Everything

Free-to-play games have risen in prominence in recent years, flooding the market with titles that you can sink dozens if not hundreds of hours into without spending a thing. With so many games and so much variety, it can be daunting to sift through the catalogue and pick one to play. If you’re playing on PS5, we’ve collated some of the best choices for free-to-play games in 2023. Each of the PS5 games below are free to start playing, but some of the aspects of these games may cost money. Things that aren't part of the base free game often include expansions and cosmetic upgrades. Fortnite An unsurprising entry for the list, Fortnite is a mega hit that continues to take the world by storm. This stylized battle royale game has a variety of game modes to participate in to test your skills, an ever evolving map to explore, live event spectacles, a robust creative community, and hundreds of original and licensed IP crossover cosmetics. There are plenty of other games like Fortnit...

UK Insurance Company Offers Dead Island 2 Themed Life Insurance Package

A UK insurance company is now offering a Dead Island 2 life insurance policy that will pay for bereaved friends to travel to Los Angeles for a zombie-themed wake. As reported by VGC , the Dead Happy life insurance company, which offers a variety of different life insurance packages (with some quirkier than others), is offering the Dead Island 2 package for £8,000. "Send your mates to the real LA for a zombie cocktail fuelled party before it goes to hell," reads the insurance description. "A wake to end all wakes, in your honour." The package covers funeral expenses as well as the booze-fuelled trip, insisting that "we should all die responsibly". Dead Happy makes clear, however, that it can't force someone's friends to travel to LA, and that the Dead Island 2 package, alongside the rest of the company's offerings, are just wishes. While some of the packages, called Deathwishes, are fairly simple, like leaving money for a charity or payin...

IGN UK Podcast 693: Ranking the Best Orlando Theme Park Toilets

The old guard is in town as Cardy, Dale, and Alex talk about some hot new video games that you can play with your fingers. Dead Island 2 is finally out after a decade of development. Was it worth the wait, though? Maybe you'll find out if you listen. The new Burning Shores DLC for Horizon Forbidden West is here as well as the remasters of Advance Wars 1 and 2. Dredge is also bangin'. Good times are had. Plus, Alex spends the best part of 20 minutes telling us about his Orlando holiday. It's all good stuff. Oh, and the Endless Search returns. What film have you seen the most times? What's the best toilet ever? Drop us an email: ign_ukfeedback@ign.com. IGN UK Podcast 693: Ranking the Best Orlando Theme Park Toilets IGN UK Podcast 692: Zelda and Final Fantasy Look Good Innit IGN UK Podcast 691: The Mario Movie vs Tetris: Which is Better? IGN UK Podcast 690: Dunjackets & Dadragons IGN UK Podcast 689: The Big Resident Evil 4 Chat IGN UK Podcast 688: What is th...

Disney Speedstorm Early Access Review

You may have heard Disney Speedstorm was going to launch as a free-to-play kart racer from the crew behind Gameloft’s long-running Asphalt series. In fact, you may have heard this because that’s what we told you about it back when it was unveiled in June last year. Well, that’s changed. It’s still a kart racer from the Asphalt team, but it’s not actually going to officially launch in its free-to-play state until late 2023 or early 2024. What we have in its place is an “Early Access” version of Speedstorm that just… costs money to play – which, of course, is how all good video games worked before the game industry started copying the gambling industry’s homework. However, despite packing an entirely decent brand of arcade racing action on track, Speedstorm’s drowning level of gacha guff and free-to-play DNA may leave those shelling out a fee to play feeling a little goofy. For those of you curious about how Speedstorm’s Early Access program works – and what you’ll receive for your m...

Fortnite CCO Knows 'Exactly' How He'd Make Movie Adaptation, But Don't Expect One Anytime Soon

It seems like every video game franchise is getting a film adaptation these days, but one popular game you probably won't see on the big screen anytime soon is Fortnite, according to Epic Games' chief creative officer Donald Mustard. In an interview with Collider , Mustard said the company was not "actively working on" a Fortnite movie at the moment, but then explained that a future adaptation is still a possibility: "To me, I wanna do stuff that always just feels authentic and is a great story," he said. "And so, it's not something we're actively working on right now. I'm not gonna say it would never happen. In fact, I mean, I know exactly how I would do the Fortnite whatever. Exactly. I know exactly the story I’d want to, but it's not the focus right now. I don’t have time." Mustard then added that Epic Games has a relationship with production company AGBO via investment, suggesting an adaptation might happen via that connec...

