Marathon lives! Well, of course it does, it would be quite shocking if PlayStation were to cancel it before it even got a chance to become Concord 2, but that’s neither here nor there. What is here, and soon to be there, is another playtest, of which sign-ups are now available. It is being dubbed a “closed technical test,” and plans to run for just a few days, between October 22nd and October 28th, but there are a few differences to be found compared to when we last saw it.
Magic: The Gathering may be a few months removed from June’s Final Fantasy, but it’s still popular when it comes to booster packs.
Over on the Commander Deck side of things, we’ve started to see prices drop, but now one of the decks has reached half price at Amazon, which has Revival Trance for just $34.99.
The Final Fantasy 6 deck is down 50% from its $70 MSRP, marking the lowest price yet since it arrived.
We will concede that the deck has been steadily discounted for some, but a new low is always worthy of celebration. The deck is, arguably, the worst of the four, though, with a graveyard recursion theme that never really gets off the ground, but if you’re looking to get started playing with friends, it’s worth it at this price.
We ranked the decks already, and the one that ended up top was the Final Fantasy X deck, Counter Blitz. Why do I mention that? Because ahead of Prime Day, it’s discounted again.
Amazon has a 30% discount on the deck, bringing it down to $48.99. The deck is really fun to use, if a little complex, and involves manipulating counters (including Lore ones) to get extra value out of your Summon creatures.
For more deals on Magic: The Gathering Commander Decks, be sure to check out our rundown of the Fallout precon bundle that’s on sale right now as well.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
Coming 2026.
Revolution Software has unveiled Broken Sword – The Smoking Mirror: Reforged, an enhanced rerelease of the second game in the Broken Sword series. And it’s coming to Switch, alongside other platforms, in early 2026.
Originally teased much earlier this year, The Smoking Mirror appropriately follows on from the excellent 2024 enhanced release of Shadow of the Templars: Reforged and brings with it the same bells and whistles. Though it is getting a 4K release this time — perhaps a free patch for Switch 2 owners, then? We hope so…
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
In the late ’90s, early 2000s, there were two distinct flavours of aesthetics: boomer shooters, and Y2K girlypop vibes (for the sake of this argument we will ignore every other aesthetic that existed at the time). Boomer shooters like Doom and Wolfenstein were bloody, gory, and had a real “video games are gritty and cool now kind of vibe.” Conversely, products aimed at young girls were often glittery, pink, featured leopard print, and were often about love and harmony. Don’t Stop, Girlypop! is a game that combines these two vibes, and it is very good (and stressful).
Magic: The Gathering has offered Universes Beyond crossovers with other franchises for a few years now, and while some become full sets like Spider-Man and Final Fantasy, others are more squarely focused on Commander.
One of these is Fallout, which was particularly popular back in 2024 and offers a fantastic quartet of Commander decks to play, whether you’re an experienced player or just looking to get started. Better yet, a bundle of all four is discounted at Amazon right now.
Amazon has all four decks for $144.99, a reduction of 11% on the $162.99 list price. That might not sound like a huge amount, but consider what that value represents when the Mutant Menace deck is selling for $70 and upwards on its own.
As for the decks, the good news is that they’re all pretty great. Mutant Menace is one of the best, powering up its spooky Mothman Commander with counters as you deal radiation to everyone else at the table, while Hail Caesar is all about being aggressive and sacrificing cards to power up Caesar himself.
Science! offers something a little different since it leans into energy counters and powering up the board with artifacts, while Scrappy Survivors is definitely popular since it’s helmed by the adorable Dogmeat and has the series’ four-legged star rummaging through your graveyard for equipment and tokens.
As a reminder, each of these decks comes with a Collector Booster Sample Pack, too. They contain two cards each, but it’s better than getting irradiated, right?
If you already have any of these, Amazon has discounts on a couple of them, too. At the time of writing, you can pick up Scrappy Survivors for $44.99, a discount of 25%, while Hail Caesar undercuts it by literal cents: It’s $44.95. Finally, Amazon isn’t showing it as discounted, but $40 is a decent price for Science!
