IGN

The Resident Evil 4 merchant is one of the most absurd parts of a game that’s already jam-packed with completely ridiculous over-the-top stuff — but he also exemplifies everything that makes that game so great.

This guy first pops up in a random window like a sock puppet and then coaxes Leon to meet him around a corner with all the subtle salesmanship of a crack dealer in a 1980s anti-drug PSA. He’s vaguely menacing at first but you quickly realize how goofy he is — and that’s like so much of the resident evil series: it’s scary at first, and then it’s silly.

The merchant’s design also distills RE4 visual sensibilities into one guy: his clothes and mask and knapsack almost make him look like he stepped out of a fantasy RPG, but then he opens his coat, and it’s clear his area of expertise is the OTHER kind of RPG — And that’s really the game’s whole aesthetic, this incongruous mix of creepy old fairy tale stuff like villages and castles but also slick futuristic stuff like scientific laboratories and submachine guns with thermal scopes.

Nicolas Cage's Dracula film Renfield is getting a video game adaptation that looks a lot like indie smash hit Vampire Survivors.

Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood, which is available through Steam Early Access now for $4.49 / €4.99 / £4.49, is inspired by the events of the Renfield film but features familiar looking vampire-based single player chaos.

"Our team is so excited to bring our expertise in fun, retro-style games that are filled with wild humor to the amazing world of Renfield," said James Deighan, founder of developer Mega Cat Studios. "It’s an incredible opportunity for us to be working on this with Skybound and Universal Games and Digital Platforms."

Players can choose different characters, each with their own special stats and abilities, before dropping in different levels and cutting through hoards and hoards of enemies. Dracula will also task players with "constant and hilarious fetch quest demands" that mimic the movie's story. Additional content will also be released after Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood is released.

Vampire Survivors launched in December 2021 and quickly blew up due to its own chaotic gameplay that let players select different characters and cut through hoards of enemies. Developer Poncle soon announced plans to support it with a ton of post-launch content following its viral success, and even months later it was topping Steam's most-played games lists.

As far as JRPGs go, it's hard to top the charming visual style of Square Enix's Octopath Traveler. So of course the series is a natural choice to join Dark Horse's ever-growing lineup of video game-themed art books.

The Art of Octopath Traveler is adapted from the Japanese art book Octopath 2016-2020. This English translation features a mix of behind-the-scenes creator commentary and hundreds of gorgeous illustrations and pieces of concept art.

IGN can exclusively debut the unfinalized cover of The Art of Octopath Traveler below:

The Art of Octopath Traveler covers the original game and its prequel mobile game, Octopath Traveler: Campions of the Continent. Here's Dark Horse's official description of the book:

Discover what lies beyond the horizon! Join the travelers in their journey through Orsterra and discover each of their unique origins. Delve into a fantasy landscape full of amazing creatures and scenery. Ponder the inspired design and artistic passion through hundreds of pieces of incredible art from the creation of the critically acclaimed Octopath Traveler and Octopath Traveler: Champions of the Continent.

The Art of Octopath Traveler is a 224-page hardcover priced at $49.99. The book is scheduled for release in bookstores on Tuesday, December 12 and in comic shops on Wednesday, December 13.

While 2021’s Sherlock Holmes Chapter One had the world’s most iconic detective confronting the ghosts from his past, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened has him dusting off his deerstalker cap in order to investigate a cult worshiping a cosmic, Cthulu-like presence. However, despite the clear influence of HP Lovecraft, The Awakened presents a mystery that’s surprisingly light on scares, with the majority of its attempts to unsettle coming across as more silly than genuinely spine-chilling. Although there was still a solid amount of investigations and crime scene recreations to sink my teeth into over the course of its 10 hours, it was hard to fully buy into Sherlock’s supposed battles with his own sanity at the center of the story when I struggled to find anything to fear in his surroundings.

A remake of the 2007 adventure of the same name, Sherlock Holmes: The Awakened has been rebuilt using the same engine that powered Chapter One, and its plot has been retooled slightly in order to make it fit in as a direct sequel to that 2021 origin story. The friendship between Holmes and Dr. John Watson is presented as being in its infancy, with Watson regularly pressing Holmes for information about what went down on the island of Cordona in Chapter One in an effort to peel back the layers and find out exactly what makes the detail-obsessed detective tick. While the writing and performances are of a reasonable standard, the dialogue scenes between the two crime-busting BFFs would probably have been a lot more engrossing were I not so regularly distracted by the extremely loose lip syncing, which makes it seem like each character is delivering their lines directly into the hot end of a hair dryer.

You would be hard-pressed to find a massive-multiplayer game as accessible as Fortnite. We aren’t just talking about its attention to accessibility features like Visual Sound Effects. Since its original days of Save the World PVE and classic action-building Battle Royale, Fortnite’s game modes like Zero Build and Creative have taken off in a tremendous way. The range of gameplay Fortnite has to offer truly makes it the perfect game for casuals and competitive gamers alike.

Whether you are in the mood to squad up for some chill games or to get your blood pumping with some haywire shooting gameplay, here are ten games a fan of Fortnite like yourself might enjoy.

