Gaming News

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth’s Layoff Storyline Feels ‘Too Soon’

Gaming has had its fair share of moments when a new title would ostensibly be released at just the right time. The most recent example is Animal Crossing: New Horizons dropping in 2020 when the world needed a means to safely connect during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. And in 2024, for me — and maybe a lot of gamers out there — another of these games could be Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth. When I first booted up the newest Yakuza game from Ryu Ga Gotoko, I planned on experiencing a new adventure starring plucky protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, dramatically imagining his foes as larger-than-life RPG archetypes while its stalwart hero, Kazuma Kiryu, serenades his companions with hours of karaoke, all while I inevitably ignore...

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Ultrawings 2 Gets a Surprise Release on PlayStation VR2

In an unexpected twist, Bit Planet Games announced that its action simulation game Ultrawings 2 is now available on the PlayStation VR2 headset. In a post on X/Twitter, the Bit Planet Games account casually announced it had shadow-dropped Ultrawings 2 on Sony's second-generation VR headset. Bit Planet Games originally intended to release Ultrawings 2 on the headset last year, but had to push back its release date to a 2024 release window. Ultrawings 2 was initially announced in 2021 and released in 2022 on Meta Quest and PC VR headsets. It's an aerial simulation game where players earn money by completing various aerial missions. The money players earn can be used to purchase things, including new aircraft, as you venture across an...

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IGN UK Podcast 733: Slurping Pal Fluid

みなさん、こんにちは! Mat, Jen and Jesse are confused about exactly what Pal Fluid is in this week's episode, along with a brief but detailed chat on the possibilities of RTX Remix. Got a favourite minigame? Get in touch at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com. IGN UK Podcast 733: Slurping Pal Fluid IGN UK Podcast 732: Indiana Jones and the Fantastic Triangle IGN UK Podcast 731: The Big 2024 Preview IGN UK Podcast 730: Flo Rida's Christmas Catch-Up IGN UK Podcast 729: The 2023 Alternative TV Awards IGN UK Podcast 728: The 2023 Alternative Game Awards Continue reading...

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Everything We Know About Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League

Nine years after Batman: Arkham Knight, Rocksteady’s jumping back into the DC universe with Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. The same universe, but totally different gameplay; Suicide Squad is an open-world co-op looter-shooter. For those on the fence about Rocksteady’s latest, or for those who want to absorb every bit of information about the world, characters, and how it all works, here’s everything we know about Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League. What's the Story? Set five years after the events of Arkham Knight, Kill the Justice League has us leave Gotham City for the first time,instead taking us to Superman’s stomping ground of Metropolis. If you’re remotely familiar with the Suicide Squad concept, you know the basic...

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Baldur’s Gate 3 Has Its First Sub-20 Minute All Acts Speedrun — Thanks to a Massive Invisible Bear

The wonderful world of Baldur’s Gate 3 speedrunning leveled up once again this week with a new fastest time for an all acts completion of the game — and it was made possible thanks to a massive invisible bear. Baldur’s Gate 3 speedrunner Mae, who IGN has reported on multiple times for various world records in Larian’s sprawling Dungeons & Dragons role-playing game, has done it again, setting the first sub-20 minute completion of all three acts. Setting a verified, load removed time of 19m 20s, Mae employed many of the tactics that have fuelled Baldur’s Gate 3 speedruns over the last few months, such as leaping like a frog through much of the game, and stuffing poor Shadowheart’s corpse in a box to trigger skips forward. But there’s a...

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People Want Tifa in Tekken 8 So Much the Boss of Tekken Had to Address It

Tekken 8 is out now and already the requests for guest characters are piling up online. But one character appears to be top of the wishlist: Tifa from Final Fantasy 7. A cursory glance at social media shows plenty of requests for Bandai Namco to add Tifa into Tekken 8. That’s not surprising — Tekken fans have long-called for Tifa to be added to Tekken games over the years. Tekken is (mostly) and punch and kick fighting game franchise, and Tifa is all about punching and kicking. She’d be a great fit as a guest character, and everyone knows it. Here’s a snippet: This time, though, Katsuhiro Harada, boss of all things Tekken, has addressed the requests with a tweet that on the one hand gets to the crux of the matter, and on the...

