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Showing posts from May 21, 2023

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The 10 Best Sonic Games

Baldur's Gate 3 Interactive Map and Locations for Acts 1, 2, and 3

IGN UK Podcast #643: Doctor Strange in the Desperate Search for Seal Meat

Dolphin Emulator Steam Release 'Indefinitely Postponed' After Cease and Desist From Nintendo

The Wii and GameCube emulator Dolphin has had its Steam release 'indefinitely postponed' after the team received a cease and desist order from Nintendo. The Dolphin Emulator Project team shared the update in a blog, stating it was notified by Valve that Nintendo issued a "cease and desist citing the DMCA against Dolphin's Steam page." "It is with much disappointment that we have to announce that the Dolphin on Steam release has been indefinitely postponed," The Dolphin Emulator Project wrote. "We were notified by Valve that Nintendo has issued a cease and desist citing the DMCA against Dolphin's Steam page, and have removed Dolphin from Steam until the matter is settled. We are currently investigating our options and will have a more in-depth response in the near future. We appreciate your patience in the meantime." As reported by PC Gamer, the team launched Dolphin's Steam page on March 28 and, on May 26, received a legal notice...

Diablo 4’s Gothic Art Style Finally Reclaims The Series’ Identity

When Diablo 3 was first revealed in 2008 the internet lost its collective shit. Thousands of fans signed petitions and rallied against the game, demanding that Blizzard made a change. Why? Because Diablo 3, in a departure from its predecessors, looked like a “cartoon.” Prior to Diablo 3, Blizzard’s action RPG series had a distinctly gothic visual palette. The stones that walled the dungeons of Diablo 1 and 2 were dark, and the shadows in their crevices even darker. The light generated by flickering flames or bolts of magical lightning illuminated a grim fantasy world with a realistic texture. Well, at least as realistic as PCs of the late 1990s could render. Diablo 3, though, looked like a horror fantasy comic book. Its world glowed with eerie, saturated colours. Its characters were built of exaggerated angles and oversized pauldrons. Its textures were hand-painted reimaginings of the natural world. “It's a stylized feel and in that sense, it's very sort of a Blizzard ph...

Best Nintendo Switch Deals: Memorial Day Video Game Sales Now Live

The long Memorial Day weekend isn't traditionally known for its great video game prices, but you can get discounts on first party games like Animal Crossing and Super Smash Bros . right now, among others. Best Buy and Amazon are running sales right now, so it's a good opportunity to grab some games and save some cash. The Nintendo Switch is a runaway success, now sitting at number three in the list of all-time best-selling consoles . Some of the most popular games of the last five years have exclusive homes on the Switch, and unlike Nintendo consoles of yore, first-party Nintendo Switch game deals are fairly commonplace. Best Nintendo Switch Deals Best Buy Deals Amazon Deals Common Nintendo Switch Game Deals TL;DR: Indie and first-party games By far the most common Nintendo Switch deals we see are on smaller games. Games like Harvestella , for example, are perpetually on sale, but there are lots of times to save on some of the best indies on Nintendo Switch. In fa...

The 15 Best Free-to-Play Games on PS5 Right Now

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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 Fortni...

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet Getting Pokémon Home Support Next Week, for Real This Time

Pokémon Scarlet and Violet support is finally being added to Pokémon Home on May 30 after Nintendo announced and then cancelled the update last week. As reported by Serebii , Pokémon Home will go down ahead of the update as it undergoes maintenance, meaning players won't be able to access the service from 5pm Pacific / 8pm Eastern on May 29 for six hours. Though players on the west coast of the U.S. will therefore be able to access Version 3.0 of Pokémon Home at 11pm on May 29, most players around the world will have access to the updated app on May 30. East coast players can access the update at 2am, UK players at 7am, and AEST players at 4pm. Version 3.0 will allow players to move Pokémon from Scarlet and Violet into Home and vice versa, finally adding the long-awaited feature to the latest pocket monster adventure six months after launch. It was expected a little sooner, however, as Nintendo announced last week that the update would arrive on May 23 before retracting the s...

