Category: IGN

Sony has added a handful of beloved PS2 games to its PlayStation Plus Classic Games Catalog such as those from the Sly Cooper and Jak and Daxter franchises today, December 10.

The three games previously announced by Sony are available to players with the most expensive PS Plus Premium subscription. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy, Sly 2: Band of Thieves, and Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves can all be downloaded now.

Sony will announce the full collection of December’s games coming to not just the Classic Games Catalog but the regular Games Catalog tomorrow, December 13.

All three games were well-received when IGN reviewed them upon release in the 2000s. Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy earned a 9/10, when IGN called it “really something special” and said “it has that magical feeling that not all games can possess and it’s just flat out a joy to play.”

Sly 2: Band of Thieves also received a 9/10. “The amount of creativity that is packed into the different quests and the various characters is nothing short of amazing and it all combines to form a mega fun adventure,” we said.

Finally, Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is a touch lower but still well praised at 8/10. “It’s still a fun ride and many of the new additions work out well, especially the pirate sections, but there are enough rocky spots to make the game feel kind of awkward and hold it back from being truly great,” we said.

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

Changes are coming to action role-playing game Path of Exile 2 thick and fast following its huge Early Access launch, with a new hotfix out now.

In a post on the Path of Exile forum, developer Grinding Gear Games published a list of issues it felt needed to be “urgently addressed,” with other less urgent issues to be tackled later on. Chief among them is the feeling that Path of Exile 2 isn’t rewarding enough, something GGG acknowledged is a problem.

“One of the major problems that players have been experiencing is feeling that the game is not rewarding enough,” it said. “This is an area that we have to be very careful when adjusting because it’s very hard to reduce drops if we increase them by too much.”

Specifically, GGG felt that rare monsters were not rewarding enough, especially in the endgame where unique monsters are less common. GGG also saw that the reward players received for the increased difficulty of rares wasn’t lining up.

So, it’s doubling the rarity bonus per rare mod, increasing the quantity bonus per rare mod by 10%, and increasing the chance of rare monsters inherently having more modifiers as players progress through endgame.

“These changes will cause rare monster rewards to naturally scale up as you get to higher levels because the number of mods a monster can have increases throughout the campaign and into endgame,” GGG explained.

“In addition, many other forms of map juicing will indirectly cause rare monsters to have more mods as well, increasing the rewards of these other mechanics too.”

Meanwhile, GGG is changing the game to make sure each map has a minimum number of rares, which will also increase the average number of rare mods and thus increase drops further.

Another major issue GGG has identified is outlier “unlucky” drops. “A single unique boss dropping badly, especially early on can significantly affect your character,” GGG admitted. Changes here include no more than 50% of a unique monster’s drops can be gold, and act bosses and map bosses will now always drop at least one rare.

Elsewhere, GGG is making dodge roll changes after players complained about being trapped in by monsters. “While it is intended that monsters are able to trap and kill you, we felt that the frequency of this was a little too high,” GGG explained.

GGG has posted the first set of patch notes for these changes, with more to come as they’re rolled out. Check out the patch notes for 0.1.0c below (you will need to restart your client to receive the client changes in this patch).

GGG is already nerfing a number of Path of Exile 2 skills it’s deemed to have “unacceptable balance.” And in a fresh tweet, the developer said it plans to nerf Raging Spirits so it can only summon five Raging Spirits per cast at all levels. They will also no longer be able to be spawned from triggered Fire Skills. Players are already calling on GGG to give all a full character respec opportunity as a result.

In an upcoming hotfix, we’ll be making it so that Raging Spirits can only summon 5 Raging Spirits per cast at all levels. They will also no longer be able to be spawned from triggered Fire Skills.

After this hotfix, we will be making adjustments to other Trigger Meta-Gems. In…

— Path of Exile (@pathofexile) December 10, 2024

Here’s which class to pick in PoE 2 Early Access, plus an early Mercenary build guide and Sorceress build guide to help you get started. Beyond that, if you’re wondering how to get more Spirit, how to trade, and how to ascend, we’ve got you covered.

Path of Exile 2 update 0.1.0c Patch Notes

• Campaign bosses killed after the first kill will now drop less currency items, replacing them with other items.
• Increased the drop rate of Regal Orbs.
• Significantly increased the drop rate of Gemcutter’s Prisms.
• A single Gemcutter’s Prism also improves the Quality of a Skill Gem by +5% (previously +1%).
• Lowered the drop rate of Chaos Orbs and distributed it amongst the other more valued Currency Items (Like Regal Orbs, Exalted Orbs).
• Lowered the drop rate of Artificer’s Orbs and distributed it to Lesser Jeweller’s Orbs.
• Disenchanting Rare Items with 6 Modifiers now provides 2 Regal Shards (previously 1). The value displayed will still show as 1 until a later patch.
• Increased the values of all Prefix Modifiers that can roll on Waystones. We’ve also adjusted the chances of getting the more commonly powerful Modifiers such as increases to Rarity and Pack Size.
• Monster Modifiers now grant higher amounts of Item Rarity and Item Quantity. This is most common on Magic and Rare enemies, but also affects Unique Enemies if applied through various Endgame Mechanics like the Deadly Evolution Keystone.
• Increased the chance for Rare Monsters in Maps to have 3 or 4 modifiers.
• Rare Monsters in Map areas are now revealed on the minimap when there are 200 Monsters remaining (previously 50).
• Fixed a bug where some Persistent Buff Skills, such as Raging Spirits and Mana Remnants, were not working for the Infernalist when in Demon Form.
• Fixed a bug where you could sometimes be unable to interact with the Map Device in The Ziggurat Refuge.
• Fixed a bug where Monsters Shattered in a Blood Circle Ultimatum Encounter were not contributing blood.
• Fixed a bug that could cause the instance to permanently stop time (freeze) when trying to revive a Chronomancer.
• Fixed a bug where Rare Monsters could not be found within the Chimeral Wetlands.
• Fixed a bug where “Move only” was name-locking.
• Fixed three instance crashes.
• Fixed a client crash.

