Gaming News

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Today at Square Enix’s Final Fantasy 7 25th Anniversary Celebration Livestream, the next installment in the Final Fantasy 7 universe, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, was revealed in a brand new trailer. Alongside that information, it was also revealed that Rebirth would be the second in what is now a three-part trilogy from Square Enix. The trilogy situates itself in the greater Final Fantasy 7 Compilation with the newly announced Crisis Core: Final Fantasy 7 Reunion, which will be out this winter. Final Fantasy 7 Remake stayed faithful to the original in many ways, but there were a number of changes that had fans both confused and intrigued for what's to come. Today's new trailer asks the question, "What is fact and what is fiction?" This...
Square Enix has revealed the first trailer for Final Fantasy 7 Remake: Part 2, and it is officially called Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Revealed during Square Enix's 25th Anniversary event for the original Final Fantasy 7, the second part in the company's planned multi-part series will release next winter in 2023. Today they also announced that Final Fantasy 7 Remake Intergrade is heading to Steam June 17, 2022, and will be compatible with the Steam Deck. Final Fantasy 7 Remake was released in 2020 and delivers on the promise of bringing the classic RPG into the modern era. IGN reviewed Final Fantasy 7 Remake and gave it an 8 out of 10, calling it an exciting take on the classic while standing on its own as a great RPG. The game...
With a recent trailer at this year’s Xbox Games Showcase, and now a whole dedicated reveal event, it’s been a busy week of Overwatch 2 news. There’s so much new info about the Blizzard shooter sequel that it can be quite hard to take in all at once. That’s why we’ve distilled all the new details we’ve learnt here so you can easily see all you need to know: 1. Overwatch 2’s PvP is launching in early access on October 4th and will be free-to-play. 2. A Beta will also be launching on both PC and consoles on June 28th, with sign-ups starting June 16th. 3. A new hero - Junker Queen - and a new map - Rio de Janeiro - will both be playable in the upcoming Beta. 4. Crossplay and cross-progression will be available from launch in Overwatch...
As Overwatch 2 prepares to go free-to-play, it will be introducing some major changes, including the removal of the loot boxes that were once a defining part of the original. During today's Overwatch 2 reveal stream, Blizzard announced that the upcoming sequel will be following in the footsteps of many other modern online game and introducing a battle pass. While Blizzard didn't offer many details, it did confirm that players will be able to unlock cosmetic items through both the battle pass and the in-game store. In addition, Overwatch 2 will feature weekly challenges in what Blizzard is calling "Competitive Play 2.0." The introduction of a battle pass also means that Overwatch 2 will be doing away with an important part of its...
While Overwatch 2's PvP content has received most of the attention so far, the PvE maps that once served as its raison d'être will be an important factor as well. During today's Overwatch 2 reveal stream, Blizzard went into a bit more detail on how exactly it will work, explaining that player-versus-environment [PvE] maps will be released as part of the newly-minted free-to-play shooter's seasonal content, beginning in 2023. Described as "content to immerse yourself in," Blizzard hints that PvE in Overwatch 2 will function as a contained series of missions designed to drive the game's overall story forward. Among other things, Overwatch 2's PvE content will show the Overwatch team reuniting while visiting familiar locations like...
Blizzard has promised that Overwatch 2 will deliver a new hero every 18 weeks (one for every two in-game seasons) – and the game will see two more unannounced heroes added this year, on top of those already announced. Announced during today's Overwatch 2 reveal event, the game's new content roadmap introduces 9-week seasons of content, and lead hero designer Geoff Goodman says the team is looking at releasing a new hero "every other season" – so every 18 weeks. If upkept, this would return Overwatch to its original cadence of hero releases, which delivered a new character to play as roughly every 18 weeks from release in 2016 up until August 2019. However, things dramatically slowed down after that point, with only one hero, Echo...
Blizzard has revealed Overwatch 2's new content roadmap, revealing that the newly free-to-play game will start a new season every 9 weeks. As you'd expect, Battle Passes are being added to the game. Revealed during today's Overwatch 2 reveal event, the roadmap shows that Season 1 of the game (beginning on the game's October 4 launch date) will include 3 new heroes – that's Sojourn, Junker Queen, and an unannounced support hero – 6 new maps, more than 30 new skins, a new game mode (the previously announced Push), a new Mythic skin (the new most rare cosmetic type), and a Battle Pass. While we only got a glimpse of a work-in-progress Battle Pass, it seems they'll offer a familiar mix of free content and premium unlocks only gained by...
