While on previous Forza Horizon games the wild, toy-themed expansions have come after a more grounded one, for Forza Horizon 5 developer Playground Games led with its terrific Hot Wheels add-on last year. However, after seven months of pounding the orange plastic high above the clouds, the team has taken us right back down to the desert and dust for some new rally-themed racing across a fresh slab of Mexican countryside. It admittedly isn’t quite as eye-catching – and it’s regressed from some key tweaks to the progression system introduced in Hot Wheels – but competing against the clock with a co-driver is a great new way to race in Horizon, and the excellent map is packed with far more technical routes than found in the main game...
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Thank the gaming Gods, it's Friday! I have a ton of new deals for you, in addition to the downshifting Amazon Big Smile Sale. I should also like to point out that it's the Aussie birthday of the Nintendo 3DS. This celebration is muted, however, by the fact that its online store was shuttered two days ago. 12 years on, and my launchy hasn't skipped a beat. Top innings. Off to gaming Valhalla with you, sweet prince.
This Day in Gaming
- Resistance: Fall of Man (PS3) launch, 2007.
- Nintendo 3DS launch, 2011.
- Ghost Recon: Shadow Wars (3DS) launch, 2011.
- Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (3DS) launch, 2011.
- Shift 2: Unleashed (PC, PS2, X360) launch, 2011.
- Persona 5 Royal (Multi) launch, 2020. Get
Table of Contents
Nintendo...
MultiVersus is closing its doors – well, early access doors – on June 25, and there’s been a lot of discourse about this move by Warner Bros. Games and Player First Games. I think the general consensus is that everyone sort of forgot MultiVersus was an Early Access game as it’s had not one but two seasons since it launched.
A lot of games recently have been coming out as Open Beta, Beta, or Early Access, and they just kind of stay that way. DayZ is the biggest example I can think of; the game had been in alpha for five years but just came out as a beta in 2018. Now, this isn’t a great example since you can’t buy a battlepass or cosmetics for DayZ, and MultiVersus has a battlepass and cosmetics system in place, but you can still...
When Nintendo retired the 3DS shortly after the release of the Nintendo Switch, one of the first questions fans asked was whether this meant the end for Etrian Odyssey. A popular dungeon crawling series that originally made its debut on the Nintendo DS, Etrian Odyssey was built around the dual touchscreen design that defined that platform. Technically, it could be replicated on the Switch, but it was apt to be far more unwieldy.
In February, Atlus put some of those fears to rest with the Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection, a remastered collection that will bring the first three games to PC and Switch. In an exclusive new interview with IGN, Etrian Odyssey HD’s devs – who preferred to be identified as a team rather than individually –...
After over 2 years on the market, the Meta (Oculus) Quest 2 VR headset is still far and away the best value when it comes to VR gaming. For a price that beats every other comparable VR headset out there, it offers a completely tether-free experience, phenomenal inside-out tracking, and a huge library of games. Also, starting August of 2022, you do not need a Facebook account to login to your Quest 2. That was justifiably a sore point for many people and Meta eventually realized that.
The Quest 2 originally started out at $299.99 at launch, but those days are long gone. Last year Meta raised it to $399.99, a rather significant price hike. Fortunately today, there's a $50 price drop that brings it down to $349.99. The current gen Quest...
Blizzard has revealed the Diablo IV beta that took place over the last two weekends was the largest in the franchise's history. Thanks to the official Diablo Twitter account, we now have information on how many times players died, which classes were the most played, and more.
The popular classes throughout both betas were the Sorcerer and Necromancer. The Sorcerer was available during the Early and Open Beta, while the Necromancer was only playable during the Open Beta.
In our review-in-progress of the Diablo 4 beta we wrote that all three of the initially available character classes in the beta were "pretty great," saying of the Sorcerer, "The Sorcerer has a similar set of mostly long-range skills based on fire, electric, and ice...
CD Projekt Red has officially confirmed that The Molasses Flood's upcoming Witcher game, codenamed Sirius, is not canceled, but it has restarted development on the upcoming multiplayer game.
During a recent financial earnings call, The Witcher and Cyberpunk 2077 developer confirmed that it decided to reevaluate the project but that it would not scrap the entire concept altogether. Noting that the company was looking at ways to extend the popular fantasy IP.
"So this is a project which is, I would say, insourced. It's also new to us in terms of design and format. For those reasons, it's very different from the big productions we are known for. To stay competitive, we have to keep looking for new ways to extend our franchises," said...
With the rocky launch of Cyberpunk 2077 firmly in the rearview, CD Projekt seems to have fully bounced back from where it was at the end of 2020 both in good will and in financials, celebrating its second-best earnings year in 2022 despite no new major releases.
