Venture Into Breach the Fog in Silly Polly Beast

Venture Into Breach the Fog in Silly Polly Beast

Silly polly beast key art

In Silly Polly Beast, you’ll join the ever-unlucky Polly as she escapes from the nightmare of an orphanage she was raised in, only to plunge into the darkness of the underworld. In this eclectic, genre-bending shooter-meets-survival horror adventure, you’ll traverse otherworldly, often abstract environments and overcome hellish challenges to fight not only for your freedom, but for the only thing you have left – Alice. Prepare yourself for the ultimate fight for freedom in Silly Polly Beast on October 28th on both Xbox Series S|X and Xbox One Systems – and by the way, stay clear of the fog.

Alongside Polly, you’ll traverse through the underworld, avoiding the dreaded fog. Along the way you’ll engage in aggressive gun fights, outsmart enemies, sneak in the shadows, solve puzzles, work with unlikely allies, and travel with your trusty skateboard. The world of Silly Polly Beast is a unique experience set in a world that treads the line between fever dream nightmare and idyllic eastern bloc fantasy. How far will you go in the fight for your freedom?

Poor Polly isn’t alone in the underworld. It’s filled with an odd, sundry mix of denizens that lurk in the shadows, often with their own goals – and morals. Not all of these denizens will be against you – but that doesn’t mean they are necessarily on your side either. As you interact with these odd figures, remember – you ultimately have but one goal. Are they really aiding you, or distracting you? No matter what events may unfold, remember – never forget the pact which plunged you into the abyss.

Silly Polly Beast features a truly unique gameplay experience which fluidly blends world exploration and puzzle solving with high octane, perspective-shifting battles. As the narrative deepens, you’ll encounter an eclectic mix of top-down and side scrolling shooter battles, survival horror segments, and even skateboarding ones. Polly’s power will grow deadlier over time – master forbidden spells and remember your goals.

A labor of love developed by a solo developer over the course of several years, Silly Polly Beast promises a unique, auteur-lead vision that isn’t bound by normal genre conventions. The narrative will shift and change just as much as the gameplay as you make your way through the underworld. Along the way you’ll explore eerie realms, confront figures which haunt Polly’s past, and master forbidden spells. Will you escape, or will the demons claim you first?

Developed by Andrei Chernyshov with co-development help, porting assistance for Xbox, and publishing by Top Hat Studios, Silly Polly Beast launches on October 28th. Add it to your wishlist now!

Silly Polly Beast

Top Hat Studios, Inc.

An otherworldly, story-driven shooter with aggressive gunfights and terrifying monsters awaits you. This is the story of a girl who, by the will of fate, faced the beast – and in order to become free, she was forced to study its nature. How far can you go in the fight for your freedom?

Embrace your inner demon or be consumed by it.

Perpetually unlucky Polly escapes a nightmarish orphanage… only to find herself trapped in the underworld.

The city was shrouded in fog. Deadly fog. They say that if you see such a sign, be careful. Your fog bracelet will illuminate the deadly fog red when it’s very close.

You’ll encounter denizens of the otherworldly realm – not all of which are against you – but none of whom are on your side. No matter how events unfold, never forget the pledge & pact you took that plunged you into this abyss.

Prepare for a unique gameplay experience, blending world exploration with battles from both side and top-down perspectives. Ancient forbidden knowledge will bolster your strength. With each new spell mastered, Polly’s power grows deadlier.

Explore eerie realms, confront haunting figures from Polly’s past, and master forbidden spells in a fight for freedom. Will you escape, or will the demon claim you first?

The post Venture Into Breach the Fog in Silly Polly Beast appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Skate Story now has a release date and a Steam Next Fest demo, leaving no excuse not to munch on its moons

Soon, I will eat more than one moon. But for now, both you and I can eat a single moon as a demo starter for the main course Skate Story‘ll ollie into our lives when it releases in December. It’ll have to do, washed down with a glass skater making a stone philosopher feel some type of way by busting out sick combos.

Read more

Round Up: The Reviews Are In For Pokémon Legends: Z-A

One man’s Trubbish…

We finally did it, Trainers! Pokémon Legends: Z-A launch week is upon us and, with just two days to go, reviews have started rolling in.

Here at Nintendo Life, we had a perfectly pleasant time with TPC’s latest. Our very own Ace Trainer Alana awarded it a 7/10 in our review, calling the new real-time combat mechanics “the best Pokémon battles have ever felt”, but struggling with the whole set up of Lumiose City. Here’s a snippet:

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

How Overload Brings a Package of Competitive Fun to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Multiplayer

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Screenshot

How Overload Brings a Package of Competitive Fun to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Multiplayer

Summary

  • Overload is a brand-new mode for Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Multiplayer that mixes in a variety of community favorites like Capture the Flag and Uplink into a singular new experience.
  • Design Director Matt Scronce and Senior Director of Production Yale Miller share insights into how the new Multiplayer mode was created.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launches November 14, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox on PC, and Cloud – with support for Xbox Play Anywhere and day one with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass – as well as PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Battle.net, and Steam.

