Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth Will Include a ‘New Episode With Zack’

Zack Fair fans, do we have some good news for you. Not only do we know that the smooth-talking hero of Final Fantasy: Crisis Core will appear in Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth – but it looks like he’s getting an entire episode all for himself.

We learned this in our recent interview with Final Fantasy 7: Rebirth producer Yoshinori Kitase, in which he talked briefly about some of the differences between Rebirth and the corresponding segment of the original Final Fantasy 7. Kitase said that the order of certain events in the storyline of Rebirth might differ from the original, and the order in which characters join the party has been “reimagined.” But largely, Rebirth tells the story of Final Fantasy 7 from the end of Remake up to the Forgotten Capital sequence.

But also…it seems like it adds a bit more – involving Zack specifically.

“Furthermore, as you know, within the original Final Fantasy 7, the character Zack Fair is one that doesn’t appear as much in the original title,” he said. “However, we see at the end of Remake that he has appeared, which, you know, is quite a difference from the original title. And as for Rebirth, there will be a new episode with Zach, that will contain even more of him than the Remake. I’m not able to say much more than this as I would like for players to play and experience this with it in their own hands.”

That’s all they’re saying for now on Zack’s role, which seems to be somehow tied into some of the mysterious plot shenanigans in Remake involving the “Whispers of Fate.” Zack got a glow-up not too long ago with the release of Crisis Core – Final Fantasy 7 – Reunion, which is a remaster of the original Crisis Core. Crisis Core serves as a prequel to Final Fantasy 7 and stars Zack, who interacts with characters like Cloud, Aerith, and Sephiroth before their roles in 7.

We recently saw a major new teaser for Rebirth at a Sony State of Play, where we got a look at Cait Sith, the Gold Saucer, Vincent, and a lot more. We also learned that it will feature 100 hours of content, possibly including one very specific scene fans are “dying” to see. Rebirth is currently planned for a February 29, 2024 release date as a PS5-exclusive, and won’t hit other platforms until at least three months later.

We also talked to Kitase and creative director Tetsuya Nomura about the appearance of Vincent Valentine in Rebirth, as well as how chocobos will work. You can catch up on the full interview right here, as well as our preview of the game here.

Rebekah Valentine is a senior reporter for IGN. Got a story tip? Send it to rvalentine@ign.com.

Additional reporting by Bo Moore.

Where Winds Meet’s Combat, Character Customisation and Exploration Detailed

While it’s sadly not playable at Tokyo Game Show 2023, Everstone Studios’ ambitious open-world action RPG was highlighted today in a special IGN Japan livestream, and we’ve got the full 18 minutes of gameplay footage here for you to check out in stunning 4K.

The action starts with a fiery assault on horseback through fields of flowers highly reminiscent of Ghost of Tsushima’s gorgeous vistas, before crashing straight into a boss fight. When he went hands on with it back at Gamescom 2023 in August, Matt Purslow suggested that the boss encounter in Where Winds Meet wasn’t exactly Dark Souls-level in difficulty, but its fast-paced slashing and parrying would suggest that it isn’t exactly for babies either (despite the fact the main character has an infant strapped to his chest for some reason).

With the hulking boss down for the count, we then get a look at Where Winds Meet’s staggeringly detailed character customisation. A simple set of base presets soon gives way to a dizzying array of feature sliders – if you’re the type to obsess over the size and shape of your avatar’s glabella or philtrum then fear not since Where Winds Meet has got you covered. Brow arches, lip sizes, nose tips – Where Winds Meet’s character customisation seemingly offers more conceivable nips and tucks than a plastic surgeon on a Kardashian’s speed dial.

Next up we see Where Winds Meet’s unusual skill attributes. On one page it shows Drinker, Witty, Whimsical, and Poet, which is incidentally the four stages this writer progresses through on an average night out. But elsewhere we see attribute tags like Mountain Lifter, Moon Gazer, and Dreamer. There appears to be around 27 different unique traits like these, suggesting that Where Winds Meet is doing things a little differently to the action RPG norm.

