Gaming News

Black Myth: Wukong Marketing Team Offers Content Creators a Steam Key — but Bans ‘Feminist Propaganda’ and All Talk of Covid

An email sent from the Black Myth: Wukong marketing team tells content creators they must not include “feminist propaganda” or use what are called “trigger words” such as COVID-19. The email, which hit social media after it was sent to a number of content creators by a representative of Chinese games company Hero Games, was verified by IGN over the weekend via a source who asked not to be named. It includes a Steam key to pre-download the game on PC ahead of the Black Myth: Wukong release date of August 20, and a link to a Google document that outlines the “Do’s and Don’ts” for content creators who intend to cover Black Myth: Wukong during its August launch period. There is just one entry in the “Do’s” category: “enjoy the game!”...

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Silent Hill 2 Hands-On Preview

Ever since the release of the Resident Evil 2 remake, developers have returned to the well en masse to give their classic games a new lease of life, more often than not with mixed results. From what I’ve seen so far, the upcoming Silent Hill 2 remake doesn’t come close to hitting the heights of Resident Evil 2 – a blueprint for how a great remake is made – but it certainly feels like developer Bloober Team has made a lot of the right decisions when building on the survival horror classic’s undeniable legacy, even if at times it feels a little too safe. I played the opening three hours of Silent Hill 2 and it was immediately apparent from the off that the remake gracefully captures all the important elements; an oppressive tone and...

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A Solid $66 Off a Metal Gear Collection, Uncommon Price Cuts on Baldur's Gate 3, Space Marine 2, and More!

Mondays are kind of rubbish, unless you can score a game bargain to brain-hack yourself into thinking, hey, this wasn't so bad after all. I've got a bunch of discounts that can fit this (smaller) bill. Personally and after watching Luke Reilly's round-up on Alien games, I'd go for that 42% off Aliens: Dark Descent. Such a criminally underplayed gem that nails the survival horror factor of Jim Cameron's god-tier action blockbuster. In retro news, I’ve baked a big, 15-shaped cake for Shadow Complex, a Metroidvania that broke XBLA sales records. Built by Chair Entertainment, a dev who’d go on to make the (sadly delisted) Infinity Blade trilogy, this 2.5D romp hooked me with its “suspiciously well-trained hikers discover a black site”...

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Daily Deals: Lies of P, ASUS ROG Ally, Monster Hunter Stories Collection, and More

The weekend is officially here, and we've rounded up the best deals you can find! Discover the best deals for Sunday, August 18, below: Lies of P for $39.99 Lies of P was one of the most overlooked titles of 2023. Based on the classic story of Pinocchio, this title acts as a souls-like, offering a wide variety of bosses and enemies to face off against. If you're a fan of RPGs or action games that you can get lost for hours in, this is a great choice. ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme Gaming Handheld for $499.99 or Open Box (Excellent) for $420.99 Best Buy is taking $200 off the ASUS ROG Ally Z1 Extreme gaming handheld, now only $499.99.That's the best price we've ever seen for a brand new unit. If you're willing to get a used model, Best...

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Dome Keeper Is Worth Staying In The Ground For

Dome Keeper launched back in 2022 and was already a brilliant little roguelike, however I found it to be a little too minimalist for my needs at the time. Two years later, however, it’s emerged back on my gaming radar following a massive update back in July, which brought with it a shocking amount of […] Continue reading...

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How to Follow the Complete Dragon Age Timeline

The Dragon Age is an era in the history of Thedas, specifically one where nobody on the continent could seem to catch a break. Each mainline game in Bioware’s fantasy RPG series introduces a new character facing (mostly) new threats, while DLCs, novels, and comics expand on this sprawling world and, of course, its beloved characters. From the Chantry’s tales of Andraste to the darkness of the Deep Roads, Dragon Age is a franchise you can’t help but lose yourself in. I’m not going to lie to you: each mainline Dragon Age game takes place pretty much immediately after the last one. Still, maybe you’re trying to figure out what order to play the DLCs in. Most likely, you’re planning a refresher before The Veilguard drops. Or, maybe...

