This review covers the single-player campaign of Empire of the Ants. For the multiplayer modes (which are much better!), read the multiplayer review.
It may be nice to look at, but Empire of the Ants’s single-player campaign is outright terrible and dull. It’s around 12 hours worth of missions that pivot between being pointlessly easy – due to a passive enemy AI that doesn’t even know how to use powers to buff its troops, which is crucial to success – to obnoxiously difficult on a dime, and it doesn’t let you save mid-mission. Most infuriatingly, there’s one where nine waves of enemies spawn and attack from all directions, and you instantly fail if you lose control of a single one of the seven nests you have to defend – so many that...
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Thank your own personal deity—possibly Morninglord—it's Friday. I'll be honest with you, it's been a bloody awful week for me, but I know I can find quite respite in a big stash of games to play (and the deep satisfaction of finding discounts for you). In case I don't see you, stay safe, save often, and catch you Monday.
In retro news, I'm celebrating the 28th birthday of what was once called "The Sonic's Ass Game," Crash Bandicoot. I have crystal clear memories of chasing its white "100% gems" at a mate's place as we swore our way through especially fiendish levels like Sunset Vista and Slippery Climb. Visually, this was also seen as a stunner for '96 with its "Tazmanian Devil cartoon come to life" chic. If you want to get your butt...
Listen closely: do you hear that sound? It's the cry of hundreds of beleaguered Dino Crisis fans, mourning the revival that could've been.
Adi Shankar, the creator of Netflix's upcoming Devil May Cry show and a filmmaker with a strong reputation for video game anime adaptations (Castlevania, Captain Laserhawk), revealed some interesting information in a recent X/Twitter post. Specifically, when he first started talking to Capcom years ago, his sights weren't actually set on Devil May Cry.
He began by sharing some quick thoughts on each of the three Dino Crisis games, praising the first two while conceding that the third "lost that magic" as it headed off Earth.
"Why am I telling you this?" he continued. "Because when I first went to...
Gears of War voice acting veterans John DiMaggio and Carlos Ferro will officially reprise their roles as Marcus Fenix and Dominic Santiago for Gears of War: E-Day.
Developer The Coalition announced the news on Thursday, which also happens to be the 18th anniversary of the launch of the original Gears of War. It’s big news for longtime fans of the series, who will remember that DiMaggio and Ferro played the two leads in the franchise’s first three games. An image of the two stars standing together was shared to studio’s official X/Twitter account.
Gears of War: E-Day is a prequel that takes place awhile before the mainline Gears story got its start. Specifically, it’s set around Emergence Day, which is known as the day the Locust...
With Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 Season 1 now only one week away, Treyarch has taken the time to reveal a roadmap featuring the weapons, maps, and modes players can look forward to.
The team behind this year’s first-person shooter hit detailed their plans in a lengthy post on the Call of Duty website. There are a few highlights that we know about – the Warzone revamp and a fresh batch of new maps for Multiplayer and Zombies are the real draws – but there are plenty of other surprises hidden in today’s update that should get players excited. This includes a handful of new Operators, such as one based on the franchise’s long-running The Replacer character, and information about the launch of Ranked Play later this month.
Treyarch says...
BioWare has released Dragon Age: The Veilguard Patch 1, bringing with it a number of bug fixes as well as special cosmetic-only armor that celebrates N7 Day.
The patch addresses a handful of graphical and gameplay issues, including problems with Hardin and Taash repeating the same banter indefinitely. It also fixes the necks of NPCs growing unexpectedly, removing a bit of unintended comedy.
The armor is a sleek red and black set with a Mass Effect-style helmet. It can be accessed after completing the Harding Mission "The Singing Blade," with the chest appearing next to the Workshop in the Lighthouse area — part of BioWare's annual celebrations honoring Mass Effect. This year's celebration also included news of a brand-new Mass...
The 15-person team behind Tales of Kenzera: ZAU was recently put on notice, following struggles to find funding for their next project. But Surgent Studios isn’t shutting down, its staff aren’t gone forever, and it’s not asleep at the wheel, according to its founder, Abubakar Salim.
They are, he says, “literally raring” to go the second money comes in, like a “cocked gun.”
“We still have so much more to say and so much more to build on,” Salim tells IGN. “And the audiences that we've already started to build as well, and the players and the people who want to champion us, they want to hear more…We are ready. We're so ready. It is just about taking that leap of faith with us.”
Leap of Faith
So what’s the leap of faith? It’s called...
Warhammer 40,000: Darktide is finally confirmed for PlayStation 5 two years after launching first on PC and a year after hitting Xbox Series X and S.
Darktide launches on PS5 on December 3, although those who buy the Imperial Edition can play up to six days earlier. The game’s listing on the PlayStation Store confirms it will be PS5 Pro Enhanced, although Fatshark has yet to detail its graphics performance on the mid-gen upgrade.
