Category: IGN

Microsoft’s long-running pursuit of Activision Blizzard looks set to come to an end today after the UK finally cleared the deal and stock in the Call of Duty maker was halted.

In April, the UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) announced its “Final Report” on the acquisition, citing competition concerns around cloud gaming in the UK. Since then, Microsoft has defeated the U.S.’s Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in court, obtained approval from key regulator the European Commission, and secured an agreement with console rival Sony for the provision of Activision games on PlayStation for a decade.

In August, Microsoft submitted a new Activision Blizzard deal for review to the CMA that involves selling off Activision’s cloud gaming rights to Assassin’s Creed maker Ubisoft, which would be free to port cloud versions of Activision Blizzard games to any platform.

Now, the CMA said it had cleared the tweaked $69 billion deal — the largest in tech history — for Microsoft to buy Activision. The CMA framed its decision as a victory for the preservation of competitive prices and better services in cloud gaming. “In August this year Microsoft made a concession that would see Ubisoft, instead of Microsoft, buy Activision’s cloud gaming rights,” the CMA said. “This new deal will put the cloud streaming rights (outside the EEA) for all of Activision’s PC and console content produced over the next 15 years in the hands of a strong and independent competitor with ambitious plans to offer new ways of accessing that content.

“The new deal will stop Microsoft from locking up competition in cloud gaming as this market takes off, preserving competitive prices and services for UK cloud gaming customers. It will allow Ubisoft to offer Activision’s content under any business model, including through multigame subscription services. It will also help to ensure that cloud gaming providers will be able to use non-Windows operating systems for Activision content, reducing costs and increasing efficiency.”

Brad Smith, Vice Chair and President, Microsoft, said: “We’re grateful for the CMA’s thorough review and decision today. We have now crossed the final regulatory hurdle to close this acquisition, which we believe will benefit players and the gaming industry worldwide.

Meanwhile, trading in shares in Activision Blizzard were halted on Nasdaq exchanges with the alert “news pending”, suggesting the deal is set to close imminently.

Activision Blizzard boss Bobby Kotick emailed staff to hail the news. “We now have all regulatory approvals necessary to close and we look forward to bringing joy and connection to even more players around the world,” Kotick said.

“Our board chair Brian Kelly and I are incredibly proud of all of you and your accomplishments over the last four decades. We’re excited for our next chapter together with Microsoft and the endless possibilities it creates for you and for our players.”

When the deal closes, Microsoft will own the likes of Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, and Candy Crush. Xbox is expected to add many of Activision Blizzard’s games into its subscription service, Game Pass, although Call of Duty Modern Warfare 3 and Diablo 4 will be held back until next year.

However, the FTC is soldiering on with its attempt to unravel the deal, despite losing its high-profile court case in the summer. The FTC is waiting on a decision on its trial verdict appeal before moving forward with its own in-house trial, although both will come after Microsoft seals the deal.

And in a new development, the FTC filed a submission to re-open discovery in order to gain more information on Microsoft’s cloud gaming divestiture deal with Ubisoft, and its deal with Sony to ensure Call of Duty remains on PlayStation consoles.

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.

CI Games has announced that it is currently working on a patch to bring the Xbox version of Lords of the Fallen up to par with the PC and PlayStation versions.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the content creators who have worked with us to enable the rapid deployment of patches, updates, and performance improvements ahead of tomorrow’s exciting launch of Lords of the Fallen,” the developer said in a statement.

pic.twitter.com/peDZRdoAIM

— LORDS OF THE FALLEN (@lotfgame) October 12, 2023

“As such, PC and PlayStation 5 players will be able to enjoy the game as intended. The Xbox version is currently being updated, bringing it to parity with the other platforms, and the patch will release over the coming days.”

Some players have said that the game suffers from technical issues on Xbox Series X, such as harsh frame rate drops and textures not loading in. It doesn’t seem like other platforms are experiencing these problems as often as Xbox is.

In IGN’s Lords of the Fallen review, we said, “Lords of the Fallen is a great soulslike, and its killer new idea of swapping between two versions of the world to solve puzzles and slay enemies is an excellent twist to set it apart from the pack. That concept is unfortunately hamstrung by numerous, highly annoying technical issues and weak boss fights, but awesome explorable areas and fantastic buildcrafting more than make up for those shortcomings.”

Lords of the Fallen releases on October 13 for PC, PlayStation 5, and Xbox Series X|S

George Yang is a freelance writer for IGN. He’s been writing about the industry since 2019 and has worked with other publications such as Insider, Kotaku, NPR, and Variety.