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
I dunno about you, but I usually dig a big Skyrim mod that threatens to make my number of hours spent padding around Tamriel even more ludicrous. Lordbound is the latest danger to the free time of poor folks like me, having just soft launched after ten years of development spent creating a fresh region bigger than the Dragonborn DLC’s Solstheim and filling it with stuff to do.
Ask a fan if they want to see more of Assassin’s Creed Mirage hero Basim, and you’ll likely get a resounding yes in response. One of the most intriguing characters in the franchise’s recent history, Basim already ranks among the few of its hooded heroes to appear in multiple games — in 2020’s Valhalla as a central figure, and then in 2023’s Mirage which featured a younger version of the character as its star.
The fate of Basim post-Valhalla remains a signficant hanging plot thread, while fans have also yearned to see more of the character between the events of the two games (such as his meeting with Valhalla character Sigurd in Constantinople, centuries before Ezio visited the city). But Ubisoft seems uninterested in entertaining either scenario while cooking up new Basim content, instead working on a new story chapter without any extra lore for the Hidden Ones, and anything that might impact the series’ modern day.
Five years on from his first introduction, Basim’s story will continue in Valley of Memory, a side-story set within the events of Mirage itself. Launching for free on November 18, the expansion will see Basim visit AlUla, now a UNESCO World Heritage site in modern day Saudi Arabia.
Why an excursion to what is now Saudi Arabia? And why for free? It’s hard to imagine any Assassin’s Creed fan reading this not drawing their own conclusions, following multiple reports which have discussed the expansion’s funding by Saudia Arabia’s controversial Public Investment Fund, which has invested in a growing array of video game companies, and last week formed part of the $55 billion deal that will see EA go private.
Publicly, Ubisoft has shied away from discussing the expansion’s funding, though previously told IGN that it had retained complete creative control over Valley of Memory’s content. Internally, however, Ubisoft has reportedly responded to concerns from developers by drawing a distinction between Saudia Arabia’s ruler Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the PIF itself, whose chair is also Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
To hear Ubisoft tell it, AlUla was simply a location Mirage’s team wanted to explore. “AlUla has always impressed us and was considered for the main game instead of Baghdad,” producer Vincent Maulandi-Rabbione said during a recent presentation to press, attended by IGN. “We had access to experts, resources, archeologists, while maintaining a complete creative freedom on how we would create the content.”
Certainly, AlUla seems to fit visually with the Assassin’s Creed series’ sense of exploration and parkour. The site features thousands of years worth of history for players to learn about, and geographically it’s only as distant from Baghdad as Mirage’s existing sequences set within the Assassin fortress of Alamut. But while the concept of AlUla may have existed on a whiteboard within Bordeaux during Mirage’s original development years ago, art director Florian Salomez told IGN that no actual work on the region began until Valley of Memory’s development began last year.
Discussing the content’s main concept, Salomez said the expansion’s narrative added “a new piece to Basim’s coming of age story, and why he chooses the path that ultimately define him.” (Oddly, it will also be Bordeaux’s second Assassin’s Creed add-on about a protagonist searching for a long-lost parent in as many months, following its work leading Assassin’s Creed Shadows expansion Claws of Awaji.)
“Before his final mission in Baghdad, and before the series of events that lead to the end of the game, Basim hears about his long-lost father Is’haq,” creative director Olivier Leonardi said. “[He] is mentioned in the game many times, and he’s even mentioned in Valhalla. We know he abandoned Basim as a child aged 7. Now, Basim hears Is’haq may still be alive in the wondrous valley of AlUla. It’s so important to him, that he goes on this long journey to get answers.”
Valley of Shadow sounds subtantial, which makes its addition for free all the more surprising. Ubisoft estimates it contains around six hours of new gameplay spread across a new in-game region with five districts. Familiar Mirage mission types are back, alongside new missions where you chase down stolen goods and gain opportunities to learn about AlUla itself.
