Gaming News

Silent Hill 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor Among Several Games With PS5 Pro Issues

Sony's $700 PlayStation 5 Pro gives games such as God of War: Ragnarok and Baldur's Gate 3 a big performance boost but it's also enduring teething problems, with players reporting issues in the likes of Silent Hill 2, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Star Wars Jedi: Survivor. The recently released remake of beloved survival horror game Silent Hill 2 perhaps has the most complaints, with Eurogamer having spotted a number of fans flagging that both developer Bloober Team and publisher Konami have yet to comment on graphical issues headlined by a shimmering or flickering effect. "I immediately knew something was off without even seeing gameplay previously or even playing the game before this," said Unlocky-Soil-2456 on Reddit. "That’s how...

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Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess Missed Sales Targets Because of a Lack of Pre-Launch Buzz, Capcom Says

Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess failed to meet Capcom’s sales expectations, the company has said. In a shareholder-focused Q&A reported on by GameBiz and translated by Automaton, Capcom admitted Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess missed sales targets despite positive reviews from press and players. The action strategy game based on Japanese folktales is a brand new IP from Capcom that launched on July 19 across PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S (and straight into Game Pass). IGN’s Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess review returned an 8/10. We said: “Kunitsu-Gami: Path of the Goddess is a fascinatingly fun action-strategy hybrid with unique gameplay and impressive art design.” According to Capcom, Kunitsu-Gami: Path of...

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No, Assassin's Creed Shadows Isn't Getting a Battle Pass

Ubisoft has clarified that Assassin's Creed Shadows isn't getting a battle pass amid rumors that the Animus Hub, the rebranded Assassin's Creed Infinity set to house all future games in the franchise, will feature paid content. The Animus Hub team posted on the Assassin's Creed Reddit to correct leaks claiming the hub would contain paid rewards for Assassin's Creed Shadows, leading many to believe a battle pass style system was being implemented. "It has come to our attention that inaccurate rumors have been circulating online regarding the upcoming Animus Hub (ex-codename Infinity)," Ubisoft said. "We wanted to take this occasion to clarify that all the rewards available in the Animus Hub will be entirely free." The post went on to...

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Payday 3 Players React to Developer Starbreeze Saying It Will Make a ‘Significantly Lower Level of Investment’ in Year 2 Content

Payday 3 developer Starbreeze has sparked backlash after confirming plans to make a “significantly lower level of investment” in the game’s second year. Starbreeze’s struggle with Payday 3 after last year’s disastrous launch is well-documented, but its recent series of year one anniversary updates were well-received by players who had hoped for similarly significant updates during the co-op shooter's second year. Indeed, Payday 3’s recent Steam user reviews are on ‘mostly positive’, with all reviews on ‘mixed.’ However, that goodwill may now be under threat after comments from Starbreeze acting CEO Mats Juhl in a financial report caused some Payday 3 players to express concern that the studio was now prioritizing its Dungeons &...

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Rainbow Six Siege Finally Gets Full Crossplay With Year 9 Season 4 — and Ubisoft Has a Plan to Protect Console Players From PC Cheaters

Rainbow Six Siege’s next update finally adds PC and console crossplay to the competitive multiplayer shooter. The Year 9 Season 4 update, dubbed Operation Collision Point, launches on December 3 and also makes changes to anticheat, remasters an Operator, adds Siege Cup, and tweaks gameplay balance. Despite approaching its ninth birthday, Siege remains one of the most popular competitive multiplayer games across PC and console, and is a mainstay of Steam’s top 100 most-played games. For embattled publisher Ubisoft, it is a reliable earner at a time when new releases such as Star Wars: Outlaws and Call of Duty competitor XDefiant have struggled. The addition of crossplay means players will be able to play with friends from other...

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Half-Life 2 Hits Highest Steam Concurrent Player Count Since Records Began

Half-Life 2’s 20th Anniversary update has sparked a new concurrent player count record on Steam. Valve’s influential shooter hit a peak concurrent player count of 64,222 over the weekend after the studio released an upgraded experience with new features alongside a documentary that revealed gameplay of the canceled Episode 3. It helps that Half-Life 2 also went ‘free to keep’ until today, November 18. Half-Life 2 launched on November 16, 2004, a year after Steam itself. Public records for the game’s concurrent player count only begin in September 2008, according to SteamDB, so we don’t know how many played Half-Life 2 at launch 20 years ago. But we do know that at no point since September 2008 has Half-Life 2 been as popular on Steam...

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AU Deals: The Best Early Black Friday and Cyber Monday Gaming Deals for 2024!

