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New Version of Skyrim Fan Remake in Unreal Engine 5 Released

12 mars 2025 à 15:38

In December 2024, we shared a fan remake demo of The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim in Unreal Engine 5. And yesterday, Greg Coulthard released a brand new version of it, featuring over 1000 new textures. For those unaware, this project brings the entire map of Skyrim in Unreal Engine 5. So, this is what we’d … Continue reading New Version of Skyrim Fan Remake in Unreal Engine 5 Released

The post New Version of Skyrim Fan Remake in Unreal Engine 5 Released appeared first on DSOGaming.

PUBG: Battlegrounds Patch 34.2 Released & Detailed

12 mars 2025 à 14:38

KRAFTON has released Title Update 34.2 for its battle-royale game, PUBG: Battlegrounds, and shared its full patch notes. This patch brings festive decorations, Arcade mode enhancements, a new Survivor Pass, and more. Going into more details, Patch 34.2 brings festive decorations across various maps, including care packages, energy drinks, and the starting plane. The starting … Continue reading PUBG: Battlegrounds Patch 34.2 Released & Detailed

The post PUBG: Battlegrounds Patch 34.2 Released & Detailed appeared first on DSOGaming.

Capcom Was on Its Knees After Resident Evil 6, Now Monster Hunter Wilds Cements Its Golden Era — Here's How It Did It

12 mars 2025 à 13:00

With Monster Hunter Wilds breaking Steam records and Resident Evil more popular than ever thanks to Village and a handful of stellar remakes, it’s almost as if Capcom is incapable of failure. But that wasn’t always the case. Less than a decade ago, after a string of critical and commercial flops, Capcom was on its knees. It had lost its way and its audience.

Capcom was suffering from an identity crisis. Resident Evil, which established the survival horror genre, had lost its bite after Resident Evil 4. Another big hitter, Street Fighter, was on the ropes after the poorly-received Street Fighter 5. It could easily have been the critical end of Capcom and its much-loved games.

But in the darkness, there was light. A change in the way Capcom made its games, supported by a powerful new game engine, gave these much-loved series a new lease of life, and kickstarted years of critical and financial success that catapulted Capcom back into the big league.

Resident Evil Lost Its Way

2016 was a bad year for Capcom.

The big Resident Evil game released that year was Umbrella Corps, an online co-op shooter that was pummeled by reviewers and fans alike. Meanwhile, Street Fighter 5 was met by a collective eyebrow raise from longtime fans who could hardly believe this lackluster fighting game was the sequel to the brilliant Street Fighter 4. And Dead Rising 4, which featured the long-awaited return of beloved photojournalist Frank West, would end up being the series’ final new entry.

This was the low ebb of a string of forgettable years Capcom had endured since 2010. The mainline Resident Evil games were met with diminishing critical reception despite strong sales. Street Fighter was on the ropes thanks to a poorly received new entry, and Capcom mainstays like Devil May Cry were nowhere to be seen. Meanwhile, the company’s most popular and successful franchise at the time, Monster Hunter, was huge in Japan but struggled breaking into international markets.

"Many of us started feeling that what the fans and players wanted from the series was getting a little bit separate from what we were making.”

All of this is a far cry from the Capcom we know today. Since 2017, Capcom has been one of the few major development studios that has rarely missed a beat. The Osaka-based company has released a stream of hit games from its most famous franchises, racking up both sales and accolades. We’re talking about a run of releases that includes Monster Hunter World, Devil May Cry 5, Street Fighter 6, and a trio of industry-leading remakes plus an acclaimed soft reboot of the Resident Evil series. In short: lately, Capcom seems incapable of failure. .

Achieving this success took more than simply learning from mistakes. Capcom had to re-think its entire strategy, from the type of players it targeted to the technology it used, to make such a turnaround possible. To learn more about this seismic shift, IGN sat down with four of Capcom’s leading creatives to find out how one of gaming’s most successful gaming companies tripped, fell, and picked itself up better than ever.

Capcom was founded in 1979 as a maker of electronic game machines, or “capsule computers”. It rose to ascendency during the 80s and 90s thanks to 2D games like Street Fighter and Mega Man, and then made the all-important jump to 3D with games like Resident Evil. Between 2000 and 2010 Capcom successfully transitioned many of its big, golden-era franchises into the modern age, a process that gave birth to one of the greatest games of all time: Resident Evil 4.

2005’s Resident Evil 4 is considered by many to be a generational high point thanks to its ingenious mix of horror and action. But that mix altered the course of the Resident Evil franchise dramatically. At its core, Resident Evil 4 is a horror game, inspired by the likes of Friday the 13th, H.P. Lovecraft, and the works of John Carpenter. But sprinkled between the strands of its horror DNA are tremendously effective moments of Hollywood action cinema.

Unfortunately, this ideal balance between horror and action was lost in subsequent games. In 2009’s Resident Evil 5, hero Chris Redfield punches a car-sized boulder with his bare fists, and infected enemies are gunned down in a car-chase sequence that’s more Fast and Furious than frightening. The series was losing its identity and this was clear to both players and the developers like Resident Evil 4 remake director Yasuhiro Ampo who’s been working on Resident Evil games since 1996.

“Overall throughout the Resident Evil series, we set up different goals, challenges, and things we want to try with each game… But this time, many of us started feeling that what the fans and players wanted from the series was getting a little bit separate from what we were making,” Ampo says.

This directional confusion would result in games like 2012’s Resident Evil 6, a game that tried to have its cake and eat it too. In order to please both action and horror fans, Resident Evil 6 split the game between six playable characters and three unique storylines. Each section catered to either horror or action fans, and so never achieved that all-important balance of both genres, which ultimately left nobody truly satisfied. Disgruntled fans shared their disappointment in these new, action-packed Resident Evil games online, while the developers continued experimenting with spinoffs that ventured into new territory like online co-op.

This downward trend was not exclusive to Capcom’s survival horror series, though. Not so long after the release of Resident Evil 4, the company’s Street Fighter team was also flying high. Street Fighter 4 was an instant hit thanks to its unique art-style and great cast of new and returning characters. It became an immediate hit at fighting game tournaments and in college dorms alike.But, like with Resident Evil, Capcom failed to match those highs with a sequel. Compared to its imaginative and full-fledged predecessor, 2016’s Street Fighter 5 was criticized for releasing barebones with hardly any single player content, as well as its abysmal online functionality. Fans cite a clear lack of polish and a confusing philosophy towards balance that made the overall experience just plain frustrating.

But it wasn’t just Street Fighter and Resident Evil that were struggling. Almost every key franchise struggled to make a mark. Devil May Cry, the studio’s popular, heavy-metal action game was seeing diminishing returns to the point where Capcom outsourced the next game in the series, 2013’s DmC: Devil May Cry, to UK-based studio Ninja Theory. While it’s gone on to become something of a cult title, DmC’s fresh take on the series’ mythology, redesigned protagonist, and sluggish 30fps frame rate was met with vitriol from online fans. Perhaps unsurprisingly, after such a muted reception the series was shelved until further notice.

This slate of misfortunes defines the Capcom of the early to mid-2010s. Key franchises struggled to replicate the successes of the past, while other titles were put in cold storage. New games attempting to capture the western market, like Lost Planet and Asura’s Wrath, also failed to land with audiences. There was the odd bright spot, like Dragon’s Dogma, the new dark fantasy RPG from Devil May Cry director Hideaki Itsuno, but for the most part Capcom’s focus was all over the place.

It was clear something needed to change.

Street Fighter 5, The Lost Cause

By the mid-2010s Capcom had begun to enact a number of strategy-shifting changes that would totally transform the company’s fate. Such changes had to begin small, and so the first matter of business was putting out the existing fires. Street Fighter 5 needed to be fixed. And so Capcom enlisted director Takayuki Nakayama and producer Shuhei Matsumoto to help steer the troubled game towards stability.

While neither were there from the ground floor of Street Fighter 5’s development, and therefore can’t detail why Street Fighter 5 was released in the state it was, the duo inherited a game that greatly needed some substantial fixes in order to regain the trust of fans.

“There definitely were some challenges within the production of the game, and that was part of the reason why I was brought into the team,” Nakayama admits. “And because we were in a point in development where we couldn’t really make any major pivots or shifts, we had to proceed and move forward in the direction we were currently in, which created constraints on what we could and couldn’t do.”

Those constraints severely limited the scope of what the pair could achieve. And so rather than transform Street Fighter 5 into a S-tier game, much of the work Nakayama did was fixing the game’s most pressing problems and biding his time until work could begin on Street Fighter 6.

"We just didn’t really have enough time to address some of the problems and challenges we faced in Street Fighter V," Nakayama says. "And so, with our hands tied behind our backs, we basically had to wait for those ideas to be brought back for the initial conceptual phases for Street Fighter 6, so we could tackle and do things properly for the next title."

All this considered, why did Capcom not just end Street Fighter 5’s development and begin working right away on a sequel? If it was such a weight around the necks of the developers, couldn’t they just start from scratch? According to Matsumoto, abandoning Street Fighter 5 just wasn’t in the cards. There wasn’t any sort of sense of like, ‘Okay let’s just end Street Fighter 5 and focus on Street Fighter 6.’ It was more like, while we were working on Street Fighter V, we were trying to figure out what we really wanted to do in Street Fighter 6 content-wise,” he says.

“Basically, we tried different things during the development of Street Fighter 5 to see if it worked and then we took the things that did work and applied that to Street Fighter 6. It was like the development of Street Fighter V was an ongoing process that helped us figure out, ‘Okay, what is it that we want to do for the next level?”

"We were in a point in development where we couldn’t really make any major pivots or shifts, we had to proceed and move forward in the direction we were currently in, which created constraints on what we could and couldn’t do.”

The team treated Street Fighter 5 as a lab where they could learn from their design mistakes and figure out what to do differently for the sequel. The years-long process required careful consideration of the game’s every core aspect, which informed several important changes . There were numerous updates, starting with the fundamentals like steady improvements to the netcode and character re-balances, and progressing all the way up to new characters, V-Triggers, and even entire new mechanics like V-Shift, a new defensive move that provided a brief window of invincibility that the devs were considering introducing in Street Fighter 6 but decided to test in Street Fighter 5.

There was a much larger goal for all these improvements beyond just elevating the game to an acceptable level, though. Capcom was on a mission to rediscover the fun. At the end of the day, fighting games should be enjoyable to play, but Street Fighter 5 had become a somewhat frustrating discipline to master.

“We both realized that fighting games are fun, and when you get used to them, it becomes more enjoyable and something you can essentially play forever as long as you have an opponent to play against,” Matsumoto says. “However, one of the challenges that we faced with Street Fighter V is that we felt that there wasn’t a clear pathway that helped guide players to get to that level where they finally feel like they’re having fun and will want to continue playing.”

Street Fighter had previously tried to be more approachable by lowering the difficulty, but this only served to turn off longtime fans. Instead, Street Fighter 6’s approach was to expand the tools available to new players while giving experienced fans everything they already loved about the series.

While they could have cut their losses on Street Fighter 5 and immediately tried to win fans back with a sequel, Nakayama and Masuhiro knew that this would be a shortcut that didn’t grow Street Fighter in any meaningful way. But by sticking with Street Fighter 5 and using it as a testbed for new ideas, 2023’s Street Fighter 6 was able to launch as one of the most critically-acclaimed games in the entire franchise.

While Matsumoto and Nakayama were able to take the work put into Street Fighter 5 Arcade Edition and apply the lessons they learned to Street Fighter 6, it was important that Capcom did not repeat these kinds of situations and be forced into having to overhaul games again. A significant shift in strategy was needed that would prevent such a disaster ever happening. And that’s where a couple of vital behind-the-scenes changes came into play.

