Hello reader who is also a reader, and welcome back to Booked For The Week – our regular Sunday chat with a selection of cool industry folks about books! I’m currently reading Dorothy Parker, who did more for the language than I’d previously though. I’m having quite regular moments of “oh, she said that”. More proof, if any were needed, that the soul of wit is as much depression and alcoholism as it is brevity.
This week it’s game city design expert and author of Virtual Cities, Konstantinos Dimopoulos! Cheers Konstantinos! Mind if we have a nose at your bookshelf?
We are back with another edition of Box Art Brawl! Are you ready to rank some cover art?
Last time, we took a look at 1080° Avalanche for the GameCube, and the results were an absolute blowout. The European / North American design took a staggering win, claiming 80% of the vote and leaving the Japanese variant with the remaining 20%. Oof, an avalanche indeed.
Oblivion Remastered has enjoyed a hugely successful launch, with over 4 million players and a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam. However, if there’s one issue that continues to crop up, it’s performance problems.
No platform is spared of issues: whether it’s PS5, PS5 Pro, or either Xbox Series machine, all struggle with traversal hitches while roaming the open world. Secondly, there’s major sub-60fps frame-rates, where I’ve also discovered that performance slowly degrades with more playing time – quite possibly down to a memory leak. And finally, software freezes are the icing on the cake, with all PlayStation and Xbox platforms crashing to the system menu on loading a save one too many times.
How does this manifest itself in-game? According to DF, a “charged” playthrough with more continuous play time behind it performs worse than a fresh boot. Cycling through saves also introduces bugs in the charged play through, Morgan revealed. And this is particularly curious: this also leads to the camera position being too high while riding horseback. You can fix this by resetting the game.
The discovery of performance degrading over time as a result of a potential memory leak is of particular concern. The crashes on loading a save too many times is a significant issue, too.
The hope of course is that Bethesda addresses these problems sooner rather than later, especially as players spend more time with the expansive fantasy role-playing game and are more likely to run into these performance problems.
“It’s a dire position for any remaster to be in and developer Virtuos needs to address the game’s stability – the crashes – as a priority,” Morgan continued.
Digital Foundry asks some tough questions in its analysis, suggesting Oblivion Remastered was “rushed to market.” There also seems to be a discrepancy between versions, with a hotfix released for Xbox Series X so far unavailable for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 5 Pro.
That’s a damning assessment of Oblivion on console, but what about PC? DF had already issued its analysis of the PC version, calling its performance “dire.” It’s worth checking out DF’s analysis in full for more.
Despite the performance issues, Oblivion Remastered is a hit. It became the third best-selling game of 2025 in the U.S. after just one week on sale, having shadow-dropped on April 22. Oblivion Remastered trails only Monster Hunter: Wilds and Assassin’s Creed: Shadows at the top of the 2025 sales chart.
Oblivion Remastered, developed by remake specialist Virtuos using Unreal Engine 5, has a long list of visual and feature improvements. It runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, as you’d expect, but other changes are more meaningful. Everything from the leveling systems to character creation, and combat animations to in-game menus have been improved. Meanwhile, there’s lots of new dialogue, a proper third-person view, and new lip sync technology. The changes are going down well with fans, some of whom believe Oblivion Remastered would be more accurately described as a remake. Bethesda, however, has explained why it went down the remaster route.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The Arc System Works fighter Guilty Gear Strive was released on Switch earlier this year, and at EVO Japan this weekend a new DLC fighter has locked in a release date.
Unika will be arriving on 27th May 2025 as part of the Season 4 character lineup. More details about this new character will be released closer to her launch later this month.
Nintendo’s new Mario Kart World game arrives on the Switch 2 next month and if you’re planning on getting a physical copy, this is what you can expect when you flip over the back of the box art.
