Creative Assembly have just detailed Total War: Warhammer 3’s first character pack, these being “smaller, focused content drops built around a single character with their own unique feature, supported by a handful of exciting new units”, priced (in this case) at £3.99, $4.99 or €4.99 apiece.
Have you herd the wonderfoal word of HORSE.
In the magazine business, the back page is where you’d find all the weird goofs that we couldn’t fit in anywhere else. Some may call it “filler”; we prefer “a whole page to make terrible jokes that are tangentially related to the content of the mag”.
We don’t have pages on the internet, but we still love terrible jokes — so welcome to our semi-regular feature, Back Page. Today, Kate celebrates the approaching Chinese New Year with a look at the finest equines in video games…
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Star Wars: Galactic Racer developer Fuse Games has said its racing adventure will feature a “good mix” of new faces and classic characters from a galaxy far, far away, following the reveal of Phantom Menace returnee Ben Quadinaros.
Speaking to IGN as part of a wide-ranging interview on Star Wars: Galactic Racer’s track-based design, story mode and innovative boost gameplay, creative director Kieran Crimmins teased that fans will be able to look forward to more characters from previous Star Wars movies and games joining the fray.
“There’s going to be a good mix of familiar faces and new characters,” Crimmins said. “Obviously we want to get that mix right, so no matter what kind of Star Wars media you’ve engaged with, whether it be a movie or game, there’s a bunch of familiarity in there when it comes to the space. Otherwise it wouldn’t feel like an authentic Star Wars experience.
“So there’s both familiar faces and new characters,” Crimmins continued, acknowledging Sebulba and Quadinaros. “We can’t talk about who exactly they are just yet though, sorry.”
Who else might appear? While less well known, it’s possible that other participants seen in Episode 1’s podrace might appear, alongside Sebulba and Quadinaros. The Boonta Eve Classic had 18 participants, though poor Ratts Tyerell died during the race, while Anakin Skywalker… well, we all know what happened to him.
“We’ve seen racing as an activity and as a sport in Star Wars has been around in many forms, right?” Fuse Games founder and CEO Matt Webster said at another point, going on to potentially hint at racers from other parts of Star Wars being included. “Episode 1’s podracing we all know and love, Bad Batch’s riot racing in Season 2 was just awesome. Star Wars Resistance has got the Aces and low-altitude starfighter racing.”
Galactic Racer is set sometime after Return of the Jedi, so anyone could potentially put in an appearance. It seems unlikely we’ll see Luke Skywalker, who was quite busy doing other things during this period, but who knows? He sure knows how to race a speeder bike across Endor.
Last week brought our best look yet at Star Wars: Galactic Racer, though we delve much deeper into its clever two-tier boost system, environmental effects, and how the game will let you nuture rivalries and interact with characters on foot in our big Star Wars: Galactic Racer interview that you can go read right now.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Last week, after years of hopeful speculation, Sony’s Santa Monica Studio announced it will be remaking the original God of War trilogy. T.C. Carson, the original voice actor behind Kratos, stepped in front of the camera to reveal that the project is in the “very early” stages of development, and that we’ll have to wait a little longer for any of our questions to be answered. And there are a lot of questions.
Will this be a graphical facelift à la Bluepoint’s Demon’s Souls, or are we revisiting Greece with the Norse duology’s controls and overhauled game design? If the latter, will Kratos have a companion accompanying him to Pandora’s Temple and the Isle of Fates? Will there be a blacksmith NPC popping up in expected places to provide armor and weapon upgrades? Will we be able to jump and fly, like in the original games? And what about those sex minigames?
That last one almost sounds like a joke, but fans who’ve brought them up seem to be deadly serious. “You better not edit out Aphrodite,” one of the top comments on the announcement video posted to the official PlayStation YouTube channel warns, referring to the particularly graphic minigame from God of War 3. “Do not censor original material,” reads one of the – as of the time I’m writing this article – 256 replies to that comment. “Dont ruin it.”
