When I sat down to play High on Life 2 for the first time, I was optimistic but also slightly skeptical. I’m hardly alone when I say that I loved the first one – it was a rare example of a genuinely funny game and it happened to be an excellent first-person shooter to boot. But making sequels to comedies is no sure thing – just look at the long list of great comedy films that got bad follow-ups. How would a video game comedy sequel fare?
If the hour of High on Life 2 I played is any indication, it’s got a great chance to be as funny as – and possibly even more fun on the gameplay side than – the 2022 original. In that hour alone, I wandered around a beautiful beachside alien town, met a semi-depressed new gun named Travis and got completely wasted with him, impressed some alien teenagers with my skateboarding skills, circumcised a giant alien phallus with a laser, stole the fedora from the 1996 movie Dunston Checks In, tried (unsuccessfully) to solve a murder mystery, and bounty-hunted a billionaire who, yes, met his demise. Did I laugh along the way? Yup. Is the first-person shooter combat improved from the original? Certainly. Did I appreciate the variety of gameplay within this small slice of the campaign? Most definitely yes. Like I said, I went in optimistic, but when my demo ended I was more excited than ever for High on Life 2’s February 13, 2026 release.
Skate or Die
I began in Pinkline Harbor, a beach town with a bar, a skate shop, a bar and grill overlooking the sea, and more. It didn’t take long for me to find trouble, as a pair of fellow bounty hunters accosted me and eventually recognized me as a mark with a big bounty on my own head. After taking them out, the bottleneck was clear and I was free to explore the harbor.
This gave me my first taste of High on Life 2’s new traversal mechanic: skateboarding. I’ve played a lot of first-person shooters in my day, but I’m not sure I’ve ever played an FPS with skateboarding in it until now. And I have to say, I love how developer Squanch Games has implemented it here. It’s basically your run function. When you press the sprint button, your outlaw hero deploys their board and starts riding. You can grind on rails to really get around the open playspaces faster, and you’ve got momentum like an actual skateboard does, too, allowing you to catch air if you’re skating in, say, an empty pool on a cruise ship. I’m really interested to see how the skateboarding gets utilized throughout the campaign; I already saw it incorporated into a basic puzzle in my demo.
I’m not sure I’ve ever played an FPS with skateboarding in it until now.
After solving that simple locked-door puzzle with the help of my skateboard, I cruised into Pinkbellies Bar and Grill and met Travis, a down-on-his-luck alien (who happens to be a gun) who’s getting drunk at the bar after a fight with his wife. It’s here we see a welcome tweak to the first High on Life: you now have dialogue choices for each of your gun characters; if you choose one that’s from a different gun than what you’re holding, you’ll put that gun away and take out the one whose response you’ve chosen. This allows for plenty of funny options, and while I wouldn’t say this alone encourages replayability, if you do happen to run through High on Life 2 more than once, at least you can ensure that you won’t hear all of the exact same dialogue.
Hold Your Liquor
You’ve got to keep Travis happy as you pretend to be his drinking buddy, as he’s got a spare ticket for the cruise ship you need to get aboard, since that’s where your target – the billionaire Larry Pinkstock – is believed to be. And so there’s a literal Happy-O-Meter that you’ll fill by dancing in a DDR-like minigame, playing darts while hammered, and drawing a portrait of Travis. Naturally, this leads to a bar fight and you vomiting and blacking out and waking up on the beach. Did my actions during any part of this gameplay sequence seem to really matter? Not really. But did I laugh throughout it? Absolutely.
Naturally, getting aboard the ship isn’t as easy as simply walking onto it; you’ll need to fight your way through some more bounty-hunting bad guys. This battle gives you a good sense of how traversal – from the skateboard to using Knifey as a grappling hook – is organically woven into combat. If you keep moving you’ll be tough to bring down, particularly when you mix in frequent use of each gun’s special attack; they’re each on a cooldown, so you can’t spam them. Combat definitely feels more layered in this sequel than it did in the first game. In other words, you’ve got more options at your disposal in any given encounter, and that’s a good thing.
