Author: Game Infliction

We’ve finally arrived at the weekend, which means it is time to score on this weekend’s deals! A solid variety is available this weekend, including hardware, video games, and accessories. The best deals for Saturday, February 10, include an HP Omen 45L Desktop, 10th Gen iPads, the Anker Prime Power Bank, and more.

HP OMEN 45L Desktop for $1497.99

This HP OMEN prebuilt desktop is an excellent deal if you’re in the market for a new PC. You can play any of the latest titles with the included AMD Ryzen 9 5900X and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080 Ti. Additionally, 32GB of RAM and a 1TB solid state drive are both included in this build. With over $1200 worth of savings, this is a deal that won’t be around for much longer.

Lowest Price Yet for 10th Generation iPads

Amazon has the 10th Gen iPad for $349 right now, which is the lowest we’ve seen the device since it was launched. Powered by the A14 Bionic, this iPad packs a 10.9-inch display, 64GB of storage, Touch ID, and a long battery life. If you’re interested in purchasing an iPad but don’t want to jump to the iPad Air or iPad Pro, this is an excellent option.

Save 31% Off This Anker Prime Power Bank

You can use the Anker Prime Power Bank to charge any of your standard devices, including your phone, wireless headphones, etc. However, this power bank can also be used to charge bigger electronics such as the Nintendo Switch, Steam Deck, and ASUS ROG Ally. This makes it the perfect companion on any trip you might find yourself on. At 20,000mAh, you can charge all of your devices multiple times and still have some juice left.

Eternights for $19.99

If you haven’t had the chance to check out Eternights yet, this is a great opportunity to pick the game up at a discount! A blend between a visual novel and an action game, Eternights released last Fall to plenty of love from fans and critics alike. The gameplay progression is often compared to Persona. Both the PS4 and PS5 copies are on sale for $19.99.

Meta Quest 2 for $229

If you haven’t yet purchased a VR headset, this deal on the Quest 2 is one of the lowest prices we’ve seen for the headset. The Meta Quest 2 is an excellent VR headset that works great standalone or hooked up to a PC. You’ll be able to access your entire Steam library with Steam Link, either wired or wirelessly. The screen provides an 1832 x 1920 resolution per eye, with up to a 90Hz refresh rate.

HORI Split Pad Compact for $31.99

The HORI Split Pad Compact is one of the best ergonomic controllers you can buy for the Nintendo Switch. Attaching like standard Joy-Con, the Split Pad Compact slides onto each side of your Switch and immediately widens the console. This makes longer handheld play sessions much more comfortable and bearable over time, especially if you have larger hands. The Pac-Man model features all sorts of fun details to personalize your system.

Save $10 Off Super Mario Bros. Wonder

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is available on Amazon with a $10 discount! It’s rare to see the latest Nintendo Switch titles go on sale this early, especially big series like Mario. Wonder offers loads of exciting content you can play through, such as eight different worlds, three new powerups, and endless surprises with the Wonder Flower.

LG 32″ Ultra-Gear QHD 165Hz Gaming Monitor for $209

This LG Monitor has a steep discount you won’t want to miss out on. Originally priced at $349.99, you can pick this QHD 165Hz monitor up for just $209 from Walmart right now. At 32″, this is a big screen with all kinds of features to ensure you get the best playing experience possible. This monitor has SRGB 95% color gamut with HDR10 support, AMD FreeSync Premium, and a 1ms response time.

Hades 2 is the highly anticipated sequel to IGN’s 2020 Game of the Year. Supergiant Games set a new standard for roguelikes with stylish design, dynamic combat, and reactive writing that embraced the looping nature of the genre and propelled a compelling escape-from-hell plot.

With its Early Access release now months away, we’ve put together this breakdown of everything you need to know about Hades 2.

Jump to:

• Release Date
• Early Access Details
• Story Details
• Gameplay
• Development

Hades 2 Release Date

Hades 2 will first be released in Early Access during Q2 2024 (between April 1 and June 30). This section will be updated as soon as Supergiant Games announces a specific Early Access release date.

