Category: IGN

Baldur’s Gate 3 has been out for nearly two months and developer Larian has revealed its most-popular multiclass builds.

In a PlayStation Blog post, product manager Emily Gera discussed the “art of multiclassing”, which lets players create versatile, powerful, and “occasionally kind of weird” class builds.

Baldur’s Gate 3 hybrid characters are made by combining two or more classes in the game. There are 12 classes and 46 subclasses to pick from (for more information, check out IGN’s Baldur’s Gate 3 How to Multiclass guide).

The most-popular multiclass combination is Rogue/Ranger, with over 175,000 players giving it a shot. The Rogue/Ranger class build “marries sneak attacks with high damage at long range”, Gera said. Given how tricky Baldurs Gate 3’s combat can be, you can see why Rogue/Ranger would be so popular.

In second place is the “beefy” Barbarian/Fighter combo with 158,161 players. Barbarian/Paladin is in third, closely followed by Cleric/Paladin and Fighter/Paladin.

Here’s Baldur’s Gate 3’s top 20 multiclass combinations by number of players:

The studio behind summer hit Dave The Diver has announced its next game — and it’s very different indeed.

Dave the Diver is a casual, single-player adventure RPG featuring deep-sea exploration and fishing during the day and sushi restaurant management at night.

Mintrocket’s next game is Nakwon: Last Paradise, which sounds anything but casual. It’s described as a third-person zombie apocalypse stealth survival game in which you experience a new form of ‘post-apocalypse life’ we’ve never seen before. There is exploration, extraction, survival, resource gathering, and a PvPvE city in which zombies and survivors coexist to survive ‘in this new societal structure”.

Mintrocket said the core “fun” of Nakwon lies in your ability to survive on your own “amidst the extreme tension with aggressive zombies and unreliable survivors”. Survivors compete for limited resources or find ways to survive without casualties.

It’s set in Seoul, which makes sense given Mintrocket is a division of Nexon Korea Corporation. “The unique setting in Seoul will elevate your gaming experience to a level unlike anything you’ve played before,” the developer said. “Here, zombies behave like humans but are more powerful and will relentlessly pursue you.”

A pre-alpha test is expected soon. There’s no release date yet.

IGN’s Dave the Diver review emerged with a 9/10. We said: “Dave The Diver is an aquatic adventure RPG that’s wholesome, wonderfully complex, and delightfully hard to put down.”

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.

Mortal Kombat 1 players have spent the game’s early life experimenting with the new Kameo system, which lets you call in other characters to perform an action. Using Kameo characters, players are working out how to do elaborate combos that involve “juggling” their opponent with multiple hits. But this new combo from evil sorcerer Shang Tsung is perhaps the most ridiculous yet.

Mortal Kombat professional player Jarrad “NinjaKilla212” Gooden, who won the Mortal Kombat 11 tournament at Evo this year, took to Twitter to publish a video showing an 89-hit combo from Shang Tsung, who, in old form, repeatedly juggles poor Baraka with Ground Skulls fireballs, and keeps the fun going by calling in Scorpion for a cheeky Kameo juggle. There’s even a fancy side switch. (For more, check out IGN’s Shang Tsung character guide, which includes a move list and Fatalities list.)

Your opponent hits you with this in a tournament, what you doing? pic.twitter.com/mKMwkNOHIr

— DuckKilla_212 (@212Ninjakilla) September 28, 2023

“Your opponent hits you with this in a tournament, what you doing?” asks NinjaKilla212. I don’t know about you, but probably put my controller down and put the kettle on.

It’s worth pointing out that your average Mortal Kombat 1 match will not see combos like this. NinjaKilla212 is a professional player after all, and the combo itself only causes 45% damage due to scaling. Also, you can use meter to break out of combos in Mortal Kombat 1. Depending on how much meter resource you have going in, you’ll probably be able to put an end to Shang Tsung’s tyranny in 30 hits or less.

Mortal Kombat 1 players are, generally, positive about the new Kameo system because of the flexibility it gives combo construction. But perhaps this is one combo that might need a nerf.

