Like whatever genres you like, but for me personally, I find platformers to be the quintessential video game genre. Even with the most challenging entries, there are very few other genres that (when done well) are as easy and quick to pick up, play, and have fun with. I think that’s why so many of them have such longevity, one such game being N++, a tough but fair platformer that’s celebrating its 10th anniversary with a new update.
The A to Zs of Pokémon Legends, right here.
Welcome to our Pokémon Legends: Z-A walkthrough hub, and to Lumiose City! You’ll be spending a lot of time in this Paris-inspired town in Kalos, so let’s settle in. As the second game bearing the Legends moniker, Z-A is decidedly different from the mainline ‘Generational’ games — but it’s even a big step forward from Arceus.
It’s a good time, and in our 7/10 review of the Switch 2 version, we lavished praise on the new real-time battle system, but found that setting the action in a single city was constricting.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Cult of the Lamb is honestly not a game I expected to still be going for as long as and as strongly as it has. It came out in 2022! That was practically a decade ago, at least in games industry years, and yet here is developer Massive Monster showing off the roguelike’s next big expansion, Woolhaven. There’s no release date other than an early 2026 release window, but a new trailer did at least show off all of that farming you’ll get to do. Or, I guess get your cult to do.
I first read The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson back in the mid-2010s, and ever since I have theorycrafted how I would play a Knight Radiant in my TTRPG campaigns. Conceptualizing how shardblades would function or how best to make a spren that wasn’t just a reskinned familiar. Thankfully, I can put that tiring task behind me thanks to the release of the official Cosmere RPG, which, after a VERY successful crowdfunding campaign, has been released. At long last, I can role-play my Windrunner character with my spren partner, Malbifina (Mal for short), and stand against the Desolation.
Developed by Brotherwise Games in close collaboration with Brandon Sanderson himself, the initial offerings for the Cosmere RPG focus solely on Roshar and the systems of the Stormlight Archive books, with three offerings: The Stormlight Handbook (the Player’s Handbook), The Stormlight World Guide (the Dungeon Master’s Guide), and Stonewalkers (a standalone campaign you can play through). For those who aren’t familiar with the Cosmere or Sanderson’s work, the Cosmere is a large galaxy-spanning, progressively more interconnected series of (mostly) epic fantasy novels by Brandon Sanderson. Composed of multiple worlds, each with its own unique and cleverly crafted magic systems, one of which is Roshar, home to Stormlight (magic lightning), spren (manifestations of different emotions and feelings), the Knights Radiant (super paladins), and millennia of war. We have a comprehensive reading guide, so to find out more and get a better picture, I suggest you head there and take a look.
Cosmere utilizes a D20-based system, similar to something like D&D or Pathfinder, where you will use a 20-sided die to make various skill checks, with other dice used to fulfill other needs (such as dealing damage). The action economy will also feel familiar, with basic actions during combat falling into either Actions, Reactions, or Free Actions territories, with Actions requiring anywhere between one and three of your pool per turn. Generally, on your turn, a player will have two or three action points they can use, with more powerful Actions requiring multiple points to pull off. Thanks to its intelligent use of icons denoting the different types and how many points an action takes to use, the whole process is rather new player-friendly and quick to grasp. But just because aspects may feel familiar doesn’t mean that the Cosmere RPG doesn’t do anything new, however.
Considering this is a system that was designed in part by Brandon Sanderson, a man with the ability to write an inhuman amount of books in a short period of time, it shouldn’t be a surprise that narrative and story play a large part in the actual mechanics of the Cosmere RPG, too. A special d6, referred to as the “Plot Die”, isn’t used for every check and is instead reserved for those moments that the GM deems as moments critical to the plot and story they are telling. Moments where the stakes could be raised, granting unforeseen opportunities that impact the story or granting you an “Opportunity,” which is a special resource that can be spent. On the flip side, your roll of the plot die may instead cause a complication to arise in your plan, perhaps causing you to get in an ally’s way during a crucial moment, or another blunder that results in a failure.
