Code Vein getting a sequel, as announced at Summer Game Fest earlier this year, was a pleasant surprise. The original was good! It was one of those games that necessarily didn’t blow people away, but was fun popcorn for action-RPG fans who like deep character creators, over-the-top plots, and far more weapons and customization choices than any person can reasonably keep track of. But good or not, loads of excellent games in this genre never resurface after their initial debut, so Bandai Namco being willing to return to its twist on vampires and take another crack at perfecting the pitch is some seriously good news. Sure, the developer has disavowed any plot connections to the original, which has some fans worried. But I just got 45 minutes of hands-off time with Code Vein 2, and came out feeling confident that direct sequel or no, this follow-up feels like a far more fully realized vision of the fast-paced, flashy action RPG that Code Vein 1 was always striving to be.
I did get a very, very brief stint of hands-on time with Code Vein 2, in that Bandai Namco let me mess around in the c haracter creator before they took over. No huge surprises here, but if you liked the robustness of Code Vein 1’s character creator and can spend hours tweaking eyebrow shapes, I’ve got good news for you. You can choose from preset designs, of course, for folks who don’t want to sit on this screen all day, but you can also adjust minute details like teeth and ear shapes if that’s more your bag. I had a lot of fun picking out a really big, silly hat for my character to wear. One of my favorite elements of the creator is the ability to select an outfit, and then turn on and off certain pieces of it. Love a cute dress but hate the weird garter it makes you wear with it? Just turn it off!
Once I had settled on a cute hat and hairstyle, I handed the controller back over to the devs, and sat back to watch what they had to show me. The mission they elected to demonstrate was one where the player is sent off with a partner (a buddy) named Josée to restore power to a city area. They selected the quest area from a large overworld map and traveled there instantly, though they arrived not in a closed dungeon but in a large, lovely, ruined city with multiple dungeons available to them just by running (or driving a motorcycle) around. I got to watch some gameplay both from an optional dungeon near where we landed, and from the actual objective dungeon itself, a substation where the hero might be able to get the city’s power running again.
One big question I had going into this preview was whether Code Vein 2 was open world, or open zone, or something else. After chatting with the team, asking about the issue several times, and watching the demo, I’m still not 100% sure how to answer this. The team says it’s not open world, but also kept saying Code Vein 2 had “one single overworld” and that traveling is “a bit more open” than in Code Vein 1. There does seem to be a lot of interconnectivity – I watched the he=ro zoom around the outdoor area on a motorcycle (with Josée adorably sitting cross-legged on the back) and covering some meaningful distance without running into artificial walls, but it’s possible there were some much further along. Director Hiroshi Yoshimura also told me that the overworld is “significantly” bigger, while the dungeon sizes are roughly the same as Code Vein 1. Make of all that what you will for now.
When I asked about the world, director Yoshimura repeatedly pointed out that the focus was less on exploration and more on the various character companions you’ll meet in Code Vein 2. You’ll be traveling to points in the world specifically for missions tied to these characters that will let you get to know them better. Much of Code Vein 2 does indeed seem to be centered around these buddies, or partners as they’re now called, even more so than the first game since the sequel won’t feature co-op.
In my preview, I got a decent look at some of the partner dynamics between the main character and Josée. Josée’s got a big ol’ sword she swings around, slow but powerful, and at different points I saw her light it on fire for both close-up and long-range attacks. Without actually playing myself it’s hard to say whether or not the AI has improved from Code Vein 1 (where it could be a bit finicky or, at times, suicidal). Though, if you hate dealing with AI partners at all, they can assist you in Code Vein 2 via “assimilation” – effectively removing them from the battlefield, but giving yourself significant stat boosts and powerful new abilities to compensate. One other feature I did appreciate was the ability of partners to revive you when you fall in battle, and vice versa if your partners fall, wisely on a cooldown so it can’t be spammed for immortality.
From what I could see, Code Vein veterans will be perfectly happy with the sequel’s bursting larder of combat abilities and character customization. Code Vein 2 wants you to get really comfortable cycling through different types of skills, and boy, you better keep track of all those Proper Nouns. But here’s the jist: you’ll attack with your weapon to start building up bleeds on an enemy, then use your equipped auxiliary “Jail” weapon to gain a resource called Ichor. Ichor can then be spent on far more powerful abilities, such as “bequeathed formae”, special, powerful weapons like a huge bow and arrow or a powerful shield. Or, you can activate your Jails for huge finisher moves, like swinging an enormous scythe or briefly gaining big, vampiric wings.
