A raft of unannounced Gearbox games were spotted online over the weekend.
As reported by Eurogamer, a developer who worked at support studio Lost Boys Interactive referenced Borderlands 4, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands 2, and an unannounced Brothers in Arms game in a now-deleted LinkedIn post. All games were mentioned as being built within Unreal Engine 4.
Lost Boys Interactive is a division of Gearbox, which itself is a part of the embattled Embracer Group. Embracer is currently working through a brutal restructure that has seen mass layoffs, studio closures, and cancelled projects. Embracer is thought to be trying to sell off Gearbox, but, according to IGN sources, it has struggled to find a buyer for the price it’s asking for.
Gearbox has yet to announce Borderlands 4, Tiny Tina’s Wonderlands 2, or a new Brothers in Arms game, but IGN has asked the studio for comment.
It’s worth noting that the current purge at Embracer may have resulted in some or all of these projects falling by the wayside. Last week, the Swedish firm confirmed its internal headcount had reduced by 713 people (511 developers and 202 non-developers) so far this year, and its external developer headcount had reduced by 191. In total, 15 mostly unannounced projects were “written down” across Amplifier, Freemode, Gearbox, Plaion, Saber, and THQ Nordic, Embracer said.
While it seems Borderlands 4 will most likely have survived the cull, Tiny Tina’s Wonderland 2 and this new Brothers in Arms game may have been cancelled.
Borderlands 3, which launched in 2019, received a 9/10 from IGN’s review: “Borderlands 3 sticks to its guns and outdoes itself with an amazing arsenal of weapons, humor, and missions.”
Brothers in Arms: Furious 4 was announced back at E3 2011. After a mixed reaction to its different tone, Gearbox opted to remove the Brothers in Arms brand from the game and turn it into Battleborn. Gearbox’s Randy Pitchford has over the years said a new Brothers in Arms game was on the way, but it never materialised.
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.
The announcement sparked a vociferous debate about whether The Last of Us 2 needs a remaster. But before we get into that, let’s lay out everything that comes with the package.
The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered, due out on January 19, 2024, includes a new roguelike mode called No Return, lost levels with developer commentary (playable sequences previously cut from the game), guitar free play (you can strum the strings across a host of unlockable instruments, use audio FX pedals to modulate your performance, and play as different characters in several in-game locations), “graphical enhancements”, and DualSense integration. “Re-experience, or discover for the first time, Ellie and Abby’s emotional journey with the definitive way to play The Last of Us Part 2,” Naughty Dog said in a post on its site.
So what exactly are those graphical enhancements? According to Naughty Dog, the remaster has native 4K output in Fidelity Mode, 1440p upscaled to 4K in Performance Mode, an Unlocked Framerate option for TVs that support VRR, increased texture resolution, increased Level-of-Detail distances, improved shadow quality, animation sampling rate, and improved loading times.
“It all brings the world of Part II’s story to life in richer and smoother detail, from the snow-swept mountains of Jackson, Wyoming to the rainy cityscape of Seattle, Washington, and should make a first visit or a return trip to the complex journeys of Ellie and Abby all the more engrossing,” Naughty Dog added.
Accessibility options are bolstered by the inclusion of Descriptive Audio and Speech to Vibrations, which uses the DualSense controller to indicate character speech and cadence. The unlockable Speedrun Mode, included in The Last of Us Part 1, is also coming to Part 2 Remastered, letting players post their best times. Following The Last of Us Part I, The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered includes the ability to unlock bonus skins for Ellie, Abby, and their weapons. Photo Mode now has dynamic lighting, Frame Forward, and Gaze Direction, as well as new frame and logo options.
It’s also worth noting that existing owners of The Last of Us Part 2 on PlayStation 4 can upgrade to a digital version of The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered for $10 at launch. You can also import your saves from the original game to Part 2 Remastered.
With all that in mind, let’s return to the question at hand: Does The Last of Us Part 2 need a remaster? As the debate raged back and forth over the weekend (and it’s still going!), fans added the context of which other projects are in the works at Naughty Dog, announced and unannounced, as well as the studio’s recent output.
In the 10 years since the 2013 release of The Last of Us for PlayStation 3, Naughty Dog has released The Last of Us: Left Behind, The Last of Us Remastered for PS4, Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, 2020’s The Last of Us 2, 2022’s Uncharted: Legacy of Thieves Collection, and The Last of Us Part 1 for PS5, a remake of the 2013 original that was itself remastered for PS4 just a year after it came out.