This intertwining of narrative and story development also seeps into the character creation process and progression, resulting in a more open and flexible system that I found particularly enamored by. Before anything, you select your ancestry from either Human or Singer (and yes, you can mess around with Singer forms), which will help dictate what areas of the world or lore you specialize in. As a human, you can pick from what region you hail from, giving you an edge on checks on topics, legends, houses, and language, for example, that would make sense for your character to have. With your ancestry picked, you start fleshing out the sort of person they are.
Instead of picking a specific class like Warrior or Druid, players instead choose a Heroic Path, such as a Hunter, Leader, or Agent, each with its own unique skill tree and specialization lines that you can dive into. There are six base Heroic Paths (Agent, Envoy, Hunter, Leader, Scholar, and Warrior) available in the Stormlight Handbook, each with three specializations, and each has a special Key Talent that helps set each path apart from the others. When you level up, you aren’t leveling up a class but your character themself, meaning if you want you can continue down the path you have chosen already and unlocking new Talents (the abilities of the path) if you want, or you can freely choose a new path to start traveling down that makes sense for where your character finds themselves at that moment. No having to deal with complicated multi-class rules or different hit dice for health, none of that. It makes the idea of making a complicated and multi-faceted character more approachable and incentivized, and also just makes the leveling process quicker.
Once you hit level two, though, things really get exciting as, if you wish to, you are able to begin down a Radiant Path of your choice, and yes, all of them are here: Stonewards, Bondsmiths, Windrunners, Skybreakers, Dustbringers, Edgedancers, Truthwatchers, Lightweavers, Elsecallers, and Willshapers. Each Radiant Path will grant you a spren of your own you can come up with, access to that Radiant’s associated Surges, and of course, spending Stormlight and Investiture. If you have read the Stormlight books, then let’s be honest with ourselves, being a Knight Radiant is a big selling point of these books for us, but if you haven’t read them, think of these orders as super Paladins. Each order has access to pretty awesome powers, a little familiar, and eventually, you can even recruit squires to work with you. And just like the Heroic Paths, each Radiant Path features three talent trees you can dive into, with two focusing on a specific surge, Abrasion and Division, for example, with Dustbringers, and then a path that improves your bond with your spren, allowing you to swear further Ideals as a Knight Radiant. Yes, this is awesome, and yes, I have come up with more spren friends than I care to admit to since getting these books. Come at me, Unmade!
To help further define your character, you will also establish a purpose for them, something that drives the character in what they do, which will lead you to create goals for them to strive for. A goal may be something as simple as seeking revenge on someone to something more nebulous, such as finding new ways to heal others, but you are also required to come up with obstacles or character flaws that you have to contend with while striving for your goal. Perhaps in your pursuit of your goal to find new ways to heal others, your character could be blinded by some of the harm done in trying to confirm a hypothesis, or be willing to test ideas that may not be completely safe. Making this goal and obstacle component front-and-center not only helps the GM plan and tailor adventures to individual characters, but also makes the players think more about the characters they are playing as people and not just a character sheet. I’ve found that more role-playing is always a good thing in TTRPGs.
While I may enjoy the mechanics of the Cosmere RPG, as a fan of Sanderson’s books, I would dare say I may like these RPG books more for the details they reveal and how they dive deeper into the world of Roshar and Cosmere as a whole. Since you are able to play as a member of any of the orders of Knights Radiant, I loved looking through the descriptions and breakdowns of not only the various ideals, but also their respective Surges (i.e. the special abilities of a particular order). Reading through these books, especially the World Guide, gave me a better idea of the cultures and visual identity of the peoples of Roshar.
Brandon has stated that the material in these guides will be considered canon with the events in his books, and as such, a great amount of care has been taken by the team to consult and confirm with his lore keepers that everything fits. For readers who may not have finished Wind and Truth, the latest entry of the Stormlight Archive that was released in December 2024, you will want to be careful of spoilers.