While Elden Ring doesn't include intrinsic difficulty settings, players looking for (much) more of a challenge can now turn every enemy in the game into Malenia, Blade of Miquella thanks to a new mod. As spotted by PCGamesN, YouTube user Bushy used thefifthmatt's Elden Ring enemy randomiser mod to fill The Lands Between with the infamous boss. Bushy somehow still managed to beat the game in around eight hours, despite coming up against up to five Malenias at once in some areas, a highlight reel of which can be watched on his YouTube channel. Malenia has emerged as the toughest boss in Elden Ring since it was released in February, with all sorts of storylines emerging from the fight. Developer FromSoftware didn't help the situation...
Halo Infinite developer 343 Industries has changed an offensive cosmetic name released as part of a Juneteenth event, and apologized to fans for what it called a "hurtful" mistake. A Halo Infinite nameplate color palette released to celebrate Juneteenth - a federal holiday in the U.S. commemorating the emancipation of slaves - was named Bonobo, a species of great ape. The offensive name was called out by players, including Sean W on YouTube, which prompted 343 to quickly change the palette's name to Freedom and apologise for what it claimed was a mistake. "While the original name refers to an internal toolset, it was not intended to be applied to this content and we recognize the harm it may have caused," said Halo's senior...
Do you ever think about hand-drawn animation? Like really, really think about it? And the absolutely massive amount of artwork that goes into even making a single short walk cycle? StudioMDHR certainly thought about it a lot during the development of Cuphead. Then the studio turned right around for Delicious Last Course and decided to do about the same amount of animation work again. For a DLC. According to Maja Moldenhauer, the sheer volume of animations in Delicious Last Course stemmed from the team’s desire to bring to life everything they had left on the cutting room floor of the original Cuphead, with a playable Miss Chalice serving as a catalyst for the rest. “We really wanted to experiment with the art form…I don't have an...
Between the release of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands and the upcoming Borderlands movie, this franchise is on a major upswing in 2022. Now fans can dive deeper into the world of the former, with Dark Horse's The Art of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands. As with Dark Horse's past video game art books, The Art of Tiny Tina's Wonderlands is a hardcover tome that features extensive concept art, creator commentary from the developers at Gearbox and other glimpses into the development of this Borderlands spinoff. The book showcases the game's kooky cast of characters, the environments and the larger-than-life weapons featured in the game. Check out the cover art for The Art of Tiny tIna's Wonderlands below, though note that the final artwork is subject to...
Professional animators who still animate by hand in 2D are hard to find, says StudioMDHR’s Maja Moldenhauer. And it’s understandable given how the style of animation has given way to digital animation, and how physically demanding good animation can be. Which is why, she says, StudioMDHR had to take care of the handful of folks it found to work on Cuphead and its DLC: Delicious Last Course – around 18 developers total, and only about six animators at the height of DLC development. Even if that meant both took a very, very long time to make – over a decade, in fact. “It's hard to find people,” she says. “The number one thing, especially through COVID was keeping everybody happy. This is video games. Take your time. Mental health...
Capcom has reversed its decision to force upgrades of the PC versions of Resident Evil 2 Remake, Resident Evil 3 Remake, and Resident Evil 7. The updated versions - that lined up with the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series upgrades being released - added ray tracking and enhanced 3D audio, but also raised the system requirements and caused performance issues for some users, causing many players to call for a choice to return to the old versions. Announced on each game's Steam page, the developer said it had made the older versions of the games available again "due to overwhelming community response". There's a little bit of work to do before the older versions can be played again but Capcom gave step by step instructions on how to...
Naughty Dog has unveiled an incredible new model for The Last of Us Part 1's version of key character Tess. Shared in a tweet (below), the developer put the original, PlayStation 3 character (played by Annie Wersching) side-by-side with the upcoming PlayStation 5 remake's version, and the difference is pretty astounding. While the clip is only a few seconds long, several rewatches are probably required to take in every difference between the two versions, from the intense facial animations to the details on Tess's shirt and backpack – and even her height. Naughty Dog co-president and The Last of Us creative director Neil Druckmann added his own commentary to the clip. "Annie Wersching' destroyed us with her performance as Tess," he...
Developer Spiders is best known as something of a BioWare tribute studio. Its most successful game, GreedFall, is the latest in a modest line of RPGs that draw heavily upon the likes of Mass Effect and Dragon Age. But Spiders’ next game, Steelrising, is nothing like a BioWare game at all. Instead, it’s an ode to FromSoftware. Specifically, it is Bloodborne set in the French Revolution, with Yarnham’s beasts swapped out for Parisian clockwork robots. As a pitch, it sounds a little derivative (at least mechanically). But despite seemingly minimal innovations, playing Steelrising reveals something that has genuine promise. At a recent hands-on event I was able to play around three hours of Steelrising, which covered the opening locations...
