Riot Games and parent company Tencent have come under fire after fans noticed they allegedly published a shocking AI-generated trailer for League of Legends: Wild Rift.
Reddit user Winter_underdog was one of the first to share the footage, calling attention to what is said to be a two-minute trailer for the League of Legends spinoff’s third anniversary. Riot allegedly published the footage on Chinese social media website Weibo before removing it following uproar from players. There’s at least no trace of an AI trailer for League of Legends: Wild Rift on Weibo at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped fans from republishing it elsewhere.
Wild Rift China released a cinematic made using AI and it is diabolical 😭 To think this was an official release that several people approved of 🙄 It features Seraphine, Jinx, Aurora, Yasuo & Ezreal. pic.twitter.com/8FxtfdyL4S
The video above features elements that one may find in some of the most blatant AI-generated content out there, including strange facial expressions, bizarre eye movement, and visuals that look like a cobbled together Pixar film. Although recognizable faces like Jinx, Seraphine, and Aurora also appear, it’s not always easy to pin down what exactly they’re doing as the group puts on what seems to be a KPop Demon Hunters-inspired concert for League of Legends: Wild Rift fans.
“What in the league of legends fever dream is this,” another added.
im dying laughing from how bad it is. Jinx is using a glock, seraphine is kicking like she wants to be lee sin, yasuo is using a lightsaber, Ezreal is using a glock too. Jinx uses a flamethrower?
It’s not just the look of the League of Legends: Wild Rift trailer that has fans suspicious that artificial intelligence played a role in its creation. Audio for the video is also a bit off-putting as it leads up to a song with similarly questionable lyrics.
No matter how you spin it, fans are not happy with the video circulating online and what it means for how Riot is approaching League of Legends: Wild Rift. While some are happy writing off the third-anniversary video as “bootleg KPop Demon Hunters,” others are concerned about what the future of League of Legends looks like.
“Why fk around with AI when you have proper animators?” one user added. “Using this much AI is disrespectful not only for the fans but towards the animation industry.”
First of all, Seraphine is a mess 😭 Girl what happened to your voice? But in all honestly, it is so disappointing how Riot allowed this. This is a slap in the face for every artist who has worked to bring the world of Runterra to life through their art for the past 15 years! 😢 pic.twitter.com/yLE7XASKfI
this is so depressing cuz it woulda been so cool if it just wasn’t ai, like the idea is cute but.. seriously ? no effort for their anniversary even ? 😭💔
Companies across the globe have mostly adopted the use of AI-generated content in their products and marketing strategies as the technology has improved throughout the last five years. Although fans have been particularly vocal when it comes to how Riot may be using AI to fuel its games, it’s far from the first entity in the gaming space to double down on it.
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).
Just in time for the final season of Netflix’s Stranger Things, preorders are now open for the “Dungeons & Dragons Stranger Things: Welcome to The Hellfire Club” Adventure Box, due to release October 7 (see it at Amazon). It’s a cooperative 3–5 player D&D adventure set that’s designed for newcomers and seasonsed D&D vets alike. As such, it comes with you everything you need to play through four Stranger Things-based adventures.
D&D Stranger Things: Welcome to The Hellfire Club Adventure Game
If you watched the previous season of Stranger Things, then you will know that Hellfire Club founder and Dungeon Master Eddie Munson (currently burning up the silver screen as the new Human Torch in Marvel’s Fantastic Four: First Steps – you can read our review here) never got to finish his riveting Dungeons & Dragons campaign with the gang. This adventure box aims to right that wrong, giving players the four lost quests that never were, for you to slay through with up to five friends.
In addition to coming in a totally rad box, this set has an epic retro feel to it with the cards, character sheets, and quest books all looking like they were pulled straight from the Dungeons & Dragons Expert Set they play in the show.
For D&D players who prefer to play with friends digitally, this bundle includes digital versions of the quests and special dice that you can link and use with D&D Beyond.
Stranger Things brought put a lot of eyes on Dungeons & Dragons when the show first came out back in 2016 and now with the curtain call on the horizon, it seems only fitting that the final season releases alongside a D&D box set to celebrate.
Preorder the Dungeons & Dragons Stranger Things: Welcome to The Hellfire Club adventure game now at Amazon. It’s out on October 7, 2025 for $49.99.
Scott White is a freelance contributor to IGN, assisting with tabletop games and guide coverage. Follow him on X/Twitter or Bluesky.
Jude Bellingham and Jamal Musiala may well have inherited the dreaded Madden curse as this year’s EA FC coverstars, having both made their way to operating theaters in recent weeks, but they can at least rest up by playing each other on FC 26. EA Sports FC 26 will be released on September 26th, 2025, or a week early on September 19th if you purchase early access. But what’s new this time around?
Well, fundamental tweaks have been made to gameplay, as well as the inevitable suite of new activities to get stuck into in Ultimate Team, Career Mode, and Clubs. So, without further ado, here are 74 changes that actually make a difference in EA FC 26.
Ultimate Team
1. Live events are a big new inclusion for Ultimate Team. These include the return of tournaments. These knockout competitions are comprised of up to four rounds, all the way up to a high-stakes final. Win it all and you’ll receive exclusive rewards. Once you win a tournament, however, you won’t be able to enter it again. Each tournament will have specific requirements and rules, such as all players being from a certain league or the first player to score two goals winning the match.
