The mobile version of Fortnite Battle Royalenow features a loading screen that tells kids to not play the game during class.
Epic Games community manager K.L. Smith shared the new loading screen—which now includes the message: "Mr. Hillman says stop playing in class"—in a post on Twitter.
Fortnite loading screen, via Twitter
Pokemon Go is celebrating April Fool's Day by switching to 8-bit graphics, which players can experience in the game starting today.
"Experience Pokemon Go like never before with cutting-edge 8-bit graphics!" an announcement post on the game's official website humorously reads. "Registering approximately twice the definition of 4K, the chunky squares of each pixel provide realistic detail and unbelievable definition."
Check out the slideshow below for a look at the 8-bit aesthetic:
Pokemon Go's 8-bit style isn't the only recent addition to Niantic Labs' augmented reality mobile game. Earlier this week, the mythical Pokemon Mew was added to the game through a new quest system.
What would happen if you mixed the fast-paced futuristic racing of F-Zero with the colorful co-operative play of Splatoon 2? Well, you'd probably end up with a game that's remarkably close to Trailblazers, a new racer that aims to combine a unique track-painting mechanic with a critical focus on strategic team-based racing.
Sounds pretty compelling right? Trailblazers is a passion project that stems from indie developer SuperGonk Games, which has an exceptional amount of talent on its side, ranging from the now-defunct studio Lionhead (Fable) as well as Codemasters and Bizarre Creations. Codemasters has rapidly become one of the most experienced racing-focused studios in the world, responsible for both the DiRT and GRID series, while Bizarre Creations brought us the highly popular Project Gotham Racing series. So when it comes to racing game experience, SuperGonk knows what it's doing.
EA's public perception might be worse than ever. 2017 saw the company publicly criticized for Star Wars: Battlefront 2's perceived pay-to-win multiplayer, Mass Effect: Andromeda's quality issues at launch, and the sudden closure of Visceral Games. People saying they won't buy another EA game aren't uncommon, and while I generally agree that 'vote with your wallet' is a good practice, the people hurt the most by that when it comes to EA Originals (like Fe and A Way Out) are the independent developers making those games, not EA.
Nintendo has unveiled the lineup of titles that will be playable for Switch at PAX East this year.
As announced in a post on Nintendo's official website, this will be the first time a number of titles—including Dark Souls Remastered, Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus, Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, and Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy—will be playable by the public on Nintendo Switch.
Here's the full list of Switch games that will be playable at Nintendo's booth:
Everything you need to know to dominate this week's challenges.
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Testing for PlayerUnknown's Battleground's upcoming map Codename: Savage will open in just a few days.
As detailed in an announcement post on Steam, the first testing window for the 4x4km island map will open on April 2 at 7pm PT/10pm ET (April 3 at 3am UK/1pm AET) and conclude on April 5 at 4am PT/7am ET/12pm UK/10pm AET.
This first test will be "more limited" since "it's a super early build" of the map, but the studio promises the next test will be larger. Details on how players can participate will be provided on Monday.
PUBG director Brendan Greene offered a sneak peek at the map—which features a lush forested area and branching river—earlier this month at GDC.
Weeelcooome to episode 400 of our weekly Nintendo show and podcast, Nintendo Voice Chat. This week, Miranda Sanchez joins the NVC crew to chat about her review for Detective Pikachu and shares her thoughts on why she thinks it's a great game. Later, the gang discusses the many growing concerns with using third-party Nintendo Switch docks, the closing of the Wii Ship Channel, a possible return for Wario Land, Crazy Justice, and more!
As always, you can watch NVC here on IGN and on our YouTube channel (subscribe and hit that bell! It gives fairies wings!) or listen to it on your commute in audio format. If you enjoy the show, share it with other Nintendo fans, leave us a comment, and give us a thumbs up or leave us a review! If you prefer audio over video, please subscribe to NVC on iTunes or your podcast service of choice. You can also download and listen to the Latest Episode of NVC Right Here.
Guacamelee! 2 is coming soon to PC via Steam.
DrinkBox Studios shared the news in a post on Twitter. A specific release date for the Steam version has yet to be announced.
The Guacamelee! 2 game page is now up on Steam, so any prospective luchadors can add it to their wishlist or check the game's minimum system requirements. In celebration of the announcement, and the upcoming 10th anniversary of DrinkBox Studios, the studio's games are available on Steam for a hefty 90 percent off.
Level-5 intends to be a big supporter of the Nintendo Switch going forward.
"Basically, in the future our main titles will all be released on Nintendo Switch," Level-5 CEO Akihiro Hino said in an interview, published by Nikkei Trendy and translated by Gematsu. "The idea is that what we have created for 3DS will move over to Switch."
Level-5 is the development studio behind a number of popular series, including Yo-Kai Watch, Professor Layton, and Ni No Kuni. The studio's first title for Switch is The Snack World: Trejarers Gold, which launches on April 12 in Japan.
Here's the easiest way to get this item, which is needed to request a skillful seamstress.
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Santa Monica Studio's new God of War game will feature a performance mode for those playing the game on PlayStation 4 Pro.
When asked by a fan on Twitter if players need to upgrade to a PS4 Pro to "fully enjoy the new God of War," game director Cory Barlog replied: "Nope, you don't have to, but if you do 4K is AMAZING, if you have a 4K TV, of course. If you don't, we have a performance mode that puts the extra power to good use and makes the game run so so smooth!"
Performance mode, which is available for select PS4 games, allows those with a PS4 Pro to opt for a smoother experience at lower resolution (e.g. playing the game in 1080p at 60fps instead of 4K at 30fps).
My Hero Academia: One's Justice has added two new characters to the roster.
According to this week's Shonen Jump, via ShonenGames, Shota Aizawa and Hero Killer Stain will join Bandai Namco's battle action game.
Shota "Eraserhead" Aizawa is a professional hero and the homeroom teacher of U.A. Class 1-A, which includes many of the show's central characters. His Quirk, "Erasure," allows him to disable other individual's Quirks as long as he is looking at them. His ability can force enemies to come in close where Aizawa can counter them, and he is skilled in restraining foes with his long scarf.
