Divine Dynamo Flamefrit! Loco Motive! Nine Sols!
The latest Nintendo Download update for North America has arrived, and it’s bringing new games galore to the eShop in your region. As always, be sure to drop a vote in our poll and comment down below with your potential picks for the week. Enjoy!
Note that two of the biggest releases this week — MySims: Cozy Bundle and Stray — featured in last week’s download. We didn’t forget about them!
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As soon as I got off the boat and set foot in Dawnshore, the first major open zone of Avowed, I knew I was in for a good time. The port city of Paradis is absolutely dripping in character. From the mix of weathered buildings with missing bricks, merchants waving me over to see their wares, and a handful of thieves hanging about that don’t want to talk to me, it all felt so alive. So naturally the first thing I do is climb to the top of the bell tower for a better view and discover some gold coins resting inside a bird’s nest. “The game anticipated I might go here; this is going to be great.”
Player choice is at the forefront in Avowed and it’s a theme that is infused into just about everything you can do within the game’s world, born from a studio that prides itself on the motto of, “Your Worlds, Your Way.” That means everything is on the table, from complex dialog choices to customized character builds that let you choose how you want to explore the Living Lands within the world of Eora. Combat also fits within this framework of player choice, and it was an aspect that I explored in detail during a recent hands-on media event for Avowed.
I must have tried close to a dozen weapons during my session (the powerful arquebus rifle would become my favorite, more on that in a bit), but having the freedom to cycle between axes and bows and hammers and wands and even a spell book was incredibly flexible. I felt encouraged by the game to experiment even though my starting background as a ‘War Hero’ began to feel more like a suggestion – as designed.
“I would describe it as like an open class system,” Senior Combat Designer Max Matzenbacher tells me. “In games where it’s class-based, you can be restricted on which weapons you can wield, which abilities you can select from. But in Avowed, the classes are more of a guideline or a flag post for someone to follow; you can mix and match your weapons at any time in the game. You can put things in your primary and off-hand, and then you can combine nearly any ability from any tree at any time. So, you could take something from a wizard build that’s a Meteor Storm style ability and then have a more fighter-centric ability. It’s giving the player the opportunity to build their class. We give you some indicators and you can find nods to Pillars of Eternity within those trees, and more nuanced subclasses, but you can really build whatever you like.”
“Flexibility in combat actions was always a goal for us,” adds Gameplay Director Gabe Paramo. “In terms of weapons, you can expect anywhere from a one-hit dagger to a slow reloading arquebus, two-handed great hammers, a one-handed sword, one-handed pistol, a one-handed wand, and we have a dual-wielding system that lets the player equip off-hand and one-handed weapons together in a dual-wielding type way.”
As I continued my experimentation with weapons, I initially found myself gravitating to the Grimoire early on, which is a magic weapon that allows you to tap spell abilities even if your class isn’t magic-based. Holding it in my off-hand while wielding a sword in the other felt like a great combination that could yield some entertaining results in combat. We’re told you can also discover more of these Grimoires throughout Avowed, and then choose to either improve it or learn spells from it. For example, you could take something that you learned from a Grimoire, like a “Fan of Flames” ability, and put it into your ability bar, and then run around with a giant hammer while tossing fire independently of the spell book.
“I think the biggest kind of unique element is how all the pieces fit together and how we don’t restrict the player; to give them ultimate flexibility in being able to quickly swap and execute these actions, like their abilities they choose from their trees, the weapons they fire, the dodge — all those I would say is a mix of how a lot of games handle it; we just mix some elements more uniquely,” Paramo says.
Avowed also lets you enchant (modify) unique weapons by utilizing resources that you’ve gathered throughout the world, rewarding the more adventurous and curious players with the tools needed to upgrade more powerful weapons and gear. As someone who loves to explore every nook and cranny, I was thrilled to see how often my curiosity was being rewarded, like the previously mentioned bird nest on top of the bell tower. It was also when exploring these nooks that the world of Avowed really opened up for me, not only because it was rewarding my curiosity and how I wanted to approach combat, but how those tie into the freedom to explore the world how I wanted to.
