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Mario Kart 8 Deluxe users will be able to play the upcoming Booster Course tracks online or with friends, even if they haven't paid for the DLC themselves.

The new tracks, the first eight of which will release on March 18, will be shuffled into Mario Kart 8's online selection of courses on March 22, meaning even players who don't own them can occasionally have a go. That being said, there will be 56 tracks in the game after that first wave, so players will initially have just a one in seven chance of coming across a new one through random selection.

A more consistent way to play without paying is through a friend, as Nintendo also revealed on its website (per Nintendo Life) that groups of friends can play the new tracks together from March 18 even if only one player owns the Booster Course Pass. This can be done in local or online play.

It's a neat way of keeping the audience from being fragmented between those who have paid and those who haven't, while giving more choice to those that have.

The DLC costs $24.99 (£22.49) and will add 48 tracks to Mario Kart 8, all of them remastered versions of courses featured in previous games. They'll be released in six separate waves between March this year and the end of 2023.

Xbox has revealed several new games coming to Game Pass in the second half of February 2022. This includes Total War Warhammer III, Madden NFL 22, and Alice Madness Returns via EA Play.

The first half of the month was also headlined by CrossfireX, which launched on the subscription service the same day it's released, on February 10. If you're not a member but would like to become one, Amazon currently has a three-month Game Pass Ultimate subscription on sale for $39.99.

There are a few good deals going at the moment in the gaming world, and this includes £20 off The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword for Nintendo Switch. This is an excellent deal, especially for a big Switch game, so it's definitely worth considering. You can pick up Skyward Sword for £30 from Amazon right now (see here).

Other deals today include a special deal on PC Game Pass, now available for just £7.99 for 2-months (see here). This is a great offer for current members, as this is 50% off. If you're an Xbox Game Pass ultimate member as well, this will actually convert to 40-days of Ultimate, a small saving as you're usually paying £10.99 every 30-days for the service.

TL;DR - Our Favourite UK Deals Right Now

Skyward Sword is Down to Just £30 at Amazon (was £50)

Best Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Deal

Convert 2-months of PC Game Pass to 40-days of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate if you're a current Ultimate member.

Best Horizon Forbidden West PS5 Preorder Deal

Horizon Forbidden West is out this week, and I couldn't be more excited to dive in. IGN's review of the game is now live, giving it a solid 9/10. If you haven't preordered the game yet, then I thought we'd dedicate some time to finding you the very best deal before February 18.

LEGO and PlayStation have teamed up to launch a Horizon: Forbidden West set featuring the Tallneck, alongside an Aloy Minifigure and Watcher figure.

The LEGO Tallneck is intended as a display model and includes 1,222 pieces and will be released on May 1, 2022 for $79.99 USD (£69.99). Preorders aren't available yet, but you can see the set on the LEGO Store here.

Living up to its name, the set is over 34cm tall, 23cm wide, and 17 cm deep, and was created in collaboration with Guerrilla Games, the developer of Horizon: Forbidden West.

LEGO Group designer Isaac Snyder said: "Getting to team up with Guerrilla was truly remarkable. The team is incredibly passionate about the world of Horizon: Forbidden West and were a huge help in ensuring we were able to create an authentic representation in LEGO form.

"Thanks to our close collaboration we were able to include references to all the most iconic aspects of Horizon: Forbidden West, from incredible machines, mysterious ruins, unique tribes , and stunning scenery."

LEGO has been dipping its toe into the gaming world recently with its Sonic the Hedgehog Green Hill Zone set and its series of Mario sets too.

Note: This review covers the single-player campaigns of CrossfireX. Stay tuned for our review of the multiplayer component, coming soon.

If you were hoping that Remedy, the developer of Control and Alan Wake, could live up to its name and find a cure for CrossfireX’s dreadful multiplayer sandbox, I have some bad news. Not only do both modes suffer from the same issues involving gunplay and controls mostly, but the single-player campaign’s shallow stories told across two mini-episodes only add to the disappointment. Both of CrossfireX’s campaigns are built around the pointless adventures of dull characters, never approach anything resembling a challenge due to enemy AI that’s as useful as a chocolate tea kettle, and feel incomplete and unsatisfying as they come to an abrupt end after only a few hours each. As a single-player game, CrossfireX is very much a bomb.