2. Another form of live event is gauntlets. Gauntlets will test the depth of your club, are different squads are required in each round, meaning the same players can’t play twice on one run. Unlike tournaments, these aren’t knockout competitions, but the more wins you get, the better your rewards will be.
3. And then we have Linked Events. These are special locked competitions that become available after completing specific objectives. For example, winning a qualifier tournament or reaching a certain division in Rivals might open these up for you to enter and earn more rewards.
4. Changes are coming to Rivals in FC 26. The first of those is bounties. Bounties are aiming to make each match feel less “win-centric”, meaning even if you’re 3-0 down, you have something to play for, such as scoring the last goal of a match and getting rivals points for doing so. Other bounties could include winning by a certain number of goals, scoring first, or keeping a clean sheet. Rewards range from card packs, coins, and progress points.
5. Rivals win streaks are being tweaked. When on a streak, you will now receive double reward points to get your weekly rewards faster. Plus, you’ll now see if the player you’re facing is on a win streak before playing them, putting a target on their back.
6. Rivals checkpointing is also changing. To prevent players from getting to a point where they’ve reached their skill ceiling and are mostly losing matches, but can’t be relegated to face opponents of more equal standing. New “breakable checkpoints” will be introduced to keep track of your losses and allow for relegation where appropriate.
7. Champions is also being tweaked. More reward tiers are being added, further increasing the importance of every match played and win gained.
8. Changes are being made to the qualifying for Champions. Playoffs are being removed and replaced by a system based on which division of Rivals you’re in. The level hasn’t been decided on yet by EA, but it could mean having to be at around division five before being able to enter Champions.
9. But if you’re in a lower division, you’ll still get your own weekend league to play in. This will be called Challengers (think of it as the Europa League to Champions’ Champions League) and is a second-tier competition that runs in parallel. It will follow the same format, just with less prestigious rewards awaiting you. You can only play in one of either Champions or Challengers on the same weekend, though, to prevent smurfing.
10. A new competitive camera angle is being introduced purely for Ultimate Team stadiums that combines a tactical view of the pitch, while also letting players see more of the details of their chosen customisations.
11. You will now be able to evolve every player card in Ultimate Team, as well as repeat evolutions that will allow you to take different members of your squad through the same set of objectives. In addition, you will also now be able to stack card cosmetics.
12. Big changes are on the way to how Ultimate Team handles player disconnections. In FC 26, you’ll now get the win if your opponent quits in the second half, after a red card has been issued, or a penalty has been given at any point. Players who repeatedly quit Rush matches will now also get a matchmaking timeout.
Gameplay
13. Gameplay fundamentals are getting a healthy amount of attention this year. Dribbling is promised to be more consistent and responsive, with more frequent touches of the ball giving increased player control.
14. Changes to the locomotion and running ability of players will also be seen. They’ll feel more explosive thanks to faster acceleration and deceleration.
15. As well as speed, strength will also be a focus in FC 26. Shielding will now be consistent both on and off the ball, allowing players to jockey for possession with an increased physicality. This will, in theory, mean fewer defenders just being able to step in front of an attacker and stealing the ball when a long pass is sent to a target man.
16. This newfound focus of strength will also apply to dribbling, with beefier players being able to hold off defenders coming in for a challenge.
17. “Tackle backs” emerged as a huge point of frustration for FC 25 players — the all-too-often circumstance where you go in for a challenge, win the ball, but then it bounces straight back into your opponent’s path — but in 26, work has been done to stop this from happening regularly.
18. Similar changes are also being made to interceptions, meaning when darting in the path of an opponent’s pass, the ball is more likely to now stick to your boot as opposed to cannoning off to the other team. Both of these tweaks aim to create a cleaner game.
19. Goalkeepers have always been a tricky puzzle for EA to solve, but in FC 26, the developer is promising big improvements. Saves and deflections from keepers will now produce more varied results, meaning, in theory, the ball will fall into the path of a waiting attacker less often.
20. Keepers will also now take up smarter positions when faced one-on-one with an attacker, meaning fewer easy chances for forwards.
21. Fresh goalkeeper animations will provide a greater range of types of saves we’ll see from them, in theory increasing the number of ways they can be effective stop-stoppers.
22. Two different types of fundamental gameplay experiences will now be available: Competitive and Authentic. The former is designed for online players and is high-speed and super responsive. The latter is for offline and career mode players who may favour a speed more grounded in reality.
23. Competitive mode is not only faster, but also comes with its own mechanics, such as a revamped fatigue system, meaning that whenever your player gains possession of the ball online, they’ll feel as fresh to control in the final minute of a match as the first. This means fatigue now only affects AI-controlled players.
24. Authentic will focus more on the unpredictability of real sport, with players more likely to miscontrol or let the weather affect the game, with matches turning on the bounce of a ball.
25. Accessibility is a big focus for the development team this year. Among the biggest improvements being made so everyone can enjoy FC 26 are a simplified skills system that allows players to perform skill moves with the flick of the right stick, as well as a variety of high contrast modes to aid those with visual impairments. Everything from the colour of the kits and ball to the pitch and stadium shadows is customisable in order to meet as many needs as possible.
