How to Watch Xbox Developer_Direct 2026 Next Thursday

Developer_Direct Hero Image 2026

Developer_Direct returns next Thursday, January 22 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK, and will kick off Xbox’s 25th anniversary year with a look at some of the incredible games in store for players.

As we shared previously, the show will include exclusive gameplay and developer insights for Playground Games’ Fable and Forza Horizon 6, as well as Game Freak’s Beast of Reincarnation – all presented directly by the people making the games, and recorded in their studios.

Here are all the details on how to tune in:

When is Developer_Direct? Thursday, January 22 at 10am Pacific / 1pm Eastern / 6pm UK.

How do I watch Developer_Direct? Developer_Direct will be streamed live on official channels, including:

The show will also be streamed simultaneously on regional Xbox channels around the globe, as well as on Steam. It will air on China’s Bilibili platform later the next day.

The YouTube stream will be broadcast in 4K/60, and as with any live broadcast, there may be dips in streaming quality based on your bandwidth.

Is the event available in languages other than English? Developer_Direct will be streamed live on YouTube.com/Xbox with English captions, and our other live languages will be available via regional Xbox channels.

The languages we will support live on our Xbox channels are: English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Castilian Spanish, LATAM Spanish and Turkish.

Shortly after the broadcast concludes, we will add the following additional languages to YouTube.com/Xbox: Arabic (MSA), Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Czech, Dutch, Filipino, Canadian French, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Hindi, Māori, Persian (Farsi), Portuguese, Russian, Swedish, Thai, Ukrainian and Vietnamese.

The easiest way to find your preferred language is to go to your region’s Xbox page, or by viewing on the official Xbox YouTube channel and clicking the gear icon in the lower right corner.

Is Developer_Direct going to be Accessible to those with low/no hearing or low/no vision? There will be a version of the show with Audio Descriptions (AD) in English on the Xbox YouTube channel, American Sign Language (ASL) on Xbox’s YouTube channel and the /XboxASL Twitch channel, and British Sign Language (BSL) on Xbox On’s YouTube channel.

I’m not going to be able to watch, where can I find out what was announced? A full recap will go live on Xbox Wire immediately following the show (including localized versions in Brazilian Portuguese, French, German, LATAM Spanish and Japanese following later). Xbox Wire will also publish detailed articles about every game from the show with extra information.

Notes for co-streamers and creators: We at Xbox greatly appreciate any co-stream efforts and aim to ensure you have a smooth experience if you choose to do so. However, due to forces beyond our control, we cannot guarantee that glitches or disruptions by bots and other automated software won’t interfere with your co-stream.

For those planning to create full post-show breakdowns of Developer_Direct in the form of video-on-demand coverage, we recommend you do not use any audio containing copyrighted music to avoid any action by automated bots, and to also consult the terms of service for your service provider.

We’ll see you for Developer_Direct on Thursday, January 22!

The post How to Watch Xbox Developer_Direct 2026 Next Thursday appeared first on Xbox Wire.

Claim your place among motorcycle legends in Ride 6 career

Hello, fellow bikers, this is Paolo Bertoni, Game Director of Ride 6. As we rev things up ahead of the game’s release on PS5, planned for February 12, 2026, I’d like to take you behind the scenes to explore the brand-new career mode we’ve been crafting, and share how it brings our vision to life.

The goal of a project like Ride is to immerse virtual riders in the same thrills that every real biker seeks when they open the garage door and hop on their bike. So we asked ourselves: what fuels that passion? It wasn’t hard to figure out, considering that for much of our team, motorcycles aren’t just a job, they’re a way of life. Over the years, the Ride franchise has built a huge roster of bikes and tracks to give players as many choices as possible. With Ride 6, we wanted to go further. We wanted to capture the very essence of being a biker, an experience we called Ride Fest.

Ride Fest is much more than a career; it’s a motorcycle festival that plunges players into the love of riding, freedom, and the sense of camaraderie that defines the biker spirit. It replaces the traditional championship format with a more open approach, offering a horizontal progression system based on chapters. You will get to choose which events to tackle, from single races and endurance challenges to championships and time attacks, all organized into themed areas based on criteria such as bike category, manufacturer, circuit type, weather conditions, or legendary champions.