We next see the main character explore a small village, interacting with locals and even petting a friendly cat, before another combat sequence highlights how battles will play out against foes in greater numbers. Here the hero displays an impressive ability to strike each enemy in rapid succession to stun them, allowing him to isolate them one-on-one and take them down uninterupted. The ability to leap off a rooftop and fire arrows from his bow in slow-motion a la Link in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild also shows alternate ways to take attackers down from a distance.

Lastly, we see the hero take to the skies for a flight ability that appears to be tied to a stamina guage, before indulging in a battle with an angry bear – suggesting that there’ll be plenty of wildlife to contend with in addition to Where Winds Meet’s human enemies.

Where Winds Meet still doesn’t have a release date, and it remains to be seen as to whether developer Everstone Studios can keep the game’s ambitious size and scope in check in order to provide a cohesive experience. Here’s hoping the team can pull it all together, because Where Winds Meet could be very special if so.

Tristan Ogilvie is a Senior Video Editor at IGN AU. He’s currently attending Tokyo Game Show 2023.

Pokemon Scarlet and Violet: The Teal Mask DLC Review

It’s been almost a year since I reviewed Pokemon Scarlet and Violet at launch, and I still feel more conflicted about them than any other Pokemon game in all my years loving the series. They dazzled me with their open world design, which felt like the answer to years of fan requests – but the performance and aesthetic hits that came with that innovation were painful catches that didn’t quite feel worth the trade. Still, with two DLCs on the horizon, I had hope that Game Freak would be able to pull it together. Could the first DLC, The Teal Mask, fix Scarlet and Violet’s glaring issues and deliver a robust, new experience that fully embraced the clear potential of what these games could have been?

Nope!!!

For starters, I don’t know how it’s possible, but somehow The Teal Mask runs worse than the base game of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet does. I complained about the poor performance of Scarlet and Violet in my initial review, and had hoped that a whole year later Game Freak would have made improvements to things like framerate, pop-in, weird lighting issues, model clipping, and everything else – problems Nintendo even stated it was working to address back in December. But it hasn’t. Instead, it feels like the DLC has the jankiness turned up about one or two more notches.

It’s still playable: I didn’t run into any game breaking bugs. I did suffer from one hard crash, which while not a huge deal due to the game’s frequent autosave, is still pretty shocking given the franchise’s relatively polished history. But more importantly, during my playthrough of The Teal Mask it was impossible to go for more than a minute or two without a visual distraction. Maybe my Tinkaton was clipping through the ground during battle, or falling into the abyss when an encounter started on a cliffside. Maybe I was watching nearby Pokemon models vibrate violently, or seeing NPCs vanish in and out of existence. Or maybe the whole thing was just chugging, simply because I was riding on my Miraidon and it didn’t know how to handle more than a few trees appearing on screen at once. Look, I don’t expect high-fidelity graphics at the level of the PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X in my Pokemon games. But the sheer amount of issues is so distracting all the time that it became an active detriment to my enjoyment. And if Game Freak keeps up its current pace of making performance several degrees worse with each game, by the next gen or so Pokemon might be literally unplayable, because you won’t be able to see anything. Fingers crossed that The Indigo Disk DLC this Winter improves matters literally at all.

I don’t want to keep harping on the performance issues, but one more critical note on this point is that my problems with endgame raid battles from the original review still haven’t been fixed, which tangibly impacts gameplay. Queuing into online raids is still inconsistent due to the very weird way in which Scarlet and Violet refreshes its available raids and doesn’t notify you when they’re full. And once you do get in, completing high-level raids can be challenging due to lag and a weird timer system sometimes skipping your turn, freezing your screen, or otherwise making it impossible to tell what’s going on at any given moment. While some major raiding bugs have been fixed in the last year, it was impossible for me to spend time on the primary endgame content of Pokemon Scarlet and Violet or its DLC without running into this stuff and being frustrated by it.

