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Microsoft has announced that a new Xbox Games Showcase will be livestreamed this June, and will once again include reveals of upcoming Xbox games from both first and third-party studios. In addition there will also be a Starfield Direct; a whole show dedicated to a deep-dive on Bethesda’s upcoming space-faring RPG.

As detailed on the Xbox Wire blog, the Xbox Games Showcase will be livestreamed on Sunday, June 11 at 10am PT (6pm UK, June 12 @ 3am AEST). No specific developers or games have been teased, but naturally whatever is shown will be our first look at what’s coming to Xbox, PC, and Game Pass in the future.

Spoiler Alert: we'll be talking about games ​
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Tune into the Xbox Games Showcase followed by Starfield Direct on Sunday, June 11 @ 10am PT: https://t.co/3mhkAsswII | #Starfield #XboxShowcase pic.twitter.com/4uFHPmqLyK

— Xbox (@Xbox) May 3, 2023

Starfield Direct, which will be aired immediately following the Xbox Games Showcase, will feature “tons of new gameplay, developer interviews, and behind-the-scenes insider information.”

2.5D Metroidvanias are hardly thin on the ground, but The Last Case of Benedict Fox has a striking sense of style and some truly stimulating puzzle solving to help it stand out from the side-scrolling platforming pack. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite have all the fundamentals covered, with sluggish controls that weigh heavily on combat and platforming, and a lack of story objective signposting that makes navigating its expanding rabbit warren of wonders far more mystifying than it should be. As a result, it’s a disappointingly uneven adventure that’s just as likely to engage as it is to enrage, and there were lengthy stretches in its back half where Benedict’s last case started to feel worryingly like a lost cause.

The case in question revolves around the recent death of Benedict’s father – so recent, in fact, that his fresh corpse is still warming the basement floor of the Fox family manor at the outset of the story. Since dusting for fingerprints and gathering witness testimonies wouldn’t make for the most compelling of platforming adventures, Benedict is partnered with a demonic companion – not unlike Mike Patton’s shotgun-riding presence in The Darkness – that can whisk him in and out of ‘limbo’. This is a representation of his father’s memories and inner demons, manifested into a physical realm to be scoured for clues that explain the senior Fox’s demise. The various different regions of this Lovecraftian realm parallel the different rooms of the family house, only the opulence of the real-world setting has been twisted and torn into wonderfully gnarly, nightmarish interpretations that reflect the inner torment the father felt during his final hours, and they’re genuinely captivating to behold.

Marvel’s Midnight Suns won’t be coming to Nintendo Switch after all.

2K and Firaxis Games have officially confirmed that Midnight Suns won’t be released on Nintendo Switch, despite the game’s impending PS4 and Xbox One release.

“We're excited to announce that digital versions of Marvel's Midnight Suns on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One are scheduled to launch on Thursday, May 11,” they confirmed. “Note that a Nintendo Switch version of Marvel's Midnight Suns is no longer planned.”

Obviously, that’s bad news for Nintendo Switch fans. But thankfully, it’s not a long wait for PS4 AND Xbox One players, with Midnight Suns heading to digital on both platforms in just over a week – that includes all 4 DLC instalments, too.

“This coincides with the release of the fourth post-launch DLC for Marvel's Midnight Suns: Blood Storm, which introduces Storm as a playable hero and new missions in the DLC-spanning vampyre storyline.”

Completing all DLC missions for Deadpool, Venom, Morbius, and Storm will apparently trigger a final showdown against an “age-old monster”. Whoever that might be…

Note that all the current DLC will be available on launch day to PS4 and Xbox One players who buy either the game’s legendary edition or the Midnight Suns season pass.

Titanfall and Titanfall 2 director Steve Fukuda is working on “something new” for Respawn Entertainment.

During an interview with Axios Gaming, Respawn director Vince Zampella revealed that Fukuda is currently leading a “very small” team that’s exploring new IP.

“The mission is to find the fun in something new,” said Zampella.

A small team led by Steve Fukuda (Titanfall series director) is in the early stages of developing an original IP

“The mission is to find the fun in something new", says Vince Zampella.

Via: https://t.co/8fbUtEi1mt pic.twitter.com/yw07uVYwn0

— Shinobi602 (@shinobi602) May 2, 2023

Fukuda is perhaps best known for his work on the Titanfall series, as director of the popular FPS franchise. Titanfall began as an online multiplayer game, with Titanfall 2 building upon this with a thoroughly enjoyable solo campaign.

Since the sequel’s release in 2016, fans have been dying to see another installment in the Titanfall franchise. Although, there are apparently no plans to make Titanfall 3 right now.

With AI technology increasingly in the news, more and more game developers have been examining how much, if at all, they want to integrate artificial intelligence into their development pipelines. And while much of this discussion is taking place amid real fears that AI will replace real human beings in developer jobs, World of Warcraft game director Ion Hazzikostas isn’t concerned about that happening to him after a recent encounter with ChatGPT.

