IGN

IGN can exclusively reveal that Street Fighter: Duel, the franchise's first RPG, will be released on iOS and Android devices in February 2023.

Street Fighter: Duel, which is being developed by Crunchyroll Games and Capcom, will feature over 40 characters at launch, including Ryu, Akuma, Chun-Li, Cammy, and more. It will then let players take those characters and build a team of three fighters to "take down Seth and Shadaloo's army of mech clones in an extensive story mode."

New and classic stages will also be part of the package, and players will be able to choose between real-time RPG combat or auto-battling to make their way through the story. Battles will take place in 2D, players will get to utilize the fighters' iconic combos and abilities via taps on the screen, and the game will include card mechanics.

Fighters can be leveled up and improved through gameplay or in-app purchases, and players' teams can be taken online to battle friends or other players around the globe. There will also be exclusive skins to Street Fighter: Duel that will arrive at launch and beyond.

“Street Fighter has been an iconic game for generations, and we know anime fans love to go on exciting adventures with beloved characters,” said Terry Li, General Manager of Crunchyroll Games and Senior Vice President of Emerging Business, Crunchyroll. “We’re excited to collaborate with Capcom to bring Street Fighter: Duel and its incredible roster of iconic fighters to anime and gaming fans alike.”

Ubisoft has announced the third instalment of The Crew series, and it’s arriving this year. Developed by series custodians Ivory Tower, The Crew Motorfest is based around what the studio describes as a “one-of-a-kind festival” of all things fast and is set on the island of O’ahu, Hawaii. This makes The Crew Motorfest the first in the franchise to leave the continental United States, as both the previous games featured scaled-down versions of the US that stretched from New York to San Francisco.

It also makes The Crew Motorfest a potentially fascinating return to the setting of 2006’s highly influential Test Drive Unlimited, a pioneering MMO-inspired racer from developer Eden Games that laid the foundations for the genre today. This link shouldn’t be regarded as an accident, however; Test Drive Unlimited is actually a crucial part of The Crew’s non-Ubisoft-related roots. Indeed, Ivory Tower was founded by former Eden Games developers, including Test Drive Unlimited game director Stéphane Beley. Beley, senior creative director at Ivory Tower, seems well aware of the links long-time racing fans are likely to make between the two games.

“I was very proud the first time I kicked off the project Test Drive Unlimited,” Beley tells IGN. “It’s true that it was very innovative at the time, and the recreation of Hawaii at that time was really remarkable for everyone.”

Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, the asymmetical multiplayer ghost-hunting game based on the popular films, has unveiled its first free DLC including a new map, ghost type, and other updates. And it's all out today.

The new DLC includes The Facility, a new map set in an abandoned health center closed in the 1980s, but set to reopen...if its construction crews can get past the ghost problem. We'll also see a new ghost type, the Glutton, a class that includes the Muncher ghost and two other variants. Developer Illfonic says the Muncher is the most-requested ghost type thus far - we were first introduced to the metal-eating ghost in in Ghostbusters: Afterlife.

Additionally, the DLC will bring new character customization options, improved matchmaking, and improve AI behavior both for teammates and ghosts.

Illfonic reiterated that it plans to continue releasing free DLC each quarter of this year for Spirits Unleashed, so we should expect more content along these lines at least three more times this year.

We enjoyed Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed at launch, finding it an entertaining asymmetical multiplayer game, but did lament that it was held back by some balance issues and map wonkiness at the time. We noted that it also badly needed more content, which this DLC and future ones hopefully will alleviate.

It’s widely agreed upon that the last, truly outstanding professional boxing game was 2011’s Fight Night Champion – a game that was initially released for the now-ancient Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Granted, if you’ve poked your head into a virtual reality headset any time in the last five years, you may have gotten a chance to throw a few swings at The Thrill of the Fight or Creed: Rise to Glory, both of which are decent boxing simulators. But now, over twelve years after Fight Night disappeared, developer Steel City Interactive may be reaching for the title belt with Undisputed, a new professional boxing game that seemingly represents a return to form for the boxing genre. I’ve spent several hours in its single-player skirmish mode and I’m pleasantly surprised by the fluidity of the fighters’ movements which, while still not perfectly comparable to their real-life counterparts, are already more dynamic and realistic-looking than those of the classic fighting game Undisputed will undoubtedly be compared against.

Undisputed immediately asks you to spar against a basic opponent while you get the controls down, and this is a tutorial you absolutely should not skip – especially if you’re unfamiliar with boxing games – given the incredible amount of control Undisputed gives you over your hooks, jabs, slips, blocks, weaves, power punches, uppercuts, and so forth. There are far more button combinations to memorize here than in your average fighting game, but these controls affect the fluidity of your boxer’s motions in a way that mimics how a professional fighter might actually move in a fight. It’s not quite intuitive, but once you get into a groove, it does gradually become easier to predict your opponent’s rhythm and evade, counter, or at least return their punches.

Hi-Fi Rush, Tango Gameworks' rhythmic action game where every move happens to the beat of the music, made for an exciting shadow drop after last week's Xbox Developer Direct. It immediately caught fire on social media for its bright cartoon style, snappy rhythm-based gameplay, and boppin' soundtrack.

