There’s a new Lenovo Legion Go on the way, and while it’s ditching the signature detachable controllers, it’s still got something unusual to stick on its CV. The Lenovo Legion Go S is a smaller, cheaper take on Lenovo’s portable gaming PC, and it’s on track to become the first officially licensed SteamOS handheld outside of Valve’s own Steam Deck range.
Microsoft has announced wave one of its January 2025 Xbox Game Pass lineup.
First up, today, January 7, Road 96 (Cloud, Console, and PC) returns to Game Pass via Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard. “Road 96 is a crazy, beautiful road-trip,” reads the official blurb. “On this risky road trip to the border, you’ll meet incredible characters and discover their intertwined stories and secrets in an ever-evolving adventure. But every mile opens a choice to make. Your decisions will change your adventure, change the people you meet, and maybe even change the world.”
Tomorrow, January 8, Lightyear Frontier (Game Preview) (Xbox Series X|S) launches into Game Pass Standard. “Start your interstellar homestead in this peaceful open-world farming adventure! Build your sustainable exofarm, grow alien crops, customize your mech, and explore a new world full of mystery with up to three friends!”
Also on January 8, My Time at Sandrock (Console) is available on Game Pass Standard. “Just like My Time at Portia, My Time at Sandrock takes place in a wholesome post-apocalyptic world 300 years after the Day of Calamity destroyed most modern technologies. Gather resources to build machines, befriend locals, and defend Sandrock from monsters — all while saving the town from economic ruin!”
Sticking with January 8, Robin Hood – Sherwood Builders (Xbox Series X|S) hits Game Pass Standard. “Join Robin Hood and his unwavering band of outlaws in 12th-century England on their mission to free Nottingham. Travel across various regions, build up a secret hideout village and help the denizens of the surrounding lands. Complete quests, construct various builds, craft a broad range of items, and freely explore locations inspired by both myth and history in this open-world RPG with base-building features.”
Rounding out a packed January 8 is Rolling Hills (Console) on Game Pass Standard. “Serve sushi as a robot chef in Rolling Hills, a life sim about running your own restaurant in a cozy village. Make new friends, purchase ingredients, enhance your shop, and improve the lives of your neighbors as you perfect your craft!”
Moving on to January 14, Game Pass Ultimate subscribers get EA Sports UFC 5 (Cloud and Xbox Series X|S) via EA Play. “Unleash your fury and get unlimited access to EA Sports UFC 5, coming to Game Pass Ultimate via EA Play. Plus, members can score the Bruce Lee Bundle and play as alter egos of the father of mixed martial arts, available at no additional cost in the Perks section from January 14 to February 11.”
Here’s a big one: Blizzard action RPG classic Diablo (PC) hits Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass on January 14. “Return to the legendary town of Tristram in Diablo, the groundbreaking action-RPG that defined the genre, coming to Game Pass on January 14! With its satisfying progression, deep character customization, and intense battles, Diablo delivers an unforgettable journey through a dark gothic fantasy world.”
As always, a number of games leave Game Pass as new games arrive.
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.
Sequel launches this month.
A new trailer for Tails of Iron 2: Whiskers of Winter has been revealed ahead of the game’s upcoming launch on 28th January 2025.
Boasting the voiceover talents of Doug Cockle (The Witcher III), the new trailer showcases a boatload of gameplay highlighting the glorious violence and stunning 2D visuals. As for the game itself, users will be treated to either a standard digital edition or a deluxe edition, the latter of which will come with two sets of cosmetic DLCs in the form of the ‘Augur of the Draugr’ set and the ‘Hair to the Throne’ cosmetic pack,
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Welcome to our first “Coming Soon” announcement for 2025! And special welcome to all you new friends that picked up gaming hardware the last few weeks. Let’s get you prepped for what to install or play next. To the games!
