Ubisoft have released a broad update on the future of Assassin’s Creed, with thoughts from new head of content Jean Guesdon. It doesn’t tell us much, but it doesn’t tell us nothing. At the very least, it’s not another layoff announcement.
Firstly, don’t believe the scuttlebutt about their Assassin’s Creed multiplayer project, Codename Invictus, which is “progressing steadily” in the hands of some For Honor veterans. It’s not some kind of Fall Guy house party malarkey, whatever the rumour-mongers might tell you. It’s… well, it sounds like they’re still deciding what it is. Announced in 2022, the project is proceeding on a “test and learn” basis.
In a franchise update, Head of Content Jean Guesdon provided news on projects Hexe and Invictus, the former being a proper narrative driven mainline entry in the series, and the latter a PvP title from the For Honor team at Ubisoft Montreal. It sounds like Hexe is still quite a way off, with the team looking to “be quiet for a while longer”.
Indie Selects for March 2025: Fresh Contrasts for a New Season
Amy Connors, Oscar Polanco, Raymond Estrada, Keith Muelas, Deron Mann – ID@Xbox Spring Cleaning Crew
Every Wednesday, dive into the Indie Select Hub — your gateway to a fresh, curated indie collection plus four themed spotlights that rotate weekly! You can always find this collection hub in the Xbox Store and on Xbox.com/IndieSelects.
As we step into spring, this lineup is all about fresh contrasts—bright blooms and deep shadows, cozy comfort and adrenaline spikes. Dive into an ultra-violent sci‑fi third-person action adventure, then slow the pace with an action RPG that’s equally at home in a warm, cozy sim loop. Take a detour into darkly funny criminal commerce with a money-laundering sim where you literally wash cash, then brace for an FMV psychological-horror interactive movie steeped in centuries-old Black Forest tales of vengeful spirits. From there, plunge into a gripping first-person horror/action journey through a nightmarish reimagining of Spain, and finally reset your senses with a first-person puzzle experience built around painting, color-mixing, and seeing the world in a whole new light. Here’s what we’ve got for you this month (in no particular order):
Goichi Suda, known by his alias Suda51, returns with Romeo is a Dead Man, a bold new entry in an already impressive catalog that includes No More Heroes, Lollipop Chainsaw, Killer7, and many other cult classics. From the opening moments, you immediately recognize his signature style: the mad-genius energy, the fever-dream surrealism, and the genre-blending chaos that makes you question your own sanity while remaining completely captivated.
The game wastes no time. You are thrown straight into the action as Romeo Stargazer, a sheriff’s deputy responding to a routine call. Romeo is attacked by a mysterious creature, left for dead, then resurrected and recruited into the FBI’s Temporal Task Force by his multiverse-traveling grandfather. It is absurd, dramatic, and perfectly on brand.
Combat is fast, aggressive, and built around spectacle. Fluid combos chain together seamlessly, finishing moves are satisfyingly over-the-top, and boss encounters that stand out as some of the game’s strongest moments. These set pieces prioritize theatrical excess over strategy, leaning fully into style and momentum.
This is a niche game by design. It is unapologetically strange and will resonate most with players who value creativity, boldness, and sharp stylistic shifts. Romeo is a Dead Man is unmistakably a Suda51 creation, and as your time-traveling, multiverse-hopping grandpa wisely puts it: don’t think too hard, just feel the vibes.
This is the game I never knew I always wanted. I missed the Rune Factory and Harvest Moon series (please don’t take my gamer card), but I’ve always loved life sims and consider myself a die‑hard action‑RPG fan. As I get older, I’ve come to appreciate the calm joy of farming while still craving the rush of slick, skill‑based combat. Rune Factory: Guardians of Azuma nails that balance. It blends both genres with charm, voiced characters, a strong story, and a fantastic soundtrack. As a spin‑off of the Rune Factory series and by extension Story of Seasons, it’s also a perfect entry point for newcomers.
You play as an Earth Dancer tasked with restoring Azuma, a land devastated by a cataclysm and the creeping Blight. You’ll rebuild villages, construct buildings, and attract new residents, all wrapped in gorgeous Japanese‑inspired visuals and music. Instead of one farm, you juggle four seasonal villages — Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter — each permanent and distinct. Thankfully, intuitive farming and building systems keep everything fun rather than overwhelming.
