More details on Z-A, surely?
Yes, we will indeed be getting a second Pokémon Presents showcase later this year.
Announced by The Pokémon Company, more Pokémon news is coming our way on 22nd July 2025 (thanks, Serebii!).
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Alternative history PS4 exclusive The Order: 1886 was originally meant to be the first game in a trilogy, one of its developers has revealed.
Two other games — The Order 1891 and The Order 1899 — were also planned (thanks, VGC). As Ru Weerasuriya, creative director of The Order: 1886, explained in an French-language interview with Julien Chieze, the sequel was in the early stages of development before it was cancelled.
In The Order: 1886, a game that re-writes history by introducing a unique vision of Victorian-Era London, you discover history’s darkest secret. From its 10-page pitch, Weerasuriya said the first sequel would have boasted bigger combat sequences, as well as an additional multiplayer mode. The third game didn’t even make it to early production, but Weerasuriya and the team at Ready at Dawn had planned where the story would’ve taken them, as well as other instalments which could’ve taken the franchise into the 20th century.
Ready at Dawn was a venerable, 20-year-old game studio that worked on God of War and Daxter among other projects. Following the mixed reception of The Order: 1886, Ready at Dawn began to move into VR, releasing Lone Echo for the Oculus Rift in 2017. It was acquired by Meta in 2020, but closed down entirely in August 2024.
Weerasuriya suggested that it was the mixed critical reception to the original game that saw the series cancelled. Like a lot of players at the time, here at IGN we thought the 2015 game was okay, awarding it a 6.5, writing: “Though a stylish adventure, The Order: 1886 emphasizes its cinematic polish at the crippling cost of gameplay freedom.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
There exists in this world much which, if stripped of even one of its components, would be rendered naught but a frail illusion. Roast pork without applesauce? An insult to god and man alike. A sword without a hilt? Merely sharpened iron, stripped of use or dignity. As our band of eight rode into Heuwiller – Thillmann at the head as befitted his command, Slackbladder at the back as befitted our nostrils – a dark cloud fell upon us. For what is a village without a single poxy alehouse in sight? Nary a trough full of fermented carrot juice. It was going to be a long day.
Surprise! Nintendo has just released Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ first update in almost three years.
It’s not a particularly exciting update — the patch notes only tell us that May 27’s update “improved the compatibility for multiplayer sessions between Nintendo Switch 2 and Nintendo Switch” — but it marks the first time the relaxing sim game has had an any kind of backend refresh since November 2022.
What “improved compatibility” means, we’re not completely sure, but it’s likely a small tweak to make sure players jumping onto Animal Crossing: New Horizons on Switch 2 can still visit the islands of their friends without incident and vice-versa.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be playable on Switch 2, but unlike games like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom or Kirby and the Forgotten Land, it’s not getting its own bespoke Switch 2 Edition. It should be compatible for players getting a Switch 2 next week, however — unlike these games that are known to have issues.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons lets you escape to a deserted island and create your own paradise as you explore, create, and customize your own private island and community. We loved our time with it, and it’s still listed on our Top 25 Best Nintendo Switch Games in 2025 list. In our review, we awarded it a 9, writing: “Animal Crossing: New Horizons is an expanded, polished, next-generation reboot of a classic Nintendo game that’s full of surprises.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Ho, Lethal Companions! Put down your airhorns, let fall your precious armfuls of plastic fish, and prick up your freakin’ ears. Something is coming to 2023’s breakout horror multiplayer game. Something that will make the music boxes and springhead marionettes look like child’s playthings! I mean, like the child’s playthings they already look like, but without the parts that make them horrifying. That something is… to be announced, but I considered the below teaser text pithy enough to be worth a shout regardless.
I am falling asleep at the wheel of a big bulldozer. RoadCraft is not necessarily a boring game, but it is so meditatively slow, lumbering, and bit-by-bit that I find myself dozing when I’m supposed to be, um, dozing. Some of this is down to simple tiredness, but there’s also a dreamy sensation while playing this engine-purring infrastructure ’em up. I don’t mean dreamy in the sense that it fulfills the promise of nostalgic fantasy put forward by the game’s trailer (the one that suggests you’ll feel like a child playing with toy diggers again). I just mean that flattening sand makes me sleepy.
All aboard the hype train.
We are a little under two months away from Donkey Kong Bananza arriving on Switch 2 now, and it’s fair to say we are excited. The first 3D DK platformer in decades is enough to get the hype train running, but let’s not pretend that it doesn’t come with a hefty dose of trepidation, too. There’s a lot riding on this one, and we want Nintendo to get it right.
Of course, we trust the Big N to do exactly that (and from everything we’ve seen and played so far, Bananza is shaping up to be a good ‘un), but that won’t stop us from compiling some hopes and dreams in the run-up to the game’s release.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
The night looms, as Bandai Namco and FromSoftware have confirmed the global release times for Elden Ring Nightreign.
The official release date for Elden Ring Nightreign is May 30 at midnight EDT, for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox One and Series X|S. As per usual, though, some timezone differences mean that certain regions will be able to log on and play a bit earlier. West coast players in the Pacific time zone, for example, can boot up Elden Ring Nightreign at 9pm on May 29.
Platforms also differ, too. Per Bandai Namco’s post, PC players will be able to hop in slightly ahead of everyone else in most regions. For the U.S. East Coast, PC players can start at 6pm on May 29 while console owners are stuck waiting until midnight.
Bandai Namco said pre-load is available 48 hours prior to launch time on PlayStation, Xbox, and Steam. In IGN’s interview with Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki, the Nightreign lead discussed the choice to lean on solos and trios as the core experience options. When asked why there’s no option for a pair of players to drop in together without a matchmade third player, Ishizaki said it was overlooked.
“The simple answer is that this is simply something that was overlooked during development as just a two-player option, so we’re very sorry about that,” said Ishizaki. “As we said before, we set out to make this a multiplayer co-op game for three players, balanced for three players, so that was the main focus and it’s at the core of Nightreign.
“Of course, I myself as a player understand that and often want times where I’m just playing myself, so this is something that we considered from the start,” Ishizaki continued. “And so we did put a lot of effort into creating this experience that was playable for solo players in as much as the rules and new systems allowed. So in putting all our efforts into that aspect, we kind of overlooked and neglected the duos aspect, but this is something that we are looking at and considering for post-launch support as well.”
So if you’re playing with just your favorite duos partner, be ready to accept a random third into your lives. Who knows? You might match up with someone pretty good at the game.
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Eric is a freelance writer for IGN.
Two very good skating games are back up for sale on Steam after disappearing for four months. Bright ‘n’ cheery skateboarding game OlliOlli World and dystopian rollerskate shooter Rollerdrome both vanished in a cloud of toxic corporate smoke in February this year, some time after the closure of the games’ developers Roll7. But it looks like the poisonous fumes have finally cleared, and the games are once again available.
“The lyf so short, the craft so long to lerne,” wrote Chaucer. But you’d trained hard with that crossbow, and let any man in bolting distance try to claim you hadn’t mastered it. You never wanted to go to war, but the crops were failing, you’d just lost your seventeenth child to medium-pox, and dark portents swirled on the horizon like curdled goat’s milk. Also, the actual goat’s milk was curdling.
In that tent, you’d communed with angels, and the righteous fury of all the heavens coursed through every fibre of your being. You’d likely die today, you knew. But you’d die knowing you did all you could to put this fair kingdom to rights. You step outside, breathe deep the morning air, and immediately eat a point blank pump-action shotgun to the torso. Then you lose both your legs to the tank shell. Then someone runs over your corpse with a dirtbike. Bloody typical.
