IGN

Prepare for a gaming event like no other, as a four-legged contender is all set to dash into the spotlight at Awesome Games Done Quick (AGDQ) 2024, making history as the first dog to complete a speedrun in a video game for the popular event.

A shiba inu will speedrun a game at @GamesDoneQuick this January; he will be the first dog to do so:https://t.co/IA78oPZwe2

— JSR_@TwitchCon/GDQx (@JSR2gamers) October 17, 2023

In a post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), user @JSR2gamers posted an announcement video teasing his dog Peanut Butter (also affectionately called P.B. by his owner) and the milestone he is set to embark on next year. This is not the first time Peanut Butter has speedrun a game; three months ago, his owner uploaded a video of the good boy speedrunning the NES game Gyromite, which P.B. completed in 25 minutes and 29 seconds.

How the pup will speedrun Zelda 2

Now, Peanut Butter does not have any thumbs (obviously), making it difficult to hold a controller. Yet, his owner can have the dog play a game thanks to a custom controller built by JSR_. The controller is mapped to four separate buttons: A, B, both buttons, and the Select button, according to JSR_'s YouTube description.

Overwatch 2 is following Fortnite’s footsteps and holding its first-ever musical collaboration, this one with K-Pop group Le Sserafim.

Blizzard announced the collaboration with the five-member girl group, whose name is an anagram for “I’m fearless,” in an official blog post published on Wednesday. The event will see new in-game content inspired by the rising K-pop band behind hits like “FEARLESS” and “ANTIFRAGILE.”

LE SSERAFIM x OVERWATCH 2 ✨

🌃 Oct 26 ’Perfect Night’ Music Video
🎮 Nov 1 Exclusive In-Game Event
🎤 Nov 4 BlizzCon Appearance

Learn More: https://t.co/ujEgYWSx0U pic.twitter.com/qmrNrQEpxh

— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) October 18, 2023

Le Sserafim — comprised of members Kim Chaewon, Sakura, Huh Yunjin, Kazuha, and Hong Eunchae — will kick off their collaboration with Overwatch 2 with the release of their music video for their new single “Perfect Night,” which premieres October 26 at 9 p.m. PT. In the concept trailer for the music video, one of the members is seen wearing D.Va’s headphones. You can take a good guess who’s wearing them.

Squishmallow plushes from Jazwares are all the rage with kids these days, and Pokemon is as popular as it’s ever been. So it only makes sense that Pokemon Squishmallows would be incredibly popular. And buddy, they sure are. They’re so popular that many of the configurations are hardly ever available in stock anywhere. And if you do find one, it’s often from a third-party reseller that has jacked up the price. Highly uncool.

The world of Pokemon Squishmallow retail is a confusing place, but we're here to help. Below, we've gathered all the links in one place. You'll find info on where you can buy all the various Pokemon plushies in their various sizes, which range from 10 to 20 inches. A word of warning, though: prices flucuate like you wouldn't believe on the ones sold by third-party retailers (i.e. most of the ones available) so the prices below are based on the time of writing. Now let’s get down to it.

Winking Pikachu Squishmallow

Available at MSRP

• 20" at Amazon - $49.99
• 20" at GameStop - $44.99
• 14" at GameStop - $24.99
• 12" at Pokemon Center - $29.99
• 10" at GameStop - $14.99

The latest addition to the Pikachu plush lineup is Winking Pikachu. It's pretty much identical to the standard (and much harder to find) Pikachu Squishmallow, but its left eye is winking. So there you have it.

Piplup Squishmallow

Available at MSRP

Prepare to face a relentless nightmare as The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR's latest free update introduces a Horde Mode.

Supermassive Games announced the mode in a trailer (which you can watch below) and PlayStation Blog post today as part of a free update, providing a fun and fast-paced survival challenge just in time for the spookiest time of year.

The PlayStation Blog post notes that the latest update added a new challenge to Horde Mode, where more enemies appear each time you blink. Supermassive previously tested out the PlayStation VR2's eye-tracking tech at release, where certain enemies inch closer and closer to you every time you blink.

As with similar games that offer this arcade-style challenge, Horde Mode throws you into an area where the goal is to survive as long as you can. The longer you survive, the harder the enemies come. Given The Dark Pictures: Switchback VR is an on-rails shooter where you can't move your body but rather your head from a fixed position, it certainly adds replay value to an otherwise short game.

I reviewed the Dark Pictures: Switchback VR earlier this year and while it was fun, the short runtime, weak story, and lack of scares hold it back from being the system-selling exclusive the PlayStation VR2 is still looking for.

If you haven’t downloaded Diablo 4 on Steam yet, here’s a reminder that the latest title in Blizzard’s popular action RPG series is now verified on Steam Deck.

Blizzard launched Diablo 4 on Steam and certified it for the Steam Deck on Tuesday in conjunction with the launch of its second season, titled Season of Blood. Community manager Adam Fletcher confirmed in a post on X (formerly Twitter) last week that they’ll be able to play Diablo 4 on the Steam Deck wherever they take it after receiving inquiries from fans about whether the game will be playable on the portable PC system at all.