I don’t mean to spend this whole preview lamenting that this was a hands-off demo, but man, I wish I could have gotten ahold of a controller just to muck around in the menus! Code Vein 2, like its predecessor, seems to benefit from just trying stuff out and seeing what’s fun and effective, and even with just the options I saw in the demo I feel like I could waste a lot of time wildly flailing around with different combinations until I was happy with my particular expression of it.
I unfortunately didn’t get a chance to see anything from one of Code Vein 2’s most intriguing key features: time travel. It takes place in a present day where a horrible calamity has taken place in the past, and you and your companions are given the ability to travel back in time and change history. Though you’re strongly urged not to meddle with the past, obviously, you do anyway. I’m told you’re allowed to freely travel between past and present most of the time (occasionally you’ll be locked out of doing so), and things you do in the past can influence what’s going on in the present, even to the point of making it impossible to return to the present. But I wasn’t able to see any of that in action during my preview, so it’s hard for me to say how extensive or interesting this element actually is.
One other, somewhat fangirly note - hey, I love Go Shiina’s music? Shiina returns as composer for Code Vein 2 after working on Code Vein 1, and he’s also composed for my two favorite Tales games (don’t laugh at me for this): Tales of Legendia and Tales of Zestiria. His excellence was on full display both in my preview and in the story trailer I watched ahead of time, with soaring strings and chaotic vocals backing Code Vein 2’s intense battles. Sign me up for another banger Shiina soundtrack, thanks!
While Bandai Namco has confirmed that Code Vein 2 is a complete departure from the story and universe of the first game, it’s familiar enough in gameplay and style that I came away feeling pretty happy with the direction. I’ve seen fans calling it a “soft reboot” and I think that’s an accurate summation: it’s true to the philosophy of Code Vein without being beholden to its lore Wiki. Nothing I’ve seen has shocked me so far, but I don’t think it needs to: everything good about Code Vein 1 is here, just bigger, shinier, and slash-slash-slashier. Now just let me tinker around in the character creator for just a few more minutes…
In case you missed it, a new era is dawning for the Pokémon TCG. The long-running card game has finally stepped away from the Scarlet and Violet block of expansions and moved into a new era dubbed ‘Mega Evolution’. Not only that, but preorders have already begun for the next set in this new block, Phantasmal Flames.
And, while this upcoming expansion brings all the usual stuff like Elite Trainer Boxes, booster packs, and bundles, IGN is lucky enough to reveal a first look at two cards from Phantasmal Flames. They’ve each featured in Japan's Inferno X set already, but this is the first look at Togedemaru, and its stunning Special Illustration Rare, in English. Let's take a look.
The first card here has the adorable ‘Roly-Poly’ Pokémon walking atop a neon sign. Togemaru is a Metal type, weak to fire and resistant to grass, and it has a single damage-dealing attack in Gnaw that’ll cost you one Metal energy,
It can also use any type of energy card to use Find a Friend, letting you find any Pokémon from your deck and put it into your hand.
The second version is a full-art card, which is even cuter. This shows one Togedemaru snuggled up, sleeping with another behind, either waiting to pounce playfully or just keeping a watchful eye for intruders.
It’s bright, and I love the detail of the light shining through. Again, we may have seen these cards in Japanese already, but they really are very wholesome even now, and it's great to get a first proper look at some new cards incoming with Phantasmal Flames when it launches on November 14 this year.
Tracker of all things crashing and climbing in the Pokémon single card market for IGN, Christian Wait, also shared his thoughts on Phantasmal Flames' Togedemaru cards with me, saying:
"Togedemaru is an often overlooked pseudo-Pikachu for generation VII, which is why Illustration Rares are such a cool proposition in Pokémon TCG. This IR proves how amazing these full art cards are at showcasing Pokémon that often get overlooked. The simple and colorful IRs always get a spot in my binder, and I think this will be a popular card."
"In terms of having Togedemaru in a deck, playing this early and drawing out the Pokémon you need and getting them on your bench is going to be very handy for decks that require a bit of setup like Mega Venusaur ex from Mega Evolutions base set. Although I think I'd cry a little inside seeing an Illustration Rare being played instead of the standard common card."
I also spoke with fellow Pokémon TCG entusiast, Ben Williams, who was recently digging into the most valuable Mega Evolution cards you can find in boosters right now.
He said this about the English card reveals: "I love it. As someone who's excited for Mega Charizard ex X, this Togedemaru card's easily my #2. Not only is the 'Find a Friend' ability's incredibly useful for all kinds of decks, but the adorable artwork on that Special Illustration Rare's to die for."
High praise indeed! What do you think of the new cards? Let us know in the comments below. For more on Pokémon TCG, consider checking out the full release schedule for the rest of 2025.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.
This article contains contributions by Robert Anderson, Ben Williams, and Christian Wait.
