Author: Game Infliction

Yakuza / Like a Dragon developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio has revealed Project Century at The Game Awards 2024, a new action game set in 1915 with some absolutely fantastic vibes.

Despite a pretty lengthy trailer, we don’t actually know much about what Project Century is. It looks kind of like a classic Yakuza action game, with a tough guy protagonist walking around what we probably can safely assume is Japan, beating people up. But this is much gorier than we’re used to seeing, the protagonist seems to be a mystery man we haven’t met before, and the Japan we’re exploring seems to have some sort of alt-history stuff going on? Neat!

Fans will likely be surprised at the announcement given RGG Studio only revealed its last game in September and is yet to release it, as Like a Dragon: Pirate Yakuza in Hawaii isn’t due out until February 21. But this isn’t the highly anticipated and most obvious choice of Yakuza / Like a Dragon 9, however, which still goes unmentioned at RGG Studio. The developer only released the last mainline entry in January with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, of course, but given its intense release schedule, another mainline game already wouldn’t be out of the question.

The developer is known for juggling multiple games at once, as in the last five years, for example, RGG Studio has released Yakuza 4 Remastered, Yakuza 5 Remastered, Yakuza: Like a Dragon, Judgment Remastered, Lost Judgment, Like a Dragon: Ishin, Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name, and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, alongside three Super Monkey Ball Games and an enhanced remaster of Virtua Fighter 5. That’s 12 games in total.

In our 9/10 review of the last RGG Studio release, IGN said: “Sprawling, enthralling, and packed with dynamic brawling, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth isn’t just the best turn-based Like a Dragon game, it’s one of the greatest games in the entire series.”

Developing…

CD Projekt has explained why it went with Ciri as protagonist for The Witcher 4 instead of continuing with Geralt as the main character.

The Witcher 4, just revealed at The Game Awards 2024 with a debut trailer, is the first in a new trilogy of Witcher games set after the events of The Witcher 3.

Speaking exclusively to IGN ahead of the reveal, executive producer Małgorzata Mitręga said Ciri was “the very organic, logical choice.”

“It was always about her, starting from Saga when you read it in the books. She’s an amazing, layered character. And of course, as a protagonist we said goodbye to Geralt previously. So this is a continuation. I guess for all of us it’s like she was meant to be. That was always her.”

Game director Sebastian Kalemba added that because Ciri is younger than Geralt, players will have more freedom to define her character in a way they couldn’t with Geralt. This also affords the developers more space to explore her character.

“She’s actually about to become the Witcher,” Kalemba explained. “She’s about to actually form her own codex, but on her own terms. The way she actually deals with the monsters, the way she deals with quests, the adventures, it’s her own unique way. And also I think that she gives more room to be able to tell different stories here and there. Of course, we want to give the opportunity for the player to explore more nuance because this is what we do. But she deserves that.”

Both Mitręga and Kalemba acknowledged a potential backlash from some corners of the internet at Ciri’s role as protagonist in The Witcher 4, but both insisted Ciri was always going to be the game’s main character.

“There was an intention behind this choice,” Kalemba said. “It was far from roulette. It wasn’t random. I remember we had discussions nine years ago, we were talking about who’s next? The very, very instant answer was Ciri. There are many reasons behind that. We’ve already mentioned a few. But she really deserves a stage and we want players to really experience her story because she has so much to tell, so much to prove. The amount of challenges that are in front of her give us so much amazing energy and fuel to create an epic saga that we had no choice but to go with it. We all felt that this is the way. I believe this is the super right choice.”

We’ve got plenty more exclusive content on The Witcher 4, including a trailer breakdown and an interview with CD Projekt where the developer explains why The Witcher 4 will avoid a Cyberpunk 2077-style launch disaster.

And be sure to check out IGN’s round-up of everything announced at The Game Awards 2024 for more on what’s coming to the world of gaming in the years to come.

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.

