Game Infliction, Author at Game Infliction

Aaron Judge is your MLB The Show 26 cover athlete

This year, MLB The Show is all about leaving your mark like never before. More than any single game, it’s about The Journey. It starts by putting in the hard work in high school, with a continuous drive to be better than the day before and a hunger for a Hall of Fame career. That drive was top of mind throughout the development of this year’s game, which is why San Diego Studio and MLB The Show are proud to welcome back 3x American League MVP, Aaron Judge.

His journey has taken him from high school to college, then the minors to the majors, and on to the world stage. We’ve mirrored the same journey in our game, striving to create the most authentic MLB experience outside of actually being on the field.

Aaron continues to rewrite history. He was our cover athlete in 2018, after a record-breaking rookie year in 2017. He’s now a 3-time AL MVP, 7-time All-Star, 5-time Silver Slugger award winner, AL single-season home run record holder with 62 homers, and the 2026 Team USA World Baseball Classic Captain.

These are just a few highlights from his long list of achievements, and Aaron’s performances have not only inspired players on the diamond, but athletes and fans around the world. We’re excited to have him back as the cover athlete of MLB The Show 26. It’s now up to you; how will you leave your mark?

Official gameplay trailer drops next week

Check back next week, on February 3, to see our gameplay trailer featuring everything new we have in store for ‘26. We’ve got updates on the features you know and love, plus a few special surprises.

MLB The Show 26 launches on March 17, 2026 (*Early access begins March 13)

Get ready for launch with a few key updates:

Pre-orders for the Standard Edition and *Digital Deluxe Editions open on February 3, 2026 at 12 am EST/ 9 am PST on TheShow.com, platform stores, and participating retailers.
Purchasing the Digital Deluxe Edition gives you 4 days of Early Access starting on March 13, 2026.
Starting March 17, the Standard Edition of MLB The Show 26 is fully available.

The World Baseball Classic Tournament returns to Diamond Dynasty

This year’s cover features Aaron Judge in his Team USA World Baseball Classic uniform, so stay tuned to learn more about what this means for Diamond Dynasty in MLB The Show 26.

Homage x MLB The Show Returns

We’re also excited to announce the return of our Homage x MLB The Show apparel partnership! Since 2007, through crafted design, deep-cut storytelling, and Legendary Comfort, Homage has been helping fans pay homage to the people, places, and moments that matter most to them.

Similar to last year, we have an exciting variety of new drops that you can look forward to this year. Today’s drop is our Cover Athlete t-shirt, featuring Aaron Judge. In addition to adult sizes, we’re also excited to have youth sizes available! Cop the latest drop and own the show in style. Wear Homage and share your love for MLB The Show.

Purchase here: homa.ge/MLBTS

Stay in the know: Sign up for The Scouting Report & Your Show Account

Want the inside track on everything coming to MLB The Show 26? Sign up for the MLB The Show Scouting Report and get rewarded all season long with exclusive monthly Scouting Report Packs. From April through December, subscribers receive an exclusive Scouting Report Pack each month delivered straight to their inventory and filled with rewards you won’t want to miss.

Make sure you don’t miss your at-bat, sign up today on TheShow.com.

And while you’re at it, get ready for opening day by setting up your MLB The Show account. In ‘26, whatever platform you’re on, you can keep access to your entire inventory of cards. Step up to https://account.theshow.com and create your MLB The Show Account. Once you’re done, log in with your platform account and link it to your MLB The Show account. And that’s a win.

The journey is just beginning

Starting March 17, MLB The Show will be available on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and Nintendo Switch with some special perks.

For more info on new features and sneak peeks on MLB The Show 26, check out our most recent blog post. And if you’re still game for more, keep reading here.

We’ll keep the action coming with regular updates, so keep an eye out for the Gameplay Trailer reveal next week, weekly feature reveals, Feature Trailer deep dives, updates on the Standard and Digital Deluxe Editions, a new pre-order loyalty discount and more.

Until then, sign up for The Scouting Report, and follow us on X, Facebook, and Instagram. And be sure to visit TheShow.com for more details about all things MLB The Show.

Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4 – Orks Faction Deep-Dive Trailer | IGN First

Take a deep dive into the Orks faction in the latest trailer for Warhammer 40,000: Dawn of War 4, the upcoming real-time strategy game sequel from King Art Games that’s due out later in 2026 for PC. It’s a mixture of cinematics and gameplay. Check it out above. And if you know anything about this universe, you probably won’t be surprised that the Orks are literally driven by mayhem and sporting a reckless, no-nonsense offensive playstyle. What you may not have been expecting is the scale of the carnage.

In particular, we get a great look at the Ork superunit, the Gorkanaut, which can crumple up dreadnoughts and go toe-to-toe with the likes of an Imperial Knight. Towering over the battlefield at a scale that sets Dawn of War apart from its predecessors, the number of guns on this thing could be described as both bewildering and hilarious. And that’s just what the Orks are about.

Dawn of War 4 has been our IGN First “cover story” all January long. If you missed any of our previous exclusive coverage, don’t miss our exclusive Ork cinematic trailer (watch it below), our hands-on impressions of the Ork faction, a look at how kill-sync animations are being enhanced with the combat director, and an interview with the creative leads behind the project.

We’ve got one more exclusive IGN First bit of coverage coming your way on Dawn of War 4 later this week. In the meantime, you can wishlist the upcoming RTS if you’re interested.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our semi-retired interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Helldivers 2’s next warbond has an exploding hammer, for all of your explosive hammering needs

Well, the last one might have only appealed to folks open to taking on a mission that demands a bunch of crouch-walking, but you can’t say Helldivers 2‘s second warbond of 2026 isn’t offering plenty of bang for your buck. It’s got an exploding hammer. There’s other stuff in this Siege Breakers warbond too, but I’ll be honest, none of that can boast being a stick with a thing that goes boom taped to the end.

Valve’s lawyers won’t be able to file away one of the legal legalings they’ve been dealing with for a little while now, at least not yet. A tribunal have ruled that the £656m lawsuit brought against the company by digital rights campaigner Vicki Shotbolt and law firm Milberg London LLP last year – the one that could net UK dwellers who’ve bought stuff on Steam since early June 2018 up to £44 in compensation – can go ahead.

As a result, Valve’s Lionel Hutzes will have to face the lawsuit’s accusations that the company have used Steam’s “dominant position” in the PC market to behave “anti-competitively”, with the end result that regular folks are “paying too much for PC games and in-game content and have lesser PC Game platform alternatives”.

Two Cancelled Virtual Boy Games Coming To NSO In 2026, Including F-Zero Spin-Off

An Intelligent Systems top-down adventure also on the way.

We now know the launch line-up for the Virtual Boy – Nintendo Classics service, coming to Nintendo Switch Online on 17th February 2026. And while it’s all worth getting excited over, there are two never-before-released games coming out later in the year that Nintendo enthusiasts should be particularly excited about.

Right at the end of the brand new overview trailer (at around 3:07), Nintendo showed off footage from two cancelled Virtual Boy games that will be playable for the first time ever via Nintendo Switch Online — Zero Racers and D-Hopper (also known as Dragon Hopper). Both of these will be coming to the service sometime in 2026.

Read the full article on nintendolife.com

Helldivers 2 Siege Breakers premium Warbond drops February 3

Helldivers, do you ever find the squad standing before a towering foe with impenetrable fortifications and wish you had something to smash through them? The Ministry of Defense has just the Warbond for you. Let’s get to smashing, divers!

Weapons & Stratagems

So what are the tools that will break down the door to the enemy compound? Let’s start with the new and improved version of a beloved Helldivers weapon: the LAS-16 Trident! This big, bold, and shotgun-like updated classic fires six beams compared to the original’s three! Nothing’s gonna stand in the LAS-16 Trident’s way.

But if you need to make a statement when you break down the bulwark, you might want to bring the CQC-20 Breaching Hammer stratagem. This sledgehammer can do straight smashing, or it can have an explosive charge attached to its head to drive the point home.

Let’s say you get tired from all the hammer-swinging, though, and you need a way to simplify your destruction. Why not use the GL-28 Belt-Fed Grenade Launcher that lets you continuously fire grenades in a non-stop, explosive barrage?