Claim your place among motorcycle legends in Ride 6 career

Yes, you read that right! For the first time in the franchise’s history, Ride 6 will feature real-world riders. We’ve collaborated with 10 two-wheels legends who will put your skills to the test in their own area of expertise. For instance, Niccolò Canepa, Peter Hickman, and Ian Hutchinson will challenge your endurance and precision, while Tyler O’Hara will bring his unmatched experience on Baggers to the track, turning every lap into a display of power and control. Road races, instead, are the natural habitat of Guy Martin, while Thomas Chareyre and Skyler Howes embody the raw spirit of Motard and Off-Road racing. Facing these legends will allow you to unlock exclusive rewards, including their signature bikes and equipment, but first, you’ll need to build your reputation within the festival.

This is the key concept of the Ride Fest: proving yourself among the greatest riders in history. To do so, you’ll need to accumulate enough Fame Points along your journey, gradually expanding the career map and unlocking new events, including dedicated boss battles where you can take on each legend across a variety of challenges.

To give everyone the chance to perform at their best in every type of race, we’ve also decided to introduce a new dual-physics system. Depending on your level of expertise, you can choose between the Pro and Arcade experiences, freely switching between the two based on the event in order to tailor the gameplay to your preferred level of realism or fun, while always enjoying Ride’s signature simulation core. This will be especially useful for mastering the Maxi Enduro and Bagger, the two new bike categories introduced in this chapter, which, together with the new off-road tracks, will bring fresh dimensions to the riding experience.

Finally, when in need of a break from the competition, you can head to the Ride Fest Paddock, the hub where all in-game activities come together. Here, you can relax with the other riders, upgrade your bikes with the help of your mechanic crew, visit the shop, and customize your look using the bike, helmet, and racing suit editors. Throughout your journey, the official Ride Fest DJ will immerse you even more in the festival atmosphere, introducing each chapter through dedicated cutscenes.

Thanks for your time, I hope you enjoyed reading this! And don’t forget to mark your calendar, as Ride 6 will be available on PlayStation 5 on February 12, 2026, with Early Access available from February 9, 2026.

Games Workshop Reveals Best-Selling Warhammer 40,000 Army Set of All-Time, Reinforcing Just How Popular This Space Marine Chapter Truly Is

Games Workshop has confirmed that a recently released Warhammer 40,000 army set a sales record for the company, reinforcing this Space Marine chapter as among the most popular in the setting.

Delivering Games Workshop’s latest financial results, CEO Kevin Rountree confirmed that the Space Wolves secured a new record for army set sales at the company. This relates to the Space Wolves army set that launched in May last year, and which you can see in the image below. It contains 28 brand-new miniatures, a Codex Supplement for the Great Companies of Fenris, a set of datasheet cards, and a new transfer sheet. In terms of minis, the army set includes a Wolf Guard Battle Leader, a Wolf Priest, three Wolf Guard Headtakers, 10 Blood Claws, and 10 Grey Hunters.

Rountree called the army set format one that is “specifically designed for hobbyists who want ‘all the new miniatures’ in a release.” Clearly, it proved popular. This army set benefited from amazing-looking minis, the amount of time since the Space Wolves had seen a refresh, and the enduring popularity of the Space Wolves themselves. The Space Wolves army set is sold out at Games Workshop, leaving fans faced with the prospect of paying a markup from the likes of eBay.

For the uninitiated, the Space Wolves are a long-running and legendary chapter of Space Marines heavily inspired by Norse mythology and Viking culture. They’re a savage, in your face group who like getting up close and ripping their enemies to shreds with the help of actual space wolves. Their primarch (demigod sons of the Emperor who led the original Space Marine legions before the Horus Heresy tore them apart), is Leman Russ, one of the most popular in the setting despite the fact he has never been active in the 41st millennium (there are rumblings he may return, as Ultramarines boss Roboute Guilliman and Dark Angels chief Lion El’Jonson have).

