Do you ever look at the home screen of your Nintendo Switch and wish there was a bit more colour? A bit more chaos? Or that it was a bit less monochromatic? Well, thanks to German translator PaulFelixKelly, we’ve had a glimpse at some of the ideas and mockups Nintendo had for the menu.
Kelly managed to get hold of a prototype Nintendo Switch unit which was used for early production and development. The Prototype Switch NAND comes with 64GB of storage, but it’s also home to some development secrets, which include these menu mockups.
But even that only scratched at the surface of what’s coming your way this fall. On today’s special episode of The Official Xbox Podcast, Avowed Game Director Carrie Patel and Gameplay Director Gabe Paramo shared an extended look at the quest showcased during Developer_Direct, providing more detail on the moment-to-moment experience of the flexible combat system, and where this side quest fits in the larger narrative of Avowed.
This latest look at Avowed gives us a good idea of what to expect from Shatterscarp, one part of the ecologically diverse island of The Living Lands, all in the same universe as Obsidian’s CRPG series Pillars of Eternity. But what makes Avowed a very ‘Obsidian game’ goes far beyond the commonality of setting in the world of Eora.
“It’s really about our player-centric approach to role play,” Patel shared during this week’s Podcast. “The way we really approach consequence and choice is giving players the opportunities to define who they are in this world, how they want to behave – what fantasy, what challenges they want to undertake.”
It’s all part of Obsidian’s “your worlds, your way” approach, and players will feel the weight of their choices moment-to-moment with every slash, parry, and spell cast.
What stands out is not just the variety of ways you can tackle combat – examples include the classic ‘sword and board [shield]’, samurai-esque sword and gun, and dual-wielding wands like a wizard in the Old West – but also how you’ll frequently want to (or need to) change your loadout to best suit what you find yourself up against. These loadouts are also complemented by skills, and Obsidian had a deep well of moves to pull from out of the Pillars of Eternity universe.
“We wanted to be able to grab as many abilities from the trees as possible – and categorize them a little bit differently so that the player doesn‘t feel locked into a single choice at the start of the game,” said Gabe Paramo, Gameplay Director. “They can mix and match between different abilities to get some variety. You can commit to being a fighter, but it’s not an enforced class setup.” And if you want to try out a new suite of abilities, you can always respec your character.
We saw great examples of this in the Developer_Direct: dual-wielding wands served as effective crowd control when a group of smaller Xaurips swarmed the player. But in a more one-on-one encounter with a slightly larger enemy, using an ice-imbued wand to freeze an enemy, then shattering the newly-frozen block with a charged power attack of an off-hand sword was supremely effective.
Paramo cited another devious combo: “With ‘Into the Fray,’ you can use a fireball ability that creates an AOE [area of effect] ability on the ground, and then pull the enemy into the fire.”
It’s all part of a comprehensive elemental system that comes into play both in and out of combat. Paramo continues, “you can light guys on fire, you can freeze them, you can shock them, you have objects in the environment you can interact with. They’re not just on weapons, on wands – you might find it on swords, certain abilities might cause elemental damage. And your companions [can] as well.”
Patel shared more about those companions – your hero won’t be wandering the Living Lands alone. “They all have deep ties to different regions of the Living Lands, and they all have their own personal reasons for wanting to ally with the player and help them resolve the big conflicts that you’re encountering over the course of the game. They’re your allies – in some ways your advisors, your local guides. They provide a lot of additional commentary and context that reveals something about their character, but also about the corner of the world you’re exploring.”
They’re also your allies in battle; Kai, who we saw in the Developer_Direct, played a tanky role, drawing aggro, while Giatta, who also makes an appearance, keeps the party healed up. Expect to meet more in your journeys across the Living Lands.
‘Playing your way’ expands beyond moment-to-moment action; as demonstrated in the Developer_Direct, you’ll be making meaningful decisions that affect the story.
“For us, creating these choices, like the big ones that affect the outcome of a quest, or the wellbeing of certain characters or communities are just as important as the smaller choices that you make in navigating a dialogue and, in subtle ways, influencing your relationship with another character,” said Patel. “All of it is really centered around letting the player be the main character in this setting.”