Speaking to IGN ahead of the launch of the latest major patch, Embers of Neltharion, Hazzikostas says that one of the first things he did when he first gained access to AI chatbot ChatGPT was ask it what the next World of Warcraft expansion should be. And its answer was uniquely terrible on multiple levels:

“I kid you not, the number one prompt it returned to me…was ‘Return to the Shadowlands.’ So I feel like I have pretty good job security, not too worried about ChatGPT replacing me anytime soon.”

There are plenty of solo board games and two-player board games, plus and many more that can seat up to four or five people, but a group of three can be an odd number in every sense of the word. Luckily there are board games that play very well with three people and sometimes are even best with that number.

There are cooperative board games that benefit from having a tiebreaker when debating what to do, or where three players will allow you to cover more key roles, and worker-placement games where three players provide more options on each turn than a full table, but stronger competition than a head-to-head match. No one will have to feel like a third wheel when you play these board games.

Xbox has announced a new PC Game Pass referral program that lets existing members gift a free trial of the subscription service to a friend.

Every Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass holder will be able to send a total of five friend referrals by clicking the “Give PC Game Pass” button located on your Game Pass home screen menu. Each trial can be redeemed to grant access to a 14-day PC Game Pass trial, as long as the target of your generosity is new to the service.

Microsoft has launched the program to coincide with the release of Arkane’s first-person action horror shooter Redfall, which was released earlier today on Game Pass for Xbox consoles and PC.

Beyond Redfall the trial unlocks all of the content usually contained in the PC Game Pass service, including hundreds of games ranging from Rare’s pirate adventure title Sea of Thieves, to Playground Games’ high-octane offering in Forza Horizon 5. The trial also provides access to all the titles included in an EA Play membership, along with any new first party Xbox Studio games launching onto the service during the trial period.

The new program will be welcome news to gamers hoping to give Game Pass on PC a try, especially considering that Microsoft recently ended a long standing promotion that offered a one month trial of the subscription service for $1.

Apex Legends Season 17, or Arsenal, is coming May 9th and brings in a brand new Legend, major map changes to World’s Edge, new Firing Range, Weapon Mastery, and an overhauled Rank System. Every season, Respawn aims to improve and bring meaningful updates to Apex and Season 17 is looking to be an especially ambitious one. Here’s everything you need to know about everything coming to Apex Legends Arsenal on May 9th.

Let’s go over the new Legend, Ballistic, first. I have a separate lore video for him that you can watch on this channel. Ballistic is an Assault Legend so he gets the passive benefits of unlocking the class specific Assault bins throughout the maps and can additionally carry more ammo per stack in his inventory.

Here’s how Ballistic’s kit works:

• Passive: Sling
  • Ballistic can carry a third weapon in his inventory with no attachments.

• Tactical: Whistler
  • Ballistic shoots a smart ammo projectile at an enemy that will apply a weapon overheat debuff. An indicator on the affected enemy’s hud will show how many shots they can shoot before the gun will overheat, causing them to pause firing for a short cool-down animation. Whistler can be held to lock-on to an enemy but can be dodged if you break line of sight with the tactical.
  • If Whistler misses, it will remain on the floor or surface of the area (Like Ashe’s tactical) and if an enemy runs into it, it will deal 5 damage.
  • Whistler deals 20 damage on hit and will do an additional 30 damage if the enemy overheats their weapon.

2023 is a big year for the Transformers franchise, and not just because Transformers: Rise of the Beasts is making its way to theaters. There are also plenty of new figures to look forward to this year, and that includes a truly massive rendition of the Decepticon villain Nemesis.

Nemesis is the latest character joining the Transformers Legacy Evolution line, which focuses on fan-favorite characters from all generations of the franchise. IGN can exclusively debut a new series of promo pics for this massive figure. Check them out in the slideshow gallery below:

This Nemesis figure promises to be one of the biggest Transformers toys this side of the mighty Unicron figure. Nemesis measures roughly 23.5 inches tall in robot mode. The figure can transform into a Decepticon ship, though it requires no fewer than 36 steps to achieve that transformation.

Nemesis includes a number of accessories, including a ship tower, five blaster pieces and a set of four Seeker micro figures. Even the wings can be split apart to form blaster and axe weapons.

The Legacy Evolution Titan Class Nemesis figure is priced at $199.99 and is expected to hit stores in Fall 2023. Preorders are now open on the Hasbro Pulse website.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor fans have fallen hard in love with an unlikely character - a strangely charismatic frog-boy called Turgle.

Fans first encountered Turgle on the planet Koboh, where protagonist Cal Kestis intercedes to save the alien’s life from an electrifying end at the hands of the Bedlam Raiders - a criminal group intent on terrorising the system under the leadership of the Gen’dai Rayvis.

Though some gamers low-key wish that Cal had left Turgle to the predations of the Bedlam Raiders, others immediately fell for the comedic character’s open naivety and ineffable big frog energy. Whilst Turgle appears generally upbeat during his interactions with Cal, players can find hints of the amphibian’s deeply-rooted self doubt and anxiety by interacting with force echoes found on Koboh.

