Category: IGN

As the king of the monsters celebrates its 69th birthday, we take a look at every time Godzilla ever made an appearance in a game, from humble beginnings on the Commodore C64 in the early Eighties to the pinnacle of monster mayhem, Destroy All Monsters Melee on the Nintendo 64. How many do you remember?

Godzilla

C64, 1983

Completely unrelated to Toho, Godzilla on Commodore 64 is a well thought-out strategy game where Godzilla is attacking from the ocean, and you have to stop him before he destroys Tokyo. Use a nuke to destroy him, but not when he’s too close to the city.

Godzilla & the Martians

ZX Spectrum, 1984

Beyond the title, this game doesn’t seem to have any relation to Godzilla. The instruction manual says, “The Martians have invaded, destroying the molecular structure of Earth’s atmosphere to make it compatible with their own planet. “The girl of your dreams” is trapped at the top of a building site but for the moment protected from the evil invaders by a friendly dinosaur!” Sounds like a Mario clone!

Today at BlizzCon, Blizzard announced that the upcoming tenth, eleventh, and twelfth expansions to its ongoing popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, all three of which will be contained in a larger narrative called World of Warcraft: The Worldsoul Saga. The first of these will be entitled World of Warcraft: The War Within, and it’s coming next year.

During the keynote, Blizzard brought out WoW legend Chris Metzen, who recently returned as executive creative director of the Warcraft franchise, to announce the update. He called the expansion “the culmination of the first 20 years of our storytelling” that will “vector us into the next 20 years of adventure.” And boy, did what he announce sound massive, with Metzen unveiling an almost MCU-like setup for the coming years of World of Warcraft.

The tenth expansion and the first in the Worldsoul Saga, The War Within, will send adventurers inside Azerioth, to subterranean kingdoms, where Nerubians and an Allied race called the Earthen Dwarves await. We got the most details on The War Within, such as the promised return of former talking knife Xal’atath, new zones like Azj-kahet, Isle of Dorn, The Ringing Deeps, and Hallowfall, a new treasure hunting adventure activity called Delves, a community feature called War Bands, and new dungeons and raids.

The other two expansions had fewer details, but that’s fine for now as they’re both farther off. Expansion 11 is entitled simply World of Warcraft: Midnight, and will take place in Azeroth’s “Old World” in Quel’thalas, where Void forces have invaded and are trying to destroy the Sunwell and plunge the world into darkness. And the third part of the Worldsoul Saga, and WoW’s 12th expansion, will be called World of Warcraft: The Last Titan. It also takes place in the Old World, but in Northrend, previously the staging ground for Wrath of the Lich King. In this expansion, the titans return to Azeroth, and players “uncover a vast conspiracy” about the Titans and their intentions.

There are more details expected later at BlizzCon, but we did get one more taste of what’s to come in a gorgeous new cinematic featuring Anduin and Thrall discussing recent visions and a strange voice calling to them, before finally addressing the literal giant sword in the room: yes, the giant sword that Sargeras plunged into Azeroth at the end of the Legion expansion is finally getting dealt with. Anduin and Thrall note that the sword was clearly aimed at something…hinting at the adventure to come.

The current expansion, Dragonflight, has been met with enthusiasm from the community, especially in its new dragonriding mount system. Our own reviewer gave the expansion a 7/10 at its initial launch, calling it “a sharply-written and breathtaking experience for the first few dozen hours, but suffers from somewhat threadbare endgame options.” Notably, subsequent patches since have expanded that endgame. Patch 10.2, Guardians of the Emerald Dream, is planned to drop next week and will include a new raid, a new zone, and numerous new quests, items, events, and other updates.

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

Today at Blizzcon, Blizzard teased an upcoming expansion to Diablo 4: Vessel of Hatred, which will include a brand new, never-seen-before in Diablo class. It’s coming in late 2024.

We didn’t get too many details about Vessel of Hatred beyond that, though we did learn it will take place in Diablo 2 region Nahantu, and will concern the fate of Mephisto and his plans for Sanctuary.

There will be no salvation in the light.