I look at my HUD and see that the Overload Device is on the move again. I break off and circle back to my team’s control zone, hoping to intercept my opponent before he can score the winning point. I turn a corner, and we meet. They break into a slide to duck under fire – but that’s exactly what I planned for. He falls short with the package sitting idle just outside the zone… then his teammate takes me out, picks up the device, and finishes the job. Match point.

Overload brings a lot of competitive excitement to the wealth of gameplay modes that will launch day one in Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Multiplayer, a package that includes favorites like Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, and the return of large-scale battles with Skirmish. But with Overload we get a fresh new toy to play with, one that mixes in a variety of community favorites like Capture the Flag and Uplink into a singular new experience.

Here, two teams of six square off to fight over an Overload Device that must be escorted into enemy control zones to score a point. Once a team has picked up the device, they’ll appear on the HUD and Tac-Map for all players to see, and only one device will spawn on the map at a time – so expect some high stakes firefights surrounding the device once it spawns in. As a support, you can help escort your teammate to the enemy controlled zones, whereas the opponents want to stop them from doing so. Teams will switch sides at “half-time” and the first one to score 8 points, or whoever has the highest score once the clock expires, wins.

“Overload started with a real desire to create a new competitive mode,” explains Design Director Matt Scronce. “Of course we’ve got the favorites – Team Deathmatch, Domination, Hardpoint, Kill Confirmed – but the team really wanted to push on a Call of Duty competitive mode. Treyarch has a long-standing support and pedigree with the competitive community, and it started with how we can make a new mode work with the competitive players across the community and the Call of Duty League on supporting that. How can we make it the best? That’s where it started.”

As I learned during our discussion around this new mode, when the team sits down to start working on the creation of a competitive mode like Overload, it starts by establishing a different set of governing rules as opposed to making something that will have a wide-ranging appeal. They’re looking at establishing factors like how it can encourage team play, and how it can utilize new gameplay mechanics like Active Camo or the Overclock system, for example. It also comes down to which community they’re trying to serve – in this case, it was to give the competitive community something new.

As Scronce tells me, the initial pitch for Overload was to create a new, objective-based competitive mode, something that could be played 6v6 but scaled down to 4v4 for Call of Duty League. It also needed to have an objective in the map that can be picked up and carried, and this came from inspiration from previous modes that they’ve done like Capture the Flag, Uplink, Search and Destroy, and Sabotage.

“We looked at all of them, ranging back to… 2007? We looked at everything we’ve done, because we’ve done a lot,” adds Scronce. “And we can see what worked here, what didn’t work there, and what do we think we can add to make it kind of fresh and work with Black Ops 7? Obviously, we’ve got the next-level Omnimovement and wall jumps. And some of our new 2035 era of gear, guns, and gadgets – we’ve talked a lot about how those can fit and make sense in Overload.”

One example the team is mulling over is how someone using the Active Camo Field Upgrade, where I can deploy camouflage, should be able to pick up the objective and remain camouflaged. “That’s just one very specific example of something, like the rule set of ‘should you be able to remain in Active Camo and hold the objective’ – the answer right now is yes, because it’s fun,” says Scronce.

Playing Overload, I really do get the sense that this is a great fusion of competitive teamplay, but also a lot of fun. It creates a constant series of mini objectives throughout a match that I must consider, which really keeps me engaged: anticipating where a chokepoint might be, the best route to track down an enemy carrier, or where to set up shop to take out enemies who are lured to a device location.

“We had the pro players in recently and they were very loud in playtesting,” says Senior Director of Production Yale Miller. “The noise they were making was ringing through the studio. We’ve been working so hard on Black Ops 7 and we’re very proud of it and we want people to love it. So, when we hear people having fun and hollering and WTFs and all that – that’s music to our ears.”

Teamplay and communication are keys for success in Overload, ensuring you’re all on the same page of when to push to the objective, or being able to grab the device if someone goes down. Or just simply having a teammate nearby who can come in and back you up.

“If you’re a lone wolf you might get hung out to dry,” adds Miller. “It really forces that kind of team dynamic where suddenly people are talking because they kind of must, right? To be successful, you must be like, ‘Let’s go, we’re all going to push together,’ versus if you’re pushing by yourself, you’re probably in trouble. Forcing that teamwork is key because of the objective.”

