Author: Game Infliction

Desmond’s death in Assassin’s Creed 3 was ambiguous enough that voice actor Nolan North didn’t realize he’d just recorded the character’s last gasp — and now, North has said that the series’ original modern day protagonist is “technically” still alive.

North played Desmond in five games until the character’s big sacrifice at the end of 2012’s Assassin’s Creed 3. But despite stepping up to save the world — and collapsing in the process — Desmond’s death scene apparently only clicked with North after he checked Twitter following the game’s launch.

“That technically was Desmond’s death scene, and I didn’t know it,” North told Fall Damage. “I found out on Twitter. ‘Are you upset Desmond’s dead?’ And I’m thinking, what? Because there’s no ‘Argh!’ There’s nothing that you’d expect from a main character’s death, although the good people at Ubisoft have told me that he’s not technically dead.”

Here, North is likely referring to the ending of Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, where the actor returned to the franchise as a mysterious character named The Reader. Valhalla makes it pretty clear that The Reader is Desmond — or his consciousness which now lives on inside the Animus, at least. And, seemingly, Ubisoft has confirmed this to North.

Desmond’s death (or his physical body’s demise, at any rate) came as a surprise to some fans who’d followed the character since the franchise’s origins. But Ubisoft developers have said that as the Assassin’s Creed series grew in scope, each game began to struggle to onboard new players. Following the end of Desmond’s arc, the series experimented with other ideas for its modern day sections, and currently pushes players directly into the historical action instead.

“I think the original idea was eight or nine games with Desmond,” North continued, referencing Ubisoft’s ever-changing original plans for the Assassin’s Creed series, “but, as it so often goes in the entertainment industry, different developers, different creative directors come in, and they have their own way of continuing the story — and it’s done very, very well.

“I was very sad to step away from the role of Desmond,” he concluded, “because Assassin’s Creed is one of my favorite stories I’ve ever been part of.”

A recent report suggested Ubisoft was planning to remove the modern day section from its widely-rumored Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag remake, and bolster the game’s historical sections instead.

Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social

There are a lot of different jigsaw puzzle brands out there, but one of my overall favorites is The Magic Puzzle Company. What really makes them stand out is how unique their approach to puzzling is. Each piece is odd and interesting, and the puzzles themselves feature a secret ending you can only uncover once you’ve fully completed it. True to its name, these puzzles feel like a mix of magic and puzzling as you’re making your way through them. Although they usually cost $25 each, Amazon is currently running a buy 1, get 1 50% off sale that includes quite a few of them. If you’ve been looking for a good gift to buy the puzzle fanatic in your life, I’d definitely recommend checking these out while the sale lasts.

Magic Puzzle Company Sale at Amazon (Buy 1, Get 1 50% Off)

Each of the Magic Puzzle Company puzzles is 1,000 pieces and features artwork from different artists around the world. There are hidden Easter eggs in every puzzle and the secret endings are all unique and interesting. There have been 13 Magic Puzzle Company puzzles released across five different series so far, but only eight of them are part of Amazon’s early Black Friday promotion. Series One and Series Two are underrepresented here, but many of the newer releases are eligible for the discount.

Most notably, the only Series Five puzzle that’s been released so far is included in this sale. The Drippy Trip came out back in early August and features some interesting ties to the animated series Adventure Time. I haven’t had the chance to put this one together myself, but as a fan of that show I can’t help but admire the resemblance to Adventure Time artwork I’ve grown to love.

Should you wait for Amazon’s Black Friday sale?

In case you aren’t keeping up with Black Friday sale dates as closely as I am, it’s worth noting that the Amazon Black Friday sale actually starts on Thursday this week. While I do recommend taking advantage of this discount right now, there’s no guarantee that there won’t be a better deal once that sale actually kicks off. I’d expect at least some of the Magic Puzzle Company puzzles to get discounted during Black Friday, but we won’t know which ones until Thursday (or next week even).

With that in mind, this sale is definitely worth checking out if you’re looking to buy more than one puzzle at once. You may be able to find a lower price on some of these next week, but the extra 50% off now isn’t likely to last forever. Amazon launched a similar sale on books last week that has already ended, so it’s probable this week’s promotion will expire before we even get to Black Friday as well. You may want to check out some of the board games included in these early Black Friday deals while you’re at it.

Spoiler note: This review avoids any of the specific twists and turns of the story, but it does mention some unlockables and characters in case you want to go in totally fresh.

I spent the last week embodying Wade Wilson in Marvel’s Deadpool VR, slicing and shooting my way through Mojo’s twisted interdimensional reality show, and I can confidently say the fast-paced parkour combat on offer here is nothing short of a blast. This is the first Deadpool VR game, built exclusively for Meta Quest 3 and 3S, and it’s way more comprehensive than I expected from what could have easily been a shallow licensed tie-in. It didn’t get old to see Deadpool’s head roll off his shoulders (my shoulders) mid-battle or watch my severed arms flop around on the ground to the backdrop of a comedic one-liner delivered by Lady Deathstrike. This is a relentlessly witty, often fourth-wall-breaking, and highly replayable single-player campaign that stands out as the best superhero VR game on Meta’s marketplace since 2024’s Batman: Arkham Shadow.