Monster Hunter Took Over The World

Around the time of Street Fighter 5’s launch in 2016, Capcom underwent an internal reorganization in order to prepare for a new generation of games. These games would run on the company’s brand new RE Engine, a replacement for Capcom’s ageing MT Framework. But this change was about more than just tools. Alongside the engine upgrade came a new mandate to ensure Capcom’s games were being made not just for existing, territory-specific fans, but for a global audience.

“It was a few factors that came together,” says Hideaki Itsuno, a former game director at Capcom best known for his work on Devil May Cry. “The change of the engine and also all teams were given a very clear goal at that point to make games that reach the global market. [Games] that are fun for everyone.”

If you look at almost all of Capcom’s games released during the PS3 and Xbox 360 era, you get the feeling that the company was going all-in on trying to capture an imagined version of the “Western games market.” The action-heavy Resident Evil 4 was a big hit, true. But the more gun-focused spinoffs like Umbrella Corps, as well as the sci-fi shooter series Lost Planet, were all clearly chasing late-2000s Western gaming trends to no avail. After several years, Capcom realized it needed to create games that could appeal to everyone, not just fans of traditional Western genres.

“I think that we had that clear goal of just focusing and not holding anything back,” Itsuno says. “Towards making good games that would reach people from all over the world.”

Itsuno notes that the time leading up to 2017 was pivotal. “The changes in organization and the changes in the engine, all these elements came together around that time,” he says. When Resident Evil 7 launched that year, it kickstarted a Capcom renaissance.

“I think that we had that clear goal of just focusing and not holding anything back towards making good games that would reach people from all over the world.” 

No other series embodies this new company goal for global success better than Monster Hunter. While it had its diehard fans in the West, for decades Monster Hunter was much, much bigger in Japan than the rest of the world. The series was never conceived to be something that was only big in Japan, but there were real-world factors as to why this happened.

Firstly, Monster Hunter found tremendous success moving from PlayStation 2 to the PSP with Monster Hunter Freedom Unite. The handheld gaming market has always been much stronger in Japan than in the West, as seen with the success of not just the PSP but also Nintendo’s DS and, more recently, the Switch.The popularity of handhelds in Japan is rooted in a number of factors, but the thing that really worked for Monster Hunter, according to the series’ executive producer Ryozo Tsujimoto, was that Japanese gamers were able to reliably play with friends thanks to the widespread adoption of mobile consoles.

“20 years ago in Japan, having a network connection wasn't as easy, and there weren’t a huge amount of people playing Monster Hunter online. However, handheld consoles made multiplayer gameplay easy without internet access, and I regard it as a great success that we had players experience the game in this way, which was one of the ways we really wished for them to play and enjoy it, even in that era when online gameplay wasn't easy.”

Monster Hunter, which is built on a core pillar of cooperative play, recognized that this aspect would best be served when friends could quickly jump into hunts together. There was no better avenue for that at the time than handheld consoles. Thanks to Japan’s mobile games market, it meant Monster Hunter was being developed for a local market first, even if that wasn’t an intentional approach.

This created a loop of sorts. Monster Hunter games would become best-sellers primarily in Japan, and to keep pace with the audience, Capcom would release Japan-only content and host Japan-only special events, further reinforcing Monster Hunter as a “Japan-only” brand.

But the reality was that Monster Hunter did have fans in the west, and they were enviously looking from the outside in as Japanese players received exclusive tie-ins and quests. But as the Western world improved its internet infrastructure and online play became practically mandatory for most console gamers, Tsujimoto and the team saw an opportunity to launch their most advanced and most globally-accessible Monster Hunter game to date.

Released in 2018 on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, Monster Hunter: World was a gigantic change for the franchise. Rather than being scoped for small, less-capable handheld consoles, it delivered large-scale, AAA console quality action with souped up graphics, bigger areas, and, of course, bigger monsters.

“Our approach to the globalization of the series and Monster Hunter in general really ties into not only the themes that we had going into designing the game, but also in the name of the game,” Tsujimoto reveals. “The fact that we called it Monster Hunter: World is really kind of a nod to the fact that we wanted to appeal to this worldwide audience that we wanted to really dig into and experience Monster Hunter for the first time.”

It was also vital that Monster Hunter: World not do anything that gave off the impression that Capcom was prioritizing one market over the other. Monster Hunter: World would be released simultaneously worldwide, and there wouldn’t be exclusive content locked to Japan, something Tsujimoto says “comes with realigning ourselves to hit those global standards that people come to expect of titles around the world.”

It wasn’t just a matter of making sure other regions got Monster Hunter: World at the same time as Japan (though it certainly helped). Tsujimoto and co. drilled deep to see what other ways Monster Hunter’s formula could be tweaked to broaden its appeal with players from all around the world.

“For World, we conducted focus tests across the world, and some of the feedback and opinions that we got during that process really affected how we designed our game systems and impacted how much success we had globally,” Tsujimoto says.

One important change that resulted from these playtests was simply showing damage numbers when players hit the monsters. Little tweaks here and there to an already successful formula drove Monster Hunter to the greatest heights it had ever reached. Previous Monster Hunter games had typically sold around 1.3 to 5 million copies, not including re-releases and special editions. Monster Hunter: World and its 2022 follow-up, Monster Hunter Rise, both recorded sales greater than 20 million copies.

“The fact that we called it Monster Hunter: World is really kind of a nod to the fact that we wanted to appeal to this worldwide audience that we wanted to really dig into and experience Monster Hunter for the first time.”

This explosion of player growth didn’t happen by accident. Instead of changing the spirit of Monster Hunter to suit Western tastes, Tsujimoto and the team found ways to open up the series’ unique (and, admittedly, obtuse) nature to a wider audience without making sacrifices. This approach continues with the series’ latest game, Monster Hunter Wilds.

“At its heart, Monster Hunter really is an action game, and that sense of accomplishment you get from really mastering that action is an important aspect of Monster Hunter,” Tsujimoto explains. “But for newer players, it's really about getting to that point. The steps involved in getting to that sense of accomplishment is what we're trying to strategize for, in terms of designing for new players. So with World and Rise, for example, we were taking great care to analyze where players got stuck, what was hard to understand, what they were having trouble with, getting player feedback, and also doing our own kind of research into that. And all of that kind of knowledge has impacted how we've implemented new systems into Wilds.”

Resident Evil 7 Began Turning Things Around

Monster Hunter had a winning formula.The challenge Capcom faced was finding ways to convince global audiences to give it a shot. But it was not such a straightforward task for every series in the company’s portfolio. When it came to Resident Evil, the development team had to decide which of the series’ intertwined formulas was a winner; gory action or survival horror. Ultimately it was Resident Evil executive producer Jun Takeuchi who made the call.

“It was around the time I was working on Resident Evil Revelations 1 and 2. I was trying to test different things, try different approaches,” recalls Resident Evil 2 and 4 Remake director Yasuhiro Ampo recalls. “And around this time is when the R&D teams were divided into R&D division one and two. The executive producer of the Resident Evil series, Jun Takeuchi, took command of R&D division one, and he set the core direction that the Resident Evil series needed to go back to its origins, to its roots.”

Takeuchi ruled that Resident Evil must focus on survival horror as its guiding light. This proved to be the right decision. Resident Evil 7 was announced at PlayStation’s E3 2016 conference with a moody trailer shot in first-person, showing the insides of a dilapidated house. I was there in attendance when the Roman numeral for seven appeared, followed by the title Resident Evil. The convention hall roared in excitement.

“We cannot underestimate how critical it is for the series for it to be scary."

There were, of course, questions about how Resident Evil could make the jump to first-person. By that point, third-person, over-the-shoulder gunplay had become synonymous with the series. It turns out, however, that in exchange for moving to a first-person perspective, Resident Evil regained something it had lost: It became scary again.

“With Resident Evil 7, the executive producer, Jun Takeuchi, made it clear that we cannot underestimate how critical it is for the series for it to be scary and about survival. So he made it clear that Resident Evil 7 would go back to its origins, it would be very cautious with its survival elements. And with that as a basis, then we would try new and different things,” Ampo says.

The game was a hit. While maybe not quite operating on the same level as Resident Evil 4, this significant shift in direction allowed for a welcome return to survival horror. Thanks to its unsettling and claustrophobic southern gothic setting, Resident Evil 7 ranks as one of the scariest games in the entire series.

But Capcom wasn’t going to abandon the third-person perspective that was so key to the series’ DNA. While new mainline titles like Resident Evil 7 and 8 would stay in first-person, Capcom planned to release third-person games through a series of brand-new remakes, starting with Resident Evil 2. Capcom realized there was a demand for remakes thanks to the appearance of several fan projects at the time.

“It was like, ‘all right people really want this to happen.’ So producer [Yoshiaki] Hirabayashi came up with the slogan: ‘Well, we’ll do it,’” Ampo reveals.

The result is one of the best games in the entire series. The Resident Evil 2 remake is a perfect blend of horror, combining all the action and puzzles fans have come to expect from the series with a new menacing Tyrant system that allows the hulking Mr. X to continuously stalk you throughout the Raccoon City police station. Under Ampo’s direction, Resident Evil 2 Remake became the second best-selling Resident Evil game in the franchise’s history.

"Resident Evil 4 is a game that is so beloved. If we get anything wrong with the remake, people might be quite vocal about their discomfort.”

Naturally, Capcom would follow up its incredible success with a remake of Resident Evil 3, another PlayStation 1 game that could clearly benefit from a modern reinvention. But, following that, surely Capcom wouldn’t remake Resident Evil 4 – a game that still felt refreshingly modern despite being almost 20 years old. Why touch something many considered to be almost perfect?

Ampo reveals that there was some hesitation to tackle Resident Evil 4 for sure. “As you mentioned, [Resident Evil 4] was still a title that enjoyed some popularity. So there was a lot of internal discussion on how maybe it’s not a good idea. Maybe we don’t need a remake for Resident Evil 4, especially because Resident Evil 4 is a game that is so beloved. If we get anything wrong with the remake, people might be quite vocal about their discomfort.”

But despite any initial hesitation, the team pushed through with a remake and the results speak for themselves. Resident Evil 4 Remake was another bonafide hit. Much of its success comes down to the biggest changes, which were focused on fine-tuning the action-horror ratio to achieve Takeuchi’s goal of keeping the series true to its survival horror roots. And so gone were some of the original game’s campier elements, replaced by a moodier, darker tone that still kept the heart-pounding action hero moments.

Around the same time as Resident Evil’s rediscovery of its horror core, longtime Devil May Cry director, Hideaki Itsuno, had a similar epiphany. After a brief sojourn into the RPG world with Dragon’s Dogma, Itsuno watched as the action genre began to soften in order to appeal to a more casual audience. And so when the chance to direct Devil May Cry 5 arrived, Itsuno saw an opportunity to challenge the audience of a genre he felt was in need of a good kick in the ass. He would do so in spectacular fashion, achieved by leveraging the company’s most powerful game engine to date.

The Reason Behind The Change

“I felt like the main trend with action games was to make action games that were very kind,” Itsuno admits. “Maybe, for me, a little bit too kind to the players, lending a hand to the player too much to my liking.”

Itsuno took over director duties on Devil May Cry starting with the second game in the series, and has since helmed every new iteration, save for Ninja Theory’s DmC. Following the release of Devil May Cry 4 in 2008, it would be almost 11 years before Itsuno directed another Devil May Cry game. But when he did finally return, he would oversee one of the most critically and financially successful games in the entire franchise.

