IGN

The Quarry has, to be precise, 186 different ending variations. The ending you get depends on the choices you make with nine different playable characters; some of your camp counselors will be forever changed by their experiences at Hackett’s Quarry, while others may not even make it to see the new dawn. A story that shifts and changes depending on your choices is nothing new for developer Supermassive Games, but creating The Quarry was a “mathematical nightmare” that resulted in a script longer than a thousand pages.

As part of IGN First, we spoke to The Quarry’s director, Will Byles, about the challenges involved in creating a choice-driven horror game.

“Writing a branching narrative is a really interesting exercise,” Byles tells us. “We write a full, hundred page screenplay as if it were a movie. We develop our character styles, and once we've got that, then we can start looking at how we break that out into a full 10 hour experience.”

That first script is expanded to include all sorts of alternate pathways, covering different relationships, story twists, and — the classic — adapting to the potential death of all nine main characters. This colossal, final tome is then passed to the acting talent.

“Actors are used to, on a feature film, a hundred page script,” explains Byles. “So when we send the actors the scripts they get very alarmed because they're huge. The script for this is over a thousand pages. We have to shoot about 50 pages a day, which is unheard of. It's just a mad amount of footage. But obviously a lot of what they're learning is the same thing again and again and again, but a different branch.”

Call of the Sea developer Out of the Blue has revealed American Arcadia, a '70s retro-futurist game that promises to mix 2.5D platforming and first-person puzzling.

The game has a Truman Show-like concept, in which a whole metropolis is unknowingly part of a 24/7 TV show – and those who fall out of favour with the viewing audience are killed off. The story follows Trevor Hills, whose uninteresting life is interrupted by a mysterious voice seemingly helping him escape backstage.

Players will take the role of two characters – presumably Trevor and his guiding voice – one of whom will play in a chase-filled 2.5D platformer, and the other in a first-person puzzler featuring hacking, exploration, and stealth.

The voice cast is made up of familiar video game names, including Yuri Lowenthal (Spider-Man), Krizia Bajos (Cyberpunk 2077) and Cissy Jones (Firewatch, Call of the Sea).

We'll learn more about American Arcadia at Summer Game Fest later this year, and it's also a part of the Tribeca Game Festival line-up.

The game marks the second collaboration between Out of the Blue and publisher Raw Fury after Call of the Sea, the first-person puzzler we awarded a 9/10 review to back in 2020. We called Call of the Sea "a gorgeous homage to the films and games that inspired it," and said it was "a fun, but emotionally affecting adventure".

The BBC Proms, an annual series of classical music concerts, will include video game music for the first time.

Music from Kingdom Hearts, Shadow of the Colossus, Battlefield 2042, and Dear Esther will feature in the concert, revealed by the BBC and spotted by Eurogamer.

The gaming Prom, From 8-Bit to Infinity, takes place on August 1 in London's Royal Albert Hall - which will be decorated to represent the history of gaming - and is being performed by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

Robert Ames - who's previously conducted a sci-fi themed Prom with music from Interstellar, Alien: Covenant, and more - will conduct the event, with the longest performance of 14 mins coming from Battlefield 2042's "suite" composed by Hildur Guðnadóttir and Sam Slater.

This will be followed by excerpts from Shadow of the Colossus's music (composed by Kow Otani) at eight minutes, excerpts from Kingdom Hearts (composed by Yoko Shimomura) at four minutes, and the song "I Have Begun My Ascent" from Dear Esther (composed by Jessica Curry), also at four minutes.

The event's description reads: "Fantastic worlds, epic adventures, complex characters and huge moral choices – the universe of computer gaming is a natural match for orchestral music, and in the 21st century games have created a huge and passionate global audience for some of the most vivid, ambitious and inventive music currently being written for symphony orchestra.

Starfield’s composer has explained how Starfield’s music reflects what you do in the game, with a flowing signature theme that's inspired by heading out into the stars and then returning home.

Talking as part of the latest Into The Starfield developer diary, composer Inon Zur said “ The way I looked at Starfield is what I call ‘The Sanctified Triplet’. Which is, everything is streaming, right? Everything is changing and everything is returning back.”

Zur used the signature theme of Stafield, heard in the trailer and the dev diary, as an example. “So basically it presents itself, it develops, it goes back. Some sort of circular journey. There's always this drive to go back home. And that’s what feels so complete for us, right? We want to complete the mission. We want to complete our journey. We will find something, we will discover something, we’ll take it with us, and we will go back home with it.”

Within that composition, Zur wanted to create soundscapes that reflected the nature of space. “For example, [we] took the woodwinds and we created a whole woodwind layer that almost represents particles in space, because they don’t play melodies at all,” he explained. “They play sort of like a high frequency sequence. So they almost don’t sound like woodwind, they sound something between organic and synthetic.”