Tears of the Kingdom Patch Removes Every Duplication Glitch

Nintendo has released a patch for The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom that removes every duplication glitch from the game. As reported by Vooks , some players may want to hold off on updating to Version 1.1.2 of Tears of the Kingdom if they hope to keep using the duplication glitches to essentially gain infinite rupees. While the patch notes don't mention the removal of these glitches, that were quickly discovered by players looking to break the launch version of the game , all known methods of duplicating items have been removed. This includes perhaps the most popular arrow glitch, which let players duplicate any item fused with an arrow, alongside the weapon and shield glitch and more . The official patch notes do address some other issues. Nintendo has "fixed an issue where the sound would play at an extremely high volume in certain conditions" and an issue in the Camera Work in the Depths quest that stopped progression. Though these are the only two speci...

Alone in the Dark: The First Preview

Survival Horror is a genre we take for granted, but back in 1992 a little game called Alone in the Dark really kickstarted the whole idea, giving us a taste of limited resources and investigative adventure against the odds. Now Pieces Interactive is remaking that classic in a star-studded, atmospheric take that promises to deliver the classic horror plot to modern audiences. Heading that up is Mikael Hedberg, writer and director of Amnesia and Soma, and between his answers and answers from publisher THQ Nordic at a press Q&A things are looking pretty promising as we gear up to return to the deeply haunted Louisiana Bayou around Derceto. The big reveal is that Stranger Things actor David Harbour will be playing the role of detective Edward Carnby, a hard boiled scenery-chewing role that's a perfect cast for Harbour and one that he seems genuinely excited to undertake. Meanwhile Killing Eve actress Jodie Comer will take over as Emily Hartwood, the woman who has hired Carnby to...

Rune Factory 6, New Story of Seasons, and Daemon X Machina Sequel Announced During Marvelous Stream

Marvelous revealed today that it is working on several new games, including Rune Factory 6, Rune Factory: Project Dragon, a new Story of Seasons, and Daemon X Machina Titanic Scion. Rune Factory 6 is currently in development and the game will take place in the western continent of Adonea. Rune Factory: Project Dragon is a spin-off set in the “Land of the East.” The latter's setting has been referenced throughout the series but was never shown. Project Dragon is inspired by Japanese culture and will represent the East while Rune Factory 6 represents the West. Rune Factory: Project Dragon announced - trailer https://t.co/QEw9BzJsbj pic.twitter.com/ZfktHI81nJ — Wario64 (@Wario64) May 25, 2023 The next Story of Seasons game will explore the theme of “experiences.” Series manager Hikaru Nakano said that the future entry is one where everyone can play with each other, which could possibly hint at some sort of co-op or multiplayer aspect. Daemon X Machina: Titanic Scion is a seq...

Homeworld 3 Has Been Delayed to 2024

Developer Blackbird Interactive and publisher Gearbox have announced that Homeworld 3 has been delayed to February 2024. It was originally planned to launch during the first half of 2023. “Our primary goal is to deliver a Homeworld experience that lives up to the standards set by its predecessors and is worthy of this series’ incredible legacy,” Blackbird and Gearbox explained in a statement on Twitter. They continued, saying, “Homeworld 3 is shaping up to be exactly that, but in order to fully realize that vision we need more time to refine and polish the game.” We are moving the launch of Homeworld 3 from the first half of 2023 to February 2024 so that we deliver the quality experience that fans deserve. pic.twitter.com/DaCX4eFMm4 — Homeworld (@HomeworldGame) May 25, 2023 Homeworld 3 was first announced all the way back in 2019 for PC . The game was initially scheduled to release in Q4 2022 but then was delayed into 2023 in order to protect the health of the developers. Th...

Tears of the Kingdom: Which Dungeon Should You Do First?