This new debate, then, is a repeat of a debate we had back when The Last of Us Part 1 was announced for PS5. Some of the same language is being used, with phrases such as “quick cash-in” applied to The Last of Us Part 2 on PS5 just as they were to The Last of Us Part 1 on PS5. Equally, there are many defending this latest remaster, insisting it provides the definitive version of a classic video game for the latest console, and pointing to the upgrade path for existing owners.
But where do you stand on The Last of Us 2 Remastered for PS5? Does The Last of Us 2 need a remaster?
Meanwhile, Naughty Dog is known to be working on a The Last of Us multiplayer game, although reports indicate this project has suffered significant development trouble and may not be seen for some time. The Last of Us co-creator Neil Druckman has also confirmed he is writing and directing a brand-new PS5 game for Naughty Dog, although we know nothing about it at this stage. Then there’s the upcoming second season of smash hit HBO TV series The Last of Us. And The Last of Us Part 3 feels inevitable.
All in all, there’s a lot going on at Naughty Dog, this latest hot topic remaster notwithstanding. But with Sony’s PS5 release slate looking a little thin for 2024, perhaps remasters are exactly what the company needs right now to plug the gap.
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.
Xbox consoles have finally received its big Black Friday discount in the UK. Both Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S have been graced with monumental deals, and this is undoubably the best time of year to buy an Xbox console. Xbox Series X consoles have dropped to as little as £359.99 (see here) – that’s a huge deal and £120 off the RRP. PS5 Black Friday deal is also live, and its down to £379.
But, the deals don’t stop there, as ShopTo has got an Xbox Series X Modern Warfare 3 bundle for just £379.95, so that’s just £20 more for the latest Call of Duty included as well. Amazon has also got the Series X Diablo 4 bundle for just £389, which is another absolutely amazing deal for Black Friday.
When it comes to the Xbox Series S, the best deal is definintely on the Starter Bundle for £199. That’s down from £249.99, but it also includes three months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate at no extra cost, so you’re really bagging a bigger discount than it initially seems. Otherwise you can also pickup the standalone console for just £189 right now as well.
Xbox deals don’t stop there, either, as you can also bag a new Xbox Controller for just £38.99 right now on the Black or White colour variants, or £39.99 for Red, Blue, Purple, or Yellow (down from £59.99). That’s some huge savings all round. We’ll leave all the best Xbox Black Friday deals we’ve found, just here. If you’re looking discounts on Xbox consoles in US, check out our Xbox Black Friday deals roundup here.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
If you’ve just purchased yourself a brand new Nintendo Switch console for Black Friday, then this deal is just for you. As part of its Amazon Black Friday Sale event, Amazon is offering 10% off Nintendo Switch Online memberships. That includes the 1-year Individual membership for $17.99 (was $20) and the 1-year Family membership for $31.49 (was $35). It is quite rare for Nintendo to offer discounts on their memberships, so when a deal like this comes along you, you shouldn’t hesitate.
Black Friday Deal: 10% Off 1 Year Nintendo Switch Online Memberships
You will absolutely need a Nintendo Switch Online membership if you plan on accessing the online portions of your favorite games. That includes being able to play online against other opponents in Super Smash Bros Ultimate or Splatoon 3, downloading other people’s creations in Minecraft or Mario Maker 2, or visiting someone else’s island in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.
Other perks include access to the NES, SNES and Game Boy emulator libraries, which include classic games like Super Mario Bros. 3, F-ZERO and Donkey Kong Country. You’ll even be able to play these games offline for up to seven days after you last logged into your Nintendo Switch Online account. Members also get access to exclusive deals and offers at the eShop, cloud saving, and access to the NSO mobile app.
The Individual membership gets you Nintendo Switch Online access to only one account. That should be fine if you have only one Switch gamer in the family. However, if you’ve got an entire household of Switch gamers, it makes more sense to get the Family membership, which gives you Switch Online access to up to eight accounts. In generally you want to stick with a one year plan because it’s significantly cheaper. The per-month cost of the Individual membership is $3.99, which totals out to $48. That’s expensive.
It’s not quite Black Friday 2023 yet, but you lots of Nintendo Switch games, accessories, and console bundles are already available at their Black Friday prices. Major game series like Mario, Zelda, Metroid, and Kirby have already seen price drops of $30 or more — and more discounts are coming online all the time. Also, one of the Nintendo Switch Black Friday console bundles is already available to purchase.
If you’re wondering what kinds of Black Friday deals you you can get now, or will be able to find on Nintendo Switch games, accessories, and hardware once the official sales begin, you’ve come to the right place. Let’s take a look.