Fatshark’s first-person co-op focused looter shooter is based in Games Workshop’s grimdark science fiction setting, and sees players assume the role of one of four character classes: Veteran, Zealot, Ogryn, and Psyker.
Darktide suffered a troubled launch on PC, with a number of performance and gameplay...
Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian Studios has confirmed what graphical enhancements the Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game has received in time for the launch of the PlayStation 5 Pro.
Larian said it’s tweaked the game’s Quality and Performance modes “to achieve crisp console visuals without sacrificing smooth performance.”
“Tinker away in the settings to find the perfect array of pixels for you!” the studio added.
On PS5 Pro, Quality mode runs at a native 4K resolution and 30 frames per second, whereas Performance mode upscales from 1440p to 2160p 60fps. Meanwhile, split-screen on the PS5 Pro will now offer either 30fps or 60fps depending on whether you’re using Quality or Performance mode.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is of particular...
After admitting its video games business “is substantially underperforming its potential right now,” Warner Bros. has said it plans to double down on four key titles, namechecking Batman in particular.
2024 has been a brutal year for Warner Bros. Games, with Rocksteady’s Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s failure sparking a $200 million hit to revenue, and then Smash Bros.-style brawler MultiVersus flopping to the tune of $100 million.
That’s a total writedown of over $300 million in Warner Bros.’ games business so far in 2024, and it doesn’t look like the company has a game coming out any time soon that will reverse the trend.
So, what’s the plan? During a financial call, Warner Bros. Discovery CEO David Zaslav said that on...
It’s a big day for No Man’s Sky thanks to the launch of cross-save support, the release of PS5 Pro footage, and the return of the Normandy from Mass Effect.
Following hot on the heels of the Halloween-themed The Cursed update, Hello Games’ long-running space sim finally has cross-save support on all platforms, a feature the developer said had been years in the making. “This has been a huge undertaking, and is one of most requested features,” Hello Games said.
“Being able to jump seamlessly between platforms is really transformative. Players can play from the comfort of their sofa on console, continue an Expedition on the move with Switch or Steam Deck, build an incredible base on their beefy PC rig, and view it in incredibly...
Free-to-play Smash Bros.-style brawler MultiVersus has significantly underperformed, publisher Warner Bros. Discovery has admitted, contributing to a further $100 million writedown for the company’s games business in 2024.
Warner Bros. Games acquired MultiVersus developer Player First Games in July just two months after the game relaunched on PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S following early access and open beta releases throughout 2022 and 2023.
"Our team is excited to join the Warner Bros. Games family, and we feel that this will be great for MultiVersus overall,” Huynh said at the time. “We are working to make the MultiVersus game experience the best it can be and having our development team integrated with the...
It's November 7, which means it's once again Mass Effect Day for all who celebrate. That also means Dark Horse is back with another jaw-droppingly cool collectible, this time spotlighting the main hero of the original Mass Effect trilogy.
IGN can exclusively reveal a first look at the Mass Effect: Commander John Shepard 1:6 Scale Statue. Get a closer look at this piece in the slideshow gallery below:
This Commander John Shepard statue is a follow-up to last year's Commander Jane Shepard statue, obviously spotlighting the character in his male incarnation this time. The statue depicts Shepard ready to leap into action while holding an M-8 Avenger assault rifle and Omni-Blade. It also includes interchangeable helmeted and unhelmeted...
Take-Two is set for a pretty 12 months, with Rockstar’s GTA 6 and Gearbox’s Borderlands 4 just two of the massive games due to launch during the 2026 fiscal year.
Reporting its most recent financials, Take-Two insisted GTA 6 is still on course for launch during fall 2025, despite ongoing speculation that Rockstar may delay the game into 2026.
Meanwhile, Take-Two’s publishing label, 2K, is set to release another crucial game, Borderlands 4, during the same fiscal year (at some point between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026).
Is there a danger, then, that GTA 6 will eat Borderlands 4’s lunch? Not so, according to Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick. Speaking to Variety, Zelnick said that while he couldn’t offer a release date for GTA 6, the...
Death Stranding is finally on Xbox after Kojima Productions surprise-announced the game’s release on Xbox Series X and S.
Hideo Kojima’s first post-Metal Gear game first launched as a PS4 exclusive published by Sony Interactive Entertainment back in 2019, before releasing on PC a year later.
Today, November 7, 2024, Death Stranding Director’s Cut is on Xbox Series X and S and Windows PC courtesy of publisher 505 Games and alongside a 50% launch discount.
The timing of the launch, which comes exactly five years after the PS4 exclusive release, suggests Sony's console exclusivity deal for Death Stranding has now expired.