In a strange way, the wealth of information these books present also really drew my attention to what the Cosmere RPG doesn’t give me to play around and roleplay with, and it’s here where a vast majority of my complaints reside. Take, for instance, the Heralds, legendary heroes that have held back the evil forces of Odium between desolations. Beings that entire religions on Roshar have been built up around, and whose influence is felt in nearly every facet of the lore. The books have nice sections talking about them, featuring gorgeous artwork, but the RPG is utterly lacking in details for folks that may want to try playing as one.
As someone who is typically in the “forever GM” chair, the fact that none of the books give me basic stat blocks for them is shocking to me. Why aren’t there rules or stats for the Honor Blades? Going even a step further, the fact that the rules don’t give me details for big bads like the various Unmade or even the shards of Odium, Cultivation, or Honor, just bum me out. To a lesser extent, I wish that these first books gave us at least a little tease on what fans may expect from how the other magic systems may operate or the direction they want to take with them. The Ghostblood Enforce enemy does feature “Burning Pewter” which only serves as a buff, and doesn’t give much of an idea on how burning metals will differ from using Stormlight. I realize that each of the worlds will eventually get their own tomes of goodness that dive deep into these things, but couldn’t we have gotten a small, itsy-bitsy tease of how allomancy or AonDor may work?
In addition to the physical books that will be available to the masses in November, Cosmere is seeing relatively frequent updates and additional supplemental materials being added to the Virtual Tabletop service. Not only are you able to snag digital versions of all the books right now, allowing you to build your characters and run games, CosmereRPGNexus.com also has scenarios that you can run and provide you with details and rules to create custom higher-tiered enemies to contend with. If you would prefer just having PDFs, though, you can purchase them all at Drive Thru RPG, too.
For diehard Sanderson fans, even if you have no desire to play a TTRPG, these books, particularly the World Guide, is a must-buy just for lore and the information it provides on Roshar. As TTRPG books, they do well enough, but the item and enemy offerings are lacking in terms of options, especially when compared to other fantasy RPGs. As both a longtime TTRPG player and lover of the Cosmere, it surprises me that some of what has been omitted has left me a bit disappointed. It just comes off as “just wait for the second Roshar set” to me.
The physical Cosmere RPG books will be released on November 12, with digital versions available for purchase now on DriveThruRPG or virtually on Demiplane.
Or, do you even play NES games?
The NES — specifically the Nintendo Entertainment System, not the Famicom — turns 40 today.
The console’s staggered rollout across the US makes its launch a bittier affair than the orchestrated, worldwide drops we’re used to these days. But four decades ago, the first units were purchased in the United States and Western gamers began playing with power.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Our guide to the greatest games on the NES.
The NES’ staggered launch began 40 years ago in the US, on 18th October 1985, following the Famicom’s release two years earlier in Japan. On this historic anniversary, we’re republishing this list of the best games on the system. Enjoy!
The Nintendo Entertainment System, or NES (ness? nezz? enn-eee-ess?), is the archetypal home video game console.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
While attending Gamescom Asia x Thailand Game Show in Bangkok this week, IGN was given the opportunity to sit down with Rainbow Six Siege X’s creative director Alexander Karpazis to talk about how much the tactical live-service shooter has evolved in the ten years since its launch in 2015, where it might go next, the possibility of a campaign mode and Switch 2 port, the use of generative AI in development, and more. Read on for our full chat below!
IGN: 10 years is a great achievement for a live service game, particularly since we’ve seen so many others come and go in that time. What do you put the longevity of Siege down to?
Alexander Karpazis [AK]: I think one of the big points is just the sheer depth of the game. Like even within 10 years, I don’t think you’ll be able to master a game like Siege and as a gamer that’s incredibly rewarding. It means that you’re on a journey to learn, master and discover new things with a game that’s always changing. And I think because of that, it’s just grown and resonates with so many people.
IGN: Has Siege evolved in ways that you could have never predicted at launch?
AK: Yeah, absolutely. I mean if you look at 2015 when the game first launched, the Bomb game mode wasn’t the number one game mode. It was split between Hostage and Secure Area and Bomb. Back then eSports was something that was very grassroots and new, and now it’s become this entire ecosystem where people make their livelihoods off of it, and that’s something we could have never anticipated when it first launched. And so in these interesting ways it’s built up to be something that is really significant and humbling to be a part of.