To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Starcraft, IGN talked with Chris Metzen, Starcraft's Lead Designer and Sam "Samwise" Didier, Starcraft's Art Director. We talked about the game's influences, how the story evolved, and the creation of the now iconic three races of the genre-defining sci-fi real-time-strategy game.
Art by Chris Metzen
While anti-hero/villain Sarah Kerrigan is the most recognizable character of the franchise, the "Queen of Blades" origin story is actually quite goofy. Chris Metzen, who developed a lot of the original Starcraft story with James Phinney, first conceived of the stealthy Terran Ghost units. They wanted to have a commando character, but they hadn't decided on a name. "It started off as a joke," Metzen reports.
Well, here it is - the Easter egg apocalypse.
Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Ready Player One was always going to be chock full of cameo appearances and references to our favorite pop culture properties… but wow, did we underestimate just how many there would be.
We may not have Halliday's keys or an OASIS visor, but we're still going to do our very best to show you just how many Easter eggs there are in this movie, well, besides that one.
Watch the video in the player above for the full breakdown of Easter eggs. Then check out the slideshow below for the very coolest ones all the trailers managed NOT to spoil!
Spoilers ahead!
That's everything we spotted, but we know there's more - let us know what you saw in the comments!
Filip and Lily are back again and ready to cause shenanigans in Splatoon 2 with the Nintendo Voice Chat community. WOOMY!
Like or dislike more personal livestreams like this one? Let us know about it in the comments below!
Behaviour Digital, the developers behind Dead by Daylight, are teasing a new game called Deathgarden, with more to be revealed at PAX East next week.
According to Behaviour Digital, "Deathgarden is a brutal asymmetrical shooter, where powerful hunters prey on agile runners, in a spectacular dystopian bloodsport." It's a 5v1 shooter, and as you can see in the teaser video above, it definitely looks like it will be intense, if nothing else.
Above: The Saw DLC trailer for Behaviour's popular existing title, Dead by Daylight.
Deathgarden will be playable on the PAX East show floor, if you happen to be attending. You can sign up for the closed alpha on the game's website. For more on everything happening at PAX East next week, stay tuned to IGN at our PAX East 2018 hub.
Reaching level 50 reputation across all trading companies unlocks several special cosmetics and a whole new area. See exactly what they have to offer with this guide.
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Less than two weeks after release, a Sea of Thieves player has sailed the high seas enough to achieve "Pirate Legend" status, opening up post-game content not yet seen by players.
Twitch streamer Prod1gyx has been broadcasting his playthrough of Sea of Thieves and his journey toward Pirate Legend, which means he has maxed out the level cap of 50 for all three of Sea of Thieves' pirate factions.
Achieving this status is meant to open up a new secret quest for Sea of Thieves players, as well as additional secrets yet uncovered. Ahead of launch, Sea of Thieves Executive Producer Joe Neate told IGN that "Becoming a Pirate Legend is really just the start for players.
Welcome back to Game Scoop!, IGN's weekly video game talk show. This week we're discussing Far Cry 5 and so much more. Watch the video above or download the podcast below.
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Here's where to find all of the collectible lighters for the mission What They Carried in Far Cry 5.
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Overwatch's Uprising seasonal event will return on Tuesday, April 10.
Blizzard shared the news in a post on Twitter, which includes the following teaser:
Initiating archive declassification…
Mission files unlock: April 10.
RETWEET to confirm. pic.twitter.com/cTevQ8M5CE
— Overwatch (@PlayOverwatch) March 29, 2018
The Uprising event rewinds time to give players the opportunity to relive a key moment in Overwatch's past and dive into some of the stories behind the game's diverse group of heroes. There will be over 100 declassified loot box items featuring pieces of the past to unlock, and players will be able to join Tracer on her first mission in the Uprising co-op brawl.
While Valve's next game isn't what many people were hoping for when it was initially announced, it's still shaping up to be a whole lot of fun. Artifact is a Dota 2-themed digital card game that breaks a lot of the norms you might expect from a Digital TCG, then injects it chock full of lore and love for the MOBA it's built around.
We went and played Artifact at Valve and seriously enjoyed it, but for two very different reasons. Miranda has over 1,200 hours in Dota 2, while Tom has tried basically every digital card released in the last three years. Odds are you might also find yourself further to one side of that venn diagram, so here's what we thought of our time with Artifact from each of those perspectives.
"We want to make the best dinosaurs you've ever seen," said Jurassic World Evolutions' Executive producer Rich Theobold, before revealing a ceratosaurus, its thunderous footsteps shaking the room as the devs let it loose into their custom-build park. Its pebbled skin glistens in the sunlight, a John Williams-alike score soars in the background.
It was a very good looking dinosaur, and one of over 30 (at launch) in Evolution, Frontier's business sim set in the Jurassic Park/World universe where the goal is to build your own park empire. I'll admit that the dinos were what I was here for; I'm a big series fan but relatively green when it comes to the genre. Fortunately Evolution feels accessible off the bat, and better still, deeply Jurassic Park-esque, an extension of the movie series rather than a sim with the good fortune to have the license.
Frontier Developments' dinosaur park management sim Jurassic World Evolution will be released digitally on June 12 for PC, PS4 and Xbox One, and physically on July 3 for PS4 and Xbox One.
Although Evolution's release date was accidentally leaked two weeks ago, this is the first we've learned of the physical release date.
Jurassic World Evolution was announced at last year's Gamescom. We recently went hands on with its first hour, and talked to its head of animation for an introduction to the game.
THQ Nordic has announced a pun-tastic remaster of Red Faction: Guerilla coming to PC, PS4 and Xbox One in Q2 2018.
Red Faction: Guerrilla Re-Mars-tered edition features native 4K support, improved lighting and shadow rendering, and fully reworked graphics. Xbox One X support will also be available at launch.
You can take a sneak peek at what all of that amounts to in the gallery below.
Guerrilla is set in 2125, 50 years after the events of Red Faction. The insurgent guerrilla fighters of the newly re-established Red Faction take on the Earth Defense Force to liberate Mars from its oppressive regime.
