Gaming News

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 Officially Reveals New Map and Tons of More Info

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 was fully revealed today, and it's set to debut a new city-themed Warzone 2 map with drivable trains, zip lines, and quite a few points of interest. During today's COD Next showcase, Activision revealed Urzikstan, an "urban battleground" map coming to Battle Royale and Plunder at launch. As GamesRadar pointed out, Urzikstan was first featured as a country (and a key part of the campaign) in the 2019 game Modern Warfare, and now it's finally getting its own map. Filled with apartments and industrial areas, Urzikstan seems fairly dense in comparison to other Warzone maps. Still, it features quite a few new ways to get across the map, including the franchise's first train with player-controllable direction...

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CD Projekt Doesn't Regret Making Cyberpunk 2077 First-Person, but Has Yet to Decide on Cyberpunk 2

CD Projekt Red doesn't regret making Cyberpunk 2077 a first-person only game, compared to the third-person Witcher franchise, but the developer is yet to make up its mind around Cyberpunk 2, codenamed Orion. Speaking during the CD Projekt Red Investor Day presentation, Cyberpunk 2077 quest director Paweł Sasko, who will be working on Orion, was asked if CD Projekt Red would consider adding a third-person to first-person toggle in the new game, and if the developer regrets not including one in the current Cyberpunk. "There are no regrets on our part," he said. "What we wanted was for Cyberpunk to have its own identity and to be noticeable as this different thing. These days it's YouTube, Twitch, and screenshots that sell games, and...

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Former Bungie HR Manager Is Suing for Wrongful Termination After She Reported Potential Racial Bias

Destiny 2 and Marathon developer Bungie is currently being sued for retaliation and wrongful termination by a former HR manager, who alleges she was let go when she raised a potential case of racial discrimination to her supervisors. In a complaint filed earlier this year in the state of Washington, plaintiff Ingrid Alm recounts that she was hired by Bungie in May of 2022 as an HR manager, coming into the job with over a decade of experience. Just a few months into her employment, she says she was instructed to investigate the performance of a particular employee, referred to as “James Smith.” But when she sat down to speak with Smith, he allegedly pointed out that he was the only Black employee on a team of 50 individuals, and...

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CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kiciński Entering Supervisory Position in 2025

CD Projekt Red CEO Adam Kiciński has announced he will be moving to a supervisory role at the company in 2025 and will therefore be stepping down as CEO as part of a larger management shake-up. Kiciński, who will have been at CD Projekt Red for 30 years as of 2024, will resign as a member of the management board at the end of that year. Before he does so, he will transition from his current role as CEO to the role of chief strategy officer as of January 1, 2024. Current chief creative officer Adam Badowski and current chief commercial officer Michał Nowakowski will take over as joint-CEOs of CD Projekt Red also as of January 1, 2024. The supervisory board Kiciński is joining oversees the activities of CD Projekt Red and performs...

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CD Projekt Announces Live-Action Cyberpunk 2077 Project

CD Projekt aims to expand its Cyberpunk 2077 universe further with a live-action project. Announced today, the unnamed project is a collaboration between CD Projekt and Anonymous Content, the production company behind True Detective and Mr. Robot, as well as Academy Award-winning films including The Revenant and Spotlight. CD Projekt is working with Anonymous Content Studios’ Head of Television Garret Kemble, Director of Development Ryan Schwartz, and Chief Creative Officer David Levine, the latter of whom was previously HBO’s EVP and Co-Head of Drama for over 10 years, where he oversaw production of series such as True Detective, Westworld, and True Blood. He was also involved in the production of the early seasons of the Game of...

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Finally, Diablo 4 Players Will Actually Have a Realistic Chance of Getting an Uber Unique

Ever since Diablo 4’s June launch, one of the most vociferous criticisms has revolved around the near zero chance players have of obtaining one of the handful of coveted Uber Unique items. The drop rate for Uber Uniques is so miniscule that players have said the chances of seeing one are lower than winning the lottery or getting struck by lightning. In an interview with IGN in July, associate game director Joseph Piepiora defended the drop rate for Diablo 4’s Uber Uniques. “We want players, the moment that these things actually drop, we want that to be a fall out of your chair moment,” Piepiora said at the time. “We want that to be a really critically important thing.” Piepiora explained that Blizzard wanted to maintain the extreme...