Gearbox has revealed Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, the first seasonal mini-event for the game, an invincible boss, and more.
Bounty Packs are paid DLC that bring new “bite-sized-yet-flavourful” narrative content to Borderlands 4. In Bounty Pack 1, due out November 20, players team up with Rush and “show the Timekeeper's Minister of Culture the true meaning of Mercenary Day, a jolly time for gift-giving and gunslinging with friends and family.”
Bounty Pack 1 also includes a Vault Card with new rewards that players will earn through gameplay, with 24 cosmetic items to unlock and four pieces of rerollable gear. The rerollable gear can be earned as many times as players like, so it can be an opportunity to obtain a roll with stats that perfectly suit a specific build, Gearbox said.
Here’s the official blurb:
Rush, the affable leader of the Outbounders, is feeling homesick and nostalgic for the holidays he's cherished in years past. By his calculations, it's about to be Mercenary Day, a jolly time for gift-giving and gunslinging with friends and family, and he'd like to bring that same festive cheer to the people of Kairos. But his hopes for holiday merriment stand in direct opposition to Screw, the Timekeeper's Minister of Culture who's charged with keeping celebrations as bland and homogenous as possible. Across a series of all-new Main Missions, you'll show Screw the true meaning of Mercenary Day by any means necessary, and maybe score some new Legendary loot in the process.
To access Gearbox has revealed Borderlands 4 Bounty Pack 1: How Rush Saved Mercenary Day, the first seasonal mini-event for the game, an invincible boss, and more., you need to have either bought the Borderlands 4 Deluxe or Super Deluxe Edition (both include the Bounty Pack Bundle), or bought the Bounty Pack Bundle that includes Bounty Pack 1, or bought Bounty Pack 1 individually.
Meanwhile, Gearbox revealed Borderlands 4’s free seasonal mini-event, Horrors of Kairos. This limited-time event celebrates Halloween from October 23 to November 6. Players will encounter a terrifying new weather effect of blood rain when fighting world bosses, and killing them has a chance to earn you new Legendary loot, Gearbox said. Seasonal cosmetics will be offered through SHiFT codes, too.
And finally, there’s a free endgame update in the form of Bloomreaper the Invincible. This is the first of the endgame Invincible Bosses coming to Borderlands 4 as free DLC, and is due at some point in December.
The "Invincible" moniker is a throwback to the raid bosses of Borderlands 2, so these aren't literally unkillable enemies, Gearbox explained, but players' skills “will be tested by the massive health pools, extremely lethal attack damage, and new modifiers of these all-new bosses.”
The December update also adds a new Ultimate Vault Hunter Mode level for an added layer of difficulty.
Last month, Gearbox revealed Borderlands 4’s first of two new Vault Hunters coming to the game as part of the paid Story Pack DLCs. C4SH, due out during the first quarter of 2026, is a playable character whose luck-based powers can make him either the best or worst character in the game.
We’ve got plenty more on Borderlands 4. Last month, a Borderlands 4 dataminer unearthed evidence to suggest that one of the most hated characters from Borderlands 3 was cut and replaced relatively late in development. 2K Games and Gearbox declined to comment when contacted by IGN.
If you are delving into Borderlands 4, don't go without updated hourly SHiFT codes list. We've also got a huge interactive map ready to go and a badass Borderlands 4 planner tool courtesy of our buds at Maxroll. Plus check out our expert players' choices for which character to choose (no one agreed).
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Deadpool and Avengers: Doomsday star Channing Tatum has said he's still keen to make his previously-planned Gambit solo movie, though believes Marvel and Disney would never film its planned superhero sex scenes today.
Speaking to Variety, Tatum said there was "a world where Gambit could finally get his due" after the positive reaction to his character's return in the R-rated Deadpool & Wolverine, a love letter to his 20th Century Fox-era origins.
However, Tatum said he believes Disney would still require changes to the Gambit movie he still had in mind, which he describes as "an R-rated romantic comedy" featuring "mutants having sex."
"If we'd made our Fox version, that script would’ve never gotten made – ever," Tatum said. "It was an R-rated romantic comedy. And when I say R-rated, I mean we went for it. We made Gambit the kind of character who could only exist in a movie with Deadpool. We had mutants having sex! It was wild.
"That’s something Marvel and Disney would never do," he continued, "You don't always know what Disney will be, but you definitely know what it's not going to be. It's not gonna be horror. It's not gonna be sex. But I think Marvel needs that kind of tonal diversity; something to balance the other side. Gambit’s a great opportunity for that."