The new Black Friday Switch OLED bundle features a digital download of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and a three-month subscription to Nintendo Switch Online. Priced at $349.99 MSRP, it offers approximately $67.98 in savings. We’re predicting this new bundle to be extremely popular, and will likely sell out by Cyber Monday on November 27 — so make your purchase ASAP to avoid disappointment. .
Black Friday comes early for anyone in the market for a Nintendo Switch console, because one of the best Nintendo Switch deals around is available right now. Granted, it’s the same deal Nintendo offers every year around Black Friday, but it’s a good one nevertheless. It gets you a Nintendo Switch console, a digital copy of Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and 3 months of individual Nintendo Switch Online — all for $299.99. That’s the normal price of a Switch on its own, so you’re essentially getting Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and three months of online service for free. That’s a better deal than you’ll find on Switch hardware any other time of the year, so grab it if you want it.
Nintendo Switch Game Black Friday Deals
Switch Game Deals at Amazon
Despite announcing Amazon’s Black Friday deals would start on November 17, the online retailer is being sluggish about putting games on sale.
Switch Game Deals at Best Buy
The official Best Buy Black Friday sale has already begun, dropping prices on all kinds of items. That includes a large swath of Switch games. Note that Nintendo has announced its sale on first-party Nintendo games will go live pretty much everywhere on Sunday, November 19.
50% Off Select Games at GameStop
If it’s Switch games you’re after, you can save 50% off select games at GameStop right now. That includes games like The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD, Super Mario Party, and more for $29.99 or less. You can find the full list of games on sale, regardless of platform, here.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is $8.67
While this isn’t a game, it’s certainly Nintendo-related. You can grab a 4K copy of The Super Mario Bros. Movie on sale for under $10. Great deal.
Nintendo Switch Online and eShop Credit are 10% Off
Amazon is offering select digital Nintendo products for 10% off. You can stock up on Nintendo eShop credit, effectively getting a discount on any game you use it on. Or you can save 10% while subscribing to Nintendo Switch Online, getting you access to things like cloud saves and NES and SNES classics.
Super Mario Party + Joy-Con Bundle
Nintendo has released a new bundle that gets you some delightful blue and red Joy-Con, plus a digital copy of Super Mario Party for $99.99. That’s a big savings on buying the two items separately. And Mario Party is a great local multiplayer game, so it’s definitely worth picking up if you have friends/family over.
Nintendo Switch Black Friday Game Deals to Expect
Nintendo has officially announced its first selection of Black Friday video game deals that will kick off from November 19 (but we should expect to see these deals at retailers like Amazon from November 17 onwards). Nintendo will be offering up to a $20 discount on popular titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and Super Mario Odyssey.
This special offer will lower their suggested retail price to an attractive $39.99 each. We’ll also be seeing Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe and Minecraft Legends: Deluxe Edition for $29.99 and Everybody 1-2-Switch! for just $19.99. We’re also expecting a few extra surprise deals on Black Friday week as well (November 20-24).
Nintendo Switch Black Friday Accessory Deals to Expect
One of the best Switch accessories is the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller. Last year, it got a Black Friday sale price of $49.99, which is $20 off its usual price. If that deal returns, it’s great price that won’t likely be beaten during other times of the year.
Another must-have Switch accessory, at least if you download digital games from the eShop, is a microSD card (which also compatible with Steam Deck and ROG Ally). Pop one of these tiny storage devices into your Switch, and you can keep more digital games on the device without having to re-download them when you want to play. You’ll likely find deep discounts on microSD cards during Black Friday 2023, making it great time to add 128GB, 512GB, or even 1TB of storage to your Switch.
Nintendo has also officially announced a Super Mario Party + Red & Blue Joy-Con bundle which launches on November 10 for the Black Friday sales. This party pack features a fullSuper Mario Party game download and two Joy-Con controllers in red and blue, costing $99.99.
Nintendo Switch Black Friday Console Deals to Expect
This bundle offer will include a unique Switch OLED model, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (digital download), and three months of Nintendo Switch Online. It will cost $349.99 MSRP, with around $67.98 in savings. This offer marks it as one of the hot items to consider for Switch Black Friday sales (which are officially kicking off from November 17-24 this year).
We won’t likely see much else in the way of console discounts. It’s possible a retailer will knock $50 off the price of a new Nintendo Switch, and maybe even the Switch OLED model or Switch Lite. But that doesn’t typically happen during Black Friday.
That said, in recent months we’ve seen the online retailer Woot (owned by Amazon) drop prices on the Switch OLED to $314.99, down from its usual $349.99 price. So a Black Friday discount is possible.