“We have been hearing some questions regarding Steam Deck verification for Diablo 4,” Fletcher said at the time. “We can happily say that Diablo IV will be Steam Deck Verified starting next Tuesday with the launch of the game on Steam and the start of Season of Blood!”

We have been hearing some questions regarding Steam Deck verification for #DiabloIV.

We can happily say that Diablo IV will be Steam Deck Verified ✅ starting next Tuesday with the launch of the game on Steam and the start of Season of Blood!

Starfield managed to hold off Mortal Kombat 1 to be the best-selling game of September 2023 in the U.S., according to new numbers from Circana.

It may not be too surprising that the big new title from Bethesda was popular, but the sales numbers are still pretty impressive considering Starfield debuted Day 1 on Xbox Game Pass. Obviously, that means that there’s a whole swath of people playing Starfield on Game Pass that aren’t factored into these sales numbers.

Starfield debuted officially across PC and Xbox Series X/S on Sept. 6, followed by Mortal Kombat 1 on Sept. 19 for Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 5, PC, and Nintendo Switch (although that Switch release didn’t go so well initially). After Starfield and Mortal Kombat 1 are EA Sports FC 24 at the No. 3 spot for September, with Madden NFL 24 (a holdover from August) at No. 4, and Payday 3 at No. 5. See the full chart below.

Diving a little deeper into the Mortal Kombat 1 numbers, dollar sales are “on par” with the April 2019 numbers of Mortal Kombat 11, according to Circana. It was the best-selling game of September 2023 in the U.S. on PlayStation, placing second on Xbox and PC, and third on Nintendo Switch. The top spot for Xbox and PC, unsurprisingly, went to Starfield, with PC being the lead sales platform for the Bethesda release.

Circana also reports that Starfield is now the seventh-best-selling game of 2023 so far, followed right behind by Mortal Kombat 1 at No. 8. Hogwarts Legacy is currently the best-selling game of 2023 so far, followed by The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare II just released its The Haunting, a spooky event available in Multiplayer, Warzone, and DMZ. Here’s what’s happening!

The Dark Ritual Operators have opened a Hellmouth that let in otherworldly threats into the world. This open gate also let in Spawn, you know that Hellspawn superhero you may have seen from that cult classic movie in 1997. He entered our world to help defend us.

At least that’s the reasoning given to us to make him available in the battle pass as an unlockable skin. Along with Spawn, there are several other skins available in the shop like Lilith from Diablo, Skeletor, and Alucard from Hellsing.

Soul-Capture is a big part of The Haunting. You can collect Souls in Multiplayer, Warzone, and DMZ from eliminating players, any enemies, and monsters. Players who are killed will drop souls that will be automatically collected for you.

You can choose to turn in Souls to collect rewards from the event tab. There are a series of free rewards you can get from just playing the game and collecting Souls. There are quite a few things you can unlock now with more coming later this month. And, you can get daily rewards just from logging into the game as The Haunting continues.

Multiplayer Update

Multiplayer has two new Core and Gunfight Maps. The Core maps consist of La Casa and Koro Village and Gunfight gets King and Fight. You might recognize some of these map from previous iterations of Call of Duty that are returning.

Xbox has in recent years been a champion for making gaming accessible for everyone, and yesterday it revealed a new wave of accessibility updates and features, including one that will allow the Xbox Adaptive Controller and Elite Series 2 to support keyboard remapping to make PC gaming more inclusive.

In a new blog post, Microsoft revealed that both controllers will be capable of remapping the buttons to nearly 90 keyboard keys, as you can see in the image below, allowing players with limited mobility access even more PC games.

Online lobbies you can run around in are all the rage in fighting games these days. There’s the Tower and Park from Guilty Gear Strive, the Battle Hub from Street Fighter 6, and so on. Tekken 8 joins the craze with the Tekken Fighting Lounge, and it’s got a little bit of everything. In fact, it might be the fighting game genre’s best online lobby yet.

The Tekken Fight Lounge is divided into four areas: the Battle Area, where you can fight against other players and watch other matches in progress; the Customization Shop, Iron Fist Outfitters, where you can spend your hard-earned fight money on customization options for your avatar; the Beach Area, where you can relax, enjoy the vibes, and most importantly, play Tekken Ball; and the Tekken Dojo.

If you’re familiar with online fighting game lobbies from the last few years, you’ll have a pretty good idea of how the Tekken Fight Lounge works. You select a region, and then choose a Lounge from a list. Once you’re in, you can travel around the lobby freely, going in and out of the sections at will without any loading. The Tekken Fight Lounge has a little bit of everything. There’s a competitive atmosphere that harkens back to the glory days of arcades, but it’s also a place where players can hang out, make new friends, and build an online community.

One of the more impressive technical achievements in Spider-Man 2 is its fast-travel system, which has gone viral on social media and impressed critics due to its speed.

The PlayStation 5 exclusive lets players select anywhere on the New York map to fast-travel to, once the player unlocks fast-travel in that region, and appear there in just a handful of seconds, Spider-Man already swinging above the city streets.