Strong character relationships (and romances) tie into combat, letting allies fight alongside you. And that combat? Smooth, responsive, and full of satisfying dodges, specials, and weapon‑tools called sacred treasures that double as farming gear. This game has so many core loops that interlock beautifully. There’s so much to boast about and I haven’t even touched on the progressive skill trees or various sky islands.
Dozens of hours in, I can already see how easily this could grow into a 100‑hour adventure. With its dense mechanics and constant variety, it reminds me of the first time I played Yakuza: Like a Dragon as it’s absolutely packed with content and proficient in everything it does. If you want a rich, varied experience that rewards long‑term play, this one’s an easy must‑have.
Simulator games keep widening their delightfully absurd horizons, and I’m endlessly drawn to them like a moth to a neon sign. Give me a bizarre premise fueled by peak‑efficiency goals, and I’m in. Cash Cleaner Simulator plunges you into piles of dirty money, turning what would be a seedy, monotonous job into something sillier, more whimsical, and wonderfully literal. Like any good sim, completing task after task pulls you into a zen‑like rhythm until you suddenly wonder, “Wait… how long have I been playing?”
Each delivery, dropped unceremoniously from a chute in the ceiling, brings something new. Sometimes it’s supplies, but usually it’s cash in bags, boxes, or old mattresses. Your job: collect it, spot issues like dirt, blood, or counterfeits, and get it sorted. Jobs come through an in‑game app outlining how clean the money must be, how to repackage it, and any strict requirements. Some contracts are so precise that tiny errors can sink the whole task. As you progress, new challenges like multiple currencies, marked bills, dye packs, and gold bars push you to buy better tools and scale up.
Early earnings are slow, especially if you’re trying to pay off the million‑dollar debt hanging over you, but the game’s quirky, lighthearted tone helps smooth that grind. At its core, Cash Cleaner Simulator is a casual, almost cozy experience that lets you clean cash for criminals at your own pace. It’s weirdly funny, repetitive in a good way, and unexpectedly relaxing. Perfect for anyone wanting a laid‑back game with a delightfully absurd twist.
Scenario: You’re on your couch, watching a horror movie, and the desire to tell one of the main characters what to do is overwhelming. You know how this feels. Heart of the Forest takes this situation, but right as the crucial deciding moments occur, you’re in control!
Heart of the Forest is a full-motion video (FMV) game that inserts you right into the middle of a horror movie, making decisions on behalf of a group of students who have set off on a hike through the Black Forest. From the get-go you witness eerie events happening in the surrounding areas, while knowing that things are only going to get worse for the unsuspecting crew. This is a game where you need to make choices with the priority of keeping people safe as events cause this hike to go downhill… and not in a good way.
Your choices directly affect the story and literally change the movie you are interacting with. With this being a beautifully filmed game, the story is a little over 2.5 hours, but the desire to go back and change the course of events by making alternate decisions will be immense. Experience this psychological horror through the lens of 4 students, horrified at what is happening to each of them, while having a direct influence on their actions.
If you’ve never played an FMV game, but enjoyed “Black Mirror: Bandersnatch,” you’ll be right at home with this narrative-based game built around needing to survive in a horror setting.
Crisol: Theater of Idols is a first-person survival horror game set in Hispania, a unique and frankly, unsettling fictional take on Spain. Players wash ashore in Tormentosa as Gabriel, a soldier sent on a divine mission from the Sun God. Armed with blood-fueled weaponry, you navigate varied environments, fight puppet-like statues, and solve puzzles while unraveling the mysteries of the island, the Sun God, and how Gabriel became so deeply entangled in all of it.
Using blood for ammo is such a wild idea — but man, does it work. Traditional survival horror relies on ammo scarcity to create tension and helplessness. In Crisol, that concept is amplified. Health and ammunition become one shared resource. It’s not just about conserving bullets — it’s about deciding whether you can afford to shoot at all. The game offers quick healing kits called Plasmarine, along with the ability to absorb blood from animal corpses (gross!). Combat revolves around this system, but it also serves as a clever world-design tool, tying progression, narrative beats, and puzzle-solving directly into the core mechanic.