Street Fighter 6 Demo Announced Alongside Year 1 DLC Fighters and Single-Player World Tour Details

The Street Fighter 6 Showcase has not only revealed that a demo for the latest entry in the legendary fighting franchise is available now on PS5 and PS4 and soon on other platforms, but it also announced who the Year 1 DLC fighters will be alongside new details for the single-player World Tour mode. Let's start with the demo, which will let players check out a bit of the World Tour Mode and certain modes in Fighting Ground. Furthermore, players will be able to use the extensive Avatar creator to build their very own fighter that can be imported into the full game when it is released on June 2, 2023. The demo is available right now for PS5 and PS4, and it will arrive on Xbox Series X, Xbox One, and Steam on April 26. Street Fighter 6 to Get Four DLC Fighters in Year 1 Street Fighter 6 is meant to be a platform that will keep fighting fans coming back for years to come. To help with that mission, Capcom will be releasing new fighters to keep things fresh and exciting. In the ...

The Day Before Devs Announce Beta and Promise No More Delays

Fntastic has announced that its highly anticipated yet controversial MMO The Day Before is getting a beta, and has promised it won't be delayed between now and its launch on November 10, 2023. Kentain, an administrator on The Day Before's official Discord, posted there to say the game will definitely hit its November release date "without any further delay". The beta test will take place "as we get closer to the release date", they added, but no specific date or window was shared. "This will give players the opportunity to try out the game before it is released and provide valuable feedback that we can use to improve the final product. We will provide more details on the beta test as we approach the release date, so be sure to stay tuned for updates." The Day Before was originally due to launch in June last year before it was delayed for a first and then a second time. The latter was claimed by Fntastic to be over a trademark dispute that r...

5 AI Projects to Try Right Now

This feature is part of AI Week . For more stories, including how AI can improve accessibility in gaming and comments from experts like Tim Sweeney, check out our hub . AI in games is not particularly novel given that the technology has been used to power games from Half-Life to Chess. But with a new generation of AI tools like ChatGPT quickly evolving, developers are looking at ways AI could shape the next generation of games. There are still plenty of questions about AI games, especially in terms of how they could impact the labor that goes into making a video game. But while the full grasp of AI’s effect on the video game industry as a whole remains to be seen, there are examples of how generative AI could advance the ways players interact with a game’s characters, enemies, and story. There aren’t a whole lot of games out right now that take advantage of generative AI, but for an example of existing games with advanced AI, as well as stable experiments that offer a taste ...

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet's Latest Patch Includes More Bug Fixes

Nintendo has released another patch for Pokémon Scarlet and Violet that addresses a ton of more bugs that have plagued the games since launch. Releasing the notes on its website , version 1.3.0 also includes a slight change to how Friendly Competitions work (entries are now allowed until an event ends instead of when it begins) but mostly focuses on bug fixes. Trainers who were surprised to catch an egg instead of Walking Wake or Iron Leaves in their Tera Raid Battles will have the issue fixed, meaning they can now catch the distorted Pokémon. The two will also return to Tera Raid Battles for two weeks starting on May 1. A special Hisuian Zoroark was also released as preorder DLC for the upcoming Hidden Treasure of Area Zero expansion , but this caused a Pokédex malfunction for some users that displayed a regular Zoroark too. This has now been fixed, alongside another connectivity issue where connecting Scarlet and Violet to Pokémon GO would cause the game to crash. A ton of iss...