Per CD Projekt's earnings report, Cyberpunk 2077 revenues were up 18% year-over-year in 2022, with 94% of the units sold being digital. That's a pretty unusual figure in video games, which typically release to enormous unit sales and then see a steady but consistent drop over time. CD Projekt attributes the sales to their long-term work on improving issues with Cyberpunk 2077, as well as the success of the companion Netflix series Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. And having The Witcher...
Tim Sweeney isn't a fan of what blockchain has done to game development. Epic's CEO bemoans "a whole generation" of computer scientists focusing on technlogy such as cryptocurrency, which he believes is impacting the core technology needed to make truly revolutionary game experiences
"There's been a lot of neglect, as everybody's going off...we're missing a generation of computer scientists who would traditionally be pushing forward that set," Sweeney says. "So, we're trying to fill in the gaps in building the research team we have here. I think there are new genres of games that will emerge from the technologies that are just in the pipeline being built right now."
Saxs Persson, Epic's executive in charge of Fortnite's ecosystem...
Crusader Kings 3's critically acclaimed Royal Court DLC is coming to PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S on May 17.
Royal Court is a major expansion to Crusader Kings 3, adding several elements including the Throne Room, Grandeur, an Inventory System, and more.
The Throne Room is available to king and emperor characters as a visual representation of the player's royal court that reflects their success. The royal court can also be improved with the Grandeur feature that lets players bling up their residence to attract better guests and impress rivals.
Similarly, Inspired People such as talented artists, craftspeople, and thinkers can work on new projects, adding further treasures and artifacts.
The Royal Court update also adds...
Microsoft has announced that the Xbox Games with Gold line-up for April 2023 includes Out of Space: Couch Edition and Peaky Blinders: Mastermind.
As detailed on Xbox Wire, the two Games with Gold offerings will be available to anyone with Xbox Live Gold or Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, with Out of Space: Couch Edition available first from April 1 to 30, and Peaky Blinders: Mastermind available later from April 16 to May 15.
If the title wasn't obvious, Out of Space: Couch Edition is set in outer space. The aim of the game is to create resources and work out housekeeping systems to build a sustainable environment, all while dealing with a deadly alien infestation that has also settled in.
After exploring the vast cosmic arena, you might...
Naughty Dog has released its first patch for the troubled PC port of The Last of Us Part 1. The hotfix addresses "several performance and hitch-related issues," according to the developer.
In addition to remedying some of its performance woes, The Last of Us Part 1 v1.0.1.5 adds "extra crash diagnostic information to assist in investigating shader building related crashes and other common reported stability issues", according to Naughty Dog.
The studio notes it is "closely watching player reports and actively working on a patch with more bugfixes, to be released soon."
The patch comes just two days after The Last of Us Part 1 was released on PC. Users have reported issues with excessive crashing and performance, specifically...
The Amnesia series from developer Frictional Games sits comfortably among the scariest horror games ever. Each entry tells a personal story about survival against supernatural forces, injecting a palpable sense of dread as you carefully move in near-darkness, constantly staying one step ahead of nightmarish monsters nipping at your heels or the growing anxiety that slowly chips away at the sanity of the protagonist.
But the upcoming sequel, Amnesia: The Bunker, takes a unique approach to story-driven survival horror, focusing more on the moment-to-moment actions and choices you make taking that daring plunge into the unknown. After my hands-on time with it, I felt more unnerved and impressed with what tricks this series has yet to...
There are a lot of reasons to love Resident Evil 4, but something that jumped out at me while playing through the remake is how it feels like a medley of homages to some of the greatest horror movie monsters and antagonists of all time. There’s no way of telling how many of these actually are deliberate nods to other fiction, and how much it’s my own brain jumping to conclusions, but it’s still fun to dissect the many weird parts that make up this masterpiece of a game.
It’s pretty safe to say The chainsaw-wielding burlap sack-wearing Dr. Salvador takes some inspiration from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface, and quite possibly Jason Voorhees’ baggier, less athletic look from Friday The 13th Part 2. Del Lago might be more...
Hogwarts Legacy soared high on the charts as the best-selling game of February 2023, while The Last Of Us sales rose with it.
The sales numbers were shared by Mat Piscatella, executive director and games industry analyst at Circana (formerly known as NPD), showing Hogwarts Legacy ranked first in February sales for PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. Not only is the game last month's best-seller, but it is also the best-selling game of 2023 year-to-date, surpassing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, the Dead Space remake, Madden NFL 23, and FIFA 23.
The sales of The Last Of Us games climbed up the charts last month as well, but still trailed behind the Wizarding World title. The Last Of Us: Part 1 ranked 6th on the sales chart (up from 11th in...
