Gaming News

Like spotting the first sign of shore after years adrift, Skull and Bones has finally, actually found its way to launch. Six separate delays and several different concepts that were forced to walk the plank might’ve made you understandably apprehensive about Ubisoft’s long-brewing pirate game, but I’ve already found a yo-ho-whole lot to be excited about after spending nearly 30 hours with its surprisingly unconstrained open beta this past weekend. The 17th-century Indian Ocean works well as avast open world to be explored and plundered, the RPG mechanics are (briny) deep with opportunities for buildcrafting alongside your fellow scurvy dogs, and the naval combat you’ll spend bucca-nearly all your time on the high seas engaging with is...

If there’s any Marvel hero who can challenge Deadpool or Spider-Man in the popularity department these days, it’s Wolverine. That’s why it’s fitting that the ol’ Canucklehead is joining Spidey in getting a big-budget action game from the folks at Insomniac.That's right -- things are looking up for Wolverine in games and movies again. Aside from the Insomniac Wolvie game that's in the works, Hugh Jackman is also returning to the character, joining Ryan Reynolds for Deadpool & Wolverine, which will finally properly unite the two heroes. In the MCU to boot! We just got our first official trailer for Deadpool 3 during the Super Bowl, and man, are we excited.Wolverine has a fascinating history in the video game realm. It took years for...

One Palworld player has fully cranked up their ingenuity by creating a massive city, and they didn't even need to use a single mod to make a virtual urban base.Reddit user Commercial_Neck8986 has posted a screenshot and a video of their Palworld base showcasing how they made an entire urban-esque base called Palcity. Commercial_Neck8986 notes that it took them two weeks to finish their base and that it used no mods to create Palcity.IGN has reached out to the user for additional comment."No mods carried enough stone to not overweight," the Redditor replied when a user accused them of using a mod to create Palcity. "Good thing trees are present everywhere, so I just chop off some wood for the roofing." As you can see from the...

Xbox will reveal its vision for the future in a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast set to release on Thursday, February 15 at 12pm PT.The official announcement reads, "Please join us for a special edition of the Official Xbox Podcast. Hear from Phil Spencer, Sarah Bond and Matt Booty as they share updates on the Xbox business."The podcast is expected to address questions about Xbox's first-party releases including Starfield, Hi-Fi Rush, Sea of Thieves, and Indiana Jones and the Great Cicle, which have been rumored to be heading to PlayStation and other platforms soon. Spencer reportedly reassured employees that Microsoft plans to continue making consoles amid questions surrounding Xbox's third-party strategy going...

In August of last year, Ascendant Studios developer Aaron (name changed for anonymity) was ready to take a well-deserved victory lap. He had crunched hard with many of his colleagues in the final sprint to complete Ascendant’s debut game, Immortals of Aveum, but the team had finally done it. He attended a launch party in the Bay Area where he celebrated with his colleagues, some of whom he said had to pay partially out of pocket to make the trip. But while the event was supposed to be jubilant, there was an uneasy atmosphere: it seemed like Immortals of Aveum wasn’t performing especially well. At the party, developers kept asking leadership how the game was doing, only to be met with non-committal answers.A few weeks later, almost...

In a sea of sequels, Banishers: Ghosts of New Eden has a wonderfully fresh story to tell. I didn’t know I wanted to play as a ghost-hunting detective in a supernatural, alternate reality version of 1600s America, but developer Don’t Nod provides such a compelling mix of death, drama, and romance it made me wonder why no one had tried this sooner. It mostly sticks the landing with the things it tries beyond that story as well, from the excellent concept of swapping between your living and spectral protagonists, to its absolutely stellar investigation mechanics. That said, other parts of Banishers aren’t as original, borrowing the bulk of its structure from plenty of action-adventure games before it, but with stiff and repetitive combat...

For a limited time, Amazon is offering the powerful and high capacity Anker PowerCore 737 24,000mAh USB Power Bank for only $90, a massive 40% price drop from its original $150 MSRP. This power bank dropped to $110 on Black Friday, but it's even less expensive right now. This is close to the highest capacity power bank you're allowed to bring on airplane carry-on, and it also boasts an absolutely massive 140W of USB power delivery. It's one of the best Steam Deck and ASUS ROG Ally chargers.Anker 24,000mAh Power Bank for Only $90with 140W of USB Type-C Power DeliveryThe Anker PowerCore 737 boasts an impressive 24,000mAh battery capacity, which is just under the TSA's 27,000mAh limit; it can charge a Nintendo Switch OLED about 5...