As with the Elder Scrolls and Fallout games, the signature theme of Starfield bleeds into the rest of the game. “I relax a lot once we feel good about the main theme because the rest is going to, it’ll be work in iteration, but it’s going to write itself,” said Mark Lampert, Starfield’s Audio Director.

PlayStation has created a new team focusing on game preservation.

Revealed by a new employee's Twitter and LinkedIn posts (as spotted by Video Games Chronicle) the division will focus on preserving PlayStation IPs to "ensure our industry's history isn't forgotten".

Garrett Fredley said his new role of senior build engineer is one of PlayStation's initial hires for "the newly created preservation team."

Today is my first day as a Senior Build Engineer at @PlayStation, working as one of their initial hires for the newly created Preservation team!

Game Preservation was my first career passion, so I'm ecstatic that I get to go back to those roots 😊

Telltale's The Walking Dead was originally pitched as a Left 4 Dead spin-off game, before the team took the idea to Walking Dead creator Robert Kirkman.

In a documentary celebrating the game's tenth anniversary, as spotted by Eurogamer, the game's original developers revealed they were at first in talks with Valve about a Left 4 Dead narrative-led spin-off.

A simple prototype was made but the plans fell through, and only later did Telltale approach The Walking Dead's creator Robert Kirkman about setting a game in his universe.

"The very first Walking Dead prototype, which actually was for a different zombie thing that ended up turning into the Walking Dead, the first conversation was actually with Valve," said season design and direction lead Jake Rodkin. "It was about: what if we did a narrative side-story in the universe of Left 4 Dead?"

The protype was a completely text-based game that presented options for the player to choose, instead of seeing them actually play out in the game world as in the final version of The Walking Dead. The gameplay saw players attempting to 'spin plates' by looking after a number of characters simultaneously, with bad or late decisions causing thwir narratives to go wrong.

"Thematically that's a lot closer to what The Walking Dead was about than Left 4 Dead, or even a lot of other zombie franchises, so it ended up being a really good fit," Rodkin added.

"I'm really glad that didn't work out!", Robert Kirman added about the Left 4 Dead idea.

The latest addition to the Vampire Survivors roster is a dog that farts flowers, part of an update that also adds a new challenge map called The Bone Zone.

The game's most recent patch notes revealed the addition of O'Sole Meeo the dog, whose weapon of choice is an array of really quite beautiful flowers that come in all shapes and sizes.

You can check out O'Sole Meeo in glorious action in the tweet below:

You cannot pet the dog in Vampire Survivors. ❌✋🐶#youcannotpetthedog #VampireSurvivors #DogsInGames @CanYouPetTheDoghttps://t.co/EeUlfxirua

— Vampire Survivors 🦇 Available on Steam! (@poncle_vampire) April 25, 2022

The patch also adds a hard Challenge Stage called The Bone Zone – in which hundreds of skulls will come after you – a new weapon, one more rank for the Reroll and Skip power ups, two Arcanas, and a handful of minor tweaks and bug fixes.

The much-anticipated support for variable refresh rate (VRR) is coming to the PS5 this week.

Variable refresh rate syncs the refresh rate of the display to the game's output. This helps get rid of screen tearing and frame pacing issues that can happen if the game runs at a lower or higher frame rate than the display. The increased smoothness can also decrease input lag which essentially allows quicker reactions when you press a button on the controller.

Until now, VRR was only supported on Microsoft's Xbox Series S and X consoles.

Sony's SVP Hideaki Nishino announced the update in a PlayStation Blog post. People with HDMI 2.1 VRR-compatible TVs and monitors will be able to take advantage of the feature.

Sony says that VRR will be supported on previously-released games via a patch and future games will include support at launch. VRR can also be applied to games that don't officially support it which could improve video quality. You can always turn it off if you experience any visual problems.

To start, the following games will receive VRR patches:

The winners of the Gayming Awards 2022 have been announced, with Life is Strange: True Colors beating out Boyfriend Dungeon, Psychonauts, and Unpacking to win Game of the Year.

The winners of the first ever live Gayming Awards were announced via a stream from the Troxy Theater in London on April 25. The biggest winner of the night was Life is Strange: True Colors, which triumphed in all three categories that it was nominated in, comprising Game of the Year, Authentic Representation, and Best LGBTQ Character.

In total, there were 11 categories honoring a selection of video games, tabletop games, comic books, and esports players that have championed diversity and inclusivity globally in 2022. Additionally, Tanya DePass picked up the Gayming Icon Award in recognition of the positive impact that the author and activist has brought to the LGBTQ community within gaming.

Prior to the event, Gayming Magazine also inducted six streamers into its Rising Star Class, which is new for 2022. The streamers were chosen to be part of this prestigious new class because they have all "made incredible strides in their streaming career over the last year and have made significant contributions to the LGBTQ+ world within the gaming space."

Meta announced today that it will be opening its first retail store at its Burlingame, California campus in early May.

