A bit of creepy crawly, low-key city building? Ah, go on then. October and Halloween might be behind us, but Fangtopia is a puzzle game stroke city builder that still feels appropriate for late autumn. Having had a go with its demo, it’s deceptively simple, in fact it felt so simple I wasn’t entirely sure if I was doing anything at all. But when it clicked, all the pieces fell into place resulting in a pleasantly chill time.
Epic Games is teasing an explosive return to Fortnite story content with a Chapter 6 Zero Hour Finale Live Event teaser trailer that packs in heavy-hitter cameos ahead of the inevitable launch of Chapter Seven.
The description for the new Fortnite story video teases that some familiar faces will “assemble in the final endgame to save reality,” and the footage proves it. In just 30 seconds, we see Jonesy dodging giant tentacle monster attacks as Godzilla, King Kong, and Star Wars X-Wings battle overhead. Naturally, a giant, half-naked Homer Simpson then shows up before Uma Thurman’s Kill Bill character, The Bride, swoops in, with the trailer then finally telling players to expect the Fortnite Chapter 6 Zero Hour Finale event to take place November 29 at 11 a.m. PT / 2 p.m. ET.
There’s a lot to unpack here, but the reveal most will pick up off the bat is that Kill Bill appearance. Fans have spent weeks speculating about how Quentin Tarantino’s legendary action series may soon find representation in Fortnite, with today’s teaser finally revealing a first look.
It’s an unveiling that will also surely reinforce rumors that Tarantino himself is involved in some of Epic’s upcoming festivities, with some believing the filmmaker directed its new cinematic. There’s been no official word on what exactly the big finale has in store, but with some eagle-eyed fans already spotting a Fortnite-related premiere at Tarantino’s The Vista Theatre in Los Angeles, the evidence is only getting harder to deny.
As everyone from Godzilla to Homer stomps in for what is poised to be one of the biggest Fortnite events ever, fans can’t help but look forward to how Chapter Seven may shake up the long-running live-service experience’s formula. Some believe Epic is dropping hints that The Seven, a star-studded group that has largely been MIA from Fortnite story content for years, could somehow make a comeback for the Seven-themed Chapter, for example.
Should The Seven return to Epic’s grand video game multiverse, it would likely mean the stars who play them, including Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Brie Larson, would be back, too. We should find out more about the Fortnite Chapter 6 Zero Hour Finale and Chapter Seven in the coming weeks
In the meantime, players have spent November gallivanting around none other than The Simpsons’ Springfield, as the long-running animated series made its debut with themed skins, Easter Eggs, and more. It’s a crossover that’s been particularly successful for Epic, with players also enjoying the new Sidekicks feature and the return of the Omniverse.
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).
Here’s a sentence I am very glad to write: the first Citizen Sleeper-like is here! Or at least the first one I’m aware of (and the actual genre is dice-driven RPG, no more something-likes, ok?). It’s called Dusk Punk, which mixes the narrative and mechanical framework established by Citizen Sleeper with the aesthetics and world of games like Dishonored, and it’s out today.
As a fighting game fan, I’ve grown to enjoy the process. Spending extended amounts of time in training mode learning the timing of memorized button presses in the hopes that, when it really counts, that practice will pay off. This might be why I found Forestrike, a 2D martial arts inspired roguelite that lets you plan out your approach to solving a gauntlet of combat encounters before executing upon them for real, so uniquely appealing. It successfully evokes the feeling of classic kung fu fight choreography by mixing straight up hand-to-hand combat with clever moments of using the environment to your advantage, or turning an enemy’s own weapon against them, or causing friendly fire simply with an effortless step to the side, all on a 2D plane with minimalist spite art. The precision and memorization needed to accomplish these impressive looking feats can be brutal, especially considering how easy it is for one mistake to cascade into many more, eventually cratering a run, but this clever concept still manages to pack a heck of a punch.