Roblox

The beauty of Roblox is that it can be literally anything you want it to be. Much like Fortnite Creative, it has its own sandbox game creation system which allows players to craft unique gaming modes of their own. Or even just games on their own as well. People have recreated popular games like Modern Warfare just inside Roblox, so it’s really a game within a game.

Looking for a quirky simulation game? There are tons of tycoon and roleplaying experiences to be had. More interested in trying out a new fast-paced shooter? Roblox has battle royales and survival games aplenty. How about golf? Anything a player could possibly dream up, you can discover somewhere within Roblox.

Ellie's got a new wardrobe coming to the PlayStation 5 version of The Last of Us Part 1.

On Twitter, developer Naughty Dog announced that The Last of Us Part 1's latest patch on PS5 adds the previously PC-exclusive t-shirts into the PlayStation version of the game.

One new shirt is host to the Mortal Kombat II logo, which Ellie and Riley are seen playing in the HBO show's adaptation of Left Behind. The other shirt has the logo for HBO's The Wire. The 1.03 patch also introduces a handful of bug fixes to The Last of Us Part 1 on PS5.

A new patch for the PS5 version of The Last of Us Part I is now available, including new @HBO t-shirt cosmetics for Ellie, as well as improvements and fixes to combat, accessibility, audio, and more.

Read the full patch notes here: https://t.co/YGzDjEWHM6 pic.twitter.com/CLRTN5wsKu

— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) April 11, 2023

PlayStation 5 was already the definitive place to play the remake of Naughty Dog's acclaimed classic, as the recent PC release has been plagued with issues. But the addition of these two shirts inspired by the show make the PS5 version of the game even more appealing for returning fans.

The United States military is facing a massive information crisis after top secret U.S. documents regarding the war in Ukraine were leaked through multiple Discord servers.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the documents reportedly contain details about the war in Ukraine, U.S. allies, American penetration of Russian military plans, and more. Dozens of documents have surfaced so far with many bearing "Top Secret" or "Secret" labels, according to the report.

What's even more surprising is the path the information took across the internet. The documents apparently first appeared in a small Discord server with mostly American users. The information eventually passed through a Minecraft Discord server, with screenshots obtained by BBC dating the posts to early March. The classified information continued to spread, making its way through 4chan, Twitter, and Russian social network Telegram, before U.S. officials launched an investigation last week.

According to investigative news site Bellingcat, the leak may have started on a Discord server called WowMao, which is run by the YouTuber of the same name. A member of the server posted over 30 documents across March 1 and March 2, predating their appearance in the Minecraft server by a couple of days. It wasn't until April 7 that the documents were removed from the Discord server.

In recent years, the trend of beating challenging video games using objects as controllers that are not normally controllers has only grown. We've seen people beating games with dance pads, the bongo drums from Donkey Konga, literal bananas, Rock Band guitars, and more. Well, add "ocarinas" to the list, because someone just beat The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild by playing one.

I BEAT #BreathoftheWild WITH MY OCARINA pic.twitter.com/LieyyLLcR9

— 🔴LIVE NOW gv_mimi (@gv_mimi) April 10, 2023

Streamer gv_mimi, who goes by Mimi, is a variety streamer with a focus on Breath of the Wild challenges, speedruns, other Zelda games, and more. Since the beginning of March, they've been attempting to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild by mapping notes to an ocarina and playing it, note by note, to make Link move around and fight enemies. Needless to say, not an easy feat:

Baby's first guardian with an Ocarina #BreathoftheWild Look at me go! 🥹 pic.twitter.com/OL2bjXU9OZ

QuakeCon 2023 is coming back to Grapevine, Texas this summer from August 10 to 13.

The organizers announced the comeback of the convention — which celebrates Doom, Quake, and some other Bethesda games — on Monday, saying it will be the first in-person event since 2019. It said this year's convention will bring greater emphasis to the BYOC (Bring Your Own Computer) event.

"QuakeCon is our favorite event of the year, and we can’t wait to finally see our incredible QuakeCon community in-person again, celebrate games, and frag all weekend with thousands of friends," id Software studio head Marty Stratton said in a statement. "For our first year back, QuakeCon 2023 is focusing on the fan-favorite BYOC and the players that made QuakeCon the best gaming gathering for more than 25 years."

The BYOC event is being upgraded with four days of round-the-clock gaming, community events, meetups with friends, and the annual esports finale of the Quake World Championships. Those who can't make it to QuakeCon can watch the BYOC activity on Twitch.

The BYOC Returns!

We're back in person with #QuakeCon 2023. Join us in Texas this August 10-13 | Registration opens soon!https://t.co/PkPaNCRFxd pic.twitter.com/XFVs2zpMFj

Sony has announced a brand-new State of Play featuring 20 minutes of gameplay for Final Fantasy XVI. It will take place Thursday at 2pm PT / 5pm ET.

Sony didn't elaborate on what will be shown during the showcase, but it will presumably include new areas and mechanics. It's also unclear whether this State of Play will feature other announcements beyond this showcase.

Sony's most recent State of Play was back in February, with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League being the central attraction.

