IGN

Konami is finally releasing the full version of eFootball on April 14, with a new patch set to fix bugs and add new features many have been waiting for since last year.

Patch 1.0 promises to turn the game from what Konami said was "basically a demo" into the fully-fledged first version of its new soccer series.

Announced in a blog post on the eFootball website, the development team said it had been working hard to "regain the trust" of players and had taken on feedback to fix bugs, improve online play, and add new gameplay mechanics.

We are pleased to announce that the update (version 1.0.0) for eFootball™ 2022 will be released on 14th April 2022.

— eFootball (@play_eFootball) April 6, 2022

One of the major additions comes in the Dream Team mode, previously branded as Creative Team, which allows players to combine a mixture of their own players and real-life soccer stars to form a, well, ultimate team.

Several changes to eFootball's gameplay will also be made. Konami promised that defending has been made more intuitive overall, and it's also added commands for a shoulder charge, call for pressure, and a one-on-one match up option (essentially the L2 button in FIFA).

Passing has also been reworked, the AI should now make smarter decisions when receiving and passing the ball, and Konami has added a "stunning pass" command for some added finesse.

I’ve thought a lot about The House of the Dead since its arcade debut roughly 25 years ago. Despite the impact it had then and its legacy since, Sega’s original on-rails zombie shooter has only ever been made playable outside of an arcade in the form of mediocre ports to PC and Sega Saturn in 1998, with Sega reportedly losing the original source code. So when a full remake was announced for Switch at long last, I was eager to see what developer MegaPixel Studio could do to make this classic appealing to both veterans like myself and total newcomers to the series. Unfortunately, frustrating controls, a few performance issues, and unavoidably repetitive gameplay make The House of the Dead: Remake a mixed bag for new and old fans alike.

Just like in the arcades, you assume the role of either A.M.S. Agent Thomas Rogan or Agent G as they pump hordes of undead full of bullets and try to stop mad scientist Dr. Curien from destroying mankind, with three possible endings depending on how well you do. There are more interesting nuances to the world and its characters than the one-dimensional way they are presented in-game, but sadly finding that story context requires a bit of research through old game manuals or The Wiki of the Dead rather than being explained in The House of the Dead itself.

Big news for those who've still been trying to get their hands on an Xbox Series X: the shortage might finally be over. Plus: our Game Pass picks for new Series X owners, the upcoming Xbox Game Pass Family Plan has been confirmed, Unreal Engine 5's completion means a bunch of Xbox exclusives just got one step closer to release, 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.

Haunted Chocolatier is taking a much more action-focused approach compared to Stardew Valley, and we're now learning that the game will even include boss battles.

In an episode of Reason Livestream (via PC Gamer), Haunted Chocolatier and Stardew Valley developer Eric Barone showed off a new song from the game, titled "Bee Boss". The song is a catchy tune that definitely gives off beehive vibes, but the reveal also serves as the first confirmation we've seen that boss battles are coming to Haunted Chocolatier.

In addition to bosses seemingly being present, there is a larger emphasis overall on combat in Haunted Chocolatier. We previously learned that Haunted Chocolatier's combat is being remade from scratch compared to Stardew Valley's, with Barone saying, "Haunted Chocolatier has a greater focus on combat, so it needs to be very fun, satisfying, and engaging, while also appropriately fitting into the big picture."

In Stardew Valley, combat took place in the mines, where players would descend deeper into the mine to find tougher enemies and better rewards. However, there weren't many options for players to choose how they wanted to approach combat. Barone is working on upgrading the combat for Haunted Chocolatier, introducing a shield/stun mechanic, among other new gameplay features.

March 31, 2022 officially marked the end of an era.

With the Nintendo 3DS and Wii U eshops preparing to shut down in 2023, last week officially marked a quieter, but incredibly significant deadline: the deadline for developers to submit new games for either platform.

Sure, you might think, but who's submitting new games on the 3DS or Wii U in March of 2022 anyway? Well, at least three developers: Luke Vincent, William Kage, and Jerel Dulay, all of whom were in the final stages of submitting and releasing their respective games on 3DS and Wii U just as the deadline for submissions came and went.

Each developer started on their 3DS and Wii U games for very different reasons. Vincent got into making games as a fun side project during pandemic-related lockdowns and did his best to finish a game he was already working on by the deadline. Kage, who had been working on a full 3DS game when the deadline was announced, realized he couldn’t make it in time and instead worked to convert a minigame from within his original project into its own full-blown title to make it across the finish line. And Dulay, a committed developer who was already working on a whole universe of games, took the closure of new game submissions as a personal challenge and is trying to release seven whole games across both platforms in the span of a few months.