This pair of three-hour campaigns both feel like a hundred military shooters I’ve played over the years and immediately forgotten. The first, Operation Catalyst, has you working with a squad of some of the most generic soldiers in recent memory as they set out to kill a leader of their rival organization in the fictional country of Azkharzia. What follows is a bizarre mission to save one of your own squadmates while the main protagonist descends into madness for… reasons. It’s still utterly unclear to me why, which is disappointing given Remedy’s history of making bizarre characters on the edge of insanity work well.

When Earthbound popped up during last week's Nintendo Direct, fans briefly hoped that Mother 3 might finally get its much-requested English release. Those hopes were ultimately dashed, but this gorgeous new trailer is a small consolation prize for fans desperate to play Shigesato Itoi's classic RPG.

Developed by Curiomatic, the Youtube channel behind the popular Smashified series of videos, it offers an arresting glimpse of how a full-blown remake might look, from the battle system to a cameo by the Mecha-Drago. Similar to 2019's remake of The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, it meticulously recreates familiar scenes from Mother 3 using clay figures — a nod to the advertising of the first two games.

Speaking via DM, illustrator Omni Jacala tells IGN that the project took a team of 22 creators more than two years to produce. It included more than 90 characters, "hundreds of props," and more than 30 environments — all for a trailer that lasts just over three minutes.

Originally conceived back in 2015, work began on the project at the end of 2019. The team hoped to release the trailer in time for the 15th anniversary of the original game, but it wound up taking another year to "fully realize our vision," Jacala says.

CrossfireX's executive producer has apologized for the game's launch state that included several issues including poor connection to matches and controller sensitivity fluctuation.

In a developer update, CrossfireX executive producer Sooro Boo acknowledged the studio had disappointed many of its fans by releasing the game with these issues saying, "It’s clear that we have inadvertently disappointed many of our players and fans that have stuck with us for a long time.

Attention, Mercenaries,

We are aware of the issue that some Game Pass members are unable to access Operation Catalyst.

We are currently working to resolve the issue as soon as possible.

We apologize for the inconvenience and we thank you for your patience and the feedback. pic.twitter.com/IeRj86Cq18

— CrossfireX (@PlayCrossfireX) February 10, 2022

Mr. Boo's developer update offered a more in-depth look at some of the issues currently afflicting players including how players were experiencing a random fluctuation of dead zones, input delay, acceleration instability, and aim dropping in their controllers; balance issues for the Boogieman kill streak; and issues where the CAR-4 ADS gun stopped the player aiming down sights while firing.

At launch CrossfireX's official Twitter page also spent time to address other issues players were encountering including long queue times, campaign availability on Xbox Game Pass, and more.

It's nearly here: Horizon Forbidden West is set to release on PS5 and PS4 on February 18, 2022 (see it on Amazon / get it in the UK). A full-on sequel to Horizon Zero Dawn, Forbidden West finds Aloy in a blight-infected landscape populated by new tribes and being stalked by even bigger mechanical beasts. You can read our Horizon Forbidden West review to see what our critic thought.

The game is up for preorder now in a variety of editions. Below, we have the full rundown on what comes in each edition, how much they cost, and where you can place your preorder.

The PlayStation versions of upcoming horror game Martha is Dead have been "modified" to remove certain elements, despite the original version launching as normal on Xbox and PC.

It's not clear what has been modified, but Martha Is Dead is already notable for an unflinching look at graphic elements, even in its trailers. The announcement came in a Tweet (below) posted just ten days before Martha is Dead's launch.

Expressing "regret" at the change, the developer's statement was prefaced with a warning that the game was always intended for adult audiences, "with play consisting of potentially discomforting scenes and themes that may distress some players."

It also announced that the physical versions on PlayStation would be delayed for a "small number of weeks".

A statement on Martha Is Dead pic.twitter.com/iI3T5s4LYR

— Martha Is Dead (@MarthaisDead) February 11, 2022

Developer LKA and publisher Wired Productions added: "It is with regret that we have had to modify the experience on the PS5 and PS4 versions, with some elements no longer playable."

They added: "The PC and Xbox versions of Martha is Dead are both unaffected by these developments and will launch with the full unedited gameplay as planned."

CD Projekt Red has announced a Cyberpunk 2077 stream, to be broadcast tomorrow, February 15.

Airing at 7am Pacific / 10am Eastern / 3pm UK (that's February 16 at 2am AEDT), CDPR currently hasn't offered details on what will be included, but it feels likely that we'll get news on the upcoming PS5 and Xbox Series X/S editions of the game.