Forestrike puts you in control of Yu, a young martial artist who is part of the Order of the Foresight, a faction dutifully devoted to serving their Emperor, and one that becomes dedicated to the mission of saving said emperor from the manipulation of a being known as The Admiral. There’s a surprising amount of dialogue in Forestrike as we learn more about The Order and the various masters that guide Yu along his journey in between each run. In that way, it’s a lot like the intermissions between runs of Hades, but instead of always looking forward to the new things characters had to say, I generally found myself eager to get on with it so I could get back to fighting. A complete lack of voice acting certainly contributed to this, but the writing and characters themselves also just weren’t strong enough to keep my interest for very long.
Once you’re in an actual run, Forestrike flexes its muscles. It’s structured like a gauntlet of combat encounters against increasingly difficult foes, but before the actual fighting starts you’re able use your foresight technique to essentially do a practice run. That lets you find the right combination of attacks, dodges, and techniques to defeat all of the enemies in the most efficient way possible. Defensive resources like blocks and dodges are extremely limited, and it’s rare that you’ll go into an encounter with more than one of either. At first it felt rather frustrating as I just continuously found myself being forced to burn my dodge or block against the first tough enemy, which meant I wouldn’t be able to avoid the attacks of the last one. Eventually, though, a visual language started to develop as I learned how enemies would react to my actions and how I could use those predictable tendencies to my advantage.
If one enemy was charging me from the right, I could use my dodge resource to move an enemy on my left to the other side, putting him right in the way of that attack. If I was up against an enemy with spikes on the front of their body, I could look for a type of puppet enemy that drops its head when killed, which could then be picked up and thrown to kill the spiked foe from a distance. Figuring out this visual language organically was super satisfying, and I felt like I was getting further and further in my runs not because my character was becoming more powerful, but because I was simply getting better, which is always a great feeling in a roguelite.
What really makes the gameplay sing are the different martial masters that you take along with you in each run, which dictate what techniques you’re able to use. There’s Talgun, who is the master of the Leaf style, which focuses primarily on redirecting enemy attacks so that your foes take each other out; Nodai of the Cold Eye style, which focuses primarily on blocking, restoring health, and brute force; and my favorite, Monkey, who utilizes a wild fighting style that relies on surprising foes with dropkicks, bananas, and resting on the floor so that enemy attacks go right over and slam into the foe behind you.
Each style requires a completely different approach to solving the puzzles of combat, and I loved jumping between them and seeing the many different techniques that unlock the further you get in a run. Each time you beat the boss of one of the four regions, you unlock more techniques that get added to the pool of randomly selected rewards, which essentially acts as the permanent progression that helps give you the extra edge you’ll need to conquer each of the four regions of the campaign.
The one big issue with this formula is that the amount of precision required in some of the later stages can get pretty out of control, especially considering how quickly things can go off the rails with just one error. I’ve had multiple combat encounters where all of my practice runs went flawlessly, but on the actual attempt I was just a hair off on the timing of a single strike, which would essentially cause my whole plan to break down and force me to improvise the rest of the way, which usually leads to either death or near death. That’s just part of the design, but it doesn’t stop it from being extremely frustrating to lose an otherwise great run to what ultimately amounts to being off by just milliseconds one time.
The sprite based art style is intentionally minimalist – much like Skeleton Crew Studio’s previous game, Olija – and for the most part is very charming. The sprites themselves are surprisingly expressive despite their lack of detail, the 2D art is fantastic, and the actual combat animations are great – but for whatever reason the same attention was not given to the walk and run animations, which are some of the most awkward I’ve seen in 2D pixel art. It’s not a huge deal since Yu only really walks and runs in between runs at the monastery, but it’s still a very strange quirk in a game that otherwise looks great.
Tanks for the memories.
Hamster Corporation’s Arcade Archives series is back with another cabinet classic on Switch 2. I got to check out Jet Ski racer Aqua Jet back in August, which was a lovingly crafted port. This time I’m revisiting the destructive tank combat of Namco’s Tokyo Wars, which served as inspiration for The 3DO Company’s N64 classic Battle Tanx: Global Assault.