26. Input delay has been an issue plaguing online play and Ultimate Team in particular in EA FC. Improvements have been promised in FC 26, however, with in-depth research done into what causes these issues, ranging from player setups to player animations causing delays. For more information on this subject, check out our full dedicated article on how the studio is addressing input delay.
27. With the aim of further improving responsiveness is the introduction of one-frame passes and shots — touches of the ball so quick they happen the moment your thumb presses the button.
28. Playstyles have been rebalanced, with some new ones being introduced. These include Precision Header, which has a focus on heading accuracy and winning aerial battles, and Fortress, its defensive counterpart that aims to dominate in the air at the back. Another new playstyle is Enforcer, which emphasises the physical hold-up play of attackers as mentioned earlier.
29. Trivelas (hitting the ball with the outside of the boot) are now locked being the new Game Changer playstyle.
30. Low-driven shots are also making their comeback. A quick double tap of the shoot button will fire a low strike towards the net, and will now also apply to all types of effort, including headers and volleys.
31. The reintroduction of low-driven shots means that the timed finishing mechanic has been removed from FC 26. The developers felt that it “didn’t add meaningful skill depth and proved very difficult to balance”.
32. Positions are less constrained by roles now, so, for example, a winger can cut in-field and temporarily act like an inside forward would if they see a big opening emerge in the penalty area.
33. New roles are being added to the tactics screen. These include ball-playing keepers, the modern inverted fullback, and box-crashing CDMs that attack from deep.
34. The negative impact of players being out of position has been reduced too, with launch players having more positions and roles available to avoid situations such as a right midfielder not being able to perform well in the right winger spot, as they don’t have it listed in their bio.
35. New set-piece assignment slots have been added, as well as new ones added to both attacking and defending corners.
36. You can now save tactics and copy and paste codes between modes, so if you have a setup you’re really happy with, which you’ve been messing around with in career mode, you can then transfer it to Ultimate Team.
37. AI attackers will now perform runs into space with greater regularity, with a lower reliance on trigger runs desired.
38. Playing as a goalkeeper has been overhauled thanks to a completely new control scheme.
39. Of course, new skill moves are making their way into FC 26. These include the explosive step over, among many others.
Career Mode
40. The new Manager Live Hub acts as your portal to everything Career Mode. Challenges, both long and short term, will appear here, as well as content tailored to your chosen preferred clubs.
41. A huge number of varied career challenges will be available with a vast number of variables. These range from transfer restrictions, not being able to simulate fixtures, and playing on certain difficulty levels.
42. Rewards for completing objectives include over 30 retro jerseys. Some revealed include classic Real Madrid, Germany, and Napoli shirts.
43. You’ll now be able to add both icons and heroes to your Career Mode squads by unlocking them throughout the season pass.
44. The pre-order icons that are available in FC 26 are Alex Morgan, Toni Kroos, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
45. The Manager Market is a new system where coaches from other clubs in your Career Mode save will take jobs at other teams, both domestic and international. Managers can be poached, fired, or even retire.
46. The Manager Market menu also lets you see which coaches’ positions are under threat and what jobs are currently open to apply for if you fancy a fresh challenge.
47. Manager stories will also weave in and out of your careers, with commentators even mentioning when one coach might be coming under fire and on the verge of the sack if they lose the match.
48. Live events will also take place in Career Mode, which can inflict unexpected consequences on your team with the aim of encouraging creative problem-solving. These can be positive, such as a sudden financial takeover granting you a healthy new transfer budget, or negative, such as a player getting injured on international duty or a rogue bout of food poisoning leaving you with numerous players unavailable for your next fixture.
49. For the stats heads, you can now select up to five other leagues and get a full statistical breakdown of which players are performing in that division, which can aid with knowing who to scout.
50. Youth tournaments will now actually have stadiums, and the size of those arenas will depend on the stature of the club.
51. You can now substitute youth players in youth tournaments.
52. Rival teams will rotate their squads more regularly, meaning a top Premier League club won’t go full strength in early Carabao Cup rounds, for example.
53. You can now loan out a player immediately after buying them
Clubs
54. Archetypes are a new way to build your player in Clubs, effectively acting as classes. There are 13 in total, with each representing a unique playing style and modeled on real-life professionals.
55. Within each archetype are three different specialisations — effectively subclasses in RPG terms. As you progress, branching paths will appear as you select the specalisation for you. For example, the Finisher archetype leads to the Finisher Plus, Presser, and Hunter specialisations, each containing their own traits and perks.
56. Picking a certain archetype doesn’t lock you into only playing that position on the pitch.
57. You can re-spec your clubs player at any time using in-game currency, but can’t save builds to easily switch between.
58. The old skill tree upgrade system is gone and has been replaced with a more traditional menu where you can put points into individual attributes, granting you more direct control over your pro’s progression.
59. Your archetype card is displayed at the beginning of every match, Ultimate Team style, and can be customised as more cosmetics are unlocked.
60. New playstyle slots will be added over the course of FC 26’s lifetime, and the level caps for pros will increase season on season, meaning players will be able to reach overall ratings not previously seen before in Clubs.
