IGN

After over 2 years on the market, the Meta (Oculus) Quest 2 VR headset is still far and away the best value when it comes to VR gaming. For a price that beats every other comparable VR headset out there, it offers a completely tether-free experience, phenomenal inside-out tracking, and a huge library of games. Also, starting August of 2022, you do not need a Facebook account to login to your Quest 2. That was justifiably a sore point for many people and Meta eventually realized that.

The Quest 2 originally started out at $299.99 at launch, but those days are long gone. Last year Meta raised it to $399.99, a rather significant price hike. Fortunately today, there's a $50 price drop that brings it down to $349.99. The current gen Quest 2 features 128GB of internal storage (compared to 64GB from the OG $299 model) and also includes two games: Golf+ and Space Pirate Trainer DX, both are which are really good.

$50 Off Oculus Quest 2 VR Headset

The Quest 2 is the best VR headset for you to jump into Beat Saber, easily the most successful VR game in history. Beat Saber is a simple rhythm based game that doubles as an outstanding fitness tool. By now there are hundreds of official songs available and the game receives plenty of regular updates. If that's not enough, there's a huge modding community out there with access to tens of thousands of user created songs that are every bit as good as the official songs. Beat Saber needs to be purchased separately ($29.99), but really you shouldn't be getting a VR headset if you don't get this game.

Blizzard has revealed the Diablo IV beta that took place over the last two weekends was the largest in the franchise's history. Thanks to the official Diablo Twitter account, we now have information on how many times players died, which classes were the most played, and more.

The popular classes throughout both betas were the Sorcerer and Necromancer. The Sorcerer was available during the Early and Open Beta, while the Necromancer was only playable during the Open Beta.

In our review-in-progress of the Diablo 4 beta we wrote that all three of the initially available character classes in the beta were "pretty great," saying of the Sorcerer, "The Sorcerer has a similar set of mostly long-range skills based on fire, electric, and ice attacks, but I found them to be better at controlling large groups of enemies (like with a chain lightning attack that zaps six enemies with every blast) rather than doing high damage to a single opponent. Plus, dealing elemental damage and freezing enemies in their tracks or lighting them on fire is great – they even have different death effects."

We also called the Necromancer "among our favorites" out of the gate. "The fantasy of raising a private militia and making atrophy and death your wicked allies is wonderfully realized, and once I got aboard the dastardly train the Necromancer was all I wanted to play," reviewer Travis Northup wrote.

CD Projekt Red has officially confirmed that The Molasses Flood's upcoming Witcher game, codenamed Sirius, is not canceled, but it has restarted development on the upcoming multiplayer game.

During a recent financial earnings call, The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 developer confirmed that it decided to reevaluate the project but that it would not scrap the entire concept altogether. Noting that the company was looking at ways to extend the popular fantasy IP.

"So this is a project which is, I would say, insourced. It's also new to us in terms of design and format. For those reasons, it's very different from the big productions we are known for. To stay competitive, we have to keep looking for new ways to extend our franchises," said the president and joint CEO of CD Projekt Adam Kiciński, during an earnings Q&A. "At the same time, we need to be ready to reevaluate our original concepts, even if the development work is already underway."

Earlier this month, the developer shared an announcement from investors, noting that it was taking an impairment charge on Project Sirius. Kiciński noted that while it was "a tough decision to make," the company felt it was the right choice. "Our intention was to cut costs early and give ourselves time for reassessment. We don't want to carry on with projects that we are not aligned with. So basically, that's all we would like to share about Project Sirius for now," Kiciński explained.

With the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077 firmly in the rearview, CD Projekt seems to have fully bounced back from where it was at the end of 2020 both in good will and in financials, celebrating its second-best earnings year in 2022 despite no new major releases.

Per CD Projekt's earnings report, Cyberpunk 2077 revenues were up 18% year-over-year in 2022, with 94% of the units sold being digital. That's a pretty unusual figure in video games, which typically release to enormous unit sales and then see a steady but consistent drop over time. CD Projekt attributes the sales to their long-term work on improving issues with Cyberpunk 2077, as well as the success of the companion Netflix series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. And having The Witcher 3 around doesn't hurt either.

It's a significant turnaround for a game plagued with bugs and glitches on the base PS4 and Xbox One at launch, which its own developers reportedly did not expect to be ready by its 2020 launch date. But multiple patches since slowly began to rebuild good will, and the one-two punch of a next-gen update in February last year and Edgerunners seems to have convinced people it was worth returning to night City.

Tim Sweeney isn't a fan of what blockchain has done to game development. Epic's CEO bemoans "a whole generation" of computer scientists focusing on technlogy such as cryptocurrency, which he believes is impacting the core technology needed to make truly revolutionary game experiences

"There's been a lot of neglect, as everybody's going off...we're missing a generation of computer scientists who would traditionally be pushing forward that set," Sweeney says. "So, we're trying to fill in the gaps in building the research team we have here. I think there are new genres of games that will emerge from the technologies that are just in the pipeline being built right now."

