Fresh from receiving the Game of the Year award at The Game Awards 2025, Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 has been stripped of two awards from the Indie Game Awards after its use of generative AI hit the headlines.
Sandfall Interactive’s record-breaking role-playing game launched with some placeholder textures built with generative AI. The developer patched them out five days after release, insisting they made the cut by mistake. This went under the radar until recently, when comments from Sandfall co-founder and producer François Meurisse reemerged.
Speaking to El País for an article published in July, Meurisse said: “We use some AI, but not much. The key is that we were very clear about what we wanted to do and what to invest in. And, of...
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I sat down to sanity check a few discounts and somehow resurfaced hours later with a fuller wishlist and a lighter wallet. On Switch, Hades and Ori still feel like magic tricks disguised as games. Over on Xbox Series X, Red Dead Redemption 2 and Monster Hunter Wilds are absurd value for experiences that can eat entire weekends. PS5 is stacked with personality this week thanks to Astro Bot and Lies of P, while PC quietly delivers some of the strongest long form RPG and action value going around. Go get amongst it.
Contents
Retro
Nintendo
Xbox
PlayStation
PC
PC Gear
LEGO
This Day in Gaming 🎂
In retro news, it's been 26 years since I unpeeled adventure in Donkey Kong 64, a game some called the top banana of Rare 3D platforming (I...
The holidays are almost here, and we've rounded up the best deals for Sunday, December 21, below. Don't miss your chance to save on these last-minute gifts!
Save on Assassin's Creed Shadows for Nintendo Switch 2
Launched earlier this month, Assassin's Creed Shadows is finally available on Nintendo Switch. Right now, you can save $10 off the physical copy at Amazon. This edition packs in all the game's DLC, updates, and more into one package for Switch 2 owners.
Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle for $449
The best deal of the weekend is the Nintendo Switch 2 + Mario Kart World Bundle, which is on sale for $449. That's the price of a standard Nintendo Switch 2, which means you're essentially scoring Mario Kart World for free...
It’s December, meaning it’s the most wonderful time of the year. Yes, I’m cliché and enjoy the holidays for the warmth and celebrations they bring, but today I’m more interested in reflecting on the evolution of accessibility throughout 2025. And thankfully, this year brought improvements to long-standing franchises, as well as surprise additions to the triple-A and indie scenes.
From my perspective, there were no accessibility moments that revolutionized the industry in 2025. Instead, the year demonstrated a continuous evolution of what disabled players have rightfully come to expect when purchasing a new release. In my opinion, no one game has been better than another, especially in terms of innovation, but that’s not to say this...
It’s been a tough few years for voice actors. While it’s perhaps never been more obvious how much value they provide to a game’s characters and story – the huge success of Baldur’s Gate 3 and its beloved cast put the profession in perhaps the brightest spotlight it’s ever had – voice actors and motion capture performers face a daunting threat in artificial intelligence. That’s just one of the reasons why we wanted to honor the art of performance in this year’s IGN Awards. Actors bring our games to life, and our digital worlds would be poorer without them.
As with our other awards, we asked the IGN team to nominate their favourite performances from across the past 12 months, and then we all voted for which one we felt was the very best...
"For those who come after." It's a simple but effective phrase from this year's Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, one that was stuck in the minds of many for nearly an entire year. But although Expedition 33 won the hearts of many, it was far from alone. 2025 saw the release of the hotly anticipated Hollow Knight: Silksong, and with the release of the Nintendo Switch 2 we got a new Mario Kart, Donkey Kong, and the sequel to IGN's 2020 Game of the Year, Hades 2. Over in the world of entertainment we got plenty of great movies like Superman, Sinners, Weapons, and possibly the best Predator movie ever in Predator: Badlands.
Every year, across all forms of media, there are situations where critics and audiences either agree or disagree. That's...
Nearly seven years after the release of the original Code Vein, Bandai Namco Studios has returned to the series with Code Vein 2. Designed as an evolution of the anime-styled, Souls-like-inspired combat and exploration that defined its predecessor, Code Vein 2 builds upon the foundations of the original while pushing the formula forward in meaningful ways. From expanded combat systems to reworked world design, the sequel aims to stand as both a worthy continuation of a cult favourite and a substantial action-RPG experience in its own right.
Be sure to keep this Code Vein 2 guide bookmarked to stay up to date with everything from the release date, story so far, and gameplay details, through to trailers, pre-order bonuses, special...
Fans expect Nintendo to soon make cheaper Switch 2 cartridges available to game publishers as a fresh alternative to Game-Key Cards, though one developer has said it expects its game to still cost around $10 more as it shifts to a proper game card.
