Gaming News

Formula E Expands Partnership with Motorsport Games, rFactor 2

Motorsport Games has today confirmed that rFactor 2 will become the official sim racing platform of Formula E, the world’s leading all-electric, open-wheel motorsport series. This partnership comes as an extension of the existing agreement between Motorsport Games and Formula E. All 11 official teams and all 22 drivers and cars from the currently underway Formula E season are available for rFactor 2 on PC starting today. The platform now features every season of Formula E since 2018. “Formula E is one of the fastest growing motorsports series and we couldn’t be more excited and honored to bring it to life fully within rFactor 2,” said Motorsport Games CEO Dmitry Kozko in a statement published alongside the announcement. “rFactor 2...

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Aussie Deals: Price Slices on Xbox Series S, Elden Ring, Pokémon Arceus and More!

If you somehow haven't joined in on the cultural phenomenon that is Elden Ring, now's a good time. With today's discount you can test your mettle against a serious contender for GOTY 2022. Not into life-defining experiences which will kill you many, many times over? I also have great deals on less nerve and/or relationship shredding games below. Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch Purchase Cheaply for PC Exciting Offers for XO/XS Product Savings for PS4/PS5 Adam’s our Aussie deals wrangler. You can watch him game on YouTube. Continue reading...

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Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed Preview - Getting in the Spirit

The individual trappings, characters, and references to crossing the streams carry lots of nostalgia weight in the Ghostbusters franchise, especially among those who, like me, fell in love with the first film in their youth. But if you’re really trying to make something distinctively Ghostbusters, what you really need is a healthy dash of absolute nonsense. It’s the energy that birthed the monstrosity of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the first place, and the comedic timing that makes lines like “When someone asks if you’re a God…” really sing. Put simply, Ghostbusters needs to be a little stupid in a good way. And in Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed, I suspect Illfonic may have nailed the exact flavor of good stupidity I was looking...

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One Piece Odyssey JRPG Announced

One Piece Odyssey is a new JRPG coming in 2022 to PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC. The official One Piece YouTube channel revealed the game in a live stream with Bandai Namco confirmed to be publishing the game in the west. One Piece Odyssey's producer Katsuaki Tsuzuki has promised "an epic drama adventure which both One Piece fans and JRPG fans can experience and enjoy." He added: "One Piece RPG experiences are scattered throughout the game such as the story woven by Straw Hats, the dungeon experience, and various quests." Eiichiro Oda, author of the One Piece manga, designed the characters and monsters in Odyssey, and Bandai Namco has confirmed several playable characters including Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp...

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Call of Duty: Warzone Dev Says More Maps Aren't Possible Because Install Sizes are 'F**king Crazy'

Call of Duty Warzone can't have multiple main maps available at the same time because the install sizes are too big. In an interview with streamer TeeP, as spotted by PC Gamer, Call of Duty live operations lead Josh Bridge said he and the team want to include more maps but the install sizes are "f**king crazy". Warzone's original map, Verdansk, was replaced by Caldera in December 2021, and TeeP asked if a map rotation option similar to the one in Apex Legends would ever come to the game. Bridge said: "We want that. We all want that, [but] there's a technical problem: the install and reinstall sizes are f**king crazy." Warzone currently requires more than 120 gigabytes of storage on PlayStation 5 and a similar amount on other...

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Viral Steam Success Vampire Survivors Is Getting a Lot of New Content Ahead of Release

Viral hit Vampire Survivors is getting a lot more content ahead of its official launch on Steam. Developer Poncle has released a roadmap for the game after its Early Access launch on December 17 became a huge success. Five more levels, nine more characters, 16 more weapons, and two more power ups are being added to Vampire Survivors, and it's also being ported to an industry-standard game engine. Poncle is also adding new achievements and Relics alongside a brand new item called Arcanas, but no further information on what these do was given. A "new major gameplay mechanic" will also be implemented, the developer said, and while it's currently undecided which one, "some kind of endless mode" is the frontrunner. This will come at...