As you explore, you’ll find a beautifully crafted, Spanish-inspired world that looks fantastic in 4K. I’ve always loved old-world Spanish architecture, and the game showcases a strong variety of distinct areas for players to sink their teeth into. The presentation is sharp, the gameplay is immersive, and progression through weapons, abilities and passive upgrades feel meaningful. And then there’s Dolores. I’ll leave that for you to experience firsthand, but I’m confident the 11-year-old version of me wouldn’t have slept after seeing her — or practically any of the enemies in this game. If you enjoy modern survival horror that leans heavily into tension, atmosphere, and storytelling, Crisol: Theater of Idols is absolutely worth a shot.
Indie puzzle games have spent two decades riffing on the Portal formula, with many finding real success. One standout was ChromaGun, a first‑person puzzle‑shooter built on paint mechanics and clever color‑mixing. Its strong reception has now paved the way for a sequel, ChromaGun 2: Dye Hard, which picks up immediately after the original in comedic fashion. Once again, you find yourself tricked and trapped inside the testing facility, roped into yet another round of “scientific” experimentation.
What really sets ChromaGun 2 apart is, unsurprisingly, the ChromaGun itself. You begin with yellow paint and unlock the other primary colors as you go, letting you mix and manipulate your way through each room. Paint two objects the same color and they magnetize, allowing you to move objects onto switches, pop vents off walls, and create inventive solutions. You can mix paints into secondary colors or even black when the puzzle calls for it. And despite the potential mess, mistakes are never permanent as you can always clean things up and try again. The puzzles range from quick wins to sly brain‑teasers, with simpler setups often requiring the most thought. Since nothing is timed, you’re free to experiment and tackle each challenge at your own pace. The developers also created a standout accessibility feature in their colorblind mode, which adds distinct shapes to all primary and mixed colors so players can easily tell everything apart.
If this feels a little too close to Portal, you’re not wrong. From the test‑chamber aesthetic to the ever‑present disembodied voice, the inspiration is obvious. And then there’s the moment the plot starts involving literal portals, which was hilarious and feels like the game is having a playful laugh at its own expense. Still, ChromaGun 2 is so well‑crafted, and its puzzles so genuinely satisfying, that it’s hard not to recommend it to anyone who loves this style of game.
It’s time to see which PS5, PS4, PS VR2, and free-to-play games topped last month’s download charts. February saw nothing but love for zombies and Leon as Resident Evil Requiem topped the US and EU PS5 charts.
Check out the full listings below. What titles are you playing this month?
PS5 Games
US/Canada
EU
Resident Evil Requiem
Resident Evil Requiem
NBA 2K26
EA SPORTS FC 26
ARC Raiders
UFC 5
EA SPORTS Madden NFL 26
Grand Theft Auto V
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Minecraft
Grand Theft Auto V
It Takes Two
REANIMAL
ARC Raiders
EA SPORTS FC 26
REANIMAL
Minecraft
Forza Horizon 5
God of War Sons of Sparta
Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
UFC 5
God of War Sons of Sparta
Nioh 3
NBA 2K26
It Takes Two
Nioh 3
High On Life 2
Resident Evil 4
EA SPORTS College Football 26
Among Us
NHL 26
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2
Gran Turismo 7
Forza Horizon 5
Split Fiction
HELLDIVERS 2
Hogwarts Legacy
Resident Evil 4
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
*Naming of products may differ between regions *Upgrades not included
PS4 Games
US/Canada
EU
Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
Gang Beasts
A Way Out
A Way Out
Gang Beasts
Resident Evil 6
EA SPORTS FC 26
theHunter: Call of the Wild
Unravel Two
RESIDENT EVIL 5
Resident Evil 6
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
Grand Theft Auto V
Minecraft
RESIDENT EVIL 5
Grand Theft Auto V
Minecraft
FOR HONOR
Rayman Legends
Batman: Arkham Knight
Batman: Arkham Knight
Unravel Two
The Forest
NBA 2K26
Kingdom Come: Deliverance
Call of Duty: Black Ops III
Mafia: Trilogy
Resident Evil
It Takes Two
God of War
Middle-earth: Shadow of War
The Forest
STEEP
Overcooked! 2
Assassin’s Creed Odyssey
Mafia: Trilogy
WRC 7 FIA World Rally Championship
STAR WARS Battlefront II
Overcooked! 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
Red Dead Redemption 2
*Naming of products may differ between regions
PS VR2 Games*
US/Canada
EU
Alien: Rogue Incursion VR
Alien: Rogue Incursion VR
Pavlov
Creed: Rise to Glory – Championship Edition
Creed: Rise to Glory – Championship Edition
Horizon Call of the Mountain
Among Us 3D: VR
Arizona Sunshine 2
Beat Saber
Among Us 3D: VR
Arizona Sunshine 2
Job Simulator
Job Simulator
Beat Saber
Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice
Vampire: The Masquerade – Justice
Horizon Call of the Mountain
Cooking Simulator VR
Zero Caliber VR
Kayak VR: Mirage
*PlayStation Store purchases only. Game upgrades or games bundled with hardware not included
Ubisoft has just released the first piece of concept art for Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag Resynced, finally confirming its long-awaited remake that has been rumored for years.
