Author: Game Infliction

Sony allegedly turned down a sequel to PlayStation 4 game The Order: 1886 due to its poor critical reception, the co-founder of developer Ready at Dawn has said.

Andrea Pessino told MinnMax that Ready at Dawn pitched an “incredible” sequel and would’ve “signed [its] life away” to make it purely for the sake of players. The Order: 1886 arrived in 2015 as an action game about werewolves in Victorian London but, despite being among the best looking games of the generation, it received middling reviews from critics.

“It would have been an incredible sequel, I can tell you that for a fact,” Pessino said, though admitted he couldn’t say much because he doesn’t own the franchise rights. “We pitched the sequel to Sony regardless of [the critical reception] and, in a way, it’s better that they passed because if we thought we were going to be screwed before, man, with the sequel, we would have signed our life away.”

Pessino said Ready at Dawn had a difficult relationship with Sony while making the original game and ultimately had to cut myriad elements in order to hit deadlines and eventually released The Order: 1886 before it was ready.

The graphical fidelity of the game’s initial pitches and reveal led Sony to expect the same quality of builds to be submitted at certain milestones in its development, Pessino said, but payments were withheld when Ready at Dawn had to prioritize other things and temporarily couldn’t hit the same graphical standards.

While Pessino said this is industry standard for third party publishers, it led to a frustrating relationship between Ready at Dawn and Sony. The team was ready to sign up for a worse situation to make a The Order: 1886 sequel regardless.

“We were going to do it just because we wanted to deliver it to the players but we would have been… Terrible budget, budget would be small, we would have been completely at the mercy of any decisions and things because we had no leverage whatsoever,” Pessino said.

“We were not in a position to negotiate a reasonable contract; they could have done whatever. But we would’ve taken it because we wanted a chance to redeem the franchise. All of the groundwork was really, really good, I can tell you that for a fact. There was so much there that just needed to be built on.”

The Order: 1866 was also left on a blatant cliffhanger so fans were desperate for a sequel to come. Ten years on and those hopes are dashed, of course, with Ready at Dawn being shut down by owner Meta in 2024.

In our 6/10 review, IGN said: “Though a stylish adventure, The Order: 1886 emphasizes its cinematic polish at the crippling cost of gameplay freedom.”

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Civilization 7 developer Firaxis has released patch 1.0.1 just in time for the strategy game’s full launch following an advanced access period that was met with a ‘mixed’ user review rating on Steam.

Firaxis is working on addressing various community complaints, most of which revolve around the user interface, a lack of map variety, and a feeling that the game has launched without a number of key features fans have come to expect.

In an interview with IGN ahead of the release of its third quarter financial results, Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick acknowledged that Civilization 7 had received some negative reviews from press and players, but insisted that the “legacy Civ audience” will come around the more they play, and called Civilization 7’s early performance “very encouraging.”

Now Civilization 7 is available to all and not just those willing to pay more for advanced access, Firaxis has released Patch 2, which is only for PC/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck. In a post on Steam, Firaxis said it is “the first in a series of upcoming patches” intended to address feedback from advanced access. The patch notes in full are below.

It’s worth noting that Firaxis has temporarily disabled crossplay multiplayer “to expedite” updates to the PC version. This means the developer will sometimes deploy patches to PC at a different “cadence” than on consoles, and indeed that includes patch 1.0.1. This will have no impact on console players attempting cross-platform play with other console players, nor on PC-to-PC multiplayer, Firaxis clarified.

Looking for tips to help you take over the world? Check out our guide to completing every Civ 7 victory, our run down of the biggest Civ 7 changes for Civ 6 players, and the 14 crucial Civ 7 mistakes to avoid. We’ve also got explanations on all the Civ 7 map types and difficulty settings so you know what you’re getting into.

Civilization 7 1.0.1 Patch 2 – February 10, 2025
Gameplay
Windows PC/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck

• Fixed an issue causing Ages in Epic and Marathon speed games to be shorter than intended.
• City States will now turn into Friendly Independent Powers on Age Transition instead of disappearing completely. They will also now start with more units in Exploration and Modern Ages.
• Fixed inconsistencies with Naval Combat.
• Naval Units will use the correct Combat Strength values when attacking another Naval Unit in all instances.
• Naval Units will properly take reciprocal damage after attacking another Naval Unit.
• Naval Units will more consistently move into the attacked tile after defeating another Naval Unit.
• Completing the final milestone of a Legacy Path no longer adds Age Progress in the Modern Age to ensure you have more time to complete a Victory.
• Towns will now switch their focus back to Growing town automatically if they are no longer eligible for their chosen Focus (for example, if their population decreases) until they are eligible again.
• Future Civic is now repeatable in all Ages. The cost of Future Tech and Future Civic will now increase more when repeated.
• Fixed an issue after too many bonuses to Growth where Food needed for the next growth event became negative.
• Improvements to Rail Networks aimed at increasing the reliability of Settlements connecting to the Rail Network over water by building Ports. This should apply as long as the Capital either has a Port or is connected by rail to a settlement with a Port.
• Made improvements to the Loyalty Crisis in the Antiquity Age, including giving the ability to purchase Villas in towns during this crisis, giving another way to manage the happiness of your settlements.
• A note about cross-play multiplayer: To expedite updates to the PC experience, we will sometimes deploy patches to PC at a different cadence than we do on consoles – including today’s Patch 1.0.1. As a result, cross-play between PC players and console players is temporarily disabled. This will have no impact on console players attempting cross-platform play with other console players, nor on PC-to-PC multiplayer.

AI
Windows PC/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck

• AI will now offer high-value Cities less often during Peace Deals.
• In Modern, AI will now declare war less often at the start of the age.
• In Modern, AI will now consider Ideology more before Declaring War or offering Peace.
• Other Leaders now have a decreased desire for war if neither party has an Ideology.
• Other Leaders now have an increased desire for war with players of Opposing ideologies.
• Other Leaders now have a decreased desire for Peace with players of opposing Ideologies.

Camera
Windows PC/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck

• Fixed an issue on native-resolutions where the camera would focus on the lower end of the map when clicking on the minimap.

UI
Windows PC/Mac/Linux/Steam Deck

• Replaced the Simplified Chinese font with the font used in Civilization VI while we work on additional improvements for future patches.
• Fixed an issue where the Settlement menu fails to open when clicking on a non-player’s Settlement Banner in gameplay.
• Fixed an issue where yield icons fail to populate on the now available buildings when converting a town to city.
• Fixed an issue where some text was cut off on the Global Yields Breakdown screen.
• Added a notification for completed Espionage actions, so that you can more easily check the results of their Espionage actions.
• City projects no longer appear to be purchasable.
• Your current religion is now displayed first in the belief picker tabs.
• Fixed an issue where a District’s health bar would remain on-screen after being fully healed.
• Fixed an issue where Leaders fail to have a portrait when the relationship has changed during gameplay.
• Improved the alignment of leader names and portraits on the Age Summary, when viewing the Overview screen of the Victories Rankings.
• Fixed an issue where the background color remains the default color when the user changes it in the Player Customize tab.
• Improved the spacing between Civ descriptions, unique units and building icons on loading screen.

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.

Anker quietly released a new high-capacity power bank earlier this year that sits alongside their Anker 737 and Prime series of power banks. This particular model boasts a massive 25,000mAh battery capacity, 165W of total charging output, and two built-in USB Type-C cables in case you forget to bring your own. It’s also attractively priced at under $100, and there’s even a deal today that drops the price by another $10 to $89.99. This is a great complement to your power-hungry gaming handheld PC like the Steam Deck, Asus Rog Ally, or Lenovo Legion Go.

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