IGN

Ahead of Earth Day later this month, Microsoft announced a new Xbox wireless controller "made partly" from reclaimed CDs, water jugs, and other Xbox controller parts.

Detailed in a new blog post, the Xbox Wireless Controller - Remix Special Edition features "recovered plastics with one-third of it made from regrind and reclaimed materials." Microsoft elaborated further on how it created the controller using some recycled plastics, noting that it mixed post-consumer plastics and reground spare Xbox One-era controller parts to develop the raw material used to create the controller.

Microsoft notes that the controller's design drew inspiration from natural landscapes and the "physical world around us," noting that the earth-tone colors create a "vibrant yet serene vibe."

Crusader Kings 3's next expansion, Tours and Tournaments, arrives on May 11, adding a ton of lavish events to the game.

Leaving conquests for another day, Tours and Tournaments instead lets players change history by hosting grand activities like weddings and royal tours, and will be available for $29.99 / £24.99.

"Pack the royal baggage, get the carriage sorted, and don’t forget to gather your entourage, because royalty travels in style," reads the expansion's description. "Visit your vassals, travel to a grand foreign wedding or take your turn at the jousting lists: all potential occasions for intrigue or advancement."

Grand Tournaments can be used to improve your social standing and military prowess, Grand Tours let players increase their standing amongst their vassals (or extort them for higher taxes), and Grand Weddings are both demonstrations of power and calculated political plots.

Vacating your castle to attend these occasions comes with certain risks, of course, as leaving an ambitious regent at home can be perilous in itself. Beyond that, players must use the new travel system to plan their journeys, either safely through the likes of civilised lands or efficiently through forests and other dangerous areas.

Tours and Tournaments also adds Knightly Accolades, new armour designs, and new western clothing to let players host and attend these events with as much extravagance as needed.

It adds even more content to an already packed and critically acclaimed game, as IGN's 10/10 review of the base version said: "Crusader Kings 3 takes the throne as the new king of historical strategy by expanding on and deepening the best parts of what made its predecessor memorable and unique."

Layla was there when Redfall was pulled into darkness by the vampire scourge now consuming the island. And, when it all went down, she wasn't alone. In the new character trailer above you can take a look at where Layla's fight with the vampires began – and see how her ex-boyfriend got pulled into the mess too.

If you haven't seen, Layla's ultimate ability is summoning her vampire ex-boyfriend to help her destroy the enemies before her. As she says, their relationship is complicated. Here's Layla's kit:

• Power 1: Umbrella – Summon a psychic umbrella to block enemy and friendly projectiles.
• Power 2: Lift – Summon a psychic lift that launches you into the air.
• Ultimate Ability: Vampire Ex-Boyfriend – Call in a favor from your ex-boyfriend, Jason, who happens to be a vampire.

Ravenswatch is a particularly unique take on the familiar conceit of an action roguelike RPG, which puts its cast of heroes at the forefront. Pulled from the pages of classic fairy tales, and given a dark fantasy twist, these heroes band together to vanquish an encroaching force of powerful nightmare creatures – or die trying. Coming from the developers of the action-RPG sleeper hit Curse of the Dead Gods, Passtech Games’ Ravenswatch left me intrigued after some extended hands-on time with the closed alpha, which put a hero-centric spin on the good ol’ fashioned dungeon crawler.

Playing as one of six hero characters – pulling from stories such as Little Red Riding Hood, Beowulf, and The Snow Queen – you’ll freely explore an overworld filled with demons and other opportunities to amass power to face off with powerful demons ruling the land. Throughout this adventure, you’ll learn the ins and outs of your chosen hero as they unlock their latent abilities to purge the land of corruption.

Ravenswatch sticks close to the formula of a dungeon crawl, but it hones that focus more into an adventure game that has a larger goal to accomplish. With each chapter taking place across five days, the main goal of your multi-day jaunt is to build up enough power to be on equal footing with the stage’s end boss, allowing you and other party members to take them down and move on to the next phase of the quest.

Getting The Last of Us Part 1 verified on Steam Deck isn't a priority for developer Naughty Dog right now as it instead focuses on addressing the several issues still present in the normal PC version.

As reported by PC Gamer, Naughty Dog tweeted about fixes coming to the game and used the opportunity to let fans know that full Steam Deck support isn't coming anytime soon.

"While we know many of you would like to play The Last of Us Part 1 on Steam Deck, we are prioritizing fixes and patches before submitting it for verification," it said. "We will keep you updated of its Steam Deck status as we continue to improve the PC version."

Neil Druckmann subsequently clarified in a follow-up tweet, "Correction... Getting VERIFIED isn’t a priority. Optimization & stability (on the Steam Deck & other pc platforms) is!"

Correction... Getting VERIFIED isn’t a priority. Optimization & stability (on the Steam Deck & other pc platforms) is! https://t.co/dU2MzqyVQD

Pokémon Stadium will be the latest N64 game released for Nintendo Switch Online when it launches on April 12.

The classic game will also have online multiplayer functionality for the first time, letting players battle their teams of Kanto Pokémon with their friends over the internet.

The game will be available at no extra cost to users who have a Nintendo Switch Online membership and have purchased the Expansion Pass as part of the N64 library.