The #VesselofHatred expansion comes to #DiabloIV in late 2024 🐺 pic.twitter.com/OQQ3ZZU9HU

— Diablo (@Diablo) November 3, 2023

Diablo 4 has been on a roll lately, with a successful season of vampire-themed content in Season of Blood. We’ve loved the game since launch, giving it a 9/10 and calling it a “stunning sequel with near perfect endgame and progression design that makes it absolutely excruciating to put down.” Its most recent patch, 1.2.1, made respecs a lot easier for players. Meanwhile, players are still hard at work trying to solve the mystery of the game’s secret Cow Level.

Developing…

As part of its early Black Friday Sale event, Walmart is offering the Xbox Series X Diablo 4 console bundle bundled with a second Xbox Core Wireless Controller in Shock Blue for only $519.00. The bundle by itself without the controller normally retails for $559, so you’re saving an extra $40 and getting a free controller.

Xbox Series X Diablo 4 Bundle with 2nd Controller for $519

The Xbox Series X is a current generation system able to drive 4K games at up to a glorious 120fps. It is technically a more powerful system than the PS5 and games that are compatible with both consoles usually perform better on the Xbox console. Compared to the $300 Xbox Series S, the X features more powerful hardware to enable it to run games in 4K (the Xbox Series S runs games at 1440p). The Xbox Series X also has a disc drive that can play 4K Blu-ray movies and physical game media. The Series S doesn’t.

This is a great time to get started on Diablo 4 because Season 2, Season of Blood, launched in mid October. After you hit your level cap and max out your gear, expect a host of new additions like the Battle Pass to keep you occupied for hours and hours to come. This bundle does come with a DLC freebie in the guise of horse armor. It’s just a cosmetic item, but hey it’s free. Diablo 4 itself as an incredible game. IGN gave it a pretty glowing review and I fully agree with the score.

Fortnite has seen a huge surge in players with the launch of its OG update that brings back the original battle royale map.

According to unofficial but reliable stat website Fortnite.GG, Fortnite has a 24 hour peak of 3.9 million concurrent players, compared to the roughly two million concurrent players it held for most of September and October.

Its previous highest peak arrived alongside Chapter 4 Season 4 in August, but this spike only saw concurrent player numbers rise to 2.8 million.

The OG update arrived November 2 and let players return to the beloved Fortnite map that revolutionised battle royale games and perhaps video games as a whole. This means players can once again visit locations such as Tilted Towers, Paradise Palms, Salty Springs, and more. The movement evolutions Fortnite has made since Chapter 1, like sprinting and mantling, remain.

Publisher Epic Games returning to Fortnite’s roots, when the game was at its peak of popularity, perhaps isn’t surprising given the company’s recent financial struggles that forced it to lay off 830 employees.

CEO Tim Sweeney even admitted in an internal memo that, “while Fortnite is starting to grow again, the growth is driven primarily by creator content with significant revenue sharing, and this is a lower margin business than we had when Fortnite Battle Royale took off and began funding our expansion.”

Fortnite’s OG update will last as long as the current season, which generally runs for around 50 to 70 days. The original map will presumably be removed from the game when the season ends, though Epic may reconsider given the renewed popularity. IGN has asked the publisher for comment.

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

The Nintendo Switch eShop news channel has gone live early with the reveal of Overwatch 2’s next hero just hours before the start of BlizzCon.

Polygon and redditors reported the eShop spilled the beans on Mauga, Overwatch 2’s next tank hero, who joins the roster of playable characters alongside Season 8 on December 5 following a sneak peek trial this weekend.

Blizzard is expected to officially announce Mauga during BlizzCon, which kicks off today. Check out IGN’s guide on how to watch BlizzCon 2023 for more.

Counter-Strike 2 has received a much-needed update with the arrival of custom maps.

“The Maps workshop is now open for business,” developer Valve declared in a post on the Counter-Strike website.

“Community map makers can start uploading their maps to the workshop, and community servers can host those maps,” Valve added. “If you’d like to try some workshop maps offline, subscribe to them on the workshop and head to the Play menu.