Combat definitely feels more layered in this sequel than it did in the first game.
Once aboard the ship, called the Pinkline Panacea, you’ll need to give up your guns at the security checkpoint before enjoying the perks of your VIP ticket – which includes the highlight of the evening, a murder mystery party. Thus, getting dressed up for the big event is a must, so Travis buys you both wild, matching Austin Powers-looking purple suits from a vendor who looks suspiciously like an alien version of John Waters.
Laser That Wiener
Anyway, I needed to get my friends – aka my guns – back, and so Travis and I wandered into Pinkstock’s museum to search for them. We didn’t find them, but we did find the fedora worn by Dunston the orangutan in Dunston Checks In, which Travis instantly became obsessed with. So, how to get it for him without alerting security? Well, as luck would have it, the adjacent museum piece is a giant alien phallus, set up for museum patrons to circumcise using the circumcision laser. I won’t spoil the puzzle solution, but let’s just say that yes, I did get Travis that fedora. And acquiring it was a very funny process.
More exploration of the ship led us to the Lido Deck, where a gang of unruly teens had managed to get their hands on Knifey. And in a clear humorous nod to Tony Hawk, the teens agreed to return Knifey – if I showed off my skateboarding skills by collecting the letters scattered around the deck…that happened to spell out the word “gonads.” L-O-L. And as you can already see, High on Life 2 is chock full of variety, and I haven’t even told you about the best part of my demo yet…
Whodunnit?
After battling some more bounty hunters on the Lido Deck who were looking to cash in on the price on my head, I made my way back to my cabin and passed out before the party. Once we got to the VIP murder mystery bash, I found four strange fellow guests, and soon our mysterious host appeared.
I expected a very light bit of clue-gathering in this sequence, and if that’s all it had been, High on Life 2 still would’ve earned points in my book for continuing to mix up the gameplay. However, developer Squanch Games had other ideas. The murder mystery is no joke, both tonally and difficulty-wise. The team clearly took this section very seriously, and as such you’ll need to talk to all four suspects repeatedly, scour the room for both obvious and hidden clues, make notes in your on-screen notepad, and eventually not just accuse one of the four, but have collected enough evidence and made enough connections to establish a motive and credibly pin the crime on one of them. I’m purposely not going to say any more about this because I don’t want to spoil any of it for you, but I’ll admit that while I did end up accusing the correct person, I hadn’t solidly established a motive, and thus, I failed to solve the murder mystery. I can’t wait to play this again in the final version of the game in order to take another crack at it.
Who’s the Boss?
I escaped the murder mystery via a water slide that took me to the lower deck. This led to another big battle where I got to test out another new weapon in High on Life 2: the Flint Turtles. They’re temporary-use pickups in the practical sense, and in the literal sense, they’re adorable reptiles who happen to breathe fire, making for convenient single-use flamethrowers. One miniboss fight and a few more rounds of regular combat later and I finally found myself at the end of my demo in a proper boss fight against Kreg, the leader of the bounty hunter gang that had been harassing me throughout my demo.
Kreg proved to be a pretty traditional first-person shooter boss foe. He had attack patterns to learn and weak moments where I could really let him have it. I wouldn’t say this fight was better than the excellent boss battles in the first High on Life, but it was an engaging enough encounter.
All told, I was pleasantly surprised by my hour with High on Life 2. Not surprised that it was good, to be clear – I expected that – but rather delighted by just how nicely the gameplay has evolved from the first game, and how much smart, funny, and unexpected variety there was throughout the gameplay. I wasn’t simply shooting the entire time. Far from it! If the whole of High on Life 2 matches what my one-hour slice brought to the table, then it’s going to be a very welcome addition to Xbox – including Game Pass on day one – PC, and PS5.
Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.
Having launched with plenty of tarmac and dirt spaghetti for your car to be violently spit from into a tree or hedge, Assetto Corsa Rally now features the usual third type of surface that’s rallied along. Supernova Games Studios have let snow and ice encrust their sim in its biggest update since it took off from the early access start line.