It’s important to note that for all we’ve now seen of Avowed, there’s much, much more to explore throughout the Living Lands. In fact, the specific quest in Shatterscarp we covered “is entirely discoverable, which means it’s also entirely missable.” In terms of scope of the game, Paramo compares with another recent Obsidian title, “it’s open-zone, size comparable to The Outer Worlds areas on the larger side, and [with] multiple paths essentially to tackle combat situations, or avoid them.”
According to Patel, sharp-eyed players will have much more to seek out throughout their time with Avowed: “One of the big delights of being a developer on a game like this is creating so much for players to find, and knowing that not everybody’s going to seek it out, and not everybody’s gonna find it, but knowing that the players who do are really going to enjoy the secrets they discover.”
Avowed launches this fall on Game Pass, Xbox Series X|S, and Windows PC – for more information please visit the Avowed website.
Welcome to the Living Lands, a mysterious island filled with adventure and danger.
Set in the fictional world of Eora that was first introduced to players in the Pillars of Eternity franchise, Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment.
You are the envoy of Aedyr, a distant land, sent to investigate rumors of a spreading plague throughout the Living Lands – an island full of mysteries and secrets, danger and adventure, and choices and consequences, and untamed wilderness. You discover a personal connection to the Living Lands and an ancient secret that threatens to destroy everything. Can you save this unknown frontier and your soul from the forces threatening to tear them asunder?
The Weird and Wonderful Living Lands
The Living Lands is a place that feels foreign yet somewhat intrinsic to you as it feels the island itself is calling out to you for help. Explore an island home to many different environments and landscapes, each with their own unique ecosystem.
Visceral Combat to Play Your Way
Mix and match swords, spells, guns, and shields to fight your way. Dig into your grimoire for spells to trap, freeze or burn enemies, bash them with your shield, or use range bows to attack from a distance.
Companions as part of your journey
Companions from a spread of species will fight alongside you, with their own unique set of abilities. From a former mercenary to an eccentric wizard, they will be part of your journey with your choices shaping them as you help them with their quests.
Virtual reality-focused developers Wimo Games have joined the ever-expanding list of studios to be hit by layoffs and closure in recent months, as the Battle Bows and Micro Machines: Mini Challenge Mayhem studio confirmed their closure last week.
Nintendo fans have been spoiled in the last several years with love from the Persona series, which after a long history married to PlayStation consoles has finally been creeping onto the Switch, game by game. Which is why fans felt snubbed after Persona 3 Reload, a remake of Persona 3, was announced for basically every major platform except Switch. But while a Switch announcement still hasn’t happened, the game’s director and producer are hinting that the idea hasn’t been fully abandoned.
Though the series has largely been the beloved child of PlayStation over the years, Persona 5 Royal made it to Switch in 2022, and Persona 4 Golden arrived this time last year. Nintendo players also got spinoffs Persona 5 Strikers back in 2020 and Persona 5 Tactica just this past November. Given that logic, it seemed that publisher Atlus and developer P-Studio was committed to the console, making it a bit of a surprise to fans that Persona 3 Reload was skipping it entirely.
The reasons for the snub still aren’t fully clear, but Persona 3 Reload director Takuya Yamaguchi and producer Ryota Niitsuma addressed the situation in a recent interview with Spanish language website Atomix.vg (quote via Google Translate, translation verified by IGN), suggesting that a Switch port may be in the cards somewhere down the line:
“Since we began conceptualizing everything that would come in Persona 3 Reload, we decided that there would be no version for the Nintendo Switch. Of course the idea is there, but it’s a matter of discussing it with the team and seeing what they think about it and we’ll see what happens.”
That’s not exactly an affirmative promise, but at least Yamaguchi and Niitsuma know the demand for a Switch version is there. It’s also always possible that Atlus and P-Studio have a Nintendo console version of the port in mind not for Switch, but for its heavily-rumored successor that many believe is coming this year. We’ll just have to wait and hope.
Persona 3 Reload is headed to basically every other major platform (PlayStation, Xbox, and PC) on February 2. We recently published our final preview of the game, asserting that it’s far more than a basic remake: “Persona 3 Reload isn’t a remake with a few alterations here and there; it’s a sincerely thought-through updated game that can seemingly stand on its own two legs in the competitive Persona lineup.”
Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.