I am so proud to be a part of Star Wars cannon after so many years. And I am so very touched by all the fan love for this little guy🙏❤️ I Am Turgle! pic.twitter.com/lMd7b8AWnA

I can’t think of another game I’ve put more time into pre-release than Street Fighter 6. Between time spent playing the game at the Capcom booth at Summer Game Fest Play Days back when it was first announced last year, to the late nights grinding through ranked matchmaking across two betas, to the times I’ve been fortunate enough to play it through special events at IGN, I feel like I can pretty confidently say that the core fighting of Street Fighter 6 is going to be excellent.

But that’s just one piece of the pie, and while the recently released demo has given us a small taste of everything else the full game will have to offer, I recently visited Capcom to play an updated build and delve even deeper. So, here are my final impressions of Street Fighter 6 before launch, covering the World Tour mode all the way up to chapter 3-2, along with some thoughts on one particular character that hasn’t been playable up to this point.

World Tour is Better Than You Might Expect

For those who haven’t gotten to check out the PlayStation demo, World Tour is Street Fighter 6’s new RPG-like single player mode that has you taking your own fledgling Street Fighter creation and building them up into a fierce world warrior. You can challenge just about anyone on the street to a fight, whether they deserve a rising uppercut to the face or not. The more you fight, the more EXP you gain, which allows you to level up, improving your stats, and giving you skill points to add to a fairly deep skill tree.

With Redfall arriving at IGN just a couple of days ahead of its official release date we haven’t had enough time to complete a final review yet – certainly not without becoming a nocturnal monster myself and staying awake all weekend. However, after several sessions – solo, co-op with a friend, and also in a group of three – I must admit I’m thoroughly underwhelmed by Redfall’s vanilla missions and lifeless world, and very disappointed at its lengthy list of display issues and bugs.

Redfall is a distinct departure from the likes of Deathloop and Dishonored. Certainly some of that Arkane DNA has sidestepped its way into the finished product – chiefly in the magical abilities of the four available powered-up protagonists – but Redfall’s open-world approach to a modern day Massachusetts is otherwise a little more mundane in comparison. Not only does the architecture of Redfall seem a little flavourless compared to Deathloop’s funky retro-futurism and the Victorian backdrop of Dishonored, but there seems little to absorb whenever I stop to explore.

Warning: This article contains spoilers for Star Wars: Jedi Survivor

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor features many connective threads and deep cuts to the established lore of the decades-spanning sci-fi/fantasy franchise. Throughout Jedi Knight Cal Kestis's journey across the galaxy, he'll encounter familiar enemies to battle and overcome. However, one particular foe from Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order made quite an impact on players who were brave enough to fight it, and it's now back with a vengeance in the sequel.

In Survivor, players can get a rematch against the oddly named, but totally dangerous, Oggdo Bogdo -- which was an original creation from Fallen Order. When most players first encountered the foe in Fallen Order, many were outmatched by its raw strength and high resiliance. The sequel takes things further by allowing players the chance to fight the "Spawn of Oggdo," which shares the lethality of its parent, along with another more difficult battle that takes things further.

What is Oggdo Bogdo?

In Fallen Order, Oggdo Bogdo was an optional mini-boss located in Bogano. As something of a large frog-looking creature, it also possessed massive strength and agility. What made the original game's fight against Oggdo Bogdo so memorable was its first and very sudden difficulty spike. The enemy was able to one-shot most players, and given its placement in one of the game's starting areas, many felt compelled to try to defeat it.

Zelda's Adventure, the third and final CDi game of The Legend of Zelda, has been ported over to the Game Boy by an indie game developer nearly 30 years after its release - and it's a massive improvement in the graphics.

Indie game developer John Lay released the Game Boy port of the infamous CDi Zelda game on Itch.io today, and it was developed in GB Studio with some modifications. The trailer provided in the tweet below shows a side-by-side comparison between the widely criticized graphics of the original CGI title and the Game Boy version that fans would've wanted to play all those years ago.

Proud to release a complete port of Zelda's Adventure for the Game Boy.

Zelda's forgotten CDi game is now available to download!https://t.co/LOsk0DjrbS

Made with @GBStudioDev. Music composed by @beatscribemusic.@gbs_central, @DouggernaughtTV, @thedopster #gameboy #Zelda pic.twitter.com/fLQ5NvgAzO

More and more game studios are actively discussing and considering the implications of new AI technologies in development, and Honkai: Star Rail developer HoYoverse is among them.

The fourth entry in the Honkai series launched last week for PC and mobile, bringing gacha and other systems familiar from its prior open world hit Genshin Impact to a classic RPG format with familiar nods to prior Honkai games.

And like Genshin Impact, Honkai: Star Rail is a massive game, with plans to continue growing over time. It’s made by a development team of over 500 people, but even with so many on board its scale makes it unsurprising that the developers used at least a couple AI techniques to polish off certain otherwise-handcrafted design elements.

“Our team is paying much attention to AI, especially its impact on the gaming industry,” reads an answer from the Honkai: Star Rail development team in response to IGN asking about advances in AI technology. “In fact, we have already integrated some latest AI technologies into Honkai: Star Rail. These techniques have been implemented to improve the facial appearance and behavioral patterns of characters, enhancing the immersive gaming experience with a more natural representation overall.”

