IGN

Fntastic has announced that its highly anticipated yet controversial MMO The Day Before is getting a beta, and has promised it won't be delayed between now and its launch on November 10, 2023.

Kentain, an administrator on The Day Before's official Discord, posted there to say the game will definitely hit its November release date "without any further delay". The beta test will take place "as we get closer to the release date", they added, but no specific date or window was shared.

"This will give players the opportunity to try out the game before it is released and provide valuable feedback that we can use to improve the final product. We will provide more details on the beta test as we approach the release date, so be sure to stay tuned for updates."

The Day Before was originally due to launch in June last year before it was delayed for a first and then a second time. The latter was claimed by Fntastic to be over a trademark dispute that resulted in the game's Steam page being taken down, but the developer later admitted to IGN that it had already planned a delay.

Fntastic then faced several other accusations including that it had copied elements of other games and even that The Day Before was a scam altogether. The developer denied both of these claims, however.

The next game from the team behind Tetris Effect, called Humanity, is finally on the way next month. The bizarre people-leading puzzler is headed to PS4, PS5, and Steam on May 16, 2023.

📢 HUMANITY launches May 16 on PS5/PS4/Steam, day 1 to PS+ Game Catalog! 🚨

We were so flattered to hear Humanity compared to some of the great, unique Japanese action & puzzle games on the PS1/PS2 that we had to pay tribute to the era in our announce video: pic.twitter.com/CSZO8PWYlo

— HUMANITY (@HumanityGame) April 20, 2023

Humanity is, well, a bit of a strange one, but in an appealing sort of way. It was first announced back in 2019 as a puzzle game where a Shiba Inu directs massive crowds through puzzle environments, and we've seen a few more glimpses of it since. The humans are seemingly "on their way to salvation," and must be directed through various obstacles to get there. Humanity will include a story mode as well as a stage creator that allows players to share their creations with friends, similar to Super Mario Maker or LittleBigPlanet.

It’s been in the works for a looooong time, but Dead Island 2 is finally, actually coming out. It’s set to release for PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC on April 21. It will come in several editions, and they’re all up for preorder now at all the usual retailers (see it on Amazon). Below, you’ll find a full rundown of what kind of game it is, what comes in each edition, how much it costs, and more. Let’s dive in.

Dead Island 2 HELL-A Edition

PS5

• Get it at Amazon - $99.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $99.99
• Get it at GameStop - $99.99
• Get it at Walmart - $99.99

PS4

• Get it at Amazon - $99.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $99.99
• Get it at GameStop - $99.99
• Get it at Walmart - $99.99

Xbox

• Get it at Amazon - $99.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $99.99
• Get it at GameStop - $99.99
• Get it at Walmart - $99.99

The HELL-A edition comes with the game, plus the following digital and physical items:

Though Diablo IV recently went gold after a lengthy development, that hasn't stopped the team at Blizzard from iterating and planning for the future of their upcoming live-service action RPG -- a fact that will be on full display during it's recently announced beta weekend scheduled for May 12th. Hot on the heels of their first two beta weekends, which featured the full first act of Diablo 4's campaign, the developers have moved quickly to implement a whole host of changes based on player feedback, which includes everything from character class balances to dungeon reworks, and even changes to the fonts used.

Among those developers are game director Joe Shely and associate game director Joseph Piepiora, who I had a chance to sit down with to discuss their beta learnings and the surprise "server slam" weekend -- a final beta test that will give players one last opportunity to jump into Diablo 4's first act early.

One of the biggest pieces of feedback from the previous beta weekends was that dungeons required a lot of backtracking and repeated objectives that took too time to complete, and Blizzard has already moved to address some of this with changes that will be implemented in time for the server slam.

"We took a look at all of the different dungeon objectives to make sure they were as fun as possible," Shely explains. "In terms of backtracking specifically, we looked at where [objectives] were spawning in terms of the layout of the dungeon. We also adjusted the way that the dungeons are laid out... so that the layout itself requires less backtracking."

While inflation has been cooling down in a lot of places, Sony has quietly raised PlayStation game prices on Steam in select regions.

ResetEra user Chairmanchuck spotted the price increases for PS4 and PS5 on SteamDB affecting several regions, including Argentina, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Japan, and South Korea. The games that have been affected by inflated prices include Sackboy, Returnal (which was ported over to PC back in February), Marvel's Spider-Man Remastered, Marvel's Spider-Man: Miles Morales, Horizon Zero Dawn, Days Gone, and God of War (2018).

According to PlayStation Lifestyle (who confirmed the findings), the aforementioned games experienced price jumps on Steam between April 14 and April 19. However, how much they cost now depends on the year they were released in. For example, Returnal may carry a higher price tag since it came out in 2021, while Horizon Zero Dawn may be generously cheaper given that it was released in 2017.

If you live in any of the following countries, here are the prices you will expect to see when you're looking for your favorite PlayStation games on the Steam Store.

After last week's blog post announcing a laundry list of updates and tweaks to Diablo 4 following back-to-back weekends of open betas, today Blizzard announced a third and final beta weekend where each and every one of those changes will already be implemented.