The 10 years away from the franchise gave Itsuno time to figure out where he wanted to take the series. And more importantly he would return with a new arsenal of tech. "Technology-wise, there were not just little improvements that you would have when you work on a series consecutively," Itsuno says. "When there’s a wide timeframe, [the technology] changes significantly.”

This vision coincided with the launch of Capcom’s new RE Engine. It’s the engine that most of Capcom’s games run on today. Replacing the old MT Framework that had powered everything from Dead Rising to Monster Hunter World, the major upshot of the RE Engine was its handling of photorealistic assets. This gave Capcom’s development teams access to higher levels of visual fidelity than ever before. It was also much nimbler than its predecessor, making it easier to implement changes if something wasn’t working as it should.

"Ever since I took over the series from Devil May Cry 3, I put everything that I, as a person, I considered throughout my life to be cool."

Ampo tells me the origins of the RE Engine thus, "So the original concept for the RE Engine was to allow for a development environment that was less stressful and could help us to make things quicker. Because it’s an internally developed engine, when we needed any additional tools, well, we could ask for them internally. They could be fixed somewhat quickly, internally, and also iterated on.”

This meant Capcom’s developers could also trial-and-error development choices on the fly. This proved vital for Itsuno, whose goal was to make the “coolest” action game of all time. That meant a lot of trial-and-error to make sure everything from the way the game looked to the way it played was as slick and stylish as possible. The RE Engine’s combination of rapid development tools and photorealistic capabilities meant Itsuno was able to increase the pure style of Devil May Cry by magnitudes.

“Devil May Cry is a franchise that stands on being cool,” Itsuno says. “That’s what the franchise is, it’s about being cool. Ever since I took over the series from Devil May Cry 3, I put everything that I, as a person, I considered throughout my life to be cool. Anything I’ve seen on TV, in movies, and comics I’ve read, any sport experiences I’ve had, I try to distill everything that I think is cool into what the game is.”

A New Capcom Golden Age

Since 2017, Capcom has released a game of the year contender on a nearly annual basis. In a time when major studios are struggling to find consistency, Capcom’s winning streak of 10 critically acclaimed games in less than a decade is a major outlier. That trend only looks to continue with Monster Hunter Wilds.

Focusing on a central goal of creating globally appealing games, all built with a technologically advanced engine capable of powering a multitude of different genres, proved to be a formula for unprecedented success. The Capcom of today is able to elegantly switch from laser-focused fighting games to tight survival horror to sprawling open-world action RPGs without missing a beat.

"Capcom is going through a golden era, and, well, now we have to do everything we can so that this lasts one more year, one more year, and every year, one more year."

But what’s more impressive is that Capcom’s mission of making global, mainstream games did not dilute its games in the slightest. Instead, Capcom appears to have found the ultimate balance of keeping its games true to themselves — whether that’s the pure survival horror of Resident Evil, competitive spirit of Street Fighter, or the unique battle systems of Monster Hunter — all while expanding the audience for these games by millions.

Many of Capcom’s contemporaries are now finding themselves where Capcom was just a decade ago — fruitlessly chasing trends and losing sight of their identities. But for Capcom, the changes it made over the past decade has resulted in a new golden age that shows no sign of slowing down. Capcom may have fallen, but it has risen up better than ever.

When asked if they believe this is a new Capcom Golden Age, the directors largely agreed. Street Fighter’s Nakayama tells me, “It’s a very exciting time to be at Capcom right now. A lot of us are able to get excited about what we’re working on and are able to focus on things that we think are fun. So, yes, I guess a golden age may be one interpretation of that.”

Monster Hunter’s Tsujimoto put it more plainly: “Capcom is going through a golden era, and, well, now we have to do everything we can so that this lasts one more year, one more year, and every year, one more year. Hopefully we can extend it as long as we can.”

Matt Kim is IGN's Senior Features Editor.

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced Now the Worst User-Reviewed GTA on Steam

12 mars 2025 à 12:04

Rockstar’s new and improved version of Grand Theft Auto 5 isn’t going down well on Steam following its launch earlier in March.

Grand Theft Auto 5 Enhanced, which released on March 4, has a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam, with 54% of the 19,772 user reviews flagged as positive.

To put that into context, the original GTA 5 on Steam, now unlisted at the request of Rockstar Games and as a result unable to appear in search on Valve's platform, has a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam.

In fact, GTA 5 Enhanced is currently the worst user-reviewed GTA on Steam, with its closest competitor for the unwanted crown, Grand Theft Auto III – The Definitive Edition, on 66% positive reviews.

GTA 5 Enhanced is a free upgrade for GTA 5 on PC that includes sought-after features previously only available in the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S versions of GTA Online — including all the latest vehicles and performance upgrades available at Hao’s Special Works, animal encounters, and access to purchase a GTA+ Membership — along with improved graphics options and faster loading times. All players who currently own GTA 5 on PC can upgrade to this new version for free, with the ability to migrate your Story Mode and Online progress.

You’d think that would be a relatively straightforward process, but it appears the account migration isn’t working as intended for many players. Indeed, account migration problems are at the heart of most of the negative reviews flagged as ‘most helpful.’

“ ‘The GTA Online profile associated with this Rockstar Games account is not eligible for migration at this time,’ ” reported one disgruntled player. “If you think I'm throwing away nearly 700 hours of gameplay on one character so that you can make a few more bucks off me, then you can lick my anal orifice clean.

“This is an objective downgrade from the ‘old’ version. Gonna pretend this was never released and continue to enjoy Legacy version until the new game comes out when I'm 60.”

“I'm leaving a negative review mainly due to Rockstar deciding that some accounts should arbitrarily not be able to migrate, and if you ask for help from support, they just say they can't do anything about it,” reads another.

"I can't migrate either of my two accounts," another negative review reads. "R* support is completely useless and can't help. With the game being over 10 ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ years old I am sure as hell not going to completely restart all my progress in Online just to get marginally better graphics (if that) and HSW and whatever other minuscule ♥♥♥♥ they added."

Despite these issues, GTA 5 Enhanced remains one of the most-played games on Steam, with a 187,059 peak concurrent player count since launch. But it has sparked concern over the inevitable PC release of Grand Theft Auto 6, with some PC gamers worrying that Rockstar's struggles with GTA 5 Enhanced could signal launch trouble down the line.

GTA 6 is planned for launch during the fall of 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X and S only, leaving PC gamers out in the cold. In December 2023, a former developer at Rockstar attempted to explain why GTA 6 is coming to PC after it hits console, and called on PC gamers to give the studio the “benefit of the doubt” over its controversial launch plans.

We’ve got plenty more on GTA 6, including Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick’s response to concern about the fate of GTA Online once GTA 6 comes out. Meanwhile, Take-Two has sued online marketplace PlayerAuctions, alleging it contains "thousands of listings for unauthorized, infringing GTA 5 content – including heavily modified player accounts, in-game assets, and virtual currency – all gained by using hacking software, cheats, and technical exploits."

And in other news, Rockstar recently acquired Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition developer Video Games Deluxe and renamed it Rockstar Australia.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Ubisoft Shareholder Plots Protest Outside Paris HQ, Accuses Company of Failing to Reveal 'Discussions' With Microsoft, EA, and Others Allegedly Interested in Acquiring IPs

12 mars 2025 à 11:31

A minority shareholder in Ubisoft is attempting to organize a protest outside the company's Paris headquarters, accusing it of failing to disclose alleged discussions with Microsoft, EA, and others publishers reportedly interested in acquiring its franchises.

In a statement seen by IGN, Juraj Krúpa, CEO of AJ Investments, claimed Ubisoft is "horribly mismanaged by current management," and wants a "clear roadmap for recovery" from the senior team to address "declining shareholder value, lackluster operational execution, and failure to adapt effectively to market trends."

Krúpa alleged that Ubisoft has not been transparent about its decision-making, accusing the firm of "hiding information," including an Assassin Creed Mirage DLC partnership with the Saudi investment firm Savvy Group.

The shareholder also pointed to a restricted article published by business investment platform MergerMarket that alleged "discussions between Microsoft, EA, and others that are interested in acquiring IPs from Ubisoft." "Management did not inform public about these steps either," Krúpa claimed.

IGN has asked Ubisoft for comment.

Back in October, Bloomberg reported that Ubisoft's founding Guillemot family and shareholder Tencent were in discussions to take the company private following a number of high-profile flops, game cancellations, and the collapse of the company's share price. At the time, the talks were merely exploratory, and Ubisoft told IGN it would "inform the market if and when appropriate."

For several years now, Ubisoft has seemed to be in a strange, slow downward spiral, with a number of high-profile flops, layoffs, studio closures, game cancellations, and delay after delay after delay.

Meanwhile, rumors continue to spin about what exact proposals the board is considering, with some media outlets floating the idea that Tencent is increasingly reluctant to embrace Ubisoft due to the Guillemot family's insistance on retaining a significant amount of control. Sans Tencent, there are few other companies big enough and rich enough to spend the cash needed to save the albatross Ubisoft has grown into.

"Management postponed its current game (which should save the company and its financials) Assassin’s Creed first time on 18th of July 2024," Krúpa's statement said. "On that date, Ubisoft confirmed full-year guidance for the year and release of AC Shadows on November 15. 2024. Just [a] couple months later, in September 2024, Ubisoft delayed the game again and revised its guidance, which in our view, was [a] move that could have [been] predicted by Ubisoft management.

"After [the] third delay, the game will finally be published on March 20, 2025. These delays and revised guidances caused severe stock declines, which harmed mostly retail investors that have limited resources to manage their positions accordingly. This action benefited mainly corporate and institutional investors who were on the buy side for distressed prices such as Credit Agricole, Goldman Sachs clients, Morgan Stanley, and others."

Believing management did not communicate with shareholders "appropriately," AJ Investments is calling on all investors "who are frustrated with the prolonged stagnation in Ubisoft's stock performance and the lack of decisive action from the management team" to join its protest in May.

“We are aware that Ubisoft’s management and CEO have initiated a financial review of potential strategic options, advised by Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan. We expect this review to yield results in the coming months,” said Juraj Krúpa, founder of AJ Investments.

“That is why we are organizing this demonstration in May — to ensure they have time to reach a conclusion that genuinely increases shareholder value. If their conclusion effectively enhances shareholder value, we will call off the demonstration.

“All shareholders/investors of Ubisoft deserve a company that maximizes value and operates with transparency and accountability,” Krúpa added. “Ubisoft has continued to underperform compared to its industry peers, and it is time for the company to listen to its shareholders. This demonstration will be a powerful statement from investors who believe in the company's potential but demand urgent change.”

AJ Investors said that it is prepared to "sue the company for misleading investors."

This isn't the first time this investor has called for the company to go private amid a shares slump following the disappointing release of Star Wars Outlaws.

Back in September, AJ Investments issued a strongly worded open letter to Ubisoft’s board of directors, including its CEO Yves Guillemot, as well as fellow investor Tencent, to express their dissatisfaction with the performance of the company and its current share price and urging the firm to change its leadership and consider a sale. It followed weeks of turmoil at Ubisoft, where the megacorp's share price plunged following the launch of Massive Entertainment’s Star Wars Outlaws, which Ubisoft subsequently confirmed had performed below expectations.

Vikki Blake is a reporter, critic, columnist, and consultant. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

EA's Skate Gets Microtransactions Before Its Release Date

12 mars 2025 à 10:34

EA has added microtransactions to Skate during its latest alpha test, and ahead of a release date announcement.

As reported by Insider Gaming, developer Full Circle added microtransactions to the ongoing closed alpha test of EA's free-to-play Skate revival.