Alongside its multiplayer modes, Pokémon Stadium has a single player section where players can take on four elite tournaments or head back to the Red and Blue days to challenge Kanto's best trainers in Gym Leader Castle. Finding success in both these modes will then unlock an ultimate challenge.

Pokémon Stadium is the 23rd N64 game to join the Nintendo Switch Online library as it joins other fan favourites such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, Pokémon Snap, Star Fox 64, and more.

Owning the N64 library also grants users access to the recently released Game Boy and Game Boy Advanced collections, though no Pokémon games have made an appearance here yet.

In our original 8/10 review of Pokémon Stadium, IGN said: "It's fun, it's smart, it's jam-packed with cool options and it's for Pokémon owners only."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelancer and acting UK news editor. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

Big Ant Studios and Nacon have today confirmed Cricket 24 will launch in June on PC and consoles, just in time for the 2023 Ashes Series. The exception is the Switch version, which is due to arrive in November 2023.

Cricket 24 is being pitched as having “more licenses that any cricket game ever.” Major cricket nations including Australia, England, West Indies, New Zealand, and Ireland will be included, with apparently more to be announced. Cricket 24 will also feature The Ashes, the BBL and WBBL, The Hundred, the Caribbean Premier League, and an unspecified number of “professional Indian T20 teams” that are also yet to be announced. There will be over 50 official stadiums.

Cricket 24 promises improved Ashes atmosphere, with Ashes press conferences and bespoke Ashes commentary to accompany the matches. The all-new fielding has been described as a “complete overhaul” of the existing system. A new mode called Pro Team will allow players to build cricket dream teams of global superstars to compete in challenges and play online, and appears inspired by EA’s success with FIFA Ultimate Team. Cricket 24 will support cross-play multiplayer, and those who buy the PS4 or Xbox One versions will be able to upgrade to the current generation version if and when necessary.

“The passion and excitement shown by our fans at the prospect of another game being released before the upcoming Ashes has been overwhelming,” said Big Ant CEO Ross Symons in a statement. “We’ve been working incredibly hard with cricket boards all over the world to bring what is the deepest, most realistic video game representation of the sport ever.”

Simply looking out over its gorgeous vistas and up at its gnarly monster designs was enough to sell a curious dungeon diver like myself on Ravenbound. But as much as that first impression made me want to love this 3D roguelike, turbulence threw this bird far off course soon after taking flight. What starts as a promising action game eventually had me flying against a torrent of obscure and regressive systems, a flurry of frustratingly uncontrollable loot randomness, and a storm of very annoying bugs that quickly grounded any hopes I had for it.

As The Raven, a weapon made by the old imprisoned gods of the world of Ávalt, you’ll possess a randomly generated character called a vessel on each new run. Every vessel has a different mix of mostly mediocre traits, weapon specialties, and even racial bonuses, but they’ll all inherit your own persistent ability to soar across the sky as a magic bird and absorb power from the foes you defeat in combat. You’ll wander the vast and boring stretches of this open world’s five beautiful regions, dropping in on enemy camps, killing everyone in sight, and collecting items as part of an aggravating card-based loot system until you’re strong enough to slay the betrayer god who doomed this world..

Join other sports gaming fans to celebrate the winner of IGN's Best Sports Video Games Showdown, and Be All You Can Be in Atlanta, GA April 15th! You will also have the chance to play the Best Sports Video Games of All-Time, compete against a special celebrity guest, and win fabulous prizes like T-shirts, IGN water bottles, Xbox Controllers, Consoles, Speakers, IGN Gift Cards and more!

Attendees can also enter three different raffles for even bigger prizes:

• Grand Raffle Prize. Attendees who are at the event from start-to-finish will be eligible for the Grand Prize: a brand-new Xbox Series X and PS5! Make sure to register when you enter the premises.
• Scavenger Hunt Raffle. Attendees who complete the scavenger hunt will enter a raffle for the chance to win awesome prizes. Upon arrival you’ll be given a map. Explore the show floor and collect all the stamps, then redeem your entry into the raffle for a chance to win a set of SteelSeries Arena 7 Speakers, a Meta Quest 2, an Xbox Series S, or a brand-new Steam Deck!
• Stage Competition 1 v 1’s. Each hour, select attendees will be invited on stage to “Be All They Can Be” and compete against our special guest for their chance to win an Xbox Wireless Controller or IGN Store Gift Cards!

Sony has announced it will be rolling out Accessibility Tags on the PlayStation Store on the PS5 this week.

The company explained in the latest PlayStation Blog post that Accessibility Tags give game developers a chance to tell all PS5 players what accessibility features are supported in their games as they browse through each game hub on the PS Store. There are 50 Accessibility Tags across six categories — Visual, Audio, Subtitle and caption, Control, Gameplay, and Online communication — that devs can choose to add to their games, depending on what players need.

Discover games with accessible features that suit your gameplay needs. Accessibility Tags roll out this week on PS Store for PS5. Full details: https://t.co/iZpCipXGQe pic.twitter.com/qF2fuTxLLf

— PlayStation (@PlayStation) April 3, 2023

For example, the Accessibility Tags under the Visual category include clear text, large text, color alternatives, audio cues, and directional audio indicators. The tags under Controls include button remapping, thumbstick sensitivity, and the ability to play without button holds, rapid button presses, or motion controls. The Online communications category has only two tags: text or voice chat transcription and ping communication.

