Author: Game Infliction

Back in 2020, Naughty Dog, the studio behind The Last of Us Part 2, as well as Abby actor Laura Bailey and director Neil Druckmann, responded to the online harassment and death threats they had received following the game’s release.

Fast forward to 2025, and Druckmann has been “bootcamp-ing” Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet’s Tati Gabrielle on The Last of Us Part 2 online hate that occurred five years ago in preparation for what might be coming as a result of simply playing the protagonist in Naughty Dog’s upcoming video game.

Naughty Dog revealed Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet at The Game Awards 2024. It features a star-studded cast that includes Tati Gabrielle from the Uncharted movie as protagonist Jordan A. Mun, and Kumail Nanjiani of Marvel’s Eternals as a man called Colin Graves.

In a March interview with Alex Garland, the writer of zombie movie 28 Days Later, Druckmann talked candidly about the development process, confirming Intergalactic had been in the works for four years already.

“I joke about this with the team. We made a game, The Last of Us 2, we made certain creative decisions that got us a lot of hate. A lot of people love it, but a lot of people hate that game,” Druckmann said, to which Garland joked: “Who gives a shit?”

“Exactly,” Druckmann added. “But the joke is like, you know what, let’s do something that people won’t care as much about — let’s make a game about faith and religion.”

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet takes place in an alternate historical timeline and features a “pretty prominent religion,” too, which has “changed and bastardized and evolved” over the years.

“This whole religion takes place on this one planet, and then at one point, all communication stops,” Druckmann teased. “And you’re playing a bounty hunter that’s chasing her bounty, and she crash lands on this planet.

“So many of the previous games we’ve done, there’s always, like, an ally with you,” he said. “I really want you to be lost in a place that you’re really confused about what happened here, who are the people here, what was their history. And in order to get off this planet — again, no one has been heard from this planet for 600 years or so — if you ever have hoped to have a chance to get off, you have to figure out what happened here.”

Now, speaking to Entertainment Weekly as part of promotion of The Last of Us Season 2, Gabrielle revealed Druckmann’s preparation as she begins life as not just a movie and TV star, but a video game star.

“Neil’s been bootcamp-ing me,” she said. “I know Troy’s experience, I know Ashley’s experience… I know Laura Bailey’s experience.”

As EW pointed out, Bailey endured online hate simply because she played the character Abby, who kills Joel. Gabrielle has also received racist and misogynistic online hate following the Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet reveal, she said.

“I got a lot of love, but there was a lot of hate over me being a woman, me being a woman of color, me having my head shaved, all these things that I didn’t even actually initially see — I’m out of the social media zeitgeist for that reason — but once I did, Neil was like, ‘Ignore it. No matter what, me and you, we’re going to make something beautiful. We’re going to make something that we’re proud of.'”

Gabrielle said that because she is entering the world of video games for the first time, she is trying to prepare herself as best as possible.

“This is a world — video games — that I’ve never stepped into before. So I don’t want to put one thing in my mind of expecting it’s going to be this way and then it’s not, and then I’m unprepared or take it too lightly,” she says.

Gabrielle also briefly touched on the theme of faith, which Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet will revolve around.

“The question of faith is not black and white,” she said. “When you initially think of faith, you think of religion, which is a part of it, but there’s also faith in oneself. There’s faith in your environment or your community. All that faith means is, what are your beliefs? What are the things that you hope for? Faith sounds flowery, but we all experience it day in and day out. What is your reason for waking up?”

Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is not expected to release until 2027 at the earliest. It’s a pretty long wait, but speaking to IGN on the red carpet ahead of The Last of Us Season 2 premiere, Druckmann said that Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet is not only playable right now, but “really good.”

“I will say we are playing it at the office and it’s incredible,” Druckmann teased. “It’s really good. I’m so excited to finally put gameplay out into the world and show people about it, because we just showed you the very, very, very tip on the iceberg. The game goes pretty deep beyond that.”

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.

Capcom’s Street Fighter 6 will be hadouken-ing its way into an anime this year. Kadokawa recently revealed a teaser trailer for Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games, an anime adaptation of Eri Ejima’s manga of the same name.

The story is set in Kuromi Girls’ Academy, an exclusive school for rich kids which aims to produce refined young ladies. Gaining entry to the prestigious institution on a scholarship is main character Aya Mitsuki, who has played fighting games since elementary school. She soon becomes fascinated by beautiful and graceful fellow student Mio Yorue, nicknamed Shirayuri (white lily). However, appearances can be deceptive, as beneath her elegant exterior, Mio is a tough-talking button-mashing gamer! Will a mutual love of fighting games result in a deeper relationship between the girls?

📰(NEW) Seinen Anime ‘Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games’ Promotional Teaser featuring Street Fighter 6!pic.twitter.com/MAVLSBiWGW

— Fighting-Games Daily (@FGC_Daily) May 9, 2025

In the original manga, the characters played a fictional fighting game, however, with Capcom’s sponsorship of the anime, it seems like they will be battling it out in Street Fighter 6. Interestingly, FAV Gaming (Kadokawa’s professional esports team) is credited in the trailer for collaborating on recording.