This stream is also being branded as a REDstream, rather than the Night City Wire streams we saw around Cyberpunk's launch, which could indicate that we'll get news on other CDPR projects. That could include The Witcher 3's own next-gen version (currently scheduled for Q2 2022), or its brand new single-player Gwent game.

So, choom, how 'bout a date? We'll talk things, y'know.

You're in? Preem!

Let's meet tomorrow, Feb 15th, at 4PM CET, at the usual place: https://t.co/y8iUIM0gBv.

See you there! pic.twitter.com/VRXpeA21ME

Note: This review covers the single-player campaign of Total War: Warhammer 3. Keep an eye out for our multiplayer review soon after launch.

We've finally come to the end of the sweeping dark fantasy trilogy that began six years ago, and Total War: Warhammer 3 is a worthy capstone. With interesting campaign mechanics that build up rivalries between its memorable main cast and several new armies that don't play like anything we've seen in Total War before, it excels on just about every level, strategic and tactical. And a collection of little quality-of-life changes carried over from other recent Total War games tie the single-player campaign up with a nice little bloodsoaked bow.

The main campaign in Warhammer 3 is very story-driven, even more so than Warhammer 2's Eye of the Vortex. And that can be both a good and bad thing. Having completed it three times now, I don't think it has the endlessly replayable sandbox potential of the Mortal Empires campaign available to owners of the first two games. And while Warhammer 3 will eventually get its own version of that, Creative Assembly has said we might be waiting a while for it. Currently, you can't even play as any of the Warhammer 1 and 2 races in skirmish battles, though they do appear on the campaign map as enemies to be vanquished.

Pokémon Legends: Arceus hackers have found a secret modern-day room hidden in the game that stands out amid its ancient setting.

The room is fully furnished with a desk, TV, and even a Pokémon themed Nintendo Switch, very similar to the player's starting room in the mainline titles but still unique to Pokémon Legends: Arceus.

It can't be found in the final version of the game but was discovered by hacker @DeepGameRes (and shared by Faz Faz on YouTube) in an exploited PC emulation.

None of the items can be interacted with and the player will actually clip right through the different pieces of furniture, likely because the room was never meant to be found.

Fans are already speculating what it could be, with some asking if it's a hint at upcoming DLC and others wondering if it was a since-deleted introduction to the game where the player falls back in time.

Lost Ark is adding an entire new region of servers in Europe as the game continues to cope with high player counts following its launch last week that saw it quickly become Steam’s second most-played game of all time.

In a blog post, developer Smilegate said that it’s working “as quickly as possible” to add the new region. While it didn’t say how many servers will be included within that region, Lost Ark’s existing regions range from seven to 19 servers, so you can expect a similar number here.

Players won’t be able to carry over any characters or progress, and Smilegate made clear that the new region is mainly intended for incoming players and for those who’ve not yet committed to a single server.

The studio said it would work on the new region "24/7 until it's live," but did warn the addition would take time and lengthy queue times may persist until the new region is implemented.

Smilegate was forced to add more than a dozen new servers to Lost Ark even before it’s official free-to-play launch as the MMO cultivated an immense following that has left it “filled to the brim”.

Nintendo won't be hopping onto the metaverse train for the time being, as it doesn't know how it would use the concept to offer Nintendo's "fresh surprises and fun".

Speaking during the company's most recent financial earnings Q&A, president Shuntaro Furukawa was asked if Nintendo has plans relating to the metaverse and NFTs, but only responded to the former.

He began by acknowledging the current interest in the idea: "The metaverse has captured the attention of many companies around the world, and it has great potential." However, Furukawa continued by pointing out that it doesn't fit Nintendo's plans at this point:

"At this point in time, there is no easy way to define specifically what kinds of surprises and enjoyment the metaverse can deliver to our consumers. As a company that provides entertainment, our main emphasis is on ways to deliver fresh surprises and fun to our consumers."

So what would change Furukawa's mind? The crux seems to be in finding a way to use the metaverse in a 'Nintendo-y' way: "We might consider something if we can find a way to convey a 'Nintendo approach' to the metaverse that many people can readily understand, but we do not think that is the situation at the present time."

The metaverse is a concept gaining huge steam in the tech world right now. While there's no one clear version of what a metaverse is, the basic idea is that it would offer a persistent virtual world that breaks down barriers between online services, connected by a single economy.

Horizon Forbidden West is out this week, and I couldn't be more excited to dive in. IGN's review of the game is now live, giving it a solid 9/10. If you haven't preordered the game yet, then I thought we'd dedicate some time to finding you the very best deal before February 18. Right now, you can pick up the PS4 version of the game for just £53 at Amazon (see here), which also comes with a free PS5 upgrade on launch day. This is great for those who have Amazon vouchers to spend as well.