Aqua Jet was notable for having a cabinet containing a replica Jet Ski, something which can’t really be recreated on Switch (without some serious hardware modding). Tokyo Wars had a similar hardware quirk that provided a satisfying kickback to simulate your tank firing its payload. A feature that is, bafflingly, not emulated with the Switch 2 controllers’ haptics.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
In SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide, available now for Xbox Series X|S, we wanted to place a special focus on the themes of duality. SpongeBob and Patrick are longtime BFFs, but strikingly opposite in their approach to challenges. SpongeBob is the eternal optimist, hardworking and curious, while Patrick is laid back, good natured and carefree. The two are united in their love for live, playing jokes, and annoying Squidward.
It’s a character trope that we see throughout the series through other character relationships like Mermaid Man and Barnacle Boy and Plankton and Karen. The series always focuses on interpersonal relationships and finding unity in differences. This was a huge inspiration for us as we approached the antagonists King Neptune and the Flying Dutchman, and we felt like this was a unique opportunity to take this recurring series theme and apply it to a less explored dynamic between two series characters.
When we set out to make Titans of the Tide, we had two strong SpongeBob games to base our learnings on. Battle for Bikini Bottom-Rehydrated remains a cult classic, beloved by the SpongeBob community. Its gameplay is a little slower, but the writing and story development is superb and all three main characters – SpongeBob, Patrick, and Sandy are playable. With Cosmic Shake, we focused on the fidelity of gameplay and wanted to highlight this through focusing on SpongeBob as the main character with Balloon Patrick by his side throughout their adventures. In Titans, we further refined gameplay by re-introducing Patrick as a playable character. You can see the duality theme pop back up again here as SpongeBob and Patrick’s approach to saving Bikini Bottom varies with their skillset.
While SpongeBob is an agile karate king, Patrick’s burly nature helps players to pick up and throw heavy objects, burrow, and use a grapple hook to bring objects closer to him. Switching between the two characters is seamless, which lends itself to epic combinations and unique puzzling. We intentionally kept the basic fighting and traversal abilities mechanically similar (though vastly different in animation style) so that parents and kids alike can play large swathes of the game as their favourite character.
Let’s take a moment to talk about the antagonists: King Neptune is a posh aristocrat whose main concern is his reputation and debonair lifestyle, while the Flying Dutchman is a rowdy pirate who haunts the Seven Seas. Bringing these larger-than-life characters to our audience can be challenging. We worked hard to match the dialogue and character developments throughout the game to those of the series, so that viewers and players have a seamless experience throughout the SpongeBob universe. Once our base for the characters was established, we prototyped the story outline and filled it in with dialogue and story development based on the development of our key features so that the result is a smooth experience that feels like a natural extension to the series.
In creating the story, we started with the premise that Mr. Krabs was having a 50% off discount at the Krusty Krab. Pay half price for, well, half of a Krabby Patty. A legendary marketing move, courtesy of Eugene Krabs. The Flying Dutchman has been waiting in line for hours when King Neptune storms in and jumps the line. The two iconic egos clash and chaos is unleashed upon Bikini Bottom. Half of the population is turned into ghosts, including SpongeBob who’s caught in the crossfire. Luckily Patrick and SpongeBob figure out that they can trade places as the “ghost buddy” by holding their BFF rings together. While King Neptune and the Flying Dutchman battle it out, you follow SpongeBob and Patrick in their journey to reconcile those two old geezers.
We’ll leave the rest for you to explore and we look forward to seeing what your favorite moments are. SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide is available now for Xbox Series X|S.
