This week the team discusses the upcoming releases of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora and the Access controller. Plus deep dives on game difficulty settings, how to hold your DualSense wireless controller, and of course more Baldur’s Gate 3.
Stuff We Talked About
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora PS5 Features Blog
Access controller Blog
PlayStation Black Friday Deals 2023
Listener letters
Baldur’s Gate 3
The Cast
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Sid Shuman – Senior Director of Content Communications, SIE
Thanks to Cory Schmitz for our beautiful logo and Dormilón for our rad theme song and show music.
[Editor’s note: PSN game release dates are subject to change without notice. Game details are gathered from press releases from their individual publishers and/or ESRB rating descriptions.]
There’s no escaping that Call of Duty is currently in a bit of a rut. Although there are bright spots in Modern Warfare 3’s multiplayer and Zombies mode, it ultimately feels all too familiar. And the campaign? Our reviewer Simon Cardy said it was “perhaps the worst Call of Duty single-player campaign I’ve played.” It currently has a disappointing Metacritic rating of 56 and, unsurprisingly, Modern Warfare 3 didn’t make into IGN’s top 10 Call of Duty games (spoilers: it came bottom of the pile).
Thankfully, Call of Duty has been exceptional at times and, years on, many of its greatest moments still stand the test of time. So we’re looking back to decide which Call of Duty games are our absolute favorites, and we’re talking about the full package – campaign, multiplayer, zombies, everything. IGN staff voted on all the games, and you can read all about why we picked what we picked below. After, be sure to let us know how we did and share your favorites in the comments below!
10. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War sets itself apart from other entries in the legendary franchise by how much it excels when your gun is actually holstered. While Call of Duty is obviously known for its world-class shootouts with explosions around every corner and edge-of-your-seat moments, Black Ops Cold War added another wrinkle to that formula.
The campaign takes place during the most critical moments of the Cold War and we get time to learn more about our covert ops crew at our safehouses and sneak around KGB headquarters as a Russian double agent. These moments are quiet in the best ways, and they make the louder ones even more impactful.
Black Ops Cold War’s multiplayer fell a little short but its Zombies mode was a highlight. Sure, we would have loved some more content, but it provided highly polished and tense gameplay sessions we still think about today.
9. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 (2011)
There were some big issues with 2023’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3, but 2011’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 did a great job of iterating and improving on what came before. Its multiplayer added new elements such as weapon progression, proficiencies, and more, but what it did best was create one of the most compelling and addicting Call of Duty multiplayer experiences ever made up to that point.
The campaign was fun enough and even though it isn’t one of our favorites, it had the amazing setpieces and “wow” moments that made this franchise so popular. It was also the conclusion of one of the most beloved Call of Duty trilogies ever and that in itself was another reason it was worth the admission price.
8. Call of Duty: Black Ops 2
Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 was notable for many reasons, including that it featured the series’ first branching narrative and arsenal of futuristic weaponry. While it continued the Cold War-era story from the original Black Ops, it also took us to 2025 to experience a whole new Cold War that centered on Alex Mason’s son, David. Oh, and don’t forget that Raul Menendez is one of the best villains in the entire franchise.
Black Ops 2’s multiplayer also had a few firsts like the Pick 10 system and Scorestreaks, adding a welcome level of depth and customization to the experience. Throw in its Zombies mode, which was the perfect, laugh-filled alternative to the campaign and multiplayer, and Black Ops 2 is still a standout Call of Duty game over a decade later.
7. Call of Duty: World at War
Call of Duty: World at War brought us back to World War 2 after the roaring success that was Modern Warfare’s contemporary setting, but it did so in a different way. Instead of simply going back to Normandy and D-Day for the umpteenth time, the story focused on the Pacific theater and the Red Army’s reversals of the tide at Stalingrad to the Fall of Berlin. The campaign was filled with a ton of close-quarters combat moments, many of which were in tight, packed trenches, and for the first time let you play with up to three other friends.
What World at War may forever be remembered for, however, was its introduction of what we now know as the Zombies mode, or Nach der Untoten as it was called. Its multiplayer was also a hit as it brought in much of what made Modern Warfare great and adapted it for the era the game was set in.
6. Call of Duty
Call of Duty first appeared on the scene in 2003, at a time when Medal of Honor and Battlefield 1942 were at the top of their game and proving what could be done in the WWII genre. But Call of Duty did a number of things that would immediately set it apart, including chosing to tell its story from the perspective of not only the United States, but also Britain and the Soviet Union.