Speaking on their livesteam today, Diablo 4's developers said that the "server slam," which is meant to put the team's servers to the test ahead of what they hope will be a steady launch day for the action RPG, will take place on the weekend of May 12th, starting at 12 PM PST on Friday and conclude at 12 PM PST on Sunday. Unfortunately, players who participated in the first two beta weekends will find their characters deleted, as promised, and progress made in this final test will also not carry over to the final game.

During this final beta weekend, players will max out at level 20 instead of 25, designed as an extra challenge for when they confront the world boss, Ashava, who will award all who defeat her during the server slam with an exclusive cosmetic mount trophy in the full game.

But the level cap and new rewards aren't the only change in store, as a whole host of updates, including balancing tweaks for the character classes and streamlined dungeon layouts will already be present in this early look.

A producer at Blizzard has taken to Twitter to express frustration at a series of departures from the World of Warcraft studio, saying the team is making "crisis maps" of what they can and cannot ship due to so many employees leaving.

Being loud about it because I've lost yet *another* person this week.

Blizzard is losing amazing talent because someone in power doesn't listen to the game directors who make his products. DE&I also means diversity of thought, especially when it's backed by data and financials.

— Adam 💙 #ABetterABK (@Glaxigrav) April 18, 2023

In a thread earlier this week, Adam "Glaxigrav" lamented that they had lost "*another* person this week," saying that Blizzard "is losing amazing talent because someone in power doesn't listen to the game directors who make his products."

Later in the thread, Glaxigrav added that the studio is "creating crisis maps of what we can or cannot ship," and that they "literally have a schedule I strike out as people hand in notice."

When reached for comment on this, a Blizzard spokesperson said that creating crisis maps is "not a team practice for WoW. However, making decisions around priorities, iterating, and ensuring quality are everyday parts of game development."

PlayStation announced that it has acquired Firewalk Studios, and that the studio still hard at work on its first original AAA multiplayer game. This comes after PlayStation and Firewalk Studios announced back in 2021 that they had formed a partnership to publish the aforementioned multiplayer game.

“Building a new studio at scale has been an incredibly exhilarating and relentlessly daunting task. Fortunately, we’ve been supported by great partners throughout,” explained studio head Tony Hsu and game director Ryan Ellis. “ProbablyMonsters helped turbocharge us in setting up the studio, and Sony has been supporting our project and our creative vision from the beginning.”

Great news: @FirewalkStudios is joining the PlayStation Studios family!

Learn more about this talented team and their plan to connect players in new and innovative ways in their ambitious upcoming multiplayer game: https://t.co/30jQNY3qen pic.twitter.com/8wB3pEsbrH

Triple-A video games are taking longer and longer to make these days, and Microsoft is apparently working on a video game sequel that may take upwards of ten years to develop.

The information comes from an amended complaint in a lawsuit against Microsoft's proposed deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. First spotted by Axios' Stephen Totilo, the document references an unannounced Microsoft game in an established franchise.

EA has revealed that the next generation Skate game is getting console playtesting, and while the publisher didn't say when, it did share a ton of other new information about the highly anticipated game.

Revealed in a new episode of The Board Room video series, the team at Full Circle announced that console playtesting would eventually join those on PC, and that they'll share more information closer to the time.

The developers did share some information on the progression system though, saying it's currently in early development and making absolutely clear that Skate won't have lootboxes.

Difficulty will affect rewards gained though, with the hardest of the three levels (which are called Own It, Crush It, and Shut It Down) granting the most rewards. There are also modifiers to the difficulty levels to make things even more (or less) challenging.

The basically philosophy is "do cool stuff, get cool stuff" Full Circle said, so no matter what activity players are doing, they're always progressing towards new rewards. Though they didn't say much about them, rewards will seemingly be customisation items, "giving you more ways to show off what makes you uniquely you".

As for what these activities are, Full Circle breaks them down into four main categories, though that's not to say more won't be added later.

Challenges are short solo experiences that rotate in and out periodically, meaning they regularly change and always offer players something new. Pop-ups are dynamic events around the city, Community Events are events where players must play together, and Throwdowns are customisable and user-initiated events that allow players to "gather together, build friendships (or maybe rivalries), practice, or show off".

As IGN’s AI Week continues, I thought it’d be fitting to look back on the Xbox’s highest-aiming gaming AI project: Project Milo, which would formally come to be known as Milo & Kate before disappearing in a cloud of vaporware altogether. It was unveiled back at E3 2009, meaning that it’s so old at this point that, more than likely, plenty of folks in an entire generation of younger gamers don’t even know what it is. Heck, I lived through it as the Senior Editor for Official Xbox Magazine at the time, and even I couldn’t tell you what it was – because I never saw it running. Few people outside of Microsoft’s walls did.

What it wanted to be was a grand experiment in AI. Take a look through all the stories IGN did on it over the years. You’ll go on quite a ride! The “emotional AI” would have allowed you to interact with Milo and his (or her, if you chose the female version named Millie) dog named Kate. And by “interact” I mean talk to, using Kinect’s built-in microphone array.

