Gaming News

Friday the 13th: The Game Developer IllFonic Hit With Layoffs

Friday the 13th and Predator: Hunting Grounds developer IllFonic has been hit by layoffs as the team has "re-aligned to a refined strategy." IllFonic CEO & Co-Founder Charles Brungardt shared the message on X/Twitter saying, "Today we had to accept the harsh reality that the state of the industry has impacted us here at IllFonic." "It is with the heaviest of hearts that cuts to our team had to be made as we re-aligned to a refined strategy," he continued. "There is a lot of talent in this group and if you or your team is hiring, please reach out so people can be connected to open roles. Thank you." IllFonic was founded in 2007 and has studios in both Lakewood, Colorado and Tacoma, Washington. It is currently unclear how many people...

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Infinity Nikki Review

There is so much to do in Infinity Nikki – so much that it can sometimes be overwhelming. It's not long after you learn to run and jump that you're introduced to multiple in-game currencies, countless menus, and an abundance of color. Then, there are the outfits: hundreds of adorable clothing pieces, accessories, and makeup options across its beautiful fantasy world. A lot of that is inherent to the Nikki games, a dress-up gacha series that was previously mobile-only. It has the saccharine visuals, outfits ranging from the basic to the fantastical, and the trademark positivity mixed with occasional melancholy in its story. However, Infinity Nikki not only makes the jump to PC and consoles (alongside mobile), it does so while also...

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Anime Last Stand Tournament Update Adds New Game Mode and a Wave of New Features

Roblox tower defense strategy game Anime Last Stand’s new Tournament game mode is here alongside a quality-of-life update that adds a seamless retry feature, bug fixes, and more. There’s a lot to go over when it comes to this latest update, but its new mode is the centerpiece. Developer Boss Studio says the mode asks players to deal as much damage as possible over a 20-minute period. The team says leaderboards reset every week, confirming that brackets will be added “soon.” With Tournaments also comes a Tournament Shop, which allows players to spend currency called Tournament trophies on items and new units. Two new units also arrive with the Tournament update – Pirate King (Celestial) and Soul King (Shiny) (Exotic) – as well as...

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard Character Creator Is Being Released for Free as a Standalone App

Just as BioWare celebrates November 7 as the day of the year to celebrate all things Mass Effect, Dragon Age has a day to itself as well — and that's today, December 4. It's also the first Dragon Age Day in a decade where BioWare actually has a new Dragon Age game to celebrate at all, and it's revealed a few surprises related to The Veilguard. The biggest one: it's releasing its character creator as a free, standalone app on all platforms. That means you can make your own Rook (the player character) without shelling out for the game, and if you do decide to purchase The Veilguard in the end, you can simply import the character you already made. Plus, there's no time limit on it — and that's important, because you can kill a lot of...

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Everything Announced During Naraka Fest 2024

The latest Naraka Fest has come and gone, and we got lots of info about what’s on the horizon for Naraka: Bladepoint. There’s a new hero, collab events, and upcoming world championship, and we have all the details about everything announced. The most immediate bit of news relates to the collaboration with The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, which had been teased during the Naraka Fest Direct in June. The collab is already here — it launched on December 4 and added four characters from The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. Geralt, Triss, Yennefer, and Ciri are now available as skins for Tarka Ji, Cyra, Valda Cui, and Shayol Wei. During the collab, you’ll also be able to earn tokens that can be traded for in-game items. The next big reveal was the...

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Release Date Moved Forward by One Week

Warhorse Studios has announced that Kingdom Come: Deliverance II will now be released one week early on February 4, 2025. Warhorse Studios Global PR Manager Tobias Stolz-Zwilling shared the news on X/Twitter while also confirming a new story trailer will be dropping during the PC Gaming Show: Most Wanted tomorrow, December 5. Furthermore, Warhorse revealed Kingdom Come: Deliverance II has officially gone gold, meaning the game is content complete and the team is just working on optimizations and bug fixing. This milestone also means the team can reveal PC and Console specs, which will arrive tomorrow, and that the game will be PS5 Pro Enhanced and have a Quality and Performance Mode on both Xbox and PS5. As for why the team decided...