All three developers love Nintendo's aging platforms of an era now effectively over. And all are proud to be a key part of leaving one last stamp on the 3DS and Wii U for the handful of remaining fans who still look for new games to play on either.

Blizzard today announced that the next year of Hearthstone will be known as The Year of the Hydra. It will commence on April 12 (April 13 in ANZ) with the release of Hearthstone's newest expansion, Voyage to the Sunken City, and will see three sets leave the Standard format - Ashes of Outland, Scholomance Academy and Madness at the Darkmoon Faire. It's going to be a massive shakeup, and not just because the card pool will be significantly smaller for Standard players, but also because the game's foundation - the Core Set, which is free for all players to use - will be radically different to The Year of the Gryphon's.

Last year's Core Set was 235 cards, but for The Year of the Hydra, the set will expand to 250 cards. In terms of changes, 57 cards are rotating out, and 72 cards are coming in. I'll get to some of the most significant returning cards in a minute, but first, it's worth pointing out that 11 cards are getting buffs or having previous nerfs reverted. Execute is back to one mana (from two), for instance, while Nourish is returning to five mana (from six). Equality, meanwhile, is two mana once more (after spending time at both three and four mana), which means the classic Equality + Consecrate board clear costs six mana again. The changes are all pretty significant and indicative of how powerful the Voyage to the Sunken City cards are projected to be, as well as how Hearthstone's cards have grown more powerful in general. You can see the full roster of updated cards in the slideshow below.

Ubisoft has announced that it will be ending content support for Ghost Recon Breakpoint, after a little over 2 years of continuous updates. The final piece of content, Operation Motherland, launched back on November 2, 2021.

"The last four months marked the release of our final piece of content: the brand new Operation Motherland mode, tons of new items including 20th-anniversary iconic outfits and Quartz items for Ghost Recon Breakpoint," Ubisoft said in a statement on Twitter. "We will continue to maintain servers for both Ghost Recon Wildlands and Ghost Recon Breakpoint and we truly hope you will continue to enjoy the game and have fun playing in solo or co-op with your friends."

Hey Ghosts, we have an important message we would like to share with you all 👇 pic.twitter.com/kYeyVWVtgi

— Ghost Recon (@GhostRecon) April 5, 2022

Ghost Recon Breakpoint has received plenty of support, including a Splinter Cell collaboration called Special Operations with Sam Fisher, and the Operation Amber Sky collaboration with Rainbow 6. Ubisoft even experimented with NFTs by incorporating its Quartz system, which hasn't been received particularly well.

CD Projekt Red has offered some insight as to why it has decided to use Unreal Engine 5 for its upcoming new Witcher saga game, rather than its in-house REDengine 4.

Talking as part of the recent The State of Unreal stream, CDPR's CTO Paweł Zawodny said "It was the shift towards open world support that brought Unreal Engine 5 to our attention."

"This opens a new chapter for us where we really want to see how our experience in building open-world games gets combined with all the engineering power of Epic," he said. He went on to explain that CD Projekt Red and Epic will work together on engine features in order to "achieve something extraordinary in the end."

CD Projekt Red's Art Director, Jakub Knapik, noted that thanks to Epic's collaboration with many other studios there are already many desirable features in Unreal Engine 5. "The fact that Unreal is used by a lot of teams already in the world, a lot of perspectives are projected into the design of the tools and that helps the tool to be way more agile." As such, CDPR will benefit from the ideas of other Unreal users.

Game Director Jason Slama also noted that open world games require a really solid engine due to the amount of variables and moving parts these type of games have, suggesting that Unreal Engine 5 can offer a very desirable level of stability.

Crystal Dynamics has announced a new Tomb Raider game, and revealed that it will be built using Unreal Engine 5.

Announcing the game during the State of Unreal 2022, Crystal Dynamics' Tomb Raider franchise general manager, Dallas Dickinson promised a "high-quality cinematic action-adventure experience", but showed no gameplay or images, and didn't reveal a release window or title. Dickinson said the team is looking to "push the envelope of fidelity", and is looking to create an experience fans deserve from Crystal Dynamics and Tomb Raider as a series.

Crystal Dynamics becomes the latest major developer to move its next project to Unreal Engine 5. Other developers include The Coalition and CD Projekt Red, which has already announced that the next Witcher game will be developed using Unreal Engine 5.

This will be the first new mainline Tomb Raider game since Shadow of the Tomb Raider, which was released in 2018. Crystal Dynamics is best known in recent years for rebooting the Tomb Raider series, showing us a fresh look at Lara Croft's origins in a grittier setting. In recent years, it has developed Marvel's Avengers and has been assisting Microsoft's Initiative studio on a reboot of Perfect Dark.