You have a right to be confused right now. Even though Black Friday is technically just one day—November 29th—massive sales have already been started in its name across plenty of online retailers. That being said, I've outlined everything you need to know about Black Friday 2024 below, including the best Black Friday deals I've found so far. Table of Contents Switch PlayStation Xbox PC VR Headsets LEGO Smart Home 4K TV Wireless Earbuds Monitors Micro SDs SSDs and HDDs Best Black Friday Sales We've Found So Far Nintendo Switch Deals Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (-12%) - A$79 Super Mario Party Jamboree (-15%) - A$68 Metroid Dread (-29%) - A$57 Batman: Arkham Trilogy (-37%) - A$57 Persona 5 Strikers (-40%) - A$59.95 Nintendo World...

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AU Deals: The Ultimate Holiday Gift Guide for Gamers in 2024

Can you believe it? The 2024 holiday season is now upon us, and that means it's time to start your annual gift shopping for your friends and family members. If you're looking for the best gift ideas for any breed of gamer in your life, look no further. I've scoured those stores for the most popular gifts this season. Better yet, we’ve not just focused on the veterans. Collected below are some entry point purchases for anybody looking to get into this amazing hobby for the first time. Or, alternatively, anybody looking to make a platform switch to broaden their gaming horizons. Table of Contents Current Game Deals Nintendo Xbox PlayStation Great Console Deals Multi-platform Gaming Inspired LEGO Game Dioramas Hardware...

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Daily Deals: Keychron Mechanical Keyboards, Samsung S90C 4K OLED TV, Balatro Special Edition, and More

The weekend is officially here, and we've rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for Sunday, November 10, below: 65" Samsung S90C 4K OLED Smart TV for $999.99 The Samsung S90C is a 2023 model (superseded by the S90D for 2024) and was considered one of the best OLED TVs on the market last year, superior to even the LG C3. The S90C uses Samsung's proprietary quantum dot (QD) OLED panel. QD OLED panels are brighter than traditional OLED panels without losing the color accuracy, range, and wide-viewing angles that OLEDs are known for. Compared to a traditional LED LCD TV, an OLED TV offers superior image quality, near-infinite blacks, near-infinite contrast ratio, and near-instantaneous response times. Save Up...

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How Rockstar Chases Bigger, Better, More Immersive Worlds

It has been 23 years since Rockstar Games pioneered the 3D open world with Grand Theft Auto 3 and ever since that industry-shifting release the studio has remained at the very forefront of the genre. Despite there being more contenders to the throne than ever these days, Rockstar’s worlds have consistently proven themselves to be generational leaders largely thanks to the pursuit of immersive realism. The network of overlapping systems and handcrafted elements that make up places like Los Santos and Saint Denis are designed to offer such a sense of authenticity that these simulated cities truly feel alive. The craft behind such digital realities is something that Ben Hinchliffe knows well. A former Rockstar designer now working in the...

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Never-Before-Seen Half-Life 2: Episode 3 Gameplay Footage and Ice Gun Revealed in New Documentary

Half-Life: Episode 3 remains one of the great what-ifs in gaming history. Originally set to follow on from Episode 1 and 2, its cancellation instead left the series dangling on a cliffhanger it never directly resolved. Now, on the occasion of Half-Life 2's 20th anniversary, Valve has opened up about its development in a brand-new documentary that shows never-before-seen work-in-progress footage, a brand-new Ice Gun, and a raft of new concept art. You can see the gameplay segment from the documentary in the video below. Among the details shown in the video, Episode 3 would have been set in the Arctic, and it would have focused on Alyx as a companion character. Aside from the Ice Gun, the footage shows a blob-like enemy that could...

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Half-Life 2 20th Anniversary Update Includes Developer Commentary, Imrpoved Graphics, and a 2-Hour Documentary

Valve is honoring the 20th anniversary of Half-Life 2 with a celebration that includes a brand-new two-hour documentary, a developer commentary update, and more. The studio updated fans on the festivities on its website today, revealing a gift basket full of goodies for fans new and old. While it’s not quite the Half-Life 3 announcement fans have waited two decades for, it’s still more than enough to help with the wait. Topping the list of announcements is a two-hour making-of video from the Secret Tape team behind the Half-Life 1 documentary. Valve says die-hard fans can start watching the Half-Life 2 documentary today for a behind-the-scenes look at how the studio handled running out of money, getting hacked, building its PC...