But the general public isn't the first to be enamored by Hi-Fi Rush. Apparently, it went a bit viral internally at Bethesda first - which in part led to Tango's decision to shadow drop it in the first place.

Speaking to IGN, director John Johanas said that the shadow drop decision came from the game's marketing team in part because of uncertainty about how a longer marketing cycle might play out. Because Tango is known for horror, and Hi-Fi Rush is decidedly not that, they thought simply dropping it onto Game Pass without a long lead-up would help it gain popularity naturally through sudden word of mouth, just as it had within Bethesda during development.

"If you're going to ask someone to purchase something in a shadow drop, you probably get a lot of skepticism, but the fact that Game Pass exists allows people to basically almost, what you would say is a demo theoretically. But it's not a demo, it's the full game. They can just play in and they can almost naturally talk about the game, talk to their friends, tell them how cool it is. That's what we were kind of hoping for because internally, we knew it was something special.

Sony has denied earlier reports that it halved its projected shipments of PlayStation VR 2 units at launch due to lackluster pre-order numbers.

The original story came courtesy of a Bloomberg report that cites multiple unnamed sources familiar with the situation. According to the sources, Sony was forecasting that it would ship just one million units during the current financial quarter, which runs from September 2022 to March 2023, and encompasses the PSVR 2’s release date of February 22.

Sony had reportedly sought to ship two million units during that same period in the hopes that titles like Horizon: Call of the Mountain would stir up enthusiasm, and therefore pre-orders, for the system.

But in a statement to GamesIndustry.biz, PlayStation said it has "not cut PlayStation VR2 production numbers" and that it is "seeing enthusiasm from PlayStation fans for the upcoming launch, which includes more than 30 titles such as Gran Turismo 7, Horizon Call of the Mountain, and Resident Evil Village."

Microsoft has announced that it will raise the recommended retail price (RRP) of the Xbox Series X|S in Japan, starting on Friday February 17.

“After carefully evaluating the market condition in Japan, we have decided to change the suggested retail price of Xbox consoles in the country,” said a Microsoft representative in a statement to Famitsu, which was translated by Gematsu.

“We regularly evaluate the impact of local pricing to maintain reasonable consistency across regions. This price revision affects our customers and was a difficult decision to make, but going forward we will continue to provide the ultimate Xbox experience that our customers expect.”

The price of the Series X is set to rise from ¥54,978 ($423) to ¥59,978 ($462), while the Series S will similarly rise from ¥32,278 ($248) to ¥37,978 ($292) for a price rise of roughly $40 each.

Great Metroidvania titles come far and few between despite it being such a beloved genre, and perhaps the biggest hurdle to overcome is how any new Metroidvania can stand out and distinguish itself amongst the crowd. With momentum behind it after an excellent first attempt, Teslagrad 2 is taking its best shot with a long-awaited sequel. After playing the first hour, it is apparent that this series is committed to providing a different experience by making a fundamental change while still being relatively true to the genre.

Teslagrad 2 is a side-scrolling Metroidvania that focuses heavily on puzzle-based gameplay and exploration. Inspired by Scandinavian and Norse regions, the main character Lumina crash-lands in a forest and must now use her Teslamancer abilities to find her way back home to her family..

For those familiar with the Teslagrad series, you will end up finding plenty of familiar territory in its sequel in both the gameplay experience as well as many of the different key items that you will earn to gain access to new locations of the map. Starting out, I was equipped with blink boots allowing me to teleport a short distance from where I was facing, but after a short time I was exposed to a handful of new items and abilities making me hope that there will be a continuous variety to gain throughout the campaign. These abilities included the already-mentioned blink boots, a magnetic barrier to cling to walls as well as zipping quickly through water and cablelines.

Developer Storm in a Teacup has announced Steel Seed, a new action-stealth adventure game for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. It's tentatively due out in 2024. In Steel Seed, the last survivors of Earth, who are being kept safe underground by AI machines following mankind's own near-destruction of the planet, find themselves up against a new threat. But is that threat man or machine, and what does it mean for both mankind and their machine guardians?

“Steel Seed represents the most challenging project 'til now for Storm in a Teacup, featuring both a varied combat/stealth system and an incredibly deep and emotional storytelling,” said studio CEO and creative director Carlo Ivo Alimo Bianchi. “Steel Seed is an epic journey that will test your humanity.” Take a look at the announcement trailer above and the first screenshots in the gallery below.

Storm in a Teacup previously developed the 2019 horror game Close to the Sun. Read IGN's review of it here.

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

Dragon Ball and Fortnite have crossed over once again with Piccolo and Son Gohan from Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero making their debut in the Battle Royale.

Announced on the Fortnite website, both new skins include the regular inclusion of additional accessories. Son Gohan comes with Gohan's Cape Back Bling, Gohan's Beast Axe Pickaxe, the Capsule No. 576 Glider, and the Charging Up emote to switch to Super Saiyan.

Piccolo comes with Piccolo's Cape and Turban Back Bling, Piccolo's Demon Symbol Back Bling, Piccolo's Handheld House Pickaxe, the Red Ribbon Army Aircraft Glider, and his own Charging Up emote that turns him into the Power Awakening version.

The Kamehameha attack item and Nimbus Cloud mobility item are also returning to Fortnite, and as before will increase in frequency as the storm closes in meaning games will often end in anime-esque battles.

