You might have seen that £10 will go a long way in the Steam summer sale, but let me do you one better. Indie game store Itch.io has begun its own summer sale, and for those willing to delve into its rainbow-coloured heap of throwaway toys and fun experiments, plenty of deals await.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster completely refreshes the original game but fans who don’t love the revised character design of protagonist Frank West can switch back to the original — as long as they preorder.
The wholly single player game, which arrives September 19, 2024 at $50 or $60 for the Digital Deluxe Edition, comes with preorder bonuses too, publisher Capcom revealed in an X/Twitter post. Players gain access to the Frank West 2006 skin, the Chuck Greene Skin (from Dead Rising 2), and the Willamette Parkview Mall Bee skin alongside three music tracks.
This bonus content isn’t included in the Digital Deluxe Edition content by default either despite it including myriad skin packs including ones from Resident Evil and Mega Man. Capcom hasn’t announced post launch pricings for additional content but the original Frank West and other skins will likely be available for an additional cost.
Time to chuck out those dirty clothes and “bee” yourself with some bonus outfits and matching mall music!
Pre-order #DRDR for the Dead Rising Original Pack:
🏍️Chuck Greene
📷Frank West 2006
🐝Willamette Parkview Mall Bee👚https://t.co/nqffBOad2s pic.twitter.com/d56ZOxRNUl
— Dead Rising (@DeadRising) July 1, 2024
While this is fairly standard for a 2024 video game, many fans have already expressed dislike for the updated Frank West model so will likely be frustrated to hear they can only mitigate that grievance by committing to buy the game early (or perhaps paying extra later).
“2024 Frank West looks like 2006 Frank West in 2024,” one fan commented on Reddit. “This Frank West 2006 outfit genuinely fixes the main issue I have with the remaster changes, so it’s a bit mad to hide that behind a preorder bonus,” X/Twitter user @Toadsanime said. “But at least it’s here.”
The look isn’t the only thing changing, however, as original Frank West voice actor Terence J. Rotolo isn’t returning for the remaster. “I simply wasn’t called for this mission,” he said.
Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster launches with 4k graphics and 60 frames per second support and running in the RE Engine. Capcom has made quality of live improvements too, “fine tuned” the interface, added autosave functionality, and more.
In our 8/10 review of the original Dead Rising, IGN said: “Though Dead Rising may seem like a simple, mindless game when you first pick it up, it eventually reveals itself as a deeper experience.”
Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.
Wuthering Waves, that recent gacha RPG of anime styling and impenetrable jargonblasting, just didn’t work on the Steam Deck when it launched in May. It also doesn’t work right now. But for one brief, debatably glorious day on June 29th, it did. And thus, Deck owners who’d persevered through a slightly fiddly installation process (explained here by YouTubesmith Deck Wizard) could finally take their first joyous steps into Wuthering Waves like a David Hasselhoff-buoyed East German in 1989.
Unlike the Hoff, it wouldn’t last. Within hours, Steam Deck players were being booted back out of the game by a hitherto-unseen anti-cheat failure. What gives? Or gave?
Kickin’ it with Kirito.
After being revealed in the February 2024 Partner Showcase, Bandai Namco has today announced that SWORD ART ONLINE Fractured Daydream will be heading to Switch on 4th October.
The new trailer (above) tells you everything that you need to know about the Fractured Daydream story. It looks like your standard multiverse affair. There has been a breach in time and space. Characters from across the Sword Art Online anime are gathered in the same version of Alfheim Online. There are unexpected alliances and rivalries as you try to put the timeline back together — Wibbly wobbly, timey wimey.
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Xbox’s summer showcase was a home run, with one of the best presentations of upcoming games on the Xbox ecosystem in quite some time. This included titles like Black Ops 6, Doom: The Dark Ages, Perfect Dark, Fable, Gears of War: E-Day, and plenty more. If these sneak peeks have excited you for the future of Xbox, then we’ve got even more good news to share.
Xbox Game Pass is back on sale for a limited time, with huge discounts on stackable 3-month and 1-month codes for Game Pass Ultimate. That’s not all, as there are also offers on controllers, games, and even storage. With Amazon Prime Day on the horizon from July 16-17, you can expect plenty more Xbox deals to pop up soon as well. For now, here are all the best Xbox deals.
Xbox Game Pass has been discounted once again, providing another opportunity for users to stack their membership at a discounted rate. Woot (an Amazon company) currently has 1-month Xbox Game Pass Ultimate codes down to $11.79 and 3-month codes for $34.49. These are significant discounts, and monumentally cheaper than compared to paying the default $17.99/month.
Walmart is still offering two months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for free for any current or new Walmart+ members. If you’re not currently a member of Walmart+, the retailer offers a 30-day free trial (which will make you eligible for the Game Pass offer), alongside plans for $12.95 paid monthly, or $98 paid annually.
For those interested in the Xbox Game Pass Ultimate offer, it is worth qualifying that this code will only apply to those who currently don’t have an active Game Pass Ultimate membership, and Walmart stresses that this is for new members only. If you’re on Game Pass Core, it should be fine to apply to your account. Otherwise, if you’re a current Game Pass Ultimate member, the code won’t be applicable. If you do qualify, it’s a pretty simple process if you’re looking to bag the two-month free trial, here’s how:
Steps:
Looking to pick up an Xbox controller or add some new ones to your gaming setup? Amazon has some great discounts right now on the Robot White, Velocity Green, and Carbon Black controllers, which are all down to $46.99. If you want to see some more controller deals, check out the links below.
More Xbox Controller Deals:
This is an excellent time of year to pick up games, even if we’re past the Summer of Gaming festivities. At the moment, you can score some incredible deals on a wide variety of physical games, including 60% off Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and 28% off Prince of Persia: The Lost Crown. More importantly, with Gears of War: E-Day officially announced, you can also get a whopping 61% off Gears 5 right now at Best Buy!
It looks like a fridge, and it kinda is a fridge (mini), and it’s also down to $39.94 at Walmart. Not only is it a fun addition to have in your home, but this is a discount you definitely don’t want to miss out on, either! What better time to pick it up?
Amazon is offering the officially licensed Seagate 1TB Expansion Card for Xbox Series consoles with a nice little discount. Right now it’s $149.99, a minor price drop from its original $160 MSRP. This is one of the best SSDs for the Xbox, which isn’t surprising since your options are pretty limited.
Does your family complain when you stay up playing loud shooters late into the night? They’ll stop complaining if you pick up an Xbox headset that lets no one but you hear the delightful explosions you cause on the screen. Right now, you can get 16% off the SteelSeries Arctis Nova Pro Wireless Gaming Headset and 29% off the HyperX CloudX headset at Amazon. To see even more gaming headsets on sale, visit our roundup of the best gaming headset deals.
The recent discomfored surrounding Xbox can be isolated to a recent round of brutal layoffs. Microsoft is closing a number of Bethesda studios, including Redfall maker Arkane Austin, Hi-Fi Rush and The Evil Within developer Tango Gameworks, and more in devastating cuts at Bethesda. Alpha Dog Games, maker of mobile game Mighty Doom, will also close. Roundhouse Studios will be absorbed by The Elder Scrolls Online developer ZeniMax Online Studios. Microsoft, currently valued at over $3 trillion, did not say how many staff will lose their jobs, but significant layoffs are inevitable.
Microsoft’s announcement of the cuts at Bethesda come over three months after the company announced plans to cut 1,900 staff from its video game workforce, and amid a boom time for Bethesda’s Fallout series following the breakout hit Prime Video TV show.
Microsoft has confirmed the arrival of Call of Duty Black Ops 6 day-one on Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft made the announcement alongside the release of a live-action reveal trailer called ‘The Truth Lies’. In it we see world leaders including Bill Clinton, Margaret Thatcher, George H. W. Bush, Colin Powell, and Saddam Hussein, delivering cryptic speeches. Black Ops 6 will be set during the events of the Gulf War during the early ’90s.
Activision has also clarified that Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 won’t actually require a 300 GB download despite previous messaging. Players began to panic about the size of this year’s Call of Duty after noticing its Xbox store page yesterday.
At the time, the page listed that the game would require a 309.85 GB download for those hoping to hop into the post-Cold War first-person shooter when it launches this fall. That’ll put a pretty big dent in the hard drive of most PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X | S consoles, so players were, understandably, very concerned.
In general, it is advisable to keep an eye out for sales and restocks throughout the year, as availability has improved since the initial launch of the console. Unlike the Nintendo Switch, there is no specific recommendation to wait for a sale regardless of the time of year. Instead, it’s a good idea to monitor various retailers and online platforms for restock announcements and promotional offers.
However, certain events like Black Friday or other holiday seasons may bring about unique bundles, discounts, or promotional deals specifically for the Xbox Series X. These bundles may include additional games, accessories, or exclusive limited editions. While quantities for such promotions might be limited, they can provide an opportunity to get more value for your purchase. See our guide to Xbox Series X prices for more info.
Choosing between the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S ultimately depends on your gaming preferences, budget, and specific requirements. Let’s compare the two consoles to help you make an informed decision:
1. Performance: The Xbox Series X is the more powerful option, offering native 4K gaming, higher graphical fidelity, and faster loading times. It has more advanced hardware, including a larger storage capacity. On the other hand, the Xbox Series S targets a lower price point and offers a less powerful performance, targeting 1440p resolution gaming and upscaling to 4K.
2. Price: The Xbox Series S is more affordable compared to the Xbox Series X. If budget is a significant factor for you, the Xbox Series S provides a cost-effective option while still delivering a next-generation gaming experience. For example, the Series S can play Starfield at 1440p 30fps (vs 4K 30fps on Series X).
3. Storage: The Xbox Series X comes with a larger internal storage capacity, allowing you to store more games directly on the console. The Xbox Series S, however, has a smaller storage capacity, which means you may need to manage your game library more actively or rely on external storage solutions.
4. Disc Drive: The Xbox Series X includes a disc drive, enabling you to play physical game discs and enjoy a wider range of media options, including Blu-ray and DVD playback. The Xbox Series S, in contrast, is a digital-only console, meaning you can only play games downloaded from the digital store.
5. Graphics and Performance: While both consoles support ray tracing, the Xbox Series X provides a more immersive and visually impressive experience due to its superior hardware capabilities. If you prioritize cutting-edge graphics and want the best performance available, the Xbox Series X is the preferable choice.
Consider your gaming preferences, budget, and whether you prioritize top-of-the-line performance or cost-effectiveness. If you have a 4K TV, want the most powerful console, and are willing to invest more, the Xbox Series X is the recommended option. If you have a lower budget, a 1080p or 1440p TV, and don’t mind sacrificing some performance, the Xbox Series S offers excellent value for money.
With how expensive gaming is getting in 2024, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Alongside the usual standard and nightmare modes, upcoming RPG Dragon Age: The Veilguard (née Dreadwolf) will ship with a fully tweakable set of difficulty options called ‘Unbound’, letting you customise everything from parry timings to invincibility.
Nexon’s free-to-download looter shooter The First Descendant has enjoyed a huge launch on Steam but players have hit out at ultra aggressive microtransactions.
The First Descendant is a Warframe-esque action game designed to be played co-op with friends, with progression tied to a deep-rooted grind that involves completing missions and defeating bosses. Check out IGN’s The First Descendant review in progress to find out what we think of the game so far.
But it’s the monetization that has sparked debate during the early days of The First Descendant’s launch, as well as issues giving players rewards they’re owed that have forced Nexon into offering compensation.
Korean company Nexon, which is behind other multiplayer-focused free-to-play games such as Kartrider: Drift and Maplestory, launched The First Descendant with a packed cash shop that sells everything you’d expect from a game of this type: a premium battle pass, new characters, premium character and weapon skins, and even experience boosts and increased inventory capacity.
New characters, called Descendants, are sold for real-world money, but the premium virtual currency, Caliber, is sold in bundles that come in just under the cost of a new character itself, forcing players to buy more virtual currency than they need and, thus, having some left over.
Caliber can only be obtained by buying it with real-world money or by buying the premium battle pass. There is currently no way to earn it through gameplay alone.
While you can grind (a lot) for new characters, you can save time by spending money to buy them. You can also pay to gain immediate access to an ‘Ultimate Descendant’, which is a Descendant with better stats and an exclusive skin. Expect to pay upwards of $55 for one.
The First Descendant also locks a paint to a skin, which means if you want to re-use a paint you’ve already obtained, perhaps from the premium battle pass, you have to spend real-world money on it again.
Some players have called The First Descendant “predatory” because of its monetization, while others have said it’s par for the course when it comes to games from Nexon. On Steam, The First Descendant has a ‘mixed’ user review rating, with many of the negative reviews focusing on the microtransactions, but others are also delivering their verdict on the gunplay and mechanics. One Steam user called the First Descendant “microtransaction hell.” Another said: “This game released with more real money purchasable items than actual gameplay mechanics.”
Even those who have spent money on microtransactions are having a tough time, Nexon apologized to players who have yet to receive items they paid for by offering compensation. “We will continue to strive to provide a more stable service,” Nexon said.
Here are the compensation details:
Despite all this, The First Descendant hit a Steam concurrent player count of 229,257, which was enough to put it in the top five most-played games on Valve’s platform. The game also launched on PlayStation and Xbox consoles, but Sony and Microsoft do not make player numbers available.
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 tabletop equivalent of “buying books and reading them are two different hobbies” is surely the difference between buying sexy tabletop RPG manuals and actually dragging your mates on to Discord for a few hours to stumble your way through a module. It’s the dogeared Fighting Fantasy from a carboot sale kid in me, I think. Something about reading worldbuilding snippets organised into numbered tables just hits in a way a novel doesn’t. Such tantalising ephemera is the name of the game in Microprose-published CrossOver: Roll For Initiative. It’s a wave defense where you play match-3 to collect dice, then spend them on fireballs and mace swings to stop tiny bastards from marauding all over your actual character sheet and attacking your stats.
Out this month!
Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition will be arriving later this month on the Switch, and ahead of its launch Nintendo Treehouse has released a 30-minute video showing off the different games, challenges, and modes.
This is perhaps the most detailed look at the game yet, so if you’re still not sure whether you would be interested in this upcoming release, this should help you out. Be sure to also check our Nintendo Life hands on. In short, we think this has the potential to become a staple of game night:
Read the full article on nintendolife.com
Xbox Live is currently down, affecting thousands of gaming fans.
Players who attempted to log into their accounts this afternoon found they were unable to sign in and play games as usual. Microsoft describes the incident as a “major outage” on its official Xbox Live status page. The company says troubles with its service began just after 2 p.m. ET, with the website Downdetector reporting a peak of more than 38,000 individual outage reports around 3 p.m. ET.
Though a select few have shared that they’ve been able to eventually sign into Xbox Live, Microsoft says the sign-in issues affect Xbox Series X | S, Xbox One, and Xbox 360 consoles as well as mobile devices, web services, cloud gaming, backward compatibility, and Xbox on Windows. No explanation for the outage has been shared, but in the meantime, Microsoft said in an X/Twitter post that it is investigating the issue while directing concerned players to head to its status page for updates.
Our investigation is taking longer than expected, thank you for your patience and reports! We’ll continue to update here and on our status page, https://t.co/kQKp1MgssY https://t.co/nNYKQKZcxL
— Xbox Support (@XboxSupport) July 2, 2024
“You may not be able to sign-in to your Xbox profile, may be disconnected while signed in, or have other related problems,” the status page says at the time of this story’s publication. “Features that require sign-in like most games, apps and social activity won’t be available.”
A widespread Xbox Live outage means there are thousands of gamers with questions and time on their hands. Many have them quickly took to social media to share memes while looking for answers. Although they’re all in the same boat as they wait for Microsoft to chime in with good news, many are just happy to see they aren’t the only ones faced with gaming downtime.
me checking twitter to make sure Xbox live is down for others as well, and it’s not just me pic.twitter.com/aqfbXn4KX0
— 𝕏epyal 🇨🇾🇬🇷 (@xepyal) July 2, 2024
Everyone rushing to Twitter/X to see if Xbox Live is down. pic.twitter.com/w2sBW6nRCn
— Andrew Stow (@AndrewStow23969) July 2, 2024
My Minecraft Horse waiting for me to return because Xbox Live is down 🥲 @XboxSupport pic.twitter.com/2OLIoq2A1D
— Garrett ✨ (@gxrrettmxrtinez) July 2, 2024
We’ll update this story when Microsoft has an update on the status of Xbox Live. In the meantime, you can check out the recently confirmed Xbox Game Pass lineup for July 2024. You can also see our IGN Live interview with CEO Phil Spencer, where we learned more about the company’s plans for the future.
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.