IGN: You’ve previously said that Siege X is setting the table for the next 10 years. Do you take it one year at a time? How much of a road map is there for the future? Are there 10 more years worth of ideas in the bank?
AK: When it comes to ideas, we actually sat down and we interviewed the entire team about their ideas for the game, and came up with over 40 pages of concepts that the team still wants to push for. So there is no end in sight when it comes to what we want to do with the game, and it’s a balance of short term and long term. We’re looking at the seasons ahead of us but also because of Siege X, we’re looking at anticipating new technology, new platforms, stuff that’s going to come out and it’s going to affect the game. And so how can we anticipate that too over a longer stretch of time.
IGN: Hitting a 10-year milestone, does that increase the pressure on your team for the future, or do you feel like you’ve mastered it now and you know what you’re doing?
AK: We’re always learning and we’ll never stop learning. There’s so much that goes into building a game like this, and it really comes down to listening to the community. They’ll always be vocal in what they want to see and how things change and so yeah, it’s not a matter of mastering where we are right now. It’s being comfortable and knowing that we still have to listen to our community, we still have to adapt, and we still have to innovate as well. Maybe we’re getting a little bit more comfortable in being uncomfortable, and that’s how we keep on rolling the next 10 years.
IGN: On the topic of listening to the community, how much of a challenge is it to balance your team’s vision for Siege X with the wants, needs, and complaints of the players?
AK: It is a challenge, and it isn’t. Firstly, because this game’s been around for so long I think the DNA is very well understood by players, new and old actually. They know it’s a tactical game that has a lot of unique elements like destruction, like asymmetric attacker-defender characteristics. But it does mean that players do want to see change, and more of it more often, and that’s where we have to anticipate better, adapt even faster. And in a way, that’s sustainable, right? We are humans at the end of the day, the dev team is very human as well, and we want to encourage something that can last another 10 years and not only focus on the short term.
IGN: What impact will Ubisoft’s creation of the Vantage Studios subsidiary have on you guys? How do you feel about it, and will it have any noticeable impact on the players?
AK: So when it comes to the player perspective, Vantage Studios is not player-facing so it won’t be anything that’s noticeable for players in the day-to-day or even long term. And even on the project we’re not seeing any major changes, the focus is still on making sure that Siege grows, that it’s invested in, and so that’s something that we can confirm today. And it means that again, we’re still very excited about the future. So it doesn’t actually change anything for us right now.
IGN: When Siege X launched in June, it surged on Steam to around 150,000 concurrent players. Now it appears to be hovering around 40,000. Is that sort of drop-off a concern?
AK: Firstly, the players coming to the game, especially like a record number of new players checking out Siege X? It’s always awesome and it’s exactly what we had hoped for. And then yeah, there’s always a bit of a tail afterwards, especially as the team was also kind of recovering from launching something as massive as Siege X. There are ebbs and flows, and a lot of it’s expected.
So for us, we’re really happy with the game. We’re happy with where it’s going. We have the Munich Majors in November where we’ll be sharing even more about where it’s going next. And again, excited to see players continue to join Siege and grow from there.
IGN: Is it a similar trend on consoles?
AK: Yeah, it is. PC and consoles share the same player habits that we see all the time.
IGN: At this stage, do you feel like switching to free-to-play was the right thing to do, or is it too soon to tell?
AK: For us, we’re seeing the benefits already. We have more new players joining the game than ever before since launch, and that’s exactly what we’d hoped for. We’re seeing a new generation of Siege players as well, which again is really great even as we try to balance the needs of new players and also veteran players. It is hitting the mark.
IGN: You’ve got so many characters and 10 years’ worth of lore built into the game now. Have you at least entertained the idea of a campaign mode? Rainbow Six Vegas had such an awesome co-op campaign.