In a statement today, R-Type Dimensions 3 publisher Inin Games initially said it would take advantage of two new Switch 2 cartridge size options that Nintendo will offer to developers currently stuck choosing between an expensive 64GB cart or a cheap Game-Key Card release.
Inin Games has now reworded that same statement to clarify that Nintendo itself has not made any announcement concerning cartridge storage capacities, and in a further post on social media said that any references it...
Winter PC game sales have officially begun, making now the perfect time to stock up your library with some excellent new games to play over the holidays. Steam, Fanatical, GOG, Humble Bundle, and the Epic Games Store have each launched their respective Winter sales, and there's a treasure trove of discounts to look through right now while they're still live.
Winter PC Game Sales
Each of these sales is stacked with excellent discounts at the moment. Some of our favorites include The Game Awards' Game of the Year winner Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 getting a 28% discount, down to $35.99 at Fanatical; Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 dropping 50% to $29.99 on Steam; and Silent Hill f coming down 53% to $32.89 at Fanatical, but they're just the...
Variety is, as they say, the spice of life, and 2025 provided a fantastic array of different video games. We’ve survived and extracted from the robot-ruled battlefields of Arc Raiders, adventured across the medieval lands of Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2, and established mind-expanding exhibitions in Two Point Museum. We helped Keeper’s sentient lighthouse solve puzzles, and unearthed the secrets buried in Atomfall’s eerie England. But which of the year’s many different video games is worthy of being crowned the very best of 2025?
Every December, the IGN team considers all the games they’ve collectively played and reviewed across the year, and votes on which one they think is the greatest of them all. Which one is the “Game of the Year”...
Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 fans have now had a week to play around with the game's new Photo Mode, introduced in its free DLC. And what a photo mode it is, resulting in some really incredible shots, funny meme recreations, and even discoveries of previously-hidden little details that are making us love this game even more.
The update, which launched on December 11 following Clair Obscur's incredible Game Awards sweep, includes a brand new location: Verso's Drafts, with new enemies and bosses and story. It also adds new language localizations, costumes, new ultra-hard bosses in the Tower, and the aforementioned Photo Mode. While all that other stuff is fun, the Photo Mode is really helping Clair Obscur shine. It's already a beautiful...
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launched last month to become the best-selling game of November in the U.S. by dollar sales. That's a pretty good showing, right?
If you're still looking to pick up the new game, it's down to $35 at Best Buy for one day only, and around $40 at most other retailers right now. That's up to 50% off the game, only a month after release, on PS5, PS4, and Xbox consoles.
So what's up, and why is one of the best-selling games of the year already so heavily discounted? Well, it doesn't take a genius to realise that Black Ops 7 doesn't seem to be doing as well as last year's Black Ops 6.
That's reflected in everything from the critical review scores to fan response to European sales figures, and even Activision's own...
While it might appear to most fans that Fallout Season 2, Episode 1 answered any lingering questions about the true identify of antagonist Mr. House, there are lingering theories that the character may not be who he seems. Well, it really is that simple, Fallout fans are insisting — and no, that’s not his brother.
If all that sounds a little like word soup to you, let’s get some background in. Fallout Season 1 ended with Rafi Silver as Mr. House plotting to end the world with a nuclear bomb for profit. We saw a shadowy figure watch on, a character who was not named.
Season 2, however, “recast” Mr. House with Justin Theroux taking over. But as becomes apparent in the first scene from Episode 1, this isn’t a recast situation. Rather...
It’s been a truly incredible year for indie games, with an almost absurd number of releases and more than a few genuine all-timers among them. Nearly every month in 2025 has delivered a new indie game that completely captured players’ attention, and the indie scene has felt more creative, ambitious, and exciting than ever before.
We’ve somehow narrowed things down to ten of our favourite indie games of 2025, which unfortunately means plenty of phenomenal titles didn’t make the cut. We’re also refusing to rank them, because choosing between favourites feels cruel and unnecessary. You wouldn’t ask us to do that. Legally, you can’t ask us to do that. Anyway, let’s get into the list.
Blue Prince
Blue Prince had players everywhere...
Total War: Warhammer 40,000 will launch with four factions: Space Marines; Orks; Astra Militarum; and the Aeldari. But based on comments from developer Creative Assembly, it will eventually come to include pretty much every faction in the setting, added over the course of years.
Creative Assembly announced Total War: Warhammer 40,000 at The Game Awards with a flashy trailer that combined CG and in-engine gameplay, showing off the scale of the hotly anticipated strategy game. We saw the Space Marines faction fighting against the Orks in a classic boots on the ground matchup, before the camera pulled back to reveal the galactic strategy layer you’ll be able to manage campaigns on.
