Category: IGN

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Preorder the Elden Ring Alexander Nendoroid at the IGN Store

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.

7 Reasons Why Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth Might Let You Save Aerith

Recently I was lucky enough to go hands-on with Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Although my play time was largely dominated by combat encounters, this small slice left a lasting impression on me in regards to how events in the final game will play out. It, alongside the latest trailer, has all but confirmed suspicions that Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth is not going to go how we all might expect.

A fascinating change in events during my demo, coupled with clues and patterns from Final Fantasy 7 Remake, leads me to believe we could be in for a shocking twist of fate for everyone’s favourite flower girl. Here’s seven reasons why we think you’ll be able to save Aerith in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth.

Before we dive into Rebirth, let’s first set the scene for what happened in Remake. The first chapter in this trilogy initially presented itself as a retelling, but by the end had veered onto its own extremely meta path.

Throughout Final Fantasy 7 Remake, Cloud and his friends frequently encounter the ‘Whispers’; hooded spectres that Red XIII describes as “Arbiters of Fate”. Their sole purpose is to ensure that destiny plays out according to plan, effectively keeping the events of the original Final Fantasy 7 timeline on track. That would see villain Sephiroth defeated, but not before he takes out Aerith in the process.

But the Whispers are now gone, slain by Cloud at the end of Remake. The future (and past) is now uncertain, something perfectly illustrated in Remake with the arrival of a very much still alive Zack Fair. It seems now that anything can happen. The very end of Remake even dubs what’s to come as “the unknown journey”.

So how does this all affect Rebirth? Despite the removal of destiny’s manipulators, at this point it appears things are still on track. Trailers suggest that Rebirth is sticking to the broad events of the original game. We’ve seen the same locations being visited, the same characters being met, and the familiar path being trodden. But no one is naive enough to believe Square Enix won’t have a surprise or two lined up. And our big prediction is that, this time round, Aerith will avoid her doomed fate.

The Concluding Scene is (all but) Confirmed

The events of Rebirth begin as the party exits Midgar, and will end in The Forgotten Capital. Creative Director Tetsuya Nomura recently confirmed this to the PlayStation Blog, noting that The Forgotten Capital is “where the greatest fate of Final Fantasy VII awaits you.” He is, of course, talking about the moment when Aerith is killed by Sephiroth.

Producer Yoshinori Kitase also noted in a statement that “We know fans are dying to see one scene in particular…” all but confirming that Aerith’s death scene will be part of Rebirth.

Or will it? In that same statement, Kitase noted that there will be “a rapid pace of major twists and turns.” And so, much like the shocking finale of Remake, could Rebirth end with a huge twist? Could Aerith survive Sephiroth’s attack?

It’s logical to assume Square Enix will follow the path it laid down with Remake. But what evidence do we have beyond the baseless assumption that Nomura and his team are looking to disrupt our expectations? Well, there is another disrupter who perhaps presents a more convincing argument…

Sephiroth the Disruptor

In Remake it’s more than heavily suggested that Sephiroth knows the events of the original Final Fantasy 7. Basically, he knows he’s doomed to be stopped by Cloud. To arrange his own victory, he needs to change the timeline. We saw him attempt this when he tried to kill Barret, but the Whispers stepped in to keep destiny in order. And so that’s why Sephiroth coaxed Cloud and the party to challenge fate. With the Whispers defeated, Sephiroth is now free to walk a new path and avoid his own defeat.

So how could this lead to Aerith surviving? Well, Sephiroth knows that Aerith’s death is a huge catalyst for Cloud and the group to begin their planet-saving journey. And so by not killing Aerith, Sephiroth can avoid Cloud going on a path of vengeance. That may sound counter-intuitive, but there’s an even more compelling reason for him to keep Aerith alive. In her final moments Aerith calls on Holy, the white magic that prevents Sephiroth’s meteor from destroying the planet. Perhaps, if Aerith lives, Sephiroth could manipulate her into using Holy for his own nefarious purposes?

Aerith Knows

In Remake it’s not just Sephiroth who is hinted to know the events of the original story, though. It’s suggested that Aerith does, too. She’s presumably not going to be very happy with that version of events and want to do everything she can to survive.

It may be that Rebirth is a battle between heroes and villains who already know the path of destiny, with each trying to do everything they can to twist a new fate into something that benefits them. Aerith knows her sacrifice eventually leads to Sephiroth’s defeat, and so it seems likely she’ll need to formulate a new plan in which she can both survive and ensure his demise. Perhaps we’ll be in for a story in which Aerith calls Sephiroth’s bluff; coaxing him into a sense of false security by staying alive, and then thwarting his plans in a way that adds brand new story layers to this reimagined version of Final Fantasy 7.

