Just one day after the announcement of Genie, Google’s generative AI-powered virtual world creator, a number of major video game companies are seeing their stock prices tumble, seemingly because some investors think you can just generate an entire video game with AI now.
Of course, that’s not what Genie is. Genie essentially lets you create a virtual “world” by offering prompts to describe the environment, a main character, and first or third-person view. Once it’s created, you can control the described character and wander around the world you’ve made.
And that’s…kind of it? While you can walk around these virtual spaces with your keyboard, critically, there’s nothing else you can really do. There are no game mechanics, there’s no one to talk to, no goals, no scores or meaningful interactions. Additionally, each generation is limited to just 60 seconds. And while you could maybe argue that this is just the first step on a road to eventually getting AI to generate playable 3D video games, there’s no real evidence yet that such a thing is possible, or that the games would be good or even coherent. The Verge, for instance, tried to basically copy Breath of the Wild using Genie, and while they got something that essentially looks identical, that’s just it. It’s not playable, the “Link” looks kind of frightening actually, and Genie had to copy something that already existed to make this. It didn’t come up with this on its own.
But that hasn’t really stopped a lot of investors from suddenly jumping off the video game train, a conclusion first posed by Investing.com and shared by others, including Bloomberg journalist Jason Schreier. Perhaps the most notable decline is Take-Two Interactive, which reached a six-month low this morning and, while it rallied somewhat by the closing bell, still ended down 8%. Engine maker Unity is in a similar spot, dropping 24% today also to a six-month low. Roblox stock also cratered today by 13% by close today, though notably Roblox has been on a downward trend since November. Still, it’s a six-month low for Roblox, too.
Not every gaming company is seeing a massive nosedive. Ubisoft is technically down 7% today, but with its stock down to just $1/share, any small movement in either direction will seem significant. The company has been in pretty dire straits for months, even years now, and its announcement of more layoffs, closures, and cancelations earlier this month already had stock even further in a downward spiral. EA stock hasn’t changed much today at all, but that’s understandable, given EA announced last fall that it was preparing to sell to an investor group headed up by the Saudi Arabian government and will soon exit the public trading market. Meanwhile, Nintendo stock, down just under 5% today at the time this piece was written, has been all over the place all month, following a steady downward trend since November.
The pattern I’m seeing here between Take-Two, Roblox, and Unity is a sudden distrust not in games as an idea, but rather concerns about “platforms”. Unity is a game engine. People use it to make games. If Genie can also make games, who needs Unity? In Roblox’s case, Roblox is a pure user-generated content (UGC) factory – something that would likely become obsolete quickly if Genie took over. And for Take-Two, the publisher is about to release Grand Theft Auto VI later this year (we hope), which would very likely be accompanied at launch or not long after with some new version of GTA Online. While the current GTA Online doesn’t rely on UGC, there have been recent suspicions this new version might. Again, the thinking here is seemingly that if people can just make their own little games in Genie, why would they bother doing it in Roblox or GTA or Minecraft or Fortnite or Unreal or anywhere else (Microsoft, for its part is too big to see any stock impact from Genie today and Epic Games is not publicly traded).
Is selling shares of major game publishers going to pay off for these investors? I’m not a stock expert, but if nothing else, it doesn’t seem to be like a good idea to bet against GTA 6 right now (though Take-Two’s earnings are next week, so we’ll see I guess). And while Genie doesn’t seem up to the task of making a whole video game out of nothing, plenty of other studios are coming out on one side of the fence or the other on using generative AI of any kind in their work. It seems that one way or another, the folks betting big money on generative AI will reap whatever harvest of that investment there is sooner rather than later.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Catherine O’Hara, the beloved actress best known for her roles as Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek and Kate McCallister in Home Alone, has reportedly died at the age of 71.
This comes from TMZ, which spoke to two sources with direct knowledge of the matter, as well as Variety, which confirmed with her manager. Variety reports that O’Hara died at her home in Los Angeles, following “a brief illness.”
O’Hara had a storied career spanning over 50 years, beginning in 1974 as a The Second City cast member in Toronto and moving into sketch shows, cartoon voice work, and eventually various television and film roles. In film, she appeared as Delia Deetz in Beetlejuice, Kate McCallister in Home Alone and Home Alone 2, was the voice of Sally in The Nightmare Before Christmas (a role which she also voices in Disney Dreamlight Valley and Disney Speedstorm), and Cookie Fleck in Best in Show. We interviewed her back in 2012 about her role as Susan Frankenstein in Frankenweenie.
In television, O’Hara was best-known for portraying the eccentric Moira Rose in Schitt’s Creek from 2015-2020 across all six seasons, a role for which she won an Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series, as well as a Golden Globe for Best Actress. She also appeared in numerous other roles, such as Carol Ward in Six Feet Under, Dr. Orwell in A Series of Unfortunate Events, and most recently Patty Leigh in The Studio, and Gail Lynden in The Last of Us. Her final film appearances included as Ruth in Argylle, a reprise of her portrayal of Delia in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, the voice of Pinktail in The Wild Robot, and as herself in the documentary John Candy: I Like Me.