And if you’re only interested in sending a single, strong message, we’ve also included the EAT-411 Leveller that fires one high-yield missile.

Finally, the perfect companion to an offensive loadout like this one is a good defense. The G/SH-39 Shield is a throwable emplacement that generates a spherical, projectile-blocking shield. Make your own barrier while you bust down all the others.

Armor & Capes

As for the rest of your defense, we have the heavy SA-8 Ram armor, evoking heavy plate armor and blast shields, to turn you into a blockade-battering force. Similarly, the medium armor, SA-7 Headfirst, still looks well-defended, but allows for the flexibility and speed you might need to get past the roadblock.

These armors are outfitted with the Supplementary Adrenaline passive, which allows the wearer to regain some stamina whenever they take damage, turning you into the tireless battering ram at the enemy’s wall.

These armors have coordinating capes and player cards, starting with the Rags of the Fashionable, which comes pre-tattered to signal your participation in previous enemy sieges. There’s also the Wedgeful Tricorn, which has a saw-tooth shape along the bottom edge.

Emotes, patterns, and more

To coordinate your squad, we have also included a pattern for your shuttle, exosuits, hellpods, and FRV called Churned Earth. Siege Breakers also includes the Display of Brawn emote, for both regular and victory poses! And when you show it off, why not equip the Bunker Buster player title, too, to look like the formidable opponent you are.

Hold your ground just a bit longer, Helldivers. The walls will crumble at your feet on February 3!

*Requires base game, paid purchase of Super Credits, and game progression to unlock.

Hell Express is Death Stranding meets Helldivers meets Pacific Drive – aka, deliver letters to the dead in a combat truck

Quick confession: every time I come up with an absolute Frankenstein’s cocktail of allusion-cobbling Google-bait like the headline for this article, a fairy dies. But that’s OK, because Hell Express is a top-down 3D extraction shooter about delivering letters to the dead. When I play it – there’s no release date yet – I will convey a note of apology to the soul of the fairy I’ve just slain with my appalling SEO practices. This may be difficult, however, because many of the underworld’s denizens are hostile. The only thing you’ll be delivering to them is bullets, fire and explosives.

A UK court has ruled that the unauthorized stealing of in-game currency can be legally classified as criminal theft.

Former Jagex developer Andrew Lakeman was charged with allegedly stealing 705 billion Gold from almost 70 RuneScape players, with a real-world value of over half a million pounds, equivalent to around $750,000. He then sold this currency online for Bitcoin.

Although Lakeman had no access to player accounts in his position at Jagex as a content developer, he allegedly accessed them by “hacking and/or using credentials of members of the account recovery team.” In all, 68 players allegedly lost gold to Lakeman, starting around 2018.

Here comes the science bit: the defendant’s defence claimed that the in-game currency could not be classed as property under the definition of the UK’s Theft Act, and initially, the court agreed, concluding that as RuneScape gold is not real — or “pure information” or “knowledge” as it’s legally defined — it could not technically be stealable.

The judge at the time also deemed RuneScape’s supply of Gold as being infinite, and it wasn’t “rivalrous” given that having a piece of Gold doesn’t deprive another player of getting Gold, too. The Court of Appeal, however, disagreed and last week handed down a judgment while explaining its reasoning.

“We differ from the Judge in his reasoning for reaching the contrary conclusion on rivalrousness. The two reasons which the Judge gave in his ruling do not, with respect, bear analysis,” Judge Popplewell wrote. “The first was that ‘one gold piece is like any other, and their supply is infinite.’ This does not, however, distinguish them from many other forms of rivalrous property. One paper clip from a given manufacturer is like any other; and the manufacture and supply of them infinite, in the sense that is not capped at any finite number. Yet each paper clip constitutes property. The same is equally true of gold pieces.”

“[RuneScape’s gold is] properly described as something which can be stolen as a matter of normal use of language,” the judgment added. “They do not fall within any of the established exceptions. They are not ‘pure knowledge:’ functionally, they exist as identifiable assets distinct from the code which gives rise to them and outside the minds of people. There is no good policy reason for excepting them from the category of property which can be stolen.”