Ubisoft’s focus is now firmly on the future, though the series’ next all-new entry Assassin’s Creed: Codename Hexe sounds like it’s still some way off. In the meantime, then, Ubisoft has at last begun acknowledging its upcoming Assassin’s Creed: Black Flag remake, which is expected to arrive at some point later this year.
“Speculation around Assassin’s Creed is not new, but it’s worth repeating: ‘Nothing is true. Everything is permitted,'” Ubisoft wrote. “Well, except in this case, some whispers have a little more wind in their sails. Keep your spyglass on the horizon. 🦜”
Previous reports have suggested that Black Flag Resynced will be a substantial remake of the series’ beloved piratical entry, with visual and gameplay upgrades that see the game closer in quality to last year’s Assassin’s Creed Shadows.
New story content will reportedly be added to flesh out more of hero Edward Kenway’s life, though the game’s modern day gameplay sections have apparently been excised — something that many fans aren’t happy about. It will be interesting to see how Ubisoft handles the game’s new ending — which previously tied together story elements from its historical and modern day narratives — in light of that change.
Officially, Ubisoft has only previously referred to Black Flag Resynced’s upcoming arrival by acknowledging that there had been an unannounced game due to arrive before the end of its current financial year (on March 31). In January, however this game was then delayed into the coming financial year (ending March 31, 2027) due to the company’s major recent reshuffle of teams, projects and studios.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
People on social media are upset about censorship in Resident Evil Requiem. Wait, come back! This isn’t one of those situations where Twitter dudes with usernames like BasedMaxxing97 rant about the bikini armor being altered to cover up the ‘vagina bones’. It seems the Japanese version of Capcom’s new horror game doesn’t feature any blood and guts in certain scenes, in a bid to appease the country’s regulators.
Instead it has… anomalous pools of shadow. Hideous darkness spilling from the cleaved torsos of ostensible cadavers. The same darkness lurks within you and I. What fools we were, to ever think ourselves meat. We are but the place where the light isn’t. Umbral puppets. Gabbling event horizons. Arigatou gozaimasu, Capcom! I feel much better now.
For just $14.99 when you sign up for a Humble Choice membership, you can add all of these games to your PC library. On top of that, you get a bonus month for free of IGN Plus. It’s a pretty sweet deal. Head to the link below to sign up, and further down you can see this month’s full lineup. Keep in mind this selection of games only lasts for the month, so be quick to make a move on it if they interest you.
March’s lineup offers up a nice variety of games for your library, too. Tempest Rising is one that writer Dan Stapleton called, “A loving homage to classic Command & Conquer,” noting that its “single-player campaign brings back the fast-paced RTS gameplay but can’t quite recapture the campy vibe” in our review. Hard West 2 is another that caught our attention, with our review from writer Jon Bolding saying it, “has plenty of little annoyances, but it’s a supernatural western tactics game with a lot of style and the substance to back it.”
Those with a Humble Choice membership get to enjoy much more alongside a monthly drop of new games. This membership also allows you to save up to 20% on select games in the Humble Store, and a nice bonus is that 5% of your Humble Choice membership goes to a charity each month. As for March, that portion of your membership will go towards the Malala Fund.
The free month of IGN Plus is a great add-on with everything else, too. Once you’ve signed up, you’ll be able to get rid of ads across the website, enjoy free games, and much more that you can learn about on the IGN Plus page.
Hannah Hoolihan is a freelancer who writes with the guides and commerce teams here at IGN.
RPGs don’t always require compelling stories or innovative trappings to be fun. Sometimes, all you want or want are a few engaging systems, some brought colors, and a delightful loop of grinding, exploration, and reward. Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection seems to deliver all that in spades based on what I’ve played so far, matching a fairly innocuous, almost infantile narrative with well-tuned mechanics to create something thoroughly enjoyable in the early going.
