Gaming News

Tony Hawk’s Kids-Focused Animated TV Show Is Called Skatebirds

Tony Hawk is making a kids-focused animated TV show called Skatebirds, a title inspired by Hawk’s ‘Birdman’ nickname. Deadline reports Hawk is working with Montreal’s Laughing Dragon Studios to develop the series, which is aimed at kids aged 6-11. According to Deadline, Skatebirds will “celebrate skateboarding’s playful community while emphasizing its adventurous nature.” It’s about a group of young skateboarders who are also birds. Expect plenty of teamwork, friendship, and a focus on community. Episodes are 11 minutes long. Legendary professional skater Tony Hawk is the face of Neversoft’s phenomenally successful Tony Hawk's Pro Skater series, which began life in 1999 on PSone. Activision released Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 1 + 2 in...

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No Man’s Sky’s 27th Major Update, Orbital, Is a Big One

No Man’s Sky developer Hello Games has unveiled its 27th major update, dubbed Orbital. Hot on the heels of the release of the Omega expedition, the Orbital update brings a complete overhaul to Space Stations. Until now these have been perhaps the only part of No Man’s Sky that wasn’t procedurally generated, Hello Games said. “Engine improvements have allowed us to create vast interior spaces and exterior spaces, with improved reflection and metallic surfaces.” Outside, Space Station exteriors are said to be “at a scale never seen before, and are hugely varied.” Inside, Stations have been “transformed, and are now vast, procedurally generated, and incredibly diverse.” They feature new shops, gameplay, and activities, and are now...

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More Games Should Let You Climb Giant Creatures

I’ll never climb a 20-foot ogre in real life. That’s something I’ve had to contend with for a while but now, in Dragon’s Dogma 2, I can do just that. It’s a thrill not limited to ogres but a whole host of mythical monsters found inside Capcom’s latest. Griffins, golems, chimeras… I’ve scaled the lot. Each one I ascended really got me thinking that more games should let you climb giant creatures. It’s a feature that’s not only an incredibly tangible way of conveying that feeling of taking down a fearsome beast, but also cleverly transforms towering threats into walking puzzles that require dexterity, smarts, and of course, brute strength to take down. It really is something other action games should look to replicate. Of course...

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DC Universe Online Is Still Going, 13 Years Later — and Now It Has a PS5 Version

DC Universe Online is still going, 13 years after it launched on PC and PlayStation 3. Now it finally has a native PlayStation 5 version, and its developer has outlined plans for a number of future updates. Dimensional Ink’s new lead producer, Kenn "Kendricke" White, announced that DCUO, the free-to-play MMO licensed by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, is now available as a native client for PS5 alongside performance improvements. Until now, the PlayStation 4 version of DCUO was playable on PS5 via backwards compatibility. An Xbox Series X and S client is “on the way.” Dimensional Ink said players of the native PS5 version will benefit from faster load times, smoother transitions, and higher frame-rates. Servers for the PS5...

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Outward 2 Preview: The Survival RPG That Hits Hard

Outward 2 picks up 50 years after the events of the first open-world survival RPG; developer Nine Dots tells me that “The difference in production value is significant.” Again, you’ll play a nobody of an adventurer, just a regular ol’ human against a world rife with danger. I went hands-on with a PC demo, and it felt like a hyper-polished slice of gameplay – but a rather thin one. It evinced no details of Outward 2’s story or scale, but I sure felt the series’ famously difficult combat. It left me ultimately unsatisfied, desperately wishing to learn and experience more. I started my playthrough in a quarry, having been dropped unceremoniously into the world with no preamble. The environment is very detailed, colourful, and almost...

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80 Bucks Booted off FC24, 95% off a 2020 Star War, and the Cheapest Ronin, Dogmas, and Stellar Blades!

Welcome back to my daily dose of scoring games that matter for way less than recommended retail. I've got a smattering of the cheapest current AAAs, but mostly this Wednesday is about slightly older gems that can be scored for near shoplifter level discounts. Case in point: that free Fallout and those almost-free, ≥90% off deals on Star Wars: Squadrons, Titanfall 2 Ultimate, and Evil Genius 2. In retro news, I'm celebrating the sweet sixteenth of God of War: Chains of Olympus, a PSP powerhouse spin-off. In this first game prequel that occurs after God of War: Ascension, Kratos is still the Winston Wolf dogsbody of that Greek Godsbody corporate. My overriding memory of it is an array of weird unlockable skins that turned old mate into...