Road 96 (Cloud, Console, and PC) – January 7
Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass, Game Pass Standard
Returning to the Game Pass library, Road 96 is a crazy, beautiful road-trip. On this risky road trip to the border, you’ll meet incredible characters and discover their intertwined stories and secrets in an ever-evolving adventure. But every mile opens a choice to make. Your decisions will change your adventure, change the people you meet, and maybe even change the world.
Lightyear Frontier (Game Preview) (Xbox Series X|S) – January 8
Now with Game Pass Standard
Start your interstellar homestead in this peaceful open-world farming adventure! Build your sustainable exofarm, grow alien crops, customize your mech, and explore a new world full of mystery with up to three friends!
My Time at Sandrock (Console) – January 8
Now with Game Pass Standard
Just like My Time at Portia, My Time at Sandrock takes place in a wholesome post-apocalyptic world 300 years after the Day of Calamity destroyed most modern technologies. Gather resources to build machines, befriend locals, and defend Sandrock from monsters — all while saving the town from economic ruin!
Robin Hood – Sherwood Builders (Xbox Series X|S) – January 8
Now with Game Pass Standard
Join Robin Hood and his unwavering band of outlaws in 12th-century England on their mission to free Nottingham. Travel across various regions, build up a secret hideout village and help the denizens of the surrounding lands. Complete quests, construct various builds, craft a broad range of items, and freely explore locations inspired by both myth and history in this open-world RPG with base-building features.
Rolling Hills (Console) – January 8
Now with Game Pass Standard
Serve sushi as a robot chef in Rolling Hills, a life sim about running your own restaurant in a cozy village. Make new friends, purchase ingredients, enhance your shop, and improve the lives of your neighbors as you perfect your craft!
EA Sports UFC 5 (Cloud and Xbox Series X|S) EA Play – January 14
Game Pass Ultimate
Unleash your fury and get unlimited access to EA Sports UFC 5, coming to Game Pass Ultimate via EA Play. Plus, members can score the Bruce Lee Bundle and play as alter egos of the father of mixed martial arts, available at no additional cost in the Perks section from January 14 to February 11.
Diablo (PC) – January 14
Game Pass Ultimate, PC Game Pass
Return to the legendary town of Tristram in Diablo, the groundbreaking action-RPG that defined the genre, coming to Game Pass on January 14! With its satisfying progression, deep character customization, and intense battles, Diablo delivers an unforgettable journey through a dark gothic fantasy world.
New year, new Perks! Check the Game Pass section on your console, Xbox mobile app, or Xbox app on PC on a regular basis to find new in-game content, consumables, and offers included with your Game Pass Ultimate membership.
First Descendant Season 2: Ancestors Bundle – Available now
Play the next-generation looter shooter, The First Descendant, and elevate your experience with the exclusive Season 2: Ancestors Bundle! Customize your Descendants and weapons with unique styles and enhancements!
Vigor: Coast Guardian Pack – Available now
Beneath the shimmering northern lights on the frozen coast of Anniken, a silent lighthouse overlooks the Outlands. Gear up and carry the legacy of this iconic landmark into every battle with the Coast Guardian Pack.
Apex Legends: Feelin’ Lucky? Weapon Charm – Available now
Add some flair to your arsenal with the Feelin’ Lucky? Weapon Charm. Equip this to your favorite weapon and battle for glory, fame, and fortune in style.
Metaball: Punk Pack – January 7
Metaball is a free-to-play, crossplay-enabled multiplayer sports game with fast-paced action. The Punk Pack unlocks seven colorful and cool legendary outfits!
The following games are leaving the Game Pass library soon, so be sure to show them some love and jump in before they go. Remember to use your membership discount to save up to 20% to keep them in your library.
We’ll be back to our usual twice monthly announcements, so keep tuned here and to Game Pass, PC Game Pass, and Xbox on social for all the updates on when “coming soon” turns into “available today” to play. Be back soon!
The post Coming Soon to Game Pass: Diablo, EA Sports UFC 5, and More appeared first on Xbox Wire.