But the Sega-owned developer, which is based in Horsham...
A cluster of Starfield fans say they've gained an early glimpse at improvements coming to Bethesda's sci-fi role-player, though have suggested the changes are relatively modest in scope.
The fans claimed Bethesda invited them to take a look at the upcoming content, with one saying they were "stoked" by what they saw, while another suggested they were "excited for the future of Starfield." For now, the details of what was shown remain under embargo, to be properly revealed at a later date.
But there's also a note of caution here, regarding the scope and scale of what Bethesda is actually working on. Another content creator, who said they had been contacted by several Starfield fans either at the event or who helped put it on, suggested...
Doomed Xbox blockbuster Perfect Dark had "entire chapters" of performance capture work in the can before its shock cancelation this summer, according to Joanna Dark actress Alix Wilton Regan.
In an interview with TheGamer, the voice behind Dragon Age's Inquisitor and Cyberpunk 2077's Alt Cunningham says she recorded scenes for The Initiative's Perfect Dark reboot over the course of several years, beginning in 2023. "Lots" was done in 2024, with work continuing in early 2025.
"To my knowledge, we were pretty far along, I'd done entire chapters of this universe," Regan said, adding that she was shocked to learn that Microsoft was pulling the plug, with The Initiative itself also set to be closed down as part of a wave of funding cuts...
Riot Games is reportedly working on a total makeover of League of Legends, according to Bloomberg.
The upcoming overhaul is allegedly called "League Next" and will be an update to the existing League of Legends rather than a standalone game, though it sounds like it's effectively a remake. Bloomberg suggests that the update will fully revamp the game's visual aesthetic including hcaracters, UI, and arenas. There will also be adjustments behind the scenes to help make future updates smoother. It is unclear at this time if the changes will impact game mechanics.
The report suggests that League Next is planned for release in 2027, and will be the biggest update to League of Legends in the game's nearly two-decade-long history...
Following multiple days of criticism from fans and fellow game developers over the studio's use of generative AI, Baldur's Gate 3 and Divinity maker Larian Studios CEO Swen Vincke has announced an AMA (Ask Me Anything, typically on Reddit) in the new year, inviting people to ask members of different Larian departments "any questions you have about Divinity and our dev process directly."
In a post to Twitter/X, Vincke said that since the announcement of the studio's next game, Divinity, at The Game Awards last week, "a lot has become lost in translation." He continued, saying that "Larian's DNA is agency" and said it would be irresponsible of the studio not to "evaluate new technologies," presumably referring to the generative AI...
The Nintendo Switch port of 1–4-player survival game Oppidum is officially out, completing its list of platforms after it came to PC, PlayStation, and Xbox earlier this year.
Oppidum was created by Spanish indie developer EP Games with a team so small it only has one programmer, though you wouldn’t know it from the scope of the game. It has more than 40 hours of story content and a ton of features. It takes place on the once beautiful and magical island of Insule, but now corruption has spread across it and its creatures. And you're the hero who comes to break the curse that looms over the island.
You’ll establish a camp that’s your safe space, then explore the island’s woods, swamps, and caves to try to locate the source of the...
The Game Awards included a reveal trailer for NO LAW, a cyberpunk first-person shooter from developer Neon Giant and publisher Krafton that’s coming to PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S. The trailer gave us a first look at the sleazy, lawless city of Port Desire and ended on a line that hints at the game’s tone: “Reap what you sow.”
You play as Grey Harker, a seasoned military veteran who barely survived his last deployment. So he decided to leave war behind to lead a life of peace and gardening, but of course, that peaceful life wasn’t in the cards. Trouble came knocking on his door (or more like bulldozing through it), and now it’s time for some payback.
Trouble isn’t exactly rare in Port Desire. As the trailer says, it’s a...
When I sat down to play High on Life 2 for the first time, I was optimistic but also slightly skeptical. I’m hardly alone when I say that I loved the first one – it was a rare example of a genuinely funny game and it happened to be an excellent first-person shooter to boot. But making sequels to comedies is no sure thing – just look at the long list of great comedy films that got bad follow-ups. How would a video game comedy sequel fare?
If the hour of High on Life 2 I played is any indication, it’s got a great chance to be as funny as – and possibly even more fun on the gameplay side than – the 2022 original. In that hour alone, I wandered around a beautiful beachside alien town, met a semi-depressed new gun named Travis and got...
Grab your mouse and get clicking, because it's been a great year for games, and the PC has seen nearly all of them cross its path. The IGN staff has rounded up the best PC gaming had to offer in 2025 and pitted them against each other in a free-for-all Quake match for the crown… okay, actually we just nominated our top five and then voted on a winner, though we'll also be shouting out a few more standouts that are worth highlighting alongside them.
