Palworld was obviously destined for success the moment a million games journalists and Twitter users wrote “Pokémon with machine guns”. (Acceptable alternate nicknames include “Eevees with uzis” and “Abras who’ll stab-ya”.) Having finally launched into Early Access on Steam and Game Pass this week, that prophecy has rung true as the monster-catching survival game has caught (ha, ha) so many players that its servers are struggling to handle the load.
So, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle is a first-person game. This has come as a bit of a surprise to some people, who likely were expecting a third-person perspective thanks to not just the Great Circle’s movie roots but also Indiana Jones’ influence on the video game industry. But do you really want another Uncharted game where the only significant difference is that your sarcastic hero now wears a hat? After six Uncharted games, a reboot trilogy of Tomb Raiders, and uncountable third-person adventures going back to the dawn of the medium, I think developer MachineGames has made a wise move in making Indiana Jones first-person.
MachineGames’ DNA is coded in first-person. Most of its 15-year existence has been spent working on the critically-acclaimed Wolfenstein FPS games. And before that the developer’s founders worked at Starbreeze Studios, which also had great success with first-person games The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay.
But as game director Jerk Gustafsson explained to Lucasfilm, the decision to make Indiana Jones and the Great Circle as a first-person game comes from more than just relying on studio tradition: “It also separates our game from many other action-adventure titles, making it a unique experience that you cannot find anywhere else.” And, at least on the surface, that’s true – have you played anything in the last few years that looks like what was shown at Xbox’s Developer Direct?
The perspective ensures that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle isn’t just an Uncharted clone. First-person games operate in very different ways to those in third-person. It’s not just that there’s a different vibe; the camera position affects level, encounter, and puzzle design. It can provide a more claustrophobic feel than a zoomed-out, third-person camera, which is perfect for those tight and winding tombs that Indy constantly finds himself in. And, as demonstrated by games such as Portal and The Talos Principle, first-person puzzling is a unique experience – often through its use of the perspective and its relative controls, and always in its feel. We can already see that in the trailer’s single shot of Indy slotting a wheel into an ancient mechanism – the perspective really forges a sense of direct connection to the puzzle’s solution.
That immersive closeness is clearly being used to great effect across the project. There’s a real sense of being anchored to the world in the shot where Indy brushes away overgrowth to reveal a mysterious pattern engraved in a wall, and when he strikes up his lighter to illuminate skulls in a catacomb. And, of course, the up-close-and-personal effect really looks like it will come into its own when punching Nazis – as Wolfenstein proved, there’s nothing quite like seeing the lights in a Fascist’s eyes fade away just inches from your face.
For me, though, the trailer’s most striking image is that of Indy sliding his hand into a dark, narrow void – only for a tarantula to crawl out from the shadow and up his arm. It’s a sequence that reflects a similar skin-crawling scene from The Temple of Doom. But when seen from first-person, the moment is even more unsettling. The perspective really does half-convince your brain that this digital hand is your hand.
But what can we expect from Indiana Jones and the Great Circle’s perspective beyond just the immersion that it brings? The trailer hints at some exciting things and there’s a lot of Wolfenstein here. The dig site shown at the trailer’s mid-point features a labyrinth of elevated walkways and stairs, and acts as a rustic reflection of Wolfenstein’s industrial Nazi bases. Similar to B.J. Blazkowicz, it appears that Indy will be able to use stealth to get the drop on Hitler’s gangs – in the trailer we see an archaeology tool being flung at an unaware soldier, and in the Developer Direct we were shown how Indy’s whip can be used to distract and confuse foes. This level and encounter design is also reminiscent of MachineGames’ more distant past too, with echoes of Escape from Butcher Bay.
We can see more of Starbreeze Studios in Indy’s whip too. Gustafsson worked on The Darkness, in which players used supernatural tentacles to flick enemies into the air and tear them apart. This was all done from the first-person perspective, which not only provided a very immediate and visceral thrill to the violence but also both looked and played unlike anything else back in 2007. Whips are not an easy thing to convincingly animate from this perspective, which may explain why we’ve rarely seen one in a FPS since. But from the many, many whip-cracks shown in the trailer, I think MachineGames’ wants to shout loud and clear that The Darkness’ tentacles are back and better than ever.