While it’s looking at this combo, developer NetherRealm is also taking a look at a bug which gives Player 1 an advantage over Player 2. Meanwhile, the Nintendo Switch version of Mortal Kombat 1 has become the subject of ridicule for its eye-popping visuals. NetherRealm development chief Ed Boon has promised updates.

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.

Fortnite V-Bucks will increase in price in the United States and several other countries on October 27, 2023, Epic Games has announced.

Revealed in a Fortnite blog post, the price increase of around 12% to 15% per bundle comes as a result of “economic factors such as inflation and currency fluctuations” and follows similar price increases seen in the UK, Canada, and Mexico.

Countries seeing a price increase now include the U.S., Czech Republic, Denmark, Eurozone countries, Hungary, Japan, Norway, Poland, Romania, Sweden, Turkey, and all countries where the U.S. dollar is the storefront currency.

The U.S. will see the following price increases: 1,000 V-Bucks rises from $7.99 to $8.99, 2,800 V-Bucks rises from $19.99 to $22.99, 5,000 V-Bucks rises from $31.99 to $36.99, and 13,5000 V-Bucks rises from $79.99 to $89.99.

Epic Games made clear Fortnite Crew subscription pricing is not impacted by the current changes but certain bundles will be adjusted when they return to storefronts. These include the Final Reckoning Pack, Skull Squad Pack, Graveyard Drift Quest Pack, Saint Academy Quest Pack, and Transformers Pack.

Fortnite regularly sees the addition of characters, items, and maps from other media franchises, with Star Wars’ Ahsoka being the latest to make the jump. Other recent inclusions include Jujutsu Kaisen, Futurama, Spider-Man, and more.

In our 9/10 review of the game, IGN said: “Thanks to the freedom of its outstanding building mechanic, Fortnite Battle Royale isn’t just a great battle royale game — it’s one of the best multiplayer games in recent history.”

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

Spoiler Warning: The following article includes minor spoilers for Cyberpunk 2077’s Phantom Liberty expansion, mainly surrounding a decision in the fourth main mission: Lucretia My Reflection.

Cyberpunk 2077 players can very quickly lock themselves out of the game’s one and only expansion, Phantom Liberty, by choosing the wrong dialogue option in-game.

As recorded in IGN’s Cyberpunk 2077 Guide, the option to simply walk away from Phantom Liberty’s main campaign comes during the mission Lucretia My Reflection as Idris Elba’s Solomon Reed asks protagonist V of the mission: “is it worth it?”

“Know what, Reed? You’re right,” V will reply. “Somethin’ real wonky ’bout this. I’m out.” The other characters start sweating a little here, giving the player one last chance to select to continue the paid expansion. Even Johnny Silverhand chimes in to tell V this isn’t a bluff.

By choosing, “Made my decision”, however, V will opt to walk away from Reed’s mission and leave Phantom Liberty behind. “Finally showin’ me your true face,” the character continues. “That the way of things? Hard pass from me then. If I gotta die, I’m not gonna die fightin’ someone else’s war.”

The job flashes up as failed and the player is told to leave following some more disappointed dialogue. Exploring the new Dog Town area is still possible, and players can still do all the new Gigs and other bits of side content, but Phantom Liberty’s main quest will be locked away until a new game is started. Players can read about this and all of Phantom Liberty’s other Easter Eggs and References in IGN’s guide.

Phantom Liberty arrived September 26, with the game-changing Update 2.0 laying its foundation a few days earlier. It completely revamped Cyberpunk 2077 with features such as a new perk system and improved AI and also brought closure to an Elon Musk fan theory, a reference to the late racing legend Ken Block, and bizarre additions to the game’s biggest mystery.

All this caused a spike in Cyberpunk 2077’s popularity on Steam, a number that only grew as players got their hands on Phantom Liberty. For all the best tips and tricks on how to navigate Dog Town, whether you’re a new player, returning, or just rusty, check out IGN’s Cyberpunk 2077 guide.

In our 9/10 review of the expansion, IGN said: “Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty completes an immense turnaround for CD Projekt Red’s future RPG kickstarted with the anime spin-off, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and its latest 2.0 Update.”

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

Sega has cancelled Hyenas, the multiplayer extraction shooter in development at UK studio Creative Assembly.