Two years after Epic Games revealed Unreal Engine 5 with a gorgeous tech demo, the next-gen games engine is officially available. It's been released alongside a playable shooter, Lyra.

Unreal Engine 5 is Epic’s latest in the line of game engines available to game developers big and small. While the release of a new game engine isn’t typically news that excites folks until, well, video games start getting made with them, Epic first revealed Unreal Engine 5 with a blockbuster tech demo.

Called Lumen in the Land of Nanite, the tech demo was made to specifically demonstrate two of the marquis features of Unreal Engine 5. Lumen is a dynamic illumination tool where the light adapts to the world naturally and easily.

Nanite, meanwhile, lets developers import film-quality visual assets into the game while maintaining a real-time frame rate and without dips in fidelity.

While tech demos are a nice early glimpse at what a new engine is capable of, Lumen in the Land of Nanite shared an early look at the power of next-gen consoles and made its heroine, Lumen, popular enough to guest in Fortnite.

Developer Tendershoot is releasing two sequels to '90s internet simulator Hypnospace Outlaw – and they're both due to arrive this year.

Dreamsettler is the true spiritual sequel to Hypnospace, putting players inside the internet of the early 2000s. Meanwhile, Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer is a Doom-like first-person shooter featuring a character from the original Hypnospace Outlaw.

The games were announced by Tendershoot and publisher No More Robots during their Hypnospace Next presentation and are due for release on PC and consoles.

Like Hypnospace Outlaw, Dreamsettler will have players navigating a parodic version of the internet – but where the first game was set in a '90s-like cyberspace, Dreamsettler takes aim at the early 2000s. The new game see you take on the role of a digital private investigator navigating the dawn of social media. Tendershoot promises a weird and wonderful story that's uncovered through watching videos, exploring websites, and searching files.

Slayers X takes the Hypnospace universe in a very different direction, following the character of Zane Lofton from the original game in a Doom-esque first-person shooter that retains the wacky style of Hypnospace.

Set in 2022, Lofton is now 37 and is re-releasing a game he made when he was 14. In it, he must take down the Psyko Sindikate in a fourth-wall breaking adventure (to the point where the fictional developer has a real Twitter account). While it didn't give an exact release date, Tendershoot promised that Slayers X is coming "very soon."

A new video from Bethesda has offered a closer look at VASCO, the first Starfield companion to be revealed.

VASCO is an expeditionary robot in the service of Constellation, which is denoted by his white and red paintwork. Based on a bipedal chassis, VASCO was designed to aid in extended overland journeys, and comes equipped with components to aid in the carrying of survival gear and payloads.

Starfield's lead artist, Istvan Pely, says that VASCO is a peaceful robot, but "does have defensive capabiulities should the need arise". The concept art shown in the video suggests Vasco's right arm houses some kind of rifle, and a square box on his should could perhaps be some kind of launcher.

Pely describes VASCO as a "reliable companion that an intrepid explorer like yourself can depend on," and "a utillitarian, heavy industrial machine well suited to the rigors of space travel."

For more from Starfield, be sure to take a look at the multiple factions that you will be able to join, how it will update an old Oblivion dialogue mechanic, and some fantastic concept art.

Matt Purslow is IGN's UK News and Entertainment Writer.

A ton of content is being added to Lost Ark over the next two months including a new continent, classes, and raids.

Amazon Games didn't give specific release dates in its April and May roadmap but broke the content down by each month, revealing that the new continent, South Vern, and a new martial artist class are coming this month.

South Vern is a brand new region in Lost Ark that joins Punika as the second Tier 3 continent, requiring an item level of 1340 to begin. It features new quests, characters, and stories centred around Queen Ealyn and and Knight Commander Avele.

The new class coming in April is the Glaivier, a martial artist class that uses a short spear in the Flurry stance and a glaive in the Focus stance. Players are encouraged to use both modes as different abilities activate when swapping between stances.

The second new character, the Destroyer, arrives in May. This fourth warrior advanced class wields a massive hammer and can bend gravity to its will, pulling and pushing enemies away to set up devastating attacks.

Also coming in May are the Trial Guardian Raids, a new weekly activity where players can attempt to defeat the three Trial Guardians. These enemies rotate out each week and scale to the player's item level, so Amazon Games hopes they'll provide a constant and fresh challenge.

A new Guardian raid is also coming in the form of Deskaluda, arriving as one of the most powerful in the game requiring an item level of 1415.

Earlier this year, social media was utterly dominated by little green, yellow, and black squares as everyone triumphantly (or otherwise) showed off their Wordle scores. The hype has since died down considerably, but not without pushing Wordle to the second-most-discussed game on Twitter in 2022 so far.