THQ Nordic GmbH
Switch seamlessly between SpongeBob and Patrick
Combine SpongeBob and Patrick’s unique platforming skills
Master Patrick’s brand-new skills like grappling and burrowing
Experience a new ghostly story
Fully voiced by the original cast of the show
Visit iconic locations like Neptune’s Palace and Mount Bikini
Battle epic bosses like the Flying Dutchman, King Neptune and Hibernation Sandy
The post How Friendship and Duality Are at the Heart of SpongeBob SquarePants: Titans of the Tide appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Fallout fans have a whole lot to be excited about these days. From Season 2 of the hit Amazon Prime Video series dropping next month to Fallout 4 coming to Nintendo Switch 2 and Fallout 76 getting a Burning Springs expansion, we’re spoiled for content. Fallout Day on October 23 brought even more announcements. With everything that’s coming, there are tons of fun new collectibles and memorabilia to buy or pre-order in anticipation.
IGN Store is stocked up on awesome Fallout exclusives; there’s even a functional, true to the TV series Pip-Boy Die-Cast replica and Lucy’s Vault 33 Backpack, both of which would be any cosplayer’s dream. Bethesda’s Gear Store already has the 15th Anniversary Fallout: New Vegas bundle up for preorder, along with mementos from the Mojave Wasteland. Or grab my personal favorite, a decorative, rocket-shaped Nuka Mix bottle to create your own Nuka Mix Station at home.
Take a look at this curated list of top Fallout gear any fan would love, alongside a handy blurb about each. With the holidays quickly approaching, these items also make great gifts for all the Wastelanders in your life.
Chryslus Motors classic Fusion Flea got a wasteland makeover with a sick camouflage livery and a rear wheel swapped for tracks, ensuring it’s ready to take on the unforgiving dunes. The Desert Sandtrack Flea is a 1:18 scale replica from The Wand Company, and an IGN Store exclusive that has a limited run of just 1,500 units available for preorder right now. With a mix of die-cast metal, thermoplastic rubber, and engineered plastics, it’s built to last. The attention to detail, from the steerable front wheels and tinted windshield to the engine and its glowing nuclear core, makes this military-ready hot-rod a great addition for any collector.
Bethesda has a brand new Fallout: New Vegas Bundle available for pre-order from its Gear Store for the 15th Anniversary. In addition to getting the Ultimate Edition of the game via a digital code, which includes all the officially released DCL expansion packs and two weapons packs, it comes with a bunch of cool memorabilia that every Courier will want.
An 8-inch PVC Victor Statue is ready to watch over Good Springs, while one pin and two patches let you represent the Mojave Wasteland anywhere. It even comes with Doc Mitchell’s evaluation cards, allowing you to do a psychological evaluation of friends in the real world. Everything then comes packaged in a retro display box created exclusively for this 15th Anniversary Edition. This bundle doesn’t drop till June 2026, but it’s perfect for any New Vegas fan.
Fans of Fallout: New Vegas and Fallout 3 will want to get their hands on, or rather arms into, this 1:1 replica of the Pip-Boy 3000. Each detail of this wrist-mounted computer remains faithful to the game. A fully functional IPS display delivers that vintage cathode ray tube look, complete with screen glitches and a huge gallery of media, including the Atomic Command minigame. The Wand Company spared no expense when creating this replica, from its die-cast metal front casing and memory foam cuff with a spacer to a rechargeable LiPo power cell and LED torch. It’s sure to elevate your cosplay to another level, but the included machined metal stand is ideal for displaying this exhibition-grade collectible — or using the Pip-Boy 3000 as an alarm clock; yes, it does that too.
The detail is incredible on this 8.4-inch resin statue of a New Vegas Ranger. It’s clear he’s a veteran warrior with his battle-worn armour, instantly recognizable Desert Ranger trench coat, gas mask, and dark red eyes. He’s combat-ready with his finger on the trigger of a meticulously decorated revolver. Anyone looking to add an iconic figure of the Mojave Wasteland to their collection will love this statue.
Represent Lucy and the rest of the vault dwellers in Vault 33 from the Prime TV series with this official Vault 33 hoodie. Featuring the signature blue and yellow color scheme with an embroidered “33” on the front and a bold patch across the back, there’s no mistaking your commitment to a brighter tomorrow. The 60/40 cotton-poly blend on this heavyweight zippered hoodie is sure to keep you cozy, especially during the cooler months ahead.