While not R-rated, Marvel did show Gemma Chan's Sersi and Richard Maddon's Ikaris having sex in The Eternals. As for horror, many fans consider Sam Raimi's Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness to feature plenty of horror elements — not least the scenes where Benedict Cumberbatch's sorcerer is pursued by Elizabeth Olsen's bloodied Scarlet Witch in the latter half of the movie.
While Tatum may not yet have got his Gambit on solo (or otherwise), the actor is primed to return in next year's Avengers: Doomsday, which picks up his character after the events of Deadpool & Wolverine. It's unknown exactly what Gambit will be up to, exactly, though he will appear alongside a host of other actors from the Fox era of Marvel movies, including most of the main X-Men.
Speaking about his role in the film last month, Tatum teased a big X-Men versus Doctor Doom showdown, and also addressed how the movie will handle his character's accent — which was played for laughs in Deadpool & Wolverine.
“[Marvel] really had to wrap their mind around the accent and how people are going to understand him," Tatum said. “I’m not gonna go full Cajun. [They] want things to be funny, but they don’t want to go full Deadpool. They want to keep the drama and keep it tight. When Gambit gets serious — when he drops the Mardi Gras mask — things do matter.”
And earlier this month, Tatum said Avengers: Doomsday will manage to beat the surprises seen in past MCU films, and top the shock value of Wesley Snipes' Blade appearing in Deadpool & Wolverine by a factor of 50.
Avengers: Doomsday is currently set to launch in theaters on December 18, 2026. Should Gambit survive, here's hoping we see the full Cajun again some day.
Image credit: Earl Gibson III/Penske Media via Getty Images.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
A French retailer has all but confirmed Assassin's Creed Shadows is indeed coming to Nintendo Switch 2, and it looks like it'll be another controversial Game-Key Card game.
While rumors of the port have been swirling around ever since PEGI rated the adventure game for its console back in April, this is the first time we've seen a retailer share Assassin's Creed Shadow box art, and news players will be able to "experience Assassin's Creed Shadows in a whole new way with Nintendo Switch 2."
As noted by the eagle-eyed members of the GamingLeaksAndRumours subreddit, however, the key art used in the new retail listing also suggests the game will come as a Game-Key Card. This means that unlike, say, Cyberpunk 2077, which is fully contained on a 64GB cartridge on Switch 2, players will instead have to download part or all of a game before they can play.
It'll likely divide fans who continue to debate the practice of publishers providing Game-Key Cards in Switch 2 boxed games instead of a physical cartridge. It's proven to be a divisive practice among some, not least because while it allows collectors to have a game's box on their shelf, they're essentially useless unless your console is connected to the internet.
Nintendo recently launched a survey designed to poll the Switch 2 userbase on its thoughts surrounding digital and physical games, with questions designed to probe the reasons you might consider one option over another. Nintendo's also interested in finding out if your attitude to digital downloads has shifted over time.
In September, a Ubisoft developer who worked on the Nintendo port of Star Wars Outlaws defended the use of Game-Key Cards, saying the real reason why the Switch 2 version of Star Wars Outlaws uses a Game-Key Card was due to the Switch 2's data speeds, and how quickly the hardware can read information from its bespoke cartridges, versus games downloaded to the console's internal memory.
Later in September, Final Fantasy VII Remake trilogy director Naoki Hamaguchi implied that developers are choosing Game-Key Cards not necessarily from a cost perspective, but a performance one, as the format enables them to bring smoother-running games to the Switch 2.
If you missed Assassin's Creed Shadows the first time around, now may be a good time to try it out. Released back in March, it returned 8/10 in the IGN review.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Borderlands 4 chief Randy Pitchford has said that if other developers better understood why gamers love making decisions about loot, Gearbox would have “good competitors.”
Pitchford was speaking in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live to discuss the release of Borderlands 4 and Gearbox’s journey alongside the series’ success. The outspoken developer said that even though the Borderlands franchise will break through 100 million units sold with Borderlands 4 (publisher 2K Games has yet to announce a sales figure), he insisted “we suck!” because that 100 million is but a drop in the ocean that is the total number of potential gamers globally.
“Our mission is to entertain the world,” Pitchford said. “Which means we suck! Because there are billions of people in the world. We got a lot of work to do. Borderlands, with 4, we’re gonna cross probably 100 million units sold, with Borderlands 4, of the franchise. That’s awesome compared to a lot of things. But it kinda sucks if your goal is to entertain the world. So I feel like we’re just getting started.
“I’ve been working on Borderlands for over 20 years now. And it feels like we’re starting to get pretty good at it. It feels like we’re starting to figure it out. I feel like we’ve probed a lot of the end points. But I don’t think we’re anywhere near the end of a journey.”