This is according to data shared by Twitter, which put Genshin Impact as the most-discussed game between January and March this year. Apex Legends clocked in at No.4, followed by Final Fantasy at No.5.

Ubisoft has announced Rainbow Six Mobile, a new game that brings the core gameplay of Rainbow Six Siege to mobile devices.

Rainbow Six Mobile looks and plays like its console counterpart; it’s a 5v5 attack and defend FPS with destructible environments and a variety of specialist gadgets. Attackers use drones, explosives, and various other offensive items to push their way into the defending team’s fortified positions.

Welcome Operators to Rainbow Six Mobile!

Rainbow Six Mobile will bring the same tactical shooter gameplay that you love to your mobile devices.

Sign-up now to receive the latest updates and get a chance to play before the release 👇https://t.co/Jvbs6dHXau pic.twitter.com/gWjH2I2bSm

— Rainbow Six Mobile (@Rainbow6Mobile) April 5, 2022

While a huge amount of Rainbow Six Mobile appears to be a near enough straight adaptation of Rainbow Six Siege, there are some notable changes. Matches are shorter as R6 Mobile is a best-of-three-rounds affair, and the HUD has been adjusted to work for mobile. It also seems, at least at launch, that there will be a smaller pool of maps and operators to pick from. Confirmed so far are classic locations Bank and Border, while Ubisoft says “the most popular Rainbow Six operators” will be included.

Lego Star Wars The Skywalker Saga is now finally available, and you can pick it up right now for just £38 from Tesco. All you need is a Tesco Clubcard and you're sorted. Head on to your local superstore right now, or buy it via Tesco online as well. We've included all the relevant links below.

Other deals today include an Xbox Elite Series 2 Controller for just £67.30 (used, but in very good condition, the discount is shown at checkout), and a perfect PS5 SSD for under £100. Spider-Man No Way Home is also now available on Blu-ray and 4K UHD in the UK, and includes around 100 minutes of extra special features, including some amazing deleted scenes. It's available to order from Amazon for £24.99 in 4K UHD, or £14.99 on Blu-ray.

TL;DR - Our Favourite UK Deals Right Now

LEGO Star Wars The Skywalker Saga for £38 at Tesco (Clubcard Required)

Protect Your Data: 50% Off ExpressVPN Right Now

The Witcher Cookbook Preorders for £22.79 (Releasing October 25)

Perfect PS5 SSDs On Sale Right Now: Now Only £100

Nerds' Kitchen and Ten Speed Press are releasing an official Witcher cookbook, and now it's available to preorder at Amazon (or Amazon UK).

Fully trademarked by CD Projekt Red, the book will feature 80 recipes that promise a new level of immersion into the Witcher universe.

Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka of Nerds' Kitchen (and its subsidiary Witcher Kitchen) have created the cookbook to emulate the foods that protagonist Geralt may encounter while hunting monsters on the path.

Take a culinary journey through the Continent with The Witcher Cookbook — created by Anita Sarna and Karolina Krupecka of @WitcherKitchen & @NerdsKitchen, it includes 80 mouthwatering recipes inspired by the world of The Witcher games!

Pre-order now: https://t.co/RG8os78PRS pic.twitter.com/QPvEK4ipKH

— The Witcher (@witchergame) March 31, 2022

The included recipes are all inspired by various areas of The Witcher 3 including baked fruits from White Orchard, snacks from the markets of Oxenfurt, and a meal of fresh fish and mulled ciders from Skellige.

Hasan Kahraman, director of controversial indie game Abandoned, has reiterated that it has not been canceled, and said more content will come this year – including the game's Prologue, which will be a paid, standalone project.

Speaking to IGN's Destin Legarie, Kahraman explained that the recent decision to delete a number of tweets relating to the game's future plans was a mistaken attempt to keep information about the game relevant and up to date – but it instead led to rumors that the still-mysterious horror game was cancelled.

"I did not see that coming," he explained. "I didn't think that the community would respond that way. Basically, the tweets were deleted because some of the concept has changed, and I figured maybe just deleting the tweet and then tweeting more relevant information would be a better idea – which was actually not a good idea. I have learned now just to keep them. Even if the information or concept changed, just keep the older information because people eventually will see for themselves what the difference is and then see what's more actual."

Kahraman's studio, Blue Box, was forced to put out a statement saying that the game was still in development, and apologized for the lengthy silence around new information. The team said it had "underestimated our development roadmap" and delayed the reveal and release of the promised Prologue.