Fan fixation with these minigames makes sense, and not just because of the franchise’s initial target demographic. They are, for better or worse, as much a part of the Greek saga as the Blades of Chaos, appearing in every mainline title except for Ascension. Even the two handheld games, Chains of Olympus and Ghost of Sparta, have their own versions of them: one in Attica, while fighting off the Persians, the other at a brothel back in Sparta.
They’re also a product of their time, one when both gamers and game developers were overwhelmingly male, little if any thought was given to the way women were represented, and hack and slashers generally relished in all things lewd and bloody and pubescent. But times have since changed, and changed profoundly at that. Once taken for granted, today the minigames stand out like a sore thumb. They are perhaps the only aspect of the Greek saga I could envision its developers regret adding in, and hence it’s unclear whether they will return alongside the togas, sandals, and cyclopes.
Personally, I’d be surprised if they did. Santa Monica Studio seemed to have soured on the minigames as early as 2013, when the team working on Ascension decided not to include one – maybe in response to backlash, maybe out of post-orgasm clarity after visiting Aphrodite. In that game, Kratos’ obligatory trip to the bordello plays out in a cutscene, and the women there turn out to be an illusion created by one of the Furies.
At the same time – and, please, hear me out here – I do think there’s a place for them in the Greek games, at least in concept. More than a crude joke, I always found that they contributed to the saga’s story and themes. In the first God of War, the sex minigame – like that part where you burn the caged soldier to progress through Pandora’s Temple, or condemn the ship captain to his death after taking his key – adds a welcome sense of moral ambiguity. It demonstrates that Kratos is not a conventional hero, and suggests there’s more to his quest to kill Aries than the desire to avenge his family. If visions of his dear, dead wife haunt him so, how could he lie with other women? At least, that’s what went through my head when I encountered the minigame for the first time.
Both God of War 2 and the trilogy’s final entry make clear what the first game only insinuated: that Kratos’ vengeance is not a crusade for justice, but an excuse to kill and destroy for the sake of killing and destroying. In both games, the minigames help convey his downward spiral into sadism and nihilism. In God of War 3, for example, you enter Aphrodite’s chambers right after killing her husband, Hephaestus; a tragic, ultimately well-intentioned character who, up until this point, acted as your only ally, Athena and her ulterior motives notwithstanding. At every turn, the developers stress that Kratos cares for nothing except the gratification of his own, basest desires. At this point, lust and bloodshed are the only things he lives for, and that won’t change until he meets Faye and fathers Atreus.
The horniness of the Greek saga also feels somewhat appropriate when considering its source material. The ancient myths woven into Kratos’ world are full of sex, as is the Greco-Roman visual culture that inspired Santa Monica Studio’s talented concept artists. The goddess of love and beauty is not the only one with her nipples out: Kratos, Zeus, Hades – everyone, man and monster, is bare-legged and bare-chested, their bodily features every bit as sculpted as the marble statues at the MET.
Most importantly, perhaps, the minigames help bring home the Greek games’ meta-commentary – a commentary present throughout the trilogy but most pronounced in its concluding chapter, where Kratos is at his ugliest, meanest, and most pathetic, and the franchise’s cinematic endorphin rushes pivot from tasteful indulgence into nauseating overindulgence. Where impaling Aries was uncomplicatedly epic and triumphant, Kratos’ actions in God of War 3 hit differently. Brutalizing Poseidon’s and Hercules’ faces, ripping off Hades’ mask, cutting off Hermes’ legs, snapping Hera’s neck, beating Zeus until the screen becomes completely covered in blood – each “victory” leaves the player feeling a little uneasy, ashamed, hollow. Boss battles in the first God of War and its sequel made you feel like David taking down big, mean Goliath; no matter how brutal the finishing moves, your opponents had it coming. In God of War 3, you’re more like a playground bully, kicking another student when they’re down.
The minigame with Aphrodite also veers into garish over-indulgence, but to a slightly different effect. Instead of making you feel like a bully, you just feel like an idiot. I certainly did when, playing with a childhood friend, we just sat next to each other in awkward silence, going through the motions to get all the red orbs while keeping an ear out for my mom walking up and down the hallway. Very manly indeed.