Finally, there’s solid evidence of MachineGames’ cinematic flair here too. One of the trailer’s most memorable moments is Indy leaping from one flying plane to another. Wolfenstein provided these Call of Duty-like (and, of course, Uncharted-like) moments in spades, and so we know that sense of excitement and adventure is practically guaranteed. While these big action set-pieces are a staple of the action-adventure genre, there will be something particularly white-knuckle about seeing them all through Indy’s eyes, watching your own finger-tips barely hold on…
Of course, MachineGames recognises that Indiana’s silhouette is important and so the camera will occasionally pull back into third-person for activities such as climbing and zip-lining. It will be in the cutscenes, though, that we get our best look at the studio’s handsomely-detailed digital Harrison Ford. And to look back once again to Wolfenstein, the shooter series really demonstrated that MachineGames’ is among the best in the business when it comes to storytelling through cinematics. The visual and directorial flair in The New Colossus is particularly notable and so I think we’ll still be seeing plenty of Indy’s face.
There’s another upshot to the limited use of third-person, too – a near-zero chance the Great Circle will be plagued by microtransaction skin sales. I don’t expect an in-game store to be selling The Last Crusade bundle with Henry Jones Sr.’s hat as a bonus.
An increasingly loud community opinion and a slowly decreasing number of first-person games suggests that the perspective has fallen out of favour in the AAA space, especially when it comes to narrative games. It used to be considered the gold standard for immersion, in part thanks to the groundbreaking advances made by Half-Life and Deus Ex, and the qualities those games emphasised remain true of first-person today. The value is still there, even if many people prefer the more traditionally cinematic lens of a third-person camera. It’s fantastic, then, to see MachineGames continuing to wave its first-person flag in a genre that has become so entrenched in a very specific, Sony-like viewpoint.
MachineGames is a studio responsible for some of the best FPS games of the modern age, staffed by veteran developers who have experimented with the perspective in games that are much more than just meathead shooters. It will be an absolute treat to see them blend the genre tenets of action-adventure with the strengths of first-person games. If nothing else, we can be confident that Indiana Jones and the Great Circle won’t be the Uncharted replica that so many expected by default.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
Stealth mission.
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, Jim sneaks into Nintendo HQ and spills the contents of a file marked ‘PLAN B’…
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Knights of Braveland brings an epic action RPG experience to Xbox, offering players an endlessly replayable adventure set in the mesmerizing Braveland universe. Whether venturing solo or teaming up with up to four knights, the journey from a rookie to a kingdom hero is filled with excitement and unpredictable challenges.
In Knights of Braveland, each quest is uniquely crafted from hundreds of different events, creating a distinct story every time. The game’s innovative mechanics allow for diverse playstyles, thanks to an extensive array of equipment including swords, magic staffs, and more. The four-player co-op mode adds a communal dimension, enabling friends to battle together on the same screen.
Players can immerse themselves in the richly detailed world of Braveland, where knights reveal secret paths and ordinary characters may hold extraordinary secrets. The option to upgrade your castle before each raid adds a strategic layer, enhancing the gameplay experience.
Choose your origin – be it a peasant, blacksmith, tracker, or rogue – and embark on a journey to become Braveland’s most renowned knight. Each choice impacts your path, making every playthrough unique.
Alongside the main game, we are launching four DLC packs on February 1:
Knights of Braveland, along with its exciting DLCs, is available for pre-order today, offering players early access to this captivating world, and will launch on Xbox on February 1st, 2024. .
Get ready to dive into the action-packed universe of Knights of Braveland and carve your path to glory. Whether you’re a solo adventurer or a team player, a grand quest awaits you on Xbox!
Ellada Games
Smash your way to victory solo or in a team up to 4 knights. Infinite replayable action RPG in Braveland universe.
Join the Heroes Guild and travel the path from a rookie to the hero of the kingdom. Head on a hunt for the vicious boss solo or with your friends. Your adventure will be randomly generated from hundreds of different events.
