The best thing about the ROG Xbox Ally X is that it finally acknowledges the truth – a truth that, despite continued denials by device after device, at least partly accounts for why the little old Steam Deck still rules the world of handheld PCs despite being slower and lower-rez than almost everything that followed it. You know it, I know it, and at last, Microsoft know it: Windows 11 just isn’t that good as a handheld OS.
Thus, the biggest upgrade that the ROG Xbox Ally X – and its little brother, the ROG Xbox Ally – makes is not to its hardware, but the software. Instead of booting straight into the Windows 11 desktop, a miserable experience when your only navigational tools are thumbsticks and a touchscreen, it defaults to a far more gamepad-optimised (and specifically gaming-focused) ‘Xbox’ mode that provides quick, D-paddable access to your choice of launchers and the games installed within. Yes. Great. Cool. Big fan. I still wouldn’t buy one.
The Outer Worlds 2 is almost here, aiming to not just be bigger than its predecessor but a better RPG in every respect when it releases on October 29 on PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S.
We had a great time with The Outer Worlds 2 when we previewed it back in August, writing: “If it’s not clear by now, I’m really into what Obsidian is doing with The Outer Worlds 2. While I appreciated Obsidian’s prior attempt at this universe, I never totally fell for it, but what the studio has achieved here in this prologue is exactly what I’d hoped for the first time around. And that’s exactly why I’m willing to bet that The Outer Worlds 2 will be one of those sequels. The ones that finally take an idea all the way to greatness.”
The Outer Worlds 2’s official release date is October 29, but if you’ve bought the $99.99 Premium Edition, you can jump in five days early from October 23-24, depending upon where you are in the world. Xbox Game Pass subscribers can also jump in early if they have a valid subscription and upgrade to the premium edition for $29.99. The Outer Worlds 2 is available for pre-download now.
The Outer Worlds 2 Early Access Launch Times
Thursday, October 23, 2025
PDT (San Francisco):
9pm
Friday, October 24, 2025
EDT (New York):
12am midnight
BST (London):
5am
CEST (Paris, Rome, Berlin):
6am
EEST (Turkey):
7am
HKT (Hong Kong):
12pm noon
CST (Beijing):
12pm noon
JST (Tokyo):
1pm
AEST (Sydney):
3pm
The Outer Worlds 2 Global Launch Times
Wednesday, October 29, 2025
PDT (San Francisco):
10am
EDT (New York):
1pm
BST (London):
5pm
CEST (Paris, Rome, Berlin):
6pm
EEST (Turkey):
8pm
Thursday, October 30, 2025
HKT (Hong Kong):
1am
CST (Beijing):
1am
JST (Tokyo):
2am
AEST (Sydney):
4am
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.
Ubisoft have opened up the pandora’s box of mid-2000s shooters and deployed Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow onto Steam, rendering its PC version easy to grab for the first time in ages. It’s not a remaster, so don’t get too excited, as you might still have fun getting things to run as smoothly as your covert ops.
Ghost of Yotei sales are in-line with Ghost of Tsushima’s in Europe, new data shows.
As reported by The Game Business, Ghost of Yotei debuted at No.2 in the GSD European charts behind EA’s FC 26.
Sony has yet to announce a sales figure for Ghost of Yotei, which launched exclusively on PlayStation 5 on October 2, 2025. But we now know that in Europe it’s doing about as well as its predecessor, which launched in 2020 exclusively on PlayStation 4. That is, for its first few days on sale, as the GSD European chart runs to October 5.
There are a number of things worth noting here. Not only did Ghost of Tsushima launch on a console with a bigger install base at that point than PS5 has now, it launched during the pandemic, which saw record video game sales and player numbers as people were forced to stay at home during lockdowns.
The Game Business noted that Ghost of Yotei is the biggest first-party PlayStation launch since Spider-Man 2 in October 2023. Helldivers 2, which launched February 2024, remains the fastest selling PlayStation Studios game of all time, with an incredible 12 million sold in 12 weeks. The question is whether Ghost of Yotei will end up meeting Sony’s sales expectations over time; Ghost of Tsushima ended up a hugely successful release, with over 13 million sold as of September 2024.
But it shines a light on just how few new games Sony’s first-party studios have released over the last few years. Since Insomniac’s Spider-Man 2 came out in October 2023, we’ve had the aforementioned Helldivers 2, the disastrous Concord, Team Asobi’s wonderful Astro Bot, Lego Horizon Adventures, MLB The Show 25, and a bunch of remasters. Naughty Dog has seemingly skipped the PS5 generation entirely in terms of brand new games.
First-party Sony games we know to be in the works include Bungie’s Marathon, Housemarque’s Saros, Insomniac’s Marvel’s Wolverine, Naughty Dog’s Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, Haven’s Fairgames, and a multiplayer Horizon game from Guerrilla. A whole bunch of Sony first-party games were canceled as the company’s live-service push faltered, including a multiplayer The Last of Us game, a live-service God of War game, and another live-service title from Bend Studio. Bend’s last brand new game was 2019’s Days Gone on PlayStation 4, which launched on PC in 2021.
But how has Ghost of Yotei done in the U.S.? According to Mat Piscatella, senior director at Circana, Ghost of Yotei ranked 12th on its Top 15 Titles by Total Weekly Active Users chart for the week ending October 4, with 4.4% of active PlayStation players giving it a go. Coincidentally, Ghost of Tsushima also ranked 12th in its launch week back in 2020 with 4.4% of active PlayStation players engaging.
So it sounds like Ghost of Yotei has done about as well as Ghost of Tsushima did, at least at launch. It will be interesting to see if Sony says anything about its performance in upcoming financial reports, and how sales hold up in the coming weeks as we head into the crucial holiday season.
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.