Whether you’re a Deadpool fan looking to step into the Merc with a Mouth’s shoes or just here for a good old-fashioned VR shooter with tons of secrets and a good sense of humor, Deadpool VR is surprisingly complete. The campaign took me roughly 10 hours to finish, but there are secret levels to find and alternate Deadpool variants like Lady Deadpool and the Deadpool Kid to unlock, each with unique dialogue and Easter eggs that could easily push playtime much further.

Portaled out of existence by Mojo with the promise of making money – like, a lot of money – Deadpool sets out to capture villains from the Marvel Universe for the tyrant’s interdimensional streaming service. This story’s premise is delightfully silly and simple, played entirely off the cuff, and each villain’s domain is ripe for themed cherry-picking. The ninja school level, for instance, is packed with weeb gamer humor and anime references, while Omega Red’s stronghold is full of “in Soviet Russia, game beats you” type jokes. Each area feels as much like an arena for combat with uniquely themed enemies as it does a playground for Deadpool to poke fun at the player, the game industry, virtual reality, and whatever tropes the respective zone represents. None of these areas overstay their welcome, as you’ll typically clear a zone in about an hour, and the campaign’s roughly 10-hour runtime strikes a good balance between feeling substantial and staying fresh.

The reality show framing isn’t just window dressing, either. Each battle ends with a ranked score and Mojo bucks reward based on your performance, while your “viewer count” (basically experience points) ticks upward as comments roll in on the right side of the display that match how well you did. These segments are often hilarious because of how wild the comments are, genuinely making me feel like I was livestreaming to a chaotic Gen Z audience watching Deadpool massacre his way through the Marvel Universe.

The combat itself is immediately arcadey rather than going for deep VR immersion territory like Half-Life: Alyx – which, at one point, Deadpool VR gleefully mocks itself for not doing, in a very Deadpool-like manner – but for what it sets out to do, it feels way more thought through than most VR action games. The very first mission hands you dual pistols and katanas, and shows you a nice big group of enemies to experiment on. That’s what Deadpool VR is all about: kinetic movement through dynamic environments, creative kills, and irreverent goofs. This implementation really does capture what makes the character work. You can wall run, double jump, grapple across arenas, strafe around opponents, or divekick into clusters of enemies, and it all feels great without ever getting too easy or unbalanced.

Plus, Deadpool can lose arms mid-combat, or even his head or legs during key story moments, creating surprisingly interesting segments where you’re fighting with one arm while waiting for the other to regenerate, or remotely controlling your body from your severed head’s perspective. I’ve never experienced anything quite like it in VR, and it creates a layer of dynamism that Deadpool VR regularly riffs on in low-brow fashion, including a memorable segment where – after losing the lower half of my body – I had to race a recurring antagonist up an obstacle course with nothing but a grappling gun.

Deadpool VR’s combat system has a satisfying rhythm where you have to time things right if you want to score the slickest kills. It’s enabled by wall-running, powersliding, and dive-kicking, which all feel really good in VR because the arenas are built with plenty of open space to get creative with your maneuvers. You can use your katana to disable an enemy up close, dive-kick into them to push them away, pull out your pistols to finish the next guy off, grab an assault rifle from a nearby locker to blast the big baddy coming down the lane, throw that rifle at him to instantly reload it and refill the ammo meter, then wall-run, dash, and powerslide around to get the next target. It’s super kinetic and satisfying, made even better by the grappling gun and plenty of grapple points scattered around most arenas.

There are always a few other tactical considerations at play too, adding layers of variety to the carnage. For example, blocking too many attacks can make your swords break, and your wrist grenades take a few seconds to refill between uses. At least your dual pistols are quick to reload and never run out of ammo, though they’re kind of weak on their own. The real fun comes from grabbing superior weapons off enemies, like assault rifles, shotguns, SMGs, grenade launchers, missile launchers, or even melee weapons like flaming swords, shock batons, and in one memorable instance, a chainsaw-bladed axe. All of them feel excellent to use and are so much fun to mix into your arsenal as you rip and tear across each arena.

Additionally, it’s awesome that you can buy new dual pistols and katanas with your Mojo bucks between levels in the hub area, including useful variations like basic shotguns or “Penetrator” pistols equipped with laser sights. Upgraded katanas include really fun ones that extend when you slash or spin back to you like a boomerang when you throw them. In total, there are about eight pistols, eight wrist-mounted grenade types, and eight katanas to mix and match between. No upgrade is too expensive or too difficult to earn, and the differences between each are significant enough to make playstyle customization feel robust.

When you fill up your Big Money Time meter, you can press the X button on the left controller to activate it, which puts an incredibly powerful weapon in your hands for a short period of time, increasing your Mojo dollar yield after a battle if you activate it. For most of the campaign, I stuck to the default option – the exploding cards wielded by Gambit – but there are other purchasable Big Money Time abilities like Thor’s Hammer and Star-Lord’s Element Guns that add variety if you want to switch things up.