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is set to release exclusively for Nintendo Switch on June 24. It takes characters from Fire Emblem: Three Houses and puts them in a Warriors-style brawler. The scale of the battles is large, and the action takes place in real time. The game is now available to preorder at a number of retailers (see it on Amazon). You’ll find links and pricing below, along with any preorder bonuses if any are available.

Preorder Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes

Physical Copy

• Get it at Amazon - $59.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $59.99
• Get it at GameStop - $59.99
• Get it at Target - $59.99

Digital Copy

• Get it at Amazon - $59.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $59.99
• Get it at Nintendo eShop - $59.99

There aren’t any special editions for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, so the only question you need to answer is whether you want a physical or digital copy. You can sell physical copies, and they look good on the shelf, but they’re not as convenient as having a digital copy installed on your Switch or Switch OLED. Tough call.

Leaked Overwatch 2 concept art has seemingly revealed an incoming Battle Pass feature.

A concept for the Overwatch 2 main menu on ArtStation shows all the options players would expect, such as Play and Shop, alongside a new setting for the Battle Pass, as reported by Attack of the Fanboy.

While the screenshot isn't official and may not represent what features will be in the final version of Overwatch 2, adding credibility is the user who posted it: Blizzard senior UI artist Jayson Kirby.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga is now available for PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, Nintendo Switch, and PC (phew). It's the biggest game yet in the entire LEGO series. It lets you play through the stories of all nine main films, and you don't have to play them in order, either. You can hop around from movie to movie at will, dropping into whatever scene you feel like playing.

The game is available in a couple of editions that come with different stuff. We have all the info you need below, so let's get to it.

LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga Standard Edition

PS5

• Get it at Amazon - $59.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $59.99
• Get it at GameStop - $59.99
• Get it at Walmart - $59.99
• Get it on PS Store (digital) - $59.99

PS4

• Get it at Amazon - $59.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $59.99
• Get it at GameStop - $59.99
• Get it at Walmart - $59.99
• Get it on PS Store (digital) - $59.99

Xbox Series X / Xbox One

The 8-Bit Big Band have won 2022's Grammy Award for Best Arrangement (Instrument and A Cappella) with their take on Meta Knight's Revenge from Kirby Super Star.

The funky arrangement was written by Charlie Rosen and Jake Silverman, and was performed by The 8-Bit Big Band orchestra featuring Button Masher for the group's "Backwards Compatible" album. Meta Knight's Revenge has amassed 319,684 views on YouTube at the time of writing, though that number continues to grow with the added spotlight.

We won a grammy. We really did it.@CRosenMusic @the8bitbigband pic.twitter.com/cQ21iWa9Go

— Button Masher (@Button__Masher) April 3, 2022

Rosen and Silverman made their way to the stage to collect their gold-plated gramophones after being announced as the winners. In their speech, they extended their gratitude to the recording academy, Nintendo, composer Jun Ishikawa, and "the hundreds of musicians in New York and around the world who have contributed to every single 8-Bit Big Band album."

Return to Monkey Island is a sequel to the legendary point 'n' click series, coming in 2022 from original writer-director Ron Gilbert.

Designed as a follow-up to the first two games – The Secret of Monkey Island and Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge – the new game is being published by Devolver Digital in collaboration with Lucasfilm Games. It also brings back original co-writer Dave Grossman, and LucasArts composers Michael Land, Michael McConnell and Clint Bajakian. Fellow co-creator Tim Schafer – who runs Microsoft's Double Fine – does not return.

On Twitter, Gilbert said his Terrible Toybox development studio has been working on the game for 2 years "in complete secrecy".

Introducing Return to Monkey Island, a new game by Ron Gilbert that picks up where Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge left off.https://t.co/5E3zi5JkEt pic.twitter.com/frkrN1OLXD

Adventure. Excitement. A Jedi craves not these things. If that’s the case, then all Jedi should probably cancel their preorders for LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, since this dazzling new entry in Traveller’s Tales’ longrunning LEGO game series has brought both adventure and excitement by the plastic bucketload. With stunning set pieces cribbed from all nine mainline Star Wars films and a surprisingly vast number of iconic planet hubs to freely explore in between, The Skywalker Saga is a brick-breaking blockbuster executed with a goofy charm that had me feeling as happy as a droid in a hot oil bath.

In a dramatic departure from the zoomed out camera perspective of previous LEGO titles, The Skywalker Saga features a tighter, over-the-shoulder third-person view typical of the likes of Gears of War or Uncharted, and it brings along with it far greater control over your attacks. Lightsabers can be boomeranged and crates can be Force-pushed with satisfying precision, and a simple combo system allows you to launch enemies into the air for a juggling volley of saber swings with ease. Fighting as a Jedi or Sith might not have the depth of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, but it’s nonetheless fast, fluid, and it feels fantastic.