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Dragon's Dogma 2 Players Discover Working Catapults That Sometimes Break Open Secret Areas

Dragon's Dogma 2 is simply enormous, and players are still discovering wild secrets days after launch, such as a terrifying Pawn plague that makes your minions murderous. But on the slightly goofier side, the community has recently figured out how to use the numerous catapults scattered around the world, and some of them are useful for revealing secret areas. Just today, X/Twitter user @Peppo_LS shared a clip where they used a catapult in Dragon's Dogma 2 to successfully tear down a massive rock wall and unlock a new path far in the distance. Their clip has gone viral, likely because it's not immediately obvious that catapults are usable and Dragon's Dogma 2 doesn't tutorial them in any way. You have to find a working one in the world...

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Yes, You Have to Install Battle.net to Play Diablo 4 via PC Game Pass

Diablo 4 hits Game Pass this week as the first Blizzard game on Microsoft’s subscription service since the $69 billion buyout of Activision Blizzard. However, there are a few hoops you need to jump through if you want to get stuck in on PC. After Diablo 4 goes into Game Pass on March 28, it will be available as part of the PC Game Pass subscription. As outlined by Megan Spurr, Community Lead, Xbox Game Pass, in a post on Xbox.com, here’s how PC players can install Diablo 4 via Game Pass: Open the Xbox App on PC and make sure you are signed in with your Microsoft account tied to your Game Pass membership. Then click on Diablo 4 and then the Install button. Click “Install Battle.net” when prompted and complete the installation. (If...

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Judas First Details: How Ken Levine Is Building on BioShock With 'Narrative LEGOs'

By sheer coincidence, today marks exactly 11 years since BioShock Infinite was released. It was by all accounts a masterpiece – a worthy follow-up to 2007's landmark narrative-driven first-person shooter BioShock. But after two excellent DLC episodes were released, creative director Ken Levine resigned and parent company Take-Two closed Irrational Games. Levine started a new, smaller studio for Take-Two called Campfire Games, later renamed to Ghost Story Games. And then everything went quiet, with Levine rarely speaking publicly outside of a GDC talk about "narrative LEGOs" in 2014. That all changed at the 2022 Game Awards, where Levine and Ghost Story's first project, Judas, was officially announced. Its only other public appearance...

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Outpost: Infinity Siege Review

Like a combination Taco Bell/KFC, Outpost: Infinity Siege is trying to be a suspicious number of things at once. But while this ambitious and absurdly complicated multiplayer first-person-shooter-real-time-strategy-tower-defense game is absolutely covered in a thick layer of jank, it defies the odds by actually being pretty darn competent at most of the things it attempts. Sure, the story is laughably bad, the voice performances gave me a full-body cringe, and there’s so much grinding and RNG that you’ll be seeing the same levels way too often. But all of those complaints stand in stark contrast to the numerous ways Infinity Siege knocks it out of the park, and as a result I’m still having a lot of fun leveling up my base and facing off...

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First Human Patient to Receive a Neuralink Brain Implant Used it to Stay Up All Night Playing Civilization 6

The first human recipient of a Neuralink brain implant has shared new details on his recovery and experience of living with the experimental assistive tech, which has allowed him a greater level of freedom and autonomy, including the ability to pull an all-nighter playing Sid Meier's Civilization 6. Neuralink co-founder Elon Musk took to X/Twitter in January to reveal that the company had implanted its first brain-computer interface in the head of a human patient, who was “recovering well” following the surgery. The billionaire also hinted at the time that the implant was functioning well and had detected a “promising neuron spike”. In a subsequent February update, Musk commented that the unnamed patient had seemingly made a full...

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South Park: Snow Day-Themed Xbox Series X Consoles Includes Four Unique Designs of Iconic Characters

Microsoft is at it again with the custom-themed Xbox Series X consoles based on video games coming to the platform. The latest outing is four custom consoles inspired by the latest South Park video game subtitled Snow Day. Announced in a new Xbox Wire blog post, the new consoles, which you can check out in the image below, come in four unique designs and a specially-themed controller. Each one includes the main characters from the popular animated series: Eric Cartman, Kyle Broflovski, Stan Marsh, and Kenny McCormick in their fantasy-themed costumes as depicted in the new game. Fans can win one of these four limited-edition consoles by entering a "limited-time" sweepstakes that ends on April 25. To enter, fans must follow the...