61. Live events and tournaments will encourage players to experiment with a variety of different archetypes and playstyles.
62. Limited-time multi-round knockout tournaments are coming to Clubs, but only in Rush.
63. Players can now join multiple clubs simultaneously, so you can play with up to three different friend groups easily.
64. Long-term fatigue is being removed in clubs, but short-term fatigue still remains.
65. AI facilities can be unlocked to target and train specific positional groups of CPU-controlled players in your Clubs squads.
66. Your match rating is now measured against what’s expected from your chosen role, rather than a general metric of how well you played.
67. Quick chat has been expanded from four to sixteen different messages.
Presentation
68. Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena makes its return in FC 26.
69. 13 new real-life mascots are joining this year after their introduction in FC 25.
70. New Premier League broadcast intros harness the power of Google Earth as the camera zooms in on stadiums from high up in the sky.
71. Mix and match commentary is being introduced for the English broadcast teams, meaning you can pair up commentators Derek Rae and Guy Mowbray with whatever pairing of analysts Stewart Robson and Sue Smith you desire.
72. Derek Rae has also been added as a possible Rush commentator to further add to the variety.
73. To try and achieve a more realistic colour palette during matches, the saturation has been dialed back, with extra fog and air density added.
74. You can now customize what information is shown on the player name cards at the bottom of the screen, such as what their strongest foot is or how many stars in regards to skills moves they have.
And those are the 74 biggest things coming to EA FC 26. What are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments below.
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
After almost 20 years of the MCU’s dominance—where characters like Gamora and Groot have miraculously become household names and command the careers of A-list actors—we’ve suddenly found ourselves in a period of nostalgia for Marvel’s ramshackle 1990s era. This was first felt with the warm reception that found Disney+’s hugely charming X-Men ’97 series, a show that was completely disconnected from any overarching multiversal storylines whatsoever. And the same principles apply to Marvel Cosmic Invasion, which is a throwback in every conceivable way. The retro-themed arcade-style spiritual successor to X-Men: The Arcade Game intends to be a back-to-basics brawler, teleporting everyone behind the controller to a simpler time—a dilapidated arcade, deep in the bowels of a suburban mall, right after school lets out for the summer.
Cosmic Invasion is developed by Tribute Games, the Canadian studio best known for their work on the 2022 revival, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder’s Revenge. The two projects clearly share the same DNA. Like Tribute’s turn with the Turtles, Cosmic Invasion is gorgeously rendered in beautified pixel art, with all the sprites popping off the screen with vibrant primary colors. There is hardly any story to speak of, at least in the demo I played. (The intergalactic villain Annihlus has unleashed a universe-spanning conquest, and we’re here to fend him off.) It’s a plot that could fit on the back of a cereal box, and I think that’s the point. Cosmic Invasion is not a grimdark, Synder-fied vision of Marvel. Our superheroes have been brought to life exactly as they were found in the comics three decades ago. Captain America looks resplendent in his red white and blue, Wolverine wears a spiky black cowl, while She-Hulk—as she ought to be—is lime green. Too many Robert Downey Jr. monologues have detracted from the fact that these characters are cartoons, at the end of the day. And in that sense, Cosmic Invasion attempts to correct the record.
Cosmic Invasion won’t take anyone by surprise with its gameplay. If you are a veteran of quarter-gobbling brawlers—Streets of Rage, Armored Warriors, or my personal favorite, The Simpsons—you know what you’re getting into here. A stream of baddies enter from the right side of the screen, and all of them are quickly dispatched with a cocktail of punches, kicks, and grapples until they blink out of existence for good. Once they’re clear, you’ll move onto the next battleground and rinse and repeat. Eventually you’ll encounter a boss at the level’s conclusion, which is usually dispatched by standing outside of whatever screen-filling ability they unleash every 20 seconds or so. Like Shredder’s Revenge, the controls are simple enough that pretty much everyone can pick up a gamepad and become a useful member of a winning team. (Beat-em-ups are historically amenable to button-mashing younger siblings, and this one is no different.)
Cosmic Invasion does seem eager to provide a few more opportunities for strategy compared to its forebearers.
But with the expanded roster of 15 unique superheroes at launch, Cosmic Invasion does seem eager to provide a few more opportunities for strategy compared to its forebearers. Our Marvel superstars here have loosely defined roles, corresponding to RPG-esque arrangements. Captain America and his vibranium shield functions like a tank, while Rocket Raccoon—and his arsenal of grenades and laser pistols—excels at taking down enemies from farther away. Across the board, everyone has what you could call an “ultimate” that can only be dispatched when an energy bar ticks full. Yes, Cosmic Invasion is a retro experience, but it has taken a few important cues from the previous decade of game design.
For what it’s worth, I was most drawn to She-Hulk. Tribute just announced that she would be joining the roster, and I found her powerhouse offense exactly what I was looking for. The tight acrobatics of Spider-Man and eldritch deep-space assaults of the Silver Surfer are all fine and good. But, sometimes, all I want to do is grab an enemy by the throat and drive them into the ground, snuffing out any chance of a comeback. I imagine Cosmic Invasion will inspire that same feeling in a lot of players. This is a game where it’s possible to claim a “main.” Don’t be fooled by its featherweight exterior. It is very much possible to master all the nuances of your preferred character, and carry the rest of the team.