The latest PS5 accessories get a new look with the Midnight Black Collection – bringing the galaxy-inspired Midnight Black colorway to the PlayStation Portal remote player, DualSense Edge wireless controller, Pulse Elite wireless headset, and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds.
These accessories perfectly complement the Midnight Black PS5 accessories already available, including the DualSense wireless controller and PS5 console covers.
Each Midnight Black accessory features a unique, rich shade of black, with sleek detailing on various buttons and accents such as the PlayStation logo. The Midnight Black design extends to the included charging case for Pulse Explore earbuds, charging hanger for Pulse Elite headset, and carrying case for DualSense Edge controller. The Pulse Elite wireless headset and Pulse Explore wireless earbuds will also include a felt grey carrying case.
The new Midnight Black Collection will be available at the following recommended retail prices (RRP):
The new Midnight Black collection launches on February 20, 2025, with pre-orders beginning on January 16 at 10am local time (10am ET in the U.S.) on direct.playstation.com. Participating retailers will also begin pre-orders starting January 16. Availability may vary by country/region, so be sure to check your local retailer for availability.
Which new Midnight Black accessory design is your favorite? Share your thoughts in the comments below, and head to PlayStation.com for more details on the latest PS5 accessories.
PUBG and inZoi are getting AI companions described as Co-Playable Characters (CPCs).
Krafton, the South Korean company behind both games, announced it was working with Nvidia to bring these AI teammates into each title.
A CPC is an AI companion that can interact with gamers, enabled by an on-device SLM (Small Language Model) built with Nvidia’s Avatar Cloud Engine (ACE) technology, Krafton said.
“Unlike traditional NPCs (non-player characters), CPCs are equipped with the ability to interact and cooperate with users, as they understand and respond to game situations in a human-like manner,” the company continued.
Krafton said they can be instructed to coordinate and cooperate with players by using the language model built with ACE. Specifically in PUBG, CPCs will introduce a new SLM-powered companion called “Ally” that can communicate verbally and team up with the player. “Players can converse and strategize with their AI-powered CPC companion just like they would a human teammate, greatly enhancing gameplay,” Krafton said.
In a video showing off the tech, the PUBG player uses voice comms to ask their Ally to keep an eye out for a vest and ammo. The Ally finds both and lets their human teammate know via voiced dialogue and a ping. The Ally also tells their human teammate that they’ve spotted an enemy and are providing covering fire. Later, the player asks if there’s a vehicle nearby, and the Ally announces they’ve found one and will “come to you.” The player asks their Ally to flank in a firefight and they oblige, again using voice comms to communicate. The Ally will even engage in a spot of banter upon victory.
Transform solo gameplay into a seamless team experience with PUBG Ally.
KRAFTON & NVIDIA have teamed up to create the world’s first Co-Playable Character (CPC), built with NVIDIA ACE → https://t.co/JLcLQ8crrD pic.twitter.com/7VLtUfp6WA
— NVIDIA GeForce (@NVIDIAGeForce) January 7, 2025
The idea, clearly, is to replicate a human teammate as realistically as possible with AI speech, fuelled by the SLM. We’ve seen AI teammates help humans out in many video games in the past, and they’ll do similar things to what’s on show here. The difference now is you get some slightly stilted speech from your companion to simulate in-game voice comms.
It works different in inZoi, Krafton’s The Sims competitor. Here, citizens, known as “Zois,” interact and make choices based on their “free will and life experiences” in real-time. “Zois will follow fashion trends, spread rumors, develop reputations and more, powered by the SLM,” Krafton said.
These developments come as little surprise given Krafton established a Deep Learning Division of its own in 2022, and has secured various core AI technologies in recent years. It’s going all-in on AI when it comes to video game development amid the various ethical and environmental concerns around the tech and its well-documented impact on jobs.