Where to Find Nintendo Deals on Black Friday
We’ll provide plenty of links to all the best Nintendo deals on Black Friday, but here’s where you can expect to find them. In terms of Switch games, you’ll be able to find deals on them at retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and the like. If you prefer to download games, you’ll be able to find digital Switch games at most of those retailers as well, plus the Nintendo eShop, which you can access directly from your Switch.
The same goes for Nintendo Switch accessories, including Switch headsets and Switch controllers, which should be discounted widely at the usual retailers.
Many of these tips are applicable no matter what you’re shopping for on Black Friday.
Set a Budget – It’s safe to say many of us have massive video game backlogs. Just because you see a game you want on sale doesn’t mean you should buy it immediately. Set a budget and stick to it. Only buy the games you think you’ll play soon.
Make a Wishlist – One of the best ways to keep your Black Friday spending under control is to make a wishlist of games or other items you want to buy, and stick to it. Ignore the deals that aren’t on items you would’ve bought otherwise.
Compare Prices – Sometimes I’ll bite on a Black Friday deal that looks great (say, Link’s Awakening for $39.99). But then I’ll see the very same item on sale for 25% less at another retailer. Before you click the buy button, check the other popular retailers to see if they match (or beat) the sale price.
Snag Particularly Good Deals Fast – If you see a hard-to-believe great deal on a Switch game or accessory, grab it sooner rather than later. Retailers only have so much stock, so it’s likely that the best deals will sell out before Black Friday ends. Grab great deals fast.
Don’t Fret if You Miss Out – If you click on a killer deal and find that it’s sold out, don’t despair. Often times the exact same Black Friday deal will come back in stock on Cyber Monday. And even if not, the next Prime Day will be here before you know it.
Amazon Black Friday has started in earnest. Most of the deals aren’t available yet (more will be released each day), but the one exception is the board games category. Amazon has dropped the price on dozens of popular board games and board game expansions. These include favorites like Pandemic, Ticket to Ride, Catan, Carcassonne, Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, Azul, Wingspan and more. However, there are also several more niche games that we’ve rarely seen discounted, like Everdell, Agricola, Pandemic Legacy, Paleo, and more. So if your board game collection could use some freshening up, then peruse the list right here. We’ll add more deals as we see them go live.
Wingspan Board Game for $39.33
Wingspan from Stonemeier Games is an incredibly good board game. So good in fact that we deemed it the best board game of 2019. Wingspan looks like a deceptively simple game; the endgame goal is to attract as many birds as you can to your wildlife preserve and help them proliferate. There are only four actions you can perform: draw a bird card, play a bird card, get food, and lay eggs. Sounds simple enough, right? Well let’s just say these four actions mask an incredibly complex engine-building game with which you will have to juggle between bringing new birds into the fold and keeping your existing birds well stocked and in a breeding frenzy. Wingspan is infinitely replayable, and you’ll find yourself developing and honing new strategies with every subsequent playthough.
Azul Board Game for $21.70
Azul is an unusual board game in that it doesn’t involve war or intrigue or anything high-stakes like that. Instead, players in Azul compete to design the most beautiful tiled mosaics they can. You and your opponents claim tiles from a central market and place them on your board. Play wisely, and you’ll hamper your opponent while creating intricate patterns for extra points yourself.
Spirit Island Board Game for $43.99
A lot of cooperative board games are very family-friendly, but Spirit Island is different. It’s deep and demanding, for one thing, with a commensurate sense of strategic satisfaction when your group pulls off a victory. For another, it boasts a thought-provoking theme of anti-colonialism, with players taking the roles of elemental gods working together to repel a colonizing invader. Winning means using a combination of your native worshippers and your special elemental powers to plan a way of predicting the path of invasion and throwing them back into the sea.
Ark Nova Board Game for $58.99
Ark Nova is a recently released (April 2022) board game. Ever since its release, it has climbed the ranks and garnered a reputation of being one of the best strategy board games. Ark Nova is not really a casual board game; BoardGameGeek ranks it as a “medium-heavy” game similar to other ambitious titles like Gloomhaven, Terraforming Mars, or Scythe. You’ll need a good 1-2 hours for each play session and probably more the first time you play, but you’ll be rewarded with an economic and environmental sim that will keep you engaged for several playthroughs.
Cascadia for $29.99
There are few games with quite the wide appeal of Cascadia. For starters, it’s got a wholesome theme of exploring the ecology of the Pacific Northwest. The mechanics are very simple, involving you picking one of four pairs of animal token and terrain hex to add to your growing map. The aim is to satisfy a random range of scoring cards by getting animals into particular patterns, and they range in difficulty from an easy family version to challenging gamer-level objectives. There’s even a fun solo campaign where you’re tasked with crossing off a range of variants and objectives. If there ever was a game for absolutely everyone, this is it.
