IGN

The Dark Souls tabletop RPG developer will correct and reissue its rulebook after customers pointed out a number of errors.

Steamforged Games has apologised for the state of the book, which is riddled with issues from spelling mistakes to rule-breaking inconsistencies such as Knights not being able to wear their own starting armour.

Steamforged announced in a blog post that it will issue replacement copies to people who've already bought the book (which is currently available in the UK but not the US), alongside a PDF copy to all customers.

Details are still hazy, however, as the developer has asked for "a little patience as we gather more detailed information regarding these reprints, the timescales involved, and how best to ensure we resolve this for each affected customer."

The Dark Souls tabletop RPG book is due to launch in the US on May 16 but it's unclear at this stage if the reported issues will affect this release date.

Steamforged told Polygon last week that the mistakes "shouldn't affect the playability of the game," but "we're always striving to strengthen our processes to ensure our loyal fans continue to enjoy the games we release."

PlayStation has released an app allowing users who own Windows 10 or 11 computers to update the DualSense controller. Previously, owners of the controller needed a PS5 console to receive firmware updates.

The new app, appropriately titled "Firmware updater for DualSense wireless controller," is available now on PlayStation's website. Installing the app on your computer will allow you to install the latest firmware update for the DualSense controller by plugging in the device via a USB cable.

PlayStation releasing a firmware app for PC comes as no surprise. Alongside the fact that the DualSense was already compatible with PC since its release in 2020, Sony has been slowly shifting to putting more of its first-party IPs on PC, starting with Horizon Zero Dawn in August 2020.

Since then, PC ports of Days Gone and God of War were released in 2021 and 2022, respectively. While Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, a compilation of Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, is slated to launch sometime later this year. Additionally, in July, Sony acquired Nixxes, a studio specializing in porting games to PC.

Snoop Dogg has arrived in Call of Duty: Vanguard and Warzone just in time for the weed worshiping day of 4/20.

Revealed in a blog post that asks if players are "ready to light it up", Snoop comes equipped with the Bong Ripper sniper rifle, West Coast Bling assault rifle, and Tha Shiznit submachine gun, available for 2,400 COD Points ($19.99 USD / £16.79 GBP).

Also in his Operator bundle is the Mellow Medal weapon charm, The Original Gangsta emblem, High Art spray, and a Finishizzle Movizzle. Call of Duty: Vanguard players will also get the Tactical Toke match intro and the Hit This, Fam MVP Highlight.

Snoop is a fully-functioning Operator and can therefore be levelled up as normal, also coming with four challenges - kills, headshots, hipfire kills, and wins - for a boost of Operator XP.

Rewards are given out on each level-up too, including two sprays, two Operator Quips, a Calling Card, a sticker, an emblem, a weapon charm, a Vanguard-exclusive Killcam Vanity, and four alternate outfits including the gold-trimmed VIP and the diamond-laden Tha Doggfather.

Snoop comes with everything else players would expect come from an Operator including his own voice lines and biography, which describes his hobbies as smoking, painting, and K-Pop.

Elden Ring's 50-hit fake wall was seemingly a glitch all along, and has been removed in the latest patch.

If you don't remember, the mysterious wall was first discovered in March and shook the community as, while illusionary walls are nothing new to FromSoftware games, one that only disappears after 50 hits meant that practically any wall in the game could be hiding a completely new area.

This wall in Volcano Manor didn't appear to go anywhere exciting though, causing players to speculate if it was just an odd glitch, something FromSoftware has now effectively confirmed after the latest 1.04 patch turned it into a regular wall with no illusionary properties.

apparently some fake walls in Elden Ring take multiple hits to reveal, and oh my god this changes everything
(clip from user teristam on r/eldenring) pic.twitter.com/Jt8MNUDY0j

— Iron Pineapple (@IronPineapple_) March 18, 2022

YouTuber Zullie the Witch returned to the wall after Elden Ring's latest patch was released and found that FromSoftware has quietly made it solid again.

Close to 10 years after its original release, Rockstar has quietly removed a handful of characters and jokes from Grand Theft Auto 5 that critics have described as harmful stereotypes of transgender people.

As first reported by Ars Technica, GTA community members have noted various changes to the remastered version of GTA 5 available on PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. They include characters labeled as "drag queens" no longer spawning outside Cockatoos in addition to having dialogue removed.

Over on Reddit, another user noted that a Captain Spacetoy with "interchangeable genitalia" has been cut.

In new-gen GTAV/GTAO, Rockstar appear to have disabled the trans caricatures or “drag queens” from spawning outside Cockatoos. This could be following a plea from OutMakingGames last year. I hope this provides comfort to anyone who felt these NPCs depicted harmful stereotypes 🏳️‍⚧️

My Xbox and Me host MC Fixer joins us to discuss a big week of Xbox news, from Portal 2's lead writer publicly calling on Valve to greenlight Valve 3 to Amy Hennig getting another shot at a Star Wars game to Sega working on big-budget reboots of Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio and more!