Kitakami feels like a massive letdown.

My feelings about the new Kitakami island region itself aren’t much fonder. Like Paldea, the world of Scarlet and Violet’s DLC is butt-ugly, with low-res textures, little detail in its environments, and a single town mostly made up of buildings you can’t enter and NPCs uttering boring, nothing phrases. That big local “festival” that the trailers hyped up? It’s just a few carts with vendors and some uninteresting NPCs. It’s even more of a disappointment when you consider that Kitakami is based on Japan – a nation that Game Freak has based multiple memorable regions off of before (Kanto and Johto). When I’ve already seen a Japanese-inspired world done in such loving detail in multiple Pokemon Games, Kitakami feels like a massive letdown.

That said, The Teal Mask isn’t all bad. The battling and competitive aspects are still what they’ve always been (good), and it’s still fun to fill up a PC box full of neat little dudes you find running around outside. The island checks all the boxes for that activity specifically: it’s big, full of Pokemon, and has lots of different biomes to poke around in. One of my favorite parts of Kitakami was the mountain at its center with crystalline pools at the summit, numerous caves along its path to the top, and a surprising cavern structure within full of Pokemon hiding around corners and in little holes. But the overall ugliness and performance issues did detract from locations that looked like they were probably quite beautiful in their concept art, just not their final execution – such as when I first laid eyes on those sparkling pools on the mountaintop, or when I crossed a thin, stone bridge to a mysterious cave as the sunset hit the surrounding rock formations.

The plot is so overdone that even a Slowpoke could see its twists coming.

Content-wise, The Teal Mask largely consists of a familiar Pokemon formula where you track down a legendary Pokemon while learning about local lore. You’re accompanied on this quest by a sibling pair, Carmine and Kieran, both of whom spent most of the story alternating between yelling at me over nothing and challenging me to battles. The Teal Mask’s plot is so overdone that even a Slowpoke could see its twists coming, which is a pretty big bummer after the heights reached during the ending of Scarlet and Violet. This DLC campaign is also short, about seven or eight hours long, though catching every newly-added monster will stretch it a bit more.

The best part of Teal Mask’s story is the subplot surrounding a photographer, Perrin, who sends you on a Pokemon Snap-esque photography journey after a totally different legendary Pokemon. After hours of Carmine and Kieran shouting at me, Perrin’s curiosity and backstory with photography were a refreshing change, and her photo-taking minigame provided a natural avenue for The Teal Mask to expand on something I loved in Scarlet and Violet: discovering Pokemon doing fun Pokemon things in their habitats. Frankly, Perrin’s story is so much more interesting than the rest of the DLC that it’s a shame I couldn’t spend more time hanging out with her and her Hisuian Growlithe instead of being dragged around by the world’s most unnecessarily angsty preteens.

Ogre Oustin’ is boring, repetitive, and runs terribly (especially online).

Other new features in The Teal Mask include an expanded Pokedex with a tiny handful of new monsters, a middling selection of new cosmetic choices, and a terrible minigame called “Ogre Oustin’” that involves tanking your framerate further by speeding around on your bike to collect berries really fast. While I’m always happy to praise Game Freak’s Pokemon designs (especially the candy apple-themed Dipplin – cute!), and it’s nice to finally change out of my hideous school uniform, I don’t know what they were thinking with Ogre Oustin’. It’s boring, repetitive, runs terribly (especially online), and yet made me feel bad about not wanting to play it by offering great rewards for anyone looking to build raiding or competitive teams. Terrible.

The ways in which The Teal Mask feels like a step backward from what made Scarlet and Violet astonishing are also disappointing. Scarlet and Violet themselves promoted player freedom: you could go anywhere you wanted at almost any time, and do the major plot points in any order. The Teal Mask mysteriously tosses that in the bin in favor of a far more standard, linear journey. While you can explore any part of the island at any time, there’s no benefit to doing so beyond catching Pokemon. You can’t even do the initial quest – which involves visiting three sign boards around the island – in any order. The sudden loss of that player freedom is painful given how critical it was to my enjoyment of the base game.