Earth Defense Force 6 now launches in the West this summer, D3Publisher has announced.The third-person action shooter, already out in Japan, was set for launch in the West this spring but will now release this summer. That’s for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, and PC via Steam. There is no launch planned for Xbox or Nintendo Switch.“Developer Sandlot and publisher D3Publisher have decided to extend the launch window to add finishing touches and finalize preparations for its Western launch,” reads a joint statement.Here’s the official blurb:“In the year 2025, humanity won the war against the unknown invaders known as Primers, and peace returned to the planet. As a result of the conflict, 90% of Earth’s population was destroyed...

The boss of Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has discussed the game’s microtransactions, insisting the game is not ‘pay-to-win.’Helldivers 2 is a $39.99 co-op shooter in which players team up to battle alien bugs and terrifying automatons. It’s gone down particularly well with players, becoming Sony’s biggest ever launch on PC after hitting at least 360,000 peak concurrent players across PlayStation 5 and Steam.However, there is some debate about Helldivers 2’s monetisation. The game features a free and premium battle pass, both of which include items that affect gameplay. Some weapons and armour, for example, are restricted to the $9.99 premium battle pass. There are also gameplay-affecting items available for direct purchase via...

Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League dev Rocksteady has announced plans to create an entirely new leaderboard due to a Burn bug.In a post on the game’s Discord, Rocksteady discussed the looter shooter’s upcoming patch, and in doing so said that it had noticed “some of our more dedicated players started reaching Mastery Levels beyond our wildest expectations.”The root cause of this is a bug with the Burn status effect. This was supposed to scale across the Mastery Levels so it remains viable for damage dealing, but a “major” unintended bug made it scale incorrectly. “As Mastery levels increased, Burn's damage also increased, which basically meant that if you used a Burn build, every Mastery Level had the same difficulty,”...

The boss of Doctor Who has moved to debunk various rumors that indicated the popular show would soon launch a collaboration with Fortnite.As reported by Eurogamer, Doctor Who showrunner Russell T. Davies replied to a user on Instagram who asked about the reported Fortnite collaboration to say: "There isn't one! It's a complete myth, I'm afraid."The comment comes despite evidence pointing to the existence of a Doctor Who x Fortnite event, which was assumed to go live alongside the upcoming new season in May. There’s even a list of datamined Doctor Who content that may or may not have been scrapped, including skins for David Tennant v2 and Ncuti Gatwa.Despite Russell T. Davies’ definitive statement, some still believe Doctor Who is...

Helldivers 2 has only been out for a handful of days, but already its community is working to establish the “unspoken” rules of engagement, with an etiquette for good co-op play.For the uninitiated, Helldivers 2 is a co-op focused shooter in which players team up to defeat giant alien bugs and terrifying automatons. It’s a dangerous game, and I don’t just mean just because of the bad guys. In Helldivers 2, you’re as much a danger to your teammates as the big bugs you face. With friendly fire very much a part of the gameplay, Helldivers 2 is a game in which you need to watch where you’re shooting - and where you're landing in a drop pod.And so, across the Helldivers subreddit, Discord, and social media, players are setting down best...

Amid increasing speculation about the future of Xbox, its exclusives, and even its status as a hardware manufacturer, Phil Spencer reportedly told employees last week that it has no plans to stop making consoles.Reporter Shannon Liao said in her weekly Substack industry newsletter that Spencer moved to reassure staff during an all-hands meeting on Tuesday.“The company held an internal Tuesday townhall where Spencer told employees that there were no plans to stop making consoles, and that Xboxes would continue to be part of a strategy that involves multiple kinds of devices,” Liao reported. Microsoft has yet to comment.Liao’s report has come at a time of concern for the Xbox brand, with various articles indicating recent...

Armored Core 6 has dropped to just $39.99 at both Amazon and Walmart, which is the best price we've seen on the game since launch and the Black Friday sales. The deal is available for PS5, PS4, and Xbox owners, and saves you $20 off the MSRP for a limited time.We gave the game an 8/10 in our review, stating: "Armored Core 6 doesn’t look to reinvent the bipedal legs of the mech action genre, but it does update, refine, and polish them to an aggressive shine.""Every sortie is a satisfying combat puzzle to solve thanks to fantastic mission design, intense boss encounters, an extremely wide assortment of weapons and parts that can dramatically affect how your mech plays, and excellent, explosive combat that manages to take very...