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Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong - The First Hands-On Preview

Fans of Vampire: The Masquerade have had it plenty rough recently. The long-awaited sequel to Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines was delayed indefinitely in 2021, meaning that the gothic horror open-world RPG saga returned to its tomb far earlier than any of us hoped. There’s a silver lining here, and it’s that the much more cerebral Vampire: The Masquerade - Swansong may just have enough blood and wits to sate the appetite of any RPG aficionado whose tastes are a little more nocturnal. Instead of running around an open world, however, you’ll instead drop into the slicked Oxfords of one of three different vampire tritagonists, each wielding their supernatural abilities to uncover secrets and conduct detective work across several...

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How Elden Ring's Silliest Memes Get Lost in Translation

Bretwulfo kept stumbling across a message that will be familiar to anyone who’s played Elden Ring: “Try finger, but hole.” At this point, many players would probably roll their eyes at finding yet another use of the game’s messaging system to graffiti crude humour across FromSoft’s incredible fantasy world. The problem was that Bretwulfo is Brazilian, and plays the game in Portuguese – that oft-seen message simply does not translate the same way. “I was always plunging into holes thinking there was going to be something in it,” Bretwulfo says. “I only got what it was supposed to mean after someone placed it on the ass of a corpse.” For players who don’t speak English as their first language, Elden Ring’s many meme-messages can be far...

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Elden Ring Fan Discovers 128 Mysterious Unused Icons in Game Files

An Elden Ring dataminer has found 128 unused icons with detailed artwork hidden in the game files. Twitter user JesterPatches posted images (below) of the icons which depict the various wildlife and enemies found in Elden Ring. Each NPC has two icons, one blurred out and one filled in, and JesterPatches believes this indicates that developer FromSoftware once planned to include an in-game bestiary. If this was the case, players would perhaps have been able to tick off which enemies they had encountered, or maybe even where to find them in the map (like Elden Ring's version of a Pokédex). There's nothing to confirm this was the case, however, as the bestiary idea is just pure fan speculation. FromSoftware games are known for their...

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Creator of Beloved Visual Novel Coffee Talk Dies, Aged 32

Mohammad Fahmi, the Indonesian creator and developer of Coffee Talk and What Comes After, has died aged 32. The news was announced today, March 28, on Fahmi’s Twitter account in a post written in Indonesian by his sister, which IGN Japan has corroborated with Coffee Talk publisher Toge Productions. No cause of death has been announced. A spokesperson for Toge Productions said, “We're absolutely devastated by the news. We already miss him greatly and we hope that he is resting in peace wherever he may be.” Fahmi was born January 29, 1990 and was a much-loved developer in the global indie game scene, as much for his beautifully made games as his warm personality. In addition to making his own games, Fahmi worked on programming and...

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Forza Horizon 5 Update Adds New PvP Progression System

Forza Horizon 5's latest update adds a new progression system to its competitive multiplayer mode. A blog post on the Forza website detailed a number of fixes and changes including a reworking of rewards in Horizon Open, the PvP portion of Horizon 5. "Horizon Open has been updated with a new progression system including Badges which can be unlocked through gameplay," the post said. Developer Playground Games also "added custom racing to Horizon Open, which will allow players to find races for their chosen race discipline and PI class." General stability and performance improvements were also made in the patch, plus updated season event map pins, new Gravity Action options in EventLab that allow players to manipulate gravity in...

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Aussie Deals: A $5 Fallout and 60% off Tony Hawk's, Hot Wheels, Resi 2 and More!

Welcome to another week of the best gaming deals on the Internet! Today's selection is eclectic: discounted first-party Switch titles, the odd greatly reduced peripheral and bargain games aimed at the young (or young-at-heart). Get in and grab something to make the forthcoming 5-day slog bearable. Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch Purchase Cheaply for PC Exciting Offers for XO/XS Product Savings for PS4/PS5 Adam’s our Aussie deals wrangler. You can watch him game on YouTube. Continue reading...