The original game was released in 2009, and we gave it an 8/10 for both the PC and console version, which didn't have the strongest story and character development, but there was great fun to be had elsewhere, with our reviewer saying, "the addictive thrill of pummeling buildings into tiny bits is something you won't regret experiencing."
Techland's latest update adds a slew of new content to Dying Light, including a Prison Heist mode on Prison Island, and a zombie Easter egg hunt.
Details of the update were posted on Steam and it also brings with it a new enemy called Sgt. Deathrow, and a new seasonal event, the Harran Egg Hunt.
The Prison Heist will ask players to break into the armoury on Prison Island, solo or in co-op, as fast as humanly possible to reap the rewards. The quicker you are, the better the reward.
If you want to pay Sgt. Deathrow a visit, you'll find the Demolisher in Old Town. Described as "bigger, stronger, and more unpredictable" when compared to the previous Demolisher mutations, taking him down will shower you with XP.
Hello Games has announced that its open universe space exploration game No Man's Sky will be available for Xbox One this summer.
Previously only available for PS4 and PC, No Man's Sky will come this summer to Xbox One with Xbox One X HDR and 4K enhancements. 505 Games will be publishing a physical version of the game worldwide, and the Xbox One version will come with all previous major updates to the game — Foundation, Pathfinder, Atlas Rises — on day one.
Additionally this summer, Hello Games will release No Man's Sky NEXT, the next major free update to the game. (NEXT will also be available on day one for the Xbox One edition). The update is free for all existing players and is, according to Hello Games, the game's biggest update so far.
Mario's wardrobe is getting updated again, with a baseball uniform and a somewhat obscure reference to Nintendo's Japanese Super Famicom add-on, the Satellaview outfit.
Satellaview was a satellite modem that allowed players to download games to their console during a specific time slot using the satellite radio service of Nintendo's then-partner, St. GIGA. It was released in Japan in 1995. You can watch Mario floating around in space in the Japanese commercial for it right here.
New special outfits have been added to the post-game shop in #SuperMarioOdyssey: Satellaview Suit & Helmet and Baseball Uniform & Batting Helmet! pic.twitter.com/gNakmxexfY
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State of Decay 2 throws a lot of mayhem your way in the simulated zombie apocalypse. From general run-of-the-mill zombies, zombies in full body armor, zombies in clown attire (which adds a whole new level of creepy issues to work through), and the apex predators of the zombie horde – the Freaks.
Chief among those monstrosities are the Juggernauts, towering mountains of flesh and hunger that Undead Labs' CEO Jeff Strain calls, "community enders." To put that into context, in State of Decay 2, you don't play a single character, but rather a collective of survivors. When one person dies, you can swap into another survivor and carry on. And that's why a Juggernaut is so terrifying – it can kill everyone if you're not careful.
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Most of this week's show is dedicated to taking stock of Sea of Thieves now that it's finally out. We discuss what's good, what's bad, and where it can go from here. We also talk about A Way Out, Telltale's Batman series, Hellblade coming to Xbox, and more!
Oh, and Unlocked now has its own snazzy new homepage! Bookmark this: go.ign.com/unlocked
And we've got our own YouTube channel too! Subscribe here: youtube.com/ignunlocked
Square Enix is celebrating mobile game Hitman Sniper surpassing the 10 million player mark by making the game free to play for a limited time.
Square Enix Montréal is offering a free to play version of the mobile title for iOS and Android from March 28 through April 4. You can download the iOS version here and the Android version here.
Hitman Sniper launched in 2014 and is a competitive mobile shooter/shooting gallery game where players have to assassinate several targets as Agent 47. Square Enix Montréal has been adding seasonal themed content, game optimizations, and several other in-game additions since Hitman Sniper's launch.
A new patch for Doom that adds 4K support for PS4 Pro and Xbox One X will be released tomorrow, March 29.
Bethesda shared the news in a post on its official website. The publisher also released a new trailer for the 4K update, which you can watch below:
A handful of screenshots showcasing id Software's first-person shooter running in 4K were also revealed, but aside from the resolution boost, no other improvements were mentioned. Check out the images in the gallery below:
Doom was released for PC, PS4, and Xbox One in 2016 and for Nintendo Switch this past November. Last July, Bethesda scrapped the game's Season Pass and gave away all of Doom's multiplayer DLC for free.
Rainbow Six Siege's weapons will have their recoil patterns corrected in an upcoming update, Ubisoft announced today.
Bullets fired from many weapons, especially fully automatic weapons, currently "diverge from where the reticle is pointing," a blog post explains. With the new recoil system, which will initially roll out on the next Siege test server session, Ubisoft is targeting "a clean, tight shooting system that does not cheat players out of a great show of skill, or on the contrary, register a headshot when the player is aiming at the torso."
As-is, bullets don't always land at the tip of your gun's reticle. Sometimes they land below or beside it. Under the new recoil system, bullets will always land exactly at the tip of your reticle. So the kick of each gun won't change, but bullet trajectory is getting tightened up. You can find more details here.
Check out the best ways to find Skeleton Forts, defeat the Fortress Captain, and make off with tons of treasure in Sea of Thieves
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The 2018 Game Developers Conference (GDC) broke attendance records, attracting 28,000 industry professionals to this year's San Francisco-based conference.
GDC will once again return to the Moscone Convention Center next year. GDC 2019 will take place from March 18-22, 2019. Submissions for the conference open this summer.
This year's conference featured over 750 sessions and 550 exhibitors, as well as the the Independent Games Festival (IGF) and Game Developers Choice Awards (GDCA).
The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild was the big winner at the GDCA, receiving the Game of the Year award, as well as the awards for Best Design and Best Audio and Best Design. Meanwhile, Night in the Woods was the standout IGF Awards winner. Infinite Fall's story-driven adventure received the Seumas McNally Grand Prize, as well as the Excellence in Narrative award.
Sony has unveiled the PlayStation Plus free games lineup for April 2018:
Mad Max and TrackMania Turbo headline the PlayStation 4 releases. These two games are joined by a few PlayStation 3 and Vita titles, including Q*Bert Rebooted and In Space We Brawl.
