Shin’en Multimedia has released what is, to our knowledge, the first launch trailer for the Switch 2 with Fast Fusion.
Launching day one with the new console, Fast Fusion is the follow-up to 2017’s Fast RMX, letting you merge vehicles together to create one of potentially hundreds of combinations. The new trailer gives us our best look yet at the core gameplay, and while it certainly looks familiar, you can tell it’s been given a nice lick of paint for the Switch 2.
PowerWash Simulator: The Muckingham Files Part 6 and New Special Pack Bundles Coming to Xbox
Jess Green, Marketing Manager, FuturLab
Hello Washers! The time has come for our final update for PowerWash Simulator, and what a journey it has been! The Muckingham Files has taken us to Mauka Aitu Desert, with stops at a sunny villa, a quick trip to the Crab Bay Aquarium, and stopping for some paintball along the way.
For our last content drop we will be hopping on the Muckingham Line to clean up the Subway Train, before departing for a trip to the Sculpture Park, where some pesky graffiti needs to be cleaned off for a pristine finish. We hope you enjoy this final free PowerWash Simulator update as much as we have enjoyed creating it.
The Ultimate Satisfaction Bundle is also now available with all 100 levels from the course of the game in one convenient download. If you already own the game, the Satisfying Specials Bundle contains every paid add-on with a discounted price to quickly complete your collection and open up storylines from beloved universes like Shrek, Back to the Future, SpongeBob SquarePants and more.
Whether you’ve been with us busting the grime from the start, or hopped aboard the hype train somewhere down the line, we’d love to say a huge thank you for enjoying this adventure with us and we’d like to share some thoughts and memories from our team at FuturLab as we look back over the years…
Will Dyball, a Multiplayer Programmer at FuturLab: “One of my favourite memories was the first larger inhouse multiplayer test. It was on the monster truck and once everyone joined my group, we started drawing on the truck and I was so relieved it was working. Thank you for not only enjoying playing the game, but creating some amazing content with it!”
Abbas Kahn, a Programmer at FuturLab: “The release of the Warhammer 40,000 Special Pack was a pretty big moment for me personally. It was the first time I had contributed to a game on consoles! Thank you for playing, without our fans PowerWash wouldn’t be where it is today! I hope you’re looking forward to all the cool new features in PWS2!”
Hannah Fisher, QA Tester at FuturLab: “My best memory was the first time I saw my name added in the credits after I started working here – it was such an exciting moment and really made it sink in that I was actually a part of this game! Also working with so many lovely people here at FuturLab. Thank you so much for playing our game and experiencing this journey with us!”
Bara Sigmundardóttir, a 3D Artist at FuturLab: “When we released the Alice’s Adventures Special Pack, it was the first big scene I had worked on mostly solo and the first job that Nick P had created beautiful concept art for. To see how well received the whole pack was and watching people interact with all the little details was just wonderful (especially all the little carrots and bunny ears in the Rabbit house level). Thank you all for continuously enjoying and hyping up our Splish Splash wholesome game, we get to have the coolest jobs because of all of you eager Power Washers!”
Jordan Lewis, a Programmer at FuturLab: “Getting to contribute to a game that so many people find helps them destress and calm down and knowing that I work on a game that helps players various mental health issues really makes all the problems with ladders worth while. Thank you for being one of the most wholesome game communities I have ever seen! “
Elliot Greenwood of Business Development & Licensing at FuturLab: “When nobody batted an eye at power washing under the sea in Bikini Bottom, that opened the floodgates of opportunity for where we could go with our DLCs. It has been so much fun working behind the scenes to get these agreements locked in, and I’d just like to thank you all for letting us run wild with our ambitions.”
We’d again like to thank you for being a part of our PowerWash Simulator community. It has been a smashing time building up a virtual world everyone can enjoy, in little bursts or larger blasts. We wouldn’t be where we are without you all, and your support means more to us at FuturLab than we could ever tell you. The team have poured their hearts and souls into creating a world for you all to escape to and clean, somewhere for you to relax and solo rinse, or a place to gather with friends and catch up over a satisfying wash. We love to see you enjoying all aspects of PowerWash Simulator, from the Gnomes, the friends we’ve made along the way, and not forgetting… The LORE! Thank for embracing our quirky story, this may be the final stop for PowerWash Simulator, but we hope you’ll continue the journey with us on our sequel.
Xbox Game Pass members can play the base game, PowerWash Simulator, as part of their membership. The Muckingham Files – Part 6 is available now for as a free update on the Xbox Store (a copy of PowerWash Simulator is required to play).
The Ultimate Satisfaction Bundle and Satisfying Specials Bundle are available now for a separate purchase on the Xbox Store. The individual special packs have all been released previously, please be careful not to purchase anything in duplicate.
Elden Ring Nightreign’s release is just hours away, and publisher Bandai Namco has detailed its day-one patch, which makes some important changes to the game.
The patch, Bandai Namco said, improves “handling” of playable characters, makes balance adjustments, tweaks text, adds character scenarios, and adds to the soundtrack. There are bug fixes in there, too.
“This update brings gameplay and stability improvements to ensure an optimal experience for your first steps in Limveld,” Bandai Namco said. You’ll know you have the latest version of the game on launch day if you see ‘Ver. 1.01’ displayed on the bottom right of the title screen.