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
Battlefield Studios and EA have published Battlefield 6 version 1.1.3.6 patch notes, revealing the next update will alter the controversial “Call of Duty: Ghosts” skin and a seemingly AI-generated sticker.
Details on the incoming patch, which launches across PC and consoles February 3, were published via the official Battlefield website today. It’s a relatively insubstantial update that targets quality-of-life issues across the experience, but one bullet point tucked under the “Player” changes section makes it clear the developers are still listening to fans as they move toward the delayed launch of Season 2.
The one-sentence change says the Objective Ace and Winter Warning cosmetics will be altered to “better align with Battlefield’s visual identity.” It’s easy to miss but one of the more important changes Battlefield 6 has received in the last month, as it relates to two of the biggest controversies for the entry so far.
Winter Warning was perhaps the most infamous of the two cosmetics, drawing criticism from players who feared it had been generated using artificial intelligence. Questionable features, such as unrealistic finger placement and, most notably, a double-barreled M4A1, were what first saw players cast accusations regarding the use of generative AI. In the time since conversation began in mid-December, players still reference Winter Warning as one example of their issues with Battlefield 6.
Interestingly, it doesn’t seem like BF Studios will be removing Objective Ace or Winter Warning, saying only that they’ve been “updated.” Although Battlefield 6 already has a history of tweaking skins to appease fans in its nearly four-month lifespan, it’s unclear how each cosmetic will be altered to lower the temperature in the community.
Also included with Battlefield 6 update 1.1.3.6 are fixes for player movement related to sprint-jump momentum, REDSEC battle royale parachute behavior, and glitch-y destruction, as well as “a handful of UI, audio, and stability issues.” The patch is set to arrive this Tuesday, two weeks before EA attempts to regain its balance with the launch of Season 2. The publisher announced it had chosen to delay the season earlier this month amid complaints from fans related to both cosmetics and gameplay as a whole.
As the extended Season 1 continues, you can check out the full patch notes for the February 3 update below.
Battlefield 6 Update 1.1.3.6 Patch Notes
Update 1.1.3.6 is a small quality-of-life update focused on polish, stability, and targeted fixes across Battlefield 6. It addresses a selection of gameplay flow issues, UI reliability improvements, audio consistency fixes, and map-specific adjustments, with a particular focus on smoothing out edge cases reported by players.
The update will be available on Tuesday, February 3 at 09:00 UTC.
Major Updates for 1.1.3.6
Fixed player movement issues, including cases of excessive sprint-jump momentum and unintended movement behaviour. This won’t impact player movement at a large scale and is meant to target those specific edge cases.
Resolved a set of destruction-related visual and lighting issues on Eastwood that could result in lighting artifacts, blackouts, or incorrect colour rendering.
Fixed a handful of UI, audio, and stability issues, including crashes related to challenges, minimap accuracy, unintended gadget audio playback, and platform-specific problems.
CHANGELOG
PLAYER:
Fixed an issue where sprint-jump momentum could behave inconsistently and grant higher or lower momentum than intended.
Updated the Objective Ace and Winter Warning cosmetics to better align with Battlefield’s visual identity.
MAPS & MODES
Fixed an issue on Eastwood where destroying a building near the A flag could cause unintended green or purple visual effects across nearby structures.
Fixed an issue on Eastwood where destroying a building near the B flag could cause a complete lighting blackout across the map.
Fixed an issue on Eastwood where destroying the villa near the B flag could cause excessively bright lighting artifacts to appear.
UI & HUD:
Fixed an issue where downed squadmates were shown on the minimap for classes unable to revive them.
Updated legal text to reflect current policies and requirements.
AUDIO:
Fixed an issue where UAV Drone enemy detection audio could be heard by all teammates instead of only the operator.
PERFORMANCE & STABILITY:
Fixed an issue on PlayStation 5 where ownership validation could fail during system lifecycle events, causing connectivity issues.
Fixed an out-of-memory crash on Xbox Series S that could occur when loading Daily and Weekly Challenges.
REDSEC
PLAYER:
Fixed an issue where Battle Royale Initiation matches did not end after eliminating the final AI opponent.
Fixed an issue where parachute deployment could remain linked to the jump leader after breaking off.
Fixed an issue where players could become stuck mid-air during insertion after progressing through the pre-deploy sequence.
UI & HUD:
Fixed an issue where the Second Chance redeploy icon could incorrectly transfer to a living teammate.
Fixed an issue where the Second Chance redeploy timer refreshed each time the map was opened.
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).
When you say the words “creature collector,” you already have my attention. I’ve been both curious and wary in equal measures since Aniimo was first announced. I’m far from the only person hungering for a worthy competitor in the creature-collection, monster-taming space, and I’ve dabbled in quite a few. Aniimo looks particularly vibrant, vast, and cutesy to boot. It’s the addition of gacha elements that has had me a little on the fence. If you’ve ever sunk hours into a gacha, you understand the trepidation. Will this be the sort of gacha experience that has me gleefully forking over my credit card info, or resenting every microtransaction?