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Indiana Jones and the Great Circle Is an Exception to Phil Spencer's Caution Around Licensed Games

Licensed games can be a great way to build interest with a familiar property, but they can also be fraught as various stakeholders weigh in on its creative direction. Xbox CEO Phil Spencer is aware of these challenges, and they're one reason he's "not the biggest fan" of committing resources to licensed games. Speaking with the Game File newsletter, Spencer talked about some of the "complexities" that come with making licensed games, especially when it comes to putting them on subscription or streaming services. "We’ve seen it in racing games that have to get delisted, because you lose certain licenses,” Spencer said. “So I'm always very careful, if we're going to take on a license, that we're doing it for creative reasons, [that]...

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Blizzard Job Ad Confirms 'Upcoming Open-World Shooter' Is in the Works — and All Signs Point to StarCraft

Blizzard is hiring for an “upcoming open-world shooter game,” a new job ad has revealed — and all signs point to it being a StarCraft FPS. As spotted on reddit, on November 13 Blizzard posted a job ad for an Associate Design Director, Innovation on an unannounced game. The description goes into more detail: That blurb confirms Blizzard’s plan to release an open-world shooter, but what is it? In September, it emerged that Blizzard was reportedly making a third attempt at developing a StarCraft shooter, with former Far Cry executive producer Dan Hay, who joined Blizzard in 2022, leading the charge. The news came from Bloomberg reporter Jason Schreier while speaking to IGN’s Podcast Unlocked, below, about his new book, Play Nice: The...

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Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Players Are Using Its New Pistol to Turn the Game Into Ghostbusters 40k

This week, Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 received a new update (patch 4.5) and with it the hotly anticipated Neo-Volkite pistol. The Neo-Volkite pistol is a powerful thermal ray weapon that shoots lethal beams that burn enemies to ash. It’s available for the Assault, Vanguard, and Bulwark classes and is limited to Operations, Space Marine 2’s three-player co-op focused PvE mode. And it’s there that Space Marine 2 players are teaming up to form a three-pronged Neo-Volkite pistol death stream, rekindling memories of all those moments when the Ghostbusters use their iconic Proton Packs to trap ghosts. The Neo-Volkite pistol is unique among Space Marine 2’s armory in that it blasts a heat ray onto enemies, dealing accumulative...

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IGN UK Podcast 774: Ranking the 10 Best Netflix Original Series

Cardy, Matt, and Dale are here for another dose of audio glory on this week's IGN UK Podcast. There are impressions of Gladiator 2, Lego Horizon Adventures, The Rise of the Golden Idol, and Arcane, all before the main event of ranking the 10 best Netflix original series. Squid Game, Mindhunter, Stranger Things. What will come out on top? Listen and find out, I guess. Remember to send us your thoughts about all the new games, TV shows, and films you're enjoying or looking forward to: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com. IGN UK Podcast 774: Ranking the 10 Best Netflix Original Series IGN UK Podcast 773: Don't Eat Play-Doh IGN UK Podcast 772: Breaking the Balls Meter IGN UK Podcast 771: Call of Duty: Tunnock's Teacakes 6 IGN UK Podcast 770: The...

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GTA Trilogy Studio Boss Says It’s a 'D**k Move' to Remove Developers From Game Credits After Long-Awaited Rockstar Update Goes Live

The boss of GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition has taken to social media to respond to recent changes made to the game by Rockstar. This week, Rockstar issued a surprise update for the heavily criticized GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition on PC and console nearly two years after the last one. The patch added a number of visual features that were exclusive to the mobile versions, pleasing disgruntled fans of the groundbreaking open-world games. GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition, a compilation of 2001’s Grand Theft Auto 3, 2002’s Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and 2004’s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, sparked a backlash upon its 2021 launch on PC and console. IGN’s GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition review returned a 5/10. We said: “GTA Trilogy...

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You’ll Be Able to Buy Obsidian’s RPG Avowed With World of Warcraft Gold — 1.3 Million Gold at Today’s Prices

Microsoft has announced its launch plans for Obsidian’s RPG Avowed, including a surprise release on Blizzard’s Battle.net. Avowed’s release date is set for February 18, 2025, across Xbox Series X and S, the Xbox app on Windows, Steam, and Battle.net. As a first-party Microsoft game, Avowed launches day one on Game Pass. It’s the Battle.net launch that’s of most interest here, because it means you’ll be able to buy the game with World of Warcraft gold. Here’s how it works: WoW Tokens can be exchanged for Battle.net Balance, not just game time, which means players can indirectly buy anything Blizzard sells for real-world money with in-game gold. Players can buy a WoW Token from Blizzard for $20 and either keep it for later or put it...