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Cyberpunk 2077 Surpasses 25 Million Units Sold, Outpacing The Witcher 3

Cyberpunk 2077 has surpassed 25 million units sold, outpacing The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, CD Projekt Red has announced. Speaking during the CD Projekt Red Investor Day presentation, president and CEO Adam Kiciński announced the new figure, which is up five million from September 2022. The Phantom Liberty expansion has also sold three million units within its first week. Kiciński said this means Cyberpunk 2077, which struggled through a brutal launch that saw it delisted from the PlayStation Store, is outpacing The Witcher 3's performance. Cyberpunk 2077 has reached the 25 million mark within around two years and 10 months, while The Witcher 3 didn't reach 25 million until around the four-and-a-half year mark, Kiciński said. The...

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Assassin's Creed Mirage Ending Explained

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for the ending of Assassin's Creed Mirage. Assassin’s Creed Mirage takes us all the way back to 9th century Baghdad to live the origin story of Basim. We first met Basim in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Mirage connects back to that game in a couple of important ways. To explore how those connections are forged, as well as answer any lingering questions, we’re going to fully break down the ending of Assassin’s Creed Mirage. Full spoilers are ahead, so leap away now if you haven’t finished the game or don’t want to know. The Head of the Snake Basim’s quest to cut off the head of the snake brings him to the Palace of the Green Dome. Here he comes face to face with Al-Bahamut, the leader...

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Blizzard Apologises as Battle.net Goes Down, Making Diablo 4 and More Unplayable

Blizzard has apologised to its players after Battle.net suffered login issues. An issue affecting the company’s authentication services caused slow or failed login attempts. At the time of this article’s publication, Battle.net was down. Blizzard said it was investigating the cause. “We apologise once again for the inconvenience caused by today's outages, we're working to resolve this ASAP,” reads the latest tweet from Blizzard’s customer service page. Battle.net’s outage renders many of Blizzard’s game unplayable. The always-online Diablo 4, for example, is currently unplayable on PC. Blizzard announced Diablo 4 will join Overwatch 2 on rival platform Steam later in October. The outage comes the morning after Blizzard unveiled...

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Forza Motorsport Gameplay Looking Washed Out? Here's How to Fix It

Forza Motorsport is now available to those who bought the Premium Edition, and some players are noticing a display bug that makes gameplay look washed out on Xbox. Thankfully, developer Turn 10 Studios has shared how to fix it. Players experiencing the issue should first set the video option they prefer, then quit Forza Motorsport completely from the Xbox dashboard. Players can then restart the game and, as long as they don't go into the display settings again, the washed out gameplay should be fixed. When tested by IGN, some issues remained even when completing these steps. But restarting the Xbox console altogether solved the remaining graphical bugs. Having provided the solution, Turn 10 made clear it is aware of the problem but...

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Cyberpunk 2077's First Post-Phantom Liberty Update, Patch 2.01, Available Today

Cyberpunk 2077's first post-Update 2.0 and Phantom Liberty update, Patch 2.01, will be available today, October 5, and CD Projekt Red has shared the full notes. Confirmed in a tweet from global community director Marcin Momot (below), patch 2.01 is "currently being rolled out on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S". Momot thanked users for reporting the various issues addressed in the patch, which is set to tackle the biggest problems with Phantom Liberty including corrupted save data on PS5 and performance issues in the expansion's Dogtown area. The full patch notes, available below, were shared on CD Projekt Red's website, which outlines more changes than the developer had previously disclosed. Several Phantom Liberty...

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Activision Trying to Nuke Leaked Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Gameplay From the Internet

Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 gameplay has hit the internet just days before the beta is set for launch. Activision is currently working to pull the leaked footage from the internet, but it faces an uphill battle as fans share clips across social media and forums. A Twitter account called @uwuleaker99 popped up overnight and published gameplay footage that Activision pulled soon after. “This media has been disabled in response to a report by the copyright owner,” reads a message currently displayed on the tweet, which has at the time of publication one million views. Gameplay is currently still up on YouTube, where a channel called oG JIMMY has posted a handful of videos showing leaked footage of action on multiplayer maps set to...

