You know, you’d think that with decades worth of RPGs in existence, side quests would have been more or less figured out by now. And yet, there are still enough games releasing that seem more interested in going for quantity over quality. But for the devs over at Archetype Entertainment, the goal is to make the side quests in their upcoming sci-fi jaunt Exodus not feel just “tacked on.”
My Menace campaign hasn’t been a rousing success. In my first mission, I failed a string of optional objectives and saw one of my squads gunned down by a group of heavily-armed, jetpack-wearing space pirates. I got revenge by running them over with an APC. So, we’ll call it a draw. But I need to up my game if I’m to kick these freeloading bandits off the planet Backbone.
This article contains some spoilers for Baldur’s Gate 3.
So, HBO is turning Baldur’s Gate into a TV show. On its own, that’s quite an exciting proposition: a big-budget, live-action series set in Dungeons & Dragons’ most iconic city? Yes please. But the project’s announcement, which came courtesy of Deadline, contains a line that immediately had me burying my head in my hands.
“The Baldur’s Gate TV series will be a continuation to the games,” says the report, “telling a story that takes place immediately after the events of Baldur’s Gate 3, as the characters — old and new — are dealing with the ramifications of the events in the third game.”
The ramifications of what events, exactly? The defeat of the Netherbrain? Or perhaps the enslavement of it in the name of the Absolute? Or Gale’s choice to turn into a magical nuclear bomb, sacrificing himself to save the city? These are just three of the many ways Baldur’s Gate 3 can end, and that’s before we consider the dozens and dozens of choices that you make on the way to that conclusion. There are approximately 17,000 variations of the game’s final cutscene. How could a TV show possibly “deal with the ramifications of the events of the third game” when every single player has their own version of events?
The answer, of course, is that showrunner Craig Mazin must decide what choices are “canon.” One half of the duo behind The Last of Us’ HBO adaptation must now set certain events in stone in order to create a baseline to build his story upon. But to decide upon a canon series of events for Baldur’s Gate 3 is not the same as, for instance, determining which of Mass Effect 3’s trio of concluding options would be the starting point for what comes next. It’s not a simple case of how the story ends, but everything that happened on the 100-hour journey up until that point, too.
The entire picture of Baldur’s Gate 3, the story any one player lived, is the result of hundreds of decisions, ranging from the tactical to the emotional to the completely unaware. For some, Minsc and his miniature space hamster, Boo, are vital parts of the story. Yet many won’t even know who he is, having passed by and never recruited him to their party. There are those for whom Shadowheart’s escape from the Church of Shar is a defining moment, yet others will have found an equally defining pathway in encouraging her to embrace the dark goddess. And for those players of a more chaotic leaning, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the tale of an unstoppable serial killer that greedily succumbs to their own Dark Urge, tearing limbs off wizards and letting goblins slaughter refugees. The game is less a single story with a handful of different outcomes, and more like hundreds of character threads that are entwined like rope. A rope that grows thicker and longer with every romance (steady now), argument, betrayal, and surprise you experience. To unravel all that and find a single golden thread for television seems at best foolhardy, at worst impossible.
None of this is to say that the show is guaranteed to be bad, or of poor quality. Considering Mazin’s prior work – in particular, Chernobyl – and HBO’s track record with fantasy programming, there’s every chance that Baldur’s Gate will be a fantastic show, at least when viewed in isolation. But it’s difficult to create that isolation when the project is explicitly a continuation of the journey so many of us undertook for hundreds, sometimes even thousands of hours. And because of Baldur’s Gate 3’s unrivalled branching RPG design, we have all become deeply attached to our own versions of this world and its characters.