The Space Wolves — as evidenced by their army set sales record — are right up there in terms of Space Marine chapter popularity. Without having hard data to back up this claim, I’d suggest the Ultramarines are there or thereabouts given they’re the poster boys of Warhammer 40,000, and Ultramarines captain Titus, protagonist of the hugely popular Space Marine 2 video game, is leading the tabletop wargame’s next narrative expansion. But I suspect the Blood Angels (glorious space vampires with a dark secret), and the Dark Angels (righteous space crusaders) aren’t far behind.

So! I’ve put together a poll, below, with what I suspect are the likely candidates for most popular Space Marine chapter, so that IGN’s readers can vote for their favorite. For science! For the Emperor!

In other Warhammer news, Games Workshop has banned the use of AI in the making of its various products, much to the delight of fans. And we have a brief update on Henry Cavill’s Warhammer 40,000 Cinematic Universe, which still feels some way away.

Image credit: Games Workshop.

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.

Ecco The Dolphin Creator Confirms Multiple Games in Development, Says ‘Ecco Has Always Been More Than a Game About a Dolphin’ 

It’s official: “several” new Ecco the Dolphin games are in development.

Last summer, the creator of Ecco the Dolphin pleased many fans by announcing that not only were remakes of the original games underway, but a “third” instalment was also in development. Ed Annunziata — the original creator of the famed and fiendishly difficult action-adventure games — was interviewed about raising awareness of ocean conservation, his life as a developer, and, right at the end, he dropped his bombshell revelation.

California-based developer A&R Atelier, at which Annunziata works, revealed in a press release that it is remastering Ecco the Dolphin and Ecco: The Tides of Time, as well as that all-important third game.

“It has been years in the making, and we’re honored to bring Ecco back,” Annunziata said (thanks, Gematsu). “Ecco has always been more than a game about a dolphin — he’s a bridge between worlds.” Sadly, that’s essentially where the details stop, but the developer said to keep an eye on both its website and the official Discord for more information.

Ecco the Dolphin originally launched in 1992 on the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis, and was followed by a sequel, Ecco: The Tides of Time, in 1994. Ecco Jr. and Ecco Jr. and the Great Ocean Treasure Hunt were released in 1995, although they were “edutainment” games and primarily developed as learning tools.

You play as the titular dolphin, your underwater world now devastated by a swirling gust of air and water. You must help him navigate back through treacherous tropical reefs and freezing polar ice floes to reunite him with his dolphin pod. There have been a few remasters since: we thought the 2000 remake was okay, writing: “Ecco the Dolphin is a classic from SEGA, but sometimes classics should stay in the past,” and of the 2007 remake, we wrote: “For those who have played Ecco before, there’s really no reason to come back to it.”

The last Ecco the Dolphin game — ostensibly the “third” game, although Annunziata wasn’t involved — fared much better, however, getting a 7.6 in IGN’s Ecco the Dolphin: Defender of the Future review. A further sequel, Ecco 2: Sentinels of the Universe, which had been written as a direct sequel to Defender of the Future, was cancelled.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

The Elder Scrolls Online’s smaller expansions are “not in any way” a result of last year’s layoffs

“Last year was a hard year for the studio,” Elder Scrolls Online’s executive producer Susan Kath says. “It was a hard year for all of us.” In 2025, as part of sweeping cuts made across all their businesses, Microsoft laid off a significant chunk of Zenimax Online Studios. They did this despite CEO Satya Nadella later calling the year one of “record performance”, with revenue up 15% and hitting $281.7 billion.

So, last week, when Zenimax Online Studios revealed it was moving from releasing major expansions every 12 – 18 months to smaller, more frequent updates every three months, it looked very much like the team could no longer manage those big releases.

Kath tells me that reading of events is wrong.

Read more

Bully Online Mod Creators Insist Shutting the Project Down ‘Was Not Something We Wanted’

Cast your mind back to the end of last year, and you may remember we reported that a group of volunteer modders had united to develop an online mode for Rockstar’s Bully (also known as Canis Canem Edit in some parts of the world). Fast-forward just a few short months later, however, and now the Bully online project is “shutting down forever.”

Bully was a humorous action game that put players in the role of high school outcast Jimmy while attending a pretentious private school. Fans have long called for a sequel, which was once in development at Rockstar’s New England studio in the late 2000s, and while Bully 2 was obviously never released, some of its ideas made it into other Rockstar games like Red Dead Redemption 2.