As always, the PC list comes with a few funny caveats alongside its console-based competition – or, more specifically, because of the fact that it's not really trying to fight in that age-old war. PCs have long acted as a bit of a catchall for gaming as a hobby, and that's been more true...
The popular Cult of the Lamb franchise has taken on new life on the printed page, already spawning a graphic novel adaptation called Cult of the Lamb: The First Verse and the follow-up one-shot Cult of the Lamb: Schism Special. Now Oni Press is back again with another sequel dubbed Cult of the Lamb: Last Sacrament Special #1.
Last Sacrament Special reunites writer Alex Paknadel and artist Troy Little for a new 48-page adventure. This issue is again a collaboration between comic book publisher Oni Press, game publisher Devolver Digital, and development studio Massive Monster.
Here's Oni's official description of the special:
Following the events of CULT OF THE LAMB: THE FIRST VERSE and October’s CULT OF THE LAMB: SCHISM SPECIAL #1...
Best Buy's 12 Days of Gaming sale is a great opportunity to stock up on some new games to play over the holidays at a lower price than usual. As for today's selection, one of the best deals available from the retailer is on Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X, and Nintendo Switch, which has seen its price drop to $39.99.
This is $30 off its PS5 and Xbox Series X price and $20 off its Switch price, but these discounts won't last for long. These offers are only running through the end of today, so in true Sonic fashion, you gotta go fast to grab them on sale while the deals are still available.
Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds for $40
If you're on the fence about picking up Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, it's worth...
Yes, it's true — Microsoft is bringing two of its hottest gaming franchises together for a Fallout Season 2 and Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 crossover event.
If you're wondering how, exactly, that may work, the official Call of Duty X/Twitter account has shared a brief video teaser which shows silhouettes of Fallout TV series characters The Ghoul, Lucy, and Maximus in the smoke of war, with bullets whizzing by in the background.
"Okie dokie — stay focused, stay alive," the text on the post reads. "[Fallout TV show] is coming to Call of Duty in Season 01 Reloaded."
The implication here certainly seems to be that Call of Duty fans will see skins of those characters, which may or may not be tied to a premium event pass. Without further...
Tencent's upcoming post-apocalyptic open-world adventure Light of Motiram, widely-criticized for being a "clone" of Horizon Zero Dawn, has disappeared from Steam and the Epic Games Store.
You may recall that Sony was suing Tencent over the project, which it had officially dubbed a "slavish" Horizon Zero Dawn copy, via a copyright lawsuit filed in a California court at the end of July. Sony's argument outlined numerous similarities and compared various marketing screenshots from both games, as well as their descriptions.
Just like Horizon, Light of Motiram takes place in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by giant robot dinosaurs who roam large, natural environments such as tropical forests, deserts, and snowy mountains. Both games even...
FIFA has announced its next soccer game will be published in partnership with Netflix and developed by new studio Delphi Interactive.
Following the end of its partnership with EA in 2022, FIFA announced it was working on a portfolio of Web3 games ahead of the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, but it has been pretty quiet since then. According to its president Andy Kleinman, however, Delphi has been working for the past 30 months "to continue the legacy of one of my favorite video games of all time, FIFA."
Delphi, seemingly established in 2023, hasn't yet shipped a game, but describes itself as "the architects" behind 007 First Light and "uncompromising about quality."
While we haven't seen any screenshots yet, let alone gameplay, a press...
Some roguelikes let you fight with preset weapons, but a small sub-genre lets you invent your own, turning every run into a playground of spells and chaos. Noita is a great example, letting you play with the world’s physics by freely mixing and matching effects. Magicraft does something similar, but with a more traditional roguelike viewpoint, and becomes pure chaos once a run really gets going. Both demand sharp reactions, but Arcane Trigger approaches things a little differently.
Arcane Trigger has you playing as an arcane gunslinger, combining different bullet types and spells to unleash massive chains of firepower against a strange realm encroaching on your own. It begins simply, as most roguelikes do, but escalates very quickly...
I have a dangerous relationship with digital storefronts, and this week did nothing to improve it. I went in to check one price, came out with a mental shopping list and a lighter conscience. These are the deals that genuinely stopped me scrolling.
Contents
Retro
Nintendo
Xbox
PlayStation
PC
PC Gear
LEGO
This Day in Gaming 🎂
In retro news, I'm using a lit deku stick to light a 27-candle cake baked for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. I don't unabashedly gush about too many games, but this one warms my very soul. On launch day I happened to find myself in a place of loss and uncertainty in my life; all I wanted to do was retreat from the world. Fortunately, I found solace and, frankly, absolute wonder in the theretofore...