Saxs Persson, Epic's executive in charge of Fortnite's ecosystem, agrees.

"I think it's non-obvious because it's not like the thing you put on screen right now, but most... all game engines really... commercial game engines, their architecture is what it's been for, I don't know, 20, 30 years," he says. "Nothing really has changed. It has to change, or you're just trying to squeeze more blood from that stone. The fundamental programming model has to change in order to break into beyond what battle royale really can do."

The pair is fresh off Epic's State of Unreal presentation, which last week saw the company unveil Unreal Engine 5.2 while rolling out new creation tools and revenue sharing for Fortnite players.

Crusader Kings 3's critically acclaimed Royal Court DLC is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S on May 17.

Royal Court is a major expansion to Crusader Kings 3, adding several elements including the Throne Room, Grandeur, an Inventory System, and more.

The Throne Room is available to king and emperor characters as a visual representation of the player's royal court that reflects their success. The royal court can also be improved with the Grandeur feature that lets players bling up their residence to attract better guests and impress rivals.

Similarly, Inspired People such as talented artists, craftspeople, and thinkers can work on new projects, adding further treasures and artifacts.

The Royal Court update also adds hybrid creatures, cultural divergence, and more that resulted in the expansion being praised by critics. In our review of the PC version, IGN said it's "the best kind of strategy expansion, weaving in new features that make running a kingdom a more complete and cohesive experience."

And this comes on top of the already critically acclaimed base game. In our 10/10 review, IGN said: "Crusader King 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."

Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Games with Gold line-up for April 2023 includes Out of Space: Couch Edition and Peaky Blinders: Mastermind.

As detailed on Xbox Wire, the two Games with Gold offerings will be available to anyone with Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, with Out of Space: Couch Edition available first from April 1 to 30, and Peaky Blinders: Mastermind available later from April 16 to May 15.

If the title wasn't obvious, Out of Space: Couch Edition is set in outer space. The aim of the game is to create resources and work out housekeeping systems to build a sustainable environment, all while dealing with a deadly alien infestation that has also settled in.

After exploring the vast cosmic arena, you might want to dive into the criminal underworld in Peaky Blinders: Mastermind. This puzzle-adventure game acts as a prequel of sorts to the first season of the TV show, with players taking control of Thomas Shelby and his cohorts.

Square Enix has announced that Live a Live will come to PC, PlayStation 4, and PlayStation 5 on April 27. The game was first released on Nintendo Switch in July 2022.

Live A Live is an HD-2D remake of the original 1994 SNES game that was only released in Japan. It follows eight stories that take place in different periods, from prehistory to the distant future.

As a bonus incentive to pick the game up on a new system, Square Enix also announced that PlayStation Plus members and Steam users can preorder the game at a 20% discount. Additionally, a free playable demo is available for both platforms and includes three of the eight stories: The Wild West, Twilight of Edo Japan, and The Distant Future.

This isn’t the first HD-2D game to get released on non-Nintendo platforms after launch. Octopath Traveler eventually came to PC and Xbox after its initial exclusivity on Nintendo Switch.

However, Octopath Traveler 2 was released last month for PC, PS4, PS5, and Switch from the start. The tactics game Triangle Strategy also first launched on Switch in March 2022 but came to PC in October 2022

In IGN’s Live A Live review, we said: “Live A Live is a fascinating JRPG time machine that’s getting its dues at last thanks to a remake that brings out the best in its seven stories, strong combat, and unusual structure.”

Naughty Dog has released its first patch for the troubled PC port of The Last of Us Part 1. The hotfix addresses "several performance and hitch-related issues," according to the developer.

In addition to remedying some of its performance woes, The Last of Us Part 1 v1.0.1.5 adds "extra crash diagnostic information to assist in investigating shader building related crashes and other common reported stability issues", according to Naughty Dog.

The studio notes it is "closely watching player reports and actively working on a patch with more bugfixes, to be released soon."

The patch comes just two days after The Last of Us Part 1 was released on PC. Users have reported issues with excessive crashing and performance, specifically related to shader compiling, leading to a "mostly negative" rating on Steam with over 9,000 reviews.

The PC port was developed by Iron Galaxy, which previously released the Switch remaster of Metroid Prime and the Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection.

The Amnesia series from developer Frictional Games sits comfortably among the scariest horror games ever. Each entry tells a personal story about survival against supernatural forces, injecting a palpable sense of dread as you carefully move in near-darkness, constantly staying one step ahead of nightmarish monsters nipping at your heels or the growing anxiety that slowly chips away at the sanity of the protagonist.

But the upcoming sequel, Amnesia: The Bunker, takes a unique approach to story-driven survival horror, focusing more on the moment-to-moment actions and choices you make taking that daring plunge into the unknown. After my hands-on time with it, I felt more unnerved and impressed with what tricks this series has yet to show off.

Amnesia: The Bunker takes place during the height of World War 1. Playing as the French soldier Henri Clement caught in the trenches during a grueling battle, he finds himself in a seemingly abandoned bunker's infirmary, with little memory of what occurred since the conflict. Planning an escape, he procures resources and uncovers the creepy experiments that have occurred in the facility, including an encounter with a monster known as "The Beast," which lurks throughout the bunker while avoiding the light.