The anime of Young Ladies Don’t Play Fighting Games is due out sometime in 2025. If you are interested in catching up with the story before then, Seven Seas have already released the manga in English.

Verity Townsend is a Japan-based freelance writer who previously served as editor, contributor and translator for the game news site Automaton West. She has also written about Japanese culture and movies for various publications.

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered is packed with spooky stuff — skeletons, spirits, and even zombies — but no-one can remember seeing this ‘ghost horse’ in either the original 2006 game or this 2025 remaster.

Our story begins with a reddit post by TaricIsNotASupport, who flagged what looks like a spectral horse just… waiting to be found.

“So I was crafting stupid spells in Frostcrag Spire, as it’s possibly my favourite way to have fun in this game, however this time when I left the Cosy Chaos Spire that has divided this community so very much I noticed something suuuuuuper strange in the distance,” TaricIsNotASupport began.

“I did as any of us of the right mind would do and B-lined it over there like a maniac. To my amazement was this spectral horse with no name.

“I have played thousands of hours of the original Oblivion — and have already sunken over a hundred hours into the Remaster — yet this is the first I have ever seen this horse.

“I don’t know if it’s something new that’s been added, or if I’ve just missed out on it before and never knew.”

TaricIsNotASupport then called on the community to help them work out what had happened here, which sparked something of a ghost hunt online, with players searching through the Unofficial Elder Scrolls Pages website for any word of a spectral mount in the original Oblivion. So far, nothing.

Could it be a mod? TaricIsNotASupport followed up their post to say they are playing on PlayStation 5, where mods are unavailable. TaricIsNotASupport also posted a clip of their character riding the horse. Despite its non-corporeal form, it appears this horse is very much present and correct, and works how any other horse would in Oblivion. “He fast travels and even gets stabled!” TaricIsNotASupport said. “By all accounts it’s now my steed!”

Some are suggesting this ghost horse is the result of a glitch, perhaps caused by a spell gone horribly wrong. Bethesda games are known for their bugs (in fact one is making the camera break the longer you play the game), and maybe this ghost horse is another to add to the list.

“Very weird, the wiki says there’s only 2 unique horses, Shadowmere and unicorns,” ClaymoreBeatz commented. “And there’s no horse mods that I can see that do this so I highly doubt your [sic] lying about not being on PC, this is probably some sort of glitch that the new Remastered has or glitched magical effect. Armored horses names change to Armored horse I think so maybe it’s an Armored horse that got hit by a spell and now its name and spell effect is glitched.”

Others are wondering whether the developers at Bethesda and Virtuos might have added this ghost horse to the game as a spooky secret for players to discover in Oblivion Remastered. This seems less likely, although it is a fun thought because if it’s true, then what other secrets might be hidden within the ramaster?

There are plenty of players who want to work out how to replicate the steed so they can have a ghost horse for themselves. Again, there doesn’t appear to be any particular process TaricIsNotASupport used to spawn it, at least none so far discovered.

In lieu of an in-game name, TaricIsNotASupport has called their Oblivion ghost horse ‘Spookmane,’ which I think is a wonderful effort. TaricIsNotASupport has pledged to continue their adventure with Spookmane by their side. Perhaps this is a one-off, perhaps it’s a secret, perhaps it’s a bug. Either way, Spookmane has captured the attention — and maybe even a few hearts — of the Oblivion community and its fans.

“This creature might be my favourite new friend I’ve made,” TaricIsNotASupport said. “Spookmane, you’re glorious and I love you.”

Oblivion Remastered, developed by remake specialist Virtuos using Unreal Engine 5, has a long list of visual and feature improvements. It runs at 4K resolution and 60 frames per second, as you’d expect, but other changes are more meaningful. Everything from the leveling systems to character creation, and combat animations to in-game menus have been improved. Meanwhile, there’s lots of new dialogue, a proper third-person view, and new lip sync technology. The changes are going down well with fans, some of whom believe Oblivion Remastered would be more accurately described as a remake. Bethesda, however, has explained why it went down the remaster route.

Now the game is out in the wild, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered players are warning newcomers to do Kvatch before the level scaling makes it an absolute nightmare. We’ve also got a report on a player who managed to escape the confines of Cyrodiil to explore Valenwood, Skyrim, and even Hammerfell, the rumored setting of The Elder Scrolls VI.

And be sure to check out our comprehensive guide to everything you’ll find in Oblivion Remastered, including an expansive Interactive Map, complete Walkthroughs for the Main Questline and every Guild Quest, How to Build the Perfect Character, Things to Do First, every PC Cheat Code, and much more.

Image credit: TaricIsNotASupport / reddit.

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.

The following article contains spoilers for The Last of Us season 2, episode 5.