The judgment concluded: “On the contrary, they are assets which have an ascertainable monetary value and which may be traded for that value both in the game and outside the game. Within the rules of the game they represent money’s worth as the product of purchase of a bond. Outside the game they are regularly traded for money’s worth. They are capable of being subject to dishonest dealing which deprives their possessor of their use and value. It would be surprising and unsatisfactory if such dishonest dealing did not amount to the offence of theft.”

It’s a judgment that could have profound implications for the games industry, as up until now, vendors that sell (or re-sell) in-game currency have existed in a grey market wherein technically, no theft has occurred if the digital asset stolen did not meet the definition of an intangible item under the definitions of theft in that country. The dubious line of when ownership of any such in-game currency transfers from the developer to the player — if at all — further compounds an already complex issue, too.

With the issue of whether removing gold from player accounts constituted theft now settled, the case against Lakeman can proceed.

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.

Dr Disrespect Says His Fake Highguard Preview Badge Photo Was Just ‘Poking Fun’ After Dev Confirms He Was Not Invited to Play Early

The developer of Highguard has confirmed streamer Dr Disrespect did not attend a preview event after he created a fake badge and pretended to have been invited to play the game early.

On January 24, Dr Disrespect (real name Guy Beahm), tweeted to say: “Last week we took the Lambo to LA to check out #Highguard. Monday, January 26th at 10am PST, we enter another dimension! Yayayaya.”

Last week we took the Lambo to LA to check out #Highguard.
Monday, January 26th at 10am PST, we enter another dimension!
Yayayaya pic.twitter.com/kQ56GEfonB
— Dr Disrespect (@DrDisrespect) January 24, 2026

That comment, which pointed to Highguard’s confirmed release date, came alongside an image of a supposed Highguard event badge, which some have speculated may have been generated by AI.

Following Highguard’s launch, questions were raised about the validity of Dr Disrespect’s post. Then, Wildlight Entertainment creator manager Chin Pua took to X / Twitter to confirm Dr Disrespect had not attended the event, and that the badge was not official. “I can confirm DDR was not invited to any Highguard event past or present,” Pua said, “and the badge was not an official badge.”

So why did Dr Disrespect post the tweet and its image? In a stream playing Highguard yesterday, he laughed the post off as a joke, and expressed disbelief at the social media controversy it had generated.

Dr Disrespect said on-stream: “‘Last week we took the Lambo to LA to check out #HighGuard.’ That’s all we said. Did we say we went to the event? Did we say we got hands on? Did I say I was going to give you my review and feedback today? Huh? Did we say we were going to give our feedback and review today? ‘We got hands-on Highguard.’ Did I say that? Did we play the game? No. We just put together a photo poking fun. All these f***ing people took it seriously. Holy s**t. How brain dead is this f***ing industry? How stupid is this industry?”

Dr Disrespect went on to hit out at his critics, defend his current brand, and insist he remains relevant. Dr Disrespect returned to YouTube in September 2024 three months after he was demonetized and suspended from the YouTube Partner Program following allegations regarding past conduct with a minor. Beahm has denied any wrongdoing.

Highguard launched last night and met with big Steam concurrents but also a flood of negative user reviews. Check out IGN’s Highguard review-in-progress to find out what we think.

Photo by Matt Thomas/San Diego Padres/Getty Images.

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.

Fallout New Vegas now has sneaky dogs thanks to a mod, so you and your pooch can patiently pad past predators

You’re shuffling through the desert scrub, wondering if the clawed beasts just a few yards away have spotted you yet. You’ve made sure to pop a Stealth Boy just to be extra safe, and told Raul that if his knees creak at an inopportune moment, he’s on his own. Then, you realise you brought Rex along, and he’s gotten stuck on a rock several meters behind you. Finally freeing himself, the good boy bounds towards you at full speed. This should be the point in some Fallout New Vegas stealthing that you realise it’s brown trousers time.

It isn’t, because Obsidian weren’t total sadists when they designed the thing. It does take you out of your Mojave roleplay a bit, though. Thankfully, I can report that a modder has taken it upon themselves to ensure that New Vegas now benefits from the finest in sneaking dog technology.

Author: Game Infliction