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PS5 Consoles Get a Huge Discount Before Prime Day 2 in the UK

There might be a PS5 Slim on the way according to recent leaks and rumours, but for now, we're still seeing some exemplary deals on the highly sought-after console. The latest discount comes in the form of a bundle with EA Sports FC 24, dropping to just £409.99 at select retailers. This isn't as good as the £400 offer we saw a couple of months back, but considering it includes a brand new game and is well below the asking price of £540, you're still bagging an incredible discount this time around. For clarity, PS5 consoles RRP is £479.99, while EA Sports FC 24 retails for £69.99, so if you're still lacking a PS5 and want to play the next in line to the 'FIFA' series (remember it's changed name now), then you're in luck with this deal...

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Ranking Our Top 5 Xbox First-Party Developers – Unlocked 615

First we give our initial impressions of Forza Motorsport and Assassin's Creed Mirage now that the review embargoes on them have lifted, and then we spend the bulk of the episode giving our top-5 rankings of Xbox's internal game studios (including Bethesda/Zenimax) while also contemplating Phil Spencer's Xbox legacy to date as PlayStation boss Jim Ryan finalizes his ahead of his retirement. Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week's episode. For more awesome content, check out my recent Alan Wake 2 preview! For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review. Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of...

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Lies of P: The Secret Weapon You Only Get By Lying

While Lies of P might be a far cry from the wholesome tale of the puppet Pinocchio that you know, this grimdark soulslike has more than a few sly references to the classic fairytale up its sleeves. Some easter eggs are more obvious — the cricket-like Gemini or azure-haired Sophia, for example — but what do you really think of when you think of Pinocchio? That's right, Pinocchio's telltale nose - which in the original story would grow more every time he lied - can be found in Lies of P. In fact, Pinocchio's "nose" is a powerful weapon called the Golden Lie. How can you get your hands on this secret weapon? By lying, of course. Here's how you can unlock the Golden Lie weapon for yourself. Warning: Some Lies of P Spoilers below...

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Blizzard Unveils Diablo 4 Season of Blood, Discusses Massive Changes to Make Endgame 'More Fun'

In an extended livestream today, Blizzard revealed a whole lot more details for Season 2 of Diablo 4, called Season of the Blood, and major reworks to progression and the endgame player experience. Season of the Blood will focus on vampires, who become the latest major scourge of Sanctuary in the wake of Lilith's actions in the vanilla Diable 4 campaign. The player is infected with vampirism and gains evil powers to weild against this classic foe, giving plenty of excuses for new, deadly powers for players to add to their seasonal ARPG arsenal. Blizzard will also introduce a new NPC, Erys, a crossbow-weilding vampire hunter who will become the player's bestie for the next few months. But beyond the details about the upcoming season...

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All the Changes Coming to Diablo 4 With Patch 1.2.0 and Season 2

Blizzard has unveiled all the much-needed changes coming to Diablo 4 on October 17 with the release of Season 2, dubbed Season of Blood, and patch 1.2.0 in a developer update livestream. The patch makes a long list of crucial quality-of-life updates, adds more endgame activities, and significantly increases experience gains to make the grind to level 100 much quicker. Elsewhere, patch 1.2.0 lets players specifically target uniques and the incredibly rare uber unique items, which have been a hot topic among players since Diablo 4 came out in June. Check out the list below to find out all the changes coming to Diablo 4 with Patch 1.2.0 and Season 2. Five new endgame bosses Five endgame bosses have been added across Sanctuary to...

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Diablo 4 Is Coming to Steam

Diablo 4 is set to launch on Steam four months after the PC version released exclusively on Blizzard’s Battle.net. The action role-playing game launches on Steam October 17. Those who play Diablo 4 for the first time via Steam need to first buy the game on Valve’s platform, then connect it to a Battle.net account. This is required of all Blizzard games to enable cross-platform play, the company said. Steam players do get access to Steam achievements, their Steam friends list, and the option to invite those friends to play in-game. Diablo 4 is the second Blizzard game to hit Steam after hero shooter Overwatch 2 launched on the platform in August. Blizzard will be hoping for a better reception from fans this time around. Overwatch 2’s...