State of Play presents more than 20 minutes of new Final Fantasy XVI gameplay this Thursday. Tune in live at 2pm PT / 5pm ET / 11pm CEST: https://t.co/nOULcwLVnQ pic.twitter.com/vNR9kGbxL6

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 11, 2023

A major push for Final Fantasy

Square Enix is in the midst of a major rollout for Final Fantasy XVI, which is currently exclusive to the PlayStation 5. We had a chance to check it out just recently, and we were impressed by what we saw, with Matt Purslow writing that "if story, exploration, and characters live up to what I’ve seen of the combat so far, then Final Fantasy 16 will be a JRPG worth being excited about."

It's unclear if Dark and Darker will ever see the light of day, but one fan is taking matters into their own hands by trying to recreate the upcoming game in Fortnite.

Reddit user fermelon recently revealed that they are attempting to recreate Ironmace's game using Fortnite's creation tool, posting a short clip of a work-in-progress version of the map. The gameplay shows a Fortnite character working their way through a very dark castle with nothing but a torch to light the way.

Commenters pointed out that the minimap displayed in the corner is a recreation of Dark and Darker's minimap. No enemies appear in the gameplay clip, but it's still an impressive recreation of Dark and Darker's setting. Fermelon said they're planning to share the island code as soon as Epic approves their creator application, so other Dark and Darker fans can check out the recreation for themselves.

The Razer Edge 5G is the latest iteration of mobile gaming and takes it one step further by allowing games to play outside of WiFi range with Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband Network.

We were so excited to learn more that we sat down with Kelsey Peterson, the gaming lead on the product marketing team at Verizon. One of the biggest takeaways from speaking with her is the Razer Edge 5G is made by gamers, for gamers. And at the same time, it’s not just limited to gaming. They wanted to elevate the mobile gaming space with a custom-built, next level tablet that would change the way you think about mobile gaming. Let’s get into it.

First thing to keep in mind: it’s not a mobile phone or an e-reader. It’s a tablet built like a PC for gaming but don’t worry, no driver updates here!

The second big thing is the Razer Edge 5G seamlessly takes gaming out of the home. You may be thinking to yourself, why now? Because, as Kelsey Peterson said, “We finally have a network with a capacity that can stream AAA games. It means I’m not limited to what my phone can support” which leads to potential that’s never been seen before.

The Razer Edge 5G will bring AAA console gaming to wherever you are as “5G Ultra Wideband is fast enough and reliable enough you can’t tell the difference between something that’s downloaded on the device and something that’s being streamed.” The Edge 5G provides TV-quality performance in the palm of your hand, with 2-way speakers with Verizon Adaptive Sound for more immersive, 3D surround sound. The display also comes in at just under 7” while also rocking an HDR AMOLED™ FHD+ panel and up to a 144Hz refresh rate to ensure your games look better and run smoother.

Microsoft's already-impressive Xbox Design Lab is expanding even further, as the company announced a ton of new colors for its high-end Xbox Wireless Elite Series 2 controller.

Available starting today, the Elite Series 2 controller now has the choice of 16 main colors, 12 face button colors, 17 accent colors for the paddles and D-pad, and 25 accent colors for the rest of the controller. The new expansion starts at a price point of $149.99.

Some of the new colors include Garnet Red, Glacier Blue, and Deep Pink, along with new options like black-out ABXY buttons. You can take a look at some of the new colors for yourself in the image below.

Resident Evil 4 walks the line between horror and comedy, but one of the original's most memorable campy lines almost didn't make it into this year's remake.

The line in question comes in the game's introduction. Shortly after stumbling upon Resident Evil 4's village area for the first time, Leon S. Kennedy is faced with an overwhelming amount of enemies. But as Resident Evil 4 fans know, when the church bells start to ring, the villagers stop attacking Leon and make their way to the church. Leon then says, "Where's everyone going? Bingo?" And the title card appears.

It turns out this iconic moment was almost cut from RE4 Remake. In an interview with IGN, Leon S. Kennedy voice actor Nick Apostolides revealed what happened during production that led to the inclusion of the classic line.

"A lot of those lines — the classics — they were there as possible keepers, or possible alternatives," Apostolides said. "That's just kind of how recording goes, you get a lot of variety and they'll see what fits best in the final product. Until I played the game, or until the footage started coming out for the marketing, I didn't even know they kept that line, that's how many you record. So I'm very happy they kept that line because a lot of fans would have been pretty disappointed."

The actor said it was actually an impulsive decision from a developer to give the original line a shot.

"They actually wrote another line in place of that. We did it a few times, it just didn't feel right on set, and the cinematic director said, 'You know what, for s**ts and giggles, let's throw in the bingo line.' And I was like, 'Really?' And then he put it in. And it made the game."

Nintendo has announced it will be hosting Nintendo Live 2023 in the United States for the first time in September.

The company said in a press release Tuesday that this year's Nintendo Live event will be held in Seattle, where fans of all ages can try out demos of current and upcoming Nintendo Switch games, compete in tournaments, take photos with their favorite Nintendo characters, watch live stage performances, and more.

"Fans of all ages can currently experience the unique games, characters and worlds of Nintendo on Nintendo Switch, but we want to expand that scope with a new experience," Nintendo of America President Doug Bowser said in a statement. "With Nintendo Live 2023, we’re giving attendees a chance to celebrate together with family, friends and the broader Nintendo community in the spirit of fun and creating long-lasting memories."

Announcing #NintendoLive 2023, an in-person event for fans of all ages that will take place in Seattle this September! Experience Nintendo Switch gameplay, live stage performances, tournaments, photo ops, and more.