Atari has acquired the intellectual property rights to over 100 PC and console games from the 1980s and 1990s, including multiple titles from the platforming series Bubsy, the baseball series Hardball, and the vehicular combat series Demolition Racer.

With this acquisition, Atari plans to expand the distribution of existing titles, explore merchandising collaborations, and most notably, create new games based on these IP. Some classic games will also be ported to modern consoles, according to Atari CEO Wade Rosen.

As part of the deal, Atari also acquired the trademark to Accolade, the developer and publisher behind the aforementioned Bubsy and Hardball series.

The acquisition comes a month after Atari acquired a dozen other classic IP, including the arcade shooters Berzerk and Frenzy.

Atari demonstrated its ability to breathe new life into classic games with last year's Atari 50: The Anniversary Celebration.

IGN's Atari 50 review called the 103-game collection "a completely new, very fun way to explore several decades of Atari arcade machines, consoles, handhelds, and PCs."

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

This feature is part of AI Week. For more stories, including How AI Could Doom Animation and comments from experts like Tim Sweeney, check out our hub.

Although perceived by many as “that thing for kids with the chunky characters,” in the 17 years since Roblox first launched in September 2006 it has evolved into a sophisticated 3D game creation platform with 60 million daily users. There are more than 40 million different player experiences within Roblox right now, ranging in complexity from simple chat rooms to Call of Duty-style first person shooters. Alongside the work Epic is doing with both Fortnite and Unreal Engine 5, Roblox is largely responsible for setting expectations around what’s possible with the much-fabled “metaverse” and has kickstarted the careers of thousands upon thousands of aspiring game makers.

The underlying technology of Roblox has been steadily evolving since the day it was launched. The tools it provides range from simple graphical editors to a full-blown scripting language that allows creators to build virtually anything they can imagine. Powering all of that is a complex set of tools that now includes a growing number of AI-powered systems that make things simpler than ever to create and share ideas.

This feature is part of AI Week. For more stories, including how AI can improve accessibility in gaming and comments from experts like Tim Sweeney, check out our hub.

AI in games is not particularly novel given that the technology has been used to power games from Half-Life to Chess. But with a new generation of AI tools like ChatGPT quickly evolving, developers are looking at ways AI could shape the next generation of games.

There are still plenty of questions about AI games, especially in terms of how they could impact the labor that goes into making a video game. But while the full grasp of AI’s effect on the video game industry as a whole remains to be seen, there are examples of how generative AI could advance the ways players interact with a game’s characters, enemies, and story.

There aren’t a whole lot of games out right now that take advantage of generative AI, but for an example of existing games with advanced AI, as well as stable experiments that offer a taste of what’s to come, check out the games below.

Nintendo has released another patch for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet that addresses a ton of more bugs that have plagued the games since launch.

Releasing the notes on its website, version 1.3.0 also includes a slight change to how Friendly Competitions work (entries are now allowed until an event ends instead of when it begins) but mostly focuses on bug fixes.

Trainers who were surprised to catch an egg instead of Walking Wake or Iron Leaves in their Tera Raid Battles will have the issue fixed, meaning they can now catch the distorted Pokémon. The two will also return to Tera Raid Battles for two weeks starting on May 1.

A special Hisuian Zoroark was also released as preorder DLC for the upcoming Hidden Treasure of Area Zero expansion, but this caused a Pokédex malfunction for some users that displayed a regular Zoroark too. This has now been fixed, alongside another connectivity issue where connecting Scarlet and Violet to Pokémon GO would cause the game to crash.

A ton of issues have also been fixed in Link Battles and regular Battles, such as stat changes happening to even the Pokémon using the move, and Nintendo has addressed "other select bug fixes" too. The full patch notes can be viewed below.

Longtime Halo senior developer Joseph Staten, the subject of last week's Unlocked, has announced where he's going next: Netflix! We discuss what this means for Netflix's gaming efforts before turning our attention to the newly announced departure of another longtime Halo developer, Frank O'Connor. Plus: Diablo 4's community interactions continue to impress, and more!

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out our interview with Todd Howard, who answered all of our Starfield questions after the big reveal at the Xbox Showcase:

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

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He's a North Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

While I have always favored the Fire Emblem franchise as my Nintendo turn-based tactical game of choice, the Advance Wars series has always held a special place in my heart ever since the first time I booted it up on my Game Boy Advance 22 years ago. I’ve always enjoyed how these games encourage me to get creative with my units and strategies. Whether that is hiding my army in the fog of war and taking advantage of the terrain to obliterate my opponents before they know what’s hitting them, or building a massive platoon of tanks and steamrolling the enemy with my oppressive numbers. It’s rewarding to see my plans work out as intended, and though it stings when they fail, I feel like I always learn something about how to improve my future strategies.

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp may not have a large variety in its game modes, but the amount of variables you can swap around to your liking makes each battle feel fresh even when replaying maps. The improvements to the visuals and music of the original, in addition to the inclusion of other modernizations like voice acting, animated shorts, and online play, make it a great way to experience these classics for veterans and newcomers alike. My 60 hours with Re-Boot Camp took me through both campaigns, including alternative missions with different characters that unlocked after completing each campaign, warring with AI on a variety of unlockable maps, spending time designing my own maps, and a small taste of online multiplayer.

