long players have before they escape, amongst other features. Quick time event autocomplete also looks to reduce motor fatigue by changing repeated button presses from taps to hold and more.

Without a single word, Cocoon takes a small, cicada-like creature on an exciting journey through the cosmos using only a thumbstick and a single button. That setup should sound exceedingly familiar for fans of gameplay designer Jeppe Carlsen's previous work, Limbo and Inside. But here, Cocoon differentiates itself from those monumentally creepy side-scrolling adventures as a 3D puzzle-platformer, and the additional dimension provides a refreshing amount of, well, depth to its challenging and intriguing puzzles. These puzzles build on each other in smart ways, keeping fundamental mechanics from the desert at the very start integrated and important all the way to the end. And even as Cocoon gets more and more complex, its minimalist controls make sure it never feels overwhelming.

It’s not long before your cicada is unexpectedly whisked out of that barren starting area and into a harsh mechanical one, and it’s there you find your first orb – a mysterious orange sphere that somehow contains that entire previous desert world inside of it.

You can pick this world up and carry it around, using it to power platforms, lifts, and other machines that impede your progress. Solving these puzzles as you swap between worlds is a wonderful time; seeing how each piece of the puzzle interacts with others and figuring out the layers between them is some of the most mesmerizing and engaging stuff I've seen in a while.

Epic Games, the North Carolina-based studio behind Fortnite and Unreal Engine, has suffered a significant round of layoffs.

First reported by Bloomberg, Epic Games is laying off 830 employees, or about 16 percent of its workforce. Epic Games shared a memo CEO Tim Sweeney sent out to staff in a new blog post.

Separately, Epic is "divesting" music service platform Bandcamp and will spin off most of SuperAwesome, a kid-safe technology company. Both were acquired by Epic Games in 2022 and 2020, respectively. Around 250 people are leaving Epic through the divestitures from Bandcamp and SuperAwesome.

You can read the full memo below.

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been out for nearly two months and developer Larian has revealed its most-popular multiclass builds.

In a PlayStation Blog post, product manager Emily Gera discussed the “art of multiclassing”, which lets players create versatile, powerful, and “occasionally kind of weird” class builds.

Baldur’s Gate 3 hybrid characters are made by combining two or more classes in the game. There are 12 classes and 46 subclasses to pick from (for more information, check out IGN’s Baldur’s Gate 3 How to Multiclass guide).

The most-popular multiclass combination is Rogue/Ranger, with over 175,000 players giving it a shot. The Rogue/Ranger class build “marries sneak attacks with high damage at long range”, Gera said. Given how tricky Baldurs Gate 3's combat can be, you can see why Rogue/Ranger would be so popular.

In second place is the “beefy” Barbarian/Fighter combo with 158,161 players. Barbarian/Paladin is in third, closely followed by Cleric/Paladin and Fighter/Paladin.

Here’s Baldur’s Gate 3’s top 20 multiclass combinations by number of players:

A wholesome collaboration between Pokémon and the Van Gogh museum immediately devolved into chaos as scalpers flooded the site looking for an exclusive Pikachu trading card.

As reported by VGC, the exhibition (which opened today, September 28), was intended to encourage children and young people to explore the artistry of Van Gogh, but videos have already appeared online showing the museum rammed full of scalpers.

The Pikachu with Grey Felt Hat card, which depicts Pikachu in the style of Van Gogh's Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat, has already been listed on eBay more than 100 times, with prices anywhere between $100 and $1,500.

This makes me so sad and is why we can’t have nice things

I saw so many wanting to go over in the first few days just to get any card and merch to resell. This is not an acceptable practice. If you do that, shame on you. https://t.co/vVHLHhVyZ1

— Joe Merrick (@JoeMerrick) September 28, 2023

"This makes me so sad and is why we can’t have nice things," said Joe Merrick, head of Pokémon news website Serebii, on X (above). "I saw so many wanting to go over in the first few days just to get any card and merch to resell. This is not an acceptable practice. If you do that, shame on you."

Stardew Valley creator Eric Barone, AKA Concerned Ape, has given fans a sneak peak at the content coming to the game in the highly anticipated 1.6 update, including a new farm type, fresh dialogue, and eight-player multiplayer support for PC.

According to Barone the 1.6 update will bring new Joja-related alternatives to late game quests, 100 lines of original dialogue, new secrets, and content that “expands on each of the skill areas”. The update will also introduce a new major festival and two mini festivals to the yearly calendar.

An entirely new farm type will also be dropping with the influx of new content, along with new items, crafting recipes and winter outfits, while PC players will also benefit from eight-player multiplayer support. The developer had stated the update will make the game “easier and more powerful to mod”.