Destiny’s Crossroads

It may be that Square doesn’t subvert expectations and instead sticks to the classic events. But even if Aerith does die in Rebirth, she could simultaneously survive. Thanks to the destruction of the Whispers, a second, altered timeline was created in which Aerith’s old boyfriend Zack Fair survived. It seems like we’ve seen moments from this new reality in Rebirth’s trailers, such as the scene in the Summer Game Fest 2023 Rebirth trailer where Avalanche are captured by Shinra in Midgar – something we know didn’t happen during Remake.

Kitase confirmed to IGN that “there will be a new episode with Zack, that will contain even more of him than the Remake.” It stands to reason, then, that this altered timeline will play a major part in the events of Rebirth.

With Zack alive, Cloud won’t be able to assume his false identity and fall down the SOLDIER rabbit hole. And so perhaps it’s Zack, not Cloud, who joins Avalanche in this reality. And from there, perhaps this version of the party’s journey completely avoids Aerith’s tragic fate? Maybe all it took was for Zack to survive to secure a more hopeful future for Midgar’s flower girl.

We know that we’re going to see two timelines play out in Rebirth. It makes sense that one will feature more radical changes than the other. Perhaps we’ll see two fates for Aerith, and a story that makes it clear which path of destiny is the most important for Midgar’s flower girl to tread.

A New Timeline

Perhaps Zack’s timeline will be the one with the most changes, but my hands-on showed that the regular Remake timeline will continue to undergo several key alterations. When I arrived at Junon, the classic Bottomswell boss that attacks Priscilla on the beach had been reimagined. In Rebirth the boss – now renamed Terror of the Deep – is actually attacking Yuffie. This location is now where Cloud and the party will meet the materia thief for the first time, which is entirely different to how Yuffie is recruited in the original game. If the events at Junon are now different, then there’s every chance the events at the Forgotten Capital will be, too.

Rebirth

When discussing the Final Fantasy 7 Remake project, it’s important to remember that the name ‘Remake’ has a double meaning. It doesn’t just refer to Square Enix remaking an old game for a modern console, it also symbolises the characters choosing to remake their own destinies. The Final Fantasy 7 timeline has literally been remade, and so it should be assumed that the name Rebirth will also represent multiple concepts.

In an interview with IGN, Kitase explained that the name “Rebirth was thought of as the next iteration that also kind of encapsulates this sentiment of reimagining or recreating.” That explains the development side of the title, then. But what about its in-game meaning? A resurrection could be considered a rebirth. Perhaps then, like Barret, Aerith can be resurrected.

Seven Seconds

During his final confrontation with Cloud in Remake, Sephiroph delivers a cryptic message: “Seven seconds till the end. Time enough for you. Perhaps. But what will you do with it? Let’s see.”

It’s a confusing monologue, but it could well be another piece of evidence that points to Sephiroth knowing his own future. During the Forgotten Capital events of the original game, it takes exactly seven seconds for Sephiroth to fall from the sky and impale Aerith with his sword. And so it seems like Sephiroth is taunting Cloud; he’ll have just seven seconds to intervene and save Aerith.

Will Cloud ever learn what Sephiroth meant? Will he have the time to formulate a plan to prevent Aerith’s death? Do those seven seconds definitely refer to this climactic moment? I guess we’ll find out in Rebirth.

And those are the seven reasons why we believe Aerith will survive in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth. Do you have any theories of your own? Have you spotted even more evidence in the trailer that we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments.
For more on this huge mystery, check out Resurrecting Aerith, our documentary about the urban myths surrounding Aerith’s death, and the fans who have spent 25 years attempting to rewrite her fate.

Dale Driver is IGN’s Executive Producer of Video Programming. Matt Purslow is IGN’s UK News and Features Editor.

Wargroove 2 Review

2019’s Wargroove turned out to be one of the best tactics games of recent years, thanks in no small part to its great strategy gameplay clearly inspired by Nintendo’s Advance Wars series. Four years and a proper Advance Wars remake later, Wargroove 2 has arrived with much more of everything that made the first game so impressive, even adding an all-new game mode and improved map creation tools. It breaks very little new ground when it comes to its story or the actual tactical combat options, but that’s forgivable since what’s there is just as much fun the second time around. After all, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Wargroove 2’s single-player campaign takes place a few years after its predecessor and introduces a new faction of feisty fighting rodents called the Faahri, who have come to Aurania to dig up some more magic weapons that should better stay hidden. You’re essentially playing the bad guys this time around, and while there is a little more to it than that, don’t expect the story to be any deeper than it was in the original.

As before, you command an army of disposable units and unique commanders against an enemy faction with access to all the same types of units as you. These units come in different shapes and sizes, from X to Y, each with their own strengths and vulnerabilities versus other unit types – flying units obviously hate archers, for example. Sometimes a mission will ask you to defeat all enemies to win, while other times you need to occupy specific buildings or get to a certain point on the map. And if you lose even one commander, which are unique characters with special abilities, it’s game over.

The maps are a little more interesting than that of the first game – one particularly cool level evokes the excellent Into the Breach as an earthquake gradually breaks away parts of the map and allows you to push enemies into holes. Maps also mix different types of terrain and the buffs or debuffs they provide much more freely, so you need to be even more careful about where your units stand in order to either do maximum damage or defend yourself successfully.