The Nvidia tools used to create that raytraced Portal mod and other fanciness are now in open beta, inviting all and sundry to jazz up everything from Deus Ex to Garry’s Mod. Nvidia’s RTX Remix tech lets people fancify old games by injecting fancy modern lighting, new models, textures ‘remastered’ by AI, new environmental decoration, and other such fanciness, even if the game doesn’t have mod support. I’ll be curious to see what people make with this, though I am wary of artlessly pumping new tech into old games.
Pocketpair’s monster-collecting survival game Palworld has rekindled the eternal debate over what exactly constitutes a breach of copyright. While the game’s mechanics are more reminiscent of Ark: Survival Evolved and other tree-punching, template-arranging wilderness sims, its monsters owe obvious debts to Nintendo and Game Freaks’ Pokémon games.
The developers have something of a track record on this front, with their older early access release Craftopia freely stirring in nods to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But what separates copyright infringement from a flagrant, but perfectly legal rip-off? Given that a lot of people are making the case for Palworld being copyright theft online, I thought it might be useful to seek insight from (ominous roll of thunder) an actual lawyer.
With a patch incoming, Pathea charts the road ahead.
You may remember Pathea Games’ My Time at Sandrock, a life sim game released late last November that we weren’t massively enthused with. We awarded it a 5/10 in our review, saying that the launch version’s “bland presentation and technical hiccups” affected this sequel to My Time at Portia. The Switch version sits with a Metascore of 62 from 11 critic reviews at the time of writing, although the PC version stands at 81.
Despite our reservations, this cozy game held a lot of potential and in the months since, the development team at Pathea has been hard at work to correct flaws and bring in new content to keep players engaged. Arguably its biggest update on Switch — version 1.1.4 — is due out imminently, and to get a better sense of what it contains and what’s on the horizon, we recently sat down for a lengthy conversation with some key staff on the Sandrock team to discuss its past and, crucially, its future.
Jump straight into managing your own planets as you guide a civilization through the ages. Build the ultimate empire in The Universim, a new breed of God Game in development by Crytivo.
You ever get one of those awkward phone calls from your cousin that he and his family are in town and want to drop in for an unexpected house visit? Or your buddy texts you about arguing with their roommate, and they need to come over and cool down. Or, perhaps, the most dread-inducing — your coworker’s kid-sitter canceled, and they need an emergency backup. Suddenly, you’ve got guests over, and you need to keep them entertained for a while. Fortunately for you, you’ve got a PlayStation Plus membership and extra controllers, which means one thing: it’s local multiplayer time.
But even if you’re not in an urgent need to keep a surprise audience entertained, getting a group of players together on the couch to have a good time is one of the best uses of your PlayStation. There are plenty of amazing PS4 and PS5 games you can always boot up whenever you need a good serving of multiplayer mayhem. Here are some of our favorites available with PlayStation Plus.*
Nobody Saves The World
Drinkbox Studios
PS4/PS5
2 players
Everyone’s a hero in this chaotic transformation-focused action/RPG. With the aid of a magic wand, your bland amorphous humanoid character assumes myriad different forms, each with a unique playstyle–and, with a friend in tow, you can take on forms that cover for each other’s weaknesses or double up on your strengths. With hundreds of combinations of forms and abilities to explore and blast through foes, you’ll have hours of fun with bodily modification.*
*Available as a PlayStation Plus January 2024 Monthly game.
Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands
Gearbox Studios
PS4/PS5
Up to 4 players on PS5, 2 players on PS4
The weirdness and humor of the beloved Borderlands series continues in this tabletop fantasy-themed spinoff. You and three of your friends/frenemies can play together in a weird and wild fantasy loot-driven FPS with your own customizable characters in classes like Stabbomancer and Brr-zerker. Use melee weapons, spells, and (of course) lots and lots of crazy guns to eradicate enemies and get all the sweet, sweet rewards. Play in either normal co-op mode or coopetition mode, where you’ll need to squabble to decide who gets what loot.*
*Included in the Game Catalog with PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium memberships.
Street Fighter: 30th Anniversary Collection
Capcom
PS4
2 player competitive
We all know and love Street Fighter. Even if your play partner’s never thrown a Hadoken in their life, it’ll only take a couple of minutes to learn, and then you’ve got even more fun and strategy to dig into. With 12 different Street Fighter games in one package, you can stick with the classic Street Fighter II titles, or dig deep into the later Alpha and III series. You don’t have to be able to do the Daigo Parry to have hours of fun digging into the storied history of Street Fighter with a friend–but once you’ve had fun playing competitively, you may want to take your skills to the next level.*
*Included in the Classics Catalog with PlayStation Plus Premium memberships.