The legal battle between Dark and Darker developer Ironmace and game publisher Nexon continues to get messier, as confusion surrounding a GoFundMe campaign over the weekend has left fans scratching their heads.

For context, Dark and Darker is an upcoming dungeon-crawling PvPvE game from developer Ironmace. Last month, the company was served a cease and desist letter and DMCA takedown, leading to content getting removed from the game's Steam page. The legal issues have put Dark and Darker's upcoming public playtest into question.

Ironmace is in a legal battle with Nexon — the publishing company at which around half of Ironmace's 20-person team previously worked. Nexon is arguing that Ironmace is illegally using Nexon code in Dark and Darker's development. Ironmace's offices were searched by Korean officials on allegations that the company might have stolen code and assets from Nexon, but Ironmace said afterwards that "nothing was found."

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is getting its very own limited edition Switch OLED. It was initially revealed during a Tears of the Kingdom gameplay showcase on March 28, and will release on April 28, 2023. It is now available to preorder from select retailers, and you can find links to preorder the console just below.

Preorders for Tears of the Kingdom are also available from all retailers, and you can find out everything you need to know when scoring your copy in our dedicated preorder guide, alongside news on the Link Amiibo, and Collector's Edition. For more updates on preorders, make sure you're following @IGNDeals on Twitter.

Where to Preorder The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Limited Edition Nintendo Switch OLED Model

At the time of writing, only Amazon, Best Buy and Target have the console available to preorder, but this is likely to change very quickly, so stay tuned for more updates. To limit any scalping, Best Buy is allowing only one order per customer, and you need to be logged in to an active Best Buy account to complete your preorder.

This will be the first fully-fledged Zelda-themed Nintendo Switch console as Breath of the Wild launched alongside the base red and blue or grey hardware, though Skyward Sword HD did get its own special Joy-Cons.

Popular characters from the world of Dungeons & Dragons and Dungeon Master Matthew Mercer’s voice will be making their way onto the Multiversal Plane in Dragonheir: Silent Gods in the coming two years as the fantasy adventure title releases in the second half of 2023.

International Publisher and developer Nuverse and SGRA Studio announced a collaboration with Wizards of the Coast, a division of Hasbro, Inc, that will bring Dungeons & Dragons characters into their upcoming multiversal RPG Dragonheir: Silent Gods later this year.

This post-launch content will appear as seasonal updates that expand the multiverse with new locations to explore, enemies to slay, and other well-known characters from the Dungeons & Dragons lore.

In order to defeat their opponents, players must engage with strategic combat, combining their adventurer party’s strengths and synergies to unleash powerful magic and merciless steel on monsters of all kinds and sizes. Dice rolls play a major role in Dragonheir: Silent Gods’ combat, enhancing gameplay and adding a stroke of luck to every situation adventurers might find themselves in.

April Fools' Day has once again arrived and has brought with it some hilarious video game pranks. While most are meant for just a quick laugh, there are a few clever ones that catch us by surprise and become actual new games or updates to existing titles that are just as wild as the day they are released.

It can be hard to keep track of all the best video game pranks on April Fools' Day, so we are here to gather all the best ones in this roundup! Let us know which prank is your favorite below!

The Super Mario Bros. Movie Voices + Nintendo Switch Online Announcement

To kick off the April Fools' Day festivities, IGN presented to the world the latest Nintendo Direct, where Shigeru Miyamoto revealed all the voices from The Super Mario Bros. Movie would be coming to your favorite games. Yes, this includes Chris Pratt voicing Mario in the original Super Mario Bros., Seth Rogen's Donkey Kong laughing his way through Donkey Kong Country, Anya-Taylor Joy's Peach dominating the competition in Mario Kart 8, Jack Black's Bowser destroying everything in his path in Super Mario Odyssey, and much more.

The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog Is a Real Game You Can Play Now

The Sonic Social team proudly presents: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog!

A brand new Sonic game. Available right now. On Steam. For FREE! pic.twitter.com/qOsvdwCU2b

We got our first extended glimpse at The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gameplay this week, and while it largely focused on Link’s new fusion abilities, one returning feature set the internet ablaze as soon as it was confirmed: weapon durability. But while people were arguing about whether Breath of the Wild’s breakable weapons are good or not (spoiler: they are, and we talk in-depth about why on the latest episode of NVC), I am far more concerned about the future of another likely returning system – because let’s face it, Link’s cooking skills need sharpening.

While not explicitly shown during the gameplay video, all the telltale signs of cooking are back – Link had an inventory full of ingredients (some of which he was more concerned about strapping to his weaponry rather than roasting) and that signature wide cooking pot could be seen over a campfire in a cave that was briefly visited. There’s evidence the food system might have actually been expanded as well, since a cooking pot symbol in the UI now seems to be occupying “up” on the d-pad in the same way you quick-select your weapons and shields.

Capcom has alerted Resident Evil 4 Remake players that a rare game-breaking bug has been found at the beginning of Chapter 12 that could stop your progress if you attack with your knife right after obtaining a key item.

