Elden Ring Nightreign’s next Enhanced boss is Fulghor, Champion of Nightglow, developers From Software have confirmed. You’ll be able to get your teeth into him from June 26th at 4pm central European summer time, 7am Pacific Daylight Time, or 11pm Japan Standard Time.
These timezone distinctions are meaningless, of course, because there is only one timezone in which Fulghor operates, and that timezone is Butt Kicking Time. He’s one of the co-op RPG’s harder scraps, and he’ll be all the worse for being Enhanced.
If you’re keen to pick up the upcoming Donkey Kong and Pauline amiibo to cooincide with the release of Donkey Kong Bananza next month, you’re in luck: it’s now available via the My Nintendo Store in the UK.
Priced at £16.99, the amiibo will launch on 17th July 2025 and will unlock an in-game ‘Diva Dress’ costume for Pauline when used with Donkey Kong Bananza itself.
Rust Console Edition Gets an Xbox Series X|S Upgrade – Free for Existing Players
Pedro SilvaSenior Community Manager, Double Eleven
The island just got deadlier, and a whole lot better looking. Rust Console Edition is officially powering up for Xbox Series X|S, bringing a massive next-gen upgrade to one of the most unforgiving survival experiences on console. Whether you’ve logged hundreds of hours or you’re waking up on the beach with nothing but a rock for the first time, this upgrade changes everything.
A new journey has already kicked off for Deluxe and Ultimate Edition owners, who get exclusive early access to the new-gen version. Everyone else joins the fight tomorrow, June 26 with the full Base Edition launch. If you already own any version of Rust Console Edition on Xbox One, the upgrade to Xbox Series X|S is completely free. We provide an automatic one-to-one edition match, so if you have the Base Edition, you’ll get the Series X|S Base Edition. The same applies for Deluxe and Ultimate owners.
Bigger, Better, Sharper
From the moment you boot it up, the difference will be clear. Textures are richer, and the lighting is more dynamic. Foliage sways, weather shifts, and shadows stretch across the terrain, creating an atmosphere that pulls you in from the very first moment. On Xbox Series X|S, Rust Console Edition finally looks the way it was always meant to. Gritty, raw, and strangely beautiful in the moments between all-out chaos.
Performance keeps up with the visuals. Powered by Xbox Series X|S hardware, the game runs smoother and faster than ever. Load times are quicker, frame rates are higher, and even the wildest battles stay locked in. This isn’t just an upgrade – it’s a full rebuild, designed to make every moment feel a lot more intense.
Chaos Rains From the Skies
Visual upgrades are just the beginning. The rebuilt version of Rust Console Edition brings brand-new content to the island, adding new layers of chaos, unpredictability, and opportunity.
Scrap helicopters and minis will now slice through the skies, giving raiders and builders alike new ways to explore the landscape or ambush the other survivors below. Hot air balloons drift slowly across the landscape, offering a bird’s-eye view for those planning their next move (or making the world’s slowest getaway). And to counter it all, SAM sites are here to bring those high-flying adventures crashing back to Earth in the most brutal way possible.
Throw in new building animations, refined gameplay improvements, and a few surprises waiting to surface after launch, and the experience starts to feel like something entirely new. For returning players, it brings back everything you remember while giving you fresh reasons to dive in all over again.
Survival Comes with Serious Perks
If you’re jumping in for the first time, or thinking of upgrading, there are plenty of reasons to go with the Deluxe or Ultimate Edition. Each one comes with its own set of exclusive rewards designed to help you stand out from the crowd. And no matter which version you choose, every pre-order includes a unique garage door skin to make your base feel like home from day one.
Base Edition – Launches June 26 and gives players everything they need to begin their survival adventure. You will wake up on the beach with nothing but a rock, a torch, and a dangerous world ahead. Pre-ordering the Base Edition also unlocks the Press Start red garage door skin, a bold way to make your base stand out from the very beginning.
Deluxe Edition – Go Deluxe, and you’ll hit the ground running with access already available. It also includes 1,100 Rust Coins to spend in the in-game shop and a combat ready outfit with the Tech Noir skin pack. Players who pre-order the Deluxe Edition will also receive the Green Press Start garage door skin.
Ultimate Edition – If you want to make a statement, the Ultimate Edition is the real showstopper. Along with all the Deluxe rewards, you will receive 4,600 Rust Coins and the legendary Orion’s Fury skin for the L96 sniper rifle. You will also unlock the most exclusive of the pre-order garage door skins, the Press Start Blue version.
A New Era of Rust
At its core, Rust has always been about chaos, creativity, betrayal, and survival. On Xbox Series X|S, that vision comes to life with more intensity than ever before. This is not just the best way to play Rust on console. It is the version players have been waiting for.
If you have taken a break, this is the perfect time to return. The game looks better, runs smoother, and introduces new systems that change the way you fight, build, and survive. Everything feels familiar, but sharper and more refined in all the right ways. And the best part is that you can get the upgrade for free if you already own the Xbox One version of the game.
So grab your scrap, get ready to unlock some new blueprints, and jump into action. In Rust, trust is rare and danger is never far away.
Your next chapter has begun. Just make sure to lock your doors.
The only aim in Rust is to survive – Overcome struggles such as hunger, thirst and cold. Build a fire. Build a shelter. Kill animals. Protect yourself from other players.
Attention, drivers! Drive the iconic WRC champion and the mini-Italian stallion, the ’92 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Rally Car with Update 1.60 for GT7. The very French slab-sided ’87 Citroën BX 19 TRS and ’21 Peugeot SUV 2008 round out the Euro-leaning car additions. Three new events, an Extra Menu, new Scotland Scapes location, and expanded Sophy AI racing agent to the Alsace – Village circuit round out the very fresh and very free content, courtesy of the Polyphony team.
Update 1.60* for Gran Turismo 7 is available as of today Wednesday, June 25 at 11:00pm PDT / June 26 at 3:00pm JST / 8:00am CEST.
*Internet connection and Gran Turismo 7 game required for update.
New cars**
’87 Citroën BX 19 TRS (Can be purchased from Brand Central / Used Cars)
Citroën’s do-it-all tourer features a modern new look.
In 1976, Citroën started over again as part of Peugeot. This raised questions from many as to what a Citroën was now, and the BX was released to answer them, debuting at the 1982 Paris Auto Salon.
The BX was filled with elements that were undeniably Citroën-esque. It retained the image of classic Citroën models like the GS and CX in a thoroughly modern package that featured simple, yet strong lines. The cabin was comfortable and there was plenty of room for luggage as well. The design itself was conceived by Marcello Gandini, who was working for Bertone at that time.
Much thought was also put into the mechanicals. While many models had begun to share more and more parts with Peugeots, the BX featured the signature hydropneumatic suspension. This system uses nitrogen gas and oil instead of conventional coil springs and dampers. This allows for the ride height to be adjusted freely and also creates the unique feel of a Citroën.
The car was available with a number of different engines, but the 19 TRS featured here is a grand tourer-style model using a 1.9L gasoline engine. While not a particularly powerful engine, it is helped along by the relatively lightweight and aerodynamic body, allowing it to tackle long drives on holiday with ease.
The BX would prove to be a success for Citroën, selling for 12 years running. This car also proved that Citroën was still a competitor at a time when there was constant innovation in the French automotive industry.
’92 Lancia Delta HF Integrale Rally Car (Can be purchased from Brand Central)
The pinnacle of the Lancia Delta, winner of 6 consecutive WRC titles.
After Group B racing was dropped from the WRC, Lancia chose the Delta as their Group A machine. Converted to 4WD and sporting a turbocharger, this high-performance model was dubbed the HF 4WD and entered the 1987 WRC.
The following year, the Delta HF 4WD was equipped with audacious blister wheel arches and evolved into the Integrale. In 1990, the Integrale’s engine was given a 16-valve head, further increasing power. However, Toyota’s Celica was considerably more competitive, and the Delta saw the Drivers’ Title snatched from its grasp by the Celica in 1990 and again in 1991. Thus, in 1992 Lancia released what should be called the final evolution of the Delta.
The new Integrale improved handling through body reinforcement and, with extensive revisions to the suspension, the wheeltrack was expanded. Accordingly, the blister wheel arches got even larger. In order to gain more downforce, a spoiler was attached to the end of the roof, and the torque split of the 4WD system was shifted toward the rear wheels—the car was set up more like a rear-wheel drive.
Thanks to these improvements, the Delta regained its competitive strength. In 1992, works racing activity did not take place due to the policy at Lancia’s parent company FIAT, but Lancia joined forces with the Jolly Club satellite team and gave full technical support. Juha Kankkunen and Didier Auriol participated in 11 of the 14 rounds in the series, with Auriol taking six wins, Kankkunen winning once, and Andrea Aghini also winning once, for a total of eight wins that year—giving Lancia the constructors’ title for the sixth consecutive year.
’21 Peugeot SUV 2008 Allure (Can be purchased from Brand Central)
This compact SUV displays Peugeot design touches throughout.
Peugeot has produced a number of lively compact cars over the years. This fervour can still be seen today where SUVs control the market. They saw success in 2013 with their ‘2008’ compact SUV, but the model would be developed even further in 2019 with the release of the ‘SUV 2008’.
Peugeot model names had traditionally been a string of three numbers with a 0 in the middle, but SUV models extended this to four digits. The SUV 2008 follows this rule as well, using the same CMP platform as the ‘208’ hatchback.
At 4.3m long, the car is actually relatively short, but in looks it displays the full grandeur that an SUV should. The motifs of the lights conjure images of a lion’s claws and fangs, which has become part of Peugeot’s design identity in recent years.
Looking at the interior, you will notice the unique driver layout, dubbed the 3D i-Cockpit. This consists of a small-diameter steering wheel with a flattened top and bottom, and a head-up digital instrument panel centred above it, which provides a sporty feeling and unmatched driver visibility.
Cafe / Extra Menus
The following Menu will be added to the Extra Menus section:
Extra Menu No. 46: Mercedes-Benz (Collector Level 50）
World Circuits (New Events)
The following new events have been added to World Circuits:
Sunday Cup: Willow Springs International Raceway: Streets of Willow Springs Reverse
European Sunday Cup 400: Watkins Glen Short Course
World Rally Challenge Gr.B: Colorado Springs – Lake
Gran Turismo Sophy
The next-generation racing AI agent, Gran Turismo Sophy is now available on the following courses. Look for the Sophy icon in Quick Race and Custom Race on each track to test your skills against Sophy.
Alsace – Village
Scapes
Scotland has been added as a featured Curation in Scapes.
**Credits (paid or via game progression) required to purchase vehicles.
Netflix is delisting over 20 mobile games in July, including fan-favorite titles Hades and Monument Valley.
In the latest clue that Netflix’s gaming division could be troubled, Engadget spotted that 22 games were set to exit the subscription service. It’s not clear why, or if they will be replaced with alternative titles, but What’s On Netflix cites the removals trim the streaming giant’s gaming catalog by almost 20%.
Most games will disappear on or around July 15, although dates may vary. It’s unclear if they’ll be made available for mobile players via other services or stores.
The closure came mere months after Netflix said Netflix Games was doing better than ever, but that might not have been saying much, given past data on the streaming service’s gaming offering. Netflix said gaming engagement “tripled” last year, in part due to the release of The Grand Theft Auto Trilogy on the service near the end of 2023. Netflix called the GTA Trilogy its “most successful launch to date in terms of installs and engagement, with some consumers clearly signing up simply to play these games.”
Vikki Blake is a reporter for IGN, as well as a critic, columnist, and consultant with 15+ years experience working with some of the world’s biggest gaming sites and publications. She’s also a Guardian, Spartan, Silent Hillian, Legend, and perpetually High Chaos. Find her at BlueSky.
Back when Matt Nava was art director for glistering mountain pilgrimage Journey, he and his colleagues at thatgamescompany took a research expedition to California’s Pismo beach, a swathe of desert that rolls right up to the Pacific Ocean. The spectacle of land and ocean overlapping did a number on Nava. “It looks like the dunes of the Sahara, you know, these massive sand dunes,” he tells me. “But it’s a beach, and so the ocean is right there. And it’s amazing visually, because you have the waves of the ocean, and you have these sand dunes, which are wave shapes, and it’s so easy to imagine them moving just like the ocean.”
UK Games Expo, Britain’s biggest tabletop gaming convention, is a delicious smorgasbord of every kind of physical game imaginable. But if there’s one thing that’s dominating this year’s event, it’s Star Wars. And no wonder: it’s a hugely popular franchise that’s currently enjoying a gaming renaissance with multiple titles getting ongoing support.
Expo is showcasing the newest and upcoming releases for three Star Wars board games and card games: the collectible card game Star Wars: Unlimited, the miniature skirmish game Star Wars: Shatterpoint, and cooperative board game The Mandalorian: Adventures.
Featured in this article
The Mandalorian: Adventures has a new expansion, Clan of Two, based on season two of the TV show that inspired the game. “As big Star Wars fans, we wanted to make sure players feel like they’re experiencing the episodes right on your tabletop,” said Josh Beppler, who co-created the game alongside veteran designer Corey Konieczka. “An expansion was something we always had hoped to accomplish because there is such lovely source material to pull from. Season two of the show was such a massive success, we were eager to get to work on the new characters that were just immense fan favorites.”
Clan of Two adds some new playable characters from the wider Star Wars universe such as Ahsoka Tano and Fennec Shand alongside legendary foes like the Krayt Dragon. But of course, that’s one of the joys of the franchise: there’s so much of it to draw on for inspiration. “What we choose to add is based on a lot of different factors,” Shatterpoint’s lead designer Will Shick explained. “Sometimes it’s just a character that we really love in the office and have a great idea for. Sometimes it’s based on inspiration for a sculpt. A lot of times it’s based on whatever’s really popular among fans.”
If you’ve looked at the release schedule for the game, you might have noticed that diversity has led them to some slightly surprising places. “We’re going to do a shark man from space,” Shick grins. “It’s so cool.” He’s talking about Riff Tamson the Karkarodon, who’s included in the upcoming Terror from Below set. It’s also an opportunity for the team to introduce a new keyword to the game, ‘Aquatic,’ unlocking new possible builds. Shatterpoint is noteworthy for nudging players toward taking thematic teams by using these shared keywords to create powerful combos, and this is no exception.
“That’s a totally deliberate design,” Shick continues. “We found the best way to develop games is to bake in soft bonuses. Or little guideposts that say, hey, this character does something really cool, but if you take this character with another thematically paired character, they both do something even better. It doesn’t force the player’s hand. It’s just that if you play thematically, those bonuses might be more valuable than you taking a min-max approach.
Keywords are also a part of collectible card game Star Wars Unlimited. But as a system that needs a lot of new cards dropped with each new set, they’re used differently. There was already an existing “Force” keyword for Jedi and Sith, but for the newest set, Legends of the Force, the designers built on that by making the Force use a distinct mechanic. Some of the game’s starting bases allow you to gain a Force token which you can spend to unlock powerful abilities on particular cards, while others give you the chance to regain the token.
It’s a mechanically interesting system, although not necessarily that well tied-in with Star Wars lore, but the designers are open about wanting fun to come first. “We tried a lot of different iterations of this mechanic,” designer Joe O’Neill explained. “Some that required you to use your deck to draw cards that gained you the Force, but that often felt very inconsistent. One piece of gameplay that is always in play is your base. So using that allowed us to create this as an opt-in decision that didn’t require any re-writing of rules, didn’t require you to draw specific cards, and then feel like you’re missing out by not drawing the right thing.”
Using the base also leans into what many collectible game players love most about their systems: deck-building. “If you’re choosing to run a heavy Force deck that means you don’t get access to energy conversion bases,” O’Neill continued. “So you have to choose between some of the strongest abilities in the game. You don’t get to run everything and we think that choice is really meaningful and an interesting deck-building decision.” His co-designer John Leto finished up by pointing out that “there are other ways to gain the Force throughout the set which feel thematic. A lot of the bases we chose were places that were important to the Force, like the crystal caves.”
While collectible games like Star Wars Unlimited want to cram as much variety into new material as possible, less malleable formats often use expansions as a way to respond to player feedback from the original game. The Mandalorian, which some fans felt was too short in only offering four missions, is no exception. “The expansion adds four more, so it doubles the amount of maps,” says Beppler. “All the missions can be played on the new maps. It’s all interchangeable. You can take any of the new characters, team them up with base game characters, finding new synergies and combos. I think exploring old missions with these new abilities will give the game a lot of new life.”
He’s hopeful that other tweaks might win over some gamers who passed on the original. “The biggest example is probably the duel deck,” he offered. “It’s such a cinematic way to experience a fight. And it really helps make the theme of these characters stand out.” He’s also included new options that substantially increase the challenge if you found the base game too easy. “We’ve added conditional ongoing events which sit in an action slot and give you a negative consequence until you clear it,” he continues. “We also created deadlier versions of some of the weaker events from the first game. It’s all optional – you can stay in novice mode, and you’re going to have a great time but you will miss some of the deep strategy that emerges from the gameplay.”
Similarly, some of the upcoming Shatterpoint material helps answer a common gripe that the scenarios aren’t varied enough. “We’ve just had a brand new key operation drop, they add a thematic campaign mode that you can play,” explained Ross Thompson, the director of marketing at Atomic Mass Games. “And we’re getting ready to release new tournament kits, too, which will include promo cards, posters and that kind of stuff. Then we’ll have galactic legends coming later this year where you can play as one character that you really want to get into.”
Shick fills in with more detail on this new play mode. “One player will get to control a super-powered main character,” he explains. “So Darth Vader as we see him on screen, not balanced for the game. Then two other players take squads of primary or secondary and supporting characters. It’s a really interesting narrative because one player gets to feel super powerful, while the other player gets that experience of being like, oh my gosh, I’m going against the big guy, how do we come out on top?”
Most ongoing miniatures games encounter the need to tweak and rebalance characters as the game goes on, and Shatterpoint is no exception. However, in the age of online material and army-building apps they’ve taken the unusual step of releasing updated cards and encouraging players to print out the updates. “Print and play offers the flexibility to make those changes and offer them to players widely, ensuring that they’re free and not behind a paywall,” said Shick.
This feels like a remarkably forward-thinking attitude in a sector that’s dominated by power creep and “fear of missing out” marketing. “We’re not too proud to admit the fact that, like game development, design is a craft,” says Shick. “Once a game goes out into the wild, players might do different things to what you anticipated. So we want to make sure that we’re honoring people’s collections, that we’re bringing that value and making the best game possible, both going forward and looking back. If a player picks up a starter box and gets massively appealing characters like Anakin and Ahsoka, they better feel good. We want to ensure they play just as well as they did when the game came out.”
Talk like this is undeniably inspiring. It’s refreshing to talk to designers and feel like they’re truly invested in what they’re doing. It’s true of all the creatives on these games: their enthusiasm for their work and from Star Wars radiates off them as we speak. The Star Wars Unlimited team even collects their own product from booster packs. “We have an entire Teams channel at work just for trading within the studio,” O’Neil laughed. “People post their wants list and when the set comes out we all sit down and all crack our boxes, then set up trades.” And you know that a game design team is doing good work when they’re eagerly looking forward to finishing the day and going on to eat their own dog food.
Matt Thrower is a contributing freelance writer for IGN, specializing in tabletop games. You can reach him on BlueSky at @mattthr.bsky.social.
Following the announcement earlier this week that Riot-backed Minecrafty sandbox game Hytale has been cancelled, a former Hypixel Studios dev has claimed that internal friction and “mismanagement” at the studio are to blame.
Hytale had been in development for a decade when Hypixel co-founder Noxy revealed that it’d been canned in a website post on June 23, also revealing that the studio will be closing in a few months’ time. The game’s release had been pushedback a number of times since 2020.
Death Stranding 2 has a dialogue option at the beginning of the game that fans are getting a kick out of, but while it looks like a scary choice at first, it’s just a harmless Easter egg.
Warning! Spoilers for Death Stranding 2 follow:
Death Stranding 2 kicks off with a Far Cry-esque option at the beginning of the game where Fragile (Léa Seydoux) recruits Sam (Norman Reedus) to Drawbridge, but you get the option to refuse. Death Stranding 2 then does a Groundhog Day thing where the game keeps showing the intro over and over, and you can keep selecting “I wont do it,” but eventually the game forces you to accept the offer.
This first major dialogue choice doesn’t stop you from progressing the story, nor does it do that thing some games do by rolling credits early. It’s a perfectly safe Easter egg that’s in keeping with the Hideo Kojima style, and a fun distraction before you get stuck into the game.
Check out the video below, where we show you exactly what happens when you refuse Fragile’s plea to join Drawbridge.
IGN’s Death Stranding 2 review returned a 9/10. We called it “a triumphant sequel that emphatically delivers on the promise of its original.”
Wesley is Director, News at IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Nintendo Pictures, a Nintendo-owned subsidiary specialising in the production of “visual content”, has been revealed to have worked on the new PS5 title Death Stranding 2: On The Beach.
As covered by VGC, the company can be spotted in the credits for the game and specifically helped out on motion capture. While this might come as a bit of a surprise, it’s important to note that Nintendo Pictures had also worked on the original Death Stranding in a similar capacity, though this was before its acquisition when it was still called Dynamo Pictures.