Right, sorry parents that proudly put their kids’ borderline impressionist drawings on the fridge, there’s a new bare minimum you have to meet. If you’re not turning your child’s drawings into full on video games, then I’m sorry to say you’re not doing a good enough job. This doesn’t apply to Artur Latkovsky, though, who is quite literally doing that with his game Odd Dorable (I’m sure I don’t need to explain the name to you), a game where every single bit of art in the game was made by his four-year-old daughter.
Horror asymmetric multiplayer game Dead by Daylight is celebrating its ninth anniversary later this year, an amount of time so large it really makes you think “man, most live service devs should have had the foresight to make their game a decade ago, huh?” With that anniversary approaching imminently, developer Behaviour Interactive held a year nine anniversary broadcast where there was one reveal that’ll have you going “yeah that makes sense” and another where you’ll say “ok, sure.”
The Monster Hunter franchise is a phenomenon, accumulating critical and commercial acclaim and spanning dozens of main titles and spinoffs. The secret to its success is an addictive gameplay loop, where you battle huge and terrifying monsters to gain loot that, in turn, lets you acquire better gear and hunt bigger, badder beasties. It’s an easy loop to replicate on the tabletop and that’s exactly what Monster Hunter World: The Board Game does. Just like its parent franchise, however, it comes in a variety of flavors, so here’s what you need to find your feet in this video game board game.
Featured in this article
If you’re not one for blurbs, you can scroll through all the items in this article right here. However, if you’d like to know more about what’s available and what comes in each box, read on for the goods.
Core Boxes
Each of the core boxes is a standalone game, containing four hunters and four monsters for them to hunt. However, they can also be combined, allowing you to mix and match characters and their prey from different sets. The majority of the components in each box are specific to the hunters and monsters unique to that set, but there is some overlap, and each set contains a few extra cards that are only used if you’re combining with its opposite number.
As such, you’re probably best off with a single core box to start with and, if you get into the game, you can start by adding some of the smaller expansions, listed below, doubling up on a second core set in the event that you develop a passion for the series.
There’s not really any difference between the core sets in terms of quality. Both feature the same ruleset, the same compulsive loop and the same stratospheric levels of production quality, with gigantic monster miniatures that tower above the hunters for an awesome sense of scale. But the look and feel of each is quite different, so you’re best off just going whichever one appeals most aesthetically, or ties in with fond memories from the video game series.
Monster Hunter World: The Board Game – Ancient Forest
As you might expect from the title, the setting for this collection is a primeval forest. The game boards are a lush green and brown and the monsters are clearly inspired by dinosaurs and tropical animals. There’s the lizard-like Great Jagras, the furred and scaled Tobi-Kadachi, the fearsome tyrannosaur Anjanath and the huge dragon Rathalos. Setting out to take them down are the classically-armed hunters Great Sword, Sword and Shield, Dual Blades, and Bow.
Monster Hunter World: The Board Game – Wildspire Waste
Wildspire Waste is a little more esoterically-named but the monsters and boards make clear that it’s a badlands-type setting, with a mixture of rocky outcrops, desert and swamp. The included creatures are the heavily-armored Barroth, monstrous swamp-fish Jyurados, the bird-like Pukei-Pukei, and underground behemoth Diablos which bears more than a passing resemblance to its demonic namesake. The hunters in this set are a little more bizarre, wielding Charge Blade, Switch Axe, Heavy Bowgun and Insect Glaive respectively.
Retail Expansions
As is often the case with Kickstarter-driven games, there were a slew of expansions available to pre-order at the same time. Most of these are still available at retail, however Nergigante is very hard to find and Teostra is exclusive to the publisher, Steamforged games – both of them are currently available directly from their website.
Nergigante, Kushala Daora and Teostra are all Elder Dragons, a new type of monster for you to hunt. They come with additional quest content for the base game, but perhaps most appealing of all they offer an extra, five-star difficulty level that’s a grade above any of the base game monsters, and the included miniature is a whole level bigger than any of their core box counterparts, too. That gives you an extra, mega-boss challenge to overcome and extends your campaign.