Stay tuned for more details: https://t.co/0uePw3LHqS pic.twitter.com/3nqalGUTa0

CD Projekt Red (CDPR) has rolled out new high end ray-tracing features for the PC version of Cyberpunk 2077, courtesy of the newly released Ray Tracing: Overdrive mode introduced in Patch 1.62.

The new PC exclusive features are geared towards high-end rigs, and will bring a “fully ray-traced, aka path-traced, rendering mode to the game”, according to a new post on the Cyberpunk 2077 website.

The developer states that the technology is capable of accurately simulating light throughout any given scene, taking into account the characteristics of emissions from an unlimited number of sources to create faithful shadows, reflections, and global illuminations.

As a result, the full set of new features are extremely GPU-intensive, and will only be available on a limited number of NVIDIA cards.

At launch, Cyberpunk 2077’s Ray-Tracing Overdrive mode is available for PC players sporting the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 40 Series (4070 Ti and up), and can also be run at 30 fps at a resolution of 1080p on NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 3090. PC players who have other ray-tracing capable cards will be able to render fully path-traced screenshots via the game’s photo mode.

Doom has been many things over the years — a pioneering first-person shooter, an RPG, even a board game — but Mighty Doom is the first time this franchise has been cute. Your cartoonish Slayer in this mobile top-down shooter is just as adorable as the chonky cacodemons and prowlers with pinchable cheeks he is mutilating. The whole thing starts out as a lively single-stick roguelite that has you marching through demon-packed levels toward… well, I’m not exactly sure. I never saw the end of it, because a hellish difficulty spike clearly designed to bully me into spending real money on in-game power Glory Killed any desire I had to keep playing. There’s a fun, fast-paced, delightfully gory game in here, but it’s chained to a mountain of free-to-play garbage that leaches the fun out of the experience once you reach a certain point. The result is a monetized nightmare that feels less like Doom and more like Candy Crush Saga with Hell Priests.

You control your Doom Slayer using an onscreen joystick, but shooting is automatic. That means all you have to do is move around the arena-like stages avoiding enemies, projectiles, and environmental dangers like spikes and saw blades. You also have a couple of slots for special weapons, like a rocket launcher and BFG, that you can deploy with the press of a button after a cooldown period. The touchscreen controls aren’t super precise, which becomes a problem when the screen is filled with enemies and bullets later on, but they’re mostly adequate in earlier levels.

Last month, I finally got to play an extended chunk of The Last Worker, a game I’ve written a little bit about before. Specifically, in my Gamescom preview, I was drawn to the ways in which its dystopian Amazon warehouse environment both amused and unsettled me. You should read that if you haven’t yet because all my feelings about it then still hold true. But having now gotten to grapple with the game in full, I’ve stumbled upon another way in which The Last Worker clearly wants to break my brain: it’s putting me at odds with my own relationship with both work and play.

In The Last Worker’s first “act” of sorts, you’re playing a man named Kurt who works at Jüngle, the fictional world’s most profitable company that produces and delivers all sorts of bizarro goods and an unsubtle satire of Amazon. Over the years, the warehouse has become increasingly automated against mistake-prone human workers, and now only Kurt is left. Kurt’s job is to ride a little hover cart around the warehouse, picking items for delivery, inspecting them for defects or issues, and then either dropping them into a delivery hole or recycling them. This is what he does, day in and day out until the events of the game get the better of him, and eventually begins doing something decidedly different.

A Persona 3 Remake could be on the way based on new reports as well as what may be leaked footage.

A sizzle reel appeared to leak over the weekend containing footage of remakes for both Jet Set Radio and Persona 3. Gematsu subsequently reported that a Persona 3 Remake is indeed in development, though it couldn't corroborate the footage.

Adding further fuel to these reports, a Twitter user spotted a potential name in p3re.jp, which was registered back in March. The domain name is registered to the same provider as the Persona 5 Royal website.

https://t.co/Y1Z47AOTTB
不明ドメイン発見
ペルソナ3リメイクかも pic.twitter.com/HCSV04OKJG

— みどり (@MbKKssTBhz5) April 9, 2023

A Persona 3 remake has been hotly desired by fans over the years. Both of the main versions -- the first one released on PlayStation 2, the second on PSP -- are widely considered imperfect due to technical drawbacks and other limitations. An updated version of Persona 3 Portable was released for modern consoles back in January, though it was effectively a straight port with no new content.

Tango Gameworks' latest update for Hi-Fi Rush adds several additional quality-of-life features, including accessibility options for parrying and a collectible counter for each stage.

The first of the accessibility options, 2D Rhythm Game Assist, provides a wider window of success for timed inputs during Rhythm Games. These appear in places where the player has to activate Data nodes and can be tricky for some players to nail 100%. With this new assist turned on, even if players miss inputs, they will still be able to complete the Rhythm Game as long as they still hit 70% of the correct inputs.

The other accessibility option is the Auto Rhythm Parry, where players can press and hold down the button for the first action in a forced parry event in order to automatically parry or evade an action. Players can miss the initial action as long as they press and hold down the input for the next action. A 70% parry success rate is still needed to pass Rhythm Parry attacks, and players are still required to press or parry to the Beat Hit to strike the finishing blow on the enemy.