Currys also has the game down to £51 with code ALOY15 (see here). In my opinion, there's no need to buy a PS5 copy of the game unless you're looking to get a special or collector's edition. Overall, you can save up to £19 compared to buying the PS5 version for £70.

TL;DR - Our Favourite UK Deals Right Now

Best Horizon Forbidden West PS5 Preorder Deal

Those who preorder on PS4 can upgrade their copy to the PS5 edition for free on launch day. The PS5 version will be a digital copy, and will still require the PS4 disc inserted to start.

Currys (Use Code ALOY15 at Checkout)

Special and Collector's Edition Preorders

Capcom's mysterious countdown seems more likely than ever to be pointing to the announcement of a new Street Fighter game.

We already knew that the countdown would coincide with the Street Fighter Pro Tour final, and 2022 marks the series' 35th anniversary, making a new announcement feel natural.

Adding fuel to that fire, the Capcom CAP-JAMS band, which has created music for more recent Street Fighter projects, has also made sure to point fans to the countdown:

👀👀 https://t.co/DOHdzasOPq

— カプコン公式バンド｜カプチューン / CAP-JAMS (@CAPCOM_CAPJAMS) February 14, 2022

It's led many to surmise that whatever we get this weekend will be Street Fighter-related.

As mentioned below, Street Fighter 6 was one of the games IGN was able to independently confirm had been in development at Capcom at the time of a major leak. Capcom has previously said that Street Fighter 5 DLC character Luke is 'key' to the future of the series, so you can expect him to feature in any announcement.

Capcom has launched a new website that is teasing an announcement for next weekend.

The countdown page, which gives no further information as to what it may be for, is set to end on February 20 at 10pm PT/February 21 at 1am ET/6am GMT/4pm AEST.

On this week's episode of Podcast Beyond, IGN's PlayStation show, host Jonathon Dornbush is joined by Mark Medina and Jada Griffin to discuss our spoiler-free thoughts about Horizon Forbidden West for PS4 and PS5 in our review discussion episode. While IGN's Horizon Forbidden West review writer Simon Cardy couldn't join us, all three of the panelists have put a few dozen hours each into the Guerrilla Games PS4 and PS5 sequel, so we break down what we love about Horizon Forbidden West in this review discussion and why we think Horizon Forbidden West is the best PS5 game so far.

The panel covers their thoughts on how Horizon Forbidden West evolves the Horizon Zero Dawn formula, what improvements Guerrilla made to Horizon Forbidden West's combat, traversal, world design, and storytelling. First, while keeping free of any major spoilers, we talk broadly about how how Horizon Forbidden West's story not only lets Ashly Burch shine as Aloy in her second Horizon game, but how Guerrilla's approach to fleshing out the Horizon universe is so engrossing in Horizon Forbidden West. Then, we dig into Horizon's new and refined combat and traversal options, including some of the new weaponry in Aloy's arsenal, changes to Horizon's skill trees and outfit upgrades, and much more. Our review discussion for Horizon Forbidden West also touches on some of the traversal additions made to Aloy's world on both PS4 and PS5, like climbing, gliding, and swimming, while also taking a look at the world at large, including Forbidden West's sidequests and storytelling approach, optional side objectives, a surprising bit of Metroidvania DNA, and much more.

Horizon Zero Dawn’s Aloy has returned for a follow-up adventure that aims to squeeze the last watts of power out of the now-aging PlayStation 4, while simultaneously letting the PlayStation 5 flex its shiny new muscles. You can check out IGN’s Horizon Forbidden West review to find out how this sequel stacks up gameplay-wise, but here we will focus on technological improvements – as well the balance and sacrifices made to deliver a PS4 version and how much better the PS5 version is. But no matter where you play, Forbidden West’s visuals and performance more than manage to impress.

First thing's first: the numbers game. Forbidden West’s resolution on the PS4 tops out at 1920x1080, but that’s not the whole story as it appears to use checkerboarding or other reconstruction techniques to hit even that level. This results in some half pixel width counts, i.e. 960 and even a reduced 900p height at times – although this may be a drawback of any reconstruction technique similar to checkboarding as well, which are almost impossible to decipher from the outside in. The reduction in pixel shading is the big performance saving this provides, but I will talk about image quality shortly.