“That’s not a minotaur, that’s a stand-in for the child star of a classic 90s Christmas movie,” I yell while playing Minos’ free holiday reskin, Minos: Home A-Labyrinth. Devs Artificer have temporarily transformed the demo of their maze-building roguelike – due out in full next year – into a legally distinct parody of Home Alone’s burglar-hurting antics you can play for free.
Last Sacrament Special reunites writer Alex Paknadel and artist Troy Little for a new 48-page adventure. This issue is again a collaboration between comic book publisher Oni Press, game publisher Devolver Digital, and development studio Massive Monster.
Here’s Oni’s official description of the special:
Following the events of CULT OF THE LAMB: THE FIRST VERSE and October’s CULT OF THE LAMB: SCHISM SPECIAL #1, the cult is decimated and its faith shaken in the wake of a shocking and bloody betrayal. Power, duty, and determination will all be tested as Lamb must reckon with the remaining threats of the Old Faith. Meanwhile, Ratau—still firm in his faith in the Red Crown—tries to protect and guide Lamb’s remaining followers and undermine the blasphemy of the rival camp. As The One Who Waits prepares their return, great sacrifices must be weighed for the future of the Cult of the Lamb.
Cult of the Lamb: Last Sacrament Special #1 will be released on March 4, 2026. You can preorder a copy at your local comic shop.
The latest Nintendo Download update for North America has arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!
Switch 2 eShop – Highlights
The Rogue Prince of Persia(Ubisoft, 16th Dec, $29.99) – Dive into a thrilling and epic adventure, where every action pulses to the heady rhythm of an intense soundtrack. Master fluid, acrobatic and responsive combat, paired with challenging parkour. Death after death, forge your own playstyle with every run. Through exploration and encounters, find a way to right your wrongs and save the Persian kingdom envisioned by Evil Empire!
Today, we reveal how your votes shaped the PlayStation Blog Game of the Year awards for 2025. This year’s voting saw nearly 1.5 million votes cast across the awards’ 19 categories, with your choices, and your choices only, deciding which games would earn the coveted top spots and accompanying trophies.
As with every year, the awards are a chance for you to help highlight the experiences that made your gaming year, and by extension, the creatives who have crafted those games. And as with every year, there was an abundance of titles to select from, leading to some tough choices.
Before we dive into the category winners, a thank you to all the creators whose collaborative work has brought PlayStation players so much enjoyment the world over these past 12 months.
And without further ado, the games which received the most player votes in each category are…
The category acknowledges the careful amalgamation of multiple creative disciplines, from concept design, through in-game modelling, to motion capture and voice work, that result in captivating characters. And 2025 was rich with iconic protagonists.
That included Silent Hill f’s Hinako, with players unearthing her story as she faced horrors that corrupted and twisted her quiet hometown life. The tag-team delivery of Sandfall Interactive’s artistry and Jennifer English’s performance that etched Expedition 33’s Maelle in such vivid detail. The quiet confidence of Silksong’s Hornet, and the sublime animations that defined her every leap and strike. Yet it was Ghost of Yōtei’s Atsu that caught the most attention. Striking design, a growing, multi-disciplined combat style that thrilled the senses, and a deeply personal, fully-formed character arc that carefully interwove revenge and redemption across a dense open world rich with stories. Sucker Punch Productions and voice actor Erika Ishii, take a bow.
Best Story
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Platinum Trophy: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
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Gold Trophy: Ghost of Yōtei Silver Trophy: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Bronze Trophy: Silent Hill f
Silent Hill f’s small town horror. Death Stranding 2: On the Beach’s sweeping narrative. Ghost of Yōtei’s complex quest for revenge. All demanded dissection, but it was Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s whose endings quickly became essential post-game discussion, a sign a story has found a cultural echo. Beyond its disarmingly authentic dialogue and some incredible bits of wisdom (whee whoo whee whoo), perhaps the game’s most striking achievement is how elegantly it maintains the delicate balance between darkness and light: levity and warmth cutting through the heavy existential themes with precise, intentional timing. Clair obscur, if you will.