“With the enchantment system and weapon upgrading systems, and the unique [weapons] with passive abilities that the player can unlock to enhance those weapons, they can really drill in deep on the mechanic side of things to really min/max or improve the playstyle that they are choosing,” Paramo explains. “We also have a very flexible respecing system if they want to kind of change their minds and try something else, maybe choose a different ability to enhance another set of weapons that they find that they like later.”
“I would add that the attribute system is inspired by the Pillars of Eternity concept of not having restricted class specific attributes, where to wield a certain type of weapon, or to optimize a certain weapon, you must take a specific attribute,” Matzenbacher adds. “All the attributes are available to all players and builds, so they can use that to extend their play style if they want to be more damage centric or have more survivability or have more resources to use either weapon attacks or abilities.”
This raised the question of how they balance all these weapons while still rewarding player choice and experimentation. Matzenbacher and Paramo explained that it was all about stripping these weapons down to their most basic components first and adjusting from there. For example, larger weapons will cost more stamina but deal more damage; smaller weapons will use less stamina but could be better used for stunning. The same rules generally apply to taking the time to cast with a powerful attack spell and their essence cost; the more powerful the spell, the more cost to cast.
“Choice and consequence are not just something that we have in dialogue, but it’s something that we also have in combat, where for every choice the player makes and what they’re choosing to equip, there’s a consequence to that,” Paramo explains. “So, if I’m going to choose a two-handed great hammer, I’m going to do heavy damage, but have a slow attack speed that leaves me open more to hits but costing me stamina. Each one of these things is all about finding the system that the player will funnel into and then kind of creating those different consequences for choosing that weapon or load out.”
The way this played out for me was pairing the powerful arquebus rifle with the Charge ability for my “War Hero,” which had me dash forward and smash into anything in my way. Through its repeated use, I also discovered it did a great job of running up the stun meter on enemies — attacking a fully stunned enemy allows you to perform a special attack for massive damage. Combining that with my slow-loading (yet powerful) rifle proved to be a vicious combination, especially against some of the more formidable enemies I came across, like a diseased bear and giant spider.
Choice also applies to enemies as well, in how they are designed to utilize the environment to find the best method of attack. All of them, from sporelings to skeletons to Xaurips (this universe’s reptilian race), each have distinct rules of engagement on top of their more basic commands — fodder units will try to charge and attack you; ranged units are going to be at a distance; blocker units will always try to block. But here’s where it gets a bit more intriguing, as these commands also feed into a “parkour everywhere” approach for both the player and enemy movement within the environment that can keep these encounters challenging and fun.
“The AI knows how to parkour up (cliffs or ledges) and get to you. Or they know that you are trying to be on a high level trying to shoot at them from at a range distance,” explains Paramo. “They adapt, and even though they might be a more melee-focused character, they’re going to try to get to you. And if they can’t get to you, they’re going to switch to something more ranged too so that you can’t just like capitalize on them and cheese them basically.”
This exact scenario happened to me numerous times while battling crowds of Xaurips. I’d see them scatter up to higher ledges, trying to hit me with their arrows. As I climbed the cliff to get at them, they’d do backflips to get to a higher ledge as I chased them down. Eventually I had enough of this, equipped my Grimoire, and shot flames at them to put an end to this chase. But I really liked seeing that enemies both had an appreciation of their own survivability, but also continued to try and gain an advantage against me.
“Having the player able to jump up on locations, that kind of creates a different dynamic for the AI,” continues Paramo. “We also have stealth grass in the game where the player can take a bit more of a stealthier approach. And we have destructibles in the game that the player and enemies can destroy, or explosive barrels that the player can use range attacks on, so that can help get them an advantage in that encounter, and damage bonuses for stealth attacks when the player is hitting unaware enemies.”
“There are also environmental interactions in the game,” adds Matzenbacher. “So, there could be water on the ground that will react if you’re using shock magic. And then there are certain cases where there are traps and hazards that can either affect the player or enemies that they can trigger and interact with — there’s both the layout and the structure of the space, but also elements that can be combined and leveraged against the enemies.”
There are so many intriguing parts of Avowed, like being able to build our characters as we want, choosing the load outs and companions we want, and having such a dynamic approach to combat, that it will no doubt create numerous and exciting moment-to-moment adventures within the world of Eora. Obsidian are masters of their craft at giving players choice and freedom to play within their worlds as they want, and Avowed is shaping up to be their next great proof point of this concept – from everything we’ve seen and played so far, it’s leading up to something truly special. And we can’t wait to go back.