AK: It’s absolutely part of the heritage and yes, it is something that our players ask about. All I can say right now is we’re still really focused on the PvP aspect. We have been playing around with storytelling within PvP, and we had an event called Assault on Hereford that players really loved, that did build on what our characters are doing, the tone of the game, and we will continue to explore that realm. But yeah, we have nothing to announce right now.
IGN: What’s your stance on the use of generative AI in games development, do you have plans to use it for Siege?
AK: If we just talk about AI at its core, it’s something we’ve always been using, like machine-learning, developing new tools not only for anti-cheat but for things like our AI bots, where they’re actually trained on our real player data. So these are all incredible tools that make us faster and more efficient. And so it’s not a new concept.
However, when it comes to generative AI, this is stuff that’s still really new and so we haven’t incorporated it into our pipeline of Siege.
IGN: What’s the fan response been like to the Dual Front mode? I know a lot of players were of the opinion that the District map was a bit too big at launch, are you reevaluating that?
AK: Yeah, there was a lot of feedback on the new mode especially when you’re comparing it to veterans and new players. We see new players really jumping in more often than veterans, which is great. It’s something that we hoped for. But there are still ways to improve it.
So we will be taking some time to make some bigger changes to the game mode that we’ll be really excited to share for Year 11 – Season One. So at the start of next year. We’ll keep on shaking things up and seeing if we can get more good feedback on it too.
It’s definitely something that we want to stand apart from core Siege. Core Siege is very much competitive. The main draw is Ranked where it has this kind of competitive progression. Dual Front is still the place where we want to give all of the sandbox ingredients that you have in Siege in a more free form so you can play around with all of it, mixing attackers and defenders, mixing different kinds of strategies to attack and defend too. That’s where it really shines. So making sure Dual Front is answering a clearly different need than Core is something that we’re focused on.
IGN: We’ve seen Star Wars Outlaws come to Nintendo Switch 2, and Assassin’s Creed Shadows is rumoured to be on its way too. Is Rainbow Six Siege 2 likely to be next?
AK: For us the focus will always be on the platforms we’re on right now, making sure that it’s the best experience and when we do new gameplay [that] it makes use of the platforms that we’re on. So right now, any new platform isn’t necessarily a focus for us. But again, we’re a live game, it’s 10 years. I learnt a long time ago to never say never, so we’ll see as platforms grow and new opportunities come up too.
IGN: Finally, do you have anything special planned for the 10-year anniversary?
AK: We’ve spoken a little bit about it and we’ll share even more at the Munich Majors, but our plan is absolutely to celebrate this major milestone with our players. We have a big event planned for in-game. We have rewards that we have planned for our players as well. So yeah, we’ll absolutely be taking advantage of this big moment and celebrating it with everyone.
IGN: Looking forward to seeing what you have in store. Thanks for your time.
AK: Thank you so much.
Tristan Ogilvie is a senior video editor at IGN’s Sydney office. He travelled to Bangkok as a guest of Gamescom Asia.
Celebrate four decades of play, design and memory.
8BitDo has announced a brand new ‘NES40 Collection’ of products which incorporates an Ultimate 2 Bluetooth controller, 68-key Retro Keyboard, and a rather fetching Retro Cube 2 speaker.
The new range, which is now available to pre-order over at 8BitDo’s official website, certainly looks stunning, and it manages to add a few nice little touches to a line-up that stick to the look and feel of previous “Retro” offerings from the company.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Words of wisdom from Nintendo’s legendary CEO.
If you never got around to reading Ask Iwata or just want an excuse to revisit it, VIZ Media has announced it’s releasing an English paperback version in Summer 2026.
This book, edited by Hobonichi, compiles the former Nintendo president and CEO’s famous interviews into a “motivational collection”. Iwata touches on a range of diverse subjects, such as how success breeds resistance to change and why programmers should never say no.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Lost Origins saw reprints earlier this year, but now that they’ve dried up, we’re seeing the usual climbs in this Pokémon TCG: Sword and Shield expansion. What I didn’t expect was to see so many Trainer Gallery cards drop in value, but I think this is more of a market correction.