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Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 In-Depth Hands-On: It Has the Potential to Be a Medieval Masterpiece

This Henry guy just can't seem to catch a break. When we last left the blacksmith's son-turned-knight at the end of the original Kingdom Come: Deliverance, things were finally starting to look up for him. But the sequel, in true video game sequel fashion, starts by knocking him down a peg or two and dumping him into a new, larger open world to regain his dignity, one side quest at a time. And to be honest, that's refreshing. The story of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II picks up almost immediately where the first one left off, but it's certainly not essential to have played it to follow what's going on, thanks to an extended intro that brings you up to speed on the broader strokes. The year is 1403. Henry is a village boy from Bohemia...

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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle PC System Requirements Revealed

Bethesda has revealed the PC system requirements for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle ahead of its December 6 launch. A blog post revealed an array of different settings including Minimum, Recommended, and Ultra, plus Ray Tracing requirements too. Bethesda also confirmed an SSD is required to run Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on any settings. To run the game at Minimum settings, meaning at low graphics presets, 1080p resolution, and targeting 60 frames per second, players will need an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060, SUPER 8GB or AMD Radeon RX, or 6600 8GB or Intel Arc A580 graphics card. As for the processor, players will need an Intel Core i7-10700K at 3.8 GHz or an AMD Ryzen 5 3600 at 3.6 GHz, alongside 16GB of RAM. Recommended...

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard Spoiler Deep-Dive: Directors Answer All Our Questions on the Endings, the Gods, Solas, and More

Spoiler warning: The below interview contains FULL SPOILERS for Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Dragon Age: The Veilguard finally debuted this Halloween, concluding with an intense final act full of shocking twists and devastating consequences. Unsurprisingly, choice and consequence both ended up being integral threads in the fabric of the game. Whether it’s sacrificing one city to save another, deciding the future of the griffins, or, yes, choosing just what happens to our bald elven antagonist Solas, you’re making some pretty big moves on the continent of Thedas. Fans have been quick to theorize what we might expect in a potential Dragon Age 5, especially after the massive reveals we got in this installment of the series. While DA5...

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard Director Says Choices Going Back to Origins Still Have a Chance to Impact Potential Sequels

Going all the way back to Origins, your choices – and the consequences of those choices – have been a major part of Dragon Age history, with each player character making decisions that have massive implications on the world of Thedas. Did you have the old god baby with Morrigan in Origins? Did you side with the mages or templars in Dragon Age II? Did you drink from the Well of Sorrows in Inquisition? And, for the love of The Maker, who did you smooch? In line with that theme, starting with Inquisition, you could actually import your world states from previous games via BioWare’s online database, The Keep. That means if you did have the old god baby with Morrigan, the kid could actually show up in Inquisition, along with many other...

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Play Indiana Jones and the Great Circle on Xbox for $34 (or $29)

One of the best deals in gaming skipped the whole Black Friday/Cyber Monday cycle and plopped itself down on the internet this morning. Woot (a deals-centric retailer owned by Amazon) has brought back a super low price on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate. You can get a 3-month subscription for just $33.99. And if you’re a new customer, you can enter code GAMEPASS at checkout to get an extra $5 off, knocking it down to $28.99. Either way, that’s the best deal you’re going to find on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate anytime soon, and it happens to line up nicely with the release of Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. 3-Month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate Subscription for as Low as $28.99 Woot looks pretty barebones for a retailer, but it's owned by Amazon, so...

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Path of Exile 2 Global Release Times and Early Access Pre-Download Confirmed

Path of Exile 2 developer Grinding Gear Games has confirmed plans to make the Early Access launch available to pre-download, and announced the game’s global release times. Path of Exile 2 is GGG’s hotly anticipated free-to-play action role-playing sequel set years after the original game. Players return to the world of Wraeclast and seek to end a spreading corruption, with six character classes, each with two Ascendancy Classes, available to play at the launch of Early Access later this week. There’s co-op for up to six players, but you can play solo. Check out IGN’s Path of Exile 2 preview, where we gave the Mercenary class a whirl and got a first look at the endgame, for more. In a forum post, GGG said it’s making the standalone PC...