“Kojima Productions will continue its focus on bringing their award-winning IP, Death Stranding to more platforms...
Call of Duty Zombies YouTuber MrRoflWaffles had a disastrous end to a high round Black Ops 6 run, leaving the game at round 147 and after 12 hours of play rather than saving and quitting.
Black Ops 6’s round-based Zombies mode sees players face off against endless waves of the baddies in a bid to reach ever higher levels of difficulty. Saving in Black Ops 6’s Zombies mode is only available to solo players, and you can only save one solo match at a time, which means if you leave the match without saving, there is no save to return to.
MrRoflWaffles, who has 2.11 million subscribers on YouTube, set out to break his personal best of round 141 and to hit round 200 before the disastrous mistake put an end to the attempt.
The disaster...
Life simulation game inZoi is delayed to March 28, 2025, its producer and director has announced.
The Sims competitor from PUBG company Krafton was set to launch in early access form on PC later in 2024, but that became increasingly unlikely with no release date announced and the year end fast approaching — despite the developer insisting it was still on track only last month.
Inzoi is "a life simulation game where players become gods within the game, allowing them to change everything as they wish and experience endless new stories in various forms of life." This was enough to capture the attention of disgruntled The Sims fans, with many claiming they'll switch to Inzoi for good once it's fully released. The recently released...
Welcome back to a slightly surreal Thursday of bargains. Do you know what I say in strange times? Video games—entertainment via escapism, and that's exactly what I have for you here today. I'd start by looking to some top-tier AAA JRPGs on Switch first, then grab a bunch of PS5 Pro Enhanced games cheap (for future wow-factor investment). But hey—you do you.
In retro news, I'm Tekken the time to celebrate the illustrious 29th of a 3D fighter king—a long-in-the-jaguar-tooth progenitor of a 58M copies sold series that still endures. Though I was a staunch Virtua Fighter / Saturn man at the time, I remember coveting my mate's copy of this more approachable and well-presented competitor. The concept of controlling each limb with a...
The Borderlands Movie hit box offices back in August to poor results, to say the least. But Take-Two Interactive CEO Strauss Zelnick doesn't think the film hurt the Borderlands video game franchise at all. In fact, if anything, he thinks the movie was good for the games.
Speaking to IGN ahead of the company's Q2 earnings call today, Zelnick admitted that Borderlands hadn't performed as well as he'd hoped, but that he doesn't feel too torn up about it:
"Obviously that movie was disappointing," he said. "That said, it actually sold more catalog. So, I don't think it hurt at all, if anything I think it may have helped a little bit. It does highlight something that I've spoken about many times which is the difficulty of bringing our...
Take-Two has sold indie publisher Private Division to an unknown buyer in the wake of shuttering Roll7 and Intercept Games, saying that it wants to focus on its core and mobile businesses going forward. While virtually all of Private Division's live and unreleased games will go to the new buyer, Take-Two says it will continue to support No Rest for the Wicked, the recently-released action RPG from Moon Studios that's currently in early access.
Take-Two announced the move during Wednesday's earnings results, saying in a statement, "We are grateful for the contributions that the Private Division team has made to our company and are confident that they will continue to achieve success in their new home."
The Private Division sale...
Konami has revealed the voice actress behind Metal Gear Solid character Eva after keeping it a secret for 20 years, and it is, in fact, Ariel from The Little Mermaid.
Part 3 of the Metal Gear Solid Legacy Series documentary, below, features series star David Hayter speaking with Jodi Benson, the voice of the aforementioned Ariel, Barbie from Toy Story, Thumbelina from Thumbelina, and, as it turns out, Eva from Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater.
Eva, a spy who fought alongside protagonist Naked Snake in the third game and also appeared in Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots, was originally listed in the credits with voice actress Suzetta Miñet.
Fans quickly deduced this wasn't a real name though, and even though those in...
You can use an Xbox or PS5 controller to play PC games, but what if there was a dedicated Steam controller? Brushing past the too-weird concept Valve released in 2015, there’s a new entry in the field. The third-party accessory maker Hori is releasing a new Wireless Horipad for Steam Controller that takes its cues from the physical controls on the Steam Deck. It has some great features, and it’s up for preorder now for $59.99, with a release date of December 16 (see it at Amazon). Let’s take a look.
Preorder Wireless Horipad for Steam
The Wireless Horipad for Steam Controller has three dedicated menu buttons for playing on Steam Deck (docked or undocked) or in Steam Big Picture mode. Like the Deck, the thumbsticks have capacitive...
The developer of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2 has confirmed the game does not feature controversial anti-piracy tech Denuvo, or indeed any DRM at all.
During a Twitch stream to reveal gameplay of the hotly anticipated Medieval open-world RPG, Warhorse Studios PR chief Tobias Stolz-Zwilling issued some strong words about the many posts and messages the developer continues to receive about Denuvo playing a part of Kingdom Come Deliverance 2.