When not writing about video games, George is playing video games. What a surprise! You can follow him on Twitter @Yinyangfooey

You don’t have to wait any longer: the most essential mod to any Bethesda RPG is here and, as per usual, it will fill your game with Thomas the Tank Engine.

The mod, which is now available for any PC player to download, converts all starships into Thomas the Tank Engine, complete with those lidless, dead eyes we know and love.

If you’re wondering why it took so long for such a critical mod to be brought to life, it’s because the modding community only recently completed most of the work necessary to make modding Starfield much easier, including making it function with the popular Nifskope editor. Meanwhile Bethesda’s own Creation Kit, which the company plans to provide itself next year to make modding easier, is still under development.

Of all the games that players create mods for, none are more popular than Bethesda’s, whose past releases hold all of the top five positions for most mods downloaded for a single game. Even without the Creation Kit, Starfield already enjoys a passionate modding community with over one million mods downloaded for the game so far.

Longtime Bethesda fans will remember the iconic mode from The Elders Scrolls V: Skyrim, which replaced all the scary dragons with far more terrifying trains, but if you haven’t seen it, it’s never too late to download it here. In fact, this meme might be more than a little bit to blame for the recent indie game Choo-Choo Charles.

Travis Northup is a writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @TieGuyTravis and read his games coverage here.

Elden Ring is a massive hit, and while some of that is certainly down to the brilliant world-building, combat, exploration, and the wide variety of approaches and tools for every situation, a huge part of the charm are the characters.

Right now, at the IGN Store, you can preorder mini figures and Nendoroids (respectively) of Melania (the Blade of Miquella, WE KNOW!), Blaidd the Half-Wolf, and Iron Fist Alexander, pick up adorable mini figures of Vargram the Raging Wolf and Melina (your companion who turns your runes into power), and grab a very detailed Festering Fingerprint Vyke from S.H. Figuarts. You won’t want to miss out on these Elden Ring collectibles.

IGN Store: Elden Ring Figures

From the Empyrean who represented the possibility of new godhood, to the shadow of Renna, to the Tarnished who made it the furthest before falling in with the Three Fingers, there are tons of fantastic characters to choose from. Let us know if you want more in the future!

More About IGN Store

IGN Store sells high-quality merch, collectibles, and shirts for everything you’re into. It’s a shop built with fans in mind; for all the geek culture and fandom you love most. So, whether you’re into comics, movies, anime, games (like Elden Ring), retro gaming, or just want some cute plushies (who doesn’t?); this store is for you!

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.

Insomniac Games took its Spider-Man 2 research so seriously even Norman Osborn would be impressed, having actually studied real lizards before creating the baddie for the upcoming sequel.

Revealed in a PlayStation Blog post, Insomniac senior art director Jacinda Chew revealed the team wanted to make every detail of Lizard accurate to his real-life counterparts. Ironically, however, Insomniac found an exact replication (reptile-ication) wouldn’t quite work. Why? Not enough slime.

“We looked at a lot of lizard skin for research,” Chew said. “The thing about lizards in real life, their skin’s actually really dry. Most people who looked at our Lizard kept initially saying: ‘He’s not slimy enough.’ But I think it’s a nod to what people expect a lizard to look like. He’s got that lizard skin, but it’s actually much shinier than what you’d see on a real lizard.

Star Trek and the 4X genre seem like a match so perfect it’s a fantasy you’d just have to create on a Holodeck. A grand universe to explore, tons of interesting species and factions to meet, and some very cool spaceships; what’s not to like? With so much promise, Star Trek: Infinite could have been – should have been – a slam dunk. But while I really wanted to like Star Trek: Infinite, it didn’t seem to like me back. It has some neat and unique ideas, but after dealing with more than a few off design choices and seeing several playthroughs blown up dozens of hours in by bugs that prevented me from performing major actions, I’m happy to explore strange new worlds elsewhere.

It’s quicker to list the few things Infinite does right than wrong, so let’s start there. This space-based grand strategy game is clearly heavily inspired by the excellent Stellaris, but developer Nimble Giant Entertainment has done a good job of making things just different enough to distinguish itself. You’ll start by picking one of four factions: the Federation, the Klingon Empire, the Romulan Empire, or the Cardassian Union. This choice isn’t just for flavor, either, as each faction plays dramatically differently, with unique units, mechanics, and different ways to expand its empire.

The Federation is best at exploring, diplomacy, and researching new technology. The Cardassians excel at spycraft, warfare, and conquering and enslaving other species. The Klingons’ penchant for tradition and honorable combat make them the ones you’ll want to use if you’re looking to conquer the rest of known space through coups. And the versatile Romulans, while great at stealth and guile, can either assimilate like the Federation or conquer like the Klingons or Cardassians. It’s good stuff; every faction feels distinct while still making it clear they’re playing the same game.

