Gaming News

Dragon's Dogma 2 Is Polarizing Its Community, And It's Not Just the Microtransactions

Plenty of big, AAA releases have problems at launch. Overwatch 2, Payday 3, and Redfall all launched to criticism from both reviewers and fans. It's far rarer to see a AAA game's community genuinely divided over whether or not a game is fantastic and groundbreaking, or an utter disaster at launch. But weirdly, that's what's happening with Dragon's Dogma 2. At the forefront of the "this is terrible" argument are criticisms of the game's performance, which seems to be pretty awful across PC and consoles. Alongside that are complaints about the game's 21 separate microtransactions, almost all of which are specifically designed to ease Dragon's Dogma 2's built-in player antagonism. Lots of players are furious about their inclusion, even...

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Pepper Grinder Review

To describe a game as being a non-stop grind from start to finish would be considered a negative in almost any other context, but not in the case of Pepper Grinder. This energetic platforming adventure straps a high-powered drill to your hand and throttles you forward through a series of terrain-churning 2D paths littered with enemies to pummel and challenging platform sections to navigate at speed. It’s lively, fluid, and frequently frantic, and folds in some fun diversions that help each stage stand out, even though a surprisingly short list of levels means that Pepper Grinder is here for a good time rather than a long time. The setup is simple: a young girl named Pepper washes ashore on a mysterious island crawling with...

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Empire of the Ants Preview: Explore a Weird (and Photorealistic) Insect Kingdom

Empire of the Ants is really effective at making you feel like a very tiny being within a much larger world. As a new strategy adventure game set in the insect kingdom, you command an army of ants to explore, expand, and extract resources in a large, near-photorealistic world that looks like it could be in someone's backyard. I got an early preview of the upcoming strategy adventure game starring tons and tons of ants, and I saw how exploring a seemingly mundane world looks far grander and more treacherous from the perspective of a lone ant. Empire of the Ants is based on the novels by Bernard Werber and puts you in the role of an ordinary ant who must navigate the insect hierarchy of an ant colony nestled in the woods, all while...

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Helldivers 2 Gets Two New Stratagems That Should Help Take Down Those Annoying Automatons

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has released two new Stratagems to help players in the fight against the Automatons and Terminids. First up is the MG-101 Heavy Machine Gun, which costs 6,000 requisition. This Stratagem is described as “a very powerful but difficult-to-wield machine gun with intense recoil.” It’s got a three second call-in time, a 480 cooldown, and unlimited uses. And finally, the LAS-99 Quasar Cannon Stratagem is now in the game. This weapon charges up to fire a powerful, explosive energy burst, with a long cooldown period after firing. The Quasar costs 7,500 requisition, has a three second call-in time,480 second cooldown time, and unlimited use. The Heavy Machine Gun and the Quasar Cannon are the first new...

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Visions of Mana: The First Hands-On Preview

It is no secret that Square Enix's Mana series has impacted the JRPG genre immensely since it debuted in 1991. It's a franchise rich with deep stories and memorable combat that has stood the test of time. Despite the last mainline game releasing 18 years ago, fanfare has yet to die down, as seen with the success of the 2020 remake of Trials of Mana. The question is, can a brand new Mana game replicate the same success as a remake? If this two-hour hands-on preview is any indication of the rest of the game, then Visions of Mana's fresh take on battle and class systems not only gives it the potential to meet the success of the originals but possibly even the chance to surpass them. From the outset, it is clear that Visions of Mana is a...

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Joe Lieberman, Longtime Senator and Anti-Video Game Crusader, Dies at 82

Joe Lieberman, the former Democratic Senator from Connecticut and a key figure behind the '90s moral panic surrounding games including Mortal Kombat, has died after after complications from a fall, his family said in a statement. He was 82. A former vice presidential candidate known for his centrist politics and hawkish foreign policy, Lieberman is best-known to gamers for his outspoken criticism of the video game industry in the 1990s alongside Wisconsin Democrat Herb Kohl. Among other things, Lieberman expressed outrage over games like Mortal Kombat, saying that he really wished he could "ban them constitutionally" and that they made people more violent. Lieberman and Kohl helped lead the Senate hearings on video games in 1993 and...