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Nexon's Medieval Fantasy Brawler Warhaven Shutting Down 6 Months After Launching in Early Access

Nexon's medieval fantasy brawler Warhaven is shutting down on April 5, 2024, just six months after it launched on Steam in Early Access. An update on Warhaven's Steam page announced the closure, though Nexon didn't explicitly say why it was happening. Described as a "visceral, brutal medieval fantasy combat experience" where teams of 16 players would take each other on with swords, arrows, and magic, Warhaven struggled to make a mark with middling reviews and a low player count. "From the first alpha test in 2021 to the global Early Access in 2023, Warhaven has come this far thanks to everyone's love and support," Nexon said. "We want to express our gratitude for the love and care you have shown for Warhaven. "To create a game that...

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Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth Has an Entire Pokémon Game Inside It

Spoiler Warning: The following article contains spoilers surrounding a type of side quest which becomes available in Chapter 4 of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but doesn't feature any major story spoilers. Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth may be a turn-based RPG already, but the latest Yakuza also has an entirely separate turn based RPG minigame inside it that mimics (and parodies) a Pokémon game. Infinite Wealth doubles down on the Pokémon references of its predecessor, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, expanding that game's Sujimon concept from a fun collection mechanic to a full-on game of its own. Though players will add Sujimon, which are just the game's regular enemies, to their Sujidex as before, an entirely new side quest parodies both...

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Pick Up a 1TB Nintendo Switch Memory Card for Only $53.99 on Amazon

Amazon currently has a TEAMGROUP GO 1TB Micro SDXC card for only $53.99. This is currently least expensive 1TB Micro SDXC card available from a well-known retailer, and it's fully compatible with the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and ASUS ROG Ally portable handhelds. 1TB Micro SDXC Card (Switch Compatible) for $53.99 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 Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom uses up 16GB and Breath of the Wild about 13.5GB. If bought digitally, those two games alone would take up all of your...

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Palworld Early Access Review - Xbox/PC Game Pass Version

Note: This review is specifically for the version of Palworld available on Xbox and through the Microsoft Store on PC. If you haven’t seen our review of the Steam version, go check that out first! Nearly everything we said there still applies to this review, which will instead focus specifically on what’s different with this version. Palworld has taken the world by storm! And with good reason: shooting cartoon animals with assault weapons then forcing them to mine ore for you all day is alarmingly fun. But those playing on the Xbox and Microsoft Store versions that are widely accessible through Game Pass have been treated to a noticeably different experience – one I’ve seen firsthand after playing over 50 hours on Xbox since wrapping...

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Fortnite Will Return to iOS, But Only in Europe

Almost four years after being removed from the App Store, Epic Games has announced it is bringing back the iOS version of Fortnite, but this will only be available for countries in the European Union (EU). A new post on the official Fortnite X/Twitter account reveals that the popular free-to-play battle royale will be released on iOS via the Epic Games Store. This will be made possible for two reasons: Apple announced today that it has updated its App Store policies to appease EU regulators. Most notably, iPhone users in that region can download apps from third-party app stores under the revised EU app store policy. Apple partly revised these app store policies thanks to the EU's Digital Markets Act (DMA). Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney...

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Ruiner Developer Reikon Games Reportedly Lays Off 80% of the Company

Ruiner developer Reikon Games has reportedly laid off 60 to 70 people, or roughly 80% of its workforce, according to Kotaku. Kotaku's report is backed up by a handful of social media reports from former Reikon developers saying they had lost their jobs this week. IGN has reached out to Reikon Games for comment. Reikon Games was previously responsible for the isometric shooter Ruiner, which received generally positive reviews upon its 2017 launch. In 2021, the studio began teasing its next project dubbed Codename: Final Form, which was planned to be published under Plaion (owned by Embracer Group)'s Prime Matter label. Reikon's layoffs come on the same day as a mass layoff of 1900 from Microsoft's games division, which itself is...