“There are a bunch of other workshop tool updates today, along with a host of other fixes and adjustments to CS2. Check out the notes, play some matches, and keep that feedback coming!”

Fans have welcomed the news for a number of reasons, chief among them because custom maps are great for training. CS2’s predecessor, CS:GO, had a few useful maps for aim training and learning how to pre-fire, learn smokes, and spots to peek on certain maps, but those maps were inaccessible when CS2 replaced CS:GO in September. And already community map makers have worked their magic, with an aim training custom map going live less than 24 hours after the update launched.

Here are the Counter-Strike 2 November 2 patch notes in full:

[ WORKSHOP ]

• Enabled uploading CS2 maps to the workshop
• Community Servers can host workshop maps
• Added paint metalness and roughness by color features to Solid Color, Hydrographic, and Spray-Paint finishes in the Item Editor
• Added option to toggle “Automatic PBR Color Correction” to all sticker types in Item Editor
• Various Item Editor help system updates including “mat_fullbright 10” to test PBR
• Various updates to workshop tools

[ GAMEPLAY ]

• Fixed a case where user commands would be ignored in poor network conditions
• Fixed a case where weapons would fire faster than intended
• Fixed a case where clients would show multiple gunshots for one actual shot
• Fixed a case where players would fail to keep their weapons between rounds of overtime
• Fixed some instances of dropped weapons falling out of the gameplay space
• In firstperson, dead players will now see their own ragdoll at the server-authoritative lag-compensated position of their demise
• Decoy grenades interact aesthetically with smoke clouds
• Smoke grenades now have a minimum fuse duration to prevent smokes from prematurely detonating if stuck in crevices
• Players now ignore individual damage events dealing less than one point of damage
• Knife attacks will now prioritize enemies and will only hit teammates if there are no enemies in range
• Knife attacks no longer predict damage effects or sounds on the client
• Knife attack immediately after switching to a knife will always deal full damage amount
• For a given map location, eye height is now consistent regardless of how the player arrived

[ MAPS ]

• INFERNO
  • Fixed clipping in various areas
  • Fixed various microgaps
  • Fixed disappearing meshes in skybox
  • Removed birds that got mistaken for grenades

[ SERVERS ]

• Added sv_maxuptimelimit setting to request server shutdown after certain number of uptime hours.
• Support -sv_maxuptimelimit command line parameter to randomly select uptime limit per instance within a range, e.g. “-sv_maxuptimelimit 48-72” command line parameter will request game server instance to self-shutdown somewhere between 48 and 72 hours by issuing “sv_shutdown” command on the game server.
• Added game server startup timing log records.
• Game servers will now print global chat messages when players acknowledge newly acquired items while connected to the game server.
• Fixed a bug showing 100% packet loss immediately after connection
• Fixed a bug where scoreboard ping could get stuck at a value lower than the real ping

[ MISC ]

• Improved rendering of stickers
• Added wins and wins-needed to Competitive Play Menu map tiles
• Fixed various minor HUD bugs
• Fixed various skins and sticker bugs
• Fixed various bugs with item inspection UI
• Fixed a skinning issue with Trapper Aggressor agent’s legs
• Improved performance of player animations on client and server
• Smoke grenade canister changed to chrome material
• “Boost Player Contrast” no longer applies to dead players
• Adjusted microphone voice threshold value

Counter-Strike 2 launched in September and replaced the 11-year-old Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, upsetting some within the community who compared the move to Blizzard’s controversial decision to replace Overwatch with Overwatch 2. Counter-Strike 2 currently has a ‘mixed’ user review rating of 63% on Steam for recent reviews. All reviews are ‘very positive’, but they include reviews for Global Offensive.

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.

Yakuza spin-off Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name was originally planned as a downloadable expansion and only took around six months to develop.

Speaking to Automaton, Like a Dragon Gaiden writer Masayoshi Yokoyama revealed the idea emerged as just an interlude in full sequel Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Like a Dragon/Yakuza 8) before spiralling into its own game.