Dragon Ball Adventure Island is also returning, letting Fortnite players explore iconic locations from the Dragon Ball anime including Goku's house, Kami's Palace, the Room of Spirit and Time, and Beerus's Planet. A weekly quest on the island starting on January 31 will unlock the Orange Piccolo Spray and a weekly quest starting on February 7 will unlock the Gohan Beast Spray.

Epic Games has promised that other Dragon Ball items will be returning to the Fortnite shop in the future, but didn't share more on which items or skins will return.

It seems you'll finally be able to shout "1v1 me, bro" in developer Second Dinner's superhero-themed mobile card game, Marvel Snap.

The popular licensed collectible card game, which won Best Mobile Game at the Game Awards, will finally be getting one of its most requested features since launching in October of last year: the ability to challenge your friends directly. The so-called Battle Mode will be available tomorrow.

It's coming...

Get ready for Battle Mode where you can challenge your friends and see who's really the best! pic.twitter.com/XPxkPXtRN8

— MARVEL SNAP (@MARVELSNAP) January 30, 2023

Up until now, players have been at the mercy of Marvel Snap's one and only playlist, a competitive matchmade mode that pits you against a random opponent in your skill bracket. In a recent blog post Second Dinner announced that Battle Mode would be a tournament-style mode where players play multiple games against one another until a clear winner emerges.

"Battle Mode pits two opponents against each other through multiple rounds. Each player starts with 10 health," the post said. "Instead of Cubes, what’s at stake is the amount of damage the winner will deal to the loser. If you can deplete your opponent’s health to zero, you win!"

There are suddenly a lot of very good games to play. To talk about them, Cardy, Emma, and Mat have convened in a post-lunch haze to discuss Fire Emblem Engage, Persona 3, Hi-Fi Rush, and The Case of the Golden Idol. Emma has also had the chance to go hands-on with the upcoming Hogwarts Legacy and Cardy tells you why you should go and watch The Fabelmans.

Got a game for us to play or just want to tell us the weirdest thing you've eaten for breakfast? Why not email us: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com.

IGN UK Podcast 681: Shadow Drop It Like It's Hot

• IGN UK Podcast #680: Dead Space and Other Games We Want Remade
• IGN UK Podcast 679: The Last of Us is Very Good
• IGN UK Podcast #678: Wot We Did Over Christmas
• IGN UK Podcast 677: The Big 2023 Preview
• IGN UK Podcast 676: Alternative Game Awards 2022

Hogwarts Legacy promises us the opportunity to return to the Wizarding World and explore the iconic school during a previously unseen period of Harry Potter history. Set in the late 1800s, the upcoming open-world action RPG lets us step into the shoes of a fifth-year student, mysteriously gifted with the ability of harnessing ancient magic.

From catching up on classes and combing every nook and cranny in the school grounds, to investigating a goblin rebellion brewing on the horizon, Hogwarts Legacy promises a dangerous term ahead. While we expect to find many more secrets tucked away in Hogwarts’ historic halls when the game launches on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S on February 10, here are nine magical details we spotted during our first hands-on session with the game.

Hogwarts’ Headmaster Canceled Quidditch

Quidditch, the brutal yet incredibly popular broomstick-based sport, is not playable in Hogwarts Legacy. However, it is possible to fly around Hogwarts’ familiar Quidditch pitch. While wandering around the castle, we overheard some Ravenclaw students discussing how Headmaster Phineas Nigellus Black decided to ban the sport from campus. So, it looks as though we have an explanation of why we won’t be batting off Bludgers in our spare time.

This also gives us an idea of what we can expect from Hogwarts’ headmaster. We’re already aware of Professor Black’s reputation as the least popular head teacher from the Harry Potter books, and the students have certainly noticed how little interest he takes in his job.

Kadabra is reportedly returning to the Pokémon Trading Card Game after a lawsuit saw him banned for more than two decades.

As reported by PokéBeach, the upcoming Pokémon Card 151 set will feature Kadabra for the first time since 2002's Skyridge set. The Pokémon Company stopped printing Kadabra cards (and removed it from the anime) after magician Uri Geller sued it for using his likeness, though he retracted his complaint in 2020.

PokéBeach gained access to the list of cards appearing in the Pokémon Card 151 set, confirming Kadabra's return, and received a statement from Geller expressing his relief that it was being printed again.

"I am pleased Pokémon fans are excited to see Kadabra return to the card game," he said. "I want to thank the Pokémon fans who reached out to me over the last [few] years."

He continued: "It was you and my granddaughters that got me to change my mind. Now we can all see Kadabra reunited with the original Pokémon in the card game this summer. I love you all. And I admit, totally open and honest, I was a fool. It was a devastating mistake for me to sue Pokémon. [Kadabra] was basically a tribute to Uri Geller. But it’s back now. Forgive me."

Kadabra's Japanese name, Yungerer, bares similarities to Uri Geller, and the Pokémon is also known for being able to bend spoons, which is Geller's signature move.

It's never a bad time to play a horror board game. There's something about zombies, ghosts, werewolves, and other nightmares that are a great fit for huddling around a table with your friends. The horror genre is filled to the brim with great games, and below we've assembled some of the best.