According to game director Fredrik Olsson, he stated that he wants The Bunker to be a game that you'll want to play multiple times over, with each run leading to different moments in the "player story."

Sony's PlayStation VR2 is reportedly off to an underwhelming start with the virtual reality headset only expected to sell 270,000 units by the end of March.

As reported by Bloomberg, the figure comes from research firm IDC and, while 270,000 is still a lot of headsets, reports last year indicated that Sony was looking to produce two million PSVR 2 units to be sold by the end of March.

Vice president of data and analytics at IDC Francisco Jeronimo told Bloomberg that Sony would need to cut the price of the PSVR 2 to stop its launch being a "complete disaster". The headset, which already sits at $549.99, is made even pricier by the additional $499.99 cost of the required PlayStation 5.

"Consumers around the world are facing rising costs of living, rising interest rates, and rising layoffs. VR headsets are not top of mind for most consumers under the current economic climate," said Jeronimo. "I suspect a price cut on the PSVR2 will be needed to avoid a complete disaster of their new product."

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is right around the corner, but Guerilla rendered the expansion a PS5-exclusive because of clouds — literally.

Senior community manager Narae Lee wrote on the PlayStation Blog that the developers upgraded the clouds system so that the game's open-world cloudscape would look more realistic — but only as much as the PS5 can handle.

Principal FX artist Andrew Schneider and tech programmer Nathan Vos expanded on the cloud system they developed for Horizon Zero Dawn in 2015 with voxel technology, which supports not only changes to the time of day and realistic animations, but now in Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores it will allow players to fly through the clouds and complete side quests on their Sunwing as if they're on Cloud 9.

"The cloud systems that we developed for Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West were fast because they didn’t store clouds as 3D objects, but rather instructions on creating 3D clouds from limited 2D information," Schneider said. "The PlayStation 5 can handle larger datasets. So, after Forbidden West wrapped, we set to work writing a voxel cloud renderer prototype that could live up to our standards for quality, and actually allow the player to fly through highly detailed cloud formations."

There are a lot of reasons to love Resident Evil 4, but something that jumped out at me while playing through the remake is how it feels like a medley of homages to some of the greatest horror movie monsters and antagonists of all time. There’s no way of telling how many of these actually are deliberate nods to other fiction, and how much it’s my own brain jumping to conclusions, but it’s still fun to dissect the many weird parts that make up this masterpiece of a game.

It’s pretty safe to say The chainsaw-wielding burlap sack-wearing Dr. Salvador takes some inspiration from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface, and quite possibly Jason Voorhees’ baggier, less athletic look from Friday The 13th Part 2. Del Lago might be more salamander than shark, but that whole boss fight would be right at home in the third act of a Jaws movie. The lumbering El Gigante bears a striking resemblance to the cave troll in The Fellowship of the Ring. This seems even more apparent in the remake, as the later El Gigante encounters have the giants wearing armor that would absolutely fit the dress code of Sauron’s ranks. That one might not seem quite like an iconic movie monster, but bear in mind the Lord of the Rings movies were on everyone’s minds around the time RE4 was in development.

Hogwarts Legacy soared high on the charts as the best-selling game of February 2023, while The Last Of Us sales rose with it.

The sales numbers were shared by Mat Piscatella, executive director and games industry analyst at Circana (formerly known as NPD), showing Hogwarts Legacy ranked first in February sales for PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. Not only is the game last month's best-seller, but it is also the best-selling game of 2023 year-to-date, surpassing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the Dead Space remake, Madden NFL 23, and FIFA 23.

The sales of The Last Of Us games climbed up the charts last month as well, but still trailed behind the Wizarding World title. The Last Of Us: Part 1 ranked 6th on the sales chart (up from 11th in January), besting Wild Hearts, Like A Dragon: Ishin!, and Octopath Traveler 2 — all of which are new releases. Meanwhile, The Last Of Us: Part 2 ranked 18th (up from 41st in the previous month), trailing just behind Sonic Frontiers, which was released in November.

Last month, Warner Bros. Games announced that Hogwarts Legacy sold over 12 million copies two weeks after its launch. The company touted the game as its biggest global launch ever despite the controversy surrounding it well before it released.

We’re back with another exclusive Magic: The Gathering reveal – this time, a first look at six cards from the upcoming set March of the Machine, including one that’s part of a potential two-card combo to instantly kill your opponent in Magic’s Standard format. We also spoke with Set Design Lead Dave Humpherys from Wizards of the Coast about the designs behind each card and the brand new “battle” card type.

Flip through this slideshow to see all the new cards, and read on to hear Humpherys’ thoughts on them:

Potentially the most notable of these cards is Invasion of Tarkir, which is a battle card – the first new permanent type in Magic since WOTC introduced the now-ubiquitous planeswalkers nearly 16 years ago. When you play a battle you get an immediate effect, but you then choose an opponent to defend it – dealing enough damage to the battle (either with attacking creatures or direct spells) will allow you to flip it over into a new card, in this case a very angry dragon. Humpherys says they discussed whether battles could simply be enchantments or lands, but that “conceptually what we were aiming for just didn’t really make sense as any existing card type.”