There’s a decent collection of enemy types to maneuver around, too, including the typical grunts that you’ll rip through like tissue paper, shield-carriers that need to be disarmed with a little more tact, and more powerful zone-unique enemies that you’ll typically want to pick off earlier in a battle before they can make things difficult. The gore is cartoonish but consistent and appropriate with Deadpool VR’s humor and graphical style – think very detailed cartoon dismemberment and giblets rather than realistic splatter. Each zone also introduces unique weapons that fit its theme, keeping combat fresh throughout the campaign rather than letting it devolve into mindless repetition.

My only real problem with combat is that the boss battles feel way too choreographed. Time slows down, and you need to make specific moves in a row or else a cutscene will pull you out of VR entirely. That part is kind of jarring. Worse still, if you’re executing one of those timed combat moves against a boss and you’re not standing in the right spot, it can jar you entirely out and push you back to the Quest lobby until you reposition yourself. It’s not clear why that happens, and it feels like a bug that needs patching.

Deadpool VR at least stays fun beyond the initial playthrough thanks to its alternate Deadpool variants and secret levels. When you replay zones as variants like Deadpool Kid or Lady Deadpool, the gameplay itself doesn’t change, but the way each variant reacts is appropriately silly and adds new flavor to familiar encounters. Deadpool Kid brings a cowboy twang to all his lines and in-jokes, while Lady Deadpool constantly points out that NPCs still refer to her as “sir” because the developers didn’t re-record those lines, even calling out their laziness as part of the joke in true meta fashion. Each level also contains hidden doors aligned to specific Deadpool variants, meaning when you return as the correct character, you’ll unlock secret levels with unique challenges or puzzles that reward extra Mojo bucks and collectibles like comic books, music tracks, concept art, and weapon skins. It’s a smart replayability hook that actually incentivizes multiple playthroughs rather than just padding out runtime.

Things like the multiple variants repeatedly contrast how seriously its characters (and Marvel Universe mythology as a whole) take themselves against the lewdness and unseriousness of Deadpool himself, shredding any pretense of urgency and making things go boom for s***s and giggles. The villain roster – pulling liberally from across the Marvel Universe with lesser-known fan favorites like Ultimo and Lady Deathstrike – helps enable a decent variety of levels, and the jokes are typically more three-dimensional than just playing off tropes. For instance, there’s a hilarious sequence where Deadpool bemoans having to fight Ultimo because VR game developers couldn’t afford to include Ultron. These are all well-performed and serve Deadpool as a character rather than forcing him to awkwardly traipse around trying to make sense of why the hell he’s involving himself with all these random Marvel characters. It knows it’s wacky and stupid, and that’s just part of the joke.

My sole issue with how the story is presented is that it does make you sit through long cutscenes and dialogue sequences with no way to skip them, meaning you’ll have to experience an entire level again – exposition and all – if you just want to go back and unlock a secret level with a new character. This can drag down Deadpool VR’s pacing a bit, even when you’re going through and experiencing new(ish) dialogue with a new variant.

At least Neil Patrick Harris absolutely nails Deadpool’s humor, so much so that I almost thought he was Ryan Reynolds for a bit. He brings the perfect mix of snark, self-awareness, and chaotic energy that made playing as this version of Wade Wilson a genuine delight throughout the entire campaign. The supporting cast also has a mix of standouts and phone-ins. John Leguizamo’s Mojo is fantastic, chewing scenery with the perfect amount of grotesque sleaze, while Julia Jones’s Spiral falls flat with delivery that feels uninspired.

Visually, Deadpool VR looks much better on Quest 3 than on Quest 3S, and after the first few levels I just stopped trying to play on my 3S at all. Performance was smooth overall across both platforms, but the cel-shaded graphical style just goes so much harder on the standard Quest 3. It’s enjoyable to look at and listen to through and through regardless, even with all the chaos from combat making the Quest 3 work harder to render everything at 90 FPS – with vibrant colors, intricately detailed levels and characters, punchy weapons, and high-fidelity cartoon gore that pops. The sound design and music are also pretty good, though there were definitely points where the audio got blown out or the Quest started making a buzzing noise because it was too stressed – typically during particularly hectic sequences with vehicles or tons of enemies on screen.

Deadpool VR has a variety of comfort options that’s always nice to see. I’m a longtime VR user, so I went straight for the no-holds-barred “VR Hero” experience, but I’m glad there are three comfort modes available, the easiest of the bunch setting a baseline for beginners: snap turning with comfort blinds and no screen shake. Even though I took the most intense one, I appreciate that the most visually intense sequences, usually passenger shootouts in vehicles, are still entirely skippable if needed. There’s also a Kidpool mode that removes as much vulgarity from Deadpool VR as it can, which is cool to include I guess, but kind of defeats the point.