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$30 Call of Duty Bundle Turns You Into a Dragon Knight That Looks Straight Out of Skyrim — and Some Players Say They Would Be Willing to Pay Not to Se

It was inevitable: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 now has wild, out-there soldier and weapon skins with the launch of Season 1 — skins it was always going to get given what’s gone before in previous Call of Duty games — but that hasn’t stopped fans from lamenting the end of the game’s Gulf War-themed Honeymoon period. To be clear, there is no surprise here. Indeed, Black Ops 6, which is set in the early 90s, launched with various Zombies-themed soldier and weapon skins, including a robot, but they were at least lifted from the Zombies story. Now, it’s open season on cosmetics, and Activision has gone hard with operator skins based on dragons, a shark, and even a raccoon. If you’re playing Black Ops 6 Multiplayer for Season 1 you’ll have...

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Todd Howard Wondered if Starfield Should Have Delayed Buggies for Shattered Space

Shattered Space hasn't fared terribly well among fans since releasing back in September, sitting at a Mostly Negative rating among fans on Steam. Most of the comments center around the quest's story, though there's plenty of broader criticism for Starfield itself. But Todd Howard seems to have his own theory on why Shattered Space might not have gone down as well as it should have. In an interview with the Game File newsletter, Phil Spencer said "we're always learning" when talking about how to approach expansions, and mentioned a conversation he had with Howard about the release cadence for content. Howard focused in on the buggy, which was surprise released during Gamescom Opening Night Live ahead of the expansion. “Todd and I...

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AU Deals: Free Castlevania Games, $60 off an Xbox Cloud Gaming Solution, 79 Buck GT7, and More!

Thank your own personal deity—possibly Kratos—it's Friday! Today, I'm pretty stoked to see some early Black Friday deals seeping out of the woodwork. The official kickoff for that event is November 29th, buuuut I'm not going to be a stickler for punctuality if it means I can save a ton of money. So let's get into that right now! In retro news, I'm taking the time to celebrate the 29th anniversary of the OG PlayStation console. Launched as a complete unknown in the Aussie gaming space, this unassuming grey brick of wonders went for $A699.95 (A$1,447 adjusted), which nicely undercut its chief rival, the less 3D-competent Sega Saturn. To say this upstart was successful would be quite the understatement. Over its 11-year lifetime, 8,000...

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Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind – The Final Preview

At a glance, it’s pretty easy to get an idea of what Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is: a co-op arcade style beat-em-up with gorgeous sprite art, bearing some very clear similarities to 2022’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge, all the way down to the title. However, after kicking, punching and morphin through the first two episodes, I’m happy to report that it’s more than just a palette swap, and developer Digital Eclipse clearly understood the assignment, but also wasn’t afraid to get creative in the margins. For starters, the premise is a fun fan-fictional remix: in the far off year of 2024, Robo-Rita Repulsa (who apparently has the same plastic surgeon as Frieza) is facing defeat by Angel Grove’s...

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Sam Lake Receives the Andrew Yoon Legend Award and Opens Up About the State of the Remedy Connected Universe

The New York Game Awards announced today that Remedy Entertainment Creative Director Sam Lake is the latest recipient of the Andrew Yoon Legend Award, joining the ranks of Hideo Kojima, Jerry Lawson, and other industry luminaries. As part of the announcement, IGN sat down with Lake to talk about wrapping up Alan Wake II while looking ahead to Control 2, Remedy's live action shows, and getting him together with David Lynch for a coffee. He also confirmed the recent Lake House DLC's ties to Control 2 and talked about how one particular scene came about. You can read the complete interview below. The New York Game Awards take place Tuesday, January 21 at the SVA Theatre in Manhattan. You can read our review of Alan Wake II right here...

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CD Projekt-Owned GOG Begins Preservation Program to Ensure the Longevity of Fallout, The Witcher, and More

CD Projekt-owned GOG has launched the GOG Preservation Program to ensure the longevity of over 100 games such as Fallout: New Vegas, The Witcher 2: Assassin's of Kings, Resident Evil, and more. The GOG Preservation Program is a commitment from GOG to maintain games' compatibility with modern and future systems in an increasingly digital world. "The GOG Preservation Program is our commitment to preserving gaming history," GOG said. "Through the program, players can trust that their games will always be up to date and ready to run on current and future PC setups. "Whether it’s manuals, DLCs, or missing features, we’re offering the most complete version possible, backed by GOG’s tech support and offline installers, so you can safeguard...