Avowed is launching February 18, 2025, for Xbox Series X|S, the Xbox app for Windows, Battle.net, Steam, and will be available on day one with Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. It is currently available for pre-order on the Xbox Store, Battle.net, and Steam. The Premium Edition offers up to five days early access, two premium skin packs, and access to the Avowed Digital Artbook & Soundtrack. Learn more here on Xbox Wire.
Xbox Game Studios
Welcome to the Living Lands, a mysterious island filled with adventure and danger.
Set in the fictional world of Eora that was first introduced to players in the Pillars of Eternity franchise, Avowed is a first-person fantasy action RPG from the award-winning team at Obsidian Entertainment.
You are the envoy of Aedyr, a distant land, sent to investigate rumors of a spreading plague throughout the Living Lands – an island full of mysteries and secrets, danger and adventure, and choices and consequences, and untamed wilderness. You discover a personal connection to the Living Lands and an ancient secret that threatens to destroy everything. Can you save this unknown frontier and your soul from the forces threatening to tear them asunder?
The Weird and Wonderful Living Lands
The Living Lands is a place that feels foreign yet somewhat intrinsic to you as it feels the island itself is calling out to you for help. Explore an island home to many different environments and landscapes, each with their own unique ecosystem.
Visceral Combat to Play Your Way
Mix and match swords, spells, guns, and shields to fight your way. Dig into your grimoire for spells to trap, freeze or burn enemies, bash them with your shield, or use range bows to attack from a distance.
Companions as part of your journey
Companions from a spread of species will fight alongside you, with their own unique set of abilities. From a former mercenary to an eccentric wizard, they will be part of your journey with your choices shaping them as you help them with their quests.
Xbox Game Studios
The Weird and Wonderful Living Lands
The Living Lands is a place that feels foreign yet somewhat intrinsic to you as it feels the island itself is calling out to you for help. Explore an island home to many different environments and landscapes, each with their own unique ecosystem.
Visceral Combat to Play Your Way
Mix and match swords, spells, guns, and shields to fight your way. Dig into your grimoire for spells to trap, freeze or burn enemies, bash them with your shield, or use range bows to attack from a distance.
Companions as part of your journey
Companions from a spread of species will fight alongside you, with their own unique set of abilities. From a former mercenary to an eccentric wizard, they will be part of your journey with your choices shaping them as you help them with their quests.
The post How Player Choice Is Infused into Avowed’s Approach to Combat appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Here’s some good news for deal hunters: Amazon’s Black Friday 2024 sale has officially begun. Discounts abound on all sorts of things, including video games. And one of the best video game deals to pop up so far is Alan Wake 2 Deluxe Edition dropping down to $49.99. That’s a big discount, seeing as the list price is $80. It also happens to be a terrific game, and this edition comes with all sorts of rad stuff. Let’s dive into it all below.
The deal is good for both the PS5 and Xbox Series X versions of the game. So what do you get in this souped-up deluxe edition? Let’s list it out in bullet-point form.
So you get the full base game, both expansions (which are also awesome), some cosmetics and in-game items, and the entire first game in remastered form. They threw in a whole other game – it’s wild. So you have the complete Alan Wake saga all in one package.
If you’re wondering whether the game itself is any good, you can rest assured it is (provided you can handle spooky games). For starters, it handily won many of the categories in IGN’s Game of the Year 2023.
It also scored a 9/10 in our Alan Wake II review, with critic Tristan Ogilvie writing: “Alan Wake II delivers one of the boldest and most brain-bending survival-horror storylines this side of Silent Hill 2, presents it with uniformly immaculate art direction and audio design, and reinvigorates the series’ signature light-based shooting as though it’s been locked and loaded with a fresh pack of Energizers.”
“Even though its skill-upgrade systems seem a little superfluous and there were a few repeated cliches in Saga’s story that stuck in my craw, I nonetheless found both sides of this twisted tale to be endlessly fascinating, frequently fear-inducing, and consistently surprising. Alan Wake II is a superb survival-horror sequel that makes the cult-classic original seem like little more than a rough first draft by comparison.”