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Even Eternal Champions, Sega's Obscure 1993 Fighting Game, Is Getting Its Own Movie Now

Video game movie fever continues unabated, with obscure Sega fighting game series Eternal Champions the latest to get its own live-action film. Originally released in 1993, Eternal Champions was Sega's answer to the popularity of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat. It was heavily hyped for its graphics and enjoyed strong sales, even receiving a sequel on the Sega CD, but it was ultimately axed because Sega reportedly wanted to focus on promoting Virtual Fighter in the U.S. Since then, Eternal Champions has fallen into obscurity as the publisher (and the world) has largely moved on. Now though, it's getting its own movie. According to THR, Jurassic World writer Derek Connolly is set to pen a live-action version of Eternal Champions...

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Ubisoft Cuts 45 Jobs in Its U.S. Offices

Ubisoft is the latest video game company to be hit with another wave of layoffs. As first reported by Bloomberg and later independently confirmed by IGN, 45 staff across the Assassin’s Creed publisher’s San Francisco and Cary, North Carolina locations were impacted by layoffs yesterday. Those affected will receive severance and career assistance, though further details about what those offerings include have not been revealed. “Yesterday Ubisoft San Francisco and Red Storm Entertainment informed their teams of a restructuring that resulted in 45 employees leaving Ubisoft,” a Ubisoft spokesperson said in a statement. “This difficult yet necessary decision was made to align these studios’ organizations with their future business and...

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Fallout London Review

Editor’s Note: Yes, we’ve reviewed a mod! It’s true that this isn’t something IGN normally does, but seeing as Fallout London is a project on a scale that rivals a full game, we’ve made an exception. It’s easy to see how a long-running series could fall into a rut. As gameplay conventions become increasingly entrenched, lore bloats, and deviation from what fans expect becomes riskier, it creates a lot of inertia in one direction that can be hard to redirect. That’s where something like Fallout London can shine. FOLON, the mod group behind this enormous (and completely free) total conversion for Fallout 4, approached the project with fresh eyes and ideas and no fear of alienating the Fallout faithful. Setting it across the Atlantic...

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The Plucky Squire Is Clever, Charming Mix of 2D and 3D Gameplay

Sometimes, a video game feels like it was made just for you. That’s never true, of course, unless you’re a solo developer making your own indie game, but I reckon you know the feeling. It happens when a game just speaks to you, when the art, music, and gameplay feel tailor-made to your taste and you can’t keep a smile off your face while you’re playing it. That’s how I felt playing The Lucky Squire, the first game from All Possible Futures. You step into the shoes of Jot, the titular Plucky Squire, a… well, squire of great renown who defends the land of Mojo, a place of unbridled creativity, from the malevolent Humgrump. Jot’s also something of a writer, and his skill with a quill means he turns his adventures into books that people...

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Black Myth: Wukong Review

I’ve never been so utterly blown away, yet simultaneously so unbelievably frustrated by a game as I have been with Black Myth: Wukong. This is, undoubtedly, one of the most ambitious and impressive action games I’ve played. It’s stunningly gorgeous; its combat is fantastic; it's incredibly challenging, but always satisfying to overcome; and the setting is refreshingly unique and steeped in rich Chinese culture, just to sing a few of its praises. Despite all of that, it often feels like it’s barely holding it all together. I suffered numerous crashes on PC (the PlayStation 5 version wasn't made available for this review), despite having a top-of-the-line setup with a GeForce RTX 4090, not to mention the multiple times I fell through the...

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Around 50 of 100 Tango Gameworks Staff Moving Over to Krafton

PUBG publisher Krafton is bringing over roughly 50 of the 100 staff members employed at Hi-Fi Rush developer Tango Gameworks while it operated under (and was shut down by) Microsoft. Journalist Stephen Totilo said on X/Twitter that Krafton public relations told him the company "plans to transfer approximately 50 development staff from Tango Gameworks to Krafton's Japan subsidiary. Transferred staff will continue to work on new projects, including the expansion of the HI-FI RUSH IP, at Krafton." The studio, alongside the Hi-Fi Rush franchise, was saved when Krafton announced it had purchased the studio from Microsoft earlier in August 2024. "Krafton intends to collaborate with Xbox and ZeniMax to ensure a smooth transition and...