What's better than one Pokémon game going for cheap? Two of 'em. It makes perfect sense to me to grab both titles, because that will let you A: race them or B: collect and swap every critter in the Gen 9 Pokédex. Other noteworthy bargains include a bunch of Ubisoft AAAs going for cheap and some oldies you should own. Case in point: Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3. It features Mike Haggar, the pile-driving public servant who should be in every single game. 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...
StudioMDHR has been working on Cuphead in one way or other for over a decade now. With Delicious Last Course imminent, though, StudioMDHR has to look toward the future. Could there be more Cuphead after Cuphead? According to Maja Moldenhauer, StudioMDHR got to work on Delicious Last Course because it still had left plenty of Cuphead on the cutting room floor after the first time around. Elements such as a playable Miss Chalice, and many of Delicious Last Course’s new bosses, were ideas born during the original game’s development that needed the extra time of a DLC to see the light of day. But now, with Delicious Last Course wrapped, Moldenhauer says there’s nothing left sitting on a drawing board somewhere. “We got it all in.” So...
Sonic Frontiers will be the first new 3D Sonic title since 2017’s Sonic Forces. Unlike previous level-based endeavors, however, Sonic Frontiers will be the series’ first title to boast a vast and freely explorable world, which Sega refers to as 'Open Zone'. So why is it an Open Zone, as opposed to an open world? Director Morio Kishimoto told IGN all about it. Kishimoto refers to Open Zone as “Sonic Frontiers’ secret weapon”: “Level-based platformers often have a world map. Our Open Zone is a world map, only we’ve made it entirely playable,” Kishimoto stated. “A playable world map that includes stage-like elements is something that hasn’t really been done before, so we had to come up with a new name. What is often defined as a World...
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic 2: The Sith Lords will have the original version's cut content added to the Nintendo Switch re-release in Q3 this year. The content was removed from the original version of KOTOR 2 and includes new missions, dialogue, and other content that's woven throughout the entire game. Given how intrinsic it is to the game, players will need to start a fresh save file in order to experience it. Eurogamer spotted a tweet from developer port developer Aspyr, which confirmed: "You will need to start a new game with the DLC content enabled to access the additional content, however after the DLC releases and you still wish to finish your non-DLC playthrough, you can access those base game save files by...
Growing up as a child of the 90s, whenever I stepped into an arcade, I’d always do a walk around to see what they had before putting my quarters into any machines. This usually didn’t last very long because as soon as I saw a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cabinet, I’d shout to my friends “They got Turtles!” and we’d rush on over. It’s abundantly clear that the developers at Tribute Games share a similar love for the 90s TMNT beat-em-ups. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge is nothing but unwaveringly reverent to the classic 1989 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Arcade game, and more prominently, 1991’s Turtles in Time. Best of all, it transforms the arcadey quarter-munching design of combat into something much more skill...
Arkane Austin has a lot of experience open-ended gameplay design, but when it came to designing Redfall's open world, the famed studio behind Prey had a unique problem ⁠— Redfall's open world was actually a bit too open. In a new interview with IGN, Redfall designer Harvey Smith talked about designing the Massachusetts town in which Arkane's new supernatural shooter is set, describing it as "very open." Redfall is an on-foot game he says, and the team has worked to make sure that the setting's design fits within that dynamic. But at first, Redfall was "too open," Smith says. "It was like there was not enough blocking you or channeling you, but it's very, very open rooftops and alleys and streets of this small town, Redfall...
Sonic the Hedgehog won't be kissing any more humans if Sega veteran Takashi Iizuka has his way. Iizuka has worked on the franchise since 1994's Sonic the Hedgehog 3 and told Axios what the two critical rules for a project featuring the Blue Blur are – alongside an additional, unofficial one regarding the infamous smooching scene from 2006's Sonic the Hedgehog. In the game, the very human Princess Elise the Third used the Chaos Emeralds to save Sonic's life and kissed the anthropomorphic hedgehog as she did. Though he didn't work on that particular entry, Iizuka said "I don't think we'll be doing that again". The other rules are more on brand, with the first simply being "speed". Iizuka said the games need to be built around Sonic...
Like many of you, I've got a special spot in my heart for The Last of Us. So much so, I bought it once on PS3 and again on PS4. While I'll probably shell out for the PS5 version, I can also understand if $125 is a bit rich for a third go round for some—which is why I tracked down today's discount. It exists alongside some great prices for Mario Strikers, Uncharted Legacy of Thieves and a bunch of PlayStation Hits that you really, really ought to own already. 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...