Though the game was developed to be a single-player experience, the mod, which has been in development for years and fully released only last month, allowed players to team up for minigames, roleplay, compete in racing, and face off against NPCs, instantly drawing the attention of fans… and IP owner Rockstar, it seems.

“Coming with sad news today,” wrote one of the Fat Pigeon Development team on the project’s Discord. “The Bully Online project is shutting down forever, which unfortunately means all the following is going to happen in 24 hours.”

The post reported that the Bully Online server would shut down, development of Bully Online scripts would stop, the source code would disappear, and all webpages referencing it would be removed, along with the launcher (which has seemingly already happened). All Bully Online account data will also be “permanently deleted” and even Discord channels related to the mod are getting nuked.

The team held off on detailing why this was happening, only confirming that lead dev SWEGTA hopes to upload an explanatory video to his YouTube channel. “For now, though, know this was not something we wanted,” the statement added.

Rockstar parent company Take-Two has a history of clamping down on fan projects, although after it acquired the modding team behind the wildly popular Grand Theft Auto 5 roleplay servers FiveM and RedM back in 2023, it was felt a change in approach might have been in place. In fact, just yesterday (January 14), we reported that Rockstar had even launched an official marketplace where creators can sell mods… which could be the issue, as some players suggest.

“I think we all know the reason, it’s got everything to do with Rockstar’s new CFX launch mod site where they make more greedy profit for [publisher] Take-Two Interactive by putting pay-walls on mods,” posited one unhappy player. “I expect more mods to be shut down as the months go on with this new CFX marketplace.”

That said, as this commenter points out, Bully Online was already effectively paywalled to donors of the project, which is widely frowned upon across the modding space. “Not surprising at all,” they said. “Dude was pretty much asking to get shutdown the moment he paywalled early access to this.”

As for if there’ll ever be an official Bully 2? Dan Houser, Rockstar Games co-founder and the writer behind the studio’s biggest games, including the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, recently sat down for an exclusive interview with IGN, revealing Bully 2 didn’t happen because of “bandwidth issues.”

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Bully Online shoved into a shutdown locker, as the modders behind it say that’s “not something we wanted”

A group of modders who got multiplayer servers running for Rockstar’s schoolyard mischief simulator Bully late last year have suddenly pulled all traces of their creation offline. The project’s been shutdown about a month after release, and thus far its creators haven’t offered an explanation as to why, beyond emphasising that this outcome wasn’t what they hoped would happen.

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“He Is Amazing” – Mario Voice Actor Kevin Afghani Heaps Praise On Charles Martinet

As we all should.

We’ve not seen a great deal of Kevin Afghani since the voice actor took over the envious role of Mario from veteran Charles Martinet. But this coming weekend, Afghani will meet his fans for the very first time when he attends Charlie’s ComicCon in Estero, Florida.

To mark the occasion, Afghani recently caught up with USA Today to chat about all things Mario, including his prior experience with Nintendo games, how he feels to voice the world’s most famous plumber, and what it’s like to follow up on the work done by Charles Martinet.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Terraria 1.4.5 Finally Gets a Release Date — Here Are All the Upcoming Features

Terraria 1.4.5 will release on January 27.

In an excitable post, Re-Logic’s Loki confirmed that while the team “did have to resubmit a few things, which pushed us back a bit further than expected,” the release date is now locked in and will include “things that got left out of 1.4.4” plus crossover events with Dead Cells and a second collab with Pocketpair’s Palworld, this time for Terraria players.

While we’re on the topic of “cross,” no, unfortunately crossplay will not be a part of this update. The team does hope it’ll be “made available some time after 1.4.5,” but didn’t hint at a timescale for that.

“The ReLogic team has ALWAYS went above and beyond for the Terraria community,” writes one happy player. “For well over a decade, you guys have given us update after update for free. You guys even created a comic book AND a board game for us. On top of that, you’ve held tons of contests for us and have always kept us well-informed and up to date on everything relating to Terraria. What’s crazy is that’s not even close to all the amazing things that you guys do for us. That’s why the Terraria community is the greatest gaming community on Earth.”