This will be Meta's first hardware retail store and it will open starting on May 9 from 11 am to 6 pm, Monday through Friday. The idea of the store is to allow users to get hands-on experience with its products, similar to how Apple's retail stores allow customers to interact and demo various products in the tech giant's ecosystem before buying.

The new retail store will feature a dedicated space to test the Meta Quest 2. This includes trying games such as Beat Saber, Real VR Fishing, and GOLF+, and an option to take home a mixed reality recording of you trying out the virtual reality headset.

Microsoft's Xbox Series hardware was the best selling platform of the first quarter (Q1) of 2022 per dollars made. The NPD Group's latest analysis revealed that the combined front of Xbox Series X and S topped not only March's sales figures but the entirety of Q1, despite the PlayStation 5 leading the way early on in the year.

While the Xbox Series made the most money, Nintendo's Switch took first place in terms of units sold both for March and Q1.

It also marked the most successful March for Microsoft in over a decade, as its previous best for units sold was set in 2011 when the Xbox 360 was still the latest available console. Its record March in terms of dollars made came in 2014 after the Xbox One was released.

Hardware sales across all platforms dropped 24% compared to Q1 2021, accessories fell 16%, and games 7%, amassing to an overall decline in games industry spending (incorporating hardware, accessories, and games) of 8%.

Activision has very high expectations for Call of Duty: Warzone 2.

The publisher said in its first quarter financial results that the sequel to its 2020 Battle Royale will feature "groundbreaking innovations" that will be revealed later this year.

"Development on this year’s premium and Warzone experiences, led by Infinity Ward, is proceeding very
well," Activision said. "The new free-to-play Warzone experience, which is built from the ground-up alongside the premium game, features groundbreaking innovations to be revealed later this year."

The report didn't indicate a release date for Warzone 2 but at least said that fans will hear more about it relatively soon.

Activision announced the sequel in February, saying it would be built in a new engine and feature an "all-new playspace and a new sandbox mode".

Developer Infinity Ward's co-studio head Pat Kelly admitted that it "f**ked stuff up" in the original Warzone as the team is "not happy" and "determined to fix the issues with the game". Fans had criticized its overall stability and lack of content, especially given the install sizes that Infinity Ward itself admitted were "f**king crazy".

Diablo: Immortal is now coming to PC as well as mobile – and it will arrive for both platforms on June 2.

The MMO was originally announced solely for Android and iOS, but Blizzard Entertainment revealed in a blog post that a PC port will be released in open beta alongside the mobile version.

Cross-play and cross-progression will be available immediately on both versions, meaning players on mobile can play with those on PC, and users can continue their gameplay seamlessly when switching platforms. Classic mouse and keyboard support will be available on the PC version, alongside controller support.

Blizzard said in another blog post dedicated to the PC version's development that, for long-time fans, the port "will feel a little different from other PC Diablo games" as it originally only planned to make the game for mobile.

The PC version is therefore "an experiment", which is why its only launching in beta and not as a full version. "It is important for us to assure you that Immortal will deliver an uncompromised AAA mobile experience when played on Windows PC," the post said.

Blizzard decided to make this version when it decided that many fans would try and emulate the mobile game on PC anyway, and would rather make a fully functioning, native version than see players struggle through a substandard experience.

An Elden Ring dataminer has managed to get the game's inaccessible colosseum content actually working.

Back in March, Souls game hacker Lance McDonald managed to look around the game's locked colosseum locations, speculating that they'd be used for DLC. Now, YouTuber Sekiro Dubi has uploaded a video that seemingly reveals the colosseum's hidden Sites of Grace, location names, and even battling NPCs.

Sekiro Dubi used a map editor called DSMapStudio to effectively break into the colosseum in the Leyndell area, see what was cut, and then piece it all back together, revealing that developer FromSoftware seemingly intended it to be used for actual gladiator fights.

So remember the Elden Ring "possible DLC" Colosseum I made a tiny video about a while ago? Sekiro Dubi got it 'working', it doesn't seem to be DLC, it's some weird cut content where there were big enemies inside fighting each-other? He made a whole video https://t.co/BynoC8SRsu

— Lance McDonald (@manfightdragon) April 23, 2022

The video shows a giant lion fighting a knight in the colosseum, whose placeholder names were simply listed as "Old Lion of Arena" and "Gladiator Large" respectively.

The official reveal of the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 appears to be imminent as Infinity Ward's Twitter has gone dark. Furthermore, its header image appears to feature Ghost lurking in the shadows.

If you head to Infinity Ward's Twitter, you will notice that its profile picture is all black, which companies have done before ahead of a big reveal. IW's header image also appears to be a black image, but you can see the faintest image if you look close enough.

After IGN brightened up the image, it sure looks like fan-favorite Ghost is hiding in the dark waiting for his next move. You can see the brightened-up image below and compare it to Ghost and his iconic skull mask in light.

