Category: IGN

Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian has opened registrations to stress test Patch 8 ahead of its release in 2025.

Patch 8 adds the long-awaited crossplay feature, photo mode, and 12 new subclasses. Larian has said Patch 8 is Baldur’s Gate 3’s last major update, with the developer moving on to brand new games away from the Dungeons & Dragons universe.

The Patch 8 stress test build is set to go live in January, Larian said in a post on Steam. It will be available to players on PC via Steam, and on console via Xbox and PlayStation. GOG and Mac players do not have access. The form for registering interest is live now.

Larian said it wants to “rigorously” test Patch 8 for instability or gameplay issues before it comes out. “With your help, we’ll be able to keep an eye on any funny business,” the developer said.

Part of this is testing crossplay. “Bringing crossplay to a game the size of Baldur’s Gate 3 has been no easy task,” Larian explained, “and we want your help to test-drive this new functionality.

“Share the stress test registration link to summon your friends and settle in for a crossplay campaign, or head to the Larian Studios Discord Server to look for a group to play with.”

Supported mods “should” remain free of issues, but the stress test will hopefully turn up any issues mods might have interacting with Patch 8 features.

While Patch 8 is Baldur’s Gate 3’s last major update, Larian has promised to continue to support the game’s modders, with “big updates still to come,” including more functionality “to let you tell your own stories.” Official mod tools were released in September, and since then players have uploaded more than 3,000 mods and downloaded over 70 million.

Meanwhile, Larian said it’s winding down mod curation for consoles during the holiday season. It’ll pick back up again in the new year.

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.

Star Citizen has finally hit alpha 4.0 after what its chief developer, Chris Roberts, admitted was “a much longer than anticipated development process.”

Cloud Imperium Games’ space sim is considered one of the most controversial projects in all video games. Over the 12 years since its crowdfunding drive began, Star Citizen has been called many things including a scam by those who wonder whether it will ever properly launch. Its virtual space ships, some of which cost hundreds of dollars, are often the focus of criticism.

Indeed, Star Citizen has now raised an eye-watering $767 million, according to figures from CIG. The developer makes revenue publicly available on its website. CIG calls this money “funds raised.”

In March this year, CIG began talking about Star Citizen’s 1.0 launch being within sight, although there’s still no release window for it. 1.0, Roberts has said, “is what we consider the features and content set to represent ‘commercial’ release.”

In a letter from the Chairman post, Roberts said: “Long ago, lost in the mists of time before COVID, at CitizenCon 2949, we showcased the first in-game prototype of traveling from the Stanton System to the Pyro System via a Jump Point.

“After a much longer than anticipated development process, what was teased in 2019 becomes a reality for all players when we launch Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 to the live servers, as part of what we are calling the 4.0 Preview.”

Star Citizen Alpha 4.0 brings with it a full wipe and reset to all accounts. All players start fresh with their account hangars and wallets +20,000 aUEC (Alpha United Earth Credits, Star Citizen’s virtual currency used during the alpha stage). Headline additions include Pyro, the second Star System added to the Star Citizen Universe, the first jump point in the persistent universe, connecting the Stanton and Pyro systems together, an economy overhaul, and much more. Check out the patch notes over on the Roberts Space Industries website.

In October, CIG said that Squadron 42, the standalone, single-player story game set in the Star Citizen universe, launches at some point in 2026, which, if it makes that release window, would be an incredible 14 years after CIG first launched Star Citizen’s crowdfunding drive.

Roberts, known for creating the Wing Commander series, has said Squadron 42 will offer 30-40 hours of gameplay. It stars Gillian Anderson, Henry Cavill, Gary Oldman, and Mark Strong.

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.

Pokémon Trading Card Game Pocket has released its third player-versus-player event today, December 20, which awards Emblems based on the Mythical Island expansion.

The Mythical Island Emblem Event follows the same format as the first PvP event released for the digital trading card game, simply challenging players with racking up 45 total wins over three weeks to obtain the best rewards. The event ends on January 10.

Players can obtain Pack Hourglasses just for competing in the event, however. Three are rewarded for participating in one battle and three battles, six are rewarded for participating in five, and 12 are rewarded for participating in 10.