It was only at the beginning of the year that Gengar and Pikachu were in the pocket money binder at your local TCG and collectables stores, but those days are still a distant memory.
With Pokémon Mania 2025 still going crazy, everyone is trying to grab new release sealed product at retail, which means it’s a great time to snag some overlooked cards from older sets before they climb up.
For example, I got most of the cards in today’s crasher section for around $5 each 12 months ago, so although they’re currently lowering in price, they’re still a great buy. Let’s get straight into it.
Gengar TG06/TG30 is a bit of a risk to play in-game, Netherworld Gate can bring it back from the dead without the need to evolve it, but you also get three damage counters. Screaming Circle can work out well then opponents have a full bench for one Psychic energy, but it’s still a risk that might not be worth taking. The artwork itself is fantastic, and it’s one of my favorite Gengar cards just for the bold colour and Gengar being fascinated by a washing line. This card has had a brutal crash from $56 to $38, but I see this as more of a correction.
Pikachu TG05/TG30 has the exact same charm, seeing it having a nap with the female trainer from Legends: Arceus. It’s such a sweet image and can see why this card is worth over $26. It’s come down from over $30, but I’m sure this will grow far past this point in the next 12 months. It’s really not worth including in your deck, but it’s a cracking pick for a trainers binder.
Gold and black cards never really did much for me personally, so I can see why the value of Mew VMAX TG30/TG30 has dipped from $26.04 to $21.42. But that’s besides the point, it’s still Mew and there’s plenty of people who need every Mew they can find in their collection, so this still isn’t bad.
Charizard TG03/TG30 is another card im suprised to be calling a crasher this week. It’s Charizard cuddling up with Champion Leon, which is a recipe for a banger card. We’re seeing a lot of Trainer Gallery cards go through a bit of a correction right now, but a 25% drop from $23.95 to $17.98 is a bit rough. I’d reccomend picking one up before it ticks back up.
Pikachu VMAX TG29/TG30 is matching that Mew energy. I pulled this from a booster earlier this year, and it’s a bit of an underwhelming card despite the rarity. It’s not dropped by much, only 9%, and it will probably climb in the next year or two, but black gold cards could have been so much cooler.
Giratina V 186/196 has gone through the roof and into the stratosphere over the last month. In September these we’re going for $570, but it’s now over $720, and I’m here for it. I’m yet to get my hands on one, but what an incredible work of art this card is. It illustrates the Distortion world perfectly.
It’s nice to see Aerodactyl card climbing up in value, especially it’s V Alt Art (180/196). It’s a gorgeous scene of it slying over a tropical area, with a shedload of detail and some lovely use of color. It’s easy to see why this card has been bumped from $129 to just over $180 in the space of a month.
Red and Pikachu, this is peak Pokémon generation one nostalgia at its finest. Showcasing Red checking out a map and Pikachu looking ready for a new adventure, there’s no reality where Pikachu V TG16/TG30 twouldn’t double in value in a month. At $99.07 right now, trainers would be wise to add this to their collection sooner rather than later.
Pikachu VMAX TG17/TG30 takes this nosgalia and kicks it up a gear into the Sword and Shield era of Pokémon with Pikachu Gigantamax form. The posture of Red ready for another challenge with chonky Pikachu just happy to be standing upright is a cracking scene. This card used to be $10-20 higher than Pikachu V, but is settling in the same ballpark at $96.
Rotom is a cool Pokémon and no one will tell me any different. I’d have one in my phone making it fly around every day of the week, and i’d love to have Rotom V 177/196 in my collection one day. It’s cheap and cheerful at $26, but it’s climbed up from $22 in a month, so I’d call that a low risk investment.
Christian Wait is a contributing freelancer for IGN covering everything collectable and deals. Christian has over 7 years of experience in the Gaming and Tech industry with bylines at Mashable and Pocket-Tactics. Christian also makes hand-painted collectibles for Saber Miniatures. Christian is also the author of “Pokemon Ultimate Unofficial Gaming Guide by GamesWarrior”. Find Christian on X @ChrisReggieWait.