A release date for the 1.0 version of Hades 2 is “still to be determined,” according to Supergiant.

Hades 2 Platforms and Price

Hades 2 will launch in Early Access exclusively on PC (Steam and Epic Games Store).

The 1.0 release is expected to come to consoles as well, though specific platforms have yet to be named. For reference, the first Hades is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.

Hades 2 Early Access Details

According to Supergiant, Hades 2 “will have at least as much content from day one in Early Access as the original did back when it launched in Early Access on Steam.” Players can expect updates throughout its time in Early Access, including content additions, expansions to the story, and gameplay/systems refinements.

Early Access players will have access to the 1.0 version upon its release. Supergiant added it is “committed to making sure your save data works all through development, including once we launch v1.0.”

Supergiant has not given a timetable for how long Hades 2 will be in Early Access. “Our experience developing in Early Access has taught us (among many things) to expect the unexpected,” it wrote. The original spent one year and nine months in Early Access.

Hades 2 Story

Hades 2 is a direct sequel to the original “set in and around the Underworld of Greek myth.” You play as Melinoë, the Princess of the Underworld and sister of Hades protagonist Zagreus. She’s described as “an immortal witch and sorceress with powerful magical abilities, deadly skill with a variety of shadowy weapons, and a score to settle.”

In the sequel, Hades is imprisoned, and his father, Chronos, the Titan of Time, serves as the main villain. After escaping his own imprisonment, the deity wages war on Olympus. Supergiant posits, “Can Time itself be stopped?”

Hades 2 once again explores the rich world of Greek mythology, though for the sequel Supergiant is incorporating the myth’s “deep connections to the dawn of witchcraft.” At the heart of this is Hecate, “the secretive goddess of witchcraft and the crossroads,” who’s shown training Melinoë in the game’s reveal trailer.

Beyond these early details, Supergiant says Hades 2 contains “a sweeping story that continually unfolds through your every setback and accomplishment.”

Hades 2 Gameplay

Hades 2, like its predecessor, is a single-player-only, roguelike dungeon crawler. Based on its reveal trailer, it, too, will feature action-heavy combat played from an isometric perspective.

Supergiant has yet to reveal much about the sequel’s updates to gameplay, though it has promised “new locations, challenges, upgrade systems, and surprises.” The following blurb from Supergiant’s announcement hints at some of these new systems, though none of which is elaborated on: “Reveal the mysteries of the Arcana Altar, tame witchy familiars, and gather reagents using Tools of the Unseen to get closer to your goal.”

Boons — the good-for-one-run skills and buffs granted to the playable character by the Olympian Gods — return in the sequel. We got a peek at three Boons in the Hades 2 reveal trailer offered to Melinoë by Apollo, God of Light:

• Nova Strike: Your Attacks deal more damage in a larger area.
• Blinding Sprint: Your Sprint is faster and inflicts Daze on nearby foes.
• Clarifying Light: While standing in your Casts, gradually restore Magick.

Also returning in the sequel is God Mode, according to the Hades 2 Steam page. As it worked in the first game, enabling God Mode results in taking 20 percent less damage from enemy attacks, with 2 percent resistance added after each death, capped at 80 percent.

Hades 2 Development

Hades 2 is being developed by Supergiant Games, the studio behind the original, using improved versions of the same proprietary development tools the company has leveraged since the development of its first game, 2011’s Bastion. The development team has added “a few more” employees for the sequel, though the team is still comprised of fewer than 30 people.

The sequel was announced at the 2022 Game Awards, though Supergiant began development “in earnest at the start of 2021.”

Hades 2 is the developer’s first-ever sequel; Supergiant’s previous four games — Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, and Hades— were all original IPs. All four games received a review score of 9 or higher from IGN.

Should You Play Hades Before Hades 2?

While Supergiant says you don’t need to play the original before Hades 2, we recommend you do so. The developer calls Hades 2 a direct sequel and says those who play the first will “find plenty of connections.” Based on the quallity of writing in the original, it will likely be rewarding to understand these connections — and if nothing else, Hades is an extraordinary game worth playing.