And if that’s not enough for you, check out our similarly glowing reviews of the expansions. First came Night Springs, which offers three standalone stories reminiscent of the Twilight Zone. And finally, The Lake House provides a narrative bridge between Alan Wake II and the upcoming Control 2. So even with all that comes in this package, there’s plenty to look forward to in the Remedy-verse.
Stick to IGN for more Black Friday 2024 coverage. Amazon’s sale is live now. The second wave of Walmart’s Black Friday 2024 sale starts on Monday, November 25. As the meme says, it’s happening.
The actual date of Black Friday in 2024 falls on November 29 this year, but the deals have already kicked off. Leading up to the big event, retailers have begun to open deals online. Each day leading up to the event will slowly roll out more deals, which ultimately leads to massive discounts on Black Friday. We already know what PlayStation and Xbox are planning, and most general deals will be available well in advance, such as this excellent discount on Elden Ring.
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky and Threads.
I have significant reservations about Avowed, Obsidian’s first-person Pillars Of Eternity spin-off RPG, but those reservations are significantly offset by the fact that I can be an undersea mushroom woman called Mystic Meg. In Avowed, you are the god-touched envoy of a distant emperor, sent to an island realm known as the Living Lands to investigate a mysterious blight. “God-touched”, in this case, means “fungal and a bit mermaidy”. It means that you can make rainbow toadstools sprout from your eyesocket in the character creator. It means that you can accessorise your cheekbones with what look like bracket polypores, or deck your ears with staghorn coral.
The best DS games ever.
21st November 2024 marks 20 years since the North American launch of the Nintendo DS – the perfect time to dig out your DS and rediscover its remarkable library. Chances are it’s still got some juice!
In honour of the occasion, we’re republishing this updated article showcasing our Top 50 DS Games.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Ubisoft has released the huge and highly anticipated Title Update 1.4.0 for Star Wars Outlaws on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X and S, and PC, which, perhaps most notably, cuts stealth requirements from almost the entire game.
A blog post detailed the patch notes, which are available below, and confirmed the removal of forced stealth (meaning players will no longer have to return to a checkpoint when triggering “do not raise the alarm” or “do not get caught” objectives) alongside improvements to enemy AI and detection, facial expressions and animations, and more.
“This Title Update brings changes to combat and stealth allowing for greater player choice, the ability to now keep pick-up weapons in more situations, visual options to allow for a sharper image and much more to improve your journey across the galaxy,” Ubisoft said.
It doesn’t address the issues affecting some PC players who updated to Windows 11 24H2, however, but Ubisoft said it is “working hard to deploy a permanent fix” as soon as possible.
Star Wars Outlaws creative director Drew Rechner promised to make big changes to “elevate the game experience to better meet” player expectations.
Sentiments such as these are often seen in the wake of disastrous game launches but Star Wars Outlaws debuted to positive reviews. Poor sales shook a struggling Ubisoft, however, and it is now working to improve the game ahead of what it hopes will be a sales bump alongside its Steam launch and the holiday period.
General Gameplay
UI, HUD and Settings
Audio
Cinematics
Camera
Worlds, Fauna, and Flora
Photo Mode
Accessibility
Miscellaneous
MAIN & SIDE QUESTS (beware of spoilers)
Toshara
Tatooine
Akiva
Bug Reporter
We’re pleased to announce that reporting issues will now be easier- introducing the Star Wars™ Outlaws Bug Reporter. This website functions the same way as on other Ubisoft titles; it’s your direct channel to view issues reported by other players and to directly report any issues you encounter to our team. We will actively update this board so you will be aware when issues are being investigated, and when fixes and improvements will be rolled out in an upcoming update.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
One Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket player has definitively answered the question of how long it takes to get every card and thus complete Genetic Apex after spending $1,500 on the otherwise free to play game.
Reddit user Weens4Life has provided valuable insight into just how difficult it is to complete the first of many sets coming to Pokémon TCG Pocket, revealing they opened a whopping 1,741 booster packs on their way to pulling every card in Genetic Apex.
Previous estimates that it would take close to two years to complete the set appear accurate, though this does count the 60 incredibly rare alternate art cards and not just the base 226 cards in Genetic Apex. Weens4Life collected this smaller number after spending about $200, they said, but spent between $500 and $700 collecting just the final three cards from the alternate art pool.