Best Graphical Showcase
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Platinum Trophy: Ghost of Yōtei
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Gold Trophy: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Silver Trophy: Battlefield 6 Bronze Trophy: Arc Raiders
With each passing year, creators turn growing familiarity with PS5 hardware to craft increasingly detailed depictions of worlds that edge towards photorealism. Despite danger hidden in every stairwell and creek, Arc Raiders players couldn’t help but take time to soak in the quiet, unsettling beauty of its many devastated battlegrounds. Equally Battlefield 6’s upped the franchise’s appetite for destruction, making it hard to ignore the wider spectacle even as you focused on survival. Plenty of you showed your appreciation of Death Stranding 2’s potent mix of evocative landscapes, sci-fi design and outstanding character models.
But it was Ghost of Yōtei’s jaw-dropping foliage density, stunning use of ray tracing and rich detail with every aspect of life in Ezo that saw the most support as players named it the most graphically impressive PlayStation title of 2025.
Best Art Direction
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Platinum Trophy: Ghost of Yōtei
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Gold Trophy: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Silver Trophy: Hollow Knight: Silksong Bronze Trophy: Silent Hill f
The diverse work of the Best Art Direction’s top four spoke to creators with strong visions when fashioning their respective virtual worlds. Silent Hill f wrapped the horror franchise’s hooks with the myths and culture of 1960s Japan, turning a peaceful small town into a labyrinth of terror. Team Cherry conceived an entirely new, equally captivating insect kingdom in Silksong’s oppressive Pharloom, making every corner and denizen – dangerous or otherwise – a must-see. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33’s painterly look drew inspiration from multiple art styles to dazzling effect, and made a great excuse to fire up the game’s Photo Mode.
Yet it’s Ghost of Yōtei you voted on to take the top spot. Sucker Punch, building on successes of Ghost of Tsushima and an ever-growing confidence in utilizing PS5 hardware, who fashioned an evocative snapshot of the rural wilderness of 1600s Japan that demands to be explored.
Best Audio Design
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Platinum Trophy: Ghost of Yōtei
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Gold Trophy: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Silver Trophy: Battlefield 6 Bronze Trophy: Hollow Knight: Silksong
Great audio design solidifies the world around you, combining SFX, 3D audio, music and more, making you feel relaxed, elated or fearful in an instant. Your picks for category winners are exemplary at this. The sound of a distant chant helps give you direction through an unexplored corner of Pharloom in Silksong. Picking out the stomp of approaching threats amidst a symphony of destructive explosions and crackle of gunfire in Battlefield 6. The roar of a sandstorm or the howls of BTs twisting your gut in Death Stranding 2.
And for Platinum winner Ghost of Yōtei, it’s how Sucker Punch brought the sounds of Japan to life. Not just wildlife and fauna, but the crunch of swords, or the twang of the shamisen reverberating out of the DualSense controller’s speaker, and the sound of the wind whipping around you that make the Ezo feel like a real place waiting to be explored.
Best Soundtrack
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Platinum Trophy: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
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Gold Trophy: Ghost of Yōtei Silver Trophy: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Bronze Trophy: Hollow Knight: Silksong
Plenty of great music caught your ear in 2025, with strong contenders – and voting – in this category. Ultimately your choices landed on four distinct scores. Christopher Larkin returned to Hollow Knight’s underworld for another acclaimed atmospheric score that helped define Silksong’s sprawling areas and its cast. Similarly Ludvig Forssell, alongside a star-studded lineup of artists, returned to Death Stranding 2 to define its soundscape once more. Composer Toma Otowa kept Ghost of Yōtei’s soundtrack powerfully authentic with Japanese instrumentation (and a nod to the low-fi beats produced for the game’s Watanabe Mode in collaboration with Cowboy Bebop’s Shinichirō Watanabe).
Yet it was Lorien Testard’s work on Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 that caught most ears. Its music showcased an impressive range, from unapologetically funky character themes to stripped-back spoken word, sweeping orchestral arrangements, and Alice Duport-Percier’s soaring vocals. Expertly woven through the game, it’s a score that you decided most deserved this year’s Platinum.