Successful sequels build on their predecessors in multiple ways – think Mass Effect 2, Assassin's Creed 2, and Uncharted 2. They all improve what came before them by conjuring up exciting new gameplay mechanics, developing characters through engaging stories, and switching up mission design to offer variety. In other words, they take a solid base and combine with new elements to create more advanced bonds, much like an alloy… or in this case, an Aloy. Horizon Forbidden West does this with aplomb, building on the already impressive foundations of 2017’s Horizon Zero Dawn to tell a thrilling story full of familiar explosive combat against elaborate robotic foes and blockbuster action sequences, but also adding Witcher-like settlements to the map and filling it out with great side quests. There’s a genuine sense of exploration and loads of completely involving lore behind it all to uncover. The result is a fantastic open-world action-adventure that, despite falling into a couple of its old habits, emphatically delivers on the promises made five years ago.

In celebration of the upcoming Uncharted film, the video game and movie versions of Nathan Drake and Chloe Frazer will be arriving as Outfits in Fortnite on February 17.

Fortnite's latest collaboration was teased via its official website last week, where it asked players to work together to solve a riddle with a 14-character password. Creators like @thesquatingdog on Twitter solved the riddle pretty quickly with the password 'sicparvismagna.' Those who have played the Uncharted games will remember that Latin phrase is from Sir Francis Drake's ring that Nathan Drake has. It was also linked to the real Sir Francis Drake.

Once the password is entered, users are taken to an unlisted video on Fortnite's YouTube channel that shows the Outfits in action. The film versions of the Outfits are based on Tom Holland's Nathan Drake and Sophia Ali's Chloe Frazer. The video game versions are based on their looks from Uncharted 4: A Thief's End and Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, respectively. Fun fact: this will be Tom Holland's second appearance in Fortnite following his arrival as Spider-Man.

Following its official free-to-play launch on February 11, Lost Ark has already become Steam's second most-played game of all time by concurrent players with an all-time peak of 1,325,305 people.

As revealed by SteamDB, Lost Ark passed Counter-Strike: Global Offensive's all-time peak of 1,308,963 players to secure the #2 spot. Considering these all-time peaks tend to happen around a game's release, it may be quite an uphill battle to take down PUBG's record of 3,257,248 players at one time. That aside, it's an impressive feat for the MMO that is developed by Smilegate and Tripod Studio and published by Amazon Game Studios.

This accomplishment shouldn't come as too much of a surprise as Lost Ark had already become one of Steam's biggest-ever games before it even went free-to-play.

As with many MMOs or online games, there were some server issues as millions of players attempted to play Lost Ark at once. In an effort to help relieve server stress, Smilegate offered players extra Founders Pack items to encourage players to swap to quieter servers.

The wave of massive mergers in the video game industry has provoked some questions none of us ever expected to ask. Will Destiny stay on PCs now that Bungie is a Sony studio? Is World of Warcraft about to be ported to consoles? What lies ahead for Electronic Arts? Is that the next domino to fall? All of these hypotheticals are fun and fascinating, but they ignore the elephant in the room. Once Microsoft's acquisition of Activision Blizzard is complete, the company will stand as one of the three largest gaming publishers on earth. That is an earthquake in the market, and with uncertainty about how federal regulators are interpreting antitrust laws — which aim to break up corporate monopolies in the market — experts believe that the deal will earn a thorough investigation.

"The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice looks at mergers to see if there's been a substantial lessening of competition, and whether prices will rise for consumers," said Jeffrey Jacobowitz, the chair of the antitrust practice at the law firm Arnall Golden Gregory LLP. "This deal narrows the market, and the government looks at market power. So they'll scrutinize this merger carefully, I believe. They'll look for any overlaps and competition, to see whether the consumer is being harmed."

Activision confirmed what we’ve known for a while now: Infinity Ward is developing a sequel to Modern Warfare as well as a new Warzone experience. In a call with influencers, Activision confirmed that fixing Warzone is a top priority for the team after taking the blame for ruining it.

“We f**ked stuff up,” Infinity Ward co-studio head Pat Kelly admitted plainly per Charlie Intel. Game director Josh Bridge added that the team is “not happy” with the current state of Warzone and that the studio is “determined to fix the issues with the game.”

Warzone, a free-to-play Call of Duty battle royale was released as part of the rollout for 2019’s Modern Warfare and it became a huge hit.

However, recent updates for Warzone have drawn more criticism than praise after several performance issues and bugs were introduced over time. The rollout of season two for Warzone Pacific has been delayed to add additional fixes before launch.