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.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Patch 5 is out now across PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S, and it makes a number of significant balance changes.

There’s a lot to pick through, but the highlight here is a complete rework of Blocking weapons, which were deemed useless by players ever since Space Marine 2’s record-breaking September launch.

Now, by blocking enemy attacks, the player accumulates up to three stacks of melee damage buffs. Attacking while having those stacks of buffs will spend them and will result in massive AoE Damage discharge. Check out the patch notes, below, for more detail.

In a post on publisher Focus Entertainment’s website, game director Dmitriy Grigorenko explained that Fencing weapons will remain good versus limited numbers of enemies, Balanced weapons will be good versus big crowds, and Blocking weapons are now “damage dealer” type weapons.

Accompanying this change is a buff to all melee weapons, with normal melee damage increased across the board. Developer Saber Interactive hopes this change will give combat less reliance on the Parry -> Gun Strike flow.

Here’s a big one: Space Marine 2’s Operations mode now has an Extermination Bonus, which increases the amount of XP players get in PvE missions “if they are zealously exterminating enemy waves.”

The idea here, according to Grigorenko, is to incentivise players to not skip encounters (Space Marine 2 Operations players have a habit of skipping entire chunks of the PvE missions to finish as fast as possible and get on with the grind), without punishing those who want to skip, and make the game less grindy in preparation for new features coming down the line, such as Prestige Ranks.

And I’d like to pick out this one change I am particularly happy about: Shielded Zoanthrope will now attack much less frequently. Praise the Emperor!

Meanwhile, Saber has said it’s happy with firearm balance, but promised minor tweaks in Patch 6. Importantly, a big rework of weapon perks is coming with Patch 7. “Weapons perks are underwhelming compared to class Perks right now, and the issues with some weapons are actually a result of them having a bad Perk tree rather than their basic stats,” Grigorenko explained.

Grigorenko admitted a lot of the Class perks are not as good as we wanted them to be, and some Perk tree choices are really more efficient than others.” Patch 6 will “massively rework” a bunch of lacking Perks to make more builds viable.

There’s also a big problem with the Grenade Launcher that makes it overpowered, so Saber will look to make changes there in a future patch.

It’s a big day for Warhammer 40,000 fans, with Henry Cavill’s Amazon film and TV series based on Games Workshop’s grim dark universe finally proceeding to production, and the release of the Space Marine 2 animation as part of Amazon’s Secret Level anthology series. Check out IGN’s Secret Level review for more.

In September, Saber Chief Creative Officer Tim Willits told IGN how the breakout success of Space Marine 2 had “changed everything” for the company. Eagle-eyed fans have spotted the Space Marine chapter now all-but confirmed to get a cosmetic pack after the Dark Angels, too.

Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2 Update 5.0 patch notes:

NEW FEATURES

• New Operation: Obelisk

In this new Operation, you’ll be sent to Demerium and your mission is to rotate a replica of the obelisk to disrupt the flow of energy protecting the Aurora device. This operation takes place in parallel to the final events of the campaign.

To reach the console control of the obelisk, you’ll have to make it through a tomb plunged into darkness.

• New Enemy: Tzaangor Enlightened

A new Majoris enemy can spawn in all Operations featuring the Thousand Sons.

Note from our Game Director: “The Tzaangor Enlightened is a disk-flying, melee/ranged-hybrid unit. They are fearsome opponents, especially when met in greater numbers. However, catching them after parry or during a long animation makes them an easy target.

We strongly advise you to use Target Lock to face this enemy!”

• New Season Pass Content: Dark Angels Chapter Pack

Added: Dark Angels Successor Chapters cosmetics

Added: Dark Angels Champion skin (Bulwark)

Added: Dark Angels–themed weapon skins for:

• Auto Bolt Rifle
• Plasma Pistol
• Power Sword
• Bulwark’s Storm Shield

GAMEPLAY & BALANCING TWEAKS

Melee

Note from our Game Director: “The melee system has been our main focus recently. The issue that we saw is that, on higher difficulties, the melee combat relied too heavily on the “Parry -> Gun Strike” flow. This also made Fencing Melee Weapons a universal choice for almost all situations, and we want to give players more options. To try and achieve that, we’ve made the following changes.