That said, there are some areas of Honkai: Star Rail specifically that HoYoverse feels AI isn’t necessarily ready to touch just yet, though it may be in the future. Specifically, content scripting - you won’t find any AI writing in Honkai: Star Rail, especially given how story-driven the game is. Still, HoYoverse says it finds more in-depth AI application for scripting “definitely intriguing.”

Among the many findings in the more than 400-page report released by the UK's Competitions and Markets Authority blocking the acquisition of Activision Blizzard by Microsoft, the agency concludes that the fears put forward by Sony regarding Call of Duty exclusivity are unwarranted. In fact, the UK regulator determines that Xbox would lose "substantial" money if it ever tried to keep Call of Duty all to itself.

While the exact numbers have been redacted to protect the privacy of the third-parties involved (Sony, Xbox, and Activision Blizzard), the report specifically models two theoretical scenarios where Microsoft could attempt to remove Call of Duty from PlayStation platforms, before concluding that "it would not be financially profitable for [Microsoft] to engage in a total foreclosure strategy."

The conclusion is drawn from, among other things, the "critical diversion ratio," which is the rate at which PlayStation Call of Duty players would need to switch over to Xbox in order for it to become profitable for Microsoft, and how much those new players are likely to spend on Call of Duty in the five years following a total foreclosure strategy by Microsoft. By analysing the lifetime total value (LTV) of Call of Duty players, the CMA estimates that Microsoft would see a net loss in the billions over those five years.

The third annual Meta Quest Gaming Showcase has been announced for June 1, 2023, at 10am PT/1pm ET and it is set to feature "over 40 minutes of content" on upcoming VR releases.

Meta announced the news alongside a brief teaser video that includes a short clip of a mystery game that seems to take place in a desert and potentially shows Loki's helmet on the ground.

The Meta Quest Gaming Showcase is coming. 👀

@ your watch party in the replies and tune in June 1 at 10 am PT on Facebook, Twitch, YouTube, and Meta Horizon Worlds. pic.twitter.com/Dhzwl2BgiN

— Meta Quest (@MetaQuestVR) May 1, 2023

One of our favorite Meta Quest games is Asgard's Wrath and it, among other things, lets you hang out with everyone's favorite trickster god. There were no games mentioned in the announcement for 2023's Meta Quest Gaming Showcase, so this could possibly be teasing Asgard's Wrath 2, some sort of DLC, or something else entirely.

What Meta did promise, however, is that fans can expect "new game announcements, gameplay first-looks, updates to existing games, and more during the main event." In addition, this year's showcase will feature a brand-new pre-show beginning at 9:45am PT/12:45pm ET that will include even more "game updates and debut trailers."

PlayStation says that its 10 live service games in development will be in different genres and for different audiences. Furthermore, PlayStation is aware of the fierce competition between live service games and the time investment they take from players.

In an interview with GamesIndustry.biz, PlayStation Studios head Herman Hulst said, “There is a risk that we talk about 'live service' in generic terms – as if it is a single genre or even a single business model. PlayStation Studios are making a variety of games that could be referred to as 'live services', targeting different genres, different release schedules, and at different scales.”

He continued: “We are also creating games for different audiences, and I take confidence from our track record in creating worlds and stories that PlayStation fans love.”

Hulst explained that each of the studios PlayStation recently acquired is on its own trajectory. Additionally, whether or not an acquisition occurs depends on what the studio needs to grow and succeed. Being part of PlayStation Studios allows access to a global network of other studios, as well as technology and service teams.

“The priority for each studio is to deliver their own project – to make the best game that they can,” Hulst said.

A new update for Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has rolled out today, May 1, for PC players that addresses some of the game's ongoing performance issues, and an even more extensive update is planned for console versions tomorrow, May 2.

EA took to Twitter to announce that PC players can now download an update that brings "performance issues for non-raytraced rendering." Meanwhile, an update for consoles on Tuesday packs a massive slate of improvements expected to rectify many of the woes players have experienced since the game's launch last week. It's important to note that the PC version has already received these other updates.

Today a patch has become available for the PC version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, and tomorrow (5/2) we’ll also be issuing a patch for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.

We are hard at work on patches that will further improve performance and fix bugs across all platforms.… pic.twitter.com/XrjbdDQUp6

— EA Star Wars (@EAStarWars) May 1, 2023

The patch offers fixes for a multitude of crashes and glitches that have caused problems throughout Respawn's newest adventure in a galaxy far, far away. But it's really the promise of general performance improvements that will be a relief for many who purchased the game on day one, hopefully providing a much-needed reduction of screen-tearing and graphical hiccups.

It may be hard to believe, friends, but we are one week away from The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's launch week! While that is undoubtedly very exciting, leaks have unfortunately started to happen online and we're here to remind you to stay safe out there.

We here at IGN won't be sharing any of these spoilers or links to them, but there are threads on Reddit's r/GamingLeaksAndRumours and others that have started to share some screenshots, gameplay footage, and more. These appear to be from 4Chan, Discord, and other places.

We've also confirmed that art from what appears to be The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's art book have also leaked to some who may have gotten their hands on a copy of it early. There was a leak of the art book back in February, and it seems more people have their hands on it now or could be sharing images again. Either way, the danger of spoilers is high!