IGN's Summer of Gaming is returning for its fourth year this June, bringing with it even more trailers and news for the biggest games of 2023 and beyond.

As in previous years, IGN Summer of Gaming 2023 will be a multi-day event filled with tons of content featuring your favorite games and developers. IGN will be also be partnering with developers to share exclusive reveals, interviews and more!

We're happy to announce that we will once again be carrying and covering Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest as part of our Summer of Gaming programming. Check out IGN on June 8 for the stream and all of our analysis.

You can also look forward to the Starfield Direct and coverage of Xbox's Showcase, which will be taking place in Los Angeles.

For an idea of what to expect here on IGN, check out everything that was announced at last year's event as well as our full hub. There will be lots more where that came from at this year's event!

Summer of Gaming 2023 will once again be a fully-digital event and can be viewed entirely from home. Catch all of the announcements here on IGN, or check out our channels on Twitch and YouTube for more.

Stay tuned to IGN for all the action as the Summer of Gaming returns!

Kat Bailey is a Senior News Editor at IGN as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

Magic is everywhere if you know where to look, and you need look no further than Digital Sun’s The Mageseeker. It’s a worthy addition to the growing list of League of Legends spinoffs, this time a pixel-art action RPG puts you in the role of Sylas The Unshackled as he escapes from prison to seek his revenge against those that locked him away since his childhood. It’s faithful to the lore of League of Legends and expands on it in exciting new ways, showing us even more of the spell-stealing rebel. I came away from my time with The Mageseeker enjoying the journey but wishing it had taken a few different paths along the way.

Following in the footsteps of other League of Legends spinoffs like Ruined King and Hextech Mayhem, The Mageseeker brings another batch of characters from their 160+ champion roster to life in a new way. Sylas is depicted in a bigger way than ever before as he helps to lead a rebellion against the tyrannical kingdom of Demacia, where mages are hunted. The story has some nuance and even lightly parallels moments of real-world history where a group of people has been persecuted for being different.

It took around 18 hours to not only finish The Mageseeker on the hard difficulty, but also complete everything necessary for the platinum trophy on PlayStation 5. This included all the sidequests, replaying a handful of missions to gather any collectibles I missed on my first playthrough, and a handful of restarts against a few bosses who gave me a bit of trouble.

It would have been relatively easy for Guerrilla Games to rest on their laurels and put out a Horizon expansion that was just more Forbidden West. And in some ways, the Burning Shores DLC is exactly that: a distilled helping of what made the core game so great – an elevated sci-fi story in a pulpy wrapping, tied with a bow made from high-octane action. You'll once again be fighting machines, solving puzzles, and yes, climbing tall structures. But Guerrilla has done much more here, adding in surprises with new machines to discover and introducing even more fun ways to take them down. Burning Shores is for the most part a great time, and clumsily engineered ending aside, a worthy addition to the Horizon series.

After the conclusion of the main campaign, this DLC summons you to LA in order to hunt down a lead that may be helpful against the looming threat introduced at the end of Forbidden West's story. The titular Burning Shores are an archipelago roughly four times the size of the San Francisco area of the main map, and shares a lot of that region’s visual identity. It’s a smart decision to echo Forbidden West's standout location – the sand still sparkles and water glistens – but here lava flows in a natural representation of the increased danger that lurks in the Burning Shores. It wastes no time in throwing you into that danger, either, plunging you straight back into the rousing rhythms of Horizon combat.

Nintendo's latest Indie World Showcase just wrapped up, providing release dates for some long-delayed games along with a handful of surprise releases in the indie version of the company's popular Nintendo Direct format. Among them, we finally got our first glimpse of Blasphemous 2, Oxenfree II got a release date, and lots more. Here's the full list of announcements and trailers from today's Nintendo Indie World Showcase stream.

Mineko's Night Market gets a release date after eight years of development

Meowza Games' long-in-development finally received a release date as part of the Indie World Showcase's opening act. First announced way back in 2015, Mineko's Night Market turned heads with its beautiful watercolor graphics, focus on Japanese mythology, and hordes of cats. It will cast players as Mineko as they explore; craft objects; befriend townsfolk, and take part in the local night market, where they can sell virtually everything they find. All in all, it's not that dissimilar from games like Fantasy Life and others like it, but its art makes it a standout. Mineko's Night Market launches September 26 on Nintendo Switch, and has also been announced for PC.

Seven years after the original Oxenfree debuted its radio tuning, time looping coming-of-age story, the sequel is at last upon us. During today's Nintendo Indie World showcase, we at last saw Oxenfree 2: Lost Signals get a release date of July 12.

Oxenfree 2 follows a character who didn't appear in the original Oxenfree, Riley. Riley is an environmental researcher who returns to Camena after noticing strange radio transmissions, five years after the events of Oxenfree. While Riley wasn't part of Oxenfree's story, an update to the game in 2021 ties the two together, so we're likely to see plenty of references or even meet some of the original group of teens, now young adults.