It also had you going into battle with other soldiers by your side instead of having you face the horrors of war alone, and that led to a more realistic and compelling experience. And don’t forget the “shellshock” feature, which visually and audibly showed the dangers and consequences of large explosions and brought us closer to war than ever before.
While it’s obviously a little out of date 20 years on, the campaign is still fun to play and it’s impossible to understate the foundation it built for the future of not just the Call of Duty series but first-person shooters as a whole.
5. Call of Duty: Black Ops
Call of Duty: Black Ops took us to the 1960s to learn the story of CIA operative Alex Mason. From the first moments in that chair in the interrogation room to one of the best twists in the entire franchise, we couldn’t get enough of the story that also had the star power of Sam Worthington, Ed Harris, and Gary Oldman. We previously ranked Black Ops’ campaign as Call of Duty’s best, and we stand by it today.
Black Ops’ multiplayer is just as iconic and some of the maps, including Firing Range and Nuketown, are still favorites in 2023 as they have been brought forward multiple times. The multiplayer suite also introduced CoD Points, which changed how things were unlocked and made progression feel fresh again.
Nazi Zombies returned too, except this time as a full-fledged mode, and it even let you play as JFK, Fidel Castro, Richard Nixon, or Robert McNamara. There was also an unlockable mode that played like a retro arcade version. It was all wonderful.
4. Call of Duty 2
Call of Duty 2 was an incredible achievement on its own, but its timing was just as important. The follow-up to the original Call of Duty arrived as a launch title for Xbox 360 and demonstrated what “next-gen” actually meant back then.
While the original Call of Duty was impressive, the power of Xbox 360 – alongside advancements in PC tech – led to a WWII experience like never before. One of the most notable examples was the smoke grenades, as they were a great showcase for what the devs could do to make a more realistic experience. Not only were they a sight to behold as the smoke billowed up and smothered the screen, but they could also be used tactically to get out of a tough situation.
With Call of Duty 2, the future was here, even if the multiplayer still only allowed for eight players in a match on Xbox Live.
3. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare (2019)
Spoilers: we LOVE Modern Warfare and that adoration extends to 2019’s Modern Warfare, the game that rebooted a classic. That in itself was a tough task, but Infinity Ward passed with flying colors and created the best campaign since the original Black Ops.
Indeed, the single-player was packed with stand-out moments, from Going Dark’s nonlinear stealth infiltration to Clean House, in which a team of SAS troops clear a pitch-black terrorist hideout using night-goggles, making split-second decisions to make sure its a threat in the crosshairs and not an unarmed civilian.
Modern Warfare’s multiplayer was decent too, and tried to evolve one of the most beloved multiplayer games of all time to the modern day with some nice additions, but its implementation wasn’t perfect. That said, its new modes like Realism and the 2v2 Gunfight were great.
2. Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (2009)
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare and its sequel Modern Warfare 2 are not only some of the best Call of Duty games ever, but also some of the best and most important games of all time. While Modern Warfare set the gold standard for what these first-person shooters could be, Modern Warfare pushed it to an even higher peak.
We could talk about No Russian and the shocking, revenge-filled campaign ending all day, but multiplayer is where this game truly shines. From its customizable Killstreaks and progression challenges, to the focus on bigger maps with a ton of players, to the introduction of the cooperative Spec Ops maps, there was SO much to love about its multiplayer mode. And the best part? It just improved on everything else we loved from Modern Warfare, which we can’t wait to tell you about next…
1. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (2007)
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 may have perfected the formula that Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare built, but new and shiny things can’t always stack up to what it’s like to experience something for the first time. Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is the perfect example of that, and was a revolution that changed video games forever.
This was the year that Call of Duty became the Call of Duty we know today, and it was thanks to a tag-team assault of a fantastic campaign and a legendary multiplayer experience. We will never forget being introduced to Soap and Captain Price for the first time, or when we got to jump into an AC-130 gunship, escape a cargo ship in the middle of a stormy sea, play through All Ghillied Up – possibly the greatest Call of Duty mission ever – and so much more.
We’ll also never forget the countless hours we happily sunk into multiplayer, earning killstreak after killstreak, unlocking every gun and challenge we could, finding the perfect perks, and winning or losing alongside our best friends. Those were the days we’ll never forget. That is Call of Duty.