Take a piece of the dreamy post-apocalyptic soda fountain from Fallout home with your very own Nuka Mix glass. The 12-ounce bottle features that iconic rocket shape and comes with 10 brown tinplate bottle caps ready for your own Nuka blends. It’s for display purposes only, so you can’t actually drink (or enjoy the gameplay buffs and weird side effects) from this bottle. Nuka Mix isn’t the only Nuka-Cola flavor available; Bethesda’s Gear Store has a bunch of other kinds for an epic Nuka Mix Station at home.
Before the New California Republic Rangers formed, there were the Desert Rangers, and you can grab a piece of their history with a durable plastic helmet modeled after one found in Fallout: New Vegas. It’s hand-painted with weathered detail to make each helmet unique. A green glow even comes from the eyes, thanks to the inclusion of LED lights. Best of all, this helmet is wearable for some epic cosplay, and it comes with a stand for displaying. An enamel pin of a completely geared-up Desert Ranger is also included. You can pre-order the Desert Ranger Battle Helmet now, with shipping expected to begin in December.
While you might not be navigating the Wasteland like Lucy, you can accessorize similarly to her in the real world with this remarkably accurate replica rolltop backpack. While it’s brilliant for cosplay, this bag is well-built, durable, and surprisingly big, making it a great option for everyday use. You’ll find a 20L interior compartment, a laptop slot, pockets for various accessories, and, of course, the thick signature yellow blanket that rests on top. Given that this backpack is from the minds at The Wand Company, even the patterns and materials to create it are specially sourced to match what’s used in the show.
While you can’t use these bottle caps for currency in the real world, they do make for one fun keepsake. The Mojave Wasteland is known for its abundance of Sunset Sarsaparilla, and this pack of 20 tinplate caps and collectible tin with a cowboy on the lid will please any New Vegas fan. You might even luck out and find a few caps with a blue star underneath.
The most iconic figure in the Fallout franchise is Vault Boy, and you can preorder a plaque to display Vault-Tec’s cheerful mascot at home. This 200 x 198mm full-color, embossed resin sign comes with hardware to display it on a wall, or plop it on a shelf with the included stand. It’s perfect for game rooms, adding a touch of retro flair to your space.
Danielle is a Tech freelance writer based in Los Angeles who spends her free time creating videos and geeking out over music history.
Anyone order a free Mafia: The Old Country update? Well, whether you did or not, a free update is what you’re getting. This one’s quite features driven, focusing a lot of challenges and cosmetics, but there’s a few new weapons and the like too. Let’s take a little look-see!
Haha. Yeah, I know. “Half-Life 3”. The long-fabled, often-rumored, still non-existent third numbered entry in the Half-Life series that fans have craved but never heard a credible whisper of. It’s been a pervasive joke in the industry and among fans for years, a stand-in for a thing that doesn’t exist and never would.
And yet, for some reason, a lot of people seem to think it’s being announced soon. Possibly in the next few weeks. Maybe even today.
You might have seen it. The sudden flurry of mentions of Half-Life 3, some humorous, some quite serious. The surge of memes. A handful of people that seem to have lost their dang minds:
So what’s going on? Why do people think Half-Life 3 is imminent, seriously or unseriously? We investigated:
Half-Life 3 rumors have existed pretty much since Half-Life 2 first released, so that’s nothing new. But the last couple of years have seen a steady trickle of interesting little threads that have lead many to believe that a third entry was actually in development, quietly, at Valve. There were vague nods, such as the Half-Life: Alyx team saying they wanted to make more Half-Life games and a Final Hours documentary that actually confirmed it was in development at one point between 2013 and 2014. We’ve also seen dataminers pulling crumbs from various Valve releases over the last few years of what seems to be an in-development game internally at Valve known only as “HLX”, using Source 2. Dataminers have worked out that it’s a full-fledged, non-VR, Half-Life game of some sort, that’s been in the works since at least 2021, probably earlier. That game is possibly the same one as was accidentally leaked by a voice actor in 2024, who referred to it as “Project White Sands”.