But it’s far from alone in this. Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft have all invested heavily in generative AI, with the latter showing off its “Neo NPCs,” a prototype for player-facing generative AI that essentially makes it so you can talk to NPCs in a video game, last year.
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.
Last night, at CES 2025, Nvidia finally announced their RTX 50 series graphics cards, and can I just say that I am wise to the RTX 5090’s tricks. A GPU that eats up to 575W and costs £1939 / $1999? Yeah, nice try, Geoffrey N. Vidia, but such a mad card couldn’t possibly exist in reality. It’s clearly only here to make the other ones, the RTX 5080, RTX 5070 Ti, and RTX 5070, look like better deals.
Warning: Spoilers for The Last of Us Part 2 follow
HBO has just given us a brand new look at The Last of Us Season 2, which will be arriving on our television screens in April of this year. It’s only a short teaser, clocking in at just under a minute, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t any shots, scenes, and characters that are worth taking a closer look at. From a grief-ridden hospital corridor to an anger-harbouring, red-drenched hospital corridor, we’ve got you covered (as well as some other non-corridor-related details).
In case you missed it, we already did a full in-depth breakdown of the first Season Two trailer back in 2024, so you can read more about some of our theories about how the show might deviate from The Last of Us Part 2 game there. And we even had a go at predicting how this upcoming HBO season will play out if you’re in the mood for pure (educated) guesswork. But stay here if you want to check out the five new details, as well as comparisons between the show and Naughty Dog’s original game that we’ve picked out from the brand-new trailer.
As the teaser opens we get our first glimpse at the aftermath of The Last of Us’ most pivotal scene. An abandoned hallway, bathed by a flashing red light, is soundtracked by an alarm sound that will no doubt send shivers down the spine of anyone who has played the game. Chronologically, this takes place moments after Joel’s fateful decision to rescue Ellie from the Fireflies at the end of season one. We see a panicked Abby – portrayed here by Kaitlyn Dever – walk down the corridor leading to the operating theater of St Louis’ fictional St Mary’s Hospital. In that room, she’ll find the body of her dad, the surgeon whom Joel murdered to save Ellie. It’s the action that sets the wheel in motion for Part 2’s and (we assume) Season 2’s story of spiraling revenge and violence.
Speaking of revenge and violence, that is exactly what is taking place in this scene just before the trailer ends, which shows Bella Ramsey’s Ellie bathed in red light in a corridor at Lakehill Seattle Hospital. This is almost certainly a replication of the moment in The Last of Us Part 2 when, having cornered one of Abby’s accomplices, Nora, Ellie proceeds to unleash what can only be described as a ferocious assault on her pleading victim. It’s a real turning point for Ellie in the game’s story as we really see for the first time how unstable she has become, and the uncomfortable lengths she’ll go in search of vengeance.
The Last of Us Part 2 is consistently incredibly violent, even by its predecessor’s standards, and 20 seconds into the teaser we get our first look at a bladed sickle weapon, which presumably belongs to one of the Seraphites. Also known as Scars, this cult-like faction from the game favors more workman-like weaponry such as hammers, machetes, bows, and, in this case, sickles. This may seem like a really tenuous detail, but this specific tool of destruction (or harvesting if that’s more your speed) plays a key role late in The Last of Us Part 2’s story. In a brutal showdown with a pickaxe-wielding Seraphite heavy, Abby achieves bloody victory with a Sickle, tearing apart the Seraphite’s face in a sequence that’s frequently harrowing.
At the 21 second mark we get a lovely close-up of Jeffrey Wright, who plays Isaac Dixon, the leader of the Washington Liberation Front; a paramilitary organisation that Abby works with. Following in the footsteps of Season 1 actor Merle Dandridge (who played Marlene), Wright actually reprises his role from the game, where he provided voice and motion-capture for Dixon in The Last of Us Part 2.
A complicated character consumed by conflict (as many in this story are), Dixon doesn’t get a ton of screen time in the game. Here’s hoping we get a bit more of him in the show, as well as more of that fetching beard and knitwear combo.