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Baldur's Gate 3: Director Swen Vincke Answers All Our Questions About Foregoing DLC, AAA Development, and More

At the Game Developers Conference 2024, Larian Studios head Swen Vincke gave an incredibly detailed talk entitled "The Secrets of Baldur's Gate 3." In it, he divulged a number of new details about the game's development, ending on the bombshell that Larian would neither be making DLC for Baldur's Gate 3, nor making Baldur's Gate 4. The studio is moving on. Shortly after his talk, IGN had the pleasure of sitting down with Vincke to talk about... well, everything. The talk we'd just heard, the news he dropped, how the studio is doing post-release, how he feels about the games industry, all of it. We've already written up some of the biggest new reveals Vincke shared with us during that conversation, such as the playable Ketheric Thorm...

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Helldivers 2 Cheater Pretends to Be Game Master Joel, Drops Unreleased APC in Random Group, Leaves

A viral Helldivers 2 gameplay clip seemingly showing Arrowhead Game Master Joel dropping into a random group’s game, spawning the unreleased armored personnel carrier, then leaving, certainly set the cat among the pigeons within the shooter’s community this week. Was Joel, dubbed the Dungeon Master of Helldivers 2, really bestowing such gifts upon players of the game? Turns out, no, he wasn’t. According to RPS, a source familiar with Joel’s goings on confirmed the player posing as '[AH] Joel' in-game is in fact an imposter. So what’s going on? As IGN has reported, Helldivers 2 has seen a glut of gameplay leaks showing off unavailable stratagems, vehicles, and weapons (we saw a lot of the mech before it was officially released)...

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Activision Threatens to Ban Call of Duty Warzone Players Using Boosting Services

Activision has threatened to ban any Call of Duty Warzone player who uses so-called ‘boosting services’ to inflate their Skill Rating (SR). Recent weeks have seen an uptick in reports of ‘bot lobbies’, or boosting lobbies. Boosting services, which have been a problem for competitive multiplayer games for years, create boosting lobbies in which cheaters can make significant gains in their skill rating and boost up the ranks. This problem has hit Warzone hard recently, with some saying the top of the leaderboards are filled with cheaters who used boosting lobbies to achieve their rank. Now, Activision has responded, issuing a statement that revealed its TeamRicochet had issued multiple ban waves that resulted in 29,000 recent bans...

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Asphalt Legends Unite Marks Series Debut on PS4 and PS5

Gameloft has announced Asphalt Legends Unite, an expansion to 2018's Asphalt 9: Legends that marks the arcade racing game series’ debut on PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5. Asphalt Legends Unite, out July 17, 2024, is an expansion for Asphalt 9: Legends, which is already available on the App Store, Google Play, Microsoft Store, Steam, Xbox, and Nintendo Switch. Its launch on PS4 and PS5 alongside a unified cross-platform experience, an upgraded graphic engine, a “modernized” art direction “tailored” for console players, a reimagined garage that carries over game progress and previously unlocked vehicles, and a redesigned user interface. Social features and customization options are currently in the works, Gameloft said. “We are...

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Helldivers 2 Patch 1.000.104 Makes Arc Weapons and Stratagems Safe to Use Again

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead has released a new patch for the game that makes arc weapons and stratagems safe to use again. Last week, Arrowhead told players not to use the Arc Thrower, Arc Shotgun, and Tesla Tower because they caused game crashes. At the time, the developer promised a patch addressing this would be released early this week, and now it’s out. In releasing patch 1.000.104, Arrowhead issued an updated list of known issues it’s working to address. The list includes various issues involving friend invites and cross-play, and a problem with Hellpod steering, which is currently disabled in a large area around large or important objects. If you’re looking for more on Helldivers 2, check out IGN’s feature on the Let Me...

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A Free Fallout, PS5 Consoles Get $114 Slimmer, Half off PS Studios PC Ports, and More!

If you've been biding your time to buy a PS5—or you already own one and wish to get another so you can race them—today's your day to shop. For one week only, PS5 Slim consoles are being slashed by $114 on Amazon AU. Not a bad entrypoint price to see what all the fuss is with games like Helldivers 2, FF7: Rebirth, Rise of the Ronin, and more. In retro news, I'm celebrating the 20th birthday of Far Cry, the original holiday from hell shooter that spawned a six-game franchise (14 if you count spin-offs). At launch, I vividly recall being blown away by both the unprecedented degree of freedom on this South Pacific archipelago and the AI mercs, who had ridiculously pinpoint accuracy through trees. Not quite my favourite FC; that crown goes...