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EA Sports FC 24 for Switch Review

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, FIFA fans - no, not Christmas (put those darn decorations away). It’s once again time to see if the Nintendo Switch version of EA’s premiere soccer series is still a complete mess. The good news is that, alongside a name change to EA Sports FC 24, we’ve finally gotten past the point where this port is simply a copy of the previous year with “the same gameplay innovation from [insert previous year] without any new development or significant enhancements,” like it was last year, and the year before that… and the year before that (and the year before that). The bad news is that it is still dreadfully out of date. The long overdue switch to the Frostbite engine is a considerable step up from the...

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Indie Horror Game Stray Souls Gets Oct. 25 Release Date

October, the spookiest month of the year, is officially upon us, if you're looking for a new horror game to celebrate the occasion, the indie horror title Stray Souls is launching later this month. In a new post on the social media platform X (formerly Twitter), indie developer Jukai Studio announced its debut project will be released on Oct. 25, 2023 — five days before Halloween, as the studio previously said it was coming out around the holiday. The game will be available on PC, in addition to PS4, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. Powered by Unreal Engine 5, Stray Souls has players controlling Daniel, a teenage boy who recently inherited his grandma's home completely debt-free. Despite the lack of a mortgage, Daniel's new abode becomes a...

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‘Half-Sequels’ Like Uncharted Lost Legacy Are The Future

Standalone Expansions, half-sequels, glorified DLC… whatever you want to call it, I’m a fan of these kinds of not-quite-full game, not-quite-DLC experiences. And with AAA game development now expected to take longer than ever, these half-sequels might be a way to address a potential new release shortage. So far nobody has done them better than PlayStation. Looking back, it shouldn’t be surprising that these standalone expansions rank as some of my favorite games in the past decade. Uncharted Lost Legacy is one of my two favorite Uncharted games in the series, alongside Uncharted 2, and Miles Morales’ big advantage over Spider-Man was telling a story I had rarely heard before. Consider this: I’ve watched three different Peter Parker...

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Hitman: Blood Money Reprisal Brings the Stealth Game to More Mobile Platforms

IO Interactive and Feral Interactive have announced Hitman: Blood Money Reprisal for Nintendo Switch, iOS, and Android. It’s a new version of 2006’s Hitman: Blood Money and it’ll arrive this fall for mobile devices, with the Switch version coming in winter. This version of Blood Money has new features such as an Instinct Mode, minimap, and gameplay improvements from later games in the franchise. Instinct Mode was introduced in 2012’s Hitman: Absolution and let Agent 47 predict enemy and civilian movements, while the new minimap will stay on players’ screens during gameplay. Blood Money Reprisal has 12 missions with a variety of different settings. Agent 47 will travel to places such as Paris and New Orleans as he executes his...

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Gearbox Hero Shooter Gigantic Coming Back Online For One Weekend Only

Hero shooter Gigantic may have shut down five years ago but Gearbox Software is bringing it back for one weekend only in a limited time throwback event. A Reddit post from TemptedTemplar shared an email asking players to the event, while the game's subreddit is also full of others who received the invite. "You're invited to play Gigantic (again) during our limited time throwback event," read the email, sent to Reddit user HeirOfRhoads. The event will take place from October 5 at 12noon Pacific / 3pm Eastern / 8pm UK to October 6 at 9pm Pacific / 12midnight Eastern, so October 7 at 5am UK. It's unclear if players other than those who received the email will be able to play. Players will even get to enjoy "never before seen features"...

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Horizon: Forbidden West Complete Edition Is the First Two-Disc PS5 Game

The PlayStation 5 has its first two-disc video game three years after the console launched: Horizon: Forbidden West Complete Edition. The Complete Edition includes the Horizon: Forbidden West base game and Horizon: Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC, and costs $69.99 / €59.99 / ¥7,980 on PS5. Here’s the complete list of contents for Horizon: Forbidden West: Complete Edition on PS5: Horizon: Forbidden West for PS5 Burning Shores DLC for PS5 Digital soundtrack Digital art book Horizon Zero Dawn Vol. 1: The Sunhawk digital comic book In-game items: Extras in Photo Mode (special pose and face paint) In-game items unlocked via story progression: Carja Behemoth Elite outfit ·Carja Behemoth Short Bow Nora Thunder Elite outfit Nora...