Look, we don't want to tell you how you should play Tears of the Kingdom. Go out, make a mess, explore the world, do whatever you want. But there are certain things in this game that if you don't do early, you might find yourself later wishing you had chosen differently. And one of those is the order in which you tackle the Regional Phenomena quests, which lead to Tears of the Kingdom's dungeons. Once you pass the tutorial of Tears of the Kingdom, you'll be handed a main quest called Regional Phenomena, which sends you to complete the game's four major dungeons in any order you like by visiting the Rito, the Zorah, the Gerudo, and the Goron cities and people. You can put these quests off as long as you want, do them in a random order, or go wherever your heart takes you, but there is a recommended order to do these in, and it's for pretty good reason: some of the rewards are much, much better than others, and can make the rest of the game significantly eas...

How to Find Every Lightroot Location in Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

One of the biggest surprises to come out of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was an entirely new area of the map. Not only can you can explore the skies above Hyrule, you can also dive down into The Depths below and traverse an equally enormous area. Similar to the shrines located across Hyrule above, The Depths has a series of fast travel points you can activate throughout the darkness called Lightroots. Every Lightroot is directly below a shrine above , meaning you can find them based on the shrine locations or vice versa. How Many Lightroots are There? There are a total of 120 Lightroots located in The Depths, which directly correlates with all 120 shrines located on the surface of Hyrule. Not only are all of the Lightroots directly below the shrines, the names of each one are actually the same name of the shrine above, but backwards. A cool secret about the Hyrule map: Every Shrine in Tears of the Kingdom has a corresponding Lightroot. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/FzFwFFNV2...

Xbox Formally Appeals UK CMA Decision to Block Activision Blizzard Deal

Microsoft has filed an appeal challenging the UK CMA's decision to block its $69 billion deal to acquire Activision Blizzard. A report from Bloomberg confirmed Microsoft's formal filing through a company spokesperson. Its Wednesday response was made on the deadline for appeal, set last month after the CMA's decision blocking the deal over concerns for cloud gaming . In April, both Brad Smith, vice chair and president of Microsoft, and Activision Blizzard CEO Bobby Kotick criticized the regulator's market understanding and promised to challenge the decision. Smith said the CMA's decision "discourages technology innovation and investment in the United Kingdom," while Kotick wrote it was "far from the final word". As the merger remains in limbo in the UK, other regulators have approved the tech giant's acquisition of Activision Blizzard. Last week, the European Commission announced it would allow Microsoft to proceed, and China's Sta...

Konami Releases First In-Game Screenshots from Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake

Following its reveal at today’s PlayStation Showcase , Konami has released the first screenshots for its Metal Gear Solid 3 remake, which it has titled Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater. The four screenshots mainly focus on the remake’s environmental details, from the texture of the leaves to the way that the sun beams through the jungle canopy. A Soviet soldier does appear in one screenshot, with another featuring a ferocious looking crocodile. The original game was a Cold War-era spy thriller set in a fictional jungle environment in the USSR. One of its main conceits was that Snake had to eat food to survive, forcing him to hunt the local wildlife. In Metal Gear Solid 3, crocodiles are some of the most ferocious enemies in the game, swiping at Snake with their tails or biting his leg. Konami has confirmed that all four screenshots are taken from an in-development version of the game, offering players a clearer glimpse of what to expect from the new remake. The PlayStation Showcas...

Foamstar Is the Persona Splatoon Game We've All Been Waiting For

Foamstar, from Square Enix, was announced at the May 2023 Playstation Showcase . Foamstar is a 4v4 Foam shooter. The trailer features a cast of colorful characters shooting various brightly-colored foam at each other. The gameplay is similar to Splatoon, but instead of paint, you and your colorful friends shoot foam at one another. The trailer only showed in-match gameplay, so we don't know if you're going to be able to gather together in a town square to show off weird art to one another. Rather than both teams racing to cover the entire map in their color of paint, the foam being shot in Foamstars will be used to both attack and change the layout of the map. So, theoretically you'll be able to create cover or alternate ways to traverse the map. Foamstar doesn't have a release date quite yet, but if you're looking for a Splatoon-like shooter to play on PS5, Foamstar might just be it. Jackie Thomas is the freelance computing queen. You can find her work at ...