Both accessibility options are only available on Easy or Normal difficulty modes.

Additionally, the stage select screen now has a counter that tells players how many collectibles they found in each one. If a stage doesn’t have any, then it will show the number zero. A green checkmark is displayed if all collectibles were found in a particular stage.

Tekken 8’s game director, Katsuhiro Harada, has confirmed that crossplay and rollback netcode will be supported by the upcoming fighting game.

Talking to fans on Twitter, Harada explained that both features will be present and correct. “Crossplay? Of course I will,” he said to one fan, while confirming to another that “Already installed [rollback netcode], and it already has what you want."

Crossplay? Of course I will.
BTW
When the previous generation consoles were released, I had already proposed crossplay between the two platformers. However, at that time, they were at odds with each other over their mutual interests (and P2P security issue) & repeatedly refused. https://t.co/I8b38YfePh

— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) April 9, 2023

In regards to crossplay, Harada said that he actually the feature around the launch of the PS4 and Xbox One generation, but that the platform holders had prevented it being implemented.

“When the previous generation consoles were released, I had already proposed crossplay between the two platformers,” he said. “However, at that time, they were at odds with each other over their mutual interests (and P2P security issue) & repeatedly refused.”

Media Molecule has announced that it is ending live support of Dreams. From this September, no more updates will be provided for the game, and many community events will be concluded.

In a post to the Dreams website, Media Molecule explained that live support will end on September 1, 2023. Along with the end of any updates, the studio is also bringing events such as DreamsCom, All Hallows’ Dreams, and the Impy Awards to a close.

“We’re very proud of Dreams and grateful for the way you, the community, have embraced all it has to offer,” said Media Molecule in the post. “Whilst we’ve always had the desire to build on the foundation of Dreams and expand the experience, when reviewing our plans we were not able to define a sustainable path. We made the decision to change the studio product strategy. This is obviously disappointing to many people inside and outside of Mm, however we are incredibly excited for what will come next.”

The studio made it clear that Dreams will still be available after September 1, and players will continue to be able to play, create, and share with others. The game will also remain available to purchase.

“Although this is challenging news we do have a few more updates on the way, including the much anticipated Tren, and a significant improvement to animation and our last Create mode update,” the developer promised.

The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, New York, is constructing a Donkey Kong arcade cabinet that's big enough for King Kong to try out.

Announced on Twitter, the museum's upcoming Donkey Kong arcade game will stand at nearly 20 feet tall, making it the largest playable Donkey Kong arcade game in the world. The Strong Museum also said that Nintendo of America provided input on the project.

What's even better is that this gargantuan version of Donkey Kong will be available for guests to play via a smaller, human-sized control panel located at the base of the machine. We can only wonder if the bigger buttons on the machine itself also work to control the game. Donkey Kong is coming to the museum on June 30, and you can check out what the machine will look like for yourself below.

As part of our June 30 expansion, The Strong will create the world’s largest, playable Donkey Kong arcade game. The game will stand nearly 20-feet tall and will be available for guests to play! Thank you @NintendoAmerica for providing input on the project.#DonkeyKong #Arcade pic.twitter.com/xQhsRVvCib

We’re excited to announce the star-studded celebrity gaming series Lost Odyssey is returning to the physical table after two years of virtual webcam games for one of the biggest events yet! The Lord of the Rings: Rise to War™ & Penny Dragon present Lost Odyssey: The Red Scribe — an actual play game event showcasing the World Premiere of the brand new Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying Game. You can catch the Extra Life trailer featuring Elijah Wood here in case you missed it!

Lost Odyssey: The Red Scribe was filmed in front of a live audience during this past year's LA Comic Con. Partnered with Fathom Events and Legion M, the game and charity campaign will be exclusively previewed in front of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King 20th Anniversary Extended Edition release on April 13th and 19th in theaters nationwide.

You can catch the entire game on April 13 (Thursday) at 11am on IGN.

How to Watch the World Premiere of the brand new Lord of the Rings™ Roleplaying Game

If you want to tune in, we're hosting the video right here on IGN.com and on our accounts across all major platforms including YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, and Facebook. Here are some of the places where you can watch the stream online:

Update (4/11/2023): HoYoverse officially confirmed that Zachary Gordon has been cast to voice Tighnari in Genshin Impact starting from the Version 3.6 update. Gordon, who’s notable for playing Greg Heffley in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid films, retweeted Genshin Impact’s announcement overnight with a short statement: “Honored and proud to be a part of the Genshin family.”

Honored and proud to be a part of the Genshin family 💚😊 - Tighnari https://t.co/4hlb3CL6SL

— ☡ach (@ZacharyGordon) April 11, 2023

HoYoverse has found a new voice actor for Tighnari ahead of Genshin Impact's Version 3.6 update.

The Chinese game developer announced in a blog post on Sunday night that Tighnari's English voice actor would be updated in the upcoming patch.

Fans are currently speculating that the new voice actor will be Zachary Gordon, based on allegedly leaked audio shared on Twitter. Gordon is notable for playing Greg Heffley in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid films and voicing Hayner in Kingdom Hearts 3. However, HoYoverse has not yet confirmed the rumors that Gordon is the new voice actor for the Dendro character.