Infinity Ward working on Modern Warfare 2 is no secret as it all but confirmed the news back in February when it shared what its teams were working on.

"COD 2022 is a sequel to MW 2019, and being designed with a new Warzone experience (both led by @InfinityWard)," IW wrote on Twitter.

This new game will not be a remaster of 2009's Modern Warfare 2, but will instead continue the story that began in the Modern Warfare reboot from 2019.

In our review of 2019's Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, we said that its "varied gameplay modes and excellent gunplay suggest the series is headed in a promising direction."

Larian Studios has revealed that Baldur's Gate 3 will officially leave early access and be released in 2023.

Larian shared the news during 2022's D&D Direct in a dev diary that was focused on "the journey so far." While it features some glimpses of the game, a tiefling cosplay, and a doctor who may or may not be a doctor, the big news from the video was the confirmation that Baldur's Gate 3 will not make it out of early access in 2022 and will instead officially be released in 2023.

"By the Nine Hells, we've added a lot of great stuff already, and there's more where that came from," Larian said. "So, join us in early access on our journey to Baldur's Gate 3, or come along in 2023 when the game releases."

In February, Larian Studios' head Swen Vincke said that 2022 would be the last full year of development, but he left some wriggle room as to if there was a chance it could make it before our calendars moved to 2023. Now, the chance of a 2022 release is no more.

The Early Access version of Baldur's Gate 3 was released in October 2020 and featured a wealth of content. In our Baldur's Gate 3 Early Access review, we said that it "already has exciting turn-based combat and some genuine storytelling greatness, but it might be worth waiting to enjoy the full thing with fresh eyes."

343 Industries has revealed its planned 2022 roadmap for Halo Infinite, and it includes a late August release window for the long-awaited campaign network co-op.

All the details were revealed by Halo Infinite's head of creative Joseph Staten on Halo Waypoint, and while they are subject to change, they give a good picture as to what Halo Infinite fans can expect for the rest of the year. 343 also notes that the timeframe will "expand as we announce longer-term initiatives" and that the "roadmap is an evolving document."

The roadmap begins by focusing on Season 2 "Lone Wolves", which will run from May 3 to November 7. We already knew that Season 2 would launch with a new 100 tier Battle Pass, two new maps in Catalyst (Arena) and Breaker (BTB) and three new game modes in King of the Hill, Land Grab, and Last Spartan Standing.

What was made a bit clearer were some of the events and new features that will take arrive during the course of Lone Wolves. These include campaign network co-op in late August and the Forge Open Beta in September. These release windows are targets and may change, but it does put the progress of their development into clearer view.

As for Forge, 343 decided to forgo a "large scale formal flighting program and go right into open beta." Once it is launched, it will not go away and will continue to evolve and grow over time.

Sony's new-look PlayStation Plus hasn't yet launched, but PlayStation fans may be getting a beloved cult classic as part of the membership.

Spotted by Gematsu, the Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea issued ratings to four Syphon Filter games for both the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. The games include the original Syphon Filter, Syphon Filter 2, Syphon Filter: Dark Mirror, and Syphon Filter: Logan's Shadow.

This will likely be great news for fans of the third-person shooter that's become synonymous with the PlayStation brand. Unfortunately, not all the Syphon Filter games were rated by the committee. Syphon Filter 3 and Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain were not included, so it's unknown if they will be listed in PlayStation Plus as well.

Sony recently revealed its update to PlayStation Plus which puts it closer to Xbox Game Pass. If the Syphon Filter series is indeed on this new PS Plus - as these ratings are no guarantee - it will likely be under the "Premium" tier which adds PS1, PS2, and PS3 (via streaming), and PSP games to the offerings. It looks like nostalgia is going to cost you.

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Sam Claiborn, Justin Davis, and Colin Stevens -- are discussing Elden Ring, Unpacking, a Sega Genesis FPS, Sonic Origins, and more. And, of course, they play Video Game 20 Questions.

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

Listen on:

Apple Podcasts

YouTube

Spotify

Stitcher

Find previous episodes here!

Techland has announced that Dying Light 2 officially sold over 5 million units in its first month. Furthermore, it was also revealed that the original Dying Light has crossed 20 million units since it was released in 2016.

The news was shared in a press release and Techland also confirmed that the sales of Dying Light 2 are "significantly growing each month," although it gave no other details as to how much. It did tease, however, that it will be debuting new content for Dying Light 2 alongside some "highly requested features" next week.

"The success of the Dying Light franchise is a great example of the unforgettable experiences we create for our players," Techland's CEO Paweł Marchewka said.

In our Dying Light 2 review, we said that it is "is an ambitious zombie action-adventure that's packed with top-notch parkour, an awesome open world, and every painful bug in the book."

If you are one of the 5 million who have already picked up Dying Light 2 or plan on doing so in the near future, be sure to check out our Dying Light 2 Wiki to help you survive this particular zombie apocalypse.