1.6 content sneak peek. no release date yet pic.twitter.com/vyhbFRkZ00

You’re reading the second chapter of my eight-day travelog recounting my unbelievable trip to Japan to cover the 2023 Pokémon World Championships. If you already haven't, check out Day 1 of my Pokemon journey in Japan.

Day 2 - Pokémon Sweets and Unbearable Heat

6:00 am - I wake up and I’m so tired my face hurts. The 16-hour time difference is brutal. I was awake for 18 hours straight yesterday and my body is not having it. I push the button on the nightstand that automatically opens the blinds (this hotel is so fancy) and I’m surprised when the room fills with sunlight. My eyes scream. Turns out the sun rises at 5:00 am in Japan. But once my eyes adjust, I see a beautiful view of Yokohama and suddenly the pain of being a lil sleepy guy fades and I get hyped for the day’s planned adventures.

6:20 am - The weather here is obscenely hot and muggy so I pack a bag full of essentials to deal with the extreme heat: sunglasses, cap, mini-fan, and one of the hotel’s complimentary water bottles from atop the minibar.

6:40 am - I head downstairs and run to the 7/11 across the street for a quick breakfast. I decide on some banana bread rounds topped with dried banana chips. I had heard tales of Japanese 7/11s and their scrumptious wonders, and it turns out the legends were true. They have aisles and aisles of yummy foods, and I would make many a trip here during my stay.

The studio behind summer hit Dave The Diver has announced its next game — and it’s very different indeed.

Dave the Diver is a casual, single-player adventure RPG featuring deep-sea exploration and fishing during the day and sushi restaurant management at night.

Mintrocket’s next game is Nakwon: Last Paradise, which sounds anything but casual. It’s described as a third-person zombie apocalypse stealth survival game in which you experience a new form of ‘post-apocalypse life’ we’ve never seen before. There is exploration, extraction, survival, resource gathering, and a PvPvE city in which zombies and survivors coexist to survive ‘in this new societal structure”.

Mintrocket said the core “fun” of Nakwon lies in your ability to survive on your own “amidst the extreme tension with aggressive zombies and unreliable survivors”. Survivors compete for limited resources or find ways to survive without casualties.

It’s set in Seoul, which makes sense given Mintrocket is a division of Nexon Korea Corporation. “The unique setting in Seoul will elevate your gaming experience to a level unlike anything you've played before,” the developer said. “Here, zombies behave like humans but are more powerful and will relentlessly pursue you.”

A pre-alpha test is expected soon. There’s no release date yet.

IGN’s Dave the Diver review emerged with a 9/10. We said: “Dave The Diver is an aquatic adventure RPG that’s wholesome, wonderfully complex, and delightfully hard to put down.”

The PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S version of Cities: Skylines 2 has suffered a big delay from the planned October launch to some point during spring 2024.

Publisher Paradox Interactive and developer Colossal Order insisted the PC version of its hotly anticipated city building game is on track for the original release date on October 24 via Steam and the Windows Store, as well as PC Game Pass.

“We are hard at work getting the game ready for our release on October 24,” Paradox said in a statement issued to IGN. “While doing so, we have come to realize that we need more time to reach the quality targets we have set. As we want to provide the best experience for our players, we are updating the release window for Xbox and PS5 to spring 2024. The additional time allows us to focus on matching the quality and performance across all platforms.”

Preorders will be automatically refunded, Paradox said, with no action needed by customers. It may take a few weeks for an order to be refunded, the publisher added. The refund process for the physical edition preorder is handled via the retailer.

Meanwhile, Paradox has raised Cities Skylines 2’s minimum and recommended PC specs. “Cities: Skylines 2 is a next-generation title and therefore has certain hardware requirements,” Paradox said in a FAQ. “The recommended specs were set when the game was still in development. After having done extensive testing with different hardware we made the decision to update the minimum/recommended specs for a better player experience.”

Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion introduced players to a new area called Dogtown, but its residents really aren't a big fan of Night City's police force.

As recorded in IGN's Cyberpunk 2077 Easter Eggs and References Guide, the private-military controlled area doesn't even let police officers in. Any player who acquires (steals) a police car or van isn't allowed to pass through the Dogtown gates, with the residents offering up a rude response to those who try.

"F**k off NCPigs", a giant red message across the door reads, a play on words of sorts of the Night City Police Department, or NCPD. While the gates to Dogtown usually open as soon as the player approaches, they remain firmly closed while driving a police car.

The lack of police in Dogtown makes sense given it's a more or less lawless area, with even the abhorrent rest of Night City coming off friendly in comparison. It's ruled instead by the Barghest which, alongside being a neat reference to the original Witcher game, are a private military run by the vile and violent Kurt Hansen, Phantom Liberty's big baddie.