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Space Punks Hits Open Beta This April

Space Punks, the online co-op action RPG will be available to play for free in open beta on April 20. Space Punks was previously in a closed beta, and developers Flying Wild Hog have made multiple game-changing updates during this time. Now, the team is ready to open the beta to the public. The free-to-play open beta kicks off on April 20 on the Epic Games Store. The living looter shooter was first announced back in 2021 and combined a grungy apocalyptic wasteland setting with the isometric action from the Diablo series. In an interview with IGN last year the team says the goal is to be a “living looter shooter.” Flying Wild Hog is best known for games like Shadow Warrior, and the team says that connection between melee combat...

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Jamie Lee Curtis Is Officiating Her Daughter's Wedding Dressed as a World of Warcraft Character

Jamie Lee Curtis has revealed that she will not only be officiating her daughter's wedding, but that she will also be doing it while wearing cosplay of World of Warcraft's Jaina Proudmoore. As reported by EW, Curtis' daughter Ruby is having a cosplay wedding in May and Curtis stopped by Jimmy Kimmel Live! to share how she's planning on making her day even more special. "It's a game. I don't know. She's an admiral," Curtis said when explaining that her daughter and fiancée Cynthia chose the costume for her. She also shared that the costume was ordered from Russia, which is currently at war with Ukraine. "About a month ago — two to three weeks ago — I got an email from her that said, 'There may be a delay in sending the costume,'"...

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Ghostwire: Tokyo Ending Explained (With the Director)

So you’ve finished Ghostwire: Tokyo, congratulations! But if you’re like us you may have some outstanding questions about what actually happened during the story. Well, you’re in the right place for an explanation. And not only have we got you covered, but we also spoke to the game’s director himself, Kenji Kimura, to get some definitive answers. This is your last chance to stop reading before we dive into the spoiler zone. Mari After witnessing Akito’s final confrontation with the man in the hannya mask, we imagine some of your outstanding questions involve Akito’s sister, Mari. Throughout the game Mari has been in a comatose state, making you wonder not only what Hannya sees in her, but how she became so sick in the first...

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Amazon Games Studio Head Mike Frazzini Has Stepped Down to 'Focus on His Family'

Amazon Games studio head Mike Frazzini, who played a big role in starting the company, has left stepped down to "focus on his family." As reported by Bloomberg, Frazzini told his staff on Friday, March 25, that he was leaving the studio that helped bring games like New World and Lost Ark to life. "Mike was there at the beginning of Amazon Games, and his leadership and perseverance helped build the games business from the ground up,” Amazon spokesman Ryan Jones said in a statement. “Our recent successes with New World and Lost Ark are the result of the long-term, customer-focused vision for games he helped establish. We are very grateful for all his contributions, and wish Mike the very best.” While New World and Lost Ark have been...

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Bugsnax: Isle of Bigsnax Supersizes Everything I Love About Bugsnax

Bugsnax is back with a new expansion, the Isle of Bigsnax, which adds an entirely new, additional island of mystery, puzzles, and, delightfully, big Bugsnax to the mix. The main addition with this new update is that titular new island players will travel to, which includes some more promising puzzle-solving, a better chance to get to know some of the wonderful ensemble cast, and more creative Bugsnak hunting. But after going hands-on with a small portion of the upcoming free DLC, one of the biggest surprises is how developer Young Horses is also fleshing out the experience on the adventure game’s original hub, Snaktooth Island with a few new gameplay hooks. It’s shaping up to be a worthy reason to return to the clever world of...

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Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands: How the New Character Creator Works

Unlike the Borderlands games before it, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands includes a full-on character creator, not just swappable head and body skins. And true to Bunkers and Badasses’ real-world Dungeons and Dragons inspiration, what seems like an impressive appearance generator turns into a fun D&D-lite character sheet by the end. With that in mind, let’s jump into the basics of Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands’ Character Creator and how it works, if you’re wondering just how creative, or weird, you can get. Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands features six character classes: Stabbomancer, Clawbringer, Spellshot, Graveborn, Spore Warden, and Brr-Zerker. And before getting into how to customize their look, it’s worth noting each has its own passive ability, or...