Each game represents different mechanics, but since jump scares are nearly impossible in a board game, atmosphere is king in the horror genre. So gather your friends, dim the lights, and get ready to experience terror like only a good board game can deliver. These are the best horror-themed board games to play in 2023.

This story contains spoilers for The Bad Batch. If you're not caught up yet, check out our spoiler-free The Bad Batch Season 2 review.

There’s a blast from the past in the latest episode of The Bad Batch Season 2. Diving into the history of the Jedi Order and those that came before, fans are rightly asking who the “Ancients” are and what they could mean for the wider mythos of the galaxy far, far away.

“Entombed” wasted no time making Wanda Sykes’ Phee Genoa the star of the show, with this treasure-hunting pirate filling that Doctor Aphra-shaped hole in our lives. Much like that morally ambiguous archaeologist, Phee gives us some insight into the state of the galaxy in years gone by. Alongside mentions of the Grand Pearl of Novak and Blade of Zakata Par, one of Phee's stories stood out more than the others.

Are The Ancients Connected to the Jedi?

Under the guidance of Phee, the Bad Batch journeys to the uncharted Kaldar Trinary and searches for the mythical Heart of the Mountain in Skara Nal. Skara Nal is eventually revealed as a walker-esque weapon of mass destruction, and although nothing about its creators is confirmed, Phee says the “Ancients” predate the Jedi Order itself.

Naughty Dog co-president Neil Druckmann has said the studio has officially moved on from Uncharted and is now focusing on the next chapter of The Last of Us through the new multiplayer game.

In an interview with Buzzfeed, Druckmann explained that Sony doesn't pressure Naughty Dog into creating a sequel just because a game is successful, and that the publisher has been very supportive in letting the studio follow its own passions.

“That's not the case. For us, Uncharted was insanely successful,” Druckmann said. “Uncharted 4 was one of our best-selling games, and we're able to put our final brushstroke on that story and say that we're done. We're moving on.”

Druckmann didn't elaborate on whether he was referred to Nathan Drake's story, which ended with Uncharted 4, or the franchise as a whole. Its last release was 2022's Legacy of Thieves Collection, with the most recent mainline entries being 2016's Uncharted 4 and the 2017 side-story Lost Legacy.

Sony Pictures also released a film adaptation starring Tom Holland that was met with mixed reviews, but was ultimately able to gross $401 million in the international box office.

Naughty Dog weighs in on The Last of Us Part 3

When asked about a potential The Last of Us Part 3, Druckmann noted that it’s up to Naughty Dog itself to decide if it wants to expand the stories of Ellie and company, but it's currently focused on creating a brand new story for the multiplayer game.

Today's daily deals include the Pokemon TCG Sword & Shield Charizard Collection, a magnificent Apple Studio Display, the gargantuan 85" Sony X85K TV bundled with an Atmos ready soundbar, a powerful Dell G15 laptop with an RTX 3070 TI GPU, and more below.

Pokemon TCG Sword & Shield Ultra-Premium Collection Charizard for $99.99

The set includes three etched foil promo cards: Charizard V, Charizard VMAX, and Charizard VSTAR, sixteen Pokemon TCG booster packs from the Sword & Shield series, a playmat, 65 card sleeves, metal coin, six metal damage-counter dice, 2 metal condition markers, an acrylic VSTAR marker, a player's guide to the entire Sword & Shield series, and a code card for Pokemon TCG Live.

Dell G15 15" QHD Intel Core i9 RTX 3070 Ti Gaming Laptop for Only $1367.09

Dell has been going all out with their gaming deals lately. Right now you can get a Dell G15 gaming laptop equipped with a 15" QHD (2560x1440) display, 12th gen Intel Core i9-12900H 14-core Alder Lake CPU, and a powerful NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU for a mere $1367.09 after $300 in instant savings and stackable coupon codes "AWSMITE09" and "ARMMPPS". Pair that with 16GB of DDR5-4800MHz RAM and a 1TB SSD and you have yourself a lean, mean gaming machine out of the box at a really good price.

The Day Before developer Fntastic has said it was planning a delay even before a trademark dispute pushed the game back eight months.

Speaking to IGN, Fntastic co-founders Eduard and Aisen Gotovtsev decried any allegations of scamming after several The Day Before community members grew concerned that the game was delayed for so long just a few weeks ahead of its planned launch date on March 1.

Fntastic released a statement on January 25 (below) claiming that a trademark dispute had forced the delay of both the game and its first major gameplay trailer in over a year.

"We planned to move the game's release before and plan to announce it with [publisher] Mytona in a 10-minute gameplay video," Fntastic told IGN. "And then you all know what happened. So to be on the safe side, to ensure there are no more transfers, we, along with the publisher, chose November 10. That is a safe date, given the trademark dispute."

Despite having now been delayed twice (with the first caused by a switch to Unreal Engine 5), Fntastic is still confident it will have its trademark dispute solved by the new release date, and plans to use the extra time for improving the game in the meantime.

"We’re very confident that this issue will be resolved since we have strong legal partners," it said. "The extra time will allow us to better prepare for the release and make the overall improvements for the game. It will become even more polished, optimized, and content-filled."

Elden Ring, God of War: Ragnarok, Stray, and Pentiment are leading the finalists for 2023's Game Developers Choice Awards, the video game awards voted for by developers.