And this dynamic plays out evenly on both sides – evidence that the team at Treyarch really seems to have been able to tap into a competitive (and fun) mode for players. Overload rounds out a great list of modes launching with Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 that really pluses up the entirety of its Multiplayer package that the team is really excited for.

“At the end of the day, it’s one of 10 key multiplayer modes. And then obviously we have Zombies, and our Co-op Campaign for the first time,” says Miller. “It’s part of the whole package, and we think for us a lot of what we talk about is what’s the full package of Black Ops 7 and making sure that we’re hitting everything. You can’t really beat the value in our minds.”

Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 launches November 14, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, Xbox on PC, and Cloud – with support for Xbox Play Anywhere and day one with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass – as well as PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Battle.net, and Steam. Pre-order any digital edition or subscribe to select Game Pass plans to receive the Reznov Challenge Pack and Guild Override Weapon Camo for immediate use in Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty: Warzone (Terms).


Xbox Play Anywhere

Call of Duty®: Black Ops 7 – Vault Edition

Activision Publishing Inc.

$99.99

Pre-order any digital edition and receive:

– Items for immediate use in Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty®: Warzone™*:
— Reznov Challenge Pack – unlock the SOG Reznov Operator Skin. Plus, get access to unlock the Stalingrad Reznov and Memory Reznov Operator Skins
— Guild Override Weapon Camo – unlock the Guild Override dynamic Weapon Camo

The Vault Edition includes:

– Cross-Gen Bundle of Call of Duty®: Black Ops 7
— Includes Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Xbox PC versions of the game
– BlackCell (1 Season)**
— Includes: Battle Pass, 20 Tier Skips, 1,100 CP and more
– Operator Collection
— 4 Operator Skins: Harper, Karma, T.E.D.D. and Reaper EWR-3
– Mastercraft Collection
— 5 Mastercraft Weapons
– Ultra GobbleGum Pack for Zombies
— 8 GobbleGums of Ultra rarity for Black Ops 7
– Permanent Unlock Token for Black Ops 7 (available at launch)

In Call of Duty®: Black Ops 7, Treyarch and Raven Software are bringing players the most mind-bending Black Ops ever.

The year is 2035 and the world is on the brink of chaos, ravaged by violent conflict and psychological warfare. David Mason leads an elite team on a covert mission to the sprawling city of Avalon. While there, they discover a sophisticated plot that won’t just plunge the world into chaos, it will pull them into their own haunting pasts.

Squad up or go solo in an innovative Co-Op Campaign that redefines the Black Ops experience.

Multiplayer explodes out of the gate with 16 electrifying 6v6 maps and two 20v20 maps at launch. Master a cutting-edge arsenal and outmaneuver your enemies with an evolved Omnimovement system.

In Treyarch’s legendary Round-Based Zombies mode, the nightmare begins where reality ends. Trapped in the heart of the Dark Aether, the crew is thrust into a vast, ever-shifting hellscape.

Game requires a Game Pass Core subscription (sold separately).

TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot required for PC, other security measures may be enforced. Learn more at https://support.activision.com/tpm.

*Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 or Call of Duty®: Warzone™ on Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One / Xbox PC required to redeem. Sold / downloaded separately. Must be redeemed by November 14th, 2026.

**BlackCell, Battle Pass, Call of Duty® Points and Tier Skips will be accessible in Black Ops 7 upon availability of the Season 1 Battle Pass in-game. Redemption applies to one Season of the Black Ops 7 Battle Pass only.

Content, features, services, online play, and support not available in all regions, and may vary, change, or terminate.

Requires an Activision account and acceptance of the Activision Software License and Services Agreement. A mobile phone number linked to your Activision account may be required to play Black Ops 7.

Additional storage space may be required for mandatory game updates.

For more information, please visit www.callofduty.com.

©/TM/® 2025 Activision Publishing, Inc. This product contains software technology licensed from Id Software (‘Id Technology’). Id Technology © 1999-2025 Id Software, Inc.


Call of Duty®: Black Ops 7 – Vault Edition Upgrade

Activision Publishing Inc.


90

$30

Upgrade to the Vault Edition and receive the following bonus content*:

– BlackCell (1 Season)**
— Includes: Battle Pass, 20 Tier Skips, 1,100 CP and more
– Operator Collection
— 4 Operator Skins: Harper, Karma, T.E.D.D. and Reaper EWR-3
– Mastercraft Collection
— 5 Mastercraft Weapons
– Ultra GobbleGum Pack for Zombies
— 8 GobbleGums of Ultra rarity for Black Ops 7
– Permanent Unlock Token for Black Ops 7 (available at launch)

*Requires existing ownership of the digital version of the Call of Duty®: Black Ops 7 – Cross-Gen Bundle on Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One / Xbox PC (sold separately), or active subscription to select Game Pass plans (Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass PC, or Game Pass Console).