It’s also a surprisingly weak effort when compared to Game Freak’s previous DLC attempts in Pokemon Sword and Shield’s Isle of Armor and Crown Tundra. While both of these DLC were similarly criticized for being shallow in the story department, Isle of Armor added challenge by forcing you to train a brand new Pokemon, while Crown Tundra included multiple new game modes. The Teal Mask does… none of that, and feels distinctly incomplete. Maybe that’s because it was always meant to be just one half of a package with The Indigo Mask, but if that’s the case, then I question the wisdom of splitting the DLC at all.

Notorious Film Nerd Hideo Kojima Reveals His Criterion Collection Picks

Hideo Kojima isn’t shy about his love for movies. The creator behind games like Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding even wanted to make movies before becoming a game developer, and his games often pay homage to some of his favorites. Even Snake, the main character of the Metal Gear Franchise, is named after Escape from New York’s protagonist, Snake Plissken. He famously goes out of his way to inject cinematic sensibilities into his works and loves working with big-name actors. The man just loves movies.

Criterion, the organization behind the Criterion Collection, invited Hideo Kojima to do a video in its ‘Closet Picks’ series on its YouTube channel. The series is dedicated to highlighting notable voices in creative industries where a selected luminary picks their favorites from the “Criterion Closet,” which is exactly what it sounds like; a closet containing physical copies of each film in the Criterion Collection.

In the video, Kojima looks like a kid in a candy store. “It’s like being in heaven,” he says, before bemoaning the lack of movies from the ’50s and ’60s on streaming services. He goes on to discuss how he usually buys physical copies of his favorites from that time through Criterion because it’s the only place he can find physical prints of some of his favorite classics.

Here are Kojima’s picks:

High and Low

Before picking High and Low (1963), Kojima introduced this police procedural-meets-domestic-drama as his favorite among director Akira Kurosawa’s other, more popular works like Seven Samurai and Yojimbo. The Death Stranding director said, “I love High and Low the most. I was so shocked when I saw this, so I’d love for you to watch it.”

Late Spring

“Now, where there’s Akira Kurosawa, there’s Yasujiro Ozu.” Kojima introduced Yasujiro Ozu alongside his more globally known counterpart. His first pick, Late Spring, is a story about a widower and his daughter set in postwar Japan.

Tokyo Twillight

The second picture from Yasujiro Ozu to go into Kojima’s bag is an obscure selection that’s part of a posthumous anthology of Ozu’s films. He mentions its different tone from other Ozu films, “Ozu films are usually very light, but this one is really dark. I really like that about this film so I highly recommend it.”

Ugetsu

Kojima was very visibly happy to be in good company with this one. Martin Scorsese helped to restore Kenji Mizoguchi’s 1953 classic about the ravages of war. “This scared me as a kid,” he says laughing into the camera, “It’s got ghosts in it. It’s a black-and-white film, but it’s a beautiful film.”

Kwaidan

He said, “They have my favorite. By Masaki Kobayashi. Kwaidan.” This series of stylized, artsy ghost stories from 1965 also scared Kojima as a kid, and are based on stories from Japanese folklore.

Harakiri

Another Kobayashi joint, Kojima lauds this influential, award winning samurai flick before diving into its influence on the Spaghetti Westerns that started popping up later on in the 1960s.

Jigoku

Another horror film, this time by Nobuo Nakagawa, Jigoku (also known as Hell or the Sinners of Hell) puts a student through–well–Hell. The Metal Gear creator talked about how another of Nakagawa’s horror films, The Ghost of Yotsuya, led him to finding the much more surreal Jigoku.