King of Tokyo for $26.49
The best way to describe King of Tokyo is “Yahtzee meets Godzilla.” In this monster mash-up, players control one of a stable of greatest-hits monsters straight out of science fiction past. The goal is to take control of Tokyo while fending off the other monsters. Attacks and special abilities are carried out through dice rolls which lends a bit of suspense to the giant-sized boxing matches. Of course, controlling Tokyo makes you a target, and no monster can stay in the city for too long without taking lots of damage. It’s up to you to recognize when to retreat and when to press the attack, but beware: other monsters are out there and waiting for the perfect moment to strike.
Viticulture Board Game for $39.99
Viticulture is an economic strategy game in which you are tasked with maintaining and profiting from your vineyards. That mostly means hiring workers to build structures, grow and harvest your grapes, facilitate the winemaking process, and of course selling the wine. It’s best played with two to six players, however this game can also be enjoyed solo. Although this is a fairly older release (2013), it is rarely discounted and it’s still considered one of the best economic games around, especially since it’s not as dauntingly complex as some other similar board games.
Gaia Project Board Game for $66.63
This is a sci-fi makeover of an older strategy game called Terra Mystica (which is also on sale). But alongside the reskin, the designers also made it tighter and deeper. The goal is to help your alien race expand through the galaxy by gaining resources and using them to terraform planets from their starting state to one that best suits your species. While struggling to eke out your stellar niche in the teeth of competition from your opponents, you’ve also got to build and upgrade structures to power your economy and develop a technology tree. But what really gives the game its edge are the fourteen aliens, each with a game breaking special power, which all demand unique strategic approaches to the game that vary with player count and the other powers in play. It’s a veritable interstellar smorgasbord of strategy.
More Amazon Black Friday Board Game Deals
Amazon Black Friday Board Game Expansion Deals
These expansion packs are not standalone, meaning you will need to purchase the base game. These packs are meant to add even more content to the core game by adding more maps, units, cards, or gameplay mechanisms. If you absolutely love a specific board game, it often makes more sense to get an expansion pack to increase its replay value than buying an entirely new game, especially since it usually costs less.
What to Consider When Shopping for the Best Board Games
There’s so much choice in modern board gaming that picking a game can be overwhelming, not to mention expensive! So to help winnow down the selection, here are a few things to look out for when making your picks.
Perhaps the most important one is whether it’s likely to see much play. Aspects of this are fairly obvious: whether it appeals to your friends, what’s the target age, if it’s a long game, will you have time for it, and so on. But there’s still more to these facets than may be immediately apparent. You may feel comfortable learning a very complex game, for example, but will your fellow players, and will you be able to teach it? Do you want a game to play with your partner, or your wider family, or does it need to be flexible enough to cater for both crowds?
Even then, these are often vexed questions. The play times listed on box sides are often hopelessly optimistic. Similarly, a game’s advertised player count can be very different from the ideal. A good tool to clear this up is the game information database boardgamegeek.com. If you search on a game there then, at the top of the page you’ll find, beneath the player count, a “best” suggestion for the optimal player count according to the site’s users.
There are other many other considerations. Some games take up a lot of table space, for example, which is no good if you play on a coffee or smaller board game table. Others can take a long time to set up and put away. These issues are often mentioned in a review if they’re problematic. And they can stack: you may be able to play a much longer game, for example, if you have space to pause and leave it out on the table to resume later.
Some genres of game require greater research than others. Increasingly, games are being released as lifestyle choices with a steady stream of expansions and new content. Which is great if it appeals to you, but you need to know what you’re getting into. Other games merge into miniature modelling which is a whole other hobby in it’s own right. Editions and versions are another thing worth checking out as many modern games come in standard and deluxe editions or may, in fact, be reprints of older titles.
You also need to think about how a game might fit in with your existing collection, both aesthetically and physically. For the former, consider what makes it different enough, mechanically or thematically, from games you already own to make it worthwhile. For the latter, remember that board games are big, and you’ll need to find space to store it!
Update: As predicted, this Xbox 1TB Expansaion deal has now expired and is unavailable at Woot at the time of writing. The original story continues below, or you can see all the best Xbox Black Friday deals here for more discounts this week.
Black Friday sales are currently in full swing, and you can expect plenty more offers to reveal themselves from now until November 24. You can get an Xbox 1TB Expansion Card for just $89.99 from Woot (owned by Amazon). This is substaintially the best deal ever on this, with the best price we’ve ever seen before being $124.99 — so, in summary, this will 100% sell out before the end of this week.