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 download of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out our latest IGN Unfiltered interview, where Joseph Staten – one of Halo's original creators and now the head of creative on Halo Infinite – discusses his fascinating career:

Oh, and you can be featured on Unlocked by tweeting us a video Loot Box question! Tweet your question and tag Ryan at @DMC_Ryan!

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

From the large pumpkins on the box and the connection between the name and a witch’s coven, you could be forgiven for thinking that Three Sisters (see it on Amazon) is a game about Halloween. In fact, it’s a game about farming: Three Sisters is a name given to a complimentary planting method used in Mesoamerica since antiquity. The pumpkin plant covers the ground, preventing weeds, and it’s planted with corn and beans, the latter of which uses the former as a trellis.

This unlikely theme is the inspiration for a roll-and-write game, where players roll and pick dice, filling in parts of their scoresheet. Yahtzee is the best-known game in this genre thanks to its mass-market production, but Three Sisters is about as far from Yahtzee as you can get.

What’s in the Box

Like most roll-and-write games, the bulk of the box in Three Sisters is taken up with score sheets you can rip off and write on to play. Unlike most such games, it has two separate sheets. One tracks your garden of flowers and vegetables. The other has your shed, your beehives, a long track for the goods you’ll produce, and a space to make notes. This latter addition may strike you as odd, but you’ll soon find out why it’s helpful.

Crystal Dynamics announced its plans to add Jane Foster: The Mighty Thor to Marvel’s Avengers’ roster of playable characters. This will mark Avenger's first new character since Spider-Man in November 2021.

Jane, who has appeared in the Thor comics since the early 1960s, will join the game in Update 2.5. In a blog post announcing Jane Foster, the developers say that Jane Foster Thor will be a unique hero with her own abilities.

“Our Hero designs are driven first and foremost by their core comic book identities, so, as a fellow wielder of Mjolnir, her suite of abilities will have a lot in common with the Odinson’s, however she will also have elements that are distinctly Jane,” Square Enix said via a development update.

It’s unclear what the rest of this update will include or when it will launch. However, Square Enix plans to reveal more details about Jane’s role in the future as more news regarding Update 2.5 rolls out.

Jane’s announcement arrived alongside details regarding Update 2.4, which is slated to release in May. Update 2.4 focuses on retooling the game’s rotation of events to keep things “fresh and compelling for replays.” This will include more diverse rewards, higher power level gear rewards, and rewards that apply to players’ entire rosters rather than just one hero.

Dragon Ball FighterZ has remained surprisingly popular within the fighting game community since its release back in January 2018, bolstered by a slow but steady stream of content updates and balance patches. Considering it's four years old as of this year, DBFZ has managed to hold its own alongside heavy-hitters like Street Fighter V and Tekken 7, and it's even managed to outlive sequels to popular franchises like Samurai Shodown (2019) and Soulcalibur VI which debuted long after DBFZ launched. However, for the first time since Dragon Ball FighterZ was released, casual fans and seasoned pro-players appear to feel ambivalent about the future of the game - due in large part to the release of its newest DLC character, Android 21 (Lab Coat).

At long last, the rumored dragon-themed World of Warcraft expansion is upon us. Blizzard has announced that the ninth expansion for its long-running MMORPG will be titled World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, and will take place on the mythical Dragon Isles.

Unlike several recent expansions, Dragonflight will open with a much more optimistic tone as explorers and adventurers arrive on the shores of the ancestral home of the dragons, which have recently awakened after being hidden for centuries. Draconic characters who have previously played major roles in World of Warcraft lore — such as Alexstrasza, Kalecgos, Ebonhorn, and Wrathion — will return for major storylines. As usual, there will be new quests, dungeons, and raids tied to this expansion and area, to be revealed at a later date.

Dragonflight expands the level cap to 70 and introduces four new leveling zones to get players there, which they'll explore in order: the lush and lava-filled Waking Shores, the wide Ohn'ahran Plains, the icy Azure Span, and Thaldraszus — the seat of power for the dragons and home of the new player hub, Valdrakken.

The Dragon Isles will also include a fifth zone — a starting area for a brand new hero class, the Dracthyr. The Dracthyr are draconic beings that can switch between dragon and human forms, and who can be part of either the Alliance or Horde. Dracthyr are exclusively tied to a single class, the Evoker, which can specialize either as a healer or a ranged damage dealer.

World of Warcraft is, inarguably, a pretty old game as far as MMORPGs go. So even though it remains popular nearly 20 years after its initial release, there are a number of antiquated systems and visual aspects that Blizzard's been steadily trying to update with each subsequent expansion. And now with Dragonflight it's time for an overhaul to three big ones: talents, crafting, and the UI itself.