You can spend real-world money on a virtual currency called San Van Bucks, which in turn is used to buy cosmetic items. It sounds like Full Circle wants to test Skate’s microtransaction purchase system, as it states it wants players to have a “positive experience when purchasing items from the Skate store.”

“Your feedback will be greatly appreciated in providing a great experience at Early Access launch,” the message continues.

According to Insider Gaming, Full Circle has warned testers that progress will be fully reset before Skate launches into early access, and any purchases you make will be converted back into San Van Bucks and made available again at the start of early access.

Skate’s early access launch is set for 2025. It was announced during EA Play way back in 2020, but at the time was stated as "very early" in development. Since then, Full Circle has kept the community up to date with closed community playtests of early builds and updates on where the game is at via its "The Board Room" video series.

The developer officially revealed the name of the game would be ‘skate.’ back in 2022, alongside confirmation it would release as a free-to-play title on Xbox, PlayStation, and PC.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

The New Avatar: The Last Airbender Omnibus Boxed Set Just Came Out And It's Already Discounted

12 mars 2025 à 05:49

Avatar: The Last Airbender is one of the greatest cartoons of all time. The story of Aang and friends has been adapted into a movie, a live-action series, and multiple video games. But the end of that story isn't actually the end of the story. There have since been a series of graphic novels that continue Aang's journey after the fall of Firelord Ozai and before the start of The Legend of Korra.

There have been five Avatar: The Last Airbender graphic novels released since the end of the animated series, and a new box set was just released that features all of them. Not only that, Amazon has already discounted the set to a new low price.

Avatar: The Last Airbender Omnibus Boxed Set Sale

The ATLA graphic novels were written by award winning cartoonist Gene Luen Yang and feature artwork from Gurihiru. The stories were created in collaboration with the original creators of the beloved Nickelodeon series and act as a bridge between the end of The Last Airbender and the start of The Legend of Korra. The newly released Omnibus features the complete stories of the following:

  • Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Promise
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Search
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender - The Rift
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender - Smoke and Shadow
  • Avatar: The Last Airbender - North and South

With the current sale on Amazon, this new release is the most affordable way to purchase the entire series. This set had already gone on sale several times during its preorder period, but this new discount that just arrived with its release is the first time we've seen it dip under $100. If you love the ATLA series and haven't already read the continuation of the story, this price cut makes it a great time to do so.

Are There Any Other Upcoming ATLA Stories?

Fans will be happy to know that new episodes from the Avatar universe are definitely on their way. Avatar: The Last Airbender creators Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko recently announced a new series called Avatar: Seven Havens, which will be a 26-episode, 2D animated series following a young Earthbender who is the next Avatar following Korra.

In a press release, Nickelodeon says Seven Havens will be set in a world “shattered by a devastating cataclysm. A young Earthbender discovers she’s the new Avatar after Korra - but in this dangerous era, that title marks her as humanity’s destroyer, not its savior. Hunted by both human and spirit enemies, she and her long-lost twin must uncover their mysterious origins and save the Seven Havens before civilization’s last strongholds collapse.”

Avatar Studios is also producing a new full-length movie based on Aang that will release in 2026.

To no one’s surprise, Tekken 8 is still filled with cheaters

12 mars 2025 à 03:18

In February 2024, we reported on the many pluggers and cheaters that you will encounter in Tekken 8. And, you know what happened in a whole year? NOTHING. Bandai Namco has done nothing to fix its game. In fact, and to the surprise of no one, things got even worse. Let’s start from the beginning. … Continue reading To no one’s surprise, Tekken 8 is still filled with cheaters

The post To no one’s surprise, Tekken 8 is still filled with cheaters appeared first on DSOGaming.

Daredevil: Born Again - Was That Really The Punisher in Episode 3?

12 mars 2025 à 03:00

Warning: this article contains full spoilers for Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3! If you haven’t already, be sure to check out IGN’s review of Episode 3.

Daredevil: Born Again is sure delivering some riveting superhero television, even if Charlie Cox’s Matt Murdock seems absolutely determined not to put the red armor back on. Episode 3 serves as a tense, high-stakes legal drama, as Matt defends his client Hector Ayala (Kamar de los Reyes) in court against charges of murdering an NYPD officer. That story takes a tragic turn in the end, as Hector is exonerated and freed only to be gunned down by a vigilante wearing the Punisher skull.

That twist ending raises a hugely important question. Was that actually Jon Bernthal’s Frank Castle who killed Hector? What does it mean if The Punisher has suddenly started targeting costumed vigilantes? And where does the White Tiger storyline go from here? Let’s explore the big questions lingering after Episode 3’s dramatic cliffhanger.

Did The Punisher Kill White Tiger?

In Episode 3, Hector Ayala is put on trial for supposedly murdering an undercover police officer. While the truth is that Hector was simply trying to be a good samaritan in a situation gone horribly awry, Matt Murdock faces a steep uphill battle in convincing a jury of Hector’s innocence. Only by taking “a big swing” and outing Hector’s role as White Tiger does Matt manage to turn the tide in Hector’s favor.

Unfortunately, that act proves to be Hector’s undoing. Hector makes it clear he has no intention of giving up his nightly vigilante activities, despite the large target the trial has painted on his back. No sooner does Hector resume patrolling the streets than he’s gunned down, executioner-style, by a rogue figure wearing a bulletproof vest adorned with the iconic Punisher skull.

Again, the question here is whether that was actually Frank Castle who pulled the trigger. To date, Frank has mostly shied away from the superhuman side of the MCU, preferring to target ordinary criminals and corrupt officials. Targeting costumed vigilantes would definitely serve as a major shift in Frank’s methods and motivations.

That’s not to say that Punisher has never directed his wrath at costumed villains in the comics. Matt Fraction’s Punisher: War Journal is one notable example of a series where Frank grows fed up with the damage caused by the supervillains of the Marvel Universe and directs his wrath at men like Hate-Monger and Kraven the Hunter. But this explanation would require that Frank views White Tiger as a villain who evaded justice. Does The Punisher see White Tiger as a cop killer? Did Hector cross an unforgivable line in Frank’s eyes?

Historically, Marvel has never been that consistent when it comes to depicting Frank Castle’s opinion of the police. When it comes to military service members, it’s a different story. Frank holds a clear, fierce respect for those who risk their lives to serve their country like he did. Captain America - the ultimate soldier - is the one superhero Frank reveres.

But as for the police, things vary from one interpretation of the character to another. In the classic Marvel Universe, Frank normally goes out of his way to avoid targeting cops, even crooked cops. But in the Ultimate Universe, Punisher is an ex-cop himself who specifically targets corrupt officers.

Based on Frank’s previous appearances in Daredevil: Season 2 and The Punisher spinoff series, it doesn’t seem as though Bernthal’s Frank Castle holds any special affection or respect for the police. Certainly, it’s hard to imagine him switching up his methods to specifically target a vigilante acquitted of killing a cop. Frank’s beef with men like Daredevil and White Tiger has always been that they don’t go far enough in their methods. So it seems hard to believe that Frank is the one who shot Hector in Episode 3. Instead, there’s another, much more likely possibility.

Is This Punisher a Copycat Killer?

Frankly (no pun intended), there’s a reason we don’t see the killer’s face at the end of Episode 3. The series wants us to question whether Frank Castle would stoop to killing White Tiger, but the truth is that this most likely isn’t Frank. It’s probably a copycat killer.

The series has already established that The Punisher has developed a bit of a fan following among members of the NYPD. We’ve seen multiple cops sporting tattoos of the Punisher skull, including Brian D. Cohen’s Detective Flynn. These cops seem to idolize Frank and the way he takes the law into his own hands, meting out a very lethal form of justice to criminals in New York. Clearly, they’d like nothing more than to follow in his footsteps. And based on how Episode 3 ends, it would seem one of these cops has done just that.

It’s clear the series is diving headlong into addressing real-world controversies surrounding the Punisher character. The Punisher skull has indeed been appropriated by some police officers and military members who fetishize Frank Castle’s ruthless brand of vigilante justice. The connection was arguably cemented by the late Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle, who was known for adorning his equipment with the Punisher emblem and even nicknaming his unit "The Punishers." In recent years, the Punisher emblem has also been adopted by the Blue Lives Matter movement.

Marvel Comics has addressed this phenomenon in the past. 2019’s The Punisher #13 features a scene where an injured Frank Castle is approached by two NYPD officers who reveal themselves to be rabid fans. To their surprise, Frank reacts with disgust, telling them, "We're not the same. You took an oath to uphold the law. I gave all that up a long time ago. You don't do what I do. Nobody does."

With Born Again, Marvel seems to be addressing the Punisher skull controversy on a wider, more visible scale. We know Bernthal will be reprising his role in the series, and there’s no reason to believe the character’s reaction to the idea of NYPD officers co-opting his image and mission will be any different than the comic book version. It’s entirely possible that Frank pushing back against this fanatical obsession with The Punisher will form the basis of the recently announced Punisher Disney+ special.

“There is a Frank Castle storyline that is, I think, deep and rich and has been begging to be told,” showrunner Dario Scardapane told IGN in a recent roundtable interview. “It was in one of the comics, but Frank's appearance is not random. It comes back to [the] question of who is a vigilante, who's good, who's bad, and Frank is one of those incredibly galvanizing characters. And Frank comes into our world with a purpose. That purpose is executed. Does it have something to do with these men that we see in [Nicky Torres’] apartment? Yes.”

It’s always possible that Episode 4 will reveal Frank did indeed kill Hector, fueling a renewed conflict between Frank and Matt. But at this stage, it seems much more likely that New York City has a growing Punisher problem. Certain members of the police idolize The Punisher, and that’s something Frank is going to have to confront.

Will White Tiger’s Story Continue in the MCU?

But what of White Tiger and the Ayala family? Is this the end of a relatively new addition to the MCU’s lineup of New York-based heroes? Probably not.

With the White Tiger storyline, Born Again is drawing a fair bit of inspiration from Brian Michael Bendis and Alex Maleev’s Daredevil comics. Similar to the show, the comics depict Hector as a vigilante wrongfully accused of murder. In this case, Hector is shot dead by the police while trying to flee, only for evidence to surface proving his innocence.

Following Hector’s death, his Jade Tiger amulets are passed down to his niece, FBI agent Angela Del Toro. She reluctantly becomes the new White Tiger and is trained by Daredevil himself. Later, the amulets and mantle pass on to Hector’s teenage sister, Ava.

While the series’ focus in Episode 3 is on Hector and his beleaguered wife, Soledad (Ashley Marie Ortiz), we learn the couple was staying with Hector’s sister and her daughter, Angela. It’s easy to picture a scenario where Angela inherits her uncle’s amulet and continues his mission of protecting the innocent civilians of the Bronx. Angela may be a mash-up of the Angela Del Toro and Ava Ayala characters from the comics.

If that happens, we imagine Matt Murdock will have a vested interest in protecting and mentoring the new White Tiger. He failed to protect Hector. His decision to out Hector’s White Tiger identity may have contributed in some way to the vigilante’s death. Matt Murdock is nothing if not a man driven by guilt, and we suspect he’s not done atoning for his failure with Hector.

What about you? Do you think Frank Castle killed the White Tiger, or is this the work of a copycat killer? Vote in our poll and let us know what you think in the comments below.

For more on Daredevil: Born Again, see the cast and crew break down Episode 1’s tragic twist and brush up on every Marvel movie and series in development.

Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.

Daredevil: Born Again Episode 3 Review

12 mars 2025 à 02:00

Warning: this review contains full spoilers for Episode 3 of Daredevil: Born Again!