Mad Max, from developer Avalanche Studios, released in 2015 and is an open-world action game. For our thoughts on Mad Max, read our review to find out why we think it "is an engaging rampage through a brutal world of depravity and loss that urges you to probe every ugly corner." Meanwhile, we gave 2016's TrackMania Turbo an 8.4, calling the game "a brilliant arcade stunt racer."
Pokemon Go was an undeniable mega hit when it launched in 2016, passing 650 million downloads in its first eight months and becoming Apple's most downloaded app of 2016.
After such success, it was inevitable that clones would begin pouring in, borrowing elements ranging from Pokemon Go's augmented reality to its integration of real-world locations.
With yet another new game announced this week, we decided to round up a few of the most high-profile or most shameless copycats revealed so far.
The lineup of games available to Xbox Live Gold subscribers in April 2018 has been revealed.
The following titles we be available for download for Xbox Live Gold members next month:
The Witness is "a labyrinthine mystery through a brilliantly designed world" which received a 10 in IGN's glowing review. It was also nominated for our 2016 Game of the Year.
Players who have been a bit lax with their Final Fantasy 14 monthly subscription can head back to the world of Eorza for a few days, free of charge.
The free login campaign lets players who have bought the game and registered their accounts hop back in for four days. The event is open for a limited-time only, running up until Sunday, May 6.
Players with suspended or banned accounts will be unable to participate, for obvious reasons, and if you're considering committing to a subscription partway through your trial, you should wait until the end of the four days to get your money's worth, as it were, as the free login period will be forfeit as soon as you sign up.
Rare has announced that Sea of Thieves is Microsoft's fastest-selling new IP of the current generation, and already the best-selling first-party game on Windows 10.
A week after release, the game has hit 2 million players - although it's not clear how much of a proportion of that player base is accessing the game through the Xbox Game Pass, which offers Sea of Thieves as part of a monthly subscription. IGN has contacted Xbox for comment on that.
The statement's wording, which announced that the game is "the fastest-selling first-party new IP of this generation", led to some speculation as to whether the developer was saying that was true across all platforms, but a tweet from Aaron Greenberg makes clear that the statistic applies purely to Microsoft.
I've been told the story more than once, and always in the same way. Every time a Dragon Quest game is released, thousands of children will be caught playing truant, and as many grown workers will take a sick day, leading to a measurable drop in productivity across Japan. Don't forget, there's no such thing as mandated sick pay in Japan - people were losing money to pay money for a game, just to play it on launch day.
The story continues that this phenomenon became so predictable that the government was forced to step in. The "Dragon Quest Law" was passed - Enix's games now had to avoid a weekday release and arrive on a Saturday instead. It's a perfect encapsulation of how popular this series had become – a simple RPG turned legitimate cultural phenomenon.
Dragon Quest 11: Echoes of an Elusive Age will be released for PS4 and Steam on September 4 in North America and Europe. However, the planned Nintendo Switch version will not be released this year, and the 3DS version released in Japan will not be released in the west at all.
The localised version of the gigantic JRPG comes with a number of additions and improvements, including voiced English dialogue, a Hard Mode option, overhauled menus, a faster dash to speed up exploration, and a first-person camera mode.
This will be the first time a mainline Dragon Quest game will be available on PC in the west.
However, it's a slightly different story on Nintendo platforms. The 3DS version of the game - which was a complete remake of the Japanese PS4 version, played in both pixel art and 3D versions across the console's two screens - will not be localised at any point.
Warner Bros. Interactive and Disney have announced LEGO The Incredibles, from longtime LEGO game developer TT Games, will be released for the Nintendo Switch, PS4, Xbox One, and PC this year.
The game will be available physically and digitally on June 15, the same day Pixar's long-awaited Incredibles 2 hits theaters.
Following in the footsteps of recent LEGO games, LEGO The Incredibles will include an open-world hub, which includes Incredibles locations like Municiberg and Nomanisan Island.
"It's one big hub world," TT Games executive producer Nick Ricks told IGN in an exclusive interview about LEGO The Incredibles. But Ricks said TT Games is trying something new for The Incredibles' open world in addition to the familiar blend of platforming and puzzle solving.
I think I'm a fairly typical westerner, in that I don't know a great deal about the Dragon Quest series. I know the basic idea - a venerable JRPG franchise that's not so much traditional as it is the tradition - but I can't say I've ever played one before. Thankfully, IGN Japan's Esra Krabbe is a long-time fan, and even reviewed the Japanese version of the latest game (rating it very highly) when it came out last year.
Earlier this year, both Esra and I got a hands-off look at the upcoming localised version of Dragon Quest 11, and thought it would be useful to preview various facets of the game from two distinct angles. Esra will bring the expert opinions, while I'll be looking at it from the perspective of someone who's never touched a Dragon Quest game before. If you're from either camp, here's what we think right now.
Jong-yeol 'Saebyeolbe' Park, a member of the Overwatch League team New York Excelsior, will be throwing the opening pitch at a Major League Baseball game. It's a first for an eSports player.
It was announced this week that the team would be visiting New York's Citi Field for a meet-and-greet and autograph signing at the game on April 2, teasing a "very special surprise" that fans should "stick around to witness."
The game will see the New York Mets face off against Philadelphia Phillies, and is a great opportunity for a cross-promotion for the Wilpon family, which owns both the New York Mets and the New York Excelsior team.
Sony has announced that the PlayStation VR bundle will get a permanent price drop to $299 USD / £259.99 (no Australian prices available at time of writing) from tomorrow, March 29.
It's a hefty cut, dropping from $399 USD and £349.99.
In the US, the bundle in question includes the headset, a PlayStation Camera. and a digital copy of Doom VFR. In Europe, you get PlayStation VR Worlds instead of Doom.
Sony's expecting a big year for PSVR, estimating that 130 more games will arrive for the platform by the end of 2018.
As of last December, Sony's sold 2 million PS VR units - this might go some way toward shifting a few more.
Outlast 2 is getting a new "Story Mode" that will make the game much easier, as well as adding in features that were cut from the original release that would have taken the game's M rating up to Adult Only.