For more, check out lead game designer Tymon Smektała discussing how the first story expansion for Dying Light 2 won't take place after the game's ending and will instead take place "sideways to the main events."

The dreaded Joy-Con drift issue has plagued Nintendo Switch since its release back in 2017. However, it looks like the situation's effects go beyond the gamer. The repair center that handled Joy-Con fixes was reportedly constantly overwhelmed and was prone to making mistakes.

According to Kotaku, Joy-Con repairs were reportedly not handled by Nintendo themselves, but rather by another company called United Radio. A former supervisor says that the volume of Joy-Cons coming into the shop reached up to thousands every week and was a very stressful experience, which ultimately lead to high turnover and lots of repair mistakes.

"We ended up having to set up an entire new workspace just for Joy-Con repair," the former supervisor told Kotaku.

While Nintendo sent brand new Joy-Cons as new replacements for customers at first from 2017 to 2018, eventually the employees at United Radio had to repair every set of Joy-Cons. Reportedly, the shop's metrics required it to repair 90% of incoming Joy-Cons within four days, whether or not new workers were coming.

As a result of the high turnover rate, there was a lack of senior expertise at United Radio which caused frequent mistakes in Nintendo Switch repairs. In one instance, a Nintendo customer received a repaired Switch, but it had a completely different person's account and save data.

The Agent of the Nine himself, 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 Today?

Xûr's location can be found at Winding Cove in the EDZ on April 24 through April 26. 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 freakish salesman we all adore.

Sony has revealed the targeted release dates for its all-new version of PlayStation Plus, and those in the Americas are set to be able to start using the new service on June 13, 2022.

As detailed on PlayStation.Blog, Asia markets (excluding Japan) will be the first to get the new service as it is currently targeting May 23, 2022. Japan will be next on June 1, followed by the Americas on June 13, and then finally Europe on June 22.

Sony Interactive Entertainment president and CEO also revealed that PlayStation would be expanding its cloud streaming access to Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Greece, Hungary, Malta, Poland, Republic of Cyprus, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. These markets will also offer the Premium tier of PlayStation Plus at launch.

This all-new version of PlayStation Plus will bring together both PS Plus and PS Now into a three-tier subscription service and it will include up to 700 games and access to retro games at its highest Premium tier.

The first tier is PlayStation Plus Essential and it provides all the same benefits that the current iteration of PlayStation Plus offers at the same price of $9.99/month. PlayStation Plus Extra is the next step up at $14.99/month and that adds a catalog of up to 400 of "the most enjoyable PS4 and PS5 games."

The Gayming Awards are back for the second time in 2022 to celebrate LGBTQ+ video gaming and queer geek culture and honor the video games, tabletop games, comic books, and esports players that best championed diversity and inclusivity globally in 2022.

IGN will be hosting the Gayming Awards 2022 livestream, and this watch guide will provide you with everything you need to watch the show, including when it starts, where you can watch it with us, and what you can expect to see from the award show.

Gayming Awards 2022 Date and Start Time

The Gayming Awards 2022 will stream live from the Troxy Theater in London on Monday, April 25, 2022, at 11:45am PT/2:45pm ET/7:45pm BST. If you live in Australia, that translates to Tuesday, April 25, at 4:45am AEST. The show will last roughly 90 minutes.

There will also be a pre-show performance of "nerdy drag from the famous Cybil's House, featuring Cybil War, Aubrey Wodonga, RhyssPieces, Lolo Brow and Shardeazy Afrodesiak" that will begin at 11am PT/2pm ET/7pm BST. In AEST, that's 4am.

How to Watch the Gayming Awards 2022

IGN plans to carry the Gayming Awards 2022 stream, which means we'll have it available on a variety of platforms. Here’s the full list of places you can watch the event with us;

Joe’s been putting his fingers all over another brand new handheld console - the Playdate. He tells Cardy and Emma all about it before they delve into the worlds of Lego: Builder’s Journey, Better Call Saul, Windfall, and Vampire Survivors. There’s also a hotly contested Endless Search and plenty of chocolate and grave digging business

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

IGN UK Podcast #641: Grave Digger 4000

• IGN UK Podcast #640: The 2013 Build-a-Game Workshop
• IGN UK Podcast #639: Three Bunged Up Boys
• IGN UK Podcast #638: The Steam Deck Is a Big Boi
• IGN UK Podcast #637: Ghostwiring and Smelly Feedback
• IGN UK Podcast #636: GTA V is Old but so Are We Now

End music credit: Funeral March - Chopin (Elzy Wize remix) - https://youtu.be/SVlAZhaugRs

Developer OrionGames has announced Arto, an action-RPG with a visually unique graphical style. It's in development for PC.

Arto features, as you'd expect from an action-RPG, plenty of weapons to unlock and upgrade as well as over two dozen enemy types to fight. But what makes it stand out is obvious by looking at the screenshots below or the announcement trailer above: it's the distinct art style, which Orion describes as breathing life into a word devoid of color. Each of the six biomes will deliver its own unique look.