The third episode of Daredevil: Born Again comes after a riveting two-part opener, so it’s understandable that things are now cooling down a bit this week. There’s a focus on Hector Ayala’s trial that leads to all manner of legal twists and turns, but even the twistiest lawyer drama isn’t exactly the most thrilling thing to watch. Matt Murdock arguing the case for a vigilante certainly makes for a lot of interesting material on a thematic level, and all of the performances remain top-notch, but there’s a disappointing lack of superhero intrigue because Daredevil doesn’t make an appearance. Still, this episode creates a complex and dangerous dynamic between Murdock and the police force, and the shocking ending stayed with me long after the credits rolled.

Even though I came into this episode knowing the tragedy that befalls White Tiger in the comics, I was still shocked to see him abruptly assassinated at the end of the episode. By someone wearing a Punisher logo, no less. Above all else, the show genuinely makes you feel the immense loss of Hector Ayala as not only a superhero but as a human being. Actor Kamar de los Reyes’ opening monologue had me getting emotional over singing frogs, which made hearing them over the end credits even more heartbreaking.

This is a bit of a dicey episode for our main character. It’s clear to see that talking to Ayala makes him reflect on his own vigilantism as Daredevil, though Murdock seems to be in a place where he’s content only helping people as an attorney and not as a superhero. Will Hector’s unjust, violent end be enough to make him put on the mask again? The way he keeps fidgeting with that broken horn certainly makes me think so.

But how Murdock handles the trial didn’t work for me. It’s far too reckless and theatrical, even for him. I didn’t buy his reasoning explaining away his cavalier actions. Outing Ayala as the White Tiger ends up winning him the case, but he of all people should know how dangerous it is to reveal another hero’s secret identity. (Case in point: a gunman was able to wait outside Ayala’s home and murder him when he stepped out onto the street.) Murdock’s tactics are especially shortsighted when you consider how Mayor Fisk ran a whole campaign demonizing vigilantes. Even the judge calls out Murdock for being a huge hypocrite and he brushes it off. Also, having Nicky Torres flake out on the witness stand is an odd twist because it’s never explained what they had on him or how they even got in contact with him while he was in witness protection. I appreciate the writers trying to liven up the courtroom drama, but it comes at the expense of Murdock’s credibility as a lawyer.

This is a quieter episode for Wilson Fisk, as his relationship with Vanessa continues to languish and his allies from his Kingpin days refuse to let him escape his old life. Looks like the police chief was right when he told Fisk, “Once a thug, always a thug” in episode 2. Becoming mayor has truly changed the character. He went from feeling like his status as the Kingpin of crime made him the most powerful man in the world to now calling crime lords petty, squabbling vermin. This, of course, mirrors Murdock’s state of mind, where he believes he’s moved on to something better, when in reality he’ll never be able to escape his true self.

The Punisher’s presence continues to grow as we see another cop with a skull tattoo (on his neck) and Ayala’s murderer, as previously mentioned, wearing the symbol. I have to imagine that these men have appropriated the Punisher logo and the actual Punisher, Frank Castle, has nothing to do with them. I hope this means he’ll be making his big entrance next episode, and I imagine he won’t be happy with what others have done in his name.

Other Thoughts

  • One of the cops that Murdock brutalized at the end of Episode 2 plays a part in this episode, but he only has a bruised face. Did you hear the cracking sound his neck made when Murdock hammered him to the floor? It’s a miracle he isn’t dead!
  • Did anyone else find it funny how Murdock mentions White Tiger’s magic amulet to the jury and they all accept what he said at face value? I suppose the everyday people of the MCU have seen enough crazy stuff by now that a mystical pendant doesn’t even make them blink an eye.
  • During the trial there is a passing mention of “Officer Morales.” Is that a reference to Jefferson Morales, father of Spider-Man Miles Morales? That would make it the second Spidey reference the show has made thus far. Now I’m starting to expect a Tom Holland cameo. But that would never happen. Unless…

AU Deals: First Party Switch Games Drop, 10/10 JRPG Chops, a Sega Super Sale, and More!

12 mars 2025 à 01:33

This ain’t no idle Wednesday, fellow bargain hunter. I’ve dug up a treasure trove of discounted games just waiting to be snagged, and I’ve picked some of the best deals across Nintendo Switch, PC, Xbox Series X, and PS5 to make your decision easier. But hey—less talking, more saving. Get amongst the list.

This Day in Gaming 🎂

In retro news, I'm celebrating the 32nd birthday of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins, the best of the Mario/Wario platformers on Game Boy. SML2 is remembered for ditching the original’s Superball Flower in favour of the more familiar and satisfying Fire Flower, plus it introduced Bunny Mario. He could jump higher, glide through the air, and procreate faster (fan theory unconfirmed). I sacrificed many a AA battery to this one at launch. It still plays great on a Switch nowadays.

Aussie bdays for notable games

- Super Mario Land 2 (GB) 1993. Get

- Jedi Knight: Mysteries of the Sith (PC) 1998. Get

- Resident Evil 5 (PS3,X360) 2009. Get

- Persona 4 (PS2) 2009. Get

- Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia (DS) 2009. eBay

Contents

Nice Savings for Nintendo Switch

First up on Switch, Luigi’s Mansion 3 is a spooky good steal at 33% off. Meanwhile, Super Monkey Ball Banana Rumble (44% off) revives the classic franchise, and I love that in early prototypes, Sega even tested a banana-shaped controller for it.

Expiring Recent Deals

Or gift a Nintendo eShop Card.

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Purchase Cheap for PC

On PC, Max Payne 3 is a ridiculous 74% off—this game’s gritty realism was enhanced by Rockstar hiring real-life Brazilian ex-cops as consultants. If you’re more into RPGs, Persona 5 Royal (64% off) brings its stylish turn-based combat to PC at a huge discount.

Expiring Recent Deals

Or just get a Steam Wallet Card

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Exciting Bargains for Xbox

Over on Xbox Series X, Sifu (70% off) is a must-play for martial arts fans, blending brutal combat with a unique aging mechanic. Meanwhile, Persona 5 Tactica (60% off) brings turn-based strategy with a rebellious flair, featuring chibi-styled characters that were originally sketched as a joke.

Xbox One

Expiring Recent Deals

Or just invest in an Xbox Card.

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Pure Scores for PlayStation

Finally, PS5 owners can grab Unicorn Overlord at half price, an epic strategy RPG from the makers of Odin Sphere, packed with gorgeous hand-drawn art. Or, for some couch co-op chaos, Overcooked! All You Can Eat (35% off) delivers frantic multiplayer fun with level design inspired by real-world kitchen disasters.

PS4

Expiring Recent Deals

PS+ Monthly Freebies
Yours to keep from Mar 4 with this subscription

  • Dragon Age: Veilguard (PS5)
  • Sonic Colours: Ultimate (PS4)
  • TMNT: Cowabunga Col. (PS5/PS4)

Or purchase a PS Store Card.

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Legit LEGO Deals

Expiring Recent Deals

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Adam Mathew is our Aussie deals wrangler. He plays practically everything, often on YouTube.

The HP Omen RTX 4070 Ti Super Gaming PC Drops to the Lowest Price Ever

12 mars 2025 à 00:35

As part of a general HP Days Sale Event, you can score an excellent deal on a 4K-capable gaming PC. Right now, the HP Omen 25L GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super Gaming PC has dropped to $1,399.99 shipped after you apply $50 off coupon code "HPDAYSPC50". This is quite easily the lowest price we've seen for a prebuilt RTX 4070 Ti Super gaming desktop.

HP Omen 25L RTX 4070 Ti Super Gaming PC for $1399.99

The HP Omen 25L is equipped with an Intel Core i5-14400F CPU, GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super GPU, 16GB of DDR5-5200MHz RAM, and a 512GB M.2 SSD. The Intel Core i5-14400F processor has a turbo frequency of 4.7GHz with 10 cores and 16 threads. If you're focus is on gaming, you won't see much of an improvement upgrading to an Intel Core i7 CPU, especially at higher resolutions where gaming performance is almost always GPU bound. The CPU is cooled by a tower heatsink fan and the system is powered by a 600W 80PLUS Gold power supply.

The GeForce RTX 4070 Ti Super is a great card for gaming at any resolution, from 1080p all the way to 4K. At 1080p and 1440p you'll be able to achieve 144fps or beyond in most games, so it pairs best with FHD or QHD monitors with high refresh rates. 4K is a much more demanding resolution, but you should still be able to run most games at a consistent 60fps. Compared to the new Blackwell careds, the RTX 4070 Ti Super is significantly more powerful than the RTX 5070 and only about 10%-15% less powerful than the RTX 5070 Ti. The RTX 4070 Ti Super also has the same amount of VRAM as the RTX 5070 Ti and 5080, although it does use older generation GDDR6 instead of GDDR7.

This costs hundreds less than an RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC

Although the new RTX 5070 Ti GPU might be a bit faster, a prebuilt RTX 5070 Ti gaming PC will run you hundreds more than this deal. Right now, the least expensive gaming PC equipped with an RTX 5070 Ti GPU on Amazon runs for over $2,000, which means you're going to have to pay an extra $600+ for 10% improved performance.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D Review

11 mars 2025 à 23:52

Just a few months after the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D graced us with its presence, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D brings its 3D V-Cache technology to a 16-core, 32-thread gaming processor that’s absolutely overkill for most people, but will have no problem keeping up with powerful graphics cards like the Nvidia RTX 5090 or whatever comes next.

However, all of those cores come with a high $699 asking price and a 170W power budget, making this processor hard to recommend to anyone who isn’t already building an incredibly powerful (and expensive) gaming PC. For anyone else, the Ryzen 7 9800X3D just makes more sense.

Specs and Features

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D essentially takes the same Zen 5 cores behind the regular 9950X and pairs them with the new 2nd-generation 3D V-Cache found in the Ryzen 7 9800X3D. That means you still get excellent multi-core performance, but paired with better gaming performance thanks to a more capacious cache.

Unlike the Ryzen 9 7950X3D that preceded it, though, the 3D V-Cache is now physically located below the actual CPU cores, rather than above them. This seems like a minor change, to be sure, but it ends up making a major difference in thermal performance. Because the CCD, or Core Complex Die, is what produces most of the CPU’s heat, having it closer to the Integrated Heat Spreader (IHS), means it’s able to dissipate heat more easily. And with AMD’s performance algorithm taking thermal headroom into account, those lower temperatures mean the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is able to run faster, longer.

The physical location of the cache is about more than just temperatures, though. Because it’s directly under the CPU cores, there is less distance for the data to travel, which cuts down on latency. Plus, because the cache gets more space, AMD was able to shove in a ton of it, with the 9950X3D having 144MB of combined L2 and L3 cache. That’s the same amount as in the last-generation Ryzen 9 7950X3D, but it’s still much more than you’re going to find in any non-X3D processor.

Both the AMD Ryzen 9 9950X and 9950X3D have the same 170W TDP, though the original 9950X has a higher potential PPT. Though, in my testing, I found that both processors ended up peaking at 200W. Though, the 9950X3D did have a lower peak temperature, only reaching 79°C during the test suite – though it was tested on a different cooler than the original 9950X.

Luckily, because the 9950X3D isn’t using a new chipset, it's compatible with any AM5 AMD motherboard. AMD has come out and said it would support this socket until at least 2027, so you won’t have to worry about getting locked into a dead platform.