Red Barrels announced the update on Steam, saying "we've taken the opportunity to reinsert some of the things we had to remove from the original game in order to get an M rating. These changes are not drastic in our opinion and do not impact gameplay, but they had to be made to avoid an Adult Only rating."
Outlast 2 was initially refused classification in Australia due to sexual violence, specifically "a ritualistic orgy." After some changes by the developer, it eventually got past the board for release.
All players should now have immediate access again.
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Robot Entertainment has let go 30 members of staff in a strategic decision that sees the studio shift its focus from two projects to just one.
"Over the past 18 months, our studio has had two teams working on different projects," said the studio's CEO Patrick Hudson. "Today, the company is making a strategic shift to focus on a single internal game project.
"Unfortunately, that means we need to resize our team to fit only one project. We've made the very difficult decision to let go of over 30 of our very talented and dedicated developers."
According to the company's LinkedIn profile, the studio has 65 members of staff, meaning the layoffs will see almost half its employees cut.
After 40 hours in Sea of Thieves, the pirate battles on the screen were as tense as my own internal battle over whether I was enjoying Sea of Thieves as a game or as the prettiest online chat room ever. What's here is an amazing foundation for a social experience that's beautifully realized , and that makes it frustrating that its gameplay loop is so repetitive and its progression is so stagnant.
Sea of Thieves' opening hours are a magical recipe of wonder and mystery. It never explains much, but figuring out the subtle, multi-layered functionality of everything from a compass to your sails is fun and surprising. Jaw-dropping lighting works in harmony with the deep, rich waves of the open sea as clouds puff in and out of existence. Kudos to Rare for capturing that adventurous and uncertain feeling of being out to sea with all the beauty of radiant sunrises and sunsets.
This winter, Shohei Ohtani brought the excitement and allure of a two-way player to Major League Baseball's offseason. Meanwhile, while he courted most of the teams, the once-dominant Jake Arietta languished in the free-agent pool until accepting Philadelphia's best offer.
In many ways, MLB The Show 18 has more in common with the oft-dependable Arietta than the shiny-new Ohtani, whose Babe Ruth-style two-way play on the mound and at the plate had every team lining up to sign him. This year, there's a familiarity to the gameplay that doesn't quite excite as much as it used to. The Show 18's list of improvements lacks the punch some have come to expect from a top-tier game. But like the Phillies, buyers of MLB The Show 18 should know that they are getting a reliable and high-quality product, just maybe not the most alluring we've seen in the past few years.
Blizzard has announced the start of this year's Overwatch World Cup.
According to the official Overwatch League website, the average skill rating (SR) of the top 150 players from each country will be tracked starting today and continuing until the end of Competitive Season 9 on April 28.
The top 20 countries will be invited to participate in the competition alongside France, South Korea, Thailand, and the United States, which have been chosen as host countries and received automatic qualification.
The qualifying countries will form their own National Competition Committees made up of a General Manager selected by Blizzard and a Coach and Community Lead who will both be selected by votes.
Here are our recommendations for deputies just starting their fight against the cult in Far Cry 5.
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For all of the years of experience Obsidian has across a multitude of platforms and IPs, they've never once created a sequel to one of their own original properties. That is, until now. Last week, Obsidian took the time to show me how Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire takes what worked in the original, dramatically expands it, and aims to establish the franchise at the top of the pile among the industry's elite roleplaying series.
The first and most immediately obvious change is a big one: Deadfire is a legitimate open-world game this time around. In the first Pillars of Eternity, the world was split into a handful of regions that could be openly explored, but for the most part it was a relatively linear affair. But even as an open-world game, Deadfire maintains that hand-crafted feel. There is zero random or procedural generation as each and every combat encounter is hand-placed by the designers. In fact, every single NPC has voiced dialogue and a hand-drawn portrait to really lend a sense of intimacy to every situation.
Street Fighter V characters Menat, Juri, and Urien are getting Darkstalkers costumes next week.
As detailed on Capcom's recent blog post, the three new outfits are priced at $3.99 each and will available for purchase on April 3 on PSN and Steam. Menat will sport the Khaibit Costume, which draws inspiration from the mummy Anakaris.
Juri is getting the Lilith Costume while Urien will be wearing the Donovan Costume, based on the half-vampire and half-human Donovan Baine. Check out how each costume looks in the image gallery below.
As Rare continues to work on fixing the copious amounts of bugs and glitches currently plaguing the Sea of Thieves' servers, one especially devastating bug remains unresolved: AllmondBeard, an error code that's robbing players not only of their progress but their hard-earned loot as well.
The AllmondBeard error occurs when a players connection to Xbox Live and/or the Sea of Thieves servers has been disrupted or dropped. Considering the many challenges Rare's has faced while stabilizing the online multiplayer game's network connectivity since launch, the error message is, unfortunately, a common occurrence among players.
Stiff arming its way through the crowded battle royale genre, Fortnite Battle Royale sets itself apart by trading the traditional, bland military simulation vibe with vivid colors and an outstanding, freeform building system that's unlike anything else in competitive multiplayer games.As its name suggests, Fortnite Battle Royale fits so neatly into the battle royale genre that blew up last year that the basic description sounds as standard as you can get: Up to 100 players are dropped onto a large but constantly shrinking map with the goal of gathering weapons and gear to become the last person or team left standing. But if you look just a little closer, it can't be mistaken for any other game because the vehicle you're skydiving out of is, inexplicably, a flying party bus – a nice change of pace from a drab military plane – and the place you land is a giant, beautifully colorful island, instead of a realistic landscape, surrounded by a violent storm.
Iron Maiden, the iconic metal band whose skeletal mascot, Eddie, adorned the denim jackets of scary older kids in the 70s and 80s, will be the subject of Stern Pinball Inc.'s next pinball machine. In the first images of the Iron Maiden: Legacy of the Beast pinball machine revealed today, Iron Maiden's trademark fantasy metal aesthetic (pyramids, ghouls, demonic forces) appears to be the perfect match for a pinball machine.
Check out Stern's Iron Maiden art, features, and layout in the exclusive image gallery below. There are some shots of the cabinet as well. If the slideshow doesn't suit you, you can also download hi-res images of Iron Maiden here.