Ellie’s descent into violence truly kicks off in this week’s episode of The Last of Us. The show’s fifth chapter sees her brutally assault Nora in the spore-infested basement of the WLF’s hospital base. It’s one of the game’s most recognisable scenes and remains similarly harrowing in HBO’s adaptation.

This and three other key sequences from the original game were adapted for this episode. Here we’ve compared them against the original source material, analysing what’s changed and what’s stayed the same. You can see both versions in the video above, or read on below for our written explanations.

Seattle Day 2

In both the game and the show Dina listens in on WLF radio chatter to work out the group’s location and patrol patterns. In the game, we see Dina explain all this to Ellie – in part because it helps establish the objectives of the upcoming level. In the show, Dina takes notes but there is no like-for-like conversation about what the WLF codes mean.

Elsewhere in the theater, Ellie explores the auditorium and finds a guitar. It’s one of the more memorable scenes from the game – Ellie takes a seat in the front row and begins to play. In the show, Ellie instead sits on a stool up on the stage. Both versions play the opening of Pearl Jam’s Future Days, although Ellie in the game sings the first two lines – show Ellie sings just the first.

In the game, Day 2 sees Ellie head out to Hillcrest. That section of the game is pretty much cut entirely from the show – there’s no hiding from dogs in overgrown houses – but we do get a version of the Seraphite mural that is seen shortly after Ellie leaves the theater. In the game, the “Feel Her Love” graffiti is on the back of a truck. In the show, a similar image is painted on a wall. The WLF have left dead Seraphites below it as some kind of ironic gesture.

Stalkers

Later in the episode, Ellie and Dina have a tense encounter with a group of Stalkers. While Ellie does come across Stalkers on Day 2 in the game, this scene isn’t a direct translation of that moment. For one, Dina is now with Ellie – in the game, Dina stays at the cinema. The location has also changed; Ellie was attacked in an office building in the game, where the show’s Stalker showdown takes place in a warehouse.

More significantly, though, the show’s Stalkers behave in a very different manner to their game counterparts. In the game, Stalkers are cautious, almost skittish predators, and so this encounter is a tense game of cat-and-mouse as you try to spot where they are hiding. While the show has made suggestion that Stalkers are more intelligent than the more animalistic Runner variants, in this scene there’s little evidence of that. The Stalkers pretty much just charge – or, indeed, run – at Ellie and Dina, and attempt to break into the cage the duo have barricaded themselves inside of.

Another change comes with the reintroduction of Jesse into this section of the story. In the game, towards the end of the Hillcrest section, Jesse emerges from the shadows to catch Ellie before she walks into a WLF patrol. In the show, Jesse turns up to help Ellie and Dina escape from the Stalkers.

The Seraphites

While much of what players will remember of Hillcrest has been removed for the show’s version of events, memories of the game will very much be evoked by the group’s encounter with the Seraphites. The forest and foliage is very similar to Part 2’s environment, and the sequence in which a hanging man is killed by his Seraphite captors is very close to the events of the game.

The key difference here is in the people present. In the game, Ellie explores this area on her own, whereas in the show she is accompanied by Dina and Jesse. This directly impacts a key moment when a Seraphite fires a bow and arrow; in the game, the arrow strikes Ellie and she is forced to wrench it from her shoulder. In the show, it is Dina who is shot, the arrow hitting her leg. This forces the group to move on, carrying Dina to safety.

St. Mary’s Hospital

This episode’s big, climactic event takes place in St. Mary’s Hospital. It’s the sequence that most closely resembles the video game – a near 1:1 recreation of Nora’s final minutes. Like the game, Ellie finds Nora in the WLF-occupied hospital and holds her at gunpoint, demanding to know where Abby is. Their exchange culminates in Nora saying that Joel got what he deserves, her wording in the show closely resembling the script of the game. She then makes a run for it, throwing a container of liquid at Ellie to momentarily stun her. That last detail is slightly different to the game, in which Nora just throws a steel tray that only catches Ellie off guard for a second.

The chase through the hospital is similar to that in the game, although notably shorter and less game-y. Nora shouts for her allies to shoot and they do so from a balcony, replicating the gunfire that sparks around Ellie as you push her forward in the game.

The chase finally ends in the same spore-filled corridor bathed in red light that we saw in the game. Nora, collapsed and breathing in fatal spores, finally realises who Ellie is. “You’re her,” she says in both versions of the story. In the show, Ellie then takes a single swing with a metal pipe and the show cuts to black. In the game, Nora’s death is much, much more violent – with the camera lingering on Ellie’s twisted face, she strikes Nora three times. While this shot isn’t used for the show, HBO does somewhat replicate it a minute earlier by holding the camera on Ellie’s face as she holds Nora at gunpoint. It’s not as viscerally powerful as the shot from the game, but you can see where the inspiration comes from.

For more from The Last of Us, check out our spoiler-free season two review and our spoiler-filled review of the fifth episode.

Matt Purslow is IGN’s Senior Features Editor.