Everything

If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. While the original Lords of the Fallen from 2014 was one of the earliest to bravely take a stab at recreating FromSoftware’s lightning in a bottle, it didn’t quite hit that high mark. Nearly a decade and about a million soulslike copycats later, there’s perhaps no better time for its follow-up to take a second swipe – and thankfully, this new, confusingly identically named Lords of the Fallen confidently lands its strike. Its world, divided into dual realities, is absolutely awesome to explore, buildcrafting is diverse and complex, and combat is so smooth and satisfying that I’m willing to forgive all the ways it cribs from its contemporaries. Some pretty severe performance issues and bugs as well as disappointingly easy boss fights mean this latest thrust isn’t quite a fatal blow, but even so, I expect to spend many more hours impaling enemies and exploring every nook and cranny of its cleverly split world for secrets. Lords of the Fal...

Competitive shooter players have for years peeked around corners to try to get a jump on their opponents. But one method players are currently using in Valve’s Counter-Strike 2 is just criminal. The Counter-Strike 2 community has dubbed this one the ‘Michael Jackson peek’, and it’s easy to see why. It triggers a bizarre animation glitch that makes the player avatar look like it’s doing the gravity-defying lean Michael Jackson made famous in the music video for Smooth Criminal. Michael Jackson peek lmfao #CS2 via u/thekappa27 pic.twitter.com/RRYGq4BXJl — ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 10, 2023 What’s going on here, and how is the ‘Michael Jackson peek’ done? It involves setting up keybinds so when you press your directional keys, you're activating movement in that direction and also simultaneously activating the controller binds to move in the opposite direction, triggering an animation bug of some kind. After clips of the Michael Jackson peek were shared on subre...

Dead Island 2 's first story expansion, called Haus, will let player explore a billionaire's secret techno death cult when it launches November 2. The expansion adds a wealth of story content to Dead Island 2 alongside a new location, at least three weapons, and eight skill cards. Haus will be available on all consoles Dead Island 2 launched on, including PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X and S, and PC via the Epic Games Store. "Haus gives players an entirely new storyline to smash zombies through," the official synopsis reads. "Amidst the Zompocalypse, a billionaire’s secret techno-death cult fights for survival in Haus, where humanity is unleashed from its moral restraints. The group’s leader, Konstantin, prophesizes that this is the 'paragon of a new future'. It’s up to players to prove them wrong." Players will visit a mysterious and stylish villa in Malibu, California "where the boundaries of morality are pushed". The ne...

EA Sports has released the first big post-launch patch for FC 24 and it makes some significant changes to gameplay. The long list of patch notes is below, but it’s worth picking out a few highlights. The Pinged Pass and Pinged Pass+ PlayStyles are nerfed slightly, as is jockey turning speed when moving at slower speeds. There are big changes to the referee logic, which players have criticised. And here’s a fun one: “In some cases, goalkeepers did not celebrate passionately in some scenes after making a significant save.” Come on keepers, let everyone know how much it all means to you! Here are the EA Sports FC 24 Title Update 3 patch notes in full: Ultimate Team Addressed the following issues: On rare occasions, players could have disappeared from matches after a substitution or red card. Following the completion of a match, sometimes the Advance menu option did not function unless another menu was first visited on the post-match screen. Addressed the Ada Hegerberg Player...

The heavily criticised Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 has its first post-launch patch, which claims to address a number of issues with the game. The Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 became the butt of many internet jokes for its low-quality visuals, prompting NetherRealm development chief Ed Boon to promise to improve the quality of the game . IGN’s review of the current-gen version of Mortal Kombat 1 returned an 8/10, but IGN’s review of the Switch version , ported by Shiver Entertainment and Saber Interactive, came back with a 3/10. “Mortal Kombat 1 proves to be too much for the Switch's dated hardware,” we said. “The load times are egregious, and there are numerous bugs plaguing both graphics and gameplay, making for a poor quality port of a great game that's all around aggravating to play.” The patch for Mortal Kombat 1 on Nintendo Switch addresses some of these high-profile issues, while adding the MIA Season 1 of Invasions mode to the game. T...

Some Forza Motorsport vs. Gran Turismo 7 talk kicks off the show before we talk about Halo Infinite's new Season 5 content, discuss how Xbox Game Pass looks set to level up in 2024 with the addition of Activision-Blizzard games, lament the recent layoffs at Telltale, 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 my recent Alan Wake 2 preview! 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 Jersey guy, so it's "Taylor ham," not "pork roll." Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan . source https://www.ign.com/articles/xbox-game-pass-will-level-up-in-2024-...

I have some good news and some bad news. Good news: Amazon’s October Prime Day sale event is still going, which means you can score some great deals. Bad news: it ends at midnight Pacific time, so you’re running out of time to pick up whatever you have your eye on. If you’re interested in deals that won’t cost an arm and a leg, we have you covered below, with the most popular deals under $30. Let’s dive in. Ghost of Tsushima for $29.99 If you missed out on this one at launch, now is the perfect time to pick it up. This is an open-world Samurai game that has you wandering through truly breathtaking environments and engaging in exciting sword fights against invading forces. This director's cut comes with the full game, the Iki Island expansion, and the online co-op mode. Azul Board Game for $19.19 Some board games are about conquering the entire world. Others are about building tile mosaics. Azul is the latter, a game about creating surprisingly beautiful designs, in a semi-...