It’s an impressive system that has already become a talking point ahead of Spider-Man 2’s release date on October 20. Part of that debate revolves around what’s going on under the hood as players use fast-travel. Check it out in the X video below:

Spider-Man 2's fast travel could be as quick as 1.33 seconds. #SpiderMan2PS5 pic.twitter.com/VYYPQjZHL5

— IGN (@IGN) October 17, 2023

You’ll notice that to fast-travel in Spider-Man 2 you need to hold down a button for a few seconds before the system kicks in. Some had thought this hold-to-confirm masked loading time, but according to Insomniac, that’s not the case.

IGN can exclusively reveal a brand new music video for the upcoming Song of Nunu: A League of Legends story titled "You and Me Makes Us". The original song is written and performed by Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter DEEGAN and co-published by Riot Games Music and The Hit House Global Publishing BMI. The animated music video follows Nunu and his Yeti Willump's friendship while revealing another League of Legends Champion that will appear in Song of Nunu – Volibear. The song is a bit of a bop and feels right at home in the music catalog produced for Riot’s various games.

The music video features a mixture of animation styles and hints at the type of hijinks our heroes will get into during their journey. Song of Nunu: A League of Legends Story follows Nunu and Willump as they journey across the Freljord on what Riot calls the “ultimate road trip.” We debuted a story trailer earlier this year that showcased various features and characters, which you can read about and watch here.

If you are playing the PC version of Mortal Kombat 1 and have experienced crashes, you might be surprised to learn that NetherRealm's latest fighting game leaves an extra digital footprint on your PC as it takes up more space on your hard-drive.

Spotted by PCGamesN, X user @X-Azeez posted screenshots from another user that show every time Mortal Kombat 1 on PC crashes, it creates a report file that includes information on the in-game crash, but the caveat is that each of these folders also takes 1GB of free space away from your rig. Another user replied to the post with their own screenshot of crash report files, showing it took up an additional 41.6GB of storage space on their computer.

Everytime MK1 crashes on PC, it creates a report automatically, and stores 1GB of space for each report LOL.

Images provided by @divine_hat pic.twitter.com/VjGC0a5lZ6

— X-Azeez (@X_AZEEZ3) October 17, 2023

Cory Taylor, the community manager for NetherRealm Studios' parent company, Warner Bros. Games, replied to the post stating he had notified the team about the issue and that "[WB Games] are looking at it ASAP". WB Games did not immediately respond to IGN's request for comment.

Nintendo has removed videos of a Super Mario Bros. Wonder mod that turned its fun-talking flowers into foul-mouthed bullies.

As reported by Eurogamer, mods are already available for the game, which doesn't launch until October 20, for those emulating it on PC. Twitter user Contendo posted about the "nice talking flower in Super Mario Bros. Wonder" as if it was unaltered gameplay, before the flower shouts out "F**k you".

Nintendo responded by filing a copyright strike against the video. "This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner," the tweet now reads. "The video is funnier now honestly," Contendo posted in response.

The publisher was already battling leaks, with emulation seemingly being the main instigator. Nintendo doesn't take kindly to those who emulate or leak its games, however. It cut ties with one publication who showed images of Pokémon Sword and Shield ahead of the games' embargo in 2020, for example, and recently issued a cease and desist order against Wii and GameCube emulator Dolphin over its launch on Steam.

Every single Mario platformer game, 2D or 3D, seems to gleefully reinvent itself to some degree, doubling down on the unique delights that they bring me. Continuing that trend, Super Mario Bros. Wonder is very aptly named because, quite simply, it is full of wonder. Literally wonderful! Every frame oozes joy, from its bright colors to the Flower Kingdom’s ubiquitous talking flower, who’s never lacking in words of encouragement as you run and jump through dozens upon dozens of stages that are altered by unpredictable and often grin-inducing Wonder effects and, more often than not, the antics of Mario himself. Whether you enjoy it solo or with up to three friends, there’s a lot to love about Super Mario Bros. Wonder.

Wonder catches the eye immediately. It dazzles due to its typical and welcome use of a wide variety of colors, with a particular emphasis on vivid blues, reds, greens, and yellows. But it’s particularly impressive in motion. With apologies to Yoshi’s Island, it looks like what you’d imagine a proper Super Mario World sequel should be if it were made in 2023 instead of 1995.

Animations are the undeniable standout here: Mario reaches back for his hat when he dashes into pipes, critters’ eyes bulge in fear as they run in terror from a pursuing plumber, Goombas have snot bubbles on their nostrils as they nap, Elephant Mario squeezes his giant, round body into warp pipes and – awkwardly – tries to make himself as small as he can when crouching under a low row of blocks. There are so many more! Those touches go a long way toward bringing Mario’s first trip to the Flower Kingdom to life.

YouTuber Markiplier has revealed a teaser for his upcoming movie Iron Lung, which he says is “coming soon” to theatres.

Markiplier, real name Mark Edward Fischbach, has a whopping 35.6 million subscribers on YouTube, where he is known for incredibly popular Let’s Plays of indie horror games.