Mazes and labyrinths can be confusing, frustrating, oppressive, nightmarish. They are the kinds of structures videogame developers are reluctant to put in their games, because the potential for the player losing heart or patience is relatively high. But as productions, they can be strangely economical, oddly light-footed. Mazes and labyrinths, after all, twist up space and as such, discover or create additional space within space. They allow vast journeys to happen within areas that are modest when judged in terms of square footage, journeys that encompass a multitude of locations that have an inherent, automatic atmosphere: tantalising forks in the path and mocking dead ends, hubs with corridors leading in all directions, leisurely perimeter paths and gristly knots of inner passages.
As such, I think they’re useful to reflect on at a time when the mantra of growth for its own sake has conquered the heart of videogame world design: bigger budgets for grander maps in terms of both explorable area and computational resource, all the way to Armageddon (did you know that Suicide Squad’s Metropolis is twice the size of Arkham Knight’s Gotham City?). But don’t take it from me, an armchair developer with armchair socialist sensibilities. Take it from The Legend of Zelda.
Bitesize café management game Zipp’s Café has hit PC, landing somewhere between the animal-noir atmosphere of raccoon detective game Backbone and the chill relationships-and-drinks vibes of Coffee Talk.
The words impossible port, punching above its weight, and even black magic are thrown around often when it comes to games on diminutive hardware. With Hogwarts Legacy, now launching on the Nintendo’s Switch, it could be another time to wheel out those tropes… but not quite. Hogwarts Legacy is not a miracle port, despite squeezing onto the Switch (quite literally, with a 7.4GB install size compared to 22.1GB on the Xbox One version). It manages to be better than feared, yet in places still rough as expected.
Hexed Objects
Hogwarts Legacy on Switch offers only a single performance mode, with few options to choose from. This is a step down from the Xbox One version, which has motion blur, film grain and even an unlocked frame-rate toggle. To be clear, this is a last generation game through-and-through, as we discussed in our original performance review. This already reduces the pressure on this Switch port, but further reductions are required in order to mitigate the drastic reduction in CPU and GPU power, as well as lower memory size and bandwidth. On Switch, we have similar levels of performance to the Xbox One version, though some areas are worse. These mostly seem to be memory and/or CPU-bound sections of data streaming, keeping the world fed with data and cleaning up behind as it goes. The result is a game that can run pretty well at 30fps in non-stressful areas outside of battles and loading sectors. But during these moments it is often closer to the 50ms frame time, meaning we see frame rate around 24-25 fps for prolonged periods. That’s not great, and the sluggishness can be felt without a frame analysis.
Textures, objects, and walls pop in as you explore the halls of Hogwarts Castle, causing stuttering and lurching.
The biggest issues though come from general instantiation (creation) of objects and removal of others, which can cause huge 100-200ms spikes, resulting in lurching and pausing as frame rates drop into the low teens. Hogwarts Castle itself is the biggest culprit of these. Textures, objects, and walls pop in as you cut classes and explore the halls, causing stuttering and lurching. It’s worth noting that even the current-gen consoles and PC sometimes suffer from these same stutters and pauses, but the Switch is affected the most here, especially in dense areas, like among trees, in the castle, and when animating characters, with frame rates often below 30fps. The average across 10+ minutes of tested sections is still 28.3fps with a 95% frame time of 50ms, which is not great but certainly far from the worst game on Switch, and the amount being pushed here is impressive considering the hardware.
Stupefying Stutters
The single biggest challenge for this port is the tiny memory pool of the Switch. 4GB LPDDR5 RAM is all that’s available, and the game likely gets around 3.5GB, which is half that of the Xbox One, at most. Video capture is disabled in the game, highlighting the choices made to use all the RAM possible. The result is that the game has been redesigned quite extensively for this port. Loading is long in the last generation versions and by and large this is the same here. This impact is no more apparent than in the increased sector points exclusive to this port. Entering Hogsmeade used to be an open stroll up the main high street, whereas on Switch this is around a minute or so to load. Entering shops in Hogsmeade used to be seamless, whereas now we are met with a load for each door you enter and the same for the way out. All this, alongside the existing extra loading the last-generation versions added, means the Switch is competing with Starfield for the award of most Loading encountered in 2023.