So it’s no surprise Cosmic Invasion seems designed to be a co-op experience first and foremost. That is where the genre historically tends to shine—four buddies on a couch, burning off a Saturday night by fighting through the Negative Zone. But Tribute Games has smartly introduced a mechanic that makes the adventure surprisingly adaptable to a solo campaign. Players select two superheroes at the character select screen, and they can swap them out at will during the levels—like a tag-team from Marvel vs. Capcom. Time the swap correctly, and you’ll be able to chain together some truly flashy combos that look like a triumphant splash panel. I like the idea of being able to mess around with my own builds, and construct some devastating synergies, without necessarily having someone join me on our quest to crush Annihilus. It may offer Cosmic Invasion more staying power than the delightful but transient Shredder’s Revenge.
I only saw two levels of Cosmic Invasion. I carved up the streets of Midtown Manhattan—in front of Spider-verse locales like the Daily Bugle, and billboards for the in-universe soap opera Secret Hospital. (If there’s one thing Tribute Games truly excels at, it’s populating their licensed products with the sort of references that only superfans will get.) Later we explored a helicarrier that seemed to exist primarily so that I could toss hapless soldiers off the edge and to their death. (It also was the site of an elevator battle, which remains one of the great beat-em-up traditions.) It remains to be seen if Cosmic Invasion will be able to sustain its magic across a full campaign. Will tearing apart the legion of evildoers be as joyful during hour six as it is during this glorious prelude? It’s tough to say for sure. But if nothing else, Cosmic Invasion makes an indelible first impression.
Phasmophobia developer Kinetic has finally lifted the veil on its next small map — and it’s a diner.
Nell’s Diner is described as a run-down, retro restaurant complete with a “classic diner counter, comfy booths, and a kitchen preparing some less-than-savoury encounters.” Apparently, every meal at Nell’s “is an (un)happy meal.”
While we don’t have a release as yet — yep, I’m sad about it, too — Phasmo’s 14th map has been confirmed as a “small” venue “with its size akin to the game’s houses. This’ll be excellent news for smaller teams who struggle to get much done on big maps like Brownstone High School or the Sunny Meadows Mental Institution.
That’s not all, of course; the long-awaited rework of Grafton Farmhouse is also set to launch, and we even have a release date for that: August 12.
“Set in an isolated farmland surrounded by fields of corn, Grafton’s design has been totally overhauled to create a dilapidated home that’s best not entered alone,” the team teased. “Faulty electrics, caved-in ceilings and layers of dust await players bold enough to explore the building and its newly themed rooms – from an eerie attic, to the harrowing seamstress room.”
“Nell’s Diner, alongside the Farmhouse reworks, are all so central to our efforts in amplifying the horror in Phasmophobia, and I can’t wait for our community to experience it for themselves,” said Daniel “Dknighter” Knight, director of Kinetic Games and lead developer of Phasmophobia. “Our incredible art team have worked tirelessly on the upcoming content, and the Diner map in particular is one of the most unique maps we’ve added yet. We don’t want to spoil anything, but just know there are plenty of surprises to look forward to.”
It follows a similar reworking of Bleasedale Farmhouse earlier this year, and the release of the Point Hope lighthouse map this time last year.
Phasmophobia is a four-player online co-op psychological horror where you and your team of paranormal investigators enter haunted locations filled with spooky activity and gather as much evidence of the paranormal as you can. Since it launched in early access in 2020, spawning a new genre of ghost hunting games, it’s passed 23 million sales thanks to its blend of co-op horror and investigative gameplay. It made IGN’s 25 best horror games ever made list… but do you agree with our placement?
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.
As Silent Hill f fans pore over the slew of previews that went live recently (you can read ours right here), two questions are consistently popping up on social media and fan communities: is the latest mainline Silent Hill really a ‘Soulslike’ game? And if it is, what does the term ‘Soulslike’ even mean anyway?
As we described in IGN’s Silent Hill f hands-on preview, combat itself has a similar feel to Silent Hill 2 Remake’s close-range combat. You can dodge enemy attacks with the DualSense’s circle button and activate a light and heavy attack with R1 and R2, respectively. Your limited reach and lengthy attack motions give a realistic, weighty feel to combat. Heavy attacks, especially, feel slow and need to be timed well, “contributing to the feeling that Hinako is just a teenager with limited strength.”
On top of that, however, Silent Hill f’s combat also features timed dodges and counterattacks, with the latter particularly important in combat sequences. Enemies briefly show a sign when a counterattack can be utilized, but we suggested that “unless you have trained your reflex skills by playing games like of Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice, you will likely have a hard time reacting.” That’s where the Focus mode comes in, which can be triggered by holding L2. It allows counterattacks to last longer, while also charging up a power attack that staggers an enemy.
While series producer Motoi Okamoto hasn’t specifically mentioned the Soulslike genre, and by our estimation, Silent Hill f is “by no means a Soulslike,” talk of parries and counterattacks come as quite the surprise to Silent Hill fans. The franchise has never been famous for its clunky combat — story and atmosphere have almost always come first — but Okatomo’s suggestion that f’s combat sequences had been ratcheted up because “challenging action games are gaining popularity among younger players nowadays” has pretty much split the fandom.