To get an idea of just how long ago Terraria released, IGN reviewed it in 2011. Even then, though, we thought it was amazing, scoring it 9/10 and writing: “Though on the surface it looks like just another “me too” indie game seeking to ride the coattails of Minecraft’s success, Terraria expands on the familiar sandbox gameplay with a greater emphasis on combat and adventure that proves very satisfying. That’s rare indeed.”

Here’s the full update. Brace yourself — there’s a lot to read!

Terraria Update 1.4.5 — January 27, 2026

New items

  • Items from Dead Cells, including:
    • A vanity outfit of the Beheaded, the protagonist of Dead Cells.
    • Hanging flasks that can display items in a similar way to Item Frames.
    • Weapons for all damage types, including:
    • The Flint, a melee weapon.
    • The Killing Deck.
    • The Mushroom Staff, which summons a Mushroom Boi minion and is crafted with some combination of Glowing Mushrooms. The minion’s eyes are visible in the dark.
    • A Barnacle sentry.
    • The Swarm.
    • The Ram Rune.
    • The Wings of the Crow.
    • A Health Fountain furniture item that gives the player a buff when interacted with.
  • A summonable Digtoise from Palworld that can mine through blocks. It is unknown whether or not it is a pet.
  • Several whips, including:
    • A whip dropped by the Moon Lord.
    • A Stardust-themed whip.
    • A Corruption-themed whip called the Soulscourge.
    • A Crimson-themed whip called the Vasculash.
    • A Duke Fishron-themed whip.
    • A Meteorite-themed whip called the Starcrash.
    • A Plantera-themed whip that releases homing petal projectiles after hitting an enemy.
    • A white whip.
    • An early-game whip called the Slime Whip. It is crafted from Gel and inflicts the Slime debuff.
  • An early-game spear called the Slime Spear. It is crafted from Gel and inflicts the Slime debuff.
  • Several furniture sets, including:
    • A Hallow-themed set inspired by the look of Hallowed armor.
    • An Aetherium-themed set.
    • A Fallen Star-themed set.
    • A Feywood-themed set inspired by Fairies and the Fallen Logs they can spawn at
    • A Corruption-themed set.
    • A Crimson-themed set.
    • A Gothic-themed set.
    • A Stone-themed set.
    • A modern-looking set.
    • A Moon-themed set.
    • A Snow-themed set.
    • A Flinx-themed set.
    • A complete Pine set.
  • Fallen Star Bricks and Walls.
  • Music Blocks that play notes.
  • Several Boulder-related items or features, including:
    • A type of Boulder that “falls” upwards.
    • Boulder Rain, where Boulders fall from the sky during a Thunderstorm.
    • A Rainbow Boulder (initially teased as “🌈🪨”) found in secret seeds combined with Celebrationmk10. When activated it will bounce between ores and chests while passing through blocks and not hurting the player.
    • A Poo Boulder.
  • A Shimmer Water Gun that allows the player to transform an NPC into their Shimmered form without submerging them in Shimmer.
  • A potion or food item whose crafting recipe involves Bottled Water.
  • Several transformation mounts (similar to the Wolf mount summoned by Lilith’s Necklace), including:
    • A transformation mount that resembles a velociraptor. The mount can be dyed and displays vanity items equipped in the head slot.When the player is flying, the velociraptor is carried by a pterodactyl. The mount-summoning item is crafted with some combination of Sturdy Fossils.
    • A transformation mount that resembles a bat
    • A transformation mount that resembles a Rat.
    • A transformation mount that resembles a Fairy.
  • A roller skate mount which allows the player to scoot on surfaces and grind on Minecart Tracks.