Developers continued to emphasize accessibility features in 2025 in myriad ways, and your votes showed your appreciation for creators’ efforts in this area. Battlefield 6 added controls for tinnitus-like sounds, Assassin’s Creed Shadows included tone indicators for its subtitles, and Split Fiction allowed players to skip difficult combat and platforming sections.
But taking the win this year is Ghost of Yōtei, which took all the great features from Ghost of Tsushima and added in even more – from visual assists to help attacks stand out, to alternate-input options for touch and motion controls.
Best Use of DualSense
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Platinum Trophy: Ghost of Yōtei
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Gold Trophy: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Silver Trophy: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Bronze Trophy: Battlefield 6
Developers flexed their growing familiarity with PS5’s unique hardware features in 2025. Battlefield 6’s weapons felt distinct thanks to adaptive triggers translating trigger pull and recoil to the players’ hands, while you felt the impact of explosions with the DualSense controller’s haptic feedback. Similar feedback immersed you in the rhythm of Expedition 33’s combat, while Death Stranding 2 transported you into Sam’s shoes, mimicking the trudge through snow or mud, the pull of heavy cargo, and more.
All that said, voters threw the majority of their weight behind Ghost of Yotei’s DualSense controller implementation. Be it quality-of-life shortcuts, interactive moments such as camping, or the clash of steel during combat, hats off to Sucker Punch for another title cleverly tapping into unique PlayStation features.
Best Rerelease (Remaster)
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Platinum Trophy: The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered
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Gold Trophy: Days Gone Remastered Silver Trophy: Tomb Raider IV–VI Remastered Bronze Trophy: Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles
A tight race for the coveted Platinum prize saw The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered ultimately take the crown. This enhanced version of the seminal 2006 RPG benefitted from massively upgraded visuals and polish, as did Bend Studios’ update to fan favorite Days Gone. Tomb Raider IV-VI Remastered and Final Fantasy Tactics – The Ivalice Chronicles also saw strong support in Game of the Year Awards voting.
Battlefield 6’s action-packed, large-scale multiplayer battles struck a nerve with PS5 players, earning a big Platinum trophy for Battlefield Studios. Hotshot Arc Raiders also saw strong support in the polls, with gamers appreciating its fresh take on the extraction shooter genre. Marvel Rivals and Split Fiction took the Silver and Bronze prizes, demonstrating the robust depth and breadth of multiplayer experiences released over the past year.
Best Ongoing Game recognises those games whose original launch may be years past, but who continue to delight players with huge new content packs and seasonal updates to keep gameplay fresh and fans guessing what’s next. Launched only last year, young buck Marvel Rivals has already made its mark on the multiplayer landscape, rubbing shoulders with established titan Fortnite, which continued to produce fantastic crossover events with big name IPs and expanded its gameplay offerings.
In the end, publisher MiHoYo pulled off that rarest of wins, earning two trophies in one category, thanks to your votes for two of their ongoing titles: Bronze for Honkai: Star Rail, and Platinum for Genshin Impact.
Best Expansion
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Platinum Trophy: Lies of P: Overture
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Gold Trophy: Helldivers 2: Heart of Democracy Silver Trophy: Assassin’s Creed Shadows: Claws of Awaji Bronze Trophy: Indiana Jones and the Great Circle – The Order of Giants
While many expansions continue the adventures of core characters, Platinum trophy winner Lies of P: Overture took a different approach, in the form of a sizable prequel that fills in the story prior to the events of the main game. That slimmer frame still boasted a complete package, distilling down what made the main game enticing, including a cavalcade of new challenging bosses to further sharpen your combat-honed skills on.
Your votes went to other deserving winners as well: Helldivers 2 surprised players by putting them on backfoot as they fought on (and for) the streets of Super Earth in Heart of Democracy. Indy’s adventure in Rome expanded to fold in another ancient mystery by way of The Order of the Giants expansion, while Claws of Awaji sated Assassin’s Creed Shadows players eager for more ninja and samurai action.