Most of the time, the deals that go live now will last us all the way through Cyber Monday and sometimes beyond. But, on rare occassions, you do also get those deals that are strikingly good this year, and do require you being available and purchasing ASAP to take advantage of. Even while writing this, I’m actually unsure if this deal is going to last for much longer. The only thing to note on this deal is the card comes with Woot’s 90-day warranty, rather than Microsoft’s standard 1-year.
Maybe I’m being melodramatic, but this is a seriously good offer… if you ignore how cheap it is to get a 2TB SSD for PS5 (it’s $99.99 right now). Yes, double the storage for only $10 more is quite the price discrepancy, and Xbox fans should still feel a little hard done by the disadvantages Xbox Series consoles have experience because of Microsoft’s choice to opt for a proprietary storage solution.
Still, as I’ve mentioned, this is the best deal we’ve ever had on an Xbox Expansion Card, so we should all take full advantage of it while we still can — I shudder at the thought of paying 150 big ones for one of these things. Other deals you can check out right now include up to $30 off Xbox Controllers, some sweet Xbox bundle deals, and the new Nintendo Switch OLED bundle for just $349.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
The 1990s was an astonishing period for video games – an entire decade where it felt like a revolutionary vision of the future arrived every six months. Super Mario 64 made the third dimension an essential addition to platformers, Baldur’s Gate brought astonishing scope to RPGs, and Resident Evil turned a simple house into a terrifying interactive nightmare. These examples remain immortal classics, but also paved the way to a better future for their respectives series and genres.
But there’s one ’90s classic that has an unusual relationship with the future. Half-Life, the revolutionary first-person shooter created by just 30 people at the then newly-formed Valve Software, still feels like it’s a generation ahead. Its surface may have aged with blocky textures, primitive lighting, and stilted animation, but Half-Life is a masterclass of level design, atmosphere, and immersive storytelling. And despite being so influential on the entire video game industry, on its 25th anniversary it remains a singular triumph.
It’s apt that Half-Life’s exhilarating campaign, which oscillates through energetic shootouts and tense discovery, starts on a rollercoaster. Sort of. The train that carries your protagonist, Dr. Gordon Freeman, to their day job as a scientist at the underground Black Mesa Research Facility is an automated tour of the locations that await you; the many stages upon which a continual supply of innovative encounters and clever level design will guide you to a literally extraterrestrial conclusion.
21st century FPS classics, like the original Modern Warfare and Titanfall 2, follow in these footsteps. Half-Life’s variety is the root of missions like ‘Into The Abyss‘ and ‘All Ghillied Up‘. But even those brilliantly varied campaigns struggle to keep up with the speedy evolution of Black Mesa’s corridors. Every single chapter has a defined, unique concept, from the hide-and-seek attack on the Tentacles in ‘Blast Pit’, through firing laser-guided rockets from a cliff ledge in ‘Surface Tension’, to solving portal puzzles in ‘Lambda Core’.
Half-Life’s primary language is that of the gun but its vocabulary is constantly expanding.
This variety helps control Half-Life’s perfect tempo. After an opening that sits purposefully on the knife edge between astonishing and mundane, a science disaster tears open the fabric of space and aggressive aliens pour into Black Mesa. With just one goal – to reach the surface and find help – you ascend the facility’s floors in a desperate fight to the finish. But just as it seems like safety is within reach thanks to the arrival of the US Marines, you and all your colleagues are suddenly in the firing line as the army works to fatally silence any witnesses. This brilliant, shocking twist triggers Half-Life’s ever-escalating sense of jeopardy. It forces you back below ground and into a series of chapters that will bring you agonisingly close to the surface, only to push you ever deeper down to contend with deadly snipers, agile assassins, and even more brutal forms of aliens from beyond the stars.
Adding soldiers into the foes gallery also radically rethinks the encounter design. Half-Life’s primary language is that of the gun but its vocabulary is constantly expanding. This begins with its aliens, who in the tradition of Doom each have unique attacks and work together as an ugly collage – to fend off leaping headcrabs while houndeyes charge their shockwaves and vortigaunts blast you with long range forks of lightning is quite the combat challenge. The way these extraterrestrial enemies are arranged, each demanding specific tactics to defeat, is a far cry away from the legions of identikit humans that make up so many of today’s biggest shooters. But even when Half-Life opts for foes of this Earth, they’re just as exciting as their more esoteric counterparts; an army of aggressive flankers and risk-takers who love to flush you out with grenades. Get into a fight with both groups at the same time and it’s an exhilarating survival shootout very few games have replicated since.