Nintendo fans looking forward to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are already dreaming up a ton of wild and wacky weapons to use in the Breath of the Wild sequel.

Following yesterday's gameplay presentation where Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma introduced us to Link's new Fuse ability — where he can take just about any two objects and merge them together to create something new — fans have taken to social media to share their dream combinations.

While some of the suggestions do seem a bit out there, some of the examples shown in the gameplay presentation are somewhat wild themselves, like combining a monster's eyeball and an arrow to create a homing device.

Square Enix has announced a set of collectible trading cards to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII, which will also be available digitally as NFTs.

The Final Fantasy VII Anniversary Art Museum Digital Card Plus collection will be available from March 31, and will feature “art, visuals, and famous scenes” from the 25 years history of the game. As reported by VGC, each 440 yen ($3.30) pack contains six physical cards, and one digital exchange card displaying an alphanumeric code.

According to Square Enix’s website, the collection is made up of “99 types of trading cards, 3 types of another normal cards, 102 types of premium cards (normal cards, foil specifications of another cards), and 3 types of secret cards for a total of 207 types”.

Buyers will need to use the Enjin Wallet crypto currency smartphone application to claim ownership of the digital cards. Once customers have created an Enjin account, and linked the app with the Square Enix website, they will be able to register the code found on the exchange card, and claim one Final Fantasy VII NFT of their choice.

According to Square Enix, it is possible to get an NFT version of each of the 207 cards included in the collection, which, when redeemed, can be viewed on either smartphone or PC.

Sony has announced that the PlayStation Plus games for April 2023 are Meet Your Maker (PS4 and PS5), Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS4 and PS5), and Tails of Iron (PS4 and PS5).

As revealed on the PlayStation Blog, all three games will be made available at no extra cost to PlayStation Plus subscribers on April 4.

Meet Your Maker is a post-apocalyptic, first-person building and raiding game from Dead By Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive, where every level is designed by other users. Players can team up with a friend or stay solo to build their own creations or take on others', choosing different loadouts to match each challenge.

IGN has high hopes for Meet Your Maker, which launches on PlayStation Plus day one, saying in our preview that we "only got a few days out of it, but this game is shaping up to be a truly unique entry in a genre that's just waiting for its next big thing."

Sackboy: A Big Adventure was a PlayStation 5 launch title that swapped the LittleBigPlanet series' creation tools for something more akin to a Mario game, resulting in a colourful action platformer.

In our 8/10 review, IGN said: "Sackboy: A Big Adventure is a charming LittleBigPlanet spin-off that trades its creation tools in for a more straightforward Mario structure."

Square Enix and Luminous Productions have revealed the story expansion In Tanta We Trust will be released for Forspoken on May 26.

The DLC expansion takes place 25 years before the events of Forspoken, with Frey continuing on her quest to eradicate the Break from Athia permanently. She follows a mysterious voice and ends up being transported into the past during the Purge of the Rheddig, the battle that destroyed Athia and led to its current state in the present.

Frey will team up with Tanta Cinta as well as unlock brand-new magical abilities to fight off the invading Rheddig forces and save Athia again.

Forspoken: In Tanta We Trust launches May 26th for PS5 and PC.

Discover Athia’s past and the battle that drove the Tantas to madness, in this #Forspoken story DLC. pic.twitter.com/s1ALORDjnC

— Forspoken (@Forspoken) March 29, 2023

The DLC shows that Square Enix is still supporting Forspoken despite its underwhelming sales and the fact Luminous Productions is being folded back into Square Enix on May 1. The studio was made up of developers at Square Enix who worked on Final Fantasy 15 and was responsible for creating new projects using the Luminous Engine, the same engine utilized for Forspoken.

It’s been almost a full year since I first played Endless Dungeon, successor to 2014’s roguelike tower defense game, Dungeon of the Endless, and it’s come quite a long way in that time. Whether it’s a drastically expanded roster of characters, some much-needed meta progression to make each run feel like a tiny step forward, or combat and an upgrade system that feels much more tightly tuned, so much of this exceedingly difficult defense game feels far more fleshed out. And while I only had a few hours to test my mettle against it, so far it seems like Endless Dungeon will be the roguelite evolution that fans have been waiting for.

Like Dungeon of the Endless before it, Endless Dungeon is a four-player tactical hybrid tower defense game that had me trying to escape a supernatural space station. While last year I only had two options to pick from, this time I was immediately surprised to see that the roster has grown to eight, including some of my new favorites: Fassie, a fashionable alien bartender who relies on his mixology skills whilst dungeon delving; and Comrade, a revolution-loving robot who uses his personal turrets to fight the power. Together, with a squad of friends, I dove back into Endless Dungeon’s unforgiving hallways filled with extremely rude machines and ferocious monsters.