Studio Wildcard has announced that it will be scrapping the Ark: Survival Ascended bundle following backlash from fans.

The developer explained in a community blog post published on Steam last Friday that it has backpedaled on the decision to bundle Survival Ascended with Ark 2, which recently got delayed to 2024:

"Our intention behind this was to provide a package where you essentially got two products for the price of one. In hindsight, not the best move," the studio wrote. "Our bad; we recognize how combining Ark Survival Ascended with Ark 2 and requiring further DLC upgrades wasn’t optimal, especially since you wouldn’t be able to judge Ark 2 as no gameplay or content would be available yet."

Because of the fan feedback Studio Wildcard received regarding that issue, it is now making Ark: Survival Ascended a standalone game, with the DLC content gradually built in instead of being sold on digital storefronts, for $59.99. The content and their release windows include:

• The Island (released at launch)
• Survival of the Fittest: The Island & Scorched Earth map variants (released at launch)
• Scorched Earth (released at launch)
• Aberration (Q4 2023)
• Extinction (Q1 2024)
• Genesis Part 1 (Q1 2024)
• Genesis Part 2 (Q2 2024)
• All the community-created maps are also to be released over time in 2024 (Fjordur, Ragnarok, The Center, Lost Island, Valguero, Crystal Isles)

The Diablo 4 open beta period has ended, and players were given a taste of what they can expect in the full release of the game. While Blizzard has been sharing more information about certain systems through periodic developer livestreams and videos, not much has been revealed about the end-game, if certain game modes will be making a return, or even whether certain features from previous games will return to help add more depth to general gameplay and character builds.

Here are some things we would like to see potentially make a return in Diablo 4.

Adventure Mode

Adventure Mode was an optional game mode available in Diablo 3. This mode allowed players to skip the story and dive right into the action and tackle different quests set in the different locales available to the game’s main campaign. Objectives included defeating major story bosses, killing a set amount of enemies in a specific dungeon, opening curses chests, and more. Completing the objectives would net players experience, gold, and special chests when clearing all designated quests in an area.

These chests would drop recipes for Legendary gear and Set pieces, which incentivized tackling these objectives before heading into other end-game content like Nephalem Rifts. While engrossing, not everyone is interested in the narrative the Diablo games have provided for well over a decade, and an Adventure Mode is more than appealing for those that simply just want to play the game and not be barred by story progression.

Given Diablo 4’s pivot to being more like an MMO, perhaps Blizzard will hand out story skips through its battle pass or other avenues if Adventure Mode doesn’t make a return.

Nintendo is going after the leaker who posted images of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom's art book.

First reported by TorrentFreak, Nintendo has filed a subpoena request to Discord to discover the identity of the user responsible for the leak.

We're not going into details of any of the spoiled images here, but in February, a Discord user called Julien#2743 allegedly posted images from Tears of the Kingdom's art book. The art book is part of the unreleased Tears of the Kingdom Collector's Edition, which launches on May 12 alongside the standard edition of the game.

Naturally, the art book is filled with details about what players will discover in the upcoming Hyrulean adventure, which Nintendo clearly didn't want out in the wild months before the game comes out. Nintendo of America filed an application for a subpoena that would require Discord to reveal the leaker's identity.

"NOA is requesting the attached proposed subpoena that would order Discord Inc. ("Discord") to disclose the identity, including the name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), and e-mail addresses(es) of the user Julien#2743, who is responsible for posting infringing content that appeared at the following Discord channel Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom," the document reads in part.

In a Reddit post that has since been deleted, the leaker claimed a friend sent them the art book images. But, it's unclear if the leaker was telling the truth, or if the images originated from somewhere else.

It finally happened: I saw a PlayStation 5 on the store shelves in Tokyo.

In fact, now that the console is finally in more plentiful supply, PS5 hardware managed to cross the 3 million sales mark in Japan this month – accounting for just under 10% of the total 32 million units sold worldwide since launch.

The PS5 launch was rocky everywhere around the world, but here in Japan, it felt egregiously so. For the first two years following the console’s November 2020 launch, I never saw one in the wild. Like, literally never. When stock was available, most chain stores restricted sales to those with a loyalty card, and with prior purchases on record, and other insanely strict measures – before then placing you in a lottery for the chance to maybe be able to buy one.

As someone who’s good at losing lotteries, I had no chance of buying one myself.

Stock sold out everywhere instantly every time, of course. Does that mean demand was extreme, or supplies were low? Or both? Well, with total weekly sales hovering around the 15,000-20,000-units mark for much of 2021 and 2022, and many gamers complaining that they couldn’t get hold of one, it seemed pretty clear that Japan was getting a disproportionately small slice of the global PS5 stock. This for a country of some 130 million people, one of the top three gaming markets in the world, and the birthplace of PlayStation – a lot of fans here felt forgotten by Sony.

Each of the characters starring in Arkane Studio's Redfall has a unique set of talents, whether they were invented, came with the job, or in Jacob's case, were bestowed mysteriously by a vampire. In the exclusive character trailer above we learn more about Jacob's background and how he gained his supernatural powers.