The single-player story also promises a branching narrative with multiple endings, an open world to explore, and plenty of challenging boss fights.

You can wishlist Arto on Steam if you're interested.

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.

Borderlands 3 is finally getting cross-play after PlayStation initially blocked the feature.

As reported by GameSpot, developer Gearbox announced at PAX East that cross-play would arrive this spring, meaning players on PlayStation, Xbox, and PC can all play together.

The studio revealed last year that full cross-play was ready for Borderlands 3 but it was told to pull the feature from PlayStation consoles.

Cross-play was available in Gearbox's latest game, however, as Tiny Tina's Wonderlands included the feature from the moment it launched last month, allowing up to four players to play online together regardless of platform.

Sony has been historically resistant to letting its players join those on its competitors' platforms but titanic titles like Fortnite, Call of Duty, and Rocket League have helped push cross-play into the norm.

Rocket League is getting a limited-time deathmatch mode.

Developer Psyonix is removing the ball in its new Knockout Bash mode as destroying other players becomes the only objective.

The eight-player free-for-all mode was revealed in a PlayStation Blog post and will introduce new mechanics including attack, block, and grab.

The event will only run for two weeks from April 27 to May 10, but features a number of tailor-made maps with various obstacles such as giant spiky pillars.

Maps also feature a "kill zone" where players must force their opponents in order to win using the new attacking, grabbing, and blocking mechanics, inspiration of which was taken directly from fighting games.

"We thought it would be fun if each move set juked another, like rock, paper, scissors," said Psyonix programmer Sky Breen, who was part of the team developing Knockout Bash. "This way, it would allow players to outsmart others if they can predict what move someone else plans to use."

Psyonix is "definitely breaking the rules" with the new mode, Breen said, "but we are hoping players will really love all the changes and new additions we have made."

Rocket League was first released in 2015 and has featured countless updates since, including the addition of new modes that take a step away from its football-based roots.

A God of War: Ragnarok developer has reassured fans that the game will definitely be released this year.

To celebrate the last God of War game's four-year anniversary, director Cory Barlog had released a video saying, "I just wish that we could share [Raganarok footage] with you but it's just not ready to be shown."

That led to some concern among fans that the game would see another delay but, after a fan on Twitter asked Sony Santa Monica animation director Bruno Velazquez, he simply said: "Ragnarok is coming this year."

Ragnorok is coming this year.

— Bruno Velazquez 🎮🕹 (@brunovelazquez) April 20, 2022

Originally due to be released in 2021, the game was pushed back "to ensure that Santa Monica Studio can deliver the amazing God of War game that we all want to play," PlayStation said at the time.

Some fans have been sceptical, though, as only a few minutes of the game has been shared. When it delayed Ragnarok, Sony also said that Horizon: Forbidden West would launch in 2021 but that didn't happen.

Splatoon 3 will be released on September 9, and we've gotten a new trailer showing off a full round's worth of gameplay.

Revealed by Nintendo, a new trailer shows off a full 4v4 Turf War battle from the inky shooter – set on a new stage, Eeltail Alley – and follows pre-orders opening last week.

Nintendo also revealed that, as of today, the Splatoon 2 Octo Expansion DLC will be available as a free download to Nintendo Switch Online Expansion Pass subscribers.

Splatoon 3 was first announced last year, and brings back a familiar mix of competitive multiplayer (albeit with new weapons and special abilities), a co-op mode called Salmon Run, and a new single-player campaign titled "Return of the Mammalians".

It's wil have been 5 years since Splatoon 2 by the time the sequel arrives. We awarded the last game an 8.3 review, saying a "crazy and clever co-op mode helps this team-based shooter make a splash". The subsequent Octo Expansion got itself an 8.8 review, with our reviewer saying the gratifyingly difficult levels made them "wish this had been Splatoon 2’s base campaign all along."

An Elden Ring fan is travelling 30 years back in time by creating a Game Boy demake of the FromSoftware open world hit.

Twitch user shintendoTV is streaming the game's development live after announcing their plans in a Reddit post (below), where they said the game will be designed to work on real hardware – presumably the likes of Analogue Pocket, rather than an original Game Boy.

While they're currently unsure how much of the game they'll recreate (as Elden Ring is truly massive) Shintendo is at least hoping to make the complete opening area of Limgrave.

The demake is being made in GB Studio 3.0, something Shintendo calls "a really impressive and brand new piece of software" that's still in development itself.

This means that certain features such as enemy pathfinding (enemies chasing after the player) aren't available yet, but Shintendo is hoping to have a playable version of Limgrave completed, alongside a demo, by the end of May.

The demake is set to feature iconic locations and characters from Elden Ring including the Church of Elleh, where players will encounter Melina, who simply asks: "No Maidens?"