Wargroove 2 is a massive game.

Wargroove 2 splits its campaign mode into three different campaigns instead of just one, with the Faahri campaign being the easiest one. The others focus on either the Heavensong Empire, the Outlaws from Wargroove’s Double Trouble DLC, or a new pirate faction, and both are meant for intermediate players, mostly because the maps are bigger and almost all unit types are available from the start. Even the first few missions in a campaign can take up to an hour of careful planning, making Wargroove 2 into a massive game that can easily take over 50 hours, depending on the difficulty setting you choose.

Splitting up campaigns this way is especially helpful for Wargroove veterans or anyone who doesn’t want to wait until a unit gets unlocked as part of the beginner campaign. If you already know how to play and want to enjoy some naval combat right off the bat, you don’t have to wait for it to be introduced again – simply finish the tutorial prologue and then jump right into the pirate campaign. Telling the story from three different points of view makes it easier to introduce all the factions early as well, but it also means none of the stories truly feels like the “main” campaign – they don’t connect as smoothly as before, but the variety they each bring is still a good tradeoff for their lack of a more cohesive story.

Speaking of pirates – the jolly Captain Nadia and her crew of… intellectually challenged individuals also add a few new units to your roster. Riverboats, for example, are units that can fight only against other naval units, but (as the name suggests) they are able to cross narrow rivers that other boats are simply too big for, while Frogs are a new version of Wargroove’s loyal dog units that can use their tongues to pull friend and foe towards them. None of them revolutionize Wargroove’s gameplay exactly, but they are nice options all the same.

Items are a more substantial addition. In some levels, you will have to do without a way to spawn new units, which would be a far bigger challenge without health potions to top your soldiers off. Inothers, you can turn basic units of your choice into a sort of mini commander, equipping them with a weapon that will make them stronger or give them a special attack. It’s a bit annoying that you have to go into the codex to actually find out what the potions and weapons do, and you might have to try some combinations of items and units to see which fits your needs best through trial and error alone, but these are minor gripes with an otherwise smart inclusion. Actual mini commanders are also a thing – they are powerful units that, unlike the real commanders, don’t appear in the story for more than a level at a time to exist mostly to make things a little more difficult for you.

The roguelike Conquest mode is an entire game on top of a game.

The biggest gameplay change is probably the new two-tiered Groove system. As before, commanders charge up Groove with every action of their units, eventually letting them unleash a special attack unique to each one. However, now if you wait long enough to use it, each Groove gains a second, much more powerful tier that can make it hit harder, affect a larger area, or last longer. Wargroove 2 is just as challenging as the first game, so the decision of whether to use a Groove immediately or wait is often satisfyingly difficult, especially when some of those Grooves are more worth that wait than others.while other Grooves can take a bit of getting used to, like mouse commander Lytra’s small whirlwind that moves enemies and can knock them into ravines or deep water, which is a bit confusing to use at first because it’s difficult to see where exactly units will end up.

Those looking for an extra challenge can sink their teeth into the all-new Conquest mode, which replaces the previous game’s arcade and puzzle modes. Conquest is an entire game on top of a game: Wargroove reimagined as a roguelike. You start with a commander you can choose yourself and a small army that you take into short skirmishes where all deaths are permanent. Event tiles may give you new units and items, or, if you’re unlucky, lead you straight into the sights of a powerful enemy. Permadeath alone probably wouldn’t be enough to make Conquest feel different from Wargroove’s regular mode, but it’s exciting that you suddenly have no idea what kind of enemies await you from level to level – a significant challenge in a game where so much of the strategy is in exploiting enemy weaknesses. The conquest mode is a fun extra option that is guaranteed to make you a better tactician, and it’s great to see an additional game mode with this much thought put into it.

Wargroove’s map creation tools, a standout feature of the first one that allowed you to make everything from custom maps for solo play and multiplayer down to full campaigns, has also received an upgrade. New symmetry tools make it easier to mirror whole parts of your map horizontally or vertically to allow for faster building, and you can now also use game maps for cutscenes. The latter is a nice idea to fit even more storytelling into both the main game and custom campaigns, but unlike actual cutscenes, it’s annoying that you can’t easily skip these. That means if you have to retry a mission from the beginning, you’ll still end up with plenty of stuff to skip over even if you skip the intro cutscene.

Sony Announces Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition for PS5, but PC Gamers Have to Wait

Sony has finally announced Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition after a series of leaks. It launches on PlayStation 5 on October 6.

The PC version, however, launches early 2024 via Steam and the Epic Games Store. The PC version of Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition is developed by PC port specialist Nixxes Software, which Sony acquired in 2021.

