Everything

Call me an old crank if you must, but in my day a “release date,” also known as “day one,” was the day a game went on sale to the general public to buy and play for the first time. Want to buy and play it earlier than that, even if money is no object? Sorry, you can’t: it hasn’t been released yet! That’s literally what the word “unreleased” means. In recent years, though, that simple, seemingly uncontroversial concept has somehow been twisted to mean something else – namely, whatever a publisher’s marketing department wants it to mean. For the right price we can now buy and play certain games that publishers tell us – with a straight face, no less – won’t have their “day one” for several more days. This cynical toying with release dates, which have long been practically gamer holidays we get excited about and look forward to as our first chance to play a long-anticipated game, is manipulative and – in some – cases downright deceptive. To be clear, I don’t have much of a problem with

Final Fantasy 16's development appears to be well on track, as its creators have shared the game is "about 95%" done and that its release date should be revealed by the end of 2022. Speaking to Famitsu and as translated by IGN, Final Fantasy 16's main director Hiroshi Takai was asked about the current status of the latest entry in the legendary franchise, and he said the team was "about 95%" done with development. Takai also shared that the team is mostly focused now on debugging and fixing any rough parts in the game that may need some extra care. Especially with a game as large as Final Fantasy 16 is set to be, that will take some time. Speaking of bugs, Takai laughed when he said, "we've forbidden anyone to add new code in case new bugs appear." The team was next asked about the release date, as Final Fantasy 16 currently only has a release window of Summer 2023. "We plan to announce some more information before the end of the

This month's IGN First is Atomic Heart. To kick things off we've got some exclusive gameplay provided to us by developers, Mundfish. It's an exciting first look at one of the alternate Soviet history shooter's boss fights against a giant rolling ball of death called "Hedgie". The stunning-looking footage above shows off a variety of weapons including shotguns, rifles, and much more explosive elements of your arsenal, as well as giving you a good idea of the challenge enemies will give you in the final game. We've got loads more coming about Atomic Heart throughout November including deep dives into the history and world of the game, some of the robots you'll be meeting, and of course, plenty of gameplay. It should all be more than enough to get you excited for Atomic Heart when it is released on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on February 21, 2023. Simon Cardy is ready to shoot the face off of some robots. Follow

Santa Monica Studio has revealed the full list of over 70 accessibility features that will ship with God of War Ragnarök when the game is released on November 9. God of War Ragnarök is set to be one of the frontrunners for game of the year, and Santa Monica has clearly put a lot of work into ensuring as many players as possible can enjoy the apocalyptic adventure by including an impressive range of customization options. #GodofWarRagnarok will launch on November 9th with over 70 accessibility features! Check out the full list below 👇 — Santa Monica Studio – God of War Ragnarök (@SonySantaMonica) November 3, 2022 These range from a slew of adjustable UI elements that allow players to alter the size and nature of text and subtitles, to more impressive additions such as the high contrast mode, which paints interactive objects and NPCs in primary colors for clearer recognition. The accessibility menu offers a set of four presets for players to choose from - vision accessibil

Final Fantasy XVI is less than a year away, but Square Enix has left most of the details to be speculated on by the fans. A recent trailer offered more hints about what to expect , including a hint of what crystals – a Final Fantasy standby – mean for the world. Now Final Fantasy XVI’s development team are delving deeper than ever into their upcoming RPG, opening about topics ranging from persistent comparisons to Game of Thrones to questions about representation for Black characters and other people of color. For this interview, IGN spoke with director Hiroshi Takai, localization director Michael-Christopher Koji Fox, and creative director Kazutoyo Maehiro, with producer Naoki Yoshida also weighing in for some extended thoughts of his own. They talk about it being the first M-rated game in the series, how sidequests will work, and several other topics. They also open up a bit more about its female protagonist, speculated to be Jill Warrick, and how Clive will interact with his comp

Cardy and Dale have played God of War Ragnarok so are here to tell you (in a spoiler-free way) just how good it is. They're then joined by Mat who joins in to discuss how great Andor has been, why the Weird Al movie is worth checking out, and the return of The White Lotus. If you're into it, get tickets for our live show in London on December 2nd here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ign-uks-the-podcast-before-christmas-tickets-445286492887 Got a game for us to play or some feedback you'd like read out on the show? Why not email us: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com. IGN UK Podcast 669: God of War Ragnarok Review Discussion IGN UK Podcast: The Elden Ring Special (Finally) IGN UK Podcast #668: Goodbye Beef Boy Joe IGN UK Podcast #667: God of War Ragnarok Early Impressions IGN UK Podcast #666: Our Hidden Horror Picks IGN UK Podcast #665: Building Our Dream Video Game Adaptation Streaming Services source https://www.ign.com/articles/ign-uk-podcast-669-god-of-war-ragnarok-r

Want to have the Guardians of the Galaxy in the palm of your hand, leaping into play, guns blazing, and even fighting alongside Yondu once more? How about putting together your ultimate Avengers crew and doing battle across Stark Tower, Central Park and the Daily Bugle? These are the kinds of dream teams and fantastical scenarios that Marvel Snap allows, and its excellent use of the Marvel licence is packed into a punchy portable card game where matches are short, the gameplay is easy to grok and you’re encouraged to check in every day. Spoiling the fanfest a little, however, is the actual process of building out your card collection, which I’ve found to be a long grind that eventually loses its early momentum. Marvel Snap is wonderfully streamlined: your deck consists of only 12 cards - no duplicates - and games last for six rounds. The board has three locations to contest, but the locations that appear are random and pulled from a large pool, with one revealed each turn over the f