Stop texting under every post we do that Denuvo is in the game, because it’s not.
“I can tell you right now the exact situation,” he said. “The exact situation is that KCD2 will not have Denuvo in there, it will not have any DRM system at all. We never confirmed it. There were some discussions of...
One of the biggest selling points of the PS5 Pro is that it can boost the image quality of PS4 games, even though they have not technically been “enhanced” for the console by either Sony or developers. And while there are over 3,000 PlayStation 4 games to date, there’s one many of us hold dear to our hearts: Bloodborne. With a sequel now seeming little more than a pipedream, we’re left with only one option – to play through the original again on PS5 Pro to make the most of the console's Enhanced Image Quality feature.
But does the PS5 Pro actually make Bloodborne look any better? If you’ve pre-ordered a PS5 Pro then you can check it out for yourself, but if you’re still sitting on the fence then check out the video below and see if...
Warcraft 2: Remastered appears to be set for an announcement from Blizzard soon after a logo for the game appeared on internal servers.
As spotted by Wowhead and X/Twitter user Stiven, Blizzard updated its content delivery network (CDN) to mention a 'Warcraft II: Remastered Internal Alpha.' Blizzard has yet to announce the game, and IGN has asked for comment.
The CDN update also includes background images and logos for Warcraft 2: Remastered, which lean on the original's naval theme.
This all appears to be pointing toward Blizzard’s Warcraft 30th Anniversary Direct stream, set for November 13 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK. Blizzard has said this stream will include "something for everyone," from old-school fans of the...
With Black Friday fast approaching, one of the standout video game deals right now is Final Fantasy 16 for just $24.97 at Amazon—a substantial discount from its original $69.99 price tag and the lowest Amazon price since launch, according to CamelCamelCamel.
It’s unlikely we’ll see a further price drop during Black Friday sales, so this is a prime opportunity to pick it up while it’s still available. Given the demand, this deal may not last long once word spreads, so consider acting quickly to secure a copy.
Looking for more deals today? One of the best offers around right now can be found via Amazon Buy 1 Get 1 50% off sale. This sale includes some stellar titles too, like the recently released Metaphor: ReFantazio, Space Marine 2...
This week’s release of Stardew Valley 1.6 on console and mobile has come with a number of problems, including disappearing chickens. Now, players are reporting performance issues following the release of the update, although the game’s developer has a solution.
In a tweet, Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone suggested removing all hats from pets if you’re experiencing performance issues in Stardew Valley 1.6. “We will address the problem as soon as possible.”
Earlier this week, Barone came up with some Stardew Valley lore to explain the disappearing chickens issue, blaming it on a wild coyote on the farm.
Barone also has some lore to explain the performance issues, tweeting: “There's rumors of a strange rash affecting pets' ears in Zuzu City...
The gargantuan success of Hogwarts Legacy has sparked a major Harry Potter push at Warner Bros., and the game’s sequel will now share some story elements with the upcoming TV show.
Hogwarts Legacy, developed by Avalanche Software and released in February 2023, is now up to an astonishing 30 million units sold, Warner Bros. confirmed to Variety.
Warner Bros. has called Hogwarts Legacy 2 one of its “biggest priorities” as it looks to bring the unannounced follow-up to fans in the next couple of years.
David Haddad, president of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, told Variety that Avalanche has been coordinating some of the big-picture storytelling elements in the Hogwarts Legacy sequel with the storylines that will play out in...
When we already have a theme park simulator as good as Planet Coaster, it can be tricky to imagine what a sequel might add. And Planet Coaster 2, most of the time, does feel pretty similar to the first one. That isn't necessarily a bad thing since I really liked the original. Adding water rides is exciting and refreshing, and even deeper visual customization is downright impressive, while equally daunting in how the options are presented. But this is still much more of a park decorating sim than a park management one.
Where the recent Frontier games (Planet Coaster and Planet Zoo) have really excelled is in the nearly ridiculous amount of visual customization options available. Hundreds of modular pieces that can be recolored...
Stardew Valley 1.6 added a hidden experimental multiplayer feature to the mobile version of the game, developer Eric ‘ConcernedApe’ Barone has revealed.
In a blog post, Barone said the feature is hidden because it may have some bugs or issues, and the nature of the mobile platform “could make a multiplayer session frustrating.”
“Mobile multiplayer works pretty much the same as on other platforms, except there is no farm ‘discovery’ capability,” Barone explained. “You can only connect via IP. You can, however, join a PC-hosted farm from a mobile device via IP.”
The ideal “mobile multiplayer” scenario, Barone added, would be to connect to a PC-hosted farm from a high-end mobile device on a local network (using wi-fi, unless you have...