The Complete Edition includes the Horizon Forbidden West and Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC, and costs $69.99 / €59.99 / ¥7,980 on PS5. Here’s the complete list of contents for Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition on PS5:

  • Horizon Forbidden West for PS5
  • Burning Shores DLC for PS5
  • Digital soundtrack
  • Digital art book
  • Horizon Zero Dawn Vol. 1: The Sunhawk digital comic book
  • In-game items:
    • Extras in Photo Mode (special pose and face paint)
  • In-game items unlocked via story progression:
    • Carja Behemoth Elite outfit ·Carja Behemoth Short Bow
    • Nora Thunder Elite outfit
    • Nora Thunder Sling
    • Apex Clawstrider Machine Strike piece
    • Resources pack

The Steam page for Horizon Forbidden West: Complete Edition includes a number of screenshots, offering a first look at the PC version. System requirements are yet to be announced.

Guerrilla’s Horizon Forbidden West launched in February 2022, and was awarded a 9/10 in IGN’s review. “A triumphant combination of enthralling combat, top-tier creature and character design, and a captivating open world, Horizon Forbidden West is an absolute blast and fantastic showcase for the power of the PS5,” we said.

The Burning Shores expansion launched in April 2023, and met with an 8/10 from IGN’s review. “A couple of poor boss battles aside, Burning Shores is a great new chapter with enough creative new bells and whistles to keep Horizon fans more than happy,” we said.

In May, PlayStation CEO Jim Ryan insisted Sony was sticking to its guns with its current strategy of not launching PC versions of its games on day-one, dismissing the idea of releasing PC versions of PS5-exclusive games, such as God of War: Ragnarok, on the same day they launch on PS5 proper. Porting them over to PC two to three years after the fact has been working out well for Sony, Ryan added.

Sony ported Horizon Zero Dawn over to PC in 2020, three years after it released on the PS4, making it the first major first-party PS4 exclusive to cross over to the platform. The company was previously against PC releases, preferring to stick to consoles. Forbidden West launches on PC two years after it came out on PS4 and PS5.

In 2021, Ryan said Sony planned to port more of its games to PC, starting with Days Gone, because its “ease of making [them] available to non-console owners has grown”.

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.

Starfield Community Discovers Rain Only Ever Falls on the Player, Developers Explain Why

Some within the Starfield community were surprised to learn that rain only ever falls on the player this week after a Reddit post revealing the normally unseen trick saw nearly 30,000 upvotes.

“In Starfield, rain only exists in a small area around the player,” redditor thelastfastbender wrote alongside a screenshot showing the effect in photo mode.

The Reddit post then made its way onto social media where the video game community helped explain what’s going on. It turns out pretty much all video games handle rain like this, although usually in a slightly different way.

Thomas Francis, lead visual effects artist at Darkest Dungeon 2 developer Red Hook Studios, posted to say rain is normally attached to the camera rather than the player character, which is why the effect is visible in Starfield’s photo mode. This is done “because it is less performance intensive than simulating particles everywhere. Why spawn particles across the world when a few hundred particles in front of your camera does the job just as well,” Francis said.

This technique is used for pretty much everything, Francis added, including snow, dust, and even blades of grass. “Anything that flies across your screen as you are moving in a zone/biome is probably using something like this,” Francis explained. “It’s optimized and easy for us developers to control.”

The Starfield rain Reddit post has sparked yet another fascinating ‘developer tricks of the trade’ moment on social media. Francis went on to explain that video game rain does not make anything wet, rather it triggers a system that tells the environment to “look wet”.

Starfield rain has even prompted a debate about whether learning how the sausage is made ruins player immersion. As Francis put it: “sometimes it’s better to believe in the magic than knowing the trick behind it.”

Polygon has a helpful article in which developers explain more on what’s going on with Starfield’s rain. 3D environment artist Karl Schecht said: “Whether you’re in first or third person, the rain looks solid. But switch to photo mode, zoom out, and you’ll see the rain is actually a small particle system, about 3×3 meters, that hangs out above your character.”

The Starfield rain discussion rekindles memories of the Fallout 3 metro, which is simply an NPC with a train on their head.

In 2017, Paul Hellquist, co-founder of Stray Kite Studios, revealed that in BioShock, if the player would have taken their last point of damage they instead were invulnerable for one or two seconds to trigger more “barely survived” moments.

In other Starfield news, Bethesda development chief Todd Howard recently revealed planet exploration was brutal before being “nerfed”. IGN also spoke with the creator of Starfield’s controversial paid DLSS mod, who hit back at pirates.

If you’re playing through the game, be sure to check out IGN’s Starfield walkthrough.

Image credit: reddit / u/thelastfastbender

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.

In Mortal Kombat 1, Player 1 Really Does Have an Advantage

Some fighting game fans have a favourite side to play on, whether it’s the left of the screen on the Player 1 side or the right of the screen as Player 2. While there is normally no gameplay advantage that comes from starting on either side, some players find input commands easier from the left or right. But when it comes to Mortal Kombat 1, it turns out there’s a very good reason to pick Player 1.