Capcom shared the news on Twitter, saying that this issue affects players on all platforms and that it "intends to fix this issue in a future update and apologize for any inconvenience." Luckily, the fix will allow players who were impacted by this bug to continue their current save.

As for the bug itself, Capcom has detailed what it is and how to avoid it in a non-spoilery way;

"A cutscene will play at the beginning of Chapter 12, after which the player will receive a key item," Capcom wrote. "Please refrain from attacking with the knife until the notification for obtaining this item is displayed in the upper right of the screen.

"After obtaining the item, it will appear in the Key Items & Treasures menu in the attache case. If it has not appeared, please reload saved data from before the start of Chapter 12."

This bug aside, the Resident Evil 4 Remake has been a joy for many of us to play. In our 10/10 Resident Evil 4 Remake review, we said it is "Only the most relentlessly exciting Resident Evil adventure of all time that’s been rebuilt, refined, and realised to the full limits of its enormous potential."

The Super Mario Movie is due to release next week, and Nintendo is celebrating by bringing Chris Pratt, Anya Taylor-Joy, Jack Black, and the rest of the voice cast from the big screen to the small screen.

Shigeru Miyamoto appeared in a special April 1st Nintendo Direct to announce that "your favorite Mario games" will be adding a special "movie mode" featuring the voice talents of the Super Mario Bros. Movie cast. Supported games include Luigi's Mansion 3, Mario Kart 8, and even the original Super Mario Bros. for the NES.

Activating the new "movie mode" will replace the existing voices with movie cast members, or if there are no voices, add them in. Want to hear "Mushroom Kingdom, here we come!" after Mario clears a level in the original Super Mario Bros.? Now you can!

"It's a whole new way to enjoy the Mario games you know and love," Miyamoto said.

'A dream come true'

In a statement released to the media, Pratt expressed his excitement over having his voice appear in the original Super Mario Bros.

"This is a dream come true after spending hours of my life stomping on Koopas," Pratt said.

Pratt's appearance alongside a star-studded cast include Seth Rogen and Jack Black sent shockwaves through the gaming industry when it was revealed. Anticipation has only grown since then, to the point that some analysts think it may be the highest grossing movie of 2023.

Alongside revealing that the legendary DK Rap from Donkey Kong 64 will be featured in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Seth Rogen has also jokingly called it "objectively, one of the worst rap songs of all time."

Rogen, who voices Donkey Kong in The Super Mario Bros. Movie, appeared on the film's official Twitter to share the exciting news and react to watching the original DK Rap from the opening of 1999's Donkey Kong 64.

DK Rap is straight-up 🍌🍌🍌#SuperMarioMovie pic.twitter.com/SVKzaTSB7z

— The Super Mario Bros. Movie (@supermariomovie) March 30, 2023

Rogen also confirmed that his version of Donkey Kong will be introduced with the DK Rap in the film before calling it, as previously mentioned, "one of the worst rap songs of all time." However, he finds more things to love as the song continues and even gives it a "10/10 bananas" rating at the end.

Grant Kirkhope, who was the composer of Donkey Kong 64 and the person responsible for the DK Rap, responded to the video in the best way.

Today, Studio WildCard announced that Ark 2, the sequel to 2017's Ark: Survival Evolved, is getting delayed a second time into 2024 - but in the meantime, a next-gen version of the original game is coming out in August to keep us busy.

In a community blogpost offering a development roadmap, Studio WildCard explained that the reason for Ark 2's delay to next year was due to challenges working with Unreal Engine 5:

"Our goal is to make ARK 2 the best game it can be and provide a truly exceptional and rewarding experience for players. Unreal Engine 5 is incredibly new technology to us (and all developers), and we aim to use this cutting-edge tech to its fullest potential while creating a game with never-before-achieved scope at Studio Wildcard. As we learn more about the engine and develop the sequel, we have adapted our workflows and adjusted our pipelines to accommodate this new next-generation paradigm, and because of everything that involves, we need more time for development."

Additionally, Studio WildCard acknowledged that these challenges also mean that Ark 2 will not be backward compatible. So that means no release of Ark 2 on Xbox One or PS4.

When the COVID-19 pandemic began in 2020, Niantic introduced Remote Raids to Pokémon Go, which allowed people to access raids from the comfort of their own homes. Remote Raids allowed people to continue playing during lockdowns and kept Pokémon Go alive during a time when people weren’t really going outside at all. As players’ focus shifted away from the pandemic, however, Remote Raids remained a way to make Pokémon Go more accessible for all, especially for disabled people and those who live in rural communities.

Three years after the pandemic began, Niantic is now hiking prices and putting caps on Remote Raid Passes to encourage people to play the game the way it was played before the pandemic — but the Pokémon Go community is pushing back.

Yesterday, in a blog post, the Pokémon Go team revealed adjustments to the way Remote Raids work, including substantial price increases for Remote Raid Passes and rewards for players who participate in in-person raids. The update will also introduce a cap on Remote Raids, allowing players to participate in a maximum of five per day, and will go live on April 6 at 11 a.m. PT.

Naturally, fans took to Twitter and Reddit to speak out against Niantic’s decision to make an accessibility feature… less accessible.