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Behind Monster Hunter Wilds' Surprising Skill and Weapon Changes

In a recent behind-closed-doors demo, we played a section of Monster Hunter Wilds and asked the developers about changes made to weapons and other systems, the biggest being the separation of Equipment Skills between weapons and armor. Read on for more details. As I played the demo, I realized major changes have been made to the Skills system, where damage-increasing skills and weapon-specific skills like Attack Up and Focus can only be found on or applied to the weapons themselves – a pretty impactful change. Watch new gameplay of Monster Hunter Wilds above, including footage of Seikret and camp customization. This is the new Equipment Skill system. In interviews, the dev team referred to skills for your weapons casually as...

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Ubisoft Is Discontinuing XDefiant in 2025, San Francisco and Osaka Studios Shutting Down Amid Major Layoffs

Ubisoft is officially discontinuing XDefiant in 2025, the publisher announced Tuesday, with all new purchases and registrations being discontinued immediately. As part of the shutdown, the publisher plans to shut down its production studios in San Francisco and Osaka while ramping down its site in Sydney, with up to 177 employees losing their jobs. Roughly half of the XDefiant team will be assigned roles elsewhere. Chief Studios and Portfolio Officer Marie-Sophie de Waubert revealed the news in an email sent to Ubisoft employees that was subsequently posted online, saying that the shooter was "not able to attract and retain enough players in the long run to compete at the level we aim for in the very demanding free-to-play FPS...

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The Thing Remastered Release Date Quietly Revealed for Later This Week

Nighdive Studios seems to have quietly announced a The Thing: Remastered release date of December 5, 2024. It’s a launch plan that will see the survival horror reimagining arriving later this week if the release date promised in a recent Xbox Wire post is accurate. The post, which was published late last week, specifically covers new Xbox game releases from December 2 through December 6, mentioning titles such as The Thaumaturge, Marvel Rivals, and early access for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle. Considering Nightdive has yet to announce a proper date and its official Steam page still says launch is simply “coming soon,” The Thing: Remastered’s inclusion should raise some eyebrows. Nightdive announced its latest remaster at IGN...

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Microsoft Announces Xbox Game Pass December 2024

Microsoft has announced the games coming to Xbox Game Pass in December 2024, headlined by Indiana Jones and the Great Circle but also including the likes of Crash Team Racing: Nitro Fueled. Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is the highly anticipated release from Wolfenstein developer MachineGames and is Indy's first proper foray into the video game space. Players are tasked with uncovering one of history's greatest mysteries in the first person single player adventure, and arrives as a day one title on December 9. "Generations of gamers both new and old should care [about this game]," IGN said in our preview. "Because as good as the studio’s recent Wolfenstein reboots were, The Great Circle might be even better." Crash Team Racing...

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Rise of the Tomb Raider, The Quarry, and More Leaving Xbox Game Pass in December 2024

Microsoft has revealed the games leaving Xbox Game Pass and PC Game Pass in December 2024, with titles such as Rise of the Tomb Raider and The Quarry both leaving. The Xbox Game Pass website has been updated to reveal a total of 13 games are leaving the two services: seven on Xbox Game Pass and six on PC Game Pass. Forza Horizon 4 is also leaving, though this was announced alongside a complete delisting in June. Those looking to continue playing the leaving games, with the exception of Forza Horizon 4, can buy them outright for 20% off their full price until their delisting date in the next two weeks. All Games Leaving Xbox Game Pass in December 2024 Amnesia: The Bunker Forager Forza Horizon 4 The Quarry Tin Hearts Rainbow Billy...

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Best Games Like Indiana Jones and The Great Circle

The world’s pre-eminent snake-fearing archaeologist is making his long-awaited return to the world of video games soon but what if you can’t wait? Well, thankfully if you’re a big fan of hats, melting Nazis, and finding things that should be in a museum, then we’ve got good news because the world is full of games […] Continue reading...

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Delta Force Review in Progress

“First-person shooter” is a broad term. It can mean everything from a monster-filled horror game like F.E.A.R., to a sci-fi adventure like Metroid Prime, to a demon-eviscerating romp like Doom. Even narrowing it down to a label like “military FPS” still puts the linear campaign of Call of Duty, the enormous PvP clashes of Battlefield, and the white knuckle extractions of Escape from Tarkov under a single umbrella. Delta Force, the latest entry in a now 26-year-old shooter series, is probably best defined as a bit of each of those last three – with a dedicated large-scale PvP mode, a separate extraction shooter mode, and an (as yet unreleased) campaign, it sits somewhat awkwardly at the center of a that Venn diagram. It is still too...