YouTuber mrAPchem published a video demonstrating how Player 1 can perform some combos Player 2 cannot. mrAPchem showed this issue affecting chilly Mortal Kombat veteran Sub-Zero, but it turns out it affects every character in the game across all modes and in all versions. In short: Player 2 cannot connect some combos.

It’s a significant bug, one that has sparked shock within the Mortal Kombat 1 community, especially those into the competitive multiplayer side of the game. Thankfully, “Player 1 advantage” is now listed on publisher Warner Bros. Games’ Mortal Kombat 1 bug tracking website under the “in progress” section, which suggests developer NetherRealm is on the case.

IGN’s Mortal Kombat 1 review returned an 8/10. “The bone-crunching gameplay of Mortal Kombat 1 is some of the best the series has ever seen, thanks to the game-changing Kameo system,” we said. “NetherRealm delivers a fantastic single-player story mode as well. However, the new Invasions mode is a grind and the online options feel dated.”

However, 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.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 Finally Has a Steam Release Date After 3 Years of Epic Exclusivity

The PC version of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 launched as an Epic Games Store exclusive in September 2020. Now, three years later, it’s ready to hit Steam on October 3.

Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 is the remastered collection of Activision-published PS1 classics Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater & Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2. It was seen as a successful turnaround for the series following the disastrous release of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 5 in 2015. “Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 proves that going backwards has been the best step forward for the series in 15 years,” reads IGN’s Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 review.

The Steam page for Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2 lists Vicarious Visions and PC port specialist Iron Galaxy as developers of the game. After releasing Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1 + 2, Vicarious Visions became part of Diablo developer Blizzard Entertainment and was renamed Blizzard Albany, dampening prospects of a new Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater game. Indeed, Activision has yet to suggest it has plans to return to the franchise.

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.

Project Mugen’s Lead Producer Reveals the Games and Films Inspiring this Open World Action RPG

After Project Mugen’s announcement trailer hit last month at Gamescom, many were quick to draw parallels between the high-flying movements of its main characters and that of Marvel’s Spider-Man. However, when I made the comparison to Project Mugen lead producer Ash Qi at Tokyo Game Show last week, he revealed that the inspiration actually came from another source.

“When I was maybe 10 or 12, I played Prototype and Prototype 2,” explaned Qi, referring to the 2009 and 2012 open world games developed by Radical Entertainment and published by Activision. “Those are the games that inspired me to make Project Mugen. [Prototype] reminded me of the Venom character from Spider-Man, and it was so cool. And I loved the city.”

Prototype and GTA were apparently big inspirations for the design of Project Mugen, but self-described “crazy movie fan” Qi and his team are also taking cues from plenty of action and sci-fi films in the design of their stylish-looking free to play adventure. My full interview with Qi from Tokyo Game Show can be found below.

IGN: How has the response been to the first two Project Mugen trailers?

Ash Qi: Well actually, the response has been surprisingly good. Yeah, in particular from overseas gamers. So this makes us very excited. It feels like a dream come true, and it makes us want to make this game better.

IGN: The trailers give the overall impression that Project Mugen might just be Genshin Impact but in an urban setting. How does Project Mugen differentiate itself from Genshin Impact?
Ash Qi: The reason why fans may feel us and Genshin look similar is because we all belong to the so-called nijigen culture. So it looks like animation and comics. It’s like the players are immersed in an animation and comics world. So that may be the reason why we look alike.

However, the most important thing is that the storytelling, the setting of our urban open world, and the characters, are all very, very different from Genshin.

IGN: Speaking of the storytelling, what can you tell me about the narrative of Project Mugen?

Ash Qi: Not only are we under the influence of comics and animation, but also movies like Men in Black, The Matrix, and Minority Report. Our setting is that this is a world where human beings coexist with Chaos [monsters], with chaotic elements, and the gamers serve as an investigator. The task is to explore the cities to investigate various Chaos [monsters] and to control the dangerous elements. And during this process, the gamer will encounter partners, other characters, and he or she will also get involved in a lot of events. And in these events, he will also encounter some identity crisis.

So through all of these adventures, finally, the gamer will find out about the truth of the world and the truth about his or her identity. So this is the storyline and the object of Project Mugen. So we learnt a lot from the comics and animation and various movies in order to create such a world.

IGN: Do players get to create a character, or are there a set number of preset characters to choose from?

Ash Qi: There will be a main character, the hero for the gamer, and that main character will have his or her main storyline and during that process the gamer can encounter other other characters and other characters all have their own different backgrounds, and their unique stories.

And when the other characters join the main character to explore together, you can control these other characters and switch between them.

IGN: The city itself looks enormous. Is it largely procedurally generated, or will each area feel distinct to explore?
Ash Qi: First, we have several cities [in Project Mugen] and all of the cities are based upon one or several cities that actually exist in the world. Based upon the culture and the size of these cities.

