Category: IGN

Battlefield 6 Update 1.1.1.0 is live now on all platforms, EA has said. It arrives just hours before the launch of Season 1, battle pass progression, and the free-to-play battle royale, REDSEC.

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.”

Check out the patch notes in full below. While you wait for Season 1 to go live, check out our full list of all currently available Battlefield 6 multiplayer maps. Those looking to brush up on their online skills can also read our multiplayer tips and tricks guide.

Battlefield 6 Update 1.1.1.0 patch notes:

Major Updates for 1.1.1.0:

• 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.

The Matrix franchise was adapted into a series of games nonetheless, starting with Shiny Entertainment’s Enter the Matrix in 2003, follow up The Matrix: Path of Neo in 2005, and Monolith Production’s The Matrix Online in the same year. We were also treated to a Matrix-themed tech demo in 2021, The Matrix Awakens: An Unreal Engine 5 Experience, in which Epic Games showed us what Unreal Engine 5 was capable of.

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.

And Kojima is equally busy now, of course. With Death Stranding 2 out the door, Kojima is working on a number of new projects, including horror game OD for Xbox Game Studios. He revealed the first trailer for it last month, sparking speculation that it is connected to P.T. in some way. Certainly, there are striking similarities. The mysterious game will star Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves’ Sophia Lillis, Hunters’ Udo Kier, and Euphoria’s Hunter Schafer, with the trailer showcasing Lillis’ character in a spooky house, lighting candles before meeting a malevolent figure.

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.

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.

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.

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.

The long-leaked Battlefield 6 battle royale experience will seemingly shadow-drop across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S soon, with a full gameplay reveal for Battlefield REDSEC now set to premiere tomorrow morning.

EA and Battlefield Studios (finally) confirmed plans to pull back the curtain on its new free-to-play Battlefield mode via social media today. A Battlefield REDSEC official gameplay trailer is now scheduled for premiere at 8 a.m. PT / 11 a.m. ET tomorrow, October 28, with its description teasing a surprise launch. The news follows months of rumors and leaks, suggesting that Battlefield 6 battle royale was nearly here.

Eyes up.
Plates on.#REDSEC arrives tomorrow at 8:00 PT / 15:00 UTC 🔴

🔔 set reminder: https://t.co/xuRd1LETVr pic.twitter.com/Lpi7sufuay

— Battlefield (@Battlefield) October 27, 2025

Those who have enjoyed Battlefield 6 since it first landed for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X | S October 10 expected to hear news of a proper, complimentary battle royale experience when Season 1 was properly unveiled last week. As first details of EA and BF Studios’ latest came and went, however, there was no sign of what many had expected to be a substantial new game mode to drop into.

It was strange, especially as hints of a Battlefield 6 battle royale game mode began to leak as early as July 2025. The popular, last-squad-standing experience is nothing new for the franchise and remains popular among shooter fans, so with Battlefield promising a return to its roots with destructible environments and gritty gameplay, another stab at battle royale felt like a no-brainer at the time. Community manager Kevin Johnson then confirmed BF Studios had indeed begun work on such a mode in August, adding that only those involved in the Battlefield 6 closed test program, Battlefield Labs, would get to play at first.

Official updates have been quiet since, but that didn’t stop Labs testers from drumming up hype. Battlefield battle royale gameplay snuck its way online in September, confirming that things like swimming, combat, and destruction had been translated over to this new experience. Just as quickly as EA stamped out leaks, more soon popped up on social media.

A battle royale game mode for Battlefield 6 Season 1 was all but confirmed, even as news of the first major content drop passed without confirmation from BF Studios. Things then really heated up last Friday, when ModernWarzone reported that battle royale would shadow-drop alongside the first Battlefield 6 season with the title Battlefield REDSEC.

Even with so little in terms of official word from the developers, a Battlefield 6 battle royale shadow-drop seems all but confirmed for tomorrow morning. Labs leaks date back months ago, so there’s no telling what content made it into the Battlefield REDSEC launch build.

We’ll know more about the new Battlefield 6 game mode when the trailer premieres in less than 24 hours. Until then, you can read about how EA and BF Studios did their best to combat leakers – even if they knew it was an uphill battle. You can also check out all of the changes set to be introduced in Battlefield 6 Season 1 and one skin that still has the community up in arms.

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).

Details and images of Sony’s canceled live-service multiplayer God of War game have leaked online.

At the beginning of the year, Sony canceled two unannounced live-service games that were in development at Bend Studio and Bluepoint Games, with the latter thought to be a multiplayer God of War game.

Now, a number of screenshots reportedly taken from the canceled project have been published by MP1st, hinting that the game may have be set in Greece once again and feature a range of diverse backdrops, including caverns and temples.

Two screenshots, purportedly of Hades’ Armory, apparently show the same area in different states, one ‘normal’ and the other seemingly infected by a curse or otherworld state with rust-colored stains.

Hades was introduced in 2005’s God of War and appeared in God of War II, but it wasn’t until God of War III that he became a major antagonist before his brutal death at the end of the third instalment. Quite how Bluepoint planned to explain his return in this game we may never know, but it does show the Sony-owned studio was moving beyond the rebooted series’ hitherto Norse setting, although there are some Norse-like touches in the screenshots, too, suggesting Bluepoint was either intending to mix it up or still experimenting.

Sony has yet to announce a new God of War game, although given the success of both 2018’s God of War and 2022’s God of War Ragnarök it seems inevitable that fans will get more from the franchise. The question is, in what form and in which setting will God of War take on next?

Speaking at MCM London Comic Con last week, Kratos actor Christopher Judge said he hoped God of War would cover the Egyptian pantheon. “Because I became best known as Teal’c from Stargate, to go to Egypt would be a completion of my circle,” he teased. “But whatever is decided — wait… if there is another game, I have no doubt that no matter what pantheon it is, it will be great.”

As for the God of War TV series? Ronald D. Moore — known for Battlestar Galactica, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Outlander, For All Mankind, and much more — is taking on the live-action series for Amazon.

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.

Final Fantasy VII Remake series director Naoki Hamaguchi has clarified that while he recently assured fans that Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 would “strike a balance” when it came to pacing and be “more concise,” that didn’t mean he would change anything about Rebirth’s pacing.

As we reported last week, the director reflected on criticism of the series’s pacing and lengthy instalments. Asked if he agreed with the feedback that “certain sections” in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth felt a little long, he disagreed, saying: “Regarding time management in certain sections, especially in FF7 Rebirth, I honestly don’t believe that they were longer than necessary. I feel like nowadays, players just have too much to do and too much to play; so they often feel the urge that something has to be concluded quickly.”

In a new interview with VGC, Hamaguchi expanded further on this, saying: “Just to explain, the original question I was asked there was, they said that there are some people who played Rebirth, the second game in the series, and they felt that because we’ve added in new story content, which wasn’t in the original Final Fantasy 7, to them it felt like the story was being stretched out,” he explained. “So they asked whether we were considering doing anything related to that in the third game.

“I feel that the pacing, the content, and the balance in Rebirth is exactly as I wanted it. I personally don’t feel it’s been stretched out; it doesn’t feel unnecessarily long. To me, I think I got that right, and I think a lot of people would agree with me.”

Hamaguchi explained that while he is looking at pacing and ensuring “that the story developments move forward in a fairly speedy manner and with the right pace essentially, rather than feeling slow and drawn out,” his comment may have been “misconstrued.”

“I think that may have been misconstrued by people; they may have said, ‘Okay, that means they’re going to cut down on the volume and they’re going to remove story content, it’s going to be a shorter game, they’re going to cut it down’, and that’s not what I’m saying at all,” he added.

“It’s about making sure the pacing feels right, it’s not about cutting out content, it’s making sure that it feels right, the speed that the story progresses at feels right, and it is fairly quick and feels like you can get through it at a reasonable pace. But it has to feel right, so that’s what I mainly intended to say there.”

RPG fans have been on the hunt for news about the next entry in the Final Fantasy 7 Remake trilogy since its last installment, Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth, launched in early 2024. We know development started as early as June 2022, with Square Enix saying last year that its goal was to see it launch by 2027. Excitement for the third and final chapter in the trilogy grew even more when the team revealed that it had completed its story earlier this year.

While we wait, you can read up why the Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 team “will not cheat” when it comes to Final Fantasy 7’s iconic airship. And as for if Final Fantasy 7 Remake Part 3 will have turn-based combat? Hamaguchi said it had not been “pre-determined yet” despite the success of Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, which boasts traditional JRPG-inspired turn-based combat and recently confirmed sales of 5 million copies in five months.

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.

Microsoft’s announcement that Halo: Campaign Evolved is coming to PlayStation is the final nail in the coffin for the Xbox exclusive, and for some marks the end of the console wars. Now, the White House has waded in with an AI image of Donald Trump as a saluting Master Chief that, well… there’s something very wrong about it.

For the uninitiated, Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the campaign of 2001’s Halo: Combat Evolved, is due out on Xbox Series X and S, PC, and PlayStation 5 at some point in 2026. It is the first Halo game ever to launch on a PlayStation console, and cements Microsoft’s position as a multiplatform video game developer.

Microsoft has finally unveiled Halo: Campaign Evolved, a remake of the campaign portion of Bungie’s beloved Halo: Combat Evolved. Halo fans have spent most of the weekend debating the changes Halo Studios has made for this upcoming 2026 shooter, from the addition of sprint to the more pristine art style. But what do the developers of Halo: Combat Evolved itself make of the remake?

Jaime Griesemer is one of the key developers behind Halo. He was most involved with designing Halo’s famous ‘30 seconds of fun’ gameplay loop and designed much of the campaign itself. Now creative director at Highwire Games (Six Days in Fallujah), Griesemer took to X / Twitter to deliver an early verdict on gameplay footage coming out of Microsoft’s Halo: Campaign Evolved reveal.

He did not sound impressed.

“You aren’t supposed to be able to take the Warthog up to steamroll the Hunters,” Griesemer said. “I intentionally placed rocks in the way so you had to fight them on foot. When you can just smash the crates out of the way it wrecks the encounters.

“But the worst part? They put trees in the landing area of the WooHoo Jump. Lame.”

Let’s unpack this a bit. Griesemer is criticizing a key part of the iconic campaign mission, The Silent Cartographer: the first encounter with two Hunters. In the original Halo, this fight is meant to be played with Master Chief on-foot (players soon discovered it was possible to brute force a Warthog into the arena). But in Microsoft’s remake, players can freely take their Warthog up to the Hunters and ride roughshod over their hapless victims. I imagine the Hunters, with their dying breaths, gurgling: “no fair!”

(Oh, and that WooHoo Jump? Griesemer explained: “There’s a ramp that is supposed to have a bunch of jackals at the landing spot. Your gunner would always say ‘Woohoo!’ When you got airborne.”)

It’s fair to say Griesemer’s tweet, viewed 2.3 million times, has sparked a reaction online, with some fans insisting the level layout change ruins the gameplay flow, others saying this change and others like it will make the game more fun. As for Griesemer, in a subsequent tweet, he explained that if Microsoft is going to change Halo’s crates to be dynamic, then they should have also redesigned the encounters that use them as permanent cover.”

He continued: “Most people forced the Warthog through BECAUSE of the Hunters. The introduction of the Hunters was supposed to be intimidating and difficult, but in the light so you can understand them. Then you meet them in an enclosed dark area and they are even harder. But then you get Rockets and Vehicles and turn the tables. It’s a three act play of enemy design and you want to throw it in a blender. Fine, it’ll go down easier but it’s not going to taste as good.”

And: “It’s like the dance remix of a classic song that skips the intro and the bridge and just thumps the chorus over and over.”

Griesemer later offered a potential explanation for this change: “On further analysis I’m sure it’s because the vehicles take damage and so you’re just as likely to destroy the hog as get it over the rocks. If anything that makes it -worse- because -none- of the vehicle tricks are going to work anymore.”

“Make it an option” is the biggest red flag for a dysfunctional design. We have no vision for what this is supposed to be, here’s the tools to fix it yourself.

— Jaime Griesemer (@32nds) October 25, 2025

Another aspect of Halo: Campaign Evolved that Griesemer has taken issue with is the addition of an optional infinite sprint button. Sprint seems to be the biggest talking point about Halo: Campaign Evolved; while you can choose not to sprint, some are saying using it destroys Halo: Combat Evolved’s classic, considered gameplay pace and thus its sense of wonder. Others say believe it’s essential for the fun factor.

Griesemer doesn’t sound like a fan of sprinting in the Halo remake, either. In another tweet, he pointed out that the player was able to sprint into The Silent Cartographer’s shaft vignette so fast that it broke the music transition. “Who is this for?” he asked.

Then: “If the world isn’t scaled to sprint, you will be able to trivially skip encounters.”

Halo: Campaign Evolved’s Needler, too, has caused quite the kerfuffle. This iconic Halo weapon shoots deadly needles into an enemy, then, after a cool-sounding charge, they explode. The Needler stands out because the ammo — the needles themselves — stick out the top of the gun, so you can easily see how much ammo you have at any given moment. Still, Microsoft saw fit to add an ammo counter on the Needler, just in case.

This change has drawn some ridicule online, and Griesemer is clearly not a fan. “By far the most comically unnecessary embellishment in the whole announcement,” he said. “I’m not sure it isn’t intentional satire.”

Then: “But why would you add an ammo counter to a weapon that IS an ammo counter in the first place?”

By far the most comically unnecessary embellishment in the whole announcement. I’m not sure it isn’t intentional satire.

— Jaime Griesemer (@32nds) October 25, 2025

In response to Griesemer’s original, now viral tweet on Halo: Campaign Evolved, one user accused the veteran designer of “crying” about nostalgia, to which he responded: “Because I made it right and they are breaking it for no reason.”

He continued: “… I think there are dozens of changes (reload speeds, no health packs, falling damage, etc) that make the game ‘slicker’ but ultimately less interesting.”

After Bungie left Halo behind to develop Destiny, Microsoft, via what was known as 343 Industries, continued the franchise with Halo 4, Halo 5: Guardians, and 2021’s Halo: Infinite. The internet would suggest that with these games, Microsoft has struggled to recreate the Bungie “magic,” for want of a better term. Certainly Bungie’s Halo games are more fondly remembered than Microsoft’s. But why has Microsoft struggled so?

Griesemer was asked this question, and in his response revealed his thoughts on the idea of remaking Halo and continuing to make new Halo games now, nearly 25 years after Combat Evolved came out.

“It’s not the early 2000s anymore,” he said. “Halo is of its time, maybe more than any other game franchise. So they are constantly trying to either take Halo out of 2001 and modernize it (which breaks it) or take players back to 2001 with nostalgia (which is impossible).”

“Keep getting them checks.” Remakes and remasters are soul-destroying and I feel for any dev working on one. They can’t win and even if they do they won’t get credit. Bad situation unless you are getting paid $$$.

— Jaime Griesemer (@32nds) October 25, 2025

Probably not. But I’m not sure what the point is of a “remake” anyway. Nostalgia? A new generation of fans? Occupying an enormous art team while you figure out what to do?

— Jaime Griesemer (@32nds) October 25, 2025

They kept the music and the AI the same, it looks like. I’m glad I can play it on a Sony system.

— Jaime Griesemer (@32nds) October 26, 2025

One member of the original Halo team who sounds thrilled with Halo: Campaign Evolved is Marcus Lehto, who was the art director on Combat Evolved and thus heavily involved in the iconic look of Halo itself. Lehto, who recently left the now shuttered Battlefield 6 developer Ridgeline Games (and hit out at EA for not properly credited former staff), offered a positive assessment of Halo Studios’ work.

“My honest impression of seeing the new Halo Campaign Evolved is this,” he said on X / Twitter. “I absolutely love where this is going. The game looks and feels genuine. It’s gorgeous in a way I wish we could have built it originally back in 2001. It warms my heart to see Halo CE like this.”

Halo: Campaign Evolved isn’t out until 2026 (and probably near to the game’s 25th anniversary in November), so Halo Studios has time to react to some of the feedback it’s seen and make changes — if that’s what it wants to do, of course. It may stick to its guns on the likes of sprint, those rocks, and the Needler’s ammo counter. Meanwhile, the Halo community continues to debate the changes, fussing over every detail and what it means for the tone, feel, and gameplay of Bungie’s seminal shooter. I suspect this will be a running theme well into 2026.

We’ve got plenty more on Halo: Campaign Evolved, including why it’s the final nail in the coffin for the Xbox exclusive.

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.

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