Issuing a warning to investors that it will record a loss for the financial year, Sega said “profitability has been lowered mainly in European bases”. As a result, it has implemented “structural reforms aimed at increasing efficiency”, and reviewed in-development games. “We have made the difficult decision to cancel some titles under the development as well as to reduce the fixed expenses,” Sega said.

“In response to the lower profitability of the European region, we have reviewed the title portfolio of each development base in Europe and the resulting action will be to cancel Hyenas and some unannounced titles under development,” Sega continued. “Accordingly, we will implement a write-down of work-in-progress for titles under development.”

It sounds like Creative Assembly staff face the threat of redundancy. “We will implement reduction of various fixed expenses at several group companies in relevant region, centered on the Creative Assembly Ltd,” Sega said. “We expect to incur one-time expenses related to reduction of fixed expenses.

“We will continue to consider measures to improve profitability in European bases apart from above. We will announce the specific details and impact from them as soon as we make decision.”

Creative Assembly, best known for the Total War series, recently brought Hyenas to German show gamescom for the public to play. A beta concluded mid-September.

Last month Sega admitted Hyenas was a “challenging” title. “We are unable to talk about this title because the details have not yet been announced at this time,” Sega said at the time. “As this is a challenging title, we are striving to improve its quality towards the release on the front line of development. We are also making final adjustments to its business model in parallel.”

Hyenas, announced last summer, resurfaced on August 16 with a new gameplay trailer showing chaotic, zero-G heist action. Hyenas was described as a hero-based multiplayer extraction shooter that pit five teams of three against each other and NPC security teams known as MURFS. The idea was to steal pop culture memorabilia from Plunderships.

While Creative Assembly had previously indicated Hyenas was not free-to-play, Sega’s mention of “final adjustments” to the business model suggested this might have changed. Sega issued IGN the following statement last month:

“We have dedicated the past year to reviewing our business model alongside months of extremely valuable player testing of the gameplay experience. We’re very excited with this progress and the reaction to yesterday’s gameplay reveal. We’ll build on foundation with our Closed Beta test beginning 31 August and use this insight to finalize our plans for launch.”

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.

We open this week’s busy episode of Unlocked by discussing two big new games we just played a bunch of: Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty and Alan Wake 2. After that we discuss Phil Spencer’s wish to bring back MechAssault and have a fantasy draft for which Xbox developer should make it — along with our own picks (complete with preferred developers) for other dormant Xbox franchises we’d like to see return. Plus: we get lost wondering how the heck we’re going to play all of the games in this historically busy stretch of major game releases that we’re in right now, and more!

Subscribe on any of your favorite podcast feeds, to our YouTube channel, or grab an MP3 of this week’s episode. For more awesome content, check out my Alan Wake 2 preview mentioned in this episode!

For more next-gen coverage, make sure to check out our Xbox Series X review, our Xbox Series S review, and our PS5 review.

Ryan McCaffrey is IGN’s executive editor of previews and host of both IGN’s weekly Xbox show, Podcast Unlocked, as well as our monthly(-ish) interview show, IGN Unfiltered. He’s a North Jersey guy, so it’s “Taylor ham,” not “pork roll.” Debate it with him on Twitter at @DMC_Ryan.

Valve surprised everyone when it announced earlier this year that it was making a Counter-Strike 2 – and after months of limited testing, it’s now available for PC players via Steam.

The company announced the news with a new trailer today, which you can watch below.

pic.twitter.com/SM57ZVCTmI

— CS2 (@CounterStrike) September 27, 2023

Counter-Strike 2 was announced back in March. Running on Source Engine 2, the same game engine used on other Valve games including Dota 2 and Half-Life: Alyx, Counter-Strike 2 is not a separate sequel to the original game but rather a major free update to Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

As we have previously seen, Counter-Strike provides a graphical facelift to the popular first-person shooter while adding upgrades and redesigns to the game’s maps. More importantly, Counter-Strike 2 introduces the ability for players to refund their weapons if they accidentally purchased the wrong item.

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive was originally released in 2012, and despite being over a decade old, it remains one of the most popular PC games on Valve’s digital distribution platform, Steam. Being a good game aside, CS: GO’s staying power among the most popular games on Steam is also helped by the fact that the game went free-to-play in late 2018.