Drinkbox Studios announced its new action-RPG Nobody Saves the World is coming to new consoles later this month, alongside a new update on all platforms.

Previously released for Xbox and PC, Nobody Saves the World will now be released for PS4, PS5, and Nintendo Switch on April 14 for $24.99. PlayStation players will get both versions for a single price, and the Switch version will have pre-orders go live today with a 10% discount. The Switch version is also designed so that players can use a single Joy-con per player and play in Tabletop mode.

Additionally, NSTW for all platforms will receive an update that adds local co-op to the experience. Previously Nobody Saves the World only featured online co-op at its PC and Xbox launch. It will also feature cross-gen co-op multiplayer for PS4 and PS5 players.

Nobody Saves the World is an action-RPG in which players take on the role of, well, Nobody, who can adopt more than 15 forms - from a birthday party magician to a rat to many more surprising ones - using a variety of Form combat moves (and even mixing and matching them) along their adventure. Its debut earlier this year was Drinkbox’s most successful Steam launch to date.

The developer is previously known for such hits as the Guacamelee franchise and Severed.

Amazon is running a pretty great “Buy 2, Get 1 Free” sale right now. Lots of items are eligible, from books and toys to furniture and musical instruments. But a ton of video games are also eligible, including new releases like Elden Ring, Ghostwire: Tokyo, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands, and hundreds more. If you’re mostly interested in the games, you can filter to video games on mobile, or click the "video games" category in the sidebar in a browser.

But you can mix and match, so if you can find three items you want in any eligible category, you’ll get the least expensive one free. Good stuff.

Buy 2 Get 1 Free

To take advantage of the deal, all you have to do is add the items to your cart and go to checkout. Note that only items sold by Amazon are eligible, so if they run out and the listing has a different seller, the item won’t work. You can check if all your items are eligible by adding them to your cart and looking at the top of this page. It tallies the number of items from the promotion in your cart and the running total cost.

Some of the games, like Monster Hunter Rise and Dying Light 2: Stay Human, are already on sale. Others, like Elden Ring and Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origins, have never gone on sale yet, so this is your first opportunity to save on them. Might as well take advantage.

Chris Reed is a deals expert and commerce editor for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed.

The past weekend saw someone complete Elden Ring in 3 hours without taking damage, while another player beat the game without dealing any.

The world's first Elden Ring no-hit run, as spotted by PCGamesN, was recorded by YouTube user Seki, who completed the game in 2 hours and 43 minutes and without taking a single point of damage.

Seki therefore completed the game without taking any hits from enemies, fall damage from dropping too far, or ongoing damage from status effects such as poison.

WE GOT THE RUN!!!!!!! WORLD'S FIRST NO-HIT/DAMAGE ELDEN RING. SHOUTED MY LUNGS OUT LOL #ELDENRING pic.twitter.com/E46WSlXU3v

— Seki (@SekiroShadow) April 2, 2022

Providing some balance, YouTube user Iron Pineapple also completed a unique Elden Ring run at the weekend by defeating the game without dealing any direct damage, VG247 reported.

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

World of Tanks developer Wargaming has announced that it will leave Russia and Belarus, and expects to make "substantial losses" as a result.

Announced on LinkedIn, the company said that it had transferred its live games business in the two countries to Lesta Studio, which is no longer affiliated with the company. It has also begun closing its Minsk office in Belarus.

"The company will not profit from this process either today or going forward," reads a statement. "Much to the contrary we expect to suffer substantial losses as a direct result of this decision." It added: "We will be providing as much severance and support as possible to our employees affected by the change."

UPDATE April 4, 3:45 PM ET: The PS Now stack method for saving PS Plus Premium no longer works.

PlayStation users are currently getting as much as six years worth of PlayStation Plus Premium at what is effectively half price. First spotted by @Wario64 on Twitter, and verified by our deals team @IGNDeals, you can still buy 12-months' worth of PS Now using a specific link on your web browser. This will auto-convert to 12-months of PS Plus Premium at no extra cost when it launches in June.

Sony had previously blocked the option to buy more than 1-month of PS Now. But, this workaround link is still live, for now, and PlayStation users have been quick to stack up as many years of PS Now as they can, ready for the 1:1 conversion in June. As far as we know, you won't be punished for loading up on PS Now. It's likely going to get shut down soon, so if you are going to take advantage, you better do it soon. We'll explain the relevant steps you need below.

How to Get 50% Off PlayStation Plus Premium

Elden Ring publisher Bandai Namco has expressed interest in working with Mistborn and Wheel of Time author Brandon Sanderson – who'd seemingly like to work with developer FromSoftware in the same way George R.R. Martin did.