For several expansions now, World of Warcraft players have been frustrated with a series of gimmicks designed to increase player power that were then ditched at the end of each expansion (RIP Artifact Weapons). In Dragonflight, Blizzard appears ready to ditch the temporary magic amulets and what-have-you and go back to a good old-fashioned talent tree once again.

As revealed in the Dragonflight announcement World of Warcraft is re-embracing talent trees after having ditched them at the start of Mists of Panderia. But the new talent system isn't just a reemergence of the old trees — it's been completely overhauled with both class- and specialization-specific talents which players can put points into on each and every level up.

In an interview with IGN, game director Ion Hazzikostas explains Blizzard's reasoning for initially ditching the trees, and then bringing them back with Dragonflight:

"In the years since we moved away from the standard talent trees…we've realized that while there was initial appeal to focusing the choices and really meaningful pivots in your character's capabilities, that system didn't lend itself to the same sort of ongoing growth and expansion," he says.

Over the years, there's been a series of rumors that, one day, World of Warcraft would get a console port. Most recently, there's been discussion flaring up again due to Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard and the tantalizing idea of an Xbox version, just as FF14 is playable on PlayStation. But at least for now, WoW game director Ion Hazzikostas is dismissing these hopes.

In an interview about the game's newly announced expansion, Dragonflight, I asked Hazzikostas if a console port was on the horizon specifically because of the planned UI overhaul announced as a part of the expansion.

With the MMO getting improved controller support recently and now a fully customizable HUD that players can move around however they like, the time seems ripe to make the jump to consoles.

But Hazzikostas doesn't seem keen.

"Nah, I think World of Warcraft is a game designed from the ground up for the PC," he says. "I think we've just been looking at the ways in which add-ons have at times felt increasingly required, or like the first thing you do when someone comes to the game for the first time is tell them, 'Hey, go download this add-on pack and move this stuff around' and we want to do better for our players."

With the announcement today of Wrath of the Lich King Classic, World of Warcraft has now committed to revisiting arguably its most famous and beloved expansion — a time period that could also be looked at as the end of an era.

Wrath represented the peak of World of Warcraft's popularity, and while it's continued to thrive since then, the expansions that followed were very, very different. Cataclysm, specifically, was a moment of dramatic change throughout the "old world" of Azeroth, and saw a major revamp of numerous regions from the original game. That's not to mention the various mechanical and visual changes from that point forward.

It's for those reasons that I asked WoW Classic head Brian Birmingham and production director Patrick Dawson whether or not Blizzard would be interested in taking Classic further after Lich King has run its course. I've asked Blizzard leads the same question twice in the past — once when Classic was unveiled, and again when Burning Crusade was announced. Both times, the answer was a resounding "if the players want it," but with a general optimism toward the idea.

Given that the next major expansion to World of Warcraft is themed around dragons, it's only natural that we finally get to actually play as a dragon with the new Dracthyr Evoker hero class. It may not look exactly like the dragons we're used to seeing fly around Azeroth, but that's probably for the best — the actual Dracthyr have quite a bit more going on.

We spoke with game director Ion Hazzikostas and lead narrative designer Steve Danuser ahead of the announcement about the Dracthyr, beginning with a fundamental question: why make a combination hero class/race where Dracthyr can only be Evokers, and Evokers can only be Dracthyr?

Hazzikostas says that the team started with the concept of the Dracthyr race, and came to the conclusions about the Evoker class organically from the lore.

"Once we really got excited about the idea of chasing a customizable full player race that delivered the fantasy of being a dragon, being a descendant of the dragons in Azeroth, well, then the natural next question was: what classes can they be or should they be? Pretty rapidly, we realized that none of our existing classes was exactly the right fit. The fantasy of being a dragon— they call down powers that are different than what mages or warriors or any of our known classes do. And of course, by their nature, they have these unique physical gifts, like literal wings and claws, the ability to unleash breath weapons…An elf is never going to be able to literally take flight and do a soaring deep breath over their enemies. Only a Drakthyr can do that."

Blizzard has just announced the (rather unsurprising) next step for World of Warcraft: Classic. Later this year, it's moving on to the Wrath of the Lich King expansion.

Originally launched in 2008, Wrath of the Lich King brought with it numerous additions that put WoW firmly on the road to being the MMORPG that it is today. They included the massive Northrend map; famous dungeons such as Violet Hold and the Culling of Stratholme, and numerous raids ranging from an updated Naxxramas to the frigid finale in Icecrown Citadel. It also added features such as an achievement system, the inscription profession, and the game's first hero class: the Death Knight.