Jacob is an experienced sniper and uses his new abilities in combination with the skills he had prior to arriving at Redfall in his kit. Check out what he's got available to him to fight off former co-workers and vampires below:

• Power 1: Raven – Command your raven to fly forward and mark enemies.
• Power 2: Cloak – Activate Jacob’s stolen Bellwether Cloak to hide from enemies.
• Ultimate Ability: Heartstopper – Summon a ghostly rifle. Use sights to lock onto enemies, then fire to deal heavy damage.

Note that while Jacob doesn't have an explicit "movement" ability like Layla's Lift, Jacob's Cloak grants him bonus move speed, and of course, free movement around enemies.

Star Wars Jedi: Survivor director Stig Asmussen has revealed Coruscant to be one of the planets featured in the sequel, though it may not be a fully explorable open world area.

Sharing the news at Star Wars Celebration, not long before he released the final gameplay trailer for Jedi: Survivor, Asmussen confirmed Coruscant was in the game.

"We're taking our Metroidvania approach a step further and, just to talk about another planet, we're going to have Coruscant as well," he said. "I think there's been a lot of speculation on that, and [I'm] just confirming it here."

Though Asmussen did talk about Coruscant in a conversation about the larger explorable areas included in Jedi: Survivor, EA's Star Wars communications lead Andy McNamara seemed to pull back expectations a bit on Twitter.

"To be clear, Stig never claimed Coruscant was a 'freely explorable open world' [as one Twitter account claimed]. He only confirmed it as one of the destinations in the game," McNamara said. "Survivor has amazing planets to explore and our biggest environments to date, but wanted to be clear on what was said."

It's therefore unclear how much Coruscant will feature in Jedi: Survivor. It could be as open a world or area as the other locations, or it may just be featured as part of one particular story mission, much like the final area of Jedi: Fallen Order.

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor has received its final trailer ahead of its launch on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, and PC later this month.

Showing of a ton of gameplay footage alongside some new story cutscenes, set against an ominous yet hopeful monologue, the trailer was released during Star Wars Celebration 2023.

Cal Kestis is the main focus, and we see gameplay of him in a bunch of different fights. These include against Stormtroopers, Destroyer Droids from the prequel trilogy, and even a Rancor. We also see one gnarly scene where Cal throws a Scout trooper from a speeder straight into a TIE fighter.

Fans will get to experience all this for themselves when Jedi: Survivor launches on April 28, but those on PC will need to make space ahead of time for its colossal file size. The story follows Cal and the Mantis crew (who were shown of in a previous trailer) as they continue their fight against the empire.

Set five years after the original game, however, the team has slowed down a little and has settled on one planet. Building up a base of operations will be part of the gameplay loop in the sequel, though players will of course still travel to other planets, now with fast travel.

In our preview of the game, IGN said: Our "main takeaway from roughly five hours with the upcoming sequel, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor, is that it felt like [we were] systematically crossing off the issues I had with Fallen Order."

It’s hard to talk about modern video games without mentioning the influence of Grand Theft Auto. Rockstar’s iconic crime franchise has grown from a controversial PlayStation 1 classic to a universally recognised cultural behemoth, with its most recent entry, Grand Theft Auto 5, becoming the third best-selling game of all time.

However, the series didn’t grow into a landmark success overnight. Rockstar has been slowly building its iconic crime series for over two decades, creating hyper-immersive open worlds that players explore for years after their release. With over sixteen Grand Theft Auto games dropping since the franchise began in 1997, new players are probably wondering where to start. To help you get stuck in, we’ve listed every GTA game in chronological order so you can plot the best route through the timeline of this crime-riddled world.

Jump to:

• How to play in chronological order
  • The 2D Timeline
  • The 3D Timeline
  • The HD Timeline
• How to play by release order

The Grand Theft Auto Games in Chronological Order

There are a total of 16 games in the Grand Theft Auto series – eleven on home consoles, one on PC and four on handheld devices.

Games come in all shapes and sizes, and there is a ton of variety in the board game space, in particular. From really involved games like Gloomhaven to easier, quicker games like Checkers or Chess and a whole lot more. Regardless of what you want to get into, you'll need a place to play.

Using your dining room or kitchen table can be a quick fix, but it will cause problems when you need to use them for a meal, homework, or anything else. From small tables with only one purpose to larger tables ideally crafted for games, this is our list of the best board game tables.

7. Jumbl Game Board Rack

• Model Number: JUMPUZRK27
• Dimensions: 38 x 29.75 x 4 inches
• Price: $129.99
• Age Rating: 12 and up

While this piece of furniture is listed as being for puzzles, first and foremost, it's also a fantastic choice for other types of tabletop games. With six drawers, you can keep all kinds of things stowed, and you have a large surface you can use to tackle all kinds of things, and it folds up when not in use.

6. GSE Wooden 3-in-1 Board Game Table

The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth will officially launch on May 10, 2023, on both the Apple App and Google Play stores and will allow players to build a team of heroes and villains from the works of J.R.R. Tolkien to discover the power of a brand New Ring.

The Lord of the Rings: Heroes of Middle-earth is a strategy RPG at its core and will also give players the choice to become good or evil. The mobile game will feature both PvP and PvE combat and it promises to let players "adventure across the land to experience familiar & alternate tellings of Tolkien characters."

Characters will be upgradeable and some will come from Middle-earth factions not seen before. The battles will be turn-based, and choosing the right characters will be paramount as there are special team-up attacks and synergy bonuses to take advantage of.