Onibaba

“Again, I watched this at night as a kid and it shocked me,” he said, before he recalled discussing Kaneto Shindo’s folk-horror set in medieval Japan with Guillermo Del Toro when they met for the first time. He added, “He loves this film as well. There’s a monster called Onibaba in Pacific Rim.”

Woman in the Dunes

Kojima got discovered Hiroshi Teshigahara’s 1960 art-house darling after reading Kobo Abe’s book (also called Woman in the Dunes).

If you’d like to watch the full video–and watch Kojima light up as he talks about some of his favorite Japanese movies–check it out on Criterion’s YouTube channel.

Dead Space Co-Creator Glen Schofield Leaves The Callisto Protocol’s Striking Distance Studios

Glen Schofield, who co-created Dead Space and most recently directed The Callisto Protocol, is leaving Striking Distance Studios.

In a new report published by Bloomberg and independently confirmed by IGN, Schofield is departing the Krafton-owned studio. A Krafton representative told both IGN and Bloomberg that Schofield voluntarily departed the company, stating that he has “decided to pursue new opportunities.” Bloomberg’s report also notes that Stacey Hirata, Striking Distance’s COO, and Johnny Hsu, the CFO, are also departing the company.

“Creating Striking Distance Studios has been an incredible journey and I’m so proud of what we’ve achieved with The Callisto Protocol, a game close to my heart,” Schofield said in a statement regarding his departure. “While pursuing a new adventure is exciting, leaving SDS is bittersweet, but I know the studio is in excellent hands.”

Steve Papoutsis, who previously served as Striking Distance Studios Chief Development Officer and General Manager, will take over as CEO. Papoutsis previously worked together with Schofield first at Crystal Dynamics before reuniting at Visceral Games where the duo worked on the first Dead Space game.

The announcement comes at a challenging time for Striking Distance Studios. Nearly two months ago, the company laid off over 30 employees in what was described as a move to “realign the studio’s priorities to better position its current and future projects for success.”

Striking Distance was founded over three years ago by Schofield. The studio is a subsidiary of Krafton, the parent company that owns the rights for the widely popular battle royale game PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG). The studio was initially formed to create a narrative-driven game set in the PUBG universe, later revealed as The Callisto Protocol, a third-person survival horror game released last December.

Following the release of the studio’s debut game, it was met with mixed reviews and plagued with several problems, from performance issues to reports of studio crunch and issues with crediting people who contributed to the development. Roughly a month after release, it was reported that the game failed to meet Krafton’s sales expectations.

Image Credit: Ethan Miller / Getty Images

Taylor is a Reporter at IGN. You can follow her on Twitter @TayNixster.

IGN Plus: Snag a Key for Stylish Online Multiplayer RPG, Wayfinder

If you’ve been looking for a stylish online multiplayer RPG, with more of a focus on action than characters in most MMOs, Wayfinder could be just what the doctor ordered. Luckily, if you are a subscriber to IGN Plus, you can also grab a key for it right now.

Already an IGN Plus member? Grab your key here.

Not an IGN Plus member yet? Join here.

What is Wayfinder?

Wayfinder is a class-based online multiplayer RPG by Airship Syndicate, the studio behind Ruined King: A League Of Legends Story, Darksiders: Genesis, and Battle Chasers Nightwar. The studio was founded by several former devs from Vigil Games (the studio behind Darksiders and Darksiders 2), and the studio’s art style is instantly recognizable as coming from the pen of iconic artist (and co-founder) Joe Madureira.

One year after a tragedy fragmented the world, the player is finally pulled from the Gloom, a dark reflection of the world which can be manipulated and molded by those who know how. It’s up to these Wayfinders, and the small city of survivors surrounding the portal, to find a way to piece it all together again.

Whether you want to play a tanky character, a twin dagger-wielding assassin, a clever gunner with traps and bombs, a melee sorcerer who channels the darkness, a giant (and incredibly powerful) berserker woman, or others, Wayfinder has a character for you. Unfortunately, unless you want to play the gunner, tank, or assassin, you’ll have to earn or buy the others (it’s particularly painful for me, because I played and fell in love with the arcanist Kyros at PAX East, and I have no idea how long it will take for me to get him back).