By and large, Wrath of the Lich King's revival in WoW Classic will mirror the version fans remember, though there will be some changes. One of the biggest differences is the absence of a dungeon finder system, which was originally added to the game at the end of Wrath of the Lich King. According to WoW Classic lead Brian Birmingham, the decision not to add the dungeon finder at all was made to keep what the team perceives to be the spirit of the WoW Classic community.

"We know that the Classic audience is more interested in long-term social engagement, that feeling that comes from reaching out to people, talking to them about how you're going to group, trying to coordinate, who's going to do what role walking to the dungeon together, trying to figure out how you're going to get to the dungeon, who's going to summon, maybe run into a PVP fight on the way,” Birmingham says. “And then you finally get in there and you have friends that stick together with you."

The Halo composers who sued Microsoft over unpaid royalties have seemingly settled the lawsuit.

Marty O'Donnell and Mike Salvatori filed the suit in February claiming that Microsoft was not paying them the agreed upon amount for using their music in the upcoming Halo TV series.

In a tweet earlier today, however, O'Donnell said that "Microsoft and O'Donnell/Salvatori Inc are pleased to have amicably resolved their differences."

Looks like I'll be able to share some of those videos once again! Microsoft and O’Donnell/Salvatori, Inc., are pleased to have amicably resolved their differences.https://t.co/ZLnhFgblr6

— Marty O'Donnell (@MartyTheElder) April 18, 2022

The pair had originally claimed they signed a contract with Microsoft that guaranteed them 20% of the profits made from their music, such as in the Halo TV show, soundtracks, and so on.

O'Donnell told Eurogamer at the time: "If this is 20% then it doesn't seem like Microsoft is really making much money." Microsoft disagreed, saying that their music was made as work-for-hire, meaning it owned the music and not them.

A pre-trial date was set for May 9 this year but now, due to the apparent settlement, proceedings will have been called off.

Five years after Visceral Games' closure spelled the end of Amy Hennig's first attempt at a Star Wars game, the director best-known for her work on Uncharted is trying again, this time at Skydance Media.

Skydance Media announced today that Hennig is working on a brand-new game set in the Star Wars universe. Little is known about the new project save that it will be a "richly cinematic action-adventure game featuring an original story" set in the Star Wars galaxy.

Hennig's new Star Wars game is her second project at Skydance New Media, where she is also working on a "completely original" game set in the Marvel universe. Hennig first joined Skydance Media in 2019, where she started a new division based around "story-focused experiences [that] will employ state-of-the-art computer graphics to provide the visual fidelity of television and film, but with an active, lean-in experience that puts the audience in the driver's seat".

Hennig was previously employed at EA, where she was working on an unnamed Star Wars project known as Project Ragtag. The project was said to be in the style of the Uncharted series, but was delayed and finally canceled as EA shuttered Visceral Games and sought to move the project in a different direction.

Elden Ring's tutorial is somewhat easily missed by new players, but it seems that FromSoftware is aiming to change that with the game's 1.04 update. The new patch adds a tutorial prompt that explains, well, the tutorial.

FromSoftware fans have long enjoyed the studio's esoteric game design, which requires players to figure out just about everything by trial and error, but Elden Ring has offered a solid middle-ground with features that make the game just a bit more accessible.

This has included a larger collection of explanatory text boxes than ever before and even a full-blown tutorial section that explains the core mechanics through a mixture of text and gameplay.

Known as the Cave of Knowledge, the unexpectedly detailed (at least, for a Souls game) tutorial walks players through how to do things like guard-counter, stealth, and use weapon skills. FromSoftware veterans may find the tutorial rehashes some of the things they've been aware of for a decade, but it's a vital part of the experience for newcomers.

The Cave of Knowledge is located in the Stranded Graveyard at the beginning of the game. It can be accessed by dropping down a pit next to a spectral NPC in a chair, who hints at the tutorial below. However, many seemingly missed the pit entirely, or chose not to jump down a dark hole because, well, it's a Souls game.

The Pokémon Company has entered into an agreement to purchase the company that prints its trading cards.

As reported by gamesindustry.biz, the North Carolina-based Millennium Print Group will become a subsidary of The Pokémon Company - but will continue to operate independently - for an unknown purchase price.

The company has been producing Pokémon Trading Card Game products since 2015 and will be able to do so much more efficiently going forward according to The Pokémon Company president Kenji Okubo.

He said: "The talented team at Millennium Print Group has been an important partner to The Pokémon Company International for many years, helping us bring the Pokémon Trading Card Game to our fans with the quality they expect.

"By joining forces in a more meaningful way, our goal is to enhance the ways our organisations work together and continue to bring the highest quality Pokémon TCG products to market.

"Simultaneously, we aim to develop Millennium into an even better, bigger, state-of-the-art version of their already exceptional organisation, benefitting not just Pokémon, but all of their customers."

CD Projekt Red is not planning to release its single-player Gwent spin-off, Project Golden Nekker, on consoles.