The Talos Principle 2 Gets 2023 Release Window

We already knew that Croteam was working on a sequel to its 2014 puzzle game The Talos Principle and that it would arrive on PS5, in addition to PC and Xbox Series X/S. And today, we learned that the game would be released this year. Announced at today's State of Play Showcase, The Talos Principle 2 is a puzzle game that will greatly expand "the first game's philosophical themes and stunning environments with increasingly mind-bending challenges," according to the game's Steam page . The Talos Principle 2 was announced back in 2021 , and while details on the game since its reveal have been slim. A PlayStation Blog post on the game notes that The Talos Pattern 2 will take "a giant leap forward" for the franchise, which currently has two games. Specifically, the world design will be bigger, stranger, and more beautiful, according to Croteam. Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster. source https://www.ign.com/arti...

Metal Gear Solid 3 Remake Announced Alongside Collection Featuring First Three Games

Nearly 20 years after its original release, Konami is officially remaking Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater for the PlayStation 5. Announced during today’s PlayStation Showcase, the new Metal Gear Solid 3 remake is titled Metal Gear Solid Δ: Snake Eater and looks to be a faithful remake of Hideo Kojima’s original game . (Δ is pronounced “Delta”.) It was revealed in a brief CGI teaser trailer in which the camera pans through a familiar jungle landscape and eventually comes to a rest on Snake amid Cynthia Harrell’s rendition of the classic theme song. Additional info released after the event confirmed that the remake will feature the original voices, presumably including David Hayter as Snake. Konami also promised “unprecedented graphics and immersive sound.” Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1 revealed alongside remake In addition to Metal Gear Solid Δ, Konami also announced the Metal Gear Solid: Master Collection Vol. 1. The collection will include Metal Gear Solid as well ...

The Five Accessibility Successes of 2023 So Far

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May 18 marked the 12th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD), a day to celebrate and raise awareness for accessibility across varying industries. Not only does it help to highlight new innovations, it also continuously reinforces the notion that disabled people need assistive tech to thrive. For games, studios regularly refine and create new options and design practices seeking to eliminate as many barriers as possible. 2023 is already off to a strong start, with options and design practices pushing accessibility beyond some of last year’s biggest hits. It’s quickly becoming apparent that disabled players no longer need to hope for accessibility to be included in a game, but rather can comfortably join in the excitement of new titles. But beyond adding features, many of 2023’s announcements and releases demonstrate the necessity to explore new types of accessibility and even open entire systems to a significant group of disabled players. To celebrate GAAD, let’s explore ...

Sony Expects PS5 Sales to Begin Outpacing PS4 by End of 2023

Sony expects PlayStation 5 sales to begin outpacing the PS4 by the end of 2023 as it gets back on track following component shortages that plagued hardware production last year. Shared in a business presentation , Sony compared the PS5's sales with the PS4's at this stage in its life cycle and said it expects the PS5 to catch up with the PS4 by August 2023 and begin to exceed its sales by December. The PS5 outsold its predecessor in its first year on the market but sales declined due to the component shortage that was only declared over in January 2023. Sony has since ramped up the number of PS5 consoles it's shipping considerably, more than doubling 2022's numbers in most months this year so far to meet what it's calling "unprecedented demand". The presentation also revealed that the PS5 is projected to begin outpacing the PS4 in all of Sony's key metrics by February 2024. These include console user spend, full game unit sales, gameplay hours, ...