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The Epic Games Store Officially Launches on Mobile Devices

We already knew Epic Games plans to release its digital storefront on mobile devices via the iOS App Store and Android's Google Play later this year. Months after the initial announcement, the prolific game and technology company announced today that the Epic Games Store is now available for iOS and Android devices. In a press release, Epic confirmed that the Epic Games Store is available to download on Android devices worldwide, in addition to iPhones, but only for Apple smartphone owners based in the EU. Epic also provided steps to install the Epic Game Store on mobile devices, citing that the process is long "due to Apple and Google introducing intentionally poor-quality install experiences" plagued with complex settings, lengthy...

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What Black Myth: Wukong Does Differently From Other Action RPGs

Since it exploded onto the scene with its stunning debut trailer in 2020, Black Myth: Wukong has had an air of something different about it. At first glance, the gameplay is reminiscent of other action role-playing games, but its monkey protagonist, visual fidelity and wide variety of enemies have continued to excite players eager to explore the rich fantasy world inspired by the classical Chinese novel, Journey to the West. As the game prepares to launch on PS5 and PC on August 20th here’s a few things we’ve noticed that set Black Myth: Wukong apart from other games in the genre. Respec and Retry Many players have already identified the similarities between Black Myth: Wukong and other action RPGs, and in some cases the comparisons...

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Many a Rupee Off Tears of the Kingdom, Need For Speeds Going for Next to NOS-ing, and More!

Thank your own personal deity—possibly The Nine Divines—it's Friday! Today is all about sating a need. A need...for speed. No, not the substance; I'm talking about scoring some of the hottest arcade racers ever released for less. I'm also loving that more than respectable discount for the Metal Gear Solid Collection. Just a buncha bucket list games going for a bargain. Put a purchase of it on your Soliton Radar System. In retro news, I’m breaking out the Jill sandwiches for the 28th bday of Resident Evil, the grisly grandaddy of the survival horror subgenre. I’ll never forget playing this with a mate at launch and being perched on the absolute edge of his lounge. Extremely limited ammo/item space and tank-like controls made every new...

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Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer Mod Canceled the Day Before Launch After Activision Sends Devs Cease and Desist

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered mod H2M, which sought to revive Modern Warfare 2 (2009) multiplayer on PC, has been canceled on the eve of its launch after its developers said they received a cease and desist letter from Activision. The mod team’s official X/Twitter account broke the news today, letting players know that they are bringing their work to a halt after receiving the letter today. The date of the cease and desists arrival almost exactly coincides with H2M’s August 16 release date, which was announced last Friday. Its X account’s biography now only says “SHUTDOWN.” “Today, our team members received a Cease & Desist order on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the H2M-Mod project,” the team’s last post...

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Madden NFL 25 Review in Progress

If football is a game of inches, then Madden typically manages to perfectly recapture that feeling in the minutiae of its year-to-year iterations. Every August, fans sit around and obsessively try to figure out what has changed, if the under-the-hood adjustments actually matter, if the new systems do what EA says they do, and if things truly feel any better. Usually, that is. Not this year. I haven’t played enough of Madden NFL 25 to render a final verdict just yet, but I can already tell that things feel very different than they do in Madden NFL 24 – and I don’t need to bring out the chains to see that good progress has been made. EA has been hyping up Madden 25’s updated looks, and honestly, that’s where its improvements are most...

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Silent Hill Creator's Slitterhead Gets Trailer Full of Beasties, Baddies, and Bloody Murder

Silent Hill creator Keiichiro Toyama and his studio Bokeh have released a new trailer for upcoming horror game Slitterhead, exclusively to IGN. The two minute trailer is full of beasties, baddies, and bloody murder as it shows off the eerie world players must navigate as they attempt to rid it of monstrous beings called Slitterheads. Bokeh also released a series of new screenshots from the game, which can also be viewed below. "Set in the densely cluttered streets of Kowlong, filled with obscurity and chaos, this battle action-adventure game casts players as the Hyoki, an entity devoid of memory and physical form," reads the official synopsis. "His only motive is to eradicate the monstrous beings known as Slitterheads crawling...