Dr. Dre was at the centre of Grand Theft Auto Online's The Contract expansion, but the hip-hop icon initially had no intention of getting involved.

Speaking to BET Music, rapper, producer, and GTA Online co-writer DJ Pooh said that Dre, not fully understanding what GTA was, didn't want to make music or appear in something intended for kids.

"Initially it was just 'no', but that's the normal answer you get from Dre," he said. "Dre's not a gamer. He just didn't play any of the games. It's not like he dislikes them or something, he just didn't play them. He was like, 'I don't make things for kids'."

As a big fan of gaming himself, Pooh took his PlayStation to Dre's mansion and showed him the game in action.

"He was blown away. He didn't know you could do all this stuff," Pooh said. "He was like, 'this s**t is awesome', and he's seeing me driving around in a lowrider. We out here putting different rims on the car, getting in a shootout, hanging out with my friends."

Seeing that the game wasn't just a children's toy, and being told about GTA's history with music and its incredible sales figures, Dre was convinced.

The director of the Star Wars: Rogue Squadron series wants to see a lot of Nintendo Wii features in any remaster for Switch.

A conversation was sparked on Twitter (below) after a fan asked Aspyr - the developer behind other Star Wars Switch remasters, including Jedi Knight II and The Force Unleashed - if it would ever make a new version of Rogue Squadron.

Aspyr said it would love to if fan demand was there, prompting Rogue Squadron series director Julian Eggebrecht to reel off his wishlist for the ultimate version.

Glad you enjoyed our games - we loved making them for all Star Wars fans out there! To round this off, it should include a remastered Rogue Squadron N64/PC with the high detail ship models from the Wii, and updated textures & shaders. The Force would be strong with that one.

— Julian Eggebrecht (@JuEggebrecht) April 21, 2022

It includes a lot of features from the unreleased Wii version of Rogue Squadron, the fourth and final iteration that was in development but cancelled due to legal issues between LucasArts and its game developers.

"The one for Switch should be the ultimate Rogue using every last bit of the Wii." he said. "All controller from Pro to wheel, all levels from Leader and Strike in one as intended, fixed and remixed."

Gearbox has announced that a brand new Tales from the Borderlands game will be released in 2022 from Gearbox and 2K, and it promises a new adventure, new characters, and "new tales."

Announced during Gearbox's Pax East 2022 panel by CEO Randy Pitchford, this new game will be fully revealed in the summer but, in the meantime, the first teaser image was shared.

New adventure, new characters, new tales.

An all NEW Tales from the Borderlands is coming in 2022 from Gearbox and 2K.#GearboxAtPAX #Borderlands pic.twitter.com/mhBicROKqX

— GearboxOfficial (@GearboxOfficial) April 21, 2022

Tales from the Borderlands was released in 2014 by Telltale Games told a story between the events of Borderlands 2 and Borderlands 3 and followed two unreliable narrators - Rhys and Fiona - as they searched for a vault and ran into fan-favorite Borderlands characters like Claptrap.

In our review of the first of five episodes of Tales from the Borderlands, we said, "With only a brief introduction to Rhys and Fiona, they have already become a pair of my favorite Telltale characters, and the fantastic final scene of the Zer0 Sum has be anxiously awaiting my return trip to Pandora."

Sony’s major upcoming update to PlayStation Plus consolidates its existing services into three tiers, the two most expensive of which offer players hundreds of games from PlayStation’s current and back catalog. As the PS5 is only backward compatible with the PS4, these new plans are the only way for players to access PS1, PS2, PS3, and PSP games on their latest PlayStation systems. Most of those libraries will be directly downloadable, but there is a major outlier: PlayStation 3 games will only be available to stream, as has been the case on PlayStation Now.

This disparity is disappointing, particularly for fans with poor internet speeds that cannot reliably stream games. Following the lack of PS3 backward compatibility on the PS4, the announcement once more raised the question: Why won’t Sony emulate its 2006 console, which has a fantastic library of games, and could there be technical issues preventing them from doing so? To find out, I spoke to the developers of fan-made PS3 emulators to understand why the unique construction of the PS3 hardware continues to haunt PlayStation. IGN has also reached out to PlayStation for comment on the lack of PS3 downloads for PlayStation Plus, but did not hear back by the time of publishing.

Gearbox Publishing has announced Eyes in the Dark: The Curious Case of One Victoria Bloom, an atmospheric roguelite coming to PC on July 14.

Players take on the role of Victoria as she searches for her lost grandfather in the ever-changing Bloom family mansion, fighting all manner of monsters with a flashlight and slingshot in 2D twin-stick shooter style gameplay.

The game is being developed by indie developer Under the Stairs and will be available on both Steam and the Epic Games Store for $14.99.

"Eyes in the Dark creates an atmosphere of loneliness and isolation, all while giving you the tools to ultimately come out of the experience as a stronger person," said game designer Filip Neduk said.