The Destiny 2 "Go Fast" update has PVE buffs for every weapon type.
Bungie has detailed the 1.1.4 update, which is available for download now and will include updates to weapon damage, Nightfall strikes, Exotic drop chances, and a whole lot more.
The update will see damage increases for all weapons across the board, with Submachine guns receiving a 10% boost and Linear Fusion Rifles receiving a 50% boost. Pulse Rifles, Scout Rifles, Sidearms, and Hand Cannons will receive 15% boosts, and Shotguns will receive a 35% damage boost. The update also alters functionality or damage for some specific weapons, perks, and abilities.
Activision has announced the second DLC pack for Call of Duty: WW2, which will introduce three new maps, a new mode with aerial combat, and more Nazi zombies.
The War Machine's new maps include a secret German V-2 rocket facility, the pyramids at Giza, and the iconic French city of Dunkirk. The V2 facility is described as a "tight, ultra-fast paced map", while the map in Egypt lets players access the pyramid interiors as well as the more open surroundings outside. Dunkirk is ideal for sniping, with its large, open beach lined with buildings.
You can take a look at the concept art for the maps in the gallery below.
Call of Duty follows in the footsteps of Battlefield 1 with the addition of aerial combat allowing for fast and frantic dogfights to rage overhead. Operation Husky, the new War Mode mission co-developed with Raven Software, is based on the Allied invasion of Sicily, and players will be tasked with collecting intel as well as clearing out enemy fighter planes for the Allied bombers to wade in.
Subscribers to Xbox's Game Pass monthly service are currently unable to play the recently released Sea of Thieves, despite its inclusion in the program.
A posting on the Xbox Live Status page confirms Game Pass subscribers may be unable to play Sea of Thieves, which was including in the service's library of playable games upon its release last week. Microsoft announced earlier this year that all Microsoft Studios games would be included in the Game Pass lineup, including Sea of Thieves and State of Decay 2.
Sea of Thieves Xbox Live Status Page
Plot a course to find islands, treasure, animals and more using our Sea of Thieves interactive map.
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New super and muscle cars, plus a bunch of discounts and bonuses return to Los Santos this week in GTA Online.
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Detroit: Become Human will release exclusively for PlayStation 4 on May 25, 2018. This game, directed by David Cage, is set in a future when androids are so advanced they're starting to become sentient. Like in Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, decisions you make in the game can have major consequences for how the story plays out. You can learn more about the game here.
PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds is celebrating its one year anniversary with a free, limited edition weapon skin, available to download now.
The title was launched on Steam Early Access on March 23 last year, and to thank players old and new, the Year One - SCAR L skin is being given away to those who log in until May 1.
You can take a closer look at the skin in 3D on the PUBG YouTube channel. The picture below is taken from the official announcement.
Fortnite continues its reign when it comes to breaking records, having smashed YouTube's record for the most uploaded videos of a video game in a single month, in the history of the platform.
YouTube's Ryan Wyatt shared the news in a tweet that also mentioned that the turnout for a huge Battle Royale event this week:
How big is @FortniteGame on YouTube? Fortnite holds the record for the most videos related to a video game uploaded in a single month EVER. Yesterday, the Battle Royale tournament had over 42M live views, and set a record for biggest single live gaming stream @ 1.1M concurrent.
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An update to Microsoft's Terms of Service is rolling out in May for Xbox, Skype, and other services that the company provides, which can result in account suspension and bans for the use of "offensive language" as well as "fraudulent activity."
The new Services Agreement goes live on May 1, with section 5 of the summary of changes referencing amendments to the Code of Conduct.
"In the Code of Conduct section, we've clarified that use of offensive language and fraudulent activity is prohibited. We've also clarified that violation of the Code of Conduct through Xbox Services may result in suspensions or bans from participation in Xbox Services, including forfeiture of content licenses, Xbox Gold Membership time, and Microsoft account balances associated with the account."
Learn how to earn free weapons, perk points, and more with this Far Cry 5 guide.
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Limbo and Inside developer Playdead has possibly teased its next game once again.
The studio handed out postcards at GDC this year asking developers to join its team to possibly work on its new project. The postcard features a bleak, muted image (via Twitter) similar to the first piece of concept art Paydead shared earlier this year for this mysterious game.
"If you are creative, passionate and looking for a new challenge, please visit us at GDC's South Hall, Booth #135," Playdead tweeted earlier this month. You can check out the new concept art below.
World of Tanks 1.0 is now live across the game's North American, European and Asian servers, bringing with it a raft of new improvements and 29 completely reworked battlefields. Whether you're a die hard, lapsed player or newcomer, here are six reasons to get on board with the latest evolution of the massively multiplayer online tank shooter.
Eight years seems like a mighty long time between the initial release of a game and it's 1.0 overhaul, but according to Alexander de Giorgio, Regional Publishing Director for Wargaming APAC, the reality is that World of Tanks is a game that's been in constant motion and evolution since it first launched in 2010. "We see World of Tanks as a living thing," says de Giorgio. "It's been going now as a service to players for eight years, and that means a constant stream of updates, of new content, of new game modes, and sometimes things that didn't work, which we had to roll back. This is a constant experience of running a game like this, and so in that kind of mindset, eight years is like nothing. It just kind of comes along, it just happened."
Speaking to Blizzard at GDC about its upcoming Witchwood expansion, I asked Hearthstone senior game designer Dean Ayala to take a trip down memory lane and imagine what Hearthstone would be like had they not decided to nerf one of its most notorious cards: Big Game Hunter.
Initially only three Mana, Big Game Hunter lets you instantly kill a minion with seven or more attack, and that power single-handedly pushed a huge amount of big minions out of the meta as a result. Two years ago, its mana cost was increased to five and its rain of terror ended, fundamentally changing Hearthstone for years to come. But what if it hadn't?
Rare has scrapped the idea of a "Death Tax" in Sea of Thieves, following community feedback.
On Twitter Joe Neate, Executive Producer on Sea of Thieves, announced the team at Rare has "heard the feedback" regarding the proposed system, which wouldsee players incurring a cost from the Ferryman each time they died.