Once you sign up a contract to catch the villain, you’ll head into an adventure. Each quest is created from hundreds of particular events, melding into a unique story. The Elves will reveal secret paths to you and the ordinary pub owner might very well turn out to be a werewolf.
The post Embark on a Heroic Quest in Knights of Braveland, Coming to Xbox appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Last week, we asked you to travel back to the shores of Valhalla to face Kratos’ past in God of War Ragnarök using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
Dadavidtd shares Kratos swinging the Blade of Olympus at a cyclops
luucas_saantana shares Helios hanging from Kratos’ belt
sorathluna shares Kratos swinging the Blades of Chaos set aflame
Falconswift87 shares a portrait of Freya in her full armor on the sands of Valhalla
AaronViegas6 shares Kratos swipes the Blade of Olympus in a blue flaming arch
crisg_art shares Tyr kneels with his eyes glowing and surrounded by flame.
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: The Last of Us Part II Remastered
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on January 24, 2024
Next week, we’re diving into The Last of Us Part II Remastered. Share harrowing moments from Ellie and Abby’s journeys using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
Palworld has sold over one million copies just eight hours after launch, developer Pocketpair has said.
Palworld, dubbed ‘Pokémon with guns’, launched this morning, January 19, and quickly shot to the top of Steam’s best-selling games list and broke into Steam’s top-four most-played games list by concurrent players. At the time of this article’s publication, Palworld had overtaken battle royale PUBG into third place with 365,000 concurrent players and a ‘very positive’ user review rating.
Palworld’s true concurrent player count will be much higher, with the game also available on Xbox and Windows PC via Game Pass.
The huge influx of players at launch has caused server problems, however. Pocketpair said Palworld’s servers had become unstable, which may cause connection issues. “We are working to resolve this ASAP!” Pocketpair tweeted.
“In the meantime, some users have reported success in attempting to connect 2-3 times or waiting after launching the game,” the developer continued.
Amid Palworld’s launch success, it’s worth noting the Xbox version lags behind the Steam version in terms of functionality. And now Palworld is out in the wild, Pokémon fans are expressing their concern at the similarities between both games.
Be sure to check our IGN’s Palworld Early Access Review in Progress to find out what we think.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
It always breaks my heart a bit when a game I’ve been looking forward to for a while absolutely biffs it on arrival. Having quite enjoyed Golf Club Wasteland a few years ago (now called Golf Club Nostalgia for, I don’t know, reasons), I was quite pumped when developers Demagog Studios announced not one, but two further games set in the same post-apocalyptic universe. The first to come out (albeit only on Netflix at the moment) was the turn-based strategy game Highwater (also a bit of a dud, based on the early Steam demo I played last year), but it’s the second game, The Cub (out today on Steam) that has prompted this current moment of teeth-sucking sadness.
I’ve been playing a bit of it over the last week, and oh man, it’s trying so, so hard to be like Limbo and Inside, but just… doing quite a terrible job of it all. I was looking forward to any excuse I could get to have the soothing sounds of Golf Club’s dystopian Radio Nostalgia From Mars show back in my ear drums, but alas. I simply cannot hear it over the sound of my own screams of frustration.
Since the summer of 2022, PlayStation Plus has reinvented itself into a three-tiered membership. Similar to the likes of a streaming subscription; i.e Netflix, Disney+ etc, the higher the tier you subscribe to, the more benefits you acquire along the way.
But, what do each of the PS Plus tiers offer; and which one is right for you? That’s exactly what we aim to answer in this handy guide, alongside clear answers on how to upgrade memberships, overall costs, included games, and more.
Use these quick links to find the specific topic you’re after!
PS Plus Essential is the easiest to define, as it’s what PS Plus has always been. Essential provides access to online play, cloud saves, three free games a month, and discounts on the PS Store.
Moving up a tier, to PS Plus Extra, you’re getting new PS4 and PS5 games each month, alongside the slew of PlayStation content already available (around 400 games), and everything PS Plus Essential provides.
If you opt for the most expensive plan, PS Plus Premium, you’re gaining additional access to PS1, PS2, PSP, and PS3 titles, on top of everything else the Extra and Essential tiers provide.