Secondly, we actually create these cities with technology that is procedurally generated in order to reduce the repetitive, manual workload for our artists so that they can focus on more creative work. For example, there will be large cities, and in cities there are so many traffic lights, and if you have to draw those traffic lights one by one by hand, that’s very meaningless work.

So we can do this work with procedural generation technology so the artists can focus upon more creative work and create a city with various different features in different districts that the gamers can experience in different parts of each city.

IGN: Are you able to expand on which real cities have served as inspiration for Project Mugen, besides Tokyo?

Ash Qi: The city you see in the trailers is actually a representation of a few Eastern Asian cities, not just Tokyo. In the future we will try to develop more cities based on other cities around the world, such as London, or some Chinese cities with very strong cultural elements in them.

IGN: You say in the future, so at launch will Project Mugen just feature one city to explore?
Ash Qi: Yes.

IGN: What can you tell me about Project Mugen’s combat?

Ash Qi: Project Mugen is an RPG, so every character has their own weapon, fighting style, and different background. We also want to show the gamers freedom and give them an outlet for their daily stress in the game, so we like to give the player a lot of options for them to choose during a battle. Because the game is set in an urban open world, players can use objects on the street in their surrounding area during a fight. We think that it makes the battles more interesting, and we were [inspired] by various Jackie Chan movies, where Jackie Chan uses objects around him to attack his enemies with.

For example, you can use rubbish bins to hit monsters’ heads with, or if the monster is standing on a higher place you can destroy the piece of environment that the monster is standing on so that they will fall and be killed. Things like that. So you have various ways of battling, and lots of objects to use.

We were [inspired] by various Jackie Chan movies, where Jackie Chan uses objects around him to attack his enemies with.     

IGN: Will you also have a lot of variety in terms of vehicles? The trailers seem to hint at cars and motorbikes, along with Spider-Man style swinging?
Ash Qi: The keyword for this game is freedom. Each character is different so each character has some kind of a superpower. They are kind of superheroes, so they do not move just like ordinary men, they’re not just walking – they’re swinging, they ride their unique vehicles and more around very fast. And the city itself is a very complicated 3D world, so we developed so many different ways of traveling and moving. So for example, the character Taffy can get around on her motorbike, and her motorbike is also her weapon.

So there’s so many ways of traveling, lots of options for the player, making them feel like they can really travel around the whole world.

IGN: Is there any multiplayer, and if so how does it work?

Ash Qi: Project Mugen has both single-player and multiplayer modes. However, our multiplayer mode is not like an MMORPG. Instead in Project Mugen multiplayer you invite your friends, your actual friends in real life, to join you and you can travel around together and play in this world together.

IGN: Project Mugen is free to play, which can have both positive and negative connotations. I’m just curious about monetisation and how much grinding will be involved?

Ash Qi: For now we are now focusing upon developing the game itself. So the business model is still not a priority for us now. We are quite flexible in the future so any business model is possible for us, and we are open for change, we just want to adopt a business model that is most suitable for this game.

But we think that the most important thing, the fundamental thing, is the game itself. It’s the game’s story and content. We don’t want the players to have to pay to win. We want them to be excited to play and be passionate about the content and experience in the game.

IGN: On that note, where is Project Mugen at in its development and when is it likely to release?

Ash Qi: Unfortunately I can’t tell you right now the exact time frame for launch. We’re preparing to launch Project Mugen on PC, PlayStation, and many other platforms. Right now we are in the busiest stage of development, because we have so much content to create to fill this open world in order to provide our players with enough of an experience when they play it.

IGN: Are you designing the game to last five years? Ten years?

Ash Qi: After launch we will constantly keep updating Project Mugen – the contents, map, characters, and the storyline – making sure that players will constantly have new experiences. And we will update the modes, including multiplayer mode, so that the player will never feel alone or lose interest in the game. So Project Mugen [is intended to be around] for a very long period, and our whole team is going to put all our energy and time into this game for the future and hopefully a very long time, and keep updating it.

IGN: Thank you for your time, and good luck with the rest of development!
Ash Qi: Thank you.

EA Sports FC 24 Review

What’s in a name? When EA announced it would change the title of its premiere soccer series from FIFA to EA Sports FC24, we all wondered: is this also the year it finally takes a real step forward, out of the microtransaction-focused darkness and into the light of its full potential? Well, the answer is a resounding… kind of. There are breadcrumbs of greatness in EA Sports FC 24, with many new mechanics like Evolutions and Tactical Visions showing the series can evolve into something better. Yet, for every exciting improvement added in, there’s still far too many of the same things, like poor AI, that have frustrated me for years.

For the first few hours of EA Sports FC 24, everything feels familiar gameplay-wise, for better and for worse. HyperMotion V and the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller feedback return make matches realistic, with precise ball and player physics, noticeable field wear and tear, and goal post-shaking haptics. It’s hard to deny that there’s a lot of attention to detail going into recreating a realistic soccer atmosphere.