The new trailer shown today for Oxenfree 2 shows off some new elements, such as a strange tilting house, weird supernatural beings, and a new walkie-talkie system to help the characters communicate.

We actually saw quite a bit of Oxenfree 2 back in 2021 in our hands-on preview, and were optimistic about its expanded potential and sense of choice. It's been a while since then, as Oxenfree 2 was delayed from a 2021 release to this year to add more localized languages and make the game "truly special." During that time, developer Night School Studio was acquired by Netflix, and Oxenfree brought to Netflix Games. Unshockingly the sequel will also be on Netflix, as well as Nintendo Switch, PlayStation, PC, and mobile.

There’s no shortage of licensed products based on Star Wars. You've got Star Wars toys, Star Wars LEGO sets, comic books, Space Slug oven mitts… you name it, and it probably exists. And this is especially true in the world of board games. There’s a wide range of Star Wars board games for every age and experience level.

Tabletop miniature dogfights? There’s a Star Wars board game for that. Deck-building card game? Classic pen & paper RPG? There are tabletop Star Wars games for those, too, and plenty more. Below, we've hand-picked the best games in the universe, complete with links and descriptions. Better yet, they're all currently available to pick up and play right now.

TL;DR: The Best Star Wars Board Games

• Star Wars: The Deckbuilding Game
• Star Wars: The Clone Wars
• Star Wars Villainous: Power of the Dark Side
• Star Wars: Outer Rim
• Star Wars: X-Wing (2nd Edition)
• Star Wars: Armada
• Star Wars: Imperial Assault
• Star Wars: Rebellion
• Star Wars: Destiny
• Star Wars: Legion

Short on time? Click the links above to check out each game on the list. Read on for details about each one.

With The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom’s release fast approaching, and hype building after such an exciting new trailer, there’s no better time than now to pick up some Zelda-themed gifts and merch. Whether you’ve been a fan since the original’s release or fell in love with it while playing Breath of the Wild, we have gifts to suit every Zelda fan.

Below, you can find a wide range of gift and merch ideas that are worth picking up. Looking for a massive Breath of the Wild-themed puzzle to put together? Or maybe some T-shirts to show off your love for the games? Whatever it is you seek, we have plenty to share with you.

Not only that, but we also have excellent Tears of the Kingdom pre-orders listed below (from new/reprinted Link amiibos to the Tears of the Kingdom exclusive Switch OLED) that are absolutely worth taking a look at ahead of the game’s release on May 12.

The Essential Zelda Merch and Gift Ideas

Here you can see some essential Zelda items that are worth buying. Alongside the massive Breath of the Wild Collector's Box (which includes a messenger bag, journal, pen, stickers, an enamel pin set, water bottle, and Sheikah Slate bento box), we've got some other fun individual items like a ceramic ocarina (with a Zelda song book), a toy version of Link's sword, and a Game & Watch with three classic Legend of Zelda games on it.

Resident Evil 4 Remake was the best selling game in the U.S. in March 2023, while the PlayStation 5 remained the best selling hardware.

Revealed through the latest data from Circana (formerly NPD), Capcom's remaster of the classic horror game outperformed March's other new releases including MLB: The Show 23 and WWE 2K23.

Both of these titles were also outperformed by last month's Hogwarts Legacy, which placed second overall in March but remains the best selling game of 2023 so far. MLB: The Show 23 placed third, followed by Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, The Last of Us: Part 1, FIFA 23, WWE 2K23, Elden Ring, Madden NFL 23, and Mario Kart 8.

Video game hardware spending increased 10% year over year, with PS5's increased availability leading the push as the best-selling console in both units sold and dollars made. The Xbox Series X and S placed second in dollars made while the Nintendo Switch placed second in units sold.

Sony declared hardware production issues over in January after a semiconducter chip shortage plagued the entire tech industry, and the PS5 has had strong sales performances since.

Resident Evil 4's strong performance was also expected after Capcom announced it had sold four million units in its first two weeks on sale.

In our 10/10 review, IGN said: "The Resident Evil 4 remake is the series' most relentlessly exciting adventure rebuilt, refined, and realised to the full extent of its enormous potential."

This feature is part of AI Week. For more stories, including How AI Could Doom Animation and comments from experts like Tim Sweeney, check out our hub.

City of Gangsters is a mafia game that simulates a city full of people interacting during a fictional 1920s Prohibition. The characters in City of Gangsters are supposed to react to the player in ways that appear to be organic and period-accurate – a feeling that strictly scripted interactions would never be able to encapsulate.

So, like many developers over the years before him, SomaSim founder and CTO Rob Zubek turned to AI to make a realistic city.

“We simulate a city populated by all sorts of characters, who have various relationships and histories with each other,” he explained. “And our AI system lets us find interesting relationships and act on them. For example, we can ask the system to find us people who should start a vendetta against the player. We could express something like ‘find me someone whose family member was recently killed by the player’, except we write it in logic notation rather than in English, and then do something interesting with the result.”