  • Paintings made by several members of the Terraria community, including:
  • GreyL1me
  • KirbyTG
  • Artyrian (previously Timburr471)
  • Orange Dude
  • Shadouette
  • Lady Forestia
  • JzBoy
  • BionicBandit
  • Runic Pixels
  • Waasephi
  • A painting of the r/place 2023 art created by the Terraria community.
  • An axe fairy pet harvesting wood from a tree.
  • An Axe Fairy pet that looks like Cenx’s avatar and can harvest wood from trees.
  • A pufferfish pet.
  • A frog-themed accessory.
  • An accessory resembling a Tamagotchi on a chain.
  • A Silly Balloon-themed accessory.
  • An item resembling a blue ribbon with a heart on it.
  • A Stress Ball accessory that makes the player automatically attack when not moving and their inventory is closed. It has some type of interaction with the Extractinator.
  • A Magic String accessory that causes yoyos to fly off the string and deal damage. It can be combined with the Yoyo Bag to make the Magic Yoyo Bag.
  • Several vanity accessories that change the sound the player makes when hurt. These include:
    • The “Goat’s Tuft” which makes the player sound like a goat and can be found in Gold Chests. Its tooltip is ‘Quite the gruff tuft’.
    • An accessory that makes the player sound like a Zombie.
    • An accessory that makes the player sound like a turkey.
    • An accessory that makes the player sound like a chicken.
    • An accessory that makes the player sound like an arcade machine.
  • A chest piece to complete the set of the Moon Lord Mask and Moon Lord Legs.
  • An item whose sprite resembles the Cobweb’s with added sparkles.
  • Cloud platforms.
  • A variant of the Living Wood Wall that allows placing an unsafe wall (similar to the Forbidden Lihzahrd Brick Wall, Cursed Dungeon Brick Walls, etc.).
  • An “Axearang” (a combination of axe and boomerang) that is capable of chopping down trees when thrown.
  • A pink crafted banner.
  • Throwable mud balls that place a Mud Block when they land. These deal 8 classless damage, inflict “Average” knockback (4–6), and have a “Very fast” use time (9–20).
  • Placeable versions of background objects, including:
    • Demon Altar. It only drops “in the most extreme of circumstances and is not going to be easily obtained/readily available”.
    • Fallen Log.
    • Life Fruit.
    • Shadow Orb.
  • An item that resembles a clay furnace.
  • A placeable CRT Television that applies a visual filter when turned on like Monoliths.
  • A developer set for Chicken Bones.
  • An item called the “Mitey-Titey” that can place stalactite and stalagmite ambient objects in a similar way to the Rubblemaker.
  • Hoppers that can pick up dropped items and store them in Chests.
  • A stick-like item that kites can be attached to and flown from.
  • A Freeze Bomb which turns water in its blast radius into Ice Blocks.
  • A Bomb that can destroy Hardmode ore.
  • Beach wear vanity sets.
  • The Heroicis vanity set.
  • Upgraded versions of Mining armor and Angler armor.
  • Another headpiece option for Chlorophyte armor.
  • Jungle Juice, a recovery potion which restores 180 health upon use. A stack of 3 Jungle Juices is crafted from 3 Greater Healing Potions and 1 Life Fruit.
  • Infused Fertilizer, an upgraded version of Fertilizer which can be used to grow tall trees. Its tooltip is ‘It’s got what plants crave!’
  • An “Acorn Slingshot” that shoots Acorns. When the acorn projectile lands on soil it turns into a tree sapling, in a similar way to how the Sandgun places sand.
  • Rock Candy, a food item that can be crafted from Gem Bunnies or Gem Squirrels.
  • A pylon.
  • An RC Car that can be remote-controlled by the player, similar to the Kwad Racer Drone. It can move on both blocks and background walls.