**BlackCell, Battle Pass, Call of Duty® Points and Tier Skips will be accessible in Black Ops 7 upon availability of the Season 1 Battle Pass in-game. Redemption applies to one Season of the Black Ops 7 Battle Pass only.

For more information, please visit www.callofduty.com.

©/TM/® 2025 Activision Publishing, Inc. This product contains software technology licensed from Id Software (‘Id Technology’). Id Technology © 1999-2025 Id Software, Inc.


Xbox Play Anywhere

Call of Duty®: Black Ops 7 – Cross-Gen Bundle

Activision Publishing Inc.

$69.99

Pre-order any digital edition or subscribe to select Game Pass plans* and receive:

– Items for immediate use in Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 and Call of Duty®: Warzone™**:
— Reznov Challenge Pack – unlock the SOG Reznov Operator Skin. Plus, get access to unlock the Stalingrad Reznov and Memory Reznov Operator Skins
— Guild Override Weapon Camo – unlock the Guild Override dynamic Weapon Camo

Includes:

– Cross-Gen Bundle of Call of Duty®: Black Ops 7
— Includes Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One and Xbox PC versions of the game

In Call of Duty®: Black Ops 7, Treyarch and Raven Software are bringing players the most mind-bending Black Ops ever.

The year is 2035 and the world is on the brink of chaos, ravaged by violent conflict and psychological warfare. David Mason leads an elite JSOC team on a covert mission to the sprawling Mediterranean city of Avalon. While there, they discover a sophisticated plot that won’t just plunge the world into chaos, it will pull them into their own haunting pasts.

Squad up or go solo in an innovative Co-Op Campaign that redefines the Black Ops experience. Take on high-stakes challenges across a wide spectrum of environments, from the neon-lit rooftops of Japan to the Mediterranean coast, and even into the deepest corners of the human psyche.

Multiplayer explodes out of the gate with 16 electrifying 6v6 maps and two 20v20 maps at launch. From futuristic Tokyo vistas to the frozen, unforgiving wilds of Alaska, every environment is brimming with danger and opportunity. Master a cutting-edge arsenal and outmaneuver your enemies with an evolved Omnimovement system.

In Treyarch’s legendary Round-Based Zombies mode, the nightmare begins where reality ends. Trapped in the heart of the Dark Aether, the crew is thrust into a vast, ever-shifting hellscape. This isn’t just survival. It’s a descent into madness.

Game requires a Game Pass Core subscription (sold separately).

TPM 2.0 and Secure Boot required for PC, other security measures may be enforced. Learn more at https://support.activision.com/tpm.

*Requires active subscription to Game Pass Ultimate, Game Pass PC, or Game Pass Console. Subscribers must login to Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 or Call of Duty®: Warzone™ on Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One / Xbox PC by November 14, 2025 to redeem the Reznov Challenge Pack.

**Call of Duty®: Black Ops 6 or Call of Duty®: Warzone™ on Xbox Series X|S / Xbox One / Xbox PC required to redeem. Sold / downloaded separately. Must be redeemed by November 14th, 2026.

Content, features, services, online play, and support not available in all regions, and may vary, change, or terminate.

Requires an Activision account and acceptance of the Activision Software License and Services Agreement. A mobile phone number linked to your Activision account may be required to play Black Ops 7.

Additional storage space may be required for mandatory game updates.

For more information, please visit www.callofduty.com.

©/TM/® 2025 Activision Publishing, Inc. This product contains software technology licensed from Id Software (‘Id Technology’). Id Technology © 1999-2025 Id Software, Inc.


The post How Overload Brings a Package of Competitive Fun to Call of Duty: Black Ops 7 Multiplayer appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Deals for Today: TCGPlayer Is Destroying Amazon in Pokémon TCG Sealed Product Bargains

It’s time for my weekly Pokémon TCG sealed product price watch. Suprise suprise, the secondary market in TCGPlayer is giving big box retailers like Amazon a run for their money. Let’s just keep in mind that TCGPlayer is a marketplace, so this is small to medium sellers undercutting billion and trillion dollar companies here.

TL;DR: Deals for Today

I’ll give it to Amazon, some in-demand products are cheaper on there today too, we’re talking Mega Evolution sealed product, Black Bolt and even a premium collection ex box. Don’t forget that Pokémon Legends: Z-A drops on Thursday too, and I’ve got all the preorder links you’ll need above and below. There’s a song in that somewhere? Let’s get into it:

Cheapest at Amazon: Pokémon TCG

Kicking off with the Mega Evolution Elite Trainer Box, we know $92.65 isn’t MSRP and Amazon should be selling it as such, but this is how it is in Pokémania 2025 for now. It’s 7% below the current market value and a good deal if you’re struggling to get stock. Meanwhile the Mega Evolution three pack blister is only a dollar cheaper, but that dollar is better in your pocket. The other savings range between $1 to $5, so fill your boots!