It should be said that details of how the show will be structured are still incredibly thin. It will feature a group of new protagonists, so we don’t know to what extent the now-famous party of heroes and antiheroes that make up Baldur’s Gate 3 cast will feature. By being a “continuation to the games”, could it merely exist in a world where the Netherbrain once existed, and tales of heroes’ journeys to defeat it are muttered in the city’s streets like mythical tales? Or will meetings with the likes of Wyll, Astarion, Lae’zel be little more than fleeting encounters, kept somewhat shapeless in an effort to remain relevant to most players’ memories of them? It creates a dilemma: purposefully keep things vague and potentially undercook the history of this world, or pick a defined canon that could alienate large portions of your viewership?
Television adaptations are, of course, designed with more than one eye on wider markets. HBO wants people who have never played Baldur’s Gate 3 to become invested in its world. But that begs the question: why a direct sequel? Why take place immediately after a story that a portion of your audience has no investment in? If half your audience has no attachment to those events, and the other half will almost certainly have experienced a different version of the events you’re building upon, who is winning here? Anyone who does want a sequel wants a follow-up to their own experience, not Craig Mazin’s.
Baldur’s Gate won’t be the first show to tackle this problem. Just this year, the second season of Fallout told a story set after the events of Fallout: New Vegas, an RPG that also concludes with a number of very different, world-defining options. But Fallout has made a number of smart choices. Firstly, it’s not a sequel to the game; it’s just set in the same universe, and thus isn’t trying to continue the plot of New Vegas. Secondly, it’s set over a decade later, and purposefully leaves the events during that time a complete mystery. And so the show’s depiction of the game’s characters and factions doesn’t have to join the dots. Did you hand the Vegas Strip to the Legion in your playthrough? Well, in the 15 years since, they’ve succumbed to infighting and have fallen from their mighty position. You don’t need to know how it happened, it just did.
Using this method, Fallout (sort of) successfully ensures no one New Vegas ending is cemented as canon. Every outcome could have happened, but the result of your choices may not have endured for the 15 years between the game and the show. Larian Studios, the developer of Baldur’s Gate 3, understood the benefit of this kind of time gap; its gargantuan RPG is set more than a century after the events of its predecessor, ensuring it’s not restricted by the conclusion of Baldur’s Gate 2 and has space to create its own story. By starting immediately after the events of BG3, the show won’t have this luxury. It has to make a choice. It has to invalidate thousands of playthroughs. It can’t be the sequel to your experience of Baldur’s Gate 3.
It doesn’t have to be this way. The real lesson to learn from Fallout is that video game adaptations thrive best when they are decoupled from existing stories. So the big question is, why is this not just a Dungeons & Dragons show? You can set a D&D show in Baldur’s Gate. You can call a D&D show “Baldur’s Gate”. You can even include characters and reference (certain) events from Baldur’s Gate 3. But to purposefully shackle yourself to continuing the story of that game, rather than freely exploring its world, feels like purposefully rolling a critical fail on the first round of combat.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Executive Editor of Features.
Directly to you.
Just when we thought our wishlists couldn’t get any longer, Nintendo had to go and drop another Direct. Let’s see who’s working through their backlog to make way for the oncoming deluge of releases in another edition of What Are You Playing.
The Direct was the big news for this week, bringing with it a Hollow Knight – Nintendo Switch 2 Edition shadow drop, release dates for Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, Fallout 4: Anniversary Edition, and Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, and another peek at the awesome-looking co-op adventure Orbitals.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
It turns out the “Mal Reynolds” who issued Steam game Void War with a DMCA takedown was not a troll who also happened to be a huge fan of Firefly. It was actually Warhammer 40,000 owner Games Workshop, which took issue with an image of a shoulder pad.
Last month, IGN reported on Void War, a strategy game dubbed ‘FTL in a Warhammer 40,000 skin,’ after it was pulled from Steam. At the time, its developer, Tundra Interactive, suggested it may have been on the receiving end of a nuisance DMCA takedown from a troll claiming to be Games Workshop.