"Victoria's trial - going through the mansion alone and facing her fears - mirrors the player's need to learn and master the mechanics of the game to progress; you both go through this adventure together."

More items and upgrades will become available to Victoria as she makes her way through the mansion including a Shotgun Bulb or matches that set your enemies alight. Each item also has a unique ability that players can mix and match to create new combos.

"One of the beautiful things that the team focused on was making sure that no two playthroughs of the game would be the same, regardless of how you guide Victoria," added Under the Stairs' director Vladimir Bogdanić.

The PC requirements for Eyes in the Dark were also revealed, which can be seen below:

A former Nintendo of America employee has filed a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) accusing Nintendo of terminating their employment due to their involvement with a union.

The specific charge, as first reported by Axios, is levied against both Nintendo of America and recruiting firm Aston Carter, which hires contractors for various administrative and customer support roles at Nintendo. It alleges that the employee was terminated from their role due to activities connected with unionization - either joining or supporting a union, and participating in other activities such as discussing their wages and terms of employment. The complaint also accuses Nintendo of "engaging in surveillance" of union activities.

Through the NLRB, employees are protected from retaliation or termination for participating in union activities or otherwise organizing. With the complaint now filed, the next step is for the NLRB to investigate the termination to determine if it was, as is claimed, illegal and related to unionization.

In a statement shared with Polygon, Nintendo confirmed the employee in question was terminated but asserts it was not due to organization:

"We are aware of the claim, which was filed with the National Labor Relations Board by a contractor who was previously terminated for the disclosure of confidential information and for no other reason," the statement reads. "Nintendo is not aware of any attempts to unionize or related activity and intends to cooperate with the investigation conducted by the NLRB.

Square Enix and People Can Fly have announced Outriders Worldslayer, an expansion to 2021’s chaotic looter shooter, will launch this June.

Outriders Worldslayer pushes the action into the further reaches of the world of Enoch, to regions where frost storms and blizzards have coated the landscape with snow and ice. This is the setting for Worldslayer’s new campaign, which sees the leader of the human insurgence faction, the incredibly powerful Ereshkigal, plotting her own future for humans on Enoch.

The expansion’s campaign features new additions to all of the key aspects of Outriders; there’s new zones, enemies and enemy variants, two new five-piece legendary armor sets per class, new multiclass three-piece legendary armor sets, weapons, and mods. In total, Worldslayer adds almost 100 new Legendary items across armor, weapons, and mods.

All of this can be played by existing players with powerful characters, but brand new players can get straight into Worldslayer by using a Level 30 Boost to bring a fresh character up to the required level for the campaign. This boost can be used as many times as you want to create several different level 30 characters.

Wizards of the Coast have announced that this year’s remaining Dungeons & Dragons releases will include the return of two of the TTRPG’s most beloved settings: Dragonlance and Spelljammer.

Announced as part of today's D&D Direct, this summer will see the return of sailing through the ether in Spelljammer: Adventures in Space. This new campaign setting will be introduced via three books, which can be bought together as a collection in a slipcase with a DM screen and map.

"The defining setting for D&D is the multiverse and all of the worlds in it," said Chris Perkins, one of D&D's Lead Designers. "What [Spelljammer] does is it lets you not only travel from world to world but also explore the space between the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons."

The books include the Astral Adventurer’s Guide, which includes vital source materials for both players and dungeon masters. Most important of those materials are the six new playable races: the Astral Elves, the robotic Auto Gnomes, the Hadozee (flying monkeys), the Giff (hippofolk), the Plasmoids (shapeshifting ooze), and the insectoid Thri-kreen.

Alongside the Astral guide is Boo’s Astral Menagerie, named after the miniature giant space hamster of Baldur’s Gate fame. This is a bestiary of Spelljammer’s many new monsters, including vampirates, space clowns, and solar and lunar dragons.

F1 22 is coming to PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X/S, and PC on July 1.

Publisher EA has promised the new game will bring the biggest shake-up in over a decade, with new features including VR support on PC through Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

F1 22 will also include "expanded gameplay options" including sprint races, new customisation options for altering formation laps, safety car periods, and pit stops, and adaptive AI that matches player skill level.

Enter the new era with #F122game

F1® 22 – coming July 1 for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, and PC

More details 👉 https://t.co/ceO9wSuwuz pic.twitter.com/JeGHtPeMtZ

— Electronic Arts (@EA) April 21, 2022

An immersive, customisable hub world called F1 Life will let players show off and take in their collection of supercars, clothing, and accessories that are earned throughout the game.

Tracks have also been updated to match the 2022 season including updates to Abu Dhabi, Australia, and Spain, plus the addition of the inaugural Miami Grand Prix.

"Alongside the real-world changes, we have updated the physics to accommodate the new aero rules and re-worked the tyre model, making the handling more true to life," said Lee Mather, creative director at developer Codemasters.