Some might think that the Norse games walked back on the Greek saga’s abundance of sex and nudity because the gaming industry decided to chase inclusivity, and Barlog and his team tried to stay on the good side of a culture that considered the minigames offensive and misogynistic. This is not the case. First and foremost, the Norse saga walked back on these things because they play no part in this leg of Kratos’ story. Once again, his wife has died. But this time, he channels his grief into something more constructive: rather than destroying the world, he tries to be a better parent to his son.
For the remakes to succeed, they have to communicate – as effectively, if not more effectively, than the original trilogy – how Kratos ends up at the personal low-point from which the Norse games set off. If the sex minigames are in any way included, this is the purpose they should serve. If they’re removed on account of being tasteless – not unthinkable, as that was kind of their point – no matter. Surely, Santa Monica Studio can think of other, more respectful ways to convey Kratos’ downward spiral, and for players to go down that spiral along with him.
Tim Brinkhof is a freelance writer specializing in art and history. After studying journalism at NYU, he has gone on to write for Vox, Vulture, Slate, Polygon, GQ, Esquire and more.
Star Wars: Galactic Racer, Fuse Games’ take on offroad speeder rushes in a galaxy far, far, away, sounds more and more up my alley every time I hear about it. That’s no different in a freshly published interview with Fuse founder Matt Webster and creative director Kieran Crimmins, which sees the pair chat about boost mechanics which sound a lot like the environmental temperature-sensitive system from PS3 racer Motorstorm: Pacific Rift.
The pair also made some interesting points when asked why they went for a more traditional track racer rather than an open world one with this game, and whether the latter’s reached a point where it’s a bit of a stale concept.
The developer of Crimson Desert has confirmed that the upcoming open world action adventure game does not have a cosmetic cash shop or microtransactions of any kind.
Crimson Desert, due out March 19 priced $69.99, is set in a huge and seamless open world packed with enemies, NPCs, and all sorts of things to do. But one thing players won’t have to contend with is a cosmetic cash shop.
“I can say that definitively: there is not a cosmetic cash shop,” Will Powers, director of marketing at Pearl Abyss America, told weekly talk show Dropped Frames (via @Okami13_). “This is made to be a premium experience that you buy and you enjoy the world, and not something for microtransactions.
“It’s a monetization model. If you do free-to-play then you need to make up the revenue in a different way. This is a premium experience. That is the transaction. Full stop.”
So, that’s microtransactions ruled out, which is sure to go down well with gamers who are hoping for a traditional single-player experience from Crimson Desert. The game has been slowly gaining hype over recent years, but that’s ramped up significantly in the last few months as Pearl Abyss shared more gameplay footage.
Crimson Desert’s huge open world has been a topic of debate recently. Pywel is divided into five distinct regions: Hernand; Pailune; Demeniss; Delesyia; and the Crimson Desert itself. The main quest revolves around protagonist Kliff’s journey, but you’re free to explore the world in any order, taking faction-driven quests, large-scale battles, fortress sieges and smaller, character-focused missions.
Pearl Abyss confirmed that as the story progresses, two additional playable characters become available, each with unique combat styles, skills and weapons. Exploration is a big part of the game — you travel on horseback, climb terrain, glide across distances, and later access advanced traversal options such as a missile-firing mech and a dragon. You can even ride a bear.
Pearl Abyss said the world is filled with hidden treasures, ancient mechanisms, puzzles and points of interest “designed to reward curiosity and discovery.” As for combat, expect to face enemy soldiers, sorcerers, beasts and machines.
Powers has called Crimson Desert’s open world “absolutely massive,” bigger even than that of Bethesda’s Skyrim and Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2.
Speaking on the Gaming Interviews YouTube channel, Powers said that describing the size of Crimson Desert’s world in terms of numbers doesn’t do it justice, because doing so fails to capture the scope and scale of the game. But he did go as far as to compare it to two of the biggest open-world games around.
“I don’t think numbers really do it justice because, how big is that in terms of scope and scale?” he said. “But what we can say is that the world’s at least twice as big as the open world, the playable area, of Skyrim. It’s larger than the map of Red Dead Redemption 2.”