First, normal Melee Damage has increased across the board, so there will be more options instead of just Parry -> Gun Strike.

Second, we are drastically changing how Blocking Weapons work. In short, by blocking enemy attacks, the player will accumulate up to 3 stacks of Melee Damage buffs. Attacking while having those stacks of buffs will spend them and will result in massive AoE Damage discharge.

With these changes, Fencing Weapons will still be great versus limited numbers of enemies, Balanced Weapons will be good versus big crowds, and Blocking Weapons will become ‘damage dealer’ type weapons.”

Perfect Block

All Block Weapons have been reworked with a new mechanic: Perfect Block and Adrenaline Surge.

Perfectly timed blocks grant up to 3 Adrenaline Surge stacks. Adrenaline Surge stacks greatly increase Melee Damage and are consumed after the next melee attack.

Attacking with 3 stacks of Adrenaline Surge deals massive AoE Damage, staggers enemies, and restores 1 Armour Segment.

Note that the right wrist glows in yellow after the Parry, which signifies that the Adrenaline Surge is ready to use. When used, a red explosion detonates on the enemy hit, deals AoE Damage, and regenerates an Armour Segment.

Fencing Weapons:

• Perfect Parry AoE stagger radius slightly reduced.

Balanced Weapons:

• Perfect Parry AoE stagger radius greatly increased.
• Master-crafted versions: Damage increased by 10%.
• Artificer versions: Damage increased by 10%.
• Relic versions: Damage increased by 10%.

Blocking Weapons:

• Master-crafted versions: Damage increased by 20%.
• Artificer versions: Damage increased by 20%.
• Relic versions: Damage increased by 20%.

Unarmed/Firearm Melee:

• Stomps can now be chained indefinitely.

Firearms

Note from our Game Director: “We are quite happy with recent updates to firearms. Pretty much all firearms are viable on the hardest difficulties now, and our win rate/pick rate data shows drastic improvements.

Still, there are a few weapons that are better than the others, and minor tweaks will be coming with Patch 6.

Further into the future, with Patch 7, we are planning to focus on reworking Weapons Perks. Weapons Perks are underwhelming compared to Class Perks right now, and the issues with some weapons are actually a result of them having a bad Perk tree rather than their basic stats.

The other big outstanding problem that we have is the Grenade Launcher. There are quite a few bugs/misconfigurations that make it the way it is.

1. Due to a bug, a certain Perk restores its full Ammo when it shouldn’t.
2. Due to a misconfiguration on our side, its Artificer and Relic versions deal 4x more damage than the Master-crafted version, which was not intended.
3. Due to a bug, Perks that increase Auspex Scan damage stack buffs inconsistently. Normally all damage stacks buffs additively, thus providing consistent and predictable results. This bug results in crazy damage numbers with Auspex Scan Perks depending on the order they were activated. This is why bosses get erased by Grenade Launchers with certain builds.

If we approach this directly and fix all 3 bugs, it will make the Grenade Launcher useless and will hurt the entire Tactical class. We will be very careful with how we address this issue. We do want to keep the fun element of destroying entire waves of enemies with the Grenade Launcher. At the same time, no other weapon can match a Grenade Launcher with potentially unlimited Ammo.

Because of these complications, we want to take the time to carefully analyse and make the best decision possible about the Grenade Launcher, so we’re not modifying it in this patch.”

Neo-Volkite Pistol

Note from our Game Director: “We unified enemy sensitivity to Volkite Damage with Bolter Damage. This means a massive damage buff to certain Majoris and Extremis enemies that were more resistant to Volkite Damage than others.”

Volkite Damage sensitivity has been increased from 1 to 1.5 for these enemies:

• Devourer Tyranid Warrior
• Barbed Strangler Tyranid Warrior
• Venom Cannon Tyranid Warrior
• Rubric Marine
• Flamer Rubric Marine
• Zoanthrope

Bolt Carbine:

• Max Ammo of all SMG-type Bolt Carbines increased by 1 magazine.

Extermination Bonus

Note from our Game Director: “This change simply increases the amount of XP players are getting in Operations mode if they are zealously exterminating enemy waves.

This aims to:

1. incentivise players to not skip encounters, without punishing those who want to skip, and

2. makes the game less grindy in preparation for new features coming down the line (e.g., Prestige Ranks).”

Added a new feature that increases the amount of XP players gain based on % of enemies killed during an Operation:

• Rank A: killing more than 85% spawned enemies grants +120% XP pre-patch value.
• Rank B: killing more than 60% spawned enemies grants +110% XP pre-patch value.
• Rank C: killing less than 60% spawned enemies grants +100% XP pre-patch value.

*The rank is common to the party, everyone gets the same.

GAMEPLAY QOL

• Dodge invulnerability logic is now client sided, meaning that Dodges will be responsive and more accurate with higher ping.
• Players are now invulnerable to new instances of damage while in Knockback animation.
• Added 10 frames of invulnerability at the start of Jump Pack launch animation (Campaign and Operations only).
• Dodge and Parry sound notification clarity has been greatly improved.
• Heavy’s Barrier can be activated in more player states (e.g., during stagger animation).
• Player controls are slightly more responsive after using Vanguard’s Grapnel Launcher.
• Added spawn protection in PvP.
• Added Neo-Volkite Pistol in PvP.