“First-person shooter” is a broad term. It can mean everything from an action-horror game like F.E.A.R., to a sci-fi adventure like Metroid Prime, to a demon-eviscerating romp like Doom. Even narrowing it down to a sub-category like “military FPS” still puts the linear campaign of Call of Duty, the enormous PvP clashes of Battlefield, and the white-knuckle extractions of Escape from Tarkov (among others) under a single umbrella. Delta Force, the latest revival of a now 26-year-old shooter series last seen in 2009, is probably best defined as a bit of each of those last two – with a dedicated large-scale PvP mode and a separate extraction shooter mode, it sits somewhat awkwardly at the center of that Venn diagram. As a result, it’s a free-to-play one-stop shop of “just fine”: It’s competent all around, but doesn’t distinguish itself in battle with any substantial new ideas.

While Delta is officially “out,” (whatever that means anymore) only two of the three main modes are currently available. The third, a single-player campaign, is planned as paid DLC somewhere down the line. Of the two that are here now, the Warfare mode is Delta Force’s version of the big team combat of Battlefield, where 64 players duke it out for supremacy across one of a handful of sprawling arenas. There is no straight kill-focused Deathmatch; instead, the focus is on objective-based games like King of the Hill variants. The standout among these is Attack and Defend, which has one team capturing strategic points before running out of a finite number of respawns, while the other team defends those areas with limitless lives. It’s a subtle rule change that does put a good spin on a mode we’ve seen a ton of in Battlefield; initially, the offense has the advantage thanks to favorable terrain and an abundance of vehicles, but things even out as the match progresses and the defense retreats toward their home base and has quick access to respawned reinforcements. This means each side typically gets to spend some time as both the figurative hammer and the nail.

The battles certainly do feel big, which is a good thing. Fast respawns mean both teams are dense with soldiers at all times. Once the bullets and rockets start flying, the chaos and confusion of combat is as exciting as you’d expect for a Battlefield-style game. Each gun you use earns it’s own XP to unlock component options, as is common on modern military shooters. It’s particularly fun when you get behind the controls of a vehicle and start running roughshod over the other team. A tank fully loaded with gunners can dominate, but don’t sleep on the impact of a simple machine gun turret on the top of an armored car. And similar to Battlefield (yes, you’re hearing that comparison a lot, for good reason), aerial vehicles like helicopters are challenging to pilot but can be powerful in the right hands, rewarding skillful play.

Vehicles don’t totally dominate the battlefield, however, thanks to the varied operatives you can choose to play as and switch between mid-match. These named characters act as a sort of hybrid between a simple loadout choice and a bespoke hero, which is somewhat similar to the Specialists from Battlefield 2042, which fits the jack-of-all-trades theme persistent throughout Delta Force. They create the sort of rocket-paper-scissors balance that Battlefield veterans will know intimately, and it’s done pretty well: if you are being overrun by vehicles, it might be a good idea to spawn with a rocket launcher or, if the fight is taking place in open spaces, it could be time to bust out the trusty sniper rifle. Each character has unique abilities that are helpful in battle too, like Luna’s Detection Arrows that can periodically be fired to reveal enemies, but none are so powerful as to outright win a skirmish, let alone a whole match for you.

I just wish the action felt better on a basic level. One thing that strikes me as off is the way that bullet arc and trajectory factor heavily into shooting, so leading your targets is essential for firing accurately at a distance. I don’t mind leading a target, but often the bullets feel like they are flying so slow that I may as well be firing airsoft rounds. Maybe that’s more realistic than Call of Duty’s more arcadey ballistics model, but feels deeply at odds with the aggressive pace of play that the objective-based Attack and Defend mode drives. Once you die you generally need to rush back to the objective, but as you’re dashing through open space you’re an easy target, and the finicky shooting also means it’s tough to return fire accurately on the move. I found this meant deaths tend to come in bunches while I tried to get back to a good position. It’s also a bit strange to have the gunplay be so grounded in simulation at one moment, then have operators activate fantastical abilities like clouds of healing smoke or status effect-inflicting drones the next. There’s nothing inherently bad about that, it’s just a head-scratcher.