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Bungie Apologizes for Accidentally Changing Player Names, Says Fix 'Will Take Some Time'

Bungie knows there are a lot of Destiny 2 players who had their in-game names changed against their will, but it’s not sure when a fix will arrive for everyone. The Destiny developer acknowledged concerns in a series of posts on X/Twitter. Although it has implemented a server-wide fix to ensure no one else will be affected, it’s unclear when players will be able to change their names back. For now, Bungie simply says that the hiccup impacted a “high number” of accounts. “We are continuing to investigate options to address player accounts that were impacted,” Bungie said. “This will take some time as our path forward will be dependent on fixing the underlying issue.” Although Bungie has maintained that it has the power to alter...

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Luma Island Is a Cozy Adventure Game for Gamers of All Experience Levels

Luma Island is a cozy adventure game with a unique goal: providing experiences that are enjoyable for lifelong gamers, casual gamers, and first-time gamers. If you’re less experienced or simply want to relax as you build your perfect homestead, you can do that. If you want to take on the challenge of exploring caves and temples, you can do that too. You can play solo or with up to four players in co-op. It’s all up to you. That freedom of choice starts right at the beginning of the game. Once you’ve designed your character, you’ll start a new life on Luma Island with nothing but some tools and a small trailer to sleep in. After a quick tutorial, your first major task will be to visit the nearby town to pick your profession. You’ll...

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Activision Working on Custom Call of Duty Download Options Ahead of Black Ops 6 to Tackle Colossal File Sizes

Activision will soon let players install different parts of Call of Duty games separately to combat colossal file sizes ahead of the release of Black Ops 6. Call of Duty, with its various evolving modes like Multiplayer and Zombies alongside yearly releases on top of separate games like Warzone, has gotten a bit messy and, dare we say, chunky in recent years. Black Ops 6 gained attention when players thought it required around 300GB of download space to install, and while this turned out not to be true, it created such a reaction because it was somewhat believable. File sizes for the various games can reach well above 100GB, a significant portion of some consoles' hard drives, but Activision is now determined to quell this issue...

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard - Here’s What Comes in Each Edition

Dragon Age: The Veilguard is set to release for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 31. The fourth mainline game in the series — after a decade-long hiatus — Veilguard brings us back to the fantasy world of Thedas, where the evil forces once again rear their ugly heads. You can preorder the game now in a variety of editions. Let’s dive in and see what comes in each one. Dragon Age: The Veilguard (Standard Edition) PS5 Get it at Best Buy - $69.99 (free $10 gift card) Get it at GameStop - $69.99 Xbox Series X|S Get it at Best Buy - $69.99 (free $10 gift card) Get it at GameStop - $69.99 PC Get it at Steam - $59.99 If all you want is the game itself, the standard edition is the one to get. Note that the PC version is $10...

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The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard Revealed by Dark Horse

Dragon Age fans are eagerly awaiting the release of the latest entry in the series, Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Now they have another project to look forward to, as Dark Horse is hard at work on an art book called The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. IGN can exclusively debut the cover art for The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard. Check it out below: The Art of Dragon Age: The Veilguard is a 256-page hardcover that offers a behind-the-scenes look at the making of the game, including developer comemntary and a wealth of concept art. Here's Dark Horse's official description for the book: Explore the world of BioWare's latest immersive fantasy RPG, Dragon Age: The Veilguard, with this incredible, oversized art book! Uncover the...

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Dragon Age: The Veilguard Release Date Set for October

Dragon Age: The Veilguard finally has a release date. BioWare announced today that we can expect to see it out this Halloween: October 31, 2024. This news came alongside a release date trailer showing Solas conducting a ritual that's interrupted, and a fight between the Veilguard and a group of corrupt Elf gods. Oh, and a big dragon or two, of course. The chunky near-three minute trailer shows off plenty of the high fantasy fans can expect in the highly anticipated next Dragon Age, such as a cute little griffon, nasty big tentacle monster, and much more. Plenty of its dramatic locations are shown too, alongside a touch of signature Dragon Age romance. We can expect a lot more information about The Veilguard in the coming weeks...