Shinedust is on offer for those who win battles: one win rewards 50, three rewards 100, five rewards 200, 10 rewards 500, 25 rewards 1,000, and 50 rewards 2,000. Players will also obtain Emblems for winning, earning a white emblem for one win, a bronze emblem for five wins, a silver emblem for 25 wins, and a gold emblem for 45 wins.

Mythical Island arrived as the first major expansion for Pokémon TCG Pocket and with it came a meta shake up. Pikachu ex appears to have fallen off a little thanks to a number of cards being added which appear designed specifically to take it down, while Mewtwo ex received a subtle boost.

Celebi ex has also emerged as a new threat to the meta, but now the initially overlooked Mew ex is also entering the spotlight.

Pokémon TCG Pocket arrived October 30 and is a certified hit for developer Creatures Inc. and The Pokémon Company, having earned an estimated $200 million in its first month across more than 60 million downloads.

This huge amount of money comes as Pokémon TCG Pocket follows the standard mobile and free to play game model, flooding players with rewards in the first few days before soon drying up, with spending real world money the only real way to re-experience that early thrill outside of the occasional set drop like Mythical Island.

Completing Genetic Apex, the first set of cards which totals 226 officially but also contains 60 rare alternate art cards, will take players not spending money around two years according to one estimate, while those looking to make it rain can wrap up the collection after dropping around $1,500.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

The dreaded and feared Skibidi Toilet has reared its truly ugly head in Fortnite at last. The rumored update officially dropped in the game last night, and so far it’s prompting reactions of skepticism, confusion, and delight from the Fortnite community.

First off, let’s talk about the crossover itself. We first learned about it earlier this week via leakers, followed up by a confirmation from the official Fortnite X account of a toilet, plunger, and camera emoji in succession and a date: December 18, 2024. The actual update went live last night, and includes a Skibidi Toilet bundle on the item shop (discounted to 2,200 V-bucks at the time this piece was written) consisting of plunger pickaxes, a Plungerhead character skin, and two backpacks: one that goes with the Plungerhead outfit, and another that is the iconic Skibidi Toilet himself. There’s also a lego version of the Plungerman skin.

You know it. Now you can wear it!
Skibidi Toilet & Plungerman. Available now in the Shop.https://t.co/DXMUbYvQLk pic.twitter.com/P8VUaJorLe

— Fortnite (@FortniteGame) December 19, 2024

That’s it for the collaboration, though with the recent return of the original map and the Flush Factory, there’s already a conveniently toilet-themed location just waiting to be flooded with Skibidi nonsense:

The addition of Skibidi Toilet to Fortnite is being met with some mixed feelings from the community. There are some naysayers who feel that Fortnite has gone too far incorporating the popular meme, suggesting it’s juvenile and indicative of a slide into total absurdity for what’s deemed worthy of a collaboration:

That said, the vast majority of folks seem to range from mildly amused to chaotically delighted, even the ones who have no idea what Skibidi Toilet is.

All in all, the verdict of the Fortnite community seems to be that the Skibidi Toilet addition to Fortnite is a good time, at minimum because the Plungerman skin is pretty cool.

If you, like some members of the Fortnite community, have absolutely no idea what this toilet thing is, here’s the quick rundown: Skibidi Toilet is a series of web shorts by Alxey Gerasimov published on YouTube via Gerasimov’s channel, DaFuq!?Boom!. And by shorts, we do mean very short – early episodes are only a handful of seconds long, and were created with Garry’s Mod using assets from games like Half-Life 2 and Counter-Strike. The series features a toilet with a man’s head coming out of it set to a mashup of the songs Give It to Me by Timbaland and Dom Dom Yes Yes by Biser King. While early episodes are somewhat nonsensical, as the series progresses a plot emerges about an arms race between the Skibidi Toilets (of which there are many of varying sizes and with different heads popping out) and a race of people with video cameras for heads. The plot progresses from there, more recently centering on a cameraman named Plungerman and involving alien Skibidi Toilets.

The whole thing, while absurdist, is far more complex than you might imagine just from seeing the image of the head in the toilet. In fact, it’s got enough going on (and is popular enough) that there’s reportedly a film and TV adaptation effort underway from Michael Bay.