Hades is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC for $25. It will also be released on iOS (iPhone and iPad) in 2024, exclusively through Netflix Games, which requires a Netflix subscription.

IGN’s Hades review called it “a one-of-a-kind rogue-lite that does a brilliant job of marrying its fast-paced action with its persistent, progressing story through a vividly reimagined Greek mythological underworld.”

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

Based on the first couple of days with it, Helldivers 2 strikes me as hilarious, smartly designed, and intense whether I’m playing solo, with a squad of other random Helldivers, or serving up a nice hot cup of Liber-tea across the galaxy with buddies. I still need to see more of its varied missions, unlock a wider selection of its huge catalog of weapons, emotes, armor, and abilities, and see how Managed Democracy’s campaign against alien bugs and robots plays out during the long haul, so I’m not ready to give a final review just yet. But for right now, I’m enjoying traveling to exciting new places, meeting exotic life forms, and killing them for the glory of Super Earth. God, what a sentence.

After a gut-busting opening piece of mandatory propaganda (refusal to pay attention is treason) that explains that Super Earth is under attack from the robotic Automatons and the “legally-distinct-but-still-totally-the-bugs-from-Starship-Troopers” Terminids (which are also definitely not Warhammer 40K’s Tyranids!), you’re dropped into Helldiver basic training. Your instructor tells you that he isn’t easily impressed… before letting you know how impressed he is by the fact that you’re not backing down. After mercilessly gassing you up (remember, Super Earth is run by fascists; everything they do is awesome and perfect) and telling you how invincible you are – while conveniently avoiding the fact that the average Helldiver has a lifespan of about, oh, I don’t know, about 30 seconds – you’re given command of your own destroyer space ship (I named mine the Elected Representative of Family Values) and sent to the front lines with your buddies.

Once you’re out in the Galactic War, you’re free to head to either the Automaton or Terminid front to bring Liberty and Managed Democracy to their occupied planets. Each world has multiple missions with multiple objectives, which range from destroying Termanid eggs to activating your local, nuclear-armed ICBM. Just a regular day at the office.

What’s nice is that once I’d picked my landing zone and dropped in, every mission so far has felt different, even if I’d done those objectives before. That’s largely because maps are distinct and unique, even on the same planet because of the way the terrain changes – one map might have a lot of water and hills, while another might be heavily forested. On top of that, each mission usually has a couple of optional objectives to complete, like blowing up outposts or terminating a treasonous broadcast. So especially if you’re checking those out, no two missions play out the same way.

You don’t start with a big selection of gear — a couple of primary weapon options, a sidearm, and a grenade — but shooting feels satisfyingly weighty, especially with the DualSense’s haptics. Plus, Helldivers 2 forces you to coordinate to succeed as a group – or play smart if you’re alone. You’re racing against the clock and your squad’s limited reinforcements (AKA extra lives) so you have to pick your priorities, manage your resources, and choose where to spend your time. It’s always challenging.

What makes Helldivers 2 cool, though, are the little touches that make sure you’re always thinking about how to manage your limited resources while hordes of bugs and robots throw themselves at your squad. Reloading, for instance, discards any remaining rounds you have in a clip; bullets don’t just teleport back into your inventory. If you want to call down reinforcements, special weapons, or a resupply, you’ve got to rapid-fire a series of directional inputs on the d-pad, which can be a little challenging when you’re running from a horde of bugs hellbent on tearing your Helldiver limb from limb. These abilities all have cooldown timers, forcing you to be careful when picking when to deploy them and to coordinate with your teammates.

It’s also generous with rewards. Don’t have a cool weapon yet? You’ll probably find something during the first mission or two. One of my favorites I’ve seen so far is the Anti-Material Rifle, an anti-armor behemoth of a rifle that let me take on the huge, bile-spewing bugs without ever getting close to them — and that’s handy because they can kill you in a single volley if you do. You don’t get to keep these weapons once the mission ends, but it does allow you to try them out before you permanently unlock them with in-game currency you get from completing mission objectives, which is a nice touch.