Can Netflix Make Awesome AAA Games? – Unlocked 591

Longtime Halo senior developer Joseph Staten, the subject of last week's Unlocked, has announced where he's going next: Netflix! We discuss what this means for Netflix's gaming efforts before turning our attention to the newly announced departure of another longtime Halo developer, Frank O'Connor. Plus: Diablo 4's community interactions continue to impress, and more! Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel , or grab an MP3 of this week's episode . For more awesome content, check out our interview with Todd Howard, who answered all of our Starfield questions after the big reveal at the Xbox Showcase: For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review , our Xbox Series S review , and our PS5 review . Ryan McCaffrey is IGN's executive editor of previews and host of both IGN's weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked , as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered . He's a North Je...

Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp Review

While I have always favored the Fire Emblem franchise as my Nintendo turn-based tactical game of choice, the Advance Wars series has always held a special place in my heart ever since the first time I booted it up on my Game Boy Advance 22 years ago. I’ve always enjoyed how these games encourage me to get creative with my units and strategies. Whether that is hiding my army in the fog of war and taking advantage of the terrain to obliterate my opponents before they know what’s hitting them, or building a massive platoon of tanks and steamrolling the enemy with my oppressive numbers. It’s rewarding to see my plans work out as intended, and though it stings when they fail, I feel like I always learn something about how to improve my future strategies. Advance Wars 1+2: Re-Boot Camp may not have a large variety in its game modes, but the amount of variables you can swap around to your liking makes each battle feel fresh even when replaying maps. The improvements to the visuals and mus...

IGN Summer of Gaming 2023 Returns This June

IGN's Summer of Gaming is returning for its fourth year this June, bringing with it even more trailers and news for the biggest games of 2023 and beyond. As in previous years, IGN Summer of Gaming 2023 will be a multi-day event filled with tons of content featuring your favorite games and developers. IGN will be also be partnering with developers to share exclusive reveals, interviews and more! We're happy to announce that we will once again be carrying and covering Geoff Keighley's Summer Game Fest as part of our Summer of Gaming programming. Check out IGN on June 8 for the stream and all of our analysis. You can also look forward to the Starfield Direct and coverage of Xbox's Showcase , which will be taking place in Los Angeles. For an idea of what to expect here on IGN, check out everything that was announced at last year's event as well as our full hub . There will be lots more where that came from at this year's event! Summer of Gaming 2023 will onc...

The Mageseeker: A League of Legends Story Review

Magic is everywhere if you know where to look, and you need look no further than Digital Sun’s The Mageseeker. It’s a worthy addition to the growing list of League of Legends spinoffs, this time a pixel-art action RPG puts you in the role of Sylas The Unshackled as he escapes from prison to seek his revenge against those that locked him away since his childhood. It’s faithful to the lore of League of Legends and expands on it in exciting new ways, showing us even more of the spell-stealing rebel. I came away from my time with The Mageseeker enjoying the journey but wishing it had taken a few different paths along the way. Following in the footsteps of other League of Legends spinoffs like Ruined King and Hextech Mayhem, The Mageseeker brings another batch of characters from their 160+ champion roster to life in a new way. Sylas is depicted in a bigger way than ever before as he helps to lead a rebellion against the tyrannical kingdom of Demacia, where mages are hunted. The story has...

Redfall: How the Worst Book-Signing Ever Led Dev Into a Vampire Apocalypse | IGN First

Devinder finally gets the camera turned on him to tell his story of how he ended up in the mess of Redfall in the final of four Redfall character profiles. It turns out for him, this was a "right place at the right time" sort of situation for him given his expertise with cryptics. Learn more about how Dev's kit can be used in the exclusive trailer above, and get even more on his backstory and details on his abilities below. Power 1 : Arc Javelin – Throw a javelin into enemies or surfaces to create a lightning hazard that will zap nearby enemies. Power 2 : Translocate – Toss out a translocation beacon you can teleport to by pressing the action button a second time. Allies can use the translocation terminal you leave behind to follow you. Ultimate Ability : Blacklight – Use Devinder’s heavily-modified camera rig to create a powerful burst of UV light that petrifies vampires and staggers human enemies. Dev's Translocate is most obviously helpful for getting aroun...

The Indie Developers Who Are Using AI to Make Living Cities, Tactics Machines, and More