AI

• Zoanthrope:
  • Shielded Zoanthrope will now attack much less frequently.
• Enemy Spawn Director:
  • You will no longer fight Extremis-level enemies on your first encounter right after the start of a Mission.
  • Lots of minor animation fixes for various enemies.

CUSTOMISATION

• Added: Lenses colour customisation.
• Fixed shading of Balthasar Gold and Ushabti Bone colours.
• Fixed a number of small bugs with certain armour pieces not applying colours correctly.

OPERATIONS

Fall of Atreus:

• Made adjustments to scripting to make this level shorter and more in line with the duration of other levels:
  • The second sequence with the Dreadnought (Repel the Assault) is randomised now and may not happen.
  • The fusion battery needs to be charged only once in the final sequence.
• Large amounts of small fixes in level geometry collision and Terminus enemies getting stuck in some areas.

PERKS

Note from our Game Director: “In this patch, we are only fixing bugs with existing Perks, but trust me, we are seeing the issues with them. A lot of the Class Perks are not as good as we wanted them to be, and some Perk tree choices are really more efficient than others. With Patch 6, we are planning to massively rework a bunch of lacking Perks to make more builds viable.”

GENERAL FIXES

• Getting kicked out of a session will still grant kicked player XP rewards based on checkpoint completion.
• Exiting the Turret Charging Wheel in the “Termination” Operation is now quicker.
• Improved a few enemies counting for Purge Them All Achievement.
• Fixed a bug where Combat Knife charged attacks would occasionally Heavy Hit every time without charging.
• Fixed a bug where Heavy’s Primary Weapon was not shooting after joining in progress.
• Fixed a bug where party leader could get stuck on a loading screen in rare cases.
• Fixed Hierophant’s damage sensitivity to certain weapons (it can still be damaged by normal weapons, but the damage is reduced).
• Fixed a bug where Heldrake was not taking any damage from shots in rare cases.
• Fixed a bug where Heldrake could be knocked off its pedestal by shots from an under-barrel Grenade Launcher.
• Fixed a bug where Imurah would not take any damage from shots in the final mission in rare cases.
• Fixed a rare bug where players were shown a long black screen instead of death screen in PvP.
• Fixed a bug where players could not see each other’s customisation in rare cases.
• Fixed a bug where the Neo-Volkite Pistol would deal damage further than its actual visual FX.
• Fixed a bug where enemies were able to pierce Block stance with double attack.
• Fixed a bug with Bulwark’s Armour of Contempt Perk not triggering correctly and dealing friendly fire.
• Fixed an issue where the Neo-Volkite Pistol would sometimes trigger a chain of explosions and cause performance issues.
• Fixed a rare bug with Vanguard’s Zone of Impact Perk not triggering correctly.
• Fixed Perks that grant player immunity to Heavy Hits and Knockback during charging melee attacks not working with charged attacks unlocked via Weapons Perks.
• Combat Knife charged attack buffs from other Perks (e.g., Sniper’s Shadow Stab) are now correctly applied on both damage instances.
• Large number of minor fixes in Perks, how they stack, and how they trigger in rare cases.
• Minor UI fixes and improvements.
• Localisation fixes.

TECH

Added: PS5 PRO Enhancements:

Quality mode

Performance Mode

Added: FSR 3 / DLSS 3: Support of “Frame Generation” component for DLSS and FSR. For more details about FSR and DLSS, check our FAQ.

• Crash fixes and general stability improvements.
• General connectivity improvements.
• Slightly improved performance.
• Slightly improved texture streaming speed.
• Improved Anti-Cheat.

MOD SUPPORT Please note that starting from 5.0 update, mods will no longer be supported in public lobbies.

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.

Geralt voice actor Doug Cockle has revealed he “got slapped” by CD Projekt for saying the character is set to appear in The Witcher 4 but not as the main character.

In an interview with Geektown at MCM Comic Con Birmingham, Cockle walked back comments he made in August in a Fall Damage video. Here’s what he said at the time:

“Witcher 4 has been announced. I can’t say anything about it. What we know is that Geralt will be part of the game, we just don’t know how much, and the game won’t focus on Geralt. So it’s not about him this time. We don’t know who it’s about. I’m excited to find out. I want to know! I have not seen any script yet — I mean, I couldn’t tell you if I did. This is the thing, so I could be lying through my teeth. But I’m not. Or am I?”

CD Projekt had long made clear that Geralt’s saga had come to an end, meaning a new protagonist was fully expected for Polaris, but this was the first confirmation he’d be in the next game at all — and fueled some rampant fan theories.

Only a single teaser image, below, has otherwise been revealed for The Witcher 4, but it was enough to suggest Ciri will be the protagonist this time around. What’s considered the “true” ending of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt, thanks to its story being continued in canon comics, sees her become a witcher herself.