Get in, get loot, get out

On the other side of things, the Operations mode follows the equally familiar extraction shooter framework: You and up to two friends can form a three-person squad to enter an area, shoot AI bad guys, grab the loot, and scoot back to the extraction zone without catching a bullet. It’s a tried-and-true formula that Delta Force follows to the letter, but the generally high quality of its execution makes up for at least some of that lack of imagination.

There are three levels available at launch (with another unlocking in just a few days) and each is an open sandbox that is dense with objectives to choose from. Maps easily highlight points of interest for things like bounty targets, safes to plunder, and intel to decode. That might seem like a small detail to praise, but in a genre dominated by games like Escape from Tarkov that are designed to be intentionally opaque, Delta Force’s choice to make important information accessible is a nice differentiator. I like being able to just drop a waypoint and know what I’m in for when I get there without having to memorize the maps or look them up in a guide.

Once you pick your destination, you’ll need to shoot your way through squads of AI soldiers, and occasionally other human squads who cross your path. So while we have more information here than in similar games, the suspense is still in effect because you never know who’s around, or in what numbers, and that means every enemy encounter starts with some fast risk assessment: do you take the shot and risk letting everyone know where you are, or do you sneak by, leaving a potential threat on the field? Making quick decisions with limited information does a good job of keeping the action strategic and interesting. That’s particularly true if you see other people, as they are certainly more dangerous than the bots, but could be loot-rich targets worth taking on.

I’m a fan of the enemy variety Delta Force throws at you. I encountered plenty of run-of-the-mill soldiers that had my squad fighting roving bands of riflemen, ducking into buildings to avoid sniper fire, and executing on-the-fly flanking maneuvers to get around riot shields. But then there are surprises that shake things up: One memorable moment saw my team pinned down by a massive armored baddie blasting at us with a minigun as we lobbed grenades from behind cover. Another time, a member of our trio was cracking a safe while the other squadmate and I provided cover, and I almost jumped out of my chair when a giant alligator came around the corner and tried to put a stop to our fun.

One place where you get perhaps too much information, though, is the loot system. There are all sorts of containers everywhere, like file cabinets, coat pockets, fallen enemies, etc. – but just about any Operation starts with the whole squad just running right towards whichever safe on the map is marked with the best loot. That could use some work, because the levels themselves are really cool when you explore them freely. Areas like The Dam mix offices with exposed industrial exteriors, and there are often hidden doors to open or secret hidden areas where loot can be stashed. Some areas require specific operators to access, like chain link fence that needs to be cut into by the Engineer, which would give you even more reasons to think about your team composition if there were a reasonable chance that there’s something worth finding on the other side. I would be much more inclined to explore if I thought valuable treasures were potentially waiting in all these hidey-holes.

The time between Operations is spent at the Black Site, which functions as your home base and the tiny amount of storage space in your stash that needs upgrading. It’s also where you manage the well-built loadouts screen where you can save a few different kits you can take into battle, or rebuild them with just a few clicks. It’s a fast and slick way to get back in the action, which helps take the sting out of a failed extraction.

I’m also a fan of the ticket system, which you can trade in for entire load-outs, including weapons, armor, ammo, and healing items. There are different quality levels you can cash in, Recruit gives basic equipment, Standard includes better armor and weapons with more powerful mods, etc. Every failed extraction gives you a Recruit Ticket, and you automatically generate one every eight hours, so even if you have a run of terrible luck and lose all your in-game money, you can still start working your way back up from the bottom with some decent gear. The more powerful tickets, meanwhile, are tied to completing events. These can be as simple as logging in at certain times, or as complex as completing a long series of assigned tasks in a particular level or as a specific character.

Upgrading other parts of the Black Site takes a mix of increasing levels and salvaging specific components in the field. I appreciate that you can see what things you need to collect, and even launch straight to the correct level to find them, though the amount of time it takes to get even the early upgrades going can take way too long when you need to have good RNG luck with what you find on top of grinding up to the right level. I’d love to build up a workbench to make my own ammo, but given the commitment I’m just going to stick to selling weird vases and buying what I need, thanks.