Best Sports Game
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Platinum Trophy: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds
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Gold Trophy: Forza Horizon 5 Silver Trophy: EA Sports FC 26 Bronze Trophy: Rematch
The all-star cast and reality-bending courses of Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds took the checkered flag this year, with fellow racer Forza Horizon 5 not far behind. EA Sports FC and newcomer Rematch rounded out the list, with each representing different expressions of The World’s Game.
Best Independent Game
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Platinum Trophy: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33
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Gold Trophy: Hollow Knight: Silksong Silver Trophy: Dispatch Bronze Trophy: Ready or Not
These smaller teams yielded big results! The majority of your votes weighed towards titles that included clever gameplay hooks or unique presentations to make for new and exciting experiences. From the vast world of Clair Obscur, to the superheroic drama of Dispatch, these imaginative indies prove the future of gaming lies in innovation and thoughtful iteration.
Best PS VR2 Game
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Platinum Trophy: Alien: Rogue Incursion
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Gold Trophy: Hitman World of Assassination Silver Trophy: The Midnight Walk Bronze Trophy: Zombie Army VR
Survios struck black goo with its virtuoso VR take on the iconic Alien series, which scored the Platinum award despite a tight race with IO Interactive’s Hitman: World of Assassination. The Midnight Walk’s moody adventure and Zombie Army VR’s red-meat combat also got recognized as being among the best of 2025’s PS VR2 offerings.
Best PS4 Game
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Platinum Trophy: Hollow Knight: Silksong
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Gold Trophy: Elden Ring Nightreign Silver Trophy: Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds Bronze Trophy: Call of Duty: Black Ops 7
Recognised with Bronze, Silver, and Gold trophies across other categories, it’s in Best PS4 Game that Hollow Knight: Silksong claims the Platinum. Team Cherry’s utterly captivating and tensely challenging 2D platformer wasn’t without staunch competition, from FromSoftware’s multiplayer take on its acclaimed Elden Ring series, the fresh spin on arcade racing dynasty in Sonic Racing: CrossWorlds, and the heavyweight of Call of Duty returning to the PS4 frontlines with Black Ops 7.
Best PS5 Game
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Platinum Trophy: Ghost of Yōtei
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Gold Trophy: Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 Silver Trophy: Death Stranding 2: On the Beach Bronze Trophy: Arc Raiders
In a year full of acclaimed games, it’d be tough to pick a shortlist. And that proved true for Best PS5 Game, which saw your votes nearly evenly split throughout the whole period of the polls being open. It was only in the closing hours that the winning order was solidified. Though a later release this year, Arc Raiders quickly attracted plenty of heat, spawning numerous gameplay clips and stories by players detailing narrow wins and surprise betrayals. Death Stranding 2’s suite of new and retooled mechanics made Sam Bridges’ biggest challenges a joy for players to experience, while Expedition 33 found a unique groove in its take on turn-based combat, and combined it with a story and world that has electrified many of you.
Following a tight race, in the end, the Platinum went to Ghost of Yōtei. Sucker Punch’s sophomore effort improved on every aspect of the first game, then layered on top of that new features, a new cast, and new story.
As we tally up the votes, it’s clear that several studios have left an indelible mark on 2025. Sandfall Interactive’s debut showcased their absolute confidence in their identity, while Sucker Punch and Team Cherry released hugely anticipated adventures to critical acclaim.
However, it was Kojima Productions who claimed the Platinum trophy for Studio of the Year after the release of Death Stranding 2 and a ‘round the world’ tour to showcase their work. While the game reached new and existing fans alike, the studio tapped into pop culture, connecting them with their audience on a level few studios can achieve.
Most Anticipated Game of 2026 and Beyond
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Platinum Trophy: Marvel’s Wolverine
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Gold Trophy: Resident Evil Requiem Silver Trophy: 007 First Light Bronze Trophy: LEGO Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight
In recent years, the Most Anticipated Game category has proven to be the most fiercely fought of the entire awards. This year was no different, with an extensive list of new games to look forward to, and you showing your excitement for all with votes cast far and wide, and the most write-in votes of the entire awards.