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Intel Announces Next-Gen B580 and B570 Graphic Cards for Budget-Friendly PC Gaming

Intel has finally announced the Intel Arc B580 and B570 next-generation graphics cards. Built on its 'Battlemage' architecture, they are both budget-friendly GPUs aimed at making PC gaming just a bit more accessible. The Intel Arc B580 and B570 follow in the footsteps of the A770 and A750, which were both aimed at 1080p gaming, with some light ray tracing thrown in for good measure. With these next-generation cards, Intel has introduced a new architecture, along with new XMX AI cores that should make the next iteration of XeSS (Xe Super Sampling) much more competitive with Nvidia's DLSS and Sony's PSSR. The Intel Arc B580 features 20 Xe-Cores across 5 compute units, or as Intel calls them 'Render Slices'. Each Xe-Core features 8...

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Elden Ring 2 Not Being Considered at FromSoftware, Hidetaka Miyazaki Says

Elden Ring director and FromSoftware president Hidetaka Miyazaki has said the developer is not currently considering making Elden Ring 2 but won't shut down the possibility in the future. Miyazaki said at the PlayStation Partner Awards 2024 Japan Asia, attended by IGN Japan and translated by Automaton, that FromSoftware has several projects in the works but none are continuations of Elden Ring, its most successful game to date. "We’re not really considering developments such as an Elden Ring 2," Miyazaki said, though made clear FromSoftware is open to returning to the Elden Ring franchise "in some form in the future." The projects in development are works in progress at the moment but diverse in genre, with some directed by Miyazaki...

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Infinity Nikki Preload and Global Release Times on PlayStation 5, PC, iOS, and Android

Developer Infold Games has revealed the preload and global release times for Infinity Nikki, the open-world dress up role-playing game from former The Legend of Zelda director Kentaro Tominaga coming to PlayStation 5, PC via the Epic Games Store, iOS, and Android. The highly anticipated sequel, which logged more than 35 million pre-registrations in its lead up to launch, is now available to preload, meaning players can download it ahead of time to begin playing the moment becomes available on December 5, or even December 4 in some locations. Infold Games released a story trailer to celebrate this preload availability, which can be watched below, and also announced some bonuses players who pick up Infinity Nikki at launch can enjoy in...

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Stalker 2 Dev GSC Game World Explains for the First Time What Went Wrong With A-Life 2.0, and Why It Was Removed From the Game’s Description on Steam

GSC Game World creative director Maria Grygorovych shows me a message on her phone. It’s proof, she says, that she’s telling me the truth about Stalker 2’s A-Life 2.0 system. The message is about why mention of A-Life 2.0 was pulled from Stalker 2’s Steam page and replaced with a generic description about the way AI works in the game. It turns out that Maria found out the description had changed when she saw players complaining about it on Reddit. Stalker 2 launched late last month to a positive reception on Steam and one million sales. It’s a success for the Ukrainian studio, a miracle, really, considering the harrowing circumstances that followed Russian’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. Stalker 2 suffers from...

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The Game Awards Players Voice Award Nominees Revealed: The 30 Games That Can be Voted on by Fans

The Game Awards has revealed 30 games nominated by fans as part of the Players' Voice Award — a fan award that is selected through the official website. As expected the selections include many of the most popular games released in 2024, including official Game of the Year nominees Astro Bot, Balatro, and Black Myth: Wukong. Dragon Age: The Veilguard also makes the cut, as does the Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree expansion and ongoing games such as Fortnite and Final Fantasy XIV. The complete list is below. Astro Bot Balatro Black Myth Wukong Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Dragon Age: The Veilguard Dragon Ball: Sparking! Zero Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree Final Fantasy VII Rebirth Final Fantasy XIV Fortnite Genshin Impact...