All four of these games feature in the Game of the Year category, alongside Sam Barlow's Immortality and Tunic. Elden Ring and Stray have a total of six nominations each while God of War: Ragnarok has five.

The results of the awards will be announced at 2023's Game Developers Conference on March 22, held alongside the Independent Games Festival Awards - the nominations for which were announced yesterday.

The full list of nominees can be seen below:

Best Audio

• Elden Ring
• God of War Ragnarok
• Horizon Forbidden West
• Metal: Hellsinger
• Stray

Best Debut

• Neon White
• Norco
• Stray
• Tunic
• Vampire Survivors

Best Design

• Elden Ring
• Marvel Snap
• Neon White
• Stray
• Tunic

Innovation Award

• Elden Ring
• Immortality
• Neon White
• Pentiment
• Stray

Best Narrative

• God of War Ragnarok
• I Was a Teenage Exocolonist
• Immortality
• Pentiment
• Return to Monkey Island

Social Impact Award

Imagine Fire Emblem went through kind of a moody, emo phase and started reading a lot of dark fantasy novels and you'll have some idea what to expect from Redemption Reapers. This turn-based tactical RPG, from the developers of the excellent and unsung side-scrolling 2021 Soulslike Ender Lilies, puts you in command of the moody Ashen Hawk Brigade. Your task is to fight back against the Mort, an army of mysterious and murderous humanoid fiends who seem to care for nothing but the constant slaughter of innocent people. So, you know, you should probably do something about that.

Admittedly, I didn't get too much of a sense for the shape of the world or what the larger arc of the story is going to be after playing through the first seven chapters. We still don't know where the Mort came from or if there is any greater purpose to their terrifying rampage. That served as an interesting question that pushed me to seek answers, but it can also lead to the plot feeling a bit aimless. My band of beleaguered fighters was simply traveling from village to village trying to solve smaller problems in the wake of a seemingly all-consuming invasion, which left me asking if we were really making a difference at all. And maybe that's intentional. But I longed for some clearer, long-term goals.

The characters mostly come across like anime archetypes who rarely showed any hidden facets or surprised me by playing against their surface-level traits. Lugh is an edgy spear-wielder who enjoys the thrill of battle and bloodshed. Urs is a beefy barbarian type with a stony demeanor. We do get a few hints that our protagonist, Sarah, blames herself for some past failure in the war against the Mort that still haunts her. But in this small slice, it's merely alluded to.

The Class System is back in Battlefield after Battlefield 2042 launched without the classic system in place. With Battlefield’s 3.2 update launching next week, the 2042 Specialists will be organized into four classes and the equipment they’re able to use are being redistributed and adjusted.

Battlefield’s four returning classes are Assault, Recon, Support, and Engineer. Unlikeat launch where you could play any Specialist and use any equipment you liked, the classes will now assign you gear to use in these specific classes. You can still use any weapon you like but each class has a different proficiency in weapon types.

Assault

• Specialists: Mackay, Dozer, Sundance, Zain
• Weapon Proficiency: Assault Rifles with three extra magazines
• Gadget: Smoke Grenade Launcher, IBA Armor Plate, C5 Explosive, M18 Claymore
• Equipment: Med Pen (self-administered emergency medical booster)

Engineer

• Specialists: Boris, Crawford, Lis
• Weapon Proficiency: LMG with improved accuracy while crouched or prone
• Gadget: Anti-Tank Mine, Recoilless M5, FXM-33 AA Missile, C5 Explosive, FGM-148 Javelin, EOD Bot
• Equipment: Repair Tool (Utility welder that repairs most vehicle damage)

Support

Never mind the numerous necromorphs, the tortured torsos sprouting out of walls, or the terrifyingly towering space sphincter – the thing I was most scared of going into the Dead Space remake is that it wouldn't live up to my fond memories of the fantastically horrific 2008 original. After just over 12 hours spent stalking through the revitalized USG Ishimura I’m happy to report that of the many things to legitimately fear about this haunted space hulk, that was not one of them. This new Dead Space enhances the original in almost every way, using a Plasma Cutter to drop its ugliest appendages on the cutting room floor while preserving the essence of what made its distinctly dismemberment-heavy shooting so special, and grafting on welcome new character details in order to present its creepy sci-fi horror story in its very best light – and its most intimidating shadows.

It’s official: Redfall is set to release for Xbox Series X|S and PC on May 2. It’s a vampire-themed first-person shooter made by Arkane Austin, the same team that made Prey and the Dishonored games. Redfall is available to preorder now (see it at Amazon).

The rollout is a little strange, with “collector’s edition”-style extras like a steelbook and additional digital content being made available as a separate physical purchase. Alternately, the standard edition of Redfall will be available on Xbox Game Pass. We have all the details below, so let’s dive in.

Where to Preorder Redfall

Xbox Series X|S

• Get it at Amazon - $69.99
• Get it on Xbox Store (digital) - $69.99

PC

• Get it at Amazon - $69.99
• Get it at GMG (DRM: Steam) - $57.39 with code JAN18
• Get it at Steam - $69.99

Preorder the standard edition of Redfall, and you’ll get the game itself, plus the preorder bonus (detailed below).