If you love Fortnite but Skibidi Toilet is still a bit much for you, don’t worry. The game gets so many constant collaborations, the toilet-fest will quickly be drowned out by the next big thing, which happens to be Mariah Carey emerging from a giant block of ice to ring in the holidays. It’s almost time!

Helldivers 2 developer Arrowhead is giving all players free Killzone items starting today, December 19, in response to a backlash over pricing.

Part one of the Helldivers 2 and Killzone crossover includes a Killzone-themed armor set, assault rifle, banner, cape, and player title. If you want all the Killzone items you’ll have to hand over Super Credits to the value of nearly twice the cost of a premium Warbond, and nearly half the price of Helldivers 2 itself.

In a post on the Helldivers 2 Steam page, Arrowhead said it had talked to Killzone developer Guerrilla Games and is now gifting the items that were meant to be sold as part of the crossover’s second wave next week.

“As this was our first crossover offering, we’ve been listening to the response, and the feedback we’ve received from our community surveys is that crossover content is really high up on your wishlists,” Arrowhead said in its statement.

“At the same time, some of you are not happy with the prices of the items and we will revisit this.

“Many of you were also concerned that items wouldn’t be in rotation for long enough, and there was a bit of concern around how these items exist outside of our usual Warbond releases, which are always themed in our own universe.

“Because of all this, in partnership with our friends at Guerrilla (and as we’re in the season of holiday cheer), we’ve decided to offer a gift to all players.

“Firstly, we are gifting to everyone the planned second wave of the Helldivers x Killzone collaboration items today, free of charge. The distribution of those items will begin shortly, in two waves.”

Five Nights at Freddy’s tower defense Roblox experience Five Nights TD just dropped the first part of its Christmas Update, with more planned to roll out next week.

The festive update for the strategy spin on everyone’s favorite animatronic horror franchise delivers new units and games while dressing up the lobby with enough decorations to lift the spirits of any Grinch. This also means that the Christmas Event has arrived, giving players winter-y areas to explore and survive through.

Candy canes and Christmas trees aside, Five Nights TD’s new update comes with more than just a few jolly changes to the atmosphere to keep players entertained through December. Also included in the update are two new games and two new exclusive units. There are eight new units in total, as well as one new Apex. In addition to your usual list of bug fixes and gameplay changes, there’s also an Advent Calendar for players to enjoy in-game.

Following PlayStation and Xbox releasing their annual player wrap ups, Nintendo has now released its own in the Nintendo Switch Year in Review 2024.

The wrap up is now available on Nintendo’s website. “Revisit your 2024 on Nintendo Switch with your personalized Year in Review,” it reads.

Using their Nintendo account, players will receive a recap of their year including how many different games were played, how long they were played for, what the most played game of the year was, and a breakdown month by month.

Wrap up features gained traction first through the likes of music app Spotify before gaming brands like Nintendo, PlayStation, and Xbox got on board. PlayStation’s arrived earlier in December but was broken for a while, though once working even revealed players’ historical statistics in celebration of its 30th anniversary.

This will perhaps be Nintendo’s last year with just the current Switch in its yearly review, with the Nintendo Switch 2 due to be announced by the end of March 2025.

The new console is expected the following financial year, meaning by the end of March 2026, but Nintendo will perhaps look to capitalize on the holiday season and release it by the end of 2025.

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He’ll talk about The Witcher all day.

Activision has confirmed it has recast some members of the Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 cast after fans noticed much-loved Zombies characters with new voices in-game.

The company issued a statement to Game Developer admitting characters in Black Ops 6’s Zombies mode were recast amid the ongoing SAG-AFTRA strike.

Zombies characters William Peck (Zeke Alton) and Samantha Maxis (Julie Nathanson) are currently voiced by new, unknown actors. Alton told Game Developer that he takes no issue with Activision’s actions with Peck, but expressed concern “for my brand as a performer.”

“Fans of the game have reached out to me because the lack of crediting [of the replacement actor] implies that it may still be me which unfairly represents my abilities as a performer,” Alton said.

SAG-AFTRA’s dispute with the video game industry revolves around the use of generative AI to replicate voice actor performances. Activision said: “We respect the personal choice of these performers. Out of respect for all parties, we won’t add new commentary about the ongoing negotiations with SAG-AFTRA. We look forward to a mutually beneficial outcome as soon as possible.”

The concern now is Activision may replace other voice actors in Black Ops 6, if it hasn’t done already. Fans are already on high alert after accusing Activision of using “AI slop” for in-game art. Activision has so far failed to comment on the likes of the six-fingered Zombie Santa.

SAG-AFTRA video game voice actors went on strike in July, accusing gaming companies of refusing to meet their demands on artificial intelligence. Negotiations over a new contract began in October 2022 and SAG-AFTRA members approved the strike last September. Check out IGN’s feature, What the SAG-AFTRA Video Game Actors Strike Means for Gamers, for more.

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.

Stalker 2 developer GSC Game World has released the game’s first major update, patch 1.1.

The update makes over 1,800 fixes and adjustments, GSC said, including the first iteration of A-Life fixes.

Stalker 2 launched late last month to a positive reception on Steam and one million sales. It’s a success for the Ukrainian studio, a miracle, really, considering the harrowing circumstances that followed Russian’s full-scale invasion of the country in 2022. But Stalker 2 suffers from well-documented bugs; chief among them A-Life 2.0.

A-Life was a key feature of the first Stalker game that governed AI behavior across the game world. At a high level, it is a system for simulating life in the Zone that works its magic seemingly independently of the player’s actions or whereabouts. It helps to create convincing AI and the emergent gameplay Stalker is famous for.

GSC had said A-Life 2.0 would make the Zone feel alive as never before, that it would fuel emergent gameplay on a scale previously thought impossible. Indeed for some fans, A-Life 2.0 was Stalker 2’s biggest selling point. But when Stalker 2 actually came out players discovered that A-Life 2.0 didn’t work properly, with some questioning whether it was even in the game at all.

In an interview with IGN, GSC explained what went wrong with Stalker 2’s A-Life 2.0, and vowed to fix the system. Patch 1.1, then, is the first step on that road.

A-Life fixes added with patch 1.1 include the issue with spawning NPCs behind the player’s back. Players can now encounter roaming NPCs across the Zone more often, and the distance at which A-Life NPCs are visible to the player is greatly extended.

Stalker 2 patch 1.1 A-Life fixes in full:

A-Life fixes

• Fixed the issue with spawning NPCs behind the player’s back.
• Players can now encounter roaming NPCs across the Zone more often.
• Greatly extended the distance at which A-Life NPCs are visible to the player.
• Fixed the aggressive optimization issue that prevented A-Life NPCs to exist in Offline (out of player’s visualization range).
  • In Offline mode, A-Life will continue to advance towards their goals over time.
  • Players may now have opportunities to encounter A-Life NPCs they’ve previously met by following in the same direction as the NPCs.
• Improved A-Life NPCs navigation in Offline using GameGraph (global AI navigation map):
  • Fixed multiple issues where NPCs would fail to follow or find a path to their designated goals.
  • Fixed several issues with NPC being stuck in Online-Offline transition state,
• Enhanced A-Life NPCs’ motivation to expand territory and actively attack enemies and mutants.
• Fixed issues that could result in fewer A-life NPCs encountered than intended.
• Further contextual actions improvement to ensure seamless transitions between Offline and Online states for NPCs engaged in these actions.
• The groups exploring the Zone are now more diverse regarding possible factions and group sizes.
• Fixed issue that while roaming over the Zone, Human NPCs didn’t satisfy their communication needs and talks.

And some other development related improvements.

Elsewhere, there’s a long list of AI improvements, balance changes, and loads of other fixes Stalker 2 fans will benefit from. This patch fixes mainline missions, story progression and side missions, crashes, and many, many bugs. It also improves performance and optimization. The patch notes, posted to Steam, are well worth checking out if you’re playing.

GSC warned that patch 1.1 is a massive download, so players should brace themselves for that. “We understand that the size of the patch is huge and the process of downloading will take some time,” the developer said. “We would like to thank you for your understanding, and we will work on this aspect as well.”

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.