Pitchford then entered into a rather philosophical debate about why people love looter shooters like Borderlands so much. This is a game that revolves around the hunt for better loot — in the case of Borderlands 4 billions of potential weapons are available — and players fuss over whether to equip something new that’s just dropped or stick with what they already have, even if it’s inferior.
This is a constant loop in the Borderlands games, which are packed with enemies, crates, chests, and even toilets that spit out loot. Perhaps to a greater extent than any other looter shooter, loot is everywhere in Borderlands, and the player is constantly having to pause to wonder, is that item that just dropped worth my time?
Most of the time, the answer is no. But sometimes the answer is yes. Either way, as you play Borderlands and fuss over the minutiae of your build, you're always asking yourself whether this item or that item will help make the numbers go up within your playstyle. Farming for these items is all part of the loot hunt and, for so many millions of fans, the whole reason to play Borderlands.
(Coincidentally, IGN recently interviewed a Borderlands 4 player who spent 150 hours on over 3,000 boss kills to find out the game’s true drop rate.)
Borderlands games are tuned to present these sorts of loot conundrums “by design,” Pitchford explained, before saying he expected the franchise to have more imitators by now because of how addictive this loop is.
“You’re poking at some fundamentals, which is part of why I think Borderlands as a game has worked, and does work, and why it’s a very delicate design that I think is one of the reasons why there haven’t really been many successful imitators since we first showed how a shooter looter could work with the original game,” Pitchford said.
Borderlands doesn’t have the looter shooter genre to itself, of course. Perhaps its most high-profile rival is Bungie’s Destiny, although that Sony-owned franchise has seen better days. Other examples include People Can Fly’s Outriders (no sequel in sight), and Ubisoft’s The Division (The Division 3 is in the works). If we’re stretching the definition of looter shooter, we might include games like Warframe, Remnant 2, or The First Descendant. Rocksteady’s disastrous Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is perhaps the most high-profile of looter shooter failures. Certainly, Borderlands and its various entries dominate the space.
And it all comes down to nailing the “gratifying” decision around loot in Borderlands. It is something, Pitchford said, humans love to do because it scratches an itch in our brains.
“That decision, that choice about, do I keep what I have or do I try the new thing? That is a very compelling, fundamental, both need and skill that our brains have, to make choices like that,” he said.
“We’ve reduced it down to this simple moment with this interface in this system. It’s a gratifying loop. It’s a gratifying decision. Our brains need to do it, and our brains like doing it. And we’re better off when we do it. The more we exercise that muscle, not just in the video game but literally in life — this is what separates our species from a lot of others, and how we developed language and how we developed all kinds of high levels of consciousness and cognition that allow us to analyse the world. Most of what our prefrontal cortex is for — why that adaptation exists and what it’s used for — is that skill, or versions of it. We’ve reduced it down into this design. And yes — the is the thing I’m looking at better than the thing I’ve got, and managing the cognition between the objective, almost scientific analysis of that choice, versus the emotional impact on that choice, and having those at odds with each other frequently, is very interesting, and dare I say it addictive.”
Pitchford continued: “We don’t do it because it’s addictive. We do it because it’s stimulating and because we kind of need that. Part of why games exist are to… yeah. we can live a fantasy that we might not be able to have in the real world, and we can explore themes and ideas in a safe place that we can’t explore in the real world, but we also can, because it’s an interactive simulation, we can test our thinking and our decision making and put our brain to work in really interesting ways that we kind of need and want.”
And then, the puzzlement that other developers haven’t taken Borderlands on at its own game, and the associated suggestion that Gearbox’s rivals aren’t thinking about the looter shooter on the same level as the studio.
“If other game designers that were trying to get in on the action, so to speak, understood that, we’d have more competitors, or we’d have good competitors,” he said. “But we haven’t so far. It’s weird. The kinds of people that just want to go after it, they’re not thinking about it on that level. They’re just putting into motion something because of market analysis. It’s not a designer’s or creator’s drive that’s doing it. It’s either a business drive or a wishing to be something that you’re not kind of drive.
“It’s so weird. I fully expected after the first game came out that everyone would be hip to exactly what you mentioned, and we’d immediately see lots of other games imitating and aping, and we’d be dead, because we can’t compete with a lot of other folks, especially back then. We were the scrappy underdogs.”
Certainly, the critical reception to Borderlands 4 suggests Gearbox has once again successfully presented a looter shooter that ticks all the right boxes. IGN’s Borderlands 4 review returned an 8/10. We said: “Borderlands 4 gives the series the massive kick in the pants it has needed, with a fantastic open world and greatly improved combat, even if bugs and invisible walls can sometimes throw off that groove.”