In addition to staying off certain Reddit pages and being careful in the comments of articles and such, we'd like to encourage people, if they'd like, to mute keywords on social media platforms like The Legend of Zelda, Tears of the Kingdom, Link, Hyrule, Ganon, etc.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom will be released on May 12, 2023, and we were finally able to get our hands on the much-anticipated sequel to 2017's The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild recently.

If you own an Xbox Series X|S, and especially if you frequently make good use of Xbox Game Pass and its many available titles, you’ll likely want a way to upgrade your storage to hold all of your favorite games and the ones you want to play later. Thankfully, Amazon is here to help with an excellent deal on storage expansion cards specifically for Xbox users.

Right now, you can save 30% on a 1TB and 2TB Seagate Storage Expansion Card for Xbox Series X|S on Amazon. This brings the cost down for both to a new, all-time-low price, with the 1TB expansion card dropping from $219.99 to $149.99 and the 2TB card dropping from $399.99 to $279.99. Click the links below to see both deals in full.

Seagate 1TB and 2TB Storage Expansion Cards for Xbox Series X|S - Amazon Sale

These expansion cards from Seagate are specifically designed with Xbox in mind and replicate the Xbox Velocity Architecture. They play games smoothly and easily, so you don't have to worry about diminished graphics, latency, load times, or framerates, and each has an incredible amount of storage space, so you can keep several titles stored on your Xbox Series X|S.

1 Month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate is 20% Off at Amazon

What are you going to load onto the extra storage space? You can get a month's worth of Game Pass Ultimate on sale for 20% off on Amazon right now and have your pick of tons of excellent selections.

A Skyrim modder named Art From The Machine has shown off a mod they're working on that uses ChatGPT and other AI tools to give NPCs a memory of your adventure, endless things for them to say, and a way to ask them questions with your voice.

As reported by PC Gamer, this mod uses ChatGPT in concert with xVASynth for text-to-speech that lets NPCs speak these new answers with an AI version of their voice and Whisper for speech-to-text so players can use their own voice via a mic to ask questions to them.

As you can see in the video here, the new responses from the NPCs aren't quite natural as of yet and can be a bit slow, but it shows promise of a world where NPCs can comment on nearly everything you do and even answer questions directly from the player that aren't just canned responses from a list of dialogue options.

For example, the video released by Art From The Machine shows a conversation with Ulfberth War-Bear from Warmaiden's in Whiterun, and the player can ask him what the store's hours of operation are and even how much time remains until the store closed based on the in-game clock.

He is also seen describing a sword the player picks up, showing that any NPC - with the proper knowledge, of course - could dynamically explain various items in the world to you as part of a conversation instead of having that info solely in text form in some menu.

"It seems to be a well-crafted iron sword with a soul gem embedded in the hilt. The enchantment on it allows the wielder to capture the souls of their enemies," Ulfberth War-Bear says.

Dinosaurs captivate all ages. The creatures that dominated Earth ages ago, populating our world for 165 million years in total, will never not be fascinating. And on screen, as part of movie history, dinosaurs have always been a go-to genre for incredible spectacle and chilling thrills - whether you're into t-rexes, pterodactyls, raptors, or gentle giant brontosauruses.

The Jurassic Park/World franchise has raked in $6 billion in box office bucks over the past 30 years, proving that these glorious beasts can bring home the bacon. Sometimes movie fans are transported back in time, to the era of these wondrous reptiles while other instances show dinosaurs living among us, either on a secluded island lost to history or as cloned beings brought back by science for our amusement (and dismemberment).

Here are the 10 best dinosaur movies, from trampled theme parks to warring prehistoric titans.

Jurassic Park (1993)

Where to Watch: Peacock, or rentable on most platforms.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor is finally here and we are all once again able to join Cal Kestis on his quest to stop the Empire from destroying everything in its path as it tries to bring about a new future that really isn’t so wonderful. In honor of this long-awaited release, we thought we’d look at who the most powerful Jedi is in current Star Wars canon. However, we need your help to answer this question.

Do you think Cal Kestis is more powerful than Luke Skywalker? Is Ahsoka actually more powerful than Anakin Skywalker before he turned to the Dark Side? We’ve selected 63 Jedi from the Star Wars universe to “Face-Off” against each other two at a time, and it’s up to you to choose who the most powerful is. Will you pick Plo Koon over Ki-Adi-Mundi? Kelleren Beq over Adi Gallia? The choice is yours…

Oh, and we’ve decided to include those, in film, TV, and video games, who have walked the path of the Jedi at one point in their lives, even if they never finished their Jedi training, never earned the title of Padawan, Knight, or Master, or, in Ahsoka’s case, walked away from the Jedi Order entirely. So yes, this means Grogu is fair game! Also, no Sith are included here (unless they were once Jedi). Sorry, Darth Maul!

(And don't forget, you can pass on a Face-Off round if you don't know a character by just hitting "skip" at the bottom of the page.)

Click here to start voting in the most powerful Jedi Face-Off!