All of this is to say that Warzone’s stability has declined over time and Infinity Ward is looking to right the ship with its new Warzone experience.

Infinity Ward is leading development on both the new Warzone and mainline Call of Duty game, which is a sequel to 2019’s Modern Warfare. A new engine will be used for both titles.

Earlier today, Elden Ring's Steam page was updated to include the minimum system requirements needed to run the PC version.

As the the bare minimum needed for a gaming PC to run FromSoftware's highly-anticipated action RPG, the specs raised some eyebrows due to their heft requirements: an Intel Core i5-8400 or AMD Ryzen 3 3300X for the CPU, and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 or AMD Radeon RX 580 as the graphics card.

More surprising was the fact the minimum PC requirement asked for 12GB of RAM. While 12GB of RAM is not out of the realm of possibility for the majority of PC gamers, many systems still roll with about 8GB of RAM. By comparison, Dying Light 2 — which was released earlier this month — only requires 8 GB of RAM.

Subnautica's developers have announced their next game, and it won't be an immersive survival sim. Codenamed Project M, the new game will be a turn-based strategy game set in a sci-fi world, according to the Krafton earnings release. It is set to release in early access in 2022, alongside Callisto Protocol — a survival horror game from Striking Distance Studios.

In the same announcement, Krafton also announced a new program called "The Potential" intended to "actively push into new businesses such as deep learning, Web 3.0, NFT, VR, and others."

Unknown Worlds was picked up by Krafton late last year, with the publisher saying it would continue to function as an independent studio as it worked on both what we now know as Project M as well as updates for Subnautica and Subnautica: Below Zero.

In our review of Subnautica back in 2018, we found it to be a "template for what open-world survival games should strive to be." We similarly loved Subnautica: Below Zero in our review last year of the frosty follow-up.

Rebekah Valentine is a news reporter for IGN. You can find her on Twitter @duckvalentine.

Welcome back to IGN Game Scoop!, the ONLY video game podcast! This week your Omega Cops -- Daemon Hatfield, Sam Claiborn, Colin Stevens, and Justin Davis -- are discussing that Nintendo Direct, Kirby, Mario Kart, Nintendo Switch Sports, 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!

The 2021 Video Game Accessibility Awards has just unveiled its list of nominees with a wide, diverse spread of games being celebrated and no single title running away with dozens of nominations.

Several games received nominations in two categories, including Before Your Eyes, Unpacking, Halo Infinite, Far Cry 6, Back 4 Blood, It Takes Two, and Ratchet and Clank: Rift Apart.

The winners will be announced on March 12, 2022, on a livestream hosted by Accessibility Awards co-creators Steven Spohn and Alanah Pearce [Disclosure: Alanah Pearce is a former member of IGN's editorial content team].

The awards show was founded last year in partnership with Able Gamers to celebrate games that push the bar of accessibility and enable more players with diverse needs to enjoy games. The judging panel is made up entirely of disabled gamers, and its categories are based on accessibility guidelines created by Able Gamers as tools for game developers.

"My goal when I created the awards show was to celebrate developers who are making significant strides in accessibility, as a thank you to those studios, but also in the hopes that it would encourage other studios to get involved," Pearce said. "If there's an awards show for something and it has some visibility, I figure more studios are likely to try to strive to be included, thus raising the bar for accessibility across the board. We're also inherently educating any developers who might watch the show on what the different categories do, thus hopefully encouraging different accessibility needs to be considered earlier on in development cycles.

Everyone's favorite Exotic-selling Agent of the Nine, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get your hands on 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 February 13 and will stay there through February 15. 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.

This year's Call of Duty release will be a sequel to 2019's Modern Warfare, Activision Blizzard announced today. It will be developed in tandem with a new Warzone release that will be "designed together from the ground up."

Call of Duty fans can be expect a "all-new playspace and a new sandbox mode" for Warzone 2. Both the Modern Warfare sequel and Warzone will be powered by a new engine.

Let’s start with a look ahead:
✅ COD 2022 is a sequel to MW 2019, and being designed with a new #Warzone experience (both led by @InfinityWard)
✅ A massive evolution of BR, with an all-new playspace and new sandbox mode
✅ A new engine powering both the new game and #Warzone

— Call of Duty (@CallofDuty) February 11, 2022

Development on both games will once again be led by Infinity Ward, which previously worked on Modern Warfare 2019 and Call of Duty: Warzone. Both games are among the most successful Call of Duty games ever made, with Warzone in particular becoming a major fixture of the battle royale scene.