We’ve got plenty more on Borderlands 4. Last month, a Borderlands 4 dataminer unearthed evidence to suggest that one of the most hated characters from Borderlands 3 was cut and replaced relatively late in development. 2K Games and Gearbox declined to comment when contacted by IGN.
And if you are delving into Borderlands 4, don't go without updated hourly SHiFT codes list. We've also got a huge interactive map ready to go and a badass Borderlands 4 planner tool courtesy of our buds at Maxroll. Plus check out our expert players' choices for which character to choose (no one agreed).
Photo by Jon Kopaloff/Getty Images for Lionsgate.
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
New screenshots have surfaced of Everwild, the long-awaited fantasy game in development for more than a decade — until its cancelation this summer by Xbox.
Everwild was the work of Sea of Thieves studio Rare, the veteran British team with a string of classic hits. But the long-gestating project was axed in July amid a sweeping wave of layoffs and project cancelations within Microsoft.
Now, a series of fresh Everwild screenshots has cropped online via the portfolio of a former staff member. MP1st reports that the screenshots are believed to show a version of the game "relatively close to its cancelation," depicting a silver-haired hero character exploring ruins in a forest.
While we've seen glimpses of Everwild before via teaser trailers, Rare has always remained tight-lipped around what its gameplay would actually entail. But there are clues here, gleaned from a look at the game's inventory screen, which shows an extensive list of items and tabs.
Inventory sections shown include "favorites," "figments," "tools," "mosaics," "seeds" and "plants." Figments appear to be plantlike creatures — a little like Pikmin, albeit with onion heads. One pale green creature is labeled as a "Light Figment," with other variants shown in blue, white and brown colors.
The game's extensive seed compendium includes an item named the "Shrub Seed," from which you can grow shrubs. Mosaics, meanwhile, include creatures seen in previous Everwild teasers, such as a deer-like animal with a large orange crest.
Se han publicado screenshots del cancelado #Everwild a través de un artista que estuvo en #Rare para el proyecto.
— Soul Gizzmo (@SoulGizzmo) October 12, 2025
De acuerdo a lo informado a MP1ST, estas imágenes serían de una versión del juego bastante cercana a su cancelación en Junio de este año. pic.twitter.com/FN9ci0VOMn
A settings menu can also be seen, which would reportedly have relied on Sea of Thieves player data when suggesting common gameplay configurations.
Everwild was expected to be a third-person fantasy adventure game with god-genre elements, though its development underwent several changes, including a full reboot following the the exit of creative director Simon Woodroffe in 2020. Rare filled the director's chair with veteran designer Gregg Mayles, who previously worked on Donkey Kong Country, Banjo-Kazooie, Viva Pinata, and Sea of Thieves. Mayles is now believed to have left the studio entirely following Everwild's cancelation.
What's next for Rare? Outside of Sea of Thieves, it's unclear. A recent Community Direct broadcast by the developer made clear the studio was doubling down on its pirate-live service game, with plans to keep it updated for at least a couple more years. A fresh revenue stream for the title will also arrive in early 2026, with the additional of a paid subscription to unlock custom servers.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Magic: The Gathering finally lifted the lid on its final mystery set of a busy 2026, and it’s the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The set will incorporate boosters, the new Draft Night box debuting with January’s Lorwyn and those extremely expensive Collector Boosters, but I was most interested in a new Commander deck and preordered the Turtle Power precon instantly. Yes, I know people don’t like Universes Beyond, and for the most part I’m right there with you - but I couldn’t resist this time.
I can’t remember the last time a set came with a single Commander precon. In 2025 alone we’ve had sets with no precons (Spider-Man, Avatar), sets with two (Aetherdrift, Edge of Eternities), a set with four (Final Fantasy) and a set with five (Tarkir Dragonstorm).
Wizards is seemingly easing off the Commander decks as this year winds down, but as a big fan of the format I’m thrilled we’re getting just one for the TMNT set since I fully expected I’d need to pick my favorite turtle and buy one of four.
I’m also very curious to see how it plays, because the Partner mechanic isn’t one we see all that often. I’d also say we don’t see a great number of five-color preconstructed decks, but we’re literally getting one in Lorwyn Eclipsed, too.
All four turtles, plus Splinter? That’s an easy pickup - and Amazon’s preorder price guarantee might mean that it drops lower than the $64.45 I’ve committed to pay already.
As for other UK preorders going live, there’s plenty to choose from. Play Boosters are going for £5.99 a pop, with a booster box sitting at £174.99, while a booster bundle is £60.99 and includes 9 Play Boosters and extras like a promo card and deck box.
At the time of writing, there are no Collector Booster Packs or Boxes up for sale, but you can find one of the sought-after packs in the Draft Night box for £114.99. We’re still waiting on the new Pizza Bundle to show up in the UK, too.