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The Alters Might Be the Most Insane Sci-Fi Game I’ve Ever Seen, and I’m Sold

The video game industry’s love affair with science fiction is as old as the medium itself, so it’s no minor statement when I say that 11 Bit Studios’ The Alters is perhaps the weirdest sci-fi game I’ve ever seen. This bizarre survival game is packed with weighty building mechanics and social links, and every time I thought the 40-minute demo couldn’t get any wilder, it defied my expectations by throwing yet another curveball. Whether it’s the planet’s rising sun that threatens to burn you into oblivion or the giant wheel-shaped base that serves as your home, the Rapidium miracle element that’s Earth’s only chance at survival or the alternate reality clones of the protagonist that serve as your companions, The Alters is perhaps the most...

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Minecraft x The Noble Collection: New Life-Size Collectibles to Debut at New York Comic-Con

The Noble Collection releases collectibles and jewelry based on some of the biggest franchises in the world, including The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Star Trek and DC. Now they're adding a massive gaming franchise to that lineup - Minecraft. IGN can exclusively reveal a new collection dubbed Minecraft x The Noble Collection. This new line features a variety of life-size prop replicas and other collectibles inspired by the game and its distinctively blocky aesthetic. Head to the slideshow gallery below for a closer look at all of the debut pieces in this collection: The Minecraft x The Noble Collection line consists of six items so far, five life-size prop replicas and one chess set featuring characters and creatures from the...

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Assassin's Creed Mirage Review

During the same year the first iPhone was released and Prince played Purple Rain at a halftime show where it literally rained, another bit of culture was changed forever: the first Assassin’s Creed was released to mixed reviews. Not everyone loved Ubisoft’s approach to stealth and action, but it was widely agreed that this game was on to something. In the 15-plus years since, its many sequels traded stealth for something far bigger and flashier, but lost sight of the very spirit of how it began. Assassin’s Creed Mirage takes a lot of important, imperfect steps to get back to its roots, and though that means as it does no particular thing that hasn’t been done before, the focus and commitment to briskly paced missions and stealth-heavy...

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How Long is Assassin's Creed Mirage?

It’s well documented that Assassin’s Creed Mirage is a considerably smaller adventure compared to the previous 3 entries in the series, but just how long is it? Here we’ll let you know exactly how many hours it took different members of the IGN team to finish the story, and what they prioritised doing with their time. How long is Assassin's Creed Mirage? Our fastest player finished it in 10 hours. Our “slowest” player played for almost 17 hours before credits rolled. Everyone plays games differently, so read on for more details about how everyone played, how long it took to reach the credits, and how much extra time players spent exploring the world. Once you've finished the game yourself, be sure to submit your times on How Long To...

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Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 Multiplayer Beta Global Release Time Confirmed

Activision has confirmed the global release times for the Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 beta on PC and console. Modern Warfare 3’s release date is set for November 10, 2023 on PC via Battle.net and Steam, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X and S. But Activision has a beta planned for the multiplayer portion of the game that will let fans get their hands on Sledgehammer's shooter from October 6. We now have exact timings for the staggered release of this beta, which includes early access for those who pre-order on PlayStation before being available to all. Here’s the list of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 release times worldwide: Early Access PlayStation (pre-order): Oct 6 at 6pm BST / 10am PT / 1pm ET until...

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Forza Motorsport Review

Sitting on the grid in my 2017 Holden V8 Supercar, surrounded by Lamborghinis, Ferraris, and Audi R8s, I have to concede I’m feeling a little underqualified. Forza Motorsport’s online multiplayer spec racing should technically place all these cars on a level field, but I can’t help but feel like I’ve brought a cricket bat to a swordfight here. Several mediocre laps later and neither myself or my Vegemite-eating VF Commodore have troubled the timesheets much, finishing mid-pack one spot below where I started – but I’m sweating, and I’m smiling. The 2023 version of Forza Motorsport is brimming with new features across the board, from its muscular new multiplayer to its much-improved handling. All except for its upgrades, that is. They’ve...

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