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World of Warcraft Subscription Numbers Are Higher Now Than at Expansion Launch in a Franchise First

It's easy to roll your eyes and say that MMORPGs are dead if you, ya know, don't play MMORPGs. But 20-year-old World of Warcraft still seems to have plenty of spring in its step, according to Warcraft general manager John Hight. Its latest expansion, Dragonflight, has more subscribers now than it did at launch, and one intrepid content creator thinks they may have extrapolated roughly how many: over 7 million. Speaking at the Game Developers Conference, Hight explained that World of Warcaft historically has a very predictable pattern of subscriber churn. When an expansion comes out, there's a surge in subscribers that slowly declines over the course of an expansion, with small bumps at each new patch. It hits a low point at the end of...

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Final Fantasy 16 Could Be Coming to Other Platforms After PC Port, Producer Yoshi-P Hints

Producer Naoki "Yoshi-P" Yoshida has hinted that Final Fantasy XVI could be coming to other platforms after the PC version is released. The game was first released for PlayStation 5 back in June 2023 and is coming to PC at some point in the future. Yoshida and DLC director Takeo Kujiraoka spoke with Noisy Pixel about the future of Final Fantasy XVI and its characters after The Rising Tide DLC launches in April. When asked if it's tough for the team "to say goodbye to all these characters in this DLC," Yoshida responded that it's not quite the end for Final Fantasy XVI yet. “It’s not over in the sense that we have the PC version,” Yoshida explained. “Once the PC version is released, we’re thinking about hopefully moving to other...

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Baldur's Gate 3 Director Reveals One Surprising Villain That Used to Be Playable

Baldur's Gate 3 players have gotten really silly with mods since the game came out, including creating a number of mods that allow otherwise unplayable characters to join the party. But according to Larian Studios head Swen Vincke, a number of those characters may have been considered for inclusion as companions early in development, including one particular villain. Warning: Spoilers for Acts 2 and 3 of Baldur's Gate 3 follow. Read onward at your own risk. Speaking to IGN at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) last week, Vincke elaborated on a number of topics from his talk, The Secrets of Baldur's Gate 3. In the talk, Vincke revealed some things that were cut or changed during development, such as Astarion originally being a...

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Dragon's Dogma 2 Players Are Freaking Out Over a Mysterious Plague That Turns Pawns Murderous

Has your Dragon's Dogma 2 Pawn been suffering from headaches lately? Do they seem more confused than usual? Not following orders? Saying things that don't make sense? What about going on murderous rampages and killing off entire cities' worth of NPCs? If so, your Pawn might have an actual in-game disease known as Dragonsplague, and the only way to get rid of it might be to either dismiss them, or in worst-case scenarios, drown them. Warning: I'm going to spoil a newly-discovered in-game mechanic for Dragon's Dogma 2 in this article. We won't be covering any story spoilers, but if you enjoy going in knowing nothing, it's probably best to skip this one. In Dragon's Dogma 2, you are the Arisen, a powerful individual with a specific...

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The Massive 1.5TB SanDisk Ultra Micro SDXC Card Is Under $90 for Amazon Prime Members

If you thought a 1TB Micro SD card was big, think again. Amazon currently has a massive SanDisk Ultra 1.5TB Micro SDXC Card for only $87.99 exclusively for Amazon Prime members. This is the first time we've seen a 1.5TB Micro SDXC card drop below the $100 price point, and it's fully compatible with the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and ASUS ROG Ally portable handhelds. 1.5TB Micro SDXC Card (Switch Compatible) for $87.99 Amazon Prime member exclusive deal If you've started compiling a collection of digital games, you probably already know just how limited the Switch's base storage capacity. The Switch and Switch OLED consoles have 32GB and 64GB of internal storage, respectively, with some of it reserved for the OS. The Legend of...

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Millennia Review

When you ask your mom from the back seat if we can get Sid Meier's Civilization, and she shoots you down by insisting, "We have Civilization at home," Millennia is the Civilization at home. That may sound a bit harsh, and it's not like there's nothing positive to highlight about this history-spanning 4X contender. But it breaks down to a handful of good ideas that wobble under the weight of faltering fundamentals. Like At the Gates before it, Millennia focuses too much on the ways it wants to mix up the Civ formula without building the base of a strong Civ-like first. Very similar to Civilization, Millennia is a turn-based empire-builder inspired by real history, and a bit of alternate history in this case. My biggest fundamental...