One such game is Iron Lung, the 2022 submarine horror video game by David Szymanski that hit the headlines in June after it saw a sales spike following OceanGate's Titan submersible going missing, something Szymanski said "feels so wrong". Iron Lung the movie is a sci-fi horror written, directed, produced by, and starring Markiplier as an adaptation of the video game.

The teaser, below, shows a suitably horrific atmosphere in which Markiplier himself emerges dripping with blood.

Iron Lung. Coming soon to theaters. pic.twitter.com/vxP28YC9Vd

— Mark (@markiplier) October 14, 2023

This week, Markiplier used his YouTube channel to explain why he had to turn down a role in the upcoming Five Nights at Freddy’s movie after teasing his involvement earlier this year. The ‘King of FNAF’ blamed it on a scheduling conflict with his work on the Iron Lung film.

The Lords of the Fallen developers continue to make improvements to the game, with the latest update targeting performance issues.

Hexworks’ dark fantasy action-RPG launched last week to a "mixed" user review rating of 57% on Steam. Most of the complaints revolve around performance issues, with crashes chief among them.

Patch v.1.1.203 makes "substantial performance improvements", Hexworks and publisher CI Games said in a post on the Lords of the Fallen Steam page. "This is aimed at freeing up VRAM to provide additional headroom for GPUs that are operating at the limit of their capabilities. This process is taking some time because we are committed to ensuring that you do not lose any quality."

Here are the Lords of the Fallen 1.1.203 patch notes in full:

Stability

Diablo 4 launched on Steam last night and saw users jhave dished out a “mixed” review rating of 55%.

Blizzard’s action role-playing game launched on PC exclusively on its own Battle.net platform back in June and saw record-breaking sales that secured Diablo 4’s place as Blizzard’s fastest-selling game of all time.

Four months later, Diablo 4’s Steam launch is altogether more muted, with users taking advantage of the platform to tell the world what they think about developer Blizzard as much as the game itself. Diablo 4’s “most helpful” review posted in the past day, according to Steam, comes from a user who said: “During my childhood Blizzard couldn’t get it wrong. As an adult, they can’t get it right.”

Other reviews call out a number of issues that have dogged Blizzard in recent times, such as battle pass implementation, costly microtransactions, and user interface issues. Some reference Blizzard’s free-to-download hero shooter Overwatch 2, which endured a number of controversies of its own before it became the worst-rated Steam game of all time.

CD Projekt Red has released its final proper update for Gwent: The Witcher Card Game as full development ends and control of the game is handed to the community.

Gwent's October season began October 17 and a blog post on the game's website confirmed the simultaneous release of Update 11.10 would include the final card changes made by CD Projekt Red. "This means that moving forward, you will have control over all the changes made to the cards of Gwent," the developer said.

In an unusual, if not unprecedented, move, CD Projekt Red is putting Gwent's monthly balance changes directly in the hands of the community by letting players vote for which cards deserve an increase in strength and which deserve a decrease.

This will be administered through the Balance Council, a system that lets committed Gwent players vote on changes. Only those who've prestiged at least once (played the game long enough to max out its experience levels and start over, which usually takes several dozen hours) and worked their way up to Pro Rank, or won 25 ranked games that season, can vote.

"Monthly changes to the cards are an important part of the Gwent content cycle; we always tried to ensure that there is something new to consider at the start of each season," CD Projekt Red said in another post.

"We want to — at least to an extent — preserve this part of Gwent. This is why we developed the Balance Council, a feature that ensures changes to cards will still be happening as long as there are people who want them."

Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid series is known for having incredible boss fights. Whether the gameplay itself was fun or the character just stuck in our mind as particularly awesome, here are the top 10 Metal Gear Solid bosses.

What do you think of our list? Have your say by casting your own votes in our audience ranking of the top Metal Gear Solid bosses here:

10. Metal Gear REX - Metal Gear Solid

The big encounter with the nuclear-armed bipedal tank, dubbed Metal Gear REX, brought a chilling edge to the final moments of the Shadow Moses Incident. Kojima and his team spent a lot of the story building up this potential nuclear threat. The fight itself was quite a spectacle, even by the graphics standards of 1998. The DARPA-built monstrosity had all the weapons: a mounted laser, rotating cannons, anti-tank missiles, and a token weak spot just like Star Wars' Death Star. In fact, it was a hell of a fight, that jumped from gameplay to cutscene seamlessly, but the cruel twist at the end, where an old friend sacrificed himself in order to help Snake put REX down for good, made it memorable.

9. Cyborg Ninja - Metal Gear Solid

Nintendo has shared a first look at the long-delayed Switch version of Harry Potter spin-off Hogwarts Legacy, due out in just a few weeks on November 14.

Shared on Nintendo's website, six screenshots for the game show a handful of familiar scenes running on Switch hardware. These include magic lessons in the classrooms of Hogwarts, seating by the Black Lake, and some of the game's baddies and monsters.

Hogwarts Legacy was announced for Switch way back in March 2022 but, while the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S versions of the game only suffered a short delay, the Switch version is almost a year late.