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The Team Working on Blizzard's Now-Canceled Survival Was Seemingly Gutted Amid Xbox Mass Layoffs

The development team behind Blizzard's now-cancelled survival game, reportedly called Odyssey, is seemingly among the teams dramatically impacted by the layoffs at Microsoft today. According to multiple former team members posting on Twitter, the team is among the 1,900 employees impacted by the mass layoffs at Microsoft's gaming division, which comes after the company's $69 billion acquisition of Activision Blizzard and the departure of CEO Bobby Kotick last year. Mike Ybarra, who announced his decision to leave his position as President of Blizzard Entertainment, previously said that Odyssey's development team doubled in 2022, with plans to grow further. Now, the game is not only cancelled, but seemingly a significant portion of the...

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Enshrouded Early Access Review

It’s been a reasonably long time since a game latched onto my innermost sense of childlike wonder – that is, until I lost 30 hours of my week building a fortress town in Enshrouded’s meadows before I even started its main quest. This action-RPG survival sim draws a mish-mash of inspirations from games like Valheim, Minecraft, The Elder Scrolls, and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and all those ideas come together in a way that’s already engrossing at its Early Access launch. Its gob-smackingly gorgeous high-fantasy art style, vast open world, intelligent crafting systems, seemingly limitless base building, and satisfying character customization are impressive, but also marred by a few bugs – both literal and figurative – a...

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Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Interactive Map Is Live: Soma Petals, Damascus Ingot Locations, and More

Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown is a labyritnhine Metroidvania with a sprawling map crammed with upgrades like Soma Petals that expand your health bar, Damascus Ingots, those pesky little silver rectangles that are used to give your attacks more power, and many other collectibles that make your life easier as you explore the mysterious ancient kingdom filled with timey-wimey mystery. IGN's Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown Interactive Map includes all the collectibles, major items, and upgrades and of course puzzle solutions to help you reach them. Here's what you can find in our map: Soma Petal Locations - These are basically the "Heart Pieces" of Prince of Persia. Collect four to expand your life bar by one unit. Damascus Ingot...

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Best Racing Wheels 2024: Top Steering Wheels for Gaming

Boost your experience playing driving games with our favorite racing wheel, the Thrustmaster T300 RS GT. This wheel and pedal set turns your games into immersive, boarding-on realistic experiences. But if that’s not your ideal option, we've found a variety of great alternatives ready to tear up the virtual open road, no matter your budget or preferred gaming platform. Click to jump to a detailed look at the best racing wheels, or check the shopping list below: TL;DR – These are the Best Racing Wheels: Thrustmaster T300 RS GT Logitech G923 Hori Racing Wheel Apex Thrustmaster TMX Racing Wheel Thrustmaster T248 Racing Wheel Hori Mario Kart Racing Wheel Pro Deluxe Thrustmaster T-GT II Fanatec GT DD Pro Thrustmaster T-818 Logitech G Pro...

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Outriders and Bulletstorm Dev Reportedly Lays Off More Than 30 Staff

Outriders and Bulletstorm developer People Can Fly has reportedly laid off more than 30 staff members as job losses continue to devastate the video game industry. People Can Fly confirmed it suffered job losses after Kotaku learned more than 30 staff working on the upcoming Project Gemini had been laid off. A further 20 staff working on the game, which is being created in partnership with Square Enix, were moved to other projects within People Can Fly. "We understand that this decision impacts each of you, and we want to express our gratitude for your hard work, dedication, and contributions thus far," development director Adam Alker said in an email to staff. "To those individuals transitioning out of the studio due to these...

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Skull & Bones: Hands-On With Endgame Content

After playing the first few hours of Skull & Bones in a couple different iterations last year, I was understandably eager to skip over the humble origins of my pirate captain getting washed ashore in rags and get with the plundering. As luck would have it, Ubisoft answered my prayers by letting me go hands-on with their upcoming ship-based piracy RPG for over four hours to take their endgame and seasonal content for a spin. And while the unfinished product I played wasn’t always the most intuitive or polished experience, it’s clear the developers have put a lot of thought and effort into providing lots of ways for players to keep growing their pirate legend far beyond rolling credits, from battles with giant sea creatures to an...