Redfall Bite Back Upgrade (Physical Version)

Xbox Series X|S

If you somehow thought the Like a Dragon (formerly Yakuza) series wasn’t over-the-top enough already, a new addition to the upcoming remake of Like a Dragon: Ishin! might just turn the tables…or flip them. Developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has revealed that wrestler Kenny Omega will be making a cameo appearance in Ishin as a summonable character to aid in battle, complete with a wondrous crossover of a move: One-Winged Angel. He’ll be joined by Midnight Mass star Rahul Kohli.

Omega and Kohli’s appearances will take the form of a “Trooper Card,” effectively a summon similar to the Poundmates used in Yakuza: Like a Dragon. Trooper Cards are a feature new to the remake that allows players to summon other characters to aid them in battle with special abilities, attacks, or temporary stat boosts, and will include both celebrity cameos as well as visits from other characters across the Like a Dragon series.

Kohli’s Trooper Card is titled “Essence of Firestorm” and its in-game description reads as follows: “A chivalrous man who's traveled through space, time, and reality to serve the Shinsengumi. Draws upon his experience in law enforcement to keep the peace.”

Meanwhile, Omega’s Trooper Card is called “Essence of the One-Winged Angel” and bears the description: “A strapping fighter who's traveled through space, time, and reality to serve the Shinsengumi. It’s said that his elite skills can summon the stars themselves.” It’s a reference both to Final Fantasy 7 as well as Omega’s in-ring wrestling finisher, One-Winged Angel.

I went at Microsoft pretty hard for the company’s baffling no-show at December’s massive Game Awards event. As such, it’s only fair I give them credit where credit is due: its first-ever Developer_Direct – aka Xbox Direct for those of us who don’t have the patience to type that damn underscore every single time – was a success. The 40-minute broadcast wisely mimicked the hostless format that Nintendo pioneered and Sony smartly stole, and as a result we saw five games, got four release dates, and perhaps most of all, took away some optimism for the months to come.

Microsoft managed to pleasantly surprise everyone by dropping a new Tango Gameworks rhythm-action game on us called Hi-Fi Rush. It immediately looked like a delightful mashup of Sunset Overdrive, Ninja Gaiden, and Guitar Hero. Even better, Tango released it right after the Direct ended, making this one of the first same-day announcement+release combos in quite some time. It’s not a stretch to say that such a surprise would not have been possible without Xbox Game Pass, where word-of-mouth can build up over time, and a game’s success is not as heavily dependent on a pre-order campaign and months of marketing hype.

We recorded Unlocked immediately after Microsoft's Xbox Developer Direct presentation this week, so these are our in-the-moment reactions to the excellent presentation, from the deep-dive on Redfall (including a May 2 release date to look forward to) to another look at the gorgeous Forza Motorsport (though it came without any release date attached) to the surprise new game from Tango Gameworks, Hi-Fi Rush, that's available right now! And in our final segment, we spent some time discussing the current uncertain state of Halo in the wake of the layoffs at 343 Industries.

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

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

What do you get when you cross Alice in Wonderland with Iron Man? Square Enix’s latest action-RPG Forspoken aims to answer that question, with a fish out of water plot as the protagonist Frey is thrown into a world of dragons and sorcery. Built on the same Luminous Engine that powered the team's last game, Final Fantasy XV, it has a similar open world design, with animation, art, creature design and more that will feel familiar.

Resolution Modes

The game has three resolution modes, Quality, Ray Tracing, and Performance, each of which also has a 120Hz mode. Quality targets 3840x2160p with dynamic resolution scaling (DRS) engaged, which can scale by 75% in total down to a low of 1920x1080. Ray Tracing mode reduces the ceiling to 2880x1620p and scales to a low of 1440x810. Both these modes use FSR2 reconstruction to get back to a 4K output when not at that level, which is always the case in the Ray Tracing mode and often in Quality. Finally, Performance targets 2560x1440p both in ceiling and FSR2 reconstruction, and can dip down 75% also to a low of 1280x720. This mode boosts performance to 60fps over the previous two, which are capped at 30fps.

If you tuned into Xbox's Developer Direct on January 25, you'll already know about Hi-Fi Rush shadow-dropping on Xbox Game Pass after the presentation ended. But, that's not all, as Xbox has also now confirmed every game hitting the service before the end of the month, and a few more for the start of February as well including Hot Wheels Unleashed, GoldenEye 007, Age of Empires 2, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R, Grid Legends, and more.

Games to already hit Game Pass this month include Persona 3 and 4, alongside Monster Hunter Rise and Stranded Deep. For now, here's everything coming to Xbox Game Pass in January 2023.

Hi-Fi Rush is Available on Xbox Game Pass Right Now

Tango Gameworks' next game is Hi-Fi Rush, a rhythm adventure game under development exclusively for the Xbox Series X|S, and it's coming out tonight. Announced during the Xbox Developer_Direct showcase, the trailer revealed a bombastic comic-like art style, original tunes and rhythm-based movement and combat. Tango Gameworks has already released the game, including on Xbox Game Pass, and you can install it right now if you want to.

Every once in a while a board game comes along that, while designed by and for enthusiasts, breaks the mold and reaches a wider audience. Wingspan is one of the most phenomenal success stories of this elite brigade. Created by first-time designer and bird enthusiast Elizabeth Hargrave, this game about building wildlife reserves has gone on to sell well over a million copies across multiple printings, making it one of the most successful and best board games of recent years.