Other new content

  • Entities, including:
    • Several slime variants that carry items. The item inside the slime’s body changes its behavior. They are also more common in the new skyblock seed. These slime variants include:
    • “Cloud Slime”, a slime variant that jumps extra high and carries a Cloud Block.
    • “Dirt Slime”, a slime variant that carries a Dirt Block.
    • “Granite Slime”, a slime variant that spawns underground and carries a Granite Block.
    • “Slush Slime”, a spiked slime variant that glows in the dark, spawns in the Ice biome, and carries a Slush Block.
    • A slime carrying Moonglow that emits light and plants herbs.
    • A slime carrying a Dart Trap that can shoot darts at the player.
    • A pufferfish enemy/critter.
    • The Orca returning from the Old-gen console version Old-gen console version and Nintendo Nintendo 3DS version version, with updated sprites.
  • A Seeds Menu that allows players to mix different secret world seeds together. Some seed combinations will trigger additional changes. Some examples include:
    • The player becoming a vampire, spawning underground, and burning under sunlight. The player can prevent burning under sunlight by holding an Umbrella or wearing a hat.
    • The water in the Ocean being replaced with Shimmer.
    • Flooding whenever there is heavy rain.
    • A functional use for Stink Potions.
  • Slimes change their color when standing over painted blocks.
  • A “skyblock” secret world seed, where the player spawns on a customized Floating Island in an empty world with very limited resources available to them.
  • Meteor showers that cause Meteorite to fall from the sky. This may or may not be exclusive to the new skyblock seed.
  • Players with bad luck will be pooped on by Birds and attacked by Squirrels.
  • At least one hairstyle.A minion count underneath the buff icon that displays how many minions the player has summoned.
  • An ambience effect of small cosmetic insects flying through wild grass plants.
  • An effect that converts placed Torches to their biome variant.
  • New boss music for the Eater of Worlds.
  • New boss music for The Twins.
  • At least 10 music tracks, including new themes for The Twins, the Eater of Worlds, the Torch God, King Slime, Skeletron, and Skeletron Prime.
  • Achievements.
  • A status message in multiplayer that tells how much damage each player did during a boss fight and how long the fight lasted.
  • Content for the thunderstorm weather event. This includes lightning that strikes enemies and the tops of trees.
  • A shader inspired by the “film noir” style.
  • The ability to place critters as a small furniture item with the ⚷ Open / Activate button. The placed critter will stay near the furniture item.
  • When reforging the best weapon modifiers like Legendary cannot be accidentally skipped. This is accompanied by a rainbow text effect and rainbow particles.
  • More biome backgrounds.
  • Modifiers for summon weapons, such as Eager, Focused, Loyal, Worthy, Rabid, Ballistic, and Fabled.
  • Two Dungeon entrance variations that have a chance to replace the original Dungeon entrance during world generation.