Gwent Comms lead Paweł Burza confirmed to IGN that the game will be available at launch on PC, iOS, and Android when it is released later this year.

Gwent was available on consoles from December 2018 to June 2020, while another spin-off, The Witcher Tales: Thronebreaker, is still available on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One.

But game director Vladimir Tortsov said on the latest This Week in Gwent - a weekly stream hosted by Burza - that there are currently no plans to bring this new game to consoles.

"With consoles, we left them for a reason," he said. "There was obviously some good about them otherwise it wouldn’t be released on consoles in the first place, but for live service games with frequent updates it was a really tough experience.

"Overall, since we’re not there, we’re not planning to bring any of our spin-offs to consoles at this point."

In Eternal Threads, your goal is to travel back in time and save six people from a burning boarding house in Manchester. Easy enough, right? Just quench the flames and make sure the firefighters are in position. Alas, before warping back to the mid 2010s, your handler makes it clear that you cannot simply stamp out the fire. Instead, you'll need to carefully edit a series of decisions made by the residents over the course of a week which imperceptibly added up to the tragedy. You know that old adage about a butterfly batting its wings and causing a hurricane halfway around the world? That's the spirit of Eternal Threads; benign decisions, disastrous consequences.

After an hour with the game I was already smitten with Eternal Threads' core premise. The game plays out like the dirgeful, wondrously lo-fi Return of the Obra-Dinn; you are sent to this smoldering building with a portable chronology-altering device, and can rewatch various different events and interactions over the course of the timeline. Some of these sequences are fairly ordinary and ancillary, like a couple of roommates enjoying a late-night drink in the communal kitchen. Others are far more substantial and nudge your detective closer to the truth, like the implication that one of the residents is suffering from hallucinations.

Nintendo and Monolith Soft have announced that Xenoblade Chronicles 3 will launch on July 29 for Nintendo Switch. The game was previously set for a September release date, but it has actually been pushed forward.

A new trailer for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was posted too, which you can watch below. A new press release adds some fresh gameplay details, including the fact that you'll be able to battle with up to seven characters at once.

The game follows protagonists Noah and Mio as they navigate the turbulence between the nations of Keves and Agnus. Noah's party will consist of six characters from both nations, including Lanz, Sena, Eunie, and Taion. They set out to uncover the truth behind the conflict, as well as reach Swordsmarch, a land with a giant sword.

Noah wields a sword in battle and specializes in close range combat, and Mio is a Zephyr, who is able to draw enemy attention and evade their attacks. The other party members will have their own character classes and players can change them during the game as they progress throughout the story.

The central gameplay mechanic is called the Interlink system, a tag-team kind of affair. Noah and Mio, Lanz and Sena, as well as Eunie and Talon, will be able to utilize the Interlink system during battle. They can combine with each other to create a giant form called Ouroboros.

Nintendo also revealed a Special Edition of the game which will be exclusive to the My Nintendo Store. It includes a premium package with artwork from Masatsugu Saito, a copy of the game, a 250 hardcover , and a steelbook case.

Elden Ring legend Let Me Solo Her has now been modded into the game as an NPC summon.

As spotted by VG247, FromSoftware content creator Garden of Eyes has created a mod to add a "Puppet of the Legend" spirit summon to Elden Ring, immortalising the player who went viral last week.

Complete with its own artwork and flavour text, the Puppet of the Legend summon is an exact replica of Let Me Solo Her that's seemingly just as capable of taking down ultra-touch boss Malenia, Blade of Miquella.

The description calls the dual katana-wielding, half-naked hero a "warrior whose skill was a match to the Rot Goddess herself." It replaces the Lone Wolf Ashes item, and is currently only available by subscribing to Garden of Eyes' mod-focused Patreon.

Unlike the real-life player, the Puppet of the Legend summon can be called upon in any area of the game that allows for Ash summons, meaning players can enjoy much of Elden Ring with the legendary hero by their side.

Garden of Eyes' video introducing the mod highlights its multifunctionality, as the Puppet of the Legend can also be seen taking on a number of other Elden Ring bosses (by itself, naturally).

The second wave of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in April has been officially announced, alongside the news that two Ubisoft games will also be coming to the service in the near future. Most notably, it's been revealed that Assassin's Creed Origins will be joining Game Pass on cloud, console, and PC within the next 'two months'.

The new set of games announced for the second half of April includes Bugsnax, Unsouled, 7 Days to Die, and more. Plenty of other games already hit Game Pass this month, including MLB The Show 22, Cricket 22, Life is Strange: True Colors, Chinatown Detective Agency, and more.

Bugsnax is Coming to Xbox Game Pass

Originally a PlayStation timed-exclusive, Bugsnax is now making its way to Xbox and PC and will be available on day one via Xbox Game Pass. It will be available from April 28 on cloud, console, and PC.