Powers went on to insist that the size of Crimson Desert’s open world wouldn’t determine its quality. Rather, what you actually do in it is the key factor. “The continent of Pywel is absolutely massive, but size doesn’t really matter if there’s nothing to do,” he said. “Open-world games are about doing things, having activities, having distractions. So we wanted to create a world that’s not only massive, but is also incredibly interactive.”
Last month, Powers said the developers were doubling down on the “optimization phase” in a bid to get performance as smooth as possible across all platforms ahead of Crimson Desert’s release date.
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.
“Our development will continue” says one defiant dev.
It was back in 2024 that Nintendo really kicked its emulator takedown requests into overdrive following the removal of Yuzu and 3DS emulator Citra, and a fresh wave came late last week.
As spotted by Reddit user Devile, Nintendo issued a new DMCA notice on Friday calling for the removal of 13 Switch emulators’ GitHub pages. Alongside any that still rely on Yuzu, the takedown targeted Citron, Eden, Kenji-NX, MeloNX, Pine, Pomelo, Ryubing, Ryujinx, Skyline, Sudachi, Sumi, and Suyu (the one formed in Yuzu’s wake).
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
When Mega Cat Studios sat down to dream big, one name sat at the very top of their wishlist: God of War. Years later, that long-shot ambition has become God of War Sons of Sparta, a newly released prequel developed in collaboration with Santa Monica Studio (SMS). Set at the earliest point in the series timeline, the game casts players as a young, devout Kratos before he knows his true nature as a demi-god, weaving a story about brotherhood and the meaning of being Spartan. Sons of Sparta pairs retro action-adventure design with an emotional God of War story.
Mega Cat Studios Founder and CEO James Deighan and Game Director Zack Manko also discuss the origins of the game’s title and the name of the studio. For the full conversation listen to the latest Official PlayStation Podcast episode.
PlayStation Blog: What can you share about the origins of this collaboration with Santa Monica Studio?
James Deighan: So one of the things we’ve always done at Mega Cat are these leadership retreats where we talk about what we want to do… what we want to be known for… what inspired us to join the games industry. And one of the things that we’ve maintained, kind of ceremonially, is this “wishlist” of franchises we wish we could collaborate on. And we’ve had God of War listed as number one since the very beginning. And part of that wishlist is also the probability of us being able to do that, which we’ve always had listed very low. And as we continued to grow and make bigger, better games, and got a lot more confidence we started taking bigger swings, and eventually we just made a pitch and reached out and got really lucky that somebody read it, and they were open to having a conversation about what our idea was for a prequel and some kind of pixel art treatment extension of the franchise that we all adore.
…so it really is just on multiple layers, a dream come true, working with such a talented team [at Santa Monica Studio], with a franchise we adore.
How is Kratos’ relationship with the Greek gods at this point in his life?
Zack Manko: This is Kratos as a boy. So it’s pre-god powers. He doesn’t even know he’s a god. But that also means he has a very different relationship with the gods. He’s very devout. He has this faith that he leans on and turns to when things look darkest. And in Sons of Sparta, you see how that pays off. You get Gifts of Olympus, these artifacts blessed by the gods, that allow you to do all these crazy puzzles, exploration, and combat. Ultimately, seeing Kratos as this devout, faith-filled figure, and knowing what comes later with his relationship with the gods…adds a new dimension as well.
What went into the decision to set the game at the earliest point in the series’ timeline?
Manko: I think there are two reasons, really. First, like you said, it’s a prequel. Our initial pitch was, you know, imagine what God of War would have looked like on [the original PlayStation], you know, what a God of War zero, if you will, would look like. So I think with that in mind the narrative team at SMS thought this time period you know, Kratos as a boy, his formative years, would be interesting to explore, because the events here and what he goes through and what he experiences, it really adds a texture to his character that kind of you can see throughout the rest of the saga. It certainly adds a new lens onto him [when looking back at the Greek games].