For far too long, The Last of Us has been something you could only play on PlayStation consoles. Now that the first installment in the series has arrived on PC, non-PlayStation gamers finally have a chance to play the critically acclaimed Naughty Dog title. With the first season of The Last of Us show concluding, this is a great opportunity to dive into the story once again with even more depth.

Unlike watching a TV series, however, playing The Last of Us, which has some puzzling portions, can be confusing, and even challenging at times. Whether it's trying to find the right puzzle solution to progress or just surviving a Clicker stealth area, you may need some guides as you progress through the story. Take a look at some of the best tips, guides, and secrets that can help you survive The Last of Us. You can also check out our Last of Us Part 1 Walkthrough for the full guide.

Change or Customize Your Difficulty Level

Depending on your skill level and what you want to get out of the game, you may want to raise or lower the difficulty setting. There are 5 different difficulty settings from Very Light to Survivor, each of which provides a different gameplay experience. If you want to just enjoy the story, you can go with the lowest setting and play your way through with less stress.

In keeping with HAL Laboratory’s philosophy, Kirby games have gained a reputation as fun and approachable for the entire family. They’re full of cleverly hidden collectibles and the occasional biblically-accurate angel of a final boss to challenge folks who want something tricky, but you can also finish them easily enough with a kid riding shotgun as Waddle Dee. But maintaining the challenge and the approachability can be a difficult balance, perhaps as demonstrated in Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

Kirby franchise director Shinya Kumazaki tells me at the Game Developers Conference last week that he himself of a player of difficult games, and has his own personal standards of what’s fun and what’s not in terms of difficulty. But Kumazaki isn’t working with his own standards when designing Kirby games: Kirby is fundamentally intended to be extremely approachable for everyone, so you can’t expect it to be like a Dark Souls game.

But that doesn’t mean they’re devoid of challenge, Kumazaki continues. HAL wants to make sure more skilled players are still rewarded – Kirby’s for everyone. Not just skilled gamers, but not just newcomers, either.

Just under three years after its release, support for Marvel's Avengers is winding down. Today, Crystal Dynamics released Patch 2.8 for Marvel's Avengers, which adds some final features and bug fixes to the game before it gets delisted later this year.

Crystal Dynamics revealed the patch via a blog post, which thanks players for their support. The patch focuses on introducing some final features to the game and includes a host of new bug fixes.

Patch 2.8 makes many of the game's cosmetics more accessible, fully removing the Shipments and Hero Challenge Cards systems from the game and instead putting their rewards in the Marketplace. The update also automatically converts players' Credits balances into in-game resources and turns Hero's Catalysts and Fragment Extractors into a permanent 1.5x multiplier on earned Fragments and XP.

Additionally, players who earned at least one Trophy before April 1 will receive Iron Man's Variable Threat Response Battle Suit as a thank you gift.

The patch notes, which can be read in full on the Crystal Dynamics website, also detail quite a few bug fixes that address everything from combat to certain animations.

Sega loves to surprise Sonic fans, so they surprised everyone by releasing The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, a new murder mystery title featuring the Blue Blur and his friends, for free on Steam.

Sonic's social media team announced the shocking new game today with the launch trailer, showing the game in visual novel form. The team wrote that the game "has been a labor of love from the Sonic Social team and a host of amazingly talented people who are just as passionate about Sonic as we are."

In The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog, Amy Rose is throwing a murder mystery-themed birthday party for all of her friends aboard the Mirage Express. When Sonic suddenly dies, you play as a new character who just so happens to be a new crew member starting their first day aboard the train and work with Tails, Knuckles, Shadow, Rouge, and more characters to solve the mystery behind Sonic's murder.

You get to interrogate everyone, including the host herself, about what happened to Sonic, play mini-games on the handheld, and meet a Conductor who's set to retire after several years of service on the Mirage Express. As the game progresses, you start to question if Sonic's death was part of the game or if there are malicious intentions.

The Sonic Social team proudly presents: The Murder of Sonic the Hedgehog!

A brand new Sonic game. Available right now. On Steam. For FREE! pic.twitter.com/qOsvdwCU2b

Kirby fans have been feasting lately, between the critical and fan success of Kirby and the Forgotten Land, the silliness of Kirby’s Dream Buffet, Kirby’s Dream Land 2 arriving on Nintendo Switch Online earlier this year, and recent remake Kirby’s Return to Dream Land: Deluxe. It seems like there’s more Kirby than ever, both new and old. But does this mean fans of classic Kirby might see even more remakes and ports in the future alongside brand new Kirby games?

Speaking to IGN at the Game Developers Conference, Kirby director Shinya Kumazaki told us that while he couldn’t share any concrete plans for the future of Kirby, HAL Laboratory’s goal is always to “provide a new gameplay experience.” The developers won’t just remake Kirby games for the sake of it – only if there’s something new they can add. In Return to Dream Land Deluxe, that new experience is the Merry Magolor theme park with mini-games, as well as the extra Magolor Epilogue at the end of the game.

I also asked Kumazaki if we could expect a mix of 2D and 3D Kirby games going forward, existing side-by-side like Kirby and the Forgotten Land and Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe. Again, Kumazaki wasn’t giving anything away about the future, but did confirm that having 2D games, 3D games, or even “something completely different” are all “within scope” for HAL Laboratory’s future.

Then he offered what may have been a tiny, additional hint about his thoughts on the future:

Looking back from the end of Resident Evil 4 there's one big tip that becomes apprent for players: Do not sell your gemstones! Resident Evil 4 Remake has a bit of a complex economy, with The Merchant as the central banker. The Merchant will give you seemingly high prices for the treasures and gemstones you come across, but when you combine these items, you can gain vastly increased pesetas in exchange. The key point here is that it's worth saving your gemstones until you have a treasure in which you can inlay them, and even then you should wait until you have the optimal gem color combinations.

How to Get the Most Valuable Gem/Treasure Combos

Here's how gemstone color combinations and gemstone inlaying in treasure works:

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has concluded its investigation of a case the Communication Workers of America (CWA) filed against Activision Blizzard, opting to file a complaint with charges alleging the company illegally surveilled employees and violated labor laws by threatening to shut down company communication channels. However, the NLRB also dismissed a charge that the company violated Section 7 laws by shutting down a chat channel during an all-hands meeting last summer.

The three charges

The charge of surveillance goes back to July 21, 2022 when employees staged a walkout in protest of the overturning of Roe v. Wade, demanding protections from a growing strain of anti-abortion laws in the US, as well as labor-neutrality commitment from Activision Blizzard amid growing unionization efforts and repeated reports of company union busting. The CWA alleges in its filing that Activision Blizzard illegally surveilled employees "through managers and security" while they were engaged in protected labor activities.

The second charge moving forward relates to alleged threats that Activision Blizzard threatened to cut off access to certain internal communication channels "because employees are discussing wages, hours, and working conditions."

Meanwhile, the dismissed charge is related to an all-hands meeting "where employees were discussing wages, hours and working condition," with the CWA alleging that Blizzard violated Section 7 rights protecting employee organizing efforts by cutting off access.

It’s a tale as old as sports: an established star has an off year, and people begin to wonder if this is the beginning of their long slide into mediocrity. Then, they come roaring back with a season for the ages, putting all doubts to rest as to who sits at the pinnacle of the sport. After having somewhat of a down year of its own in 2022, MLB The Show 23 has returned to claim its crown as the undisputed king of simulation baseball with a long list of upgrades, gameplay shakeups, and an incredible new mode that redefines what the sports genre is capable of.

The most signifiant addition to MLB The Show 23 is the Negro Leagues mode, a dedicated single-player story focused on the legends of a league that ran parallel to the MLB from 1920 to 1948. Eight different players are highlighted, from the Legendary Satchel Paige to the groundbreaking Jackie Robinson. Each is lovingly introduced by Negro Leagues Baseball Museum President Bob Kendrick, with missions that recreate exciting moments from their careers. One mission begins with a story about Rube Foster's devastating “fadeaway," a pitch better known today as a screwball, only to drop me into a game where I needed to notch two strike outs using just that pitch. As I worked through the batters, the returning two-man announcer team of Boog Sciambi and Chris Singleton provided interesting insights about Foster and his success with the fadeaway.

Final Fantasy 14 Online is nearly 10 years old, but it doesn't seem to be slowing down any time soon. During today's Live Letter 76 broadcast, director Yoshi-P and the team behind FFXIV revealed details about the massive Patch 6.4, which is called The Dark Throne and will be released at some point in late May.

Patch 6.4 will continue the game's Main Scenario Quest, adding onto the story of the player's journey throughout Eorzea. It will also add the new Pandæmonium: Anabaseios raid, an icy dungeon called The Aetherfont, and the "challenging" Voidcast Dais trial.

Other modes of the game will also change significantly — PvP Series 4 and Crystalline Conflict season 7 will kick off with the launch of this patch.

Yoshi-P also teased details of Patch 6.45 during the broadcast, including a higher level cap for Blue Mages, another new dungeon, Somehow Further Hildibrand Adventures, and weapon and tool enhancement quests.

Other recent updates to the game have included the Stardew Valley-like Island Sanctuary and more tools for solo players. Of course, FFXIV's community has continued to keep things fresh, too, forming everything from in-game bands to collections of resources for players looking to take on the game's daunting housing market.

The thickest of loot boys, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get your some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further.

Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians.

We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP.

Where Is Xûr Located Today?

Xûr's location can be found at Winding Cove in the EDZ on March 31 through April 3. To reach him, travel to the landing point at Winding Cove. When you arrive, make for the rock cliffs at the far end of the cove and look for a cave winding up to a platform next to some Fallen. There you'll find the retail monster who inspires us all.

Ever since 2017’s The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild took the Zelda franchise in a new direction, it’s become somewhat common for audiences to point to other game franchises’ similar shifts as “Breath of the Wild moments.” Super Mario Odyssey, Sonic Frontiers, Pokemon Legends: Arceus, Elden Ring, and a handful of other games have been described in these terms, and not just because most of them also had large, open fields of grass waving in the wind. And when Kirby and the Forgotten Land was announced as the first fully 3D mainline Kirby game in the franchise’s 30-year history, Breath of the Wild was once again mentioned.