And… that’s about it as far as your options go. Infinite has a ton of Minor Powers like the Betazoid Houses or the Ktarian Enclave, but they’re only there for you to assimilate, conquer, enslave, trade with, and so on. They exist only to give the Major Powers something to do, which is a shame because it makes them feel more like resources to utilize rather than actual factions. It would be cool to take control of a Minor Power like the Bejorans and break away from Cardassian rule or try your luck as the Trill Assembly. Unfortunately, there’s just no option to.

The tutorial starts you off as the Federation, which is probably a good decision because they’re the most interesting faction, though the actual guidance you get is pretty barebones. It walks you through the basics, but you’ll probably need to watch several hours of YouTube tutorials before you actually understand what you’re doing if you’re not already familiar with 4X games – but once you’re in, Infinite has some nice touches that really nail the Trek feel.

You always start each new campaign in the same place at the same time: the year 2346, or about twenty years before the beginning of Star Trek: The Next Generation. It’s a deliberate and smart choice, as all of the Major Powers are neighbors at more or less the same strength, and a lot of the most important events in Star Trek are right around the corner. The incident that kicks everything off is the Khitomer Massacre, a Romulan attack on a Klingon colony, and fans of the shows will enjoy seeing other canon events occur as time goes on. Encounters with certain strange space cubes, for example, or an exploding Romulan sun.

This setup does a great job of capturing the Star Trek universe, and on replays, you have the added benefit of having a good idea of where some of the Minor Powers are (though that does change somewhat from run to run). The downside is that it takes a bit for each new playthrough to actually feel “new,” which puts a little bit of a damper on the initial replayability.

Once you get going, though, things are like any other grand strategy game – in other words, you’ll manage a lot of spreadsheets. Don’t get me wrong, there’s plenty of strategy in this grand strategy game. You’ll colonize planets, construct fleets, mine and manage resources, build your relationships with other powers, recruit leaders, research technology, and boldly go where no one has gone before, but you do all of it by clicking through menus. As in most grand strategy games, however, the appeal is in the larger choices you make to guide your faction, not necessarily the moment-to-moment unit management. StarCraft this ain’t. With so much to keep track of, it’s easy to get overwhelmed, but thankfully you can pause and take your time to think out each move, and all of these systems combine for a compelling, unique take on the 4X formula.

The combat in Infinite doesn’t have the same depth to make it as engaging. Usually, the only thing you have to do to win a battle is build a larger force than your opponent and throw it at them until they surrender. To be fair, and despite what the J.J. Abrams reboot trilogy might try to tell you, Star Trek isn’t really about ships shooting at each other with phasers and photon torpedoes – but it is kind of a bummer that there’s not more variety to break up all the menu management.

One of the best additions to the genre, however, is the Mission Tree – a series of branching events you can complete to take your civilization down different paths. For example, gather enough alloy as the Federation and you can build the Enterprise; if you’re playing the Romulans and on good terms with the Federation, they might help you when your sun starts dying, which opens a different path on the tree. The tree also offers some alternate “non-canonical” paths: wanna take the Federation down to the dark side and conquer the other powers? You can, and the Mission Tree will reward you for doing so.

Unfortunately, the Federation’s tree is the only one with any interesting choices. Most of the Mission Trees for the other factions allow you to choose between reforming the worst parts of their culture or being slaveholders and warmongers who’d set a box of kittens on fire with a flamethrower, light cigars off of their smoking corpses, and then read their lines with a level of menace reserved for Benedict Cumberbatch’s Khan in Star Trek: Into Darkness. It’s a very binary “Are you a good witch or a bad witch?” kind of progression, but it does add a nice narrative flow to each run and constantly gives you something to shoot for while rewarding you for playing your faction a certain way.

Now, I know what you’re thinking: “But Will, this sounds alright! What was with that negative opening paragraph? I was expecting things to be way worse!” Well, dear reader, that’s because we haven’t talked about the bugs yet. Star Trek: Infinite was buggy when I previewed it back in September, but it was one of those things I chalked up to playing a pre-release build. Surely it would get better by launch, right? Wrong. It got worse. I’m not often one to hang my hat on whether or not a game is buggy, but Infinite is one of the buggiest games I have ever played, to the point where entire systems simply did not work in the review build.

Some of these bugs are minor. For instance, occasionally the in-game notifications would tell me one of my leaders had died, so I’d frantically tab through them, wondering what had happened. Had I sent a science vessel to explore a hostile area? Were they claimed by old age? An accident? Nope. Infinite just played the wrong voice line for an entirely unrelated notification like some sort of cruel prank. Annoyances like this happen all the time.