In IGN’s recent interview with Elden Ring Nightreign director Junya Ishizaki, the development 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.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
The Ukrainian government-run Center for Countering Disinformation have released a warning about a new free-to-play shooter, Squad 22: ZOV, which they say is a blaring propaganda instrument for the Russian military that “mythologises” the country’s invasion and bombardment of Ukraine since 2022. The accusation actually dates back to February this year, but it has resurfaced and picked up pace online now that Squad 22 is actually on sale via Steam. Valve have yet to comment.
A voice actor who featured in Persona 4 has let slip that a remake of the school days JRPG is in the works, mostly because he’s frustrated the developers don’t want him back to perform as his original character. Yuri Lowenthal, who played clumsy bicycle crasher Yosuke in the original 2008 game, expressed some revealing annoyance with developers Atlus in a post on social media that has since been deleted.
This all comes courtesy of an update to the game’s official Japanese website, which states (via Google Translate) that the Switch 2 version “Introduces the new ‘Tag Rule,’ a 2-on-2 battle, and the ‘Climax Rule,’ where the winner is decided in five turns”. Until we get the official English translation, we’d imagine that those names might be a little different, but look! New game modes!
Funcom asked us to “let them cook,” and going on last night’s Dune: Awakening showcase, the developers did. With just a few days to go before early access players get their “head start,” Funcom put on a livestream showing off Dune: Awakening’s mid-to-endgame, and a wide tour of the Hagga Basin “to emphasize the size and variety players can expect,” including the “lush O’odham, the forbidding Hagga Rift, the tall spires and imposing rock formations of Jabal Eifrit, to name just a few.”
Inspired by Denis Villeneuve and Legendary Entertainment’s blockbuster films, Dune: Awakening lets players explore Arrakis in an open-world game for the first time ever. Up until now, even beta players have only seen around 25% of Hagga Basin, so the stream showcased “these huge and diverse landscapes” in all their glory.
“Before even considering the vast dunes and dangers of the Deep Desert, players will experience a full-scale survival game,” Funcom teased.
“They will rise through the ranks of the Atreides or Harkonnen; build powerful strongholds; brave Imperial Testing Stations; craft advanced schematics; explore and harvest in a variety of vehicles, and much, much more.” Furthermore, the “Landsraad feature allows anyone to contribute in the effort to impact their entire faction, whether they prefer PvE or PvP.”
Dune: Awakening is an open-world survival MMO set on the most dangerous planet in the universe. You’ll learn to survive the desert by learning the ways of the Fremen, and expand your potential through combat, spice, building, and trade. It’s set to release on June 10, 2025, on PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X and S after a three-week delay to fix issues identified during its beta testing. Players with an “early start,” however, get to play five days early from June 5.
“As a longtime fan of Dune, it also just feels so good to explore and learn more about a world that I’m quite fond of, and Funcom has clearly put a ton of effort into worldbuilding and lore, even despite taking quite a bit of creative liberty by placing Awakening within a parallel reality and canon than the books/movies,” we wrote in IGN’s Dune: Awakening closed beta impressions preview.
“There are little details that have a massive impact on gameplay. I won’t go into spoilers, but this kind of attention to detail touches just about every aspect of the world, including the factions and characters you meet along the way, which should be a treat for any fan of the setting.”
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.
Cyberpunk 2077‘s sequel has shed its Project Orion codename and will now be known as… Cyberpunk 2. CD Projekt revealed the name change in their latest earnings results, according to which the new Cyberpunk RPG has just entered pre-production – roughly defined, the point in a game’s gestation when designers, artists, programmers and so forth meet to flesh out the concept, but before they’ve actually started making anything that’s supposed to form part of the finished game. There are now 96 people working on the thing, versus 422 for The Witcher 4, 49 on multiplayer Witcher spin-off Project Sirius, and 19 for an unannounced original game, Project Hadar.
The grousing, dilettante reader will object that this is scant material for a news post, especially given that CD Projekt are offering no guarantees that “Cyberpunk 2” will be the project’s final name – as they commented to the Verge, Cyberpunk 2 “just means it’s another game in the Cyberpunk universe.” But the dextrous maven of online news-mongering will notice that “Cyberpunk 2” is, in fact, an extremely compact and subtle piece of worldbuilding.
I’ve never been so happy to see a spike trap as I was in Debugging Hero. At the start of each combat encounter, the demo for this roguelite hack n’ slash hands you several numeric cards and lets you pause the game to view both your and your enemies’ stats: health, damage, and durability. You then drag the cards on to the relevant stat to modify it, then unpause to continue real-time combat.
It’s a cute gimmick, letting you knock down high health enemies to a manageable number, or kill weak ones outright, or heal yourself. But it felt a tad shallow to carry a whole game, even one with dodges and parries in its real-time combat. Then, I entered a room with a trap tile that thrust sharpened spikes upwards at timed intervals, and realised I could manipulate the timer. I tuned it right down, and raucously chortled like a portly racoon at the bakery bins as it pneumatically skewered my idiot attackers.
In 2023 EA opened a new studio named Cliffhanger Games, led by former Monolith head Kevin Stephens, and announced a new third-person, singleplayer game starring Marvel’s Black Panther. They’ve now cancelled that game and shut down that studio, IGN report.
According to EA Entertainment president Laura Miele, via an email sent to employees, this has been done to “sharpen our focus and put our creative energy behind the most significant growth opportunities.”