With upwards of 75 Skills to unlock in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, gathering enough experience to comfortably earn enough Skill Points for all the necessary skills needed -- such as Split Reflections, Maximizing your Force and Life, and Wrenching Pull -- won't be an easy challenge to accomplish.

Thankfully, if you know where to look, two easy-to-miss Perks can be obtained before the halfway point of the main story. These Perks can be a complete game changer, as they'll make gaining experience and earning Skill Points much easier. So, here's everything you need to know:

The Sims franchise has been an incredible success since its release in the early 2000s and to this day there haven't been any real competitors. Despite The Sims being truly one of a kind, the life simulation genre is alive and well. In The Sims, you can create your own character (known as a "Sim"), build a home for your Sim, interact with other Sims, and live out the life you want-the possibilities are endless. Players orchestrate the mundane daily activities of their Sims and their success is dependent upon the players' decisions. While nothing can truly match the full Sims experience, here are just a few games we think you'll enjoy if you like The Sims.

It's also worth noting that you can play The Sims 4 for free, so if you're just looking for the latest Sims game, that's your best bet.

Dead Island 2’s development cycle is infamous at this point. Initially revealed in 2014, its journey has been almost as treacherous as a runner trying to make it along Venice Beach in the midst of a zombie outbreak. Two studios tried to put a sequel together but were met with little more than a gory disaster. But while those projects died, hope did not. And so, the reins were handed to the team at Dambuster Studios.

Over the course of nine years and three developers, the long-awaited zombie-killing sequel has kept running (or walking) on. And now, it is finally at the finish line. This is the Inside Story of how Dead Island 2 was brought back from the dead.

The Dead Island 2 we’re playing today is unapologetically pulpy - a straightforward homage to B-movie horror that builds on the tone established in the 2011 original. It’s both a love letter to the zombie genre and a bite back against the more human-centric stories that have dominated it more recently. Since the release of its predecessor, zombie games such as The Last of Us, The Walking Dead, and Days Gone have focussed more on the complexities of humanity in post-apocalyptic worlds than the simple pleasure of taking on the undead headfirst with a hatchet.

Despite respecting the stories that those games have to tell, the team at developer Dambuster Studios is much more interested in the latter. For them, there’s little more satisfying than the simple thrill of punching a zombie in the face and seeing your fist crunching through the back of its skull.

It can be tough to stand out from the pack when creating another Dark Souls-inspired action game to toss on the pile. In theory, developer Point Blank Games had the right idea of how to do it with Stray Blade, making a more approachable soulslike with a focus heavily on traditional storytelling in a bright fantasy setting. But while that makes for a great first impression, every piece of it falls short of both its own ambitions and the high bar set by others in the genre. Poor level design, uninteresting world building, and shoddy combat mechanics keep this stray from ever finding its way home.

As the capable and curious Farren, you find yourself trapped on the magical island of Arcea with no way off besides being led on a quest to kill some big bad guys, break a magic seal, and yada yada yada – you know the drill. As much as I came to like the self-important heart of gold hero Farren and their relationship to their scrappy and altruistic spell slinging sidekick, Boji, this story has nothing you haven’t heard before, and is told in largely forgettable expository dialogue and lore pickups. When following the main path, I felt like I was stopping to hear the two characters riffing off of one another about the local environment, their backgrounds, or the mission way too often. The trope of lonely, barren, and opaque soulslike storytelling is tired these days, but Stray Blade feels like it overcorrected in its attempt to swing the opposite way.

Originally released as a PlayStation 2 game, Yakuza (known as Ryu ga Gotoku in Japan) spawns a lengthy series that follows the steps of Kiryu Kazuma, a member of one of the most important yakuza families (the Dojima family, under the Tojo Clan), in the game’s fictional city of Kamurocho, Tokyo. He and his multiple allies and friends try to avoid the conflicts and plans being schemed by other powerful mob groups.

It took years for the Yakuza franchise to start receiving the praise and popularity it currently has outside Japan. Its reputation only seems to increase thanks to the multiple localized re-releases and new games. In this article, you’ll find a chronology of the series if you’re interested in playing each entry from the very beginning.

Jump to:

• How to play in chronological order
• How to play by release date

How Many Yakuza Games Are There?

Sega and Ryu Ga Gotoku studio have released 8 main Yakuza games and two remakes since the series’ debut in 2005. They were originally PlayStation-exclusive titles, but they were later ported to Xbox and PC, with every new game since Yakuza: Like a Dragon releasing simultaneously for every system with the exception of Nintendo Switch.

On Wednesday, the UK Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) blocked the Microsoft and Activision Blizzard Merger due to its implications for cloud gaming. Along with fundamentally changing the future of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard, the document released alongside this decision has revealed quite a few details about the increasing financial demands behind AAA games.

In a massive report on the decision, the CMA revealed that some major publishers report their AAA franchises can cost over $1 billion to make.

According to the report, AAA games that are greenlit now with potential releases in 2024 or 2025 typically receive development budgets of $200 million or higher — Call of Duty has already surpassed $300 million in development costs alone, and the next Grand Theft Auto title will likely require a development budget of $250 million or more. When considering marketing costs, this number can jump to over $1 billion across a franchise, with one large studio reporting that a major franchise's development cost $660 million and marketing cost nearly $550 million.