Cheapest at TCGPlayer: Pokémon TCG

TCGPlayer is really showing up big box retailers. The secondary market is saving trainers a fortune right now, and will continue doing so until the Pokémon Company floods the marketplace with sealed product, which will happen eventually. A good example here is the Surging Sparks ETB, which is currently $92.94 on Amazon. If you check over on TCGPlayer right now, you’ll pay $74.95. That’s nearly $20 over market value, and there’s plenty more where that came from in the carosel above.

MTG: TMNT Preorders are Live

New game mode aside, MTGs latest Universes Beyond addition is another huge IP with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. Play Boosters are available, so getting a box is a great idea before preorders sell out and it becomes harder to build a deck. The Commander Deck is ideal if you want a solid foundation for a game of Commander but want to modify it with single cards down the line. Of course, the TMNT bundle comes with a few goodies including 9 play boosters, foil alt art promo card, 30 land cards and some tidy accessories.

Pokémon Legends: L-A Preorders

It’s nearly time trainers! Thursday see’s the release of the most radiacally different mainline Pokémon game, Legends: Z-A. Set as a continuation of Pokémon X and Y and continuing the game mechanic changes seen in Legends: Arceus, Legends: Z-A is going full real-time combat over it’s tried and tested turn-based battle style. It’s going to be a landmark moment for the worlds most popular entertainment franchise, so make sure you have your preorder in.

Xbox Game Pass Ultimate (3 Months)

Well, Xbox isn’t in the good books of gamers worldwide right now, but you can dodge the Game Pass (eventual) price hike with 3 months of Ultimate for $59.99, which is $30 cheaper than the dramatic price hikes. If you’re on Xbox, this is a good time to stack up on Game Pass.

Final Fantasy IX (Nintendo Switch)

We gave Final Fantasy IX a 9.2 back in 2000, so $40 for a JRPG classic isn’t much to ask, right? Well if the re-release hasn’t sold you on it’s own, this version comes with high resolution cut scenes, and game modifiers including high speed and no encounter modes topped off with an Auto Save function. Also, character models are high resolution now too, so this physical edition of FFIX should wet you nostalgia appetite.

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.

Assassin’s Creed Franchise Boss Departs Ubisoft

Assassin’s Creed franchise boss Marc-Alexis Côté has departed Ubisoft after a career spanning more than 20 years, IGN understands.

The news comes just two weeks after Assassin’s Creed, Ubisoft’s biggest brand, became operated by Vantage Studios, the separate business entity formed by Ubisoft with a 25% stake from Chinese giant Tencent that will also now oversee all future Far Cry and Rainbow Six games.

Ubisoft staff were informed of the news this afternoon via an internal email which simultaneously discussed the need for Vantage Studios’ leadership team to be “aligned” with its core goals, while wishing Côté well for the future. IGN understands that Côté was offered a role as part of Vantage Studios’ leadership, but declined.

In an internal note to Ubisoft staff obtained by IGN, Vantage Studios co-CEO Christophe Derennes said he was “disappointed” by Côté’s decision, and that the former leader “had his own expectations and priorities related to Vantage Studios’ creation and future.”

“Following the organizational restructuring announced in March 2025, Marc-Alexis Côté has chosen to pursue a new path elsewhere outside of Ubisoft,” a Ubisoft spokesperson told IGN today. “While we are saddened to see him go, we’re confident that our talented teams will carry forward the strong foundation he helped build.

“We are deeply grateful for the impact Marc-Alexis has had over the years, particularly in shaping the Assassin’s Creed brand into what it is today. His leadership, creativity, and dedication have left a lasting mark on our teams and our players. We thank him sincerely for his many contributions and wish him continued success in all his future endeavors.”

Côté, known internally by his initials as Mac, joined Ubisoft in 2005 as a software engineer, before working as a lead engine programmer on Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands. From there, he joined the Assassin’s Creed series in time for Brotherhood, working as a lead level designer, before serving as a game director on Assassin’s Creed 3.

As creative director, Côté led development on a string of projects built at Ubisoft Quebec, the talented team which made Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag DLC Freedom Cry, Assassin’s Creed Syndicate, and then Assassin’s Creed Odyssey, for which Côté served as senior producer.

In March 2022, as Quebec worked on Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Ubisoft sought to relaunch the series with a more consistent story focus via the Animus Hub (then referred to as Assassin’s Creed Infinity), it was Côté that took the reigns on the entire franchise, laying out a Marvel-style slate of upcoming projects that included the forthcoming Assassin’s Creed Hexe, which still lacks a release date.