Performance

Before I dive into performance results, I have to note that all CPUs were tested on the same hardware, with one exception: the Ryzen 9 9950X. That was tested on an Asus ROG Crosshair X670E Hero motherboard with a Corsair H170i 360mm AIO cooler. This difference in hardware will have an impact on performance, but it’s not likely to be a major difference, especially since everything is tested at stock settings.

This happened largely because one of the mounting screws for the Asus ROG Ryujin III 360mm cooler I was using snapped when swapping to the 9950X. I will retest the processors in the coming weeks, and if anything is significantly different I’ll be sure to update this section.

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D is a 16-core, 32-thread gaming processor with an absolutely ridiculous 144MB of cache, so it shouldn’t be too surprising that it’s incredibly powerful. Even in creative benchmarks, where the 9800X3D fell behind, the 9950X3D has no problem keeping up with the most powerful chips on the market.

What’s surprising is how well the 9950X3D holds up against 9800X3D in single-core workloads. For example, in Cinebench 1T, the 9950X3D gets 2,254 points, compared to 2,033 points, making for a 10% improvement. Then, in the 3DMark CPU Profile test, the 9950X3D scores 1,280 points, which comes in striking distance to the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K’s 1,351 points.

Of course, in multi-threaded workloads, the Ryzen 9 9950X3D is really able to stretch its legs, scoring 40,747 points in Cinebench’s multi-core test. Just like the 9800X3D, the 9950X3D does lose some top-end performance in multi-threaded applications, falling short of the 41,123 points from the 9950X and 42,245 points from the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K, but it's worth it for the boost in gaming performance.

In Total War: Warhammer 3 at 1080p with Ultra settings, the 9950X3D is able to get 274 fps when paired with the RTX 4090. Compared to 254 fps from the 9800X3D and 255 from the Core Ultra 9 285K, the 9950X3D easily takes the crown here. However, in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p with the Ultra preset and ray tracing disabled, the 9950X3D delivers 229 fps, down from 240 fps from the 9800X3D. That’s a disappointing result, but it’s still way faster than the 165 fps from the competing Intel processor.

Overkill?

The AMD Ryzen 9 9950X3D might be the most powerful gaming processor on the market right now, but that doesn’t mean it has a de facto lead on every other chip on the market. Most people will have no problem getting by with the Ryzen 7 9800X3D, which just so happens to be much much more affordable at $479.

Instead, the 9950X3D is geared towards gamers that both play games and use creative apps like Photoshop and Premiere, the latter of which sees a 15% performance improvement over the 9800X3D. For a pure gaming PC build, though, you’re probably better off saving that extra $220 for a better graphics card.

Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra

Save 40% Off the SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Destiny Edition Wireless Gaming Headset

11 mars 2025 à 23:35

As part of its Spring Sale, SteelSeries is taking 40% off both PS5 and Xbox editions of its SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7 Destiny 2: The Final Shape Edition wireless gaming headsets. The Destiny Edition comes with a Booster Pack that includes Destiny themed speaker plates and headband, as well as exclusive Desinty 2 in-game items.

SteelSeries Arctis Nova 7P Gaming Headset Destiny Edition

The SteelSeries Nova 7 is the latest successor to the highly rated Arctis 7 series of headsets. It's every bit as good as its predecessor but with some welcome upgrades like a USB Type-C charging port, a longer battery life (38 hours vs. 30 hours), simultaneous wireless and Bluetooth connectivity, and multi-platform compatibility. PC gamers also have access to the SteelSeries GG app, which opens up a whole suite of customization for your audio. If that's too much for you, there are presets for specific games that are actually tailormade by the game developers. For PS5 gamers, the Nova 7 is also compatible with the PlayStation 5's Tempest 3D Audio.

The Arctis Nova 7 is one of the best headsets you can get for PS5 and PC. In his Nova 7 review, Matthew Adler wrote that "SteelSeries continues to push the boundaries of what a headset is capable of. With the addition of simultaneous Bluetooth audio, you can enjoy music, podcasts, or just chat with your friends without losing your game audio – all with a single pair of headphones. The Arctis Nova 7’s new design is sleek, lightweight, and still remains one of the most comfortable headsets I’ve ever used." I own a pair of these myself and highly recommend it.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

This $21 Power Bank Can Fast Charge Your Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, or Asus ROG Ally Multiple Times

11 mars 2025 à 22:35

If you're looking for an affordable power bank that will fast charge your Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, or Asus ROG Ally gaming handheld, then check out today's deal. Amazon has the INIU 20,000mAh Power Bank with up to 65W of Power Delivery over USB Type-C for only $21.59 after you clip the 40% off coupon on the product page (if you don't see it, try applying promo code "WN9GQJRA"). INIU power banks have solid reviews and are less expensive than equivalent Anker models. This particular model has 2,600 reviews on Amazon with a 4.5 star average and a Fakespot "B" rating.

Iniu 20,000mAh 65W USB Power Bank for $21.59

This Iniu power bank boasts a generous 20,000mAh, or 74Whr battery capacity. If you factor in 80% power efficiency, here are the approximate number of times you can fully recharge each gaming handheld:

  • Nintendo Switch (16Whr) about 3.7 times
  • Steam Deck (40Whr) about 1.9 times
  • Asus ROG Ally (40Whr) about 1.9 times
  • Asus ROG Ally X (80Whr) about 1 time
  • Lenovo Legion Go (50Whr) about 1.5 times

The Iniu power bank has three output ports: one 65W USB Type-C port, one 36W USB-Type-C port, and one USB Type-A port with up to 18W of power. The 65W USB port is enough to charge most gaming handhelds at their fastest rate. For the ones that can accept an even greater charging rate (ROG Ally X and Lenovo Legion Go), it matches the charging rate of the offical power brick that they come with. Normally power banks in this price range only support up to 20-30W of Power Delivery, which is why this is a better than average deal.

On a related note, this power bank is also a solid choice for charging your Apple iPhone 16, since ChargerLAB has shown that the maximum charging rate caps at about 30W, even for the Pro Max model.

Need something even cheaper?

You can grab this 10,000mAh power bank for only $8.99 after you clip the 10% off and 40% off clippable coupons on the product page. We very rarely see 10,000mAh power banks listed for under $10 so grab this one while you can. This will charge a Nintendo Switch from 0% to 100% about 1.9 times.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Amazon Has the Least Expensive GeForce RTX 5070 Ti Prebuilt Gaming PCs Right Now

11 mars 2025 à 22:20

The GeForce RTX 5070 Ti graphics card was released in late February for $749.99, but good luck finding one at that price. As with the rest of the Blackwell lineup, everyone from personal sellers to the manufacturers themselves have joined in on the price markup bonanza. You'd be hard pressed to find a 5070 Ti for anything lower than $1,000.

Fortunately there's a way to get around these shenanigans, and that is by purchasing a prebuilt gaming PC instead. Amazon is currently offering CyberpowerPC RTX 5070 Ti gaming desktops starting at $2,069.99. That's a reasonable price considering the fact that the RTX 5070 Ti has proven to be nearly identical in performance (within 5%) to the RTX 4080 Super, without even factoring in DLSS 4. The best deal currently on an RTX 4080 Super gaming PC is one I've found at HP for $2,299.99, and unless you have a brand preference, getting one of these PCs is probably a better option.

CyberPowerPC RTX 5070 Ti Prebuilt Gaming PCs on Amazon

My preferred config is the CyberPowerPC Gamer Supreme gaming PC equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D CPU, RTX 5070 Ti GPU, 32GB of RAM, and a 2TB SSD. In our AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D review, Jackie Thomas wrote that "the AMD Ryzen 7 9800X3D is extremely powerful in games, which makes it easier to recommend than other recent processors like the Intel Core Ultra 9 285K or Ryzen 9 9900X. Especially if you’re building a rig with a powerful graphics card, the 9800X3D is going to be the best way to get the most performance."

Of all the Blackwell cards released thus far, the RTX 5070 Ti offers the best bang for your buck, especially when pitted against the previous generation GPUs. It performs neck-and-neck with the RTX 4080 Super and already marginalizes the RTX 5080, which is only about 10%-15% faster but costs 33% more. This GPU is capable of high framerates in nearly all games, even at 4K resolution with ray tracing enabled. Heck, even if you plan on using this card for AI, the RTX 5070 Ti might be the better value than the RTX 50870 since both are equipped with the same 16GB of GDDR7 VRAM.

Alternative: Lenovo Legion RTX 4080 Super PC for $2,260.99

Lenovo has dropped the price of its powerful Lenovo Legion Tower 7i Gen 8 RTX 4080 Super gaming PC to only $2,260.99 after coupon code: "EXTRAFIVE" . In our recent Legion Tower 7 review (the sample we received wasn't as powerful as this one), Jacqueline Thomas wrote that "The Legion Tower 7i is an incredibly powerful gaming PC, especially for the money you’re likely going to be paying for it. If all you want is a powerful, upgradeable machine without having to go through the trouble of building it yourself, it’s hard to find many gaming PCs better than this one."

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

Arkham Horror: The Card Game Buying Guide

11 mars 2025 à 21:32

Arkham Horror: The Card Game is a series of deck-building card games that you can build and curate to your dark heart’s delight. It's a cooperative game, so you and your fellow players are working together to take on the horrors that await.

It's also part of the extensive world in the Arkham Horror Files family of board games, card games, and the newest, the nicely accessible Arkham Horror: The Role-Playing Game (see on Amazon) and subsequent newly released matching expansive rulebook.

The card deck-builder Arkham Horror card game has been around since 2016. It has seen multiple expansions and revisions since its original printing. Buying the game is also not entirely straightforward outside of the base deck and campaign, as there are multiple ways to build, curate, and personalize your experience.

Featured in this article

Here's a swipe-able, all-in-one carousel of everything discussed in the article, for those who feel confident enough about their Arkham Horror: The Card Game knowleged to skip the blurbs. For everyone else, keep on reading.

The Base Game

The core set contains all you need to get started. It contains five pre-built investigator decks that let you dive into the first scenario: the Night of the Zealot campaign. This will give you a great, replayable taste of the Arkham Horror Card Game world. And if you like it, you have a huge selection of expansions to consider.

Arkham Horror Card Game Expansions

Arkham Horror’s card game expansions are a bit different than the board game version. For the board games, expansion boxes include the full stories and scenarios as well as the new investigators to join in on the fun. The card game operates a bit differently. You can buy campaign expansions to add new stories to your game, and/or you can buy investigator expansions to add new characters. In other words, the new stories and new characters are sold separately. This might not be ideal for everyone, but it allows you to choose how much of an experience you want to invest in at a certain time, since you can play an expansion scenario without the newer investigators if you want to.

The Dunwich Legacy

The Dunwich Legacy was the first expansion released. It’s meant to be a gentle step up from the base game, with a user-friendly set of scenarios. In it you search for lost investigators, which coincidentally seems to tie into how the entire card game franchise builds upon itself by adding new investigator sets in each expansion release.

The Path to Carcosa

A theatre production comes to Arkham in this expansion. The added rules in this one are fairly user-friendly for new playersm but the expansion isn’t easy enough for vets to dismiss. If you have the older first edition of this expansion, you may still find the differences in this second edition engaging enough to warrant a purchase.

The Forgotten Age

This expansion has you explore the ruins of an Aztec city, with a mystery that threatens to unravel the fabric of time iteslf. This is a very difficult campaign, so it's not recommended to newcomers until they've played through some of the others first. It’s also on its second edition version now.

The Circle Undone

This expansion has affectionately been called “the witches pack.” The new investigators introduced in this expansion have some powerful bonuses that are a delight to use. That's a relief, because the campaign is one of the tougher ones of all the expansions as well. If you plan to get this campaign, you should absolutely consider getting the investigators.