What’s in the Box

Wingspan is crammed full of stuff, most of which is delightfully designed to evoke its ornithological theme. There are a lot of cards, most of which represent species of birds, embellished with luminous art and educational factoids alongside their pertinent game information. All the cards can be put away in the supplied plastic storage tray with an embossed bird on the lid.

Food items like grain and mice are printed on wooden dice which, in turn, are rolled and kept in a wonderful dice tower and tray that looks like a birdhouse. There are also matching food tokens for you to keep until spent when you take a die. The game includes four plastic trays in which you can keep these tokens and the huge array of three-dimensional pastel-colored bird eggs.

Since Warhammer 40,000: Darktide's launch in November, players have issued complaints about its incomplete gameplay mechanics and unstable framerate, with just 35% of its 8,510 recent Steam reviews currently being positive. Now, Fatshark, the team behind the co-op shooter, is shifting its focus to address these complaints.

Today, Fatshark CEO Martin Wahlund addressed the game's launch and outlined the team's plan moving forward with an open letter published on the @Darktide40K Twitter account.

When creating Warhammer 40K: Darktide, according to the open letter, the team wanted to "create a highly engaging and stable game with a level of depth that keeps you playing for weeks, not hours."

"We fell short of meeting those expectations," Wahlund acknowledged.

He then moved to announce a new focus on addressing feedback, which will include "a complete crafting system, a more rewarding progression loop," and improved "game stability and performance optimization."

pic.twitter.com/QdzJskxqvI

Between hunting for weapons, fighting bosses, and completing Hyrule's many side quests, gamers who choose to play The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in its entirety can spend upward of 50-100 hours preparing for its final boss. Of course, some players choose to abandon the game's guidance and instead speedrun beating the final boss without preparation, and that's exactly what Twitch streamer Player5 did — 50 times in one day.

On January 15, Player5 managed to beat Breath of the Wild 50 times in just under 23 hours. The full stream is replayable on his Twitch channel, where they also claimed the current Any% world record for Breath of the Wild speedruns.

"I decided to do it early January, although a friend of mine TheRealNoman had the idea probably ~1 year ago," Player5 told IGN. "I also had seen Simply run SM64 1200 star (10 120 star speedruns in a row) pretty recently, so I figured it would be a fun challenge."

I just beat BotW 50 times in 24 hours 😪 Thanks everyone who stopped by and kept me awake for this! pic.twitter.com/YBZXnQBez0

After a few years of proud gaming revenue rises thanks to Xbox Series X and S sales, Microsoft's gaming segment finally seems to be slowing down a bit. And while a dip is expected, the lack of major first-party game releases isn't exactly helping things.

The company posted its Q2 earnings today, and for the first time in a while, Xbox posted a year-over-year drop. Gaming revenue was down 13% year-over-year, and hardware revenue specifically was down the same. Xbox content and services revenue overall was down 12%, with Microsoft attributing the dip to a few factors: decreased spending on first-party content, lower monetization in third-party content, and a strong prior year comparable.

What this essentially means is that Xbox didn't have as strong a first-party line-up to spend on this past holiday, but also, 2021 was always going to be tough to beat. In software, Xbox had Halo Infinite, and in hardware, the Series X and S were sailing on high demand combined with increased supply as supply chain restrictions began to lighten up.

So while Xbox's dip is a shift from recent patterns, it's a predictable and relatively small one, putting Microsoft's gaming division at roughly the same revenue levels it was seeing in 2020-2021. And Game Pass subscriptions, Xbox says, are continuing to grow.

We end January’s IGN First coverage of Wo Long: Fallen Dynasty by going back to the very beginning: Let’s have a look at the game’s opening cutscene. Watch it above.

In the clip, we hear a man talking about an elixir sought by the sovereigns of ancient China. This elixir could grant immortality, but its power was overwhelmingly dangerous, and the elixir became the cause of conflicts and political machinations throughout the years.

While China’s ancient leaders are known to have actually been in search of such an elixir of life, it appears that in Team Ninja’s newest action game the elixir is real.

French games publisher Nacon, which is co-publishing Daedalic Entertainment's upcoming action-adventure game The Lord of the Rings: Gollum, recently released an earnings report that detailed yet another delay for the Tolkein-inspired adventure.

The report lists Gollum as one of their titles that will be released in "the first half of the FY 2023-2024," which due to Nacon's offset fiscal calendar, places that window between April and September of this year.

Previously, Daedalic Entertainment delayed the title from its initial 2021 window to 2022, then delayed it again "by a few months," offering no specific release date at that time, but not so far off as this new timeframe places it.

An important message. pic.twitter.com/s2UvhPfILF

Heat: Pedal to the Metal is something extraordinary -- it’s a table-top racing game with an actual sense of breakneck speed. The designers achieve this both through the brilliant deck-building mechanics, and also with clever mechanisms that accelerate the actual process of play. In fact, Heat might be the best racing board game ever designed, surpassing recent standouts and seasoned classics alike.