As expected, resolution is a big cut, targeting 1280×720 in docked mode with very little to no anti-aliasing coverage, with dynamic resolution scaling giving a counted low of approximately 1024×576. This is a good result, as handheld mode is often 960×540. It may and likely does run DRS, but expect this as the best case or average result. Due to the small 720p screen it never looks bad here, although it is still very noisy with shimmer and blurry textures. Aside from the very low pixel counts, the other huge cut is texture quality.
The game can struggle with mip-map loading from its Unreal Engine 4 base, which means even with such a drastic cut to texture assets, we still see low quality mip-maps and incredibly low texture filtering, although the opening prologue is much better. When in the open map of the game, though, we see soft, soupy textures on everything. In addition, we also see massive light reductions – even the sun appears to have moved. Shadow maps are much shorter in cascade and quality, and interiors use less light and fewer shadow casting sources. The core physically-based materials are also largely gone now, with the layers reduced to base albedo and specular, giving us an Xbox 360/PS3 generational look. Supporting this is the massive reduction in object triangle count. Objects are less rounded and very hexagonal-looking compared to the Xbox One. Areas have also been changed to save on space and performance. Animated objects in windows are now plain textures, and views are walled off to save on geometry load and save precious CPU and GPU time.
Characters suffer the most, with stiffer and more robotic mouths and expressions
Characters suffer the most, with faces and expressions being impacted by the reduced level of detail, which can change the look and movement of faces. The animated bone rigging underneath is also dramatically reduced, leaving much stiffer and more robotic mouths and expressions. Shadows are very low resolution and can flicker and pop on faces when talking. All these things add up to a stark difference between the Xbox One and Switch versions, with reductions in lights, shadows, details, hair cards, animation, textures, and world detail. In addition, we also see huge cuts to grass, tree quality, world clutter, and NPCs. Even motion blur and SSR are removed, along with many sections that had rain are now removed or reduced. Water bodies rely on projected cube maps only for reflections which is understandable as it can be a GPU-heavy effect.
Sound is better than I had feared. The quality and clarity is severely compressed as expected, with the volume increased on the Switch to compensate and you also get fewer sound effects and even miss music at times, although this may be a memory related bug. All the voices, music, sound effects are included, though with a decent TV setup you may notice more pop, fizzle, and compression issues than on any other version.
Shrinking the Magic
Hogwarts Legacy was always going to be an uphill battle trying to fit onto the Switch, but the team achieved it. Loading, resolution, and performance all take a hit, but generally they are on the right side of playable, especially compared to such big games as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet last year, with Hogwards certainly pushing much more demanding visuals, quality and scale. Although the world, detail, and quality has been drastically cut back, it has been done intelligently so, showing the extensive use of plain textures for details, more billboard trees, and blockier objects. Think more VHS copy than cinema film print. Fine detail, material accuracy, color clarity, scale, and overall quality are sacrificed heavily, but you can make out the same wonder if you squint and use your imagination… and a little magic.
Good news for those Assassin’s Creed fans who’ve already finished Mirage – a far more accomplishable task than in the series’ last few games – and are itching to dive back into the streets of ninth-century Baghdad for a fresh challenge: New Game Plus will arrive for free next month, along with a punishing new permadeath mode.
We didn’t really know what to make of KarmaZoo when it was first revealed in this year’s Wholesome Direct. The co-op platformer from Devolver Digital and Pastagames looked sweet, for sure, but pretty pixel-art platforming is hardly a rare species in the jungle that is the Switch eShop. What was going to be the hook to separate this one from the rest of the pack? The answer: Sharing the love.
Of course, helping your teammates get to the goal should be the objective of any team-based platforming (we say, as our mind furiously flashes back to memories of being thrown off cliffs in New Super Mario Bros. U), but Karmazoo takes things up to another level where helping your teammates — and racking up some good karma in the process — is the name of the game.
Last week, we asked you to share pictures of Miles Morales moving through the world of Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 using #PSshare #PSBlog. Here are this week’s highlights:
calisarah1998shares Miles shooting webs wearing the Shadow-Spider Suit
FrameCaptureVPshares Miles perching in the snow wearing the Miles Morales 2020 Suit.
stabbed_jawashares Miles hanging from a wall wearing the turtleneck-focused 10th Anniversary Suit.
AreeLyBadPunshares Miles swinging in front of a dynamic advertisement
txfoh_shares Miles’ silhouette standing out against the green neon of Mysterio’s Coney Island attraction
thefrostysmshares Miles swinging past a colorful wall in the Evolved Suit
Search #PSshare #PSBlog on Twitter or Instagram to see more entries to this week’s theme. Want to be featured in the next Share of the Week?