These costs demonstrate a significant increase from five years ago, when most AAA games had budgets between $50 and $150 million.

The CMA's ruling, citing a report by market intelligence group IDG, also revealed details about the increasing development demands for new Call of Duty titles.

Since going free-to-play in 2019, Bungie has made many changes with what’s pro bono and what will require a real-world investment in Destiny 2. If you’re wondering exactly what is free and what’s paid, we made this nifty guide to help you navigate all that space magic.

Destiny 2 Free-to-Play Activities

First, let’s cover all the things you can do in Destiny 2 without paying. These are all the playlist activities, limited-time events, and stories you can partake in without ever running into Destiny’s paywall:

1. The “New Light” Questline and Guardian Rank Onboarding

As a newcomer, this content will be the first thing you’re forced to tackle before you can do anything else. This brief storyline will introduce you to the Destiny universe, teach you the basics of looting and shooting, and catch you up on the happenings so far, including a special cutscene to catch you up to speed all the way to Lightfall. After that, you’ll be given a series of goals via the “Journey” tab that will tell you what to do next, as part of Bungie’s new onboarding mechanic. Thankfully, it points you to free content long before you ever see an objective that would require you to buy something.

2. The Vanguard Strikes Playlist

With The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom coming out in just a couple of weeks, there's never been a better time to play (or replay) Breath of the Wild. And while there are those who prefer to mainline the story and finish the game quickly, there are benefits to taking your time to unravel all of the small details hiding in Hyrule.

That being said, you don't need to spend all of your time searching for collectibles and secrets. Not without help at least. Whether you're trying to nab every Korok seed or just discover some hidden areas, we have a handy Breath of the Wild Wiki guide to help you on your journey. Below are some of the most pertinent guide to finding everything in the game before you play Tears of the Kingdom. You can also take advantage of our interactive Breath of the Wild map that features every location in the game.

All Korok Seed Locations

There are a total of 900 Korok seeds in Zelda: Breath of the Wild for you to find. And while you certainly don't need to find them all to complete the game, you do end up getting a special (and quite ridiculous) prize for doing so. You can watch the video above to find out what prize you get for collecting them all, or you can just find out yourself!

The black confetti-man, 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 Located Today?

Xûr's location can be found at Winding Cove in the EDZ on April 28 through May 1. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Winding Cove. When you arrive, make for the rock cliffs at the far end of the cove and look for a cave winding up to a platform next to some Fallen. There you'll find the retail monster who inspires us all.

Star Wars video games have been around nearly as long as the iconic Star Wars movies have, letting players journey to a galaxy far, far away for decades. Some have tried to recreate the movies, others have offered new stories set somewhere in the canon of the Skywalker Saga, and others still have carved out their own corners of the galaxy.

There’s certainly no shortage of games to choose from, but we’ve tapped into the Force and whittled down the list to what we consider the 10 best Star Wars games of all time now that Star Wars: Jedi Survivor has arrived.

These entries stretch across console generations, genres, and stories, but they’ve all captivated us in their own way.

Read this list, you should.

10. Star Wars Dark Forces (1995, MS-DOS, MAC)

When you think of '90s first-person shooters, Doom and Quake are often the most recognizable ones, for obvious reasons. Yet Star Wars: Dark Forces is another first-person shooter among the best to come out during that decade.

While it lacked a multiplayer feature, Dark Forces more than made up for it with solid graphics for the time and superb level design that provided a good challenge throughout. It also introduced Star Wars fans to Kyle Katarn, a major character in Star Wars video games for years to come.

Back in 1993, an unassuming game about the American Revolution called We the People launched a revolution in historical board games. By adding a deck of cards that mimicked historical events and putting political control on par with military occupation it merged politics and warfare into one neat package. Its more recent predecessors have eschewed the war board game aspect to focus on the politics, and the latest in this line is Votes for Women, in which you’ll refight the struggle for women’s suffrage in America with cards and dice.

What’s in the Box

Votes for Women packs a lot into its slim bookcase box. There’s a sturdy board featuring a map of America with the states picked out using two-letter codes, which may confuse non-US players. There are also several thick decks of cards, one for the suffrage player, one for the opposition and one for solo play, along with some smaller decks. All are illustrated with photos and political cartoons from the era which do a great job of setting the tone.

Story Kitchen is partnering with Vampire Survivors creator Luca "Poncle" Galante to bring the gothic world of his viral video game to television.

Vampire Survivors took Steam by storm when it launched in 2022, and a search is now said to be underway for a writer to adapt the indie hit into "a premium, animated television series." According to Deadline, the idea will be shopped to animated TV network buyers in the coming months.

The concept of the game is simple — stay alive as long as you can while an endless horde of enemies comes at you, and all you have to do is move around and not get hit while your weapons automatically attack. However, the fast-paced unlocking of its dozens of auto-firing weapons makes each roguelite survival run more interesting than the last.