The three Star Force games included in this collection don’t even try to hide the influence Pokemon clearly had on their design. All three are split into multiple versions clearly inspired by ye olde Blue and Red. A total of seven variants exist across the trilogy, and they’re all represented well here, with some content unique to each.
The Star Force games share a lot of DNA with the earlier Battle Network titles while reflecting the mid-2000s hardware migration from Game Boy Advance to Nintendo DS. Capcom has solved most of the two-screen play issues fairly elegantly, miniaturizing the second screen to an upper corner and allowing the player to instantly bring it full-screen with a trigger hold. This works remarkably well. Environments have been colorfully and crisply translated from the low-resolution DS screen. The designers wisely maintained a close to 4:3 form factor, so graphics don’t display any appreciable stretching or distortion. The Wave World dungeons seamlessly overlap the human world. The vibe and feel of all three optimistic meladramas appears to be lovingly preserved.
Capcom has solved most of the two-screen play issues fairly elegantly, miniaturizing the second screen to an upper corner and allowing the player to instantly bring it full-screen with a trigger hold.
Combat, though, is the gravity that holds Star Force Collection on its winning trajectory. Fundamentally, all these games are combat-centric action-RPGs. Though cards, abilities, and other nuances vary, the 3×5 battle grid where you take on enemies is the most fleshed-out part of the the Star Force trilogy, a formula perfected all the way back on the GBA with the Battle Network games. You can rig clever card combos, juggle timing counters, sprint forward for melee attacks, nimbly dodge attacks, and snipe with your P-shooter. It’s a sprightly, light action-RPG combat system that rewards focus but is also fairly forgiving of miscalculation, and the battles are quick enough you likely won’t mind the random encounters.
Capcom did a good job updating these titles for the modern player, but for my tastes are less successful at contextualizing their place in the Mega Man pantheon. Some effort was put into visual or audio museums, but there’s nothing here comparable to, say Digital Eclipse’s Gold Master series, where the history and legacy of each game is celebrated by curated timelines or original documentaries. The historic features stack up poorly even next to the original Mega Man Legacy Collection, which allowed players to pop directly into certain gameplay moments directly from museum boss art. No such luck here.
As for the plot… well, that’s probably not really why you’re here. Plucky hero, quirky friends, buddy aliens made of electromagnetic energy, and maybe a dark conspiracy or two. You know, the usual stuff. It carries the collection and the combat forward, and for these games, that’s enough.
Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection doesn’t seem poised to shake up the world, but it doesn’t really have to, nor did it likely set out to. It’s appropriate for anyone who remembers whittling away hours on their GBA playing Battle Network or their DS playing Star Force. It’s also a perfect pastime for eleven-year-olds (or kids at heart) who love deck building, combo breaking, and diving into complementary, overlapping gameplay systems. Mega Man Star Force Legacy Collection is, based on my time with it, shaping up to be a real winner.
Jared Petty does all kinds of things with video games. When he’s not marketing with Other Ocean or writing for IGN, he’s creating new episodes of The Top 100 Games Podcast. Find him on Instagram, Threads, and BlueSky as @pettycommajared.
It’s been a little bit since The Outer Worlds 2 got that November patch aiming to take care of mysterious eyebrow disappearances. I wonder what the latest one, which is fairly beefy, does. Oh, it adds a number of handy features like the option to advance time by waiting, toggle walking via key press, and extra stealth kill animations.
Nice and boring. Oh, wait. “Gary will no longer attack the player from beyond the veil”. “Fixed cases where some NPCs could see the player while they were wearing the bucket hat”. “The pit outside of the entrance to Algid Menagerie will now always kill the player as intended”. “NPCs should no longer moonwalk, despite being in space”.
Though it seems Capcom only recently remembered that they can make a new Mega Man game, there was once a time where the Blue Bomber was so prevalent that many fans were suffering from some series burnout. In the span of about five years, we were getting hosed with new entries in the Classic, X, ZX, and Battle Network series, and the Mega Man Star Force series came into the picture in the middle of this period.
Now that all but that last one have received successful Legacy Collections on modern platforms, it was only a matter of time before Capcom would give Geo Stelar another shot at the spotlight after what many saw as a truncated and early finish to his adventures.