"We messed up with the messaging around this," Neate said, "and
now gone."
The tax, previously teased for the game's next update, would not only have charged players each time they died, but the specific cost would be determined by how they died, with more preventable, clumsy deaths incurring a heavier penalty. Neate went on to thank players for "the honest feedback & discussion on this" subject.
When a game with microtransactions, especially a free to play game, introduces a new item or system that takes an exceptionally long time to complete, there's always one reaction you can count on: people calling it a cash-grab.
People will say that clearly the developer only made it so grindy because then more people will have to pay for it, and thus the game is making more money. But according to Warframe developer Digital Extremes, not only do particularly grind-heavy items not make more money, they sometimes even make less.
Speaking at GDC last week, Digital Extremes Live Ops and Community Producer Rebecca Ford said that more grind doesn't mean more profits for Warframe. Ford's panel was about some of Warframe's biggest 'hit' and 'miss' moments over its five-year history, one of which she said was a resource called Oxium that angered players for being overly scarce at its release.
We've been covering State of Decay 2 all month long as part of IGN First, and to close things out at the end of the month we'd like to offer you a chance to ask the developers at Undead Labs your burning questions about the zombie-apocalypse-survival sequel. If you've got questions about gameplay mechanics, nitty-gritty details, etc., there's a good chance they might reply!
Please leave your question in the Comments below, and we'll send the best of the bunch to Undead Labs for their consideration. Look for the answers on Friday! In the meantime, catch up on any of our exclusive State of Decay 2 coverage you might have missed, like the video below!
Above: The Undead Labs team shows and tells you what's new in State of Decay 2.
Our month of IGN First coverage on State of Decay 2 is winding down, but we're not quite done yet. Join us live this Wednesday at 1pm PT/4pm ET/8pm GMT/7am Australian (Thursday) for an exclusive livestream of State of Decay 2! We'll be joined by Undead Labs studio head and State of Decay 2 executive producer Jeff Strain as well as design director Richard Foge.
Where we go and what we do will be up to you (note: we'll be playing single-player), so join us live on any of our channels:
A Kickstarter campaign has launched for The Good Life, the next game from the creator of Deadly Premonition.
The Good Life, an upcoming mystery title co-developed by SWERY's White Owls Inc. and Yukio Futatsugi-led studio G-rounding, launched with a campaign goal of $647,910, and the team is currently targeting a Q3 2019 release. The game is currently set to be released for $29 on Steam and $39 on PS4, and will feature online multiplayer, although multiplayer details have not been revealed.
Backers contributing $10,000 or more can visit the White Owls' studio, sign the wall, and go out to dinner with SWERY in Osaka. The full list of tiers is available on the games Kickstarter page, and the game's campaign trailer can be seen below.
Detective Pikachu released last week for the Nintendo 3DS, and The Pokemon Company is giving players an insight into how the pocket-sized sleuth became the hard-boiled detective with a look into his shady past.
The short story, Detective Pikachu: Episode 0—Eevee's Case, is "penned" by Pickachu himself and it takes place before the events of the video game.
Pikachu is hired by Eevee to find the culprit who vandalised Eevee's garden. He sets out into the streets of Ryme City to put the screws to the residents, during which he presumably gets a taste for it and proceeds to partner up with Tim Goodman in the 3DS game.
Detective Pikachu: Episode 0—Eevee's Case is free to download now for a limited time on on Apple iBooks Store and Amazon's Kindle Store.
We don't know much about Death Stranding, but what we do know is that the game will feature a female protagonist, and the internet is speculating that the heroine might just be Inglorious Basterds' Diane Kruger.
YouTuber YongYea has rounded up all of the clues pointing toward Kruger as the likely candidate, and here's a summation of the trail of breadcrumbs fans have followed:
The first supposed clue is that the actress can speak both French and German, as well as English, and the setting from the second trailer hints at France with the World War 2 era utility poles, and German being the spoken language that can be heard as the soldiers pass over the bridge. The link is somewhat tenuous but the actress would be more than capable of speaking either of these languages.
Last night, over one million people tuned in to watch a Fortnite stream from Spanish YouTuber elrubius.
YouTube's Alex Rubens confirmed on Twitter roughly 1.1 million people watched the stream, which was part of a larger event organized by elrubius that gathered 100 of the top Spanish-speaking Fortnite streamers.
While elrubius' stream brought in 1.1 million viewers, even more people watched the other 99 participants' streams as well. So, the overall viewer count is presumably much higher. Eurogamer notes the event was just for fun, as no prizes were on offer. If you haven't already, you can watch the stream here.
With so many new games and movies coming out, it can be hard to keep up. Lucky for you, IGN is here to help with a weekly round-up of the biggest releases each and every week. Check out the latest releases for this week, and be sure to come back next Monday for a new update.
Note: The prices and deals compiled below are accurate at the time we published this story, but all are subject to change.
The code of conduct for Overwatch League players has reportedly been leaked, with guidelines stating that the league has the rights to players' likenesses and a host of other data that can be used in licensing deals without kicking back any royalties to the players.
Kotaku reports that eSports broadcaster Richard Lewis scanned the 35-page document, which places some rather strict stipulations on players.
As expected, the guidelines are designed to curb unwanted and inappropriate behaviour first and foremost, and we've already seen players being suspended for using homophobic slurs, let go for posting memes that were categorised as offensive, and sanctions including fines against three players and one coach.
The System Shock remake, a project that was Kickstarted in 2016, has now got a release window of Q1 2020.
Nightdive Studios put the project on hiatus last month to give the team time to "return to
vision" of the game. In an interview with PC Gamer at GDC, Nightdive's business development, director Larry Kuperman, reiterated that the studio wasn't "going in the right direction with the game" based on what they had promised backers and the feedback they were getting from them.
Pokemon Go looks to be introducing the legendary Mew through a new quest system coming "later this week".
As detailed on the Pokemon Go blog, Field Research and Special Research are two new types of quest, which offer rewards for completing given objectives.