"The most important thing in Vampire Survivors is the story, so it's a dream come true to see what started as a little indie game I made on my weekends come to life as an animated TV show!" Galante said in a statement. "It's also great to be partnering up with such experienced and talented people to make the show. I do wonder if they've realized that there isn't a single vampire in Vampire Survivors, though."

Story Kitchen was founded by John Wick creator Derek Kolstad, Sonic the Hedgehog producer Dmitri M. Johnson, and former APA agent and partner Mike Goldberg. The trio joined forces last year on a mission to collectively build, and expand, unique worlds and universes.

As part of IGN’s AI Week, we asked you to help us decide which AI character from across movies, TV, and games was the best of them all. Now, after thousands and thousands of 1v1 battles with matchups like R2-D2 vs. HAL 9000 and GLaDOS vs Wall-E, the ultimate AI character has been chosen.

So, which competitor claimed the top spot for the best AI character of all time and would never, ever dream of rising up against us? Drumroll please…

Ok, well I guess he technically did rise up against us once but he has since become a true friend to us organics so it’s fine! Yes, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s T-800 from Terminator 2: Judgment Day rose above the rest (even Skynet!) to claim the honor of the best AI character ever, according to IGN’s audience. It was a tough fight though, as he won 79.7% of his battles, which was just .01% above everyone’s favorite astromech droid from that galaxy far, far away - R2-D2.

In one of the closest battles in IGN’s Face-Off history, the margin of victory was only four votes, meaning those who love R2-D2 above all else (like me!) should have fought just a liiiiiittle bit harder! Either way, two of the most iconic characters in entertainment history claimed the top spots, and they were joined by some other pretty big hitters in the top 10.

Scientists have turned to the metropolitan managment game Cities: Skylines to shed light on the relationship between personality traits and complex problem solving.

As part of the study, spotted by Psypost, the researchers asked a pool of 242 volunteers with personality disorders such as schizotypal, histrionic, and dependent to play Cities: Skylines to see how these traits affected their performance at the management sim.

The overriding goal of Paradox’s Interactive's Cities: Skylines is to steadily grow your settlement from a small town into a thriving megatropolis. This can only be done by ensuring that your city has the correct blend of commercial, industrial, and residential districts, all of which must be connected by a network of roads.

On top of that you’ll need to balance finances, and ensure access to essential resources and services like electricity, clean water, garbage disposal, and public transport, while also paying heed to the myriad needs of the city’s population.

Assuming that you can successfully spin all those plates at once, more and more people will flock to your city, forcing you to adapt and reinvent the infrastructure on the fly to cope with the needs of the ever increasing citizenry.

If your childhood was in anyway similar to mine then the phrase “saberrealisticcombat” has permanent residency in your brain. For those not in the know, this is the cheat code that activates dismemberment in 2002’s Star Wars Jedi Knight 2, the long-reigning king of simulated lightsaber combat. Type that string of characters into the command console and suddenly every swing of Kyle Katarn’s humming blade produces a recreation of the cantina scene from A New Hope. But even without the detachable limbs, Jedi Knight 2’s lightsaber – and those in its sequel, Jedi Academy – felt like an unmatched force, until now.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor has the best lightsabers in any Star Wars video game I’ve ever played. Their pitch-perfect hum, crackle, and hiss are matched by swift and smooth fight manoeuvres that truly convey this elegant weapon’s prowess. And so, after two decades, we finally have a worthy heir to Jedi Knight’s clashes.

To be clear, I mean that in the spiritual sense. Respawn Entertainment’s Jedi games are very different to Raven Software’s Jedi Knight series; rather than shooter/hack-and-slash hybrids, they are rooted in the melee combat rhythms of FromSoftware. If you loved Jedi Knight, there’s no guarantee that Jedi: Survivor is going to ignite your inner kyber crystal. But if you’re looking to once again feel the energetic rush that Raven imbued its lightsaber combat with, then Jedi: Survivor has a Corellian freighter’s worth.

I am a junkie. A fiend. An addict. A treasure goblin. I can’t get enough of the gameplay loop provided by the ARPG genre, and even more so after finally getting hands-on time with Diablo 4. While the wait is slowly coming to an end, what’s an addict to do in the meantime? Quitting cold turkey is not an option and something is needed to feed the craving. Luckily, many, many other developers are just like us and have these cravings too, and turned their addiction into games you can play right now.

So, if you’re like me and just need something to hold you over until Diablo 4 is out, here are six games you can play right now to satisfy your Diablo 4 craving while you wait.

Path of Exile

Diablo 2 lovers rejoice. If Diablo 2 Resurrected has become stale for you, it might be time to check Path of Exile out. Grinding Gear Games clearly set out to entice the Diablo 2 diehards with Path of Exile but aims for more complex and robust skill, itemization, and endgame systems. The Free to Play P.O.E. takes APRGs to another level with massive passive skill trees, tons of Unique gear, ever-evolving skills to utilize through skill gems, loads of content, and an endgame designed to keep you playing, and playing. Don’t fear the free-to-play model, though, Path of Exile’s monetization system is purely cosmetic on every level. You won’t find a single pay-for-power avenue in the game. I won’t lie though. If you truly get deeper into the endgame, you will be enticed to open your wallet to expand your game’s stash.