Devinder finally gets the camera turned on him to tell his story of how he ended up in the mess of Redfall in the final of four Redfall character profiles. It turns out for him, this was a "right place at the right time" sort of situation for him given his expertise with cryptics. Learn more about how Dev's kit can be used in the exclusive trailer above, and get even more on his backstory and details on his abilities below.

• Power 1: Arc Javelin – Throw a javelin into enemies or surfaces to create a lightning hazard that will zap nearby enemies.
• Power 2: Translocate – Toss out a translocation beacon you can teleport to by pressing the action button a second time. Allies can use the translocation terminal you leave behind to follow you.
• Ultimate Ability: Blacklight – Use Devinder’s heavily-modified camera rig to create a powerful burst of UV light that petrifies vampires and staggers human enemies.

Dev's Translocate is most obviously helpful for getting around Redfall, but it can be especially useful for getting behind a big enemy. You can drop the beacon, run away, then end up far behind it when plenty of time to attack. It's also useful for rescuing fallen teammates in dangerous situations. Lure the enemies away then Translocate right back to fallen allies.

While many gaming companies largely got the hint last year that gamers aren't keen on blockchain, NFTs, and all that web3 entails, Square Enix doesn't seem to have absorbed the message yet. And it's demonstrating this today via a partnership with web3 gaming platform Elixir, with the intent of "generating visibility and adoption of web3 games among traditional gamers."

The official announcement is light on details as to what, exactly, these two companies will be doing together, calling this a "strategic partnership" intended to "drive mass adoption [of web3 gaming] during 2023." Elixir itself is a PC games distribution platform that puts web3 games and regular games side-by-side, with little to distinguish between them.

Notably, earlier this year Elixir integrated the Epic Games Store to allow users to play any game in their Epic library "next to your fav web3 games". Basically, the idea seems to be that if it stuffs enough non-web3 games next to web3 games, players won't be able to tell the difference and will get really, really into web3 gaming.

Update, April 19, 2023: The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom Collector's Edition is once again out of stock at all online retailers in the UK, including Argos and Amazon. There are some confirmed reports of GAME taking in-store preorders at local stores, with a £20 deposit required. Keep an eye out for more updates by following @IGNUKDeals on Twitter and turning notifications on for any new tweets.

Argos currently has a new allocation of The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom collector's edition preorders available. These are listed at £109.99 (as opposed to when they were previously listed for £139.99). Preorders are still available at the time of writing, and you can secure one through our handy link here, or by clicking through the shopping info left below as well. Keep an eye out for updates by following @IGNUKDeals on Twitter.

There are plenty of other hot items available to preorder if you're looking forward to Tears of the Kingdom, including the unique and limited edition Switch OLED model, OLED Carry Case, and even the Pro Controller and Link Amiibo. For links on preorders to all of these, check out the full article just below.

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Collector's Edition Preorders Are Back In Stock for £109.99

Xbox has officially confirmed its second wave of new Xbox Game Pass games for April 2023, and there's plenty more to jump into this month, and early May as well. Bethesda and Arkane Studios' Redfall is a clear standout from the latest blog post, although don't get too excited as it's still hitting Game Pass in May. But, it's still not far too off the April release window for Game Pass users, releasing on May 2 for PC, Xbox Series X|S and Cloud.

Other games announced for late April include The Last Case of Benedict Fox on April 27, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle also on April 27, Coffee Talk Episode 2: Hibiscus & Butterfly on April 20, Homestead Arcana on April 21, Medieval Dynasty on April 20, and Cassette Beasts on April 26 for PC,

Games that have already hit Game Pass this month include Ghostwire Tokyo, which made its debut on Xbox Series X|S on April 12th. There were also the likes of Loop Hero on April 4, NHL 23 on April 13 and Minecraft Legends on April 18. You can see the full list of games that are on Xbox Game Pass in April, just below.

Everything Coming to Xbox Game Pass in April 2023

This is everything so far confirmed to be hitting Xbox Game Pass this month. Stay tuned for more updates on the second wave of games in the last couple of weeks in April.

Final Fantasy XII was a marvel when it was originally released on the PS2 in 2006. However, it also had an infamously challenging development cycle for its key developers, including game director Yasumi Matsuno.

On Twitter, the game director took time to respond to a fan's comment about Bacsh fon Ronsenburg — a disgraced knight and eventual party member in FFXII — being the original protagonist of the game. This comment came from a thread about Clive, the hero of Final Fantasy XVI, who is set to become the oldest main character in an FF game.

In the plainest terms, Matsuno denied that Basch was the original hero of Final Fantasy XII in the early production, writing, "That rumor is a fake story. Thank you."

That rumor is a fake story.
Thank you.

— 松野泰己 (@YasumiMatsuno) April 18, 2023

A long-standing rumor

According to the long-standing rumor, the original pitch for Final Fantasy XII was a dark fantasy story more in the vein of Vagrant Story or Final Fantasy Tactics on the PS1, which Matsuno also directed.

Gary Bowser, a man sentenced in 2021 to 40 months in prison and a $14.5 million fine for his role in Nintendo hacking group Team Xecuter, has just been released from jail. But it's possible the massive amount of money he now owes in restitution may impact the entire rest of his life and livelihood.

