The classic 1995 first-person shooter Star Wars: Dark Forces is finally getting its due, in action figure form. Kyle Katarn, the hero of the video game, is getting a Star Wars The Black Series action figure. It costs $27.99 and will be available on April 1. You can preorder it now at Amazon.
Preorder the Kyle Katarn Star Wars The Black Series Action Figure
The Kyle Katarn figure is six inches tall, with a good amount of articulation. It comes with a blaster and a blue-bladed Lightsaber, with a standard blade and one that mimics the blurred swinging effect. It’s a figure that looks good enough for adults to enjoy as a collectible, but it works equally well for play, with a suggest age range of 4+.
The video game Star Wars: Dark Forces hit PC in 1995, with a port to PS1 the following year. It’s one of the early “Doom clones,” but it had strong enough story and gameplay elements to stand up on its own. Gameplay-wise, it included novel ideas like the ability to jump and duck, as well as to look up and down, all of which Doom and Doom 2 lacked.
Dark Forces is set in the (no-longer-canon) extended universe, around the time of the first Star Wars movie. It follows Kyle Katarn, a mercenary working for the Rebel Alliance, as he uncovers the Dark Troopers Project and goes about trying to stop it. This mission brings him all over the galaxy to locations like Jabba’s yacht, the Imperial mines on Gromas, inside a Star Destroyer, and more.
Star Wars: Dark Forces got the remaster treatment last year, making it accessible on modern platforms and tweaking its graphics and adding various quality-of-life improvements.
Chris Reed is a commerce editor and deals expert for IGN. He also runs IGN’s board game and LEGO coverage. You can follow him on Bluesky.
Fallout Day has just recently concluded, and plenty of news was released for Bethesda’s online RPG. Fallout 76 continues to deliver new content each year, with the Burning Springs DLC set to release later this year. Next year, Bethesda is finally set to release native PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of the game. Similar to the rest of the franchise, nothing is more iconic in Fallout 76 than Vault Boy. Today, you can pre-order the Vault Boy 76 Nendoroid at IGN Store. If you’re a fan of the legendary RPG series, this is the perfect item to level up your collection.
Shop the Vault Boy 76 Nendoroid at IGN Store
The Vault Boy 76 Nendoroid is set to include three face plates: smiling face, grinning face, and jealous face. Depending on where you put Vault Boy 76, you can customize these for a completely different style of figure! Additionally, the following optional parts are included:
Nuka-Cola
Hat
Limbs of other Vault Boys
Other optional parts for different poses
If you’re unfamiliar, Nendoroid is a line of figures manufactured by Good Smile Company. Each figure sits at approximately four inches tall, offering owners many different poses and parts to customize their Nendoroid to their liking. This Vault Boy 76 Nendoroid is set to release in Q2 2026. Be sure to head over to IGN Store today and secure yours before pre-orders close!
About IGN Store
IGN Store sells high-quality merch, collectibles, and shirts for everything you’re into. It’s a shop built with fans in mind: for all the geek culture and fandom you love most. Whether you’re into comics, movies, anime, games, retro gaming or just want some cute plushies (who doesn’t?), this store is for you!
IGN has once again teamed up with ID@Xbox for a brand-new showcase that arrives today, just a few days before Halloween. This show promises to be packed with exclusive trailers and new gameplay for games from such studios as Serenity Forge, Thunder Lotus, Raw Fury, Skybound, and many more.
To help ensure you don’t miss a thing, we will be gathering all the biggest announcements right here, as they happen. Be sure to refresh during the show to stay up to date with all the exciting reveals, and then let us know what your favorite moment was below!
How to Watch ID@Xbox on IGN and What to Expect
You can watch the ID@Xbox fall showcase on Tuesday, October 28 on the following platforms. The show kicks off at 10am PT / 1pm ET / 6pm BST and will run for roughly 50 minutes.
The free-to-play Battlefield 6 battle royale game mode has officially arrived in the form of Battlefield REDSEC – but it’s probably not exactly what you think it is.
EA and Battlefield Studios surprise launched their Battlefield battle royale experience across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S just moments ago, bringing months of rumors and leaks to an end with a standalone offering that’s free for both those who do and do not own Battlefield 6. Its name, shorthand for “Redacted Sector,” teases an updated take on a popular multiplayer pastime that’s been bundled in with two additional modes: Gauntlet and Portal. There’s more to REDSEC than fans may have expected, and it’s all tied in with the Battlefield 6 experience under one unified umbrella.
Battlefield Battle Royale
Battle royale is no doubt the headline here, offering access to 100-player matches where classic battle royale gameplay is mixed with the Battlefield 6 formula. Infantry can be seen parachuting over and into explosive firefights in its first trailer, which reveals how BF Studios translated familiar elements into the Battlefield universe, all while 2Pac and Dr. Dre’s California Love plays in the background.
Finding rare loot, hoarding armor plates, mastering small and large points of interest, and completing missions with friends are core parts of many battle royale experiences, and each is necessary to survive in Battlefield, too. It’s more Warzone than Fortnite, but REDSEC has some features that help it stand apart.
Fort Lyndon, a Southern California location that EA and BF Studios call the “biggest Battlefield map ever,” serves as the backdrop for each match. As the trailer highlights crumbling buildings, REDSEC aims to convince players it can build on battle royale without sacrificing what so many love about the franchise: tactical destruction.
Map-altering vehicles are a mainstay for any true Battlefield experience, and that remains the case for Battlefield 6 battle royale, which features everything from tanks to attack boats to golf carts to find. As the ever-present, ever-shrinking ring of fire (fans may remember it from Battlefield V: Firestorm) forces teams out of the frying pan, discovering an M1 Abrams could mean the difference between victory and succumbing to the flames. There will be plenty of less-threatening vehicles to discover around the new battle royale map, but those looking to drive a heavily armored tank will first need to complete missions, nab a keycard reward, and then use it to unlock specific garages.
Battlefield 6 and REDSEC will coexist, so those who have already enjoyed the former can expect to find familiar vehicles, guns, and gadgets in the latter – save for a few tweaks. Class upgrades are just one element to consider and give Assault, Engineer, Support, and Recon players upgrades to work toward. Earn enough XP as the Recon class, for example, and you’ll gain access to an enhancement that powers up drones with bomb-dropping capabilities. Custom loadouts can also be built and used, with players able to earn them by completing missions or by betting on the slightly riskier option of waiting for limited global drop events.
Battlefield 6 players have not-so-patiently waited for battle royale updates for months. Now that REDSEC is finally here to toss Battlefield into a battle royale blender, fans should know that it’s not the only new experience dropping today.
Gauntlet
If you need a break from battle royale, Gauntlet is a separate mode that is also offered as part of today’s new standalone free-to-play experience. While Battlefield battle royale may see squads prowling for loot in between shootouts throughout longer matches, Gauntlet is propped up as a relatively short, elimination-driven gameplay experience.
Instead of 100-player matches, just 32 players (eight squads with four players each) are spread across Fort Lyndon. BF Studios says Gauntlet is structured as a tournament, with teams tasked with fighting through fast-paced, round-based missions.
Players have five minutes to complete the objective for each round, with Gauntlet keeping everyone on their toes with rotating missions and locations. As objectives and settings shift, it’s teamwork that will determine which squad emerges victorious.
REDSEC takes the promise of limitless game-creation tools and brings them over to Fort Lyndon’s massive play area. It’s more room for fans to let their imaginations run wild, with one example we’ve seen including a midair obstacle course that features golf carts, colorful shipping containers, and narrow paths.
REDSEC Portal looks more Grand Theft Auto Online than Battlefield, but that also seems to be what EA and BF Studios are going for. Two official Portal maps will be available at launch, with more set to follow in the future.
How Does Battlefield 6 Work With REDSEC?
The base Battlefield 6 experience takes after Call of Duty, bundling in REDSEC so that players can access it from one main menu. Those who don’t own the recently released Battlefield game can still download REDSEC without issue and at no extra charge, but there are a few differences for those who own the full, premium experience and those who don’t.
Coinciding with the launch of Season 1 today is Battlefield 6’s battle pass system, which shares unlocked rewards and XP progress between both the base game and its REDSEC counterpart. Though some unique challenges and events will be tied to each experience, and some Battlefield 6 vehicle skins won’t appear in certain REDSEC experiences, EA says “there are no plans” for REDSEC-exclusive unlocks.
Portal is where things get slightly complicated. Creative fans who own Battlefield 6 can enjoy the new Portal tools introduced with REDSEC completely unrestricted, gaining access to all the new standalone experience and Fort Lyndon have to offer. Those without the base game, however, won’t have access to any Battlefield 6-exclusive content, such as maps, when making Portal creations. These restrictions don’t stop at the creation side of the user-generated community content hub, either, as EA clarifies that REDSEC-exclusive players won’t be able to create or play any content using Battlefield 6 materials.
Battlefield REDSEC isn’t just battle royale – it’s a completely different beast. This three-pillar standalone experience will change as seasonal updates continue to roll out, and if the weeks following the launch of Battlefield 6 are anything to go by, it will also likely rapidly change as community feedback pours in.
Michael Cripe is a freelance writer with IGN. He’s best known for his work at sites like The Pitch, The Escapist, and OnlySP. Be sure to give him a follow on Bluesky (@mikecripe.bsky.social) and Twitter (@MikeCripe).
Being part of a community that has always strived to be welcoming and inclusive, some The Sims creators now fear the documented conservative values of EA’s buyers — which include Donald Trump’s son-in-law and Saudi Arabia’s Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud — will impact the game’s development, with insisting “the values represented by the people acquiring EA are fundamentally at odds” with that of The Sims’ community.
Streamer Kayla “LilSimsie” Sims, who has over 2 million subscribers and has worked with EA in the past to develop DLC, said news of the sale “devastated” her, and that “the situation is a nightmare for our community.”
“I have made the decision to remove myself from the EA Creator Network. It is my hope that pressure from creators and the community might encourage EA’s leadership to reconsider the long-term impact of this sale and to preserve the values that have made The Sims so beloved,” she wrote in a heartfelt message on YouTube (thanks, Polygon).
“This means that I will no longer receive early access to Sims packs, and I will not have a creator code. Under this new ownership, I feel I cannot maintain a direct association to the company. I also truly believe that they benefit more from my early access content than I do, and I think that stepping away is the strongest action I can take against the sale.”
She continued: “This situation is a nightmare for our community. Nobody supports this sale, and it is putting creators in a very difficult position. They have built their entire career and livelihood over a game that they have no control over. I ask that you please not harass other Sims creators over their decisions regarding the game and the creator network. I am very fortunate to be in a position where I can make a choice like this, but not everyone has that ability. I don’t truly don’t believe there is a ‘right’ answer here, and everyone is still trying to figure out their next steps.”
Sims closed on writing: “I’m really, really distraught over this sale, and I know that many of you are as well. It’s scary, and it’s breaking my heart. I really appreciate your support as I try to navigate this.”
“Due to the recent sale, I have asked to leave the EA Creator Network, and I will not buy or make content around any future release,” McNamara wrote.
“I think taking this stand is the right choice for me personally, but I’m not going to judge anybody on their decision. I’m in a privileged position to be able to say I’m leaving so easily. I hope that the sale falls through, and if it doesn’t, I hope that those that stay put pressure on EA to maintain the level of inclusiveness that The Sims has always been about.”
EA has issued a statement on the matter via the official The Sims social media accounts. In it, the company insisted “we deeply respect that everyone experiences The Sims in their own way and will make choices that are right for them. However you choose to play, create, or share, we’re grateful to be part of your journey. Our mission, values, and commitment remain the same. The Sims will always be a space where you can express your authentic self.”
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.
If you’ve been missing Jimmy and still long for a Bully sequel, we may have the next best thing. While Rockstar hasn’t delivered Bully 2 yet — and where there’s life, there’s hope — a dedicated team of modders has created an entire online mode to keep you occupied in the meantime.
“IT’S HAPPENING!” developer SWEGTA announced on YouTube. “We finally have an online mode for Bully that allows you and your friends to play minigames, roleplay, compete in racing, fend off against NPCs, and much more!”
“It’s a project me and my team have been working on for a very long time,” SWEGTA added, “and it’s finally at a point in development where we can announce it and show it to the public.
“Bully Online runs on the DSL script loader, which is a plugin for Bully that essentially allows for a more versatile approach to modding. A lot of the things we thought were impossible just a few years ago can now be done, including making an online mode. We do have an official server for Bully Online, and we plan on making that available to the public to enjoy in due time.”
Starting in December, the team will be making the server available to people who support the project on Ko-Fi, along with previews, videos, screenshots, and developer commentary. The server itself is described as a “bit of a mix” between minigames, free roaming, and role-playing, and has a “fully fleshed out” inventory system that permits players to earn money in-game and spend it on a “wide variety of different things like housing, weapons, vehicles, and items.”
Bully — also known as Canis Canem Edit in some parts of the world — was a humorous action game that put players in the role of high school outcast Jimmy while attending a pretentious private school. “Bully is a great, well-crafted action game that’s been made even stronger with one of the best senses of humor around,” IGN’s Bully review read. “Expect dozens and dozens of hours of fun.”
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.
EA told players they may need to restart their game to see the update, Season 1 and battle pass progression begin today at 8am PT / 11am ET / 3pm UK time.
This is the big post-launch patch that changes everything from weapon dispersion to balance, visibility to aim assist, progression, and more, with further updates due out over the course of Season 1.
“The Season 1 Update marks the next step in our ongoing journey to evolve and expand the Battlefield 6 experience,” Battlefield Studios has said. “This includes fixes, balance changes, and quality-of-life improvements focused on polish, performance, and player feedback to deliver an even smoother experience moving forward.”
Improved core movement and animations, including smoother landings, faster stance transitions, better vaulting behavior, and reduced “bouncing” issues on landing or spawning.
Reworked weapon dispersion to better align accuracy and handling with each weapon’s intended design and performance over range. These changes address cases where accuracy behaved inconsistently, such as dispersion not properly settling after sprinting, and bring overall firing behavior closer to the intended balance between precision, control, and weapon power.
Significant visibility and lighting improvements, with better exposure transitions, interior lighting, and reduced fog and smoke persistence.
Audio overhaul, adding new projectile flybys, destruction and explosion sounds, refined vehicle and weapon mixes, and improved haptic feedback across multiple interactions.
UI and HUD updates for clarity and consistency, including overtime indicators, end-of-round fixes, and new unlock markers for weapons and gadgets.
Map fixes across multiple locations, resolving spawn animations, out-of-bounds issues, misaligned assets, and general stability across Conquest, Breakthrough, and Rush modes.
CHANGELOGPLAYER:
Fixed an issue where combat dive could break when diving uphill.
Fixed an issue where players would detach from ziplines when entering at high speed.
Improved steady aim and sight centering for more consistent precision.
Fixed an issue where movement could interrupt steady aim.
Adjusted misaligned character hitboxes for upper body and head to better match the visual models.
Fixed an issue where the jump animation could play twice when aiming down sights.
Landing animations now have their animation path properly centered, instead of shifting to the side when landing.
Fixed an issue where jump inaccuracy could linger too long after landing.
Fixed a visual issue causing weapons to appear rotated incorrectly after spawning.
Fixed an issue where throwing grenades from prone could make players appear standing in third-person view.
Fixed an animation delay when opening doors while sliding.
Fixed an issue where players could get stuck while vaulting over certain objects.
Fixed a visual issue where dead players appeared alive while swimming.
Fixed an issue where quick meleeing with a gadget would swap back to the primary weapon instead of the gadget.
Fixed an issue where getting killed by a mine would highlight it in the killcam.
Fixed a camera jitter that could occur when entering ladders and looking down.
Fixed an issue where camera and weapon sway behaved incorrectly after entering or exiting vehicles.
Fixed an issue where weapons of other soldiers could clip through walls when they entered your view.
Fixed an issue where pistols disappeared while swimming.
Improved lighting precision for visibility while hip-firing and aiming down sights.
Reduced occurrences of bouncing or landing issues when dropping onto certain objects.
Fixed an issue where the killer snapshot sometimes did not display in the killcam.
Small improvements to weapon and camera sway for smoother movement.
Fixed an issue where enemies could take melee damage in protected vehicle seats.
Fixed an issue where vaulting could fail if triggered right as the player hit an obstacle.
Fixed an animation issue where repeated vaulting could cause incorrect hand placement.
Fixed an issue where simultaneous melee hits could make an enemy briefly invisible
Fixed an issue where soldier heads briefly disappeared during redeploy transitions.
Improved training path progression display to better match actual unlocks.
Fixed an issue where friendly players could clip into each other when climbing ladders.
Fixed an issue preventing vaulting directly from a slide.
Fixed an issue causing the camera to rotate abruptly after a takedown.
Fixed an issue where hands briefly disappeared after using the AJ-03 COAG Med Pen.
Improved stab animations when reviving with drag and revive.
Fixed issues affecting peeking and prone transitions, ensuring both actions function correctly.
Fixed a camera clipping issue when going prone while strafing.
Fixed a missing third-person animation when transitioning from prone to sprint.
Fixed an issue where falling while sprinting caused incorrect hand movement.
Fixed visual clipping when soldiers stood too close to glass doors.
Fixed jittery aim animations in third-person when mounted.
Fixed a bug where mounting near walls prevented aiming left or right.
Fixed an issue where leaning, peeking, or mounting could cancel unexpectedly.
Fixed an issue where third-person hit reactions were missing when hit while mounted.
Fixed an animation issue where the character’s knee clipped with the camera when falling while crouched.
Fixed takedown inconsistencies, allowing players to properly perform melee takedowns even near walls.
Fixed an issue where taking melee damage interrupted weapon fire.
Fixed multiple visibility improvements including lighting, exposure, and fog behavior for better contrast and clarity across all maps.
Improved vaulting, parachute, and door-opening animations for smoother transitions.
Fixed rare animation freezes for friendly soldiers reloading off-screen.
Fixed minor inconsistencies in mounting, peeking, and prone transitions for more reliable gameplay.
Added parachute customization for soldiers.
Prevented unintended shoulder bump animation when equipping a weapon while sprinting.
Improved ragdoll impacts for more consistent and reliable reactions.
Improved stance transition and landing animations to settle faster and feel smoother.
VEHICLES:
Fixed missing haptic feedback when switching between tank weapons.
Fixed a visual issue where the player’s hand clipped with the M1A2 SEPv3 handle when sitting in external seats.
GADGETS:
Fixed a rare issue where the MAS 148 Glaive could block the first-person view during a combat dive.
Fixed a MAS 148 Glaive visual issue during combat dives in first-person.
Fixed an issue where Defibrillators appeared floating during vaulting animations.
Fixed an issue where the Supply Pouch would sometimes not resupply correctly.
Deployable gadgets are not destroyed/removed from debris piles
AT grenades now create a small sized crater instead of a medium one.
Buildings now take more hits to be destroyed by a Sledgehammer.
WEAPONS:
Weapon dispersion has been rebalanced to better match each weapon’s damage profile across all ranges. Lower-damage weapons will now see a slightly higher increase in dispersion when firing, while higher-damage weapons will experience slightly less.
Using Sniper Rifles with any class other than Recon will no longer increase weapon spread. Instead, weapon sway will now begin during the zoom transition, maintaining balance and distinguishing Recon’s precision advantage.
Fixed a misalignment issue with top-mounted red dot sights.
Fixed an issue where mounting a bipod while zoomed only changed the FOV instead of using the correct optic.
Fixed an issue where the Long Suppressor used the wrong attachment point cost for some weapons.
Improved reticle settling for automatic weapons to make burst firing more efficient.
Fixed an issue where using a bipod too close to complex geometry could throw the player off position while prone.
Balanced sledgehammer damage against world objects for better consistency.
Fixed an issue preventing players from leaving the Firing Range.
MAPS & MODES:
Improved fog and smoke effects after destruction to prevent them from lingering too long and impacting visibility.
Improved exposure transitions between indoor and outdoor areas for better visibility.
Fixed an issue where the zipline carabiner could appear offset and fly next to the wire instead of along it.
Squad names are now randomized at the start of Squad Deathmatch matches.
Added visible bomb meshes to armed M-COMs in Rush.
Updated overtime UI visualization across all modes.
Fixed animation and positioning issues during insertion sequences on all maps.
Fixed an issue where the game mode UI could display incorrect scores or fail to update during a round.
Fixed an End of Round progression issue in King of the Hill mode.
Fixed an issue where players could encounter a bouncing animation when spawning at HQs after capturing new territories in Escalation across multiple maps.
Mirak Valley
Fixed a misaligned zipline mesh in Conquest.
Fixed an issue where the deploy camera in Rush displayed attackers on the wrong side of the map.
Fixed an issue that prevented players from arming M-COM A in Rush due to a misplaced asset.
Siege of Cairo
Fixed overlapping territory lines and boundaries during the briefing screen in Escalation.
Liberation Peak
Fixed an issue in Escalation where a portion of the map on the NATO side was disconnected during the first period of the match.
Fixed an issue in Rush where part of the Attacker’s HQ area was incorrectly marked as out of bounds.
New Sobek City
Fixed an issue preventing players from capturing part of Flag C in Escalation.
Fixed an issue where players could ignite when spawning near a burning lorry in Team Deathmatch.
Adjusted an infantry vehicle spawn that was placed too close to a building in the PAX Armata HQ area.
Manhattan Bridge
Fixed an issue in Breakthrough where players could become stuck on the End of Round screen if the party leader left during the EOR sequence.
UI & HUD:
Added new markers for newly unlocked weapons, weapon packages, attachments, gadgets, and throwables.
Updated 3D previews for certain gadgets to show their deployed state.
Added preview videos demonstrating how gadgets work.
Added new cosmetic options for selected gadgets.
Changed “Save & Close” to “Close” in the Deploy menu for clarity.
Fixed various UI issues in Loadouts.
Fixed an issue where Battlefield 6 Ownership XP Boost did not display properly at End of Round.
Fixed multiple text inconsistencies in Dog Tags and Challenges.
Fixed an issue where the HUD would not appear when using a 16:10 aspect ratio with certain resolutions.
SETTINGS:
Added Flick Look bindings to Helicopter, Jet, and Transport control schemes.
Fixed visual issues where some aspect ratio settings caused transparent borders or inconsistent display behavior.
SINGLE PLAYER:
Fixed an issue in Mission 01 where players were unable to lean out during the Last Stand sequence if the cinematic began while the knife was equipped.
Fixed a black screen issue in the Night Raid mission.
PORTAL:
Fixed an issue where the Host Experience screen did not display the Portal experience image.
Fixed a crash that could occur if a party leader started a Portal server while Content Packs 01 and 04 were disabled.
Improved loading times for the Server Browser experience info tab to ensure joining functions properly.
Corrected a spelling error in the message shown when attempting to join an unavailable server.
AUDIO:
Fixed an issue where footstep sounds were missing when moving with the knife equipped.
Fixed a voiceline issue where directional callouts (e.g., “enemy north”) played the wrong direction.
Tuned haptic feedback across multiple actions, including window barging, defibrillator use, swimming, rocket pods, mounted MGs, and sea vehicle collisions.
Polished large projectile audio with new missile, rocket pod, and cannon shell flyby effects; improved distance handling and overall mix for more realistic impact sounds.
Updated audio configs for light rockets and LMGs; refined explosion sound crossfades and adjusted distant sound behavior.
Improved vehicle and weapon firing audio balance, reducing noise artifacts, unwanted phasing, and over-saturation.
Added radio chatter through controller speakers.
Fixed an issue where firing range dummies and vehicle-hit reactions sometimes played incorrect or processed hurt sounds.
Disabled radio processing for stationary vehicle pings and fixed compass orientation for ping indicators.
Fixed missing or incorrect ambient and destruction sounds across several maps, including Siege of Cairo, as well as missing explosion sounds for silos and tanker trailers.
Added missing ambient audio setups for environmental props like construction barriers and buses.
Added new sound effects for the bulletin and takeover sections of the main menu, including improved reveal animations.
Fixed an issue where delayed challenge tab displays triggered early audio playback.
Fixed an issue where defibrillator loop sounds could get stuck when vaulting.
Fixed missing or out-of-sync reload sounds.
Corrected the M39 EMR using suppressed audio when unsuppressed.
Restored missing external sound effects for RWS Gunner countermeasure mines.
Fixed issues where soundtrack tracks cut off abruptly or skipped mid-song.
Reload audio polish for several weapons.
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.
The Wachowskis, the writers and directors behind the Matrix movies, once asked Metal Gear creator Hideo Kojima to design a Matrix video game, but publisher Konami reportedly turned it down.
That’s according to Time Extension, which said that while a December 1999 edition of NextGen magazine stated Kojima was apparently in the running to develop a game based on the blockbuster movie, Konami exec Kasumi Kitaue shot down discussions in favor of keeping Kojima focused on the Metal Gear series instead.
“The Wachowskis were big fans of Kojima,” Konami Digital Entertainment VP of licensing, Christopher Bergstresser, told Time Extension. “So Kazumi Kitaue, Kojima, Aki Saito (who still works with Kojima), and I were at the Konami HQ, and we got a call from the Wachowskis, who wanted to come in and meet with Kojima. So they did!
“The two of them came in with their concept artist, and effectively they said to Kojima, ‘We really want you to do the Matrix game. Can you do that?’ Aki translated this into Japanese for Mr. Kitaue, and Kitaue just looked at them and told them plainly, ‘No.’ We did still get to enjoy the Matrix Japanese premiere and afterparty, though.”
Interestingly, that’s not quite how everyone recalls events. Another former Konami employee, this one unwilling to go on record, claimed Konami had actually shown “strong interest” in the game, and there was “immense disappointment” when the project didn’t go ahead.
It didn’t turn out too badly for Kojima or Konami, either; after 1998’s Metal Gear Solid, Kojima and his team then concentrated on the critically-acclaimed and award-winning Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, which was released in 2001.
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.
The 2000s are memorable for plenty of peaks. The last truly great salvo of R-rated Hollywood comedies. Finnish mobile phones built sturdy enough to kill a man. Also? NASCAR games. If you know, you know. It’s not a controversial statement to say that, over the last 20 years, no licensed NASCAR game has been able to unseat NASCAR Dirt to Daytona, NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, and NASCAR Thunder 2004 from the podium. Enter NASCAR 25. While several elements of it are roughly hewn and underfeatured – and the multiplayer misses the mark – the moment-to-moment single-player racing it serves up is fast, fierce, and fabulously nuanced. Does it slingshot itself past the very best to ever do it? Not quite. However, it has gotten closer to doing so than any other in the last two decades, and that makes it quite notable.
NASCAR 25 isn’t just the first NASCAR-licensed console game in almost five years, it’s the first ever produced by iRacing – the subscription-based racing simulation of choice for professional race drivers and sim-seat warriors alike. Considering the very foundation of iRacing was built using the source code for the legendary NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, there’s an undeniable element of pedigree at play here. There’s obviously a level of expectation that comes with this sort of heritage but, while it still has plenty of scope for growth and refinement, it’s been nice to see NASCAR 25 succeed in key areas where it counts.
Matched Perfect and Staggered Special
NASCAR 25 is at its very best on the track, rubbing panels at nearly 200 miles per hour. While oval racing isn’t a personal speciality of mine, I do find it massively fascinating just how ruthless it can be – and how different it is to typical circuit racing. As such, NASCAR 25 has me hooked right now.
There isn’t always a consistent racing line in oval racing; depending on the conditions and the track itself, the most efficient way through a bend might be low, somewhere in the middle, or even way up by the wall. You may need to start taking a corner differently to be faster, and I’m finding this necessity to adapt extremely interesting. I’m also particularly attracted to the sort of patience oval racing requires, with events that can unfold over hundreds of laps. Doggedly hanging onto the coattails of a breakaway pack of opponents, dicing with them doorhandle-to-doorhandle, is tense and engaging – but there’s also a part of it that I find almost meditative as I stalk slipstreams lap after lap, waiting for the perfect moment to attempt to lunge and strike.
The reason this all comes together in a meaningfully believable way is really thanks to NASCAR 25’s very impressive and tunable AI, and it’s very much what I crave in a racing game of this type. The core thing I look for constantly is racing that I can play by myself, in my own time, that feels authentic against my skill level. That’s it. I don’t want to be at the mercy of online randos, many of whom are ill disciplined and weave unrealistically across the track. Just sell me the fantasy of being a racing driver. Let’s not kid ourselves: I’m driving pretend race cars that I can pause when I need to pee. I’m not here to take on the world; I just want to enjoy my time. I want to believe I’m in the mix amongst a bunch of bona fide professionals who drive accordingly. NASCAR 25’s AI gets this right.
I want to believe I’m in the mix amongst a bunch of bona fide professionals who drive accordingly. NASCAR 25’s AI gets this right.
As a very casual consumer of NASCAR racing from the other side of the planet, my interest has ebbed and flowed depending on the involvement of drivers I have existing familiarity with, like Marcus Ambrose and SVG, so I’m not going to claim I can assure you that the AI always make the right tactical decisions. That said, they really do seem to drive with a lot of credibility. They hold their lines extremely smoothly around corners, and they shrewdly carve through packs of other cars competing for spots, effectively bump drafting and changing lanes. The only thing that undoes them is NASCAR 25’s frankly absurd way of penalising corner cutting, which will literally bring your car to a halt wherever you currently are if it detects a track limit violation. This will result in the AI piling up behind you as they all slam on the anchors to stop. It’s a massive immersion killer when it happens.
AI speed operates on a difficulty slider, meaning I was able to get it dialled in to perfectly match my skill level. The values are arbitrary, but they range between 85 and 105. About 100 was the sweet spot for super speedways for me, and slightly lower on short tracks and road courses.
There are a number of settings available to customise the AI, including their predisposition to losing control, their skill in regaining control after incidents, and their resistance to car-on-car collisions in the first place. I’m currently experimenting with making the AI more susceptible to losing it after a decent whack – and dialling incident frequency way up to make things a little more exciting. It probably hasn’t quite resulted in the turmoil I was anticipating, but I appreciate settings like this. There isn’t one, single way to play NASCAR 25. Keep it stern and serious or let it lean a little more Hollywood? It’s a decision the developers are happy to let us handle.
I Don’t Want You Spoiled, Buck
On the topic of handling, the news is also largely positive. It feels strong and challenging with a wheel, and the laser-scanned track surfaces (which have migrated from iRacing) means the characteristics of circuits with bumpier surfaces come through to have interesting effects on the driving feel from race to race. Cars feel balanced and obedient at high speed, and I was particularly impressed with how approachable NASCAR 25 is on a controller – which is important as a console-oriented game. It’s hard for me to accurately put myself into the mind of an inexperienced or younger racer, but there are also a range of assists available – and the simple tuning slider should be sufficient for anyone not looking to get too lost in the weeds when it comes to minor vehicle adjustments. The handy slider is essentially a bunch of quick tunes you can apply to either tighten everything up (which should make your car quite planted and stable, at the cost of some front end responsiveness) or create something looser (and if I’ve learned anything from Days of Thunder beyond what happens when a load of unwanted lettuce reaches Japan, loose is fast and on the edge of out of control).
One key controller problem so far, however, is a peculiar lack of meaningful rumble – and this creates a disappointing disconnect between what’s happening with my car’s grip on-screen and what I’m feeling through my hands. It just injects an unwanted floaty sensation at times, particularly when you don’t realise your rear tyres are spinning up because there’s no tactile information coming in that that’s happening. It makes playing on the expert level handling settings – where ham-fisted throttle mashing will rotate your car around quick smart – a bit more frustrating than I like. I think it’s also contributing to a skatey feeling on road courses, because I can’t really always feel the edge of the grip.
Information is definitely one of NASCAR 25’s weaknesses, overall. It’s not just the fact that it doesn’t really do a great deal to teach a player the ins-and-outs of, say, oval tactics or road course track limits. It’s also missing useful, basic info, like your opposition’s current qualifying times – which can’t be seen while you’re also out trying to set down a scorching lap. You need to return to pit lane to view where you currently stand in the group. The spotter also has a habit of giving us the wrong info, like noting you have clear space inside or outside when you don’t. I’m very lukewarm on how robotic the spotter sounds, too; being direct and matter-of-fact is all well and good during racing, but being unable to muster any convincing human enthusiasm about winning a race makes him feel like a chatbot – and NASCAR 25 misses out on any meaningful personality as a result.
The presentation of career mode is a bit sterile, too. Your driver is never more than a blank silhouette, and the inability to even select a home state or country of origin is odd. It’s small potatoes, sure, but missing the little things does make it all feel a little more impersonal than I’d want from a custom driver. Cars can be customised using a combination of preset designs and some basic shapes, but the livery system is underdone. A one-button system for syncing your design up with your driver and team gear is handy, but simple stuff like flipping the design from one side of a car to the other hasn’t been implemented. You also can’t apply custom shapes to liveries you want to use online, which is an annoying restriction we don’t typically face in other racing games.
I did enjoy the evolution of the custom racing operation and garage backdrop, which is quite cool as you progress up through the four series (and you can compete in up to two series at once), but this first effort is a bit vanilla compared to other career modes in the official motorsport sim space, like F1 or WRC. There’s a basic economy here, where you need to monitor an overall budget and manage repairs between races with a secondary resource called ‘work points’, but I did find myself ploughing through it between races without too much thought.
While I’ve established multiplayer is not my natural environment, it’s not a particularly strong component of NASCAR 25 either way, which is a tad surprising given the sheer volume of online racing experience the iRacing team has. NASCAR 25’s multiplayer is simply a basic lobby system of random races, and there are no scheduled races or special events. It plays just as smooth and reliably as the single-player – even in races against over two dozen online opponents – which is commendable. It just feels listless.
It’s been almost six years since Crimson Desert was first revealed to the world. Across that period, developer Pearl Abyss has shown off a huge array of ideas, mechanics, and boss battles. It’s frequently been cited as something of an “everything game” – an open world adventure with sky islands, mechanical dragons, wrestling moves, interdimensional gateways, interacting elemental effects, and even a Spider-Man web swing. But the more that’s been revealed, the more there’s been the sense that Crimson Desert may be a lot of pieces in need of a whole. Finding that whole was my main objective when I visited Pearl Abyss’ studio in Seoul for this month’s IGN First. And while I can’t say I’ve found it yet, multiple hours of hands-on playtime has revealed a game that’s maybe not as strange as you’d expect. In fact, Crimson Desert feels pretty straightforward.
Pearl Abyss has crafted a reasonably traditional open world adventure, made up of multiple regions peppered with towns, outposts, and castles. There’s the usual collection of main and optional quests, plus classic distractions like fishing. You’d be forgiven for not realising this, though – Pearl Abyss has put almost all its promotional efforts into showcasing boss fights. Not only that, but Crimson Desert’s blend of traditional medieval fantasy with sci-fi and steampunk elements does make it seem like it’s being pulled in several directions at once.
When you’re on the ground and seeing how all these elements interact, though, it doesn’t feel quite so alien. The continent of Pywel is perhaps less like a typical Tolkien-esque fantasy world and more akin to Dungeons & Dragons – a setting that, in recent years, was host to a Mad Max-like vehicular chase through Hell. Pearl Abyss’ design team explained that they wanted Pywel to reflect the variety of our reality, in which some countries feel much more futuristic than others, and note that some of the Pywel’s leaders may be more resistant to the advancement of technology than others – a conflict that’ll be explored through various faction quests. All this means the variety doesn’t feel artificial or there simply for the sake of being wild, even when you’re at the controls of a flying battle robot (which was, of course, designed by dwarven engineers.)
The inclusion of these mechanised and steampunk elements grant Pearl Abyss the creative license to build quests that are a significant departure from anything we’d see in something like Skyrim. A major part of my hands-on time involved completing a quest for Marni, a scientific genius who cloned his own consciousness to create the AI-like entity, H.A.L.L. Naturally the results of such an experiment have gone very wrong, and Marni’s evil digital-magic twin has taken command of a flying fortress that’s terrorizing Pywel’s skies. Defeating H.A.L.L requires the use of a power core, which Marni reveals is hidden inside a “weapon” called Golden Star. And by “weapon”, he means a giant mechanical dragon. While they presumably have ballistic missiles in Pywel, what with the advanced engineering and all, of course the fantasy version of a nuke is flying Mechagodzilla. All that stands between me and this winged menace is… a fortress filled with angry battle robots.
It appears that fortress assaults will be a significant recurring objective in Crimson Desert, considering that my hands-on time involved no fewer than three of them. I can see why Pearl Abyss was keen to show them off, as they are a showcase for some of the project’s strongest achievements. There’s a great sense of atmosphere, with a legion of men from either side battering the living hell out of each other, and you’re caught in the middle of it all. Fun mechanical wrinkles add texture; during one attack I was able to fire signalling arrows that were quickly followed by a bombardment of artillery, decimating enemy soldiers and reducing buildings to splinters. In another, I was able to circumnavigate the brutal melee entirely, sneaking into the castle through a crumbling wall and using the prison as a shortcut to the boss. And in my fight through the robot fortress, a backpack-mounted EMP device allowed me to fry the circuits of both the lumbering ground threats and the airborne bug-bots in one giant blast. There’s always something new to try, something to experiment with.
The variety of ideas doesn’t feel artificial or there simply for the sake of being wild, even when you’re at the controls of a flying battle robot.
But as much as these fortress assaults are a demonstration of Crimson Desert’s highs, they simultaneously reveal what could turn out to be some of its biggest blemishes. Battling masses of enemies is surprisingly tedious, feeling messy and repetitive rather than an engaging chain of frontline fights. An awkward lock-on feature pushed me away from one-on-one duels and into a more freeform playstyle, but that came with the baggage of imprecise strikes and occasionally kicking the air instead of faces. Absolutely none of these issues hamper the boss battles, which was my only experience of Crimson Desert prior to this demonstration, and I was quite surprised at how different combat can feel in alternative scenarios, even when using the same moveset.
It’s in these smaller, less refined details where Crimson Desert threatens to lose itself. There are occasions where you need to pick up and manipulate objects, such as planting a banner to inspire your allies. Doing so requires standing still, turning to face the object, activating a focus mode, rapidly tapping a button to lift your target, and then finally manually carry it. All of this is a slightly baffling annoyance when erecting flags, but it turns into a genuine frustration in the middle of a boss battle, when you’re desperately trying to swing a fallen masonry column during the precious few seconds in which the boss is stunned.
Thankfully, no such awkward Ultrahand juggling is required to extract the power core from Golden Star. As we explored earlier this month in our making-of feature, this is a boss battle with a unique mechanic that must be discovered in the (quite literal) heat of battle. The dragon’s flaming breath activates an array of pylons dotted around the fortress’ battle arena, which then dispense EMP bombs that you can fire from an arm-mounted cannon. The system creates a repeating phase loop; Golden Star circles above, belching the flames that produce the EMP bombs that will eventually bring him crashing to the ground, where you can unleash a barrage of strikes until he reboots and begins the cycle anew. Pearl Abyss are keen to point out you don’t have to do this – you could, for instance, use lightning-wreathed arrows to apply a stun, or simply chip away at his health bar with ranged attacks – but I feel that the real enjoyment in all of Crimson Desert’s boss fights has been finding the unique mechanic built into the arena or even the enemy itself.
With the power core obtained, I take to the skies on the back of my own (completely organic) dragon to attack H.A.L.L’s flying fortress. The initial assault is pretty simple – I have my mount spit fireballs at a number of weak spots in the structure’s shields to break down the defences and allow me to land. But getting inside the fortress itself is more complicated; a navigation puzzle that’s just the right side of obtuse. My journey takes me up elevator shafts and along a precarious route perched on the fortress’ exterior. At one point I have to activate a machine by rotating a wooden pillar that has no crank, achieved by using the thrust attack to bury my blade in the timber to create my own handle. There’s no prompt for this, and I appreciate that the solution is to think about your ability set in a non-conventional manner.
Such an approach continues inside, where defeating H.A.L.L is more of a puzzle than a traditional challenge of brawn. I like that Crimson Desert’s AI spirit character doesn’t just become another boss brawl – another indicator that the world’s weird steampunk and sci-fi elements actually make some kind of in-universe sense. This time, though, the solution really is obtuse, and someone from Pearl Abyss had to spell it out to me. Hopefully the hours prior to this quest will have equipped you with the knowledge of how to approach this particular foe.
I am a little apprehensive that at least some of Crimson Desert’s offerings will be “stuff to do” rather than meaningful, interlinked opportunities.
H.A.L.L’s flying fortress isn’t the only airborne destination I visited. Suspended high above Pywel are a scattering of Abyss Islands, accessed through portals that are unlocked with mysterious Abyss Artefacts. These islands appear to come in multiple guises; last year we saw that one of them is home to an alchemist called Alustin and his Library of Providence, and my hands-on session included one that was more akin to Zelda’s puzzle shrines. Its checkerboard floor was essentially a room-size circuit board in need of a total rewiring, and finding the correct path through the grid of rotating flagstones unlocks the island’s treasure trove. This is, of course, the sort of puzzle you’ve solved in everything from Watch Dogs to BioShock, but I enjoyed how your equipment is integral to completing it – your lantern illuminates the correct pathway, and your grapple hook is used to spin each tile. So while this challenge is not particularly taxing, I hope its solid foundations are the basis for more interesting puzzles that await among the clouds.
When you’ve uncovered an Abyss Island’s secrets, you can leap off the side and float down to earth, where plenty more traditional open-world fare awaits. There are towns to visit, in which you’ll find shop keepers to trade with and bounties to take on. Out in the wilderness there are camps to clear out and roaming barbarians to slaughter. And then there’s the factions. From what I glimpsed in the menus, there are dozens and dozens of them, although some will be more important than others, I’m told. A few have their own questline, such as House Wells, a family of nobles led by a Duke who’s lost his castle to rebel forces – a situation that’s the catalyst for one of those aforementioned fortress assaults.
Pearl Abyss was quick to clarify that these groups are not like Fallout’s factions, and allegiances with them won’t change the course of the story or impact Crimson Desert’s ending (which is set in stone.) And so I’m left wondering what are the faction quests in aid of? When asked, Pearl Abyss’ design team explained that they were there to ensure the factions felt like significant actors in the plot, and that they offered more content for players to complete. That considered, I am a little apprehensive that at least some of Crimson Desert’s offerings will be “stuff to do” rather than meaningful, interlinked opportunities.
That brings us back to my very first question. What is Crimson Desert as a whole? I know it’s a vast open world with deep, fighting-game inspired combat that works better against bosses than it does against fodder. It’s got spectacle-laden quests that take you from in-the-mud castle assaults all the way up to aerial strikes on a steampunk Death Star. And it’s littered with good time distractions, from fishing to taming bears and buckling up in a battle mech. But I’m still waiting to discover the glue between all this that elevates an open world to new heights.
Shadow of Mordor has the Nemesis system, which chains its enemies together into a foe-conquering big picture. Red Dead Redemption 2’s systems are united by a pursuit of realism and authenticity that makes its campaign feel like a life lived rather than a game played. And this year’s Ghost of Yotei links every activity on its map to a new unlock on your skill tree, ensuring even little diversions are a growth opportunity. That’s the stuff that’s so far been missing from Crimson Desert’s demonstrations, and the thing I hope will eventually be revealed when I get to play multiple consecutive hours, rather than a collection of isolated quests and bosses. Without it, I still think Crimson Desert stands a solid chance of being an overall good time. But with it, it could become something much more special.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s Executive Editor of Features.