After about four hours with Aniimo, I’d say I’m still cautiously optimistic. It has all the ingredients of my favorite games: open-world exploration set in a fantastical alien world, lots of critters to collect, challenges to complete, and… farming? Okay, there might be a few too many ingredients added to this pot, but I’m willing to let Aniimo cook.
Big Butts, Tiny Waist
We leap straight into creating our Aniimo character. I can easily sink hours into a good character creator, so I was pumped to give Aniimo’s a try. From the get-go, the character creator feels super in-depth. I was given six default presets for both a “male” and “female” avatar (not great for all my non-binary pals). You can combine up to three different face presets to get something a little different, or you could just dive head first into the face customization options.
Aniimo’s character creation allows you to adjust the position, prominence, and size of pretty much every facial feature, from your nasal wings to your eyelids. However, it didn’t take me long before I noticed one glaring oversight: skin tone. After searching for a bit, I finally found the options for skin tone buried under all the other menus for “makeup”. Don’t let the three default options take you aback – like it did me – Aniimo won a bunch of points in my book by including a color wheel for unlimited skin tone options.
Aniimo won a bunch of points in my book by including a color wheel for unlimited skin tone options.
However, the character customization lost me again in two areas: one, hair options are extremely limited. I can only assume – based on the “fashion” vouchers I saw redeemable later on in my playthrough – that you unlock more hairstyles through in-game currency or progression. Having appearance and cosmetics locked behind gacha mechanics might be expected. The fact that there is only one natural curly hair option – if you can even call it that – available from the start, however, is frankly disheartening.
And second, I was similarly disappointed in the body customization. While I had so much control over fine-tuning the shape of my face, the sliders for body proportions were lacking to say the least. I never expect much in terms of body diversity when it comes to this genre of game, but having to choose between being eerily thin or skinny with a nice butt and boobs was disconcerting.
Which Aniimo Are You?
With character customization out of the way, I got my first look at my in-game self – and the adorable Aniimo! – in a cutscene reminiscent of a Twitch “IRL” livestream. The livestream overlay, complete with “real-time” chat bubbles from fictional viewers, threw me off a little bit, but luckily, we didn’t linger in the social media influencer realm for long. I found myself in the alien world of “Idyll”, an aptly named “idyllic” planet teeming with lush greenery and charming wildlife with unique powers, called Aniimo.
Our first Aniimo crosses our path – an adorable little fire-type Emberpup – smoothly introducing catch mechanics I’m already plenty familiar with. With an Emberpup at my side, my friend Nico laid down the basics of commanding Aniimo to use their abilities to remove obstacles or solve puzzles in the world. After catching a few more Aniimo and commanding my new pals to charge into deadly combat, the story began in earnest.
BINI, our little robo companion, is abruptly hijacked by a mysterious glowing D20 die, which pulls me and Nico into some sort of pocket dimension. In these strange ruins, I encountered murals on the wall depicting Aniimo I’ve yet to encounter. Each mural poses a cryptic question, ala a Buzzfeed personality quiz. The reason for this soul-searching became clear once I reached the glowing mural at the end of the path. The depictions of a yellow lion and blue fox in this mural materialized into two tiny Aniimo who can… talk? I was recommended to choose between Helion or Lunara, based on how I answered the murals’ questions earlier.
I really liked being offered a “sorting quiz” to guide me towards which “starter” Aniimo I should choose. After all, the “starter” you choose clearly says so much about you. Only having two options to choose from was a little unsatisfying, though it appears to tie into some sort of “sun and moon” mythology which could be central to Aniimo’s story. I went for Helion, personally, not only because he was recommended, but because of his sassy little personality. With Helion by my side, I was thrown into combat with my first big foe: a giant armored dragon Aniimo.
The combat was fun enough for my tastes, if a little button-mashy. I can imagine that timing your dodges and managing your cooldowns might take some deeper consideration as you progress. What really impressed me was the Twining mechanic. Yup, in Aniimo, you actually get to be the creatures. Playing as Helion – rather than just sitting back as a trainer – made for some engaging, brawly combat.
Getting Schooled
Just as quickly as I was transformed into Helion and defeated the dragon-type Aniimo, I was thrust into a whole new region. I found myself transported to the Polaris Institute, a futuristic academy devoted to studying Aniimo, located on my home planet of Astra. At this stage of the tutorial, things became a little bogged down in dialogue and instructional demos. To continue my adventure, I needed to become an official student at the Polaris Institute, instead of just a particularly precocious livestreamer, or whatever I was doing before.
To qualify to be a student, I was strong-armed into a combat simulation, which broke down the bare bones of accumulating “EP” and how to choose Aniimo that are elemental counters. Next up, I received my first free outfit – a school uniform – and sat through a quick Character menu breakdown. When I was finally teleported back down to Idyll with this hot anime guy and his hot wolf Aniimo – don’t judge me, you know that’s exactly what they were going for here – I hunkered down for another round of tutorials. After using the Report Terminal and building my Aniimo loadout, I finally had my first taste of exploration.
The Creatures
This is where I could start to see myself becoming hooked on Aniimo. There’s something so intrinsically appealing about running around a beautiful countryside and stopping to look at every shiny thing on the ground. There are fast travel spots to discover, new areas of the map to unveil, treasure chests to find, and most importantly, Aniimo to catch!