Speaking to Shinya Kumazaki, general director of the Kirby franchise, and HAL Laboratory expert director Tatsuya Kamiyama at the 2023 Game Developers Conference, I asked them if they felt that Kirby and the Forgotten Land was such a moment for the series. After all, as Kirby’s first fully 3D game, it significantly changed the ways in which players move around levels, explore, and fight as Kirby.

In response, Kumazaki clarified that developer HAL Laboratory doesn’t try to develop Kirby titles with the intent of becoming like any other game in any other series. But then he elaborates further:

“If we're talking about what Breath of the Wild perhaps did for the Zelda series in that it was a revolution, revolutionized the series, I think Kirby [and the] Forgotten Land was kind of at a turning point. And I think you can consider it as the first step in our kind of ongoing moving forward challenge of now also creating 3D Kirby games.”

Watching developer Alx Preston walk me through some early Hyper Light Breaker gameplay at this year’s Game Developers Conference makes the already inscrutable world of Hyper Light feel even more esoteric. Hyper Light Breaker was already a game told in strong imagery rather than language, with a story to be slowly puzzled out over time and significant effort. But Breaker is a total gameplay departure from Drifter, so experiencing it through cryptic hints from Preston about what’s going on as he pummels his way through piles of enemies in rainbow-tinted biomes gives it even more of an aura of mystery.

As with Drifter, Hyper Light Breaker’s world is awash in brilliant colors, littered with strange runes and ruins, and is completely devoid of actual language explaining what’s going on in it, with characters using pictograms to express their thoughts instead. Everything I see is vaguely futuristic, but also ruinous, and somewhat overgrown, with characters and enemies alike fusing technology with vaguely shade-like presences and monstrous forms. Lacking explicit storytelling context and full of colorful mystery, it’s easy to recognize Breaker as a Hyper Light game on sheer force of aesthetic alone.

After getting a hands-off look at some early gameplay from upcoming Hyper Light Drifter sequel, Hyper Light Breaker, it’s clear that the follow-up is both thematically very Hyper Light while also functionally a significant departure from the first game. While Hyper Light Drifter was a single-player (at launch), top-down action-adventure, Hyper Light Breaker is a multiplayer-focused, 3D, roguelike action game.

Why change genre so dramatically for a follow-up when fans were, presumably, expecting more of the same? Creator Alx Preston doesn’t have that deep a reason: Hyper Light Breaker is simply the game the team wanted to make, and that he specifically wanted to make “for quite a long time” after Drifter’s release. So he’s not too fussed about how people feel about the changes – in fact, he might do a similar departure for another Hyper Light game in the future.

“People will like it or not like it, and that’s up to them,” Preston says. “We’re just making a game that we want to make, and I feel like the Hyper Light world has room to have a lot of different things in it as far as game styles go. Why not a Hyper Light racing game? It’s a robust world, and it can maintain many different identities as far as gameplay goes so I don’t think there are any limits to it.”

That said, Hyper Light Breaker is still very clearly tied to Hyper Light Drifter. We talked about some of the similarities in our hands-off first gameplay preview, but Preston adds that Hyper Light Breaker takes place in a “not too distant” time frame in the same world. It has story threads that tie into Drifter as well as recognizable elements such as tech, language, and symbology. And he says they’ve plotted its place in the Hyper Light timeline “very carefully.”

Poncle has announced a second expansion for Vampire Survivors called Tides of the Foscari, which will arrive on April 13.

As revealed on Xbox Wire, the expansion takes players to western Europe in the Great Forest with the developers were influenced by local fairy tales and folklore. At the center lies the Foscari Academy, a school that trains the next generation of warriors, scholars, and leaders.

It’s divided into three houses: the Azure Tower trains magical sorcerers and warlocks; the Crimson Anvil focuses on strength, engineering, and blacksmithing; and the Amber Sickle consists of professions such as accounting, agriculture, and archery.

As for the new content, there are eight new characters, 13 new weapons, one new stage, seven music tracks, and 20 new achievements. And this all costs $1.99.

Vampire Survivors’ first expansion, Legacy of the Moonspell was released back in December 2022, and now Tides of the Forscari will arrive soon.

In IGN's Vampire Survivors review, we said: “Vampire Survivors is outwardly simple but turns out to be an incredibly deep hole to fall down – though it's not without extended dull periods when you get ahead of its curve."

Development on Final Fantasy 16 is now complete as developer Square Enix has announced the game has gone gold.

Shared in a tweet (below) on the Final Fantasy 16 Twitter account, Square Enix has wrapped up development way ahead of the game's launch date of June 22.

"Final Fantasy 16 has gone gold," it said simply. "From the entire development team, including Torgal, we hope you're looking forward to Final Fantasy 16's launch on June 22."

Final Fantasy XVI has gone gold.

From the entire team, including Torgal, we hope you're looking forward to #FF16's launch on June 22nd 🐺 pic.twitter.com/Vrtd3cMNW5

— FINAL FANTASY XVI (@finalfantasyxvi) March 31, 2023

Though fans had 14 reasons to expect a sequel, Final Fantasy 16 was officially announced in September 2020 as the next mainline game in the RPG franchise, this time taking place in the knights and castles filled world of Valisthea.