In a a YouTube stream spotted by PC Gamer, Sanderson unboxed an Elden Ring gift package from Bandai Namco that included a message saying the publisher was interested in working with him.

Sanderson previously jokingly complained about developer FromSoftware working with Game of Thrones author George R.R. Martin over him, or as he put it "someone who spends his days blogging about the NFL rather than the person who has played their games since King's Field."

Bandai Namco has announced a small Elden Ring patch, which will be released today, April 4, across all platforms. The patch buffs some attacks for boss Starscourge Radahn, who was unintentionally made weaker in the latest version of the game.

Elden Ring's 1.03 patch arrived last month, and made a lot of adjustments to the game. However, one was unintentional, making the famously tricky Radahn far weaker than he was meant to be when using some attacks. A new version of 1.03 arrives today as a result.

The only patch note reads "Fixed a bug in the balance adjustment of the boss 'Starscourge Radahn' in update 1.03, in which the power of some attacks was unintentionally reduced." The patch comes to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Steam today.

Players on the Elden Ring subreddit broadly welcomed the change, with Naldo273 saying, "On my second playthrough he was a complete joke. You could actually just ride around watching the NPCs melt him. I don't know what people were thinking defending that nerf. God forbid one of the most epic boss fight in From history doesn't keel over on your first attempt".

If you're sturggling with the demigod after the change, our Elden Ring guide includes some tips on how to beat Starscourge Radahn.

While Halo Infinite has been positively received by many, the lack of new content in its multiplayer has led to frustration for some fans. 343 Industries has spoken up on this issue and has said that it does "understand the community is simply out of patience."

343 community director Brian Jarrard took to Reddit to speak to Halo Infinite fans and let them know that the team is "certainly not happy to be unable to meet player and community expectations." However, he also reassures that meaningful content is on the way, it just unfortunately takes time.

"There are indeed a lot of challenges and constraints," Jarrard said. "We're certainly not happy to be unable to meet player and community expectations, it's a difficult situation that's going to take the team time to work through. Right now the focus is on S2 and we'll have more to share on that in the coming weeks."

"Meanwhile a lot of production planning, costing, planning, hiring, etc.. is all happening which doesn't really lend to detailed regular updates. We understand the community is simply out of patience and frankly, I think understandably tired of words. We just need some time for the team to get the details sorted and then we can certainly share as much as we can."

Margit's Shackle is an item you can find in Elden Ring that will make the difficult Margit the Fell Omen boss battle easier. However, the item appears to be good for much more as it can seemingly help you discover hidden illusory walls and stop fire-breathing traps.

As reported by GamesRadar, Margit's Shackle can stop Margit the Fell Omen in his tracks for a few seconds when activated, but its usefulness does not end once that great enemy has been felled.

NateThePunk2 on Reddit is one of those who discovered that it can also cause a nearby hidden wall to disappear.

A running theory is that the item sends out an invisible shockwave of sorts that stuns Margit the Fell Omen if he is within a certain range. This same shockwave appears to extend out from the player and reveal illusory walls and stop fire-breathing traps.

Margit's Shackle can be obtained while you are on Patches' questline, and obtaining it is especially helpful if Margit, the game's first major boss, is proving to be too much of a challenge.

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Tina Amini, Sam Claiborn, and Justin Davis -- are discussing more Elden Ring, All-new PlayStation Plus, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Tunic, Breath of the Wild 2, 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!

Final Fantasy 14 6.1 patch will be released on April 12th, and Square Enix has released a new trailer and patch notes detailing the upcoming adventure.

Titled “Newfound Adventure,” Patch 6.1 picks up after the finale in Endwalker. While the new patch will include new dungeons, a new 24-player Alliance Raid, and Trial, it will also allow players to complete A Realm Reborn content solo with the help of NPCs.

Below is a breakdown of the new content coming to Final Fantasy 14 in 6.1.

• New Main Scenario Quests
• New 24-Player Alliance Raid
• New Ultimate Duty - Dragonson’s Reprise in Patch 6.11
• New Tribal Quest starting with Patch 6.15
• New Residential Areas with plots in Empyreum, the new Ishgardian residential district.
• New Trial: The Minster’s Ballad: Endsinger’s Aria, a new Extreme Trial.
• Adventure Plates (Beta Version) - Player portraits can be customized to include lighting, animation, and camera angles using a character’s current appearance.
• PvP Updates for small-scale PvP content, Cystaliline Conflict, plus a new rewards system and PvP schedule.
• PvP gear inspired by the Japanese TV hit GARO returns.