Not launching alongside the more powerful consoles' versions, the Switch version was instead set for July 2023 before being delayed to the current November date. Developer Portkey Games has been fairly quiet about the performance of this version, only releasing this first look a few weeks ahead of launch, but the game was well-received on other consoles.

Phil Spencer really, really wants someone within Xbox Game Studios to make a new Hexen game. First, he wore that Hexen T-shirt at the Xbox Games Showcase earlier this year. And now, he's name-dropping Hexen repeatedly as a franchise he wants someone within Xbox to revisit somehow. But, Spencer notes, only if the team doing so is genuinely passionate about it — or whatever other older franchise they're plucking from Xbox's catalog to refresh.

Speaking on the Official Xbox Podcast, Spencer spoke on the company's strategy for how it allocates its owned catalog of IPs to its development studios, reassuring that Xbox isn't out there compelling anyone to revive older franchises they aren't interested in. He said he frequently meets with Xbox teams to learn what they're passionate about, and is happy to let teams dig into the Xbox vault for franchises they're personally interested in.

"I just don't think that a team working on something that isn't their passion leads to the best result," Spencer said. "So I might have my list of things from my memories and history that I want to see made again. Everybody will.

So, Xbox owns Activision-Blizzard now, right? So why are Call of Duty and Diablo not on Game Pass yet? That's been a question on many people's minds lately now that Xbox's massive acquisition has finally closed. And today, Xbox head Phil Spencer showed up on the Official Xbox Podcast to try and answer it.

During the podcast, Spencer was questioned about the recent news that we wouldn't see a massive drop of Activision-Blizzard games on Game Pass immediately after the deal finalized, as many had expected. As it was pointed out, a major flood of Game Pass newcomers happened when Xbox acquired Zenimax. Twenty Bethesda games dropped onto the service just days after, including some of the company's biggest franchises.

Where, then, are all the Activision Blizzard games? Why is this different?

Per Spencer: they're coming. Eventually. But the regulatory challenges surrounding this acquisition made it a bit trickier to navigate than the Zenimax deal, and adding games to Game Pass isn't as simple as flipping a switch to put them on there.

"The truth of the matter is with Activision/Blizzard/King that the regulatory process took so long, and frankly there was a lot of uncertainty in that process up until really a week before we closed, or the week of, when the CMA finally came down to their decision, that we weren't able to get in and work with mostly Activision-Blizzard in this case, on that back catalog work," Spencer says.

Xbox's Activision Blizzard merger is finally done, but that doesn't mean that Phil Spencer is suddenly ready to reverse course and make Call of Duty an Xbox exclusive. Speaking on the Official Xbox Podcast, Spencer reiterated that the platform's goal is "100 percent parity" on content across all platforms.

"The players on PlayStation and in the future on Nintendo... I want you to feel 100 percent part of the community. I don't want you to feel like there's content you're missing out on, skins you're missing out on, timing you're missing out on. That's not the goal," Spencer said. "The goal is 100 percent parity across all platforms as much as we can for launch and content."

Phil Spencer on Call of Duty: He confirms that there will be 100% parity on content for Call of Duty on all platforms

“We have no goal of somehow using Call of Duty to get you to buy an Xbox console.”

Confirms there won’t be a platform exclusive beta anymore for Call of Duty. pic.twitter.com/xxEJQj5edn

— CharlieIntel (@charlieINTEL) October 17, 2023

That means no exclusive betas, skins, or other content will be reserved for Xbox players. This follows a 10-year deal with Sony to keep Call of Duty on PlayStation platforms.

With a ridiculous on-the-nose title like Wizard with a Gun, you know exactly what you’re getting into. You’re a wizard, and you have a gun. But the gun is also your wand, so even though you’re shooting all manner of creatures, it’s magical shooting. This silly premise has a lot going for it, opening the door for plenty of unique combat scenarios in its sandbox world. But despite a great opening, Wizard with a Gun starts losing momentum once it becomes clear that it just doesn’t feel finished. Pulling off spell combos and crafting new bullets can be a lot of fun with a friend in co-op, and there is a good amount to explore for fans of survival sandboxes, but balance issues and the lack of a proper ending leave it feeling like it’s missing an Early Access label. As my friends and I kept saying, “it’s got good bones,” but the robes on top of them don’t take long to wear thin.

Wizard with a Gun immediately gets you to the shooting and the wizarding, with a campaign that’s easy to understand on its face: With only five minutes left before the world ends, you have to keep turning back the clock in order to defeat chaos and save all existence. How you choose to use each five-minute chunk is up to you, be it gathering resources for a complex but rewarding crafting system, or maybe facing off against a mini boss to gather gears that allow you to unlock more areas to explore. At any point you can choose to escape to the Tower, where you can spend as much time as you want doing research to gather more bullets — I mean spells — for your many guns, or decorate your headquarters using recipes you get through exploration (although there isn’t much to gain for doing so). Then, once you’re ready, you reset the clock and venture back out.