Capcom has revealed that Resident Evil 4 Remake is off to a strong start after selling more than three million copies in its first two days on sale.

This appears to give Resident Evil 4 the best launch of all the Remake titles, as Resident Evil 2 had only shipped three million units in its first week and Resident Evil 3 was only confirmed to hit 3.9 million sold after a year and a half on the market.

The three million number references worldwide sales of the highly anticipated remake, and also across all consoles (PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series) and PC.

It's a game Capcom has been hyping up for a while, and not just because it's a remake of what's considered one of the greatest games of all time. The publisher released a special demo ahead of Resident Evil 4's launch that included a sneaky, super hard mode, and it even made promises of free DLC.

The Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 just got a whole new look, with Microsoft announcing red and blue versions. Preorders for both the Blue and Red Elite Series 2 are live at Amazon for $139.99.

As revealed on Xbox Wire, the $139.99 Core edition of Xbox’s flagship pro controller has been recoloured, allowing gamers to tool up with even more style. If they like red or blue, that is.

“The new, vibrant red and blue colour schemes of the Core version of Xbox Elite Series 2 are sure to make a statement amongst your friends while delivering key performance-focused benefits,” reads the announcement.

Spider-Man villain Sandman could return to the Marvel movie universe in a future project according to actor Thomas Haden Church.

“We had a whole story involving his daughter for No Way Home, and it just ended up [cut],” said Church in an interview with The DisInsider.

“There was just so much going on… Amy [Pascal] and Kevin [Feige], we all had a lot of conversations. And I would say that conversations have been had about the possibility of Sandman coming into a future iteration of it.”

Church reiterated that “the conversation has happened about him coming back”, and that his future appearance could see the character boast “a more fulfilling story”.

It's unclear if this would be in the mainstream Marvel Cinematic Universe or Sony's Spider-Man universe though, as the end of No Way Home could perhaps lend itself to both.

The first outing of Church’s Sandman came in the 2007 movie Spider-Man 3 starring Toby Maguire, who has also expressed interest in returning to don the webbed suit in a future project.

Growing up as a child of 90s and early 2000s arcades, I’ve been a casual enjoyer of the Tekken series pretty much all throughout its lifespan, with its cabinets being a regular spot where I would dump a few quarters, mash some buttons, and walk away with a smile on my face. I’ve put some time into just about all of them, but I’ve never really attempted to learn the deeper complexities of its mechanics or really sat down to try and become good with a character. That’s going to change with Tekken 8, because after spending about four hours with it, I’m all in.

While I am a self-admitted casual fan of the Tekken series, I have at least dabbled enough into Tekken 7 to be able to talk about the most defining differences between it and Tekken 8. Chief among those changes is the new Heat System, which is all about enforcing one of Tekken 8’s biggest design goals: Rewarding aggression.

With the press of a button, a character can use a Heat Burst to enter Heat Mode. The effects of it differ from character-to-character, but in general you can view it as a limited time state where you’re basically better at everything. Certain moves have new properties; others recover faster, making them more advantageous on block; and you gain access to new moves that aren’t available outside of Heat Mode.

The Last of Us Part 1 is finally available on PC… if you can get it to work. Steam have slammed the PC version of the PlayStation classic due to crippling performance issues and crashes.

In fact, it currently has “mostly negative” reviews. “Crashes every 20 minutes,” said one review. “Game is badly optimized. Game looks great just needs to be better optimized.” Naughty Dog is currently investigating the issues, however, and has promised it's team is working on resolving them.

“The Last of Us Part 1 PC players: we've heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you've reported. We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches.”

The Last of Us Part I PC players: we've heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you've reported.

We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches.

— Naughty Dog (@Naughty_Dog) March 28, 2023

At the moment, only 33% of The Last of Us' 6,015 user reviews have reported having a positive experience, leaving a staggering 67% underwhelmed.

Atlas Fallen may have just received its release date a few weeks ago on March 1, but developer Deck13 has now delayed the game by three months to August 10.

Announced in a tweet (below), Deck13 seemingly just needs extra time to deliver the version of Atlas Fallen it has always wanted to.

"We'd love to give the game some extra time which will allow us to deliver the best possible version of Atlas Fallen," it said in the tweet. "To achieve this, we have made the difficult decision to delay the worldwide launch of Atlas Fallen to August 10, 2023. We apologise for this disappointing news."

Hey people, we have some important news! pic.twitter.com/W2YKNk3xfU

— Deck13 | Atlas Fallen - coming August 10th! 💥 (@Deck13_de) March 29, 2023

Deck13 added in a subsequent tweet: "Besides a lot of polish and optimisation this delay will bring, we're super happy to be able to now also include a full German voice-over."

Atlas Fallen was previously meant to launch on May 16, though it's unclear what changed in the 28 days between its initial release date reveal and this delay announcement.

The developer did mention showing the game at PAX East in its delay announcement, so perhaps feedback from preview events led to the delay, though it did receive a fairly positive reception.