I’m not new to the hero shooter genre, having pumped well over 1,000 hours into Overwatch since its 2016 release. And it’s hard not to feel like 2016 is exactly when Marvel Rivals was meant to be a thing. I should’ve been eagerly awaiting its launch while mourning the loss of Harambe, witnessing a low point in English football at the hands of Iceland, and, crucially, riding the high of watching Captain America: Civil War. That said, what we’re getting in 2024 is a very fun hero shooter that I’ve had a great time with thanks to a chunky roster of varied heroes, as well as some solid maps and modes. What remains to be seen, however, is whether Rivals will find a fervent fanbase like both Blizzard and Marvel did all those years ago – a task most hero shooters have struggled with recently. But with a high level of care in each of its comic book characters, exciting combat for all skill levels, and a relatively generous free-to-play model, Rivals is doing all it can to buck that trend.

Imitation is the most sincere form of flattery – just ask Taskmaster – and it’s not out of line to say the footprints of Overwatch really can be seen everywhere you step in Marvel Rivals. Its 6v6 ensembles of tank, damage, and support equivalent classes (here called Vanguard, Duelist, and Strategist, respectively) battle it out in the familiar escort and point capture modes that have become hero shooter staples. You’ll either be pushing Marvel-themed payloads through familiar locales like Wakanda, preventing them from reaching their destination, or battling for possession of a contested zone in the centre of the map. There’s no reinvention of the wheel going on here, but these are battle-tested tug-of-war modes that act as an effective vehicle for Rivals’ superpowered action.

Look, I know I’m banging on a lot about Overwatch here in a Marvel Rivals review, but it doesn’t take more than a match to see why for yourself. Even its menus and UI bear a resemblance to Blizzard’s hero shooter as uncanny as the X-Men. But while not being the most original, it’s hard to bemoan some of the hero designs, seeing as many are simply following fun archetypes with roots stretching all the way back to Team Fortress 2. It’s also really nice to see superhero character designs that understand and embrace their comic book origins, rather than the Suicide Squad approach of handing everyone assault rifles.

And what seems like simple imitation at first can sometimes reveal itself to be more inspired beneath the surface. Psylocke’s mutated mixture of up-close and ranged damage options are flashy and fun, as is healer/DPS hybrid Cloak & Dagger’s shapeshifting suite of tricks, and Loki’s complex decoy-centered systems are a challenge to manage on the battlefield. It’s pretty impressive to launch with a roster as large as 33 and for very few, if any, to feel completely redundant, with a good mix of faces seen from match to match. Yes, some feel a little too powerful – Venom, Moon Knight, Scarlet Witch, here’s looking at you, kids – but this is far from an unfixable situation and something I assume will become more balanced in time.

While none are completely redundant picks, melee fighters can get lost in the action a bit as it’s sometimes hard to see where damage is coming from, especially if an unrelenting Iron Fist is battering you from all angles. This doesn’t make for the most tactical of battles as noise and colour flood the screen while in the thick of it. In fact, I’ve not enjoyed many of the tanky Vanguard heroes I’ve tried out yet as they largely rely on getting stuck in. They each play more like DPS heroes with bigger health bars, rather than valuable anchors that help the team secure a point. It’s early days, but so far there appears to be a lack of emphasis placed on positioning and map awareness in general, instead putting the focus on taking enemies head first. On the whole, that means Vanguards are a collection of painfully slow-moving targets that can deal damage, but act just as effectively as giant damage sponge distractions.

Thankfully, the majority of the roster plays much better. I’ve been having a great time with Punisher’s chattering turret that rips through enemies, Winter Soldier’s hard-hitting hand cannon and close-quarters cybernetic arm which prove a deadly duo, and Hawkeye’s signature bow and arrow toolkit, complete with a highly satisfying headshot pinging sound effect. I’ve also been enjoying dashing around as Star-Lord, who is essentially a fusion of Overwatch’s Tracer and Soldier 76. He’s an exciting glass cannon thanks to his stripped-down moveset of dual SMGs and a speed boost coupled with a small health bar.

Developer NetEase has a few other nifty tricks up its sleeve to make Rivals play just a little differently to hero shooters that have come before. Chief among those are team-up abilities. For example, when Star-Lord is paired with Adam Warlock, he’s granted a self-revive on a long cooldown. These passive and active combos are a clever twist, and so far feel nicely balanced between being momentum shifters when used correctly without becoming complete game-changers that make you feel like a slave to them when choosing heroes (or villains) at the start of a match. Other examples include picking Rocket Racoon when your team has a Groot, which allows for the mouthy rodent to (literally) add bark to his bite as he hops on his tree friend’s back and rains fire down from there, granting him incoming damage reduction. It encourages smart team construction without leaving characters behind or feeling guilt-tripped by others for not matching their incessant requests to team up.