While getting to fight an ultimate boss in a longer campaign might sound like the ideal way to extend your base game content, all these expansions are expensive, and many have features that only work with one core box or the other. For example, Daora has one special crafting weapon that fits a hunter from the Ancient Forest, and another for a hunter from the Wildspire Wastes. As such, picking up the second core set might well be your best first stop if you want additional content for your game.
Monster Hunter World The Board Game: Hunter’s Arsenal Expansion
This offers six new hunters, as usual named after their weapons, which are a mixture of the traditional and peculiar. You can choose from the Light Bowgun, the Long Sword (which is very long indeed), the Gunlance, the Hammer, the Lance and the Hunting Horn (which looks nothing like a horn). While cool dragons and other monsters are obviously appealing, in terms of adding variety to your games, this box gives you the biggest bang for your buck as you get six different new toys to play with, and six new upgrade paths to explore, rather than just one beastie. However, you’ll need both core sets to be able to fully utilize all six.
Monster Hunter World: The Board Game – Nergigante Expansion
If you do want one single dragon to add to your campaign, this might be your best bet because it allows you to craft additional weapons for all the currently available characters, including all those from the core sets and the Hunter’s Arsenal. He’s also delightfully odd, a spiny colossus who grows vicious spikes to impale the hunters wherever he’s damaged.
Monster Hunter World The Board Game: Kushala Daora Expansion
Kushala Daora is a wind dragon, who buffets the hunters with powerful storms and he’s also got the biggest miniature in the range, with a foot-wide wingspan. As if beating such a behemoth wasn’t a tough enough fight in the first place, you’ll also have to fight through strong winds and tornado blasts just to even close with your quarry.
Monster Hunter World: The Board Game – Teostra Expansion
Of all the dragons, Teostra might be the most familiar simply because it’s the classic fire dragon everyone knows and either loves or fears, possibly in equal measure. As you might expect that means a lot of ranged punishment from blasts and fireballs for anyone that dares trespass onto the dragon’s lair.
Exclusive Expansion
This was originally only available as part of the Kickstarter campaign for the game. Expect to pay a hefty premium if you want to pick one up second-hand. However, there’s currently another chance to snag one thanks to the more recent Kickstarter campaign for the new Iceborne boxes, detailed below.
Monster Hunter World – Kulu-Ya-Ku Expansion
This bizarre creature can pick things up in its dextrous claws, such as rocks to throw at intrepid hunters. In mechanical terms this not only gives it a missile attack but its ability to use tools makes it unpredictable, ensuring you’ve got to pick the right spot from round to round in order to score maximum damage. It looks a lot like an ornithomimosaur – an ostrich-mimic dinosaur – so looks right at home in the Ancient Forest although it can be used with either core box.
Upcoming Content
Monster Hunter World Iceborne: The Board Game
Following the success of the initial lineup detailed above, publisher Steamforged Games ran a second Kickstarter for a new iteration of the basic design called Monster Hunter World: Iceborne. While it features the same core mechanics it has a range of new concepts, so it’s only partially compatible with the original boxes: you can port monsters and hunters from one to the other in arena games, but you can’t shunt a campaign from one setting to a different one.
The Iceborne content follows a similar, but slightly different path to the original campaign. There’s just one core box this time, Hoarfrost Reach, again with four monsters and four hunters. Also as before there are Elder Dragons and a Hunter’s Arsenal expansion to add. But instead of another core box there are three monster expansions with four new monsters each, Absolute Power, Seething Anger and Overpowering Hunger. Plus a smattering of extras unlocked during the campaign.
While the campaign has closed, the game has not yet shipped and you can still order items from the offered range via Gamfound.
Risk of Rain 2 is still trudging along, it seems, as yesterday publisher Gearbox announced that a new expansion is on the way, Alloyed Collective. In a post over on Steam, the Risk of Rain team explained that alongside updating the game’s previous bit of DLC, Seekers of the Storm, they’ve brought on some “additional folks that are familiar with Risk of Rain to help us build out the next DLC.” Alloyed Collective is apparently still a while away from being ready, but it sounds pretty jam packed.