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New World: Aeternum Open Beta Begins in September

Amazon Games' refreshed massively multiplayer online role-playing game New World: Aeternum is getting an open beta in September. The event is open to all players in North America, South America, Europe, and Asia-Pacific on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC, and cross play is enabled between all systems. It begins September 13 at 9am Pacific / 12noon Eastern / 5pm UK and ends September 16 at the same times, with preload available from September 11. Players can access the opening experience and questline through Level 30 in the beta and are able to unlock mounts, arenas, and some expeditions. "A shipwreck becomes your first step into the clutches of an island lost to time," the official synopsis reads. "Death does not exist...

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Play Alien: Isolation & its DLC On PC For Under $10 Ahead of Alien: Romulus

With Alien: Romulus releasing this weekend (you can check out our 8/10 review of Alien: Romulus here), there's no better time to jump into the spectacularly spooky atmosphere of Alien: Isolation. If you've been wanting to play it for your first time, or even go through it again on another platform, you can score Alien: Isolation: The Collection on PC for just $8.99 right now at Fanatical. That's a whopping 82% off its MSRP of $49.99, which is totally worth taking advantage of! Alongside the main game, Alien: Isolation: The Collection also comes with all seven DLCs. That's a remarkable amount of content for under $10, and truly worth every penny if you love a good survival horror, in my opinion. Check it out at the link below. Alien...

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The Plucky Squire Launches in September Straight Onto PlayStation Plus

The Plucky Squire launches September 17, 2024 and straight onto the PlayStation Plus Premium Games Catalog. Developer All Possible Futures announced the release date while PlayStation revealed on X/Twitter it would be adding the game to its premium subscription service at launch. It is the first game confirmed for the September 2024 line up, just one day after The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, Wild Hearts, Cult of the Lamb, and more were locked in for August. It will arrive on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC on the announced September 17 date. "The Plucky Squire follows the magical adventures of Jot and his companions, storybook characters who discover a three-dimensional world outside the pages of their book," reads the...

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The Terrifying (and Sometimes Terrible) History of Alien Games

1979’s Alien, written by Dan O'Bannon and directed by Sir Ridley Scott, is a sci-fi masterpiece which should need little introduction. A part sci-fi, part slasher smash hit of absolutely soaring standards, Alien is broadly regarded as one of the most important and influential science fiction and horror movies ever made – and deservedly so. It’s also a member of an elite list of fabulous film series that really should’ve stopped at just the one sequel. You know, like The Terminator. Or RoboCop. Or The Godfather. Or Home Alone. Or… Shrek. Mate, we’ve only just started. At any rate, there’s not a lot that hasn’t been said about 1979’s Alien. What you may not know, however, is that Alien was already an established multimedia franchise...

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Somber Echoes Is a Compelling, if Familiar, Metroidvania

After spending nearly two hours exploring a preview build of Somber Echoes, an upcoming Metroidvania from developers Rock Pocket Games and Lav Games, I've walked away feeling optimistic about its chances to stand out in a crowded field of similar titles. Though my short time with it didn't lead me to believe it'll be wildly inventive, its foreboding atmosphere, solid combat, and mobility-based exploration has left me feeling eager to see more. Somber Echoes takes place entirely on the Atromitos, an abandoned spaceship left in the aftermath of some type of cataclysmic event. Players take on the role of Adestria, who has been tasked with searching the vessel for her twin sister, Harmonia, and stopping her from destroying the universe...

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Earl Vs The Mutants Is Hillbilly Vampire Survivors

The joys of Vampire Survivors are all well-documented at this point. Despite being a seemingly minimalist game, and spawning a litany of genre stablemates, there’s just something about moving around mowing down ridiculous hordes of enemies as you go that is incredibly satisfying. The good thing about inspiring a whole genre is that often the […] Continue reading...

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