Final Fantasy 14 Endwalker is the most recent expansion for the hit MMORPG and concludes the major storyline that began with A Realm Reborn. With one ultimate evil defeated, adventurers begin a new journey starting with Patch 6.1.

Fair or not, Dragon Age: Inquisition is often compared with The Witcher 3. Released just a few months beforehand, Dragon Age: Inquisition garnered Game of the Year awards and was generally praised by critics, but wound up drawing unfavorable comparisons to CD Projekt Red's seminal RPG.

But The Witcher 3 had at least one major advantage over its competition. Speaking with GLHF for an article on USA Today, former BioWare GM Aaryn Flynn pointed out that CDPR's decision to focus on the PS4, Xbox One, and PC benefited the project immensely compared to Dragon Age: Inquisition, which also had to work on Xbox 360 and PS3.

"I'd say the biggest compromise came from the fact that we had to ship [Dragon Age: Inquisition] on the Xbox 360 and PS3 at the same time as we did on the PS4 and Xbox One," Flynn remembers.

"That crushed so much ambition because we didn’t have the team size or the time to differentiate those things, truly. So you had to kind of develop the lowest common denominator. And as that came in, that certainly beat out some expectations and ambitions we had for certain fun features in gameplay. In contrast, CD Projekt didn't do that with The Witcher 3, a few months later, and I think their game was better for it."

The freaky hooded creature, 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 can be found at Watcher's Grave on Nessus on April 3 through April 5. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Watcher's Grave. When you arrive, make for the red moss-covered tree straight ahead. Climb up the roots and you'll find Xûr waiting at the top.

Sony PlayStation has reportedly laid off around 90 employees in North America in an apparent move to focus more on direct-to-consumer marketing over brick-and-mortar sales.

According to a report by Axios, Sony is shutting down its "merchandiser" team in the US, a group that included individuals whose job it was to connect with retail store staff and prepare them to sell PlayStation products. Other retail marketing jobs were also impacted by the layoffs.

Leadership reportedly explained the cuts as a part of a "global transformation" of Sony's sales and business operations. This suggests a move away from focusing on retail sales in favor of direct-to-consumer marketing, especially as digital sales of games continue to grow and thrive.

Sony has yet to comment on the layoffs.

In the same week, Sony unveiled its Xbox Game Pass competitor in a revamped PlayStation Plus, combining the existing PS Plus and PS Now into a three-tier subscription service including up to 700 games. The service is planned to start rolling out in June, and will include a number of first-party titles such as Death Stranding, God of War, Marvel's Spider-Man, and others at launch. However, first-party exclusives will not be launched into the service, unlike Xbox Game Pass.

David Gaider and the team at Summerfall Games are combining their love of narrative and music with Stray Gods, a roleplaying musical. But fans who are familiar with Gaider’s past work as lead writer on Dragon Age will find that Summerfall Games is pursuing a similar route for how their story unfolds, albeit much more musically.

Stray Gods is the first game from Summerfall Studios, an Australian-based team of veterans and rising stars across the industry. Stray Gods centers on Grace, a singer who inherits the powers of the Last Muse. The problem is that Grace now has to convince the other gods that she wasn’t responsible for the Muse’s death.

As a narrative RPG, players will not only make dialogue choices but lyrical ones as well. And considering Gaider was the lead writer on Dragon Age, fans of his work at BioWare will find similarities in Stray Gods.

“If someone has played the Dragon Age games, the dialogue part of the game is going to feel very familiar to them,” Gaider tells IGN in an interview. “It is playing the dialogue portion with the story and making choices during the dialogue, having traits that determine sometimes which options are available to you, and it changes the story. Lots of branching along the way, so yeah, it will feel quite familiar.”

Microsoft seemingly began testing raytracing in Minecraft earlier this week, but it was actually a mistake. The feature has now been pulled.

The feature appeared in a preview update on Xbox consoles, but it was quickly removed after news spread about its inclusion. The update included a raytracing preview for both Xbox Series X and Series S consoles but, according to Microsoft, it should never have appeared in the first place.

“The previous Minecraft Preview build available to Xbox Insiders inadvertently included prototype code for raytracing support on Xbox consoles,” the company confirmed. “This early prototype code has been removed from Preview and doesn't signal near future plans to bring raytracing support to consoles.”

The previous Minecraft Preview build available to Xbox Insiders inadvertently included prototype code for raytracing support on Xbox consoles. This early prototype code has been removed from Preview and doesn't signal near future plans to bring raytracing support to consoles.

— Minecraft (@Minecraft) March 31, 2022

That’s right – just because they’re testing it, doesn’t mean Minecraft will be getting raytracing on Xbox consoles anytime soon – even though Microsoft teased raytracing support two years ago.