The developers at Nintendo had thousands of ideas for the latest Mario game, many of which made it into Super Mario Bros. Wonder through the game's world-shifting Wonder Flowers. But some ideas didn't: including sound director Koji Kondo's whacky idea for an "eight-heads-tall, life-sized, live-action Mario."

This wild idea for Mario was mentioned in an Ask the Developer interview published by Nintendo today for Super Mario Bros. Wonder, in which the development team shared insights from the creation of Mario's latest adventure. In the interview, they talked about the process of coming up with the Wonder effects.

In back-to-back developer blogs published today, Nintendo answered a variety of questions about the upcoming 2D platformer Super Mario Bros. Wonder, including repeatedly confirming that it was not influenced by The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

Despite receiving a significant graphical overhaul compared to New Super Mario Bros., developers working on Super Mario Bros. Wonder revealed today that they didn't have much insight into the goings-on of the motion picture, since they were being developed concurrently.

Diablo IV fans had to wait longer than expect to dig into Season of Blood, which launched earlier today. Blizzard said that technical issues forced it to delay the new vampire-driven season's release before it was finally able to launch today.

Since then, Season of Blood has been racked issues with its battle pass, seasonal rewards, and other problems. Some players on Reddit and elsewhere have even claimed that they received free premium battle passes. Another issue has locked out cross-platform play between PC and console.

Season of Blood is live, however due to a technical issue cross play between PC and Consoles is temporarily unavailable.

We are working to resolve this and will provide updates as they are available.

— Diablo (@Diablo) October 17, 2023

Blizzard's announcement was quickly flooded with player complaints of broken progression, with customer service saying only that they "do not have an ETA" and that the issue is "being looked into." It seems that even though Season of Blood is now available, fans maybe have to wait even longer to be able to enjoy Blizzard's intended experience.

Season of Blood brings some big changes to Diablo IV

Season of Blood introduces vampires to Blizzard's popular dungeon crawler along with a host of fundamental changes to its mechanics. Its release coincides with its planned launch on Steam.

Halo Infinite Season 5 is finally here and Forge is got a huge update. Since Forge launched in Halo Infinite in November 2022, there have been over two million user-generated creations added. Now with Season 5, Forge has a new AI Toolkit to help players make even more content and include PvPvE content. The Forge developer team sat down with me to demo the new update so here’s what I learned.

Spawning Campaign AI

The new AI Toolkit allows players to spawn specific AI from the campaign to fill out their custom game creation. Players can choose from 43 AI types and can have up to 32 AI and 24 players in one game mode. In order to spawn AI, you have to put down the AI Spawner where you’d like it to be.You can also drop an AI Phantom Spawner into your game that lets you drop a Chopper, Ghost, or Wraith with or without a driver, or pilot.

Here are the 43 AI Types you can have in your creation:

• Grunt (5 variants)
• Jackals (4 variants)
• Skimmers (3 variants)
• Elites (5 variants)
• Brutes (16 variants)
• Hunters (2 variants)
• Marines (6 variants)
• Bosses (2 variants)

Ever since Sony announced the Spider-Man 2-themed PS5 console covers, they’ve been in almost absurdly high demand. While the PlayStation company seems to have produced a decent number of Spidey-themed DualSense controllers and PS5 consoles, the console covers have been all but impossible to procure. If you've had your hopes of obtaining covers dashed over the past few months, you will have at least on emore shot. Best Buy has announced it will have more stock of the console covers tomorrow, October 18 -- but the process of purchasing it will be a bit unusual.

How to Buy Spider-Man 2 PS5 Console Covers

Best Buy is releasing the new batch of Spider-Man 2 PS5 console covers exclusively through its mobile app. You can download it here for iPhone or here for Android. You’ll find the console covers in the “Drops” section of the mobile app, which you can find in the navigation bar at the bottom of the app’s main screen. That’s also where you can opt in for Drop Alerts to get a push notification when the item you’re after is available.

The app says Drops are available from approximately 11am to 6pm Eastern time, unless they sell out. Based on how quickly the PS5 covers have sold out in the past, it’s pretty much guaranteed to sell out quickly this time as well. You’ll want to have the app open and be ready to buy right when they become available.

Paradox Interactive and developer Harebrained Schemes have announced they are parting ways on January 1, 2024, following the commercially disappointing release of The Lamplighters League.

In a press release, the two entities stated that the split was the result of a "mutual agreement" related to "strategic and creative priorities", and would result in Paradox retaining ownership in The Lamplighters League, and Battletech. Harebrained will continue supporting Lamplighters League through the end of this year.

“Paradox has refocused its strategy towards its core niches within strategy and management games with endless qualities,” said Charlotta Nilsson, COO of Paradox, on the separation. “We and HBS’ leadership have been discussing what would happen after the release of The Lamplighters League, but a new project or sequel in the same genre was not in line with our portfolio plans. Hence, we believe that a separation would be the best way forward."

Harebrained Schemes is a Seattle-based studio founded in 2011 that became known for its creation of the Shadowrun franchise — though the last Shadowrun game was Shadowrun: Hong Kong in 2015. In 2018, Paradox acquired the studio and published both Battletech and The Lamplighters League.