Dragon’s Crown Pro
VanillaWare/Atlus USA
PS4
Up to 4 players
Don’t have your dice and Dungeon Master gear on hand for your tabletop roleplaying session? Boot up Dragon’s Crown Pro and take your gang of adventurers on a gorgeous side-scrolling journey through realms of treasure and fantasy. Play as one of six classes and travel into dungeons as a band of up to four players, felling fearsome foes in fierce action gameplay and returning to the tavern with tales of bravado and plenty of sweet loot. Customize your warrior with skill trees to create your dream fantasy fighter. Will you discover the legendary Dragon’s Crown?*
*Included in the Classics Catalog with PlayStation Plus Premium memberships.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge
Tribute Games/Dotemu
PS4/PS5
6 players on/offline
Take a trip back to the days of multiplayer Turtle beat-em-up action at the local arcade, but with brand-new visuals, super special moves, loads of secrets, and no need to worry if some kid before you spilled orange soda on the player-three joystick. Run through the single-session arcade mode with up to six players or, if you’re spending a while together, play through Story Mode co-op to build custom character loadouts and aim to conquer special challenges. Add the DLC expansion Dimension Shellshock for a new Survival mode and even more playable characters.*
*Included in the Game Catalog with PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium memberships.
Sackboy: A Big Adventure
Sumo Digital/Sony Computer Entertainment
PS4/PS5
Up to 4 players
LittleBigPlanet’s star sets out with some friends on an incredible family-friendly journey through a beautiful 3D world. The very fabric of Craftworld is abundant with stretchy, bouncy, tactile joy that allows you to use Sackboy’s robust movement skills in delightfully enjoyable and creative ways. But to get the most out of this Big Adventure, you’ll want to visit with friends (up to three more), as some stages and challenges require cooperation to conquer.*
*Included in the Game Catalog with PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium memberships.
The Ascent
Neon Giant/Curve Games
PS4/PS5
Up to 4 players
Well, it looks like the megacorporation that you and your buddies were employed (read: enslaved) by in the cyberpunk world of Veles suddenly collapsed. Now, everything in your neighborhood’s going to hell. It’s time to get the guns out and solve problems. Explore neon-lit, dilapidated environments in an open world from an isometric viewpoint while blasting through foes and hazards with twin-stick shooter action. Augment yourself with upgrades and hack into forbidden areas as you acquire new skills, strengths, and loot. And don’t neglect to take cover when you have to. It’s better than becoming a bullet-ridden shell.*
*Included in the Game Catalog with PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium memberships.
*Titles available with PlayStation Plus memberships at the time of article publish.
RoboCop: Rogue City just received a major update that adds New Game Plus as well as a new, harder difficulty.
Teyon’s launched last year and was well-received by fans of the iconic sci-fi movie. IGN’s RoboCop: Rogue City review returned a 7/10. We said: “RoboCop: Rogue City is the video game equivalent of a B movie in the best way, with the look and over-the-top action to capture the essence of the series.”
Now, a new update gives players a reason to jump back in. New Game Plus lets you start over with all of your previously unlocked skills and Auto-9 upgrades, for the full “invincible robotic law enforcement officer” experience, Teyon said in a post on the game’s Steam page.
To unlock the mode, finish the game after the update is applied. This can be done by reloading a save made just before completing the game, Teyon said. Once done, a new save file will be created, and loading it will grant you access to NG+. You’ll also unlock a new Golden Auto-9 skin as soon as you beat the game.
Elsewhere, RoboCop: Rogue City now has a new difficulty level that makes enemies deadlier. “If you’re up for a challenge, time to try the There Will be Trouble difficulty!” Teyon said.
Here are the RoboCop: Rogue City update’s patch notes:
Added a New Game Plus mode
Added a new difficulty: “There Will be Trouble”
Added a new unlockable Golden Auto-9 skin, available once NG+ is available
Added more Auto-9 Chips and Boards
Fixed the shooting mode not properly resetting when exiting interiors
Fixed RoboCop’s right hand disappearing when grabbing a human enemy while unaliving them
Fixed the Stolen Vehicle investigation being skipped if Ben immediately opened the locker
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.