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Horizon Forbidden West For PC Gets March Release Date

Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition for PC finally has a release date, with the third-person action game set to release in March. In a new PlayStation Blog post, Nixxes Software Online Community Specialist Julian Huijbregts revealed that Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition arrives on PC on March 21. Some features in the PC version include ultra-wide support, with support for 21:9, 32:9, and 48:9 ultra-wide resolutions, and compatibility with PC gaming stations with a triple-monitor setup. In addition to mouse and keyboard support, Horizon Forbidden West's PC version will have extensive support for controllers. Those using a DualSense controller can do things such as allowing users to feel the tension in the string of their...

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As Palworld Blows Up, Could Nintendo Successfully Sue the Controversial 'Pokemon With Guns' Game?

Palworld is pretty much the hottest game in the world, with an incredible eight million copies sold just six days after going on sale on Steam and Xbox. But it is also one of the most controversial video games of recent times — and that’s because quite a lot of the internet reckons its Pals look a lot like Pokemon. Developments are fast-moving and dramatic. Developer Pocketpair has said its staff have received death threats amid these Pokémon "rip-off" claims, which it has denied. Nintendo has moved quickly to remove an eye-catching Pokémon mod too. Then, this week, The Pokemon Company issued a statement, saying: "We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights...

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Every Celebrity in the GTA Games

The Grand Theft Auto series is well known for its roster of famous voices. From the cream of movie talent to global chart toppers, there have been many major celebrities who’ve graced the streets and radio stations of Rockstar’s open worlds. GTA’s journey to big-name actors began in 1999’s Grand Theft Auto 2, which included a live-action short film for the game’s introductory sequence. In it, a criminal named Claude Speed carries out jobs for various crime syndicates before he is taken out. Relatively unknown English actor Scott Maslen, star of UK soaps The Bill and Eastenders, played Claude in this short. Every Celebrity in GTA 3 Every Celebrity in GTA: Vice City Every Celebrity in GTA: San Andreas Every Celebrity in GTA 4 Every...

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Shapez 2 Preview: A Factory-Builder Whose Hunger Is Never Satisfied

Shapez 2 is like if you stripped down the moment-to-moment joys of a game like Satisfactory or Factorio to their most primal elements and left all the rest behind. As I extract, rotate, chop, and stack polygons to dump into a giant vortex, there is no greater narrative or survival context to what I'm doing. It's logistics for the sake of logistics, almost Tetris-like in its pure mechanical focus. And there is a certain zen satisfaction to that. The demo level for Shapez 2 starts you on a platform out in space with a simple goal of building a system of conveyor belts to deliver fresh rectangles and circles, straight from the earth, to a swirling anomaly in the center. It's a slick-looking game with a very effective UI, and I found the...

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Islands of Insight Is a Dreamlike Open-World Puzzle Game

I forged ahead into Islands of Insight's opening hours, braving the floating terrain and diving into some devious puzzles that had me digging deep to uncover the solutions. As a blend between The Witness' sprawling first-person puzzle box and some Breath of the Wild-style exploration, Islands of Insight is filled to the brim with challenges and intrigue, presenting a puzzle game with some compelling ideas for building a strange and intriguing setting where you and other players can solve puzzles together. So far, Islands of Insight has the makings of a game that could build an ambitious new path for puzzle adventures. Taking on the role of a Seeker, you're given new life in a world that defies time and space, built up from the...

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Helskate Hands-On Preview: Skate or Die? How about Skate AND Die?

Helskate answers a question that I don’t think anyone asked: “What if you could kill demons in between long trick combos in Tony Hawk Pro Skater?” The answer, it turns out, is: “It would be pretty rad.” Its energetic art and soundtrack call back to those 2000’s-era skate games triumphantly, and really nails the simple inputs and focus on big moves versus minute technicalities. That said, things get hellacious, and sometimes unwieldy, when you attempt to meaningfully combine the combat and the rogue-lite elements with all the grinds and grabs. You embody the partially feathered frame of Anton Falcon, notorious troublemaker and talented skater, who just wants to tear up some half pipes in peace. And by “in peace,” he means traveling...