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Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 1 Adds a Pretty Amazing Nuketown Easter Egg

Call of Duty has a history of mannequin-based Easter eggs, but this latest effort added to Black Ops 6 with the launch of Season 1 may be one of the best yet. Warning! Spoilers for Call of Duty: Black Ops 6’s Nuketown Easter egg follow. With Season 1 live now (via a mammoth 40GB update), Black Ops 6 players are getting to grips with the new Multiplayer maps and weapons. What they didn’t expect (and developer Treyarch kept this one quiet!) was the addition of an Easter egg for the hugely popular Nuketown map. First, some background if you’re unfamiliar with Nuketown. This long-running Multiplayer map is set in a Nevada nuclear test town. Call of Duty games over the years have added new twists to the map, but the layout and flow...

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Half-Life 3 Is Still M.I.A., but Nvidia Has a New Trailer for the Half-Life 2 RTX Remaster

Just days ahead of its 20-year anniversary, Half-Life 2 has a new trailer for its RTX remaster. Valve’s influential first-person shooter launched on Steam on November 16, 2004. Ever since then, and the release of Episode 2 in 2007, fans have called on Valve to release Half-Life 3. But alas, it seems further away now, all these years later, than ever before. Still, Nvidia has decided to release a new trailer “celebrating the game’s enduring legacy” that offers another look at the remaster, Half-Life 2 RTX. Half-Life 2 RTX is in development at 100-person mod team Orbifold Studios, and adds full ray tracing, remastered assets, and DLSS 3.5 with Ray Reconstruction as a free DLC for Half-Life 2 owners. So, what is the status of...

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The Blockbuster Games Bubble Has Burst

The video game industry is currently in the thralls of a paradox. For players, it could be argued we’re in one of the greatest times for gaming – there’s incredible breadth of choice across consoles, handhelds and PCs made ever-more accessible through gaming subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus. But from an industry perspective, things could not be more dire. More and more studios seem to be closing, original IPs are being scrapped mid-development, and vast legions of game developers, programmers, artists, and animators have been cut loose. To put it simply: the AAA video game bubble has finally burst. Across the past two years, over 23,000 jobs in the video game industry were lost, with a staggering 6,000 in...

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Call of Duty Warzone Now Has the Much-Maligned Winner’s Circle From Black Ops 6

Call of Duty Black Ops 6’s Winner’s Circle is now in battle royale Warzone, players have noticed following the launch of Season 1. With Season 1 out now (via a mammoth 40GB update), Warzone players finally get to experience the Black Ops 6 integration into the free-to-download battle royale. It’s early days yet to issue a verdict on how the addition of weapons and Omnimovement from Treyarch’s recently released first-person shooter affect the Warzone meta, but one thing is clear: the unskippable Winner’s Circle has spread across games. You can see Warzone’s take on the Winner’s Circle in the clip below, captured from Call of Duty streamer Symfuhny’s gameplay by CharlieIntel. It shows the entire squad of four players (rather than the...

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Atomfall, Dubbed British Fallout, Has a March 2025 Release Date

Atomfall launches March 27, 2025, developer Rebellion has announced. That’s across PC via Steam and the Epic Games Store, PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X and S, Xbox One, and straight into Game Pass. Dubbed British Fallout, Atomfall tasks players with solving the mystery of what happened at the Windscale nuclear power station in the aftermath of a nuclear disaster. Here’s the official blurb: The new trailer, below, is designed to showcase Atomfall’s folk horror influences and the Casterfell Woods location. There’s a burning pyre, an “unsettling” wicker man, numerous fallen bodies, and a ringing telephone box that needs to be answered. Atomfall’s Deluxe Edition grants three days early access and the planned story expansion DLC, when it’s...

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Andor Season 2 Brings a Video Game TIE Fighter to Star Wars Canon

Star Wars is forever bringing back elements of the prior Extended Universe and Andor Season 2 is doing its bit by featuring a ship from a 1994 video game. Total Film spotted protagonist Cassian Andor stealing a TIE Avenger ship in the brief snippet of footage released in the Disney+ Coming in 2025 trailer. This is obviously part of the TIE Fighter family featured in myriad Star Wars projects, but specifically comes from the 30-year-old Star Wars: TIE Fighter PC game. Those who've played Star Wars: X-Wing vs. TIE Fighter and Star Wars: X-Wing Alliance will also recognise the TIE Avenger, but the ship has otherwise been absent from Star Wars lore over the years. It was pushed into the "unofficial" Extended Universe when Disney bought...

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