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Capcom Surveys Dragon’s Dogma 2 Players on Potential DLC

Capcom is surveying Dragon’s Dogma 2 players about their experience with the game, as well as potential DLC. As spotted by VGC, the survey includes a question asking users if they’d be interested in buying Dragon's Dogma 2 DLC, with a number of pricing options ranging from up to $9.99 to over $50. Those who complete the survey get a Dragon’s Dogma 2 wallpaper. Capcom has yet to announce DLC plans for Dragon’s Dogma 2, which only launched last week. But its big launch on Steam, where it set a concurrent players record for a single-player Capcom game on Valve’s platform, suggests more is to come. Concurrent player numbers for Dragon’s Dogma 2 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S are unavailable. This week, Capcom revealed planned...

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Don’t Throw Snowballs in Helldivers 2 — They’re Causing the Game to Crash

Here’s an odd one: the developer of Helldivers 2 has warned players against having snowball fights because they’re causing the game to crash. Some planets in Helldivers 2, such as Heath, have snow, and in this chilly environment players are able to make a snowball and throw it. When players discovered this mechanic they broke out in spontaneous snowball fights. Now, though, snowball fights may put the game itself at risk. In a post on the Helldivers Discord, Arrowhead community lead Baskinator told players to avoid having snowball fights for the time being. “We're aware of a crash caused by picking up and throwing snowballs,” Baskinator said. “We hope to have this fixed in the near future, but until then, we advise against snowball...

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FromSoftware Games Get a Big Discount in the UK: Dark Souls, Elden Ring and More

You can buy a big selection of FromSoftware games at a discount price when you use the code CHICK15 at eBay right now. This includes the Dark Souls Trilogy (PS4) for £24.61, Elden Ring (PS4) for £28.01, and Sekiro Shadows Die Twice (PS4) also for £28.01. This deal is a great chance to play some of the most iconic FromSoftware games before the Elden Ring Shadow of the Erdtree DLC is released. When IGN reviewed the base-game, we gave it a resounding 10/10, saying: "It is no exaggeration to say that Elden Ring is FromSoftware’s largest and most ambitious game yet, and that ambition has more than paid off. Even after 87 hours of blood, sweat, and tears that included some of the most challenging fights I’ve ever fought, and innumerable...

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Tyler "Ninja" Blevins Reveals Cancer Diagnosis

Streamer Tyler "Ninja" Blevins has revealed he has been diagnosed with melanoma, a type of skin cancer. 32-year-old Blevins, who has the most-followed Twitch channel with over 18.8 million followers, revealed the diagnosis in a statement on Twitter / X after a mole removed from his foot was found to be cancerous. Blevins said medical professionals are “optimistic” it was caught in the early stages. “I’m grateful to have hope in finding this early, but please take this as a PSA to get skin checkups,” Blevins added. Here’s Ninja's statement in full: Ninja became perhaps the most recognisable name in streaming by playing Fortnite on Twitch from late 2017. He’s since broken out from the video game space to become a mainstream...

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Layoffs Hit Total War Developer Creative Assembly and Sonic Dream Team Developer Hardlight, Sega Sells Relic Entertainment

Sega Europe has announced sweeping layoffs that affect Total War maker Creative Assembly and Sonic Dream Team developer Hardlight. Sega Europe boss Jurgen Post sent staff an email this morning notifying them of the cuts, as well as the sale of Company of Heroes and Dawn of War developer Relic Entertainment. The layoffs affect approximately 240 roles across Sega Europe, Creative Assembly, and a “small number” at Hardlight. Football Manager developer Sports Interactive, also owned by Sega Europe, was not mentioned. Sega did not disclose how many staff at each studio were affected, but did issue IGN an additional update on the status of Creative Assembly's upcoming projects: "Creative Assembly continues to have multiple projects in...

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Take-Two Buys Gearbox From Embracer, Confirms Development on New Borderlands Game

Embracer Group has officially divested Gearbox Entertainment, selling the division to Take-Two Interactive for $460 million. In a press release, Embracer shared that it is divesting Gearbox Software, Gearbox Montreal, Gearbox Studio Quebec, and the franchises Borderlands, Tiny Tina's Wonderlands, Homeworld, Risk of Rain, Brothers in Arms, and Duke Nukem. Embracer will retain rights to Gearbox Publishing San Francisco (formerly Perfect World Entertainment, and which it plans to rename), the publishing rights to Remnant, Hyper Light Breaker, and other unannounced games, Cryptic Studios, Lost Boys Interactive, and Captured Dimensions. All of its retained assets will be integrated into other parts of Embracer Group. The sale is expected...