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead Game Studios has issued an apology to players for login and progression issues that have blighted the game’s launch.Helldivers 2 launched on PlayStation 5 and PC last week and soon saw a concurrent peak in the hundreds of thousands, blowing past Arrowhead’s expectations for the Sony Interactive Entertainment-published co-op shooter.But as the player count hit greater heights, so did the servers struggle, with login problems compounded by progression failing to track. For a game that lacks offline play and in which progression is tied to your ability to succeed on the battlefield, Helldivers 2 endured a tough weekend.Now, Arrowhead boss Johan Pilestedt has issued a statement explaining what went...

We've finally arrived at the weekend, which means it is time to score on this weekend's deals! A solid variety is available this weekend, including hardware, video games, and accessories. The best deals for Sunday, February 11, include Armored Core 6, an HP Omen 45L Desktop, Splatoon 3, 10th Gen iPads, the Anker Prime Power Bank, and more.Armored Core 6 for $39.99Kicking things off, Amazon has both the PS4 and PS5 versions of Armored Core 6 on sale for just $39.99. The latest title by FromSoftware is a return to the Armored Core series, with plenty of blitzing action to discover. We gave the game an 8/10 in our review, stating it "lands direct hits where it counts." This price matches the previous low, so it's a great time to pick...

We've finally arrived at the weekend, which means it is time to score on this weekend's deals! A solid variety is available this weekend, including hardware, video games, and accessories. The best deals for Saturday, February 10, include an HP Omen 45L Desktop, 10th Gen iPads, the Anker Prime Power Bank, and more.HP OMEN 45L Desktop for $1497.99This HP OMEN prebuilt desktop is an excellent deal if you're in the market for a new PC. You can play any of the latest titles with the included AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. Additionally, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB solid state drive are both included in this build. With over $1200 worth of savings, this is a deal that won't be around for much longer.Lowest Price Yet for...

Hades 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to IGN’s 2020 Game of the Year. Supergiant Games set a new standard for roguelikes with stylish design, dynamic combat, and reactive writing that embraced the looping nature of the genre and propelled a compelling escape-from-hell plot.With its Early Access release now months away, we’ve put together this breakdown of everything you need to know about Hades 2.Jump to:Release Date Early Access Details Story Details Gameplay DevelopmentHades 2 Release DateHades 2 will first be released in Early Access during Q2 2024 (between April 1 and June 30). This section will be updated as soon as Supergiant Games announces a specific Early Access release date.A release date for the 1.0 version...

Based on the first couple of days with it, Helldivers 2 strikes me as hilarious, smartly designed, and intense whether I’m playing solo, with a squad of other random Helldivers, or serving up a nice hot cup of Liber-tea across the galaxy with buddies. I still need to see more of its varied missions, unlock a wider selection of its huge catalog of weapons, emotes, armor, and abilities, and see how Managed Democracy’s campaign against alien bugs and robots plays out during the long haul, so I’m not ready to give a final review just yet. But for right now, I’m enjoying traveling to exciting new places, meeting exotic life forms, and killing them for the glory of Super Earth. God, what a sentence.After a gut-busting opening piece of...

As the first anniversary of Resident Evil 4 Remake approaches, the game's producer has addressed lingering questions regarding The Darkside Chronicles, clarifying whether or not a certain chapter in the 2009 on-rails shooter is considered canon to the current main story of Resident Evil.In an email interview with IGN, Resident Evil 4 Remake producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi clarified whether or not Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is considered canon to the Resident Evil universe. Specifically, the in-game scenario titled "Operation Javier" focuses on Leon Kennedy and his first mission as an agent for the United States government with his partner, Jack Krauser.Warning: Potential spoiler for the end of the Resident Evil 4 remake...

With Horizon Forbidden West™ Complete Edition now officially confirmed to storm its way onto PC in enhanced form next month, it’s worth remembering the myriad of ways that Guerrilla Games’ superb open-world sequel improves upon its much-celebrated predecessor. So to break this all down, here are ten meaningful ways in which Horizon Forbidden West improves […]Continue reading...

The month of love is upon us, and with it comes not only a good chance to pick up chocolate every five seconds (by accident) but also to grab some great indie games, of which there are plenty to choose from. Seriously, shout out to game developers for releasing games so many interesting-looking games this […]Continue reading...

For me the disappointment of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League isn’t just about its quality. It's about what it’s not as much as what it is. There’s very little of what made developer Rocksteady’s games so great in the past – near-unparalleled superhero power trips that sit alongside Insomniac’s critically acclaimed Spider-Man series. It’s also the latest in a frustratingly long line of beloved single-player-championing studios delving into unwelcoming loot-infested live-service waters. It’s been a perilous leap for many to make, with success limited to very few not called Bungie, and I hope we’re now at the end of this detrimental trend that’s plagued so many.In recent years, BioWare abandoned the comfort of its trademark deep...

