New story chapters, Kombat Pack 2 and more.
Last month, NetherRealm Studios announced Mortal Kombat 1 would be moving onto the second year of the game. As part of this, it will be getting a new story expansion ‘Khaos Reigns’ – including new story chapters and Kombat Pack 2.
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Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered mod H2M, which sought to revive Modern Warfare 2 (2009) multiplayer on PC, has been canceled on the eve of its launch after its developers said they received a cease and desist letter from Activision.
The mod team’s official X/Twitter account broke the news today, letting players know that they are bringing their work to a halt after receiving the letter today. The date of the cease and desists arrival almost exactly coincides with H2M’s August 16 release date, which was announced last Friday. Its X account’s biography now only says “SHUTDOWN.”
“Today, our team members received a Cease & Desist order on behalf of Activision Publishing in relation to the H2M-Mod project,” the team’s last post says. “We are complying with this order and shutting down all operations immediately and permanently.”
The H2M team’s posts date as far back as July 2023 when they announced the project, noting that they had already been working on a Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer remastered mod for a while. At the time, the team said, “If Activision won’t do what the fans want, we the community will.” Although the Call of Duty publisher did remaster the original Modern Warfare 2 campaign and release it in 2020, it never went as far as to remaster its multiplayer component.
H2M aimed to fill the hole with not only upgraded visuals for maps, weapons, and characters fans have loved for more than a decade but also new content, too. It meant new gun camos and animations as well as a crate of new maps based on iconic Call of Duty locations and more. This blend of old and new driven from the perspective of fans had players excited enough to drive sales of Modern Warfare Remastered seeing as the game was needed to play H2M. According to SteamDB, the 2017 title saw a sharp increase in player count in the last few weeks and even managed to climb Steam’s top selling list (via PC Gamer).
Now, however, Modern Warfare Remastered’s recent Steam reviews read “Mostly Negative,” with many recent comments from players calling for Activision to reverse their cease and desist request. Call of Duty fans in general have taken to social media to express their sadness at H2M’s demise, with some prominent content creators asking for Activision to reconsider, too.
We are begging that you guys reconsider this decision @Activision. To be clear we have zero involvement in this project outside of being massive fans. We were excited to produce an ILLCAMS on the H2 mod. Their team made it a requirement to purchase the original MW2 Remastered… https://t.co/M2hbKvYOE0
— FaZe Clan (@FaZeClan) August 15, 2024
Yet another reason to hate Activision
H2M looked so good, MW2 MP Remastered with new weapons, maps, camos etc. – a CoD that so many people had wanted to see for years…
And they cease and desist it despite it requiring a CoD4 remastered purchase, complete joke https://t.co/J7SloLaO14
— Luc // HiddenXperia (@HiddenXperia) August 15, 2024
H2m getting a cease and desist a day after the cod sale ends 🤔 still refunding but horrible timing. No chance I’m spending money on bo6
— .tom (@TypicallyTom) August 15, 2024
A few developers behind H2M have also posted their thoughts online, including X user @TheWatchfulWolf and @alstr_. The former posted an apology and then teased that the H2M will now set out to create its own project, saying, “Fine. We’ll just make our own unique game.”
“Genuinely heartbroken,” @alstr_ said. “Over a year of work from a dedicated group of people working for FREE to relive a fan favorite Call of Duty. Not a penny earned despite generating THOUSANDS OF SALES FOR ACTIVISON, all to get shut down AFTER PEOPLE SPENT THEIR MONEY. I’m sorry everyone.”
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
If football is a game of inches, then Madden typically manages to perfectly recapture that feeling in the minutiae of its year-to-year iterations. Every August, fans sit around and obsessively try to figure out what has changed, if the under-the-hood adjustments actually matter, if the new systems do what EA says they do, and if things truly feel any better. Usually, that is. Not this year. I haven’t played enough of Madden NFL 25 to render a final verdict just yet, but I can already tell that things feel very different than they do in Madden NFL 24 – and I don’t need to bring out the chains to see that good progress has been made.
EA has been hyping up Madden 25’s updated looks, and honestly, that’s where its improvements are most immediately clear. The menus are much cleaner – your options are big, clearly delineated, and easy to understand, and, miraculously, largely lag-free. This may not seem like a big deal, but if you played Madden 24 at launch, it feels like mana from heaven. It truly is the little things. My wife, who specializes in UX design and has watched me play entirely too much Madden 24 over the last year, walked by while I was playing this year’s iteration and casually remarked that “this looks like an actual menu designed by an actual person.” Hallelujah, brothers and sisters. They heard us.
All right, Will. Yeah, new menus. Big whoop. Tell us about something more substantial than that. Well, dear reader, the major modes benefit from this new focus on presentation, too, and I feel like a lot of what’s good here can be traced directly back to the improvements we saw in College Football 25. In Franchise mode, you can finally create female coaches, and there are more customization options than ever before in terms of heads and apparel. There are still only ten head options for women compared to forty for men, but it’s cool that they’ve been added at all.
Superstar also benefits from this new coat of paint, despite ditching the pretense of an opening storyline (and based on what I’ve seen, voice acting) entirely, which is a shame. The upside is that once you complete the Combine, things get better. The draft actually looks and feels like the NFL draft. When the almighty Joe Throw got drafted by the Falcons 8th overall, Roger Goodell, the most hated man in football, came out and hugged him before presenting him with a Falcons jersey and posing for a picture — just like in real life. Did Joe look like some hideous golem animated by black magic compared to the mute, wax figure of Madden 25’s Roger Goodell? Yes. Does that matter? Not really. It still looks a hell of a lot better than what we had, and I appreciated all of the additional customization options I was given when recreating Joe Throw in Madden 25 — another thing this year’s Madden feels like it owes in part to College Football 25.
Once I was in the Falcons facility, I walked around with head coach Raheem Morris and we discussed my goals for the preseason. Again, it’s a little weird to see everyone’s mouths move and have no sound come out, but graphically? Way better than last year, and I appreciated the moment-to-moment visual updates, whether I was chatting with my teammates in the locker room or out on the field. No longer are we trapped in hotel rooms.
Speaking of the field, there’s some neat stuff to see here, too. Things just look better all around, whether it’s character models, animations before, during, and after plays, or the new and improved touchdown graphics that pull up the scoring player’s photo. Again, it’s the little things.
Not everything’s a home run here, however; I hate the new play arts, at least the ones we see in the playbook. They’re harder to parse than the ones in Madden 24 and, conveniently, look just like the ones in College Football 25. They can’t all be zingers, I guess, but man, these can’t be replaced fast enough.
There are also a lot of big changes, like the new kickoff rules, which feel… really weird. I don’t think I like them, but that’s an NFL problem, not necessarily a Madden problem. Either way, it will take a while to get used to. Other things are more positive. I love being able to choose coverage shells rather than just appearing in base align, and I’m a big fan of being able to shift both sides of my O-line independently of one another… yet another feature we first saw in College Football 25. It might just be me, but Madden 25 even feels closer to College Football 25 in terms of speed – maybe I’m crazy, but if that actually proves to be a thing as I play more, I like the direction things are headed.
I also like that there are more mini-games to play, and that there are finally mini-games for O-linemen you can use to Focus Train them in Franchise mode. I don’t particularly enjoy these mini-games, admittedly, but at least they’re there and I can use them – and overall the mini-games here are hands down an improvement over Madden 24. Getting messages from my GM when I’m playing as a coach in my Franchise is also a nice touch, and I’m a big fan of the new commentary teams, particularly Kate Scott and Brock Huard. (Say it with me: it’s the little things.)
I have a lot of Madden NFL 25 left to play before I’m ready to give it a score. I have a Franchise to run, more Superstars to guide to Lombardi glory, my yearly slog in the EA Money Machine that is Ultimate Team, and so on. But I find myself… optimistic? Is that even a thing you’re allowed to be about Madden? Maybe I’m totally off base, and I’ll notice more issues the more I play. Football’s a game of inches, after all, and the smallest mistakes can lead to disaster. But right now, man, those little things? They’re feelin’ pretty good.
Life sim contender Inzoi is hoping to knock The Sims from its perch when it launches (supposedly) later this year. There will soon be an opportunity to judge whether that feat is likely. Krafton have announced that they’re releasing a time-limited trial of Inzoi’s character creator next week on August 20th.
I am forever looking for a game to replace Transport Tycoon (or OpenTTD) in my affections. I know there are several railway management sims kicking around Steam, but I haven’t found the one that does it for me yet. Could it be Railroad Corporation 2? It’s a train tycoon game in which you lay tracks through the early 20th century, and it’s launching in Early Access on September 9th.
About three years ago, Meta caused some profound head tilts when it revealed that it was going to try to do a VR remake of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. Unfortunately, the project is not coming anytime soon, as Meta has officially confirmed that it has been put “on hold indefinitely.”
A Meta spokesperson confirmed to IGN via email that the game has been put “on hold indefinitely.” Additionally, the official Meta Quest VR YouTube account responded after users commented on a trailer for an upcoming Meta Quest game, Behemoth, developed by Skydance Games. “GTA: San Andreas is on hold indefinitely while we both focus on other projects,” Meta Quest VR’s official YouTube account confirmed in the comments. “We look forward to working with our friends at Rockstar in the future.”
GTA San Andreas VR was announced during Facebook Connect in October 2021. No gameplay footage or a release window was shown during the event. In a blog post highlighting games presented at the event, Meta described GTA San Andreas VR as “a project many years in the making.”
GTA San Andreas VR would not be the first time that Meta has provided a VR remake to a game, as the company previously worked with Armature Studio and Capcom to bring the original Resident Evil 4 to Meta Quest headsets. Additionally, GTA San Andreas VR would have been the second VR project Rockstar Games has worked on following L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files, which was initially released in 2017 for the HTC Vive, before making its way onto Oculurs Rift headsets and PSVR in 2018 and 2019, respectively.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was originally released in 2004 for the PS2. Set in the early 1990s in the fictional southern California city of San Andreas, players control Carl “CJ” Johnson, who returns to his old neighborhood to investigate the murder of his mother.
GTA San Andreas’ indefinite delay comes as Meta is losing billions of dollars in the VR gaming market. In a new report published by Yahoo Finance earlier this month, the outlet said that the Reality Labs division was burning through money, with $16 billion in losses accrued from the VR-centric division in 2023 alone.
IGN has reached out to Take-Two Interactive for comment.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Update: And it’s out now!
Update :
Aaaaand it’s here! The Shadow of the Ninja – Reborn demo is available to download now from the Switch eShop.
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Beneath the shadows of the Rocky Mountains in an all-new Colorado biome, the next chapter of 19th century horror unfolds. Hunt: Showdown 1896 has officially arrived on Xbox Series X|S! Players are invited to fight for survival and profit in a world where supernatural horror and the thrill of the bounty reigns supreme.
What’s more, right now through August 19 you can try your best to survive during the Hunt: Showdown Free Play Days event, so let’s jump in!
Leaping forward chronologically and heading West of the Bayou, the launch of Hunt: Showdown 1896 also brings the power of Cryengine 5.11 with highly anticipated improvements across the whole gameplay experience.
With upgraded visuals, audio design, rendering performance and more, this is a whole new era of Hunt.
Our brand-new map, Mammon’s Gulch, drags you into a brutal, unforgiving landscape with a battleground that tests every ounce of a Hunter’s tactical knowledge.
Adding verticality and many new vantage points, you can take to the high ground for long sightlines across sprawling vistas or venture into the Gulch’s deep mines to move through the tortured landscape with less exposure.
Investigate 16 unique compounds, passing through the torched towns, oil fields and mining operations as you face new threats emerging from the spreading corruption.
Hunt: Showdown 1896 brings with it a complete overhaul of the console gameplay experience. With the power of Xbox Series X|S, experience every gruesome detail, every flicker of torchlight, every raging howl rendered in glorious high definition:
Beyond graphical improvements, reimagined the UI, and enhanced the audio and lighting to drag you deeper into the immersion of Hunt.
As if the treacherous terrain wasn’t enough, a new Wild Target roams these cursed lands—the Hellborn.
An amalgam of fire and flesh, Hellborn stalks the mountains until provoked into explosive response. Posing an entirely new threat, the Hellborn moves frantically to unleash an unrelenting assault against trespassing Hunters, scorching everything in its considerable reach.
Be warned—the Hellborn is best dispatched quickly, as its raging howls attract the attention of other Hunters across the Gulch, multiplying the threat minute by minute.
With the launch of Hunt: Showdown 1896, we’re unleashing a new event, Scorched Earth.
Hunters are invited to face the fire to earn new equipment, ammo, and weapons, including the 1865 Carbine, the Infantry 73L base rifle with a sniper variant, Bear Traps as a new Tool, and a Crossbow Deadeye scoped variant.
We’re also welcoming a completely new Weekly Challenge system to better support players joining the action mid-event, as well as a Battle Pass full of both free and premium rewards are available to unlock.
So, Hunters, the time has come. Strap on your gear, load your weapons, and steel your nerves. Mammon’s Gulch and all its atrocities await, filled with horrors that defy description and enemies that will stop at nothing to claim your bounty.
Hunt: Showdown 1896 is here, and it’s not just a launch – it’s a call to arms. Will you answer?
Crytek
Bounty Hunt: Take rich bounties and kill anyone that tries to stop you – and they will try. Race competing Hunters to track down bosses, send them to hell, claim their bounty, and fight your way to extract. If others only slow you down, go alone. If you find strength in numbers, take up to two teammates along.
Progression and Permadeath: Risk everything to unlock dark powers and forbidden wealth. Every bullet counts. Every wound hurts. And every death is permanent. But if you succeed, every victory will be unforgettable.
Atmosphere and Sound Design: Hear footsteps squelch in the mud as you wait with bated breath to strike. The world speaks. Every gunshot is a message; every howling dog a klaxon. Gramophones murmur with the haunting melodies of Port Sulphur Band. Listen, and you might live to die another day.
Constantly Evolving Game: Keep striving for more, the world is always growing. Frequent updates challenge you with new Events, expand your arsenal of weapons, introduce new characters, and offer the chance to get ornate rewards. Join the thriving Hunt community, stay informed, and get an edge over the Corruption.
The post Venture Into a Whole New Era of Hunt with Hunt: Showdown 1896 Out Now appeared first on Xbox Wire.
Considered a quintessential dice-rolling RPG by many long-term tabletop gamers, Chip Theory Games’ Too Many Bones is a deeply strategic and difficult fantasy game that can be enjoyed solo or with up to four players. Brimming with flavor and lore, it has players choose a unique Gearloc from the land of Daelore and optimize their builds as they fight through endless daily encounters with baddies, gain progress points, store bones, and ultimately defeat the Tyrant of the current story mission. This game is very dice heavy, with over 100 unique skill dice to attack, defend, and complete encounters with. You even make narrative decisions with them.
A fairly challenging game, Too Many Bones offers a ton of replay value through its unique classes and abilities, mechanical changes, additional Gearlocs, and sheer number of encounters, making checking out the expansions well worth your while.
First released in 2017, the base game includes everything one (or four) players will need to enjoy their first dice-builder RPG. The awesome neoprene character mats that are included help keep track of your Gearloc’s stats and store your dice, and the chips and cards help you through encounters. Setup is relatively simple, as each player will start by choosing their own unique Gearloc to play as and build out. Then daily encounters begin, where you’ll earn progress points for each successful encounter. Earn enough progress points, and the party will face off against the Tyrant associated with that scenario. Defeat the Tyrant to win.
Too Many Bones’ first expandalone*, released in 2018, sees the Gearloc heroes chasing after the dastardly Duster after defeating the original seven Tyrants. This enormous expansion includes new baddies and baddie types, an equally exorbitant amount of dice as the original, new encounters, and two new characters.
*Expandalone here refers to the fact that Undertow is playable straight out of the box without the base game, although adding to it will make for a better experience overall.
The second expandalone came out in 2023 and serves as the conclusion to the Too Many Bones storyline, which features a new cast of Gearlocs as they battle for The Break, an underground cavern that could change the fate of Daelore. Unbreakable also includes two new playable Gearlocs, new baddies and encounters, and a gorgeous double-sided Lava Battle Mat to immerse yourself in.
Not a full expansion like the Undertow and Unbreakable, 40 Days in Daelore adds – you guessed it – 40 new encounters and 15 new baddies to the base Too Many Bones game.
Another smaller expansion that changes mechanics for the Tyrants from the base game as well as Undertow. Includes over 50 new Tyrant and encounter cards.
This one is made to alter the mechanics of Undertow, and includes 40 new encounter cards and 16 baddie chips.
Noticing a pattern? This small expansion is the same concept as 40 Waves in Daelore, but for the Unbreakable expandalone. Neat!
This add-on to the base game brings with it a challenging new twist. Using the Campaign Snapshot Mat, players can now keep track of their campaign progress as they defeat the seven original Tyrants, earning new Boons (or Scars, if they’re defeated!), adding even more replay value.
If you’ve ever wanted to create your own Tyrant, here’s your chance. As they play through a regular game of Too Many Bones, players can now use the Build-a-Tyrant mode to craft their own creature to defeat at the end of the scenario. Additionally, the Nobulous Apprenticeship Program is a brand new game type using components from both the base game and Splice & Dice.
In addition to the traditional expansions, Too Many Bones also offers numerous other playable Gearlocs to add to your collection!
Specializing in ranged attacks and trapping, Ghillie is great for dealing damage from afar and hindering baddies. Compatible with the Ally Pack, which adds six chips for both Ghillie’s pets and Tink’s spiderbots.
The first hand-to-hand rumbler in the game, Static can store his power for a turn and unleash devastating power the next.
Like her namesake implies, Polaris uses the power of magnetism to take down baddies. Using her Trajectory Board, Polaris is extremely versatile.
A unique and mechanically-complex Gearloc, Carcass scavenges the remains of defeated baddies and can turn them into buffs for the party.
Nugget the treasure hunter is a fun Gearloc for players who like risk. Sporting both ranged and melee combat potential, Nugget’s arsenal is great for tactically-minded players.
High risk and high reward, Tink enters the fray with his signature spiderbots, which can help defend the party. Compatible with the Ally Pack, giving his spiderbots their own chips.
Gasket the Hydro-Mech is Too Many Bone’s answer to traditional tank roles, and with his water-based abilities he can even change the layout of the battlefield.
Too Many Bone’s first double-sided Gearloc, Dart starts out calm and collected, but her angered side is a force to be reckoned with. Heavy on the crowd control, Dart is essential to any party.
The game’s first multi-Gearloc character (characters?). Swap between Slank, Gerbil, Flan, and Helix and use their unique stats and abilities to experience a mind-melting challenge unlike the rest.
The base game and its expandalones come with everything you need to play straight out of the box, but sometimes you want to spice up your play space or go full-on immersion.
These goodies aren’t needed to play the game, but who wouldn’t want Too Many Bones’ fantastic art on display?
I’ll be the first to admit that, as board games go, the barrier to entry to get the full Too Many Bones experience is uncompromisingly high, with even the base game being over $100. But over time, you just might get addicted to its strategic RPG gameplay and be craving the new mechanics from the expandalones, or want to try out a different Gearloc’s unique skills with one of the many add-ons available. You’ll definitely be getting your money’s worth.
Myles Obenza is a freelance commerce writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter @Myles Obenza.
Activision will soon let players install different parts of Call of Duty games separately to combat colossal file sizes ahead of the release of Black Ops 6.
Call of Duty, with its various evolving modes like Multiplayer and Zombies alongside yearly releases on top of separate games like Warzone, has gotten a bit messy and, dare we say, chunky in recent years. Black Ops 6 gained attention when players thought it required around 300GB of download space to install, and while this turned out not to be true, it created such a reaction because it was somewhat believable.
File sizes for the various games can reach well above 100GB, a significant portion of some consoles’ hard drives, but Activision is now determined to quell this issue.
Changes will be rolled out in a number of updates in the coming months, in anticipation of Black Ops 6’s launch on October 25, 2024. They aim to offer a streamlined interface, direct access to games, more control of downloads, and expanded streaming technology to reduce file sizes.
“These changes will be rolled out in phases as a series of downloads,” Activision said. “After these larger initial updates, future Call of Duty downloads will decrease in size and existing files will take up less space on your device. As a thanks for your patience, we’re gifting all players with in-game consumables, which will be delivered when you first log into Call of Duty after the Season 5 Reloaded update.”
Activision confirmed the immediate effect of these changes: Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will be a smaller download than Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III at launch.
The first big update arrives August 21 and will pave the way for these larger changes, headlined by the separation of Call of Duty: Warzone and the mainline games. “To give players more control over what they’re downloading, we are decoupling the download of Call of Duty: Warzone from other titles,” Activision said.
“When you purchase an annual title, you will only download the files for that game by default. On the free to play side, players can opt-in to get Call of Duty: Warzone when they’re downloading a new annual title or simply download it separately at any point in time.”
Subsequent updates will arrive August 30, in mid October, on October 25 when Black Ops 6 launches, and alongside that game’s Season 1 update, whenever it may be.
Not trying to hide that this will be an awkward, somewhat confusing, and perhaps tedious time for players, Activision is giving away a pack of Battle Token Tier Skips and 2XP tokens from the beginning of Season 5 Reloaded.
Full details can be found on the Call of Duty blog.
Black Ops 6 launches on October 25, 2024. Other multiplayer mode will be available to try a bit earlier though, thanks to an early access period beginning in late August. An invite only trial takes place on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and S, and PC from August 30 to September 4, while an open beta takes place September 6 to September 9.
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