THEME: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 – Villains
SUBMIT BY: 11:59 PM PT on November 22, 2023
Next week, #SpiderMan2PS5’s villains are taking the spotlight. Share venomous, villainous moments using #PSshare #PSBlog for a chance to be featured.
PS5 Black Friday deals are in full swing, and we’ve already seen siginificant deals on PS5 slim bundles, 30% off PS Plus, DualSense controllers for just $49, and now we’re starting to see discounts on first and third party PS5 video games. Some of these discounts are great and likely the best we’re going to get, and others are good — but will likely be surpassed by Black Friday next week (November 24). Read on to find out what deals get our seal of approval, and what offers you should wait on.
God of War Ragnarok on PS5 for $34.99 – Buy
One of the standout games from 2022 was God of War Ragnarok. If you haven’t played this game yet, then you’re missing out — it’s truely incredible. We expected this title to pop up among the deals for Black Friday this year, and we’re just very excited that the 50% discount has gone live so early. Pick up your copy in the next week for the crazy price of $35. Walmart will have this for $40 next week, but we imagine that’ll be price matched before then.
Star Wars Jedi Survivor for $34.99 – Hold
While $34.99 is still a very good deal for one of the best Star Wars games ever made, $34.99 is not the best deal we will be getting on the sequel to Fallen Order. From November 22, Walmart will have Star Wars Jedi Survivor for just $30, which is a whole $4.99 less than every other retailer right now. So, if you have the patience, hold on that order and wait for the bigger and better Black Friday sales next week. If you simply want the game now, we’ll leave a link just below as well.
Final Fantasy 16 on PS5 for $39.99 – Buy
You can pick up 2023’s entry into the Final Fantasy saga for just $39.99, that’s a fantastic 43% off in Amazon’s Black Friday sale. If you’ve yet to play this game, then you should move fast to snap it up. We gave it a 9 back in June when it first came out, and we stick by that rating still. The 16th installment in the franchise is a little bit of a departure from what FF would usually expect from the series, but it’s absolutely worth playing. As far as we’re aware, this is the best deal we’re going to get on Final Fantasy 16.
Resident Evil 4 for $39.99 – Hold
In all honesty $40 for a Game of the Year contender is a great deal, it’s just not the best deal we’re going to get throughout Black Friday. Next week Resident Evil 4 will drop to just $30 at Walmart, and you can get early access to that deal if you’re a Walmart+ member.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage on PS5/ Xbox for $39.99 – Buy
You get a choice between consoles for this one, as Assassin’s Creed Mirage has dropped to just $39.99 in the early Black Friday sales across most retailers. This is the best deal we’re getting on AC, with Walmart not dropping it any further when their deals go live on November 22.
The Last of Us Part 1 for $39.99 – Buy
Let’s be honest, this is probably the price it should’ve been in the first place, rather than a whole — checks notes — $70? Well, at least it’s come down quite heavily in price now to $39.99. If you were hoping for any further discounts, you’re out of luck as this is the best we’re getting. Still, we think this is quite a good deal for the perfect version of one of the best games ever made.
Street Fighter 6 for $39.99 – Hold
Another good deal, but another hold for now. Just like its Capcom brother RE4, Street Fighter 6 is down to $39.99 at most retailers right now, but will fall to just $30 at Walmart when their proper Black Friday deals kicks off on November 22. So, for now, be patient and you can get an even better deal. Or, just ignore us and buy it now anyway cause you’re bored and want a game to play ASAP.
Metal Gear Solid – Master Collection Vol. 1 for $39.99 – Buy
Here’s another one where you get to go, hey it should’ve been that price in the first place! Well, we’ll let you have your fun. The MGS collection isn’t something to write home about, but it’s the best way to play the classic games on modern consoles right now, and it does come with a lot of content. So, at $39.99, you’re getting a reasonable deal here. It’s not getting any cheaper, either, so this is the best deal you’re going to get.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
“Night Cascades is on sale,” a Steam notification informed me this week. I didn’t remember adding it to my wishlist, and honestly I didn’t remember what it was. Still, a visual novel about lesbians solving occult mysteries? Oh, and it’s made by the studio behind RPS favourites Long Live The Queen and Black Closet? For under £5? Ah, go on. Having now played it, yeah, I’m happy with the spooky investigation and clueless yearning that I got for a fiver.