Add these synergistic systems to the much-appreciated lack of stun lock abilities, and Marvel Rivals really sings when the wheels are in motion. This is a hero shooter that wants you to liberally use the powers it grants, with barriers (both in a literal and metaphorical sense) coming at a premium. I was skeptical of the third-person gunplay at first, as traditionally I much prefer to be firing from a first-person perspective, but Rivals does a good job of keeping each weapon feeling distinct from one another and satisfying to wield. It may appear approachable, but the skill ceiling definitely seems high here, with a surprisingly steep learning curve for newcomers as you pick between characters with over half a dozen abilities to juggle.

There’s no place to hide, or help the team in a less combative sense either, with one-on-one skirmishes taking precedence over actual team play right now. Rarely has a win felt like a team effort – instead, more frequently the results are decided purely by who deals the most damage. So far it seems like every character is expected to get stuck into the killing too, including “healers.” This means there’s never a dull moment, but also that Rivals leaves a little to be desired tactically at this stage. But as the community gets to grips with its maps and characters, hopefully some real tactics and character combos start to emerge. A lack of role queue clearly contributes to this, with teams often comprised of four to six Duelists. While that lack of restriction freeing and allows for flexibility, the Wild West approach does mean you’re relying on teammates to be smart with their team composition, which can be asking a lot. Rarely are tense overtime battles between two balanced sides seen, with clear victories a likelier outcome.

Another step towards innovation can be seen in the destructible environments of the maps you’ll be battling on. Whether that’s the sci-fi walls of Tokyo 2099 caving in to unveil new sniping spots or the stone bridges of Yggsgard crumbling down to remove an enemy’s position of strength, it’s a smart approach to map design – one that allows for choke points to be circumnavigated in interesting ways, keeping each round feeling dynamic compared to the last. The destruction is really needed at times as well, because while I enjoy the initial pool of maps, I do wish they were a little more open in their layouts. Currently, some can feel a little claustrophobic due to an overabundance of interior corridors and choke points, especially in the payload variants.

With just eight maps at launch, the sense of dynamism level destruction adds is especially crucial to Rivals’ appeal at the moment. Further contributing to this are random map events. Examples include Wakandan Goddess Mujaji the Life Giver throwing walls of white mist up in certain lanes and doorways, in turn masking your vision and making you rethink your approach on the fly. This live augmentation of arenas is also a smart way to keep the limited pool of maps feeling fresh over extended play sessions. Each level is also visually distinct enough to deliver a genuine sense of variety, and it’s all unequivocally stylish to boot – comic book flourishes such as the frame burst animation of Star-Lords’s blaster barrage ability or Banner’s transformation into Hulk really stand out.

I also like the option to view each player’s individual highlights after the match has ended. Although some of the glory of forcing the whole lobby to view your “Play of the Game” A Clockwork Orange-style is lost, it does make sure everyone gets a share of the limelight (even if I do not-so-secretly want all of it myself after getting a quadruple kill). The whole package is impressively constructed, looks glossy, and feels good to play. It’s confident in its own identity enough to be able to shake off the rip-off label, even if it also never displays the sort of ambition that something like Valve’s Deadlock is bringing to the hero shooter-come-MOBA party in 2024. It does, though, have the money-spinning Marvel license and free-to-play model behind it to hopefully avoid a Concord-like disaster.

That model is supported by microtransactions that are entirely optional to fully enjoy Rivals’ action. I’ve already seen many different custom looks being shown off in matches, with some desirable ones based on fan-favorite comic books and movies coming up with regularity. I’m not saying the developers deliberately made the base Wolverine skin look like a hairy block of cheese to make you want to pay to have him look like Hugh Jackman, but that option is there. Cosmetics currency can be earned through completing in-game challenges and in turn exchanging it for another currency on the battle pass, but at a snail’s pace, meaning if you really want to switch up your look, you’re realistically going to have to pay for it.

Considering the rest of Rivals is completely free to play, I’ll hold off on the cynicism slightly when it comes to this. Sure, the skins are expensive – coming in at around $15/£15 a pop using a premium currency – but nothing out of the ordinary when compared to competitors like Overwatch and Call of Duty. And at least it’s all cosmetics, with every hero unlocked right from the start. This is a huge plus and let’s hope it stays that way as Rivals relies on the fun of its action to keep us interested on a seasonal basis.

Rocksteady is pulling the plug on new content for Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League after Season 4, with the developer announcing its plans to end support for the troubled online game in January 2025.

Rocksteady revealed the news in an official blog detailing Suicide Squad’s final season, which will include the release of an offline mode and a new playable character in Deathstroke. While Rocksteady doesn’t plan to release any new content, Suicide Squad’s story will remain playable via offline mode and it will be possible to play co-op with friends. Previous seasonal content will also continue to be available.

Elsewhere, Rocksteady said Suicide Squad will remain available for purchase and that its in-game store will continue to function after Season 4 along with its in-game LutherCoin currency. Rocksteady didn’t indicate how long it plans to keep Suicide Squad online after it finishes releasing new content.

A difficult release for Suicide Squad

Suicide Squad Season 4 will mark the end of what has been a fraught release for Rocksteady. It struggled with mixed reviews when it came out back in February and never really recovered its momentum. We wrote in at the time, “Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League is a thoroughly frustrating game to play. There are things to enjoy here, with combat that’s snappy enough to carry it through a genuinely good DC comics story artfully dressed in high production values. But everything else just falls down around it.”