The Marines’ arrival in ‘We’ve Got Hostiles’ shifts Half-Life’s initial tone of surviving a disaster to something closer to being hunted by predators. This atmospheric pressure makes Half-Life one of the most effective horror games ever made. It’s enhanced by astonishing attention to detail, lighting, and timing – scares generated by headcrabs lurking in dark vents and zombies hidden by tight corners. All of this feeds on isolation; friendly NPCs are a rarity, and so you’re asked to survive long onslaughts of acid-spitting bullsquids and flesh-hungry barnacles on your lonesome. It’s frequently a desperate, terrifying battle for survival against all odds.
That oppression is balanced by laugh-out-loud, pitch-black comedy. Hapless lab staff are gobbled up by unseen horrors hiding in air vents, their chunky entrails fired out just a few seconds later as the punchline of the world’s goriest burp joke. A desperate scientist cries “Take me with you! I’m the one man who knows everything” before promptly exploding all over the walls. Half-Life is a genuine hoot in a way very few of today’s oft self-serious games are.
Half-Life can be seen as an indictment of the video game industry: how can a 25 year-old game be better than almost every shooter that has followed it?
Those chuckle-worthy scientist deaths aren’t just gags, though. They contribute to Half-Life’s story, which is ingeniously told via the environment itself. Valve had originally planned to use traditional cutscenes but ran out of time, and so Half-Life plays out entirely in first-person with the player in full control from start to finish. It creates an extraordinary sense of immersion – you’re living every moment, and aside from the game’s only fade-to-black moment after being knocked unconscious, your journey is completely continuous with no cuts. It makes Black Mesa’s sprawling, interconnected labs and offices feel truly authentic rather than a series of levels. And it’s that authenticity that means the locations aren’t just the stage for the story, they are the story.
“The narrative had to be baked into the corridors,” explained Half-Life writer Marc Laidlaw in an interview with Rock, Paper, Shotgun. “Lots of traps and detours and obstacles and occasional moments of breakthrough. Really good level design tells its own story. You don’t need NPCs popping up to tell you what to do if your visual grammar is clear enough. Then when characters do pop up, they can say lines of dialogue that make them feel like characters instead of signposts.”
Almost all of Half-Life’s victories have been replicated over the last quarter-century. Halo features that same astonishing approach to combat encounters, powered by brilliantly reactive AI. The Metro games adopted that thick atmosphere that made every corridor its own story. Call of Duty has built its legacy on concept missions that rotate in wild adventures with each new chapter. But despite its influence, it’s hard to think of many shooters that managed to holistically elevate the FPS in the way Half-Life did. In fact, at least as far as I’m concerned, only one game has ever managed it: Half-Life 2.
In many ways, Half-Life can be seen as an indictment of the video game industry: how can a 25 year-old game be better than almost every shooter that has followed it? Why has its ambition only ever been exceeded only by its own sequel? It paints a picture of a stagnated industry still playing with toys from the 1990s.
But for as long as that’s the case, Half-Life will continue to feel like it’s from the future. Its copy-paste security guards, scruffy audio quality, and slippy ’90s movement can’t age it, such is the strength of its design. And so today is as good as any day to revisit the game that completely redefined the narrative shooter.
They’re waiting for you, Gordon. In the test chamber.
Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.
As previously reported, Xbox’s Black Friday deals are now in full swing, and there’s plenty to check out. Plus rival console PlayStation’s Black Friday deals starting as well, so there’s never been a better time to be a gamer looking for a deal. Black Friday 2023 sales are very much live right now, with up to $30 off Xbox Controllers, some of the best Xbox Series X bundle deals we’ve ever seen, and the standalone console for just $449 ($50 off) if that’s more your speed. If it’s Xbox deals you’re after, you can already save some serious cash, check out all the deals below.
If you’re in the market for a new Xbox Series, you can save a bundle on new console… bundles… at Walmart. Check out what’s available above and grab whichever one strikes your fancy. There’s even an Xbox Series X and Diablo 4 bundle for just $439 which is excellent. If you’re a Best Buy Plus/ Total member you can currently also get a Series X for $399.99 + a Best Buy $50 Gift Card. We’re not done yet either, as we’re also featuring the Xbox Series S Starter Bundle for just $249, which also includes 3-months of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate for free alongside, which is another $45 in savings as well.
Black Friday: Xbox Controller Deals
While we originally thought Xbox controllers would only be getting a small $10 discount at most retailers, the deal is actually a lot better than that and well worth considering if you’ve been after an additional gamepad. The cheapest controller you can get right now is for $39.99 at Best Buy (see here), and its the Stellar Shift Special Edition with an MSRP of $69.99.