The setting here is 1960s Grand Prix, and the core of the design is clever hand management. Each player secretly chooses a subset of their hand to play for movement each round. The number of cards you play is limited by your current gear. So, if you’re in second gear you play two cards, third you play three, and so on. Add up the value of the cards, and that’s the number of spaces you scoot your little car down the track. Want to move farther? Then shift into a higher gear so you can play more cards and tear up the road.

Corners gum it all up and function as speed bumps. They force you to slow your velocity and downshift. Each corner presents a number which is the maximum speed you may cross it without penalty, speed being the total number of spaces you are moving that turn.

Informa Tech has revealed the nominations for the 25th annual Games Festival Nominations, with Tunic and Betrayal At Club Low leading the way with three nominations each.

Both games were among the nominees for the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, with the final awards being announced during the Game Developers Conference which takes place from March 20 to 24.

Six games in total were nominated for the Grand Prize, with Tunic and Betrayal at Club Low joined by The Case of the Golden Idol, Immortality, Neon White, and Not for Broadcast. Tinykin, Terra Nil, RPG Time: The Legend of Wright, Roadwarden, Hardspace: Shipbreaker, and Citizen Sleeper also receive honourable mentions.

The full list of nominees can be seen below:

Best Student Game

• Gevaudan (Nicolas Bernard)
• Mind Diver (Indoor Sunglasses)
• Presenter Slides (Mathias Schifter & Brin Žvan)
• Shutter (ARTFX 2022)
• Skala (Gustav Almström)
• Slider (randomerz)

Excellence in Audio

• Dome Keeper (Bippinbits)
• Paradise Marsh (LazyEti)
• South of the Circle (State of Play)
• The Forest Quartet (Mads & Friends)
• TUNIC (TUNIC Team)
• We are OFK (Team OFK)

Excellence in Design

• Against the Storm (Eremite Games)
• Betrayal at Club Low (Cosmo D Studios)
• Mr. Sun's Hatbox (Kenny Sun)
• Neon White (Angel Matrix)
• Stacklands (Sokpop Collective)
• The Case of the Golden Idol (Color Gray Games)

Excellence in Narrative

Discussion of Hogwarts Legacy has been banned from popular forum website ResetEra due to the controversy surrounding Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling.

As reported by PC Gamer, ResetEra general manager B-Dubs has released a statement from the moderation team that bans all mention of the Harry Potter-universe video game on their platform.

ResetEra had previously banned any promotional posts around the game - things like new trailers and announcements - but has now extended this to include any discussion.

"The mod team has decided to expand our prior ban on promotion for the Hogwarts game to include the game itself," the statement read. "There will be no [off topic chat] and no discussion of this game."

Rowling has been criticised for sharing transphobic views on social media, supporting anti-trans researcher Maya Forstater, writing an essay that included harmful statements and unsubstantiated claims about trans people (that were later debunked by experts), and more.

"After continued internal discussion, we began to start outlining the issues put forth by Rowling and the game in question and each time, and as we discussed it all, we kept coming back to the simple fact that Rowling is not only a bigot but is actively pushing, in her position as a wealthy and famous individual, for legislation that will hurt trans people," the statement said.

I didn’t know that I wanted to be a katana-wielding police officer in a cyberpunk version of Hong Kong who fights a giant spider tank and then eats five bowls of ramen, but that’s what I got with upcoming slasher/shooter Wanted: Dead, and I haven’t been able to put it down. Everything from its bizarre story and tone to its challenging and chaotic combat reminds me of the PS2/OG Xbox era of games from my youth, where experimentation and style was prioritized over polish. And there’s something awesome about that approach that’s captured my attention and kept me smiling ear to ear after over 15 hours with it.

One of the main ways in which Wanted: Dead nails its old school feel is in the high level of difficulty of its fantastic combat. While slashing and shooting my way through armies of enemies, death loomed constantly, as even one mistake could mean instant death for my ninja cop. Even with a squad of up to three NPCs accompanying me, I was usually outnumbered at least ten to one, as enemies shot at me from afar while their friends smacked me with melee weapons in a ruthless attempt to overwhelm me. I was forced to master the timing of my parries, dodges, and counterattacks, and to keep moving in order to avoid my immediate demise. Upgrading my skill tree along the way made things easier, thankfully, as improving my mobility options with the dodgeroll or the sliding blow made me much harder to hit, but even with two skill trees almost completely upgraded it was no walk in the park. Still, it was all worth the trouble when I finally beat a section, triggering numerous kill animations along the way that can only be described as delightfully badass.

Mimimi Games, the developer behind 2020's great strategy game Desperados 3, has revealed its latest project. It's called Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew, and the team at Mimimi describes it as a "stealth strategy" game.

In Shadow Gambit, you'll "join a ghost ship with a living soul and assemble a cursed pirate crew. Embrace supernatural powers to defy the menacing army of the Inquisition, who stands between you and the mysterious treasure of the legendary Captain Mordechai." Your own ship is the Red Marley, described as a "ghost ship with a living soul." From it you can take on individual character missions to learn more about your crew, plan your next adventure, or just hang out with your crew.

You'll also have the ability to pause time to plan moves as well as to go back to the spot you paused in order to try another tactic if you fail. Overall, think "Desperados 3 meets Pirates of the Caribbean."

Shadow Gambit: The Cursed Crew is in development for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X|S. Take a look at the announcement trailer at the top of the page and the first gameplay trailer below.