Assassin's Creed Origins Will be on Xbox Game Pass Soon

Within the next two months, Assassin’s Creed Origins will be joining Xbox Game Pass for cloud, console, and PC. For Honor: Marching Fire Edition will also be coming to PC via Ubisoft Connect app, and you can upgrade to the Marching Fire Edition on cloud and console Game Pass.

Elden Ring trolls are soft-banning players by dropping the game's secret underwear in their worlds. Yes, that's a sentence that exists.

The Deathbed Smalls - a scanty piece of equipment which is only obtainable through hacking - will seemingly soft-ban players for six months if picked up, meaning they can only play online with hackers.

Vice reported a recent spike of players experiencing this issue, with several Reddit users complaining about their accounts being quarantined after other players enter their world and drop the Deathbed Smalls.

This can be done with any item and, as Elden Ring's multiplayer encourages cooperation, players often drop powerful weapons and items to help their fellow Tarnished.

Picking up the Deathbed Smalls therefore appears fairly normal, but players are soon made aware of the risk when they receive a warning message from developer FromSoftware.

"Unauthorised tampering with the game has been detected," it reads. "If any unauthorised tampering with the game is detected, a quarantine penalty of 180 days will be imposed."

CD Projekt Red has clarified that half of its studio is working on the first Cyberpunk 2077 expansion, after sparking some confusion about the number of developers involved last week.

In a chart from its latest financial report (now updated), the developer originally stated the largest portion of its team was working on "other projects including the new game in The Witcher IP" but has since made clear that this is not the case.

CD Projekt Red's investor relations Twitter account raised the mistake and confirmed that "the biggest part of our team is currently working on the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion."

Unfortunately, there was an error in the legend to the chart which presented our team allocation in FY2021 presentation. Obviously - as was said during the call - the biggest part of our team is currently working on the Cyberpunk 2077 expansion. Go to: https://t.co/Ut4Fu6MSOk

Elden Ring's patch 1.04 has nerfed an incantation that's been used as part of a popular tactic in the fight against the game's most difficult boss, Malenia, Blade of Miquella.

The incantation Swarm of Flies has been altered as part of the latest gameplay changes. The blood-based magic now has "Decreased blood loss buildup on enemy," and the community is already noting the impact it will have on the fight with Malenia.

Basically you patched how to beat Malenia with Swarm!

— GG_Elitee (@GG_Elitee) April 19, 2022

Melenia is an incredibly difficult battle, and many players have been using Swarm of Flies to build up blood loss at range in order to eventually deal substantial damage to the deadly swordswoman. Anecdotally, during my scraps with her I've noticed that it's a very popular choice among summons. Following the nerf, players in the community are already noting that the fight could be just that little bit more difficult now.

Well rip everyone who went to help with co op for Malenia and spammed this ( including myself 👀 ) pic.twitter.com/FIAc0KFBNX

Elden Ring's 1.04 update is released across all platforms today, and brings big changes for strength builds and magic users – not to mention adds new quest events for FromSoft in-joke NPC, Patches.

Announced by publisher Bandai Namco, the new patch is split broadly into four sections – Major Changes, Sorcery/Incantation, Weapon Skill, and Bug Fixes.

The Major changes include new event phases for Patches, although no detail is added about what those are – we'll have to wait for players to suss that out, it seems.

Fans with strength-based builds are also celebrating changes to Colossal weapons that increase attack speed, decrease recovery time, and increase two-handed damage. It makes heading out into Elden Ring's vicious world with a gigantic weapon that little bit more viable than before.

New players will also receive a boost after FP and stamina growth were increased at lower levels, and many will be delighted to hear that the madness status effect now comes with a shorter unskippable animation.

Sega is reportedly working on "big-budget" reboots for Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio, with the intention of creating new installments that generate recurring revenue and online communities.

According to a report from Bloomberg, the reboots are part of Sega's Super Game inititiative, which aims to create games with large communities and the ability to generate a long tail of revenue. Basically the Fortnite model of microstransaction-fuelled content drops.

Bloomberg's sources claim that the Crazy Taxi reboot has been in development for over a year, and that Sega aims to release it within the next two or three years. It and Jet Set Radio are allegedly two of four planned 'Super Games', with a third apparently being a first-person shooter that aims to generate $780 million overe its lifetime.

Both Crazy Taxi and Jet Set Radio date back to the Dreamcast, and so it seems as if nostalgia may be part of Sega's plan here, should the games be a reality. And even if both are in active development, Bloomberg's sources state that they are both in the early stages and could still be cancelled.

Voice chat has finally arrived in Battlefield 2042 five months after it launched in November last year. The feature won't let you speak with everyone online, though, as channels are limited to either Squad or Party chats.

It arrives in Battlefield 2042's Update 4.0 update, coming today, April 19, which includes hundreds of other fixes and adjustments as detailed in developer DICE's latest blog post.