Occasionally whole mechanics will bug out as well, like when you initiate First Contact with an alien race. You’re essentially racing to see if you can make contact with them before they can make contact with you, and if they beat you to it, you simply don’t get as many rewards from the post-race resolution. This is supposed to end the First Contact section of your relationship with that race and let you interact with them normally from then on, but sometimes they’ll beat you to it, you’ll resolve that outcome, and then Infinite will act like you actually won the race and force you to resolve that outcome, too.

I could live with these smaller issues if they were the only things wrong with Infinite. Unfortunately, they aren’t. No, the real, glaring problem I consistently encountered is that the process for integrating new cultures into your empire always ceases to function after a certain point in a given run, often leaving my progress severely hindered when I was already a dozen or more hours deep.

I’ve played most of my Infinite runs as a pacifist, peacefully befriending and integrating other cultures into my civilization of choice, and only using combat as a last resort. But after a while, when I start the process with one of my Envoys, nothing happens. When I previewed Infinite, there was a little bar that would fill up and tell me how fast it was happening. Now? My Envoy just stays there forever. That means I’m not only locked out of expanding my empire the way I want to, I also can’t complete certain missions on the Mission Tree. After hours and hours, that save file essentially becomes useless. And this happens every time. No amount of starting a new run, verifying my files, uninstalling and reinstalling, or anything else has made a difference.

Similarly, the notifications you get can sometimes be disastrously wrong rather than just annoyingly so. Once, I found myself drawn into a war with the Klingons because they attacked my ally. Every pop-up and every in-game bar was telling me we were winning, but shortly thereafter, my ally surrendered. Another time, the Federation was having an election. I put my weight behind my current leader, but despite having far more popularity than any other candidate (I checked), he lost. I’m also fairly sure I’m not supposed to be able see the Casus Belli (the reasons each faction has for going to war with another faction, or any claims they hold on other factions) that absolutely every faction can use on every other faction next to each Major and Minor Power’s name when I open the Contact page, especially when no one has used any of them to make a claim. Even if I am supposed to be able to, it’s a little weird when the civilizations in question are openly hostile to me and I have no other information on them.

The list goes on. Sometimes tooltips have placeholder text. At a certain point I stopped being able to even open the ship designs menu, which allows you to take a ship class blueprint and slap on all the upgrades you get from the research your scientists have done. It’s fun to be able to tailor your ships to your playstyle, and it means your older ships are still useful later on… or at least it was until I inexplicably lost access to it anymore. When I reinforce my fleets, new ships get added to their own fleet instead of to the fleet they’re supposed to be reinforcing. All these issues together become maddening. There’s a good grand strategy game in here somewhere, but right now, I can barely play it.

Mortal Kombat and DC fans have for years hoped for a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe crossover movie or show, but it seems unlikely after Warner Bros. reportedly rejected a pitch.

Jeremy Adams, who wrote Mortal Kombat animated projects Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge, Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind, and Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms, said rights holder Warner Bros. rejected a pitch for a Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe crossover.

“I would lower your expectations,” Adams replied when asked about the possibility by ComicBook.com. “I don’t know if they have any plans to do more. I do know that we pitched that a while ago, but it was kind of rebuffed.”

But why? Adams sounded nonplussed when asked: “Well, I think at the end of the day, I don’t know if they’re ever going to do any more. I hope they do, and I hope they call me to be involved. That would be great because I really love it. But I don’t know. I don’t know. I think it would be really cool though. Trust me, I would love to see a DC Mortal Kombat. That would be super, super cool.”

Midway Games’ Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe launched in 2008 on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, and saw the likes of Sub-Zero, Scorpion, and Liu Kang go up against superheroes Batman, Superman, and Wonder Woman, albeit with the traditional Mortal Kombat gore toned down.

Midway filed for bankruptcy in early 2009, three months after the release of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe. Layoffs followed, but part of the original Mortal Kombat development team kept their jobs, with Mortal Kombat co-creator Ed Boon going on to found NetherRealm Studios, backed by Warner Bros. NetherRealm’s first game was the rebooted Mortal Kombat in 2011.

“The biggest lesson we learned with Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe was that there was an opportunity for two separate games that each could embrace their roots without compromising the other,” Boon told Game Informer in 2022. “This resulted in us deciding that the next Mortal Kombat game would be a full reboot and aggressively embrace everything signature about Mortal Kombat. This included going back to a 2D fighting plane, retelling the story of the original trilogy, and going back to our classic Fatalities without restrictions.”

However, Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe laid the foundation for NetherRealm’s 2013 DC fighting game Injustice: Gods Among Us, which saw a sequel in 2017. Mortal Kombat characters have popped up in the Injustice series as guest characters, keeping the spirit of Mortal Kombat vs. DC Universe alive in the absence of a sequel.

NetherRealm was expected to follow 2019’s Mortal Kombat 11 with Injustice 3, but instead it released Mortal Kombat 1 this year.

Wesley is the UK News Editor for IGN. Find him on Twitter at @wyp100. You can reach Wesley at wesley_yinpoole@ign.com or confidentially at wyp100@proton.me.

Famed video game developer and former PlatinumGames’ executive vice president Hideki Kamiya has started a YouTube channel after leaving the company in September.

Kamiya so far only has one video available on Hideki Kamiya Channel that seemingly shows him leaving the PlatinumGames office before talking about future plans, why he left the studio he co-founded, and what he’s been doing in the meantime (making curry and watching TV).

Kamiya also revealed he can’t work in the video game industry for a year, likely due to a non-compete agreement that essentially allows PlatinumGames to be the sole beneficiary of his ideas, but Kamiya only said this is “due to reasons”.

The developer — who directed Resident Evil 2 and was chief creator of Devil May Cry while working at Capcom, before leading the likes of Bayonetta and The Wonderful 101 at PlatinumGames — was vague about his decision to leave in September, saying only it came based on his own beliefs.

Though he still doesn’t give an explicit reason in the video, Kamiya did share more insight. “I left the company because I wanted to follow my beliefs as a game creator,” he said. “And to choose the path I think is right and move on.”

Kamiya made clear he wasn’t retiring yet either, and will consider what offers come his way when he’s allowed to work in the video game industry again. He joked he’ll accept any offers over ¥100 million (around $670,000) a year, though does end the video by driving off “to the unemployment centre” in a supercar.

As for his YouTube channel, Kamiya said he will upload videos that are “completely education free” and have nothing to do with the video game industry, with the veteran developer seemingly ready for a break after working in games for 30 years.

PlatinumGames will go on without Kamiya, of course, though the studio’s upcoming game Project G.G. was portrayed as his next pet project. Kamiya told IGN in December 2022 it was “going to be so big that you won’t even be able to compare The Wonderful 101: Remastered and Sol Cresta to it”.

Image Credit: Hideki Kamiya Channel on YouTube

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

Competitive shooter players have for years peeked around corners to try to get a jump on their opponents. But one method players are currently using in Valve’s Counter-Strike 2 is just criminal.

The Counter-Strike 2 community has dubbed this one the ‘Michael Jackson peek’, and it’s easy to see why. It triggers a bizarre animation glitch that makes the player avatar look like it’s doing the gravity-defying lean Michael Jackson made famous in the music video for Smooth Criminal.

Michael Jackson peek lmfao #CS2

via u/thekappa27 pic.twitter.com/RRYGq4BXJl

— ESL Counter-Strike (@ESLCS) October 10, 2023

What’s going on here, and how is the ‘Michael Jackson peek’ done? It involves setting up keybinds so when you press your directional keys, you’re activating movement in that direction and also simultaneously activating the controller binds to move in the opposite direction, triggering an animation bug of some kind.

After clips of the Michael Jackson peek were shared on subreddits and across social media, one player created a Michael Jackson config so players can do the peek with any keyboard.

A CS2 player saw the viral Michael Jackson pose and made a config so anyone can do it lmao pic.twitter.com/PrF1FHixf4

— Jake Lucky (@JakeSucky) October 11, 2023

As you’d expect, the memes have begun.

These #CS2 Michael Jackson peek videos are too funny 🤣#counterstrike #counterstrike2pic.twitter.com/e4RoRViAHt

— Gameverse (@vgameverse) October 11, 2023

Clearly, the Michael Jackson peek is not intended gameplay, and developer Valve is likely to patch this one out sooner rather than later. Until then, beware of smooth criminals in Counter-Strike 2.

Counter-Strike 2 has had a somewhat rough launch. This week Valve ended support for Counter-Strike 2 on Macs as well as older hardware, citing low player numbers. CS2’s recent user review rating on Steam is “mixed”. For all reviews, it’s “very positive”, but Valve carried over CS:GO reviews when it replaced the original with the sequel. Indeed, some have taken issue with Valve’s decision to essentially delist CS:GO, a move that has drawn comparisons to Blizzard’s controversial move to replace the original Overwatch with Overwatch 2. CS2 players have also expressed their disappointment over a lack of features that were available in CS:GO.

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.