The Edge of the Earth

The antarctic tundra is a classic location for Lovecraftian horrors to reside. So that's exactly where this expansion brings you and your fellow players: to the deep freezing cold. Peril lurks around every corner, so choose your steps wisely, with or without the coordinating investigators.

The Scarlet Keys

This campaign expansion has you traversing the world as you delve into an international conspiracy involving the collection of keys and a race against the Red Coterie. With or without the investigators, this expansion is less linear to explore than most of the others.

The Dream Eaters

This campaign includes two four-part storylines: Dream Quest and the Web of Dreams stories. You can play these separately if you're tight on time, or you can combine them together into a longer eight-part story.

The Innsmouth Conspiracy

This expansion puts you and your fellow players in an ever-changing world that morphs based on water levels that can flood various locations. This adds a dynamic layer to the strategic decision-making you'll need to employ as you play through it.

The Feast of the Hemlock Vale

The Feast of the Hemlock Vale is a newer expansion that brings players to Hemlock Vale, where residents are preparing for a festival while somehow remaining blissfully unaware of dangers like mutated wildlife and a sinister presence lurking around them. You have three days to investigate the strange happenings, with different dynamics depending on whether it's day or night.

The Drowned City

The newest expansions for Arkham Horror is The Drowned City. In this one, the big squiddy lord from Lovecraftian lore has awakened, and it's up to you and your team to save the day.

Other ways to expand your deck-building adventures in Arkham

Starter Decks

Interested in adding another character to your roster but aren’t sure if you’re ready to jump into a full expansion? You can buy a few starter investigator decks. These decks are less expensive and will give you more investigators to help you through your game.

That said, these characters may not be as great as the investigators that you’ll find in the larger boxes that are connected to campaigns (see above). There are five to choose from: Harvey Waters, Nathanial Cho, Jacqueline Fine, Winnifred Habbamock, and Stella Clark. All of them are $16.99 but can be found cheaper and on sale from time to time.

Scenario Packs

There are also several standalone scenario packs available to purchase. These offer a smaller dose of action than the full expansions above. They cost $21.99 each. Murder at the Excelsior Hotel has been regarded as one of their more entry-level scenarios, so if you’re looking for something smaller before committing to something bigger, like an expansion, you might want to check that one out.

Other scenario packs include Fortune and Folly, Machinations Through Time, War of the Outer Gods, Labyrinths of Lunacy, and The Blob That Ate Everything.

Return to Boxes

Return to boxes are revamps and additions to select campaigns. They require the base campaign set to play them, and while they are a bonus, they are best suited for folks who are serious about Arkham Horror: The Card Game. They are considered to be luxury items, essentially. And some of them are not the easiest to get a hold of. In fact, when going to create this list, I found that some were discontinued or not easily found through sites like Amazon or even Asmodee itself.

Five return-to-boxes are currently available: Night of the Zealot (the campaign in the original starter box), Dunwich Legacy, Circle of Carcosa, Circle Undone, and Forgotten Age. Some enthusiasts say that Forgotten Age fixes some of the complexities in the original expansion. As you can see, when you click the name of Night of the Zealot, these are out of print, so collectors may find them difficult to come by.

Parallel Investigator Packs

Parallel investigators are alternate versions of investigators that have abilities different from those of their original counterparts, including enhanced abilities and stats. Like Return to Boxes, these are not as easily found at big retailers. Collectors will have to look around for them to get them.

The Bottom Line

If you are a fan of Lovecraft mythos-themed games, Arkham Horror is a universe you’ll absolutely want to explore. One awesome thing about Arkham Horror: The Card Game is that you can play it as a solo game, as well as with friends. The universes and iterations of games make for lots of capacities for adventure, with seemingly endless replayability for several of them.

That said, like the board games, the card games absolutely veer on the more difficult side. They have quite a bit of chance, which can drastically increase replayability as well as frustration. Setup and learning time can also take a few minutes. You’ll find that the card games are easier to set up than the board games, even without expansions, which makes the journey through less painful.

Jennifer Stavros is a contributing freelancer for IGN, covering everything from comics, games, technology, and nerd culture. She has over 15 years of experience in the gaming industry, including testing and writing for Wired, Inverse, and more. Follow her on Twitter or watch her on Twitch under the handle @scandalous.

Drop Review

11 mars 2025 à 21:12

Drop opens in theaters Friday, April 11. This review is based on a screening at the 2025 SXSW Film and TV Festival.

Usually, the most harrowing thing that might happen if you fail to modify your AirDrop settings is a bunch of teenagers sending you random dick pics – a scenario that’s tweaked in the new Christopher Landon-directed techno-thriller Drop. Landon, who also made Happy Death Day and Freaky, loves a gimmick. And “What if phone, but scary?” sure seems like one. Fortunately, Drop is more interested in thrilling the audience than winking at us, and is a more entertaining film as a result.

Drop makes harassment-by-Bluetooth scary by pivoting away from the prankster angle early on. At first, Violet (Meghann Fahy) is annoyed when someone starts sending her random memes as she waits for her date to arrive at a swanky restaurant on the 38th floor of a Chicago skyscraper. Then the messages start getting more personalized, and Violet realizes that whoever is targeting her – she’s not sure who, but it has to be someone within 50 feet, given their weapon of choice – is watching her, setting a locked-room mystery plot into motion.

The obvious question here is, “Why doesn't she just switch off her phone and leave?” And that’s where the kid in peril comes in. Violet is a single mother, widowed in an incident that’s teased in the movie’s cold open but whose traumatizing details aren’t revealed until the very end. Violet has spent most of the five years since holed up at home with her son, Toby (Jacob Robinson), who was a baby when his dad died and is now a precocious kid with glasses and intense separation anxiety. When she pushes back, Violet’s mystery contact starts threatening Toby, and Drop is just mean enough that we can’t be certain that the little guy will make it out of this alive.

Violet isn’t handling her first time away from Toby since his infancy very well either, compounding her jitters about meeting Henry (Brandon Sklenar), the handsome photographer she’s been messaging on a dating app for the past three months. Henry is patient and understanding, and genuinely interested in building a relationship; without revealing too much, it’s very unlikely that he’s the one provoking Violet. And in a movie landscape choked with well-meaning but hacky takedowns of monstrous men hiding behind friendly façades, it’s kind of refreshing to have a movie where the nice guy is actually, well, nice.

Drop’s tight structure and compounding twists are reminiscent of M. Night Shyamalan, with the major difference being that Shyamalan would never get as snarky as Landon does in the first act. Search Party’s Jeffery Self carries much of the comedic burden as an oversharing, eager-to-please waiter, who loses patience with Violet’s increasingly bizarre requests but has to keep smiling and accommodating her. (This is a very expensive restaurant.) There are some sick giggles to be had later on, one of them an R-rated Spielberg bit involving Toby, a loaded handgun, and a remote controlled car. But for the most part, Drop abandons the wisecracks once the stakes reach life-or-death heights.

Not every part of this more earnest approach works: Even when it’s not a-joke-a-minute, a Christopher Landon movie is probably not the place to be exploring themes of domestic abuse. But the fundamentals of action, tension, and escalating suspense are strong, and Landon makes great use of the claustrophobic central location and its vertigo-inducing heights. This unpretentious thrill ride is a fun diversion, and a surprisingly good date movie – providing your date isn’t too triggered by a lounge-piano rendition of “Baby Shark.” Parenthood is difficult, y’all.

Captain America: Brave New World’s Real Budget? You’ll Never Know… and This Is Why

11 mars 2025 à 21:12

It’s no secret that the latest Marvel film, Captain America: Brave New World, didn’t exactly light the world on fire in terms of critical response, fan response, or box office. In fact, on the latter front some folks have been doom-watching as Brave New World limps along, making money each weekend since its release, but not really making MCU money.

The thing about Hollywood movie budgets is it’s always difficult to track how much money actually went into a film. Yes, budgets will be cited by “studio insiders” and the like, but there’s no real way to know how accurate those figures are unless you’re a number-cruncher on the inside - in this case at Disney or Marvel. And sometimes damage control and image perception will impact the budgets that are reported. Damage control and image perception? In Hollywood? Who knew!

Captain America: Brave New World Box Office Numbers

In the case of Captain America: Brave New World, which as of this writing has been out for four weekends and earned $371 million worldwide (according to Box Office Mojo), there was definitely damage control to do. Amid increasing doom-and-gloom reports surrounding the MCU overall, there’s also the apparently troubled production history of the film to consider, which was said to include difficult test screenings, expensive reshoots, and even the addition of a new villain character (Giancarlo Esposito’s Sidewinder) to the plot.

The Brave New World budget that has been reported by trade outlets like Variety and The Hollywood Reporter is $180 million, but that seems low considering the reported (at least) 22 days of reshoots, and indeed, some well-sourced industry observers indicate that the final budget was significantly higher. According to The Hot Mic, the budget was in the range of $300 million, while Joanna Robinson and Dave Gonzalez, who wrote the book MCU: The Reign of Marvel Studios, have said their sources peg the movie as costing closer to $380 million. Bear in mind there’s also the matter of P&A (prints and advertising) costs, which would be in the tens of millions at the very least if not higher for an MCU blockbuster (Variety pegs P&A for Brave New World at $100 million). And then there’s the revenue split that the studio has to share with theater owners!

When Marvel Movie Budgets Stop Mattering

So take the $300 million figure as an example. If that was the total cost for Marvel, then the common wisdom in Hollywood bookkeeping is that the film would need to make $600 million before the studio has even broken even. That clearly will not happen in theaters as the film is slowing down substantially and nearing the end of its theatrical run.

Now all this said, things get much hazier when it comes to the value of having, say, Captain America: Brave New World always available as one of the titles on your streaming service. Or when you can keep selling merchandise based on these characters. Or when you’re setting them up for their next big Avengers movie, which is likely to make way more money than Brave New World has.

This is Hollywood magic, folks, only not the good kind. As underwhelming as the bulk of the post-Endgame MCU has been, there’s a safety net component to being part of a shared universe. It’s also why budgets vs. box office comparisons are both unknowable and not the real issue. While an MCU movie can tank, it still serves the purpose of keeping the series moving and hence is easier to excuse in the grand scheme of things. A standalone movie with no franchise ties, however, has to stand on its own two feet. This is why things are that much harder for the Mickey 17s of the world these days.

Is releasing a stinker like Brave New World the cost of doing business for a shared universe mega-franchise these days?

Is releasing a stinker like Brave New World the cost of doing business for a shared universe mega-franchise these days? You gotta keep the factory line running, as Lucille Ball learned all those years ago. And if that means every now and then stuffing your face full of chocolate that you don’t really even want, at least you know it comes out in the wash in the end.

index.feed.received.yesterday — 11 mars 20253.3 🎲 Jeux English

O'Dessa Review

11 mars 2025 à 20:45

O’Dessa streams on Hulu beginning Thursday, March 20. This review is based on a screening at the 2025 SXSW Film and Television Festival.

What happens when you mix Streets of Fire and O Brother, Where Art Thou? with the look and vibes of Far Cry 3: Blood Dragon? You get a bold, vibrant, catchy, romantic cyberpunk rock opera with memorable performances and rocking musical numbers seemingly destined for infinite fan edits once it drops on Hulu. One of the best scenes in all of Stranger Things involves Sadie Sink and a great song, but that doesn’t prepare you for just how great her singing voice is in O'Dessa. Director Geremy Jasper tasks Sink with carrying his follow-up to 2017’s Patti Cake$ – and fortunately, she (and the considerable shoulder pads of her retro-cool wardrobe) are more than up for it.