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Destiny 2: Where Is Xur Today? Location and Exotic Items for March 25

The man with no plan, Xûr, is now live in Destiny 2 for the weekend until next week's reset. If you're looking to get your some shiny new Exotic armor or weapons for your Guardian, look no further. Each week, Xûr has a random assortment of Exotic armor, one for each Guardian class, as well as a random Exotic Weapon and an Exotic Engram available for purchase. In addition to his Exotic wares, he's got a random collection of Legendary weapons and armor to deck out your Guardians. We've rounded up all the info on Xûr for the week including where to find Xûr, which Exotic weapons and armor are available, as well as which Legendary weapons you should pick up, either for PvE or PvP. Where Is Xûr Today? Xûr can be found at The Tower on...

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Anno: Mutationem Review

When I think back on my time with plucky cyberpunk beat-em-up Anno: Mutationem, the first thing I think of is that I wish they'd included a pronunciation guide for that mouthful of a faux Latin title. But the second thing that comes to mind is attitude. From the colorful, retro chic art style to the endearing, ass-kicking protagonist, this is a world with a strong sense of identity that knows from the first minute how it wants to make you feel – even though the story told there sometimes seems a bit more lost. The streets of futuristic Skopp City are where most of the action takes place: it’s a delightful chrome and concrete sprawl packed with influences from the likes of Blade Runner and Ghost in the Shell. Its various districts each...

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Rockstar Launches Paid GTA Online Subscription Called GTA+

Rockstar has announced GTA+, a new subscription service for Grand Theft Auto Online. It will only be available for the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S versions of the game, and will launch on March 29. GTA+ will cost $5.99 per month, and provide subscribers with a recurring monthly bank deposit of GTA$500,000, ensuring players have plenty of cash to spend in the online open-world. There will also be a "wide-range" of members only bonuses, including exclusive properties, vehicles, upgrades, discounts, and cash/RP bonuses. Rockstar also mentions that there will be the ability to unlock gameplay updates that "you may have missed out on", suggesting previously time-limited content may be accessible with GTA+. The first month of GTA+...

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IGN UK Podcast #637: Ghostwiring and Smelly Feedback

Dale, Matt and Jesse are here to share all their (mixed) thoughts on Ghostwire: Tokyo. Matt waxes lyrical about the new Disney+ film, Fresh, and Dale has finished Apple T.V's The After Party and is equally impressed. We also have the smelliest section of IGN UK feedback in, well... forever! Want to get in touch to talk about your favourite smells or maybe even video games? Feel free to send us an email at ign_ukfeedback@ign.com. IGN UK Podcast #637: Ghostwiring and Smelly Feedback If you'd like to check out the documentary Dale mentions on the podcast, you can watch it right here: IGN UK Podcast #636: GTA V is Old but so Are We Now IGN UK Podcast #635: More Decent Chat IGN UK Podcast #634: The Batman, Elden Ring, and Sausages...

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How Long is Ghostwire: Tokyo?

Ghostwire: Tokyo has a haunted, open-world Shibuya to discover, but just how long is the game? Here we’ll let you know exactly how many hours it took different members of the IGN team to finish the game, and what they prioritised doing with that time. How Long Is Ghostwire: Tokyo? Our fastest player finished Ghostwire: Tokyo in 15 hours. Our “slowest” player spent 24 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 it took to fully explore a spooky Shibuya. Once you've finished the game yourself, be sure to submit your times on How Long To Beat and see how your time compares! Cam Shea, Reviewer &...

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Ukrainian Sherlock Holmes Devs Discuss How They're Developing During a War

Editor's Note: The war in Ukraine is an ongoing, painful and emotive topic. IGN urges community members to be respectful when engaging in conversation around this subject and does not endorse harassment of any kind. Sherlock Holmes: Chapter One developer Frogwares is headquartered in Ukraine, and the team has shared a bit of what it's like to develop a game during a war. Sherlock: Holmes: Chapter One was released on November 15, 2021, and Frogwares has just announced that not only is the M for Mystery DLC now available on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S, but also that Sherlock Holmes: The Devils Daughter will be released on Switch on April 7, 2022. Frogwares is located in Kyiv, Ukraine (subsidary offices are in Dublin, Ireland), and...