Void War is often compared to both indie darling FTL and Warhammer 40,000, Games Workshop’s tabletop wargame set in the grim darkness of the far future — and it’s easy to see why. The gameplay looks incredibly similar to Subset Games’ hugely popular 2012 ‘spaceship simulation roguelike-like,’ and the aesthetic is very Warhammer 40,000. The voidships look like Imperial Navy Vessels. Some of the characters look like Space Marines. There’s an actual Psyker that’s called a Psyker. There are “Imperial Shrineworlds.” There’s even a mention of “Imperial astrogation authorities.”
Following the takedown, IGN asked Tundra Interactive for comment, and it responded with something quite unusual. It said that it had received a takedown notice from Valve stating that Games Workshop itself had claimed copyright infringement. But here’s what made this one odd: the claiming information came from Games Workshop’s public-facing infringements inbox and the name “Mal Reynolds.”
Mal Reynolds is a name that will be instantly familiar to Firefly / Serenity fans, because that’s the name of the main character, played by Nathan Fillion, in the beloved but short-lived sci-fi show. At the time, it was thought that it was unlikely that Games Workshop would have someone on its books named Mal Reynolds. But, well, it turns out Games Workshop really was behind the takedown, according to Tundra Interactive.
Tundra Interactive told IGN that Games Workshop eventually replied to the developer to confirm it was their notice, and that the concern was limited to a specific shot from one of the trailers on the Steam store page that it said could give the impression that Void War was associated with Games Workshop. The company specified that the element in question was “the oversized convex shoulder pads with a metallic rim.” And, well, yeah, that Void War trailer did indeed have an image of a character who looked a lot like a Space Marine, complete with “oversized convex shoulder pads with a metallic rim.”
Tundra Interactive told IGN that it disagreed with Games Workshop’s assessment here, but in order to get Void War back on Steam and to avoid a drawn out DMCA fight, it pulled the trailer. It may re-upload it in the future after making an adjustment, but its priority is getting back to work on Void War, the developer insisted. And, to that end, Void War is now back on Steam.
Here’s Tundra Interactive’s statement in full to IGN:
To recap, the initial takedown was triggered by a DMCA notice attributed to Games Workshop. At the time, we could not independently verify the submitter beyond the name and contact email Valve included. The contact email was GW’s public infringements inbox, and the name listed was “Mal Reynolds,” which is also a fictional character from the sci-fi TV show Firefly.
After over a week of no response, Games Workshop eventually replied to our email and confirmed the notice was theirs. They said their concern was limited to a specific shot from one of the trailers on the store page, arguing that certain elements could create the mistaken impression that Void War is associated with Games Workshop, specifically what they described as “the oversized convex shoulder pads with a metallic rim.”
All of the artwork in the trailer is original work created by our artists. While we disagree with their assessment, the simplest way to get the game back up and avoid getting bogged down in DMCA process was to remove that trailer and move on. We may re-upload an updated version later after we find time to adjust that shot, but for now our priority is shipping content and finishing multi-language font support so we can finally deliver proper translations.
Thanks for your patience, and thank you for the overwhelming support. o7 commanders.
All’s well that ends well? Perhaps. Certainly this case shows that Games Workshop and “Mal Reynolds,” who I’d love to meet one day, are keeping a close eye on video game characters and their shoulder pads. Perhaps it shouldn’t come as a surprise, given Games Workshop’s history of stringent IP protection. Be warned! The Inquisition is always watching.
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.
No, not that one.
Pokémon is celebrating 30 years this year, and as part of this, trainers around the globe can expect all sorts of exciting (and surprising) announcements.
Ahead of the annual event Pokémon Day, taking place later this month on 27th February 2026, Stern Pinball has announced it will be stepping into the battle arena with its very own themed pinball cabinet. And yes, we’re referring to an actual pinball cabinet here (not a video game).
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Hit the court at your nearest retailer.
Mario Tennis Fever launches for the Switch 2 next week, and if you want to try out the game before it’s released and happen to be located in North America, there’s now a free in-store demo.