Early on, we did think about maybe [making the story] a little bit closer to the events of the Greek saga games that fans are familiar with. But again, I think the writers at SMS thought this is what we need to go to, because seeing Kratos as a boy here resonates throughout the rest of the series, not only with the Greek games, but also, you know, the Norse saga, where you see Kratos as a father with Atreus, and how the events in Sons of Sparta may influence that. And the same sort of, same sort of context, the influences on Kratos as a boy, how that lines up with Kratos’ parenting style in the Norse saga. These formative years of Kratos, this character, seeing all these things that happen and these influences on him. It just adds so much to this character that fans are familiar with throughout the rest of the games.
Meet Mega Cat, the feline the God of War: Sons of Sparta studio is named after.
What can you tell us about the origins of the game’s title and name of the studio itself?
Manko: James wanted to name it something Greek yogurt themed, you know, high protein, fitting for Kratos [laughs]. But, um, no, in all seriousness, God of War Sons of Sparta was chosen because it just encapsulates the main themes in the game so well. You know, Kratos and Deimos are the sons of Sparta, and they’re discovering what that means. What it means to be a Spartan, what are the demands there, what’s the cost?
Deighan: [Regarding the studio name Mega Cat Studios] we had a beloved cat that I had as a pet that passed. One of our [team members’ now-wife] volunteers at a local animal shelter here, and she was serving a few bottle babies. [Bottle babies] are whenever the shelters are completely overburdened with animals, the trained [certified] volunteers can take [cats] home and help raise them. I was dealing with some pet-loss heartbreak, as you do, and [the shelter had] this one, really aggressive runt in the litter that we ended up taking home and bottle feeding and spending some time with. That was Mega Cat.
So when we first came up with a list of many ideas and names for the company, we included [“Mega Cat”] on the list and started voting and sharing it around with our friends, family, and colleagues. And there was this really overwhelmingly positive response [to the name]… which kind of rolls off the tongue. Early years, it really worked to our advantage, because people confused us with Mad Catz [laughs].
We had all these names that we really went deep on, and we added a Mega Cat at the end of the list. Even our UPS driver was like, “that one’s awesome, man.”
Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is widely regarded as another masterpiece from Kojima Productions, with all the sweeping scope, drama, and weirdness fans have come to expect. Now those fans can delve even deeper into this unique world with the release of Titan Books’ The Art of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach.
IGN can exclusively reveal a new preview of The Art of Death Stranding 2 ahead of the book’s release. Check it out in the slideshow gallery below:
The Art of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is a 240-page hardcover book featuring concept art from the game. The book offers a closer look at character designs, equipment, locations, and creatures from the game, with plenty of pieces from acclaimed artist Yoji Shinkawa.
Here’s the official summary for the book:
The official art book for the action video game DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH, from legendary game creator Hideo Kojima, including artwork by acclaimed artist Yoji Shinkawa.
With DEATH STRANDING 2: ON THE BEACH, step by step, legendary game creator Hideo Kojima changes the world once again. Embark on an inspiring mission of human connection beyond the UCA. Sam—with companions by his side—sets out on a new journey to save humanity from extinction. Join them as they traverse a world beset by otherworldly enemies and obstacles.
The Art of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is packed with hundreds of pieces of concept art for the characters, equipment, locations and creatures featured in the game, as well as early and unused concepts, including artwork by character and mechanical design director, acclaimed artist Yoji Shinkawa.
The Art of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach is priced at $50 and will be released on February 17, 2026. You can preorder a copy on Amazon.
In other Death Stranding 2, we learned at Sony’s State of Play event that the game will be hitting the PC in March 2026. Check out everything announced at State of Play.
Jesse is a mild-mannered staff writer for IGN. Allow him to lend a machete to your intellectual thicket by following @jschedeen on BlueSky.
Discord have belatedly confirmed that they’re working with Persona, an identity detection firm backed by a fund directed by Palantir chairman Peter Thiel, as part of Discord’s new global age verification system rollout. The collaboration is described as an “experiment” involving people in the UK specifically, whereby Persona will store user information on their servers for up to seven days.