In summary; interested in playing more PS4 and PS5 games? Aim for the Extra tier. Feeling nostalgic? Go all out on the Premium tier. Just want to play online? Go for Essential; it’s as simple as that. Here’s an additional breakdown as well to make it even easier to understand.
PS Plus Essential
PS Plus Extra
PS Plus Premium
If you’re interested in pure bang for your buck, you probably want to know what games you can access via a PS Plus subscription. For starters, PS Plus Essential members get a rotating three free games monthly, so keep an eye on updates to find out what games are up for grabs each month.
But, when it comes to PS Plus Extra and Premium, there’s a whole slew of games to get stuck into. Some highlights include Returnal, God of War, Death Stranding, Ratchet & Clank, Spider-Man Miles Morales, Bloodborne, Red Dead Redemption 2, Demon’s Souls, and plenty more as well. For a complete breakdown of what’s available, feel free to browse the Extra and Premium collections on IGN Playlist.
If you’re already a PS Plus Essential member, you may be wondering, can I upgrade to a different tier? Yes, yes you can. It’s easy to do, simply navigate to the PS Plus page on your PlayStation console, or dedicated webpage, and select which tier you’d like to upgrade to; PS Plus Extra, or PS Plus Premium.
When you upgrade, you’ll be charged a fee to bring your current account in line with the cost of Extra or Premium. So, for example, if you’ve paid for a full year of PS Plus Essential already ($79.99), that will be discounted from the cost of upgrading to PS Plus Extra ($134.99) for a year. That means you’ll pay just $55 to upgrade your membership and so forth.
The same principles apply to upgrading to Premium as well from either the Essential or Extra tiers. Just remember you’ll then be on a new auto-renewal for your upgraded tier, so be sure to turn that off if you don’t want to be charged the full $100-$120 this time next year.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
I disliked turn-based RPG Kingsvein at first. Quite a bit, in fact. An earlier version of this review would have been a very negative on, filled mostly with complaints and annoyances about opaque and frustrating systems, most of which I’ve since got over as the intent behind its design has become more clear.
It could definitely explain some things better, and its inscrutably tiny graphics remain a minor nuisance. But it’s grown on me a lot, and though it may not be quite the kind of turn-based RPG I get on with best, it’s an enjoyable one with a refreshing lack of bloat and timewasting, and with a class and combat system that will be pure catnip to a particular kind of player.
I learned so many intriguing things about Nightingale during my visit to Inflexion Games that it’d be impossible to unpack everything in one succinct article – so I won’t, but I will hopefully shed some light on its development process, setting, and gameplay loop. Nightingale isn’t necessarily the game you’d expect from seasoned ex-Bioware devs, but the years of experience behind its ideation is evident in what I saw in more than six hours of gameplay: a stylish take on a shared-world survival crafting game.
The world of Nightingale is similar to ours in the “best of Victorian times,” as Inflexion CEO Aaryn Flynn put it, in the late 1800s. However, in this alternate reality, the Fae appeared in the 1500s to share their knowledge of magic with humans, altering the path of history and spurring the birth of the home of magical studies, the city of Nightingale. Alongside magic, the Fae also introduce humanity to the existence of small Fae Realms and the portal system that connects them.
Nightingale features characters from history, literature, and folklore – from Puck, a Fae inspired by Shakespeare; to Ada Lovelace, an English woman considered the first computer programmer – they’re fun little easter eggs for history and literature buffs. This combination of Fae, magic, and Victorian influences cements Nightingale’s genre as a gaslamp fantasy – think the fantastical, magical side of the sci-fi-inclined steampunk genre.
Why this setting? Simply because Flynn and art director Neil Thompson have done medieval fantasy (Dragon Age) and sci-fi (Mass Effect) already, so they wanted to create something unique. And Nightingale certainly takes its style seriously.
Nightingale begins with a short prologue introducing the world and setting the stage for the opening moments. A mysterious phenomenon known only as “the Pale” has foggily swept over the entirety of Earth, putting everything it touches into a state of suspended animation. The only human city left is Nightingale, but the magical portals to get there have malfunctioned, cutting off access. Actually, the entire system of portals and Fae realms have been thrown into chaos, tossing the human Realm Walkers, including you, around with it.