It quickly became clear that catching Aniimo has a bigger role to play than simply filling out your Aniilog or battling other Aniimo. Depending on their elemental type or other abilities, I relied on my Aniimo to help me solve environmental puzzles, like excavating buried treasure chests or floating on geysers of air. Getting to transform or “twine” with my Aniimo had me squealing with joy. Who doesn’t want to be a tiny little rock crab, walking through a field of flowers?
I quickly discovered how foundational the first Aniimo I caught were, as I swam across streams as Skippy, burned thorny obstacles with Emberpup, or glided around as Celestis. This gave me plenty of motivation to constantly be swapping around my “team” of Aniimo for a reason other than battle prowess. As I discovered later, even keeping starter evolutions – or “Lumin” stage – Aniimo is integral to completing some of the challenges and puzzles scattered around Idyll.
I spent a lot of time wandering around the map, catching new Aniimo, and collecting Lumin Amber to upgrade the Branch, a giant dandelion which improves the capture chance in that region, and completing miscellaneous milestone tasks, called “Elite Training”. These tasks felt a bit like chores: open “x” amount of chests, hatch “y” eggs, and so on, but completing them did fast track my level quickly while giving me a solid understanding of the core mechanics of Aniimo.
All of the Aniimo I caught while exploring were super cute, if a little… bland. I love some whimsy in my creature-collectors, a healthy mixture of adorable critters with some cursed-looking monstrosities. What’s neat about Aniimo, however, is that there seems to be a bunch of variations in each type. Most Aniimo have branching options for their second or final “stage” of evolution, and on top of the rare “Prismana” Aniimo which can be caught, I found a few fun “alternative” versions with different appearances based around the region I found them in.
#VanLife Influencer Era
A few hours into my playtime with Aniimo, I stumbled upon another of its key features: the RV. After discovering this NPC in the middle of a field, I abruptly found myself the proud owner of my own interdimensional RV. After a quick customization, I was prompted to teleport to the nearest “RV Park”. This vibrant campsite seems to be some sort of meeting place where you can get together with other Aniimo players and show off your own little outdoor deck.
As an aside, it wasn’t until I found the RV Park that I discovered that while – no, you cannot pet your Aniimo (boo) – you can pick up the Aniimo. Huh. That revelation made, I stepped through the interdimensional door in the back of my new RV and entered the “Homeland Space.” I assumed that this would be some sort of home-building mechanic, perhaps allowing me to decorate my own little space or interact with my Aniimo. Instead, I found myself on a small patch of barren farmland.
While no, you cannot pet your Aniimo (boo), you can pick up the Aniimo.
The Homeland tutorial had me clearing up the farm’s clutter and sowing my first seeds. Once grown, I was able to harvest my crops to sell. As reward, I received “Home Coins,” a currency I can only assume is unique to the Homeland section of Aniimo. With only this brief experience to go off of, I’m guessing that the Homeland farming is meant to be a sort of supplemental gameplay element which will let me idly generate currency every day. In exchange for my Home Coins, it appears that I can trade for other important in-game items, such as Eggs, or purchase “RV Welcome Packages”, which I’m hoping offer plenty of RV furniture and customization.
Honestly, the RV and Homeland feel a little discordant with the rest of my Aniimo experience. I love a good farming sim, but I cannot see myself motivated to spend time planting and selling crops every day if my only reward is just a slow grind to purchasing rare materials. Completing order requests just for extra Home Coins and coupons for RV furniture feels like it would quickly become a slog.
That said, I was pleasantly surprised during my time playing Aniimo. This is exactly the type of game I can see myself sinking hours into exploration and creature-collecting. The Aniimo were super adorable, and getting to play as the creatures you’re collecting is novel enough in itself to keep me interested. In some other areas, including the main story, Aniimo does feel admittedly empty or bland. I don’t imagine I’ll be filling out my entire Aniilog or progressing far enough to reach late-game mechanics. I’m still hyped to download Aniimo on my PC – maybe even on my mobile or Xbox Series X|S – when it releases, so I can run around as a little Nimbi once again.
A former veteran Bethesda developer has cast doubt on the possibility of a Morrowind remaster in the same vein as the recently released Oblivion remaster, saying going back to play The Elder Scrolls 3 now, over 20 years after it came out, would make fans “cringe.”
Bethesda is heavily rumored to be preparing Fallout remasters, with Fallout 3 and New Vegas suggested as in the works. But Morrowind — considered by many to be the greatest The Elder Scrolls game ever released — does not seem to be part of the remaster conversation.
Why? In an interview with Press Box PR, Bruce Nesmith, who left Bethesda in 2021 midway through the development of Starfield having worked at the company for over 17 years, highlighted a number of reasons why Morrowind probably won’t be top of Todd Howard’s remaster list.
“The problem with doing Morrowind is that I bet they don’t have the original code,” Nesmith said. “The game is so old. I don’t know if the original source code exists anymore. If it does, can you even compile it? When you’re looking at Oblivion, they still had the code. They could still compile it. Putting the code into the new version of the engine was a possibility.