Sony has finally updated its digital store page for Horizon Forbidden West, making it clearer that the PS4 version also comes with a free digital PS5 upgrade.

So here's your reminder, don't buy Horizon Forbidden West on PS5 - get it on PS4, whether that's physically or digitally, and upgrade to PS5 for free. Why should you do this? Well, it's pretty simple. The PS4 version costs $59.99/ £59.99, whereas the PS5 is still listed at $69.99/ £69.99 (without any clear explanation why).

In fact, in the UK, you can get the PS4 version of game for even cheaper, with Amazon listing the new PlayStation exclusive for £52.95, while Currys also has it for £51 when using code ALOY15. You get the same game, but for less — it really is a no brainer.

Despite previous assurances from Sony, there was still some trepidation about the PS5 upgrade from @IGNDeals followers. Seemingly, the upgrade hadn't been addressed since September of 2021 when Sony revitalised their intial promise of a free upgrade path for all PS5 launch titles.

Sometimes the simplest, silliest games sink their hooks into me don’t let go even while bigger, flashier options cry out for my attention. That was what happened with Vampire Survivors, a weird little early access game that started blowing up on the Steam charts despite looking very much like the hundreds of other tiny pixel-art games that come and go every day. What’s novel about it is very simple: it’s basically a twin-stick shooter that does away with the right stick, leaving you to worry exclusively about positioning yourself while it takes care of firing your ever-escalating collection of weapons at the thousands of increasingly spongy enemies that flood the screen. It’s a clever idea that works for a lot longer than I expected before its challenge petered out, and one that feels like it has a lot of room to grow.

There’s no sugarcoating it: Vampire Survivors sure doesn’t look like much. The pixelated 2D character sprites seem torn out of a generic and long-forgotten fantasy game from the early '90s and are barely animated, with the most interesting part being that some of them do have a nice disintegration effect as they die. It’s as simple as it can possibly be while managing to stay as readable as it needs to be so that you can mostly tell what’s going on during the utter chaos that’s about to ensue.

Three Siberian teenagers have been sentenced for plotting to destroy the Russian Government's Federal Security Service (FSB) building in Minecraft among other activities.

A Russian military court found the teens guilty of "undergoing training for the purpose of carrying out terrorist activities," The Moscow Times reported, with one sentenced to five years in a penal colony.

Sony and Guerilla Games have announced that Horizon Zero Dawn has sold over 20 million copies globally across PlayStation 4 and PC.

The new statistic reflects the number of copies sold on both platforms as of November 2021. Additionally, more than one billion hours have been spent playing the game. This news bodes well for the franchise as its sequel is set to release next week.

Head of PlayStation Studios Herman Hulst said in a Tweet, "Wow, Horizon Zero Dawn has officially sold over 20 MILLION copies around the world across PS4 and PC!" What an incredible achievement Guerrilla, and a big thank you to our hugely supportive fans!"

Wow, Horizon Zero Dawn has officially sold over 20 MILLION copies around the world across PS4 and PC! What an incredible achievement @Guerrilla, and a big thank you to our hugely supportive fans!

Now, let's get ready to visit #HorizonForbiddenWest in a week... pic.twitter.com/OsG3jLY2fX

Sony's PlayStation 5 was the United States' best-selling console in January 2022, the NPD Group has announced.

In the analyst group's latest data it has been revealed that the PS5 was the best-selling hardware platform in January in both units sold and dollars made.

The Xbox Series X/S placed second in both categories, though the two consoles' combined front pushed overall hardware sales to the second highest January on record at $390 million, an increase of 22% from January 2021.

The January with the highest figures to date was in 2009, back when the Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 had been on the market for a few years.

Despite the huge hardware sales this January, however, spending across game hardware, content, and accessories declined 2% compared to January 2021.

Software sales saw Pokémon Legends: Arceus take the top spot, followed by Call of Duty: Vanguard, Monster Hunter: Rise, Madden NFL 22, and God of War in fifth place.

Both Monster Hunter: Rise and God of War saw massive spikes in sales due to their Steam releases as last month they were 94th and 146th best sellers respectively.

The PS5 has officially outsold the Nintendo Wii U as of February 2 as it hit 17.3 million sales over the holiday period.