Our 7/10 own review of Lamplighters League praised the way the game "takes proven concepts from other tactics games and puts them together into a novel blend."

Spider-Man 2 physical release owners won't need to download its Day 1 patch in order to enjoy it in full, but Insomniac still "highly encourages" fans who opt to purchase the disc to install patch 1.001.002 before they start playing.

"The disc contained the entire game and is playable from start to finish with no patch or online requirement," Insomniac wrote in a statement posted on X. "But for the best experience, we highly encourage physical/disc-based players to download update version 1.001.002 on launch day — prior to experiencing the opening of the game for the first time."

Keep up with the latest updates for Marvel's #SpiderMan2PS5! #BeGreaterTogether pic.twitter.com/Z8ZDjscyB4

— Insomniac Games (@insomniacgames) October 17, 2023

Insomniac says that the patch will further polish the game's opening while offering "general refinements" to the overall experience. The patch will also include additional accessibility options, though Insomniac did not go into detail on what those features might be.

If you're downloading the digital version of Spider-Man 2, then you're all set. Patch 1.001.002 will be included with the pre-loaded version of the game.

In an unexpected fusion of gaming franchises, Epic Games announced Alan Wake: Flashback, a new Fortnite experience that revisits Remedy Entertainment's 2010 cult classic.

A new trailer was released today announcing that Fortnite players can now check out the Alan Wake: Flashback Island by entering the code 3426-5561-3374 at no cost. "Rediscover the mysteries of Bright Falls and shine your light on events from Alan Wake in Alan Wake: Flashback," the trailer's YouTube description says. The island was a collaboration between Remedy Entertainment, Spiral House, and Zen Creative.

The launch comes 10 days ahead of the release of Alan Wake 2, the long-awaited sequel, and is ideal for those who play Fortnite and are interested in Alan Wake 2 but have yet to play the original. While Remedy released Alan Wake Remastered in 2021 for modern consoles, the Fortnite experience, while brief, is a nice recap for those who don't have the time to play the original and want to be caught up before playing Alan Wake 2.

The promotional tie-in is not surprising from either studio as Epic Games and Remedy have previously established a partnership, with Epic launching a publishing label in 2020, and the Fortnite maker serving as the publisher for Alan Wake Remastered and Alan Wake 2.

Payday 3 developer Starbreeze has apologised for its lack of communication surrounding the game's highly anticipated first patch, which promises to address the disastrous launch.

The update, which was originally due to arrive October 5, was delayed the same day to a vague "mid-October". Starbreeze hasn't said much about it since, however, but apologised to players today while failing to offer a concrete date.

The message came from PayDay's Twitter account. "Heisters, we’re sorry for the lack of communication regarding the first patch. We have identified some issues that need to be fixed before we can bring it to you, but rest assured that this is the main priority for our teams," Starbreeze said.

Heisters, we’re sorry for the lack of communication regarding the first patch. We have identified some issues that need to be fixed before we can bring it to you, but rest assured that this is the main priority for our teams. https://t.co/IBDPctk0ce

— PAYDAY 3 (@PAYDAYGame) October 16, 2023

Payday 3's launch was plagued with server issues that forced Starbreeze CEO Tobias Sjögren to apologise. "We are so sorry that the infrastructure didn't hold up as expected, and although it's impossible to prepare for every scenario — we should be able to do better," he said.

Amazon is offering a "buy 1 get 1 50% off" promo on select board games. The list of eligible board games include several that weren't discounted on Prime Day, like Wingspan, The Isle of Cats, Star Wars Armada, Pandemic Legacy, Marvel Dice Throne, and more. Some of the more popular games that were discounted on Prime Day, namely Azul and Splendor, are also eligible with very minimal markup. We've sorted out our favorite picks below, but you can check out the full list here.

Wingspan Board Game

Wingspan from Stonemeier Games is an incredibly good board game. So good in fact that we deemed it the best board game of 2019. Wingspan looks like a deceptively simple game; the endgame goal is to attract as many birds as you can to your wildlife preserve and help them proliferate. There are only four actions you can perform: draw a bird card, play a bird card, get food, and lay eggs. Sounds simple enough, right? Well let's just say these four actions mask an incredibly complex engine-building game with which you will have to juggle between bringing new birds into the fold and keeping your existing birds well stocked and in a breeding frenzy. Wingspan is infinitely replayable, and you'll find yourself developing and honing new strategies with every subsequent playthough.

Buy One Get One 50% Off Select Board Games on Amazon

I’ll admit I entered my hands-on demo with Assassin’s Creed Nexus with a bit of pessimism – could Assassin’s Creed work as a first-person VR game? And then I found myself repeatedly answering that key question with “Yes!” for an entire hour. Not only does Assassin’s Creed Nexus seem to be a full-featured Assassin’s Creed game that incorporates stealth, combat, and parkour, but from what I played so far, each of those pieces works surprisingly well and comes together to capture the entire assassin fantasy with shocking efficacy. I brought a lot of skepticism onto that demo floor, but by the time I left it I was grinning ear-to-ear.