More to follow…

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

We Finally Know When Pokémon Legends: Z-A Takes Place in the Pokémon Timeline

When Pokémon Legends: Z-A was first revealed, we all immediately got to work speculating on when it would take place in the Pokémon timeline. Not where, we knew that: it takes place entirely in Lumiose City from Pokémon X and Y’s Kalos region. But given that Legends: Arceus was a time-traveling narrative going back hundreds of years into Sinnoh’s past, we had every expectation based on trailers that Z-A would be many, many years in Lumiose City’s future.

We were incorrect! We now know exactly when it takes place, and it’s not nearly as big a leap as you’d think.

We’ve been playing Pokémon Legends: Z-A for review and the embargo has now lifted. So we can confirm, from first-hand experience talking to multiple characters (most of which we unfortunately can’t directly cite or show due to the ongoing embargo restrictions), that Z-A takes place just five years after the events of X and Y. It’s not a time traveling narrative, it’s a direct sequel that offers a follow-up to many of the characters and situations introduced in X and Y.

For instance, we already know that you get to hang out with AZ, a 3,000-year-old man who plays a pivotal role in X and Y. We also know that Mable, a former member of Team Flare, takes on the role of Pokémon professor in this game and sends you out to catch Pokémon with various challenges. Other characters you’ll remember from X and Y show up as well, some of them dramatically changed, but we can’t and won’t spoil them just yet.

Pokémon Legends: Z-A being a direct sequel is actually a pretty big deal. The Pokémon universe has been real hand-wavey with how the different games and regions relate to one another over the years. While there have been some direct sequels before (Gold and Silver after Red and Blue, Black and White 2 after Black and White, etc), later games have introduced time travel (Legends: Arceus), alternative universes (Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire), and basically every game has implied that all the other games’ locations and monsters exist in the same world, but events taking place in those games may or may not be canon depending on which one you’re playing. The Pokémon timeline, if drawn out, probably looks far more ridiculous than the Zelda one at this point.

But if you were wondering what happened to most of the main cast of X and Y five years after the events of the game, here you go: this is just a straightforward sequel! In hindsight, we should have seen this coming when they named it “Z-A” after X and Y.

My review-in-progress of Pokémon Legends: Z-A is now live, if you want to check out my impressions of the first 24 hours, with a full review coming next week. I’ve also been writing about how the Nurse Joy job is now open to people who don’t look exactly identical to the original Nurse Joy after 27 years in Z-A.

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.

Helldivers 2 director confirms Arrowhead are biting the addition delay bullet while working on performance fixes

Despite having initially indicated they’d prefer not to do so if it could be avoided, Helldivers 2 developers Arrowhead have now confirmed that they’re holding off adding new stuff to the shooter while they focus in on improving its performance.

It’s for the best, as issues with stability and bugs overshadowed the verdict players had on Helldivers 2’s last big update, Into the Unjust. Not all of the concerns raised by players recently were new as of that update, see the game’s long-beefy PC file size, but the result’s been a backlog Arrowhead would have struggled to avoid confronting.

Read more

Rumour: Assassin’s Creed Shadows On Switch 2 May Clash With Metroid Prime 4

Well, almost.

Multiple rumours have been doing the rounds regarding a potential Switch 2 release for Assassin’s Creed Shadows, the latest flagship entry in Ubisoft’s stealth series, with age ratings and even box art images making their way online.

Now, thanks to prominent leaker Billbil-kun over on Dealabs, we may now know the proposed launch date for Shadows. According to the article, the game is scheduled to release on 5th December 2025, just in time for Christmas.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Pokémon Legends: Z-A Review in Progress

Review codes for Pokémon Legends: Z-A were only sent out less than a week ago, but I’ve already put in around 24 hours or so in the last five days. Across that time I’ve been catching every new species of Pokémon I find, doing every side quest that pops up, and stopping every so often to completely change my outfit. I’ve currently got a full team all in the level 50s, and I can’t wait to stop writing this review-in-progress to go play more. It’s real good so far!

Ah, feels nice to say that after, uh… this.

There are a few reasons why I don’t feel comfortable scoring Z-A right now. Apart from simply not having beaten it yet, the embargo we’re publishing this under is pretty strict about what we can and can’t say or show. We always try to avoid spoilers (and recent leaks mean plenty are already in the wild), but here we can’t even talk about basic plot details that happen literally in the first 10 minutes. We can’t mention loads of the specific Pokémon in Z-A, despite the fact that any number of them might casually roam across our footage at any time. We can’t even show you the map of Lumiose City, where everything in Z-A takes place. It’s difficult to say exactly how close to the credits 24 hours puts me, but I’ll likely be back with my final, scored review shortly after launch.