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Trailer for Sonic Toys Party Appears to Leak, Reveals Fall Guys-Inspired Gameplay

A trailer for Sonic Toys Party has appeared online, and revealed gameplay heavily inspired by party game Fall Guys. The trailer, first published by YouTube channel The Sonic Show, shows familiar Sonic characters compete to qualify by completing a number of stages. It looks like there’s support for up to 32 players, with the likes of Sonic, Knuckles, Shadow, and Tails all shown off. The last player wins. Sonic Toys Party is a mobile game reportedly due out this summer. Sega has yet to comment. Sonic Stadium reported that Sonic Toys Party is in development at Sega Networks, the division responsible for Sega Pocket Club Manager, and collaborations with other Sega and third-party franchises are planned. Saint Seiya and Persona are...

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South Park: Snow Day! Review

Like being trapped indoors without power during an actual blizzard, playing South Park: Snow Day! had me frigidly wishing I could be anywhere else. A direct follow-up to the storyline of two excellent turn-based RPGs and a decent mobile spin-off, this cooperative 3D hack-and-slash admirably tries a lot of new things – but it throws the baby out with the bathwater in the process, leaving us with a monotonous, slipshod mess. The controls are awkward and clumsy, the weapons and abilities are limp and uninteresting, and even with only five levels that can be completed in as many hours, it still feels like it drags on for far too long. Worse than that though: all the humor and shocking moments for which South Park and its recent games are...

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BitCraft: Age of Automata Preview: A Social, Sandbox MMO With Some Big Ideas

BitCraft: Age of Automata’s announcement way back in 2021 caused quite the commotion in the IGN community, and I’m not going to lie: I was sceptical. Though this survival-crafting sandbox MMO looked absolutely beautiful, I wanted to see some evidence of how exactly players are supposed to craft this world together from the ground up. I was excited to finally go hands-on; I played the beginning stages of BitCraft on PC, learning the basics of crafting and staking my claim in the world, before going on a fun little adventure across the sea. I can say that BitCraft has come a long way since that initial announcement. What I played was memorable and – more importantly – fun. But it also has a long way to go. With the amount of ambition...

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Cyberpunk 2077 PS5 and Xbox Series X and S Free Trial Set for This Week

CD Projekt has announced a free trial of Cyberpunk 2077 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S, available from March 28-31. The trial goes live at 8am PDT on March 28 and ends 11:59pm on March 31. It offers five hours of unrestricted gameplay, and does not require any additional fees or subscriptions (so no need for PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass, for example). It does not include expansion Phantom Liberty. Here’s the official blurb from CD Projekt: Cyberpunk 2077 suffered a disastrous launch back in 2020, but CD Projekt stuck with the game and successfully turned it around in one of the most remarkable redemption stories in video game history. CD Projekt is now working on a sequel, codenamed Orion, although don’t expect to...

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As The Elder Scrolls Turns 30, Bethesda Issues Brief The Elder Scrolls 6 Update

Bethesda has celebrated the 30th birthday of The Elder Scrolls series, and in doing so provided a brief update on the in-development The Elder Scrolls 6. The Elder Scrolls franchise began life in 1994 with The Elder Scrolls: Arena, and has seen a number of main games and spin-offs in the 30 years since. The last mainline The Elder Scrolls game, Skyrim, first launched in November 2011, a sobering 13 years ago. During a message to fans celebrating The Elder Scrolls’ birthday, Bethesda Game Studios pointed to the 10-year anniversary of The Elder Scrolls Online, mobile castle builder The Elder Scrolls: Castles, and finally, The Elder Scrolls 6. “Last but not least, yes, we are in development on the next chapter - The Elder Scrolls 6,”...

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Dragon’s Dogma 2's World Has The Spirit of Skyrim

If I were to write a list of all the things that made Skyrim special, it’d be as long as The Elder Scrolls themselves. Considering that’s a massive waste of parchment, I can boil Skyrim’s magic down to one word: dragons. Few games have recaptured the thrill of Tamriel’s wyrms crashing down from the sky to interrupt an otherwise run-of-the-mill fetch quest. But I’ve got good news: that very same sense of awe, terror, and excitement fuels Dragon’s Dogma 2, a game where a towering cyclops can unexpectedly emerge from the forest’s edge, or a terrifying drake swoop down from on high, all in unscripted, emergent moments. If you’re familiar with the original Dragon’s Dogma, then you’ll likely know that the game’s director, Hideaki Itsuno...

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