The legacy of FromSoftware’s Souls series isn’t just defined by the amazing games in its back-catalog, but also the subgenre that’s been given life thanks to its very existence: The Soulslike. While defining one is kinda tricky, there are core elements that tend to apply to Souls games, such as punishing consequences for death, Souls — or a similar currency — gained by defeating enemies that is integral to character progression and can be lost upon death, methodical combat, typically tied to a stamina meter, and checkpoints that reset the world.
For some, however, Soulslike can simply mean tough melee combat that involves learning to predict an enemy’s attack pattern.
“Having a dodge roll and hard bosses applies to like 90% of third-person games that exist lol. Like you people cannot be serious. Souls games have heavy and light attack, tight-nit dodge intensive combat. You have frame-perfect dodges […] huge emphasis on stamina management, with shields, break meters, and focus on killing enemies to get c[urrency].
“Silent hill f has like 1.5 of those. This blatant lie needs to stop. Anyone with eyes who isn’t full of sh*t can see this is nothing like a Soulslike.”
It’s the broader confusion between what and what is not indicative of a “Soulslike” game that’s frustrating players, though.
“To be fair, nobody knows what a Soulslike is,” admitted a respondent. “This is clearly demonstrated on the Soulslike sub by daily arguments about whether or not a game is a Soulslike.”
“I’ve sunk hundreds of hours into FromSoftware’s games and Soulslikes like Nioh,” said someone else. “Nothing about Silent Hill f looks like a Soulslike other than there’s a target lock-on system and a stamina meter. Which is in, you know: a million other games that are not goddamn Soulslikes.”
Confusingly, others who have also played Souls-inspired games don’t concur, however, leading to considerable disagreement to what does, and does not, make a Soulslike game. Is it the melee combat? The need to parry? Or does any game that requires players to learn an enemy’s attack pattern count?
“I’m still excited for the game, but the comparisons to Souls combat are really clear guys, like come on…” posited one. “Invincible dodge, lock on system, light and heavy attacks, multiple attempt boss fights testing your combat prowess… Even the combat UI is clearly inspired by action games.”
“People complain about the combat becoming melee-focused like they don’t remember Silent Hill 4. Breakable weapons are essential without the firearms if we still want the game to stay a survival horror,” explained another fan. “This whole situation feels like Silent Hill 2 Remake all over again with almost the same talking points.”
Okamoto said that tougher combat, with the visuals and music’s “juxtaposition between beauty and terror,” along with the “terrible beauty of the game’s monster design,” makes for a terrifying adventure. Even the puzzles are apparently “grounded in psychological anguish and suffering.” Quite how players react to all that when Silent Hill f finally releases next month, of course, remains to be seen.
In case you’re wondering, no, Silent Hill f is not a sequel to any of the existing Silent Hill games, so you can play it even if you’ve never jumped into a Silent Hill game before. Instead, it will offer a standalone story “independent from the series.” That came from publisher Konami itself, which finally confirmed on X/Twitter that the latest instalment of the horror series — which is usually, if not always, set in a sleepy resort town on east-coast America — will be “a completely new title” that “people who have never played the Silent Hill series can enjoy.”
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 played FC 25 online, then chances are you will have encountered input delay, that fraction of a second between pressing the button and a pass or shot on screen being performed, which can often be the difference between a win and a loss.
Just like any twitch FPS or frame-perfect fighting game, EA’s football simulation relies on the actions being performed by its characters feeling as responsive as possible in order for the playing field to feel fair. The developer knows this, and so has put an extensive amount of research into solving this often-vocalised concern among the Ultimate Team community ahead of FC 26’s launch.
“We really needed to understand the root of the problem”, senior producer Sam Rivera told IGN. “We worked with pro players, we gathered data from players all around the world to try to understand the issues, but we didn’t want to only listen to the feedback. We wanted to experience input delay ourselves. So we also traveled to Europe to meet with pro players at their eSports studios. We actually met with content creators at their homes, and we learned a lot.”
Through this research, EA discovered that the issues were manyfold, both at the player and developer end of the pipeline. On the player side, there are things you can do to minimise the chances of input delay occurring. It may seem obvious to some, but connecting to the internet via Ethernet cable is much more stable than Wi-Fi.
“If you play on Wi-Fi, you can have jitter and packet loss, which can create a very delayed experience”, explained Rivera. “We know that more than 50% of FC players are playing on Wi-Fi, so we recommend that [connecting via ethernet] if possible. And then things like TV settings. If you’re playing outside of game mode on a normal TV, you can get anywhere between 20 to over 100 milliseconds delaying your experience, regardless of your connection, regardless of the game, just because of the TV. So there are a lot of things that go into the equation, but what are the causes of delay when you are playing in a high-quality or good connection, or when you’re playing offline?”