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Palworld Update 0.1.3.0 Hits Steam

Palworld developer Pocketpair has released a new update for the Steam version of the ‘Pokemon with guns’ crafting and survival game, with a patch for the Xbox version to come. Palworld Steam update 0.1.3.0 fixes a number of bugs and attempts to tackle cheating, which as IGN has reported is ramping up. Pocketpair said it’s currently prioritizing fixing critical issues with the game before moving on to adding new in-game features, such as PvP. Palworld Steam Update 0.1.3.0 Patch Notes: Main changes ・Fixed a bug where the loading screen did not end when logging into the world ・Fixed a bug where the world date was not displayed correctly and appeared to reset. ・Corrected various incorrect text ・Countermeasures against various cheats...

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Palworld Dev Apologises as Cheats Ramp Up, Warns It Will Be ‘Difficult’ to Eradicate Immediately

Palworld is barely a week old but cheating is already proving to be a problem. Developer Pocketpair issued an update on Steam to say it had confirmed cheating on the official Palworld server, and that it would apply a patch as soon as it’s ready. Indeed, a Palworld patch (v0.1.3.0) has just been released that adds “countermeasures against various cheats and exploits”. However, Pocketpair stressed “it is currently difficult to completely prevent all cheating immediately”. “We will continue to focus even more on security and aim to create an environment where everyone can play with peace of mind,” Pocketpair said. “We sincerely apologize to all players who have been affected by this incident. Thank you for your continued support of...

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PS5 Update Appears to Block Controversial Cronus Zen Device

This week’s PlayStation 5 firmware update appears to have blocked the Cronus Zen device, which lets gamers use macros and modify their controllers. It is a controversial product, which some say gives players an unfair advantage. While the Zen is used in many competitive multiplayer games, it’s perhaps most prominent in Call of Duty, which has crossplay across PC and console. According to its website, Zen is used by over half a million people. Call of Duty players have used unauthorised third-party hardware such as XIM and Cronus Zen to benefit from the likes of aim assist and reduced recoil while using mouse and keyboard for years. Activision said in 2023 its anti-cheat tech, Ricochet, would detect their use and bans would follow for...

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The Pokemon Company Makes an Official Statement on Palworld: 'We Intend to Investigate'

The Pokemon Company has finally made an official statement regarding Palworld, saying, "We intend to investigate and take appropriate measures to address any acts that infringe on intellectual property rights related to the Pokémon." While The Pokemon Company doesn't specifically mention Palworld by name, it is very clear this statement is in response to the incredible success the survival game is experiencing (8 million copies sold in less than six days!) and the claims that many of Palworld's Pals are way too close to existing Pokemon. "We have received many inquiries regarding another company’s game released in January 2024," The Pokemon Company wrote. "We have not granted any permission for the use of Pokémon intellectual...

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Discounted AAAs for Your Three Day Weekend, the Stores Tekken a Bite Out of 8's RRP, and More!

Hot dawg! If you're doing things right, you've got a three-day weekend on your hands thanks to that extra public holiday. This means a figurative forecast of hours upon hours of gaming in your future and, highly likely, a literal forecast of heatwave conditions on your horizon. Clearly, our time will be best spent indoors, smashing out some of the hottest titles at the lowest prices. I've got plenty of that below... This Day in Gaming Aussie birthdays for notable games. - Earthworm Jim 2 (SNES) 1996. Get - WarioWare: Smooth Moves (Wii) 2007. - Celeste (NS,PC,PS4) 2018. Get Table of Contents Nintendo Switch PC Xbox PlayStation Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch Expiring Recent Deals Hardware Watch How much to make the...

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Dragon's Dogma 2: Everything We Know About Capcom's Fantasy RPG Sequel

In March, Capcom will release Dragon’s Dogma 2, the long-awaited sequel to its inventive 2012 action RPG. It’ll be the first mainline release in the open-world fantasy series in 12 years, and fans are eager to see what Capcom will bring to the table after a decade-plus of advancement in technical innovation and open-world game design. With its release just a couple of months away and a trove of new details revealed as part of January’s IGN First coverage, we’ve put together this breakdown of everything you need to know about Dragon’s Dogma 2. Jump to: Release Date Story Gameplay Development Dragon’s Dogma 2 Release Date Barring a delay, Dragon’s Dogma 2 will be released on March 22, 2024. Dragon’s Dogma 2 Platforms and Price...

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