The story and setting loosely glue your overarching objectives together, but as inconsequential as the story seems to be in the grand scheme of things – Nightingale is a survival crafting game, not a narratively-driven RPG ala Bioware, after all – it still serves as a curious jumping-off point into the world and gameplay of Nightingale. It certainly provides more of an intriguing premise than washing up on a shore with nothing but your underwear, which by now is a common survival trope. And if story is what you’re after, Hope Echoes can be found scattered throughout the realms that add narrative context for those who want even more world-building and story. These are, of course, dropped by Realm Walkers who came before you.
Alongside you on your journey back to Nightingale is Puck, who explains much of the way of the world to you as you progress, accomplishing small quests he presents to you. It seems he’s helping you, but if you know much about folklore, you know the Fae aren’t always to be trusted – providing a curious seed that piqued my suspicions. Perhaps unwarrantedly.
Nightingale has been in development at Inflexion Games for nearly five years, and though it’s kept the same setting inspiration, it’s gone through an evolution from MMO to the more compact experience it is now, with up to six players able to play in a shared world at a time rather than countless.
For early access, Nightingale will have about 30 hours of content if you race through the main objectives, and this “early” game seems to have been fine-tuned to be as fun as possible. Rather than being developed in a vacuum, Nightingale has had dozens of playtests, tweaking the experience in both big and small ways. You can read more about Nightingale’s development process here.
Personally, I look for games that instill a sense of intrinsic motivation in the player. If the only objective is clear, I know I can do it, and the only reward is external, like another task and story beat, well, I can get bored. Instead of assigning small tasks one after the other over and over again to serve a story, Nightingale allows the player freedom and space to grow curious enough to ideate their own goals. It’s a not-so-uncommon trait among survival crafting games, which might be why I vibe so well with them, and it’s just one reason why Nightingale is so appealing to me.
“That was definitely a challenge: to construct a game that inspired players to go and achieve their own goals instead of just dictating to them what they had to go do. And that was a real mindset shift for us at the studio,” Flynn explained.
In the beginning, players need more short-term, explicit goals to help them get going as a sort of tutorial. Puck dishes out these little quests to teach you what’s what. As you follow him from realm to realm after fleeing the Pale, he instructs you to do very basic survival crafting trope tasks: Build a campfire, cook a meal, build a shelter, fight off the interdimensional horrific creatures called the Bound sicced on you by the malevolent Winter Court Fae. You know, run-of-the-mill quests you must complete to progress.
And yes, even though there is magic, the developers wanted to keep magic more grounded – you can’t just conjure stuff, like a campfire, out of thin air. Magic exists for humans in a system of enchantments. Collect materials and craft to be able to perform magic, but only while wielding the weapon with the enchantment. It’s a less whimsy sorcerer, more academic approach, inspired by the novel Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell.
Fairly early on, the gameplay diverges from that model of “one quest, two quest,” and gives players more and more inspiration to go and do things on their own accord. There were even UI changes to remove the reminder of quests from the main screen, so as not to pressure anyone.
After putting down your first “cairn” to stake out a home base, you’ll find a “Site of Power” if you look around. These mini-dungeons of sorts are only unlocked if you meet the gear and hope requirements, of which you can achieve by a variety of means.
“And so the idea there was rather than have a straight narrative set of quests that just were do this and then do this, and then do this, and then do this (a game model we’re all very familiar with at the studio), we put the sites of power in to inspire players to say, ‘Oh, well, I wonder what’s in there. I’m curious about that,’” Flynn explained.
Production lead Leah Summers emphasized it’s not meant to be a massive grind, or something you need to push through.
“It’s really, all these realms are now yours to keep and enjoy. Fish in them, bring them back, craft different clothes…It’s really quite neat,” Summers explained. “We’re hoping that people will take their time and just enjoy what’s there rather than rushing the progression.”
Our reward for meeting the requirements and conquering the Site of Power included a crafting recipe for a new Realm Card.