There’s perhaps no franchise better-suited for virtual reality than Assassin’s Creed, starting with the fact that strapping on a VR headset bears an awful lot in common with stepping into the Animus. But actually making all that stealth and subterfuge feel good is another matter entirely, and I half-expected Nexus to be little more than yet another half-baked tech demo that had little in common with a proper entry in the long-running series. Instead, I was stunned to find that this is a full-on Assassin’s Creed adventure, complete with a lengthy story mode that has you playing as three iconic protagonists from the franchise’s history: Ezio in Renaissance-era Italy, Connor in Colonial America, and Kassandra in Ancient Greece. As an employee of Abstergo, I was sent on a mission to relive moments from these characters’ pasts to collect data for what must surely be some shady masterplan.

This article features mild spoilers for Assassin's Creed Mirage, though nothing players won't become aware of beyond the opening hours of the game.

A dataminer has found what they claim is a cut post-credits scene in Assassin's Creed Mirage that sets up an even more complicated twist coming to the already convoluted Assassin's Creed meta story.

As reported by Eurogamer, YouTuber and dataminer Sliderv2 uploaded a video of what they claim to be a cut tease for Assassin's Creed Hexe, the upcoming spooky-looking entry seemingly connected to witchcraft.

Assassin's Creed Mirage, like most games in the franchise, features some minor connections to the meta story that links the historic events of each game to a vaguely connected modern-day plot.

The alleged post-credits scene hints at something completely different, however, as while Assassin's Creed has so far only explored these two eras, the past and the present, it teases stories taking place in the distant future.

A conversation takes place between two Animus Operators (the Animus being the machine that sends people's consciousness back in time), in which they refer to our 21st century as "ancient history".

Genvid’s interactive streaming series Silent Hill: Ascension will have weekly episodes on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, the Bravia Core app for Bravia TVs, and Xperia app on select Xperia smartphones as part of a deal with Sony Pictures Entertainment.

PlayStation owners can watch weekly packaged episodes of the audience-influenced storylines via the Sony Pictures Core app. This is the rebranded Bravia Core app that Sony recently used to add a curated catalogue of ad-free movies to a PlayStation Plus subscription.

Silent Hill: Ascension’s premiere is set for 6pm Pacific / 9pm Eastern on October 31 on the mobile app or at the official Ascension website. “Audiences will be taken on a mind-bending, interactive journey as they follow the complex lives of two families in peril, linked by unnerving visions and terrifying monstrosities that hound them to the brink of damnation,” reads the official blurb.

Announced back in October 2022, Silent Hill: Ascension is a choose-your-own-adventure mini-series where the stream’s chat will collectively come to decisions that “impact the canon of Silent Hill”. It will feature daily live story scenes that will change based on the audience’s decisions.

Buying new video games, hardware, and accessories for your preferred console doesn’t need to make a massive dent in your wallet. In fact, deals happen all the time for items like these, so you can save money while investing in your favorite hobby.

TL;DR - Our Favorite Video Game Deals

These sales even occur outside of events like Prime Day, Black Friday, or publisher events like Nintendo’s eShop sale in the summer or PlayStation’s Days of Play. And while we’ll always keep you up to date on those sales and what’s included in them -- especially since Black Friday is coming up in November -- here, we’ll provide you with year-round deals that are worth taking advantage of. Whether you play on PS5, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, or PC, you’ll find the very best deals listed below.

Buy a PS5, Get a Free Game

Starting on September 20 and running through October 20, those in the US can pick out a free PS5 game with purchase of the console. There's an excellent variety of games to choose from as well, which we've listed below. To redeem this game, all you need to do is look for the banner in the PlayStation store after activating your console!

Microsoft has announced the second wave of games coming to Xbox Game Pass in October 2023, headlined by Dead Space, Like a Dragon Ishin, and F1 Manager 2023.

Revealed on Xbox Wire, the already-announced Like a Dragon: Ishin is available today, October 17. This Yakuza spin-off doesn't take place in the canonical modern story but instead reimagines its characters as samurai in a fictional version of 1860s Kyoto. IGN gave it a 7/10 in our review: "Like a Dragon: Ishin is an enjoyable and interesting spin-off from the Yakuza series, but not an essential one."

Here’s what’s coming next to Game Pass:

With great Spider-Man video games also comes the great responsibility to rank them in a Top 10 list. That’s right: since the first Spider-Man game in 1982 there have been dozens of Spidey games, ranging from side-scrolling web-’em-ups to open-world swing-fests. We’ve taken all of those friendly neighborhood adventures into consideration and come up with a ranking that includes even PlayStation’s latest, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2.

So strap on your web-shooters and dive off a skyscraper as we swing into our list of the 10 best Spider-Man video games.

You can check out our ranking by watching the video in the player above, flipping through the slideshow gallery below, or keep scrolling to read the article.

10. Spider-Man: The Movie (2002)

Platform: PS2, Xbox, Gamecube

Developer: Treyarch