We also haven’t had the chance to test it on Nintendo Switch 1 ahead of time, although I am at least so happy to report that Pokémon Legends: Z-A runs great on Nintendo Switch 2. It glides along at a smooth framerate with very, very few hitches or hiccups. There is occasionally still some sudden pop-in of NPCs, including ones positioned very close to the player, and here and there I’ve seen a character do that creepy thing where their head and neck suddenly snap into place as I get closer. But critically, unlike Scarlet and Violet, none of this is horribly distracting, nor does it really detract from the overall experience. Because of Scarlet and Violet, I spent the first 20 minutes or so paying close attention to whether or not Z-A ran well. But then, after that, I barely thought about it again, a state of mind which I consider ideal. Here’s hoping that’s still the case with the Switch 1 version, which I will take into consideration as part of my final review either way.

Running well doesn’t equate to a game being pretty, of course, and Z-A isn’t going to win any beauty contests. Lumiose City looks fine. Its buildings are covered with mostly flat images of the same couple of window and terrace patterns over and over again. Up close, the effect is pretty weird – like someone painted a Looney Tunes door on a wall so Roadrunner would crash into it. The samey buildings are broken up with occasional trees, battle courts, parks, and the same bench copy-pasted about 100 times. There’s a greyish sewer system with greyish water running through it, and rooftops occasionally interrupted by same-looking cafe set-ups.

The reduced scale of this world has worked in Game Freak’s favor.

That said, I do think that the reduced scale of the world has worked in Game Freak’s favor with Z-A when compared to, say, Arceus or Scarlet and Violet. The city is smaller, so it’s more densely packed with trainers, Pokémon, items, shops, and other actually interesting things to see and do. I’m not running for minutes on end through massive fields of flat, GameCube-style textures, with nary a point of interest in sight. As a result, similar to Z-A’s performance, it was easy to stop thinking about the low-quality building design fairly early on.

That’s also helped by the fact that building interiors and the character and Pokémon models themselves look pretty good, and the human characters in particular are more varied than ever before. While almost every NPC you meet in the city is categorized by trainer type and given an appearance to match, Game Freak is now experimenting not just with diverse facial features and skin tones, but also clothing items. We saw some of this in Scarlet and Violet, but almost everyone was wearing school uniforms, so it wasn’t nearly as noticeable. Now, you might see two athletic trainers wearing differently colored versions of the same athletic gear, or two artists with different colored aprons.

Small a touch as this sounds, combining that with facial differences does a lot to make Lumiose City feel inhabited by many different, diverse people instead of the same 10 trainer types repeated ad nauseum. That customizability extends to the protagonist, too. There are tons of hair, facial, and fashion choices to choose from, including new options to mix and match certain types of outfits (different undershirts with different jackets, for instance). It’s a massively refreshing improvement after spending most of Pokémon Violet expressing myself via the same four ugly purple uniforms and a variety of mismatched hats.

Another element that I think elevates Lumiose City far above the much larger overworld of Scarlet and Violet is that it’s dense with interesting landmarks, items, obstacle courses, stores, Wild Zones, shops, and people. Lumiose is round, with different streets running out from the center like wheel spokes, and the entirety of it is open to you within just a few hours of starting your journey. You can, if you want, scour the whole map very early on, though it won’t be especially interesting at first blush. But over time, you’ll gradually unlock new ways to get around and new things to see when you get there: a new travel method that lets you scale scaffolding to collect rare items at the top, new ways to get onto buildings and Assassin’s Creed your way to little nooks of the city you couldn’t quite reach before, and new Wild Areas teeming with new Pokémon to catch. That steady unlocking of a city you always had free reign of adds to the feeling of getting to know a new place you’ve just moved to.

Every Pokémon location in Lumiose City feels deliberate and well-considered.

Exploration is often rewarded, too. While I criticized Scarlet and Violet for just sort of slapping large quantities of Pokémon haphazardly over a big map, especially in later areas, every single spawn location in Lumiose City feels deliberate and well-considered. A line of trash bins might not have anything interesting to see when you pass by on one visit, but there could be a Trubbish on top the next. Flocks of Pidgey and Fletchling scatter as you dash into a courtyard. Spinarak regard you calmly while hanging from tree branches. If you really explore, you might encounter a rare dragon-type on a rooftop (the embargo forbids me from saying which one despite the fact that its evolutions have been confirmed for the game already); a Spritzee floating idly in a hidden cafe; once, I turned just in time to see an Eevee sprint past me into an alleyway, and I barely threw a PokeBall quickly enough to catch it.