The update is headlined by voice chat, or VOIP (voice over internet protocol), which has been one of the most highly requested features since launch, and which some players believe should have always been in the game.

Other changes include a UI refresh of the scoreboard (that was first added last month), balance updates to specialists, weapons, and vehicles, and an improved progression system that allows Ribbons to be more easily unlocked.

Players' experience with Battlefield 2042 has been fairly turbulent so far as it launched with myriad issues and quickly became one of Steam's worst reviewed games despite being very popular.

With Magic: The Gathering’s new Streets of New Capenna set just over the horizon, IGN is excited to reveal the full decklist for its Obscura Operation Commander preconstructed deck. Alongside official first looks at all of the deck's new cards, I spoke with Wizards of the Coast senior designer Gavin Verhey to discuss its saboteur-focused design, the rise of Treasure tokens in Commander, and one of the deck’s breakout cards.

Like all five of New Capenna’s Commander decks, each based on a different one of its five demonic crime families, Obscura Operation contains 17 brand new Magic cards. It’s a White-Blue-Black deck lead by Kamiz, Obscura Oculus, with a strategy centered around using creatures that have a triggered abilities when they hit an opposing player – often referred to as “saboteurs.”

Flip through the gallery below to see all of the new cards alongside the full decklist, and read on just below that to hear Verhey talk about the deck itself and the increasing prevalence of Treasures in the format.

As the controversy over non-fungible tokens (NFTs) continues to rage, Blizzard’s President Mike Ybarra has denied the company is interested in pursuing blockchain technology for its games.

Ybarra was responding to a story from Video Games Chronicle reporting that a YouGov survey asked players about crypto and NFT products in Activision Blizzard games. This sparked speculation that Activision Blizzard itself was polling the players about the controversial technology.

Ybarra tweeted in response, “No one is doing NFTs.”

NFTs are unique digital items that are stored on a digital ledger called a blockchain. While Ybarra’s answer will probably give many players a sigh of relief, other game companies still believe NFTs are the future of gaming.

Square Enix President Yosuke Matsuda ardently believes that adding blockchain technology to video games is worthwhile. He mentioned wanting to “provide incentives” to players who want to create interesting content that will “continue to evolve” using blockchain. Theoretically, this would allow content creators to own parts of the content created for the game.

Super Mario Bros. anime The Great Mission to Rescue Princess Peach is available to stream or download right now in 4k for the very first time.

A new restoration of the classic 1986 Super Mario Bros. anime is available now on YouTube, with a download available at the Internet Archive.

“This comes from a 16mm reduction print likely used for small, local screenings back in the day when it was released,” says the video description. “It's likely one of the, if not THE only surviving print in the world, and fellow fan Carnivol was able to get his hands on it back in 2016.”

Although the film has been available to watch online for years, this is the best version yet. This new restoration is clean, color corrected, and newly subtitled for the best possible experience.

“We were able to clean it up super nicely (although some scratches were unable to be completely removed),” the team explained. They spent months removing dirt, dust, and scratches. “Thousands of individual pieces of debris were manually removed for this restoration.”

Additionally, the audio has been recaptured using the VHS as a source.

“The VHS was originally released with 2-channel Dolby Surround, which is preserved in the audio capture here,” says Femboy Films. “This reflects most accurately how the film would have sounded in cinemas, as it was released with 4-channel Dolby Stereo there.”

There’s even a brand-new scan of the film’s original art books.

Former Xbox vice president Ed Fries says that he tried to buy Blizzard multiple times back during his tenure at Microsoft before he left in 2004.

In a podcast with XboxEra, Fries implied that the acquistion would have made sense given Microsoft's history with the PC platform, saying, "I was a huge Blizzard fan. If you think about the roots of our PC gaming business, it was real-time strategy...Warcraft, of course, was their biggest product."

ICYMI:

The latest XboxEra Podcast is now available on demand!

Sik and Nick were joined by former Xbox Team and Microsoft legend Ed Fries and it's a chat you won't want to miss!#Xbox #Gaming #Podcast https://t.co/hgO6qiP3MH

— XboxEra (@xboxera) April 17, 2022

Back in 1994, learning software company Davidson and Associates acquired Blizzard (which was named Chaos Studios back then). In 1996, Davidson and Associates was acquired by Cendant Software, which Fries recalls losing out on, saying, "I just got outbid by a time-share camping business?"

Warner Bros.' troubled Minecraft movie is reportedly negotiating with Aquaman star Jason Momoa to voice the main protagonist.

According to The Ankler, Warner Bros.' rights to Minecraft expire in January 2023, meaning the studio must start production on the movie before then.

In addition to Momoa, the film has also apparently tapped Jared Hess to direct. Hess is best known for directing Napoleon Dynamite and Nacho Libre.