Miscellaneous changes

  • Localization for Japanese, Korean, and potentially Traditional Chinese.
  • Possible improvements to localizations.
  • Pumps in item form no longer burn in lava.
  • Updated sprites for:
    • Multiple banners.
    • Multiple trophies.
    • Weapon Rack.
    • Demon Altar.
    • Slime Staff along with the Baby Slime it summons and buff icon.
    • Crimson Heart light pet.
    • Shadow Orb light pet along with its buff icon.
    • Shadow Orb background object.
    • Imp Staff along with the Imp it summons and buff icon.
    • Moon Lord.
    • Bewitching Table.
    • Alchemy Table.
    • Bar.
    • Bar Stool.
    • Banquet Table.
    • Jim’s set.
    • Lihzahrd Brick.
    • Lihzahrd.
    • Dungeon, Lihzahrd and Tundra Pots.
    • Mini Minotaur pet.
    • Pine Door, Pine Table, Pine Chair, and Pine Tree Block.
  • More inclusive and customizable character creation that allows players to mix and match different character styles and voices. A third new voice type and the ability to change the voice’s pitch are also being added.
  • Improvements to the Smart Cursor to relieve frustration when placing platforms.
  • New graphical effects for the sun and clouds.
  • Characters and worlds in the main menu are sorted by when they were last played, with the most recently played ones at the top. Additionally, all worlds that the selected character has visited before are marked with a small flag icon.
  • A glitch was fixed which allowed creating almost any item. It involved the de-syncing of door tiles in multiplayer and placement of a Bast Statue.
  • Liquid being stored inside Bubbles.
  • Liquids can be stored inside Bubbles.
  • The Rubblemaker and Echo Coating are available in pre-Hardmode.
  • The different types of Planter Boxes are no longer unlocked by defeating specific bosses.
  • Wormhole Potions and Potions of Return are easier to obtain.
  • Moon Lord Boulders are in For the worthy.
  • Flairon can be swung like thrown flails. It can still be used as a launched flail as well.
  • Phaseblades can be thrown and stick to the ground where they land, dealing damage to any enemies that walk into them. They can be called back by the player.
  • Zombie Arm creates Zombie gore when swung.
  • Changes to the Harpoon.
  • Several changes to town NPCs and their houses:
    • The Classy Cane can hit NPCs, which causes them to drop coins.
    • NPC houses no longer require a solid block for the NPC to stand on.
    • NPCs no longer require a house in order to appear. However, NPCs without a house will leave temporarily during the night.
    • The dialogue window of NPCs has a “Housing” option which includes hints on how a house can be built.
    • It is more transparent how a house is scanned.
  • Slimes have a chance to drop Grass Seeds, Jungle Grass Seeds, and Acorns.
  • Dungeon Bricks can be crafted with Hardmode ore.
  • Stackable weapons, tools, and Clothier Voodoo Dolls.
    • Multiple items cannot be reforged at once, however.
    • Increased Rainbow Slime spawn rate.
  • Changes to yoyos.
  • Changes to the Paladin’s Hammer.
  • Fish will appear in the water while fishing.
  • In multiplayer, players can spectate other players while waiting to respawn after dying.
  • The style of Party Presents and Presents can be manually set before placing, instead of being determined randomly when placed.
  • Cannons and Snowball Launchers can deal damage when activated by Wires.
  • Cannons also no longer require Cannonballs to be fired.
  • Cannonballs can be placed as tiles. They can also be hammered to different shapes.
  • Conveyor Belts can move enemies. They also can move items vertically.
  • Earned banners no longer drop from their respective enemies. Instead, they can be claimed via a new menu in the inventory.
  • Jungle Grass can be planted on Lihzahrd Brick.
  • Improved Control Banners (the areas showing button mappings) for controllers on Console version Console and Mobile version Mobile, which display related buttons near their respective UI elements instead of displaying all buttons at the bottom of the screen.
  • New graphical effect for when the Paladin’s Shield activates.
  • New visual effect for pop-up texts when obtaining new items.
  • New visual effect for pop-up text when crafting weapons and armor.
  • Improvements to the Mobile version Mobile touch control editor:
    • Instead of placing buttons with a fixed size then editing their function, the user now places a type of button on the screen, then edits its function and size.
    • Control configurations can now be copied and pasted across loadouts.
    • New default presets.
    • New optional control scheme which removes the right virtual joystick.
    • New option of toggling “multi-touch” for a button, which has the following effects when turned on:
      • The button will remain pressed if the player drags their finger away from it, and will only be released when their finger leaves the screen.
      • If the player drags their finger onto another button that also has multi-touch enabled, that button is also pressed down. Dragging the finger away from this button will stop pressing it.
  • Armor pieces now display their set bonus in gray text when not active.
  • Hooks now mention their keybind in their tooltips.
  • Mannequins (and Womannequins) can have their posture changed (e.g. sit down), hold items, and ride on mounts.
  • The Slime debuff increases the damage of fire related debuffs, such as On Fire!.
  • The defense icon shows how much damage is reduced by the player’s defense stat when hovered on, and has different sprites in Expert and Master Mode.
  • Updated crafting features:
    • New UI screen for the Guide’s “Crafting” option and regular crafting, similar to the duplication menu in Journey Mode: listing all craftable items while having category tabs to show items by types, and a search bar to search for individual items.
    • Pressing ⚷ Open / Activate on a crafting station also opens the crafting UI.
    • Items in all nearby storage items can be used in crafting, instead of only a single opened one.
  • New animation for the Barrel when a player interacts with it, indicating if it is open or closed, similar to Chests.

Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.

Sega’s beautiful singing boy Ecco the Dolphin is getting a new game from the original creator, with a countdown underway

There are two blue wolves inside you. One is actually a hedgehog, prone to loop-the-loops and drowning in caves. The other one is actually a dolphin, who is also prone to loop-the-loops and drowning in caves. Clarification: when I said you I meant me. I’m referring to my own squalid psychological architecture as a Sega Mega Drive player with vivid memories of Sonic the Hedgehog (especially the Star Light Zone) and Ecco the Dolphin.

While Sega’s pugnacious pinball mascot continues to star in videogames of all flavours, poor Ecco has been absent from screens since the early noughties. No longer: this year shall be the year of Ecco. Developers A&R Atelier – whose members include the character’s original creator, Ed Annunziata – have declared that they are working on “several” new Ecco things, including a videogame. No, I won’t accommodate any criticism of my framing here. If we can have a year of Luigi and a year of Shadow, we can have a year of Ecco.

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