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Super Mario Wonder Drops to 60 Coins, An 88 Buck Dragon's Dogma 2, $13 Far Cry 6, and More!

The figurative sandbox of freedom that is your weekend approaches, so it's time to fill your inventory with stuff to do. Personally, I'm leaning pretty heavily into buying that 87% off Far Cry 6 twice—the plan being to gift one to a mate and then take advantage of the stellar co-op campaign. Self-serving presents aside, I'm still all about Dragon's Dogma 2, even though I'm on the other side of the credits. Game of the month for me. In retro news, I'm celebrating the 21st birthday of the Gameboy Advance SP, the flip-top bestest version of the GBA SKUs. Debuting at a launch price of almost 200 dollarydoos, it would go on to ship a whopping 43.57M units before being discontinued in 2009. My fondest memory of my SP: using it in...

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Call of Duty: Warzone Adding Bots for the First Time in New Bootcamp Mode

If you're feeling intimidated by the growing complexity of Call of Duty: Warzone and want somewhere to train, you won't have to suffer on the battlefield anymore. Instead, Warzone is officially introducing the ability to play against bots via a mode called Bootcamp. An expansion of the Modern Warfare III Training Course that launched in Season 2, Bootcamp is a Quad-only training mode set on Urzikstan that is designed to give players a "snapshot of the real-deal Call of Duty: Warzone experience." It features up to 20 players via mode-specific matchmaking, and can be accessed either by partying up or via a fill-squad. Bots are only available in Bootcamp, so their integration is fairly limited, and the new mode also won't progress the...

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Best Beginner Board Games

Congratulations - you have decided to take off those training wheels, put down that deck of Uno cards, and dip your toe into the exciting hobby world of board games! Now, before you reach for that box of Twilight Imperium or put your investigator pants on to trot around the city of Arkham (the Cthulhu one, not the one with Batman), it’s important to work up that level of game complexity. There are a ton of great games that are far more welcoming to learn and play, to help ease you into things, but a lack of complexity doesn’t mean a lack of fun The following games on this list were compiled to point new players towards experiences that, first off, won’t break the bank, secondly, give you a good foundational understanding of some...

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Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone 3 Season 3 Details: Rebirth Island, Mobile Integration, and Snoop Dogg

Activision has fully pulled back the curtain on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Warzone Season 3, including first looks at the return of fan-favorite maps, new weapons, and more. The Call of Duty team showed off all of the new content in detail in a blog post on its website along with a release date of April 3 at 9 a.m. PT / 12 p.m. ET across all platforms. Per usual, some drops are being held off for the undated mid-season update, but there will still be plenty to dive into next week. Highlights include six Core 6v6 maps – Emergency, Tanked, 6 Star, Growhouse (previously known as Sphere from Call of Duty: Vanguard), Checkpoint (mid-season), and Grime (mid-season) – the long-awaited return of Rebirth Island, new Modes, and Battle...

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PlayStation Plus Games for April 2024 Announced

Sony has unveiled the PlayStation Plus games for April 2024, revealing three new additions players can check out on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5 next month. The company went over the latest batch of monthly additions in a PlayStation.Blog post, revealing Immortals of Aveum, Minecraft Legends, and Skul: The Hero Slayer as the three titles players can look forward to. PlayStation Plus Essential, Extra, and Premium members on can add the games to their library starting next week on Tuesday, April 2 until Monday, May 6. Immortals of Aveum (PS5) is EA and Ascendant Studios’ first-person fantasy romp that gives players the skills to cast spells from their fingertips. Its story follows Jak, a powerful lead who has the power to turn the...

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Stardew Valley's 1.6 Update Gives Players a New Way to Get Their Hands on Mayor Lewis' Lucky Purple Shorts

Stardew Valley’s 1.6 update has given players a new way to get their hands on Mayor Lewis’ coveted Lucky Purple Shorts, while referencing a popular bug found in earlier versions of the game. Three digital days into the first pixel Summer of Eric Barone’s beloved farming RPG, the player are presented with a very strange quest — to find the Mayor’s Lucky Purple Shorts, and discretely return them to him, with the rest of the village being non the wiser. Mayor Lewis doesn’t offer any details as to how the garment was misplaced, but given that the shorts can later be found in the bedroom at Marnie’s Ranch, well, we can probably infer from context. In order to retrieve them the normal way, the player need to improve their relationship with...