I won’t (and can’t) spoil too much of the story, but what I can talk about is the interesting rhythm it establishes that feels, in practice, quite different from any other Pokémon game so far. Like Arceus, Z-A foregoes the traditional “gather eight badges” structure, though here you’ll divide their time between day and night – during the day, you’ll be catching Pokémon in Wild Zones, battling rogue Mega Evolved Pokémon, performing goofy side quest errands for individuals around the city, shopping, and exploring. At night, you have the option to visit Battle Zones where you take on trainers and complete challenges to raise your score and eventually collect a Challenger’s Ticket, which unlocks your promotion match for the next level of the “Z-A Royale.” There are 26 ranks total, one for each letter of the alphabet. I am currently at rank D, though I wish this was slightly more fleshed out as a proper competitive mode rather than just a story vehicle – for instance, you don’t exactly spend a meaningful amount of time at every single one of the 26 letter ranks.

I’ll have more to say on this in the final review, free from my embargo shackles, but I am really enjoying the story so far. Ditching the eight badge trainer journey like Arceus before it allows Game Freak to flesh out a deeper, more interesting cast of characters, both the heroes and the villains. There’s simply more reason for them to be where you are, doing things alongside you and participating in the world-changing events you’re experiencing. I’m also fascinated by how much Z-A appears to be inspired by the Yakuza/Like a Dragon series. The enclosed city setting, the absurd and silly tone of the side quests, the story’s concerns with community and civic issues, and the protagonist bopping around a metro area solving problems by being absurdly stronger than everyone else all lend Lumiose City big Kamurocho energy.

Which leads me to the meat and potatoes of any Pokémon game: the battling. With Z-A, Pokémon has gone full action game. Not a turn-based battle in sight. While I don’t think I want Pokémon to fully depart from doing turn-based combat forever, this works pretty well as a detour. Game Freak did an admirable job translating its traditional battle system into one that works in an active-time environment, especially with moves seemingly so specific to the turn-based format. Protect and Detect now stop damage for a set period of time instead of one “turn.” Spikes dumps, well, spikes all over the floor in an area, forcing you to steer your Pokémon out of it. Long-range moves keep Pokémon out of harm’s way, but take longer to execute and recharge than more risky, short-range ones.

There are a lot of new tactics and strategies to mess around with.

There are a lot of new tactics and strategies to mess around with, such as how movement and dodging works. You control your trainer directly, and can either hold ZL to open the move select menu to send your active Pokémon into the fray, or release it to have them follow you around, allowing you to guide them while dodging. This makes for an interesting combat flow as I strategize around calling my Pokémon back to me to dodge an attack, then positioning them ideally to set up their next move before the opponent can swing again. The system is a bit awkward at times, especially in enclosed areas, but I’m interested to see what a competitive meta looks like with this format.

These tactics grow even more critical and chaotic in boss battles with Rogue Mega Evolved Pokémon, of which Z-A has many. These battles all take place in uniform, wide, circular arenas, but the Pokémon themselves are far from ordinary. Rogue Mega Evolved Pokémon are essentially Z-A’s answer to Arceus’ Frenzied Noble Pokémon. In addition to their regular movesets, they each have additional unique abilities you’ll have to avoid, such as turning the arena into a bullet hell you have to dodge around, or suddenly appearing right in front of you for an attack. Like in Arceus, your trainer can get hit and even die (sorry, I mean “black out”) if they’re attacked too many times by an enemy Pokémon, and that becomes a legit concern as Rogue Megas will enrage partway through and try to attack you directly.

The best way to counter this is to Mega Evolve your own Pokémon or use “Plus” moves, which are superpowered versions of regular moves that also consume the energy you need to Mega Evolve. Unlike in Pokémon X and Y, where you could get away with fighting Mega Evolved Pokémon with regular monsters, you really do need to engage with the Mega mechanics in Z-A. Though it starts off pretty tame, Z-A quickly ramps up the difficulty – even doing every side quest, I’m still finding its boss battles will make me sweat a little.

Man, I was going to try and hold back a bit on this review-in-progress since I still have plenty to see before my final review, but I’m just so genuinely excited about what Game Freak has done here. I liked Arceus a fair amount and thought it showed promise, but have been broadly disappointed with the slow backslide I saw from the studio in its move to console game development, and worried the quality dip was a new trend for 3D Pokémon games that we’d never escape. Pokémon Legends: Z-A, at least across the first two-dozen hours, is putting a lot of my fears to rest. It’s not revolutionary by any stretch, but it’s really good! I’m having fun, I’m excited to keep playing, I feel rewarded for exploring every corner, the story’s got my attention, and I’m not distracted by my Pokémon falling through the floor while they battle or everything crashing when I try to climb a ladder. If the rest of my adventure holds up (and the Switch 1 performance isn’t a disaster), we could finally have a 3D game worthy of the Pokémon franchise on our hands. It’d be about dang time.