PlayStation VR2 Has Strong Launch Despite Reports, Outselling Original PSVR

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The PlayStation VR2 is off to a stronger start than previous reports indicated as Sony has revealed the virtual reality headset had a better launch than the original PSVR. Shared in a business presentation , Sony revealed that the PSVR 2's first six weeks outperformed the original PSVR's first six weeks, coming in at just below 600,000 units sold. Specific numbers are unclear on the provided graph (below), but the original PSVR came in closer to 500,000. Sony also described the period as a "strong PlayStation VR2 launch", contradicting a report in March that said the headset was only expected to sell 270,000 units in roughly the same six week period. An industry analyst had said Sony would need to cut the PSVR 2's price to avoid a "complete disaster". The headset launched on February 22 with 42 games , including headlining title Horizon: Call of the Mountain and a variety of virtual reality updates for critically acclaimed games like Gran Turismo...

What Xbox’s Fall 2023 Looks Like So Far – Unlocked 596

Mortal Kombat 1 has been announced, and it's bringing its unexpected title to next-gen consoles in September. Meanwhile, Alan Wake 2's voice actor may have just spoiled the release date for Remedy's upcoming survival-horror sequel. We discuss these two games, along with the Fall release calendar for Xbox that's now starting to come into focus. Plus: we're not buying the idea that GTA 6 might be out next year, 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) ...

The Entirety of Lord of the Rings: Gollum Leaks on YouTube Ahead of Release

The Lord of the Rings: Gollum launches this Thursday, May 25, but the entire game has been leaked online ahead of release. We won't share or link to any spoilers here, but someone posted a video walkthrough of the whole game on YouTube. The video has since been taken down, but it stayed online for several hours before it was removed. There are threads on both Reddit and resetera discussing the leaked footage. IGN has reached out to developer Daedalic Entertainment for comment. On Thursday, The Lord of the Rings: Gollum will launch on PlayStation 5, PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC. A Nintendo Switch version is scheduled for sometime later this year . Players will sneak around Middle-earth while making choices to align with either the darker Gollum or gentler Sméagol. The gameplay will also feature elements of stealth and parkour. It's been a long road to release for Gollum, as the game was originally scheduled to come out in 2021. After a pile of delays , we learned...

Destiny 2 Reveals God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, and Horizon Outfits for New Season

PlayStation and Bungie are bringing new armor cosmetics and content to Destiny 2's Season of the Deep, which launched earlier today. The PlayStation exclusive content was inspired by some of the company's most popular IP, including The Last of Us, God of War, Ghost of Tsushima, and the Horizon franchise. Each of Destiny 2’s three classes will receive a new armor ornament set. The hunter class will get the “Annointed” cosmetic set inspired by Aloy from the Horizon series , while Titans can look forward to equiping the “Godsbane” ornament set based on Kratos from Santa Monica Studio’s God of War series . Warlocks, meanwhile, will be able to acquire the “Ancestral” ornament set, which is based on the samurai style of Jin Sakai from Sucker Punch’s open world 2020 game Ghost of Tsushima . All three ornament sets will come with a unique finisher move inspired by the PlayStation IPs from which they were conceived. Fight with the ferocity of warriors from across the ages. Upgr...

Lords of the Fallen: Here’s What Comes in Each Edition

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Lords of the Fallen is set to release for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 13. A spiritual successor to the 2014 game of the same name, this new installment promises a lot more of the Soulslike action-RPG gameplay that the first one offered. The game will be released in a handful of editions, with a collection of in-game bonus items for those who preorder. Though you may want to preorder at Best Buy , because you'll get a free steelbook case. Below, we have full details about what comes in each edition, along with pricing and availability. Let's dive in. Preorder Lords of the Fallen (Standard Edition) PS5 Get it at Best Buy - $69.99 (free steelbook) Get it at GameStop - $69.99 Get it at PlayStation Store - $69.99 See it at Amazon (not yet available) Xbox Series X|S Get it at Best Buy - $69.99 (free steelbook) Get it at GameStop - $69.99 Get it at Xbox Store (digital) - $69.99 See it at Amazon (not yet available) PC Get it on Steam - $59.99 ...