How do you follow up on one of the greatest video games of all time? Sony Santa Monica finds itself in a situation not dissimilar to when Francis Ford Coppola created the sequel to his mob movie masterpiece, The Godfather. Like part two of the Corleone story, God of War Ragnarok puts a fierce, younger member of the family directly under the microscope. In doing so it manages to reach the heights of its predecessor and, in some ways, even tower above it. The writing, performances, and music are each exceptional, bringing this expansive Norse tapestry to life – but even as it holds your heart in one hand with its elegantly told story it’s crunching bones in the other with fantastically ferocious combat. It all binds together to forge a monumental action epic that adds yet another impressive landmark to the video game landscape. Keeping things broad and spoiler-free, Kratos' story picks up a few years after the final revelations of 2018's God of War – this is absolutely not one

Ubisoft has revealed fresh details on the upcoming Season Pass for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope , including a new combat game mode and the first look at Rayman, who will be a playable character in the third DLC offering. Davide Soliani, the creative director for Mario + Rabbids Sparks of Hope, first revealed that the game would receive three packs of DLC content during a Ubisoft Forward event in September earlier this year. Now, thanks to an official press release posted on the company's website, we finally have some concrete information as to what form the post launch content will take. The first piece of upcoming DLC - entitled Tower of Doooom - is set to release early next year and will be exclusive to gamers who have purchased the $29.99 season pass. Tower of Doooom will see Mario and the gang clean out Madame Bwahstrella’s multidimensional tower, all while storming through a series of "highly strategic battles" as they attempt to rescue the returning Rabbi

Square Enix has officially announced Symbiogenesis, a new NFT collectible art project that’s coming in Spring 2023 alongside a free browser service. "Symbiogenesis is brand-new entertainment content set in a self-contained world where a wide cast of characters symbiosis, all of which can be collected as digital art; an interactive story and a dedicated community," Square Enix says in a statement . "The art can be used for social media profile pictures (PFP) and as a character in a story that takes place in an alternate world where the player can ’untangle’ a mystery by completing missions that revolve around questions of the monopolization and distribution of resources. With each strategic move players make, more of the story unfolds." NFT Collectible Art Project SYMBIOGENESIS Untangle the Story Spring 2023 #SYMBIOGENESIS #symgeNFT #NFT #NFTProjects pic.twitter.com/Kk1JvMdQx4 — SYMBIOGENESIS (@symbiogenesisPR) November 3, 2022 Not much else is known

One of the most controversial parts of Halo Infinite has been its approach to progression, as originally it would only reward players with XP for completing challenges and not for how they performed in a match. This is all about to change as Halo Infinite's Winter Update will add match and performance-based XP when it is released on November 8. As detailed on Halo Waypoint, the Match XP Beta is part of 343 Industries' mission to address player feedback in regard to progression. With Match XP, "players will be rewarded for playing whatever mode they want, and your performance in those matches will tie into those rewards." Furthermore, the "majority of XP" will come from Match XP as opposed to Challenges. On November 8, Match XP will award players with XP for such things as completing matches and being on the winning team as well as rewarding them with more XP for where they stand on the end-of-match placement. 343 has said it is calling this "M

Santa Monica Studio has revealed the graphics modes for God of War Ragnarok on PS5, PS4 Pro, and PS4. Santa Monica Studio shared these modes on Twitter, and the news follows a report that stated God of War Ragnarok would have a 120hz performance mode on PS5. This appears to still officially be the case with the Favor Performance + HFR (High Frame Rate) mode and the Favor Performance + HFR + VRR (Variable Refresh Rate) mode. As always, achieving 120hz requires a TV or monitor that supports HDMI 2.1. You can check out the full range of graphics modes below in the image and the bulleted list below to get an idea of how you may want to play God of War Ragnarok when it is released on November 9. PS5 Favor Performance 1440-2160P 60 FPS Target Favor Performance + High Frame Rate 1440P Unlocked 60 FPS Favor Performance + High Frame Rate + Variable Refresh Rate 1440P Unlocked 60 FPS Favor Quality 2160P [Native 4K] 30 FPS Target Favor Quality + High Frame Rate

There's an awesome sale on Nintendo Switch games at Amazon right now in the early Black Friday sales. By no means will these be the cheapest prices we will see over the sale period, but it's still a great opportunity to bag some great games at a discount if you don't want to risk them going out of stock. My favourite deals from this are the preorders for Pokemon Scarlet and Violet down to £42.99 , alongside Sonic Frontiers down from £54.99 to £50.99. There's also Nintendo Switch Sports for just £29.99 , alongside Mario Kart 8 and Splatoon 3 for £36.99. Check out the rest of the deals just below. Other deals today include an amazing discount on Method Anti-Bac Cleaning sprays, with a dual pack down to just £2.66 (that's just £1.33 per bottle), down from the £6 list price. There are also some other personal favourites on sale right now, such as God of War Ragnarok for £59.95 at Currys, the Where's Spidey?: A Marvel Spider-Man search & find book for £3, an