“There isn’t a huge difference between Like a Dragon Gaiden and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth,” Yokoyama said. “By this I mean that, in a sense, Like a Dragon Gaiden was derived from Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth.

“We could have just told of Kiryu’s past through a 30-minute interlude as part of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, but we decided it would be a lot more interesting as a game of its own, which is how the project came to be. Though this meant having a whole extra game to make, it still uses the same engine, so we thought, ‘It’s not like we have to make it from scratch,’ and decided to go with it. In the end, it took us about half a year to make it.”

Like a Dragon Gaiden will reveal what former series protagonist Kiryu Kazuma has been up to since the series switched away from him in Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Yakuza 7). Kiryu returns as a dual protagonist in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth (Yakuza 8), so Gaiden will serve as a side story taking place during but away from the events of Yakuza: Like a Dragon. If that’s not confusing enough, you can read about why developer RGG Studio renamed the series from Yakuza to Like a Dragon alongside its even more complicated naming conventions for Infinite Wealth.

Yokoyama continued: “I’m the one who first went: ‘Let’s make it.’ I said: ‘If you’re going to make an episode about Kiryu’s past, it’s going to be much quicker to make a game about it.’ From there on, we first considered making it as DLC, but then decided it was engaging enough for a physical edition. But, for a physical edition, we needed more content, so we decided to add some. This is how things escalated.”

Like a Dragon Gaiden won’t actually receive a physical edition in the west, just in Japan, but Yokoyama is essentially referring to its release as a full game here (though it will launch on November 9 at $49.99 instead of the standard $69.99).

Tying the two together even further, Like a Dragon Gaiden will also come with a special trial version of the next full release, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, ahead of its launch on January 26. The spin-off won’t launch with an English dubbed version, however, meaning players will have to play with Japanese audio and English subtitles.

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

The PlayStation 5 version of Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 does not currently have a platinum trophy, sparking concern about the structure of its launch.

The PS5 version’s trophy list appears connected to last year’s Modern Warfare 2, which seems to have been restructured to act as a hub called Call of Duty HQ.

Baldur’s Gate 3 developer Larian might just have patched sex speedruns out of the game.

Larian’s sprawling Dungeons and Dragons role-playing game has spawned a vociferous Sex% speedrun category in which players try to bed a companion in the quickest time possible. The current world record, set by speedrunner Mae just two weeks ago, comes in at under two minutes, and uses the established strategy of gaining enough early approval with Githyanki fighter Lae’zel that she agrees to spend the night.

Lae’zel is (was!) the perfect companion for this strategy because she was relatively easy to impress right at the start of the game by bullying a Tiefling in Silvanus’ Grove, and area players could leapfrog huge swathes of Baldur’s Gate 3’s opening section to get to in just a minute (check out our Lae’zel romance guide for more).

But the enormously long patch notes for Baldur’s Gate 3 Patch 4 revealed a key change that makes Lae’zel harder to charm: “For Lae’zel to decide to romance you, you no longer only need to gain high enough approval from her. You must also have proven yourself worthy through your actions.”

As the Baldur’s Gate 3 speedrunning community scrambles to work out what these “worthy” actions are, observers have said the Sex% category may never be the same again, and may even split off into categories specific to certain companions (fastest to bear sex seems inevitable). “Sex% speedruns in shambles,” declared redditor Monk-Ey.

It’s early days in terms of reaction, but record-holder Mae has already had a bit of fun in a YouTube video. “Rest in peace to the funniest category ever (we’ll probably make a new leaderboard for Patch 4).” Then, in a community post, Mae said: “It is with immeasurable disappointment that I announce that Sex% speedruns have been patched out of Baldur’s Gate 3… it’s been real, boys.”

In IGN’s review of Baldur’s Gate 3, which returned a 10/10, we said: “With crunchy, tactical RPG combat, a memorable story with complex characters, highly polished cinematic presentation, and a world that always rewards exploration and creativity, Baldur’s Gate 3 is the new high-water mark for CRPGs.”

For more, check out IGN’s comprehensive Baldur’s Gate 3 walkthrough.

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.