But this year there’s been a marked increase in little breadcrumbs. Right after the new year, G-Man’s voice actor issued a cryptic post teasing “unexpected surprises” in 2025 – it was his first tweet since he congratulated Valve on Half-Life: Alyx in December 2020. Fans proceeded to tear apart the post, delving deep into an album cover image and the number 197 for what they believed were even more hints that something was in the works.
But an already simmering pot of rumors turned into a full boil with the announcement last week of new Valve hardware: the Steam Machine, complete with a new Steam controller, and a VR headset known as the Steam Frame. Notably, there were no software announcements alongside these hardware reveals, which is a bit odd given that Valve tends to release new games alongside new hardware – recall Half-Life: Alyx and the Valve Index headset. Around the same time, a number of Valve and industry insiders began mentioning Half-Life 3, saying confidently that it was planned for a 2025 announcement still. One leaker, who has a good track record of getting Valve stuff right, said back in May that Half-Life 3 was officially “playable, end-to-end.” There’s a massive Miro board floating around that has catalogued every remotely credible recent mention of Half-Life 3, and is worth digging into if you want follow along.
There are so many other weird little indicators floating around that are leading to wild speculation. For instance, Valve’s “Upcoming Releases” tab on its own Steam page only lists one game (Deadlock) despite the sidebar indicating that there are two upcoming game releases. A tweet/X post from the official The Game Awards account commemorating Half-Life’s 27th anniversary today has sent everyone into a frenzy, even though it tweets this anniversary every year. There was a weird amount of extra security at Valve during the recent Steam hardware preview events – something noticed by IGN’s own representatives and contrasted with my personal experience there for Half-Life: Alyx years ago, which featured a relatively normal and relaxed amount of security.
And there was an incredibly silly saga where Geoff Keighley posted a screenshot that showed he had one game in his Steam wishlist. When asked what the game was, he responded with an eyes emoji, and then showed the game Dadlympics. Of course, the Half-Life nerds pounced. Keighley then posted a screenshot of his wishlist showing only the game “Dadlympics,” but notably, this was added on 11/18, the same day he posted the screenshot, suggesting he’s hiding something. Is he hiding Half-Life 3? Probably not! It doesn’t have a viewable Steam page! That’s not how Steam works! But that hasn’t stopped Half-Life 3 fans from pouncing. Seriously, the replies are hilarious.
— arda (@lornarcoss) November 18, 2025
Whatever you believe is happening here, the reality is that this has resulted in the community going completely bonkers. The Half-Life subreddit is overflowing with Half-Life 3 summoning and hope posts. A quick search for Half-Life on Twitter/X reveals an overflow of discourse, prayers, and memes. It’s kind of nuts, and also really, really fun:
Okay, so let’s say everyone’s right, and we really are getting Half-Life 3 announced soon. When? Well, some think it’s as soon as today. November 19, as The Game Awards posted, is the anniversary of Half-Life – what better time to make an announcement? We’ve already passed the anniversary of Half-Life 2, and the anniversary of Half-Life: Alyx’s announcement, but that particular anniversary is the reason you’re likely seeing so much noise around this today. The other big possibility floated by some is an announcement at The Game Awards, which is coming up on December 11. That would be a little surprising, given that Valve doesn’t need an awards show to command attention with such an announcement. But Valve also has a long history of friendliness with host Geoff Keighley, so maybe it’s not so far-fetched after all.
Whatever the case, one thing is certain: either Half-Life 3 is getting announced before December 31, 2025, or an awful lot of folks are going to have egg on their faces come January 1, 2026. I’m personally hoping for the former, but the community has been hoodwinked before with Half-Life rumors, multiple times even. Keep injecting that Hopium, folks. Perhaps the return of G-man is right around the corner.