Bowser was indicted back in 2020 alongside Max Louarn and Yuanning Chen for their activities as part of Team Xecuter, a hacking ring that sold chips allowing users to play pirated games. Despite seemingly having a smaller role in the operation as its marketing and PR manager, Bowser was the only one of the three ultimately tried and convicted in the US - Chen, a Chinese national, was never arrested, and Louarn was never able to be extradited to the US.

Bowser was initially charged with 11 felonies, including wire fraud, conspiracy to circumvent technological measures, trafficking in circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. Bowser pled guilty to two of the charges, and was sentenced to first a $4.5 million fine and later a $10 million additional fine as well as up to 40 months in prison.

In a recent interview with podcaster Nick Moses, Bowser calls in not from Federal Detention Center SeaTac in Seattle, where he was incarcerated, but from the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, Washington. He says he's awaiting processing before being sent home to Canada, having gotten out of prison early on good behavior.

Pokémon archivists are sharing newly-uncovered scans that show how Kanto and Johto's original Pokémon were always meant to look.

As broken down by YouTuber and Pokémon archivist Lewtwo on Twitter, they were sent, "accurate scans of the original 251 Ken Sugimori Pokemon artwork to archive in high quality."

Ken Sugimori is the primary creature designer for the Pokémon series, and he designed the original Pokémon rosters for the franchise's early Game Boy entries. The 251 recently-discovered scans cover Pokémon's first two generations: Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow and Pokémon Gold/Silver/Crystal.

For the very first time, we've been sent accurate scans of the original 251 Ken Sugimori Pokemon artwork to archive in high quality.

the difference is insane. pic.twitter.com/KmNUIJQ2yv

— Lewtwo (@Lewchube) April 17, 2023

As Lewtwo described, it doesn't take long to notice that "the difference is insane" when looking at the new scans and the old. Some of the Pokémon Lewtwo featured in the Twitter thread include Diglett, Ivysaur, Tauros, Mew, and more.

Ivysaur, for example, appears blue and orange in the old, inaccurate artwork. But in the new scan, it looks green and pink, which is truer to the character. Diglett looks washed out with little detail in the old artwork, but both the character and the ground surrounding it come alive in the new scan.

Sports gamers took to the polls in April for IGN's Ultimate Sports Video Games Showdown Contest (presented by the U.S. Army) and after 624,620 votes, Mario Kart 8 has been crowned as the #1 sports game title from a competitive field of 32! When Nintendo’s powerhouse racer was released in 2014, it was lauded for its twisting U-turns, blistering sense of speed, and thrilling antigravity transformations — not to mention its robust tournament and online features. A total package that led to Mario Kart 8 not just winning our tournament, but lapping the competition.

In Round 1, Mario Kart 8 was up against the Wii’s innovative, launch-day phenom, Wii Sports, which lured casual gamers with its wand-waving tennis, bowling, golf and more. Mario Kart won by 68% of the vote to advance to the next round.

In the Sweet 16, Mario Kart 8 faced off against Rocket League, the wonderfully absurd, hyper-powered, cars meet-soccer competition. And while over five billion Rocket League matches have been played online, Mario Kart 8 made a statement by getting 77% of the vote (at the time, the highest margin of victory of any of the matchups).

In the Elite 8, Mark Kart 8 took on Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2, Neversoft’s wildly addictive skateboarder that topped the original by allowing users to create their own skater (not to mention the skate-park creator). But Tony Hawk was no match for Mario Kart 8, which cruised into the Final 4 with a no-doubt victory, winning 73% of the vote.

In the Final 4, it was racer-vs.-racer as Mario Kart 8 took on Forza Horizon 5, an adrenaline junky’s dream set in Mexico and wowed gamers by opening with cars being dropped out of an airplane!!! But it was no match for Nintendo’s juggernaut as Mario Kart drove away the winner, earning 65% of the vote.

Ubisoft may extend XDefiant’s closed beta if the game’s servers stabilize, according to Ubisoft San Francisco’s executive producer.

XDefiant’s closed beta started on April 13, but it has been plagued with issues for several days such as progression not saving and players being shot around corners. Additionally, the PlayStation and Xbox versions had some delayed patches.

Fortunately, the executive producer Mark Rubin said on Twitter, “Oh, and if all goes well and the servers finally gain some stability then I think we should look at extending the Beta but I have to see what that would mean for team.”

Oh, and if all goes well and the servers finally gain some stability then I think we should look at extending the Beta but I have to see what that would mean for team.

— Mark Rubin (@PixelsofMark) April 15, 2023

The closed beta is scheduled to continue until April 23, but it seems possible that it will be extended due to the servers being down and the issues popping up. However, neither Ubisoft nor Rubin has made an official announcement.

XDefiant was first announced in 2021 as Tom Clancy’s XDefiant, but the Tom Clancy branding was dropped later on in March 2022.

In IGN’s XDefiant first closed beta impressions, we said, “It’s not perfect and definitely requires a lot of major and fine-tuning. But the core gameplay is there and it’s fun.”

When Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma revealed what would become The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2014, he said the new Zelda game would be all about "revisiting the conventions of the Zelda series." Breath of the Wild absolutely delivered on Aonuma's promise — from a gameplay perspective, at least.

The 2017 game's story, on the other hand, stuck very close to the rest of Zelda history: Ganon returns, and Link and Zelda must combine their powers to seal the ancient evil away… Again. But with Tears of the Kingdom on the horizon, some fans think the Breath of the Wild sequel could shake up the long-standing power struggle between the Triforce's three main wielders.

Potential Spoiler Warning: This story goes deep into theories about what could end up happening in Tears of the Kingdom. If you don't want to know anything ahead of the game's release, turn away now!

Some Zelda fans on Reddit are convinced that Ganondorf could end up being the hero of Tears of the Kingdom's story. This theory has been floating around in many fan's heads (including my own) since some of the earliest trailers for Tears of the Kingdom, but Ganondorf's proper reveal in the latest story trailer has the speculation picking up even more steam.

What is Watcher of Realms?

Watcher of Realms is a next-gen fantasy RPG that reminds us that while we're ever the playthings of the gods, we're not obligated to sit still while they break us like cheap toys. In Watcher of Realms, you partner up with over 100 heroes from a myriad of races to fight against an onslaught of monsters and demons who seek to devour the world. In doing so, your army grows, fights, and eventually becomes powerful enough to push back against fate itself.

The world of Watcher of Realms is held in thrall by the Tides of Darkness, an all-encompassing corruption orchestrated by the envoy of an ancient god. Infected people are overcome with madness and aggression. And every time the Tides of Darkness overwhelm civilization, the world becomes a little more palatable for the ancient god that aims to consume it.

In Order to Win, You Must Know Your Place

You play as Commander Aurion, a resurrected soldier who was initially slain while defending the capital city of Akkadia from the Tides of Darkness' influence. The envoy has an inexhaustible number of minions, which makes it important to use strategy on Watcher of Realms' battlefields. Winning battles means standing your ground as much as it means answering the envoy's aggression with your own attacks. It's vital to balance the teams you deploy with healers, tanks, and attackers across six classes, including fighters, defenders, marksmen, mages, healers, and rangers.

It's been a very long time coming, but Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp is finally coming out. It's set to release exclusively for Nintendo Switch on April 21, which just so happens to be this Friday. Re-Boot Camp is a collection of from-the-ground-up remakes of the 2001 Game Boy Advance game Advance Wars and its 2003 sequel Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising. It's available for preorder now (see it at Amazon), so read on to see where to get it, how much it costs, and more.

Preorder Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp

• Get it at Amazon - $59.99
• Get it at Best Buy - $59.99
• Get it at Walmart - $59.99
• Get it at GameStop - $59.99
• Get it at Nintendo eShop (digital) - $59.99

Advance Wars 1+2 Re-Boot Camp is only available in a standard edition. If that changes down the line, we'll add the information here.

Capcom has revealed that ray tracing support will return to the PC versions of Resident Evil 2 Remake and Resident Evil 3 Remake in a future update after it was accidentally removed last week.

“We're aware of an ongoing issue with the ray tracing option not appearing in the graphics menu and presets,” said the Resident Evil Twitter account (below), acknowledging the error. “We'll have this addressed in a future update and apologise for any inconvenience.”

The issue came to light when PC players took to Steam and Reddit forums to vent their frustrations over the missing graphics options after an update was pushed out to Resident Evil 2 and 3 Remakes late last week. The option to turn on 3D audio support had also vanished from the menus of both games.

To all Resident Evil 2 / Resident Evil 3 users on Steam ⚠️

We're aware of an ongoing issue with the raytracing option not appearing in the graphics menu and presets. We'll have this addressed in a future update and apologize for any inconvenience! pic.twitter.com/hGkOey65mQ

— Resident Evil (@RE_Games) April 18, 2023

Capcom was silent about the missing options over the weekend, making it unclear as to whether the features had been removed intentionally. However, the new tweet seems to confirm the settings were removed accidentally by a bug introduced in the recent update.

Even as a big fan of tactics games, I missed out on 1999's Jagged Alliance 2, which is often talked about as a high point in the genre. So going into Jagged Alliance 3, the upcoming sequel landing almost a quarter century later, I wasn't too sure what to expect. What I found in the first several hours, though, is a rewarding, squad-based battlefield with tense resource management – and deliberately schlocky throwback humor that sometimes clashes with the tone of the gritty, grounded conflict that serves as its backdrop.

The mission starts off pretty simple. You're the leader of a mercenary unit hired to drop into a hot zone in a fictionalized African country where the sitting government is in conflict with a paramilitary led by a mysterious figure known as 'The Major.' You'll assemble your team from a list of dozens of pre-made guns for hire with various specializations, from medics to mechanics to sharpshooters. Some of them even know each other and have strong opinions on their fellow mercs. In one case, Fox here wouldn't even join my team because she didn't want to work with Bobby "Steroid" Gontarski. And I don't entirely blame her.