Wayfinder Developer Interview

Having created fun single-player RPGs and smaller, couch-style multiplayer action RPGs, what prompted the team to tackle the online multiplayer RPG (MMO) space?

We’ve always loved multiplayer experiences and even for those of us working on the original Darksiders back at Vigil, the dream was to always make a multiplayer game with all 4 horsemen. Darksiders: Genesis was Airship’s first step into the multiplayer space and we learned a lot from working on it. As our team grew over the years, we’ve felt more and more comfortable with tackling a larger multiplayer game. It is definitely not a full blown MMO, but we are doing what we can to capture the fun of being in a persistent world with friends and expanding on that world over time.

What goes into creating a brand new world, like this one? Where does the team start? With the world, with the gameplay, or somewhere else?

This game is a love letter to the games that we’ve played over the years that are social, have a persistent world and are ever evolving. Wayfinder is social so you can jump in with friends and play all night, or if you’re feeling anti-social, you can just log in and decorate your apartment. At Airship Syndicate, we knew that our storytelling strengths are in creating rich and engaging worlds, full of memorable characters that you meet and play so we really played to our strengths making the character- based world of Wayfinder come to life.

There is a back and forth between narrative, art, and design when it comes to developing new Wayfinders and weapons. The number one thing on our minds when thinking about new Wayfinders is that they would be fun to play and offer something unique that you wouldn’t get just from playing one of the other characters. We have a general direction for a character’s role and kit earlier on and the awesome concept/art teams will develop a character based on those ideas, which in turn help flesh out and inspire the actual abilities for the characters.

How did the team decide who would initially be playable, and who would be unlockable later? (One of my colleagues and I are still mourning the loss of Kyros and Senja after falling in love with them at PAX East, and not having them available at the beginning of the game)

It’s always hard when starting the development process and thinking about how a new player would want to be onboarded to everything that Wayfinder has to offer. Wingrave, Niss and Silo were chosen because each of them is aligned with our three archetypes – Warmaster, Tactician, Arcanist. They are also the best traditional representation of that play style, each tailored around using different weapons to start, ensuring there is a playstyle for everyone available from the start. At the end of the tutorial you can also select to replay the tutorial again with someone you didn’t pick the first time as we want the first few hours that players are in the game and working towards unlocking new wayfinders and weapons (all of which can be earned via gameplay) to be fun!

What about plans to add more heroes to the roster as time goes on? Is there a concrete number the team is gunning for?

We’re excited that each new Season will introduce a brand new Wayfinder as well as multiple weapons, including their signature weapon. This allows us to both introduce new and exciting ways to play, but also allows old characters to get new life with a brand new weapon as each of our weapons has a unique gameplay ability and can be used by any character. While we don’t have a hard number we’re trying to hit, we have more than 4 in development right now. The new Seasons will also expand the world with new bosses and hunts, new zones to explore, and new quests.

What are some of the team’s favorite game elements, aspects of the world, etc? (I’m fond of the idea that personal attachment helps shape the gloom into those old familiar spaces)

I think the Wayfinders themselves are definitely a big favorite, especially when we are developing a new Wayfinder and people try it for the first time and declare that this is now their favorite Wayfinder. It’s hard for me to pick a favorite as they all play differently and I love different things about each. It’s also a ton of fun seeing the fanart and fanfiction developing in the community around the characters and how much they are resonating with people. I think one aspect of the game I’m most excited to expand upon is housing. One of my favorite moments since launch has been farming a slime cube for my house to sit at my dinner table and listening to the awesome housing tracks while I decorated.

Does the team have any fun or interesting stories from development?

We have an archive of what we call Wayflunders, which are hilarious bugs people have recorded over development ranging from IK bugs, characters getting flung into outerspace, incorrect animation retargeting, and other whacky things.

What would you tell potential players, who are thinking about jumping in?

We’ve put a lot of love into the game and we have a lot more love to give it. We definitely want feedback from players getting into the game at this early stage so we can evolve the game and make it as good as it can be and for it to be tailored to the people actually playing the game.

Is there anything else you’d like to add?

We have a long roadmap of planned updates and features to expand on the game each season, so keep an eye out and even if you don’t join us now, be sure to check in later!

What Is IGN Plus?

IGN Plus is the paid membership program for IGN, and right now you can grab an annual membership for just $29.99, or just $4.99 a month, if you prefer to go that route. You can also try it for just $1 for 30 days.

What you get as an IGN Plus member:

Brian Barnett writes reviews, guides, features, & more for IGN & GameSpot. You can get your fix of his antics on YouTube, Twitch, Twitter, Bluesky, & Backloggd, & check out his fantastic video game talk show, The Platformers, on Spotify & Apple Podcasts.

Evil Dead: The Game Not Making New Updates, Switch Version Canceled

Evil Dead: The Game will not receive any new content and the planned Switch version has been canceled, developer Saber Interactive announced. Servers for the PlayStation, Xbox, and PC versions of the asymmetrical multiplayer game, however, will remain online “for the foreseeable future.”

“Today, we have made the decision not to pursue the development of new content for Evil Dead: The Game,” Saber wrote on X. “We will keep the servers up for the foreseeable future and address any major issues that arise.”

Saber did not explain its decision, though it’s worth noting the developer’s parent company, Embracer Group, announced a major restructuring plan in June to decrease spending and become a “leaner, stronger, and a more focused, self-sufficient company.”

The end of development comes 16 months after Evil Dead was first released in May 2022. During that time, Saber released several DLC packs, adding new characters and outfits from the franchise.

We awarded the multiplayer horror game an 8 in our Evil Dead: The Game review, calling it “an awesome asymmetric multiplayer game that, like its source material, is far better than it has any right to be given its frustrating lack of polish and being somewhat light on maps and modes.”

Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.

Over $600 Million Later, Star Citizen Is Now at the Alpha 3.20 Stage

Star Citizen’s long-running development has inched forward yet again, this time to the Alpha 3.20 stage.

The latest update, dubbed “Fully Loaded”, overhauls the Arena Commander mode, adds new PvP modes, maps, and racetracks, and adds new missions and ships to the Persistent Universe portion of the space sim.

This is the largest update to Arena Commander since its introduction in 2014, developer Cloud Imperium Games said, and delivers “more focused, bite-sized gameplay with diverse content for racers, fighters, and competitors climbing the leaderboards”.

The update also adds the MISC Hull C ship, the “titan of the cargo hauling profession with room for a crew of up to four players”, and the Fury LX, a racing variant of the recently added Mirai Fury snub fighter. New features include automatic cargo loading and unloading at space stations to support the Hull C’s expansive cargo capacity.

The launch trailer bigs up Star Citizen’s exploration, saying players can travel “seamlessly across worlds”. As you’d expect, fans have taken that as CIG making a point of comparison between its game and Bethesda’s recently released Starfield, which does not feature seamless space travel.

Star Citizen crowdfunding began back in 2012 and now, over a decade later, is considered one of the most controversial projects in all video games. Over the years 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. (The MISC Hull C added with the Alpha 3.20 update costs an eye-watering $500).

What cannot be denied is the huge amount of money so far raised by Star Citizen, which developer Cloud Imperium Games displays on its website. At the time of this article’s publication, Star Citizen had raised $604,183,210 from just over 4.8 million backers.

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.

Netflix Onimusha Anime Just Got its First Trailer

Netflix has released its first trailer for its animated adaptation of Capcom’s Onimusha video game franchise, which is due to premiere on November 2 later this year.

The action-packed three-minute trailer shows protagonist Miyamoto Musashi don the series’ iconic Oni Gauntlet, and go toe to toe with a varied cast of foes, both demonic and human alike, as the series’ theme song ‘The Lonliest’ by artist Måneskin plays on in the background.

As the trailer unfolds, Musashi is handed down a 33-day deadline in which to complete a covert mission, while a seemingly human antagonist drinking a suspiciously blood-like liquid lays out his wish to exterminate all remaining samurai in Japan.

Later, a flame wreathed entity charges Musashi with the task of killing the Genma, a race of demons who serve as antagonists in the Capcom series, and trapping their souls in the Oni Gauntlet. Throughout, we’re also given glimpses into the tragic life of a young girl, who Musashi fights to protect.

The action unfolds against a backdrop of a fantasy-infused take on the Edo Period of Japanese history, which has been stunningly realised using hand-drawn backgrounds, while the on-screen characters have been brought to life with 3D CGI.

Capcom’s Onimusha video game series begin in 2001 with the release of Onimusha: Warlords, and was succesful enough to spawn three further mainline games, along with a number of spinoffs. Barring the release of a 2019 remaster of the PS2 original, the Ominusha franchise has been largely dormant for over a decade at this point.

Netflix’s Onimusha adaptation is being helmed by supervising director Takashi Miike, and director Shinya Sugai, who had previously worked on the streaming giant’s CG animated adaptation of Dragon’s Dogma.

Anthony is a freelance contributor covering science and video gaming news for IGN. He has over eight years experience of covering breaking developments in multiple scientific fields and absolutely no time for your shenanigans. Follow him on Twitter @BeardConGamer

Official Mortal Kombat 1 Nintendo Switch Gameplay Has Steam Achievement Pop-Up

It’s going from bad to worse for the embattled Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1. After fans critcised its visuals and $70 price tag, the official Mortal Kombat 1 Switch launch trailer has now come under fire for apparently using PC gameplay footage.

A placeholder Steam achievement pop-up appears during the Mortal Kombat 1 launch trailer published to the Nintendo of America YouTube channel on release day, September 19.

The pop-up appears in the bottom-right corner of the screen during gameplay of the new Invasions mode, which suggests PC footage was used to create at least this section of the Switch trailer. At the time of publication, the trailer is still live. IGN has asked publisher Warner Bros. Games for comment.

YouTube commenters are now slamming the video for being misleading, with some even calling for refunds. “The trailer is not representative of the Switch version,” pedrovillela3426 said. “The achievement notification that appeared as 1:53 shows that this footage is from the PC version. Unfortunately the Switch version looks and run way worse than what was shown in this trailer.”

It’s a high-profile gaffe for Warner Bros. Games, Nintendo, and developer NetherRealm, the latter of which is already facing tough questions about the heavily criticised Switch version. NetherRealm boss Ed Boon recently has promised updates are coming following complaints about visuals, performance, and missing modes.

What makes matters worse here is the Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 only has the tutorial stage of the Invasions mode. According to a post on the Warner Bros. Games support page, the full version of Invasions is due out on Switch “in a matter of weeks”.

“To ensure the best possible experience for Switch players at launch, only the introduction for Invasions will be available,” the statement reads. “The full breadth of Invasions Season 1 content will be available on Switch in a matter of weeks. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause Switch players and are working to make this update as quickly as possible.”

IGN’s review of the current-gen version of Mortal Kombat 1 returned an 8/10, but IGN’s review of the Switch version, ported by Shiver Entertainment and Saber Interactive, came back with a 3/10. “Mortal Kombat 1 proves to be too much for the Switch’s dated hardware,” we said. “The load times are egregious, there are numerous bugs plaguing both graphics and gameplay, making for a poor quality port of a great game that’s all around aggravating to play.”

Meanwhile, Mortal Kombat 1 dataminers believe they’ve found clues to unannounced DLC characters. If you’re playing, check out how to perform all Mortal Kombat 1 Fatalities.

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.