Speaking of unlocking stuff, Helldivers 2 has a ton of goodies for you to earn. Yes, there’s a paid battle pass with lots of weapons and armor, but there’s also a free one with more stuff than the paid one, and naturally you also unlock gear the old-fashioned way, just by completing missions. Helldivers 2 has microtransactions, sure, but thus far I’ve never felt like I was missing out on anything important by not going near them.

Better still, a lot of these unlocks can make a huge difference in how you play. One of the first things I earned was the ability to call in a stationary turret that automatically blasts away. I found out the hard way that friendly fire is a thing and this thing can kill you if you stand in front of it, which makes for some really funny moments, but it’s a legitimate game-changer when you have to hold off a swarm of bugs or defend your extraction zone. I never leave the Elected Representative of Family Values without it.

If there’s a downside here, it’s that there’s just so much stuff to unlock that it’s tough to decide which things to get first. Should I save up for an airstrike, the Anti-Material Rifle, or a portable supply pack? Without a guide (like the one our IGN Guides team is actively cooking up as we speak) to help me craft a potent build it’s a bit like flying blind, but again, none of those options are battle pass items so it’s not like it’s trying to trick you into spending money for something you don’t know if you’ll want. You get these by just playing. That might sound like faint praise, but in an era where so many games are trying to nickel and dime us for absolutely everything, the fact that Helldivers 2 doesn’t force you to deal with a battle pass to make your experience better feels awesome.

I still have a lot more to play before I issue a final review and a score. I feel like I’ve just scratched the surface when it comes to unlocks and I’ve spent most of my time killing bugs. Those robots look like they could use some freedom, and I wouldn’t want to deprive them of it. So, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to make myself a nice hot cup of Liber-tea and get back at it, and hopefully I’ll be able to squash enough enemies to finish off this review next week. Managed Democracy isn’t going to spread itself, you know.

As the first anniversary of Resident Evil 4 Remake approaches, the game’s producer has addressed lingering questions regarding The Darkside Chronicles, clarifying whether or not a certain chapter in the 2009 on-rails shooter is considered canon to the current main story of Resident Evil.

In an email interview with IGN, Resident Evil 4 Remake producer Yoshiaki Hirabayashi clarified whether or not Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles is considered canon to the Resident Evil universe. Specifically, the in-game scenario titled “Operation Javier” focuses on Leon Kennedy and his first mission as an agent for the United States government with his partner, Jack Krauser.

Warning: Potential spoiler for the end of the Resident Evil 4 remake below:

Resident Evil fans are likely familiar with Operation Javier as the events of that mission played a key role in Jack Krauser and his disdain for both Leon and the U.S. government. While the mission was not directly mentioned in the original Resident Evil 4, the 2023 remake references Operation Javier towards the end.

When asked about Darkside Chronicles’ status as a canonical entry in the Resident Evil lore, Hirabayashi clarified that while Operation Javier itself is canon to the Resident Evil universe, the events depicted in Darkside Chronicles are not exactly the same as those depicted in the remake.

“The fact that ‘Operation Javier’ occurred is in fact part of the current Resident Evil main story. However, as to what that mission was, it’s not exactly the same as the events portrayed in Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles,” Hirabayashi told IGN. “I can’t share the details, but you will find that the relationship between Leon and Krauser, as well as their conversations, give you some idea!”

For years, Resident Evil fans often discussed whether or not the on-rails spin-off games the Umbrella and Darkside Chronicles are considered canon to the Resident Evil lore. Both games released in 2007 and 2009 as exclusives on the Wii before getting ported onto the PS3, provide retellings of some of the mainline Resident Evil games, such as Resident Evil 0 and Code Veronica. Both games also had original scenarios not found in other Resident Evil games, such as Operation Javier.

In our review of Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles, we said: “The rail shooter genre will never be the true Resident Evil experience, but Resident Evil: The Darkside Chronicles shows that the franchise can be spun out into different, successful styles of gameplay. Even with my complaints about the bouncy camera, I believe this follow-up is a significantly better experience than the original Umbrella Chronicles and one fun ride from start to finish.”

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.