“The other thing I would say is go back and play Morrowind and tell me that’s the game you want to play again. We all have these fond memories of things that were pivotal moments in our gaming fantasy histories that we absolutely move but you go back and play a 20 year old game and you will cringe.
“People even had cringe moments with the Oblivion remake but they forgave it because they’re reliving something, they’re enjoying the nostalgia. I worked on Oblivion. I’m even responsible for some of those cringe moments! The further back you go, the more that’s going to be an issue. The reality of playing Morrowind would not stand the test of time, in my opinion.
“Now if you were to completely remake Morrowind with the Skyrim engine, to try and rebuild it from the ground up, that’s a whole other story, but that’s an entire project. That’s a whole four-year development cycle. Why not go and make something new?
“Let’s revisit the lands of Morrowind and do a new story. You can include the giant crab palace and all of that stuff but make it new and avoid all the things that would not have survived the test of time.”
On that point, Nesmith suggested Morrowind could be an area Bethesda returns to in another game, perhaps The Elder Scrolls 6, alongside Hammerfell, High Rock, and Summerset Isle.
“If anything, there’s places that would be too interesting,” Nesmith suggested. “I think Elsweyr would be a challenge with its cat people who change the nature of their catness as they mature. That one might be a little challenging to do. But I think pretty much anywhere you go, there’s lots of cool, interesting stuff you could do.”
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.
Woot (an Amazon-owned retailer) has refreshed its ‘Video Game Mega Sale!’, and there are some real gems included in it right now. Among the variety of gaming deals is Silent Hill f for PS5, which is marked down to $44.99 on the sale page. However, Woot’s offering the chance to save even more on this game right now by using the code ‘GAMER’ at checkout. This knocks that price down even lower to $35.99 (not including tax).
This saves you an extra 20% on top of the discount that’s already there. Considering it’s usually priced at $69.99, you’re saving 49% overall with this deal, which is an excellent offer to jump on. The sale page states that this bonus 20% off deal only runs through Sunday, February 1, though, so time is ticking to take advantage of it.
Save on Silent Hill f for PS5 at Woot
If you’re in the mood for a horror game, Silent Hill f can deliver, offering up a “fresh new Japanese setting to explore, a fascinatingly dark story to unravel, and plenty of twisted freaks to torment you with.” Our review from IGN’s Tristan Ogilvie continued on to say, “some spectacular art design, imaginative puzzles, and a compelling lead character means this latest mainline entry in Konami’s seminal survival horror series definitely earns a grade higher than a Silent Hill F; it’s probably closer to a Silent Hill B-.”
Alongside Silent Hill f, there are plenty of great game deals to explore right now in Woot’s ‘Video Game Mega Sale!’. In particular, a ton of Nintendo Switch game deals have caught our eye, which is good news for those with the handheld. The sale itself runs until February 6, so there’s still about a week to go to scoop up the offers that get your attention.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
I confess that I had never heard of 2020’s pixelated arcade shooter Huntdown, but after playing (and replaying) through the demo for its upcoming prequel, Huntdown: Overtime, I immediately went back and did so. That’s because I was so completely hooked by the hour or so of roguelike action that I was fiending for more. Playing the original was also a lot of fun, but this followup seeks to improve in just about every way, making it a bit hard to go back. The cheeky retro ‘80’s tone appeals to my thirst for nonsense, the run-and-gun sidescrolling action channels the likes of Contra or Metal Slug, and the roguelike system of upgrades and repeated failure against daunting odds made it extremely hard to put down. I went from this not being on my radar at all, to eagerly anticipating when it comes to Steam Early Access later this year, making this an early contender for my most anticipated indie game of 2026.
You can infer almost everything you need to know about Huntdown: Overtime’s absurd 80s pulp action vibe by its title alone. Taking place in the dystopian, crime-ridden city of Detroit in 2084, you play a cybernetic rogue robocop who battles against flamboyant street gangs like something out of every VHS action movie you’ve ever seen. You’ll go toe-to-toe against the likes of a shirtless bouncer who pummels you with his fists and climbs around on the ceiling like a monkey, to a six-fingered rockstar called Sammy Sixfingers who tries to kill you with an electric guitar while performing a guitar solo in front of a live audience. The whole thing is just incredibly over the top in the right kind of way, making it very easy to replay each section as you try and fail to get through levels in typical roguelike fashion.
It certainly helps that even when you’re replaying through the same series of levels, things are always a little different. For one, the bosses and levels you end up with on each run have a bit of randomness to them in terms of which you’ll get and in what order, which is aided by the fact that you’re given two routes to choose from if you’d like to avoid one you’ve seen more of than you’d like. The levels themselves seem to be procedurally generated as well, and kept me on my toes with slightly different layouts and enemies never appearing in the same order. This procedural component isn’t anything we haven’t seen before, and the level layouts and enemies you’ll find are similar enough playthrough-to-playthrough that you’ll figure out the patterns pretty quick and run out of things to be surprised by (at least in the short section I played).
It actually sort of reminded me of Hotline Miami, reimagined from a sidescrolling perspective.
Combat is also not anything new, modeled after the likes of Contra or Mega Man, where you’re running and jumping through 2D levels blasting everytc hing in sight as you avoid incoming bullets and environmental hazards. That said, though it doesn’t have many new tricks, the formula it apes is extremely polished here, even in this pre-release state. While initially I was dying a lot and felt destined to be outmaneuvered by the numerous gangsters coming after me, it took less than an hour before I was sliding around, flying through the air, and shooting my way through entire sections without taking a single hit. That’s the kind of rewarding mastery I look for in games like this. It actually sort of reminded me of Hotline Miami, reimagined from a sidescrolling perspective, because although you can take more than one hit, there’s something very pleasantly familiar about the crisp gunplay and melee combat, especially when you hit someone with a baseball bat and see their pink, pixelated giblets go soaring across the screen.
The highlight of each run is when you come into contact with the larger-than-life bosses that can be found in each level. Some of these appear in regular sidescrolling levels, whe re maybe someone named Frankie Starsimmon Sr. will attack you with a big ol’ shotgun and leave you with the option to damage her before taking her alive, or just killing her for a lesser bounty. The ability to take bounties alive for an added bonus to your reward is a particularly nice touch that I’m glad to see they added after the original. But things get especially crazy during the boss fights where you go up against someone with a dedicated boss health bar. The main fight in the demo was against a rockstar who used his stage’s pyrotechnics to try and burn you alive, and always had his stagehand nearby to hand him a new electric guitar after he lost the last one trying to hurl it through the back of your head. These fights can be really challenging, as roguelikes are wont to do, and nine times out of ten when I failed a run it was the fault of one of these deadly weirdos. But they were also some of my favorite moments, and made gearing up for the next big fight that much more exciting.
The retreaded ground you’ll encounter as part of the roguelike formula feels especially easy to get through because of the steady stream of unlockables, upgrades, and buildcrafting options that come with each new playthrough. In one playthrough, for example, you might decide to forgo guns for a pure melee weapon build, grabbing perks and upgrades that enhance your close-range combat skills, while in another you might get your hands on a new plasma rifle you just unlocked and blast your way through rows of thugs with ease. Like many of its genre peers, the joy is in having a build come together perfectly so you can bring it to bear against the string of challenging bosses that have been sending you back to the beginning again and again.
The impressive thing about Huntdown: Overtime is that, at least in the full region I played during the demo, I never started a new run without a ton of new stuff to level up and try out. Sometimes that meant I’d unlock a new weapon that could then be found and powered up during runs, while other times it meant buying a certain permanent upgrade that made my healing items more potent, made me move faster, or some other useful boon to give me an edge on my next run. The pace of unlocks and progression felt perfectly balanced so I never felt like I’d hit a wall or had nothing interesting and new to bring into battle next time. It was so easy to immediately go from one run to the next, that even though I originally sat down for a 20-minute session, I ended up playing until I beat every boss in the demo in a single sitting, completely unable to tear myself away when I was sure the next playthrough would bring me victory. And even after I had my first successful run, I then was returned to base to find even more stuff had unlocked that I just had to try, and found myself immediately going straight into my next run just to try out some new stuff. I can’t remember the last time I found myself so instantly hooked!
Even though I originally sat down for a 20-minute session, I ended up playing until I beat every boss in the demo in a single sitting, completely unable to tear myself away.
One thing that piqued my interest after I went back to play the original Huntdown is the fact that this prequel only has one playable character versus the numerous agents you could take on the role of in the first game. While it feels weird to go backwards with the number of playable characters, Overtime’s demo was so polished and finely tuned that I honestly didn’t feel like I was missing much. It seems to be their focusing in on one specific playstyle and trying to make that work extremely well vs. the buffet-style protagonists, each with their own bag of tricks, that was in the first Huntdown.
I wasn’t expecting to end up so completely won over by such a short glimpse into Huntdown: Overtime, especially after seeing its dorky story and retro art style, but you can count me among the believers. For any roguelike fans out there, this is absolutely one to watch.
Google has begun selling access to Project Genie, an interactive world creation tool that lets you generate playable environments from a prompt — including those featuring Nintendo characters.
The technology is certainly remarkable, as Google’s Genie 3 models playable 3D spaces in real time based upon user inputs, and allows you to run, swim, fly, or ride in vehicles around its AI-generated worlds.
But the AI technology has also launched with a telling lack of restrictions around copyrighted material — which the model also appears to have been trained upon. A preview of the possibilities published by The Verge shows its reporter able to create playable 3D scenes that look a direct copy of Super Mario 64, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Kingdom Hearts.
Step inside Project Genie: our experimental research prototype that lets you create, edit, and explore virtual worlds. 🌎 pic.twitter.com/HQr1FRNlpy
Footage published on social media shows gameplay clearly based on Nintendo’s actual Breath of the Wild, where a knock-off Link runs around a world similar to Hyrule, and accurately deploys a glider as he leaps off a cliff. Other creations include a generated world with similarities to Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto.
There is no map pre-loaded in memory. As your agent explores, Genie predicts and renders the path ahead instantly. Infinite exploration. pic.twitter.com/5lZzhFS6vo
Right now, Project Genie is limited to generating interactive experiences it can maintain for up to 60 seconds, with a resolution and frame rate capped at around 720p and 24fps. Still, Google is selling access as part of its Google AI Ultra subscription, its top level of access to AI features that costs $124.99 per month when signing up for a three-month package. (Also, Project Genie access is currently just for U.S. subscribers aged 18 or over.)
“Project Genie is an experimental research prototype designed to follow prompts a user provides,” Google Deepmind product manager Diego Rivas told The Verge when asked why the the product generated material that was clearly based on Nintendo intellectual property. “As with all experiments, we are monitoring closely and listening to user feedback.” The Verge noted that its ability to generate worlds based on Mario had subsequently been halted, with a warning message that blamed the “interests of third-party content providers.”
The Legend of Zelda. The Witcher. Dragon’s Dogma. Monster Hunter. Street Fighter. And now, GTA 5? Every time South Korean studio Pearl Abyss shows off a new slice of its upcoming open-world, action-adventure Crimson Desert, I feel like I see a new line of influence. Over the six years since its reveal, we’ve seen a fantasy land akin to one Geralt would explore, puzzle shrines in the sky that could easily hover above Hyrule, and a complex combat system rooted in Capcom classics. But in the developer’s latest lengthy video detailing the world of Pywel, a new surprise awaited us: the addition of two new playable characters to join Scottish Jon Snow-alike main protagonist, Kliff Macduff. With whole skillsets of their own for us to now anticipate getting our heads around, I can’t help but be excited, but also cautiously wary. By trying to do so much, does Crimson Desert risk achieving nothing?
I say this as someone who has had the benefit of seeing and playing Crimson Desert more than pretty much anyone outside of Pearl Abyss’ walls, having visited the studio a few months back for our IGN First. Despite playing a good few hours of it, and having quite a lot of fun with its dynamic systems and satisfyingly flexible action, I still left feeling like I’d only scratched the surface of what Crimson Desert has in store. And I don’t mean that entirely positively – while it’s good to leave a preview knowing there’s plenty more to see, it’s not often you conclude a studio visit still unsure of a game’s big picture. If all those hours of hands-on haven’t successfully communicated what the game is, is something off?
We now know that Crimson Desert’s open world is twice the size of Skyrim’s and larger than Red Dead Redemption 2’s. I’ve put over 200 hours into Rockstar’s Western masterpiece and feel like I still haven’t seen everything, so it’s anyone’s guess how much awaits in this world. Crimson Desert’s Pywel is a gorgeous piece of geography, too, with streets filled with life and rivers running with glistening water. That water is also systemically linked to the gameplay options, conducting lightning magic to electrocute those who stand in it, and is transformed into blocks of ice when struck by freezing spells.
It’s all very impressive on a technical level, but leaves me wondering if this is all part of a “we can put it in the game, so why shouldn’t we?” mentality. From what I played, and from talking to the team, the ability to manipulate the elements won’t necessarily have puzzles or challenges built around them to make it a system you’d legitimately find worthwhile. In Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom, for example, you know that if you’re taught how to make giant ice cubes, a puzzle shrine will likely follow asking you to put that lesson into action. Nintendo is a developer that has been making games like this for decades now, though, whereas Pearl Abyss is a studio in its relative infancy, having only released MMORPG Black Desert Online so far. By trying to fit everything it can think a player would like to do in a fantasy open world into Crimson Desert, I fear it may be shooting straight for the moon without learning how to get into orbit first.
The power trip is there; I just worry about the rest of the journey.
It all loops back to this latest revelation that not only will we be playing through Kliff’s story, but stepping into the shoes of two new protagonists along the way. The as-yet-unnamed characters with their own (presumably) complex fighting systems look very fun to play as, don’t get me wrong — I’m particularly drawn to the quick dodging, magic-shifting, pistol-wielding woman who appears at first glance to better fit my more rogue-ish tendencies — but it’s yet another layer added on top of an already ambitious cake. I like cake, you can probably tell from a quick look at my face that that would be the case, but when it’s stacked so high that even Bruce Bogtrotter would take a pass on it, I worry it’s a sign that Crimson Desert should not be trying to have and eat it.
The other new playable hero is a hulking, giant axe-wielding brute with a machine gun attached to his wrist. If you’ve been keeping up with Crimson Desert, you’ll know that this isn’t your typical fantasy world, but one where dragons, steam trains, and mechs also roam around. It’s all very exciting in isolation, and genuinely fun to play as your giant metal monsters come face-to-face with helpless medieval soldiers holding only a shield. The power trip is there; I just worry about the rest of the journey.
Story and questing are incredibly important to me when it comes to open-world games. The Witcher’s twisting tales and many memorable side stories are what make The Wild Hunt an all-timer in my eyes. The cast of characters in Red Dead Redemption 2 and the way they weave seamlessly in and out of its world are what make it my favourite game ever. Crimson Desert has a lot going for it — the combat is exciting, the world is diverse and beautiful, and its systems are impressively reactive — but I can’t help but feel wary. Most of the missions I’ve played so far, at several different events, have been castle sieges, often ending in admittedly impressive boss battles. But, they’ve all been relatively thin narrative-wise, aside from an interesting detour to a mad inventor’s lair where he’d built a golden mechanical dragon, as you do. I’ve seen little of what’s going to be the thrust story-wise in Crimson Desert as a whole to get me hyped in that regard, nor met any characters that I feel will get close to my heart. And I can’t help but worry that there’s a reason we’ve seen so little of this world’s story.
Now, with the surprise addition of two extra playable protagonists to get to know on this adventure that is less than two months away, I worry that Kliff and his friends may well be fun to play as stylistically, but contain little substance within them. I’d be very happy to be wrong, though. I’ve been looking forward to Crimson Desert for a long time now, and have had a genuinely fun time whenever I’ve managed to get hands-on with it. I just wonder how all of these well-constructed building blocks will, in turn, create a greater whole. Will its gameplay systems overlap in interesting ways and be built into mission design? Will authorial intent come to the fore, or will I ultimately feel like a kid being dropped into a sandbox of possibilities with direction? I’m excited, just also a little afraid that by trying to be everything, it may end up achieving nothing.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
If you’ve seen Crimson Desert’s impressive 15-minute gameplay video, you might be wincing at the thought of it running smoothly on your console or PC. Well, right now, the developers at Pearl Abyss are focusing on optimization to help ensure a “smooth” experience when the game comes out in March.
Crimson Desert is set in a huge and seamless open world packed with enemies, NPCs, and all sorts of things to do. It’s dense with detail, and you can zip around quickly on the back of a dragon. Based on the video, below, Crimson Desert will be a demanding beast — it will be interesting in particular to see how it runs on the Xbox Series S.
According to Will Powers, director of public relations at Pearl Abyss America, the developers are doubling down on the “optimization phase” as we speak, telling former IGN video extraordinaire Destin Legarie in a new interview that this is the focus ahead of Crimson Desert’s March 19 release date.
“We have gone gold. Now comes further, further optimization to make the game run as good as it possibly can,” Powers said. “And that’s as important of a part. So that’s the phase we’re currently in between now and launch to make sure that the experience when players eventually get their hands on the game, is as smooth as possible.”
Powers wouldn’t go into specifics on the graphics settings that will be available on consoles, but did confirm Crimson Desert has PS5 Pro enhancement. You can also turn off the particle effects in settings, although Powers said they do convey important information during fights.
Pearl Abyss built a new engine for Crimson Desert, and Powers explained that it’s capable of providing a 4K60 native presentation, complete with ray tracing, without the aid of graphics technology such as DLSS or FSR. But of course you’ll need powerful hardware to enable it.
“Yeah, we’ll show 4K 60 native, sure, with ray tracing on, that’s not done through DLSS or FSR, that’s done natively in-engine,” Powers said. “And then if you want to further optimize then you can tweak all the settings and do all the things, but we want to show that you don’t have to… like the game itself should be able to stand on its own.”
And on that decision to go with a proprietary engine:
“I’m not going to say that the game is absolutely perfectly optimized, but within the engine it’s using every single thing. So it’s as optimized as it can be within that space. That’s not possible otherwise. And so rendering thousands of trees within draw distance, it does those things better than an off-the-shelf engine could because of that.
“Off-the-shelf engines weren’t able to deliver the uncompromised vision that the developers set forth to create with this game. So, they needed to create their own engine in order to deliver on that vision.”
Crimson Desert’s huge open world has been a topic of debate recently. Pywel is divided into five distinct regions: Hernand; Pailune; Demeniss; Delesyia; and the Crimson Desert itself. The main quest revolves around protagonist Kliff’s journey, but you’re free to explore the world in any order, taking faction-driven quests, large-scale battles, fortress sieges and smaller, character-focused missions.
Pearl Abyss confirmed that as the story progresses, two additional playable characters become available, each with unique combat styles, skills and weapons. Exploration is a big part of the game — you travel on horseback, climb terrain, glide across distances, and later access advanced traversal options such as a missile-firing mech and a dragon. Pearl Abyss said the world is filled with hidden treasures, ancient mechanisms, puzzles and points of interest “designed to reward curiosity and discovery.” As for combat, expect to face enemy soldiers, sorcerers, beasts and machines.
Speaking on the Gaming Interviews YouTube channel, Powers said that describing the size of Crimson Desert’s world in terms of numbers doesn’t do it justice, because doing so fails to capture the scope and scale of the game. But he did go as far as to compare it to two of the biggest open-world games around.
“I don’t think numbers really do it justice because, how big is that in terms of scope and scale?” he said. “But what we can say is that the world’s at least twice as big as the open world, the playable area, of Skyrim. It’s larger than the map of Red Dead Redemption 2.”
Powers went on to insist that the size of Crimson Desert’s open world wouldn’t determine its quality. Rather, what you actually do in it is the key factor.
“The continent of Pywel is absolutely massive, but size doesn’t really matter if there’s nothing to do,” he said. “Open-world games are about doing things, having activities, having distractions. So we wanted to create a world that’s not only massive, but is also incredibly interactive.”
Image credit: Pearl Abyss.
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.