Sink plays O’Dessa’s title character with a stoicism that hides raw vulnerability: She’s a girl who acts tough, moves and dresses like Elvis, and sings like Hank Williams. In her mother’s words, she’s a "dirt farmer," and the last in a long line of "ramblers" – troubadours who once traveled around a now-ravaged landscape lifting spirits and providing hope through song. All O'Dessa wants is to fulfill her dreams of going to the dystopian metropolis of Satylite City to experience all its chaos and grandeur, accompanied only by Willa, a legendary guitar made from a tree that was struck by lightning.

It’s a story that’s powered by an alluring grab bag of mythology: What initially appears to be a grimy Americana take on Homer’s Odyssey – with its long shots of countryside, train-hopping, and colorful side characters – quickly gives way to a cyberpunk retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice once O'Dessa reaches Satylite City and meets the beautiful dancer Euri Dervish (an electrifying Kelvin Harrison Jr.). Sink and Harrison have ample chemistry, and they truly sell this doomed romance drenched in neon and set in opposition to the dictatorial rule of a TV host named Plutonovich (Murray Bartlett).

Read what you will into Jasper creating a villain who’s a media-savvy tyrant running a high-stakes televised talent show, but any commentary in his script is less overt than this implied Trump analogy. The filmmaker prefers to make O’Dessa’s most powerful statements with its dazzling visuals and loaded costume choices. The central romance is one big middle finger to gender norms, with Sink playing humanity’s prophesied savior as an androgynous pop star with slicked-back hair and white tuxedo, opposite Harrison as her tender, graceful, gown-wearing lover.

There’s gusto in the songs, too, a soundtrack of 16 original numbers by Jasper and co-writer Jason Binnick that map O'Dessa's journey onto the evolution of American popular music. Bluesy ballads with personal lyrics eventually give way to rockabilly and even acid-rock psychedelia. Sink finally gets to show off her Broadway-honed pipes on screen; it’s a shame it took this long for her to find this kind of role, because her vocals are simply enchanting. At a time when studios are still making musicals but appear hesitant to sell them as such (who puts together a trailer for Wicked with barely any footage of Cynthia Erivo and Ariana Grande singing?), here’s one that boldly proclaims what it is, with little time to rest in between music numbers. It joyfully goes from one song to the next, with the music keeping the story aloft.

Accompanying the catchy tunes is a strong visual aesthetic that makes O'Dessa stand out in a sea of indistinguishable cyberpunk stories. A sense of naturalism in the early scenes mingles with the look of a lost video-store favorite from the 1980s in Satylite City. There’s an environmental message in there, too, via the constant sight of oil pipelines in the countryside and the iridescent look of the oil that powers Plutonovich's empire.

Split Fiction Sells One Million Copies in 48 Hours

11 mars 2025 à 19:09

Hazelight's latest co-op adventure, Split Fiction, has officially surpassed one million copies sold in the first 48 hours, setting a new record for the studio.

This news was announced on BlueSky, with the official account saying, "The love you all show for our game is overwhelming! 😍 Everyone here at Hazelight are beyond happy - and we can’t stop enjoying your amazing reactions! 🤩"

Notably this is one million copies sold, which means it's possible that far more than that are playing Split Fiction. Every copy of the game comes with a Friend's Pass that lets a friend play the entire game in co-op with the purchaser for free. While not everyone will take advantage of that option (some will play local co-op, some may play with someone who already owns the game, etc), that's still a whole lot of people playing Split Fiction.

This is a huge sales jump from Hazelight's last game, It Takes Two, which didn't reach the one million milestone until a month after launch. But that in and of itself was deemed an impressive milestone, with studio head Josef Fares saying at the time that it proved players want co-op games.

We really dug Split Fiction, calling it "a rollercoaster of constantly refreshed gameplay ideas and styles – and one that’s very hard to walk away from" in our 9/10 review.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. You can find her posting on BlueSky @duckvalentine.bsky.social. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Score a Metallic PS5 DualSense Controller for the Lowest Price Ever

11 mars 2025 à 19:05

Lenovo has just dropped the price of the PlayStation 5 DualSense controller to slightly lower than what we saw on Black Friday. Right now you can choose Sterling Silver, Volcanic Red, or Cobalt Blue for only $54 plus free shipping after you apply coupon code "PLAY5" in cart. This is probably going to be your last chance to get a DualSense controller at this price for quite a while, especially one that's decked out in a eye-catching metallic colorway.

Sony PS5 DualSense Controller for $54

The original PS5 DualSense controller is decked out in the same white color scheme as the console itself and retails for $69.99. Since then, Sony has consistently released more and more colors, some of them more striking than others. In late 2023, Sony launched the Deep Earth collection, "a new metallic colorway for PS5 accessories" with aptly sounding names like Sterling Silver, Volcanic Red, and Cobalt Blue. These controllers retailed for $79.99 and were (and still are) one of the more striking color schemes. We rarely see these on sale compared to the other colors.

Color aside, the Dualsense is oft regarded as the best PS5 controller under $100. It also makes for an excellent controller for your PC. The DualSense is modeled after the tried and true design and layout of previous PlayStation controllers, but it also packs in modern features such as haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, a built-in microphone and speaker, integrated touchpad, internal gyroscope and accelerometer for motion sensing, and USB Type-C charging.

Eric Song is the IGN commerce manager in charge of finding the best gaming and tech deals every day. When Eric isn't hunting for deals for other people at work, he's hunting for deals for himself during his free time.

The Last of Us Season 2: Three Reasons Spores Need to Return

11 mars 2025 à 19:00

Warning: This piece contains spoilers for The Last of Us Part II game.

The second season of The Last of Us is premiering on April 13, 2025, and we just got another look at the series in a new trailer over the weekend. But amidst all the excitement for the acclaimed game adaptation’s next entry, something stood out to us in the latest trailer: the confirmation that spores will be included. This might seem like a small detail to the uninitiated, but it was actually one of the show’s biggest deviations from the source material. Instead of spores, the first season primarily used tendrils emerging from infected individuals as the way the cordyceps infection spreads. When asked by Variety (during Season 1’s run) about the shift to tendrils, series creators Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann said they wanted to try new things with the show’s version of events. So why the change of heart?

Well, there are several important scenes in The Last of Us Part II game that hinge on the spores, and perhaps the writing team didn’t anticipate how much they’d need that story element eventually before making the change for the first season. Let’s take a look at why the spores are so important to Part II and how this speaks to the care creators need to take when making sweeping changes in adaptations.

What Are Spores in The Last of Us?

If you’ve only seen the show and not played the games, a quick refresher: the cordyceps infection in the games is primarily transmitted through bites or scratches from infected, but can also be transmitted via fungal spores, typically in underground areas where the fungus can fester unabated. Many sections of the games feature the characters moving through such areas while wearing gas masks to prevent breathing in the deadly spores. This was purely for story and not gameplay (you can’t lose your gas mask and die, for example), but the spores were an important atmospheric element, serving as a visual metaphor for how the fungus was changing and taking over the world right from the root, if you’ll pardon the pun.

Getting rid of the spores felt like an arbitrary choice, especially since it raises multiple questions about the world-building in Season 2.

In The Last of Us Season 1, the spores were omitted, with the creators recycling the tendril idea from concept art for the first game. Not that there’s anything wrong with making changes in adaptations (we’ve previously made the case for that about The Last of Us here at IGN), but such changes should be purposeful. Getting rid of the spores felt like an arbitrary choice, especially since it raises multiple questions about the world-building now that they’re being included in Season 2. To be fair, Mazin said in the Variety interview that “to say that our world is devoid of them would not be accurate. We don’t quite know yet.” But that doesn’t change that the world as presented in Season 1 doesn’t have them, so Season 2 including them feels odd.

So much of daily life as a survivor in the world of the Last of Us games revolves around doing everything possible to avoid infection, including being aware of how to detect and avoid spores, that their never coming up in the last season is a bit jarring. The case could be made that the show’s fungus recently evolved the spores, but that’s hard to justify when we’re dealing with such a short period of time (a small handful of years at most) passing between seasons. Regarding the inclusion of spores in Season 2, Druckmann claimed at SXSW that there is a “dramatic reason” why the spores are returning. We won’t know exactly what he means until we see the new season, but looking at the second game, there are multiple big scenes where not having the spores would be a serious obstacle to try to write around.

The Biggest Spore Scenes That Could Appear in The Last of Us Season 2

With Season 2 jumping right into adapting The Last of Us Part II, it’s worth examining the ways the spores are likely to be used in telling that game’s story. We already know Part II will take multiple seasons to adapt, so we might not see all of these scenes in the upcoming season, but they’re good to keep in mind either way.

Ellie and Dina’s Subway System Attack

The earliest is when Dina, Ellie’s companion and love interest in Part II who will be played by Isabela Merced in the show, learns that Ellie is immune to infection. While being attacked by infected in the remains of the spore-filled Seattle subway system, Ellie’s mask is damaged, leading her to take it off in front of a shocked Dina. Once they’re out of danger, Ellie tells Dina that she is immune, which is a massive turn in their relationship. This would not be easy to replace with a bite or tendril scene because a huge part of it is Dina saying she can share her mask with Ellie (proving how much she cares for Ellie), which is what prompts Ellie to take her own mask off and save Dina’s life.

Ellie’s mask is damaged... and Ellie tells Dina that she is immune, which is a massive turn in their relationship.

Nora’s Infection and Ellie’s Quest for Vengeance for Joel

Later on, Ellie confronts Nora, one of Abby’s friends and a target on Ellie’s hit list. While holding Nora at gunpoint in a confrontation with Washington Liberation Front soldiers, Ellie purposefully tosses herself and Nora into the spore-filled basement, knowing that it will make it difficult for the WLF to chase her. With Nora infected by spores, Ellie corners her in the basement and demands to know Abby’s location. When Nora asks why she should give Abby up when she’s effectively already dead, Ellie says she can make Nora’s death quick or make her final moments as tortuous as possible. Again, the spores are what makes the scene function on an in-universe level, but this is also a crucial moment dramatically because it cements how hardened Ellie has become from Joel’s death and how dark she’s willing to go in her quest to avenge him.

Abby, Lev, and the WLF vs. the Seraphites

There’s also a spore-related scene that’s critical to Abby’s arc. While traveling with new character Lev on a search for surgical supplies, Abby (who will be played by Kaitlyn Dever in Season 2) has to find an extra mask for Lev so they can travel through a spore-filled section of a hotel. The fact that Lev doesn’t have a mask is a peek into the mentality of the island-dwelling Seraphite nation he comes from, where they have no need to worry about infection from “demons” (as they refer to the infected), but it’s also a moment where Abby takes significant risk to help both Lev with the mask and Lev’s sister Yara with the medical supplies. Abby softening towards Lev and Yara despite them coming from an enemy faction (Abby is a member of the WLF, which is at war with the Seraphites) gives her new dimension after the game initially establishes her as Joel’s cold-blooded killer.

Now, we don’t know for sure if the creative team on the series looked at Part II and thought “what have we done?” for not including spores. But the fact that they’re walking back a not-insignificant creative choice from the first season indicates that they realized the spores are a critical part of the game’s lore and narrative. Again, there’s nothing inherently wrong with making changes in adaptation; different mediums have different priorities. But it’s also important to consider the long-term ramifications of making big changes to in-universe lore in case they become roadblocks down the line. At least for now, it looks like The Last of Us has folded on the spore front, but hopefully its creators and those of other adaptations think twice before throwing away such important world-building elements of the source material.

Carlos Morales writes novels, articles and Mass Effect essays. You can follow his fixations on Bluesky.

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