Alongside all of that, the Valley of Memory update will add several improvements to the main Mirage experience, not least an impressive-looking challenge mode that lets you replay missions from both the new expansion and the main Mirage campaign with additional objectives, which feels a lot like the franchise’s classic ‘Full Sychronization’ rewards. There’s a reward track to unlock additional in-game items by testing your prowess here, and you’ll be aided by additional game-wide tool upgrades that allow, for example, smoke bombs to now dissolve bodies, or blow darts to pierce armor.
As a free gift to fans, Valley of Memory feels generous — even if its setting and choice of storyline are not something fans asked for.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
Oh boy. Unfortunately, it’s one of those days. You might remember that last week, Dune: Awakening developer Funcom laid off an unspecified number of staff. Yep, that same Dune: Awakening that appeared to be doing pretty well for itself. Go figure! Today, there’s more bad news, as it turns out that Metal: Hellsinger studio The Outsiders will be shutting down completely as part of said layoffs at parent company Funcom.
At Xbox, we believe play can foster connection and empathy, unlock potential, and create unforgettable moments of joy for everyone. Since 2014, Xbox and Microsoft have proudly partnered with Special Olympics to empower athletes of all abilities through technology and gaming.
Our journey began with a shared vision: to break down barriers and make sure every player gets in the game, whether on the field or in the virtual world. Over the years, our collaboration has grown to include the annual Gaming for Inclusion event, an esports tournament where Special Olympics athletes and their Unified partners compete for a chance to play in front of a global gaming audience.
These events not only show the top-notch gaming skills of the athletes, but also the transformative potential of gaming to bring people together and empower individuals with intellectual disabilities. From build challenges in Minecraft Education to fierce Rocket League competitions, each milestone has celebrated ability, teamwork, and the spirit of play. We’ve hosted athletes at Xbox Headquarters, provided shoutcaster training, and continually sought new ways to make the gaming industry more accessible for people with intellectual disabilities.
We’re thrilled to announce that the Gaming for Inclusion Celebrity Showcase 2025 will air next week, on October 14 at 10am Pacific on the Xbox Twitch channel.
This broadcast will feature highlights from the recently completed athlete tournament, where Special Olympics athletes and their Unified partners brought energy, skill, and teamwork to the Rocket League arena. Viewers of the Celebrity Showcase can get excited for live Rocket League gameplay, inspiring conversation and guest appearances by some of your favorite gaming creators and celebrity supporters.
Whether you’re a fan of gaming or a supporter of Special Olympics, you won’t want to miss the action, the stories, and the community spirit on display. Save the date and invite your friends and family to celebrate these incredible athletes as we power up for an inclusive future in gaming!
How to Watch:
Tune in to the Xbox Twitch channel on October 14 at 10am Pacific for the Gaming for Inclusion Celebrity Showcase 2025! This stream is also available on the XboxASL Twitch channel.
The showcase will air on Special Olympics’ YouTube immediately following the Xbox event.
This summer, we took our partnership a step further by welcoming nine Special Olympics athletes to a bespoke Xbox Game Camp—a behind-the-scenes experience on our Redmond campus designed to inspire career ambitions in the world of gaming and technology.
During Xbox Game Camp, Special Olympics athletes experienced two days of immersive learning, exploring accessibility innovations, building professional skills, and engaging in coding and game development activities guided by industry experts. Memorable moments included interactive workshops, meetings with Xbox leadership, and behind-the-scenes tours of Mojang Studios and Halo Studios, all designed to empower Special Olympics athletes within the gaming community.
From hands-on learning to unforgettable conversations, Xbox Game Camp 2025 was a testament to the power of inclusion and the limitless potential of every athlete.
For more on the camp’s highlights and impact, read the deep dive recap on the Microsoft Game Dev blog.
At Xbox, we’re proud to stand with Special Olympics in championing inclusion, accessibility, and the transformative power of play. Want to get involved? Visit Special Olympics to learn more about their programs and ways to support their mission.
Rewards members in select markets can donate points to Special Olympics and help advance this important work.
Let’s continue to build a world where everyone can play, compete, and belong. We’ll see you next week at the 2025 Gaming for Inclusion Celebrity Showcase!
The post Special Olympics and Xbox Unite for Inclusive Gaming appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Five years ago, Sucker Punch took us to new frontiers on “Tsushima Island”, where we were introduced to Jin Sakai, a samurai struggling between abandoning his code of honor and protecting his home from the first Mongol invasion of Japan.
Three hundred years after the events of Ghost of Tsushima, a new warrior has risen. In Ghost of Yōtei, Atsu seeks revenge on the Yōtei Six after they ruthlessly slaughtered her family. As she takes on each of her enemies with an “underdog vengeance”, Atsu traverses the open world of Ezo and adopts the spirit of the onryō to pursue justice on those who took everything from her.
Ghost of Yōtei takes players through a sensory-driven, open world that offers players a unique perspective and experience. The original score, composed by Toma Otowa, is the perfect accompaniment to immerse you in a cultural adventure as you unlock hidden levels of beauty and brutality. East meets West when the sounds of traditional Japanese instruments merge with the modern Western influences to create a one-of-a-kind score that fully captures Atsu’s journey.
The PlayStation Studios Music team and Sony Music Masterworks are thrilled to invite you to the official soundtrack listening party celebrating the recent release of Ghost of Yōtei!
Join our 60-minute livestream on Wednesday, October 15 at 5:00 PM PT, featuring exclusive commentary, behind-the-scenes stories, and insights into the production of the game soundtrack.
We’ll be joined by four talented speakers, each offering their own unique perspective and contribution on the creative process behind the music and characters that bring Atsu and the open world of Ezo to life.
Toma Otowa is a multi-award-winning film and game composer based in Los Angeles. He has worked on such Hollywood blockbuster films as Thor: Ragnarok, Croods: A New Age, Lego Movie 2, and Hotel Transylvania 3 with veteran film composer and DEVO frontman, Mark Mothersbaugh.
Otowa’s video game work includes Resident Evil 5, Afrika, Kinect: Disneyland Adventures, Halo 2: Anniversary, Knack, and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, which he co-composed with Mothersbaugh.
Jason Connell is a Creative Director on Ghost of Yōtei and was Creative Director and Art Director on Ghost of Tsushima, leading lighting, cinematography, and concept direction. He has more than 20 years of game development experience, over half of which have been with Sucker Punch. Alaska-bred, he loves adventuring with his wife and two children. Jason lives in a beanie 99% of the time and abuses the word awesome.
Rev. Dr. Bradley D Meyer is an Audio Director at Sucker Punch with over 27 years of experience in game audio. He’s fortunate enough to have led the team that won both the BAFTA and D.I.C.E awards for best Audio in 2020 for Ghost of Tsushima. Brad now leads the team on Ghost of Yōtei. He has lectured extensively about game audio at universities and conferences around the world. He is an ordained minister and a Doctor of Metaphysics and Immortality, and you wouldn’t know if he didn’t plaster it everywhere his name appears.
Erika Ishii (all pronouns) is a well-known figure in games, animation, and comedy. They star as main character Rook in Dragon Age: The Veilguard, Sektor in Mortal Kombat 1, Valkyrie in Apex Legends, and in October 2025 will play the titular lead in Ghost of Yōtei. Erika is considered an especially chaotic regular cast member on comedy streamer Dropout’s shows including Dimension 20, Game Changer, and Make Some Noise. They have appeared with Critical Role, hosted Marvel red carpets, and recently performed as a special guest in the Off-Broadway theater production Dungeons & Dragons: The Twenty-Sided Tavern. Erika is the proud co-creator of the record-breaking narrative play and storytelling collective Worlds Beyond Number, along with Aabria Iyengar, Brennan Lee Mulligan, and Lou Wilson.
The Ghost of Yōtei original soundtrack by Toma Otowa is now streaming on all major platforms! This symphonic odyssey intricately weaves the haunting gravity of what Atsu has lost and carves the path of who she will choose to become. Listen now wherever you get your music.
If you liked what you heard, tune in to Twitch | YouTube on Wednesday, October 15 at 5:00PM PT / 8:00PM ET to join the Ghost of Yōtei soundtrack listening party! Ghost of Yōtei is now available on PS5.