The report also states Warner Bros. is looking to turn the Minecraft movie into a franchise if the first movie can get off the ground. Recently, the Sonic the Hedgehog movie franchise has successfully proven a video game movie series can work, with two hits at the box office, a third on the way, and a spinoff streaming series in development. It seems Warner Bros. is hoping Minecraft can be next in line to continue that trend.

The Minecraft movie's troubled development dates back nearly a decade when Night at the Museum director Shawn Levy left Warner Bros.' Minecraft project over creative differences in 2014. Levy was replaced by It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia co-creator Rob McElhenney, but McElhenney also dropped out.

In 2003 two of Japan’s most prolific video game publishers, Square and Enix, joined forces, bringing classic RPG series Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest under the same roof. Nearly two decades later, those franchises remain two pillars of Square Enix — pillars on which it has built a diverse, ever-expanding portfolio of games.

Between new releases and unexpected announcements, 2022 has already been a memorable year for Square: Triangle Strategy and Stranger of Paradise are two of the year's best-reviewed games at IGN, while Kingdom Hearts 4 is arguably the year’s most surprising game announcement (so far).

With even more promising projects on the horizon, we’re exploring Square’s development pipeline to give you a complete picture of what’s to come in the months and years ahead. This list only includes officially announced games (no reported or rumored projects) in development for consoles and/or PC (no mobile games included for now, nor are we including expansions or updates to existing games). Click through the gallery below or continue scrolling for our full list of the 14 known games in development at Square Enix.

More on games in development:

Here in the US, we haven't seen any price drop in the Nintendo Switch, which is kind of a drag. To be fair, though... Nintendo doesn't really need to drop the price, because Nintendo Switch still sells extremely well in spite of being 5 years old. However, much like PS5 and Xbox Series X, the best way to get a Nintendo Switch OLED Model is with a bundled deal. Thankfully, Dell is offering two such deals right now.

Nintendo Switch OLED Deals

You can choose between either Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury or Kirby and the Forgotten Land and honestly that's a really tough choice. I'm leaning toward recommending Kirby over 3D World, only because it's a newer game. Either way you go, you're getting a delightful Nintendo experience.

Having an extra set of Joy-con is also nice, since they've had some hiccups with availability (just like everything else electronic).

This is about as close as we've gotten to a proper Nintendo Switch deal, so even though it's not great, a deal's a deal.

Seth Macy is Executive Editor, IGN Commerce, and just wants to be your friend. You can find him hosting the Nintendo Voice Chat podcast.

Maybe I’m supposed to hate Postal 4: No Regerts. Maybe that’s sort of the point. Developer Running With Scissors describes it as a sequel to “the worst game ever,” Postal 2, renowned for its vulgarity and rough edges. If the goal was to make one that’s even worse then that’s certainly been achieved, but that gag doesn’t mean it’s ever fun to actually play. Even for the novelty of a guilty pleasure, like watching a really bad movie for a laugh, Postal 4 only ever disappoints – if I could somehow forgive the corny writing, bad graphics, awful gunplay, and constant bugs, it would still be incredibly difficult to enjoy any game that hard crashes every hour or so. Whether you’re in on the joke or not, there’s nothing on offer here except pain.

Activision Blizzard has stated that its CEO Bobby Kotick and Microsoft have not yet discussed what his employment status will be following Microsoft's acquisition of the company.

As spotted by Axios' Stephen Totilo, Activision added a line to its United States Securities and Exchange Commission filing about the planned sale to Microsoft that made clear these talks have not happened yet.

"No discussions or negotiations regarding post-closing employment arrangements with Microsoft occurred between Microsoft and Mr. Kotick prior to the approval and execution of the merger agreement and the transactions contemplated thereby, or have occurred subsequent to such approval and execution, through the date hereof," the filing reads.

A big question following the announcement of Microsoft's intent to purchase Activision Blizzard for $68.7 billion was whether Kotick would be coming along with the deal or not. Reports have come out saying that he is set to leave after the deal closes, but nothing has been confirmed one way or another.

Grab a slice of pizza, because Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection is set to release for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC sometime in 2022. While we don’t have the specific release date yet, this collection of 13 classic games is already available for preorder on most platforms (see it at Amazon).

Read on to find out where you can get it, how much it costs, what games are in the collection, and more.

TMNT: The Cowabunga Collection Collector's Edition

PS5

• Get it at Best Buy - $149.99
• Get it at Target - $149.99

PS4

• Get it at Best Buy - $149.99
• Get it at Target - $149.99

Xbox Series X / Xbox One

• Get it at Best Buy - $149.99
• Get it at Target - $149.99

Nintendo Switch

• Get it at Best Buy - $149.99
• Get it at Target - $149.99

The collector's edition of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Cowabunga Collection comes with the game itself, plus the following items: