Another well-known horror game is getting the big screen treatment. This time, it’s Supermassive Games’ 2015 release Until Dawn.
Sony Pictures has confirmed to IGN that the movie adaptation of Until Dawn will be directed by filmmaker David F. Sandberg, who previously directed horror hits like Lights Out and Annabelle: Creation, as well as DCEU films Shazam! and its sequel Fury of the Gods. Gary Dauberman, who’s worked on horror series including It, Annabelle, and The Nun, is doing the latest pass on the script written by The Invitation’s Blair Butler.
THR first reported the news. It’ll be developed by Sony Pictures’ Screen Gems as well as PlayStation Productions.
“As our partnership with Sony Pictures continues to grow, we’re thrilled to be working on our first movie with Screen Gems. Until Dawn is a fan favorite PlayStation game that we can’t wait to bring to the big screen,” Head of Product, PlayStation Studios and Head of PlayStation Productions Asad Qizilbash said in a statement.
Released as a PS4 exclusive, Until Dawn is a choose-your-own-adventure horror game developed by Supermassive Games. Set on a snowy mountain, players control eight young adults who must survive the night. Like some of Supermassive’s recent games in The Dark Pictures Anthology or 2022’s The Quarry, who survives and how the story unfolds in Until Dawn is determined entirely based on the player’s choices.
In our review of Until Dawn, we said: “Until Dawn is an inconsistent horror game, but it’s still a heck of a lot of fun.”
Until Dawn is the latest IP from PlayStation’s catalog to get adapted for film or TV. Other PlayStation adaptations include The Last of Us, Twisted Metal, Gran Turismo, and Uncharted. The news also comes one day after it was announced that LKA’s psychological thriller Martha Is Dead is getting adapted into a feature film.
Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.
Call of Duty: Warzone players excited to jump into Season 1 Reloaded are running into new issues that are leaving the game almost unplayable.
The Season 1 refresh update dropped for all players today, bringing new cosmetics, multiplayer maps, changes to the Zombies formula, anti-cheat improvements, and more across the entire Call of Duty experience. They’re enticing additions that many battle royale fans aren’t getting to enjoy. Those who hop into the open-world FPS mode are being met with intense visual and gameplay glitches if they are able to make it into a match at all.
Social media sites like X/Twitter are already filled with clips and reports of lackluster experiences. A notorious clip making the rounds sees streamer Fifakill struggling to move at all after attempting to open the “Create a Class” menu.
If you try to go to ‘create a class’ in the menu your game will bug and you’ll have to restart. If you try to hit loadout in game this happens… 😂 pic.twitter.com/rliLXOGdgq
The issues don’t stop at Create a Class. Fifakill also shared a clip on X/Twitter that shows off what can only be described as a strange dent in the Urzikstan map where there wasn’t one before.
It’s a warning that could mean life or death for a squad, but it’s also only an issue you need to worry about if you’re actually able to enter a game. X/Twitter userKaitlyn Smiles, as well as many others, are finding themselves caught in a loop that restricts access to even something as simple as the main menu.
Call of Duty: Warzone developer Raven Software is used to making changes on the fly but has yet to announce when a fix for today’s Season 1 Reloaded issues will arrive. However, the team has reported that theLoadout,geographical distortion,Killstreak notification, andmain menu loop bugs are being looked into.
Call of Duty: Warzone was previously meant to bring Weapons Cases and Covert Exfil’s to the experience before Raven decided to delay the features due to negative fan feedback. No information on when those features will make their way to players has been revealed.
Michael Cripe is a freelance contributor with IGN. He started writing in the industry in 2017 and is best known for his work at outlets such as The Pitch, The Escapist, OnlySP, and Gameranx.
Be sure to give him a follow on Twitter @MikeCripe.
Of all games ever to capture the hearts of outcasts, misfits, and ne’er-do-wells around the world, none has had an impact as powerful as “the world’s greatest role-playing game”: Dungeons & Dragons. An iconic game featured in numerous shows, popular podcasts, and movies, including the recent star-studded blockbuster, Honor Among Thieves, Dungeons & Dragons celebrates its 50th birthday this year. To celebrate, miniature maker Wizkids has announced their biggest booster set so far, slated for release this July, with 60 figures featured throughout Dungeons & Dragons’ 50 years of history.
The D&D Icons of the Realms: 50th Anniversary Booster Set includes modern pre-painted 5e versions of various D&D monsters alongside their classic 1e versions, the latter of which features monsters never before recreated as minis or even in color. You can pre-order booster packs, each containing one large mini and 3 medium or small minis, here, or even supercharge your collection with the $200 booster bricks, which contain 8 booster packs with random minis.
Among the iconic characters to be featured are 1e and 5e versions of the resurgent Vecna, who recently regained his popularity owing to his appearance as the central villain in the fourth season of Stranger Things. You can also collect multiple versions of the spider queen herself, Lolth, who comes in her spider 5e incarnation and her 1e drow form. And there’s the 1e Eidolon from the iconic cover art of the 1e Player’s Handbook.
Check out side-by-sides of these retro and modern incarnations here:
“The 50th Anniversary Booster Set has become a passion project for the entire D&D community to enjoy,” said Joseph Nuzzo, senior product producer at Wizkids. “Whether you have been playing D&D for 50 years or you just had your first session, there is a miniature in this set for everyone to get excited about.”
Alongside the booster set, Wizkids will also debut the Classic Red Dragon Boxed Miniature for $29.99, which can be pre-ordered on IGN Store. This classic D&D monster, featured on the cover of the original 1977 Dungeons & Dragons: Basic Set has all the same cartoonish goodness from the days of your basement-dweling youth, and stands nearly 5 inches tall with a 75 millimeter base, covered in the creature’s coveted loot. Booster Sets are also available for preorder on DNDMini.com and at local game stores.
There are 10 secret rare figures in the 50th Anniversary Booster Set. IGN is thrilled to announce two of these figures: the Green Knight and Blue Wizard. Along with the Classic Red Dragon, fans can use these two figures to recreate the iconic cover of the 1977 basic set.
2023 and 2024 have shown that 2TB PS5 SSD upgrades are actually worth the price. In 2022, prices for 1TB PS5 SSDs averaged around $150, whereas 2TB SSDs hovered closer to $300. Now, we’re seeing 1TB SSDs trickle below the $70 price point and 2TB SSDs can drop to around $100 or sometimes even lower if there’s a good sale. It’s worth noting, though, that you can’t use any old SSD and expect it to perform well on the PS5 console. You’ll want to pick up a PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid-state drive with at least a 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive.
TL;DR – The Best PS5 SSD Deals Right Now
Note that Sony recommends a heatsink attached to your SSD and not all SSDs listed here have pre-installed heatsinks. For the ones that do, we’ll be sure to mention it. For the ones that don’t, all you have to do is purchase your own heatsink (like this one for $9) and install it yourself. For our top recommended picks for 2023, check out our full breakdown for the Best PS5 SSDs.
Today Only: Pick Up the Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD with Heatsink at Best Buy for $149.99
As part of Best Buy’s Deal of the Day, you can save $80 on the Samsung 980 Pro 2TB SSD with heatsink, bringing it down to $149.99. This is an excellent pickup for your PS5, and only lasts today so act fast!
Seagate Game Drive 1TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe 1.4 SSD with Heatsink for PS5 for $104.00
This is an excellent deal for getting 1TB of storage, saving you around $20 off its MSRP of $124.99. This Seagate SSD is officially licensed and built with the PS5 in mind. It even has a built-in heatsink so you don’t need to worry about spending extra cash on one. On top of all that, it features 7300MB/s read speeds and 6000MB/s write speeds.
If you’re looking to up your storage on PS5 even further, you can’t go wrong with this excellent deal on a 2TB SSD from XPG. Its price has dropped 33%, from $209.99 to $139.99, but you’ll have to grab a heatsink to go with it (which you can do here for $9). This SSD also has read and write speeds of 7400/6800MB/s.
Lexar NM790 2TB PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 2280 SSD with Heatsink for $151.70
For those wanting a 2TB SSD with the included heatsink, Lexar has their 2TB NM790 SSD with heatsink discounted at the moment to $151.70. This saves you around 11% off its MSRP of $169.99 and is well worth the investment for its incredible performance (7400MB/s read speeds and 6500MB/s write speeds).
WD Black SN850p 2TB PS5 SSD with Heatsink for $179.99
WD is the only brand that sells an officially licensed PS5 SSD. The SN850P is physically the same SSD as the SN850X, which is the latest generation of WD’s flagship Black series M.2 SSDs. The SN850P’s upgrades over the SN850 include newer flash chips (BiCS5 vs BiCS4) and an updated firmware, both of which offer improved sequential and random read/write speeds. It’s easily one of the fastest SSDs on the market.
Samsung 990 Pro 2TB PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 SSD for $184.99
The Samsung 990 Pro is an excellentSSD for your PS5. From a purely performance perspective, it’s overkill; the stock SSD in your PS5 will be the limiting factor. You’ll want to pick up an PCIe Gen4 x4 M.2 solid state drive with a rated 5,500MB/s read speed to match the PS5’s internal drive and the 990 Pro is much faster. This one does not come with a heatsink, though, so you’ll need to invest in one.
What if the SSD Doesn’t Include a Heatsink?
Sony recommends you install an SSD that has an attached heatsink. If the SSD you purchase doesn’t include one, it’s simple enough to buy one for $9 on Amazon and add it yourself. Most of these heatsinks are just attached using an adhesive like thermal tape.
Budget to Best: PS5 SSDs
There may be other SSD deals out there, but these are the PS5 SSDs we’ve tried ourselves and highly recommend. They also double up as outstanding boot drives for your gaming PC, in case you don’t need additional storage for your PS5 console.
How To Install a New PS5 SSD
It’s extremely easy! Removing the case cover is completely toolless. In fact, the only screw you have to remove is the one that keeps the cover for the SSD bay in place. You don’t even put it back when you’re done. Sony has a quick and easy YouTube video guide.
When it comes to picking up new games, hardware, or accessories for your Xbox, it feels good when you can find those items at a discounted price. Here, we’ll keep you updated on all of the latest deals for Xbox, from games to controllers and so much more. Below, you can find a wide range of items on sale, including some console bundles and controllers.
Though the holidays have passed, you can still enjoy a nice discount on some console bundles for both the Series X and S. One of our favorite deals is on the Diablo IV Xbox Series X bundle, which you can get for $448.80 at Walmart. Grab it quick before the price goes back up, and check out some other console bundle deals below.
Enjoy Discounts On Select Xbox Controllers
In need of another Xbox controller? Well, you’re in luck, as there are quite a few discounted right now at Amazon. In my opinion, you can never have too many controllers. You never know when someone will pop on by and want to play Overcooked or It Takes Two, or any local multiplayer game.
Buying new items for your Xbox doesn’t have to make a massive dent in your wallet, either. Here, we’ll feature a variety of excellent games, accessories, and hardware that are available at more affordable prices regularly or are the just option available when gaming on Xbox.
Assassin’s Creed Mirage Launch Edition is Down to $39.49 and More Xbox Game Deals
There are several Xbox games on sale right now that are worth adding to your collection. One of our favorite deals at the moment is on Assassin’s Creed Mirage’s Launch Edition, which is down to $39.49 from its MSRP of $49.99. That saves you 21%! To see even more Xbox game deals, check out the links below.
Does your family complain when you stay up playing loud shooters late into the night? They’ll stop complaining if you pick up anXbox headset that lets no one but you hear the delightful explosions you cause on the screen. Right now, you can get 10% off the Official Xbox Wireless Headset, bringing the price down to $89.99 from $99.99.
How to Avoid Xbox Game Pass Price Hike ($44.99 for 3-Months of Ultimate)
By securing 3-months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for $44.99, you can actually avoid the Game Pass price hike. We recommend securing your current subscription for as long as possible. You can stack up to a maximum of 36 months of Game Pass, meaning you have the option to accumulate 3-month subscriptions up to 12 times.
Admittedly, this approach might put a strain on your wallet, totaling $539.88 if you purchase the 3-month package from the link above. However, when you compare it to the new cost of Game Pass Ultimate for 36 months at $16.99 per month, amounting to $611.64, you’ll realize you’re saving $71.76 on your subscription for the next three years. Otherwise, secure your membership for at least a year to lock in at least some savings overall.
In general, it is advisable to keep an eye out for sales and restocks throughout the year, as availability has improved since the initial launch of the console. Unlike the Nintendo Switch, there is no specific recommendation to wait for a sale regardless of the time of year. Instead, it’s a good idea to monitor various retailers and online platforms for restock announcements and promotional offers.
However, certain events like Black Friday or other holiday seasons may bring about unique bundles, discounts, or promotional deals specifically for the Xbox Series X. These bundles may include additional games, accessories, or exclusive limited editions. While quantities for such promotions might be limited, they can provide an opportunity to get more value for your purchase. See our guide to Xbox Series X prices for more info.
Xbox Series X or Xbox Series S?
Choosing between the Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S ultimately depends on your gaming preferences, budget, and specific requirements. Let’s compare the two consoles to help you make an informed decision:
1. Performance: The Xbox Series X is the more powerful option, offering native 4K gaming, higher graphical fidelity, and faster loading times. It has more advanced hardware, including a larger storage capacity. On the other hand, the Xbox Series S targets a lower price point and offers a less powerful performance, targeting 1440p resolution gaming and upscaling to 4K.
2. Price: The Xbox Series S is more affordable compared to the Xbox Series X. If budget is a significant factor for you, the Xbox Series S provides a cost-effective option while still delivering a next-generation gaming experience. For example, the Series S can play Starfield at 1440p 30fps (vs 4K 30fps on Series X).
3. Storage: The Xbox Series X comes with a larger internal storage capacity, allowing you to store more games directly on the console. The Xbox Series S, however, has a smaller storage capacity, which means you may need to manage your game library more actively or rely on external storage solutions.
4. Disc Drive: The Xbox Series X includes a disc drive, enabling you to play physical game discs and enjoy a wider range of media options, including Blu-ray and DVD playback. The Xbox Series S, in contrast, is a digital-only console, meaning you can only play games downloaded from the digital store.
5. Graphics and Performance: While both consoles support ray tracing, the Xbox Series X provides a more immersive and visually impressive experience due to its superior hardware capabilities. If you prioritize cutting-edge graphics and want the best performance available, the Xbox Series X is the preferable choice.
Consider your gaming preferences, budget, and whether you prioritize top-of-the-line performance or cost-effectiveness. If you have a 4K TV, want the most powerful console, and are willing to invest more, the Xbox Series X is the recommended option. If you have a lower budget, a 1080p or 1440p TV, and don’t mind sacrificing some performance, the Xbox Series S offers excellent value for money.
With how expensive gaming is getting in 2023, we’re trying to save you as much money as possible on the games and other tech you actually want to buy. We’ve got great deal roundups available for all major platforms such as Switch and Xbox, and keep these updated daily with brand new offers. If you’re trying to keep costs down while maintaining your favorite hobby, stay tuned for more incredible discounts.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
Game publisher Ravensburger announced new details about upcoming competitive events for the popular Disney Lorcana Trading Card Game, including the first-ever World Championship in 2025.
“As we move into 2024, we will continue to support our growing and diverse community through new discoveries for collectors, organized play and competitive events for players and new products that help beginning fans take their first steps into trading card games,” said Ravensbuger’s Global Head of Games Filip Francke in a press release. “We’re only just getting started, but consumer feedback and industry data supports our belief that this game will be around for a very long time.”
Lorcana launched in September 2023 with a hobby store program but no official competitive events. The highly-anticipated competitive circuit begins in May 2024 for North America and Europe. There will be regional-level tournaments called Disney Lorcana Challenges, where the top four competitors earn invites to the North American or European Championship, respectively. The North American and European Championships will be held in Q4 2024. Top players from those Championships will earn invites to the World Championship 2025. Even though the Disney Lorcana World Championship is invite-only, there will be a larger competition open to other players at the event.
Ravensburger promised details on event dates, prizing, and more in March 2024.
In the meantime, there will be new competitive events for the local scene called Set Championships. The first of these will be the Into the Inklands Championship, named after the upcoming set releasing in February. These organized play events are hosted by local hobby stores and award a new Enchanted Stitch – Rock Star Promo card as the first place prize, with the first and second place players receiving a playmat also featuring Stitch – Rock Star (both prizes shown below). Details on how stores can host these events will be announced in late February 2024.
In other Lorcana news, a new product designed to teach beginners the game was announced called Disney Lorcana TCG Gateway. It’s a two-player game that starts both players out with basic 30-card decks and then progressively adds different card types and mechanics until they have a full 60-card deck. Expect Disney Lorcana TCG Gateway to hit stores August 9, 2024 with a retail price of $24.99.
Ravensburger also unveiled the release dates for 2024’s four expansions.
Into the Inklands will be released in hobby shops and Disney parks February 23, 2024, with mass retail stores and shopDisney getting it on March 8, 2024. Into the Inklands is the third set of Disney Lorcana.
The next three sets of the year haven’t had their titles revealed yet, but the release dates will be as follows:
Disney Lorcana Set 4: May 17, 2024/May 31, 2024
Disney Lorcana Set 5: August 9, 2024/August 23, 2024
Disney Lorcana Set 6: November 15, 2024/November 29, 2024
Bandai Namco is putting the Nintendo Switch on the highway to the danger zone, announcing that Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown Deluxe Edition will be coming to Nintendo’s hybrid console on July 11.
According to the official release, the Switch version will include “all original content and faithfully recreates the fast-paced action of the original.” It will also include the original release’s 2-8 player multiplayer gameplay, and will bring with it six DLC packs and bonuses from the original game.
In addition to the base game, the full list of content available for Nintendo Switch includes:
Three original aircraft sets + three single-player missions
Part 3 “ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – ADFX-01 Morgan Set”
Part 4 “ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – Unexpected Visitor”
Part 5 “ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – Anchorhead Raid”
Part 6 “ACE COMBAT 7: SKIES UNKNOWN – Ten Million Relief Plan”
Bonus Music Player Mode
Playable Aircraft F-104C – Avril
Playable Aircraft F-4E Phantom II
Three aircraft skins from past entries
8 emblems from past entries
Originally released back in 2020, Ace Combat 7 is the latest entry in the acclaimed aerial combat series. We awarded it a 7 in our original review, writing, “Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown is a great-looking arcade flight combat game, and zipping over high-quality terrain trying to establish missile locks and evade pursuers can be a lot of fun. But the experience often gets weighed down by its weird and convoluted but persistent story and poor communication of objectives. It’s enough to prove that there’s room for the series to make a comeback, though this game will be not the one to jumpstart it.”
Nintendo Switch ports have proven problematic at times due to the platform’s aging hardware, which in many ways struggles to live up to the standards of even the PS4. To allay concerns, Bandai Namco released a trailer featuring side-by-side comparisons of the Switch and PS4 versions. It doesn’t look too far off from other versions of the game, minus a handful of environmental details, but we’ll see when it’s released in July.
Ace Combat 7 is currently available on PS4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, and PC via Steam, and has sold more than 5 million units to date. There have been no updates on the next entry in the series, but Bandai Namco said that “additional DLC not included in the Deluxe Edition is planned to be available to purchase after launch” on July 11.
Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.
Activision has issued a warning to Call of Duty players: it will now close the game down it it detects aim assist on mouse and keyboard.
In a tweet, Activision said Call of Duty’s anti-cheat tech, dubbed Ricochet, will now close the game app on PC if it detects if a mouse and keyboard player activate aim assist. This works across Modern Warfare 3, Modern Warfare 2, and Warzone.
“Our security detection systems now target players using tools to activate aim assist while using a mouse and keyboard,” reads the statement. “The Call of Duty application will close if detected. Repeated use of these tools may lead to further account action.”
Aim assist is one of the hottest topics within the competitive shooter space. It is designed to offer a helping hand to console players when it comes to keeping their reticle on target, and, depending on its severity, can see the reticle move about quite a bit as it tracks enemy players. Aim assist, generally speaking, is not meant for mouse and keyboard players, who benefit from the increased speed and accuracy their PC-focused control scheme provides.
Call of Duty players have used unauthorised third-party hardware such as XIM and Cronus Zen to benefit from aim assist and reduced recoil while using mouse and keyboard for years. Last year Activision said Ricochet would detect their use and bans would follow for repeat offenders. This latest development is thought to target reWASD, an increasingly popular gamepad mapper software used to reassign the keyboard, mouse keys, and controller buttons. It creates a virtual controller, which in turn convinces the video game to enable aim assist.
Activision’s warning comes as the Season 1 Reloaded update prepares for launch across Warzone and Modern Warfare 3.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
Activision has warned Call of Duty fans anxious to jump straight into Modern Warfare 3 Ranked Play after the Season 1 Reloaded update goes live that the new feature will not be available immediately.
In a tweet from the official Call of Duty Updates account, Activision said Ranked Play will not be available immediately after the Season 1 Reloaded update goes live today, January 17, at 9am Pacific / 12noon Eastern / 5pm UK across all platforms. The developers want to “perform checks” before enabling the mode, Activision said.
“Heads up competitors, Modern Warfare 3 Ranked Play will not be available immediately after players receive the Season 1 Reloaded update,” Activision said. “The Ranked Play team will be performing checks before enabling the mode for all players. Stay tuned for more updates.”
It’s unclear how long players will have to wait before Ranked Play is made available after Season 1 Reloaded goes live, but hopefully it won’t be a significant delay.
Modern Warfare 3’s Ranked Play, when it does go live, lets players rise through the ranks and skill divisions in four versus four competitive play featuring the same ruleset (settings, maps, and modes) used by the Call of Duty League.
Here’s how it works, per the Call of Duty blog: Ranked Play becomes available after players reach at least Level 55. All unrestricted gameplay items are unlocked for use in Ranked Play, regardless of how much you’ve previously unlocked. Some weapons, Killstreaks, Equipment, and gameplay content are restricted in Ranked Play to match CDL competitive rules. As you’d expect, Friendly Fire is enabled in all Ranked Play matches.
You begin at Rank 1. Your rank represents your Ranked Career. Win matches to earn stars and rank up. Rank is permanent and persists across seasons. You start your first Season in Bronze I. Advance through eight Skill Divisions and Tiers by earning SR (Skill Rating). SR is awarded when you win based on personal and team performance. In subsequent seasons, you will be dropped back three Tiers.
The highest Skill Division you can start a new season in is Diamond I. (SR penalties will result from being inactive, disconnecting from matches, and engaging in repeated friendly fire.) Win three matches in a row to earn a flaming rank. Continue winning to progress the Hot Streak flames. The flames expire if you lose or after 72 hours.
And here are the Ranked Play maps and modes:
CDL Search & Destroy: No respawning; 1.5-minute round timer; Friendly Fire enabled. Supported maps include Highrise, Invasion, Karachi, Skidrow, and Terminal.
CDL Hardpoint: 5-minute time limit; 250 score limit; 60-second objective rotation; Friendly Fire enabled. Supported maps include Invasion, Karachi, Skidrow, Sub Base, and Terminal.
CDL Control: 30 lives per team; 1.5-minute time limit; 3-round win limit; Friendly Fire enabled. Supported maps include Highrise, Invasion, and Karachi.
Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.
We’re continuing this month’s IGN First on Dragon’s Dogma 2 with a detailed look at its new, robust character creator. The original Dragon’s Dogma had a pretty intense character creator, but Dragon’s Dogma 2 has upped the ante for just how detailed you can get for your character and ideal Pawn.
Dragon’s Dogma 2 director Hideaki Itsuno explained during IGN’s visit to Capcom in Japan that the character creator was something they put a lot of work into for the first game, but with better hardware performance this time around, they could add as much freedom to the system as they wanted.
Itsuno-san said, “The problem is that this means that the act of creating a cool character, or the character that you want to see, becomes no different from doing so with clay… You could have your ideal character in mind, but you’d basically need to be an artist to form that character with your own hands, so that’s where we had to begin when deciding how character creation would work,”
There are 40 types of “muscle styles” and 12 sliders just for a human’s nose.
He thought maybe they should make the character creator simpler, but because the game’s artists wanted something that detailed, they worked hard to create a system that gives players access to every available setting if they want it while also offering a simpler creation method.
They accomplished this by having two body types for each race, nine base bodies per type, and an uncountable number of base head variations created from nearly a hundred real human face scans. From there, you can make the final adjustments yourself, giving Dragon’s Dogma 2 a system where anyone can create attractive, realistic-looking faces without needing to be an artist.
The options are indeed vast, and you can get incredibly granular while editing a character if you so choose–there are 40 types of “muscle styles” and 12 sliders just for a human’s nose, for example.
“I imagine some people getting themselves stuck in the creator and having trouble starting the game,” art director Daigo Ikeno admitted. “That said, I think it’s a creator that will be able to meet the needs of most people.”
I think it’s a creator that will be able to meet the needs of most people.
I’m one of those people who consider a character creator as deep as the one in Dragon’s Dogma 2 as the “first boss,” as I can easily spend more than an hour (happily) tweaking a character – which I was tempted to do at Capcom Japan despite my limited time hands-on.
Of course, the most obvious new addition to the character creator is a brand new race: the Beastren – anthropomorphic big-cats Itsuno-san wanted to add since the first game, but couldn’t due to hardware limitations. Specifically, rendering their fur on many subjects on the screen at once.
To make sure the Beastren had enough diversity compared to humans, Ikeno-san explained that the team “looked at the kinds of patterns and colors found in felines and made sure that the kind of variety that players would surely want were included.”
Ikeno-san concluded: “I hope that players will try changing both beastren and human faces to see what they can make.”
Casey DeFreitas is the deputy editor of guides at IGN. Catch her on Twitter @ShinyCaseyD.