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Activision Blizzard Hit With a New Lawsuit Alleging 'Rampant Sexism'

Activision Blizzard has been hit with yet another lawsuit, this time alleging the company's "frat boy" environment fostered "rampant sexism" that led to a current employee experiencing sexual harassment and discrimination and being "retaliated against" for speaking up. As reported by Bloomberg, the lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Country Superior Court on behalf of this employee who is going by "Jane Doe" by attorney Lisa Bloom. “For years, Activision Blizzard’s open ‘frat boy’ environment fostered rampant sexism, harassment and discrimination with 700 reported incidents occurring under CEO Robert Kotick’s watch,” the lawsuit reads. Doe began work at Activision Blizzard in 2017 as a senior administrative assistant to executives in...

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Aussie Deals: 52% Off Switch Must-owns and a Final Chance to Score an Insane Humble Bundle!

The bad news: the phenomenal Stand With Ukraine deal is out of here in under 18 hours. The good news: it has raised $24 million for charity and you still have time to add to that total. Lastly, I've also been pretty impressed by a number of first-party Switch titles that are 52% off. Stay safe, save often and see you Monday. Notable Sales for Nintendo Switch Purchase Cheaply for PC Exciting Offers for XO/XS Product Savings for PS4/PS5 Adam’s our Aussie deals wrangler. You can watch him game on YouTube. Continue reading...

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Elden Ring Speedrunners Again Beating Game in Record Time After Old Methods Removed by Patch

An Elden Ring speedrunner has beaten the game in under 25 minutes by using a new teleportation glitch called "the Zip". As spotted by DualShockers, YouTuber Hazeblade has conquered the previous record and completed Elden Ring in just 24 minutes and 37 seconds. This comes just one week after key players declared "RIP speedruns" as developer FromSoftware released an update that made the old methods less effective. By utilising a newly discovered glitch dubbed zipping, players can essentially teleport at certain points of the map and skip large portions of the game. The previous Elden Ring speedrun record was held by Distortion2, who registered faster and faster times under 30 minutes but has so far been unable to drop below 25. He...

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Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Apparently Runs Better If You Make the Characters Bald

The hair in Stranger of Paradise: Final Fantasy Origin is seemingly killing the game's performance on PC. As spotted by PC Gamer, users have turned to modding characters' hair out of the game to make Stranger of Paradise run at a higher frame rate. A necessary sacrifice for some players. Reddit user MorrisonGamer found that hair could be the culprit when they discovered the closer players get to other characters the poorer the performance gets — reporting drops as low as eight frames per second if a lot of NPCs are on screen. They shared their findings on Twitter, posting a video of their RTX 3090, a high-end graphics card, dropping to 25 frames per second as they stood next to a character wearing fluffy shoulder pads. While it's...

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Dying Light 2's First Story DLC Won't Take Place After the Game's Ending

Dying Light 2's first story expansion won't add anything beyond the game's ending, and will take place "sideways to the main events". Developer Techland has previously kept quiet on what its two upcoming story DLCs will be about, but Dying Light 2's lead game designer Tymon Smektała shared the first details with Game Informer. "We don’t want to fall into this repeating pattern where players will kind of know what to expect from us," he said. "The first story DLC that we have promised, I’ve seen a lot of speculation online about what it will be and I can say confidently that they weren’t close to the mark." The first injection of story content will therefore exist "sideways to the main events", though Techland will seemingly expand...

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Fortnite Datamining Suggests 'No Build' Mode Will Be Sticking Around

Fortnite dataminers have seemingly found confirmation that the game's limited-time "no build" mode is here to stay. Building was removed from Fortnite's default mode earlier this week as its Chapter 3 Season 2 began, but new leaks suggest that developer Epic Games plans to include it later as a separate game mode. The HYPEX Twitter account, a popular Fortnite news feed, claimed that datamining shows that players will have the option to choose between Fortnite's usual, building-enabled battle royale or its no build mode when the current season ends. This is further backed up by apparent loading screen tips that say "in modes with building enabled..." Another popular Fortnite leaks account, TweaBR, has also shown off what appear to...

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