Misbehaving bullets, your hour of reckoning is nigh. A Battlefield 6 hotfix has been deployed with the goal of stopping you from refusing to register hit damage when you embed yourselves in virtual flesh. Bouncy ladders, your time will likely come soon, as EA’s Battlefield Studios are busy trying to work out the arcane secrets of your rubbery rungs.
Are you a fan of Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus? Well, you should be, it’s bloomin’ great. If you are, then you might be keen to check out a new upcoming physical edition from Limited Run Games.
Pre-orders open on 17th October 2025 and close on 16th November 2025, and you can choose between three available SKUs: Standard, Steelbook, and Collector’s Edition.
Fans across the world are paying tribute to “titan of soul” D’Angelo, who died yesterday aged 51 after an undisclosed battle with cancer.
D’Angelo was behind the hugely popular Red Dead Redemption 2 track, Unshaken, and fans of the game as well as developer Rockstar paid tribute following the news.
In a statement posted to social media, Rockstar Games called D’Angelo a “true titan of soul,” writing: “We are eternally grateful for his track Unshaken which will forever be an enduring part of the legacy of Red Dead Redemption 2.”
The Grammy-award winning musician released three albums over his career. 2014’s Black Messiah was his last album, which makes the iconic track included on 2018 Red Dead Redemption 2’s soundtrack one of his final pieces. The entire track can be heard in the mission Dear Uncle Tacitus, in an impactful segment when you’re riding a horse back to camp. It boasts over 55 million streams on Spotify alone.
D’Angelo was a huge fan of video games and would visit Rockstar during Red Dead Redemption 2’s development after reportedly reaching out to Ivan Pavlovich, director of music and audio at the studio, through an intermediary, to “just play the game.”
“We weren’t even talking about doing music,” Pavlovich told RollingStone in 2018. “When D’Angelo comes through, he shows up at midnight, and he’s playing the game until four in the morning. Each time he was just like, ‘It’s incredible.’ It just blows his mind. He’s such a fan. I have never seen someone that excited. D’Angelo’s actually a massive, massive, massive fan of the game — more than I ever knew.” It was because of this that Pavlovich asked if D’Angelo would be interested in contributing to the soundtrack, which is partly why there are some vocal tracks on an otherwise chiefly instrumental score.
Dozens of artists have paid tribute to the musician, including Flavor Fave, Beyoncé, Nile Rodgers, Lauren Hill, and Doja Cat, but so have hundreds of gamers, some of whom were introduced to D’Angelo’s music through Red Dead Redemption 2. Others are learning for the first time that D’Angelo was behind the notable track.
“I can’t think about RDR2 without Unshaken and how that particular transitional scene changed the game to such a complete form of entertainment for me,” wrote one affected player. “For anyone who says ‘it’s just a game’ – they need to experience how this song was used.”
“If you haven’t heard any more of his music, you need to know the man was one of the absolute best in his genre, an elusive legend,” said another. “His album Brown Sugar is literally no skips, if you’re interested in music at all, it’s worth a listen.”
“My favourite video game song of all time. RIP. That song will always be a part of me,” wrote another fan.
Photo by Frans Schellekens/Redferns.
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.
Given how quickly older games can be delisted or end up near impossible to run properly without tinkering nowadays, efforts like GOG.com’s preservation program are always nice to see. There’s obviously a money-making motive behind it for the storefront, but keeping retro works in working order’s a noble way to earn that cash. As it turns out, though, the folks behind the CD Projekt-owned site underestimated just how difficult an undertaking the program would be.
That’s not to suggest they’re giving up though, just that they’ve had to re-evaluate some of their ambitious early goals.
Battlefield 6 players haven’t decided what their favorite weapons are yet, but they’ve already fallen in love with a new movement tech called “ladder launching.”
To catch you up to speed, the ladder is a gadget available to use with the Assault class in Battlefield Studios and EA’s latest Battlefield game. It’s a traversal tool that can be used to reach high-up places, opening up opportunities to gain new vantage points or even sneak up on unsuspecting enemies. The thing is that now, just days after Battlefield 6 launched for PC and consoles, the ladder is also being used for much, much more.
If you’ve even accidentally whipped out the ladder while playing Battlefield 6 multiplayer, you might have noticed that actually mounting it can be a hassle. The bottom of the gadget bumps players around if placed at a certain angle, triggering moments that balance frustration with slapstick humor.
While some Assault classes in Battlefield 6 have found practical uses for the tool, others are struggling to use it at all. However, it’s a secret, third segment of the community that has pushed things even further by using those wonky physics to catapult themselves around maps.
X/Twitter user @mokeysniper published a video detailing exactly how the ladder launch works, admitting that, while the move is far from a game-breaking exploit, it is quite fun to pull off. All it takes is maneuvering around the gadget at the right angle and speed, causing a chain reaction that sends players careening through the air.
Sadly, ladder launching is, mostly, practically useless in Battlefield 6. That said, some players are still finding ways to create entire montages centered around ladder launching.
Players probably should get too used to ladder launching in Battlefield 6, though, as David Sirland, lead producer at Battlefield studio DICE, has already confirmed the Battlefield Studios team has plans to deliver a patch in the future. Considering the average player will find its bumpy edges more annoying than useful, a patch is probably a good call.
We can likely expect even more ladder launching clips to show up online while the team fixes the Assault ladder. In the meantime, you can see how other players are at least trying to use the ladder, below. You can also read our Battlefield 6 multiplayer review.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
Now, ahead of the release of Ninja Gaiden 4 on Xbox and other platforms next week, the 2D title Ragebound will be celebrating with an exclusive Yakumo skin. This update is completely “free” and is based on the young ninja prodigy in the fourth major entry. Here’s the full rundown, and another look:
