The next Total War game will be taking players to the Egyptian New Kingdom period, Sega and Creative Assembly have announced today, with the reveal of Total War: Pharaoh. Releasing in October 2023, Total War: Pharaoh will see the three great cultures of the people of Egypt, Canaan and Hittite battle it out as they determine who will be the next pharaoh. And it’s all set against the backdrop of the Bronze Age collapsing in on itself, with natural disasters to plan for, foreign powers to defend against, and the general unravelling of society as we know it. Lovely stuff. Come watch the reveal trailer below.
Lords of the Fallen is set to release for PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC on October 13. A spiritual successor to the 2014 game of the same name, this new installment promises a lot more of the Soulslike action-RPG gameplay that the first one offered. The game will be released in a handful of editions, with a collection of in-game bonus items for those who preorder. Though you may want to preorder at Best Buy, because you’ll get a free steelbook case. Below, we have full details about what comes in each edition, along with pricing and availability. Let’s dive in.
The collector’s edition is exclusive to GameStop — and you have to be a PowerUp Pro member to preorder it. It costs $249.99 and comes with the game itself, plus the following items:
Dark Crusader Starting Class: DC Armour Set, DC Ultra Greatsword, DC Throwing Knives, DC Amulet
Unlock 3D Model View: Access to view all the characters, classes, enemies & levels
Luxury 50 page Artbook
Digital Soundtrack
Two-sided Poster
3x Art Cards
SteelBook
10″ Dark Crusader Figurine
Mood Lighting Figurine Display Case
Lords of the Fallen Preorder Bonus
Preoder at Best Buy, and you’ll get the steelbook case shown above for free.
Preorder the game at any retailer, and you’ll receive the following in-game items:
Exclusive bronze, silver, and gold armor tincts
5x HP item
5x MP item
3x XP item
What Is Lords of the Fallen?
Technically, Lords of the Fallen is the spiritual successor to the 2014 game The Lords of the Fallen. But both games are obviously deeply inspired by From Software titles. The open world, gameplay, and enemy design of the new 2023 Lords of the Fallen certainly bears more than a passing resemblance to games like Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Elden Ring.
The new Lords of the Fallen is set in a world that’s five times larger than the 2014 installment. It’s divided into two parallel worlds, that of the living and that of the dead. You carry a lantern that can give you a glimpse into the other world, where you might find treasure or enemies.
You play as a fully customizable character, with nine character classes to choose from. Along the way, you’ll amass an arsenal of weapons and spells as you fend off foes of all kinds, including enormous bosses that fill the screen. You can play the game solo, or team up with a friend in online co-op. Just like in the Soulsborne games, other players can invade your play session to challenge you.
Other Preorder Guides
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Twitter @_chrislreed or on Mastodon @chrislreed.
I’ve said it before, but I really keep meaning to play Ctrl Alt Ego. Released last year, it’s a sci-fi immersive sim built all around classic abilities of the genre: remote control and possession. You bounce your digital consciousness between robots and devices and ach, I hear it’s great. I’ve bought it. I’ve installed it. I’ve played the first part of the tutorial. And then, who knows. One day. One day very soon. But right now, for people who have played it, good news: a free update has added a Sandbox mode generating squillions of new levels.
Nightmare Reaper’s procedurally generated stages are as rawly aggressive as the thrash metal motifs that drive it. Coined a looter-shooter, it’s a roguelite that revels in retro visuals, blazing speeds, and the ensuing spectacle of its bloodbath.
In a novel move, it procedurally generates levels, meaning each time you die or start over, things have changed. The aesthetic alters by chapter, shifting from watery pits and spiky tombs to hospital wards and cities; and, if you can find them, space stations where pets can be purchased that help you uncover secrets. The layouts are mostly unique with each new playthrough, but hitting switches, finding keys, or locating suspicious walls to kick through is a constant. At its best, the procedural element generates levels that feel deliberate, which is impressive considering its layering. That said, it’s not perfect, with sections occasionally recycling, dead ends cropping up, and on one occasion, an impassable early jump that forced us to quit the stage.
After giving us an early glimpse of its unstoppable raptor hordes in a closed beta test last summer, Capcom recently let us loose with the opening hours of their upcoming dinosaur multiplayer shooter, Exoprimal. Its final release isn’t far away now – its July 14th launch fast becoming the sole highlight of an otherwise desolate month – and I was excited to finally play the game that RPS vid bud Liam literally hasn’t been able to stop talking about ever since he first clapped eyes (and his thumbs) on its somersaulting T-Rexes. (You should also read his excellent interview with the devs while you’re at it, too).
I’ll hold my hands up now and say I didn’t get to play as much of Exoprimal as I would have liked, but the handful of missions I did play really are as daft and brilliant as Liam described last year. I won’t waste time repeating its fundamentals (you can read them here), but the basic setup is thus: in a world plagued by dinosaurs that periodically pour out of strange portals for some reason, you play a rookie dino hunter that gets pulled into a time-looping wargame set up by your company’s clearly psychotic AI called Leviathan. In order to gather valuable ‘combat data’ for its simulations to fight said dinosaur threat, Leviathan endlessly ropes you and other rookie exosuit wearers into deadly feats of speed and skill. It’s a neat, if patently preposterous setup for its 5v5 PvP multiplayer missions, but the thing that struck me most wasn’t its gloriously silly dinosaurs or Leviathan’s perfectly pitched ham lines. It was its bot companions, because heck, they’re great to play with, but absolute fiends if you’re on the wrong side of them.
Final Fantasy 16 producer Naoki Yoshida has said he thinks “Maybe it’s time we removed the numbers” from Final Fantasy games. In an interview with GQ, he talked about the baggage that inevitably comes with having a 35-year-old series with soon to be 16 numbered mainline games in it (not including the sequels and spin-offs, I might add), and the confusion it continues to create with new players. “Every numbered title we release in the series, we have to go into it like, ‘It’s OK, you don’t have to play the rest of them,'” he said, and removing them is “something that I’ve discussed with the higher-ups”. It’s an understandable problem, for sure, although I think I’d be quite sad to see the numerals go entirely. As long as they don’t pull a Mortal Kombat and go back to 1, though, we’re good.
Nintendo’s Japanese support service has announced that it will be ending repair support for the Wii U. When exactly? Well, that really depends on when its current parts inventory runs out.
The announcement was made on the Japanese Nintendo Support Page, confirming that the period of holding repair parts for the Wii U has now passed. As such, customers requiring a repair will need to book in sooner rather than later. Nintendo is unable to provide guidance as to when the repair support will end as this is contingent on remaining stock.
Last july I was given the opportunity to play an early beta for Exoprimal, Capcom’s upcoming multiplayer shooter that pits you and a bunch of your mech suit-wearing buddies against unstoppable raptor hordes. In the nine months since I took command of a T-Rex and did a sick backflip, my life has not known peace. “I’m really excited to play Exoprimal” I’ll say to colleagues, unprompted, in important meetings unrelated to anything prehistoric in nature. “From what I’ve played, it blends PvE and PvP gameplay into a single multiplayer mode that feels very unique and hugely entertaining”. My tax return was voided because I drew a big stegosaurus on it. I have renamed the cat “Sniper Neosaur”, and I am disappointed that she has yet to emerge from a gooey purple orb.
It was my delight, then, to be given the opportunity to sit down with key members of the game’s development team to discuss Exoprimal’s inspirations, its inevitable comparisons to Dino Crisis and how Capcom plans to use it as a template for their live-service games moving forward. Alongside a fresh opportunity to check out the game, I hopped onto a Zoom call with Exoprimal’s director Takuro Hiraoka, technical director Kazuki Abe and art director Takuro Fuse.
Although the item system has already been updated, Axios reports a young gamer (with approval from his father) has filed a lawsuit in the US against the video game giant over supposed “immoral” microtransactions within the mobile racer.
Nintendo has issued a surprise update for the Nintendo 3DS family of systems. This bumps the system up to Version 11.17.0-50. As usual, it’s another “stability update” – with improved system stability to further enhance the overall user experience.
Dataminer ‘OatmealDome’ also notes how the system settings, eShop app and internet browser on the system were also updated. And in the US region specifically, the Home Menu has received an update.