When Feargus Urquhart walked into a 2018 pitch meeting with then-Xbox senior director of business development Noah Musler, he thought he was pitching Avowed. But what he was really pitching was the entirety of Obsidian Entertainment. They were having breakfast at that year’s E3, just after Xbox announced it was acquiring Undead Labs, Playground Games, Ninja Theory, and Compulsion Games, as well as establishing The Initiative. At the time, Urquhart wasn’t even aware of the industry-shaking news. He was, as he tells me, “plugged into his own stuff,” focused on making Avowed look as appealing as possible to people like Musler who could potentially help Obsidian get it out the door in a few years. He made the pitch for Avowed. Musler...
May was a slow, slow, slow month for video games. So slow, Skyrim was one of the top 20 games in the US by dollar sales. According to The NPD Group's monthly report, game sales were at their lowest for a single month since February 2020, down 19% year-over-year to $3.7 billion. It's a significant milestone after the surge of spending gaming saw during pandemic-related lockdowns. Why is it happening now? One major reason: no massive new games. Elden Ring was the best-selling game of May, after taking the No.2 spot in April to LEGO Star Wars: The Skywalker Saga, and it remains the best-selling game this year. LEGO Star Wars dropped to No.2 this month, followed by Nintendo Switch Sports - though it's always possible Nintendo...
IGN was lucky enough to speak to Bethesda Game Studios' Todd Howard today and, in the process learned a lot more about Starfield – not to mention heard a mention of Fallout's future. In conversation with Ryan McCaffrey, Howard followed up on a number of elements we learned about for first time during Starfield's gameplay reveal at the Xbox-Bethesda showcase last weekend. We have full news stories and quotes for every topic mentioned, linked below, but here's a quick rundown of everything new we learned. Todd Howard Confirms Fallout 5 Is Coming After Elder Scrolls 6 Todd Howard has confirmed to IGN that Fallout 5 will be Bethesda Game Studios' next game after The Elder Scrolls 6, which itself will follow on from 2023's Starfield...
At a time when many major tech companies are actively trying to stamp out unionization movements, Microsoft has just taken a proactive step toward recognizing unions that don't even exist yet, via a partnership with the Communication Workers of America (CWA). The two groups announced that they have entered into a labor neutrality agreement, which will take effect 60 days after Microsoft's acquisition of Activision-Blizzard officially closes, which is planned prior to June 30, 2023. The agreement states that Microsoft will take a "neutral approach" when employees express interest in unionizing, and will permit them to communicate with their colleagues and union representatives about unionization "in a way that encourages information...
Todd Howard has confirmed to IGN that Fallout 5 will be Bethesda Game Studios' next game after The Elder Scrolls 6, which itself will follow on from 2023's Starfield. Speaking to IGN about last weekend's Starfield gameplay reveal at the Xbox-Bethesda showcase, Howard briefly delved into what's next for his studio once the new IP is out of the door: "Yes, Elder Scrolls 6 is in pre-production and, you know, we’re going to be doing Fallout 5 after that, so our slate’s pretty full going forward for a while. We have some other projects that we look at from time to time as well." Howard has told IGN previously that the studio has an idea for Fallout 5 in place, saying, "Fallout's really part of our DNA here. We've worked with other...
Starfield's main quest is about 20% bigger than previous Bethesda games such as Skyrim and Fallout 4, with Todd Howard saying that means it should take around 30 to 40 hours to complete – without stepping away to do side content. Speaking to IGN after the gameplay reveal at the Xbox-Bethesda showcase, Bethesda veteran and Starfield director Todd Howard said the game's main story is longer than normal due to the sheer number of quests. "This one’s ending up a little bit longer [than our previous games] and we may tune that some still," he said. "It’s more quests, so it might be 20% more than our previous ones." While players mileage may vary, he added, with some taking longer than others to complete it, if the main quest of a...
Todd Howard has said that Starfield won't allow you to fly seamlessly from space to its 1,000 explorable planets, saying the feature is "really just not that important to the player" to justify the engineering work involved. Speaking to IGN after the gameplay reveal at the Xbox-Bethesda showcase, we asked Howard about his philosophy of 'saying yes to the player', and whether that meant the team had tried to implement every single idea it had for the game. Howard explained that, while the philosophy was key to things like procedurally generating 100 solar systems (allowing players to explore more freely than in previous Bethesda games), the team did say no to ideas that weren't deemed as crucial to the experience. He gave a key...