The King of Fighters series has built up a lot of momentum since 1994, and King of Fighters XV certainly keeps that going, if nothing else. The latest in SNK’s premiere fighting games plays it safe by focusing on subtly refining the already solid mechanics of 2016’s King of Fighters XIV and bringing the graphics up to a more modern standard, but never really reaches beyond that in an attempt to take the series to the next level. Because of that lack of ambition it won’t do much to grab the attention of those who don’t already have eyes on the series, but for longtime fans this is a reliable return for the king.

Minecraft has been one of the biggest games on the planet for over a decade now. Since its release, it has appeared on nearly all of the big video game platforms and sold millions upon millions of copies. It’s a massive, open-ended game that offers nearly limitless possibilities for players young and old. So it’s no surprise that a mountain of books about Minecraft have flooded the market over the years in an effort to help players figure out how to do what they want to do.

Minecraft books are easy to come by nowadays, but it’s not always easy to tell which ones are worth picking up for yourself or the Minecraft player in your life. We’re here to help. We’ve compiled all the best Minecraft books for a wide variety of needs and uses. Let’s dig in.

Lost Ark is offering players who paid to play the free-to-play MMO early additional items if they switch to quieter servers. The move comes as Lost Ark is struggling with long server queues during its early access period ahead of the official free-to-play release later today.

Some players are having "a less than ideal experience" said developer Smilegate in a blog post, and several measures to reduce queue times are being introduced.

Players who bought Founder's Packs to gain early access to Lost Ark will be offered the same items again if they switch to quieter servers as Smilegate attempts to spread out the huge number of players already online. The offer comes due to the fact that existing characters cannot be transferred to new severs, and so players will need to start the game again from scratch with new characters. Starting again would mean leaving behind the premium items on the previous server, but Smilegate's new promise means Founder's Pack items will be available for players on any server they choose.

While that makes changing servers a little less painful, there is an additional incentive. Those who purchased the Silver, Gold, or Platinum packs will also be given extra Royal Crystals that can be spent on skins, mounts, stronghold decorations and more in the in-game shop. To qualify for the replicated items and Royal Crystals, you need to switch servers and redeem your items by 12pm PT on February 14.

Microsoft has committed to putting "the right people in the right position" at the helm of Activision Blizzard amid the ongoing serious allegations around the company's toxic workplace culture.

As reported by VGC, Microsoft president Brad Smith told CNBC that his company is looking at the current leadership team at Activision Blizzard, and that there will be "change" to some aspects should the acquisition deal proceed.

He said: "We're looking to the leadership team at Activision Blizzard today to make culture and workplace safety a top priority every single day, until the day when this deal hopefully closes. And then we'll take over and we need to make that same commitment.

"There will be some aspects that will change but it will all be one new team that will work together," he continued. "Most importantly, we want to see the culture evolve, and we'll see how people perform between now and the day this closes, assuming it's approved. And then we'll have the opportunity to make sure that we have the right people in the right position."

Days Gone director Jeff Ross wanted to make an Uncharted prequel.

During an interview with Sacred Symbols (via VGC), Ross explained what his Uncharted prequel would have been all about.

“Victor Sullivan at the age of 25 in a very stylised world where… it would be around 1976, I think is where we figured out his age might be,” he explained.

Sony Bend was at one point reportedly working on a new Uncharted game… and while many thought it was likely an Uncharted sequel, it could be that this was actually Jeff Ross’s young Sully prequel.

And it’s certainly an interesting concept.

“He busted out of the Navy for reasons, and I thought seeing him young and trying to figure out his way in this world going from trying to be a soldier or you know a military man to now I’m just out on the streets and I’m gonna become a hustler,” he added.

After Sony failed to greenlight Days Gone 2, the director wanted to work on something new and began putting together ideas for this unmade Uncharted game.

Elden Ring is one of the biggest and most anticipated games of the month, and probably the whole of 2022 as well. It's a huge game, and you can preorder it for just £40 right now. Yes, I didn't stutter, preorders are down to as little as £40 before the release day of February (see here).

All you need to do is head over to Currys, and enter code SWNEXTDAY at checkout. Make sure to select free delivery on the game, and you'll be getting the new From Software game for just £40. It'll even arrive on time, on release day as well - what a result.

This Elden Ring Preorder Deal is Incredible

Considering how many other games are coming out this month, February is already looking mighty expensive. But, with impressive preorder deals like this, we can all breathe a sigh of relief that we're not spending £70 per game.

In case you missed it, you can also pick up Horizon Forbidden West for £53 at Amazon right now (see here). It's the PS4 version, but that also includes a free PS5 upgrade, so you're saving £17 overall which is a great deal, especially for a PlayStation game at launch.

Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.