Suicide Squad ended up struggling on the sales front, spurring a double-digit decline in revenue for Warner Bros. gaming. It joins several other online games that have struggled in 2024, including Concord and XDefiant.

Suicide Squad’s final season will begin with the release of Episode 7 on December 10 and will conclude with the release of Episode 8 next month. For more, check out our full explanation of Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League’s endgame.

Kat Bailey is IGN’s News Director as well as co-host of Nintendo Voice Chat. Have a tip? Send her a DM at @the_katbot.

2K has announced two of its big hitters are set for fresh reveals at this week’s The Game Awards: Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country.

“Who’s ready to get their first look at the most ambitious Borderlands yet?!” reads the tweet from the Borderlands account.

Prepare yourselves! We’re about to crank things up to the next fucking level at #TheGameAwards.

Who’s ready to get their first look at the most ambitious Borderlands yet?! pic.twitter.com/u7SJ2K2MPZ

— Borderlands (@Borderlands) December 9, 2024

“See you at @thegameawards!” reads the tweet from the Mafia account.

See you at @thegameawards! #MafiaTheOldCountry #TheGameAwards pic.twitter.com/0RVfkJLpx0

— Mafia Game (@mafiagame) December 9, 2024

Gearbox development chief Randy Pitchford tweeted to hype up the Borderlands 4 trailer, which he said includes gameplay. He added that he will also share an original cinematic sequence depicting a moment that occurs about halfway between the end of Borderlands 3 and the beginning of Borderlands 4.

Both Borderlands 4 and Mafia: The Old Country are due out at some point in 2025, potentially running up against the behemoth that is Grand Theft Auto 6. Last month, Rockstar and 2K parent company Take-Two insisted GTA 6 was still on course for launch during fall 2025, despite ongoing speculation that Rockstar may delay the game into 2026. 2K is set to release Borderlands 4 during the same fiscal year (at some point between April 1, 2025 and March 31, 2026).

Is there a danger, then, that GTA 6 will eat Borderlands 4’s lunch? Not so, according to Take-Two boss Strauss Zelnick. Speaking to Variety, Zelnick said that while he couldn’t offer a release date for GTA 6, the guaranteed megahit won’t cross paths with Borderlands 4. “I think it’s safe to say that we wouldn’t, and no one would, stack up huge releases unnecessarily,” Zelnick said.

What does this mean for Borderlands 4’s release date? Well, in order for it to get out of the way of GTA 6 (assuming GTA 6 does indeed release fall 2025), and to fit in with the next fiscal year, it would either have to launch in the April to June 2025 quarter or the January to March 2026 quarter.

GTA 6 will probably be the biggest video game launch of all time, so no other game is safe from its gravitational pull. Even the might of Call of Duty, set to launch yet another premium iteration around October or November 2025, will be sorely tested by GTA 6.

The Game Awards 2024 is set for December 12.

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.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be over, but there are still some seasonal sale surprises available for Xbox fans. Woot’s currently offering a phenomenal deal to first-time Woot customers on Xbox Game Pass Ultimate where you can get three months for just $28.99 with the code ‘GAMEPASS’. With this, you can jump into exciting new releases like Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (which we gave a 9/10).

According to Woot, this deal only lasts for five more days or until its sold out, so act fast to sign up and save some cash. You can learn more about that deal, what’s coming soon to Game Pass, and the big releases still to come below.

Navigate to:

• Best Xbox Game Pass Deals
• What’s Coming Soon to Xbox Game Pass?
• What Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass?
• Biggest Games Releasing on Xbox Game Pass

Best Xbox Game Pass Deals

Woot has come through once again with our favorite Xbox Game Pass Ultimate deal. For a limited time, first-time Woot customers can get three months of the service for just $28.99 by using the code ‘GAMEPASS’ at checkout. However, it’s worth noting it allows just one coupon per user. If you’re not a first-time Woot customer, you can still get the three months at a discounted price of $33.99.

Considering the new price of Game Pass Ultimate is $19.99/month, you’re saving $30.98 with this three-month deal. This is the best way to avoid the Xbox Game Pass price hike. By stacking these codes you can set yourself up for success to play all of Xbox’s upcoming releases at a lower price.

What’s Coming Soon to Xbox Game Pass?

Game Pass has a nice rotation of new titles to play every month. If you’re curious about what’s in store for December, we’ve got you covered. The Xbox Game Pass December lineup is:

• Crash Team Racing: Nitro-Fueled (Ultimate, Standard, Core) – December 4
• DayZ (Now with Core) – December 4
• Goat Simulator (Now with Core) – December 4
• Forza Motorsport (Now with Standard) – December 4
• Hauntii (Now with Standard) – December 4
• Humanity (Now with Standard) December 4
• EA Sports WRC (Ultimate, PC) – December 5
• Overthrown (Ultimate, PC) – December 5
• Indiana Jones and the Great Circle (Ultimate, PC) – December 9
• Wildfrost (Ultimate, PC) – December 10
• Carrion (Ultimate, PC, Standard) – January 2
• Road 96 (Ultimate, PC, Stnadard) – January 7

Unfortunately, for those subscribing to the new Standard tier (available for $14.99/month), this does not give Game Pass users access to day one releases. This means big new releases on the platform like Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 will not be available on that tier.