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.
Mafia: The Old Country’s Free Ride update finally has a release date: November 20. It adds a number of new features, including challenges, a first-person driving camera, classic difficulty, and photo mode.
The major update to Hangar 13’s narrative adventure is a callback to the original Mafia’s Free Ride Extreme and the Free Ride mode in Mafia: Definitive Edition. As explained by Peter Amato, Content Manager at publisher 2K in a post on the PlayStation Blog, Mafia: The Old Country’s Free Ride update is a collection of challenges separate from the main story that give players chances to revisit the world in a “more self-guided way.” Veteran fans of the series will find that Mafia: The Old Country’s Free Ride mode will be slightly different from previous titles as a result.
The repeatable challenges include combat, stealth, and different race types. Completing them earns you the Dinari in-game currency to spend on the new outfits, charms, weapons, and vehicles unlocked by progressing through this content (as well as on items unlocked via the campaign).
“We want players to explore the world in a freeform way, and Free Ride turns it into an expansive hub where you’ll find and access various challenges by travelling around, unlocking Hitching Posts, and meeting contacts,” Amato said. “Challenges are instanced and accessed via these contacts, and doing so will place you into a combat location or special world state.
“These combat encounters reuse mission locations, so once you’ve played the corresponding story chapter and unlocked a Challenge in Free Ride, you’ll get to re-experience areas in new ways. Races happen out in the world and we’ve placed them along less-traveled paths, so it should be fun seeing parts of the map you may have previously passed by.
“Of course, there may be new places to explore too, but that’s something you’ll have to discover for yourself…”
Elsewhere, there’s the Cinema Siciliano visual treatment, which Amato said makes Mafia: The Old Country feel like playing “a genuine piece of classic Italian cinema.” “The visual treatment is stunning and it feels like you’re experiencing a black-and-white movie shot on an old-school sound stage, while the vintage-sounding audio convincingly brings the whole thing together,” Amato explained.
All the new items earned by playing Free Ride are usable in the main story campaign. All the new elements are present from the start, so new players will have them as options going through the game for the first time.
The addition of first-person driving is a first for the Mafia franchise. And the Classic difficulty makes the game harder.
Earlier this month, Strauss Zelnick, boss of 2K parent company Take-Two, teased a bright future for the Mafia franchise after Mafia: The Old Country “performed well ahead of expectations.”
“Definitely,” Zelnick said when asked if The Old Country performed well enough to instill confidence to continue the franchise. “We’re really excited about Mafia, and I think that’s a great question because it is sort of a reset for the franchise. We don’t have anything to announce — that comes from the label — but it definitely performed well ahead of expectations.”
It sounds like the decision to sell Mafia: The Old Country at a cheaper than expected $49.99 price point paid off, then. Fans praised The Old Country’s $50 price tag when it was confirmed, and publisher 2K and developer Hangar 13 managed expectations by stressing pre-launch that it was absolutely not a Grand Theft Auto-style open-world game, but a linear, narrative-driven game.
Take-Two stopped short of providing exact sales figures but said the early 1900s Sicily-set Mafia “quickly surpassed our internal expectations and affirmed our belief that consumer demand remains strong for premium, narrative-driven experiences that over-index on value.” Although it’s unclear when or how another Mafia game could materialize in the future, more new content and updates for The Old Country are confirmed to be in the works.
Mafia: The Old Country launched in August as a prequel for the crime drama video game franchise that got its start with the original Mafia in 2002. The series saw semi-regular releases up until the launch of the divisive Mafia 3 in 2016, with only a group of well-received definitive edition remasters arriving to break up the wait for more in 2020.
IGN’s Mafia: The Old Country review returned an 8/10. We said: “Mafia: The Old Country is a conventional but effective return to the linear and tightly story-driven format of the original Mafia and Mafia II, and it boasts a wonderful eye and ear for detail.”
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.