New overlays showcase useful statistics like shot volume and player fatigue mid-game, with numerous background interview segments laced throughout matchday’s pre, mid, and post-game segments as well. While they don’t feature any actual interactions with players and interviewers, it’s one of the many noticeable bits of detail that add to the atmosphere. If you foul someone to set up a free kick, you’ll even get a neat little first-person setup from the ref’s perspective, just like you’d see during a live broadcast. At the same time, team walkouts and ceremonial songs have sadly been cut, replaced by a few different shots of either fans or players getting ready for game day. It’s a shame that I can take a League Two side like Wrexham all the way to the Premier League and still not get to hear their glorious anthem or see them walk out during their debut on the grandest stage of them all.

The AI part of Hypermotion V doesn’t live up to the hype.

Unfortunately, the artificial intelligence part of the Hypermotion V technology that has been so heavily advertised doesn’t live up to the hype. While Kinetic Shielding makes for some exciting battles, players still fall all over each other in unnatural ways. Advanced machine learning, which is pretty much a fancy way of saying constantly improving AI, is also hit-or-miss. Your goalkeepers will sometimes stand sideways and let an easy shot in or punch a ball that could have been caught, AI teammates make terrible attacking or defensive decisions that would have Harry Maguire blushing, and you’ll likely find yourself yelling about an incorrect passing input more than once a match despite knowing you angled a perfect through ball with your sticks.

It’s frustrating that these issues are still a part of the series, but there are changes that help ease the pain of dealing with them, most notably Playstyles. As the name suggests, Playstyles customize every player’s method of play to fit their specific strengths and weaknesses. As a result, no two players control the same way, adding a fresh layer to gameplay and how you approach team management. It’s genuinely impressive how EA has managed to capture each player’s likeness, as you can bully opponents off the ball and rip through nets with Erling Haaland’s Power Shot or finesse passes and set pieces with James Ward-Prowse’s Dead Ball approach.

No two players control the same way, adding a fresh layer to gameplay.

When creating your own customized player’s Playstyle, you’ll sift through 32 abilities spread across six categories: Shooting, Passing, Defending, Ball Control, Physical, and Goalkeeping. While it might seem simple at first, each one has a lot of unique sub-abilities to sort through that determine your character’s build, making a world of difference when it comes to tailoring your preset skills to work alongside your specific manner of play.

Since I always create a Forward player that dominates the middle of the pitch, getting the Tiki Taka attribute makes controlling the middle of the pitch with quick passes to teammates a breeze, especially when coupled with First Touch, which makes getting and controlling the ball for the first time while under pressure more possible. With the ability to control the ball perfectly, my character can open up the field with wide through balls that get played right back into him or teammates to create a lot of chances on goal.

Alongside Playstyles, you can now go into the settings and turn on an option to control the direction of your passes and shots, replacing the previous Precision system. Shots are more on target while using the left stick to aim and general passes and lobs can be directed to exact locations. Mastering these techniques won’t come without a bit of practice, but they open up the possibility of making creative runs, especially when working with other players.

Thankfully, the updated practice arena has more depth in EA Sports FC24 than it ever did in FIFA, adding in Scenarios that new players and veterans alike would be wise to check out. You can try out specific set pieces here, or nail down what Playstyle works best for you in drills or even full-on matches. Putting your pride aside and playing here to get the hang of the controlled shots and passes is worth it in the long run, as you can run experiments in a much quicker and more efficient manner than you’d be able to by playing full games thanks to the sheer amount of control you’re given.

Go into Ultimate Team knowing full well that it always feels inherently unfair.

Once you’ve got your style nailed down, it’s time to dive into the real reason EA Sports FC 24 is as popular as it is: its trading-card game mode, aka Sports Yu-Gi-Oh, aka FUT, aka Ultimate Team. As always, you’ll need to go into Ultimate Team knowing full well that it always feels inherently unfair because people who are willing to spend real money on microtransactions to get packs will have a much better squad in a shorter amount of time than someone who doesn’t. The name of the game is still that quantity results in quality, and microtransactions pay for quantity. While it’s aggravating that grinding or paying the big bucks are still your only two options for significant progress, improvements elsewhere help deliver one of the best Ultimate Team experiences to date, even if you don’t pay.

Evolutions in Ultimate Team allow you to take the base stats of cards and improve them by completing challenges, as long as they fit the criteria, which vary from stats like Overall, Pace, and Rarity. Manchester United lovers no longer have to wait to see Alexander Garnacho’s potential fulfilled, taking him from a Left Wing 75 rating to a Relentless Winger 82 rating thanks to the Founders Evolution. To do this, you’ll simply complete objectives that are broken down into levels. Finish a group of requirements in a level, and you’ll get a stat boost reward. What’s nice is that completing these objectives isn’t as brutal as previous games in the series (yes, I’m talking about you, FUT 20), as most just ask you to complete matches with your EVO player. Getting to improve players you draw instead of just praying for a good pull is an enticing incentive to play Ultimate Team for the long term.