What Games Are Leaving Xbox Game Pass?

Unfortunately with new games joining the catalog it means a few must take their leave. Below, we’ve listed the games that’ll be leaving Xbox Game Pass in December.

• Amnesia: The Bunker
• Forager
• Forza Horizon 4
• The Quarry
• Tin Hearts
• Rainbow Billy: The Curse of the Leviathan
• Rise of the Tomb Raider

Biggest Games Releasing on Xbox Game Pass

Xbox’s Summer Showcase back in June was a massive success, showcasing an incredible amount of new titles coming to the platform. Alongside Black Ops 6, the showcase also included Doom: The Dark Ages, Perfect Dark, Fable, Gears of War: E-Day, Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, and so many more. But which of these titles will appear as day-one releases on Game Pass? Thankfully, quite a few! Including all of the previously mentioned titles.

The latest big release this month is Indiana Jones and the Great Circle, which we gave a 9/10 in our review. IGN’s Luke Reilly said, “With a host of gorgeous and lavishly detailed levels, satisfying combat hinged on jawbreaking haymakers, and a focus on slow-paced exploration, platforming, and puzzle solving (interspersed with a handful of high-voltage action scenes), The Great Circle is an irresistible and immersive global treasure hunt for Indy fans who’ve felt underserved by the likes of The Dial of Destiny and Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.”

If you’re looking for even more savings on all things Xbox, have a look at our roundup of the best Xbox deals. There, we’ve highlighted all of the latest and greatest discounts on the platform, from incredible game deals to fantastic offers on high-quality headphones. Or, if you’d rather see what’s going on with other platforms, check out our roundups of the best PlayStation deals, the best Nintendo Switch deals, and our overall roundup of the best video game deals.

Hannah Hoolihan is a freelance writer who works with the Guides and Commerce teams here at IGN.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday may be behind us, but some retailers have a few deals left up their sleeves before the holidays. Amazon, in particular, has a great offer right now. If Helldivers 2 was on your radar during the sale event, the PS5 version is currently down to just $24.99 for Prime Members.

That’s $5 lower than the $29.99 price it dropped to during Black Friday, and $15 off its original price. With a deal like that, there’s no better time to join the fight for Super Earth. For Democracy!

Path of Exile 2 developer Grinding Gear Games has already identified a number of skills it plans to nerf following the action RPG’s explosive Early Access launch.

Just a day after Path of Exile 2 launched to huge concurrent player numbers on Steam, GGG tweeted to say it had “finally hit that point where a skill with unacceptable balance has been discovered.” The skill in question is Supercharged Slam, which GGG said is dealing “far too much damage than was intended given the short channel window required to hit maximum stages.”

The developer reduced its damage via a hotfix soon after issuing the tweet. “As much as we are trying to avoid nerfing skills and builds, it is better to do this early before it feels obligatory to use the skill,” GGG explained. “It is important that a wide variety of skills feel viable and fun to play and it simply diminishes all other abilities when one is clearly outshining the others like this.” Another nerf is set for Supercharged Slam to adjust how long it takes to build up charges, “as it is far too quick at the moment.”

Then, on December 8, GGG said it had found another skill in an “unacceptable” balance state: Magnetic Salvo. Path of Exile 2’s next hotfix reduces its damage. “Note that this isn’t the only skill on our radar right now but we’re really just trying to address egregious cases at the moment,” GGG said.

“We’re currently playing alongside you all and are also collating a lot of your feedback that we’ll be addressing as much as possible in the upcoming week once the team is back in the office before the holidays.”

And then, on December 9, GGG said it’s “a bit too easy” to detonate Gas Cloud explosions when combined with persistent Ignite skills like Flame Wall. Yet another upcoming hotfix will nerf explosion damage of both Gas Grenade and Gas Arrow.

“In the future, we want to update it such that the potency of the Ignite or Detonator contributes to determining the damage of the Gas Cloud explosions, that way we would be able to avoid balancing around the simplest and most efficient way to apply Ignites,” GGG explained.

Path of Exile 2 is GGG’s action role-playing sequel set years after the original game. Players return to the world of Wraeclast and seek to end a spreading corruption, with six character classes, each with two Ascendancy Classes, available to play at the launch of Early Access. There’s co-op for up to six players, but you can play solo.

It launched across PC via Steam, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X and S on December 6 and immediately ran into server issues that prevented players from logging in. GGG had warned players that Path of Exile 2 might struggle with the influx of players at launch, and so it proved. But over the course of Friday and into the weekend, the New Zealand developer began to get on top of the problems, and its concurrent player count on Steam shot up.

Here’s which class to pick in PoE 2 Early Access, plus an early Mercenary build guide and Sorceress build guide to help you get started. Beyond that, if you’re wondering how to get more Spirit, how to trade, and how to ascend, we’ve got you covered.

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.