Yet the race was particularly tight between the top two placements. The final result? Resident Evil Requiem earns Gold, but it’s Marvel’s Wolverine that takes the Platinum this year.
Silent Hill f is one of the few Silent Hill games set outside Silent Hill itself. It transports players from the eternal doldrums of Maine, North America to 1960s Japan, and casts you as a school student in the foggy village of Ebisugaoka. It’s very good, thanks not least to a thoughtful and poignant story from Ryukishi07. Appetites are now whetted for a Silent Hill package tour, and Konami producer Motoi Okamoto already has a few ideas about where he’d like the series to go next. Ideas that, admittedly, make me nervous about the possibility of ham-fisted cultural misrepresentation.
Nintendo has finally won damages in a Wii Remote lawsuit it’s been fighting since 2010, over an unofficial controller that infringed on the company’s patents.
15 years on, Nintendo has claimed victory in its extremely long-running battle against Bigben Interactive (since renamed Nacon), and has been awarded a judgment worth $7 million (around $8.2 million). The actual damages Nintendo has been awarded count for around half the amount, while the rest is made up of interest, since the case has dragged on for so long.
Why has it taken a decade and a half to sort? As reported by GamesFray, Nintendo won an early ruling on the case back in 2011, though Nacon has been able to delay a further decision on damages until now. And the matter still isn’t over, as Nacon is now appealing the verdict — holding off on paying for even longer.
Back in 2010, Nintendo said a third-party Wii controller made by Nacon, then Bigben, infringed on its own patents and had caused the company to lose money. Without that third-party controller on the market, Nintendo argued, customers would have otherwise bought more of its official Wii Remote instead.
In response, Bigben said that customers could have chosen other third-party controllers as well as its own, so Nintendo couldn’t claim it would have definitely lost out. But Nintendo ultimately won this argument, as a court decided that the company’s patents were strong enough that no other third-party controller could have been made without others infringing on Nintendo’s patents also.
If nothing else, this latest development shows that Nintendo is nothing if not persistent. And if the company does want to pursue you, prepare to still be fighting, three console generations later.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Landing in August, Edge of Eternities adds a space flavor to Magic, and comes with two great preconstructed decks. Now, thanks to a discount at Amazon, you can save on a bundle of them with two for each player.
Two of Magic’s Best Commander Decks Are Discounted Before Christmas
Not only did Edge of Eternities mark a surprising left-turn into a space opera, but it also introduced two great Commander decks – Counter Intelligence and World Shaper.
The first is all about proliferating counters to power up your creatures, using Kilo, Apogee Mind to basically keep those tokens coming every time it’s tapped.
World Shaper, on the other hand, is all about playing lands to trigger Landfall effects, while also using cards to cheat them out of your graveyard for near limitless expansion of your army.
Both are great decks in themselves, but this bundle nets you two of each for an ideal playset for two players just starting out in Commander. It’s down to $121.55, a drop of 32%, which brings each deck down to around $30.
Given World Shaper is currently selling for $43 on its own, while Counter Intelligence is $36 (and that’s on sale), you’re getting a great deal here, allowing you to open up the decks and play right out of the box with a friend – or sell two of them on to buy singles to upgrade with.
And that’s saying nothing of the Collector Sample Pack in each, which includes a pair of cards in rare treatments.
All in all, this is a great deal for anyone curious about Edge of Eternities. It’s also still the last wave of Commander decks from 2025, given they weren’t offered in Spider-Man or Avatar.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
At 5 pm, most week nights, I’ve gone out to scavenge among the vestiges of humanity for loose wires and leftover air fresheners. But right after I get back from the Kilburn Tesco Metro, I boot up Arc Raiders and do the same, except this time with friends. (Classic joke structure ACTIVATED.) That is the magic of videogames.
Despite returning to extraction shooter Arc Raiders time and again, exploring its ruined Earth in 20-minute sessions while keeping out of the reach of the flying robots hunting for fleshy humans, there’s always a wrinkle when judging multiplayer games: are you playing because the game is good, or because it’s lovely to catch up with the ol’ gang?