Yes, input delay is not strictly an internet-based issue. With players reporting the phenomenon in offline play too, it led Rivera and the team to look into the construction of the game itself to see what was causing the issue:
“First is limited animation coverage. Sometimes we request actions in the game that are very difficult to perform. So if there’s a very fast incoming ball and I want to go for a long pass backwards, that is very difficult, and sometimes there are no animations for that. So it is like in real life, very difficult to perform. It’s difficult for us to capture those animations. However, this year we’re adding many new animations as well to make sure we have more coverage in general.”
“The next one is the animation system box,” Rivera conitnued. “Our animation system is perhaps one of the most complicated systems in the game, and it has to solve every request, every shot, every pass, considering what animations are available, where the opponents are, how the ball is moving, and all of that.
“And sometimes there can be a bug. So, for example, you may want to take a shot immediately, but then the system may decide to delay the shot slightly, to prefer to use the strong foot instead of taking it earlier but with the weaker foot. So things like that happen often, not very often. But when you play 20 matches on your weekend, you will experience it a few times. So this year, we’re fixing dozens of those problems in the game.”
Improvements are on the way in FC 26, then, and from the short amount of time I spent playing it, it did feel noticeably smooth and responsive — with the new one-frame passes and shots being a real highlight. But will input delay ever be an issue that’s completely eradicated?
“Well, it depends”, Rivera responded. “There are many factors that go into input delay. There are factors that are sometimes internal, sometimes external. Then there’s not a simple fix other than providing more information to the community, trying to help with their setups as well, making sure everyone has the right setup. But at least we think that there’s a big opportunity. There’s a big opportunity there. We have done a very good step in FC 26 to create a more responsive game.”
Simon Cardy is a Senior Editor at IGN who can mainly be found skulking around open world games, indulging in Korean cinema, or despairing at the state of Tottenham Hotspur and the New York Jets. Follow him on Bluesky at @cardy.bsky.social.
Tim Sweeney, boss of Epic Games, has denied claims published by The Wall Street Journal of frustration within the company regarding its working relationship with Disney.
Yesterday, a WSJ report offered fresh detail on Fortnite’s mysterious upcoming Disney mode, developed following the latter’s $1.5bn investment in Epic Games. The offering won’t launch until “fall 2026 at the earliest,” the report stated, with some Epic executives complaining about “the slow pace of the decision-making at Disney, with signoffs needed from so many different divisions.”
It’s this claim that Sweeney has now refuted, via a post on social media that brands the suggestion as “BS.”
“The anonymous quote is BS,” Sweeney wrote. “The speed of Disney and Epic collaborations like Darth Vader has been awesome and is around 10x the ordinary speed of media company dealings in this business. We even provided a statement to the writer of this article saying so, but they chose not to print it.”
Epic Games’ big Disney collaboration was announced in February 2024, though details on it have remained largely under-wraps. Initial concept artwork for the project featured a virtual Disneyland-style environment, with hubs themed around Disney’s main brands. Exactly what players will do in it, however, remains to be seen.
WSJ’s report states that the project is being overseen within Disney by Josh D’Amaro, head of Disney parks and resorts, who has visited Sweeney and spent time hiking with the CEO. One alleged concern around the project has been its fan-created elements, with questions raised over who might legally own a dance that utilises Disney characters.
Epic Games and Disney have forged a deep collaboration in recent years, with Marvel and Star Wars themed seasons, and countless characters now available as Fortnite skins, now including a selection from Pixar films, and even Disney classic animation, too.
The companies recently used Fortnite to test an AI-powered Darth Vader, who could chat away with players using generative speech. Upon launch, the concept required an urgent fix after fans quickly got Darth Vader saying things he shouldn’t, though ultimately more than 10 million players spoke with the Sith Lord.
This week sees Fortnite shift into its next season, which sees its main battle royale Island infested with mutant bugs, and additional characters from Halo brought in to help. Meanwhile, in the game’s OG mode, the action moves into Fortnite’s well-loved Season 5, which should see the appearance of Kevin the Cube — though Epic Games is doing fun things with this re-run’s storyline, so perhaps not.
Tom Phillips is IGN’s News Editor. You can reach Tom at tom_phillips@ign.com or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social
With cards that range from supernovas to spaceships, it’s peculiar that much of the community is most intrigued by a new lobster that can eat through artifacts to heal you and deal damage to rivals.
Let’s meet our new crustacean overlord, thanks to data from TCGPlayer.
Climbers: I’ll Have the Lobster
Kicking our climbers off with our Boros boss, Ragost, Deft Gastronaut is going for a couple of bucks in the showcase treatment.
He’s nowhere near the most valuable cards in Edge of Eternities, and dovetails nicely with Jumpstart’s Tempting Witch, a card that creates food tokens and also triggers damage. It’s ‘jumped’, but only to 13 cents, and might be worth a look for a Mardu deck.
As we noted recently, The Gaffer is a popular card, and we’re including it again as it’s hit new heights of over $12. For context, it was under $4 just a few weeks ago.
For additional synergies, why not chuck in the Nuka-Cola Vending Machine? It’s hardly a cheap card at around $18 for the non-foil, but it gives you more food tokens and turns them into Treasure tokens for ramp. You could build quite a powerful engine from these cards.
Finally, Academy Manufactor is an obvious pick for synergies here, since it gives you three (different) tokens for the price of one. It’s up to $6.