Depressing fantasy worlds are nothing new, yet Bramble: The Mountain King surprised me with its dark Nordic folklore. Instead of sanitizing these fairy tales like a classic Disney film, Dimfrost Studio openly embraces its most disturbing elements, presenting a twisted world brimming with atmosphere. Calling this grim adventure a horror game isn't quite right, though after a lengthy hands-on preview on PC, I'm finding this a captivating yet creepy tale.

Before jumping in, Bramble warns you about its heavy subject matter, which covers themes like suicide, infanticide, and animal cruelty. Original fairy tales often find young children in dangerous situations, so this isn't surprising, but it's worth noting for anyone unaware. Playing a young boy called Olle, this tale begins innocently enough with a nighttime trip into the forest to find your older sister, Lillemor. That soon turns into a rescue mission as you traverse this twisted forest.

While many games incentivize going beyond the beaten path, Bramble keeps exploration strictly linear from A to B. Going forward is often your only option with no backtracking, sometimes breaking this up through climbing or light platforming segments. You can look over a few highlighted objects on your journey, like pinecones and storybooks, and that's about it. One occasion involved turning a matchbox upside down to release a hidden key, but aside from the game's opening, I didn't find any similar interactions across three hours of playtime.

Bloober Team has come out and clarified rumors surrounding the Silent Hill 2 remake release status, as well as some inaccurate translations and out-of-context statements. This comes after Bloober Team president Pitor Babieno gave an interview with the Polish site Bankier.pl last week, reportedly saying that the game was “technically ready.”

“As the Bloober Team, we don’t comment on rumors. However, this time we need to take the floor, as some recent statements have been taken out of context, due to inaccurate translations,” the developer said in a statement on Twitter. “Our company’s messages did not contain sales forecasters of specific titles. The figures connected to Silent Hill 2 refer to the potential success of the type of games we will be focusing on in the future.”

pic.twitter.com/OeMPmvOMjk

— Bloober Team (@BlooberTeam) March 28, 2023

Bloober Team continued: “It is also not true that we have announced that Silent Hill 2 is ready for release. Regardless of the development stage, all of our activities are focused on obtaining the highest quality for the finished product—the quality that fans of Silent Hill 2 deserve. We are aware that players are waiting for more information about Silent Hill 2. As soon as such information becomes available, we are sure that Konami, the publisher for the game, will share it with fans.”

Donnie Yen had some things to say about how Quentin Tarantino handled Bruce Lee's portrayal in one of his movies — and they were not pretty.

The John Wick: Chapter 4 star commented in a recent interview with Variety about the late martial arts master's portrayal in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, in which he was painted as a pompous actor on set. Lee was played by Mike Moh in the 2019 film.

"Everyone is entitled to their opinions. Quentin Tarantino is a renowned filmmaker, and he is entitled to his status — and I'm entitled to state my own view," Yen said. "Obviously, he was making fun of Bruce. It was cartoonish."

Back in 2021, Lee's daughter Shannon Lee spoke out on her father's controversial portrayal following Tarantino's guest appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience to promote the novelization of the film, saying she was extremely fed up with how Tarantino and other white male directors treated him when he was alive.

After years of nothing but teaser trailers, Nintendo has finally blown the doors open with a 13-minute The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom gameplay showcase. The Breath of the Wild sequel is out in just a month and a half, and many Nintendo fans have been surprised at just how little we've seen of what's set to be one of 2023's biggest games.

Thanks to today's gameplay showcase, we can put some of our questions to rest. Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma showed off a quartet of key new abilities for Link, including the new Fuse mechanic which easily stole the show. We also saw an expanded demo of the vehicles teased in the most recent trailer, as well as gameplay of Tears of the Kingdom's newly-dubbed Sky Islands.

Here are the biggest gameplay reveals from today's Tears of the Kingdom showcase, as well as a few secrets Nintendo quietly snuck into the footage.

Weapon Durability Is Back

Breath of the Wild's most controversial feature was weapon durability, where Link's swords, shields, and bows would permanently break after too much use. Aonuma wasted no time in confirming the mechanic's return, as Link's Tree Branch quickly snapped while fighting the first enemy Link encountered in the gameplay footage. It seems players will once again have to accept that nothing is permanent in the world of Hyrule. Fortunately, there's a brand new mechanic that could prolong the life of some of your favorite tools, which we'll get into next.

If you were to ask me “Mitchell, what kind of video games do you like,” I honestly don’t know how to really answer that question. I feel like I can find the fun in just about any genre, outside of ones that really require some sort of enthusiast or hobby level interest, like simulation car games, sports games, or walking games.

But if you were to say “No, Mitchell, what’s like… your genre. The bundle of games that you’d save on a sinking ship and be forced to forsake all others.” Well, that’s easy: It’s action games. Or if we want to get extra specific, it’s the subgenre that’s become known as “Character Action Games”

Character action games are my first love in the world of video games. When they’re good, they light my brain up like no other thanks to their challenging yet rewarding difficulty, flashy combat, and moments that just make you feel awesome as the person orchestrating the on-screen chaos.