In our review of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, IGN said CS:GO is a “top-tier tactics game that will probably share the long-tailed legacy of its predecessors.”

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

Netflix’s Castlevania showrunner Adi Shankar is officially developing a new anime series for Netflix based on Devil May Cry.

Announced during Netflix’s DROP 01 virtual event, the Devil May Cry anime was also given a short teaser that shows a smiling Dante flipping while shooting his guns (which may be Ebony & Ivory!) and dodging attacks from an off-screen enemy.

We don’t know exactly when this new series will arrive on Netflix, but the streamer provided a description of the anime that will undoubtedly get fans excited for what’s to come.

BIG NEWS!!! DEVIL MAY CRY, the anime series from Capcom, Studio Mir, and Adi Shankar is coming soon to Netflix. #NetflixDrop01 pic.twitter.com/tcOjYQbJv8

— Netflix Geeked (@NetflixGeeked) September 27, 2023

“In this animated adaptation of the popular Capcom game, sinister forces are at play to open the portal between the human and demon realms,” the official description reads. “In the middle of it all is Dante, an orphaned demon-hunter-for-hire, unaware that the fate of both worlds hangs around his neck.”

The Devil May Cry anime is being developed by Netflix, Capcom, Studio MIR, and Shankar. Shankar will also serve as executive producer alongside Capcom’s Hideaki Itsuno and Studio MIR’s Seung Wook Lee. Itsuno served as director for multiple Devil May Cry games and Lee is from a team that also helped create The Legend of Korra, My Adventures with Superman, Netflix’s Voltron: Legendary Defender and The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf, and much more.

Shankar shared a few thoughts about the new series, which will run for eight episodes in its first season and will be written by Alex Larsen.

“I’m honored that Netflix and Capcom have entrusted me to shepherd the DEVIL MAY CRY franchise. Alex Larsen and I love these characters, we are part of the fandom, and vow to surpass the exceptionally high bar we set for ourselves,” Shankar said.

Devil May Cry was first released on PlayStation 2 in 2001 and many sequels followed. The last mainline entry was 2019’s Devil May Cry 5, and we said its “trio of outstanding combat styles set a new high bar for the series, and its mysterious story keeps things interesting along the way.”

Have a tip for us? Want to discuss a possible story? Please send an email to newstips@ign.com.

Adam Bankhurst is a news writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter @AdamBankhurst and on Twitch.

Elden Ring fans have quite the treat available to preorder right now in the IGN Store: a Nendoroid of Iron Fist Alexander. This adorable figure stands about 3.9 inches high and can be posed in several different ways, making him an excellent addition to your collectible collection. With an estimated release date of July 2024, you can preorder this figure at the link below for $50.99.

Iron Fist Alexander Nendoroid is Up For Preorder at the IGN Store

This figure is the latest Elden Ring collectible available on the IGN Store, joining figures of Melina, Vargram the Raging Wolf in his Raging Wolf armor, and a Festering Fingerprint Vyke figure from S.H.Figuarts. These figures are available to purchase right now as well and are still in stock, so you can add them right away to your collectible collection.

Elden Ring Displate Metal Posters

Displate has a phenomenal selection of Elden Ring metal posters you can buy for starting at $49. They really look terrific, so check them out if you’re interested in wall art based on the game.

Purchase Elden Ring’s Art Books

If you’ve been looking to pick up both volumes of Elden Ring’s beautiful art books, you can actually get them at a slight discount right now on Amazon! I recently got both volumes and can confirm that they’re incredible investments. Beautiful covers with even more gorgeous artwork on the inside. It’ll make you want to jump back into the game for a replay immediately.

Pick Up Elden Ring’s Game Guides from Future Press

From the incredible folks over at Future Press (who also did the recently announced Armored Core VI game guide, which is also up for preorder), the Elden Ring Strategy Guides are worth picking up as well. Similar to the art books, they’re also discounted right now on Amazon so there’s no better time to get them. These include a full breakdown and walkthrough of dungeons, introductions to NPCs, and so much more, so you can explore every inch of The Lands Between.

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