IGN Fan Fest returns this month with a lineup that’s filled with some of the biggest names in games, movies, TV, anime, and comics like Dune: Part Two, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Avatar: The Last Airbender, WWE 2K24, and so much more.The festivities kick off on Feb. 19 and will keep going throughout the week with exclusive interviews, trailers, gameplay, sneak peeks, and more surprises. To ensure you don’t miss a thing, this guide will provide you with all you need to know about IGN Fan Fest.IGN Fan Fest ScheduleIGN Fan Fest will begin on Monday, Feb. 19 and continue each day throughout the week with exclusive content, along with our main event of two days of Fan Fest livestreams on February 23 and 24 from 10am PT/1pm...

Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian has said the game’s next big patch comes out next week, and teased some of the improvements it’s set to make to the sprawling Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game.Patch 6 includes improved kissing, new camp idle animations, new Legendary Actions in Honour Mode, and “plenty” of bug fixes, Larian said in a tweet.“It’s a hefty one, so we’ll be sharing the full patch notes on the official website - make sure to keep an eye out!” Larian continued.Baldur’s Gate 3 launched in August last year and became an instant smash hit, soaring to huge heights on Steam before launching on PlayStation 5 and, in December, Xbox Series X and S. Larian has continued to update the game with big patches over the last half...

VR fans hoping for Ubisoft to invest more in the space will be disappointed to hear that the company is not planning to increase investment in VR games following disappointing sales of its most recent VR endeavor Assasin's Creed Nexus VR.During a financial Q&A to discuss Ubisoft's third-quarter sales for the 2024 fiscal year, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot responded to a question from a caller who asked what the company plans for VR development due to the recent hardware releases, most notably Apple Vision Pro. Guillemot revealed that Ubisoft does not want to invest too much in the VR market due to Nexus VR's sales."We have been a bit disappointed by what we were able to achieve on VR with Assassin's Creed," Guillemot explained during...

The developers of the critically acclaimed 2D roguelike Dead Cells have signaled their intention to move on from the game following the release of its final major update later this year.Original developer Motion Twin issued a statement to the Dead Cells Steam page alerting players to update 35, appropriately titled The End is Near, on PC and consoles and update 34, called Clean Cut, for the mobile version.“Update 35 for Dead Cells marks the end of our creative journey on the game,” Motion Twin said. “After an incredible five-year collaboration in bringing additional content to Dead Cells' live-ops, Evil Empire will be pursuing new adventures and we can't wait to see what they come up with next.“This comes after much reflection...

Street Fighter 6’s roster of playable characters grows on February 27 with the release of Ed, Capcom has announced.The Psycho-powered boxer from Street Fighter 5 hits Street Fighter 6 then across PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X and S, and PC via Steam. Ed will be unlocked for owners of the Year 1 Character Pass, Year 1 Ultimate Pass, Deluxe Edition, or Ultimate Edition on February 27. Ed’s Outfit 2, which is inspired by his Story Outfit from Street Fighter 5, will also be available when he arrives.Here’s the official blurb on Ed from Capcom:“First appearing in Street Fighter 5, after rejecting the evil intentions of M. Bison, Ed managed to escape the grasps of the Shadaloo organization and create Neo Shadaloo with the...

A Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League player has unearthed a hidden message that looks like a strong hunt at the return of a crucial character.Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League spoilers follow.In Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League, Harley Quinn kills a mind-controlled Batman in what has proven to be one of the most controversial story moments in Rocksteady’s looter shooter. This is the Batman from Rocksteady’s much-loved Arkhamverse, and so the cutscene sparked a vociferous debate about the character’s demise.That, many players thought, was that. But could Batman return? A new video from Batman Arkham Videos suggests Batman is set for a return. As detailed in the video, Suicide Squad players can find 12 calendars...

Helldivers 2 has become Sony’s biggest ever game launch on Steam, despite a ‘mixed’ reception from players.Arrowhead Game Studios’ cooperative action game is published by Sony Interactive Entertainment across PS5 and PC via Steam. While Sony does not publish player numbers for PlayStation games, Valve does for Steam games. Yesterday, February 8, Helldivers 2 launched big on Steam with a peak concurrent player count of 81,840. That puts it ahead of Sony Santa Monica’s God of War, which enjoyed a peak concurrent player count of 73,529 when it launched on PC two years ago, according to SteamDB.Helldivers 2’s PC success comes despite it launching day-and-date alongside the PS5 version, which is an unusual but not unprecedented...