Join Emma, Mat, and Matt as they discuss the new Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves movie, followed by a special interview segment with directors John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein. The ‘Matt’ Trio also talk about this week’s TV highlights as both Succession and Yellowjackets are back on our screens, then move onto Counter-Strike 2 thoughts, and some doughnut-fueled feedback.

Got a game for us to play, or just want to tell us the weirdest thing you've eaten for breakfast? Drop us an email: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast 690: Dunjackets & Dadragons

• IGN UK Podcast 689: The Big Resident Evil 4 Chat
• IGN UK Podcast 688: What is the Best Shape of Doughnut?
• IGN UK Podcast 687: The Build-a-Horror Movie-Workshop
• IGN UK Podcast 686: Sons of the Final Fantasy
• IGN UK Podcast 685: You Kang Make Me Whole Again

While on previous Forza Horizon games the wild, toy-themed expansions have come after a more grounded one, for Forza Horizon 5 developer Playground Games led with its terrific Hot Wheels add-on last year. However, after seven months of pounding the orange plastic high above the clouds, the team has taken us right back down to the desert and dust for some new rally-themed racing across a fresh slab of Mexican countryside. It admittedly isn’t quite as eye-catching – and it’s regressed from some key tweaks to the progression system introduced in Hot Wheels – but competing against the clock with a co-driver is a great new way to race in Horizon, and the excellent map is packed with far more technical routes than found in the main game.

This map, which Playground has dubbed Sierra Nueva, is really the highlight of Rally Adventure – and perhaps deceptively so, considering it’s not as immediately distinct from the main game itself as, say, the snowy Blizzard Mountain DLC was from the core Forza Horizon 3 map. There are six different environments blended together in Sierra Nueva, and on closer inspection it does effectively look and feel like a separate part of Mexico than what we’ve been driving around since late 2021. There’s new vegetation, and zones like the quarry are unlike anything already in Horizon 5.

MultiVersus is closing its doors – well, early access doors – on June 25, and there’s been a lot of discourse about this move by Warner Bros. Games and Player First Games. I think the general consensus is that everyone sort of forgot MultiVersus was an Early Access game as it’s had not one but two seasons since it launched.

A lot of games recently have been coming out as Open Beta, Beta, or Early Access, and they just kind of stay that way. DayZ is the biggest example I can think of; the game had been in alpha for five years but just came out as a beta in 2018. Now, this isn’t a great example since you can’t buy a battlepass or cosmetics for DayZ, and MultiVersus has a battlepass and cosmetics system in place, but you can still purchase DayZ to play this beta.

Generally, if an early access game does close down for a bit, it’s not a big deal. But MultiVersus’ early access really appeared to be a fully released game. There were more than a handful of tournaments for MultiVersus at big competitions like EVO, and it even won a Game Award for Best Fighting Game 2022.

When MultiVersus launched in early access, it appeared to continue with that early access title until it was ready with its full release – sort of like how Fortnite went from open beta to a fully released game. But it turns out that’s not the case, and it’s frustrating to see players lose a game they’ve been playing openly without worry, and also been putting money into.

Following IGN's report earlier today that E3 has officially been canceled, GamesIndustry.biz has published an interview with ESA president and CEO Stanley Pierre-Louis in which he was asked about what went wrong with the show and whether or not the show would return in the future — though Pierre-Louis was fairly tight-lipped about the answers to these questions.

When asked what went wrong with the show this year, Pierre-Louis pointed to larger industry challenges that proved "too large to surmount."

"First, several companies have reported that the timeline for game development has been altered since the start of the COVID pandemic. Second, economic headwinds have caused several companies to reassess how they invest in large marketing events. And third, companies are starting to experiment with how to find the right balance between in-person events and digital marketing opportunities."

Later in the interview, Pierre-Louis was asked if ESA members were no longer interested in the event, what E3 would look like if it continued, if E3 needed the three big platform holders to have any chance of success, and if E3 would return in 2024. Pierre-Louis did not provide any direct answers to any of these questions, though he did seem to deny that communication was an issue in setting up E3 2023 (something IGN's sources have said was a recurring problem). He directly confirmed that the cancellation of E3 would not impact the ESA's advocacy work for the games industry.

When Nintendo retired the 3DS shortly after the release of the Nintendo Switch, one of the first questions fans asked was whether this meant the end for Etrian Odyssey. A popular dungeon crawling series that originally made its debut on the Nintendo DS, Etrian Odyssey was built around the dual touchscreen design that defined that platform. Technically, it could be replicated on the Switch, but it was apt to be far more unwieldy.

In February, Atlus put some of those fears to rest with the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection, a remastered collection that will bring the first three games to PC and Switch. In an exclusive new interview with IGN, Etrian Odyssey HD’s devs – who preferred to be identified as a team rather than individually – expanded on the challenge of bringing the franchise’s unique touchscreen controls to new platforms. They also talked about how it will be tackling difficulty, why they chose the games they did, and its somewhat controversial $80 price point.

You can read the full interview below. Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection launches on Nintendo Switch and PC on June 1.

IGN: What was the process of figuring out how to adapt Etrian Odyssey's touchscreen mapping to the Nintendo Switch? Was there a lot of trial and error?