Sports gamers unite! It’s time to vote in IGN's Best Sports Video Games Showdown Contest! We’ve created a seeded, elimination tournament featuring the 32 greatest sports video games of all-time across four ultra-competitive regions: Traditional Sports; Arcade Sports; Racing/Fighting; and Wildcard.
Fan Voting: March 29th 10am PT to April 13th 12am PT
Want a chance to win a $100 to the digital games store of your choice? Visit https://bestsportsgame.ign.com/ between March 29th 10am PT - April 13th 12am PT and make your predictions on which sports video game will win each bracket matchup. Ten (10) people who enter will win a $100 gift card to the digital games store of their choice. Visit https://bestsportsgame.ign.com/ for sweepstakes...
Square Enix has announced a set of collectible trading cards to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Final Fantasy VII, which will also be available digitally as NFTs.
The Final Fantasy VII Anniversary Art Museum Digital Card Plus collection will be available from March 31, and will feature “art, visuals, and famous scenes” from the 25 years history of the game. As reported by VGC, each 440 yen ($3.30) pack contains six physical cards, and one digital exchange card displaying an alphanumeric code.
According to Square Enix’s website, the collection is made up of “99 types of trading cards, 3 types of another normal cards, 102 types of premium cards (normal cards, foil specifications of another cards), and 3 types of secret cards for a...
Sony has announced that the PlayStation Plus games for April 2023 are Meet Your Maker (PS4 and PS5), Sackboy: A Big Adventure (PS4 and PS5), and Tails of Iron (PS4 and PS5).
As revealed on the PlayStation Blog, all three games will be made available at no extra cost to PlayStation Plus subscribers on April 4.
Meet Your Maker is a post-apocalyptic, first-person building and raiding game from Dead By Daylight developer Behaviour Interactive, where every level is designed by other users. Players can team up with a friend or stay solo to build their own creations or take on others', choosing different loadouts to match each challenge.
IGN has high hopes for Meet Your Makes, which launches on PlayStation Plus day one, saying in our...
Square Enix and Luminous Productions have revealed the story expansion In Tanta We Trust will be released for Forspoken on May 26.
The DLC expansion takes place 25 years before the events of Forspoken, with Frey continuing on her quest to eradicate the Break from Athia permanently. She follows a mysterious voice and ends up being transported into the past during the Purge of the Rheddig, the battle that destroyed Athia and led to its current state in the present.
Frey will team up with Tanta Cinta as well as unlock brand-new magical abilities to fight off the invading Rheddig forces and save Athia again.
The DLC shows that Square Enix is still supporting Forspoken despite its underwhelming sales and the fact Luminous Productions is...
It’s been almost a full year since I first played Endless Dungeon, successor to 2014’s roguelike tower defense game, Dungeon of the Endless, and it’s come quite a long way in that time. Whether it’s a drastically expanded roster of characters, some much-needed meta progression to make each run feel like a tiny step forward, or combat and an upgrade system that feels much more tightly tuned, so much of this exceedingly difficult defense game feels far more fleshed out. And while I only had a few hours to test my mettle against it, so far it seems like Endless Dungeon will be the roguelite evolution that fans have been waiting for.
Like Dungeon of the Endless before it, Endless Dungeon is a four-player tactical hybrid tower defense game...
Capcom has revealed that Resident Evil 4 Remake is off to a strong start after selling more than three million copies in its first two days on sale.
This appears to give Resident Evil 4 the best launch of all the Remake titles, as Resident Evil 2 had only shipped three million units in its first week and Resident Evil 3 was only confirmed to hit 3.9 million sold after a year and a half on the market.
The three million number references worldwide sales of the highly anticipated remake, and also across all consoles (PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series) and PC.
It's a game Capcom has been hyping up for a while, and not just because it's a remake of what's considered one of the greatest games of all time. The publisher released a...
Spider-Man villain Sandman could return to the Marvel movie universe in a future project according to actor Thomas Haden Church.
“We had a whole story involving his daughter for No Way Home, and it just ended up [cut],” said Church in an interview with The DisInsider.
“There was just so much going on… Amy [Pascal] and Kevin [Feige], we all had a lot of conversations. And I would say that conversations have been had about the possibility of Sandman coming into a future iteration of it.”
Church reiterated that “the conversation has happened about him coming back”, and that his future appearance could see the character boast “a more fulfilling story”.
It's unclear if this would be in the mainstream Marvel Cinematic Universe or Sony's...
Ever since 1995, when they let me Octopus Stretch a sentient kangaroo into unconsciousness, I've Tekken Namco's best fight series seriously. Nearly three decades and seven Iron Fist tournaments later, I find myself not only sharing Paul Phoenix's wrinkles, but also his infectious enthusiasm for yet another round of Mishima funded mayhem.