Field Research quests are earned by interacting with PokéStops, which will now grant you small tasks like capturing or battling specific Pokemon. Special Research "may be requested by Professor Willow himself" - while we don't have full details, that's presumably objectives given to all players simultaneously.
Both Research types grant rewards upon completion, "including a variety of useful items and even encounters with certain Pokémon", with rewards increasing depending on how difficult the task was.
One of the biggest draws of Telltale's take on the Batman universe is that it has spent its first two seasons flipping Bat-universe convention on its head. Between Vicki Vale's heel turn and Thomas Wayne's criminal past, Telltale has not been afraid to flip the script in Gotham City. Perhaps the biggest payoff promised for 'Same Stitch', the finale of Batman: The Enemy Within, was that John Doe would finally become The Joker, just as we've been waiting for all season. With it, John could take his place as either your arch-nemesis or... your partner. While The Enemy Within never quite fully commits to that reversal, both the episode and the season are memorable for leaving scars on its stars – both physical and emotional.
Team17, the UK studio behind the Worms series, The Escapists, and Overcooked, is reportedly planning a stock market listing of £200 million.
The Times reports that the studio and publisher has stockbrokers working on the float, with the announcement expected imminently.
Publishers are in short supply in the UK - if the listing goes through, it would likely make Team17 the country's largest.
Lloyds Development Capital, part of the Lloyds Banking Group, paid £16.5 million for a stake in the company in 2016. The same year, Team17 reported a loss after tax of £37,686 after generating £6.5m in revenue.
If the difference between a cult and a religion is the number of members it has, then after the 1,116 casualties they've racked up in the past few days of me playing Far Cry 5, the Project at Eden's Gate will probably never be able to file for that coveted tax-exempt status. That's a big body count, which is fitting, as Far Cry 5 is one of the biggest open-world games I've played in a while in terms of the amount of things to do. After five days of play my story progress sits at 57%, and the online component, Far Cry Arcade, has just gone live for reviewers, so I haven't even had a chance to jump into that mode yet. Hence this review is still in progress until I put more time into it, but here's what I think so far.
There have been some absolutely brilliant video games released over the last few years. I've battled on the streets of Numbani, I've scoured the ruins of Libertalia, and I've explored far and wide across Hyrule. And yet, as memorable as those experiences are, I still find myself going back to a title that's over two decades old: Chrono Trigger. To some, it is an old game that was recently given a sub-par release on Steam; to me though, it is a deeply nostalgic experience and the most important video game ever.
Chrono Trigger is a reminder of my adolescence, and a game in which I see countless little parallels to the life I once lived in a rural Australian town. The very beginning, for instance, in which Crono is woken by his mother so he wouldn't miss the Millennial Fair, takes me back to how excited I would be when my mum told me that the annual amusement park show was finally in town.
Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice will be released for Xbox One on April 11.
Developer Ninja Theory shared the news in a post on Twitter, confirming the game will be enhanced for Xbox One X. Additionally, those who preorder or purchase Hellblade during its first week of release on the Xbox Store will get a 10 percent discount.
News of Hellblade coming to Xbox One isn't especially surprising given the game was rated for Xbox One by Taiwan's Game Software Ratings board earlier this year.
Since its release in 2015, Bloodborne has amassed an enormous and passionate following, full of people who want to discover the secrets hidden in the deep and often vague lore of Yharnam. What makes that world even more intriguing are the mysteries hidden in the game's internal content, which was uploaded to the internet by an anonymous user in 2017. It contains characters, creatures, maps, sounds, music, and scripts stored on the game's Blu-Ray Disc, most of which never made it into the final game at all. My name is Lance McDonald, and I've spent the past three months uncovering parts of Bloodborne that have never been seen, until now.
From even a cursory glance at trailers and pre-release footage, it's clear that Bloodborne went through many significant changes during development, and the alpha files that were built only 9 months prior to the game's release confirm that. The storyline and characters are dramatically different to what would eventually ship, and as a result, there's plenty of unused data left behind on the game's disc. For one, there's model data for about twenty enemies and characters that would be wholly unfamiliar to anyone who played Bloodborne.
If you want to be the best pirate to sail the seas, check out these essential Sea of Thieves tips.
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If a recent job listing is any indication, Electronic Arts' Vancouver Studio is working on an open-world Star Wars game.
The listing, discovered by GameSpot on EA Vancouver's careers page, is for a lead online engineer, who will "lead a team to deliver online features for a Star Wars Open World project."
While the job post doesn't provide much in terms of specifics about the project itself, we do know EA Vancouver is currently at work on what initially started as the Amy Hennig-directed Star Wars project at Visceral Games. The game is being developed across EA's Worldwide Studios, with its Vancouver studio heading up production.
Have you seen purple chests throughout Ni No Kuni 2? Learn how to open them with this guide.
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If you'd said a month ago that PUBG Mobile would run better than PUBG on Xbox, and that it'd be free, you'd have gotten a lot of strange looks. Yet here we are, and mobile gaming's future has never looked brighter. It's absolutely remarkable that it runs so well and manages to fit all of PUBG's features onto tiny touch-screen displays.
Make no mistake: this is the real PUBG experience. One hundred people hunched over their Android or iOS phones and tablets fly over a deserted island and skydive down from a plane to loot abandoned buildings, gather up resources, and duke it out until there's only one person left standing. The first time you drop onto a map and see all of the island of Erangel sprawled out before you in real-time, on your phone, is a surreal experience.
Show off your awesome pirate status in Sea of Thieves by unlocking and equipping pirate titles.
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Learn more about Ni No Kuni 2's combat, monsters, and much more with this guide.
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Earlier this week, following a successful beta test in Canada, PUBG Corp. launched PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds Mobile internationally on iOS and Android.
IGN recently spoke with key members of the mobile version's development team and found out how PUBG Corp., in partnership with Tencent, worked to bring the complete PUBG experience to mobile devices around the world.
From the start, PUBG Corp. CEO Chang Han Kim knew a mobile version of the hit battle royale game would have to deliver the same "core excitement" players have come to love in the pre-existing PC and Xbox One versions. As the team would learn, accomplishing this required them to strike the right balance between consistency and optimization.