Realm Cards, basically, are used to open portals to new realms. There are three kinds of cards:
A Biome Realm Card and a Major Realm Card is needed, while the Minor Realm Card is optional. The Biome dictates the environment–Forest, Swamp, and Desert, for now; the Major Card generally dictates the difficulty of that realm; and the Minor Realm Card will affect minor things (who woulda thought), like weather or creature behavior. I’m especially looking forward to discovering what silly Minor Cards will be available at launch. One of them lets players have super-powered jumps for a limited amount of time, for example. The Minor Cards can even be deactivated and switched out at will, leading to so many creative possibilities.
The realm that’s created once you apply the cards to the portal is completely procedurally generated and uniquely yours: no one else will have the same layout for their Abeyance Forest realm. Once you’ve generated a realm, that will be the layout for that realm permanently, so once you figure out where to go to collect the resources you need, you’ll be able to return to find them easily.
You collect recipes for Major Cards from the various Sites of Power you’ll find, and Minor Cards from different subterranean mini-dungeons, too.
This is your main goal and basic progression: Unlock card recipes to unlock more difficult realms, with the goal of getting stronger and eventually reaching Nightingale. Nightingale isn’t available just yet in Early Access, but in its stead is the multiplayer hub The Watch, Apex Hunts, and the difficult Vaults, the only content intended to be completed in multiplayer.
But there are plenty of other incentives and goals, too. Conquering these little dungeons with their puzzles and combat challenges can also reward you with crafting recipes for new building pieces, so you can make the house or settlement of your dreams. Unlocking new realms helps you toward that goal, too, as each realm combination has shops with different crafting recipes. Some might carry onwards to challenge the Nightingale’s difficult Apex Creatures and Vaults, others may do so to build the best settlements to hang out with their friends, and it’s fun we’ll be able to do that together in groups with both types of players.
In most survival crafting games, I generally leave the building and town organization to others – except farming, for some reason – and I see my aim being similar in Nightingale. The Apex Creature hunts and Vaults, inspired loosely by Destiny 2’s Strikes, promise to be challenging with worthwhile rewards.
Though I didn’t play these myself, I did get to be in the room while a group of players coordinated together to conquer these. First, the Apex Creature Humbaba, a colossal dragon. I loved hearing lead designer Bjorn Taylor yelling at his teammates to remember to eat for buffs before aggroing it. It reminded me of myself before Monster Hunter hunts.
Despite their best efforts to prepare, to eat, to don the optimal equipment, to lay down a nearby respawn spot, the hunt still turned into a bit of chaos, to my delight. One person accidentally aggroed the Humbaba.
“You have to press a button to shoot, how did you do that?” is something someone said with gleeful frustration.
Meanwhile, another player was unprepared and killed by a rare and especially powerful spider monster nearby, taking them out of the fight before they could lay on a lick of damage.
Despite the setbacks, they succeeded, but once they defeated the Humbaba, Swamp Giants showed up and started conjuring giant frogs to attack them before they could even finish looting their kill.
I couldn’t help but smile and laugh along with the team. It looked like a fun time with your friends that left you with a story to tell others who couldn’t make it to game night.
Watching them play through the Vault, the cooperative endgame content, was equally amusing. The team struggled to complete a puzzle. This kind of puzzle is found in many places in Nightingale, but the layout of this Vault made it especially difficult.
To complete it, they needed to watch and listen for crystals to light up and make a sound, and then hit them in the same order. Doing it wrong causes a horde of the Bound to attack. The last crystal eluded them. Flynn hung his head in his hands and lamented as he watched.
To their credit, the Vaults are also procedurally generated, so their layout is never the same. Eventually, they succeeded, moved on, and tackled the Apex Creature at the end of the dungeon, an Apex Eoten.
All in all, the gameplay loops of Nightingale look flexible, engrossing, and fun, though I am mildly worried about how much attention the base building can keep of my crafty friends. I’m unsure of what else there is to do or maintain once it’s built the way you like. Of course, I do suppose creatures can also come wreck things and force you to build anew. Ah, the joys of survival…
Nightingale will be released in Early Access on February 22.
Casey DeFreitas is the deputy editor of guides at IGN. Catch her on Twitter @ShinyCaseyD.