Those going the full free to play route will be waiting a while, however. Pokémon TCG Pocket, with its traditional mobile game model, floods players with packs in the opening days but dries up soon after, granting access to just two packs a day during event lulls.
Genetic Apex will not remain the only set for long either, as developer Creatures Inc. has already confirmed an additional, smaller card drop is coming in December and a datamine has suggested the next full set, presumably with another 200 plus cards of its own, will arrive in January.
Weens4Life used the Wonder Pick feature to gain additional cards towards their collection but, as this only presents a 20% chance of pulling the intended one, it’s not particularly reliable. They finished the collection of 286 total cards after amassing 8,582 in total, a pile which included 129 Slowpoke and nine of the super special rare immersive Mewtwo. Not a single god pack was pulled.
This gargantuan effort didn’t cause any regret for Weens4Life, who said spending this amount was worth it. They made clear they wouldn’t be doing so again in the future, however, and will only focus on the base set of cards without alternates.
Efforts such as these make it unsurprising that Pokémon TCG Pocket is estimated to have made $120 million in just three weeks. A total of 30 million players had downloaded the game after just nine days too.
Creatures Inc. has looked to keep interest high by releasing myriad events catered to different playstyles, though only one focused on player versus player battles is ongoing currently. In this realm, the two usual suspects of Charizard ex and Mewtwo ex are currently dominating the meta, though Pikachu ex isn’t far behind.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Valve have unveiled a new policy about season passes on Steam, which aims to ensure that developers release all the individual DLC involved on time and share adequate details about each DLC pack in advance. It specifies that developers can delay release of a season pass DLC just once, and by no longer than three months. In the event that a developer postpones DLC release by longer than three months, Valve may take such corrective actions as removing the season pass from sale or refunding players.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl has enjoyed a big launch on Steam, becoming one of the most-played games on Valve’s platform on release day.
Ukrainian developer GSC Game World’s post-apocalyptic horror shooter saw a peak concurrent player count of 113,587 on Steam, a number that was enough to place S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 in the platform’s top 10 most-played games list. That dwarfs the Steam peak concurrent player count of all the other S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, including 2007’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 also launched on Xbox Series X and S and straight into Game Pass, so its combined peak concurrent player count will be much larger than what we’ve seen on Steam (Microsoft does not make its player numbers public). The expectation is that its player count will continue to grow as S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 heads into its first weekend on sale.
It also has a ‘very positive’ user review rating on Steam, despite suffering from various bugs detailed in IGN’s S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl Review in Progress.
GSC Game World has told fans it plans to address these bugs with a series of patches. “S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 is a massive game,” the developer said. “We understand that in such a game, there may still be rough edges: we literally haven’t released anything of this scale before. We’re absolutely committed to being here, monitoring your feedback, and quickly fixing any issues that need our attention.
“In the first days after release, we’ll be working with hotfixes, rolling them out as precisely as possible, but as frequently as we can. Then, we’ll switch to larger updates that include constant improvements.”
Free in-game content is also coming to the game. Expect more on that when GSC Game World shares its roadmap later in December. “We have big plans for the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. universe,” the developer added. “In a way, today is both a return and the beginning of a grand new journey.”
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 has suffered a number of understandable delays, most recently in July when the game was due out in September. GSC Game World said at the time that the extra two months would give the developers the chance to fix “unexpected anomalies,” aka bugs.
GSC Game World has also been vocal about the challenges the studio faced getting S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 up to scratch after a mixed reaction to its debut public showing last year. At gamescom 2023, GSC Game World addressed what some had called a “downgrade” sparked by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s then latest gameplay trailer. At the time, GSC Game World told IGN it was still targeting a visual quality and level of polish suggested by S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2’s eye-catching 2021 trailer despite the horrendous conditions suffered by the staff amid the war with Russia.
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.
“The Switch screen is hard on my farsightedness”.
Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake has been out for a week now and while it’s getting a lot of praise in its home country of Japan, it seems some players are struggling with the game – especially on the Switch.
As highlighted by Automaton Media, an article by Weekly Josei Prime has quoted some local player reviews of the game, and one common problem that seems to be popping up with many longtime Dragon Quest III players is the size of the text in this latest remake. Many players are claiming the “small” text is hurting their eyes.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