It’s available at select Best Buy, GameStop, Target and Walmart Stores in the US. And in Canada, you can take to the court at Best Buy and Walmart.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Resident Evil: Requiem is just a couple of weeks away, and while the first few trailers definitely made it look like a beautiful game, the Switch 2 trailer that debuted earlier this week, well, didn’t. But, the way I see it, that’s excellent news, especially for anyone on a budget gaming PC.
Ever since the RE Engine came to prominence starting with Resident Evil: Biohazard, Capcom has been impressing me with just how good it can make games look, without making them too demanding. Now, obviously, I haven’t had the chance to test Resident Evil: Requiem performance yet myself, but just looking at both the system requirements and the Switch 2 trailer, it seems like Capcom is continuing this trend.
Capcom hasn’t revealed what resolution and settings either of these spec sheets are targeting, but even if that recommended build is just for 1080p Ultra at 60 fps, the Nvidia RTX 2060 Super and Radeon RX 6600 are very attainable graphics cards. That’s not to mention only requiring a Core i7-8700 or Ryzen 5 5500 and 16GB of RAM, which is a very low bar to clear.
Again, because Capcom hasn’t revealed any specific settings that the system requirements are targeting, I can’t say for sure, but from my time testing Resident Evil Village for TechRadar when it came out, I was able to get nearly 60 fps at 4K with an RTX 3060 – and the 3060 is very much not a 4K graphics card.
However, it’s important to note that the requirements for Requiem are a bit heavier than they were for Village. The biggest difference is that instead of asking for a Radeon RX 5700 or a GTX 1070 for Village, Requiem is asking for an RTX 2060 Super or a Radeon RX 6600. And while the performance gap between these graphics cards isn’t huge on its own, the key difference is that Requiem is recommending a ray tracing-capable GPU – Village didn’t.
That makes a lot of sense, given the visual quality of some of the trailers that have come out for the game, but it may leave some folks with older GPUs out in the cold. It’s very likely that with an older non-RT GPU, the game will look a lot like the Nintendo Switch 2 footage. The bright side here, though, is that the GTX 1660 and Radeon RX 5500 XT sneak in the minimum specs, so you’ll still be able to play the game, it just might not look too great.
It’s important to highlight that the Nintendo Switch 2 is able to run Resident Evil: Requiem, even if it wouldn’t quite meet the system requirements if it were a PC. The Tegra T239 SoC in the handheld is roughly the equivalent of a mobile RTX 3050 – which is weaker than the desktop-class GTX 1660 Capcom is requiring. I wouldn’t get too caught up in this detail, though.
Primarily, that’s because the Nintendo Switch 2 is a console and every single unit will be running the exact same hardware. That means when Capcom was porting Resident Evil: Requiem over to the Switch 2, it was able to fine-tune the build to the exact hardware, likely finding optimizations that wouldn’t be there for the PC version.
Still, just going by the Switch 2 trailer earlier this week, it does seem like Capcom just barely managed to squeeze the game onto the handheld. But even if it is rough, I’m looking forward to seeing just how well it runs on the Nintendo console.
Jackie Thomas is the Hardware and Buying Guides Editor at IGN and the PC components queen. You can follow her @Jackiecobra
Dragon Quest VII! Super Bomberman Collection! Cool Borders!
The latest Nintendo Download update for North America has arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. And blimey, that Partner Showcase added a handful of new releases to the pot, too.
As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or download here
Hey, everybody! Sid, Tim, Brett, and I are back this week to talk about the newest game announced this week, Horizon Hunters Gathering, take a look at what’s new in MLB The Show 26, and go down the rabbit hole of games based on 80s action.
Stuff We Talked About
Sid Shuman – Senior Director of Content Communications, SIE
Tim Turi – Content Communications Manager, SIE
Brett Elston – Manager, Content Communications, SIE
Thanks to Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music.
[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]