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The Best Anker Power Banks for Steam Deck Are 50% Off for Cyber Monday

As part of a Woot's Cyber Monday Sale, you can score an Anker PowerCore 737 24,000mAh 140W Power Bank for only $69.99. Amazon Prime members get free shipping, otherwise pay a $6 flat rate shipping fee. This is the best price we've seen for one of our favorite Steam Deck and Asus ROG Ally X chargers. I have owned this power bank for over a year; it has been on multiple flights and road trips and is still lasting strong. Anker 737 24,000mAh 140W Power Bank for $73.99 The Anker 737 is a hefty power bank, measuring 4.6"x2.2"x2" and weighing in at 1.4lbs. This is something you'd put in your travel bag or backpack instead of your pocket. It has two USB Type-C ports and one USB Type-A port. The USB Type-C ports support a maximum of 140W of...

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The Splendor Board Game Is Under $20 Right Now for Cyber Monday

Hear ye, hear ye! The hit board game Splendor is on sale for $19.99 at Amazon right now for Cyber Monday — a 50% markdown from the game's $39.99 retail price, which saves those who purchase it a total of $20.00. It's the best deal we've seen on this beloved strategy game all year, including its discounted price during Prime Day in October. Get Splendor Now for $19.99 Splendor was released in 2014 and has remained a popular title among board game enthusiasts since. The beauty of Splendor lies in its simplicity: It's a great game to bust out a family gathering for players of all ages and experience levels due to its intuitive ruleset and average 30-minute playtime. Once you get a handle on the basic premise of the game, there's room for...

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Last Chance to Save $20 on Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 in Cyber Monday Sales

Black Friday had plenty of great video game deals, and thankfully, many of them carried over into Cyber Monday. If you've been itching to jump into the world of Space Marine 2, the game is still discounted at Amazon to $49.99 for PS5 and Xbox Series X. This is $20 off its original price of $69.99, and considering we think it's one of the best games of 2024, it's definitely worth picking up. This deal likely won't stick around for long past Cyber Monday, so act fast to add it to your virtual shopping cart before it's gone. IGN's Chris Reed gave this game an 8/10 in our Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 review. He said it's "a terrific third-person shooter with a compelling story, loads of weapons that are a blast to use, and a...

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How to Watch Naraka Fest

Naraka: Bladepoint is back for another edition of Naraka Fest. The last one in June celebrated the game’s third anniversary and included teases about collaborations, info about in-game events, and a deep dive into Perdoria, the game’s newest map. This time around, it’s sure to be full of even more info and reveals, and IGN will host a livestream of the show. Here’s all the info you need to watch the event live, as well as what kind of new reveals to expect. Naraka Fest Date, Time, and How to Watch The show will be livestreamed on Tuesday, December 3 starting at 8 p.m. Pacific. That’s 11 p.m. Eastern, 10 p.m. Central, and 9 p.m. Mountain. You can tune in to watch it live on any of these channels: IGN.com (our homepage) IGN’s...

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Amazon Announces Prime Gaming December 2024 Lineup

Amazon has announced the Prime Gaming December 2024 lineup, which includes the likes of Star Wars: Bounty Hunter, Overcooked 2, and Dredge. Star Wars: Bounty Hunter is the revived 2002 GameCube and PlayStation 2 action adventure game, which acts as a prequel to Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones and lets you play as Jango Fett, who is hired to capture a Dark Jedi. Overcooked 2 is the popular food-flavored co-op party game from Team17. And Dredge is the well-received 2023 fishing horror role-playing adventure game developed by Black Salt Games and published by Team17. IGN's Dredge review returned an 8/10. We said: "Dredge's slow dive into Lovecraftian horror intermingles with its simple fishing and sailing mechanics to...

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First 43 Minutes of Kingdom Come: Deliverance II Gameplay - IGN First

All December long, we'll be exclusively covering the upcoming first-person medieval role-playing game sequel Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 as part of our IGN First "cover story" program. To kick things off, we've got a big chunk of exclusive new gameplay from the opening segments of the game. Watch it in the video above. Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is being developed by Warhorse Studios. It was announced back in August of this year (watch the announcement trailer below). The first game was given an 8 out of 10 in IGN's review, and the sequel looks to build on the great foundation the original laid down in 2018. As December rolls on, we'll have an exclusive new hands-on preview, a deep-dive on the key characters you'll meet, little...

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