This will likely sell out as its such a good deal, so let’s get into what else is available in the deal as well. By the looks of things, most other controllers have dropped to at least $44.99, which is a decent $20 off the standard Xbox controller and a reasonable deal for Black Friday. Plus, this includes some of the newer color variations as well like the Astral Purple design. We’ll leave all the links you need just below.
Black Friday: Xbox Accessory Deals
Games are huge these days, so if you’re running low on storage on your Xbox Series X or S, you’re far from alone. Amazon is offering the WD Black C50 1TB Expansion Card for Xbox Series consoles at just $124.99. This marks a 17% off price reduction from its original $150 MSRP, making it the best deal we’ve encountered for a 1TB storage add-on for Xbox. It’s also currently $25 cheaper than the Seagate 1TB Expansion Card.
Xbox expansion cards are essentially NVME SSDs encased in a specialized Xbox-compatible shell. Unlike the more complex PS5 SSD installation process, which involves opening up the PS5 to access the SSD slot, the Seagate expansion card simply plugs into its dedicated port on the back of the Xbox. With this deal, you can add 1TB of storage that acts just like regular internal storage, for cheaper than normal.
Black Friday: Xbox Game Deals
Xbox Game Deals at Amazon
Amazon’s Black Friday sale is ramping up, but we’re not seeing tons of Xbox games on sale yet. We’ll keep updating the above below as new deals come online.
Xbox Game Deals at Best Buy
Best Buy has kicked off its official Black Friday sale, and as luck would have it, lots of Xbox games are on sale. See all the top deals just here.
Digital Xbox Game Deals
Microsoft’s official Xbox Black Friday sale has also gone live, dropping prices on tons of digital games.
Best Xbox Game Pass Deals for Black Friday
We all heard about the Xbox Game Pass price hike that Microsoft implemented recently. A month of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate now costs $16.99, a hefty fee. But, if you weren’t aware, you can actually still circumvent this change by buying Game Pass codes from retailers like Amazon who haven’t yet increased their prices to reflect the change. Paying $44.99 isn’t a huge discount versus the $50.97 Microsoft charges, but it’s not nothing. Also, it’s very possible the price drops lower at some point during Black Friday.
Xbox Black Friday Timeline: Now Live
Starting November 17:
Save up to 50% on digital games
Save up to 65 % on select games from Xbox Game Studios
Save up to 67% on select PC digital games
Starting November 18:
$50 off select Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S consoles
Save $10 on select Xbox Wireless Controllers
Starting November 23:
Get free engraving on the Xbox Elite Wireless Controller Series 2 created with Xbox Design Lab
Where to Find Xbox Deals on Black Friday
When it comes to hunting for Xbox deals on Black Friday, you have a multitude of options. Retailers like Amazon, Best Buy, and similar stores are sure to offer enticing discounts on Xbox games and accessories. If you prefer digital titles, the Xbox Store will have its share of deals too. Look out for upcoming sales from Best Buy, Walmart, and Amazon to score the best deals.
This new bundle offer includes a Switch OLED model, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (digital download), and three months of Nintendo Switch Online. It will cost $349.99 MSRP, with around $67.98 in savings. This offer marks it as one of the hot items to consider for Switch Black Friday sales (which are officially kicking off from today). While the bundle only includes a regular dock, unlike the original Smash Bros. Bundle, this is the first time the gray and silver Joy-Con are back on the market in years. See all special edition Joy-Con variants here.
Also revealed was the Super Mario Party + Red & Blue Joy-Con bundle which is now available for $99.99 from Best Buy. This party pack features a fullSuper Mario Party game download and two Joy-Con controllers in red and blue, and is an overall saving of $39.98. Note that this is the first time the right version of the Blue Joy-Con is made available in the US. It was previously only available as a pack-in with a custom Nintendo Store order in Japan. If you want to complete a blue set, here are all the existing Joy-Con colors and how to get them.
Finally, for the eager Black Friday shoppers, from November 19, Nintendo is discounting select Switch games by $20 or more. This will include popular titles like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Luigi’s Mansion 3, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, and Super Mario Odyssey. We’ll also be seeing Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land Deluxe and Minecraft Legends: Deluxe Edition for $29.99 and Everybody 1-2-Switch! for just $19.99.
To explore additional Nintendo holiday bargains, be sure to peruse our comprehensive Switch Holiday Gift Guide, which can assist you in discovering the ideal gifts in the weeks ahead.
Robert Anderson is a deals expert and Commerce Editor for IGN. You can follow him @robertliam21 on Twitter.