Bonus: The Most Valuable EoE Cards This Week
Edge of Eternities is packed with cool cards, and since it just launched last week, I thought I’d take a moment during this week’s article to look at the priciest cards in the set so you can keep an eye out when you’re cracking packs (or any you want to eye up as standalone purchases, saucy).
Some of other the highest-value cards in the set include Icetill Explorer (Showcase – Fracture Foil) at $382.16, followed by Exalted Sunborn at $320, and Starfield Vocalist at $287.55, both in the same Showcase – Fracture Foil treatment.
Anticausal Vestige is priced at $198.68, just ahead of The Endstone at $198.40 and an alternate version of Sothera, the Supervoid at $197.99, all in the Showcase – Fracture Foil style.
Devastating Onslaught comes in at $159.85, while The Dominion Bracelet is listed at $121.82. Rounding out the group is Uthros, Titanic Godcore (Borderless – Galaxy Foil), which currently sits at $92.52.
It’s worth noting that these prices are taken around launch weekend, so they’ll fluctuate considerably as more product floods the market. We’ll be keeping an eye on things in the weeks to come, but expect big swings either way.
Crashers: Songs and Spellcraft
If you’ve got a landfall deck, The Wandering Minstrel from the Final Fantasy set is under a dollar and means your tap-lands come in nice and untapped. It’s not a big drop, but it’s an easy recommendation because that utility is super helpful at a nice low cost in Simic colors.
If you want to get some Legendary Creatures on the board quickly, Serah Farron can help. This Final Fantasy card lowers the cost of Legendary Creatures, then transforms into an artifact that powers them up, all for under $1.
Baloth Woodcrasher could be a lot of fun in an upgraded version of the World Shaper Commander deck, getting extra power and trample with land drops. Considering how many lands are included, plus Szarel, Genesis Shepherd’s ability to play them from your graveyard, you can keep hitting opponents for big numbers each turn for 8 cents.
If you don’t mind mixing up your Final Fantasy titles, Noctis, Prince of Lucis could be a really neat addition to the Scions and Spellcraft Commander precon. He can pay life to get artifact spells from the graveyard, while Y’Shtola, Night’s Blessed can help you get some of that life back.
From spaceships to planets, this new sci-fi universe is a stark departure even in a year that’s included Aetherdrift, Tarkir, and Final Fantasy, and early impressions seem to be positive.
To clarify, these are the best-selling Edge of Eternities cards so far, thanks to data from TCGPlayer, and it’s changed a fair amount from our initial coverage during pre-release.
Here are the best-selling Magic: The Gathering cards of Edge of Eternities so far.
Where to Buy MTG Edge of Eternities Sealed Boosters
Play Boosters are now the standard way to crack open Magic packs, having replaced both Set and Draft Boosters. But if you’re on the hunt for rare cards, Collector Boosters are the best option.
These packs are more expensive, but are much more likely to include various foil treatments, extended arts, and all sorts. There are usually 5 Commons, 4 Uncommons, 5 Rare or Mythic Rare cards, a Land and a Token, but the rub here is that 6 of the included cards have a ‘booster Fun frame’ and 12-13 of them are foil.
Surprisingly, stock is already running low on Amazon for most Edge of Eternities boosters. That said, sites like TCGPlayer still have a solid supply, and in some cases, better prices too.
Lloyd Coombes is an experienced freelancer in tech, gaming and fitness seen at Polygon, Eurogamer, Macworld, TechRadar and many more. He’s a big fan of Magic: The Gathering and other collectible card games, much to his wife’s dismay.
We’ve already heard a lot about how Silent Hill f hopes to set itself apart from its predecessors, particularly by honing in on its Japanese roots. But it’s also hoping to stand out to avoid “clone” comparisons to Silent Hill 2, and appeal to younger players by racheting up the combat.
Silent Hill series producer Motoi Okamoto and Silent Hill f director Al Yang have been making the rounds just recently, and an interview has popped up at Game*Spark. Okamoto discussed that whilst his aims for the remake of Silent Hill 2 were to respect the source material, for f, he’s interested in “more entertaining and thrilling action.”
“Inserting more entertaining and thrilling action into Silent Hill f was an idea I had ever since the early phases of the development,” Okamoto said, as transcribed by Automaton.
“And, since NeoBards is a company that’s tremendously good at making action games, this is also one of the reasons why we decided to choose them as the developers.
“The Silent Hill series isn’t considered a game that has entertaining action per se, but as we’re opening our doors to new players, we began to wonder what it would be like if we added more of those elements into the game.” Okamoto added.
“Challenging action games are gaining popularity among younger players nowadays, so I believed that if we implemented such elements into the game, it would resonate well even with people who are new to the series.”
Yang added: “We didn’t want to end up recreating Silent Hill 2 over and over again, and we were aware that there was no reason to keep making clones of it. So, in order to avoid repeating what previous major titles did, we decided to make the action stand out more.”
Okamoto said that tougher combat, with the visuals and music’s “juxtaposition between beauty and terror,” along with the “terrible beauty of the game’s monster design,” makes for a terrifying adventure. Even the puzzles are apparently “grounded in psychological anguish and suffering.”
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.