Recently, an invitation to do so came in the form of a world's first 'fists-on' with Tekken 8, plus a gloves off chat with Executive Producer Katsuhiro Harada. Long story short: it was a 'day spar' that left me energised and impressed. Getting access to 10 characters across two hours of playtime allowed me to better understand Tekken 8's fresh approach to fisticuffs. More importantly, it gave me...
Growing up as a child of 90s and early 2000s arcades, I’ve been a casual enjoyer of the Tekken series pretty much all throughout its lifespan, with its cabinets being a regular spot where I would dump a few quarters, mash some buttons, and walk away with a smile on my face. I’ve put some time into just about all of them, but I’ve never really attempted to learn the deeper complexities of its mechanics or really sat down to try and become good with a character. That’s going to change with Tekken 8, because after spending about four hours with it, I’m all in.
While I am a self-admitted casual fan of the Tekken series, I have at least dabbled enough into Tekken 7 to be able to talk about the most defining differences between it and...
If you've been looking to upgrade your Steam Deck's storage capabilities, you've come to the right place. Right now you can secure one of the fastest Micro SD cards available, and it just so happens it's also perfect for the Steam Deck. Samsung Evo Select is down to just £32.99 in the Amazon Spring Sale, bettering its £37.99 offering during the Black Friday sales last year. Not only that, but this is far better than its average price of £55 over the past couple of years, and far and beyond an improvement from its original £77.99 RRP.
There are plenty of other great deals to also check out in the Amazon Spring Sale at the moment, but it does all end after today, March 29, so this is your last chance to secure some stellar deals until...
The Last of Us Part 1 is finally available on PC… if you can get it to work. Steam have slammed the PC version of the PlayStation classic due to crippling performance issues and crashes.
In fact, it currently has “mostly negative” reviews. “Crashes every 20 minutes,” said one review. “Game is badly optimized. Game looks great just needs to be better optimized.” Naughty Dog is currently investigating the issues, however, and has promised it's team is working on resolving them.
“The Last of Us Part 1 PC players: we've heard your concerns, and our team is actively investigating multiple issues you've reported. We will continue to update you, but our team is prioritizing updates and will address issues in upcoming patches.”
At the...
Atlas Fallen may have just received its release date a few weeks ago on March 1, but developer Deck13 has now delayed the game by three months to August 10.
Announced in a tweet (below), Deck13 seemingly just needs extra time to deliver the version of Atlas Fallen it has always wanted to.
"We'd love to give the game some extra time which will allow us to deliver the best possible version of Atlas Fallen," it said in the tweet. "To achieve this, we have made the difficult decision to delay the worldwide launch of Atlas Fallen to August 10, 2023. We apologise for this disappointing news."
Deck13 added in a subsequent tweet: "Besides a lot of polish and optimisation this delay will bring, we're super happy to be able to now also...
Depressing fantasy worlds are nothing new, yet Bramble: The Mountain King surprised me with its dark Nordic folklore. Instead of sanitizing these fairy tales like a classic Disney film, Dimfrost Studio openly embraces its most disturbing elements, presenting a twisted world brimming with atmosphere. Calling this grim adventure a horror game isn't quite right, though after a lengthy hands-on preview on PC, I'm finding this a captivating yet creepy tale.
Before jumping in, Bramble warns you about its heavy subject matter, which covers themes like suicide, infanticide, and animal cruelty. Original fairy tales often find young children in dangerous situations, so this isn't surprising, but it's worth noting for anyone unaware. Playing a...
Valve announced that Steam will no longer support Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1 starting on January 1, 2024. Afterward, the Steam client won’t run on those versions of Windows anymore.
“In order to continue running Steam and any games or other products purchased through Steam, users will need to update to a more recent version of Windows,” Valve explained in a statement.
Valve continued: “The newest features in Steam rely on an embedded version of Google Chrome, which no longer functions on older versions of Windows. In addition, future versions of Steam will require Windows feature and security updates only present in Windows 10 and above.”
According to the February 2023’s Steam hardware and software survey, users who use...
Bloober Team has come out and clarified rumors surrounding the Silent Hill 2 remake release status, as well as some inaccurate translations and out-of-context statements. This comes after Bloober Team president Pitor Babieno gave an interview with the Polish site Bankier.pl last week, reportedly saying that the game was “technically ready.”
“As the Bloober Team, we don’t comment on rumors. However, this time we need to take the floor, as some recent statements have been taken out of context, due to inaccurate translations,” the developer said in a statement on Twitter. “Our company’s messages did not contain sales forecasters of specific titles. The figures connected to Silent Hill 2 refer to the potential success of the type of games...