Also new this time is the Turtle Team-Up, which is a 2-4 player co-op game. It’s £41.45 right now, and features four prebuilt decks to get started with.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He's a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife's dismay.
Ghost of Yotei gives its revenge-seeking protagonist Atsu a wide range of traditional Japanese weapons to wield, including bows, swords and spears. Last week, however, a Japanese-speaking user on X questioned whether it was realistic or even possible for Atsu to draw a very long sword from her back, prompting a flood of video comments from traditional Japanese martial arts practitioners.
In Ghost of Yotei, you’ll pick up the Odachi (literally ‘big sword’) in The Way of the Odachi quest (check out our walkthrough here). It is a useful addition to Atsu’s arsenal, especially when facing off against larger enemies (brutes). It allows her to block heavy attacks and then push back against the opponent, opening them up for a devastating slice.
As she already has two swords at her hip, Atsu opts to sheath the Odachi on her back, however X user ikazombie questioned how on earth you’d pull this off without dislocating something. Upon slowing the clip down, they realised that you could theoretically draw and sheath it from over your left shoulder, but seemed unconvinced about how this would be accomplished in real life.
大太刀、あんなデカい刀を背負ってどうやって抜刀すんねん関節外れるぞと思ってたんだけど、予想外のモーションで ” 理 論 上 は ” 問題なく抜刀/納刀できてたの笑う#GhostofYotei #ゴーストオブヨウテイ pic.twitter.com/j31VjGpgDk
— ジェット・リョー (@ikazombie) October 5, 2025
Japanese martial arts practitioners commented with videos. User Harima_mekkai (a member of the Tenshinryu school) decided to try out Atsu’s way of wearing and drawing an Odachi. She posted a video of herself successfully unsheathing a 1m long sword weighing 1.5kg from over her left shoulder. This shows that the drawing part of Atsu's Odachi technique is actually doable, albeit it takes effort and training to pull it off that smoothly.
ゴーストオブヨウテイの大太刀の背負い抜きやってみました。
— まーこ 11月29日生誕祭🎂 (@harima_mekkai) October 7, 2025
刃渡り三尺、重さ約1.5kgの刀です。#ゴーストオブヨウテイ pic.twitter.com/9j46eq80G7
Another user by the name of Lornplum replied with a video of himself drawing and sheathing a back-mounted sword and described the way Atsu deals with the length by holding the blade as she draws it as a "brilliant touch of realism."
刀身持って長さを稼ぐやり方としては絶妙なリアリティ
— lornplum (@lornplum) October 5, 2025
現実でやるならこういうかんじhttps://t.co/X3PqwBcMOq
Sucker Punch did get members of the Tenshinryu school to do motion capture for the sword fights and stances in Ghost of Yotei. Tenshinryu is a traditional Japanese martial art which dates from the 1600s and covers the art of a wide variety of weapons, including spears, swords and chain sickles. PlayStation Japan recently posted a side-by-side video of Ghost of Yotei footage and Tenshinryu members enacting the fight scene.
殺陣師に『Ghost of Yōtei』の戦闘シーンを実写再現してもらいました⚔️
— プレイステーション公式 (@PlayStation_jp) October 9, 2025
演じてくれるのは、本作で殺陣のモーションキャプチャーにもご協力いただいた天心流兵法（@tenshinryu）の皆さま。
出演・天心流兵法
吉村 連彩
井出 柳雪
（監修・鍬海 政雲）#GhostofYotei #ゴーストオブヨウテイ pic.twitter.com/RnfU4pXa4N
However, there is still a bit of video game coolness trumping realism here. The clips of real-life pros show them moving the sheath up and over their shoulder more (or even around their body) to make it easier to draw and sheath the weapon. This is especially apparent when sheathing the sword. It seems that the amount of movement in Atsu’s Odaichi sheathing was reduced, likely to make whipping out and holstering the weapon smoother and more responsive for players.
As Lornplum commented on Harima_Mekkai’s demonstration of drawing a Odaichi Atsu-style: “As you can see, with some effort anyone can manage to draw it, however sheathing it (like Atsu does) is pretty much impossible.”
While they look cool in games, it goes without saying that having a sword on your back in real life makes it much more awkward to access than if it was at your hip. Last year, a Link cosplayer found it impossible to unsheath their back-mounted sword Breath of the Wild-style. However, they received a bit of unexpected advice from none other than Super Smash Bros. creator Masahiro Sakurai, who explained that they made Link’s sword skills a little more realistic for Smash Bros. Ultimate by having him move the scabbard.