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Women’s History Month: The Best Game, Movie, and TV Recommendations From IGN Staff

As Women’s History Month comes to a close, the ladies of IGN got together to discuss all of the shows, games, and movies we’re loving right now. There were no rules or regulations, simply a group of women talking about what makes their hearts shine right now. Consider this a list of recommendations from the leading ladies from all corners of IGN, whether it be video, news, features, sales, production, syndication, or events! You can also read our other Women's History Month Coverage: Yoko Shimumora Profile by Rebekah Valentine An Ode to the Fictional Women the Streaming Era Killed by Val Ettenhofer We Did Lisa Frankenstein Dirty During its Theatrical Run by Amelia Emberwing Games In Stars and Time: I loved the joyfully queer party...

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Tell Me Why Studio Don't Nod Says Seven Games in the Works, Four of Them Unannounced

Don't Nod currently has seven games in the works, four of which are unannounced, the studio behind Tell Me Why, Vampyr, and the original Life is Strange announced today. The projects include Lost Records: Bloom & Rage, which was announced during The Game Awards 2023 and purports to be the start of a connected universe. Five of the projects are being developed internally, with the remaining two being handled by external devs Tolima and Tiny Bull Studios. Tolima is developing Koira, a "musical, hand-drawn adventure" that will be published by Don't Nod. Don't Nod's plans are part of a larger reorganization announced today that will see if focus on what it calls "three distinct internal branches of expertise" RPG, narrative adventure...

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Venture Gameplay Trailer Reveals Overwatch 2's Newest Hero Along With When They'll be Playable

Overwatch 2's 40th hero, Venture, will be playable for a limited-time trial running from March 28 through March 31. Venture, Overwatch 2's first nonbinary character, is a damage hero. Although we got a peak at some early gameplay matches with Venture at Blizzcon 2023, Blizzard gave players a closer look at some of Venture's unique abilities in an all-new gameplay trailer as well as a stinger tease for an updated Temple of Anubis map. Venture's drill-like gun allows them to traverse underneath the map (with apparent invulnerability) and damage enemies once they emerge from their burrows. Another ability of theirs, Drill Dash, thrusts them forward into the air. Likewise, Smart Excavator shoots out an explosive artillery. Venture's...

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Sega of America Union Workers Ratify Contract Less Than a Year After Recognition

Today, workers at Sega of America union AEGIS-CWA have announced they have ratified their first contract with Sega, less than a year after their recognition as a legal union. In a press release, AEGIS-CWA revealed that the worker vote to ratify the contract passed, allowing the contract to go into effect. The contract includes a number of worker protections, including raises for all unit members (roughly 150 full-time and temporary employees), Just Cause protections, layoff protections including a recall list and severance, commitment to crediting all workers on games they work on, and a number of other benefits. "One of our most notable items is our grievance process," said Sega localization editor and AEGIS-CWA member Em Geiger...

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Stardew Valley's 1.6 Update has Seemingly Introduced Some Very Cursed Mannequins to the Game

The past week has seen Stardew Valley players hungrily exploring the wealth of new content, bug fixes, and Easter eggs that have made their way to the PC version of the beloved farming RPG courtesy of the newly released 1.6 update. Inquisitive fans have already figured out how to lay hands on a legendary crossover weapon in the form of Terraria’s Meowmere sword, and have even found a sinister cutscene designed to punish players for using a glitch to access a late game area known as The Summit. It would appear that Barone’s latest major update brought another surprise to the game: a new breed of creepy Cursed Mannequin that seems to take on a life of its own when the player goes to sleep for the night. The uncanny item of furniture is...

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Preorders for the Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology Are Down to Just £41 in the UK Right Now

Preorders for the much anticipated Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology (PC) have dropped to just £40.76 in the UK at the moment. To get the deal, all you need to do is head over to The Game Collective store on eBay and use the code CHICK15 at checkout to get that sweet 15% discount. The Fallout S.P.E.C.I.A.L. Anthology was announced back in February, and it will come out on April 11, just one day before the Fallout TV series hits the screens. Aside from seven games (listed below), the compilation includes seven S.P.E.C.I.A.L. cards. These cards are based on the S.P.E.C.I.A.L. cards players can find in Fallout 76. Each card is printed with a P.C. code for the seven Fallout games. The games included in the anthology are: Fallout Fallout...