But while we’ve seen modern sequels and reimaginings of classic series like God of War, Devil May Cry, and Bayonetta, there’s one 3D action game pioneer that still has not seen a new entry in over a decade: Ninja Gaiden. And that’s a dang shame because, in my eyes, Ninja Gaiden Black is the best pure action game of all time.

The Dance of Combat

When talking about what makes Ninja Gaiden Black so dang good, we gotta break the conversation down into three main points. So let’s start with the flashiest of the bunch, the combat, and specifically how it works on both the surface and deeper levels.

Concern over E3 2023's future is continung to grow, prompting more publishers to drop out behind Nintendo, Xbox, Sony, and Ubisoft. IGN has learned that Sega and Tencent will be skipping E3 2023 amid rumors that the promised triumphant return of gaming’s biggest event may not happen after all.

IGN reporters have spoken with numerous individuals in publishing and PR who typically have knowledge of event strategies, all of whom expressed concern about the status of this summer’s event. Many told us that they hadn’t heard of anyone else who was planning to attend for sure, and some said they felt there had been a significant lack of communication from the ESA and organizer ReedPop as to what exactly they should expect from the show. Several described the situation as one where everyone was waiting for someone else to be the first to jump, but no one was willing to take the leap – and time was running out.

As one knowledgeable source put it ahead of the Monday news of Ubisoft’s departure from the show, “There’s no possible way this show can happen.”

Neither ESA nor ReedPop responded to IGN's request for comment in time for publication.

On a Dungeons & Dragons livestream hosted by Wizards of the Coast, the tabletop game maker announced two new collaborations with video game developer Mojang, creator of Minecraft.

The first collaboration is a DLC for Minecraft itself (the trailer can be viewed here), which will feature reskins of the Minecraft sandbox, new enemies like Mimics and Beholders to slay in custom D&D landscapes, and much more. Collaborations of this kind are far from new to the world of Minecraft, and past crossovers include Halo and Star Wars, but this trailer showed off more significant overhauls to a sandbox that's become quite familiar to Minecraft players over the past 14 years.

Not only were iconic locations from The Forgotten Realms shown off in the trailer, but also what appeared to be unique enemies and possibly even boss fights. Some were clear reskins, like the D&D dragon which almost certainly behave identically to Minecraft's own Ender Dragon, but there were also other enemies shown, which seem to deviate from Minecraft's existing creatures.

Meanwhile, Dungeon & Dragons fans will be getting a free monster compendium full of Minecraft creatures including Creepers and Endermen. This player resource will offer stat blocks for various Minecraft baddies, who can then be used in D&D campaigns by those looking to inject some blocky charm into their dungeons.

Wizards of the Coast just finished hosting their 2023 Dungeons & Dragons livestream, which was packed with crossovers, campaign announcements, and...musical numbers?

We've compiled a list of everything shown at the live stream below!

Minecraft and Dungeons & Dragons are Collaborating on Crossover Content

Minecraft developer Mojang and Wizards of the Coast announced collaborations in each of their respective fantasy adventure games. Minecraft is getting a Dungeons & Dragons themed DLC, complete with reskins of the Minecraft sandbox and new enemies like Mimics and Beholders to slay in custom D&D landscapes. In the world of tabletop, players will be able to download a free Minecraft-themed monster compendium that includes stat blocks for Creepers, Endermen, and more.

Honor Among Thieves Got a New Trailer

We also got another peek at Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves days before its theatrical debut in a new trailer which included some fun bits Paramount has shown before, like one section where the party hilariously botches using the "Speak with Dead" spell, and mostly just served as a reminder that this tabletop-inspired movie is imminent. You can read our spoiler-free review here.

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom features a ton of new abilities that weren't in Breath of the Wild, including one that references a classic Nintendo toy.

As revealed in the new ten-minute gameplay showcase, Zelda producer Eiji Aonuma showed off four new abilities of Link's: Recall, Fuse, Ascend, and Ultrahand.

The last of these is named after a grabbing toy from the late 1960s. The Ultra Hand consisted of several criss-cross plastic tubes that connected a grabber on one end and handles on the other. The concept was simple: kids could use the Ultra Hand to pick things up from far away and drop them elsewhere, not completely unlike Link's ability in Tears of the Kingdom.

Ultrahand / Toy / Nintendo / 1973 pic.twitter.com/ptyulRBXYr

— Cool Box Art (@CoolBoxArt) March 28, 2023

Even more interestingly, the Ultra Hand was invented by Gunpei Yokoi, who would go on to create the video game console D-Pad, the Game Boy, and Game and Watch.

The Ultrahand ability in Tears of the Kingdom lets Link pick things up and move them around too, though it admittedly gets a little bit more complex than its 1960s counterpart. Link can use it to combine different objects, from logs and shields to rocks and pitchforks and seemingly everything else.

Nintendo has finally shared uninterrupted gameplay of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom ahead of its May release date. The new footage showed off four new abilities for Link, a closer look at the Sky Islands we've seen in all of the trailers, weapon durability's return, and a lot more.

Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma kicked off the presentation by revealing the Nintendo Switch OLED Tears of the Kingdom special edition, which launches on April 28. Then, we jumped right into Tears of the Kingdom.

The gameplay kicked off with Link riding on a horse through the fields of Hyrule. The UI looks very similar to Breath of the Wild, with the temperature, weather, time, and minimap displayed in the bottom right corner, and Link's health and inventory in the upper left. However, the Rune icon has been replaced with an Apple symbol, indicating a food menu shortcut.

Aonuma indicated there are a lot of changes to Tears of the Kingdom's version of Hyrule, saying, "If we talk about all the changes today, we'll run out of time."

Nintendo has announced that Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is getting a limited edition OLED Nintendo Switch console. Preorders for the limited edition console are now live at Best Buy.

Announced during today's gameplay presentation, the console will be released slightly earlier than Tears of the Kingdom itself on April 28. This is fairly standard practice for Nintendo, as the console does not come with the game installed or in the box.

A limited edition Nintendo Switch Pro Controller was also announced, featuring a black and white design again decorated with gold patterns and the Tri-Force in the background. Completing the collection, Nintendo also revealed a Tears of the Kingdom themed carry case for the console. These will both launch alongside the game on May 12.

As shown in the images above, the Switch includes a white and gold docking station decorated with the Tri-Force. The Joy-Cons themselves have a base gold colour, with the left one decorated in a green pattern and the right with white, similar to the dock.

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.

The archetypical bullet hell shooter — think Ikaruga or TwinBee — are top-down, two-dimensional aerial battlefields locked on an infinite vertical scroll. One daring spaceship or fighter jet must evade a wild morass of spherical, slow-moving projectiles, while destroying an armada of puny, fragile interceptors. In that sense, Luna Abyss deviates from the established tradition in some fascinating ways. This is a first-person shooter that cribs liberally from the quarter-eating cabinets of yore; your field of view billows up with floating bullets, but unlike Halo or Call of Duty, you're not expected to duck behind cover in order to survive. Instead, in Luna Abyss, players will be squeezing through the slight crevices in between the shells in the same way you might slip through the empty space in an Enter The Gungeon shotgun blast. It's a wild idea, and after a brief demo, there's a chance Luna Abyss sticks the landing.

Luna Abyss dunks you headfirst into a world gone horribly wrong. You'll take control of some sort of human-like creature named Fawkes, who has awoken — yes — with amnesia in an alien setting. The terrain evokes the inhospitable machine cities of the Matrix films; composed of slithering mechanical coils, glossy obsidian stones, and oppressive neon floodlights. In fact, almost every square inch of Luna Abyss is sheathed in black, red, and white. Fawkes will navigate a few primitive jumping puzzles before stumbling upon their first firearm — an introductory pea-shooter buoyed by no ammunition and a liberal overheat timer. Soon enough, you'll also discover that you don't need to do much aiming with your arsenal. The left click automatically locks on to any unlucky target in proximity with your crosshairs, quickly reducing them to dust.

Player First Games, the developers behind Multiversus, confirmed that players who spent money on the game throughout the open beta will not get a refund. The news comes from the official Multiversus website under the FAQ page.

Under the question "Will refunds be available for previously purchased content?," it reads, "This announcement does not change any current refund policies or terms offered by the storefront(s) from which Founder's Packs or Gleamium bundles were purchased. For more information, please visit the customer support pages for PlayStation, Xbox, Steam and Epic Games. Additionally, refunds are not available as a result of the Open Beta closure. However, all progress and previously earned or purchased content will carry over when MultiVersus returns in early 2024."

Fans have been quick to express their opinion on the matter. One post on the Multiversus subreddit declares "I want my money back," while others took to Twitter to call out the move.

This may well be one of the most stupid decisions I've ever heard.

Closing your dwindling game for >1 year with zero warning to those who have spent *actual money* on it being unable to play, and presumably charging them again at full release. The gall! I'd be refunding it all.

It's too dangerous to face World Bosses in Diablo 4 alone, but not for wudjio. The Twitch streamer and YouTuber managed to solo Ashava in Hardcore Mode — not once but twice.

The content creator shared footage from their live stream last night, where they unintentionally encountered Ashava without any allies at their side, even though she takes up to 12 players to defeat. Their Rogue build was armed to the teeth with a crossbow that deals 457 damage per second; energy builders Heartseeker and Rapid Fire — both of which power up Critical Strike — and abilities Shadow Imbuement, Poison Imbuement, Dark Shroud, and Dash. All these elements were key to wudjio's victory against Ashava.

Players are allotted 15 minutes to beat Ashava every time she spawns. However, wudjio managed to solo her twice because of the amount of time they saved up after defeating her the first time.

A sneaky assist

According to a post on Icy Veins, wudjio didn't necessarily 100% solo Ashava in both runs, as they had a little help from a Necromancer each time — once when the boss had less than 2% left on its life gauge, and the other time to fire off 1 or 2 abilities before taking off. Meanwhile, Ashava was making circles in the dirt trying to out wudjio like she did most of the other players.