Another leap forward for this mode is the addition of over 19,000 fully licensed players, 700 teams, and 30 leagues from the women’s soccer divisions to Ultimate Team; FIFA 23 only had 12 NWSL teams and four stadiums by comparison. EA Sports FC24 not only lets you play as everyone from Sam Keer to Kadidiatou Diani, but it makes men’s and women’s statistics equal. That means Nadine Kessler is able to body players off the ball the exact same way that Adama Traore can, making for some wild mixed-gender matchups and lineups.

Volta didn’t change up too much, but it’s the mode I had the most fun with.

The other, often overlooked stepchild multiplayer mode in EA Sports FC 24, Volta, didn’t change up too much, but it’s the one I had the most fun with. Sure, there will be matches where someone is idle or is a complete ball hog, but the ones where you link up with compatible players bring back fond memories of FIFA Street. Few things are more satisfying than wall bouncing to a teammate who dekes around the keeper after a great build-up that leads to scoring multiple points. Since chemistry is so important, it’s recommended that you try and round up a solid squad of four friends if you want to get the most enjoyment and best results out of Volta. Stadium variety also adds quite a bit of variety to matches, with some featuring larger goals and others having higher walls to bounce the ball off. It’s a welcome bit of diversity to help prevent each game from feeling too repetitive.

By comparison, the single-player focused Career Modes are a considerable letdown. Player journeys are once again riddled with a poor excuse for role-playing, with FIFA 23’s Personality Points rearing their ugly head again. Honestly, I can’t imagine anything screaming ‘I love soccer’ more than purchasing a Jetski to earn 50 “Maverick” points that will result in my player being a more aggressive shooter. The addition of Player Agents and Dynamic Moments show some potential to help flesh out the mode and make it a more fun RPG, but even those fail to stick the landing.

I can’t imagine anything screaming ‘I love soccer’ more than purchasing a Jetski.

While the idea of meeting certain goals via a Player Agent to get a transfer or renewed contract from your dream squad sounds nice in theory, some of the objectives are insane. You can have a Ballon d’Or, 60-plus goal season, and still be released from contract because you didn’t hit five bicycle kicks in any of them. Yeah, sorry, Messi – we know you broke the record for most goals scored in a campaign, but we had to let you go because you didn’t get enough Scorpion Kick goals as you were doing it. What?

The whole thing sours what could have been a really great way to make up for the lack of being able to choose your own path and direction that has weighed down previous Career Modes. Dynamic moments also fail to capture the weight and gravity of situations fully, as you can only watch the same cutscene so many times before wondering where the story-based content of FIFA 17’s Alex Hunter has gone.

Manager Mode is a little more interesting in EA Sports FC 24, mostly due to the seven tactical identities that your coach can apply to their club. Tactical Vision is what Playstyles are for an individual, just applied to a whole team instead. Pick the more defensive-minded Park the Bus option for a great defense, or use Tiki-Taka to control the middle of the field. I always prefer Wing Play, as nothing beats charging down the field and crossing it into an open net. Even then, there isn’t much that has changed in this Career Mode either, as single-player once again feels like an afterthought, cowering in the long shadow cast by Ultimate Teams.

Capcom President Thinks Game Prices Are ‘Too Low’

Capcom president Harushiro Tsujimoto claims that the retail price of video games is currently too low.

According to a report from Nikkei (per a translation from Kotaku), during Tokyo Game Show 2023, Tsujimoto said that development costs for video games have become too high. “Development costs are about 100 times higher than during the Famicom era, but software prices have not gone up that much,” he explained.

Additionally, he claimed that there needs to be pay raises, saying, “considering the fact that wages are rising in the industry as a whole, I think raising unit prices is a healthy option for business.”

Tsujimoto also went on to claim that a slow economy wouldn’t have a big impact on video game prices either: “Just because there’s a recession doesn’t mean you won’t go to the movie theater or go to your favorite artist’s concert. High-quality games will continue to sell,” he said.

Publishers have started to charge $70, instead of the previous norm of $60, for PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions of their games during the current generation. This started with the big developers like Activision and Electronic Arts. First-party publishers like Sony didn’t initially raise their prices own their PS5 games, as Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart and Returnal were $60. However, Horizon Forbidden West and God of War Ragnarok were given the $70 price tag on PS5, and the upcoming Spider-Man 2 will have that as well. Microsoft, too, followed suit late last year.

Even Nintendo priced its big sequel The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom at $70, although the company said it will evaluate pricing on a “case-by-case basis.”

Capcom, however, has continued selling its own games, like Street Fighter 6, for $60. Even the iPhone 15 port of its Resident Evil 4 remake will cost the console standard of $60, it was revealed today.

It’s possible that Capcom will raise the prices of the standard version of their current generation games to $70 in the future, however. One of Capcom’s next big releases is Dragon’s Dogma 2, which seems like a likely candidate for that price raise since it’s a current-generation exclusive.

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