And finally, at 24 seconds in, we get a look at one of the most memorable scenes from across both The Last of Us games – the Jackson dance. Dina, played in the HBO show by Alien Romulus’ Isabela Merced, can be seen embracing Ellie in a scene that will spark their romance. It’s a real warm moment of tenderness amongst the cold hopelessness that the rest of the story projects, which is likely why it endures as such a memorable moment.
It will be interesting to see if the chronology of events is being played around with here. In The Last of Us Part Two, the dance occurs right at the end of the story in flashback form, but we already know that Season 2 of the show is not going to reach that far into the timeline. The fact that we’re seeing it here in the trailer suggests that Neil Druckmann and Craig Mazin might be tweaking the order we see these scenes, perhaps to help cement the emotional stakes of Ellie’s journey.
We won’t have to wait long to see what changes, if any, have been made to The Last of Us Part Two’s story, though, with Season 2 of the show only a few months away now. What are you most excited to see in the upcoming episodes? Let us know in the comments below.
Countless are the pretenders to Dungeon Keeper‘s skull-buttressed throne, but I sense a certain fearful promise in The Deadly Path, a building management and roguelike strategy game from Owlskip Enterprises. The setup here is that you’re stuck in a tabletop underworld with a bunch of elder gods, or Dread Deities. As Custodian of this dusty funereal expanse, you must place structures on tiles around your throne room, striving to fulfil the desires of whichever Dread Deity is in play, while fending off pernicious attackers from the realm of light. Here’s a trailer.
Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket kicks off a new Wonder Pick event today, January 7, but strangely hasn’t announced it, added missions with rewards, or items to the shop.
Dataminers have already uncovered everything coming to the digital TCG in the near future, however, so details on what’s coming and when are already available.
The Wonder Picking portion of the Charmander and Squirtle Wonder Pick Event is the only aspect currently available, but as reported by Pokémon Zone, datamining confirms the rest will arrive tomorrow, January 8. This is the first time developer Creatures Inc. has staggered an event’s release.
Everything else is relatively standard, however. The Wonder Pick event will let players access free bonus picks for a chance at picking up Wonder Hourglasses, Blastoise Event Shop Tickets, and Charmander and Squirtle cards including two new Promo versions.
Missions will encourage players to do all of the above, awarding players with Event Shop Tickets for Wonder Picking three, four, and five times and for collecting one Squirtle and one Charmander.
Part 2 of the Wonder Pick Event will launch a week later on January 15, offering Event Shop Tickets for Wonder Picking one through six times, and for collecting five and 10 Fire cards and five and 10 Water cards.
These Blastoise Event Shop Tickets can, unsurprisingly, be used to purchase Blastoise themed items in the shop. Part 1 of the event will see a cover featuring Blue and Blastoise released, a backdrop featuring Blue released, and a Tiny Temple backdrop released.
Part 2 of the event will expand these offerings with a Blue and Blastoise card sleeves and playmat, a Blastoise coin, a Blastoise icon, and presumably ten lots of 50 Shinedust.
The event coincides somewhat with the Blastoise Drop Event currently available in the single-player battles, with players able to take on a variety of Blastoise themed decks to win booster packs with new promo cards. The Mythical Island player versus player event is also currently underway.
Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived October 30 and is a certified hit for Creatures Inc. and The Pokémon Company, having earned an estimated $200 million in its first month across more than 60 million downloads.
This huge amount of money comes as Pokémon TCG Pocket follows the standard mobile and free to play game model, flooding players with rewards in the first few days before soon drying up, with spending real world money the only real way to re-experience that early thrill outside of the occasional set drop like Mythical Island.
Completing Genetic Apex, the first set of cards which totals 226 officially but also contains 60 rare alternate art cards, will take players not spending money around two years according to one estimate, while those looking to make it rain can wrap up the collection after dropping around $1,500.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