IGN's Ghost of Yotei review returned an 8/10. We said: "A predictable but well-executed story takes you through Ghost of Yotei's gorgeous landscapes and satisfying, fluid action – it may not be revolutionizing open world games, but it's a great distillation of the samurai fantasy."
Ready to master Ghost of Yotei? Check out our comprehensive guides, which cover everything from things to do first, best skills to unlock, advanced combat tips, getting the best early-game armor set, and uncovering every Altar of Reflection location. Our Walkthrough also provides essential tips and strategies for defeating every boss, and our secrets and easter eggs guide ensures you never miss another hidden reference again.
Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.
This weekend, Marvel fans at New York Comic Con got a first glimpse at new episodes of Daredevil: Born Again, via a trailer that was meant to stay as an exclusive to those in the room.
However, part of the footage has now leaked online — after none other than Jessica Jones herself, actress Krysten Ritter, posted (then deleted) a snippet on Instagram.
While Ritter's clip is now gone, the internet of course took notice and has shared it more widely. In the snippet, below, you can see our first glimpse at Ritter as Jessica Jones in more than five years, as well as plenty of other returning Daredevil faces.
THE TRAILER. I’M SCREAMING pic.twitter.com/prSh2Quxo6
— Ann 👻 (@bursinxmurdock) October 12, 2025
Daredevil: Born Again Season 2 is set to debut next spring with fresh episodes written from the ground up to reflect the series' mid-production reboot to be more of a continuation from the characters' Netflix era. That means fans should expect an expanded role for Deborah Ann Woll's Karen Page, more from Wilson Bethel's Bullseye, and some form of appearance by Elden Henson's Foggy — as well as Ritter's return.
Marvel recently showed confidence in Daredevil: Born Again's forthcoming second season by exclusively confirming to IGN that it had already greenlit the show for a third run, due to air in 2027. And, earlier this month, Daredevil: Born Again writer Jesse Wigutow said he was returning to the show's writers room to begin work on more new episodes.
"I obviously can't say very much," Wigutow told IGN of Daredevil: Born Again's upcoming second run, "but it's a very big muscular season that revolves around Fisk in office as mayor. There's a lot of political intrigue and palace intrigue.
"What I think is really awesome about the season is that ultimately... [we have] all these moving pieces and this big kind of canvas of New York City, but at the end of the day, it's about these two characters that you care about most, almost the two face-to-face in a playground," he continued. "That's the idea. They hate each other, but they need each other. And how do they get through that? That's ultimately what it all comes down to. And I think we did a really fun job of delivering that."
For more of what was shown over the weekend, check out IGN's roundup of everything revealed by Marvel at New York Comic Con 2025, including first footage of Wonder-Man and details of WandaVision spin-off VisionQuest.
Image credit: Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images for Disney.
Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
A new update for Black Myth: Wukong makes significant performance improvements, but brace yourself for a mammoth 93.3GB download.
On PS5, you'll need the install space to download the huge update, but during the install process that follows the game itself is rewritten, resulting in the same install footprint or perhaps even lower than before. As a result, if you're playing on PS5 and short of space, it may be worth uninstalling the game then downloading it again, rather than downloading the update on top of the game itself.
For the PS5 version, patch 1.0.20.21756 improves the game's loading speed, the clarity of certain textures, CPU and rendering performance in numerous scenarios, memory usage, and the quality of motion blur to mitigate the aliasing issues that occur when the camera pans.
On PC, the patch adds integrated AMD FSR4 support, improves Compatible Mode, and "significantly" improves the lighting quality when Global Illumination is set to low, making it closer to the effect when Global Illumination is set to high.
In a quick overview on social media — and a more detailed outline on developer Game Science's official website — the studio advised that, as well as the usual bug fixes, the "considerable number of underlying changes" coming in to boost performance not only impacts PS5 hard drives, but also PC mods, which "may cause compatibility issues" and "prevent you from launching the game or triggering error pop-ups during gameplay." Consequently, the team recommends players uninstall all mods and verify the integrity of files before restarting the game after you apply the latest patch.
The update rolls out across all platforms from today (October 13). Here's the full list of changes.
Due to the platform's update mechanism, your computer will need to reserve a certain amount of free disk space (not necessarily on the same disk if you are a Steam user) for temporary storage of the update files. (PC)
Improved the combat experience against Yaoguai King "Giant Shigandang".
IGN's Black Myth: Wukong review returned an 8/10. We said: "Despite some frustrating technical issues, Black Myth: Wukong is a great action game with fantastic combat, exciting bosses, tantalizing secrets, and a beautiful world."
It enjoyed enormous success and set sales records. A follow-up is in the works, although it's early days.
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world's biggest gaming sites and publications. She's also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
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