The game will be continuously supported after launch as game director Nick Reinhart said, "We've got a lot of awesome content and feature plans coming. It's got lots of beloved characters, along with maybe a few new faces."

May will (hopefully) be a good month for fans of Tolkien's work as The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will be released on May 25 and looks to tell the story of the events between Gollum's finding of the One Ring and the start of the story we know in The Lord of the Rings.

In our hands-on demo of The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, we said, "There isn't enough in the demo to be certain, but The Lord of the Rings: Gollum does at least make a good first impression, outlining a solid case for piloting one of the strangest and yet most important characters in the lore."

When it comes to PC games, Steam is the biggest name in the business. Now that the Steam Deck has continued to grow in popularity, more and more people are logging on to Steam every day to play. Because of this, Steam is one of the greatest sources of information about what PC gamers are actually playing at any given time.

Steam offers interesting data on the top selling and top played games on the platform week to week, but if you're wondering what were the most-played games last month, we've got you covered. Here are the top 10 most-played Steam games of March 2023, based on total players.

1. Counter Strike: Global Offensive

Joseph Staten, head of creative on Halo Infinite and cinematic director on the first three Halo games, is leaving Microsoft, the company has confirmed to IGN.

In its message, Microsoft did not say where Staten was headed next, nor the reason he was leaving Microsoft after nine years.

“We’re grateful for Joseph’s contributions to the Halo franchise and Xbox as a whole," the statement from a Microsoft spokesperson reads. "We wish him all the best in his new adventure.”

Staten himself took to Twitter to comment on IGN's report, saying, "Hey folks, I am indeed leaving Microsoft. I'll have more info to share soon, but for now, I'd just like to thank all my Xbox colleagues for all their understanding and support as I embark on a new adventure."

Staten has long been one of the best-known names behind the Halo franchise, having been cinematic director on Combat Evolved, Halo 2, and Halo 3, and having served as lead writer on Destiny while with Bungie.

Lifeweaver is the latest hero coming to Overwatch in Season 4 dropping April 11th. As his name alludes to, Lifeweaver is the newest Support hero addition. Finally, another support. Here’s everything you need to know about Lifeweaver’s kit before Overwatch Season 4 launches.

Lifeweaver is definitely more of a utility based healer. He isn’t the strongest healer on the roster, especially since his big burst of healing takes a few seconds to charge up, but his actual abilities are his strongest suit that will aid his team in winning big fights.

Weapons:

Healing Blossom: Hold to charge a healing burst of 65 or you can fire individual bursts for minimum healing if you need the speedy recovery.

Thorn Volley: Switch to an alternate fire to fire an SMG like spread of projectiles. Distanced firing isn’t as great for this since it does have a bigger bloom.

Abilities:

Petal Platform: platform thrown on the ground that will lift anyone up when stepped on

Rejuvenating Dash: Dash the direction you’re moving and get a slight boost of health

Life Grip: Pull an ally to your direction, horizontally and vertically and give them a slight bubble when they get pulled

Passives:

Parting Gift: When you die, you drop a health boost that heals the first enemy or ally who picks it up

Support: Heal over Time

Ultimate:

Tree of Life: Summon a spiritual tree that instantly heals allies in pulses and continues to do so until it runs out

Dungeons & Dragons is a game of chance and probability. The dungeon master can craft a fanciful adventure filled with all manner of twists and turns, but after that, it all comes down to player choice and a roll of the dice.

If you want to add some flair to your D&D sessions, want to make sure you always know which dice are yours, or you simply need a set to get started, there are tons of great options out there. Whether you are a longtime fan or looking to jump into your first adventure, this is our list of the best D&D dice.

Rundian Squid Dice

• Model Number: B09QM67QYV
• Dimensions: 4.33 x 3.07 x 1.57 inches
• Price: $22.99
• Age Rating: 12 and up

If you want to embrace a nautical DnD adventure (or explore the eldritch corners of fantasy), this 7-piece dice kit is great, with a squid-like (or Mindflayer-like) figure hiding behind the number on the face of each die.

HTPOW Light-Up Dice Set

• Model Number: B0BBRQB8DK
• Dimensions: N/A
• Price: $28.85
• Age Rating: 12 and up

Pick up this set of 7 light-up LED dice to bring some extra flair to nighttime or dramatic low-light play sessions. Charge them with a USB cable and then roll or shake them to bring out the lights.

Microsoft has finally cracked down on a loophole in the Xbox Store that allowed emulators to be downloaded and used on Xbox consoles to play older games, including many unavailable on Xbox consoles. And while rumors are flying as to the impetus for the sudden change, Microsoft is pointing to a pretty straightforward, long-standing official store policy as the reason.

Emulator users and creators first began pointing out the change earlier this week. Previously, emulators were able to be accessed on the Xbox Store via direct links on an Xbox's Edge browser, and those emulators could be run indefinitely once downloaded even if the app download itself was found and removed. However, numerous users have reported that popular emulators such as Xenia no longer launch on consoles even if previously downloaded - instead, an error message occurs.

Ladies and gentlemen, it's been a good run.

But now we've no choice but to @Xbox @XboxP3 #LetUsEmulate pic.twitter.com/K9KO1p655K