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Open Roads Review

There are times when Open Roads hits alarmingly close to home. Early on in this interactive road trip, your 16-year-old protagonist Tess turns around to reach for a bag perched in the back of her mom’s vintage station wagon – without skipping a beat, she’s accosted by her mother, Opal, from behind the wheel. The altercation flooded my brain with memories of family road trips in the early 2000s: “You can’t just turn around. It’s unsafe,” my dad would say from his vehicular throne, despite how frustratingly close I was to grabbing my Game Boy. Parental authority and nostalgia are just a few of the powerful tools Open Roads harnesses to deliver a playful and relatable story about coming of age in the early aughts, however, hastily resolved...

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Judas: Gameplay Overview of BioShock Creator's Next Game

If you haven’t seen my 75-minute interview with BioShock creator Ken Levine detailing the journey he’s been on for the past decade in building something entirely new with Judas, check that out below. But if you just want to see the new gameplay footage that developer Ghost Story Games gave us to accompany that interview, I’ve got you covered right here. Check the video above. That said, I can’t tell you any more about Judas that Ken didn’t already talk about in the interview, so as not to spoil anything for you, but I can describe what’s going on in the footage that was provided. Let’s start right where the game does: with you being reprinted! It looks incredibly painful, and the fact that you’re being reprinted at all means that...

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17 Years Later, Hellgate: London Makes Surprise Return With New Game From Original Developer

Remember Hellgate: London? The dark fantasy action role-playing game came out in 2007 for PC, a year before developer Flagship Studios went bankrupt. Since then, various free-to-play and online revivals have come and gone. Now, 17 years after the release of Hellgate: London, it’s back. Hellgate: London chief creator Bill Roper, via his new studio Lunacy Games, has signed a licensing agreement with HanbitSoft (HanbitSoft acquired the rights to the Hellgate franchise from Namco Bandai in 2020) to create a new AAA Hellgate game, codenamed Hellgate: Redemption. It’s due out at some point for console and PC, and is set in an as-of-yet undisclosed part of the alternate-history, demon-apocalypse world. “I’ve dreamed of returning to the...

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Marvel Rivals Announced – a 6v6 Superhero Team-Based Free-to-Play Shooter Set Across the Multiverse

NetEase and Marvel Games have announced Marvel Rivals, a 6v6 team-based free-to-play shooter headed to PC that stars iconic heroes and villains from the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy, X-Men, and many more. While no release date was given, Netease and Marvel did reveal Marvel Rivals will have a Closed Alpha Test in May. It also shared that this multiversal adventure will feature an initial roster comprised of Black Panther, Doctor Strange, Groot, Hulk, Iron Man, Loki, Luna Snow, Magik, Magneto, Mantis, Namor, Peni Parker, Rocket Raccoon, Scarlet Witch, Spider-Man, Storm, Star-Lord, and The Punisher. Watch the announcement trailer below. Marvel Rivals also promises ever-changing battlefields that will be destroyed by the...

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Dune: Awakening Is Looking Supremely Cool – As It Was Written

As a massive fan of survival games and Dune, I’ll admit to being a bit skeptical about an open-world survival game that takes place on the famously barren planet of Arrakis, but after an hour-long presentation of the upcoming Dune: Awakening, those concerns have disappeared entirely. Based on the hands-off showcasing of what’s to come when this MMO survival game hits early access later this year, it certainly appears that developer Funcom has taken their hard-won learnings from the underrated Conan Exiles and applied it to this ambitious multiplayer world set in one of sci-fi’s most beloved galaxies. Whether it was the impressively detailed character creation options, the intricate RPG systems filled with skill trees and craftables, or...

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Jack Black 'Can't Believe' Rockstar Games Like GTA and Red Dead Redemption Haven't Received Film Adaptations

Actor and comedian Jack Black is in disbelief that someone has yet to craft film adaptations for Rockstar Games' iconic franchises, most notably Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. In an interview with Total Film to discuss his role as Claptrap in Eli Roth's upcoming film based on the Borderlands franchise, the outlet asked Black what games he would like to see adapted for the big screen. Black explained how he was shocked no one has yet to make a film adaptation of any of Rockstar Games IPs before explicitly calling out Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption. "I can't believe they haven't already started making a movie of any of the Rockstar Games – Grand Theft Auto, but especially Red Dead Redemption," Black explained...

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